[MUSIC PLAYING] Their bases are loaded for Kevin Kiermeyer. Fly balls eat like field. It is way back, it is good. A Gwen Slam for Kevin Kiermeyer to blow this one wide open. And away they run, he comes up to the plate, it's Corbin Carroll, it will over twice last night. On the in the air, the right center, that it is way a day. Kevin Kiermeyer has it. And the blue G's win it, and now Kiermeyer's going to show up for a roll. What do you do when you win a game in the outfield? He's a baseball player, veteran guy, understands the business of it. Huge swing, obviously. That's a weird game. Six runs, and then seven runs. But it's a big swing. Kevin's been doing that in his whole career, kind of overcoming things today, or today, or the last couple of days, another example of that. A really, really big swing. Welcome in to the fan morning, Joe. Sports at 5.9 in the fan map, our KZ Danieli and Franceski with you here. As we are part of your ride into work, we are part of your morning, and happy to be a part of that morning. Danieli, how are you today, pal? My name's doing OK. Pretty interesting weekend across the entire sporting landscape. We had international stories. We had domestic stories. It was pretty interesting overall. I mean, doing OK. I'm sure I won't feel as good tomorrow morning, because that's a natural progression as the week goes along. But you got the whole-- All right, all things considered today, Matty. How are you doing? I'm good. I'm good. You got the home run derby tonight, man. No, you know what? I mean, actually, not even though we wanted to start in this place. But I actually really enjoy the home run derby. I think it's a really fun, unique spectacle. It's one of those, in terms of the bar of these special events, these special attractions, you've got probably like the three-point contest. I'd probably go home run derby, because the dunk contest isn't what it used to be. And forget all the hockey nonsense. All those events are just eye wash at this point. But yeah, I do like it, so I will be watching tonight. There's no doubt about it. Yeah, same here. Not that Kevin Kiermaier is going to be in it, but that was a pretty big grand slam yesterday. From the recently-waved Kevin Kiermaier, and then Baroah trying to do his best Kevin Kiermaier impression in the ninth inning, that was fun. It was fun. It was a, you know, John Schneider said it in the opening club there. So weird game. It really was. It just, but it's kind of like, that's John's go to. It's weird. It's a weird game. Baseball, weird. Who'd have found game? But it is, it is feeling more and more like we're just seeing that all too often from the Blue Jays, especially of late. Yeah. It's probably been weird games because the offense has been good. But then they can't pitch to save their lives. Like you say Kakuchi after 13 strikeouts last week, you're like, oh boy, it was actually what date you and I were working together. Because we said, you know, if you say Kakuchi, if you're listening. I think you and I worked on the no, no, we didn't know. Oh, yes, in the afternoon. Yeah. Yeah. So on the start day, and we talked about the importance. Because he wasn't awake. Because he's so much. That's right. He probably needed more sleep yesterday based on that performance. And I know it was one inning that was, you know, that really caused the ever-outling. Yeah. It was just so bizarre. And then, you know, for on the other side, Zach Galan, who's who's in the bags ace just gets blitzed by this juggernaut of an offense. I mean, you can't, you can't put pen to paper on that and say, yeah, I predicted that. Yeah. That's exactly what I thought was going to happen. But the J's are now at the unofficial halfway point of the season, 44 and 52. And we ask you the question, the text question today, what was your biggest take away from the first half or the unofficial first half of the season? Text 59590 with your name and your location, standard messaging and data rates applied. I'll, I'll seed the floor to you right now as to what your biggest take away was from the unofficial first half. So I mean, for me, it's not overly, it's, it's quite simplistic. The true identity of this team revealed itself. Last year they were able to skate by a vague danger at every turn. They were remarkably healthy for the entirety of the 2023 season, particularly with their pitching. But the real identity of this group materialized and has, and has proven or has shown up, it's arrived and it's quite simple. They're not very good. They're mediocre and, and this is who they are. So if even I was toying, I was trying to figure out, okay, what would be one, the one word I would use to sort of describe it, to encapsulate everything that we've seen? And there were two for me. One was expected and the other one is predictable. It was kind of predictable. You could see this coming because they had defied logic last year in how they won 89 games and made the playoffs and they knew everybody in the world knew what the issues were and yet they weren't adequately addressed. So for me, I don't think, you know, people, there's a lot of people probably throw around the terms like under achieving, underperforming, disappointment. I veered slightly differently in that regard because I feel like if we just were being objective with how this team was constructed, it's hard to not see a pathway for them being in this position. I think at their best, their ceiling as a team at this particular juncture probably would have been a 500 baseball team. That's maybe with some better offense, a little bit more fortuitous with better fortune in terms of injuries, especially with the pitching staff. But apart from that, I would say it's about what I ve expected, Matty. And I think they ve really, really shown us the truth about them, which is that they're kind of mediocre and they're just in that murky middle right now and they have some difficult decisions to make, which is where they rightfully deserve to be. I don't disagree with any of that. I think it was, I think the way that you phrased it, you know, they were able to evade danger at every turn last year, whether it be on the injury front or, I mean, the only bit of adversity in terms of something unexpected happening last year was Alec Manoa completely going into the tank. Yep, that was the thing. Now it's like, it seems at every turn, there's