Ben & Woods On Demand Podcast
Tuesday July 2nd, 2024 - FULL SHOW
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Definitely feels like a Tuesday. I can't lie to you. Don't like the off day after a loss at all. It just gets to fester deep inside you. But back at it tonight. It's great to be here with you this morning. I'm Woodsy, that's Paul Reindel. He is the executive producer. Good morning, Paulie. Good morning, chef. Best with Higgins, your friendly neighborhood sports anchor. Joins us as well. Morning, Benjamin. Happy Tuesday, everybody. You look great. Are you, what time are you teeing off? I'm not teeing off. I'm just, you look like a golfer, man. Wearing a golf shirt today. You look, that shirt looks good on you. Thanks. It really does. Doesn't he look like, looks like a golfer. Yeah. Look like a real, the real deal. It's kind of my look, often. It's true. It's the golf look. It's true. It's just going for the golf look. I mean, you know, the mood struck me if the opportunity availed itself. Then you had golf. Be nice to be ready for golf at any time. That guy comes from prepared. No plans. I work all day. I can't see possibly getting away to the golf course, but it's always better to be prepared. You stick in the car? Of course. Oh, they're ready to go. Shoes, everything. Absolutely. Love the whole thing. Yeah, balls. We're good to go. Yeah, we're absolutely. They're always ready at a moment's notice to hit the link. You never know when the call may come. You never know. [LAUGHTER] Love that about you. You're always ready. Listen, so yeah, got some interesting news in our business. And had a lot of people DMing me yesterday. A lot of people kind of blowing up my Twitter in regards to Darren Smith, who allegedly is not working anymore across the street. And Darren's a former colleague of ours when we were at the old station. We were not his lead in. We were the morning show. Then there was a national show. But then Dee Smith. But we saw Dee Smith all the time. Dee Smith is a friend of ours. And I saw a lot yesterday online about it. And the thing about radio is that everybody likes to say, radios dying, radios dead. No one talks more about anything than freaking radio. When things happen, the gossip mill kicks up. And the rumor mill kicks up. Everybody still likes to talk about local radio. Darren has been a fixture in San Diego radio for 20 plus years. Got a lot of years in the show. If they were going to hand out those player cards, like they do in the big leagues, he's got two of them. A 10 year service time or whatever, he's got a couple. So Darren, very talented dude. It's 10 and 5. Yeah, he's got a 10 and 5 deal and everything. So a lot of people wrote me yesterday, hey, man, you guys going to talk about this in the morning. And, you know, I thought back to kind of what went down at our station over the holidays. And I thought to myself, you know, so many people-- That was a blast. So many people around the holidays last year took it upon themselves to speak about things which they had no idea the full story. None. I never saw it reported accurately once. And that was from radio hosts. That was from newspapers. That was from smaller newspapers. That was from podcasters. No one had that full story. No one except the people in this building. And I thought to myself last night, that's massively unfair for us to come in here this morning and talk about something which we don't know. I texted with Darren last night. I'm not going to share the contents of those texts, but I will say this. Darren hasn't made a statement yet at all. And the company across the street, they haven't made a statement yet either. So it would be wildly gross of us and wildly irresponsible of us to go and do this morning exactly what everybody else did back in December. So we're not going to. I will say this. I loved working with Darren Smith. I hated being a competitor of Darren Smith. Hated it. I hated when he and I would butt heads. Because you know why? Because I idolized the dude. I absolutely did. And the guy is effing fantastic at his job. Fan-tastic. I couldn't listen to him when we were on the same station 'cause I thought to myself, I'm going to steal stuff. Not consciously. Subconsciously. - Some of you, here's some nugget. - Some nugget, and I won't even remember it. - Correct. - And then let's spew it out the next day. - So I would be like, I'm not listening. I can't, I can't do it. You know, because Darren's really, really good at his job. And I'm so glad that he and I, like reconciled over the last six months or so. Because the dude's fantastic. Funny story. I was at, I was next door at 94.9. And our program director said, "Hey, all access." Which is like the big media publication. I don't even think it's around anymore. I think it's gone away. But they did like 20 questions with Stephen Woods from 94.9. And it said at the bottom of it, the last one was, "Who do you listen to in your market?" And Darren was my, that was my pick. And this is probably three, four years into, you know, just being a DJ. And when we got the chance to work there with him, bro, I mean, we all know, like, you've worked with him before, Benny. But I mean, I was like, oh my God, we made it. Like this is really, really special. So I'm not gonna go off half-cocked about his company. I'm not gonna go off half-cocked about him. Let's let him talk first. And then we can go out and, you know. Did the UT write a story yesterday, full of lies and half-facts? Not that I've seen yet. I thought that I had seen. I missed it if they did. I haven't seen anything there yet on that. But yeah, I mean, that was really gross. A lot of people took their opportunity around the holidays to get on their radio shows or get on their podcast, whatever and speak. Again, about things for which they had no idea, the full story at all, not even close. And that sucked. That sucked for Adam. That sucked for us, sucked for me. It sucked for a lot of people. So I'm not gonna do that to Darren Smith. I respect him too much. I respect what he's done in this business way too much. And here's what I do know about him. He's one of the smartest MFAs you will ever meet. You can rest assured Darren's ass is covered and he's going to find something that fulfills him more if that's what he's looking for. So yeah, that's it. I'm not gonna, you know, I have no idea what went on behind closed doors. I just was checking on him as a friend, you good. You know, we talked about the fact that he's got 20 years, 20 years in this game in this town. That is quite an accomplishment. So whatever he chooses to do. - It's a shock to the system. - It is. - Whether you saw it come in, whether you didn't, like, whatever. - Yeah, it's weird. - We're situation. I mean, we were at a station that had the plug pulled, like, literally. - Right. - You know what I mean? Like, no matter what, whether you're a contract up, you know, money, anything like that, you can see it coming or not. It is always a shock to the system. Your routine is off. Like, I'm glad you checked in on him. Man, like, I don't want to make it sound like it was bad while we've been competitors on competing stations with him. - No, he's just competitive. - But it sucked. - It sucked, because, like you, I worked with him. I worked in the mornings, and then Darren would come in about 30 minutes later, and I would always make sure to go into the studio to fill up my water bottle and I would pick his brain. Because I was trying to, you know, make myself known into this, trying to get a leg up in this industry. Who better than Darren Smith? - Right. - To have, to ask questions, ask advice, and he was always there for it. And I have always appreciated him and looked up to him, in that sense, and I wish him nothing but the best if everything that's coming out is true. - Yep, obviously I get less into the behind-the-scenes drama than probably you do, Woods. It's just not as, I just kind of let it roll off my back. I will say this, though, I like Darren. I've always liked Darren. - I like Darren. - And the reason why I think he has been so successful, you mentioned how smart he is, and there's a lot of smart people around, but he always treated his audience as though they were smart as well. And I appreciated that. Sometimes I didn't, even I didn't totally understand exactly what he was saying, because he was smart, but he didn't never dumb it down. For always appreciated that. I think that's the highest level of radio you can do. He would get smart guests on and ask smart questions of those guests. I try to emulate that as much as possible. If you notice, we try to put some smart people on this radio program as much as possible. And I think that is certainly an influence I've had from listening to Darren over the years. Being in sports, as long as I have. I obviously have listened to many of his shows over the last 20 years. And that's one thing I've always absolutely admired. Smart people talking about sports in a smart way that hopefully elevates the conversation for everybody. Because we spend way too many hours talking about dumb things in sports. Even here in this market about the Padres. Conversations that shouldn't even be had. And I want to try to elevate that as much as possible. And I thought Darren always did a good job of that. So I always appreciated him. - Yeah, no doubt, no doubt about it. So that's kind of where I'll let it lie. Once we hear from Darren, it's a different story entirely. But for now, it's just what happened in December here was gross and it sucked and everybody that's complicit. Yeah, I mean, you know who you are, you know who you are. You absolutely clowned out in December. You clowned out and it's not something I'm going to do. And you know, it's that dude deserves a lot more than that. So yeah, that's where we're at with that story. I wish him the very, very best, be in touch with him certainly. And you know, listen, the invite has been extended if he ever wants to come hang out and shoot the breeze. We got a couple chairs, couple mics here anytime he wants. So that's where we'll leave that story for the day. But if Darren's listening, you know, not even worried about you dude, not even in the slightest, you know, not even a little bit. But yeah, this is a tough business. It's an unfair business. It doesn't make sense a lot of the time. But you know, getting the whole story, it's kind of important, kind of important. So that's what I want to make sure we addressed this morning. Certainly we, a little bit of a slow sports night unless you're a soccer fan, which by the way, last night, soccer was made an appearance. - It was a good day for it. - Just trying to try to jump in. And then of course it ended up being a pretty rotten day if you were a team USA fan. - Which I think based on my timeline, yeah, yeah, you're used to it. Pretty much, if you're a team USA fan, you're not, what were you really expecting last night? - We were going through some of the comments this morning before the show and I go, it's the same stuff people say about the team. - Yeah, every year, every couple years, every one of it. - Like, yeah, you know what Ben said, well, this team was supposed to be different. I'm like, ah, I've heard that before. - I've heard that my whole life. I'm 33 years old. - My buddy, that's a massive. He's actually, he was in radio with me. He was in radio sales. He was like my radio sales mentor. He's the biggest soccer fan you've ever known. He's a character. His name's Mark Bauman. I would actually like to get him on. He's like, he's so good at explaining it, dumbing it down for me. I texted him last night just to go to him. Just to get, 'cause I like to, we go to each other. I go, team of the future, every year. And he, dude, that's BS. We're actually hanging with one of the best teams in the world and he got all fired up. I'm like, bro, you're still falling for my stuff 15 years later? But he said, yeah, man, this was supposed to be different this year and it wasn't. And I watched most of that game last night and I'm glad I stuck around till the end to watch the post game because the post game was some of the most dynamic cutting commentary I've heard in a long, long time about the US men's team. So we'll play that for you today, certainly. It's pretty good. Interesting audio to be certain. We will talk about that. We'll set the menu for the show. We got some guests coming up today on a Tuesday as well as the Padres. Gets set to open a three game series against the defending World Series champion Texas Rangers later today. Padres talk, all that coming up with Ben & Woods. Don't go anywhere. We'll get our first check traffic with Kelly off and rolling on a Tuesday here on San Diego's number one sports station, 97.3. The fan, good morning. (upbeat music) Padres did tweak their starting rotation a little bit yesterday. Remember on Sunday, they had not announced the starters for the three game series against the Texas Rangers that begins tonight. Mike Schiltz said, "We'll get to that probably tomorrow." And they did in fact move up some guys, move around some guys. We'll probably hear more from that by Mike Schiltz. So Woods left the studio for a minute and he has left his computer audio on. Which I can't. You did the show. All right, I will continue to do the show. I need to, the distraction of the audio of my own voice coming out of his computer is a little bit difficult to deal with. Thank you, Paulie. So yeah, so the Padres will move Dylan Sees up as we kind of speculated. Because he's not pitching on short rest. He's actually pitching on an extra day's rest. He hasn't pitched since last Wednesday when he had his seven inning one hit, no run performance against the Washington Nationals. So he'll actually go on an extra day's rest tomorrow but move up a spot in the rotation and pitch tonight against Nathan Evaldi. And then Adam Major will move back a day and he will pitch tomorrow. And then Michael King will move up a day, pitch on normal rest. He went on Saturday. So he'll go on Thursday 4th of July in the series finale. That will move Randy Vasquez back a little bit after he took the line drive off the elbow in his last start. So just a small tweak of the rotation. The upshot is that Dylan Sees could be able to get three more starts now before the all-star break as opposed to just maybe two more starts and space them out a little bit because of the off days that they have. So you could end up skipping over later Adam Major if you wanted or give Randy Vasquez even extra time if in fact he wasn't feeling 100% healthy after taking that line drive. - I'm coming into this conversation cold. - Yeah, well you left your audio on which just completely distracted me. It was the show that's coming out of your computer while you were gone. - That's where the neck go. - Where the hell? - On fire today, on a Tuesday. Sorry about that. - That's all right. - Dylan Sees is pitching tonight. - Yeah. - Okay. - That was the upshot of the entire conversation. - Dylan Sees on the bump. - I like that. So coming up on the program today, the reason you word here is that you brought in a special guest who we're going to be chatting with during the program today. We got John Conner from Matt Fryer. So hello, John. We will introduce you in a minute. Hunter, Supreme, here we go. - Here we go. - We'll get to that coming up as well. We have some more audio to play. The Washington Nationals just will not let last week's controversy die with the San Diego Padres. - It's unbelievable. - It can't even seem to get their perspective and story straight on the back and forth in that series with Jurik's and pro form. - I couldn't believe it when I saw this yesterday. - Is there a form of Jurik's perform today? - There what they're, yeah. - Big night for John Conner last night as some Padres. - We're gonna talk about the Juan Soto trade yesterday nationally so we can get into that coming up as well. Take on Woods, don't do this. We've got your opportunities to win prizes and our regular segments coming up in our 7 o'clock hour. It is an Incorporated Tuesday. Jesse Agler will join us from Arlington, Texas. As the Padres continue their road trip, Voice of the Padres coming up at 8.35. Ride a report and more as we take you all the way until 10 o'clock today. But just keep the menu fairly simple and we will definitely get into it till a lot of the Padres talk. But do you like the move of Dylan Sees moving up a day and changing the rotation around a little bit? - Of course, man. You want to get, you know, it's not rocket science to get your best pitchers out there as much as you can. You know, there's a lot of concerns moving forward. I know you were, we were talking off the air about, you know, listen, you got Michael King who's going for, this is his real first year as a starter. How many more innings does he have? He's looked, he's looked really good and he has. He looks very beyond serviceable. I mean, he's got, he's kind of in that line between good pitcher aces up here. He's kind of, he's got that stuff from time to time. So you wonder how much, how many more innings can we count on for him? - He's got some of the filthiest movement involved in Major League Baseball, which he is on. - There's no doubt. There's no doubt. So like, but how many more innings? And I'm sitting there at night, trying to do the math in my head going, I can't, I can't worry about this. I cannot worry about, you know, things that haven't happened yet. And, but if you, on paper before the season, that was his concern. He's answered the bell every time, you know, but how much, how many more bells can he answer? So there's a lot of things to be worried about. You were talking about a spot that you heard on MLB radio. It's just how every single team is frothing at the mouth for pitching. Every like nine, 10 teams are just in the hunt for pitching. So what does that do? It drives the price up. - There's way more need than there is supply right now for starting pitching, which you know, supply and demand, very simple economics. That's going to drive the price up. - Even I understand supply and demand. - And you wonder, obviously, AJ Preller's always been very aggressive in going after the players that he wants. But if there are other teams that also now have prospects, because the potteries have traded away many of theirs that want to be more aggressive than AJ Preller, he may not be able to do much about it. Unless he's willing to dip into Ethan Salas, and for the most part, everyone believes he's not either willing or not allowed to do that by the powers that be in the potteries front office. He may not even have the capital to make a trade, even if he wanted to, because other teams may simply outbid him, because they haven't made any moves yet, may go, all right, this is the time we're pushing our chips forward and we got more chips than AJ Preller does right now. - I watched the Orioles game the other night and they were talking about the absolute glut of prospects that they have, that they're still not quite sure that they're willing to move. I think there are two extremes. You can't do that either, if you're the Baltimore Orioles. You cannot, you also cannot do what AJ Preller, if given 100% freedom to do it, you also can't do what he potentially got. - But I also heard them talking about the Milwaukee Brewers saying, man, we're not really going to trade any of our prospects or go in at all. Again, we don't want to add any money. - It's gotta be frustrating. - I mean, they're in first place, again. And yet they never seem to be willing to really go for it in the end and try to win a World Series. - Pretty simple then, let's just call, try to get Devin Williams, 'cause apparently they're willing to move people being in first place. So yeah, man, it's going to be a really, really fascinating month in the game of baseball. July usually is, this year feels a little bit different. And so we can break all that down for you as well. - All right, let's take our first time out here, or I'll second time out, technically. We'll come back. If you want to play some of that audio from the Washington Nationals, we can get into it. We also have John Connof in studio from Matt Fryer. So we can talk about what is actually in the minor leagues that the Padres could use to try to attract some starting pitching here at the trade deadline, which is coming up later this month. We'll get to all that coming up with Benawoods on San Diego's number one sports station, 97.3, the fan. July is here, it is trade deadline month. AJ Preller is always active. Yet, he's already been the most active general manager this season with the Dylan C steal right before the start, opening day, and then Luis Arise added to the team. What is left to make a big deal for the San Diego Padres, especially with other teams also in the market for the big deals. We got John Connof from Matt Fryer's. He's in studio, we're gonna bring him on for a little bit of a conversation. Coming up here right after a check of traffic on 97.3, the fan. You're a serious Padres fan. Matt Fryer's and all of their reporters and people who cover the Padres in the minor leagues are a must follow on social media. And John Connof is here. Now, John, how does the Matt Fryer's structure really work? Welcome, welcome, man. Are you like the CEO? How's the organization structured? I guess I'm like, I guess probably I'm like the CEO and David Jay is the chief editor, who calls me an idiot about on a daily basis. Then you have a big David Jay fan. But you're not officially connected with the San Diego Padres organization. You're independent fans, people who cover the team who are interested in the minor leagues of the San Diego Padres, and you offer honest perspectives of what you see of the Padres in the minor leagues. And you actually have people on the ground in the different cities like Elson or Fort Wayne who go there throughout the year to get, well, at times, at least. We have five of us, yes. We have Kevin Charity who's seat I'm sitting in and it's kind of roomy to give Kevin some of you. And then we have Mark Wilkinson, of course, Ben Davies. So the big thing about us, we don't have any dedicated person just there, we try to go around and we try to see them. And I think they give you a better perspective and you can see how different people are progressing. And I think one of the better things about the site and it's been a big credit to your guys' program and the other ones that we've been on, as you let us come on here, I think, and just report. And this is what people are kind of, this is what the players are kind of doing at this level. And this will tell you this is what we think they need to do to get better, this would need to work on, and this is what they're doing well now. As opposed to me sitting here saying, let me tell you about the free. He's going to be the everyday short stuff for the Padres and three years, he'll hit 20 hormones. And I think that's what listeners and people get upset about because anyone can say that, but no one knows that. I sure don't know that. I mean, we can talk about, we'll get into some of the guys, but they're doing well and things we need to see them do better. But yeah, thank you for the nice words on med fires and we always appreciate you guys having a son. Now, me and you go back and forth a lot. John will listen to the show in real time when we start talking about prospects, he'll start texting me. And I love it, too, because he gives me information. I didn't have, it makes me seem smarter. But also, he knows that if I had the keys, that I would be more like AJ Preller and less like maybe a more conservative general manager. Well, every time I listen to you, and I do listen to you guys in DC, it might be five or six guys do that, and that's me. And I always, you know, I listen to Paul and Steve, and I always want to sign up for Colonel Budget, because I am in his corner more than this. I mean, I think I should even have a real position because of Captain CBT or something like that. - Let's write below a Colonel. - Yeah, Captain. - Captain, Captain. - Captain, Captain, Captain. - I'm not fine because you know, the thing is, you know, like Steve and Paul, why don't we get John Carlos Stanton, you know? - We'll get 33 million on that. - Listen, listen, I need to be Sergeant Budget. We need non-commissioned officers as well. - Okay, I can do that. - Yeah, I'm just an un-exaggerated network. - I do not work. - John Carlos Stanton. - No, I know. - For the record. - Let's get him very cheaply. - But if I can take a shot, I'll take it. - Yeah, of course. - No, I get it, and I do understand it, and this has been a wild team to cover for the last six years since we've been doing it. It's been a wild team to cover, and really no prospect stone has gone unturned, and I think what I, maybe my perspective has changed a little bit, and I said it, I'm not worried about A.J. Preller being able to refill the farm cup, because he's continued to do that. And every now and then, a trade will happen where you'll see people go, oh my God, I can't believe we parted with X. - Right, and then five years goes by, and X still isn't doing anything at the big league level, and it's like, well, they took a shot, you know, and of course, man, to go back with hindsight and look at bad trades, I'm a genius. No one can evaluate a bad trade three years after the fact, like I can, or Ben can, or you can. I know it's hard to part with these guys. Now, even I have softened a little bit and said, if you've got two untouchables in your system in DeVries and Salas sit on 'em. You don't, like, there's no need to trade those guys. I've seen enough video on both, and I've seen Ethan Salas in person where I go, oh yeah, no, keep him, yeah, keep him. The problem is, there's just no guarantee. There's no guaranteed prospects after. There's something that you feel like are close, and you look at and you go, he's a can't miss. How many can't miss guys have there been in the history of baseball? In the, it's thousands and thousands and thousands of number one draft picks, you know, and it's just really tough. I do like to win, I do like to have an exciting team to cover, I like a team that's all in, but that's my personality. You know, being careful, tomorrow's not promised to anybody. So I think that if you can improve your team again with, while hanging onto those two guys in particular, I'm all for it, man. - Well, you know, the thing is, I think, one, that's a good point, we can have a lot of fun and joke around about prospect hugging and all that stuff, but the point is, you're absolutely right that the prospects are suspects, and which is I don't like that commentary, that's true. But the thing is, you gotta turn on the flip side. If you look at Eric Hosmer, someone like me, or you, who wants to win with the big club, we go, okay, we're bringing in a guy, he's been part of two World Series Championships, good leader and all this, and you're wrong on him. - Yep, probably. - And you're so paying him. - Yeah. - Okay, if I'm wrong on someone like Adam Maser, all right? Okay, if I'm off on that, then he's gone. - Yeah, it's 600 grand or something. - Yeah, Hos is still sitting there, and more power to him. I have no problem at all as a working man with him being paid $13 million, not to play, but yeah, that's the biggest problem. I mean, if you look at Xander Bogart's, and I mean, I lost a considerable bet where I think I caused a minor shortage of pork and lamb to Eric and Danny on signing at Xander Bogart's. - You liked the move. - Yeah. - I did not like the move. - You did not like the move. - I said there's no way they're gonna sign Bogart's, 'cause that means they can't sign Soto. And the team wouldn't be dumb enough, and then Eric called me an idiot, and I got him, and I lost. (laughing) - And listen, even Xander's still up in the air, right? The totality of Xander Bogart's has yet to be seen. - Great guy, wonderful person, but I mean, it's a 11 year deal, and even you look at a lot, the biggest problem I have with AJ is I like the traits, I like how the scouting system works, and we can kind of get into that. The problem I've had is just they've tied themselves up with some extensions, and most of the traits, like you mentioned, Eric, how many people remember the main guy that gave up for Joe Musgrove? Was a guy he called, I think it was, oh, a Texas center fielder, they got Hudson, something that was-- - Hudson had? - No, yeah, I mean, I'll look it up at that point. But now, he's in his third year of high A. - Hudson had, Hudson had. - Hudson had, yeah. - It was right, it was-- - David Bednar. - Yeah, Bednar's been good, Hudson had. - Well, Bednar was a guy who was a many heads - How many heads do they have in the model? - They have a lot of them. - They have a lot of them. - They have a lot of them. - They have a lot of them. - They have a lot of them. - They have a lot of them. - Drake fellows. - Drake fellows. - Yeah, they gave Hudson three million dollars in the third round, and you know, the one thing, one of the many things they have, Padres, have been good at it, is they're pretty good at identifying which guys might not do something to the next level, which we were talking about, yeah. You know, Robert Hassel, I liked him a lot at Elson, I liked him at Fort Wayne. - Everybody did it. - He has not hit for power at all. He's kind of one of the guys who's not that doing the well. Yarl and Susanna, another guy who hasn't played the well. Now James Wood, that was not a hard guy to sit there and look at that and go, I like that. - Yeah, Juan Soto was gonna cost you though. He was going to cost you. You're not going to flee somebody on Juan Soto. - Well, the question is, would people who are really into getting Juan Soto, which you should, this is a guy who's gonna make over half a billion dollars. He had a chance to get him for three years, and I was for the trade to make sure everyone knows that to be up front, but maybe people would have thrown Jackson Merrill in there too. - Yeah, and Merrill was just about to bring that up because, you know, identifying the right person not to trade is just as important as identifying the guys that you can trade. - Oh, you guys would love this, right? Merrill and both Big James played a U-ball together. - Oh, Merrill and Merrill was posting on his Instagram about James Wood's debut last year, that's the buddies. - Yeah, James Wood would be nasty on this team, but I still do that deal 100% of the time. - I would too, because you got, as a history major in school, that's how you got to look at the facts that you had at the time during the deal. - That's right, talk can't sit there and go no. - Nobody in that trade that you gave away was gonna be getting big hits against the Dodgers or in the NLCS that year. - No. - And Juan Soto did. - Yeah, was anybody want the U-Darvis trade back? - No. - Absolutely, yeah. - Talking to John Kanna from Mad Fryer, she's in studio with us, and the tendency with prospects is, you know, you dream on them. You look and see what's the ceiling, what's the best they can be if they develop into big leaguers? And most of the time, John, you know, they never reach that potential. And sometimes they don't get close, sometimes they get kinda close, get to the big leagues, but rarely do they turn into the full player that you hope that they get. Jackson Merrill, in my mind, has almost already superseded some of my biggest dreams of what he could be as a big leaguer in the first three months in the big league. - Todd, this is Jackson Merrill. - Where has this exactly come from? Did we miss a little bit on Jackson Merrill? Even the dream of Jackson Merrill, the reality has been better than the dream of like, in about three or four years, he might be something close to the player. He already seems to be right now at age 21. - Well, since we've been a little critical of the Padres and some of the things they've done, you know, you have to also give him a lot of credit. - I mean, Merrill was a guy, I think, when he was a sophomore in high school, I think he told me, he was about five foot eight. - Good lord. - And he grew. - He was about five to 11 or six feet. - He was like six feet. - Yeah, he was a big boy, dude. - And he was gonna go to West Point to, you know, because he wasn't considered that he wasn't a part of the whole "Perfect Game" series. Then he got a, the University of Kentucky wanted him, and then the Padres got on the first round, but when he talked to Chris Kemp, you know, he's playing in Severna Park, Maryland, which is between Annapolis and D.C. They're trying to evaluate him when a guy on the mound is throwing like 70 miles an hour. - All right. - That's adult vault, dude. - Pretty much. - And so I mean, they did a really good job by having him come over, he got bigger and it grew, and the thing too about Merrill is, you know, all right, here's a hot take, so you guys can mark this. - Merrill, Merrill never played a game in center field. - Never, he told us. - So, I think, as a prospect guy, maybe you should play a couple of games in the position you had before you go to the big leagues. - Right, that's my wild take, right there. That was one big chrysum, because we asked him when he went to Fort Wayne, unless you're in a playroom in their position. No, no, we see him as a shortstop, and kind of you guys go back to your little website and play around with it. - Yeah, right, sure, fine. - And then in San Antonio, they moved him to a little bit, couple of games left field, and to a game or two at second and first. The big thing about Merrill, which I thought he, I thought, to be honest, sure, I'm wrong, I thought he should have been back for about a couple of months, just in San Antonio to get at least more than 48 games, but he's mailed to make adjustments on the fly, which is really difficult to do. You know, a guy they have in AAA right now, Graham Pauli, who was a big guy, he's struggled, and you can kind of see he only had 10 games in AA, and that's the big difference. A AA compared to high A, guys are much more consistent with their breaking stuff and off speed, and that's a lot to do, is someone who plays baseball. Yeah, I mean, those pitches get a lot more real at the AA level. It is, it's staggering that anyone ever puts the bat on the ball, sometimes when you watch some guys throw and you go, how do you even approach this AB? No, it's been awesome to watch Jackson play, and look, I think you do have to give them credit for that too, but again, for me, I always give the majority of the credit to the player of like saying, yeah, I mean, 'cause we straight up asked in the same question, you ever play center field? Never, not once. Oh, okay, and you know, his words were essentially, yeah, but I get to play in the big league, so I'll play wherever, same with Jake Croninworth. He's like, I don't care where I, you think I care where I hit? I was bounced around, and you can hit me seven, you can hit me ninth, you can hit me third, you can hit me second, it doesn't matter. As long as I'm in there, I don't care where I play. That's the makeup of the player that you want. Right, but we know his agents pretty well, and he's spent the whole last season, outfield, outfield, the thing about Merrill, I think I've told the story a couple times, been a mold, so I can get away with repeating myself, is, you know, when Merrill got hurt in Lake Elsonor, he was hitting like 325 with power, and he nails, he gets a slide on the glove hand and risks, breaks it. Now, if I was 19, I would have just been so upset. I would have been just inside of my own head. He went back to the complex league, and he said the thing I got to work on is getting quicker lateral, playing shortstop, and he spent four weeks working on his lateral movement, getting stronger, doing everything he can, so his mindset is just, is incredibly impressive. I mean, as someone who has a teenager, I don't think that he's from the same planet, level under the same species. I mean, you know, it's amazing how hard this guy works. John Conif is with us from Mad Friars. Let's talk a little bit about James Wood and his debut last night, and kind of revisiting the Juan Soto trade here, down two years after the fact. You know, the Padres don't have, it's not like they have nothing to show for Juan Soto. He may be gone, but they used him to help rebuild their pitching staff for this season. I don't think in any stretch of the imagination, though. You would trade Michael King and Randy Vasquez and Johnny Burrito and Kyle Higashiyoka for Mackenzie Gore and CJ Abrams and James Wood, even if Drew Thorpe was thrown in there. So in terms of the players they have now versus the ones they gave up, that's not a successful exchange. Now, you also had Juan Soto for a year and a half and made a run to the National League Championship Series, which is worth something in value, but how do you now evaluate that based on the continued development of the now former Padres prospects with the Washington Nationals and what the Padres did ultimately get out of Soto? - I think it's like kind of, I said earlier, 'cause you don't want to run into like, would you still go to the play, Mrs. Lincoln? I mean, you have to look at the information you had there, and I look at it this way. Since we moved here, when I was a kid in 1976, I was up in a San Diego Padres fan. In that time, my team has won one World Series game, not one World Series Championship, one World Series game. So as much as a prospect hugger in chief that I may be, when we saw a chance that they could get Juan Soto, and at that time you thought you were gonna get a healthy Fernando Tatiz coming back, with Manny Machado in the middle of a big contract, and you had a chance to win a World Series, I think as another radio host said is, okay, if you had a chance to take a World Series and you have to hit eight bad years, I'll take the flag. And for me to sit there, and you know, I get what you're saying, Ben, and Heinz say, yeah, I agree with you. It's not not a good deal, but I can't sit there and say, hey, I wouldn't do the trade, 'cause I think that's the only way that you do a fair evaluation, is would you do the trade at the time? Yeah, and I love James Wood. The best way I saw James Wood is, like Elstner one time, he leads off the first inning, hits a home run to dead center, over the park above, nearly 500 feet, but it's third bad. This is a guy who's six, seven, two, 50, he hits a ball to the second baseman, makes the second baseman go to about three steps to toward the bag, and he beats it out. And the guy, and the second baseman's looking at him, like, that's not fair. Bro, he's a tight end. He's in the wrong business. I mean, as he may be, he's a tight end. He's played for the Guardian. The best guy-- - And not the Guardians, the Commanders. - The best guy who had analysis on him was one of our writers and a good friend of mine is Mark Wilkins, who's six foot eight. And Mark said, you know, he taught me how to look at a guy at Satoi, 'cause you know, tried looking at him when he was away from everybody else. And what you see on James is, hey, he's a really good athlete. He moves well. - Yeah. - And then you see him come with everybody else, and you go, he's that big. The thing about James is interesting, and his parents are from DC. They get to have lunch with his parents when time is. He's always been, people say him as a big guy who's athletic, who's a baseball player. When really, with James, it's more, he's a baseball player who's athletic. - Yeah, that's awesome. - And big. - That's awesome. I mean, again, like, it'll be fun watching him play. I'm not gonna get too revved up about it, because once Satoi was here, I'll never forget that day, as long as I live, you know, when I'm on my deathbed, that will be one of the memories that comes washing over me 'cause the day we traded for once Sotoi didn't work out, it happens. I'm so glad that we did it. You know, I'm so glad that we did it. I can't worry about what the nationals are going to do. We will be talking more about the nationals though, here pretty soon. Johnny, thank you, man. That's good stuff. As usual, dude, we really appreciate you. - Hey, thanks for having me on. - It's just fun to see the place. I listened to in the morning at my cube. - Thank you. - Yeah, you're welcome to stick around if you want. - Yeah, stick around. We could actually pick your brain a little bit more going forward. I do want to get. - John lives in the Washington area. I'm sure he's got thoughts on everything. - Oh, yes, stick around. We'll talk about the Washington nationals. We got take on Woods coming up as well. New prize this month. Got the Rio getaway, including the daybed at the pool. A dinner for two as well, chance to take on Woods. Coming up in our seven o'clock hour in our next segment, as we, the first hour flew by here on a Tuesday morning. More Ben & Woods coming up next on San Diego's number one sports station, 97.3, the fam. (upbeat music) 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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(upbeat music) - So I want to get to the audio that came out yesterday, Washington Nationals pitcher Jake Irvin appearing on the foul territory podcast woods. And yeah, part of that is you're gonna get asked questions about something significant that happened. - Sure, in the last few years. - Very recently. - I doubt he said, hey guys, I really want to come on your podcast to talk about this incident that happened with the San Diego Padres and Jerrickson profile last week. So I'll at least understand the circumstances. You're gonna sit down, you agreed to do it. Okay, they're gonna ask you some questions about it and you're gonna have to come up with some answers about what on God's Green Earth happened last week with Jerrickson profile and the Washington Nationals. - So in that context, I'm not up in arms mad about it. I don't know, were you mad about the audio? We're gonna play it for you. - No, I was shocked, I really was shocked. I think there's a way to say, dude, that was last week, we got swept by those guys. I mean, it is what it is and we got swept at the end of the day. Like that's the most important. Then we lost three games that we really needed to win. There's your answer. Like, AJ Piersinski's not gonna go, yeah, but tell me again more about Jerrickson profile and what he did. - Tell me exactly what was said in that code. - So disrespect your team, et cetera, et cetera. And so I wasn't mad. I just, I just kind of rolled my eyes and went, bro, again, you're talking, you're talking like Jerrickson profile did something to you personally. And even if he did beat his chest and look into your dugout, you've been playing baseball your entire life. That's never, that's never not been a thing. It's never not been a thing. And it's even more of a thing now. So I don't know what turned the Nationals into the arbiter of all things, unwritten rules and Lord baseballs again, but it probably comes from the top at Davey Martinez. But again, we get walked off on, I'm loading my bag and I'm walking to my car. Like, I'm not standing there going, do something. I dare you to do something. You're gonna find something if you're looking for something every time. - I think, let's play the audio from Jake Irvin. I think what's missing is just a coherent explanation. The Nationals can't even seem to come up with exactly why they were so bothered by Jerrickson profile, but this is a Jacob and Nationals picture on foul territory. - What's the limit? And this isn't just meant for profile, but you as a player. Like for me, I was like, you had to walk off, you can do whatever the hell you want, 'cause I'm not watching. Anyways, I'm going back to the dugout and I'm going back and getting out of my sweaty gear and clothing. So is there a limit that you think that players should have or is it a case-to-case basis? 'Cause I just thought I was like, yeah, you hit a walk, I'll do whatever you want. - Yeah, I think it's, like you said, it's case-to-case basis. It's do whatever you want. You won the game, you did something really cool that people dream of doing and it's a special moment. I think for me personally, you keep it within your team, make it about your boys and make it about your family. When you bring it to the other side of the field, there's just a little bit different feeling for a celebration like that. - I was gonna echo that same statement. - Pause for a sec. - AJ, I'm with you. - I don't know who that is. - Who is that? The next guy that's talking, anybody have any ideas? That guy right there. Is that? Was that former? Who is that? - God, he looks familiar. - They have such a rotating cast. Somebody in the chat will tell me. Somebody will, that's Kipness, Jason Kipness. - Okay. - Go ahead. - You can do whatever you want. If it's with your team, if you guys have a fun celebration, whether it's the old Adam Jones pie in the face or the Gatorade celebrations, when you start kinda crossing that line and looking into the other dugout, I think that's a little bit of where it gets a little kind of like a gray area, to be honest. I think if it stays on your side of the field and with your guys, there is really no limit that you can do. Is that fair to say? - Yeah, like I said, I've absolutely, and we didn't want to hit him, we didn't want to hurt him. Guys were over it, 10 minutes after the game, but we talked as a group and just said, that's something that we don't want to put up with as a team and it's part of this scrappy attitude that-- - So they weren't over it? - So they weren't clearly weren't over it, 10 minutes after the game. Clearly, we have and we have each other's backs. We're here for each other and part of that is doing what Caver didn't just standing up for his guy. - I like it 'cause I don't, sorry to still go. I don't want to get too far away from where the game pleases itself. I think that was still one of the best parts about baseball and that I grew up to love about the game and the way it handles itself and players handle the other players and intricacies of the game. So I don't think we should get too far where it's like, oh no, you can't do any of it now where it's like, there's still got to be some of it. - Yeah, I mean, we're all adults, man. We know what's wrong and when guys take it too far, I think that, you know, like, you know, even in your own dugout, you know. So when something like that arises, I think that as adults, we can handle that the right way and if you got a police something, you got a police something. - All right, so that's Jake Irvin Washington National's Picture Unfow Territory. - If you got a police something, you got a police something. - All right, that sure sounds like if you got to drill a guy, then you drill him. - Here are my thoughts. If there was any policing going on, the Washington National's are the worst cops ever because they didn't teach jerks and pro-far any lessons at all in the end. And in fact, if there was any policing that went on, Manny Machado did the only policing. He taught Cabert Ruiz, you're not touching my guy. I bet Cabert Ruiz never pokes a finger into the chest of another batter again. So if any policing was going on, the Padres did all the policing in that situation, not the Washington Nationals. And ultimately, I don't think, as he said, I don't think the Washington Nationals were actually that bothered by jerks and pro-far. I think the Washington Nationals have an internal issue and they're trying to come together around something and they thought, this could be our excuse to come together as a team. Let's make a big deal about this. And maybe we can all at least seem like we're pulling on the same rope and do something about it because they seem to be, they're a young team. They've got a lot of young guys and this is just a way. Maybe it's Davey Martinez. Maybe it's a couple of the veterans who are going, let's just grab onto this and say, this is what's gonna galvanize us going forward. Whether it's true or not, whether it makes any sense or not, sometimes you just look for something and go, this is something we can rally around. So let's rally around it. - Guilty of it myself. - Even though there's no sense at all. - Sure, man, guilty of it myself. You know, Michael Jordan did the bit creating stuff that people said to him that they never actually said. They didn't say it. Hey, good game, Mike. What? I never actually never said that to Michael Jordan, but he went out and hung 50 on us the next time we played him. You know, I think, you know, where it starts and stops for me is we didn't go at your chin. We didn't go into the stands after a fan. We didn't throw at any of your players. Like at the end of the day in a court of law, if I'm submitting the evidence, the nationals were clearly in the rope. We didn't poke anybody in the chest and tell them what they're doing is wrong. You were pissed at, you were pissed that you took a lead and then you blew it and you were pissed and you stood there on the field and you were looking for some S. You were looking for it. You should have been, as soon as that ball hit the ground, you should have been packing your stuff. You shouldn't have been standing on the morning track looking for to start any grief. And you certainly, certainly should not have sat and poked a 10 year vet in the chest if your cabbard, Ruiz, and your negative war. You do not get to do that to direction pro far. You haven't earned it at all. You haven't earned it. And for him to sit and poke him and prod him, couldn't have been happier with what Manny did. I couldn't have been happier. He did not just jump in the middle of them. He grabbed that dude. He pushed him away hard and then he put his arm around him and said, hey, we don't do that. You know better than that. And cabbard said Manny is an actual police officer out of the field and the Washington Nationals are the key stone cops. - Yeah, bro. - In this situation. - I can't believe that they're still talking about this and talking about how it brought the team together. You end up losing every game in that series. Worry about your clothes are blowing a huge lead. Worry about getting hits with runners in scoring position. Worry about taking care of business in a couple of games you needed to win there and you had a chance to. - Maybe they should re-sign Jonathan Papabans. An attack Bryce Harper. - That guy is a lunatic, man. Holy cow. It's just been ridiculous. It's been way overblown. And I can, you know what, man? Like I've seen Bryce Harper celebrate that way, beating his chest, looking at the dugout. I've seen guys hit home runs, looking into the dugout as they're running the first base. Okay, like, you didn't police anything that day. You really didn't. And I think you made yourselves look a little bit foolish. And, you know, our stance on it. I thought it was ridiculous. - I want pro for as an emotional player that just took 97 to the chin. - And I want to turn that around. We do need a contestant for take on Woods here. We're about a minute away from our game. If you want to call in and try to challenge Woods in our musical trivia contest, 833-288-0973, call right now, 833-288-0973. Keep in mind, remember, they walked Louisa rise to get to Jurikson Profar. They could, guess what? They could have struck out Jurikson Profar and they would have celebrated. I bet their pitcher would have, you know, fist pom. - He would have been demonstrative. - Been very demonstrative and they would have earned it and it would have felt really bad for Jurikson Profar to have come through in that situation. So it's only fair that when you do come through in that situation, and this is baseball, so it's a lot harder to come through with a winning hit than it is to strike out or pop out to end the game. The pitcher, the defense has the advantage there. - What an AB, too. - So when you come up with an AB like that, after they have just intentionally walked another player to get to you in that situation, it would be weird if Jurikson didn't have some sort of normal human reaction that probably involved looking at the other team that made those decisions to set up that scenario to begin with. - It's happened for 100 years and it's gonna happen for 100 more. And I think you make a really valid point. They're looking for any shred to hang on to to bring their team together. It didn't work, it didn't work. You lost, you lost three games in a row, games you needed to win. So, I mean, look, what it does do is it brings up the volume a little bit on the series the next time we play the Nats, which is right around the corner. So, I'm way more excited about that series today than I was two weeks ago. Should be interesting. - All right, let's pause this conversation, get to our game. It is time to take on Woods. - It's time for take on Woods. ♪ Take on ♪ - Woods. ♪ Take on me ♪ - Woods. - Look at John Conif and Studie, since I never do well in this game, let's go with the Russell line two. Russell, are you there? - Yes, I'm here. - All right, you're in. You're our contestant today. Take on Woods is brought to you by Valvoling Instant Oil Change. It only takes 15 minutes and you don't have to get out of your car. For directions and discounts, go to SoCalOilChange.com. That's SoCalOilChange.com. You know how it works. Five questions of musical trivia. You go first. Woods is in isolation. He will come back. Same five questions. If you beat or tie him, we'll put you into the grand prize draw. You can be the first this month for our grand prize trip to the Rio Las Vegas tonight's day dinner for two and a day bed at the Rio pool, the rhythm of Vegas book now at Rio. LasVegas.com. All right, Russell, you get the advantage of picking our category. Here are your choices. Keep the change. Those are song titles and artists that include a type of coin in the name. Give 'em a hand. Those are song titles, including the word hand and our new category, Rush. All about the band, Rush. Russell, keep the change. Give 'em a hand or Rush. What would you like to play? - Try keep the change. - Keep the change. This is a fun one. Today's game features a mix of song titles and artists that all include a type of coin. American currency in the name. 60 seconds to get as many as you can. Pass if you don't know one. We'll come back to it if there's time left on the clock. First question is our two second song. Pauli's gonna play you a little music. You need to give me the title of the song and the artist to score the point. Russell, are you ready to go? - I'm ready. - All right, remember the category. Keep the change. 