Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Hello and welcome to another edition of the Game Sports podcast powered by 91 n. We have two segments for you today. In the first segment I will be joined by Connor Henderson and we're going to get into all the news around the diamond, including the MLB trade deadline and the MLB draft.
[00:00:15] Speaker B: And then Dave and I will be breaking down the summer slam show that was and we'll see how I fare in a new blind ranking.
[00:00:21] Speaker A: Let's go.
Booyah. And welcome to another edition of the Game Sports podcast. It is your host, David McCaig junior. And I'm joined right off the hop in our strike zone segment by the one, the only, the rookie of the year. If you know, you know. Connor Henderson. Connor, my friend, great to see you. It's been a couple weeks to near a month I last saw you on here. I've been having to talk about baseball solo, but I'm very glad able to join us here tonight.
[00:00:55] Speaker C: Yeah, Dave, I've missed you a lot. I'm running out of every reason in the book as to how I can't get on the show. And I'm really excited. Today we get to talk about MLB draft, MLB trade deadline, we're going to talk about some cool injury news with pitchers Paul Skiens. And then I heard that we were even going to do some top five blind rankings, which is the new hot thing on TikTok and I've never done it before, but you mentioned you did it with par on your hockey show, so I'm excited to get that rolling as well.
[00:01:21] Speaker A: Oh man, it's, it was, it's so fun doing those. And I gotta give credit. I'm not gonna say it's my idea because it wasn't like you just said, it's on tick tock. There's a lot of good podcasters out there and I'm. No free ads, okay. But I will mention I got the idea from empty netters. Okay. That was the podcast. I will give them credit. There's a lot of people that do them, right? There's a lot of podcasts that do them for hockey, for any podcast that you're doing. But obviously here on the game, we talk about all of, all sports and obviously our heavy season right now is baseball. So I thought, why wouldn't we do something with Connor, the intelligent Connor Henderson to bring up a blind ranking and do different ones each segment and to add Connor. It is a holiday show and you tend, and we tend to always have holiday shows, okay. Like it's civic holiday here in Canada and we always, it's either Valentine's Day, which isn't really a holiday. But you know what? We. It is on our show. It could be Labor Day, you know, but I'm hoping that you're going to be on a couple more times before Labor Day comes around the corner. But I thought I'd throw that in there and you get a good little laugh knowing that we're together on a holiday.
[00:02:22] Speaker C: I appreciate that. We found every holiday in the book. At this point, I'm just going to start googling like, it's going to be national French Friday or something, and we're going to be like, oh, well, classic. Another strike zone edition.
[00:02:32] Speaker A: We can do that. And eat it for french fries while we're recording. I know people would love to see us eating, getting that salt all over us. They would love it. All right, let's get into it. I want you to. You said off air that you had a story to tell me about Vlad Junior's about a bat, and Vlad Junior was in that topic. Shoot. Give us that. I wanted you to wait so the listeners can hear this story. So. And the viewer tell us.
[00:02:54] Speaker C: Yeah, so Dave hasn't heard this yet. It's a cute. It's small. I'm at the Camerica park seeing the tigers play against the blue Jays, and I'm there with one of my closest friends. Both of our girlfriends are there. And there's this guy who's selling used bats, and he's got all these players, and they're certified and, you know, they've played in the game. And we're walking by and, oh, my God, they had the sickest looking, like, cherry kind of oak red, sort of. Vlad guerrero junior two. Vlad guerrero Junior bats 350 USDA a pop.
And I was sitting there doing the conversions, like, what is that? It's like $500. Can I even get that across customs? Like, on a half day trip? And we started joking. We're like, hey, wouldn't it be funny if we.
What if we.
And we just. And we were like, me and my friend, we were, like, talking ourselves into buying while our girlfriends are standing in the back, like, what are these guys doing? Like, these guys are nuts. And then at some point, something awoke in me where I'm like, I'm not even a J's fan. Why am I? I just. It was one of those, like. Like, I just thought it was like, such a, like, a sick thing. So uncharacteristic of me, because, like, I'm the biggest, you know, Penny pincher you'll ever see in your life. But we didn't end up buying the bats. But I was so close. So close. And, and my friend was fully on board to do it. Like we were ready to dive. Full bat. Tigers won the game. It was a good game. Fun time.
[00:04:22] Speaker A: Honestly, when it comes down to conversion. Okay. For those of you that know, the game sports podcast is based in Sioux, Ontario, but our border town is Sioux, Michigan. Okay. And just case you didn't know that, and we experience a lot of that conversion. And as much as a joy it is to go across the border to buy things, get gas. When it comes to converting a bat like that over, it's a lot of money to spend. That is a lot of dough to spend. Okay. But I love that because you were thinking about buying a Vlad jersey. Okay. Or Vlad baseball bat. Okay. And it would have looked really nice across here or something. Connor knocklired would have looked really nice in your background. But I love that story. You know, I kind of wish you would have surprised me today and pulled.
[00:05:07] Speaker C: It up if I did.
I got it. I've got a game use Connor Henderson and it's worth about $20 in my.
[00:05:14] Speaker A: Bag right over there.
[00:05:15] Speaker C: So I'll stick to that one for now.
[00:05:16] Speaker A: Oh, you can put that up and we'll put a picture of you when you are. Or a renegade slash panda if you know, you know. Okay. We'll talk. Maybe if we have time, we'll joke about that at the end. Oh, that's a great story, Connor. I love that. Thank you for sharing that. It'll make me know that I gotta bring some extra cast to ball games. Cause I might be dumb enough to buy a bat. That's where my wife is. Probably in the background rise. Right.
[00:05:37] Speaker C: I'm gonna call her. Don't do it.
[00:05:40] Speaker A: Okay. We didn't get a chance to talk too much about the trade deadline preview or we just didn't have the time. I did my own little thing last, last episode with Par and he heard more of me. Just kind of rant about what the Blue Jays should trade. And can I be honest? I'm going to gloat. They traded everybody that I said. They traded Turner, they traded IKF, they traded Kikuchi.
