Braves Solid Week, NBA Draft Lottery, and Falcons Schedule

Intro [Music] foreign Prosperity the likes of which we have never seen cursed by a past riddled with despair this is blursed [Music] what's up and welcome to blurst everybody it's hcome your boy Hayden Cummins hosting this week along with bleezy Blake Dodd what's up buddy I'm back what's up everybody that was the deal dog Dylan just stopped listening yeah Ryan in the beginning no what the hell he's our most loyal follower along with it he messaged me about this he messaged you he messaged me about the music he loved it he love that we mentioned it the Alexa play uh because we talked about them last week we featured him so he was thrilled to be mentioned every week we need to just do that with all our listeners just bring them up by name and just make everybody feel warm and fuzzy and obligated to listen every week yeah obligated no it'll listen it'll lock them in for another week that they have to keep coming back just in case that they may be talked about so who should our listener of the week be um I am going to mention Frank uh when we talk about Falcons so Frank Frank you're there tune in man listen more of the week of the week glad glad you're here man wasn't in Clem Jones we can't be giving away his uh aliases yeah his Ali eye he's not the changes yeah so many different different names he's known by what's uh what's going on though before we get into the dirt as you can tell guys I'm in a new room I just changed my background in my room so I'm just kidding we uh over the weekend we we had a good weekend actually we uh went and saw Gardens of the Galaxy vol 3 on Saturday how was that oh God it is I love it uh Gardens Galaxy is like I'm partial to like some of my favorites of all the Marvel movies and then on top of that like this one was definitely more emotional definitely a little a little more serious um than their last couple ones and that's probably because I've just been emotional recently because of things are happening in life but I cried several times like yeah tears in my eyes I was like wiping them away like I was like oh my God I think Guardians is probably my favorite series within the Market within the Marvels I haven't seen the new one yet I've heard there's like animal abuse scenes and stuff like that though so I was like I don't know kind of CGI animal abuse yeah but it's not even that like that's not the it is but it is it I wouldn't say that like when I watched it I wasn't going oh this is Peter what Peter where are you at Peter like I was not it's not triggering is what you're saying yeah no I wasn't triggered and I'm a very soft like I'm softy for animals so okay I'm soft in general I'm Downy soft so yeah yeah I'm not gonna argue that same here yeah you're like Charmin Ultra I'm Downy yeah I mean I'm I'm All About good toilet paper um so we did that and then Sunday we rearranged our house so this was formerly our dining room it wasn't really a dining room we never ate in here anyways we used another table so it was kind of just like a passerby room that had our pantry in it and now it's the office and it's like tied together our home a lot more and I love being down here I actually am not I'm no longer cooped up in my office I feel like now it's like the office open floor plan I got my kitchen behind me the living room right beside me it's nice ties the whole room together ties the whole house together it does it make it's a pla it's Pleasant it's good to switch things up every once in a while too for sure it feels like a whole new home I was like why don't we upgrade it it feels like we upgraded and we didn't do anything except for move stuff around I mean dining rooms are so overrated too I don't know about like you growing up but my family we had a dining room but we didn't use it and then as an adult that's kind of continued that like I've had I have my own dining space but that we don't use at all and we're not we're still in the new house we're still not going to use a dining room they're only used for like hosting purposes whether it's family or friends right and in the days after covid who hosts anyone anymore I just feel like people meet out now um not saying anything to host people but I just haven't really hosted anyone's basically since Kobe besides family and family doesn't care where you sit really so yeah um I don't know I think they're mainly meant for a big family events or big hosting party or something like that yeah upgrade counter counters are the best or coffee tables I'll eat there yeah we have a coffee table that opens up and another table comes out like a normal like a little table so you can just sit right Russian doll coffee table yeah it's like your own TV tray but you don't have to have a TV tray it comes out of the yeah it's a Russian doll table basically it's awesome yeah it's the best perch we've ever had any purchase of convenience is always for the best oh absolutely absolutely so how about your weekend wouldn't you it's good we did a lot uh it's Kenzie Kinsey's birthday was Saturday so it was a birthday weekend we had a nice dinner with some friends over here in in Fort Collins uh probably the best food we found out here so far so I was