Ben & Woods On Demand Podcast
Friday June 28th, 2024 - FULL SHOW
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Let's face it, we were all that kid. So first, call your parents to say, "I'm sorry." And then, download the Instacart app to get delivery in as fast as 30 minutes all school year long. Get a $0 delivery fee for your first three orders while supplies last. Minimum $10 per order additional term supply. Well, happy Friday, everybody. About in woods 97-3. The fan, let's get our heads right on a Friday, Friday. Great to be here with you. It has been a long, long, long week. For me, at least, at pottery's won a bunch of games. I mean, it's been a great week for the pods, but it's just been a long ass week. Ready to get it going today on a Friday. We got four hours left for you. I'm woodsy. That's Paul Reindel, the executive producer. Good morning, Paulie. Good morning. Benjamin Higgins, your friendly neighborhood sports anchor, master debater himself. Good morning to you, sir. Good morning. Last show of the first half of 2024. Last show. Hold on, let's sink in. Last show of the first half of 2024. We are at the halfway, we're halfway home. Correct. June is the sixth month. And then this is our last show in June, because today is Friday, June 28th, which makes Monday when we're back, July 1st, the beginning of the second half of 2024. Never even thought about it that way. The whole stretch. I've always started your Christmas shopping. No, no. I have you guys started your birthday shopping for me. Few more shopping days. More of a last minute guy. You're going to give me some Ben and Woods golf balls from our golf tournament. I'll take them. I like them. They're great balls. I don't have any extra ones. I wish I did. Oh, you don't know. Oh, sucks to suck. I got like, imagine not grabbing a couple of minutes. Imagine not grabbing a couple of boxes. I was out of stuck at the glory hole all day. Well, you were sitting there with all the golf balls, apparently. Now, when you were interning for hackshot, is that a line that you thought that you would deliver on the radio now? I was stuck at the glory hole all day. And I could not. I never got a chance. I never had a chance to get away. Well, I said, I was stuck at the glory hole all day. I couldn't leave the the workplace regulations surrounding the glory hole are surprisingly strict. Oh, massively. You don't get breaks. You think, Oh, every, you know, two hours, you get like a 15 minute break or something. And I did not get a 15 minute break at all. You must have been exhausted. I don't know that anybody's ever worked a glory hole for 10 hours straight. Really? I mean, you were, you are a marvel, my friend. Sweet man is like, I just, I just want to talk NBA. And the next thing you know, I'm working at a glory hole for a golf tournament on a Wednesday. And it's the end of the world over here. Well, listen, I'll bring you, how about I bring you some balls? Because we do have some leftover. Then it feels like my birthday. Yeah, my birthday is not until November. So, but now I have to actually get you a present unless I give those back to you. Well, I didn't get you. I forgot your birthday. So if you want to forget my birthday this year, that would be the best birthday present you could ever give me. It's allowing me to forget your birthday. So then that would mean if since I forgot your birthday, I think I did. Do we end up getting him something for his birthday or no? I feel like we did. I think you did after the fact. So if I give you, if I'd let you forget my birthday, then I don't have to get you anything for your birthday in November. Correct. But I would make that deal right now. But I already have huge ideas for your birthday in November since I forgot it last year. Yeah. I know. So yeah, I know. Like, my wife's like that. They're like thinking all year of like present ideas that they can give to someone months and months from now. My brain does not work that way. I start trying to think of gift ideas and my brain melts. It just never, I just sit there and I think and I go, that's dumb. That's, that's dumb. I wouldn't, I wouldn't want that. The chat reminds us that we gave him cash on the air. But I gave him a 20, 40 months. We hugged him. That was such a, it was such an awful, awful day for me and Polly. It really was. And you know, I think, if you've listened to morning radio long enough, you probably have heard stuff on other stations where you went, come on, that didn't happen. That didn't happen. You guys are, you guys are embellishing a story on the eyes of my children, on the eyes of my children. We forgot. I had no earthly idea that it was Ben Higgins birthday that November. And I will never forget when he looked at me and said, I've, I've got something in the next segment. He's teasing. Yeah. His tease. He goes, I've got something in the next segment. I said, Oh, good. Because I've been waiting two and a half hours and he said, I, I, uh, it's, it's a little uncomfortable. And I'm really not sure how to address it. And I'm like, what is this? I don't go like he said in particular that, like, triggered something in my brain, but we went to break, played Kelly Dannick's traffic report and then Ben had a live read. And it was during the library that I looked up and I go, what, what's his birthday? I, because I actually, I did know it was around November. Yeah. And I saw that it was that day and I called you over. Yeah, my heart's been talking on the air, talking about, you know, farmer's dog, and I'm like, is it his birthday? And we just both went, oh, my effing, I'm telling you, man, I'm telling you, my mind's coming up July 19th. So you better not forget. And I guess I can't really let you off the hook because of what I have planned for you. I'll tell you right now, Adam's not going to like it. He's not going to like what goes down here. You probably won't like it either, but it's going to be your fun day. Can we? It's on a Friday, but no, my birthday's on a Friday. Your birthday is what Ben November. It's also on a Friday. Is it? I think we have the same birthday of the weekday every single year. No, yours is mine is. Oh, no, it's a Sunday. Sunday. Well, we won't be here. What's the date of it? From birth third. Yeah. That's fine. November 1st is when we celebrate your birthday on the air. Okay. Do we have enough money in the, the show fund to send Adam on vacation that day, maybe? No, I, if I, if we have money in the show fund, I'm certainly not spending money in the show. You just need to make sure he's not listening. It's Friday. Adam, they don't come in on Friday. They don't come in on Mondays. They're here Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday. It's quite a life. They lead upper management here at Odyssey. It's really, really something. But no, so yeah, mine's on July 19th, Ben, for you to remember and yeah, it was fun. It's going to be a fun one. More worried about your birthday, though. Why is that? Well, now I've got to think of something. Yeah. And my mind is completely blank. It usually is. Panic comes to gift ideas. You get panicked. Trying to think of things I want. Ben, best gift idea for anybody in this room is always something we can use on the air for content or anything like that. Like a gift card. Nope. No. That doesn't do anything for anybody. Nothing for the audience. Nothing. Lows home improvement gift card. You always like to fix up your house. You know me. Constantly hauling lumber and whatnot and saw, getting new saws and stuff, drills, love drills. Yeah. The more home improvement gear I can get, the better. I'd say it will go add to my stack of home improvement gear that's in my garage that has barely been opened. I had a gives me home improvement stuff. Like most Christmases like, oh, a screwdriver set. Fantastic. I'll maybe use it once. Maybe. And the things that I use it for are like, oh, the kids got one of those toys that have screws in the back that I have to open. And that's really it. I don't put anything together. I don't take anything apart. But yeah. So, it's going to be going to be a really fun show today. We have a really, really good show planned. It's going to be an interesting show to be sure. I guess I'll just ask the question. Did you guys watch the debates last night? I mean, we aired them on channel 10. Yeah, as most news stations did. So it was on in the newsroom as I was working last night. I can't say that I I really paid much attention. The only thing I wanted to say about it was that I've watched it for five minutes, five. And then I put on silence in the lambs and it was on and it just started. And I was more. You found your candidate. I was more com I was more comforted. I was more comforted by silence of the lambs than I was the debate. And of course, I followed along on Twitter. Now again, the debates, that's what Twitter was made for. I laughed my ass off. You laughed to keep from crying. But I laughed my ass off at some of the stuff I saw on Twitter last night. I mean, people came to play last night. I watched me funny as hell. I watched maybe 30 minutes. My wife was like, I want no part of this. So I was watching on my headphones. And I did come back and I go, if you watch it as a comedy show, if you watch it this Saturday Night Live, it's one of the best things you'll ever see. It's outstanding comedy. It really was. It was concerning to say. I don't I don't I feel like I should just suck it up and just do it. What? Be president. I agree. I couldn't agree. I don't want to. I don't want to, but I feel like I'll do a good job. So if everyone agrees, why don't we just skip the election? I'll serve the next four years. Still gonna do this show. I'll bring the I'll bring the equipment with me to the White House. So from the from the Oval Office. So I'll just set out a nine to one Eastern every day. Can you imagine? This is, you know, this is my Mr. President. We've no time. Me time. No meetings. Nothing. I'm doing the show from nine to one. The rest of the time. We used to stay it up pretty late. And I'll just I'll just get the rest of the work done. And we'll just do it. Do you think now? I know you have you have too many morals and scruples to be president, in my opinion, of this country. Do you have the killer instinct? Or do you feel like? Do you feel like you you'd get pushed around by foreign powers? Because I do. Absolutely do. By the way, I feel like I would too. This is a shot at you. I feel like we'd be terror terrible combo in there. Whatever you guys want to do is fine. I'm just trying to get out of this meeting. Can we please get out of this meeting? That's what I want. We have a round of golf we want to play today. We have access now to the greatest courses. And I'd like to go play there. I feel like the president of the United States, you guys love the round table once a week for now. That is his round table. I think the whole thing your whole day is round table. The worst thing ever. But there's no pizza on person. No pizza. No, man. I know that he says kernel budget running the country. I will definitely stick to the budget for sure. You would. You would. No, I I don't I try not to let myself get too bogged down into it emotionally anymore because it really sucks my energy out. And I watched that last night and I got I think sad was the way that I felt. And I just said, I'm done. And I put on silence of the lambs and I go, Oh, I haven't seen this from the beginning in a long time. And it's just it remains a fantastic, fascinating movie. Both my kids walked in when Clarice goes to meet what's his name Hannibal the cannibal when she first the first time. And they both were like looking at the screen. And when the camera pans up and he's just staring at you, they go, all right, see you later. And they just walked out of the room. They were scared to death. So yeah, it was that's what I did instead. I watched that. And then I watched some of the bear to calm me down. And it's an anxiety written show. But it calmed me down. I wasn't in a good mind space to start it yesterday, season three. Yeah, I said, you know what, I'm gonna wait till the weekend and just being that mother. It's I've gotten to the point where I'm now saving it because I don't want to watch it. Because if I watch it, then it'll be over the bear and there won't be another season for the year. So the longer I can wait before starting it, I can still look forward to it. Somebody wrote last night after the debates and watching uncut gems to relax. I don't know if you've seen that movie, Ben, but it's the Adam Sandler. Yeah, it's like somebody's jammed speed in your vein. The whole movie, you're you're biting your nails. You're rocking back and forth. You're like, Oh my God, this is terrible. So yeah, that's what we did. We have Major Garrett coming on at 635. And you know, lest you think this is going to be some it just worked out this way. I mean, really, we weren't a major. Come on after the debate. I don't want to talk debate with Major Garrett. I'm sure he's over talking about it too. I want to talk San Diego Padres midway point of the season with Major Garrett. Well, look, he works for CBS News. He works in Washington, DC. It's an election year. Yesterday was the first presidential debate and hopefully last of all time. Probably not. His schedule is about to get insane over the next what four months. So we said, you know what, let's catch up with him now. I really didn't mean to do it after the after the debate. I think we're his outlet though. We're his chance to get away from the opening day. I mean, I think we usually do this right at the beginning of the season, middle of the season, and then kind of an end of the season sort of wrap up with Major. So this will be the middle of the season, you know, take the temperature of how he's feeling and how we're all feeling about the San Diego Padres. They're just past their halfway point of the season. They're currently three games above 500. They're currently in the second wild card spot after the the St. Louis Cardinals lost yesterday. And, you know, on pace to finish with a winning record and, you know, about 85, 86 wins, which is what we said it was going to take to get there, get to the playoffs at the end of the season. Now, of course, next week, it'll feel completely different because we know how this works. But at the moment, they're right where we want them to be. Well, our hope is that next week won't feel completely different. That would be the hope. That's the hope, you know, and so far, those hopes have been dashed constantly this season. Yeah, there's no question. There's no question. Well, listen, gonna be a fun one today. Ben will set the menu for us next. Thank you guys for being here. We love you very much. We don't don't don't care what side of the road politically that you're on. I really don't just love each other. I think we're all on the sad side of the road. Be friendly with each other. We can we can finally agree on something in this country. Yeah, it's just that was horrible. That was terrible. It was terrible. It really was bad. Megan was like, why are you even why are you putting yourself through them? Like, well, one of these guys is going to rule the world right next year. So I guess I might as well tune in. But like I said, challenge the lambs more comforting. It's more that. Oh, wait, don't worry. She great big fat person. That was more comforting to me. The thought of a woman thrown down into a hole so that he could take her skin off. I was like, now that's what I'm talking about tonight. It's nice, easy view. Nice, easy view. All right, let's check traffic. Hopefully, it won't be anywhere near as bad as yesterday's traffic. And we will get going. We're going for a wake up room old on San Diego's number one sports station, 97, three, the fan. It's also an election year for us. Have you forgotten? I have not forgotten when there's hard debate. Somebody suggested, oh, you guys should do an election on the show. Like, we did. Another show did. And I'm like, we did that last time. We did. I'm I've been the president now. And my term is coming to an end at the end of the year. I'm the secretary of homeland exploration. I think I'm going to take that. I think I take that moniker this year. My job this year. I have several vacations left. Vacation Woods is making rearing his ugly head this year. So I don't know how much how much you know, much I'll be able to be locked into the job as president. But unless you mind your president being on vacation all the time and you know, sometimes we don't. It's happened before. I mean, you know, everybody gets to have a vacation every once in a while. I have no problem with that. Yes, it's, you know, when you got the kids and it's it's summer, you have to do more things in summer than you did when they were little babies, right? Like you have to plan more stuff and go on more things. So I'll be I'll be trying to get out of a lot of work using these kids. That's going to vacation. Fair enough. Yeah. Fair enough. All right. Here's what we got coming up on the show today. As you already mentioned, looking forward to Major Garrett checking in here at the bottom of the hour. In fact, we're going to get to that in about six or seven minutes so we can let him get on with his day. But we'll talk some Padres baseball with the CBS news. Chief Washington correspondent and good friend of the program. That is coming up at the bottom of the hour. Do feel like there is a discussion about the the second round of the NBA Draft and Ronnie James yesterday. That was the biggest story in the sports world. Some of the pearl clutching I saw yesterday about the 55th pick in the draft was it was unbelievable. Unbelievable. Clutching of the pearls from guys like Beaumani Jones. Oh my God, Beaumani Jones went. He went nuts. Yeah. On Twitter yesterday went nuts. You know, this is a this is clay Travis went insane about somebody with more skills and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. They've just cost themselves. Yeah. We we went. I see that their point. That's fine. It's at its core and it's core, but we went we went and looked up with the 55th. Like Jaden Lede is a better basketball player and their pro ready basketball player than Ronnie James. Correct. But no other teams wanted Jaden Lede either. Right. You know what I'm saying? In plenty of opportunities. He's just the only name I could think of. I went and looked. I went and did the research on the best 55th pick in NBA history. These names are not going to blow your hair back everybody. Beaumani Jones, clay Travis just relax. It's like Sean wrote into us a few minutes ago. He's like, you know, guys are missing the point here. The big story is the Lakers. They wasted a top pick. They didn't know they didn't. That's not a top pick. I think more people are mad because they feel like it's the player who's running the team and not the team that's making their own choices. Now for the for if the if I was an attorney in the evident and I had the evidence in front of me. I'd say, right. We have a new head coach. He is a never coached anything above elementary school. He's also your podcast partner. All right. We hired him. That's one. Your honor. Submit this for evidence number two. We drafted your son who averaged four points a game and one rebound in his one year of college. And we took him with the 55th pick. Your honor, I rest my case. Now I understand that narrative as well. But again, when you're talking about the 55th pick in the draft, you're you're putting Bronnie James up against names like Mark Blunt, Mark Laveroni, Kenny Gaddison, Etwan Moore, and Patty Mills, who's probably the best of the bunch. He scored about 8,000 points. He's got 15 years under his belt. That's good pick. Yeah, but that's one in how many? I mean, how many drafts have there been? So I think people want to get up in arms because well, it's something to talk about. And it's LeBron James and it coming from me. Do not like the Lakers at all. I couldn't care less. And by the way, it's fascinating. There's there's aspects of it like rich Paul calling the other teams and saying, hey, if you draft Bronnie, he's going to go play in Australia. He's not going to play for you. Yeah. Like, I love my son. I would love to do a show with him one day or have him on our adult bowl. I'm hanging on until he turns 18. So I can play a tournament with him. You know, I love that. I think that's great. So I have no problem with it at all. Do what you got to do. And if you hate the Lakers, this is a good thing for you. You love this. You love this. You're like, oh, cool. You know, it definitely got the headlines yesterday for sure. Well, yeah, biggest pick of the draft is rarely one of the final picks. And that ended up being obviously the most talked about pick of the entire draft. So I do have some thoughts. We will keep them to a minimum. Of course, in our seven o'clock hour, take on Woods. Don't do this. We're going to look ahead to this Padres Boston Red Sox series. And then second half of the show, of course, it's Friday, which means it's assessed for this family barbecue Friday. Jordan Schusterman going to be with us at eight o'clock presented by Grannell barbecue. We'll talk about what's going on in the game of baseball. Rinal report at eight 30 and then nine o'clock. Yeah, we'll let him come in and we'll just tip our cap to the San Diego Padres and Mike Schilt after probably the best week of the season. He can come in and he can feel pretty good about what the Padres have done over the last seven days or so. And we'll chat with Mike Schilt from Boston this morning as he gets ready for a road trip and see if the Padres can carry over some of that momentum from these last two series into games against the Red Sox and the defending World Series champion Texas Rangers. I'm going to be honest with all of you guys. I've been thinking since yesterday when I got out of here, I'm like, we got Schilti on tomorrow. What can I say to get under his skin? We've got some ideas. We'll flesh him out. What am I doing? Hey, we're good, bud. How are you? He's going to get pissy for some reason. It's usually me. Yeah. Yeah. And I want to add like I want I need to think of something to needle him a little bit. Well, I mean, we got to talk about the the ejection. Oh, yeah. That was awesome. Not not throwing McKenzie Gore out of the game and everything that's gone on in the last few days. I mean, that's all good stuff. He crushed for as much grief as he got about the John Boy ejection. He crushed this ejection, I thought. All right, let's take a quick time out because I want to get I want to get to Major Gary coming up next and get him get him on the air get him talking some Padres baseball because I always enjoy his perspective. We'll do that when we come back on San Diego's number one sports station 97 three the fan. Well, the back men and woods 97 three the fan. I don't know where Benjamin is. He's maybe on the toilet or something. I have no idea. But well, let's get traffic. They'll get right to I have no idea. We'll get right to our pal Major Garrett CBS News Chief White House correspondent next on 97 three the fan. All right, and joining us now live from DC our pal one of the biggest if not the biggest pottery fan. We know Major Garrett. Good morning, my friend. Good morning. How is everybody? Man, we are good. We are good just, you know, needed the night off last night. It's been a whirlwind around Petco Park. The last last few actually last few weeks. I'm just laughing. You guys had a night off. I didn't have a night off. No, last night was not a night off for you. Last. I told the guys earlier. I said, I watched five minutes and then I went and I watched silence of the lambs and felt I felt a little bit better about the future of our country. Exactly. How are you my friend? I'm good. I'm good. You know, look, I am I think probably where a lot of your audience is. I'm excited about where this team is. I mean, if you'd asked me at the beginning of the season, you don't have Darvish for most of the first half, you don't have Musgrove. You don't have Bogarts. And you've got 44 wins. Same as the Braves. Only two teams have more wins in the Padres, the Phillies and the Dodgers. Would you take that? Yeah. And I would say, yes. Good perspective. Not to mention, not to mention dramatically better performance with runners in scoring position, dramatically better performance in close games, dramatically better performance in extra any games, leading the Major League's in bunt base hits, not a statistically typically celebrate, but one that's important about how you put pressure on another team. I like where we are. I really do. Good morning, Major. It is good to talk to you as always. My question to you is, has Mike Shilt been what you've expected he was going to be as the Padres manager? Better. I fully expected that he would be rigorous on preparation process and team unity. And he has been. What I have been very surprised on the upside with is not only his ability to put that in the clubhouse, translate that from the clubhouse to the field and then talk to the Padre public about why it's working and not to freak out when you feel like freaking out because all of us are traumatized by the memories of last year. I know Bob Melvin is a very respected and accomplished manager. I don't want to take anything away from him, but Shilt has a more positive and more direct explanation for what he's doing, why he believes it will work, and why he's not going to be deterred. And for a fan base, I think that's super important. It's not only important for the fan base, it's important for the players to know that the manager has their back and will talk to the public about what's going on in a way that supports them, reinforces them and is credible. And I think Shilt's very good at all those things. You know, and it's funny talking to Major Garrett here, I try. We have him on every Friday and I try to get him to. I'm not asking him to be negative or throw one of his guys under the bus, but I will try to get him to say just, yeah, we could improve in that area. He won't do it. Anything critical. Anything critical. And I do understand the reasoning behind it. And I think pottery fans, a lot of them do as well. You've seen this clubhouse, you know, splinter, the last couple of seasons, you've seen, you've seen, you know, the, the, like everything fall apart and they go off a cliff. I kind of understand the reasoning of nope, not going to do it. I'm going to, I'm going to pat these guys on the butt. I'm going to pat them on the back, especially in public. We don't know what's going on behind closed doors. Certainly. We're not privy to that and he's not going to share it. And Manny won't share it. And jerks and won't share it. They, they're really tight-lipped this year. That's one thing I have noticed. There's, you don't, you're not hearing any whispers coming out of, uh, oh, lot of, uh, you know, this guy's mad at this guy. I find that it's quite the opposite. Quite the opposite. But I thought jerks and Profar gave a very important interview to Kevin A.C. last week before the pot race got on their good run. And he said the team needs to play better. The team needs to have more leadership and execute better and win winnable games. Profar said that as an emerging team leader. He wouldn't have said it if he didn't believe that Manny would back him up on that and Mike Schilt was okay with that. It's better when the players give that kind of interview, particularly a all-star caliber player as jerks and Profar undoubtedly is this season. Having him say it and having no one in the clubhouse refute it or talk behind his back or anyone go to Schilt and say, what do you think about that? It all felt consistent even though it was at the margins critical of how the pot race came off that road trip deservedly so. That's another dynamic that I think is important and reinforces that this team for whatever set of reasons and a lot of it comes to the manager, a lot of it flows to the players is a much more coherent unit, much more collaborative unit and look success reinforces that. You get walk off wins, you suddenly feel things are possible. You watch other teams walk you off, you start wondering if anything is possible. We've turned the corner on that. Major, we also all tended to agree that Manny had a big leadership moment when he stepped in with jerks in, you know, behind home plate with keeper Ruiz and I don't know if there's any talk at the other side of this. People are curious, you know, in Washington, D.C. You've got a a bunch of things going on probably other than listening to to Sports Talk Radio or commentary on what happened this week but it felt like a perhaps at least a defining moment for this clubhouse and for Manny Machado in particular as well what happened against the Washington Nationals earlier this week. So Nat's fans and I sort of dip in and out of that world. I'm a nominal Nat's fans because my kids grew up here in D.C. and I've freed them. I said you have a hometown team. It's a great thing in life is to be able to root for your hometown baseball team. I'm raising you as pottery fans. I'm now releasing you. We didn't have a ceremony but I kind of communicated that to them, you know. So I dip in and out of the nets. Nat's fans are not big on keeper Ruiz. They don't think it's a strong defensive catch or offensive. He's kind of awash and they thought he stepped way out of his lane and I for one do not understand. Do not understand how an umpire in the major leagues can watch a player touch another player at home plate and not run throw him out immediately. You cannot do that under any circumstance. You cannot take your mask off. Get another player's face and start poking him in the chest. Why is he still in the game? Yeah. And that's why Manny came up because he saw Jerkson was doing the thing he told everyone afterwards. I'm not going to get thrown out of this game. I'm not going to lose my cool. But Manny came in and said, hey, you can't touch my guy. I love him. And then he get, then Profar gets hit and everyone, oh, is it intentional or not? He got hit. You gave warnings. Something should have happened. And then you run Schilt. So then Manny is right in this moment, this moment where everyone is really pissed off. Everyone is pissed off in that stadium. I'm freaking angry at home. 3,000 miles away. First pitch in the seats. Take that and fill in your own expertise. Okay. Well, speaking of expletives, what Jackson Merrill said about it after was that's how you effing lead. I'm not saying yet at Homer, but right there off the bell, effing first pitch ready to go. That's how you effing lead right there. That's effing electric. I love this kid too. I love this kid. You know, you hear when Manny was slumping, when Manny was slumping a couple of weeks ago, all you heard was, oh, he's a terrible leader, terrible leader, terrible leader. And I'm like, man, he's clearly rubbed off on Jackson Merrill. He's clearly hitting the ball better. Maybe he's feeling better. We all kind of knew, I kind of knew it's going to come, you know, he's got it in him. And I think the power is still going to come for Manny. Hopefully, this weekend. But I thought that was, I was really special, man. The young. Maybe it was, it was by far the most electric moment of the season. I hope there are moments that will come close to that. But I don't think anything can surpass that in that moment. And look, Major League Baseball lives and dies on the margins of centimeters. A month ago, Manny gets that same pitch and fouls it back. He's just off a tick. That night, he was dialed in, saw it, hit it. And that shows that his work, his progress is getting him closer to the player that all Padres fans remember and want to see again. So Major, now is the calendar switches to July. The trade deadline is coming up in a few weeks. And the Padres, like most teams right now, are going to be in the market for some help. They're not going to be able to afford everything, though. Starting pitching would be nice. Another bullpen arm would be nice. And with Tetis out for an extended period of time, another bat would be nice. Assuming they can't do all of that, where's your priority lie as a Padres fan? Look, I am stung. I have been stung the past two years by outsized expectations about the players we bring in changing things. And we have to look at Jackson Merrill and take pride in our player development. He's ours. We developed him. He's a star. Already a star. Remember that. Not only is he a star, he's cheap, okay? We developed him himself. That's what you get. You don't have to give anything up. You have to pay a huge free-market ransom for a player like that. I don't want to say stand pat because that's not what AJ Preller is going to do. But I don't want any of our remaining top prospects traded. I just don't. I want them to stay in the pipeline. I want them to believe in their process of player development and harvest them as we did Jackson Merrill. Watching CJ Abrams reminded me of what a great player he is, how much this roster would be different. And let's be honest, when Bogart's and Tatiz and Must Grove and Darvish come back as we all hope they will, that'll be like making a trade. Yeah, we hope. I mean, you know, I feel like I've delivered that line to our audience many times as well over the last couple of years. And you know, they bought on the margins last year. That didn't work out. I thought Scott Barlow was fine. But if you could find a way to grab another Scott Barlow, somebody like that that can sure up, you know, the back end ish of your bullpen. Yeah, I think that's, that's okay. But when you, when it comes to Salas and DeVries and the huge flash, you move. No, I watch, I watch Leo Dallas the other day hit his first home run. We talked about it off the air, pitch up in the zone. Dude, he hammered this thing and then had the emotion looked at the dugout. Like, I was like, yeah, oh, that kid is 17 years old, 18 years old. I've watched Ethan Salas in person. And I thought to myself, no, no, no, we need to be patient with these guys. But honestly, after those two, I'm like, all right, we can, we can continue to make moves as long as but everyone's going to ask for those two. I know, I know, I know. And we just got to say, no, it's not happening. Yeah, I agree. Yeah, I agree with you 100%. Major really appreciated. I know you've got a very busy schedule with everything that's going on, but I can tell that our listeners were extremely, extremely enthusiastic to hear from you this morning and appreciate your perspective. As always, it's a great one. And thank you so much for your time. I'm always here for you guys. Thank you, brother. Love you, man. Talk to you soon. Bye bye. Great stuff with major Garrett, as always. And pretty, I mean, really optimistic, a really positive outlook on where the Padres are at the halfway point of the season. Sure. I think when he says, yeah, I mean, you get a better record than every team, but the Phillies, Braves, Dodgers, you know, and Brewers, wouldn't we have all exactly signed up for that at the midway point of the season? Yes, I think that's 100% true. You're also talking about a down Braves team, but that's okay. There's nothing you can do. You handled business against those guys. I think the counter is, of course, in one week, will they still have that record, because they fluctuated and they've had that record, and then they've been behind a few other teams that they probably shouldn't be behind, given their talent level, where they are. Can they hold on to where they are the positive momentum, what they have done this last week? Can they finally just go through a stretch where you don't have to play like you've played the last seven days all season long? No, no team is going to do that. Can you avoid giving it back though? The five in a row losing streak, the six out of seven to drop you back three games under 500. Can you just play over the next 10 games, you know, five and five and four? Sure. Fine. You don't, you don't have to go nine and one. You had a really nice stretch here. Just don't give it back as you go forward. Just give us some, give us some standard ball for a while to road trip, you know, no one, no one expects you to go five and one six and O to Boston and Texas. Try not one and five though, please for the, you know, just please here. Don't swing the pendulum back the other way. You're begging at this point. Yeah, a little bit, a little bit of begging to it. Like, you know, I'm not, it's the old, you know, what's the parent? It's, I'm not asking for that much here. I'm just, I'm just asking for something very reasonable and that is don't swing all the way back the other way this time and just swing back to the middle. The pendulum just goes back right to the middle, not, not all the way, not, you don't have to fall back to 500 every time you get above. Right. Let's, let's just hold on to some of these hard gotten gains over the last seven days. Yeah, man. And it's, you know, obviously it's easier said than done and you're going up against a Boston team that's they're hungry as well. And I think they're probably overachieving a little bit this season. You know, they're going to want to take it to you and, and they've got good pitching, you know, so I, this is, it's going to be an interesting series, you know, one that I can, I absolutely hope we go into Fenway and take two out of three. I think we're capable of it. I've not played well on the road recently, but we have played well on the road this season and we've beaten good teams consistently. We really have. And so, you know, I like our chances as much as I always have, you know, which is to say, which is to say they absolutely can have a really successful road trip. It does worry me that the starting pitching depth can always unravel a season. No, no question. And the price tag for starting pitching is going to be high. It's going to be a top prospect, the kind of guy that Major Garrett doesn't want to give away at this point. So maybe you don't and you just continue to roll the dice that you Darvish will come back hopefully within the next couple of weeks. We don't know if that's true or not. Hopefully Joe Musgrove will come back at some point in the next month and a half or two. We don't know that that's true. I do remember what happened in 2021. Nothing can unravel a decent season faster than all of a sudden realizing we only have two quality starting pitchers and the rest of the time we are just throwing someone out on the mound and hoping the rest of the week. We saw what happened in 2021 when they did that. Is there depth? Is there enough there that if they don't make a move that they can survive for the rest of the season? I think the answer is no. I think the answer is a hard hard. You need bullpen and starting. But you really do. And I think it can be found. The price tag is going up now. I think it can be found. I really do. I think it can be found. It would really it would really help if about three or four teams went on a losing streak and felt like we're sellers now as opposed to just the small handful of teams that are currently offering players because that really makes it hard even for the creative AJ Preller to pull off a good deal. Is there so many teams that want pitching and there are so few teams that are offering pitching? The price tags are going to be exorbitant right now. And I don't want to pay exorbitant price tags for mediocre players for buying on the margins. You know, they've they've pulled off two really big moves already. I know. Probably smart to do them early. 100% 100%. But now it's going to be even tougher, I think, to bring an impact player in at this point of the season. It is. It's going to be tough for every team. And and there's going to be a lot of teams, you know, ripping the phones right now looking for looking for the help that they need as well. So we did traffic. We're good. Yeah. We're all we're all set. Sorry. That's in the restroom for a little while. How'd that go? It's fine. I'm good now. You have the charts? No. I'm okay. It was fine. It's a fast break. It felt like. No, it was right. You did a good job. You've you. That's what a president does. Appreciate that. Stepping up, filling your duties. I mean, you were doing those filling your duties in there. No, I was clearing them. All right. Life is good. Life is very good. It's waiting on that music to start. Do we still have another thirty seconds before the start of the music? I'm good on the clock. I'm better. The better than you. Yeah. On clocksmanship. Still don't know the clock. When it comes to the shell. Right. That's all right. Okay. Coming up in our next hour. We'll have some take on woods, chance to qualify for that trip to Las Vegas. Fontainebleau, really good prize this month. Concert tickets, $150, a poolside dining credit for while you're there. That's coming up in our next segment. Don't do this. It's going to be along as well. I, um, I know power rankings don't mean anything, but I thought there was some interesting insight from the ESPN crew on the Padres that came out yesterday that I want to talk about. That's our seven thirty five segment. Yeah. And I sent Pauli some audio yesterday of Mark DeRosa talking about the Padres as well on MLB. I'm always curious what other people are saying about our team. Mark DeRosa is like one of our biggest cheerleaders. I like it. We should get them on the show. All right. That's coming up in our next hour of Ben Awards. Don't go anywhere. San Diego's number one sports station, 97 three, the fan. We all belong outside. We're drawn to nature, whether it's the recorded sounds of the ocean we doze off to or the succulents that adorn our homes. Nature makes all of our lives well better. Despite all this, we often go about our busy lives removed from it, but the outdoors is closer than we realize. With all trails, you can discover trails nearby and explore confidently with offline maps and on trail navigation. Download the free app today and make the most of your summer with all trails. This season Instacart has your back to school. As in, they've got your back to school lunch favorites like snack packs and fresh fruit. And they've got your back to school supplies like backpacks, binders and pencils. And they've got your back when your kid casually tells you they have a huge school project due tomorrow. 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What kind of programs does this school have? How are the test scores? How many kids do a classroom? Homes.com, those 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. Feel like every hot take on LeBron James that could ever be uttered was uttered yesterday. Good, bad. I saw people just just soiling himself. They're not and they're not wrong. I think everybody's. I think everybody had fairly measured opinions about it. But you heard the term nepo baby thrown out a lot and I don't know that you can, I don't know that you can deny that, right? Is that what you'd be foolish to say? Yes. This is not nepotism. If it was Bronnie Smith and he had just finished his first season at USC and average four and a half points per game and 18 minutes, there's no chance he'd even be coming out for the NBA Draft. Correct. But that, his name isn't Bronnie Smith. It's Bronnie James and pedigree is a real thing. It's not, I mean, you can't completely ignore that. He has access to the greatest basketball player possibly on the planet, certainly one of the top three that have ever lived. He has the unqualified 100% support of the greatest player ever. Now, you know, Michael Jordan's kids didn't turn into Michael Jordan. And it doesn't always follow that just because he's related to LeBron James, he's going to be anything like him. In fact, it would be almost impossible to be there. Not almost. It's it is. He's not going to be LeBron James, right? Like, but he was he was a very highly touted high school prospect with top 20 and with some really good, you know, possibilities ahead of him. Has he reached him? Of course not. He's still probably multiple years away from even coming close to that, especially after the cardiac arrest, you know, setback that he had to go through. When it comes to the, you know, players running the team aspect of it, now is also 100% true. Not every player. In fact, almost no players in the league would have the cache or the authority to even engineer this to happen. They wouldn't have the temerity to ask for it. You know, yeah, my son. Hey, my, my son's, you know, in college as well, we should draft him. Well, you know, did he have a good season? He's always coming off the bench for, you know, a sub 500 team and, you know, didn't make the NCAA tournament. The obvious answer, of course, is going to be no, we're not going to use even a second round draft pick on someone like that. Yeah. However, it's also assumed that I think when people are going, you shouldn't let LeBron make these decisions. LeBron is not only a great basketball player. He's also very savvy and smart about the game of basketball. There's no reason to think that LeBron doesn't know as much or more than Rob Palinka or Jeannie Boss or anyone. There's no, there's no magic in it. There's no magic in knowing what's the best for the team. He probably, yeah, in fact, he probably does. And is it, is it selfish? Is it self-serving on Rob Palinka? Anytime they, if they ever get into a debate and he goes, Oh, really Rob? How many NBA finals have you played it? And if I'm, if I'm Jeannie Boss, I'm the owner of the Lakers, I feel like he could do worse than just listen to what LeBron James wants and say, you know what? That's how I'm going to run my organization. I'm going to give full faith to my superstar who's brought me a title, who has been a great ambassador for my organization. I want him to be a Laker for life. You know, the rest of his career and then after his career, I want him to represent my colors. And if having his son on the team is a way to ensure that for a good chunk of time to the future, it's probably well worth the 55th overall pick in the draft just to make that statement to LeBron James that you are the most important person in our franchise right now and will be going forward. I'm okay with that. I'm going to need Adam Clue to put Bo and Taylor on the payroll here ASAP. Just so you know, it's coming. The ask is coming. Michael, if you're listening, going to have some different demands at the next contract negotiation. 97 tweet, a fan. 97 three. I see the Laker haters in the chat. I hope this ruins the lame curse with the lame curse. I mean, I heard this. There's not much to ruin right now. They are in a transition period that's going to be painful just like it was when Showtime ended just like it was when, you know, the Shaq Kobe, Paul Gasol era ended for a while. There's going to be a painful transition coming up. I would rather have LeBron James on my side during that painful transition than, you know, perhaps making it any of him or driving him to a different organization. That's that's my two cents as it admittedly Lakers fan and, you know, Lakers part of the Lakers family growing up. My two cents on that is I'm okay with how this played out. I really am. Do I think that LeBron and Brian James are going to win a title here? No, of course not. I'm not been pissed if the Lakers traded up for to five and drafted him early in the first round or something. It actually worked out perfect for him. 55th pick in the draft. That's that is a nothing pretty happy with who they got in the first round. Guy who fell from the lottery to them who helped Dalton connect the SEC player, the year from Tennessee. Nice. It'll be a bigger story when he's actually on their opening day roster because there will be a better NBA ready player in their system. Yeah. I mean, somebody said made the point yesterday. So will LeBron be okay if he's not on the opening day roster and he's playing in the G league? I don't really think LeBron has a choice. And I think that that would help kind of calm things down a little bit. If in fact, he's not ready to contribute. You say, oh, we're going to go play in the G leagues for a while. Honestly, probably would be okay with that. He's not coming back to play the opening week and then retired just because he wanted to play with Bronnie for one game. Yeah. I mean, if he's insisting that Bronnie needs to be in the starting lineup from day one, so they can play it again. Then we do have a problem. Yeah. All right. This is way too much basketball talk. Way too much basketball talk. All right. We need a contestant for take on Woods. Join us right now. 833-280-973. 