Ben & Woods On Demand Podcast

9am Hour - The Manager's Report + Padres vs Rays This Weekend

Ben & Woods kick off the 9am hour with The Manager’s Report as Padres skipper Mike Shildt calls in from the road to talk about the team’s recent series in St. Louis and how they are feeling heading into this weekend’s series in Tampa Bay. Then we react to what we heard from Shildt before we take a look at this weekend’s pitching matchups between the Padres and Rays, and bring back the newest edition of Things Ben Likes! Listen here!

Duration:: 41m
Broadcast on:: 30 Aug 2024
Audio Format:: mp3

[MUSIC PLAYING] After investing billions to light up our network, T-Mobile is America's largest 5G network. Plus, right now, you can switch, keep your phone, and we'll pay it off up to $800. See how you can save on every plan versus Verizon AT&T at tmobile.com/keepandswitch. [MUSIC PLAYING] Up to four lines via virtual prepaid card, a left 15 days qualifying unlocked device credit service ported 90-plus days with device ineligible carrier and timely redemption required. Card has no cash access and expires in six months. Woods was just asking me, what's the Padres record since the All-Star break? So just did a quick look up, 26 and 11. That's slightly over a 700 winning percentage, so. Oh, my god, man. Seven out of 10 games since the All-Star break. Yep. Pretty darn good. That's good pace. Padres are in a stretch of 18 games in 18 days. They got four left. It's not the finish line, obviously, but definitely that was a lot of energy expelled in St. Louis. And it's time now for our manager's report. Our manager's report each week with Mike Schildes brought to you by San Diego County Credit Union. It's not Big Bank banking. It is better and joining us from St. Petersburg, Florida. I'd imagine is the skipper of the San Diego Padres. Mike Schildt, Mike, good morning. Good morning. Good afternoon now here. Oh, that's right. I just said greatly in St. Pete and hope you guys are doing well. Yeah, St. Pete, where are you going to play inside? Which, I mean, I don't love inside baseball. It's not real baseball, but I've got to imagine after those last four days, it's probably a welcome change. It looked awfully hot and miserable there in St. Louis. And I'm not saying that's an excuse or anything. It's certainly not both teams playing it, but it just didn't look like it was fun for either team necessarily. It was, it was, it was steamy. It was, it was St. Louis and its finest. I mean, there's a lot of good things there. It's a beautiful stadium and a great place to play. You know, typically that time of year there, it can start to cool down, but the heat waves try to stay with us. And, you know, it was four days of sweltering heat for sure. We learned about corn sweat this week, Schildt. Somebody told us that the corn sweats, and it makes it even hotter in St. Louis. And I just think about Dylan Sees. And I'm like, man, he has got to have sweated through at least two jerseys. What, what, it just zaps you. I mean, you spent a ton of time there. And are you ever really prepared to play in it if you don't play in it regularly? - It's definitely acquired. You know, these are professional athletes that condition themselves for those types of environments. And, you know, we try to, we don't try how we do take care of them, you know, prior to the game. My medical staff and our street conditioning staff is a really phenomenal how they operate, how they keep guys on the field, how they train for the guys. The players get all the credit. But yeah, you know, in my time there, you actually got to normalize it. It could become a, I could. It did become a competitive advantage. I mean, yachty. You'd play every day, play. You'd probably call it this time of year, all four games. And he'd be going out and taking ground balls before the game, and he did that. You know, he'd do that, you know, 'cause he loved baseball. That's part of it. He just loved baseball, he loved playing. But he also, there was a mental game with that that he was playing not only with the opposing team, 'cause you looked up and this guy's catching every single inning, day, game, night, game, and getting after it. And then you see him take ground balls for the game in it. And it's like, in your visiting team, it was intentful to, hey, enjoy it, beat a demoralize the other team. And seeing a show as no teammate's like, nah, man, we're not giving into this environment. Like, I'm out there catching every night. I'm still gonna get my ground balls and come play the game. And so it had a lot of residual effect. - I'm gonna start coming in two hours early and just broadcast to myself, just to freak everybody else out, just to give a little bit of extra effort. - I had no idea about that story. And I think that is, that's riveting stuff. - Yeah. - So I know, I heard you before the series and you said kind of downplayed the return to St. Louis. Not about you, it's about a team, you got the Padres to worry about. But how did it go for you? Were there any like surprise reunions, anything that notable did happen in your return to St. Louis? - You know, it was great, 'cause you know, you leave there and I didn't get any closure and it's not about me and, you know, never will be. But to answer the question, you know, and share more than maybe you want, like personally it was, that was a hard way to lead. - Sure, sure. - You