Ben & Woods On Demand Podcast

7am Hour - Musgrove Update + Adam Jones Calls In

Ben & Woods kick off the 7am hour with some updates on Joe Musgrove who is expected to make a start for the Padres as soon as this weekend in Miami! Then we get to "Don't (And DO) Do This" before we're joined by Adam Jones on a Big League Wednesday! Listen here!

Duration:: 44m
Broadcast on:: 07 Aug 2024
Audio Format:: mp3

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. 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. Get your laugh on with me, Chris Jericho, and the talk is Jericho Podcast. We've got Guns N' Roses, Hall of Famer, Duff the Cagan, and his joke of the week every Friday. Plus, regular visits from the hilarious Brad Williams and special appearances by everyone from Gabrielle, Fluffy Iglesias, Mark Marin, Dennis Miller, Cheech Marin, Kevin Neeland, if they're funny, they're on Talk is Jericho. So listen to and follow Talk is Jericho now on the free Odyssey app or wherever you get your podcast. So what are the Padres going to do going forward with their pitching rotation? Welcome back, Ben Woods, and it is Ben and Woods. Finally, for the first time in eight days, it's good to see you. Good Lord. You missed Tuesday through Tuesday, so last Monday was your last show. Oh, wow. So it's good to have you back. What days today? Wednesday. Yeah, Wednesday the following week. Okay. Wednesday, Big League Wednesday. We've got Adam Jones coming up at the bottom of the hour. Take on Woods in just a couple of minutes. Get a new prize this month. Pretty cool one, Woodsie. We've got two nights at Resorts World Las Vegas and tickets to carry Underwood at Resorts World. So if you want to play our musical trivia game, go ahead. Dial it now or in the next few minutes, 833-288-0973. Stay on hold, play in about eight to ten minutes, a little take on Woods. But okay, so we had this good news last night after his rehab start in Fresno on Sunday, which was supposed to be in San Antonio Woods, but Joe Musgrove's flight got canceled. So they sent him to Fresno instead to pitch with Lake Elsonor. He joined the team in Pittsburgh and they made the decision yesterday that he is good to go. Doesn't need another rehab start. His next start will come on the mound for the San Diego Padres. This road trip in Miami, one of the games, they didn't say which one, but one of the games likely this weekend against the Marlins. So Padres getting a pitcher back. Now he won't be stretched out enough to go six innings. In fact, they probably are hoping for about four from Joe Musgrove in that game. Now all of this was before the game yesterday. And I wonder now that Dylan Sees only got to throw an inning and you needed eight innings from your bullpen. How you are going to handle the rest of this trip and the rotation going forward with 26 games in 27 days. There was talk yesterday, I heard Annie Nelson talking about, do you go to a six man rotation during this stretch? And just add Joe into the mix along with Randy Vasquez and Martin Perez, who threw great while you were going. Great, yeah, watch that game. It was a surprise, let's be honest. Yeah, let's be honest. I mean, all the whiffs that he got, I mean, it was spectacular or spectacular. Do you just replace, you know, Musgrove put him in for either Vasquez or Perez and send one of those guys to the pen or to the minors when you need them to call back up? How do you handle this going forward and who's going to pitch? Now on Thursday, tomorrow, which was a TBA, still is a TBA for the Padres, could be Vasquez, it's his turn, could be Perez. He'd be on normal four days rest. Could be a bullpen type day, but I wouldn't think you'd want to do that again after going eight with your bullpen yesterday. How are you going to handle it? Or can Dylan Cease come back in just a couple of days since basically he just threw kind of a bullpen essentially. Now, Schiltz said after the game, doesn't think Cease would be able to come back on Thursday, but might be able to come back sooner than normal because he only threw one inning. Cease kind of said, I don't know, I mean, probably just pitch on Sunday like I was supposed to, but it sounds like they hadn't really communicated about that yet. And you'll probably get more clarification in the next day or so on what they are going to do. But there's certainly got to be some strategizing with Ruben Niebla and Mike Schiltz and probably the entire, you know, holistic brain trust to the Padres of how they're going to handle the rest of this road trip at least. Yeah, I mean, I think it's also player dependent, you know, how does Dylan Cease feel? If he feels fine, I don't think you want to upset the apple cart too much, do you? And I know, you know, he was kind of bombed about not being able to pitch. And now he said something to be effective. I guess now I'll just get a little bit of extra rest. I mean, obviously such a big arm that we need down the stretch too. Look, I don't want to take anybody lightly because it's baseball and these guys are playing for jobs as well. But the quality of opponent has something to do with it as well on how you, you know, manipulate your pitching staff. It really does. And I don't think I'd have any problem with taking my chances against Randy Vasquez throwing went tomorrow. Like tomorrow. Yeah, no problem with that. Michael King today. But remember Vasquez is another guy like King who hasn't thrown that many innings. And you've got a few of those guys. You may want to save some bullets. I know Randy Vasquez is probably not in your playoff rotation, but he might be your swing man in the playoffs. And you can long man out of the bullpen. You