something. My biggest takeaway from the unofficial first half was it's going to get pretty bad this year before it has the opportunity to be better next year. It's all right, the bullpen is already bad. They should be trading chad green. Yes. They should be trading Jimmy Garcia. If somebody likes Trevor Richards, they should be trading Trevor Richards. Like that it should, it should get bad because that's how you're going to get better. Now, having said that, and you and I talked about this on Friday, it's not as if there are a plethora of fringe MLB guys who are prospects that are ready to come up. Those guys have not like, yeah, sure, Addison Barger will probably end up finishing the year with the Blue Jays. But in a year where, if you had said that the season went like this, you'd be like, okay, so we're going to see a relevance Martinez. No, you're not. You might at the very end, but yeah, but at that point, I mean, you might get, I mean, who knows, you might get a week or two of them, I don't know, great. And then the other thing is is, you know, this year, maybe you would have saw Ricky Tiedemann. Probably not. Yeah. Those are the two top prospects in the system right now. And then after that, it's like, well, you're not seeing anybody else. Mm hmm. The only saving grace is you may see some close-ish major league prospects that maybe you acquire and deals because that's where I think the focus is going to be here as evidenced by their draft yesterday in the first two rounds, which they selected right-handed two right-handed pitchers. One was Treyya Savage, the other Cal Stephen in the second round. Both of these guys, college guys, and you Savage specifically based on everything that I've read, because I'm not a big college baseball guy, as you could probably imagine. He's a guy who can really kind of storm through the minors based on the skill set, based on just the age, all of that stuff. So that tells me that they do not plan to be bad for long. I know, I know what you're saying, but that's so foolish. I don't disagree, but I'm looking at it also from a business perspective too. Yeah. And the business perspective is, you can't have no buts in the seats for two years. It's just not practical, which is why I think at this deadline, you will see them acquire guys that are going to maybe be ready in three years. But I think the more likely scenario is they want to shorten that window to two or one. If you can acquire that type of talent. Personally, I think that's an incredibly selfish and self serving approach to this deadline. Now, I'm not disagreeing that part of the thought process will be aligned with how you presented it. Because I frankly, if it's this group that is still in place, which it will be in a couple weeks time that are making these decisions, Ross Atkins and company, they're in self preservation mode right now. They need to do whatever they can to ensure that this dip, this lull is not prolonged and it's not sustained. So I get that. They're trying to save their jobs. They're trying to salvage whatever this tenure has become. But I think in reality, that's probably that's probably the that's that's not the most feasible logical route to take, honestly, it really isn't. And in a weird way, it's actually appropriate that they played the Diamondbacks this week, this weekend. So and I had this thought had fully crossed my mind until the series actually arrived, like leading into the series. I didn't really think much of it. But last week, we had a lot of discussions about the J's and everybody that you talk to, there's now this implication in that they have a mutual, an innate inherent desire to be competitive again next year. Okay, well, what is the what is competitive mean, right? Like there are a lot of qualifiers. There are a lot of ifs and maybes that need to happen in order for them to even be in a position where they're a fringy wildcard team. That doesn't give me a ton of confidence like you were talking about if George Printer does this. If Bo does this, if there's health with the pitching staff, if your aging starters are able to still be remarkably productive and consistent, just too many ifs. If you can retool the bullpen, right? Think of all these things. There aren't bonafides in there. There aren't a lot of and nothing's a guarantee, but there aren't players or there aren't players that you can actually bank on as close to sure things in this system right now. And then I look at Arizona and this was a there's a fallacy here. There was a conversation a few years ago when the Raptors went and traded for Yakka Pertle and they said, and we all now it's like universally despised. I didn't like it at the time either. Neither did I. I was not a fan. But I think even I remember vividly at the end of that season when they sat there and they eventually obviously made the call to dismiss Nick Nurse, but part of the explanation from from Masai Ujiri was, well, let's look at what the Miami Heat did and he referenced the heat as a team that made it from the play and all the way to the NBA finals. And I thought, no, you're off base, man. You're way off these. You want to know why? Look at the roster. Look at the players. Look at the foundation that has been established and built. That Miami Heat team was in a completely different space in their competitive window than you were as a franchise. And this is the exact same thing. The Arizona Diamondbacks who are now a couple of games over 500. They're right on the fringe of the wild card mix. They're about a game and a half back, I think it is as of today. They made the playoffs last year with 85 wins. They go and they make the World Series. Now everybody points to see, you just got to get in. You just got to get in, yeah? Look at the team. Look at the players. Look at their lineup and compare it to what the J's have and what they project to have in 2025. Catal Marte, Allstar, Christian Walker, Allstar Snub should have been there. One of the better first baseman in all of baseball. The depth top to bottom in that lineup. They've got A.U. Hanyu Suarez hitting seventh, who at least hits for power. They've got Geraldo Perdomo at shortstop that is very good on both sides of the ball. They have pitching depth all across the board. Heck, their rotation right now, they're missing Eduardo Rodriguez. They're missing Meryl Kelly. They're missing