Ben & Woods On Demand Podcast

8am Hour - Woods Brought Gifts + In-Season Sammy

Ben & Woods start the 8am hour by hearing about Woodsy's trip to Palm Desert and he brought some "gifts" for Ben and Paul! Then we talk about the upcoming MLB Trade Deadline before the guys are joined by Padres pre and postgame show host Sam Levitt and we get his thoughts on a successful weekend for the Padres after they took 2 of 3 against the Cleveland Guardians! Listen here!

Duration:: 58m
Broadcast on:: 22 Jul 2024
Audio Format:: mp3

Now today's episode is sponsored by NerdWallet Smart Money Podcast. Get your head in the financial game with smart investing and budgeting tips straight from the nerds. NerdWallet's experts will set future you up for success. With dependable fact-based insights, no financial misinformation allowed. Learn how to save on your summer vacation, find your next credit card, or loan for a big purchase, and invest in your next index fund. Make smarter decisions in 2024. Follow NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast on your favorite podcast app. [MUSIC PLAYING] I'm Anna Garcia with True Crime News, the podcast. Every week, True Crime News covers breaking crime stories and the fight for justice. Listen to and follow True Crime News, the podcast on the free Odyssey app or wherever you get your podcast. What kind of programs does this school have? How are the test scores? How many kids do a classroom? Homes.com, those, these are all things you ask when you're home shopping as a parent. That's why each listing on Homes.com includes extensive reports on local schools, including photos, parent reviews, test scores, student teacher ratio, school rankings, and more. The information is from multiple trusted sources and curated by Homes.com's dedicated in-house research team. It's also you can make the right decision for your family. Homes.com, we've done your homework. We are halfway home on a Monday. Great to be back with you guys, and we are talking all things Padres and really everything else. I was talking to actually the umpire yesterday at the Tier 1 game, and he knows that I'm on the radio. I don't think he listens much. He was asking me some radio insider questions, and I had to give him some disappointing answers. "Hey, is this bit real?" Not on our show, but it's like, "This bit real?" I go, "It's not, man. I'm sorry." He was blown away. He goes, "My wife's going to be devastated." I get it. I get it. I was, too, when I started in this business. And one of the things we've always tried to do on this show is just to be as authentic as possible, good, bad, warts, and all. I get a lot of people asking, "Woods? Does woods know the questions and take on woods and advance?" Yeah, I get that all the time. Oh, no. There's no chance I would ever tell him any of the questions in advance. Yeah, I'm vigilant about that. On my kids' eyes, I have never once cheated or gotten the answers to take on woods. We've never made up a "don't do this" story. They're all real. They're all real. We wouldn't need to. And the Padres are an actual baseball team that plays here in San Diego that we cover. They're not just a bit that we do. If they were a bit, they'd win more games. If it was our story to paint, yeah, absolutely. So I did spend the weekend out in Palm Desert, went to a resort with my wife. We had a phenomenal time. Again, I want to thank you guys, too, for last Friday's birthday show. It was epic. Poly, I watched the M.R. video a dozen times. I love it. I love that I own it. It's mine. He did it for me. He gave me a birthday shout out. The Boomer a Science. My dad, Poly, was actually requesting. Is there a way for you to email him? He emails that to him. He wants that. The Boomer clip. The Boomer. Not M.R. He wants nothing to do with M.R.'s clip. He pretends that it doesn't exist. Gary loves that Boomer a Science is mentioned to my son's name personally. He loves it. He wants to play it for all his friends, with the golf course, whatever. Boomer a Science. Yeah, look at that. It's my son. It's really cool. So he loved that. I'll text it to him. Okay. Would you thank you and just thank you guys for making me feel so special and the listeners. So I wanted to do something in return. I was out and about in Joshua Tree, which was about a about a 30 minute drive from our resort, but we had time to kill and we went out to the resort to the National Park and we stopped at a little country store and I wanted to get you guys a treat and I think I'll I'll make the decision here. Close your eyes. Okay. That's for you. Over here. Come on. I'm nuts. Grab it. There you go. Okay. Paulie, here's yours. Can I open my eyes? Yeah. You can open your eyes. That's a treat for each of you. A mid show snack. Oh, look. Larvettes. Original worm snacks. Yeah. Those are worm snacks. What's the flavor of them? Oh, Mexican spice. Mexican spice, Paulie. What about your crickets? I've got salt and vinegar crickets. Shopolines? Yeah. So I got you those. That was exciting. And I would like to. I want to see you. It brings me a great joy. I really think I want to save these. No, no, no, no. I the joy that I would get seeing you enjoy the treats I got you. I think these are more of a like a later evening snack. I'll have these tonight when I'm working at Channel 10. That's fine. Try one now though. I think you can't. I'm good. Just please try one now. You're going to break my heart. I was like a birthday last week, but it's like, but it's like, it's like I'm an Italian mom. I've made you got, you guys are home from college and I made you a meal and you're refusing me. Aren't you supposed to take the price tag off when you give a gift? How much were those? $3.75. Why not only $3.50? Do you want to trade, Paulie? I'll trade you. 4.3 calories per. That's it. I like it. It's a lights. Come on. I'll trade you. These are smaller. All you one of those if you eat one of these are much smaller. Yeah, my kids ate them yesterday. They loved them. I'm good. So, Paulie will not participate. Wow. Yeah, they did. Really? Yeah, I got I got bacon cheese larvettes and he loved them. Yeah, they're there. They're for sale. You can eat them. Try it. Try a larvettes. Paulie, try cricket. I really don't want to. I mean, please, they wouldn't sell something at a gas station. Yeah, if it's not edible. They look, it looks too real. It's because it is real. It's actually great. They are real, but I got the one. There's like flakes just flakes. I bet it's got one. That is a larvaet. And what's the flavor Mexican spice? Mexican spice. All right, here we go. Not bad. Yeah, delicious. Oh, got a little insecti aftertaste. Yeah, which will happen from time to time. Just I can't. I'm sorry. I just can't. I probably have one of his. Throw yours to bed. He'll do it. I can see like a head and eyeballs. He'll do it. You're from Seattle, but you guys eat those and like mariners games. They sell them at mariners games. They did that after I moved away. He's a little bigger. These are crickets. Crickets. They got you those most flavors. It's a Mexican spice. It's like a little shot out Chula Vista. There you go. Let's see. All right, so pop it right