[MUSIC] >> Last, back on. >> Fan Morning Chokes Force F5-9 and Fan Bananas, Brent Gunning. >> No, I just. >> But Blue Jays do take Game 1 of their four game series against the New York Yankees. And 9 to 2, happy Friday of the Canada Day long weekend Brent Gunning. >> God, it felt Friday of the long weekend driving in. I don't know about you, but at the timings, no quicker, cuz it's not like there's a ton of traffic. But it just felt very sparse. I saw a bunch, not a lot, but a few guys hauling jet skis and stuff that they're gonna be, I assume cruising around on the lake and kind of weird to haul it up and not use it. Yeah, I got wistful, but it certainly felt Friday of a long weekendy. I had a nice little pinkish sky driving in, it was beautiful. >> The city did look beautiful, I did make note of that driving in today. You could see that the silhouette of the city skyline in front of an orange and pink sky behind it. >> I'm beautiful. >> I'm shocked you even noticed, because there have been, I've driven you in a couple of times. You're a social butterfly, especially compared to myself, where you're like, hey, I have things to do after the show. Can you drive me in? And I'll make a point to you, I'm like, oh, I've noticed this, notice that. And you're like, nope, never do, I just, eyes on the prize get to work. It's too early to notice things, so I'm shocked that you took that in. >> I missed the jet ski guy, I didn't see the jet ski guy. >> Tough break for you, I shouted him out, maybe he's going to give me the invite and not you. >> Yeah, the phone lines are open for jet ski guy. >> 59590, hit some of the test on the fight beat. >> Here's the thing about jet skis, okay, I think I'm naturally predisposed to be like jet ski. And I think I was, up until I first sat on a jet ski, and I was like, that's all I want to do, everything I do in life. >> Is to gather enough funds to one day buy a jet ski, and then be on that jet ski as much as possible. >> Yeah, just like, I feel like it'd be the classic. I do wonder how it works, like the old line about the boat, like the best day is the day you buy the boat. The second best day is the day you get rid of it. I wonder if that applies, no, I don't think so, because it's like, it's just sitting there, it's not taking up so much space. >> And it's expensive, but it's not like boat expensive. >> I would imagine, I don't know, I can't say I've ever. >> Wanna go have these on a jet ski? >> I'm thinking about it. I actually had the same conversation with somebody recently, I was like, how much are they? And like, we live in Burlington, you can, there is a public launch. >> This is true, in the Lake Ontario. >> Yes. >> Honestly, pretty good commuting strategy to come to work on a jet ski. >> I mean, especially like Monday, we're gonna be at the Legion right on the lake. We gotta get this done this weekend. Now, here's the question, because obviously like, if we go have these, we're gonna commute in together. >> God, yeah, that's a rough look, who's driving? I've driven all the time, I have to keep driving, I think. >> They don't have like side cards for jet skis, I don't think that is. >> Even honestly, how much better would it even be if there was just a handle to hold on to it? >> Yeah, you didn't have to- >> Something separating the two. >> Just grabbing on to me. >> Yeah. >> You're all the way out, let's just get our own jet skis. >> You've never wanted to go have these lessons on something with something else. >> Imagine how good a friend you'd have to be to want that. >> How about like, you take the jet ski for half the week, I get it for half the week. >> Okay, but it's like, I'm just saying like, Monday is the only day I want it though. So like, you can honestly have it Tuesday through Friday. How's that sound? >> Yeah. >> Bad trade for you. >> You know who could buy a million jet skis? >> George Springer. >> He's got $48 million coming his way after this season. >> Hit us up. >> Yeah. >> Buy me one. >> What a great like, quarterbacks do this for their like offensive line, golf carts or golf clubs. What somebody should do that, just buy the team jet skis, I don't know. >> Yeah, I bet you George Springer has a jet ski. He might not even know that he has one. >> At one estate or another somewhere. >> Hey, George, you have a jet ski? He's like, yes, the talk to his guys like, hey, do we have a jet ski? >> Hey, cousin, cousin, do I have one? He's like, no, don't tell anybody. It's really my jet ski, don't worry. >> Yeah, no, you bought it. >> Yeah. >> And you could ride it, I suppose. >> It is yours. >> Yeah. >> It's at my house. >> It's absolutely. Anyways, George Springer's in a pretty good healthy financial state. As we well know, his offensive profile this season, not so healthy. >> No. >> Although, let me give you a piece of shocking information, okay? >> Please do. >> All right, not that the Blue Jays took the Yankees to the woodshed, 9-2, that is in its own way, shocking. >> I tend to say genuinely. >> Second consecutive full game in which the Blue Jays have scored nine runs, but the Yankees are going through it right now. And Carlos Wordone has had, after a strong start, a rough little patch after that. >> Bread gutting. >> Ben Edison. >> Okay, so going into yesterday's game, George Springer did last among qualified hitters in OBS. Two Homer Day, six RBIs in a career high in Homer's and RBIs through two innings yesterday. >> Okay. >> Okay, his OBS currently is sitting at 619. Do you know what that means? >> No. >> He's one point higher than Boba Shedd now. George Springer has surpassed Boba Shedd in OBS with one game. >> [APPLAUSE] >> I mean, that's the reality of the situation, and it's one in dieting of Boba Shedd's season. >> Well, he's gonna say much more. >> That horrible, horrible start for Boba Shedd. Boy, go through the game logs of that 2022 season, which we all use as proof of concept, that things can be salvaged for Boba Shedd. And even at this point in the season, when he was, he had not yet even been demoted to seventh in the order at this point in the season. Charlie Montoya was on his last days of being manager of this Blue Jays team, but he had an OBS like over 700. It was bad. It was an abject disaster. It's been an abject disaster for Boba Shedd, so that's part of it. But the other thing is like, despite being halfway through the season, you have like a week like George Springer could have a day like he had, and with the number so suppressed, you can change the outlook pretty significantly in a couple of days. >> Yeah, that is very shocking because it's just like we're used to this in other sports, right? Like, you know, trying to think like a Bobby McMahon has his hat trick and