[MUSIC] >> Good morning, Joe, sports at 5-9 in the fan base. Blue Jays are a gift to baseball pundits for the next month. They're far and away the most interesting team to talk about. Twofold, one, they had expectations. They've severely underperformed them. Two, they've got guys that if they continue to underperform, will just be readily available and have some value. Danny Jansen can be somebody's starting catcher. Be happy with that. >> Saw a guy in Baltimore squawking, like clearly the other one. Just like, go got him to be Watchman's fill in. We're going to DH him all the time, like, yeah, there'll be, there'll be suitors for Jansen. >> Yeah, sure. And Jimmy, he's one of the best relievers in baseball last we saw him. And you say, Kikuchi at times has looked like one of the better starters in the American League. But also, there's like this other thing that is happening. And more people are wrapping their heads around the possibility of it really happening. And that the Blue Jays have decisions to make on two absolute cornerstones of this franchise over the last half decade. Now, it hasn't all been roses for Boboshed and Vladimir Greer Jr. But those guys, you can't deny that those guys have tremendous value if they were made available in trade. But like, also, what do you do with this front office? Because they're responsible for the mess and the situation the Blue Jays are in where not only are they no good, pretty clearly, like there's no metric that will tell you that they've been unlucky and are good. Like pretty clearly, they're bad offensively, pitching wise, like the rotation's okay, but not like great. Yes. Bullpens like abominable. Agreed. Same with the offense. The farm systems, not good, mentioned preseason rankings. They were in the bottom five of farm systems is ranked by MLB pipeline. I think more recently they've been a little bit higher than that, but like nobody thinks of them as a top half of Major League Baseball in farm system. And they have a payroll that's the highest in the history of this franchise. So that all seems bad. Ballparks. Great though. It looks amazing and it is a great experience to go down to the ballpark. So is there a pivot for 2025 and with whom? And then what do you do with the guys that will be free agents at the conclusion of that season? Who's going to be making the decisions? There is so much to talk about when it comes to just, I mean, the next month for this Blue J's team and then whatever decision is made there going into the off season surrounding one of the more interesting teams in Major League Baseball. Let's start that conversation with Ben Nicholson Smith of the at the letters podcast. How's it going, Benny? It's going great guys. How are you today? Good. Let's just like, let's jump right in Vlad for Jason Dominguez who says no. Oh, man, I don't think that you see that. I mean, yeah, I think that's a no on the J's part. Like you think it's like immediately, it's a no. Like they don't even say no. I'm not saying one for one either because as great as Jason Dominguez has been as a prospect. And I think at last check, he was 30th again, according to MLB pipeline and he reached the Major Leagues and he looked pretty good and he's a switch hitter. But yeah, I understand the injury concerns that it would be like Jason Dominguez as the center police, but also plus, plus, I mean, you think the Blue Jays, if they were going to trade Vladimir Giro Jr. could do better than the Martian. Well, I guess I just don't think they're going to trade Vladimir Giro Jr. I think with Dominguez and I'm not I'm not up to the moment on this, but he's currently injured, right? Yes. He's got no bleak. He's like going to miss two months. Like he might be done for this season as well. Yeah. If you got a player who's currently injured, it just doesn't seem like something the Blue Jays would do. I mean, if we're having discussion about whether that's something they should consider, like yeah. Yeah. I think it's I think it's something you probably need to be thinking about because I think at this point in the trajectory of the franchise, they just need to be really open minded about everything. But my instinct is they would say no to that. And I honestly think that that's the right move like trading for an injured player. When you have Vladi Jr. entering his age 26 season next year, I'd be inclined to keep Vladi and try to win with him next year. So maybe that answers my next question. But if it was just simply you're going to trade one of them, it's Bo far far and ahead of Vlad. And what goes into that is it simply the player is it what they mean to the franchise? Is it the willingness to sign? Like I feel like there are a lot of different factors that that would go into that. But are you of the belief that it'd be more likely that they would trade both and Vlad? Well, I think if we're if we're kind of assigning likelihoods to various possibilities here, I think by far the most likely scenario is that they don't trade either. And you know, worth remembering, I know a lot's changed in the last few weeks and it's mostly changed in a bad direction. But worth remembering, it was literally this month that Ross Atkins said it doesn't make any sense for us. That's a direct quote when it comes to trading Vlad or Bo. And again, things have changed since then. I do think they need to be open-minded. I do think they need to listen, but even if like, let's say the Blue Jays do decide to sell, which is obviously is the logical decision at that point, and they do decide to build up for 2025. Well, if that's the case, it's easier to win with Bo and Vlad than without Bo. So I think you're holding us down to get your question, Brent. Like if you're going to trade one or the other, who's more likely to me, it's all with the guy who's playing better because that's the guy who has more value. Yeah. So how do you win next year? Because explain this to me. Because all right. So I think. What a good question. You're all of the understanding that I think that you're nuts if you don't