Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Foreign it's time for the Game Sports Podcast is Your host, David McCaig Jr. The Game Sports Podcast is powered by 91 Network and featured on Spaces 91 and is a YouTube channel where video editions of the game are uploaded and Spaces is featured through Village Media and Sue Today. Make sure you're following both platforms and if you're listening from an audio perspective, you may be on Spotify, Apple, Google, Amazon, wherever you may be, make sure you're following on there at there Game Sports Podcast and of course social media, Tik tok social media, Facebook at the Game Sports Podcast look, always some great content for you to enjoy and some interaction opportunity. Make sure you're taking part of that. We always appreciate the existing and new interactions, listeners, viewers from all over. We always appreciate your involvement with the Game Sports podcast. In our 10th year, January will be officially 10 years of the Game Sports Sports Podcast. Now, today is going to be a little bit of a unique edition. It's going to be shorter. Yeah, I know you're rolling your eyes because you know Dave is on here. Nothing is ever short when it comes to time with me talking, but it's also going to be me being solo on this edition due to some technical difficulties on Trudeau's end. You're going to have me solo for the entirety of the show and it does alter a little bit of this week's agenda, but I promise you is still content you're going to be able to enjoy. And speaking of that content, with me being solo this week, it will be a solo in the pocket edition to start the show and then I'm going to be diving right into baseball. I'm gonna let hockey have a vacation this week. I'm not going to get into anything chuck a puck. I'm not going to get anything top shelf. So I'm not going to talk Major Junior. I'm not going to be talking Susei Marie Greyhounds. I'm not going to be talking about NHL or anything. This week it's going to be football and baseball only given the time that we have, as you'll see with our duration of this episode, it is shorter than our normal hour. Going to be under a half hour today. Now, I want to remind everybody that I talked about on previous editions of the show, we're going to be having students joining the 91N and the game Sports Podcast family. We're very excited about that. A lot of new things upcoming and we're getting near that time that I promised you what that was. And I know that but we got to get the ball rolling on some background things. And I don't like using the word things, but that's what I am going to use. And we have some good exciting news to share with you before Christmas time. Yes. I can't believe talking about Christmas ready and you know, I can't believe November is already here. Wow. It's unbelievable. I don't know about anybody else but daylight saving times threw me for a loop. I didn't even remember daylight savings time was a thing. I woke up and I time went back. I thought it was earlier. My kid got up earlier. It just threw everybody off in this house. So I don't know about you, but that's what I'm feeling. Let's get back to sports. So in the Pocket and Strike Zone Dave Solo for the entirety of the show, get into in the Pocket. I'm going to give a shout out to Sports Center Bar and Grill, the partner of with this segment where usually I have EJ and Justin join in, but like I said, just yours truly, you're going to get so I'm going to be getting into the trade deadline a little brief today, very briefly because obviously you know of the trades that went on, you know of what names have moved around. You've already read the TSN, the ESPN, the NFL.com, maybe the Sportsnet articles. You've already had that piece. I want to give you just a brief reaction given time and where I feel from a team perspective and player perspective where there was success. I'm Sauce Gardener. I'm excited obviously leaving the jets to go over to the Colts, obviously big. But three teams stand out to me, the Colts, Eagles and the Jets. And I got to give my Pittsburgh Steelers a little bit of a notable there as well with bringing in Kyle Duggar from the Patriots. But the Colts went all in. The Eagles were aggressive leading up to the deadline and the jets looked towards the future.
