Transcript
Cody Atkinson: Hello and welcome to the Coastal Launch Sports Talk. I'm Cody coming to you from the bayous of Houston, Texas.
Justin Daulton: And I'm Justin coming to you from the magic of Orlando, Florida.
Cody Atkinson: And today we will again be your destination for the MLB trade deadline. Last week we primed you for what to expect from the deadline. And now this week the dust has settled and we can react.
Cody Atkinson: Some of the names that we really wanted to see move did and some disappointingly stayed at home. Some teams that we really wanted to see go all in did. and others left us wondering what the heck they were waiting for.
Cody Atkinson: We're going to talk about it all here on this episode of the Coastal Launch. So with our trajectory set, it's time to sit back, lock in, and get started with the rundown. This is the Coastal Launch, and we are ready for liftoff here on episode 26.
Justin Daulton: right, man. Um, let's jump right on in this. This was a busy week. All small topics, but a lot of things to talk about. So let's, let's just jump right on in. Um, FIFA, uh, continue to make some headlines. What, what are we three or four three- ish weeks out from the world cup ending. And, uh, they are very much back in the news. Uh, Johnny, uh,
Justin Daulton: attempts to spin off the business of fifa and sell to a us private equity. i ah Good things to note here, UEFA and CocuCat both threatened to boycott FIFA going forward for this.
Justin Daulton: And ultimately, the sale got canceled and led to basically all the FIFA organization going in voting on whether or not Infantino is going to stay in leadership going forward.
Justin Daulton: So this is big in terms – because you and I throughout the World Cup talked about how much of a success this this whole thing was for the summer, right? And, you know, looking towards the Women's World Cup next year. And then, of course, you know, four years from now being the the Centennial World Cup and in Spain, Morocco, Madrid.
Justin Daulton: So, like, coming off the heels of success and now you're really just thrown right into the fact of well, I'm good. i just did the best – world cup probably ever and now going jump out of here and and leave it to basically a sinking ship like depending on what this private equity firm would have done but uh it seems that the consensus around at least the internet from what we were what we were reading cody as we were kind of playing together today or together today is overwhelmingly positive that it didn't happen
Cody Atkinson: Yeah, I mean, i don i don't know if you're a fan of of sport. I don't know how you could have any any different opinion than that, right? Like, we we are fans. we aren't here We aren't here to make money. We aren't here to benefit from the sale of a league. So... if you're If you're rooting for that, I feel like you may have lost the plot and you're rooting for the wrong the wrong people. Root for yourself and what's good for you. This is one of the craziest things I've ever seen, man. like FIFA, the you know federation of soccer that throws on this tournament that brings the world together went up for bid. and Honestly, that's not even the the right way to say it because it didn't go up for bid. It went to one...
Cody Atkinson: you know private equity firm um who was going to buy it. so So what they were going to do, my understanding is they were gonna spin off a second company. So there would have been like FIFA and then there would have been like FIFA football enterprises or something. And that entity would have housed all the broadcast rights and um, tournament rights and things like that. And so that's what they would have sold off because you can't, FIFA is a nonprofit somehow. So you can't sell, you can't sell off to private equity. So they're going to make this other company, put all the money-making marketing rights into it, sell that to private equity, which is just crazy. You, you can't have this, right? It's, it's called the most beautiful game. It's, it's this tournament that brings the world together in in so many ways we ignore how dirty FIFA is and how dirty soccer is. And we, we pretend that it's this, this pinnacle of like sport purity that we still get to experience and witness. Cause it does kind of feel like that in so many ways.
Cody Atkinson: It's like the, the, the pinnacle of, of bringing sport together. And, and that was going to sell for us private equity. Shout out to UEFA, uh, for threatening to boycott days, so many member countries and basically all of the ones that matter for the tournament, right?
Justin Daulton: The
Cody Atkinson: Like, like Spain was going to boycott England was going to boycott. Uh, Germany was good.
Justin Daulton: US, Canada, Mexico.
Cody Atkinson: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And so, yeah, cause conca, conca calf, which is, is us Canada, Mexico came in and it kind of so supported you wife, his stance. Um,
Cody Atkinson: this What this reminded me of and kind of the one of the reasons I wanted to to shout it was the Super League. Do you remember when the Premier League and stuff, they tried to spin off the Super League and all of Europe just boycotted and it was like like picketed their freaking stadiums in the middle of the week and stuff and and canceled the Super League.
Justin Daulton: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Cody Atkinson: Because it it was going to take away what they loved about sport. And and they did it again. Europe led to charge in making sure that this thing got shut down and that money didn't ruin something good more than it it already you know has to whatever extent you may think it does.
Cody Atkinson: It really reminded me of that. And it was just one of those moments of like, hold up. We, we, as the fans can still have power if we choose to like, but if we choose to come together and believe it. um I'm not, not bad to say that they're perfect, right? Like the, the premier league has, has plenty of issues with who they've allowed to, to invest in it. And I, I don't know, i don't keep up with it a ton, but I know there's like the man city turnaround, I think is, is a little bit, um,
Cody Atkinson: I think it's it's a little dirty. like I think they've they've committed a bunch of penalties that they should have been charged for or something with the way that they put the money of that roster together.
Justin Daulton: Mm-hmm.
Cody Atkinson: i don't know exactly, but I feel like I heard that at one point where it's like, I think i think Chelsea had their issue like a while back, and I think Man City's up to some... some no good. And that's how they've put this roster together, but like, they're not perfect, right? Like they're not Europeans aren't fully keeping money from ruining their sports, but do they know how to put a line in the sand and not let it get crossed and just shout out to them for doing the world a favor.
Cody Atkinson: That was the main reason i wanted to mention it. Like, Johnny Infantino got the support of senior leadership to to the his backing to keep going as the president. That's ah a bit of a shame.
Cody Atkinson: Not that it matters because who can you think would the next person have been any any better. But um yeah, you still have to worry where FIFA wants to head. But but but shout out to just.
Cody Atkinson: the European Federation and and European fans for, for, for helping keep FIFA, you know, an organization of the fans.
Justin Daulton: Yeah. I mean, at the end of the day, it was just a vote of confidence, which doesn't, in today's business world, doesn't really mean a whole lot. Like of confidence basically says, yeah, you can keep going, but we still may be looking in the background for someone that's going to replace you in the next couple of years.
Cody Atkinson: Yeah.
Justin Daulton: So, you know, it's obviously what we'll wait and see.
Cody Atkinson: That's true.
Justin Daulton: you know he's obviously ushered in a lot of you know var coming into the into fifa that because for how many world cups did we go of like no var but they had var but it wouldn't but they allow or disallow goals or penalties or anything like that so you know the fact that we finally have var we're moving into the 21st century for for soccer and fifa so like that's good like he did good things as the as the president but You can't, you know, you can't have a black spot like this on your record and and be heralded as a good president in what you're trying to accomplish.
Cody Atkinson: Yeah. Yeah. He immediately is the the president who tried to sell FIFA. You know, yeah the president who tried to to sell off FIFA.
Justin Daulton: Yeah.
Cody Atkinson: Not not to mention the the weirdness with the the red card reversal, because the president asked him to.
Justin Daulton: Yeah.
Cody Atkinson: the
Justin Daulton: Yeah.
Cody Atkinson: You know, there's there's tons of talk around, you know, next year's World Cup is... across multiple nations as a celebration, quote unquote, but in reality, it's so that they could expedite getting Saudi Arabia to host in 2034 because of the way they structure it. You know, they're like, if three nations host this year, then we can go back to the Middle East and make Middle East money faster. There's a lot that's kind of shady, but but he will he will go down as the president that tried to sell FIFA. We can take solace in the fact that it didn't work and that will be then and in the fact that that will be his legacy.
Justin Daulton: Very true. um All right, cool, man. Let's move on to the next thing. This is this is a topic that you let me rant on last week, Cody. we myth talk
Cody Atkinson: Yeah, I put it on here to let you do it again.
Justin Daulton: The Texans training camp is in full swing, man. We have officially gotten... full on pad ah pads on pads practice out there.
Justin Daulton: There was breaking news today. I don't i know you had a really crazy day today, um but there's breaking news coming out of training camp today that Tank Dell was in full pads and running with the team today.
Cody Atkinson: Nice.
Justin Daulton: So, you know, we we have some really good things coming from the Tankdale camp. You know, obviously still, i still think the trajectory for Tank is to be ready for week one, not necessarily being full speed for preseason.
Justin Daulton: You know, if he can get a couple snaps, get, you know, get a hit or two in there and and be ready for week one, I think that's the more realistic expectation for a Tank. But, know, you and I talked last week about Jalen Noel being on the pup list, you know, to start training camp, right? And what does that mean for the Texans and St. Del coming back into the picture and being a very similar wide receiver and the connection that he had with CJ for rookie season and then obviously a little bit of a year two.
Justin Daulton: before the injury happens towards the end of the year so you know Tank coming back in the absence of Jalen Noel I think is a good thing i know we talked a lot about it last week but you know that's a promising sign for this wide receiver room and kind of the direction it gets to go with Nico, Jaden Higgins and then now Tank Dell coming back into the fold and, you know, even mixing in, you know, Dalton Schultz being, you know, another healthy year, being tight end number one and then Foster Moreau being the blocking tight end that can catch maybe a you know, a red zone touchdown here and there, but not necessarily being the down the field option that you gave with Dalton Schultz in this offense.
Justin Daulton: So i don't know you have any thoughts about the wide receiver room, because i know I know we talked a lot about the wide receiver room last week.
Cody Atkinson: Yeah.
Cody Atkinson: Yeah, and just Tank Dell, Being ready to go week one, I feel like changes everything, right? Like the the way, like when he first went down, there was the like, will Tank Dell ever play for the Texans again mindset. And and even this off season, you're like, all right, is is Tank Dell really coming back? Or are is this just like a PR tour feel good um story. And then when the season comes around, it'll be like, well, he's he's healthy, but like he can't he can't get hit like that. you know
Justin Daulton: Yeah.
Cody Atkinson: that That was kind of always in the back of the head. if if and that's what was telling you. Part of the reason I threw this on here, I turned on sports radio on the way home. They were talking about Tank Dell. And I think this is why they were talking. I didn't know. I missed the ms the intro to the yeah to the segment. But I guess this is why, right? He's in full pads. And you know at least the takeaway from From sports radio was tanked else ready to go and he's not taking hits right now because the season doesn't start for another month.
Cody Atkinson: So why would he take hits yet? Like they don't have to risk it yet, but he did, but the expectation around town is becoming tanked.
Justin Daulton: I hear
Cody Atkinson: That's going to be. available as he normally would week one. And that changes everything. Tank Dell was such a huge factor to CJ Stroud's rookie season.
Cody Atkinson: Dude, there was some dog going absolutely crazy right now.
Justin Daulton: hear
Cody Atkinson: You can hear that? I don't know whose dog this is, but they need to relax.
Justin Daulton: yeah
Cody Atkinson: This is unreal.
Justin Daulton: for big hits to the blind shout to the dogs
Cody Atkinson: I just don't know. Yeah, yeah. Shout out touch shout to the dogs, Big Coastal Launch fans. I'm three stories and I don't understand why I can hear this dog.
Cody Atkinson: But yeah, it it changes everything because i think it think it could see through. i think it might be the neighbor across it could see through the crack in the window.
Justin Daulton: That'd be crazy.
Cody Atkinson: eye I changed when closed the blind and stopped barking. There was like one blind that wasn't fully closed. So it may have been the neighbor's dog looking out the window at me. and Anyways, Tank Dell changes everything. he was huge. Stroud's year one.