pretty pumped about that does it look like I'm looking at you or no because like my camera it might be in a little different spot and stuff I'm like looking down the whole time it's kind of weird So you you're Pro yeah looks like you're looking down so hold up sorry guys everyone is watching right now you're gonna have to bear with me for just one second this is exhilarating for the listeners for sure hold up hold on now yeah that's better okay closer yeah I mean that's what we can't like have the camera in front of like us no it's not like a laptop as long as it's better yeah as long as this is better that's all that matters um but yeah uh awesome y'all do anything special for the birthday uh yeah we did we just went out to a really nice dinner and then uh we did some shopping and stuff and then we we toured a house we've been house hunting in Colorado which is really difficult we actually found a house and we're under contract now so pretty pumped to have that process done with uh so it's really really expensive birthday uh buyer you bought her a house yeah yeah we bought her a house so yeah nice but yeah all this blurs incomes paid off I got sold I'm so bad at like we went to an outlet mall and so like they got there's this really good salesman like I was just like walking around like really just letting Kenzie shop and stuff and I'm just like farting around doing nothing or like walking around stores let nerd take as much time as she wants and then like this guy stopped me uh it was a shoe cleaning product he's like hey man I just real quick I need you to hold this box and like just so my boss like sees that I'm talking to people's like all right whatever then he starts cleaning my shoes I was like okay this is interesting and then like I'm holding the boxes like oh do you mind holding this for a second it's like okay I was like I'll hold that too um so I'm just standing there he's cleaning my shoes and I'm like what is happening right now like I was just walking through this mall and all of a sudden I'm having my shoes clean their tennis shoes they're not like it's like a shoe shine but like it actually worked extremely well and yeah ended up buying that because the guy was a great salesman God he's a genius he knows as soon as you get the product in your hand you're more likely to buy it especially when your shoes look better afterwards oh yeah he was counting you out like those shoes look a little like they could use a little challenge yeah I probably I probably got scouted out he's like oh those are Albers this guy's got a little bit of money and like he can he's gonna buy my product because he feels awkward about it which I can get sold on gotcha he got you yeah yeah I am I had a co-worker last week I was asking because their sneaker head and I was like yeah I have this really nice pair of Jack Jones white shoes I love them but I don't wear them too much things I'm always wear them again dirty because they're solid white she said yeah Magic Eraser like the magic erasers she said you just do that on there and they clean them right up like the wall cleaner yeah the wall cleaners oh wow bought one over the weekend I haven't tested out yet but I'll test it out before the next episode and let all of our listeners know approval yeah all of our shoe cleaning products featured here on blur featured here on blurs I mean hey if you're not Sports you probably like sneakers so there's a chance well speaking of sneakers let's sneak over to blurst of the week the worst of the week Blursed of the Week you know what I like what you did there yeah right on the tip of my tongue so my blush of the week is actually going to be the Hawks beating the heat in the playing tournament and and I I know like um hindsight and we and we talked about it we talked about the hawk Sports matchup would be the Celtics and I'm not saying the Hawks right now would be beating the Celtics at all I don't think the Hawks would be a 3-0 on the Celtics obviously we lost in six against them but my point is we could have been back to the Eastern Conference Finals potentially if we were the ones who played the Bucks and um we're gonna talk about that when we talk about the Hawks later because you were like well how would the Hawks beat the Bucks well it's because they're best player didn't play 2.75 of their game so two and three quarters of the games they played against the uh heat the uh Jonas Kumo did not play which means they got they lost in five games so over half the series he didn't play in every game that he didn't play they lost so and then they had an easy Knicks uh uh match up in the second round which they easily beat and now they're playing the Celtics and Frick they're up three nothing on the Celtics so are they really uh yeah they're up three nothing so they won both games in Boston and they just killed them last night in Miami like in the eight seed yeah they're the eight seed they're the eight seed will be the first eight seat to ever make it the finals yeah wow yeah and the Lakers will be the first seven seed uh so or maybe not to make it it would be to win so like I I don't know there might there may have been an 80 to make it before but we've never seen an eight seed