Ben & Woods On Demand Podcast
97.3 The Fan Roundtable for June 27th, 2024
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Nerd Wallet can coach you on smart strategies like choosing investments, finding your next credit card and setting a budget that works for you. Score major points towards your summer vacation by learning expert tips for choosing a high yield savings account and how to build wealth by investing in index funds. Slide into summer with smarter decisions in 2024. Follow Nerd Wallet Smart Money Podcast on your favorite podcast app. Future you will thank you. It's that time, prior faithful, time to discuss everything going on with the Padres. We've gathered the entire 97.3 the fan crew together to bring you the most in-depth discussion on the priors in our weekly Padres Roundtable presented by San Diego Roundtable Pizza. Here's your host, Ben Higgins. Welcome once again to our 97.3 the fan Padres Roundtable or as I like to call it, five people who really don't know what they're talking about when it comes to Padres Baseball on a weekend week out basis. Yeah, the guessers. Here we are again. Last week, of course, it was doom and gloom. The Padres were coming off five straight losses. I think they had won in Philadelphia, but the season looked to be on the brink. And here we are, seven wins in eight games, a six-in-one home stand. And once again, everything is looking bright and positive in Padres World. So let me introduce everybody. We've got Annie Halbrunn and Craig Elston from the Craig and Annie Elston and Annie Program. Oh boy. Here we go. There are four hours in already from this morning. Oh boy. My co-host, Stephen Woods. Hello, Benjamin. Hello, Benjamin. To the end of this hour. It's good. Ben Higgins and the Woods Show. Ben Higgins, the Woods Show. Ben from the L.O. and Gwen Program. Chris Elo is here as well. Branding, obviously, not very important. Hello, and to the addition today's edition. I'm going to start with a very broad-based, difficult to answer question. Someone make it make sense. Can anyone offer enough insight at this point? We're over halfway through the season. Make the Padres make a little bit of sense at this point, Chris. Is there anything that you can say that can make this team somehow fit logically into an explanation in my mind? No, probably not. But I'll take my best shot at it. I think a couple of things are becoming clear to me. First of all, the injuries are part of the reason for this. But I'm not sure this team is really all that great. I think they have a lot of holes. This isn't the all-time superstar ball club that we might think it is. But I think the fight in this team and the chemistry, whatever is working behind the scenes, is allowing it to continue to bob its head above water every time the talent level starts to sink it. So that's about all I can come up with. They've had a 500 record 25 different times this year. And I'd love to believe that they'll never go back to 500 now that they're three games over. But I'm kind of ready for it. That's a good stab at it. However, I would say the teams, I mean, we've seen bad teams that are plucky and they show a lot of fight and they get to 500. But generally those are teams that are overmatched. They don't have enough talent, but they somehow find a way to win some games, have a good record and one more run, brawl games get to a good record. That's not exactly right with the San Diego Padres, Craig, though. They have high-priced talent. They have good players on the roster and they have the fight that Chris is just showing. That should be the recipe for a team that is better than they are right now. If the high-priced talent was healthy, available and playing at the level that they were being paid to do, then I would completely agree with you. But to make it make sense, I think it's actually very straightforward. That's the top of the Padres payroll. Manny Machado, until very recently, was playing at a level that's not Manny Machado. We know he's recovering from an injury. We know what's going on, but factually he was putting up, I don't think he's put up half a war, or maybe just about that for the whole year. Bogart's negative war player, Darvish, unavailable, Musgrove, unavailable and pitched poorly when he was available. Those are the players you were counting on to have about five war between them at this point of the year. They've added up to less than two. So when the top is misfiring, and the rest of the roster has been so good, you get this 500 melange, but now it's been combined with what I do agree, is a team chemistry that is shown through now. So I think what Craig is saying, Woods, is that we see a team that is pushing at the luxury tax threshold, and we think high-priced team. But maybe it would be better to view this team as one of the lower payroll teams in baseball, because they're not getting the money's worth out of the players, they're actually spending the money on them. Yeah, and you do like where some things are trending, as far as where Manny's going. But for me, I've been saying all year, if you can hang around in a pretty weak NL, nobody wants to face this team. Nobody. I mean, they're beating good teams. They lose to the crap teams. That's the one that makes your sides of my head go gray. We know them, we follow them, we see what they're capable of. I don't really see any less effort against the Angels or the Mets. I don't see any lack of effort or want to. There's no way to explain what's going on, but they have given us already so many more moments this year than last year. They're an infinitely more fun team to watch, and the unsung heroes, you know, the Higgies and the Tyler Wades and the Jackson Merrells and those guys have been a delight, a delight to watch. And they have really carried some of those stars assets this year. They really have. And we are always going to be filled with the promise of, well, what if? What if Zander comes back and is Silver Slugger Zander and what if Manny goes on one of his, you know, every year tears? And what if you get healthy? Yeah, and as long as there's a what if, it keeps me coming back every night because these guys are pretty fun to watch. Annie, I think some of the things that I usually apply to a baseball team, like when you have a long stretch of games with almost no off days and then you're hit with a rash of injuries. I know what that means. I've covered baseball long enough. That means your team is about to go in a big tailspin until they can get healthy, until they can get some days off. Expect eight losses in 10 games. Well, last week, both of those things hit at the same time for the pod race. Injuries, tiredness after 26 games in 27 days. This should have been a bad week for the pod race. Why was it a good week? Yeah, I think in a lot of ways this team has over performed, which sounds crazy sometimes because in a lot of ways, they've under performed. But when you look at the injuries, you look at losing for nanotetis junior, you look at Darvish, you look at Xander being out and you really didn't miss, you didn't feel hit with that this last week. Like you thought you would when you heard