[MUSIC] These Blue Jays have not quit. Fan Morning Show Sports at 5.9 in the fan, Ben Ennis, Brent Gunting. Welcome to day one of the rest of our sporting lives. As we get the NHL draft coming up on Friday, got the Summer Olympics coming up at the end of July. We got another golf major. But the Blue Jays, smarter than them actually, to snap that seven game losing streak right as the attention it was snapping back towards them. So now all's good, and last check, Blue Jays good. Beat the Boston Red Sox, good morning. >> Good morning to you. I'm not as good with like the Blue Jays' voices as I am with other sports. Who was that that we heard? >> Well, there was George Springer. >> Okay. >> There was Kevin Gossman in there. >> Okay. >> And there was certainly a John Schneider. >> Yeah, no, no, one of the, I can't, I'm not sure if a Springer or Gossman. One of them sounded genuinely perplexed to have just won a baseball game. It was like a little Chevy guy in going on and that's good. Like be surprised because it's been a while. Seven games, snap the streak, get off the snide, do it against the divisional rival. You do it with some big blast. >> Yeah, you should be happy. >> One big blast. >> One. >> Yeah, but it feels like, but it feels like. >> Yeah. >> Feels like this was a huge win. >> Yeah. >> Okay. Play-offs. >> Okay. >> For other teams. >> There you go. >> That's, that's right. >> Yeah, yeah, okay. So the Blue Jays won a game, good for them. That was bound to happen. No question. >> We've been tough to lose every single one the rest of the way. >> Yeah, we're not going to slag them on a day in which they scored nine runs and overcame some more defensive lapses and physical errors when, I mean, I can't imagine that that loop that goes off the glove of Vladimir Greer Jr. Initially being ruled a triple. I need to talk to that official scorer. Then rightly reverse to a three base error. Anyways, Blue Jays win a baseball game, nine to four. >> They're Canadian, love Tyler O'Neill. >> Yeah, they did hit a home run. It was George Springer's sixth of the season who actually had a great offensive day, especially considering what he'd produced up to that point. Three for five for George Springer, including the long ball. Red Sox actually out-homer the Blue Jays in the baseball game. And if not for Brendan Little's strikeout of Raphael Devers there in the late proceedings. We might have had a very different result. It's Fenway Park, anything can happen, but whatever. The scored nine runs. And guess what the difference was in the baseball game besides the final mind score, which obviously hadn't happened in more than a week. Boba Shet back in the lineup and was not a real catalyst when it comes to the offense of this Blue Jays team he was over for. Did have a walk though, couple of strikeouts as he was in the lead off spot, which, I mean, guess how many times he's been in the lead off spot this season? >> This season, is that his first? >> So that is his third. >> Okay, cuz I was gonna, like there have been dalliances in the past that I kind of remember and it wasn't so much of like, let's put Bo up top, it was more. We got nothing else, let's start with Bo, but yeah, it's not a spot you typically kind of see him occupy. >> No, not this season, because that's George Springer's spot, okay? Or at least it was for forever and ever and ever and eventually we got to a place which is unpalatable and eventually we were gonna get to a place and may still, where George Springer just in an overall sense being one of the worst players offensively in major league baseball that you can't, you just can't keep running him out there every single day or even five days a week. Anyways, Bo's the new lead off hitter, we know there's lineups and flux, he's an interesting fellow because, again, we've done a lot of criticizing the front office and you can do that and you should do that. >> Yeah, it was gonna say. >> It's a good idea. >> Can. >> Should. >> Yeah, that's what you should do when trying to analyze what's gone on, what's gone wrong with this Blue Jays team, you should point to the people to put it together, right? But there's a couple of things that have been outside of their control, the Erelvis Martinez thing we already said, what are they supposed to do? That's not on them. They gave him all the information. He obviously has all the information. He popped for performance enhancing drugs and now he's waving goodbye for 80 games, although like he's not, was never supposed to be in the plans this season for this team. The bullpen, they've been injured, they've had lackluster results. That's bullpen's, you can put that on them. Hey, Vladimir Greer Jr hasn't hit enough home runs. Guess what? That's kind of his career outside of 2021. You can put that on the front office. >> Yeah. >> The one thing that you can't really put on the front office and something that they couldn't have anticipated despite there being proof of concept in 2022 is Boboshed. >> Mm-hm. >> And he's still the one guy. I give you're looking for a reason, although apparently they have reasons why George Springer and Justin Turner are gonna turn around the second half is like, we have our own metrics, don't worry about it. You may look at them as like late 30s players who are showing signs of decline, not us. Our super special metrics show that they've been actually secretly amazing. >> Would have loved to have seen a camera shot of those guys with Springer, went deep. >> Yeah. >> We did it. We know it. >> Yeah, the old. >> Yeah. >> I was gonna say they high five, but they don't wanna break their bread bones. >> Break their bread bones. >> So yeah, they're just like giving each other winks and then like throwing Werther's candies. They're like, here you go. You take one. Go. >> So those guys, yeah, I think they're cooked. Apparently, there's some internal metrics that will tell you that they're not cooked. Anyways, the one thing that you're like, man, that is a weird, that really did contribute to the sinking of this Blue Jays team pre-all-star break and something that couldn't have anticipated and something that you play the whole season out, eventually it's gonna normalize. It's bullshit. >> Mm-hm. >> He's been so bad. Wait, he's been healthy. He's been really, really bad. And this is a guy that has been the American League hitsleader, what, two to the last three years and would have been again last year if he didn't get hurt at the end of the season. >> Mm-hm. >> So he returns, doesn't quite look like, again, the American League hitsleader in two of the last three years, years, yet, but you can