Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Hello and welcome to another episode of the game Sports podcast. The game is powered by 91 network David McCaig here. The host of the game in this episode will be broken down into two segments. In the first segment, I'll be riding solo, getting into all updates around the National Hockey League, including Austin Matthews being named the 26th captain in Maple Leafs history. In segment two, I'll be joined by Connor Henderson getting to all updates around the diamond, including some more blind ranking tests. Let's go.
Booyah. And it's time for the Game sports podcast. It is your host, David McCaig junior. Before I get into this first segment, this is a kind reminder that this will be our last episode until after Labor Day long weekend as we are now getting into our annual end of summer vacation on the game. So our next edition after this upload will be on either September 2 or on September 4. So make sure you keep an eye on all platforms of where the game is located till that next episode. But in between, we'll be sure to have some clips for you to enjoy, so make sure you are interacting on those. And of course, if some major news comes on and we will have a breaking news show. Absolutely. But just to remind you that this will be our last show until we go on vacation for the next pretty near couple weeks until the September 2 or September 4 and after Labor Day, that's when everything gets going here on the game back to our normal rotation as sports definitely pick up as well. So we're very excited for all the big things that are going to be coming here on the game with that as well as more that you have to stay tuned for now to get into this first segment. Before Connor comes in to join us on segment two, there is hockey news to get into and the Hockey news that I want to get to is three points. Firstly, Yaroslav Askarov has requested a trade as per reports that you've seen on multiple outlets, most likely if you're following hockey, but has requested a trade from the Nashville Predators, which shouldn't be a surprise to anybody in the any regards. And the reasoning to that is, well, when you sign Usay Soros to a long term deal, he's still pretty near young goalie in the prime of his career and one of the best goalies in the National Hockey League. You know that you're going to be playing behind them. Now, this isn't like a Pekka Rennie situation. Soros Rennie was a little bit older and Soros was obviously patient. But Askarov has some pretty good numbers in the American Hockey League, obviously top goalie prospect throughout the National Hockey League and we shouldn't be surprised that he is requesting a trade. And speaking of which, as a Toronto fan, speaking openly, I've received numerous text messages today that you think the Toronto Maple should go for. Look, I think all teams should go for Euroslav Askarov if they are able to. And as a Toronto fan, I will say that, sure, I think that would be fantastic. Where's the fit? Or what can Toronto do to give Nashville any sense of value in that return for a goaltender? Well, there are options in Toronto. Of course you can look at some of the goaltending. You can look at goaltending prospect Hillbie if you really want to go in that direction. But ultimately, I don't see Toronto as a trading partner with Nashville. As much as I would love to see it. I am a huge Euroslav Askarov fan. But if they do pull it off and you can have a wall Askarov tandem, maybe you have to trade stolars even though you signed them. Whatever it may be that you get that done. That is my point. If Nashville comes calling you or you're able to make a trade, you do that because I think Yaroslav Askarov is going to be a fantastic goaltenderegh and he's going to be one of the top goaltenders in the National Hockey League going forward. Now, if you asked me for a team that I think is a front runner for your Slav Askarov, and you know what? By the time this is uploaded, maybe he gets traded within a 24 hours. But based on Barry Trots, well, let's say his comments on the reports, he expects Yaroslav Askarov to report to camp. So I don't think this is going to be something that's done overnight. But if there is somebody that is going to jump in the front of this trade, I just picture the Chicago Blackhawks. Makes sense. It fits their window. Obviously bedard generational talent going into a second year in the league. They've had some top prospects coming through. They they could use a star young goaltender to come up through the ranks and get some NHL playing time and kind of grow with this team. I really see the Chicago Blackhawks being a really good fit for Euroslav Askaroff. Now I had some other individuals tell me that maybe the Calgary Flames would be a fit. Perhaps the Montreal Canadiens would be a fit for Yaroslav Askarov. And speak of the Canadians. We'll go there in a few moments and there are fits for those teams. Absolutely. But the best fit based on their window seems to be the Chicago Blackhawks, somebody who is NHL ready. I feel Askarov could play at the National Hockey League level, maybe not take over the reins as number one right away, but kind of split duties. If it's with Morazic, for example, in Chicago, I think that would make sense. He would get peppered with a lot of shots, is going to be on a team that's going through that rebuilding phase, but could be a step for him. Maybe he does spend the first year in Rockford. Either way, your Slav Askaroff being a fin, Chicago I think would be the best for him now going forward. If we went to Calgary, Montreal, that could also be a fit. There are also other teams that are rebuilding that could be strongly considered. And maybe it is other teams, like if it's Utah or maybe if it's if you're looking at the Ottawa Senators because you have all mark though, does that make sense? No. So ultimately, if you look at the big picture from the east side, Ottawa doesn't really make sense. Buffalo doesn't make sense. Toronto would make sense. But will they do that? The Boston Bruins don't make sense. I don't think New Jersey makes sense. I don't think the New York Rangers make sense. The New York Islanders don't make sense. Pittsburgh Penguins ones potentially because of but they have Jari, so you'd have to move that out. I don't think ask graph wants to be behind a goalie that has a long term deal is my point. And that's why some a team that is kind of on the retool on the rebuild kind of window, that would make more sense but more on the rebuild window. And that team that just stands out to me is the Chicago Blackhawks. Let me know what you think below.
