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Episode 23: MLB All Star Week(End) and Trade Deadline
13 Plays9 days ago
Solo Pod #2. This time Cody comes to you solo while Justin enjoys a much deserved vacation. So with Cody in charge, this is a baseball heavy pod. All Star Week is upon us and while the HR Derby's new format and Tuesday's All Star Game are getting primetime notice, is the MLB maximizing how great the full slate of the weekend can be? But don't spend too long soaking up the All Star break because the Trade Deadline will be here before you know it and many of the assumed sellers are making a push to change that narrative!
Also, the World Cup is down to its final four teams and chalk has reigned supreme, the NHL has a new highest paid player, and the NBA offseason is as electric as it gets. All this and more on this episode of The Coastal Launch Sports Talk!
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Transcript
Opening Remarks and MLB Excitement
00:00:01
Cody Atkinson
Hello and welcome to the Coastal Launch Sports Talk. I'm Cody coming to you from the bayous of Houston, Texas. And today i will be coming to you solo as Justin enjoys a much deserved vacation with the family while he cruises around on whatever boat he's on right now. We have a ton to talk about in the baseball world.
00:00:24
Cody Atkinson
We have officially entered what is probably one of the more fun regular season stretches in any sport. Starting this past Friday, we had the MLB draft.
00:00:35
Cody Atkinson
We have the Home Run Derby tonight. As I record, the Home Run Derby is set to start in about 30 minutes. The All-Star Game is tomorrow, and as soon as baseball returns on Thursday night, the countdown to the trade deadline begins.
00:00:51
Cody Atkinson
Off the top of my head, this has to be the most active regular season stretch in any major league sport, being the only major league sport that has a draft during the regular season and has one you know within a month of the trade deadline. So With all that going on, let's get to talking about it. Our trajectory is set, so it's time to sit back, lock in, and get started with the rundown.
00:01:15
Cody Atkinson
This is the Coastal Launch, and I am ready for liftoff here on episode 23.
World Cup Semifinals Preview
00:01:22
Cody Atkinson
But before we get too deep into baseball, let's start off. Obviously, the World Cup is going on right now. That is a huge story, and the World Cup has reached the semifinals. Only four teams remain, and it is the four highest-ranked teams, according to FIFA World Rankings. So this World Cup, as exciting as it's been, as entertaining as it's been, as many...
00:01:47
Cody Atkinson
Close calls as we've had this World club Cup. It is officially chalk. We have France taking on Spain. I believe that's the Tuesday game. And we have England taking on Argentina. I believe that's the Wednesday game.
00:02:00
Cody Atkinson
The positive side to a chalk tournament is that we are about to get the best quality soccer ah that we could ever see. But you really don't need me to tell you that if you follow...
00:02:13
Cody Atkinson
World Cup at all when you hear England versus Argentina and France versus Spain, you know, without a shadow of a doubt that that's going to be incredible soccer because you get that that feeling that bubbles up inside of you when you hear that that just says, oh, my gosh, this is this is going to be great. But it does officially mark the end of any chaos that could happen. And that's always a little bit sad when these tournaments, you know, it's it's the same with March Madness, the first Weekend is incredible. The round of 64, the round of 32, it's a ton of fun. And then you get to the really good basketball, but it's not as chaotic. It's not as energetic. It's better basketball, but less entertainment. And so I feel like that's the...
00:02:58
Cody Atkinson
the part of the world cup that we have entered. And that always is a little bit disappointing for me. I'm, I'm a vibes guy. I'm a fun guy. I'm a, I'm a chaos guy. Like that's what I, that's what I love about these tournaments. And there is ah a little part that of disappointment of, of let down when you get to the end of a tournament and it's just the juggernauts left. And you're like, I'm going love watching this from a, a sports perspective, but, but I'm going to be, um, a little disappointed that none of my vibes teams,
Tournament Reflections and Predictions
00:03:30
Cody Atkinson
teams made it. So I'm including the U S in the vibes team. They were a vibes team because of four, one Paraguay in the first game, they were a vibes team because this is a U S based podcast and it's fun to, to see your country succeed. And they they let us down and in dramatic fashion and drastic fashion.
00:03:51
Cody Atkinson
against Belgium, but we've already covered that. Morocco was another vibes team, an incredible run by Morocco. fall Falls short against whoever that was against. effort I guess they they probably fell short against France. I forget. They were on that that upper left side of the bracket. I forget if they fell short against France or if they fell short against France.
00:04:15
Cody Atkinson
whoever France just knocked out, I forget. So Morocco falls short. Norway was the vibes team that almost did it. What going into extra time against England falls two to one.
00:04:28
Cody Atkinson
um Norway gave us everything they could. Erling Holland gave us everything he could. What an incredible run the Viking row gave us and it fell just short. So we are, we are out of vibes teams and we are fully on to, to competition.
00:04:44
Cody Atkinson
I think, in the In the prior episode, Justin and I both said that France was the team that we believed would win. Norway was a team we were rooting for. um i will update that today to say France is the team that I believe will win. Spain is the team that I am rooting for. They feel...
00:05:01
Cody Atkinson
The most vibes he left, obviously France and Argentina were the finals in the prior World Cup. It's hard to hard to be vibes when you're a team that that that was there last year or four years ago in this case. and And England can't be a vibes team because they feel like the Yankees in the sense of just the way they talk about themselves versus how long it's been since they've actually played.