that news coming in. And so there's there's sometimes that you're watching the team and you're like, Oh my God, this team is 500. Amazing. How did it get to 500? And then there's other days that you watch the team and you're like, Oh my gosh, this team is 500. What in the world? I think part of the disconnect is that this is the organization and the clubhouse and the manager have all promised, essentially, a playoff run and a world series, you know, at least attempt. And so I think that if this was a team that maybe that wasn't, you know, the expectation, we'd all be like here. Oh my gosh, look at all the injuries they've overcome. They're so scrappy and but it's the other way around. But I will add this. I agree with you. I think that as as abysmal as sometimes they've played this this season or it's looked, they're in a good spot. If they can take off from this point, the rest of the NL just hasn't done enough to get ahead of them. They've they're in a good position to take off. They're also in a position to be overcome by injuries and not take off. You know, and he brings up the point too. And I saw the on Twitter, you know, the Nationals media was very salty about everything that went down since they got to town. And I saw even their media saying, Oh, congratulations. You're beating a team that's not even trying to win this year. You know, we're rebuilding and revamping. We have nearly identical records. Two ways to look at teams that are, you know, have a different payroll that have different types of players on it. That point that you made of that is it absolutely rings true. These guys are absolutely trying to make the playoffs. They want to. They're not. I do look at them as as a plucky team. I do look at them as a team with a ton of fight, but they are absolutely expected to win. We all expected them to win this year. So they should have that. Yeah, 100%. Let's talk about how the the Nationals and Padres series played out with the benches clearing on Tuesday night. And then the response by obviously, Manny Machado and Jerrickson profile with their bats. But there was never an incident where a Padres pitcher threw it a Nationals player. I don't know if they feel like it's over or not. We heard the comments from Mike Schilt and some of the players after the game. Annie, was that situation handled the right way by the San Diego Padres? Let their bats do the talking, but we've yet to really see any, you know, retaliation from a Padres pitching staff member. I think that you let the bats do the talking. I think you go out there, you win the game. The worst thing that would have happened for the Padres is they don't win that game. And for them to go out there and sweep the Nationals, I think that they did enough talking like that. I like the fact that they were there. They backed up Jerrickson profile. And I do think it was smart. If profile would have been thrown out, that Grand Slam wouldn't have happened. At least not by him, obviously. And who knows if they would have won that game. And so should they go out and start something, I'm not really into that. But at the same time, it is sometimes a mentality thing when you have pitchers throwing at guys' heads or throwing in it to a tease that you want to show that you're backing your players. That can go a long way sometimes with an identity of a clubhouse and feeling united. Chris, the winning is obviously very satisfying to emerge from that series with a sweep after everything that went on. But could the Padres be in danger of gaining a reputation that they're a team that can be pushed around a little bit? I don't think so. A couple things. First of all, I think Manny stepped in and stepping in and giving Ruiz a shove. That was a loud statement as far as I was concerned. You know, I mean, this guy's just pretty much having a conversation with profile. He does put his hands on him. Jerrickson's pretty calm. But I got Manny coming in and saying, "Hey, wait a second. No, no, no. I thought that went a long way and I think it will go a long way." Secondly, I do think they missed an opportunity the other night because of this, the umpires allowed Mackenzie Gore to get away with, I believe, intentionally hitting profile by saying, "Well, he just hit him in the leg, so we don't think it meant anything." If that was truly the case, then Adam Major certainly should have at least hit Ruiz in the leg in the next inning. And let's see what the umpires do about that. And I have a feeling he would have been kicked out, which would have probably brought Mike Schilt out from where he was already kicked out to get kicked out again. And glasses. Yeah, I know. He's in street clothes at that point. Right, the umpires really left everything wide open for retaliation. And, you know, going back to your thought, I would like to see some Padres pitch up and in a little bit. We haven't seen hardly any of that. But I do think this team has each other's backs. I don't know that everyone else knows that, though. Craig, Bob Scanlon said on the TV broadcast, he could see it both ways, that the Washington Nationals, he could see how they got a little perturbed by the celebration from Juricks and Profar on Monday and the way that that played out. Is this a two-side situation or some people are just saying, "Hey, the Washington Nationals were in the wrong here. Padres can celebrate all they want." When they walk off a game on their own field. You know, we talked about this on Wednesday's show on Annie and Elson. I think if you own your own actions, then you can actually point to where somebody doesn't own their actions. The Padres can own the fact that on Monday, when Juricks and Profar hit a walk-off hit, instead of running to second base to claim his rulebook double, he turned around to the third base dugout to say very loudly to the Nationals his displeasure in various languages. And then he continued that out to the crowd and fired up the crowd. And that's a big celebration for June 24th. I think everyone in baseball can agree that the Nationals would have a reason to at least have thoughts about it. Now, what was their action? It was to hit Profar the next day. And what did they do? They hit Profar the next day. The umpires failed to do their job by getting Mackenzie Gore thrown out of the game. That was the proper response. Also, the Nationals didn't take ownership of their actions. "Oh, nothing happened. Oh, pitch got away." We all know that's a lie. Everyone knows that's a lie. But what the Padres did in response was immediately Homer and take about five minutes to go around the bases by almost a wrestling celebration from base to base. I think the Padres got their evenness, not with a pitch up and in, but with a couple of homers and some very, very slow trots. You know, it's interesting just kind of thinking back. It's our 97-3 the fan Padres Roundtable presented by San Diego Roundtable Pizza Woods. The Padres have been kind of on the cutting edge of the last few years in changing baseball culture. Go back to 2021. Fernando Tetis Jr. swung at a 3-0 pitch and hit the home run. Initially, the old schoolers kind of said, "You don't do that." And