win the finals yeah um so we'll see what happens there but that's my blurs like I said I don't think this makes the Hawks a Eastern or a finals content or anything like that it just it was cool to watch us play in the ECF instead of getting sent home in the first round should have lost that game should have lost it you never know man you just gotta know when to lose so I mean honestly I'm crossing for straws this week has been a pretty good week in sports for the for Atlanta if we're gonna be honest yeah yeah for sure uh all right for my blurs of the week I'm gonna I'm actually not gonna do Sports I'm gonna do reality TV because since I've been married uh I have gotten addicted to certain reality TV that's super trashy and I can't help it um but boy oh boy it's so good and juicy uh so Vanderpump Rules if you've ever watched it uh it's a it's kind of follows a younger crowd well I guess they've transitioned they're they're somewhat older now they like work in a restaurant in La and then now they're all like getting into their you know 30s 40s um so this one couple that's been together for so long Tom and Ariana 10 seasons Tom cheated on Ariana with her best friend and they would have been they weren't married but they were life Partners so they were together for 10 years and like this is like broken reality TV this is like the hottest news ever so the finale finally dropped last Thursday and it's it was nuts it was great um so the blurst part is um it's over yeah it's it's it sucks that uh this this is getting drawn out for three reunion episodes but also it's so juicy and it's gonna continue yeah so we still get to see an Ariana versus Raquel confrontation um man it just sucks it sucks me right in I can't stop it I can't quit does Kenzie watch selling Sunset yes she had I haven't watched that one but Kenzie has yeah I can't get in that one Jess loves that one I cannot get into it like I try to watch some of her shows and like the ones that get me are like the like the love shows honestly like I like love at first or what is it called love is blind and stuff like that like those those get me um but yeah selling songs that I can't get into this Vayner prep World about to ask her if she's watched it see it's good 10 Seasons That's a Jess is all about a lot of seasons start start on that it started in like 2012 so yeah yeah it's a good time but yeah that's a little bit of a pivot also all you husbands or boyfriends out there yeah that's how you you gotta pick one show to watch for your significant other oh at least yeah at least one yeah but like one that like they like way more than you oh and you just slowly yeah a lot of times two um I'll be like on my laptop or something like that watching sports and I'll be like the side eye like oh wait what the hell happened there yeah you know what I mean like that always happens or like she'll start shows and I'm like I'm not really interested in this I'm like Bridgerton that's how I got into Bridgeton because like it was just she had it on I was like oh this is actually pretty good yeah all right also trashy in a different way but like oh for sure yeah whatever and now the people that made Bridgerton have a new show I think yeah it's kind of like it's about King George right yeah it's a prequel series I think yeah so Jess is uh thinking about watching that so I don't know I didn't even know what came out yet I don't know if it's out yet either I just know we just watch the preview for it so interesting more you know yeah uh but yeah let's uh you wanna talk about some Braves I'm gonna pick yours just because it's time it's about time we go we switch things up from we switch things up a little bit Yeah testing the waters a little bit see what people think so then we'll just start a reading video podcast have we talked video games last episode like for 10 minutes start off the uh pods oh also speaking of that also honestly my blurs of the week should have been after I talk [ __ ] about Diamond Dynasty which is Ultimate Team for the show are you gonna play it all week I've I've gotten obsessed with it in the past week so I refuse to pay money like on top of buying the base game as you should you can do that like and that's how people get really really good teams really quickly yeah I was like no I'm not gonna do that so I've started grinding a little bit and then now I'm kind of getting it like you get to open packs and I don't know hope you get the best players and like develop the players a little bit so mostly I lost like two online games horribly and I was like why are these people so good and then I go look at their team they're all 90 9 overall Diamond quality cards or whatever and all mine are like gold silver and bronze and I was like what the hell no wonder they're they hit everything perfect I'm like how how do they do this um it's because they have like the top overall players like okay so I gotta level up my team and get into that grind yeah and but that's the thing is what kills me about is the pay to win aspect yeah I just I don't like that I don't like it I don't want to beat them at their own game without paying extra so yeah so you're trying to put in hundreds of hours and you'll get there hopefully not