explore the trade market and actively trade the guys that are pending free agents. Unless you're re-signing, like in the only guy that I might be interested in re-signing, I think is Danny Janssen considering they're like, the backup plan is not great. It's not very good. But Danny Janssen is going to be a guy in his 30s who plays a position where there's lots of injury attrition, and he suffered that. And I think he wasn't the guy that was like an 800-OPS guy. You're happy to have Danny Janssen as your number one catcher, but he's not like franchise changing. I think you're watching USA Kikuchi wave goodbye because yeah, you're not signing him to whatever deal he's going to need in his mid 30s and same obviously with the other guys that are pending, Jimmy Garcia same, same deal. You have giant, like the, the problems this team has now are only exacerbated next season. Like you have to remake the offense somehow, but you have still some of the major anchors contractually, like George Springer's not waving goodbye, like he's still there. You have like one out fielder, unless I guess you can consider David Schneider an out fielder. But yeah, Dalton Varsho cemented into into his place in the center field. Like how, how, it feels like there's a huge remake of this roster that needs to happen even if you do want to contend in 25. All right. I mean, I think there's work to be done for sure. They are not close to where they need to be. At the same time, like probably worth remembering just it's six teams that make the playoffs. So the bar is not like so, so high. Everyone talked with the Diamondbacks last year and that's, you know, a good point. Let's also remember like the Marlins made it last year. It's just not that hard to make the playoffs and baseball, which is part of the reason that it's so damning that they are completely out of the raising June. Like it's, it's achievable. So I don't want to let the struggles of this year say that like that is necessarily going to happen next year. Now, are the Blue Jays going to be one of the best teams of baseball next year? Probably not. I don't really see a pathway to that. I don't really see a pathway to the Blue Jays winning 102 games and running away with a division. That being said, if you could win 88 and get a wild card and maybe even a first round by as wild card number one, that's worth doing in my opinion. And I do think there's a pathway to that. Oh, my God. Sure. Because loser franchises make the playoffs all the time. Like you mentioned. Okay. So you do that. And you just like run it back and your own rental with Vlad and Bo and you make the playoffs and your wild card team and you do what is, is likely if you're an 88 win wild card team is you don't win the World Series and then Vlad and Bo wave goodbye for nothing and you're sitting there more, more contract for George Pringer with even less reason to believe in this team going forward. That is actually, I thought this was the nightmare scenario. You just painted the biggest nightmare. Like, I, where is the reason for hope in that scenario? Well, I actually would sort of disagree that that's like more of a nightmare scenario. And I think you and I most often agree on things then. So this is kind of an interesting one, but yeah, like, I think that when you're talking about having a chance as, you know, to potentially be wild card one, get a first round by and you know, barring that, maybe your wild card two, wild card three, you're going the road. Like you said, you might get eliminated. It might be a two game sweep as we've seen before. Blue Jays are certainly capable of that. But you also have a chance to make a run to an LCS, which I don't think anyone would say is a failure. You have a chance to win it all. You have a chance to play so well and have things go so well that it sets in motion at a continued state in Toronto for Bo or for Vlad beyond 2025 if the vibes are good, if the team is winning, I think that's a it's a more attractive destination for free agents at that point. And the alternative too, if you decide you're just going to take, you decide, okay, like, we're blowing it up. There's no point in actually trying to win next year. First of all, pretty non-competitive. And second of all, it's not like you're going to get a 1/1 draft pick in 2025 that can totally transform the franchise, A, because you're not that bad, and B, because even the teams do finish 30th out of 30, no longer have assurances of getting that top pick. So I just, I tend to be of the opinion at this point, you know, as we record this in late June, that you should try to win next year. But look, I mean, it's, you've got a, they have a lot of work to do, there's no question about that. Yeah, they certainly do. I mean, they're obviously several bats away. The thing that's been the strength of the team and the starting rotation has not been bad by any stretch of the imagination, but it hasn't been the, you know, 1A strength that I think they needed it to be, to kind of compete. A lot of what is coloring so much of this is the conversations around who's going to make the decisions there. I mean, how much of that is simply the reason why we won't see the big kind of franchise changing trade at the deadline is just the kind of lack of certainty about who the team would kind of ultimately want, making a decision that big in Atkins or maybe someone else. Yeah, that is a big decision for them, right? I mean, you think about just how badly this season has gone, there's a question of accountability there. And, you know, if it was just one thing, then maybe you write it off as, oh, it was just a couple of injuries, but when you combine that with the lack of offense, you combine that with the question of the farm system, you know, it's not a good luck right now for a team that's spending so much money. And so I think that, well, I know that there are other executives immediately baseball with other teams who kind of look at the Blue Jays and say, "What's happening? Is Ross Atkins going to be the GM long-term or