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00:00All right, so now let's get to Major League Baseball, where the story of the day is the Philadelphia Phillies
00:04firing their manager, Rob Thompson.
00:05Don Mattingly, regardless of the reports with Alex Cora, Don Mattingly is the manager the rest of the season, the
00:11interim manager.
00:12And ironically, his son is the GM, Preston Mattingly.
00:15So what a unique situation the rest of the way.
00:17But from a betting perspective, Kyle, generally speaking, a lot of folks believe, and I do believe too, in all
00:23sports, college football, pro football, even in baseball,
00:26that usually when the coach gets fired or the manager gets fired, the players sort of rally briefly around that
00:32and say, hey, let's prove that it wasn't us, it was him.
00:35So there's that opportunity that stands in front of us tonight here, but Jesus Lizardo has not pitched well at
00:40all for Philadelphia.
00:42And when I say not at all, it's worse than not at all.
00:45Just look at the stats, total is eight.
00:47Bollies actually pitched very well for the Giants, but as you know, Kyle, the problem with the Giants, they really
00:52don't hit a lot.
00:53So probably a close, low-scoring game would be my prediction tonight.
00:57I don't know.
00:58How do you feel about this one?
00:59Yeah, I think you're on the right path there.
01:01Close, low-scoring, which usually leans me toward the better offense playing at home.
01:06Like, there's a lot to like there.
01:07You mentioned kind of the – I work a lot in spreadsheets.
01:12Putting a manager getting fired into a spreadsheet isn't the cleanest thing, so I can't really describe it.
01:17But I think you're on the right path here in that a team like that's going to move.
01:21It helps that the schedule kind of lightens up over the next two weeks.
01:24I know they've been a mess, realistically, for the last two to three weeks.
01:28I think they get right here.
01:29Am I willing to lay 168 on a team that's won, what, once in two weeks?
01:35I'm not.
01:36I'm going to stay away from this game, but if I had to play, it would be the Phillies.
01:40All right, a couple more.
01:41Mariners-Twins.
01:42Twins are going the other way, as expected.
01:44Mariners playing much better.
01:45They're slight favorites tonight, only slight because Joe Ryan's pretty good for Minnesota.
01:49Any opinion on this one?
01:51Yeah, I don't know.
01:52Craig, you've been in the baseball game longer than I have.
01:54How often do you see two starting pitchers with two first names?
01:58You've got Logan Gilbert and Joe Ryan.
01:59I think they're both better than their numbers say right now, and their numbers say they're pretty good.
02:03You're looking at a 360 Babbitt for Gilbert.
02:07That's got to come back.
02:08This Twins offense is one that could bring that back.
02:10So I think you see nothing going on early in this game.
02:13I don't think there's a wrong way to play the under while these two starters are on the mound.
02:16You want plus money?
02:17Go under a run and a half under the first three innings.
02:20You want even more plus money?
02:21Go scoreless through the first two.
02:24And then finally tonight, really great matchup interleague.
02:26Both two good teams here, especially Atlanta, playing out of their minds this season.
02:30Martin Perez will go against Casey Mize.
02:33Sort of a pick-em game here.
02:34It's in Atlanta, but the Tigers are very strong and have a strong bullpen, too.
02:39Total of eight and a half.
02:40My gosh, feels like a complete coin flip tonight, unless Atlanta's bats just keep up what they've been doing.
02:46It does, and I like the road team here.
02:49You're getting plus money to take them.
02:50Casey Mize is kind of a pitcher I believe in.
02:53His XERA is under three and a half this year.
02:55He does have some put-away stuff, and you mentioned the bullpen and everything in Detroit there.
02:59There is a lot to like, to think that they can put this away on the road.
03:04I'll take it money line.
03:05I'm not getting creative with the spread and getting in the weeds with any props.
03:09Give me the Tigers money line tonight.
03:11All right, great stuff, Kyle.
03:13As always, have a great rest of your week, and we'll see you next week.
03:15Thanks again.
03:16Sounds good.
03:17Peter Apple up next.
03:19Welcome back to Newswire here on Sports Grid.
03:21Great to have Peter Apple in the house.
03:22We've got Just Baseball coming up, our show here on Sports Grid, coming up in just a bit.
03:27So let's bring in Peter, because we've got some hot topics to talk about here.
03:30Thought maybe the Alex Cora topic would have been the one with the Red Sox.
03:33But guess what?
03:34The Phillies are like, nah, we could do one better.
03:36We could fire our manager, too.
03:38Peter, two managers in Major League Baseball not fired over the course of this season,
03:43fired in April.
03:44I mean, that is super rare.
03:47And, you know, the first one a little bit surprising.
03:49This one, I guess I'm not as surprised.
03:52I gotta say, as a manager, you know you're gonna get fired, Peter.