anticipate him looking something closer to that than what we've gotten the first couple of months of the season. >> Okay, this Blue Jays team, unless something miraculous happens is gonna be seller at the deadline. >> Mm-hm. >> We can all agree, right? >> I certainly hope, yeah. >> God, I'd love to intervention with that person if they're like, "I don't know, I have some hope still." >> Is there anything from the game that you actually want to talk about because they want a baseball game? >> No, I mean, like, we can do the funny, like, and you mentioned it, it's like the funny, like, yackity sacks of Vlad and George Springer. >> Yeah. >> And you actually mentioned the one hinge point of little getting the out there and it's like, "Okay, there it is. >> That's the game. >> Yep, yep. >> Yeah, you just factually, like, the worst, the White Sox have won games this year. The Blue Jays won five of six, like, as bad as the Blue Jays are, Blue Jays have won five of six games against the horrible White Sox. The White Sox won one of those games. >> That's true. >> They'll win more games. >> That's a great way to point it. >> The White Sox will win more games. So, yeah, eventually the Blue Jays are gonna win. The Blue Jays are quite bad. >> Yes. >> We can all agree. >> Again, like an inner, your friends, if they love you, should have an intervention for you. >> Yeah, so there's sellers to some degree as we head towards the July 30th trade deadline. I think we can all agree, like, your insane cuckoo bananas nuts, if Jimmy Garcia returns from the IL and he looks like the guy that he was before he got hurt and you do not sell him off to the highest bidder at the deadline. Same with Danny Janssen, who was returned to Earth and probably shouldn't have expected him to be like a 900 OBS guy. >> In his defense, he only hits, he only hits like clutch hits. >> That's right. >> So, it's like you need to make the games important and then he will shine. >> Yeah. >> Half-joking, but kinda not. >> Yeah. You say, Kikuchi, all those guys that are not under contract for 2025 should be waving goodbye to the Toronto Blue Jays at the end of July. >> Yep. >> Vlad and Bo, it's a different story because who the hell knows? There's one more year of team control for both of them. Those are mammoth, earth shattering, franchise altering changes that may happen at the deadline, may happen in the off-season, those guys may be extended, one of them may be extended. Who knows? Okay, if Boba Shett does what I still anticipate him doing, because he has not shown a season, a single season in his majorly career, where start to finish, he's just been bad. He has not done that. He has not just been bad. He's had slow starts, similarly slow to this in 2022 and salvaged the whole thing with an incredible month and a half to wrap it up and had an OPS over 800 and again lead the American League in the hits in 2022. If he does that in the next month, Brent, is it more likely, less likely, that he's a Toronto Blue Jays starting the month of August? I think more, I still think this is a team that is not in a position unless someone gets just out over their skis in terms of a offer for one of these players, that it is not a team that wants to go and make these decisions at the deadline. I understand that as well. You want it? These are franchise, like Jimmy Garcia, okay, go trade him, go get something for him, Danny Jansen, I wholeheartedly believe all that. Those aren't franchise altering decisions. They certainly affect the way your franchise goes one way or another. You get the right magic beans and all of a sudden you're laughing, so it's not to say that those trades aren't consequential, but quite frankly, they're inconsequential compared to one of those two guys. So I think that you, this front office is still saying, prove it to me, show me that I want you here, show me that there is something that we can build around, even if it's just with the two of you and we have another kind of pivot. I still think that is where they are, they're predisposed to go. That is how they've always felt and not in terms of, all right, we're ready to give these guys each 10 year, I don't know that they're quite at that place, but I certainly don't think just because you're not at the place where, okay, I'm ready to get married, doesn't mean you're ready to break up either. Like there's a massive chasm between those two things and I think the other thing we've talked about a lot this year is, you know, even, I'm sure Shapiro still has faith in Atkins or he wouldn't be here quite frankly, but I guess, but I think even Shapiro says, I don't know that I want that guy making these moves under duress. Maybe you have more faith in him if he can go hang out at the winter meetings and I realized people are rioting now the thought of Atkins still beating the GM at the winter meetings, but I think that that's the way they look about it is you do not, if you don't trust the guy to make a good deal, you certainly don't trust him to make one under the gun of the deadline with a smaller pool of teams available to you and it's really going to be, you know, the dog, let's just say it's Bishad, the Dodgers being against, you know, it's a shortstop. Again, like, yes, teams will be able to say, ah, we can put our guy at second bow, maybe slides over to second, but it's a shortstop for a marquee team. This is not just adding a bat or it's not a corner out fielder. So that's why I think it is more likely if they get a centilla a hope out of Bishad that they say, no, no, we're doing this in the off season if we're doing it at all. So that's my, that's my belief on it. Yeah. No, I hear what you're saying and you made some valid arguments. Thanks. I disagree. I know. So, so here's, here's the thing about Bob Shit is I do think he's going to rebound. I think he's going to be closer to the guy that we've seen every single gear of his majorly career than one of the worst offensive players in baseball, which seems fair. Yeah, it's him and George Springer that have been the faces of offensive disappointment for this Blue Jays team and also, I mean, that being said, so like, I think he's going to be much better than he's been, which is like a very low bar. Mm hmm. And I think he's going to be much closer to the 800 career OPS guy that he's been. I don't think that's enough to save the Blue Jays season. I agree. And I don't think even some incredible winning streak, unless there's something that is foundationally different about this team that is the cause of it. And it's because like, Oh my God, the offense actually was a lot better than we