Let me know. Tell me if you think I'm wrong. If you think Chicago's on the front or if you are a Toronto fan, who would you trade for Askaroff? If you're a Montreal fan, who would you trade for Askarov? If you're a Calgary fan, who would you trade? Let me know. But my prediction ask rough will be a Chicago Blackhawk, but he will start the year in Nashville because Barry Trotsk is not going to orchestrate a trade just because someone has requested and have it done in 24 hours. But the value that he can get for ask rough is going to be fantastic. Next point. Patrick Linney to the Montreal Canadiens. What a move by Montreal with Harrison a pick going over the other way. Look, Liney has had injury problems, okay, but the guy can score goals and I think this makes Montreal's top six look a little bit more appealing myself. Koski, you got Caulfield, you got Suzuki. I like what Montreal is doing with that top six and with this roster and despite salary that you're paying lining. Look, there's been injury problems as I mentioned, but this guy is one of the best snipers in the National Hockey League despite that. And if you can work with this health and work with Lionel, maybe limit his role in that five on five play, maybe more of that special teams kind of coach him in that regard, which Martin St. Louis will do a fantastic job of. My opinion, line a might be really to kind of blossom there in Montreal. I think this is a good fit for the Montreal Canadiens and it just makes that division even more exciting to watch this upcoming season because who went after Austin? Matthews? Patrick line. So now Matthews and line are going to be in the same division. Even though when they had their first game, when Matthews and Lione, when lion was on Winnipeg, it was that matchup line versus Matthews. We're going to have that matchup now, but in a rivalry game, not saying Winnipeg and Toronto at rivals, they certainly are. But there's nothing like a Montreal Toronto rivalry. And it's great that Liney is now going to add a little bit of an ingredient to that rivalry as Montreal continues to grow and be a more exciting team to watch. I'm excited to see Montreal kind of go through and take a big step this year. Do I see him as a playoff team? No, I don't. I see them maybe kind of fighting being there close to the end, but I do not see a team that's going to make the playoffs this year. But I could be wrong, especially if a healthy line, he plays 100% of the games. Heck, if he plays 70 plus games, that's an extra 40 goals with the Montreal Canadiens are going to be able to get, in my opinion line if he plays 70 games, can be and will be a 35 40 goal scorer for the Montreal Canadiens. Especially on a team like that with Suzuki Caulfield, who can move the puck around and it'll be very effective. And that special teams in Montreal is going to be even better now. Good fit. I think going with this trade has shown the Montreal is looking to really take a step this year and they've done it, done so by improving that top six. I really thought Utah was going to dive into this even potentially. Call me, call me insane, but I even thought St. Louis would dive into this a little bit because they've been really active, obviously. Speaking of that offer sheets, it looks like as of now, Edmonton has not matched Broberg and Holloway. But after moving CC, moving some pieces out and still bringing in Paul Coles and I, I think the Edmonton Oilers are still going to match at least the Broberg sheet, if not Holloway, but likely both. And I think that will be a good move by the time this is uploaded. I'm sure that that will happen. Now, the last point before we go to break as we try to make sure we stay within the time here, Boston Matthews is now the new captain of the Toronto Maple Leafs. Look, this was definitely a project incoming. It took months as John Tavares. You can look at the YouTube press conference that Toronto uploaded. It was fantastic to watch. Tavares was peer class. His family is wearing Matthews jerseys. It's great. And Matthews was being Matthews on that stage. Okay, just very simple answers. Kind of kept to himself. But ultimately it seemed that tavares and tree living have talked about this for a couple months and this was a plan and maybe this was part of the change or maybe tree living did send it off to John. I'm sure John didn't go into tree living his office and was like, I want to get rid of the sea. Despite what he says, there's obviously a conversation for a little bit of a change. And to pass on the torch to a young superstar, a generational talent in this league and one of the best players on planet Earth. And Maple Leafs have someone who could be the face of their franchise. Also creates retention for after his newly signed contract. And he said that he wants