[MUSIC] >> That one is blasted deep to right field, and the Phillies get this road trip off on a good note. Kyle Swarber slaps his first home run since the 14th of August. It's his 12th lead off home run of the air, it's 1-0 Phillies. Man, he drills one a deep right field, and that one is gone. His second home run of the game, it's a 6-4 ball game. And he is swinging it tonight. And a high fly ball, a deep right field, then come all the way back. A three-run missile, Kyle Swarber's third home run of the night. And the Phillies finally get that clutch hit with a runner in scoring position. They have taken the lead here in the 9-10 days. >> That is unbelievable. >> You let one get away against a really good team and a really good lineup. Obviously, a huge knife from Swarber, he can do that with one swing. But you score, you knock their starter out in the first, so it was a weird knife. You look up, and you have a core in the seventh, and you want to just get outs. And unfortunately, it didn't quite happen, that's the biggest takeaway. [MUSIC] >> Yeah, something like that. >> Fan morning shows 4-7, 5-9 of the fan, Ben Anis, Sami Ki, and Sami, Bluejes now have a formula, and they got it. Take a lead with the young kids against the potential playoff team. Potential big win against a good team. Again, coming off a string of 16 straight games against some 500 opponents. Chad Green, the only reliable reliever all season long, comes in and he blows it. >> Me blows it. >> The formula played out to perfection yesterday. And yes, did I mention during yesterday's show that in the off season, before the 2022 season, the Bluejes were very much in on Kyle Shorber, a maybe a hinge point moment in the history of the franchise that they missed out on signing him to the deal that the Phillies ended up with. And did he not have like one of the best games of his entire career? Goes five hits, five for six with three home runs, including the finale, a three run bomb off Chad Green, that was I think a nine pitch at bat, it was just fouling off fastball after fastball before he got his pitch, middle of the zone, deposited it in the right field bleachers to send the Phillies home with a 10, nine victory of the Bluejes. Knock their start run of the game of the first inning. >> Boy, that guy stunk. >> It's not very good. >> He was a jobber. Like he was very, very, very easy to hit off the Bluejes, batter out inning in the first inning. >> Nine hits in the first inning, a franchise high in the first inning. >> They just really were. >> George Wanger had two in the first inning. >> Yes, they were all over them. >> They were, he was not tricking anyone for that first inning, and yeah, listen, I remember when the Bluejes were a really good team in 2015 and 2016 when they squam or more so 2015. >> 2016 was a grind of all grinds that people forget about. >> They were running on fumes 2016. >> Absolute grind. >> Like I just, you know, even then you have the wild card series and you have the amazing walkoff dash for Donaldson. So it was great. But then the ALCS happened and that was not as great. But my point is, my point is that when you're a really good team and you have a sick offense, you never feel out of games. And it was one of the most enjoyable experiences I've ever had as a fan. What was the game? >> I'm Milwaukee in 2015 where I think they won like 11, 10 or 12, 10 and they came back from six or seven down. >> Oh yeah. >> I can remember a game against the Angels. It was during that series where Josh Donaldson was battling Mike Trout to be the American League MVP in the Saturday. >> All right. Dickey gave up like six in the first and they're like, that's a big deal. >> No, it doesn't matter. >> It literally does not matter. So I know the Phillies have kind of been on cruise control here for a little while. They're trying to keep everybody healthy. I heard Blair and Barker talking about it a little bit yesterday. But like, this is just an elite, elite offense. And it's such a great feeling as a fan and I miss the feeling as a fan when you have an amazing team that you're just like, yeah, that other, that crappy team that we're playing in Toronto, they scored six runs in the first of our worst starter who's not gonna contribute to our play. And guess what? Kyle Swar was gonna hit three awesome home runs and we're gonna come back and we're gonna win. >> It's a great feeling as a fan and I'm so envious of that. It really is awesome. >> Now to be fair, the Blue Jays are kind of that, like they have the ability to come back recently, right? >> They put up some crooked numbers in recent games, I mentioned how that mattered. >> So these games don't matter. >> No, they do. >> And they're not winning them. >> But, but isn't it more important to see the offense now it would be ideal to face like a, yeah, a starting pitcher who had an ERA that was south of six and a half. >> Mm-hm. >> But yeah, isn't it important for the hitters to succeed if we're talking about process over results because clearly results, who cares? >> Yeah. >> And we can talk about Chad Green and where he fits in for next year, yada, yada, yada. But like we're just talking about process, isn't it important to see the Blue Jays hitters come through against a good team and at least they got some capable relievers that they faced and Jose Elvarado, he's nasty, he got a swath through them. >> Yeah. >> But yeah, this is as close to a playoff game as these guys are going to get, right? Against a very good team in a game that they took a lead but understood they had to tack on more runs and they did that. >> Yeah. >> They did that. >> Yeah. >> They increased the lead understanding they had one of the worst bullpens in all of baseball and even Leo Jimenez said we're not going down without a fight hits the ninth inning in the home run, obviously they come a run short. But like if we're talking about process, isn't that like give you a little bit of optimism headed towards next season that at least the offense looks more capable of coming back? >> Yeah. It's really fun. I'd rather watch a 10-9 game when it means nothing instead of a two-nothing game, right? >> For each to that. I mean, the idea that this team was going to be built on grinding out 92 wins with four, three and three two victories along the way. >> No, it's not a palatable style of baseball. We saw it last year, even though it's that making the playoffs, I had zero fun the entire year. It sucked. It was a grind the