that much Jesus I don't have enough time thousands of hours after we can become professional podcasters maybe I can dedicate my time to opponents yeah we could have a whole episode that's just you every week playing yeah yeah hop on the twitch or something yeah for sure all right let's talk about the Braves Solid Braves so it's a it's a better week uh last time we talked we had come off uh getting swept by the Blue Jays which happens every year it feels like uh but why do they play us so well I don't know man I'm stealing some of their players would like help us out some like we got the old Pilar now from them and a couple others but no they don't care the lard did his best uh he hit a home run in that series but yeah I don't know it's just one of those things we we get an international waters and have a hard time but this week was better we uh took two out of three versus the Rangers and we took two two out of three versus the Mariners which are both pretty good teams in the AL West um so that's something to be proud of um absolutely I mean we dropped the Mariners under 500 just by them playing us which was kind of cool because they're right at 500 and the Rangers are basically Us in the on the uh in the East or what would you call it the ill West because they are 29 17 just like us um I'll say it's pretty it's pretty fun this year that like there's a lot of new teams that are making an impact in that like people don't that aren't normal it's like the Orioles you saw it coming a little bit last year in the Rangers they've been bringing in big name players for a couple years now but it's fun to actually see that come to fruition and hopefully that can drain teams that uh that have been dominating for too long because they've been in Weak divisions like the Astros obviously the Astros are very good and it doesn't matter what division they are in but it helps that they have a little bit of extra competition that they have to uh lace them up for a little bit harder no it work a little bit harder through the regular season than they have and it makes it where they can't just get like have a free ride to the championship every year and I'll be honest too like the American League let's like let's it's weird the American League in baseball is the only time like I feel like this is true because like AFC is better than the NFC and I think the West is typically better than the east in basketball but American League like if that's like your opposite they are they've been worse than that national league for like the last I would say five to ten years and like the only team out of the American League that's been any good has been Houston yeah really it's been pretty dominated by Houston almost 10 years now I mean really since like 2016. because what you had uh the Guardians which are the Indians at the time they they uh play the whites or the Cubs and the World Series but the Cubs won that yep um what's the last American League team to win besides stress uh oh I couldn't remember the Royals okay yeah you're right maybe we're missing a year in there yeah let me I'll look up Dodgers won 2020 10 year 21 Astros 22. Astros won in 2017 who won 2018. all right so we had Astros last year Braves the year before Dodgers 2020 uh Nationals 2019 Red Sox Red Sox 2018. but that's it and then the Royals in 2015. yeah it's been pretty dominated and the Red Sox have been very up and down too since well I guess maybe 10 years since 2013. so there's Red Sox Royals Red Sox Astros yeah but they've won as many as actually one more I'm talking [ __ ] and I have one more World Series than the national league but I just feel like the national league has had more competition there's been more teams competing yeah I would agree with that um but honestly but now with the balanced schedule and we will play more teams it's going to be easier to see what's going on around the league because until this year like we played predominantly National League teams and NL east teams specifically you don't really familiarize yourself with other teams and you don't really know what's going on besides your division specifically and so it's nice to see us playing teams we don't usually play you can kind of understand what what kind of talent they have and like I don't know if we would even known that the Rangers were good at all this year we probably would have just assumed that they were bad um and like they're leading their division yeah the only reason I don't know is if you play fantasy sports like I feel like fantasy sports helps you because you're keeping up with some of that stuff you know what's super misleading if you look on Google like the last 10 games teams have played the Braves were four and six in their last 10 games yeah but we're but we're four and two in our last six games like that's super misleading there's just so many games in baseball it's not like a super helpful thing unless somebody's like oh and ten or something like that but yeah 37's not a good look by the Cubs ooh yeah I wonder how they're eight and two in their last ten I know they're they're pretty straight still under 500 by six games yeah they had a brutal start for the year they really did um baseball so like you said it's