may want to save some of those bullets. Perez is a veteran who's done. Give me the crafty veteran. You may just, you may just work him to death. The last, if he's pitching well, throw him as much as possible. Might as well. Every fifth guy. That's why you got him. That's exactly why you got him. He's an arm and no offense to Martine Perez, but he's an arm you don't really care about. What happens to him next? So harsh. I get it. I didn't miss the heartless guy. I know, but it's a cold game sometimes. And he's a guy who's not. I mean Tanner Scott's kind of the same way. He's a free agent at the end of the year. He says pitch me every day. I want the ball. Okay. I mean, okay. We're not as concerned about what your next few years look like. With Michael King, you're absolutely concerned what, you know, the next year looks like for Michael King. Even with Dylan Seis, who is an absolute workhorse dog. But you got him next year. You want to be a little bit careful, I think, with Dylan Seis. So when you're talking about, you know, do you go to six man rotation? Do you go, hey, Perez every five days can cease to every five days. And then the other guys, you kind of work and you slowly get Joe back in there. You extend the time between starts for Michael King to save some of those innings. The guys who don't have the career numbers of 150 plus innings. You give them more time and let your veterans take more of the load going forward. Well, and again, I wasn't here for the trade deadline. I loved, I loved the idea and theory of adding a bunch of absolutely elite bullpen arms. I do, but and I could be very tempted if I was the skipper of the San Diego Padres to overuse said shiny new toys and I'm not saying that Mike Shilt will do that or has done that. But holy smokes, when it's sitting there in front of you, Benny, yeah, I mean, getting, you know, getting one starter at the deadline in a Martine Perez, that's why you got him is to go out there and pitch every fifth day and let the chips fall where they may. And if he's anything like he was in his first start, we're going to be just fine. If he's not, you know, then, then yeah, I mean, how they're going to manipulate these next three weeks or so is going to be four weeks is going to be very, very telling on how we finish the season and they got their work cut out for him. I mean, you've got to make the playoffs. And the best way to make the playoffs is Dylan Cease pitching as much as possible, especially as well as he's done. But you also want to have guys who still have something in the tank. If you get to the playoffs, it's really you're gambling. You're rolling the dice. You're trying to play the percentages here. Do you save some Dylan Cease and hope that helps him stay fresh into the playoffs? Do you work them hard to make sure you get there to try to catch the Dodgers? I mean, you're really going to catch the Dodgers. If you're not throwing Dylan Cease out there every fifth day. I mean, that's going to be critical to make up the ground if you want to do that. I 100% I see what you're saying, but also, I mean, look at the schedule, right? Like you should be able to beat a depleted Marlin's team. I love you. Skip. I'm so sorry. They just took too straight from the brain. I know they did. I know they did. And he's got them, you know, he's got these guys playing for their lives. Certainly. He's a really good manager and what he's been able to do with nothing with nothing. They've taken everything from him is pretty remarkable. So, but again, you feel like you don't want to certainly don't want to punt those games, but if you feel like that these are your guys, if Vasquez is going to be a guy that's going to be able to get you out to use these guys and then use your bullpen as needed. And they have plenty of weapons down there to get the job done. One more starter would have been superb, but we didn't get it. So we got to figure it out now. And Joe coming back is clutch. It's so clutch, but yeah, man, he's got to be effective too. In those 50, 65 pitches or whatever, they need to be effective. Sure. Yeah. And he felt, you know, he said yesterday that he felt like the first, when he went to Arizona and kind of threw, he wasn't, didn't have his, his feels or whatever he calls it. You know, the, the motions, but he did feel pretty good in Fresno. He gave up a couple of runs and four hits, but I think it was 43 pitches, 35 strikes. Yeah. So that just tells me right there you hit the strike zone that much. You've got something, you've, you've got some sort of feel for coming back because if he can hit the strike zone, you can also just miss it as well. Sure. So I'd imagine he wanted to throw strikes. He did what he wanted to do in Fresno. They feel good enough that Joe can come back, but now with the bullpen taxed and, you know, I mean, best case scenario, it's probably four innings, but what if it's not the best case? What if, what if Joe throws well, but you know, they grind him out for a 25 pitch first inning and a 25 pitch second inning and all of a sudden he goes two and two thirds and gives up two hits and a run. But now you've got your own time, mother. Well, yeah, just through three and two thirds innings today. So you got to be careful with that as well. So yeah, it's a, it's a dilemma. It's, you know, this is what they get the big bucks for. This is why Mike Schultz and AJ Preller and Ruben Diablo. This is more than anything else. This is what their job is to try to figure this out going forward. I have a feeling it's going to be very holistic. Very, very holistic. Probably a lot of, of overthinking and a lot of, not over managing, but certainly over