then about 90% of baseball came to go, "Yeah, I think you actually do do that nowadays." The swag chain was the first of the home run celebrations that have become now ubiquitous around baseball with props and other teams. That would have never been stood for 15 years ago in Major League Baseball. And now the, you know, the walk-off celebration and how the Padres handled it. You start to see more and more people go, "I like the way the Padres play baseball." And then you want to see more of that, not less of that around the Major League. Trevor Plouff said it really well yesterday. And it's always fun when you say something on the air and then later you see, like, I saw, I said the exact same thing Trevor Plouff said and then he said it later. He wasn't listening to me. We just had the same thought of, "Hey man, Davey Martinez and Jesse Winker and Cabot Ruiz." When that ball hit the grass, it should have been off the field. You're standing there, you're looking for something, and you got it. Hunter Harvey went 97 under his chin and then you get the walk-off. Bro, you can rest assured at my house with a huge win like that. I'm going to be beating my chest. I'm going to be looking right in the eye. And that's okay. That's how it's supposed to be these days. Trevor Plouff, you know, came up a while ago and he's like, "You can celebrate any way you want." Brett Boone said the same thing on our show. Yeah, I thought when you're looking for something, you'll find it. And they did. And they were distracted the entire series. Jesse Winker going into the stands to harass an old man that called it Bush League. Like, no, they're not trying to hit him, but 97 of the chin is still 97 of the chin. And I loved how they handled it. I did. I'm like a bloodlust guy. I want my payback, but boy, those three wins certainly sat really well with me. I thought the Nationals handled it poorly. I thought their media was ridiculous about it. They probably feel the same about us. But hey, man, just look, none of our players went to the stands. None of our players threw at anybody's head. You know, that's the right way to do it. I think, Annie, some people, do they react poorly to the Padres swagger because the Padres don't have a World Series ring? I'm like, "Hey, you haven't earned anything yet." But at the same time, you know, just because the Washington Nationals won one in 2019 doesn't make them any more credible about baseball opinions than everybody else. Great. You got one of the whole entire roster of different players five years ago. And it's no relevance to a series in 2024. Yeah, I think the baseball's supposed to be fun. And you have so many teams now that are doing the things that the Padres, really, like you said, started off doing Fernando, you know, with that big starter step, being a showman out there, having fun with the fans. Now you see other guys in the outfield doing the same thing. There is an excitement to the game that comes with this. Michael King said a few weeks ago, he was asked about what it was like to watch for Nanotetis Jr. when he was with the Yankees, and he's like, "I hated the guy." He was too showy, and he's like, "Now I'm over here. I love it. I get it. I see what he's all about." But that's kind of what you're trained to do as an opposing player. You know, like, you need a chip on your shoulder. You need something that's going to get you going, or as an opposing fan. So I think the more you back it up with play, obviously, like if you keep doing this and you don't win, I think that's the little, you know, that's the road you don't want to go down. But if you can play well, I don't see any problem with having fun out there on the field. Yeah, I mean, you know, keep it Ruiz may turn into something, but he's not anything right now. You know, he's a negative war player. And for him to put his finger in Jerkson Pro for a ten year, ten years in the show and start poking him in the chest and telling him about the right way to do things, absolutely unacceptable. It's unacceptable. And... Wasn't it very Brian McCann Carlos Gomez? Yes. Yeah, exactly. Stopping you at home. Stopping you at home plate to give you an ear full? Next time you round those bases, you better do it faster and you better do it my way. And I don't like that at all. Again, Profar may be having the season of his life, but you don't stay in the big leagues for ten years if you're not a good player. You just don't. We've seen really good players not make it to that ten year mark. That dude's earned everything he's got. And for him to poke his chest and... Oh, no, this is how we like your celebrations to be at your house. It's unacceptable. And you're right. I saw the same thing with Manny. It wasn't a... Hey, bud, gravel, it was... Get away. You know, I thought... Sorry about that. I don't want to run this nice shirt yet. But it was... I earned that. It was... It was forceful. You know, it was forceful. It was like, nope, this isn't going to happen. I thought that was a really cool moment. And then, obviously, the home run was top Manny Machado moment of all time. It was unreal. Can I just throw in your comment about the Padres inventing the swag chain and the ubiquitous celebrations that are now throughout baseball? I've been laughing the entire time because I'm picturing Mickey Mantle being pushed in a shopping cart through the dugout at Yankee Stadium, waving his arms after a home run with dark glasses on. But it's just the most laughable thought of all time. But now it is totally accepted. It is. It's a TikTok video. I mean, but, you know, back to those old guys. I'm Karen with the swag chain. That's pretty amazing. Hey, Karen, just spinning it. I mean, Adam Jones on your show, Ben and Wood, saying he didn't pimp his first home run to him. He didn't pimp his 100. He's 100, right. He goes, you couldn't pimp one. No. Manny would say the same thing. Right. But you ask, is that... Is that truly the best way or is that just the way we've always done it? Right. Because, listen, Mickey Mantle, those guys, they had fun. They just did it in a different way than our guys had fun. I'd rather our guys be spinning swag chains than out at Toots Shores till 6 a.m., drinking 400 Roman Cokes and smoking a pack of Marberos. Honestly, like, I really would. It's, if you're going to have fun playing the game of baseball, which, by the way, is entertainment, I know we take it very seriously, they're entertaining, if nothing else. Let's get on the field a little bit. Ninety-seven through the fan Padres Roundtable, presented by San Diego Roundtable Pizza. Let's talk about the Padres catching situation right now. It's very simple. Kyle Higashiyoka is playing because he has to play, and he's playing great. He has hit seven home runs in the month of June, but Luis Camposana will be back probably sooner rather than later, maybe even before the end of the upcoming road trip. Chris, when campy is back, how do you determine playing time? Going forward in the Padres catching court. Pretty simple. I mean, to me, I mean, if Higashiyoka keeps hitting like this and Camposana comes off the bench for a while, they were reverse roles. At