Gwynn & Chris On Demand
Padres Roundtable: Padres rolling and to bunt or not to bunt?
On this week's Padres Roundtable, the 97.3 staff discusses the Padres big series win over the Astros, Manny Machado's resurgence, if they'd make anymore changes to the batting order, the team's chances of winning the NL West and whether or not the Padres should be bunting. You can watch below!
- Broadcast on:
- 19 Sep 2024
- Audio Format:
- other
Time to discuss everything going on with the Padres. We've gathered the entire 97-3 The Fan Crew together to bring you the most in-depth discussion on the priors in our weekly Padres Round Table, presented by San Diego Round Table Pizza. Here's your host, Ben Higgins. Hello again everybody and welcome to the penultimate regular season edition of our Padres Round Table on 97-3 The Fan, presented commercial free by Round Table Pizza. It is pizza royalty. That's not an Incorporated word. That means second to last Round Table of the season. I'm joined today by most of the crew, other than Chris Ella, who's on vacation. To my left today is Craig Elston. Hello Craig. I've always thought you were the penultimate host here in San Diego. Would he write in the middle today? How do you feel in the middle of all the action? I am Mr. Penultimate, to be honest with you. And then a little flip on the left side here. We've got Annie Halbrunn. Hello Ben. That's because we're able to flip. I mean we're flexible. Very comfortable. And sitting opposite me on the other end is Tony Gwen Jr. Hello Tony. Hello Ben Howard. It's good to see everybody. All right Annie I heard you did a great job last week. Thank you for filling in while I was on vacation. Appreciate it. Not as good as you do. I was out of town and I didn't get to hear it. And now Woods has me all spun out that I'm going to ask all the same questions that you did last week. I did take as many of those as I could. I'm going to start with one that you couldn't possibly have asked. And that is just taking the current temperature of the Padres. Who went five and one since the last roundtable. Road sweep of the Giants taking two or three. Nearly a sweep of the Houston Astros. Padres own the best record in baseball since the All-Star break. They've had several good runs since July. So in your opinion and why don't we start with Annie since she hosted last week. Are the Padres playing their best baseball of the season right now? I believe they are. And I believe that they have found even yet another gear that they're working toward. Now that they can see the light at the end of the tunnel with the playoffs, I think you're seeing especially kind of like the superstar players, but even everyone in the clubhouse kind of just taking it up another level, getting themselves ready for what the playoff experience is going to be like. So I do. I think that they are very focused and locked in right now. Yeah. Padres had Tony some really good runs, especially post All-Star break when you guys run the East Coast and long-winning streaks. But I don't know. It feels like right now there is complete of a team as we've seen. Yeah, I mean, we kind of seen this coming since the second half began. And there was that extremely hot, you know, month of baseball they had, and then played about 500 ball. But, you know, one of the signs of a really good team is you can have a, your fall off is about 500, and then you can get back on it. And that's what we've seen from this team. It's a combination of everybody starting to get healthy at the right time. I mean, obviously getting you and Joe back has been a huge uplifting piece of it and getting Toddie back. And so they're healthy and they are peaking right at the correct time in my opinion. And Craig, that consistency has been a big part. Padres still no more than two losses in a row since the All-Star break. And that's continued on all the way here through September. And that early East Coast great road streak that got us to the point where we could make the trades that happened. That was happening negotiating out of major starts and Randy Vasquez starts. And those guys had been replaced by Joe Musgrove and you Darvish. There's no bigger upgrade in baseball than what's happened in those two rotation slots, just like there's no bigger post deadline acquisition than getting Fernando Tati's junior back, O.P.S.ing around a thousand. And Woods, I think you'd agree, Padres are passing the I test. Whatever that is, the Padres seem to be passing it right now. And they're definitely passing the, you know, we talked this morning about busting narratives. You know, and there's been some narratives busted. And they went into San Francisco, get that sweep. And you're like, all right, well, it's the Giants. So, I mean, they're, they're scuffling right now. Their offense is non-existent. Now you sweep the Giants, you handle your business. The Astros are going to be a much tougher test. Well, they won two out of three. And let's be honest, probably should have won all three. I mean, they're, they're, they're, they're busting narratives every single day. Is there room for improvement on some things? Absolutely. But there's no baseball team out there that can improve on a couple of things. Now, Mike Schilt has been big on, you know, one, one game, one opponent at a time all the way through. And I think the Padres have mostly bought in. But we did see some talk from Manny Machado of all people after the game yesterday of, you know, what is next to come. A postseason run that he says, I think we're going to see this team again. And there's only one way you can see the Astros again. And that would be in the World Series at the end of the year. Or in Cancun, if you're golfing. I guess so. I mean, that's the other way you put it. Tony is a player. Are you okay with that, that kind of talk from Manny? Like, hey, we expect to see this team again and that's going to be in a month. Yeah. And he did it in a way that wasn't like you had to kind of think about it for a sec. But yeah, no, I'm, if, if that's how Manny feels, I'm sure that's how a bunch of guys in that locker room feeling. I'm all for it. Those guys in that locker room, they don't care nothing about, you know, myths or, or, you know, narratives. They feel like they built this team up and they have progressed in a way that they're confident. No matter who they're playing, you saw what just transpired against the Astros. That's a, that's a good team over there. No matter how down they may be, this, that's a really good team. And that's really been how the Padres have performed against those type of teams all year. No, I think you never want to see confidence cross the line into cockiness over confidence, Craig. But I haven't really gotten that sense. Even for Manny's comments, it wasn't, wasn't like, yeah, try to stop us. It was just more like, hey, we're just going to keep doing what we're doing and that should lead us to a good place. Plus, I would add the context of it's an AC Machado interaction and they have this kind of playful back and forth. And AC went back to him another time to kind of, okay, let me lock this in for the column type situation. I thought he was really trying to show a lot of respect to Houston. He is