know, I had been back to St. Louis for a couple of Alberts events in the off seasons that I've historically gone to for years. I want to support the Fools Foundation. But otherwise, I hadn't been back and I hadn't been back to that stadium clearly. And so I didn't have that closure or leaving. And, you know, you don't know, you think you know how you're going to be received. And man, I couldn't, I mean, I couldn't have been more pleased and grateful for not only the support of the fan base and the people in and around, but the people that I got a chance to work with so closely and see whether it's, you know, a military in the parking garage or, you know, ripped the visiting clubhouse guy or, you know, I could name literally, you know, shoots a hundred people that came in and, you know, either send a note over or came in and gave me a hug or sat down and, you know, it's really cool. You know, like, IZ came over and we sat down for 45 minutes and talked at Simmons, came in the day after and talked to me at Mins and stationed at Hisringhausen and, you know, those are names people know, but, you know, people I spent a lot of time with over there and then the, like I said, you know, between, you know, field crew and, you know, clubhouse guys and, you know, people that worked in the front, you know, greeting people, my girl Aggie, who's just a treasure. You know, I keep going on and on, but man, it was just so nice to have people, you know, extend themselves and, you know, just catch up and the support and the, you know, appreciation was really high. So it, it meant a lot to me. - That's awesome. We're talking to Mike Schiltz here on Ben & Woods this morning and he talked after the game yesterday about the lunch pail guys. You know, we're just talking about one with Yadi, you know, guys out there playing nine innings every single day. Jerkson said, a couple of days he goes, "Man, I'm having a really good year. "It means I've been running a ton. "I'm tired, you know, and it's hot and all of that." But I wanted to ask you, when you're kind of planning ahead, it's got to be a tough balancing act for you. Maybe it's not, but coming into September, division's still in place certainly, and you got some really good teams. Everyone's scrapping for a seat at the table. When it comes to those lunch pail guys, how do you plan or do you plan on trying to get those guys a blow from, you know, here and there? - Well, I think we've done, and I think it's a plan. I'll give you a longer answer, give you my opinion. You know, it really comes down to communication with the players, but this is the time of year you play. I mean, this is what you play for, right? - Right, true. - I mean, this is what, again, I alluded to Yottie, not everybody's Yottie. You know, we got guys like Manny was, he entered the Bell man, Pro 4 entered the Bell, Merrill entered the Bell, they all entered the Bell. But now's the time when the, you know, the Bell goes off, you know, it's what we play for, boys. You know, so, yeah, there's, not naive to also making sure guys are fresh and guys are, you know, ready to compete, but the reality is, you know, said earlier correctly, you know, correctly, you know, both sides are trying to, you know, and, and so, you know, a lot of that's done. I also alluded to it earlier on the forefront, the forefront being the conditioning that these guys do in the off season, how they take care of themselves during the season, how we partner with them and take care of them prior to games, you know, for example in St. Louis, you know, and even before that, we were really mindful in this stretch of games. You know, we had some later reports. We had some really crisp and short work. We had more individual work. Hey, what do you need to get ready for that first pitch because that's what's most important right now. We've, you know, we've taken a lot of ground balls. We've taken a lot of VC still need to take them, still need to keep our skills sharp, but we don't need to go out there and just grind on it every day. So we partnered with what the players need and then talked to them about, you know, how they're feeling, if they need a day, they get a day. If they can go, they go. You know, we've been able to pass around, you know, the DH spot, you know, pretty liberally and give guys a blow there. You know, Bogey got a break yesterday. He did come up and, you know, took a good, you know, a good teammate on the day off to taking a bat in the eight. You know, Manny's gonna DH today. Rise is gonna get a blow today. You know, Solano's in there. You know, cronies passed around the DH spot. Bogey's, like I said, had the day. You know, Higgie caught three out of four. You know, Jackson got a day off, you know, in Colorado. You know, so just a combination of all of it. But, you know, at the end of the day, it's the time of the year for competition. - Okay. Speaking of, we were just mentioning Jerrickson. I was watching the game on Wednesday at work. And when he came up and the ninth inning, bunted and a guy next to me said, "Why did Shilty have a bunt there?" And I go, "He didn't. He trusts Jerricks the right call in a baseball situation." And Jerrickson thought the bunt was the good player. He got the guy over. My question to you is, you obviously trust the instincts of veteran players like Manny and Jerrickson who have played the game and know what winning baseball looks