least for the time being, I would think it's not, you know, for the rest of the season unless Higashiyoka is going to hit seven home runs every month, the rest of the season, and finish with 30. But yeah, you got to ride a hot hand, don't you? And it's not like Camposana has been lighting it up. So, I mean, you know, if I'm Luis Camposana right now, you know, I'm a little bit concerned about my job because you've got to go with what's working, and Higashiyoka is working at the moment. Yeah, but generally Craig, you know, back up catchers. Has any better defensively too, do you think? Much better. Much better. So, okay. You're going back up catchers or back up catchers for a reason. Chris, you're better defensively. They don't all of a sudden become all-starred. And I'm not expecting that from Higashiyoka, but there's room for a more balanced starts for the catchers, even when Campy's back. Well, I agree with Chris, but let's define what it means to reverse roles, because Kyle Higashiyoka was already catching 40% of the starts for the Padres. He was catching every Waldron start and every King start, right? So, to me, when Camposana comes back, one of the three spots that used to be Campies goes over to Kyle. For now. I think you've got another former teammate of his. Either that or you've got to use Higashiyoka against lefties. Camposana, still, I don't think is how to hit against a left-handed pitcher since April. You are completely right. So, Higashiyoka plays against lefties/gets that third slot until he cools off and/or Campy heats up, because eventually, if you overplay Kyle Higashiyoka, that's the point you're driving at, you will wear him out. I believe he's averaged, we'll get into this on our show later too, but I think he's averaged around maybe 250, 260 plate appearances. So, you know, when you get into 470 plate appearances for Kyle Higashiyoka, you might wear him down. It may not look good. It may not look good at the end, but you asked today, you know, is there a catcher's controversy? No, there's no controversy at all. I mean, Kyle Higashiyoka's your starter right now until he's not. And nobody gets through the season with one backstop back there. And so, but when Campy does come back, yeah, it's imperative that he hits and that he plays defense and, you know, doesn't take plays off. You know, late in the game sometimes, when you're watching, it's like, man, that's a weird time for a brain fart there from Campy. Kyle is, you know, he's not Salvador Perez back there. He's not Johnny Bench, but you want to talk about a really reliable, reliable fill-in under some pretty gnarly circumstances of changing teams, having to catch a knuckleballer, and then now to add the offense on there. He's been awesome. But, Annie, I thought it was interesting that after two emotional, hard games on Monday and Tuesday, and then a day game after that, the easy thing is, all right, it's Brett Sullivan's turn. And yet Kyle Higashiyoka was back in there. It kind of shows you that Mike Schill is willing to maybe push him a little bit more and ride that hot hand a bit. Yeah, he's earned it very a la Jorge Alfaro, Gary Sanchez, Kyle Higashiyoka follows the long line of improbable catchers who have made an impact in the organization. But, no, I agree. I think that you ride him. He is the hot hand. You give him, if you're looking at 50/50, you give Kyle Higashiyoka the extra start over. Yeah, you go 60/40. And you do need to get Campy Sano going. If you're going to make it deep into the playoffs and get on a World Series run, like you have to get Campy Sano going. So you need to get him back in there and working, but I do think you ride Kyle, not into the ground, but a little bit more. Interesting. You brought up Jorge Alfaro, who was such an important part of the chemistry and karma and magic of 2022 and couldn't even get on the field in the postseason. Correct. Not one single day. Not one game. What happened there? We still don't quite know exactly what happened there. But we're extending the show an hour today to dive into that. We're going to feel lost to Nola before we put Jorge Alfaro anywhere near a postseason. Yeah, that was weird. All right, speaking of hot hands, and the guy who's had the hot hand all season, and I teased this question earlier in the week. But Jerrickson Pro-Farr continues to play like an All-Star, maybe the top nationally outfielder as we head toward the All-Star break. He is under contract, a very, very favorable contract for just this season only. But I think a lot of people would like to see him back for next year, maybe even more years to come. Annie, let me start with you. What would a fair contract offer look like right now for a Jerrickson Pro-Farr extension? And you're killing me. Yeah. Okay, so I don't want to imagine a team without Jerrickson Pro-Farr. I really don't. I don't know what the heck this market will pay. I don't know. I can't even. I was thinking should he get the same as he was getting before he went to the Rockies? Like nine million a year? Should it be 12 million a year? 12 million for two years? Something like that. He undoubtedly provides so much value to this team. I think about what would have happened if it would have been on last year's team. That team, I think, would have been way better. They could have had a much deeper run or a playoff run in general, right? But the truth is, and I hate saying this, he's 31 years old. He's got a chronically bad knee. He provides value to this team. But if the market goes nuts, I don't think the Padres can afford to do that. So I guess I'm somewhere in the 12 million, maybe two years, 12, two years, 24, something like that. It's a lot. Is that a lot? I don't know. I don't know. This is such a dilemma. I want a massive race, if I'm him. I want a massive race. Of course. But he deserves it. That's the other thing. He deserves every penny you should get. But if you're Jurex in pro far, do you want to go anywhere else? Right. You know, part of your value is the fact that you're a willingness to go and play for a different team. And that has never worked out very well for Jurex in Chris. He plays well for the San Diego Padres and the San Diego Padres only. It seems like it. I like Annie's contract, honestly. I think a two year, $25 million offer, either take it or we're shipping you back to the Rockies. He'll sign in a heartbeat. Because I think you're right. I mean, he really does love it here as much as we love having him here. So you have to take advantage of that a little bit. Because if it's wide open, somebody might go out and do a three year, $40 million thing that the Padres can't handle. Yeah, I mean, who has the leverage here? Great. Both sides have a little bit of leverage. I heard you guys talking about this the other day. I always love when we get the advance notice on this stuff. So I'm going to play off something you guys said. And I'm going to add in, this is AJ Preller. And what does AJ Preller love to do? He loves to create cookie reverse risk contracts. Yeah. All right. We're going to offer Jurex in pro far a one plus one plus one. In the first year, guaranteed, he gets air