[00:03:46] And what I realized when it came to the trade deadline is that teams moves happened, but a lot of moves happened a little bit earlier and a lot of moves happened in the off season where teams were really buying. The Pittsburgh Steelers are one of those teams. But I think overall if you're looking from a player, I've talked about Gardner being a winner going over to the Colts. Right. But in terms of the team, I thought the Eagles were a team that were and I'm actually, you know, SportsCenter had a very good point about this bringing up where they didn't really obviously make a move from a deadline perspective perspective but they made moves leading up to where they got Edge, Roger Jalen Phillips, they got Michael Carter the second. So the jets moving out, Carter moving out, Gardner making out moves. Obviously the Eagles were buyers with that regards and really capitalize. They're six and two. They're obviously a juggernaut. They're a favorite overall and they were winners at this deadline leading up to and because of deadline day. So you got the Colts, you got the Eagles and the Steelers being three teams that I would highlight as winners the Jets. I still feel despite the moves that they made and the picks that they got, this organization has a long way to go eh like and I'm asking that as a question to you the listeners. Like I just every year I feel like I'm talking about the jets just not being there, the Browns just not being there despite having some nice pieces. Talk about Garrett when it comes to the Cleveland Gardner when he was there with the with the jets. Like these teams just cannot get it together. These organizations been through many quarterbacks coaches like something's got to give and you got to hit on these trades once in a decade. Unbelievable. I I won't be diving into the deadline too much just because of time as I mentioned but overall I really feel like the Colts did have had a very good season obviously surprising year. I didn't expect them to be where they're where they're going to be today. The Steelers obviously getting a nice nice victory on them last week, but the Eagles, Colts, Steelers good moves to add to their team. Jets, you're still marked as losers until you can get the trades and hit the trades with the picks that you've received. That's all I'll say about the trade deadline. Let me know what you think about the trade deadline below. There's my brief and three well I guess four teams that I'm highlighting when it came to the trade deadline. Now this week when it comes to the NFL week 10, my goodness, 10 weeks already that we're in. 10 weeks. Unbelievable. I going to give you the standings update for our pick them league here on the Game Sports podcast and then the picks before I transition over to strike zone where I'm going to be talking about baseball in its entirety to be fair. But I got to be honest, I'll be talking about the Blue Jays a little bit extra obviously but the standings pulling up the standings here on the mobile device of mine. Hikes picks with 87 the David decision with 85 broken wheel which is EJ with 81 Tyler Willette with 77. Now if you listen to last week, you'll know that EJ's score didn't go up.
[00:06:48] EJ forgot to make his picks last week, which we don't honor in the at all when it comes to the Pick Them league for the Game sports podcast. But guess what, EJ is still in third with only being six behind one and four behind two, which is me. EJ has a horseshoe up as you know what when it comes to this league. And EJ says hi to all the viewers and listeners, by the way, if you are, if you're a longtime listener of the show, you know who EJ is and he'll be back very soon. Hikes, leads, hikes. Picks, sorry. Leads the way at the top of the standings. Now let's get to my picks this week. That's all you're going to hear. And yeah, I have a 63% success rate but my overall average as well is over. I almost said well over 70% but it is over 70% lifetime since we have been doing this show. So you know what? I think I got good picks for you to maybe look at. Maybe help you pick in your league or in other ways. I got the Broncos over the Raiders on the Thursday night game. Yikes. Not a fan of that game. Colts over the Falcons, Bears over the Giants, Bills over the Dolphins, Ravens over the Vikings, jets over the Browns, Buccaneers over the Patriots, Panthers over the Saints, Texans over the Jaguars, Seahawks over the Cardinals, Anders over the Rams, Lions over the Commanders, Steelers. Yes. No bias there. I actually truly believe that Steelers, even though they're not favorites in this game are going to beat the Chargers on the road. Packers over the Eagles. Yeah, that might be my, even my biggest surprise pick of the year. Well no, I guess not of the year but certainly this week. But at Lambeau Field on Monday night, I'm taking Green Bay that. Just saying.
[00:08:13] 2824 packers over the Eagles.
[00:08:16] 2421 Steelers and Chargers when it comes to the tiebreaker games in our league to pick the scores. And when it comes to points, be most in lease for the week with our tiebreaker in the league, Buffalo with the most and the New Orleans Saints with the least points this week. Now let us know what your picks are below. How are you doing in your league? How's your fantasy football season going? Look, I know I didn't dive into much more when it comes to the deadline into last week but I said numerous times because of time I think this football season, I still think last year's season was more exciting. But overall, I love the storylines this year. Surprise team for me is definitely the Colts this year. But you have to think, despite the Lions being my pick for the super bowl this year, when are the Buffalo Bills going to win team and quarterbacks is too good. Even though they've had some concerns come up this year. It's definitely going to be very interesting how how till it comes down to the last couple weeks where the standings are and when the playoffs start. Oh, and I know the playoffs are a while away still. We're just hitting over just after the halfway point, of course, so lots to still go down in the season. So make sure you're not only got your fantasy and your picks lined up, make sure you're just enjoying some good football because like I said, we're already in week 10. Time is flying by for sure now I'm going to transition from in the pocket to strike zone and I didn't give myself as much time as I wanted to when it came to strike zone this week. And as you know, see, the time is a little bit less. But you know what, that's good because it's going to keep me on time constraints, which is a first, which is 100% a first.
