Ben & Woods On Demand Podcast

8am Hour - Tatis / Darvish Updates + Mason McCoy Calls In!

Ben & Woods start the 8am hour with some updates on Fernando Tatis Jr and Yu Darvish, and when fans may expect to see them back in Padres uniforms. Then Padres SS Mason McCoy calls into the show for the first time from St. Louis and we get to learn more about him before we bring you today's starting lineup for the series finale against the Cardinals! Listen here!

Duration:: 43m
Broadcast on:: 29 Aug 2024
Audio Format:: mp3

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All WNBA season long will be bringing you interviews with star athletes analysis on your favorite team and lots of hot tape order order in the court. Follow and listen to Queens of the Court on the free Odyssey app or wherever you get your podcast. All right, we are halfway home on a Thursday. Ben & Woods 97-3 the fan. I'm woodsy with Paul Reindel, executive producer Ben Higgins, your friendly neighborhood sports anchor joins us as well. It's not always fun to stroll down memory lane is it? When you have to hear a clip like that, it really sets you up. Kind of puts you in a bad mood, like just brings back all those memories. Sorry, that was not my intention. I know, I know. You're just doing your job over there trying to come up with good throwback Thursdays. But I do like to most of the funny ones. I love the gurgle noise. That is a good one. Yeah, that's a good one. We've been talking Padres baseball all morning, kind of a bummer of a loss last night certainly. But some good news I think that we can talk about from San Diego Padres. Kevin A. C's newsletter this morning was talking about, you know, the game last night and pro farce quotes. I thought we're great and I thought she'll had some great quotes too about trust in his team. But little nugget buried in there, Benny, did you see the nugget? I like nuggets. I am looking at a nugget right now involving Hassan Kim's return. So that's one nugget. Yeah, that's one nugget. But the other nugget was about Fernando Tatiz Jr. And he's expected. I think. And I'm now I'm scrolling for it. But I did see. Okay, so he took dozens of at bats against minor league pitchers on Tuesday in Peoria in the cage yesterday and a schedule to face pitchers again today in simulated game situations. Padres still haven't ruled out a brief rehab assignment. But Kevin A.C. writes this workload appears to be trending toward his not having one. The expectation is that Tatiz can be back in right field for the Padres next week. That's a good nugget. So does that mean Monday when they return home? Does that mean Wednesday after the off day? My guest would be one of those two possibly if everything goes well the next few days. Now I'll I'm going to the game Thursday and Saturday. I would love to see the return of Fernando Tatiz Jr. I would love to see him back in that lineup, you know, firmly put in there. Do you, if you're if you're Shilton and Preller and you're holistically creating your lineup, do you give him a little bit of a breather? You know, maybe put him at like not a breather but like ease him in a little bit. He's just too whole right back in it, man. Get it, you know, get after it. The way that jerks and has been scuffling a little bit is it dependent on what happens the next week. And you know, I do think crony maybe slides down a little bit. But where do you where do you stick that kid? Day one back in the lineup. You just want to tell him like, Hey man, you're our superstar. You were playing really well before you got hurt. You're in the two, you're in the three, whatever it may be. I like the idea of putting him back maybe at two dropping jerks into three dropping crony down somewhere in the order. Many four. I mean, I think, you know, your best lineup, if you're really not worried about personalities, you might even want to put a lefty at fifth after Manny. Yeah, how about Jackson Merrill? And you can move Jackson up and then Zander sixth and then crony seven hundred percent. It gives you a ton of length in your lineup. Yep. Yep. And then you could have, you know, Hassan Kim eighth and Hagee ninth or something like that once everybody's back. And we talked to, but that moves a lot of people out of where they've been and been successful and been comfortable for a while. So, you know, you want to have the minimal disruption is it moves profile? Who's scuffling and has, you know, admitted, I'm a little bit gassed. I'm trying to figure out. I'm learning about myself was the quote in there. You move him. You still want him at three. I mean, look, everybody right now is clamoring for Jackson Merrill in the three hole and we talked to so many former players. We talked to Adam Jones about it. I think we talked to Boonie about it. We talked to Tony Gwen Jr. about it. And, you know, he attributes a lot of Jackson's success this year being able to hit six, seven, right? Like being, it's a different mindset. It's a different mentality. I think, you know, you always want your best players in the best position. I'd be down to see. I'd certainly be down to see. I mean, he has hit some, some gotten some huge knocks of some elite pitching, some elite relievers and clutch situations. You want your best guys getting the most ABs and that will then do you move Mani up to three because of how hot he is right now and get him more at bats than he's currently getting in the four slots. Maybe. But then you've got a right handed issue at the top of titties is out there. Yeah. But remember how we started the season? You