Cody Atkinson: CJ Stroud's year one was just as impressive as what Tank Dell did year one. It was like it like watching Johnny and Mike Evans in college.
Justin Daulton: Yep.
Cody Atkinson: and i And I said it last week, I think that the slot receiver position in general is going to be massive to the the development of CJ Stroud, right? If he's going to give us a year um like we saw in the rookie year, if he's going to give us something to really buy into, I think it's going to be because the slot position came back and it was something that he could rely on when Nico's getting double teamed. So yeah, the the tank Dell news is as ah promising as it could be given
Cody Atkinson: The flip side, the bad news about Noel still not practicing. I know I'm i'm more excited about him than you are, but if Tank Dell's back, I think that and none of that really matters anymore.
Cody Atkinson: you're just like, all right, well, Noel will be ready to be a backup too to Tank Dell because he's he's the dude.
Justin Daulton: yeah and Yeah, and I think ultimately the way that I see this wide receiver room going, at least in the current iteration of kind of of the direction of the Texans, at least for a week one, is, and this is a good transition that we're going to talk about Jaden Higgins here in a little bit, is you're going to have Nico and Higgins on the outside being your big body receivers that, for Alton's purposes, can still stretch you know they're like they're not speedsters they're not a tyree kill out there but for the guys their size they move really good and then on the inside you're going to look at a tank down and maybe an xavier hutchinson on the inside and that's your floor that you're going drop back with and maybe on a five wide receiver set that's where you would see a noel come in
Cody Atkinson: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
Justin Daulton: uh or anyone else that's going to be you know the the five or six guy on the on the roster whoever it ends up being this year i know that i've heard i've seen some names uh the jared waynes of the world that are going to be competing for that that sixth spot on the roster depending on what happens with noel through the remainder of camp and you know what does that look like does he remain on the pump list and
Cody Atkinson: yeah
Justin Daulton: Obviously, if he remains on the PUP list for week one, then he's not eligible for it's six weeks, I think, that he yeah that he has a way to be activated on. Same thing that we talked last year about with Joe Mixon, right, that he couldn't be activated until week six because of that.
Justin Daulton: never played it anyway so I'll be looking at the same situation so I'm not sure but that's at least what the wide receiver room looks like and a good transition now for to talk about Jaden Higgins is the consensus over this week so from Sunday to today is that Jaden Higgins and CJ Stroud have very clearly can have established a connection building on last year Jaden Higgins looking like a
Cody Atkinson: yeah
Justin Daulton: actual suitable wide receiver two for this offense, which would make sense because if you, give for those of you that's been listening to us all summer talking about the Texans, who was wide receiver two for the Texans, right?
Justin Daulton: You know, we, we've had a Stephon Diggs last year. We thought it was going to be Jaden Higgins and Jaden Higgins had a rookie slump. for the most for for a good portion of the middle that middle part of the season had some good games in there when nico goes down but a lot of it i think is just that that growing pains that we saw on the new offense and eventually got better as the season went on but it feels like in kind of the the videos i'm seeing the reports i'm seeing coming out of camp is that jayden higgins looks like a real wide receiver too to pair up and take those double teams off of nico which is good because as we've seen for over the two years
Justin Daulton: Nico is injury prone when he is double teamed and taking the brunt load of the offense.
Cody Atkinson: Mm-hmm.
Justin Daulton: CJ can now spread it out between Nico Higgins and Tank Dell and throwing out Dalton Schultz, throwing out the witty marks on the flat, whatever it may be. But if you can take the pressure off of Nico, this wide receiver room looks really balanced. And this is kind of the vision that we saw from last draft or two drafts ago that it's kind of finally paying off, man.
Cody Atkinson: Yeah, I mean, if you think about this offense, right, like the running back room, is improved from last year. David Montgomery and Woody Marks, you feel really, i at least I do, you feel really good about the one-two combo.
Cody Atkinson: Woody Marks taking a step forward in year two, David Montgomery just doing what he's done his entire career. And then you know they have a third guy, of the Jawar Jordans of the world who who who who get in, and and if a guy that I feel perfectly fine with as ah as an RB3.
Justin Daulton: Ja'Var Jordan, yeah.
Justin Daulton: Yeah, same. Especially after the Indianapolis game last season.
Cody Atkinson: If you think about tight, Yeah, yeah he's got that he's got that in him. And and you look at the tight end room, right? Dalton Schultz bounced back here last year.
Justin Daulton: Yeah.
Cody Atkinson: A really great season. Foster Moreau is a guy that if if you've been around the game, if you've been around fantasy football for years, it's a name you know as a guy who never reached the levels that like he his his ADP and stuff like thought that he could, but but is a strong contributor and is a tight end too for your team.
Cody Atkinson: it makes the tight end room look a lot better in my opinion than it did last year. Cause it's not Dalton Schultz and co anymore, right? It's, it's Dalton Schultz is a one, but you have a legitimate two. And then you have the guys that you hope can take steps forward. Brevin Jordan, Kate Stover.
Cody Atkinson: What's that? Marlon Klein, the guy they drafted from Michigan this year. Like you, you've got those, but, but even if none of those guys develop, you have a one, two, it's the wide receiver room that I feel like has been in the question mark because it's Nico and and And who's going to step up, right? So if Higgins does step up to be the wide receiver too, and Tank Dell is ready to go, then then suddenly you have an offense that looks deep.
Cody Atkinson: You have an offense that looks like it can complement what should be the best defense in the league for the second year in a row.
Justin Daulton: Yeah. Yeah.
Cody Atkinson: um And you you feel really good about that. The wide receiver room, I think, is going to be huge to this team. And it's incredibly promising that that Higgins is connecting with Stroud to the level that he is and that Tankdale is ready to go.
Justin Daulton: The other note before we move into the defense, because obviously I think we can continue just to be really big fans of this defense here in a second. the The quote coming out of camp yesterday, and I have something to prove kind of on the flip side of this too.
Justin Daulton: Aziz Alshair, who is very clearly the captain of the defense, right? He is D'Amico's guy we've talked about on this podcast, gets the contract extension, makes it in the top 50 NFL players this year on on the top 100 ranking from the voted by the players.
Justin Daulton: But also CJ coming out is saying that this is the most competitive camp that they've been a part of in this era of Texans football. And, you know, we're not big camp guys. Like we, we keep our ear out on the ground for a lot of camp stuff from the pack from prior years.
Justin Daulton: But a lot of the podcasts I listened to last year from camp was, it was very lackadaisical. There wasn't a lot of competition. We kind of knew that it was Nico's number one guy. Cool. CJ's the guy. Cool.
Justin Daulton: Offensive line, same as what we had the year before. Sans, you know, Trent Brown coming in. Right. So there wasn't a lot of change. There wasn't a lot of competition. There wasn't new. blood there wasn' a lot of energy in these rooms And now you fast forward to this year where you do have a David Montgomery and Woody Marks who for Alton's purposes, both guys could see RB1 type carries all season long.
Justin Daulton: Like I could see there being a Woody Marks game and then the next game be a David Montgomery game. Like that's the type of running backs that we have in this room. Obviously a Jawar Jordan being a good third down back and special teams back that we're going see throughout the whole season.
Justin Daulton: But then you also look at, you know, you mentioned the tight end room, Brevin Jordan coming back and being healthy this year.
Justin Daulton: overt. I wouldn't be surprised if he's on the cut block this year coming out of camp. But you talk about Marlon Klein being a very kind of prototypical, like actual prototypical tight end, big body blocking, kind of does the nitty gritty work that you see.
Justin Daulton: And you can see a jumbo package of a Marlon Klein, Foster Moreau, on this offensive line and go to a ah three wide receiver set with two tight inset, you know, so you, you have that potential of a big body, you know, third and short, fourth and one, fourth and inches is up down in the red zone where we struggled so much last year, but you, now you have that potential because of how competitive the offense is at training camp.
Justin Daulton: But then you also, you know, you and I talked a little bit earlier this week, but Rutledge is in competition for the center position. And that was something that we, we, had
Cody Atkinson: Everything I'm hearing it sounds, it it feels like he's going to be, he's getting not only in competition, he's going to be it
Justin Daulton: Yeah.
Justin Daulton: He's going the guy, which is how we talked all offseason. Like, is it is it Patterson? You know, what who do you move over there with the new pieces that come in? Like, the only ones that you knew for sure was Ariane Terris.
Justin Daulton: He had left tackle. Every other position was up for grabs, whether it was a trip round anyone else that we were going to bring in. Every position is is in competition. And we didn't even think about Rutledge being the guy at center. like We're like, cool, he's probably right guard, maybe a right tackle, just depending how it shakes out.
Justin Daulton: But the fact that now you can talk about having some sort of actual NFL experience at center, which is something we talked about, what I feel like for weeks this offseason, right, of what is the center position going to look like to give CJ confidence when he is staring down the barrel of a Denver Broncos defense or an even Buffalo Bills defense.
Justin Daulton: So you've got to feel really good about where we're at in camp.
Cody Atkinson: here
Justin Daulton: Obviously, of Fame game is tomorrow night as we're recording, and we're going to get into into week one of, yeah yeah, tomorrow night, Arizona and Carolina.
Cody Atkinson: I didn't know that.
Cody Atkinson: That's so soon. Whoa.
Justin Daulton: Yeah, correct. We we are in football season, baby. Let's go.
Cody Atkinson: Yeah.
Justin Daulton: um But like week one of preseason is next week. Like we are in it. Like we are going to see what the Texans look like. And we're going to get obviously an idea of how deep the team is behind the starters.
Justin Daulton: But look for probably some real snaps for this offensive line over the first two weeks of the preseason.
Cody Atkinson: Yeah, I'll give us a little a little more credit than than than you you gave us just now and in the sense that when we were talking about the Texans draft, at least I said it, I believe we were both in agreement that we the biggest potential miss of this draft was not upgrading the center position.
Cody Atkinson: And if...
Justin Daulton: Yeah. right.
Cody Atkinson: Keelan Rutledge could prove if it was proved that he was drafted to be the center, then our grade for this draft immediately, immediately skyrocketed. That was, I think our talk, right? I was like, if we, if we didn't get a center, then this draft leaves a little bit to be desired. But if Rutledge is what they believe to be the center, then, um,
Cody Atkinson: then immediately if it feels like you filled the holes that you needed. So I'll give him some credit. we did We did at least discuss the option that he could play center. um Although with him not being a true center in college, we didn't necessarily look at it as the most
Justin Daulton: Yeah. Yeah.
Cody Atkinson: um and the most likely scenario. There were, there was some stuff, I think right after he got drafted, it came out where he, he had talked to them about being a center. He practiced at center a lot during the season for Georgia tech, even though he didn't play it because he wanted to, he wanted to be able to market that versatility.
Cody Atkinson: um So we, we did discuss it. We just didn't really expect this to be what happened. So I'm a huge fan of this. I, I, I mean, we we all know I'm not, I'm not working at a hundred percent today.
Cody Atkinson: I called Justin and I said, you got to carry this episode because I'm exhausted today. So I'm not going to get this perfectly right, but, but they, there was a moment where they over signed guards.
Cody Atkinson: So there's, there's Teller on the one side.
Justin Daulton: Yeah. Yeah.
Cody Atkinson: um And then who's the other there's, there's Teller and there's like, is it the guy they got from the Cardinals or something like Brown?
Justin Daulton: Yeah.
Cody Atkinson: Neil Brown, is that them is that a name that sounds right?
Justin Daulton: No, I think you're combining names here.
Cody Atkinson: No.
Justin Daulton: Hang on event for a second for me.
Cody Atkinson: Probably.