to be a leaf forever. So obviously, being the captain of this team, if he is the captain that does bring a cup to Toronto, not only will he have a statue on legends row, he will be given the key to the city of Toronto and be known as the best captain in Toronto history. So a lot of this to the story, Tavares will be there to support him. I think it is a very good move. Yes. If you ask me, I thought Morgan Riley would have been someone. I've always been a Morgan Riley fan. He's been there since the start. Okay, but look, there's a difference here. Matthews and Riley, different tier of players. Matthews is their best player. He's been under the wing of Tavares and we don't see what goes on in that locker room. We see the interviews that he does. There's obviously more to Matthews and that's tree living was touching on and that's what led to this decision. I think it's a good move, a good step. Tavares obviously will be wearing an a. Okay. Even though he didn't really dive into that, it's obvious that he will be and be supporting Austin Matthews because I think Tavares is a good leader in the room, vocal wise. I think from a perspective on the ice, they question how he is because of how he's not a prototypical type captain that you would see that is more vocal than others. But let me tell you something about Johnny. Captain consistent. That's what he was and that's what he has been for Toronto. Despite that, we feel that he hasn't lived to his expectations. And by we, I mean the media. I don't even mean fans, I mean the media feel that John may not be living to his expectations, but he has been effective in a leaf jersey. And you know what? Taking the step back might get the pressure off the shoulders of Johnny a little bit, kind of play his game a little bit back that we used to see on the island. But he's nothing getting any younger and going into his contract year. So do not be distracted with captaincy and contract year, it's been passed on to Matthews, the face of this team, and Matthews is now the captain of Toronto. And obviously with support of Tavares, Morgan Riley, I'm sure Marner will still have an a on his jersey. This is a team that is ready to be led by Austin Matthews and I'm excited to see what it was. I think it's a good choice. I accept it, even though I am a Morgan Riley believer and fan that he could have wore this c at the end of the day, it was passed on to the right person. It seemed like he was groomed and Johnny was ready to pass the torch.
All right, I'm going to take a quick breather and I'm just going to remind you before I bring Connor in, of course, that we. This will be our last edition until we go on vacation. And I got to share. This week is not only my birthday, but it's also my first anniversary this, this upcoming weekend. And we're going to be going, my wife and I, to a Toronto Blue Jays and Los Angeles Angels ball game while we're at a wedding in Toronto. So there's lots to celebrate. There's very much looking forward to vacation. But make sure if you have any comments or if you want to reach out to me to discuss sports. I'm always available. All right, enough of me talking. Can't believe I stayed within the 15 minutes of this first segment. I'm going to take a breather, take a sip, and we're going to be talking to Connor in our strike zone segment here on the game. Don't go anywhere. Welcome back to the Game sports podcast. I am joined by none other than the one, the only, the amazing, the ever amazing rookie of the year. If you know, you know, I say that every time. Connor Henderson, my friend. How's it going?
[00:13:36] Speaker B: Doing good, Dave. How are you doing today?
[00:13:38] Speaker A: I'm good, man. You know what? It's. It's been a weekend. I've had a lot go on this weekend. Travel, etcetera. Lots going up next weekend. Going to Toronto for a wedding and going to see the j's and angels. Actually, anniversary weekend. It's my birthday week this week. Then the week after next weekend, I got another wedding, but it's out at camp, so there's a lot going on still. Okay. And that's why it's well deserved that we have a little bit of a vacation coming up on the show, but we can't, you know, going into vacation, we make sure we end the show with a bang. And the things that are banging right now are, of course, baseball. And there's a lot that we're going to kind of get into or a lot that we can get into, but of course, we're going to talk about the update around the diamonds. But I got some blind tests and some stuff because we had some interaction on that and I loved it. But I got to say, back to your question, because I kind of went down a rabbit hole there, which I always do. I'm good, man. It's busy. It's busy. But summer's coming to an end. And you can just tell because it's been windy as hell out here.