like. How long does it take though, like with a younger player? You know, like a Jackson mayor, like a rookie, before you kind of trust them to make those calls themselves versus you and the coaching staff kind of making those decisions during the game? - Good question. Long answer probably. You know, I'm confident in this. Championship players, they can do for themselves. You know, players in real time that are competing. Yeah, we give them structure. I don't sit over there and just, you know, hang out and watch the game. I've got my duty to it as well. And I don't alibi that duty. But, you know, championship players see the game, play the game. And, you know, the analogy I use is, you know, a lot of quarterbacks audible, right? You know, there's freedom to audible. You know, and the best quarterbacks that know what they're doing, that can see things in real time, that can make a decision in competition because they've seen it and are trusted to do that. A lot of those guys have ended up with Super Bowl rings. The guys that aren't getting trusted with it or don't have the ability to do it, you know, it doesn't happen as much. So I just believe in any sport that's important and also allows players to play free. And, you know, everybody likes to be trusted, but it's not blind. And then, you know, so it's a combination of things. So it's, you know, with the veteran player, it's with all the players, actually. It's a preparation prior to the game that takes place that the staff does to distill what's becoming, which is great, you know, more and more information every day, every year, to factor in, then distill it down to simple and actionable for our team approach or that individual player based on their skill set and what they're actually, you know, able to do. And then we staff work with the player to talk through, like, hey, this is what you're gonna see. These are the guys, you know, Bryce Johnson, Tyler Wade, these are the guys you can fun on. They fall off the mound this way. This guy doesn't throw to a base. This guy's gonna, you know, we can take advantage of him at first, you know? And so they know every pitcher and the corner guys and the catcher, so they can bun on and then when the situation calls for work, they do it and they worked on it. So that's an example of how it worked. You know, back to the younger player. It is a learned thing. They take their cue at its best, which we've been able to have to staff in here, which I'm really, really, really thrilled with. It's happened sooner than I thought, but it's important for a winning club to have. And that's your veteran players at A, wanna play, B, wanna prepare, C, have high base black cues, and then D, have the willingness and desire to share it. Those boxes don't get checked at every turn, but they get checked off in our club between Manny, Pro4, Toddy, Crony, Arise, Delano, for also. So, you know, Tyler Wade's been a great guy to help for in the Jackson as well and our younger players. So they're available to it. And then the second part of that is you have to have the young player that also has some idea of preparation and a base black cue. And then believe it or not, willing to listen. I've been in situations with a couple clubs that younger players came up, didn't wanna listen, didn't wanna take advice from veteran players, veteran players tuned out, younger players didn't know if they had it figured out. And, lo and behold, those teams didn't go very far. So there's no guarantee to this. So that's why I thought everybody in our club house were having that open-minded willingness to share and grow each other. And then the other part of the young player that it's important that, you know, we're gaining ground on, I feel like, in the organization is, you know, the player development piece for the young player. You know, there should be, there is an expectation. Shouldn't be, there is an expectation that a young player comes to us with a baseline of things of understanding how to play the game, how to prepare, how to see the game, how to play the game, how to be able to share and see the game and communicate. So that's really, really important as well because we have to start with some baseline, which gets to be a more of a challenge, not only in our organization, but just in general in baseball with young players because they move so fast 'cause their physical ability is so really special right now with young players at talent level. Guys, between pitching and playing, I mean, the skill set of these young players is really, really impressive. But, you know, they have a big league talent, but they have, you know, still have maybe modeling mindset 'cause they, but they get rushed here so quickly that they're understanding comprehension that I had to really see and play the game and trust that is behind. So, but that's our job as well to help with that learning curve. - That's pretty cool that you say that. Talking to Mike Schilter on Ben & Woods this morning 'cause we just talked to Mason McCoy yesterday. We asked him, you know, other than the post game spread and, you know, the locker rooms and all that, what's the biggest difference in the big leagues and the minor leagues? Those people that actually want to win every day in the big leagues? - It's not about winning. - It's about winning. - It's about winning and I think that's a, that was a really cool story that you told