Justin Daulton: Let me see if I can get the name for you.
Cody Atkinson: All right. Because cause it it it looked for a second. If they if Rutledge was going to win a guard position, which is what you root for when you draft the guy in the first round, then they had one too many guards.
Justin Daulton: Okay, so here's the projected for you.
Cody Atkinson: Yeah.
Justin Daulton: So, Arianne Teresbury at left tackle. Wyatt Teller at left guard coming over from the Indianapolis Colts. Keelan Rutledge drafted in common.
Cody Atkinson: or Teller's from the Browns, right?
Justin Daulton: Oh, it was the Browns.
Cody Atkinson: Yeah, I think i think the the the other tackle was the c Colts.
Justin Daulton: Yes, you're correct. Yes, I'm getting there now. Yep. Keelan Roach competing with Evan Brown and Jake Andrews.
Cody Atkinson: Evan Brown.
Justin Daulton: ah And then right guard had Ingram coming back from last season. And then right tackle Braden Smith was the, yes, was the Cardinals.
Cody Atkinson: Okay, yeah. So there you there you go. it it looked like they had one too many guards because Ed Ingram or Wyatt Teller was going to get pushed out for Rutledge. I also think Evan Brown might have guard to him as well.
Cody Atkinson: um
Justin Daulton: But you also talk about, like from like a tackle perspective as well, you have Trent Brown that's in the wings as well in case an injury happens.
Cody Atkinson: I don't remember. yeah
Justin Daulton: like Obviously, very serviceable last season, like made the offensive line better when he was in there last season.
Cody Atkinson: Yeah.
Cody Atkinson: Yeah.
Justin Daulton: So if an Ariante Ressire goes down with injury, now you can plug in a Trent Brown. If anyone else goes down...
Cody Atkinson: Yeah. and you you have Trump Brown as the the big body for a jumbo package too.
Justin Daulton: Correct, yes.
Cody Atkinson: So I think that i um my point is this worked out perfectly, right? if the The line came together best if Rutledge transitioned to center. It was what, we looking at the pieces of a puzzle, it's where it felt like it fit the best. We just didn't know if he could do that.
Cody Atkinson: And if he can do that, and it sounds like they they're backing the fact that they believe he can do that, I think this is the best outcome for the line.
Justin Daulton: Yeah.
Cody Atkinson: I think right now you're seeing what looks like the best outcome from the wide receiver room. And if you are a fan of the Texans, you have zero qualms or questions about the defense whatsoever.
Cody Atkinson: I said it before we recorded that this is the the the season where everything matches up perfectly. I think this is going to be the most talented roster we get out of this era of Texans because If Stroud performs, like next year, the the finances get a lot tougher and you have to start making decisions.
Cody Atkinson: You didn't have to make any decisions this offseason.
Justin Daulton: Yeah. yeah And he's not the only contract that we got to talk about either.
Cody Atkinson: You got everything and everybody.
Justin Daulton: Like we have to talk about Lasseter on the back end that needs a contract soon.
Cody Atkinson: Yeah.
Justin Daulton: Other names are escaping me right now, but there's a lot of names on the defense that are on rookie deals that are going to need contracts.
Cody Atkinson: Yeah.
Justin Daulton: Nico's going to want to get paid here very soon. So like you're going to have to make very difficult cap decisions very soon.
Cody Atkinson: Yeah.
Cody Atkinson: Yeah, I mean, they did some of those shorter contracts, right? So Nico's going to come back up. Stingley's going to come back up. Lasseter's going to come up for the first time. Kaitlin Bullock's going to come up.
Justin Daulton: Bullock.
Cody Atkinson: Yeah, a lot of that's going to come up. I think this is going to be the most complete Texans team we see. And if if Rutledge and Tank Dell prove to be centerpieces of it, yeah, start saving now because there's no reason we shouldn't be buying merch at the end of the season.
Justin Daulton: Hey, I'm down for merch, man. i haven't bought a good Texas version ah in ah in a little bit. So I'm down.
Cody Atkinson: Yeah.
Justin Daulton: But we've we've been holding off from the defensive side for a little bit now. Let's talk defense because obviously we've talked at length about Texas defense on this podcast, right? It's very easily the best defense in the league.
Justin Daulton: You add blankenship Blankenship right on the back end this year. You know, you you you keep all your pieces in You re-sign Aziz. You rework Stingley's deal to bring people in.
Justin Daulton: But something that we didn't even consider, Cody, was – How do you make the defensive line better as ah for the Houston Texans? And I really thought we were done after the draft.
Justin Daulton: when you When you bring in McDonald.
Cody Atkinson: Mm hmm. McDonald.
Justin Daulton: Yeah, when you bring McDonald to be the centerpiece defensive tackle, which or yeah's vincent where that position was a very platoon position last year. and expertly done by D'Amico.
Cody Atkinson: And you're bringing the you're you're you're bringing bringing the platoon players back to and now you get a centerpiece to put with them.
Justin Daulton: Correct.
Justin Daulton: Correct. So the, what we didn't think about was Jadavion Clowney coming back to the Houston Texans on a hometown deal, and quite literally a hometown deal.
Justin Daulton: I think it was like two years and I think it was less than $6 million dollars over the, both of the years.
Cody Atkinson: Wow.
Justin Daulton: So a very hometown deal. And he literally came in on day one and said, I signed this contract because want to win a Superbowl. Like it was,
Cody Atkinson: How cool would it be for him because he's a guy like, because he wasn't a pro, he's not a prolific sack artist. um he doesn't get remembered, I think, the way that he otherwise could, right? Like, his, there was, in if i'm if I'm not rewriting history, like, there was nothing wrong, per se, with his tenure here, but he doesn't get remembered like a legend, and if he comes back after kind of being a mercenary his whole career, nothing but short contracts, always on the move, if he comes back and he can be a key piece and in finally putting it all together, like, what a what a beau on that story
Justin Daulton: Correct. mean, you talk about, you know, career guy comes back 25th season of the organization and wins the Super Bowl with the organization that he got drafted by number one overall. Like, that's a Cinderella story all onto itself.
Cody Atkinson: Mm-hmm. Yeah.
Justin Daulton: Like, that's, that you can't, I don't think Hollywood could script it any better. So, but I mean,
Cody Atkinson: No, they'd probably buy the rights to it pretty quickly, too. Really?
Justin Daulton: honestly. But you you mentioned Saks, and Saks is a very interesting topic, right? The Texans now have three of the top 15 Saks leaders from last season.
Justin Daulton: And Danielle Hunter, yes, Will Anderson Jr., and Jadeveon Clowney.
Cody Atkinson: Really?
Justin Daulton: Jadeveon Clowney was number 13 in Saks last year.
Cody Atkinson: I didn't know Clowney had a – because I feel like that was his thing when he was here, right? He didn't get the sacks, and that's why he never got the massive deal. Like he was – he got pressures.
Justin Daulton: Yeah.
Cody Atkinson: He got run stops. he So he must have – at least i feel I feel like that was the talking point. Maybe I'm mixing stuff up or or something, but i feel like that's the talking point.
Justin Daulton: No, I mean, you're in a wrong.
Cody Atkinson: I did not know he became more prolific in sacks lately.
Justin Daulton: I think it's also system-based, too, when you look at it.
Cody Atkinson: Mm-hmm.
Justin Daulton: Like, he played with the Cowboys last season, which is all or nothing in terms of sacks, right? Like, that's their defense.
Cody Atkinson: That's true.
Justin Daulton: So, but he's also... going to distract from double teams like you're Who are you going to double on this defensive line? Are you going to double Hunter, Williamson Jr., or are you going to double Clowney?
Cody Atkinson: Yeah.
Justin Daulton: And if you if you double...
Cody Atkinson: Well, it's like, or are you going to double Caden McDonald, who's a monster of a human being in his own right?
Justin Daulton: Who's going to eat doubles?
Cody Atkinson: Or
Justin Daulton: Yeah, correct.
Cody Atkinson: or Or Tommy Togiai, who I believe is still here.
Justin Daulton: Right.
Cody Atkinson: because We saw what he did in, i I don't remember which one, because I'm exhausted today.
Justin Daulton: Yes.
Cody Atkinson: It was either you know those the Steelers or or the other playoff game.
Justin Daulton: It was the final game in the season when he the fumble recovery.
Cody Atkinson: like There was one of them. here had been
Justin Daulton: Yeah. Yeah.
Cody Atkinson: That's the one. Yeah, yeah, yeah. like we've we We've seen him do his own thing, too.
Justin Daulton: Yeah.
Justin Daulton: Yes, correct. I mean, this defensive line is deep. It's been deep, right? We've talked about that for so long, right? That McDonald was the answer for the future of the defensive tackle position. But this type of defensive style that he you know, that, you know, you can, you let Hunter and and Will Anderson Jr. kind of play that joker. You don't necessarily need to put your hand on the ground all every single time.
Justin Daulton: And then, but you can have two D tackles and another guy being their hand on the ground with the other one. you know, kind of playing this joker, linebacker, edge rusher, hybrid ah position that Will Anderson Jr. is so good at.
Justin Daulton: And, you know, so you kind of have this now newfound way of doing things that you can almost go to a two linebacker setup and do, you know, Hunter, McDonald, Togiai, Clowney, Will Anderson being a five front with two linebackers and you're truly like, that's your beef package to go against the jumbo package on the other side.
Justin Daulton: And i feel real good about best on best at that point.
Cody Atkinson: Yeah.
Cody Atkinson: Yeah. I mean, it's to me, like the the easiest way to sum up why the signing Clowney, when you had already fixed the defensive line, not fixed it, like it was already a strength last year.
Justin Daulton: Improved it.
Cody Atkinson: You made it better. You improved it
Justin Daulton: Yeah.
Cody Atkinson: and then you went and you improved it again, this feels like the biggest like statement that Casario and team are aware of their need to capitalize on a window.
Cody Atkinson: like This is them saying now's the time and and and we're going to take advantage of the time.
Justin Daulton: Yeah.
Cody Atkinson: And I think that's the what what should be the most exciting thing about this. There's it's it there's no no qualms. It's like we're we can win and we're going to. by signing everyone we can.
Justin Daulton: It all, it, yeah and it goes back to what we said last week it's all gonna lie on the shoulders of CJ Stroud and everything that we've seen coming into campus CJ looks better he's commanding the offense better he's he looks comfortable in the system like he looks like he did early on in his career so he's just got to put kind of pen to paper against live reps and
Cody Atkinson: Mm-hmm.
Justin Daulton: and see what happens like that's kind of where we're at now like the defense is going to hold teams to less than 20 a game like we did last season so you know i do expect games to be where it's fair bearing winning us games right then in the same way that it was last season which is fine but it that doesn't need to be every game where there was a good stretch last season where it was hey we need to get fair bearing within field goal range let kick four field goals and we win the game
Cody Atkinson: Yeah.
Cody Atkinson: Yeah.
Justin Daulton: Like, and that was the strategy for a lot of last season. So, yeah.
Cody Atkinson: Yeah. I mean, that's not necessarily what I want to watch. Like I'm hoping to see some more, more prolific out of the offense, but if honestly, if that's what it devolves into and it works, then it works.
Justin Daulton: Yeah.
Cody Atkinson: But yeah, I hope we get to see a little bit more out of, out of Stroud and we might, you're talking about, you know, Nico Collins as a safety blanket, Dalton Schultz is a safety blanket.
Justin Daulton: Schultz.
Cody Atkinson: Tank Dell used to be a safety blanket. um David Montgomery certainly can help you feel a little safer about the run game. You,
Justin Daulton: Woody Marks, yeah.