entire way through. So right now, this is a very, very palatable style, I mean, you score nine runs in a baseball game. You usually like to win that game. That's something that, you know, I subscribe to as a Blue Jays said as a fan. >> Wow, that's your own. >> You have to know when you score nine, you like to win. >> I think you have a pretty good record when you score unless you're the White Sox. You have a pretty good record. Yeah, I enjoy watching this, but man, anytime the, it's the, you know, the starting pitcher, you know, like, for example, Bassett, what did he end up going last night? >> You know what? He's grinding out. >> No, I know. >> But like Chris Bassett did a pretty good job. >> That's right. >> Give us up 10 hits in five and a third, but only three earned runs, four runs. But watching these games, when the starting pitcher gets to like that time of the game, but it's five and two thirds of my god, I'm like, here comes the bullpen. And boy, anytime Zach Pop comes into a game, anytime Eric Swanson comes into a game, even like, you know, Genesis Cabrera, you know, he's had some moments or whatever, but like even when he comes in, I'm like, oh boy, here we go. It's just having the young hitters who are hitting. It's amazing and so fun to watch, but equally as bad on the other side is having a bad bullpen. And this bullpen is just so hard to watch. It's just, they're not throwing strikes, they're serving up meatballs like Swanson's looks awful. >> Yeah, he's a serious non-tender candidate. >> Good Lord. He looks terrible. And you know what happened to him at the start of the year? >> Yeah. >> Maybe he never ever recovered from that, which is totally fair. He just, he didn't have a good start to the year and he just never got back on track. But from a result standpoint, it's just, it's really hard to watch. You know, I was kind of excited about pop Canadian guy with the hard sinker, can't do it. It's just, they need to completely rework this part of the team. Yeah, it's a really good team versus a middling team with a bad bullpen and that's the result you get. >> Yeah. And here's the rub about this team being capable of scoring runs now is that the bullpen's been awful all season long, but you didn't really notice it as much as the beginning of the season. >> They scored one run every game. >> There was no leads to blow. >> Exactly. >> They never let a game. >> They never let a game. >> Yeah. >> Yeah. >> It's double a sword. >> It really is. >> You score some runs. >> Yeah. >> That's a crap. >> Crap. >> Crap. >> We got a three run lead and a seventh inning. >> Crap. >> Yeah. >> Okay. A couple of things on Chris Bassett. Yeah, man. What a grind. To get your way through five and a third, the way that game started, the way he was dancing through the raindrops, giving up 10 hits and only giving up three run runs is another. >> Crap, he had seven strikeouts with a couple umpire-aided carries on that one. That pitched a Harper. And was that the first inning? The pitched a Harper where it was like two, it was felt like it was three inches above the pitch zone on TV. >> Yeah. >> Yikes. >> So lefties have had a field day with Chris Bassett this season. Now with an 867 OPS, Chris Bassett has given up 18 homers this season, 14 of which have been against left-handed hitters. This has been a bug a boo for Jose Barrios in the past as well. And maybe something that normalizes a little bit next season, but clearly, yeah, Chris Bassett the take is, the only correct take is Chris Bassett's still a valuable commodity over the case, over the course of 162 game regular season, over his 30 starts, over his what was last season, 200 innings. If he's a big part of your postseason plans, you got some issues. I mean, he's a rich man's already dicky at this point. You're happy to have me. Take the ball every five days and every once in a while, he'll look like the guy that was a top 10 American league sighing award vote getter, but yeah, this is also what can happen when he faces a good offense. Yeah, like he's a guy that you can have in your rotation for sure. I think it's already dicky's a really great comparison. Like at this point, it's very, you know, you're going out there and you're like, well, we're going to have to probably score six or seven runs to win this game because he's probably going to give up four at this point is if especially if it's lefty heavy, like those two pitches that he made to, to schwarver. The first in the first inning, I like, I mean, just hit me, put a big hit inside in that ball and they say they hung another fat, not hung another curveball to him. So it really is just, I mean, you can even see it watching it. Like you can understand why lefties love hitting off of them. It's just it's it's coming over the top. It's right into the hitting zone. Nothing really that hard. Although he was touching 95, 96 last night, he had the giddy up going. But yeah, I, I think that this guy heading into next season can be a capable part of it. But you're right. It's an aspirations team. Like you don't want him in your, if you're starting the wild card game, you don't want him one, two or three is any part of your, of your playoff rotation. Yeah. Ask the Mets in 2022 and a chance to win the division at the end of the season. He started one of those games late in the year and didn't go well. Yeah, he got roughed up. So, so like maybe that's part of the reason that no content, like he didn't get traded at the deadline. Yeah. I mean, I was surprised when I talked to Ben Nicholson Smith after the deadline and saw the price that went for you. Say, Kikuchi. And I asked him, I was like, if that's the going right for starting pitching, how about the guy who's under contract for next year in Chris Bassett, what, why didn't they push harder to, to gauge the market for his services as you say, Kikuchi had way more value on the open market than Bassett because his $22 million next year is actually in it. That's too much for him. Bit of an anchor. Yes. Yeah. Which you understand, but again, like Chris Bassett, it was just last season. He was 10th in American League, Cy Young, award vote getting. So the season's not over, but across the board, since he's turned into Chris Bassett, this is his career-worth season, he's given up 165 hits that's most in baseball. That's the most in baseball? Yeah. Wow. So part of that is just you're on the mound. He pitches a lot. Yeah. And you're going deep in games. Yeah. But yeah, the