Jordan Montgomery. And yet the team is still fine. They still are trot no Zach Gallin, Ryan Nelson. Right? They have the young kid, Gilbert Diaz, who looked pretty good actually on the weekend as well. Like, who scares you on the J side of things? Who scares you? Who is on? We named two guys in the lineup offensively, Bowen Vlad. And then we're like, hopefully you get something from the other guys. That's not a recipe for success. That's not, that's not a formula, at least with Arizona. We go top to bottom, throw Jack Peterson in the mix, throw Lourdes, throw Gabby Moreno in the mix. Get to roster. And then I can actually legitimately say, yeah, you know what? If I was Arizona, I would 100% start talking, try to talk myself into, let's just get in and see what happens. But if you're the Blue Jays, you cannot compare. You cannot compare. They can't hold a candle in terms of roster construction to the quality of talent that is on the Arizona Diamondbacks. And that's a team that was the third wildcard that was in the World Series last year. And everybody points to as the reason, the example of why the Blue Jays in 2025 should choose to be a, to quote unquote, be competitive versus trying to retool and rebuild. Reality is they're in completely different places as franchises right now, and nobody wants to acknowledge that. But it is the truth. They're in completely different positions and the Jays are not remotely close to what Arizona is. I hate this idea of, like you mentioned, that just just get in thing because not every, not every scenario is created equal, which is exactly what you outline there. And that is the, that, that's just lazy. It's lazy analysis. It's lazy for a team to just say, well, look at what the other team did. Yeah. Well, the other team has actually gone through the pain before they did. The Arizona Diamondbacks were bad for a bit. They, I mean, not for a bit. They had an extended stretch. Yes. And it was just, but the Jays have not had that recently. And in the past, when the Blue Jays have been bad, they haven't gotten bad enough. Like that's the one kind of carry over in all of this is that yes, they have had the best prospect in baseball before. And their farm system was projected to be good. But it turned out it wasn't. And then they, they, all, everything went out the door. And now they have nothing left, like there's nothing left in the cupboard. So this is the other interesting philosophical sort of piece to all of this. In baseball, unlike other sports, you can't, it's, I, this is where the, I don't want to say the argument holds water. But this is where I, I can empathize with people that say, well, you just kind of continue to stay competitive as long as you can. It's the idea that you can't tank your way to the top in baseball, right? You can't bottom out and then replenish your system because the draft as we, I mean, heck, you know, it's so different compared to the NHL, compared to the NFL, compared to the NBA, where we are so in attuned to what's going on. And these prospects that are, that are entering the draft, they are going to make, for the most part, a lot of them are going to have an immediate impact. In baseball, you have to wait and it's not a sure thing. Like the kid that got drafted first overall yesterday, for instance, by Cleveland, there's no guarantee he ends up being an everyday major league player. There really isn't, right? >> Well, we've, there's plenty, there's plenty of evidence to show that it is not a guarantee. >> Right. And now, in recent years, we have seen more of a, more of an emphasis on players being drafted, developed, and arriving in major league baseball. There have been more success stories in that regard. As of opening day this year, Matty, 2024, 35% of rostered players were drafted in the first two rounds of the MLB draft, okay? So that's a pretty, that's a pretty sizable number. That tells you that as time has progressed here, we're starting to see the fruits of the labor in developing and, and sort of mining those first, those first top 60 picks. It's important to hit on those guys without question. And there's also now an added element of, of how much you are investing, like the slot pricing and all this nonsense. So teams are going to want those players to obviously make it and excel. But to get it back to where I was going with all this. In other sports, you can make up for poor management, for oversights in terms of your development and how, and how you, your player development and how you approach team building. Because one, two, three, four players can make a big difference. So if you're drafting first overall, look at what this happened with the San Antonio Spurs, right? They, they are fortunate enough. They win the lottery in the year where they get Victor Wembanyama, right? Any other franchise that would ended up with Victor Wembanyama would be feeling the same way right now, which is eternally optimistic. There's a lot to look forward to, they'd be feeling very good. Like your franchise just completely was overhauled overnight in the span of making one pick. That's all it took, one pick. Baseball, it's less about that. But this is, again, all goes back to your, your front office needs to be able to identify, talent, and foster a system. They need to cultivate a system and this organization has failed to do so. That is most evident when you look at how they compare to every other team in the American League East and you look across baseball like there's nothing we can point to to say, okay, they want to tell us that they're, they're indicating to us they want to be competitive next year. And how? How are you going to do that? How are you doing that? Are you spending another 150 million on your payroll in order to go acquire free agents? Are you going to make true trades here and there? Because you're certainly not developing anybody. So what, where is the pathway? That's what I'm struggling to sort of see right now. Where is the pathway? Paint the picture for me. Yeah, and the other thing is too is, you know, we talk about the draft and the decision made yesterday by all accounts, their first draft pick trace average probably shouldn't have been there. Yeah. Right. That's a top 10 talent for most people. The fact that he was there was kind of a steal for the, for the J's now by all accounts they reached on their second round