Cody Atkinson: there' there Yeah, you you can squint in and you you can squint and see it all come together. And I think signing Jadavia and Clowney really shows that they believe that it can come together.
Justin Daulton: Yeah.
Justin Daulton: Yeah, for sure. Well, that's all the thoughts I have. We didn't really rant on this week as opposed last week, but we're let's move on.
Cody Atkinson: Mm-hmm.
Justin Daulton: Something that we kind of added in here late, and I have something pulled up on on my phone for this, Cody, so we can talk about it kind of better in length here. um Last week, we kind of breezed over and when we talked about college football, but the Protect College Sports Act made some headlines this week in the in the fact that the SEC and the Big Ten backed the the proposal to send it to the Senate floor for for a vote to make this be a government-controlled entity. Obviously, last week we talked about Stanford, about making a player's union and kind of going that direction with it.
Justin Daulton: So now we're seeing the competitor of that of doing government-controlled system and ah allowing it to be a law rather than a union and a you know entities fighting, you know, like kind what we had with the NCAA and local governments in the in these states. Right.
Justin Daulton: So I have some things for you. These are just quick tidbit headlines for you. So not a lot that we can really that we need to go off of.
Cody Atkinson: Yeah.
Justin Daulton: But um NIL and uniform standard replaces the patchwork of individual state laws with a single national standard enco and codifies the n NIL rights, which is something that we've talked about on here that n ni is rampant. We need to, in a way, set some sort of salary cap. If you're going to have these power conferences at play, you can't just have Texas Tech come in there and have $300 million dollars to build a roster. And we're going talk about Texas Tech next week that they just go to the portals.
Justin Daulton: You can do that when you have that Texas oil money that just pumps more and more into it in terms of NIL. So this allows it to unify across the board of everyone has the same thing, which is good in my opinion, at least um transfer and eligibility limits athletes to standard transfer restrictions, such as one free undergraduate transfer.
Justin Daulton: And then from there, it's a penalty of, I think, sit out a year. If you transfer against sit out another year. So no more of this DJ like why, which we're going to talk about next week as well, going to Baylor as a one time,
Cody Atkinson: Well, TJ Ligeroy has only transferred once now, so this would be his free one.
Justin Daulton: it really feels like he's played for like four teams already.
Cody Atkinson: Yeah.
Justin Daulton: um
Cody Atkinson: Well, he's had the unfortunate instance of playing for for Florida, which means at halfway through the season every year, it was rumored that he should leave. But he didn't. And then the second time he did. So he's been talked about as leaving to go to 75 schools, but he's only actually done it once.
Justin Daulton: Fair enough. There we go. um So that fixes the transfer situation thatve we seen college football over the last year. The big one that I think a lot of people will talk about is conference realignment cap. Restricts powerhouse conferences reporting over $700 million dollars in revenue to 19 members in required schools switching major conferences to sit out as an independent for five years if they move again.
Cody Atkinson: Oh, whoa.
Justin Daulton: Correct. So that's the big one.
Cody Atkinson: Okay.
Justin Daulton: and I think that's part of what we can circle back to here in a second. um Other things in here, athlete health and benefits, guarantees tenure scholarships and establishes structured funding for medical trust and coverage.
Justin Daulton: You can go all way back as far as Deshaun Watson getting a really bad ACL repair job when he was at Clemson and tearing the same ACL when he came to Houston the same year as a rookie.
Justin Daulton: because it was just a poorly done surgery. So that's something in there that creates a benefit structure for these college athletes rather than just the school just kind of pawning you off to the nearest doctor to fix it.
Justin Daulton: And then the last one to talk about, um, antitrust exemption grants, a limited antitrust exemption to the NCAA and conferences to can collectively manage broadcasting rights and enforce uniform roster rules.
Justin Daulton: So making sure that everyone kind of agrees and it isn't just ESPN owns everything. Like you can now go back to, you know, Notre Dame having the NBC deal. and You can have the ACC going back to, you know, going to ESPN. You can have CBS come back into the picture.
Justin Daulton: You can have Fox, you can, you can do, is a little bit more evenly done and which is something that's plagued other entities. MLB is probably the best example of the future of selling independent rights to to the fans rather than going through MLB TV or a a cable provider to get, you know, the Rays did it this year and that's what I buy. And I know that Houston has one that you can watch all of Houston sports in it, but it's a bigger fee than what I pay for the Rays. So, you know, anything that allows streaming rights, you know, TV rights to become better
Justin Daulton: within ever when all Within all this, I think it's better for the sport long term.
Cody Atkinson: Yeah, it'll be interesting. This is something... Last week, we kind of talked about it. I didn't i didn't think that this act was the future of of college sports because I felt like the you know the act is... It's the Protect College Sports Act. It's also the Cody Campbell, Texas Tech Act, right? like He's been the biggest advocate of it.
Cody Atkinson: and And there was a ah bit of it that that definitely seemed like it took too many shots at the big the two biggest conferences, and I didn't think that it could go anywhere. So... you know I talked about, I thought Stanford was was maybe driving us more into the future with their their unionizing and we could get a CBA.
Cody Atkinson: So it'll be interesting to see where this goes. I'm still not sold on the idea that like Congress is, is the governing body to fix this versus something that's just collectively negotiated and signed on that.
Justin Daulton: Sure.
Cody Atkinson: We said we've seen succeed elsewhere, but, but it it does, it does sound good, right? Like let's, let's limit transfers to one. Nobody wants a player to get stuck somewhere. He shouldn't have gone.
Cody Atkinson: Like, Let them let let let a player transfer, let them you know have another opportunity at success. There's so much on the line that you don't want them stuck because they don't gel with the coach or they didn't fit the system. But we don't want to see player play for four different schools.
Cody Atkinson: It just takes some of the joy out of the sport. That's definitely good. Like you said, unified NIL rights. incredible, let's get a salary cap. Let's also just generally make sure we're all working under the same set of rules. What is and isn't considered an IL by these states.
Cody Atkinson: ah the The conference realignment one I think is the most interesting and probably one that I'm ah i i'm not the biggest fan of. i don't like like I don't necessarily love where the conferences sit right now in the sense that like I am just of the mindset that I would love a step backwards and let's get more
Justin Daulton: Sure.
Cody Atkinson: sizable conferences, right? More 10 12 team conferences. and And I do think in a way this stops that from happening. Not that it ever would happen because we just don't go backwards, you know?
Cody Atkinson: The cat's out of the bag, it's not going back in. but But that is a little disappointing, right? Like i understand the desire to stop conference realignment because it always ends up kind of driving worse than what was before um yeah yeah and and it it runs the the the reason it's there right it run it also runs the risk of the big 12 and the acc becoming
Justin Daulton: It makes the worse because of it.
Cody Atkinson: were schools that we label as G6 or 7 or 8 because the SEC poaches Texas Tech and the Big 12s are, you know, um things like that.
Justin Daulton: Yeah.
Justin Daulton: Right.
Cody Atkinson: That one does disappoint me a little bit though because in in my heart of hearts, I would just love to see the conferences become more in number and more regional. And, and you know, as much as it stops it from getting bigger, it also stops you from getting smaller.
Cody Atkinson: but but But ultimately, most of what you read looks positive.
Justin Daulton: Yeah. I mean, we, we talked to, yeah,
Justin Daulton: yeah I mean, and obviously we talked about it last week, so I don't think we need to completely rehash it, but like the idea of going back to 12 team conferences is much better than the future that I think we'd see that you get sec versus big 10 and you go to 25 teams each. And then you, you find a way to do some sort of round robin tournament or elimination tournament going down to the bring out who the best team in the country is and you do a north um north and a south division basically and go from there.
Justin Daulton: So we'll see the state of it Obviously it's going to take a significant amount of time because the nothing in American government happens quick. So we probably won't know what the fate of this for quite some time.
Cody Atkinson: No.
Justin Daulton: But in the essence...
Cody Atkinson: Yeah, I don't see it having an impact on this season necessarily, but something to definitely keep an eye on.
Justin Daulton: teeth
Justin Daulton: No, no, no, no. Yeah. Yeah. But in essence, is the time, what's ah let's move on because ah I won't talk about the trade deadline, but we have two notifications for you guys this week. um Mauricio Pochettino, I'm probably butchering that, so I apologize to to U.S. s soccer fans, but it has agreed to a new contract through the 2030 World Cup.
Justin Daulton: Obviously, that includes, you know, Gold Cup, CONCACAF, all that stuff, any sort of international friendlies that will play, building up to the World Cup, World Cup qualifiers, and then, of course, the 2030 World Cup itself.
Justin Daulton: uh six million dollar annual i think proof is in the pudding he in one world cup is the most winning most winningest uh manager in u.s national team history that was the fun fact that i got out of that so already go ahead and extend him and let him build and we talked about at the end of the world cup this year right that build off of that momentum do gold cup conca cap and really build this roster around the the guys who stepped up a and see what this team can do in 2030.
Cody Atkinson: Yeah.
Justin Daulton: Any thoughts on them?
Cody Atkinson: and the yeah Yeah, I mean, the the the team appeared to show they believed in him, the fans, the country believes in him. like I think this is just a win-win. it's He's getting paid, and we can try to take the momentum from this World Cup and keep it going.
Cody Atkinson: I think this is great news for U.S.
Justin Daulton: Yeah.
Cody Atkinson: soccer.
Justin Daulton: Yeah. Next one that I have for you is John Robinson extend gets extended this week on a new contract through 2030. So this is a three-year, $75 million dollars extension.
Justin Daulton: The number Cody that we pulled up is he goes from $1.1 million dollars this year to $11 million dollars next season. And both of us, are our knee-trick reaction to this, Cody, is overpay for sure 100%. and he was the number four running back last year in terms of total yardage.
Justin Daulton: So maybe not an overpay. Maybe he's finally blossoming into an actual decent running back where you know his first season he didn't really have the yardage to back up. But you know time will tell if this is an overpay or not. The the running back market is insane between Saquon, CMC, and Kenneth Walker this offseason.
Justin Daulton: So obviously this is just Bijan capitalizing on the rising tide of the running back market.
Cody Atkinson: yeah Yeah, it's hard to not feel like it's an overpay just because we all see running backs make make that money. But he's definitely got the talent to to to make it pay off. um but I think it's cool. i'm I'm happy for him to get paid. I think fantasy managers should be happy that that they don't have to worry about any change of scenery. You know, it's one of those things where like if he went somewhere else, maybe it's better, but also it's working where he's at. So why root for that?
Cody Atkinson: um but But I don't think this is a huge needle mover because i also don't expect the Falcons to be that relevant in the next four years.
Justin Daulton: Give me a knee-jerk reaction before we go to Major League Baseball. Would you draft Bijan 101 if we weren't in a keeper league this year?
Cody Atkinson: No, I think a lot of people will. And I get it. I'm just I drafted Jameer Gibbs 101 last year. And I'm doing that again this year.
Justin Daulton: That's fair.
Cody Atkinson: If I get the chance, you know, it's that's just that's that's who I believe in as the, you know, fantasy running back right now.
Justin Daulton: and then Better all-around running back.
Justin Daulton: Yeah. But all right, man, let's move into major league baseball. ah So we're going to talk just so everyone kind of knows where we're going with this. We're going talk through a compiled list from MLB.com of the top 25 trades and a few other others that didn't make it. And then we're going to a quick little power ranking of the top 10 contenders coming out of it. We'll probably talk about a few losers coming out because I think it's natural that it it'll happen.
Justin Daulton: We will talk the we'll talk about the elephant of the room that we we talked about for the last two weeks, you know, the domino that needed to fall in Derek Scoogle. And then we're just going to grade the trade deadline right off the run off the bat. So, Cody, I'm going run through this list for you.
