Royals Show Heart and Verlander Might No Longer Be An Option for Houston

yes baseball is still going on you are locked on MLB your daily MLB podcast part of the locked on podcast Network your team every day hello Baseball fans and welcome to locked on MLB part of the lockon podcast Network where it's your team every day this is the daily podcast we talk about all of Major League Baseball I am your host Paul Francis suvan please call me Sully today's episode is brought to you by our friends over at FanDuel now through September 22nd all FanDuel customers can bet $5 to get a three-week free trial of NFL Sunday Ticket from the YouTubes and YouTube TV just visit fanduel.com to get started follow us at lockon MLB pods on Twitter or whatever it's called now and on Instagram I am your pal Sully I'm at Sully Baseball on Twitter Sully baseball podcast on Instagram and if you are posting on all those social media sites that make our lives just so much better uh make sure to put that hashtag everyday Sully it helps us figure out who that is listening to us every single day and believe it or not it does matter hey let's get to the trivia question the question was I asked what American leager had the most career home runs while playing for the same team their entire career Scott horem got it right the answer is Mickey mantel Mickey mantel with 5 36 home runs all with the Yankees that's the most by any American leager the most by any national leager is Michael Jack Schmidt with 548 he's 16th all time so one through 15 uh have all played for at least more than one franchise and let's go backwards from 15 I bet you Manny rire is played for a few Reggie Jackson Rafael Belo Harman KBW Mark Maguire Frank Frank Robinson Sammy Sosa Jim to Kang griffy Jr Willie Mays Alex Rodriguez Albert PS Babe Ruth Henry Aaron and Barry Lamar bonds so there you go the good job there um the reason I had the opening the way I did and we're going to cover stuff happened this weekend wild fun weekend we had and and check out lockdown a where I talked the other show I host we talked about that wild Marathon game that happened on Friday and an interesting weekend between the A's and tigers there um this is one of my saddest parts of the year because baseball gets really fun now there's intensity teams are trying to you know jockey and throwing in elbows for the playoff positions and the NFL takes over now I I don't follow football and I I don't look down upon people who do it's not like you're like football you're dumb like no it just it's not my thing you know it's everyone has their thing baseball I I I may have you may have caught on baseball's my thing it's my sport it's thing I like to follow for some people it's football and I understand that most people are going to be super into football it's on once a week it's like a celebration it's fun I don't like the fact it's on only once a week I like sports that are on all week but there you go I get it I get the intensity of it I just think it's it really breaks my heart that my my favorite parts of the baseball year are September and October and this is the part of the Year where most people turn away um and so but I know if you're listening to my voice right now if you're Instinct for sports fandom at this point of the year is still going to a Major League Baseball podcast then this is a Reit for you I'm sure a bunch of you do both a lot of people do both I don't but it's just because you it's not my thing but if you're like God I just want to hear I just want to talk baseball when he baseball we're here for you we're absolutely here for you and if you're here after listening to lockdown NFL welcome aboard you're going to have some fun uh by the way having fun right now are the New York metropolitans who are on a massive winning streak and I'm recording this on it's as early Sunday afternoon couple of the games on Sunday have already ended uh including the Orioles losing to the uh the Tampa Bay Rays in a tight tight ball game uh and the Orioles are have fallen in second place because the Yankees have played the Cubs quite well that game isn't over right now Cubs and Yankees are still playing right now but the Mets who are current as I'm recording this are currently tied with Cincinnati are a nine game winning streak and pushed the Atlanta Braves off of the playoff run they are not a playoff team as I record this and boy oh boy if this is the way it's going to be or I guess I should say OMG based on that that song uh then we are going to have a fabulous last couple of weeks with the Mets and the Braves basically playing for their playoff lives and again I going to have to eat piles and piles and piles of crow for encouraging the Mets to sell at the trade deadline I didn't see they had a phenomenal June they had a solid July I didn't see them having one more run like this in them I didn't suum me suum me I'm gonna eat crow lots of it all you can eat crow Buffet um but I'll tell you another thing happened that it happened on Saturday and there's sometimes I just don't get the planet Earth I don't get it uh on Saturday the Pittsburgh Pirates and the Washington Nationals were playing a double header and in game one of the double header the Nationals took a two nothing lead actually they went up to get a 4 nothing lead and DJ herdz