pick, Cal Stephen, but having said that, if you read up on him, like a lot of people are very impressed with the body of work, especially how he played down the stretch this year for Mississippi State. But at the end of the day, you're right. It doesn't, all that stuff means nothing if you can't develop any of these guys. And this front office has had an issue with developing young talent. There's no question about that. The other thing, the other thing in this conversation is as well is the direction that this group is going may not be like, I think that that is not super clear because we don't know who is going to be guiding the ship. So that is part and parcel for, I don't know what's going on here. And I think that's a very fair assessment. Now you can also say, you can spend money and still develop talent. Because I think there's this misnomer in sports in general where if you spend a lot of money, you can't develop talent. Like that, and especially in baseball, it feels like that. So if you're a high payroll team, it means your farm system is going to be not very good. Well, I'm sorry, but the LA Dodgers spend more money than the Lord himself. And they have a top 10 farm system every single year. Why? Because they invest in the development of these players. And I'm not saying that the Blue Jays don't, but what I'm saying is if they are, then something has to change because it's not working. So, is that because of, maybe it's because they don't draft enough high schoolers. Maybe they're already drafting guys at their near their peak that are college players. I don't know what the answer is because I'm not in those meetings and I've never been privy to that kind of information. But something is not working here. And I know we're talking like the season is already over, even though it does feel like that. There is still room to grow here. There's a lot that you can learn down the stretch here. How many guys are going to be a part of this thing going forward? >> Definitely. >> What does your, could you get a glimpse into what your roster construction looks like next year? I don't think completely. But I think you can figure out who's going to be here. I think we can say outside of something kind of crazy happening that guys like Spencer Horowitz, Davis Schneider, they're going to be there. Alejandro Kirk is obviously going to be there because, again, there's no value there. But if you trade Danny Janssen, somebody's got to catch baseball games for you. >> Yeah, there's no, there's no value though in Kirk anyway. So no conversation. That ship has sailed, but, but he's going to be here because he's under control. >> Yes. >> And so he'll be here. >> Oh, they love control. >> They love control. Like I love, never mind. So that, so that is, there's a, there are a lot of questions that need to be answered. And we're not going to get all the answers by the time this, the end of the season rolls around. Get some big ones answered, like if, if this front office remains the same, then that's going to give you an indication that they are going to try and be competitive next year. >> For sure. >> Does that change the conversation surrounding guys who are looking for extensions like Boba Bachetta and Vladimir Griro Jr. That I don't know. Again, I do believe that one will be back. I do not believe that both will be back. >> Mm-hm. >> Again, Texas, 590, 590, don't forget your name and your location. What was your biggest takeaway from the Blue Jays from the unofficial first half of the season? Standard messaging and data rates may apply. We got this one from Garrett and Alston. That's my neck of the woods. That is far from here. This season has played out exactly as predicted based off how it has been put together by the front office. >> Yep. >> Kind of echoing your sentiments there, is that the team wasn't very good. You know, it is not to lament the whole show-hay-o-tonny thing. But you know what was really funny about that was that I don't know if this front office felt like they were within striking distance, which I mean, they were, they were in it till the end. >> Yeah, they were. >> But the fact that there was like no backup plan. >> Yeah. >> That's what kind of- >> That to me is almost a fireable offense based on the fact that if you believe that your window is open, if you can't get the big fish, you better try and get the second one. >> Yeah, I think, that's- >> Cuz the second one was Justin Turner. >> Yeah. >> That was- >> Yeah. >> That was- >> That felt like the backup plan later. But exactly my point, cuz there wasn't much left. >> Yes, it was a shallow market to begin with, obviously. But okay, obviously, we've relitigated this stuff many times before. But my position on sort of the whole Otani chase was, I think, honestly, they probably should have tried to do what the Yankees did, the Yankees jumped the market and they traded for Juan Soto. >> Correct. >> And they did it at a point where everybody thought the first domino to fall would be Otani, then you'd find sort of there'd be a resolution would arise in the Soto situation with the Padres. >> When everybody zigs, you got a zag, man. >> Totally. >> And look how it's worked out for the Yankees. We'll see if- >> They had this thing called a team in place before that though. >> Yes. Mind you, it's funny, you mentioned teams of big payrolls and the idea, the notion that they can't develop talent at the same time, while the Yankees look at their roster, right? Like Aaron Judge, who is the face of their franchise, was drafted and developed by the New York Yankees. >> Sure. >> Right? Derek Cheeter, who was previously the face of their franchise, the captain before Aaron Judge, drafted and developed by the New York Yankees. There is a method to the madness. There is some evidence to support the science of drafting and developing and ensuring that you have a nice balance, healthy balance between trying to spend money and also ensuring that you are cultivating a good quality farm system with young talent that can hopefully eventually make an impact at the major league level. The show, I think, felt like it was sort of operating in isolation though. This is where I think maybe, just maybe, and I don't want to defend the front office, I'm not going to defend the front office, but in terms of providing an explanation for it, I bet you, at least this would be my