all of a sudden, he's sixth on the Leafs in goal scoring or something like that. That's par for the course, or a bench player doesn't get a ton of time, like has a big scoring night early-ish in the season and it can affect it. This is not supposed to happen in baseball. It's the longest of sample size sports. Even when it's early in the season, we just have more of a sample size because they play every day. Like it is just something that you do not see in this sport. So it is jarring, it is kind of proof. I look at it more as proof of just how God awful things have been than, you know, a sign that something's coming. But it's just, yeah, it's honestly that it's remarkable. It's almost becoming like Tigerwood stats and they're like every day. Somehow he's been around for my life for 30 years or whatever it is. And I'm still seeing new stats about Tigerwood's greatness. That's how I feel about the Blue Jays in aptitude is like, even on a night where they perform, we get a number like that and it just highlights how bad things have been up to this point. Yeah, it's been, but it's very good last night. Really bad. It, it was really good. And let me just be clear with anything that I say. Also, before I get to that, yes, the Blue Jays have many secret things apparently that happens. They have secret metrics that tell you that George Springer and Justin Turner are secretly good. Like in an alternate reality that the Blue Jays exist in. Also, there's these secret conversations and secret things that George Springer's doing that you guys don't get to see. You can tell us, you could tell. So don't even mention it though. Hey, you're not going to tell us what it is. Don't mention it. Yep. But now apparently some secret conversations or secret workouts or secret something that leads John Schneider to believe that the turnaround is about to take place. It's funny. Something I was thinking about watching just like Springer's reaction after the first homer last night was the conversation. Well, we didn't really have it. We allowed Josh Donaldson and Jose Baptiste to talk to one another and we were there. But how they talked about those 15 and 16 teams that yeah, there's like there are hitting coaches. They did in fact employ at least one. But all the conversations the guys had were just with each other and about the, what are you seeing? What are you doing? Like they talked about in the hot tub and then they go to the bed and Springer, not that he's been quiet this year, but it's pretty hard when you're performing the way he has offensively to come back and say like, Oh, here's what I'm seeing or I'm trying to, you know, whatever, whatever language it is they use. It's not all that different from golf of like having a thought that is different than what you actually execute. And it was just so jarring to me. And I can only imagine how freeing it is for Springer. He's supposed to be Mr. Clubhouse leader. He's supposed to be Mr. World Series experience and he is, but it's pretty hard to be going around like, Hey guys, listen to me. I have all the life lessons when you perform in the way you have. And it just felt like last night he hits that homer and I'm not saying this is like an overnight sea change thing, but it was like he snapped right back into it. He's on the bench and you see him. He's right on the top step. He's talking with, I think it was Turner, maybe it was somebody else and they're just having this very animated hitting discussion and maybe they just show it on the broadcast because he just went deep and he's doing this all the time. But honestly, I thought about that watching last night's game that a guy like that him performing allows him to do more of those kind of other things you're supposed to get out of him. And I don't want to say that he's all of a sudden performing, but even in a moment like that, how can you not feel that way? Yeah, I would say if George Springer comes to you and gives you hitting advice before yesterday or like a couple of weeks ago, you're like, Okay, yeah, your World Series MVP. But like, what do you know this season? One, have you tried it? Like, have you thought about that? Yeah, I get it. And you know what, George Springer is not going to all of a sudden be the MVP candidate. Let's not go nuts here. That's not what I'm saying. But is it so impossible to imagine him doing what he did last year, which feels like, boy, that would be great. What he was last year was a league average hitter. He's not that yet. Nope. But like, can he be a guy that has an OPS plus of 100 be just a league average? He hit 20 plus home runs a season ago, okay, which is not not outstanding. And it's been in decline. He had 21 homers. That's it. It's down from his 25 that he hit in 2022 in an OPS eight, 14, 732. This is bad. It's going downward. And that's an OPS plus of 102. So 2% above league average. So essentially league average. But can he be a league average hitter playing above average defense in a corner out field spot, which he has done according to every metric, including the eyeball test in right field. Yep. This guy's going to get every opportunity to play as we've well seen. Yes. He got every opportunity to be the lead off man for like two months until it was like enough already. Even after every performing Buffalo buys and had been called up to the major league level, he still gets to play every day because of the aforementioned 48 million dollars. It's still coming his way after this season. Jetsky money. I mean, we're talking in like varying degrees of disaster here, but like, could it be possible for George Springer just to be what he was last year, which is bad and not worth 24 million clearly, but it's not it. That guy hitting eighth or seventh playing good defense is not something that is going to sink you. Is it so unreasonable to think that George Springer could be a league average hitter? Not in the like not over the course of the season of what you're going to get from him. It's not unreasonable to expect that. But I think it's going to look like this. You're going to have large swaths of desert in the season where you're searching. You're like, can I could please? I'm dying of thirst. Can I just get a drip or a drab? I think that's something that's that's more players than people like to know. No, no, it's you're right. But it's just when you are a player like that, that's still because I mean, we literally saw proof of concept this last night, but there is still it lingering in there. I think he can summon it once in a while or for a week at a time or hitting is contagious. And then I think you're going to go back to seeing the George Springer that you've seen. So I think so long as you have enough other