03:55I mean, that's obvious.
03:56But for Rob Thompson, man, I mean, he took over for Girardi.
03:59I thought he did a really good job.
04:00But things just went so far south this season.
04:03So let's start there.
04:04What happened?
04:06Well, they went 9-19.
04:08And I do think that it's a little unfair to Rob Thompson, because when he got brought
04:13on in 2022, right, he went on that run with the Phillies.
04:16And then in 2023, he wins 90 games.
04:192024, he wins 95 games.
04:212025, he wins 96 games.
04:23And then he gets off to a bad start, a really bad stretch playing the Cubs, the Braves, the
04:28Cubs, and then the Braves again.
04:30Two of the, what, five best teams in Major League Baseball.
04:33And now we fire him?
04:35And we go to Don Mattingly, who has not had a ton of success in a managerial role.
04:40That's why he wasn't currently a manager until he is now.
04:43And it's also very interesting that they did offer the job, or reportedly offered the job
04:48to Alex Cora.
04:49And he said no.
04:51At the end of the day, this bad start is more on the Phillies.
04:55I was listening to your last segment when you guys were kind of talking about the Phillies
04:59offense being better than the Giants.
05:01I'm not so sure with this current unit right now, right?
05:04They got Felix Reyes hitting in the four hole.
05:06This offense just hasn't gotten going at all.
05:09And I can't blame Rob Thompson.
05:11If you are going to blame Rob Thompson, then you should give him his flowers for three
05:15straight 90-win seasons, and the last two over 95 wins.
05:20So I just thought this was an overreaction, really.
05:23Yeah, and when you look at it, you know, this one, to me, I don't know how you feel about
05:27it, Peter.
05:28I'm glad I have you here.
05:29So I'm making the claim that the Red Sox, by the way, with Breslow could hit the, I mean,
05:38I hate to say it, the sort of reset button if things don't go well and Breslow will just
05:42say, oh, you know, with my bad, I, you know, I let, let me get my young guys going.
05:47I got my young manager here.
05:48You know, these guys, Dom Browski, you know, as well as I do, ain't going to do that.
05:52I mean, this guy has one in Montreal and one with the Marlins and one with the Tigers and
05:58one with the Red Sox and with the Phillies, like there's no reset button here.
06:01And so I could honestly see them pushing even harder, Peter, where I'm not so sure
06:06about Boston and their situation.
06:08A little different for me.
06:09Yeah, I think these two situations are different.
06:12Like you say, with the Phillies, it does feel like this is the end of their window, right?
06:17You got Bryce Harper, you got Kyle Schwarber, you got Trey Turner all on the wrong side of
06:2130.
06:21And then you have Zach Wheeler coming back from injury.
06:24You know, Christopher Sanchez pitching at the peak of his powers with Jesus Zardo there as
06:29well and, you know, whatever you can get from Aaron Nola and the Phillies do have some young
06:33players, but the core, the crux of this team, what has made the Phillies so good in recent
06:39years has been the guys who are aging.
06:42So it just feels like Dombrowski is saying to himself, I cannot waste a game.
06:47If I don't feel like Rob Thompson is the answer for the rest of the season, might as well cut
06:52bait now and of course promote Don Mattingly.
06:55Cora and Breslow, it is a young team and it has felt like Cora and Breslow just never really
07:03got along.
07:04So if Breslow really wants the team that he created on the field exactly like he wants
07:09it and Cora continues to fight him on that, that's a different situation than a Phillies
07:15team that feels like they need to win now while Breslow wants his young players to thrive
07:20and maybe he doesn't think Cora is the best guy to get it all out of them.
07:25I disagree with Breslow, but it's not my job.
07:28Right.
07:29Of course.
07:30Listen, we'll see.
07:31I mean, Dombrowski has been around for 40 years being a president.
07:34He is not in this to, I mean, maybe over for him by the way, after this year, but he
07:38is
07:38not in it for this year to lose.
07:40Okay.
07:41So Cleveland makes the big move by calling up Travis Bazzana, the first pick in the 2024
07:46draft.
07:46Cleveland strategically waits a little bit here.
07:49Okay.
07:49We get it.
07:50We understand it.
07:51What will he bring to the, the, the guardians here when they get ready to face off tonight?
07:57Just a really good ball player to his core.
08:01And I think that's a big reason why he went number one overall in the draft, right?
08:05Travis Bazzana doesn't have crazy power.
08:07He's not the best fielder you've ever seen.
08:09You know, he's not the best base runner that you've ever seen, but he's one of those, he's
08:13one of those players that's just good at everything.
08:16And in the minor league so far this season, one of his biggest problems, I guess you could
08:21say is the strikeouts were a little bit high, but early on in the minor league season, he's
08:26cut that strikeout rate.
