Ben & Woods On Demand Podcast
6am Hour - Padres Get Ready To Face The Rockies This Weekend
Ben, Woods, and Paul are here for you on a Friar Friday! We start the show with a little foreplay as we talk about how we spent our Thursdays, and we find out that Ben hasn't shaved in a week and is starting to sprout a beard for the first time?? Then at the bottom of the hour we turn our sights to this weekend's series in Denver and take a look at the pitching matchups as the Padres take on the Rockies at Coors Field! Listen here!
- Duration:
- 42m
- Broadcast on:
- 16 Aug 2024
- Audio Format:
- mp3
- Well happy Friday, we made it everybody. Ben & Woods 97.3, the fan, great to be here with you on a Friday Friday as you just heard in the open. We are Ben & Woods, we are a 97.3, the fan. Let's get our heads right on a Friday. I am Woodsy, and that to my right is Paul Reindel. He is the executive producer. Good morning, Paulie, good morning. To my left is Higgins, Ben Higgins, posting his martini last night. - Vacation Ben. - Oh my gosh, no, staycation Ben. - Staycation Ben, in effect. What do you think, by the way? - You look. - Are you impressed? - It's the exact same, literally the exact same. - What do you mean? - This is my, what do you think of my beard? - Oh my God, I just noticed. - This is a week, that's a week. That's why I've never had one before, but there we go, there's a week of vacation. - Dude, Paulie, he has a little stub. - Yeah. - Look at this. - There it is, this is what I get on staycation. This is staycation beard advent. - Six years of working with you, I've never seen one hair on your chinny chin. - Takes a while. Really, you gotta work at it here. So this is a week, this is a weekend. - So I think that you should let it flow. Am I insane? Look at him, don't you? - Oh yeah. - Why can't you, they're not gonna make you, I see people on the news with beards. - I just don't know that I'll ever get to an actual beard. All right, well now you can't shave it. - Look at mine, Dr. Richard Kimball. - Rally beard, that's what I'm gonna say. - That's a rally rose. - They've been playing so well, you can't shave it now, especially going really. - The rally started long before the beard. - It did, but now that we have Colorado, our arch nemesis, and literally the, if you're the San Diego Padres, the Colorado Rockies are the best baseball team of all time. They're the 98 Yankees, they're the 98 Padres, they're the Mariners at 116, they're the Bulls, the 72 and 10 Bulls, they're the Dolphins. You can't shave that, you can shave it, but wait till after the weekend, 'cause you don't have anything to do with it. - Well I'm definitely waiting until at least Sunday night, which is when I'm on TV. - How good does that look everybody? - Padres, sweetheart, did anyone see anything? I mean, if I hadn't pointed it out with anyone of, you didn't notice what I looked at him, but I felt it, dude, it actually has some stubble there. I did not know he was capable of growing stubble, 'cause he has always said he's really not. - Now it takes a week to get to stubble. - That's amazing, I wanna see what it looks like after a few days. - The Padres sweep the Rockies, you don't shave until the regular seat, or until this Padres season is over. (clapping) - Look at this turn. - I'll keep it on until they lose it. - I'll keep it on until they lose it. - I don't know if it will be. - Yeah, keep it on until they lose it. - That's fine, that's a good deal, okay. - Which if they sweep 'em means I'll have it on TV on Sunday night, which would be interesting. - Which would be, they would go, is everything all right with Ben? Is Ben okay? - Because you are always fresh faced. - Well they knew I was on staycation this week, so people come back from staycations with beer. No one wants to shave on staycation. - I don't really like shaving all that much anyway, but this is, somebody said the other day and it stuck with me, and I didn't bring attention to it in the chat, but I yawned in the middle of the show, I do apologize. But, they said when Woodsy yawns, he looks like the cowardly lion. (laughing) And I've been thinking about it-- - Birth long. - Sorry, let me do, let me do like a fake. Let me see if I can summon a yawn and you tell me. - Yeah, I see that, I saw that, absolutely. - It's this weird white and gray facial hair that I have. - Yeah, I need some courage. - Yeah, I need some courage. I need some courage. There's no question. Well I think it looks good, I think you should let it flow. I mean, you have to let it flow now. You don't want to, I don't want to be the one that breaks up the streak. - Ray says, "The Yankees would still let you play." - Yeah. (laughing) - I am on the bench. Holly, let me see what's your word. - No, Holly's on the bench. - Oh, you're on the bench. - Yeah, we're bench. - I am. - You're still in the lineup. (laughing) - Ben, you're getting to start today, Woodsy. - I'm requesting a trade. - Oh yeah, yeah, you want to get the hell out of there. (laughing) That's awesome. Yeah, let it cry. I've never seen that man. Six years, bad boy Ben is finally here. I can't wait for the leather vest version of Ben. - It would have just went like full, like, mid-life crisis. - Mid-life crisis Harley guy would be my favorite. - Harley guy. - Yeah, he shows up on out. It's like a Harley, but it's like a little Harley. Like it's like a real little like a sportster. And it's like still cool, but it's not like, big chopper, you know, full mid-life crisis. But I think it looks really good. I think you should