pieces that you can kind of count on to go on runs and they kind of cover each other off. Yes, you totally can. But I also don't think we can. It's not going to be like whatever the slash line or the production you expect out of him. It's not going to be that just divided by the remaining, you know, hundred games or whatever. You're not going to see that. It's going to be and you're right. That is baseball players. It's just when we when it's a if it was George Springer and he made $4 million and it wasn't George Springer was George Smith. We'd go, that's fine. Good. Good job. But it's not. It's George Springer. So it's just going to become so much more of a focal point. But that's already done. You can't you can't take the money back. Can't. Did they? Did they try? I'm sure they would. They'd be all over it. Fast to bars. Yeah. Maybe we can rebuild the science center with all the the money that we're going to earn George Springer taxes. I'm angry about that. Yeah. I know. I know. Yeah. That's just I know. I know. I know. No, we're going to like we'll do our politics later when we talk about Joe Biden say it again. And that's all we're going to talk about. Trust me. All right. But yeah, like that's already done. The contract is signed. The law says the Blue Jays do have to pay him that money unless they can figure out a way to get out of it. I don't think that's possible. So that's so you take that out of it. You have to. You have no choice like that. That goes without saying that's bad. It's a bad deal. He's going to be not earning his 24 million dollars plus in the next two years. But can he still be especially on this team? Yep. Like a contributor. Yeah, sure. Who else can hit two home runs in a baseball game? Like frankly, honestly, no one got a boy speaking about the the dichotomy between him and Bovishette or Bovishette in his previous seasons. I mean, you know what's sinking Bovishette season? It's like obvious, I guess. But we've now played 80 games. We're basically at the halfway point of the season. Bovishette has four home runs. It's four home runs. Four home runs. There's been no power on the team. Four home runs. There's just been no power on the team to speak of, right? And he's not a guy who's supposed to be your, you know, like the leading your team in home runs or anything on those lines. But he's supposed to have some pop. He's supposed to be have the ability to hit him all over the place. Full season he's played, including last season, where he only played 135 games. He's hit 20 home runs in the season. He's on pace for eight. Yeah. No, it's not outrageous. And this goes back to the way we've seen these seasons play out without having the game or the kind of month by month splits. I guarantee he had a month in there where he hit four or five to kind of get himself back to that spot. I'm not saying that's going to happen. You see the way it's gone. I mean, even last night, he gets on base to start it. And it's like kind of weakish ground. Like, I don't know, it was a weird play that the shortstop got, like, no problem, grading it a hit or whatever, but just a weird play. Like it's just not going the way it's gone for him in the past. And when it when it's the lack of power, again, it's like, it's just something that it seems to have like cursed this, this franchise. It's like they never won with the power laden team of 15 and 16. And they can never have a powerful baseball team again. It's almost what it feels like. Yeah. So Yankees are no longer in first in the American League. He's they've lost four straight. They have two wins in the other last 10. They're going through it right now. It's just the Orioles just say that Cajillion Home runs every game. Yeah, I don't think I've turned on highlights to watch a non like Blue Jays highlight pack. And even when the Orioles aren't playing Gunnar Henderson is just like running in like a wrestler to go yard. Yeah, he's one of the leading American League MVP candidates right now. Understandably so Yankees are still 21 games over 500. Okay, they're fine. They're just fine. I think they'll be okay. Although I have seen like little like not true panic from like real people. No, I know Yankee fans. It's like this movie before one guy's going to get hurt. You know who it's the biggest guy and then they're going to paper over all these like there. The fan base is again, grading on a curve. I know. But ornery for a team that says much over 500 is there. Well, the I mean, they they do have proof of concept there for sure. Only years ago in 2022, having a 99 win season that was like on pace for 130. And then they couldn't win a game in the middle of the season, they bowed out meekly to the Astros in our games. Right. That happened. So that's that would be a disaster, especially if they're not going to end up resounding one soda. Anyways, enough about the Yankees. They're fine. Like it's that is first world problems for the Blue Jays. Kill for those problems. Blue Jays, by the way, with that victory, now pull their playoff odds to almost 6%, 5.9%. But here's the reality of baseball right now. We'll have a larger conversation about whether this is good for the sport as a whole. I think people might know where my head is leaning here. They're not out of it. Like it's just like they're bad. Blue Jays are bad. Yep. The 2023 Blue Jays were bad. They made the playoffs with 89 wins. The 2024 Blue Jays are worse. Okay. Yeah. There's six and a half games out of the third wildcard in the American League. The teams they have to pass are the Rays who actually, I think, are worse. Yes. Like, I think the Rays are worse. They have a better record. They don't seem under 500. They don't have their pixie dust this year. I don't know. I don't know if they're just like reordering it or they had to go to the factory to make more of it. I don't know, but they don't seem to have it. No, the the the Rays are worse than the Blue Jays or at least on par with the Blue Jays as far as crappiness. The Astros who have resurrected their season in a week that won seven straight. They were in the exact same position. The Blue Jays are right now a week ago. And then they totally changed their season now. Were there indications that that was coming? Yeah, like they're run differential. I think even when they were seven games under 500 was positive. So it's it's not an apples to apples comparison. And then you got the Red Sox who are like a lot better than expected. And certainly when you see those two play each other, you're like, Oh, I'd rather be in the Red Sox position than the Blue Jays. But nice teams are world beaters and the Kansas City Royals, the team in the third wildcard spot in the American League. Three out he is