00:05:23
Cody Atkinson
won the thing. So yeah I just can't can't root for England. Can't do it. Just bad vibes. so So Spain remains or becomes the vibes team and France remains the favorite as far as the coastal launch is concerned. but We'll obviously talk more about that ah next week. The tournament wraps up
NHL Signing Highlights
00:05:45
Cody Atkinson
on Sunday. So next week when Justin is back, we will be able to recap what happened not only in the semifinals, but also In the finals in the NHL, the biggest news right now of the offseason is that the Anaheim Ducks, Leo Carlson, is now the highest paid player in the and NHL. A lot of drama.
00:06:05
Cody Atkinson
Aaron Ph.D.: Around this signing the Philadelphia flyers offered offer sheet to Leo Carlson for five years 90 million. Aaron Shaw, Ph.D.: Which the ducks were required to meet or they would lose him to the flyer so the ducks match the five years 90 million believe the map on that.
00:06:24
Cody Atkinson
is about 18 million a year that the Ducks are now paying Leo Carlson, making him the highest play paid player above Kaprizov for the wild, who's making 17 million a year. The Ducks probably regret the way that this all went down. um i don't I wasn't able to find articles that support this, but on the Spittin' Chicklets last week, I think it was, they were talking about this. and they The Ducks had a chance to sign him at $15 million a year. They thought it was too pricey. They didn't want to offer him that much. they They had chances to go back and forth. They were aware that an offer sheet was coming. I guess that they...
00:07:03
Cody Atkinson
just didn't take that seriously. And and so they they waited too long. They took too long to to provide a competitive offer. And the offer sheet comes and and it's costing them 18 million. So that has to feel like a huge L for the Ducks there. You get to keep your guy, but but at what cost really? um And the interesting thing about this is this puts a lot of pressure on players coming up right now. Celebrini is going to be eligible for a contract next year. This puts a lot of pressure on the Sharks to get him signed before the offer sheet period opens, or they put themselves in the exact same situation of having to match an outrageous offer or lose the player that I really truly think will be the next goat of hockey. um And it also puts just pressure on the Blackhawks right now I believe they were able to avoid the offer sheet scenario for Bedard, but they're still in the process of trying to negotiate a contract with him. And this $18 million dollars offer for Leo Carlson certainly does them no favors in their negotiations with Conor Bedard. So the NHL off season is kicking. That is the the biggest news of the last week. Definitely felt like it was worth talking about. Justin has has kind of been a Ducks bandwagoner in a way. Once the
00:08:23
Cody Atkinson
the lightning fell off he was a ducks guy in the playoffs and he's ah he he's a guy that thinks the ducks are going to be back and better next year so not the biggest win for the ducks it's a w to keep your player but it's definitely um an l to be stuck with a contract that if you had negotiated better you you you really could have uh could have avoided uh having him become the highest paid player in the and nhl so That's what's going on in the NHL
NBA Offseason Trade Buzz
00:08:51
Cody Atkinson
right now. I don't have any good notes on the NBA. The NBA, we are not an NBA podcast. We are not NBA fans, but the NBA is crushing it this offseason as well. I know Giannis got traded from the Bucs to the Heat. That's in and of itself an exciting offseason. Jalen Brown, on top of that, goes from the Celtics to the 76ers.
00:09:13
Cody Atkinson
Ja Morant from the Grizzlies to... The Portland Trailblazers, Lonzo Ball from the Hornets to the Timberwolves. You have the LeBron sweepstakes currently going on. LeBron not returning to the Lakers, despite the Lakers having his son on the team. I don't really know how that all plays into this. but LeBron not going back to the Lakers and now being courted by literally anyone and everyone associated with the NBA. So that's going to be a lot of fun to follow.
00:09:45
Cody Atkinson
Very interesting to see how this plays out. I don't think LeBron is necessarily as impactful as he once was, but he will certainly be able to have an impact on any team he goes to. Any team he goes to, I'm assuming, will already be a competitor.
00:10:00
Cody Atkinson
You add LeBron to the mix, even if he's coming in to not run the show, you add that to the mix and you you definitely add a lot of firepower. So the NBA, as much as I'm not a huge fan of the NBA, the foul baiting, the SGA style of play pushes me away from the league.
00:10:20
Cody Atkinson
The NBA is having an incredible offseason and and has me paying attention to it, which is something that i generally did not expect to do this off season so that's what's going around the world of sports outside of baseball but today we're we're here to mostly talk baseball i'm going to do my best this is this is a solo show <unk>ve i've never done a solo show i don't really know how to do one so bear with me i'm to try to give you at least 30 to 45 minutes of of good content here um and and we're gonna see how this how this turns out so we're gonna we're gonna talk baseball here for the next 20 to 30 minutes and and see how this goes um i've seen a lot of people do these solo shows but they're always live shows so they have a chat to interact with to stall for time and and i don't have that so i'm just kind of talking into the void trying to avoid long droughts of pauses and and and give you some some content worth listening to here so baseball talk we're going to start with all star week slash all star weekend, as I
Home Run Derby Format Changes
00:11:28
Cody Atkinson
like to call it. um
00:11:29
Cody Atkinson
My biggest note that I have here is that all star weekend is just a bummer compared to what it could be. You do have the home run derby tonight. I'm very excited. for the home run derby tonight. I was a fan of the the timed format. I thought it was electric. It just was so fast and so fun. I know people wanted to be able to watch the home runs to the end and not cut away from one home run to see the next swing, but I thought it was electric. it It made for a lot of pressure moments where there's only like a minute left and they need three more and you're just holding your breath to see if they can get three in that minute.