baseball's so interesting because unlike I feel like unlike other sports you saw a little bit more in basketball this year but I feel like by week 10 in football you know who's who I feel like um in basketball by All-Star or way before All-Star break I feel like a couple months and you already know who's who've been baseball it's the whole season it just ebb and flows ebb and flows always yeah it's it's a game of streakiness uh really and it it comes down to if you're if your win streaks outlasts you're losing streaks and you see that on an individual player level two with hitting uh really the most consistent thing in the sport is pitching I would say um and defense if a team is good at defense they'll be consistently be good and they're not going to have bad days really um and yeah if you're a good pitcher then you're just good uh yeah it feels like but hitting no matter which hitter it is except for maybe Ronald Acuna uh you're gonna go through streaks um apparently he's on Pace to set all kinds of records for first inning stats so like he has like a 500 a 541 batting average in the first inning this year so basically with him leading off games he has a 50 chance of getting there's a chance yeah yeah I mean his on base percentage is probably higher than that yeah he walks and stuff but um he's he's just on a really crazy Pace right now like he's gonna break Major League Baseball records for like uh lead off home runs and uh getting on base and scoring runs in the first inning which gives you a huge leg up the rest of the game oh absolutely I saw two that he um is on Pace to break the single season runs record he's on Pace for 156 runs and like how often is it like that only twice has it been over 150. that's incredible I mean the the impact that has and like hopefully I mean we're gonna need him to continue doing that because of the pitching issues that we're having so because like Kyle right Max freed have been hurt and it's kind of a long-term thing uh Kyle Wright is on the 60-day IL with the shoulder issue uh Max hasn't been put on the long-term IL yet what is that date back to though for Kyle Wright maybe like 10 days so I wish is that it yeah but like he's not throwing so that's that's right if they shut it down completely then it's like you have to reboot Midway through the season uh so it'll it'll be a couple months still they said uh the max Fareed issue is improving so that's really good that his forearm is getting better um hopefully we'll have him back sooner than later but I would still expect another month at least absolutely um but what that's led to is like because it's early on in the season and we don't really have we do have some depth thank God that uh Elder has come up and been uh Kyle right of last year yeah honestly the internet of the year before it's incredible that he's come up and pitched that well especially after having such a bad spring but um but yeah we we haven't had a guy step up and be consistent number five with all the other injuries that we have so we've been dealing with Bullpen games lately and that's that's pretty tough to manage and you can't really put that on snit because it's a tough situation and because it's early in the season it's a little too early for anthopolis to be able to make a trade that would be maximizing value for him so you know after what we've seen from Vaughn Grissom or Braden Shoemake and what we've seen from arcia and we locked him up to a three-year deal for the cheap yeah I think that uh Shoemake or Grissom both are on the table um and we would be able to trade them but teams aren't wanting to bow out just yet they want to see what they have in their players and they want to maximize value in return as well so some of these teams that we see struggling those can be potential trade targets that they're going to be selling as we get closer to the deadline I would assume probably like halfway through June if we hear more news about what Max's return is like or what Kyle Wright's return is going to be like we're going to probably at least pick up one starting pitcher as just a depth move yeah it doesn't necessarily mean we're gonna bring in a stud um what what kills me is like the teams like the White Sox who have some extra pitchers they're still technically in the hunt they're only six and a half games back even though they're 10 games under 500 because their division sucks so like yeah the additional wild card slot doesn't help with head either um so which I'm glad it gives it makes the league more competitive and I'm okay with that it really the fact that we are doing as well as we are with as many injuries as we're having shows I mean a lot I mean it's promising for me to feel that way and Dodgers are the same but we are they're and they're like the same record as us almost um they're also missing a couple pitchers so they're playing Gavin Stone tonight is pitching um and he has like a 9 era or something like that right now so those are usually guys that pitch the best against us for some reason yeah for some reason I know I heard that on the radio today and I was like well his bride will go out there and have a good game so yeah glad you talked about that glad you mentioned that got