that the Blue Jays with a strong week upcoming. They have the Astros coming to Rogers Center immediately following the Yankees. That the conversation does change quite a bit. It changed quite a bit in the matter of a week when they lost seven consecutive. You go on an Astros like streak again, there are not the same indicators that there were that that was coming for the Astros is none. Yeah, other than yeah, I guess George Springer, if he's going to be a league average hitter would have to have a week where he or a strong second half where he would elevate those numbers to being league average. Boba shed wants to not have four home runs in a season and wants to get back to having 20. Well, maybe five of those come in the span of a week. It's so stupid and baseball is in such a state. Yes, that the Blue Jays factually as bad as they've been and as bad as they look, are right back in it, are ain't it now with a series victory over one of the coldest teams in baseball in the New York Yankees. Yeah, if they certainly have a chance is we're going to do this dance 100. I know it doesn't the math doesn't work out because they're not going to play 100 games between now and the deadline. They're not I don't even think no, they're not going to play 100 more games this this season. So but I think you look at it and this is again, I go back to the George Springer. You said it's like you're calling George Springer a streaky baseball player. Why don't you just call them a baseball player? That's how they all are for teams that look like this. I yes, I mean, the run is always there. And if the schedule presents itself, they certainly have in the past shown an ability to take advantage of it. But it ain't the White Sox crawling through that, that door a bunch more times that was the team who were able to take advantage of. So I think the Blue Jays are going to be one of these half involved teams so long as they keep all their pieces. And then we'll see what happens at the deadline. Obviously, you know, they're a they're a different team, I think, one way or or another at the deadline. I highly doubt highly doubt we're looking post deadline and Garcia's here and nobody was added and anything along those lines or it's just a like complete stamp hat even with the free agent guys. Now here's the curious question. And it's different, you know, there's degrees of sports fans, right? Like there's people that pay attention every single day and run the weeds and have been lifelong Blue Jays fan sports fans who think and want one thing. And there's other people who's like, hey, I'm going to go watch a couple of games. What do you want as a Blue Jays fan? Like, do you want this fool's gold run to happen where you're more legitimately in it? And I don't got it. God forbid, I really just do not think there is barring some the franchise record for winning streaks is 11. Like barring something like that. There's just nothing I don't think goodness gracious that would turn the Blue Jays into buyers, but like might limit the selling. That's the problem. What do you want? Because and especially if you're going to the game, like you want them to win, I guess, but like in an overall sense, when you turn on a Blue Jays game, Blue Jays fan, are you like, oh man, a couple more wins. We can get back into this thing, that thing being chip in a chair, third wild card spot, maybe 500. And I guess in a world of limitless possibilities, some incredible postseason run in a world series. Or would you rather just make it patently and blatantly obvious that this Blue Jays team needs, at the very least, a moderate facelift going into next season. I think that's the tough part for Blue Jays fans, because it's like, after the long playoff run between 1993 and 2015, and that paint part of it too, right? Like sure. If they're, if we hadn't seen what the postseason looked like, meaningful September baseball conversations, we would, right? Don't roll your eyes. We would. And and as lackluster as the postseason appearances have been for even this generation of Blue Jays, they have made the playoffs. Yeah. Do you want to do that again? Okay. I think the because of the nature of baseball fandom specifically, I think you poll a hundred different people. However, many different options there are, you're getting a pretty large chunk of people for all the different options on that poll. If you're asking me what I would like, is I would like this team to lose to a degree that there are no questions about what they're selling off. And then go win as many ballgames as you want. I realized that is talking out of both sides of my mouth, but that's what I want. I want the team to recoup assets. If Danny Jansen is, you know, like again, like I saw this host out of Baltimore clamoring for him, it's like the Orioles want to go get stupid for Danny Jansen's like a DH Adley Rotchman as many times as they want. Have at it. Jimmy Garcia have had a Jordan Romano, even one more year of control. Honestly, have at it. Any of these guys, Trevor Richards, Chris Bassie, you say Kakuchi, I'm fine with all of that. And then you know what I want to do? I want to watch a baseball team. And if they can have some dumb games where it makes no sense but they beat the Yankees 9-2, I'd love as many of those as you'll give me, even if it ruins your draft lottery chances or whatever, which I don't care about in baseball. It's like, yeah, I can, I'm not dumb. I can watch Paul Skeens and say, give me one of those. But I mean, also, I don't think those are just walking through the door left, right and center. No, the, you hit on what would be the ideal little fine margin to hit here. Yeah, I'm greedy. I know. But I, and I think it would apply if you didn't have a general manager that was on the verge of being fired 100%. Like the perfect scenario is, hey, when get back to 500, get more legitimately in the race for this stupid third wild card, but also sell. Yep. Everything is not nailed down. Yep. Right. Like everything that's not Vlad and Bo. And I suppose if you can get the Godfather offer, those guys are still on the table. 