Justin Daulton: And then if you just throw up an X or something like that if you want to talk specifically about that trade. The first one we will shelve and we will talk about once we're done with the list.
Cody Atkinson: All right.
Justin Daulton: But the first one, yeah.
Cody Atkinson: So we'll fly through it and only only say something if we want to park on it for a little bit.
Justin Daulton: Yeah, for sure.
Cody Atkinson: Other than that, this is just ah this is just a list reading. Let's go.
Justin Daulton: just a nice little Just a nice little recap of of the event so everyone can kind of remember where we're at. um So Tarek Skubal gets traded to the Dodgers for three prospects. So that's obviously a big one that we'll talk about later.
Justin Daulton: Adley Rutschman to the Red Sox for quite a big haul. One, two, three,
Cody Atkinson: Yeah, got to pause on this one briefly.
Justin Daulton: Yeah, four, and then a player to be named later. So up to five names get traded to the r or from the Red Sox to get Hadley Rutschman beating out the sweepstakes. I think this is what we're going talking about, beating out the Yankees and the sweepstakes for for Hadley Rutschman.
Cody Atkinson: Yeah, the Yankee, it's the funniest thing. Like, this isn't the thing, right? The Yankees needed a catcher more than anyone else. And the two best catchers that got moved this market went to deficient rivals of the Yankees being, you know, Adley Rushman to the to the Red Sox and yeah, and Liam liam Hicks, I think it was, to the Rays.
Justin Daulton: Yeah. race And the race being and the other one.
Justin Daulton: Yeah.
Cody Atkinson: I think this this one's worth sitting on, right? ah So the two pitching prospects that the Red Sox sent, Anthony Ionson and Kyson Witherspoon, are massive prospects.
Justin Daulton: Anthony Ainsen and Kyson Witherspoon.
Cody Atkinson: So Anthony Ionson was the one-two combo in at LSU with Cade Anderson, who is shooting up the Mariners system.
Justin Daulton: Hmm.
Cody Atkinson: He is he has a filthy curveball. A huge fan of what Ianson can become. Also, Kyson Witherspoon. i i think he wasn't this year. He was the year before.
Cody Atkinson: um ah ja Out of Oklahoma, absolute filthy. I think both of these were top five or top ten prospects for the Red Sox. Both massive upside guys.
Cody Atkinson: For the Orioles, a team that has really struggled to find pitching, I think this was a huge value. Great trade on their part. I understand it from the Red Sox part, but I think this is the trade that where the most value was given up of all of them, and that includes Scoogle. I feel like they gave up more for Rutschman than the Dodgers did for Scoogle, and I just shout out to the Orioles for making this happen.
Justin Daulton: Yeah, you hit the nail the I don't have any shru thoughts on that one. Number three on this list was Luis Araz. and we were we were watching this trade pretty intently over the deadline.
Cody Atkinson: yeah
Justin Daulton: But he's going to the Phillies from the Giants for... it was actually a two ah two for two here. Araz and Caleb Killen go to the Phillies. Giants are getting Ramon Marquez and Marty Geyer.
Justin Daulton: Going back over, the Giants almost went into a fire sale here the deadline, Cody, um which was surprising. We didn't really track the Giants in our previews and kind of build up to this. like We talked a little bit about them, but not enough to really see if they were going fire sale or not.
Justin Daulton: And they the the reason why this one we were watching really close is that for a while, the Rays were connected to Luis Arraz and... ultimately it didn't happen and so the race basically saying that taylor walls is their shortstop for at least the next two seasons as we build up the um the high school prospect that the name is escaping me on right now um that we expect to be ready in you know three to five years right uh coming from yeah i can't i can't remember right now either but
Cody Atkinson: You just drafted whose name I can't remember right now either. Emerson's last name maybe.
Justin Daulton: that feels right. So, but I mean, you you basically say Taylor Walls can be serviceable until then. There's still an issue of second base for Tampa, but you know, it is what it is. And Luis Arroz going to the Phillies, that's a big gift for them.
Justin Daulton: Like that's was easily the best second baseman on the market of second baseman.
Cody Atkinson: Mm-hmm.
Justin Daulton: They can also play first base and shortstop. So you're talking about someone who can, command almost the entire infield and obviously stronger in the middle infield but you know was a big name to get moved um at the deadline
Cody Atkinson: Yeah, I think this was this was big because of who where we thought he was going. I didn't have the Phillies earmarked for him. I really thought he was headed to Tampa. I think a lot of people did. So I think that's the big story there. The other big story is it pushes bryce Bryce Harper back to the outfield where he hadn't played in in quite some time. So it'll, it'll be interesting to see how that pans out. But Arias, I feel like he's a guy that gets in a lot of senses. He, he gets talked about a lot, but he also gets overlooked a lot because he's an average guy. He's old school in that sense. He's not a, he's not a slug slugging percentage guy.
Cody Atkinson: And I, I personally think there's a ton of value to that, that that gets overlooked by the, by the, the, the current fan. Cause we're so caught up in, you know, doubles and triples and, Something to be said about having a guy on base when Schwarber goes yard.
Cody Atkinson: That's all I'm saying.
Justin Daulton: Yeah. It's worked for the Rays this year with Chandler Simpson. So why not work for for anyone else? The next one, and this is a credit to you, man, the arms race that came out of Detroit that actually happened.
Justin Daulton: Casey Mize goes to the Padres, where we thought the Padres were going sellers.
Cody Atkinson: Nice.
Justin Daulton: Padres didn't sell. They bought, and they look like they're going try to make your run at the wild card.
Cody Atkinson: Yeah.
Justin Daulton: um They do a two-on-two swap, which
Cody Atkinson: They bought well.
Justin Daulton: Correct. So they get Casey, an infielder by the name of Gage Workman, and then the Tigers get Cash Mayfield and Jackson Wolfe in return. Obviously, the sweepstakes that was Terry Scuba, we'll talk about here that here in a couple minutes.
Justin Daulton: But Casey Meese going to the Padres as well. The next one, also Padres, Robbie Ray from the Giants going to the Padres from Miguel Mendez and Jonel Hernandez.
Justin Daulton: Robbie Ray, a big left-hander to move over there to the Padres. That's an excellent move for them. um Next one on the docket for you, Kevin Gosman going to the Cubs um from the Blue Jays. We talked about the Blue Jays being sellers. They did sell at least a little bit. We'll talk about that here and again in little bit with the with the Astros.
Justin Daulton: But the Blue Jays get outfielder Brent Bateman and inbiller Tyler Southside. But... um
Cody Atkinson: Oh, yeah.
Justin Daulton: But huge gift for the Cubs, your beloved Cubs. I'm sure we'll talk about it here in a couple of weeks when we do our next MLB check-in of does the Cubs make it in to the to the World Series conversation again.
Cody Atkinson: Yeah. i
Cody Atkinson: Yeah. I think that the interesting thing about this one, ah the Blue Jays are a really cool team to pay attention to this trade deadline because they sold, but they also bought and prepped for the future in a way that's really interesting. I think we'll see some of their other trades on here.
Cody Atkinson: Trading Gossman, massive get for the Cubs. you know the kind of get The Cubs had a really good deadline. It's the kind of deadline that could change an opinion on them. I'm not saying it will, but you know I'll keep an eye on them. I've been i've been one of the more, i guess, Cubs truthers that you could be. But they had a really good deadline. And I think the Blue Jays had a really good deadline, too. This is a good trade for both parties. And I think both of them are are are more of the interesting cases of the deadline.
Justin Daulton: Yeah. I think the next case study for this trade deadline is the next team. Luis Garcia Jr. goes to the Yankees from the Nationals. This is the only trade the Yankees make at the deadline.
Cody Atkinson: Is it really?
Justin Daulton: um Where, yeah, at least of of note, I think is what happened.
Cody Atkinson: no. they they I think they ended up sneaking Heliot Ramos from the Giants at the last the last minute, too, but probably didn't make the top 25.
Justin Daulton: Did they? Okay.
Cody Atkinson: But, i did yeah, this was their major trade for sure.
Justin Daulton: Yeah, so, I mean, they send a lot of prospect back.
Cody Atkinson: I think Ramos is an outfielder.
Justin Daulton: Giovanni Cruz, right-handed pitcher, right-handed pitcher Jake Bird, right-handed pitcher Jack Siebert, and right-handed pitcher Ben Grable going back to the Nationals. So, a huge pitching upgrade going back to the Nationals.
Justin Daulton: And Luis Garcia going into a very error-plagued infield for the Yankees on top of also bringing up their number one prospect,
Justin Daulton: And the name is Lombard.
Cody Atkinson: Lombard.
Justin Daulton: Thank you. George Lombard Jr. Coming up to play shortstop. The Yankees turned, I don't think it's their first double play of the season, but it was like their first double play like two months last night because because of him.
Cody Atkinson: That's crazy.
Justin Daulton: Because Anthony Volpe is disgusting at second base and shouldn't be a major league baseball player.
Cody Atkinson: Yeah.
Justin Daulton: Yeah.
Cody Atkinson: Yeah, the the Yankees, it'll be interesting. I'm curious how all the pieces come together. I get it, right? Like Lombard, massive prospect. um If you're Yankees fan, you've got to be excited about the call-up. Luis Garcia Jr., tons of pop. Put him in that sandbox of a stadium, and and and he's going to hit plenty. You definitely see the vision, right? But how do all the pieces come together? i think I think Garcia and Ben Rice play the same position.
Cody Atkinson: At first base, if I'm not mistaken, but but Ben Rice has played catcher before. Does he go back to that? Yeah.
Justin Daulton: DH, depending on how that looks for for them, yeah.
Cody Atkinson: yeah Yeah, so it'll just be interesting to see how all of their stuff comes together. There's a lot of intrigue um around that team right now, though, for sure.
Justin Daulton: Absolutely. Next one for you, the Cubs back in the in the conversation here, Clay Holmes, Tyrone Taylor to the Cubs for Jefferson Rojas and infielder. So the Cubs get another right-handed pitcher and then an outfielder as well.
Justin Daulton: So the Cubs obviously, like we talked about before, going to be buyers to get back into the conversation for the NL Central, but also the wildcard down the stretch. The next one, and obviously we'll pause here for my point of view, but Liam Hicks to the Tampa Bay Rays.
Justin Daulton: um Hicks, obviously catcher first base, but we send them Braden Taylor, shortstop Adrian Santana, right-handed pitcher Jacob Kisting. Interesting to note, and we'll talk about this again for the Rays down the line, the Rays send off I think it was a total of eight prospects amongst the three trades they made.
Justin Daulton: All three were the bottom half of the top 30 prospects for the Rays. Every team that they went to they all became top five or six on their top 30 prospects.
Cody Atkinson: Thank you.
Justin Daulton: So that shows how deep the Rays are, how good the Rays have been and and continue to draft, but also cultivate talent down in Durham and and in Port Straddle here in Florida. So it just goes to show that like, you don't need to sell the farm to get big name pieces into the, into a system like this. And, you know, it's, you know, that's the Milwaukee's that the, you know, the the athletics, you know, that are trying to do things with a smaller budget and, know,
Justin Daulton: Maybe more than, yes, the Rays were connected to Tarek Skubal. Was it a fever dream for me to get Tarek Skubal in a Rays jersey? For sure. but this this trade i that that we got for the raise was more realistic for what the Rays could accomplish.
