MLB Playoff Picture, Monday's MLB Player Props & Best Bets | The Early Line Hour 3, 8/26/24

For the. What has happened. What has transpired here at the first Bank center here in Denver, Colorado. It wasn't just a big night of fights. It was a big night of memorable moments. Conor McGregor with us here in Denver, Colorado. The left hand from Rockwell. Right hand. Right back from Rick Perry. And now three. And oh and bc SD. Can I get a face off with Conor McGregor? Man, that'd be. It's an incredible setup here. Incredible match making, incredible storytelling. All you had to come here. All these fighters that step in here are warriors and I all have my respect. And I'm into this game. Yeah. We'll be into this. Yeah And we are live here in the Maverik Center here in Salt Lake City, Utah. Folks. What a night. It is going to be historic indeed for beacon City 56. Whoever's the king of violence here, this is going to be a great fight. Carry on the top of your right hand. Right hand for McCrory. Double check. Who is the king of Thailand? I am combat fighting in its purest form. Bare knuighting in the city of Angels. 80s remaining round one. Talking ab reigning champ. We've got the biggest announcement in the BKFC history. We're about to make. So let's make that announcement. What's up? Knuckle mania? The notorious Conor McGregor here, ladies and gentlemen, the huge announcement that I have for you today, Conor McGregor, myself and McGregor. Sports and Entertainment is now an owner of Bare Knuckle Fighting Championship. Welcome to the big leagues, David Feldman. Baby. We did it. He's now an owner of BKFC with us. And we're going to take this thing all the way to the top. Now. Welcome to our number three live right here on this Monday on the Early Line. It's our third and final hour to kick off this new week on Sports Grid to really kick off all of 2024. In college football. Week one on the horizon. It starts with 21 games featuring an FBS program on Thursday, but week zero already started 2024 college football season with theatrics and drama and upsets. Even over in Ireland, we'll talk Florida State to start off this third and final hour in just a moment. After that deals a ton of Major League Baseball conversations. We'll set the slate for this 11 game slate that features a doubleheader in Cleveland between the Guardians and the Royals. On this Monday, we'll get the proper perspective from sports grids. Tom Vecchio here in this third hour as well. Yeah. Love it. Two day night doubleheader. She gets some afternoon baseball here on a Monday. Can never say no to that against a very good matchup. And then see it later on. And also keep in mind pivotal points in the season for that central matchup between those two teams looking to gain a head. Somebody getting momentum coming after some tough series. So some good stuff to talk about in MLB for sure. Today And I very much look forward to this conversation with noted Florida State hater Donny. Right side FSU gets upset by Georgia Tech, the 10th ranked Seminoles in Dublin lose outright as a double digit favorite. 2421 is FSU season over? Can they still in this new expanded field of 12, make the college football Playoff? That was the question to all of you and fade the public. And by the way, I mentioned that his name is Donny. Right side. We've met Donny right side before. And now Donny right side at Sports Grid on Twitter. Will Florida State make the College Football Playoff? Hashtag NCAA football. Hashtag CFP at Ben Scott Stevens at rig side VPI. You just keep changing your name on us and we don't even go ahead. Yeah, take a moment. I mean, I mean, here's the thing. Right now, like at Ben Scott Stevens, like 37 syllables and words and everything in there, and then you get like, like sometimes you fat finger like, I just got the wrong key. Like, he skipped two letters in my, like, you know, at that's that even me usually it's like r I g I missed one here. VP somehow ended up a VR. Just you messed it up by accident. But missing two of them at that point, it's pretty incredible. So again, I didn't see this poll. I voted on it, retweeted it, but didn't actually see the poll until we actually went live here. I was like, come on now, you what? I was so surprised by moments before we started on this Monday morning, you hit a twist on it because I wasn't going to tell you about it. We were going to do our little surprise. Ha ha ha. Rig side, Donnie. Rig side. Yeah, but you still hit a retweet on it, so I knew that you had seen that you're at and your handle was a little bit different. I mean, that's what you're supposed to take for granted, right? You read the first line. You know what the stats are here, and you just get after yes or no. At that point. And you know, it's the way it is. But the fact that it was butchered so poorly today, maybe it was like a Florida State intern. If we had one that was just trying to get back here, because now the slant now, since my name got messed up, maybe the slant is going to get worse. Now, you know what's interesting too? I feel that you could build that heat. Not only that, but maybe it was a Florida State intern being like, this guy's going to cook the books. If he sees the poll, hits a retweet, and all of his followers that hate FSU just as much as Donnie, they're going to vote no. Donnie still hit the retweet, and we got a lot of no's. Nearly 88% of the public saying no, Florida State will not make the college Football Playoff. And there is Riggs side VP in full, 88% saying no, FSU has no stinking chance of seeing the CFP this year. I know Donnie agrees. Yeah, and it's only right. Like nobody's really hating Florida State at this point with answering this question with a no. We can only judge by what we saw a double digit favorite coming into the season in an ACC game. Win it by one point. And this poll is not even that close because like okay, first game they picked up the win. That's what important they probably win the next four games before they meet up against a ranked opponent. Now you're taking a look at this team and questioning if they can even beat Boston College the following week, which is this weekend. It's not even like, hey, we played over there. We're going to get that bye week to sort of regroup. You're right back out there this weekend to take on BC, and there's question marks about this entire Florida State team. Now, will they be better than what they showed? Probably so. But this still gets back and stems and a lot of it's tongue in cheek. The fact that you have a head coach that couldn't sell his players on showing up for the Orange Bowl when Georgia did that on the opposite side, that's questions about leadership to me and going into the off season and recreating this roster, coming away with another loss here. Look that's the only thing you can think about at this point. This team wasn't prepared once again in a big bowl game. And then an off season in another quote unquote, bowl game over there in on Ireland. So that's where I'm left to believe Florida State not making the playoffs because they lost. Yes. But