thought. And it's just been, it's been hiding in plain sight and there it is emerging over the next month, which I would be shocked, floored. Like this is one of the worst offenses in baseballs has been one of the worst offenses starts to a season in Blue Jays franchise history. So I don't think even Boboshette doing the thing he did in the final month and a half of 2022 in the next month between now and July 30 turns the Blue Jays fortunes to the degree that we're talking about them being over 500 and maybe in that third wild guard spot in the American League. So I don't think that's what's impacting the decision making here. What I think might be is the Dodgers are trying to win today, they're trying to win tomorrow in the year after, but they're trying to win today. Yeah. Okay. And they may, if they're smart baseball people, they can look at Boboshette and say, yeah, he's going to be better than this. I've been told they're the smartest baseball people as well. They can, they can look at Boboshette's career and they can look at some of there's even some numbers that suggest not a lot is different for him except for the results, the beginning of the season and maybe, you know, swinging some pitches early in counts that he shouldn't be swinging. Anyways, heard that before. Yeah. They can look at him and say, yeah, this guy's going to be better. But like, you know what makes them more sure of that? It's if he is that guy in the coming months or in the coming month before the trade deadline. If he emerges, re-emerges as Boboshette and like the Dodgers are kind of homing and on. It's like, yeah, it would be nice to have Boboshette and certainly fills a role and a hole with Mookie bets out. And when Mookie bets comes back, be nice to not have to throw him at shortstop. Yeah, no doubt that would be beneficial. And I know Boboshette's not the, he's not Andrewton Simmons there, but I think he's better defensively than he's shown this season. We've seen him be a capable, at least average league average defender at that position. I think the next month you can eat, you can very easily, at least I can very easily see a scenario where the Dodgers are like, we're the best team in the National League. We have the best player in the National League in another home run yesterday, Showeo. He's very good. And like, yeah, these guys aren't on one year deals. But like Tyler Glass now is like a pitch away from all his bones breaking. The name is fitting. Showeo Tawny is literally still recovering from Tommy John surgery. Hey, okay. But okay. I understand. This is, there is an expiration date on this window of contention for the Los Angeles Dodgers. It's a much easier sell if your Ross Atkins, God forbid. I know. I mean, that's a whole another complicating factor. The thing that you mentioned that like it's that that's the guy pulling the trigger on this. We'll talk to John Marosi after 730 about his thoughts on, on exactly that situation because it is a strange one where it's like, okay, you're so bad that you need to sell off the bigger pieces more than just the ones that are pending free agents, which means that the general manager needs to be fired, but it means that like your best opportunity to selling off those bigger pieces. Come like in the immediacy anyways, let's put that aside for the moment. If Boba shit looks like the best hitter in the American League over the next month. Yeah. And you're not going to sign him to the ginormous Corey Seager like extension that he's so desires and at that point looks like he probably has earned. Then you have no choice, but go to the Dodgers and hopefully there's one other team that is bidding up against them and say, well, not only do you get them for this run, and he's back to being the best hitter in the American League, you get him for next year. And he fills a need for you and he allows your other best player to move off of a position that he's really struggled at when he returns from injury. I think the Dodgers need to see proof of concept that he's he's back to normal and that he's not like all of a sudden having some weirdo regression season and Oh, maybe what we saw the first four years of his career is actually not indicative of the player in the overall. Yeah, I think that that's why you just go back to like my kind of view on it is that if the Dodgers get out over their skis, you absolutely do that deal, but it has to take that it has to be them so over eager. And I know you said we'll just park that elephant that you just shoved over to the corner there. My understanding and now, you know, part of it is, you know, following the game, part of it is having watched Moneyball. Mark Shapiro's seen a baseball game before, right? Like he got worked in Moneyball, though. Okay, I know. He got worked. Bad look for him. He absolutely got worked. But Jonah Hill's not around her. At least not any. I know. Twinkie. Well, but I mean, I mean, this pumping because he got Ricardo Rincon, who amongst us would not have been taken by Brad Pitt there. Like, let's be honest. He's so smooth. He's so charismatic. How could you not? But this goes back to part of the delineation of responsibilities here that I think is it is an unknowable. But I think is maybe the most interesting part of this is that, you know, Shapiro has separated himself from Atkins and has definitely taken on more of a business role. Like if you ask him what's the first bullet point on his resume, it's the ballpark. Better me. Better people. That's smart. That's what he would put it on. That's a massive, that is a massive job he was tasked with. It has. And don't ask the hitters, but like a great, the park in and of itself is great. The so that is the thing that he is kind of done, but he didn't get that job because he didn't come up through the ranks as like, you know, a baseball executive. And that is the part of this that I can't quite help, but parse or wonder is that how much of like Atkins is just kind of a meat shield for lack of a better term. Like I look at Shapiro and we have these conversations and we say, like, well, you can't possibly let Ross Atkins make this move. And it's like, well, can he, sorry, this is like the succession Kendall Roy, but it's like, do you want to call your dad? Do you want to call Mark Shapiro and ask him what he thinks about these moves that you might make? Like that's the part that I just, cause it, let's say, let's say everybody in Blue Jays land, all the angriest people on Twitter got their wish and Atkins was fired last night. Weird timing after the win there. Who's picking the GM? It's Mark Shapiro. And beyond that, it's