was pitching for Washington now through five innings DJ Herz had thrown how many how many how many uh pitches had he thrown through five innings he threw 87 pitches it's a lot of pitches he also walked three batters and he struck out five that sort of thing will Jack up your uh pitch count I grant you that however he had allowed zero runs and if you're throwing a double header you you would think you might think to quote the cars that you would try to have that starting pitcher go as long as you can because you got a double header going and you don't want to go burn through your starting burn through your your your pitching staff in game one here's the other thing no hits he had no hits he was throwing a no hitter at the time was it a clean no hitter of course not he had thrown a bunch of walks he had thrown a lot of pitches although three walks isn't like he was lost total control but okay fine three walks and all the strikeouts it got his pitch total he was going to get into the 90s even if he threw a three- pitch inning he was going to get uh he was going to be in the 90s I grant you but folks first of all it's September H how how long do we have to wait to strengthen the pitch arms November over Thanksgiving also um the Washington Nationals are not contenders they're not French contenders they're nowhere near contending right now uh even after they won that game there were 15 that raised it them up to 15 games under 500 and it was the first game of a double header so maybe just maybe if DJ Hurst was throwing the game of his life and potentially writing himself in to the Nationals history book as throwing a no hitter maybe you do that so you have some of your other pitchers I don't know rested and ready for game two and as it turned out the bullpen came in and allowed five hits and three runs in four Innings they made it a save situation in fact the score was was 4 to2 going into the ninth it was 5 to3 going to the bottom of the ninth so I I need someone to explain to me if he was hurt okay okay uh if he was being monitored because he just was about to have his arm amputated all right tell give me something give me something to lean on because you have a double header a guy throwing a no hitter take him out if he came out in the sixth inning and the first batter got a base hit off of him you removed him right there I wouldn't have blinked the guys throwing the potential game of his life and a potential Masterpiece and you're going to pull him in game one of a double header I need someone to explain that to me now put it in the comments and put that hashtag everyday Sully when you explain to me why DJ hearse was lifted while throwing a freaking no hitter all right uh oh and by the way uh another brilliant piece of man I'm gonna give I'm gonna give Aaron Boon some we we we all like to give Aaron Boon a forearm shiver even though the Yankees are in first place with just a couple weeks to left to go in the regular season but they've obviously had the Yankees have had a ton of Bullpen issues they've had a ton of situations where you know Klay Holmes can't do the job anymore uh they used Weaver out of the bullpen for his first career save but the other day they did something novel Clark Schmidt was coming off the disabled list and or is it the injured list I'm sorry he was coming off the injured list and he pitched into the fifth and I got why they removed him first of all he wasn't throwing no hitter but also he was coming off the injured list and uh they don't he was he got into a bit of a pickle and they got him out and Nester Cortez Jr not the old man but Nester Cortez Jr came out and finished the fifth and the sixth and the seventh and he threw he was throw with great economy of pitches he was absolutely stying the Cubs and got the Yankees through the eighth and it was a two nothing game but Nester Cortez was dealing and so they did something and other teams make note and also make note whenever I've given a forearm shiver in the face to Aaron Boone I'm giving him credit for this they let nestar Cortez pitch the ninth and he finished the game he finished the final four in the third Innings do you know why he was pitching well there was no need to relieve him this is a philosophical point of view that there you showed it working you relieve a pitcher when they need relief neest Cortez didn't need relief and therefore who's going to pitch the ninth I don't know the guy dominating kind of like DJ HZ was it's a it's a noble experiment that is worth a look but I tell you it's also going to be worth a look all the games on Sunday when we come back we're going to talk about them you've heard us talk about FanDuel America's number one sports book oh we have something a little different from you now through September 22nd all FanDuel customers can bet $5 to get a three-week free trial of NFL Sunday Ticket from YouTube and YouTube TV then with a YouTube TV base plan you'll be able to watch every single regular season Sunday afternoon out of Market game all you need is a Google account and a current form of payment and you can cancel at any time just visit fuel.com and download America's number one sports book this is a reminder that lockon has created the first ever National Sports 247 streaming channel lock on sports today is available on