60 seconds on the clock. Your time begins when Paul plays the music. Good luck, Russell. - Let's take it. - Take it. - Let's take on Woods. ♪ I'm through a standing in line ♪ ♪ The clubs I'll never get in ♪ ♪ It's like the bottom of the ninth ♪ ♪ And I'm never gonna win ♪ (clock ticking) - Pass. - Which Beatles song from the Sergeant Pepper album is about a street and liver pool that Paul McCartney is recalling from his childhood? - Penny Lane. - Correct, which rock band from Portland, Oregon is best known for their saxophone-driven early '80s hit, "Hardened My Heart." (clock ticking) (clock ticking) (clock ticking) - Quarter flash. - Correct, which California punk band took its name from the villain in the Stephen King horror classic Itz? (clock ticking) (clock ticking) - Two, pass. - Which 1973 lead Zeppelin classic takes its title from a military phrase, meaning to offer no mercy to a vanquished opponent? (clock ticking) - Oh, man. (clock ticking) I don't know. - That's right, back to our two-second song. - You know this one? ♪ I'm through a standing in line ♪ ♪ The clubs I'll never get in ♪ ♪ It's like the bottom of the ninth ♪ ♪ And I'm never gonna win ♪ - Time's running out. (clock ticking) We're out of time. You didn't get two, and it's a tough category. That was rock star by Nickel back. You got Penny Lane and quarter flash. You didn't get Pennywise. That was the clown from the Stephen King movie and the punk band. And no quarter is the lead Zeppelin song. So two, we'll see how Woods does. He doesn't even get the category. Try to figure this one out as he goes. All right, Russell's score is locked in. John, how would you have done in that category? - Very badly. - Very poorly. All right, Woods, let's see how you do. But 60 seconds back on the clock. Your time again, Paul plays the music. Good luck. Let's take on Russell. ♪ I'm through with standing in line ♪ ♪ The clubs I'll never get ♪ ♪ And it's like the bottom ♪ - Rock star, Nickelback. - Correct, which Beatles song from the Sergeant Pepper album is about a street in Liverpool that Paul McCartney is recalling from his childhood. - Ah, pass. - Which rock band from Portland, Oregon is best known for their saxophone-driven early 80s hit "Harden My Heart"? Quarter flash. Correct, which California punk band took its name from the villain in the Stephen King horror classic It? Pennywise. Which 1973 led Zeppelin classic takes its title from a military phrase meaning to offer no mercy to a vanquish-- - No quarter. - Correct, let's go back to our two-- Oh no, you got that one? Let's go to which Beatles song from the Sergeant Pepper album is about a street in Liverpool that Paul McCartney is recalling from his childhood? (clock ticking) - Mm, you got four already. Can you complete it? - Mm, this is gonna make me nuts. I'm gonna know this one. - Yeah, you are gonna know this one. - Do you need a lifeline? - No, I'm good. I'll pass, I'm out. - All right, you got four-- - Taint street. - It's not, it's Penny Lane. - Penny, Penny. - So many chances you have to not on something like this. - Was it not? - Oh, no, that's that. - Russell got it, so I'm not gonna feel too bad in woods one, four to two, so. - Fair enough. - Did you get the category? Did you figure it out? - Something with change? - Yeah, keep the change. - Keep the change. - Nickelback, Penny Lane, quarter flash, Pennywise. - What could have been Penny Lane? - And no quarter. - I love no quarter. Oh God. - Very good woods. All right, no qualifiers yet. Russell, thank you for playing. - And I will try someone else tomorrow. - Harden my heart. - Harden my heart is good. - Paulie, can you call up? That was absolutely one of my favorites. - It's so good. - It is a good one, kind of a one-hit wonder, but very good. So we got, don't do this coming up next, and you don't know this, but Paulie and I were talking about a story that you are going to lose your mind. - You're the restroom this morning at 5.40. - Really? - About, yeah. - Oh, I can't wait. - I just put this up and I go, "Hang on, that's it, I'll do this." Let's not even tell woods. - Yeah, and I don't know that Padre's fans are really aware of this yet, but it's not good, people. - My stuff is not good. - I know, and it should. It really should. We'll get to that coming up next after traffic. - Oh God, what a tease. - Oh man. - With Ben & Woods, then maybe 7 or 3 to fan. - Don't do this. - It's time for Don't Do This. - What were you thinking? - Three stories from the world of sports that make us all shake our heads. - Why? - How many times do I have to tell you? - I'm sorry, I fudged up guys. - You idiot. - You moron. - You're dumbass. - The apple sometimes does far fall from the tree. - Don't do this. - Do not tweet that. - With Ben & Woods. - I like a Nickelback song or two. - On 97.3, the fan. - Don't do this. This is brought to you by the Craft Taco in Serenno Valley. Craft Taco is some of the best quality tacos in all of San Diego. Go to thecrafttaco.com. Take a look at their happy hour specials today, thecrafttaco.com. Before we get to the one that you don't know about, that I teased, start with just an absolute classic. Don't do this story. Jamarkus Russell, remember former number one overall draft pick of the Oakland Raiders back in the day. - Yeah, we've talked to Amy Trask about that pick. - Yeah, so started as a do-do this story. He was volunteering as an assistant coach at his alma mater, Williamson High School in Mobile, Alabama, giving back to the kids. - Home of the leprechaun. - That's right. - Yeah, the kriton. - Mobile alma mater. - Mobile alma mater. - It's me, it's like an leprechaun to me. - But I guess he wasn't giving back so much as taking back. Now Jamarkus, again, this sounds like a good thing, trying to raise some money for a new weight room, went to some local businesses using his, you know, his influence and name, saying, hey, we're trying to raise money and a local business owner, Chris Knowles, wrote out a $74,000 check. Let's pay for a new weight room for the kids at Williamson High School. Unfortunately, the school says, yeah, we never got that check. Jamarkus just deposited it into his credit union account and then promptly withdrew $55,000 of it. Jamarkus has been relieved if you can be relieved of your duties as a volunteer assistant coach and he's now facing a lawsuit from the school and the donor over the $74,000, the missing $74,000 check. - Not the brightest of criminals. - No. - I would say, did you really think, my man, you were gonna get away with that? Maybe you thought-- - Someone was gonna notice that-- - Yeah. - Where's my new weight room that I paid for? - Well, where's our weight room? Where's the thank you to the business for the $74,000 check? I mean, just a dumb, dumb move. - All right, so what you've teased me long enough, what's going on, what am I in the dark about? - Just hang on, maybe some breath. - Yeah. - You're not gonna like this. - Maybe some Padres fans are already aware of this. As we know, the broadcast of Major League Baseball games has become more diverse in recent years with the Padres who are just on Apple TV. They've been on Fox, obviously, Padres.TV, you've got streaming-- - Lots of Peacock. - Peacock, you got lots of different options. Did you know that this Sunday, you will not be able to watch the Padres on any of your normal outlets. They will be broadcast exclusively against the Arizona Diamondbacks on Roku this Sunday, the Roku game. - We talked about this a couple years ago. That in and of itself is the first layer of-- - Yeah. - Which is okay, now we gotta find, if we have a Roku, we gotta buy a Roku, it's great. - I think we can get the app. - You can figure it out, but it's something else you have to figure out, which-- - If you have a Roku device, they have like the Roku channel. - I don't. - So I think you can just download the Roku channel. - I do have a Roku, so I'm not too worried about it, but I know that there will be fans who are concerned about this, but that's just them. - That's the tip of the iceberg. - So Roku is also in charge of naming the broadcasters for the game. - There you go, it's your mind. - And they've gone with what I think is always the worst possible strategy and try to combine broadcast teams. So I got this email yesterday announcing that the broadcasters for Sundays, Padres Diamond Banks came on Roku. - There's a Roku, there's not a home, it's just the one game, the one feed. Play-by-play. - Don Orcillo. - Oh. - Yeah. - Oh, no. - No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. - But our teeth, Bob Bradley! - Oh, Bradley, okay. - Bradley is going to be the analyst with Don Orcillo. - I'm actually relieved. - I really thought it was gonna be oral, her show. - No, but Bradley's no fan. - It's Padres Diamond Banks, so you'll have this mixed booth of Orcillo and Bradley for the entire team. - Butter teeth, oral, who shows the oral. - Yeah, it's okay. - You brush your teeth, bro. Your name's Oral, by the way. Like, you think that is-- - No, it's friendly, and Mike Pomeran's on the sideline, so we do outnumber them two to one, but just either get a neutral team or just pick one or the other. But to try to meld the two broadcast, it never works. - Now Don is just the most consummate, consummate profession. - That worries me a little bit. - It does, yes. - Bradley's gonna be on his, you know, tirade about-- - Manning. - Manning. - Bike chains, whatever he's gonna say, and Don's just gonna kind of roll with it because that's who Don is. - See, and now the thing is, I mean, I watch, 'cause I don't wanna find myself getting upset at Don Orcillo for not defending our guys, you know. - It's putting Don in a really tough spot. - It really is, man. It really, really is putting him in a terrible, terrible spot, and oh my God. - Oh, Bradley's known for his restraint. - Yeah, yeah, Bradley's known for his restraint, known for his very, bro, the stuff he said about Tati's and those guys years ago, terrible, or should have lost his job. The Manning Machado stuff was absurd. - When Manning dropped his bat. - Dropped his bat, hit a foul ball, or whatever, dropped his bat, and they're, oh my God. - Mark of Strowman. - Mark of Strowman. - Yeah, Strowman. - Yeah, it may have been worse. - That was terrible. - He's terrible, man, he shouldn't have a job. - Those guys should be put out to pasture, dude. - Would you rather have, I think they're playing, who's at Steve Berthium? - Yeah, Berthium, would you rather have him do play-by-play with mud? - Yes, all day long over Don with Berlin. - No offense to Don. - No, no, no. - We're saving Don from a tough situation. - I can't watch now, man. What time is the game? - That's a 110, normal time. It's just on Roku. - I'll be watching Bo play, actually. So maybe I'll just watch the game cast or something to save myself. Somebody's gotta watch it though. Somebody's gotta take one for the team and let us know, 'cause you know, Bradley's not gonna be able to control himself at talking about pro-far and how animated he is and all the other little, little jabs that he likes to take. We all know where those things come from. So, oh, God, not like this idea. I do not, like I wouldn't want to hear Joe Davis and Mud. You know what I mean? I don't want to hear that. Joe put me asleep, Mud would keep me awake. It's like a podcasting speedball. - Hey, Apple TV, like we saw last Friday, they gave you the option to sync up the radio feeds. But even if they don't have that option, at least it's bringing a completely neutral cast. - Yeah, I agree, I agree 100%. All right, in a little bit better news. - Dee-dee, mega-doo-doo. - Talking about our San Diego Padres. I like the All-Star Futures game that they do every year. It's pretty cool, I know John Conniff. I mean, that's like your Super Bowl man. - Oh, it's prospects out there. - Just put him, can't help myself. - Did want to give a shout out to the two Padres that did make the National League roster. Hey, Catcher, you may be familiar with. His name is Ethan Salas. And certainly picked on his ceiling and not his performance this year. But listen, I mean, that goes to show you what people actually think about him, what he's capable of. And then of course, we got a starting picture in there as well. And that's Robbie Snelling. Ben, he's going to be making an appearance as well for the National League Futures. - I see James Wood has listed among the outfielders. I would think that if I'm at Wood at this point, now I'm a big leader now. - Yeah, I'll pass. - Yeah, not a future anymore. I'm a present. - Oh, and Casey? - Oh, and Casey was a late. - Former. - Third or fourth round pick by the Padres. Never played a game as soon over in the U Darvist trade. - Yeah. - So he's in there as well. - Yeah, I love the guys, kind of what we were saying early on, a lot of the guys were bigger prospects than the Darvist trade never really panned out. So it's kind of like looking at the Musgrove trade. - He's still in here grinding. - He's still, I think he's in AAA this year. He had some power Canadian kid left big kid. - Nice, well there you go. That's a don't and do do this. - That was don't do this with Ben and Woods at 97.3 the fan. - So while we still have John Conif in studio, when we come back, we're going to evaluate. Well, actually Ken Rosenthal going to evaluate the job AJ Preller is doing his general manager this year. We got some audio for you and then talk about what AJ has left to work with before this trade deadline. We know the big names, but if you're trying not to trade Ethan Salas and Leo Dallas DeFries and Dylan Lasko and Robbie Snelling, what else is there that AJ could possibly use to acquire starting pitching or a bullpen arm here at the trade deadline? - And real quick, just because we were just talking about Sunday's broadcast, Johnny in the chat says, can we still listen to Jesse and Tony? - Yes. - On 97.3 the fan. Yes, that has no bearing on the radio broadcast. Those guys will still be there. You just won't catch it on whatever channel you've been watching Padres games. - Son, this is a TV viewing only. Radio remains consistent throughout the season. One of the great things about radio, 162. Get them all the way. All right, we'll come back. Talk about AJ Preller, trade deadline coming up. Next, we've been a wood and so 97.3 the fan. Baseball coverage of 97.3 the fan is presented by T-Mobile. Switch to T-Mobile. You can get tons of benefits still save on every plan versus AT&T and Verizon. Use their savings calculator to find out at tmobile.com/switch. - All right, baseball coverage coming up on the job AJ Preller is doing and why it may only be getting more challenging this month ahead of the trade deadline with still some needs on this roster and a lot of teams that are in competition for very few players that are available. Get to that right after a check click here on 97.3 the fan. So I think, you know, we've said it and the rest of the baseball world is coming to the same realization that for all of AJ Preller's strengths, weaknesses, successes and misses over the years, what he's done this year has been pretty impressive in terms of given almost $100 million less in payroll and to have a team that is actually outperforming last year's team based on creativity, success of some of the prospects, you know, picking up on the margins, guys like Donovan Solano that he has done a really outstanding job in a vacuum in 2024 with the current San Diego Padres roster. And Ken Rosenthal is also noticing that and Paulie's got some of the audio. This is, we had foul territory earlier. This is Ken's podcast, which is fair territory. There's only so many baseball names out there. We're really running out of podcast name which is unfortunate. - Welcome to Jones. - Welcome to Triple Play with Vedden Woods and Paul. Here it is, the 643 podcast. - It's time for the bullpen. (laughing) - This call to the bullpen. - We are sponsored by. - We are running out here, but we do have some audio. - So this is fair territory. - Fair territory, okay. All right, now I get it. - First question today comes from Tommy Wright who asks, "Has any GM done a better job than AJ Preller? "Forged to cut 80 million in payroll, "he gave roles to Matt Waldron, "Jurgson Profar, Jackson Merrill, Jeremiah Strider, "rule five pick Stephen Colick "and added Dylan Cease and Luis Arayas. "Tommy, this is an excellent question "and you put it all together really well. "A.J. Preller, I know I've been hard on him in the past "at times 'cause I haven't liked the way "he's constructed his rosters, "but this is maybe his best performance "and all of those names you mentioned, "it's really impressive. "I'll go through them." Estrada, the reliever who had that great run earlier this season, he was a waiver claim from the Cubs. Colick, you mentioned him, rule five pick from the Mariners. Matt Waldron, and I didn't even realize this until I looked it up, he was the player to be named in the Mike Clevenger trade. If you remember that trade, the Padres got Clevenger and Greg Allen and a player to be named, tried out to be Matt Waldron. They gave up a ton. It wasn't a great trade for them. Josh Naylor was one of six players that went back to Cleveland. Gabriel Reyes is also in that group, Cal Quantrell. It was a trade in which they probably ultimately will come out on the negative side, but maybe Waldron evens it all out. I don't know. So all of that in Jackson Merrill, a draft pick that Dave kept. 27th overall in 2021, a kid that was an infielder, they converted him to centerfield and has been brilliant. A leading candidate for NL Rookie of the Year. So yes, Preller, amazing job so far. And of course, he is not done yet. He is active right now. Perhaps the most active GM in seeking help for his team, which currently holds the second wildcard with the two and a half game cushion over the Mets. So the Padres are in really good shape right now, even with all the problems that they've had, the injuries to Darvish and Musgrove and now Tatisse. It's a really impressive showing by Preller by his manager, Mike Schilt. Nice. Yeah, I mean, it's kind of like a good graces for a moment. It's one thing for a Padres fan to say it. It's another for Candid who had admittedly, you know, been critical of AJ Preller at times to go and admit that he's done a really nice job this year. Now, it would be weird, but not unheard of for AJ Preller to lose his job following his best performance maybe of his decade-long tenure as general manager of the Padres and go, what do you mean? Did you just see what I just did this year? Well, it's not in a vacuum. There was a 10-year period leading up to that. Sure. The results didn't match the investment or what you were hoping to get. But this year, now he's made a lot of really good moves. Yeah, and I think, I don't want to take it away from him at all, but I do feel like the shackles maybe allegedly that were put on him have helped him. I do. I feel like it's easier to spend when they say, you have an open budget. Well, it might be one other thing too, is I think AJ this year is guy controlling all of baseball operations. Yeah. He doesn't have to deal with, and I mean, I disagree with some of the things Peter Seiler may or may not have done. I loved Peter Seiler for what he was trying to do and bring a winner to San Diego, and that should always be the thing where you start with. But you know, maybe some moves that Peter kind of will rule. I'm like, yeah, I want to have Manny here, or I want to give this extension. And I think the Padres are kind of running now, and someone who loves the Dodgers and all that. But they're kind of running more like, OK, when AJ makes a move, that's it. That's the final word. But that's all speculation on my part. Yeah, for sure. And I think there's probably some truth to that. But again, he has been very creative this year. And yeah, especially with the rise trade. No doubt. But he's moved a lot of pieces. They have spent a lot of capital to get those two guys. But so far, so good. I mean, like you said, second wildcard, they're hanging on to it. They're hanging around. But here's the problem. And we got John Conner from Matt Friars in studio, and he can kind of address this, even with all the good moves that they've made and the success that they've had and the fact they're in a playoff position at the moment. I don't know that any of us really think, though, that it's enough yet to win a championship. That this team, with its pitching staff, issues, with its occasional bullpen, issues with its injuries, has enough to really be a title contender, which means, like most teams, they have to address, at the trade deadline, couple of different holes. And the question is, what do they have left that they can use to address those holes, John? Because other than the top four prospects in the organization, we know who they are now. Even Salas, Leah Dallas DeVries, Dylan, let's go Robbie Snowing. After that, there seems to be a bit of a gap in which they've already traded away a lot of the middle ground prospects. Who is there for the trading, even if you're just trying to pick up a right-handed relief pitcher without a lot of control? Who's of interest in the Padres organization that could be tradable at this point? Not a lot. Ask me the answer. Ask me the same question. Who's of interest in the Padres organization? Everybody. Everybody. There obviously are some good players. I mean, I think in Fort Wayne, the guy saw Jagger Haynes, the nice left-hander, who throws pretty well. Guy Steve and I were just talking off the air about, I think Edgar Zaro is a little bit blocked. He's put up some really good numbers. He puts the good numbers here. He profiles every day's second baseman. He could plug in right now. Brandon Valenzuela, switch-in and catcher's doing well in San Antonio. But one thing, too, when you get to prospects, as much as I like to give Stephen Paul, grief, because I'm here and why not, is that you get to remember, there's 26 spots on a major league team. They have 165 guys we're talking about. The active players, 180 on the roster. Most of these guys are going to be dealt. And so you had to think about this. If you're one of the top 20 guys, I have 180 people. That's incredibly impressive. But really, when we're looking at guys who can come up and help the team, and this is a broadcast or show that talks about the San Nicole Padres, he had a look at the top 100 guys. And by the way, Ben framed that question. You're pretty much saying, OK, the top 100 guys, no. I'm not doing that. And that's kind of like what the Orioles are doing. The guys beneath, I think you can kind of maybe make some deals. But I mean-- But here's the problem, John. And I don't disagree with you. I'm OK with trading a lot of those guys. All of them that you just mentioned, I don't care. I want to see the winner at the major league level. Hey, I've listened to your show. I know that. Other teams, though, can offer more now than the Padres. And have to hurt less, because they have more of those higher level, even outside of the top 20, top 100 guys. They've got 105 and 108 and 115, where the Padres don't really have those guys anymore. They have the top 100 guys, the ones that are left. But they don't have that next group that I think other teams are going to be able to offer more compelling packages for Garrett Crochet, or Yusei Kukuchi, or whoever is being pursued here at the trade deadline. Well, go back to a couple years ago, when they had the big deadline deal for Mac Shurz and all that. And people pointed out like the Dodgers. They were all in. They were making the big move. They gave away their top prospect. The top prospect that gave away was the guy you talked about early in the show. Kayber O'Eese. He was blocked by Will Smith. And that's the type of guy you trade. And that's who teams look at. Even then, the Orioles made the trade to get burnt. The guy that they traded, the big piece, was the guy who's their third baseman. He's doing really well. Joey Ortiz. There was no room for him in Baltimore. And if you're the White Sox, that's the type of guys that you're looking at. Who's a really good prospect where he has no spot on the Major Lakes? The problem with the top four Padres guys is you can see a place for them if they pan out coming up. And that's where it gets dangerous to trade someone. Like James Wood, we talked about that. So to trade a lot, you had to make that move. But you could see a spot for James Wood. Oh, yeah. Yeah. And so that's where you kind of run into danger. And so, yeah, to get someone, it's going to be tough, not only because I don't know if you have the talent ready to offer someone like that. And also, you want to have someone filling. And you've got to look kind of going forward. Because, you know, I guess as Sergeant CBT, I didn't get an officer spot with a kernel budget. But you have to look at where you have so many long-term contracts, you've got to have some affordable guys, like Jackson Merrill. Yeah, 100%. 100%. I couldn't agree more. You know, again, if you're looking to add a back of the rotation starter and you're looking to add a bullpen arm, I think we have the pieces to get it done. May not be. But so did nine other teams that are also going for the same thing. Well, again, I mean, if you're going for crochet and you're going for Luis Robert, no, you don't have it. You don't have it. And that's fine. You've got to move on to the next thing. I don't know that I'd want. Let's let someone else overpay, in my opinion, for those two guys, the oft-injured Luis Robert and the guy that's going to blow past his innings limit if he hasn't already. Yeah, let somebody else overpay. I know the Dodgers already put in an offer. It was denied. It was a lowball offer. So I think someone's going to overpay for those guys. It's not going to be San Diego. I hate, in my opinion, I just don't think that you do it. But one thing too, to go to Ben's point, is the new system on the playoffs really is more of a crapshoot. That's exactly right. And the thing is, I don't know-- do I think Ben's right in that this is a championship team? They have all the pieces? No, they don't. I think Ben is right on that. Do I think they could catch a couple breaks? Yeah. Do I think I could see someone like a Michael King or a don't see throwing eight innings of one hit ball? Yeah. Could I see them throwing three innings and giving him seven? Yeah, unfortunately, I can see that too. But I can see Corbin Burns doing that as well. I mean, you just never know, man. Getting to the dance is obviously the most important thing. But I do, for once, feel like you can't mortgage your entire future on it. I love how this team is playing. I do. I think they're really, really the best example of a team that we've seen here in a long, long time. Team-wise, chemistry-wise, all of that. So you'd be doing them a disservice. But again, if you're AJ Prelle, you're like, how many times can I add to this team at the deadline and you guys completely soil yourselves before I learn to not mortgage our future at the deadline? And I know they bought on the margins last year. But many times before that, they've made the splashy deal. Hasn't really worked out. Another thing too, and if I'm looking at it from like maybe kind of like Paul's perspective or your perspective is that if you scout these guys really hard and you sit there and go, OK, right now I'm selling high on snelling or let's go with that. And those guys have a lot more information than I do where you're getting daily reports, you're finding out, like, look, a knock on Lesco might have been. His fastball and change-up are really good. He, Kevin Charity and I both saw his breaking pitch in Lake Elsmer, his curveball. I liked the lot. He hasn't been able to show it this year. So if you're selling-- is he going to develop into you? A guy that's a lever? And just a fastball and change-up guy? Yeah, I don't know. Can we all agree that the best possible additions that the Padres can make in the second half of the season are four guys that it's probably completely out of their control. But if you could add a healthy Joe Musgrove, you Darvish, Xander Bogards, and Fernando Tati's junior to the team that, as it's currently playing right now, no one could compete with that trade deadline. The question is, I have no idea if any of those four guys are going to come back and perform in the second half of the season at levels that we've seen them perform in the past. But if they all did, just like 2022, we were having that-- this is what keeps talking about that trade. When the Padres went out and got one soda, we're like, hand, you're getting Fernando back in like two weeks. That's basically like acquiring another MVP candidate. That didn't work out. That's definitely a narrative. It's a sports stock radio narrative. And we hammer it home. I'll admit it. And somebody said it on our show. Who do we have on yesterday? They said it as well. Sammy. Sammy. Sammy said the same thing. I mean, you're going to get so and so back. And that's like adding a piece. And it just never feels that that's how it works. I always think about it. They talked about it on the broadcast of C.C. Sebastian. Remember when he went from the Indians at the time to the Brewers and was like, give me the ball. I'm pitching every three days. And we're going to make this run. We have not seen an impact player added to this team like that. I don't know that that player exists anymore. I don't know that they're out there. I don't know that Garrett Crochet is it. I've watched him pitch this year. He looks fantastic. But he's going to blow past his number of innings the most that he's ever thrown. So is that a guy I'm going to trade Ethan Salas for? I don't think so. I don't think so. Yeah, it depends. You know, I mean, we got a lot of grief for putting Salas as our number two overall prospect. We put Maryland people were writing telling us we're wrong and how what Ethan does in the projection. He's going to be a better guy than Ali Rushman. Maybe he might. But we just don't know. That's how you got to call it down. Better than Hadley would be something else. John Conif, Matt Fryer. So good to have you in studio, man. Thank you for stopping by. Thank you for having me. We'll come back. We got two hours to go. Jesse Aguiler is going to be with us. Oh, yeah. Soccer Woods is going to make an appearance coming up here as well. Don't go away. Ben Woods continuing next on San Diego's number one sports station. 97-3 the fan. All right, we're halfway home on a Tuesday. Ben Woods 97-3 the fan. Lovely to be here with all of you this morning. Thanks to John Conif for Matt Fryer's for stopping by, hanging out for a couple hours. Helping us run out some clock. You know, let's be honest. It was an off day yesterday. Candy could come in. You got to rip four hours talking about the San Diego Padres. Nice to hear from John about the prospects and all of that. Love to see him and he's a good dude. I'm Woodsie. That's Paul Reindel, the executive producer. And Benjamin Higgins, your friendly neighborhood sports anchor, joins us as well. Did you know we were actually halfway through our week? Six hours in, six hours to go. Because after tomorrow's show, we're done. We're on vacation. Yeah, for the 4th of July weekend. And joining us also in studio is our beloved Bald Reindel, Adam Kluge. Speaking of that, do you guys have anything you want to say to my face about what's going on on Friday? Yeah, let's talk about Friday for a moment. First of all, welcome back from your trip, because it was not a vacation. Thank you for not calling you vacation. You flew. All right, tell everybody, you flew from here to where? My parents, right at the start of the pandemic, we're all from Atlanta. They moved to St. Pete Beach, which is right by Tampa. In Florida. In Florida. So we flew to Tampa, spent four days with my parents. OK, and you stayed in their home? In their home. Listen to this. Three kids. So with my three kids, it was my mother's 70th birthday. So we were celebrating that with her, right? We surprised her. They surely knew that my family was coming in. My brother, his wife, and his son from Atlanta, we surprised they were going to drive in and meet us. And then my youngest brother who lives in New Jersey with his wife and his two month old, we're going to fly in. So she would have her three sons and their families. OK, all together. They didn't all stay there, though. They didn't all stay there. So we got in on-- What are we talking? This is like Christmas vacation, like everybody's just-- There's 70 birthdays. Get the whole family together. Get everybody together. So we drove in on Friday. My brother was supposed to pick up my middle brother's supposed to pick up my youngest brother at the airport on Sunday as the surprise. But he couldn't get there early enough to pick him up. So he drove in on Saturday. So we get in early on Saturday. I'm like, come on over. Let's hang out. He goes, no, we're going to lay low. We've been planning all this. We don't want to waste the surprise. I feel like it's big daddy. We waste the good surprise of you. All right, you're starting to tell stories like my wife. So let's get-- what was your purpose of this? Because my youngest brother's flight got canceled. All right. He never made it in. He never made it in. Never made it in. I want to hear how awful it was. That's what I want to hear. Traveling with three young kids is never easy. No. Tuesday was the worst day. We flew from Tampa to Birmingham, which is about an hour 10 flights. It's an easy flight. We were there for four hours, maybe. My grandmother lives there, who is my kid's great-grandmother. They don't get to see very often. And I have aunt and uncles. So we flew to Birmingham, saw my family for four hours, and then rented a car and drove to Atlanta two and a half hours. That was a long day. And you lose an hour going east. Tonight there. Tonight there. And then we stayed with my in-laws for four days in Atlanta. How was that? Hot. They didn't have anything planned for us. Nothing. Nothing. Just wanted to be, quote unquote, "be with the grandkids." Do you guys do the bit where you, because I have young kids, when I go see my family, I'm like, here you go. I'm like, there's yours. And Hannah and I will go do stuff. No, we don't do that. You know, you should do that. Well, we've got to adjust about two-year-olds. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So he's constant supervision. It's a tough scene. Welcome back. Thank you. It's one of those-- It's good to be back. I wanted to be back. I want to get back. You missed a really fun week of Padre's baseball. I watched all the games. It was amazing. It was incredible. Yeah, can I just say that I love Jerks and Profar? Yeah, we all do. I love him. He's great. He's great. I'm so glad he unblocked our entire show. Yeah, good vibes. He only follows Ben, though, I noticed. Is that true? Yes. He does not follow me anymore. I thought he followed us in spring training. He's since unblocked me, or he's since unfollowed me. So I love him. He's one of those favorite players, for sure. Yeah, he does follow me. He follows you. He must be nice. Yeah, Jerks and Profar. Mr. Negative, Mr. Never Negative, Ben Higgins over there. He's got the good vibes over there. He does. So Friday is one of those days where it's like, hey, you know, we're not going to-- we took Friday off. But then come to find out yesterday, Sam Levitt's actually going to be doing our show, which I'm fine with. Sammy Levitt's always welcome to. I just feel like a heel a little bit. You are. That he's coming in to work four hours while we're going to be doing-- Thursday, he'll be broadcasting twice on Friday. He'll do the morning show from 6 to 10, and he's got pottery's pre and post game that he's-- He's not support management on your part. Yeah, I think so. That's just bad planning, I think. Thursday is a company holiday. Correct. Federal holiday, like most people should have Thursday off or get off early, whatever. And then Friday is that one. When there's a holiday on a Thursday, you're like, is it a company holiday? Is my boss giving me the day off? What do I just-- Friday after Thanksgiving? Do I just take the day off? Because I'm not coming in on Black Friday and doing a show that night. You got two choices. Either everyone gets the day off, or you get the least productive work day of the year from everybody that you've made come in, and now you have the bad will of just having them all come in for the very unproductive Friday. Right, like they can't get much done anyway, because generally, you know, the other people, like e-sales, you know, call it business. Yeah, e-sales working that Friday. Well, no one's working today. So who am I going to sell anything to on this Friday? I got into it with our boss. Did you? He says the salespeople will be working. I told him, I told him. Now, how are they going to be working? I told them I didn't buy it. No, they're not. So here's the thing. I was in sales. From our-- There's no way. From our perspective, Adam, call it a month, six weeks, two months ago, when we were talking about taking time off in the summer, you told us, we said, yeah, we're going to take the fifth off. You go, I believe that's-- it's not a company holiday, Friday, July 5, but Michael's going to just give everybody that day off. I don't remember saying that. But even if I did, I believe gives me some wiggle room there, and Michael opted to keep the offices open. Well, you didn't tell us that. Now Sammy hates us. No, Sammy, first of all, I did not order or assign Sammy to work. I offered him the opportunity. I said, if you would like to do it-- That does. --and do something different than what you normally do, it's there for you. There's no pressure. I won't be upset if you don't. When somebody says no pressure, I won't be upset. If you don't, it actually means there's pressure. And I will be upset if you don't. There's no pressure. When somebody says no pressure, that means-- There's no pressure. You know what I feel the most pressure is when somebody says no pressure every time. We would just go to network. And look, Braden and Scrappy, they wanted to work. They wanted to get their opportunity to get something to fill in. I'd much rather have Sammy in doing the show than going to network that's not going to talk about podrays. And for the people who do want to listen, even if they're not working in or at home, they'll have that option of Sam Levitt. Now, I don't have the same qualms that Woods does, because while Sammy works very hard, as you said, he wants to be here. And I also know that as soon as the podray season ends, whether that's after October or after September, Sammy will be allowed to have some time off, because he doesn't have any more pre and post game shows. And he'll have like three or four weeks where we can just say, Sammy, go take some time off and relax. Whereas when the season ends, that does not happen for Ben and Woods. Get us here. - We got enough of that. We got enough of that. - All the way through and until the start of next year. - We're doing this job well for Ben, right? - I'm actually vacationed this year. - Let's keep an eye on Woods' PTO this year. - This is my hair. - How it compares to mine. - This is my hair. - I'm taking Monday off this one vacation so far this year. And then that's it for now. - I'll be in here on Friday with the guys. I mean, you know, I work and you guys like take off, I'll be working. - Well, you just had a week off, so. - Look, we look forward, not backwards. - That's fair, that's fair. Well, you'll have to be managing all the unusual employees and shows that you brought in on Friday. It's good to see you again. And no pressure, but yeah, I'm gonna be, you guys are gonna see much of me for the rest of the year just so you know. - The rest of the year. - Yeah, I've got a lot of stuff planned. I need my R&R. - Okay. - All right, so you, Adam, good to see you. - Thank you guys, you did come in with some swag, by the way. Padre's delivering giveaways for the upcoming homestand, including the one that Woods has already claimed. Well, this is the Nando Calrissian bobblehead for Star Wars weekend, which is coming up this weekend, July 5th through 7th against the Arizona Diamondbacks. Now, if you want one of these, you need a theme game ticket. - So I told the wise that we're going Saturday. - Have the theme game ticket. - And she said, you have to come up with, if I don't go home with that, I'm a dead man. - So I just saved you? - I think, I mean, do the other shows need to show it off too, or can I just take it? - Are you giving them the option? - I was gonna take it. Yeah, I'll ask for giving this later. - It's about as clever of a Star Wars tie-in that you can come up with, Nando Calrissian. - It looks so great. - Really clever. And then Adam also brought the throwback 1984 hat presented by San Diego Community Power. This is the giveaway on Wednesday, July 10th. Padre's hosting the Seattle Mariners. That's a 340 game. This does go to all the first 40,000 fans in attendance. It's got the SD, but also the very cool lowercase, Padre's 1984-esque logo on the side, celebrating the 40th anniversary of the 1984 World Series team as well. And then they wrap up the first half of the season with the Atlanta Braves coming to town July 12th through the 14th. - 14th. - So, yeah, still be the wild card leaders, though, in the National League. Not playing quite as well as they have in previous seasons. - I'm trying to be nice coming from my mouth to hear that. - Yeah, well, you know, yeah, I trust you when your Atlanta Braves' opinions are there. Now, Padre's may or may not be able to compete with the L.A. Dodgers at any point in this season for the N.O. West, but there is value in taking that first wild card spot. - Yeah, there are three games behind the Braves with plenty of time to try to at least get the first wild card. And if you're gonna have to play a wild card series, play it at home, have those games in your home yard. And the Padre's certainly, that's a feasible, realistic goal for the San Diego Padre's, I would say, in the second half of the season. Not just make the playoffs, but put yourself in a better position by getting home-field advantage for that wild card series, whether it's against Atlanta or the St. Louis Cardinals or New York Mets or whoever it might be. I know the Padre's played well on the road earlier this year. I know they beat the Mets in a wild card series a couple of years ago on the road. Can we all agree it's better to have to bring the other team in and have them be the team that's on the road for that series than having to go on the road yourself? - Of course, of course. Yeah, I mean, I know I said it earlier in the season. You know, the way that they're playing on the road, let's just make sure we play on the road. But they've come back down to Earth in that-- - And they've played very well at home. - They have, they have. And yeah, I mean, it's kind of the calendar turned into June and the boys started playing well at home. Ball started launching out of Petco Park again for us as well. That was the most frustrating thing of the season, Benny, when everybody else was hitting home runs at Petco Park, except for the San Diego Padres. So you couldn't, well, everything's dying at the track. Yeah, for us, for the other teams, the ball was flying out of the yard. It was crazy, but it's all, as baseball typically does, it evens out. So yeah, man, I just want to get there, man. I just want to make the playoffs. That's what I want this team to do. Covering that playoff run a couple of years ago was the time of my life. It was such a blast. - Yeah, I mean, I think first wild card spot is a realistic goal. I know people don't want to just give up the division to the Dodgers. - No, 'cause bro, you never, they're so incomplete. They're so incomplete. - They are, but remember, you're seven and a half being fan. - I understand. You don't know chasing it, but it's, that's a lot to make up against the team that, the Dodgers even, even as not being as dominant as we thought they were going to be, they're not a team that's going to play 10 games under 500 the rest of the year. - No, they're not. - I mean, if they struggle, they'll probably still be slightly above 500, which means you're going to have to play in Saint, like 20 to 25 games above 500 the rest of the year to have even a chance at catching the Dodgers. Is that impossible? No, it's not. - No, it's not. - But based on what we've seen so far, which is what, four games above 500 for the first half, you'd have to play a lot better than you did in the first half of the season. A lot better to have a chance at catching the Dodgers. And that's even, and that's assuming that they don't improve, they're probably going to make some trades as well. So again, I don't think that that needs to be the