also the question marks about the leadership of this program getting embarrassed twice in a row. That's a tough pill to swallow right. But but this result is so much more significant than even a New Year's six bowl. And the orange Bowl. And what it means for these programs. This one has direct ramifications on Florida State's outlook for the entirety of 2024. I do not question Mike Norvell's ability to lead this FSU program. Like Donnie just alluded to right there. But one of the reasons that there were questions to answer for the Noles is what we saw in the Orange Bowl. Everybody that had opted out because they were about ready to go to the national football League. Key guys on defense Jared for Jared verse. Braden Fiske key guys on offense. Obviously the injury to Jordan Travis. But Keon Coleman and Johnny Wilson in those wide receiver spots. And then you lose Jordan Travis and you have to make up some ground in terms of what you were doing at the quarterback spot. DJ Uiagalelei over there in Ireland. Not great. The wide receivers, because of it didn't really factor into the game. Trey Benson, who is no longer with FSU, did not have a great replacement in Roydell Williams. At least Florida State not able to take advantage on the ground as we might have guessed, against a really bad Georgia Tech rushing defense from a season ago. But here is the silver lining for the Noles, and it might be very difficult to find as of this moment. Unlike years past, pretty much in the entirety of college football, but certainly in the ten year, four team format of the college football Playoff, FSU still has a path. There is still going to be opportunities for Florida State. Last year to make the College Football Playoff, Florida State had to be perfect. The margin of error is not 100%. There's not a ton of wiggle room for FSU as we see represented in the market movement. The price to win the ACC preseason favorites more than doubles. Same exact thing for the college football Playoff number. But last year, doctors that CFP number at plus 160 before the year got started. Now at plus 360 only $2 added on that number might have been 5 to 1 plus 750. If Florida State crumbled in the way they did against Georgia Tech. It's only plus 360, not only because of the at large berth, but Florida State still has a great opportunity within the ACC to make a run to a conference championship game and a ten and two ACC champion gets an automatic berth 810 and two ACC champ last year, had no shot of sniffing the college football Playoff. Yeah. And we're going to get a pretty good look over the next two weeks here. On how good that ACC actually is because we don't look at the ACC the same way we do as like the big Ten. And take a look at the SEC. That's why you can say okay, if you can afford a loss early in conference play and fight yourself back like let's just say Miami takes the field and there's a lot of hype around Miami this year. Coming in as a top 20 team, they get hammered by an unranked Florida like okay, now what are we doing. And Clemson, they're no longer the Clemson that we saw over the past decade or so. They are certainly beatable. So that's why that door is still open. And it's better to get those conference losses out of the way early, even if it is against a team like Georgia Tech that you were supposed to beat. Favored by double digits, that's still something to watch. So the door isn't closed. But I think everybody watching that game goes, look, they're just not good. Which means are they actually going to run the table in the ACC playing some quality opponents here? Probably not. And that's why I got the no vote for myself. And Donnie is spot on. Clemson opens the year against Georgia on Saturday. Miami makes the road trip to Gainesville against Florida. We'll learn about the top of the ACC quick. More on the early line next. Rockwell and tries to cut through the middle. Oh, your gut says Miami is going to win and you should take the over. You could also said your NFT selfies would only go up in value. They didn't. But your head is on sports Grid and knows the QB is in concussion protocol. The backup has a 45 QBR against the zone coverage. The New York team has the most sacks in the league. So yeah, trust your head. It's smarter to be on sports grid. There is going to be an energy to game time decision that you will feel night in and night out. We're going to go through every single thing and I've got a great team behind me that's going to help me get the job done. I want this to be the place that people come to. We are going to hit every single one of those markets that you need to know about. There is not going to be a better place, I promise you, than game time decisions. We will have everything at our disposal and we will use that to our advantage. I'm Kevin Walsh, tune in to game time decisions from 6 to 8 p.m. eastern on Sports Gri. The sharpest football contest show in the land the Las Vegas football contest show focuses on circus sports, million circus survivor and the Westgate Super Contest, handicapping the games and releasing our contest picks every week of the season. With two former Super Contest winners, Brady Cannon and James Salinas, a former NFL player, Mike Pritchard, and over $1 million in contest prize money won. Combined, the Las Vegas football contest show will have you prepared this season like none other. It is the final week of August, which means we only have one more week before the final month of the Major League Baseball regular season in the hunt for October. If you are in the playoff mix, there's not all that many teams that have a realistic chance. With just over 30 games left. But if you are in the playoff mix and you want to get hot at the right time, this is your chance. We update the standings and what it means in terms of those pennant prices live right here on this Monday. So the rest we start in the National League, both the Dodgers and the Phillies weekend victories LA now a game and a half advantage over Philadelphia for that top spot in the National League and home field advantage all throughout the postseason. The Phils slightly in front of the Brewers for that opening round bye and through the wild card round. The Diamondbacks a sweep this weekend once again over the Red Sox. They have a four and a half game advantage over the Braves for the top National League wild card spot. The Padres split with the Mets. They have a three game lead over Atlanta for that second wild card spot, but Atlanta still holds on to a two and a half game advantage over the New York Mets. For that third and crucial final wild card spot in the National League. One of the things that stands out to me, the D-backs and the Padres, now at 9 to 1, only a dollar behind Atlanta in those pennant prices, all three of those teams in wild card positions still in front of Milwaukee, who has a double digit lead for the National League Central. Yeah, we're looking at these the way they set up, right. Diamondbacks Padres. Braves. If it ended today, those would be the three wild card teams. Now granted some of