perception of it, the money was allocated for one guy and one guy only, and it would have been for him. But anything after that, short of Otani, it was going to take maybe a heck of a lot of convincing to justify spending, what, $100 million, $150 million on Cody Bellinger or anybody else that was somewhat attractive in the free agent market, or to even trade for Juan Soto when he's an expiring contract. And if we think about what we've seen from the steam in 2024, frankly, are they a show hey Otani away? No, but they might be a show hey Otani and Juan Soto away, but right, but my point is they're not one piece away. No, there are multiple pieces away. There's plenty of work to be done. I use this analogy last week. This is not a case where you're just going into the emergency room for a quick, I was going to say quick trip. No, that visit takes like 24 hours, but it's not a case where you're just making an emergency room visit. It requires serious surgery. On what do we're doing rehab here? Big time. Like this is the Tommy John situation where you're on the shelf for a year before you can finally figure out who you are again and try to recover there in a position where there's a lot of work that needs to be done. So even if Otani was on this roster or Juan Soto for that matter, would they be better? Sure. Of course, would it be nice to have a player of that caliber that is able to support bow and Vlad and you have a real middle of the order threat? Absolutely. But they're not that one player away. There's a lot more work that needs to go into this there the gap between them and the best teams and baseball teams that are going to be there at the end competing for the trophy, competing for a World Series is pretty, pretty vast at this point. It is. Yeah, and I didn't want to like relitigate the Otani thing, but I think it is interesting to see that it did really feel like it was one and done. And that's part of the reason why this roster is where it is because that took so long to get done that other guys just ended up off the market. Here's a couple more texts on the text line 59590 name and location standard messaging and data rates apply. What was your biggest takeaway from the Blue Jays unofficial first half? This one here from Bruiser in Guelph, which is great. Oh, great handle. If inconsistency was the team's model, then they hit it out of the park hitting as atrocious, fundamental base running is brutal and pitching almost seemed like it purposely tanked to get out of to none of this season looked organized as an organization. That's a first of all, the handle is great. It's a, it's a valid point. Like that's this team was, as we like to say, consistently inconsistent. When the pitching was good, the bullpen and the offense is kind of, and then when the starting pitching wasn't good, the offense is good, but then the bullpen can't hold a lead. When the bullpen's been great, the offense only gets two runs. That speaks to a multitude of things. One, you're not good enough. You're losing a lot of one run games. That is the, to me, that is the classic indicator of you're not good enough when you lose multiple one run games. Like you're going to lose one run games throughout the course of the year. There's no question about that, but the J's have lost, they may be there. I think they're certainly top three. They may have lost the most one run games this year in the majors. That's just, that just can't happen. That's just not good enough. And so people can point to see that's the one thing too that, that teams will say, well, look how many one run games you lost. That's fine. You were close, but you didn't win. There's a difference between being close. What do we, what do we say? Close is only good in horseshoes, dancing and hand grenades. That's it. That's it. And close any other time. Don't matter as the great Sam Kinneson would say, I'm stealing this from one of our fellow hosts here. You know what's line I'm going with. If you're going to miss heaven, don't miss it by three feet. I've never heard that before, by the way. It's the first time I've heard that. Sam Kinneson probably missed heaven. He was. I don't know. Oh, man. Listen, I say that. I know I'm missing it. It ain't going to be by three feet. Come on, come on. So point point being is that, yeah, close is close is fine, but close ain't a good stat. Yes, bruiser first thing. Well done. That was a great, wonderful text. And there was one item in particular that I really, really appreciate in him and in bruiser pointing out the base running. I feel like it's been, I feel like we've done this for like five years off and on. But I feel like this year, frankly, it's been under discussed. I actually think it's been under discussed. It's supposed to be something that they're really good at with some of the talent that they have. Yes, it's supposed to be a strength. And this team, how part of the memory of how last season ended was Vladimir Guerrero Jr. getting picked off at second base in a playoff game in a playoff game. And they come back yet again. This team sucks on the bases. They don't, depending on what day of the week it is or what month they might run out ground balls. They might not. They get picked off a ton. They run into outs routinely on the bases. And then even when they have opportunities to make heads up intelligent baseball based running decisions, they fail to do so. And yet we don't discuss it enough. There's no repercussions. There are no consequences when these mistakes happen. It's just like, Oh, well, let's shrug our shoulders. We move on. We'll get them that that is a coaching issue. That is a philosophical issue. Where is the accountability? Where's the ownership? It's something that I've been dying to touch on for a while now, because I do think that is a major blind spot here. Whether it's your best player or your worst player, there should be a degree of accountability. If those mistakes that are within your control happen, if you strike out at the plate, guess what? It's a moving object at 95 miles an hour. Sometimes you're going to hit it. Yeah, we get it. Right. Sometimes you're not. But when you're standing on first base or second or third, and you have time to process what you're seeing and make decisions, stuff that you have been trained and educated on since you were young. And yet these mistakes happen and there's