833-280-973. One of those days when the Padres don't have a game, it does, it does draw your attention to some different things that you wouldn't necessarily pay attention to. Watch some of the soccer game yesterday, USA, Panama. Oh man. All right. So I need you to explain to me what is this tournament? So the Copa America is basically like the championship of North America and South America. It's for the non World Cup even years. The World Cup is every four years like the Olympics and then in the middle year between they do the Euro, which is going on right now. Right. And they're doing the Copa America, which is like our version of the Euro. Okay. It's a country like an international represent your country just like world. It's basically the World Cup teams, but instead of playing against the world, you're just playing against your region to crown kind of an interim champion in between World Cups. But it's a pretty big deal in soccer. It's your biggest tournament you're going to have between World Cups for international play. But these, this result doesn't affect anything in the World Cup or for the Olympics or anything like that, right? It's its own tournament. Just its own attorney. Okay. But I mean, this is like, this is what you're, this is what you've been preparing for the last two years, essentially, for the next two years will be for preparing for the World Cup. But the last two years, ever since you get eliminated from the World Cup, you're like, okay, we're re tooling team, whatever, with the eye on the next Copa America in a couple of years. So this is big. Okay. And if they don't advance out of group play, which if they lose on Monday to Uruguay, who's the best team in their pool, so they very well could lose, it's going to go down as a pretty epic failure. Another one, you know, you should definitely be getting out of at least the group round into the knockout stage. So this will be considered a failure. A lot of people are excited about that. They'll feel like maybe you can change coaches before it's too late. They still think Greg Burr halter is not the right guy for this team. Not like that guy. Many, many, I see many, many tweets about Greg Burr halter. Yeah, and I did see the the red card that was given out yesterday at Burr halter was not pleased about that. Talking about a silly, silly mistake, man, Tim Waya, Tim Waya, especially early in the early in the match. And yeah, when we flipped it on, it said, you know, playing with 10 or man down or whatever. And I said, Oh my God, how do you get a red card there? And then the collision, the collision, the 5050 ball bend between one of their guys and our goal goal keeper. I was that you see, that looked like a that looked like a free safety hitting a guy. The thing is it's, um, you have to know when you're playing Panama, you know, international soccer people will say they're pretty dirty team. And that's part of their strategy. No, hey, we're Panama. We're not exactly the elite of the elite when it comes to world soccer. So how are we going to? We're going to get under the skin. I mean, that Panama had like, what, like six times more fouls in the United States. They're going to play rough. They're going to play dirty and they're going to try to get in your head and make a mistake that perhaps they can take advantage of and it played out perfectly. Their strategy played out perfectly against the United States. You can't let an inferior team dictate and get in your head and make you play the wrong way. And that's, that seems like what happened in that. That's such a gnarly thing, by the way, like imagine if you argued with an, like Bryce Harper goes out and chews out an umpire and they're like, boom, red card. You're out eight on nine, eight on nine. You have to slide somebody over like an adult league with only eight guys show up. You're like, we'll go to two outfielders. I need your slides from short to second on this lefty. Like, now that's that makes base that would be that would be that would be so funny. You get two players ejected. Okay, we're now seven, seven guys to the game. One out fielder out there, like, probably see a lot. Three infielders to outfielders. How are we going to do this the rest of the game? You'd see a lot less, a lot fewer bench clearing brawls. You'd see a lot, and you'd see a lot fewer jogging at the umpires too. If you knew that I could get run red carded and I'm out and we can't replace me. Auto out in the lineup. Holy smokes. We still need a contestant for take on Woods. Got to be someone out there who wants to try to qualify for that fantastic trip to Las Vegas 833-288-0973. Please call right now 833-288-0973. God, don't do this coming up. We got some audio at 730, as you said. Mark Duroso on MLB Network talking about the San Diego Padres. We'll get to the pitching matchups for this upcoming series as well. And then it's a Friar Friday, which means at nine o'clock. Mike Shilt will join us from Boston, Massachusetts as the Padres get ready to take on the Red Sox. Did you tell me that Jesse Aguiler has never called a game at Fenway Park before? I didn't hear him say that. Yeah, Jesse Aguiler told us yesterday in his newsletter that this will be his first time broadcasting at Fenway Park, which for a broadcaster, I mean, that's like one of the meccas. You think about Wrigley Field. You think about Fenway Park and getting to do that and he's pretty fired up, man. And that'll be tonight. We can be able to watch him on Apple TV. We can remember, Ben, you told us yesterday how to do it. Go to the audio settings and switch it to the 97-3 Padres home radio feed and it'll be synced up for you when you watch the game tonight on Apple TV. I'm so happy for him, man. He's been in this game a long time. And for now, you know, to never get a chance to go do that is pretty special. All right, got some people calling in for the game. Let's go. Let's get to it. It is time to play take on Woods. It's time for take on Woods. Woods. Woods. All right, let's go to line two here who who's on the air here caller. You're up for take on Woods. Who's this? Hello, this is Thomas Thomas. All right, you're in. Thank you for calling. Woods has left the studio. So we've got five questions of musical trivia. And if you beat or tie Woods, we'll put you into the drawing for our tonight's stay at the Fontainebleau. Take it to Hootie and the Blowfish or smashing pumpkins and the $150 pool site dining credit. Get your rooms and summer packages at Fontainebleau Las Vegas.com. By the way, take on Woods brought to you by valvoline instant oil change. It only takes 15 minutes. You don't have to get out of your car for directions and discounts. Go to SoCal oil change.com. That's SoCal oil change.com. All right, Thomas, here are your categories. We got keep the change song titles that include a type of coin in the name. We got you're making me crazy. Five song titles that include the word crazy. And we've got a Bob Marley category today. So keep the change. You're making me crazy or Bob Marley. Thomas, what would you like to play? Let's go with Bob. All right, Bob Marley. He's going right to our new category today. Yeah, today's category all about reggae legend Bob Marley. Five questions 60 seconds. If you don't know an answer, you can pass. First questions are two seconds song. Obviously, it's going to be a Bob Marley song. So you just need to give me the title on that one to score the point. We'll go on from there pass. If you don't know again, you can come back if there's time left on the clock. Thomas, you ready to play? Absolutely. All right, 60 seconds on the clock in the category. Bob Marley, Thomas, your time begins when Paul plays the music. Good luck. Let's take on woods. Don't worry. It's not what that song is called. A good try. Which 1965 song not only became the first international hit for Bob Marley, but the title would become a worldwide mantra on t-shirts, tattoos, and bumper stickers. No woman, no crime. Incorrect. A live version of which Bob Marley classic ranked number 37 on Rolling Stones. 500 greatest songs of all time. Writing credit was given to Marley's friend Vincent Ford, who used royalties to fund his soup kitchen. Oh, you just said it. Bob Marley was a prominent member of which Afro Jamaican religious and social movement that involves the ritualized smoking of ganja, a.k.a. cannabis. That is correct. Eric Clapton's cover version of which 1973 Bob Marley's song reached number one on the charts in 1974 and landed in the Grammy Hall of Fame. Oh man, that was five years before I was born. I got a pass. All right, go back to the scene. Now, if you had said no woman, no cry for the third question, that would have been correct. You only got the one though. Three little birds is the title of Don't Worry. It says what it's called by Bob Marley and the Whalers. One love is the mantra t-shirts, Hannah Nankaro tattoos, bumper stickers, rastafarianism, you got that, and I shot the sheriff is the Eric Clapton cover of Bob Marley. I don't know, it's gonna be enough, Thomas. I do appreciate your attempt, but see how Woods does. I'm anticipating he'll do well in this category. We'll see. All right, 60 seconds on the clock. Your time begins on Paul Slay's the music. Good luck Woods. Stay on Thomas. It's Bob Marley. It's a three little bird. Correct, which 1965 song not only became the first international hit for Bob Marley, but the title would become a worldwide mantra on t-shirts, tattoos, and bumper stickers. One love? Correct, the live version of which Bob Marley, classic, ranks number 37 on Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Songs of All Time. Writing credit was given to Marley's friend Vincent Ford who used royalties to fund his soup kitchen. Past. Bob Marley was a prominent member of which Afro Jamaican religious and social movement that involved the ritualized smoking of Ganga, a.k.a. cannabis. I'm blanking like a mad man. Rasta. Correct. Eric Clapton's cover version of which I shot the sheriff. Correct. The live version of which Bob Marley, classic, ranks number 37 on Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Songs of All Time. Redemption song. That is incorrect. It's got four, which is good enough for the four one win today. I got three. You got three. You got three. You didn't get no woman, no crowd. No woman. What else didn't you get? Missed out. Oh, you're gonna get I shot the sheriff? I got, I shot that one. You got Rasta. You got three little birds. You go in love. You got four. I got four. You got four. Four. Yeah. No woman. No cry was the. Love that song. Was the middle one, but Bob Marley category goes to woods today. Might get lucky tonight. Thomas, thank you for playing. We'll have some new categories. Ganja, AKA cannabis. What a drop. What a drop. Let me hear it again. That's so good. Ganja, AKA cannabis. There's something inaccurate. No, it's just. For those people who weren't sure what Ganja was. I just wanted to be AKA cannabis. Ganja, AKA cannabis. Also known as weed, weed, smoke, pot, grass. Lettuce, hippie lettuce, hippie lettuce, the devil's lettuce with Ganja, but it's the AKA cannabis. Sounds like something Alex Trebek. He's what it's. Ganja, AKA cannabis. I am hosting a game show. I should sound like Alex Trebek in this scenario. That's one of my favorite drops of all time. Came in here and says, I trained him for this category. Oh, God. That's a GD1. That is unbelievable. Ganja, AKA cannabis. And that's a one seed. Ganja kills me. What was the name of the category? Bob Marley. Oh, okay. Somebody said I thought you would do it. You're making me crazy. Don't do this is coming up next. Could the NFL be taken down by a group of class action lawyers? Did you see? The NFL down yesterday. Yeah. Big ruling against the NFL. We'll get to that and more coming up after a check of traffic. That was a 97-3 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? Don't I'm sorry. I fudged up guys. You idiot. You moron. The apple sometimes does far fall from the tree. Don't do this. Do not tweet that with Ben and Woods. I like a Nickelback song or two on 97-3 the fan. Don't do this is brought to you by the Craft Taco in Serenal Valley. Craft Taco is some of the best quality tacos in all of San Diego. Go to the craft taco.com. Take a look at their happy hour specials today. The craft taco.com. So it sometimes feels and it's probably true that the NFL is all powerful. They can do what they want. Yeah. It feels that way. They have us all in their grasp. What else are we going to do on Sundays in the fall? And other than Mondays and Thursdays. Other than watch football. Everyone else does it. You feel like some Friday's down. You feel like you're missing out if you don't. It's pretty much taken its I mean TV ratings. The top 100 programs every year now are NFL football games. Yep. See you have to watch. We know this. If you don't have any alternatives, there's no competition to the NFL in the fall. They the U. F. L. does not count. They just know competition. But a industrious group of plaintiffs and lawyers said you know what that is. That's a monopoly. When there's no competition and then you start charging whatever you want for your product. That's a monopoly. Those are illegal in this country. So they filed a lawsuit. It started actually with a sports bar up in Northern California going because you know sports bars have to pay way more for Sunday ticket than even home customers. Oh, I think that thousands. Yeah, I have a buddy that owned a bar and he goes if you had any idea of what we have to pay to get this get this in and it ain't exactly cheap for home customers either. I mean, you know, it's you're already paying for cable and everything to get most of the games. But if you want all of them, that's another, you know, what is it? $140 $50 for the season for Sunday ticket, whatever it was at least. So many years ago, actually, they filed this lawsuit against the NFL going you're overcharging for your Sunday ticket. And it was thrown out and then it was reinstated and the NFL has lawyers upon lawyers upon lawyers who delayed who tried to get every trick in the book legal trick to win this case. But kept moving forward and eventually got to trial this week. Roger Goodell was called to the stand. Jury was there listening to all the arguments. And they came back with a verdict yesterday. And that jury in the US district to court said, yeah, you have violated antitrust and they ordered the NFL to pay $4.7 billion in damages to Sunday ticket subscribers and sports bars who have been paying. Now, this is antitrust, which means that judgment will be likely tripled to over $14 billion, which would mean every team would be on the hook for about $500 million each. I was going to ask, is there like a is there an NFL pot, like an NFL fund that that comes out of order? I don't think any I don't think there's any pot that's worth $14 billion. Right. Yeah, but if it's tripled. Oh, yeah. So they split it up 32 ways. So obviously, it's not over. There's going to be appeals upon appeals. We're probably still years away. But if the NFL does lose at some point, if you bought Sunday ticket between I think it's like 2011 and 2022 during this case, you'll get one of those like postcards in the mail saying, yeah, I'd like to sign up for my settlement. And if it all works out, one day you may get like a check for 150 bucks or something, like to compensate you for your overpaying of the years of Sunday ticket or whatever it is, your, your slice of the pie of the big settlement from the, from the NFL. So hey, they don't win every single battle right there. They lost one finally. You know, it's one thing I've never, uh, I've never fulfilled one of those. I have. Oh, yeah. Absolutely. I've got my $22 check for the money box from Blockbuster sign box. Yeah, that's sweet. It's found money. It's great. I've never been always worried. It's a scam though. Oh, yeah. Did I actually sign up for this? I guess I did. I've never been able to, you know, me, I'm quick to pull the trigger on almost anything that costs money for entertainment purposes. And I've never been able to pull the trigger, trigger on the NFL ticket. Never been able to say, all right, let me have it all because I just don't, you know what I mean? I, the, the red zone and all that is enough for me. And then whatever games are on the networks, I'm, I'm good to go. Mine is pretty lame. And we're kind of out of time, Benny. Just do your do do this. All right. Do do this. We're running mega do do. I just saw this this morning. So they're hosting the US senior open right now in Rhode Island. A second round play is underway. And I don't know who Frank Bensell is. Never heard of him before, probably just qualified for the US senior open like you can do for the regular US open. They're playing at Newport Country Club, which starts with a par five. He parred it. Then he bogeyed the next hole, which is a par four and par the third hole, which is a par four. So he's one over three, three, both the fourth and fifth holes kind of unique on the course back to back part threes, 184 and then 203 yards US open, even for the seniors, tough course, fourth hole, Frank Bensell ace, fifth hole, Frank Bensell ace back to back. I don't even know what the odds of that are in golf. But that has to be one of the most astronomically unlikely things to happen in sports. There are very few courses where you even have back to back part threes. Yeah, that's the other thing. A hole in one will happen once in every, you know, several years on, you know, for a player, even of those caliber on a course like that. To do it on back to back holes, one of the most amazing things I've ever seen in sports. No question. If I did it, if I did it, I still would break 100 that day. That's the worst. Yeah, you have 16 holes left. And I keep it under 100. Not on a U.S. Open goal. The day I got my hole in one, I shot one 11. A one 11 with a hole in one. Nice day. Congratulations, Frank Bensell. And that's don't and do do this for a Friday. That was don't do this with Ben and Woods, 97, three, the fact mathematician sea bass in the chat says one in 67 million. I don't know. That seems a little light even to me. You got to realize there's probably you probably get one or two chances in your life other than like on a, you know, executive par three course to play back to back par threes on a regulation course. You're never going to get back to back par threes almost to get them both his hole in one's insane saying what a day. So you have to buy drinks for two days for all the people there. Good question. Double the drinks for one day drinks for two straight days expensive. It's pricey just pay for everyone's hotel room for a weekend or something. Everyone's going to Vegas on me crazy. That is uh that is nuts. He then bogeyed the next hole. No. Taps were shaking obviously. One one five. So good. All right, we'll come back. The Padres are winning over. I don't know if they're winning over their own fan base or their local media yet. I'm still we're always going to be a little skeptical. National media though. They seem to be jumping on board with the San Diego Padres again. Give you some of those comments when we return on San Diego's number one sports station. 97 three the fan. Not the only playoff contender going through some injury issue. So big one last night. Yeah, I don't know if you saw it, but the Phillies potentially lost two key players yesterday. They're crossing their fingers holding their breath after Bryce Harper suffered what appeared to be a hamstring injury right at the end of a loss to the Miami Marlins. Last play of the game. Yeah, very end of the game. And then Kyle Schwarber also dealing with growing tightness. You know, growing tightness doesn't sound bad, but that's basically what kept you Darvish out for the last month plus. So two absolutely core players for the Philadelphia Phillies. Now potentially could miss some time. We'll get an update. I'm sure on on both of their statuses coming up. But we know that the Dodgers have had tons of injury issues so far this season. The Braves have had mass. I mean, they've lost Spencer Strider, Ronald LeCunier Jr., and others, but just start with those two absolutely key players. So yeah, the Padres have dealt with their fair share of injuries. No doubt about it, but they are not the only one. The National League is a walking wounded league at the moment. When you live in the vacuum, you know, the silo, as Mike Show likes to call it, we live in the Padres silo. And yeah, I saw the highlights last night. Now I saw Harper running it running down to first kind of a shot back in the hole. And second baseman's going to it. First baseman's running the bag. As soon as he hits the bag, Benny, he reaches for his his Hammy and he starts jumping up and down. Carlos Correa. Do you see that last night? Oh, Mike did not see Carlos Correa last night. God, he's up a pitting gets drilled in the forearm. Does this holds his hand up and looks to the dugout and shakes his head. Nope, nope, nope, nope, walks off the field. So yeah, man, guys are getting banged. Maybe even the Brewers who the Padres just faced. Remember, I didn't see Devin Williams in that series, you know, everyone's been beat up this year, especially in the National League. So Padres, you know, it may come down to how role players perform on all of these teams. And the Padres have had really, really good contributions from role players. We'll talk a little bit about where they stand right now. Midway point of the season right after a check traffic here on 97 three, the fan. So again, I as I realized, power rankings are meaningless, other than a little snapshot of how, you know, some group of national media are feeling about certain teams at a certain moment. But yesterday, Padres were a season I number 12 and ESPN's new power rankings doesn't really matter other than I do think it's sometimes interesting to see some of the comments because guys like a Buster only who wrote the write up on the Padres do have access to at least talk to other people in the league about their impressions of a team. And here's what they wrote about the San Diego Padres yesterday. The National League mud bog of wild card contenders is for now a messy race of 10 teams vying for two spots. You can make a reasonable case for each of the clubs, including the nationals. But interestingly, many executives echo a similar sentiment as they assess what they see. The Padres should be the best team in this group of wild card wannabes. Quote, there's just a talent there. One high ranking official set of San Diego last week. They've got starting rotation problems, but with the quality of their position players, they should win a spot. And then here's the one here's the statement that caught my eye. Nobody can hit, but the Padres can hit. That's what another executive in baseball when he looks at the Padres goes. Yeah, they got they got something there. We're all struggling to put runs on the board. We're all struggling to put the bat on the ball, get it in play, but not the Padres. They lead the league in batting average. They're hitting line drives. They're striking out very little. And for whatever, I mean, is it turning into a massive number of wins? Of course not. They're barely above 500. But it's something that has the envy of at least some people out there when they look, I wish my lineup did more of what the San Diego Padres lineup has been doing this season. Got to keep that rolling, man. Got to keep that rolling. That slug that you're you're experiencing now guys hitting homers. And you're gonna be, I don't know how how the Texas Rangers ballpark plays at all. Like, I don't know if it's deemed a pitchers park, hitters park. You know, I know that there's a dome over it because it's 140 degrees there right now, but I don't know how it plays, but I know Fenway Park is a good park to hit in. So, hopefully the boys can go out and, you know, do some damage off the monster this weekend. And yeah, I mean, look, they're a good team. They got their work cut out from, but yeah, I'm pretty feeling pretty okay about this team. And I've felt that way, what? 16 times or so this season, like, okay, yeah, right. Like, what a flash of brilliance this has been. And then the the inevitable has happened. I'm just trying to avoid the inevitable, the inevitable losing four or five games on this road trip. And I think it's it's the specter that hangs over all of our heads as Padres fans, because that's what we've seen to this point. So, but what's truly remarkable is that the Padres are envied as an offense after a first half in which what? Zander Bogart was a complete zero offensively, and then got hurt. Manny Machado had his worst half season of his career offensively. And Fernando Tete's junior had a good two and a half week period in June was finally heating up when he then got hurt. Your three most important offensive players on camera had a good offensive season last year just not has also has also taken a step back. If you there's just no way the Padres should be better offensively. They should be significantly worse, yet they are better. And it is for a number of reasons, you know, Jake Cronoworth's bounce back, Luis arises addition, certainly part of it. And Jackson Merrill is huge, but the number one reason the Padres have taken a step up offensively is the most unlikely reason of all. Now, it's the guy who unblocked us on Twitter in spring training. It is jerks in pro far. And I don't really even know how much credit to give AJ Preller for that move. It was such a foregone obvious conclusion move even before the Padres signed him. We were already counting on him as part of whatever Padres plans. Now, I remember those conversations were like, all right, when Toddy and right, just one season. You got Toddy and right. Big question mark and set a deal to member. He's not on the team yet, but you figure pro far enough. Yeah, no, I don't know if he's an everyday player, but you know, he'll be a good platoon, switch hitting option, you can come off the bench, whatever. Obviously, they're going to obviously they're going to sign jerks and pro far. And he's going to be on this team in 2024. It was it was a foregone conclusion in my mind that pro far was going to be here. So I don't know that that can be like a huge, yeah, AJ Preller needs to be general manager of the year for his incredible signing of jerks and pro far. Everybody would have done that. You know, you could have had no GM and somehow jerks and pro far would have ended up on the team one way or another this year. So I give all the credit to jerks and well, maybe a little bit to Fernando Teti senior. Yes, and whatever he did to jerks and during winter ball in the Dominican. Yeah, and I think playing, you know, he talked about it getting a chance to play winter ball was epic for him and got him locked in and guys been ready to play fighting through injury. He's been he's been a revelation man couldn't love somebody more than jerks and pro far. What a what a great, great dude. What a great pickup for almost no money. He did officially finish first in the NL all star balloting in the outfield. It's done. It's well, the first round is done. So he is now one of the six finalists. So you now have to go back and start voting for jerks. And again, beginning Sunday, Sunday to Wednesday is the final vote, MLB dot com slash votes. I know. I mean, it would be a crime at this point. If you're actually finished first in the balloting normally, and then all of a sudden, like, get there. So, you know, follow up, everybody, the voter for jerks and you got to do it one more time. Sunday to Wednesday, the final vote is coming up, jerks and needs to be an all star this year. All right, we got to make sure we hit it on all our socials and spread the message because, yeah, that there's no more deserving candidate than him. Um, Padres have four finalists, actually. Tatiis is also one of the top six. Now, I would assume that even if he got voted in, he's not going to play in the all-star. Correct. You know, there's not any indication that he'll probably be back before the all-star break. And even if he was thinking of coming back, the all-star game is not the place to come back. So I would not think that Fernando will be part of the team. Manny Machado is one of the two finalists at third base. And Luis Arise is one of the finalists at second base. He actually nearly passed Catel Marte, who had a really good first half of the season for the Diamondbacks and was the leading vote-gitter. But you can change your mind. You can go for the batting champion. You can vote for Luis Arise. There's a, you know, 50-50 chance he could end up being the starter at second base for the National League in Texas next month at the all-star game. So those are your options coming up. Your last four Padres you can vote for. And then, of course, they'll name the pitchers. Uh, Robert's still very much on track to be part of the bullpen for the National League as well. And, uh, Jackson Merrill did not make the final six. That doesn't mean you can't be voted in by players or be selected by the manager later on, but he is no longer part of the fan vote going forward. Yeah, that'd be pretty sick though if he made it too. But he said he doesn't care. He just wants to, you know, he just wants to win baseball games at this point. All right, um, let's get a quick update. We've had a couple of times this week. We had our friend John Flint on from, uh, KSA went down the hall and, uh, it is the, uh, the final day and they've done an incredible job this week and it's not too late to help them reach their goal. I know it's a, it was a very lofty and ambitious goal is as they try to raise enough money to train a service dog for a veteran who's come back suffering from PTSD. Johnny, it's good to see you again. Guys, thank you so much for giving me the time. Uh, I want to go ahead and just clear up any misconception right off the bat or what people think about this show. It smells really good in the studio. It does. You guys are tremendously good smelling. That's, that's the, that's the donja AKA cannabis. Yeah. Oh, you missed that. Did you guys get high in this morning? No, no, we had a Bob Marley category to take on ganja AKA cannabis. Yeah. Um, anyway, thank you again. Um, we are, we had a very lofty goal then of $35,000. And that goal wasn't just something we just picked out of the air. That's what it costs for pause for Purple Hearts. This beautiful organization here in San Diego to train one service dog. It takes about two and a half years to train a dog, uh, to help save a service member's life. And we're, we're about $18,000 right now, which is a big step from yesterday. Get a smaller dog or maybe, you know, partially trained dog. Half trained. Let's, let's get them to their goal today, everybody. Let's get them all the way there. When did you become a joker on the show? What's happened here? Anyway, yeah, it's, it's, I'm, let's be honest, we're tired. And I know that you're probably tired of people asking you for money in America's most expensive city. But these are men and women who, who, who, you know, they did their job for us. And we have the freedoms that we have today. You know that because of them and so many of them would rather die than tell you that they're hurting, would rather die than ask for help because that's not how they were bred. That's not how their, their insides work. But, uh, you know, they helped us so much. And this is our way of, of the civilian way of helping out and doing your part for your country. I don't care if you don't listen to our show. I don't care if you don't like me. I don't care. What I do care is you go to kson.com and just make that donation because you're going to be helping a hero who, who, who might not be able to even say I really need to help. I can't even get off my couch. I can't get the mail. I can't go to my kids game because I, anyone who looks at me, I think they're, they're, they want to confront me. And it's, it's such a weird mindset, mental illness and, and, and post traumatic stress. I, I thank God I can't wrap my mind around it. Um, but I do know this that these service animals are proven to help if not save lives. So it's a huge deal. And it's, it's people right here in San Diego that are going to benefit kson.com. It may be today's payday. Pay it forward a little bit. We need, I don't know. What is the math at this point? I came and think 17,000 more than halfway there. I know. Thank you for that. But you know, usually these things, the, the end a lot of like the late charge is what gets you to the finish line. You know, if you, if you fought for our country, thank you for your service. If you've got a son or a daughter right now who's overseas or doing something for our country, thank them for their service and pay them the respect and the honor that they deserve by helping out a veteran that is in a really rough place right now. Many of them, I mean, everybody knows somebody that served, um, and, and maybe you know somebody that suffers from traumatic post, uh, PTSD. As you can tell, I'm really tired guys. It's been a long week, but, uh, I just thank you for the time again at kson.com is where you go ahead and make that donation. It is a noble, noble cause, john, and we appreciate you spreading the message and doing that work this week. So what's up to the all star break? I, I just cut the end. Who's in, who's not jerks is a finalist. Uh, Tetis is also a finalist, although he's not going to play. Good. Uh, rise in Manny Machado, our finalist, uh, one of the two at their positions, second and third base. You can vote for them Sunday to Wednesday. Let everybody on K.O. So and no, get the vote out, especially for jerks and Sunday to Wednesday, MLB.com/vote. Maybe this has been brought up and I apologize if it has. Is there a shouldn't jerks and profile except the all star slot and then politely decline it. So we can get that knee back. I mean, no, I shouldn't be playing in the all star. We'll never forget. Sun will never fire me so far wants to see his dad at the all star now. I'd like to go to his dad in October, frankly. I don't think three innings of all star and, you know, too bad. He's going to get him healthy either way. It's concerned. I appreciate that. Okay. Kson.com. Thank you. Love you. Big Johnny. Appreciate you. Get him to our full size dog today. Yes. The full size by donating at kson.com. All right. We'll come back. We got Jordan Schusterman from Sespa, his family barbecue talking about the grand old game. Thanks to grand old barbecue that is coming up next to Ben Woods on San Diego's number one sports station. 97-3, the fan. All right. Halfway home on a Friday. A Friday, Friday as it were, Ben and Woods 97-3, the fan. Thanks so much for being here. I'm Woodsy. That's Paul Reindel, the executive producer, Ben Higgins, your friendly neighborhood sports anchor joins us as well. Good to have you guys. Good to be in here chopping it up on a Friday. I'm all gussied up now in my grand old barbecue easado hats ready for us. So good. Jordan to join us via Zoom here any second. They're going to bring us the family barbecue. They're going to bring us some meat on a Friday. So yeah, they're going to bring us the whole spread. Don't tease me. I'm not just not a tease. Don't tease me. It is a tease because it's not here yet. But they are going to bring us some meat. Well, we need to have Jordan and Jake in studio one day. I mean, their travels should bring them to San Diego at some point here as we are joined right now by Jordan Schusterman from SESPOTIS family barbecue and Yahoo sports. You are good. You're good. We're glad to have you as always and welcome you to another Friday here with Ben and Woods. Hello, Jordan. What's up, guys? Always a pleasure. I am wearing my Frisco Roughriders hat. You have that a top prospect named Jerkson Profar once wore many, many moons ago and I decided to keep it simple with my appreciation for Mr. Profar on this fine Friday morning because I mean, he's like one of the best players in baseball, as we all expected. Totally. Totally knew it. We called it. No, it's funny, man. You know, I have always liked Jerkson Profar the player. Now I grew up, Jordan, in the Dallas Fort Worth area and listened to a ton of Dallas Fort Worth sports talk radio. And the name Jerkson Profar was bandied about all the time. And I actually, when he came to the Padres, it was like, Oh, cool. Good, good pickup, you know, solid. But I kind of used him as an example of why you should sometimes trade prospects. And isn't it funny now that here we are years, years later, he's the leading vote getter in the all star game, having a monster season. It's been remarkable. What a career arc for him. Yeah, I think the other thing about about probably certainly if you zoom in on just the past, you know, year and how it's gotten to this point is pretty astonishing. But I think it's also, it's like, Oh, wow, you know, he's really put it all together in San Diego. It's like, he was already in San Diego. And it seemed like he had, he had become like a good player as we saw that right? It was three years of being like a good player. He had settled in, he had made it, he had become a good major league player. And there was just not a reason to expect another jump up to become one of the best players in baseball. At this point, I know it's again, he's been our lives for so long. The fact that he is, you know, 31 now is kind of jarring. But man, oh man, where would this team be without him is a very real sentence that you can say. I mean, and I can vividly remember, you know, some of the deals that the Rangers wanted to pull off and did not because they would not include jerks and pro far in those deals. And that's how much they believed in him back then. And AJ Preller had some connections with that organization. And it's just been really, really special. He's not only David Peralta talked yesterday about him. And he goes, yeah, I played against him. And he'd rack up RBIs and home runs and he plays hard and he plays with spirit and fire. He goes, I don't like him. I absolutely didn't like him. Then I get here. And I meet him and I go, Oh my God, he's quiet, he's gentle, he's sweet, he's got a beautiful family. He goes, I can totally see the other side now. So it's really cool. Yeah. And it's, you know, you mentioned thinking back to him as a prospect, like, we talked about this on our show before, but he's a big part of why Jake and I really started to want to talk about baseball together. Like this is when he was a top prospect. And when we wanted to go another level deeper into this world, it was so that we could be like, I know about jerks and pro far and you don't write like that was kind of when he was in, you know, Spokane or whatever, early levels when he's playing like the Arizona Complex League. And it's like, man, it was 16 year old curse. How he's unbelievable. And that was something that we really liked, you know, getting into. And so it is a, it is a remarkable career arc. And yeah, man, he's, he's the story of the Padre season. I don't think there's really any way around that. It's also a reminder that for the amount of resources, money, time that front offices put into discovering players, AJ Preller, traveling the globe, staying up all hours of the day, trying to turn over every rock on planet earth in search of baseball players. Sometimes it just comes down to luck, because any team could assign jerks and pro far. He's getting a million dollars. No one could have seen this. We actually asked the question, does AJ even really get any credit? We were so sure he was going to sign jerks and pro far this offseason. We put him on the roster as part of the plans before they even signed him going. Well, obviously, jerks and is going to be an option in left field, you know, for the Padres this season, because where else is he going to go? He's going to be a part of the Padres. It's just a foregone conclusion. A lot of this game is Jordan as much as we, we attribute intelligence and skill. There's a lot of lock in baseball involved too. Absolutely, right? And not, okay, sure, you maybe could have seen it coming. I mean, he still wasn't signed until after spring training started. You know, it's not even like, all right, it'd be one thing if they had identified him early in the season, like we want to bring him back, you know, like that, that sure, you know, maybe a little bit more credit for that. So, and obviously they, they, I guess they get credit for it being a place that he clearly wanted to keep coming back to. Sure. Yeah. And I think, I think that is, is something you can give them, but you are 100% correct. There is no, there's no version of this that doesn't involve an incredible, you know, role of the random number generator that produces our baseball results. Talking to our pal Jordan Schusterman from Cespa, this family barbecue here on Bennett Woods this morning. And, you know, the rumor mill always heats up. And we've already pulled off two massive trades, you know, here in San Diego this year. And the rumor mill is always heating up Jordan when it comes to the trade deadline. You know, I'm looking at the Garrett crochet to the Dodgers rumor, maybe, you know, maybe to the Padres, even the, the pitcher for the Tigers scuba, scuba, yeah, Tarek scuba. Why would teams like the Tigers and the White Sox? It still have multiple years of control left on lefty power arms that can get guys out at the big league level. Why wouldn't they just build around those guys? Do you, do you suspect that those guys will be moved? I just don't understand the constant reshuffling and re upping on prospects from other teams. When you have guys like that that you could build your rotation around. Totally with you. And yeah, there's something part of it that so well, you never know, you know, pitchers, who knows what they'll be in three years, a little in five. I think I'm completely with you. Now, I think the crochet and school situations are definitely different. Zero percent chance people get traded. Crochet like it's just because we know the White Sox are still in just such mega tear down mode, but like they have enough else to trade. Even if they do want to make a Luis Robert deal, you know, co-pexy guy, they could move. And by the way, for the Tigers, if they want to go full sell, like Jack Flaherty should get you some real stuff. I mean, what he has become this season is really astonishing. That's another one of the more quiet, you know, remarkable pitching seasons, I think we've seen. And a lot of it is being masked by the fact that he's on the same team as schoolable and schoolable, you know, might be the site and front runner. So, but I just, I can't see that in for crochet, man. I talked about this with one White Sox podcast. Like, that one is would just be so hard to stomach, right? It's the one thing that's gone well for them. It's the one thing they've absolutely nailed. We were all laughing at them when he was their opening day starter. Absolutely. And it wasn't it's not like he was a total nobody. He was a first round pick. And he's at his best was one of the more impressive, you know, college pitchers we've seen. But the track record was not there. He'd never started. I mean, he literally never started a major league game, right? So, and of course, the injury track record, too. So, you hope that he's someone they can build around. And I just, I just don't, because right to your point, like, how many times can you keep pushing the timeline farther into the future? And if you have someone that's that good, man, you know, it's one thing you move, Dylan Sees, you know, with a year and a half left or two years left, but this is a totally different, this is a totally different beast. And I would just be such a, such a horrible sign to the fans that have obviously already suffered enough. You know, it was less than a decade ago, when the Padres were such a zero team that you'd go like scan the ESPN dot com baseball headlines and maybe like once a year, the Padres would rate something that would make a headline. Now they're literally every single week, something involving the Padres is worthy of national attention and news. This last week, of course, it was the series against the Washington Nationals, which was just filled with drama ups and downs, controversy, and of course, a benches clearing incident that involved jerks and pro far. And then Mackenzie Gore throwing at jerks and pro far, not getting tossed out of the game. And then Manny's home run response. What was your, your view of what went down in that series between the Padres and nationals, Jordan? Yeah, I mean, it seemed like kind of a classic baseball, you know, bruhaha, where you just have the perfect level of discontent and, you know, plausible deniability on a lot of people's sides of things where it's like, yeah, probably, why would you throw a purposefully there? You have Kyberies trying to slow things down, you have all these different parts about it. And pro far, you know, after the walk off, you know, maybe running towards the nationals dugout. Was that necessary? All of it to me is fine. If we can not, if we don't have, I don't want anyone to get like, having punches thrown. And if we don't really believe that someone is throwing at someone on purpose, which in my opinion, I do not think he was throwing at him on purpose. I think having these kinds of moments is a good thing, because as you mentioned, people are going to talk about it. And that's fine. And if we're not, people are not throwing punches, and if it's just creating, you know, some un, un, so probably, you know, again, it's like, how many people would have been like, yeah, we're going to have this really, imagine telling someone in March, yeah, one of the spiciest back and forth of the year is going to be Jesse Wanker and Jason Robar. You'd be like, what? What are you talking about? So I think that's something that like these things kind of pop up at the completely unexpected times. And I wasn't surprised that honestly, either team was kind of a center of it because of the personalities involved. A hundred percent Jordan Schussman from SES for this family barbecue joins us this morning. And your Mariners have, have, have right of the ship, they're back up in first place. You know, I'm watching last night flip the, it was Yankees playing the Blue Jays again. And we like, we had it on and I walked by ago. My son goes, Oh my God, it's five, nothing. And he goes, it's the first inning. The Yankees out of the gate, you know, it's a good lesson for everybody to just be patient, you know, teams can go one way or the other. They look like one of the worst teams in baseball right now. I mean, they're getting bodied on an almost nightly basis right now. The Orioles have now crept in to a tie for first place. The patients part is really, really hard for a lot of us fans. And I, you know, we always try to remind people just because you, you start hot, there's going to be a lull. There's going to be a, they look, they literally look like the worst team in baseball right now. Yeah, they sure do the them and the Rockies are the only teams that have lost eight of their last 10. And it's nice that they got out to that lead, but like, why did they get out to such an incredible start? Because they have so really good players that are still on the team. And so I think when you go through a situation like this, when you are losing, it's always so much worse when you're losing to rivals, right? That just hurts. And you're right, like they've been getting crushed. But when you have back-to-back series of, I know they lost a series of boss, but like, this stretch here, when you lose serious to Boston, serious to Baltimore, as serious to Atlanta at home where it's like, oh, the Braves are figuring it out, serious to the Mets. And now you lose to a Blue Jays team who seems to be going and, you know, heading towards being a full-blown seller. It's like the perfect song. It's not just that they've lost eight of their tenants, who they've lost it to. And it's how bad they've looked. Now, is that a reason to panic? I mean, the reason it's a reason to panic is because the Orioles are so good. You know, this is not a situation where they can necessarily afford to go cold for too long because the winning the division is going to become a lot harder because the Orioles are one of the best teams in baseball. And I think the Yankees can still be one of the best teams in baseball. But you don't have that cushion. And if you heard Alex Cora talking about chasing them down, you know, yeah, that's exactly the attitude he should have. He said, like, yeah, they're not playing great. So why can't we, you know, make it interesting with them? So they got another series. I guess they got, you know, three more against Toronto. They got Cincinnati next week. And then they have Boston again at the end of next week. So this could be a lot more interesting than they really said that maybe we thought on the central is insane in the NL. You know, you take the manager from the Cubs, from the Brewers, you put them on the Cubs, you pay them a ton of money to do so he's in their in dead last place right now in the central and the team you took it from there in first place, 15 games above 500. This sport continues to every year, I forget, continues to prove that we don't know anything and anything can happen. It's been it's been an insane run there in the central as well. And with the pirates, you know, adding Paul schemes and the guys that they have, I mean, it's, it's going to be a lot of fun this summer. Yeah, the Cubs, the Cubs Brewers thing is really interesting. I