those teams in the NL West playing for higher aspirations as if they can take down the Dodgers and legitimately they're within striking distance. The one thing that the Phillies are getting a little bit lucky is when they're not playing their great baseball, they haven't really got within striking distance. We're talking about like the Braves or let's just say the Mets here, where it gets down like two games and you really start to get nervous. Now, we already talked about the Phillies and the Braves going to play a four game set this weekend, which is going to be big because if the Phillies end or the Braves can take it, it's not winning. Right then 2 or 3 games in the series, which is nice. You winning the series, which means 3 or 4 of those games. And that can really shift the balance of power. But let's focus on the wild card race in the NL, right now. Diamondbacks, Padres, Braves. As the season ended today, I do still think there's an opportunity for the New York Mets to chase down the Braves. And it might get, as I said, even closer this week, if the Phillies can handle their business in Philadelphia. But let's remove that from the equation. I really don't think the Giants, Cardinals and Cubs, which are five, five and five and a half games back respectively, feel like they're going to be good enough to jump the Mets and the Braves to get into one of those wild card spots. So for me, it feels like it's a foregone conclusion. Now, granted, we still have a month left of the season. The Diamondbacks and the Padres will be those wild card teams and the Braves and the Mets probably going to fight it out. Who's going to get that final spot? I would be shocked if the Giants, Cardinals and Cubs were able to make up enough ground to keep those so it just feels like the Mets or that last hope to overtake the Atlanta Braves here to get that final wild card spot for me. And again, a two and a half game lead with more than 30 games left in this Major League Baseball season might not feel insurmountable. But it's not necessarily the quickest advantage to change in the random sport that is baseball. There is a pretty good pedigree on the Braves, even with the roster that has been so injury stricken throughout this year to hold off the Mets again, when you look at the odds, Atlanta's price, for whatever reason, with a two and a half game lead to make the playoffs, is not up. But the Mets price to make the playoffs is 3 to 1. Give me just a moment here to see how many times the Braves and the Mets play each other throughout the remainder of this regular season. They will finish the second to last series of the year in Atlanta between the Mets and the Braves. If it is close, there's your opportunity. But it also could lead to Atlanta really extending that lead and Donnie to your point, I really do believe the National League Wild Card Chase is between two teams for that final spot. Five games back for both the Giants and the Cardinals. And a little bit more, even for the cubbies is a lot of ground to make up at this moment. Yeah. And also, let's keep in mind when the schedules change, it's, you know, initially with, let's just say interleague play, obviously more games are going to be played outside of your own division. But even in the past couple of years, they wanted to make it more of a uniform schedule. So typically it's good that you bring up and like, oh, when were they going to play? Because nine times out of ten in the past, it used to be like, okay, they're going to play a three game set in Atlanta. The first week of September, and two weeks later, a three game set in New York. So you would have ample opportunities to sort of close that ground in a head to head environment, which now you don't get as much of in Major League Baseball because of the uniform scheduling that they wanted to have. So you're sort of robbed a little bit of that. But then again, it's up to the Major League Baseball teams. They're all in the same boat. You all have the same schedule to play with throughout the season, so you can't be upset that we wanted more games against the Mets and the Braves because that would decide it like, no, you should have handled your business earlier in the year, but we are a little bit robbed of those confrontations that typically you would have in September to try to clinch those divisions or playoff spots only 13 divisional games against your opponent. So you play each opponent 13 times, used to be closer to 19 around MLB, and so far between Atlanta and New York and the head to head this year, ten games played. The Braves have won five. The Mets have won five as well. New York's schedule down the stretch not easy. Their final five series seven games against the Phils. They have a series against the nationals. They end the year against Milwaukee. By that point, because the Brew Crew has a ten game lead right now for the top spot in the National League Central. Milwaukee is probably going to have to do very little. That could actually be a blessing in disguise, at least on paper right now for the New York Mets. Let's talk about the Brewers. Doctors plus 950. They're a game behind Philadelphia for that second spot, which would be the final bye through the wild card round. If Milwaukee for whatever reason, were to catch Philadelphia or LA down the stretch, do you think it would even move the Brewers number to win the National League pennant? I still think it would, because then again, when you're going to line up against that team you just crossed over, it means you would get home field advantage in your ballpark at that point. So it will make a difference. But I just feel like the odds are out because the playoffs are judged much, much differently than the regular season. And you hear me say a lot. I think Milwaukee plays playoff baseball on a night to night basis. It's not the hey, let's outslug it 10 to 7 and let's beat you 3 to 1, 3 to 2 at that point. But I just figure people are, you know, posting up with the Dodgers who have a decent starting pitching staff that they didn't have for most of the summer. By the time you get around to playoff baseball, and the Phillies are going to open up playoff baseball with Zack Wheeler, followed by Aaron Nola, and now looks like Ranger Suarez came back off the Iowa quality performance against Kansas City. That's the way you match up the playoffs. And that's why you have the favorites for sure. It's about the matchups, not necessarily the totality of the season and how it played out. And you might be thinking, oh, Arizona's been so hot, could they catch Milwaukee? The three divisional winners get those top three spots. More than likely it's the Diamondbacks and the Padres in that wild card series, as the Dodgers maintain a three game lead in the National League West. So the American League up next on the early line. He blocked well and tries to cut through the middle. Oh, your gut says Miami is going to win and you should take the over. You could also set your NFT. Selfies would only go up in value. They didn't. But your head is on sports Grid and knows the QB is