08:28He's starting to pull more fly balls in the air and he's really developing into a really
08:32well-rounded all around player.
08:34And what does Cleveland love this type of profile?
08:38So I think he's going to fit in really, really nicely and just be one of those grinders and
08:42annoying at bat, a good base runner, a good fielder with a little bit of pop.
08:47I think he's going to be really solid.
08:49All right, let's get to some games here, Peter, while we can.
08:52So the Astros, I believe are going with a sort of opener tonight, starting Tang against the
08:59Baltimore Orioles.
09:00They've got Shane Baz starting and, you know, if Tang hadn't pitched in Palm Beach this spring,
09:05I probably would have no clue who this guy is.
09:07But because they, I saw some spring games and I was around, I had a chance at least to
09:11see what he was doing.
09:13Baz to me is the better pitcher here.
09:15I'm pretty bearish on, on Houston at this point.
09:18And that's another situation.
09:19I think that we got to keep an eye on as the season goes on.
09:23But listen, anything can happen in one game.
09:25So any opinion on this game tonight?
09:27No real opinion.
09:28If I had to lean one way, I'd actually probably look towards the under.
09:32And I think it's a nice little contrarian play here because who's baseball's best over
09:36team?
09:38The Houston Astros and the Orioles.
09:40I think I've gone three straight games to the over as well.
09:43And then you have Shane Boz, who was due for a lot of positive regression.
09:46He's gotten off to a pretty unlucky start.
09:48And the Astros offense is, of course, really good.
09:50But you got Boz at home.
09:51I think he could limit damage.
09:53And then the Astros are probably going to go with more of a quasi bullpen game.
09:57Get 10 going for three innings and then mix and match with their pitchers.
10:01And I always feel like that style is undervalued in the market.
10:05You see a bullpen game and you say, oh, they're going to crush him.
10:08And I'm not here to say that the Astros bullpen is very good.
10:11But the Orioles offense doesn't really scare me either.
10:15I know Basayo is heating up as well.
10:16But at nine, I think it's a little bit too high.
10:19My model makes it eight and a half.
10:20I'll lean towards the under.
10:22Yeah, nothing from Pete Alonso just yet.
10:23Maybe that will start this week.
10:25OK, so the return of World Series hero and postseason hero Trey Savage tonight for the
10:30Toronto Blue Jays.
10:31But let's call it what it is.
10:33I mean, there's no chance this organization lets him throw more than 80, 90 pitches in four
10:37or five innings.
10:38So it's really not his game tonight, which is why I think the line is what it is.
10:42It's about a pick them game.
10:43Total seven and a half.
10:44Peyton Tully starts for Boston.
10:46And wouldn't you know, the Red Sox are on this little mini winning streak.
10:50Do you think that that continues tonight?
10:53I like Trey Savage a lot.
10:55And if we were to compare him against Peyton Tully, I like them both.
10:58I also, again, lean towards the under in this one.
11:01I think both starting pitchers right now, because you weren't really sure about Trey
11:04Savage since he's coming back from injury.
11:06Peyton Tully hasn't proven a lot.
11:08But both of these two guys, when they are on, are electric.
11:11And neither offense really scares me either.
11:14I see a low total at seven and a half.
11:16I think it should be lower.
11:17Again, my model makes it seven.
11:18So it's slightly into the under.
11:20All right.
11:20Finally, when was the last time you saw Jacob DeGrom pitch in a major league baseball game?
11:24And he is a dog tonight.
11:26That's a little crazy.
11:27Probably not much of one.
11:28Plus 102 here.
11:30Probably going to be minus 105 by the time it starts.
11:32But that's the situation.
11:33Because the Yankees pitcher, Cam Schlittler, has been incredible.
11:36And they're coming off a night where Judge and Rice homered.
11:38So more or less a pick them game tonight.
11:40I saw, boy, I saw the Rangers stadium last night.
11:43And absolutely jacked and packed for that game against the Yankees.
11:47Absolutely.
11:48And the only reason Jacob DeGrom is at home is because the Yankees have proven
11:51they're the best team in the American League right now.
11:53And Cam Schlittler is second in Cy Young odds behind Tarek Scooble.
11:58That's how good he's been.
12:00So this is the only time you can make Jacob DeGrom a dog.
12:03And deservedly so.
12:05I make it minus 126 plus 126.
12:07So you've got about six cents of value.
12:09Currently a minus 120 on the Yankees.
12:11Not enough to warrant a play.
12:12But certainly I would lean towards the Yankees side.
12:15All right, Peter.
12:16Great stuff as always.
12:17We'll catch Just Baseball coming up a little bit later today here on SportsGrid.
12:21And I know we'll talk again soon.
12:22Enjoy the rest of your week.
12:24Absolutely.
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