and that he, you know, basically confirmed yesterday. Really, really solid stuff. - Yeah, I think about player development did. I think also, again, I'm going from player development to background, it's my heart. That's my borderline, she is, you can do both. You know, the trap for, I feel like, a lot of player development systems is the crutch of, which I get, don't get me wrong, it is about developing. You're going to give the guy an extra opportunity against the lefty, but it becomes about just the sterile, we're going to get them to me and pass and, you know, and you got, there's so many pitches and change-ups and you got their percentage of, you know, cutters or whatever the, you know, it sends the mess of the player. It's, it's about, you know, it's just about development. And oh, by the way, if you win, great. No, no, no, no, no, no. You play to win. - That's right. - You play to, you teach, you teach players how to win in the development process. That's part of their development. But anyway, it's another conversation. - Gonna let you go, but just quickly, an update on the three that everyone always wants to know about to tease Kim and Darvish. I understand none of them are with your team right now, which is probably good news. - It's good news. Yeah, I mean, we always love to have them. Great to have you back. But the good news is that they're, they're ramping up their baseball activities and getting closer to coming back. There's no dates. There's some tentative dates that I will not share with you. But there are some, you know, some, some planning going on, but the good news is, and I won't share them only because they can change, right? - Sure, yeah. - We understand. - We understand. - You sound happy that you're not sharing them, but we totally understand, Mike, we get it. - Everybody wants to know I get it. I don't want to, you know, hope back on anybody. But, you know, the reality is, is, you know, it's really a, any time the players come back from an injury, you know, it's playing that day, get to work in that day, take inventory, how it feels, and adjust the plan accordingly. And you, you know, you clearly hope that it moves forward in a positive direction. But in our medical staff, again, is tremendous here. You stolen four innings, simulated game today. So that'll be good, it'll get us bitches in, we'll evaluate that, and see what the next step is for him. God, he's getting a ton of live bass down there. I saw some video yesterday. It looks very tautif-like. I think he heard some guy's feelings. (laughs) - Good, good. - Yeah, and, and Kimmy's, you know, getting back to taking some swings and extending out his throwing. But he's, as you would expect, or maybe not, his swings ahead of his throwing. You know, he feels more, you know, comfortable with being able to swing, which is obviously great, but he is going to need to be able to throw. And while that's, you know, feeling good, it's still going to take all of it to progress. - Great talking with you, Skip. We'll see you when you get home next week. Good luck this weekend against Tampa Bay. - No, I appreciate it, guys. - Thank you. - There he is. Good stuff today from the manager. Mike Schill, our manager's report. Brought to you by San Diego County Credit Union. It's not big bank banking. It's better. - Hey, man, I got a little, I got a little fired up. I'm full of kind of fired up right now. - That was a good one. - Yeah, I was really fired up. - That was a good one today. A lot of good insight from the manager. We'll, we'll break down some of what we just heard. We'll be getting, and we'll look ahead to this series against the Tampa Bay Rays after a quick timeout traffic and then more better woods. Coming up next year on 97.3, the fam. ♪ He's better over here ♪ AT&T customers switching to T-Mobile has never been easier. We'll pay off your existing phone and give you a new one free, all on America's largest 5G network. Visit T-Mobile.com/carrierfreedom to switch today. Pay off up to $650 via virtual prepaid master card in 15 days, free phone up to $830 via $24 monthly book credits plus tax, qualifying port and trade and service on go 5G next to credit required. Contact us before canceling entire account to continue bill credits to credit stop and bounce and required finance agreements do. - Again, thanks to the manager, Mike Shilt, who had some good stuff today. Didn't even get a chance. I was gonna ask him about Elias Diaz. I saw he homered yesterday for El Paso and there is a chance they could call him up as soon as Sunday or maybe Monday when they get back and when the rosters expand. Remember the Padres gets one more position player and one more pitcher. In the month of September, it's not an unlimited roster expansion like it used to be. - Yeah, 'cause it was worth a days, huh? - But a couple of more bodies is probably a welcome news for Mike Shilt and the coaching staff. - It's gotta be. And the thought that yeah, like feeling pretty good about your playoff chances right now, maybe get some guys some breathers, no. (laughs) Like, yeah, I mean-- - But when Kim and Tati's come back, it's just gonna make it easier to get guys a little more rest down the stretch if it's needed. And Darvish coming back's gonna help the pitching staff in that respect. You go to a six-man rotation. I mean, you keep Martine Perez in there or do you go to a five-man rotation? The number