in concussion protocol. The backup has a 45 QBR against the zone coverage. The new York team has the most sacks in the leagu. So yeah, trust your head. It's smarter to be on sports grid. There is going to be an energy to game time decision that you will feel night in and night out. We're going to go through every single thing and I've got a great team behind me that's going to help me get the job done. I want this to be the place that people come to. We are going to hit every single one of those markets that you need to know about. There is not going to be a better place, I promise you, than game time decisions. We will have everything at our disposal and we will use that to our advantage. I'm Kevin Walsh, tune in to game time decisions from 6 to 8 p.m. eastern on Sports Gri. The sharpest football contest show in the land the Las Vegas football contest show focuses on circus sports, millions, circus survivor and the Westgate Super Contest, handicapping the games and releasing our contest picks every week of the season with two former Super Contest winners, Brady Cannon and James Salinas, a former NFL player, Mike Pritchard, and over $1 million in contest prize money won combined, the Las Vegas football contest show will have you prepared this season like none other. The American League Playoff Picture Live on this Monday on the early line on sports Grid. Then we'll dive into some of the slate on this Monday as well. The top three spots right now, the three first place team in the divisions, the Yankees, a game and a half lead over Baltimore. The Guardians three games up over both the twins and the Royals in the American League Central, and the Astros pulling away a four and a half game lead over Seattle in the American League West. The O's 11 and 12 here in the month of August. They've been pretty mediocre since the all star break. Still maintain a pretty good cushion for that top American League wild card spot. The Royals and the twins. The same exact record 72 and 58. Donnie. It's going to be slightly competitive for the final National League wild card spot. Can the Braves hold off the Mets? The oddsmakers would say so. The Royals and the twin, both a four and a half game lead over Boston for the final wild card spots in the American League? Yeah, and it seems like, again, where you sort of have that cut off level. But do we even have a cutoff level here? We talked about the National League. It's like, okay, maybe the Mets can jump over the Braves. But now you're taking a look here as the Royals in that final spot. If the season ended today, a four and a half game lead over the Boston Red Sox, who are losers of three straight games, and those three straight games were in their own ballpark, taking on Arizona. So if I'm saying to myself, I thought Boston had its chance to surge a little bit earlier in the season, and it looks like it may be stalled out. Now, the one thing that you can maybe factor in is, once again, the pedigree technically is not with Kansas City to say yes, they're so talented, they're going to run away with this down the stretch. A lot of young ballplayers on that team who doesn't have don't have a lot of success winning, and you're dealing with some pitchers here on that same sort of ilk. So my money is still going to say the Royals are going to make it in. And I don't think the Red Sox, the Mariners, Tampa Bay or Detroit is going to be able to jump into it. So if we are solidified again, it's still a toss up. Who's going to win the central and who's going to win the East. But I don't think the Boston Red Sox, at four and a half games back, have enough to get over the hump. And we talked about it earlier, right. Tanner Houck, your ace of the staff leaking oil. Now things just aren't looking as rosy in Boston as they were just a few short weeks ago. So is Seth Lugo for Casey. But four and a half games is a substantial margin to make up in baseball. The Royals have the third most difficult schedule remaining in MLB. They don't play the White Sox anymore throughout this season, which is a tough thing for an American League Central club. But the reason four and a half games is difficult. Even if the Royals in this difficult 3132 game schedule remaining, end the year 14 and 18, that's a lot that Boston has to do to even leapfrog a Royals team that ends the final month with a losing record. We'll get to Casey in just a moment. The most compelling race, in my opinion, is the top spot in the American League East. The Yankees and the O's. The second to last set of the season against each other. The Yanks, a one and a half game advantage over Baltimore, New York, minus one 80 to win the division. Donnie, do you agree with the oddsmakers? Have the Yanks clearly set themselves ahead in the American League East in your mind? I don't know if they clearly set themselves per se, because again, we still have a whole month down the stretch and you have one bad week, one team has one good week, and away you're way back into the standings. Back in. It for the Orioles. But we're sort of setting the stage. And we were going through this with the Yankees for a couple weeks like oh what's gotten into them? I know I picked them to win this division. They're starting to slip out of it here. The pitching isn't as good. The hitters aren't stepping up to the plate. Fast forward to today. We're talking about the two best players, maybe in the American League on the same team with Juan Soto and Aaron Judge, and there's pulverizing their opponents on a day to day basis. And the Baltimore Orioles, you're trying to line them up and say their starting staff, including Corbin Burnes, isn't what we thought it was going to be. And what is it actually going to look like when the playoffs actually start in October? So for my money, I still do think the Yankees are the favorite. It's not a runaway at this point, but I just wanted to say for real with that, all summer long I was always a Yankees guy here and I didn't change my tune when they fell out of first place. I'm not going to change that tune now that they're back in first place. I always thought they were the best team here in the Al East. An intriguing matchup today for the top spot in the American League Central. Again, the Guardians three games ahead of both Minnesota and KC. That could change on a dime for Kansas City and Cleveland today. A doubleheader in the land. The Guardians an underdog in game one. Cole Ragans gets the start for KC. The Guardians, as of right now, a favorite slightly in game number two. How does this play out today in the land? I mean, the best you could probably hope for either team is you just get the split and get back to business here. But if you're looking at the pitching matchups, I do think Kansas City does have a slight advantage in games one and games two, which again, doesn't always equate to victories. I'm also interesting to see how these managers play with so much up in the air. Let's just say Cleveland wins game number one. You're given some of your players off game number two to even up the field. Are you going to press that