Ep. 140 : Willie Mays Passes Away, Wild NL Wildcard Standings

Intro greetings ladies and gentlemen today is June 21st Willie Ma has unfortunately passed away and the nna Wild Card sings is a mess let's talk about it hello everybody my name is Stephen this is the middle of the order how are we doing today Friday the end of another week of baseball getting closer and closer to that allstar game a month left to go before that um yeah so we're going to dive on in here today A little bit different because um we're going be talking about Willie Mays here first uh he Willie Mays Passes Away unfortunately passed away on um I believe it was Tuesday Tuesday or Wednesday from being uh h a two days ago Excuse Me 3 days ago so yes it would have been Tuesday the 18th uh at the age of 9 3 years old he was born 1931 passed away 2024 93 years old um one of the greatest the say Hey kid himself was uh phenomenal in his um career played 23 years in the big leagues if you want to look at a baseball reference page this is a guy to do it Hall of Famer of course a two-time MVP a 20 24 time allar in his 23 years he made the allstar game 24 times 12 gold gloves two allstar game MVPs rookie of the year he won the 1954 World Series he had a batting title as well um and he has just been one of the best players of all time out there in center field for the San Francisco Giants or the New York Giants when he first began his career won that Rookie of the Year in 1951 and won his MVP in 1954 after the year he served in the military and did not play in baseball that was in 1953 comes back the next year in his age 23 season and uh delivers an MVP his first All-Star Game plenty of gold gloves he played center field fantastically uh always leading the league in something there's always numbers here Le the lean runs a couple years Le the lean hits in 1960 uh triples he was a fast guy back in his uh his earlier days with the New York Giants and San Francisco Giants um you know he had a 250 home run Seasons he had 51 home runs in 1955 52 home runs in 1965 he had let's see here 1 2 3 four five seasons where he finished with an Ops above won um and he only had one season where he struck out more than 100 times he was absolutely phenomenal in his major league career obviously uh finished playing baseball in 1973 in his age 42 season this was with the Mets he played two seasons with the Mets um in his last two years there before um you know calling it a career but it was one heck of a career and he was one heck of a person and let say Hey kid will forever live on in baseball history and the memories of those um it's been good seeing a lot of his videos and clips and and moments of his surface over the Internet the last couple of days so uh yeah definitely check out his Bas reference because it is um a glorious one to say the least here um but moving away from that and the sommerness that comes there let's dive on into our series recap Once Again uh short on time so we are going to do it the same way we did it on Monday the speeder version just doing quick series jumps and uh little mentions of what actually happened in them instead of going you know dissecting each game little by little so with that being said let's head on in to our series recap all right leading things off we have have Series Recap the oers and the Yankees what a series this turned out to be battling it out in the AL East right now the first game judge has to leave after getting hit on a pitch the Yankees win that though 4 to2 ORS come back though and win the other two Garrett Cole is back with the Yankees makes his season debut oros win that game in 10 and in the last game they win that one in 10 they won it 76 gunar Henderson got hit in the in that game so there was some tempers a floating in that Series 17 to5 Baltimore in the last game they tea off Luis Hil Baltimore takes two of three Red Sox and blue jays now not good Blue Jays Tyler O'neal He homers twice in the first game and the Red Sox end up sweeping the Blue Jays on the road they beat them 73 43 and then 73 again the Blue Jays only scor nine runs in the series and get swept as they fall further back from the AL Wild Card rays and twins now Carlos Santana walks off the first game Twins win it 7-6 but the other two games will fall Tampa's way as the Rays win 3 to2 and then 76 in the 10th inning in that game and the Rays take two of three in the series beating the twins Astros and white sock what a game pitching performance by Jonathan canon in that first game the White Sox blank the Astros win it to nothing but the Astros bounce back win the other two games 4 to one and 5 to3 the Astros take two of three against the white socks and move on trying to continue to uh get into some sort of playoff contention talk uh Mariners and Guardians excuse me this was a really fun series between two division winners the Mariners took that first game they won it proudly 8 to5 beaten the guardians but then second game Guardian Strike Back Josh Naylor has a two Homer day they blank the Mariners JP Crawford Scott service get ejected in that one as well eight nothing Guardians and then in the match Cleveland takes that one 6 to3 they take two of three in the series against the Mariners and continue to hold the AL Central lead Royals and A's things were not looking good for Kansas City they've been starting to slip just a little bit Oaken took the first two games of this series beating them 7 to 5 and then 5 to1 and the last game it was tied at two Bobby Whit comes up with a clutch home run in the eighth to give the Ros the lead they hold on to and avoid the sweep Oakland takes