100%. But like the pending free agents, it doesn't matter if you're in the third wild card by like two games. No, sell, sell, sell. Yep. And then you can continue to root for wins. And that's cool. Hey, what an awesome surprise it would be to make the playoffs and then have, you know, some future assets, young players contributing to that. If you do that, it's, you know, I understand it's like mostly pitchers are talking about the sell off here, but it's like, that's what the young guy is getting more at bats that. So there's a world where, and I don't do not misconstrue this from me saying it's likely, but there's a world where you do that. And then you just do hand the team over to as many of the other pieces, see what you have. And you find something there. You find another Davis Schneider, something along those lines. So that is the thing I think is the kind of perfect needle, the thread. It just feels impossible with the state of the general manager right now. And I don't even say that about Atkins. It's just like forget his, I mean, we wouldn't be having this conversation if his tenure had gone a different way, but forget the Atkins of it all. It is just untenable with a GM that at best is on unsturdy ground. That feels like the safest thing we could say. Yeah. And it's not just Blue Jays fans and pundits in this city that are having those conversations, according to Ben Nicholson Smith, those are executives outside of Toronto. Speaking of the general manager, he spoke again yesterday, second time in four days, spoke twice yesterday, it was on Blair and Barker too. Yeah, he was all over the place. He's publicly facing and being accountable for what's happened to this Blue Jays team. So you got to give him that. Here's a sampling of what Ross Atkins had to say yesterday. Yeah, I think a couple of things like, you know, the biggest thing is the success they've had in the past. Many of them together, staff, players from all away from the minor leagues and over the last four years. The other reason is the belief that things can get turned around. We do have good pitching and defense and we've shown signs of our offense turning around. There's been really some positive highlights individually, but not good enough from a team standpoint. And then, you know, the belief and historically, these guys have been very good individually and a lot of them together. So having said that, we recognize the frustration and recognize we share that frustration and need to get that turned around one pitch at a time, one day at a time, but now. Yeah, so he gets it in a separate clip. He did like draw from the Kyle Dubas playbook of like, it's on me and responsibility lies with me. He also did talk about the three different avenues they could go down when it comes to the trade deadline, whether that's acquiring assets, selling off assets, or I guess, standing pad. So at least open now and you have to be an idiot, not to, but it's quite a difference to me in like that being theoretical as opposed to it being espoused explicitly, that the general manager is saying, like, I get it, like we could be sellers and we understand that that's a possibility and something that we're wrapping our heads around. They continue to again say this thing about the offense that they're like perplexed, that their minds are blown, that the offense that wasn't good enough last year that got worse, like on paper is somehow this bad, like I get it. There's some outlier performances here in George Springer, even with him being an aged player, yeah, you couldn't have expected him, I suppose. This was like in the lower end of expectations to do what he's done to this point in the season. Boba sheds off to a horrible start. Vlad's been a lot, like you couldn't have expected him to do anymore. No, Justin Turner's 39 years old and had a horrible second half of last season, played in a pitcher's ballpark, or a hitter's ballpark, yada, yada, yada. Yeah, I think Ross Atkins is done at least throwing up on himself in these situations. Like, I don't know what else you need to hear from him. Yeah, no, I'm good. Quite frankly, here's what I need to hear him stepping to the mic and waxing poetic about the, for once I won't be upset about this, the years of control he acquires for Jimi Garcia or Danny Jansen, where you say kakuchi or Trevor Richards. That's what I need to hear. He has done a better job. I think part of it is that when you, and you know, this is like, we all had, I won't speak for everyone, I certainly had like a problem with this when I was younger, but as you grow up, you mature. It's like, once you know, you're just here to eat the poop sandwich, you get pretty good at it. You're like, okay, I'm not going to try to weasel my way out of this one. I'm not going to try to explain away the situation. I'm just going to, just going to like, put on a bib. Maybe I'll do it with a knife and fork. Maybe I'll do it with a hands, but I'm just going to eat this poop sandwich. And when you do that, you're not fighting it. You're not squirming away from it. People say, all right, there is a level of at least understanding and appreciation for that. I also would just like to say to the Blue Jays, I'd like to thank them for this tack they've taken with the offense of these like metrics that we're not allowed to see or like the George Springer of it all. I'm just going to start doing this in my life. Oh, yeah. People are going to ask me things that I've done my entire life to be like, Brent, once again, the kitchen in your home is messy. I'll be like, oh, you don't understand the metrics I have. I know when I look inside. When you watch the dirty kitchen for multiple days, when it does get clean, yeah, like that impacts your, your satisfaction level and with the eventual cleaning. And then well, and then the other thing too, is then I get to point and be like, see, I told you the metrics were in there. Yeah, the kitchen was gonna eventually get cleaned up. The laundry was going to get done. I do like to, I'm just, this is the tack time forever taking now when people are just calling me out for behaviors or whatever. I'm just going to be like, nope. I don't know what you're talking about. I actually have underlying metrics inside my brain that you're not allowed to ask me about and you're not allowed to know, but you just have to take it at my word that it's actually going to happen. And then like, you know, like all problems like occasionally I'll get around to fixing it. And then I get to say, see, my internal metrics were right. So thank, if nothing else, thank you to the 2024 Blue Jays for that smart move. Thank you. TBD on that. I don't know. We'll, we'll hold off on how smart it is for me or the Blue Jays. We'll see. Ross Atkins said downloading a lot. They're downloading a lot of the, he still is who he is. Yeah, they're downloading a lot of the offers. Apparently, they're not rolling in for the players on short term deals, is what he said, which I mean, I guess implies that they're rolling in for the guys that are on longer term deals. I suppose that means the guys that have at least one more year of team control, which would be Bo and Vlad. I wonder if that's like a gosman as well. I could see like, I know it hasn't been the year he's wanted, but you can see a good team saying, yeah, when you don't