speculating. Or maybe they just have a big wheel that they spin. Spinning. Yeah. Darn said aboard. The wheel of starting pitchers. And that's how they decide. I got no idea what the process looks like. That's what good teams do. That's right. Good teams do. They spin the wheel. Hey, it looks like it's Randy Vasquez did. All right, Randy. And task is that. That's great. That's great. I love it. Love it. All right. You ready to play? Uh, leave and let's play. It's time for take on woods. Take on woods. What? Take on woods. All right. Take on woods brought to you by Valvolin Instant Oil Change. It only takes 15 minutes. You don't have to get out of your car for directions and discounts. Go to SoCalOilChange.com. That's SoCalOilChange.com. Let's go to line two. Is this Russell? Yes, it is. Russell, you are the contestant today for Take on Woods. How are you doing? I'm doing good. How are you? I'm good. All right. If you can beat her tight woods, we'll put you into the grand prize drawing. Great prize this month. Two nights at Resorts World Las Vegas. Two tickets to carry Underwood Reflection at Resorts World Theater. It's her new residency from August 14th through October 26th. Tickets are available at AXS.com and rw Las Vegas.com. All right. You get to choose our category with woods out of the room. We have the afterlife sitting there. Five song titles and artists, including the word after. Spreckensydoich. Those are bands and artists who made it big around the world. But German in theme. And we've got dream a little dream. Five song titles that contain the word dream. So the afterlife, spreckensydoich or dream a little dream, Russell. Oh, let's do, uh, let's try dream. Dream a little dream. Okay. Today we're looking for five song titles. They all contain the word dream. Dream in it. You have 60 seconds. If you don't know an answer, you can say pass. Come back to it. If there's time left on the clock. First question is the two second song. Pauli queued it up now. You have to identify both the song title and the artist to score that point. Russell, are you ready to play? I'm ready. All right. 60 seconds on the clock. Pauli needs one second. Woods is out there blissfully unaware of everything going on in here. You let me know when you're ready, Paul? Yes. Spotify is not working today. All right. Thanks. That's going to make it hard to do the two second song. Yeah, I'm good at stalling. We had a stall for eight days while Woodsie was gone. Just to get him back. I feel some daydreaming. That's all right, Russell. What did you think about the Padres game last night? Good. Good. There we go. Good stalling. Thanks. Thank you for elaborating so eloquently on this whistle as we try to help Pauli out and appreciate that. All right. Sometimes fewer words are better. All right. Here we go. Good luck. Your time begins when Paul plays the music. The category again. Dream a little dream. Good luck, Russell. Let's take on Woods. Sweet dreams by your admit. Correct. Stephen Tyler says he wrote which breakthrough 1973 hit for Aerosmith when he was just 14 years old. Dream on. Correct. Darrell Hall says it takes a rare edition of a specific Yamaha keyboard to create the distinctive sound of which 1981 Holland O-2. One of my favorite song lyrics is when Crowded House sings "Try to Catch the Daily Rouge in a Paper Cup" in which 1986 hit. "Don't dream it's over." Correct! Katy Perry reminisces about her youth in which No. 1 hit entitled track from her third album in 2010. "Ah, pass." Daryl Hall says it takes a rare edition of a specific Yamaha keyboard to create the distinctive sound of which 1981 Holland notes hit. "Oh, ah, dream time." Incorrect! Katy Perry reminisces about her youth in which No. 1 hit entitled track from her third album in 2010. "Last couple seconds." No idea. That's alright. You got three. Time is up. That one is Teenage Dream by Katy Perry and Daryl Holland notes is "You Make My Dreams Come True." Alright, that's three. Let's bring Woods in and we will see how his score holds up against yours. Russell, hang on the line. Alright, you nervous? It's been a while. You remember how to play? I do. I am. Two seconds song, 60 seconds pass if you don't know an answer. That's right. Alright, you know. Alright, you don't get the category. 60 seconds on the clock. Your time begins when Paul plays the music. Good luck, Woods! Let's take on Russell! Sweet dreams are made of these. The Erythmics. Correct. Steven Tyler says he wrote which breakthrough 1973 hit for Aerosmith when he was just 14 years old. Dream on. Correct. Daryl Hall says it takes a rare edition of a specific Yamaha keyboard to create the distinctive sound of which 1981 Holland notes hit. Pass. One of my favorite song lyrics is when crowded housings try to catch the deluge in a paper cup. Oh, Dream it's over. Correct. Katie Perry reminisces about her youth in which number one hit and title track from her third album in 2010. Teenage Dream. It is. Daryl Hall says it takes a rare edition of a specific Yamaha keyboard to create the distinctive sound of which 1981 Holland notes hit. What can I think of a Holland note song? What the hell is wrong? Other than Rich Girl. Dream, Dream, Dream. Dream. Dream. Dream. Dreaming. Dreaming of your taint. Wow. Everyone missed all your guesses that have no chance of being right. Literally, I don't think there is a popular song. You made my dreams? Oh, you made that song. That's why I don't remember. You don't like the Yamaha keyboard at the beginning of the game? No, I even noticed it was there. He's back with a victory. Like Fernando Tetis Jr. coming off the injured list with two home runs. Yes. That's how you do it. It was his right back with a win in Dream A Little Dream. Congratulations, Woods. Thank you. Feels good. All right. Don't do this is coming up next. Mahalo Russell. Mahalo. Oh, how about Mad Dog? Mad Dog. I knew this was going to happen to someone. I did too. I was so mad that it's Mad Dog. He's not one of those guys who doesn't know baseball because I know he does. Mad Dog? On MLB Network? Really? You don't think? Mad Dog? Yeah. Talking about Chris Russo. Yes. He knows baseball in 1979. Fair enough. I mean, this is- I don't like it. Guys, he was sorry. Yeah, we're in all these guards on the road. Fine. Good Lord. I knew it was going to happen to someone. But it got him so hard for me to listen to. It's excruciating audio. It gave me indigestion hearing it and we'll play it for you coming up next. Ben Woods after traffic on '97 through the fan. 