two of three but Kansas City wins the last game 3-2 Brewers and Angels the first game goes LA's win LA's way as they end up beating the Brewers 5 to3 in the second game how about a South Relic walk-off home run robbery catch he Robs a home run that would have made it a different story in that game he catches it and that ends the game the Brewers hold on they win that one 63 and the rubber match as they take it two nothing and take two of three in the series against the Angels Brewers holding on that N Out Central lead Mets and Rangers we're still in the Grimace era Mets te off the Rangers in the first two games outscore them 21-8 they win the first game 14-2 and the other game 7 to6 there 7 and0 since Grim's first pitch no longer the case the Rangers bounce back they avoid the sweep and win that final game 5 to3 and the Mets win streak ends at seven and their first loss since the Grim's pitch tigers and Braves a very simple series that all went Atlanta's win Atlanta's way uh the Braves win the first game 2 to one they win the second game 2 to one and then they shut out the Tigers in the last game 7 nothing Braves sweep the Tigers and get all three games there three important games to get if you are the Braves Padres and Phillies always an exciting matchup so far uh first game Kyle Scher hits two home runs because it's June and of course he does 92 Phillies there the Phillies also win the second game by a score 4 to3 on a Nicholas casianos walk-off and of course this was the day that Willie May passed away so obviously Nicholas casos delivers in bad news Phillies have a 20- series leag there but the Padre's bounce back avoid the sweep and they win the last game 5-2 Dbacks and Nationals now a very simple series Dbacks takes the first game five nothing Nationals answer back 3 to one the second game and the rubber match follows Arizona's way the Nationals lose two of three Dbacks win that last game of 5-2 cardinal and marins now the first game Cardinals win it 7 to6 in the 12th inning as Mason wi comes up with the big RBI hit there to give the Cardinals the lead they hold on to it win the first game Marlins in the second game Win It 9 to8 Vidal bruhan walks it off for the Marlins and then in the last game it's a win for Miami again 4 to3 on another walkoff this one by Otto Lopez the Marlins win walk-off games backto back walk-off wins for them and take two of three in the series against the Cardinals beating them uh Reds and Pirates now the Reds take the opener Win It 4 to one excuse me the Pirates take the opener Win It 4 to1 Reds answer back in the second game they win it 2 to one and in the last game pirates shut it thumb down and Win It One nothing Pirates take two of three in the series there Giants and cubs the first game Ian hop hits a three-run goahead home run I believe and then later on in this game in the top of the ninth it's Theo Estrada the go-ahead Home Run for the Giants three-run shot that wins it for them they take the first game 7 to6 but the Cubs answer back they win the second game 5 to2 and the third game is six to five Cubs take two of three against the Giants uh and lastly now we have the Dodgers and the Rockies a four game set that starts off in LA's favor they win it 9 to5 second game was the crazy one the Dodgers scor seven in the ninth to win it but in a controversial way we'll dig into that they beat them 11 to9 for the third game the Rockies get a dub Brenton Doyle he walks off for them the Rockies beat the Dodgers 7 to6 but in the last game Dodgers hold on they take three of four in the series and beat the Colorado Rockies in the last game 5-3 all right now taking you to the game Game Of The Week of of the week we're going and staying here I guess in Colorado Dodgers and Rockies uh Walker buer facing Austin Gomer and woner buer just didn't have it gave up seven runs in four Innings uh it started off in the bottom of the first where the Rockies took a huge lead already Ezekiel Tovar with an RBI double then Ryan McMahon with a two RBI double before Nolan Jones sack fly blink before you know it 4 nothing Colorado after one uh and P has homers for the Dodgers in the top of the second to make it 4 to one his eighth of the year but the Rockies get that right back in the bottom of the second Alaris Montero his fourth of the year a two-run shot now makes it 6-1 Colorado top three Shi Hill ground out that scores a run makes it 6 to2 but then Brenton Dole is right there in the bottom of the fourth his sixth of the Year makes it 72 Rockies top six show demolishes a baseball 476 ft his 20th home run of the year a solo shot makes it 7-3 for the Dodgers But there again once again is the Rockies Brenton Doyle and RBI single makes it 8 to3 we had top seven Miguel Vargas doubles for the Dodgers now it's 84 but don't worry Rockies Jake cave with the sack fly makes it 94 so every time the Dodgers getting a run Rockies are getting a run they hold a five run lead heading to the top of the ninth there is Jason Hayward who hits a grand slam his fourth of the year the Rockies still hold the one-run lead but the Dodgers have made it close with 9 to8 now Freddy Freeman gets on Shad gets on and it's teoscar Hernandez up to the ditch he's in a two strike count the pitch it's a check swing they appeal at first he says no no to the check swing replay would say otherwise on the very next pitch teoscar Hernandez crushes a three-run home run turns the 9-8 game to an 11-9 game for the Dodgers a grand slam and a three-run home run in the inning means seven runs for the Dodgers as they come all the way back in this game but if the swing was called