Ladies and gentlemen, Welcome into the final leading off of the twenty twenty two season. I am one of the hosts, Chris Welsh, joined by the great and powerful Joe Piezapia. Bye, God bye, God. He's here, Joe Pizzapia, Hey Yo, Hey yo, what's going on?
Welsh? I know like it's the last day of baseball season. I always like to come on the last day and say hello to those people who are still listening for the baseball show. I see my cousins still here, and yes, that is a football guy. I have not watched US baseball in the last thirty days. I'm not gonna lie, but I think Aaron Judges hit a lot of homers, and yet I still don't think I'm anywhere near winning that contest. Somehow, I don't know how that happened.
Well, how do you pick thereon Judge in perpetuity from the start of the season, you would be winning this content. True, you picked it a couple of months ago. You know, it was funny Donnie and I if people don't know, cousin Johnny Donnie and lives actually right near me out here in Arizona. And we all got to hang out and we were trying to we were trying to coordinate something. We were gonna even do a call today. I got
so busy yesterday I forgot. But he was getting to the point where Donnie was gonna come to my house and then just appear in the background that you.
Know, if you give him your address, he might do that anyway, just random mind now, But.
I got I also, I got like a sick kid or two, so I don't want to bring anybody into my house and that if you know what's going on. But we were going to do a whole thing with that and like cousin Donnie show up. But it's been a good season, and you have been missed, my friend. I've been trying to miss on the court as the substitute teacher. But it is good to see your face me personally. It's good to do a podcast with you. It's been quite a bit. We haven't got to do
any football and it's been baseball and a bit. So it's good to see that beautiful bald head, that beautiful that beautiful smile, that Joe piece of Pierre resonates. And it's good to have the crew back together, which if you know, you think about it, Joe, you and I in day one so far this year, which was a new turn for us.
That's rights. And I'm another year older now too since I last saw you, So that's that's happened as well. I'm wearing my leading off shirt as well, representing the brand today hanging out. I will say this, I have been sort of, you know, quietly following what's going on. The Aaron Judge stuff is amazing, and I think that the Yankees are going to be so upset that they didn't try to get that contract done earlier because he's
thirty one years old. Well, he's thirty one years old, and if he wins a triple Crown, how do you not overpay this man? Like, how do you how do you sell that to the fan base At this point you can't. So They're gonna end up giving Aaron Jodge a bad contract because they were trying to cheap out on the front end. And I'm enjoying that that I'm enjoying. I'm enjoying all the Justin Verlander shares that I not cash out of that stayed true, no matter how tempting
it was at times. I predicted the demise of Shane McClanahan when last I saw you, so or on pace with that, and my Mets are still relevant, so go figure they're still in the hunt.
Yeah, yeah, things are things are working out in that respect.
And Alvarez got called up today. Did you see that.
We're gonna talk about that. Yeahs it's crazy. It's actually it's like a really crazy time. But it is good to have you on here. So like the theme though, this is where if the world wanted to perfectly set you an eye up, this would have happened. So last night I'm doing my stuff and as a little thing, I don't know if people know they saw that that it's a huge, crazy thing. But I'm gonna be doing some content with CBS Fanacy Baseball a little plug there,
and I was kind of prepping for that. And I'm sitting there and I'm watching and I noticed Shohito Tani has a no hitter going through the seventh and I go, oh my god. Joe Piezapia is coming back on the show tomorrow. And if there is one thing, if there was a theme to this year, it would have been the constant, maybe nauseating conversation around Otani versus judge MVP. All I wanted in the world was for Otani to throw a no hitter. You and I to come on here and then we get to burn it all down.
We get to turn the whole ship down. Unfortunately we don't get to Otani still with an incredible performance. I was watching some of it. He looked gassed and we got a note here, Matt Birch, this is tweet. Otani now fifteen wins with a two three five E almost twelve K per nine in twenty seven pitching starts this year. The only players all time to post those numbers are better in a season Pedro Martinez and Randy Johnson. I would like to point out that is just one of
his personalities. That is the pitching personality. The hitter personality is still there. I was also doing a early mock draft twenty twenty three, early early mock draft, and Bogman and I in our final in this League Baseball episode. For like a month, we were looking at values and looking at Yahoo system. Otani is a top thirty five player, both parts of him because, as you know RPID Yahoo, he's stupid. Yeah here, which is the dumbest thing on the planet. I hate it to this day, but literally
both versions of him are top thirty five players. Yet you know Judge is still going to run away with it.