They traded. I don't know why I'm drawing a blank right now. Yeah. Kiermeyer, I did mention if they can get a return for him. Let's do that. Garcia already happened at that point of the recording. But guys that I said that they would trade that either had no years left or one year of control. They may trade and they did. So I'm going to go out and say, yep, I was right. And to those saying that they were going to trade Vlad or bow, I knew that wasn't going to happen. Okay. I am surprised about one guy and I know they said that they weren't going to trade them, but I thought it was a lie. Was Chris Bassett. I thought that we're going to consider Bassett because I think it's a really big buyer's market and someone could use someone like Bassett and the return they could have gotten could have been quite significant. Just look what they got for Kikuchi. Somebody with term to boot I think would have been a good idea. And I know lots of people text me saying why did they trade Springer? Look, contract is way too much. And you know what? He's hard to say. He's a glued guy. He's a glue guy on that team. They love him on the team. He's a fan favorite, believe it or not. As much as you may get booed or criticized, that means we love you in Toronto. If you get booed and talk about a lot deep down we love you. But we're going to talk about the Jays in a moment because I know they're going to flood a good amount of this detail because they did invade the deadline a little bit. But there were other moves around there, too, Conor. So that's a trade deadline. I thought we'd get into that first and then go to the draft. Kind of a little backwards swap there, but kind of wanted to start with the hot news with the deadline. So I hope you're good with that because I know, yeah, that's totally the.
[00:07:32] Speaker C: Right way to go because the trade deadline, for those who don't know, is way more important than the MLB draft for baseball. In hockey, both the draft and trade deadline is super fun. Baseball, the draft sort of takes a backseat. It happens mid season. Most of the players you've never heard of in your life.
So I think the biggest trade, the trade that we have to talk about here is the Jack Flaherty to the LA Dodgers trade. Detroit Tigers trading Jack Flaherty. They had him on a one year deal. This is exactly why they signed him, was as a reclamation project. He had struggled for four years and they flipped him at the deadline after having like a 2.95 era. He was killing it. The sad part is he got a weaker return than Kikuchi did for the Jays and they waited till the last minute of the trade deadline like I was on Twitter, and finally Flaherty gets moved, and they got two prospects. They got a switch hitting power catcher in the miners named I. Lorenzo.
Lorenzo. I don't know. Apparently he slots in as the fifth highest rated prospect in the tiger system.
[00:08:43] Speaker A: Right now, which is pretty big. Tigers have a good prospect system.
[00:08:46] Speaker C: They do. They do. They're top heavy. They do have a good prospect system, so we'll take that. The second player they got is Sweeney. I don't know if they have any relation to Sydney Sweeney or Sweeney Todd, the Demon barber of Fleet street.
So we'll have to do some digging. I'm not sure if they got the right sweeney they were looking for there.
They might still be on the market for another Sweeney, but this person is a shortstop, former first rounder from New York, left handed hitter. It is what it is. They got two pieces for a guy on a one year deal, and the Dodgers got a much needed starting pitching arm from a rotation that's taken a beating with both Yamamoto and I believe Bueller are the two that have been hurt.
Yeah. And so they were in desperate need of a new arm to sort of get them over the hump. And then the Dodgers also picked up a couple other guys as well, one of which, as we mentioned, was Kevin Kermeyer, who's just an elite, elite, elite defensive center fielder and who apparently also announced that he was retiring after this year.
[00:09:51] Speaker A: Yeah, he is retiring and put on outright. And the gate, the day after he gets put on outright, he hits a grand slam against Arizona. Right. And teams are probably like, oh, maybe we should have done it. Look, I thought when he was getting put on there, the Jays were doing him a favor. Right, that, okay, they're. They couldn't make a trade that they wanted for him. And honestly, we want you to go win. I think that was. And look, I don't talk highly about Shapiro or Atkins on the show at all. You might get. You might. You may as well clip these nice points as episodes. I do got some thumbs up to give them, even though they shouldn't be running the team after this year. They on point. Kiermeyer, such a stud defensively, that guy. Defense is a big thing in baseball. Okay? You need someone who can catch a ball, and not just catch a ball, but make a game saving stop, 9th inning, can reach over the thing. He can do it. He can dive. He's also, like I said about George, he's a team guy. He's a glue guy. He's a leader. He can be in that dugout, and he's going to really help push the guys and motivate them. That's kind of how he is. It's too bad that maybe didn't have the effect on the Blue Jays this season, but it did last year. We got to see the Keir Meyer get rejuvenated last year because he had a struggle the year before that with the Rays. And yeah, he did announce his retirement, right. And there was a little bit of a surprise where our teams could have got him for free, but the Jays trade him for Yarbrough, who is a relief pitcher who was also put on outright. So it was kind of like a player that wasn't working out anymore on a team for somebody who is retiring the j, trying to do them a favor and it worked out and he's going to a team that, let's be honest, is a, is a favorite to win the World Series this year as long as they can stay healthy and good move. Good move. And I, look, talk about other trades for a minute. I like Lane Thomas's move from the Guardians. I feel like the Guardians are this team that, you know, they picked first overall this year in the draft that we're going to talk about. They had a good bounce back here, but they have such, so, such a strong, a strong depth piece. Like you look at their players, not, they're not going to have all these Aaron judges pop out at you. But you know what? Josh Naylor, stud Ramirez. We don't need to talk about Ramirez. Unreal. Bo Naylor, okay? Like Rosario and Stephen Kwan, these guys are just the right ball players. These are, this is a team that has been built really nicely, okay? And I'm not giving Shapiro any credit for that because that was before his time, in my opinion. Probably wrong. These, some other trades. The Dodgers obviously, too, they were not shy on making some moves. Give me Tommy Edmond. There's a guy who just didn't work out with the, with the cards and, you know, Kopec going over there, too. The Dodgers are loading up. They want to buy. They want to buy. So that's another thing. I was very surprised that they didn't go after Boba shed aggressively. But, you know, if there's a Gavin Lux and a Diego Cartier in that trade, I felt maybe the Jays, if maybe there just wasn't a trade, but maybe that's an off season thing at the, I kind of, I feel the Orioles bringing Gregory Soto in, and I like the Orioles. I've talked highly about the Orioles. I know Tigers fans know about Soto. There's a good reliever there. They have a good bullpen with canoe. They got Soto. I like what they have there.