of off days, which ramp up, well, you actually probably would worry about now we're only pitching everybody once a week. Is that enough? Sound the stretch or is that ideal to get them ready for the playoffs? And I think we'll probably find out more about that next week and as they go on. - You know, man, I don't know, like, I think just logic doesn't logic tell you that if you're getting guys more rest, and I know that they're on routines, I know they're routine-based, but you can change your routine a little bit. You can change your routine. If my shield went through his starters' bending and he was throwing them every fifth day, and then they got to October and were just flamed out, but you had the chance to rest them. You weren't scrapping for a playoffs. You know what I mean? I think that would be cause for some opinions about it, right? But if you, if he does it the right way, the proper way with the off days and everything else, what are we complaining about? Like you get your guys in there, they're rested, they're ready to go, maybe a little sharper. I have no problem with that. - And maybe it's somewhat coincidental. I kind of doubt it, but it works out that Michael King, who's probably the guy in the rotation, they're most concerned about innings and pitches, throws yesterday, well, there's now four more games and then an off day. So they can stay on regular rotation and he'll get an extra day because of that Tuesday off day. It works out well. And I doubt that that was totally coincidental. I'm sure they, you know, they look ahead, they're not just thinking, okay, what's the next trip to the rotation? They're looking two, three, four trips down the rotation to see what's gonna work best for the schedule. Seems like it's good for Michael King that he's gonna get an extra day before that next start against the Tigers likely on Wednesday next week. - Yeah, no question, man, no question. I have no problem with it. - So when we talked to Mike Shilt, he said, Fernando Tetis Jr. might have hurt some feelings when he's taken some mad bats. - He could tell you to smile at him, tell him to do a smile at him. - What do you think that means? - Like, well, he means he's crushing souls out there. - Right. Like you're, I mean, you're facing Fernando Tetis Jr. and you're a presumably kind of a prospect kid who's in Arizona right now. I don't know that you're expecting to get him out, but you're also facing-- - He's launching it so far that you're going, is this the right sport for me? - Yeah, should I? - Yeah. - Should I've gone back to school? - This guy has not played in two and a half months and he's just picked up a bat and is just murdering the ball. - I'm not gonna get excited, I'm not gonna get excited. I'm not gonna get excited. I'm not gonna get excited. - That's kind of what he was implying. - That's how he could have described it. - I'm not gonna get excited. - Hurting some feelings. - Yeah. - That's a good sign. - That's a good sign. Now, you know, he said, you're not gonna give you dates and we totally understand why. You've set expectations and you don't wanna lock anyone in. You don't want anyone to think that because you said, "Oh, he'll be back Wednesday and then it's not Friday." Well, what setback did he have? You know, what went wrong? What's the problem? Maybe nothing. - Dave Roberts is going through it right now in LA so bad with Tyler Glass now because of one statement he made three weeks ago, it has changed Ben every time. He's been asked about it since and now it's, we hope he comes back. You know what I mean? And it came from, "Ah, yeah, just a little precaution." And I actually thought when they put Glass now on the aisle at first, I went, those SOBs. - They're doing it again. - Well, they're manipulating. They're doing something untoward here. Turns out no and he really dug himself into a hole with the LA media and the fan base because he was like, "Yeah, it's fine, everything's fine." And then here we go and it's, he might be alive. I don't know. I mean, it's that dire for them right now with him. - My guess, and it was already kind of trending this way, but based on what Mike Schiltz said, my guess is that they're not gonna feel the need to send Fernando to Triple A for a couple of days. They're gonna be comfortable that when he says he's ready. - He's ready. - He's ready. - All right. - And just bring him right back. - I'm ready. My body's ready. - Let's see him next week. - I think they'll probably have a discussion and they'll go, "Should we send him down?" And they'll go, "So what?" We can go five or eight with three home runs for El Paso. - Or even worse, over eight with no home runs. - Neither of them are good. - Let's just put him back in our lineup and get what we get when he returns. That's my guess at least, as to how that's gonna progress. - Yeah, no question. - I can, he mentioned, you know, hitting-- - Doesn't sound like-- - It's the throwing, 'cause it was his throwing shoulder, so they're being a little careful with that, and that's what's stretching it out just a little bit more, but didn't sound overly concerned. Darvish 4 innings today in a simulated game. That's probably, you know, 60 pitches or so, 50 to 60 pitches for Darvish today. That would probably set him up for a, maybe a rehab start then on Wednesday next week, and possibly a return to the pod raise. I would think maybe at the following