the strike it would have been over and the Rockies would have won Jake cave was not happy about this Evan Phillips comes in shuts the door on the Rockies the Dodgers win this game 11-9 that was your game of the week all right now looking now into our baseball news I want to start talking Royce Lewis IS HIM about it quickly with Royce Lewis of your Minnesota Twins this is a guy who's been around because of his uh draft uh he was drafted in 20 2017 in the first round the first pick of that draft people were wondering he was a young kid you know would he be worth it how good would he be as he progressed through the miners it turned out to be very good um but now no longer the exact case um because of his injury history Roy Lewis has been injured plenty of times he made his debut in 2022 um in his age 23 season he played 12 games had 12 hits and uh two home excuse me two home runs he's been phenomenal uh last year dealt with injuries again uh's he's always been dealing with injuries from his major league career uh even when he was still in AAA and double A he was having issues staying healthy almost like a different Twins player by the name of byon buckton when though Roy Lewis has been healthy he has been one of the best players in baseball he's played three years technically uh 2022 to now uh 2022 played 12 games 2023 58 and then this year so far he's played 14 uh but these 14 games that he's played so far have been amazing he's hit 19 hits he has eight home runs and 12 RBI he has a 380 batting average and a one . 3399 Ops he's been on fire he has eight home runs in 14 games there are some players out there who have played 60 plus games and don't even have eight home runs he's been phenomenal for the twins when you add up his numbers in a three-year span he's only played 84 games in said games he has 98 hits 25 of them are home runs 69 RB for him a 319 batting average and a 983 Ops he is extremely good when he is healthy and um he as long as he stays healthy I think the twins have a shot right now of tracking down uh the Royals first and foremost but then eventually maybe even the Guardians the Royals have been slumping as of late the twins have been looking very good as of late and that's because Roy Lewis has been back and healthy and playing well and also Carlos kareah has been having some sneaky great numbers recently as well so these twins are um a little bit uh in the radar right now if you are one of those AL Central teams but uh Royce Lewis definitely is a guy that people need to talk about more and more he's a one of one pick but uh he's playing right now out of his mind um and hopefully he can continue that as long as he is of course staying healthy uh moving on I want to talk NL Wild West Card about this because I saw it today and I was shocked I was looking at the a wild card uh which the twins currently hold Boston is a game back after winning five straight and then Tampa and Toronto are there five games back and five and a half games back followed by teams like the Astros and the Tigers and the Rangers teams we thought would be there but really haven't B then I flipped it over to the NL side their team the team in last place in the NL is the Miami Marlins the 14th team the Colorado Rockies and the 13th team is the Cincinnati Reds your St Louis Cardinals are right now in the second wild card spot in fifth place in the NL the difference between St Louis in the fifth hole and the Reds in the 13th hole is two [Music] games two games only that is crazy the Cardinals Padres Diamondbacks Pirates Nationals Cubs Mets Giants and reds eight teams are within two games of each other two of which get wild card spots that will make make it very difficult come the trade deadline excuse me nine teams 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 yes nine teams are all within two games of each other and two of which would make the postseason the other seven won't make it that is terrifying if you are a fan of one of those teams I mean because you don't know what you're going to do at the deadline you don't know uh if your team's going to buy sell say the same like what's the plan here especially for the teams that have overperformed like the Nationals like the Mets like the Pirates what do you guys do is it your time is it too early you know there's a real kind of moves you could make here the reds are only four games under 500 and are right there in the mix uh and that's the other thing too I I should point out I'm saying all these teams are two games back and fighting for these Wild Card spots they're all below 500 the Cardinals are at 500 which is why they're fifth place they're at 37 and 37 the Padres who are the other wild card spot are 39 and 40 one game under 500 so you know give or take it's not like these teams are all great and everything but there is going to be two of these teams that as of right now will sneak in I'm assuming come actual postseason time the two teams that do make the postseason will be 80 win teams and be a lot better than you know than the rest of them and I'm assuming some of these teams are going to slow down but the question is which ones would it be a mix of the Giants Cubs Diamondbacks Nationals or will it be the Pirates and the Padres and the Mets and the Reds um but yeah I just find it so fascinating that right now you have nine teams separated by two games meanwhile in the a the Red Sox are one game back and then the next team Tampa Bay who is eighth play place in the AL is five games back of the wild card um you know there's a real slump mix of teams that could be better than they are and haven't been