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. 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. Get your laugh on with me, Chris Jericho and the talk is Jericho Podcast. We've got Guns N' Roses, Hall of Famer, Duff the Kagan and his joke of the week. Every Friday, plus regular visits from the hilarious Brad Williams Special Appearances by everyone from Gabrielle, Fluff the Iglesias, Mark Marin, Dennis Miller, Cheech Marin, Kevin Neeland. If they're funny, they're on talk is Jericho. So listen to and follow talk is Jericho now on the free Odyssey app or wherever you get your podcast. Don't do this. It's time for Don't Do This. What were you thinking? Three stories from the world of sports that make us all shake our heads. Why? How many times do I have to tell you? I'm sorry I fudged up guys. You idiot. You moron. You're so mad. 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 97th ring the fan. Don't do this is brought to you by Craft Taco in Srenno Valley. Paulie expecting to have a trip to the Craft Taco in Srenno Valley. Very soon. A strap in dude. I can't wait. Yeah you're going to love it. Some of the best quality tacos in all of Sandy. Go to thecrafttaco.com. Take a look at their Happy Hour specials today at thecrafttaco.com. And I think we have to kick off Don't Do This with a shout out to his family as well for our first story. And this was really sad. Former Padre Billy Bean passed away of leukemia yesterday at the age of 60. So Paulie if you would? Wow. Was he? Shout out to his family. Shout out first. Well you should have told me that. I did. I did. I did. But you're not already home. You can see more. The audio that you all see. We're back. We're fully back. When already things are so difficult. So shout out to his family. Now of course there are two significant Billy Bean's in baseball. One is Moneyball Billy Bean. Yeah. Be and E from Mount Carmel High School, General Manager of the A's, President. Yeah. Both Sandy Eggo ties right? Yeah. Both have some Sandy Eggo ties. The other Billy Bean, the one who passed away yesterday, was most notable. Not for necessarily his playing career, but after his career he came out of the closet as gay. And that was very significant at the time. He played baseball without really letting any of his teammates know about it and went through his career. And you know he became Major League Baseball's essentially Ambassador for Inclusion, which is in the Major League Baseball office. And I never got to meet him. But from whatever I heard, everyone who knew Billy Bean said, fantastic guy. Yeah. Really great guy. And everyone liked him. Our beloved Tim Flannery tweeted about him and said I absolutely loved Billy Bean. We backed up Tony Gwynne and played with him and loved him. But as is the case when news breaks and you don't have all the information right away, and I was scared that this was going to happen when I saw it, someone was going to make the mistake. And it became pretty high profile because it was our friend Matt, Chris Russo, doing I think his satellite radio show when he got the news. Wow. Yeah. The word that we're getting right now is that the general manager of the A's, Billy Bean, may have passed away. Wow. Was he ill? Wasn't aware of this. I mean, he's not that old. Jeez. Was it sudden? Well, see if we can get some information. Wow. That is a terrible story with Billy Bean of the A's. I don't know anything about it. But the first I've heard, you know, he's an historic general manager on a team that, you know, he built very good teams with not a lot to work with financially. The movie, of course, with Brad Pitt. Right. He's probably no more than 62 or 3, 60. Wow. Leukemia. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That's a terrible story. It's a different one. So, Billy Bean of the A's. Now, had he taken a leave of absence in the last, whatever it might be? He got it at some point in about 30 more seconds. Someone told him. Then he figured it out. And I get it. I mean, you know, it's breaking news, but that's unfortunate. But that mistake was made. Billy Bean is still general manager of the A's guys still. Well, I don't even think he's that anymore. I don't even know what he is anymore. That's the wrong, that's the wrong Billy Bean. Yeah, it is. That's not the Billy Bean from the A's. Correct. Last 10 years, Billy worked passionately and tirelessly with MLB and all 30 clubs. Focusing on player education. He played 10, he played the six, 10 year playing career with six teams. That's another mind. You get the point. You get the point. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, you know, it's understandable, but unfortunate as well. Well, listen, we I was on the plane yesterday and I saw some discourse going on online as I usually see it. And I don't know if people do this to be edge lordy. I don't know if they do it for engagement, but I saw this tweet from exploring baseball history. Yesterday, and it's the second such tweet that I'd seen, I'd seen some comparisons to Tony Gwen and Aaron judge and the numbers start flying out and oh my God, and what about this and the OPS gets this. Listen, and I'm a fan of numbers. I believe in them, but we're talking about different eras. We're talking about different players. It's just sometimes it's just moronic to do, but this guy really went a step further. Said, I probably shouldn't wait into this, but well, there's your answer right there, dummy. Just says I just said it. He says, I think that Tony Gwen holds a weird place in baseball history. He's probably the most overrated player that just about everyone agrees belongs in the Hall of Fame. So he's saying, I think what he's saying is Tony Gwen, everybody believes he belongs in the Hall of Fame, but he's overrated. And I've seen this before, and it happens every year. Jeter, Tony Gwen, there's a bunch of guys and you look at it and you just go, for me, as much as I love baseball, I'm so tired of it. I'm so tired of the comparison. I really am. I'm just, it is tired head for me immediately. You can't reason with these people. There's no, there's no reasoning with them. Yeah, two plus two is five. I'm at the point where if somebody's arguing with me, if two plus two equals five, you know what, you're right, man. You're right. You're right. You're absolutely right. Enjoy the rest of your day. You're right. Yes. I am a moron. I know nothing correct. You got it. You nailed it. And I just, it really sucks the energy out of you. But what I really enjoyed, this is like a do-do this as well, is our beloved Tony Gwen Jr., he rarely wades into any of this. I love him when he sees stuff like that. And he had time today and he said, so you woke up and decided this was the way you wanted to start the day. By trying to knock my pops. The discourse that was being had about my pops and judge and whoever else must have really gotten under your skin that bad, huh? Hey, I guess everybody's entitled to their opinion. You're in the real small minority though. Carry on. I almost said a Gwen. A Gwen. Which actually works. It was a Gwen. Again, this is not a, we're from San Diego or we're in San Diego and we love Tony Gwen battle. This is a, if you don't realize what kind of impact player Tony Gwen was, you, as Ted Lightner would say, sir, are a moron. I think there is an argument to be made that had Tony Gwen come around 25 years later, he might not have been viewed as a good as a prospect. Because the, you know, oh, he doesn't do the power of things that you're looking for and he might not have gotten the opportunity he got. I'm glad Tony Gwen came around when he, when he did. I promise you, if Tony Gwen was around today though, he'd be one of the best players in base. No question. He'd be a Hall of Famer. Even today. He has a skill set and a talent that was even unmatched by the best players in baseball history. He is one of the best hitters who has ever lived. And if you're telling me that that is overrated by being one of the best hitters who ever lived and also a gold glove outfielder, a smart base runner, especially early in his career, and everything that he did, I don't know how to help you. I really don't. It's not, don't, don't take it from us. Don't take it from Padres fans. Don't even take it from Tony Gwen Jr. Right. Take it from Greg Maddox. Yes, John Smoltz. All the best of their generation. Like all of those F that guy, F that guy, my favorite interview, maybe we've ever done, was Greg Maddox saying, I finally got smart and just started throwing him a first pitch fastball that I knew he would hit for a single and I just hoped he wouldn't hit it for a double. And I'd stop. Maybe I'd get lucky and he hit it at somebody. And I would save six to nine bullets, you know, for the rest of the game and try to get the next guy out. Just throw him his fastball, let him get his hit, and, you know, try to get a double play out of the next guy. Now, we can table this discussion, but the comparisons between Luis Arise and Tony Gwen Jr., or Tony Gwen are interesting because their numbers are very similar at this point in their careers. And I don't know, is Arise heading toward the Hall of Fame, or not, in his career? But I would like to discuss that at some point, because I think it's relevant to this discussion as well. You know, and as Jay says, I grew up in the Bay Area, Tony was my favorite player. I lived in Connecticut, Jay. Connecticut. And Tony Gwen was a poster hung on my wall when I was in seventh and eighth grade. He, the one with the bats. The bats. Yeah, the bats. And I mean, he was, you're talking as far as you'd get away from here. And all my homies love Tony Gwen. Why? Because he mashed the baseball. All something we all wanted to do, that's what he did. He mashed the baseball. He hit it here, he hit it here, he hit it there, he hit it everywhere. And a truly transcendent hitter. Finally, quick do do do this. But I know we got to go. We've got Adam Jones coming up. Really cool scene yesterday. You've seen players go visit children's hospitals before. It's great. They go sign autographs, bring gifts. Mitch Hanniger did it a different way yesterday with the Mariners. He went to Seattle Children's Hospital. They did. They called it a reverse signing. And instead of having like players sitting at a table, signing autographs, all the kids who were at Children's Hospital, they had the table and they were signing autographs. The players. It was one of the cutest scenes. We got it on our YouTube stream. But