open. Unfortunately, this one doesn't want to open it. Use your teeth and bite it. I can't rip it open. It's one of these that's folded over. I was trying to open it the other way. Good radio. They look like mummified bugs. Yeah, that's what they are. I just tried that. I think not a mud did this. Someone Jeffrey just said, say to Cree, just put that thing in his mouth. He's like a salt and vinegar potato chip. Yeah, good. Better than the worm actually. Okay. Well, I thought about you guys. Fine. Thanks. Wanted to make sure you were even on the gifts that we got. If you want to rinse that. Well, you didn't try it. If I wanted to rinse the flavor out, there is ice cream in our freezer, courtesy of JR, our engineer. National ice cream day was yesterday. Just went and checked it out. There's the drumsticks and like the rocket pop, pop sickle. If anyone wants one of those. Oh, but if it sweet treats your after today is also national and how would you pronounce this word? P-E-N-U-C-H-E. Peanish. Today is national Pinucci Fudge Day. And I wasn't sure exactly what. Is it Pinucci? It is Pinucci. Oh, what's Pinucci Fudge is? Pinucci. Pinucci. I thought it was Peanish. It's not Peanish. It's Pinucci. Peanish. Which is basically a, it's not chocolate fudge. It's basically, it's just the sugar. It's like fudge with just sugar flavored basically. It had a butter and sugar and like a cube. It's like a light brown color. I think I like it actually. Pinucci. Oh, Pinucci. Oh, Pinucci Fudge. No Pinucci Fudge. I didn't see any Pinucci Fudge for Pinucci Fudge Day. Just ice cream for ice cream day yesterday. I got the kids the, they freaked out. I got them the lollipop with the scorpion in it. You know, they like the, and they just, they lost their minds. They, they absolutely, they're like, they stared at it. And they're like, can I eat this? I'm like, yeah, you can eat it. And they're like, what do we do when we get to Scorpion? I go, I don't know. I've never done it. I've never seen anybody get to the middle. How many licks does it take to get to the scorpion to get a deadly scorpion bite on your tongue? I know he's dead, but you never know. So I, I'm sure we've done this before, but I guess I'll have to ask again. What's the most odd or strange thing that you've eaten? Other than the cricket and worms I've just had? Hmm. Not, not nothing super weird, man. Nothing super out there. Like at a time, I thought it was ostrich, but a lot of people have eaten ostrich was delicious. But now I feel bad for eating it years later. I don't feel bad by the cows though. Denver, we did Rocky Mountain ostrich. I've had those calf fries. We called those. I mean, the very common things around here at a, any sushi place you go to is oony, which is the sea urchin, like the very creamy kind of orange, and it's a delicacy. And I always try to like it. I really do because it's like, it's expensive. It's, uh, it's the, one of the prize things on the menu, but it also, sometimes the texture just gets to me a little bit. I've had lingua, which is tongue. Yeah. And I've had kabesa, which is brain. Yeah. I've had those. Yeah. I know. Kabesa is not brain. I'm sorry. Kabesa is, Kabesa is face actually. What's brain? Brain is a Sudado. Sudado? I've never had that. I know the, Kabesa is actually like the jaw, the muscles, the side, the face usually of a, of a cow for beef. And it's great for tacos. I mean, you get a place like, um, uh, taco selgordo, you get a good kabesa taco. I worked in a restaurant in La Jolla. If you like a long time, it's head on the menu. Like an actual head of a pig and they bring it out. And the entire thing, except for the teeth, which were still in there, was edible teeth. You could like, just like a fork and like a spoon. You could like, just dig it out and say so. It was. Yeah, say so. That's what brain is. Yeah. Hey, that's cargo, snails. I've had that delicious. Loved it. It was a little earthy, but I had it my birthday last year. We're more deets and Watson people than boys. Hey, who's gonna eat a big old boar's head? It always don't me out when they have the, they bring out the whole fish on a trade. I don't want to do that. I don't want that. Just play it for me. I don't want the tail and the eyes and the whole thing. I want it. Usually like a whole brand Zino or something like that. The nastiest thing I've ever seen was in the show, Billions. And it's called Baloot. And somebody just brought it up in the chat and you have to put a towel over your head to eat it or something. They, they used to eat that on fear factor as well. Remember that show? Isn't it like a bird? It's like a bird and egg in it with a with the yeah, with like a fertilized developing egg embryo that is boiled or steamed and eaten from the shell. It could like in Pulp Fiction. It could taste like pumpkin pie. I would never know because I'd never eat the filthy ever. That's cool. I'm proud of you for eating those, dude. You've now turned into like stunt boy on our show. I don't want to be a stunt boy. I really go. I stunt boy, hang it. You know, insects are actually very common food products around the world. Absolutely. They, you know, it's only here that we kind of have turned them into something that seems like it's gross, but it is a common source of protein for many people around the world. And really, there was nothing that off putting other than the way it looks. You know, when you eat it, I mean, nothing, it wasn't great. I'm not going to say that, you know, I love it. It's my favorite food now, but in terms of just a crunchy little snack, not, not bad at all. Well, I'm happy that you at least enjoyed your present. Thank you. You're welcome for bringing me. I was thinking about you. Crickets and. Oh, squirrellies is dry. Ludefisk. I've had Ludefisk. It's disgusting. Is it Ludefisk? Ludefisk. Ludefisk. Ludefisk. Ludefisk. Ludefisk. No. Oh, that's a rapper. That's a rapper. What's Ludefisk? It's like a it's like a congealed fermented fish of some sort. It's not good. It's a Scandinavian delicacy. It's kind of like a jelly texture. Oh, my God. It's a fish jelly. Yeah. Yeah. My buddy invited me to like big family outing and that was a tradition or whatever. He's like only probably like it was a sick place compound on the lake, whatever he goes, but you're going to have to try Ludefisk this weekend. Fascinated by disgusting things though. That is absolutely true. I'm not one of them. You live right by the San Diego Botanic Gardens. Yeah. And they have every couple of years the corpse flower that blooms and it draws crowds that people want to come and smell this flower, which smells like a rotting dead body. And it only blooms like barely like once every two or three years. And they have, they've had two that have bloomed here in the last a couple of weeks and people come from miles and miles around just to see and smell this absolutely repulsive, disgusting corpse flower. People love disgusting things. I am not one of those people. I have no interest in trying Ludefisk or any of them. You could walk from your house to smell the corpse flower. Pass. My wife's probably smelled it before. Probably. Probably ask. It really smells