what he was, maybe his intent, as opposed to saying we're about to go win three playoff series in the National League playoffs. But I do believe that this is the Padres final form and that this final form is capable of beating any team in baseball. Doesn't mean you're gonna in a two game out of three series, but they've got the team to beat anybody. Was you tend to be the most cautious when it comes to tempting fate of the group, certainly spending some time with you? Are you okay with Manny's comments? Yeah, I mean, he also told us at the beginning of the year, don't worry about where I'll be at the end of the year. Don't worry about it. I will be exactly where I need to be and look at that. Look at that one short of 30 and 100 plus RBI and I wouldn't have thought it as much as I love him. I would have said, man, you're just gonna run out of time. I think you're gonna be better, but you're gonna run out of time. He didn't run out of time. So it's kind of like when he says it, I tend to believe it. Sam, Annie, ultimately, you'd rather have a confident team than one that's lacking confidence at this point in the season. Yeah, absolutely. And I think this is a team that feels like they've earned it. They have, you know, like they've earned what they, with the place that they're in and the place that they're holding. They've kind of controlled their destiny for this part out of the All-Star break. And so for them, I think that they're feeling like, hey, we're very locked in. We've put in the work and this is a really special team that we have. I thought it was great. You know, Manny called his shot, the Astros Clubhouse was saying that it would be a great matchup too. So I think it was two teams that respect each other and that were pretty, you know, played some intense games and felt like they played them pretty well. Dubont said he goes, well, I mean, at least we go seven in the World Series. You know, it'd be fun to play these guys in a seven game series. Right, that's because both of the Astros think of the same. They believe it is. That's why they are who they are. And I thought maybe more significant than even Manny's comments in that same piece is the comments from Joe Espada, a manager. Well, as a bench coach, he's been there a couple of times for World Series titles and just, you know, observing the San Diego Padres and seeing what he thinks is a team that can make a deep run into the playoffs, Greg. I look at the opponents and I see a stronger weakness on every single opponent in the National League field than San Diego right now. And I don't think that's Braggadocious. I just really look at the team because the biggest difference to me, I mean, you can argue offense. I think this year's offense is better than 2022. Obviously, it doesn't have Juan Soto in it. But that year, the Padres had to turn to Mike Clevenger and Sean Manaya in a nationally championship series game. This year in that situation, that would be Michael King. I mean, that's just a gigantic difference in terms of looking at, you know what, I'll even take it a step further. I remember that year, the Astros winning the World Series and looking at them and going, Christian Javier is their fourth starter. This is ridiculous. Like they get to a game for a must win situation and they've got a starter out there that's so much better than the opponent. And that's where that series turned. And I think the Padres right now have that ability within a playoff series, a longer series to turn it based on the strength of their rotation. Tony, and this feels like a case of you have to earn your respect in Major League Baseball. Now, you have to respect every opponent. And we hear Mike Schilt talking about that. Even the White Sox coming in, you have to respect them. But as a player, there's a different level of not disrespecting opponent, but actually looking at another team and going, "Oh, that is a good team." And it feels like the Padres have reached that level with the teams they're actually playing where they look at the Padres and go, "That's a good team." Yeah, no. Joe Spott is not the only manager that's felt that way this year. And some of them felt like that early in the season before we were seeing this final product. So, it's always been there. It's just a matter of seeing it more consistently. And when you start to do it consistently, it's easier to start to see from the outside. When you're constantly winning ball games, and some of these teams may not be catching the Padres on an everyday basis, but they catch them in the highlights, they catch them on the phone. And I think that starts to kind of resonate with people. And then when you see it in person, and you see really the execution that this team puts together on a nightly basis, you can't do anything but respect it at that point. So, '97 through the fan, Padres Roundtable presented commercial free by San Diego Roundtable Pizza. It is pizza royalty. And I want to talk a little bit about Fernando Tetis Jr. for a second. I made an online comment during the game last night. And I was surprised how many Padres fans came out of the woodwork with criticism of Fernando Tetis Jr. I'm surprised that you're surprised. Well, I still get the sense that he is the most popular player on the San Diego Padres. And that Manny Machado is the one that gets more criticism usually from even Padres fans. But there were a lot out there. And I was trying to go, okay, you know, yeah, he struck out three times, but he's got always got the ability to do what he did later in the game. That is hit a home run and change a game with his play. My question for you all, and let's start with Woods in the middle this time. He is on a nine game hitting streak, five home runs. Of course, he missed 2022. He had an up and down 2023. He missed a couple of months this year with a stress reaction. Do you feel that Fernando Tetis Jr. is finally and truly back at this point to the player that we kind of remembered from long ago? Yeah, 100% 100% back. And I think, you know, you missed that much time. It's still going to take you a little bit of time to get caught up and feel comfortable and not maybe jumpy in the box. If you get a little jumpy, like I totally get it. You got to run it out there. You want to do something big. The crowd's going nuts. So you've seen a lot of the other guys on the team because they've had 300 at bats or 400 at bats. They may be a little bit more calm up there. They're not trying to do so much. Fernando is still, he's a little bit late to the party, but look what he's done. Even being a little bit late to the party and missing so much time. So the way he changes the game in the field, the way he changes the game with his arm, his athleticism, and of course his bat. Yeah, man, like he's playing great and he can still get better. And I think that he will. I mean, it's the more ABs, the more repetitions he gets, the better he's going to play. Can you remember a pre-surgery, pre-suspension, tetis? I mean, how different, how same is this player compared to the two from then to now? I think he's even more mature. I do. And I think he understands his role in the team even more. And I think he is someone who was bummed to miss the 2022 