lever down. Because typically and let's just say May and June and maybe early July, it's like hey, you know what? We can't risk by injuring a player playing him too much. That's not the case right now. You win two games over a division rival, you better take advantage of that. And not say, oh, we won game one. Let's just see what happens in game number two. Cleveland could extend in front of KC. The Royals drop their final two games to the Phillies this weekend at home, giving up 11 runs on both Saturday and Sunda. Tom Beckett joins us next. He's blocked well and tries to cut through the middle. Oh your gut says Miami is going to win and you should take the over. You could also said your NFT selfies would only go up in value. They didn't. But your head is on sports Grid and knows the QB is in concussion protocol. The backup has a 45 QBR against the zone coverage. The New York team has the most sacks in the league. So yeah, trust your head. It's smarter to be on sports grid. There is going to be an energy to game time decisions that you will feel night in and night out. We're going to go through every single thing and I've got a great team behind me that's going to help me get the job done. I want this to be the place that people come to. We are going to hit every single one of those markets that you need to know about. There is not going to be a better place, I promise you, than game time decisions. We will have everything at our disposal and we will use that to our advantage. I'm Kevin Walsh, tune in to game time decisions from 6 to 8 p.m. eastern on Sports Gri. The sharpest football contest show in the land the Las Vegas football contest show focuses on circus sports, millions, circus survivor and the Westgate Super contest, handicapping the games and releasing our contest picks every week of the season with two former super contest winners, Brady Cannon and James Salinas, a former NFL player Mike Pritchard, and over $1 million in contest prize money won. Combined, the Las Vegas football contest show will have you prepared this season like none other. Sports grids. Tom Vecchio joins us live right here on this Monday morning on the early line on Sports Grid for his prop perspective, both at the Daily Slate. We will see today in MLB some season long props from the home run prop king to the home run leader in Aaron Judge and a post preseason pick to get you set for the NFL campaign in 2024. Tom Vecchio, as always, thank you for being here on the early line. Yeah, thanks for having me. It's good to, you know, be here under an official capacity, I guess. Now, really interesting time we have preseason wrapped up in the NFL. Rosters are being cut down. We know who's gonna be making the squads, I have a very, very interesting season long prop that I'm super high on, you know, let's roll with it. Let's roll right into it. We're not exactly sure what the Falcons plan is with Michael Penix Jr having sat him in the final two games of their preseason slate. But we're pretty darn sure that Kirk Cousins is the starting quarterback in Atlanta, signing a four year, $180 million deal earlier this off season. He now steps in as the Falcons Falcons signal caller. But Vecchio last year only played ten games after suffering a torn Achilles. So what do you expect out of Kirk in his first year in the ATL? What does that lead you to believe in terms of his season long props? Yeah, I'm very high on cousins but also great. So cousins over 3800 passing yards. Obviously look to what he did for a couple technical difficulties with our guy. Now listen I just got to say and this is not on Tom. There's some weather here in the northeast. You never know what Wi-Fi signals are going to do. I don't think Vecchio has ever had a Wi-Fi issue until he started. Now working at sports. Is that a curse in terms of the technology? Vecchio, we're glad to have you back here. Considering I'm hard wired in and not Wi-Fi, this is rather surprising, but we roll on with Kirk Cousins over 3800 passing yards, you know I'm big on the Falcons this year. Not only not only him and Drake London but you know this is going to be a new look for the Falcons offense. Obviously Raheem Morris now the head coach. More importantly Zach Robinson who's the new OC who's with the Rams since 2019. He was their passing game coordinator. Love the fact that they have a top ten offensive line. They have the number one easiest strength of schedule right now. And Kirk Cousins is surrounded by a ton of talent. Drake London like I said, Kyle Pitts, Bijan Robinson they have a ton of options. And Kirk Cousins is a quarterback who has routinely gone for over 4000 yards. He was actually on a good pace last year before he got hurt. So I like what I'm seeing from their offense. I like being high on them long term. I like Drake London from a betting perspective. I already spoke about him, from a fantasy perspective, I think it is. All systems go for the Falcons this year. Yeah, I do think it is. Well I think they win that division. I do think the additions over there of Kirk Cousins really is going to change some things up in that passing game. And just breaking it down roughly about 223 yards per game Kirk Cousins needs as long as he's healthy and playing a lot of games in a dome. He should be just fine there. Let's flip it over to Major League Baseball here. Tom and take a look at the two best players in each league careening towards MVP seasons. That's Aaron Judge. If you take a look at the FanDuel sports book how about this Aaron Judge hit 63 plus home runs this season is now listed at a -115 price Aaron Judge a Triple Crown at a plus 520 price. And if you flip it over to Shohei Ohtani, the 5050 club, you've got to be kidding me. It's only a plus 175 price that tells you how talented of a season Ohtani is having in the Triple Crown for him is at a 10 to 1 price. Talk to us about judging Ohtani and some of these numbers. Yeah, the MVP awards are probably locked up at this point. I would never lay, you know, -110 or -115 on a on a home run prop. Just considering how variable they are, despite how good judge has been. The judge Triple Crown is interesting. He's batting 333 right now, which is up at 347, so that is relatively close. I think the most interesting one besides Judge would be Ohtani and would be Ohtani going for 5050. I don't think the Triple Crown is in play for Ohtani. Judge can certainly get there, but I think Ohtani has a better chance to get 50 over 50 rather than the Triple Crown. The batting average is too close to home, runs are too close, but the 50 over 50, I think is on the table because the home runs will be there. I think the stolen bases actually have a pretty good chance because this is not like the Dodgers are sitting with a 1012 game lead, as we kind of expected. They were. They have a three game lead right now in the West. They have to continue pushing for that division title. Betts is back. They have to have all systems go. You know their offense. They can't kind of ease off the gas. So give me Ohtani going for 5050 rather than the triple Crown. He joined