How Scary is the MLB Lockout Going to Be?

Hello and welcome to a very special edition of Wake and Jake. We are joined by the artist known as Joe's McFly. Joseph Solano is joining us on August 19th. It's the dog days people. So we brought in our biggest dog. Joseph, how are you? I'm doing well. Don't use that voice. How are you? What do you mean? This is my voice. It's not your voice. It's always been my voice. We can't be doing voice. We can't be doing voice apps. Joe's it's good to see only gang. Thank you. It's good to see you. The Wake and Jake audience. I don't know. Have we seen you? I think we've seen you once since expansion. I feel like we had another. Do we have a next day finals day? Did you like how that ended up? Yes. Don't stop doing that voice. This is my voice. What's going on? Is everybody OK now? What have you been up to? You got caught up in the World Cup. You were caught up in the Knicks. The Yankees are driving you mad. What are you? What are you up to? No, I'm I'm actually very, very in a very good spot right now. Very happy Yankees. You know, just we're in the dog days. It's baseball. It's August. No need to get frustrated. You've been getting very frustrated, though. It's your whole Internet. Oh, I just footprint. I've I've toned it back or down. We'll talk some Yankees coming up. We'll go across the league a little bit. You're wearing your Spider-Man shirt. Everyone's interested to see how much you like the new movie. Love Spider-Man. We'll end up there. Spider-Man, your favorite superhero. I was shocked to hear that. Of all time. Yes. Crazy. Then after that is Batman. Not that crazy. That's crazy. Oh, Spider-Man. Yes. Spider-Man. Kind of a punk who gets bit by a spider. That's your favorite. Kind of a genius who got bit by a spider. Yes. A normal guy who struggles to pay rent. So you love Spider-Man. I love Spider-Man. But you don't like Black Panther. That's weird. I didn't say I don't like Black Panther. I do, but I'm not on the level of Spider-Man. Joe's about a year ago. You and I were not planning on recording an episode. No. We sat down in front of these mics on a Monday. Sure. Because there was news in baseball. They said we're expanding. I can't wait. And I think you and I were the most excited in the office. You, for reasons of chaos. Myself, for reasons of nerdery. Of just years of video games and fantasy drafts. And oh, do you want to release all players before the draft? Yes. Hasn't been a lot of updates on that front. No, just Jeff Passan saying that Nashville is the shoe in. And after that, he's they're looking for another thing. Why do you say that? I don't know. He knows that. Because he's Jeff Passan. He just knows things. He really does. He's involved. He is. Yes. If he was a Games of Thrones character, is he Littlefinger? Is he Varys? I think what he does is for the good of the realm. So I think he's more. I think you're right. I think he's more Varys. More Varys. And he's not trying to get to the top. Littlefinger was. He's not self-serving. Which, by the way, Littlefinger thinking he can be the king. That's a lofty goal, dude. Reach for the stars. And if you fall, you land on the cloud, I guess. I thought it was reach for the moon. You might land on a star. That doesn't make sense at all. That is the phrase, but it doesn't make sense at all because like the moon comes way before and way before a star. But that is the phrase. You're you are right. The moon's closer than stars. Stars. We're talking like light. We're in trouble. I'm going to text Jeff Passan why he's confident about the Nashville team. Sure. Do you what? What's going to be the second city? I don't know. But I think I think it's definitely going to be West Coast. They do something over there on the West. It's to balance out the teams. I'm texting Jeff Passan. Did you say Nashville was a lock for expansion or to Joseph? He said it feels like a lock. OK. Do you still care about expansion? I love expansion. You're waiting till the CBA is done. Yeah, because it's going to be a part of the CBA, right? Yeah, I think we'll see more momentum in it after the CBA. But I'm afraid of the lockout situation and. Sticks. OK, lockout, we found our click. Sure. Where are you at? Are you what's your what's your worry? You last time I brought this up to you and Trev, you said it's not happening. You guys were very adamant about it not happening. And oh, there's too much money and. There's always too much money. There's not always too much money. That's not a phrase. And in this industry that you control a hundred percent of the market share, there's always too much money. So that's why I'm saying like. I think baseball is looking at it like, of course, they don't want to lose, they don't want to. But they I don't know how hard they're going to be on certain stances, man. If if they really want this salary cut, it's not happening. Correct. Players are not. They're just not doing that. That's just one thing that's not right. But we've been doing this. That's been that's 30 years. Wow. It's long. So they're going to say it. Oh, they're going to say it. And that's great. Yes. I always say it. I think that there's going to be some stuff. I want a Lamborghini. Do you do you really? Kind of. Yeah. Where are you going to drive it to around? You're not you don't drive my golf clubs in there. They barely fit. Barely fit. It would be tight. But I would still do it. I mean, he's like a third car for some. I drive. I could visit my nephews. That's not a car you go to visit your nephews. Try to get there fast. Get there real fast. I think. So what did that say about the lockout? I just think that. I just think I'm afraid of it happening. I think it is happening. Well, the question is, are we missing games? Yes. Which we need to next. Next time they do this, can we line it up better? Because how many times I've said and I have to say the phrase, there will be a lockout. The question is, are we going to miss games? Because we can have a lockout. Lockout itself doesn't. And we can miss nothing much. Yeah. You miss nothing. We've done this. There's a lockout last time. We did this with 21. We did this in 2020 with COVID. 