goal. First wildcard though is very, very possible and realistic and something you should be going after. - When this Padres team winning what was nine out of 11 recently, they've given themselves a little bit of a cushion. They've started to give themselves a cushion. I think we talked about-- - Like a four day cushion here. - Yeah, still, hey, that's better than nothing. That's better than nothing. They haven't had that up until this point of the season. I think we were talking about the Phillies maybe a couple weeks ago when they went on a skid and we said, well, when you were 20 games above 500, you can afford to drop six in a row or whatever. - Yankies too. - Yankies, maybe that's the team. - You're crushed. - And the Padres haven't had that luxury. I mean, a four game losing streak, we were ready to throw in the towel in the season. - Yeah, just tell. - I'm not expecting them to win nine of the next 11, but they do have 11 games exactly between now and the All-Star break. I mean, if they can stay on that hot streak and win seven, eight, nine out of 11, then you're really building yourselves a cushion where when you have an inevitable skid and drop five in a row or seven out of eight or something, it's not gonna be the end of the season. - Yeah, you gotta avoid those as best you can in the second half, that's the most captain obvious thing. But I mean, it's just, it's what we've seen this year. It's how this team has run. So it just doesn't, it doesn't, the road's not any easier. I mean, the schedule's pretty tough. I know that the off days are built in, but it's gonna be a fun one, man. It's gonna be a fun one. We'll strap in and as we like to say, enjoy the ride. - Awesome. I'd love to have Soccer Woods make an appearance coming out here and wait and talk about it all morning. - Yeah, the, you know, we know what it feels like to be a frustrated baseball fan, but the Soccer fans out there are extremely frustrated with Team USA's early exit in Copa, America. We've got some scaving audio to bring you from last night's game as well. We'll get to all of that coming up before Jesse Agler joins us at the bottom of the hour. Don't go away. More Ben & Woods coming up here after traffic on 97 through the fan. (upbeat music) - So imagine the universe woods in which the Padres, and we're just as big a Padres fans as we always were. But instead of playing 162 games every season and then potentially the playoffs, they play actually three meaningful games every two years. And if you don't do well in those, then the last two years have been in complete disaster. Even if you played pretty well in one of the games, let's say you put a lot of runners on, you got them in scoring position, but you guys didn't come through. You went one for 10 with runners in scoring position. - That feels right. - In your one game that mattered in three years and you ended up losing one nothing. Isn't that what international soccer kind of is? - Yeah. - And you know, Team USA played in Copa, America, which is the biggest event in between the World Cups in international soccer in the Western Hemisphere. - Yeah, as my buddy explained it to me last night. Look, this is a really, really good opportunity to show what they're gonna see in a couple of years and what you're building towards and are you on the right track? You know, that's really what it is in regards to the World Cup. Are you on the right track right now with the U.S. men's national team? And boy, if you watched the game last night, you know, I don't know a lot about soccer. And I tweeted it last night. I said, I'm literate. One of the reasons I'm reluctant to get super into it is I think much like the umpires kill me in baseball. They kill me. I, soccer seems to be worse, worse. It's one of the reasons, it's one of the reasons basketball drives me nuts too. Just the, the just kind of, ah, foul here, not a foul here. And I, I, my timeline is filled. I have a lot of friends that are super soccer fans. Every weekend my, my timeline is filled with people ripping VAR, ripping the refs and I'm like, can my blood pressure handle super soccer fandom? I don't know that it can. So if you were following the U.S. lost their second group play game against Panama when they took an early red card and had to play a man down for the entire match. So it was baseball, you'd be like playing eight on nine without a, a fielder for the entire game. Puts in a real disadvantage and that put them in a must-win situation yesterday. I guess a really good team. Uruguay considered one of the top sides in South America and it was always going to be their toughest match. And it's not like the U.S. played horribly. They only gave up the one goal and they had some chances they just couldn't convert. The referee was, it's like you play your one big game in two years and Angel Hernandez ends up being behind the place. - Yeah, that's it. And I guess this guy had not had many opportunities to be a referee on the biggest of stages. And I think based on, again, on my timeline, I hate to come on here and go off half-cock like I know what I'm talking about 'cause I'll be the first to admit, I really don't. I'm just going off what I see people that I respect saying, no, no, Woodsy, this guy is really, really bad. It doesn't mean though they didn't have plenty of chances even I, the very novice soccer fan, noticed plenty of opportunities to at least for two goals that I can remember off the top of my head that I went, oh, wow, that's going to come back and hurt you. It was a really physical game, man, really physical early. You're a wise, really good team. I mean, watching them play, yeah, you kind of understand where the fervor lies for soccer at the highest level. - But again, as a non-soccer expert, I remember watching World Cups 15, 20 years ago and I always felt like, all right, the U.S. is definitely overmatched in this game but maybe they can use their speed and counter punch and score. It felt like watching against Uruguay, the U.S. had the ball for a lot of the time. They're making the passes that the other team was. They weren't outclassed, they simply aren't finishing. They aren't getting the goals that they need to get and don't take it from us. Take it from the experts who know and after the game, the Fox Sports one broadcast, they had the crew sitting there at the desk and who was Alexi Lala's who went ham. He just went in on coach Greg Berhalter and team USA's pitiful performance in Copa, America. - They've talked about learning from losing, okay? I think what we have learned over these cycles is that this team is not able to do anything better than is done in the past. And that hurts, that hurts to say because that was not what was promised and not what for many we believed was going to happen with this team because if this is as good as it gets, it's not good enough. And there's plenty of excuses, but they don't matter. You can talk about opportunities. Well, we have players that are playing all over the world talk about playing in Europe. Well, the entire team that you saw out there plays in Europe, so it's not MLS's fault. You can talk about the pathways and the resources that they have. No generation has been given more and yet this generation hasn't lived up to that bargain. And when it comes to Greg Berhalter, we heard Stu Holden say, it's exactly right. You know, I know there's a sport in firing coaches in all professional sports. And I know the knives are out and they should be because this is not good enough from Greg Berhalter. And you have to ask yourself, with 2026, come and barrel down the pike. It's going to come real quick. - Less than two years away, all right? - We can't afford to waste it. We can't afford to be embarrassed. And we can't afford to arrive in the summer of 26 with a team that is not progressed, that is not evolved and is not improved. And I'm sure if Greg Berhalter was here, he would say, oh, but you don't see what's happening inside. I don't give a crap what is happening inside. I don't care about that dynamic. I don't care how much your players love you. I don't care how kumbaya it is. All I care about is I see a US men's national team that is better than before. And we haven't seen that. And that's a problem going forward. - Is that on the players? Is that on the manager? Is that on the federation? Where are we saying you need to be better? - Well, the players certainly need to be better. - But do you think this generation of players has what it takes? Like, do you think that they have that deep inside of that? - I think there's a couple of them. I don't think they are better soccer players. But ultimately, I don't think that they're a better US men's national team player. - Yeah, somebody said in the chat that looks like some controlled rage. Yeah, it did and he was pretty strong on it last night. And again, I saw a lot of the same sentiments echoed online last night by some people that are much more in the know than me. But, you know-- - I don't know enough to know, is it like any other sport? Like in baseball when we're talking about, the players are going out there, they're the ones that are playing. How much of this embarrassment as it's been tagged over the last couple of days is on the coach. - You know, they asked some of the players about it last night, you know, which is, you know, credit to the reporters for asking like, hey, is Greg Berhalter, the guy to lead this team? And I think they were reluctant to just throw him under the bus, but they said, you know, it's on us. We didn't finish last night in a couple of opportunities that we had and they didn't. They had opportunities to do it. Refs be damned, you know, and even I, with my novice eyes could tell, you had a couple of opportunities you needed to bury it and you didn't. - Ultimately, the next game, important game that Team USA plays that everybody will care about won't be until their first game of the World Cup in 2026. - Yeah, that's the tough part. - They'll have international games, but they don't have to qualify 'cause they're the host, so they're in. So essentially they will not play another meaningful game for two years. And then that next meaningful game will be the biggest game they play this decade because they'll be hosting a World Cup. And it'll be this one chance for this holistic generation to show what they've got. They got two years to get it right now. That's it. - And you wonder, will you make sweeping changes right now to that team or does this guy get a chance to see it through? It's gonna be interesting. - I know, all right. Jesse Aguiler is gonna join us next voice to the Padres Incorporated Tuesday. He's in Texas, getting ready for the series against the Rangers, chatting with Jesse Aguiler. When we come back with Ben Woods, the 97-3, the fan. Sarah 97-3, the fan is brought to you by the Frozen Ropes Baseball and softball training facilities. Hey parents, frozen rope softball summer league. Starting up registering softball players ages six through 12. Six games, six practices with professional coaching starts mid-July. Make it a frozen rope summer. Go to sandyecofrozenrobes.com and call to register today. It's always weird when I talk about one of the things that you usually talk about, frozen ropes or if you were talking about like the farmers dog or SD fatloss.com. - Yeah. - But I don't mind. Throw it in there. Sounds like fun. - My little frozen ropes player will be here in about an hour. Mama's gotta drop them off. It's the summer. - Now with the MLB app, you can get baseball your way. 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All right, baseball coverage coming up on the job AJ Preller is doing and why it may only be getting more challenging this month ahead of the trade deadline with still some needs on this roster and a lot of teams that are in competition for very few players that are available. Get to that right after a check and click here on '97 through the FAN. So I think we've set it and the rest of the baseball world is coming to the same realization that for all of AJ Preller's strengths, weaknesses, successes, and misses over the years, what he's done this year has been pretty impressive in terms of giving almost $100 million less in payroll and to have a team that is actually outperforming last year's team based on creativity, success of some of the prospects, picking up on the margins. Guys like Donovan Solano that he has done a really outstanding job in a vacuum in 2024 with the current San Diego Padres roster. And Ken Rosenthal is also noticing that and Paulie's got some of the audio. This is, we had foul territory earlier. This is Ken's podcast, which is fair territory. There's only so many baseball names out there. We're really running out of podcast name, which is unfortunate. - Welcome to Jones. - Welcome to Triple Play with Ben and Woodson Paul. Here it is, the 643 podcast. - It's time for the bullpen. This call to the bullpen. - Sponsored by. - We are running out here, but we do have some audio. - This is fair territory. - Fair territory, okay. All right, now I get it. First question today comes from Tommy Wright, who asks, has any GM done a better job than AJ Preller? Forced to cut 80 million in payroll, he gave roles to Matt Walger, Jurgson Profar, Jackson Merrill, Jeremiah Strada, Rule 5 pick Stephen Colick, and added Dylan Cease and Luis Arayas. Tommy, this is an excellent question and you put it all together really well. AJ Preller, I know I've been hard on him in the past at times because I haven't liked the way he's constructed his rosters, but this is maybe his best performance. And all of those names you mentioned, it's really impressive. I'll go through them. Strada, the reliever who had that great run earlier this season, he was a waiver claim from the Cubs. Colick, you mentioned him, Rule 5 pick from the Mariners. Matt Walger, and I didn't even realize this until I looked it up, he was the player to be named in the Mike Clevenger trade. If you remember that trade, the Padres got Clevenger and Greg Allen and a player to be named. Turned out to be Matt Walger, they gave up a ton. It wasn't a great trade for them. Josh Naylor was one of six players that went back to Cleveland. Gabriel Reyes is also in that group, Cal Quantrell. It was a trade in which they probably ultimately will come out on the negative side, but maybe Walger and evens it all out, I don't know. So all of that and Jackson Merrill, a draft pick that Dave kept. 27th overall in 2021, a kid that was an infielder, they converted him to center field and it has been brilliant. A leading candidate for NL Rookie of the Year. So yes, Preller, amazing job so far. And of course, he is not done yet. He is active right now, perhaps the most active GM in seeking help for his team, which currently holds the second wildcard with a two and a half game cushion over the Mets. So the Padres are in really good shape right now, even with all the problems that they've had, the injuries to Darvish and Musgrove and now Tatisse. It's a really impressive showing by Preller by his manager, Mike Schilt. - Nice. - Yeah, I mean, it's- - Back in my good graces for a moment again. - It's one thing for a Padres fan to say it. It's another for Candid who had admittedly, you know, been critical of AJ Preller at times to go and admit that he's done a really nice job this year. Now, it would be weird, but not unheard of for AJ Preller to lose his job following his best performance maybe of his decade-long tenure as general manager of the Padres and go, what do you mean? Did you just see what I just did this year? Well, it's not in a vacuum. There was a 10-year period leading up to that. - Sure. - The results didn't match the investment or what you were hoping to get. But this year, yeah, he's made a lot of really good moves. - Yeah, and I think, you know, I think, not to, I don't want to take any away from him at all, but I do feel like the shackles maybe allegedly that were put on him have helped him. I do. I feel like it's easier to spend when they say, you have an open budget. - Well, it might be one other thing, too, is I think AJ this year is guy controlling all of baseball operations. - Yeah. - He doesn't have to deal with, and I mean, I disagree with some of the things Peter Siler may or may not have done. - Sure. - I loved Peter Siler for what he was trying to do and bring a winner to San Diego and that should always be the thing where you start with. But you know, maybe some moves that Peter kind of will rule. I'm like, yeah, I want to have Manny here or I want to give this extension. And I think the Padres are kind of running now and someone who loads the Dodgers and all that. But they're kind of running more like, okay, when AJ makes a move, that's it. That's the final word. But that's all speculation on my part. - Yeah, for sure. And I think, you know, I think there's probably some truth to that. But again, he has been very creative this year. And yeah, especially with a rise trade. - Oh, no doubt. And he's moved, you know, he's moved a lot of pieces. They have spent a lot of capital to get those two guys, but so far so good. I mean, like you said, second wildcard, they're hanging on to it, they're hanging around. But here's the problem and we got John Connor from Mad Friars in studio and he can kind of address this even with all the good moves that they've made and the success that they've had and the fact they're in a playoff position at the moment. I don't know that any of us really think though that it's enough yet to win a championship. That this team with its pitching staff, you know, issues with its occasional bullpen, issues with its injuries has enough to really be a title contender, which means like most teams, they have to address at the trade deadline, couple of different holes. And the question is, what do they have left that they can use to address those holes, John? Because other than the top four prospects in the organization, we know who they are now, Ethan Salas, Leah Dallas-Deverse, Dylan, let's go Robbie Snowing. After that, there seems to be a bit of a gap in which they've already traded away a lot of the middle ground prospects. Who is there for the trading? Even if you're just trying to pick up a right-handed relief pitcher without a lot of control, who's of interest in the Padres' organization that could be tradable at this point? Not a lot. Not a lot. (laughing) Ask an answer. Ask me the same question. Who's of interest in the Padres' organization? Everybody. Everybody. There's, you know, there obviously are some good players. I mean, I think in Fort Wayne, the guy saw Jagger Haynes, the nice left-hander who throws pretty well. Guy Steve and I were just talking off the air about, you know, I think Edgar Zaro is a little bit blocked. He's put up some really good numbers. He puts the good numbers here. He profiles his everyday second baseman. He could plug in right now. Brandon Valenzuela, switching and catcher's doing well in San Antonio. But, you know, one thing too, when you get the prospects, as much as I like to give Stephen Paul grief, 'cause, you know, I'm here, why not, is that, you know, you gotta remember, there's 26 spots on the Major League team. They have 165 guys we're talking about. The active players, 180 on the roster. Most of these guys are gonna be dealt. And so, you had to think about this. If you're one of the top 20 guys, I have 180 people. That's incredibly impressive. But really, when we're looking at guys who can come up and help the team, and this is a broadcast or show that talks about the Sanical Padres, you gotta look at the top 100 guys. And, you know, by the way, Ben framed that question, you're pretty much saying, okay, the top 100 guys, no, I'm not talking, doing that. And that's kind of like what the Orioles are doing. The guys beneath, I think you can kind of maybe make some deals, but I mean-- - But here's the problem, John, and I don't disagree with you. - No, I'm okay with trading a lot of those guys, all of them that you just mentioned. I don't care, I wanna see the winner at the Major League level. - Hey, I've listened to your show, I know that. - Other teams, though, can offer more now than the Padres. - Definitely, yeah. - And have hurt less, because they have more of those, you know, higher level, even outside of the top 20, top 100 guys, they've got 105 and 108 and 115. Where the Padres don't really have those guys anymore. They have the top 100 guys, the ones that are left, but they don't have that next, you know, group that I think other teams are gonna be able to offer more compelling packages for Garrett Crochet or Yusei Kakuchi, or whoever is being pursued here at the trade deadline. - Well, go back to a couple years ago, when they had the big deadline deal for Machers and all that, and people point out like the Dodgers. They were all in, they were making the big move, they gave way their top prospect. The top prospect that gave way, was the guy you talked about early in the show, Cabot Ruiz. He was blocked by Will Smith. And that's the type of guy you trade, and that's who teams look at. Like, even then the Orioles made the trade to get burned. The guy that they traded, the big piece, was the guy who's their third baseman. He's doing really well, Joey Ortiz. There was no room for him in Baltimore. And if you're the White Sox, that's the type of guys that you're looking at. Who's a really good prospect where he has no spot on the major leagues? The problem with the top four Padres guys, is you can see a place for them, if they pan out, coming up. And that's where it gets dangerous to trade someone. Like, James Wood, we talked about that, so to trade, you know, a lot. You had to make that move, but you could see a spot for James Wood. - Oh yeah. - Yeah. And so that's where you kinda run into danger. And so, yeah, to get someone, it's gonna be tough not only because, I don't know if you have the talent ready to offer someone like that, and also you wanna have someone filling, and you gotta look kinda going forward, because, you know, I guess as Sergeant CBT, I didn't get an officer spot with a criminal budget. But you have to look at where you have so many long-term contracts, you gotta have some affordable guys, like Jackson Merrill. - Yeah, 100%. 100%. I couldn't agree more, and, you know, again, if you're looking to add a back-of-the-rotation starter, and you're looking to add a bullpen arm, I think we have the pieces to get it done. May not be. - We have nine other teams that are also going for the same thing. - Well, again, I mean, if you're going for, if you're going for crochet, and you're going for Luis Robert, no, you're not, you don't have it. You don't have it. And that's fine, you gotta move on to the next thing. I don't know that I'd want, let's let someone else overpay, in my opinion, for those two guys, the oft-injured Luis Robert, and the guy that's going to blow past his innings limit if he hasn't already. Yeah, let somebody else overpay. I know the Dodgers already put in an offer. It was denied, it was a lowball offer. So, I think someone's going to overpay for those guys. It's not going to be San Diego. I hate in my opinion, I just don't think that you do it. - Well, one thing too, to go to Ben's point is, you know, I don't know, the new system on the playoffs really is more of a crop shoot. - That's exactly right. - And the thing is, I don't know, do I think Ben's right in that this is a championship team, they have all the pieces? No, they don't. I think Ben is right on that. Do I think they can catch a couple breaks? Yeah, do I think I could see someone like a Michael King or a Don C's throwing eight innings of one hit ball? Yeah, could I see them throwing three innings and giving him seven? Yeah, unfortunately I can see that too. - But, you know, I can see Corbin Verne's doing that as well. I mean, it's just, you just never know, man. Getting to the dance is obviously the most important thing, but I do for once feel like you can't mortgage your entire future on it. I love how this team is playing. I do, I think they're really, really, the best example of a team that we've seen here in a long, long time, a team-wise, chemistry-wise, all of that. So, you'd be doing them a disservice. But again, if you're AJ Preller, you're like, how many times can I add to this team at the deadline and you guys completely soil yourselves before I learn to not mortgage our future at the deadline? I know they bought on the margins last year, but, you know, many times before that, they've made the splashy deal, hasn't really worked out. - Another thing too, and if I'm looking at it from like maybe Kyle, like Paul's perspective or your perspective is that if you scout these guys really hard and you sit in a go-key right now, I'm selling high on Snelling or Let's Go with that. And those guys have a lot more information than I do, where you're getting daily reports, you're finding out, like, look, a knock on Let's Go might've been, his fastball and change up are really good. He, Kevin Charity, and I both saw his breaking pitch on like Elsmer, his curveball, I liked a lot. He hasn't been able to show it this year. So if you're something, is he gonna develop into you a guy that's a lever and just a fastball change up guy? Yeah, I don't know, right? - Can we all agree that the best possible additions the Padres can make in the second half of the season are four guys that it's probably completely out of their control. But if you could add a healthy Joe Musgrove, you Darvish, Zander Bogards, and Fernando Taty's Jr. To the team that, as it's currently playing right now, no one could compete with that trade deadline. The question is, I have no idea if any of those four guys are going to come back and perform in the second half of the season at levels that we've seen them perform in the past. But if they all did, - That sounds just like 2022, we were having that existence. We keep talking about that trade. When the Padres went out and got one soda, we're like, and you're getting Fernando back in like two weeks, that's basically like acquiring another MVP candidate, that didn't work out. That's definitely a narrative. It's a sports stock radio narrative. We hammer it home, I'll admit it, and somebody said it on our show, who do we have on yesterday? They said it as well. - Sammy. - Sammy. Sammy said the same thing. I mean, you're going to get so and so back, and that's like adding a piece, and just never feels that that's how it works. I always think about it, they talked about it on the broadcast of CC-Sibathia. Remember when he went from the Indians at the time to the Brewers? - Right. - And was like, give me the ball. I'm pitching every three days, and we're going to make this run. We have not seen an impact player added to this team like that. I don't know that that player exists anymore. I don't know that they're out there. I don't know that Garrett Crochet is it. I've watched him pitch this year. He looks fantastic. But he's going to blow past his number of innings, the most that he's ever thrown. So is that a guy I'm going to trade Ethan Salas for? I don't think so. I don't think so. - Yeah, it depends. You know, I mean, we got a lot of grief for putting Salas as our number two overall prospect. When we put Merritt when people were writing, telling us we're wrong. And how what Ethan does in a projection. He's going to be a better guy than Ali Rushman. Maybe he might, but we just don't know. That's how he got to come down. - Better than Adley would be something else. - John Conif, Matt Fryer. So good to have you in studio, man. Thank you for stopping by. - Thank you for having me. - We'll come back. We got two hours to go. Jesse Agler is going to be with us. Soccer Woods is going to make an appearance coming up here as well. Don't go away. But what's continuing next on San Diego's number one sports station, 97-3, the fan. All right, we're halfway home on a Tuesday. Ben & Woods, 97-3, the fan. Lovely to be here with all of you this morning. Thanks to John Conif for Matt Fryer's, for stopping by, hanging out for a couple hours, helping us run out some clock. You know, let's be honest, it was an off day yesterday. Candy could come in, you got to rip four hours, talking about the San Diego Padres. Nice to hear from John about the prospects and all of that. Love to see him and he's a good dude. I'm Woodsy, that's Paul Rindel, the executive producer. And Benjamin Higgins, your friendly neighborhood sports anchor, joins us as well. - Did you know we were actually halfway through our week? Six hours in, six hours to go. Because after tomorrow's show, we're done. - We're on vacation. - Yeah, for the 4th of July weekend. - And joining us also in studio is our beloved Bald Rindel, Adam Clue. - Speaking of that, do you guys have anything you want to say to my face about what's going on on Friday? - Yeah, let's talk about Friday for a moment. First of all, welcome back from your trip, 'cause it was not a vacation. - Thank you for not calling your vacation. You flew. All right, tell everybody, you flew from here to where? - My parents, right at the start of the pandemic, we're all from Atlanta, but they moved to St. Pete Beach, which is right by Tampa. - In Florida. - In Florida. So we flew to Tampa, spent four days with my parents. - Okay, and you stayed in their home? - In their home. Listen to this. - Three kids. - Three three kids, it was my mother's 70th birthday, so we were celebrating that with her, right? We surprised her. They she only knew that my family was coming in. My brother, his wife, and his son from Atlanta, we surprised they were gonna drive in and meet us. - Okay. - And then my youngest brother who lives in New Jersey with his wife and his two-month-old, we're gonna fly in so she would have her three sons and their families all together. - They didn't all stay there though. - They didn't all stay there. So we got in on-- - What are we talking? This is like Christmas vacation, like everybody's just-- - Three 70th birthday, get the whole family together. - Get everybody together. - So we drove in on Friday. My brother was supposed to pick up my, my middle brother's supposed to pick up my youngest brother at the airport on Sunday is the surprise, but he couldn't get there early enough to pick him up, so he drove in on Saturday. So we get in early on Saturday, I'm like, come on over. Let's hang out. He goes, no, we're gonna lay low. We've been planning all this. We don't wanna waste the surprise. I feel like it's big daddy. We waste the good surprise on you. - All right, you're starting to tell stories like my wife. So let's get, what was your purpose of this? - My whole-- - 'Cause my youngest brother's flight got canceled. All right, I wanna made it in. - He never made it in. - Never made it in. - I wanna hear how awful it was. That's what I wanna hear. - Traveling with three young kids is never easy. - No. - Tuesday was the worst day. We flew from Tampa to Birmingham, which is about an hour, 10 flights. It's an easy flight. We were there for four hours maybe. My grandmother lives there, who is my kid's great-grandmother, they don't get to see very often, and I have aunt and uncles. So we flew to Birmingham, saw my family for four hours, and then rented a car and drove to Atlanta two and a half hours. That was a long day. - That's-- - And you lose an hour going east. - Tonight there. - Tonight there. - And then we stayed with my in-laws for four days in Atlanta. - How was that? - Hot. - They didn't have anything planned for us. - Nothing. - Nothing. - Just wanted to be, quote unquote, be with the grandkids. Do you guys do the bit where you, like, 'cause I have young kids, when I go see my family, I'm like, here you go. They're yours, and Hannah and I will go do stuff. - No, we don't do that. - You know, you should do that. - Well, we've got a, you know, a just about two-year-old. - Yeah, yeah, yeah. - Just them two, so he's constant supervision. - That's tough scene. Welcome back. - Thank you. - It's one of those-- - It's good to be back. I wanted to be back. I wanted to get back. - Well, you missed a really fun week of Padre's baseball, that's for sure. - I watched all the games. It was amazing. It was incredible. - Can I just say that I love Church and Profar? - Yeah, we all do. - I love him. - He's great. I'm so glad he unblocked our entire show. - Yeah, good vibes. - He only follows Ben, though. I noticed. - Is that true? - Yes, he does not follow me anymore. I thought he followed us in spring training. He's since unblocked me, or he's since unfollowed me. So I, you know, I love him. He's one of those favorite players, for sure. - Yeah, he does follow me. - Yeah, he follows you. He must be nice. - Yeah, Church and Profar. - Mr. Negative, Mr. Never Negative Ben Higgins over there. - He's got the good vibes over there. - He does. - So Friday is one of those days where it's like, hey, you know, we're not gonna, we took Friday off. But then come to find out yesterday, Sam Levitt's actually gonna be doing our show, which I'm fine with. Sammy Levitt's always welcome to. I just feel like a heel a little bit. - You are. - That he's coming in to work for hours while we're gonna be doing what we're doing. - Thursday, he'll be broadcasting twice on Friday. He'll do the morning show from 6 to 10, and then he's got pottery's pre and post game that he needs. - He's just poor management on your part. - Yeah, I think so. That's just bad planning, I think. - Thursday is a company holiday. - Correct. - Federal holiday, like most people should have Thursday off. - Right. - Or get off early, whatever. And then Friday is that one. When there's a holiday on a Thursday, you're like, is it a company holiday? Is my boss giving me the day off? Or do I just-- - Friday after Thanksgiving. - Do I just take the day off? 'Cause I'm not coming in on Black Friday and doing a show that I'm right. - You write two choices. Either everyone gets the day off, or you get the least productive work day of the year from everybody that you've made come in, and now you have the bad will of just having them all come in for the very unproductive Friday, where they can't get much done anyway. Because generally, you know, the other people like E-sales, you know, college business-- - Yes, E-sales working now Friday. - Well, no one's working today, so who am I gonna sell anything to on this Friday? - I got into it with our boss. - Did you? - He says the sales people will be working, I told him, I told him-- - Oh, wow, how are they gonna be working on this Friday? - No, they're not. - So here's the thing. I was in sales. - From our-- - From our perspective, Adam, call it a month, six weeks, two months ago, when we were talking about taking time off in the summer, you told us, we said, yeah, we're gonna take the fifth off. You go, I believe that's, it's not a company holiday, Friday, July 5th, but Michael's going to just give everybody that day off. - I don't remember saying that. - 'Cause even if I did, I believe gives me some wiggle room there, and Michael, you know, opted to keep the offices open. - Well, you didn't tell us that. Now, Sammy hates us. - No, Sammy does, first of all, I did not order or assign Sammy to work. I offered him the opportunity. I said, if you would like to do it-- - That does. - And do something different than what you normally do, it's there for you. There's no pressure, I won't be upset if you don't. - When somebody says no pressure, I won't be upset if you don't, it actually means there's pressure, and I will be upset if you don't. - There's no pressure. - When somebody says no pressure, that means-- - There's literally-- - That's the, you know what I feel the most pressure is when somebody says no pressure every time. - We would just go to network, and look, Braden and Scrappy, you know, they wanted to work, they wanted to get their opportunity to get something to fill in. - I'd much rather have Sammy in doing the show than going to network. That's not gonna talk about Padres, and for the people who do wanna listen, even if they're not working in or at home, you'll have that option of Sam Levitt. Now, I don't have the same, I don't have the same qualms that Woods does, because while Sammy works very hard, as you said, he wants to be here, and I also know that as soon as the Padres season ends, whether that's after October or after September, Sammy will be allowed to have some time off, because he doesn't have any more pre- and post-game shows, and he'll have like three or four weeks where we can just say, "Sammy, go take some time off and relax." Whereas when the season ends, that does not happen for Ben and Woods. Get some skier-- - We got enough of that. - All the way through-- - We got enough of that. - All the way through until the start of next year. - We're doing this job-- - We're doing this job. - Well, for Ben, right? - I'm actually vacationing this year. - Let's keep an eye on Woods' PTO this year. - This is my hair. - And how it compares to mine. - This is my hair. - I'm taking Monday off this one vacation so far this year. And then that's it for now. - I'll be in here on Friday with the guys. I mean, you know, I work. - Okay. - And you guys take off, I'll be working. - Well, you just had a week off, so. - Look, we look forward, not backwards. - That's fair, that's fair. - Well, you'll have to be managing all the unusual employees and shows that you brought in on Friday. - It's good to see you again. And no pressure, but yeah, you guys are gonna see much of me for the rest of the year, just so you know. - The rest of the year. - Yeah, I've got a lot of stuff planned. I need my R&R. - Okay. - All right, so you-- - Adam, good to see you. - Thank you guys too. - Thank you guys too. - He did come in with some swag, by the way. Padre's delivering giveaways for the upcoming homestand, including the one that Woods has already claimed. - Well, this is the Nando Calrissian bobblehead for Star Wars weekend, which is coming up this weekend, July 5th through 7th against the Arizona Diamondbacks. Now, if you want one of these, you need a theme game ticket. - So I told the wife-- - So we're going Saturday. - Have the theme game ticket. - And she said, you have to come up with it. If I don't go home with that, I'm a dead man. - So I just saved you. - I think, I mean, do the other shows need to show it off too, or can I just take it? - Are you giving them the option? - I'm just gonna take it. - Yeah, I'll ask forgiveness later. - It's about as clever of-- - You're welcome, Hannah. - Thank you. - Star Wars tie in that you can come up with. Nando Calrissian. - It looks so great. - Really clever. And then Adam also brought the throwback 1984 hat presented by San Diego Community Power. This is the giveaway on Wednesday, July 10th. Padre's hosting the Seattle Mariners. That's a 340 game. This does go to all the first 40,000 fans. In attendance, it's got the SD, but also the very cool lowercase Padre's 1984-esque logo on the side celebrating the 40th anniversary of the 1984 World Series team as well. And then they wrap up the first half of the season with the Atlanta Braves coming to town, July 12th through the 14th. - 14th bombs. - So. - Yeah, still the wild card leaders, though, in the National League. Not playing quite as well as they have in previous seasons. - I'm trying to be nice coming from my mouth to hear that. - Yeah, well, yeah, I trust you when your Atlanta Braves' opinions are there. Now, Padre's may or may not be able to compete with the L.A. Dodgers at any point in this season for the N.O. West, but there is value in taking that first wild card spot. - Yeah, there are three games behind the Braves with plenty of time to try to at least get the first wild card. And if you're gonna have to play a wild card series, play it at home. Have those games in your home yard. And the Padre's certainly, that's a feasible, realistic goal for the San Diego Padre's, I would say in the second half of the season. Not just make the playoffs, but put yourself in a better position by getting home-field advantage for that wild card series, whether it's against Atlanta or, you know, the St. Louis Cardinals or New York Mets, or whoever it might be. I know the Padre's played well on the road earlier this year. I know they beat the Mets in a wild card series a couple of years ago on the road. Can we all agree it's better to have to bring the other team in and have them be the team that's on the road for that series than having to go on the road yourself? - Of course, of course. Yeah, I mean, I know I said it earlier in the season, you know, the way that they're playing on the road, let's just make sure we play on the road. But that they've come back down to Earth in that-- - And they've played very well at home. - They have, they have, and yeah, I mean, it's kind of the calendar turned into June and the boys started playing well at home. Ball started launching out of Petco Park again for us as well. That was the most frustrating thing of the season, Benny, when everybody else was hitting home runs at Petco Park, except for the San Diego Padre. So you couldn't, well, everything's dying at the track. Yeah, for us, for the other teams of all was flying out of the yard, it was crazy, but it's all, as baseball typically does, it evens out. So yeah, man, I just want to get there, man. I just want to make the playoffs. That's what I want this team to do. Covering that playoff run a couple of years ago was the time of my life. It was such a blast. - Yeah, I mean, I think first wild card spot is a realistic goal. I know people don't want to just give up the division to the Dodgers. - No, 'cause bro, they're so incomplete, they're so incomplete. - They are, but remember, you're seven and a half you understand. - I understand. You don't go chasing it, but it's, that's a lot to make up against the team that, the Dodgers even is not being as dominant as we thought they were going to be. They're not a team that's going to play 10 games under 500 the rest of the year. I mean, if they struggle, they'll probably still be slightly above 500, which means you're going to have to play in St. like 20 to 25 games above 500 the rest of the year to have even a chance at catching the Dodgers. Is that impossible? No, it's not. - No, it's not. - But based on what we've seen so far, which is what, four games above 500 for the first half, you'd have to play a lot better than you did in the first half of the season. A lot better to have a chance at catching the Dodgers. And that's even, and that's assuming that they don't improve, they're probably going to make some trades as well. - Oh, yeah. - So again, I don't think that that needs to be the goal. First wildcard though is very, very possible and realistic and something you should be going after. - Well, this Padres team winning what was nine out of 11 recently, they've given themselves a little bit of a cushion. They've started to give themselves a cushion. I think we talked about it. - Like a four day cushion here. - Yeah, still, hey, that's better than nothing. - That's better than nothing. They haven't had that up until this point of the season. I think we were talking about the Phillies maybe a couple weeks ago and they went on a skid and we said, well, when you were 20 games above 500, you can afford to drop six in a row or whatever. - Yankies too. - Yankies, maybe that's the team. - Scrushed. - And the Padres haven't had that luxury. I mean, a four game losing streak, we were ready to throw in the towel in the season. - Yeah, we're still. - I'm not expecting them to win nine of the next 11, but they do have 11 games exactly between now and the all star break. I mean, if they can stay on that hot streak and win seven, eight, nine out of 11. - Yeah, it would be. - Then you're really building yourselves a cushion where when you have an inevitable skid and, you know, drop five in a row or seven out of eight or something, it's not gonna be the end of the season. - Yeah, you can't, you gotta avoid those as best you can in the second half. That's the most captain obvious thing. But I mean, it's just, it's what we've seen this year. It's how this team has run. So it just doesn't, it doesn't, the road's not any easier. I mean, the schedule's pretty tough. I know that the off days are built in, but it's gonna be a fun one, man. It's gonna be a fun one, strap in. And as we like to say, enjoy the ride. - Awesome, I'd love to have soccer woods make an appearance coming up here. - And wait and talk about it all morning. - Yeah, the, you know, we know what it feels like to be a frustrated baseball fan, but the soccer fans out there are extremely frustrated with Team USA's early exit in Copa, America. We've got some scaving audio to bring you from last night's game as well. We'll get to all of that coming up before Jesse Agler joins us at the bottom of the hour. Don't go away, more Ben & Woods coming up here after traffic on 97.3 of the fan. (upbeat music) - So imagine the universe woods in which the Padres, and we're just as big a Padres fans as we always were. But instead of playing 162 games every season and then potentially the playoffs, they play actually three meaningful games every two years. And if you don't do well in those, then the last two years have been a complete disaster. - Even if you played pretty well in one of the games, let's say you, you put a lot of runners on, you got them in scoring position, which you guys didn't come through. You went one for 10 with runners in scoring position. - That feels right. - And your one game that mattered in three years, and you ended up losing one nothing. Isn't that what international soccer kind of is? - Yeah. - And Team USA played in Copa, America, which is the biggest event in between the World Cups in international soccer in the Western Hemisphere. - Yeah, as my buddy explained it to me last night, look, this is a really, really good opportunity to show what they're gonna see in a couple of years and what you're building towards and are you on the right track? That's really what it is in regards to the World Cup. Are you on the right track right now with the U.S. men's national team? And boy, if you watched the game last night, I don't know a lot about soccer. And I tweeted it last night. I said, one of the reasons I'm reluctant to get super into it is I think much like the umpires kill me in baseball, they kill me. I, soccer seems to be worse, worse. It's one of the reasons basketball drives me nuts too. Just the, just kind of, ah, foul here, not a foul here. And my timeline is filled. I have a lot of friends that are super soccer fans. Every weekend, my timeline is filled with people ripping VAR, ripping the refs. And I'm like, can my blood pressure handle super soccer fandom? I don't know that it can. - So if you were following the U.S. lost their second group play game against Panama when they took an early red card and had to play a man down for the entire match. So it was baseball, you'd be like playing eight on nine without a fielder for the entire game, puts you at a real disadvantage. And that put them in a must win situation yesterday. I guess a really good team. Uruguay considered one of the top sides in South America. And it was always gonna be their toughest match. And it's not like the U.S. played horribly. They only gave up the one goal and they had some chances, they just couldn't convert. The referee was, it's like you play your one big game in two years and Angel Hernandez ends up being me on behind the place. - Yeah, that's it. And I guess this guy had not had many opportunities to be a referee on the biggest of stages. And I think based on, again, on my timeline, I hate to come on here and go off half cock like I know what I'm talking about 'cause I'll be the first to admit, I really don't. I'm just going off what I see, people that I respect, saying, no, no, Woodsy, this guy is really, really bad. It doesn't mean though, they didn't have plenty of chances, even I, the very novice soccer fan, noticed plenty of opportunities to at least for two goals that I can remember off the top of my head that I went, oh, wow, that's gonna come back and hurt you. It was a really physical game, man, really physical early. Uruguay's a really good team. I mean, watching them play, yeah, you kinda understand where the fervor lies for soccer at the highest level. But again, as a non-soccer expert, I remember watching World Cups 15, 20 years ago and I always felt like, all right, the US is definitely overmatched in this game, but maybe they can use their speed and counter punch and score. It felt like watching against Uruguay, the US had the ball for a lot of the time. They're making the passes, the other team was, they weren't outclassed, they simply aren't finishing. They aren't getting the goals that they need to get. And, you know, don't take it from us. Take it from the experts who know, and after the game, the Fox Sports won broadcast. They had the crew sitting there at the desk. And who was Alexi Lala's? - Yes, he went ham. - He just went in on coach Greg Berhalter and team USA's pitiful performance in Copa, America. - You've talked about learning from losing, okay? I think what we have learned over these cycles is that this team is not able to do anything better than is done in the past. And that hurts, that hurts to say because that was not what was promised and not what for many we believed was going to happen with this team. Because if this is as good as it gets, it's not good enough. And there's plenty of excuses, but they don't matter. You know, you can talk about opportunities. Well, we have players that are playing all over the world talk about playing in Europe. Well, the entire team that you saw out there plays in Europe. So it's not MLS's fault. You can talk about the pathways