not just Mark Shapiro and Ross Atkins, like, there is the James click of it all. Like it is a collaborative effort. Now that being said, and I, I, I believe that that's the case, right? Like, I think most front offices in 2024 in pro sports are collaborative, but there is like a reason why some guy has the name, right? Right. That says general manager. I bet he has a sick office, big desk, he gets the parking spot that's closest to the elevator, second, closest, president, general, maybe flat, then, yeah, there is a re, if there's no reason, then don't have one. Just call yourself general manager and president unless it's the meat shield thing, but like I would like to think that in any organization, there is a packing order, right? Like as collaborative as it may be, things are not ultimately decided collaboratively. Like there is a vote maybe and hey, is there a consensus? Wow. Amazing. Oh my God. Everybody agrees. Well, then there's no question. How many things in life can you get enough like 10 people together to agree on one thing? We're two people and we could barely agree on the order of the show. Yeah. It's usually, okay, you take everybody's information, you want to make sure that everybody feels heard. Mm hmm. And you. Yeah, you let them say their piece. Yup. Somebody's the ultimate decider. Of course. And if it's not Ross Atkins as the general manager, then why does he have the title? And like, okay, so maybe he's the ultimate decider and then the ultimate decider brings it to the ultimate, ultimate decider. Right. Right. But like, and I do think Mark Shabair was involved in the baseball operations part of this thing. And that was part of if people go back to 2015, part of the reason why he was intent on leaving Cleveland is because he had not as much of an impact on baseball operations in Cleveland as he had previously moving into his role as president wanted to. Yeah, he wanted to do the ballpark stuff and overarching things in Toronto and have the bigger payroll. But he also wanted to get back into baseball operations. Yes. But yeah, ultimately, if you don't have any say so, and not to say that the Ross Atkins could have said no to Mark Shapiro upon being offered this job, but like there are lots of baseball jobs in there and that's embarrassing if you're a general manager with absolutely no impact on the baseball operations decisions, I don't, I don't think it's no, I don't think it's no impact. I think it's only human nature that, okay, like just pick your company, right? Whatever it is. It's like a manager. I don't even know, like, you know, we don't have real jobs. I don't know the hierarchy of these things, but it's like a manager, a director of different levels of reporting. And guess what? For a issue that is a three out of 10 of important, somebody five steps down on the org chart is just allowed to make a decision on that. And guess what? That is, you know, that's your, you say, kakuchi trade or whatever, okay? You know what? Go, go, go ahead. It's a rental. He's performing. So, so this season, go ahead that you, you know what? Have at it, bud. No reins on you. I'm not going to put a leash. Go do whatever you want. But then you start going up the pecking order and it all of a sudden becomes, and again, like let's just forget about this from baseball for a second, think about the company you work at. When it becomes a decision that affects, you know, not the bottom line for six weeks or not the results of this quarter, but the stock price, the stock price and the future of the franchise, or sorry, I went back to sports, the company is a boba shed trade. Or I mean, we're not even really talking about this now, but a Vlad trade, right? So it's only human nature that, of course, the president and the CEO and the shareholders and they have a board meeting because it's a massive deal. So I don't look at this as some, well, you know, he has, he has the kid gloves on. He's not allowed to have the car keys. No, he's allowed to have the car keys. But guess what? If all of a sudden it goes from a car to like an 18 wheeler transport truck, maybe it bring in more people or it's not a car. It's a plane now and you need a bit of a co-pilot there or you're, you're the guy who knows more about planes, but it's like maybe there, maybe that's when you let the pilot take over and you become more of the co-pilot. So I think it's just we look at this as such a slap in the face that he wouldn't be allowed to make that trade. And hey, part of it is a slap in the face because if he'd done a great job, nobody would be having this conversation, but it's also just human nature that the bigger a decision is. If you have a boss, he's going to want to, at the very least, just like, hey, what are you thinking about this? What's going on here? They're not, they don't want to know about it after the fact. They'd like to be involved step by step. Yeah. And in most organizations that have more of an individual owner, like that's an owner type decision. Yeah. Like an owner would be, and I'm sure there is, listen, the inner workings of, of, of the way Edward Rogers is involved in the Toronto Blue Jays, kind of mysterious. We know that, listen, I think the reporting is out there, and I've heard that Mark Shapiro and Edward Rogers, they've worked simpatico and there's very good working relationships there. Yep. But I would imagine like a deal of that magnitude might go all the way to the top of Rogers. Like you're talking about to the guys that are the faces of this franchise and have been for the last half decade in deciding to start a new era without Boba Shedd would be a huge franchise altering move. He's not reading about it in the paper. Yeah. He's not. I don't know if, if, and Raj is listening, okay, I don't know, but he wouldn't be finding out tuning on, tuning into the fan morning show going, what? The trade of Bo? Yeah. No, of course, right? Like it's only natural. And that doesn't mean that ownership and like we can make about this ownership, we can make about it. That doesn't mean that ownership goes like full brand new NBA owner and is like, I really like this lefty. They got in, in low way. I don't think that's what we're talking about here. We're talking about you just want to be informed is again, this is not, this is not a, yeah, you know, let's restock the cupboards a little bit. No, this is a complete change of course trade. Of course, of course, people up the flagpole, get informed or up the totem pole, get informed about it. But it's just a matter, and I think that anything of this nature is not a one person deciding to look like we talk