00:01That was in the fifth inning.
00:02Tarek Skubel getting out of a jam with a couple big punch-outs.
00:05Change up on one strikeout, fastball up on the other.
00:08He was locked in, and then the very next batter he faced in the sixth,
00:13a 10-pitch battle for Harper, would be his last.
00:1793 pitches.
00:19Yeah, and we kind of know that that's his limit, right?
00:21Especially at this time of the year.
00:23Well, we know that's his limit in the postseason, 95 pitches.
00:27He is, since he's been back, using more pitches earlier in games
00:34than he typically does.
00:36Yeah, he's getting strung out.
00:38Yeah, and you get Harper, who's got a 10-pitch at bat,
00:4211-pitch at bat, and then he goes, I think it was against Montero,
00:44he had like another 12-pitch at bat.
00:46But I was a little surprised he was pulled there.
00:48Skubel was very surprised.
00:50Like, let me face another hitter.
00:51I just got through the toughest part of the order.
00:52Let me see if I can get a couple quick ones.
00:54Oh, so this wasn't the, they locked eyes.
00:56This was, hey, we just got a call from Mr. Boris.
01:0193 pitches, you're done.
01:03He said after the game, I don't want to create a story,
01:06but I think I could have stayed in.
01:07Or maybe he said it the other way around.
01:08I could have stayed in, but I don't want to create a story.
01:09He tried to tamp it down, but clearly he was animated,
01:12wanted to stay in the game.
01:14But, John, if this is who he is,
01:16if this is a guy who can give you 90, 95, 99 pitches,
01:20and then the odometer is starting to, it just reinforces, like,
01:25this isn't a guy you're going to hand a blank check to
01:27at the end of the season.
01:29No, but it's also, I mean, then you start talking about trade value.
01:34Like, clearly he'll be the biggest chip that gets moved
01:38at the trade deadline if he's moved.
01:40But what does it do to his value if other teams are looking at going,
01:43well, we're only going to get the 95 pitches.
01:47If he's a five- to six-inning guy.
01:49Does that only get us to the middle of the fifth?
01:51Does that get us to the start of the sixth?
01:55He should, I don't want to talk him down to a nothing burger at the deadline.
02:02No, he's an elite pitcher.
02:03Yeah, and I think a team adding him would envision giving him the ball
02:05in game one, game four or five, and potentially a game seven
02:10against the Dodgers.
02:11A team like the Brewers would really talk themselves into,
02:13and they've done this before with CeCe Zabathia.
02:15Do we want to be a team that goes from 90 wins and early exit
02:18to a team that wins 90 games and makes a run?
02:21Like, I still think he's going to have value,
02:24and I think it's becoming more and more clear what they need to do.
02:28Could you imagine him, and was it Mazurowski?
02:30Oh, God, yeah.
02:31I mean.
02:32Throwing those two guys in a seven-game series.
02:35Hell, in a five-game series, pitching those guys.
02:38Yeah.
02:39Yeah.
02:40Look, they lost two or three over the weekend,
02:41and while you were gone, this team started to pick up even more steam,
02:45and we had said, hey, Friday, going into the weekend,
02:47take two or three to the Phillies,
02:49and you're going to get people to really start buying in.
02:51They lost the series.
02:53They're eight under 500, and as they go into the All-Star break,
02:56they continue to be a puzzling team,
02:59and maybe that's the word.
03:00I've used bipolar.
03:01Maybe the word is puzzling.
03:04They are fourth in the division,
03:07but three and a half games out of a playoff spot.
03:11Explain it.
03:12Like, how do you explain our baseball team as we go into the All-Star break?
03:152, 4, 8, 5, 3, 9, 97, 97.
03:18I mean, the one word I've used, and I will still use it, is frustrating.
03:25It's just agonizingly frustrating when you look back at the month of May,
03:31and then you see what they've done since the beginning of June.
03:35Best record in the American League.
03:37And you look at the home runs.
03:40You look at the pitching staff.
03:41Like, that's the team that we thought we were going to have,
03:45and I'm not so hung up on, like, losing the series to the Phillies.
03:49The Phillies are a good team.
03:50If they had lost it to the Angels, okay, yeah,
03:55now all of a sudden it takes a lot of air out of the sails for me,
03:57but nine wins in the last 12 games, like, there's a lot to be excited about.
04:05But then as you start to get excited, you look at the record,
04:10you look at the standings, and you say,
04:11ah, there's still a sub-500 team digging their way out of a hole
04:17that I'm not sure that they're going to be able to dig themselves out of,
04:22yet they're fun to watch right now.
04:26They're bipolar, I think, is the word I'll keep using.
04:2815 and 15 in April.
04:306 and 22 in May.
04:3423 and 15 cents.
04:36Yeah.
04:37Up and down, up and down, up and down.
04:39And this is who they've been over the last three years now, right?