let it flow. And hopefully you do. You can't shave it until they lose. All right, that's the deal. That's an easy bet. - I would love to be the one that gets them through this weekend in Colorado. - Yeah, man. I'm telling you. I'm telling you, me too, I am as nervous for these games as I've been all season. And I am every time we play a Coorsfield. We did Bob Scanlon on maybe last year. And I brought it up. And he like, he tried to like poo poo it on the air. And I was like, Scan, have you seen the record there? Like, you know what these guys are, they play, they play a game busters when they play the Padres. Buddy Black must have that chip on his shoulder 'cause he likes beating his former team certainly. But yeah, man, it's, this is one of those series where somebody goes, what's he? I got you all expenses paid. Tickets got great seats for you. All expenses paid. Come on out to Denver. Watch these three games and say, there's no way. The expletives that fly out of my mouth when we're playing this team are, they're NC 17. I mean, every word in my vocabulary comes out. The C word, the MF, the CS, all of it comes out against these guys. So that's what I'm looking forward to this weekend. A weekend of very, very high blood pressure. I've been wants to know where I got my shirt. This is Tony Gwen hitting a beach ball. - Think you're gonna, oh, there's a comparison on the screen between woods. - Let me see it. - And the cowardly lion. A little pop up for you in a second, thank you. - Oh, my God. - Now, it's more the nose than the actual beard and the king. - I don't have studio. - I don't have jowls like that yet. I do not have jowls like that yet. Damn it, to Paul. I hate that you're so quick on the, quick on the uptake there, buddy. - I got this shirt at baseball-ism. My beautiful wife, Hannah bought it for me. Tony Gwen hitting a beach ball, which is really, really cool. - 'Cause he saw the ball really well. It looked like a beach ball coming in. - That's exactly right. - That's exactly right. So, oh yeah, Cal Quantrell today. So that should be fun. Anyway, so we'll get into all that this weekend. How was, your staycation is going well. It's almost over. - I cut back a little from five cocktails to four yesterday, just to, you know, moderate myself for the Friday show. I didn't want to be as hungover as I was yesterday. Had a painkiller by the pool. - It's funny, I had a painkiller too. - Did you? - Yeah, but the actual pill because I went to the dentist yesterday. - Ouch. - And remember when I had the oral surgery, they had to lengthen my crown and it was a gum surgery. It didn't feel great, but they gave me some Percocet after, which, you know, worth it. But it didn't hurt at all. Like I took one, the night I got home, and it was like, I'm good. The next day I felt great. This one I went in to get, I broke a tooth while I was in Hawaii on a rib. - That's when they eat the bones. - You know the one little like, you know the edge part? - Yeah, you think it's neat. - Yeah, you think it's neat. - And then eat, then you run into it and it was gone. So I spit out the, it was like a portion of a tooth. And so this was the tooth we were gonna crown anyway. So I lay down yesterday, he starts taking pictures. He goes, whoo, you got lucky. And I go, why? And he goes, it broke perfectly. We were gonna crown this one anyway. So you're actually in good shape because I do have to dig out this filling and all that. This is not gonna be great. So it gives me three shots in my mouth. It never feels good to numb the paint. They start working on it and I give it the wits. I go, and he goes, oh, do you feel that? I go, yeah. And he goes, oh, hang on, let me give you another shot. So he gives me two more shots in my mouth. So five shots deep and I'm laying there just sweating. And I had a headache from the anxiety of going to the dentist anyway. So then the drill comes out. And then the smell of burning tooth comes in. And then I swallow a mouthful of burnt tooth water. They're spit, swallow that. So I'm laying there, I haven't eaten anything, by the way. I had that one cookie. And I'm laying there going, this is absolute torture. It was just torture. Finally, after about an hour and 20 minutes in there, I got out and he said, all right, we're all done. And I was like, I text you guys, I go, I feel like somebody held me down, took a hammer and hit me in the face with it. But I had those perk sets that I had to save. So I went home and had a painkiller myself. And everything was right as rain after that. But man, the dentist is a, it's such a necessary evil. And I love, I love my dentist. Paul, you go to my dentist, Dr. Skeens is the goat. Here's the problem. - Dr. Skeens. - Yes. - Dr. Skeens. - Like Paul is the, he's the dentist of the year. - No, he's not. - He was the runaway dentist. - He was the runaway dentist. - It's Dr. Merrill. So listen, he's the literal goat of dentists. That being said, I think he's two detail already. He's too good. And I was like, I think you got it. I think we're good. Let's just move on. It doesn't have to be perfect. I'm 49. I don't have much time left anyway. Let's just get, let's half-ass this thing so I can get out of here and get out of this pain that I'm in. He's like, well, just one more thing, let me go. I'm like, oh my God, please. - They're always perfectionists, yeah. - And this dude is, I mean, he is the best. But, so it was not, it wasn't my favorite. My favorite day, we had the round table. And then we went right into the dentist and that was that. But