Overall, the, the trade deadline, the brewers were buyers bringing in Frankie montage. Montage. Nope. Frankie Montas and the Reds surprising this year. I was really, I was really looking forward to the Reds this year, and I'm going to get their exact stats here. The 53 and 58, they're in a tough division against what the brewers doing very well. The Cardinals have bounced back this year. Pirates looking great. The Cubs, they bought a little bit right there. It can be anyone's game in the National League Central, but the Reds, I think are a little bit surprising. This dead. This deadline, I feel was really good.
I liked the deadline, a lot of moves. But the Jays, my goodness, look here. Danny Janssen gets moved. You get cutter coffee. Paulino Bautista has some prospect pieces. Good move. Janssen is an expiring deal. Look, I would have loved the Blue Jays to extend Danny Janssen. That would. I love Danny. I'm not a fan of Alejandro Kirk. I wish Kirk was the guy who left for Varshaw, not Moreno. We've had this vent on this podcast before, okay? But that didn't happen. Kirk is good defensively, but look, the guy can barely run to first base.
I can't, I can't.
[00:14:18] Speaker C: He's got an interesting build, that guy.
[00:14:20] Speaker A: Interesting. Probably a glue guy, and he's young. But you know what? Whatever the Kikuchi trade, as Connor already attested to, makes the flaherty trade look like a robbery. Okay? And low profito watched him these first couple games. Blas goes down. They sent them back down, thankfully. I don't think you should rush them up to this team right now.
They decide. And also, Wagner. Can't forget about Wagner getting there. His dad was in the MLB, right? It's an expiring deal in a buyer's pitcher's market, though. And I know Astro fans were not happy about this trade, but you know what? Again, this is a GM that took advantage. Adkins can't believe, here's my first thumbs up. Has took advantage of a buyer's market and took, I think he took his time. The teams knew who the Jays were selling. A month ago, they said that we're going to move guys with one year left and or guys with control to whatever we feel is the best fit. That at that point started these conversations with these players and these teams, and that's where I think they got ahead of the game. They knew they were out early. They knew it didn't go the way they wanted to. And I think that's why these deals worked out so good. And every trade they made, I feel, was a very good trade. Kiermeyers even. But for Kikuchi, bringing in three prospects, okay, that are already booster up your depleted farm system. They go from a lower ranked farm system team to almost a mid rank. Just one deadline, which is so impressive. And that's, again, Shapiro Atkins, very rare thumbs up over here. But you bring in low profito, great defender, great stance. He reminds me a lot, and he's not him, but his stance, being a lefty, is a lot of a Cody Ballinger type stance, not player. I just see a lot of potential in that swing. Blas, there's been a lot of comparisons with him, but there's a guy who can be a fourth, 5th relief or 4th 5th pitcher for you in the future. Maybe he ends up being a long reliever, who knows? But it seems like his numbers in the minors, he's mashing down there. Fito was mashing. He's dealing down. There's the word that I should be using, Wagner, as well as mashing. Everything's going good down there, the moves that they make. Cutter coffee had a good debut. They brought in guys that have replenished the farm system for guys that are early, some mid twenties, Cutter coffees a bit in his mid twenties, guys who might be able to come up next year and help this team. And Garcia, you know, honestly, bringing in Jonathan, Jonathan Claus a does anyone know who that is? Well, let me give you a refresher. The guy had 79 stolen bases in the minors and 20 home runs. The guy's five 9165 pounds. He hits. He plays something called small ball. Small ball is what gets you wins. What did the Cleveland, at the time Cleveland Indians called the Cleveland Guardians played the Blue Jays when they won in 2016 against the Blue Jays. Believe it was that year. 2015 may have been Miller, the 25th. Yeah. Yeah, that year. Yeah. 16 cops won that year. Right? So 16, they played small ball against Jason, got on first, stole second all the time. Then they had a guy come up, they had their lineup nice out. I can try to remember some names. They had such the Kip Kipnis, Jason Kipness, which I remember some names. They had their lineup base nice, nice. And they get hits. And guys got in close days. A guy who already goes in the top ten of the Jays farm system, if not near the top five, last I looked, and there is a guy who can get stolen bases, bat at the bottom of the order, bunt for the top guys to come up and get the job done. Kudos to the Blue Jays, and I know we're hitting the 17 minutes mark here, Connor. So the deadline overall, Connor, and I give you the floor to wrap it up. Talked about as much as I could there. Try to get everything out as much as I could. You got to give thumbs up to the Blue Jays. I know people disagree, but I think the Marlins did a good job, too. I like what the Marlins did by not trading Chaz Jism, they should have kept jazz. I feel like he's a corner piece. They always trade these guys. They're like the Oakland Athletics. They lose these guys when they get good. But now the Marlins payroll is lower than what judge makes in a year. Okay, that's absolutely unbelievable. This team almost feels like it's going to be in poverty for a long time, but they've made a lot of good moves. They have a very impressive, I believe it's a top three farm system in the whole MLB. And so I think you got to give them a little bit of credit and give them a little bit of patience because his team is going to come up and I got to give them credit for their trade deadline. The Blue Jays, the Marlins, and I wish I can put the Tigers on that for the, for the trade deadline moves, but you know what? They are not on it.
I got to give three to an obvious Los Angeles Dodgers. I feel like they added, they really rounded out the team, a team that's had some injury issues and once they're healthy by playoff time, they might accomplish their main goal. Connor, any final thoughts about the deadline?
[00:19:09] Speaker C: Yeah, no, I think the Dodgers did exactly what they needed to do, is inject some life into the lineup to, you know, stabilize things until people get healthy. That's what they needed to do, and that's what they did.
