Bobby and Alex preview the 2022 MLB playoffs by making the case for each of the teams in the hunt for a trophy this October for the average Tipping Pitches listener. Self-described Dodgers masochist Makenna Martin also joins to plug the 5th annual Hottest Dodger Bracket and their raffle benefiting Peace Over Violence and their Domestic Violence Action Fund.
Follow Makenna on Twitter @makenna_m19.
Links:
Songs featured in this episode:
Ariana Grande — “positions” • Taylor Swift — “Gorgeous” • Paramore — “This Is Why” • Booker T & the M.G.’s — “Green Onions”
Episode Transcript
[INTRO MUSIC]
Tell us a little bit about what you saw and, and, and being able to relay that message to Cora when you watch Kimbrel pitching and kind of help out so he wasn’t Tipping his Pitches. So Tipping Pitches, we hear about it all the time. People are home on the stand, what Tipping Pitches it’s all about? That’s amazing! That’s remarkable.
BOBBY: Alex, I’d like to start the podcast this week by telling you about a dream that I had last night.
ALEX: This is great, this is how all good podcasts start.
BOBBY: The dream is baseball related. I was on the New York Mets This is a maybe a window into my psyche. Maybe I’m sharing more than I should. But I had a dream that I was on the New York Mets and we were playing against the New York Yankees in Yankee Stadium, and guess what I did?
ALEX: What do you do?
BOBBY: I did something that the Mets could not, which is I hit two home runs.
ALEX: Ohhh, ohhh. That’s, was, was this like a, like an incredibly meaningful game like is this a playoff matchup? You know, is it dog days of summer where the Mets have been out of it since June?
BOBBY: It was hard for me to tell. I, I couldn’t really like in the dream. I don’t think my subconscious knows enough faces to like place that many fans. So I couldn’t tell how many fans were there. I was just in the dugout with the Mets. And so I hit two home runs, in one of those home runs, Terrance Gore went back to back with me. So that would lead me to believe that maybe I’m hitting eighth which hurts my ego a little bit. If I went yard twice buck, what the fuck, dawg?
ALEX: Yeah, move ’em up.
BOBBY: Terrance Gore went back to back with me. Another detail from the, the dream is that I had a really shitty bat bag that I had to pack myself that I was like really ashamed of, you know. Like, didn’t feel very big league–
ALEX: Right.
BOBBY: –that I had this bag. Which, again, any armchair psychologist listening to this, I don’t know what that means, honestly.
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: The most important detail I’ve saved for last, was on the Mets, there were many members of the current New York Mets. Also Giancarlo Stanton kept like coming into our dugout to like say hi to me. I don’t really know what that means. But I was on the Mets, so many current members of the New York Mets were there in the dugout in the stream. Including one Pete Alonso. I was not in the field. So I think I was DH–
ALEX: You were DH-ing, wow!
BOBBY: So I guess Terrance Gore–
ALEX: Extremely tough beat of you. What is, I want to know the psychology behind that.
BOBBY: I don’t. I guess Terrance Gore was in the field. So Pete Alonso was playing first base.
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: A, a pop fly was hit, pop up was hit in foul territory. He went to go chase it down. And as he went to go catch it, he kind of tried to catch it basket style underhand. And the ball went straight through his glove. And his glove like broke, you know, like the stitching–
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: –broke apart. And so we came over to the dugout. And as he was trying to tie the glove back together, repair it. I was helping him, the trainer was helping him. And I, I noticed written in Sharpie on the side of his glove, you know, almost like where players have their like name inscribed.
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: And their number inscribed on the side of their glove. It just said, Union No.
ALEX: Wow!
BOBBY: Pete Alonzo, scab?
ALEX: Anti-labor?
BOBBY: In Bobby’s dream.
ALEX: I mean, dreams are always pulling from reality, right?
BOBBY: Right, exactly.
ALEX: There was some part of your subconscious that felt like he might be on the other side of that line.
BOBBY: Right. Like he might not be down with the Unio- Unionizing the Minors.
ALEX: Right. I think this was just your body telling you that you needed to check up on this.
BOBBY: So like, I need to reach out to the Mets to try to get comment from Pete?
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: As they [3:51]–
ALEX: Specifically as they [3:52]–
BOBBY: –a very important playoff push. I need to just kind of be like, hey, guys had this dream, I have this podcast. We talk a lot about labor.
ALEX: Right.
BOBBY: Just trying to work some stuff out of your–
ALEX: Hypothetical speaking, if Pete had a Sharpie, if he had a Sharpie, and an open space on the side of his glove.
BOBBY: Would he write Union Yes or Union No?
ALEX: What is his like thumbs up, thumbs down, thumbs in the middle.
BOBBY: I kind of feel like pizza union man. So I don’t know what’s going on there. Can you, I mean, if anyone listening to this practices behavioral therapy, Freudian behavioral therapy, please don’t reach out to me. I actually don’t want to know what any of this stuff means.
ALEX: The thing about Pete is I don’t think he feels strongly one way or another.
BOBBY: About most things.
ALEX: About most things. I don’t think he has two brain cells to rub together about the unions specifically.
BOBBY: Alright. Leave Pete’s two brain cells out of this.
ALEX: They’re trying their hardest
BOBBY: They’re doing so much work! Like that meme of like Kyrie and LeBron both scoring 41 in the same finals game.
ALEX: Yeah, exactly.
BOBBY: Those are [4:51] trying to come up with a take about whether he supports minor league unionization. We have a great podcast coming up Alex. We have our, our version of a playoff preview where we are going to play a little game of sell me this pen. Except instead of selling a pen, we are going to sell you each playoff team and why they should win the World Series. We’re also going to talk to Makenna Martin, an elite member of Dodgers Twitter about the Dodger player Hotnest Brackett. But before we do all of that, I am Bobby Wagner.
ALEX: I am Alex Bazeley.
BOBBY: And you are listening to my dream diary? Also known as Tipping Pitches.
[5:28]
[Music Theme]
ALEX: Bobby, can I just say before we get started here?
BOBBY: No, let’s just get started. No, you’re not actually allowed to, nope!
ALEX: The Yankees got to let Roger Maris Jr. go home.
BOBBY: Bro.
ALEX: Let him go, he needs to sleep.
BOBBY: He’s like a zoo animal.
ALEX: He’s like, like, I think they keep him like, you know, chained up in the basement. It’s like the, it’s like the NBA, you know, it’s like when like TNT brings on their like, you know, ref–
BOBBY: Right.
ALEX: –that they have.
BOBBY: Right.
ALEX: That they, they only show him like once a game.
BOBBY: And he’s like in a closet.
ALEX: Right. He has to ration a standroom [6:10]–
BOBBY: Like a control room around him.
ALEX: –24 hours.
BOBBY: Yeah.
ALEX: Yeah, exactly.
BOBBY: So okay, I’m glad you brought up Roger Maris Jr. before we start this exercise. Because everyone’s brain is so broken right now about this Aaron Judge home run chase, about whether or not he’s being thrown too many bad pitches. I’m kind of just, honestly almost were like, scared to, to wade into this territory on the podcast. Because it seems like no one can have a normal take. It has to be like I will murder you if you don’t agree with me about this.
ALEX: Yes.
BOBBY: What is happening there? Is this just mass hysteria Yankees brain addition?
ALEX: Yeah, I mean, it’s bleeding over into other sports too, right? I mean, somewhat famously, ESPN keeps cutting away during college football games, to Aaron Judge bats, which is actually the, the best role that ESPN has done in a long time. Especially because–
BOBBY: Imagining like–
ALEX: –he’s walking everytime.
BOBBY: –Auburn fans just getting fuckin’ furious.
ALEX: They should keep doing it. Even if he gets past 62, I would like them to keep cutting it.
BOBBY: Right. Anything to make college football fans mad. It’s, it’s pretty good in my book, honestly.
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: But, you’re right that Roger Maris Jr. needs to just like go home, they need to let him go home. But also like he’s not really acquitting himself well and all of this.
ALEX: No, he’s not.
BOBBY: He’s just constantly tweeting, have you, have you noticed that his, his tweets always have like a photo–
ALEX: Right.
BOBBY: –of Aaron Judge in it? But it’s always like a screenshotted half of a photo, a cropped screenshot of a photo from Twitter of Aaron Judge. Like, dude–
ALEX: He’s doing–
BOBBY: –shall we get this man a Getty Images login or something? Like–
ALEX: He’s doing his best to SEO.
BOBBY: He’s, I muted him on my personal Twitter. I don’t know if you’ve done the same or if you’re still kind of enjoying this fun little game.
ALEX: I, blissfully he has not come up on my Twitter timeline at all.
BOBBY: He’s [8:00]
ALEX: I mean, right, exactly. I mean, it’s not the take that was being passed around. But you know, whose home run take I don’t care about?
BOBBY: The, the son of the guy who held the [8:10]–
ALEX: Who held their record. Sorry, not interested, happy for your dad, happy for Aaron Judge and his family.
BOBBY: Honestly, I was led to believe that journalists were all about equal time, equal representation. So if they’re gonna put quote about Roger Maris Jr., they’re gonna put a quote from Roger Maris Jr. in a piece or in a tweet thread or whatever. Well, why don’t we call Barry Bonds’ kids, see what they–
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: –have to say.