speaking of the round table, I thought we had a good one yesterday here. I'm 97.3 the fan, brought to you by round table pizza, pizza royalty. I will say this, I'm not sitting next to Tony Nguyen Jr. anymore because I kept looking up at the camera and it was me and next to him. And I said, this isn't fair. He's like, he's like, he's like devastatingly handsome and I was sitting next to him and he was talking, I was looking at it and I'm like, I don't want to sit next to him. Put me in the middle of, put me in the middle of L.O. and Craig and have somebody else. - No, I'm just saying, like, I wasn't fair. I didn't want to, I don't want to sit next to him. I love Tony Nguyen Jr. But sitting next to him, I was like, this sucks. Like if you walked in a bar and we were sitting at the bar and you're a single lady, you'd be like, that's the one. That's the guy I like right there. Very, very handsome dude. Put together the whole thing built. - If you were a single woman and you walked in a bar and they were having a Padres round table. - Yeah. - In the middle of the bar. - Right. - Yeah, your eyes would go straight to Tony. - 'Cause he is so handsome. He has hat on backwards, he had his cool earring and I'm just sitting there, it's just a slob. And I was like, this sucks, man. - Not even with my stubble now. Maybe give me, on my best day and Tony's worst day. - No, don't do this. Do not do this. Do not do this. Don't do this again. No, you will lose in handsome contests for Tony Nguyen Jr. I'm telling you right now. He is, he's so handsome. And I thought you did a great job, but that was not an easy one to moderate yesterday 'cause the team's playing great. All of our worries are now, that was as of yesterday. They could be a whole different one on Thursday. I hope it's not. I hope the good vibes continue and the team keeps winning. But we actually had a really fun time chopping it up. - It was nice to have everybody back together. It's been a while since the entire crew got together for a round table. And yeah, I mean, the reason why you're so nervous about Coors Field this weekend though, is there are now actual stakes and consequences. When you play well, it just means that every loss stings a little bit more. - It's the last time they go out there, right? - Yeah, this is the last series against the Rockies this season. - Can you imagine? - If we had like three at the end, right at the end of the year, in Denver, not a chance. - I wanna ask Shilty today when we talk to him at nine o'clock, we kicked it around. I don't know if he'll answer this question or if there is the right answer. But if you got 18 games in 18 days, would you rather start in Coors Field for the first three or end at Coors Field for the last three? Because my gut tells me, I think I'd rather start there. Get it out of the way. - I think you'd rather end knowing that at the end of the series, whatever happens, you've got a day off to reset. The worst possible outcome is Coors Field craziness. - You gotta eat the whole bullpen up for the first three days. Now you're looking at 15 straight more after that without a chance to really reset it. But they're nice and reset right now after what Martin Perez did on Wednesday and then the off to yesterday. They're going into this series, blocked and loaded and ready to go for the next 18. - Yeah, yeah, they are. - It is funny too, like how we look at that. I was thinking about it yesterday, how we look at bullpen resetting and we all do this. I do it, we all do it. Guys, it's fine, they had a day off. They're good. Like, it's an auto recharge. Like, just because Brian Hoing had a day off yesterday, he immediately wakes up and he's like, ah! - Like the video game, he had like three hits before you're dead, so you have some heart that recharged your character up to full strength again. - You opened a chest and the heart came out of you, got it. And so you're like, I now, I now feel-- - 'Cause that's how life works. - Totally, oh, totally. Hey, see how rested I am after a day off? - No, it's not auto. We all think it though, don't we? - Yeah. - We all, I'm like, we threw seven pitches on Monday. He threw 12 on Tuesday, then he had Wednesday off. He's gotta be ready to go at full strength on Thursday. It's dumb, it's stupid, we shouldn't do it, but it's the way that we are programmed. It's just the way of this business. Guys, the bullpitch would be totally fine. They had two, we have said that. Hey, he had an extra day of rest. - That's the reason for being on this show. - That's why everybody shows up to work. Monday morning feeling absolutely-- - Just fabulous, right? - Perfect, just perfect. - No one's ever, no one's ever had a case of the Mondays, right? Mondays the greatest day, 'cause everyone's so rested and ready to go and feeling great. - You've got two days off. - You should be raring to go. It is just absurd, and I'll tell you this right now, we shouldn't do it. And I know that that's not how it works in the big league bullpens and with the pitchers. I know it is a, it's constant communication with those guys, constant communication. So looking forward to talking to the skipper at nine. - All right, we'll set the menu when we come back. Obviously no game yesterday, but it's still a good day for your San Diego Padres yesterday while they opened their chest, got their recharging hearts. Some other teams in the pennant race were playing and not doing so well. So we'll talk about all of that coming up. Kelly's got to check the traffic on a Friday morning. Hopefully it'll be a good one for everybody out there. We're Ben and Woods and Paul on San Diego's number one sports station, 97.3, the fan. - Selling a little or a lot. Shopify helps you do your thing. However you cha-ching. Shopify is the global commerce platform that helps you sell at every stage of your business. From the launcher online shop stage to the first real life store stage, all the way to the did we just hit a million orders stage. Shopify is here to help you grow, whether you're selling scented soap or offering outdoor outfits. Shopify helps you sell everywhere. From their all-in-one e-commerce platform to their in-person POS system, wherever and whatever you're selling, Shopify has got you covered. Shopify helps you turn browsers into buyers with the internet's best converting checkout. 