Joe, Yeah, he is. And the interesting thing is he's actually a lot closer to the people realize to Verlander in a lot of ways. Both twenty seven starts for them, one hundred and sixty one innings for Otani, one hundred and seventy for Verlander. Otani's got more strikeouts, but the whip is lower for Verlander point eight five, which is ridiculous. It's under one, and the era for Verlander is under two,
which is one point eight. So it's I feel like he's going to get shut out of both awards, and I think you could have made a case that you know, he could have won both. You know, it's and we've seen that happen before, where like Verlander, Roger Clemens, guys who have won the Cy Young at MVP in the same season, but it's a pitcher doing it. The fact that you know you have somebody who could legitimately do both,
but Aaron Judges just having that special season. And it's funny because last year Vlad had a season that was not historic, but on triple crown pace there for a while and we all said, it doesn't matter if he wins a triple crown. I think it's the sixty one home runs. It's because he's a Yankee. That's why it's taken off to what it has. But I keep going back to the same thing too, which is, you know, if you are the Angels, you are not going to
win next year. It's not happening. Your team is terrible outside of Mike Trout who hardly ever plays and shoey Otani, who's amazing. This is your chip to move to remake this organization. And if they don't do in the offseason, I think it's a huge mistake. And I know it's a pr nightmare, but so is losing. And I don't know how many years you can have a team that doesn't make the playoffs like they do with a salary cap or salary I should say as high payroll high as.
They do, you know. And the funny thing is you could go both ways, like can they even trade him? Now? After this season? It looks even tougher, but it would have been even more impossible if you were to win the MVP. How can you trade the MVP two straight years, so you could maybe get out from under it. One of the interesting things. So I went to go take a look and see what was out there. I don't even know what was still out there at DraftKings to look at the awards. That was our thing we did
for so long. It's nostalgic. Ah, we get to go and look back at the Oh, well it's gone. They're all gone, but they're all still One bet that is out there, and it is fascinating. If you want to get down and dirty for the next what is it, five days of baseball? Six days of baseball? I want to get down and dirty. You have this bet available for you, and the juice is interesting. It is Aaron, and I want to get your take on this. Aaron judged to win the Triple Crown minus one fifteen on
both sides, yes or no. So check this out. Home run in the bag, RBI in the back. He is point zero two batting average points behind Luisa Rise. Right now he has a three thirteen batting average. Louisa Rise has a three to fifteen batting average. He has to make that up in this time. Would you what side would you bet?
Because you can they have left tier schedule wise or the last remaining games for the Yankees. That has something to do with it too, because if those teams have quit and those teams are thrown out, you know, Jabebroni pitchers. It makes me like the Judge probably, I think it's interesting you're getting minus one fifteen. I wouldn't have thought it was that much. I thought it was like minus one oh five.
See I well, oh really, I actually thought they might like play the no to like minus one forty and the yes to like minus one oh five. They might play, but they're literally just hedging on it right there. So they've got the Orioles and the Rangers to finish out the year, and you know, no foot is being to take off the gas with Judge going for number sixty two and continuously trying to run this out. So that's what you've got for the Yankees moving forward. Six games left and.
They're in Yankees or No, they're on the road.
That's a key marker here. They are the next three against Baltimore, it is, but they finish out the year of four game stretch in Texas and the twenties is kind of a neutral park.
Just said, you know, I think Vegas is telling you they feel pretty confident that he's going to get it, because I would have thought, you know, this would have been a different number personally, so I think it.
But it's both sides are one fifteen though, like you think that confidence.
The yes again, everything you know, I think for this is when those everything has to break right where batting average is so fluky, you know, in terms of like hits. You know the fact that it's not a bigger number for the yes with the juice, like it was like minus one thirty or something like that, or I'll excuse me, it wasn't you know something where they were enticing you more. I think that, yeah, I kind of think that I would go towards the yes side of this one.
Actually, well see, but that's kind of the thing is I also think, like who in God's name is going on there and betting no? So I think that that's where they could have played to the juice more.
Everyone who hates the Yankees, well yeah, but I mean, if you hate the Yanks, you really hate Judge that much, you hate that he can't get a triple crown. It's the only thing I think you do I think you still do ask ask the where's where's uh, you know, the cardinal fans in here? Where's were wearing wonky penguin in here? What does she think about this?