2020 was different. It was different. 21 was not. But it still was an annoying process. And a lot of players, I think, the people keep asking the question, will there be a lockout? And that is 100 percent. There will be a lockout. I guess for me. It's are we going to miss games? And we also just know, dude, we looked this up originally. All of the MLB guys went to like the same legal school where they teach you to negotiate. You just wait till the last second and hope they give in. So like, why would we think this will be any different? Like, why would we think there would be a positive update before February 10th? Well, I do think we would miss we will miss games. I think that we're going to have a delayed spring training. I think that's happening. I think we're going to they're going to delay it so much. The spring training is pushed back. And I think we're going to end up ultimately missing games. We might see. I don't know how long the season is going to be. One hundred. One hundred and fifty games. But I think that could happen. We lose more than that than. Yeah, because there's a point where the other team just says, you know what, we're already missing games. Let's just dig in. Right. And I don't know. Diminishing returns on. Yeah, everyone's guessing at this. But for me, for the owners, I actually I think things have flipped. Like, I think baseball players used to not make enough. Like when baseball players still had like sidekicks. Yeah. Plumbers like they did. It'd be like, oh, you know, Nettles in the offseason. He welds and you're like, OK, sure. Like baseball, not like that anymore. No, that I think the baseball players make enough money that they're not scared to miss a little bit of time. And I feel like the owners, I feel like the world has become so business and financial analysis driven. Like, obviously, them missing a few games doesn't hurt them, but also missing half a season. Yeah, does. Yes. They're playing with bigger numbers. Right. Like a lot of gates. This is again, this is a little bit of Jakey theory. And going back to the hole, if you've heard this before, whether here talking baseball, Yanks, whatever. I just don't think this is the one. I don't think this is the one to go to war over. Like, I think this is going to be we want a salary cap. I think MLB gives up on the salary cap on February 1st and then they get some good PR. The Super Bowl is on February 14th. Happy Valentine's Day. Yeah, I see. Joe's doesn't celebrate that. I don't tell him what you do because it's actually genius. I just we pick a day and that's our Valentine's Day. And because of that, the restaurants are not packed in full. Yeah. February 14th is already a made up date anyway. So it's like, just choose your own day. Make up your own Valentine's Day. Why wouldn't you? Yeah. It's genius. Genius is loose. It's it's smart. Save money, too. It's smart. We know what that is. It's a veteran move. Some of these young pups been doing it from being a young pup. What was your first Valentine's Day date? When? Yeah. I mean, I definitely did one in college, like I had a college girlfriend. I don't think there was one before that. I'm trying to think I think maybe. I don't know. Don't put it. I don't put a year on it. Oh, age 25. Age 25. OK. Which I was, what, 96? No. You know, I wish I wish I was 25 and 96, I must say. Well, you don't you'd be older now. I'd have money. And in the peak of a Yankee, like what if you didn't dynasty? I would have some sort of adult money. I had no adult money at that time. Oh, you're saying at that time? Yes. I would have. I would have been able to go to games. That's interesting. Experience that for myself. Yes, I will. I would have loved that. OK, that's fair. Yeah, I would have been a super unk right now with technology. Oh, my God. I did. What would you say? Super unk would have been bad. Gramps, my college girlfriend really liked Red Lobster, which at the time I was skeptical of biscuits. The biscuits are fantastic and pretty good on the college budget at the time. Where do you want to go for Valentine's Day? Red Lobster done. Oh, you know, classy, but also not. This episode is sponsored by Ultra Pouches. Getting good sleep is harder than it sounds, and most of the stuff out there makes it worse. Melatonin gummies are overdosed and leave you groggy the next morning. Over the counter sleep aids build tolerance fast. Ultra sleep pouches are a different approach. A pouch you place before bed made with six clean research back natural ingredients that help you wind down, fall asleep and stay asleep. The melatonin is dose at the clinically optimal level. Enough to work, not enough to drag you the next day. No grogginess, no dependency safe to use every single night. Just place one in before bed and you're asleep within 10 to 20 minutes. Ultra sleep pouches deliver better, deeper