and the resources that they have. No generation has been given more. And yet this generation hasn't lived up to that bargain. And when it comes to Greg Berhalter, we heard Stu Holden say, it's exactly right. You know, I know there's a sport in firing coaches in all professional sports, and I know the knives are out. And they should be because this is not good enough from Greg Berhalter. And you have to ask yourself with 2026, come and barrel down the pike. It's going to come real quick. Real quick. All right, we can't afford to waste it. We can't afford to be embarrassed. And we can't afford to arrive in the summer of 26 with a team that is not progressed, that is not evolved, and is not improved. And I'm sure if Greg Berhalter was here, he would say, oh, but you don't see what's happening inside. I don't give a crap what is happening inside. I don't care about that dynamic. I don't care how much your players love you. I don't care how kumbaya it is. All I care about is I see a U.S. men's national team that is better than before. And we haven't seen that. And that's a problem going forward. Is that on the players? Is that on the manager? Is that on the federation? Where are we saying you need to be better? Well, the players certainly need to be better. Do you think this generation of players has what it takes? Like, do you think that they have that deep inside of them? I think there's a couple of them. I don't think they are better soccer players. But ultimately, I don't think that they're a better U.S. men's national team player. Yeah, somebody said in the chat, that looks like some controlled rage. Yeah, it did, and he was pretty strong on it last night. And again, I saw a lot of the same sentiments echoed online last night by some people that are much more in the know than me. But I don't know enough to know, is it like any other sport, like in baseball, when we're talking about, the players are going out there. They're the ones that are playing. How much of this embarrassment, as it's been tagged over the last couple of days, is on the coach. You know, they asked some of the players about it last night, you know, which is, you know, credit to the reporters for asking, like, hey, is Greg Berhalter, the guy to lead this team? And I think they were reluctant to just throw them under the bus. But they said, you know, it's on us. We didn't finish last night in a couple of opportunities that we had, and they didn't. They had opportunities to do it. The refs be damned, you know, and even I, with my novice eyes, could tell, you had a couple of opportunities you needed to bury it, and you didn't. - Ultimately, the next game, important game that Team USA plays, that everybody will care about, won't be until their first game of the World Cup in 2026. - Yeah, that's the tough part. - They'll have international games, but they don't have to qualify 'cause they're the host, so they're in. So essentially, they will not play another meaningful game for two years. And then that next meaningful game will be the biggest game they play this decade, because they'll be hosting a World Cup, and it'll be this one chance for this holistic generation to show what they've got. They got two years to get it right now. That's it. - And you wonder, will you make sweeping changes right now to that team, or does this guy get a chance to see it through? - I guess we'll find out. - All right. Jesse Aguiler is gonna join us next, voice to the Padres Incorporated Tuesday. He's in Texas, getting ready for the series against the Rangers, chatting with Jesse Aguiler. When we come back, we've been a woods on 97-3 the fan. Sorry, 97-3 the fan is brought to you by the Frozen Robes baseball and softball training facilities. Hey, parents, Frozen Robes softball summer league. Starting up, registering softball players ages six through 12. Six games, six practices with professional coaching starts mid-July. Make it a Frozen Robes summer. Go to sandyecofrozenrobes.com and call to register today. - It's always weird when I talk about one of the things that you usually talk about. - Yeah. - Frozen Robes, or if you were talking about like the farmers dog or SD fatloss.com. - Yeah. - But I don't mind. Throw it in there. - Sounds like fun. - My little Frozen Robes player will be here in about an hour. Mama's gotta drop them off. It's the summer juggling of mom's gotta work, kids need care, salute all of those parents out there, man. The nine to fiveers. I don't know how you do it. I really don't. I mean, I am very lucky and Hannah's very lucky with our schedules that we can handle it. Nine to five, single parent or something, forget it. - You feel guilty because you can't wait for school to start again. That structure, but you know that the kids don't want that. - It really has nothing to do with structure. It has to do with the place that you can dump your kid off for like eight hours and then do what you want to do. That's really, I mean, if I'm being completely honest with you, that's what it is. - I know it's even harder for Jesse who has to be traveling during the summer as well. - I'm sure Mrs. Agler is just on him. - We will talk with Jesse Agler and get his thoughts from Texas right after a check of traffic here on 97.3, the fan. So as Jesse joins us from Arlington, Texas and baseball season, he's working almost every day when the Padres are at home and they have a rare off day. I know he's at home and you know, helping out doing whatever he can. But there is those weird situations during the baseball season where you have an off day on the road. You can't really do anything, it's just-- - No, can't do anything about it. - Just kind of it's a day off, it's a day for you. There's nothing you can do at home, Jesse. So how did you spend the off day yesterday in Dallas? - I have said for a very long time that the most valuable days on the baseball calendar are the road off days. And it's exactly what you just said. It's like, sorry, you know, I mean, when you're at home and you got an off day with family stuff, you can drive cleaning and laundry, you know, like a dentist or whatever, like anything you need to catch up on, that's what the home off days are for. And so really the only like, for me at least, the true, true off days are the ones on the road. So it was pretty low key. You know, it's like a billion degrees here. Texas is great, right? Because you combine the heat of Arizona with the humidity of Florida. - Very cool. - And you put it all into one, it's really amazing. So didn't, you know, get out in a bag or anything necessarily, but, you know, worked out, walked over to a place close by for lunch. Saw Mike Shope there, and he was, it seemed like, having a very similar day that I was. - Why were you a Chipotle for lunch? - I worry, you see. - No, you know, it wasn't, there's no Chipotle within walking business, so. But yeah, it was like, you know, a whole lot of nothing. I think is how he put it. You know, I mean, everybody, I think, just trying to rest and recuperate a little bit. So yeah, you know, kind of a low key day recharge here. It's a much, much friendlier schedule in the next month than it was in the last month in terms of, you know, how often they're playing and days off. So, you know, hopefully, you know, you'll see that reflected in the win loss record because, you know, as I'm sure I've said to you guys, and Tony and I have talked about a lot too, I think, you know, some of the struggles that the Padres had in the last, call it five weeks, had to do with the fact that the schedule was just gnarly. And those lack of days off, and then you get into a situation where you had a couple of starters who weren't regularly going deep into the games. It puts you so far behind the eight ball. But now they're gonna be in a position for the next five weeks, really. Were they able to absorb, you know, some more stuff like that? And we'll see how it goes. - You know, if I were you, if I was Jesse Agler doing the same role, I wouldn't even call home on those days off on the road. I would not make the video. - That doesn't work now. - Well, I shoot a text. Hope you guys are good. I'm going to the JFK Museum right now. See you guys later. Like there's just no way to get my ass kicked. Every time Jesse Agler, the Incorporated joins us here on a Tuesday, Jesse. - Yeah, obviously you get the chance to go to Fenway Park. We were texting about it a little bit. Pretty incredible, man. Pretty freaking incredible to go. That ballpark is a cathedral. You got to do all the ins and outs. You got to go out and say, what does it smell like inside the green monster? - You know what, it's funny, the green monster. So the day I went in was Sunday, the day game. And it was really very warm and steamy outside. And I was like, it's probably going to be pretty gross inside the monster, but it was kind of damp and cool. A little bit like a wine cellar feel almost. Not wine, but like number placards and name placards for all the different teams. But it was actually, it wasn't too dank or anything in there. You know, there's, I guess, a fair amount of ventilation 'cause there's all the holes in the slots that go out there. But yeah, it was just, it's really, really neat. I mean, I had been there only once in my life. It was, you know, summer after junior year of high school looking at colleges with my dad. And it was before the Red Sox had won. So it was before Fenway was crazy. And we literally, I just remember walked up to the box office, you know, 20 minutes before the game, bought two tickets. And like, you know, went to a game. That was in the summer, I guess of 99. And that was the only other time in my life I'd been to Fenway. So obviously a very, very different experience this time and to be able to kind of have the access that I did and to be able to walk around on the field and go inside the monster and, you know, get there super early on the first day to just sort of walk around and take it in. Special man, it's one of the best parts of this job. It's like a total baseball geek, you know, to be able to experience those different places and do so in a very special kind of intimate way. You know, the fact that I can just roll up there at two o'clock, you know, before a seven o'clock game and almost have the place to myself, right, is incredible. So, you know, you guys know I'm a big geek with that kind of stuff. It was very special. And while Globe Life is not necessarily of the same historic significance as Fenway, this will be my final ballpark to check this series for the Rangers. The two times more, the couple of years that the Padres have played here was COVID so we didn't get the opportunity to come and this will complete the circuit for me. - So you're done. - Which I'm excited about. - You're done, that's it. Every friggin' ballpark, that's incredible. - Tell they build a new one. - Tell they build a new one. - Yeah. - That's amazing. - Look at you. - Jesse, let me ask you because the All-Star game is coming up at that very same park in two weeks from today and I wondered, like a week ago, I could have made a pretty compelling case for Jackson Merrill to be included on the NL team. Now it's hard to make a case for leaving him off. - Right. - The nationally All-Star team. Do you get the sense that word is getting out about Jackson Merrill beyond San Diego and what he is now doing in his rookie season that is pretty incredible now? - No doubt about it. You know, he's definitely broken through the West Coast news, if you will. Sometimes as we all know, that wall is a difficult one to push through, but I think he has. There's been a lot of talk about him. You know, All-Star, I haven't taken like a close enough look at, you know, the voting and all that kind of stuff to see, you know, the other names that are involved. - He's not in the final vote. - He could certainly be a reserve. He's the... - No, no, no, no. - I know, but I'm saying the guy... - More of any outfielder in the nation. - The vote is my end up as reserves. I haven't looked at the names and the numbers, you know, for all those guys. But look, from a numbers standpoint for him, certainly those are All-Star numbers. And I don't think there's any doubt about it. And, you know, when you start considering getting a rookie who's going to be a top vote getter in rookie of the year, if not the winner in the national league, into the All-Star game, you know, for MLB, that's a good move, right? I mean, you want to be able to showcase somebody like that because this is a budding star in the league. You know, I think I said on the year to Tony after the Brewer series, when the nats were in town, I said, you know, it kind of fell to me like in the last week, Jackson Merrill had leveled up, like in a video game. You know, like he had kind of just gotten to that next point. And since I've said that, I feel like he's leveled up three more times. I mean, it's been absolutely incredible watching this guy exceeding every expectation I had, honestly. You know, in terms of what he'd be able to provide. And he's been a critical piece to the success that this team has had, not just on the field and not just with the numbers, but I think the energy and the intensity and kind of the personality that he brings is really important to this team as well. And, you know, if you're watching these games or listening to these games or going to these games, you noticed that it would be impossible to miss. So yeah, there's no doubt he's becoming more and more of a national story. And he deserves to be because it's remarkable what he's doing, it really is. - Talking to our pal Jesse Agler here on Ben & Woods this morning. And I got to imagine the last 10 days or so have been pretty awesome to be in your position. I mean, some really good baseball, like you got the walk off, you got the benches clearing, you've got the kerfluffle the next day at home plate. Like that's good stuff. And I know that you guys run into, you know, the dog days of August. We all do. We do cover in the team too, where it's like, what a slog it is to watch this game sometimes. But man, you live for like the last 10 games or so. - It has been so much fun. And, you know, like most importantly, obviously, is the wins that have gone along with it. What is it, you know, nine out of 11 now, winning is always more fun. You know, people think we're better broadcasters when the team is winning. I'm sure people think you guys are better doing your show when the team is winning. - Partly funny. - I mean, it's funny how that works, right? But like, yeah, I mean, it's not just that they're winning, to your point. It's that they're playing very entertaining baseball. And I've said really all year, they play a very watchable brand of baseball. You know, we're lucky enough, right? We get to see now what the schedule is it is. We get to see literally every team in person. There are a whole lot of teams, even good teams in Major League Baseball. They play hard to watch baseball. And the Padres don't, you know, they put the ball in play, they strike out less than any other team in Major League Baseball this year. They've got this sort of really interesting entertaining lineup, different guys that can do different things, different ways, you know, they can run when they want to. They play really good defense, generally speaking. It's great because it's not just that they're playing winning baseball, they're playing entertaining baseball, fun baseball. And again, the word I keep using is watchable baseball. Like there are, again, and I'm not naming names, but there are really, really good teams out there that are just bad to watch. They don't play a fun brand of baseball. You know, they just kind of sit around and they have been just really bludgeon you. And they take a bill in pitches and it takes forever. Padres aren't about that. You know, it's just such a different approach than they had last year. And it's really fun to watch. And I tell you what, if more teams sort of committed to trying to play the kind of baseball that the Padres play, I think MLB would be in a better spot around the country because it's noticeably different how the Padres kind of approach things than most every other team in the league. - Talking to Jesse Ackler, he's with us from Texas. Padres Rangers tonight at 505. Here on 97.3, the fan. And Jesse, I know you always take a pretty measured approach when it comes to the trade deadline. What will happen? What will happen? And, you know, AJ Preller's always active, but you do hear things. I mean, did you have any expectations here about what might transpire over the next few weeks? - Yeah, I mean, you know, they're gonna try and add. You know, this is, this window, let's call it opening in 2020, you know, officially. Like this is, this is the heart of the window. You know, you've got guys in their primes. You've got the whole thing set up to make a run no doubt. And, you know, I don't care about how last year went and how disappointing it was. You know, I remember going on with you guys at some point, you know, and we said, you have to remember that. It's always bigger than just the one year. And, and look at the Rangers. You know, I mean, they won it all last year. They've got a not good record this year. One of the worst records ever for a defending champion going into the month of July. That doesn't mean they can't be great again next year. You know, think about those Giants teams that Bruce Bocey had, right? 2010, they win, you know, on and on, I think in 2013, in between the second and third titles, they ended up finishing like 10 games under 500. So point being that this window is still the window. The window is still open and the Padres are still really, really, you know, having the goal of wanting to win it all. Even with the disappointment of last year, that never changed. And I think a lot of people, you know, around the league and around the country who weren't paying as close attention as all of us, you know, thought, oh, they traded one. Soto, they're not bringing Blake Snellback. They're not trying to compete. That was never the case. This team still always had World Series 2024 at the top of the to-do list. And, you know, now, especially the way they're playing, there's no way that's changing. And that means that they're going to be in a position to try and get even better at the trade deadline. Now, what actually happens, what comes together, who knows, you know, there's a billion variables that go into all of that. But you better believe that they're going to be trying to make themselves even better, because they believe, rightfully, by the way, that this is a World Series caliber team. And that is the goal for everybody involved in this organization. - Jesse, let's see. We kind of get to the dog days of summer when it comes to the incorporation. I'm counting on Woods to break us out with a good choice this week. And I don't even know what you've picked. - Bro, I found this word. - Okay. - And I'm still looking for how to say it. So I sent it to Pauli for the pronunciation. Go ahead, Pauli. - Nudy Estrishan. - What? (laughing) - Nudy Estrishan. - Nudy Estrishan. Why did you pick someone on the internet who speaks a foreign language? - That's just what pops up, okay? - Nudy Estrishan. - That's the definition. - It's a good question. I'm glad you asked that question, because I'm looking for it right now. - Firing on all cylinders. - We really are. - Nudy Estrishan. - Nudy Estrishan. Yeah, it's an adjective. - Oh, an adjective. - Oh, an adjective. - Or relating to the day before yesterday. - The day before yesterday. - Nudy Estrishan. - Nudy Estrishan. - So it's like the opposite of penultimate. - Ooh, yes. - That's a great word, penultimate. - So let's see. So Sunday would be today, the Nudy Estrishan day to today. - Right, but it's an adjective. How do you use that as interesting? That's the point. - Good luck, Pauli. - How could it be an adjective? - I don't know, that's just what it says. A-D-J is adjective. I know that from my English degree. I'm now, this is a tough one. - This is-- - So like the Nudy Estrishan game would be the-- - Yes, look at Nudy Estrishan. - All right, now he's got it, now he's got it. - We just made it easy for him. - Yeah, we did. - I mean, it's never gonna be easy to say Nudy Estrishan. - And there's no way to slip that one past Tony. - No, no, I mean, so here's an example. I saw him Nudy Estrishan. (laughing) - Which would mean, I saw you on Sunday. - I saw him in the locker room. - Sounds like, yeah, sounds like he saw him when I was close though. - That's right, Nudy Estrishan. I like that, that's a tough one. I'm trying to make it easy on you this Sunday. - This is what happens when we all text each other while Jesse's on the air with us, trying to find a word. - Yeah, Nudy Estrishan. Piece of cake, bro, you got this. - All right, what if next week to mix it up, what if I bring the word? - Oh, I like that. - I like it, we get a mix up for sure. - Yeah, we do. - Nudy Estrishan. Good luck, safe trip, back home for the rest of the first time. - Check out that JFK Museum. It's really good. - The school book Depository? - Yeah, it's very cool, actually. If you've never been, it's really cool. - Daily Plaza. - Daily Plaza. - Am I trying to go over tomorrow morning? - All right, do it. Yeah, you'll love it. - Jesse Ackler. - Voice of the Padres, and again, 505 first pitch today. 405 Ecowater SoCal Pregame Show with Sam Levitt. It's Dylan Seas on the mountain to open the series against Nathan Ilvaldi for the Texas Rangers. - Pauli wanted us to see if he would do "Hock Toa." He's not going to-- - People in the chat were asking-- - He's not going to do "Hock Toa." - It's been done in a major league broadcast. - It has, so it's already been done. I wonder if that guy got in trouble. Do you think he did? Do you think Jesse would-- - No, I don't think he'd get in trouble. - Really? - I mean, I guess it depends who your boss is. - That's true. I wonder if Jesse would get in trouble. He's pretty buttoned up. I don't think he's gonna do "Hock Toa." - Jesse would just be mad at himself. He just wouldn't allow it to happen. - "Hock Toa." (laughing) - It's not even a word. - It's two words. - It's neither of them are words. - "Hock Toa." - It's a sound. - "Hock" is a word. - "Hock" - "Hock Toa." - "Hock Toa." - It's the definition of "Hock." - "Hock Toa." - It's not all that bad. You can't do it. - I do get you. - What's the definition of "Hock?" - "Hock?" - Yeah. - It's a bird. - Well, see, not in this context. There's nothing buried. They're not talking about birds there. - I will come back right in the report, final hour of "Men of Woods" next year on "The Fan." (upbeat music) - Just had Jesse Ackler on from Dallas, and he said he might do the JFK Museum. I did at least the tour when I was a kid. The only time I went to Dallas with my grandmother, and I saw the grassy gnoll in the schoolbook depository. - The X, certain X, right in the middle of the road. It's crazy. I mean, it's pretty surreal when you go there. You used to drive over that X every single day. - Really? - Where President Kennedy was shot. Yeah. It's gnarly. And then the grassy gnoll is a trip. And then being in the depository, he's nuts. I mean, it's a good thing to do if you're in that town. But you really, I have no reason to really go to that town. My parents don't even live near Dallas anymore, so they're two hours away. So I don't get to spend as much time there, but I would totally, totally go back and back. But a sad and macabre moment in American history. But there's been so much media, you know, movies, television programs that have dealt with it over the years that it's become almost mythical in its significance to American history. It's still, I mean, every year, you're like, what really happened with the assassination of President Kennedy? It's never gonna die. - Yeah. And you know what I mean? I'm as far from a conspiracy theorist as possible. - That one is though some of those you read, you go, oh, oh, make sense. Make sense. The magic bullet, I mean, it's fascinating stuff. And to go sit and look through the window is, ah, it gives you a little bit of the heebie jeebies when you do it. You were, it must have been pretty little when you went. - Yeah. So it's very young. - Yeah. - It's pretty awesome. - It's pretty awesome. But even as a, what, our nine or 10 year old, you certainly had heard of the JFK assassination and you knew it was a president and a big deal and to be in the same spot that history as sad as it was was made was definitely memorable to be there. - East County Press wants to know, what did you ever go to Billy Bobs? I did. Quite a bit. - What's Billy Bobs? - The world's largest honky talk and it's a Fort Worth and it's awesome. I mean, they have a bull riding, they have mechanical bull, they, it's nuts. It's nuts. Like maybe the size of Petco Park, you walk, you walk in, you're like, buddy, I can't find you. I'm not going to find you. I mean, it is massive. - There's more than one bar and room. - Oh, dude. It's huge. Huge, huge. Billy Bobs kicks ass. I used to, we used to go there and watch bands and stuff play and it's Fort Worth's great. Fort Worth's a great little town. But yeah, there's, I just have no reason to go back there. Look where I live. So I was telling my parents, no, I'm, you come here, this is paradise. I'm not going to come there. We've done that. Come on out of here. Plenty to see. Plenty to do. - About Padre's last road trip before the All-Star break, three more games in Texas today, tomorrow, and then Thursday, 4th of July, day game, and then back for the final eight games at Petco Park, the last homestand heading into the All-Star break. We'll talk more Padre's baseball coming up right now though, Paul, he's got some headlines at his time for the Rindle Report. - And get things started here with our edition today's edition of the Rindle Report. Now tune them to the Moth, greatest. Welcome to the Rindle Report with Paul Rindle. Hi, Paul. All right. Two stories from the world of sports that we haven't gotten to yet. We'll start off in Major League Baseball and one story that you didn't know you needed. Are you laughing, beyond? It's the Rindle Report. Hey, Paul. How you doing? Okay. How are you? On 97-3, the fan. Are you ready to bless the mood? I need some help, please. That was good. Can I get a hoo-hoo-hoo-hoo-hoo-hoo-hoo-hoo-hoo-hoo-hoo? Yeah. All right. All right. All right. Good morning, my friends. Good morning. You know, today would have been a big day on this show five, six years ago. It's hard knocks day. I did not know this. It's July 2nd. Guess training camps are about to start. Not for another two or three weeks. I thought it was later in July, I think. Well, the reason it feels like hard knocks is starting earlier than normal is because, well, it is. There are three different versions of hard knocks this year, gentlemen. I think we've talked about it like in like bits and pieces over the last few months, but I've got it all kind of broken down here. There will be five episodes of the first installment of 2024 hard knocks beginning tonight on HBO Max. Okay. It's the off-season version with the Giants, five episodes going from July 2nd through July 30th. Then you will have the training camp version, which I think is the more traditional. That's the one we're using. That's the one we're using that you're used to. Right. That's what the Chicago bears. Interesting. That's going to run five episodes as well from August 6th through September 3rd. Okay. The in-season version that they have tried in the past, I think Amazon Prime has also done one. I think so. Yeah. I think I think you're correct. And that's all it just says is the AFC North. We don't have a team yet. The North. And that's going to be the December 3rd is when it starts. That goes into the postseason and it's a minimum of seven episodes depending on so they'll pick a playoff team or a team that should make the playoffs and follow them as long as their season goes. All right. Gun to your head. Which one do you do you watch if you had to? I'm watching the bears one. I think the in-season one. Yeah. I'm going to watch the in-season one. Yeah. I would probably watch that one. The in-season one. You don't want to watch the bears. Carol Williams. They're they're all the same. They are all the same. They're all the same. We needed less hard knocks. Not more. We got more. I needed like hey we're going to do three big episodes. You're really going to like them. Not more. And different teams. Here's my question. It just feels like okay this was a good idea when it happened but it's time is see spent. It feels that way. And maybe this is just the the Aaron Rodgers effect but according to front office sports HBO said that last year's traditional training camp series saw its best viewership in 13 years. They covered the Jets. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Lot of lot of lot of viewership of everything has become so fractured and streaming that you don't even need that big of an audience to justify it anymore. Sure. So they're going to keep doing it. My question to the two of you is production company comes to us right now and they said they want to do behind the scenes of a morning radio show and follow us for six weeks the cameras. They come home with us. They come to work with us to interviews during the day. You know it's going to be on a streaming series somewhere they got a platform lined up. Do we say yes or no? Would you do that? I think you say yes but I just don't know if you're going to get the authentic like a hundred percent real authentic. I mean that means they got to go into our text messages and because we don't something we talk a lot or hang out after the show much because you got other jobs. I got a family you know and it's like what are you going to get? Hey what do you guys what do you have to set up more activities like they do on real housewives. They have to have like which would be all fake that's not that's not up. I don't have to hide the dead bodies he's got in his garage. That's right. You have to let him in your garage. That would be if that's not authentic. It's not authentic. You never is hard enough. No exactly you're never going to get a true authentic thing unless you do they have their off the table activities as well. You think that's not the TV producers that are setting that up unless you do hidden cameras and stuff then that's the only way they have like cameras in the studio like in between the discussions we have during the breaks and stuff. All the bits that we can't do on air that we do in here yeah that'd be great for us. But you'd you'd then be a little more guarded knowing of course cameras are on all the time of course that's the same thing that happens in the NFL exactly no one is there a hundred percent authentic self when they know a camera is on yeah no doubt. No nobody ever no you can't be but I would do it. People wanted it. Yeah. I'm open to access. I think you'd be pretty bored but probably be on the Roku channel. I think you'd be pretty bored. You come home to my house just me screaming to my kids my kids going crazy Hannah and I butting heads about something like all right just about just two hours of us asking what do you want to do for dinner. No what do you want to do for dinner what do you want to do for dinner every night my whole it's this groundhog day every day is the same no no what do you want to do I don't care what you want. Which other high messes me up a few months ago all right we need to bring that up. Let's move on. I would need some private time non camera non camera rooms yeah we're just getting alive to the audio here no you're not you can't let's move on. So ESPN they are owned by Disney and they're going very Disney with their newest venture and when I see companies or teams or organizations put on these big extravagant experiences it's usually a quick no for me yep you know hey join us on the ESPN cruise or whatever like no no thanks but there is a new one coming out new experience that I think is actually pretty interesting it's called ESPN experiences take me out to the ballparks and this is a trip it's a five day four night trip from August 29th through second and you can pay to get the ultimate sports fan media baseball experience okay it's not cheap it's going to cost seven thousand dollars a person at home that says with double occupancy or eighty five hundred dollars for single occupancy so I guess if you wanted to go by yourself and stay like you not have a roommate yeah not have a roommate extra fifty five hundred bucks what you get is you will get to go to Fenway Park in Boston you go to Yankee Stadium in New York and you will go to a game at Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia you'll also get a private tour of the Jackie Robinson Museum in New York you'll get an MVP tour of ESPN's headquarters in Bristol Connecticut get meet and greets with all the on air talent David Cone Michael K. Doug Landville Carl Ravitch buster only and it says and more and more don't know exactly so three games three games 80 of these seats better be outstanding outstanding you can set your own trip up to build all those yeah but you're not going to do any of the meet and greets and stuff at ESPN if that's something that I don't think I like the experience so I did the U2 experience because I was forced into doing a U2 experience I'm guessing they're pretty good seats oh yes for eighty five hundred bucks but like that was what it cost for us to play on a trip to all three cities and go to games probably you're probably right in that area yeah you're not getting a deal on this I mean the reason they can put it together is they can charge a premium and make money on it so clearly if you did this piecemeal yourself you'd be able to spend less now you're right you wouldn't necessarily be able to set up meet and greets with all the ESPN hosts but I mean what's is very nice you just set them a nice email he'll come meet you it's true really whenever you want so it's true you probably email Linda Cohn and if she's nice you say can you run outside you might come by and just do a little meet and greet during my the guy the Gates Hall Park tour why are you here Linda Cohn's gonna come outside say hello do you mind stupid hey you ask nicely enough for anything there's a lot of people who will say yes I will say man I do like a pack I like a package the U2 thing really sold me I was gonna buy the regular tickets I couldn't and I wanted to go see them so badly at the sphere and I was like well if you can buy this VIP experience it was a it was a fortune and I was like I'm only gonna live on this planet one time I have to do it so I did it I loved every second they gave me a book we got to go to the museum like the whole thing was the rooms were great the tickets were phenomenal was the best night we've ever had maybe as a as a couple so I'm like it was worth every penny so I kind of like the package deal thing can't do it all the time right you can't do it for every concert you know you got to pick and choose your moments but if you love baseball it's pretty good I mean I've never been to these coasts I've certainly been to any of those stadiums I have a blast that would be I would be listening for that one for sure all right and then I tend to tell you guys about weird or new foods that are coming out and I got this one sent did we order our Red Bull barbecue sauce yet or no five hour energy that's right it's Tuesday isn't it get in the house Tuesday I got a new one here and it is from Cup Noodles had a cup noodle from time to time cup o noodles it's called cup noodles it's not noodles cup o noodles it's Cup Noodles it's Cup Noodles is what the name of the knockoff is no that's the brand you know is this one of those things misremember think it's not cup o noodle it's Cup Noodles it's Cup Noodles right dude Cup Noodles chicken yeah well they've got a new flavor coming out and it's only available in the United States and it's it's oh can't fire s'mores so cut noodle can't fire s'mores stupid that the taste is described as a blend of decadent chocolate marshmallow and graham cracker flavors with a smoky note they suggest having it with crushed up marshmallow crushed up graham graham crackers and the mini marshmallows as well I guess you just noodles from water in it and then throw in the microwave and it is it their noodles in there yeah it's ramen it's ramen with graham cracker doesn't sound like a good combination but what's the broth made out of Hershey's sure she's sure she's sure off no I mean what's like chicken broth something yeah I don't just yeah described as a decadent chocolate marshmallow and graham cracker flavors so it's dessert I just don't know that I want watery deserting like chocolate milk with noodles in it or what what's going on here do you like s'mores I do not really don't either it's like sacrilege to save and I my kids made some recently at their grandmother's house and I was like oh the juice isn't worth the squeeze it's not dude someone handed me a perfectly done s'more do I want to go through the whole toasting of the marshmallow graham cracker sandwich try to get it all to fit to stay and then you take one bite the whole thing cracks falls apart fall apart chocolate's still cold it's usually always cold yeah I'm just not a big fan of like chocolate I don't like Hershey's chocolate so I've never been big on the s'mores now there was a restaurant we almost went to in Las Vegas a couple weeks ago where they had like the table side dessert option was s'mores they brought out like a little flame and you got to make your own s'mores at the table I was like okay I guess I would do that feel like I'm doing all the work but yeah so if you want to try the cup noodles cup noodles campfire s'mores edition it's available for a limited time at walmart and walmart.com they go for a dollar 18 cup all right I've been I have been really tearing my hair out about this cup o' noodles thing because I was like what's it's not your life all right it looked it up and according to a a couple of internet Reddit threads up until 1993 it was cup o' noodles and then they changed it in America to just cup noodles and since 1993 so the past 31 years it's just been cup noodles and not cup o' noodles it's been 30 years given the time so why would you change it cup of noodles I don't know right so I was born in 90s I mean my whole life it's been cup cup noodles but I remember it being referred to as cup of noodles oh I brought I got a cup of noodles for launcher or something so bad for you there's never irish so I don't know why if cup o' noodles stay in the morning to you and sit all to begin with but thank you poly you're very welcome cup noodles I'm gonna go get my cup of noodles he's downstairs right now I'll be right back Brian O'Granny and cup o' noodles all right yeah you got the kids coming in for the last couple of segments basketball Ben might make an appearance we had some more free agency news I thought it might make the round the report it didn't so save it for me I know I told you he has a library to hear thank you Paulie well I'll just figure it out for him we can we can trade I'll talk I'll do the farmer's dog here he can he can do the other one later so we'll be right back with more better woods after traffic here on 97 through the fan right here as I was walking on the door the fast ball Ben it's going to make an appearance I mean obviously the free agency stuff is continuing to progress at a very rapid rate we talked about it yesterday Jason Tatum got a huge contract extension largest deal in NBA history Clay Thompson's going to the Mavs here in Dallas on a three year fifty million dollars sign and trade Lakers have gotten really nothing they've wanted didn't get the coach they wanted haven't got the players they wanted LeBron can't find anyone who wants to be his teammate it's been a miserable off season for the Lakers but you know they've won the off season before it doesn't necessarily mean you win the season so I'm just gonna I'm just gonna wait I think the most interesting story though is that just two weeks after winning the NBA title the owner of the Boston Celtics is selling the team wick grouse back who bought the team back in the early 2000s for wick w y c wick wick grouse wick back wick grouse back i was made up bought the team in 2002 for 360 million dollars and now the Boston Celtics who probably are going to sell I mean probably the largest sale price ever in the history of a basketball team because they just want a championship and they get time to sell I guess we got the most titles in in NBA history the Phoenix Suns just sell sold for four billion dollars you know what was that about a year ago so you've got to figure five billion without breaking a sweat for the Boston Celtics pretty good on your 360 million dollar investment but the timing here is very cold and calculated hey we just want a title I now have to pay all these players including giant contract extensions why don't I just cash out you got my ring now let's take my 4.7 billion dollar profit yeah and walk away as a as a as a titleist as a champion I got it done what else do I need to do as a sports owner what another one now that's the thing I mean how can you resist the sirens call once you've won a championship of not wanting to stick around and enjoy it and be that championship owner for a few years like I know I got a title you know but he's walking away going I'm never gonna have a better time to sell the team was there a reason for it I have not seen like a specific reason the statement just said that they are expecting to sell a majority interest wick grouse back is gonna remain as governor for a while so he's kind of like Mark Cuban he's gonna stick around with the team I think basically he's just wants he knows there's a lot of money to be had and might as well cash in yeah strike while the iron is hot so to speak I think so five billion dollars that's I mean that's my guess for the Boston Celtics the Phoenix Suns are worth four billion right yeah I mean at least five billion right for the for the Boston Celtics good lord maybe more maybe more hmm one day I'd like to invest a thousand dollars and make two hundred million dollars on it what it's time runner by the Yankees for like 75 grand or something and then within a decade it was worth you know whatever it was I mean holy sort of put myself in like a Celtics fans shoes there like you win the title and then your owner sells are you are you bombed and I go wow that franchise has they have franchise stability it feels like no matter who is in charge like they're the Celtics the Lakers they there's franchise stability it's like it'd be like it'd be so different if the Padres got so hot won the World Series and then she'll side lure and and the side lure family just sold the team just to cash out you'd be like oh we have just been set back 10 years yeah you know it wasn't always the case investing in professional sports teams you know back in the sometimes 60s and 70s not a good thing buddy they still make you feel like owners lose lose their shirt I mean they still make you feel how many owners in baseball cry for every single year every single year but honestly if you had the old time machine to go back and tell yourself your young self what to invest in you know around the 1990s sports get in on a sports team get in on an NBA team an NFL team obviously a major league baseball team and the gains have been just ridiculously exponential on those investments and I think there's you know there's reasons for it media is the big thing you got program 30 years I'm still investing in Apple yes I'm investing in Apple but I'll maybe also I think that money and I invest in a sports team but I mean the reason is pretty simple is in the in a day and age when media rights of shows people are watching less live TV than ever except for sports it's the one thing that we still have to sit down for you know two and a half hours watch all the commercials and you know when's the last time you watched an actual television program full through with all the commercials non-streamed I don't know but my six-year-olds who's sitting in my right knows every single pod race commercial that runs every single one I'm we'll be watching the game and he'll start doing obviously he does bill how wiener how but he also does the sequan by heart I mean that's the only thing we sit and watch commercials for that's it that is my scrub is traded in his giant stack of pancakes for a big burrito with flowers yeah playing golf out there real good working on a swing I mean even though a pitcher well what's the best part of what's the best part of of being a starting pitcher rest between starts hundred percent that big old stack of pancakes looks delicious doesn't it yeah man uh that is a that's a staggering figure for the Boston Celtics staggering and he didn't get in the ground floor I mean it was already three hundred and sixty million I mean you're talking about back in the day Steinbrenner investments that were really nothing pretty modest paltry and people were worried that they were overpaying oh my god he's getting a George Steinbrenner he's gonna lose a fortune paying paying for the New York Yankees that much no no in fact he did not that investment worked out quite well for the Steinbrenner 10 million bucks bought it for 10 million bucks um and yeah that's probably worth about 10 billion now 10 million to 10 billion just like that in 1973 which probably at the time 10 million bucks was just so much though but it it definitely uh definitely paid for for that and then some his initial investment by the way 168 grand and you don't even have to be you don't even have to be a good owner to make that's that's the thing even the owners of teams that never win anything even the Donald Sterling's who are so bad that they have to be forced out still end up making hundreds and millions of dollars on their investment their golden bill shoot over the commanders sold again oh ridiculous you know that's not so much money for being the worst owner in the history of sports you feel like there should be some consequences to that like financial consequences no no it's just financial benefits to being a horrible horrible owner and human being to have everything else yeah good call to the Rockies owner is just counting his money what's his name dick man for just counting his money so it's ridiculous so good for wick grouse back and all the billions he's about to make on the Boston Celtics all right we'll come back a final segment uh pot raise baseball we'll get you ready for the series against the Texas Rangers coming up as we mentioned some pitching change matchups pitching matchup changes for the series coming up we'll get to all of that finishing off the day with Benawoods on San Diego's number one sports station 97-3 the fan just a tweet over the break uh from the uh best and worst defensive players according to fan graphs this season and there are no pot raise among the best defenders but there are a bunch of them among the worst defenders awesome love that including Louise Camposano behind the plate has the worst uh fan graphs rating in baseball could believe that based on the eye test and then uh both the second 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 today's episode is sponsored by nerd wallet smart money podcast get your head in the financial game with smart investing and budgeting tips straight from the nerds nerd wallets 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 nerd wallet smart money podcast on your favorite podcast ad nothing is more important than getting a good night's sleep and when you don't get the rest you need your whole day is thrown off that's why it's so important to choose the right mattress sleeping on a purple mattress is truly a unique experience because purple mattresses are made with a gel flex grid the gel flex grid is an innovative material that moves with your body to relieve pressure in areas like knees 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baseball your way download it now for free from the app store or google play block out another research and supply major league baseball trade parts used with permission all right we're halfway home on a Tuesday bed and woods 97-3 to fan lovely to be here with all of you this morning thanks to john connor for mad fryers for stopping by hanging out for a couple hours helping us run out some clock you know let's be honest it was an off day let yesterday candy could come in you got a rip uh you got a rip for hours talking about the San Diego Padres nice to hear from john about the the prospects and and all of that love uh love to see him and he's a good dude i'm woodsy that's paul rindo the executive producer and Benjamin Higgins your friendly neighborhood sports anchor joins us as well as you know we're actually halfway through our week six hours in six hours to go because after tomorrow's show we're done we're on vacation yeah for the uh the fourth of july weekend and joining us also in studio is our beloved bald rindel adam clud speaking of that do you guys have anything you want to say to my face about what's going on on friday yeah let's talk about friday for a moment first of all welcome back from your uh your trip because it was not a vacation thank you for not calling you vacation you flew all right tell everybody you flew from here to where my parents right at the start of the pandemic we're all from atlanta but they moved to st pete beach which is right by tampa in florida in florida so we flew to tampa spent four days with my parents okay and you stayed in their home in their home listen to this three kids so with my three kids it's