Here in Sault Ste. Marie. I'm not too sure how it is where you're at, but it's been windy. It's been a bit cooler.
[00:14:45] Speaker B: Yeah, no, I stepped outside on the walk home from work today and the air just felt like fall and it spooked me.
[00:14:52] Speaker A: Yeah. Like London, Hamilton, all that area too windy, partly cloudy. It's. It seems like all across Ontario it's been, you know, the weather has been a little bit. Seems like summer is starting to go down. But you know what? Looking at the long range, hopefully there is some good weather. Okay. Because I'm not ready. I'm not ready for fall or winter, Connor. Okay. I'm not ready, my friend.
[00:15:12] Speaker B: I'm not ready.
[00:15:13] Speaker A: I'm not ready. All right. Baseball. You know what, honestly, Connor, around the world of baseball, you and I talked on our previous edition, you know, there's, there's been. We can talk about the jays and tigers. So we're blue in the face about a lot of things. But I mentioned one thing. The other episode was pay the man. To Vladi, I just gotta say, I don't want to get into too much blue jays here, because I've been. Of course, I think there's obviously other news we can get into. And I just got to reiterate, pay the man. Okay, I'm going to say that every week until they pay the man. Okay? Pay the man. And Chris Bassett had a very good quote that I want to share this week. And he said, in short, he said we were going to give Shohei Ohtani $700 million in his basket, but it didn't end up working out, and that's what he said. This year was a little bit of the starting point to 2024 season being a disappointment for the Jays. But I call that an excuse. And I said it on our, on our show way back for the season started. Okay, you're going to send. Spend $700 million there. They should have spent it on other players. They should have just said, okay, we didn't get them, let's go ahead and spend elsewhere. And they didn't. Okay, so this excuse train of this year, 2024, is coming to an end for the Blue Jays and can't come fast enough. But there's a lot of good young talent that we're seeing. Will Wagner. It's. That's where I wanted to go with this Blue Jays point. Give the kid thumbs up. He's looking fantastic. Thank you. You say Kikuchi and Joey. Joey Loper, Fito. So I see some of these young guys coming up. You know, the season's loss is good to see some of these guys do a good job. The Tigers. Look, I would say something about the Tigers very quick. If they could finish a season 500, I think that'd be a good goal for both the Tigers and the Blue Jays. I think if. I know it kind of hurts the draft pick thing, but, you know, I think they're both at a point where. Well, more. So Tigers got some good prospects having goals for the end of the season. That's where teams that are out of the picture got to look, look to doing. But somebody. Okay, a team that surprised me this year, Conor, was the Texas Rangers, they are eleven games under 500. They're defending World Series champions. Okay. Seems like they're having a little bit of a hangover. Okay? But that division, the American League West, I think it's the. It's not the easiest division in the AL, but it's the second easiest division in the AL. And there's teams that are still at the bottom, the athletics, the Angels. Teams that just can't seem to get over that hum. Poor Mike Trout. Poor Mike Trout. Too bad he didn't get traded, right? But overall, the playoff picture for the AL is looking. It's not looking set. Okay? There's still movement that can happen. You got the obvious teams that are going to be in there. The Orioles, the Yankees, the Guardians. The twins are looking really good. I'm really liking, though, the Guardians. And the canadian connection with Josh Naylor, Jose Ramirez, you got to give credit to the Guardians. They really bounced back from last year, Connor. Right, like, this is a team that could make a splash in the AL playoffs this year for sure.
[00:18:10] Speaker B: They're taking advantage of what is a notoriously easy division and good on them. I mean, they've got the Chicago White Sox in there that are having one of the most atrocious seasons in modern recollection alongside the Detroit Tigers, who a lot of people had as dark horse wild card contenders this year came out to a great pitching start and have completely fallen off the rails.