That's I'm curious in the chat who's making or what side of this bet are you making? He gets it or he doesn't. He has point zero two batting average points behind Louisa Rise. Let me see if there's anybody else that's closed here. Xander Bogarts has a three zero nine, So yeah, this is a one. This is a two dog race here because Xander Bogarts is point zero four batting average points behind. A break is not going to
do it, so qualified, that is it? Luisa Rise versus Aaron Judge point zero two batting average between the yes or no on whatever side gets it. I think it's a fascinating bet right now because we can't do our MVP bet because.
You know what's you know what? Also, I hope that you know, I know we talked a lot of fantasy. We did talk a lot of wagering this year too. I want people to feel more comfortable making baseball wagers because I think that you know, fantasy is a very long drawn out thing, you don't get as much action on it. I think if you were smart this year and you didn't even have to make very big wagers on things that you could have come out really positively. I'm gonna throw some of and this is straight from
sportsbook on my bets. Julia Rodriguez fifteen bucks, right, I'm gonna win ninety seven to fifty on that fifteen dollars investment, right, okay, Paul gold Schmidt, a ten dollars investment, gonna win fifty two bucks on that, right, A Hunter Green, I'm gonna take a bath on. I was very aggressive. I'm gonna lose it. That's gone, that's done. Justin Verlander ten bucks to win two sixty and that was at the plus
twenty five hundred. At plus thirteen hundred, I put another ten bucks in there plus one forty, so I got one hundred and forty dollars in and then another one fifty dollars where I tripled down at plus seven hundred, four hundred dollars, So a combined let's see twenty seventy dollars on Justin Verlander is going to net me almost five hundred. Actually, no, on a thousand what am I saying almost one thousand dollars. You can do this, everybody.
This is not hard. You don't have to have a lot of money to make betting on baseball work for you. You have to pay attention to it. Like the stock market. You have to cash out when you can, and you're gonna lose some money here and there. You're gonna make some money here and there. But the trick is, can you get some of the big things? Right? I think I have judge as well, Sandy al Contra. Ten dollars is going to win ninety on that, fifteen dollars is going to win eighty two to fifty on that, and
that's it for the baseball bets there. So look, I want people to stop with this nonsense of like, well I don't have enough money to wage or it's a hard thing. Well it's not. Just follow along with us when we say we're doing it, do it along with us. Five bucks ten bucks again, a seventy dollars investment is now going to become one thousand dollars, right. I bet that is more than most people win in all their fantasy all year round from playing fantasy baseball.
Right now, see season long bets are almost think of it like best ball at this point, because what it is is your investment is something that you're You're just tracking from a fun perspective to be cashed out at the end of the year. There you go, Donnie, that's right, Joey drinks are on you. So for sure on that side, I'd also say that the n seat, like there's steps, you know, the long award season stuff is fun to bet,
but you also can find your niche, you know. I think the exposing of like the betting the first five has been a lot better than just betting like run lines total, the prop market has been fun. I think we found out strikeouts are probably.
The first five when you have those those big pictures on the mound too, you know, like how are those first five innings? You know, there's there's ways to do it. And I'm not somebody like you know, I'm actually not a betting person. Like I've been to Las Vegas twice one the first time I was there, I never played a single thing. I know, people are like, what are you crazy? Like I just didn't care. I don't care. It's not my thing. But if you know baseball and
you like baseball. There's ways to turn that into something that is a car payment or or you know, a nice weekend with your kids somewhere, or a nice weekend away from your kids.
Betting interest to have different fun. By the way, side note, the first time I went to Vegas is ampletely truor sorry, first time I ever went to Vegas. When I was old enough. We stayed at New York, New York. We were with a friend. They were the girls were up at the hotel. Me and my friend walk down, go.
To a.
Oh god, what is it roulette table? I go put it on. My birthday's twenty two, So I put it on Black twenty two, twenty bucks, Black twenty two, hit Black twenty two. You've never seen like a dealer like the guy through it. He was so annoyed because it was like he's like, you guys, just get I'm like, just got here, blah blah blah, Black twenty two. Very first time I ever played roulette in my life doing anything. Why would you pick the full on number only put
one bet down? Yeah, Vegas. So sometimes you can also hit that with baseball, and there's a lot out there for you.