playoffs, was bummed to sit on the sidelines in the dugout while this team was killing it. And he was injured and now is loving the opportunity to help his team out. There's not one player on that roster that can't improve, right? That can't get better in some scenarios or whatnot. But I think you've got to let Fernando be Fernando and let him find that confidence, which you do lose a little bit when you're injured, I think, and come out there. And he's been showing it. I mean, at the plate, like you said, in the field and right field, he's putting pressure on the pitcher. I think you're seeing everything you want to see out of Fernando right now. Craig is strikeout, right? It's actually the lowest of his career this year. You really don't see lapses at all from Fernando Tetis Jr. Is it possible that this is the best version we've ever seen so far? Not saying that he can't get better. Like Annie said, I agree with her, but are we at that level where he is now kind of passed where he was before? Because it took him a while to get back. Well, he's still not 100% healthy. That's true. So I'll say to the most, you know, basic response to your question. No, this isn't the best because I think there's an even healthier version of Fernando Tetis Jr. that we could see next year. But I agree with everything the panel has been saying in terms of his maturity has improved. This is the biggest ceiling raiser on the team. He creates dynamic play for the team on the field at the plate. He's not going to get a hit every time. But I'm reminded of almost LeBron. I want to be clear about this. As a young player, if LeBron went two for 12, it was like, how dare he? Right. You know, overrated. Right. Get him out of here. Oh my God, he missed eight threes. This guy's a joke. And it's because the expectation was that he would literally hit every shot in his career. And that's what I really get from fans on Tetis. If he doesn't get a hit every single time, they continue to bring up the mistakes of 2022. But I tell you what, he handled 23 the best he possibly could have handled it. And I think he has been an exemplar of what you want in 2024. Tony, where do you see Fernando in his development as a baseball player, the maturity? Then to now, where does he stand? He's light years ahead of where he was from a maturity standpoint. I still think he hasn't hit the ceiling as who he can be as a ball player. He hasn't had consistent baseball over the last, you know, three, four years. Whether it's due to injury or the suspension or not, right? He just hasn't been able to build any kind of, you know, continuity with himself. You know, he's he's dealing with a stress, stress fracture, stress reaction. And, you know, that's in his leg. So I mean, like how dynamic is he when he's still dealing with that? So I think still pretty dynamic. Exactly. And that's the point. And, you know, I caution the everybody, you know, Twitter can sometimes feel like the 14 people that are, hey, he's terrible or we need to get rid of him can feel like a million. It's just the 14 people that do. I always wanted that too, you know, because I understand social media can be very vocal. But at the same time, I always think that for everyone is not saying it. There's probably a hundred people who are also thinking it. So I don't know how accurate it is or not when you see that kind of criticism. Saw it from Manny or, you know, early in the season, plenty of fans ago. He's washed. This contract is going to be a disaster. Well, Craig, that's turned out just to be absurdly false when it came to Manny Machado and what he's been able to do this year. I mean, 100%. This is probably the single biggest busted narrative of the 2024 season. And I will tell you, not just some fans, a lot of fans and a lot of smart fans that were making this claim. And it was fighting a headwind to say, no, wait, Manny Machado has been hurt last year and this year. Maybe he's not actually just in irreversible decline. I challenged the smart fans that were saying that this guy was, it is, it is, it is, it is, it is certain as the clock turning nine every day that this guy is going to be around 275, 30 and 85. Just look at his baseball card. It says it every year. And so to me, it's, you know, we'll be here again next year. I promise you. There's no question. We'll be in here. We'll be right here again next year. And he doesn't get off to a blazing start. Yeah. Which he won't, because he never really does. He does. He doesn't, but it'll be the one year he does. And then it might comment down, but I'm just saying, like we'll be here again on, on Manny once again. Yeah. And at some point, Annie, I mean, you know, he will decline. Yeah. This is every ball player does, but he's, he's in his prime and should be for several more years. He is, and two things, one, Manny will always challenge anyone who will look at a player and say, always pass the 30, 31, 32 year old mark. He's going to decline. Manny loves the player who has longevity and has learned to be a smart player and play the game the smart way and really build on their baseball IQ, which he does every year. He, he will fight that. I mean, and I think he'll do a good job fighting it. But two, also talk to him the other day about his arm. I mean, his elbow is still not 100%. He's just like Fernando is he's going to excel from having an off season where he gets to train the way he wants to. He gets to rest the way he wants to. He gets to do everything he normally does in an off season. He's going to probably come back next year, even stronger. What he's been doing dealing with this elbow still not being 100% has been remarkable. And, you know, while Ella was busy examining one of the seven wonders of the world, right now, I presume, let me kind of take one of his roles. On the show for just a second. And it's one you might be surprised at, but here's one of the places where I do feel analytics has failed. Baseball fans who are trying to be smart baseball fans. It's in the zips and steamer projections because those projections are built based on every player in the universe. And they come up with a uniform model of it. 30, you're here, but 31, you're 90% of that and 32, you're 90% of that and so on and so forth. So when Manny's contract came out, zips steamer put out a projection and it showed Manny getting progressively a little bit worse every single year for 11 years. And the thing is, not all players are built the same. Manny Machado was more like an Adrian Beltray. I expect him at 37 to hit 35 home runs. Well, and Woods isn't the thing that drives some fans crazy about Manny. His leaving some in reserve on a routine ground out. Doesn't that make him more likely to be a player that will manage himself better later in his career? Yeah, it's, you know, it drives me crazy. It drives me crazy. And I've spent 162 games fighting it because, as I've said many times, when you're in the presence of somebody that is so self-assured, it's intimidating. Like when I've talked to Manny before, the belief that he has in himself, it's wild to be around it. Well, you can feel it from him. And when he says it, I believe it. And I watch him and I go, well, yeah, I mean, I don't teach my deserves, but he's