like a dead body. It does a rotting dead body. It sounds hideous. Durian fruit is something similar. It smells like rotting flesh, but as in a delicacy, especially in Asia, people do love it. No, thank you. No, thank you. No, thanks. I'm glad you enjoyed your treats. Thanks for bringing remembering us. Yeah, you're welcome. Thank you guys for all. We're all even now. Oh, yeah. Yeah, I'll leave it. All right. Let's come back. Yeah, we got one week plus a day until the trade deadline. Talked about some of the rumors, but things are supposed to be heating up here in the next couple of days. So talk about that. And then we'll have Sammy joining us Sam Levitt after the weekend, covering the Padres and the Guardians coming up here with Ben and Woods after a check of traffic on 97 through the fan. What kind of programs does this school have? How are the test scores? How many kids do a classroom? Homes.com, those, these are all things you ask when you're home shopping as a parent. That's why each listing on homes.com includes extensive reports on local schools, including photos, parent reviews, test scores, student teacher ratio, school rankings, and more. The information is from multiple trusted sources and curated by homes.com's dedicated in-house research team. It's also you can make the right decision for your family. Homes.com. We've done your homework. I'm Anna Garcia with True Crime News, the podcast. Every week, True Crime News covers breaking crime stories and the fight for justice. Listen to and follow True Crime News, the podcast on the free Odyssey app or wherever you get your podcasts. Nice. Today's episode is sponsored by NerdWallet Smart Money Podcast. Get your head in the financial game with smart investing and budgeting tips straight from the nerds. NerdWallet's experts will set future you up for success with dependable, fact-based insights. No financial misinformation allowed. Learn how to save on your summer vacation. Find your next credit card or loan for a big purchase and invest in your next index fund. Make smarter decisions in 2024. Follow NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast on your favorite podcast app. You can't really approach any discussion about the trade deadline without a quick look at the standings to try to figure out which teams are buyers and which teams are sellers right now. There's a few hybrids as well. It's a little more clear in the American League where the wild card race, the twins, the Yankees are first, and then the twins and royals are tied for the second and third spots. Then the Red Sox came out, Seattle Mariners, two and a half games out. After that, the Tampa Bay Rays are a game above 500, which in the National League would put them right in the middle of it, but they're four and a half games out in the reports over the weekend that the Rays are kind of planning to be both buyers and sellers. They're willing to sell it for the right price, but they also wouldn't mind picking up a piece or two, so kind of riding the fence. And then everyone below that is probably a seller. The Tigers have not been bad. They're just two games under 500 again in the in the National League. They might be in it. Six games out in the American League, though, they may be looking to sell everyone below that Rangers, Blue Jays, and of course, Angel's A's, White Sox probably sellers. The National League is still a, I mean, it's only getting tighter. Somehow the tightest wild card race you're ever going to see is even closer now. The Braves lead. The Cardinals are two and a half games behind the Braves, and then the Mets, Diamond Banks and Pod Rays are all in a virtual tie right now for the third wild card spot. The Mets have the percentage point lead, but it's very close. They're all two games above 500, and then the Pirates are just a half game out. So, I mean, you know, the Pirates would love to sell and be cheap and do what they do, but they're really, they're too close to sell at this point, I would think. I mean, if you look at the NL wild card, then there's two teams that are out of it. Two, the Rockies and the Marlins. That's it. Everybody else is literally in it. The Reds are four out, the Nationals four out, Cubs three and a half. Funny how everybody's in it yet. There's really only one team that scares you in the National League. In the wild card. Not just me and the Phillies. Yeah. Everybody's in it. Everyone's in it. They scare the guys out of it, but it also feels like it's kind of an open contest right now. Minus the Phillies. Like that's the team to be. They they're they're a terrifying baseball. I mean, had the Cubs lost and got swept by the Diamondbacks yesterday, that might have changed their course a little bit, but they did pull out a win and extra innings in their three and a half. So they're kind of still riding the fence as well. The Nationals probably would have been out of it until they swept the Reds. The Reds probably would have been in it until they got swept by the Nationals. So those teams are now both four games out. So this is a huge series against the Nats. Yeah. Huge massive. But that also means there's tons of buyers. The Atlanta Braves who lost Aussie albies to eight weeks with a broken risk to have acted quickly and cheaply picking up the wave with Merrifield this morning to just try to fill in kind of as a utility guy. So the gap, but that doesn't mean they're not still interested in adding bodies with both Acuna and albies out now for significant periods of time. They probably want to pick up a bat. They've had tons of pitching injuries. I mean, they're not, we did our roundtable last week. And I said, I don't think the Braves are necessarily as solidly in as everybody thinks with all the injuries they've had. And now with another big one, if they don't land a player or two at the deadline, they could, they could find themselves falling off. I mean, Schwellenbach who shut down the Padres, he got lit up yesterday by the Cardinals. They dropped two or three to St. Louis over the weekend. They could find themselves slipping pretty fast without stonching the bleeding a little bit. So none of these teams are completely safe. And none of them other than the Rockies and Marlins are out of it in the National League. It's crazy. Yeah. And we were just talking about the pirates. I mean, the chat goes, yeah, the pirates just took a series from the Phillies this weekend. So they had one six in a row until yesterday. So they're right back in it right back in this thing. And yeah, I mean, you know, who's the most angry about that is Bob Nutting. He's furious. He's furious. He wants them off a cliff ASAP. He wants them absolutely off a cliff. Don't want to have to do anything. Don't want to have to spend any money. Don't want to have to add additional payroll. People are finally excited about the Pittsburgh Pirates, his team that he's the owner of. And I'm sure he's furious that that they're actually winning series right now. But that makes this market. And now again, we're just eight days away from the trade deadline. Still extremely muddled as to, you know, who is available. So what's your plan? What's your price tag is