YouTube wherever get your podcast and on Amazon TV on the free Fire TV channel app it's part of the locked on podcast Network where it's your team every day all right there's a lot to one pack of what happened on Sunday but first and foremost let's give a lot of credit to the Kansas City Royals Michael waa and Company uh finished off the three- game sweep of the Minnesota Twins now remember where the Royals were coming into this when they took three games away from Cleveland uh at the end of August they pulled within a tie then they lost a week of games they lost seven straight games including being swept by Houston and dropping the first two of the series against Cleveland they W the finale but I talked about how Minnesota could be the team that could take advantage of a slumping Royals club and the they got the rug pulled out from under them now the twins had a two nothing lead the other day and the Royals came storming back and today Michael Waka and Company and ersc who they picked up from Oakland at the trade deadline has filling in quite nicely as their makeshift closer uh suddenly The Royals are hot again they were they went from Los a seven straight games to now a four game winning streak now keep in mind Cleveland had a series against Los Angeles who have their own issues the fact that they had to play a game where no one pitched more than two innings that's a problem but Jack flare pitched great for Los Angeles tonight and uh Shani hit a ball that went into the stratosphere and Cleveland wound up dropping the last two games to Los Angeles and with the four-game winning streak by Kansas City all of a sudden the Royals are back to within two and a half games of the division now there are a few things that are working against the Royals favor uh you know two and a half games is a lot to make up in fewer than 20 games when none of them are head to head and the those three head-to-head losses recently to Cleveland are looming very large and that sweep at the hands of the Astros losing seven games at this point if they went two and five this would be a much different scenario than them going 0 and seven in that stretch but starting on Monday the Royals are playing the Yankees and that is a really interesting series now chances are both teams are going to be making the playoffs so it's not like this is a Do or Die series but the Royals are well they have an image of winning the division still dancing in their head so did the Yankees it would behoove both of them to try to win that division now the New York Yankees they played very well against the Cubs and of course Kansas City played great against Minnesota so these are two teams are coming off of a positive you know positive weekend you know the Yankees lost today with garri Cole but they played they played so well the entire series that you can't take anything against them on Monday these two teams will be facing off in the Bronx and both of them have had some rough patches recently and both of them have rided the ship recently one of these two teams are going to walk away losing this series and will'll have their fans be kind of a little anxious about how things are going to go I think this is a really interesting series because it's tough to get a handle on what's happening with either team it's just it just is and so we're going to see what happened I had my eye on that Royals uh uh Twin series all weekend and boy it did not disappoint at all uh I mentioned Los Angeles winning that game against uh Cleveland while they still have a ton of issues with their pitching um I I can't help but think that they're they've kind of rided the ship you know they have won seven of their last 10 games and as of this recording they have the best record in baseball so that's got to amount to something and Arizona who lost seven of their last 10 before their win on uh Sunday Night Baseball um I'm going to get to that in just a minute but San Diego lost a couple of tough games to the San Francisco Giants so there's a little bit of I don't want to say relaxation that's happening in LA but there is a sense of okay they are going to win the division you know barring an absolute Calamity they are going to win the division so spend the next three weeks to send the next 18 games figuring out the Rubik's cube of who's going to pitch three games who is going to start for three of those games now flarity you know it's so funny when we talk about who the big pickups are in the trade deadline I always say it's impossible to discuss that who the winners and losers of the trade deadline until the you know until the dust has settled as of this recording Stone glasnow Yamamoto and kers Shaw are still on the disabled list or the injured list and for that matter so is Otani as a pitcher and so they have to figure this out they have to figure out what is Walker ber and Miller gonna do are they going to be completely worthless in the postseason is Yamamoto gonna come back and is he gonna pitch well enough flarity has turned into one of the best pickups I don't recall anyone at the trade deadline saying holy cow the Dodgers picked up flare and copc They just won the trade deadline but they may have so it's got like the National League Championship could be decided on the arms of Landon Knack Jack flarity um I mean are