ERA, which is not like astronomical, but a 4.3, would also be the highest of his career. He's just slightly worse than league average now by ERA plus, ERA plus of 95. Guess what? He's 35. He's going to be 36 in the middle of next season. It feels like it's, it's, it's what happens. I'm 36. Yeah. I know the feeling. Yeah. I'm washed up, but everything I do too. Yeah. I don't know if he's washed up. Not somebody you're upset to have in your rotation, but the idea that he's going to be carving people up, although we have seen him carve people up this year as well, it's just the idea that there's a baseline of, all right, you know what you're going to get? No, not necessarily. Sometimes he's going to be tattooed to the wall, which he's also been a couple of times. He was, again, lucky to get through five and a third, only giving up three earned runs. So the bullpen needs a total overall. Overall. We all understand this. We got everybody, we were shaking hands. How many, how many arms do you need to bullpen? Well, you need all new ones. Again, if I'm, if I'm taking the positive attitude, but yesterday's results and the bullpen outing, I would say it's been zoned for me. I would say it's thus. So Chad Green has been just marvelous. Yeah. As a, as a Blue Jay. And that contract, the, you're a really great contract. Yeah. And it was a weird one at the time. You're like, wow, that's creative. Yeah. Look at all. They signed a guy who's not going to pitch for a year, but look at all the options and outs and nans and what have you all of it for a guy that was one of the best relievers in that Yankees bullpen and low and behold, he's been mostly that the two consecutive blown saves that he's blown now against the twins. And then yesterday against Philly's, the only two blown saves he's had this season. There was a possibility if he runs through the entirety of the season without blowing a save, by the way, Clay Holmes blew another save yesterday for, for the Yankees. Don't love doing that. You don't think the Yankees were maybe wishing for a redo at the trade deadline as far as acquiring relievers. I couldn't believe they didn't do more in the bullpen, especially considering the uncertainty surrounding the Juan Soto who I think is going to be a Yankee next season, but you never know, right? Yeah. Like this could be your one kick of the cam with Juan Soto is Aaron Judge going to hit 60 home runs again next season, maybe, actually, probably, to be honest, I would say yes. Maybe. Yeah. But yeah, Chad Green, if he goes the whole season without blowing a save. Mm hmm. I mean, don't you, there's a real possibility you have no choice but to say, hey, Chad, you know, you're our closer going into 2025 and we have to add pieces around you, but we don't need anybody with closing experience because you're our guy. You proof, proof positive that you can do this now. Do you think they actually think like that though, going to the off season where it's like, you know, you need to, you clearly need to beef this thing up. You bring it in as a competition. He, what did he, what did he pitch the Yankees? He was usually like their seventh inning guy, sixth inning guy. These are the most save opportunities he's gotten in his career by far. Like, this is the first time he's really been a closer in major league as much as. As much as rubes like me are fooled by September results. I don't know if, you know, the front office would necessarily sign up and be like, yeah, he's our clothes. I have a hard time believing they would actually think like that. I don't know, man. So yeah, they, before the season, his career high and saves was six. He's got 16 this season and only blown the, again, the last two. And this is a guy that's been the closer. I mean, it's not just since the deadline, right? Like Jordan Romano went down a while ago and when he was healthy, he wasn't very good. So Chad Green has been picking up outs in the night thinning and looking really, really good. Yeah. I, I do think that there was a possibility, well, two things I think were possible that at the end of the season, Chad Green says to this Blue Jays front office, I've earned the right to be this team's closer. And if that's the case, you're going out in free agency and you're talking to Kenley Janssen and it's like, it's dollars and cents, but it's also, Kenley Janssen wants to keep racking up saves. Yeah. I mean, he's a whole of famer. Do you think he wants to come into a situation where he has to compete with Chad Green? If the tunnel Blue Jays are siding, Kenley Janssen, Kenley Janssen is closing. Exactly. It makes it very difficult to do and maybe like, and maybe not, maybe I'm making some, some discord in the Blue Jays bullpen that doesn't exist. But I think there would be a reasonable case for Chad Green to say, wait, what the hell? I understand that guy's a whole of famer. He's on, he's not the same guy. And look at what I did all season long. I was, I finally got my kick of the can as a major league closer and I was nails. So what you're saying is blowing saves is good for the Blue Jays siding a closer. That's, that's the lines we're drawing here. Correct. Okay. Good, good, good. Yeah. He to me is a seventh eighth inning guy, like he's that's, I think you're happy to have him there. That is like the, the dream scenario where you have a real closer and he's a guy that is a set up man. He can come in at a big spot before the, before the last inning. I do like his stuff for sure. Good heater. I like Chad Green a lot, but yeah, but yeah, I mean, listen, if you Chad Green is your closer in a playoff game, are you feeling great? Probably not. Yeah, probably not. I mean, same as the Yankees with play homes. Yeah. I mean, closing, closing such an old timey thing anyway, like it is still a thing, man. It is still a thing. But like, I mean, how many times now I believe you're going to say it's an old timey thing. It is. It is. Mr. Oh, wow. You're, you're a khaki. Yeah. You say anybody can do it. Those three outs, no matter where they come. No, all the same. No, but I prescribe, I like the theory that if you, if it's the seventh inning of a game and it's the big. Maybe that's where the save. The big boppers. Yeah. I do like bringing in your elite relievers for that as opposed to, you know, saving it for the ninth inning when you got to go up against the bottom of the line. I do like that a little bit. The last three outs that the still, it's still the last three. It's