15% better on average compared to other leading commerce platforms. And sell more with less effort thanks to Shopify Magic, your AI powered all-star. Shopify powers 10% of all e-commerce in the U.S. And Shopify is the global forest behind all birds, frothy's and Brooklynan and millions of other entrepreneurs of every size across 175 countries. Plus Shopify's award-winning 24/7 help is there to support your success every step of the way. Because businesses that grow, grow with Shopify. Sign up for a $1 per month trial period at Shopify.com/audacypodcast all lowercase. Go to Shopify.com/audacypodcast now to grow your business no matter what stage you're in. Shopify.com/audacypodcast. (bell dings) ♪ Now I'm gonna say I'm gonna get it ♪ - It's a Friar Friday everybody. Happy Friar Friday to you. And here's what's coming up on the program today. Obviously we will start looking ahead to the Padres Rocky series. I also want to talk about some of the reporting that went on yesterday with John Heyman in the New York Post. A lot of Padres adjacent reporting at a piece about the chances of every team to sign Juan Soto as a free agent in the off-season. - Very well worded. - Upset some Padres fans. He also linked the Padres to certain pitcher who won a Cy Young Award here is now in San Francisco and could be a free agent again in another report. So lots of Heyman-esque activities yesterday involving your San Diego Padres. - Yeah, weird dude. - Rookie of year voting is gonna be about a month away and the contest is getting quite close. According to odds makers, we can talk more about Paul Skins and Jackson Merrill. - Yeah, but are we sleeping completely on Jackson Churio? Are we completely, I was watching the game yesterday against the Dodgers. He's got pretty insane numbers as well. There's also a rookie, also an outfielder. Are we completely thinking that this is a two man race right now with Jackson Merrill and Paul Skins? Did they bring him up soon enough to-- - Yeah, he's eligible. - He is, well, I mean, he's eligible. Two 74, 15 homers. - Yeah, how many bags? - 16, 17. - He has, let's see, 16 stolen bases. He's played 108 games, he's got a three war, which is right in line with where I think Jackson Merrill is a 3.1. - And it's true, like Terbee in the, or yeah, Terbee 44 in the chat says, "Churio's been hot since June." Yeah, he's been on a heater, dude. Like, are we completely? - No, I know, we're small market too, here in San Diego, but Milwaukee also doesn't really get the pub, even though Devin Williams completely swiped a rookie of the year from Jake Croninworth. I feel like they owe us one for that one. - It's concerning, though, that the Jackson vote could get split, and while the name is irrelevant, the fact that there will be people who favor position players and some who favor pitchers. - Sure. - Skins' vote may be showed at Imanaga. He was slices off one or two. - He was the run away at the beginning of the year. He started like seven of no and had a .790RA or something. He was crazy. - But that's an interesting point, and I didn't even care about this at all until I was reminded that the Padres would get an extra first round draft deck if Jackson Merrill wins the rookie of the year, which is absolute gold to AJ Preller, just a free draft first round pick out of nowhere that didn't really have to do anything for. That's fantastic. That's someone he trades away in a year to add a starting pitcher to a pennant race. They didn't have to pay anything for him. - Yeah, so that's to me the reason why you're pushing here hard for Jackson Merrill to try to win the rookie of the year award, but the odds have completely shifted, and we'll talk about that coming up a little bit later on the show today. Got a regular Friday and weekday features, including take on Woods, and don't do this, and then in the second half of Ben & Woods, Jordan Schusterman will join us from says for this family barbecue. It is, that's our eight o'clock feature. Those guys are always great. Rindle Report at 835, and then at nine o'clock. Yeah, prior Friday we got the manager. The skipper Mike Schilt will join us from Denver, Colorado as his team. Not only gets set to start a quick road trip, but a stretch of 18 games in 18 days. - 18 and 18, baby. - A real grind here for the Padres at this stage of the season. It's almost crazy because they were so far ahead in games played, you'd think where are all these, what happened to all these off days they should be having. - No kidding. - Used a lot of them since the all-star break, but now that comes to an end, and they've got 18 games in 18 days, and then they'll have a few down the stretch the last, you know, couple of weeks in September before the season is over, and hopefully it's on to