six. I'm like, you run until you don't have knee surgery or elbow surgery, right? It's a different, it's a different perspective. I trust that man to make the right decisions because he's earned all of that trust. He's earned it. Like he knows when he, you saw there was a play yesterday and he knew exactly who was running. He was not even looking at first base and he threw a seed, a seed because he knew I got to get rid of this thing quick. Bro, Aaron Otto doesn't do that. Scott Roland didn't do that. He knows I got one split second and he gets these guys by a split second every single time. It's like watching a magician, dude. It's crazy. The internal clock is bananas. I've never seen anything like it. And then you have to deal with my quiet self-assurance every single time. Yes, and my self-assurance was his hero. You're around somebody like that and you go, how do I not take him at his word, you know, that he's going to be where he needs to be after he consistently proves it? So in '97 through the fan pod raise roundtable presented by roundtable pizza, pizza royalty going for another 40 minutes or so. All right, so Mike Schult finally pulled the switch and I don't know if it was before last Thursday or not with Jackson Merrill up to the fifth slot in the order. But the question here today is, is that the last change or would you make any other adjustments to the pod raise starting lineup to maximize their potential effectiveness for the playoffs, Craig? Yeah, the change happened Saturday up in San Francisco. So, yeah, we didn't get to talk about it last week. We were talking about it the week before on the radio saying it should be a good move to move Merrill up at least to fifth. And I do believe this is the last move. And I think this is the optimized lineup. I really do. It was different when Pro4 was hitting 185 for a month, but the Pro4 that gets hits, I want him third because I like the switch hitter. I love the bat he takes. I love the way he battles the pitcher, and I think he is a perfect compliment where you've got to rise the battle or you've got to teach the free swinger. You've got Pro4, the battler, and then you've got Manny, kind of the opportunist, you know, who'll either battle you or go for that first pitch. I love the mix. Merrill 5 is right. It's getting one of your best players, more at bats, and furthermore, it's getting them connected. Now, Merrill is connected to Manny and to to teach and to Pro4. When they're on base, it's his job to knock them in. That's beautiful, and I love the way it's working. Annie, any changes that you'd make, and how do you feel like the change with Merrill has gone so far? I like it. I like the lineup the way it is as well. I think it's gone well with Merrill. I think that they took a long time to make that move. They really let him grow into that spot that he had at the bottom of the lineup. And I think that when they finally did, it was a thoughtful move. Also, you know, credit to Jake Croninworth and credit to the other guys who are moving as well in place of that, because now you have a bottom of the lineup that can be really dangerous too. I mean, there really aren't very many holes in this lineup at all. Tony, what did you think about the lineup change and is there anything else you do? No, I wouldn't do anything different. I think the lineup, I think, I don't think it's necessarily set in stone. Like, they get into a postseason matchup and, you know, they don't like the way they could, they'll change it up if they have to, but this is a good lineup. And, you know, whether, and that's whether Merrill was hit in fifth or six. I will find out over time if this is producing more runs. Obviously, the numbers will eventually tell us that, but Jackson is so talented. You can put him really anywhere in the lineup and you're going to get the same result. What's your happy with the lineup as it stands? Yeah, I mean, I was fine with it again, because I was fine with it before, because I think it was working. And I also, I would just think about what Tony Jr. said maybe a month ago, six weeks ago. He is Jackson Merrill right now because of where he's hitting the seven hole is vastly different than the five is vastly different than the three. And, like Annie said, very thoughtful move, not a knee jerk move that, you know, a lot of managers or young managers or adult league managers would make, right? He's not swinging. I got to move him. No, man, I think it was a thoughtful move. And I think Jackson, again, as a rookie, has proven he can adjust to almost anything you throw at him. And he's learning from some really good adjusters on that team right now. And I think those guys have helped ease his transition a little bit too. I think if you had a super computer putting together a Padres lineup, it would probably tell you, you need someone who walks a little more at the top of the order on the base percentage, you might move jerks and up. Ultimately, though, and this is not intended as a knock toward Xander Bogart, Jake Cronoworth, Kyle Gashyoka, or Hosun Kim, or whoever is going to be at the bottom four. But there's five really good offensive players in the lineup. And right now, they're batting one through five. Whatever the order is, you're getting those guys up the most. And then the other guys who sometimes contribute can contribute at the bottom of the order. They're at the bottom of the order for a reason. That seems correct. Have contributed. All of them have contributed. Can I take us some dynamite and blow up your super computer? Yeah, absolutely. I guess we'll make sure I can do that. Well, and I don't think you should put the... He just never too accurately. No, but I don't think you should put the lineup together with the super computer. I think it works well the way they have set up right now. Even if Louisa rise is never going to walk, and he's never going to walk, and that's okay with me. Who cares, and he doesn't walk. Give me those knocks. No, I don't think anyone cares. The pressure-filled plate appearance, no matter what. Yeah, you are getting on probably average six, seven pitches off of that starter just to start the game. Like, no quick out, and that's almost every time unless he does happen to swing first. Which Jerkson can do as well, would be fine. And he was the lead-off hitter yesterday in the game. And it worked out just fine. And we've seen now how this becomes a perpetual motion machine, because when you put Solano in the lineup every day, and all of a sudden, now you've got two plus hitters in the seven, eight, nine. I still think Acrona worth is a plus hitter. I know he's slumping right now. Then those guys are getting on bay-- again, I'm talking about connectedness. Those guys are getting on base for Louisa rise. Yeah. Louisa rise is coming up with two outs and runners in the scoring position, and we've already seen. He's one of the ten hitters in baseball that managers are scared to face in that situation. He's got to be in the top ten. Great point. So I love where he is. In fact, Tony convinced me beyond and above over the course of the summer. It's not just the numbers. It's the way he attacks pitchers, and then it becomes him just coming up over and over and over