is there going to be a change?" Because typically, you know, someone like Mark Shapiro, who's the president of the team, will have the chance to bring in a second GM if that's something that Mark Shapiro wants to do. Now, we haven't heard from Mark Shapiro recently, so we haven't heard him assess Ross Atkins' performance. I think the results speak for themselves on the 2024 season and how that's going. So I don't think anyone in this organization is pleased with that direction. But yeah, I think that when it comes to making a huge trade, like if we're talking a gladi trade or a bow trade, even a Kevin Gossman trade, like I think it's pretty safe to say that that's running up to Mark Shapiro. Like, you know, maybe it's a different story if he's trading Trevor Richards to Philadelphia. But if we're talking about a bigger trade, then I would expect that there's a lot of involvement from higher layers of the organization. Yeah, that was something I wanted to ask about there because that's the kind of, you know, Ben and I have bandied this topic about it. It might shock you to think that we've talked about trading flatter or bow just a couple of times. And the thing that I think I ultimately kind of keep bumping up against is, all right, let's say the fans got, well, maybe not exactly what they want. But at the end of the season, Ross Atkins is like, oh, he's no longer the GM there is. Do you want, even if it is, James Click, the first move he makes to be the franchise altering trade? And I guess the, I guess the prevailing wisdom then is that Shapiro would be the kind of constant in there. And I think, I think part of it is the confusion with his role for a lot of people. I don't know that people think of him and this is wrong as much of a baseball person anymore. He's a segment of the fan base that believes he's kind of removed himself from that. So I think it is informative to hear that even if it was a new GM making this trade, that it would still be Shapiro, there'd be pretty hands on in all that. I think he would have to be at this point. And again, we haven't heard from Marc Shapiro, you know, would love to hear from him publicly, but I have not heard from him. So we would gladly boot you off the air if you wanted to call in right now, first say. Yeah, okay, I'll accept the rudeness of the part of the part of you as the content. That's what you want to do. But yeah, so when it comes to making those calls, yeah, Marc does have involvement in baseball operations. He is the president of the team, including baseball operations. He's not the president of business operations. He's the president of the team. And so, you know, that that oversees baseball operations, it's, you know, in Cleveland, he was also at one point, you know, the general manager then shifted out of a role of baseball operations with Chris Anthony taking over. But at this point, yeah, that is that is part of his purview, that is part of what he oversees. So, yeah, I think that I think there has to be involvement there. If your team, if your team is going as poorly as it is, this is why Marc Shapiro was on the last road trip. If your team is going as poorly as it is, you have to have oversight. I can't, you can't let it, I mean, it's already, it's already got to a really bad point. But you have to, you have to take a really hard look at this. John Schneider is proud of these guys though, they haven't quit. It's June. Like, yeah, good, good for them. Well done. Anyways, try to continue the winning ways because they won the last full game they played at Fenway Park, four game series against the Yankees starts tonight at Rogers Center. Benny, always a pleasure. Thanks, buddy. Benny, tell them guys, thanks. Ben Nichols and Smith, the at the letters podcast. So yeah, he's right, we disagree a little bit. So there are times where I'm like, yeah, make the playoffs, man. Like that is not nothing. There's only one winner, right? And we do get jaded at times and it's hard with like the Leafs and God, careful what you wish for with this generational talent and making the playoffs every year and it never being in doubt and having one series victory to show for it. It's not like. It's undoubtedly more successful than the Blue Jays, yeah. But it's also undoubtedly less successful than the like the most embarrassing franchise in recent memory when it comes to the postseason success, the San Jose Sharks. Like this Leafs team looks at that Sharks team, which is like, oh my God, what a hilarious joke they were. I wish. Yeah. Oh, if only. And they made one cup final, but it's like, oh my, preseason favorites to win the cup every year and only once making the cup final, but winning rounds. Oh my God. My God. Anyways, so sometimes making the playoffs is good. Absolutely. 2015. Who wouldn't? And obviously the results play into this, but was there anybody like, now you can't give up all the prospects that Alex and Thopolis gave up. And part of it was that, yes, not only did they look like they were a playoff team with a couple of tweaks, they looked like they could be the best team in baseball with a couple of tweaks. And yeah, kind of think they were the things go a couple of different ways against the royals. Anyways, sometimes making the playoffs is good. Not for this team, not the way this is constructed, not the way the outlook looks beyond years of Vlad and bow. Now, things do change, Ben said, hey, maybe if you win, you make playoffs. Those guys are more inclined to resign. If that's the issue here and it's not just coming to an agreement on a dollar figure. Again, like, I don't think those are perfect players and obviously the results have not been perfect with those two guys, but those are homegrown talents. If like that's within the realm of possibility that you're signing up for the rest of the primes of Vlad and bow, I get it. But not if you're like the one year that you're going to make the playoffs is as a wild card team and like a mile behind the Yankees and the Orioles and you're like chipping a chair in 25. And then if we don't