ALEX: Actually–
BOBBY: Let’s call Mcgwire’s kids, see what they got to say?
ALEX: Yeah, equal airtime, man.
BOBBY: I don’t know if any of these people have kids, I have to assume that–
ALEX: I kind of think, yeah.
BOBBY: –they all do probably. Let’s preview the playoffs the only way we know how, Alex. Which is to narrative ball them. So we obviously view baseball in a very specific way. Our listeners tend to view it in a similar way, I would say so I’m hoping that with this segment, we can sort of help folks make the hard decisions when it comes to October. We’re going to, we’re going to make the case for why a Tipping Pitches listener should be okay with X team winning the World Series. And then you decide which of those cases is most, most compelling to you sort of in descending order. And then that way you can prioritize your rooting interests. If your team is not in it this October, which you know, many of our teams are not. So we just kind of randomize, we, we randomly came up with a list of the order. So we’re gonna start with Cleveland.
ALEX: And we, and we should, we should note that we’re including both the Phillies and the Brewers here.
BOBBY: Right.
ALEX: Because their spots are not guaranteed yet–
BOBBY: Right.
ALEX: –at that point so.
BOBBY: Well pretty much everybody else is locked into–
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: –a position or the exact position that they will be in in the playoff bracket. And we’re not going to talk about like individual matchups. We’re not going to talk about pathways to the title.
ALEX: Right.
BOBBY: We’re not going to talk about lining up the pitchers.
ALEX: Oh, that’s all I’ve written down, I hope you know that.
BOBBY: We’re starting with Cleveland, who is the, the worst team in the field. I just think it’s got to say, it’s just got to be truthful. The worst record from the worst division. But still nonetheless, anything can happen in October. So Alex, why should the Cleveland Guardians? Why should we be okay with the Cleveland Guardians winning the 2022 World Series? Sell me, the Cleveland Guardians.
ALEX: First, I want to say it’s really hard coming at this from like a Tipping Pitches lens. Because you spend like six months out of the year, completely going in on–
BOBBY: Yeah,
ALEX: –franchise.
BOBBY: Dumping all over any team–
ALEX: Right.
BOBBY: –and every team that we can get our hands on?
ALEX: Yeah, exactly. And now here we are–
BOBBY: Over the smallest shit to.
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: Like to the point where like, the fans of these teams are like, fuck you!
ALEX: I like [10:40] this actually doesn’t matter to us on a day to day basis. And that’s the thing when you watch the Cleveland Guardians, a lot of that stuff falls away, right? You’re not thinking about the Dolan’s. You might–
BOBBY: Speak for yourself up.
ALEX: –think about, you might think about Francisco Lindor a little bit. And what he might have meant to this, to this team.
BOBBY: Low blow, we’re trying to keep it positive.
ALEX: This is an incredibly fun and incredibly young baseball team, right?
BOBBY: Right.
ALEX: They have a lot of–
BOBBY: Trading way all of your guys who are–
ALEX: Right, that’s generally–
BOBBY: –post ARB will do that.
ALEX: –how it works. Yeah. But it means I have some, some fun young stars and guys like Josh Naylor, and Triston McKenzie, Andrés Giménez, and Amed Rosario.
BOBBY: Yeah.
ALEX: Wow, lots, lots of Mets stock here.
BOBBY: I’m really happy for them.
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: Both of them.
ALEX: No, they’ve, they’re both having really good years. This is also a really fast team and the third most stolen bases in the majors right now.
BOBBY: Wow, stats!
ALEX: Yeah, that’s right.
BOBBY: Stats.
ALEX: Oh, I came prepared.
BOBBY: Let’s go stats.
ALEX: Yeah, yeah.
BOBBY: Josh Naylor, really happy that he found a role as an MLB. Player. Because he was so bad on defense and his bat wasn’t keeping up. It’s just actually cool to see him have highlights because he’s such a twosie player.
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: Yeah.
ALEX: He’s also like having the time of his life out there. If it–
BOBBY: But also like, so mad–
ALEX: Well, I know–
BOBBY: –sometimes sky is the lowest for that guy.
ALEX: Anyway, that’s why I’m picking the Guardians. Because if you’re, if you’re in on the, on the youth revolution, man–
BOBBY: Yeah.
ALEX: –this is, this is the place to be .
BOBBY: Right. To hell with what it means about their payroll.
ALEX: Of course!
BOBBY: Here’s why I, here’s why I would like you to root for the Cleveland Guardians, you, the listeners. Jose Ramirez deserves this.
ALEX: Yep, absolutely.
BOBBY: Of all the people in baseball, a guy so loyal, a guy so fun, a guy so holy himself. Jose Ramirez deserves to be the centerpiece of a World Series winning baseball team. That is the kind of world that I want to see. On top of that, here’s the other element. I agree with most of the stuff that you said. Here’s the other element. I think this might undo the chaos that 2016 wrought. If we go back and we’d like Cleveland actually have won. Whatever hellhole the Cubs winning in 2016 opened up, maybe we’ll close that portal. And we can all cross our fingers and hope for that. So that is why the Cleveland Guardian should win the 2022 World Series. Next up, the Padres. I’ll start this one off. I’d like to introduce us to something I’m calling the A.J. Preller corollary. If the 2022 San Diego Padres turned things around, after it looked like the trade deadline was leading to a dumpster fire. The all in chips in the center of the table gamble was going to backfire. And A.J. Preller’s opponents were going to turn a straight flush or whatever the fuck, I don’t, I don’t play poker. After that, if they actually win the World Series having done this, doesn’t that create a bunch of copycats? Doesn’t that raise the bar for what you have to do as a GM? In order to win the World Series, you got to go all in.
ALEX: Right.
BOBBY: You got to trade for Juan Soto. You’ve got to trade away literally every prospect in your entire organization to build out a starting rotation. Because frankly, you just can’t develop a starting pitcher, yourself.
ALEX: Right, yeah.
BOBBY: You have to do that. And so on top of the fact that the Padres have a phenomenal fan base, they have a great ballpark. They seem to have an owner who was invested in the team and willing to spend resources in order to, to turn that franchise around from the lows that they had for so long. I think that it just it redefines what it means to be all in. And I think that that’s good for baseball.
ALEX: Yeah, they are kind of the champions that should have been over the last couple of years, right? We haven’t really seen that materialized and it does feel like the Padres are kind of acting as a sort of referendum on those two different styles of team construction roster, construction right now. And the wind does vindicate Preller a little bit. It’s a, it’s obviously, it’s obviously it’s a new coaching staff, right? Bob Melvin in, is in his first year with the A’s right now. I think he’s–
BOBBY: You said with the A’s, Freudian slip! Wow! Wow! The same behavioral therapists please do not analyze that either.
ALEX: He deserves this, man.
BOBBY: He does.
ALEX: He, he really, he really gritted it out.
BOBBY: Is Walter White looking ass?
ALEX: [14:59], yeah, honestly. No, he could, he could do this, and their pitching staff is like fun. I mean, I love Yu Darvish. I love–
BOBBY: Yeah.
ALEX: –I love that man.
BOBBY: Who doesn’t?
ALEX: Who doesn’t?
BOBBY: Except, Astros fans?
ALEX: Yeah, I think, I don’t, are they still holding that beef?
BOBBY: Dodgers fans? I don’t [15:18]–
ALEX: No you can’t, they can’t, you can’t, you don’t get to be mad.
BOBBY: After you win one?
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: Yeah, that’s, that’s fair. Even though it was Mickey Mouse. Anything else on the Padres?
ALEX: I do think it would make for an exciting sort of narrative if they were to win this without Tatís.
BOBBY: Hmm.
ALEX: Like I and, and this is not–
BOBBY: [15:37]
ALEX: –always necessi- necessarily to want them to win. I don’t necessarily care one way or another if they win with or without Tatís–
BOBBY: Roger Maris does, I’ll tell you that.
ALEX: Absolutely he does. But can you imagine all the takes that are gonna be flying about whether Tatís is really the star the Padres need?
BOBBY: You’re starting to lose me. Speaking of stars that teams need, the Rays are up next, the only thing I can pick up for why I would want the 2022 Rays to win the World Series is because I guess it makes Wander a legend? Like immediate legend, World–
ALEX: Yes.
BOBBY: –Series, under 22 just signed the biggest contract in Tampa Bay Rays history. It adds an air of mystique about him as a player that you just can’t deny. Like the fact that the Nationals pulled it off in 2019, when Soto was just barely 21. It makes him, it, it puts him down in, in the history of baseball as legend/ He was one of the best players at age 20 and 21 on a team that made a historic run. And so I guess if the Rays pull that off, I could narrative ball that, narrative ball Wander into being that same thing for them. Outside of that, man, I don’t know what did you come up with for this?
ALEX: This, I’m not gonna lie, this was probably the hardest team it was to come up with a narrative for.
BOBBY: Rays fans, Tipping Pitches Rays fans because we still mad at us.
ALEX: So pissed right now.
BOBBY: You just, even in a segment where the whole thing is coming up with a reason to like the team, we still can’t really come up with much.