going to be? What's your if you're AJ, like, what's the proper course of action? You know, listen, the Braves had a need, they filled it with a guy that had been DFA, right? And that's not to say that AJ would be killed probably for doing it. Yeah, yeah, yeah. If that was the solution here at the deadline, I'll just pick up a pitcher who's been DFA to go. Well, then you're not even trying to win, but the Braves are clearly trying to win. Sure. And their first move is to grab a guy who's been DFA. Yeah. Yeah. To replace Aussie albies for at least two months. I mean, that's a long time. It's a lot of games. I don't know. I mean, I'm, I know for a fact, AG probably working the phones pretty hard. Do you expect any sort of flurry of moves to happen even this week? I do. I mean, there's got to be some something's got to pop. The teams that are selling at some point, they're going to have to cash in on their chips. The Blue Jays, maybe the Rangers, maybe the Tigers. There's going to be some more players that are sold. And right now the price tag is going to be so high, it'll be irresistible for those teams to sell. The problem is, is that AJ can make his best offer. He can make an offer that we think is probably too much for a player like you say Kakuchi or even Garrett Crochet. And they could still say no, because guess what? This other team is willing to offer even a ridiculously amount more than you are and to get this player right now. As Satan's blowfish says in the chat, you can grab guys off waivers when you have enough depth in other spots to weather it. That's the thing. I think about the San Diego Padres and especially, especially in our biggest need arms, we don't have enough, enough depth to pick up a, you know, Dallas Kykol or something, you know, like there's just not nearly enough depth to add spare parts. It doesn't have to be necessarily a frontline guy. Frankly, I don't know that you'd want to pay the price for a scuba or a Garrett Crochet. I don't know that you want to pay that asking price, but you'd probably make an offer on both of those guys. And if it's not enough, it's not enough and you move on. Do you guys think if you had to put money on it right now, what eight days away from the trade deadline, does AJ make another blockbuster trade like for a crochet a scuba or is it kind of fringe move? I'm going to say middle of the road where last year was a couple of prospects. You didn't really know anything about last year was the last year was the your your typical, you know, you buy on the on the margins, the fringes. I think this is going to be somewhere more in the middle. My opinion, just straight my opinion, you can't really do the Rich Hill G-Man Choy this year, but you also can't do the Juan Soto either. So I think somewhere in the middle, and listen, there's, you know, somebody mentioned in the chat, I don't mean, I love the guy out, he doesn't leave, but I know it's probably a foregone conclusion that Hassan Kim, there's a good chance he's traded. What would the Atlanta Braves give you for Hassan Kim? I don't know if even though there's a good chance he's traded, but you have to at least talk to teams that are interested in Hassan Kim. I think Paulie expecting the top of the market purchase, they've already made too, they've already made too huge. Those are, if those guys were picked up in the deadline, it would, school ball is the price tag is just would be insanely high. And crochet, you just don't know if he's got any innings left and he's not worth what is going to be asked. Scottie's nasty. So I think I circled the trio of you say, Kukuchi, Nick Martinez now and Tyler Anderson is probably kind of the level of where the Padres are going for and you're going to have to overpay for any one of those three guys as well to get them because of the market, but it would be more than just a, you know, we remember what happened in 2021 when they didn't have enough pitching and they had to just go onto the scrap heap and who did they get Vince Velasquez? Jake Arietta. I mean, you don't, you can't go down that road again, but you can't necessarily go top of the market either. So hopefully one of those three guys play all those three teams against each other. Hey, this is my best offer. Whoever calls me back first, all on Moneyball, you've got, you've got, I'll take your player and you get my prospect package. But there is, again, I'll hammer it home. There is, there is an absolute unequivocal need to add right now, right now, as soon as possible before next Tuesday, a starting picture and a relief and a throw in an arm, a bullpen arm as well. Yeah, even better. Yep. Probably almost just as important. Got to happen. All right, we'll take your time out. Sammy Lovett, we had him off last week for the all-star break. So we will catch up with in-season Sammy covered the other weekend series against the Cleveland Guardians. He will join us. His Padres thoughts coming up next on San Diego's number one sports station, 97 through the fan. This hour on 97 through the fan is brought to you by California Coast Credit Union. Get 9.5% APR rate on a five-month certificate for a limited time at Cal Coast Credit Union as we celebrate 95 years in the community. $500 minimum balance restrictions apply insured by NCUA. Visit calcocu.org/celebrate. We've got some tickets to give away coming up in our final hour to see comedian Sebastian Maniscalco at VA Haas Arena next month. That is coming up. But we got Sammy Lovett standing by in-season Samuel. Join us right after a check of traffic here on 97 through the fan. I just feel bad bugged Sammy on his off days. Today's an off day. He just had an all-star break and if I understand correctly, he was getting so bored that he started appearing with other shows and was just aimlessly driving the coastline based on his social media picture. Sammy, how was your all-star break? That is pretty much what I was doing on Thursday, aimlessly driving the coastline. But it is a beautiful coastline. It was a nice drive, but it was nice. I had some family here. It was my dad 65th birthday over the all-star break. We actually had an Airbnb in Encinitas. My brother came down from LA. We all stayed together for a few days. That was very nice and a really nice way to spend the break and it lined up really well with the days off. You're right. They could not keep me out of the studio. They even came in and did the afternoon show for a couple of hours, which was fine and worked out the radio muscles for a few days, but a very nice break and a good weekend for the potter. You were in Ben & Woods territory in Encinitas. It didn't say a thing to us. I mean, I was out of town, but... No, you were there during the all-star break, right? Oh, during the break. It wasn't like I was like roaming there alone. I apologize. I should have hit you up. I will tell you where we went, where we went for meals. Where did we go? We went to La Papa Gallo one night. Great. We went to Birds Eye Kitchen one night. Very nice, yeah. Yeah, we went to... Where else did we go? We went to somewhere in Carlsbad. I can't remember what the place was called in Carlsbad. We did go to Callie Cream