better and because the other top teams have been so good you have this huge separation the Rays the Blue Jays the Astros Tigers Rangers all those five teams could be better could be in the mix but they aren't and because of that and because of how good everyone else has been teams like the Yankees Guardians Oilers Royals Twins Mariners you know those top six that are holding the the the postseason spots because they're so good it makes the Blue Jays and and the Rays and Yos look pretty mediocre the Blue Jays have a 35 and 39 record the Rays a 36 and 39 record that's the same as the Reds the Reds have a 35 and 39 record so the Reds and Rays excuse me the Reds and blue jays have the same record the difference is that the reds are 13th in the NL and as a game and a half back of the wild card while the Blue Jays are ninth in the AL and are five and a half games back of the wild card that's the difference right now between these two divisions a lot of topheavy teams in the AL and a big slot Pile in the NL after you know the team like the Phillies and the Dodgers and such um but but yeah this is going to be a very interesting you know wild card to look at throughout the weeks here because all you need is a good series you you go into a series and you sweep your team win three straight you're in the Wild Card have a Bad series you're 13th in the league in in the NL like this will be a very interesting you know cat scratch battle here and um I'm assuming you know as the days go and the weeks go some teams will fall out of it a little bit some teams maybe uh make a push and add their way into like the second wild card you know be five games over 500 I'm assuming that's going to happen and it's not going to be a bunch of just mush piling slop plays between these nine teams but it's very fun to look at right now seeing everyone so close um already this kind of late into the season I'm saying late we're at the halfway point but you know at the 70 70 game Mark here for nine teams to be this close within each other for play spots uh that's kind of exciting and part of me wants to see this kind of battle continue for the rest of the year and another part of me wants it to die right away and just have some better teams and uh you know teams that are above 500 but we have to wait and see for that but I did want to talk about that cuz I found it very Other News (City Connect, Scherzer, Martinez) interesting all right and other news in baseball just to combine some stuff here uh the Dodgers the last City connects of the year they have been releas relased by the Dodgers officially uh it's their second one the first team to have two City connects the only two teams without one the Yankee Yankees and the Oakland A's that of course uh will no longer be the case once Oakland is no longer Oakland but the Dodgers got their second one they showed it off um and I'm very hit or miss on it to be honest with you it looks like a Pop-Tart um at the end of the day it is still better than the first Dodgers City connect because that one was awful it's my least favorite by far it's not even close so when you compare the new Dodger City connects to those old ones it clears it by a mile but these City connects are still you know average at best you know like I said it looks like a pop tot not a big fan of it but they're officially released and I believe they will be debuting it uh this weekend so that will be fun if you are in L LA C c a catch a Dodger game spend some money um speaking of fun things this weekend Max Scherzer is making his season debut with the Rangers he is healthy and uh he will be starting Saturday's game for them and that could be a big turning point for Texas you know what's Jacob De Grom status looking like because you get those two guys back and healthy and this Texas team could really start to fly so uh be careful watch out other Al teams but sherzer it would be good to see him back on the Mount Healthy um you know there's not much too many starts we have left from sherzer he's getting up there in age and uh the soon to be future Hall of Famer you got to wonder how much is left in the tank uh last thing to mention quickly here uh the Blue Jays are making up a call here or Levis Martinez their number two Prospect has gotten the call this of course is a move with a player on the ilil which we'll talk about uh very shortly in the next segment here um but because of that I spot and him you know opening up uh martinz has gotten the call he got this call a couple days ago um I believe during after the first Red Sox game uh he did not play in either of the first two so he has still yet to make his big league debut uh but the blue J manager John Schneider has said that he is uh most likely going to be playing uh at some point in the Cleveland series they have coming up so um his debut should be happening either today or potentially tomorrow which would be very good for those of you who will be in Cleveland I will be one of them actually um so that would be exciting for me to potentially see Oris Martinez in his first couple of games so uh yeah that is the baseball news for the weekend for the week all righty now let's take a look at the injury updates from the week here uh Injury Updates mooki best we talked about that last time it is now more official uh doctor say six to eight weeks for mooki so uh we'll see you in August uh Anthony Rizzo he is heading on the I for the Yankees he'll miss about four to six weeks with a fracture in his arm so unlucky there for the Yankees uh bo bashet this was the move for Oris Martinez bashet lands himself on the a with a right