ask him to be front of the line, ace pitcher, he's your fourth starter, something like that, I could see a world where that's gosman as well. Never heard anybody use the term downloading in that context, though, like we're downloading the trade offers did downloading in. Yeah, as if we are a computer. As if we are. Yeah, I mean, if if he did that intentionally, it's the most hilarious thing of all time. I'm not going to give him credit for that. But like, if he was just playing into it and he's like, Oh, you guys all think that I'm just going to start using more computer jargon, just like get chat GPT, the right as responses for him. If he had the sense of humor to be doing that intentionally, it's one of the best jokes ever, but I don't think he is. I guess that's the true wrong side. He is. Yeah. Well, we got there. That's what we got. All right. There was also another interesting nugget from one of those players who do not have short term deals. Yeah, it was asked about his future in the upcoming month that we'll get to after seven o'clock. The content king every year he gives us something feels like it. I mean, it was people saw it, but it like still feels like it went under the radar and what it could potentially mean for the next month. Anyways, when we come back, NHL awards night, we got the voting breakdown. We knew the awesome math. He's not a finalist for the heart trophy. Didn't know that he would get fewer first place votes than the bread man. Frank Ceravoli was right. Who knew? And NBA draft wrapping up with the second round Raptors making their pick at 31 also swinging a deal with the Kings, but obviously take away. Bronnie James, going to the Lakers at 55 has it as the era of nepotism finally gotten to pro sports. Finally? Well, maybe I tip my hand. And you know what? And maybe, you know, it's a good transition to be talking about the Blue Jays. And while no more cabin Bezio, but a couple of sons of former major leaguers into this conversation about nepotism and the Lakers and LeBron James. All right, that and more next as the fan morning show continues, Ben Ann is Brent Gunning sports net 590 the fan. Dive deep into Toronto sports and the NFL. The JD Bunk is podcast. Subscribe and download the show on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. Good morning Joe sports and 590 the fan man is Brent Gunning and deserving winner. Honestly, Nathan McKinnon of all the the the potential winners of all the heart trophy narratives. And I did my screed about Austin Matthews being a 200 foot player and getting Selky consideration also scoring 69 goals and the fact that he wasn't even a finalist being insane. That's true. Yep. Got no problem with Nathan McKinnon winning his first heart trophy. Like it just I don't have any qualms with that. I I did not disagree with the case for Austin Matthews. That would have been my vote though was McKinnon. He was the guy who had the best. He didn't have the best singular case if you broke it down to again, we don't need to rehash it all but any of the arguments. But he had arguably the second best case for each single one of them. So yeah, zero problems with it and drop would have blown my brain. That would have that one would have upset me as well. And I'm happy that we can now remove him from the list. Like now if he gets a heart, it's legit. Not that this isn't legit. But it's like they're not giving it. There's no voter who's ever going to vote for Nathan McKinnon again because he doesn't have one. So we can now remove that from the list. Yep. It's awesome. Yeah, there's yeah finished fourth. He had two first place votes. Mm hmm. Attempting Panarin had three. He finished fifth. So Matthews finished with more points than Panarin but finished with fewer first place votes. Now Connor McDavid only got one first place vote. So he got more than yeah Connor McDavid. So I guess you can view it through that lens. But it is again like surprise, not surprising because Matthews got his. Yep. In a season in which yeah retroactively you could have really and in the moment speaking of Frank Saravelli making cases for like in the moment Frank Saravelli made the case for Connor McDavid at that point having a career year. Yep. But he didn't have one scored 60 goals. God is first heart trophy. And that's part of it. And for me, it is. I don't want to play into the thing that you love to talk about but the anti leaf bias. 100%. I mean, how do you get away from that? Like 69 goals like I know the postseason of it all like it just it it's hilarious to be talking about a regular season award. But this is what it is and it was voted on after the regular season. This is a regular season award to finish that far up the track. Come on for a historic goal scoring season and a guy that like quite factually finished as a silky trophy finalist just is it I can't help but come to your side of the street there. It's an anti leaf bias. It flat out is. I do I will say that I don't think it is the strictly and we want to poke our thumb in Toronto's eye. I don't think I'm not going to completely diminish that part of it. But I don't think that's the overwhelming sentiment. You hit it. It's the playoffs. I just think there and it shouldn't. It should not factor in one lick that whether it be this year's playoffs you're talking about or just the run of playoffs that this leaf team has had. But there's no way that people don't look like if the Leafs ever go on a run. We should immediately bet Austin Matthews to win the heart the following season because it'll be stamped home and it'll be seen as on just another part of the coordination. Well that's it. So I don't know how you can look at it any other way the one if if I'm going to be generous in the way I'm looking at this the other case you I think you would make is that in a year where there was no one and I guess the voters disagree but there was no one bullet point this guy should be the heart over head and shoulders above everybody else that we're in this business and you I mean like you know a writer doesn't have to they got to come up with stories every week but like you and I we talk about stuff for three hours every day you think about this stuff all the time you talk yourself into different angles and you try to get a little cute and that's quite frankly what I think happened with the Panera and of it all it's like well what's the story I can tell what's a different way to look at this and I just think that's what happened it was a was an overthink to have Panera in there and the only other case is that you would say well Paneraan's head and shoulders above all the other players on his team same with Austin Matthews however good you think William Nylander is however