for ice cream, which was very good one night. And yeah, we had a good time. So I apologize. I did not invite you to the birthday festivities. That was an oversight on my part. Yeah, I mean, I probably wouldn't have gone, but it's always nice to get invited, Sammy. I don't really like to go to anything, but I do like to be invited. I do. But then you talk when you say no. Then I feel bad when I say no. Here is the truth, though. At one point during my dad's visit, I did mention how you two lived up there because we were talking about San Diego and how people, you know, work in different places. A lot of people live up here. And I said Ben and Woods, my dad is a big time Ben and Woods listener. I'm sure he will listen to this segment in particular at some point today. He is aware that you guys live up there. So he did know he was in Ben and Woods territory. Well, happy birthday to your dad. I'm sure he is. I mean, listen, if you raised Sammy Levitt, you can pat yourself on the back that you did a really, really nice job. I know you're excited to get back to baseball. We all were. It was like a loss inside of us. And then the game rolls around Friday night and boom, seven nothing loss. I mean, just as putrid of a performance as you could give. And it felt, it didn't feel great coming out of the breaks. Yeah, three hands, just Tanner, Bobby, just shoving on you all night. How did that first post game show go? Yeah, it felt very much like how the first half ended. That was certainly the most concerning part about Friday night was the fact that offensively, they picked up right where they left off. And I don't mean that in a very good way. Now the good part about Friday night was Matt Waldron was really good. And you can bat sui actually looked really good. And then the game got away late. But yeah, it didn't, it didn't leave a great taste in your mouth Friday night when they come out of the break. And offensively, it was the same thing we saw at the very end of the first half, where they just weren't doing things they did pretty well for the most part in the first 90 games or so. And that string hits together. That's creating the beginning that's, you know, for the most part, especially early in the first half, winning on the road, doing those things on the road. And then obviously they were able to turn it around Saturday and Sunday. But no doubt, Friday did not feel very good and was sort of a continuation of what we saw right before the break, especially offensively. Tell you what concerned me, Sam. And I, you know, when I watch a team like the Guardians, I always look, okay, what makes this team so good? Yeah, well, why did they have the best record in the American League? Get the all star break? Certainly isn't their starting pitching. Jesse pointed out a number of times, probably worst starting pitching in baseball. Okay, how, how do you have such a good record? Well, they got a decent lineup. Padres pitchers did a great job shutting them down though. They kept Stephen Quan and Jose Ramirez and checked for most of the series. So where is the difference? And it's clearly in the bullpen. They have a dominant bullpen where the Padres have a stressfully, you know, adequate sometimes not other times bullpen. And it just shows you what a huge difference that can make when they have a lead, they're not going to give it up. And the Padres are pretty good at holding your leads. The difference is when you're down one, they're going to keep it there for the most part. They didn't on Saturday, but you know what they did yesterday, they gave themselves a chance to win. They didn't come back and win it, but they could have. And they've done it many times this season. And to me, that's the difference right there where the Padres, there's going to be too many games where they're not giving themselves a chance to win because they don't have a deep enough bullpen like the Guardians. Well, look, even, and you make a fair point then, even with the good of this weekend on Saturday and Sunday, and a lot of that was due to how terrific Bill and Seuss and then Michael King were. And if those two guys are going to pitch anywhere close to that level, that's a big deal for this team. And that's a really great thing. And especially if you throw walls running the mix, look, the starting pitching was great this weekend. If they get that level of starting pitching, that's awesome. But what Friday night back to the first game of the series, again, what it did magnify, and I know you guys were talking about it right before the break, it magnified one way or another, whether that's via a trade or that's, well, look, I'm certain they are going to get some sort of reliever in here. But even beyond that, it magnified the need one way or another to be able to rely on somebody or two guys outside of Ashrada, Morahone, and Suarez to get out in big spots. I mean, look, you go to Stephen Colick in the A-thing, and that's just a 1-0 game on Friday night. And I know they have a manual cloth, say, waiting in the bullpen, he's no easy task. But hey, it's a 1-0 game in the A-thing, and you're trying to give yourself at least a chance in the top of the 9th inning to tie or take a lead. And obviously, things sort of unraveled in that A-thing, and the game got totally away. So to your point, then, Friday night was a game where it magnified, whether that's a Yuki Matsui, who was actually really good on Friday night, but whether it's a Stephen Colick, whether it's an annual Delos Santos, whether it is somebody via a trade in the next week or so. Yeah, it magnified that a bullpen in 2024, especially as we get later in the season. Yeah, you need more than three guys that you can really look at and rely on to go get some big outs and big spots. And Friday night did reveal that, and it makes the next week or so that much more interesting because there's clearly a pretty glaring need in that pen. I mean, it was interesting, and there's a guy on Twitter, letters to AJ. He writes a really good, good blog on Substack. I read it every week, and one came out this morning, right before the show started. And it talks about that Friday night game, and I got some DMs about it as well. And essentially, Sammy, it was like, man, kind of a defeatist, kind of a defeatist attitude of going with Colick there, instead of a higher leverage guy, because you know, you've got Classe coming up. You also know, you literally told us on Friday that he had graduated some more higher leverage situations. And that was before that game. And it doesn't get much higher leverage than that one, right? And so the game of shot didn't work out, but he was able to preserve Estrada and Suarez for kind of when he really needed him. I kind of scratched my head in game two going to Estrada, but six pitches, I think, and he gets out of it. You know, listen, they get paid to know a lot more than us, but I was ultimately pretty surprised by that move on Friday night. Well, I think, you know, and I took calls about it on Friday night, I think the easy second guessing is obviously, hey, it's only a one run game. You do have the off day on Monday. You don't know what Saturday and Sunday