Think about early on too, and we were doing some of these shows together where we talked about, like the win total of the Mariners this year was eighty two and a half, right, and we said that's too low. They were in a five hundred team last year. Look how much better they got year over year and they
got to have Julio this year. There's things that you can do, and there's ways you can look it where you take all this fantasy baseball knowledge and while you're playing fantasy baseball, use it to make some more immediate and long term money because it can be done. And I think that was the one thing I'm most proud in the last two years that we've done on this show is we've taken the fantasy stuff. We've wrapped it
into the gambling stuff. We've made it kind of one thing where people can go out there and be successful with it. That's what I want people to do. I want people to have some action and enjoy what's going on and take all this knowledge you're pouring over, these stats,
you're pouring over these trends. You know all these things, make some investments in them, pay attention to what's going on there, because it's literally you're leaving money on the table, and you don't have to have thousands of extra dollars
to end up making thousands of dollars. I've literally probably made a couple hundred dollars of investments, and I'm going to walk away this year, just like last year with Bryce Harper and Otani, a couple thousand dollars and that is huge, and it's something that I want everybody to feel more empowered about next season too.
Yeah, And you know, lastly, one of the things I've kind of harped on it a couple of times was taking the awesome home run contest, which we're going to talk about at the end. Take the home run contest, and I've parlayed loosely, I would use a home run contest into betting total base props, you know, like when you do your work and you find your absolutely great point home run. I don't bet the home run like
some people would do. I go bet the total base to get two total bases, so if you just miss it, you can't tell you how many times I got a guy in a homer and he would hit a double. So I agree with you full through. Something we could be talking about all off season some different ways to attack betting if you're new to it or you want to get into it or whatever. But it was fun. It was fun translating and you said it best. You can translate fantasy Info into betting and you don't have
to go crazy or anything like that. All right, let's blow through some of this stuff. Joe. You mentioned one of the probably the biggest pieces here that we could hit on. For whatever reason, we're six days before the season is going to end, and the Mets are like, now it's time. Francisco Alvarez. Officially, I know he's coming up. He's eligible for the playoffs because he was on the forty man roster before we turned into September. He's gonna come up. They said he's going to hit against lefties,
which they're just talking about this last night. That there's only one lefty in the lineup scheduled coming up, and it's Max Freed, So I imagine they're gonna give some other spots, most likely going to DH so that's the plan. I thought he would actually come to the Airs in a fall league which starts next week, which I'll be to get more playing time, but no, they're going to push it into the playoffs. I think he will probably
strictly DH. I cannot imagine they're gonna throw this young kid out, you know, catching a Jacob mcgrahm game or anything like that, either DH, Bat and Joe. I think that's what he's going to be. And we talked a lot about Alvarez through the year. It's just weird that, you know, we were talking about him coming up when you left, and we're talking about in the day you come back that he's making his debut. So I know you haven't been a.
Lot of an injury in between. Wasn't there Didn't he have an ankle or something.
There's like a hand injury he was out for. That's why go to the AFL. But you know he got came back like a couple of weeks ago, and similar to what the Rockies do with Tovar Zekie, Tovar missed a ton of time, not a ton of experience. Instead of pushing him lightly, they just brought him right up
to the majors. And that's what Alvarez is. Because I really truly believe that Alvarez is going to break camp with the Mets next year so a they can put his bat in at DH and be a second catcher, and see ABC would be for him to be viable for the extra award for guys finishing in the top three of rookie You can get a first round pick if your guy wins the Rookie of the Year, and you can get other compensatory picks if they finish in
the top three. So the Mets are also going to be able to get themselves an extra pick with him being fully eligible next year. But to me, this is a sign he's breaking camp next year and it's going to make a very interesting fantasy guy.
One hundred percent. I picked him up mid year in my keeper league for a buck, and I'm going to hold him next year for the dollar escalator. I mean, it's not every day you get somebody who could be a top five offensive catcher. And I always say the same thing, which is catching's always harder. You got a situation where these guys have to learn the pitchers, learn what's going on all that stuff. Offense sometimes gets fall
to the wayside. But the nice thing is now the National League you have the DH Bob, so you can get him in there and maybe he ends up being part time catcher. Who knows because the bat's so good. Maybe that's the way they want to handle. We'll see what the off season brings for them, but that's definitely somebody that I agree He's going to be somebody next year that I do think is going to break camp with the team. I think if he can help them in the playoffs, they want him to help them in
the playoffs. Like they're in. Steve Cohen is in. They have gone all in. I commend them for having some of the discipline they had, but at the same time, I think they did miss out on some moves they could have made. I've been looking to in the last thirty days what I've missed, and you know what, I also found that was really charming and fun. The first thirty days of this show, it felt like it was dominated by Steven Kwan. You know, he hit three twenty
eight over the last thirty days. How about that.