five runs against the last game in four Innings I mean with the injuries to the pitchers like you hook the starting pitcher specifically you hope that the bullpen and the hitters can be more consistent and kind of guide you through this tough time but Schuster did Pitch really well yesterday he got his first win um so he's kind of pitched really well he's kind of just spending his time on the Gwinnett bus just going back and forth shipped up and down so you know maybe maybe we're in a month one of these guys steps up either Dylan Dodd or Schuster figures it out at the big league level or maybe even like Sirocco gets called up at some point they're slow playing it with Soroka for now he's he's up and down like inconsistent in AAA right now yeah I looked it up today he's played better actually but they're still only giving him like four Innings like yeah so he had that one blow up or give up six runs since then he's still settled down but he's he hasn't gotten more than four Innings yeah I think 4.2 is the most he's got I think the difference is that they don't want to send him up and down kind of like they they are these other guys just because of his experience at the big league level they want to make sure when they call him up that he's up for good yeah you know maybe we'll see him at some point this year but there's no reason to rush that so Anthony in the Discord he's been he's been having some feelings about all this going on and as you should as a Braves fan so this is our plug right now to join the Discord if you haven't already um we'll bring you up on the Pod and it's I mean we talk all week about sports um but I think he's kind of at the point where he'd rather see us just bring up some of these AAA arms um like Alan winnings or Grant Holmes I think our pushback was if you're trying to develop guys it's probably not the best to keep bringing them up putting them back down bring them put them back down his argument was well you probably they're probably not long-term guys anyways for the Braves but it could be long-term guys for someone else they're still trade targets you don't it's better it's weird and baseball sometimes the unknown Prospect is more valuable than the known for sure especially when they've come up a couple times yeah so I think that's probably why a is not calling him up I think what like charette's opinion was is that like you can just call up these guys that aren't really big name prospects they're not going to be starting pitchers on your team long term it's just a short-term thing to eat Innings because the bullpen games are kind of killing us and exhausting the bullpen but yeah the opposite side of that is if you bring up a guy that doesn't really you're still going to put your bullpen in anyways maybe if he doesn't if he's not a high enough caliber he's not going to be able to get outs at the big league level and then he's gonna start you know they might start walking people and then you're gonna have a bullpen game on your hands anyways anyways um yeah the name to watch out for which we brought up a couple weeks ago is AJ Smith shelver um he got called up quickly from double A to AAA um and he's kind of the guy that's that's the highest dude high draft pedigree the big name prospect that we have in-house right now um and he's throwing well so uh if we see some consistency out of him we know that AAA isn't scared to Fast Track these guys into the majors and it's you know it's worked out well in some cases other cases maybe not so much but um you know why not give it a shot I mean to be fair I'm concerned too about the bullpen but because like if you have a bullpen gamer five game or yeah every five games you're having a bullpen game you're gonna reach your Bullpen inning number by probably into July and you don't want that especially like last year I remember we were not pitching Kinley Jensen some days because we were trying to keep Innings down and now this year it seems like we're throwing out the window it's like this is all we got yeah it's tough and like there's a bunch of guys that we didn't even know coming into the year like Dan Danny Young or uh Michael Tonkin that are throwing a lot of innings and they're trying to just get through it um but it's kind of a it's a exponential problem so when you have these Bullpen games and then pitchers aren't going as deep into the games as you want them to aren't covering enough Innings or if we're giving up a lot of runs that's going to up the pitch count and then later on in the week it's like a whatever it's a like a domino effect I suppose that later on in the week like these guys are a little bit more tired than they would have been normally and that leads to worse performance and then that just continues and it Cycles on and on and it sucks that like every feels like everybody got healthy for like one day and then it's like oh Max freed and calright in the same day and then nobody got to settle into their normal roles really in the bullpen and it's kind of been just weird still but so Hayden it's just one inning man why can't they just ice that arm and go again what's going on here I mean it's just a delicate process I suppose of how how they train um especially like