know, I mean, there was, I just the match ups as far as our side goes. I don't know what the splits are team team wise. I know again, they've still struggled a little bit against lefties. They've gotten much better than they were doesn't really matter at this point if you're stacked two righties back to back. I just don't know. I mean, obviously you want a balanced lineup and they have the personnel to do it almost every day. I absolutely have the personnel to do it. But I think the if profile continues to to scuffle a little bit, you know, maybe he would benefit from going down a little bit and and you know, he's been so clutch. He's been so good all year. I wouldn't put him below fifth though. No, and I don't think he would. I don't think any of these guys are going to take it personally. All we hear about is buy in right now, buy in, buy in, buy in, buy in. I mean, things are going to have to change in the next, they're going to change in the playoffs. Certainly, they're going to change down the stretch. And I think that's okay. And I think we have the right guys finally in that clubhouse to to say, we'll do it. Yeah, whatever you need to do, for the most part, you know, short of of moving a defensive position now in the middle of the season. I think short of that, Benny, I think everybody would be game for it. Now, I mentioned Austin Kim and just a reminder that his replacement, Mason McCoy is going to join us in 24 minutes, supposed to call us from St. Louis. Well, pre game conversation with Padre shortstop. Now, today is actually, I didn't realize this today is the day that Hassan Kim is eligible to return from the 10 day injured list yesterday was his 10th day on the IL got hurt on August 18th in Colorado. So he could be activated today. He won't be though, according to again, the newsletter, he's feeling better. It's not like day to day and he's going to get back, but he's day to day in the sense that he's making recoveries. He's able to increase his intensity of his throwing and his swings, according to Mike Schilt, or clearly not going to push him, but he's making positive strides. So it looks like it's going to at least be a few more days for Hassan Kim. He's not going to be activated instantly today. Because when he got hurt, remember, there was talk, maybe we don't even put him on the injured list and then they decided, well, let's let's not rush him and give him those full 10 days, but he could be back right after the 10 days. Well, now it's going to be maybe two weeks total, at least another couple of days before Hassan Kim does return. You know, listening to Schilt in the post game last night, he didn't sound super confident in that, you know, the him coming back really today, tomorrow, the next day, he just didn't sound too. He's like, he's, yeah, he's getting better. You know, we're not going to rush him. And I do think, you know, having the really solid addition of Mason McCoy, who has really just blown me away, man, with his defensive prowess and his ability to get on base and, you know, just kind of keep his head down and do his job every day, find a way to do something to help the team win. I think that lightens the need to rush Hassan Kim back. And I look, I mean, I think Hassan Kim is obviously the better player, but I right now, there's no reason to rush him back, just like there's really been no reason to rush Fernando Tatee's junior back. Had they not gone on Benny the second half run, we'd be in here every day going, why, let's go, man, we need you, you know, get back, get back. They've really been able to not only weather the storm, but cruise through the storm of some of these injuries with Joe, with you, with Tati. And then the Eudarvish update, he threw what was described as an intense bullpen yesterday, expected to make a rehab start in the minor leagues later this week. So figure by probably three days from now, throws a bullpen or a start in the minors, which means he's trending toward maybe even returning at some point next week or the end of next week to make a start for the San Diego Padres. So I love it, Dan. So those are your, their injury updates. I mean, you say, there's no reason to hurry anybody back. If you want to win the division, you are running out of time to catch up to the Dodgers. You lost a game last night as the Dodgers beat the Orioles. So you're now four games back in the NL West, you lost a game to the Diamondbacks. So you're a game behind Arizona in the fight for the wild card. You know what happened last night. Corbin Carroll, who's been as as hot as any human being on the planet. You see that last night, Edwin Diaz, well, they were down and I literally, I went to bed. What a week. Timmy Trumpets, Paulie, got us again last night and served it up. I have seen people saying I want to make. Yeah, here we go. Timmy Trumpets comes into the game. It was fun. Yeah, super fun. I loved it. Terrible, terrible pitch. Corbin Carroll, who just deposited it. Grand Slam, Diamondbacks win. Now, the good news is they beat the Mets, who are the first team that could catch the Padres, you know, and knock someone out of the playoffs. So they remain six games back. Padres, while I say they're running out of time to catch the Dodgers, it's tough to catch up four games in 27 remaining that the Padres have. It's even tougher to catch up six games in 27 remaining, which is now what the Mets would have to do to pass the Padres. We talked about it earlier. I'm not worried about the Mets. But you got, I'm not really either. You got three against the Dodgers still and you