again. It's like I said, it's a tone setter too, because it's not just him doing that. And it goes down to Fernando, and it goes down to Profar. And by the time you've gone one time through this lineup, on most days, you already are in a hole. And getting through five is going to be tough at that point. And in the playoffs, pressure buzz pipes. And if you can-- once the pressure starts to add in the playoffs, which I think is a little bit different than the regular season, you start to see teams crack. But where the Padres are really set up for their biggest innings is when the guys at the bottom of the order get on. 100%. And we've seen it, and that's when they get the four or five run innings, which is why when they do, like they did yesterday. And we've talked about this probably three times this year. I don't want to see Jerkson Profar bunting them over. I want to see him. I don't either. And I will say, Tony, I have the wisdom to know that I should listen to Mike Shelton, who knows way more about this to Jerkson Profar and to Tony Gwen Jr. And no matter what you all say, I want Jerkson Profar swinging with his 23 home runs and his slugging percentage. When there's nobody on and there's two guys on base, don't put them over Jerkson. Just swing away, man, especially in the third inning. I know. I feel similar. Tony, I feel the same. I read both of you twice. I read both of you twice. I read both of you twice. Mike, I liked mine yesterday. You know, I wanted to, like, come on. I thought it's, her members was going off on my hands. Jerkson, you're too good. Stop running. Where was that same energy there when he was hitting 189? It was. I mean, not much, but it was actually pretty much wise. It definitely was. I don't wave her. You tweeted around that time. I don't waver. I don't. He's got four hits in the home run, like, three days. Tony, A is called winning baseball. Of course. It's winning. Okay. So, again, I say it as a world-class bunter that had no confidence at the plate. I've said this before. I liked, oh, first and second. Nobody out. Thank God. I'm not going to K. I'm not going to hit a double. I'm going to get one down. You know why? Because I like the pat on the butt. You know what? I was a good hitter. But if my three-hole guy consistently, or one, whatever in yesterday's case, goes up there, lays one down. Okay. So, okay. So, let's break this up. First, it isn't consistently. George Jackson has over 80 RBI's on the season. Which is all the more reasons. It's not. So, it's not consistent. I think a little bit of this is kind of personal for you because, you know. Yes. My history. I want him to believe in himself. Believe it or not. Believe it or not, those pat on the bench rewarded. I mean, you put your team in a position to win. And it's not to mention who he has coming up behind him. I mean, he's got the, probably the hottest Padre coming up behind him. And I'm willing to die with that. You know, I think that's an argument against Bunting. Tati can bring him in from anywhere. From first second. He doesn't need them to be moved. If he gets on, he's just trying to hit a ground ball or a fly ball. I don't want him hitting a double. If he gets on, he gets on with a single. Start the inning. Then a rise gets on with a single. And you got first and second. I don't want Fernando Button. I don't. I don't want him Bunting. Fernando may not be Bunting. I don't want him. Fernando would not be Bunting. I don't want him to. So then... But you know what? What's the... Is it... Is it... That's not... Jerkson made that call. Of course. 100%. Of course. He said that one time after he bunted, he was like... This is how I play. I don't want him over four. Let me bunting. Y'all was mad about that. I was mad about that one. I was not mad at the over four. He wasn't swinging that well. In this case, he's swinging it that well. But you know what? He's thinking to himself... You know what? I'm going to give my teammate the better shot. He's thinking... Fernando Valdez is a tough man. He's a smart figure. Top customer. It's going to be hard to score runs. Let's try to get one out. The main is there are a bunch of different reasons why a guy chooses to do that. You don't think Jerkson wants to be the dude? The guy. Of course he does. I get it. He's thinking about winning. And when you have that mindset versus versus just going back to last year and not to pick on him because he addressed it himself, which I love. When you have a mindset of protecting yourself or thinking about yourself, that festers across the way. Right? Now we're deep enough in the season. Jerkson has done this enough times where I'm sure guys would not have thought that. Yes. However, it's emblematic. It's evidence of how they conduct themselves as a unit. How they're thinking. And how they think. And so in a vacuum, I understand what you're talking about, but this is a bigger picture deal for these guys. You can always hit sand with me. I'll never take it personally because I love you. I respect your knowledge. Yeah, I know you wouldn't. But makes me... Just in case you did. It makes me... I screamed. How I screamed at the TV yesterday. Yes. He told you... I know he did. He told you. He said, "I am pro far." Yeah, I'm pro far. If I put the bunt down, it's because it's the right play. That's right. And if I'm putting it down, it's going to work because I am pro far. I'm pro far. That's him telling you let the professionals do the right thing. That's what it's... That's good. That's it. And you have one of your best hitters, one of your best players that's been on this team this year doing that, what Tony just mentioned. What does that look like to the rest of the line? How about this? Because we bring this up on the flip side all the time, right? Why can't... When we put a superstar in the box because he's unwilling to give up the me moment, right? We criticize those guys often. Here at pro far is, who may not be the superstar of the team, but is having one of the best years on the season yet as he said, "I'm pro far." Know thyself. Know thyself. I know. What's behind you, if Louisa rise or Zander's coming up and you know they got a really good chance for a single to drive in to, I think it's the right play. With Tetis or Mamie coming up and so much power there, I feel like I think the right play is to just have three teams to drive in all of us. So you differentiate between a rise and who was other than what you said? And Zander. Yeah, versus four singles than power versus the power guys that are coming up. Let me throw one other thing into the soup here, all right? Because we talked about this yesterday, guess which team leads baseball in ground ball double plays. We do. The Padres lead all of Major League Baseball in ground ball double plays. Jerkson Profar has plenty of double plays. He eliminated the opportunity of a double play right there, which is the number one thing that kills San Diego Padres offensive rallies in 2024. Every time. All right, well, I mean by that logic then, when we get to the playoffs and you're facing the frame of our Valdezes of the world, are we playing for one run every single time in the third inning? Fourth inning? In order to we've got really good