Ben & Woods On Demand Podcast

Jesse Agler Joins The Show From Seattle!

Padres radio PBP man Jesse Agler joined Ben & Woods on Tuesday morning from Seattle! Listen here as Jesse previews this week's 2 game series against the Mariners which begins tonight, his level of confidence in the Padres making the playoffs, and we give him his "incorporator" word!

Duration:: 19m
Broadcast on:: 10 Sep 2024
Audio Format:: mp3

From the mind of a two-foot tall talking spokespuppet comes this year's biggest challenge! It's time for Bob's Dare to Compare! The hottest game show on TV that asks, "What happens when you compare Bob's to the competition?" You get style! [crowd gasps] You get quality! [crowd gasps] You get beeps and boops and dings and whomps! [ding] And thousands of dollars in savings! Everyone's winner when you dare to compare with Bob's discount furniture! Shop in store at MyBob's.com to play now! 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 not just about watching the game, it's about betting on it. I'm Mike Vlinny, and I cash the ticket, Jim Cast and I break down every college football and NFL match-up, like it's the last game we're ever going to watch. From the best bets to the sneaky underdogs, and of course, as my co-host likes to say, the value, and the one thing we're not going to do is pretend we're professionals. We have fun with it, it's an entertainment product, and it makes watching games a hell of a lot of fun. So cash the ticket, follow it, in the free Odyssey app, or wherever. You get your podcasts. This podcast on 97.3, the fan is presented by Hamel Casino. Fun of all else. Jesse Agler, remind us of what it feels like to walk outside and be comfortable. [crowd gasps] So right now, there are, I would call it mostly sunny skies. There's like a little bit of a gray up there, but it's mostly blue. Fifty-seven degrees. -Oh, wow, a little chilly. -Did you bring a poll over a hoodie or something? I brought a poller, I don't know that I'm going to end up needing it. It's just good running weather, we're going to do a long run, and actually, we all chat. And it's very welcome. You nailed it, Ben, going from St. Louis to Tampa to the heat wave in San Diego. This is very well. That's heavy. Who's on the... Who's running? Me. I said we. It was like a royal week. Royal week. Okay. Because I pictured scan and mud. I can see Tony. Tony. Running. Mud is not running. Mud is mud. You know what mud will do on an off day? Mud will walk in San Francisco on Thursday when we have an off day. I would put the over-under on the number of miles Mark Grant walks at eight. Oh, wow. Wow. I can also go and walk. I can also picture him showing you the phone and the number of steps that he is taking. Oh, yeah. Look at this. 40,000 steps. 100%. 100%. So, I remember that scene in Forrest Gumbel. What are you talking about? Yeah, I remember this here. You've seen this. Oh, yeah. We probably asked you this every year when we have you on if you're in Seattle. I feel like Seattle is a Jesse Agler fave as far as the travel goes. I got it as one of my favorite stops in the league. I mean, this is a great road trip. I love the Bay Area. I love Seattle. We got an off day, both places well-earned, well-deserved off day for everybody. Both stops. Yeah. I like this weather a lot. I do. I mean, like, don't get me wrong. The San Diego thing is literally perfect most times, but like, you know, me guys, I'm a little bit, you know, I'm like a quiet, keep to myself, like something about like the greater skies and cooler temperatures sort of speaks to me on like a sort of metaphysical level. I know. So, I enjoy it here very, very much. It's a great city, great food. We stuffed a lot of sushi in our faces last night, and that's not the Royal Week. That was the whole group. And it's just, it's a beautiful, beautiful part of the country. I love it up here. You know, you've expressed the challenges involved in the balance, the more balanced schedule when you're not playing divisional opponents as much, but you had a stat yesterday that I wanted you to share regarding a Padres travel with our audience because it blew my mind. Yeah, it blew mine too. And I'll tell you the funny thing is, so I woke up yesterday and instinctively, my first thought was, because I was going to call home, I was like, all right, what time is it back home? And then I remembered I was in Seattle, and I was like, man, it feels like forever that I haven't had to figure out what time it is back home. So I pulled up the schedule. And today's game against the Mariners will be the first road game the Padres are playing in this time zone since June 5th. Good God, every single road game has been mountain central or Eastern time for the last two plus months. That is a that's grindy. And I think the plus months at the beginning of the year or two, Jesse, they do the thing where they chart the number of miles each team has to fly. And I want to say the Padres were very, very near the most they were the most. They were the most because usually Seattle, but because of Korea, I think Padres are number one this year. Mama. Yeah. Yeah. You know, as always because they're kind of isolated up here, but yes, so the Padres this year, the most bear miles, the Dodgers were second, obviously