they going to start Ryan braer you know are they going to start Michael Grove I mean what are they going to get out of BU and Miller they're going to get in and if they and they're with their re revamp Bullpen you know you see that copc has pitched well you see that uh you know Hudson and Banda and tridon and vessia are all can all do all right with you know when handed the ball properly and obviously any lineup that has Otani and Freeman And Betts are going to do well they have to wait to see what's happening with the Oscar Hernandez boy Jason Hayward would be look really really good in a Dodger uniform right now but here we go this is what the entire all of the money all people say it's not fair it's not fair they have too much talent and yet here we are with less than three weeks to go and we're literally saying who are the physical bodies will be standing on the mound throwing a ball 60 feet 6 Ines when they were acquiring all these players and people say it's not fair it's not fair it's not fair did anybody think that the national league pennant will be resting on the arms of Jack flarity and Landon Knack but here we are by the way the Red Sox just let go of richill maybe they should bring him back what the hell would they doing get rid of James Paxton you're not going I mean what you don't know I mean I had uh all the good folks that locked on Dodgers were you know giving me a forearm shiver when I said that Tyler glasnow should be in a full body cast when the Dodgers acquired him oh you said that and now he's been great he's been great yeah fabulous he's on the injured list as predicted so this is the this is your job Dodgers you did what you had to do you got to the point where we're approaching in in what day after tomorrow will officially be in mid-september they're going to win the division now completely do the proverbial Rubik's Cube and figure this out otherwise this could be another Division Series and out because you can't afford to have a game like you had the other day where okay this PCH is going to throw one this p is going to go through two who knows maybe they will but landed Knack landed Knack and flarity are two of the great keys to win the national league pennet and flarity looks like he's up for the challenge who else will be passion drive and patience the formula for winning championships is also what keeps you ride or die alive eBay Motors has everything you need to maintain your vehicle and level it up the Peak Performance supercharges roof racks exhaust kits LED headlights and more whether you're into speed power or style eBay Motors has you covered with over 122 million parts for your number one r or die you'll always find exactly what you're looking for with eBay guaranteed fit your part is guaranteed to fit your ride every time or your money back because with eBay Motors you're burning rubber not cash with all the parts you need and all the prices you want it's easy to make your car the MVP and bring home huge wins keep your ride or die live at ebaymotors.com eligible items only exclusions apply eBay guaranteed fit only available to us customers thanks so much for making locked on and it'll be your first listen for your second listen check out locked on A's also hosted by me your pal Sully but Sully I'm not an A's fan why would I listen trust me we're gonna have a lot of fun these last couple of weeks as the A's wrap up their gosh all these years in Oakland are coming to a close in just a couple of weeks and we're going to have an emotional fun and sometimes angry and sometimes silly few weeks celebrating all things A's check out we're going to have uh Brian from the last Dive Bar coming on the show and I'll be doing on location episode at the Oakland Coliseum for the final game there check us out on YouTube or wherever you get your podcast all right um I want to talk a little bit about the Astros who I think very well should be considered the favorites to win the American League pennant again uh Spencer arti ronell Blanco Hunter Brown fr Valdez and you say Kikuchi that's the best starting five currently pitching in the American League some combination of haer aru um Caleb ort Hector nerys Ryan Presley some combination of them will be the bullpen and you also see that there's they brought in Jason Hayward the good as a good luck charm uh you're starting to see Altuve is hitting very very well thank you very much pñ is playing better you know you got K Tucker back which is always good yordan Alvarez can hit homers at will they've got a good lineup and they're battle tested of course you notice I there was one name I didn't say Justin Verlander is really reminding me of Jack Morris right now for many reasons Jack Morris and Justin Verlander both pitched the majority of their careers with the Detroit Tigers both of them have put together wonderful careers both of them have been postseason Heroes both of them were acquired by another team late in their career where they won a World Series ring actually won a pair of World Series rings after they left Detroit now big differen is Morris also won a World Series ring with Detroit and Verlander won the sa Young Award and MVP with Detroit so that's the main things but there's another big similarity lat in Jack Morris's career when he was pitching for the Toronto