A 500 finish at this point would be decent for them. But understand that that's below the bar that was set going into the year. And the fact that they are rolling out like two starting pitchers. Tarek Scubal, who's incredible, and then three out of every five games just seems to be a bullpen game. Only now that Flaherty has been traded, it's a sad, sad state for them. Good on the Guardians for taking advantage of a poor division.
[00:19:08] Speaker A: Yeah, I like seeing the Canadians do good. I think we're seeing a lot of good talent come up in canadian baseball with the Naylor brothers.
And the list goes on. So I'm not going to. Obviously, Vlad's considered canadian, but he doesn't go by that when he plays international stage. But there's canadian ballplayers really coming up and the Guardians are on the forefront of that. Of course, Tyler Black, his dad is a friend of the show with the brewers. It's great over in the end all. Connor, you got the Phillies leading the way in the other division, the brewers, who are leading the way in the central. So Phillies in the east and then you have the Dodgers, of course, who are closely behind by the Padres in the west. And everyone knows that I'm sometimes a sucker for the Cubs and Padres on this podcast, and I guess it's just one of those teams that, you know, don't normally do well. And the Dodgers, though, they are the, what do you want to call it? The evil empire, right? I guess that's the Yankees. But I mean, on the other division, that's the team that everyone's got a goal to chase, right? You got Ohtani there, you got mookie Betts. They got a lot of talent there on the Dodgers. But I got to give kudos this year to the Brewers. I know they had a good built team, but I didn't think they'd be a team leading the way in the Central. But look at the Cubs. They're not living up to snuff. The Reds took a step back after last year looking like something that's going to be exciting with all that young talent. And the Pirates, who had a great start, went back to reality. But they got a stud on the mound that is literally the face and future of MLB pitching. But you got to say the brewers, that picture overall, the Braves are in a wild card spot. The Braves like this year has had a lot of good storylines, but I think it's safe to say with the brewers being 72 and 52 despite the division being a little bit not as expected this year. Got to give kudos that brewers organization and a team that hasn't won the World Series, I don't think it's going to win the World Series, but certainly a team that could be, could be watched and it's a little dark horse going in the playoffs for the NL Brewers. Connor, there might be a dark horse in the playoffs this year. They might just like the Guardians. That's probably another dark horse this year.
[00:21:15] Speaker B: Yeah, it's always nice to see those sorts of teams, especially when there's some hope that people can counteract the wicked witches of the west being the Dodgers and the east being the Yankees. So whenever you get a team in those central divisions that can, that can put up a fight. It's really fun to see 100%.
[00:21:33] Speaker A: I am excited to see the playoffs as that's just coming around the corner. Fall baseball, then it's great because you have the baseball playoffs, hockey seasons right around their footballs back. Oh, the sports to talk about is endless. 100%. Now, Connor, look, we're going to table, obviously when we come back, we're going to see more of a clearer playoff picture after the vacation about what's going on. But I want to make sure we used our time today to talk a little bit about the updates. But as I talked about in the beginning opener, we got some tests to put you through. Okay. And if people didn't tune in last week, I'm not going to explain what a blind ranking is. If you don't know what it is, just look at our page. You know exactly what that is. You can listen to last week. But I put Connor through a pretty good one last week and he actually did a very good job on it. In comparison to Alex Parr's results, Alex Parr is not doing the greatest on these. Okay. He kind of shoots himself in the foot a little bit. Early tip.
But, Connor, I got a variety today. Okay. And I'm going to keep it interesting a little bit. And then I got a little. Little men's league question for you at the end. Yes, men's league question.
Connor's eyes are already wide. That's good. That's what I want to hear. But before we get to that, we're going to do player rankings. We'll do two player ranking tests. We're going to talk about the ALM BP, which is kind of a test. And then we're going to do logo test but with the logos. I'm going to give you the logos and you're going to rank them. So you got the blind ranking, you got your opinion, and then you got a rating with logos. And then we got my one off men's league question, so hopefully everyone follows that. Okay, first player ranking test. Starting our blind ranking with player rankings. I'm going to name it. You rate it. Firstly, Vladimir Guerrero, junior Vladi.
[00:23:20] Speaker B: Oh, my goodness. I like Vladi. He's having a strong year. This is the bounce back year they needed. Put him at three, Dave.
[00:23:26] Speaker A: Three.
[00:23:27] Speaker B: Give me Vladi at three.