no repercussions. What are we supposed to make of that? What are we supposed to make of that? Yeah, that's just, that's just, that's a lack of focus. That's a lack of, like you said, there's obviously a coaching issue. Where's the accountability? There's no accountability. And that's, but can you tell it's early accountability? New tongue working it out. I don't know. I just thought that was interesting. You know, my biggest takeaway from was from the weekend, gay Morales is a jackass. Umpire, gay Morales, jackass, why throws, just he's just, oh, no, the throw. He throws out Bassett with a smile on his face. Really? There's some that that yesterday felt like some deep rooted stuff. That was not something that just happened yesterday. Sure. That's been building. And then he doesn't check. Like I get it. Umpire at home plates got the final call. But like, geez, everybody else checks. Why can't you? Yeah, I get it. And I get John Schneider's frustration and all of that. Well, it's nice to see John show some emotion like that. He was eager to get out of there. Boy, did he want to start the all star break early? He's like, all right, shower time. I don't want to be in this. I don't want to be standing at the top step of the dugout when we blow another lead like this. It was seven nothing. Now it's seven seven. I'm going to pick up my butt, drag it to the to the clubhouse, sit there nice and pretty for the last couple innings. And then that's it. Maybe pop to pop the cold one before he went to talk to the media. All good. He was ready to check out and go get his week long vacation and reprieve because he bought us he needed. Yeah, he's a games under 500 has been an adventurous first half for him. Yeah, he's definitely going to need it. We're going to take a break. When we come back, the Euro cup and the Copa America, they were one yesterday. There were games played. One of them had a really bad first half. The other one had a really bad game. Are we talking about the games? Yeah. Well, there was also some other things that happened too that we're probably going to get into. I don't know. Their security system at Hard Rock Stadium was breached like the Miami Dolphins defense. We're going to take a break. When we come back all that and more, it's a fan morning show. Matt Marquesi Danielli Franceschi with you right here on Sportsnet 590 the fan diving deep into leaps, Raptors, J's and NFL. The JD bunk is podcast. Subscribe and download the show on Apple Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. Welcome back. It's a fan morning show Sportsnet 590 the fan. We're off and running, baby. We're off and running. We're fired up this morning. This is what happens when you get like ample sleep. Yeah. I mean, the sleep helps content helps content certainly. Oh boy. I know you're disappearing after this and then gunning and I will hold on. I'm not disappearing from this program. I will be doing my own. Here's here's where here's where my your benefit. Like so you have to deal with doing the extra hour. So you're going to do three hours the rest of the week on this on this program with Brent gunning. Yep. And so that so you get that. My punishment is I get to leave here at five o'clock. Oh, yeah, but you're still living a normal life in normal hours. Is it a normal life? Come on. People work until five p.m. Maddie. I know, but I don't. I don't wake up at three thirty four o'clock in the morning. Oh, yeah, not all the time. I do four o'clock four o'clock in the morning to come here. Yeah. This you couldn't roll me out of bed at three thirty. Anyway, I know all our early morning grinders. They empathize because they're up right now and they're and they're texting us. So they must be feeling similar in terms of how what they're doing. But yeah, it's yeah. So that'll be that'll be my week. I'll be on three to five right here on sports and five nine. There we go on Tuesday to Thursday and then Friday one to four. Nice. I have no idea who I'm working with this week is the good. What do you call a smorgasbord is one of them. It's the TBD. It's the good captain T. Captain Tibbitt. That is the line and people that is an underrated line from D three mighty ducks where Dwayne Robert Robertson. They put up because it's supposed to be Charlie Conway. That's the captain when they go to school. The J. Not the JV varsity team. They're the other one. And he looks on the lineup and he says, who's Captain Tibbitt? He's like, no, Captain T. B. D. He goes, he goes, Oh, but that's your job, Charlie. That's we bring it back to three mighty ducks. Okay, so the European championships went yesterday. That first half, I was trying to be as to describe it. I was trying to be as polite as possible to say it was a nervey. Yeah, it was bad. It was awful. It was bad. It objectively was. It was someone. I think it was Patrick Dumont from our pals out in Calgary. And he said, of all the the the European finals first half, that was one of them. That was the best way to describe the most polite way. Now, having said that, it finished. It was an entertaining second half. Yep, Niko Williams, clinical love him. He was. And I know like, I know, I know Roger one player of the tournament. Man, Niko Williams was in that conversation. He was, he was. The difference is, is that he's not playing a central role. So the play doesn't, it doesn't necessarily flow through him. There's less of an impact on both sides of the pitch, whether and offensively and defensively. But for my money, he was probably the best, the second best player in that tournament for Spain. Yeah, I think well, second, I think that's the right way to frame it. Because I do think Rod, Rod, really was deserving. Yeah. And it speaks to how good he was. Because generally speaking, those central midfield players don't really have opportunities to win an award like that, given that they're not heavily involved in the offense and scoring goals, right? Like it's just, it's more of a, it's really more of a selfless role that you have to play for your team. But man, yeah, Niko Williams, so good. I mean, I think we throw aluminium all in there. Both guys celebrated their birthday over the weekend, by the way. And Niko Williams, turning 22 on Friday and Yamal, 17. Hell of a party for those two guys, I bet. Remarkable. And you could tell there's a natural kinship there. Like they love each other. Like