weekend or early, the following week after that, if everything goes well, so that's just you can kind of read between the lines as to when players might be returning. It sounds like Tati's is getting real close. Kim, as soon as he can throw, should be back, and Darvish, give him a couple more rehab starts, simulated games, and then see him in about a week and a half, two weeks. - 26 games to go, buddy, here we go, crunch time. - All right, I saw in our chat someone said they are nervous about Martine Perez tonight. Look ahead to the opener, to the three game series against the Tampa Bay Rays, the matchups for this series, the Tropicana field, we'll do that in our final segment. Coming up next year with Ben Woods on San Diego's number one sports station, 97-3 the fan. This hour in 97-3, the fan is brought to you by Floor and Decor. You were supposed to fill in the blank there. Unbeatable prices. - I was. - Unm, I was gonna test you. Unmatched in stock selection. Floor and. - More. Decor. - Decor. - That's more styles of laminate, vinyl tile, wood and stone for anyone looking for the right look at the right. - Time. - Price. Your next beautiful space is at Floor and Decor. Floor and Decor, unbeatable prices. - Prices, unmatched in stock selection. - Selection. - You know you have the same script. - I do? - On your run day. - Oh yeah, it's right there. - Me too. - Just testing you. - I'll get my chance, Paulie, next Thursday. - I like that I can give you a 15 second break while I read that most of the time. - Yeah. - You can plan something more important. Like what you think about the upcoming matchups here between the pot raise and the Tampa Bay Rays. We'll get to that after our last check of traffic here on 97.3, the fan. Good see you was saying yesterday, pot raise will be facing some good pitchings, good starting pitching in this series. All three starters scheduled for the Tampa Bay Rays have season ERAs under four, starting with Taj Bradley tonight, 3.77, Shane Baz tomorrow, 3.48 and Ryan Peppio on Sunday, 3.61. So not a lot of guys who have given up a ton of offense. - Taj has been that great in the second half, but I mean that. - So, yeah. - So he's got him, the Dodgers got him. I mean that's-- - So I was just looking at that 'cause I was, I think it was Carlos in the chat set. I'm kind of nervous about Martine Perez tonight. In the last four starts, Taj Bradley has allowed 20 runs. - Yeah. - In all five of his starts with the pot raise, Martine Perez has allowed eight runs total. - It's crazy, man. - So he's much hotter pitcher going into this game than Bradley is. - And he's susceptible to that solo shot and then maybe another solo shot later, right? - That's kind of the MO. - It's just been the MO. If that can take you-- - One or two. - One or two, one or two, that's it. - He did not, his last outing wasn't great. The walks really, really got him early, but listen, I mean, indoors, good location. You know, I feel as confident with Martine Perez on the bump these days as I have in a long time. So down to just see how this one plays out tonight, you can get to Taj Bradley, it's been done in the second half. - Again, it's different sort of baseball than you're used to. I mean, even like the outfielders, I'm sure they will have to be out there taking fly balls, looking up into that roof. - The white roof. - The white roof. (laughing) - They get to learn-- - Is that even getting to the roof? - It's the dumbest. - Learn the flammable. - Okay, so if it hits the roof, it's in play, if it hits here, it's foul. It's really home run. - It's really home run, yeah. - It's different than anywhere else you're going to play. I mean, yeah, they play in Arizona with the roof closed pretty often, but for some reason it doesn't, it's not the same. That roof is much higher and less of a factor than the one in Tampa. So that's something-- - You see weird stuff happen. - Yeah, you do. That's something you're going to have to kind of get used to. Tomorrow, Padres, have they not named a starter for tomorrow? It was Randy Vasquez took it last time, I believe. - I think it's him, isn't it? - But TBD certainly listed right now. And then Sunday, Dylan C stick to close out the road trip. You've got him in reserve. I know they don't always win when Dylan C's pitches, but you always feel good that you're going to have a shot when he's on the mound. So he'll be the last guy of this road trip before you come home on Monday to face the Detroit Tigers. - All right. - Tampa Bay is like one of those teams that you got to learn all about once again. - Yeah, and the other thing about them is they're just thorny. They're just a thorny, thorny team. And like you said, they traded us, Jason Adam, they've unloaded some pieces there, but they're just like an irritant. They're an irritant type team. - They shouldn't be as good and dangerous as they generally are. - Generally are. - Given their payroll and everything. - And they're just a thorny team, they got a good manager, they got good arms, develop players well, but they're working through some stuff too, Benny, as far as, you know, guys playing for, playing for-- - I mean, they've lost a lot of players. - They've lost a lot of players. - They've traded two other top offensive players and Esak Paredes and Randy Rosarano. - Yeah. - They're gone. They still have Yondi Diaz, right? - Yeah. - No. - They don't. He traded