[00:19:20] Speaker A: Danny Janssen has a Red sox, though. My goodness.
Times are. Times are something. Times are something. Connor, baseball draft. Before we get to your blind ranking test.
[00:19:31] Speaker C: Yeah. So I got three players that I want to talk about very briefly. First and foremost, the first overall pick of the MLB draft this year goes to the Cleveland Guardians, and they selected Travis Bazana, who is a second baseman out of Oregon.
And interestingly enough, he's the first ever australian player drafted first overall in the MLB draft, which is pretty neat. One of the other interesting things is as a second baseman, he's not exactly playing what you would call a premium position. Second base is very important, but it's basically the little brother to shortstop and the premium positions are center field, shortstop, pitcher, catcher, up the middle, defense. Now second base is technically up the middle. So it's also very important. But a draft like this goes to show that, you know, if you can hit the ball really well, which is exactly what Vezana does, they'll find a place for you. And this guy can do it. He can mash, can hit.
Not quite as much as the person who went third overall. The most popular player in the MLB draft this year, Charlie Condon. Six foot six. He's the best hitter in college. The Colorado Rockies snatched him up as the third overall pick. And his hitting numbers are ridiculous. He's one of the best hitting prospects I think we've seen in years. He batted 430 with power this year in college. Ridiculous. I think he hit about 35 home runs on a through 300 plate appearances, which, you know, when you get about 5600 plate appearances in the MLB, the equivalent is like 70 home runs at, you know, a 430 batting average. Ridiculous.
[00:21:12] Speaker A: Scary stuff.
[00:21:13] Speaker C: Yeah. Yeah.
That's a guy where like, I don't care what position, you know, DH, left field, you find a spot for him.
[00:21:24] Speaker A: Find a spot.
[00:21:26] Speaker C: And then third. Bryce Raynor, Detroit Tigers shortstop. Second rated high school player in the draft this year. But some people had him at the highest rated high school player in the draft. He was coming into this year as one of the top pitching high school prospects, but he just had a really great year at shortstop. The Tigers snatched them up and their top three picks were all high schoolers. Last year, their top three picks were all high schoolers. Clearly the timeline is to build through that sort of era, which suggests that a guy like Tark Scubal, who is one of the best pitchers in baseball right now, who's pitching for essentially league, he's about as cheap as you can find a guy, and he's pitching about as good as you can ever pitch. Um, that's a guy where, with two more years of team control, you could probably get an absolute haul for him.
[00:22:17] Speaker A: And, I mean, they should have traded them. I'm sorry, I know we talked about deadline, but if I'm the school ball, if I'm the Tigers, I'm looking at the Orioles, okay? Hmm. Who do I want? Is what. You look at that system. They should be looking at the Orioles and saying, that conversation does not start without Jackson Holiday's name being brought up. Right. And then that's, that's where it expediates. I'm so, again, we're not at the deadline again, but I'm so surprised. But he's such a stud. And that was.
[00:22:45] Speaker C: That was. That was the link, right? Is two more years. Now, the Tigers, even with scuba, only have, like, three MLB starting pitchers in their rotation right now because everybody's either hurt or traded or sucks. So they're doing a lot of these. They're doing a lot of these, like, bullpen only games. It's rough. But those are. Those are my MLB draft guys to watch out for. Charlie Condon to the Rockies, Travis Bonanza to the Cleveland Guardians, and then my guy Bryce Raynor to the Detroit Tigers.
[00:23:13] Speaker A: Love that. You know what I forgot to say before we go to your blind ranking, because we want this to be a clip, right? Last episode we talked about above Vlad. I gave two points about the Jays. Atkins and Shapiro should not be running this team. Making the big deal trades. Bo.
I'm not gonna say Vlad because I got Vlad in a second. Bo. Or if it's gosmandhouse, Bassett, those big franchise potentially altering moves where you can bring in a pivotal young piece or something that needs to happen in the offseason, that's something I really stressed about after you fire these guys. But after this deadline, I hope they didn't buy time with Rogers. Okay, you got to look at this year and do a whole change, because if this team should be a quick retool, not a change. But my rant is going to go back to Vladimir Guerrero junior. Okay? I didn't give it. Get a chance to do a clip about this because of the dates. And I want to give it a pure, pure, less than 62nd rant about Vlad. Okay? Everyone knows, okay, that I cheer for the blue Jays. Okay? And we try. We don't. And Connor's a Tigers fan. We talk about all the teams, though. Look at what we did. But behind me is a Vladimir Guerrero junior. Okay, I can't turn. Doesn't matter.
Throughout my time, I've seen Roy Holiday, Carlos Delgado. I've seen Edwin and Conacion. I was too young for Joe Carter's home run. I've seen Jose Bautista. I've bought a few jerseys in my life. I bought a Bautista jersey. I had a Roy holiday jersey and a shirt. And I've purchased a Vladimir Guerrero junior jersey. Okay. Oh, and Josh Donaldson. Those are the four. Okay. Donaldson. Couple years. I don't know why I bought that, but if you meant think of those names. Did those guys finish their careers with the blue Jaysh? No, none of them. None of them did. Delgado didn't. Bautista didn't.