those two guys are really tight as friends. I think, you know, we might have just seen arguably, I would, you know, say the youngest duo, the best young duo, but not even just that. They might be the best duo period in soccer, in global soccer at this point. Like they're, who's better? Like they're, they're, they complement each other so well. They connect on the goal yesterday for Niko Williams to open the scoring, the icebreaker for Spain. But not just that. There's, there's a level of symmetry in how they play. They are very, they complement each other beautifully. It's just really fun and enjoyable to watch. And yeah, I mean, I thoroughly enjoyed watching Spain play throughout the entire tournament and in large part because of those two guys, Jamal and Williams specifically. Spain had a downturn internationally. Like there was a brief one. It was brief, but there was a point where you're like, boy, Spain, they're not the same team. That didn't last very long. They have to cycle. That's it. And they have injected youth into their system the way that they've, that they've come back. Like there was a time where they were, they felt unbeatable. Yeah, they really did. They might be back to that. And it does feel like they're back. Delafuente, like if we think back to that era, so they went, they went Euro World Cup Euro, right? The only other team that's done that three straight major tournaments is the team that just won the club. And now Spain has won three of the last five euros. Yep. They have four major international championships over the last, what? What is it, Ford 15? She's 16 years. Yeah, that's impressive, man. That's impressive. And it feels like they've got the right coach to now usher in what might be the next dynastic era, because Luis Delafuente has this team playing in a very almost in an un-Spanish like fashion at times with how aggressive they are. They're very offensively forward thinking, always looking to attack and use space on the wings, which is very uncharacteristic of what that team in the late 2000s, early 2010s possession, right? It was that it was that Brazilian tikki taka. It was that's exactly what it was. Yeah. And they had the right personnel for it. Well, look at that mid-fits, that midfield. They were all there yesterday. Actually, which is weird. They all held the ball. Like they, you if, if any Esther or Shavi had the ball, you didn't touch it. Forget it. You just you could never get it off of them. That's what it felt like. Yeah. Spain has had the downturn, but for England, and this like we're going to, we're not going to have enough time to do that. We're going to do the Copa in the next block because there's lots to get to there. There's plenty. We're going to talk about Canada and all that. One with England. You know, it's funny. Jamie Keriger is Sky Sports, former Liverpool man, and he made the point because everybody's talking about Gareth Southgate now and his lack of aggressiveness with his subs. And you can make, you can make that argument. I can, I can hear that argument. But he made the point. International soccer is less so about the manager and more about the players. He said, because how many people casual or not knew who the Spain manager was going into this tournament. Totally fair. No hand up. So learned about him as we. So this is, so this is the point. You know what Spain had? They had the better team. And I know Peter Drury, who joined us last last week on the program on Friday. He was fantastic. He made the point. The best team won the tournament. Yeah. From beginning to end, Spain was the best team. That's not to take anything away from England. But England's expected goals over the course of the tournament and what they were able to put on paper, not the same thing. No, they couldn't score. So that's on the manager now. Okay. Maybe he could have injected Cole Palmer into the game a little bit early. He did end up scoring the equalizer, which ended up not meaning anything. But maybe he could have been more aggressive with his subs. Maybe Harry Kane probably shouldn't have played as much. But that's something that so many international managers struggle with is that that stalwart, the guy who's kind of your cornerstone, that even though he's probably a little past his prime, still plays more than he should. Because the argument is, if you lose and you don't plan as much, well, why didn't you plan? Yeah. So you can't win. You can't win. But for Gareth Southgate and this program, they've been to a World Cup semi-final under him. They've been to two European Cup championship games. Yep. They've lost all of them. But they've gotten there. Correct. That's the best string of success that this program has had in a very long time. Absolutely. So anybody calling for Gareth Southgate's head at this point, I feel like you need to really reevaluate where you are because there's another point that needs to be made here. There is a turnover coming for England here. You know, eventually John Stone is not old, but he's going to age out. Harry Kane is going to age out. Like we are getting to have a Kyle Walker is going to age out. We're getting to that. Luke Shaw. Luke Shaw. But then you have an influx of Jude Bellingham, Ollie Watkins. Yep. Phil Foden. Foden's there. You may know like there is there is a group that is there that is getting key international experience that is going to turn this thing over. So to say that Gareth Southgate is not the guy for the job, I think that's faulty. And I'm not a big Gareth Southgate guy, but you can't argue with the results of him getting to the games. When you get to a championship game, yes, you can deploy tactics, but it's how those tactics are executed. And frankly, England, they didn't execute yesterday. Yeah, it's tough. And they played a better team. No, that that goes. Yeah, I think I do think it needs to be stated very clearly, very plainly. And in the simplest of terms, Spain had been and was the better team. No question about it. They were throughout the entire tournament. And it was a deserve result for them yesterday, because they went seven and oh, didn't drop a single game, scored multiple goals, led the tournament and goals like very rarely were they down. Sell them like in fact, throughout the entire knockout stage, they trailed what so they trailed against Georgia, which was an anomaly, right? But then after