00:12:08
Cody Atkinson
I thought it electric. I understand the downside to it. They are going with a swing-based home run derby this season. So originally out-based home run derby to timed home run derby. Now we're into swing-based home run derby. I think to answer the the calls for it to not move so fast and answer the calls for it to not wear the players out a much as much. I'm very excited to see this. I have no necessarily complaints about the the switch until I see it for myself. So the Home Run Derby gets its own ah stage tonight. The All-Star Game gets its own stage tomorrow night.
00:12:46
Cody Atkinson
But there is just so much going on over like five days. this I think this started maybe back on Saturday. I think Friday or Saturday. the All-Star Weekend really started. And you have three days of events to unify the sport, three days of events to put the sport on a pedestal, three days of events to build excitement around all areas of the sport, and you play games on top of it.
00:13:12
Cody Atkinson
The HBCU Swingman Classic, I believe, was on Friday. i saw a little bit of it on the MLB.com stream. um i don't know much about the game, but...
00:13:26
Cody Atkinson
Wouldn't it be better served as a standalone event? Like nobody's going watch the HBCU Swingman Classic if they have to compete with watching their own team try to make a playoff, push their own team, try to decide if it's going to be a buyer or seller at the deadline.
00:13:43
Cody Atkinson
Makes it harder to watch the Swingman Classic. The MLB draft started on Saturday, continued on Sunday. while games were going on. So you are torn between watching the draft to see who is potentially the face of your franchise, you know, three years from now, or watching your team now try to make a playoff push. You
Critique of MLB All-Star Event Scheduling
00:14:06
Cody Atkinson
had the futures game was on Sunday.
00:14:09
Cody Atkinson
um i think this is a, such a fun game. I know I'm not the um I'm not, I'm not necessarily a representation of the average MLB fan. I, I enjoy The draft, I enjoy the minor leagues way more than I think the average fan. The Futures game's awesome. There were two Astros players in it.
00:14:28
Cody Atkinson
or a x Xavier Nyan struck out on and on a full count. Kevin Alvarez got one at bat, got hit in the and the calf, took first base, came around to score.
00:14:40
Cody Atkinson
It's fun to watch because you get to see these guys that are going to be the future faces of the league compete against each other at the highest level. um That's going on while other games are going on. And then I actually ended up tuning into the MLB X three-on-three challenge this weekend.
00:14:58
Cody Atkinson
um which was so much more entertaining than I expected it to be. i I think this was the first year they did it. I'd never noticed it before, never paid attention to it before, but that was a ton of fun. But again, you you have all these things going on while while games are being played and wouldn't it be so much better to, if you're going to have five days of events, wouldn't it be better to just have five days events of no baseball so that you can put each of these events in prime time to the best of your abilities and give them a chance to stand on their own.
00:15:34
Cody Atkinson
Maybe they don't stand on their own very well. Maybe the HBCU swing man classic, Proves to not be able to stand on its own. Maybe the draft proves to not be able to stand on its own because unlike the and NHL or the NBA or the NFL, these guys on average aren't going to make an impact this year. They might not make an impact next year.
00:15:57
Cody Atkinson
especially in this case, because there's going to be a lockout next year, but they they might be two to three years away from making an impact. But you are starting to see more players make impacts more quickly. You see Paul Skeens come to the majors very, very quickly. You see Cam Smith come to the majors very, very quickly. If you look at, I don't even remember how many years ago this was necessarily, but there's the draft with Travis Bazzana, who's in the majors now. Charlie Condon, I don't think has quite made it yet, but Chase Burns has made it. I think Rhett Lauder has made it. like There are these drafts where these guys taken at the very top are starting to move more quickly because the college game has advanced in a way that's developed them to be ready for the league faster. So I think you can start trying to put the MLB draft in prime time to try to get...
00:16:47
Cody Atkinson
at least your version of eyes on the sport like the nba and the the nba gets gets prime time on a tuesday for their round one draft the nhl got prime time on a friday in the nfl gets broadcast all seven rounds i i find it hard to believe that the mlb in the summer with no other sport being played no other draft going on i find it very hard to believe that they wouldn't be able to get some eyes on the sport and start to highlight the talent coming in the pipeline that's one of the things the mlb has done better as of late but really needed to do a few years ago was was highlight the personalities in their sport highlight the youth in their sport and bring people to the game by showing them the talent that they can watch and this is
00:17:36
Cody Atkinson
a great chance to do it and it really feels like they fall short of doing it because they just don't give it a chance like you don't need to just take three days off of baseball for the all-star break games were played on saturday there will be one game on thursday and then everybody kicks up on on friday that's not much of a break you get if you if you stopped all games on thursday And then you you gave, say, the draft round one and round two, however you want to do it, gave them their own night on Friday.