think just sticking on the Cubs, I think, you know, how we talk about council and the impact of a manager. It's like, listen, man, he can only press the buttons that are in front of them. And, you know, as we've seen, this is, there are some flaws in this roster. They certainly had some injuries on the mound recently, which has been tough. And the offense is just okay. But you would think that even that would be enough to not be in last place in this division. They are Milwaukee is an even more amazing thing. I think that they have proven me right or proven wrong in so many ways that I'm so impressed. And yet I still look at the rotation. I say how in the world is this going to be a team that is in the postseason at all, let alone what they would do once they get there. But credit to them, they've been awesome. I think the real trick is figuring out which teams are just going into that lull and they're going to bounce back and which ones are truly in trouble. Like 2021, Padres got off to a hot start, went into a lull, never got out of it. Just, you know, the season fell apart. But I just went back and looked last year, Jordan, the, the, both the Texas Rangers and Arizona Diamondbacks had stretches of like three and 17 and the second half of the season last year and the second half of the season. Yeah. And ended up in the World Series against each other at the end of the year. Are the Yankees going to do this? Is that cushion or are they going to fall apart like the 2021 Padres? How do you identify the difference between teams that are really in trouble and teams that are just going through that normal lull that every baseball team goes through at some point? Well, I think I certainly don't have the answer to that, which is obviously not very good radio guest of me. But I would say that like, I'm so glad you mentioned those examples, right? Because those teams almost missed the playoffs. Right. You know, like it's not even, and then, and then they got hot at the, it wasn't just that they, oh, they were so bad, but then all they still managed to win the division. Like obviously, that's the exact opposite will happen with Texas and then they got hot. So hey, maybe the Yankees are going to bungle this lead. Maybe they are going to have to go play a wild card series and then maybe they'll go to the world series anyway. You know, and so it is ultimately about just getting in. And I think that the Yankees is pretty hard to imagine them buggling into that degree to where they don't even have a shot in the postseason. But you know, I mean, there's a few weeks say, oh, well, they have these guys coming back. They have these guys that we are certain have this level. There's these guys that there's no way they can perform like this. The Yankees roster is fascinating. He's in Dodgers both, right? When the top end is so good and the bottom is so bad, it's just like how am I supposed to evaluate? How am I going to tip the scales, you know, when you see the great, the unbelievable highs and the very, very troubling lows. Jordan has always appreciated. Have a great weekend. We'll talk to you again probably around the all-star break. It's just coming upon us very quickly. Yes, indeed. Thank you guys. Always fun. Jordan Shusterman, Sespa, this family barbecue, our weekly conversation brought to you by our friends at Grand Old Barbecue, Flynn Springs, North Park at the ballpark when the Padres return and hopefully in studio some Friday soon where we can indulge in meats upon meats upon meats. Yeah, maybe during Ben and Wood summer break. Just eat barbecue and summer break. Go hand in hand. That's perfect. Yeah. I want to talk some pitching matchups, not just for this series, but what are the Padres going to do going forward, especially with all of these new found off days that they have to play with between now and the all-star break. Does that change anything for you? We'll talk about that coming up. Let's check traffic, be right back with more Ben Woods on San Diego's number one sports station, 97-3, the fan. Wouldn't you know when the Padres finally seem to solve some of their woes against left-handed starting pitching, three straight wins against the Nationals, all with lefty starters, actually scored some runs against the lefty starters the last couple of days of the series. At the moment, they're not scheduled to face a single lefty. I believe in this entire road trip. All righties now for the Boston Red Sox and the Texas Rangers begins tonight with the first game of the road trip and the series at Fenway Park, 4 10 p.m. start, 3 10 eco water soCal pregame show. Randy Vasquez on the mound against Nick Pavetta in game one of the series tomorrow is a 1 10 San Diego start with Michael King against I believe it's Tanner how and then on the Sunday morning series finale 10 35 a.m. first pitch, it's Josh Winkowski against Matt Waldron. Then the Padres will go to Texas where Nathan Yovaldi, John Gray and Max Scherzer are scheduled to be the starting pitchers for the three games of that series. Now because of the off day yesterday and then another one on Monday, nice little bookend off days around this series against the Boston Red Sox. Mike Shelte and Ruben Eabler could get creative with their starting rotation. Dylan Sees, you always do that. I did. I did. And they didn't they didn't do anything about it last time. They just they just went. They don't listen to me this time. But the last time they were admittedly they were in a stretch of 26 games in 27 days. They had the one off day. They didn't want to do anything with that off day. Dylan Sees, if you wanted to move him up to Tuesday, his next turn in the rotation technically doesn't come until Wednesday, middle game in Texas. But if you wanted to move him up to Tuesday to start the Ranger series, he'd still have an extra day of rest Wednesday. Normally you get four days rest. That would be Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday. You'd pitch Monday and they're off on Monday. You could pitch them on Tuesday on an extra day rest, but still a day earlier than he normally would. At that point then, you know, Randy Vasquez could pitch the next day on normal rest and Michael King could pitch the road trip finale on normal rest because of the Monday off day. If you wanted to go in that direction and, you know, skip and add a major if if you Darvish is not ready to come back to the rotation. I understand the Padres did win and Madam Major got the win his last time out. Still had the forerunning that he gave up. Still has not shown the ability to miss bats on the big league level yet. Did not walk as many guys through more strikes in his last start making some progress, but it just feels like every time you're throwing them out there, you are making your job a little tougher. Isn't it? Could it be dependent on how some of the other games go? Does that do anything for you? Maybe. Yeah. Yeah. You know, and I think, you know, if you you move Dylan Seuss around and again, it's still normal rest for him more than normal rest for him. I'm almost hesitant to give him too much rest days and too much rest coming off literally what might have his best start at this season on Washington. Do you really want to make him wait an entire week before he takes the mound again next Wednesday against the Rangers? Let's ask the skipper in 30 minutes. We can probably not going to give you an answer. Probably not. But I think it's an interesting question. And I'm glad your mind works this way because mine doesn't. I never think about that like ever. All I'm thinking about is in the chat when you said Tanner Hawk, everyone said Tanner Hock Toa. And that's all that I've been thinking about since you started talking about right Tanner Hock Toa. He's going in game two of the series is going in the San Diego Padres to Hock Hock Toa of the series master asked if we should if we would ask the skipper about Hock Toa, I'm gonna pass on that probably gonna pass say skip. Have you seen the Hock Toa girl? You got to give him that Hock Toa and all that nice. Now eventually left the Padres do have from Tuesday in a row. So you'd eventually need at some point by next Saturday, a fifth starter if it's at a major or maybe it's you Darvish and maybe it's you Darvish. I don't know exactly what his status is feels like he's gonna now need another rehab start at some point at least even if imaging was good. They said on you Darvish's elbow, which is what caused him to not get activated from the injured list when he was supposed to last Tuesday. Could he be back? Maybe maybe by next, you know, Saturday would be when they would need July 6th. And then again, they have another off day on that Monday, July 8th. They have another off day on Thursday, July 11th around just a two game series against the Seattle Mariners. So you could at that point then get to the rest the last five games of the season without needing to use a fifth starter again. Okay, that works for me. You've got one more start. If you play it right, you can get to the all-star break, which is one more fifth starter. If you want to keep on your rotation, though, then you'll probably need to maybe even a third turn in the rotation for Adam Major. I'm just saying, can we avoid three starts for Adam Major between now and the all-star break? I think the answer is yes, you can with the off days. I like to. I like that. I like how that your mind works that way, because I don't even think that's why we work. But then again, doesn't seem like the teams do either. They're probably itching to get Dylan Cease an extra couple of days of rest here, get everybody a little extra rest after that long stretch. And when we ask him, he's going to go, no, no, we can't. We're not going to do that. I mean, we should be giving them more rest, not less rest, especially at this stage of the season. I think you still ask them. Do you even watch baseball, cause? Yeah. Hey, you know anything about this? Tim says Ben hates measure. Yeah, Ben does not want to see measure on the bottom. I don't. Okay. Kind of I kind of do. And it's not personal. I hate seeing him pitch. I really, I do hate seeing him pitch right now. It's not a, not a comfortable. It's not a, it's not a personal thing. It's a more, I don't like the feelings inside of me when he's on the mound. It's fair. Doesn't throw enough strikes. I think if Mike Shilt was under some truth serum, there, there isn't it. There's a good bit. There is a spicy interview, lie detector Mike Chilt, even he has to feel a little uncomfortable when measures on the mound. He hates walks. So one thing he's actually said, he does not like to see his pitchers walk better. Has he said that? Yes. He said that. Okay. He does. He loves when you get, you get very few walks, a lot of strikeouts. Very few walks. I don't know the record for that because I'll be surprised if we heard him in a post game. You know, I love the effort. I love the game around the zone, around the zone a little bit and didn't get the call. I get he can tailor comments to fit each situation. He has that skill. That's a good bit. But many times he's, he's focused on the fact, hey, we may have lost by six, but these share guys didn't walk anybody in that game. I've heard that a few times this year. We can do a bit where we just ask him about like the worst stuff in the world and see if he could spend like, all right, nuclear war, your thoughts. I mean, it's okay. You know, get some of the bad elements out, right? Burn up some of that littering. Yeah. Burn up some litter. Yeah. What a three wars America did when you're talking about. He's gonna murder us. Yeah, we're dead. All right. We've got, we've got a round of report. We'll do a little bit early since Mike Schultz is going to join us at nine o'clock. Probably gonna get headlines. A potentially gnarly story that has surfaced out of the NBA draft. I saw this yesterday. Coming up next. Don't go anywhere. Ben Woods on San Diego's number one sports station, 97 three, the fan. Quick little birthday. Shout out 40th birthday. Tier one Robert. Happy birthday to you, buddy. Your wife Katrina DM me this morning and asked if we could give you a shout out in the eight o'clock hour. I said, sure, eight, one. And then I forgot. And so now it's eight 40 and which is coincidentally the age you're turning. So I think it worked out perfect for everyone. So happy 40th. Hey, but it's all 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. 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Well, door in as fast as 30 minutes. Wherever you find yourself this summer, you can get the goods. Download Instacart for free delivery on your first three orders. Offer valid for unlimited time, minimum $10 per order, excludes restaurants, additional terms and fees apply. Holding their breath after Bryce Harper suffered what appeared to be a hamstring injury right at the end of a loss to the Miami Marlins. Last play of the game. Yeah, very end of the game. And then Kyle Schwarber also dealing with growing tightness. You know, growing tightness doesn't sound bad, but that's basically what kept you Darvish out for the last month plus. So two absolutely core players for the Philadelphia Phillies now potentially could miss some time. We'll get an update. I'm sure on on both of their statuses coming up, but we know that the Dodgers have had tons of injury issues. So far this season, the Braves have had mass. I mean, they've lost Spencer Strider, Ronald LeCunier Jr, and others, but just start with those two absolutely key players. So yeah, the Padres have have dealt with their fair share of injuries. No doubt about it, but they are not the only one. The National League is is a walking wounded league at the moment. When you live in the vacuum, you know, the silo, as Mike Schill likes to call it, we live in the Padres silo. And yeah, I saw the highlights last night now. I saw Harper running it running down to first, kind of a shot back in the hole, and second baseman's going to it. First baseman's running the bag. As soon as he hits the bag, Benny, he reaches for his his hammy, and he starts jumping up and down. Carlos Correa, you see that last night. Oh, Mike did not see Carlos Correa. God, he's up, up, up hitting, gets drilled in the forearm, does this, holds his hand up and looks to the dugout and shakes his head. Nope, nope, nope, nope, walks off the field. So yeah, man, guys are getting bang. Maybe even the Brewers who the Padres just faced. Remember, I didn't see Devin Williams in that everyone's been beat up this year, especially in the National League. So Padres, you know, it may come down to how role players perform all of these teams. And the Padres have had really, really good contributions from role players. We'll talk a little bit about where they stand right now. Midway point of the season right after a check traffic here on 97-3, the fan. So again, as I realize, power rankings are meaningless other than a little snapshot of how, you know, some group of national media are feeling about certain teams at a certain moment. But yesterday, Padres were a season I number 12 in ESPN's new power rankings. Doesn't really matter other than I do think it's sometimes interesting to see some of the comments because guys like Buster only who wrote the write up on the Padres do have access to at least talk to other people in the league about their impressions of a team. And here's what they wrote about the San Diego Padres yesterday. The National League mud bog of wild card contenders is for now a messy race of 10 teams vying for two spots. You can make a reasonable case for each of the clubs, including the nationals. But interestingly, many executives echo a similar sentiment as they assess what they see. The Padres should be the best team in this group of wild card wannabes. Quote, there's just a talent there, one high ranking official set of San Diego last week. They've got starting rotation problems, but with the quality of their position players, they should win a spot. And then here's the one here's the statement that caught my eye. Nobody can hit, but the Padres can hit. That's what another executive in baseball when he looks at the Padres goes. Yeah, they got they got something there. We're all struggling to put runs on the board. We're all struggling to put the bat on the ball, get it in play, but not the Padres. They lead the league in batting average. They're hitting line drives. They're striking out very little. And for whatever, I mean, is it turning into a massive number of wins? Of course not. They're barely above 500. But it's something that has the envy of at least some people out there when they look, I wish my lineup did more of what the San Diego Padres lineup has been doing this season. Got to keep that rolling, man. Got to keep that rolling. That slug that you're experiencing now, guys hitting homers. And you're going to be, I don't know how how the Texas Rangers ballpark plays at all. Like, I don't know if it's deemed a pitchers park, hitters park. You know, I know that there's a dome over it because it's 140 degrees there right now, but I don't know how it plays, but I know Fenway Park is a good park to hit in. So hopefully the boys can go out and do some damage off the monster this weekend. And yeah, I mean, look, they're a good team. They got their work cut out from, but yeah, I'm pretty feeling pretty okay about this team. And I've felt that way, what 16 times or so this season, like, okay, yeah, right, like what a flash of brilliance this has been. And then the, the inevitable has happened. I'm just trying to avoid the inevitable, the inevitable losing four or five games on this road trip. And I think it's the specter that hangs over all of our heads as Padres fans, because that's what we've seen to this point. So but what's truly remarkable is that the Padres are envied as an offense after a first half in which what? Xander Bogart was a complete zero offensively and then got hurt. Manny Machado had his worst half season of his career offensively. And Fernando Teti's junior had a good two and a half week period. In June was finally heating up when he then got hurt. Your three most important offensive players, Kim who had a good offensive season last year, just not not his also has also taken a step back. If you, there's just no way the Padres should be better offensively. They should be significantly worse, yet they are better. And it is for a number of reasons, you know, Jake Croninworth's bounce back, Luis arises edition, certainly part of it. And Jackson Merrill is huge, but the number one reason the Padres have taken a step up offensively is the most unlikely reason of all. Now, it's the guy who unblocked us on Twitter in spring training. It is jerks in pro four. And I don't really even know how much credit to give AJ Preller for that move. It was such a foregone obvious conclusion move even before the Padres signed him. We were already counting on him as part of whatever Padres plans. Now, I remember those conversations were like, all right, Toddy and right. Just one season. You got Toddy and right. Big question mark and set a deal to remember. He's not on the team yet, but you figured pro four. Yeah, no, I don't know if he's an everyday player, but you know, he'll be a good platoon switch hitting option, you can come off the bench, whatever. Obviously, they're going to obviously they're going to sign jerks and pro four. And he's going to be on this team in 2024. It was it was a foregone conclusion in my mind that pro four was going to be here. So, I don't know that that can be like a huge, yeah, AJ Preller needs to be general manager of the year for his incredible signing of jerks and pro four. Everybody would have done that. You know, you could have had no GM and somehow jerks and pro four would have ended up on the team one way or another this year. So, I give all the credit to jerks and well, maybe a little bit to Fernando Tetis senior. Yes. And whatever he did to jerks and during winter ball in the Dominican. Yeah. And I think playing, you know, he talked about it. Getting a chance to play winter ball was epic for him and got him locked in. And guys been ready to play fighting through injury. He's been he's been a revelation man. Couldn't love somebody more than jerks and pro four. What a what a great, great dude. What a great pickup for almost no money. He did officially finish first in the NL all-star balloting in the outfield. It's done. It's well, the first round is done. So, he is now one of the six finalists. So, you now have to go back and start voting for jerks and again, beginning Sunday. Sunday to Wednesday is the final vote, M O B dot com slash votes. How do they do this? I know. I mean, it would be a crime at this point. If you're actually finished first in the balloting normally, and then all of a sudden, like, finished sore and didn't get there. So, you know, follow up everybody, the voter for jerks, and you got to do it one more time. Sunday to Wednesday, the final vote is coming up. Jerkson needs to be an all-star this year. All right. We got to make sure we hit it on all our socials and spread the message because, yeah, that there's no more deserving candidate than him. Padres have four finalists, actually. Tatis is also one of the top six. Now, I would assume that even if he got voted in, he's not going to play in the all-star. Correct. You know, there's not any indication that he'll probably be back before the all-star break. And even if he was thinking of coming back, the all-star game is not the place to come back. So, I would not think that Fernando will be part of the team. Manny Machado is one of the two finalists at third base, and Luis Arise is one of the finalists at second base. He actually nearly passed Catel Marte, who had a really good first half of the season for the Diamondbacks and was the leading vote-gitter. But you can change your mind. You can go for the batting champion. You can vote for Luis Arise. There's a, you know, 50-50 chance he could end up being the starter at second base for the National League in Texas next month at the all-star game. So, those are your options coming up. Your last four Padres you can vote for. And then, of course, they'll name the pitchers. Robert, it's still very much on track to be part of the bullpen for the National League as well. And Jackson Merrill did not make the final six. That doesn't mean you can't be voted in by players or be selected by the manager later on, but he is no longer part of the fan vote going forward. Yeah, that'd be pretty sick, though, if he made it too. But he said he doesn't care. He just wants to win baseball games at this point. All right. Let's get a quick update. We've had a couple of times this week. We had our friend, John Flint, on from KSU and down the hall. And it is the final day, and they've done an incredible job this week. And it's not too late to help them reach their goal. I know it was a very lofty and ambitious goal is as they try to raise enough money to train a service dog for a veteran who's come back suffering from PTSD. Johnny, it's good to see you again. Guys, thank you so much for giving me the time. I want to go ahead and just clear up any misconception right off the bat or what people think about this show. It smells really good in the studio. It does. You guys are tremendously good smelling that. You just know that's the ganja aka cannabis. Yeah, you missed that. Did you guys get high? We did not. We had a Bob Marley category. Ganja aka cannabis. Yeah. Anyway, thank you again. We are we had a very lofty goal then of $35,000 and that goal wasn't just something we just picked out of the air. That's what it costs for pause for Purple Hearts. This beautiful organization here in San Diego to train one service dog. It takes about two and a half years to train a dog to help save a service member's life. We're we're about $18,000 right now, which is a big step from yesterday. Get a smaller dog or maybe you know a partially trained dog half trade. Let's get them to their goal today everybody. Let's get them all the way there. When did you become a joker on the show? What's happened here? Anyway, yeah, let's be honest. We're tired and I know that you're probably tired of people asking you for money in America's most expensive city, but these are men and women who you know, they did their job for us and we have the freedoms that we have today. You know that because of them and so many of them would rather die than tell you that they're hurting would rather die than ask for help because that's not how they were bred. That's not how their their insides work. But you know, they helped us so much and this is our way of the civilian way of helping out and doing your part for your country. I don't care if you don't listen to our show. I don't care if you don't like me. I don't care. What I do care is you go to kson.com and just make that donation because you're going to be helping a hero who who might not be able to even say I really need to help. I can't even get off my couch. I can't get the mail. I can't go to my kid's game because anyone who looks at me, I think they're they're going to confront me. It's such a weird mindset, mental illness and and post traumatic stress. I thank God I can't wrap my mind around it. But I do know this that these service animals are proven to help. It's not save lives. So it's a huge deal and it's it's people right here in San Diego that are going to benefit kson.com. Maybe today's payday. Pay it forward a little bit. We need, I don't know, what is the math at this point? I came and think 17,000 more. You're more than halfway there. I know. Thank you for that. But you know, usually these things, the the end a lot like the late charge is what gets you to the finish line. You know, if you if you fought for our country, thank you for your service. If you've got a son or a daughter right now who's overseas or doing something for our country, thank them for their service and pay them the respect and the honor that they deserve by helping out a veteran that is in a really rough place right now. Many of them, I mean, everybody knows somebody that served and and maybe you know somebody that suffers from traumatic post PTSD. As you can tell, I'm really tired guys. It's been a long week, but I just thank you for the time again at kson.com is where you go ahead and make that donation. It is a noble noble cause, John, and we appreciate you spreading the message and doing that work this week. So what's up to the all star break? I just cut the end. Who's in who's not sure? He is a finalist. He is also a finalist, although he's not going to play good. Rise and Manny Machado, our finalist, one of the two at their positions, second and third base. So you can vote for them Sunday to Wednesday. Let everybody on K.O. so and no, get the vote out, especially for Erickson Sunday to Wednesday, MLB dot com slash votes. Maybe this has been brought up and I apologize if it has. Is there shouldn't jerks and profile accept the all star slot and then politely decline it so we can get that knee back? I mean, no, I shouldn't be playing in the old sun. We'll never forget. Sun will never forget. Fiery so far wants to see his dad at the all star now. I'd like to see his dad in October. I don't think three innings of all star and two bads. He's going to get him healthy either way. I'm concerned. I appreciate that. KSON dot com. Thank you. Love you. Thank you, Johnny. Appreciate you. Get a full size dog today. Yes, the full size by donating at KSON dot com. All right. We'll come back. We got Jordan Schusterman from Sespa to family barbecue talking about the grand old game. Thanks to grand old barbecue that is coming up next to the better woods on San Diego's number one sports station. 97 three the fan. All right, halfway home on a Friday, a Friday, Friday as it were, but in woods 97 three, the fan. Thanks so much for being here. I'm woodsy. That's Paul Reindel, the executive producer Ben Higgins, your friendly neighborhood sports anchor joins us as well. Good to have you guys could be in here chopping it up on a Friday. Mulgussied up now in my grand old barbecue, Esado hat ready for Jordan to join us via zoom here any second. They're going to bring us a barbecue. They're going to bring us some meat on a Friday show. Yeah, they're going to bring us the whole spread. Don't tease me. I'm not decided to tease me is a tease because it's not here yet, but they are going to bring us some meat. Well, we need to have Jordan and Jake in studio one day. I mean, their travels should bring them to San Diego at some point here as we are joined right now by Jordan Schusterman from says for this family barbecue and Yahoo sports. You are good. You're good. We're glad to have you as always and welcome you to a another Friday here with Ben and woods. Hello, Jordan. What's up, guys? Always a pleasure. I am wearing my Frisco Roughriders hat. You have that a top prospect named Jerkson Profar once wore many, many moons ago. And I decided to keep it simple with my appreciation for Mr. Profar on this fine Friday morning because I mean, he's like one of the best players in baseball, as we all expected. Totally, totally knew it. We called it. No, it's funny, man. You know, I have always liked Jerkson Profar the player. Now I grew up, Jordan, in the Dallas Fort Worth area and listened to a ton of Dallas Fort Worth sports talk radio. And the name Jerkson Profar was bandied about all the time. And I actually, when he came to the Padres, it was like, Oh, cool. Good pickup. You know, solid. And but I kind of used him as a as an example of why you should sometimes trade prospects. And isn't it funny now that here we are years, years later, he's the leading vote getter in the all star game, having a monster season. It's been remarkable. What a what a career arc for him. Yeah, I think the other thing about about probably certainly if you zoom in on just the past, you know, year and how it's gotten to this point is pretty astonishing. But I think it's also what's like, Oh, wow, you know, he's really put it all together in San Diego. It's like, he was already in San Diego. And it seemed like he had he had become like a good player as we saw that, right? It was three years of being like a good player. He had settled in he had made it. He had become a good major league player. And there was just not a reason to expect another jump up to become one of the best players in baseball. At this point, I know it's again, he's been our lives for so long. The fact that he is, you know, 31 now is is kind of jarring. But man, oh man, he's they where where would this team be without him is a very real sentence that you can say. I mean, and I can I can vividly remember, you know, some of the deals that the Rangers wanted to pull off and did not because they would not include jerks and pro far in those deals. And that's how much they believed in him back then. And AJ Preller had some connections with that organization. And it's just been really, really special. He's he's not only David Peralta talked yesterday about him and he goes, Yeah, I played against him. And he he'd rack up RBIs and home runs and he plays hard and he plays with Spirit and Fire. He goes, I don't like him. I absolutely didn't like him. Then I get here. And I meet him and I go, Oh my God, he's quiet. He's gentle. He's sweet. He's got a beautiful family. He goes, I can totally see the other side now. So it's really cool. Yeah, and it's, you know, you mentioned thinking back to him as a prospect, like, we've talked about this on our show before, but he's a big part of why Jake and I really started to want to talk about baseball together. Like, this is when he was a top prospect. And when we wanted to go another level deeper into this world, it was so that we could be like, I know about jerks and pro far and you don't write like that. I was kind of when he was in, you know, Spokane or whatever, early levels when he's playing in the Arizona Complex League and it's like, man, it was 16 year old Curtis, how he's unbelievable. And that was something that we really liked, you know, getting into. And so it's it is a it is a remarkable career arc. And yeah, man, he's he's the story of the Padre season. I don't think there's really any way around that. It's also a reminder that for the amount of resources, money, time that front offices put into discovering players, AJ Preller, traveling the globe, staying up all hours of the day, trying to turn over every rock on planet Earth in search of baseball players. Sometimes it just comes down to luck, because any team could assign jerks and pro far, he's getting a million dollars. No one could have seen this. We actually asked the question, does AJ even really get any credit? We were so sure he was going to sign jerks and pro far this offseason. We put him on the roster as part of the plans before they even signed him going. Well, obviously, jerks in is going to be an option in left field, you know, for the Padres this season, because where else is he going to go? He's going to be a part of the Padres. It's just a foregone conclusion. A lot of this game is Jordan as much as we we attribute intelligence and skill. There's a lot of luck in baseball involved too. Absolutely right. And not okay, sure, you maybe could have seen it coming. I mean, he still wasn't signed until after spring training started, you know, it's not even like, all right, it'd be one thing if they had identified him early in season, like we want to bring him back, you know, like that, that sure, you know, maybe a little bit more credit for that. So, and obviously, I guess they get credit for it being a place that he clearly wanted to keep coming back to. Sure. Yeah. I think I think that is something you can give them, but you are 100% correct. There is no, there's no version of this that just involve an incredible, you know, role of the random number generator that produces our baseball results. Talking to our pal Jordan Schusterman from cesspitus family barbecue here on Ben and Woods this morning. And you know, the rumor mill always heats up. And we've already pulled off two massive trades, you know, here in San Diego this year. And the rumor mill is always heating up Jordan when it comes to the trade deadline. You know, I'm looking at the Garrett crochet to the Dodgers rumor, maybe, you know, maybe to the Padres even the the picture for the Tigers school school. Yeah, Terry school. Why would teams like the Tigers and the White Sox? It's still have multiple years of control left on lefty power arms that can get guys out at the big league level. Why wouldn't they just build around those guys? Do you suspect that those guys will be moved? I just don't understand the constant reshuffling and re upping on prospects from other teams when you have guys like that that you could build your rotation around. Totally with you. And yeah, there's something part of it that so well, you never know, you know, pitchers, who knows what they'll be in three years, a little in five. I think I'm completely with you. Now I think the crochet and school situations are definitely different. Zero percent chance people get traded crochet like it's just because we know the White Sox are still in just such mega tear down mode. Yeah, like they have enough else to trade. Even if they do want to make a Luis Robert deal, you know, co-pexy guy that could move. And by the way, for the Tigers, if they want to go full sell, like Jack Flaherty should get you some real stuff. I mean, what he has become this season is really astonishing. That's another one of the more quiet, you know, remarkable pitching seasons, I think we've seen. And a lot of it is being masked by the fact that he's on the same team as schoolable in school, you know, might be the site and front runner. So, but I just I can't see that in for crochet, man. I talked about this with one White Sox podcast. Like that one is would just be so hard to stomach, right? It's the one thing that's gone well for them. It's the one thing they've absolutely nailed. We were all laughing at them when he was their opening day starter. Absolutely. Yeah. And and and it wasn't it's not like he was a total nobody. He was a first round pick. And he's he at his best was one of the more impressive, you know, college pitches we've seen. But the track record was not there. He'd never started. I mean, he literally never started a major league game, right? So, and of course, the the injury track record too. So, you hope that he's someone they can't build around. And I just, I just don't because right to your point, like how many times can you keep pushing the timeline farther into the future? And if you have someone that's that good, man, you know, it's one thing you move, Dylan Cease, you know, with the year and a half left or two years left. But this is a totally different this is a totally different beast. And I would just be such a such a horrible sign to the fans that have obviously already suffered enough. You know, is less than a decade ago when the Padres were such a zero team that you'd go scan the ESPN dot com baseball headlines. And maybe like once a year, the Padres would rate something that would make a headline. Now they're literally every single week, something involving the Padres is worthy of national attention and news. This last week, of course, it was the series against the Washington Nationals, which was just filled with drama ups and downs, controversy. And of course, a bench is clearing incident that involved jerks and pro far and then Mackenzie Gore throwing a jerks and pro far, not getting tossed out of the game. And then Manny's home run response. What was your, your view of what went down in that series between the Padres and nationals, Jordan? Yeah, I mean, it seemed like kind of a classic baseball, you know, bruhaha, where you just have the perfect level of discontent and, you know, plausible deniability on a lot of people's sides of things where it's like, yeah, probably why would you throw a purposefully there? You have Kyberies trying to slow things down. You have all these different parts about it. And pro far, you know, after the walk off, you know, maybe running towards the nationals dugout. Was that necessary? All of it to me is fine. If we can not, if we don't have, I don't want anyone to get, like, if we're not having punches thrown, and if we don't really believe that someone is throwing at someone on purpose, which in my opinion, I do not think he was throwing at him on purpose, I think having these kinds of moments is a good thing, because as you mentioned, people are going to talk about it. And that's fine. And if we're not, people are not throwing punches. And if it's just creating, you know, some un, un, you know, again, it's like, how many people would have been like, yeah, we're going to have this really imagine telling someone in March, yeah, one of the spiciest back and forth of the year is going to be Jesse Wanker and Jerrickson. You'd be like, what? What are you talking about? So I think that's something that like these things kind of pop up at the completely unexpected times. And I wasn't surprised that honestly, either team was kind of a center of it because of the personalities involved. A hundred percent Jordan Schussman from SES for this family barbecue joins us this morning. And your Mariners have, have, have, right of the ship, they're back up in first place. You know, I'm watching last night, flipped the, it was Yankees playing the Blue Jays again. And we like, we had it on and I walk by, I go, my son goes, Oh my God, it's five, nothing. And he goes, it's the first inning. The Yankees out of the gate, you know, it's a good lesson for everybody to just be patient, you know, teams can go one way or the other. They look like one of the worst teams in baseball right now. I mean, they're getting bodied on an almost nightly basis right now. The Orioles have now crept in to a tie for first place. The, the patient's part is really, really hard for a lot of us fans. And I, you know, we always try to remind people just because you, you start hot, there's going to be a lull. There's going to be a, they look, they literally look like the worst team in baseball right now. Yeah, they sure do the them and the Rockies are the only teams that have lost eight of their last 10. And it's nice that they got out to that lead, but like, why did they get out to such an incredible start? Because they have so really good players that are still on the team. And so I think when you go through a situation like this, when you are losing, it's always so much worse when you're losing to, to rivals, right? That just hurts. And you're right, like they've been getting crushed. But when you have back-to-back series of, I know they lost a series of boss, but like this stretch here, when you lose serious to Boston, serious to Baltimore, a series to Atlanta at home where it's like, oh, the Braves are figuring it out, serious to the Mets. And now you lose to a Blue Jays team who seems to be going and, you know, heading towards being a full-blown seller. It's like the perfect song. It's not just that they've lost eight of its, who they've lost it to. And it's how bad they've looked. Now, is that a reason to panic? I mean, the reason it's a reason to panic is because the Orioles are so good. You know, this is not a situation where they can necessarily afford to go cold for too long because the winning the division is going to become a lot harder because the Orioles are one of the best teams in baseball. And I think the Yankees can still be one of the best teams in baseball. But you don't have that cushion. And if you heard Alex Cora talking about chasing them down, you know, yeah, that's exactly the attitude he should have. He said, like, yeah, they're not playing great. So why can't we, you know, make it interesting with them? So they got another series. I guess they got, you know, three more against Toronto. They got Cincinnati next week. And then they have Boston again at the end of next week. So it could be a lot more interesting there, at least than maybe we thought. Well, on the central is insane. In the NL, you know, you take the manager from the Cubs, from the Brewers, you put them on the Cubs, you pay them a ton of money to do so he's in their dead last place right now in the central and the team you took it from there in first place, 15 games above 500. This sport continues to every year, I forget, continues to prove that we don't know anything and anything can happen. It's been it's been an insane run there in the central as well. And with the pirates, you know, adding Paul Skins and the guys that they have, I mean, it's going to be a lot of fun this summer. Yeah, the Cubs, the Cubs Bruce thing is really interesting. I think just sticking on the Cubs, I think, you know, how we talk about counsel and the impact of a manager, it's like, listen, man, he can only press the buttons that are in front of them. And that, you know, as we've seen, this is, there are some flaws in this roster, they certainly had some injuries on the mound recently, which has been tough. And the offense is just okay. But you would think that even that would be enough to not be in last place in this division. They are Milwaukee is an even more amazing thing. I think that they have proven me right or proven wrong in so many ways that I'm so impressed. And yet I still look at the rotation, I say how in the world is this going to be a team that is in the postseason at all, let alone what they would do once they get there? But credit to them, they've been awesome. I think the real trick is figuring out which teams are just going into that lull and they're going to bounce back and which ones are truly in trouble. Like 2021, Padres got off to a hot start, went into a lull, never got out of it. Just, you know, the season fell apart. But I just went back and looked last year, Jordan, the, the, both the Texas Rangers and Arizona Diamondbacks had stretches of like three and 17 in the second half of the season last year in the second half of the season and ended up in the World Series against each other at the end of the year. Are the Yankees going to do this? Is that cushion or are they going to fall apart like the 2021 Padres? How do you identify the difference between teams that are really in trouble and teams that are just going through that normal lull that every baseball team goes through at some point? Well, I think I certainly don't have the answer to that, which is obviously not very good radio guest of me. But I would say that like, I'm so glad you mentioned those examples, right? Because those teams almost miss the playoffs. Right. You know, like, it's not even, and then, and then they got hot at the, it wasn't just that they, oh, they were so bad, but then all they still managed to win the division. Like, obviously, that's the exact opposite will happen with Texas. And then they got hot. So hey, maybe the Yankees are going to bungle this lead. Maybe they are going to have to go play a wild card series. And then maybe they'll go to the World Series anyway, you know? And so it is ultimately about just getting in. And I think that the Yankees, it's pretty hard to imagine them buggling into that degree to where they don't even have a shot in the postseason. But, you know, I mean, there's a few weeks say, oh, well, they have these guys coming back. They have these guys that we are certain have this level. There's these guys that there's no way they could perform like this. The Yankees roster is fascinating. He's and Dodgers both, right? When the top end is so good, and the bottom is so bad, it's just like, how am I supposed to evaluate? How am I going to tip the scales, you know, when you when you see the great, the unbelievable highs and the very, very troubling lows. Jordan has always appreciated. Have a great weekend. We'll talk to you again probably around the all-star break. It's just coming upon us very quickly. Yes, indeed. Thank you guys. Always fun. Jordan Schusterman, sespa, this family barbecue, our weekly conversation brought to you by our friends at grand old barbecue, Flynn Springs, North Park at the ballpark with the pond for his return. And hopefully in studio some Friday soon, where we can indulge in meats upon meats upon meats. Yeah, maybe during a Ben & Woods summer break. Just eat barbecue and summer break and go hand in hand. That's perfect. Yeah. I want to talk some pitching matchups, not just for this series, but what are the pod rays going to do going forward, especially with all of these new found off days that they have to play with between now and the all-star break. Does that change anything for you? We'll talk about that coming up. Let's check traffic. Be right back with more Ben & Woods on San Diego's number one sports station, 97-3 the fan. Wouldn't you know when the pod rays finally seem to solve some of their woes against left-handed starting pitching, three straight wins against the Nationals, all with lefty starters, actually scored some runs against the lefty starters last couple of days of the series. At the moment, they're not scheduled to face a single lefty, I believe in this entire road trip. All righties now for the Boston Red Sox and the Texas Rangers begins tonight with the first game of the road trip and the series at Fenway Park. 4 10 p.m. start, 3 10 eco water so-cal pregame show. Randy Vasquez on the mound against Nick Pavetta in game one of the series. Tomorrow is a 1 10 San Diego start with Michael King against, I believe it's Tanner, how and then on the Sunday morning series finale 10 35 a.m. first pitch. It's Josh Winkowski against Matt Waldron. Then the pod rays will go to Texas where Nathan Yovaldi, John Gray and Max Scherzer are scheduled to be the starting pitchers for the three games of that series. Now because of the off day yesterday and then another one on Monday, nice little bookend off days around this series against the Boston Red Sox. Mike Shelte and Ruben Eabler could get creative with their starting rotation. Dylan Sees, you always do that. I did. I did and they didn't they didn't do anything about it last time. They just they just went. They don't listen to me this time. But the last time they were admittedly they were in a stretch of 26 games in 27 days. They had the one off day. They didn't want to do anything with that off day. Dylan Sees, if you wanted to move him up to Tuesday, his next turn in the rotation technically doesn't come until Wednesday, middle game in Texas. But if you wanted to move him up to Tuesday to start the Ranger series, he'd still have an extra day of rest. Wednesday, normally you get four days rest. That would be Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday. You'd pitch Monday and they're off on Monday. You could pitch them on Tuesday on an extra day rest, but still a day earlier than he normally would. At that point then, you know, Randy Vasquez could pitch the next day on normal rest and Michael King could pitch the road trip finale on normal rest because of the Monday off day. If you wanted to go in that direction and, you know, skip and at a major, if you Darvish is not ready to come back to the rotation, I understand the Padres did