I think he ended up as like a top fifty player. When you get into like algorithmic fantasy places like how they rank it, Yeah, no, one percent. It is a full circle. We started full circle, We're ending back with Stephen Kwan doing all the counting stats. It really is fascinating speaking of stats. Let's go through a couple of stat heroes and would you look at this though, this is my favorite one from yesterday. Jared Kelnick with a double don Night, two for five, two homers, three RBI,
three runs. Going into last night, Kelnick in the month of September already was rocking a two seventy batting average and only struck out in five five times in eight games. I believe it was hit his third home run in this is the ninth game here. Only little dodgy thing is everything he's doing is still off of fastballs. Both homers he hit last night solid TV over one hundred, great launch angle as he does, but both were fastballs.
But we're getting this little diny taste of Jared Kelnick before we go into the offseason, whether he's with a new team or not. There's gonna be a little bit more biting back into Jared Kelnick, which is gonna probably be a very fun conversation for us to have in the offseason, Joe, and would be very interesting how it comes out in the Fantasy Black Book off season.
I gotta tell you, man, I wonkee I see in the chat saying don't fall for Kellennick, and I understand. I mean, I don't care that these sitting fastballs. I care that he's identified fast balls and when they're coming into count to him, if at all, And that's good. So I'm not gonna to freak out about that because I think most of the you know, most balls the guys are gonna try are going to be fast balls most of the time. Not everyone's a good off speed
pitch hitter. I wonder if Kalenick is this guy who just becomes more valuable to the Mariners this offseason and that potential than it does to some other team. I think a change of scenery would be fascinating, but it's it's also fascinating to look back and think about that trade, right that that trade got crushed when it was made, and think about how what Edwin Diaz became this year
and what Jared Kalnick has been. And I think if you're the Mets, even with that cano salary you took on, you would make that deal every single day and twice on Sunday to go back there again.
They love to redo that trade and just like do the opposite again, like can we get Edwin d I mean they would love to pull that off, and you're just not going to be able to do it, you know.
And looking at the standings too, of you know where everyone's finishing. You know, Seattle's at eighty five wins already, so they're gonna blitter that eighty two and a half win total that they had going into the season. I think it's fascinating to see here at the end of the year, the White Sox are still two games under five hundred. After all this, they just couldn't figure it out. I think it's fasting to see Cleveland at the top because we always said Minnesota was a paper tiger and
it wasn't gonna last. Those were all things that were very good. But I think the most shocking thing just in the America League is that the Baltimore Orioles are going to be a five hundred team this year. That to me is stunning and looking back at it, what we thought, oh man, you know that big ballpark factor that changed that they made. Did you think it was going to have this much? It definitely has had an impact on these games where they've been a little bit
more able to stay in these home games. There's no doubt about that. Do you think it was going to have such an impact potentially because at home they are ten games over five hundred for the year. Ten at home, No.
I mean, I mean the positive is like the development they've been putting towards their pitching. They this is the fruits of their labor, like bringing in that while just a little bit extra space. They've seen a lot of success with the pitchers. I didn't expect them to be this good. And what's so great about it is what's coming.
I mean, Adley Ruchman, I believe, had the second highest war in the second half of the baseball season, and he's going to go in in the talk of the top three catchers we're going to be drafting in fantasy. He will be a top one hundred. I actually suspect he will be a top seventy five overall pick. I think Adley, Varshow and Romuto are going to be, you know, the three catchers that everyone's vying for. And said the top one hundred. Gunnar Henderson has come up and looked
fantastic and they still have more guys coming. So it's a very bright, bright bright future for the Orioles right now. And a few of the other lower teams in trying to, you know, change out the competitive balance just a few other little stat things. Is I want to get, you know, through to the home run contest. We don't need to go through all them. Hanniger did have two homers. If you're talking about y kel Nick might be expendable. That's
another one of those reasons. On the pitching side of Tawny. In that game, went eight, struck out ten, did end up giving two hits, and he got it seven to two thirds before he gave up the hit. Unfortunately, walked one for down huge game. Only give up two hits, struck out ten and Jeffrey Springs, who have a whole off season conversation about how underrated I think he is. Went six, gave up three hits, five k's, has not given up more than two runs in the month of September.