[00:09:48] And six days is the number that I'll use to start with strike zone. Spring training. 106 days. Well, that's what the Blue Jays social media upload said. That sounds a little bit short to me. But pretty soon spring training will be back and people say, well, you won't forget about this year, but the sting will stop. And to get to that momentarily, news in baseball. First two things. The Blue Jays lost in Game 7 to the Los Angeles Dodgers. I uploaded a clip, or I should say my social media team uploaded a clip to TikTok and Instagram that you can check out. It was just under three minutes of your time to check out where I gave, I feel a very, very, very true response to the to the World Series and literally the best World Series I've ever watched. Not just because the Blue Jays were in it. I thought up to game seven extra innings, it went till the end on almost every game essentially except Game one. It was just enjoyable to watch. It was a Blue Jays team that weren't even close to being favorites, stood up to the Dodgers and I know Kike Hernandez is going to get a chuckle out of this if he hears it, but the Dodgers, to me, were not the best team. They were not. The Blue Jays were fantastic. Trey Savage just absolutely being a savage on the mound. Vladimir Guerrero Jr. Home runs, hits, Ernie hits great stuff. And when I see news Shane Bieber is returning, he exercises option. He will be back next year with the Bluebirds. And you have Team Canada doing an exhibition game against the Blue Jays on March 3rd. Like a lot of good little things coming up that made me very excited for this upcoming season. Sure. But I'm also nervous for this upcoming season. But I'll get to that more towards the end. I'm going to give another pivot here to go back on track to the World Series reaction. And to be honest with you, as a Toronto fan I have only seen the rafters win in 2019. That's it. Other great sports moments to me have been Jose Bautista's bat flip, Edwin Incarnacion's bat drop seeing John Tavares get the winner against Tampa to actually proceed to the second round because Toronto make it there since 2004 when they did that then they make the second round and they just lose anyways.
[00:11:58] Sports moments in Toronto have been far in between. There's been, you know moments where oh they drafted Austin Matthews first overall but there was pain up until that. There was some. There was when they got back into the playoffs that being the Toronto Maple Leafs losing in round one to Washington showing so much promise. They had them against the ropes in a lot of games. It was great the Blue Jays making the playoffs the COVID time and before 2022 and the they were. They didn't get the job done. They were young. They were still maturing this year this team was just storybook. Everything was just amazing to tune into. They were exciting to watch. They were in every game. They made you proud to be fans of this team and of course that moment that we have been waiting for in Toronto sports to have that victorious moment since we haven't had since 2019 and I say we as a Toronto fan base because I'm taking off my host hat here for a minute. I am a Blue Jay fan. I still got the Guerrero jersey up. It's going to be the last time I have this up until next year. It made sense to have but the Blue JAYS losing Game 7 to the Los Angeles Dodgers and extra innings Yamamoto the AI machine goes out there. Shohei Ohtani who just kidding. Another AI machine these this team is so deep and as such a good team and the Blue Jays are just as good and because they are a unit, because they are pure talent of baseball. They got the right chemistry, they got the right workhorses. They that is a ball team the Dodgers. Yeah I'LL say it bought their team, but they have talent and they know how to play ball. They're a ball team. But I just love the Blue Jays. They have a high payroll to do the Jays, but they had a lot of players. Nathan Lucas, Erdie Clement, Addison Barger. These guys that came up just made you love this team. And the Blue Jays are not even close to being favorites next year to let alone win make the World Series. That is crazy to me. I know they're losing arms. I know they're potentially losing arms and for Bochette's a free agent, but I'm gonna get to that in just a minute. As we're gonna near the wrap up here on the show, I gotta make sure I come together with my thoughts. The Toronto Blue Jays made us proud. Bonded a country and you got to make sure you check out my clips. I. I think that reaction, I don't want to spoil it was just perfection and bang on, to be honest with you. But what I will say is when they lost two outs away from winning the World Series, you look at that catch the Paz made. You look at the Miguel Rojas getting that home run. You like what? Of course. Just pain. Curse. Hands up. I didn't want to touch the ball. Two outs away from winning the World Series. Just pain. And it sucked the sports spirit right out of me. I've been a Leaf fan and I haven't had my spirit sucked out that much of sports. It's. It's so heartbreaking and sad to think about that they lost, but it's because I'm sad that they lost, not mad that they lost. They worked hard. They did what they could. They made me proud. I'm sad because how much I loved this team. My favorite Blue Jay team ever. It was so tough to watch them lose. I couldn't even watch the after. I know that they lost. I had to turn off the tv. I didn't want to see Vlad or the boys crying. I didn't want to see fans crying. I was already emotional in my basement with my guests and my wife. I. I was heartbroken. I still am. It's gonna sting for a while. I almost don't want to watch sports anymore until the Olympics. But you know what? It was so awesome watching what this team did this year.