about the Dodgers, like they're the greatest org and they, and like, yes, is there an ultimate decider there? Yes. But what do we talk about all the time? It's there. It's like they're, they're raised west. They took all these guys and they have all the brain power there. So I, I look at it and I, that's, that's what I keep kind of coming back to. Yeah. So if it is like if, unless you're like just cleaning house in the front office, which I honestly, I find it hard to believe that Mark Shapiro is going to be out of here considering no chance. How many other things frankly that, that he's done. And if he's still here, unless you take the decision making part, a power baseball operations part completely out of his hands, then I think a lot of the things that happens with the actual baseball team with Mark Shapiro as the president remain the same. And even if it's James Click as the GM, the, the collaborative, the group think that happens when it comes to all the baseball decisions remains the same with or without Ross Atkins. So it would be a largely an optical move to fire Ross Atkins, which I kind of think it, it is and would have been and would have been a nice little move this past off season to give the fan base their piece of red meat and the guy that has become the target of fan ire. And honestly, rightly so. And he, not exactly, you know, ingratiating himself with every public comment. Is it worth like we talk about, hey, you can't fire a GM in season, especially in a moment in time in this franchise's history where so many important decisions are made. But if it's just a collaborative effort, anyways, why not give people their piece of red meat now? Like if that's the way it works where like fire Ross Atkins, and it's like, yeah, it's just kind of an optics thing. Okay, give us the optics thing. Well, I also think that they obviously haven't made up their mind on this one way or another because I think part of it is the Dodgers will make up their mind as if the Dodgers just come in heavy handed and say, we want Boba shed, I think at a certain point, it would get to you just be ridiculous not to to look at it. But if you've already decided, and you talked about this at the start of the show of if they go on some run or Boba chef performs it more or less likely, if they've already decided he's going to be here until the winter, then there is no reason not to fire the GM now because that's the big decision. I think that you can have a James click or it's, you know, whoever else placeholder X, make your Garcia trade, your Janssen trade, your Kakuchi trade, those can be a GM that is brought in. And again, if it's click, it's not on the fly, it's someone who's been there all along. I think you can do it. The only reason quite why I shouldn't say the only reason, I think that when the season's gone as bad as it is, I don't think you want to throw in, not throw in the white towel, but basically invite a flare like, Hey, it truly is terrible. We're firing a GM season, which never happens. I think that's the other part of it as well is that if they've made up their mind on this already, why would they fire them in season other than just to appease the fan base? And I'm not saying there's not an element to that that carries merit, but we say it all the time. You cannot do things in this business strictly to appease the people sitting in the seats or you'll be there with them. What's the burky liner? Yeah, no, it's a round. It sounds sort of similar. It's close enough. No, you can't, but yeah, I mean, if you can do it also, like if it's like, if it, you know, kill two birds with one stone, get two birds stone at once, like why, why not? Before we take a break here, like, so I do, sorry, just one other thing on the specific GM search of it all, this is something that I think I'm more like curious for your opinion on, and I have a hardened one on myself, not to make everything about the leaves. But when Cal Dubas departed, my biggest issue with the true living hire was not true living. It was that they were in a bind and they had to take the guy who was there. How much does that impact the timing of it all? Like to me, it's like you can have click as an interim and then you can go in with your big search in the off season if that's what you want to do. But how much does that kind of weigh into it as all is the timing of it. And when you want, like, do you want to give click a chance, like, how much of that would be the best job interview you could possibly have if you're not making your big sea change trade of a Beshed or whoever it is. And it's like, okay, James, click, show me what you can do. You got some nice pieces of the deadline. Let's see what you could do. Like, how much do you think that impacts the timing of the decision? No, it's a great comparison because there are, there are similar points in their organization now. The Maple Leafs weren't like not going to make the playoffs, right? Like, but you're talking about huge decisions with huge foundational franchise pieces. And one guy, there was just no doubt that you were going to do whatever it took to extend him in Austin Matthews. So that was like, pretty simple thing. But like, the clock was ticking on the Mitch Marner and the no move clause that was kicking in. I didn't even think of it that way. Yeah, you're right. Yeah. Yeah. So, I mean, bringing in a new GM at this moment, even if it's in the off season with one more year of team control and Beshed and Vladimir Guerrero Jr. haven't been dealt with the deadline now. Yeah. I mean, does it make it less likely that it's someone outside of the organization that comes in because, I don't know, do you want that person's first move? I mean, Alex anthropologist has proof of concept here. His first move as general manager of the Toronto Blue Jays was, Hey, trade the franchise's best pitcher away. He's like, got it done, Kyle Drebeck, hardly knew yet. Yeah, I think for that reason specifically, and last again, that Edward Rogers has just seen enough. It's like you sold me a bill of goods and Hey, the things you said about the, the ballpark and rejuvenating it and making a baseball specific and, and the accoutrement and making it more of a destination than it has been in years previous. It's all been correct. But you also said, if I spend into the luxury tax, we continue to win and we look like at the best, the fourth worst team in the American League. So everybody's got to go. Yep. But save for that. I don't think much changes in the front office, even if Ross Atkins is fired, and honestly, yeah, that might be for the best because bringing in