00:00Wait, let's go over to the other city or the other team in that city, the Southsiders, Chicago White Sox.
00:06I mean, boy, this has to be one of the biggest stories of all time here when it comes to
00:11what they were expected to do.
00:13This was a team that could have lost in what many people thought was going to be 100 games.
00:17Will Venables, the manager of that team, it's either him or Kevin Cash, I would think, the manager of the
00:24Rays as your manager of the year in the American League.
00:26But what a job the White Sox have done.
00:30Truly my favorite team to watch all season long.
00:33I'm not even a traditional White Sox fan.
00:35I'm a Cardinals guy.
00:36But the most entertaining team when I turn on the TV has been the White Sox because of how much,
00:41you know, just the young players that they have morphing into really legitimate stars in front of our eyes.
00:47Obviously, the Southside Samurai, Munitaka Murakami, has been fantastic.
00:52But they've dealt with injuries with him and they still kept on winning.
00:55Kyle Teal was a really valuable player coming into the year.
00:58He's been missing a lot of time as well.
01:00It hasn't mattered.
01:01Shane Smith, who was kind of seen as potentially the ace of the rotation just two years ago, has been
01:06in AAA all season long.
01:08It still hasn't mattered because the pipeline of AAA players that are funneled into this MLB roster are all morphing
01:16into something really special.
01:17Hagan Smith out of the pen this week or this past month, rather, has been absolutely electric.
01:24Ultimately, this team is legit right now.
01:26They are in that World Series window, especially when you're talking about how the AL this year is performing at
01:32the top.
01:33I genuinely think the White Sox have a chance to go to the World Series this season.
01:37Tell me about the Rays here, Rob.
01:39I mean, it looks like now they're stretching out their wings now and it looks like the Yankees aren't going
01:44to be able to catch them.
01:45Judge has been out of the lineup for a while.
01:47Eric Neander, the general manager, I never thought would have put a team together, especially with the fact that they
01:52were going after a new ballpark.
01:53They ended up getting that.
01:54That was great news, keeping Rays baseball in the Tampa Bay area.
01:58But can this team make any noise with a down American League this year?
02:03Could you see them in the ALCS?
02:06Oh, yeah, 100%.
02:08I think them and the White Sox and the Red Sox are kind of in a tier on their own,
02:13in my eyes, as it stands today.
02:15And the biggest reason why, obviously, with the Rays is just how dominant their pitching has been.
02:20And, you know, and they've gotten the most out of even a guy like an Ian Seymour who, yeah, he
02:24gets touched up quite a bit.
02:26He has an ERA north of four, but he's got some dominant strikeout stuff that if you get into the
02:31postseason and you kind of utilize, you know, those short inning spurts,
02:35he could be a really special lefty to utilize in those spots.
02:39And obviously, Drew Rasmussen's been fantastic.
02:42Shane McClanahan's been great.
02:43And Freddie Peralta, if he's your four going into the postseason, hey, you're going to take that all day long.
02:49The question becomes for the Rays is can they score enough when they are potentially going up against a firepower
02:55heavy offense?
02:57I don't necessarily know, but Junior Caminero is kind of like the PCA of this team.
03:02When you have that type of player in your bag, anything is possible.
03:06Do you agree with Junior Caminero that, you know, the World Baseball Classic, maybe that was the first time America
03:12got a chance to see that kid and how young he is and how great that kid is?
03:17Has he become one of the big-time power hitters in the American League, in your opinion?
03:20I mean, they're just putting that team on his back.
03:24They got a bunch of guys in the top end of that lineup that are getting on base, and he's
03:28just – I didn't think he was going to have any protection, Rob, in that lineup.
03:32But he's got protection.
03:33He's knocking the ball out of the ballpark, and he's creating a lot of souvenirs for fans this year.
03:40Yeah, and honestly, you kind of nailed it with the protection element because last year, Junior Caminero, when he was
03:45making contact with the baseball, was rope-in-line drives.
03:49And it did really kind of feel like the power potential of Junior Caminero kind of, you know, moving on
03:54in his career was going to be something that was going to be awfully present.
03:57And Jonathan Aranda stepping up as of late – or this season, rather, has been awesome for that lineup.
04:04Also, the addition of Liam Hicks has been really, really fantastic because, you know, if you want to bring in
04:10a righty to face Junior Caminero in the sixth or seventh inning,
04:13well, right after that, you've got Liam Hicks who's hitting the cover off of righties.
04:17And so, ultimately, you've got the counterpunch built into your lineup in those premium spots.
04:22It's the bottom half of the lineup that sometimes struggles to turn the lineup over to the top half.
04:28But Junior Caminero, man, truly one of the special bats in baseball.
04:32I would say at this point in time, he's a top three Major League Baseball player when you're talking about
04:37the offensive side.