end up bringing home the World Series of poker bracelet, then we're rolling dice in the alley on cardboard after that. No. Thank you. Yeah, no, I, it's not palatable to me either. I think it would be complete Fool's Gold. Go back and look like the idea of how you felt about those teams and, you know, we can go back to 15, 16, go back to, go back to the Marcus Simeon Blue Jays year, right? Like look at how you feel about that group and if they found a way to get in and what it would mean, it's just a, it's a completely, it's night and day quite, quite frankly, throw in the idea of if those guys want to be there. And I understand the idea of how this works and, you know, you don't, you know, nuke your leverage beforehand. But if that's at all a concern, what are we doing here, especially of the idea of like, Oh, we're going to play it out and see where this goes with both. Well, what are we doing? Yeah. The other thing is like the idea that you trade those guys away and you go into like a period of darkness, like it's harder. Yeah. But it might be easier. Like you're not, again, you're not, I don't think looking at prospects that are like it, Arjun and Amala who are like 18 years old, you are hoping to acquire some players that are at the upper levels of the minor leagues. Guess what playing a season out with those guys currently is, is how that's impacting wins and losses. Not well. It's like they, they stink with them. Yes. This is true. Well, how much worse could they stink without them? It's a great point. Right. And maybe cheaper at the very least. Honestly, like I know that nobody's concerned, but honestly, anyways, all right, before we take the break, I want to get to the start, absolutely must discuss this. So the Olympics are coming up at the end of July, which would be fun. A whole lot of fun. Can't wait. Yep. NBC has the rights in the United States. They've had, I don't know when their deal runs out, but it feels like they've had them for forever. A hundred years. It really does. Their streaming services peacock and it has been revealed that if you subscribe to the service as an American, you can receive packaged highlights that be voiced by Al Michaels. It's cool. Except not really Al Michaels. Oh, I was going to say like that seems like an arduous task for him. Yeah, there's an AI version that will cater the highlights to you and maybe even say your name. So here's they, there's a sample of how this sounds and here's how it sounds. Hi Kelly. Welcome to your daily Olympic recap, your personal rundown of yesterday's most thrilling Olympic moments. Since you're a swimming fan, let's head right to the pool team USA security stunning victory in the men's four by 100 meter medley relay smashing the world record. Meanwhile, a tough break for Canada's Pamela Ware as a failed final dive scored zero ending her bid for the final check out these highlights from yesterday's action. Oh my goodness. First things first. How dare they? Side swipe at the Canadians in there. Thank you. Ow. Come on. That's disgusting. All right. I hate everything about this. That's my prevailing thought. You feel any differently? Yeah. A lot actually. Okay. So first of all, that sounds really authentic. Don't disagree. Shockingly so. And I'm sure that's feeding into your like discuss the whole matter. Yes. Yeah. Hello, Kelly. It is now Michaels here. I'd be like, that's great. No, that's good. We've all played video games over the last 20 years and like getting better. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's very authentic. Like it's it's unbelievable where we are. Do not disagree with AI, but this is actually an application of AI that I don't mind. Like, okay. The idea that you and I could be replaced by AI. Yeah. The the voice again, like it's always just like goes back to the Simpsons, right? Yeah. That's the running joke and like the DJ Tron 3000 or whatever. Right. That you have in my case a 20 year career of my voice that you could just pluck and put it into AI. Yeah. Yeah. It has a pretty good idea of what my sports opinions are. I could shoot them out. Like that's bad. I do. Okay. I think good. Like it's obviously bad for me, but hopefully the listener also think that's bad. They're like, I don't want a worse version of Ben. I I think there's a difference though between a computer giving opinion, or even calling play by play or or doing something organic as opposed to just like reading a script. I have no problem with where podcasts are going that, you know, they're going to take the host voice. And instead of them, like monotonely trying to read the ads, right, it's an AI voice of them reading the ad. Can you tell which one of us has to do the ad read folks? I I yeah, I think there is a difference between scripted content that being read read by AI or like, you know, an associated press game story, which is like, we don't need an embarrassing person. Like, yeah. And in the third inning, this like a computer can actually do that don't disagree. And I know like the the the inclination is for people to think that everything AI is bad because I think it's they've seen a lot of sci-fi movies and the thing is going to take over their lives. I'm just going to kill them seeing the internet now of like, Hey, look at this picture of a man. There's there's obviously there's some concerning elements of it. And no question. I mean, that same camp. This is the one application of AI that I was like, yeah, we don't need al Michael's voicing a million different versions of in a highlight patch of the quadrillion sports that happen at the summer Olympics. But it's it's fine. If you're going to have like an automated voice, why not it be al Michael's? I don't that in and of itself, I do not disagree with. I'm going to go down a limb and say how Michael's has consented to this. So I'm I'm pretty okay with that part of it as well. My my issue with this is it's not going to stop here. The idea that they see this and it's like I'm having flashbacks to I don't know if you're like a 30 rock guy at all, but it's