ALEX: Well, the thing about the Rays is like they haven’t really changed their MO in the last few years, right? This, this team is obviously very different from the one we may be saw two or three years ago. But–
BOBBY: Yeah.
ALEX: –in ethos, it’s very much the same, one or two young stars surrounded by value picks, right? Their batting Harold Ramirez- Manuel Margot, and David Peralta, .456 right now on a playoff baseball team. And Harold Ramirez has been very good! Very good this year. So they’ve got it, they do have a little bit of like the underdog element going for them.
BOBBY: Yeah.
ALEX: As you, you mentioned, Wander Franco, they have a, a whole bunch of extremely electric young Latin American players alongside Franco. And that to me feels like the best way in is you just have to enjoy the players, like for their own merits.
BOBBY: I think it would be cool to watch particularly Glasnow who just came off the IL. If he was able to be like really impactful for them in October after this Tommy John he’s really I think he’s a really fun guy. I think he’s an easy person to root for. McClanahan is one of the best young pitchers in baseball to–
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: –to see him on, on a, on a big stage really come through would be satisfying in a way. Outside of that I’m, I’m–
ALEX: Yeah, I mean, I’d, I’d–
BOBBY: [18:29] be cold.
ALEX: –I enjoy watching Corey Kluber, still? Like kind of him and his 4 ERA. I’m like, man, that guy probably gives such good leadership in the clubhouse. This is awesome.
BOBBY: I don’t know, man, he doesn’t talk.
ALEX: I know.
BOBBY: Okay, Phillies, Phillies and Brewers are up next. We’re going to combine them into one. I’m gonna let you go first here because I got a big old blank on the line.
ALEX: I mean–
BOBBY: I’m marinating with this.
ALEX: Right, okay. The Phillies for me is, is a little bit easier, they haven’t been to the playoffs since 2011.
BOBBY: What happened that time?
ALEX: I don’t know, do you want to tell me? Bryce is still looking for his ring a few years after–
BOBBY: So true.
ALEX: –after leaving Washington. He’s–
BOBBY: Ohh.
ALEX: –I know, right? I mean, there’s a, he. Bryce did have a quote after, after hearing that, Max Scherzer was signed by the Nationals. He said that he laughed and just said, “Where’s my ring?” And I, I don’t know Bryce. Where is it?
BOBBY: That’s a question only you can answer.
ALEX: Also, I just want to say seeing the Phillies defense on National television would be such a joy. Again, I don’t know if this–
BOBBY: Yeah.
ALEX: –is an argument for why they should win the World Series but it would be kind of a big fuck you to anyone who gives a shit about defense at all.
BOBBY: Yeah, I, I actually think that I can make a better case for why it would be great to watch the make the World Series and then lose.
ALEX: Right. Like some of these are not necessarily here’s why you should root for this team. It’s like here’s why they It’s gonna be fun to watch.
BOBBY: Fun to watch.
ALEX: For sure.
BOBBY: Yeah, exactly. Well, watching the Phillies fans during the World Series actually would be really entertaining.
ALEX: Yes.
BOBBY: However, if the Phillies actually won, then it would kind of invalidate all the like psycho Philly fan behavior–
ALEX: I know, I know.
BOBBY: –and so wouldn’t be quite as fun as watching them lose in the World Series but that’s just me personally.
ALEX: I mean I need to, I need to refrain from, from commenting about how the Phillies are able to enjoy themselves. Because I’ve made some, some public enemies there in that city. So I’m gonna take a backseat now.
BOBBY: This is your mea culpa to the city of Philadelphia.
ALEX: I know, right? This is me saying, I can get on board if I need to.
BOBBY: How about the Brewers? Sell me the Brewers.
ALEX: There’s no Josh Hader anymore. Which, honestly, probably the biggest obstacle to me watching them and pass postseasons is knowing that Hader’s gonna come in, if they’re winning. Devin Williams is infinitely more watchable [20:57]–
BOBBY: Second biggest obstacle to watching them in the playoffs is they’re just absolutely putrid offense.
ALEX: Yep!
BOBBY: Just not being able to score runs–
ALEX: Just like remarkably–
BOBBY: –at all.
ALEX: –middle of the road.
BOBBY: Yeah.
ALEX: But they’re, they’re pitchers on the flip side, make baseballs do things that like, low key go against the laws of physics.
BOBBY: Yeah.
ALEX: So it’s going to be all that, right? It’s going to kind of be on their rotation and their bullpen- urgh, again. Now I feel like we’re just talking about it, it’s gonna be on their bullpen. It’s to see- can they hold up through the playoffs?
BOBBY: Alex, who’s the X factor for the Milwaukee Brewers in this, in this postseason? I like, I like centering it on their pitchers.
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: You know, the, I think the death of the starting pitcher has maybe been a little bit overblown. Over the last five years we’ve seen time and time again in the playoffs. You have to get innings from someone. The 2019 Nationals, basically rode three starters, to a World Series title. And not much of a bullpen honestly outside of like Shawn and a couple other guys. But even still though, the Brewers, the Brewers starters like they go six innings and then they’re done. Like they very much are like a prescribed six innings of extremely efficient ball. I’d love to see here’s why, here’s why it’d be fun. I’d love to see if they would push that further. If the bullpen seems shaky to you let Corbin Burnes go out there for seven and eight? Do you let them try to finish the game if Rogers their, their new closer who replaced Hader. If you just use them on back to back nights or whatever. I think that’s a pretty compelling reason for why it would be fun to watch them. Like imagine Corbin Burnes starting Game 7 of the World Series or Game 6, whatever the clinching game would be. That’s pretty fun. I like that. The next one, I find to be a relatively easy case to make. I’ll let you go first. It’s the Seattle Mariners.
ALEX: This is the underdog pick, right? This feels like all of the kind of middle of the road teams who just missed the playoffs. And even all of the some of the, and even all the teams who kind of underperform? You can get by in the Mariners.
BOBBY: Yeah.
ALEX: This is the team, again, I mean, have just crushed their historic playoff drought, right? The longest in professional sports in the US.
BOBBY: Really? I hadn’t heard about that.
ALEX: I mean, there is one glaringly obvious reason to root for the Mariners.
BOBBY: Let’s hear it.
ALEX: Right, need I even say, Julio?
BOBBY: Oh, Julio!
ALEX: Who- oh, who do you think I was going?
BOBBY: Well, no, no, I agree. I agree that Julio is a great reason to root for the Mariners. They seem like everyone’s Cinderella.
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: Like, I, I feel like we don’t have to work that hard actually, to convince neutral fans to root for the Mariners because I feel like two thirds of neutral fans are already rooting for the Mariners.
ALEX: Right, they are the ones who like shouldn’t necessarily be here. And so–
BOBBY: Yeah.
ALEX: –it’s easy to get behind that,
BOBBY: You would get a lot of great content of like Edgar, and Ken Griffey Jr. Like being really happy. And Stan’s following the team around being at the World Series. Here’s my glaringly obvious reason that I thought that you were gonna say, ‘cuz I thought maybe we were simpatico on this.
ALEX: Okay.
BOBBY: There’s a lot great A. Rod. content to be like, I remember my time.
ALEX: Right.
BOBBY: But here’s what they need to do AB137D to win the World Series–
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: –you know. Like, we wouldn’t get a ton of, frankly unhinged A. Rod. at the World Series, reliving his time in Seattle, Instagram live content. And for particularly for the listeners of Tipping Pitches. I think that we could all get behind that. Because like, the Mariners can uncomplicatedly embrace him in a way that I don’t think the Yankees would if the Yankees went on to win the World Series.
ALEX: Right.
BOBBY: Not spoil anything that’s coming. But I feel like the Mariners would welcome him back with open arms.
ALEX: I think they would do, I think you’re right about the content. I, you know, I, I see a little bit of myself in Eugenio Suárez and, and J.P. Crawford, you know. I, I really wish that, you know, if Jesse Winker is just tried to take the ball the other way, I think he’d be finding more, more success over the plate. That’s kind of the other actually the other aspect of the Mariners is like they made these offseason pickups. And like most of them didn’t really pan out like Jesse Winker? Bad.
BOBBY: Yeah.
ALEX: Adam Frazier? Bad.
BOBBY: Call in, dawg. Jarred Kelenic? Bad!
ALEX: Bad!
BOBBY: Might just be bad. Imagined, Jarred Kelenic just like hits for .450–
ALEX: Raking.
BOBBY: –in the World Series.
ALEX: Well, that’s usually how it works, right?
BOBBY: Always, always how it works. Something about the Mariners as I stare at it a Ken Griffey Jr. poster in our studio right now. Something about the Mariners seems cool, number one. But number two, something about the Mariners brings out I feel like the real A. Rod. Like he’s so nostalgic for younger self that he forgets all of the bullshit that happened in between it, and he just starts like telling stories from when he was 19. And you can’t really like make that up, you know. Like that–
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: –child, childlike sense of wonderment. I feel like that’s when A. Rod. is kind of really at his most authentic.
ALEX: So you’re hoping that this will bring out actual earnesty–
BOBBY: Yeah.
ALEX: –in Alex Rodriguez?
BOBBY: I am.
ALEX: Like the, he’ll turn the grift off and I’ll actually be in his bag.