the 4040 club on Friday with a grand slam. Shohei Ohtani second most stolen bags, more than 20 behind Elly de la Cruz, but still the second most stolen bases in all of MLB this year. Shohei Ohtani has the second most stolen bases at 40. He's got the second most home runs with 41. He's ten behind Aaron Judge, and the guy's going to pitch again next year. Perhaps the only concern is Ohtani hit by a pitch yesterday. But they said x rays negative. A sigh of relief breathed in L.A. Aaron Judge, by the way, already over his preseason home run prop of 41.5, already got the 50 plus. That was plus 300. And Vecchio, as you well know, seems well on pace to at least be the home run leader in the bigs this year. It was a 7 to 1 number before the year got started. Elsewhere on this Monday we go to Minneapolis. Two teams in the wild card chases in their respective leagues. It's the twins hosting the Braves over under is eight. Minnesota a home favorite now at -120. The market moving in the Twin Cities. What do you expect out of the opener this week in Minneapolis? I wouldn't be surprised to see at least a lack of offense in this game. I will say there are some opportunities across the market to find some middle grounds and pitching props. Bailey Ober over five and a half strikeouts is sitting at -150 on some books. It's also under six and a half and -152 on some other books. So you know, with the Braves with their offense, Michael Harris got removed yesterday or yesterday or the day before with the hand thing. Their lineup keeps taking hits like every other day. At a certain point, this lineup isn't very good anymore. And Bailey Ober is a good enough pitcher to rack up a few strikeouts. So I don't expect him to have 8 or 9. But getting over five maybe still staying under six and a half. I think there's some interesting opportunities in this game in the heartland today. San Diego going to take on Saint Louis Vasquez versus Gibson, a slight favorite here for the hometown cards here to -118 price in a total of nine and a half. It looks like Saint Louis just about going to be extinguished here from the playoffs. And the Padres yesterday stole a big time game off of the Mets. What happens tonight here in Saint Louis and San Diego? Tom I don't know who wins this game, but we're going to see some offense in this one. It's super hot in Saint Louis. It's going to be over 90 degrees. Both pitchers are just about as average as you can get. Randy Vasquez, Kyle Gibson both have babbitts allowed Babbitt's over 300, both strikeout rates under 22%. Gibson's 1.19 home runs per nine, Vasquez at 1.32. There's enough offense on both sides, obviously, mainly with the Padres. I expect some scoring tonight. It's a basically a coin flip when it comes to the money line, but give me some runs tonight. I don't care who wins. I think the Padres keep rolling. Ultimately, though. Yeah, San Diego 15 and seven in August. The cards have won their last two series against the Brewers and the twins, but still just an even 500 on the outside looking in at the National League playoff picture. Becky, let's go elsewhere around MLB on this Monday. We're calling it a potential World Series preview, maybe two divisional frontrunners, the Phils in the National League East, the Astros in the American League West. They head to the Bank today in Philly. Zack Wheeler gets the start for the Phils. They're booked as a -172 home money line favorite. What's your favorite play? Oh that'd be going to Zack Wheeler under six and a half strikeouts. And you know I've spoken before over the past few years about Wheeler and Nola being two of the best, if not the two best pitchers in the NL. That combo. But you know, the Astros are a really good team and the Astros are super disciplined. I've said it time and time again, they go super low strikeout rate versus righties at 18.5% since the third lowest in the league. They also have very solid offense at 111 WRC plus versus righty. So ultimately, I think it's a wash and I think I'll just take the under on Wheeler tonight. It's also a good hitter's park as we know. So Vecchio, as we have 11 games on this Monday, it's because of the addition of the doubleheader in Cleveland day night doubleheader. What's your best play from the two games in the land? Yeah, that's going to be Logan Allen for the Guardians under four and a half strikeouts. He's got a low 19.2% strikeout rate. Royals also super disciplined versus lefties also a 19% strike rate. It's the fifth lowest in the league. You know looking back over Allen's game log, we see this one game against the Giants with nine strikeouts. But he's routinely just going for 3 or 4 maybe five on a given day. So again siding with the under for a low strikeout pitcher Allen gets the start in game number two for the Guardians. They're a slight home favorite in that second game, a slight home underdog in game one day. Baseball in Cleveland between the Royals and the Guardians Tom Vecchio. We appreciate the time as always. More MLB breakdowns next. He's locked well and tries to cut through the middle. Oh, your gut says Miami is going to win and you should take the over. You could also said your NFT selfies would only go up in value. They didn't. But your head is on sports Grid and knows the QB is in concussion protocol. The backup has a 45 QBR against the zone coverage. The new York team has the most sacks in the league. So yeah, trust your head. It's smarter to be on sports grid. There is going to be an energy to game time decisions that you will feel night in and night out. We're going to go through every single thing and I've got a great team behind me that's going to help me get the job done. I want this to be the place that people come to. We are going to hit every single one of those markets that you need to know about. There is not going to be a better place, I promise you, than game time decisions. We will have everything at our disposal and we will use that to our advantage. I'm Kevin Walsh, tune in to game time decisions from 6 to 8 p.m. eastern on Sports Gri. The sharpest football contest show in the land the Las Vegas football contest show focuses on circa sports millions circa survivor and the Westgate Super Contest, handicapping the games and releasing our contest picks every week of the season. With two former Super Contest winners, Brady Cannon and James Salinas, a former NFL player, Mike Pritchard, and over $1 million in contest prize money won combined, the Las Vegas football contest show will have you prepared this season like none other. With more MLB plays on this Monday doctors, we go to your neck of the woods in Philadelphia first Zack Wheeler and the Phils a -172 favorite against the Astros, who sent out Ron El Blanco as we look at the total today in Philadelphia, eight is the number the under has the juice. The Astros split their four game set, winning the finale yesterday in Baltimore against the O's. This weekend. The Phils taking the final two games in KC. The offense picking up once again. They scored at least 11 runs or scored exactly 11 runs. Excuse me. In the last two