win and Madam Major got the win his last time out. Still had the forerunning that he gave up, still has not shown the ability to miss bats on the big league level yet, did not walk as many guys through more strikes in his last start making some progress. But it just feels like every time you're throwing them out there, you are making your job a little tougher. Isn't it? Could it be dependent on how some of the other games go? Does that do anything for you? Maybe. Yeah, you know, and I think, you know, if you you move Dylan Sees around and again, it's still normal rest for him. More than normal rest for him. I'm almost hesitant to give him too much rest days and too much rest coming off literally what might have been his best start at the season on Washington. Do you really want to make him wait an entire week before he takes them out again next Wednesday against the Rangers? Let's ask the skipper in 30 minutes. They can probably not going to give you an answer. Probably not. But I think it's an interesting question. And I'm glad your mind works this way because mine doesn't. I never think about that. Like ever. All I'm thinking about is in the chat when you said Tanner Hawk, everyone said Tanner Hawk to and that's all that I've been thinking about since you started talking right Tanner Hawk to he's going in game to of the series is going to the San Diego Padres to Hawk Hawk to tour of the series master asked if we should if we would ask the skipper about Hawk to I'm gonna pass on that probably gonna pass. Say skip. Have you seen the Hawk to a girl? Now eventually the Padres do have from Tuesday in a row. So you'd eventually need at some point by next Saturday, a fifth starter if it's at a major or maybe it's you darfish and maybe it's you darfish. I don't know exactly what his status is feels like he's gonna now need another rehab start at some point at least even if imaging was good they said on you darvish's elbow which is what caused him to not get activated from the injured list when he was supposed to last Tuesday. Could he be back maybe maybe by next you know Saturday would be when they would need July 6th and then again they have another off day on that Monday, July 8th. They have another off day on Thursday, July 11th around just a two game series against the Seattle Mariners. So you could at that point then get to the rest the last five games of the season without needing to use a fifth starter again. Okay that works for me. You've got one more start. If you play it right you could get to the all-star break which is one more fifth starter. If you'd want to keep on your rotation though then you'll probably need to maybe even a third turn in the rotation for at a major. I'm just saying can you can we avoid three starts for at a major between now and the all-star break? I think the answer is yes you can with the off days. I like to. I like that your mind works that way because I don't even think that's why we work. But then again doesn't seem like the teams do either. They're probably itching to get Dylan Cease an extra couple of days of rest here. Right. Get everybody a little extra rest after that long stretch and ask him and when we ask him he's going to go no no we can't we're not going to do that. I mean we should be giving them more rest not less rest especially at this stage of the season. I think you still ask him. Do you even watch baseball cuz? Yeah hey you know anything about this? Tim says Ben hates major. Yeah Ben does not want to see major on the bump. I don't. Okay kind of I kind of do and it's not personal. I hate seeing him pitch. I really I do hate seeing him pitch right now. It's not a comfortable. It's not a it's not a personal thing. It's a more I don't like the feelings inside of me when he's on the mound. It's fair. Doesn't throw enough strikes. I think if Mike Shilt was under some truth serum who there there isn't it. There's a good bit. There is a spicy interview lie detector Mike Shilt even he has to feel a little uncomfortable with majors on the mound. He hates walks. So one thing he's actually said he does not like to see his pitchers walk better. Has he said that? Yes he said that. Okay. He does he loves when you get you get very few walks a lot of strikeouts very few walks. I think most managers for that because I'd be surprised if we heard him in a post game. You know I love the effort. I love the game around the zone. There's around the zone a little bit and it didn't get the call. I get he can tailor comments to fit each situation. He has that skill. That's a good bit. But many times he's he's focused on the fact hey we may have lost by six but did you see our guys didn't walk anybody in that game? Yeah. Yeah. I've heard that a few times. We can do a bit where we just ask him about like the worst stuff in the world and see if he could spend like all right nuclear war your thoughts. Well I mean it's okay. It's you know get some of the bad elements out right. Burn up some of that littering. Yeah burn up some litter. Yeah what are the three wars America did when you're talking about it. He's going to murder us. Yeah we're dead. All right we've got we've got a rental report. We'll do it a little bit early since Mike Schultz is going to join us at nine o'clock. So probably going to get some headlines. A potentially gnarly story that has surfaced out of the NBA draft. I saw this yesterday. Coming up next don't go anywhere Ben Woods on San Diego's number one sports station 97 3 the fan. A quick little birthday shout out 40th birthday tier one Robert. Happy birthday to you buddy. Your wife Katrina DM me this morning and asked if we could give you a shout out in the eight o'clock hour. I said sure eight twenty. And then I forgot. And so now it's eight forty. And which is coincidentally the age you're turning. So I think it worked out perfect for everyone. So happy 40th. Hey but it's all downhill from here. Once you hit forty just so you know you're going to need QC kinetics. You're going to need probably West Coast men's health. You're going to need all kinds of stuff. Hold on. All right. I know we have a round report coming up. When do you feel like it really did start going downhill the day I turned 40. Yeah. I feel like it was more like 36 or so. Oh no I felt I felt really good until the late late 30s. Oh come on. That was a thrive. I feel better now than I did probably a thirty six forty forty five. Yeah it's huge. I have not absolutely huge. But you know when I was 40. Yeah I mean it was like the next morning I woke up. I had some drinks and my Hannah threw me a surprise party. And I had some drinks and I woke up. Surprise party. Yeah. This is before I knew you. Yeah. And threw me a surprise 40th birthday party. That's really surprised. Yeah. Where was it? Tower 13. Oh right on the beach. Yeah right on the beach. It was amazing. Cardiff. It was she she went all out. It was great. A lot of people. Yeah a lot of people. Like 50. Now how did they pull it off? You like thought you're just going to dinner. Yeah let's get a beer or something. Yeah. Yeah. You weren't even married yet. Were you? No. No we were just dating. No at the time. So yeah when I was feeling worse. Birthday beer going and then all of a sudden you get there and everyone yells. Surprise. Surprise. Great. I would have liked to have been there. Yeah well I didn't know you. No I know. I would have been weird to invite me at that point. Now my 50th you'll be there. Van Halen will be playing there. Nice. Yeah. Hopefully. Which one? I would like to get them all together again. Eddie's not here anymore. He's not with us. So that's going to be tough. But to get Sammy and Dave would be pretty solid. Get him up there. Maybe Rat could play my 50th. You know something something like that. But yeah you'll be you guys will be there for that one. Fantastic. Just a year and a month. Surprise. No I'm if I you don't want it to be a surprise. No if I plan it myself I will. Can you imagine if all I had to pretend there wasn't a woodsy 50th birthday party for like weeks and weeks. I know. No. No it's we have nothing planned for your 50th birthday at a town. Yeah. No. What are you doing? Oh you know Hannah and I are just going to go have a yeah we're going to tower 13 again. You know we went there for my 40th so we're going to go again. Oh I didn't hear anything about this. Have fun. Jeffrey says he feels terrible at 36. Yeah. 40 just just crushed me. Can't wait for 50. Now some combination of SD fat loss calm QC kinetics and West Coast may as hell be good to go fix you right up to your 40s. What's baseball really like? Join former pottery and MLB all star Brett Boone and his big league friends on his podcast. The Boone podcast three days a week. Brett talking with Hall of Famers fellow all stars friends and more. Get their take on today's game. Set some big names all season long. The boot Kaboon podcast in the free Odyssey app wherever you get your podcasts. Look. Kaboon. Kaboon. Friday. 843. Kaboon is the dynamite. You can you can put it on the board every Friday at 843. That's why we have the Rondel report scheduled after traffic. That's right. 97 3 the fam. And get things started here with our addition today's edition of the Rindel report. Now tune the to the mother. 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 97 3 the fan. Are you ready to blast the mood? I need some help please. That was good. Can I get a hoe here? All right. All right. All right. Happy Friday gentlemen. Start off in Major League Baseball. It's that time of year where every year you have the conversation is Shohio Tani going to be in the home run derby. Yep. He's only done it once I think. John Flint was in here about an hour ago and he said you know pro far in the All-Star game. Is that a good idea? Like shouldn't he just take the rest and well thought two or three innings? Probably a good idea. Yeah get him an AB and if he wants to do it no problems with that but with the all with the home run derby feels like every team is always questioning if they want their guy there. It's gonna ruin a swing. Does he need to be there? And so Dave Roberts actually had some comments on this on Wednesday. He was talking with reporters and he said the one side of it for Otani to be in the home run derby. It's great for baseball clearly. The other side of it on the manager of the Dodgers side of it you're trying to be more cautious and appreciating the fact that there's a lot more swings higher intensity you know going through the rehab process with his elbow. You guys expect to see Otani in the home run derby? I do not. I feel like I don't. Any legitimate excuse now players are going to grab onto it and go. I'd love to be there. He wants to be really wants to show hey says he wants to do then he can do whatever he wants. Right. He can. Yeah he can. I don't think the Dodgers can stop him. Says he has feelings of wanting to do it but he would need approval from his doctors and the trainers ultimately my prediction is it doesn't happen. Yeah I don't think he will. I don't think he will. I think you know when your manager comes out and says that you know you do feel the guilt you know of oh man you know got to make sure I'm there for the the October collapse you know they're going to need me for that collapse. I need to be there. You know I know you don't feel like I should be there but I think I'm going to do it anyways and give him the old Adam. I do that. I do that to Adam. Okay the best. Dave Roberts said he wouldn't want anyone telling him he couldn't do the home run derby but I'm pretty sure your lack of power told everybody that anyway. Yeah I think you're stolen base derby. Yeah go ahead. I don't think you're ever in consider it's like do we have a bias in the in the all-star game against non-power hitters like should Louise arise. Louise arise be in the contact derby. Like just how many pitches in a row can you make contact on off a pitching machine it's like 105 like ramp it up just all you have to do is foul it off contact. Is that boring? I think it's boring. I think that's the problem. Yeah people don't want to see this. It was 2021 he lost a one soda in the first round. He said he's gone through one one round of the home run derby in his entire career. All right moving on. Sometimes the internet can provide one of those stories where you go this is insane. Yeah if it's true. If true I was just gonna say that. Yeah true. I think that's an important qualifier because anybody can make an account on social media and say there somebody. Yeah and so you never really know but no this was not about Bronnie James. We already talked about that. Kyle Philipowski from Duke. Now he's like a seven footer who excelled at Duke. He should have been a first rounder like maybe even a lottery pick but he wasn't. In fact he wasn't even in the first round. He slid to number 32 overall in the second round to the Utah Jazz and Zacklo and Jonathan Giovanni they host the Zacklo podcast or low podcast. I think it is. It's one of the most successful and popular basketball podcasts and they started digging into the theory that there's a lot going on in Kyle Philipowski's personal life that may have led to him sliding into the second round. They talked to scouts of teams throughout the NBA and they said look it has nothing to do with his ability on the basketball court. There are concerns about character and his home life and things going on in his personal life and so there was this tweet from an account Daniel Philipowski claiming to be his brother. Again we don't know that if this was actually his brother or not but the story gets really weird when they start talking about how Kyle has cut his family out of his life entirely for years now. He is dating his girlfriend. He's been dating her for a long time. She's six or seven years older than he is. I believe she went to his high school prom. She did. There's a picture of them at prom. She was 23. He was 18. Yeah. This is legal. Legal certainly. So the tweet that got all the traction's got 13 million views right now on Twitter says Kyle Philipowski's brother and mom are on here revealing how his girlfriend groomed him into Mormon culture and cut him off from his family and now he ends up with the Utah Jazz. He got drafted by the Jazz of all teams. Like oh you're Mormon. There's screenshots here from Kyle's brother allegedly. I'm Kyle's oldest brother. You all don't have a clue of the extent of the story that has to do with his girlfriend. There's a story that has been pushed under the table for nearly two years. He goes on to say nobody knows anything about this other than him the Duke coaching staff and his agent. They can't even get in touch with him anymore. The allegedly is like you said. Yeah. They said other than messaging him on Instagram is like the only attempt we can make to even reach out to him and contact him. Yep. And they've been unsuccessful. They do feel he was brainwashed by her and the mother allegedly the mother said you guys are opening a two-year issue. She's 28 with an end game three years ago to have a diamond ring on her hand when Kyle left Duke. He was still in high school. Would you let your 18 year old son date a 23 year old woman? He's an adult. He's an adult. You can't let or not do anything. That's true. Like I think more what is what are his teammates going to say about this? Because I bet they have some opinions as well. Which team there's new teammates? Yeah. Yeah. You know you're about to start an NBA pro basketball career is a lot of travel. A lot of people that you're going to meet as an NBA player. Are you sure you're ready to settle down right away and make that choice because it could could be something that you look back and regret on or maybe it's it's the right choice for him. I mean you know Aaron Rogers cut off his family and I mean you can say didn't hurt his NFL career at all. She used to babysit him as a child. Now that's odd. That's weird. They found her her name's Caitlin Hutchinson. They found her on LinkedIn and according to her LinkedIn profile she graduated from the University of Alabama in 2018. Kyle didn't even enroll in college at Duke until 2022. Interesting man. It's it's just really bizarre and I got to imagine more details will come out on that but yeah everyone going how the hell did he slide to the second round. That's why. And teams are saying that's why there's a lot going on and we wanted no part of that. Very interesting. Creepy. Finally. Would you look a little tired over there? A little tired. Have you had your caffeine? Yeah. I did have my caffeine this morning. What'd you have? Thinking about re-upping. I go coffee and I mix it with a little collagen protein and some MCT powder. That MCT. From Bob's. Why? Bob's. Simply the best. Well if you're looking to switch things up I've got a new way to get you caffeinated. Okay. Five hour energy. I've had five hour energy. I'm okay with adding caffeine to it. What? But you don't have to just drink little little shot bottles that they have now because they have just debuted a caffeinated barbecue sauce. Delicious barbecue sauce. Yeah remember that picture I put used to post when Tim Hill would pitch of the monster energy ham. This is perfect with five hour energy barbecue sauce. Yeah I like to take monster energy ham make little ham rolls dip it in the five hour energy barbecue sauce. So have your coffee in the morning. Yeah. You can add your coffee in the morning but maybe get a little tired. A little come down in the afternoon. Have some ribs. You get a little hungry. Sandwich. Yeah. A little caffeinated barbecue sauce. They just unveiled it. It's a new product for the summer. They are giving away 12 ounce bottles through their website. They had a drop yesterday. It sold out very quickly. They're doing three more drops on July 2nd which is Tuesday, July 9th and then July 16th. So the next three Tuesdays there is one flavor peach mango. Ooh I like that. I think that sounds sweet barbecue sauce. Yeah. And each serving is 60 milligrams of caffeine which is about as much as a week cup of coffee. The average cup has 95 so. It's a light boost. It's like a like a caffeinated soda. Basically. Yeah. Bump. Bump a barbecue stuff. Yeah. Just a little. Yeah. Seems completely unnecessary. It does. You have a product. Maybe we can throw some of that on our brand old barbecue at summer break caffeinated barbecue sauce. See he can get a bottle falling. I'd like to get him. I'd like to get him zooted on five hour energy barbecue sauce. A week's cup of coffee. So we're through caffeine. Let's try to remember on Tuesday to apply for the drop. Okay. Yeah. You have to apply to do it. You just go on their website and sign up if they're available. All right. Do it. And we'll see if we can get some for summer break. You guys remember summer summer breaks right around the corner. Ben and Wood's summer break during the all-star break. There's nothing going on. So we give up all of our guests, all our baseball guests. It's their break as well. It's their break. Jesse Agler, Adam Jones, Sammy. You know, we just take the week off. Just party in here. I think Friday we got back to normal. Yeah. Because the potters have a game that day. Yeah. We just party for a few days. Monday through Thursday. It's gonna get weird. It gets really weird. Ben, I hate it so much. No, I'm sure it's probably not gonna happen. But I feel like we should go on a field trip for one of those days. I'd be down with that. Because summer camp usually involves one of the days you go on a field trip to a water park or something like that. Do you want a remote broadcast? Yes. I'd be down. From somewhere like summer fun in the morning. Can we just do it at the beach? You think? We got Wi-Fi? A beat? Why not? Yeah, I guess we could. You know what I thought would be really awesome. And I think you can get Wi-Fi because it doesn't go that high up. Hot air balloon. Radio shield. Absolutely not. No hot air balloon. What is it? Bad idea. Bad idea. You don't like that idea? No. Not a chance. Four hours in the hot air balloon. You can do it. All right, I'll do it. We get you a little webcam. No. No, don't join me. You just have this conversation. Mike Schilt is coming up next. Oh boy. On the fan. It is a Friar Friday here on 97-3 the fan. The pod raise and the Boston Red Sox coming your way at 4-10 this afternoon with a 3-10 eco water so-cal pre-game Schilt. And as we do each and every Friday at 9 a.m. it is time for our manager's report with Mike Schilt brought to you by San Diego County Credit Union. It's not big bank banking. It's better and joining us from Boston, Massachusetts, the manager of the pod raise, Mike Schilt. And Mike, I just have to say this last week was very impressive for your team to deal with the set banks of injuries at the end of a long-stretched games with almost no days off to play like you did through those last two series, especially against the Washington Nationals. I know you tip your cap occasionally. I'm going to tip my cap to you and the San Diego pod raise sir. What a nice week that was. Yeah, it was a good week guys played well and contributions throughout and it was a really good week. And now we build on it and move on. You know, he's just buttering you up, skip, because I was going to ask you how close is the nearest Chipotle to your hotel? Oh man, you guys are staying with the thing. I actually did not get Chipotle. Actually, I got five guys. So I'm going to release off the charts. Oh, all right. Five guys. Good. It's pricey. But you know, you're major league manager. You have a pretty, I'm assuming that's that's pretty good. Now, you know what? The first thing I thought of that series, obviously, was it like it was electric. It was wild. It was like a baseball fan's dream. I mean, it really was. It had everything. But when I saw you get ejected the other day, the first thing I thought of was, all right, John boy, I want to see this ejection on the next, the next time I open Twitter because that was pretty electric skit. Yeah, I mean, I mean, it was a lot in that series. Obviously, a lot to unpack. So much. You know, the whole home stand was pretty special. I create automemories at PECO. But yeah, man, that was a lot going on. That ejection was in my world of it, you know, unnecessary relative to the situation. But anyway, made my point. 100%. And I did want to ask you, after the game, you know, they, after, you know, cooler heads prevailed and everything, you know, you had said, I don't necessarily think it was intentional in that case. And I mean, listen, I don't know it from Adam. I thought immediately as a fan was, oh, yeah, he did that on purpose. What did you see or based on, you know, your experience? What made you think it wasn't intentional from Mackenzie Gore? Not that it matters now, but just kind of like to think that I don't know. I mean, you know, I could be able to benefit a doubt. I watched his reaction. I mean, you can paint a reaction, you know, I get that part. You know, like I said, I'm Mackenzie. I got to know him when he was with us and have a lot of respect for him. And, you know, actually knows, got to know his parents a little bit with both living the same part of the world at Eastern North Carolina. So, you know, I just, after everything, they, whatever point they feel like they needed to make, which, again, don't want to overly revisit it. Didn't particularly understand it. But, you know, I got my own club to think about. They made, you know, their catcher made it. And, you know, we clearly exchanged words and people came out and, you know, did the dance. And at that point, in my role, it's over. Now, whether he's still after all that, decided to hit him. Only he and maybe a couple of people in that club really, really know. But, you know, I'd hate to think that was the case. But I could get people to benefit the doubt. But either way, intentional, unintentional, he's got to go. And somehow, after all that, in the mornings, good, you know, issued, somehow he gets hit and he gets to stay in the game. And I got to go. Oh, I mean, 100%. We overcame. It's not just, you can't throw at him intentionally. It's like, you better, you better make sure you don't hit him. Whatever you do. And if you do, you are now responsible for whatever happens. I totally agree, Mike. Mike Schilders with us here on 97 three, the fan. I've got a question. And I don't know, as a manager, when you guys get, you know, bad news about, you know, tatisse and the stress reaction and you Darvish, not going to be able to come back. How do you address that with your team? I know you got pros and they're used to dealing with injuries and stuff like that. But how do you not let that become a, Oh, here we go again. Like, Oh, that's more bad news. We got to deal with. What do you do as a manager when those things come up during a season? I mean, they come up. I mean, I don't, you know, I think the public, at least for me, there's not like these key meetings. But yeah, you know, they're just, they're just not. I mean, you know, we've been in the game a long time. Unfortunately, you know, injuries happen. Like I said, you know, losing potty and Joe and Bogey and you and some of the gang many a certain time, you know, it's disappointing. It's a challenge. But, you know, that's ultimately what this game is about, how you respond to challenges and, you know, want to support those guys. But, you know, really, you just, you continue to figure out a way to compete with the group that you have. And everybody is locked in to, you know, making sure they make a ready to contribute. And of course, some roles change and people get opportunities. And that's what this game's about and about season the opportunity. No question. And one of the guys that has done that, talking to Mike Schilt here on Ben and Woods this morning, one of the guys has done that is Kyle Higashioka. What a joy it's been to watch him play. I know he had a tough situation thrust upon him when he got here, took him a little while to get going and get some ABs, you know, because campy was in there and he was catching Waldron and wasn't getting a lot of opportunity. Talk about a guy that's made the most of his opportunities right now. And you'd never know if he went 0 for 4 or, you know, 3 for 4 with two home runs and 6 RBI just, he's just a very even keeled guy. How much does that help? You know, you're pitching staff when he's working with them. Well, I'm about done that. So, we're going to start. Just, just with Kyle, like how, how, you know, him sees in the opportunity, his kind of temperament to in the clubhouse and what he's like as a, as a member of the San Diego Padres. Yeah, he's been a great addition. You know, got a lot of great feedback from New York people, people in the NSHIP know and people played with him about just, you know, just quality. A guy is a starting point and then clearly a good player and what his skill sets are. And, you know, he's really, you know, stepped up and done a nice job for us. He's a really stoic guy, a really smart guy, got a good IQ, got a good way about him, got a good sense of humor with, with how he goes about things. Just a really, really, really good guy in the clubhouse, but also clearly a good player, you know, and he, he stayed patient, you know, he got his opportunities early on, not as many as, as maybe he would have liked. And, you know, it can't be being looking to be our everyday catcher and giving him those opportunities to prove his way, you know, in the big leagues and staffing himself with that guy. And then, you know, over the course of time, you know, started to create a little bit more opportunities for him, which he's done more than earned. And, of course, with Higgy going on, our kid be going on the IL, you know, creates even more for him and he's just done a nice job and clearly some really big hits for us. He feels like one of those guys as a manager, you know, that you don't, you know, I like, he's good. Like your attention. Don't need to worry about it. Yeah, like, you don't have to go like, I don't know, that's just, that's just my perception of, you know, we've interviewed him a couple times and great dude, but he just feels like one of those guys as a skipper, you don't have to constantly, you're good, everything okay? Low pulse rate. Yeah, yeah, low, low heartbeat and just kind of walk by, hey, hey, hey, hey, skip and, you know, he's in the lineup and doing his job. Yeah, no, you're great. I mean, we got a lot of guys like that. I mean, we got a really pretty professional clubhouse that, you know, we just are able to communicate with, you know, I spend a lot of time with our catchers, you know, with our pitching coaches and Brian Azizito, as I'm catching and helps me during the game. So we have a lot of communication and I've enjoyed the communication with, with Kathy and Higgy and now slowly about, you know, how we're, how we're leading our staff and how we're seeing the game. It's good to see a Eggie back, Eggie Rosario. Obviously there was some talk. He's got a great arm, but he's an infielder by trade and with, with Tottie out, you might need some spots in the outfield. They said, you know, might, might work on that. What does that look like though? I mean, most of the time you get to the big leagues, you, you kind of know how to play a position. What kind of instruction goes on to maybe get a guy ready to play out of position, so to speak, if you want to get his bat into the lineup, especially against lefties where he really does some good damage. Yeah, he swings the bat good against lefties at a big, big swing the other day, you know, to get, get anything started, you know, start off with two running, double off the wall against the left. He does really well against lefties. So, you know, we're just trying to be creative on what that looks like. We're that back and play. There's always a balancing act between the offense and defense, at least for me, you know, defensive run save, or just the ones, important ones to drive in. But, you know, it's one try to get the bat in the lineup to do some damage appropriately. You know, perhaps an opportunity for him in the outfield. He's never, when I say never, never play outfield. But, you know, Jackson Hatton also, you know, but it's a, it's a hard place to just pick up and learn. You know, he's getting some work with Dave and the CS or outfield coach and see what that looks like. And, you know, we'll, we'll see if there's an opportunity to present yourself to get them out there. Talking to the skipper, Mike Schilth here on Ben & Woods this morning. And, boy, you guys haven't had any trouble closing out games when Robert Suarez comes in to, you know, throw six, nine fastballs by guys and, you know, call it a day. But, closing out some of the other games, been a little bit of a challenge, Skip, the eight nothing that turned into eight five, the other day had to make your little bit of hair turn gray for you. You know, how do you, how do you get a little bit of hair? Yeah, you got a little bit of hair, right? And the hair that's remaining turns gray. I thought I got pretty good hair. Actually, a little bit of hair. It's not great hair, but it's not a little bit. So, so for you, when that happens, I mean, it's, it gets, it's an empty feeling. Certainly, you want Cosgrove to be able to just get through that and not have to get Suarez up. Just, would you tell us a little bit about what, what kind of you're going through with that? It's happened just a couple of times. I know it happens to all teams, but certainly got to be a little bit frustrating. Yeah, I'm not sure what you really want me to say. I mean, I really don't. I mean, I, you know, I don't know how to answer the question. So, um, throw strikes to get electrocuted. I think it's funny. Right. Right. Right. Right. Yeah. Yeah. I think so. You got, you know, it's the ninth inning, you know, severe challenge to get the last three out. And the easiest thing in the world, like when people say, oh, my gosh, you know, you got a four run away. Don't use your clothes. Right. And then you got to use your clothes. Or you give it up. You know, it's like, um, you know, so couldn't get it done. They had some of the bats, you know, the lead-off lawsuit didn't help at all. They had two three and I was to the right side. And I don't know. I mean, I prefer talking about dating. We think they've been running absolutely well. Um, you know, that's just part of it, man. You know, sometimes it's the last year you're hard to get. We had it in Kansas City. We've had it. Um, you know, we're in the season, you know, with six nothing to leave. Um, but we ended up having to use Robert. And, you know, like I said, it's just, um, people can say what they want about the last three outs. But, uh, you know, it's an acquired taste of people to learn to get. That's the other point to the conversation. You got to learn it. And, uh, what's the learning curve in the night that people don't want to really want to deal with with the lead? Um, and so, but if you, if you don't give those guys this opportunity, they don't learn from them. So it's the, uh, you know, that's one too. See, you crushed that answer. You knew how to answer that question. You know what he's crushed also, Mike, you've always explained how you manage real people in the real world that are, you know, not always feeling a hundred percent or tired. You know, it's a long season. There's not a lot of days off. As fans, I, especially me, I'm a radio host, I manage on paper, you know, in my mind. And I look at the off days coming up. You had one yesterday, you got one Monday, you got two more next week. And I look, well, maybe you could, you know, get Dylan Sees out there. He's pitching so well and move him up a day. How, how do you look at that in that equation? Is there like no thought, like, I don't want to move him up. I want to give him those extra days offers. That's something you might look at here before the all-star break with now the extra off days that you've got coming up. Yeah, I mean, we'd be responsible not to look at it, right? So, we do. Me and Reuben look at it. We partner with AJ in the front office and we also talk to our, to our players. And it's not, you know, it's not in the vacuum. It's, yeah, what can be best for Dylan Sees is X. What could be best for Michael King is Y. What's best for Matt Waldron is, is the, you know, best guys, it's Maser, et cetera. And so, you know, individually, you can say, yeah, we could do this with Dylan. Oh, but has that impact Michael and has that impact Matt and what do we got on Adam and, and Randy. So, we know, we put it all together and figure out, you know, the balancing act of making sure that, you know, the competition is taken care of, the rest is taken care of. And then, of course, the short-term versus the long-term of, of what that can look like. And, and we do our best we can to balance all that. And we've had some, you know, like I say, conversation with them and, and some internal conversation, then we, we put the best play that we can lay out there together with all the various. Mike, I really appreciate it before you go. Any, any updates on, on you, Darvish? I know we saw as Andrew Bogart's taking some batting practice before you guys went on the road trip. Just kind of overall general health updates on your team. Yeah, so, you know, it looks like Darvish, the imaging is negative, so it's positive, nothing overly alarming with that. I do think he was going to seek another image, which is pretty standard, you know, and then it's just a matter of getting information out, which is the biggest call for it feels like right now. Well, the second place in the Zobo, getting it out and getting to where you can play catch and recover, you know, is the longer he stays away, you know, longer, it's kind of, you know, longer, you can't throw, the longer it's going to be for him to get back. So, no real, you know, great time on there. Bogart's training in a really good place. He's going to have another stand through, and CT scan that I'll determine how much further he's healed, the most recently was favorable, it's like he's a little bit as scheduled, but the next will be the one that allows us to determine with him how much he can ramp up, but the good news is he's, you know, he's taking ground ball, he's taking some swings, and then I guess they rarely do the next will be how much the ball he can take to where he can start to get some live at bats and potentially rehab and get back, you know, working with us. So, good news on that front, he's with us, obviously, he's returned to Boston, so I'm sure that'll be bittersweet for him, but I know this organization is going to be something that the reward is really productive time here. Horizon back from his ouchie. We're determining that. Tournament now, okay. And I have fun managing at Fenway Park. I mean, that's got to be kind of special for anybody. Anybody gets to go in there. It's a temple of baseball history. Oh, it's amazing. Yeah, I love coming here, and I'm right here in the dugout right now. Looking at this beautiful field. Awesome. I like this good. Very blessed. All right. Well, have a good one, a good series, and I keep up the good work, as we said, very impressive week, and we'll talk to you actually two weeks. You get next Friday off with the 4th of July holiday, so we'll talk to you in a couple of weeks. Skip. Oh, you guys aren't working? No, we're not working. No, we're taking a four day weekend, of course, like, you know. We're not baseball players. We're not baseball players. And you guys, country club. Okay. All right. Well, believe it. I'll see you next month. See you next month. I'll start break. There we go. Sounds good. Mike Shelton, manager of the San Diego Padres, absolutely right. Yeah, we are not. We are lazy. Got one. I don't get those days off. Just you guys, huh? You take the extra long weekends. Yep. Guess he's volunteering to do summer break with us then, when he's on his break. Oh, well, that's right. All right. We could turn this around. All you're taking an entire all-star break on. Really? What? We're here. We took three years. You're taking four. Wow. You guys aren't playing. All right. We'll throw that back at him. Oh, yes. We're talking about Friday. All-star breaks coming up. You know who's working, right? That would be us. Should have him in. That would be awesome. You know, we're run down. 530. 530. See you here. Yeah. Liners to read. Just the whole shooting match for Mike Shelton. That'd be so much fun. So much fun. Not he's great. He's great. He gets so mad. Oh, yeah. What do you want? I love me. I love me. How do you want me to answer? Well, then you just knocked it out of the park. He had a great answer. He does. It's great. It's his way of saying that's not a well-worded question. I know it's. I know. I know. I know. All right. We'll come back. We'll react to what you just heard. We've got a couple of segments left for this week. Looking forward to the weekend. Of course, it's better woods. We'll check traffic here on 97.3 The Fan. Famous still day in the chat says, it feels like beef between woods and the skipper. Do you get the sense that there's beef? I think he hates me. I like him. I like him. No, no. Beef. Yes, actually. He's excited. Yes. There is is not beef. I think you annoy him. Yeah, beef means like two going back to four. I love him. You love him. I love him. He just hates you. Yeah, that's not beef. That's not beef. Right. Yeah, of course. Hey, Mike, you hate me? Yeah. Yeah. I thought so. He's honest. I'm honest too. He's not that honest though. He was holding out on us. He was holding out because apparently the Padres will be making a roster move today. And they all already made another one earlier today. First one as reported by Kevin A.C. Padres will have a new left hander in their bullpen today. Austin Davis, who's appeared in 136 MLB games for four teams will come up after a strong showing in triple A as El Paso's closer recently is allowed four runs in his past 20 innings pitched. Corresponding move yet to be announced wouldn't feel great if I was Tom Cosgrove. In fact, I might not even be with the team if I was Tom Cosgrove right now. You know, he came up after doing a good job at triple A that that ninth inning, though, is not what the Padres need. They need someone who can spare the rest of the bullpen, not force them to get Adrian Moria home and Robert Suarez up and active in the ninth inning when he got an eight run lead. I could be wrong. It could be someone else. It could be an injury. Don't know. And then, uh, what, what did you just told me, uh, old friend alerts? Yeah, I was scrolling, uh, Instagram and I saw a picture of Nabil Prismat in a San Diego Padres uniform. And I went, oh, he's, you know, relive. Hey, throwback Friday, flashback Friday when I was on the Padres. And no, it says, I'm very happy to announce I'm back with the San Diego Padres, looking forward to this new chapter. See you all soon. Interesting. Major league, minor league, don't own. Padres faced him earlier this year when he hooked on with the LA Dodgers. Hadn't really been keeping up with, uh, Nabil status, but got released by them, went to Texas. He was just released by Texas like three days ago looking for a home again, man, looking for a, you know, place that, uh, he can get some opportunity to pitch. He's, he's Nabil Prismat. Well liked very well. I am a Padres clubhouse. There's no doubt about that. Bringing back all the Vibes guys. Who's next? Jorge Alfaro. Jorge Alfaro. I don't know what the hell happened with him and Bob Melvin at the end of the 2022. Yeah, something, but the vibes are strong leading up to the playoffs. That's what you guys need. Yeah. So it's a four, 10 first pitch, which means lineups probably around, uh, one o'clock this afternoon, probably, uh, roster announcements around the same time. Now we know we, Mike Schiltz already there in the dugout. He said at Fenway Park, getting some early soaking in the history of the green monster and such early in the day. Yeah. And they always have early meetings for the series opener. You know, you got your hitters and pitchers meetings to go over matchups and who they're going to be facing throughout the series. Like one of the main things this team needs is a mop up guy. And nobody's really snagged that job. Collec didn't do it. Cosgrove didn't do it. All right. Now, Collec has been pitching well. No, no, no, in mop up. Yeah. Right. Yeah. He's actually went. He's better when they actually put him in higher level. She's been better. Yeah, good point. So no bill, Chris Matt, welcome to mop up duty. He's probably not joining the majorly roster bed. I would imagine. But we'll see. We'll see what happens with no bill, but he is posted on his Instagram that he is in fact back with the San Diego Padres. We don't know what level. We don't know what it I mean, you know, he's kind of the pitching version of Jirksen profile. Always comes back home after struggling elsewhere. He's back home again. What if he really is the pitching version of Jirksen profile and he shows up all of a sudden. Nabil Chris Matt rolls off like 42 consecutive scoreless innings or something. That would be Jirksen like on the mound this year. Very interesting. That seems overly optimistic. It does. But stranger things have happened. I'm curious to see who's going to be starting out. You could tell from Mike Schiltz answer that he's not ready to be comfortable with Aggie Rosario on a right field. Correct. And there's no lefties in the correct, you know, in the hopper for the opposing pitchers. So they have some maybe some time. I would imagine Aggie will mostly serve as a pinch hitter for now against left handed relievers on this road trip. If he does get an opportunity but wouldn't expect him in the ceremony. Then again, Bryce Johnson every single day can't really be the answer either as you're just tell until Ted Tees is back. We got Bryce Johnson. He's going to be out there every day. You've got to find something a little bit more promising than that. I bet you see David Peralta in there tonight, you know, get some of the lefties in there. You know, they love match ups and whatnot. I'm okay with Tyler Wade out there. Good things seem to happen when Tyler Wade's in the game. Crazy. Right. Crazy. What a role he's found on this. Yeah. Yeah. Good player. If you missed it, good role player. Early this morning, we got to do a mid season catch up and chat with our good friend Major Garrett from Washington, D.C. Padre is a fan extraordinaire and Chief Washington correspondent for CBS News. We thought it was good enough that we would bring it back here in our final segment of the week, our conversation with Major Garrett coming up next here on San Diego's number one sports station, 97 three, the fan birthday boy at the station today. It's funny that you knew you remembered his birthday, but you didn't remember mine last time. That's true. And you put it that and you're not even you're not even his co host. And he's only he's only worked here for the last few months. Yeah, now he came on our show every Friday for several years. So, you know, I'll give you some credit for that. Just came up on social media. Yeah, I did. I did. Happy birthday to Craig Elston of the Annie and Elston show that's following us right here on 97 three, the fan. Still can't get over the fact that we forgot his birthday. Not I'm just not gonna put it on me exclusively me and Paul. We totally bricked and all the cheer ones and my family and family. It's probably my fault, right? Your family forget? No, they forgot to tell you. They've got to tell me. Yeah, I didn't forget my birthday, but they forgot to tell you about my birthday. Yeah. I was actually my greatest gift I ever received was you forgetting about my birthday. Yeah, because you have that to lord over the best present I could have gotten something to lord over woods moving forward. You can literally anytime you want to be like, Hey, you remember that time that you forgot my birthday? That really hurt. That always feels like a birthday present when we get some time with Major Garrett. Oh, it's always an enjoyable Padres conversation. And we had that opportunity this morning, despite every busy thing going on in Washington right now, Washington, CBS News, chief correspondent, Major Garrett with Ben and Woods will bring you that conversation right after traffic here on 97 through the fame. All right, and joining us now live from DC, our pal, one of the biggest, if not the biggest, Padre family, no Major Garrett. Good morning, my friend. Good morning. How is everybody? Man, we are good. We are good. Just, you know, needed the night off last night. It's been a whirlwind around Petco Park. The last last few, actually last few weeks. I'm just laughing. You guys had a night off. I didn't have a night off. No, last night was not a night off for you. I told the guys earlier, I said, I watched five minutes and then I went and I watched Silence of the Lambs and felt, I felt a little bit better about the future of our country. Yeah, full metal jacket, exactly. 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. 