you, he's traded too? - They do not have Yondi. - Yeah, who is Yondi Diaz? - Their first baseman? I think they do. - Yondi, they do. - Yeah, obviously they're leading hitter right now. - I mean, it's not-- - The Christopher Morel. - It's not an offense that particularly scares you. - Not close. - That's, yeah. Brandon Lau. - I don't like it. - See, pronounce it Lau. - Lau, Lau, Lau, Lau. - Which one pronounces it Lau? - There's a Josh Lau. - Lau, Lau, Lau. I get very confused, but-- - We'll learn all about it this week. This is for the broadcasters to tell us. - We got that prospect, Junior Camonaro, that they brought up. - He's hurt. - He's hurt too. - I believe so. - Yeah. - So. - It is a weakened lineup, to be sure. - We got this. - But good pitching staff. - Good pitching staff. - Always gonna have some good pitching. - Pete Fairbanks has served it up this year. So if you get, you know, he served it up a lot actually. - Give him his 16 minutes of salt. - Give him his salt. - Give him 32, 48 minutes of salt this weekend. - That'd be a good thing. - That'd be fantastic. - Heck, maybe we just don't have to see him when, 'cause he usually comes in when they have a lead in the ninth inning. I'm hoping that's not the case three straight days. - 9-2, man. - For the Tampa Bay Rays. - 9-2, but pods are in a good spot, certainly, and yeah, excited about it. - The other, obviously, series we're gonna be keeping our eye on would be the Dodgers and the Diamondbacks. It starts tonight in a interesting match-up in game one. - Game is on Apple TV. - Oh, that's right. - The Apple TV game. Now tell everybody again what we can do if you have Apple TV. - If you have Apple TV and you go to the audio settings. - Audio settings. - Usually it's kind of down in the right corner of the tower. - Like a satellite tower. - Yeah, and you click on that and it'll give you the option of the TV audio, the home radio audio, or the visiting radio audio. You'll wanna select the visiting radio audio, and it'll automatically sync up Jesse and Tony with the TV broadcast, so you can actually listen to them while you watch the game on television. - Yeah, good video. - I love this. - It's a great broadcast. - It's a visual. - But they're broad, if you end up listening to their broadcast, it's not great. So listen to our broadcast. - But the quality of the picture is outstanding. - I do get caught up in me like what chance they have to get a hit on every single pitch. Okay, he's got a 22% chance. Oh, ball two. Okay, now he's got a 25% chance. - Let's be honest, by caught up, you mean you're also doing it in real time with them. - Kind of, like I get caught up like I stare at it. - Yes. - Like checking Apple. - It's like, actually it's a 23% chance. - Right, so why do you have now a worse chance, more of a chance of striking out even though it's like, I mean, there's a reason behind all of it, but then I start thinking about these numbers that they keep throwing at me on this broadcast. - Just watch the game and enjoy yourself. - Enjoy the run. - It's probably a way to like, take those numbers off the screen or something, it's Apple. They try to give you so many choices, but I don't know who the actual broadcasters are, but I guess it doesn't matter if you switch it over to Jesse and Tony and listen that way. And then is Sunday, Sunday's a normal gamer. Is it a, yeah, I think Sunday and Saturday and Sunday are normal TV games. It's one o'clock starts, Saturday. So 12, 10, eco-water, so-called pre-game show tomorrow. And then 10, 40 on Sunday. So 9, 40 with the eco-water pre-game show on Sunday morning. - It's like that. - Gets you, gets your baseball a little early in the day. - Yeah, I like that a lot. - On a Sunday. - All right, the other series, keeping an eye on, obviously is the Dodgers in Arizona, taking on the Diamondbacks. 640 tonight, Clayton Kershaw's that gallon in game one of the series. - Big one. - Big one for both teams. They're both feel like you want to grab that one to set the tone for this series. - I'd like to see a lot of blown saves, a lot of extra innings, a lot of confidence shattered on both teams. I really, I don't know, I can't root for the Dodgers. So I'm gonna root for the Diamondbacks, I guess, but I don't really want to root for them either. - It'll be Gavin Stone, Merrill Kelly, tomorrow at 5.10. Sunday is a Roku game. Dodgers undecided against Brandon. Fought for the Diamondbacks. And then Monday to wrap up the series is a 1.10 start Jack Flaherty and Eduardo Rodriguez. So Diamondbacks have got most of their, their good pitchers lined up for this series. Dodgers sort of, they're still there. Starting pitching is definitely their biggest question mark. - Stone's pretty good. - At this point, Stone's been throwing really well. Kershaw's been throwing pretty well since, since August came and the Padres lit him up at the end of July. But then you've got some undecideds. Flaherty's been, he's been all right since they got him. Not, not maybe as good as he was in Detroit, but he's been all right, correct? - Yeah, it's been good. - Okay. - Should we, you guys want to do this? I'm down to do it if you guys want to. - We're not in the time. - Now we're out of time? - Yeah. - Oh, I blew it, sorry. - We were, I was stretching because we were just going to play the new likes, which are only like a minute and a half policy. - Which is, yeah. - We debuted them at