cosmos money. He gets 13 million. He gets 13 million dollars. We've already had in the budget really the air cosmos money. Literally. I wish it could. But, but that line item that's been in the, in the budget for the last three years, it's just been sitting there 13 for nothing. Keep it. Becomes 13 for pro far for a year. Remember, there's one more year of that 13 for nothing still. Turn it. Turn it. It's really cursed. Yeah. But okay. That really makes my position worse. I was three darn it. Yeah. So then, player option for year two at eight million player option, year three at five million. So if Jurex in pro far is not the player that he has been, he's got a guaranteed three year deal for his family. And if he is the player he's been this year, he's getting 13 and he's going back out of the market. Does he want to go out and do that again? Does he want to go out and, and take a million dollars more than he could get from the San Diego Padres and go play in New York? Does he have another chance? Does he have another chance to make money, right? And, and if he is, if he does have that chance, he should take it. He needs, he's got a family to provide for. He owes, he doesn't owe us anything. He doesn't owe the San Diego Padres any he'd have. But a million a year can provide for his family. I mean, I kind of like how we throw that around, he needs to provide for, I mean, but not when you're ten million as opposed to twelve, his family's going to be okay. Yeah, that's, well, that's kind of what I'm saying. Like, this is an opportunity for another opportunity for him to cash in, but it didn't work well for him last time. It didn't. He made the money. He got the money. But it was not, it was not a fit for him. And he's performing like a twenty five million dollar a year player right now. So be hard pressed. Hey, man, I know that your ratings are good. And this is what this guy makes with these ratings. We're going to give you one fiftieth of that. It doesn't necessarily work that way. So it's definitely mutually beneficial. If I'm him, I'm like, I want to stay. I want to stay. But at what cost does he really want to go to St. Louis or anywhere else, Texas, you know, locally. And if you give him twenty five million dollars to play, now, what is it like when jerks and pro-far gives you a ninety eight percent jerks and pro-far season instead of a two hundred percent jerks and pro-far season. Right. Now everyone's looking at him as the problem of the team that's sinking the payroll. There's a mess on all sides. There really is. It's a bad problem. It's a good problem to have. Let me give you my, my theory, my option. And that is jerks and pro-far San Diego Padre for life. And you extend the contract out six or seven years, front load it, you know, in the twelve to fourteen million dollar range early. And then it starts tapering off. So by the time he's thirty five, thirty six, thirty seven, you're paying two to three for a pinch hitter. That is, was probably going to be a pretty good pinch hitter maybe in that age thirty five and thirty six late in his career and will continue to give you the vibes that he seems to provide so well. He will be a fixture at the end of that dugout, a fixture in the lineup, hopefully for the next couple of years as a starter and then a fixture in the dugout and in the club house and with a switch hitting bat that comes off the bench. Just when you need him when he's thirty five, thirty six year old, but you don't need him on those knees all the time. Doesn't need to play every single day, but he's still giving you what seems to be that magic jerks in quality. We might have a team full of those guys. Yeah, no setting up for like five years from now, the age of the infirmed Padres. It's like we're sitting here every day going thirty six year old, do I want to go to one of these guys is done? Yeah, what do we do? Yeah, I mean, look, the sentimental, this is more than sentimental with jerks and profile because he's actually providing a lot of value. Exactly. This is not, this is not, I really like this guy and his smile's worth this to me and he's their best player. He's their best player, but right, you know, you look at it and go, is this, as Mike show likes to say, is this an outlier? I mean, and based on his last, you know, he's had a couple of good seasons. It's an outlier based on an outlier. It has to be looked at that way. Right. And so the sentimental contract being doled out, is that the best way to handle business? He's already made some mistakes and maybe some contracts that aren't going to work out in your favor. I don't know, man. It's going to be hard for me to see him anywhere else. He feels like he was meant for this place. He feels like, feels that you'll see his number out there someday, really. Like he's, he has provided so much to this team and he's so beloved in this community and he loves this community in return. But man, we just, they don't have unlimited money to burn. But maybe the last point to make on this, Ben, is that there's still time. Yes. Because like three weeks, and I'm, you know, I too completely agree. Profar is the puzzle piece at the center of the Padres puzzle. He doesn't fit in every puzzle, but he fits here. He fits here perfectly and without it, our puzzle is incomplete. Like we need Jerks and Profar on this team. A month ago, he had an OPS of like 950 or 980. Now it's a little under 900. By the end of the year, it may be in the low 800s, but it's still a great season. But it's not one you have to pay 25 million for. Keep in mind also that the Padres upper, you know, front office wants to start replacing the older players with cheaper, younger players. But there aren't really any prospects in the outfield that are coming up right now for the San Diego Padres. Yeah, they're all gone. So if you have to replace Jerks in Profar, right now, the only places you can do it are free agency or probably a really expensive trade. So Jerkson's value in that sense and his leverage is pretty high. There's no one knocking on the door to replace him in the outfit. It's not like the shortstop position where, you know, there's plenty of plenty options down the line at shortstop, not in the outfield for the San Diego Padres right now. And he is playing through a knee injury that is very painful. I mean, and I don't think that that means that he's going to have to, like, that's going to ruin his numbers or anything like that. But, like, he's been managing that for a few years. I think he could continue to manage it. I don't know why sometimes we look at certain players and we're like, "Hey, but, you know, he's a gamer and he plays through an injury and let's give him all that money." And then other players were like, "Oh, it's just Jerks in Profar and now he's not going to be able to provide." Like, he's doing what the other guys are doing that are getting paid money. Yeah, real money. Right, real money. If he keeps hitting like he's hit, he can't. But why is this not enough? Like, he's already gone half the season hitting like he's hitting. Like... Do you always make a six or seven year contract on a half year? That's how you make