good you think Mitch Marner is end of list those are the only two guys you could possibly compare on this leaf team to Austin Matthews there's at least as big a gap there as there is with Paneraan and then any other Rangers so yeah I don't I don't get it at all quite frankly let me be clear here I thought the way the Maple Leafs handled the final couple of games of the regular season was a joke and and not smart did not have a problem with it I'll just double down on that for the eight thousandth time okay yep I mean it resulted like I guess factually and William Nylander suffering a concussion somewhere in there and maybe in game 82 yeah Austin Matthews wasn't healthy in the postseason I don't know if there was a cumulative effect whatever yeah it was just an ugly look the team played a horrible ugly hockey the last couple of games of the season trying to get Austin Matthews his 70th goal of the season they went down 41 to the Boston Bruins and bounced back forced to game seven and lost and over time like people forget that that's what I remember that's what happened anyways um I wish we could know what it looked like if he got the big round number of 70 these voters are so stupid like I can't discount the possibility of him achieving goal number seven in a craven way yep because that's what it would have been so all they were doing because wins didn't matter yep get them to 70 yep if that had happened how different the voting looks you know how different I think it looks I think he just basically gets all kutra's first place votes and then obviously that like changes second place votes and everything there that doesn't what happens I still don't think he wins no I think it's exactly what you said it's the 140 points is a lot of points it's a lot of points 51 goals it's absurd what what he what he did okay and you also throw in the never having done it factor of it all and and the lack of team success and the absolute team success that that he has had in terms of mckinnon or kutra of quite frankly that yeah I just think that's the way you would go about it I'm dying to see the like because I missed this I just saw the vote broke down we haven't got like the names or no I haven't seen it because somebody like there are some very curious ones on here like Sidney Crosby second on somebody's MVP valid I don't actually have a problem with that and like I understand the case I just like I want to see them make it I I love that we're gonna get this all and then yeah I think it's like you know hell you about getting one that guy should probably just vote a goalie for the heart every year if that's what he's gonna do because he was good but he wasn't transcendent legal like we've seen apart trophy winners in the past so I'm just happy this stuff is is public now and we can actually kind of dig through it and let's be honest make make mountains out of moles yeah that's not bully people but let's let's hold them to account it's great content I mean I think yeah of course hey look the permit where it's be a man or a woman put your name on it yeah agreed um Raptors have a new name Johnathan Mogbo from the University of San Francisco he was dropped 31st overall Scotty Barnes was at his house yes like I had to inside him full this is gonna be selected there'd be an IMG connection there would be my guess but yeah yeah anyways so Raptors held on to their pick that was after they swung a trade for a person that you know if you watch the tournament a number of years ago you know Davey on Mitchell at a Baylor with one of the best nicknames in the sport off night because of the defense that he plays against the opposition guard it's honestly incredible it's a great great nickname and yeah okay fairly well uh Jalen McDaniel's I guess uh he goes to Sacramento also they get does not your brother Sasha Veznikov um yeah sure uh Kings needed to dump salary get below the luxury tax and this is entirely for that purpose and yep good for the Raptors taking advantage of that Davey on Mitchell has a thing that he does and his hard-nosed dude um happy to have him yeah enough Raptors yes great brawny James was drafted mm-hmm in the spot that I guess we could have all predicted he was going to go I guess 55th overall to the Los Angeles Lakers Brent do you have a problem with this because boy there was there were some takes now ESPN didn't have those takes yeah and you can understand why but yeah I mean Adrian Wojnarowski had a screen about yeah how you know this is something that exists in pro sports nepotism and it's you know unless you've been screaming about nepotism previously you can't scream about it now yeah do you have a problem with this I I generally speaking just like cards on the table not a fan of nepotism like I'll even give you just a little we don't need to turn this into Brent corner but it's like boy do I wish my dad could have helped me out with more stuff so yeah it really hits home for me like it is just a touchy subject for me and I think a lot about the kind of like I don't know if you've seen much of this but like the neppo baby discussion we've had more in like the Hollywood of it all and I've seen a lot of the discourse to push back of like well when some producer is on a film because their dad explains I don't care about the producer maybe maybe that's for you an ad then maybe you guys care about that stuff I barely care about the movie okay so I'm not gonna get worked up and I hear Adrian Wojnarowski saying there's nepotism in this league on coaching staff since scouting departments and in front offices agreed agreed agreed explain it to me I'll be just as mad I promise but it's not front and center and I don't think about it so I look at this and I am very split of two minds on this it's GM LeBron he controls everything we have we have done this at every single stop of his career where nothing happens without forget his rubber stamp his signature in pen on it okay it has to come from him so the idea that this isn't how this was gonna play out I do not like it but I I don't want to get more mad about it because it's LeBron then I would if it was just about anybody else and that's where I kind of ultimately fall I'm not a fan of nepotism yeah cannot stand it quite frankly but also don't want to make Bronnie James the subject of ire for what we all feel about it and just put it on him so a couple of different things I think in other walks of life it's more egregious than pro sports I think in pro sports ultimately meritocracy because it is it yes maybe in that moment doesn't feel like a meritocracy here's the deal brawny james can't play he won't be in the nba in a couple of years right and raw polinka and anybody associated with the drafting of