seven o'clock. - The long ones very long. - The long ones really long. - It's too long. - I think, I think it people would get tired of it. - I think they would too. - Five straight minutes. - Five straight minutes. - At some point, there'll be a time and a place for it. Somewhere, sometime. - Yeah, when you leave for your golf trip in a couple weeks. - There you go. - Probably now I'll play it over and over and over for like an hour. - Yeah. - He leaves on vacation. All we do is just play his likes the whole day. Cause we like to get weird when Benny's out. Dad, I need money, says don't. Now people are saying do it, now don't do it. So we can't, we're out of time. But we can play the one that Paulie put together today. - We will. - Yeah. - Anything else we're doing? Yeah, let's do it now. - I like the tanginess of the cranberry. - I like reflecting. - I like all tonne rock and roll too, you know I do. - I like, and I like my standard, very uninteresting haircut. I do like hearing people talk about how well it's going for the pod risk. I like numbers. - Oh, I like the bits. I like to be educational. - I like when I get up, have a glass of cranberry juice cocktail. I like Adam Major. - I do like butterscotch. - I like your tweets a lot. I still like this deal. I like to live my life after another famous Benjamin. Benjamin Button, I like when the pod risk take two or three from the Dodgers. I would have liked to have tried something else. I like Darren, I've always liked Darren. I like watching LeBron and Anthony Davis. Sex by the fire at night, that's what I like. I like Jake Chrono worth it. The last couple of days I really liked his swings. I do like horses. I like the Padres lineup. I like when things just flow perfectly. But I like Indian food. I just like a good, honest answer. I've liked what I've seen from Donovan Solano so far. I like that idea. I like 18 games in 18 days. You know, I like where the Padres are. I like that we won as a team. - I do too. - All of us together. I like to picture people actually in a recording studio. I like the way the Padres played baseball. What I like is the variety of the wings. - Yes. - I liked everything about this week. - I did too. - Really? But what is your obsession with cranberry juice? - I don't know. It was all cranberry talk. - This month. You like the tanginess of the cranberry and then you like waking up. - Cranberry juice cocktail. - Is the dude, is that a true? - You do. - I do. - Yeah. - Usually only when I'm like on vacation. That's a vacation. - It's a vacation drink. - Yeah. - Not at home. - Not at home though. - Why not? - Well, just kind of empty calories and juice that I don't really need. - I love juice, man. - Juice is like juice. - Juice is one of it. - You're the king of the morning beverages. - Juice is like my only vice left right now. - It really is. - What would frat woods have said if you told them that when you're 49, your last vice will be juice. - Great juice. Apple juice or juice, my license. - Juice. Is that pathetic? - Pathetic. Like I barely drink ever anymore. I've cut out sodas. - What am I doing? What are we doing here? - Juice. - And when I drink it, I'm like, oh, you're dirty. - That is the funny thing because when you're growing up, your parents are like-- - Drinks and juice. - Drink some juice. - To juice. - To tell me it's good for you. Now they've of course told us, juice is basically just as bad as soda for you. Just like it's just sugar. - So I've cut out the soda that I've had. - Just sugar. - I love my juice. - Don't drink any sort of juices. That's not good for you at all. It's like, well, I didn't want to drink it when I was a kid because my parents wanted me to drink juice and it's like, no, I want high C or something. - Yes. - And now it's like, okay, I'd love to drink juice and they go, no, no, now it's not good for you anymore. - I see with their 10% fruit juice. - 10%, that's gotta be 10% healthy, right? - Got it. - I mean 10% healthy. - I see your minute-made punch. - I see. - I see. - Yeah, sweetie. - And really Hawaiian punch was the king. - Oh, so sweetie. - King of kings, Hawaiian punch. - And a little bit of the tropical flavor. - Remember the can for no pulp, I can do both. - No, I like no pulp. - I can do both. - No pulp. - I do both because I'm an adult. (laughs) You know who else doesn't like pulp, Bo? He sucks. - Yeah, it sucks. - It's one of my more- - We have to strain it out for him. - One of my more kiddish qualities. (laughs) - Yeah, so I've- - It just feels like you like fingernails. - It is a little bit, but it's not. - It also feels like, oh, this tastes real. - This is real, this is fresh. - Right. - This is right from the orange. - So also it is when you strain it though. - Unless you do the same stuff. - Yeah, it's true, it's true. - All right, gents, have a great Labor Day. - All right, thank you very much. Everybody have a great holiday weekend. Be safe out there. We need all of you back here on Tuesday morning at 6 a.m. We'll have four games to talk about. From the weekend, we'll have college football. We'll have an NFL season, it'll be two days away. Yeah, it'll be a busy Tuesday for sure. Andy and Elston are coming up next for Polly Rindel and Stephen Woods. I'm Ben Higgins, have a great rest of your Friday from all of us here at 97.3 the fans. So long everybody. 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