own the tiebreaker between the, you know, the Dodgers because you won the season series. So yeah, I mean, I'm with you, but there's still no reason to rush guys that aren't ready to come back back, you know, especially when guys, the guys that are filling in for them in Mason, like Mason McCoy is doing a fine job doing a fine job. The Arizona or the Atlanta Braves also won yesterday. So they pulled a game closer to the Padres in the wild card standings. Where are they at right now? They're two games back in the Padres. But now if they pass you, you've just gone from second to third, right, which isn't actually the worst thing. Second might be the worst place to finish. Because then you probably have to go to Arizona to face that Red Hot Diamondbacks team. If you finish third in the wild card, then you go to the third division champion, which would right now be the Milwaukee Brewers. Good team, but you won the season series against the Brewers and maybe not quite as playoff formidable as a Diamondbacks team that went to the World Series last year. So you're not really worried about, you know, the Braves catching you. You really, I agree with you. The goals here is still catching the Dodgers and the Diamondbacks and trying to win the division at the very least get home field advantage in that first round of the playoffs by being the first wild card team. Yeah, Brandon makes a good point. Dodgers, Dbacks play this week. Either way, you gain ground on one of them each day, assuming you win, you take care of your own business in Tampa. And that's the thing is it's laid out there for you. But you have to win either the next four or three of the next four. Otherwise, you're guaranteed to gain no ground and maybe even lose ground on a team. So this next four game stretch, five game stretch with the end of this series, the three and then the one more between the Diamond weekend on Tuesday morning, the standings will tell us what we really can expect the rest of the season. Are you just trying to clinch a playoff spot? Are you trying to win a division? Are you going for does that mean you're going to be doing magic numbers on Tuesday? Possibly. Yeah. All right. Yeah, you could be September, depending on where it goes. We'll be in September. We may be in the teens when it comes to magic numbers by then. So that might be the day where you start looking at it. Last year, you liked run differential. This year, somebody made the various student point on Twitter. This year's Benism is expected. He already, he's really been pounding the XERA. And the XBA, XBX expected batting average balls in play. And then on Tuesday, we'll pivot to magic numbers. This is great. Every year, there's a new, you're not alone, though. I did see our beloved, beloved, Sheila Seidler, the other day tweet. She was fishing. And I think she looks like she was fly fishing. And she's like, I'm casting thinking about the value of run differential. Anyone else do that? And I almost fell over in my chair. I was like, I know a guy that does it and did it, did it for 162 games. All of last season. Now, there's nothing unusual about the Padres run differential this year. They're plus 68. Their record is 76 and 59. Based on their run differential, you would expect their record to be 75 and 60. So they are essentially one game better than you would expect based on their run differential. That is statistically negligible. Not really that important. Which is all we begged for this year be last year, the statistically anomaly, the entire year. Yes. That was just that's what I was hoping to get to this point of statistical normality. Correct. Because this is what you would expect. Correct. It's exactly what you want. When you ask for your opponents, you should have a winning record. Last year, the Padres about this time had about the same run differential, yet were eight games or whatever, under 500. That made no sense whatsoever. You should be 16, 17 games above 500 with this run differential, not under 500. I would like a statistical normality statistical normalcy t-shirt and I will wear it and I will get you one. That doesn't always work out that way. It doesn't, but most times it does. Then they're back to where they need to be. So, correct. Got to remind everybody, didn't say it earlier, but we still have that sounder for the Kansas tickets to give away at some point between now and the end of the show. If you hear our sound, this is going to be carry on my wayward son. That'll be truth if you were gone. Not now, but the next time you hear that, you call in 833-288-0973 for a chance to win a pair of tickets to Kansas at Humphreys on September 22nd. Tickets available at ticketmaster.com. So, the next time you hear that, Paulie will play it whenever he feels good and ready to play it, you can call in for your chance to win. All right, we are waiting. Mason McCoy's call could be coming up either at the end of the next segment or at the start of the following segment. So, got to play it by ear for the next few minutes. Bear with us after traffic here at 97.3 the fam. When you think about businesses that are selling through the roof like aloe, all birds or skims, sure, you think about a great product, a cool brand and brilliant marketing. But an often overlooked secret is actually the businesses behind the business, making selling and for shoppers buying. Simple. For millions of businesses, that business is Shopify. Nobody does selling better than Shopify. Home of the number one check out on the planet and the not-so-secret secret with shop pay that