Korea is a part of that. But the crazy thing is the Mariners were third and they were like weak behind the Dodgers, and they didn't go anywhere. Like they're just doing their usual thing. They didn't fly across the Pacific. So that tells you what the Mariners got. You know, similarly, it's funny because I think with this time zone thing, the Mariners this year had their first road game in their own time zone that same day, June 5th, earlier this year. So I mean, they went the first couple of months of the season without a road game in the Pacific time zone. And now the Padres are having one for the first time that he said in three months. I mean, that's, that's what this schedule does. You know, it's more trips back East. You know, the other thing is to, I mean, you look at the last two trips, right? We went to Pittsburgh and Miami, came home, then went to Cleveland. I might be getting it backwards. Well, but anyway, Cleveland and Pittsburgh were back to back trips. Cleveland and Pittsburgh, for those of you not familiar, they're like an hour away. But like we did those on separate trips. And then on those same trips, we had Miami and Tampa. So we had the two Florida stops on consecutive trips, not together. Like it could have, they could have bracketed Pittsburgh and Cleveland together and Tampa and Miami together. And it would have been a little bit more of a, like it's just, I mean, it's, it is the reality of this schedule. It is that because you're playing, you know, every American like team, either home or away, you're going to end up traveling more and it, and it nails the West Coast teams. It really does much, much, much more than the other teams. I mean, here's the thing you, you might not realize if you're not a cartographer or you don't work in baseball, is that like, you know, outside of basically the teams we consider out West, St. Louis is about as far West as you go. And St. Louis is like an hour and a half flight from New York on a charter. Like all those Eastern and Central teams are so close to one of them. Like Pittsburgh, the New York is a 40 minute flight. So like, oh, now, you know, oh, the Yankees have to go to Pittsburgh every other year. No big deal. It's like going to Boston for that. You know, so I mean, it's just those teams are so much closer together than you realize. There's a lot of land between St. Louis and San Diego. And we fly over. 100% talking to Jesse Agler here on bed and woods this morning and, you know, to the baseball and hand, we were talking earlier about the, you know, the Mariners are three games out of a wild card right now. So they are absolutely in it. They have something to play for. They've got really good pitching on the mound, on the mound the next two days. Their offense is not great. It's just not great. They broke out for some runs in Petco Park, but you Darvish getting on the hill tonight to try to knock some more rust off, you know, good offense to do it against, I think. I think I say that. And I know it will be in the ass, Jesse. I mean, you know, the starting pitching is going to be the thing down the stretch here. Right. It always, you know, I mean, the offense has enough guys, even if somebody's going cold, you know, it does feel like there's going to be somebody else to go hot, you know, that's sort of in the nature of this season for the Padres and they, you know, that's the point of having that kind of depth and talent, you know, on an offensive side, not to say they won't run into a night when, you know, they don't get it going offensively. But, you know, I mean, like, I don't know how many thousands of times I've said to you guys over the years that we've all been chatting, you know, that it's always about pitching. It's always about pitching. And you look at the Sunday game, you know, I mean, what, what led to that game going the way it did, it was that flooky sequence for Joe Musgrove in the top of the fourth inning and it was starting pitching. And you know, with the bullpen that they have and the offense that they have, if they can get, you know, adequate or above from their starters most nights, they're going to be just fine. And I mean that for both September and October. So yeah, I mean, look, Darvish is still in a little bit of a weird spot. It's only a second one back after missing, you know, literally the entire summer. So I'm sure they've got a plan in place, you know, to cover that and to sort of, you know, try and be as strategic as possible about it. And then I think it's king tomorrow. So yeah, I mean, you got to go out and pitch. These are, these are games on this trip that you would imagine are not going to be particularly high scoring between the ballparks, between the pitching, you know, as you said. So, you know, those guys, those guys are going to have to go out there and do their thing. From the mind of a two foot tall talking spokes puppet comes this year's biggest challenge. It's time for Bob's dare to compare the hottest game show on TV that asks what happens when you compare Bob's to the competition, you get style, you get quality, you get beeps and boops and dings and whomps and thousands of dollars in savings, everyone's winner when you dare to compare with Bob's discount furniture, shop in store at mybobs.com to play now. 