are going to bring anyway. So why not use one of your mean to set up guys in Estrada or more home in a one run game, even though you're not winning, you're losing. I totally understand it. With that said, I did see the reasoning on Friday or, you know, I saw reason as to why you would say, okay, Colik, even though he gave up the home run to Darno in the game on Sunday before the first half ended had been really good before that. They're trying to find an arm or two that they can rely on to go get out and giving him that opportunity in a one run game. It didn't work out, right? Because the game got away and the inning got away. I understood the reasoning after the game. I also understand, you know, from a fan perspective of like, hey, it's a one run game. You got to try to keep it a one run game and you have the off day on Monday. They tried it with Colik and it didn't work out. And about, you know, like I was saying in the previous answer, I kind of get it because they need sort of desperately to be able to turn to somebody else outside of those three. I guess what I'm saying is I didn't hate that moment trailing to try to get those three outs with Colik and see if you can kind of graduate into that sort of spot. It's a, it's a tough spot for a manager. It really, really is when, you know, maybe you don't feel like you have that fourth fifth guy you can turn to in that, in that big spot and, and go get outs in a consistent way. But they, again, goes back to this, whether it be a trade or it's via guy stepping up, they need it desperately down the stretch in these final 60 plus games. Well, it's like this. I try to put myself in his shoes. And I, I thought to myself, I would have, what do I always say, make moves that you can save your ass, right? Like, and that you can't manage that way. Mike still can't live that way. Make man, make moves that you can say, well, of course I went to Jeremiah's try to only down one. I have faith in my team that we can score off the best really, right? Like, that's the easy move. Mike shill did not make the easy move. I got a DM on, on Friday night says, I know class A is good, but with two, three, four up with a rested pen and days off the upcoming, you don't throw morihon and strata. I said, makes no sense unless they win the next two, then he's a genius. He says, on the ninth, you're just using one inning and morihon have a strata and swear his rest of the next two days. They're going to use their top three pitchers. I wish they would have saved one for the Nat. And he said, now they don't even have to use class A because they scored so many off of, they scored so many off of Coli. Now they did use class A in a two, one deficit. Correct. Like, the Padres didn't do on Friday with the strata. Correct. So it's just again, a move that I didn't get that is, I'm glad I didn't spout off about it because it would have blown up. They didn't score. So it was the right move. Apparently. Right. And also, just to kind of push it a point further, when you really think about it, if you look at Saturday's game, the score was three nothing heading into that top of the eighth inning. Okay. If the Padres don't score in the eighth inning there, gets who's coming in in all likelihood regardless, right? I know a strata ended up coming in anyway, but then it's definitely a strata in a three run game. And if you're still leading three nothing heading into the ninth inning, it's Suarez. So look, there was a world, there was a world where it could have worked out where it was, you know, you tried Coli on the Friday and it ended up being in two close games late and saved situations late. You had to go to a strata in Suarez on Saturday and Sunday. Now, the devil's advocate to that is like, well, you still end up using more hone, right? So you certainly could have pitched that eighth inning on Friday. Yeah. Again, I understand the second guessing. I understand the other side of it. I also sort of understand the thinking of trying to graduate somebody just like they've done with more hone in a straw. Absolutely. They have. Absolutely. You got to do that sometimes in your bullpen. So I get, you know, not to kind of avoid it, but I do understand both sides of the argument and they both have real, I think, valid points. Well, it friggin worked at the end of the day. Before you go, Sam Levitt, I'm looking in the chat here and I need to ask, do you have a fan club and are they called the levitators? Oh, that's a genius. I don't think so. I've seen that. I've seen that in the YouTube a little bit. I really, I know this hour, 97 through the fan is brought to you by California coast credit union get 9.5% APR rate on a five month certificate for a limited time at Cal coast credit union. As we celebrate 95 years in the community, $500 minimum balance restrictions apply insured by NCUA visit calcoscu.org slash celebrate. We've got some tickets to give away coming up in our final hour to see comedian Sebastian Maniscalco at VA Haas Arena next month. That is coming up, but we got Sammy Levitt standing by in season. Samuel, join us right after a check of traffic here on 97 through the fan. I feel bad bugging Sammy on his off days. Today's an off day. He just had an all-star break. And if I understand correctly, he was getting so bored that he started appearing with other shows and was just aimlessly driving the coastline based on his social media pictures. Sammy, how was your all-star break? That is pretty much what I was doing on Thursday, aimlessly driving the coastline. But it is a beautiful coastline. It was a nice drive, but it was nice. I had some family here. It was my dad 65th birthday over the all-star break. So we actually had an Airbnb in Encinitas. My brother came down from LA. We all stayed together for a few days. So that was very nice and a really nice way to spend the break and it lined up really well with the days off. And you're right. They could not keep me out of the studio. It even came in and did the afternoon show for a couple of hours, which was fine and kind of worked out the radio muscles for a few days, but a very nice break and a good weekend for the pottery. You were in Ben & Woods territory in Encinitas. It didn't say a thing to us. Yeah, I mean, I was out of town, but... No, he was there during the all-star break, right? Oh, during the break. Yeah. Well, I mean, it wasn't like I was like roaming there alone. Yeah, you had your family. I apologize. I should have hit you up. I will tell you where we went, where we went for meals, where did we go? We went to La Papa Gallo one night. Great. We went to Birds Eye Kitchen one night. Very nice, yeah. Yeah, we went to... Where else did we go? We went to somewhere in Carl's bed. We went to... I can't remember what the place was called in Carl's bed. We did go to Callie Cream, Rice Cream, which was very good one night. Yeah, we had a good time, so I apologize. I did not invite you to the birthday festivities. That was an oversight on my part. Yeah, I mean, I'd probably wouldn't have gone, but it's always nice to get invited, Sammy. I don't really like to go to anything, but I do like to be invited. I do. But then you're