unbelievable. I don't know if it was a PR person or Hanniger, whoever idea that was, that was genius and such a nice moment. And totally do do this. All right. That was don't and do do this for a Wednesday. That was don't do this with Ben and Woods 97 3 the fan. Adam Jones is slowly making his way closer to the west coast. It's going to be here next week. We're supposed to see AJ next week, but he will. Like a couple days. He will join us next as he continues his summer in America with the five time All-Star Adam Jones on a big league Wednesday coming up when we return on 97 3 the fan. Things going well for the San Diego Padres. They are hot just in time for an upcoming visit from Adam Jones, the five time All-Star not here yet. We'll be here soon, but he's standing by and will join us right after this check of traffic on 97 3 the fan. (Music) He'll be loving him some California very, very soon. He's getting closer from what I understand it is time to talk on a big league Wednesday with the five time All-Star from San Diego and the Baltimore Orioles and various other locations. Adam Jones is back with us here on 97 3 the fan. AJ, how's your summer going? All is good right now. All is good just in Arizona right now. Very warm, but you know, the pods are playing some good ball. It's just great at the right time and you know, you win and the Dodgers lose. It's always a good morning. It's crazy. I did not think we'd be sitting here scoreboard watching in August 7th. You know, I knew we'd be watching to see what the Diamondbacks would do. Maybe the Mets would figure it out. I did not think we'd be watching what the Dodgers were doing on August 7th. Now I get it. They've been ravaged by injury. I certainly understand that, but holy smokes, AJ. This is a lot closer than Dodger fans probably want to admit. It's part of the game. The injuries are part of the game. And that's, you know, I get I've always said that I don't never use that excuse because everybody's going to battle and go through certain things. So, you know, it's just a place part of it. But the poverty they're doing what they're supposed to do is there's there winning games are spoken to and the closing out games are supposed to close out. And last night, I've seen the young kid. I think it's a shotter. Yeah. He closed it. He closed out the game and he went into me. Look at this. He wasted three pitches. Okay. Someone needs to talk to him. He threw three, two fast balls right by a key on Brian Hayes, who is a very good fat boy. He threw three non competitive pitches. He said his time and he threw a three, two, five ball right by him. Stop wasting your time. You do three pitches pointless. You throw them in the bullpen or throw them after the game. You can feel like it. Blow the dude away. Okay. Well, he's clearly. He's clearly learned nothing from Robert Suarez who just gets up there and chucks fast balls as fast as he can. Right. I'm just saying it's like don't we're not that smart. Okay. Everybody thinks that baseball is it's gotten too nerdy or smart. When you're in between the lines, you're not that damn smart. What's working, figure it out. Everybody on the outside, let them start to think and think they know what's going on and think that they're smarter. But inside, inside those lines, we all know we ain't that damn smart. C ball, hit ball. If the dude is not hitting the fastball, why in the hell are you going to throw him something that's down and that's lower that he can catch up to. It was like, just stick with what works. He's not watching that. I've seen three, I've seen three non competitive pitches. I'm like, I hope somebody tells him, like, well, you got 98 at the top of the zone. Forcing, just like, just live there. You'll be right. He did end up striking out all three batters and he did. I know. I didn't think. He did straight strikeouts earlier this year. And he's disgusting. I'm saying he's disgusting. I've watched him pitch. He's disgusting. Yeah. It's a compliment. And the fact that we talked about it. When you go to game down, when you go to game down in September and in October, that's going to be a little bit different. And we talked about it a little bit last week right after the trade deadline and the Padres moves to fortify their bullpen. But the fact that you can even bring him in in a six nothing game. I mean, he used to be a guy you need to save for higher leverage. But now you have so many options in your bullpen right now if you're the Padres that a strat as a guy. Yeah, it will protect that six nothing lead with this guy in the ninth inning. It's got to be disheartening. I would imagine to other teams knowing whoever is coming out of that bullpen is going to be so nasty. No, that was the worst. It's like, you're like, okay, well, we're either beaten by a lot of that beaten us by a lot. All right, get us somebody in here. That's just like 91 92 little little mental winners, but a little wrinkly. You got not these not these days. Everybody's coming in and they're just throwing just. They're just hard throwers with sinkers sliders. Sometimes they know where it's going. They don't know how to pitch in that well, but they're always hitting people, but it's definitely different. I'm telling you, we still love that middle release guy that just comes in and just like, you know, you get the starter. I'm some guy that just need to eat up two and two thirds and you just shell him for another five. But now not that guy coming in is disgusting. He's 96 98 with us. They call it a sweeper now. I still curveball or slider. I don't know who discovers sweeper, but yeah, I mean, the pitching has gotten way better. I heard Bryce Harper