sleep with properly dose and natural ingredients. New customers can use code bakers to get 15 percent off at take ultra dot com. That's take ultra dot com, 15 percent off with code bakers. After you purchase, they'll ask you where you heard about them. Please support our show and tell them. Wake and Jake sent you. When will you get? So I want to another lockout thing. I think something that's B.S. because when it comes up and they talk about missing games, they normally have the like if they miss games, fans are going to be furious. I think if baseball fans still get a buck, 40, a buck, 50, like who's stopping watching baseball because there's 12 less regular season games will be like so upset that like I don't actually there. There was something that did show that baseball did lose fandom after 94. Right. Sure. And just canceling a World Series, you cancel the canceling a World Series. That was that stuff. Now, that's crazy. Could you, Matt? I can't. I can't. Players could go on strike, technically that. Sure. But I don't have. I don't know if people will be so I think what it does is that it kills your momentum right now. Baseball has a momentum. Right. World Baseball Classic. You got the Olympics coming up pretty soon. Was it next year? No, two years. Right. So you got the Olympics coming up. You got there's a lot of stuff. Baseball has a lot of like forward momentum. Like you had more viewership in this period of time than I think you've ever had. And you're beating NBA right now. I mean, I don't think I think if you do that, you lose a lot of momentum. I think people don't care. Do you think the owners care? Because that's normally where this question goes. And I don't know the answer. You don't know the answer. But it's just an opinion of like the sport has momentum. Do you think they feel? I don't know. I like I see both sides of the argument. You'd like to think if you're a savvy business person that's ended up owning a sports team and if your team has momentum and sport did sports leagues in general have momentum like they're one of the few things that hasn't been like fully derailed by the new world. Like we love sports. We want to watch. We want to watch our sports teams play like technology hasn't changed that. Right. Maybe we need to speed up the game a little bit. Sure. Which that happened. But like live sports and playing sports and like look at the WNBA team values right now and stuff. I don't know. I part of me thinks the owners don't care and they almost don't even know. Like I don't think the owners are like, oh, dude, we've got Otani who's brought in Japan on a new level. We've got Judge who is a larger than life New York Yankee who's breaking home run records. I don't think they think that way. I think you can lose people through or lose certain viewers to other sports. We don't have so much time that you have in a day. Right. And I think when baseball starts or when it is starting, it's kind of like, oh, baseball's coming back. There's a whole thing about opening day in the season. So like opening day is a big one. It's a big one. So if you're losing that and you start creeping toward the closer you creep toward NBA playoffs. Oh, I see. You know, the the more that you lose that other side of it. I see. So like sports coming back. And then the biggest example is like everybody was excited to see sports or what sports was going to be when it came back in 2020 or 21, you know, after COVID and seeing what that looked like and seeing a lot of the teams playing like around the same time. I was just like, OK, which you're like, where's my attention going? So I think you got to kind of think about that. People don't like the billionaires versus millionaires arguing. Yeah. Like that thing like really alienates a lot of people. Like you guys are arguing about this. Like, get this going. Like who's thinking about the fans here? It gets tired real quick. Yeah, it gets tired. It's like, dude, I got to pay this stuff, whatever my rent or and you guys are worrying about this is, oh, X billions. And it's like there are numbers that people can't compute. And yeah, there's there's an opening day part of that, which I like. If, you know, opening day is with Eastern Conference Finals game seven or something, that's not a good look is who cares? If you're if you're playing, you're playing one of 142. LeBron and the Sixers versus the Knicks. Yeah. Sheesh. But I guess the other part that you just put out there is like millionaires versus billionaires. That's going to happen anyway. Yeah. Like I just I guess for me, I don't really see the difference if that is on February 14th or if that is on March 1st. You know what I'm saying? Well, the offseason's already exhausting to a baseball fan because it's a lot of back and forth and which players are going where you want. It's like it already takes really long for the offseason to play out. So if you're you're pushing that back, so you're saying February, that means that those talks start at February. Nobody's negotiating a contract for the new CBA. So it's like, OK, you're going to wait until after the CBA. Don't you remember Boris had like his own camp or something like that? Like, I don't I don't want players doing that. And you also don't want to miss a year of development for a lot of your players, too. That happens. I don't know. But you don't want to lose this stuff. Lockout wise, I don't I don't want anything to do with missing games. That was that would really stick. Stink. Horrible. Don't cast a