Shopify has already taken the cash register online, helping millions sell billions around the world. But did you know that Shopify can do the same thing at your retail store? Give your point of sale system a serious upgrade with Shopify. That's right, Shopify is the sound of selling everywhere, online, in-store, on social media, and beyond. With Shopify, you get a powerhouse selling partner that effortlessly unites your in-person and online sales into one source of truth. Pack every sale across your business in one place and know exactly what's in stock. With Shopify POS, you can accept credit cards, mobile payments, and every other major payment method all with low fees and transparent pricing. Starting on day one. Plus, Shopify's award-winning help is there to support your success every step of the way. Do retail right with Shopify. Sign up for a $1 per month trial period at Shopify.com/MLB podcast. All lowercase. Go to Shopify.com/MLB podcast to take your retail business to the next level today. Shopify.com/MLB podcast. This episode is brought to you by our good friends at NFL Sunday Ticket on YouTube TV. I'm sure by now you've all got back into your Sunday routines, but they could be even better. With NFL Sunday Ticket on YouTube TV, you get the most live NFL games all in one place every game, every Sunday, and you can even watch up to four different games at once with MultiView, one of my favorite inventions of this decade. It's exactly what you need to catch all the action. Make your Sundays more magical, and also, YouTube TV is great. I got it this year. It's awesome. Sign up now at youtube.com/BS device and content restrictions apply. Local and national games on YouTube TV, NFL Sunday Ticket for out-of-market games, excludes digital-only games. One and one. Swung on. That's a deep to left. If it's fair, it's gone. It's fair. It's gone. A three-run homer for Connor Wong, and that was totally crushed. The Red Sox lead six-nothing in the fifth. Nadell with the call. Another Rangers loss. I see everyone getting it with the fist pump on the fan cam final hour hump day edition. When you're home, say it while we can, because it's about to be over of the World Series Champs. And joining us on the fan cam, just like Brian brought us, where they smirk on his face, his Odyssey baseball insider Brett Boone via the D&M leasing hotline. Is it over for the champs, Brett? I hate to say it. I think it's over. Yes. I think it's we're getting to the point in the season that you know, you know me, I've always been keeping my eyes saying, "Oh, I'm not going to, I'm not closing the casket yet. I've closed it. I've been waiting. It's just, it's just not going to happen this year." You know, I thought they'd, by this point, something would click and they'd get on a run. They just haven't been able to do it. You know, Scherzer came back, he went down, grazed down. It just, it's just not in the cards. I don't think this year offensively. I was looking at the numbers from a year ago in 2023 compared to the numbers today. Pretty similar pitching wife, but offensively obviously that's been the story for, for Texas this year. It just hasn't been that same dominant offense. That was probably number one in the American League a year ago. So yeah, I think it's going to, that division now is going to go to Seattle and Houston, Houston's getting hot. So, you know, it's going to, it's going to be a battle. I don't think there's going to be a wildcard team that comes from the American League West. I think there's just going to be one team this year. So what happens in the clubhouse, what happens at the dugout, what happens on the field when you kind of reach a point where you realize that it's over, like it's, you know, you're not, you're, you're, you're, there's a guy on second, nobody out. You're not interested in just hitting the ball to the right side. You're taking selfish at bats like what, what, what goes on throughout the team? No, I think the great teams I've been on, you never stopped playing the game correctly. I mean, that's what, that's what, that's what creates that unbelievable chemistry that you have in the field. Because you play the game, right? And you play for one another. And, and if I do it, and the guy behind me doesn't, the guy behind me does it. You know, if a Simeon and a Seger and a Garcia play the game correctly, well, that 26 man on the roster is going to play the team correctly. You never stop playing the game, right? And as a player, we are very stubborn. We're sitting here and I'm, I'm, I'm admitting that it's over on, on the radio, but these players in the clubhouse that they, they don't, we're kind of naive when it comes to this until you actually tell us it's over, we don't think it's over. So those guys in the clubhouse, they're listening and going, it's not over yet. You know, I know it's a lot to come back from, but they're holding on to a little bit of hope when you get to a point when, when it doesn't look likely, you got to find something to play for. You got to get, you got to get up in the morning and find some reason to go to the ballpark and be productive. And that's spoiling somebody else's chances. So I think going into September, you'll see