BOBBY: I feel like the A-Rod Corp Slack channel is going to agree with me on this one.
ALEX: I think, I think so too.
BOBBY: We’ll just have to see after we put this pod out into the world. Okay, Alex, we’re ready to move on to the Dodgers. But before we do, we’re gonna bring in friend of the show Makenna Martin to talk about the Dodgers, hotness bracket, and how listeners of Tipping Pitches can support the charitable endeavors of this years bracket.
[26:23]
[Music Transition]
BOBBY: Okay, we are now joined by Makenna Martin, a mainstay on Dodgers Twitter, a legend of Dodgers Twitter and a friend of Tipping Pitches. Welcome to the show.
MAKENNA: Hello, thank you for having me.
BOBBY: Makenna, you’re here to talk about the 5th Annual Hottest Dodger Bracket, a very important cultural moment for baseball Twitter. Can you please explain to the listeners of, of Tipping Pitches who might not be as invested in Dodgers Twitter. Because we, we pooll from a wide, a wide pool of listeners here at Tipping Pitches who, who like many different teams. So not everybody here knows what the Hottest Dodger Bracket is. Can you inform them what it is and obviously how people can support it?
MAKENNA: Yeah, so the Hottest Dodger Bracket is kind of the craziest Dodger Twitter thing that I started completely on accident. When I was a senior in high school, which is now four years ago, I’m now going into my senior year of college, which is crazy. Me and a couple of my friends are just like thrown around the idea of like, you know, we all think they’re hot. Like we can all be fans of the team. But you know, the Dodgers are pretty, I don’t know, they’re pretty hot. And so I just as a joke, we have been talking about doing like a bracket, put all the names in like a randomizer. Which actually turned out to be a nightmare because there was some brutal matchups. Like he had like a Kiké, Corey Seager like second round match up.
BOBBY: Oh, no.
MAKENNA: We’re mad at that–
BOBBY: I really, Kiké must have won, I assume.
MAKENNA: He won a lot. Him and Corey were like the big winners before they would leave, honestly. So I just did it, like made it on my phone, like in PicCollage and posted it. Like for my friends, and was like, oh, my gosh, I made this, this will be fun. And like it just kind of like took on a life of its own. And you know, it was fun here and there. And I was at school one day, and I came out of class like the one class that I had no service in, or like my teacher would have let us be on our phones or whatever. And I just had like a million notifications. And it had been on Intentional Talk. And to this day, don’t have a video of it. Like I’ve looked in my bookmarks and like the one that someone like recorded on their TV is gone. So I’ll never get to see it again. But so since then I just have kind of done it every year. And last year, I kind of had the idea of doing like a charity thing, just because it had gotten so much attention over the previous years. But in the wake of all the Trevor Bauer allegations, I thought that that would be kind of a good, like segue into it, to raise money for domestic violence. In October is actually Domestic Violence Awareness Month. So it’s kind of works twofold. And so last year, I did it for the East Los Angeles Women’s Center. And this year, I’m doing it for Peace Over Violence. And all of the stuff to how to donate is all on my, on my page. But yeah, pretty much you just fill out the bracket for fun on your own. I see it now. So there’s no crazy matchups and yeah, so this year, we’re already at $3,433, I posted it last night. So that’s the, the TL;DR of it pretty much.
ALEX: You talked about seeding it, can you tell us a–
BOBBY: Yeah. I need to know more about this.
ALEX: –little about how that works. I need, I need to know the process.
MAKENNA: No, I am–
BOBBY: Is it just you? Is there like a, like a competition committee involved in this or what?
MAKENNA: It’s, it’s pretty much just me. I do send it to my dad afterwards is kind of an unbiased source. But you know, I am a woman in STEM, it is a very scientific process. This year, I just cut out like all these little pieces of paper. And I mean, there’s kind of people that I know are gonna be like the favorites. And then there’s people kind of at the bottom, you know, that I know are not the favorites. And then there’s like, I don’t know, usually there’s a lot of like faceless bullpen boys that I can like, you know, kind of put up as bi’s. But honestly, this was a pretty tough squad. But I kind of tried to do like a preliminary seed and see where that goes out. And then I just kind of change it around until I like it.
BOBBY: Do you think as the Dodgers get better on the field, they also get hotter? Like, do you think because the Dodgers are playing so well, you’re willing to sort of like put on the beer goggles of a 112 win team a little bit with some of these guys?
MAKENNA: I think, and I also, I, I do think that’s true. And I also think that when they come to the Dodgers, if like they’re traded, or if they sign, I think they get hotter. I think that it’s been seen many times. I’m trying to think as–
BOBBY: Because of the uniform? Or like, or, or just like–
MAKENNA: It’s just, the uniform–
BOBBY: –the beauty of Chavez Ravine or what?
MAKENNA: Yes, the, the team like, just like, beautiful company. I don’t know, I think it really brings them out. It brings it out in each other.
ALEX: Yes. Joey, like Joey Gallo–
BOBBY: That’s true. Yeah [31:06]–
ALEX: –was great, great in a, Dodgers uniform.
MAKENNA: Joey Gallo, I’m sorry, he looks so much better than in pinstripes. He looks great here, he gets to have his beard. He’s having a great time. He, yeah, he was the big winner this year, actually. I don’t know if you guys saw his team dress up Chippendales outfit?
BOBBY: Yeah.
MAKENNA: But I think that–
BOBBY: Unavoidable in a good way.
MAKENNA: I mean, even for me, so–
ALEX: That’s almost, that’s almost not fair. He’s lobbying–
MAKENNA: I think, yeah.
ALEX: –to win this bracket.
MAKENNA: I think he [31:31]. I think he had to do that, he must have known. Because that really was the, the standout this year.
ALEX: Can you, you mentioned kind of that you’ve been doing this for a few years now. What have the trends kind of looked like as far as winners are people who are showing up a lot in people’s brackets? We’re making it to those final rounds. Do, do you ask people to like, like go through and, and select a winner for each round? Or do you just kind of fill out the bracket?
MAKENNA: Uhm, we’ll usually, sometimes we’ll do like polls or something to see kind of like how the collective thought is. But it’s kind of just a personal thing that everyone fills out and like. But there is definitely trends that I noticed, like every year, there’s usually like, you know, some bigger winners and there’s people that win every year. But like, between like girls and then like, you know, like the straight guys. It was always Corey Seager for them, he was there, Ryan Reynolds. But he’s gone now. And I think now it’s a it’s like Mookie, or it’s like, you know, the guys are like, oh, it’s crucial, because, like, that’s what you know, my dad–
ALEX: Right.
MAKENNA: –curse on J.T. like, they earned it. I’m like, you’re not doing it right. But–
ALEX: Right, you’re picking like the wife guys. Like the–
MAKENNA: [32:39]
ALEX: –you know, just like the dude.
MAKENNA: You have to, you have to, it’s, it should be less. It shouldn’t be, you know, it shouldn’t be with your head. But yeah, there’s definitely- this year, I’ve seen a lot of, I mean, I’ve seen a lot of Joey. And then there’s always like, the Chris Taylor people. I was always a Chris girl, Cody, Mookie is a lot of the, Mookie is taken over a lot of the Corey Seager vote, I think.
BOBBY: Is there any way to like judge the consensus? Like do you do any kind of like, you know, statistical polling among the most prominent mem- members of Dodgers Twitter and see who is like the consensus winner every year?
MAKENNA: I, I think that we are going to do that in the next couple of days, like just on some Twitter polls. But I have never, I don’t know how I would ever manage that. Like there’s so, I tried–
BOBBY: Yeah.
MAKENNA: –to keep up with the hashtag. But I think this year is, it’s Joey for sure.
BOBBY: Who are like the most surprising participants that you’ve had over the years?
MAKENNA: Uhm, well, this year we had you know, a Tommy Kane lead breakout, people really like him.
BOBBY: Oh, interesting. I mean, participants in terms of people filling out the bracket. Like who–
MAKENNA: Ohh.
BOBBY: –on, on Dodgers Twitter, have you been like, what the fuck? Why is this person filling out this hotness bracket that I’ve made up in my senior year or whatever class?
MAKENNA: Uhm, Rian Johnson, actually director of like knives out and he’s done like a Star Wars. He’s like a Dodgers Twitter, he’s a Dodger fan. And every last year–
BOBBY: Fuck, yeah!
MAKENNA: –he filled it out, and he just responded to it today. But he said a tomb guests. So I don’t know if that means Justin Turner or you know, the AMPM guide. But every, he follows me on Twitter. And sometimes when I’m tweeting some dumb shit, I’m like, Oh my gosh. What if Rian Johnson is reading this?
BOBBY: What if this is contributing to the Last Jedi?
MAKENNA: What, what if? What if I’m taking away from his very precious time?
BOBBY: Well, Rian is married to Karina Longworth, who is like a mainstay of Dodgers Twitter. She’s a huge–
MAKENNA: Yeah.
BOBBY: –Dodgers fan. She’s, she’s a legend for that.
MAKENNA: Yes, I’m trying to think, I know like some of the players have seen it like I know on a different podcast like Ross Stripling at the time saw it. Like I don’t like–
BOBBY: Oh my God.