[00:23:29] Speaker A: You're gonna be good at this. I can already see that's brutal. Number, next up, Juan Soto.
[00:23:35] Speaker B: Oh, put him at. Oh, he's this.
He's a top five player this year, probably.
I'll say. Let's. Oh, I don't trust you. You used Aaron judging me last time. I'm going to say put him at one.
[00:23:50] Speaker A: Okay, next up, Raphael Devers.
Baby faced assassin.
[00:23:58] Speaker B: Four. There's only one baby faced assassin I like, and it's Steph Curry.
[00:24:03] Speaker A: Good reference. Oh, my. Bobby Witt.
[00:24:06] Speaker B: Oh, Bobby Witt. He signed a good deal for himself.
[00:24:10] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:24:12] Speaker B: He's doing well. I like Bobby Witt. More valuable position than Vladi. Let's put Bobby Wood at two.
[00:24:18] Speaker A: Two. So this puts your number. Number five. I think you're not going to mind this list. Your cousin, jokes aside, Gunnar Henderson, Gunner.
[00:24:27] Speaker B: Okay, well, Gunner's good. You know what? That's. That's fine.
[00:24:30] Speaker A: So, one, you got Soto. Two, you got Bobby Witt. Three, Vlad. Four, Raphael. Five, gunner.
[00:24:37] Speaker B: I'll take it.
[00:24:38] Speaker A: That's a good list. Next up, number two.
Another five coming at you. Yordan Alvarez.
[00:24:46] Speaker B: Oh, geez, I couldn't tell you one thing about this dude. Put him at four.
[00:24:52] Speaker A: Ronald O'Connor.
[00:24:57] Speaker B: Put him in the cell.
[00:24:58] Speaker A: I don't know.
[00:24:59] Speaker B: Put him at three.
[00:25:01] Speaker A: Bryce Harper, my boy.
[00:25:04] Speaker B: Two, Bryce. Two for Bryce.
[00:25:08] Speaker A: Jose Ramirez, you got one in five left.
[00:25:15] Speaker B: Give me the five. Bryce is over. Or, sorry, the one. Put him at one. Put him at one.
[00:25:20] Speaker A: Freddie Freeman, your number five. So you got Jose Ramirez, Bryce Harper, Ronald Acuna, Jordan Alvarez, and Freddie Freeman. That's two good lists, good rotation. Connor, he must see my screen or something. I don't know what's going on. He doesn't. I promise you that.
[00:25:38] Speaker B: I'm sweating, Dave.
[00:25:39] Speaker A: Got it.
Next up, your opinion, Al? MVP. Judge or Soto?
[00:25:47] Speaker B: It's gotta be judge.
He's leading in just about every single category.
[00:25:52] Speaker A: Soto.
[00:25:52] Speaker B: I mean, having a great year. And if you wanted to, like, build your franchise around a 25 year old who's doing super well, so does your guy. Judge is 32, but judge has more power. He has more average. He drives in more runs. He's got a higher war. He plays a valuable position in the outfield.
[00:26:08] Speaker A: It's got a judge DeSoto. Stay with the Yankees at the end of this year, does he sign a big deal and stay with the Yankees?
[00:26:16] Speaker B: Oh, I. Yeah.
[00:26:18] Speaker A: No tawny level deal. Or is it less?
[00:26:21] Speaker B: It's not, it's not. Oh, tani level.
[00:26:24] Speaker A: No, that's good. Logo quiz. Now, I'm not gonna give you a blind ranking for this. The logos, I'm gonna list them, and you're just gonna rank them one to five. Okay?
[00:26:36] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:26:37] Speaker A: Toronto Blue Jays, Oakland Athletics, New York Yankees, Philadelphia Phillies, San Francisco Giants. That's four. I can't count on my end. And Baltimore. Is that Jays, a's, Phillies? I cannot tell. That is five. That is five.
I can't count.
I'm throwing a six in there. Orioles. That's the six. I had six down. So go from one to six.
[00:27:06] Speaker B: Okay, I'm putting that. That dumb looking bird from the Orioles 6th.
[00:27:11] Speaker A: All right.
[00:27:12] Speaker B: There's no shot in hell that the Orioles bird is cooler than the, than the blue jay, so it has to be lower than that. We're going Orioles six. Okay, I'm gonna put a's at five. I mean, their color scheme is iconic, but their logo is pretty mid.