calf strain so more bad news there for the Blue Jays uh Justin Verlander he heads back on the iil for the Astros with some neck discomfort Walker buer gave up those seven runs to the Rockies this week he's now on the iil uh he took a liner to the hip in that game I believe um so he will miss some time as he heads back there and then Kyle bradish from your Baltimore o uh he has gotten his Tommy John surgery and his road to recovery has a begun that is your injury updates uh your outstanding Outstanding Performances performances for the week that was uh reys Olsen six Innings pitched four hits no earned runs no walks and eight k for your Tigers uh braxon Garrett your Marlins six Innings pitched five hits and earned run no walks sixks James Paxton seven Innings pitched two hits an earned run a walk 8 KS Jonathan cannon from your white socks he was almost at a complete game shut out versus the Astros 8 and 2/3 he was one out away seven hits no earned runs a walk and four KS super impressive stuff from Jonathan Cannon uh hunter green six in the third Innings pitched two hits no earned runs no walks and nine KS Mitch Keller seven Innings pitched two hits no earn runs two walks and seven K and last Tanner byby six Innings pitched three hits no one runs a walk and 12ks that is your outstanding performances we look now to the beautiful thing known as the stat leader Stat Leaderboard board um and there's not too much changing here average is still Bobby wit at 322 Luis oras has 100 hits on the year he leads that Aaron judge hit two more home runs this week he's up to 27 on the year and now is in sole possession of RBIs as well with 67 RB to his name uh runs we have a new leader gunar Henderson from Baltimore now leads the league in runs with 62 uh it the walks have gone from Judge to stto so different Yankee outfielder stto leads it with 60 uh ell DEA Cruz still leads in s bases with 37 Ops Aaron judge it's gone up by 10 1.1 28 now uh looking at pitchers the wins it is now back to tie between Rangers Wares and Seth Lugo so Rangers SWS had a week where it was just him two weeks even now setho is back and they are both at 10 wins on the year Ronaldo Lopez lowest as a year from last time now it's at a 1.57 he's been pitching great for the Braves Tyler glass now in sole position of the strikeouts now Garrick cor at 124 Tyler glass now leading the league at 125 one more strikeout higher and leading the league in saves still it is Ryan Hesley from your Cardinals with 25 saves to his name that is your stat leaderboard we'll now take a look at the Upcoming Series upcoming series for the weekend here starting off the Braves are in town in New York to take on the Yankees the Blue Jays are Cleveland taking on the Guardians as mentioned I will be at one of those games and I'm very excited to be taking the trip to Cleveland uh the white socks are in Detroit taking on the Tigers Royals at Rangers could be a fun match up there twins at A's oers at Astros Mariners at Marlins Dbacks and Phillies the NL CS matchup from last year the rematch there Mets at Cubs is a fun one one Rays at Pirates Red Sox at Reds Giants at Cardinals uh they played a rickwood game they're going to we'll be talking about that in the next episode brw and Padres they played a fun one today as well uh excuse me last night uh Nationals and Rockies and we rounded off with a battle of La the angels and the Dodgers uh not having to go too far there for either of those teams and that that is your upcoming series here so we'll take one Playoff Predictor quick look at the playoff predictor here before calling it an episode uh looking at the AL the twins right now in the six seed taking on the Mariners in the three seed and then the Royals in the five and the ERS in the four that's your wild card matchup the ERS beat the Royals and the twins beat the Mariners so we have a matchup uh of ALDS of the oers and the Yankees twins and the Guardians it's the Guardians and the Oilers that move on they have an ALCS matchup here O's and Guardians and it's the O's that take it and head to the World Series on the NL side the Dbacks are now in town here taking on the Brewers and the Cardinals are also a new team two teams making their debut in the playoff predictor Dbacks and Cardinals Cardinal taking on the Braves here in the NL Wild Card matchup the Cardinal debut ends there but the Dbacks they continue the Dbacks beat the Brewers Braves beat the Cardinals so we have an nlds of Braves and Phillies and Dbacks and Dodgers very similar to last year the Phillies beat the Braves and the Dbacks upset the Dodgers so this is a very similar postseason to last year the NLCS matchup between the Dbacks and the Phillies they are playing this week anyways this weekend as well uh it's the Phillies that changed the course of history they beat the Dbacks and head to the World Series it is the Baltimore Oilers and the Philadelphia Phillies for your World Series matchup and it is your Baltimore O's that beat the Phillies and the ERS are your 2024 World Series champions ladies and gentlemen that is going to do Outro it for today's episode thank you everybody so much for listening uh I hope you've enjoyed the shorten series recap like I said we we've been getting short on time the last couple of days but uh I've also kind of enjoyed it uh I'll be heading to Cleveland this weekend as mentioned already so um I should be back for Monday's episode and everything should be as normal and as we go about it so uh nothing to fret there and uh yeah that's all I have so thank you everybody so much for listening and I will see you on on Monday [Music]