in interview just say, you know, the pitching has just got tougher. You know, you look at the batting averages and all that kind of stuff and you can say, Oh, well, guys aren't as good hitters. They were in a path and they don't compete as much. They got three options, maybe, you know, maybe the home run walk or strikeout. But the pitchers are very, very nasty and the consistency of what comes in is nasty. When you have to face somebody three times, no matter how hard he threw, I can make that adjustment the third time. Now you're facing you. I don't even know if you face the same guy three times, really? You know what I mean? So it's it's it's very tough to fit. Is there very tough to hit in today's game? And I watch him like, damn, this dude coming in 98, so you're okay, eight, one game. You think some of 92 is coming in? Yeah, it's a lefty at 97. So I'm like, it's like you got more at home. Who throws probably the easiest 99 of ever seen? Right. I mean, geez. Like, it didn't go again. It swore as you get. So the party's in a good situation right now because they got a lot of velocity. And you know what, they've gained some experience over the last couple years. I think more at home can be big, big down the stretch against it. It's going to be against his biggest about to be against Freeman and against old Tommy because he's now seasoned and prepared for those because he's facing the last couple of years in this scenario. So, you know, it's going to be it's going to be fun down the stress because now the party's have that that experience. It's not known that we, I don't think we can use the excuse of, you know, some guys have never been there before. Some guys are this. I think it's now is like, Hey, these guys, these guys have been around. They know what to do. The expectations are there and they smell blood and I love it. They smell it in Baltimore and they smell it on that road trip and you see what they're doing right now in Pittsburgh. Talking to Adam Jones here on Ben Woods this morning, and I'm sure we've asked you about rain delay for a player before, but it's a good time to bring it back after last night. You know, you got a game. It's dicey. You're kind of looking at the weather forecast before you head to the ballpark going, man, this is probably going to be one of those days, but then you get the game started and then the torrential downpour, the field won't drain. You're wet. You're back in the clubhouse. You're drying out like what what goes on back there? How frustrating is it? You know, you're on the road. It's a long ass trip. Like God, man. And then to come out and win six. Nothing. I thought was, you know, a real good testament to the team, but as a former player, that those games cannot be fun at all. Oh, rain delays, rain delays stink. It's like it's either you either know what's going to rain. Like when you feel like got all dressed and you're all ready and like it's a rain day. If you coming in, it's like 640. And they're like, Hey, we're on a hold. All right, come on, man. I got this been gay all over me. I'm just moved all up. I'm ready to go. That's me. You know what I'm saying? Hey, you know, it's over person. It's this start right now. And, you know, it's just wipe off. You can't wipe that stuff off. So you sit there, you're like, damn. Okay. All right. Well, you figure it out. You figure it out. You relax. You take the stuff off. You take, you know, you try to get yourself in a relaxing state. You look on your phone and see the pattern and you, you know, you try and take a guess with them. They always tell you what's going on, but it's just, it sucks, especially on the road. The road called houses are as good as homes, but hey, look, if your job calls for a rain delay, it calls for it. But the best things you go out there and you win, you know, a lot of times the home team has that advantage. But the road team, they went out there and they went out there and they scored six. And I like that they're doing top bottom of the order. It's everybody right now starting to add value. And again, like I said, to me, Jackson Merrill, he might be the team MVP in my opinion right now, just because of everything that he's doing to just be the glue of the team. I know it's a lot that it's not on his shoulders yet. Very not on his shoulders, but he's, he's taken himself into be a really, really good, like leader by play. And it's really good to see because as a center fielder, you know, I like to see the center fielder state control the whole team. Talking to Adam Jones, he's with us. You're in Arizona. The Diamondbacks are not right now. They actually got rained out in Cleveland yesterday, double header scheduled today. But if there's any team that's playing as well as the Padres, it's the Diamondbacks. All right. Now they are very hot. How do you compare them to last year's team that made this run to the World Series? Because they're looking kind of similar right now. Yeah, I think they're a little bit better team because they made additions like that. Actually, I think a couple of teams and, you know, this is still a good team right now playing well. Obviously, Marte is just, I think he's got put on a national stage last year, and that is, that was perfect for him because he is a star. But, and you got to see Corbin Carroll has not even gotten off yet. He's not having a good year yet. He can lose. See what he did last year in his rookie year. What if he put the next two months just decides to flip on that switch. Gurrielle had a good start. He's been slowing down when he gets hot. You know, they have a good pitch instead. They got a really, really good team. And again, they have that