games. What are your thoughts for game one today in Philadelphia? Between the Phillies and the Astros? You should get a bigger bump from the home team that's fresh off of not playing on Sunday Night Baseball. But if you keep in mind how close we're like Houston was playing to Philadelphia last night, it's not that long of a trip. And it's not like, hey, you know, we played in Los Angeles. I've got to fly to the East Coast. We just played on Sunday Night Baseball, so you'll get a better performance out of the Houston Astros from a refreshment point. But having said that, Philadelphia Phillies have been very good this weekend on offense, waking out of their slumber. If you took a look at Blanco, he's a right handed pitcher, but he does really struggle with left handed batters. That Schwarber, that's Harper, that's Stott, that's Marsh in this lineup. And also Austin Hays on the back end of it would be interesting to see him coming back into the flow. Now fresh off of that hamstring injury. But if I'm just being optimistic. Zack Wheeler is on the mound. It's a two game streak here. These are the ones you're supposed to win. But I just have this malaise over the Phillies for me, it's like, okay, we won yesterday. Everybody in the division lost again. It's okay if we lose. Like, I just feel like that's the. And I understand that's not the psyche of Zack Wheeler taking the mound or Bryce Harper. Like, you know what six game lead. It's not that big of a deal. Sooner or later you got to put your foot down here. There's a nice series win against Kansas City. Now you have three games at home up here against Houston, followed by four games at home against the Atlanta Braves. You're supposed to go five and two in those games, but also start these series off with a victory, not climbing from behind. So I do think the Phillies have the better pitcher on the mound. And technically the better lineup in their home ballpark. They should win this game. But how many times have you seen me breaking down Phillies game, saying they're supposed to win this game only to draw dead and have me go again in the first inning? You know what? Watch the top of the first. Phillies down two to nothing. I'm out for the rest of the night here. Just give me something to enjoy. Watch. Not yesterday, with Boehm catching a baseball and stepping on third base as if it's three outs. It was only two outs. I'm like, I can't even watch this anymore at this point, so hopefully they can pick up a dub tonight. Goodness, he made up for it though. Did Alec Bohm a couple of RBIs in the game. Nick Castellanos a two run shot. Bryce Harper an RBI double. Kyle Schwarber three RBI's. You want the big names in that offensive lineup to come through. They did yesterday to win the rubber match and the set in Kansas City. So now Philadelphia an opportunity back home against the Astros. It is an advantage right now for the Phillies in the National League. East still have six games over the Braves. The Braves on the road to start off this week in Minnesota against the twins. As we shared with Minnesota a minus 120 home moneyline favorite over under is eight. The twins lost the weekend to the Cardinals. The Braves won the weekend, had a chance for a sweep yesterday against the Nats. Washington did avoid that sweep. Yeah, that heat wave out in the Midwest yesterday saw that Phillies game 90 plus 90 plus degree temperatures. They're sweating up a storm. The reason I bring that up is tonight in Minnesota. Typically not that environment like oh it's going to be hot. No 88 degrees at first pitch at night tonight in Minnesota going up against Atlanta. Slight wind blowing in from right field at five miles per hour. If we are looking at Bailey Ober, he's had a very good season, particularly over the past 30 days. 126 batters Ben he's faced. How about an zero 87 ISO and a weighted on base percentage of 199? How about a K rate at 28% combined with a high of 32% of the left handed batters that go against them have struck out in the last month. Let's flip it over to the other side. Max Fried hasn't been great over the past month, but he does have decent ISO power numbers against which is zero 64 through 92 batters. That he's faced over the past month. But if you are taking with that twins lineup, which I do like, they haven't hit left handed pitching all that great here last 30 days in that lineup outside of Royce Lewis, Santana and Farmer, a lot of guys below 500 per se. They're at that weighted on base percentage and a lot of strikeouts here. So instead of saying, I actually think and I do that the twins will win this game. You know I like better in this game. I don't think we get the nine runs here. I'll take the under eight. It is a little intriguing to see Max fried get a start for Atlanta. Even on the road in the Braves being underdog. But that is the case as of right now. Again Atlanta two and a half games up for that third and final wild card spot in the National League. Late night out in the Pacific Northwest. The Mariners, a series victory this weekend. Good for Seattle over San Francisco. The rays go all the way up the west Coast to the northwest after losing their weekend set to LA. That being the Dodgers yesterday. The Mariners a home favorite today, four and a half games back of Houston in the American League West. If there was ever going to be a charge for the Mariners, it starts right here, right now. Will Seattle answer the call? Yeah. Here's what's going to answer the call. Is anybody going to be able to get to four runs in this baseball game. That's the question mark. You see that total is ultra low at seven and rightfully so. If you're taking a look at two Major League Baseball teams right now and said, boy, which teams would you not want to have at the plate in a key situation? It's probably the Tampa Bay and it's probably Seattle. So for myself again, true pitchers, ballpark, late night game, it needs to be a playoff atmosphere for both of these teams because there is no tomorrow. If you continuously lose. So I look for myself saying, I don't know who's going to win this game because I do think it's a toss up, but I'm not taking this game to go over eight runs to lose. I think it stays at seven or less here. So another under on the card for me. Yeah, seven is that total might we see some offense where it's hot under the arch in Saint Louis total is nine between the Padres and the Guardians. Saint Louis a slight home favorite. What's the play? Yeah, the play for me. Obviously. Just looking toward Saint Louis. Excuse me? Against Saint Louis and towards San Diego. Gibson's on the mound last 30 days. Terrible. A 209 ISO against with a weighted on base percentage of 372. But that's equal opportunity. Best lefties and righties getting the best of him outside of Jake Cronenworth 139 ISO and a 304 weighted on base percentage every single player on that roster for San Diego, they're weighted on base percentage, is above average against right handed pitching over the past 30 days. It is hot. I think the runs will be provided by the San Diego Padres. The Pittsburgh