like there's there do like Seinfeld vision and they bring them in and they're like, we could just put in all the shows and he's like, why? I don't want to be on survivor. I don't want to do this. And it's like, that's where I'm worried this is trending. So for me, it's not so much the argument of that is a problem. Oh my God, like imagine me want to cater it to me specifically Joe Bowen calling Holy Mackinac on team Canada goals at the Olympics. Oh my God, like no shots to whoever's going to be calling it, but like catering it just to me. Yeah. Of course, what I love that, of course, I just refuse to believe it would stop there that and that is well exactly that's my problems is like this is like, yeah, but when I'm getting everything back, no, get that toothpaste back in the tube. And I know it doesn't, I know, I know, I know, but I'm going to fight the good fight. And just so I can say, I was, I was right. Many, many moons ago when I'm not here in AIs being like, I think, yeah, it's great. And I would like to think, you know, I guess, prove about this and prove me wrong, AI, I would like to think that when there are things, like I said, that are more human organic that we'll be able to tell the difference between the real person and the robot giving its sports opinion or it's whatever opinion or calling the live sports or doing something that is not scripted or, you know, the AI movie, that's a maybe, you know, a couple of years away from being creative with the whole thing start to finish written and created by an AI. Like I'd like to think that at that point, but why would you think that? I guess I need to see it, but I'd be more offended like that more offends me than just say. And it's like, yeah, automation, does it offend you that now like we make cars with robots, right? Like that the assembly line has, when cars were first invented, yeah, and before it invented the assembly line, those are human beings putting those cars together. And at some point, they figured out a way to get robots to do the like repetitive tasks of assembling cars that doesn't offend me. What would offend me is like the more human elements, like, and maybe it's like the design of a car. Sure. You don't think that's like. Or the soul of a car. Yeah. I know when that happens, I'll be offended. Okay. I'm stealing myself to be offended at that. Okay. I'm telling you that you, if you don't want that, be offended at all this other stuff because it's not there, there's not going to be a point where they go like, oh, that's enough AI. No, once you start doing it, you're going to try to use it more and more. And you mentioned the car thing where I thought we were going to go with this is like the car driving itself. It's like, I do worry about that exact thing. Yeah, I don't. I'm like, I'm like, I'm bringing it on because you spend the same amount of time on the roads as I do. And you don't think like robots drive a whole lot better than the vast majority of people behind the wheel on the gardener today? Sure. And I also like, I also think that it's like, I'm not, I, I would just rather at the end of the day, it's like, I could throw a man or a woman or whoever in jail and like punish them. It's like robot AI decides to crash into my kid while they're walking to school. It's like, okay, I win a lawsuit. Lucky me. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Less likely that that happens than with the human drivers we have now would be my opinion on that. Yeah. I don't know that. I don't know that I agree. But there we go. All right. That was fun. Now I want you to ask Adnan about his AI movie and what, if that's good or bad? That's a good topic for me. Maybe that'll come up. Maybe. I'm going to ask Adnan about his AI movie. All right. Here's something we can agree on when it comes to AI fan, morning show sports at five, nine, the fan, Ben has bring down the AI general manager would have done better than what Ross pushed back to AI infiltrating parts of our lives is the what like the human element of it. Like I said, like what we do, movies, arts, maybe media availability is kind of thing. AI would do a better job than what we've heard from Ross Atkins in these media availability still again. That one is a little different just because it's hard to do worse. Mostly. Yeah. That has really less to do with AI than just any challenger. I think I would take to Ross Atkins. I can't think about anything else other than AI. No, I know. I started this conversation. Like what would AI get for Mitch Marner? Yeah. Yeah. I would put forth a good argument towards him that he should waive his no move clause. All right. Let's talk to Adnan Burke. The MLB network NHL Network in the cinephile podcast. How's it going? Adnan. Ben, Brent, you know, you're back in the GTA went on a Monday family trip to the blocks out there and Scarborough beautiful weather, you know, it was plus 24 in sunny and on the way back. Pumping the tunes and Z one of three. A breathless of the outside jumps in this to say, easily just scored. I was like, Oh, my God, if we just go on a good call, it's a classic. That's good stuff. Yeah. I heard you. You went to Wonderland. So I'm still like, I haven't been to Wonderland in 20 years and my kids are right at the age where I can start taking them by eight year old. I did like the height chart thing. There's a number of rides he can actually go on now, the six-year-old, not so much. But maybe the ghost or coaster. What is your scouting report on Wonderland this time of year? Well, a good coaster coaster reference, by the way, bringing back a lot of memories about it. When I saw the wheeled the piece, you know, the mind busters, it could even ride the bat, the vortex. Here's the good news. And I don't know if we just got lucky all of a sudden there will be a rush in the cavalcade of people there. But on a Tuesday morning, they're at 10/30, by the way, you got to buy online. I think we asked the barking identity, because if you go in person, it's $85 for adults and $80 for kids. If you do a lot of online, $50 