00:18:11
Cody Atkinson
On Saturday, you can you can have more draft going on. Obviously, you're in the later round, so people aren't paying attention anymore. So you can do other things on top of it now. You can have the futures game. on top of it on saturday you can have celebrity day on sunday is what i called it celebrity softball i don't know if they even did that this year but if they didn't it needs to come back because celebrity softball was some of the most fun you could ever watch you could do celebrity softball on on sunday with the three on three game also on sunday because like i said that was surprisingly electric home run derby monday all-star game tuesday
00:18:46
Cody Atkinson
And now you get an actual break for your players, a break to go home, to spend with their families, a break to actually take part in the festivities. And hopefully people coming in for the All-Star Game, the Home Run Derby, come in a couple days early. They catch this stuff, and they really get to experience that without giving up on the actual sport, right? Like, I didn't really get to watch much of the draft because – There was the Astros were playing the Rangers at the time, and this was huge for who had a chance to lead the AL West. The Rangers won the series 2-1.
00:19:24
Cody Atkinson
The Rangers sit atop the AL West, but the Astros had a chance to make a comeback. I can't not watch that to watch the draft. That's huge. If you look around the league, Tampa Bay played Seattle. That's huge. Tampa Bay is trying to maintain its lead over New York. Seattle's fighting for the AL West as well, and the the final spot in the wild card. Philadelphia was playing Detroit. Detroit, we'll get into it later, was one of the hottest teams of baseball coming into this this series. If you're a Detroit fan, you're not skipping that season.
00:19:53
Cody Atkinson
series to watch any of these events. Also, the Yankees were playing the Nationals, which I thought personally it was a huge series. The Nationals going into that series were still above 500. And the Yankees, after tying the series against Tampa, was trying to really end its slide.
00:20:14
Cody Atkinson
If you're a fan of the show, you know that we call the Yankee slide for the the summer. They always have one, the Yankee summer slide. um They appear to have broken out of it against the Nationals. They sweep the Nationals three games to nothing after going two and two against Tampa.
00:20:30
Cody Atkinson
After, I think, going like one and nine in their last 10 or two and nine in their 11 going into the Tampa series, the the Yankees summer slide appears to have come to a conclusion um at the commencement of the All-Star break.
00:20:44
Cody Atkinson
These teams aren't these fans aren't skipping these experiences to to take in the draft this this is stuff that needs to stand alone there's other things we could get into. With the draft and i'll get into some of it just with winners and losers of the draft, but there are certainly other things you can get into how do we get players to.
00:21:05
Cody Atkinson
advance quicker. How do we get rid of this ah ah saving money slot value system that causes the best players to not be taken at each pick? Like that certainly hurts the marketability of the draft when you have a top 10 and the third pick is number 50 because they're going to save money for the third round when they're going to take a high school kid that is better than the kid they just took.
00:21:35
Cody Atkinson
and there's There's other things like that for marketability, pick trading, things like that that, that I think they're actually trying to work on in the collective bargaining, not that it'll get done because there's too much to clean up for one collective bargaining agreement. like We can take steps towards towards more marketable, but if you are going to make it more marketable, also give it its own time slot and let's make a real all-star break here.
MLB Draft Winners and Losers
00:22:00
Cody Atkinson
All right, MLB draft thoughts. um So this is, I'm just gonna give a couple of quick, winners and losers here with the ah kind of the asterisk that I know college players. And so I, my, these winners and losers are going to be based on the college players that got taken. If you're a fan of a team that took high school players, it's very well that your draft might be better than the ones I'm calling winners, but I don't know who those players are.
00:22:28
Cody Atkinson
So I will not be calling that winner. I don't watch high school baseball because I, Don't play high school baseball and I'm not the father of a child playing high school baseball, so I have no other reason to watch it. But I do watch a lot of college baseball, so I've i've got names that I like their first winner.
00:22:47
Cody Atkinson
is the Oakland Athletic, or formerly Oakland, now Sacramento, soon to be Las Vegas Athletics. They took Drew Burris with their first pick, an incredible bat, so much pop in that bat for Georgia Tech. He's absolute unit in college from the from his freshman year until ah this past year. And they also get Mason Edwards out of USC, who was a stud at USC. And then Gabe Gackle out of Arkansas. Those are their first three picks right there. Burris, Edwards, Gackle. Burris and Edwards, definitely first round talents. They get both of them. Gackle, I don't think I ever saw him projected in the first round, but he is an incredible talent as well. At at least a second round talent.
00:23:33
Cody Atkinson
um That's a really good one, two, three stack. to build your future around. i also really liked what Chicago, the Cubs did in this draft, especially at their second and third round. Second round, they take Caden Sorrell.
00:23:48
Cody Atkinson
Third round, they take Miles Bailey out of Florida State. the One thing I noticed in this draft, and not that I noticed, one thing that I saw reported in this draft is that swing and miss was really being punished. So if you were a player that had a lot of swing and miss in your profile, you went lower that.
00:24:07
Cody Atkinson
than what was expected of you to go. And Caden, Sorrell, and Miles Bailey both fit that mold. They have ah quite a bit of swing and miss in their profile, which allowed the Cubs to get them much later than they otherwise could have gone. Sorrell, in my opinion, first-round talent. I am biased in that. Sorrell went to A&M.