the up-post season for your San Diego Padres. - 18 and 18. - Could be the name of the documentary when the San Diego Padres win the World Series this year. - 18, what if we win all 18? I mean, where's the Rally Roach? Is he still here? - I got it. - Got to get the day started by giving a little Rally Roach a kiss and please God, let us be Colorado. Let us be Colorado. Chris Ello's pretty confident. He said, don't worry, we'll get two out of three. I said, Chris, every time I start feeling confident about beating the Rockies, for some reason, the Brendan Rodgers and the Charlie Blackmans and all those guys just-- - Would you take two out of three right now? - No chance of a sweet. I'd give you my first, my second born son, which who you hate. I would give him to you right now for the weekend. - I'm not the only one recording to our chat. By the way, this morning, my wife was up early in the chat to come get your kids. They're terrible. Both of them. - But do you want the Uncle Teddy to your kids when they act out? - Yes, yeah, they're my kids when they're turds. So they're mostly my kids. - My Padres and your Padres. - My Padres and your Padres. - But, you know, two out of three, well, it sounds great. You're giving up a game to the Diamondbacks. You just swept the Colorado Rockies. They did better. - I don't care. - You have to keep up with the Joneses is this point of the season. - I take two out of three and I don't look back. Don't you guys-- - I think it cures field down. - It cures field. You take two out of three and you don't look back and you never-- - Now they're gonna take that at Pekko Park. - Against them? - Yeah, for some reason, yes, absolutely. Yeah, I'm so spun. I'm so spun about this series. I hate it. I hate it every year. I wish we never played those guys. I don't like them. I don't like anything about them. I don't like any of their players. I can't stand them. So, this is like, this is my World Series this weekend. - All right, well, we'll talk about the matchups of that series coming up in our next segment as we get rolling on Ben & Woods on a Friday. Glad to have everybody with us on San Diego's number one sports station, 97-3 The Fan. Baseball coverage on 97-3 The Fan is presented by T-Mobile. Switch to T-Mobile. You can get tons of benefits. They still save on every plan versus AT&T and Verizon. Use their savings calculator to find out how at T-Mobile.com/switch. So, Padres opened their three-game series against the Colorado Rockies tonight at Coors Field. We got the matchups for the series, at least the probable matchups for you. We will talk about the next three days right after a check of traffic here at 97-3 The Fan. All right, so tonight's a series opener. It's a 540 first pitch at Coors Field. It's a 440 eco-water so-called pre-game show with Sam Levitt and the Padres will be once again facing former Friar Cal Quantrell, who will be making his first start since Padres beat him on August 4th and I was trying to see why didn't he start. Apparently he came out of that outing in which the Padres won 10-2 with some forearm soreness and they pushed him back from what it would have been his next scheduled start until today when he will return to the mound against the same team. Now, he didn't give up all of those 10 runs. I think he only gave up four of them, but that was a game the Padres actually played fairly well against the Colorado Rockies. - Yeah, really. - A rarity, blow out win. And got that one. For the Padres tonight on the mound will be Matt Waldron, who has not been quite as Matt Waldrony sharp in his last few outings, still has some of those first-inning difficulties and of course field you just, you're worried because just the slightest bit of difficulties can really get out of hand sometimes there. So I'm sure everyone's gonna be keeping a close eye and keeping their fingers crossed that Matt Waldron can survive some of those early struggles, dodge the one beginning that is occasionally a problem. If he, when he does, he's been outstanding. He's been really terrific, but it's that one inning that does seem to get him when he gets got and we'll see what happens. The course will pitch great last time at course field, did not seem to be bothered at all by the thin air, the altitude, the knuckleball, still knuckle, they're quite, hey, doesn't the knuckleball need a lot of heavy air to bounce around and didn't seem like he needed it in Colorado, but we'll see, knuckleball every day seems to be a little bit different. You never know exactly what you're gonna get. - Yeah, and again, I've talked before many times about first-licks and you're gonna have an opportunity to stake Matt Waldron to a lead tonight. I think it's important, I think it's always important when you're on the road to try to strike first. That's a very obvious statement, but nowhere in no situation is it more important than maybe tonight with Matt Waldron on the bump with playing at the house of Horor's that is Coors Field. So it'd be nice to get out to a nice two, three, four, nothing lead because you do figure based on current trends. Matt Waldron, there's a good possibility he gives up one or two himself. So yeah, man, these games are a war of attrition. There's just no question about it. Stuff is going to play there. Our buddy in the chat prolific, prolific, the great said, look, no excuses, man. We are the best batting average in baseball. One of the most prolific offenses in baseball. And I said, yeah, that's great. You're absolutely right, but you also have to prevent