for an adult, $40 for kids. So we got this. You're getting gouged no matter what. But yeah, it was pretty good, man. For your kids, $86, I mean, we go right to the Snoopy Zone and I'm talking like two minute wait for rides. Oh, wow. We knocked out eight rides in two and a half hours. I mean, I thought it was incredible times. I don't know if one of the lands going through it, but we just got lucky at the right time. That hit the water park, which was a rough one, because then it started raining. I got to say, it's great being back home with the weather has been a little awry. It's, you know, it's sunny and also you're going to hit with a thunder shower, so a water park is a little bit of a mess. Although I got to tell you guys, nothing better than a lazy river. Like if I was really stupid rich, I would just, right, wouldn't you build yourself a easy river? Come on. I play status. We got a little lazy river. You're a lot closer to building a lazy river than I am adding at your palatial estate. Yeah. So yeah, keep me informed as far as that goes. Why don't we have that as a commuting option? Like, you know, we can't up here because it would, well, I guess you could just skate on it in the, in the winter, but like honestly, like, imagine, you know, like we get up too early for a lazy river float to work. We'd have to start up like two in the morning. But honestly, like, yeah, you're a shift worker, you work afternoons or something. Why is that not more in the lexicon? Like, why do I have to go to a part like, why is it, why are lazy rivers not more available? It does seem like people are hoarding them. So yeah, get on it and build one and invite us. Yeah. We're going to find out what the cost is to build a personal lazy river and to your point, right? I'm surprised. I'm going to help to a snake away to a Yankees J's game, which I'm sure we'll talk about in a second. But I'm going to hopefully go check out Firelight's game, Marcus Strowman. And for all the hull of a little about the renovations, I cannot wait to see. I want to know when's the next time a team is going to build a lazy river, like, yeah, the feedbacks. They've got the pool out there. I mean, you're going to a lazy river growing up. I've been for a season, but they'd be amazing. Dude. Oh my God. It's like, so Blue Jays are obviously, they, they stink. I mean, they want a game, but they, they, that proceeded as seven game losing streak. And really, there's just no path to contention this season. And I find it hard to believe they're going to be able to reverse it in a significant fashion for me to believe in them next season. But you go because the ballpark is awesome. Like they can field a 120 loss team every single year. If there was just like the world's biggest lazy river in that ballpark and you could just ride the lazy river around for two and a half, three hours while baseball games being played like honestly, honestly, yeah, essentially there was just a conveyor belt. So we're just, we're just, we're just, we're just, we're just showing a hot dog in your face. Oh, the 999 challenge on a lazy river. The way that would hit, I mean, dangerously for the record, like, oh, God, now it is starting to sound a little bit like that scene in Wall E where like everybody's 800 pounds. Whatever. Oh God. Yeah, that's great stuff. All right. Well, now that you've, you've broached the subject of the Blue Jays who coincidentally are playing the Yankees for four games starting tonight at Roger Center. I just did a couple of different segments about Vlad being very much on the radar, apparently of the Astros, but also of the Yankees who have a need at this position that was supposed to be easy to backfill at first base. And I said Jason Dominguez, the Martian would make me happy if I'm a Blue Jays fan. If he's part of the return, I know he's coming off Tommy John surgery. He looked pretty good before he got hurt again, but he might be out for another couple of months. And who says no, if it's Vlad for Jason Dominguez, well, that's a great point. And listen, if you're going to trade Vlad who, you know, despite the diminished power is at least one of the Blue Jays who is hitting right now, I'm with you. Dominguez is supposed to be a stud. I mean, for years, he's with the Yankees top hitting prospect and we saw him in limited time last year on what was a very disappointing season. He was one of the few bright spots that Yankees team. Unfortunately, Tommy John, as you mentioned, had a step back and was a couple more months. So hopefully he's back in September. But I'm with you. I'm like, if you're going to give me a stud who's supposed to be, you know, your top hitting prospect for the next 10 years, I'm like, okay, now we have a conversation. I agree. If you're going to trade Vlad Jr., who say we will in Toronto about the disappointment with the Jays and the way he's viewed. But I'm telling you, within baseball, if you're looking at Vlad Jr., it's still a premium piece. Without question, young can hit for power, still has, you know, monster seasons I think most people feel like. And even if they're not monster seasons, there's still good seasons, right? Vlad Jr., is going to be a productive all-star type player for like six, seven, eight years. I'm with him. Dominguez is an absolute stud. If that's if that's where the conversation's going, I wouldn't be, I wouldn't be this, wouldn't be dismayed if I was a Jays fan. Yeah. And I think you're right to bring up his value across the league, right? I mean, we can all be down on it because we've sat here and lived with it every single season. And we think back to the near end, the preseason and, you know, what could have been, how real was that? But also, I think the other thing, and this point of kind of made above Vlad in Toronto is that they need him to be something different than a lot of these other, you know, let's say it's the Yankees, let's say it's the Astros, a team like that, they don't need as much out of them. They just need him to do what he's been doing. He'll just be able to do it