Blue Jays he still had the great reputation of being a big game pitcher hell he won the World Series MVP in 1991 with the Minnesota Twins with one of the great game sevens of all time where he threw 10 shutout innings in the single greatest World Series I ever saw in game seven of the World Series the next year he gave the Toronto Blue Jays that veteran Ace that they desperately needed to Anchor their staff and they went on to win the first World Series in their in their franchisees history now Morris was not as dominant as he was with Minnesota but he did throw a couple of complete games and you know led by example in 1993 the Blue Jays were once again a tremendous ball Club they were very good teams in the AL East that year but in the end it was the Toronto Blue Jays coming out on top now that year managers Gast and I am doing some of this for memory so if I don't remember everything forgive me there was a big turnover of players from ' 92 to '93 but they still had a tremendous starting rotation they had Juan Guzman they had Todd stle Meer they had uh they had acquired Dave Stewart they had Pat henin and they had Jack Morris now here's the deal Jack Morris that year by the end of of that season was cooked he was cooked that's all there was to it he was he was no longer an effective pitcher he had a super high erra and I just rattled off they had a bunch of other much better options they had lost a several pitchers in the free agency the year before David Wells David con Jimmy key had all left by a free agency but they brought in Dave Stewart to be a big game pitcher and as I mentioned before younger pitchers like Juan Guzman Todd stle Meer and Pat henin were ready to fill in the gaps and they still had Morris and it became clear that Morris was the odd man out now as it turned out he got an injury just before the playoffs ow my arm I think it's broken I think the Astros have to do that with Justin Verlander because we saw today his for 31 years old he's a Hall of Famer he brings all the leadership but guess what Jack Morris brought the leadership even when he was on the bench he was jumping up and down and hugging CTO Gaston with Joe Carter hit that home run but if he had started in the playoffs against Chicago instead of henin or Guzman or Dave Stewart or stotle Meer by the way Dave Stewart winded up being the ALCS MVP that year and Guzman had several tremendous starts if they had start Morris out of respect they may have lost that series to Chicago they may have lost the World Series to Philadelphia instead uh Morris got into the World Series ring he just was sitting on the bench now there are four rounds to the postseason and chances are the Astros are not going to miss that first one there's no way verando should even be on the roster for the first one in the best of three series you're going to probably start Valdez Brown and Kikuchi or Blanco I mean Verlander's not going to see a pitch if you want to put him on the next round or something out of respect I don't understand why he doesn't have it anymore he doesn't and you have if the Astros right now if they said to him look it Justin we love you you won that first World Series that were no one seems to acknowledge but the second one you were huge in it you were a Sai Young multiple Sai Young Award winner in Houston you're a postseason hero in Houston we can't have you starting we can't set set him down Sit Kate Upton down too say you've all made your Millionaires and you have a chance to get a Third World Series ring but the clearest way to a World Series ring is to have a starting five of framber valz Hunter Brown ryell Blanco Spencer retti and you say Kikuchi he got clobbered today pavid Smith had three home runs I first two I think were off of ferlander he did not look good he got crushed and he is by far the worst option out of them yes I know Eric gy is Young and he's had his ups and downs he's your number five starter at this point valz has to be your one he's a legit Ace Blanco seems to be on the verge of throwing a no hit or every other game he pitches Hunter Brown's been really underrated and you say Kikuchi has taken to the Astros like I don't know Verlander did in 2017 listen to what I'm saying someone's got to remind them you're going to the Hall of Fame you're going to be beloved by Astros fans for all time and they're going to retire number in Detroit and someone will look at your plaque and will probably have a tiger hat on but look at your plaque and say wow what a great big game pitcher for several decades and when the hell was he on the B that's what they will say but if you want to win World Series ring number three I'm sorry no disrespect no tons of respect but you got to take a seat all right uh we have an upcoming show tomorrow with good friend of the podcast Michael xfo author singer poet TV producer my friend and rabid Phillies fan we're going to be talking a little bit about the Phillies and the NL East so follow us at locked on MLB pods on Twitter and on Instagram I'm your pal Sul at Su baseball Tas podcast on Instagram talking about the fact that you can come here for baseball talk even if everyone's talking football and please please please finish those no hitters this has been locked on MLB I'm your host Paul Francis Sullivan please call me Sully e