different. Twenty five outs, number 25, 26, 27 are different, but I just, I, I think that Chad Green is a guy that you can really, really depend on to give you some good strong innings in the bullpen next season, but I don't want to go into it with him being the lock. Close it. And what you've said here with him blowing some saves down the stretch in September, where I have to watch the blue Jays lose. It's actually good. Yeah. See there we go. Blowing saves is good. It's him. It's Genesis Cabrera and maybe it's like Brandon little out of the bullpen next season because you literally can't go out and I guess get seven relievers, although they're good try. You should probably, you know, I don't want to do the thing. I don't want to do the thing where it's like they go into March and then you pick up somebody else's scraps. Like they need to really fortify this thing and get some actual guys. What about Jeff Hoffman? He's a free agent. Jeff Hoffman's a free agent. Kenley. Janssen's a free agent. I mean, how about Kirby Yates, who was a blue jay for a second, who never threw a pitch for the blue Jays, who's now good? Jimmy Garcia is back in the free agent pool. There's guys to be had out there for sure. I mean, Jeff Hoffman is probably going to get paid. Yeah. He's really good. And if you're going to do that, you're probably saying you're our closer and a former blue jay. It's funny. Dalton Vars with another home run like he's really it's been a tale of two seasons for him as he's now got the average, which was below the Mendoza line feels like just a couple of weeks ago up to 217. He's essentially now a league average offensive player. He's actually got an OBS plus of 101. So he's 1% better than league average with an OBS of 716, 18 home runs, who's going to have a 20 Homer season, his baseball reference war is now tied as of this moment was still games to play. And it's a it's an accumulating stat. So I mean, it could go down, but it's more likely to go up. He's tied for his career high 4.8. That was the same that he had in his last season with the Diamondbacks before the blue jay said Diamondbacks have our prize prospect catcher and our bopping left fielder. >> It feels like we've done this a couple of times where are you in revisiting the trade? >> I'm like in Varshow a lot, and I know it's, the defense has always been unbelievable. >> He's the best defender in baseball right now. >> It's so awesome to watch and he's just he is truly, truly, truly obviously elite, like you said with every metric. But I've often said my take on this has been it just be a league average hitter with that defense and people will look totally differently at the adult and Varshow. And it's impossible not to measure it against what they gave up clearly. That's very, very obvious. But the thing that killed them was that playoff run in the year that they gave it up like having Moreno have his like, you know, Renaissance best hitting, home run hitting like right in against the Dodgers in the playoffs where everyone's watching and the J's have just been eliminated. >> Moreno hit four home runs in last year's post season for the season he hit seven. This year in 86 games he's hit five. >> Yeah. >> He hit four in the playoffs last year, which was like the worst possible timing because the blue chase had just been eliminated in the most frustrating way possible with the front office being maligned because of how they handled the burrios thing where they pulled them early and all that and bringing in and kaduchi with men. We don't need to really litigate that. But like I do think there's a world where this is moved from not the worst trade of all time. >> Yeah. It's really not today. It's not the worst of all time. >> And I think you look at Lordis Goryell year this year and he's having an extremely, extremely Lordis Goryell season seven, I think it's 774 OPS. >> He was a pre-agent though, this past office is like are the J's gonna sign him if he's still here? Probably not because they traded him away. So in reality, I guess you kind of have to look at it as, look at it as Moreno for Varsho and they both give you premium defense and I guess you're getting way more power from Varsho. It's just that playoff run for the Diamondbacks at the worst possible time really, really sort of solidified this amongst Blue J's fans as the worst trade of all time. And I was in that camp. I was, I was totally apoplectic about what they gave up and the whole thing, I've gone through that process. But watching Varsho this season, I actually am coming around that it's not the worst thing. He really, really, he was putrid at the start of the year and I was, this guy's not able to hit. He's not a league hitter. He can't hit, but his defense, he give him that. But now it's coming around. And I'm actually starting to be like, you know what, he is a valuable contributor to this team. Like if he is a seventh or sixth or eighth hitter on a really good team, you're laughing. And I think that's where he should, I don't think he should be hitting second in any major league lineup. Really don't. When you're trying to be good, I don't think that should be a thing. But if he's here in the bottom half of your lineup playing that defense, he's an incredibly valuable player to a team to win a championship. Apparently, according to war, more than double the amount of value is Gabriel Moreno. Who doesn't play as many games, right? Being a catcher and all that. Double? Yeah. Yeah. When we're talking about baseball reference for Gabriel Moreno is 1.9 now last season, Moreno was insane, even during the regular season. Yeah. Defensively, he was one of the best defenders in Major League Baseball. So that's depth, a bit, the defense is, yeah, it has, according to the metrics. But yeah, last year he was 4.3 for the season. This year with less than a month ago, he's 1.9 war. Dalton Varshot, to this point in the season, is already 4.8. Wow. Like Dalton Varshot is having an insane season. Like he's being a five win player, like that's, that's, you know, that's not grown on trees, okay? Adding being the world's best defender and being at least a league average hitter. Again, 20 home run power. This guy's having what could end up being a career year playing the defense that he's playing it. It is. It's truly unbelievable. Yeah. And you're right. We got caught up in the narrative of watching this guy in the nationally televised game. You're looking at the man who was caught up in that