awkward when you say no. Then I feel bad when I say no. Here is the truth, though. At one point during my dad's visit, I did mention how you two lived up there, because we were talking about San Diego and how people work in different places. A lot of people live up here. And I said Ben & Woods, my dad is a big time Ben & Woods listener. I'm sure he will listen to this segment in particular at some point today. He is aware that you guys live up there, so he did know he was in Ben & Woods territory. Well, happy birthday to your dad. I'm sure he is. I mean, listen, if you raised Sammy Levitt, you can pat yourself on the back that you did a really, really nice job. I know you're excited to get back to baseball. We all were. It was like a loss inside of us. And then the game rolls around Friday night and boom, seven nothing loss. I mean, just as putrid of a performance as you could give. And it felt, it didn't feel great coming out of the breaks. Yeah, three hits. Just Tanner, Bobby, just shoving on you all night. How did that first post game show go? Yeah, it felt very much like how the first half ended. That was certainly the most concerning part about Friday night was the fact that offensively they picked up right where they left off. And I don't mean that in a very good way. Now the good part about Friday night was Matt Waldron was really good. And you could, Matt, do we actually looked really good? And then the game got away late. But yeah, it didn't, it didn't leave a great taste in your mouth Friday night when they, they come out of the break and offensively it was the same thing we saw at the very end of the first half where they just weren't doing things they did pretty well for the most part in the first 90 games or so. And that string hits together. That's creating the beginning that, you know, for the most part, especially early in the first half, winning on the road, doing those things on the road. And then obviously they were able to turn it around Saturday and Sunday. But no doubt, Friday did not feel very good and was sort of a continuation of what we saw right before the break, especially offensively. Tell you what concerned me, Sam. And I, you know, when I watch a team like the Guardians, I always look, okay, what makes this team so good? Yeah, well, why did they have the best record in the American League at the all-star break? Certainly isn't their starting pitching. Jesse pointed out a number of times, probably worse starting pitching in baseball. Okay. How, how do you have such a good record? Well, they got a decent lineup. Padres pitchers did a great job shutting them down though. They kept Stephen Kwan and Jose Ramirez and checked for most of the series. So where is the difference? And it's clearly in the bullpen. They have a dominant bullpen where the Padres have a stressfully, you know, adequate sometimes not other times bullpen. And it just shows you what a huge difference that can make when they have a lead, they're not going to give it up. And the Padres are pretty good at holding your leads. The difference is when you're down one, they're going to keep it there for the most part. They didn't on Saturday, but you know what they did yesterday, they gave themselves a chance to win. They didn't come back and win it, but they could have. And they've done it many times this season. And to me, that's the difference right there where the Padres, there's going to be too many games where they're not giving themselves a chance to win because they don't have a deep enough bullpen like the Guardians. Well, look, even, and you make a fair point then, even with the good of this weekend on Saturday and Sunday. And a lot of that was due to how terrific Bill and Cecil and Michael King were. And if those two guys are going to pitch anywhere close to that level, that's a big deal for this team. And that's a really great thing. And especially if you throw Waldron in the mix, look, the starting pitching was great this weekend. If they get that level of starting pitching, that's awesome. But what Friday night back to the first game of the series, again, what it did magnify. And I know you guys were talking about it right before the break. It magnified one way or another, whether that's via a trade or that's, well, look, I'm certain they are going to get some sort of reliever in here. But even beyond that, it magnified the need one way or another to be able to rely on somebody or two guys outside of Astrada, Morahone, and Suarez to get out in big spots. I mean, look, you go to Steven Colick in the A thing. And that's just a one-nothing game on Friday night. And I know they have a manual class. They're waiting in the bullpen. He's no easy task. But hey, it's a one-nothing game in the A thing. And you're trying to give yourself at least a chance in the top of the ninth inning to tie or take a lead. And obviously, things sort of unraveled in that eighth inning. And the game got totally away. So to your point, Ben, Friday night was a game where it magnified, whether that's a Yuki Matsui, who was actually really good on Friday night. But whether it's a Steven Colick, whether it's an annual Delos Santos, whether it is somebody via a trade in the next week or so. Yeah, it magnified that a bullpen in 2024, especially as we get later in the season. Yeah, you need more than three guys that you can really look at and rely on to go get some big outs and big spots. And Friday night did reveal that. And it makes the next week or so that much more interesting, because there's clearly a pretty glaring need in that pen. I mean, it was interesting. And there's a guy on Twitter, letters to AJ. He writes a really good, good blog on Substack. I read it every week. And one came out this morning right before the show started. And it talks about that Friday night game. And I got some DMS about it as well. And essentially, Sammy, it was like, man, kind of a defeatist, kind of a defeatist attitude of going with Colick there, instead of a higher leverage guy, because you know, you've got class A coming up, you also know, you should literally told us on Friday that he had graduated some more higher leverage situations. Right. Right. And that was before that game. And it doesn't get much higher leverage than that one, right? And so the game shot didn't work out. But he was able to preserve Estrada and Suarez for kind of when he really needed him. I kind of scratched my head in game two going to Estrada, but six pitches, I think, and he gets out of it. You know, listen, they get paid to know a lot more than us. But I was, I was ultimately pretty surprised by that move on Friday night. Well, I think, you know, I took calls about it on Friday night. I think the easy second guessing is obviously, hey, it's only a one run game. You do have the off day on Monday. You don't know what Saturday and Sunday are going to bring anyway. So why not use one of your mean two set up guys in Estrada or more home in a one run game, even though you're not winning. You're losing. I totally understand it. With that said, I did see the reasoning on Friday or, you know, I saw reason as to why you would say, okay, Colick, even though