with more men on base. So I think that's the other kind of interesting thing is that the thing we're most down on him here is the lack of power and not to say a team acquiring him, of course, wouldn't want power, but it's not as, it's not the be all and end all as it feels like here. And I think maybe that's the most interesting thing about the perception if there is a move as well. A hundred percent, Brian, think about the Yankees team specifically. So you've got your home runs being hit by a plethora of players, namely Judge Soto and Stanson. So if Vladimir comes in there and hits 305, and he's only going to hit 20 home runs, like, oh, good. Like he won a gold glove a couple of years ago. He's not exactly, you know, Keith Hernandez at first base, but he's going to be a guy at first base who will provide power and get you on base and be a key cog in that offense. And that's right to bring up the fact that Rizzo wasn't having a good season. He was fired at the injury. Like he was really kind of a black hole at first base, and I like Rizzo a lot. He's a great player, a great guy, but like he's really fallen off, and this is the final year of his contract. Lasher didn't work out well either. Had that concussion that could, I should say, a collision there with Tatisse. So yeah, they've got a problem at first base or team that's supposed to be a contender or you'd be shocked that a first base are not that strong. So I'm a little surprised the way it's gone for Rizzo, but you're right. If you plug in plaid, it's, oh my God, how the Yankees all in or what? And it would be painful to see, you know, a blue Jay, an iconic blue Jay in pinstripes, but as I outlined yesterday, like only 13 games and as John Marosi rightly points out, you have three playoff spots that you're competing against the other American league teams and just one that you're competing for amongst your own division. So it's, you know, the idea that you can't trade within your division, probably a little bit foolish. I mean, who's going to be making the decisions is the big thing though recently in these parts because Ross Atkins very much feels like he's on the hot seat. We very rarely see guys fired in season who are general managers and especially with big decisions that are upcoming as we're only a month away from the trade deadline. So he takes over at a very interesting point in blue Jay's history. They just returned to the playoffs and made an ALCS run in 2015 and they ran it back in 2016 and made the ALCS again and then immediately pivoted and tore it down and then built back up and made the playoffs in that weirdo season in 2020 missed the playoffs by a game in 21 but made it in 22 and 23 and didn't win a playoff game. How would you evaluate like if you're Ross Atkins and you're, you're, you're coming to Mark Shapiro and you're trying to save your job, like how, how difficult an argument is that to make? Yeah, you're right, but I think Ross would be saying, Hey, it's one bad year. You know what I mean? Like we, I've consistently built a team that's going to be the playoffs. Like, all right, we had one year and I'm going to point to a variety of factors. Yes, we, we sacrifice offense for defense and run prevention, right? Rather run square. It went run prevention. Hey, maybe in hindsight, a T Oscar Hernandez trade wasn't the best plan. You know, he's doing well with the Dodgers now, but we thought, Hey, we're going to get Swanson. We'll get Keir Meyer. The Varshot trade doesn't look as bad as before. Moreno hasn't had a strong year so far. Coriol's been up and down. Varshot's actually had a good season for the J's relative to the rest of the team. He's been with a guy as far as, again, a guy's rate defensively. His opiate spots is over hundreds. Look at his back being above average offensive player, still with the averages higher, etc. So I think that's what Ross would say. Hey, we kind of have this plan of sacrifice offense for defense. I think it was the right idea. He didn't work out. But guess what? This offseason, I'm going to go hunt some offense, okay? I'm going to go ahead and make some moves and we're going to go get some offense back and we'll fix it. And don't let one bad year blemish what's been a contender, generally speaking. Now, have we won the playoffs? Of course not. Has it been disappointing? Yes. But if you're bringing another guy and it's supposed to be in the flat and bow, we're still here for one more year, it's a very tricky time. But I agree with you, Ben, if I'm J's management, if I'm Mark Shapiro, I even more would question whether or not I want Ross Atkins now because I'm saying to myself, this feels like a pivotal point for the franchise, doesn't it? So this feels such a tipping point in this winter is, okay, what to do with the flat and bow. And that will really impact the next five years. The blue chase. It really feels that way. And you're right about mentioned in 2020, the weird season in the playoffs, but 2019, they were like, I believe 67 and 95 teams. So there's no reason it couldn't get bad in a hurry. And that division things are never going to be easy. So I think Ross would argue, Hey, one bad year shouldn't cost you my job. But the other side of it is that if this doesn't get back on the tracks quickly, we're going to have a hell of a tough time the next few seasons. I don't know that I want you in the park, Adnan, that sounded too convincing. I think you might have just saved the job. Like I don't, I don't want any part of that. I got to be honest. That was too good. That was too good. Atkins should be hiring you to give that exact spiel. We've talked a lot about the value for, for Vlad and rightfully so. It seems like the easier fit. What do you think people across the league feel about bow because he has been far and away the more consistent player up until now, but maybe teams don't care about what's happened in the past. They care about what they're getting right now. How do you think bow is valued across the league in comparison to Vlad? It's a great point, just made