narrative. But also he did do the thing where he hit four home runs, like he came up clutch and Gabriel Moreno is a good player. Like he's also a league average hitter playing premium defense at literally the most difficult defensive position, but also means that there's going to be way more attrition physically on him, like the idea of him playing that position for 10 years doesn't happen, right? Buster Posey was one of the best catchers I've ever seen and had many millions of dollars in front of him, but said, you know what, I'd rather just not bend down behind the play anymore. Do this anymore. This sucks. You had this sucks. I got to know. I was going to say, the first time I ever heard of bilateral leg weakness was with Joe Maurer as the result of how often do you bend down like that? It's not a bend down to read a pot. I can't get back up. No, yeah. It's a nightmare. Anyways. So the trade we should actually be talking about is the worst one ever. Oh my God is a tasker Hernandez for for Eric Swanson. Yeah. That's the trade we should actually be talking about. Well, no, no. And listen, I'm with you. At the time we were told this this song and dance about, hey, you can't look at this. And by the way, Adam Macco is back pitching and pitching well after his injury. So okay, there's still a part of it that that exists. But yeah, at the time we were told, well, don't look at the one for one, a reliever who the Mariners for some reason don't want to put in leverage because that was also a narrative. It's like, well, that whole massive long playoff game, we didn't get it. Yeah. Yeah. You're a guy with that number, those numbers. But yeah, it was at the time it was, okay, we'll look at the salary discrepancies and clearly something will be, you know, they'll use the savings there to fill with somebody else and that somebody else never materialized. But yeah. Wasn't it like kind of Keermaire? Yeah. Whatever. Yeah. Whatever it was, it wasn't worth the savings of one of the better sluggers in this generation of baseball. It must be said, and man, if, if people out there are clamoring for Anthony Santander and free agency, I think Anthony Santander is probably waiting for Teosco Hernandez to sign because I think he's going to set the market for that type of player, like corner out fielder who doesn't have like an elite glove, but mashes baseballs. Honestly, Teosco Hernandez has a longer track record than Anthony Santander. They should have just kept one. I mean, it's easy to say now, but they should just kept one of Teosco or Lourdes when they choose. Or both. Or just like don't tell anything. But you just, you can't have no fun. Right? Like it went from like, we're the most fun team that kind of is, you know, we make some mistakes in the outfield and all this stuff. And then they were like, no fun at all. They should have just kept one of those two guys and that offense would have been so much better last year, especially with just keep Tasker. Tasker is one of the, you know, my favorite players to watch hit ever for the blue chase. Like he was so good. Yeah. Or you take the savings from the Teosco trade and you throw it into the couch, Warburpile. Yes. Do whatever it takes to let him know the money. Yeah. But yeah. No, Eric Swanson's been brutal. I don't know. I guess a huge decision for the Blue Jays to make because yeah, they gave up a ton to acquire him. He was good last year and maybe there's mitigating circumstances this year and he was, you know, after they sent him down and they called him back up, he had a good month or so where he was good. And he was good last year, but you can't rely on him and he's do a big raise in arbitration. So he might be a non-tender candidate. Jordan Romano, they want to see back in the major league level before the end of the season. That's another non-tender candidate. So even the guys that you thought were lock, lock, locks to be at least a part of this bullpen. I think it's a very realistic possibility. If he's, yeah, if he's not close to the guy that he was before the, like he had surgery. So yeah, I did. There's more than a few question marks about the Blue Jays bullpen in 2025. They did a whole intro for the guy at the dome. Yeah. And he had his own custom intro. Every time I was sitting there, he'd come in and be like, boy, you better get to save here. This is pretty grand. It's very elaborate. This is grand. It's been a million bucks in this intro. You better get to, you better get to, I think. Like if I recall correctly, it's mostly like digital lighting, right? Like a lot of red lights, lights, lights. Yeah, I think they could easily do that for a Kenley Jansen. Yeah. Change the color. Um, bloody again. Oh yeah. Bloody again. Up to a 965 OPS, 28 home runs, anyone, RBI's. Yeah, it's stupid. His OPS plus is 171 now. Holy smokes. Yeah. I mean, he has an outside chance at putting up another OPS of a thousand. He's at 965 as you mentioned. It's stupid. He's hitting 325. Yeah. And he's going to hit 30 home runs. He's at 28 now this season outside, not outside chance. I think a likely chance that he's going to hit a hundred RBI's. It is all the questions have been answered by this guy. Yeah. These aren't good timing. Good job. Yeah. I mean, these aren't meaningful games as far as wins and losses. And that's not the, that's almost like we alert, but like you got really hot the second they didn't count, but I mean, the, the OPS, if we were just looking at the OPS and you shouldn't because, you know, it's one thing to have an OPS north of 800 with no home runs, which he did in May, like the, the season really started to turn for him in May. Oh, was it? May. May, he had an OPS north of 800, but there were very few home runs. I think he hit two or three home runs in May and then June, the home run started to come as well as the OPS. But yeah, he, he had a bad April where he was slightly below 700 in OPS, but since May, he's been good. And you can't tell me the blue jays were out of it in May. No, you're right. You're right. I was just being a bad boy. One of my favorite blue jays of all time had a bad April. Every single year I'd win him in Canación could not hit when it was cold. And then the second it got a little bit warm, he was out of this world. So yeah, more than a few guys have been known to do that. And I mean, as long as you make the playoffs, you'd take that bargain because that's good. That's good. You want your hitters hot at the most important point of the