MAKENNA: –like I that was horrified but also I don’t, so last year, Houston Mitchell on from the LA Times, wrote like in his, his newsletter about the bracket. And after you know, after all that, he’s like, hey, like if you want next year like I could probably get you into the booth. It was like to meet Joe and Orel. I was like, I was like, Oh my God! And I told my dad and he was like, if you don’t do that, like, you know, he grew up like he was at the Kirk Gibson game. Like, he’s like Makenna, if you don’t do that, like, I’m disowning you. And I–
BOBBY: Yeah, you–
MAKENNA: –was like, okay. And I was like, does that mean that they’re gonna have to know what it is? Like, that’s how I don’t want them to perceive me.
ALEX: Right. Like–
MAKENNA: But–
ALEX: –you guys know what this is about, right? We’re talking about like, like, physical attraction–
MAKENNA: Yeah.
ALEX: –to this players.
MAKENNA: Like–
ALEX: Not like hottest on the baseball field.
MAKENNA: Like, can you just tell them it’s for charity? Like, but, so this year, like, you know, I was like, okay, when I’m back from school, like, I’ll have to hit him up and I messaged him. And he was like, yeah, like let me know if the day I’ll make sure that they’re like, I’ll do it. And I was like, oh my God. I actually did get to go in the in the booth and, and beat them and see all that.
BOBBY: Holy shit.
MAKENNA: Literally the most nerve wracking experience my whole life. Thought I was gonna puke, but I didn’t. And it was really cool. But I’m like [35:59] knowing the, the bracket is canon now.
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: Well, so that’s, that brings up an important question, actually. Is it, so it can only be Dodgers players then? It can’t be Dodgers coaches, managers, front office members or importantly for this purpose, announcers!
MAKENNA: People, I don’t put them on the bracket. It’s actually harder now that there’s like less you know, like when it was like the 40-man roster I had more of a pool to choose from and now it’s what? 28 or whatever.
BOBBY: Yeah.
MAKENNA: And so I kind of had to like pick some people on the aisle or whatever. But I have never added them but people will write them in all the time. Like the trainers or dog or, or Joe. People say I should do another one. But I don’t know, I don’t want to over saturate the market.
BOBBY: Right. You got to trickle–
MAKENNA: [36:45]
BOBBY: –it out to people. Don’t give them everything–
MAKENNA: Yeah.
BOBBY: –they want right away.
MAKENNA: Exactly.
BOBBY: Like, make this last for years long tail.
MAKENNA: No, I can’t, I can’t give in to everything. But people do write them in, like people will write people that are gone. Like you know, we like Chase Utley ride ins and Matt Camp and all that sort of stuff. So people kind of do whatever they want, anyway. So–
BOBBY: Yeah.
MAKENNA: –that’s the winner, they can add it themselves.
ALEX: Bracket, the bracket is really the friends we made along the way, ultimately.
MAKENNA: Exactly.
BOBBY: So, we’ll obviously link to all this stuff in the description and, and where people can donate. But is there anything else that you want to say about like what why you chose Peace Over Violence this year? Or the Domestic Violence Action Fund, like anything specific about those places?
MAKENNA: I have their little, the blurb pulled up here that I can read about the Domestic Violence Funds. So that’s specifically for, I think it is for like October for the month. But so the Domestic Violence Fund is a multi-year campaign initiated by Peace Over Violence to make the connections between domestic violence and the most urgent health, social and economic problems impacting our communities today. And then the money that they raise is like supports survivors with cat- case management and counseling and legal services as well as direct cashes assistance to survivors in Los Angeles. So I think that that’s just exact pretty much what I wanted to encompass with the charity that I picked this year. And, and so all of that is linked. It’s like it’s a personal fundraising page so that we can–
BOBBY: Keep track.
MAKENNA: –track it. And of course, you don’t have to be a Dodgers fan to fill it out or donate. You can, I’ve seen some other teams make their own but–
BOBBY: Alex, should we, should we like collaborate and do a Tipping Pitches one? Or should we each make our own? What’s actually–
MAKENNA: I was in [38:27] but–
BOBBY: –handle this?
MAKENNA: Yeah. Like–
ALEX: Yeah, that’s, that’s a good question. I have a feeling that we, we’ll have–
BOBBY: We have similar taste in men.
ALEX: –overlap. Which makes me–
BOBBY: Yeah.
ALEX: –think we should submit our own ballots in order to kind of, you know, goose the numbers a little bit–
BOBBY: Okay.
ALEX: –right.
BOBBY: Yeah.
ALEX: Right. That’s, that’s two votes from, for Mookie instead of one for Kiké instead of one, right?
BOBBY: Are Mookie and Gallo on different sides of the bracket? Like can they match up in the final?
MAKENNA: They are not, they are on the same side of the bracket but out there [38:55]–
BOBBY: Wow. controversy–
MAKENNA: –it could like–
BOBBY: –final four.
MAKENNA: –it could be a semifinal matchup.
BOBBY: Controversial. Well, we’ll have to duke that out. We’re gonna record the rest of the podcast later today. Maybe we can–
MAKENNA: Yeah, I want to see your guys’. I was gonna ask if you guys think that there’s another team that is hotter than the Dodgers or if that is just scientific truth? Because I can’t think of it.
BOBBY: Wow.
MAKENNA: I don’t think it’s bias, like I truly think, I think there’s some, you know, hotties around the league individually, but collectively, I’m not sure.
BOBBY: I just, I haven’t done the research. I don’t think I’ve done the research. That’s a question, I’m just gonna have to think about and get back to you. I wish we had, I wish we had Stephen from Batting Around here. Because he is the real one who could, who could answer that for us.
MAKENNA: Could answer that.
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: Has a long running list of hottest players by team, basically.
ALEX: Yeah, true–
MAKENNA: I was trying to think, but yeah.
ALEX: –Phillies sneaky in there, Phillies sneaky in there.
MAKENNA: Really?
BOBBY: No, no, no, stop. Why? Because, because of who? Because of Aaron Nola, won’t get the vaccine, greasy ass Aaron Nola, come on!
MAKENNA: I don’t know if–
BOBBY: You got–
MAKENNA: –I don’t know if this is a safe space to say this but I was thinking like maybe Braves but even then I don’t think so.
BOBBY: It’s not a safe space to say this. And it’s certainly–
ALEX: No, it’s not.
BOBBY: –it’s time to say that.
MAKENNA: Not this week, yeah.
ALEX: Although that’s, that’s a pretty good answer, I’m not gonna lie.
BOBBY: It’s, yeah, they have a lot of nice looking dudes, but they’re dead to me, all of them. The entire–
MAKENNA: [40:15] it doesn’t matter.
BOBBY: –organization is also dead to me. Well, actually, before you go on Makenna, we wanted to ask you, so the rest of this, this podcast episode is going to be our playoff preview. Which is, we’re going to be like, you know, making the case for why it would actually be good for each team that’s in the playoffs to win the World Series. So while you’re here, why don’t you make that case to the neutral, the neutral listeners of Tipping Pitches as to why it would be, be good for the world if the Dodgers won the World Series?
MAKENNA: Well, selfishly, I just want everyone to shut up about the 60 game season. I’m sick of that take. I think the physical illness that I felt during that whole playoffs made it real to me. I think that the playoffs were longer it’s, it’s, it’s a terrible excuse, everyone had a chance to win. You know, if they didn’t, they’re just, they’re just jealous. Uhm, I mean, if we can just go off the bracket the, the world needs a hottest, they need to see the hot Dodgers. I also think because it was 2020, you know, LA didn’t get the parade–
BOBBY: Yeah.
MAKENNA: –and all that sort of fun stuff. And I think, I think we deserve it.
ALEX: Yeah, they just–
MAKENNA: We got to kick out of 2017, we, it’s our, it’s our moment for the real deal.
ALEX: They just feel like a little bit of something to prove for the Dodgers this year. Especially because they’re just like every year they become the best team that ever was, you know, progressively–
MAKENNA: Yeah.
ALEX: –they top themselves. It’s like, there’s so, they’re still looking for that non Mickey Mouse trophy, right?
BOBBY: Oh, come on. Mickey Mouse, come on. I do think you make a good point and that they’ve definitely been like the defining league good team of the last decade in terms of just like building the best rosters, sustained success and that sort of thing and to only have the one World Series to show for it and for all people to be insufferable about it is a really annoying continuing narrative. And so I’m, I’m kind of with you, I kind of I’m, I’m, I’m bought in.
MAKENNA: I just need, yeah, like when I’m back home and by all these Angel fans. So when I’m up at school and my by all these Giants fans. That I’m just sick of hearing, I’m sick of hearing it and I need, we, I need a definitive non Mickey Mouse if you will, even though that’s–
BOBBY: All–
MAKENNA: –that’s [42:20]–
BOBBY: –all these Angels fans. You found the like the one place on planet earth that there’s a lot of Angels, do you live in Anaheim? Do you live–
MAKENNA: I don’t live in Anaheim.
BOBBY: –in the parking lot of the Angel Stadium?
MAKENNA: I mean, I’m in like South OC, so it is like, I mean, we had like homecoming, like in the this little like dance thing like in the Angels parking lot. Like that, like right next to it, I’m like 15 minutes away.