00:24:26
Cody Atkinson
I am an A&M fan. So um there is bias in that. But I think Caden Sorrell is absolutely a first round talent and they got him in the second round. Miles Bailey, they get in the third round because he got injured partway through the season and missed the rest of the season. But when he when he went down and missed the rest of the season, Florida State season effectively ended.
00:24:44
Cody Atkinson
because miles bailey was that impactful of a bat he is a monster of a human being and he has a ton of slug in that bat if either of these guys pan out this is a great draft for the cubs if both of them pan out this is an incredible draft for the cubs i i really feel like this was a moment where they they zigged when everybody else sagged and and that got them some really good value Lastly, actually, I'll do two more. I only wrote one more, but I'll do two more. So I'm giving the Tigers a winner because they got Cameron Flukie at pick 22.
00:25:16
Cody Atkinson
This is who I wanted the Astros to pick at pick 17. I can't believe he fell to the Astros at pick 17, and then they didn't take him. And then he continued to fall to 22, and the Tigers get an absolute gift from the rest of mlb ah Getting Cameron Faluki, who was instrumental in carrying Coastal Carolina to the championship against LSU two years ago, and then just had an injury-plagued season this year. That is incredible value. If he wasn't injury-plagued, he would have been a top-ten pick. And I can't believe he went 22. And I can't believe he was there at 17 and the Astros didn't take him.
00:25:49
Cody Atkinson
ah Final winner I have is nepotism. Jokingly, nepotism. It's very fun. Barry Bonds' son, Peyton Bonds, gets drafted by San Francisco.
00:26:00
Cody Atkinson
ah Luke Pettit, Andy Pettit's son, gets drafted by the Yankees. And then Landon Tomei, Jim Tomei's son, gets drafted by the White Sox. You don't necessarily think White Sox when you think Jim Tomei, but he did spend...
00:26:13
Cody Atkinson
I believe it was three or four years with the White Sox in his career. So um sons of of Hall of Famers getting drafted by the team by a team that their father played for is is a lot of fun. Personally, I think it's great that they got picked by these teams. it it will make It makes for a lot of fun in this moment. It will make for even more fun if they if they make the league for these teams. So winner, nepotism.
00:26:40
Cody Atkinson
giving us great storylines for the draft. Losers of the draft, I only did two. i'm not a scout. I'm not a baseball expert. So I'm not going to pretend to know that much. But I am very, as an Astros fan, I am not a fan of the way the Astros approached this draft. At pick 17, they could have taken Justin LeBron.
00:27:00
Cody Atkinson
They could have taken Cameron Flukie. They could have taken Ace Reese. Instead, they took, I believe, number 42 ranked overall prospect, Logan Hughes. out of Texas Tech, a guy who hit incredible in the Big 12. It's hard to, he hit 375, I think he had pop.
00:27:19
Cody Atkinson
But most scouts believe that he is kind of maxed out his power and his body. It's just maxed out. So there's not a lot of projection to him. There's not a lot of growth.
00:27:31
Cody Atkinson
expected from a very high floor, low ceiling guy. I've seen him compared to Kyle Stowers. If he turns into Kyle Stowers, I will eat crow on this. And I will be very happy with their selection here. but But here it really feels to me like they took a guy at 17 that they could have taken at 28 or even 53, I think was their next pick after that. Like a guy that they could have taken later, a bit of a reach.
00:27:58
Cody Atkinson
And they also took Jack Radel out of Notre Dame. I did like, like I looked at kind of his his stuff. He had a great K per nine. He had a great win loss. he He had a solid ERA, great K per nine, a solid walk per nine, K to walk ratio. There was a lot to see there. And like, he was a ah guy who performed well in college. But again, I don't know that he really had that electric of stuff. So it really felt like the Astros took a lot of,
00:28:27
Cody Atkinson
high floor, low ceiling move through the system quickly, guys, which could be good, but also you you could really, um could really bite you later if you have a farm system of dudes with low ceilings. And I think this is because you have a GM that doesn't have a contract at the end of this year. If if things don't go well, which they're currently not going well for the Astros, then his job is over.
00:28:55
Cody Atkinson
at the end of the year and uh he needs to draft guys that show promise quickly so he can show the owner well look how good i am at drafting and that's why you need to keep me around um so that's what he did and and that can have long-term uh disadvantages for sure i also picked the mets here they took aiden robbins out of texas uh tons of hype on this guy i just don't see it at the mlb level great college hitter um I just don't buy it. I still get the hype on it. They also took Shane Sadeo out of A&M who has tons of stuff, tons of projectability, but just never put it together at A&M. And I think that was a bit high for him. It's same with like the the Guardians to Glean Peterson. I'm not a Liam Peterson guy. ah Mets take Shane Sadeo. I am not a Shane Sadeo guy. So those are my my winners and losers for the draft and and some quick hits on the the
00:29:45
Cody Atkinson
the three on three before we hit trade deadline. ah Rachel Garcia, who plays for the Texas Volts, absolutely rakes. um Again, I did not expect the three on three competition to be entertaining at all. But it was super entertaining to watch Shane Victorino take it way too seriously. And it was super entertaining to watch these softball superstars absolutely rake in what, I mean, what is batting practice, but it was so fun to watch Rachel Garcia
00:30:16
Cody Atkinson
ah ah went absolutely off the MVP of Team Victorina, who ends up winning it. It just made me think I would i would not be upset at all if the MLB found more ways to incorporate these the softball league into the All-Star weekend.
