00:00Currently, the Tampa Bay Rays, the favorite to win the American League East because of a great week that they
00:05had and the poor week that the Yankees had.
00:07In fact, Tampa Bay swept the Kansas City Royals, who are going to be playing for the future at this
00:12point.
00:12What a horrible season for them.
00:14Friday also took care of Houston.
00:16They had the rubber game on Sunday.
00:17So you can only play who's put in front of you, Tom.
00:19But they got the Royals, and they got three relatively easy wins against them.
00:25And the Rays are just kind of being who they are.
00:27It's not like they're going to win 110 games or anything like this, Tom.
00:30But they just waited and waited and waited it out and won a little bit.
00:33And then the Yankees fell apart like they usually do in June and July.
00:36And here the Rays are again leading the division.
00:39Yeah, we spoke about this last week when we had a segment on the predictive markets talking about who would
00:45you buy into.
00:46And it's not about buying yes on the Yankees.
00:48It would be about buying yes on the Rays.
00:49And it's kind of what we've seen, at least through a small sample size, where they're just doing their thing.
00:55They're getting timely hitting.
00:56They're getting good pitching.
00:57They're getting, you know, good bullpen with, you know, Brian Baker we spoke about, you know, in the All-Star
01:02game.
01:02They have the power.
01:03They can get on base.
01:04They steal bases with Chandler Simpson.
01:06Like, you name it.
01:06They're kind of checking off all the boxes.
01:08Now, I think everyone would say, like, there are teams that do the things that they do better to an
01:12extreme.
01:13But those teams, when they're not consistent with those things in terms of power, such as the Yankees, then they
01:18fall off a cliff.
01:19So the Rays do things really well and really just stable.
01:23And that's what always makes them a threat to make the playoffs.
01:25No one gives them a chance year in and year out.
01:27But they're always going to be there.
01:30Yeah.
01:30And they're going to be there this year, probably making the playoffs.
01:32We'll see if they win the division.
01:33Of course, the Yankees still play the Rays a bunch in the second half.
01:36All right.
01:37So the Phillies are in prime position for a wild card.
01:40The Braves have been very uneven, to say the least, in the last few weeks.
01:43And so there is that question as to whether or not Philly can catch them and move ahead.
01:48They took care of the Pirates early in the week, won two out of three there.
01:52Or, excuse me, they split that series there and then ended up beating the Royals on July 4th.
01:58And, you know, the Phillies have a couple of things, I think, to fix, Tom, before the postseason.
02:02One of them is probably one more starter, I would guess.
02:05They've been tinkering with starter four and five.
02:08Remember, Walker is now gone and Painter is now in the minor leagues.
02:11So Dave Dombrowski, you know, he's going to get aggressive and help this team out.
02:15So I think Philadelphia making that move at manager, it ended up working.
02:18Sometimes it does.
02:19Sometimes it doesn't.
02:20Hasn't worked in Boston.
02:21Probably won't work in New York.
02:22It has worked in Philadelphia.
02:24Stabilized the situation there.
02:26And now Philly probably headed to the postseason.
02:28But it'll be the same question with them as it is every year.
02:31Can they get over the top?
02:32Can they win a series?
02:33Can they win a wildcard series?
02:35Can they get to the World Series?
02:37I would say that winning the division is certainly not out of the question as of now.
02:43You know, the Braves at a certain point, they had, what, an eight-and-a-half, nine-game lead?
02:46You know, that's down to three games, at least as of July 5th.
02:50Like, they are treading water, I think, is the best way to put it for the Braves.
02:53But the Phillies are surging.
02:54And given the comments that we saw from Dombrowski and some of the offseason nonsense,
03:00which are at least leading into spring training, you know, this is a team I keep wondering,
03:04you know, how many more chances are they going to have?
03:06You know, how many more at-bats are they going to have in the postseason
03:08without truly getting over the hump?
03:10They really do need to make splashy plays at the deadline to push this team to the next step.
03:15And pitching, starting pitching, is going to be the priority for that.
03:19Yeah, they do have Wheeler, of course.
03:21They do have Lozardo, and they do have Sanchez.
03:24But if they're going to win a seven-game series, they're going to need, I think, a little bit more
03:28than that.
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