00:00The American League is really hurting my brain right now, and the reason I say that is because you have five teams that feel like they are formidable World Series candidates, but I can't separate one from the rest.
00:14When you look at the American League and the contender ladder, how do you see it?
00:21Well, the tough part with it is it depends what week you ask, right?
00:26And that's the funny part about having pretty much a daily show here is sometimes you feel like you're arguing with yourself week to week because one week – I mean, if you go back and listen to our conversations about the Tigers or you go back and listen to our conversations about some of these ball clubs a few months ago or a few weeks ago and then you circle back now, it's so different so quickly.
00:48And I think that the Tigers just on the forefront is one of those that becomes a really complicated conversation here.
00:55They're playing a bit better of late, but it's still kind of been eh.
00:59But they were so good out of the gate that they're 69 and 52.
01:04And when you look across the rest of the league, there's not a lot of teams that have won 69 games.
01:08To be exact, actually, the only team that has won as many as that is the Brewers, and then the Philadelphia Phillies are also at 69, and then you've got the Toronto Blue Jays as well.
01:18So you've got three there.
01:19But that puts them among the best teams in Major League Baseball.
01:22The Blue Jays had to be red hot to get there.
01:24The Brewers are literally the craziest story in Major League Baseball right now and have won 11 straight games.
01:30I just talked to Quinn Priester about it.
01:32And the Phillies are the Phillies.
01:33So that's the really difficult part for me is I almost feel like we're getting a little harsh on the Tigers because at the end of the day, they're still one of the best teams in Major League Baseball, despite being slow over the last month or so.
01:46We talk about, though, when you peak, and it's obvious the Tigers peaked early.
01:51They almost like blew their wad early on this 2025 season, and they're tapering off a little bit.
01:57There's still plenty of time to get hot.
01:58I mean, we've got six more weeks of the MLB season leading into the wildcard week.
02:03But as the American League stacks up right now, you mentioned Toronto is 20 games over 500.
02:06They've got 70 wins.
02:08Detroit's got 69.
02:09Houston and Seattle are both 67 and 53.
02:12They're tied atop the AL West.
02:15Seattle, they've won 9 of 10, including 8 in a row.
02:18For me, I said it a couple of episodes ago, Seattle's my pick to make it out of the American League because I love what's going right for them right now.
02:26I also love what's going wrong.
02:28Gino Suarez, that guy's too talented to be this bad in a Mariners uniform.
02:32So you know that Gino's really going to turn it on right now and, you know, maybe in September and leading into October.
02:38And you also have Randy Orozarena there.
02:40I look at Houston and Seattle, and I say, who beats you?
02:44And I feel bad discounting Toronto the way that I am, and I do feel bad discounting Detroit the way that I am.
02:50But I really see this as Houston and Seattle, and I feel like whoever is the better team in that division is my pick to go to the World Series.
02:58It's funny, again, I've tried so hard not to fall into the recency bias thing, but it's like this is the Mariners team that we've been dreaming on the last couple years.
03:09It feels like they're finally falling into that Mariners ball club that we knew they could be.
03:15And it's also the big part of it, too, is we've been begging them to address the offense, and they have.
03:25And now they're playing really, really well.
03:27And as you mentioned, it's not even some of the recent acquisitions that are really lighting up.
03:31I mean, Josh Naylor has been great for them already.
03:33I see our guys at the Marine Layer podcast already saying, you know, re-sign him for next year.
03:38Like, we'll do it right now.
03:39And I just think the presence of Geno, though, of course, has an impact on the rest of the team and also has an impact on how the rest of the guys are going to get pitched.
03:48I got to imagine it's a lot easier for Julio Rodriguez and Cal Raleigh, specifically Cal Raleigh, to just hit when they know that there's a lot of guys behind them instead of, oh, you know, we're the two guys that teams are really game planning for.
04:02Now it's through this entire lineup.
04:04You've got above average bats.
04:05The only bat without a WRC plus above 100 is Cole Young, who is the scrappiest of the bunch.
04:11And it's at 99, by the way.
04:13And he's going to give you a good A-B every single time.
04:15So I do agree with it, especially because I think George Kirby's starting to hit a stride.
04:20You look at this rotation, like, that's never going to be a question.
04:22And the bullpen is the bullpen.
04:24So it does kind of feel like this is finally the Mariners team that we've been waiting for the last couple years.
04:30And, oh, by the way, you might get Bryce Miller back.
04:31Luke Raley is on a rehab assignment.
04:34Victor Robles is on a rehab assignment as well.
04:36I think he went deep the other day.
04:38They're only going to get stronger.
04:40So I do think the Mariners are at the top when you're talking about tiering these American League teams.
04:46And at least in their division, for sure.
04:48I like them better than the Astros right now, though the Astros are in a pretty good spot too.
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