bad deals. Baseball executives have to make big money deals and they have to make it cold-hearted and evaluate right on the razor's edge. What I'm saying is, though, I'm trying to back your point, if he continues, if he is at the end of the year a top 35 player, he won't be on the Padres because that value is worth more than the Padres can afford to pay him next year. And he would do himself a disservice not to take that money for his family and for his future. It's just the nature of it that when you have a career, OBS is 7.21 and you're at 9.20 halfway through the year. That it's going to level out. I get that. No, if the money shoots way over what they can pay, he has to go somewhere else. To correct the point. I mean, this is crazy. We had our fantasy baseball draft in my league, which is going on for 10, 12 years, right in this very room. And I sat over there and we were in the supplemental draft. The entire draft had already been done. And I looked around the room and I said, "Wait a minute, nobody's taking profile, right?" And they said, "No." I said, "Okay, I'll take him." It's about the fourth round of the supplemental draft. Now, here's what my point is to back Craig. If I sit in this very same room next year and you restart the draft and we're in the first round, would I take profile? Hell no! But if somebody else did, I'd have to let him go. Because I wouldn't be willing to bet my season on profiles, my number one pick. And I think that's what Craig's saying. The Padres can't pay the kind of money if somebody else really wants to pay him for this season alone. Yeah, if his OPS is $850 at the end of the year, he's going to cash in. Yeah. And, you know, what's it worth to him though? To stay, to be a part of this team, to be with these guys. These guys are his brothers. It's a real thing. I mean, we all know we would take less to live here and not have to move somewhere else for more money, to go to Cincinnati to do mornings or afternoons or mid days. We know that. Baseball players, I mean, their window is shorter. We can do this for another 20 years, if we're lucky. Right. He's got four more years to cash in until he is washed up and out of the game according to the game this year. I know. This year. It's really one of those tough decisions they're going to have to make. We used to hear about the San Diego discount all the time. Yeah. It's kind of died in the big spending recent years under Ron Fowler and Peter Siler. But if there was ever maybe a candidate for the San Diego discount just a little bit, it might be jerks. Let's hope. Let's hope. All right. It is about 36 minutes in. It's our San Diego Padres round table presented by San Diego round table pizza. Now it's 37 minutes in. It was literally correct. And I was going to throw out a great seventh inning stretch that was catered just for you. But actually it was what's a suggestion. So I'm going to do it anyway. Off night, last night, now an off day for the San Diego Padres. They've been few and far between. Now that you've got a couple of extra hours tonight, you don't have to watch baseball. What show are you currently turning on? What are you catching up on that you've been missing? How do you use this extra time when there's no Padres baseball tonight? And since you have always been our streaming recommendations guy Craig, I'll start with you. Okay, well, it's going to be good because now I'm going to put Steven in the heater here because I'm going to take his. You should be watching the bear. The bear is back. Season three just dropped yesterday. I couldn't start it yesterday because of other commitments and such. And the first thing was he was like if you started the bear yet. The bear has been one of the best shows on TV the last two years. I think it's now grown in enough acclaim through the Emmy award wins and enough notoriety that now maybe it's more of a thing. But it's becoming a summer thing. Like each summer you get to go to check out the latest from the bear which follows a group of people creating a restaurant in Chicago. And it started with a guy's brothers restaurant that he was taking over who had committed suicide. And that was season one, season two they're building their own restaurant season three now they got to run that thing. So it's going to be one of the best shows of the year and I can't wait to start it soon. I started it last night. It was amazing. The first episode was they didn't talk a lot. I'll just leave it at that. It was like this beautiful procession and flashback. It was incredible. It was absolutely incredible. The show is amazing. I love it. I'm going to continue watching presumed innocent on TV with an I agree. Awesome. Jake Gyllenhaal is in some legal trouble and he's an attorney. It's really, really, really good. It's the old movie. I want to get here so important. My wife gave it a thumbs down but I'm going to have to override her. Oh yeah, override your wife. It's been good so far. Annie, what's up? I'll probably start that but I'm basic. Below deck. Below deck. I'll just catch up on below deck. You and my wife. God. Chris, I know you got a lot of reality TV as well. I was going to say, Annie, please come over and take my spot. Watch below deck and all the real housewives with my wife. This is going to be a nerdy answer but I really like the show America's Got Talent. Wow. I tape it every Tuesday. I watch it throughout the rest of the week. I love to see normal people do extraordinary things. This isn't the round table anymore. This is the Chris Elo. I love this Elo. This is the Chris Elo. Get it off my chest. Of a piece. So it is my singing telegram guy once. Yes. See, that type of spontaneous singing talents. Some of these people are really, really good at what they do. You watch Star Search back and I didn't watch that. I did. I really like the format of America's Got Talent. And I'm a fan. A guy came up to me in the stands on Monday. I kid you not and asked when the Elo grams were coming. I know. I got half a singing telegram. You've got to start a cameo. Oh yeah. You will make easily to grand this month. Easily. Just on that. Easily. All right. I will finish up. While I will say I was hugely disappointed with the final season of Game of Thrones. I didn't necessarily love the first season of House of the Dragon. I think the show is continuing to get better and better. And I've started watching season two, which is dropping each week on max. I am starting to get hooked again. On the world of Westeros and the intrigue and the drama of the prequel to the Game of Thrones saga that is currently airing again in the new stories of the Targaryen family, the House Targaryen, and the new War of the Dance of the Dragons and the entire story of Renira and the two crowns that's going on right now. That's my current watch and what I've got right now. I haven't started season two yet. I heard about a scene at the end of the first episode and it made me not want to watch. Screw some, but that's what you get when you sign up for the Game of Thrones. Wanting cruelty. Goose Gausage was right about you. Yeah. Bit of a nerd. I love you so much. Wait, he's a nerd. I'm the one