ALEX: Arte Moreno is squeezing all that he can out of that land–
BOBBY: That is [42:43]–
ALEX: –and for being honest.
BOBBY: –orange kind of culture doing your homecoming in a parking lot.
MAKENNA: It wasn’t outside in the parking lot. I mean, like, I don’t know, I can’t explain it exactly, but yeah. But every time you know, I drive by that A and it’s never lit up, so sad.
BOBBY: It is sad, it is very sad. Makenna Martin, thank you so much. Where can people find your lovely tweets about the Los Angeles Dodgers for the rest of the year?
MAKENNA: So it’s makenna_m19, and that’s m-a-k-e-n-n-a-_-m-19. All this stuff is pinned in my pin tweet is the bracket and then the thread is the donation stuff. And then in my bio, there’s the link tree for the donation and for the raffle. If there’s some Dodge- more Dodger fans that want some Dodger prizes. And if not, you can just donate no matter where your your loyalties lie.
ALEX: Makenna thanks so much.
[43:35]
[Music Transition]
BOBBY: Okay, thank you to Makenna. Anything else to say about why the Dodgers should win this year? I mean, Makenna made a great case. I kind of shared what what my opinion was, which is that it’d be really cool to see the sort of dynasty confirmation.
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: The Dodgers winning it in a full season. The kind of like, coup de grâce of the best regular season team over the last 10, 12 years. This has stoo- the historic achievements of this franchise in terms of like, consistency, consistent winning. It’d be really cool to see Kersh get another ring. I’d feel sad for Kenley Jansen. But nonetheless, be cool to see Mookie get another ring like these things would all be very satisfying for a neutral fan who doesn’t have any pre existing animus towards the Dodgers.
ALEX: Yeah, and I think that, I mean that, their 2020 World Series obviously counts. It’s in the record books just like every, every–
BOBBY: Hey, hey–
ALEX: –World Series team.
BOBBY: –whoa, whoa! Mickey Mouse ring.
ALEX: I only go by record books, sorry Bobby, and Roger.
BOBBY: MLB Commissioner should make two separate trophies.
ALEX: This one will be a third of the size of the actual World Series thropy.
BOBBY: I actually would have been okay with that.
ALEX: That I would have been okay with that.
BOBBY: That would actually be kind of funny.
ALEX: Uhm. So I think there’s probably a desire on, on the Dodgers parts to prove that that was not a, a fluke, right? And certainly on the part of fans, you mentioned Chris Shaw, who resigned with a one year contract this offseason. But again, we’re gonna go through that whole song and dance and wonder about whether this is it for, for him with the Dodgers.
BOBBY: No way, dude.
ALEX: I, I know, I know. But–
BOBBY: Dodger for life, has to be.
ALEX: He has to be, yeah. But it was an open question–
BOBBY: Yeah.
ALEX: –kast offseason, right? This is also notably David Price’s last ride, which, goaded.
BOBBY: So goaded.
ALEX: So goaded.
BOBBY: So goaded.
ALEX: Just cannot believe he’s still pitching on a Major League Baseball team in 2022.
BOBBY: He’s not old. That, so the day that, the day that Kershaw to the Rangers, rumors stop.
ALEX: I know, I know, I know. Will be the take will.
BOBBY: Will that Clayton Kershaw retire.
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: But, sorry, I see what you’re saying. Outside of all of that, the Dodgers are fun.
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: And they have a great fan base, seeing World Series games in Dodger Stadium, like we were robbed of that in the, in the 2020 World Series, when they actually won it. We’ve seen so many World Series games there over the last five years because they made it 2017 and 2018. We saw a lot of high leverage games at Dodger Stadium. Last year in 2021, I attended one, a Max Scherzer start in the NLDS against the Giants. Really electric place to watch baseball, on television or in person. So that’s, I mean, I feel like we’re showing our Dodgers bias a little bit.
ALEX: Yeah, a little bit.
BOBBY: Tipping Pitches is kind of bought by the Dodgers whole team.
ALEX: It’s kinda, yeah.
BOBBY: Lowkey, we’re kind of bought by the Dodgers. Next up is a franchise that we are, we are not bought by. Although, there have been many accusations that we have been too nice to them in the 2022 baseball season. It is the New York Yankees, Alex, why? Sell me! On the New York Yankees, heard of them?
ALEX: I actually don’t have many narratives for this one. There’s not much going on with the team. I mean, the team is good. But it’s kind of hard to put your finger on like something to really watch for–
BOBBY: Right.
ALEX: –in the postseason. Maybe an IKF breakout is really what I’m rooting for.
BOBBY: I’m lying, I know you’re rooting for your guy, Josh Donaldson.
ALEX: Ofcourse, yeah. Here’s the thing–
BOBBY: You’re wearing a Josh Donaldson jersey right now, as we record this.
ALEX: I am.
BOBBY: I thought that Josh Donaldson shorts were a little [47:26]–
ALEX: This guy kind of, what do you think about Josh Donaldson slides, though?
BOBBY: This the cool part about the shorts is that his face on the butt part of it.
ALEX: Right.
BOBBY: They really liked that
ALEX: You’re watching Yankees for Aaron Judge, right?
BOBBY: Yes.
ALEX: Is there another reason why you’re actually really gonna throw your weight behind them? Because–
BOBBY: No, no.
ALEX: No, they’re, they’re kind of isn’t really. This, these playoffs also feel a little important to me for like Yankees fans narratives. Because if Judge has a poor, postseason, or he has a fine postseason and the Yankees don’t win. You’ve all of a sudden lost a ton of ammo in your MVP debate for years to come, for years to come.
BOBBY: Can’t do it in the postseason.
ALEX: Sorry, Judge can’t do it in the postseason. Oh, you’re telling me he can hit–
BOBBY: He doesn’t work in the playoffs.
ALEX: –62 home runs? But he can’t get his team to win a ring?
BOBBY: Shit doesn’t work in the playoffs, dawg.
ALEX: For our sakes, I hope the Yankees do it, just so we don’t have to deal with that shit.
BOBBY: I wrote down Aaron Judge billion dollar contract question mark. Say he hits like 13 home runs this postseason.
ALEX: Yeah. Which is–
BOBBY: .400.
ALEX: –of distinct possibility.
BOBBY: World Series MVP, ALCS MVP, sticks it to the Astros in the ALCS.
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: Sticks it to the Dodgers in the World Series. Think about all the narratives that we can get out of that next year.
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: Yankees don’t resign him? Embarrassment! Odor disaster, end of the Yankees franchise as we know it. Yankees do resign him? They’re gonna have to pony up.
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: In a way that Brian Cashman has never done, has never wanted to do. That, Hal Steinbrenner, is that even the one that runs them? Hank Steinbrenner, whichever one runs them now, rip to the other one. Is gonna have to turn into his dad for a couple months and I, I honestly, I welcome it, I welcome it. Outside of that? Yankees can eat shit this year. I don’t give a shit about them. No, no, here’s why I actually want them to win. I’d love to have the walks against the Orioles. It’s really good baseball, on base percentage is very important to me.
ALEX: Stop, stop! We’re not doing this, we’re not doing this.
BOBBY: We are, we are.
ALEX: We said we wouldn’t wait into it.
BOBBY: We are.
ALEX: Here, you know the other reason they should win? Bring one home for Cash, come on. Last season was contract, is he going to return? Or the Yankees gonna have to choose between Judge and Cashman?
BOBBY: I’m kind of curious like what he would do if he wasn’t the Yankees GM? Like I’m not totally sure what he did before that, ‘cuz he was like 25 when he became their assistant GM.
ALEX: Right.
BOBBY: So like, not, not to be too dramatic but who is Brian Cashman without the Yankees?
ALEX: Was still like sweating out ecstasy from college when he joined the Yankees organization.
BOBBY: Allegedly, allegedly. He seems more like an IPA guy.
ALEX: I think so, yeah.
BOBBY: Just like a couple IPAs and into bed at 10:30, you know?
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: Days are [50:22]
ALEX: Play, play it safe, play it safe.
BOBBY: Early bird gets the worm. Boy oh, boy.
ALEX: Here we go.
BOBBY: Next stop.
ALEX: Here we go.
BOBBY: Cardinals of St. Louis. I got this one.
ALEX: This one actually also on the easier side.
BOBBY: I got this one. Is, would there be anything more satisfying than Albert Pujols going out on top?
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: Like just make him the owner of the fucking team after that. Get build the wit out of here, Albert wins. Give them the keys to the franchise. That’s it, that’s the, that’s the number one. Frankly, like maybe the only reason, I guess if you’re sentimental towards Adam Wainwright and Yadier Molina.
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: Which I don’t know why you would be? Like, you can maybe tip your cap to them. But for all the people who are like men, they have spanned this whole timeframe. I’m like, yeah, the timeframes suck. They were horrible to root for, for that whole time. Anyway, back on track, Albert Pujols, crowning achievement on one of the 10 best careers baseball has ever seen. That’s the reason.
ALEX: I’m rooting for their infield defense.
BOBBY: Wow.
ALEX: It’s the thing that’s gonna carry them?
BOBBY: You’re not rooting for the outfield defense anymore because they shipped away Harrison Bader.
ALEX: Uh-hmm, uh-hmm. Oh, fuck, I forgot to mention him in our Yankees Roundup. Okay, nevermind.