he gave up the home run to Darno in the game on Sunday before the first half ended had been really good before that. They're trying to find an arm or two that they can rely on to go get out and giving him that opportunity in a one run game. It didn't work out, right? Because the game got away and the inning got away. I understood the reasoning after the game. I also understand, you know, from a fan perspective of like, hey, it's a one run game. You got to try to keep it a one run game and you have the off day on Monday. They tried it with Colick and it didn't work out. And about, you know, like I was saying in the previous answer, I kind of get it because they need sort of desperately to be able to turn to somebody else outside of those three. I guess what I'm saying is I didn't hate that moment, trailing, to try to get those three outs with Colick and see if you can kind of grab him to that sort of spot. It's a tough spot for a manager. It really, really is when, you know, maybe you don't feel like you have that fourth, fifth guy you can turn to in that big spot and go get out in a consistent way. But again, goes back to this, whether it's via trade or it's via guy stepping up. They need it desperately down the stretch in these final 60 plus games. Well, it's like this. I try to put myself in his shoes. And I thought to myself, I would have what do I always say, make moves that you can save your ass, right? Like in that you can't manage that way. Mike show can't live that way. Make man make moves that you can say. Well, of course, I went to Jeremiah's try to only down one, I have faith in my team that we can score off the best really, right? Like, that's the easy move. Mike shield did not make the easy move. I got a DM on Friday night says, I know class is good, but with two, three, four up with a rested pen and days off upcoming, you don't throw more on a strata. I said, makes no sense unless they win the next two, then he's a genius. He says, or in the ninth, you're just using one any more home to have a strata and score as rest of the next two days, they're going to use their top three pitchers. I wish they would have saved one for the gnat. And he said, now they don't even have to use class A because they scored so many off of, they scored so many off of Colby. Now they did use class A in a two, one deficit. Correct. Like the Padres didn't do on Friday with the strata. Correct. So it's just again, a move that I didn't get that is, I'm glad I didn't spout off about it because it would have blown up and they didn't score. They didn't score. So it was the right move. Yeah, apparently. Yeah. Right. And also just to kind of push it a point further, when you really think about it, if you look at Saturday's game, the score was three nothing heading into that top of the eighth inning. Okay. If the Padres don't score in the eighth inning there, gets who's coming in in all likelihood regardless, right? I know a strata ended up coming in anyway. But then it's definitely a strata in a three run game. And if you're still leading three nothing heading into the ninth inning, it's Suarez. So look, there was a world, there was a world where it could have worked out, where it was, you know, you tried colic on the Friday and it ended up being in too close games late and saved situations late. You had to go to a strata in Suarez on Saturday and Sunday. Now the devil's advocate to that is like, well, you still didn't end up using more hone, right? So he certainly could have pitched that eighth inning on Friday. Yeah. Again, I understand the second guessing. I understand the other side of it. I also sort of understand the thinking of trying to graduate somebody just like they've done with more hone in a strata. Absolutely. Hey, absolutely. You gotta do that sometimes in your bullpen. So I get, you know, not to kind of avoid it, but I do understand both sides of the argument and they both have real, I think, valid points. Well, it friggin worked at the end of the day. Before you go, Sam Levitt, I'm looking in the chat here and I need to ask, do you have a fan club and are they called the levitators? Oh, that's a genius. I don't think so. I've seen that. I've seen that in the YouTube a little bit. I really, I've nobody has ever come up to me and said that in person. So I really don't think so. Now, I don't know if you guys are aware of this because I wouldn't say there's any sort of levitators fan club. And that's fine. But my fan club is nothing like the Scrabenator fan club. Scrabenator, yes. Have experienced the Scrabenator. Do you know that he's doing a second Scrabenator night at the ballpark where I and I don't have all the details in front of me, but where he's going to have another night where he has his followers and supporters that call themselves Scrabenators at the ballpark. I spend an eaters levitators. Levitators. Can we do the Benin Woodsinators. That's a Benin Woodsinators. Just get rid of the tier one. That's just the woodsinators. That's kind of rain to it. The Beninators. Yeah. No, back by popular demand tier one. That's really, you know, it's really interesting. And I was just, as you were saying that, I was thinking of your names that I thought of Ben Higgins, what everybody calls Higashiyokie. No, nobody calls Ben. Mark Grant and Mark Loretta. That's it. Both call me Higashiyokie and there's the only two. You know what? That is unsurprising because if there's one thing I've learned in working in baseball for like a decade now, baseball players and the baseball culture, they love a nickname. Throw it in one and as we've learned like so. Yeah. You throw an E on it and you're good. Like, I'm kind of shocked. Nobody called me and they've never done it. Nobody called me Levy. Levy. Levy. Well, they do call you Sam. Yeah, it's already Sam. Sam, have a good series. Love it Nick. Enjoy the rest of your day off. Tomorrow, eco-water, so-called pre-game show. I believe what? 245 against the Washington Nationals. Fairly early start for an afternoon game. We will hear from you again, man. Thank you so much. All right. I see you. There's great names in here. The Benonites. The Benonites with the Benonites. The Rindoll Hallics is that's. I mean, how much? Probably not a good idea. Probably not a good one for you. Yeah, not a good one for you. But hey, a lot of great ideas. A lot of great ideas. Why'd you drop those out? They're the tier ones. We already have, we already have a name for our listeners. We don't need to come up with a new one. We're good. There's a lot of great ideas in here. Second one. The Rindoll Hallics. No, no, that's not good. I'm just glad it wasn't my idea, and it was I Need Money's idea. Okay, don't shoot the messenger, Paul. Rindattics. Well, that doesn't work either, Ben. We'll come back, get some Sebastian Manascoco tickets to give away. Paul, he's got some more headlines in the Rindoll Report, all coming up next year at 97.3. The Fan. What kind of programs does this school have? How are the test scores? How many kids do a classroom? Homes.com, those, these are all things you ask when you're home shopping as a parent. 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