that, they completely dominated that game. Really, if we actually, if we sort of think back to the whole, the tournament as a whole, where were the tournament have been without Spain? Yeah, right. Like where were the quality of soccer that we saw? And again, I actually, I enjoyed the euros more than I did Copa. Copa was fun. Just a couple had more drama though. It's just a different style. Yeah, right. Now for me, I prefer the tactical technical skill that that comes into effect when you're watching the European Championship. And we saw that on display, but it was generated largely by Spain. Like Spain was a great story. All the other big giants in that tournament kind of underwhelmed a little bit. France was super underwhelming. Right. Even England getting to the final? Yeah. It was we talked about it on Friday with Peter Jerry, knife's edge, baby. And even yesterday, there they are again, right on that knife's edge the whole way through. And they, and they did almost tie it. Oh, yeah. Oh, that save on riff on the goal. And that's, that's going to go down as one of the greatest defensive plays of all time. Totally. Right. Like from a guy that you probably wouldn't expect it from to save a game on the goal line to secure a win in the European Championship final. But Spain deserves credit for that. They scored 15 goals in the tournament, which is the most ever by a team in that competition. And it speaks to how consistent they were. It speaks to the quality of the talent. England Mike Mike. Here's where I struggle with England. This has been, as you laid out, their most successful run in quite some time decades, right? I think, I think you can now get to the point with England where we, it's if the conversation should be, all right, how do we, how do we get over the hump? How do we finish? It feels like Harry came for whatever reason who is still, I know you said, yeah, it might be on the down. He's, he's still in his prime at age 30 right now. Like he's still one of the best goal scores in the world. And at the club, we're just never going to win with him. Okay, this is what I'm getting to. He's eternally cursed for whatever reason. He can't, he, as the captain of England, just, they can't win the big one with him. Gerasilke, he's gotten them there, but maybe they need somebody else to shepherd them over the line. I think this team is due. They have too much talent to not get one. I really believe that. They are there. They're right there knocking on the door, but they do need some tweaks, some changes. And there's a part of me, and I don't know if you caught some of the quotes yesterday from Gerasilke after the match, but it was quite ominous. I don't know, I feel like he, even as somebody that is a believer and a lover of the program, feels like maybe, heck, maybe I, even I need to step down. Like I would not be stunned if the change happens on his accord, as opposed to putting the federation in a position where they have to make a change there. But as I see it, I think there are a few tweaks away, and I can envision England hoisting one of these trophies one day and happening fairly soon. But doing it without Gerasilke and without Harry Kane, or at least Harry Kane in a different role, I don't know that he's going to be the captain and the number nine, the starting number nine on that team, when they do win and get over and push it across the finish line. I do think it will happen for them, though. I really do. And I have a bigger gripe, but we don't have time for that. We'll do that. I got to make sure because this actually involves the Leafs. So we got to, we got to hit this at some point. Yeah, we'll find time for that time now for the Canadian football report brought to you by Securian Canada, the official life insurance partner of the CFL. Here's your week six recap in the CFL, the Alouettes were on a 13 game winning streak that stretched back into last season and included a great cup victory. The last team to beat them, the Toronto Argonauts, and they did it again on Thursday night, ending Montreal's historic run. The Argos claimed a 37 to 18 road victory against their East Division rival to hand the owls. Their first loss of the 20, 24 season, even with the lost Montreal remains on top of East Division at five and one with Toronto behind them at three and two. Cameron Dukes finished the game going 16 of 20 with 131 passing yards, 46 rushing yards through one touchdown. Both the, both the Argos defense and special teams came up big, contributing with a couple of touchdowns. It was a wild Friday football game between the stamps and the blue bombers. A game that's off 46 first half points, multiple momentum swings and lead changes in the end. It was the bombers coming out on top of the back and forth affair, winning 41 to 37 Zach Caleros through for 344 yards to touch down to two interceptions. But it was the bombers, Ontario Wilson, who was the main talking point, having a career night recording his first CFL touchdown, as well as 201 total yards in the game on Saturday. And a, and a best of the West Joe down the lines came out on top of the riders 35 to 20, Justin McInnes had over 200 yards receiving for BC in that win BC catapults now to five and one and the riders four and one into first place for the BC Calgary at two and three and Winnipeg at two and four fall in right behind them. The Sunday night game and the CFL came down to the final whistle is the red blacks and elks battled right down to the wire at Commonwealth Stadium, tied with just eight seconds left. Lewis Ward kicked a winning walk off the old goal, 38 yards for Ottawa to get them the victory, keeping Edmonton windless on the year and at the bottom of the West Division, Hamilton was on the by remains at the bottom wamp wamp of the East Division, still windless at O and five. That was the Canadian football report brought to you by security in Canada, the official life insurance partner of the CFL. We got to take a break when we come back more on England and Danielle is and Danielle is griped with them. We're going to talk about the Copa America, Canada, fourth place at the Copa America and that disaster before the game, which was a disaster of a game anyway in the Copa America final between Argentina and Columbia. Matt Marquesi, Danielle Franceski, you're listening to the fan morning show on SportsNet 590, the fan. (upbeat music)