[00:15:18] Rogers, though. Very good team. Very good team. And that's all I'll leave it at. I don't want to give them any more credit. It's already been there, but what a season it was. The Mariners made it such a Good series. Kyle Raleigh, you know the, the, the Yankees, Aaron Judge, the Jays beating them. That was just a great. And then the Yankee fans on social media, the Twins just getting involved. You have the brewers who had such a great year as well. They were so dominant this year. Were those Brewers.
[00:15:43] And how about the Guardian story making it all the way back against the Tigers and we were this close. And if no one's on video, the one listening on audio I'm doing very, very small inches apart between a thumb and my index finger. The Tigers and Blue Jays were almost in ALCs. Like what a story this was. This was my favorite ball season by that I can Remember for over 30 years. Loved every minute of this. It was great. Thank you to mlb. Despite the nonsense that happened in the World Series in game six and seven, despite the second best team winning, I know that's going to eat up fans and that's fine. I'll keep saying it. And despite what happened as the outcome, this was certainly a season. The Jays will be back there next year. There's no way I'm going to say it. They're going to be back in the World Series next year. I won't say that they'll win yet, but they're going to be back there next year because this is a core that you will not be able to break. Buckle up mlb, because Canada and north of the border is getting that trophy and bringing it back to Canada. But thank you Blue Jays for an amazing year. Thank you to all the teams. What an exciting year of baseball. Fantastic stuff. Now quickly, before we get to the wrap up, Shane Bieber resigns in Toronto. How exciting. I don't think Toronto's gonna be shy on spending money this year. They're going to be added to that rotation one arm if not two. And they're definitely gonna solidify that bullpen a little bit more. And the big thing that they're going to do is re sign Bo be shed. I know this always get to go the Yankees, the Braves, Colorado, the Dodgers, the Reds. No, he is going to stay in Toronto. I know there's points in different ways, but there's no way he leaves. Toronto will pay him. Bo Vladdy together, retiring together. Like both said, if it doesn't happen that way then Bo, why you lying? Resign. Give the man money. I know he hasn't been healthy, but this is somebody that you need to keep on this team and make sure that he's a part of your core. The Barger and having Springer back next year. And you know what? Bring back Bassin in that bullpen, never mind to starter. Put him in the bullpen. Loved that role for him. That's where we can look at Valdez, Suarez. Look at bringing in an arm in the rotation. You have Trey Savage for a full season. You have Gosman Barrios. You already have four guys there. Bring in a fifth power arm or just have a fantastic rotation. Throw Bissette Bichette. Wow. Throw Basset in the bullpen. Bring another bullpen arm in. You can look at Diazu. There's guys that are available, spend money on the pitching and resign bow. And let's run this back with this core. Obviously, I told you I'm going to be passionate about it as much as I can. I'm going to dive into a little bit about the Blue Jays, but I did talk about other teams in there. Okay. I know we talk equally about the whole league, but you got to give love right now to the Blue Jays and they're the team that I, that I cheer for. And I loved every minute of it this year. There's the episode this week. 20 minutes is what we're at right now. That has got to be a record for me in the pocket and strike zone. It's all you get this week. Chuck a puck, top shelf. Taking a break this week. I apologize that we couldn't get true to one and obviously with the other fellas, Justin, E.J. brennan and Alex couldn't make it this week. Next week there may not be an addition just because of particular matters. So we are going to upload though a show, our special edition show with Ryan Sproul next week. Either way, have a new show or not. So you have our new show this week. Next week you might have two shows or you might only have one. And if it's two, it's a new show and a special edition. If it's just one, it's just a special and also 91n and also checking out spaces. Okay? So thank you for joining me on our shorter and brief edition of the Game sports podcast in our 10th year. And until next week, I'm here to remind you, keep your stick on the ice, swing your bats, get your touchdowns, drain your threes and shoot your shots. Puyall.