that's a nerd. That's why I love you. That's why I love her. You're cool. Yeah, you're good. All right. Let's look forward. All Star Game is coming up. Kairi Profar is trying to get his dad to the game and I think he's going to be successful with that. We have to get Kairi to the game and his outfits and his swag. It's going to be Kairi's All Star Game. Him down watching the Home Run Derby is going to be Elite. It's the Red Carpet. He's going to fall in love with them. Oh yeah. On the broadcast. Oh yeah. You see him 17 trillion times and I'm here for it. The question though is, does Paul Skeens deserve a spot in the All Star game? Despite only making a handful of starts in a Major League Baseball career, they've been very, very good. Is there a spot Chris for a young rookie who does not have the necessarily time put in yet to be an All Star but would certainly attract some eyeballs and attention to the All Star game? I don't know. They didn't put Caitlin Clark on the Olympic team. I guess they weren't that interested in those eyeballs. But I think Major League Baseball should be interested in showcasing a guy like Paul Skeens. So I would say yes for sure, as long as when the season's over, he still finishes behind Jackson Merrill in the Rookie of the Year Balining. Because Merrill's put in a full season playing every day. So you're telling me Paul Skeens is going to take Matt Waldron's All-Star spot is what you're telling me. Because Waldron's out pitched him and been there the whole year. Yes. And Skeens has only been there for a handful of games. You just turned it into a nasty dilemma, Chris. Yeah, as soon as you said it, I'm like, "Gosh, you're right. And it's going to come at the expense of our dude." Matt Waldron has gotten enough attention lately that I hadn't even really considered that possibility until you just brought it up. Well, you're right. They had at least have Matt Waldron go out and throw the home run derby this year to make it kind of tougher on these guys. No one will be able to hit any of the first knuckle balls out there. What was it? I think we looked it up. He's like 27th in F-War among all pitchers in baseball. He has been an ace in baseball this year. Yeah. Annie, what about you? Paul Skeens, darling of social media now. Famous girlfriend. Right. They want Livy done there. He has 102 miles per hour. I mean, he's been great, right? I don't have a problem with it. I think just because he's a rookie, if he deserves it, he should go. And the All-Star game can get pretty boring, to be honest. So maybe you do throw a guy like that in there who's also pitching really well. Like, hasn't been there the whole first half of the season, but is pitching really well. I would also vote for Waldron. But I also say then, okay, go put Jackson Maryland, because he's also having a really good season. I don't know if it's All-Star numbers, but if we're just doing it for excitement, the guy's going to give some great quotes. He's one of the top three outfields he has in Atlanta. Yeah. So his numbers are there also, so. I mean, it's fair to take Fernando's spot, since Fernando probably had earned it with his play of late and now won't be able to go because of the injury, replacing with Jackson Maryland. Jackson's earned it. Paul Skeens is awesome. We wind up with, like, the third most All-Stars. It's a good thing for the rest of the National League that we are all not deciding. The All-Stars. Paul Skeens. You have to put him in. It's about nine Padres on a team that's 500 in the All-Star game. It's an exhibition, and he's unbelievable. Like, I honestly haven't seen him pitch a game. You have to. When are the Pirates on? You have to watch him pitch. I always saw the first one, so he's been pitch. So if nothing else, I would tune in to the All-Star game to watch that. He's incredible. He's a unit. I mean, he's so much fun to watch. 103, 102, you know, sits 102 in the six the other day. Like, he's so dirty. The splinker. The command. The attitude. All of it. It's the whole package he's got. And, yeah, it's a business, and it's marketing. And, yeah, Liv, he's done as a huge, huge name, and you want that whole thing. This is a good thing, inherently, for baseball, that a guy like Paul Skeens is doing what he's doing. And, by the way, not his fault. He wasn't up with the team. But he absolutely earned it. They wanted to manipulate his service time, so they did. Correct. And so, had he started opening day, he 100%, everyone would have said, "Oh, this is a no-brainer." But it's not under his control. So, 97-3, the fan Padres Roundtable presented Commercial Free by San Diego Roundtable Pizza. Padres headed to Boston and Texas for their next road trip. And that leads me to our next question. The Boston fans have a certain reputation around America. But is it good? Is it that good or bad? And the question really is, who are the best and worst fans in baseball? And you can't say Padres is the best fans. That's too pandering and too obvious. So, if you wanted to pick best and worst fan bases in baseball, where are you going? Chris? We'll start with the worst fan base. Well, I'm going to the Miami, where they don't go to the game. That's fair. You know, Oakland's not in contention. But Nastius. Yeah, I know. Nastius, I don't know, but everybody, when I talked to Tony about where were the world's worst bleacher people were, it was the bleacher bums in Chicago. And so, I'll give them the nod as being the most ridiculous and disgraceful. I know Philadelphia gets a bad rap because they booed Santa Claus in 1968 at an Eagles game, but that's almost 50 years ago. I went to one game in Philadelphia and it so happened to be Tony Gwyn seniors last season and his last game that he was going to play there. They gave him an ovation for the ages. That has always stuck with me. They know ball. Right. And so, and I'm not saying they're the only ones, but I've always put Philadelphia fans up there. I know a lot of them. I play softball with a whole bunch of people from Philadelphia. They're tough, but I think they're pretty fair. So, I'm going to go Philadelphia on the good side. Craig, let's expand this a little bit because we think about the fans that are in the stadium. But a lot of fandom is done online now. And if you include the-- And I try to block it all. The social media aspect of it. I would think that a lot of teams around baseball would say the worst fans in baseball are Padres. Oh, yeah. See it every week. Online Padres fans. That's great. But do we not see the online Orioles fans? I mean, we see-- Oh, yeah. We're in our own bubble. Right. We follow the Padres people and then we see the reactions to the Padres people. So, I don't know if we feel like our fans get under the skin of other fan bases as well as any team in Major League Baseball. Yeah, you know, this-- Thank you for letting me be provincial for a second. Like, this city, you said that we can't pick this, but like, we back our club. And I think honestly that this club has fell under the weight recently in recent years of everybody being behind them in this town. And it feels like when they don't have the pressure on them is when