boosts conversions up to 50%, meaning way less carts going abandoned and way more sales going. So, if you're into growing your business, your commerce platform better be ready to sell whenever your customers are scrolling or strolling on the web in your store, in their feed and everywhere in between. Upgrade your business and get the same checkout experience as business powerhouses, like aloe, all birds and skims. Sign up for your $1 per month trial period at Shopify.com/Audicy Podcast, all lowercase. Go to Shopify.com/Audicy Podcast to upgrade your selling today. Shopify.com/Audicy Podcast. Presented by T-Mobile, the official wireless partner of Audicy Sports. With an awesome network and great savings, there's never been a better time to join T-Mobile. Visit your neighborhood store to make the switch today. It's the most anticipated WNBA season in history and you know what that means. Court is back in session. Welcome to Queens of the Court and Audicy Original Podcast. I'm your girl Cheryl Swoop and I'm Jordan Robinson. All WNBA season long will be bringing you interviews with star athletes, analysis on your favorite team and lots of hot tape. Order, order in the court. Follow and listen to Queens of the Court on the free Audicy app or wherever you get your podcasts. All right, we're just kind of in standby mode. For Mason McCoy, supposed to call in at about seven minutes, we'll see if the timing works out well. But looking forward to getting to know the Padres shortstop, at least shortstop for now. Haven't seen a lineup for today's game, but I would imagine he is back in there. While we've got a couple of minutes woods, a couple of other results from yesterday, the Guardians finally beat the Royals 7 to 5, retaking first place in the AL Central. That's quite the divisional race right now and twins are not out of it either. So it's kind of a three team race at the top. Astros shut out the Phillies 10 nothing. Dude, Jordan Elver has three home runs. Did you see the Bryce Harper play at first? You rarely see that guy fall asleep on the job. I think this was yesterday. I'm 99% sure Al Tuvay was on third. Harper was holding a guy on on first. They do the pick off over the first base catches it goes for the tag. And then just sits there. His back, like he does the tag is back. Al Tuvay sees he's not looking. He's not even aware steals home. Bryce Harper completely, completely caught dead asleep. The gritty leader, Bryce Harper has never done anything wrong. I love Bryce Harper. This fits my agenda though. Okay. So that's full disclosure. But yeah, they got smoked yesterday. They're they're scuffling a little bit. So they follow game behind the Dodgers for the race for the number one seed right now in the National League. The Brewers are two and a half games behind the Phillies and Dodgers and then the Brewers, Phillies and Brewers. Then Diamondbacks, Padres and Braves and the Brewers did beat the Giants five to three yesterday with six shutout innings from Freddie Peralta. Now I did not see this. Probably put it in our rundown though that Blake Snell, according to Bleacher Report, is expected to now opt out of his contract with the Giants. The the one year option deal that he signed late in spring training and joined San Francisco. It was kind of a question after he got off to such a rough start this year, whether you might want to come back and play another season for the Giants and then see if he could hit free agency. But after his no hitter and solid second half of the year, the prevailing thinking is now Blake Snell will hit the market again in free agency. This off season and leaving 30 million ish on the table, right? It was just a one year deal. Man, that's a tough one. I mean, yeah, he's obviously going to believe in himself, but he's going to want to get somewhere where he can do the full spring training and all that. It really set him back early. Such a late starter anyway. They still pretty much a 30 million solar year guy. Yes, he wants that longevity. So he would have earned 30 million, but 15 million of it was going to be deferred a couple of years if he opted in the giant. So 15 now 15, I think three or four years from now, just not not bad. And and I don't know that he'll get 30 like next year from any team that signs him. But for a multi what you want is, you know, multiple years probably averaging in the 25 range and you'll feel pretty good about that. If you're if you're Blake Snell, the question is, is there a team is a year older? Is there a team that's willing to commit to Blake Snell long term? And could the San Diego Padres be one of those teams that is interested? They talked to the giants of the trade deadline about Blake Snell. They were certainly willing to have those conversations. I don't think their opinion of Blake Snell has changed at all. Simply the price tag that's been the concern this year with the, you know, trying to get under the luxury tax number. And he just there was no way he was going to fit into the Padres plans this year. Does that change after next year? Does it change with money coming off the books following the 2025 season? You're no longer paying Eric Cosmer's contract after next year. And you'll have a little more money to play with. Is that the kind of guy that you want to allocate that money toward? No, no, it was totals. It's just speculation. But bleacher report had their top 10. Yeah. San Diego Padres with a number one team. Number one. Yeah. Number one. Yeah. I would have said maybe five or six. We've had this conversation, I feel. We just