00:30:32
Cody Atkinson
I would not be upset at all if they had some of their own events. I would not be upset at all if they kind of had opportunities to compete in ah more of the the other events. If you know you had ah a softball player in the Home Run Derby because Rachel Garcia rakes, it would it would be a lot of fun and it would be a great opportunity to um really boost the investment in the softball league.
00:30:56
Cody Atkinson
because softball is a very entertaining sport. If you like baseball, you would probably enjoy softball as well. So again, this just kind of felt like it it felt like it there's so many opportunities to boost the profile of the weekend by giving it its own stage. And you can even boost the profile of the AUSL by giving softball its stage alongside the um MLB. So yeah, hopes that they that they continue to build on this and that they they expand kind of their coverage of All-Star Weekend because it is a ton of fun. And I think having it be a five-day event for all of the fans, not just the fans in the city, having it be a five-day event where all fans are tuned in.
00:31:33
Cody Atkinson
um i think it would be a ton of fun and you get player rest a few extra days of player rest in this scenario so the last thing i want to talk about here um we're at the 30 minute mark i i feel good that i'm going to be able to get you to 45 which is where i said i wanted to get you um and then after that i i've probably talked enough and and maybe you stopped listening because you want that you you tuned in for justin and you wanted to hear justin's thoughts and We don't got
MLB Trade Deadline Primer
00:31:59
Cody Atkinson
them today. So um this is going to be a little bit of a deadline primer here. We do have an MLB check-in next week along with the Pac-12 preview. I will give Justin the the the chance to to slash the um MLB check-in if he thinks this is extensive enough for it. But we also will give him a chance to get some of his thoughts. Maybe he wants to react to anything I said here.
00:32:25
Cody Atkinson
So August 3rd trade deadline coming up when... When the MLB kicks back off, really Friday the 17th, when everyone comes in, you were looking at a two, two and a half week stretch before the trade deadline.
00:32:40
Cody Atkinson
It is going to be absolutely electric to see who brings himself back into contention and who falls off entirely. Back like maybe a few weeks ago, a month ago, when we really thought we knew the league, right? We really thought we knew what was going to happen. There were some clear buyers, there were some clear sellers.
00:33:02
Cody Atkinson
It was all making sense. The teams that that offered the best but the best selling, right? The best selling were the Detroit Tigers, the Boston Red Sox, the Baltimore Orioles, the Minnesota Twins, the Houston Astros, and the Toronto Blue Jays. These were supposed to be some of the biggest sellers. That's Tarek Skubal, Casey Mize, the Red Sox, Sonny Gray, Aroldis Chapman, Jaron Duran, Joe Ryan,
00:33:35
Cody Atkinson
Byron Buxton, Jeremy Pena, Dalton Varsho. These guys were going to be available. And it's not that clear anymore. if you haven't been paying attention to these teams because you're fan of another team, and that's perfectly reasonable. The Tigers...
00:33:51
Cody Atkinson
um until I would say Saturday were the hottest team in baseball. They are now 7-3 in their last 10. They are nine and three in their last 12. That means they lost Saturday and Sunday. They were 9-1 going into Saturday and Sunday. They lost them both 9-3 in their last 12.
00:34:10
Cody Atkinson
They have gotten within 3.5 of the wild card, and they are moving in on it. The Red Sox are now nine and one in their last 10. They're 14-2 in their last 16. So this is actually the hottest team in baseball.
00:34:27
Cody Atkinson
Where the Tigers were looking like it, the Red Sox are the hottest team in baseball. They're only half a game back of the wild card right now. We roasted them. around the time that they got rid of alex corey we roasted them season was over overhyped bums everything they are half a game out of the wild card and storming the minnesota twins are seven and three in their last ten uh and they are tied with the mariners for the final wild card wild card spot the mariners are slumping they just lost two of three to the rays uh they're four and six in their last ten
00:35:03
Cody Atkinson
The Twins are now tied with the Mariners. The Orioles are on a four-game win streak right now. They're also 7-3 in their last 10. They're two games out of the wild card. The only team, so this is red Tigers, Red Sox, Orioles, Twins, Astros, Blue Jays, 16. The only two teams out of these six that aren't playing right now are the Astros and the Blue Jays. The Astros are 4-6 in the last 10.
00:35:26
Cody Atkinson
The Blue Jays are 5-5, but they both sit within two and a half games now. of the wild card. So at this moment, none of these teams are are for sure sellers.
00:35:39
Cody Atkinson
And if none of these teams are sellers, then who's going to actually sell and and who's going to provide enough assets for the buyers to buy. That's what the question remains. Who is actually going to sell any of these teams that want to compete? Any of these six teams, any of the teams above them need some of the others to fall off so that there's actually players being sold that you can buy. And it will be a huge two to two and a half weeks from this Friday to August 3rd to determine who these teams are going to be. If these teams all continue to float around each other,
00:36:14
Cody Atkinson
You could have a real sticky situation where everyone wants to buy, and nobody wants to sell, and the price is gonna go through the roof, which will naturally bring buyers. Cause you know, if nobody's selling and the price is crazy, I might as well sell so that I can benefit from a crazy price.