somebody midstream, it, that's a tough spot to be in because of the brand for a living concept. Yeah, totally. I, I think it's a very, very tough spot to be in. It's not one I envy the Jays in, but it's like they've also, people have been yelling to like, there's an iceberg over there like, get out of here, relax, iceberg is going to start hitting. Have an eight 70 OPS. I don't know what you're talking about. And it's like, well, the iceberg is right there. Now we got to watch out. Yeah, speaking of icebergs. So I noticed this the other day was kind of, it was, it was taking hold a little bit on Twitter and it got picked up by sports on actually yesterday. I do wonder how much of this is impacted by, by things that are happening behind closed stores. But Vladimir Greer Jr spoke to a Spanish speaking media outlet. Yes. And addressed this comment that he made a couple of years ago about like, even if I were dead, I would never play for the New York Yankees, hate the Yankees. Love it. And at the time I was like, yeah, you know, speak to the fan base. Like tell them Vlad talking about pieces of red meat. Oh, what's better than your franchise player saying he hates the Yankees and it has nothing to do with money. He just, he couldn't have, he could never, his skin would crawl if he, if it had to touch pinstripes of a Yankee uniform. Oh, that was then this is now this is to a Spanish speaking media a couple of days ago. Sometimes one says things. It is not that I am trying to take back what I said about the Yankees. This baseball is a business and I've sat down to talk with my dad and my family because it's a business decision. I've told them that I didn't want to talk about it anymore. Like I tell you, I'm a player and if a team picks me or if they do something, it's because they need it, obviously, and I'll be happy to help any team. But right now I'm just focused on helping my team try to get out of this bad streak. So okay, we're not going to talk about it anymore. It's not thing forefront in my mind and I'm not going back on what I said. Yeah. But also there's a softening of a pretty hard stance, their friend, is there anything to that? Yeah, it's not nothing. I mean, you got to ask the question. I'm always, always a little weary of, you know, like an interview that you don't watch or that I don't like you're reading the cadence and that especially one that's translated like that. I'm trying. So you don't want to go too heavy on it. But I mean, he once said never and now he's saying maybe that ain't nothing. And that is to me so indicative of just where this Jay's thing is at. When he gave that quote, he'd never envisioned a world where he'd be anything other than a bluejay and Canada's favorite son. And we'd be sitting there, the picture of him tipping his cap or his helmet in an exposed uniform when he was a small boy would be on the money. That's how well this was going to go when he initially gave that quote. And now you see how things are going. And he's got one year left and he just had an hard fight with the team and maybe they want to trade Bishad and everybody else is leaving and all his friends have left. It's not nothing. It doesn't mean the world. It doesn't mean Vlad sitting here wanting out by any means, but it certainly isn't nothing. It is just very indicative of how the franchise felt when he probably gave that quote and how it feels to be part of that franchise right now, honestly to me. No, you said the thing like at least it's something that's crossed his mind now as a realistic possibility. And beyond that, it's a question he's being asked now, right? Like people are now saying the quiet part out loud. Hey, man, what happens if you're dealt with the deadline? The Yankees aren't just some pie in this guy like team picked out of nowhere. They have a rookie Ben Rice playing for space right now. Anthony Rizzo has been bad and heard like that they have a jillion years old. Yeah, they have an area that Vladimir Guerrero Jr. performing even the way he has would be an upgrade for them. Well, and this is kind of what I've talked about with the flatty of it all with this Jay's team is you can you can be as disappointed as you want that he's not MVP and he's not 40 bombs flat, but you put him in a great lineup. And all of a sudden, these singles turn into run producing singles. Like it's a very different when you're when he's not going to ask me the two hit or they're the three hitter there, right? It's going to be a different spot in the lineup for him. And guess what? And driving a ton of runs doing it and you're going to feel differently about him. He won't be any different, but you would feel differently about him on a, you know, a good deep lineup. Anyways. Good stuff. Blue Jays, what do you get? Maybe like the 15 game winning streak is is this is game one of 15. You calling it? I'm not. Neither. No, not. I'll talk to John Marosi after seven thirties. We get back into the blue Jays, but coming up next historic moment in Kansas City of all places for Team Canada at the Copa America, their first ever win at that event. And the first win over a South American team in 24 years will get into it. And more next is the fan morning show continues, Ben and his Brent Gunning sports F5-9 to the fan. Breaking down the top stories in the NHL every day, the jazz Mary show, subscribe and download the show on Apple, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. It's going to say scoreless draw, but that hasn't happened in a major tournament either. I mean, it did happen in a friendly against France before the Copa America. We actually have tangible points for Canada soccer to talk about at a major international event is Canada picking up its first ever win at the Copa America beating Peru. One nothing and Peru is like, Hey, they're not Argentina, but they are ranked higher than Canada in the FIFA World rankings and take that for what it's worth, which I'm not sure as much, but I know I just to be clear, I have no opinion on the matter of FIFA World rankings. There are 31 and Canada's like in the 40s. Anyways, it's like it's it was a possible result and we talked about the odds yesterday. Canada was actually favored to win the game. So it ended up that way wasn't easy, no, even with Peru down to 10 men in the second half. Should have been nine. Yeah. We can talk about that, but whatever it's three points and now with a draw on Saturday against Chile, who just lost one nothing to Argentina yesterday, Canada can advance out of the group of the Copa America. So that would be genuinely exciting. I have to say, no, no, like I know this like goes