rewind the tape six months ago or whatever. Yeah. I would have loved to acquire him at the deadline. Hundreds. No one he was going to opt out. Knowing pro rated price. Pitching well. And all of that. That tells me, okay, yeah, we're all in. Yeah. An ace like that. But when I saw it, like I was it really off season like like a long time contract. Is that speculate? It's your speculation sports radio guessing. I mean, guessing educated. You take your, you know that the Padres like him, you know that they were interested in him two months ago. You know, he was successful in San Diego. You know, he's the kind of player who likes to be comfortable when where he goes. And he has been on the record saying extremely comfortable in San Diego would not have left had he been able to get anywhere kind of the offer that he got somewhere else, but wasn't going to work out this year. So I certainly see a scenario where Blake can come back. Well, we don't know. And we probably will never know even now the Padres have not ever admitted publicly that they were trying to get under the luxury tax number. Now their actions have made it extremely obvious what the plan was to start the season. But never once did AJ Preller or Eric groupner or Eric could send a when asked about it in spring training, say that we are trying to lower payroll to the point that we do not have to pay luxury tax penalties. And in, you know, endure the other penalties that come with going over that tax limit, the draft pick, penalties, everything else, international signing bonus pool, all of those things. But their actions have told us that that was the strategic approach to the payroll for 2024, put the best possible team you can together, but keep it under that number 237 million or whatever it is for your luxury tax number, spend whatever you want under that, put the best team you can possibly on the field for right up to that, but don't go over that number. And they still haven't said that. Is that him? Yeah. Oh, beautiful. We've got Paulie will answer the phone. So what what is the plan for next season? We'll never know. Well, it won't they won't tell us they're in full cost cutting cutting mode, right? Now their fringe contender, they've just unloaded Tyler Rogers, Tyros Strata. So, you know, there's they could end up keeping those guys if nobody claims them, but they've all been put on waivers as well. All right, we ready to go? Paulie's still talking to them, but we will continue the discussion about Blake Snell future salaries for the San Diego Padres and where they might go in 2025. But right now we go out to Bush Stadium in St. Louis, where we are joined by the shortstop for your San Diego Padres. And I imagine that that sounds pretty good to Mason McCoy, who is with us right now in 97 three the fan Mason, you're on with Ben and Woods and Paul back here in San Diego. How are you doing this morning? I'm a little sleepy on a people that are here for my town, but no, I'm good. I couldn't be better. Man, there's so much I want to ask you. I mean, there's so much obviously, you know, we know your story 29 year old rookie coming up and and not only coming up and, you know, seeing how the other half lives. I know you had cup of coffee with Toronto, but come in here and say, all right, you're in there, man, and go make plays. You made a spectacular play last night. How has it been? Give me some stark differences between minor league life and life in the big leagues. I think the separation between those two is so drastic that there's really like one specific thing. I mean, you can just go from from the flights to the to the gear you get to the stadiums to the fans. I mean, there's so much difference between the two. But I think the biggest thing for me is just that they'll want the drive to win every game. You know, in the minor leagues, it's all about the development. It's all about, you know, hey, we want you to do this or try to do this today, whatever it may be. And the winning kind of gets lost in the shuffle, if you will. But that was like the first thing. I think that was one of the first things I said, I might have been to see some events was like, you kind of forget how not how to win, but you forget like what it's like to play to win and how much fun that is. So right when I got here, that was like the big, the big switch from the minor leagues to, you know, the big leagues was like, you know, we're in a playoff push, but also, you know, we're trying to win every game, every event matters, getting on base matters, making the players matter. And that was something that I have, I've had so much more fun playing the game just for that aspect of winning. Yeah, and you definitely look like you're having fun. Now you mentioned when you said some of the stark differences, the gear, and I had to ask you about your spikes, because I have not seen, I haven't seen those. I'm like, this is, he's got the Jeff Bagwell look, the black spikes. And I'm like, this is my captain. This is Jeff Bagwell. This is Brian Giles. I loved it. And I go, I got to ask him. Now, Manny hasn't offered to give you one of his 7,000 pair of spikes yet. No, I'm sure his feet are a little bit bigger than mine. I just, I was on, I was in Oklahoma City on the road, so I have, I had gray cleats and black cleats. And that was about it. And, you know, El Paso is black, white and red. So it was fine. Well, then I got here and I was like, oh, no, you know, we're at home, we're at home wearing white and brown. I'm like, this is not going to look good. And yeah, I just, I just wrote