It's actually six straight starts where he hasn't given up two runs or more. He's only given up two runs once this whole time. So he has been insanely impressive and he will be in the off season. Joe, you've been gone the home run contest? Has did you been gone so close? This is a fun fact me and Sir Sis the only ones with a homer yesterday. I unfortunately didn't put the magic out that you and Mayer did with you know, I mean essentially you slash judge.
I did cross the forty homer marker, which I'm pretty sure that was kind of a big thing for me in learning it.
Where am I I don't even know where? I mean? Top ten you are.
Unfortunately we don't have any art. We haven't had art for a little bit. Here happens, Yeah, we haven't had it for a bit. But you all are top ten the leader going into this weekend. Unfortunately, you know, leading off is done, so you guys are gonna have to go into the discord and find out the results and everything like that. Fantasy pros probably share something like that. Cat Fox is in the lead at fifty six.
Oh where'd that name even come from? I know that name.
It was just up up, up, up took it. Cat Fox is in the lead. Helpless in Miami and l Scale are both in second with fifty five, one homer away. High Covees at fifty four, and then you got a couple of fifties lower deep b leming go cards. Mike Mayer is eighth and Joey is ninth, except you guys are tied. You're both technically eight. You both have forty eight home runs going.
Why is he ahead of me? Though? That doesn't make any sense at all.
I mean, I think whoever put the leaderboard up here put Mike Mayor. I trying to actually get the logic. Why is he out there?
I don't know, there is no logic to it. That's just Mike Mayor pulling strength.
I think it's just because you put Judge in there.
Probably. But here's the other thing too, Looking back in the season now and 're looking at it, I think it's so apparent, especially actually it's really in both leagues, but it's even more so. I feel like in the National League, how stark it is between the good, the really good teams and the really bad teams. You know where you know, you have the Mets and the Braves approaching one hundred wins. You have the San Diego Padres.
I'm looking at you know, they haven't exactly been exactly where they wanted to be necessarily, but they are sixteen games over. The Phillies are still in this hunt. The Milwaukee is still in this hunt. But then after that, the Cubs are such a bad team. Colorado, Miami's gonna lose ninety games, so they already did. The Cincinnati is gonna lose maybe over one hundred, Pittsburgh iss gonna lose close to one hundred, Washington's gonna lose one hundred. Losing
one hundred games is bad for baseball. And on the other side too, Detroit, Kansas City, and Oakland are all gonna be ninety plus lost teams. That's bad for baseball. And I don't know when we're going to find more parody in the league, but there needs to be more parody in the league in the sense that we can't have this continue and Baseball things that it wants to expand again, which I know they've talked about, which is absurd.
I just can't even do the expand stuff. It's that just beyond me. If you keep expanding baseball, just talked about the subagman, keep expanding baseball, you're going to get to the point we are literally not you know how we had the figurative different leagues al and you're literally going to have to break the league up. You can't have thirty eight forty team you can't keep doing this. You can't expand to do markets unless you're just taking away from markets that are not doing their job and
putting them in other spots. You know. I would also say, like if you're petitioning for like, well, this state doesn't have a team, well, we also don't need three in one state, you know, and you're not going to change the tradition of the Chicago Cubs of the White Sox. We don't need too much. Like, I can't do expansion. I can't do all of that talk too. It's too much, Joe, it's too much for there's too many things baseball isn't doing correctly. That would just be another in the added list.
We just need it to be better, not adding more like we add a omaha.
Well but I mean we've talked about it. They're never going to do a salary cap there his CBA has now agreed on and all this stuff. You know, it's just the you're trying to find the incentive. They've all got these major TV contracts and these major deals and the money's flowing in there. But I continue to say the same thing, which I know everyone thinks I'm crazy, But the regular season is just too long nowadays for what And I know it upsets a lot of purists.