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As in, they've got your back to school lunch favorites like snack packs and fresh fruit. And they've got your back to school supplies like backpacks, binders and pencils. And they've got your back when your kid casually tells you they have a huge school project due tomorrow. Let's face it, we were all that kid. So first call your parents to say I'm sorry. And then download the Instacart app to get delivery in as fast as 30 minutes all school year long. Get a $0 delivery fee for your first three orders while supplies last. Minimum $10 per order additional terms apply. We all belong outside. We're drawn to nature, whether it's the recorded sounds of the ocean we doze off to, or the succulents that adorn our homes. Nature makes all of our lives, well, better. Despite all this, we often go about our busy lives removed from it. But the outdoors is closer than we realize. With all trails, you can discover trails nearby and explore confidently. With offline maps and on trail navigation, download the free app today and make the most of your summer with all trails. All right, halfway home on a Friday, a Friday, Friday as it were, but in woods 97-3. The fan, thanks so much for being here. I'm woodsy. That's Paul Reindel, the executive producer, Ben Higgins, your friendly neighborhood sports anchor joins us as well. Good to have you guys. Good to be in here chopping it up on a Friday. Mulgussied up now in my Grand Old Barbecue-E Asado hat ready for Jordan to join us via Zoom here any second. They're going to bring us some meat on a Friday show. They're going to bring us the whole spread. Don't tease me. Don't tease me. It is a tease because it's not here yet, but they are going to bring us some meat. Well, we need to have Jordan and Jake in studio one day. I mean, their travels should bring them to San Diego at some point here as we are joined. Right now by Jordan Sheusterman from Sesperda's Family Barbecue and Yahoo Sports. You are good. You're good. We're glad to have you as always and welcome you to another Friday here with Ben and Woods. Hello, Jordan. What's up, guys? Always a pleasure. I am wearing my Frisco Rough Riders hat. You have that a top prospect named Jerkson Profar once wore many, many moons ago, and I decided to keep it simple with my appreciation for Mr. Profar on this fine Friday morning. Because I mean, he's like one of the best players in baseball, as we all expected. Totally totally knew it. We called it. No, it's funny, man. You know, I have always liked Jerkson Profar, the player. Now I grew up Jordan in the Dallas Fort Worth area and listened to a ton of Dallas Fort Worth Sports Talk radio. And the name Jerkson Profar was bandied about all the time. And I actually, when he came to the Padres, it was like, Oh, cool. Good, good pickup. You know, solid and but I kind of used him as a as an example of why you should sometimes trade prospects. And isn't it funny now that here we are years, years later, he's the leading vote getter in the all-star game, having a monster season. It's been remarkable. What a career arc for him. Yeah, I think the other thing about about probably certainly if you zoom in on just the past, you know, year and how it's gotten to this point is pretty astonishing. But I think it's also, it's like, Oh, wow, you know, he's really put it all together in San Diego. It's like, he was already in San Diego. And it seemed like he had, he had become like a good player as we saw that, right? It was three years of being like a good player. He had settled in. He had made it. He had become a good major league player. And there was just not a reason to expect another jump up to become one of the best players in baseball. At this point, I know it's again, he's been our lives for so long. The fact that he is, you know, 31 now is kind of jarring. But man, oh man, he's he they where where would this team be without him is a very real sentence that you can say. I mean, and I can vividly remember, you know, some of the deals that the Rangers wanted to pull off and did not because they would not include jerks and pro far in those deals. And that's how much they believed in him back then. And AJ Preller had some connections with that organization. And it's just been really, really special. He's he's not only David Peralta talked yesterday about him. And he goes, yeah, I played against him. And he'd rack up RBIs and home runs and he plays hard and he plays with spirit and fire. He goes, I don't like him. I absolutely didn't like him. And then I get here. And I meet him and I go, Oh my God, he's quiet. He's gentle. He's sweet. He's got a beautiful family. He goes, I can totally see the other side now. So it's really cool. Yeah. And you mentioned thinking back to him as a prospect, like we talked about this on our show before, but he's a big part of why Jake and I really started to want to talk about baseball together. Like, this is when he was a top prospect. And when we wanted to go another level deeper into this world, it was so that we could be like, I know about jerks and pro far and you don't write like that was kind of when he was in, you know, Spokane or whatever, early levels when he's playing like the Arizona Complex League. And it's like, man, it was 16 year old Curtis, how he's unbelievable. And that was something that we really liked, you know, getting into. And so it's it is a it is a remarkable career arc. And yeah, man, he's he's the story of the Padres season. I don't think there's really any way around that. It's also a reminder that for the amount of resources, money, time that front offices put into discovering players, AJ Preller, traveling the globe, staying up all hours of the day, trying to turn over every rock on planet Earth in search of baseball players. Sometimes it just comes down to luck, because any team could assign direction pro far, he's getting a million dollars. No one could have seen this. We actually asked the question, does AJ even really get any credit? We were so sure he was going to sign Jerkton pro far this offseason. We put him on the roster as part of the plans before they even signed him going. Well, obviously, Jerkson's going to be an option in left field, you know, for the Padres this season, because where else is he going to go? He's going to be a part of the Padres. It's just a foregone conclusion. A lot of this game is Jordan as much as we we attribute intelligence and skill. There's a lot of luck in baseball involved too. Absolutely, right? And not okay, sure, you maybe could have seen it coming. I mean, he still wasn't signed until after spring training started. It's not even like, all right, it'd be one thing if they had identified him early in the season, like we want to bring him back. That sure, maybe a little bit more credit for that. And obviously, I guess they get credit for it being a place that he clearly wanted to keep coming back to. Sure. I think that is something you can give them, but you are 100% correct. There is no, there's no version of this that doesn't involve an incredible, you know, role of the random number generator that produces our baseball results. Talking to our pal Jordan Schusterman from Cespa, this family barbecue here on Ben and Woods this morning. And you know, the rumor mill always heats up. And we've already pulled off two massive trades, you know, here in San Diego this year. And the rumor mill is always heating up Jordan when it comes to the trade deadline. You know, I'm looking at the Garrett crochet to the Dodger's rumor, maybe, you know, maybe to the Padres even the the picture for the Tigers scuba scuba. Yeah, Terry's school. Why would teams like the Tigers and the White Sox? It still have multiple years of control left on lefty power arms that can get guys out at the big league level. Why wouldn't they just build around those guys? Do you do you suspect that those guys will be moved? I just don't understand the constant reshuffling and re upping on prospects from other teams. When you have guys like that, that you could build your rotation around. Totally with you. And yeah, there's something part of it that so well, you never know, you know, pitchers, who knows what they'll be in three years, a little in five. I think I'm completely with you. Now, I think the crochet and school situations are definitely different. Zero percent chance people get traded crochet like it's just because we know the White Sox are still in just such mega tear down mode. Yeah, like they have enough else to trade. Even if they do want to make a Luis Robert deal, you know, co-pexi guy they could move. And by the way, for the Tigers, if they want to go full sell, like Jack Flaherty should get you some real stuff. I mean, what he has become this season is really astonishing. That's that's another one of the the more quiet, you know, remarkable pitching seasons, I think we've seen. And a lot of it is being masked by the fact that he's on the same team as scuba in school, you know, might be the site and front runner. So, but I just I can't see that in for crochet man. I talked about this with one White Sox podcast, like that one is would just be so hard to stomach, right? It's the one thing that's gone well for them. It's the one thing they've absolutely nailed. We were all laughing at them when he was their opening day starter. Absolutely. And it wasn't it's not like he was a total nobody. He was a first round pick and he's he at his best was one of the more impressive, you know, college pitchers we've seen. But the track record was not there. He'd never started. I mean, he literally never started a major league game, right? So, and of course, the injury track record too. So, you hope that he's someone they can't build around. And I just I just don't because right to your point, like how many times can you keep pushing the timeline farther into the future? And if you have someone that's that good, man, you know, it's one thing you move Dylan Sees, you know, with the year and a half left or two years left. But this is a totally different this is a totally different beast. And I would just be such a such a horrible sign to the fans that have obviously already suffered enough. You know, is less than a decade ago when the Padres were such a zero team that you'd go like scan the ESPN dot com baseball headlines and maybe like once a year, the Padres would rate something that would make a headline. Now they're literally every single week, something involving the Padres is worthy of national attention and news. This last week, of course, it was the series against the Washington Nationals, which was just filled with drama ups and downs controversy. And of course, a bench is clearing incident that involved jerks and pro far and then Mackenzie Gore throwing a jerks and pro far, not getting tossed out of the game. And then Manny's home run response. What was your your view of what went down in that series between the Padres and nationals, Jordan? Yeah, I mean, it seemed like kind of a classic baseball, you know, bruhaha, where you just have the perfect level of discontent and, you know, plausible deniability on a lot of people's sides of things where it's like, yeah, probably why would you throw a purposefully there? You have memories trying to slow things down. You have all these different parts about it. And pro far, you know, after the walk off, you know, maybe running towards the nationals dugout. Was that necessary? All of it to me is fine. If we cannot, if we don't have, I don't want anyone to get like, if we're not having punches thrown, and if we don't really believe that someone is throwing someone on purpose, which in my opinion, I do not think he was throwing him on purpose. I think having these kinds of moments is a good thing, because as you mentioned, people are going to talk about it. And that's fine. And if we're not, people are not throwing punches. And if it's just creating, you know, some, and so pro, you know, again, it's like, how many people would have been like, yeah, we're going to have this really imagine telling someone in March, yeah, one of the spiciest back and forth of the year is going to be Jesse Wanker and Jerry. You'd be like, what? What are you talking about? So I think that's something that like, these things kind of pop up at the completely unexpected times. And I wasn't surprised that honestly, either team was kind of a center of it because of the personalities involved. 100% Jordan Schussman from SES with this family barbecue joins us this morning. And your Mariners have, have, have right of the ship, they're back up in first place. You know, I'm watching last night flip the, it was Yankees playing the Blue Jays again. And we like, we had it on and I walked by ago, my son goes, Oh my God, it's five nothing. And he goes, it's the first inning. The Yankees out of the gate, you know, it's a good lesson for everybody to just be patient, you know, teams can go one way or the other. They look like one of the worst teams in baseball right now. I mean, they're getting bodied on an almost nightly basis right now. The Orioles have now crept in to a tie for first place. The, the patience part is really, really hard for a lot of us fans. And I, you know, we always try to remind people just because you start hot, there's going to be a lull. There's going to be a, they look, they literally look like the worst team in baseball right now. Yeah, they sure do be them and the Rockies are the only teams that have lost eight of their last 10. And it's nice that they got out to that lead. But like, why did they get out to such an incredible start? Because they have some really good players that are still on the team. And so I think when you go through a situation like this, when you are losing, it's always so much worse when you're losing to, to rivals, right? That just hurts. And you're right, like they've, they've been getting crushed. But when you have back-to-back series of, I know they lost a series of boss, but like this stretch here, when you lose serious to Boston, serious to Baltimore, a series to Atlanta at home where it's like, oh, the Braves are figuring it out, serious to the Mets. And now you lose to a Blue Jays team who seems to be going and, you know, heading towards being a full-blown seller. It's like the perfect song. It's not just that they've lost eight of its who they've lost it to. And it's how bad they've looked. Now, is that the reason to panic? I mean, the reason it's a reason to panic is because the Orioles are so good. You know, this is not a situation where they can necessarily afford to go cold for too long because the winning the division is going to become a lot harder, because the Orioles are one of the best teams in baseball. And I think the Yankees can still be one of the best teams in baseball. But you don't have that cushion. And if you heard Alex Cora talking about chasing them down, you know, yeah, that's exactly the attitude he should have. He said, like, yeah, they're not playing great. So why can't we, you know, make it interesting with them? So they got another series. I guess they got, you know, three more against Toronto. They got Cincinnati next week. And then they have Boston again, on the end of next week. So this could be a lot more interesting in the early than maybe we thought on the central is insane in the NL. You know, you take the manager from the Cubs, from the Brewers, you put them on the Cubs, you pay them a ton of money to do so he's in their in dead last place right now in the central and the team you took it from there in first place, 15 games above 500. This sport continues to every year. I forget continues to prove that we don't know anything and anything can happen. It's been it's been an insane run there in the central as well. And with the pirates, you know, adding Paul schemes and the guys that they have, I mean, it's it's going to be a lot of fun this summer. Yeah, the Cubs, the Cubs Bruce thing is really interesting. I think just sticking on the Cubs, I think, you know, how we talk about counsel and the impact of a manager. It's like, listen, man, he can only press the buttons that that are in front of them. And that, you know, as we've seen, this is there are some flaws in this roster. They certainly had some injuries on the mound recently, which has been tough. And the offense is just okay. But you would think that even that would be enough to not be in last place in this division. They are Milwaukee is an even more amazing thing. I think that they they have proven me right or proven wrong in so many ways that I'm so impressed. And yet I still look at the rotation. I say how in the world is this going to be a team that is in the postseason at all, let alone what they would do once they get there? But credit to them, they've been awesome. I think the real trick is figuring out which teams are just going into that lull and they're going to bounce back and which ones are truly in trouble. Like 2021, Padres got off to a hot start, went into a lull, never got out of it. Just, you know, the season fell apart. But I just went back and looked last year, Jordan, the the both the Texas Rangers and Arizona Diamondbacks had stretches of like three and 17 in the second half of the season last year in the second half of the season. Yeah. And ended up in the World Series against each other at the end of the year. Is are the Yankees going to do this? Is that cushion or are they going to fall apart like the 2021 Padres? How do you identify the difference between teams that are really in trouble and teams that are just going through that normal lull that every baseball team goes through at some point? Well, I think I certainly don't have the answer to that, which is obviously not very good radio, guest of me. But I would say that like, I'm so glad you mentioned those examples, right? Because those teams almost miss the playoffs. Right. You know, like, it's not even and then and then they got hot at the, it wasn't just that they, oh, they were so bad, but then all they still managed to win the division. Like obviously, that's the exact opposite will happen with Texas and then they got hot. So hey, maybe the Yankees are going to bundle this lead. Maybe they are going to have to go play a wild card series and then maybe they'll go to the world series anyway. You know, and so it is ultimately about just getting in and I think that the Yankees is pretty hard to imagine them bumbling into that degree to where they don't even have a shot in the postseason. But you know, I mean, there's a few weeks say, Oh, well, they have these guys coming back. They have these guys that we are certain have this level. There's these guys that there's no way they could perform like this. The Yankees roster is faster. He's in Dodgers both, right? When the top end is so good and the bottom is so bad. It's just like, how am I supposed to evaluate? How am I going to tip the scales? You know, when you, when you see the great, the unbelievable highs and the very, very troubling lows, Jordan has always appreciated. Have a great weekend. We'll talk to you again, probably around the all star break. It's just coming upon us very quickly. Yes, indeed. Thank you guys. Always fun. Jordan Schusterman, Sespa, this family barbecue, our weekly conversation brought to you by our friends at grand old barbecue, Flynn Springs, North Park at the ballpark when the Padres return and hopefully in studio some Friday soon, where we can indulge in meats upon meats upon meats. Yeah, maybe during Ben and Woods summer break. Just eat barbecue and summer break. Go hand in hand. That's perfect. Yeah. I want to talk some pitching match ups, not just for this series, but what are the Padres going to do going forward, especially with all of these new found off days that they have to play with between now and the all star break. Does that change anything for you? We'll talk about that coming up. Let's check traffic, be right back with more Ben and Woods on San Diego's number one sports station, 97 three, the fan. Wouldn't you know when the Padres finally seem to solve some of their woes against left handed starting pitching three straight wins against the nationals, all with lefty starters, actually scored some runs against the lefty starters the last couple of days of the series. At the moment, they're not scheduled to face a single lefty, I believe in this entire road trip. All righties now for the Boston Red Sox and the Texas Rangers. Begins tonight with the first game of the road trip and the series at Fenway Park, 410 p.m. start, 310 eco water so Cal pregame show, Randy Vasquez on the mound against Nick Pavetta in game one of the series tomorrow is a 110 San Diego start with Michael King against, I believe it's Tanner. How? How? And then on the Sunday morning series finale 10 35 a.m. first pitch, it's Josh Winkowski against Matt Waldron. Then the Padres will go to Texas where Nathan Yovaldi, John Gray and Max Scherzer are scheduled to be the starting pitchers for the three games of that series. Now, because of the off day yesterday and then another one on Monday, nice little bookend off days around this series against the Boston Red Sox. Mike Schiltt and Ruben Eabler could get creative with their starting rotation. Dylan Sees always do that. I did. I did and they didn't they didn't do anything about it last time. They just they just went. They don't listen to me this time. But the last time they were admittedly, they were in a stretch of 26 games in 27 days. They had the one off day. They didn't want to do anything with that off day. Dylan Sees, if you wanted to move him up to Tuesday, his next turn in the rotation technically doesn't come until Wednesday, middle game in Texas. But if you wanted to move him up to Tuesday to start the Ranger series, he'd still have an extra day of rest. Wednesday, normally you get four days rest. That would be Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, you'd pitch Monday and they're off on Monday. You could pitch him on Tuesday on an extra day rest, but still a day earlier than he normally would. At that point then, you know, Randy Vasquez could pitch the next day on normal rest and Michael King could pitch the road trip finale on normal rest because of the Monday off day. If you wanted to go in that direction and you know, skip at a major, if if you Darvish is not ready to come back to the rotation, I understand the Padres did win and Madam Major got the win his last timeout. Still had the forerunning that he gave up, still has not shown the ability to miss bats on the big league level yet, did not walk as many guys through more strikes in his last start, making some progress, but it just feels like every time you're throwing them out there, you are making your job a little tougher. Isn't it? Could it be dependent on how some of the other games go? Does that do anything for you? Maybe. Yeah. Yeah. You know, and I think, you know, if you you move Dylan C's around and again, it's still normal rest for him more than normal rest for him. I'm almost hesitant to give him too much rest, and too much rest coming off literally what might have his best start at the season on Washington. Do you really want to make him wait an entire week before he takes the mound again next Wednesday against the Rangers? Let's ask the skipper in 30 minutes. We can. Probably not going to give you an answer. Probably not. But I think it's an interesting question, and I'm glad your mind works this way because mine doesn't. I never think about that like ever. All I'm thinking about is in the chat, when you said Tanner Hawk, everyone said Tanner Hawk Toa. And that's all that I've been thinking about since you started talking. Right. Tanner Hawk Toa. He's going in game two of the series is going to the San Diego Padres to Hawk Hawk Toa of the series. Most master asked if we should if we would ask the skipper about Hawk Toa, I'm going to pass on that. Probably going to pass. Say Skip. Have you seen the Hawk Toa girl? Now eventually the Padres do have from Tuesday in a row. So you'd eventually need at some point by next Saturday, a fifth starter, if it's Adam Major or maybe it's you Darvish and maybe it's you Darvish. I don't know exactly what his status is. Feels like he's going to now need another rehab start at some point, at least, even if imaging was good, they said on you Darvish's elbow, which is what caused him to not get activated from the injured list when he was supposed to last Tuesday. Could he be back? Maybe. Maybe by next, you know, Saturday would be when they would need July 6th. And then again, they have another off day on that Monday, July 8th. They have another off day on Thursday, July 11th around just a two game series against the Seattle Mariners. So you could at that point then get to the rest of the last five games of the season without needing to use a fifth starter again. Okay, that works for me. You've got one more start. If you play it right, you could get to the all-star break, which is one more fifth starter. If you want to keep on your rotation, though, then you'll probably need to maybe even a third turn in the rotation for Adam Major. I'm just saying, can we avoid three starts for Adam Major between now and the all-star break? I think the answer is yes, you can with the off days. I like to. I like that. I like how that your mind works that way, because I don't even think that's why we work. But then again, doesn't seem like the teams do either. They're probably itching to get Dylan Cease an extra couple of days of rest here. Right. You get everybody a little extra rest after that long stretch. And when we ask him, he's going to go, no, no, we can't. We're not going to do that. I mean, we should be giving them more rest, not less rest, especially at this stage of the season. I think you still ask him. Do you even watch baseball, cause? Yeah. Hey, you know anything about this? Tim says Ben hates measure. Yeah, Ben does not want to see measure on the bump. I don't. Okay. Kind of I kind of do. And it's not personal. I hate seeing him pitch. I really, I do hate seeing him pitch right now. It's not a, not a comfortable. It's not a, it's not a personal thing. It's a more, I don't like the feelings inside of me when he's on the mound. It's fair. Doesn't throw enough strikes. I think if Mike Shilt was under some truth serum, who there there isn't it. There's a good bit. There is a spicy interview. Lie detector Mike Shilt, even he has to feel a little uncomfortable when measures on the mound. He hates walks. So one thing he's actually said, he does not like to see his pitchers walk better. Has he said that? Yes. He said that. Okay. He does. He loves when you get, you get very few walks, a lot of strikeouts, very few walks. I think the most major for that is I'd be surprised if we heard him in a post game. You know, I love the effort. I love the game around the zone. There's around the zone a little bit and then didn't get the call. I get he can tailor comments to fit each situation. He has that skill. That's a good bit. But many times he's, he's focused on the fact, hey, we may have lost by six, but these share guys didn't walk anybody in that game. Yeah. Yeah. I've heard that a few times. We can do a bit where we just ask him about like the worst stuff in the world and see if he could spin. Like, all right, nuclear war, your thoughts. I mean, it's okay. It's, you know, get some of the bad elements out, right? Burn up some of that littering. Yeah. Burn up some litter. Yeah. What are the three wars America did when you're talking about? He's going to murder us. Yeah, we're dead. All right. We've got, we've got a rental report. We'll do it a little bit early since Mike Schultz is going to join us at nine o'clock. So probably going to get headlines. A potentially gnarly story that has surfaced out of the NBA draft. I saw this yesterday. Coming up next. Don't go anywhere. Ben Woods on San Diego's number one sports station, 97 through the fan. A quick little birthday. Shout out 40th birthday. Tier one, Robert. Happy birthday to you, buddy. Your wife Katrina DM me this morning and asked if we could give you a shout out in the eight o'clock hour. I said, sure, eight, 20. And then I forgot. And so now it's eight 40. And which is coincidentally the age you're turning. So I think it worked out perfect for everyone. So happy 40th. Hey, but it's all downhill from here. Once you hit 40, just so you know, you're going to need QC kinetics. You're going to need probably West Coast men's health. You're going to need all kinds of stuff. Hold on. All right. I know we have a round report coming up. When do you feel like it really did start going downhill? The day I turned 40. Yeah. I feel like it was more like 36 or so. Oh, no, I felt I felt really good until the late late 30s. Oh, come on. That was a thrive. I feel better now than I did probably at 36 40. Yeah, it's huge. I have not absolutely huge. But you know, when I was 40. Yeah, I mean, it was like the next morning I woke up. I had some drinks and my Hannah threw me a surprise party. And I had some drinks and I woke up. Surprise party. Yeah. This is before I knew you. Yeah. Yeah, threw me a surprise 40th birthday party. That's really surprised. Yeah. Where was it? Tower 13. Oh, right on the beach. Yeah, right on the beach. It was amazing. Cardiff. It was she she went all out. It was great. A lot of people. Yeah, a lot of people. Like 50. You asked now how did they pull it off? You like thought you're just going to dinner? Yeah, let's get a beer or something. Yeah. Yeah. You weren't even married yet, were you? No, no, we're just dating at the time. So yeah, when I was feeling birthday beer going and then all of a sudden, you get there and everyone else. Surprise. Surprise. Great. I would have liked to have been there. Yeah. Well, I didn't know you. No, I don't. I've been weird to invite me at that point. Now, my 50th, you'll be there. Van Halen will be playing there. Nice. Yeah, hopefully. Which one? I would like to get them all together again. Eddie's not here anymore. He's not with us. So, that's going to be tough. But to get you, Sammy and Dave would be pretty solid, get them up there. Maybe Rat could play my 50th, you know, something something like that. But yeah, you'll be you guys will be there for that one. Fantastic. Just a year and a month of rise? No, I'm if I you don't want it to be a surprise. No, if I plan it myself, I will. Can you imagine it had to pretend there wasn't a woodsy 50th birthday party for like weeks and weeks? I know. No, no, it's we have nothing planned for your 50th birthday. I'm out of town. Yeah. No, what are you doing? Oh, you know, Hannah and I are just going to go have a yeah, we're going to tower 13 again. You know, we went there for my 40th. So we're going to go again. Oh, I didn't hear anything about this. Have fun. Jeffrey says he feels terrible at 36. Yeah, 40 just just crushed me. Can't wait for 50. Now some combination of SD fat loss.com QC kinetics and West Coast may help be good to go fix you right up to your 40s. What's baseball really like? Join former pottery and MLB all star Brett Boone and his big league friends on his podcast, the Boone podcast three days a week, Brett talking with Hall of Famers fellow all-stars, friends and more. Get their take on today's game. Set some big names all season long. The boot caboon podcast in the free Odyssey app or wherever you get your podcast. The caboon pot. Caboon. Caboon. Friday, eight, 43. Caboon is the dynamite. You can you can put it on the board every Friday, eight, 43. That's why we have the round the report scheduled after traffic. That's right. 97. Three of the fam and get things started here with our addition today's edition of the Rindle report. Now tune to the mother. Greatest. Welcome to the Rindle report with Paul Rindle. Hi, Paul. 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? The odds. It's the Rindle report. Hey, Paul. How are you doing? Okay. How are you? On 97. Three, the fan. Are you ready to bless the mood? I need some help, please. That was good. Can I get a whole year? All right. All right. All right. All right. Happy Friday, gentlemen. Start off in major league baseball. It's that time of year where every year you have the conversation is show. How tawny going to be in the home run Derby. Yep. It's only done at once, I think. John Flint was in here about an hour ago. And he said, you know, profile in the all-star game. Is that a good idea? Like, shouldn't he just take the rest and well thought? Yeah, two or three innings. Probably a good idea. Yeah, get him an AB and if he wants to do it, no problems with that. But with the all with the home run Derby, feels like every team is always questioning if they want their guy there. It's going to ruin a swing. Does he need to be there? And so Dave Roberts actually had some comments on this on Wednesday. He was talking with reporters and he said, the one side of it for Otani to be in the home run Derby, it's great for baseball clearly. The other side of it on the manager of the Dodgers side of it, you're trying to be more cautious and appreciating the fact that there's a lot more swings, higher intensity, you know, going through the rehab process with his elbow. You guys expect to see Otani in the home run Derby. I do not. I feel like if you got any legitimate excuse, now players are going to grab onto it and go. I'd love to be there. He wants to be really wants to. Shohei says he wants to. Well, then he can do whatever he wants. Right. He can. Yeah, he can. I don't think the Dodgers can stop him. Says he has feelings of wanting to do it, but he would need approval from his doctors and the trainers. Ultimately, my prediction is it doesn't happen. Yeah, I don't think he will. I don't think he will. I think, you know, when your manager comes out and says that, you know, you do feel the guilt, you know, of, man, you know, got to make sure I'm there for the October collapse. You know, they're going to need me for that collapse. I need to be there. You know, I know you don't feel like I should be there, but I think I'm going to do it anyways and give him the old Adam. I do that. I do that to Adam. Okay, the best. Dave Roberts said he wouldn't want anyone telling him he couldn't do the home run Derby. But I'm pretty sure your lack of power told everybody that anyway. Yeah, stolen base Derby. Yeah, go ahead. I don't think you ever in a consider it's like. Do we have a bias in the in the all-star game against non-power hitters? Like should Louise arise, Louise arise be in the contact Derby? Like just how many pitches in a row can you make contact on off a pitching machine? It's like 105 like ramp it up. Just all you have to do is foul it off contact. Is that boring? I think it's boring. I think that's the problem. Yeah, people don't want to see this. It was 2021 he lost a one soda in the first round. He's he's gone through one one round of the home run Derby in his entire career. All right, moving on. Sometimes the internet can provide one of those stories where you go. This is insane. Yeah, if it's true. If true, I was just going to say that. Yeah, true. I think that's an important qualifier because anybody can make an account on social media and say they're somebody. Yeah, and so you never really know. But no, this was not about Bronnie James. We already talked about that. Kyle Phil Powski from Duke. Now, he's like a seven footer who excelled at Duke. He should have been a first rounder, like maybe even a lottery pick, but he wasn't. In fact, he wasn't even in the first round. He slid to number 32 overall in the second round to the Utah Jazz. And Zach Lowe and Jonathan Giovanni, they host the Zach Lowe podcast or low podcast. I think it is. It's one of the most successful and popular basketball podcasts. And they started digging into the theory that there's a lot going on in Kyle Philopowski's personal life that may have led to him sliding into the second round. They talked to scouts of teams throughout the NBA and said, look, it has nothing to do with his ability on the basketball court. There are concerns about character and his home life and things going on in his personal life. And so there was this this tweet from an account, Daniel Philopowski claiming to be his brother. Yeah, again, we don't know that if this was actually his brother or not. But the story gets really weird when they start talking about how Kyle has cut his family out of his life entirely for years now. He is dating his girlfriend. He's been dating her for a long time. She's six or seven years older than he is. I believe she went to his high school prom. She did. There's a picture of them at prom. She was 23. He was 18. Yeah. This is legal. Legal. Certainly. So the tweet that got all the traction's got 13 million views right now on Twitter says Kyle Philopowski's brother and mom are on here revealing how his girlfriend groomed him into Mormon culture and cut him off from his family. And now he ends up with the Utah Jazz. He got drafted by the Jazz of all teams. Go. You're Mormon? There's screenshots here from Kyle's brother allegedly. I'm Kyle's oldest brother. You all don't have a clue of the extent of the story that has to do with his girlfriend. There's a story that has been pushed under the table for nearly two years. He goes on to say, uh, nobody knows anything about this other than him, the Duke coaching staff and his agent. Um, they can't even get in touch with him anymore. The edge of Lee is like you said, but yeah, they said other than messaging him on Instagram is like the only attempt we can make to even reach out to him and contact him. Yep. And they've been unsuccessful. They do feel he was brainwashed by her and, um, the, the mother, allegedly the mother said you guys are opening a two year issue. She's 28 with an end game three years ago to have a diamond ring on her hand when Kyle left Duke. He was still in high school. Would you let your 18 year old son date a 23 year old woman? He's an adult. He's an adult. Lead or not. That's true. That's true. Like, I think more, what is, what are his teammates going to say about this? Because I bet they have some opinions as well. Which team there's new teammates. Yeah. Yeah. You know, um, you're about to start an NBA pro basketball career is a lot of travel, a lot of people that you're going to meet as an NBA player. Are you sure you're ready to settle down right away and make that choice because it could, it could be something that you look back in regret on or maybe it's, it's the right choice for him. I mean, you know, Aaron Rodgers cut off his family and I mean, you can say didn't hurt his NFL career at all. She used to babysit him as a child, but that's odd. That's weird. Um, they found her, her name's Caitlin Hutchinson. They found her on LinkedIn and according to her LinkedIn profile, she graduated from the University of Alabama in 2018. Kyle didn't even enroll in college at Duke until 2022. Interesting man. It's, it's just really bizarre. And I got to imagine more details will come out on that. But yeah, everyone going, how the hell did he slide to the second round? That's why. And teams are saying that that's why there's a lot going on. And we wanted no part of that. Very interesting. Creepy. Finally. Would you look a little tired over there? A little tired. Have you had your caffeine? Yeah, I did have my caffeine this morning. What'd you have thinking about re upping? I go coffee, coffee, and I mix it with a little collagen protein and some MCT powder that MCT from Bob's. Why Bob's simply the best? Well, if you're looking to switch things up, I've got a new way to get you caffeinated. Okay. Five hour energy. I've had five hour energy. I do. I'm okay. They're adding caffeine to it. What? But you don't have to just drink little, little shot bottles that they have now because they have just debuted a caffeinated barbecue sauce. Delicious. Yeah, remember that picture I put used to post when Tim Hill would pitch of the monster energy ham? This is perfect. With five hour energy barbecue sauce. Yeah, I like to take monster energy ham, make little ham rolls, dip it in the five hour energy barbecue sauce. So have your coffee in the morning. Yeah, you can have your coffee in the morning, but maybe you get a little tired, a little come down in the afternoon. Have some ribs. You get a little hungry sandwich. Yeah, a little caffeinated barbecue sauce. They just unveiled it. It's a new product for the summer. They are giving away 12 ounce bottles through their website. They had a drop yesterday. It sold out very quickly. They're doing three more drops on July 2nd, which is Tuesday, July 9th, and then July 16th. So the next three Tuesdays, there's one flavor, peach mango. I like that. I think that sounds sweet barbecue sauce. Yeah. And each serving is 60 milligrams of caffeine, which is about as much as a weak cup of coffee. The average cup has 95, so. It's a light boost. It's like a like a caffeinated soda, basically. Yeah, bump, bump, a barbecue stuff. Yeah, just a little. Yeah. Seems completely unnecessary. It does. To have a product. Maybe we can throw some of that on a granular barbecue at summer break, caffeinated barbecue sauce. See, he can get a bottle falling. I'd like to get him. I'd like to get him zooted on five hour energy. Coffee so we're. Let's try to remember on Tuesday to apply for the drop. Okay. Yeah, we have to apply to do it. You just go on their website and sign up if they're available. Do it. And we'll see if we can get some for summer break. You guys remember summer summer breaks right around the corner, Ben and Wood summer break. During the all-star break, there's nothing going on. So we we give up all of our guests, all our baseball guests. It's their break as well. Jesse Agler, Adam Jones, Sammy, you know, we just take the week off. Just party in here. I think Friday, we got back to normal. Yeah. Because potters have a game that day. Yeah, we just party for a few days. Monday through Thursday, it's going to get weird. It gets really weird. Ben, I hate it so much. Now, I'm sure it's probably not going to happen, but I feel like we should go on a field trip for one of those days. I'd be down with that. Because summer camp usually involves one of the days you go on a field trip to a water park or something like that. Do a remote broadcast? Yes. I'd be down. Somewhere like summer fun in the morning. Can we just do it at the beach, you think? We got Wi-Fi? A beat? Why not? Yeah, I guess we could. You know what I thought would be really awesome. And I think you can get Wi-Fi because it doesn't go that high up. Hot air balloon. Radio chills. Absolutely not. From a hot air balloon. What is it? Bad idea. Bad idea. You don't like that idea? No. Not a chance. Four hours in the hot air balloon. You can do it. All right, I'll do it. We'll get you a little webcam. No. No, don't join me. We just have this conversation. Mike Schilt is coming up next on The Fan. It is a Friar Friday here on 97-3 The Fan. The pod raise and the Boston Red Sox come in your way at 4-10 this afternoon with a 3-10 eco-water SoCal pregame show. And as we do each and every Friday at 9 a.m. it is time for our manager's report with Mike Schilt brought to you by San Diego County Credit Union. It's not Big Bank banking. It's better and joining us from Boston, Massachusetts, the manager of the pod raise Mike Schilt. And Mike, I just have to say this last week was very impressive for your team to deal with the setbacks of injuries at the end of a long-stretched games with almost no days off to play like you did through those last two series, especially against the Washington Nationals. I know you tip your cap occasionally. I'm going to tip my cap to you and the San Diego pod raise sir. What a nice week that was. Yeah, it was a good week. Guys played well and contributions throughout and it was a really good week and now we build on it and move on. You know, he's just buttering you up, Skip, because I was going to ask you how close is the nearest Chipotle to your hotel? Oh man, you guys are staying with the team. I actually did not get Chipotle. I got five guys. So I'm going to really help the chart. Oh, all right guys, good. It's pricey, but you know, you're major league manager. You haven't heard per diem. I'm assuming that's that's pretty good. No, you know what? The first thing I thought of that series, obviously, was it like it was electric. It was wild. It was like a baseball fan's dream. I mean, it really was. It had everything. But when I saw you get ejected the other day, the first thing I thought of was, all right, John boy, I want to see this ejection on the next the next time I open Twitter because that was pretty electric, Skip. Yeah, I mean, I mean, it was a lot in that series, obviously a lot done back. So much, you know, the whole homestand was was pretty special. I create a lot of memories of Pekko and and but yeah, man, that was there was a lot going on that ejection was in my world with, you know, unnecessary relative to the situation. But anyway, made my point 100% and I did want to ask you after the game, you know, they after, you know, cooler heads prevailed and everything, you know, you had said, I don't necessarily think it was intentional in that case. And I mean, listen, I don't know it from Adam. I thought immediately as a fan was, oh, yeah, he did that on purpose. What did you see or based on, you know, your experience? What made you think it wasn't intentional from Mackenzie Gore? Not that it matters now, but I just kind of like to think that I don't know. I mean, you know, I like to get people to benefit a doubt. I watched his reaction. I mean, you can paint a reaction, you know, I get that part. You know, like I said, I'm Mackenzie. I kind of know him when he was with us and have a lot of respect for him. And, you know, actually knows, got to know his parents a little bit. We're both living the same part of the world at Eastern North Carolina. So, you know, I just, after everything, they, whatever point they feel like they needed to make, which, again, don't want to overly revisit it, didn't particularly understand it. But, you know, I got my own club to think about. They made, you know, their catcher made it. And, you know, we clearly exchanged words and people came out and, you know, did the dance. And, at that point, in my role, it's over. Now, whether he's still after all that, decided to hit him. Only he and maybe a couple of people in that club really, really know. But, you know, I'd hate to think that was the case, but I could get people to benefit a doubt. But either way, intentional, unintentional, he's got to go. And somehow, after all that, in the morning, good, you know, issued, somehow he gets hit and he gets to stay in the game. And I got to go. I mean, a hundred percent. We ever came. It's not just you can't throw at him intentionally. It's like, you better, you better make sure you don't hit him. Whatever you do. And if you do, you are now responsible for whatever happens. I totally agree, Mike. Mike shoulders with us here on 97 three, the fan. I've got a question and I don't know, as a manager, when you guys get, you know, bad news about, you know, Tetis and the stress reaction and you Darvish not going to be able to come back, how do you address that with your team? I know you got pros and they're used to dealing with injuries and stuff like that. But how do you not let that become a, Oh, here we go again. Like, Oh, that's more bad news. We got to deal with. What do you do as a manager when those things come up during a season? I mean, they come up. I mean, I don't, you know, I think the public, at least for me, there's not like these key meetings, but yeah, you know, they're just, they're just not. I mean, you know, we've been in the game a long time. Unfortunately, you know, injuries happen. Like I said, you know, losing potty and Joe and Bogey and and you and some of the gang, Manny at certain times, you know, it's disappointing. It's a challenge, but you know, that's ultimately what this game is about, how you respond to challenges and, you know, want to support those guys. But, you know, really, you just, you continue to figure out a way to compete with with the group that you have. And everybody is locked in to, you know, making sure they make a ready to contribute. And of course, some roles change and people get opportunities. And that's what this game's about. And about season the opportunity. No question. And one of the guys that has done that talking to Mike Shilter on Ben & Woods this morning, one of the guys has done that is Kyle Higashioka. What a, what a joy it's been to watch him play. I know he had a tough situation thrust upon him when he got here, took him a little while to get going and get some A.B.s, you know, because campy was in there and he was catching Waldron and wasn't getting a lot of opportunity. Talk about a guy that's made the most of his opportunities right now. And, and you'd never know if he went 0 for 4 or, you know, 3 for 4 with two home runs and 6 RBI just, he's just a very even keeled guy. How much does that help, you know, your pitching staff when he's working with them? Well, I've done that. So we're going to start just, just with Kyle, like how, how, you know, him seizing the opportunity, his kind of temperament too in the clubhouse and what he's like as a, as a member of the San Diego Padres. Yeah, he's been a great addition, you know, got a lot of great feedback from New York people, people in the N.S. you have known, people have played with him about just, you know, just quality a guy is a starting point and then clearly a good player and what his skill sets are. And, you know, he's really, you know, stepped up, done a nice job for us. He's a really stoic guy, a really smart guy, got a, got a good IQ on, got a good way about him, got a good sense of humor with, with how he goes about things. Just a really, really, really good guy in the clubhouse, but also clearly a good player, you know, and he, he stayed patient, you know, he got his opportunities early on, not as many as, as maybe he would have liked. And, you know, it can't be being looking to be our everyday catcher and giving him those opportunities to prove his way, you know, in the big leagues and stabbing himself with that guy. And then, you know, over the course of time, you know, started to create a little bit more opportunities for him, which he's done more than earned. And, of course, with Higgie going on, our kid be going on the IL, you know, creates even more for him and he's just done a nice job and clearly some really big hits for us. He feels like one of those guys as a manager, you know, that you don't, you know, I like, he's good, like your attention. Don't need to worry about it. Yeah, like, you don't have to go like, I don't know, that's just, that's just my perception of, you know, we've interviewed him a couple times and great dude, but he just feels like one of those guys as a skipper, you don't have to constantly, you're good, everything okay, yeah, yeah, low, low heartbeat and just kind of walk by, hey, hey, hey, hey, skimp and, you know, he's in the lineup and doing his job. Yeah, no, you're great. I mean, we got a lot of guys like that. I mean, we got a really a pretty professional