my it was my mother's 70th birthday so we were celebrating that with her right we surprised her they she only knew that my my family was coming in my brother his wife and his son from atlanta we surprised they were going to drive in and meet us okay and then my youngest brother who lives in new jersey with his wife and his two-month-old we're going to fly in so she would have her three sons and their families okay all together they didn't all stay there though they didn't all stay there so we got in on what are we talking this like christmas vacation like everybody's just there's 70 birthday dinner get the whole family together get everybody together so we drove in on friday my brother was supposed to pick up my my middle brother was supposed to pick up my youngest brother at the airport on sunday is the surprise but he couldn't get there early enough to pick him up so he drove in on saturday so he gets in early on saturday i'm like come on over let's hang out he goes no we're gonna lay low we've been planning all this we want to we don't want to waste the surprise i feel like he's big daddy we wasted good good surprise on you all right you're starting to tell stories like my wife so let's let's get what is what was your purpose of this because my youngest brother's flight got canceled all right i wonder made it in he never made it never made it i want to hear how awful it was that's what i want to hear traveling with three young kids is never easy no tuesday was the worst day we flew from tampa to bermingham which is about an hour ten flights it's easy flight we were there for four hours maybe my grandmother lives there who is my kids great grandmother they don't get to see very often and i've answered uncles so he flew to bermingham saw my my family for four hours and then rented a car and drove to Atlanta two and a half hours that was a long day and you lose an hour going east tonight there tonight then we stayed with my my in-laws for four days in atlanta how was that they didn't they didn't have anything planned for us nothing nothing just wanted to be quote unquote be with the grandkids do you guys do the bit where you like because i have young kids when i go see my family i'm like here you go i'm like they're yours and and and i will go do stuff no we don't do that you know you should you're there well we've got a you know and adjust about two-year-old yeah yeah so he's constant supervision it's tough scene welcome back thank you it's one of those good to be back i wanted to be back i want to get back well you missed a really fun week of of pod race baseball that's for sure i watched all the games yeah it was amazing it was incredible uh yeah so they just say that i love jerks and pro far yeah we all do i love him he's great he's great i'm so glad he unblocked our entire show yeah uh good vibes he followed only he follows Ben though i noticed is that true yes he does not follow me anymore i thought he followed us in spring training he's since unblocked me or he since unfollowed me so i you know i love him he's one of those favorite players for sure yeah he does follow me he follows you mr yeah jerks and pro far mr negative mr never negative ben higgins over he's got the good vibes ever he does so friday is uh one of those days where it's like hey you know we're not gonna we took friday off but then come to find out yesterday sam levitz actually going to be doing our show which i'm fine with sammy levitz always welcome to i just feel like a heel a little bit you are that he's coming in to work four hours while we're gonna be doing well we're well we're gonna be broadcasting twice on friday he'll do the morning show from six to ten and he's got pottery's pre and post game that he's just poor management on your part yeah i think so that's just bad planning i think thursday is a company holiday correct federal holiday like most people should have thursday off or get off early whatever and then friday is that one when there's a holiday on a thursday you're like is it a company holiday is my boss giving me the day off or like that friday after thanksgiving take the day off because i'm not coming in on black friday and doing a show that right two choices either everyone gets the day off or you get the least productive workday of the year from everybody that you've made come in and now you have the bad will of just having them all come in for the very unproductive friday like i can't get much done anyway because generally you know the other people like e-sales you know college is sales working sell something well no one's working today so who am i going to sell anything to on this front i got into it with our boss did you he says the sales people will be working i don't know how are they going to be working on it no they're not so here's the thing i was in sales from our from our perspective adam call it a month six weeks two months ago when we were talking about taking time off in the summer you told us we said yeah we're going to take the fifth off you go i believe that's it's not a company holiday friday july fifth but michael's going to just give everybody that day i remember saying that but even if i did i believe gives me some wiggle room there and michael you know opted to keep them the office is open well you didn't tell us that now see me now sammy hates us no sammy just first of all i did not order or assign sammy to work i offered him the opportunity i said if you would like to do it that and do something different than what you normally do it's there for you there's no pressure i won't be upset if you don't when somebody says no pressure i won't be upset if you don't it actually means there's pressure and i will be upset if you don't there's no pressure when somebody says no pressure that means there's literally that's that's the you know when i feel the most pressure is when somebody says no pressure every time we would just go to network and look braiden and scrappy you know they wanted to work they wanted to get their opportunity to get some good enough in a film i'd much rather have sammy in doing the show than than going to network sure it's not going to talk about podrays and for the people who do want to listen even if they're not working in or at home you'll have that option of sam levin now i don't have the same i don't have the same qualms that woods does because while sammy works very hard as you said he wants to be here and i also know that as soon as the podray season ends whether that's uh you know after october or after september sammy will be allowed to have some time off because you know he doesn't have any more pre and post game shows and he'll have like three or four weeks where we can just say sammy go go take some time off and relax whereas when the season ends that does not happen for bed and woods guess who's here all the way through and until the start of next year we're doing this job well for ben rain yeah i'm actually let's see let's let's let's keep an eye on woods' uh pto this year how it compares to mine i guess i hear i'm taking i'm taking monday off this this my one vacation so far this year uh you know and then that's it for now i'll be in here on friday with the guys i mean you know i i work okay you guys like take off i'll be working well you just had a week off so look we look forward not backwards that's fair that's fair well you'll have to be managing all the unusual employees and shows that you brought in on friday it's good to see you again and uh no pressure but yeah i'm gonna be i'm you guys are gonna see much of me for the rest of the year just so you know the rest of the year yeah i've got a lot of stuff planned i need my r&r all right so you and i'm gonna see you thank you guys you did he did come in with some swag uh by the way podrays delivering giveaways for the upcoming homestand including the one that woods has already claimed well this is the uh nando calrisian bobblehead for star wars weekend which is coming up this weekend july 5th through 7th against the arizona diamondbacks now if you want one of these you need a theme game ticket so i told the wise so we're going saturday have the theme game ticket and she said uh you have to come up with if i don't go home with that i'm a dead dead man so i just saved you i think i mean do the other shows need to show it off too or can i just take it i'm just giving them the option i'm just gonna take it yeah i'll ask forgiveness later it's about as clever of welcome hannah thank you star wars tie in that you can come come up with nando calrisian it looks so really clever and then uh adam also brought the throwback 1984 hat presented by san diego community power this is the giveaway on wednesday july 10th podrays hosting the seattle maras that's a three forty game this does go to all the first forty thousand fans in attendance it's got the the st but also the very cool lowercase podrays 1984 esque logo on the side uh celebrating the 40th anniversary of the 1984 world series team as well and then uh they wrap up the first half of the season with the atlanta braves coming to town july 12th through the 14th so yeah still the uh the wildcard leaders though in the national league not playing quite as well as they have in previous seasons i'm trying to be nice coming from my mouth to hear that yeah well you know yeah i trust you when your atlanta braves opinions are there now podrays may or may not be able to to compete with the l_a_ dodgers at any point in this season for the n_o_s_ but there is value in taking that first wildcard spot yeah there are three games behind the braves with uh you know plenty of plenty of time to try to at least get the first wildcard and if you're gonna have to play a wildcard series play at home uh you know have those games in your home yard and the podrays certainly that's a that's a feasible realistic goal for the san diego podrays i would say in the second half of the season not just make the playoffs but put yourself in a better position by getting home field advantage for that wildcard series whether it's against atlanta or uh you know the the st. Louis cardinals or new york mats or whoever it might be i know the podrays played well on the road earlier this year i know they beat the mats in a wildcard series a couple of years ago on the road can we all agree it's better to have to bring the other team in and have them be the team that's on the road for that series than having gone the road yourself of course of course yeah i i mean i i know i said it earlier in the season you know the way that they're playing on the road let's just make sure we play on the road but that they've come back down to uh to earth uh in that and they've played very well at home they have they have and and yeah i mean it's kind of the calendar turned uh into june and and the boys started playing well at home ball started launching out of petco park again for us as well that was the most frustrating thing of the season benny when everybody else was hitting home runs at petco park except for the sandy eagle podray so you couldn't well everything's dying at the track yeah for us for the other teams of all was flying out of the yard it was crazy but it's all it is baseball typically does it evens out so um yeah man i just i just want to get there man i just want to make the playoffs that's what i want uh this team to do covering that playoff run a couple years ago was the time of my life it was such a blast yeah i i mean i think i think first wild card spot is a realistic goal i know people don't want to just give up the division to the dogs bro you never they're so incomplete they're so incomplete they are but remember you're seven and a half i understand you don't go chasing it but it's that's a lot to make up against a team that the dodgers even even is not being as dominant as we thought they were going to be they're not a team that's going to play ten games under five hundred the rest of a year no they're not i mean if they struggle they'll probably still be slightly above 500 which means you're gonna have to play insane like 20 to 25 games above 500 the rest of the year to have even a chance at catching the dodgers is that impossible no it's not but based on what we've seen so far which is what four games above 500 for the first half you'd have to play a lot better than you did in the first half of the season a lot better to have a chance at catching the dodgers and that's even and that's assuming that they don't improve they're probably going to make some trades as well so again i don't think that that needs to be the goal first wildcard though is very very possible and realistic in something you should be going after when this potter is team winning what was a nine out of 11 recently they've given themselves a little bit of a cushion they've started to give themselves a cushion i think we talked about a four day cushion here yeah still hey that's better than nothing that's better than nothing they haven't had that up until this point of the season i think we're talking about the fillies maybe a couple weeks ago and they went on a skin and we said well when you were 20 games above 500 you can afford to drop six in a row or whatever yankies maybe that's the team and the potteries haven't had that luxury i mean a four-game losing streak we were ready to throw in the towel in the season yourself i'm not expecting them to win nine of the next 11 but they do have 11 games exactly between now and the all-star break yeah i mean if they can stay on that hot streak and win seven eight yeah i ain't out of 11 it would be and you're really building yourselves a cushion where when you have an inevitable skid and you know drop five in a row or seven out of eight or something it's not going to be the end of the season yeah we can't you can't you got to avoid those as best you can in the second half that's the most captain obvious thing but i mean it just it's what we've seen this year it's how this team has has run so uh it just doesn't it doesn't the road's not any easier i mean the schedule is pretty tough i know that the off days are built in but it's going to be a fun one man it's going to be a fun one strap in and as we like to say enjoy the ride awesome i'd love to have soccer woods making appearance coming up here and wait and talk about it all morning yeah the uh you know we know what it feels like to be a frustrated baseball fan but the soccer fans out there extremely frustrated with team uss early exit in copa america we've got some uh scaving audio to bring you up from last night's game as well we'll get to all that coming up before jesse agler joins us at the bottom of the hour don't go away more benefits coming up here after traffic on 97 three the fan so imagine the universe woods in which the pod rays and we're just as big a pod race fans as we always were but instead of playing 162 games every season and then potentially the playoffs they play actually three meaningful games every two years and if you don't do well in those then the last two years have been a complete disaster even if you played pretty well in one of the games let's say you you put a lot of runners on got them in scoring position but you guys didn't come through you went one for ten with runners in scoring position that feels right in your one game that mattered in three years and he ended up losing one nothing isn't that what international soccer kind of is yeah and you know team usa played in copa america which is the biggest event in between the world cups uh in international soccer in the western hemisphere yes as my buddy explained it to me last night look this is a really really good opportunity to show what they're going to see in a couple of years and what you're building towards and and are you on the right track you know that's that's really what it is in regards to the world cup are you are you on the right track right now with the u the u.s. men's national team and boy if you watch the game last night you know i i don't know a lot about soccer and i tweeted it last night i said i'm literate one of the reasons i'm reluctant to get super into it is i think you know much like the umpires kill me in baseball they kill me i soccer seems to be worse worse it's one of the reasons it's one of the reasons basketball drives me nuts too just the the just kind of uh foul here not a foul here and and i i my timeline is filled i have a lot of friends that are super soccer fans every weekend my my timeline is filled with people ripping v.a.r ripping uh the refs and i'm like can my blood pressure handle super soccer fandom i don't know that it can so if you were following the u.s. lost their second group play game against Panama when they took an early red card and had to play a man down for the entire match so it was baseball you'd be like playing eight on nine without a a fielder for the entire game puts you at a real disadvantage and that put them in a must-win situation yesterday i guess a really good team Uruguay considered one of the top sides in south america and it was always going to be their toughest match and it's not like the u.s. played horribly they only gave up the one goal and they had some chances they just couldn't convert the referee was like you play your one big game in two years and angel Hernandez ends up being beyond behind the place that's it and i guess this guy had not had many uh opportunities to be a referee on the biggest of stages and i think uh based on again on my timeline i i hate to come on here and and go off half cock like i know what i'm talking about because i'll be the first to admit i really don't i'm just going off what i see people that i respect saying no no would see this guy is really really bad um it doesn't mean though they didn't have plenty of chances even i the very not novice soccer fan noticed plenty of opportunities to at least for two goals that i can remember off the top of my head that i went oh wow that's going to come back and hurt you um it was a really physical game man really physical early um Uruguay's really good team i mean watching them play yeah you kind of understand where the uh where the fervor lies uh for for soccer at the highest level but again as a non soccer expert i remember watching world cups 15 20 years ago and i always felt like all right the u.s. is definitely overmatched in this game but maybe they can use their speed and counter punch and score yeah it felt like watching against Uruguay the u.s. had the ball for a lot of the time yeah they're making the passes that the other team was they weren't like outclassed they simply aren't finishing they're aren't getting the goals that they need to get and you know don't take it from us take it from the experts who know and after the game uh the Fox Sports won broadcast they had the crew sitting there at the desk and who was Alexi Lalas who uh he went ham he just went in on on coach greg burr halter and team u.s.a. pitiful performance in copa america you've talked about learning from losing okay i think what we have learned over these cycles is that this team is not able to do anything better than is done in the past and that that that hurts that hurts to say because that was not what was promised and not what for many we believed was going to happen with this team because if this is as good as it gets it's it's not good enough and there's plenty of excuses but they don't matter you know uh you can talk about opportunities well we have players that are playing all over the world talk about playing in Europe well the entire team that you saw out there plays in Europe so it's not MLS's fault you can talk about you know the pathways and the resources that they have no generation has been given more and yet this generation hasn't lived up to that bargain and when it comes to greg burr halter we heard stew hoe us to hold and say it's exactly right you know i know there's a sport in firing coaches in in uh you know in all's professional sports uh and i know the knives are out and and they should be because this is not good enough from greg burr halter and you have to ask yourself with 2026 coming barreling down the pike it's going to come less than two years away all right we can't afford to waste it we can't afford to be embarrassed and we can't afford to arrive in the summer of 26 with a team that is not progressed that is not evolved and is not improved and i'm sure if greg burr halter was here he would say oh but you don't see what's happening inside i don't give a crap what is happening inside i don't care about that dynamic i don't care how much your players love you i don't care how kumbaya it is all i care about is i see a us men's national team that is better than before and we didn't we haven't seen that and that's a problem going for is that on the players is that on the manager is that on the federation where where are we saying you need to be better well the players certainly need to be better you know but do you think this this generation of players has what it takes like do you think that they have that deep deep inside of them i think there's a i think there's a couple of them i don't i don't think i think they are better soccer players but ultimately i don't think that they're better us men's national team player yeah somebody said in the chat that looks like some controlled rage yeah it did and and he you know he was pretty strong on it last night and again i saw a lot of the same sentiments echoed online last night by some people that are much more in the know than me but you know i don't know enough to know like is it like any other sport like in baseball when we're talking about the players are going out there they're the ones that are playing like how much of this embarrassment as it's been tagged over the last couple of days is on the coach you know they ask they ask some of the players about it last night you know which is you know credit to the the reporters for asking like hey is is Greg Burr halter the the guy to lead this team and i think if they were reluctant to just throw them under the bus but they they said you know it's it's on us we we we didn't finish last night in a couple opportunities that we had and they didn't they had they had opportunities to do it refs be damned um you know and even i with my novice eyes could tell you had a couple opportunities you needed to you needed to bury it and and you didn't ultimately the next game important game the team USA plays that everybody will care about won't be until their first game of the world cup in twenty twenty six yeah that's a tough part they'll have international games but they don't have to qualify because they're the host so they're in so essentially they will not play another meaningful game for two years and then that next meaningful game will be the biggest game they play this decade because they'll be hosting a world cup yeah and it'll be this this one chance for this holistic generation to show what they've got they got two years to get it right now and that's it and you wonder will will you make sweeping changes right now to to that team or does this guy get a chance to see it through it can be interesting all right Jesse Agler is going to join us next voice to the Padres Incorporated Tuesday he's in Texas getting ready for the series against the Rangers chatting with Jesse Agler when we come back we've been a woods the 97-3 the fan sour 97-3 the fan is brought to you by the frozen ropes baseball and softball training facilities hey parents frozen rope softball summer league starting up registering softball players ages six through 12 six games six practices with professional coaching starts mid-july make it a frozen rope summer go to sandy eco frozen ropes dot com and call to register today it's always weird when I talk about one of the things that you usually talk about yeah frozen ropes or if you were talking about like the farmers dog or SD fat loss dot com yeah but I don't mind throw it in there sounds like fun my little frozen ropes uh player will be here in about an hour mama's got to drop them off it's the uh the summer juggling of mom's got to work kids need care i salute all of those parents out there man the nine to fiveers i i don't know how you do it i really don't i mean i am very lucky and Hannah's very lucky with our schedules that it you know we can handle it nine to five single parent or something forget it you want you feel guilty because you can't wait for school to start again that structure that yeah but you know the kids don't want that really has nothing to do with structure it has to do with the place that you can dump your kid off for like eight hours and then do what you want to do that's really i mean if i'm being completely honest with you that's what it is i know it's even harder for Jesse who has to be traveling during the summer as well i'm sure this is agler is just on him we will talk with Jesse agler and uh get his thoughts from texas right after a check of traffic here on 97-3 the fan so as Jesse joins us from uh Arlington Texas and baseball season he's working almost every day when the Padres are at home and they have a rare off day i know he's at home and you know helping out doing whatever he can but there is those those weird situations during the baseball season where you have an off day on the road you can't really do anything it's just can't do anything about it just kind of it's a day off it's a day for you there's nothing you can do at home Jesse so uh how did you spend the off day yesterday in dallas i have said for a very long time that the most valuable days on the baseball calendar are the road off days um and it's exactly what you just said it's like sorry you know i mean when you're at home and you get an off day there's family stuff you're doing driving cleaning and laundry uh you know like a dentist or whatever like anything you need to catch up on that's what the home off days are for and so really the only like for me at least the true true off days uh are the ones on the road so it was it was pretty low key you know it's like a billion degrees here yeah texas is great right because you combine the heat of arizona with the humidity of florida very cool and you put it all into one it's really amazing uh so didn't you know get out in a bad or anything necessarily but you know worked out uh walked over to a place close by for lunch saw mike shilt there and uh he was it seemed like having a very similar day that i was why were you a chipotle for lunch oh you know it wasn't there's no chipotle than walking business so uh but yeah it was like you know a whole lot of nothing i think is how he put it you know i mean everybody i think just trying to rest and recuperate a little bit so uh yeah uh you know kind of a low-key day recharge here it's a much much friendlier schedule in the next month than it was in the last month in terms of you know how often they're playing and days off so you know hopefully uh you know you'll you'll see that reflected in the win loss record because you know as i'm sure i've said to you guys and i and tony and i have talked about a lot too i think you know some of the struggles that the padre's had in the last call it five weeks had to do with the fact that the schedule was just gnarly uh and those lack of days off and then you get into a situation where you had a couple starters you weren't regularly going deep into the games it puts you so far behind the eight ball but now they're going to be in a position for the next five weeks really uh were they're able to absorb you know some more stuff like that and we'll see how it goes you know if i were you if i was if i if i was jesse agler doing the same role i wouldn't even call home on those days off on the road i would not make that that doesn't work now you i i shoot a text hope you guys are good i'm going to the jfk museum right now see you guys later like there's just no way get my ass kicked every time jesse agler the incorporated joins us uh here on a tuesday jesse yeah obviously uh you you get the chance to go to fenway park we were texting about it a little bit pretty incredible man pretty freaking incredible to go that ball park is a cathedral you got to do all the ins and outs you got to go out and what does it smell like inside the green monster you know what it's funny the the green monster so the the day i went in was sunday the day game and it was really very warm and steamy outside and i was like it's probably going to be pretty gross inside the monster but it was kind of damp and cool um a little bit like a wine cellar feel almost um not wine but you know like numbered placards and name placards for all the different teams um but it was it was actually it wasn't too dank or anything in there uh you know there's i guess a fair amount of ventilation because there's all the holes in the slots uh they go out there but yeah it was just it's really really neat i mean i'd been there only once in my life it was you know summer after junior year of high school looking at colleges with my dad and it was before the red socks had won um so it was before fenway was crazy and we literally i just remember walked up to the box office you know 20 minutes before the game bought two tickets and like you know went to a game that was in the summer i guess of 99 um and and that was the only other time in my life i'd been to fenway so obviously a very very different experience this time and to be able to kind of have the access that i did and to be able to walk around on the field and go inside the monster and um you know get there super early on the first day to just sort of walk around and take it in special man it's it's one of the the best parts of this job is like a total baseball geek you know to be able to experience those different places and and do so in a very special kind of intimate way um you know the fact that i can just roll up there at two o'clock you know before a seven o'clock game and almost have the place to myself right um is is incredible so you know you guys know i'm a big geek with that kind of stuff it was very special and while globe life is not necessarily of the same historic significance as fenway uh this will be my final ballpark to check this series for the Rangers uh the two times the more the couple years that the Padres have played here was covid so we didn't get the opportunity to come and uh this will complete the circuit so you're done which i'm excited about you're done that's it every friggin ballpark that's incredible tell they build a new one tell they build a new one yeah yeah it's amazing look at you Jesse uh let me ask you because uh the all star game is coming up at that very same park in two weeks from today and i wondered like a week ago i could have made a pretty compelling case for jackson meryl to be included on the nl team now it's hard to make a case for leaving him off right the the nationally all star team do you get the sense that word is getting out about jackson meryl beyond san diego and what he is now doing uh in his rookie season that is pretty incredible now no doubt about it um you know he's definitely broken through the the west coast news if you will uh sometimes as we all know that wall is a difficult one to uh to push through but i i think he has there's been a lot of talk about him um you know all star i haven't taken like a close enough look at you know the voting and all that kind of stuff to see you know the other names that are involved he's not in the final vote he could certainly be a reserve he's the no he has the no no i know but i'm saying the guy's the owner of any outfielder in the nation might end up as reserves i haven't looked at the names in the numbers um you know for all those guys um but look from a numbers standpoint for him certainly those are all star numbers um i i don't think there's any doubt about it and and you know when you start considering uh getting a rookie who's going to be a top vote getter in rookie of the year if not the winner in the national league into the all star game you know for mlb that's that's a good move right i mean you want to be able to showcase somebody like that because this is a budding star in the league you know i think i said on on the year to tony after the brewer series um when the nats were in town i said you know it kind of fell to me like in the last week jackson meryl had leveled up like in a video game you know like he had kind of just gotten to that next point and and since i've said that i feel like he's leveled up three more times i mean it's been absolutely incredible watching this guy um exceeding every expectation i had honestly um you know in terms of what he'd be able to provide uh and he's been a critical piece to the success that this team has had not just on the field and not just with the numbers but i think the energy and the intensity and the kind of the personality that he brings is really important to this team as well and you know if you're watching these games or listening to these games or going to these games you noticed that it would be impossible to miss so um yeah there's no doubt he's becoming more and more of a national story and and he deserves to be because it's it's remarkable what he's doing it really is talking to our pal jesse agler uh here on benon woods this morning and i got to imagine the last ten days or so have been pretty awesome to be in your position i mean some really good baseball like the you got the walk offs you got the the bench is clearing you've got the kerfluffle the next day at home plate like that's good stuff and i know that you guys run into you know the dog days of august we all do we do cover in the team two where it's like what a slog it is to watch this game sometimes but man you live for like the last ten games or so it has been so much fun and and you know like most importantly obviously is the wins that have gone along with it what is it you know nine out of eleven now winning is always more fun uh you know people think we're better broadcasters when the team is winning i'm sure people think you guys are better doing your show when the team is winning the funny how that works right but like yeah i mean it's it's not just that they're winning to your point it's that they're they're playing very entertaining baseball and i've said really all year they play a very watchable brand of baseball um you know we're lucky enough right we get to see now with the schedule as it is we get to see literally every team in person there are a whole lot of teams even good teams in major league baseball they play hard to watch baseball um and and the padreys don't you know they put the ball in play they strike out less than any other team in major league baseball this year um they've got this sort of really interesting entertaining lineup different guys they can do different things different ways you know they can run when they want to they play really good defense generally speaking it's it's it's great because it's not just that they're playing winning baseball they're playing entertaining baseball fun baseball and again the word i keep using is watchable baseball like there are again and i'm not naming names but there are really really good teams out there that are just bad to watch they don't play a fun brand of baseball you know they just kind of sit around and they have been slowly bludging you and they take a billion pitches and it takes forever padreys aren't about that you know it's just such a different approach than they had last year and it's really fun to watch and i tell you what if more teams sort of committed to trying to play the kind of baseball that the padreys play i think nlb would be in a better spot around the country um because it's it's it's noticeably different how the padreys kind of approach things that then most every other team in the league talking to Jesse Ackler he's with us from Texas padreys rangers tonight at 505 here on 97 3 the fan and and Jesse i know you always take a pretty measured approach when it comes to the the trade deadline what will happen what will happen and and you know ajay preller is always active but you do hear things i mean did you have any expectations here about what might transpire over the next few weeks yeah i mean you know they're gonna try and add um you know this this is this window let's call it opening in 2020 you know officially like this is this is the heart of the window um you know you've got guys in their primes um you've got the whole thing set up to make a run no doubt and you know i don't care about how last year went and how disappointing it was you know i remember going on with you guys at some point you know and we said you have to remember that it's it's always bigger than just the one year and and look at the rangers you know i mean they they won it all last year they've got a not good record this year one of the worst records ever for a defending champion going into the month of july that doesn't mean they can't be great again next year you know think about those giants teams the bruce boji hat right 2010 they win you know on and on i think in 2013 in between the second and third titles they ended up finishing like 10 games under 500 so point being that this window is still the window the window is still open and the padres are still really really you know having the goal of wanting to win it all um even with the disappointment of last year that never changed and i think a lot of people you know around the league and around the country who weren't paying as close attention as all of us you know thought oh they traded one soda they're not bringing blake snell back they're not trying to compete that was never the case this team still always had world series 2024 at the top of the to-do list and you know now especially the way they're playing there's no way that's changing and that means that they're going to be in a position to try and get even better at the trade deadline now what actually happens what comes together who knows you know there's there's a billion variables that go into all of that but you better believe that they're going to be trying to make themselves even better because they believe rightfully by the way that this is a world series caliber team and that is the goal for everybody involved in this organization Jesse um let's see we kind of get to the dog days of summer when it comes to the incorporation counting on woods to break us out with a good choice this week and i don't even know what you've picked bro i found this word okay and i'm still looking for how to say it so i sent it to pauli for the pronunciation go ahead pauli nudie estration what nudie estration nudie estration why did you pick someone on the internet who speaks a foreign language that's just that's just what pops up to nudie estration that's the definition it's a good question i'm glad you asked that question because i am certain i'm looking for right now firing on all cylinders we really are new nudie estration nudie estration yes an adjective oh that war relating to the day before yesterday the day before yesterday nudie estration so it's it's like the opposite of penultimate oh yes right it's a great word penultimate so let's see so sunday the new would be today the nudie estration day to today right but it's an adjective how do you use that as interesting let's get going good luck how could it be an adjective i don't know that's just what it says adj is adjective i know that from my english degree i'm now this is this is a tough one this is it's like the nudie estration game would be this yeah yeah all right now he's got it now he's got it we just made it easy for yeah we do it it's never going to be easy to say nudie estration and there's there's no way to slip that one past toning no i mean so here's how here's an example i saw him nudie estration which would mean i saw you on sunday saw him in the locker sounds like yeah sounds like he saw when i was closed that's right nudie estration i like that that's a tough one i'm trying not trying to make it easy on this is what happens when we all text each other while jesse's on the air with us trying to find a word yeah nudie estration piece of cake bro you got this all right what if what if next week to mix it up what if what if i bring the word oh i like that i like it we like we need to mix it up for sure yeah we do nudie estration nudie estration have a safe trip uh back home for the rest of the first time check out that jfk museum it's really good the school book deposit it's very cool actually if you've ever if you've never been it's really cool daily plaza yeah my uh i might try and go over tomorrow morning all right do it yeah you love it jesse atler voice of the pod race and again five oh five first pitch today uh four oh five eco water so count pre-game show with sam levid it's dylan sees on the mountain to open the series against nathan ill vaulti for the texas rangers poly wanted us to see if he would do hoktua he's not people in the chat we're asking not going to do hoktua it's been done in a major league broadcast it has so it's already been done i wonder if that guy got in trouble do you think he did do you think jesse well i don't think you get in trouble really i mean i guess it depends who your boss is that's true i wonder if jesse would get in trouble he's pretty buttoned up i don't think he's gonna do hoktua jesse would just be mad at himself he just wouldn't allow it to happen it's not even a word it's two words neither of them are words hoktua it's a sound hok is a word hoktua it's a definition of hoktua it's a definition of hok it's a bird well see not miss not in this context there's nothing bird they're not talking about birds there i will come back right into the report final hour of benewoods next year on the fan just had jesse aclaron from dallas and he said he might might do the jfk museum i i did um at least the tour when i was a kid the only time i went to dallas with my grandmother and we i saw the grassy knoll in the schoolbook depository the x certain x right in the middle of the road it's crazy i mean it's it's pretty surreal when you when you go there used to drive over that x every single day really where president kennedy was shot yeah it was it's gnarly and then the grassy knoll is a trip and then being in the depository is not so i mean it's a it's a good it's a good thing to do if you're in that town but you really i have no reason really go to that town my parents don't even live near dallas anymore so they're they're two hours away so i i don't get spent as much time there but i would totally totally go back to such a sad and and macabre moment yes in american history uh for but there's been so much media you know movies television programs that have dealt with it over the years still it's it's become almost mythical in its significance to american history it's it's still i mean every year you're like what really happened like the assassination of president kennedy have never it's never gonna die yeah and i you know it me i'm as far from a conspiracy theorist as possible that one is though some of those you read you go oh oh make sense make sense the magic bullet i mean it's fascinating stuff and to go sit and look through the window is uh it gives you gives you a little bit of the heebie geebies uh when you do it you're must have been pretty little when you went yeah i was so it's very young yeah i went it's pretty awesome historical context necessarily but even as uh but our nine or ten year old you certainly had heard of the jfk assassination and you knew it was a president of big dio and to be in the same spot that the history is as sad as it was was made was was definitely memorable to be there east county cress wants to know what's he did you ever go to billy bobs i did uh quite a bit really billy bobs the world's largest honky talk and it's a fort worth and it's awesome i mean they have them they have bull riding their mechanical bull they it's nuts it's nuts it's maybe the size of pecko park i mean you walk you walk in your leg buddy i can't find you i i'm not gonna find you i mean it is massive there's more than one bar and room oh dude it's huge huge huge billy bobs kicks ass i used to we just go there and watch uh bands and stuff play and it's fort worth great fort worth a great little town but yeah there's i just have no reason to go back there look where i live so i was telling my parents no i've you come here this is paradise i'm not gonna come there we've done that come on out of here let me see what i need to do about padre's last road trip before the all-star break three more games in texas today tomorrow and then uh thursday fourth of july day game and then back for the final eight games at pecko park the last homestand heading into the all-star break i will talk more padre's baseball coming up right now though pauly's got some headlines it is time for the rindall report and get things started here with our addition today's addition of the rindall report now tuned into the month greatest welcome to the rindall report with paul rindall hi paul all right two stories from the world of sports that we haven't gotten to yet we'll start off in major league baseball and one story that you didn't know you needed are you laughing beyond it's the rindall report hey paul how you doing okay how are you on 97-3 the fan are you ready to blast the mood i need some help please that was good can i get a whole year all right all right all right good morning my friend good morning you know uh today would have been a big day on this show five six years ago tartnock's day i did not know this it's july second guess training camps are about to start not for another two or three weeks i don't know it was later in july i think well the reason it feels like hard knocks is starting earlier than normal is because well it is there are three different versions of hard knocks this year gentlemen i think we've talked about it like like bits and pieces over the last few months but i've got it all kind of broken down here uh there will be five episodes of the first installment of 2024 hard knocks beginning tonight on hbl max okay it's the off-season version okay with the giants five episodes going from july second through july thirtieth okay then you will have the training camp version which i think is the more traditional that's one where you version that you're used to that's what the chicago bears interesting that's gonna run five episodes as well from august sixth through september third okay then we have the in-season version that they have tried in the past i think the amazon prime has also done one take so yeah i think i think you're correct and that's all it just says is the afc north we don't have a team yet the north and that's going to be the december third is when it starts that goes into the post-season it's a minimum of seven episodes depending on so they'll pick a playoff team or a team that should make the playoffs and follow them as long as their season goes all right go to your head which one do you do you do you watch if you had to i'm watching the bears one i think the in-season one yeah i would watch no like the in-season yeah i would probably watch that one the in-season one you don't want to watch the bears kale williams i just they're they're all the same they're all the same all the same we needed less hard knocks not more right got more i needed like hey we're gonna do three big episodes you're really gonna like them not more and different here's my question i it just feels like okay this was a good idea when it happened but it's great at time is see spent it feels that way and maybe this is just the uh the erin roger's effect but uh according to front office sports hbo said that last year's traditional training camp series saw its best viewership in 13 years who was they covered the jets yeah yeah because yeah yeah a lot a lot of lot going on i mean viewership of everything has become so fractured and streaming that you don't even need that big of an audience to justify it anymore so they're going to keep doing it my question to the two of you is production company comes to us right now and they said they want to do behind the scenes of a morning radio show sure and follow us for six weeks the cameras they come home with us they come to work with us do interviews during the day you know it's going to be on a streaming series somewhere they got a platform lined up do we say yes or no would you do that i think you say yes but i just don't know if you're gonna get the authentic like a hundred percent real authentic i mean that means they gotta go into our text messages and because we don't something we talk a lot or hang out after the show much because you got other jobs i got a family you know and it's like what are you gonna get hey what do you guys what do you have to set up more activities like they do on real housewives they have to have like which would be all fake that's not that's not up that's not after real dead bodies he's gotten his garage that's right you have to let him in your garage that would be if that's not authentic it's not authentic you know it's hard not exactly you're never going to get a true authentic thing unless you do have their off the candle activities as well you think it's not the tv producers that are setting that up unless you do hidden cameras and stuff then that's the only way they have like cameras in the studio like in between the discussions we have during the breaks and stuff all the bits that we can't do on air that we do in here yeah that'd be great for us but you'd you'd then be a little more guarded knowing of course cameras are on all the time of course that's the same thing that happens in the nfl exactly no one is there a hundred percent authentic self when they know what camera is on yeah no doubt no one nobody ever no you can't