And I was once a baseball purist myself, and then I had my first beer, and then I realized that, you know, there's more to life than one hundred and sixty two baseball games. At this point, we just need to do it better in a better way. More playoffs, less regular season. I think that will spark some new
life in baseball. Baseball should have the most life in August, because it's the point in time when the sports calendar where there's just more opportunity and you have a lot of kids who are off and there's a lot of time to watch these games. And instead they're just dog day of August games that really don't mean all that much and we're all just focused on September. That I think is is a problem that they still yet to address, and I hope that they do. I know they're never
going to. I just hope at some point we get a little bit more parody, because if you've expanded the playoffs, you want to have more teams that are really viable for it. Instead we have once again, we've just gone down one more tick and we have Okay, Now, instead of these two teams fighting, now three teams are fighting, and then there's one other ancillary team. It should be six other ancillary teams. It should be hot as hell
right now. We should all be thinking, oh my god, these like six teams could all make it if this happens. If this happens, it should feel like March madness. But it doesn't. Unfortunately, it feels like a foregone conclusion where we're just watching the phillies of the Brewers punch it out here at the.
End, I agree that that it should be shortened, but I would you know, point you as we in this part. I would point you to how Baseball managed changing their baseballs and how fans have totally not freaked out over extending a couple inches to a base that they're adding. Baseball and fans on team change, they don't mix very well. So talk about taking games away Baseball, I'm not.
Talking about sea and that's the thing. I'm not talking about taking games away. I'm talking about restructuring them. I want to restructure the games. I want to make them more playoff orient. I want to make one hundred game regular season or one hundred and one games and then I want sixty one game tournament to get to the end, and I think that would be super cool, and then run it in first week October, but can't because the way they are already past that point, it can ever
be done. I'm living in a fantasy land. But I will say this, there's some wonderful things in baseball this year. The Aaron Judge home run thing has been amazing. Even from a Met fan perspective, I think it's been fun to see favorite teams like the Dodgers and Mets actually be favorite teams. I think it's been super fun to see Shoheo Tani do what he's done. Julio Ronriguez, I mean, what were your other high points this year? Welsh for the year in baseball. Julio was a big one for
me too. He's just so fun to watch.
I think Julio was probably one of the biggest me personally, but I think Bobby Witt it was criminally underrated and overshadowed by what Julio did. I mean, also from a fantasy perspective, we had a lot of changing of the guard. I think pitching expand a catchers I think are kind of reformed the dh brought new life into the value of having an owning catchers. Now, I mean where in most worlds a Sean Murphy wouldn't be someone you need to consider, or a halle Hendro Kirk or something like that.
Those guys staying out in Dhing gives more life and Dalton Varshow has got there. I think there's a litany of highlights that we could take from it, and we can look back on from what I think has changed in Fantasy that will be expanded upon in this next season and the Fantasy Black Book, which I know is going to be in the works. Here one other shout out we want to do Joe And I don't know if you have it handy, but you know, for.
I always have it handy healthy purposes.
Yes, the King and the Queens always go to bet MGM. Thank you, thank you, thank you. Screenshot. Yes, our friends at bet MGM have been with us all season long and just want to give them a shout out. Whether you are rocking an incredible crown like that or even just a tiny.
Thing that is incredibly dainty that it's the string bikini of Tiara is Unfortunately this is from cousin Donnie cousin Donnie's I know he could have he got have splurge a little bit gotten. You're like a real size on me. That's that's like it is.
I tells you it's a string bikini of them, but they are beautiful. I'm gonna make some game used memorabilia from this joke.
NFTs of Welsh and the tiara. Is that what we're doing?
Well, this is going to be an NFT right here. But gmlcas Along has been supporting leading off. You guys are used a promo code leading off, you got hooked up with a couple different benefits. Most recently the one thousand dollars risk free bet has been there for you. So Joe and I talked a lot about gambling at the top. You guys could go in. You could get in on it today. Use that promo code in your first bet leading off, you'll get hooked up.
Bet.
MGM also does a fantastic job about all their freebies they give you. You can be a king, a queen, a prince, or a princess, whatever it is. Fantasy Pro supports you as we do. And you know, maybe if I'm back next year, I can get a upgrade on a crum maybe.