I cannot think back and look back at somebody who has been with this team from start to finish. Is that different in today's era? 100%. 100%. But is judge gonna ever leave the Yankees? Nope, he's not. Is trout ever gonna leave the angels? Maybe. He probably can't because he's injured all the time, so maybe nothing. My point is, Aaron Judge, drafted by the Yankees, captain of the Yankees, resigned this year. Long term, he's long term deal. Until he's almost 40, if not even when he is 40, he's not going anywhere. I want the Blue Jays to have somebody that is going to be there for a lifetime. Vladimir Guerrero junior was technically born in Canada. He has the Canada bloodline in him, okay? And he joined the Blue Jays because, long story short, Alex Anthopolis went to visit him, one of the only GM's to do what he did to impress his mother and his family. That's apparently the story of somebody that I know that I won't name, just case they messaged me and listened to the show, and I was wrong. Vladimir Guerrero Junior needs to be a blue jay for life. Okay? So let me tell you this. He has been the best hitter in the MLB for the last month. He had a slow start, but this is somebody who has been a tremendous piece of this team and organization fan favorite. He's been blue Jay written all over him. The fans need to have somebody that they can always look at and think as the face of this team, someone who has been here, been that Aaron judge to the Yankees, who he will be, Vladimir Guerrero junior. Let me tell you this, three words. Pay the Mandev. Pay the man. Okay? That man has not just cause this last couple months or the last 30, 50 days. This man needs to get paid. You need to go to him this offseason, blank check. What do you want? How do you want it? We'll get it for you. I don't care if it's Shapiro Adkins, the new GM, if it's cedar gaston comes out of retirement, I really don't care. Somebody go and sit down with Vladimir Guerrero junior and his representatives, like tonight. They should do it tonight. Nevermind. Wait till this off season. Do it tonight. Whenever. Go sit with them and be like, we want you. You are this team. We want you to stay here. What do you want? Pay the man 2025. No, 30. Give him 30 million. Give him a front loaded deal. Give him a Shohei Ohtani contract where you pay him sixty five cents a year until he hits 40 years old. I really don't care. Vladimir guerrero junior needs to get paid. And needs to stay on this team. He is a heartbeat. He's a character guy. He's a great ball player. He has power. If he left this team, he would go join whatever other team he joins. And guarantee you this from a Toronto fan, he will hit 40, 50 home runs a year. He'll do a home run. They'll eliminate the Blue Jays from the playoffs. He'll do a home run, eliminate them from the World Series, whatever it is. That is what karma will, will do, because that's what we are here in Toronto. Let's change the script. Pay the man, keep the man. That is somebody who built this team around. It's Vlad, junior. And all stars will look and come here because of that man right here, Vladimir guerrero, junior. Pay the man. Three words. Rant. Connor.
Love it.
[00:28:24] Speaker C: I mean, if I. If I'm willing to. To buy his bat, then the g should be willing to. To pick up his contract.
[00:28:31] Speaker A: Rogers media, baby. They're rich. As rich as hell. You were gonna pay shohei. Whatever the hell you were gonna pay him. True or not, $70 million is Vlad Johey. No, he's not. He's not a pitcher. I get it, but you need to keep these guys. You need to keep this guy, okay? If you trade him, you better get a Jackson holiday. Jackson holiday. And a Jackson holiday. And a Jackson holiday. I want four Jackson holidays, okay? I don't want one, I want four. This guy is. Is irreplaceable. You keep this guy. Pay the man. Do it.
[00:29:02] Speaker C: He's a corner. Cornerstone. Dave. He's a cornerstone.
[00:29:04] Speaker A: Pam. Blind ranking. Connor. Because we know we go overtime here, we like to have a little bit of fun.
[00:29:10] Speaker C: For 15 minutes tonight, baseball news is.
[00:29:13] Speaker A: Hot, man, and we've had some time away, all right? Blind ranking. I don't need to explain the details. If you need to understand what a blind ranking is, comment below. We'll explain it to you. Go look at some of our other videos. Okay? Connor Henderson's getting put through the blind ranking. MLB version, baby.
Now, we're going to give you five batters and you're going to list them one to five based on what you know, my friend. Let's go.
And I'm going to get the clip. Ready? There we go.
First name? Bryce Harper.
[00:29:43] Speaker C: Three.
[00:29:44] Speaker A: Okay, you got Harper three. Number two, Eloy, Della Cruz.
[00:29:53] Speaker C: Four.
[00:29:54] Speaker A: Okay.
Number three, Aaron Judge.
[00:29:58] Speaker C: Jesus.
I think judge is better. Two.
[00:30:07] Speaker A: Two. Okay, let's go. Adley, Rutchmandeh, you got five and one left.
[00:30:21] Speaker C: Five.
[00:30:22] Speaker A: Okay.
This puts your number one as Julio Rodriguez.
So you got number one, Julio Rodriguez, number two, Aaron Judge, number three, Bryce Harper. Number four, Eloy dela Cruz. Number five, Adley Rutchman.
[00:30:37] Speaker C: You might as well just flip the list upside down.
[00:30:42] Speaker A: I love it. I love it. There you go. So what do you rate your first ever blind ranking, Connor?
[00:30:49] Speaker C: Bad?
[00:30:50] Speaker A: I don't know.
That is great. We're going to do that. But we're going to do different things. Pitchers, batters, catchers, teams. I don't know. I don't know. We're going to have a little bit of fun with that.
[00:31:02] Speaker C: Red is a tomato right now, Dave. All right.
[00:31:04] Speaker A: Get me out of here. I love it. That's great. Comment below what you think Cal Connor did. Okay. We'd love it. Next up, we got segment two coming up here on the game. But before I do that, I got to say bye to you, Connor. Almost forgot that. Thank you for taking the time. We'll have you on again here. We're now in August. So as listeners know, we get to our vacations barely coming up soon. So we're going to be off from the 19th until after Labor Day unless some big news comes out in the world of baseball or something to talk about. Then of course we'll do a clip or we'll have something for you. But we are going to have a show we are looking at if not next week, we'll for sure have one on the 18th posted on the 19th before we go on vacation. So there might be one or two shows left and I'll make sure since baseball is getting hot, connors on them and we'll make it work wherever we can with Conor. But until we can get you on again next time, Connor, appreciate you taking the time, my friend. It's always a joy.
[00:31:56] Speaker C: Absolutely. Dave, can't wait to talk soon.
[00:31:59] Speaker A: I can't wait to get chirped about going 15 minutes over again. Love it. Love it. Thanks again to Connor. And just so if everyone wants to know about the 91 n pandas, we have one more baseball game left. So if you wonder about local baseball chat, but our men's league that we love talking about, gonna save that for the next episode. We'd like to fill that in. We'll save until the next one, but I'm gonna take a break. When we come back, we got segment two here on the game. Don't go anywhere. And welcome back to the Game sports podcast. Dave McKay continuing to host you this evening, I am joined by my other co host here on the game sports podcast, someone you see all the time here on the game. Alex Parr, my friend, how's it going?