brand, which is that six months ago, I think if I pulled a bunch of executives, who are you're more likely to sign, bow or Vlad, the majority would say bow. And now if you ask the majority of executives, they all say Vlad, but like, come on, you're getting out of this conversation, like bow has filed injuries this year in inconsistency. I mean, he's starting around 200, much of the year, like it's, it's so high for God's sake. It's like, it's, it's been awful. So I think that it's tricky because you kind of get the sense that bow hasn't been enamored of management either. Like I think he would have liked to have been taken care of. Yes, they bought up the arbitration eligibility years at the nice little gesture, but you get a sense from his camp that he feels the talk. I haven't been locked up the way these other young players and those cornerstone players have been for their teams, whether it's tattoos or, you know, heavy rush, et cetera. So I think that of the, again, that's the whole argument is do you keep both? Do you keep one? You can trade both. And I think now it's starting to become, why would you get rid of both? You'd have one star. Could you imagine? There's a lot of bow were both gone. I agree with that. If you get a Jason Dominguez or a starting player, you can sell it to a marketplace, but still it's hard to be able to go ahead. We had two cornerstone players. They're both gone. So I think you do want to keep one. So if you, if you sign flats, whatever contract that is, $200 million, et cetera, then bow is gone. The problem, of course, is this is the classic sell low, like, I mean, what exactly you're getting for a diminished bow, but check. Like, I don't even want to, I don't want to look at what the trade proposals will be because other teams will be licking their chops going. We're going to put every single reason we're not going to over paper this guy. Here's his offensive inefficiency. Here's his defensive downturn. Here's his injuries. Like, we're not giving you any of our top prospects, but we'll try to flee slow off your hands. So why trade a guy if return is not going to be good? It's very, very tricky in terms of that for the days, but best case would be if bow just goes in a heater the second half of the season and then the off season they can parlay that into a potential blockbuster. But I'm with you guys. I don't see what happened. No, best case scenario is they build a lazy river and none of it matters. But it's just who cares, right to the lake, you can even have it be a transit option. Wow. Oh, that would be awesome. That's how Ross Atkins is going to save his job. Oh my God. Hey, what happened this year? Guys, I figured it out. I'm going to build a lazy river. Honestly, all is forgotten. Give them the big job. I'm glad you're back in our fair country and enjoy your ketchup chips and coffee crisps or whatever you're having already bought a coffee because yesterday bought my kids an arrow bar. There we go. More expensive. That's been consumed. See you buddy. Thanks, boys. Take care. You too. Dan Burke, MLB Network, NHL Network in the cinephile podcast. Yeah. I mean, there is just factually nothing better than a lazy river. Even God, I actually think the last time it might have been a moment when I was at Wonderland. I was like a child. No, so I've been. It's been a long time. You can float the river. In fact, you can float the river. I believe people do it in Mississauga. But I've been to Texas where there's like a more of an infrastructure around floating rivers. Right, right. We're like, you go to a place and like you rent a tube and then when you get to the destination like an hour and a half, two hours down the line, there's like a bus that drives you back and takes the tube and everything. That's the last time I lazy river it was a spectacular. You get a little raft as well for your beverages. Oh, there's wonderful, wonderful, wonderful. Oh, wonderful. Okay. We should also mention now that we're talking about Ross Atkins, four days after he last spoke, because remember he did speak, you have to when your prize prospect was getting gonged for an 80 game suspension. He spoke. That was four days ago. Yes, like casual conversation with chat with the assembled masses today at three o'clock. Oh. So, I mean, that was about a Ralphus Martinez and there wasn't the total contingent, the huge contingent of Toronto media there to ask him questions. There were questions asked about the state of the team, obviously, yeah, it is curious that we're hearing from him again. My cynical brain says that there's no better time to bury this than right before the Canada day long weekend and HL draft and Mitch Marner might be getting traded and like, I don't think they think of like the Mitch Marner of it all specifically. But I wouldn't. I wouldn't say that. They don't. No, I wouldn't say that they don't. Okay. So the last two times in Toronto we've heard from Ross Atkins was the Friday of the Victoria day long weekend. And now we're hearing from him the Thursday of the Canada day long weekend. Great. Yeah, that's embarrassing. It's frankly bad. It's bad. It's not the Friday. It's not the Friday. Got to give him credit. The Friday? Yeah. Yeah. I hope the advance notice like gets people and it not being the Friday of the long weekend that there's enough people that can get it together in time to get down to the ballpark at three o'clock and be and there'd be some real pointed like I don't need. I don't need Ross Atkins his personality and who is a human being going on trial here, but I need some answers for what has gone wrong this season and where this team is going directionally. Certainly be nice and whatever he says, we'll talk about it tomorrow. Yeah. Looking forward to that. Hand away. And it's also an HL draft day tomorrow. Hey, NHL awards tonight on Sports Night as well. Yeah. Down in Las Vegas. All right. We'll be back tomorrow with another edition of the fan morning joke. Ben Ennis, Brent Gunning Sports Night 5.9 at the fan. Good morning. (upbeat music) (dramatic music)