door. And TaskRabbit. Yeah, people, TaskRabbit, if you haven't heard of it, you got to. If your to do list keeps growing, TaskRabbit is ready to help. You pick a trusted tasker. They show up and they get it done. Taskers are often available in the same day. You search on the app, check it out, see whatever you're doing, see what they've done in their past, their skill set. No guesswork about who's showing up and whether they can handle the job. I've used TaskRabbit every time I've moved apartments, which is basically every year or so for the past decade, because there's some big mirrors and stuff. I ain't mountain. I'm not dealing with that. I I'll be honest, I don't have that in my bag. So I'll go on TaskRabbit. I'll find out who does they come over. And to be honest with you, usually whoever shows up is a super handy person. And then we're both looking around like, hey, I don't. Does that need to be hung up? I'm like, yes, it does. Actually, it'd be great. And they they take care of it. So I would go check out TaskRabbit, whatever you got a to do list item, something that's just weighing on you that needs to be done. They probably have someone who can do it better. So if you want to sign up now, you get fifteen dollars off your first task at TaskRabbit.com or go to the TaskRabbit app using promo code Bakers. Taskers book up fast, especially the same day tasks. So book trusted home help today. Fifteen dollars off your first task using promo code Bakers with the TaskRabbit app or at TaskRabbit.com. Rank the American League teams. You're the most worried about for your Yankees. The American League teams are most worried about the race. Number one. And then good. Number one, by the way. Honestly, there's nobody in the West that I'm really worried about. OK. The Central, I'm never really. That's just me. Sorry to the Central. Don't be. I'm never worried about the Central. The I guess in the East, you'd worry about the teams because they see you the most. Right. Or they're more familiar with you and how to challenge you. They scout you better. So the Red Sox could be a team that you worry about. After that, I'm not worried about. I guess Toronto, if Toronto gets going, that could be a team that I would get worried about. And if they get like healthy, they're actually fair. But I don't really believe in. I think they're so far gone so far this year. The problem is you look at the standing. Yeah, man. There is no such thing there. There's no such thing as too far gone. I don't want to. It could be. It could be. Do they still feel like they're the team from last year? Right. You know, Toronto Blue Jays are a half game out of the postseason right now. Right. Yeah, I know. But. They also sold out some pieces that were key to their run last year. So. I don't know. I you have to worry about the Jays because they are. They are the defending AL champs. That's the only reason that I'm worried about them. Other than that, I'm not worried about the Jays. They beat the Yankees before. Right. You know, and they're comfortable doing it. Do what do you watch in the National League? Dodgers. Right. It's a good one. Braves. Another good one. Cubs. I'm a Cubs guy. Yeah, I watched like those three teams. I probably watched the most. I feel bad for not watching Milwaukee more. It's fine. I feel like I should be. They don't want you to watch them. I think they kind of do. They like it. They do want you to watch. They do want you to watch. That's fair. I'd like to because they have a lot of cool players and players that we met, too. I came here. Yeah. And nice to see them doing well. But like Mizorowski is awesome. But like that, those are the three teams I look at Phillies. Yes, there's that. But I only go look at the Phillies when Christopher Sanchez is pitching. They love me. Oh, yeah. But like other than that, it just I think I lose a rise. That's cool. But I don't I don't know why I haven't been able to be invested in Atlanta. I think it's because I want to go visit them. You did go this and I've seen them so much this year. We had this here when I went over there to go see it. Then we met Ozzie Albies at the all star game. That was cool. And then it's like there's been a lot of Braves stuff going on. Well, you know, it is a sneaky sports thing. If you see a team in a season that you think has a chance to win it all, like whether you go to an NBA game, NFL game, MLB, NHL, whatever. If you go to a regular season game and you're looking at a really good team, you're kind of putting that in your memory bank to be like, like if the Braves win it all this year, you'd be like, Oh yeah, I saw them. I saw them in May. I thought they had a chance. I had a conversation with Peter Moylan about it way back when. Would you talk to Michael Harris, too? Yeah. You gave him an award for Ronald Acuna Junior. Are you handing any more of those out? Is that done? I don't think I think that's done. I don't think we're giving out any more awards. I gave the judges award. The jazz jazz. I gave the award over to to Acuna and I gave another one. You gave it to Michael Harris, too. CJ Abram. That one I gave to him. You gave to him. Yeah, directly. How was CJ? He was dope. When I met him, I started to see like, you know, that that kind of temperament, like his temperament works. Like there's people that don't like him at shortstop. Yeah, but I feel like I think it's done. It's cool. Right. Kind of Georgia. I love that, bro. I do. I love that. Yeah, I mean, I've only seen him. I feel like I've only