clubhouse that, you know, we just are able to communicate with. And, you know, I spend a lot of time with our catchers, you know, with, with our pitching coaches and, and Brian Asizito, as I'm catching and helps me during the game. So we have a lot of communication and, and I, I've enjoyed the communication with, with campy and Higgy and now slowly about, you know, how we're, how we're leading our staff and how we're seeing the game. It's good to see a Aggie back, Aggie Rosario. Obviously, there was some talk. He's got a great arm, but he's an infielder by trade and, and with, with toddy out, you might need some spots in the outfield. They said, you know, might, might work on that. What does that look like though? I mean, most of the time you get to the big leagues, you, you kind of know how to play a position. What kind of instruction goes on to maybe get a guy ready to play out of position, so to speak, if you want to get his bat into the lineup, especially against lefties where he really does some good damage. Yeah, he swings about good against lefties at a big, big swing the other day, you know, to get, get anything started, you know, start off with two running, double up the wall against the left, he does really well against lefties. So, you know, we're just trying to be creative with what that looks like, where that back and play, there's always a balancing act between the offense and defense, at least for me, you know, defensive run save, or just the ones, important ones to drive in, but, you know, always want to try to get to that in the lineup to do some damage appropriately, you know, perhaps an opportunity for him in the outfield. He's never, when I say never, never to play outfield. But, you know, Jackson Hatton will show, you know, but it's a, it's a hard place to just pick up and learn, you know, he's getting some work with them to see his outfield coach and see what that looks like. And, you know, we'll, we'll see if there's an opportunity to present himself to get them out there. Talking to the skipper, Mike Schilter on Ben & Woods this morning. And, boy, you guys haven't had any trouble closing out games when Robert Suarez comes in to, you know, throw six, nine fastballs by guys and, you know, call it a day, but closing out some of the other games, been a little bit of a challenge, Skip, the eight nothing that turned into eight, five, the other day, had to make your little bit of hair turn gray for you. You know, well, how do you, how do you get a little bit of hair? Yeah, you got a little bit of hair, right? And the hair that's remaining turns gray. I thought I got pretty good hair. Actually, what a little bit of hair. It's not great hair, but it's not a little bit. So, so for you, when that happens, I mean, it's, it gets, it's an empty feeling. Certainly, you want Cosgrove to be able to just get through that and not have to get Suarez up. Just, would you tell us a little bit about what, what kind of you're going through with that? It's happened just a couple of times. I know it happens to all teams, but certainly got to be a little bit frustrating. Yeah, I'm not sure what you really want me to say. I mean, I really don't. I mean, you know, I don't know how to answer the question. So, throw strikes to get electrocuted. I think it's funny. Right. Right. Right. You know, yeah, I think so, man. I know. Um, got, you know, the, the ninth inning, you know, severe challenge. You get the last three outs. And, um, the easiest thing in the world, like when people say, oh my gosh, you know, you get a four on a lead. Don't use your closer. Right. And then you got to use your closer or you give it up. You know, it's like, um, you know, so couldn't get it done. They had some of that. You know, the, the lead off walkers didn't help the call. They had two, three and I was to the right side. Um, and I don't know. I mean, I prefer talking about dating, which we think didn't have been wrong. Absolutely. Well, you know, that's just part of it, man. You know, sometimes it's less of your heart to get. We had it in Kansas City. We've had it. Um, you know, we're in a season, you know, with six nothing to leave. Um, but we ended up having to use Robert and, you know, like I said, it's just, um, people can say what they want about the last three outs. But, uh, you know, it's an acquired taste of people to learn to get them. That's the other point to the conversation. You got to learn it. And, uh, let's learn a curve in the night that people don't want to really want to deal with with the lead. Um, and so, but if you, if you don't give those guys this opportunity, they don't learn from them. So it's the, uh, you know, that's one thing to say you crushed that answer. You knew how to answer that question. You know what he's crushed also, Mike, you've always explained how you manage real people in the real world that are, you know, not always feeling a hundred percent or tired. You know, it's a long season. There's not a lot of days off. As fans, I, especially me, I'm a radio host, I manage on paper, you know, in my mind, and I look at the off days coming up. You had one yesterday, you got one Monday, you got two more next week. And I look, well, maybe you could, you know, get Dylan Sees out there. He's pitching so well and move him up a day. How, how do you look at that in that equation? Is there like no thought, like, I don't want to move him up. I want to give him those extra days offer. Is that something you might look at here before the all-star break with now the extra off days that you've got coming up? Yeah, I mean, we'd be responsible not to look at it, right? Yeah. So we, we do. Me and Reuben look at it. We partner with AJ in the front office and we also talk to our, to our players and it's not a, you know, it's not in the vacuum. It's, yeah, what can be best for Dylan Sees is X. What could be best for Michael King is Y. What's best for Matt Waldron is, is Z. You know, best guess it's Maser, et cetera. And so, you know, individually, you can say, yeah, we could do this with Dylan. Oh, but has that impact Michael and has that impact Matt and what do we got on Adam and, and Randy? So, um, we, you know, we put it all together and figure out, you know, the balancing act of making sure that, you know, the competition is taken care of, the rest is taken care of. And then, of course, the short-term versus the long-term of, of what that can look like. And, and we do our best we can to balance all that. And we've had some, you know, like I say, conversation with them and, and some internal conversations. And then we, we put the best play that we can lay out there together with all the various. Mike, I really appreciate it. Before you go, any, any updates on, on you, Darvish, I know we saw Xander Bogart's taking some batting practice before you guys went on the road trip. Just kind of overall general health updates on your team. Yeah. So, you know, it looks like Darvish, the imaging is negative so it's positive. Nothing overly alarming with that. I do think he was going to seek another image, which is pretty standard. You know, and then it's just a matter of getting information out, which is the biggest culprit it feels like right now. Well, it's taking place in the Zobo, getting it out and getting to where you can play catch and recover. You know, it's a longer days away. You know, longer it's kind of, you know, longer. You can't throw. The longer it's going to be for him to get back. So, no real, you know, great time on there. Bogart's training in a really good place, going to have another stand through. And the CT scan that I'll determine how much further he's healed, the most recently was favorable. It looks like he's a little bit ahead at a schedule, but the next will be the one that allows us to determine with him how much he can ramp up. But the good news is, you know, he's taking ground ball, he's taking some swings, and then I guess they rail to the next will be how much the ball you can take to where you can start to get some live at bats and potentially rehab and get back, you know, working with us. So, good news on that, Brody. He's with us. Obviously, he's returned to Boston. So, I'm sure that'll be bittersweet for him. But I know this organization is going to be something to reward his, his really productive time here. Horizon back from his ouchy. We're determining that. Tournament now, okay. And I have fun managing at Fenway Park. I mean, that's got to be kind of special for anybody. Anybody gets to go in there. It's a, it's a temple of baseball history. Oh, it's amazing. Yeah. I love coming here. And I'm right here in the dugout right now. Looking at this beautiful field. Awesome. I like this good. Very blessed. All right. Well, have a good one. Good series. And I keep up the good work. As we said, very impressive week. And we'll talk to you actually two weeks. You get next Friday off with the 4th of July holiday. So, we'll talk to you in a couple of weeks. Skip. Oh, you guys aren't working? No, we're not working. Yeah, we're taking a four-day weekend, of course. Like, you know, we're not being full-fledged. This way. And you guys, country club. Okay. All right. Well, I'll see you next month. See you next month. I'll start break. There we go. Sounds good. Mike Shelton, manager of the San Diego Padres. Absolutely right. Yeah, we are not. We are lazy. Yeah. Got one. Got one. I don't get, I don't get those days off. Just you guys, huh? You take the extra long weekends? Yep. I guess he's volunteering to do summer break with us then, when he's on his break. Oh, we'll be on. That's right. All right, we could turn this around. Yeah. All you're taking an entire all-star break on. Really? What? One year? We took three years. You're taking four. Wow. You guys aren't playing. All right, we'll throw that back at him. Oh, yes. We're talking about Friday. All-star breaks coming up. You know who's working, right? We are. That would be us. We should have him in. That would be awesome. And we're run down. Five-thirty. Five-thirty. See you here. Yeah. Liners to read. Just the whole shooting match for Mike Schultz. That'd be so much fun. So much fun. Now he's great. He's great. He gets so mad. No, yeah. What do you want? I love me. I love me. How do you want me to answer? Well, I think you just knocked it out of the park. He had a great answer. He does. It's great. It's his way of saying that's not a well-worded question. I know. I know. I know. I know. All right, we'll come back. We'll react to what you just heard. We got a couple of segments left for this week. Looking forward to the weekend. Of course, it's better woods. We'll check traffic here on 97-3 the fan. Famous still day in the chat says it feels like beef between woods and the skipper. Do you get the sense that there's beef? I think he hates me. I like him. No, no. Yes, actually. Yes, there is. He's not beef. I think you annoy him. Yeah, beef means like two going back to four. I love him. You love him. I love him. He just hates you. Yeah, that's not beef. That's not beef. Right. Yeah, of course. Hey, Mike, you hate me? Yeah. Yeah. I thought so. He's honest. I'm honest too. He's not that honest though. He was holding out on us. He was holding out on us because apparently the Padres will be making a roster move today. And they all already made another one earlier today. First one as reported by Kevin AC. Padres will have a new left-hander in their bullpen today. Austin Davis, who's appeared in 136 MLB games for four teams, will come up after a strong showing in AAA as El Paso's closer recently has allowed four runs in his past 20 innings pitched. Corresponding move yet to be announced wouldn't feel great if I was Tom Cosgrove. In fact, I might not even be with the team if I was Tom Cosgrove right now. You know, he came up after doing a good job at AAA that that ninth inning though, is not what the Padres need. They need someone who can spare the rest of the bullpen, not force them to get Adrian Morihone and Robert Suarez up and active in the ninth inning when he got an eight run lead. I could be wrong. It could be someone else. It could be an injury. Don't know. And then what, what did you just told me? Old friend alerts. Yeah, I was scrolling Instagram and I saw a picture of Nabil Prismat in a San Diego Padres uniform and I went, oh, he's, you know, relive. Hey, throwback Friday, flashback Friday when I was on the Padres. And no, it says, I'm very happy to announce I'm back with the San Diego Padres, looking forward to this new chapter. See you all soon. Interesting. Major league, minor league, don't know. Padres faced him earlier this year when he hooked on with the LA Dodgers. Hadn't really been keeping up with Nabil's status, but got released by them, went to Texas. Yeah, he's, he was just released by Texas like three days ago. Looking for a home again, man, looking for a, you know, place that he can get some opportunity to pitch. He's Nabil Prismat. Well liked very well. I am a Padres clubhouse. There's no doubt about that. Bringing back all the vibes, guys. Who's next? Jorge Alfaro. Jorge Alfaro. I don't know what the hell happened with him and Bob Melvin at the end of the 2022. Yeah, something. But the vibes were strong leading up to the playoffs. So it's a four, 10 first pitch, which means lineups probably around one o'clock this afternoon, probably roster announcements around the same time. Now we know Mike Schultz already there in the dugout, he said at Fenway Park, getting some early soaking in the history of the green monster and such early in the day. They always have early meetings for the series opener. You know, you got your hitters and pitchers meetings to go over matchups and who they're going to be facing throughout the series. Like one of the main things this team needs is a mop up guy and nobody's really snagged that job. Collec didn't do it. Cosgrove didn't do it. Now Collec has been pitching well. No, no, no, in mop up. Yeah, right. Yeah, he's actually went. He's better when they actually put him in higher level. She's been better. Yeah, good point. So Nabil Prismat, welcome to mop up duty. He's probably not joining the majorly roster bet. I would imagine. But we'll see. We'll see what happens with Nabil, but he has posted on his Instagram that he is in fact back with the San Diego Padres. We don't know what level we don't know what it I mean, you know, he's kind of the pitching version of Jurikton profile, always comes back home after struggling elsewhere. He's back home again. What if he really is the pitching version of Jurikton profile and he shows up all of a sudden, Nabil Prismat rolls off like 42 consecutive scoreless innings or something. That would be Jurikson like on the mound this year. Very interesting. That seems overly optimistic. It does. But stranger things have happened. I'm curious to see who's going to be starting out. You could tell from Mike Schilt's answer that he's not ready to be comfortable with eggy Rosario out in right field. Correct. And there's no lefties in the correct, you know, in the hopper for the opposing pitchers. So they have some maybe some time. I would imagine eggy will mostly serve as a pinch hitter for now against left handed relievers on this road trip. Uh, if he does get an opportunity, but wouldn't expect him in the Sarah Lee, then again, Bryce Johnson every single day can't really be the answer either as you're just tell until Ted teases back. We got Bryce Johnson. He's going to be out there every day. You got to find something a little bit more promising than that. I bet you see David Peralta in there tonight, you know, get some of the lefties in there. You know, they love match ups and what not. I'm okay with Tyler Wade out there. Good things seem to happen when Tyler Wade's in the game. Crazy. Right. Crazy. What a role he's found on this. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Good player. If you missed it, good role player. Early this morning, we got to do a mid season catch up and chat with our good friend Major Garrett from Washington, D.C. Padre is a fan extraordinaire and chief Washington correspondent for CBS news. Uh, we thought it was good enough that we would bring it back here in our final segment of the week, our conversation with Major Garrett coming up next here on San Diego's number one sports station, 97 through the fan birthday boy at the station today. It's funny that you knew you remembered his birthday, but you didn't remember mine last time. That's true. Hmm. And you put it that and you're not even you're not even his cohost. And he's only he's only worked here for the last few months. Yeah. Now he came on our show every Friday for several years. Right. So, you know, I'll give you some credit for that. Just came up on social media. Yeah, I did. I did. Happy birthday to Craig Elston of the Annie and Elston show that's following us right here on 97 through the fan. Still can't get over the fact that we forgot his birthday. Not. I'm just not going to put it on me exclusively me and we totally bricked and all the cheer ones and my family and family. It's probably my fault. Right. Your family forget. No, they forgot to tell you. They forgot to tell me. Yeah. I didn't forget my birthday, but they forgot to tell you about my birthday. Yeah. Yeah. And I was actually my the greatest gift I ever received was you forgetting about my birthday. Yeah, because you have that to Lord over for the best present I could have gotten something to Lord over Woods moving forward. You can literally anytime you want to be like, Hey, you remember that time that you forgot my birthday? That really hurts. It always feels like a birthday present when we get some time with Major Garrett. Oh, it's always an enjoyable Padres conversation. We had that opportunity this morning despite every busy thing going on in Washington right now. Washington CBS News Chief correspondent Major Garrett with Ben and Woods will bring you that conversation right after traffic here on 97 through the fan. All right. And joining us now live from DC. Our pal one of the biggest, if not the biggest Padres fan. We know Major Garrett. Good morning, my friend. Good morning. How is everybody? Man, we are good. We are good. Just, you know, needed the night off last night. It's been a whirlwind around Petco Park the last last few actually last few weeks. I'm just laughing. You guys had a night off. I didn't have a night off. No, last night was not a night off for you. Last. I told the guys earlier, I said, I watched five minutes and then I went and I watched Silence of the Lambs and felt I felt a little bit better about the future of our country. Exactly. Full metal jacket. Yeah, full metal jacket. Exactly. Exactly. How are you, friend? I'm good. I'm good. You know, look, I and I think probably where a lot of your audience is, I'm excited about where this team is. I mean, if you'd asked me at the beginning of the season, you don't have Darvish for most of the first half. You don't have Musgrove. You don't have Bogarts and you've got 44 wins. Same as the Braves. Only two teams have more wins than the Padres, the Phillies and the Dodgers. Would you take that? Yeah. And I would say, yes. Good perspective. Not to mention, not to mention dramatically better performance with runners in scoring position, dramatically better performance in close games, dramatically better performance in extra any games, leading the major leagues in bunt base hits. Not a statistic we typically celebrate, but one that's important about how you put pressure on another team. I like where we are. I really do. Good morning, Major. It is good to talk to you as always. Mike, my question to you is, has Mike Schilt been what you've expected he was going to be as the Padres manager? Better. Better. I fully expected that he would be rigorous on preparation process and team unity. And he has been. What I have been very surprised on the upside with is not only his ability to put that in the clubhouse, translate that from the clubhouse to the field and then talk to the Padre public about why it's working and not to freak out when you feel like freaking out because all of us are traumatized by the memories of last year. I know Bob Melvin is a very respected and accomplished manager. I don't want to take anything away from him, but Schilt has a more positive and more direct explanation for what he's doing, why he believes it will work, and why he's not going to be deterred. And for a fan base, I think that's super important. It's not only important for the fan base, it's important for the players to know that the manager has their back and will talk to the public about what's going on in a way that supports them, reinforces them, and is credible. And I think Schilt is very good at all of those things. You know, and it's funny talking to Major Garrett here, I try. We have him on every Friday and I try to get him to settle. I'm not asking him to be negative or throw one of his guys under the bus, but I will try to get him to say just, yeah, we could improve in that area. He won't do it and anything critical. Anything critical. And I do understand the reasoning behind it. And I think pottery fans, a lot of them do as well. You've seen this clubhouse, you know, splinter the last couple of seasons. You've seen, you've seen, you know, the, the, like everything fall apart and they go off a cliff. I kind of understand the reasoning of, nope, not going to do it. I'm going to, I'm going to pat these guys on the butt. I'm going to pat them on the back, especially in public. We don't know what's going on behind closed doors, certainly. We're not privy to that. And he's not going to share it. And Manny won't share it. And Jerksen won't share it. They, they're really tight-lipped this year. That's one thing I have noticed. There's, you don't, you're not hearing any whispers coming out of, uh oh, a lot of, uh, you know, this guy's mad at this guy. I find that it's quite the opposite. Quite the opposite, but I thought Jerksen Profar gave a very important interview to Kevin AC last week before the pottery got on their good run. And he said the team needs to play better. The team needs to have more leadership and execute better and win winnable games. Profar said that as an emerging team leader. He wouldn't have said it if he didn't believe that Manny would back him up on that. And Mike Schilt was okay with that. It's better when the players give that kind of interview, particularly a all-star caliber player as Jerksen Profar undoubtedly is this season. Having him say it and having no one in the clubhouse, refute it, or talk behind his back, or anyone go to Schilt and say what do you think about that? It all felt consistent, even though it was at the margins critical of how the Padres came off that road trip deservedly so. That's another dynamic that I think is important and reinforces that this team for whatever set of reasons and a lot of it comes to the manager, a lot of it flows to the players is a much more coherent unit, much more collaborative unit, and look, success reinforces that. You get walk off wins, you suddenly feel things are possible. You watch other teams walk you off, you start wondering if anything is possible. We've turned the corner on that. Major, we also all tended to agree that Manny had a big leadership moment when he stepped in with Jerksen, you know, behind home plate with Keebert Ruiz. And I don't know if there's any talk of the other side of this. People are curious, you know, in Washington, D.C. You've got a bunch of things going on probably other than listening to Sports Talk Radio or commentary on what happened this week. But it felt like a perhaps at least a defining moment for this club house and for Manny Machado in particular as well. What happened against the Washington Nationals earlier this week? So Nat's fans and I sort of dip in and out of that world. I'm a nominal Nat's fans because my kids grew up here in D.C. and I've read them. I said, you have a hometown team. It's a great thing in life. It's to be able to root for your hometown baseball team. I'm raising you as pottery fans. I'm now releasing you. We didn't have a ceremony, but I kind of communicated that to them, you know. So I dip in and out of the net. Nat's fans are not big on Keebert Ruiz. They don't think it's a strong defensive catch or offensive. He's kind of awash and they thought he stepped way out of his lane. And I for one do not understand, do not understand how an umpire in the major leagues can watch a player touch another player at home plate and not bring throw him out immediately. You cannot do that. Under any circumstance, you cannot take your mask off, get another player's face and start poking him in the chest. Why is he still in the game? And that's why Manny came up because he saw Jerkson was doing the thing he told everyone afterwards. I'm not going to get thrown out of this game. I'm not going to lose my cool, but Manny came in and said, hey, you can't touch my guy. And then he get then profile gets hit and everyone, oh, is it intentional or not? He got hit. You gave warnings. Something should have happened. And then you run shilt. So then Manny is right in this moment, this moment where everyone is really pissed off. Everyone is pissed off. And that's game. I'm freaking angry at home 3000 miles away. First pitch in the seats. Take that and fill in your own expletive. Okay. Speaking of expletives, what Jackson Merrill said about it after was that's how you effing lead. I'm not I'm not saying he had hit Homer, but right there off the bell, effing first pitch ready to go. That's how you effing lead right there. That's effing electric. I love this kid too. I love this kid. You know, you hear when Manny was slumping, when Manny was slumping a couple of weeks ago, all you heard was, oh, he's a terrible leader, terrible leader, terrible leader. And I'm like, man, he's clearly rubbed off on Jackson Merrill. He's clearly hitting the ball better. Maybe he's feeling better. We all kind of knew I kind of knew it's going to come. You know, he's got it in him. And I think the power is still going to come for Manny hopefully this weekend. But I thought that was I was really special, man. The the young it was it was by far the most electric moment of the season. I hope there are moments that will come close to that. But I don't think anything can surpass that in that moment. And look, Major League Baseball lives and dies on the margins of centimeters. A month ago, Manny gets that same pitch and fouls it back. He's just off a tick that night. He was dialed in, saw it, hit it. And that shows that his work, his progress is getting him closer to the player that all Padres fans remember and want to see again. So Major, now is the calendar switches to July. The trade deadline is coming up in a few weeks. And the Padres like most teams right now are going to be in the market for some help. They're not going to be able to afford everything though. Starting pitching would be nice. Another bullpen arm would be nice. And with Tetis out, you know, for an extended period of time. Another bat would be nice. Assuming they can't do all of that. Where's your priority lie as a Padres fan? Look, I, I am stung. I have been stung the past two years by outside expectations about the players we bring in changing things. And we have to look at Jackson Merrill and take pride in our player development. He's ours. We developed him. He's a star already a star. Remember that. Not only is he a star, he's cheap. Okay. We developed him. That's what you get. You don't have to give anything up. You have to pay a huge free market ransom for a player like that. I don't want to say stand pat because that's not what AJ Preller is going to do. But I don't want any of our remaining top prospects traded. I just don't. I want them to stay in the pipeline. I want them to believe in their process of player development and harvest them as we did Jackson Merrill. Watching CJ Abrams reminded me of what a great player he is, how much this roster would be different. And let's be honest, when Bogart and Tatisse and Musgrove and Darvish come back as we all hope they will, that'll be like making a trade. Yeah, we hope. I mean, you know, I feel like I've delivered that line to our audience many times as well over the last couple of years. And, and you know, they bought on the margins last year. That didn't work out. I thought Scott Barlow was fine. But if you could find a way to grab another Scott Barlow, somebody like that that can sure up, you know, the back end ish of your bullpen. Yeah, I think that's that's okay. But I when you when it comes to Salas and Devries and no, no, no, no, no, I watch, I watch Leo Dallas, the other hit his first home run. We talked about it off the air, pitch up in the zone. Did he hammered this thing and then had the emotion, looked at the dugout like I was like, yeah, oh, that kid is 17 years old, 18 years old. I've watched these Ethan Salas in person. And I thought to myself, no, no, no, we need to be patient with these guys. But honestly, after those two, I'm like, all right, we can we can continue to make moves as long as but everyone's going to ask for those two. I know, I know, I know. And we just got to say, no, it's not happening. Yeah, stand pat. I agree. Yeah, I agree with you 100%. Major really appreciate it. I know you've got a very busy schedule with everything that's going on. But I can tell that our listeners were extremely, extremely enthusiastic to hear from you this morning and appreciate your perspective. As always, it's a great one. And then thank you so much for your time. I'm always here for you guys. Thank you, brother. Love you, man. Talk to you soon. Bye bye. Great stuff with major Garrett. Fun conversation as always. And by the way, we're talking about that national series to set some news during that replay that the nationals are set to promote former Padre prospect. James Wood, he's going to make his major league debut, they say on Monday, which I think is polite that they didn't do it last week and bring him right up and shove him in the Padres face. See, J Abrams is doing well. The Kenzie Gore is doing pretty well. You can't say that the nationals did poorly in the one Soto trade. If they had to trade one Soto, they've done pretty well with the with the pieces they got back. And this will be another, another big addition for them going forward. Yeah, I mean better than we have so far, I think, right? Yeah, you know, so I mean, you know, they turned one. So we made it to the NLCS in the last two years, the trade got to the NLCS and they've turned one so it went to some much needed pitching. Michael King's been been pretty good. We'll see Randy Vasquez tonight. By the way, Randy Vasquez is okay last time is is pitching a little bit better. Johnny burrito is going to be stretched out in the minor lease to get in, you know, into some starting and Kyle Higashyoka is the, you know, hottest catching hitter in all of baseball right now. The number two in OPS and the big leagues or something in the month of June. Yeah, he's been incredible. So what's not like the Padres didn't get anything for one Soto and they also had a year and a half of one Soto that we got to got to enjoy and watch. So sometimes trades work out okay for both teams. I mean, could you undo it and have those guys back? Probably would be the best case scenario, but you can't you move forward and do the best you can with what you had. So that's that's what we know and we'll move forward. So by the way, congratulations. I want to say thank you to the tier ones out there. We had John Flynn and earlier, he was raising money for the service animal for veterans pause for purple hearts and they reached their goal and that I think it is big, big credit. A lot of tier ones responded and they made it to their $35,000 goal to be able to train a service pet for a vet facing PTSD here in San Diego, which is very awesome. How much did you give? I was on their air. You can't, you can't have money on your idea. We were on the air. I think Mike was still on and I was able to make a donation. I gave my time and enthusiasm. And your platform. The most important commodities you can give. What? Hmm. Anyone can just give money. Right. Right. Time, time, enthusiasm, a couple of witty remarks. Yeah. Yeah. My witty remarks aren't free. What's that's true. That's true. They're valuable. They are valuable. I used a couple of them to help John. I think though, what they were trying to raise, though, was money from Bart's face went white when I asked him that big weekend plans. No, I'm gonna try to play some golf. Would you like to play some golf? Perhaps. All right. You know, see what I can do. Sounds good. We will be back for three days next week on the head of the fourth. It's just not a holiday. Precious weekend. It's 6 a.m. Birthday boy and Andy coming up from your house coming up next for Paul Reindel for Stephen Woods. I'm Ben Higgins. Have a great weekend. We'll talk to you Monday morning at 6 a.m. Right here on San Diego's number one sports station 97 3 the fans. So long everybody. We all belong outside. We're drawn to nature. Whether it's the recorded sounds of the ocean we doze off to or the succulents that adorn our homes. Nature makes all of our lives. Well, better. Despite all this, we often go about our busy lives removed from it. But the outdoors is closer than we realize. With all trails, you can discover trails nearby and explore confidently with offline maps and on trail navigation. Download the free app today and make the most of your summer with all trails. 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. 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. 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Tier one Robert. Happy birthday to you buddy. Your wife Katrina DM me this morning and asked if we could give you a shout out in the eight o'clock hour. I said sure eight 20 and then I forgot. And so now it's eight 40 and which is coincidentally the age you're turning. So I think it worked out perfectly for everyone. So happy 40th. Hey, but it's all downhill from here once you hit 40 just so you know you're going to need QC kinetics. You're going to need probably West Coast men's health. You're going to need all kinds of stuff. Hold on. I know we have a round report coming up. When do you feel like it really did start going downhill? The day I turned 40. Yeah, I feel like it was more like 36 or so. Oh no, I felt I felt really good until the late late 30s. Oh, come on. That was right. I feel better now than I did probably a 36 40 pounds huge. I have not absolutely huge. But you know when I was 40, yeah, I mean there's like the next morning I woke I had some drinks and my Hannah threw me a surprise party and I had some drinks and I woke up surprise party. Yeah, this is before I knew you. Yeah. It threw me a surprise 40th birthday party. That's really surprised. Yeah. Where was it? Tower 13. Oh, right on the beach. Yeah, right on the beach. It was amazing. Cardiff. It was she she went all out. It was great. A lot of people. Yeah, a lot of people. Like 50, 56. How did they pull it off? You like thought you're just going to dinner? Yeah, let's talk it up here or something. Yeah. Yeah. You weren't even married yet, were you? No, no, we're just dating at the time. So yeah, when I was feeling birthday beer going and then all of a sudden you get there and everyone yells surprise surprise. Great. I would have liked to have been there. Yeah, well, I didn't know you. No, I don't. I would have been weird to invite me at that. Now my 50th, you'll be there. Van Halen will be playing there. Nice. Yeah, hopefully. Which one? I would like to get them all together again. Eddie's not here anymore. He's not with us. So that's going to be tough. But to get you Sammy and Dave would be pretty solid. Get him up there. Maybe Rat could play my 50th, you know, something, something like that. But yeah, you'll be you guys will be there for that one. Fantastic. Just a year and a month arise. Uh, no, I'm if I don't want it to be a surprise. No, if I plan it myself, I will. Can you imagine it? Well, I had to pretend there wasn't a woodsy 50th birthday party for like weeks and weeks. I know. No, no, it's we have nothing planned for your 50th birthday. I'm out of town. Yeah. No, what are you doing? Oh, you know, Hannah and I are just going to go have a, you know, we're going to tower 13 again. You know, we went there for my 40th. So we're going to go again. Oh, I didn't hear anything about this. Have fun. Jeffrey says he feels terrible at 36. Yeah, 40 just just crushed me. Can't wait for 50. Now some combination of SD fat loss.com QC kinetics and West Coast may help be good to go fix you right up to your 40s. What's baseball really like to inform a potray and MLB all star Brett Boone and his big league friends on his podcast, the Boone podcast three days a week. Brett talking with hall of famers fellow all stars, friends and more. Get their take on today's game. Set some big names all season long, the boot caboon podcast and the free Odyssey app or wherever you get your podcasts. We're a boon. Kaboom Friday, 843. Kaboom is the dynamite. You can, you can put it on the board every Friday at 843. That's why we have the round of reports scheduled after traffic. That's right. 97.3 the fam. And get things started here with our addition today's edition of the Rindle Report. Now tune to the mother of 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 fam. Are you ready to blast the mood? I need some help, please. That was good. Can I get a hoe here? Oh, yeah. All right. All right. All right. Happy Friday, gentlemen. Start off in Major League Baseball. It's that time of year where every year you have the conversation is Shohio Tani going to be in the home run derby. Yep. There's only 10 at once, I think. John Flint was in here about an hour ago and he said, you know, profile in the All-Star game. Is that a good idea? Like, shouldn't he just take the rest and well thought? Two or three innings. Probably a good idea for him. Yeah, get him an AB. And if he wants to do it, no problems with that. But with the all with the home run derby, it feels like every team is always questioning if they want their guy there. Is it going to ruin a swing? Does he need to be there? And so Dave Roberts actually had some comments on this on Wednesday. He was talking with reporters and he said the one side of it for Otani to be in the home run derby, it's great for baseball clearly. The other side of it on the manager of the Dodgers side of it, you're trying to be more cautious and appreciating the fact that there's a lot more swings, higher intensity, you know, going through the rehab process with his elbow. You guys expect to see Otani in the home run derby? I do not. I feel like if you got any legitimate excuse now, players are going to grab onto it and go. I'd love to be there. He really wants to. Shohei says he wants to do it. Well, then he can do whatever he wants. Right. He can. Yeah, he can. I don't think the Dodgers can stop him. Says he has feelings of wanting to do it, but he would need approval from his doctors and the trainers. Ultimately, my prediction is it doesn't happen. Yeah, I don't think he will. I don't think he will. I think, you know, when your manager comes out and says that, you know, you do feel the guilt, you know, of man, you know, got to make sure I'm there for the October collapse. You know, they're going to need me for that collapse. Hey, you know, I know you don't feel like I should be there, but I think I'm going to do it anyways and give him the old Adam. I do that. I do that to Adam, like the time. Okay, the best. Dave Roberts says he wouldn't want anyone telling him he couldn't do the home run derby. Yeah. But I'm pretty sure your lack of power told everybody that anyway. Yeah, if it's stolen base, Derby. Yeah. Go ahead. I don't think you ever consider it's like. Do we have a bias in the in the all-star game against non-power hitters? Like should Louise arise? Louise arise be in the contact Derby. Like just how many pitches in a row can you make contact on off a pitching machine? It's like 105 like ramp it up. Just all you have to do is foul it off contact. Is that boring? I think it's boring. I think that's the problem. Yeah, people don't see it. It was 2021. He lost the one soda in the first round. He's gone through one round of the home run derby in his entire career. All right, moving on. Sometimes the internet can provide one of those stories where you go. This is insane. Yeah. If it's true, I was just going to say that. Yeah, true. I think that's an important qualifier because anybody can make an account on social media and say they're somebody. Yeah. And so you never really know. But no, this was not about Bronnie James. We already talked about that. Kyle Philipowski from Duke. Now he's like a seven footer who excelled at Duke. He should have been a first rounder. Like maybe even a lottery pick, but he wasn't. In fact, he wasn't even in the first round. He slid to number 32 overall in the second round to the Utah Jazz. And Zach Lowe and Jonathan Giovanni, they host the Zach Lowe podcast or the low podcast. I think it is. It's one of the most successful and popular basketball podcasts. And they started digging into the theory that there's a lot going on in Kyle Philipowski's personal life that may have led to him sliding into the second round. They talked to scouts of teams throughout the NBA. And they said, look, it has nothing to do with his ability on the basketball court. There are concerns about character and his home life and things going on. And his personal life. And so there was this tweet from an account. Daniel Philipowski claiming to be his brother. Again, we don't know if this was actually his brother or not. But the story gets really weird when they start talking about how Kyle has cut his family out of his life entirely for years now. He is dating his girlfriend. He's been dating her for a long time. She's six or seven years older than he is. I believe she went to his high school prom. She did. There's a picture of them at prom. She was 23. He was 18. Yeah, this is legal. Legal, certainly. So the tweet that got all the traction has got 13 million views right now on Twitter. It says, Kyle Philipowski's brother and mom are on here revealing how his girlfriend groomed him into Mormon culture and cut him off from his family. And now he ends up with the Utah Jazz. He got drafted by the Jazz of all teams. Go. You're Mormon? There's screenshots here from Kyle's brother, allegedly. I'm Kyle's oldest brother. You all don't have a clue of the extent of the story that has to do with his girlfriend. There's a story that has been pushed under the table for nearly two years. He goes on to say, uh, nobody knows anything about this other than him, the Duke coaching staff and his agent. Um, they can't even get in touch with him anymore. Uh, the Edgely is, is like you said, really. Yeah, they said other than messaging him on Instagram is like the only attempt we can make to even reach out to him and contact him. Yep. And it's, they've been unsuccessful. They do feel he was brainwashed by her and, um, the, the mother, allegedly, the mother, said you guys are opening a two year issue. She's 28 with an end game three years ago to have a diamond ring on her hand when Kyle left Duke, he was still in high school. Would you let your 18 year old son date a 23 year old woman? He's an adult. He's an adult led or not. Yeah. That's true. That's true. Like, I think more, what is, what are his teammates going to say about this? Cause I bet they have some opinions as well. Which team, there's new teammates. Yeah. Yeah. You know, um, you're about to start an NBA pro basketball career. There's a lot of travel, a lot of people that you're going to meet as an NBA player. Are you sure you're ready to settle down right away and make that choice because it could, could be something that you look back and regret on, or maybe it's, it's the right choice for him. I mean, you know, Aaron Rodgers cut off his family. And I mean, you can say didn't hurt his NFL career at all. She used to babysit him as a child. Now that's odd. That's weird. Um, they found her, her name's Caitlin Hutchinson. They found her on LinkedIn and according to her LinkedIn profile, she graduated from the University of Alabama in 2018. Kyle didn't even enroll in college at Duke until 2022. Interesting man. It's, it's just really bizarre. And I gotta imagine more details will come out on that. But yeah, everyone going, how the hell did he slide to the second round? That's why. And teams are saying that that's why there's a lot going on. And we wanted no part of that. Very interesting. Creepy. Finally, what's he looking a little tired over there? A little tired. Have you had your caffeine yet? I did have my caffeine this morning. What'd you have? Thinking about re-upping. I go coffee. Coffee. And I mix it with a little collagen protein and some MCT powder. That MCT powder. From Bubs. Why? Bubs. Simply. The best. Well, if you're looking to switch things up, I've got a new way to get you caffeinated. Okay. Five hour energy. I've had five hour energy. I do. I'm okay with adding caffeine to it. Yeah. What? But you don't have to just drink little shot bottles that they have now. Because they have just debuted a caffeinated barbecue sauce. Oh, delicious. Yeah. Remember that picture I put used to post when Tim Hill would pitch of the monster energy ham? This is perfect. With five hour energy barbecue sauce. Yeah. I like to take monster energy ham, make little ham rolls, dip it in the five hour energy barbecue sauce. So have your coffee in the morning. Yeah. You can have your coffee in the morning, but maybe get a little tired. A little come down in the afternoon. Have some ribs. You get a little hungry. Sandwich. Yeah. A little caffeinated barbecue sauce. They just unveiled it. It's a new product for the summer. They are giving away 12 ounce bottles through their website. They had a drop yesterday. It sold out very quickly. They're doing three more drops on July 2nd, which is Tuesday, July 9th, and then July 16th. So the next three Tuesdays, there's one flavor, peach mango. Oh, I like that. I think that sounds sweet barbecue sauce. Yeah. And each serving is 60 milligrams of caffeine, which is about as much as a weak cup of coffee. The average cup has 95. So it's a light boost. It's like a like a caffeinated soda. It's like a bomb, basically. Yeah. Yeah. Bump, bump, a barbecue stuff. Bump, a barbecue stuff. Yeah, just a little. Yeah. Seems completely unnecessary. It does. To have a product. Maybe we can throw some of that on a brand new barbecue at summer break, caffeinated barbecue sauce. See, he can get a bottle falling. I'd like to get him. Remind me. I'd like to get him zooted on a five hour energy barbecue stuff. A week's cup of coffee sort of caffeine. Let's try to remember on Tuesday to apply for the drop. OK. Yeah, you have to apply to do it. You just go on their website and sign up if they're available. Do it. And we'll see if we can get some for summer break. You guys remember summer, summer breaks right around the corner. Ben and Wood summer break. During the all-star break, there's nothing going on. So we give up all of our guests, all our baseball guests. It's their break as well. It's their break. Jesse Agler, Adam Jones, Sammy. You know, we just take the week off. Just party in here. I think Friday we got back to normal. Yeah. Because potters have a game that day. Yeah, we just party for a few days. Monday through Thursday. It's going to get weird. It gets really weird. Ben, I hate it so much. No, I'm sure it's probably not going to happen. But I feel like we should go on a field trip for one of those days. Because summer camp usually involves one of the days you go on a field trip to a water park or something like that. Do a remote broadcast? Yes. I'd be down. From somewhere like summer fun in the morning. Can we just do it at the beach? You think? We got Wi-Fi? A beat? Why not? Yeah, I guess we could. You know what I thought would be really awesome? And I think you can get Wi-Fi because it doesn't go that high up. Hot air balloon. Radio show. Absolutely not. No hot air balloon. That is a bad idea. Bad idea. You don't like that idea? No. Not a chance. Four hours in the hot air balloon. You can do it. All right, I'll do it. We'll get you a little webcam. No. No, don't join me. You just had this conversation. Mike Shilt is coming up next. Oh boy. On the fan. It is a Friar Friday here on 97-3 the fan. The pod raise and the Boston Red Sox come in your way at 4-10 this afternoon with a 3-10 eco-water SoCal pre-game show. And as we do each and every Friday at 9 a.m. It is time for our manager's report with Mike Shilt brought to you by San Diego County Credit Union. It's not Big Bank banking. It's better and joining us from Boston, Massachusetts, the manager of the pod raise, Mike Shilt. And Mike, I just have to say, this last week was very impressive for your team to deal with the setbacks of injuries at the end of a long-stretched games with almost no days off to play like you did through those last two series, especially against the Washington Nationals. I know you tip your cap occasionally. I'm going to tip my cap to you and the San Diego pod raise. Sir, what a nice week that was. Yeah, it was a good week guys played well and contributions throughout. And you know, it was a really good week. And now we build on it and move on. You know, he's just buttering you up, Skip, because I was going to ask you how close is the nearest Chipotle to your hotel? Oh man, you guys are staying with the team. I actually did not get Chipotle. Actually, I got five guys. So I'm going to release off the charts. Oh, all right. Five guys. It's good. It's pricey. But you know, you're major league manager. You have a per diem. I'm assuming that's that's pretty good. No, you know what? The first thing I thought of that series, obviously, was it like it was electric. It was wild. It was like a baseball fan's dream. I mean, it really was. It had everything. But when I saw you get ejected the other day, the first thing I thought of was, all right, John boy, I want to see this ejection on the next time I open Twitter, because that was pretty electric, Skip. Yeah, I mean, it was a lot in that series. Obviously a lot to unpack. So much. You know, the whole homestand was pretty special. I create a lot of memories of Peko and, but yeah, man, that was a lot going on. That ejection was in my world with, you know, unnecessary relative to the situation. But anyway, made my point. 