closing pitchers or guys that pitch one inning specifically it's hard for them to it's like it's a mindset and it's also how you throw the ball is a little bit different like it wears their arm out yeah so like if you're pitching for one end and you're gonna you know let it rip no matter what because you're you're probably gonna have at least one day off or like if you pitch two days in a row then you'll have a day off after throwing it right it's it's the high stress Innings is what they call it so like especially even for starting pitchers if they're if they're in a jam early in the game they're going to let it rip a little bit harder than if they're just like trying to get through six Innings right because they're right they don't give up any runs and it's the same kind of thing yeah with with closers or late inning guys they they let it rip normally and they they don't know how to Pace themselves per se and if they try to Pace themselves or if they're fatigued then their stuff's not gonna be as good it's not gonna be as good and they don't really know exactly how to play that yeah I'm on your boat too with this Rogue show I think I do think they're going to call them up within the next month like I I think he's Pro I'm hoping he's our solution like I I'm hoping they're just waiting for him to be at the spot where they feel comfortable with him because I think once like you're right once they do call them up they're going to want him to stay up here um could be what a great like if this plays out that way what a great narrative like he's goes away because of injury and he's been battling battling battling and he comes back because someone else is injured and he gets his spot back hurt I don't know how it might work out but I would love to see it um because yeah we're hurting we just need it that's all sports really it's about uh you have to be prepared but it's also about opportunity and sometimes you have to be lucky um yeah it's funny to see some some guys that get multiple opportunities like that because of injuries um but yeah I mean the other option is we we could wait and trade uh closer to the deadline the teams to watch out for and the players to watch out for what I typically do I'm looking on um yeah so like what you want to look for are teams that are under 500 currently and also players that are in the last two years of their current contract so you can either attack and get like the last year of a veteran player or you can find a guy that's you know in his arbitration year still but is close to hitting free agency those are the type of guys that AAA likes to Target get them in-house if they perform quickly then he signs them to a long-term deal yeah um the issue with starting pitcher is that Max freed our Ace is still not signed to a long-term deal so May ruffle some feathers if he does something like that with a starting pitcher we need to resign Max I think the way our pitching is right now whoever you're bringing in you probably don't have to sign into like a massive big because I don't think we're going after an ace I think we're going after like a Lucas Chilito guy like someone Geo has been an ace has but he's not anymore right wouldn't you I mean 28 I guess he still could be he could still have it oh yeah he's right he's a big name though he is but he's no Max freed no I mean so and if Charlie's going off the books next year that's 20 million coming off like you're gonna have to replace him anyway so it's not like you know what I mean you're going to have to sign a picture besides Max anyways because we're losing Charlie unless you're hoping that one of these young guys Dylan daughter Schuster they're the answer next year that's always the hope is like younger or cheaper um yeah but you know our our Prospect list is depleted still just right and it's going to take years to get back to that and then there's development on top of that which takes time and my opinion is always that you can't have too much starting pitching you can't like I know in the Discord Sam child Sam he was arguing why would we trade like chrisum for a starting pitcher like we have enough starting pitcher we need more relief pitchers and my argument is one we don't have enough starting pitching right now at all like it's bad we're in bad shape but two you can't ever have too much starting pitching right like you really can't and then once you get the playoffs suddenly starting pitchers can do long relief for you if you have to like they don't have to just be a starter when it comes that time um and I I hate to say this because I like bomb Grissom but he's not what what is he our future at not shortstop you can't field not second base we have albies not left Philly doesn't play Left Field that's like I I do wish that he would start picking up left field and that's the coaching staff that that's their decision um because he can hit but you know sometimes with prospects it's all about timing and for him the timing hasn't worked out he wasn't he's not quite developed enough to be a short stop or and also we have a long-term second baseman so neither of those positions work for him um left field he's not developed in left field at all so he's going to need at least you