seen obviously like media scrums and stuff. And it feels kind of like not his speed. Yeah. Which I get. See him at the red carpet. Nobody's real cool. He's like a really good speed, man. He likes you. He's a cool dude. Would you like him in pinstripes? Um, I would. I just I probably not at short. Correct. Because the shortstop we got right now is actually pretty good. Pretty good. I'm going to ask you another Yankee question. Go ahead. I'll give you another Yankee answer. It has to do with George Lombard Jr. OK. Where are you at? And this is the Waken J crowd. This isn't Twitter. OK. Is in talking Yanks. So I don't have to troll. You're here watching a 21 year old shortstop who defensively. Yes. As good as we've seen. As especially a young player. Yeah. As good as we've seen offensively. OPS in the mid to low eights. To me, controlling the zone is killing so much. He's killing offensively because I purposely set a really low bar for him offensively. Right. As you should. Yes, because he should. It's any rookie. Yes. So like, where are you truly? Where am I truly in terms? That's OK. Where am I truly with George Lombard Jr.? Yes. I think he's going to end up being the Yankees leadoff hitter. When? I think they might try it this year. Do I? Do I? Am I? Am I pushing that? No. But I think that he profiled so well as a leadoff hitter if he can continue this kind of game. I just I want the Yankees to do this right. I don't want to like rush this for the kid. I actually love that he's batting at the bottom of the line of where he's at. Right. You know, seven through nine, wherever that is. We needed a little action down there. Yeah. And that's great. I feel like he keeps rallies going along. The other night we seen him. The reason that he got he got a second base hit and Grisham was able to bring him around because he was able to help flip over that line. Yeah. So I like that. I want somebody that can be able to get on base. And I don't think he's going to be the let me let me let me rephrase this. I don't think that he's going to be leading off postseason games, but I do see him leading off games in the regular season. Like a trial. Yeah, they're going to they're going to do that. Because I think he's a he's a good profile for a hitter that does it. He's willing to. He just. I feel like he's a guy. You know how before I don't want to say anymore, because I feel like guys don't kind of went away from that. Every spot in the lineup had like a role. Like your leadoff hitter does this, like this profile hitter. You know, your secondary hitter does this. Maybe he hits the ball the other way a bit and can be able to do that. Your third hitter is your best hitter. Your fourth hitter is RBI machine. So on and so forth. Right. It's gone a little bit away from that. They moved the three. They flopped him to, you know, to to lead offs. Changed a lot. Changed a lot. Now they're OK with having a big power guy there, which I don't understand that. I want that power guy to drive and run guys on base. But I think I think every team should have its own dynamic. Yes. They're like I like Shohei. Whatever it is, just make it consistent. I believe that there is a there is a dynamic. Paul O'Neill talks about all the time when he is like, I already know how this hitter is going to attack me just based on the way that he attacked Bernie. Hmm. Or like based on how he's going to attack the guy behind me. Like, I just know, you know, like you just you just give the continuity in the lineup. Right. You know, one Jeets, blah, blah, blah, blah, all that stuff. All those guys kind of fall in line. Oh, and then you force the pitcher into your rhythm. But I think Lombard is going to lead off this year. And I think he's probably a leadoff hitter in the future. I don't think they're going to this year just because if you do that, I mean, and I'll I'll put a star. I'll point the gun at us. Then the cat's out of the bag, which sometimes I'm critical of the Yankees. But for this year, I don't know. He would have to offensively. He would have to show me a little bit more like as we look at the Yankees lineup and I'll be as the year, you know, these are starting to become the year stats. Yeah. You know, if you have a point in the season where you have a three hit day and your batting average goes up 15 points and you're like, oh, OK, yeah. Like stay hot for a little bit. You can change your tune. We're at the point where if you want to change your stats, you got to get hot for about two weeks. Yes. That at the bottom of the Yankees lineup, my guy McMahon, he's in 215 to 16. Let's bring it up. Let's be accurate. McMahon, 215, a 281 on base, a 649 OPS. Don't get me wrong. It started off very slow. There's some better splits, but butter knife to be done. That is what it is. Austin Wells, 177, 273, a 571 OPS. At some point, you just started taking more with some guys. You start taking what's that rolling 100? Sort of. Oh, nice. I started a good way out. Some guys are sort of looking at the roller like, how are you now? Because you can't you can't salvage certain numbers, OK? This is not for a year. You can't. But in people's memories, you can if you have a hot September and October for us or else. Right. These are the guys. That's it. You can't get it. Yankees could pick up some guys. If a or bring up guys from these are the guys. But these are the guys. So I think that you can be able to do that. And I think internally, if you're giving numbers to these guys, you need to obviously give. Given