04:42The immense, the swing of coming back in 2024 when it's a 0.2% chance to make the playoffs.
04:47And then in 2025, blowing the largest division lead in the history of Major League Baseball.
04:51What do they do this year?
04:52The worst month in 30 years of Tiger Baseball,
04:54only to be the best team in the American League the very next day.
04:57Yeah.
04:58You know, kick off June.
05:00But the truth is, like, the pitching, the starting pitching is very good.
05:03Everything else is inconsistent.
05:05Everything else about this team is inconsistent.
05:07And it might be because they rely on platoon players and utility guys.
05:10That it's hard to sustain over 162.
05:13That you can ride the wave, but what's coming tomorrow is unknown.
05:17Like, John, I'll give you a great example.
05:18No, the Philly series isn't season-altering or defining.
05:22It's three games in July.
05:24But you tell me.
05:25I was at the ballpark yesterday.
05:27Two hits.
05:28The last 10 set down in order.
05:30Yeah.
05:31That felt like playoff baseball for this group.
05:33This same group.
05:35So that reinforced my idea.
05:37Like, maybe they make the playoffs.
05:39They're still 8 under 500.
05:40Your magic number is 500 because no team has ever made the playoffs
05:43in a full season worse than 500.
05:46Maybe they make the playoffs.
05:48But what am I buying into?
05:49The same team that lost in Game 5 of the ALDS the last two years.
05:53The same team that's offense dries up against high-end pitching.
05:56Because that's what it was on Saturday and Sunday.
05:58Yeah, it was your ace versus their ace.
06:00And guess what?
06:01Their ace went longer in the game.
06:02Gave up fewer hits in the game.
06:04And out-dueled our ace.
06:05And you could say it's because they got Harbour and Schwarber.
06:08But we don't.
06:09That's the whole point, guys.
06:10We don't have that lineup that can consistently do damage in big spots
06:14and postseason spots.
06:15And I think that's a little bit of a snapshot of what we've seen in the playoffs.
06:20And it's, okay, it's a team that's doing this.
06:26It's snapshot in time.
06:29In, I don't want to say necessarily the worst division in baseball
06:33because you still have the Texas Rangers, the Mariners.
06:36You've got the AL West that, again, is not lighting it on fire either.
06:41The Rangers are leading that division two games above .500.
06:45But it is in an American League that is subpar compared to what the National League is.
06:52Yep.
06:53Text coming in.
06:55I'm upset because yesterday it looked like a team that was finally getting their season together
06:58and they mailed it in the day before the deadline.
07:0160% effort.
07:05They had one hit after the second inning.
07:08And the final 10 were retired in order.
07:12I don't know if you want to assign that to effort, but I'll just tell you that that is the
07:16team
07:16going into the deadline or going into the break limping.
07:19Yeah.
07:20Scooble has lost something from the last two years, and it seems very clear no one's talking about it.
07:25Melton is clearly the ace of this team at this point.
07:28Scooble is seen as the ace because what he's done in the past, but not right now.
07:35Scooble is still the ace of this staff.
07:38Make no mistake about it.
07:40And what he is doing right now is very remarkable.
07:45Now, not in terms of the numbers, but in the fact that he had elbow surgery.
07:49Now, you can call it as minor as you want, but he was gone for, what was it, five weeks,
07:54six weeks?
07:55Yeah, something like that.
07:56And now he is back pitching as if he really never left, other than the fact that I just mentioned,
08:03yeah, he's taking more pitches to get out of innings, but he's still getting out of those innings.
08:09He's still your ace, and he's going to get better as he gets more reps.
08:14Yeah, you hearing that other teams out there?
08:16He's going to get better.
08:18Well, pay up.
08:23It's interesting, too, because what is the market for Scooble?
08:30The best pitcher to be traded at the deadline in a decade that could be available?
08:38And it's on a team where when you do have the argument about is he actually the ace?
08:44Now, I don't think there's a question about that, but you do have Melton.
08:47You do have Mize.
08:49You do have Valdez, who's pitching better.
08:51Montero.
08:52And you do have the ability to still have a really good staff.
08:57That's my point.
08:59Minus Scooble.
09:00It could be like 24, where you sell your most veteran expiring pitcher,
09:05and if your rotation's legit, let's see what happens.
09:08Tech says he needs to go.
09:10He's not worth the money.
09:11$32 million, can't get past the fifth inning.
09:13Well, he was into the sixth.
09:14Can't get through the sixth.
09:16Says trade him away while the stock is still high.
09:19While you were gone, he said he wants this team to add.
09:22And over the weekend, he said zero appetite for being dealt per Bob Nightingale.
09:27Look, there's a lot to discuss with Scooble today.
09:29We're talking about the team at the break.
09:31We'll keep the conversation rolling.
09:33702, Ward Manual, the latest.
09:36It's a big week for Ward.
09:37It's 97.1.
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