veteran's aware they've been there before. So they know how to paste themselves. And that's part of the season two is, is pacing yourself. You know, you see the last couple years of Reds get off to a hot start, Pittsburgh gets off to a hot start. And then, you realize you come back. They're in the normal places that they've always been. So it's a long, long, long season. I think that the Padres and Diamondbacks are two, and the Orioles, I think are two franchises. The three franchises that have learned how to paste themselves throughout the long season and kick it in at the right time. And obviously playing good ball the second half is the right time. Well, before we let you go, man, can't not mention what you're doing on Friday night, this coming Friday, a night for Mr. Padre. Tell us about what that event is going to be and how people can get tickets. Well, it's, you know, it's about T.G. Everything is about Tony Gwen, you know, the love and passion that we have for Tony Gwen because, you know, obviously he's my favorite player. He's my mentor. And it's just, you know, a night to recognize we have a gala. We have incredible items from sign Super Bowls jerseys to sign Super Bowl footballs to cleats jerseys bets from all your favorite players. But the most important thing is it's about highlighting Tony Gwen because we, you know, it's been 25 years since 3000. You can believe that 1999 and I remember exactly where I was at. I was at home watching it while he was getting hit in Montreal. And, you know, that was a moment that always stick with me as a kid. And, you know, what T.G. has meant to the city of San Diego and outside of it, he's what he's meant to baseball. He still talked about it. It's one of the best hitters that ever played his game. And, you know, even a better thing that having a guy like Luis Arais even brings T.G.'s name up even more in conversation. So I think that's even, even better. But we have a camp on Saturday, the 10th. From nine to one at 10, they go state. I'll be there the whole time. I was trying to get out of some golf in the afternoon, but they like, come on. So, you know, I'll say that I'll be there. I'll be there. I'll be there the whole time. But no, you can get tickets at Tony Gwen legacy east.org for slash events. And, you know, it's about the community. We're going to have a lot of good people here. The gallows Friday night and it's going to be just a fantastic, fantastic event. And, you know, I'm, I'm going to try to be a part of it. You know, Oakley's part of it. It's just a good team. Rand is obviously led by the daughter of Tony Gwen, Anisha. And it's just, it's just a great event. That's great. It's good. I think I've sent you guys the ticket. We got it and all that stuff. Yeah. Oxford, so I hope you guys can pass it out and blow it out. We will do it. Paul, you just put the link in our YouTube chat. We'll put it on our Twitter and it's going to help. It's going to help community development in Southeast San Diego and underserved communities. It's great work that you're doing after your career. And yeah, I mean, you still got plenty of time for golf, but those camps are important too. My kid has been to about 10 camps this summer. AJ, he's gotten so much better, man. So much better. And it's been great. It's been great. Yeah. Oxford Social Club. So Friday night, get your tickets. It's going to be lit. And we'll see you next week, right? Yes. I'll see you next week. Looking forward to it. Alright, take some air money from you. Adam Jones, the five time All-Star. I think we're going to try to play some golf with him. We are. And if we're playing out at the ranch, you think 80, breaking 80 could be in the car. He's done it. He's done it. He's done it. It's a place to do it again, for sure. It's the only place I've ever done. You've done it. Let's see if AJ can do it. It's the only place I'll ever do it. So that would be fun to see him in person after he finally makes his way all the way to this side of the country. That's right. Alright, we are two hours in already. Oh, yeah. Gonna tell you guys what happened. I'm curious. I saw the tweet as you were coming home yesterday. Yeah. But I don't have no idea what the story is. I have a very curious three-year-old clothing option as it turns out. Very curious three-year-old. Tell you guys all about Taylor Camp coming up next. Alright, then we have Brett Boone still to join us on a big league Wednesday. That's coming your way at around 8.35, a rival report, and get you ready for another Padres game coming up. Hopefully, no rain today. I hear there's still possibility in the forecast because it is Pittsburgh in the summer. But 3.40 all ahead today with a bit of woods on San Diego's number one sports station. 97.3 the fan. Trying to figure out what to eat for dinner yet again? With no sides and bouillon as you're not so secret ingredient, you can skip the drive-through and do dinner at home. No taste combos provide a menu of delicious, affordable, and well-balanced meals that you can prepare in 30 minutes or less. Visit nor.com to get quick and easy recipe ideas for your home-cooked weeknight dinners. It's not fast food, but it's so good. Get your laugh on with me, Chris Jericho at the Talk is Jericho podcast. We've got Guns N' Roses, Hall of Famer, Duff the Kagan, and his joke of the week every Friday plus regular visits from the hilarious Brad Williams and special appearances by everyone from Gabrielle, Fluffly Iglesias, Mark Marin, Dennis Miller, Cheech Marin, Kevin Neeland, if they're funny, they're on Talk is Jericho, so listen to and follow Talk is Jericho now on the free Odyssey app or wherever you get your podcast. - Yes.