I think that's got We ought to find budget for that. I also want to say number one, the Welsh is the best. I want to thank the Welsh for not only you know, coming on this year doing the show with me. I know he's been dealing with a lot of stuff in the last year. He is not only a great friend, he's a great co host. He's a great baseball person, He's a great human being. He also
knows a whiskey, which I appreciate quite a bit. I want to thank everybody who's filled in too in the last month, because you've had I know, Casey Bubba, I know Blonkey's done it. I know we had Andrew. Who else am I missing here? I'm missing and Clegg and Chris and Chris Clegg as well. Everybody just fantastic filling in there. I also want to thank everybody who's listened and watched this show, because you guys are make it fun. Like that is why we're here every single day doing
this show. Because then you guys are here at the end and there's still people watching it live on September thirtieth, that's absurd, Like, you guys are crazy personally, I love you. Thank you. It's it's amazing to be part of this little cult community to hear of people who still love baseball and still care about baseball. And you know what, I think I hope that you see this show as that platform too, because you've seen the espns of the world get rid of baseball and you've seen those of
downsides that everywhere. I'm trying to grow it here Fantasy Pros. Welsh coming in was a huge part of that. I know. Last year Dan and I were doing this show, and everybody who stayed here, even on the first week, everybody didn't like Welsh. See by the end you did. I told you he's like an acquired taste. You got to stick with it.
A fine one.
And there's doctor Glenn see we tolerate you too, and the Peanuts and the Cracker Jacks. You're all the best. Like seriously, it's great.
Yeah, and I just want to add thank you to everybody. I have no idea what my future holds here with Fantasy Pros. This is my last show and I'm just out into the wilderness. Hopefully I'm back because I do love you all. I've enjoyed the show very much as I've explained to multiple people, it's been weird this year because a lot of what I've done is I've felt like a substitute teacher, where I've kind of been like fit well now, like filling into what other people do.
So there's some things that are maybe not as natural to how I would normally be. But hopefully in the future I can continue to bring my weirdness out into the Fantasy Baseball scape, and hopefully I can do it here because I really do. I like the community, I love the podcast like the people at Fantasy Pros. I desperately missed doing podcasts with you, Joe, So hopefully you guys tolerated someone enjoyed or maybe really enjoyed me here.
But like I said, I don't know what it holds, but hopefully I will be seeing you all in the near future, very very much. So, Joe, let's end this bad boy out with a home run call. You know you haven't been here for a long Let's get you home on calling me buddy, but Aaron Judge for.
The first anybody but Aaron Judge? But well, no, here's this is trap? Is Maryady? Have somebody in perpetuity? No? I haven't.
To be honest with you, I have not really seen Mayor's picks. I know he's probably making them. He has no perpetuity. I think he just comes in at some random time and does.
It tonight for one night only, Pete Alonso, and then I want judge the rest of the weekend.
That's Albarette.
I will make a home run call tonight, give me Alonzo, and then judge the rest of the time.
Okay Ooh, Julio's hurt. I mean, you know, here's a problem. It would have been hilarious if Byron Buxton was there because.
I could pick him.
But the guy's been earned all year, so it's like, I can't do anything with that.
Ill Byron Buxton. But he's hurt.
Give me Bryce Harper. I'll end out with Bryce Harper. He's got a good BVP.
I gotta see what did he end up doing? Like I was started, like where is the end of the Buxton.
Twenty eight homers? But I think he played like thirty eight games, So.
Let's see how how many games did he play? Don't even look? I ask you how many games? Off the top of your head do you think you.
Take a get? I think it was like, it's ninety two or one hundred and ten somewhere in there. That's my range I'm taking. I know, that's why.
Why can't I find the game? Oh? Here we go, Here we go, games played, Here we go, ninety two, ninety two games played. Hey, twenty eight home runs, only sixteals, but twenty home runs and a lovely two twenty four batting average. There. Oh oh Byron Buxton.
Oh double header for Harper, there you go go. Cards, always honest about the double headers. Can never get away with anything. All right, then I will change mine.
To even at the end. This group keeps you honest. I love this girl.
You know I'm gonna pick tonight Aaron Judge. I get Aaron Judge it. So that's it, all right, guys. Uh, awesome to have Joe back. I'm glad Joe you're You've been busy as hell. You got a lot of stuff going outside of podcasts and inside of podcasts that's going down. So uh, I'm glad that you were able to uh shake out a little time, especially on the last one of the season. Here. So you're a great friend, your awesome host, a great fantasy guy, and hopefully we're doing
more in the near future. Joey, I'll let you. I'll let you send us out.
That'll do it for us. But the story of the game goes on for the Welsh and all the Peanuts and the cracker Jacks. I'm Joey P. We'll see you next time. Kids, lead up,