100% and I did want to ask you after the game, you know, they have to, you know, cooler heads prevailed and everything. You know, you had said, I don't necessarily think it was intentional in that case. And I mean, listen, I don't know it from Adam. I thought immediately as a fan was, oh, yeah, he did that on purpose. What did you see or based on, you know, your experience? What made you think it wasn't intentional from Mackenzie Gore? Not that it matters now, but it just kind of. I'd like to think that I don't know. I mean, you know, I like to get people to benefit a doubt. I watch his reaction. I mean, you can paint a reaction, you know, I get to that part. You know, like I said, Mackenzie, I got to know him when he was with us and have a lot of respect for him. And, you know, actually knows, got to know his parents a little bit. We're both living the same part of the world at Eastern North Carolina. So, you know, I just after everything, whatever point they felt like they needed to make, which, again, I don't want to overly revisit it, didn't particularly understand it. But, you know, I got my own club to think about. They made, you know, their catcher made it. And, you know, we clearly exchanged words and people came out and, you know, did the dance. And at that point, in my role, it's over now, whether he's still after all that, decided to hit him, only he and maybe a couple of people in that club really, really know. But, you know, I'd hate to think that was the case. But I could get the whole benefit of the doubt. But either way, intentional, unintentional, he's got to go. And somehow, after all that in the mornings, good, you know, issued. Somehow, he gets hit and he gets to stay in the game. And I got to go. Oh, I mean, 100%. It's not just, you can't throw at him intentionally. It's like, you better, you better make sure you don't hit him. Whatever you do. And if you do, you are now responsible for whatever happens. I totally agree, Mike. Mike Schildes with us here on 97-3, the fan. I've got a question. And I don't know, as a manager, when you guys get, you know, bad news about, you know, Tetis and the stress reaction and you Darvish not going to be able to come back, how do you address that with your team? I know you got pros and they're used to dealing with injuries and stuff like that. But how do you not let that become a, oh, here we go again. Like, oh, that's more bad news we got to deal with. What do you do as a manager when those things come up during a season? I mean, they come up. I mean, I don't, you know, I think the public, at least for me, it's not like these key meetings, but, you know, they're just, they're just not. I mean, you know, we've been in the game a long time. Unfortunately, you know, injuries happen. Like I said, you know, Wuzentati and Joe and Bogie and you and some of the gang, Manny at certain time, you know, it's disappointing. It's a challenge, but, you know, that's also what this game is about, how you respond to challenges and, you know, want to support those guys. But, you know, really, you just, you continue to figure out a way to compete with the groups that you have and everybody is locked in to, you know, making sure they are ready to contribute and, of course, some roles change and people get opportunities. And that's what this game's about and about season the opportunity. No question. And one of the guys that has done that, talking to Mike Schilter on Ben & Woods this morning, one of the guys has done that is Kyle Higashioka. What a joy it's been to watch him play. I know he had a tough situation thrust upon him when he got here, took him a little while to get going and get some ABs, you know, because campy was in there and he was catching Waldron and wasn't getting a lot of opportunity. Talk about a guy that's made the most of his opportunities right now. And you'd never know if he went 0 for 4 or, you know, 3 for 4 with two home runs and 6 RBI, just he's just a very even keeled guy. How much does that help, you know, your pitching staff when he's working with them? Well, I've done that. So we're going to start. Just with Kyle, like how, you know, him sees in the opportunity, his kind of temperament too in the clubhouse and what he's like as a member of the San Diego Padres. Yeah, he's been a great addition, you know, got a lot of great feedback from New York people, people in the end, you have known, people have played with him about just, you know, just quality a guy is a starting point and then clearly a good player and what his skill sets are. And, you know, he's really, you know, stepped up and done a nice shot for us. He's a really stoic guy, a really smart guy, got a good IQ, got a good way about him, got a good sense of humor with how he goes about things. Just a really, really, really good guy in the clubhouse, but also clearly a good player, you know, and he stayed patient, you know, he got his opportunities early on, not as many as, as maybe he would have liked and, you know, with campy being looking to be our everyday catcher and giving him those opportunities to prove his way, you know, in the big leagues and the staff and himself as that guy. And then, you know, over the course of time, you know, started to create a little bit more opportunities for him, which he's done more than earned. And of course, with Higgy going on, a lot of kids going on the IL, you know, creates even more for him and he's just done a nice job and clearly some really big hits for us. He feels like one of those guys as a manager, you know, that you don't, you know, I like, he's good. Like your attention. Don't need to worry about it. Yeah, like you don't have to go like, I don't know. That's just, that's just my perception of, you know, even interviewed him a couple times and great dude, but he just feels like one of those guys as a skipper, you don't have to constantly, you're good, everything okay. Yeah, yeah, low, low heartbeat and just kind of walk by, hey, hey, hey, hey, skimp and, you know, he's in the lineup and doing his job. Yeah, no, he's great. I mean, we got a lot of guys like that. I mean, we got a really pretty professional clubhouse that, you know, we just are able to communicate with. You know, I spend a lot of time with our catchers, you know, with our pitching coaches and Brian Esazito, as I'm catching and helps me during the game. So we have a lot of communication and I've enjoyed the communication with, with Kathy and Higgy and now it's solely about, you know, how we're, how we're leading our staff and how we're seeing the game. It's good to see a Aggie back, Aggie Rosario. Obviously, there was some talk. He's got a great arm, but he's an infielder by trade and with, with Tottie out, you might need some spots in the outfield. They said, you know, might, might work on that. What does that look like though? I mean, most of the time you get to the big leagues, you, you kind of know how to play a position. What kind of instruction goes on to maybe get a guy ready to play out of position, so to speak, if you want to get his bat into the lineup, especially against Lefty's where he really does some good damage. Yeah, he swings about good against Lefty. He's had a big, big swing the other day, you know, to get, get anything started, you know, start off with two running, double off the wall against the Lefty does really well against Lefty. So, you know, we're just trying to be creative and what that looks like. Where that back and play, there's always a balancing act between the offensive defense, the least for me, you know, defensive run savers, the ones, important ones to drive in, but, you know, always want to try to get to that in the lineup to do some damage appropriately. And, you know, perhaps an opportunity from the outfield, he's never, when I say never, never to play outfield. But, you know, Jackson Hatton will show, you know, but it's a hard place to just pick up and learn. You know, he's getting some work with him to see his outfield coach and see what that looks like. And, you know, we'll we'll see if there's no pain to present himself to get him out there. Talking to the skipper, Mike Schilth here on Ben & Woods this morning. And, boy, you guys haven't had any trouble closing out games when Robert Suarez comes in to, you know, throw six, nine fastballs by guys and, you know, call it a day. But closing out some of the other games, been a little bit of a challenge, Skip, the eight nothing that turned into eight, five, the other day had to make your little bit of hair turn gray for you. You know, how do you, how do you get a little bit of hair? Yeah, you got a little bit of hair. Right. And the hair that's remaining turns gray. I got pretty good hair. A little bit of hair, actually. What a little bit of hair. It's not great hair, but it's not a little bit. So, so for you, when that happens, I mean, it's, it gets, it's an empty feeling. Certainly, you want Cosgrove to be able to just get through that and not have to get Suarez up. Just would you tell us a little bit about what, what kind of you're going through with that? It's happened just a couple of times. I know it happens to all teams, but it certainly got to be a little bit frustrating. Yeah, I'm not sure what you really want me to say. I mean, I really don't. I mean, you know, I don't know how to answer the question. So throw strikes to get electrocuted. Right. Right. Right. Yeah. Yeah. I think so, man. You got, you know, the night bending, you know, to be a challenge, you get the last three out. And the easiest thing in the world, like when people say, oh, my gosh, you know, you got a four on a three. Don't use your clothes. Right. And then you got to use your clothes. Or you give it up, you know, and it's like, you know, so couldn't get it done. They had some of the bats, you know, the lead off lawsuit and didn't help the call. They had two, three, and I had two the right side. And I don't know. I mean, I prefer talking about dating, which we think have been wronged. Absolutely. Well, you know, that's just part of it, man. You know, sometimes it's the last year you're hard to get. We had it in Kansas City. We've had it, you know, we're in the season, you know, with six nothing to leave. But we end up having to use Robert. And, you know, like I said, it's just the people can say what they want about the last three outs. But, you know, it's an acquired taste of people to learn to get. That's the other point to the conversation. You got to learn it. And that's a learning curve in the night that people don't want to really want to deal with with the lead. And so, but if you don't give those guys this opportunity, they don't learn from them. So it's the, you know, that's when you say you crushed that answer. You knew how to answer that question. You know what he's crushed also, Mike, you've always explained how you manage real people in the real world that are, you know, not always feeling 100% or tired. You know, it's a long season. There's not a lot of days off. As fans, I, especially me, I'm a radio host, I manage on paper, you know, in my mind. And I look at the off days coming up. You had one yesterday, you got one Monday, you got two more next week. And I look, well, maybe you could, you know, get Dylan Sees out there. He's pitching so well, and move him up a day. How do you look at that in that equation? Is there like no thought like, I don't want to move him up. I want to give him those extra days. All offers, that's something you might look at here before the all-star break with now the extra off days that you've got coming up. Yeah, I mean, we'd be responsible not to look at it, right? Yeah. So we do, me and Reuben look at it. We partner with AJ in the front office and we also talk to our, to our players. And it's not, you know, it's not in the vacuum. It's, yeah, what can be best for Dylan Sees is X. What can be best for Michael King is Y. What's best for Matt Waldron is, is the, you know, Vescaz, it's Maser, et cetera. And so, you know, individually, you can say, yeah, we could do this with Dylan. Oh, but has that impact Michael? And has that impact Matt? And what do we got on Adam and Randy? So, you know, we put it all together and figure out, you know, the balancing act of making sure that, you know, the competition is taken care of, the rest is taken care of. And then, of course, the short-term versus the long-term of what that can look like. And we do our best we can to balance all that. And we've had some, you know, like I say, conversation with them and some internal conversations. And then we, we put the best play that we can lay out there together with all the barriers. Mike, I really appreciate it. Before you go, any, any updates on, on you Darvish? I know we saw Xander Bogart taking some batting practice before you guys went on the road trip. Just kind of overall general health updates on your team. Yeah, so, you know, it looks like Darvish, the imaging is negative so it's positive, nothing overly alarming with that. I do think he was going to seek another image, which is pretty standard, you know, and then it's just a matter of getting information out, which is the biggest call for, it feels like right now. Well, the second place in the Zobo, getting it out and getting to where you can play catch and recover, you know, is the longer he stays away, you know, longer it's going to, you know, longer he can't throw, the longer it's going to be for him to get back. So no real, you know, great time on there. Bogart is training in a really good place, going to have an understanding soon. And the CT scan that I'll determine how much further he's healed the most recently was favorable. It's like he's a little bit as scheduled, but the next will be the one that allows us to determine with him how much he can ramp up, but the good news is, you know, he's taking ground ball, he's taking some swings, and then I guess they're relative to the next. It'll be how much the ball you can take to where you can start to get some live at bats and potentially rehab and get back, you know, working with us. So good news on that, Brian. He's with us. Obviously he's returned to Boston. So I'm sure that'll be bittersweet for him. But I know this organization is going to be something that the reward is really productive time here. Her eyes back from his ouchy. We're determining that. Tournament and that one. Okay. And I have fun managing at Fenway Park. I mean, that's got to be kind of special for anybody. Anybody gets to go in there. It's a temple of baseball history. Oh, it's amazing. Yeah, I love coming here. And I'm right here in the dugout right now looking at this beautiful field. Awesome. I like it. Good. Very blessed. All right. Well, have a good one. Good series. And I keep up the good work. As we said, very impressive week. And we'll talk to you actually two weeks. You get next Friday off with the 4th of July holiday. So we'll talk in a couple of weeks. Skip. Oh, you guys are working? No, we're not working. No, we're taking a four day weekend, of course. Like, you know, we're not playing. And you guys, country clubs. Okay. All right. Well, believe it. I'll see you next month. I'll start break. There we go. Mike Shelton, manager of the San Diego Padres. Absolutely right. Yeah, we are not. We are lazy. Got one. I don't get those days off. Just you guys, huh? You take the extra long weekends. Yeah, I guess he's volunteering to do summer break with us then when he's on his break. Oh, that's right. All right. We could turn this around. We're taking an entire all-star break on. Really? What? We're here. We took three days. You're taking four. Wow. You guys aren't playing. All right. We'll throw that back at him. Oh, yes. We're talking about Friday. All-star breaks coming up. You know who's working, right? We are. That would be us. Should have him in. That would be awesome. We're going to run down. Five thirty. Five thirty. See you here. Yeah. Liners to read. Just the whole shooting match for Mike Shelton. I think so much fun. So much fun. Not he's great. He's great. He gets so mad. No, yeah. What do you want? I love me. I love me. How do you want me to answer? Well, I think you just knocked it out of the park. He had a great answer. He does. It's great. It's his way of saying that's not a well-worded question. I know it's. I know. I know. I know. All right. We'll come back. We'll react to what you just heard. We've got a couple of segments left for this week. Looking forward to the weekend, of course. It's better woods. We'll check traffic here on 97 through the fan. Famous still day in the chat says it feels like beef between woods and the skipper. Do you get the sense that there's beef? I think he hates me. I like him. No, no. Beef. Yes, he's actually excited. Yes, there is. He's not beef. I think you annoy him. Yeah, beef means like two going back to fourth. I love him. You love him. I love him. He just hates you. Yeah, that's not beef. That's not beef. Right. Yeah, of course. Hey, Mike, you hate me? Yeah. Yeah. I thought so. He's honest. I'm honest too. He's not that honest though. He was holding out on us. He was holding out because apparently the Padres will be making a roster move today and they all already made another one earlier today. First one as reported by Kevin A. C. Padres will have a new left-hander in their bullpen today. Austin Davis who's appeared in 136 MLB games for four teams will come up after a strong showing in triple A as El Paso's closer recently is allowed four runs in his past 20 innings pitched. Corresponding move yet to be announced wouldn't feel great if I was Tom Cosgrove. In fact, I might not even be with the team if I was Tom Cosgrove right now. You know, he came up after doing a good job at triple A that that ninth inning though is not what the Padres need. They need someone who can spare the rest of the bullpen, not force them to get Adrian Morion and Robert Suarez up and active in the ninth inning when he got an eight run lead. I could be wrong. It could be someone else. It could be an injury. Don't know. And then what what did you just told me old friend alerts? Yeah, I was scrolling Instagram and I saw a picture of Nabil Chris Matt in a San Diego Padres uniform and I went, oh, he's, you know, relive. Hey, throwback Friday, flashback Friday when I was on the Padres. And no, it says, I'm very happy to announce I'm back with the San Diego Padres looking forward to this new chapter. See you all soon. Interesting. Major league, minor league, don't know. Padres faced him earlier this year when he hooked on with the LA Dodgers. Hadn't really been keeping up with Nabil's status, but got released by them went to Texas. Yeah, he's he was just released by Texas like three days ago looking for a home again, man, looking for a, you know, place that he can get some opportunity to pitch. He's he's Nabil Chris Matt. Well liked very well in the Padres clubhouse. There's no doubt about that. Bringing back all the vibes guys. Who's next? Jorge Alfaro Jorge Alfaro. I don't know what the hell happened with him and Bob Melvin at the end of the 2022. Yeah, something, but the vibes are strong leading up to the playoffs. Yeah, you so it's a four, 10 first pitch, which means lineups probably around one o'clock this afternoon, probably roster announcements around the same time. Now we know Mike Schultz already there in the dugout. He said at Fenway Park getting some early soaking in the history of the green monster and such early in the day. They always have early meetings for the series opener. You know, you got your hitters and pitchers meetings to go over matchups and who they're going to be facing throughout the series. Like one of the main things this team needs is a mop up guy and nobody's really snagged that job. Collec didn't do it. Cosgrove didn't do it. Now Collec has been pitching well. No, no, no, in mop up. When yeah, that's true. Yeah, he's actually when he's better when they actually put him in higher level. She's been better. Yeah, good point. So Nabil Chris Matt, welcome to mop up duty. He's probably not joining the majorly roster bed. I would imagine. But we'll see. We'll see what happens with Nabil, but he is posted on his Instagram that he is in fact back with the San Diego Padres. We don't know what level. We don't know what. I mean, you know, he's kind of the pitching version of Jirksen profile always comes back home after struggling elsewhere. He's back home again. What if he really is the pitching version of Jirksen profile and he shows up all of a sudden. Nabil Chris Matt rolls off like 42 consecutive scoreless innings or something. That would be Jirksen like on the mound this year. Very interesting. That seems overly optimistic. It does. But stranger things have happened. I'm curious to see who's going to be starting out. You could tell from Mike Schilt's answer that he's not ready to be comfortable with Aggie Rosario out in right field. Correct. And there's no lefties in the, you know, in the hopper for the opposing pitchers. So they have some maybe some time. I would imagine Aggie will mostly serve as a pinch hitter for now against left handed relievers on this road trip. If he does get an opportunity, but wouldn't expect him in the Sarah Lee. Then again, Bryce Johnson every single day can't really be the answer either. As you're just tell until Ted Teases back, we got Bryce Johnson. He's going to be out there every day. You've got to find something a little bit more promising than that. I bet you see David Peralta in there tonight, you know, get some of the lefties in there, you know, they love matchups and whatnot. I'm okay with Tyler Wade out there. Good things seem to happen when Tyler Wade's in the game. Crazy, right? Crazy. What a role he's found on this. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. Good player. If you missed it, good role player. Early this morning, we got to do a mid season catch up and chat with our good friend Major Garrett from Washington, D.C. Padre is a fan extraordinaire and chief Washington correspondent for CBS News. We thought it was good enough that we would bring it back here in our final segment of the week, our conversation with Major Garrett coming up next here on San Diego's number one sports station, 97 three the fan. Birthday boy at the station today. It's funny that you knew you remembered his birthday, but you didn't remember mine last time. That's true. You put it out and you're not even you're not even his co-host and he's only he's only worked here for the last few months. Yeah. Now he came on our show every Friday for several years. Right. So, you know, I'll give you some credit for that. Just came up on social media. Yeah, I did. I did. Happy birthday to Craig Elston of the Annie and Elston show that's following us right here on 97 three the fan. Still can't get over the fact that we forgot his birthday, not I'm just not going to put it on me exclusively me and we totally bricked and all the ones in my family and family. It's probably my fault, right? Your family forget? No, they forgot to tell you. They forgot to tell me. Yeah, I'm going to need to forget my birthday, but they forgot to tell you about my birthday. Yeah. I was actually my greatest gift I ever received was you forgetting about my birthday. Yeah, because you have that to lord over the best present I could have gotten. Something to lord over woods moving forward. You can literally anytime you want to be like, hey, you remember that time that you forgot my birthday that really hurt. That always feels like a birthday present when we get some time with major Gary. Oh, it's always an enjoyable Padres conversation. And we had that opportunity this morning despite every busy thing going on in Washington right now. Washington CBS News chief correspondent major Garrett with Ben and Woods will bring you that conversation right after traffic here on 97 three the fan. All right, and joining us now live from DC our pal one of the biggest if not the biggest pottery family. No major Garrett. Good morning, my friend. Good morning. How is everybody man? We are good. We are good just, you know, needed the night off last night. It's been a whirlwind around Petco Park the last, last few, actually last few weeks. I'm just laughing. You guys had a night off. I didn't have a night off. No, last night was not a night off for you. Last. I told the guys earlier, I said, I watched five minutes and then I went and I watched silence of the lambs and felt, I felt a little bit better about the future of our country. Corporal Metal Jack. Yeah. Full Metal Jack. Yeah. Exactly. How are you, friend? I'm good. I'm good. You know, look, I am, I think, probably where a lot of your audiences, I'm excited about where this team is. I mean, if you'd asked me at the beginning of the season, you don't have Darvish for most of the first half. You don't have Musgrove. You don't have Bogarts and you've got 44 wins. Same as the Braves. Only two teams have more wins in the Padres, the Phillies and the Dodgers. Would you take that? Yeah. And I would say, yes. Good perspective. Not to mention, not to mention dramatically better performance with runners in scoring position, dramatically better performance in close games, dramatically better performance in extra any games, leading the major leagues in bunt base hits, not a statistically typically celebrate, but one that's important about how you put pressure on another team. I like where we are. I really do. Good morning, Major. It is good to talk to you as always. My question to you is, has Mike Schiltz been what you've expected he was going to be as the Padres manager? Better. Better. I fully expected that he would be rigorous on preparation process and team unity. And he has been. What I have been very surprised on the upside with is not only his ability to put that in the clubhouse, translate that from the clubhouse to the field, and then talk to the Padres public about why it's working and not to freak out when you feel like freaking out, because all of us are traumatized by the memories of last year. I know Bob Melvin is a very respected and accomplished manager. I don't want to take anything away from him, but Schiltz has a more positive and more direct explanation for what he's doing, why he believes it will work, and why he's not going to be deterred. And for a fan base, I think that's super important. It's not only important for the fan base, it's important for the players to know that the manager has their back and will talk to the public about what's going on in a way that supports them, reinforces them, and is credible. And I think Schiltz is very good at all of those things. You know, and it's funny talking to Major Garrett here. I try. We have him on every Friday, and I try to get him to settle. I'm not asking him to be negative or throw one of his guys under the bus, but I will try to get him to say just, yeah, we could, we could improve in that area. He won't do it and anything critical, anything critical. And I do understand the reasoning behind it. And I think pottery fans, a lot of them do as well. You've seen this clubhouse, you know, splinter the last couple of seasons. You've seen, you've seen, you know, the, the, the, like, everything fall apart and they go off a cliff. I kind of understand the reasoning of, nope, not going to do it. I'm going to, I'm going to pat these guys on the butt. I'm going to pack them, pat them on the back, especially in public. We don't know what's going on behind closed doors, certainly. We're not privy to that. And he's not going to share it. And Manny won't share it. And Jerkson won't share it. They, they're really tight-lipped this year. That's one thing I have noticed. There's, you don't, you're not hearing any whispers coming out of, uh-oh, a lot of, uh, you know, this guy's mad at this guy. I find that it's quite the opposite. Quite the opposite. But I thought Jerkson Profar gave a very important interview to Kevin A.C. last week before the pottery's got on their good run. And he said the team needs to play better. The team needs to have more leadership and execute better and win winnable games. Profar said that as an emerging team leader. He wouldn't have said it if he didn't believe that Manny would back him up on that. And Mike Schilt was okay with that. It's better when the players give that kind of interview, particularly a all-star caliber player as Jerkson Profar undoubtedly is this season. Having him say it and having no one in the clubhouse, refute it or talk behind his back, or anyone go to Schilt and say, "What do you think about that?" It all felt consistent, even though it was at the margins critical of how the pottery's came off that road trip, deservedly so. That's another dynamic that I think is important and reinforces that this team, for whatever set of reasons, and a lot of it comes to the manager, a lot of it flows to the players, is a much more coherent unit, much more collaborative unit. And look, success reinforces that. You get walk-off wins, you suddenly feel things are possible. You watch other teams walk you off, you start wondering if anything is possible. We've turned the corner on that. Major, we also all tended to agree that Manny had a big leadership moment when he stepped in with Jerkson, you know, behind home plate with Keebert Ruiz. And I don't know if there's any talk at the other side of this. People are curious, you know, in Washington, D.C., you've got a bunch of things going on probably other than listening to Sports Talk Radio or commentary on what happened this week. But it felt like perhaps at least a defining moment for this clubhouse and for Manny Machado in particular as well, what happened against the Washington Nationals earlier this week? So, Nat's fans, and I sort of dip in and out of that world, I'm a nominal Nat's fans because my kids grew up here in D.C., and I've freed them. I said, "You have a hometown team. It's a great thing in life. It's to be able to root for your hometown baseball team. I'm raising you as pottery fans. I'm now releasing you. We didn't have a ceremony, but I kind of communicated that to them." You know, so I dip in and out of the nets. Nat's fans are not big on Keebert Ruiz. They don't think he's a strong defensive catcher, offensive. He's kind of awash, and they thought he stepped way out of his lane. And I, for one, do not understand, do not understand how an umpire in the major leagues can watch a player, touch another player at home plate and not throw him out immediately. You cannot do that. Under any circumstance, you cannot take your mask off, get another player's face, and start poking him in the chest. Why is he still in the game? And that's why Manny came up, because he saw Jerkson was doing the thing he told everyone afterwards. I'm not going to get thrown out of this game. I'm not going to lose my cool, but Manny came in and said, "Hey, you can't touch my guy." And then he get, then Pro Fart gets hit and everyone, "Oh, is it intentional or not?" He got hit. You gave warnings. Something should have happened. And then you run Schilt, so then Manny is right in this moment, this moment where everyone is really pissed off. Everyone is pissed off, and that's the aim. I'm freaking angry at home. 3,000 miles away, first pitch in the seats. Take that and fill in your own expletives, okay? Speaking of expletives, what Jackson Merrill said about it after was, "That's how you effing lead." I'm not saying he had hit Homer, but right there off the bell, effing first pitch, ready to go. That's how you effing lead right there. That's effing electric. I love this kid, too. I love this kid. You know, you hear when Manny was slumping, when Manny was slumping a couple weeks ago, all you heard was, "Oh, he's a terrible leader, terrible leader, terrible leader." And I'm like, "Man, he's clearly rubbed off on Jackson Merrill. He's clearly hitting the ball better. Maybe he's feeling better. We all kind of knew. I kind of knew it's going to come. You know, he's got it in him, and I think the power is still going to come for Manny, hopefully this weekend. But I thought that was really special, man. The young... It was by far the most electric moment of the season. I hope there are moments that will come close to that, but I don't think anything can surpass that in that moment. And look, Major League Baseball lives and dies on the margins of centimeters. A month ago, Manny gets that same pitch and fouls it back. He's just off a tick. That night, he was dialed in, saw it, hit it, and that shows that his work, his progress, is getting him closer to the player that all Padre fans remember and want to see again. So Major, now is the calendar switches to July. The trade deadline is coming up in a few weeks, and the Padre's, like most teams right now, are going to be in the market for some help. They're not going to be able to afford everything, though. Starting pitching would be nice. Another bullpen arm would be nice, and with Tetis out, you know, for an extended period of time. Another bat would be nice. Assuming they can't do all of that, where's your priority lie as a Padre fan? Look, I am stung. I have been stung the past two years by outsized expectations about the players we bring in changing things. And we have to look at Jackson Merrill and take pride in our player development. He's ours. We developed him. He's a star already a star. Remember that. Not only is he a star, he's cheap, okay? We developed him. That's what you get. You don't have to give anything up. You don't have to pay huge free-market ransom for a player like that. I don't want to say stand pat because that's not what AJ Preller is going to do, but I don't want any of our remaining top prospects traded. I just don't. I want them to stay in the pipeline. I want them to believe in their process of player development and harvest them as we did Jackson Merrill. Watching CJ Abrams reminded me of what a great player he is. How much this roster would be different. And let's be honest. When Bogart's and Tatice and Musgrove and Darvish come back as we all hope they will, that'll be like making a trade. Yeah, we hope. I mean, you know, I feel like I've delivered that line to our audience many times as well over the last couple of years. And, you know, they bought on the margins last year. That didn't work out. I thought Scott Barlow was fine. But if you could find a way to grab another Scott Barlow, somebody like that that can sure up, you know, the back end ish of your bullpen. Yeah, I think that's, that's okay. But when you, when it comes to Salas and Devries and the huge blast, you move. No, I watch, I watch Leo Dallas, the other hit his first home run. We talked about it off the air, pitch up in the zone. Dude, he hammered this thing and then had the emotion looked at the dugout lake. I was like, Oh, that kid is 17 years old, 18 years old. I've watched these Ethan Salas in person. And I thought to myself, no, no, no, we need to be patient with these guys. But honestly, after those two, I'm like, all right, we can, we can continue to make moves as long as but everyone's gonna ask for those two. Everyone's gonna ask for those two. And we just got to say, no, it's not happening. Yeah, stand pat. I agree. Yeah, I agree with you 100%. Major really appreciated. I know you've got a very busy schedule with everything that's going on. But I can tell that our listeners were extremely, extremely enthusiastic to hear from you this morning and appreciate your perspective. As always, it's a great one. And then thank you so much for your time. I'm always here for you guys. Thank you, brother. Love you, man. Talk to you soon. Bye bye. Great stuff with major Garrett. Fun conversation as always. And by the way, we're talking about that national series to set some news during that replay that the nationals are set to promote former Padre prospect. James Wood, he's going to make his major league debut, they say on Monday, which I think is polite that they didn't do it last week and bring him right up and shove him in the Padres face. See, J Abrams is doing well. Kenzie Gore is doing pretty well. You can't say that the nationals did poorly in the Juan Soto trade. If they had to trade Juan Soto, they've done pretty well with the with the pieces they got back. And this will be another, another big addition for them going forward. Yeah, I mean, better than we have so far, I think, right? Yeah, I know. So I mean, you know, they turned one so into the NLCS in the last two years, that's the trade got to the NLCS and they've turned one so it went to some much needed pitching. Michael King's been been pretty good. We'll see Randy Vasquez tonight. By the way, Randy Vasquez is okay last time is is pitching a little bit better. Johnny burrito is going to be stretched out in the minor lease to get, you know, into some starting. And Kyle Higashyoka is the, you know, hottest catching hitter in all of baseball right now. Number two in OPS and the big leagues or something. The mall in the month of June. Yeah, he's been incredible. So what's not like the Padres didn't get anything for Juan Soto. And they also had a year and a half of Juan Soto that we got to got to enjoy and watch. So sometimes trades work out okay for both teams. I mean, could you undo it and have those guys back? Probably would be the best case scenario, but you can't. You move forward and do the best you can with what you had. So that's, that's what we know and we'll move forward. So by the way, congratulations. I want to say thank you to the tier ones out there. We had John Flynn and earlier he was raising money for the service animal for veterans, pause for purple hearts and they reached their goal. And I think it is big, big credit. A lot of tier ones responded and they made it to their $35,000 goal to be able to train a service pet for a VAT facing PTSD here in San Diego, which is very awesome. How much did you give? I was on their air. You can't. Oh, I did. We were on the air. My mic was still on and I was able to make a game. I gave my time and enthusiasm. And your platform. The most important commodities you can give. What? Anyone can just give money. Right. Right. I gave time, time, enthusiasm, a couple of witty remarks. Yeah. Yeah. My witty remarks aren't free wood. That's true. That's true. They're value. They are valuable. I used a couple of them to help John. I think though, what they were trying to raise though was money. witty remarks. You are so big. His face went white when I asked him that. Big weekend plans. No. I'm going to try to play some golf. Would you like to play some golf? Perhaps. All right. Yeah. See what I can do. Sounds good. We will be back for three days next week. I'm going to have to play golf at just a lot of precious weekends. 6 a.m. Birthday Boy and Andy coming up from your house. Coming up next for Paul Reidel for Stephen Woods. I'm Ben Higgins. Have a great weekend. We'll talk to you Monday morning at 6 a.m. Right here on San Diego's number one sports station. 97 3. The fans along everybody. It is a Friar Friday here on 97 3. The fan, the Padres and the Boston Red Sox coming your way at 410 this afternoon with the 310 eco water so-called pregame show. And as we do each and every Friday at 9 a.m. it is time for our manager's report with Mike Schilt brought to you by San Diego County Credit Union. It's not big bank banking. It's better and joining us from Boston, Massachusetts, the manager of the Padres. Mike Schilt and Mike, I just have to say this last week was very impressive for your team to deal with the setbacks of injuries at the end of a long-stretched games with almost no days off to play like you did through those last two series, especially against the Washington Nationals. I know you tip your cap occasionally. I'm going to tip my cap to you and the San Diego Padres. Sir, what a nice week that was. Yeah, it was a good week guys played well and contributions throughout and you know, it was a really good week and now we build on it and move on. You know, he's just buttering you up skit because I was going to ask you how close is the nearest Chipotle to your hotel? Man, you guys are staying with the thing. I actually did not get you full yesterday. I got five guys, so I'm going to release off the charts. Oh, all right, five guys. Good. It's pricey, but you know, you're major league manager. If it's per diem, I'm assuming that's that's pretty good. No, you know what? The first thing I thought of that series, obviously, was it like it was electric. It was wild. It was like a baseball fan's dream. I mean, it really wasn't had everything. But when I saw you get ejected the other day, the first thing I thought of was, all right, John boy, I want to see this ejection on the next the next time I open Twitter because that was pretty electric skit. Yeah, I mean, I mean, it was a lot in that series, obviously a lot to unpack. So much. You know, the whole homestand was pretty special. I create a lot of memories of Pekko and, and, but yeah, man, that was, there was a lot going on. That ejection was in my world of it, you know, unnecessary relative to the situation, but anyway, made my point 100% and I did want to ask you after the game, you know, they after, you know, cooler heads prevailed and everything, you know, you had said, I don't necessarily think it was intentional in that case. And I mean, listen, I don't know it from Adam. I thought immediately as a fan was, oh, yeah, he did that on purpose. What did you see or based on, you know, your experience? What made you think it wasn't intentional from Mackenzie Gore? Not that it matters now, but just kind of like to think that I don't know. I mean, you know, I like to get people to benefit a doubt. I watched his reaction. I mean, you can paint a reaction, you know, I get to that part. You know, like I said, I'm Mackenzie, I got to know him when he was with us and have a lot of respect for him. And, you know, actually knows, got to know his parents a little bit, we're both living the same part of the world at Eastern North Carolina. So, you know, I just, after everything, whatever point they feel like they needed to make, which again, don't want to overly revisit it, didn't particularly understand it, but you know, I got my own club to think about. They made, you know, their catcher made it. And, you know, we clearly exchanged words and people came out and, you know, did the dance. And at that point, in my role, it's over. Now, whether he's still after all that, decided to hit him. Only he and maybe a couple of people in that club really, really know. But, you know, I'd hate to think that was the case, but I could get people to benefit the doubt. But either way, intentional, unintentional, he's got to go. And somehow, after all that in the mornings, good, you know, issued, somehow he gets hit and he gets to stay in the game. And I got to go. I mean, a hundred percent. We overcame. It's not just you can't throw at him intentionally. It's like, you better, you better make sure you don't hit him. Whatever you do. If you do, you are now responsible for whatever happens. I totally agree, Mike. Mike Schilders with us here on 97 three, the fan. I've got a question. And I don't know, as a manager, when you guys get, you know, bad news about, you know, Tetis and the stress reaction and you Darvish not going to be able to come back, how do you address that with your team? I know you got pros and they're used to dealing with injuries and stuff like that. But how do you not let that become a, oh, here we go again. Like, that's more bad news we got to deal with. What do you do as a manager when those things come up during a season? I mean, they come up. I mean, I don't, you know, I think the public, at least for me, there's not like these key meetings, but, yeah, you know, they're just, they're just not. I mean, you know, we've been in the game a long time. Unfortunately, you know, injuries happen. Like I said, you know, Wuzentati and Joe and Bogey and you and and some of the gang, Manny at certain time, you know, it's disappointing. It's a challenge. But, you know, that's also me what this game is about, how you respond to challenges and, you know, want to support those guys. But, you know, really, you just, um, you continue to figure out a way to compete with, with the group that you have. And everybody is locked in to, you know, making sure they take a ready to contribute and, of course, some roles change and people get opportunities. And that's what this game's about and about season the opportunity. No question. And one of the guys that has done that, talking to Mike Schilter on Ben & Woods this morning, one of the guys has done that is Kyle Higashiyoko. What a joy it's been to watch him play. I know he had a tough situation, thrust upon him when he got here, took him a little while to get going and get some A-B's, you know, because campy was in there and he was catching Waldron and wasn't getting a lot of opportunity. Talk about a guy that's made the most of his opportunities right now. And, and you'd never know if he went 0 for 4 or, you know, 3 for 4 with two home runs and 6 RBI just, he's just a very even keeled guy. How much does that help, you know, your pitching staff when he's working with them? Well, I've done that. So, we're going to start. Just with Kyle, like how, how, you know, him season the opportunity, his kind of temperament too in the clubhouse and what he's like as a, as a member of the San Diego Padres. Yeah, he's been a great addition. You know, got a lot of great feedback from New York people. People in the end should have known, people had played with him about just, you know, just quality a guy is a starting point and then clearly a good player and what his skill sets are. And, you know, he's really, you know, stepped up and done a nice job for us. He's a really stupid guy, a really smart guy, got a, got a good IQ, got a good way about him, got a good sense of humor with, with how he goes about things. Just a really, really, really good guy in the clubhouse, but also clearly a good player, you know, and he, he stayed patient, you know, he got his opportunities early on, not as many as, as maybe he would have liked and, you know, with campy being looking to be our everyday catcher and giving him those opportunities to prove his way, you know, in the big leagues and the staff and himself as that guy. And then, you know, over the course of time, you know, started to create a little bit more opportunities for him, which he's done more than earned. And of course, with Higgie going on, I can't be going on the IL, you know, creates even more for him. And he's just done a nice job, clearly, some really big hits for us. He feels like one of those guys as a manager, you know, that you don't, you know, like, he's good. Like, your attention. Don't need to worry about it. Yeah, like, you don't have to go, like, I don't know, that's just, that's just my perception of, you know, we've interviewed him a couple times and great dude, but he just feels like one of those guys as a skipper, you don't have to constantly, you're good, everything okay. Yeah, yeah, low, low heartbeat and just kind of walk about, hey, Higgie, hey, hey, skip. And, you know, he's in the lineup and doing his job. Yeah, no, he's great. I mean, we got a lot of guys like that. I mean, we got a really pretty professional clubhouse that, you know, we just are able to communicate with. And, you know, I spend a lot of time with our catchers, you know, with, with our pitching coaches and, and Brian Azizito does our coaching and helps me during the game. So we have a lot of communication and, and I, I've enjoyed the communication with, with Kathy and Higgie and now slowly about, you know, how we're, how we're leading our staff and how we're seeing the game. It's good to see a, Eggie