Justin Daulton: And we're going to talk about the two other pieces that the Rays brought in. But I agree with this list. The Liam Hicks trade addresses a position that the Rays had to struggle with for what seems like the entire time that been a fan of the Tampa Rays outside of Travis Darnot for like two seasons.
Justin Daulton: So we get ah we get a big bat in Liam Hicks, who is the number one bat for the Miami Marlins this season. And he comes in first game, hits like a three run bomb. Obviously we're playing in Colorado. So the ball flies a lot further, but it it really steps up, sets up this lineup for the, for the raise Yanni Diaz, junior Kevin Nero, Jonathan Aranda and Liam Hicks rounds off your top four or five in this lineup.
Justin Daulton: And then you're platooning in, you know, Taylor walls, you know, the, um, Miguel Mason, the new... I might be butchering the name. They caught up... No, yes. At the instant name.
Justin Daulton: They got caught up over the last couple weeks. It's also been electric for us in the outfield. um So there's a lot of potential for the top half of this lineup for the Rays. And then you turn it over with a Chandler Simpson that's batting eight or nine and turning the lineup over.
Justin Daulton: like like what Like we talked about all season, this is... old school baseball that Tampa is playing and Liam Hicks only amplifies how we are playing old school baseball in Tampa and will continue to play old school baseball for the rest of the season.
Cody Atkinson: Yeah, this just feels like way more of a raised trade than the Rushman one did. um We talked about the Rushman one. It's it's ranked higher on the the list of impactful trades, but I personally would rather give up what the Rays gave up for Hicks than to give up what the Red Sox gave up for Rushman. I think this was a great pivot and feels much more raised than the than the other option was.
Justin Daulton: Yeah. Next one, Jose Soriano to the Blue Jays and from the Angels. Arhan Namala, Eddie Michelletti, and then Angel Rivero going back to the Angels. Angels, without sending trout out, fire sale of their team. So we'll see what the future of the Angels look like.
Justin Daulton: Shout out for my boy Dallas, sell the team.
Cody Atkinson: Yeah.
Cody Atkinson: yeah I mean, this is also what i was what I was saying about the Blue Jays, right?
Justin Daulton: Yeah.
Justin Daulton: yeah
Cody Atkinson: Like they they trade Gossman. They get plenty back for him, but then they're also doing things like this where they go get Soriano, one of the bigger names on the market who still has control. So I feel like the Blue Jays did a really good job of of of giving up on this year and and rebuilding for the future at the same time, for a quick future at the same time. But also to your point, it was really good to see the the Angels actually have direction for the first time in, I think, 20 years.
Justin Daulton: Yeah. Number 11 on this list is Freddie Peralta to the Rays. This was in response to the Rays not winning the Terry Scuble sweepstakes.
Justin Daulton: um It did feel like Freddie Peralta was the next big name on the on the list, Cody, and we talked about that when the trade happened. The Rays sent outfielder Aiden Smith, right-hand pitcher Gary Gilhill. In the second baseman, Eminen Petrie, going back to the Mets.
Justin Daulton: The Mets, once again, another team that fired sailed as much as they could that's this deadline. But the consensus, and and i saw this in a lot of talking heads, is that if anyone can fix Freddy Peralta, it is Tampa Bay.
Justin Daulton: so and i don't think he's that far off if you look at the issues with the mets they couldn't play defense and they couldn't give him run support so a lot of this wasn't on freddie for poor pitching it was just a bad team around him so i think when you put a defensively sound team around a team that can hit there's energy to this team right now out there in colorado we put up like 13 14 runs on colorado last night so there's energy again in this dugout and a
Cody Atkinson: Yeah.
Justin Daulton: it allows there to be some of electricity going through the building. And you you start talking about a ah really good top four rotation and Tampa with, you know, ah Nick Martinez, Rasmussen, McClanahan, and now Freddy Peralta with Griffin Jacks being your number five in that, in that rotation. And you can really go to a four man rotation in the playoffs and be just fine with the four man rotation.
Justin Daulton: and probably make a really good run. So you you talk about a really good rotation going into, which is something we talked about at length for the last month or so of get ah get the next rotation arm in there and you're a World Series contender.
Cody Atkinson: Yeah, no. that' um To your point, Freddy Peralta, was he was, I mean, maybe this is too strong of word, but he was elite as far back as like one year ago.
Justin Daulton: Yeah.
Cody Atkinson: you just have use have to d yeah they You just have to de-Mets him, right?
Justin Daulton: Got the trade deadline last
Cody Atkinson: You just have to get the mets the Mets stink off of him. And and you have an incredible contributor to the rotation again. This was another great trade by the Rays.
Cody Atkinson: And in both cases, I feel like the Rays got beat for, and maybe not they got beat, but the price got too high for the the big, big name.
Justin Daulton: Yeah. Man.
Cody Atkinson: And they they pivoted really well. I think there's two teams that were in on Scooble that didn't get him, the the Rays and the Brewers. I think the Rays pivoted really well. And I think the Brewers um are still recovering from the loss.
Cody Atkinson: I don't really know what they're, you know, like I think the Rays pivoted better than the Brewers. I know the Brewers still got Dustin May. That may be on here somewhere, but the Rays did a really good job of rebounding.
Justin Daulton: Yeah, and we're going to burn through some ones here for you, Cody.
Cody Atkinson: Yeah.
Justin Daulton: Foster Griffin to the Guardians for a lot of pitching talent from the to go back to the Nationals. Nationals just stockpiling prospects, honestly. so But Foster Griffin, obviously a proven pitcher, left-handed pitcher, obviously all-star nominations, will help that Guardians team going forward.
Justin Daulton: Helio Ramos, you already talked about him going to the Yankees. But... Giant skinny back latenda pitcher Henry Lallane and Caden Kent. Shout out to Caden Kent.
Cody Atkinson: Oh, I didn't know Caden Kent was in that trade.
Justin Daulton: um Yep, so he's going out to San Francisco.
Cody Atkinson: So Caden Kent to the Giants, where I believe a team that where his dad made his hay as well.
Justin Daulton: Correct. So good trade there for him.
Cody Atkinson: And now I can root for Kent again because he's out of the Yankees organization.
Justin Daulton: There you go. Next one up, Lars Nupar going to the D-backs in exchange for Daniel Egon and Sandro Santana and a player it to be named later. Taylor Ward going to the Mariners in exchange for Alex Hoppe, Harrison Crilling, and Brock Moore.
Justin Daulton: Mariners, obviously, we talked about buying to try to get back into the conversation. Cody, you you hit number 16 on this list. Dalton Varshow to the Astros in exchange for Spencer Aragheni.
Justin Daulton: I will give you the floor, good sir.
Cody Atkinson: Well, I'll take the floor briefly because this is the only time that the Astros will be able to be mentioned in the trade deadline because they only made one trade. I don't know that I could hate the Astros deadline more than then I did, right? Like they there there came a point, I've been i've been on the sell trade the whole year. I thought this was a seller's market. You could really pivot on, you could you could really build the next window quickly if you sold.
Cody Atkinson: um everything short of yordan you know you you sell you can get pieces that are major league ready um and and you can turn this around real fast they went on their win streak uh they were nine and one of the last ten i think winners of like six in a row or something going into the trade deadline they had to buy you you you took the division lead you were two and a half up in the division you had to buy i get it um then they proceeded to not buy anything other than and and what they did was they they sold a pitcher with three and a half years of control for a rental mediocre center fielder and i don't get the like i i there's people that like this trade there's people that know baseball that like this trade and i don't get it
Cody Atkinson: like I think part of it is I might believe in Spencer Arragetti too much because he he won AL Pitcher of the Month in May with a 1.43 ERA for a whole month, and then he proceeded to have an 8 ERA for the next month because something went wrong and he just didn't have it.
Cody Atkinson: um But when you have three and a half years to try to find consistency in that, right? You have three and a half more years to try to unlock whatever you had unlocked in May. I feel like that's a better that's a better opportunity than half a month or half a season of a guy who really has one really good season out of the like five or six that he's that he's played in the MLB.
Cody Atkinson: and and And it's not this year, it was last year. And this year he's looked like a guy who's a World Series hungover. And and and and i don't I don't get it. I don't think you drastically improved your lineup by adding him into it. I think you improved it. i don't think it was significant.
Cody Atkinson: I don't think you drastically improved your your defense.
Justin Daulton: Yeah.
Cody Atkinson: He's a really good defense. A really good defensive center fielder.
Justin Daulton: Gold glove winner last year.
Cody Atkinson: Yeah, but but outfield defense was already your calling card.
Justin Daulton: Yeah.
Cody Atkinson: you had a bunch of outfielders who could play who could play the field with the best of them and couldn't hit. And at least this season, that's what Varsho's been. And so I don't get it. it i think this trade would have been fine if you also went out and got another true starting pitcher, reliable history, starting pitcher, or if you went out and got another right-handed bullpen arm to show that up, but but they didn't, they didn't do anything. This is all they did.
Cody Atkinson: The Rays we talked about got much, much better. the The Yankees we've talked about a little bit. They did get better, right? I don't think they did what the Rays did, but they did get better.
Justin Daulton: Yeah. The Dodgers get better. The
Cody Atkinson: The Dodgers get better. The the Red Sox, you know, we can say they gave up too much, but they got way better.
Justin Daulton: Cubs get better.
Justin Daulton: Yeah, the Cubs get better.
Cody Atkinson: um i yeah I think the the teams that you had to go through got better. i think you got maybe incrementally better, but but the gap widened between you and where you need to be to win the World Series. And I don't like giving up on a player with three and a half years of control left.
Cody Atkinson: um to get incrementally better in a season where you weren't close to championship caliber anyways every every chance the the astros still go out there and win the al west because it's that bad um and maybe maybe they find a way to make a little noise in the in the playoffs but i don't think this season ends in anything other than disappointment and quite frankly if if all you were going to do is get one player i would rather have I would rather have known that I get to watch Eric Getty develop next year than to watch a pointless last half of the season by Dalton Varsho.
Justin Daulton: Yeah. Fair enough.
Cody Atkinson: But I've said it on this pod before that I don't understand the hype of Varsho. I think he's overrated. and And then that's who they went out and got. So I was never going to be happy with the results of that.
Justin Daulton: let's Let's get to the the but the last bit of this list here. Joe Haddle goes to the Guardians in exchange for Jacob Cozart. Luis Castillo goes to the White Sox. The White Sox get better and in their rotation.
Justin Daulton: They do give up Sir Anthony Dominguez, a good bullpen arm. Alfred Arnold Jones and Boston Smith are the prospects that go in in for this trade. But the White Sox do get better with this trade, in my opinion. um luke weaver to the pirates pirates tried to buy at this deadline i still don't see the pirates making noise um they give up sammy star uh staffora sarfora know how pronounce that um a trade that you've already referred to for the brewers here dustin may and jojo romero go to the brewers um for the interdivisional one here for uh the cardinals they get house under f fries
Justin Daulton: and carson ragsdale um we talked about this the cardinals being a team that can move some of these contracts like a dustin may um and then get better for their projected winning of next year or even the year after really being you know 90 plus win team and really potentially winning a division and and being competitive in the national league um Cubs get another right-handed pitcher in Ryan Seffurgeon.
Justin Daulton: And the Angels in return get Moises Ballastaros and Mason McGuire in return. So good prospects going back to the Angels. Still sell the team.
Justin Daulton: um
Cody Atkinson: Mm-hmm.
Justin Daulton: Jeff Hoffman to the Twins in return to the Blue Jays. Get left-handed pitcher Dason Hill, John Klein, Demary Pena and an international bonus pool money, which is huge, especially for the Blue Jays who love international players.