00:36:34
Cody Atkinson
And that's what some of these teams, the fans of these teams might be rooting for is to become a seller so that you can benefit from what is going to be a a shortage of sellers in the market. Right now, i only see the Rockies.
00:36:48
Cody Atkinson
the Mets, the Giants, the Reds, the Angels, the Royals, and probably the A's that are sellers. Like almost guaranteed at this point. Those are all teams six games or more out of the wild card. Those are all teams significantly sub 500 and not on any sort of winning streak that would indicate that they are going to turn their luck around.
00:37:14
Cody Atkinson
These teams should sell. But those other six teams, some of them absolutely need to become sellers. Now, when it comes to the turnaround,
00:37:25
Cody Atkinson
The team that I'm absolutely buying into is the Detroit Tigers. The Detroit Tigers, I haven't checked recently. um Let me pull this up right now because there were a couple of fun stats that I had for the Tigers. I was talking to my buddy, Matt, this week, who's a Tigers fan, and I was kind of hyping him up that the turnaround was real. I was like, first off, if you haven't been paying attention, um the Tigers are turning it around. And I was like, second off,
00:37:55
Cody Atkinson
there's reason to believe this turnaround is real. So let me get this pulled up real quick. If T-Mobile would stop trying to advertise to me, I know you're the main advertiser of the home run derby. That's not what I'm interested in right now.
00:38:11
Cody Atkinson
So please stop. All right, wild card standings. The Tigers, so beyond being seven and three in their last 10, which is incredible, the Tigers have a plus 24 run differential.
00:38:23
Cody Atkinson
run differential which is wildcard mlb.com's letting me down right now people um they have plus 24 run differential which would be good for one two three four fifth best run differential in the al they have been passed by boston who's now at a plus 27 um And I think they got passed by the White Sox, who were previously below them. So when I was sending stats to my buddy earlier this week, they were, i think, third in the AL. They still sit at fifth after losing the series to Philadelphia.
00:39:00
Cody Atkinson
They also 25-23 against teams with a record or better. the tampa bay rays are twenty one and eighteen the rangers are twenty and sixteen Not the White Sox, not the Yankees.
00:39:19
Cody Atkinson
The Boston is twenty one and twenty one The Astros are 19-18. And that is the extent of teams in the AL with a better than 500 record against teams with a record better than 500. There's probably a cleaner way to say that. But that's one, two
00:39:40
Cody Atkinson
what, three, four? Four teams with the record. 500 or better. And then the Red Sox at 500. So when you consider that, and you also consider that the Tigers have a chance to go into any playoff season,
00:39:54
Cody Atkinson
series by throwing Tarek Skubal game one, Frambois Valdez, who has game one experience with the Astros game two, Casey Mize game three, who's having a great season in his own right.
00:40:09
Cody Atkinson
And then you have Flaherty and troy Melton, both having good seasons as well. Guys that you could throw in a game four, guys that you could use as long relief or piggyback or bullpen.
00:40:22
Cody Atkinson
in the playoffs. And then you potentially have Justin Verlander coming back from injury to give a absolute movie ending to his career. The Tigers are a team to buy into if you're looking to buy low on a team, buy on the Tigers, because I think this turnaround is real and they absolutely have the pitching to go up against anyone in the playoff series. The Red Sox are definitely a team worth buying into as well.
00:40:46
Cody Atkinson
Their numbers today look way better than they did a few days ago when I was looking at this. So I was not bought in on the Red Sox, but plus 27 run differential is good for fourth in the AL. And they are also at 500, 21 and 21 against teams with the record greater than 500. So they are capable of beating the teams that you have to beat in the playoffs. um And they can make some moves at the deadline. They have outfield surplus that they can move to to improve elsewhere.
00:41:20
Cody Atkinson
um those are Those are the two that I'm buying into right now is these turnarounds could be real. And these are teams that could make playoff noise. I don't really buy it with the Twins. I don't think they have enough firepower. i I expect them...
00:41:36
Cody Atkinson
to fall off the, maybe the sneak a wild card spot, but I don't ultimately expect them to be one of the ones sitting at the top. I don't see it with the Orioles at the moment either.
00:41:48
Cody Atkinson
um And I certainly don't see it with my Houston Astros. So those are some teams that that that could fall off, but the, the main point of this whole August 3rd trade deadline talk is that a month ago, we really thought we knew who was and who wasn't a buyer and who wasn't who wasn't a seller. And it is not that clear anymore. The teams that we thought for sure would be selling are right back in the midst because there were a lot of AL teams and the AL is very, very, very, very bad.
00:42:24
Cody Atkinson
And it didn't take a long time for them to dig themselves out of these holes that they dug themselves into. We never thought the Red Sox would come back. They're half a game out of the wild card. We never thought the Tigers would come back. They're three and a half games out.
00:42:38
Cody Atkinson
Who was even paying attention to the twins? They're tied for the wild card and the Blue Jays, a team that maybe two weeks ago I would have told you is the the turnaround candidate.