[00:32:35] Speaker B: It's going well. Just so everybody at home knows, Dave said 15 minutes for this segment. So if you're following along, keeping your tallies, place your bets now. On it. Going the over.
[00:32:43] Speaker A: Oh, hundred percent if you go the over. But maybe we can surprise today because we did have a longer segment with Connor when it was supposed to be. But, you know, we like to on these pre recorded shows. I guess time management isn't really a thing, but we try to manage it. And for those who do manage it, don't worry about it. We have fun here anyways. Okay, Alex, my friend, you're having your coffee. I have nothing here, to be honest with you. Usually I have a beverage going with me, but I don't. Today I got my clock somewhere. Yeah, 100%. We got kind of a different last episode. We called this mortgage board, is what I call it, the episode, because we just had a variety of things to get to and it's gonna be very similar for you and I today. And I'm excited because obviously the busy sport right now is baseball. A lot of the news is baseball, but I, basketball is getting flooded. Obviously the Olympics is going on. There's a lot going on in the Olympics. And if you're following along with the Olympics, par and I aren't going to really get into that. But I will mention that I feel like in the Olympics this year, Canada has had a lot of fourth and fifth place finishes. It's just the story of Canada's life. But you know what? Great storylines at the Olympics. There's also some not so great storylines that have flooded around, but we're not going to get into that today just because of time constraints. But obviously, baseball, Olympics is what bloody and sports. But par and I are going to be talking about SummerSlam and hockey. We're going to find other two things to talk about before we wrap up because we've already talked about baseball. So let's get into the two that we plan to talk about on the next episode. We'll definitely dive into the Olympics in a little bit more detail for you all around. Reaction. Par SummerSlam, you and I texted back and forth, it's been a busy week. It's a long weekend here in Canada, obviously, with the civic holiday, and that's where we're actually recording on the civic holiday.
Alex SummerSlam, I told you that I predicted a few outcomes to happen and why we're talking about SummerSlam, if you're curious to know. We know it's entertainment. We know it's a joy, but it's. The WWE is cooking right now. Okay? The WWE is cooking. Okay. If you are a attitude era person, it is time to reinvest back. If you haven't yet. If you haven't yet, though, I'd be so shocked, because months and months and months and months ago when it was wrestlemania, before that, even with the rock coming back, things were starting to cook, and things are cooking. But there was a. There were some things that I predicted at SummerSlam to happen. If you haven't watched SummerSlam, spoiler alert. Maybe hit pause and go see the review. Okay. I gave you 3 seconds, sort of, to put pause on the video. Liv Morgan, Rhea Ripley, Dominic mysterio comes on out. I have said this. I do not have the clip.
I said that Dominic Mysterio would turn on Rea, and it happened. And I don't know, I thought that wasn't a surprise part. I think you were. You didn't call it.
[00:35:26] Speaker B: I saw a tweet that said, I think Dominic Mysterio is the only person that was a heel to turn. More heel after the fact. Yeah, it's good for the story, and the fans are really behind Ria, so it makes sense to try to shift her away from the bad boy faction of the judgment day. And I get that true fan support behind her and flip it in a good way. And, yeah, everybody loves to hate Dom. The whole thing is, is when he's out there, you're booing. So may as well capitalize on it and get some more genuine reactions to. To him coming out when he does.
[00:35:59] Speaker A: Yeah, 100%. And I think, you know, the. The Rhea Ripley stories. Liv Morgan, if those two, like, Rhea Ripley's in tremendous shape, okay. Like, she is, she takes good care of herself. She's. I think, honestly, she's huge. Yeah. She's in great shape. And nothing against Liv Morgan. Okay. Liv Morgan's also, you know, very athletic, but I. In a. In a real go, I know people always say, in a real go, Rio would win. You know what? Some. Hey, you can't assume that we don't know who knows what in a. In a fight, but that was tremendous athleticism in that match. I feel like there's a lot of good talent in that ring between Rhea and Livdeh. And as soon as Dom put that steel chair in there, you're like, okay, I know what's happening here, and it happened, and it's great for the storyline. And Judgment Day, the group, judgment Day had a very bad day at SummerSlam, there was a lot of, a lot of things happen which can transition us to our next point. Priest lost his heavyweight title due to the help, well, of one of his members in Judgment Day park.
[00:37:02] Speaker B: Yeah, I was sitting on my couch going, oh, like every match from that show. Show advance the story in such a meaningful and impactful way. So it'll be very interesting to see what route they take now for war games, which will usually be their team versus team. I mean, a lot of people have been saying it'll be the bloodline, team Roman versus team rock, but it could also be two different versions of the judgment Day in there. Now that you have it split right down the middle, you can kind of build up the teams a little bit more, have a four v four five v five kind of action. But, yeah, with, with Finn Balor picking his side and Dom picking his side, and now you got liv coming over, too. There's a lot of different ways that you can do it. I really wanted this swerve to happen when Priest was the money in the bank holder and for him to turn heel. But like you said at the start, wwe is cooking, so I'm just going to let the chef do his thing. I'm not a cook, so I'm not.
[00:37:57] Speaker C: Going to get in there.
[00:37:58] Speaker B: I'm not putting any spices in there. I'm going to let them do what they do. I'm going to. I'm going to eat it up and I'm going to see if I like it or nothing.
[00:38:04] Speaker A: Honestly, the new mentioned there, go to the next point. Roman reigns and, and the rock. You know, the Wrestlemania was the Avengers and endgame, or like we call it, the end game was Wrestlemania. Right, but you, with, with solo, I don't think. I don't think he should ever win a title. It's not a fan of solo. Not great, but he's doing a great job.
[00:38:23] Speaker B: I thought he was really good on Saturday night. I'm not, like the biggest solo guy either. So I was really, I. I'm like, okay, he's in this main event spot. Let's see how he does. I thought he was great. I thought he sold crossroads. Excellent. I thought he was, like, moving in the air. Well, so tip of the cap to him, but, yeah, let him go.