it out. I was like, you know, whatever, we're just going to ride with it. And I got, you know, we won. I got a hit and I'm like, well, we might as well do it again. A hundred percent. Oh, it was, it was working. And then we had the City Connector season. I'm like, this is going to be even worse than the regular life structure. But we did it anyway. And it was fine. It is what it is. But I, I got my white cleats back. So I got, I've been wearing those luckily. So the scouting report we got, you know, not, not knowing until we saw you a little bit in spring training, but you know, great glove. I've been impressed though with the, the at bat. So you've battled, drawn some walks, gotten, you know, your first major league hit and a couple more since then. What's it been like, you know, facing that major league quality pitching and what has been kind of your strategy once you've gotten up here? I think it's just understanding, understanding my role, right? So like if I told you, you know, you're, you know, we need you to hit extra bases and homers, you may be more susceptible to taking bigger swings and chasing pitches just to get your best swing off. And knowing that, you know, my, my role, if you will, is just, you know, get on base, do what you can, put good at bat together, get on base, move guys, play the game, see what the game is doing and, and, and just try to go off that. And so, you know, putting together those big APs or working walks, I think it helps me dial in a little bit better at the plate. I know what my purpose is. I know my plan is when I get to the plate, I'm not trying to do anything outside of that. And I'm, you know, I've been grateful enough to be up there and be putting together some good APs. Talking to pottery shorts. I've made some McCoy here on Ben & Woods this morning. And I had to laugh the other night. I was watching the post game interview with Manny and you walked right in front of the camera and he's like, Hey, hey, what? He's like, I don't worry. He's only been up a couple days. I mean, it comes with the territory. You walk in a clubhouse full of veterans, Manny Machado's, Andrew Bogart, there's World Series rings in there. I mean, there's it's it. I'm 49. And when I go down to the ballpark on the field, I still kind of stand in all. How has that been? How have the vets been treating you since you got there? It's been awesome. I mean, I think the hardest thing is just learning routines, right? So I, you know, I just get called up and I'm trying to learn what the veterans, guys, routines are. So, I can kind of, you know, I'm allowed, like, I need to stay out of their way in a way where it's like, you know, if I have to get on the first bus to come hit in the cage, that's what I got to do. If I have to get here super early to get my work in, that's what I got to do. So it's just trying to learn routines. I think that's the toughest part. But yeah, when I walked in front of Manny, you know, I, this is my first, this first time I've ever obviously been to Bush Stadium, but I'm only two. I only grew up two hours from here. So I had a, my most of my town was here. So when I walked up the stairs, you know, I was immediately like, Oh, I got to go say hi to everybody here, at least, you know, thank everybody for coming and wasn't I even paying attention to the ride? I walked right home. Oh my god. No, that's kind of your tough look. But that's right. You learn, right? You learn. That's right. Now definitely when I come up the steps, I'm definitely constantly looking around and make sure I'm not walking for someone's interview. Like the game's hard enough, right? The game of baseball, it is a, but now you're worried about, Oh God, I got to get there early, but I don't want to get there too early. Jackson Merrill has said it before he's like, I just sit in my car. I mean, to watch, you know, to play with him up the middle. And I'm sure you guys have been chatting it up and talking and what do you see from Jackson Merrill? Because he feels like he's been in the league for five years right now, Mase. Yeah, I think that's, yeah, that's a big, big point. He has so much confidence. Unbelievable guy, but just his presence on the field and his presence up the bat and, you know, in the dugout, it's like, he does seem like he's playing the big leagues for the last five years. Like it's just, it's just him going out and playing the game. And yeah, that his persona, the way he carries himself is just that of a veteran player, which is, which is pretty special and pretty, pretty hard to see in someone as young as he is. I kind of sometimes I forget that he is as young as he is. Yeah. Yeah, you got eight years on that guy. That's insane. So I was looking it up. So Mase is a Washington guy, but not the Washington Huskies, not Washington DC, not even that Washington University in Missouri, Washington, Illinois. I had never heard of Washington, Illinois. Now that's, that's by Peoria is where you grew up. Yeah. Yep. I grew up in, in sunny languages, a little town like inside of Washington. But yeah, it's like, I'm like 20, 25 minutes from, from this, from Peoria. Um, yeah, just so it's just a little town, a lot of corn fields, really, really tight knit community. I think there's maybe 12, I don't know how many, when I first got there, I think there's maybe 10,000 people in the town total, but now it might be upwards of like 12 to 14. So you know about corn. So you know about corn. We've been talking about corn all week. Yeah. The corn sweat that's made it so miserable in St. Louis this week. You