be but i would do it people wanted it yeah i'm open to access i think you'd be pretty bored i think you'd be on the roku channel i think you'd be pretty bored you come home to my house just me screaming to my kids my kids going crazy Hannah and i butting heads about something like all right just about just two hours of us asking what do you want to do for dinner no you want to do for dinner no what do you want to do for dinner what do you want to do for dinner every night my whole it's just groundhog day every day is the same no no what do you want to do i don't care what do you want which other high messes knee up a few months ago all right we need to bring that up hmm let's move on i would need to i would need some private time non-camera rooms non-camera rooms yeah we're just getting alive to the audio here no you're not yes let's move on so espn they are owned by disney and they're going very disney with their newest venture and when i see companies or teams or organizations put on these big extravagant experiences it's usually a quick no for me yep you know hey join us on the espn cruise or whatever i'm like no no thanks but there is a new one coming out new experience and i think is actually pretty interesting it's called espn experiences take me out to the ball parks and this is a trip it's a five-day four-night trip from august 29th through second and you can pay to get the ultimate sports fan media baseball experience okay it's not cheap it's going to cost seven thousand dollars a person at home that says uh with double occupancy or eighty five hundred dollars for single occupancy so i guess if you want to go buy yourself and stay like you not have a roommate yeah not have a roommate extra fifty five hundred bucks what you get is the 85 you will get to go to fenway park in boston you go to yanki stanium in new york and you will go to a game at citizens bank park in philadelphia you'll also get a private tour of the jackie robinson museum in new york you'll get an mvp tour of espn's headquarters in bristol caneticate get meet and greets with all the on-air talent uh david kone michael kade dug landville carl ravage buster only and it says and more and more don't know exactly what's the three games three games 80 of these seats better be outstanding outstanding you can set your own trip up to go to all those yeah but you're not going to do any of the meet and greets and stuff at espn if that's something that i don't think i like the experience so i did the u2 experience because i was forced into doing a u2 experience i'm guessing they're pretty good seats i would guess for a 8500 bucks but like that was really how much would it cost for us to play on a trip to all three cities and go to games probably you're probably right in that area yeah you're not getting a deal on this i mean the reason they can put it together is they can charge a premium for what they're doing and make money on it so clearly if you did this piecemeal yourself you'd be able to spend less now you're right you wouldn't necessarily be able to set up meet and greets with all the espn hosts but i mean what's is very nice you just set him a nice email he'll come meet you it's true really whenever you want so it's true you probably can email Linda kone and if she's nice you say can you run outside you might come by and just do a little meet and greet during my the guy the gates are called park tour why are you here i uh Linda kone's gonna come outside say hello do you mind stupid hey you ask nicely enough for anything there's a lot of people who will say yes i will say man i do like a pack i like a packaged the u2 thing really sold me i was gonna buy the regular tickets i couldn't and i wanted to go see them so badly at the sphere and i was like well if you can buy this vip experience it was a it was a fortune and i was like i'm only gonna live on this planet one time i have to do it so i did it i loved every second they gave me a book we got to go to the museum like the whole thing was the rooms were great the tickets were phenomenal it was the best night we've ever had maybe as a as a couple so i'm like it was worth every penny so i kind of like the package deal thing can't do it all the time right you can't do it for every concert you know you gotta pick and choose your moments but if you love baseball it's pretty good i mean i've never been to these coast i've certainly been to any of those stadiums like that you'd have a blast that would be i would be listening for that one for sure all right and then uh i i tend to tell you guys about weird or new foods that are coming out and i got this one sent to you we order our red bull barbecue sauce yet or no five hour energy barbecue sauce that's right yeah all right it's tuesday isn't it given that it was tuesday i got a new one here and it is from cup noodles had a cup noodle from time to time cup o noodles it's called cup noodles it's not noodles cup o noodles it's cup of noodle it's cup noodles it's what the name of the knockoff is no that's the brand that you know is this one of those um things right misremembering thing it's not cup o noodle it's cup noodles it's cup noodles he's right dude cup noodles chicken yeah well they've got a new flavor coming out and it's only available in the united states it's it's oh campfire s'mores cup noodle campfire s'mores stupid that the taste is described as a blend of decadent chocolate marshmallow and graham cracker flavors with a smoky note they suggest having it with crushed up marshmallow crushed up graham graham crackers and the mini marshmallows as well i guess you just noodle some water in it and then throw on the microwave and it is it their noodles in there yeah it's ramen it's ramen with graham crackers doesn't sound like a good combination but what's the broth made out of the Hershey's chicken broth no i mean what's like chicken broth something yeah i don't just yeah described as a decadent chocolate marshmallow and graham cracker flavors so it's dessert i just don't know that i want watery deserting chocolate milk with noodles in it or what what's going on here do you like s'mores i do not i really don't either it's like sacrilege to save and i my kids made some recently at their graham other's house and i was like oh the juice isn't worth the squeeze it's not someone handed me a perfectly done s'more i'll eat it do i want to go through the whole toasting of the marshmallow graham cracker sandwich try to get it all to fit to stay and then you take one bite the whole thing crack falls apart falls apart chocolate's still cold it's usually always cold yeah i'm just not a big fan of like chocolate i don't like Hershey's chocolate so i've never been big on the s'mores now there was a restaurant we almost went to in las megas a couple weeks ago where they had like the table side dessert option was s'mores they brought out like a little flame and you got to make your own s'mores at the table was like okay i guess i would do that i feel like i'm doing all the work but yeah so if you want to try the cup noodles cup noodles campfire s'mores edition it's available for a limited time at walmart and walmart.com they go for a dollar 18 a cup all right i've been i have been really tearing my hair out about this cup of noodles thing because i was like what's it's not your life all right i looked it up and according to a couple of internet reddit threads up until 1993 it was cup o noodles and then they changed it in america to just cup noodles and since 1993 so the past 31 years it's just been cup noodles and not cup o noodles it's been 30 years to give me the time so why would you change it cup of noodles i didn't know right so i was born in 90s i mean my whole life it's been cup cup noodles but i remember it being referred to as cup of noodles oh i brought i got a cup of noodles for lunch or something so bad for you awful i mean it's awful i mean it's never irish so i don't know what if cup o noodles come in the morning to you and sit all to begin with but thank you poly you're very welcome cup noodles i'm gonna get my cup of noodles he's downstairs right now i'll be right back briano granny and cup o noodles all right yeah you got the kids coming in for the last couple of segments uh basketball ben might make an appearance we had some more uh free agency news i thought it might make the round the report it didn't so save it for me i know i'd say he has a library to hear thank you poly well i'll just figure it out for him we can we can trade i'll talk i'll do the farmer's dog here he can he can do the other one later so we'll be right back with more better woods after traffic here at 97-3 the fam right here as i was walking on the door the best basketball ben it's going to make an appearance i mean obviously the free agency stuff is continuing to progress at a very rapid rate we talked about it yesterday jason tatum got a huge contract extension largest deal in nva history uh clay tomsen's going to the mavs here in dallas on a three or fifty million dollar sign and trade lakers have gotten really nothing they've wanted didn't get the coach they wanted haven't got the players they wanted lebron can't find anyone who wants to be his teammate it's been a miserable off season for the lakers but you know they've won the off season before it doesn't necessarily mean you win the season so i'm just gonna i'm just gonna wait i think the most interesting story though is that just two weeks after winning the nba title the owner of the boston seltics is selling the team wick grouse beck who bought the team back in the early two thousands for wyc wick wick grouse wick beck wick grouse beck i was made up bought the team in 2002 for 360 million dollars and now the boston seltics probably are going to sell i mean probably the largest sale price ever in the history of a basketball team because they just want a championship and they get time to sell i guess i got the most titles in in nba history the phoenix sons just sell sold for four billion dollars uh you know what was that about a year ago uh so you've got to figure five billion without breaking a sweat for the boston seltics pretty good on your three hundred sixty million dollar investment but the timing here is very cold and calculated hey we just want a title i now have to pay all these players including giant contract extensions why don't i just cash out i got my ring now let's take my 4.7 billion dollar profit and walk away as a as a as a titleist as a champion i got it done what else do i need to do as a sports owner what another one that's the thing i mean how can you resist the sirens call once you've won a championship if not wanted to stick around and enjoy it and be that championship owner for a few years like i know i got a title you know but he's walking away and going i'm never gonna have a better time to sell this team was there a reason for it i have not seen like a specific reason the statement just said that they are expecting to sell a majority interest with grousebeck is gonna remain as governor for a while so he's kind of like mark q when he's gonna stick around with the team i think basically it's just once you know there's a lot of money to be had and might as well cash in yeah strike while the iron is hot so to speak i think so five billion dollars i mean that's my guess for the boston seltics if the phoenix sons are worth four billion right i mean at least five billion right for the for the boston seltics good lord maybe more maybe more hmm one day i'd like to invest a thousand dollars and make two hundred million dollars on it like what it's time runner by the yankie for like 75 grand or something and then within a decade it was worth you know whatever it was i mean holy sort of put myself in like a seltics fans shoes there like you win the title and then your owner sells are you are you bombed and i go wow that franchise has they have franchise stability it feels like no matter who is in charge like they're the seltics the Lakers they there's franchise stability it's like it'd be like it'd be so different if the Padres got so hot won the world series and then shill side lure and and the side lure family just sold the team just to cash out you'd be like oh we have just been set back ten years yeah you know it wasn't always the case investing in professional sports teams you know back in the sometimes sixties and seventies not a good thing buddy they still make you feel like owners would lose lose their shirt i mean they still make you feel that way how many owners in baseball cry for every single year every single year but honestly if you had the old time machine to go back and tell yourself your young self what to invest in it you know around the 1990s sports get in on a sports team yeah get in on an NBA team an NFL team obviously a major league baseball team and the gains have been just ridiculously exponential on those investments and i think there's you know there's reasons for it media is the big thing you got program 30 years i'm still investing in apple yes i'm investing in apple but all maybe also i think that money and i invest in a sports team but i mean the reason is pretty simple is in the in a day and age when media rights of shows people are watching less live tv than ever except for sports it's the one thing that we still have to sit down for you know two and a half hours watch all the commercials and you know when's the last time you watched an actual television program full through with all the commercials non-streamed i don't know but my six year olds who's sitting in my right knows every single pod race commercial that runs every single one i'm will be watching the game and he'll start doing obviously he does bill how wiener how but he also does the sequan by heart i mean that's the only thing we sit and watch commercials for that's it that is most grub is traded in this giant stack of pancakes for a big burrito with flowers yeah playing golf out there real good working on a swing i mean even though a pitcher but what's the best part of what's the best part of of being a starting pitcher rest in between starts hundred percent that big old stack of pancakes looks delicious doesn't it yeah man uh that is a that's a staggering figure for the boston seltics staggering and he didn't get in the ground floor i mean it was already 360 million i mean you're talking about back in the day steinbrenner investments that were really nothing pretty modest paltry and people were worried that they were overpaying oh my god he's gonna jorge steinbren and he's gonna lose a fortune paying paying for the new yorky aikis that much no no in fact he did not that investment worked out quite well for the steinbrenner 10 bucks bought it for 10 million bucks um and yeah that's probably worth about 10 billion now 10 million to 10 billion just like that in 1973 which probably at the time 10 million bucks was just so much though but it it definitely uh definitely paid for for that and then some his initial investment by the way 168 grand and you don't even have to be you don't even have to be a good owner to make that's that's the thing even the owners of teams that never win anything even the donald stirlings who are so bad that they have to be forced out still end up making hundreds and millions of dollars on their investment they're golden don't over the commander soldigan oh ridiculous and that's not i made so much money for being the worst owner in the history of sports you feel like there should be some consequences to that like financial consequences no no it's just financial benefits to being a horrible horrible owner and human being to have everything else yeah good call to the Rockies owner is just counting his money what's his name dick man for it just counting his money so it's ridiculous so good for wick grouse back and all the billions he's about to make on the boston seltics all right we'll come back a final segment uh pot raise baseball we'll get you ready for the series against the texas rangers coming up as we mentioned some pitching change matchups uh pitching matchup changes for the series coming up we'll get to all of that finishing off the day with benowoods on sanny ecos number one sports station 97 three the fan just a tweet over the break uh from the uh best and worst defensive players according to fan graphs this season and there are no pot raise among the best defenders but there are a bunch of them among the worst defenders awesome love that including uh louise campesano behind the plate has the worst uh fan graphs rating in baseball could believe that based on the eye test and then uh both the second baseman were actually pot raise and louise rise and jake croneworth which i i mean i get you believe numbers more than your eyes sure because you can't see everything that's happening but my eyes do not tell me that jake croneworth is a bad defender they tell me he's a good defender both at second base and first base yeah i think he grated out better at first base uh than he did at second and you know there's a lot a lot more ground to cover does he get to every ball you know that that the elite sure uh second baseman get to probably not and that probably hurts but i don't feel like he's just a slug standing there and everything's going by him i've seen bad second base play and it doesn't look like what jake does he makes a lot of good plays out there i feel like he's i feel like he's a plus defender in the field wherever you put him i don't i don't feel like he's one of the worst defenders but i do arise i can get bassano i don't the numbers don't seem to lie there why do they lie so much about jake don't know i don't know i the defensive one i think defensive numbers are the ones that are aren't they the most subjective you know has said that they definitely have the most work to do in trying to figure out how to numerically compute defensive value that there certainly is some flaws that they haven't totally worked out in the the formulas that that compute how valuable you are defensively yeah i just don't know i don't know says if a player makes all the plays within his limited range the numbers tend to still not like them don't read too much of them season to season i just don't feel like jake is extremely limited in his range either i don't even i'll take it man ultimately i i think second base is one of the least impactful positions defensively on the field and we're not we don't need jake cronworth to be number one analytics defensively at second base we need him to hit the ball yeah i need to hit he needs to hit and he's very beyond serviceable at second base and really but like you said grayed it out better at first um yeah you know you know a bad second base when when you see one and and i don't get that sense from him i do i do with with arise and and certainly at first is not the horizons leading the league in hitting or whatever all right fine deal with it if he's your second baseman yeah jake jake did he want to go glove he's i think he did they didn't finalist finalist yeah at second base yeah it can't be he's uh can't be though you watch and you go i've seen this kind of fall off since the beginning of a year uh pretty pretty poor but yeah i mean look i did all those do were probably hurt their contract value moving forward so you're lowering the price on luisa rise right now so maybe it's not the worst thing all right interesting series coming up pot raise and rangers we'll get into it in our final segment here after a check of traffic on 97 3 the fan so it's kind of interesting as you look at this upcoming series i mentioned the pot raise of reworked their starting rotation slightly they're moving dylan sees up to pitch today at a measure we'll pitch tomorrow and then michael king in the series finale but in a simply uh one-on-one comparison with the eras of starting pitchers the rangers have the advantage in every single game of this series uh nathan of all day going tonight three four five era against dylan seizes three eight four obviously john gray has got a three seven seven better than adam major who's over seven and then uh mak surezer who is just back from the injured list but his pitch pretty well one seven four era against michael king's three six one you look at that and you know that is the core of their rotation you start wondering well why are the texas rangers then struggling so badly coming off a world series tunnel they're 38 and 46 they're well back in both the ayl west and the wild card race in the american league i mean they have home run you know sluggers at least carcia 16 homers cori segar has 15 more than anybody on the pot raise where are these struggles coming from for the texas rangers they simply just have a really bad manager that doesn't know what he's doing in vruss mochi i don't think that can really be it the texas rangers the uh ultimately they're just not hitting consistently this season and i've watched and that's about the only explanation i can give you listen i'll reserve judgment till after this series i've watched and inning not much of texas rangers baseball this year which puts me on par with the average texas ranger fan uh in the early i texted a couple buddies last night separately that live in texas they're gonna go see my pod race this week they go now rangers aren't very fun to watch right now so there i mean it's it's full bore dallas cowboys training camp right now that's it that's all they're thinking about probably all they're talking about right now and if they get back into the race they'll heat back up in september uh with their their their viewership of the team that's how it's always been uh having grown up in that area didn't matter how good they were how many stars they had it just it's it's it's cowboys town period so uh i i will reserve judgment i do look at them and based on what they accomplished last year i say yeah they're they're certainly not out of it by any stretch again when you've got arms like that and you got sures are coming back it's going to be a tall task for the san diego potter it's not the only um thing that you're excited about is you got three righties but they're all they're all guys that that can hump it up a little bit especially of vaulty tonight man i mean you better you better be on the heater tonight and if you're on the heater you can win this game if you're not he could he could pick you apart i mean looking at the numbers i guess here's the big difference the rangers only have two regulars in their lineup who are even getting on base 30 percent of the time a 300 obp or better corey seager and josh smith at second base every other one of their starters has an obp that starts with a two they just striking out a ton yeah not walking not getting on base for comparison sake the pod raise every single regular in the lineup is over 300 leading baseball jerks and pro four at four oh eight tatties three fifty four hasan kim three thirty six jackson meryl three twenty eight crona worth three twenty four man even if the slow start three fourteen salano three forty nine or eyes three fifty two every single pod rate is getting on base and almost no texas rangers are getting on base that's why obp is still very important i mean you like you know batting average is good oh yes for slugging is great they've got slug they're just not getting on base so when they get a homerun it's almost always a solo shot nobody is getting on base for the texas rangers this year interesting yeah it's interesting stuff he's all day tonight uh he's a five pitch pitcher benny he's going to throw that heater at you it's about ninety six so you got to be on that then when you're looking heater he's going to throw that splitty at you and his splitty's pretty nasty too it's low nineties as well um he throws a curve ball throws a cutter throws a slider a little bit he's he's a he's a five pitch pitcher that is good but it's hard to shut down the pot raise offense completely because they will probably make contact and all they need is one inning where when they make their contact that a few balls fall in and then they have guys on base and then they tend to bring them home and that's why the pot raise lead baseball in what four run innings this year yeah that's what they've done really well and occasionally there are games where they the balls don't fall in or they don't get those hits with runners in scoring position like sunday the new distortion game uh when they'll score one very well done because you know they got hits they got eight they had runners in scoring position but they didn't ever have that inning where that all came together but most games for the most part they they do they find even against the tough pitchers you know our eyes has his lead off single there and then one of the next two guys gets a hit and then it's first and third then you get one or more two two or more hits or someone gets a home run and it's boom you've got three or four runs on the board just like that and that's been the recipe for pot raise victories this season well it happened this series you never know for sure they're going up against tough pitchers but it's not i don't feel like oh they've got no chance against any of these guys feel like they absolutely have a chance against every single pitcher they face because of their approach and the way they do it i do wonder man you know you you think about some some teams that may be sellers and we talked about the texas rangers potentially maybe being one of those teams i i don't think that you can i don't think that you could throw in the towel certainly with an entire month of july left and you're getting guys back healthy but man if they did continue to to struggle down the stretch Evaldi is an interesting guy he signed a two-year 34 million dollar deal i think it was before last season so would does that would he be how big a sellers can they defending champs really be calm i mean i have no idea you got to think if anything they would hope to restock for next year what why why wouldn't they be sellers if they if they if they have a crap july i mean who do they have on oh like whose contract expires this year at is evaldi is he got one more year evaldi is uh has a vesting option for next year which if he gets 300 innings over the last two seasons gets to 20 million dollars a year and a half left so my guess is that that will since he's been pretty healthy that will vest so i'm putting myself in their shoes they just won the title last year you think you have it's not working out this year but you still think you have the roster to go make another run you're not just gonna start dumping everybody this season may be gone or out of reach so if you have anybody whose contract was gonna be a free agent after this year yeah i could see them being on the move that would be interesting unloading yeah this is it look i mean this is a huge series for them huge huge series for the astros are i mean the astros are turning back into the astros again we all kind of new we all had one i open on the astros i just have not followed that division very much at all probably the the division in baseball the mariners have been the best team but not good enough to put the astros away they're dying and now the astros are hot on their heels and i i would i haven't looked at the odds recently but my guess is that odds makers probably make the astros the favorites rest of the season it's got to be close with the mariners at least even with the mariners what it's only about three and a half games i think now back in the division for the Houston astros at this point so they're coming on strong and the rangers have a couple of teams ahead of them and they're not they're not coming on strong at all now right don't let them come on strong now don't be the team that gets them right don't don't be the team that gets them you know feeling good again um they have they haven't been playing good baseball we want them to well it starts with dylan cease doing something he hasn't done in the last couple of months and that is put together two consecutive really good starts yes had a great one his last time out last wednesday against the washington nationals with seven innings one hit no runs best start he's had and probably what month and a half but we've seen a couple of good starts and then and then he kind of the next one is not so good can he put together just two really good starts in a row and get the pot raise off to a series series win you know chance to win another series they'll have no wins on the road trip it's this is a big one today knowing you've got major going tomorrow and if this is kind of a little bit of one of those sellout games you know if you're mike shilt and and they manage that way he absolutely does like if he needs if he needs bobby tonight for four outs he's gonna do it oh for sure no question yeah i mean you if you have a chance to win that's got all our bullets in his chamber tonight's game he does and i think he's going to use them tonight uh you always want to win when your ace is on the bump certainly knowing again who's to follow the next day and and king has been really good you never eat i mean he could go out and dominate the rangers easily so but this is that one that you really really want to get if you can get off to a lead early watch him manage that game a little bit differently than he would yeah in a universe that makes sense which is rarely the one the pot raise i hit yeah pot raise you know take this series by winning today and thursday yeah correct and you come home with a four and two road trip and you're more than happy with that now is could they win tomorrow with major on the mount sure yeah the last last they're always you never know when the pot is gonna drop that eight running all of a sudden and that can turn anybody into a winner but in the universe that you know may has some logic to it get today's game you know hope cross your fingers for tomorrow and then give yourself a chance to win the series with michael king again shurzer who you know again don't know what he's got right now still probably a little hit or miss coming back from the injured list on thursday and that's how this series should should shape up on paper but we could now swept down you just completely ignore that in real life exactly when the pot raise could sweep or get swept and and we really don't know what's gonna happen tonight maybe win tonight i know find a way to win the first day that would be a good way to to get things started yeah there they're they still scare me they've got they've got those players where you're like man this guy's a really really tough out you know Wyatt Langford him in for the cycle the other day like he's starting to round into form they've got guys that haven't i don't know if seager his availability for the series i think he's in he's just one of the scariest hitters in the game of baseball just an absolute stud imagine letting that guy walk from your franchise i mean just amazing to me so hopefully i don't know if he's if he's back or not i know he got dotted on the hand i did not see him playing against the Orioles in the last game but again i know nothing about the text rate but you know they had a day off yesterday as well everyone trying to reset for the start of this series so we'll see yeah as you said though pot raise bullpen should be in good shape with the off days yesterday thursday before that even with having to use some of the pitchers in the in the series in boston didn't have to break out Robert Suarez at all Jeremiah Strata had the one inning on on sunday everyone should be available to the pond raise in this game today for a chance to start the series off on a on a good note and put yourself in it with two chances essentially to win the series the next couple of days yeah seager had an MRI came back negative so it's just a matter of his discomfort had the day off yesterday so we'll see i mean you know if if he's in the lineup he's he's not having a corey seager like here and even in a down year for him benny still got 15 bombs for him so he's pretty nasty all right we are done for today we'll come back tomorrow we'll have a game to wrap up it'll be our last day of the week as we get you ready for the fourth of july holiday everyone have a good rest your tuesday for executive producer and imaging director paul rindall for steven woods i'm ben higgins and he and elston coming up next here on sandy it goes number one sportstation ninety seven three to fan so long 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Our ninety seven three the fan is brought to you by the frozen ropes baseball and softball training facilities. Hey parents frozen rope softball summer league starting up registering softball players ages six through twelve six games six practices with professional coaching starts mid July make it a frozen rope summer go to sandy eco frozen ropes dot com and call to register today. It's always weird when I talk about one of the things that you usually talk about yeah frozen ropes or if you were talking about like the farmers dog or SD fat loss dot com yeah but I don't mind throw it in there. Sounds like fun. My little frozen ropes player will be here in about an hour. Mama's got to drop them off. It's the the summer juggling of mom's got to work kids need care salute all of those parents out there man. The nine to fiveers. I don't know how you do it. I really don't. I mean I am very lucky and Hannah's very lucky with our schedules that you know we can handle it. Nine to five single parent or something forget it. You want you feel guilty because you can't wait for school to start again that structure that yeah but you know the kids don't want that really has nothing to do with structure. It has to do with the place that you can dump your kid off for like eight hours and then do what you want to do. That's really I mean if I'm being completely honest with you that's what it is. I know it's even harder for Jesse who has to be traveling during the summer as well. I'm sure Mrs. Agler is just on him. We will talk with Jesse Agler and get his thoughts from Texas right after a check of traffic here on 97-3 the fan. So as Jesse joins us from Arlington Texas and baseball season he's working almost every day when the Padres are at home and they have a rare off day. I know he's at home and you know helping out doing whatever he can but there is though those weird situations during the baseball season where you have an off day on the road. You can't really do anything. It's just can't do anything about it. Just kind of it's a day off. It's a day for you. There's nothing you can do at home Jesse so how did you spend the off day yesterday in Dallas? I have said for a very long time that the most valuable days on the baseball calendar are the road off days and it's exactly what you just said. It's like sorry you know I mean when you're at home and you've got an off day with family stuff you can drive cleaning and laundry you know like a dentist or whatever like anything you need to catch up on. That's what the home off days are for and so really the only like for me at least the true true off days are the ones on the road. So it was it was pretty low key you know it's like a billion degrees here. Texas is great right because you combine the heat of Arizona with the humidity of Florida and you put it all into one. It's really amazing. So didn't you know get out in a bag or anything necessarily but you know worked out walked over to a place close by for lunch. I saw Mike Schilt there and he was it seemed like having a very similar day that I was. Why were you a Chipotle for lunch? Oh you know it wasn't there's no Chipotle within walking distance. But yeah it was like you know a whole lot of nothing I think is how he put it. You know I mean everybody I think just trying to rest and recuperate a little bit so yeah you know kind of a low-key day recharge here. It's a much much friendlier schedule in the next month than it was in the last month in terms of you know how often they're playing and days off. So you know hopefully you know you'll you'll see that reflected in the win loss record because you know as I'm sure I've said to you guys and I and Tony and I have talked about a lot too. I think you know some of the struggles that the Padres had in the last call it five weeks had to do with the fact that the schedule was just gnarly and those lack of days off and then you get into a situation where you had a couple starters who weren't regularly going deep into the games. It puts you so far behind the eight ball but now they're going to be in a position for the next five weeks really where they're able to absorb you know some more stuff like that and we'll see how it goes. You know if I were you if I was if I was Jesse Agler doing the same role I wouldn't even call home on those days off on the road. I would not make that doesn't work now. Well I shoot a text. Hope you guys are good. I'm going to the JFK Museum right now. See you guys later. Like there's just no way to get my ass kicked every time Jesse Agler the Incorporated joins us here on a Tuesday Jesse. Yeah obviously you you get the chance to go to Fenway Park. We were texting about it a little bit. Pretty incredible man. Pretty freaking incredible to go. That ballpark is a cathedral. You got to do all the ins and outs. You got to go out and what does it smell like inside the green monster? You know what it's funny the the green monster so the day I went in was Sunday the day game and it was really very warm and steamy outside and I was like it's probably going to be pretty gross inside the monster but it was kind of damp and cool. A little bit like a wine cellar feel almost. Not wine but you know like numbered placards and name placards for all the different teams but it was it was actually it wasn't too dank or anything in there. You know there's I guess a fair amount of ventilation because there's all the holes in the slots that go out there but yeah it was just it's really really neat. I mean I'd been there only once in my life it was you know summer after junior year of high school looking at colleges with my dad and it was before the Red Sox had won so it was before Fenway was crazy and we literally I just remember walked up to the box office you know 20 minutes before the game bought two tickets and like you know went to a game. That was in the summer I guess of 99 and and that was the only other time in my life I'd been to Fenway so obviously a very very different experience this time and to be able to kind of have the access that I did and to be able to walk around on the field and go inside the monster and you know get there super early on the first day to just sort of walk around and take it in. Special man it's it's one of the the best parts of this job it's like a total baseball geek you know to be able to experience those different places and and do so in a very special kind of intimate way. You know the fact that I can just roll up there at two o'clock you know before a seven o'clock game and almost have the place to myself right is is incredible so you know you guys know I'm a big geek with that kind of stuff it was very special and while globe life is not necessarily of the same historic significance as Fenway this will be my final ballpark to check this series for the Rangers the two times the more the couple years that the Padres have played here was COVID so we didn't get the opportunity to come and this will complete the circuit for you're done which I'm excited about. You're done that's it every friggin ballpark that's incredible. Tell they build a new one. Tell they build a new one. Yeah it's amazing. Look at you. Jesse let me ask you because the all-star game is coming up at that very same park in two weeks from today and I wondered like a week ago I could have made a pretty compelling case for Jackson Merrill to be included on the NL team now it's hard to make a case for leaving him off right the the nationally all-star team. Do you get the sense that word is getting out about Jackson Merrill beyond San Diego and what he is now doing in his rookie season that is pretty incredible now. No doubt about it. You know he's definitely broken through the the West Coast News if you will. Sometimes as we all know that wall is a difficult one to to push through but I think he has there's been a lot of talk about him. You know all-star I haven't taken like a close enough look at you know the voting and all that kind of stuff to see you know the other names that are involved. He's not in the final vote but he could certainly be a reserve he's the no he has the no no no but I'm saying the guy's the only out fielder in the nation might end up as reserves I haven't looked at the names and the numbers you know for all those guys but look from a numbers standpoint for him certainly those are all-star numbers. I don't think there's any doubt about it and and you know when you start considering getting a rookie who's going to be a top vote getter and rookie the year if not the winner in the national league into the all-star game you know for MLB that's that's a good move right I mean you want to be able to showcase somebody like that because this is a budding star in the league you know I think I said on on the year to Tony after the Brewers series when the nats were in town I said you know it kind of felt to me like in the last week Jackson Merrill had leveled up like in a video game you know like he'd kind of just gotten to that next point and and since I've said that I feel like he's leveled up three more times I mean it's been absolutely incredible watching this guy uh exceeding every expectation I had honestly you know in terms of what he'd be able to provide and he's been a critical piece to the success that this team has had not just on the field and not just with the numbers but I think the energy and the intensity and the kind of the personality that he brings is really important to this team as well and you know if you're watching these games or listening to these games or going to these games you noticed that it would be impossible to miss so yeah there's no doubt he's becoming more and more of a national story and and he deserves to be because it's it's remarkable what he's doing it really is talking to our pal Jesse Agler here on Ben and Woods this morning and I got to imagine the last 10 days or so have been pretty awesome to be in your position I mean some really good baseball like the you got the walk offs you got the the bench is clearing you've got the kerfluffle the next day at home plate like that's good stuff and I know that you guys run into you know the dog days of August we all do we do cover in the team too where it's like what a slog it is to watch this game sometimes but man you live for like the last 10 games or so it has been so much fun and and you know like most importantly obviously is the wins that have gone along with it what is it you know nine out of eleven now winning is always more fun you know people think we're better broadcasters when the team is winning I'm sure people think you guys are better doing your show when the team is winning how that works right but like yeah I mean it's it's not just that they're winning to your point it's that they're they're playing very entertaining baseball and I've said really all year they play a very watchable brand of baseball you know we're lucky enough right we get to see now with the schedule as it is we get to see literally every team in person there are a whole lot of teams even good teams in Major League Baseball they play hard to watch baseball and and the Padres don't you know they put the ball in play they strike out less than any other team in Major League Baseball this year they've got this sort of really interesting entertaining lineup different guys that can do different things different ways you know they can run when they want to they play really good defense generally speaking it's it's it's great because it's not just that they're playing winning baseball they're playing entertaining baseball fun baseball and again the word I keep using is watchable baseball like there are again and I'm not naming names but there are really really good teams out there that are just bad to watch they don't play a fun brand of baseball you know they just kind of sit around and they just bloody bludgeon you and take ability and pitches and it takes forever Padres aren't about that you know it's just such a different approach than they had last year and it's really fun to watch and I tell you what if more teams sort of committed to trying to play the kind of baseball that the Padres play I think NLB would be in a better spot around the country because it's it's it's noticeably different how the Padres kind of approach things that than most every other team elite talking to Jesse Ackler he's with us from Texas Padres Rangers tonight at 505 here on 97-3 the fan and Jesse I know you always take a pretty measured approach when it comes to the the trade deadline what will happen what will happen and you know AJ Preller's always active but you do hear things I mean did you have any expectations here about what might transpire over the next few weeks yeah I mean you know they're gonna try and add you know this this is this window let's call it opening in 2020 you know officially like this is this is the heart of the window you know you've got guys in their primes you've got the whole thing set up to make a run no doubt and you know I don't care about how last year went and how disappointing it was you know I remember going on with you guys at some point you know and we said you have to remember that it's it's always bigger than just the one year and and look at the Rangers you know I mean they they won it all last year they've got a not good record this year one of the worst records ever for a defending champion going into the month of July that doesn't mean they can't be great again next year you know think about those Giants teams that Bruce Bocey had right 2010 they win you know on and on I think in 2013 in between the second and third titles they ended up finishing like 10 games under 500 so point being that this window is still the window the window is still open and the Padres are still really really you know having the goal of wanting to win it all even with the disappointment of last year that never changed and I think a lot of people you know around the league and around the country who weren't paying as close attention as all of us you know thought oh they traded one Soto they're not bringing Blake Snellback they're not trying to compete that was never the case this team still always had World Series 2024 at the top of the to-do list and you know now especially the way they're playing there's no way that's changing and that means that they're going to be in a position to try and and get even better at the trade deadline now what actually happens what comes together who knows you know there's there's a billion variables that go into all of that but you better believe that they're going to be trying to make themselves even better because they believe rightfully by the way that this is a World Series caliber team and that is the goal for everybody involved in this organization Jesse let's see we kind of get to the dog days of summer when it comes to the incorporation counting on woods to break us out with a good choice this week and I don't even know what you've picked bro I found this word okay and I'm still looking for how to say it so I sent it to Paulie for the pronunciation go ahead Paulie Nudy Estrasian what Nudy Estrasian Nudy Estrasian why did you pick someone on the internet who speaks a foreign language that's just that's just what pops up Nudy Estrasian what's the definition it's a good question I'm glad you asked that question because I am certain I'm looking for right now firing on all cylinders we really are Nudy Estrasian Nudy Estrasian yeah it's an adjective oh that you're relating to the day before yesterday the day well we're yesterday Nudy Estrasian so it's it's like the opposite of penultimate oh yes it's a great word penultimate so let's see so Sunday the would be today the Nudy Estrasian day to today right but it's an adjective how do you use that as interesting it's good point good luck how could it be an adjective I don't know that's just what it says a DJ is adjective I know that from my English degree I'm now this is this is a tough one this is like the Nudy Estrasian game would be the yes look at you all right now he's got it now he's got it we just made it easy for yeah we made it's never going to be easy to say Nudy Estrasian and there's there's no way to slip that one past Tony no I mean so here's how here's an example I saw him Nudy Estrasian which would mean I saw you on Sunday saw him in the locker sounds like yeah sounds like he saw him I was close that's right Nudy Estrasian I like that that's a tough one I'm trying I'm not trying to make it easy on this is what happens when we all text each other while Jesse's on the air with us trying to find a word yeah Nudy Estrasian piece of cake bro you got this all right what if what if next week to mix it up what if what if I bring the word oh oh I like that I like it we like they need a mix up for sure yeah we do Nudy Estrasian Nudy Estrasian good luck safe trip back home hey for the rest of the first time check out that JFK museum it's really good yeah it's very cool actually if you've ever if you've never been it's really cool nearly plausible yeah I might try and go over tomorrow morning I do it yeah you love it Jesse Ackler voice of the pod race and again 505 first pitch today 405 eco water so count pre-game show with Sam Leavitt it's Dylan Sees on the mound to open the series against Nathan Yolvaldi for the Texas Rangers