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 not just about watching the game. It's about betting on it. I'm Mike Vlini and I cash the ticket Jim Cast and I break down every college football and NFL match up like it's the last game we're ever going to watch from the best bets to the sneaky underdogs and of course as my co-host likes to say, the value and the one thing we're not going to do is pretend we're professionals. We have fun with it. It's an entertainment product and it makes watching games a hell of a lot of fun. So cash the ticket, follow it in the free Odyssey app or wherever, you get your podcasts. Jesse with a Hassan Kim continuing to just slowly recover. Do you anticipate just based on kind of what you heard, any change at shortstop tonight? We've been talking about it. Mason McCoy, I talked to him last week, really liked the kids, played really good defense but he struggled offensively pretty badly and the Padres could use one more bad in the lineup and they've got Donovan Solano and David Peralton. They can't use him every single day. What's your sense of how this is going to play out? Yeah, I mean, the tea leaves all indicate something's going to change right now. I don't know that that means it's going to be every single day. You know, maybe it's a match up based thing. Maybe it's sort of like, all right, what do we think this game is going to look like? But you know, okay, like let's say they do slide bogey back over to shortstop. Let's say he's amenable to that and comfortable with that. So you're putting Chrono worth it second, you know, arise Solano, whatever combination DH in first base, you know, maybe depending on the day, you've got then McCoy available as like a late inning defensive sub where you can maybe tighten up the defense if you've got a lead late. You know, that's what I would imagine we're going to see at least some of again, just sort of based on everything we've heard and look, the reality for Hassan Kim is that the clock is ticking. You know, it's September 10th, it's been a while now. He's still it sounds like not particularly close. So, you know, whatever you decide to do, I would say, and this isn't based on inside information, this is just sort of me looking at the calendar in the situation, is that, you know, whatever decision you make, you have to say to yourself, am I comfortable doing this in a postseason? You know, I mean, because the reality is at this point that it could go that way. So you know, you have to be, I think, to use a mic show, well, word very intentional about how you handle this, you know, because it might not end up being just a stopgap thing for another 10 days. It might be something that you ride into October. So, yeah, no, I mean, my sense is just based on everything we've seen and heard, they're going to play around with it, whether that begins tonight, I would guess, potentially, but you know, no guarantee, we'll see. But yeah, I don't think there's any question that there's some stuff moving around there. Yeah, it's hard for me to wrap my head around, you know, if, in fact, Hassan Kim is not able to make it back, you know, this season, it's hard for me to wrap my head around. We may not see Hassan Kim in a Padres uniform anymore, and, you know, I search my soul on how to feel. I know emotionally I'll be really, really bummed because I really love him as a player and a person. Just a great dude. He's so beloved in the clubhouse and, you know, I got really offended when the Dodgers broadcasters called him the Padres mascot. He's not that he's more than that. And, you know, you never know what you're missing until it's gone. And I think I think this this team has suffered with look, he's he's a guy that has been, you know, in everyday presence for a couple of years now, when he first got here, it's hard to remember now, but he was kind of like, you know, a guy, they would pick their spots to put him in. And whatever point it was, he just grabbed onto a job, you know, and it was moving all around the infield. It was whatever's needed, but he became a guy that you had to have on the field. Obviously, a fan favorite, as you said, a clubhouse favorite, a guy that brings an energy and an excitement to the thing. And this year has been a struggle for, you know, I feel badly for him, you know, between injury and just not being as good, you know, offensively in terms of the numbers, had some early defensive struggles that, you know, were frustrating for him, I know, as well. It's just one of those years and they do happen and look, as you said, he's a free agent. So he's going to, you know, have to decide what he wants to do. These are going to have to decide what they want to do. And it's just a good reminder that, you know, there's, there's a fragility to everything, right? I mean, you know, this, it was kind of an innocuous play when he aggravated his shoulders, just diving in as a pick-off. Right. I said the same thing to Ben. I said, I've seen so much worse happen to him, I thought. Yeah. It really, really tough. Yeah. Yeah. So, yeah. I mean, it's, it's sort of one of those things that happens. But again, you know, this is, this is why you build depth on your roster, because you just never know when this stuff is going to happen. And