Did you have the Giants on their giants? Yeah, I'm sticking them at four.
[00:27:33] Speaker A: Okay, Yankees, Phillies, J's left.
[00:27:37] Speaker B: Okay, so the Yankee pinstripes are iconic, but the letter NY is just pretty mid. We're gonna stick them at three.
I've got the j's coming in at two. And the Philadelphia Phillies, for all the wrong reasons, because I've already destroyed the idea of just a letter, will make me a big hypocrite, and I'm going to put them one.
[00:28:05] Speaker A: So you got the Phillies one, Jays two, you got the Yankees three, you got the Giants four, a's five, Oriole six, and yes, that is six. And I thought I only had five. We throw curveballs here on strike zone. No pun intended. Last one off. Question about men's league baseball.
What is the strongest position in men's league? Not pitcher. Can't say a pitcher. Men's league. Strongest position and weakest position. Where do you put your strongest player? And where do you put your weakest player?
[00:28:41] Speaker B: Oh, boy. Okay, so let me do some. Let me do some. There's so many different answers to this question.
[00:28:48] Speaker A: No. Pitcher or catcher, though. I'm not letting you put catcher a pitcher. So I said pitcher, but I gotta include catcher on there because I know catcher is very valuable, too. So pitcher and catcher is out. You can't. You can't put them there.
[00:29:00] Speaker B: All right, here is. Here's the truth. All right?
Shortstop should be the most valuable position because it's athletic, but it's also toolsy. You can stick an athlete in center field, but you can't always put a center fielder at short.
Now, outfield, by design, is more valuable than first base, than the corner, than the corner infield. So if I'm trying to hide a bad player, if they can catch the ball, just shove them at first.
[00:29:35] Speaker A: Because.
[00:29:35] Speaker B: They don't have to throw, they don't have to move. They just have to stand there and catch.
[00:29:39] Speaker A: All right?
[00:29:39] Speaker B: And if they can't do that, then, I mean, I'll stick them at third.
That's. I.
[00:29:46] Speaker A: The.
[00:29:47] Speaker B: You know, a lot of people will tell you left field is the. Is the least important position. But, I mean, at the end of the day, if you're in left field, you're covering the same amount of ground as right and center, your most important positions. Are up the middle. So I would rank it shortstop one, center field two, second base three, the corner outfields four and five, and then either third or first last, because you have to be able to catch. Otherwise it's, it is what it is. It's game over.
[00:30:17] Speaker A: I agree. Now, if pitcher and catcher was a thing, pitcher would be number one. You gotta have a strong, strong pitcher in men's league. If you got someone who I'm not gonna name that plays here in the Sioux, that's very good at pitching, you're gonna win a lot of ball games. Okay. I know pitch is the biggest.
It is. I had to ask that because if you're playing men's league baseball, if it's slow, pitch faster, playoffs is going on. And it just made sense for me to bring up something, one off that isn't professional to Connor.
[00:30:42] Speaker B: And I'll say something that's, that's really key, too, because the value of first base changes heavily based on the level of competition you're playing.
Typically, the younger you are, the more important first base is. And the older you get, the less and less and less important it gets.
Now, open league men's baseball is a different beast because there's huge skill gaps in the players playing. And you need to have skill at positions where there's a lot of plays, and almost every play involves first base in a league where a lot of people are hitting it on the ground.
So you can't just put a plug at first base.
But generally in regular baseball, you know, first base is definitely a lower valued position, but in men's league, it probably is a little bit higher than what I gave it credit for.
[00:31:32] Speaker A: Oh, see, I like. Was that a good one off. I told you. And Conor does not know what these questions are. They know. He knows what they are, but he doesn't know who I'm going to ask. Okay? And that was my one off. So you did two blind ranking for player rankings. You also did your opinion for a, for Al MVP. I left out NL for a reason.