Pauli wanted us to see if he would do hawk toa he's not people in the chatroom he's not going to do hawk toa it's been done in a major league broadcast it has so it's already been done I wonder if that guy got in trouble do you think he did do you think Jesse well I don't think he getting trouble really I mean I guess it depends who your boss is that's true I wonder if Jesse would get in trouble he's pretty buttoned up I don't think he's gonna do hawk toa Jesse would just be mad at himself he just wouldn't allow it to have to it it's not even a word it's two words neither of them are words hawk is a it's a sound hawk is a word hawk hawk toa place the definition of hawk I do get you what's the definition of hawk hawk yeah it's a bird well see not miss not in this context there's nothing bird they're not talking about birds there I will come back right in the report final hour of Benawood's next year on the fan just had Jesse Ackler on from Dallas and he said he might might do the JFK museum I did at least the tour when I was a kid the only time I went to Dallas with my grandmother and we I saw the grassy knoll in the schoolbook depository the X certain X right in the middle of the road it's crazy I mean it's it's pretty surreal when you when you go there used to drive over that X every single day really where president Kennedy was shot yeah it was it's gnarly and then the grassy knoll is a trip and then being in the depository he's not so I mean it's a it's a good it's a good thing to do if you're in that town but you really I have no reason to really go to that town my parents don't even live near Dallas anymore so they're they're two hours away so I I don't get to spend as much time there but I would totally totally go back and such a sad and and macabre moment yes in American history uh for but there's been so much media you know movies television programs that have dealt with it over the years still it's it's become almost mythical in its significance to American history it's it's still I mean every year you're like what really happened like the assassination of president Kennedy have never it's never gonna die yeah and you know me I'm as far from a conspiracy theorist as possible that one is though some of those you read you go oh oh make sense make sense the magic bullet I mean it's fascinating stuff and to go sit and look through the window is uh it gives you gives you a little bit of the heebie jeebies uh when you do it you're must have been pretty little when you went yeah I was so it's very young yeah I went it's pretty always have the historical context necessarily but even as uh what our nine or ten year old you certainly had heard of the JFK assassination and you knew it was a president and a big dio and to be in the same spot that the history as sad as it was was made was was definitely memorable to be there east county cress wants to know would see did you ever go to billy bobs I did uh quite a bit let's billy bobs the world's largest honky talk and it's a fort worth and it's awesome I mean they have them they have bull riding their mechanical bull they it's nuts it's nuts it's maybe the size of petko park i mean you walk you walk in you're like buddy i can't find you i'm not gonna find you i mean it is massive there's more than one bar and room oh dude it's huge huge huge billy bobs kicks ass i used to we just go there and watch uh bands and stuff play and it's fort worth great fort worth a great little town um but yeah there's i just have no reason to go back there look where i live so i was telling my parents no i've you come here it's paradise not gonna come there we've done that come on out here plenty to see plenty to do about padre's last uh road trip before the all-star break three more games in texas today tomorrow and then uh thursday fourth of july day game and then back for the final eight games at petko park the last homestand heading into the all-star break i will talk more padre's baseball coming up right now though poly's got some headlines it is time for the rindle report and get things started here with our addition today's edition of the rindle report now tuned into the month greatest welcome to the rindle report with paul rindle hi paul all right two stories from the world of sports that we haven't gotten to yet we'll start off in major league baseball and one story that you didn't know you needed are you laughing beyond it's the rindle report hey paul how you doing okay how are you on 97-3 the fan are you ready to blast the mood i need some help please that was good can i eat a whole year all right all right all right good morning my friends good morning you know uh today would have been a big day on this show five six years ago tartnock's day i did not know this it's july second i guess training camps are about to start not for another two or three weeks i thought it was later in july i think well the reason it feels like hard knocks is starting earlier than normal is because well it is there are three different versions of hard knocks this year gentlemen i think we've talked about it like like bits and pieces over the last few months but i've got it all kind of broken down here uh there will be five episodes of the first installment of 2024 hard knocks beginning tonight on hbl max okay it's the off-season version okay with the giants five episodes going from july second through july 30th okay then you will have the training camp version which i think is the more traditional that's the one we're using that you're used to that's what the chicago bears interesting that's gonna run five episodes as well from august sixth through september third okay then we have the in-season version that they have tried in the past i think the amazon prime has also done one take so yeah i think i think you're correct and that's all it just says is the afc north we don't have a team yet the north and that's going to be the december third is when it starts that goes into the post-season it's a minimum of seven episodes depending on so they'll pick a playoff team or a team that should make playoffs and follow them as long as their season goes all right go into your head which one do you do you watch if you had to i'm watching the bears one i think the in-season one yeah i would watch no wait the in-season yeah i would probably watch that one the in-season one you don't want to watch the bears scale billions i just they're they're all the same they are all the same all the same we needed less hard knocks not more i got more i needed like hey we're gonna do three big episodes you're really gonna like them not more in different teams here's my question it just feels like okay this was a good idea when it happened but it's great time is see spent it feels that way and maybe this is just the uh the erin roger's effect but uh according to front office sports hbo said that last year's traditional training camp series saw its best viewership in 13 years who was they covered the jets them yeah because yeah yeah a lot a lot of a lot going on I mean viewership of everything has become so fractured and streaming that you don't even need that big of an audience to justify it anymore so they're gonna keep doing it my question to the two of you is production company comes to us right now and they said they want to do behind the scenes of a morning radio show sure and follow us for six weeks the cameras they come home with us they come to work with us to interviews during the day you know it's going to be on a streaming series somewhere they got a platform lined up do we say yes or no would you do that i think you say yes but i just don't know if you're gonna get the authentic like a hundred percent real authentic i mean that means they gotta go into our text messages and because we don't something we talk a lot or hang out after the show much because you got other jobs i got a family you know and it's like what are you gonna get hey what do you guys what do you have to set up more activities like they do on real housewives they have to have like which would be all fake that's not that's not up that's not the real dead bodies he's gotten his garage that's right you have to let him in your garage that would be if that's not authentic it's not authentic you never is hard not no exactly you're never gonna get a true authentic thing unless you do they have their off the kill activities as well you think that's not the tv producers that are setting that up unless you do hidden cameras and stuff then that's the only way they have like cameras in the studio like in between the discussions we have during the breaks and stuff all the bits that we can't do on air that we do in here yeah that would be great for us but you'd you'd then be a little more guarded knowing of course cameras are on all the time of course that's the same thing that happens in the nfl exactly no one is there 100% authentic self when they know what camera is on yeah no doubt no one nobody ever no you can't be but i would do it people wanted it yeah i'm open to access i think you'd be pretty bored i think you'd be on the Roku channel i think you'd be pretty bored you come home to my house just me screaming to my kids my kids going crazy Hannah and i butting heads about something like all right just about just two hours of us asking what do you want to do for dinner no what do you want to do for dinner what do you want to do for dinner every night my whole it's this groundhog day every day is the same no no what do you want to do i don't care what do you want which other high-mest is knee up a few months ago all right we need to bring that up hmm let's move on i would need to i would need some private time non-camera rooms non-camera rooms yeah we're just getting alive to the audio here no you're not yes let's move on so espn they are owned by disney and they're going very disney with their newest venture and when i see companies or teams or organizations put on these big extravagant experiences it's usually a quick no for me yep you know hey join us on the espn cruise or whatever i'm like no no thanks but there is a new one coming out new experience that i think is actually pretty interesting it's called espn experiences take me out to the ball parks and this is a trip it's a five-day four-night trip from august 29th through second and you can pay to get the ultimate sports fan media baseball experience okay it's not cheap it's going to cost seven thousand dollars a person at home that says uh with double occupancy or eighty five hundred dollars for single occupancy so i guess if you want to go buy yourself and stay like you not have a roommate yeah not have a roommate extra fifty five hundred bucks what you get is you will get to go to fenway park in boston you'll go to yanki stanium in new york and you will go to a game at citizens bank park in philadelphia you'll also get a private tour of the jackie robinson museum in new york you'll get an mvp tour of espn's headquarters in bristol caneticate get meet and greets with all the on-air talent uh david kone michael kade dug glanville carl ravage buster only and it says and more and more don't know exactly so three games three games eighty of these seats better be outstanding outstanding you can set your own trip up to go to all those yeah but you're not going to do any of the meet and greets and stuff at espn if that's something that i don't think i like the experience so i did the you two experience because i was forced into doing a youtube experience i'm guessing they're pretty good seats i would guess for eighty five hundred bucks but like that was really what it cost for us to play on a trip to all three cities and go to games probably you're probably right in that area yeah you're not getting a deal on this i mean the reason they can put it together is they can charge a premium and make money on it so clearly if you did this piecemeal yourself you'd be able to spend less now you're right you wouldn't necessarily be able to set up meet and greets with all the espn hosts but i mean what's is very nice you just set him a nice email he'll come meet you it's true really whenever you want so it's true you probably can email Linda kone and if she's nice you say can you run outside you might come by and just do a little meet and greet during my the guy the gate's a ballpark tour why are you here all right Linda kone's gonna come outside and say hello do you mind what's stupid hey you ask nicely enough for anything there's a lot of people who will say yes i will say man i do like a pack i like a packaged the you two thing really sold me i was gonna buy the regular tickets i couldn't and i wanted to go see them so badly at the sphere and i was like well you can buy this vip experience it was a it was a fortune and i was like i'm only gonna live on this planet one time i have to do it so i did it i loved every second they gave me a book we got to go to the museum like the whole thing was the rooms were great the tickets were phenomenal it was the best night we've ever had maybe as a as a couple so i'm like it was worth every penny so i kind of like the package deal thing can't do it all the time right you can't do it for every concert you know you gotta pick and choose your moments but if you love baseball it's pretty good i mean i've never been to these coast i've certainly been to any of those stadiums like that you'd have a blast that would be i would be listening for that one for sure all right and then uh i i tend to tell you guys about weird or new foods that are coming out and i got this one sent to you we order our red bull barbecue sauce yet or no five hour energy barbecue sauce that's right yeah all right it's tuesday isn't it's tuesday i got a new one here and it is from cup noodles pat a cup noodle from time to time cup oh noodles it's called cup noodles it's not noodles cup oh noodles cup of noodle it's cup noodles it's what the name of the knockoff no that's the brand that you know is this one of those um things right misremembering thing it's not cup oh noodle it's cup noodles it's cup noodles right dude cup noodles chicken yeah well they've got a new flavor coming out and it's only available in the united states and it's it's oh can't fire s'mores so cup noodle can't fire s'mores stupid that the taste is described as a blend of decadent chocolate marshmallow and graham cracker flavors with a smoky note they suggest having it with crushed up marshmallow or crushed up graham graham crackers and the mini marshmallows as well i guess you just noodle some water in it and then throw it in the microwave and it is it their noodles in there yeah it's ramen it's ramen with graham crackers doesn't sound like a good combination but what's the broth made out of her she's chicken broth no i mean what's like chicken broth something yeah i don't just yeah described as a decadent chocolate marshmallow and graham cracker flavors it's like it's dessert i just don't know that i want watery deserting chocolate milk with noodles in it or what what's going on here do you like s'mores i do not i really don't either it's like sacrilege to save and i my kids made some recently at their graham mother's house and i was like oh the juice isn't worth the squeeze it's not someone handed me a perfectly done s'more i'll eat it do i want to go through the whole toasting of the marshmallow graham cracker sandwich trying to get it all to fit to stay and then you take one bite the whole thing crack falls apart falls apart chocolate's still cold it's usually always it's cold yeah i'm just not a big fan of like chocolate i don't like her she's chocolate so i've never been big on the s'mores now there was a restaurant we almost went to in las megas a couple weeks ago where they had like the table side dessert option was s'mores they brought out like a little flame and you got to make your own s'mores at the tables like okay i guess i would i would do that feel like i'm doing all the work but yeah so if you want to try the cup noodles cup noodles campfire s'mores edition it's available for a limited time at walmart and walmart.com they go for a dollar 18 a cup all right i've been i have been really tearing my hair out about this cup o' noodles thing because i was like what it's not your life all right i looked it up and according to a a couple of internet Reddit threads up until 1993 it was cup o' noodles and then they changed it in america to just cup noodles and since 1993 so the past 31 years it's just been cup noodles and not cup o' noodles it's been 30 years get rid of the time so why would you change it cup of noodles i don't know right so i was born in 90s i mean my whole life it's been cup cup noodles but i remember it being referred to as cup of noodles oh i brought i got a cup of noodles for lunch or something so bad for you awful i mean it's so bad i mean it's awful it was never irish so i don't know what if cup o' noodle in the morning to you and sit all to begin with but thank you poly you're very welcome cup noodles i think you'll get my cup of noodles he's downstairs right now i'll be right back briano granny and cup o' noodles all right yeah you got the kids coming in for the last couple of segments uh basketball ben might make an appearance we had some more uh free agency news i thought it might make the round the report it didn't so save it for me how do i tell woods he has a library to hear thank you poly well i'll just figure it out for him well we can we can trade alt i i'll do the farmer's dog here he can he can do the other one later so we'll be right back with more better woods after traffic here at 97 through the fan right here as i was walking on the door the basketball ben it's going to make an appearance i mean obviously the free agency stuff is continuing to progress at a very rapid rate we talked about it yesterday jason tatum got a huge contract extension largest deal in n_v_a_ history uh clay thompson's going to the mavs here in dallas on the three or fifty million dollars sign and trade lakers have gotten really nothing they've wanted didn't get the coach they wanted haven't got the players they wanted and labron can't find anyone who wants to be his teammate it's been a miserable off season for the lakers but you know they've won the off season before it doesn't necessarily mean you win the season so i'm just gonna i'm just gonna wait i think the most interesting story though is that just two weeks after winning the n_v_a_ title the owner of the boston seltics is selling the team wick grouse back who bought the team back in the early two thousands for wyc wick wick grouse wick back back wick grouse back i was made of bought the team in 2002 for 360 million dollars and now the boston seltics probably are going to sell i mean probably the largest sale price ever in the history of a basketball team because they just want a championship and a good time to sell i guess i've got the most titles in in n_v_a_ history the phoenix sons just sell sold for four billion dollars uh you know what was that about a year ago uh so you've got to figure five billion without breaking a sweat for the boston seltics pretty good on your 360 million dollar investment but the timing here is very cold and calculated hey we just want a title i now have to pay all these players including giant contract extensions why don't i just cash out you got my ring now let's take my 4.7 billion dollar profit and walk away as a as a as a titleist as a champion i got it done what else do i need to do as a sports owner what another one now that's the thing i mean how can you resist the sirens call once you've won a championship if not wanted to stick around and enjoy it and be that championship owner for a few years like i know i got a title you know but he's walking away and going i'm never gonna have a better time there's a reason was there a reason for it i have not seen like a specific reason the statement just said that they are expecting to sell a majority interest with grouse beck is gonna remain as governor for a while so he's kind of like mark human he's gonna stick around with a team i think basically he's just wants he knows there's a lot of money to be had and might as well cash in yeah strike while the iron is hot so to speak i think so five billion dollars i mean that's my guess for the boston seltics if the phoenix sons are worth four billion right i mean at least five billion right for the for the boston seltics maybe more maybe more maybe more hmm one day i'd like to invest a thousand dollars and make done two hundred million dollars on it like what it's time rendered by the yankie for like 75 grand or something and within a decade it was worth you know whatever it was i mean holy sort of put myself in like a seltics fans shoes there like you win the title and then your owner sells are you are you bummed and i go wow that franchise has they have franchise stability it feels like no matter who is in charge like they're the seltics the Lakers they there's franchise stability it's like it'd be like it'd be so different if the pajres got so hot won the world series and then shill sidler and and the sidler family just sold the team just to cash out you'd be like oh we have just been set back ten years yeah you know it wasn't always the case investing in professional sports teams you know back in the sometimes sixties and seventies not a good thing buddy they still make you feel like if they don't lose lose their shirt i mean they still make you feel how many owners in baseball cry for every single year every single year but honestly if you had the old time machine to go back and tell yourself your young self what to invest in you know around the nineteen ninety sports get in on a sports team now get in on an nba team an nfl team obviously a major league baseball team and the gains have been just ridiculously exponential on those investments and i think there's you know there's reasons for it media is the big thing you got programming 30 years i'm still investing in apple yes i'm investing in apple but all maybe also but i think that money and i invest in a sports team but i mean the reason is pretty simple is in the in a day and age when media rights of shows people are watching less live tv than ever except for sports it's the one thing that we still have to sit down for you know two and a half hours watch all the commercials and you know when's the last time you watched an actual television program full through with all the commercials non-streamed i don't know but my six-year-olds who's sitting my right knows every single pod race commercial that runs every single one i'm will be walking watching the game and he'll start doing obviously he does bill how wiener how but he also does the sequan by heart i mean that's the only thing we sit and watch commercials for that's it that's a much greater than his giant stack of pancakes for a big burrito with flowers yeah playing golf out there real good working on a swing i mean even though a pitcher but what's the best part of uh what's the best part of of being a starting pitcher rest between starts yeah hundred percent that big old stack of pancakes looks delicious doesn't it yeah man uh that is a that's a staggering figure for the boston seltics staggering and he didn't get in the ground floor i mean it was already three hundred sixty million i mean you're talking about back in the day steinbrenner investments that were really nothing pretty modest paltry and people were worried that they were overpaying oh my god he's gonna george steinbrenner he's gonna lose a fortune paying paying for the new yorky and he's that much no no in fact he did not that investment worked out quite well for this time ten million bucks bought it for ten million bucks um and yeah that's probably worth about ten billion now ten million to ten billion just like that in nineteen seventy three which probably at the time ten million bucks was just so much though but it it definitely uh definitely paid for for that and then some his initial investment by the way 168 grand and you don't even have to be you don't even have to be a good owner to make that's that's the thing even the owners of teams that never win anything even the donald stirlings who are so bad that they have to be forced out still end up making hundreds and millions of dollars on their investment their golden bill shoot over the commander sold again or ridiculous you know that's not it's so much money for being the worst owner in the history of sports you feel like there should be some consequences to that like financial consequences no no it's just financial benefits to being a horrible horrible owner and human being to have everything else yeah good cool to the Rockies owner is just counting his money what's his name dick man for it just counting his money so it's ridiculous so good for wick grousebeck and all the billions he's about to make on the boston Celtics all right we'll come back a final segment pod race baseball we'll get you ready for the series against the texas rangers coming up as we mentioned some pitching change matchups pitching matchup changes for the series coming up we'll get to all of that finishing off the day with men of woods on san diego's number one sports station 97 three the fan just a tweet over the break uh from the uh best and worst defensive players according to fan graphs this season and there are no pod rays among the best defenders but there are a bunch of them among the worst defenders awesome love that including a louise campusano behind the plate has the worst uh fan graphs rating in baseball can believe that based on the eye test and then both the second basement were actually pod rays and louise rise and jake croneworth which i i mean i get you believe numbers more than your eyes because you can't see everything that's happening but my eyes do not tell me that jake croneworth is a bad defender they tell me he's a good defender both at second base and first base yeah i think he grated out better at first base uh than he did at second and you know there's a lot lot more ground to cover does he get to every ball you know that that the elite sure uh second basement get to probably not and that probably hurts but i don't feel like he's just a slug standing there and everything's going by him i've seen bad second base play and it doesn't look like what jake does he makes a lot of good plays out there i feel like he's i feel like he's a plus defender in the field wherever you put him i can't i don't feel like he's one of the worst defenders but i do arise i can get basano i don't i the numbers don't seem to lie there why do they lie so much about jake don't know i don't know i the defensive one i think defensive numbers are the ones that are aren't they the most subjective you know has said that they definitely have the most work to do in trying to figure out how to numerically compute defensive value that there certainly is some flaws that they haven't totally worked out in the the formulas that that compute how valuable you are defensively yeah i just don't know i don't know says if a player makes all the plays within his limited range the numbers tend to still not like them don't read too much of them season to season i just don't feel like jake is extremely limited in his range either i don't even i'll take it man ultimately i i think second base is one of the least impactful positions defensively on the field and we're not we don't need jake crunworth to be number one analytics defensively at second base we need him to hit the ball yeah i need to he needs to hit and he's very beyond serviceable at second base and really but like you said grayed it out better at first um yeah you know you know a bad second base when when you see one and and i don't get that sense from him i do i do with with a rise and and certainly at first is not in front of rises leading the league and hitting whatever deal with it if he's just a good basement yeah jake jake did he want to go glove he's i think he did they didn't know it was the final and final least yeah at second base yeah yeah campies uh campy though you watch and you go i've seen this kind of fall off since the beginning of the year uh pretty pretty poor but yeah i mean look i did all those do were probably hurt their contract value moving forward so you're lowering the price on luisa rise right now so maybe it's not the worst thing all right interesting series coming up pot raise and rangers we'll get into it in our final segment here after a check of traffic on 97-3 the fan so it's kind of interesting as you look at this upcoming series i mentioned the pot raise of reworked their starting rotation slightly they're moving dylan sees up to pitch today at a major we'll pitch tomorrow and then michael king in the series finale but in a simply uh one-on-one comparison with the erase of starting pitchers the rangers have the advantage in every single game of this series uh nathan of all day going tonight 3-4-5 ERA against dylan seizes 384 obviously john gray has got a 3-7-7 better than out of major who's over seven and then uh mac shurzer who is just back from the injured list but his pitch pretty well 1-7-4 ERA against michael kings 3-6-1 you look at that and you know that is the core of their rotation you start wondering well why are the texas rangers then struggling so badly coming off a world series tunnel they're 38 and 46 they're well back in both the al west and the wild card race in the american league i mean they have home run you know sluggers alice carcia 16 homers cori segar has 15 more than anybody on the pot raise where are these struggles coming from for the texas rangers they simply just have a really bad manager that doesn't know what he's doing converse mochi i don't think that can really be it the texas rangers the al i've ultimately they're just not hitting consistently this season and i've watched and that's about the only explanation i can give you listen i i'll reserve judgment till after this series i've watched an inning not much of texas rangers baseball this year which puts me on par with the average texas ranger fan uh in the our leads i texted a couple buddies last night separately that live in texas say hey you're gonna go see my pod race this week they go now rangers aren't very fun to watch right now so there i mean it's it's full bore Dallas Cowboys training camp right now that's it that's all they're thinking about probably all they're talking about right now and if they get back into the race they'll heat back up in september with their their their viewership of the team that's how it's always been uh having grown up in that area didn't matter how good they were how many stars they had it just it's it's it's cowboys town period so uh i i will reserve judgment i do look at them and based on what they accomplished last year i say yeah they're they're certainly not out of it by any stretch again when you've got arms like that and you got shares are coming back it's going to be a tall task for the san diego potter it's now the only thing that you're excited about is you got three varieties but they're all they're all guys that that can hump it up a little bit especially of vaulty tonight man i mean you better you better be on the heater tonight and if you're on the heater you can win this game if you're not he could he could pick you apart i mean looking at the numbers i guess here's the big difference the rangers only have two regulars in their lineup who are even getting on base thirty percent of the time a three hundred obp or better cori segar and josh smith at second base every other one of their starters has an obp that starts with a two they just striking out a ton yeah not walking not getting on base for comparison sake the pod raise every single regular in the lineup is over three hundred leading baseball jerks and pro four at four oh eight tatiz three fifty four hasan kim three thirty six jacks and marrow three twenty eight corona were three twenty four man even if the slow start three fourteen salano three forty nine arise three fifty two every single pod rate is getting on base and almost no texas rangers are getting on base that's why obp is still very important i mean you like that you know batting averages good oh oh yes great slugging is great they've got slug they're just not getting on base so when they get a homerun it's almost always a solo shot nobody is getting on base for the texas rangers this year interesting yeah it's interesting stuff you've all day tonight uh he's a five pitch pitcher benny he's gonna throw that heater at you it's about ninety six so you got to be on that then when you're looking heater he's gonna throw that splity at you and his split he's pretty nasty too it's low 90s as well um he throws a a curve ball throws a cutter throws a slider a little bit he's he's a he's a five pitch pitcher that is good but it's hard to shut down the ponterrey's offense completely because they will probably make contact and all they need is one inning where when they make their contact that a few balls fall in and then they have guys on base and then they tend to bring them home and that's why the ponterrey's lead baseball in what four run innings this year yeah that's what they've done really well and occasionally there are games where they the balls don't fall in or they don't get those hits with runners in scoring position like sunday the new distortion game uh when they'll score one very well done because you know they got hits they got eight they had runners in scoring position but they didn't ever have that inning where they all came together but most games for the most part they they do they find even against the tough pitchers you know a rise has his lead off single there and then one of the next two guys gets a hit and then it's first and third then you get one or more two two more hits or someone gets a home run and it's boom you've got three or four runs on the board just like that and that's been the recipe for ponterrey's victories this season well will it happen this series you never know for sure they're going up against tough pitchers but it's not i don't feel like oh they've got no chance against any of these guys i feel like they absolutely have a chance against every single pitcher they face because of their approach and the way they do it i do wonder man you know you think about some some teams that may be sellers and we talked about the texas rangers potentially may be being one of those teams i i don't think that you can i don't think that you can throw in the towel certainly within the entire month of july left and you're getting guys back healthy but man if they did continue to to struggle down the stretch evaldi is an interesting guy he signed a two-year thirty four million dollar deal i think it was before last season so would does that would he be how big a seller's can they defending champs really become i mean i have no idea i think if anything they would hope to restock for next year what why why wouldn't they be sellers if they if they if they have a crap july i mean who do they have on oh like whose contract expires this year is evaldi is he got one more year evaldi is uh has a vesting option for next year which if he gets three hundred innings over the last two seasons gets to twenty million dollars a year and a half left so my guess is that that will since he's been pretty healthy that will vest so i'm putting myself in their shoes they just won the title last year you think you have it's not working out this year but you still think you have the roster to go make another run you're not just gonna start dumping everybody this season may be gone or out of reach so if you have anybody whose contract was gonna be a free agent after this year yeah i can see them being on the move very interesting unloading yeah this is it look i mean this is a huge series for them huge huge series for the astros are i mean the astros are turning back into the astros again we all kind of new we all had one i open on the astros i just have not followed that division very much at all probably the the division in baseball the mariners have been the best team but not good enough to put the astros away they're dying and now the astros are hot on their heels yes and i i would i haven't looked at the odds recently but my guess is that odds makers probably make the astros the favorites rest of the season it's got to be close with the mariners at least even with the mariners what it's only about three and a half games i think now back in the division for the houston astros at this point so they are coming on strong and the rangers have a couple of teams ahead of them and they're not they're not coming on strong at all now right don't let them come on strong now don't be the team that gets them right don't get don't be the team that gets them you know feeling good again um they have they haven't been playing good baseball we want them to keep well it starts with dylan c's doing something he hasn't done in the last couple of months and that is put together two consecutive really good starts yes had a great one his last time out last wednesday against the washington nationals with seven innings one hit no runs best start he's had and probably what month and a half but we've seen a couple of good starts and then and then he kind of the next one is not so good can he put together just two really good starts in a row and get the pot raise off to a series series win you know chance to win another series they'll have three wins on the road trip it's this is a big one today knowing you've got major going tomorrow yeah this is kind of a little bit of one of those sell out games you know if you're mike shilt and and they manage that way he absolutely does like if he needs if he needs bobby tonight for four outs he's gonna do it oh for sure no question yeah i mean you if you have a chance to win that's got all our bullets in his chamber for tonight's game he does and i think he's going to use them tonight uh you always want to win when your ace is on the bump certainly knowing again who's to follow the next day and and king has been really good you never eat i mean he could go out and dominate the rangers easily so um but this is that one that you really really want to get if you can get off to a lead uh early watch him manage that game a little bit differently than he would yeah in a universe that makes sense which is rarely the one the pot raise i hit yeah pot raise you know take this series by winning today and thursday yeah correct and you come home with a four and two road trip and you're more than happy with that now is could they win tomorrow with major on the mountain sure yeah the last last they did they're always you never know when the pot is gonna drop that eight running all of a sudden and that can turn anybody into a winner but in the universe that you know may have some logic to it get today's game you know hope cross your fingers for tomorrow and then give yourself a chance to win the series with michael king and against shurzer who you know again don't know what he's got right now still probably a little hit or miss coming back from the injured list on thursday and that's how this series should should shape up on paper but we could now swept down you just completely ignore that in real life exactly when the pot raise could sweep or get swept and we really don't know what's gonna happen tonight maybe win tonight that i know find a way to win the first day that would be a good way to to get things started yeah they're they're they still scare me they've got they've got those players where you're like man this guy's a really really tough out you know white lankford him in for the cycle the other day like he's starting to get round into form they've got guys that haven't i don't know if seager his availability for the series i think he's in he's just one of the scariest hitters in the game of baseball just an absolute stud imagine letting that guy walk from your franchise i mean just amazing to me so hopefully i i don't know if he's if he's back or not i know he got dotted on the hand i did not see him playing against the oriles in the last game but again i know nothing about the text rate but uh you know that a day off yesterday is well everyone trying to reset for the start of this series so we'll see yeah as you said though pottery's bullpen should be in good shape with the off days yesterday thursday before that even with having to use some of the pitchers in the in the series in boston didn't have to break out robert'suras at all gerema estrata had the one inning on on sunday everyone should be available to the pottery's in this game today for a chance to start the series off on a on a good note and put yourself in with two chances essentially to win the series of the next couple of days yeah seager had an MRI came back negative so it's just a matter of uh his discomfort had the day off yesterday so we'll see i mean you know if if he's in line up he's he's not having a cori seager like here and even in a down year for him benny uh still got 15 bombs for him so he's pretty nasty all right we are done for today we'll come back tomorrow we'll have a game to wrap up it'll be our last day of the week as we get you ready for the uh fourth of july holiday everyone have a good rest your tuesday for executive producer and imaging director paul rindall for steven woods i'm ben higgins nanny and elston coming up next here on san diego's number one sports station 97 three to fan so long everybody just had jesse aclaron from dallas and he said he might might do the jfk museum i i did um at least the tour when i was a kid the only time i went to dallas with my grandmother and we i saw the grassy knoll in the schoolbook depository the x certain x right in the middle of the road it's crazy i mean it's it's pretty surreal when you when you go there used to drive over that x every single day really where president kennedy was shot yeah it was it's gnarly and then the grassy knoll is a trip and then being in the depository is not so i mean it's a it's a good it's a good thing to do if you're in that town but you really i have no reason really go to that town my parents don't even live near dallas anymore so they're they're two hours away so i i don't get spent as much time there but i would totally totally go back such a sad and and macabre moment yes in american history uh for but there's been so much media you know movies television programs that have dealt with it over the years it's it's become almost mythical in its significance to american history it's it's still i mean every year you're like what really happened like the assassination of president kennedy have never it's never going to die yeah and i you know me i'm as far from a conspiracy theorist as possible that one is though some of those you read you go oh hmm make sense make sense the magic bullet i mean it's fascinating stuff and to go sit and look through the window is uh it gives you gives you a little bit of the heebie geebies uh when you do it you're must have been pretty little when you went yeah i was so it's very young yeah i went it's pretty awesome historical context necessarily but even as uh but our nine or ten year old you certainly had heard of the jfk assassination and you knew it was a president and a big deal and to be in the same spot that the history is as sad as it was was made was was definitely memorable to be there east county cress wants to know would see did you ever go to billy bombs i did uh quite a bit let's billy bombs the world's largest honky talk and it's a fort worth and it's awesome i mean they have a they're bull riding their mechanical bull they it's nuts it's nuts it's maybe the size of petco park i mean you walk you walk in you're like buddy i can't find you i i'm not gonna find you i mean it is massive more than one bar and room ball dude it's huge huge billy bobs kicks ass i used to we just go there and watch uh bands and stuff play and it's four worth's great four worth's a great little town but yeah there's i just have no reason to go back there look where i live so i was telling my parents no i've you come here it's paradise i'm not gonna come there we've done that come on out here plenty to see plenty to do about padre's last uh road trip before the all-star break three more games in texas today tomorrow and then uh thursday fourth of july day game and then back for the final eight games at petco park the last homestand heading into the all-star break i will talk more padre's baseball coming up right now though paul is got some headlines it is time for the rindel report and get things started here with our addition today's edition of the rindel report now tuned into the month greatest welcome to the rindel report with paul rindel hi paul all right two stories from the world of sports that we haven't gotten to yet we'll start off in major league baseball and one story that you didn't know you needed are you laughing beyond it's the rindel report hey paul how you doing okay how are you on ninety seven three the fan are you ready to blast the mood i need some help later that was good can i get a whole year all right all right all right good morning my friend good morning you know uh today would have been a big day on this show five six years ago tardinox day i did not know this it's july second guess training camps are about to start not for another two or three weeks thought it was later in july i think well the reason it feels like kardinox is starting earlier than normal is because well it is there are three different versions of hard knocks this year gentlemen i think we've talked about it like like bits and pieces over the last few months but i've got it all kind of broken down here uh there will be five episodes of the first installment of 2024 hard knocks beginning tonight on hbl max okay it's the off-season version okay with the giants five episodes going from july second through july 30th okay then you will have the training camp version which i think is the more traditional that's the one where you version that you're used to that's what the chicago bears interesting that's going to run five episodes as well from august sixth through september third okay then we have the in-season version that they have tried in the past i think amazon prime has also done one take so yeah i think i think you're correct and that's all it just says is the afc north we don't have a team yet the north and that's going to be the december third is when it starts that goes into the post-season it's a minimum of seven episodes depending on so they'll pick a playoff team or a team that should make the playoffs and follow them as long as their season goes all right go into your head which one do you do you do you watch if you had to i'm watching the bears one i think the in-season one yeah i would watch no wait the in-season yeah i would probably watch that one the in-season one you don't want to watch the bears kind of williams just they're they're all the same they are all the same all the same we needed less hard knocks not more all right you got more i needed like hey we're going to do three big episodes you're really going to like them not more and different team here's my question i it just feels like okay this was a good idea when it happened but it's great at time is see spent it feels that way and maybe this is just the uh the erin roger's effect but uh according to front office sports hbo said that last year's traditional training camp series saw its best viewership in 13 years as long as they cover the jets yeah yeah because yeah yeah a lot of a lot of lot going on viewership of everything has become so fractured and streaming that you don't even need that big of an audience to justify it anymore sure so they're going to keep doing it my question to the two of you is production company comes to us right now and they said they want to do behind the scenes of a morning radio show sure and follow us for six weeks the cameras they come home with us they come to work with us do interviews during the day you know it's going to be on a streaming series somewhere they got a platform lined up do we say yes or no would you do that i think you say yes but i just don't know if you're gonna get the authentic like a hundred percent real authentic i mean that means they gotta go into our text messages and because we don't something we talk a lot or hang out after the show much because you've got other jobs i got a family you know and it's like what are you gonna get hey what do you guys what do you have to set up more activities like they do on real housewives they have to have like which would be all fake that's not that's not up that's not after real dead bodies he's gotten his garage that's right you have to let him in your garage that would be if that's not authentic it's not authentic you never is hard not no exactly you're never going to get a true authentic thing unless you do have their off the candle activities as well you think it's not the tv producers that are setting that up unless you do hidden cameras and stuff then that's the only way they have like cameras in the studio like in between the discussions we have during the breaks and stuff all the bits that we can't do on air that we do in here yeah that'd be great for us but you'd you'd then be a little more guarded knowing of course cameras are on all the time of course that's the same thing that happens in the NFL it's exactly no one is there a hundred percent authentic self when they know what camera is on yeah no doubt no one nobody ever no you can't be but i would do it people wanted it yeah i'm open to access i think you'd be pretty bored i think you'd be on the roku channel i think you'd be pretty bored you come home to my house just me screaming to my kids my kids