that a lot playing for it's kind of rewarding in a weird way when you knock somebody out of the playoffs, when you have a, have a team that's in the hunt and, and you go in and you sweep them in a series or you beat them two out of three and knock them out of contention. So they're going to, they're going to play spoilers in September. That's what you got to find some reason to, to suit it up. Let us see inside of Brett Boone Jones here, 105 through the fan. There's a chance that Jake DeGrom comes back still this year, even though they're so far out of it. You know, would you bring him back if it's in September and there, there have no chance to get some of that rust out or would you give him the extra six months of recovery time and just pick him up at, at spring training? Well, let me think, let me, let me put myself in the position of the player of, of DeGrom. He's got to do it for, for himself, for the, for the mental side that, okay, I can come back from this. You know, this, this season may be over for the Texas Rangers, but for him, he's got to show that, all right, I can come back and I feel good from a mental, from the mental side too, from a teammates perspective is, all right, we got DeGrom, okay, this year's done. In 2025, did you see what DeGrom did down the stretch, man? That gives us some hope for next year, DeGrom, Evaldi. So yeah, I think, I think you definitely come back, you definitely don't push him and kind of force the situation. Maybe he comes back a little later than he normally would if they're in a pennant race, but I think definitely, for peace of mind, for Jason, absolutely comes back this year. Brett, you mentioned that, you know, you look at last year and the way they hit the baseball and how they were offensively, there was a lot there that it hasn't clicked into place the same way this year as they start evaluating the future a little bit. How much do they need to potentially weigh the idea that last year was a peak, that this is not a down year and you're not going to get a bounce back next year? How much do they need to consider that last year was a peak and they need changes offensively? Well, yeah, last year was a peak. I mean, when you lead, when you lead the American League in essentially every offensive category, of course, that's a year where everything goes great. That's a perfect scenario. But also, I think, I look at them this year and they're kind of middle of the pack or down in the American League in the lower third in every offensive category. I think they're a better team than that. I think they're definitely still offensively. One of the better teams in the American League just haven't lived up to it this year. So, yeah, maybe they're not the number one offensive baseball, but they're definitely not the tenth or eleventh best in the American League either. So I don't know how much. I think you look at the injuries that they've had, a lot of team have injuries. I'm not making excuses for them, but you haven't had a young at third base or a Carter. A lot of the pitchers been on and off the IL. You lost the Lorenzan, who did a great job for you this year. He went on at the trading deadline and I don't blame him for that. For just came back, Dunning's been on and off the IL. So there's been a lot of things that haven't gone their way. But then again, a lot of teams have had those struggles this year. So I don't think it's a revamping, maybe a little bit of a tweaking, but getting those pitchers healthy, and this is what I'm figuring out. The longer I watch this game, and especially in 2024, there are so many injuries that throughout Major League Baseball, it's so important now to stay healthy because nobody does. So that the healthy team seems to win these days because the injuries, it just seems like every day. Let's put them on the IL for 10 days, maybe we'll move them to the 15. I mean, it just seems like no big deal, whereas in the past, the injuries weren't as prevalent. So today, the team that stays injury-free is usually the team that comes out on top. Brad, did you feel like the skill level of trainers was actually a thing? Like, you had a great trainer. This guy's definitely better. This one is not. Is that a thing? I definitely had training staffs that I preferred, but no, it's really not a thing. I think it's a culture. It's how it's, you know, and I had this discussion a few days ago. I forget who I was having it with, who was on air. And I was asked the question, "Who's tougher, Brett? You were your dad." And I thought about it. I laughed. I said, "Well, I think I'm a pretty tough guy." But I said, "Definitely my dad was tougher." And when I think about that, definitely my grandfather was tougher than my dad. It was a different time. They came up in a different generation. I think our generation is definitely tougher than this generation. You know, I have a son that plays in the minor leg, and I tell him all the time, "You're a wuss. I'm definitely tougher than you." Obviously kidding, obviously kidding, but no, it's the way the kids are brought up today. It's not necessarily their fault, but they're taught to, "Hey, if you're not 100%, we can't be playing." Now, I look at the business side. I look at