know that phenomenon? Oh, yeah. I know about it. I used to, I did tassel for a year. I don't know if you know, what is that? No, no, it's where you, uh, basically, it's hired out work for like high school kids, great school kids to make some money and you go and you walk through the corn fields and you pull the tassels off the top of the corn. So it's like pull the corn down, pull the tassels off, you throw them on the ground, it basically helps them like repopulate for the next year. But it's like, you get there, it's four in the morning and you're walking through corn fields till you do it all in the morning and then you're done by noon, but they pay you really well. And so it's a good, it's, I want to say it's a good job. It's good money for somebody that's, you know, eight for eight freshmen, sophomore, high school, whatever it is. But it is miserable to walk through those corn fields and you're soaking wet and then it's humid. And, um, yeah, I did it for one year and I was like, yeah, that's, that's about enough for me. I don't think I want to do this. They did. Well, they take my six year old because he's been a bit of a disciplinary problem lately. I don't know if he's tall enough to reach up there and grab it, but I'm certainly, uh, certainly willing to try, man. We have really enjoyed talking to you today. How many of those 10,000 people are at the games in St. Louis watching you here? Um, I honestly, I couldn't tell you the first, I mean, I had teachers, I had teachers come out coaches the first night. Um, I got, I was telling a family that have been out a lot of my teammates and friends. I had a teammate from violent university. Iowa drive down. But yeah, it's been, there's been a lot. I don't, I can't put into the words or number, how many people that the support has been overwhelming for sure. Well, Mason, it was a pleasure to get to know you a little bit. Uh, now I did see the lineup has come out. Did you see the lineup already today? Yeah, maybe I'm not in there today. All right, not in there today, but could still come in late in the game? I mean, it's never know. It's hot. It's humid. You may get in there to keep up the good work, man. Thank you guys. I appreciate it. Thanks for having me on joy. Thanks, Mason. Mason McCoy shortstop for your San Diego Padres. Yeah, we did, did get the lineup. I won't spoil it all. We'll give it to you when we come back, but Tyler Wade's going to get a start in there at shortstop today, and which after a few days, it's been a while, make some sense. Give him a chance back out there. Hopefully he can get it going. And hopefully Mason is ready later in the game. If they need him, pinch run, little defense at the end would not be surprised to see Mason McCoy contributing once again for the San Diego Padres as he's done really well this past week with hustle and Kim on the injured list. All right, we'll come back. We'll give you that lineup for the series finale against the St. Louis Cardinals. It is out and more Ben Woods on the way on San Diego's number one sports station, 97 three, the fan. This hour, 97 three, the fan is brought to you by Express Employment Professionals. If your supply chain demands a flexible workforce, higher with Express Employment Professionals with contract and full time workers from Express Employment, you get the staff you need and manage contingent labor costs. Learn more at express prose.com. That's express prose.com. You know who's a very flexible member of the workforce? Sam Leven. Oh, no, you worked the same hours every single day. Sammy has to work all different hours all the time. He's here now getting ready for an early pregame show today. Ecowater SoCal pregame show at 10 15 sitting out there in the dark working on this computer. You can barely see him. Yeah, the computer screen provides its own life. It does, but I don't think that's healthy. I don't think it's not healthy. I think he's fine, but we will we'll have Sammy at 10 15. Got that lineup for you. We will share it to you a little overdue for traffic. So we'll get traffic and then your Padres lineup for game four, the series against the Cardinals coming up next year on 97 three, the fan. Mike Schiltz submitting his lineup to face Sonny Gray of the St. Louis Cardinals in the final game of this four game series. Here we go. Leading off and playing first base today, Luis Arise, batting second and left field, Jerrickson Profar, Jake Croninworth will play second base and hit third. Manny Machado, Red Hot, defense, hitting the ball well. He will back clean up and play third base. Your designated hitter today is Donovan Solano, standard Bogart's getting a day off or at least the start of the game off. Donovan Solano will bat fifth. Jackson Merrill hitting sixth and center field. David Peralta is in right field hitting seventh Kyle Higashiyoka behind the plate batting eighth. So day game after the night game for Higgy got the home run yesterday and then Tyler Wade, as we mentioned, he will get the shot. It's the short at the start at shortstop today at that night. Start at shortstop is what I meant to say. The sharding shorts. I've done it so sharding shortstop. I've done it so many times. You don't want your shortstop to be a sharding shortstop. No, that's the last thing. At least it wasn't Mason McCoy. That's true. Then I said it about after he does a nice appearance on our program, just a couple of minutes ago. That was a lot of fun to get to know Mason McCoy. Tyler Wade better not sharp today at short. We need him to to have a, you know, one of those weighty