[00:38:41] Speaker A: Let the chef cook right there. See something solo. And he's doing. He's doing good. But when Roman Reigns comes out and gets the fans the hoo ha right, and he just absolutely cooks solo with a spear. It was great. And Cody Rhodes is sitting there like, oh, okay, am I next? Am I getting this next? And just looks at him and nods and walks off like this, that storybook, right? You're going to have Roman and Cody. They're going to team up. I imagine there'll be a rematch down the road one day, you know, for Roman and Cody. Like, maybe down the road, but Roman reigns. Cody team up, you know, with Randy Orton, Kevin Owens against, you know, the rock solo and all that. I am. I am so for that, right? I think that'd be great. I'm just waiting for Paul Heyman to come back, but I'm hoping he's enjoying a nice little vacation. The guy had stayed up for 24 hours before he got his, well, beat up, quote unquote, and just, you know, take a little vacation. But it was a great event.
[00:39:36] Speaker B: So let's.
Let's hop on a flight and go out to Vancouver in November and go watch war games.
Dave, I'm telling you, man, like, you gotta go at some point. And if even there's an inkling of a thought that the rock might be there, how many more times are you gonna have a chance to be able to him, especially in Canada?
[00:39:55] Speaker A: Probably not much.
[00:39:56] Speaker B: Maybe this is it. Maybe.
[00:40:00] Speaker A: Honestly, triple H is cooking and the main event, Cody walks away with the championship belt. Again, great entertainment. Look, you know, it's. You don't have to be, oh, it's. It's fake, it's entertaining. Yeah, whatever it is. But they do it. The. I think people are starting to do a better job that, like, solo did a great job, solid in the crossroads, like, they're doing a better job. I feel like the WWE is really investing in the background to make these wrestlers more like better actors, per se. May make that easier for listeners and viewers to understand. I liking the entertainment, but the storylines is what's really making a cook. And it's because it's the old ones and it's the wrestlers, the new ones, the attitude era ones, whatever ones you want to reference to are doing a great job.
[00:40:39] Speaker B: It's the same as a movie. People playing characters and getting you to buy into things that aren't real. But for a moment in time, maybe you forget about that. You're just focused on the story. That's all it is. You know, I know these people aren't punching each other in the face. Sometimes they do on a hundred percent. Yeah. But, you know, just. Just entertainment. It's theater, if you will.
[00:41:01] Speaker A: Yes. Awesome stuff. Awesome. SummerSlam. Great. Nice. Nicely done. I. I did more of the recap I was occupied this weekend. I get the chance. Really? Watch.
[00:41:08] Speaker B: Yeah. And I only watched the last three matches. Also, shout out CM punk. That was like, probably the first match I'd seen.
I, yeah, his first singles match in WWE since 2014, maybe like, only my first or second match had seen in its entirety. I know when he went to AEW, he was botching all over. He couldn't stay on his feet. He stunk that match. Hats off to him. He looked great. It was awesome. Just such a good match. And I think they pulled the trigger on Drew there. I think that's the right call.
[00:41:36] Speaker A: Yeah, 100%. And at the end, a little Seth Rollins turn, create a little rivalry, a little friction. Storylines are cooking the WWE. Let us know what you think about the WWE if you're reinvested or not. Par, when it comes to the National Hockey League, you know, there's not too much to really dive into. There's been news.
[00:41:53] Speaker B: There's been, I was going to say, like, what? What are you even trying to get at here?
[00:41:57] Speaker A: There's not, there's not been too much movement. So we're going to utilize the time that we have for the National Hockey League portion of the show to do more clip worthy kind of content, that being our 93 redraft. And we're also going to do another blind ranking. But honestly, you know, the, the NHL season is fast approaching as crazy that may sound. August. It's currently August 5 and puck drops in less than two months. And as par said, a couple episodes back this season was so long. Everything was long, playoffs long.
The draft was the next day, essentially.
[00:42:38] Speaker B: It wasn't then free agency a day after that.
[00:42:42] Speaker A: Yeah, and then you've had all these things. I get the entertainment factor. But look, you know, it's okay to have a slight disconnect. And this August, I'm okay if the news is a little bit less when it comes to hockey. I am great with that. And we can talk about things that are currently going, that are hot topics, baseball, the Olympics, etcetera. But we're going to use this concept to do our two clips for the 1993 NHL Redraft and our blind ranking. So I want to go first to the NHL Redraft. So par and I like to do a redraft of the top five of the current year that we are discussing. So we're going to go back and forth with doing that with you. You can leave a comment below on what you think. And again, 1993 Parr, you get to go first. Who are your top five? If you're picking them today.
[00:43:27] Speaker B: If I'm picking them today, I'm going to go five to one. I'm going to start as Pierre McGuire said, the man with a big stick, Hal Gill, going number five. I got sakukoy vu. A number four, Jason Arnott. Number three, Paul Correa. God, it would have been nice to see a few more games out of that guy at number two. And number one, number one, defenseman, Chris Pronger.
[00:43:48] Speaker A: We do love defense and longevity here on this podcast. A little bit different. I'm going to go from five to one also. The Florida Panthers are proud to select the fifth overall pick. Pavel Demetra, the fourth overall pick. The Anaheim mighty Ducks are proud to select Saku Koyvu, the third overall pick. The Tampa Bay Lightning are proud to select Jason Arnott. With the second overall pick, the Hartford Whalers are proud to select Chris Pronger. No change. With the first overall pick, the Ottawa senators are proud to select Paul Correa. I agree. You need to have, I wish we would have saw more games from Paul. I know Scott Stevenson really helped that and that's somebody that was really wanting, somebody that I know knows him and I really wanted to get get him on this podcast and I was told by that person, he doesn't do podcasts. He doesn't do anything. He's off grid. He gets asked to do podcasts all the time. And I haven't seen him on spit and chicklet. So if I'm wrong, someone please correct me. But I haven't seen him even on there. And I know from a source they've asked them. And if someone from there wants to chirp me how I leaked that, that's fine going from secondhand information again. But Paul Correa, you know, that was a stud talent for sure. And he was great at the college level. My father in law talks very highly about him and again, wish I would have saw more. And I think it would have been great to see him in a canadian team jersey. Like imagine what he could have done with Daniel Alfredson in Ottawa or what he could have done with that team in Ottawa that kept losing to Toronto in the early thousands. Fun fact.