you see, you know, when guys are hurt and when you've got a kind of a, you know, a B squad together that they really lock it in. When I think about bad fan bases, I think about fan bases that don't even support you when you're good. Diamondbacks were like doing two-for-one deals for World Series tickets last year. They couldn't even fill their park when their team was making a run. They didn't give a hoot the last week of the season and even in the first round of the playoffs. So, you gave me a chance to back our fans in Rip Arizona, so that was fun. Thank you. Well, it's come on. It's the worst fan base. The worst. They go for the-- They like the hats. You know, they like the high-priced players that they have. I am engaged with them constantly. There's a few of them that are good. Yeah. Yeah. That's that's that's that. Like 12 percent. That's that way. Every 80 percent are awful. Wow. They're awful. Lack of baseball, general knowledge. Yeah. You know, I think for me too is the way they carry themselves. I mean, I've never seen a team spend as much and accomplish as little as they have ever. In any sport. It's not close. And to act so regal is a little bit embarrassing. And they don't see the embarrassment in it. And they should be very, very, very embarrassed. Like, very embarrassed. Wow. It's mortifying. I would have my head between my legs, my tail between my legs. If we, you know, cover a sports illustrated best team ever. 111 wins, compete by the Padres. Like, that's mortifying. You're the bills. You know, that's so that that is the worst. We're the best. There's no, there's no question. Tuesday night, Monday night, 39,000 people against the Washington Nationals. Give me a break. The Nationals have not seen 39,000 in a weekend series all year. So the quote the Jackson Merrill said about other players coming in and going, this is, this is amazing. It's unexpected. Yeah. It's unexpected. And just being at Petco for this series, it was a reminder to me. Chris Elo and I were talking about it before this show started because you, you look around and you just feel, you just feel the electricity rise in that stadium and with everything that happened on the field, you just, you feel the fans just behind everything and you can't help. I talked to players in the clubhouse all the time. What a difference it makes to come to San Diego and feel all the fans behind you. Philadelphia and Chicago. I had great experiences. You've had a chance to travel with the team a little more recently than I think most of us. And you've been down by the dugout where the fans have got to be a little tough. So yeah, what, what, what was your kind of experience when you were doing the dugout reporting and occasionally traveling with the team? I remember the Giants when the, the, the, the stuff was getting thrown on the field near Jerksen profile at, you know, I remember that the fans got a little, you know, that was, I didn't like that one, you know, but I don't, I don't, I've obviously, I, I really enjoyed Chicago, the, uh, Wrigley obviously and, um, Philadelphia. Philadelphia had great fans. They were smart. They were fun. They appreciated the good players of the other team. Um, but I'm trying to think if there was any other like nasty ones that I remember. I mean, obviously, yeah, you go for LA. I'm sure. Um, but I, I don't remember any like really like terrible, terrible, you know, things being said. Back up Chicago, just a Scanlon told me that when he played for the Cubs, the bullpen's then were on the first baseline right next to the stands. And when he used to get up to warm up, his own fans would go crazy. Scan, get Scanlon down. Get him down. You know, this is his own fans helping the guy warm up. If you're sitting by the ball. By the way, Bob Scanlon did say 14 games one season for the Cubs. Yeah, but not bad. But you're also talking about a fan base that packed that place for a million years. That's terrible. That's terrible. But I would sit by the dugout. And I think that if you're out there by the bullpen or you're out there by the, you know, out there in the outfield, we see those videos all the time of fans being, yeah, just chirping and players all the time. How big chirp are out at the ball? I like to just watch the game. I've chirp at my TV, but I like, I was around a fan the other day that was chirping and it made me really like, oh, this is, this doesn't feel great. I brought it up a few weeks ago. Underrated bad fan base, the sanctimonious St. Louis Cardinals. St. Louis Cardinals. Oh, there you go. There you go. Because they told they're much better than everybody. Yes, that hated this. That just drives me crazy. Oh, because they gave a standing ovation to Polsky. He got so mad. He got so mad about it. But just so they could get the credit. They get the credit. They're saying, aren't they smart? They're not going to stop fan base. Can you get standing out of them opposing players? Yes. A guy that is going to shove against you for the next round. They would have been horrible. That's horrible. What a bunch of softy. I think so too. But they say we're so smart. We know both. Whatever. They've been told. For decades. Oh, best fans in baseball in St. Louis. No, you're not. I know we're real close to the end of the show. I just wanted to say, this will work deep into this now into almost July. I was on my way over here today and I just thought to myself, I really look forward to this every single week. It's been really fun. That's fun. Do you want to talk in this? I know you guys are tired. I know you guys are putting an extra hour. I'm not really doing anything special. It's really driving an hour off. They're getting time off my show. Wood says the same thing when he gets in at 4 AM. I'm so glad we've got that. Oh, I know. This show really brings out the ... No, my point that I wanted to make was I'm enjoying this. But I really think all of us owe a little thanks to Ben. He puts this thing together every week. I was just thinking of that. If I had to work an extra half hour to put the show together, I don't think I'd enjoy it as much. Oh, he doesn't, by the way. He doesn't, by the way. Excellent job. I want to thank you for that. I'm looking forward to ... I know we're off next week, right? Because the fourth is correct. But I'm looking forward to continuing this. It's been fun. Two weeks from today will reconvene. Yeah. After one horrible week and one great week. That's exactly right. No, it's right back. One and three days of nothing. Three days of nothing. We'll be staring into the abyss. Back we go. I love it. On me. Definitely not a roller coaster. Roller coaster. That's right. We call it that. That is the 2024 San Diego Padres. Thank you, everybody. Annie Halbrunn, Stephen Woods, Craig Elston. Chris Elle, thank you for this. Yes, sir. Kind comments. I appreciate it. And somewhere where he's not on vacation but is traveling. But he's listening. Our leader, Adam Klug. Oh, he's watching. Thank you very much. That's it for us. We will be back in a couple of weeks for a round table. If you're listening live, Annie and Elston. 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