that that rolling 100 number, you know, they feel like that'll make them feel good. Like, yo, you've been kicking ass lately. You know, like this is where you're at. I can't believe you're going rolling 100. I have to with some guys, right? I can't I can't go for your leg. And you also showed in here. Yeah. And Grisham's year doesn't signify where he is now. Like he's got 11 RBI in the last eight games. Right. So am I supposed to? Because if I go by the yearly stats, he doesn't deserve a spot in the lineup. Should rolling 100 be used more? I feel like we should. Interesting, it should be like always easy to find, like how their last two weeks are, whatever. Yeah. Last one. Yeah. I want to see how good you are now. Like what? I think that's a better indicator of like. Then what the hell you did in, you know, April. Your year's your year. I got it. If you have great stats on a year, it's impressive for its own reason because you were able to stay consistent when other guys weren't able to. But do. I mean, I need that. Lombard's the most excited you've been for a young player since Gary Sanchez. Yeah. OK. Gary Sanchez, yes. I was also wondering, I was I mean, Schlittler. Pitchers are just different. Pitchers are different. Is it different when you find the position player in? Pitchers are different because I've seen pitchers come up and be like, like good. And then after that, they're gone. Right. I'm like, I was excited for him. He came out and then got hurt when he did. And then it's like, OK, you can still be excited for changing. Yeah, I feel bad. I don't feel bad. Everything happens for a reason. Oh, that's good. I do think that. Yeah, pitchers are different. You can get excited for a pitcher differently. But position. If you find a position player that you feel like, OK. Right. George was different than Gary. Correct. Gary was like highly talented. And then he was drafted when he was, you know, not drafted, but he was signed when he was young from the Dominican Republic. And then he finally came up. And when he came up, he like he can like kick the ass. He made A-Rod. A-Rod one time was like, I think he got five hits at Fenway. And A-Rod was like, I can't do that anymore. Hmm. And he said that in the back of his mind. That's when he would like retire. So Gary Sanchez retired A-Rod. I don't think so. I think he I think A-Rod had at least four more homers than me. Gary Sanchez, for those of you that don't live in Yankees world or have forgotten his first actual season with the Yankees, not even an actual season. Second in rookie of the year. You should have won. Fifty three games. That's not even a third of the season. Yeah. Fifty three games. He hit 20 home runs. Two ninety nine. Three seventy six. A one dot oh three two OPS from a catcher. Yes, that was a good feeling. That year in 2017, we're like so good. I'm like, we found a catcher that can do it. I know. You know, like I didn't get I got so excited for Gary because finding a catcher that can do that now we're seeing even more is like an impossibility to find a catcher that can do stuff like that. What if I told you there's a catcher I'm looking at right now on base percent this year? OK. On base percentage, 368. That's good. Mm hmm. OPS, 815, 815 OPS plus 124. OK. It's still Gary Sanchez. Gary Sanchez. He's had a good career for himself. If you look at it now, you know, from the beginning and people kind of just threw him out or whatever. Like he's he's now I feel like has he's got close to a hundred OPS for his career. I think seven, seven, three, seven, seven, three. Yeah, close. It's good. Pretty good for a catcher. All right. It's time to make my same game parlay picks for tonight's game presented by Fanatic Sportsbook. You can make your own same game parlay by picking multiple legs from tonight's game and combining them into one bet. Or you can tell my picks right in the Fanatic Sportsbook app. We're heading west. Young men and women. And we're doing some Colorado versus some L.A. And this is kind of L.A. is going to win minus one and a half. Yep. We're going over. It's Coors. We're in we're in the dog days, man. And we are taking Shohei to Homer because he's done that in the previous couple games. And it's Colorado mile high altitude. So that's the parlay. If you want to come tell me, let's do it. And let's do it at Fanatic Sportsbook from the first pitch to the final out. Come see why winning hits different at Fanatic Sportsbook. All right, Joe's, I think I've I think I'm at my baseball quota. We did expansion. We did lockout. We did Gary Sanchez, the big three. Sure. You got lost in the World Cup this year. Sure. You're a man of many things. I like things. What's next? What's next? Like, what are you going to be live streaming that? I'm like, why the hell is Joe's McFly live streaming now? Because you are live streaming World Cup games. The national dog hunting. OK, so you see this dog, that dog's about to get shot. I don't know. I mean, I just I just find things. And I'm like, man, I'm kind of interested in that. I kind of like that about me. It keeps it keeps me very open to things. I'm going to ask you to be honest with this next question. OK. Does soccer still have you on the hook at all? Yes. Swear. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So actually, this is what I'm doing, because because you kind of I'll be you were kind of being a hoe. You copy Zoan Swilley, who were like, oh, we're new to soccer. We want to be fans. And then you're like, hey, I'm Joe's. I want to be a soccer fan. Well, first of all, first of all, what I did had nothing to do with them. Fully correlated. And I was I was watching before they started. That's number one. Like before they were born. No, before they started this year. Like the World Cup thing. So I was doing that now. I didn't have a team. I was rooting for USA. Yes. But I didn't have a particular team, but I got to learn a lot. Now, the English Premier League is starting this week coming up. So I am going to be choosing a team before that league starts. I'm doing it. I'm going to put the teams of the names in a hat. Nice. And then eliminate. A team every single time. Hopefully, I come out with the. What do you mean, every single time, every time, every time I pull a name, the team is eliminated from contention. OK, just hopefully I get a good team. That'll just be my team. I'm kind of no. You don't want me to get a good team. You trying to survive a bad Premier League season would be a lot of good content. It really would be like your team trying to miss relegation the last week of the season. That would be really good content. I don't want to be within the relegation situation, please. Are you worried you're going to become. An icon in some sort of random United Kingdom city? I don't know. I don't know. I'm not worried about it. Because you're a you're a warm guy. People like to welcome you with open arms. I like to be very warm. I prefer being warm. You're summer over winter. It's a tricky one. One of my group chats has this debate, maybe weekly. I'm summer over winter. I just can't. It's gray. It's dark. I need more. They're trying to get rid of daylight savings. It's still going to be dark. OK, let me dark at six instead of five. It makes a little bit of a difference. So you're a winter guy. It hurts to be outside. What I like about the winter is winter. That's it. What? You're a winter guy, and that's fine. I like the summer. I just hate sweat. I'm a bigger guy. Sure you are. The spring is actually my favorite time, like the beginning of spring, where you can wear shorts and a hoodie or fall. I fall superior. That wasn't an option. But why are you only giving me two? Because those are the two polarizing ones. Well, winter is the shortest, the shortest one. Why'd you look at me when you said that? Would you go to Alaska? In the summer? Yeah. No, why not? That does nothing for 24 hour daylight. I'd be interested to do that once. Like it's 2 a.m. And it's right out. People just live out there. Yeah. There are like towns. Yeah, I want to go there. We're taking an Alaskan cruise. Now, actually, I'm on a cruise. I'd like to go out. I'd like to go. This could be lockout content. Yeah, I'd like to go to Alaska if there is now everything's very expensive there. Do you know the cost of gas is like eight dollars or something like that? Yeah, because they don't have anything. If anybody can help get me to Alaska, I'll be very happy. Don't comment below if you can help get Joe's to Alaska. No, no. Like, yes. What? Well, baseball's completely canceled next year. What are you doing? A lot of video games. OK, good answer. A lot of video games. Oh, wow. See, there's a big chunk of the year where that's the only sport. Kind of right. It's either that or I become a big WNBA fan. It's hot in the streets right now, which in every direction. I might or I might go soccer. I don't know which one I'll do. The cool thing about a soccer game is that it's really early in the morning and then you got the rest of your day. I won't be mad at night. I won't go to sleep mad. Be able to fall asleep. I'll just wake up to the. I just wake up to the possibility of getting mad. I'm I'm looking forward to your soccer content. Me, too. That's great. So when's the drawing? Oh, I believe I'm starting it today. I think I'm starting it today. How if I didn't ask? How long is the team selection process slated? So when you say starting today, it sounds like it's not being decided today. No, meaning like starting today, like I'm doing, you're going to eliminate like one a day. No, not one a day. I can't do one a day because the season starts this weekend. So I need to eliminate the team. When do I find out your soccer team? You'll find out by Saturday. OK, great, great. Tell us why Spider-Man is the best superhero, because I'm not into it. I like Tobey Maguire. Why is Spider-Man the best superhero? I think he's the most relatable superhero. I just heard a Jimmy yell in the office. That means D.R. either did something or didn't do something. So Pizza Jimmy might come in here in a second. We might have chopped him out before. I'm excited for your D.R. Or I'm not. What are you doing? Are you looking at your phone? I'm not going to look at it. You're looking at your phone. No, I think he's the most relatable superhero to me. I think Bruce Wayne, Rich Hulk is a tough one. Yeah, I can't relate. You don't want to relate to the Hulk. Iron Man, Super Rich Captain America, Captain America. It's racist. Oh, well, you think that they froze him in 1930? He came back like really nice. There was some good cats back then. Weird thoughts. There were some good cats back then. Sure. Right. Sure. He was Captain America. OK, here's who was chosen. I'm not saying, you know, I'm just saying it's a big possibility. It's possible that, you know. What about Black Panther? I like Black Panther. I like what he represents. I don't know if it's relatable. Batman's the most relatable superhero because they show him struggling in bills and stuff