games where he's in the mix to something weird, randomly good for your San Diego Padres. I mean, could have scored the winning run in the game yesterday. He was sitting there at third base, just almost all remember, he almost went for it. Yeah, he did too. On that pitch that was spiked by Helsley. And I, you know what I loved about that is that he knew, he knew even with Jake and Manny up, this was going to be tough to make contact off Helsley. So he was, he was looking for a pitch in the dirt that maybe they could just steal the run there without having to even make contact. I was praying for one. And if that, if that ball didn't go straight into what Pahase is straight into his chest protector and come straight down, Wade was ready to take that. And he would have to, he would have scored. That had bounced five, six feet away. He scores easily with the jump that he was getting. But unfortunately it was, it was just right in front of the plate and he could not go anywhere, had to scramble his way back. It's just, just get back to make sure he didn't get picked off. But he was ready to score that, that go ahead run in the ninth inning. And he just had a, just a little bit of daylight there to try to take home plate. Yeah, man. I mean, you know, probably smart to get Xander off his feet. He did look a little gas last night as well. And, and not, not, you know, he's falling down, falling back to Earth after a really ridiculous start after he came off the injured list, Benny, pro far scuffling a little bit, you know, get, get some of these guys going. But yeah, get, get Xander off his feet today, try to, try to win this game. Sonny Gray is a pretty tough competitor. He hasn't had a bad year by any stretch. And, and, you know, he can be pretty nasty when he dials it up. So, yeah, they got their work cut out for him again, man. There's really, there's no easy ones, dude, no easy. Didn't mention it. I think a rise, a four hit game. It's been a while. And he's still very much in the National League batting race, you know, for the third straight year trying to win batting title. So as of this morning in the National League, he was batting with a Zuna who had the lead right now. It's a rise 310 Marcella Zuna 309. So Luis moves back into first place in the National League batting race with the four hit game yesterday. Trade Turner is third now at 305. And then it's, you could tell Marte at 298, Shohei 291, Bohm at 291 Garcia, Jr. of the Washington Nationals at 290. And then Jackson Merrill is eighth at 290 as well. So go. And Jurikson's dropped down a little bit to 10th at 285. But three Padres still in the top 10 in your batting average lead in the National League. Yep. All right. Well, this, yeah, this is not, you know, this is not your, your best lineup that you can run out there, but it certainly is a capable lineup, getting Donovan Solano. So maybe he's, I think, his clutch, you know, and Michael King on the mound. Michael King on the ball. Yeah, getting, how's the, the bullpen is going to be, you know, again, it's, this is how it's going to be for the rest of the year. It's, it's such a dicey proposition for Mike Schilt every single day, man, making sure, you know, that, that guys get them, get a rest when they need it. But it's also really tempting to go to your guys when you need to get those three outs. Um, you know, you see it. So now, now both Suarez and Scott have pitched three of the last four days. Correct. Scott didn't pitch yesterday, but he had pitched the three before that. Pretty much everybody's been used. That, that inning from Sean Reynolds yesterday was pretty big. Yeah. Had a little control issues. Couldn't get the slider command going, but got out of his jam, that he got himself into. And that was a big inning to, to save some other bullets. So Jeremiah Strada should be pretty fresh and ready to go. Brian Hoeing should be pretty fresh and ready to go. How about a blowout? That would be nice. I mean, you're not going to push Michael King too far. You know, hopefully he can be somewhat efficient and give you six and, and with a big lead, that would be the best way, obviously, to, to get through today's game. So, uh, Polly's got a rhyme report in our final hour, but coming up next, pushed back a little bit, our smart baseball segment with, you know, Sarah's from the athletic is our Thursday edition of Ben & Woods continues on San Diego's number one sports station, 97-3 the fan. America's favorite place to watch football is stadium swim, located at circa resort and casino in Las Vegas. Catch all the biggest games and a viewing experience built for sports fans. Chill in one of their six pools on three different levels for a perfect view of their massive screen. Plenty of seating options from cozy daybeds to private temperature controlled cabanas, stadium swim. Book your spot today at circleosvegas.com. Presented by T-Mobile, the official wireless partner of Odyssey Sports. With an awesome network and great savings, there's never been a better time to join T-Mobile. Visit your neighborhood store to make the switch today. It's the most anticipated WNBA season in history, and you know what that means. Court is back in session. Welcome to Queens of the Court, an Odyssey original podcast. I'm your girl, Cheryl Swoop, and I'm Jordan Robinson. All WNBA season long will be bringing you interviews with star athletes, analysis on your favorite team, and lots of hot tape. Order, order in the court. Follow and listen to Queens of the Court on the free Odyssey app, or wherever you get your podcast.