season. He, he has a 1600, sorry, a 24 or 2.40 OPS in September. So it's pretty good. Good start to the month. Two games. Good job. All right. Let's take a break when we come back. Remember like just 24 hours ago, I would like to recall it. I would like to recall it. All the fun. At least we had that moment. It was great fun. That's a Leon Dries idol signing up for the next decade in Edmonton. That and more next the fan morning show continues. Ben Anna Sammicky, SportsF590, the fan. Everything you need to know about the blue jays, Blair and Barker, be sure to subscribe and download the show on Apple, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. You know, I take a great pride in being an oiler and, you know, always obviously wear my heart on my sleeve, but you know, I love nothing more about wearing that jersey and representing our city and their great fans. So I'm really, really happy and excited to, yeah, hopefully be an oiler for like players like Leon or special like it's just there's there's not many people in the world that can play hockey like he does and, you know, there's there's no way I could ever replace what Leon brings to the table. So he's a huge part of our team. He has been and he will continue to be and for me it was never a question. You know, for me it was it was always the oilers and you know, obviously we haven't gotten the job done yet, which makes it to me even more special, right? Like we're we're going to do this together. We all we're all pulling on the same rope here and yeah, I'm just again excited to be a part of it and excited to keep, you know, chipping away at the ultimate goal. Fan morning show, chipping away, fan morning show sports net five nine event bed and a Sam McKee. It's almost better that they haven't achieved the ultimate goals and now that they they're in it together. I'd rather not. Yeah. It's out of been lame. Wow. That would have been embarrassing even. So I will say then as wonderfully and brilliantly smart as you sounded yesterday. Yeah. In your praise of couch warber, whatever the opposite of that is me. So I don't know if we have the clip. I think we do of exactly probably like 24 hours ago, right this minute. Yeah. Can we play the clip? Please, Santos. Love that effect. By the way, Leon Drey settled completely eligible to sign a contract and has yet to do it. In other words, like, oh, it's fine. It's fine. That happens in Toronto. It's a nightmare. I'm like, for sure. Yeah. We're sure it's going to happen. Like, you know, it's Edmonton and it's a long term commitment and there's lots of teams out there that could give them lots of money. Yeah. We're just all sided up because we're sure. No, I'm not sure. I'm not sure either. I wasn't sure. Not as adamant as your unsureness. Yeah. Go ahead. So, yeah, I was just right. I played golf with Kipper yesterday and as I was arriving to the golf course, I looked at my phone and I saw Bob Stauffer tweet, he's like, today is going to be a good day in oil country. Oh, crap. Good day in oil country. Bad day in Sami country. It's like, oh crap. Also, Stauffer unfollowed me. Oh, no. He definitely saw it by me. Oh, the Stauffer daddy unfollowed me for sure. That's all right. Listen, go take the odds. Like, if I was Stauffer, I would unfollowed me too. So, it's all good. Good. Good. Good attitude about it. 100%. You know, I have a million already. So I don't need them. But, yeah. So, ultimately, all the things that we heard that we kept saying, oh yeah, keep hearing that it's going to be easy and that's the number is going to take care of itself. Yeah. Well, that ended up being the case. It was eight times 14. He's got the highest AAV in hockey for one year when Conor McDavid signs his extension. Yeah. Wherever he signs his extension, where you can, we can still play that game, but it's getting harder and harder to do. I mean, he did say this, OK? Yeah. All right. I know what you're going to read and I would like you to read it. Yeah. Please read it for me. So, so Leon drives out all the sciences extension. He is eligible to do so a year before Conor McDavid is able to do so and now his cap hit supersedes Conor McDavid's for next season. He said this also though, in regards to what Conor McDavid's decision will ultimately be in a year's time, Conor's going to do what's best for him, right? That's just the way this works and it's supposed to work that way. I did what I thought was best for me personally. So there's there's no, well, I mean, yeah, that's a pretty good move for him. It is a good move to generational wealth is excellent. It is. Yes. I mean, it's, I guess you got to leave some wiggle room for negotiation for Conor McDavid. Both of these guys can write their ticket. If they want to push, especially Conor McDavid, if he says, I don't care, I guess, especially if God forbid they win the Stanley Cup this year and Conor McDavid's like, okay, I accomplished what I wanted to accomplish. Yeah, 20% of the cap, please. Yeah. Oh, let's say good. Of course. Yeah. Right this way, sir. Yeah. Is there any room where now you can imagine this being a source of intrigue or suspense or anxiety for Euler's fans next off season? I will say this is a bit of a lethal blow to the Conor McDavid to Toronto. Oops. I'm going to say that right now, it's a tough one. I was, you know, hoping that this would drag into the season a little bit more and that maybe there'd be some some intrigue whether to him or signing or not. Like I said yesterday, I wasn't sure he was going to sign and then literally like three hours later he signed. So yeah, you know, I do think if they win the cup this year, it's different where they have accomplished a goal together and there's maybe something like he's like, hey, Leon, we sit down. He's like, my ultimate goal. We've won the cup here together. And now I want to go do it at home. Sure. Like is there a pie in the sky world or that happens? But this, this is for for all that's a person. This is a death blow to Conor McDavid to Toronto. It really is. I got worse news for you as well, boy. Is that now the conversation can in earnest be, yeah, Austin Matthews resigned, but he's only signed for four years. Like everybody else has taken the seven, eight years, yeah, that's been my right the entire time. Yeah. But now there's no like there's no, there's no other end of the argument. There's no, well, let's wait to see what Leon and Connor do. No, literally every guy, except the Toronto guys do it. Yeah, I'm