pitching at a really good bullpen. You're going to have to throw some crooked innings up there and boy, what a what a good lineup to do it. We've certainly done it a ton. We also have one of the best offenses in baseball as well, despite our leading the league in ground ball. That is historically inaccurate. You don't play defense big big game or big high run scoring games come playoff time. But you take your you want your best you want your best hitters. And I think Jerkson has been one of our best hitters. You want them trying to drive in runs not giving the best vision. I love that you said in the third or fourth inning, which we did, which was is not when we were talking about the previous, but that happened a little bit later on in the ball game. Right. So when you're talking early first half of the game, yes, of course guys are Jerkson profile. I, my guess is third or fourth inning, Jerkson profile is not laying down that same, but we get down into the playoffs and the playoffs, right? We get into deeper in the game. He's he's. That's true. I agree with it too. Yeah. 100%. All right. So 97 three very friendly Padres round table presented by round table by the way, we covered that whole subject last year. Yeah, we don't know. Let's talk about the let's talk about that team to the north Padres currently three and a half games behind the Dodgers got three still against LA Dodgers pitching is in shambles riddled with injuries, even Dodgers fans are starting to kind of give up some hope. However, the remaining schedule definitely favors the Dodgers outside of those three games. How realistic do you think Annie is a path to the division title with nine games left in the season? It's not out of the question for me. They're not mathematically out of it. I've seen to me a week, things, a lot of things could change in a week. And while the Dodgers do have the Rockies and the Marlins, I mean, look, the Diamond Backs lost two games to the Rockies. The Dodgers did lose to the Marlins, you know, earlier in the series, you just never know what's going to happen. And the Padres are just so locked in right now that if you do get a little of that weirdness happening, they've got a chance to just zoom right past. Is it a long shot a little bit? Yeah. I mean, like the numbers, the games are ticking down. It's a bit of a long shot, but I don't think it's impossible for them at all, Craig. I think there is a path, but I think it requires the Padres either winning out or maybe only losing once and not to the Dodgers. And then I'm not saying they can't do that, but you cannot expect any help the rest of the way outside of yourself. So we had a whole segment on this yesterday on Annie and Elston and the number is 5%. It was yesterday and then the Dodgers won a game. So it's less than that now today because another day is off the calendar. So there's somewhere around a 4% chance, you know, so if you run 100 scenarios of the last 10 games four times, the Dodgers either lose enough or we just sweep out. And that's how the Padres win the division. But there's two paths to the Padres win the division. One is the Padres sweep out. And the other one is that the Dodgers just tank out and they lose a ton of games. And believe me, there's some LA fans who believe that's going to happen. I'll give their club enough respect to say, by the way, the last four games, they've scored eight, nine, eight and eight runs, so they're going to slug their way into the division championship, boring, us sweeping out. And can it happen? Sure. Do I plan on stuff like that? Of course not. It's a magic number of six. It's eight, eight, no, five to clench a plan, but I think it's eight to clench home field. And that's the number I'm thinking about the rest of the way. You know, we talked about it a little bit on our show, but if you go back in time, had the Dodgers not acquire Jack Flaherty, Tony? I mean, they would have almost nothing left. And the Tigers are probably going, well, why did we trade Jack Flaherty? They're half game out of a playoff spot right now, even trading one of their two best pitchers. That turned out to be maybe saved the Dodgers regular season. I don't know if we'll save them in the playoffs, but Flaherty, without him, I don't even know what they have left. Yeah, they'd be in trouble for sure. They could be in trouble anyway, or even with Jack. And how well he's pitched. You know, and you know, this is one of the rare situations where it seems like the injuries could be too much to overcome. I mean, it's not that they haven't had injuries in that organization. They've just always been able to find a way to overcome them with some aging bats in that that you in the kind of do everything role, like a Chris Taylor, you know, those guys aren't playing well, and it really has kind of reverted plus adding how Gavin Lux has played in a second half. It's still really the big three in him, you know, after that lineup is just not as deep as it used to be. And they don't have the starting pitching or the bullpen for that matter to kind of just kind of scramble over that. Well, you can't always make baseball make sense, but I would think as a Padres fan, you'd like to see the inverse of 2020 when the Padres went into a playoff series against the Dodgers with no pitching left. No, just none. And you kind of think, okay, now the shoes on the other foot this time around, hopefully the result will be exactly the same in reverse that when those two teams, if they do end up meeting, the Dodgers just won't have the arms to match up with the Padres in a series. Well, and like we talked about today, I think, you know, when the clock strikes October and the first game of the playoffs is here, the Dodgers will probably have a buy, be able to get a little bit healthier. But for them, what killed them is they're the guys that they always are touting as the next great one, the next great one. And we all buy into it. We believe it. If you watch Bobby Miller's first start this season, you went, Oh my God, I can't believe they did it again. They did it again. They got another superstar ace who's controllable, young, they'll have them, they'll pay him. He's phenomenal. He went off the cliff. He's been terrible. Sent down yesterday. Michael Grove is hurt. Who is another stud. He acts pretty good, but again, you know, and Tony was talking about those role players, the aging guys, they still scare the crap out of me because everything turns to zero. Chris Taylor's 170, whatever average zero, just like Otani's, just like Mookie's and all these guys are like, okay, the grind is over. Get a little breather. Reset ourselves. So yeah, man, anytime you have a lineup of Mookie Bet Show, a Tony Freddie Freeman, like I'm not letting Dodger fans off the hook, if they go down, injuries happen to everybody, you still have the ridiculous, ridiculous lineup full of, as you said, they're about to still be a get a buy. Yeah. Get a buy enough to do that. That's exactly right. So they're, they're still a team that, that, you know, scares me as does every single team that makes it it off. Just one last little button on that though, as I'm thinking through it, even if the Padres don't win the division, and I do feel if the