the owner of the franchise, and I look at the money being put out for these guys. The money is tremendous. And if I'm an investor, if I'm a business owner, maybe I protect my 20, $30 million player a little more than in past years. But it's definitely the culture. They definitely baby these guys in the minor leagues. "Oh, if you've got an injury, hey, we're going to take your time on it." In my day, we take this thing up. I had a trainer by the name of Rick Griffin in Seattle who was there 30, 40 years from the time I came up as a kid, and he just retired recently. But if I had a little nagging injury, I'd go to Rick and say, "Here's the deal." My ankle hurts. Get the crap out of it, and I'm playing today. Are you sure? I'm sure I'm sure. Now, that comes with being a veteran player, an established player. You're going to have a little more clout than you do when you're a rookie. When you're a rookie, you're going to be told what you're going to do. But we had a little bit of latitude where we could say, "I'm fine. This doesn't go past me and you, and we go on." Nowadays, it's, man, if there's an injury, come here, we're going to assess it. It comes from the top down, and you're on the IL for 10 days. And that's just the culture. That's not the fault of the player. It's just the way the game is today. Brad, I was going to ask you about your brother losing by 10 to the White Sox, but I'll shift because you mentioned your son, and this is like a baseball question. So the sport today, when you were playing, when we were growing up, batting average, they cared about. And nowadays, it's slugging percentage. It's all the ... Does Jacob care about batting average? Do you think we'll ever get back to a point where the players of the teams value batting average, or are we on this X of velocity or bust kind of trend? I think it'll be back because it is a valuable tool. You're right. In my day, I was ... If you were a middle-of-the-order guy, especially, you were judged on three categories, and that was average, home runs, and RBIs, and RBIs may be being the most important. I see the OPS, and the on-base percentage, as being a valuable tool, without a doubt, I'm not going to dismiss that. But let's give you ... I'm going to give you the scenario. Come up late in the game, and you're facing an elite closer. What's the one thing elite closers don't do? They don't walk you. They don't walk you. In my day, it was Mariano Rivera, Trevor Hoffman. I'm not going up in the ninth looking for a walk because they're not going to do it. That's why they're elite closers. That's why guys late in the game are elite because they don't walk you. So, if we eliminate the walk, who do I want coming to the plate with the game on the line in a big, big, and bad? I need a guy that can get a hit. I need a guy that's hitting 305, not a guy that's hitting 212 with a 350 on-base percentage because my on-base percentage ain't helped me in that situation. I think it's definitely something that's been pushed to the side. I think wrongly so, I understand the day and the age of the OPS. I think it is important, but I think you're going to see average come back and people are going to start to respect the guys that hit for average. That's why maybe even today with the criteria is the way it is. The guys that are hitting 300, it kind of pops off the page. Wow, you're hitting 300 in today's world. That's pretty impressive. And I think you're going to see something that it does come back. Brett Mookie Betts was in the news again this week because he has refused to stay at the team hotel in Milwaukee for the second year in a row. He's booked a separate room because he doesn't want to stay at the Fister Hotel, which is allegedly haunted. It's haunted. So that's what I'm going to ask. Are you familiar with this hotel? That's a famous experience. That's a famous experience. By the way, it's the puff fister. It's not spelled fister. Sorry. Oh, there's a. Fister. There's a P. Fister is a P. You know what, maybe it's haunted, maybe it's not. It's not the greatest hotel. It's probably the worst hotel and you know, there's a certain we have a circuit and most of the teams usually stay kind of at the same hotels, maybe in Dallas, one team stays here. Another team stays there. But for the most part, the team hotels, the team hotel for most of the teams that come through. I don't know. I mean, I do you believe in ghosts? That's what we're trying to ask. Not really. When I went to the fister, I started looking for him. I wanted to have a story, baby. I wanted to come out of there with something big. Never happened. As far as Mookie doing that, you know, who cares? All I know is Mookie is one of my best players. I'm going to the postseason. I need him to be in a good frame of mind. I need him to be ready. Stay wherever you want, Mookie. Just show up at seven o'clock and get some hits. Brad, thank you so much for changing up the time for us today. We appreciate it, man. We look forward to doing it again. You got it. Thanks guys. Brett Boone, Odyssey, baseball insider joining us from an Odyssey original. It's the Brett Boone podcast featuring the most notable names in baseball and all around sports every week. [BLANK_AUDIO]