the reality is, this team has weathered storm after storm, after storm this year. You think about all the games missed by Fernando, all the games missed by Darvish and Moscow, all the games missed by Xander Bogart. You know, that's what I was saying when Jackson filed that ball off his knee the other day is like, they've been dealing with stuff like that all year long and look at the position that they're in. You know, the, the reality is, I think for any team, you are very rarely going to be firing on all cylinders. You know, if you, if you look like, let's say the last day of spring training, you've got, here's going to be our usual starting nine, right? Like based on how spring training went and what the roster looks like. I would bet for most teams, most years, those nine guys play together, like maybe 20 games all season. Yeah, for sure. I mean, that's, that's just the craziness of the attrition of the season. There are teams that have 162 lineups and 162 games. Oh, yeah. Now, I really enjoyed last week's Welsh themed incorporating did, you knocks it out of the park. So good. We're going to go a little more traditional today. Yeah. Chick-fil-A, the nugget of the game. The nugget of the game. That was fantastic. But you can also work Chick-fil-A into this one, I think. That's true. Yeah, you actually could. Gentacular. Gentacular. Gentacular. Never heard of it. Gentacular is a lost it. How's it spelled? Pertaining to, pertaining to breakfast. Gentacular. Start with a G or a J. A J. Gentacular. Like spectacular. Yeah. Gentacular. You can use it in a sentence. I can't. That's your job. I can do it. That's good. I enjoyed a Gentacular sausage. Right. You probably... Oop. Like it's not... I'm saying that, Paul. Like a, like a bratwurst would be more of a dinner sausage, but like a, you know, one of those Jimmy Dean Patties, that would be a Gentacular sausage. Pancakes are Gentacular to breakfast. Yeah, absolutely. Gentacular. Gentacular. What a word. It's a great word. It just jumped off the page at me. Before you go, Jesse. Just because I've noticed... Well, 57 degrees, by the way. Oh, nice. I've noticed because we're Padres fans, a somewhat of a panic in the fan base just about where they stand and, you know, getting nervous down the stretch. I know what the math says. How do you feel confidence-wise about the Padres making the playoffs at this point? I feel very good about it, but, you know, look, the reality is nothing is locked in. Sure. Yeah. I mean, it's September 10th, and I know we want to act like, you know, I think it's very easy to feel like, oh, there's only a week left in the season because, you know, hey, this trip, it's kind of quick. Only two games in Seattle, home for the last home stand, gone to the last week, and then that's it. And so it feels like, you know, it's going to be over any second now, and it might end up feeling like it's over in a second, but that's still a lot of games, you know? And there's a lot that's going to happen, and this Mets push out of nowhere is really, you know, complicating the picture. Are the Braves going to stabilize themselves? You know, the Padres and the Diamondbacks have those head-to-head games, which obviously could end up being gigantic, you know, the final three days of the season. Look, I mean, if you did an experiment, or if you did a project where you looked back at, you know, where we were three weeks ago, and six weeks ago, and nine weeks ago, it changes more than we probably realize it does. We always fall into this trap of like, okay, this is what it is today, so it's probably going to be about this the rest of the way. And then, you know, the Padres go on their crazy streak after the all-star break, and so do the Diamondbacks. And then now the Mets are doing their thing. And it's a really good reminder that a lot can change in not that much time. So look, it's September 10th. That's what 19 more days between now and the end of the regular season, an awful lot can happen. Good and bad, obviously. So, you know, hey, trust this team, you know, they've been there all year. They played solid baseball, they've kept their noses down, and we'll see how it goes. Enjoy your roll, Jesse. Perfect. Perfect timing. Tall talking spokespuppet comes this year's biggest challenge. It's time for Bob's Dare to Compare! The hottest game show on TV that asks, what happens when you compare Bob's to the competition? You get style, you get quality, you get beeps and boops and dings and whomps, and thousands of dollars in savings. Everyone's winner when you dare to compare with Bob's discount furniture, shop in store at MyBob's.com to play now. 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 not just about watching the game, it's about betting on it. I'm Mike Vlinny, and I cash the ticket, Jim Cast and I break down every college football and NFL match up like it's the last game we're ever going to watch. From the best bets to the sneaky underdogs, and of course, as my co-host likes to say, the value and the one thing we're not going to do is pretend we're professionals. We have fun with it, it's an entertainment product and it makes watching games a hell of a lot of fun. So cash the ticket, follow it in the free Odyssey app or wherever. You get your podcasts.