without saying, but that is, I think Canada soccer, it just had these flashpoint moments of like you qualify for the World Cup. And then kind of goes what you had. You're waiting for your moment. And I genuinely think that is such an easy thing to grasp for people of just like, Hey, they made it out of the group stage. Like they did, they accomplished a thing in a tournament with real teams. Like I don't think we can, and I know you weren't trying to, but if they are able to do that, I actually think that would be massive in terms of the perception and it would allow it to kind of break through, but just beyond like the soccer people, I feel like that would genuinely break through to kind of more kind of casual sports fans. Well, this is what I wanted to ask because I, I watched the Argentina game and sure they were encouraging signs. Also, Maxime Crippo, who's like, to me, it looks like the reincarnation of John Luigi Buffon. Like he's like the greatest goalkeeper in the history of the sport because he stopped messy twice, like on a breakaway. I go to for great soccer goalies is always that guy with like the big Afro that was on the like Columbia national team, Bush, Pablo Escobar. Yeah. Yeah. Anyway, he just looks at, it looks like a young Craig forest out there. By the way, spicy tweets from forest last night, I don't know if you saw those dropping there at bombs. Always loved it. Craig forest, one of the most genuine people and passionate people you will be fired up. Yeah. Greg golfer as well. Anyways, I didn't know that. I'm not surprised. Don't tempt me. I mean, he stick to this issue at hand. He and I have a winning partnership. We played in a, in a charity tournament, wooden sticks and we took home some nice hardware. Anyways, not a big deal. So all besides the point, so this is what I'm curious about because it's like one thing to say and rightfully say, hey, we hung with the speaking of FIFA world rankings, the number one team in the world. That's Argentina. Very good. Yeah. The reigning World Cup champions with the greatest player that maybe has ever lived currently playing in, maybe not at the peak of his powers, but not too far away in Leo Massey. We hung with them, actually created some chances. Mm-hmm. Now they created a whole bunch and we needed some incredible saves from our goalkeeper. Our man crap. Both. Whatever. I'm going to say that and it's like, yeah, but you still lost, right? Like you lost. Mm-hmm. Like at some point, and it's one thing to, hey man, hang in there for 90 minutes against Belgium and look like the better team and not score in that game and lose. Yep. And it's another thing to, hey, Alfonso Davis scoring this country's first ever goal at a World Cup against Croatia and having a one-nothing lead, but losing. Mm-hmm. And it's one thing to continue to have these admirable losses and it's another, to even in a game where they were, I mean, thoroughly outplayed in the first half. And even when they were down to 10 men in the second half, Peru had plenty of chances to at least escape with a single point, but whatever, scoreboard, they earned three points. To me, this seems obvious, but that's, that's important to actually get a result as opposed to like, hey, talking to soccer people is like, was that good? Like, was that a good loss? You don't need anyone to explain to you the three points and a victory is good. Yeah. No. Yeah. That's a great way to put it. And the result thing, I don't think can be overstated. You mentioned golf, so now it's on my brain. There's this thing, it's a mental block, right? Like everyone, everyone who plays golf relatively frequently has a score. They're comfortable shooting. And sometimes you play better than that and you go, oh, this isn't supposed to be. Let me, let me just put this ball in the lake just to get things back on track to where they're supposed to be. Yeah. And I think that's the case with any team that hasn't, or is trying to achieve new levels kind of year over year, build the program to where they want it to be, is that there is a bit of a mental block, I think of you play a good game against Belgium, but you just can't find a way or you open the scoring against Croatia and you can't find a way to hang on and get that thing home. I think it is massive just in terms of the mental block that they might have had, and I don't think they ever would have put it that way. And I'm not saying that's necessarily what happens, but when every single time you sit there and you say, wow, we played really well and we have kind of nothing to show for it. There is, it cannot be overstated what it means. I mean, just from a kind of, you know, moment standpoint, it's awesome seeing David get the goal and it's a young Canadian, I mean, they're all Canadians, but it's a young Canadian who sets them up. I thought, I tweeted this yesterday, I thought I was done yelling, get in until September, and I was barbecuing, I was watching on my phone, big yell, my wife's going, me screaming about and she was floored to hear Canada soccer, but it was awesome, it was a moment. Yeah, we can all understand that winning is good. Oh, God, it's the best. We can figure that one out. We don't need to be told that, hey, what a great loss that is, okay? At a certain point, yeah, you can take all your expected goals and all your shots on target. There's another sport that we're kind of sick of hearing about that. Like, just eventually just win multiple rounds in a score on the power. Anyway, win a soccer game in a major event. They did. Yeah, they beat Peru, who drew Chile and their opening group stage matchup. So and like again, Chile just lost Argentina one, I think you lost Argentina too. So I think a very reasonable expectation to possibly come out of that game on Saturday with the draw. And like you said, that would be a huge moment to get out of the group. Yeah, what in the David, David getting the goal, I don't think you can kind of overstate what that means. You know, we talk about going to soccer people and saying, was that good? I'm supposed to, I'm, I'm supposed to be proud of us in that, that loss or we had a draw or nothing happened in the game, no one scored a goal and I'm supposed to be happy. Jonathan David is the guy at least yet when I talk to the soccer people, like all of the other guys that it's like a stockio, it's like, I'm not going to pretend to like understand his genius or whatever. But it's like, you get it. He's confident out there. He has a good first touch. He's makeup. I'll find so David, you could never have watched soccer and say, he's very good. Jonathan David has been