00:00Huge series this weekend in Houston.
00:03The Rangers coming to town.
00:04A wide-open American League Central.
00:08Great pitching matchup.
00:09Hunter Brown on the mound for Houston.
00:11Evaldi on the mound for the Rangers.
00:14And the Rangers reinforcements are back here.
00:17Corey Seager activated from the IL list here today.
00:22Pretty good stuff.
00:23You know, that's a guy that they have missed from a bat perspective.
00:28Certainly, if he could ever stay healthy, it would be tremendous.
00:3251 total games he's played this season.
00:36It would be nice if he could down the stretch here to try to give Texas that bat in that
00:42order
00:42and give them an opportunity to make a run at this.
00:45But either way, with these two guys on the mound, I don't see a lot of runs happening here tonight.
00:50Yeah, and it should be a good matchup here.
00:52There's an inherent rivalry there between these two teams.
00:56There always is.
00:57And I see the West, Joe, very different than I see any other division.
01:01I think, you know, with the White Sox and Cleveland, you know, it could go down to the end.
01:06And both teams are pretty good.
01:08I think the American League West may be the worst division in baseball this season.
01:12And so I think for me, whoever makes the biggest leap in the next 72 hours among these teams,
01:19I think that team will win the division.
01:21I got to throw Houston back in there.
01:23I don't like them at all.
01:24I think they're old.
01:25I think they're probably heading in the wrong direction.
01:28But it is undeniable, Joe, they have the best hitter in baseball.
01:32So when you have that, it's like if the Yankees, which they sometimes do, have nothing around Judge,
01:37but they still have Judge, he takes them to the playoffs.
01:40And Jordan Alvarez is going to take Houston as far as he possibly can.
01:45Now, you know, Paredes is good and Pena's having a great year, but they don't have enough pitching, I don't
01:52think, to even win the division.
01:53But could they make some deals?
01:56Could Houston use this series this weekend when two out of three from Texas feel like they're right in it?
02:02Seattle also, those teams cannot just sit back, Joe, and just sit back and wait and see what happens.
02:08I think whoever gets the most aggressive among those teams in the West, including Seattle, I think, to me, that
02:15could be the key to winning the division.
02:18I keep hearing a couple of names with the Mets, too, that I keep hearing.
02:22It's important to know, again, that the whole CBA thing is interesting because I don't know how many teams would
02:28be willing to take on anything outside of a rental or something affordable.
02:34Like, teams are not going to take on big contracts, right, no matter how good it may be, because they
02:40just don't know what it's going to be January 1st or whatever is going to be agreed on, right?
02:46Because the whole financial structure can take.
02:48If you get yourself a guy like Hunter Green who's locked into, you know, 20-some-odd million, it changes
02:55the dynamics.
02:56So teams might not be willing to take on somebody with any sort of contract or any sort of big
03:03money at this point.
03:04I think it applies, that point applies to the top, and it applies to the middle.
03:10But a team like Tampa Bay, Joe, if, now, again, we don't know how this is going to go, but
03:15if we're to assume that there's going to be a salary cap and a salary floor,
03:20it may behoove the Rays, Joe, to step on that pedal a little bit harder and maybe even take on
03:27some salary for next season,
03:28because they're going to have to lift their floor if that is the case.
03:31And so will Pittsburgh, and so will Miami, and so will Cleveland, and so will some of these other teams.
03:36So for those teams, it may be the opportunity to take a little bit of a preemptive step and say,
03:42hey, look, let's go ahead and just do this now because we think we're going to be there anyway.
03:46Now, it doesn't make sense if you are a team that's on the fringe of the playoffs,
03:51because then you could just be taking on salary for no reason at all when you could have done it
03:55next year in the offseason.
03:56But for a team like Tampa Bay, Joe, that's the team that I would take exception to that.
04:01I think the Rays can do whatever they want here, and if they have to take on a guy with
04:07a lot of money,
04:08they can just simply go, all right, well, look, we're going to have to get to $150 anyway next year,
04:13so we may as well get a guy that's on a two-year deal or maybe a three-year deal
04:16and pay him,
04:17because we're going to have to pay this player anyway.
04:19But Rays are in a different situation, Joe.
04:21They're going to make the playoffs, 20 games over .500 already.
04:24Not the same for Cleveland, two games over.
04:27Not the same for Miami, .500 or below.
04:29Not the same for Washington.
04:31Those teams don't have the same application there.
04:35Tampa Bay should be as aggressive as anybody.
04:38They can get anybody they want and not really have to worry about it.
04:43It's a great point there, because they're going to have to raise their game one way or the other come
04:49next season,
04:50if all goes according to plan, or at least what we're hearing there.
04:53That's the only one in the 15-day trade project.
04:53Erica Drew Amor,
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