him if he's like a net negative and is part of the reason why it's hard to imagine the 55th of all i was gonna say so that's the second i know and that's the second part of this but like if say brawny james had gone in valottery because some team was like well it's LeBron James's kid and do you know say the Lakers had traded into the first round and and give him that yeah right okay then there's a scenario where like okay you he better be able to play because somebody's getting fired yeah results people it's different than you know say an actor who okay maybe impacts the the your quality of the movie like is some infinitesimally small percentage but it is probably not the reason a movie is successful or not successful and if they are those people are fired as well right like eventually it comes down to results what can you do for me the other part is the thing that you mentioned this is like one of the historically worst nba draft classes of all time right no offense to zach edie zach edie went nine okay this the guy was outside of the the drafting year ago you me and grange we're so excited to talk about it and we could not help but be like and obviously he only went top ten because of drafting obviously that's that's the lottery we're talking about a five picks away from mr irrelevant right i'm sorry like i can't get ginned up because the team that also like must be said mhm there's a window here where lebron james can opt out yep and rob polinkin is in his media availability afterwards is you know like talking about that possibility he's like if he doesn't opt out we'd love to be this franchise historic franchise the Lakers that does this historic thing where the dad and the son and share the court for the first time in nba history i come on like who cares it's the 55th overall selection of all the things i'm going to get upset about in the world of nepotism of which there are many reasons to do so this is very far down the list in fact doesn't even register for me honestly yeah and so i think another i think the thing that kind of caused it to ratchet up a bit yesterday and like you know like people know i'm a lebron guy okay i've always kind of rooted for him want to see him do his best like he's somebody i've very much have enjoyed watching his in entire career i was getting texts of like the the bob meyers clip that was going around of like they're being told do not take him the if you're not the Lakers or the sons that's where they want him to go da da da da da of how do you feel about this well we just don't talk about it but you hear all the time stories of a guy who would be the 55th pick in a draft and the agent saying hey can you do me a solid and not i'd love him to be able to like pick his spot a little bit here what do you really care yeah and you know what the answer is you're right what do i really care i'll do this agent a favor because right exactly so this happens all the time where maybe not don't take him if you want to take him early in the second round that doesn't happen but teams do agents favors all the time and the idea that the agency i don't know what the like proper terminology is actually as far as the league's concerned but owned by lebron of course you're going to get some favors done so if you're just somebody who screams from the rooftops about nepotism at every single turn have at it i can opera grudge you i feel the exact same way but if you're someone that wants to use this as a cudgel because or a cudgel because you always want to just hammer lebron and i don't really have a ton of time for it and i think there is a pretty big sub-sector that but i will also say that this is this is part of the life man like brownie james like i know you had your health scare and everything pretty blessed okay you grew up in the at the foot or at the knee of the greatest or second greatest basketball player of all time a beautiful life wonderful life and peaks valleys all that this is what goes with it though and it's just it's part for the course man it is we charlie woods okay like who knows what he's ever going to be as a golfer but his path is just going to be different and he has a lot of good from that again learning from tiger woods getting to play all these places bounce bounce ideas off of everybody but it also means that when he shows up to an amateur event and maybe he's the 30th best guy in some of these fields that he's following getting followed with a gallery like he's his dad and that's just a part of it so i think there's pluses a minus all of this i again i'll just like triple down for the eight thousand time in this segment cannot stand nepotism so scream about it if you want all the time and include him but don't make it just about him that's kind of my prevailing thought yeah um and if you are able to sell it separate yourself from even that part if it if it irks you the idea of the father and son playing on the same team is like it's kind of cool yeah man it's historic like how how many times we see in the pictures of griffy and his dad or the how brothers and their dad it's gonna be awesome to see it's gonna be awesome awesome to see yep oh one last thing i did see a picture going around of LeBron like holding his son and the most remarkable part of it is i forgot what year this was but it was an early cleveland year obviously it was still a baby LeBron averaging the same stat line last season that he did when that picture was taken that's kind of the that's the crux of it all yeah stupid awesome i hope i also i hope he's so good like he's i don't think he's gonna be transcending super sorry anything like that i would love nothing more than LeBron to just have found like the perfect three and d your spot up shooter or whatever here and it's his son that'd be amazing well and let's also not forget that yeah before the the heart stuff like wasn't that first overall selection but was like a first round talent that's hard though that that when it's when it's just wishy washy like a thought a prospect list ESPN ranking that is where i do say i don't know like do they put him up there before we see him on the cord for us yeah that's the thing that that's where and then he has the health scare and it's like what do you make of a player who had that at the beginning of their season yeah i don't know i don't know either i know it's good fodder though oh god oh the fodder great content baby ah boba shed creating more fodder we thought matthew ny's is a second round pick with sexy but no LeBron James's son yeah we'll get into the fodder that boba shed created yesterday kind of under the radar uh that's coming up next is the fan morning show continues ben and his brand gunning sports at five ninety the fan