looking at the top cap hits. I don't know. Like everyone is like, Oh, I think, um, Patterson, I'll do it with a short note, bang, eight years and doesn't have a no move. No, no. Yeah. Patterson, eight years, McKinnon, eight years, Brandon, did eight years, right when he signed. I mean, McDavid's coming off an eight year deal, Braden point, did eight years. It's every four years to stand out when you look at the top guys like, yes, of course I will do the hockey man thing and sign for eight years. And Matt, he's like, I want to be a basketball player. I want to reinvent the wheel. Boom, boom, boom. Like, can we just sign for a God, it's always been like, right, even Marner, what he signed it was six. Yeah, right. I just, it always has driven me crazy. Hey, William Nylander, true Toronto man, like, how much money do I have? Also, right now. So what's good for the outside? So whatever is good for the goose, good for the gander. I mean, we had fun at your expense, Euler's fans, like it's, it's, it's totally fair game for Euler's fans to have fun at Leaf fans, expenses, considering, yeah, the lack of post season success. And the fact that they're superstar who also has a heart trophy, same number as Leon dry saddle is only locked up for four more years, as opposed to their heart trophy winner, who's locked up for nine more years, right? You're extension on the kick in until next off, nine more years is so long. Who knows, nine years is so in four years, not that long, four years going by in a flash. You know how long it was? So I, I, I tweeted out the picture of me and Bryce Harper. Oh, yeah. That was, that was good. I was going to say like, you know, I was expecting the suit to look dorkier. You look fine. Like totally capable. That could be this year. No, I don't think so. What? And the lack of facial hair. Oh, yeah. Right. I like that. Yeah. That was more than nine years ago. Yeah, that was, that was 2012. So yeah, nine years is, is forever, forever long. What does this do as far as the, the perception that there is a talent drain in this country in the national hockey league that like given the opportunity and we've seen it has happened, right? But some notable possible free agents have re-upped with their team. I mean, even Winnipeg, they, they retain Connor Hellebuck. Yeah. Uh, a cap hit, which is not double digits, but like, yeah, he, he's, he's got a big cap hit for it. And it's slightly both got way more money than they should have. So it's, it's like, it's, I mean, this tricell contractor when saying, yeah, great, they got it done. Yeah. I would hope that he'd sign that contract. It's a eight year, $14 million, I guess a huge contract. Like you said, the, literally the biggest AV in NHL history for a guy that's, has the approaching 30s, probably 28, 29 years old. It's a contract that he just absolutely could not turn down. I, I think it's a good piece of business for them. I mean, he's getting at least that in the open market. I mean, if you're the Oilers, of course you have to sign it. Like that's just, it's a no brainer. What are you going to lose them? Of course you sign it. No questions asked done deal, but it's a ton of money. And I would hope that he signs like these Canadian teams that you have to kind of overpay, I guess, I guess that's a bit of an overpay, but is it like he's really good. I think if people were saying that Matthews is an overpay at whatever they paid for him, like is it 13? He is at 13, two, five, so four this upcoming season he will have the highest cap hit. Yeah. McKinnon second at 12.6 and then McDavid's 12 and a half. Well, if people are saying that, where people, I don't think people ever said that Matthews is an overpay. So maybe I'm doing a strong man here. Maybe I'm doing that. I don't know. I think all like there's the five guys or four guys that that's the tippy top of, of the iceberg that you just don't ever think about their AV because they're shooting in the net 50 times a year. And then they're, you know, especially a dry side all when he's unbelievable in the playoffs. Right. That to me, that to me. Until the end of the playoffs. Yeah. Well, last year he must, he was banged up again at the end of the playoffs where he could not score. And he kind of caused them, kind of caused them the finals, but like a finger injury and you're just, you know, he was invisible, read for in the in the final, but really good up until then. And that's my last memory of him. So total overpay, you know, but I, you know, I just, you're not going to think about the top end guys really ever their AV, but I think the question about this contract and the one that naturally being in Toronto, it's like, so does he, does Marner want to make that money? Like what is Mar? I mean, he can't compare himself to lean on dry side again. I, I don't think so as far as the far better two way player, sure. A dry saddle has a hard point. Yeah. Sure. Dry saddle has a heart. He also is a better goal score. I agree wholeheartedly. But I'm coming at this from that. That's insane. That's insane. That's insane. What's going to say? Well, you just played golf with them. Let's get ready to say. I feel like the question is, is brought up from a place of like, yeah, maybe it's a very famous going to say he can say whatever he wants to say. Yeah. But like he's not going to be less than $13 million. Mitch Marner. Yeah. And he would get that on the open market 100% 100% Hey, lean on dry saddle. Maybe he gets 15. Right. Like if he goes to, to market, especially when it's a year from now, yeah, he maybe gets 15 16. He maybe somebody gives them 20% of the cap and this is a, this is like a cold glass of water to face this contract because it got me thinking about Marner and like the Leafs cannot pay him 13 and a half million dollars. No, no, they're going to do it as well. I mean, the other thing with paying him 13 and a half million dollars, he's going to want just on like that's what they're going to be asking for. The thing about paying him 13 and a half million dollars, not like Matthew's his contract is due up like, I mean, it's like he would be the least highest cap hit for like a couple of years before all the Matthews once again supersedes him. Now, I wouldn't discount anything because if you have playoff success and Mitch Marner is a huge part of that, not only do I think he could set the bar with whatever he wants. This would be the year he does it that were they're really good. The May beliefs are more