going crazy pan and i butting heads about something like all right just about just two hours of us asking what do you want to do for dinner no what do you want to do for dinner what do you want to do for dinner every night my whole it's this groundhog day every day is the same no no what do you want to do i don't care what do you want which other high mest is knee off a few months ago all right we need to bring that up hmm let's move on i would need to i would need some private time non-camera rooms non-camera rooms yeah we're just getting alive to the audio here no you're not let's move on so espn they are owned by disney and they're going very disney with their newest venture and when i see companies or teams or organizations put on these big extravagant experiences it's usually a quick no for me yep you know hey join us on the espn cruise or whatever like no no thanks but there is a new one coming out new experience and i think is actually pretty interesting it's called espn experiences take me out to the ball parks and this is a trip it's a five-day four-night trip from august 29th through second and you can pay to get the ultimate sports fan media baseball experience okay it's not cheap it's gonna cost seven thousand dollars a person at home that says uh with double occupancy or eighty five hundred dollars for single occupancy so i guess if you want to go buy yourself and stay like you not have a roommate yeah not have a roommate extra fifty five hundred bucks what you get is you will get to go to fenway park in boston you'll go to yanki stanium in new york and you will go to a game at citizens bank park in philadelphia you'll also get a private tour of the jackie robinson museum in new york you'll get an mvp tour of espn's headquarters in bristol connetica get meet and greets with all the on-air talent uh david kone michael kade duglanville carl ravage buster only and it says and more and more don't know exactly so three games three games eighty of these seats better be outstanding outstanding you can set your own trip up to build all those yeah but you're not going to do any of the meet and greets and stuff at espn if that's something that i don't think i like the experience so i did the u2 experience because i was forced into doing a u2 experience i'm guessing they're pretty good seats i would guess for eighty five hundred bucks but like that was really what it cost for us to play on a trip to all three cities and go to games probably you're probably right in that area yeah you're not getting a deal on this i mean the reason they can put it together is they can charge a premium and make money on it so clearly if you did this piecemeal yourself you'd be able to spend less now you're right you wouldn't necessarily be able to set up meet and greets with all the espn hosts but i mean what's is very nice you set him a nice email he'll come meet you it's true clearly whenever you want so it's true you probably can email Linda Kohn and if she's nice you say can you run outside you might come by and just do a little meet and greet during my the guy the gates of all park tour why are you here uh uh Linda Kohn's gonna come outside say hello do you mind stupid hey you ask nicely enough for anything there's a lot of people who will say yes i will say man i do like a pack i like a package the you two thing really sold me i was gonna buy the regular tickets and i could it and i wanted to go see them so badly at the sphere and i was like well if you can buy this vip experience it was a it was a fortune and i was like i'm only gonna live on this planet one time i have to do it so i did it i loved every second they gave me a book we got to go to the museum like the whole thing was the rooms were great the tickets were phenomenal was the best night we've ever had maybe as a as a couple so i'm like it was worth every penny so i kind of like the package deal thing can't do it all the time right you can't do it for every concert you know you gotta pick and choose your moments but if you love baseball it's pretty good i mean i've never been to these coast i've certainly been to any other stadium oh yeah you'd have a blast that would be i would be listening for that one for sure all right and then uh i i tend to tell you guys about weird or new foods that are coming out and i got this one sent to you we order our red bull barbecue sauce yet or no five-hour energy barbecue sauce that's right yeah all right it's Tuesday isn't it give them their last Tuesday i got a new one here and it is from cup noodles had a cup noodle from time to time cup oh noodles it's called cup noodles it's not noodles cup oh noodles it's cup of noodles it's cup noodles it's what the name of the nine is nope that's the brand that you know is this one of those um things right misremembering thing it's not cup oh noodle it's cup noodles it's cup noodles right dude cup noodles chicken yeah well they've got a new flavor coming out and it's only available in the united states is with onion it's that's oh campfire s'mores so gross cup noodle campfire s'mores stupid that the taste is described as a blend of decadent chocolate marshmallow and graham cracker flavors with a smoky note they suggest having it with crushed up marshmallow or crushed up graham graham crackers in the mini marshmallows as well i guess you just noodles put water in it and then throw it in the microwave and it is it their noodles in there yeah it's ramen it's ramen with graham cracker doesn't sound like a good combination but what's the broth made out of her she's chicken broth no i mean what's like chicken broth something oh yeah i don't yeah described as a decadent chocolate marshmallow and graham cracker flavors it's like it's dessert i just don't know that i want watery deserting chocolate milk with noodles in it or what what's going on here do you like s'mores i do not really don't either it's like sacrilege to say but i my kids made some recently at their grandmother's house and i was like oh the juice isn't worth the squeeze it's not someone handed me a perfectly done s'more i'll eat it do i want to go through the whole toasting of the marshmallow graham cracker sandwich trying to get it all to fit to stay and then you take one bite the whole thing crack falls apart falls apart chocolate's still cold it's usually always cold yeah i'm just not a big fan of like chocolate i don't like her she's chocolate so i've never been big on the s'mores now there was a restaurant we almost went to in las vegas a couple weeks ago where they had like the table side dessert option was s'mores they brought out like a little flame and you got to make your own s'mores at the table is like okay i guess i would i would do that feel like i'm doing all the work but yeah so if you want to try the cup noodles cup noodles campfire s'mores edition it's available for a limited time at walmart and walmart.com they go for a dollar 18 cup all right i've been i have been really tearing my hair out about this cup o' noodles thing because i was like what's it's not your life all right i looked it up and according to a a couple of internet reddit threads up until 1993 it was cup o' noodles and then they changed it in america to just cup noodles and since 1993 so the past 31 years it's just been cup noodles and not cup o' noodles it's been 30 years to give it the time so why would you change it cup of noodles i don't know right so i was born in 90s i mean my whole life it's been cup cup noodles but i remember it being referred to as cup of noodles oh i brought i got a cup of noodles for lunch or something so bad for you i mean it's it's never irish so i don't know what if cup o' noodles in the morning to you and sit all to begin with but thank you poly you're very welcome cup noodles i'm gonna go get my cup of noodles he's downstairs right now i'll be right back briano granny and cup o' noodles all right yeah you got the kids coming in for the last couple of segments uh basketball ben might make an appearance we had some more uh free agency news i thought it might make the round a report it didn't so save it for me how do i tell woods he has a library to hear thank you poly well i'll just figure it out for him we can we can trade i'll do the farmer's dog here he can he can do the other one later so we'll be right back with more better woods after traffic here at 97 through the fan right here as i was walking out the door the best basketball ben it's going to make an appearance i mean obviously the free agency stuff is continuing to progress at a very rapid rate we talked about it yesterday Jason tatum got a huge contract extension largest deal in nva history uh clay thompson's going to the mavs here in dallas on the three or fifty million dollars sign and trade lakers have gotten really nothing they've wanted didn't get the coach they wanted haven't got the players they wanted and lebron can't find anyone who wants to be his teammate it's been a miserable off season for the lakers but you know they've won the off season before it doesn't necessarily mean you win the season so i'm just gonna i'm just gonna wait i think the most interesting story though is that just two weeks after winning the nba title the owner of the boston seltics is selling the team wick grouse back who bought the team back in the early two thousands for wick w y c wick wick grouse wick back wick grouse back i was made up bought the team in 2002 for 360 million dollars and now the boston seltics probably are going to sell i mean probably the largest sale price ever in the history of a basketball team because they just want a championship and then good time to sell i guess i got the most titles in in nba history the phoenix sons just sell sold for four billion dollars uh you know what was that about a year ago uh so you've got to figure five billion without breaking a sweat for the boston seltics pretty good on your 360 million dollar investment but the timing here is very cold and calculated hey we just want a title i now have to pay all these players including giant contract extensions why don't i just cash out you got my ring now let's take my 4.7 billion dollar profit and walk away as a as a as a titleist as a champion i got it done what else do i need to do as a sports owner what another one that's the thing i mean how can you resist the sirens call once you've won a championship if not wanted to stick around and enjoy it and be that championship owner for a few years like i know i got a title you know but he's walking away going i'm never gonna have a better time to sell this team was there a reason for it i have not seen like a specific reason the statement just said that they are expecting to sell a majority interest with grousebeck is gonna remain as governor for a while so he's kind of like mark human he's gonna stick around with a team i think basically he's just wants he knows there's a lot of money to be had and might as well cash in yeah strike while the iron is hot so to speak i think so five billion dollars i mean that's my guess for the boston self that the phoenix sons are worth four billion right i mean at least five billion right for the for the boston seltics maybe more maybe more hmm one day i'd like to invest a thousand dollars and make a hundred two hundred million dollars on it like what it's time runner by the yank you for like seventy five grand or something within a decade it was worth you know whatever it was i mean holy sort of put myself in like a seltics fans shoes there like you win the title and then your owner sells are you are you bombed and i go wow that franchise has they have franchise stability it feels like no matter who is in charge like they're the seltics the Lakers they there's franchise stability it's like it'd be like it'd be so different if the Padres got so hot won the world series and then she'll side layer and and the side layer family just sold the team just to cash out you'd be like oh we have just been set back ten years yeah you know it wasn't always the case investing in professional sports teams you know back in the sometimes sixties and seventies not a good thing buddy they still make you feel like if they don't lose lose their shirt i mean they still make you feel like how many owners in baseball cry for every single year every single year but honestly if you have the old time machine to go back and tell yourself your young self what to invest in it you know around the nineteen ninety sports get in on a sports team yeah get in on an NBA team an NFL team obviously a major league baseball team and the gains have been just ridiculously exponential on those investments and i think there's you know there's reasons for it media is the big thing you got program 30 years i'm still investing in apple yes i'm investing in apple but all maybe also but i don't i take that money and i invest in a sports team but i mean the reason is pretty simple is in the in a day and age when media rights of shows people are watching less live tv than ever except for sports it's the one thing that we still have to sit down for you know two and a half hours watch all the commercials and you know when's the last time you watched an actual television program full through with all the commercials non-streamed i don't know but my six-year-old who's sitting in my right knows every single pod race commercial that runs every single one i'm will be watching the game and he'll start doing obviously he does bill how wiener how but he also does the sequan by heart i mean that's the only thing we sit and watch commercials for that's it that you must grow up is traded in this giant stack of pancakes for a big burrito with flowers yeah playing golf out there real good working on a swing i mean even though a pitcher but what's the best part of what's the best part of of being a starting pitcher rest in between starts hundred percent that big old stack of pancakes looks delicious doesn't it yeah man uh that is a that's a staggering figure for the boston seltics staggering and he didn't get in the ground floor i mean it was already 360 million i mean you're talking about back in the day steinbrenner investments that were really nothing pretty modest paltry and people were worried that they were overpaying oh my god he's gonna george steinbren he's gonna lose a fortune paying paying for the new yorky aikies that much no no in fact he did not that investment worked out quite well for the steinbrenner thing bucks bought it for 10 million bucks um and yeah that's probably worth about 10 billion now 10 million to 10 billion just like that in 1973 which probably at the time 10 million bucks was just so much though but it it definitely uh definitely paid for for that and then some his initial investment by the way 168 grand and you don't even have to be you don't even have to be a good owner to make that's that's the thing even the owners of teams that never win anything even the donald stirlings who are so bad that they have to be forced out still end up making hundreds and millions of dollars on their investment their golden bill shoot over the commander solden oh ridiculous and that's not i mean so much money for being the worst owner in the history of sports you feel like there should be some consequences to that like financial consequences no no it's just financial benefits to being a horrible horrible owner and human being good to have everything else yeah good call to the Rockies owner is just counting his money what's his name dick man for it just counting his money so it's ridiculous so good for wick grouse back and all the billions he's about to make on the boston Celtics all right we'll come back uh final segment uh pot raise baseball we'll get you ready for the series against the texas rangers coming up as we mentioned some pitching change matchups uh pitching matchup changes for the series coming up we'll get to all that finishing off the day with benewoods on san diego's number one sports station 97 three the fan just a tweet over the break uh from the uh best and worst defensive players according to fan graphs this season and there are no pot raise among the best defenders but there are a bunch of them among the worst defenders awesome love that including uh louise campusano behind the plate has the worst uh fan graphs rating in baseball could believe that based on the eye test and then uh both the second baseman were actually pot raise and louise rise and jake croneworth which i i mean i get you believe numbers more than your eyes sure because you can't see everything that's happening but my eyes do not tell me that jake croneworth is a bad defender they tell me he's a good defender both at second base and first base yeah i think he grated out better at first base uh than he did at second and you know there's a lot a lot more grounded cover does he get to every ball you know that that the elite sure uh second baseman get to probably not and that probably hurts but i don't feel like he's just a slug standing there and everything's going by him i've seen bad second base play and it doesn't look like what jake does he makes a lot of good plays out there i feel like he's i feel like he's a plus defender in the field wherever you put him i can't i don't feel like he's one of the worst defenders but i do arise i can get bassano i don't the numbers don't seem to lie there why do they lie so much about jake don't know i don't know i the defensive one i think defensive numbers are the ones that are aren't they the most subjective you know has said that they definitely have the most work to do in trying to figure out how to numerically compute defensive value that there certainly is some flaws that they haven't totally worked out in the uh the formulas that that compute how valuable you are defensively yeah i just don't know i don't know says if a player makes all the plays within his limited range the numbers tend to still not like them don't read too much of them season to season i just don't feel like jake is extremely limited in his range either i don't even i'll take it man ultimately i i think second base is one of the least impactful positions defensively on the field and we're not we don't need jake crunworth to be number one analytics defensively at second base we need him to hit the ball yeah i need to he needs to hit and he's very beyond serviceable at second base and really like you said grated out better at first um yeah you know you know a bad second base when when you see one and and i don't get that sense from him i do i do with with arise and and certainly at first is not enough rises leading the league and hitting whatever all right fine deal with it if he's your second baseman yeah jake jake did he want to go glove he's i think he did they didn't know it was the final and finalist yeah at second base yeah yeah campies uh campy though you watch and you go i've seen this kind of fall off since the beginning of the year uh pretty pretty poor but yeah i mean look i did all those do were probably hurt their contract value moving forward so you're lowering the price on the least arise right now so maybe it's not the worst thing all right interesting series coming up potrays and rangers we'll get into it in our final segment here after a check of traffic on 97-3 the fan so it's kind of interesting as you look at this upcoming series i mentioned the potrays have reworked their starting rotation slightly they're moving dill and see self to pitch today at a measure we'll pitch tomorrow and then michael king in the series finale but in a simply uh one-on-one comparison with the erase of starting pitchers the rangers have the advantage in every single game of this series uh nathan of all day going tonight three four five year a against dill and ceases three eight four obviously john gray who's got a three seven seven better than out of measure who's over seven and then uh mac sureser who is just back from the injured list but his pitch pretty well one seven four year a against michael king's three six one you look at that and you know that is the core of their rotation you start wondering well why are the texas rangers then struggling so badly coming off a world series tunnel they're thirty eight and forty six they're well back in both the al west and the wild card race in the american league i mean they have home run you know sluggers at least carcia 16 homers cori cigarette 15 more than anybody on the potrays where are these struggles coming from for the texas rangers they simply just have a really bad manager that doesn't know what he's doing in verus mochi i don't think that can really be it the texas rangers the ultimately they're just not hitting consistently this season and i've watched and that's about the only explanation i can give you listen i'll reserve judgment till after this series i've watched and inning not much of texas rangers baseball this year which puts me on par with the average texas ranger fan uh... in the early i texted a couple buddies last night separately that live in texas they're gonna go see my pod race this week they go now rangers aren't very fun to watch right now so there i mean it's it's full bore Dallas cowboys training camp right now that's it that's all they're thinking about probably all they're talking about right now and if they get back into the race they'll heat back up in september with their their their viewership of the team that's how it's always been uh having grown up in that area didn't matter how good they were how many stars they had it just it's it's it's cowboys town period so i i will reserve judgment i do look at them and based on what they accomplished last year i say yeah they're they're certainly not out of it by any stretch again when you've got arms like that and you got shurs are coming back it's going to be a tall task for the san diego potter it's not the only thing that you're excited about is you got three varieties but they're all they're all guys that that can hump it up a little bit especially of vaulted tonight man i mean you better you better be on the heater tonight and if you're on the heater you can win this game if you're not he could he could pick you apart i mean looking at the numbers i guess here's the big difference the rangers only have two regulars in their lineup who are even getting on base 30 percent of the time a three hundred obp or better cori seager and josh smith at second base every other one of their starters has an obp that starts with a two they just striking out a ton yeah not walking not getting on base for comparison sake the pod race every single regular in the lineup is over three hundred leading baseball jerks and pro four at four oh eight tatiz three fifty four hasan kim three thirty six jackson meryl three twenty eight kronor three twenty four man even if the slow start three fourteenth salano three forty nine arise three fifty two every single pod rate is getting on base and almost no texas rangers are getting on base that's why obp is still very important i mean you like that you know batting average is good oh oh yes for slugging is great they've got slug they're just not getting on base so when they get a homerun it's almost always a solo shot nobody is getting on base for the texas rangers this year interesting yeah it's interesting stuff he've all day tonight uh he's a five pitch pitcher benny he's gonna throw that heater at you it's about ninety six so you got to be on that then when you're looking heater he's gonna throw that split at you and his split he's pretty nasty too it's low nineties as well um he throws a curve ball throws a cutter throws a slider a little bit he's he's a he's a five pitch pitcher that is good but it's hard to shut down the ponterase offense completely because they will probably make contact and all they need is one inning where when they make their contact that a few balls fall in and then they have guys on base and then they tend to bring them home and that's why the ponterase lead baseball in what four run innings this year that's what they've done really well and occasionally there are games where they the balls don't fall in or they don't get those hits with runners in scoring position like sunday the new distortion game uh when they'll score one very well done because you know they got hits they got eight they had runners in scoring position but they didn't ever have that inning where that all came together but most games for the most part they they do they find even against the tough pitchers you know our eyes has his lead off single there and then one of the next two guys gets a hit and then it's first and third then you get one or more two two more hits or someone gets a home run and it's boom you've got three or four runs on the board just like that and that's been the recipe for ponterase victories this season well will it happen this series you never know for sure that you're going up against tough pitchers but it's not i don't feel like oh they've got no chance against any of these guys i feel like they absolutely have a chance against every single pitcher they face because of their approach and the way they do it i do wonder man you know you you think about some some teams that may be sellers and we talked about the texas rangers potentially maybe being one of those teams i i don't think that you can i don't think that you can throw in the towel certainly within entire month of july left and you're getting guys back healthy but man if they did continue to to struggle down the stretch evaldi is an interesting guy he signed a two-year thirty four million dollar deal i think it was before last season so would does that would he be how big a seller is can they defending champs really become i mean i have no idea i think if anything they would hope to restock for next year what why why wouldn't they be sellers if they if they if they have a crap july i mean who do they have on oh like whose contract expires this year at is he valdy is he got one more year of all the is uh has a vesting option for next year which if he gets three hundred innings over the last two seasons gets to twenty million dollars a year and a half left so my guess is that that will since he's been pretty healthy that will vest so i'm putting myself in their shoes they just won the title last year you think you have it's not working out this year but you still think you have the roster to go make another run you're not just going to start dumping everybody this season may be gone or out of reach so if you have anybody whose contract was going to be a free agent after this year yeah i can see them being on the move that would be interesting but unload yeah this is it look i mean this is a huge series for them huge huge series for the astros are i mean the astros are turning back into the astros again we all kind of new we all had one i open on the astros i just have not followed that division very much at all probably the the division and baseball the mariners have been the best team but not good enough to put the astros away they're dying and now the astros are hot on their heels and i would i haven't looked at the odds recently but my guess is that odds makers probably make the astros the favorites rest of the season it's got to be close with the mariners at least even with the mariners what it's only about three and a half games i think now back in the division for the Houston astros at this point so they are coming on strong and the rangers have a couple of the teams ahead of them and they're not they're not coming on strong at all now right don't let them come on strong now don't be the team that gets them right don't don't be the team that gets them you know feeling good again um they have they haven't been playing good baseball we want them to keep well it starts with dylan c's doing something he hasn't done in the last couple of months and that is put together two consecutive really good stars yes had a great one his last time out last Wednesday against the washington nationals with seven innings one hit no runs best start he's had and probably what month and a half but we've seen a couple of good starts and then and then he kind of the next one is not so good can he put together just two really good starts in a row and get the pot raised off to a series series win you know chance to win another series they'll have three wins on the road trip it's this is a big one today knowing you've got major going tomorrow yeah this is kind of a little bit of one of those sellout games you know if you're mike shilt and and they manage that way he absolutely does like if he needs if he needs bobby tonight for four outs he's gonna do it oh for sure no question yeah i mean you if you have a chance to win that's got all our bullets in his chamber he does he does and i think he's going to use them tonight uh you always want to win when your ace is on the bump certainly knowing again who's to follow the next day and and king has been really good you never eat me go out and dominate the rangers easily so but this is that one that you really really want to get if you can get off to a lead early watch him manage that game a little bit differently than he would yeah in a universe that makes sense which is rarely the one the pot raised i hit my pot raised you know take this series by winning today and thursday yeah correct and you come home with a four and two road trip and you're more than happy with that now is could they win tomorrow with major on the mount sure yeah the last last they did they're always you never know when the pot is gonna drop that eight running all of a sudden and that can turn anybody into a winner but in the universe that you know may has some logic to it get today's game you know hope cross your fingers for tomorrow and then give yourself a chance to win the series with michael king again shurzer who you know again don't know what he's got right now still probably a little hit or miss coming back from the injured list on thursday and that's how this series should should shape up on paper but we can now swept down you just completely ignore that in real life exactly when the pot raised could sweep or get swept and and we really don't know what's going to happen tonight baby when tonight that window found a way to win the first day that would be a good way to to get things started yeah they're they're they still scare me they've got they've got those players where you're like man this guy's a really really tough out you know why at length for him hitting for the cycle the other day like he's starting to get round into form they've got guys that haven't i don't know if seager his availability for the series i think he's in he's just one of the scariest hitters in the game of baseball just an absolute stud imagine letting that guy walk from your franchise i mean just amazing to me so hopefully i i don't know if he's if he's back or not i know he got dotted on the hand i did not see him playing against the oriles in the last game but again i know nothing about text right but uh you know they had a day off yesterday as well everyone trying to reset uh for the start of this series so uh we'll see yeah as you said though pottery's bullpen should be in good shape with the off days yesterday thursday before that even with having to use some of the pitchers in the in the series in boston didn't have to break out robert'suras at all jeremya strata had the one inning on on sunday everyone should be available to the pottery's in this game today for a chance to start the series off on a on a good note and put yourself in it with two chances essentially to win the series uh the next couple of days yes seager had an mri came back negative so it's just a matter of uh his discomfort had the day off yesterday so we'll see i mean you know if if he's in the lineup he's he's not having a corey seager like year and even in a down year for him benny uh still got 15 bombs for him so he's pretty nasty all right we are done for today we'll come back tomorrow we'll have a game to wrap up it'll be our last day of the week as we get you ready for the uh fourth of july holiday everyone have a good rest your tuesday for executive producer and imaging director paul rindall for steven woods i'm ben hagan's andy and elston coming up next here on san diego's number one sports station 97 three defense along everybody just a tweet over the break uh from the uh best and worst defensive players according to fan graphs this season and there are no potrays among the best defenders but there are a bunch of them among the worst defenders awesome love that including uh louise campesano behind the plate has the worst uh fan graphs rating in baseball could believe that based on the eye test and then uh both the second baseman were actually potrays and louise arise and jake croneworth which i i mean i get you believe numbers more than your eyes because you can't see everything that's happening but my eyes do not tell me that jake croneworth is a bad defender they tell me he's a good defender both at second base and first base yeah i think he grated out better at first base uh than he did at second and you know there's a lot a lot more ground to cover does he get to every ball you know that that the elite sure uh second baseman get to probably not and that probably hurts but i don't feel like he's just a slug standing there and everything's going by him i've seen bad second base play and it doesn't look like what jake does he makes a lot of good plays out there i feel like he's i feel like he's a plus defender in the field wherever you put him i don't i don't feel like he's one of the worst defenders but i do arise i can get persona i don't i the numbers don't seem to lie there why do they lie so much about jake don't know i don't know i the defensive one i think defensive numbers are the ones that are aren't they the most subjective you know has said that they definitely have the most work to do in trying to figure out how to numerically compute defensive value that there certainly is some flaws that they haven't totally worked out in the uh the formulas that that compute how valuable you are defensively yeah i just don't know i don't know says if a player makes all the plays within his limited range the numbers tend to still not like them don't read too much in them season to season i just don't feel like jake is extremely limited in his range either i don't even i'll take it man ultimately i i think second base is one of the least impactful positions defensively on the field and we're not we don't need jake crunworth to be number one analytics defensively at second base we need him to hit the ball yeah i need to he needs to hit and he's very beyond serviceable at second base and really bit like you said grayed it out better at first um yeah you know you know a bad second base when when you see one and and i don't get that sense from him i do i do with with arise and and certainly at first is not enough rises leading the league and hitting or whatever deal with it if he's your second baseman yeah jake jake did he want to go glove he's i think he did did it was the final final least yeah at second base yeah it can't be he's uh can't be though you watch and you go i've seen this kind of fall off since the beginning of the year uh pretty pretty poor but yeah i mean look all those doers probably hurt their contract value moving forward so you're lowering the price on the least arise right now so maybe it's not the worst thing all right interesting series coming up potrays and rangers we'll get into it in our final segment here after a check of traffic on 97.3 the fan so it's kind of interesting as you look at this upcoming series i mentioned the potrays have reworked their starting rotation slightly they're moving dylan cece up to pitch today at a major will pitch tomorrow and then michael king in the series finale but in a simply uh one-on-one comparison with the eras of starting pitchers the rangers have the advantage in every single game of this series uh nathan of all day going tonight three four five era against dylan cece's three eight four obviously john gray has got a three seven seven better than at a major who's over seven and then uh mac surezer who is just back from the injured list but his pitch pretty well one seven four era against michael king's three six one you look at that and you know that is the core of their rotation you start wondering well why are the texas rangers then struggling so badly coming off a world series tunnel they're thirty eight and forty six they're well back in both the al west and the wild card race in the american league i mean they have home run you know sluggers at least carcia sixteen homers kori segar is fifteen more than anybody on the pot raise where are these struggles coming from for the texas rangers they simply just have a really bad manager that doesn't know what he's doing in vrus bochi i don't think that can really be it the texas rangers the i've ultimately they're just not hitting consistently this season and i've watched and that's about the only explanation i can give you listen i'll reserve judgment till after the series i've watched and inning not much of texas rangers baseball this year which puts me on par with the average texas ranger fan uh... in the early i texted a couple buddies last night separately that live in texas they're gonna go see my pod race this week they go now rangers aren't very fun to watch right now so there are i mean it's it's full bore Dallas cowboys training camp right now that's it that's all they're thinking about probably all they're talking about right now and if they get back into the race they'll heat back up in september uh... with their their their viewership of the team that's how it's always been uh... having grown up in that area didn't matter how good they were how many stars they had it just it's it's it's cowboys town period so uh... i i will reserve judgment i do look at them and based on what they accomplished last year i say yeah they're they're certainly not out of it by any stretch again when you've got arms like that and you got shares are coming back it's gonna be a tall task for the san diego potter is now the only um thing that you're excited about is you got three varieties but they're all they're all guys that that can hump it up a little bit especially of valdy tonight man i mean you better you better be on the heater tonight and if you're on the heater you can win this game if you're not he could he could pick you apart i mean looking at the numbers i guess here's the big difference the rangers only have two regulars in their lineup who are even getting on base thirty percent of the time a three hundred obp or better cori seager and josh smith at second base every other one of their starters has an obp that starts with a two these are striking out a ton yeah not walking not getting on base for comparison sake the pod raise every single regular in the lineup is over three hundred leading baseball jerks and pro four at four or eight tatiz three fifty four hasan kim three thirty six jackson meryl three twenty eight crona worth three twenty four man even if the slow start three fourteen salano three forty nine arise three fifty two every single pod rate is getting on base and almost no texas rangers are getting on base that's why obp is still very important i mean you like that you know batting averages good oh yes for slugging is great they've got slug they're just not getting on base so when they get a homerun it's almost always a solo shot nobody is getting on base for the texas rangers this year interesting yeah it's interesting stuff you've all day tonight uh he's a five pitch pitcher benny he's going to throw that heater at you it's about ninety six so you got to be on that then when you're looking heater he's going to throw that splitty at you and his split he's pretty nasty too it's low nineties as well he throws a curve ball throws a cutter throws a slider a little bit he's he's a he's a five pitch pitcher that is good but it's hard to shut down the ponterase offense completely because they will probably make contact and all they need is one inning where when they make their contact that a few balls fall in and then they have guys on base and then they tend to bring them home and that's why the ponterase lead baseball in what four run innings this year that's what they've done really well and occasionally there are games where they the balls don't fall in or they don't get those hits with runners in scoring position like sunday the new distortion game uh when they score one very well done because you know they got hits they got eight they had runners in scoring position but they didn't ever have that inning where that all came together but most games for the most part they they do they find even against the tough pitchers you know our eyes has his leadoff single there and then one of the next two guys gets a hit and then it's first and third then you get one or more two two more hits or someone gets a home run and it's boom you've got three or four runs on the board just like that and that's been the recipe for ponterase victories this season well will it happen this series you never know for sure that you're going up against tough pitchers but it's not i don't feel like oh they've got no chance against any of these guys feel like they absolutely have a chance against every single pitcher they face because of their approach and the way they do it i do wonder man you know you think about some some teams that may be sellers and we talked about the texas rangers potentially maybe being one of those teams i i don't think that you can i don't think that you can throw in the towel certainly with an entire month of july left and you're getting guys back healthy but man if they did continue to to struggle down the stretch evaldi is an interesting guy he signed a two-year 34 million dollar deal i think it was before last season so would does that would he be how big a seller is can they defending champs really be current i mean i have no idea i think if anything they would hope to restock for next year what why why wouldn't they be sellers if they if they if they have a crap july i mean who do they have on oh like whose contract expires this year at is he vaulty is he got one more year vaulty is uh has a vesting option for next year which if he gets 300 innings over the last two seasons gets to 20 million dollars a year and a half left so my guess is that that will since he's been pretty healthy that will vest so he'll have another shoes they just won the title last year you think you have it's not working out this year but you still think you have the roster to go make another run you're not just gonna start dumping everybody this season may be gone or out of reach so if you have anybody whose contract who's gonna be a free agent after this year yeah i can see them being on the move but i'm interested on loading yeah this is it look i mean this is a huge series for them a huge huge series for the Astros are i mean the Astros are turning back into the Astros again we all kind of knew we all had one eye open on the Astros i just have not followed that division very much at all probably the the division in baseball the Mariners have been the best team but not good enough to put the Astros away they're dying and now the Astros are hot on their heels yes and i i would i haven't looked at the odds recently but my guess is that odds makers probably make the Astros the favorites rest of the season it's got to be close with the Mariners at least even with the Mariners what it's only about three and a half games i think now back in the division for the Houston Astros at this point so they're coming on strong and the Rangers have a couple of teams ahead of them and they're not they're not coming on strong at all now right don't let them come on strong now don't be the team that gets them right don't don't be the team that gets them you know feeling good again um they have they haven't been playing good baseball we want them to keep well it starts with dylan c's doing something he hasn't done in the last couple of months and that is put together two consecutive really good starts yes had a great one his last time out last Wednesday against the Washington Nationals when seven innings one hit no runs best start he's had and probably what month and a half but we've seen a couple of good starts and then and then he kind of the next one is not so good can he put together just two really good starts in a row and get the pot raise off to a series series win you know chance to win another series they'll have no wins on the road trip it's this is a big one today knowing you've got major going tomorrow yeah this is kind of a little bit of one of those sellout games you know if you're Mike shilt and and they manage that way he absolutely does like if he needs if he needs bobby tonight for four outs he's gonna do it oh for sure no question yeah i mean you if you have a chance to win that's got all our bullets in his chamber he does and i think he's going to use them tonight uh you always want to win when your ace is on the bump certainly knowing again who's to follow the next day and and king has been really good you never eat i mean he could go out and dominate the rangers easily so but this is that one that you really really want to get if you can get off to a lead early watch him manage that game a little bit differently than he would yeah in a universe that makes sense which is rarely the one the pot rays i hit my pod rays you know take this series by winning today and thursday yeah correct and you come home with a four and two road trip and you're more than happy with that now is it could they win tomorrow with major on the mount sure yeah the last last they did they're always you never know when the pods are going to drop that eight running all of a sudden and that can turn anybody into a winner but in the universe that you know may have some logic to it get today's game you know hope cross your fingers for tomorrow and then give yourself a chance to win the series with michael king and again shurzer who you know again don't know what he's got right now still probably a little hit or miss coming back from the injured list on thursday and that's how this series should should shape up on paper but we could now swept down you just completely ignore that in real life exactly when the pot rays could sweep or get swept and and we really don't know what's gonna happen tonight maybe win tonight that i know found a way to win the first day that would be a good way to to get things started yeah they're they're they still scare me they've got they've got those players where you're like man this guy's it really really tough out you know why at length for him hitting for the cycle the other day like he's starting to round into form they've got guys that haven't i don't know if segar his availability for the series i think he's in he's just one of the scariest hitters in the game of baseball um just an absolute stud imagine letting that guy walk from your franchise i mean just amazing to me so hopefully i i don't know if he's if he's back or not i know he got dotted on the hand i did not see him playing against the Orioles in the last game but again i know nothing about the text rate but you know they had a day off yesterday as well everyone trying to reset for the start of this series so we'll see yeah as you said though pottery's bullpen should be in good shape yep with the off days yesterday thursday before that even with having to use some of the pictures in the in the series in boston didn't have to break out robert's for us at all gerema and astrada had the one in ending on on sunday everyone should be available to the ponderase in this game today for a chance to start the series off on a on a good note and put yourself in it with two chances essentially to win the series uh the next couple of days yes segar had an MRI came back negative so it's just a matter of uh his discomfort had the day off yesterday so we'll see i mean you know if he's in line up he's he's not having a cori segar like you're and even in a down year for him benny uh still got 15 bombs for him so he's pretty nasty all right we are done for today we'll come back tomorrow we'll have a game to wrap up it'll be our last day of the week as we get you ready for the uh fourth of july holiday everyone have a good rest your tuesday for executive producer and imaging director paul rindall for steven woods i'm ben higgins and he and elston coming up next here on san diego's number one sports station ninety seven three to fan so long everybody you don't just live in your home you live in your neighborhood as well so when you're shopping for a home you want to know as much about the area around it as possible luckily homes.com has got you covered each listing features a comprehensive neighborhood guide from local experts everything you'd ever want to know about a neighborhood including the number of homes for sale transportation local amenities cultural attractions unique qualities and even things like median lot size and a noise score homes.com we've done your homework today's episode is sponsored by nerd wallets smart money podcast get your head in the financial game with smart investing and budgeting tips straight from the nerds nerd wallets 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 nerd wallet smart money podcast on your favorite podcast app trying to figure out what to eat for dinner yet again with north sides and bullion as you're not so secret ingredient you can skip the drive-through and do dinner at home nor taste combos provide a menu of delicious affordable and well-balanced meals that you can prepare in 30 minutes or less visit nor.com 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