Justin Daulton: um Marcel Meyer to the Giants and return for the Red Sox get Eric Miller and Carlos Gutierrez. So that the Red Sox getting some more back in there.
Justin Daulton: Dodgers get Chris Bubik and return for Carlos Duran because the Dodgers have enough pitching they don't need more pitching. i
Cody Atkinson: Yeah, didn't know they got him too. What are we doing?
Justin Daulton: Yeah, correct. Nathaniel Lowe, former Tempe Ray, goes to the Guardians. Really good at first base in DH for Alejandro Referra. um So, Guardians getting better at the deadline.
Cody Atkinson: Mm-hmm.
Justin Daulton: And then there's a few other ones that I wanted to mention to you, Cody, and then we can wrap this segment up. Ray's getting Taylor Wells for a bullpen arm in returns for a pitching prospect in Michael for it.
Justin Daulton: I really like that trade. I think it's something that we talked about. Get a bullpen arm, get a rotation arm, and get ah and get an infielder in filter and this this racing gets exponentially better. Um, and it happened at this deadline, you've already talked about it.
Justin Daulton: Um, and then there was another one that the race sent, uh, we had a surplus, a catcher. We sent a catcher back to the Dodgers and returned to a, uh, I think it was cash considerations or a player to be named later.
Justin Daulton: Um, so that wraps it up, man, but we, we have a couple of things to talk about here for the trade deadline. Um, I'm going save Scoobull for last so we can kind of end on our rant about Scoobull. But I want your grade on the trade deadline because there a lot of hype around this trade deadline. so I want to know, do you do you think this tradeline trade deadline hit?
Justin Daulton: What's your grade on the whole deadline as ah as ah as a whole situation here?
Cody Atkinson: I think I would grade this deadline as a B+. plus we This had the chance to be one of the worst deadlines of all time if Scoobal didn't move, really. But we got the blockbuster move. We got to see Scoobal go to you know the evil empire, and I think that adds a lot of energy to the deadline.
Cody Atkinson: um But we'll we'll touch on it later. though The way he went lacked the maybe some it lack of the buildup that I think we deserved. right it It lacked the back and forth, here's who's offering what.
Cody Atkinson: It was done too smoothly. um So we didn't get a lot of the excitement there.
Justin Daulton: Mm-hmm.
Cody Atkinson: and then There were some other things like the Rockies were supposed to be kind of central to the deadline. They moved virtually nobody. The Brewers so is a team that you kind of wanted to see take things over and they didn't.
Cody Atkinson: um There was a lot left on the table that I feel like could have moved. like I really wanted to see the Tigers sell a little bit more. I was hoping to see Riley Green move.
Justin Daulton: Sure.
Cody Atkinson: We didn't get to see Riley Green move. I'm trying to think of, there's another team that I wanted to see move. The Rangers were one that got rumored late that they were going to start selling, but most of their guys had no trade clauses. So like Jack Peterson almost moved.
Cody Atkinson: You know, we're fans of Jock on this podcast from back in the day.
Justin Daulton: sure
Cody Atkinson: Jacob DeGrom and Nathan Eovaldi both, you know, used no trade clauses to stay put. That could have been exciting. I think there's there was more meat on the bone.
Cody Atkinson: Nathan Miller, you know, the Padres getting back into it meant Nathan Miller didn't get to move. there's more meat left on the bone, but we did get the, the big trade. And then we got a lot. I mean, you put that list of 25, those are impactful traits. So we got a lot.
Cody Atkinson: It moved very quickly come Sunday and Monday. day It was electric to, to, to monitor. But, you know, I give it a B plus because there's a couple names we wanted to see move that didn't.
Cody Atkinson: And also that's probably partly, um, fated by the fact that I'm an Astros fan who as exciting as this trade deadline was, we did virtually nothing. And that took some of the joy out of it for me.
Justin Daulton: Yeah, that's fair. I was leaning towards that A to B plus range for me as well. Obviously, expectations for the Rays were high and the Rays, I think, knocked it out of the park in in terms of making the themselves a legitimate contender this year and and going forward.
Justin Daulton: But I'm with you, right? the The news coming out of San Diego of the Mason Miller asking price became way too high even for a Dodgers or a Yankees. like So the fact that they priced them out of the market, you know, and then they they make some trades try to get better and get back into the conversation.
Justin Daulton: You know, i saw the same thing about you that you just mentioned, the Rangers coming into play, but not really coming into play. And then, you know, the Astros... whatever you want to say about the Astros not even really becoming contenders coming out of the deadline you know Anytime that you shut the Yankees out of a sweepstakes is always good so they don't get Scoobal or Rutschman, which were the two biggest pieces on the board.
Justin Daulton: um But yeah, I mean, I think what we saw was a direct response to what we heard the two weeks prior, right? That we're not getting baseball next year. So a lot of these teams kept players that they had control of for at least the next two to three seasons.
Cody Atkinson: Mm-hmm.
Justin Daulton: So they're like, we can keep the control, way for this second season. doesn't matter how long you hold out, that you're going to probably end up with some sort of salary cap going forward. So let's keep the control and not overspend and let everyone come back down to earth in terms of these luxury tax teams.
Justin Daulton: So I that's where you see a Brewers, a Cardinals, a even Cubs for the most part, like none of these teams overspent. And a lot of these teams didn't send a lot of like big name prospects across the board.
Justin Daulton: So it's it felt like a very controlled environment this year as opposed to years past.
Cody Atkinson: Yeah.
Cody Atkinson: Yeah.
Justin Daulton: um i think we can I think you and I can work together on this. Let's do a little quick power ranking, Cody. So do you want to go from 10 to 1 or 1 to 10? Yeah.
Cody Atkinson: I think we got to go from one to 10. I don't think that I... like We're doing this on the fly. i don't If we go from 10 to 1, I'm leaving teams off by accident.
Cody Atkinson: cause im i getting You know what I mean?
Justin Daulton: yeah
Cody Atkinson: I've got to get the big ones off and then go from there. Otherwise, I'm going to like completely forget to mention a team.
Justin Daulton: Is that unanimous the unanimous number one the Dodgers for the World Series right now?
Cody Atkinson: Yeah, unfortunately, it has to be... You know, we we we've been doing our predictions all year and we both actively avoided mentioning the Dodgers, but they to go get Scoobble and Chris Bubich on top of what they already had. Like I so i was looking at like the one of the things on the TV was like.
Cody Atkinson: when healthy this rotation is like skuble yamamoto otani glass now snell and then chris bubich is just like out of the bullpen i guess you're just like this is it's stupid um yeah they they they have to be the favorite they they have five aces that's their rotation and i think they have a six that's going to be a long man
Justin Daulton: Yeah. Crazy.
Justin Daulton: Yeah. I think I saw something that the the Dodgers could try to out a 10-man rotation for the rest of the year and keep everyone healthy and b it probably still maintain the record they have.
Cody Atkinson: yeah
Cody Atkinson: Yeah, they could, and they might, they because but why would, why would they do it?
Justin Daulton: They very well could.
Cody Atkinson: Because they think it's funny and they're right.
Justin Daulton: Yes. Yeah, it's insane. um it's it's everyone's race behind it but Number two, I i think you have to go to the American League and, the the you know, bias aside and everything, but the best thing in the American League is the Tampa Bay Rays coming out of this trade deadline.
Cody Atkinson: Yeah.
Justin Daulton: Unless you have a cap compelling argument to...
Cody Atkinson: I don't think you have to go there.
Justin Daulton: to Sorry.
Cody Atkinson: Well, you have to go to the race. I'm sorry. I don't think you have to go to the race next, but I think you can because I think if you're looking at – if you're power ranking at least specifically from this – vantage point of post deadline the Rays arguably could have easily had the second best deadline Peralta Hicks Wells they got one piece in every aspect of the team and and they did a really good job of finding value in doing that yeah i haveve I have no problem but I don't think you have to go to race two but I have no problem going to race two
Justin Daulton: I think my rationale is best team in the NL, best team in the ale one and two, right?
Cody Atkinson: yeah
Justin Daulton: a From there, you know, where do you want to go? Do you want to go Red Sox? Do the Red Sox come up to number three without any Richmond?
Cody Atkinson: I mean, if we're being completely honest, the Red Sox might, so I'm im trying to think of like who, because there's going to be somebody in the NL, there's going to be somebody in the NL we're forgetting because the NL generally has been better than the AL all year.
Cody Atkinson: And so I feel like the real answer has to be somebody in the NL. I have no problem going Red Sox here though, because the Red, the as hot as the Red Sox have been, all year coming into this, adding anything at the deadline was going to shoot them up to the top.
Cody Atkinson: So I'm fine to go Red Sox three. They're on fire. And i think I think they overpaid for Rushman, but they got Rushman. This isn't a ranking of five years from now.
Cody Atkinson: This is a ranking of this year and is a really good player this year.
Justin Daulton: Correct.
Justin Daulton: Yeah. I give you an NL team here that I think can can fall into number four, in the Phillies.
Cody Atkinson: Okay. If we're going... deadline, right? Like this is to to just, yeah, well, and and I'm just thinking just as we clarify this for the listener, right?
Justin Daulton: From here on out. Yeah.
Cody Atkinson: This is going to be, we're talking deadline. This is cannna be heavily influenced by deadline. I do like going Phillies because I think of the the NL teams remaining that are that are in contention here, right?
Cody Atkinson: You got the Brewers, you got the the Braves, you got um the Cubs, and you got the Phillies, I feel like are the next four NL teams that are ah in contention here, I have no problem going to Phillies because the Phillies did the most. i think getting a rise is the best out of all of those.
Justin Daulton: Yeah, I feel good about going going the Phillies at, would we say, four there?
Cody Atkinson: At four, yeah.
Justin Daulton: Yeah, i thought I feel really good about that. um I think five, and this is a team that you know I've talked about a lot through our in-season check-ins.
Justin Daulton: I kind of want to sneak the Guardians in here in this in this top five. How do you feel about that?
Cody Atkinson: I'm not willing to sneak the Guardians in top five yet. i think they had ah I think they had a very good deadline, um but I don't think that I can in good conscience put a team at five that's currently below 500.
Justin Daulton: there
Cody Atkinson: This is forward looking, right? But at the same time, like this is a team that I know we both believe in to turn it around. I'm fine if you want to sneak a like in the back half of the top 10 as like a, as like a, we're calling our shot here.
Justin Daulton: OK. Yeah.
Cody Atkinson: But I think, I think we gotta be, I think we gotta show more respect for number five. There is a team that we gave a lot of credit to for their deadline in the Chicago Cubs who went and got Gossman.
Justin Daulton: Yeah.
Cody Atkinson: And there were a couple other names that slipped my mind right now. They had a really good deadline.
Justin Daulton: yeah
Cody Atkinson: Yeah, Clay Holmes. I think the Cubs, of the of the teams at the top of the NL, the Braves, the Brewers, I think the Cubs had the best deadline. And so I would be happy to give them the nod above those two um to acknowledge that they they improved the most this week.
Justin Daulton: Yeah. Does Luis Castillo go into the White Sox do enough to put them, keep them in the top 10 for you?
Cody Atkinson: In the top 10, Like, if we think...
Justin Daulton: Six or do you think they're lower?
Cody Atkinson: they're I think they're lower. It depends. right It's hard to do with just a deadline one, right? Because if we're doing just deadline, I think possibly. But I don't know that I can move the White Sox above the Braves and the Brewers right now who both sit...
Cody Atkinson: You know, the Braves are 20...
Justin Daulton: Put the brakes in and do anything. So mean, unless we're taking a Q like, yeah, yeah.