back, Eggie Rosario. Obviously there was some talk. He's got a great arm, but he's an infielder by trade and, and with, with toddy out, you might need some spots in the outfield. They said, you know, might, might work on that. What does that look like though? I mean, most of the time you get to the big leagues, you, you kind of know how to play a position. What kind of instruction goes on to maybe get a guy ready to play out of position, so to speak, if you want to get his bat into the lineup, especially against lefties where he really does some good damage. Yeah, he swings about good against lefties at a big, big swing the other day, you know, to get, get any started, you know, start off with two running double off the wall against the left. He does really well against lefties. So, you know, we're just trying to be creative and what that looks like, where that back in play, there's always a balancing act between the offensive defense, the least for me, you know, defensive run savers, the ones, important ones to drop in, but, you know, always want to try to get the bat in the lineup to do some damage appropriately, and, you know, perhaps an opportunity for him in the outfield. He's never, when I say never, never played outfield. But, you know, Jackson Hatton also, you know, but it's a hard place to just pick up and learn, you know, he's getting some work with A and the CSR outfield coach and see what that looks like, and, you know, we'll see if there's no opportunity for himself to get him out there. Talking to the skipper, Mike Schilth here on Ben & Woods this morning, and, boy, you guys haven't had any trouble closing out games when Robert Suarez comes in to, you know, throw six nine fastballs by guys and, you know, call it a day, but closing out some of the other games been a little bit of a challenge skip. The eight nothing that turned into eight five, the other day had to make your little bit of hair turn gray for you. You know, well, how do you, how do you get a little bit of hair? Yeah, you got a little bit of hair, right? And the hair that's remaining turns gray. I got pretty good hair. A little bit of hair, actually. A little bit of hair. It's not gray hair, but it's not a little bit. So for you, when that happens, I mean, it's an empty feeling. Certainly you want Cosgrove to be able to just get through that and not have to get Suarez up. Just, would you tell us a little bit about what kind of you're going through with that? It's happened just a couple of times. I know it happens to all teams, but it certainly got to be a little bit frustrating. Yeah, I'm not sure what you really want me to say. I mean, I really don't. I mean, you know, I don't know how to answer the question. So, throw strikes to get electrocuted. Right, right, right. Yeah, I think so, man, you got, you know, the ninth inning, you know, to be a challenge, you get the last three outs. And the easiest thing in the world, like when people say, oh my gosh, you know, you got a four runner, you don't use your closure. Right. And then you got to use your closure. Or you give it up. You know, it's like, you know, so couldn't get it done. They had some of that. You know, the leadoff lawsuit didn't help the call. They had two three and I had two the right side. And I don't know. I mean, I prefer talking about dating. We think they have been wronged. Absolutely. Well, you know, that's just part of it, man. You know, sometimes it's the last year you're hard to get. We had it in Kansas City. We've had it. You know, we're in the season, you know, with six nothing to leave. But we end up having to use Robert. And, you know, like I said, it's just people can say what they want about the last three outs. But, you know, it's an acquired taste to get people to learn to get. That's the other point to the conversation. You got to learn it. And that's a learning curve in the night that people don't want to really want to deal with, with the lead. And so, but if you, if you don't give those guys this opportunity, they don't learn from them. So it's the, you know, that's one thing to take you crush that answer. You knew how to answer that question. You know what he's crushed also, Mike, you've always explained how you manage real people in the real world that are, you know, not always feeling 100% or tired, you know, it's a long season. There's not a lot of days off. As fans, I especially me, I'm a radio host, I manage on paper, you know, in my mind. And I look at the off days coming up. You had one yesterday, you got one Monday, you got two more next week. And I look, well, maybe you could, you know, get Dylan Sees out there. He's pitching so well and move him up a day. How do you look at that in that equation? Is there like no thought like, I don't want to move him up. I want to give him those extra days offer. Is that something you might look at here before the all-star break with now the extra off days that you've got coming up? Yeah, I mean, we'd be responsible not to look at it, right? Yeah. So we do, me and Ruben look at it. We partner with AJ in the front office and we also talk to our, to our players. And it's not a, you know, it's not in the vacuum. It's, yeah, what can be best for Dylan Sees is X. What can be best for Michael King is Y. What's best for Matt Waldern is, is the, you know, Vasquez, it's Maser, et cetera. And so, you know, individually, you can say, yeah, we could do this with Dylan. Oh, but how does that impact Michael and how does that impact Matt? And what do we got on Adam and Randy? So, we know, we put it all together and figure out, you know, the balancing act of making sure that, you know, the competition taken care of, the rest is taken care of. And then, of course, the short-term versus the long-term what that can look like. And we do our best we can to balance all that. And we've had some, you know, like I say, conversation with them and some internal conversations. And then we, we put the best play that we can lay out there together with all the barriers. Mike, I really appreciate it. Before you go, any, any updates on, on you, Darvish? I know we saw Xander Bogart's taking some matting practice before you guys went on the road trip. Just kind of overall general health updates on your team. Yeah. So, you know, it looks like Darvish, the imaging is negative, so it's positive, nothing overly alarming with that. I do think he was going to seek another image, which is pretty standard, you know, and then it's just a matter of getting inflammation out, which is the biggest golfer it feels like right now. Well, the second place in the Zobo, getting it out and getting to where you can play catch and recover, you know, is the longer he stays away, you know, longer it's going to, you know, longer he can't throw, the longer it's going to be for him to get back. So, no real, you know, great time on there. Bogart's training in a really good place, going to have another stand-through and CT scan that I'll determine how much further he's healed. Most recently was favorable. It's like he's a little bit at a schedule, but the next will be the one that allows us to determine with him how much he can ramp up, but the good news is, you know, he's taking ground ball, he's taking some swings, and then, like I say, relative to the next, it'll be how much the ball you can take to where you can start to get some live at bats and potentially rehab and get back, you know, working with us. So, good news on that part is what this obviously has returned to Boston, so I'm sure it'll be bittersweet for him, but I know this organization is going to be something that the reward is really productive time here. Horizon back from his ouchy. We're determining that. Tournament and that one, okay. And I have fun managing at Fenway Park. I mean, that's got to be kind of special for anybody. Anybody gets to go in there. It's a temple of baseball history. Oh, it's amazing. Yeah, I love coming here, and I'm right in here in the dugout right now looking in this beautiful field. Awesome. I like this good. Very blessed. All right, we'll have a good one. Good series, and I keep up the good work. As we said, very impressive week, and we'll talk to you actually two weeks. You get next Friday off with the 4th of July holiday, so we'll talk in a couple of weeks, skip. Oh, you guys aren't working? No, we're not working. No, we're taking a four day weekend, of course. Like, you know, we're not baseball players, and you guys, country clubs. Okay, all right. Well, believe it. I'll see you next month. See you next month. All start break. There we go. That sounds good. Mike Shelton, manager of the San Diego Padres. Absolutely right. Yeah, we are not. We are lazy. It's a perk time because I got one. I don't get, I don't get those days off. Now, just, just you guys, huh? You take the extra long weekends. Yep. I guess he's volunteering to do summer break with us then when he's on his break. Oh, well, that's right. All right, we could turn this around here. Oh, you take an entire all-star break on here. What? One year? We took three days. You're taking four. Wow. You guys aren't playing. Oh, yeah, we'll throw that back at him. Oh, yes. We're talking about Friday. All-star breaks coming up. You know who's working, right? That would be us. Should have him in. That would be awesome. And we're run down. Five-thirty. Five-thirty. See you here. Yeah. Liners to read. Just the whole shooting match for Mike Shelton. I think so much fun. So much fun. Now he's great. He's great. He gets so mad. No, yeah. What do you want? I love me. I love me. How do you want me to answer? Well, I think you just knocked it out of the park. You had a great answer. He does. It's great. It's his way of saying that's not a well-worded question. I know. I know. I know. I know. All right, we'll come back. We'll react to what you just heard. We got a couple of segments left for this week. Looking forward to the weekend. Of course, it's better woods. We'll check traffic here on 97 through the fam. Famous still day in the chat says it feels like beef between woods and the skipper. Do you get the sense that there's beef? I think he hates me. I like him. No, no. Beef. Yeah, it's actually cited. Yes, there is. He's not beef. I think you annoy him. Yeah, beef means like two going back to fourth. Oh, I love him. You love him. I love him. He just hates you. Yeah, that's not beef. That's not beef. Right. Yeah, of course. Hey, Mike, you hate me? Yeah. Yeah, I thought so. He's honest. I'm honest too. He's not that honest though. He was holding out. He was holding out because apparently the Padres will be making a roster move today. And they all already made another one earlier today. First one as reported by Kevin A.C. Padres will have a new left hander in their bullpen today. Austin Davis, who's appeared in 136 MLB games for four teams will come up after a strong showing in AAA as El Paso's closer recently is allowed four runs in his past 20 innings pitched corresponding move yet to be announced wouldn't feel great if I was Tom Cosgrove. In fact, I might not even be with the team if I was Tom Cosgrove right now. You know, he came up after doing a good job at AAA that that ninth inning though is not what the Padres need. They need someone who can spare the rest of the bullpen, not force them to get Adrian Morion and Robert Suarez up and active in the ninth inning when he got an eight run lead. I could be wrong. It could be someone else. It could be an injury. Don't know. And then what did you just told me old friend alerts? Yeah, I was scrolling Instagram and I saw a picture of Nabil Crismat in a San Diego Padres uniform and I went, oh, he's, you know, relive. Hey, throwback Friday, flashback Friday when I was on the Padres. And no, it says, I'm very happy to announce I'm back with the San Diego Padres looking forward to this new chapter. See you all soon. Interesting. Major league, minor league, don't know. Padres faced him earlier this year when he hooked on with the L.A. Dodgers hadn't really been keeping up with Nabil's status, but got released by them went to Texas. He was just released by Texas like three days ago looking for a home again, man looking for a, you know, place that he can get some opportunity to pitch. He's he's Nabil Crismat. Well, like, very well, in the Padres clubhouse. There's no doubt about that. Bringing back all the vibes, guys. Who's next? Jorge Alfaro. Jorge Alfaro. I don't know what the hell happened with him and Bob Melvin at the end of the 2022. Yeah, something. But the vibes are strong leading up to the playoffs. That's like, you said, I mean, yeah, you so it's a four, 10 first pitch, which means lineups probably around one o'clock this afternoon, probably roster announcements around the same time. Now, we know Mike Schultz already there in the dugout. He said at Fenway Park getting some early soaking in the history of the green monster and such early in the day. They always have early meetings for the series opener. You know, you got your hitters and pitchers meetings to go over matchups and who they're going to be facing throughout the series. Like one of the main things this team needs is a mop up guy. And nobody's really snagged that job. Collec didn't do it. Cosgrove didn't do it. Now, Collec has been pitching well. No, no, no, in mop up. Well, yeah, that's true. Yeah, he's actually when he's better when they actually put him in higher level. She's been better. Yeah, good point. So no bill, Chris Matt, welcome to mop up duty. He's probably not joining the major league roster bed. I would imagine. But we'll see. We'll see what happens with no bill, but he is posted on his Instagram that he is in fact back with the San Diego Padres. We don't know what level. We don't know what I mean, you know, he's kind of the pitching version of jerks and pro far always comes back home after struggling elsewhere. He's back home again. What if he really is the pitching version of jerks and pro far and he shows up all of a sudden. Nabil Chris Matt rolls off like 42 consecutive scoreless innings or something. That would be jerks and like on the mound. Yeah, this year. Very interesting. That seems overly optimistic. It does. But stranger things have happened. I'm curious to see who's going to be starting out. You could tell from Mike Schiltz answer that he's not ready to be comfortable with Eggie Rosario out in right field. Correct. And there's no lefties in the correct, you know, in the hopper for the opposing pitchers. So they have some maybe some time. I would imagine Eggie will mostly serve as a pinch hitter for now against left handed relievers on this road trip if he does get an opportunity, but wouldn't expect him in the Sarah Lee. Then again, Bryce Johnson every single day can't really be the answer either as you're just tell until Ted Tease is back. We got Bryce Johnson. He's going to be out there every day. You've got to find something a little bit more promising than that. I bet you see David Peralta in there tonight, you know, get some of the lefties in there, you know, they love matchups and whatnot. I'm okay with Tyler Wade out there. Good things seem to happen when Tyler Wade's in the game. Crazy, right? Crazy. What a role he's found on this. He has. Yeah. Yeah. Good player. If you missed it, good role player. Early this morning, we got to do a mid season catch up and chat with our good friend Major Garrett from Washington, D.C. Padres fan extraordinaire and chief Washington correspondent for CBS News. We thought it was good enough that we would bring it back here in our final segment of the week, our conversation with Major Garrett coming up next here on San Diego's number one sports station, 97 through the fan. Birthday boy at the station today. It's funny that you knew you remembered his birthday, but you didn't remember mine last time. That's true. And you put that and you're not even you're not even his cohost. And he's only he's only worked here for the last few months. Yeah. Now he came on our show every Friday for several years. So, you know, I'll give you some credit for that. Just came up on social media. Yeah, I did. I did. Happy birthday to Craig Elston of the Annie and Elston show that's following us right here on 97 through the fan. Still can't get over the fact that we forgot his birthday. Not I'm just not going to put it on me exclusively me and we totally bricked and all the ones in my family and family. It's probably my fault, right? Your family forget? No, they forgot to tell you. They forgot to tell me. Yeah, I didn't forget my birthday, but they forgot to tell you about my birthday. Yeah. I was actually my greatest gift I ever received was you forgetting about my birthday. Yeah, because you have that to lord over the best present I could have gotten something to lord over woods moving forward. You didn't literally anytime you want to be like, hey, you remember that time that you forgot my birthday? That really hurt. That always feels like a birthday present when we get some time with Major Garrett. Oh, it's always an enjoyable Padres conversation. We had that opportunity this morning despite every busy thing going on in Washington right now. Washington CBS News Chief correspondent Major Garrett with Ben and Woods will bring you that conversation right after traffic here on 97 through the fam. All right. And joining us now live from DC, our pal, one of the biggest, if not the biggest Padres fan. We know Major Garrett, good morning, my friend. Good morning. How is everybody? Man, we are good. We are good. Just, you know, needed the night off last night. It's been a whirlwind around Petco Park, the last few actually last few weeks. I'm just laughing. You guys had a night off. I didn't have a night off. No, last night was not a night off for you. Last. I told the guys earlier, I said, I watched five minutes and then I went and I watched Silence of the Lambs and felt I felt a little bit better about the future of our country. Corporal Metal Jacket. Yeah, Full Metal Jacket. Exactly. Exactly. How are you, friend? I'm good. I'm good. You know, look, I am, I think, probably where a lot of your audiences, I'm excited about where this team is. I mean, if you'd asked me at the beginning of the season, you don't have Darvish for most of the first half. You don't have Musgrove. You don't have Bogarts. And you've got 44 wins, same as the Braves. Only two teams have more wins in the Padres, the Phillies and the Dodgers. Would you take that? Yeah. And I would say, yes. Good perspective. Not to mention, not to mention dramatically better performance with runners in scoring position, dramatically better performance in close games, dramatically better performance in extra any games, leading the major leagues in Bunt Basits. Not a statistic we typically celebrate, but one that's important about how you put pressure on another team. I like where we are. I really do. Good morning, Major. It is good to talk to you as always. My question to you is, has Mike Schilt been what you've expected he was going to be as the Padres manager? Better. Better. I fully expected that he would be rigorous on preparation process and team unity. And he has been. What I have been very surprised on the upside with is not only his ability to put that in the clubhouse, translate that from the clubhouse to the field and then talk to the Padre public about why it's working and not to freak out when you feel like freaking out because all of us are traumatized by the memories of last year. I know Bob Melvin is a very respected and accomplished manager. I don't want to take anything away from him, but Schilt has a more positive and more direct explanation for what he's doing, why he believes it will work, and why he's not going to be deterred. And for a fan base, I think that's super important. It's not only important for the fan base, it's important for the players to know that the manager has their back and will talk to the public about what's going on in a way that supports them, reinforces them, and is credible. And I think Schilt's very good at all of those things. You know, and it's funny talking to Major Garrett here. I try. We have him on every Friday and I try to get him to settle. I'm not asking him to be negative or throw one of his guys under the bus, but I will try to get him to say just, yeah, we could we could improve in that area. He won't do it. And anything critical, anything critical. And I do understand the reasoning behind it. And I think pottery fans, a lot of them do as well. You've seen this clubhouse, you know, splinter the last couple of seasons. You've seen, you've seen, you know, the the like everything fall apart and they go off a cliff. I kind of understand the reasoning of nope, not going to do it. I'm good. I'm going to pat these guys on the butt. I'm going to pack them, pat them on the back, especially in public. We don't know what's going on behind closed doors, certainly. We're not privy to that. And he's not going to share it. And Manny won't share it. And Jerksen won't share it. They're really tight-lipped this year. That's one thing I have noticed. There's, you know, you're not hearing any whispers coming out of, uh oh, a lot of, you know, this guy's mad at this guy. I find that it's quite the opposite. Quite the opposite. But I thought Jerksen Profar gave a very important interview to Kevin AC last week before the pottery got on their good run. And he said the team needs to play better. The team needs to have more leadership and execute better and win winnable games. Profar said that as an emerging team leader. He wouldn't have said it if he didn't believe that Manny would back him up on that. And Mike Schilt was okay with that. It's better when the players give that kind of interview, particularly a all-star caliber player as Jerksen Profar undoubtedly is this season. Having him say it and having no one in the clubhouse refuted or talked behind his back or anyone go to Schilt and say, "What do you think about that?" It all felt consistent even though it was at the margins critical of how the Padres came off that road trip deservedly so. That's another dynamic that I think is important and reinforces that this team, for whatever set of reasons, and a lot of it comes to the manager, a lot of it flows to the players, is a much more coherent unit, much more collaborative unit. And look, success reinforces that. You get walk off wins, you suddenly feel things are possible. You watch other teams walk you off, you start wondering if anything is possible. We've turned the corner on that. Major, we also all tended to agree that Manny had a big leadership moment when he stepped in with Jerksen, you know, behind home plate with Keebert Ruiz. And I don't know if there's any talk of the other side of this. People are curious, you know, in Washington, D.C. You've got a bunch of things going on probably other than listening to Sports Talk Radio or commentary on what happened this week. But it felt like perhaps at least a defining moment for this clubhouse and for Manny Machado in particular as well, what happened against the Washington Nationals earlier this week. So Nat's fans, and I sort of dip in and out of that world, I'm a nominal Nat's fans because my kids grew up here in D.C. and I've freed them. I said, you have a hometown team. It's a great thing in life. It's to be able to root for your hometown baseball team. I'm raising you as pottery fans. I'm now releasing you. We didn't have a ceremony, but I kind of communicated that to them, you know. So I dip in and out of the net, Nat's fans are not big on Keebert Ruiz. They don't think it's a strong defensive catch or offensive. He's kind of awash and they thought he stepped way out of his lane. And I for one do not understand, do not understand how an umpire in the major leagues can watch a player touch another player at home plate and not throw him out immediately. You cannot do that under any circumstance. You cannot take your mask off, get another player's face and start poking him in the chest. Why is he still in the game? And that's why Manny came up because he saw Jerkson was doing the thing he told everyone afterwards. I'm not going to get thrown out of this game. I'm not going to lose my cool, but Manny came in and said, "Hey, you can't touch my guy." And then, then he get, then pro far gets hit and everyone goes, "Oh, is it intentional or not?" He got hit. You gave warnings. Something should have happened. And then you run shilt. So then Manny is right in this moment, this moment where everyone is really pissed off. Everyone is pissed off in that stadium. I'm freaking angry at home 3,000 miles away. First pitch in the seats, take that and fill in your own expletage. Okay. Speaking of expletives, what Jackson Merrill said about it after was, that's how you effing lead. I'm not saying he had it at Homer, but right there off the bell, effing first pitch, ready to go. That's how you effing lead right there. That's effing electric. I love this kid, too. I love this kid. You know, you hear when Manny was slumping, when Manny was slumping a couple of weeks ago, all you heard was, "Oh, he's a terrible leader, terrible leader, terrible leader." And I'm like, man, he's clearly rubbed off on Jackson Merrill. He's clearly hitting the ball better. Maybe he's feeling better. We all kind of knew, I kind of knew it's going to come. You know, he's got it in him. And I think the power is still going to come for Manny, hopefully this weekend. But I thought that was, I thought it was really special, man. The young... It was, yeah. It was by far the most electric moment of the season. I hope there are moments that will come close to that. But I don't think anything can surpass that in that moment. And look, Major League Baseball lives and dies on the margins of centimeters. A month ago, Manny gets that same pitch and fouls it back. He's just off a tick. That night, he was dialed in, saw it, hit it. And that shows that his work, his progress, is getting him closer to the player that all Padres fans remember and want to see again. So, Major, now is the calendar switches to July. The trade deadline is coming up in a few weeks. And the Padres, like most teams right now, are going to be in the market for some help. They're not going to be able to afford everything, though. Starting pitching would be nice. Another bullpen arm would be nice and with Tetis out for an extended period of time. Another bat would be nice, assuming they can't do all of that. Where's your priority lie as a Padres fan? Look, I am stung. I have been stung the past two years by outside expectations about the players we bring in changing things. And we have to look at Jackson Merrill and take pride in our player development. He's ours. We developed him. He's a star, already a star. Remember that. Not only is he a star, he's cheap, okay? We developed him. That's what you get. You don't have to give anything up. You have to pay a huge free market ransom for a player like that. I don't want to say stand pat because that's not what AJ Preller is going to do, but I don't want any of our remaining top prospects traded. I just don't. I want them to stay in the pipeline. I want them to believe in their process of player development and harvest them as we did Jackson Merrill. Watching CJ Abrams reminded me of what a great player he is, how much this roster would be different. And let's be honest, when Bogart and Tetis and Musgrove and Darvish come back as we all hope they will, that'll be like making a trade. Yeah, we hope. I mean, you know, I feel like I've delivered that line to our audience many times as well over the last couple of years. And you know, they bought on the margins last year. That didn't work out. I thought Scott Barlow was fine. But if you could find a way to grab another Scott Barlow, somebody like that that can sure up, you know, the back end ish of your bullpen. Yeah, I think that's that's okay. But when you, when it comes to Salas and Devries and the huge blast, you move. No, I watch, I watch Leo Dallas, the other hit his first home run. We talked about it off the air, pitch up in the zone. Did he hammer this thing and then had the emotion, looked at the dugout lake. I was like, yeah, oh, that kid is 17 years old, 18 years old. I've watched Ethan Salas in person. And I thought to myself, no, no, no, we need to be patient with these guys. But honestly, after those two, I'm like, all right, we can, we can continue to make moves as long as the other one's going to ask for those two. I know. I know. And we just got to say, no, it's not happening. Yeah, stand pat. I agree. Yeah, I agree with you 100%. Major really appreciated. I know you've got a very busy schedule with everything that's going on. But I can tell that our listeners were extremely, extremely enthusiastic to hear from you this morning and appreciate your perspective. As always, it's a great one. And then thank you so much for your time. I'm always here for you guys. Thank you, brother. Love you, man. Talk to you soon. Bye bye. Great stuff with major Garrett. Fun conversation as always. And by the way, we're talking about that national series to set some news during that replay that the nationals are set to promote former Padre prospect James Wood. He's going to make his major league debut. They say on Monday, which I think is polite that they didn't do it last week and bring him right up and shove him in the Padres face. C.J. Abrams is doing well. The Kensigors doing pretty well. You can't say that the nationals did poorly in the Juan Soto trade. If they had to trade Juan Soto, they've done pretty well with the with the pieces they got back. And this will be another another big addition for them going forward. Yeah, I mean better than we have so far, I think, right? Yeah, you know, so I mean, you know, they turned one so into the NLCS in the last two years. They got to the NLCS and they've turned Juan Soto into some much needed pitching. Michael King's been been pretty good. We'll see Randy Vasquez tonight. By the way, Randy Vasquez is okay last time is is pitching a little bit better. Johnny burritos going to be stretched out in the minor lease to get in, you know, into some starting and Kyle Logashyoka is the, you know, hottest catching hitter in all of baseball right now. Number two in OPS in the big leagues or something. The mall in the month of June. Yeah, he's been incredible. So what's not like the Padres didn't get anything for Juan Soto and they also had a year and a half of Juan Soto that we got to got to enjoy and watch. So sometimes trades work out okay for both teams. I mean, could you undo it and have those guys back? Probably would be the best case scenario, but you can't you move forward and do the best you can with what you had. So that's that's what we know and we'll move forward. So by the way, congratulations. I want to say thank you to the tier ones out there. We had John Flynn and earlier he was raising money for the service animal for veterans, a pause for purple hearts and they reached their goal and that I think it is big, big credit. A lot of tier ones responded and they made it to their $35,000 goal to be able to train a service pet for a vet facing PTSD here in San Diego, which is very awesome. How much did you give? I was on the air. You can't, oh, exactly. I did. We were on the air. My mic was still on and I was able to make a donation. I gave my time and enthusiasm. And your platform. The most important commodity you can give would anyone can just give money. Right. Right. I gave time, time, enthusiasm, a couple of witty remarks. Yeah. Yeah. My witty remarks aren't free. That's true. That's true. They are valuable. They are valuable. I used a couple of them to help John. I think though, what they were trying to raise though was money from bar. You are so big. His face went white when I asked him that. Big weekend plans? No. I'm gonna try to play some golf. Would you like to play some golf? Perhaps. All right. You know, see what I can do. Sounds good. We will be back for about three days next week. I'm going to play golf just not a precious weekend. It's 6 a.m. Birthday boy, man. Coming up from your house. Coming up next for Paul Reidel for Stephen Woods. I'm Ben Higgins. Have a great weekend. We'll talk to you Monday morning at 6 a.m. Right here on San Diego's number one sports station, 97.3. The fans. So long, everybody. It's got a birthday boy at the station today. It's funny that you knew you remembered his birthday. But you didn't remember mine last time. That's true. You put that and you're not even you're not even his co-host and he's only he's only worked here for the last few months. Yeah. Now he came on our show every Friday for several years. Right. So, you know, I'll give you some credit for that. Just came up on social media. Yeah, I did. I did. Happy birthday to Craig Elston of the Annie and Elston show that's following us right here on 97.3. The fan still can't get over the fact that we forgot his birthday. Not I'm just not going to put it on me exclusively me and we totally bricked and all the ones in my family and family. It's probably my fault. Right? Your family forget? No, they forgot to tell you. They forgot to tell me. Yeah. I'm going to forget my birthday, but they forgot to tell you about my birthday. Yeah. I was actually my the greatest gift I ever received was you forgetting about my birthday. Yeah, because you have that to lord over the best present I could have gotten. Something to lord over woods moving forward. You can literally anytime you want to be like, hey, you remember that time that you forgot my birthday that really hurt. That always feels like a birthday present when we get some time with Major Gary. Oh, it's always an enjoyable Padres conversation. We had that opportunity this morning despite every busy thing going on in Washington right now. Washington CBS News Chief correspondent, Major Garrett with Ben and Woods will bring you that conversation right after traffic here on 97 3 the fan. All right. And joining us now live from DC our pal one of the biggest if not the biggest Padres fan. We know Major Garrett. Good morning, my friend. Good morning. How is everybody? Man, we are good. We are good. Just, you know, needed the night off last night. It's been a whirlwind around Petco Park the last last few, actually last few weeks. I'm just laughing. You guys had a night off. I didn't have a night off. No, last night was not a night off for you. Last, I told the guys earlier, I said, I watched five minutes and then I went and I watched Silence of the Lambs and felt, I felt a little bit better about the future of our country. Exactly. Full metal jacket or something. Yeah, full metal jacket. Exactly. Exactly. How are you, friend? I'm good. I'm good. You know, look, I and I think probably where a lot of your audience is, I'm excited about where this team is. I mean, if you'd asked me at the beginning of the season, you don't have Darvish for most of the first half. You don't have Musgrove. You don't have Bogarts. And you've got 44 wins. Same as the Braves. Only two teams have more wins than the Padres, the Phillies and the Dodgers. Would you take that? Yeah. And I would say, yes. Good perspective. Not to mention, not to mention dramatically better performance with runners in scoring position, dramatically better performance in close games, dramatically better performance in extra any games, leading the major leagues in Bunt Basits. Not a statistic we typically celebrate, but one that's important about how you put pressure on another team. I like where we are. I really do. Good morning, Major. It is good to talk to you as always. My question to you is, has Mike Schilt been what you've expected he was going to be as the Padres manager? Better. Better. I fully expected that he would be rigorous on preparation process and team unity. And he has been. What I have been very surprised on the upside with is not only his ability to put that in the clubhouse, translate that from the clubhouse to the field, and then talk to the Padres public about why it's working and not to freak out when you feel like freaking out because all of us are traumatized by the memories of last year. I know Bob Melvin is a very respected and accomplished manager. I don't want to take anything away from him, but Schilt has a more positive and more direct explanation for what he's doing, why he believes it will work, and why he's not going to be deterred. And for a fan base, I think that's super important. It's not only important for the fan base, it's important for the players to know that the manager has their back and will talk to the public about what's going on in a way that supports them, reinforces them, and is credible. And I think Schilt's very good at all those things. You know, and it's funny talking to Major Garrett here, I try. We have him on every Friday and I tried to get him to settle. I'm not asking him to be negative or throw one of his guys under the bus, but I will try to get him to say just, yeah, we could, we could improve in that area. He won't do it. And anything critical, anything critical. And I do understand the reasoning behind it. And I think pottery fans, a lot of them do as well. You've seen this clubhouse, you know, splinter, the last couple of seasons, you've seen, you've seen, you know, the, the, like everything fall apart and they go off a cliff. I kind of understand the reasoning of, nope, not going to do it. I'm going to, I'm going to pat these guys on the butt. I'm going to pat them, pat them on the back, especially in public. We don't know what's going on behind closed doors, certainly. We're not privy to that. And he's not going to share it. And Manny won't share it. And Jerkson won't share it. They, they're really tight-lipped this year. That's one thing I have noticed. There's, you don't, you're not hearing any whispers coming out of, uh oh, a lot of, uh, you know, this guy's mad at this guy. I find that it's quite the opposite. Quite the opposite. But I thought Jerkson Profar gave a very important interview to Kevin A.C. last week before the pottery got on their good run. And he said the team needs to play better. The team needs to have more leadership and execute better and win winnable games. Profar said that as an emerging team leader, he wouldn't have said it if he didn't believe that Manny would back him up on that. And Mike Schilt was okay with that. It's better when the players give that kind of interview, particularly a all-star caliber player as Jerkson Profar undoubtedly is this season. Having him say it and having no one in the clubhouse refute it or talk behind his back or anyone go to Schilt and say, what do you think about that? It all felt consistent even though it was at the margins critical of how the potteries came off that road trip deservedly so. That's another dynamic that I think is important and reinforces that this team for whatever set of reasons and a lot of it comes to the manager, a lot of it flows to the players is a much more coherent unit, much more collaborative unit. And look, success reinforces that. You get walk off wins, you suddenly feel things are possible. You watch other teams walk you off, you start wondering if anything is possible. We've turned the corner on it. Major, we also all tended to agree that Manny had a big leadership moment when he stepped in with Jerkson, you know, behind home plate with Keebert Ruiz. And I don't know if there's any talk at the other side of this. People are curious, you know, in Washington, D.C. You've got a bunch of things going on probably other than listening to Sports Talk Radio or commentary on what happened this week. But it felt like perhaps at least a defining moment for this clubhouse and for Manny Machado in particular as well, what happened against the Washington Nationals earlier this week? So Nets fans, and I sort of dip in and out of that world, I'm a nominal Nets fans because my kids grew up here in D.C. and I've read them, I said, you have a hometown team, it's a great thing in life is to be able to root for your hometown baseball team. I'm raising you as pottery fans. I'm now releasing you. We didn't have a ceremony, but I kind of communicated that to them, you know, I dip in and out of the Nets. Nets fans are not big on Keebert Ruiz. They don't think it's a strong defensive catch or offensive. He's kind of awash and they thought he stepped way out of his lane and I for one do not understand, do not understand how an umpire in the major leagues can watch a player touch another player at home plate and not throw him out immediately. You cannot do that under any circumstance. You cannot take your mask off, get another player's face and start poking him in the chest. Why is he still in the game? And that's why Manny came up because he saw Jerkson was doing the thing he told everyone afterwards. I'm not going to get thrown out of this game, I'm not going to lose my cool, but Manny came in and said, hey, you can't touch my guy. Then, then he get, then Pro Park gets hit and everyone, oh, is it intentional or not? He got hit, you gave warnings. Something should have happened. And then you run shilt, so then Manny is right in this moment, this moment where everyone is really pissed off. Everyone is pissed off to that team. I'm freaking angry at home 3000 miles away. First pitch in the seats, take that and fill in your own explicit. Okay. Well, speaking of expletives, what Jackson Merrill said about it after was that's how you effing lead. I'm not, I'm not saying yet at Homer, but right there off the bell, effing first pitch, ready to go. That's how you effing lead right there. That's effing electric. I love this kid too. I love this kid. You know, you hear when Manny was slumping, when Manny was slumping a couple weeks ago, all you heard was, Oh, he's a terrible leader, terrible leader, terrible leader. And I'm like, man, he's clearly rubbed off on Jackson Merrill. He's clearly hitting the ball better. Maybe he's feeling better. We all kind of knew I kind of knew it's going to come. You know, he's got it in him. And I think the power is still going to come for Manny. Hopefully this weekend. But I thought that was, I was really special, man. The young, it was, it was by far the most electric moment of the season. I hope there are moments that will come close to that. But I don't think anything can surpass that in that moment. And look, the major league baseball lives and dies on the margins of centimeters. A month ago, Manny gets that same pitch and fouls it back. Yep. He's just off a tick that night. He was dialed in, saw it, hit it. And that shows that his work, his progress is getting him closer to the player that all Padre fans remember and want to see again. So major now is the calendar switches to July. The trade deadline is coming up in a few weeks. And the Padres, like most teams right now are going to be in the market for some help. They're not going to be able to afford everything, though. Starting pitching would be nice. Another bullpen arm would be nice. And with Tetis out, you know, for an extended period of time. Another bat would be nice, assuming they can't do all of that. Where's your priority lie as a Padres fan? Look, I, I am stung. I have been stung the past two years by outsized expectations about the players we bring in changing things. And we have to look at Jackson Merrill and take pride in our player development. He's ours. We developed him. He's a star, already a star. Remember that. Not only is he a star, he's cheap. Okay. We developed him. That's what you get. You don't have to give anything up. You have to pay huge free market ransom for a player like that. I don't want to say stand pat because that's not what AJ Preller is going to do. But I don't want any of our remaining top prospects traded. I just don't. I want them to stay in the pipeline. I want them to believe in their process of player development and harvest them as we did Jackson Merrill. Watching CJ Abrams reminded me of what a great player he is. How much this roster would be different. And let's be honest, when Bogart's in Tetis and Musgrove and Darvish come back as we all hope they will, that'll be like making a trade. Yeah, we hope. I mean, you know, I, I feel like I've delivered that line to our audience many times as well over the last couple years. And, you know, they bought on the margins last year. That didn't work out. I thought Scott Barlow was fine. But if you could find a way to grab another Scott Barlow, somebody like that that can show up, you know, the back end ish of your bullpen. Yeah, I think that's okay. But I, when you, when it comes to Salas and DeVries and the huge flash, you move. No, I watch, I watch Leo Dallas, the other hit his first home run. We talked about it off the air, pitch up in the zone. Did he, he hammered this thing and then had the emotion looked at the dugout. Like, I was like, yeah, oh, that kid is 17 years old, 18 years old. I've watched Ethan Salas in person. And I thought to myself, no, no, no, we need to be patient with these guys. But, yes, honestly, after those two, I'm like, all right, we can, we can continue to make moves as long as but everyone's going to ask for those two. Everyone's going to ask for those two. And we just got to say, no, it's not happening. Yeah, stand pat. I agree. Yeah, I agree with you 100%. Major, really appreciate it. I know you've got a very busy schedule with everything that's going on. But I can tell that our listeners were extremely, extremely enthusiastic to hear from you this morning and appreciate your perspective. As always, it's a great one. And then thank you so much for your time. I'm always here for you guys. Thank you, brother. Love you, man. Talk to you soon. Bye bye. Great stuff with major Garrett. Fun conversation as always. And by the way, we're talking about that national series to set some news during that replay that the nationals are set to promote former Padre prospect. James Wood, he's going to make his major league debut, they say on Monday, which I think is polite that they didn't do it last week. He can bring him right up and shove him in the Padres face. See, J Abrams is doing well. The Kensigor is doing pretty well. You can't say that the nationals did poorly in the Juan Soto trade. If they had to trade Juan Soto, they've done pretty well with the with the pieces they got back. And this will be another another big addition for them going forward. Yeah, I mean better than we have so far, I think, right? Yeah, I know. So I mean, you know, they turned one. We made it to the NLCS in the last two years, the trade got to the NLCS and they've turned one so it went to some much needed pitching. Michael King's been been pretty good. We'll see Randy Vasquez tonight. By the way, Randy Vasquez is okay last time. He's pitching a little bit better. Johnny burrito is going to be stretched out in the minor leagues to get into some starting. And Kyle Hagashyoka is the hottest catching hitter in all of baseball right now. Number two in OPS in the big leagues or something. In the month of June, he's been incredible. So what's not like the Padres didn't get anything for Juan Soto and they also had a year and a half of Juan Soto that we got to enjoy and watch. So sometimes trades work out okay for both teams. I mean, could you undo it and have those guys back? Probably would be the best case scenario, but you can't. You move forward and do the best you can with what you had. So that's that's what we know and we'll move forward. So by the way, congratulations. I want to say thank you to the tier ones out there. We had John Flynn and earlier, he was raising money for the service animal, for veterans, pause for purple hearts, and they reached their goal. And that I think it is big, big credit. A lot of tier ones responded and they made it to their $35,000 goal to be able to train a service pet for a vet facing PTSD here in San Diego, which is very awesome. How much did you give? I was on the air. You can't. Oh, exactly. We were on the air. My mic was still on and I was able to make a generation. I gave my time and enthusiasm. And your platform. The most important commodity you can give. What? Hmm. Anyone can just give money. Right. Right. Time time, enthusiasm, a couple of witty remarks. Yeah. Yeah. My witty remarks aren't free. That's true. That's true. They are valuable. They are valuable. I used a couple of them to help John. I think though what they were trying to raise, though, was money from bar. You are so big. His face went white when I asked him that. Big weekend plans? No. I'm gonna try to play some golf. Would you like to play some golf? Perhaps. All right. You know, see what I can do. Sounds good. We will be back for three days next week. I'm gonna have to play golf just not a holiday. Precious weekends. 6 a.m. Birthday boy and Andy coming up from your house. Coming up next for Paul Reidel for Stephen Woods. I'm Ben Higgins. Have a great weekend. We'll talk to you Monday morning at 6 a.m. Right here on San Diego's number one sports station, 97.3 the fans. So long, everybody. What kind of programs does this school have? How are the test scores? How many kids do a classroom? 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