the guy that we all hear about. He's like leading the French league and goal, but you don't feel like you've had these kind of moments for him necessarily and having him come through in that spot. I think he's like four behind Larry now for the all-time Canadian leading goals and that's what it's supposed to be. If this generation's going to do anything and that's not take anything from Larry, who's a part of this and has been there, but it's with Jonathan David, quite frankly, running away with the goal scoring lead in this nation's history to see him get one again. Like you'd take it from anybody. You'd take an own goal if it means a victory, but I think it's massive for it to be that guy because Fonzie has had his moments and it felt like there's a big one for David listening. Yeah, you scored the only other goal that this team has scored in a major competition and it was the only goal they scored in the World Cup, but you're right, it's supposed to be, hey, Alfonso Davies plays on the best team in Europe, in the world, in Bayern Munich and he's regarded as maybe the best left back in the world. Jonathan David, here's the teams, so Jonathan David has one more year under his contract at Leel in the French League, so the way it apparently is playing out in the off-season of European soccer is that he's for sale to anybody in Europe. Here's a smattering of the teams that are interested apparently in his services. Give it to me. Chelsea, ever heard of him? I have. Manchester United. I think they suck. Sorry, Ryan, Fabro, but I have heard of him. Tottenham. Yeah. West Ham. Yeah. You could be talking about a situation where Canada has a player at Bayern Munich and a player at Manchester United or Chelsea or Tottenham. Yeah, it'd be quite a departure. It's like, I, again, just like coming to, I don't know what the right word is, but informing myself about this generation of Candace soccer, I'm like, "Wow, Stephen has stock in a place for Portal." Yeah. That's amazing. Yeah. It's like, no disrespect, but it's like, you know, there's a chasm between them and Chelsea or Man United or whatever. No kidding. Whatever it is. Also, I think the other thing that it does help buoy David and not that he's undeserving of all this, but we just love like a little alliteration and names that match, like with the Pittsburgh Steelers, right? Like pick it to pickens. It's like, I think we overrate both those guys because it sounds awesome. And I think the Davies to David, it just sounds so good. It needs to be great. No goals all the time. It really does. I needed another team or, in this case, a nation that I hate to, like, I hate Peru now. I didn't realize I had it in me. Well, and they were squawking, our producer, Azo, sent us the quote, like right at the end of the show yesterday, but they're like, Oh, these thug Canadians and punch them in the face. We have to apparently just head by a little Glasgow kiss. Who knew? I feel like they probably have a very different name for it down there. I got to be honest. I don't know the Glasgow kiss. I made it way down. Do you think? I'm fried, right? Not. I'd love to hear them say it though. Quite frankly. Yeah, but I didn't realize there was a burgeoning rivalry between Canada and Peru. I'd like to see these two teams play yet. Okay, I do have to be who I am for just like one second that again, I'm watching the game in the headbutt and I'm like, agreed, like, egregious. It's bad. Oh, I know what you're going to say. He didn't kill him. No, I agree. He like, it wasn't a headbutt. It was like a head push or like a head bump. I've seen, I've seen a headbutt. I've even seen a headbutt in soccer like glass in the deeds of Dan, but one looks like yeah. That wasn't that. That was to the chest. Yeah. No, no, I mean, you know what I'm talking about a glass guy with pills and that's like, that's like Ireland's probably like third favorite footballer of all time. Like, oh, what a good one's an end. But yeah, I like, I did look at that and go like, we have to, like, I agree. If we have to kick him out of the game for it, if that's the rules, kick him out of the damn game. But I'm like, we've got to kick him out of the game for that. I don't disagree. Okay. Thank you. Yeah. No, like, hey, every sport has a rules and I'm not going to come in here as an interloper being like, hey, tough enough, get up, rub a little dirt on it or what's that magic spray. They're always shooting on guys, rub it on your head. But I mean, come on. Yeah. No, it was. Okay. Just but it was a head. No, no, no. Like the idea I'm not sitting here saying, don't kick him out of the game. I am sitting here as though we should not discuss it as there was a war crime that was committed. Yeah. I agree. Okay. Thank you. And I was not as offended as the rest of the world that the Peruvian player was not well, you know, given a red card in that moment, I was only offended because I love to be aggrieved and complain about the officials. It was like, I saw everyone doing it and I'm like, oh, everyone always yells at me when I want to complain about the refs and hockey. But apparently this is this very on board. The actual red that they got though was like, yeah, anyone can see that. I think like, especially on replay, it's like, oh, I'm going for the ball. I mean, your ankles with both feet seems tough. I will say like, I give soccer players a lot of crap like, get up. I literally yell at my son in his soccer games, like quit being a soccer player and tell them to get up like that. It's a word that comes out of my, like, but I do sometimes think we like, and the soccer people don't, but the rest of us understate like how little fun that would be of getting two boots with studs or spikes or whatever directly to your ankle. Yeah. Not, not. Have you ever hit your ankle with like a wedge when you're trying to kick the sand of the bunker? Of course. Yeah. Sucks. So it's not ideal. Anyways. Electric soccer talk from me. Who knew? Yeah. Get on board, buddy. Well, I mean, a couple more years, we're going to have a home world cup here, but do you not see the growth right before your eyes? I do. Like, look at me. Yeah. That was exciting. Saturday is important. Again, I draw against Chile and they could be through to the knockout stage of the Copa America. All right. When we come back, draft's on Friday, but this fear, but not before the award ceremony tomorrow, Elliot Freedman says it could be a bananas week when it comes to moves. Does that mean Mitch Marner goes before Friday? Talk about that more next. Fan Morning Show continues, Ben, as Frank Gunning sports at 590 the fan. [MUSIC]