00:42:50
Cody Atkinson
They're they're just still floating there. They're still in it. So look for a lot of these teams to... not really know what they're going to do in the next two and a half weeks will learn a lot. If the Tigers slump horribly over the next two and a half weeks, they could go back to selling. But if they compete, they're another buyer right there in the market. The Red Sox could absolutely go either way. The Orioles could go either way. The Twins, the Astros, of Blue Jays, they could go either way. And that will really define what this this trade deadline looks like. And every game will be just massive and trying to figure out where your team's going to head.
00:43:25
Cody Atkinson
um Expect a lot of buying and selling, I think is probably what comes of this. Like the Red Sox, every chance they become buyers, but that they're also selling from their outfield surplus in order to buy Where they need to buy. um i don't really know the Tigers roster as well, but, you know, I could absolutely see them both buying and selling to try to stay competitive while, you know, competitive.
00:44:00
Cody Atkinson
mortgaging the future given that Tarek Skubal is not going to be on the team starting next year. The Orioles, they have an incredibly deep farm system of very similar guys. It always feels like there's like that joke. Like if you see a picture of a player, you're like, oh, that's probably who the Orioles drafted. Like that Vance Honeycutt type. um Look for them to try to try to move from that to to stay competitive because they are a team that was supposed to, like two years ago, they were supposed to turn the corner and they really need to show proof of concept.
00:44:30
Cody Atkinson
Twins, I could still see being sellers, but you know as they sit right now, they would be crazy to sell. um Blue Jays, Astros. Astros, I think, should be sellers because they have an awful run differential.
00:44:42
Cody Atkinson
They made a good run to get back close to 500, but it was mostly by playing teams that weren't at or above 500. And and there to the injury bug continues to plague them. But look for the Astros to be both buyers and sellers because they have a GM and manager whose contracts are set to expire. so All that to say, i am very excited, always very excited for this part of this is the best part of the MLB regular season when you get the draft, um when you get the home run derby, the all star game, and then the trade deadline just hangs above your head as this carrot on a stick.
Impact of Upcoming Games on Playoff Race
00:45:20
Cody Atkinson
That's just right out in front of you. And it's right there. And every game matters so much because it could it's the difference between your team deciding to go all in and your team deciding to to lick its wounds and regroup for next year.
00:45:34
Cody Atkinson
So there will be some major series to help determine where the trade deadline is going. I know the Astros come out of the all-star break by playing the Orioles. So like that's a massive series.
00:45:45
Cody Atkinson
winner of that series headed towards buying loser of that series headed towards selling with only two weeks to recover um it's going to be electric uh it just expect a lot of chaos expect a lot of fun i really hope we get a active trade deadline, I really hope we get activity, but a lot of that will depend on there being enough sellers for the buyers to buy from.
00:46:12
Cody Atkinson
And a lot of that's gonna require some of these teams that I mentioned to really fall off so that they are forced to to make the decision to to sell. and so Don't just lock in on the deadline. Don't just lock in an all-star week lock in on the next two weeks as they will change the the direction of the season. They will change the playoff picture dramatically. And honestly, baseball is probably one of the sports where I have the most fun with, ah with off the field storylines because it's 162 game season. It is a sport that is objectively settled on the field.
00:46:48
Cody Atkinson
Unlike a college football where, you know, you're, comparing resumes of teams that never play each other, will never play each other, play schedules that are completely different. It's very frustrating experience. But this is settled on the field 162 times, and that makes the off-the-field storylines electric because you have enough data to really feel like you know and to care where it's headed. so lock in on this. I think that's that's about all I got for you. I promised you 30 to 45 minutes of mostly baseball. where We're nearing the 50-minute mark, so I feel like this was a success, but I'm also tired of talking at this point and looking forward to Justin getting off the cruise, telling us how the cruise went, and also giving us his thoughts so I have somebody to go back and forth with
00:47:43
Cody Atkinson
again instead of just talking into the void. So thanks for joining. If you if you made it through this, shout out to you. um Let me know your thoughts on this. Do you, I mean, in the the comments on Spotify or or Apple or wherever, let me know your thoughts. Who do you who do you buy into as the the the team whose turnaround is legit? Who do you think's buying? Who do you think's selling?
00:48:08
Cody Atkinson
um What do you think on the on the MLB All-Star weekend? Am I crazy for thinking it should stand alone? do Do you think none of these events will will work on their own? And I'm just an an idiot who doesn't know how, you know, American interest goes. um Do you think softball should be incorporated at all? Because I thought that was really fun. or am I overreacting to one softball player absolutely hitting nukes over the batter's eye?
00:48:33
Cody Atkinson
in Philadelphia. Let me know. I think these are very fun conversations. It's a shame that we didn't get to have the back and forth on this, but I know Justin will give his feedback next week as well. We can have a little Justin reacts to, to what happened while he was gone segment to kick it off. Yeah. Let me know your thoughts. Thanks for sticking it out.
00:48:52
Cody Atkinson
Leave a comment, like, and subscribe. And just thanks for interacting with us. And thanks for letting me do this little solo show. um And yeah, I'm Cody and this has been the Coastal Launch Sports Talk episode 23. will catch you next week.
00:49:10
Cody Atkinson
Peace.