runs. Preventing runs in Coors Field is as important as scoring them. So you always have your hands full when you go to that place. You've seen it this week. The Braves blew up seven run lead or something. And it just weird stuff happens there, man. The outfield is vast and the ball travels very, very well. And that should be good for your offense. But it can also be pretty gnarly on your pitching. Tomorrow is Dylan Sees against Kyle Freel in the left-hander who they have not faced this season. Have not exactly fared well. I think he's beaten the Padres six times the previous two years. They've also gotten him last start in 2023. They did get some runs. And he's not quite the same pitcher he was. Three and four were the five, seven, five ERA again. Coors Field inflated. So you know, one and a half with it. But that's something, you know, I mean, they've done much better against lefties. That storyline has pretty much been put in bed. But I always still think about it because of what happened earlier in the season. Dylan Sees did not have his best two starts on the road trip. One wasn't his fault. It was rain and he got one inning and then had to come out. And then he lost is obviously the other game of the road trip. A rare Padres loss here in the month of August. So he'll be looking to bounce back. I'm sure he will be very motivated to, you know, carry his weight and join with the rest of his teammates who have been pretty much lights out this month when he goes in tomorrow's second game of the series. I think that's 30 minutes earlier at five, 10. And then in the series finale on Sunday, 12, 10 star, Joe Musgrove will make his second start back from the injured list against Bradley Blalock, who is, I believe a 23 year old that I don't know much about Woods. Do you know anything about Bradley Blalock? - No, I'm not currently up on my Bradley Blalock stats. But all I see is that he's O and O with a 405 ERA. Probably a young kid getting a few starts under his belt. But yeah, Joe, it's gonna be interesting to see how Joe's stuff plays a course field. Look, man, again, it's course field. So it's, it's, you literally feel like you can be the best team in baseball, which you are the hottest team in baseball right now. And that place can, can help believe. I don't want to be like the wet blanket, but I just, we've watched too many of these games over the last few years. - Good idea. So let Joe pitch in course field in a second game. - Yeah, I think I can test or is that one where if you could swing it, save him from Monday when he's back home in San Diego. - I mean, you know, I think it's your last series. - Maybe you take Friday and Saturday. Does that change the equation? - If you take Friday and Saturday, it may make me make, you know, a different decision. If I was a skipper, I'm not, but they have a plan. They want to stick to it. They got a, it's not just about Joe. You got to keep everybody else on track. He's still on a pitch count. So, you know, hey, man, 65 pitches and give us your best three and a third or two and a third. - Maybe up to 70, maybe. - Yeah, maybe he got five in this one after you. I think he went to 63 in his last one. - Yeah, I don't know. There's especially for a guy like Joe, like the makeup of his character. He just wants the ball. - He wants the ball. - He just wants to get out there. But I'm thinking, I'm trying to get your confidence going. We're trying to build you up a little bit. I, maybe not course-filled. - You know, Ben and I were talking about this yesterday. We talked about a plan, you know? And I think, is it foolish if you're Mike Schilt, AJ Preller, you know, any of the people that are involved in the holistic planning of, you know, the next 18 games? Because you can't go into it just sitting on your ass and not doing anything, right? You have to have some sort of plan. But the plan can change in what? - In inning? - Two innings? You know, if Matt Waldron goes out, I feel like if Matt Waldron goes out tonight and gets lit up, he just stays in for six, right? You just kind of- - He's done that a couple of times this year. - He has. - He's given up five and then stayed in for six innings. - But kind of bounced back. - But the thing about Coors is you also know you give up five runs, you can answer back with seven. You know, you're never really out of a game in Coors Field either. But I do think, I do think, Paulie, it's an interesting point that you bring up because if you want to stick to the plan, doesn't the plan revolve around how much you've used the bullpen on Friday night and Saturday night as well? If you have to go nuts using everybody to win the first two games and then you throw Joe Musgrove out there on Sunday. - On a pitch limit. - On a pitch count, right? It just, the plan is, I'm not saying it's wasted time or energy because it's not, you cannot just go in there willy-nilly and be like, let's let the chips fall where they may, but the plan can change so quickly in that ballpark, which is what makes it so weird. And I guess, I guess if I was a fan of another team, I'd be like, it's kind of cool. Those guys got to like change everything to go play in Coors Field. Not when you play those guys 20 times a year and you play them 10 times or whatever at their house. It's really like, it's kind of an excruciating watch. As a fan. - I would like to say that the one thing that gives me some confidence about this series is that the Padres are sending three competitors to the mound. Not, and really everyone in their rotation, throwing Michael King and