BOBBY: [51:36] Harrison Bader is bizarro!
ALEX: Super bizarro, because he went from being like long flowy haired like hypebeast dude to like, milk toast.
BOBBY: Fifth year college senior.
ALEX: Living in Bushwick? Yeah.
BOBBY: Bushwick? Nah, dude, he’s a, he’s like a Fidie guy. That’s what he looks like to me.
ALEX: Really? I feel like he kind of would fuck with Brooklyn.
BOBBY: Like knowing who he is, yeah.
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: But like seeing him in the Yankees uniform? I’m like Murray Hill!
ALEX: Two bridges, what’s up?! This is true Yankees head, this is your New Yorker head content. We’re talking about the Cardinals, Albert Pujols–
BOBBY: Yeah.
ALEX: –absolutely right.
BOBBY: Yeah.
ALEX: I, I I’m down for Wainwright and Molina to, to be there for it. I think I would feel–
BOBBY: Oh just to like–
ALEX: –I think I–
BOBBY: –support him on this journey.
ALEX: Right. Like it’s mostly about Pujols. Like I, I think I would root for them less if Pujols was not there. And it’s Wainwright and Molina like–
BOBBY: Obviously.
ALEX: Okay, I mean, I actually kind of liked them. There, maybe it’s just that they’re kind of inoffensive against the backdrop of the larger Cardinals franchise.
BOBBY: You’re right. Yeah, that’s fair.
ALEX: But there’s certainly mainstage in the organization.
BOBBY: Adam Wainwright unfortunately, has been dead to me for 15 years.
ALEX: Well, yeah.
BOBBY: No fault of his own.
ALEX: Right. It’s fine. They also, also have a new manager at Oliver Marmol, been in the organization for a few years.
BOBBY: Yeah.
ALEX: But I, I like seeing young managers come up and like change it up a little bit. As opposed to the same faces that we’ve seen over and over.
BOBBY: But if the Cardinals win the World Series, how are they going to get Oli Marmol out of there so that Yadier can be their manager three years after he retires? Because that’s coming.
ALEX: That is absolutely coming.
BOBBY: Yeah.
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: Dude cannot leave the Cardinals organization. He just lives, breathes, eat, baseball.
ALEX: Yeah. And that’s why I’m not mad about him if he gets another ring.
BOBBY: Okay. It hurts.
ALEX: I know it hurts. Again, it kind of says something that we really have to narrow our focus to one maybe three players maximum–
BOBBY: Yep.
ALEX: –to state our case.
BOBBY: I don’t really like, I don’t hate most of the Cardinals players–
ALEX: No.
BOBBY: –honestly. I have been fawning over Nolan Arenado for seven years. He’s like, he was like my dream, future Met third baseman for so long. On pod and off pod, I would just badger anyone who would listen to me about this. Like Nolan Arenado, future Met.
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: Let’s do it. And, and Goldschmidt revival has been kind of, kind of amazing to watch, like, almost unbelievable to watch.
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: So yeah, I don’t, I don’t hate the individual players as much. But the whole team and the whole fan base is like really, truly painful for me to observe.
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: But outside of that, I could, I could get happy for Albert. More Happy Than I could for some other teams on this list.
ALEX: Yeah, I feel you.
BOBBY: Next up, the Toronto Blue Jays. What you got?
ALEX: Well, it’s a little unfortunate, because we were robbed of the vaccination policy drama that would have defined this postseason.
BOBBY: Right.
ALEX: Robbed.
BOBBY: Robbed.
ALEX: Justin Trudeau doesn’t want to see us win.
BOBBY: It’s the, it’s the Neo liberals out to get us again, Alex.
ALEX: Uh-hmm. Yeah. Outside of that, the Blue Jays are like quietly one of the best offenses in baseball. And it’s because they–
BOBBY: Really quietly.
ALEX: –really quietly boring. Really, really lots of so many good hitters on the team that I I’m just like, I guess you could hit .300 with a dozen home runs.
BOBBY: Just a ton of .798 OPS is on this team.
ALEX: Yep.
BOBBY: And a couple like .820s.
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: Nothing else.
ALEX: Inoffensively solid.
BOBBY: Yep.
ALEX: Yeah. But that doesn’t mean that they don’t have players who you actually can throw your weight behind, right?
BOBBY: Yeah.
ALEX: Vlad Jr. remains one of the bright young talents in this game, right? And is having a down year for him, which means one of the better seasons in baseball right now, right?
BOBBY: Yeah.
ALEX: Bo Bichette Jr., I feel like people are kind of divided on him as far as like–
BOBBY: He’s not Jr. But that’s fine, we’re rolling. we’re rockin’. He does have a dad.
ALEX: And moving too fast, I got two names next to me on the notes in front of me. It’s fine. He does have–
BOBBY: Everything would change–
ALEX: –said that.
BOBBY: –that he was Dante Bichette Jr.
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: I mean, there is a Dante Bichette Jr., didn’t make it. But if, Bo, he just seems like a bow.
ALEX: He is a bow.
BOBBY: Get the hair, honestly.
ALEX: Yeah. He’s fun. He’s–
BOBBY: He is fun.
ALEX: –he’s good. I, some people like to have debates about like, is Bo Bichette good or not? And I think it’s–
BOBBY: I’m not one of those people.
ALEX: Right, I know.
BOBBY: I don’t like to have debates on whether a player is good.
ALEX: No, I doubt. Uhm, the, the last thing I’ll say about the Blue Jays is, so their, their longtime broadcaster Buck Martinez obviously was diagnosed with cancer at the beginning of the year. Made his triumphant return to the booth in at the end of July. And Sportsnet Canada has announced that he’ll be in the booth for their postseason coverage this year. And so with questions surrounding whether or not he will return to the booth in 2023, I think that’s a genuine reason for certainly for Blue Jays fans to get behind that franchise. But also broader baseball fans who just like the sport and its history, he’s a part of that franchise. And I don’t know, they could do it for him and I wouldn’t be mad about it.
BOBBY: Yes, I think that they have a pretty good fan base too, honestly. Roger Centre–
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: –rocks, during the playoffs.
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: As we recall, from 2015, which is one of the best baseball games.
ALEX: Kind of an underrated aspect of domed stadiums is that that thing gets bumpin’!
BOBBY: Loud, stupid loud. I’d be happy for Steve Sladkowski, guitarist–
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: –former guest of Tipping Pitches. And finally, here’s something I forgot to mention, when we’re talking about the Rays. It’s just really funny anytime another team in the AL East wins the World Series and it’s not the Yankees. It really is like a special kind of poison to the Yankees.
ALEX: Yeah, it really does scratch that itch for you, doesn’t it?
BOBBY: The Red Sox have won so many times.
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: The Rays made it, you know, like–
ALEX: Right, because you can’t–
BOBBY: The more teams that can win the World Series in that division with before the Yankees win it again, the better.
ALEX: Is good, that’s practice right–
BOBBY: Yeah.
ALEX: –there. Because it’s not even that the Yankees are bad and–
BOBBY: No–
ALEX: –[57:57] at it.
BOBBY: –no they are good the whole time.
ALEX: They’re really good the whole time and cannot make–
BOBBY: Other teams go–
ALEX: –the final push.
BOBBY: –through like whole boom bust rebuild cycles and the time that it takes the Yankees to make it back to the World Series. Alex, next up, it’s the New York Mets.
ALEX: Oh.
BOBBY: The New York Mets.
ALEX: I know you have an affinity towards them. Would you like to make this case? Or are you afraid to make this case for them to win the World Series?
BOBBY: I, both, I guess? I don’t really know. I’m, I’m afraid because honestly, I don’t know who I will be if the Mets won the World Series. Like for my whole life, I’ve had this North Star. And the North Star is crushing anxiety that the Mets will never win the World Series in my lifetime. And as I’ve expressed on this podcast, I think it’s the reason that we’re here doing this right now. Like I think if the Mets were just crushing it winning World Series every three to five years, similarly for the A’s.
ALEX: Right.
BOBBY: I don’t think we would think anything was wrong with Major League Baseball.
ALEX: You’re not good brain poisoned enough.
BOBBY: 12-year old me would have been like, everything seems good.
ALEX: Right.
BOBBY: Everything seems fine.
ALEX: My team’s winning. That’s what matters, right? Scoreboard!
BOBBY: Critical thinking? Never met her. Scoreboard. How easily we will become Yankees fan.
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: So that is the reason that I’m scared if the Mets win the World Series. But at the same time, I mean, would do people not want to hear how I would react on the pod?
ALEX: Right.
BOBBY: If the Mets won the World Series like there will be tears.
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: If they win or lose.
ALEX: Right.
BOBBY: But there’ll be happy tears, I’ll be able to continue the podcast if they win.
ALEX: But that tears will be paywalled behind Patreon, if you want to hear that.
BOBBY: The honest reason if I’m setting aside my fandom, is that they are blowing through the luxury tax.
ALEX: Yep.