season was three weeks longer, which is something that I know we all want. At least for a celibate one. Yeah, right. So I look at at least show up for a week, but one thing that could happen is that Milwaukee could push past. I was just thinking that. Yeah. Just thinking about it. And the Dodgers could bump into the no buy scenario, which could be a buy buy scenario. That would be true. They may be toast then. You know, if I'm the, if I'm the, the Mets or the Diamondbacks, whoever ends up finishing the third wild card, I might almost rather see the Dodgers than the Brewers in that three six wild card matchup. And then whoever gets that second buy gets the winner of that series is a pretty good spot to be. Yeah. Brewers and Dodgers have a lot to play for in that, that two, three slot, even if the Padres don't catch the, the Dodgers, that's an interesting scenario here at the end of the national. Well, I think Craig nailed it as the eight is really the only number we should be thinking about right now and that's home field advantage and the first round of the wild card and Pekko Park. You know, they'll jam 55,000 in there maybe and, and let's get nuts and, and three games at home. Hopefully just two. And I think that's, that's what they need to focus on right now. Certainly. Well, actually focus on beating Garrett crochet tomorrow. And that's it. There you go. Seventh inning stretch time in our Padres 97 through the fan round table presented by round table pizza. A little break from the Padres discussion. All right, today's favorite bunt of all time, how about that today's question. We will hit the autumnal equinox this week and summer giving way to fall. So I'd like everyone's opinion on the flavor combination known as pumpkin spice and what it should and should not be used on. Tony, are you a pumpkin spice person at all? I am not a pumpkin spice guy. I know lots of pumpkin spice. You did tested. Yes. I like normal pumpkin pie. I do not like pumpkin spice flavored anything. I'm a pumpkin. But I don't like like pumpkin spice latte or pumpkin spice cereal or pumpkin spice bread or both. If you had trader Joe's, everything is pumpkin spice right now. Pumpkin spice biscuits. I don't know. Spaghetti carbon era. They have everything pumpkin spice. Taking over. Thank you much. I like pumpkin spice cheese. Yes. Don't joke. I don't really. Yeah. Pumpkin spice. No. Yes. I promise. We are a big fall family. I know you are a huge, huge fall family. The Christmas decorations are going up probably within the next couple of weeks. But we don't skip Halloween and we don't skip Thanksgiving and we are there be a there'll be a pumpkin spice candle that smells amazing, but I like pumpkin spice candles. Good. I don't want it in my. I don't want it in my food. Nothing. No, I love pumpkin pie. No, I love pumpkin pie. I like Halloween. I like Halloween. I love Halloween. That's the best. I do not like pumpkin spice anything other than pumpkin pie. Right. And I don't know why it started migrating into everything else. I don't either. And who called for this? Who asked for it? It is at this point. I mean, what's one of them before you leave the house? I don't need a pumpkin Oreo. You know? Yeah, they have those. I don't need any of them. Well, pumpkin on its own is actually pretty hideous. Oh, yeah. Yeah. So people first call it a smell. No, you don't want it in pumpkin pie. That's a squash and it doesn't taste good. All right. White Sox are coming to town given our general overall sense of worry as a fan base. I can start with Craig on this one. Twelve. What would be your advice to approach this series as a fan Craig and no, you know, obviously it's baseball things can go wrong. You know, you can't always expect to sweep yet. You kind of expect to sweep. But what happens if it doesn't happen? How do you approach this last home series as a fan against the worst team in baseball? Dread. Alcohol. Yeah. And dread anxiety. It's out of one way. Pumpkin spice. That act. I mean, yeah, I'm considering other any pumpkin spice gummies like what can we get to take care of this weekend now? I mean, look, I feel just the exact same way is when we play the crappy Rockies, which is when you when you win, it's like, okay, yeah, you're supposed to win for you. And when you lose, it's like, oh, my God, that was a game you were supposed to win. Now let me tell you, this last week has taken the pressure off this series. Oh, yeah. So unless you think we're going to win the NOS when we have to win out, and that would be a way where I'd be literally panicking, like we've got to win all three of these games. But honestly, we probably don't have to win all three of these games anymore to get what we want to get, which is the playoffs. So you know, I would actually go out, I will be out as a fan on Friday to celebrate the team. And you know, it's the last home weekend before we're paying playoff prices and hopefully we've got to just play off games. So you know, go out there and enjoy it. Yeah, you say that you don't have to necessarily win and you probably don't. At the same time, the Dodgers and the Diamondbacks, you get to play off teams the last week and they will be battling. And those are going to be tough games. The last six, these are your last three to really make a positive done really well woods the second half of the season against the lesser opponents. They had their troubles in the first half against the Rockies in the, and a little bit in the second half, the Angels. But for the most part, they, I think what are they 26 and two Craig, you have the number of the record against six in their last 30 against teams with sub 500 records. This should be a celebration. This would be a fun weekend and we're all looking at it like this can only be disastrous. For the Padres baseball fans, man, that's how we are wired, essentially. And I do think, you know, I don't think you really change your perspective on it. To expect a sweep is a fool's errand, my friend. That is a fool's errand beating beating a team of 26 prideful men that want to keep their job that get paid for a job that want to get a job next year and know that other teams are watching them potentially, man, it's just to go in there and expect it. You would be, I don't think there's any way, any of those players are like, whew, at least it's the White Sox coming in, at least, they know better, they played 150 games, they know exactly what to expect. So I think you go out, you figure out a game plan on waiting out Garrett Crochet, who's their best player or pitcher and figure out a way to not let Andrew Bette-Tendi beat you and Johan Moncotta and other than that, man, try to hit the ball hard, good hard 90s and take the extra bag and do all the things that you've done all season long and I think the chips at the end of the weekend, man, I think you went two out of three and I'm happy with that. If they went two out of three, you can't lose this series. And that's how the team needs to approach it, but, Annie, what about the fans? What's the mindset going into this series for fans? To me, the mindset is go to Petco Park or watch it home and enjoy the last regular season. Oh, yeah. Homestand-type feel that this team has given you this