Dream on. But Paul Correa, great. I think that's either way, Chris prong of Correa doesn't matter where you go. One, two. I think either or is a good pick. All right, blind ranking. Okay, what a blind ranking is, I'm not going to explain it again this week, but I'm going to give parental five names in any order. And he's going to rank them from five to one based on who I name without knowing who's next.
[00:45:34] Speaker B: I like how you said, I'm not going to explain it, and then explained it word for word, exactly what it is.
[00:45:38] Speaker A: I did that on purpose because I felt like it was necessary. Thanks for seeing that for me. That. That. That's great. Blind ranking. Here we go. Par. Okay, this is going to be a little bit, I think, an easier one for par than it was last week. If you haven't seen last week's. Go check it out.
[00:45:51] Speaker B: Roman.
[00:45:51] Speaker A: Yo.
[00:45:52] Speaker B: Coming in at the end. What a joke.
[00:45:54] Speaker A: It was. It was great.
Blind ranking first player and players.
[00:46:00] Speaker B: Just players.
[00:46:01] Speaker A: Yes. Yes, just players. Ranking them based on talent. Based on talent.
[00:46:06] Speaker B: What do you know today, currently, how they're talented today or all encompassing?
[00:46:11] Speaker A: That's a great question. Let's go with today. Okay, going with today.
Alexander Ovechkin, four.
Sidney Crosby two.
Braden.
[00:46:32] Speaker B: .3. I like this so far. I need the best and the worst now.
Oh, no, Leon.
[00:46:39] Speaker A: Dry side all one.
[00:46:43] Speaker B: I'll go one. Leon.
[00:46:44] Speaker A: Yeah. Austin Matthews.
[00:46:46] Speaker B: Nah, he's not. Five. Damn it.
[00:46:50] Speaker A: So to recap, you have Leon one, you have Crosby two. You have Matthew or. Sorry. You have braided. .3. You have ovechkin four, and you have Matthews five.
[00:46:59] Speaker B: I would put. I would put Matthews at two, and that would be my only change to that. And then bump everybody down. I think it was really close, though. It was really close. I really liked one through four.
[00:47:10] Speaker A: No, it's good. These blind rankings, we love the interaction on social media. So please, you know, follow along, please put your take. And we're going to do different ones each week. I might even do ten. Might throw par for a massive loop and throw ten players in next. I don't be.
[00:47:23] Speaker B: I'd be so down for an episode where we just did blind rankings. We both brought, like, three to the table and then just went back and forth. And then you'd have, like, a bunch of clips, too.
[00:47:32] Speaker A: Yeah, that's good. We'd like to do clips here on the show because we know you like clips. The viewers like clips. They like interaction. We know that. You know that. We like to say that we know everything, but at the end of the day.
[00:47:44] Speaker C: But we do.
[00:47:45] Speaker A: We do. And we like to have fun. But par, like I said, the beginning. I know people have been asking, hey, you can talk about the Olympics on your podcast. Look, the Olympics are happening every day. It's hard to talk about. I can recap what Simone Biles I could talk about that controversy in the boxing ring. You could talk about the Canadians that are like degrasse, I'm making it on. There's obviously a lot we can get into about the Olympics, but a. Due to time constraints today and bhdem, just because of the ever going, we're just going to wait till the end of the Olympics to do a full little recap of it for you and our reaction at that point. So I've had a couple texts about it. It will come. Okay. Whoo.
[00:48:17] Speaker B: Summer Macintosh. Yeah.
[00:48:19] Speaker A: Yeah, summer. So good. I'm so surprised on Penny and more events, like, so surprising. Talent is really growing. A lot of young talent. Olympics. Very impressive. Very good stuff. All right, Alex, I want to say thank you for taking the time. This is the conclusion the show today pars at the end of the show, usually he's at the beginning to the end, but today he jumped in on segment two and he didn't get to hear the introduction, but he gets to hear the ending still.
[00:48:45] Speaker C: Are you.
[00:48:46] Speaker B: Are you wearing the same shirt that you wore for the first segment? Were you that dedicated to doing it?
[00:48:50] Speaker A: 150%. And if you must know, I really I am. I kept it on the back of this chair with the knowledge. With the knowledge knowing. And because underneath it, I have a black. A black workout shirt because I was out mowing the lawn. Okay. If you want to know, we do breaks in between.
[00:49:09] Speaker B: Yeah. I'm sorry for ruining the movie magic for anybody, but I was curious to see if you were that dedicated to it. I respect that.
[00:49:14] Speaker A: I respect that always if I know I'm doing pre recordings, I have the same shirt at the ready. So just to remind listeners, we do have our august vacation. As I talked about, the first August 19 will be our last episode that we're uploading. We should plan to have one next week, but if not, we'll for sure have one on the 19th for you. But we will have our two week vacation that will take us until after Labor Day. And then, guess what?
We are back to more frequent episodes per se. Weekly episodes. Either one or two per week we'll have because of football starting. Hockey's around there. We'll have baseball still cooking at that point. There'll be a lot to get to. And we have special editions planned. So definitely keep your calendars, you know, marked for the game sports podcast content. But please note, we will have a two week vacation that we do at the end of August every year. Okay, so, par, I want to say thank you very much again for taking the time, my friend.
[00:50:06] Speaker B: No, thank you.
[00:50:07] Speaker A: Of course. And I want everyone out there to have, you know, the time to interact with us because we enjoy it. And please comment below on his blind rank. You know, those are fun. I love it. So until next time, I'm here to remind you, keep your stick on the ice, swing your bats, catch touchdowns, join your threes and shoot your shots. Booyah.