Cody Atkinson: That's why it's hard, right? so So do we... like Like, are we power ranking based on the deadline in such that the Braves are not in the conversation because they did nothing, even though they're 24 games above 500?
Cody Atkinson: That's the question we have to ask ou ourselves.
Justin Daulton: think is's a lot I think it's a blend of both. right like Can the Braves be a winner of this deadline because they didn't lose any pieces? Yes. Can they also be a loser at this deadline because they didn't bring in another arm or anything like that to sit to to bolster the back end for the postseason run?
Cody Atkinson: Yeah. Yeah.
Justin Daulton: Potentially.
Cody Atkinson: I guess that the
Justin Daulton: We're not going to really know until October when it comes to the Braves.
Cody Atkinson: yeah i guess that's the question though, right? Is this a winners losers or is this a power ranking? Because it's power ranking, the Braves have to be in it.
Justin Daulton: Yeah. yeah
Cody Atkinson: If it's not, and this is top 10 winners, then then then yes, we can put the White Sox here.
Justin Daulton: i think I think for this for where we're at, I think it just a top 10 power ranking, just the current affair of baseball. So I can i can go number six.
Cody Atkinson: I think we have to go Braves.
Justin Daulton: I'd raise it six. That makes sense.
Cody Atkinson: I think we have to a probably brave six and maybe brewers seven because the brewers are, are 71 and 43 and they did add, I, know, I'll dog on them because I don't think they did as much as they could have but they did go get Dustin May and that's not a bad addition to ah a rotation headline by Jacob Mizorowski.
Justin Daulton: Yeah, that's what was thinking too.
Justin Daulton: Yeah, I'm good with that. I think at eight, you go the Yankees. like You get better at first base.
Cody Atkinson: Yeah.
Justin Daulton: You bring up Lombard at You get rid of Volpe, who is your terrible second baseman. like You get better. You give up a lot. So if it's a winner or loser, I still think the Yankees are on the losing side of this because you lose on Rutschman.
Cody Atkinson: you
Justin Daulton: You give up a lot for Luis Garcia. But you get better, and you bring in Heliot Ramos as well. So like you do get better.
Cody Atkinson: Yeah.
Justin Daulton: So I think you put the Yankees... at eight and I think you go nine, 10, Guardians, White Sox.
Cody Atkinson: So here, let's to li let's let's think here. So we got, I think those are two good options for 910. um So like 9-10, not going to be the Orioles, not going be the Blue Jays. I think White Sox, Guardians, two good contenders here. um I don't think it's anyone from the AL West. I'm not giving it to the Astros, the Rangers, the Mariners.
Cody Atkinson: um I don't think there's anyone left in the NL East. and You could consider the Pirates here, but I'm thinking i'm with you that they're a touch touch below. The two others that you could consider here is we do have the Diamondbacks who went and got Lars Nupar and I think they did another trade. I can't remember at the moment. And you do also have the Padres who went and got Robbie Ray and Casey Mize.
Cody Atkinson: So that's I think there's four good contenders for these last two spots.
Justin Daulton: I think I could field an argument for the Padres. I think I'm i'm more down on the Diamondbacks than you are. Well, I understand Nupar is a good addition, but i I'm not as high on him.
Cody Atkinson: i'd I'd say White Sox nine. White Sox nine, Padres 10.
Justin Daulton: Okay.
Cody Atkinson: because I need to see it from the Guardians before I can put them in there, and you don't believe in the Diamondbacks.
Justin Daulton: Okay.
Justin Daulton: Sure.
Justin Daulton: Fair. I'm with that. That's a good top 10.
Cody Atkinson: Because the pad the Padres are a team that I thought was good i thought could could challenge the Dodgers from the very beginning, and I think whatever we thought we saw in the offseason is still there, and they go get Casey Mides, who is incredible, and Robbie Bray, who has tons of upside as well.
Cody Atkinson: And then you keep yeah you keep Mason miller so...
Justin Daulton: Your rotation gets better for sure.
Cody Atkinson: i think I think that feels good.
Justin Daulton: Get the ball to Mason Miller.
Cody Atkinson: there's ah there's Yeah, there's a lot of lot of potential, but you know to your point, we we skipped over it, and I honestly did it come up in the top 25, but Luis Castillo to the White Sox was big trade.
Justin Daulton: To
Justin Daulton: the White Sox, yeah, we brought it up, yeah.
Cody Atkinson: Yeah.
Justin Daulton: Yeah, it's a big move for the White Sox.
Cody Atkinson: so i like yeah
Justin Daulton: Yeah.
Cody Atkinson: Yeah, certainly honorable mention to the Guardians and the Diamondbacks who are sitting just outside the top 10 for us.
Justin Daulton: Yeah, I'll go with that list. let's Let's end this with the big elephant in the room, man, and we'll we'll we'll go home from there, man. Tarek Skubal does officially go to the Dodgers for what feels like pennies on the dollar, in my opinion.
Justin Daulton: um But I think it isn't nice necessarily the nature of the return. I think it's the nature of how the trade works. happened So a lot of rumors coming out of the Tigers got one phone call and that was the phone call they took and that was it
Cody Atkinson: Yeah.
Justin Daulton: And it was to the Dodgers. So it felt to your credit, it felt like Luca all over again from the NBA. It felt like they just... Didn't care if they forced the lockout from an owner's side of of the thing so that they could, as the owner of the Tigers, go, I'm going to be the one responsible for forcing the lockout and getting what the owners want because we're going to feed the machine that is the LA Dodgers. So it feels icky all around, especially when you talk about that.
Justin Daulton: you You heard these teams that were lining up at the door. The the Brewers were lining up at the door. the The Rays were lining up the door. The Yankees were lining up at the door. The Red Sox. like You had teams in there that... Probably had enough to pay the the Tigers a considerable amount for for school.
Justin Daulton: And then you just send them to the Dodgers for, for like I said, for pennies on the dollar.
Cody Atkinson: Yeah. To your point, like you said, I don't think it's as much of a topic about the return. I think the return will, and there's a chance in time the return proves quality, right? Like Zaire Hope, I think is a guy that, at least from my understanding, I'm not, a I don't know the Dodgers prospects like the back of my hand, but think Zyra hopes a guy that could be in the majors very, very soon. So you're getting, you know, and MLB ready or close to ready talent there. He's a top 100 guy. River Ryan, also a top 100 guy, I think later in his development cycle than what some of the other teams may have been throwing out.
Cody Atkinson: I think you get a really good return, but it's the process, right? If you, if you get the Brewers and the Rays involved, know, What deals are they willing to throw out? And can you run the tab up on the Dodgers if that's where you want to send in?
Cody Atkinson: Can you at least run the tab up by by getting offers from these other teams?
Justin Daulton: Right. Yeah.
Cody Atkinson: and It felt very, it from the the discussions since, it's it sounds very Luka-esque. um I'm glad that the Tigers made the move because I remember a couple, there was a few years back, they had a guy, Matt Boyd, who I've, who is part of the reason I make fun of the Cubs all year.
Cody Atkinson: um He was a flash in the pan guy that they had, that they needed to sell to get something back. They held out for too big of a return. And they they ended up not moving him at all. He walks on his own. That GM gets fired. Now you have a new GM who's got a chance. He runs the risk of doing the same thing. He could have sat there and waited for the perfect package and not moved at all.
Cody Atkinson: and and And that would have been the worst outcome. But to his credit, he does get the deal done and improves the team in the future by doing so. But the way he went about it feels like if you are going to get a deal done, that's the worst way to do it.
Cody Atkinson: So did they leave stuff on the table?
Justin Daulton: Yeah.
Cody Atkinson: It seems like maybe. And how do you do that when you have a once in a lifetime trade opportunity? like Yeah. when's the next time you're going to have a very clear best pitcher available, best pitcher in baseball available opportunity, and and to not milk every drop from it is is a little disappointing, although it's less disappointing than trying too hard and and watching the deadline pass.
Cody Atkinson: Yeah.
Justin Daulton: Yeah, I think all around like I think there's so many issues with, with major league baseball on deferred money. and I think I saw something over a billion dollars in deferred money from the Dodgers at this point now.
Cody Atkinson: Yeah.
Justin Daulton: So like, there's going to be some sort of extension panel to school. He's going to stay in Dodger on LA. He said he honest, the the opening quote just makes me hate school even more now of the, it was the,
Cody Atkinson: Yeah. It's Kool-Aid, dude. He drank the Kool-Aid.
Justin Daulton: it's cool you can drink the kool-aid already the quote for those of you that don't know what the quote was he's like if you're mad about the how the dodgers are doing just be mad at your ownership for not spending money basically and it's just showcasing this the wrong way yeah correct
Cody Atkinson: He showed up. He drank Kool-Aid.
Cody Atkinson: Anybody could be doing this. They're just the only ones doing And it's like, whatever, dude. Not everybody has access to the money the Dodgers have because the finances of the system are broken.
Justin Daulton: yeah so um but man that that kind of
Cody Atkinson: Yeah, no, it's disgusting. But let's be real. The Tarek Skubal hate train started at the WBC when he didn't join the team and then did and then left and acted like he wished he could go back.
Justin Daulton: Yes.
Cody Atkinson: Sorry, Skubal. You're not the dude that we all want to root for. You've made it very clear this year.
Justin Daulton: Yeah, all up and down. Honestly, don't come back to the WBC either. like We could probably better without them.
Cody Atkinson: Yeah. Yeah, dude. America will be fine without you. Enjoy. your time in LA as the villain of baseball, but the Dodgers also better get the, if they're going extend them, they better get on that before the season ends.
Justin Daulton: Yeah.
Cody Atkinson: Cause if it goes into lockout and he's not extended, they are very likely are going to be left on the outside looking in because they will be well well above the, if any threshold is put in place, they will be well above it and they won't be able to sign him.
Justin Daulton: Yeah.
Cody Atkinson: So this is an extension. We've got to see before the lockout, if they're going to keep him.
Justin Daulton: Yeah. And something we can talk about later, like a different, in future pods is what I've heard is the the rumor of the penalty for being over the salary cap and like taking how many years to get there.
Cody Atkinson: Yeah. Yeah.
Justin Daulton: Like the proposal that I've seen come through with it um is really interesting. Kind of what the penalty is for, for teams that can't get under the threshold. So, but yeah, I agree with you.
Cody Atkinson: Yeah.
Justin Daulton: Like if you don't negotiate now, you're you're not going to have school once the lockout's lifted in over a year from now. So
Cody Atkinson: Yeah, yeah, exactly. Once the lockout lifted 2028. Yeah.
Justin Daulton: when so Whenever the players actually want to make money, again, because they won't make money at all while it's locked down.
Cody Atkinson: Yeah, whenever the players actually wanna make money and the owners actually wanna care about us or whatever, you know.
Justin Daulton: Yeah, absolutely.
Cody Atkinson: Whenever they both come to the table to accidentally give us good news, cause that's the last thing they care about.
Justin Daulton: Yeah, correct. the The fans are the ones that really lose out on all of this. So...
Cody Atkinson: Yeah.
Justin Daulton: But man, that that that wraps up everything for this week, man. and I know we didn't intend to go this long, but we did because we always do this. But ah um next week, we will do a combined effort.
Cody Atkinson: Yeah, naturally.
Justin Daulton: I think we're going Big 12 and Big 12 ACC next week.
Cody Atkinson: Let's go big 12 ACC.
Justin Daulton: Really excited to talk football with you as we get closer closer to kickoff, man. But let's sign off and let's give everyone a a break and we'll we'll see we'll see all these lovely people next Monday.
Cody Atkinson: That's right. See y'all next week. Peace.
Justin Daulton: Peace.