Pirates get ready to host the Cubs if Chicago is going to make a run. It also starts now to stay in National League wild card contention. The Buchholz winning a four game set, taking three of four against the Reds this weekend. What happens today inside PNC? Yeah, how about yesterday Chicago with Fowler on the mound or facing Oller able to muster two runs yesterday. Actually took that over at nine and a half. And if you would have told me that the Marlins would play seven runs and I would take a loss, I mean, come on, Chicago. So getting back to today, Jameson Taillon, a decent pitcher but struggling over the past 30 days, particularly against left handed batters to the tune of A406 ISIL power number. Mitch Keller also struggled with lefties. I do think that Cubs lineup does have a bounce back today with a lot of lefties in the lineup, maybe a team total over for the Cubs would have thought that doctors enjoy the money line more. Tell next. He's blocked well and tries to cut through the middle. Oh your gut says Miami is going to win and you should take the over. You could also set your NFT. Selfies would only go up in value. They didn't. But your head is on sports grid and knows the QB is in concussion protoco. The backup has a 45 QBR against the zone coverage. The New York team has the most sacks in the league. So yeah, trust your head. It's smarter to be on sports grid. There is going to be an energy to game time decisions that you will feel night in and night out. We're going to go through every single thing and I've got a great team behind me that's going to help me get the job done. I want this to be the place that people come to. We are going to hit every single one of those markets that you need to know about. There is not going to be a better place, I promise you, than game time decisions. We will have everything at our disposal and we will use that to our advantage. I'm Kevin Walsh, tune in to game time decisions from 6 to 8 p.m. eastern on Sports Gri. The sharpest football contest show in the land the Las Vegas football contest show focuses on circus sports, millions, circus survivor and the Westgate Supercontest handicapping the games and releasing our contest picks every week of the season with two former Super contest winners, Brady Cannon and James Salinas, a former NFL player, Mike Pritchard, and over $1 million in contest prize money won combined, the Las Vegas football contest show will have you prepared this season like none other. Live right here on the early Line on this Monday to round out our three hours together. I am Ben Stevens. We always try to bring you history here on t e l and across the Spears Grizz network. So how about this court tonight when the Red Sox take on the Toronto Blue Jays? Danny Jansen, who was acquired by Boston around the trade deadline, will catch the continuation of a suspended game between these two clubs from way back on Wednesday, June 26th, that is being made up today. Red Sox manager Alex Cora confirmed last week, which will make Danny Jansen the first Major League Baseball player in history to appear in a single game for both teams. Take it even a step further when the game was called, entering the second inning, it was Danny Jansen up at the dish for the Blue Jays. So he is going to be catching today against his former team with the pinch hitter. So to say that takes his place in the Jays lineup now that is fun. We like history around MLB and it will happen tonight, probably around 7:11 p.m. Eastern time as the Red Sox host the Blue Jays, a -154 price in favor of Boston. Total is nine. It's been a disappointing year for the Jays, despite Vladimir Guerrero Jr having a career renaissance. The Red Sox, four and a half games back of both the twins and the Royals for the final two American League wild card spot, again, if Boston is going to turn it on, it needs to happen soon. Over 30 games left for every team around the bigs, but not more than 32 in any spot. So four and a half games is a lot to make up. You need teams to be really bad and you have to be really good. That is Boston's charge down the final month plus of this MLB regular season. It was very classic college sports as we awaited week zero on Saturday to kick off a new 2024 college football season, a year that is unlike anything we had ever seen before. A unique season in college football. With the expansion of the 12 team College Football Playoff and Conference realignment everywhere to get some more conference realignment news right as the season was about to begin, this really hit the pipeline on Friday night, but reported here on Saturday from Brett McMurphy of Action Network, the big 12 and UConn in discussions for the Huskies to join the big 12 in football starting in 2021. In all other sports starting in 2026. Now, that is really big as it comes to basketball. Of course, UConn's men's basketball program, they are the back to back reigning national champs in college. Hoops in the big 12 is already one of the best college basketball conferences in the country. Now, Connecticut has a couple of thresholds to meet in terms of investment. If the football program is ever going to join the big 12. Oftentimes when you see these reports about talks and serious discussions of conference realignment, you should take them seriously because it starts as a report, leads to a rumor, and then often lends itself to actual conference realignment. It has been the story of college sports. The last four summers, even as the season is now underway in college football, and you might be thinking to yourself, why would Connecticut make this move? The Big East and its resurgence in men's college basketball has proven you can be a basketball first conference and still have success from TV revenue, kind of. But of course, with on court success and UConn winning two consecutive national titles. But what should it then tell you that UConn is saying to themselves internally in Storrs, we need that big time college football revenue to compete with the big dogs. That should tell you that college football and the revenue driver, it is will always outweigh either on court or on field success. And certainly even the best that you can be in college basketball. You can hate it, but it's the reality of the situation. If UConn thinks they can make their bottom line higher by 15, 25, $25 million per year by taking that sweet, sweet TV revenue from the football deal with the big 12, they are going to sacrifice whatever it means for the rest of their athletic department. In college basketball, the big 12 would be a great league, so it wouldn't necessarily be a sacrifice for Dan Hurley's Huskies, but it would be slightly sad for a Big East Conference that has really started to emerge in basketball. The last few years. It's just a realignment rumor at this moment, but we shall see. That's where things remain at this time. And also a shout out a belated happy birthday to our graphics producer Jesse Metzger had his big day yesterday. Jesse, thank you for all that you do. The Early Line returns tomorrow, 8 a.m. Eastern time on a Tuesday.