year. Yeah, I think, I agree, I think, take the series personally. I think that I read the story about that Jeff Passenrody wrote a very long feature about the White Sox and how their clubhouse is actually more united than people might think and how they're working hard really still. And I believe that. I don't just don't know if they have it in them at this point, but I think you take them seriously. I think you try to win the series. I think Steven Wilson should probably find AJ Preller somewhere and give him a few choice words. Look at that, I think fans should probably just enjoy it and the players should just keep continuing to play the way that they have up to this point. So Tony, we agree, we're all pushing back on anyone that says the sky is falling if they lose one of these three. Yeah, I think so. I think my advice to fans is trust your team at this point. If this ain't enough games to trust your team and trust your manager, nothing's going to save you at this point. So I agree. If you're also expecting a sweep, you're setting yourself up for failure. So when the series continue to do what they've been doing, Tony, as long as you played and being a part of some really, really good teams and when you play those down teams, what do you see in them? I mean, do you see, can you look across sometimes and go, oh, yeah, they're done. They gave up. They're done. For sure. And then you look across and you go, oh. Oh, they're trying to do something. They're trying to do something. Yeah, that energy is apparent immediately when the game starts. But I think for the project, I think that the really good thing about this ball club is once the clock, once it turns into the second half, like there has just been kind of this mindset that I don't even know that they see the jersey, you know, when they're out. Yeah. It's just about them executing, playing a game, doing what the scoreboard's toned do. And that's why they've been successful. Just one last little bit more serious now, which is that, you know, as again, these are paid professionals that also have gone through this dog day of summer of being so horribly bad. But now they see the finish line two and they see an ability to not be the worst team in history. And I do truly believe that's a motivator. I'm at that awful 2003 Tigers team. They won four of their last five to finish at 119 losses and not be the Mets. So the Mets have held that since 62. White sucks won some games this way. It did. They're going to come in trying. I really believe they're playing the hardest that they've played all year right now to try and avoid history. They lost 20 straight series and before winning the last one. So they definitely not trying to be history in honor of the white Sox coming to town for our last question. And for the four of us, it's more the worst team you've ever covered or been a fan of. But for Tony, it's what was the worst team you were ever on and why? Why was it so bad? It's probably yeah, it's either the it's either the 0 9 pods, but we finished with the best record in the second half. All right. I would say the 14 fillies I was on what made them just not good. We were older and not a lot of guys liked each other. What about the fans? How bad were the fans? You don't feel they they're always bad. They were crushing us and we deserve to be crushing. We weren't very good. We still had all of the the guys that won World Series there, but they were older. There was just not a good mix of of not a good chemistry team at all. So it just it's got out the gate. All right. And then it just gradually got worse and he doesn't even have to be baseball. You've covered football. You knew I was going covering the Chargers during the relocation years during the years where they were half in San Diego and half finding a new home somewhere else and how just torturous that was for fans and for players and the questions and you can never it was a cloud that loomed over those seasons. You can never get away from it. Now Woods, you've always kind of your Yankees fan growing up Notre Dame kind of front runner. What's the first thing you ever for a fan of? I mean, yeah, you know when you when your dad abandons you when you're a child and your mom remarries when you're 10 and you've never had a father to throw the ball with or teach you how to hit didn't really know anything about sports. You thought your grandfather was your dad. Now you can't relate. You were off to Delmar in the Rolls Royce riding on the Lakers play court seat at the Lakers playing on the Lakers play in front runners. Some of us didn't live that life. No one. Yes. A lot of us had a little bit difficult eating cans salmon, you know, for dinner at your grandparents house. Second street. He's in crackers. Well, you know, it's funny. My dad, if my dad had been a fan of the Reds, I would have been a red fan. If he was a fan of the Brewers, I would have been a Brewer fan. So whatever he liked, I liked just immediately. And I remember he got gets me really into baseball and I'd never swung a bat. I'd never thrown a ball. So I was 10. Got such a late start. So I'll do the first my first I'll just talk about my my first year of playing baseball. I was on a team called the cobras. And we had the old pirate round hats. Oh, yeah. Very first little ass and pill box round hat with a cobra on it. And I remember I remember I did not foul off a pitch. I didn't touch a ball with the bat. That's why I learned how to bond for the whole first season. And it's amazing. I ever went back. Yeah, that's it. But I loved it. And I kept practicing plan and but that was by far the worst team I've ever seen or been a part of. It's mostly my fault. Well, I brought up the 2003 Tigers that lost 119 games. They swept the 2003 Padres at Qualcomm stadium of us and that was that was our answer is the 2003. I missed one day for the birth of my son and did the other 161 of that god awful season when they were supposed to be in Peko Park already and it got delayed. So they just said, you know what? We just won't care about the team for a couple of years until we get into Peko Park. Tony, your dad had already retired and he was going at that point. We are in the absolute interregnum between what we were and what we're going to be. And it's just like, we got to put out a roster. So that's tough. Here it is. The barbershop quartet. But Betty, Betty, what was wasn't last year didn't last year almost kill us. That's true. Because the expectations were so high, almost too many good players. Yeah. Yeah. At least they got to watch good players. That's exactly right. Yeah. Watch a good place. At least Juan Soto 35 home. [LAUGHTER] Well, that's right. All right. Well, that is the end of the penultimate edition of our regular season Padres round table brought to you by round table pizza. It is pizza royalty. When we come back next week, we'll be down to the last three games of the year and looking forward to the postseason. Hopefully. Thank you to Tony Gwen Jr. Annie Halbrunn, Stephen Woods, Craig Elston, Annie and Elston are coming up. Next, don't go anywhere on San Diego's number one sports station, 97-3 the fans. How long, everybody? [MUSIC PLAYING] [MUSIC PLAYING] [MUSIC PLAYING] [MUSIC PLAYING]