than happy to sign in to that deal because to your point, like I think Mitch Marner is out of his mind to compare himself to lean on dry saddle considering the heart trophy. The playoff stuff is where I'm like, that's where it stops. Yeah, and the heart trophy, the lean on dry saddle ones, how much of that came without Conor McDavid? Yeah, right. There's just, I don't think there are comparable players in that sense, but if you are Mitch Marner's camp and you are Darren Ferris, you're talking about playing in all special team situations and yeah, the 200 foot of it all, but it all is dreadful defensively. No question, the question for Marner of course is in the post season and it's not even him individually. It would help if, and I don't know if the May beliefs can have the ultimate post season success they want to have without him contributing in a large part of it, but yeah, if he does that and the Leafs win a couple of rounds, get to a cup final or God forbid, he win it. Who cares? Everybody's getting 20%. I never, I never think about anything ever again. I might just quit if the Leafs win the cup because that's what you talk about. There's nothing to talk about. Like I literally, I actually have those fears where it's like, it's like the cubby's fans. It's not finally got one. You're like, well, now what do we do? Hey, you're talking about the next one. Well, it's funny. Rod has the best anecdote about that. He'd be like, the Leafs win the cup and then the next morning people will be calling it and be like, well, that fourth line is like a little shaky next season. He criticized the parade. Yeah, I guess. Mitch Markerton can ask for whatever he wants. He's not going to get it in season, I don't think, especially if that's the ask. Yeah. So let me compare their numbers. So in 576 career games, Mitch Marner has 639 points, which is very good. In 719 games for Leon Dreyseidel, he has 850 points. So kind of on track to be very similar numbers at that point. Marner is trending three times the scored 50 goals. Yeah, for sure. That's the most important thing in the game. For sure. Yeah, but you know, assists are important. Yeah. Like I'm playing devil's advocate here. I don't think he should be the most important. I don't think he should be paid the same as Leon Dreyseidel, but I know that Kipper and Cole do. So yeah, and that's well and good. Like, of course, you should feel that you're the best, like I wouldn't fault any professional athlete for their level of confidence, especially somebody that is accomplished as much as Mitch Marner. That's not going to happen in season. No matter if you're on a 200 point pace in December, it doesn't matter. Like we're not doing. I don't think Brad shouldn't be doing the itchy trigger finger. You know, he's been in the seat for a little bit longer than the two seconds. He was staring up at William Nylander having a career year and at that point, he hadn't seen what it looks like on the ice in the postseason. And he'd seen it from afar getting lived by his. Yeah, he was watching on a screen while he was, you know, yeah, it's different than being in the building and, you know, feeling the fans boom. Just see while his teammates yelling at him on the bench, too. Can I drive with the nightmare scenario? Okay. So leaves this year go deeper in the playoffs. Uh-huh. Just not hard to do. Like third round. Oh, and Mitch Marner's excellent. Yeah. Right? He's carrying them. He's hot. He's an excellent hockey player. And he finds it in the playoffs. He's really good. Mm-hmm. He's like, well, God. I mean, we got to pay him. Yep. Give him 13 and a half million dollars for eight years. And then just goes back to old playoff, Marner, for the rest of his career. I mean, that's what that would be my nightmares. Eyes. And they lose the first shot until the end of Matthew's contract. And then he leaves and then it's just Matt Marner, uh, for, you know, Marner and Nylander for six four years. Oh, wow. Well, that's an extreme scenario on a different, a couple of different levels, the most extreme of which would be, yeah, I mean, Mitch Marner, what, like on a consummate pace as the Leafs get to an Eastern conference final. Yeah, be great. I really like that. Yeah. And I think if that were the case, even if he underperformed in a postseason or two after that, you could always have the proof of concept. What you need is the proof of concept, right? It needs to happen once. And I know he's had, he's had good post seasons before and he's, he's, he's had good post seasons before. He's also, post seasons is so strong. He's had good moments. He's the, but that's, but that's the extent of, of the Leafs, postseason runs. He had, he had the one Bruin series where he's blocked and shot before he signed the contract. It was. Yeah. Okay. And that's what everyone's like, I love this kid. And then he's on the contract. I hate this kid. Well, he's also miserable in that series after blocking that shot, which might have been correlated. And he was also excellent. Him and Matthew's were both excellent against Tampa when they actually won the series. Yep. Very, very good in that series. So, and they're, yeah, they were both good in the series previous, that they actually played the lightning more than the series they actually won. Anyways. Yeah. Okay. It's a nightmare scenario. Um, and no, I guess you're right. He's probably looking at Leon Drey's idol is more of a comparable. Yes. Of course he is. And he should. You know this camp? Yeah. I sure do. You know this camp well, but they are all over that. Yeah. Uh, before we take a break, McDonald's Canada has just launched a big menu edition with more of your favorite McDonald's ingredients, all wrapped into one big satiating burger, the big arch, biggest bite on the Canadian menu to celebrate. We're giving away a $100 McDonald's gift card to enter. All you have to do is tune into the fan morning show, listen for the codeword, then text the codeword to 59590 standard message and data rates may apply. Today's codeword is burger again, text burger to 59590 right now to enter for your chance to win. And another gift card tomorrow, so be sure to tune in. All right. When we come back, only three Canadians on the present cup team today, even big arch day. Anyways, yeah, three Canadians on the present cup team. Yeah. Mac Hughes made it. So Stanley knew so hard. Yeah. Absolutely. We discuss next is the fan morning show continues, Ben and Sammy Keys Sports at 590 the fan.