BOBBY: They have a new owner who wants to win above all costs, and is investing like no one has ever seen. He’s like the new George Steinbrenner. And I, I think that the more, the more that the Mets and the Dodgers and to a lesser extent the Yankees can make it seem like if you’re trying to pinch pennies, you have no chance, the better. That is my case for neutral fans. And also like, if the Mets won the World Series, The Met fans in your life are probably going to be a little less annoying. And as it stands right now, we’re so annoying all of the time. I’m annoying to myself about how I feel about the Mets. And I just want less of that for me, for my fellow Mets fans. And for everyone else in the baseball world. We can let it go for a couple of years, at least. A five year moratorium on doomsday Mets posting. Think about how beautiful the society could be.
ALEX: That actually, you’re getting me a little amped for this. You’re making a good case.
BOBBY: Yeah. I’ve thought a lot about this. I don’t know if you know, but I thought a lot about what would happen if the Mets won the World Series.
ALEX: Buck deserve this.
BOBBY: So true.
ALEX: Buck needs a ring.
BOBBY: So true.
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: Second most wins by a manager without making a World Series appearance.
ALEX: Yeah. I mean, and this is, frankly, I think back to our man Clinton Yates, who notably, famously drafted Buck Showalter in the All-GIF draft at the beginning of the year.
BOBBY: A disrupter.
ALEX: Breaking a rule we didn’t even know was, was there.
BOBBY: A trendsetter.
ALEX: A, a an absolute trendsetter.
BOBBY: A visionary.
ALEX: We get to see this man’s gift prowess on national TV.
BOBBY: Yup!
ALEX: We get to see that in–
BOBBY: A million to watch.
ALEX: –the World Series, absolutely–
BOBBY: Millions.
ALEX: –[1:01:27] the fuck up.
BOBBY: Yeah.
ALEX: That’s kind of it, they spend a lot and Bucks cool. And like Francisco Lindor is cool. And they also like have so many players that it’s so easy for me to–
BOBBY: Yeah.
ALEX: –root for.
BOBBY: Half of them are on the fucking A’s two year ago.
ALEX: Right, exactly!
BOBBY: Yeah.
ALEX: I mean, are we going to, like are we going to see unbuttoned Starling Marte?
BOBBY: Yeah.
ALEX: That’s a distinct possibility. And–
BOBBY: Scher- Scherzer on the big stage. deGrom back in the World Series.
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: Chris Bassitt–
ALEX: He’s [1:01:58]
BOBBY: –shaken off pitches for 30 seconds.
ALEX: Yep. Struggle, struggling with the PitchCom.
BOBBY: Get pumped. Think about how many loving shots we’re gonna get on Steve Cohen and his quarters EPS.
ALEX: Oh my God.
BOBBY: We should make a Tipping Pitches branded quarter zip and see if we can get Steve Cohen to buy it. That’s a lot of free advertising.
ALEX: That is incredible. We have to get that going quickly. We need him to be on that biggest stage.
BOBBY: Yeah. How’s our new merch going? That we had people voting? What was the result of those polls?
ALEX: Did we ever set it like a deadline? Or we just gonna kind of pick it? I know, I know Mariners was big, Mariners was, was a winner.
BOBBY: I hear democracy happens every day. So we should just let it keep going.
ALEX: I think so too.
BOBBY: You got to show up to the voting booths in different ways.
ALEX: If you’re, if you’re in line for Tipping Pitches shirt, stay in line!
BOBBY: Okay, we’re running out of time here at the end. We have one more team to make the case for.
ALEX: Yeah, we do.
BOBBY: It is the Houston Astros. I felt like making this case might derail the segment so we save the fucking worst for last. I’ll let you go first. Sell me the Astros.
ALEX: I think the Astros are actually one of the, one of the easier teams to make a case for honestly. And that kind of hinges on whether or not you can put aside the cheating scandal or not, for me, like that’s really it. Like if you take that away, they’re actually a pretty likable team. They have the best, maybe the best hitter in baseball not named Aaron Judge–
BOBBY: Yeah.
ALEX: –and Yordan Alvarez. They have Dusty Baker, who is obviously beloved around the game and is another figure who we don’t really know how long he’s going to hang around for. Even with the cheating scandal, you know that the Astros are looking to prove something, right? They have that chip on their shoulder. José Altuve, needs–
BOBBY: However–
ALEX: –needs to win.
BOBBY: –unearned and stupid that chip in.
ALEX: However unearned that, that chip in they want to prove that they can do it without trash cans, right? So that’s not necessarily a reason to root for them. But it certainly–
BOBBY: Damn close last year.
ALEX: I know, I know.
BOBBY: Yeah.
ALEX: Well, they’ve come so close in recent years, right? They’ve set up this dynasty that hasn’t really materialized into an actual dynasty, yet, right? They have a ring to show for it that many people won’t even acknowledge. So–
BOBBY: That they’re afraid to show.
ALEX: Right, exactly.
BOBBY: Yeah.
ALEX: So their years of tanking need to pay off for something, right? This is it, this is their chance.
BOBBY: Do their years of tanking need to pay off? Is that good if their years of tanking pay off?
ALEX: Ohh.
BOBBY: Depends on your perspective. Here’s my case, if the Astros won the World Series, it will be a seismic enough event that I think it might break Twitter, break baseball Twitter. But larger than that, I think it might just break baseball. I think baseball might just end because people will be so mad and freaking out so much. And then we just won’t have to ever watch or stress about baseball ever again. No more baseball. That’s the- that’s it, that’s the end. The final note, the Astros winning the 2022 World Series. Everybody’s brain melts into a collective paddle of shared consciousness about how baseball is over.
ALEX: Yeah. And we start from scratch.
BOBBY: We’re done. Yes, this is a big bang. We can just start over, no pun intended, big bang.
ALEX: Right. The second coming of baseball. I think it’d be cool for Verlander get another ring, especially one that isn’t like, once again, marred by controversy.
BOBBY: Sure. Yeah.
ALEX: I, it pains me to say it, but I like the dude.
BOBBY: Why does it pain you to say it? Because he’s like a Normie?
ALEX: Well, well, mostly because–
BOBBY: [1:05:30]
ALEX: –he killed the A’s in like four straight playoff.
BOBBY: This is the other thing though, who hasn’t he killed?
ALEX: I, I know.
BOBBY: He just kills–
ALEX: I know.
BOBBY: –everyone.
ALEX: I know.
BOBBY: What’s going on there? He’s like 40.
ALEX: Yeah. And–
BOBBY: .190 ERA.
ALEX: –and has a good shot at winning Cy Young.
BOBBY: Yeah. Does he have the innings? These are the questions.
ALEX: These are the questions, these are questions the listeners come for.
BOBBY: We did it Alex, we made the case–
ALEX: Against all odds.
BOBBY: –for why every team, every team–
ALEX: Every team.
BOBBY: –in the 2022 playoffs should win.
ALEX: That was 12 teams.
BOBBY: That was all–
ALEX: Got ’em!
BOBBY: –on 12 teams, every team. Thank you to listeners of this lovely podcast. Thank you to Makenna Martin for coming on to talking about the 2022 Dodgers Hotness Bracket. Please go fill out your own Dodgers Hotness Brackets. I’m just gonna lean all in on Joey Gallo, though. My fellow Italian brother.
ALEX: He’s pretty far and away the number one seed.
BOBBY: He needs this. He really need this.
ALEX: This is the bounce back he needs. If you can’t get hot on the field, you can be hot off it.
BOBBY: Exactly right. Please tell a friend about Tipping Pitches as we head into October. For more lovely content like this, please share this episode with a friend. Thank you to the five members of our Alex Rodriguez VIP Club tier this week that we will shout out. Thank you to all of you, all dozens and dozens of you. But you only have time to shout out five. Those five members this week are Ann, Eddie, Josh, Henry, and Ben. Alex, anything else to leave the people with this week?
ALEX: If you want your name to be one of those listed at the end of every episode. Or even if you just want more content from us, because boy, do we have some.
BOBBY: We got content.
ALEX: Patreon.
BOBBY: That’s what thing we have.
ALEX: patreon.com/tipping pitches, check out all the tiers we have, various perks.
BOBBY: You want to be in the Slack–
ALEX: You want to be in the Slack.
BOBBY: –for the playoffs.
ALEX: I, I know you do.
BOBBY: Like, this is the first year that the Slack has existed for the Major League Baseball playoffs. And if you’re listening to this right now, you want to be in it and you can get in it by signing up for any tier. $5, just try it out for a month, I promise you like it. It’s gonna be a lot of fun. We’re hanging out with all of our friends in the Slack. And we’re gonna be doing live streams too.
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: If you are a fan of one of those 12 teams, Godspeed. Good luck. I hope that you don’t come up against the Mets. Because then we are sworn mortal blood enemies.
ALEX: Of course.
BOBBY: But other than that, I wish you well. Thanks for listening to another episode of Tipping Pitches will be back next week.
[1:07:58]
[Music]
[1:08:11]
[Outro]
ALEX RODRIGUEZ: Hello everybody, I’m Alex Rodriguez, Tipping Pitches, Tipping Pitches. This is the one that I love the most, Tipping Pitches. So we’ll see you next week. See ya!
BOBBY: We’re talking baseball. Sorry, talking baseball, a baseball podcast.
Transcriptionist: Vernon Bryann Casil
Editor: Krizia Marrie Casil
Tipping Pitches 
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