now Martin Perez from what we've seen, they have competitors who aren't afraid, Coors Field's not gonna intimidate them. They're gonna go out there and give you their all. They're not gonna be thrown by, it's thin air, whatever. All of those guys are gonna go out and compete. And I get it, they lost two or three when they went to Coors Field, including that horrific game in which they were up big and gave up six runs in the bottom of the eighth inning and lost 10 to nine. It was a pivotal game of the first half of the season. If they win that one, they win two or three. If they win that series at Coors Field-- - Yeah, nobody cares. - And no one really cares. You just move on. It was just one horrifically bad inning. Mostly, it was Wanda Peralta's just his worst outing of the year that it just went all off the rails, which happens sometimes at Coors Field. Otherwise, they competed well in that series. They won one game. Michael King lost the first one. - They scored runs. - They scored some runs. It wasn't the nightmare that I think we kind of make it out to be. - That last one was a nightmare. - It was the last inning of the last game was a nightmare that turned what would have been a solid two out of three performance into something that kind of scarred all of us in the first half of the season. - Yeah, no question. I fully expect them to go in, compete really well. They should take this series. I know you're very happy with two out of three. They're much better than the Colorado Rockies. They're a much better team than the Colorado Rockies, who didn't do anything of trade deadline. They simply just need to go-- - You can't play her since. - They simply need to go and sweat. - Take care of business and do what they are supposed to do. And hopefully, nothing weird. Coors Fieldy happens. You get some of those bloops. You get sometimes your pitchers get a little unlucky and it can snowball away from you. Coors where it can't necessarily at other places, but there's no reason you shouldn't feel pretty confident going into this series other than our collective trauma as Padres fans over the years. - And really, the collective trauma is not really well. This would be just like this team to go into a slide or a skid no. I don't feel that with this team. I don't at all really, but these three games-- - Oh yeah, they actually split. It was a four game series. - Four game. - Three game series. - Oh, and C's won the first game. Matt Waldern won the third game. Both pitch really well. Give one and two runs in those games. And they're back on the mound these next two days. - Good. - Good. - That's good. That's good. So anyway, I wanted to bring up a couple of reports, kind of almost conflicting reports from John Heyman in the New York Post. And I usually, the reports locally are usually always better than what you get nationally from reporters. As dialed in as they are, even the Jeff Passons of the world can't compete. Generally with local reporting. So when John Heyman says that the odds of you Darvish coming back are 50/50, or maybe even better, great. But what does he really know that we don't already know? We've kind of heard around the same thing. If this happened, it might not happen. It's just kind of a guess. But he did have that reporting yesterday. But in the same piece, he also said that the Padres in free agency this offseason season could, they say the Padres love Blake Snell could make a play for him this winter to bring him back as a free agent, assuming Blake Snell opts out and declines his $30 million player option, which around baseball, they think he will unless he gets hurt. And he'll hunt next month and just wants to collect that $30 million he's planning on hitting free agency again. And according to John Heyman, the Padres will be a team that will be a very active pursuer of Blake Snell this offseason, which to me is interesting. Not that I'm surprised that they like Blake Snell. I know the Padres and NAJ Preller like Blake Snell a lot. The question is, what's the direction this next offseason for the San Diego Padres? I know it's a little early to be talking about off season's move early. - It's way early. - But you know, Blake Snell would be a pricey addition to the team. - Yeah. - After a year in which they scaled the payroll way back to get under the luxury tax level, is this report an indication that they might be willing to scale up again, you know, in this next off season, knowing that they've got Dylan Sees for one more year. They've got Louisa Rise for one more year. They've got Michael King for one more year. Is next year potentially a year with the Padres? Look at their roster and go, okay, we can go over the luxury tax limit again. Like we did the previous couple of years, 'cause this would be a perfect year to go for it. And then we'll figure out where we are, who we want to offer contracts to and kind of reset. But is there a plan in place? And I haven't heard anything locally about this to, you know, make another investment in the roster this off season. - I think there's going to be an investment in the roster. I think, you know, target number one, as Kevin says in the chat is Rokie Sasaki. Now that's a completely different pool of money that you're pulling from, but you do have as good a chance to get Rokie Sasaki as any other team in baseball. And, you know, we know that the work has been put in. We know that the work is continuing to be put in on Rokie Sasaki. At Peter Sideler's Memorial, A.J. Preller actually mentioned Rokie Sasaki that day. So I think