That's next. That's another episode and logo rankings, but I gave you them. And then a little men's league fun little tab, because of course, baseball season is coming to an end if you play in your local area. So we like that fun. And that's how Conor and I got closer, was because of recreational baseball. So it felt fitting to do something like that here on this show. Okay. That it just made complete sense. All right, Connor, look, you know what? I've had a dream to always do a show at the Rogers center. I've always wanted to. And they have a thing with the Blue Jays called work from the dome. Okay. And I was going to look at arranging something this year, including when it comes to our media passes, but I didn't. I just didn't. The fit wasn't there. Too busy from when I'm going, etcetera, and the dates didn't line up. But going forward, my idea is maybe next year we can do a work from the dome from the Rogers center. You know, I would like to have people's opinion on that. If me and you are at the Rogers center and there's fans walking by, if I'm on and you're on and we're talking, people are waving in the background. They don't know what it is, I feel like that'd be something fun. So you, as listeners of the game, let us know if you think that's a good idea or if you think that is a bad idea because we might not get any work done, but I think that would be something fun to do. So I just want to throw that little fun thing out there for you to kind of stir on and think about for next year and maybe have listeners let us know what they think below.
[00:33:16] Speaker B: That sounds fun.
[00:33:18] Speaker A: It would be fun. And while I'm sitting there having a hot dog or a popcorn or whatever.
[00:33:23] Speaker B: Would we be doing a dog and inning challenge?
[00:33:28] Speaker A: See, we can do a live stream and do things like that. Yeah, that'd be fun. That'd be so fun. So fun. Okay, Connor, I appreciate you, man. You know what, obviously we had, we went to talked about updates, we had some rankings, and now we have some clips until we have our vacation. So I hope you have a good next couple weeks. I'll certainly keep you updated as the men's league playoffs, as I mentioned, is going on the 91 n pandas, which is our, of course, powered by 91 network. That's what the game is, is the defending champions. Okay. And now I just got to bring it in here. Okay, here it is. Here is the champs right here. And I'm bringing into the. To the camera at the bottom. This would be the. This bottom right here, 2022 JJ Bergman, who is now on the other side, was the MVP for 91 and pandas. And then, of course, Stephen Fabro last year. And I'm sorry about some other names that may not want their name on there being shown, but they were. So this is Dave.
[00:34:26] Speaker B: I don't know how in 2016, that Colton Reed fellow, I don't know how he managed to get his MVP on there. I talked to him about that the other day. He had no idea. I think that name should say 2016 Connor Henderson. But I don't know. I don't know who's on the voting panel that year, but teach their own.
[00:34:43] Speaker A: Oh, we can get that change. If 91, if the pandas win again, which would be the first one on this side or this side? Because it's time to spin the trophy around here, of course. And if you wonder why there's a year delay, it's because of COVID okay? That's why people wondered if we can't count. Yes, we can. It's just because of COVID So this is the trophy that the pandas are defending back to back champions. And I want to hear your men's league stories if you are, have you won this year? And I hope in the next couple weeks that this trophy is still on display here in the games wars podcast 91 and office. If not, it might be going to other hands, but I thought I would show that.
[00:35:19] Speaker B: Okay, best of luck with wishing my best of luck to the team, Dave. They're undefeated with me off the roster, so let's hope that that streak continues going into the playoffs this year.
[00:35:29] Speaker A: We can use some Henderson spirit, man. Telling you that right now. Would love to have you back for a game if you're ever up when we play. That'd be great, Connor, thank you so much for your time, my friend.
And we'll be back after Labor Day, of course, because you know why we'll be back? A couple reasons. Because of what baseball season is at, but of course because it's a holiday.
So of course we're gonna have you on because it's a holiday.
[00:35:52] Speaker B: It's what we do.
[00:35:54] Speaker A: So fun, the quiet. Okay. All right, Connor, thank you to you. And of course, thank you to you all the listeners and viewers here on the game sports podcast, making sure I remind you as well. Hit like, subscribe and interact with all the platforms. The game is everywhere. Okay, 91 network, YouTube channel, we're on TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, Spotify, Apple Podcast, anywhere you search us, make sure you search the game sports, highlight that s podcast and you'll find us. We got a G's as our logo. If it's your first time on there looking for us, if you know who we are, great. Make sure you're interacting. We had a very neat comment from a fan the other day who said he loved Alex Parr's hat and he's his dad is an avid watcher of the show. I don't know who he is. Love that feedback. It makes the work for us. Know that despite the views that we get, that we love the interactions. Don't be shy to do that. I'm here to remind you, keep your stick on the ice, swinging bats, catch your touchdowns, drain your threes, and shoot your shots. Booyah.