like that. That's the only one that I remember actually having to pay bills or getting like rent slips and like trying to pay stuff. And like, did you like the new one? The new movie? Yeah, it was good. But they didn't really show that that other the relatable part of it. Oh, no spoilers. But I don't know. Spider-Man has a loft that people make excuses for. He's got a loft with like all of this technology that he has there. And it's like, dude, how do you have all this money? Spidey change. No job. Electric bill. Jobless. No job. Electric bill by itself. I just got an electric bill. Oh, crazy. Go watch it, though. It's good. I have two notes. One, I think you'll have commentary on the other. You won't. OK. I'm a Tobey Maguire Spider-Man guy. OK. I haven't been too up to date on the new ones. I'm mostly seeing Tom Holland and like the Avengers and stuff like that. You see Andrew Garfield? I think I watch one of the Garfield's. I don't know. For me, he was never Spider-Man. Some people, that's their favorite. I know. No, I mean, his hair was too good for Spider-Man for me. Very good. My Spider-Man can't have that good a hair. Sorry. Got to be disheveled. I have seen more Zendaya and Tom couples in the city this year. I'm talking tall and short than I've ever seen. And I think there's going to be a study done at some point. There probably already are fake Instagram studies or whatever. I think Zendaya just opened up a new world for the short kings. I think it's still an uphill battle. Oh, I mean, it literally is. But I've I think their dynamics a little bit. What do you mean? I think they're a little. What's that mean? You just said the same exact thing. I don't know if it's a tall and short thing. By the way, I think I heard that she's pregnant, by the way. Tom Holland's child. Do I? Are you're saying that this is in hopes? Are you breaking the news? Who'd you hear from? I'd seen it online that she was pregnant. Tom Holland's child. What are you saying? I still don't know what you're saying. What do you want me to say? Sounds like you want me to say short kings are up. I didn't say we're up. We've never been up. We stay down. Our motto is we stay down. I'm just saying I've seen it every day. I hit the New York City streets and I see I see a guy with his best posture trying to keep up. OK, well, that's good. So I don't know. I'm glad people are opening up and not discriminating against the vertically challenged. We hate discrimination. Yes, we don't want the vertically challenged Captain America. We don't want Captain America to do that kind of stuff. And then I have one update that if you made it to this part of the Joe's McFly pizza, Jimmy Wake and Jake. Something that we've all forgotten about. I texted Jeff Passon. Oh, right. It all comes. It all got it all got lost in the mail for a little bit. Yeah. I said, did you say Nashville was a lock for expansion? He said, I did. I probably should have softened it. Whoa. So he might have been a little too fiery from the hip. He said he's doing an expansion episode next week. Wow. So a little ad for that to make good programming. It's a little ad. Go check out Jeff's episode next week. We need to go up against him with their own expansion. Thousand percent. Beat him to the punch. There's an. Sure. All right. Curious to see what Jeff Passon thinks. About what's going on in LA. I had to do some learning. I think we're all waiting to see what goes on in LA. It's pretty wild because I don't know. Pretty wild. I don't know. Joe's McFly. Thank you so much. We can't wait to find out who your soccer team is. Let's hope it's one I like. I hope so, too. Well, I actually didn't. I told you that. I'm hoping it's a pretty mediocre to lackluster team. And I hope you become. Let me find. Did I pull a name now? I mean, I would I would love that. You would love for me to pull a name now. Let me see. OK, Arsenal, no. That's Matty Massa saying that's too big. Man, you know, too big. Everton, maybe. See, I want you on a weird. I want you on Ipswich town. Oh, Sunderland. I don't like Ipswich. Brentford. You're making me a little nervous. Good. You're making me a little nervous. I'll be outing him. Forest. There's another one, something royal. Royal Palace. I don't think it's Royal Palace. Crystal Palace. Which I would like for you. That's a cool. Yeah. There's some some other names there that I kind of like. I'm interested. I'm making I'm I'm going to make a I don't know what's better if I do a wheel and just eliminate one by one or if I do out of a hat. I'd prefer out. Ah, I think I like the wheel. You like the wheel and it's slowly eliminated. You did describe this when you said out of a hat, out of a hat's normally not an elimination, right? Out of a hat's normally you draw one. And that's what happens. Yeah. And like if you're on a video, the wheel gripping, gripping all the colors. Nice. If you have stayed through this whole episode, I can't thank you enough. Comment below about Jeff Passon's text message, because that means I know you made it all the way through the episode. Don't comment on gripping. And also let me know your favorite video game. And if you want to do that or comic book character, tell us anything. Sorry to the D.R. It just didn't seem like it was their year. It's not single elimination, so it's fine. Just like that, we are back. Thank you guys so much. We will see you on Monday. Share all the good stuff. You guys are the best. Go sports. I'm wake your voice, Jake. Your voice change. What do you mean?