that's probably target number one. - But again, as you said, that's a different pool. That's the international pool of money. That's the groundwork you've laid with you Darvish, his mentor, being the most active GM on the, you know, Asian front and in Japan as A.J. Preller, his learning Japanese and continuing to practice it for all these years, trying to make him feel comfortable, not just him, but any potential acquisition, you know, Yuki Matsui, all of them. This is what A.J. Preller has done. This is why he works, you know, as hard as he works, try to give himself a chance at players like this. - I would totally imagine that he is your first target, number one, because he's really, really good. Number two, that he's very, very affordable for a while. And that's the guy that you go out and you get. And I think, I don't wanna, Blake Snow should never be looked at as some consolation prize, because again, different pools of money affects different things, certainly. But I do think Roki is target number. I'm to the point with Roki, I'll crowdsource a billboard. Like we should do something like that, something big to get Roki Sasaki here. Not that they can't do that in LA, because I know that they want him very badly as well. He's got- - They have Shohei Otani. - They've got Yamamoto. - They've got Yamamoto. They certainly, you would think the Padres and the Dodgers are the two favorites for Roki Sasaki's services. Assuming he does come over this offseason as has been speculated. - But I also imagine that teams like the Yankees will make a tremendous push for Roki Sasaki. He is- - But they can't offer more than the other teams can. They all can offer right around the same. - He's a phenom, you know, so to speak. So we'll see how that plays out. But yeah, man, it's a little bit early. And I do think, I don't think that I think it really depends on how the rest of this season plays out. I don't. I don't think if the Padres, you know, go out and win the World Series this year that they say, "All right, now it's time to, you know, not continue to go for it." Or even if they make the World Series or something like that. I think they're going to continue to- If AJ Preller is the GM and president of baseball ops for a long time as he probably should be right now, yeah, I think this is, I mean, he's not going to do anything differently. You know, he's still going to try to win baseball games. That's what he loves to do. - Of course, yeah. Now the other Haman report that involves a free agent to be this offseason in the San Diego Padres was one that I saw a lot of Padres fans upset about. And that was his column on the odds of each team to sign one Soto in the offseason. And his main point is that the Yankees are probably pretty heavy favorites. Like at least even money, he thinks, followed by teams, the Mets and the Dodgers and the Giants were his top four. But he included the Padres at the back end. He did his top 10 and he had the Padres at number 10. And the comment that he made got a lot of Padres fans upset. He said, their beloved owner, Peter Seidler, lived, they'd be much higher than 100 to one and 10th on the list. - Three, it's, I didn't have an issue with him putting the Padres 10th. I think people thought that I did. I never had an issue with, I don't think they're higher than 10. - I don't think they are either, nor do I think that they're even going to really pursue on Soto. - I was surprised they were even in the time thing. - Yeah, I don't, I think, I really think as much as I like to want Soto, I think that chip is, is sailed. I do. - Yeah, I do. I do somewhat agree that, you know, if every, if Peter Seidler was still here and everything was going, he might have an inkling that he wants to get one Soto back after trading him away. - He might have never traded him. - I don't think he ever left. - Yeah, and he may have never left. So in that sense, what John Haman is saying has a kernel there to it. - Sure. - People were just upset with just how he said it, I think, and the phrasing of it. - It was the phrasing. That's all that got me as I went. That's a weird way to put it. It's just a weird way to, to, you're a writer. It's a weird way to put it. Invoking the name of Peter Seidler like that, I thought was a little odd. - Crass. - Well, it's not, it's just weird, it's just weird. That's the best way I can describe it, it's just weird. It was very strange. - But no, I do not expect the Padres to be players for one Soto this off season, and it's fine. They got value for him, big time value in Michael King, in Kyle Higashyoka, in Randy Vasquez, in Johnny Brito, and in, in Drew Thorpe, who they helped flip to turn into Dylan Sees. - I mean, really? - Without those guys, you're not sitting here of 16 games above 500, and fighting for an NOS title. - I mean, at this point, it looks like a total, total masterclass, but he should preller that trade. - All right, we'll come back. We've got some take on Woods, chance to qualify for a trip to Las Vegas. We've got a big shift in the odds in the rookie of the year award race in the National League. Talk about all of that coming up next year with Bennett Woods, a 97-3 the fan. (upbeat music) - Trying to figure out what to eat for dinner yet again? With nor sides and bullion as you're not so secret ingredient, you can skip the drive-through and do dinner at home. Nor taste combos provide a menu of delicious, affordable, and well-balanced meals that you can prepare in 30 minutes or less. 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