know half a season playing Left Field in the minor leagues to to be able to get the hang of that and to me it's yeah with our Sia performing and being a very consistent Fielder that we need at shortstop I don't know why you would hang on to him other teams he is ready because just because of how well he hits oh yeah you'll play for a lot of teams right now so sure I think like Vaughn demands probably a number two or number three starter a current starter in the majors which is a pretty good value um Braden Shoemake probably provides that same value too and that's another guy that timing just didn't work out for but it will with another team and um I think we probably end up keeping one of them and Shoemake seem makes more sense to keep I think personally could be he's better Fielder yeah and he might end up being more of a utility guy or guy that comes off the bench as opposed right because he can't hit as well as well but if he's got some he's got decent speed he's a good guy to come off the bench to run and then like if we need RC has been such an awesome awesome surprise like not that we thought he was gonna be bad because honestly he's played well for us this whole time but he's a former high pro like high pick Prospect and he's finally starting like he had some flashes when he was with Milwaukee but he's really getting his chance here um he's back to 310 this year like he's been yeah it's a great year yeah every every week basically people tweet out like the comparison between Danes being arcia and arcia is like outplaying him even though he has like half the at bats he has more home runs and RBIs um so that's encouraging to see um and it makes a look like a genius well he is a genius and he's so good at his job um 10 steps ahead always so I don't know I'm I'm worried about starting pitching but I'm not worried about our Braves we still have the highest percent chance to make it to the World Series of any team in baseball and it's by like 10 like we have a 20 chance I still don't like that I don't it's so high it's too early and it's very high like no team has a 20 chance like it's maybe 10 for the absolute best team but yeah anything above that I'm like well the playoff baseball just like weeds out teams even the best ones like it does like the Braves and the Dodgers last year immediately and then the Mets were also out and they were one of the best teams last year as well so it does you just don't know what's gonna happen you don't I I really I don't know baseball is fun for that reason but I I love seeing us up there though it's cool that we finally have a good team uh that's getting notarized for being a good like getting known for to be a good team nationally like I think and maybe the Braves have always been kind of that because they actually have a brand name unlike the rest of Atlanta sports but yeah it is it is cool the Braves have just been so consistently good and then with TBS and Ted Turner widely viewed as well so that America helps but yeah they we're the team that demands respect in Atlanta uh fortunately we have one of those uh as for the other teams maybe not so much we're not there man uh one of the teams that hasn't demanded enough respect probably the Hawks yeah you want to talk about him a little bit yeah let's get into the Hawks um so for the Hawks if you are a Avid hoop head and you listen to The Old Man of the three that's JJ redick's podcast yeah you might have heard this last week Hawks and NBA Lottery Kevin herder was on there former Hawks light the beam this year with Sacramento Kings as they made the playoffs for the first time longest drought in sport or in any sports for playoffs like 27 years he got put up in the first round right they did but they played last year they played the performers oh Golden State play Gold stage they played the former Champs and they took him to six seven games they win seven so I mean it was a uh good bout they had but yeah he he said he came out and said he was asked about what happened with the Hawks he said and they're talking about the Eastern Conference Finals around he said well that was almost the start of our downfall was the run that we went on herder told JJ uh we won before we were expected to win or before we should have won let's call it that just put a fast forward on our whole timeline and I don't think as a team as a whole we were fully at that point um the Hawks have gone 84 and 80 since then getting twice bounced twice in the first round um he said the expectations for that team just went through the roof for the next year because we made a Conference Finals and it was Conference Finals or finals or bust and maybe it's a unit that wasn't where we were at yet and I'll be honest and if Aaron was here he would Echo this I was I'm guilty for that I'm guilty for saying oh expectation just went through the roof because I thought we were there um and based on that run we had it seemed like we were there but listening to herder and actually like that's the thing is all of our opinions are based on the outside you don't know what's going on inside it could be like you see every year team go on a crazy run that probably doesn't wasn't supposed to be there yeah hell I talked about in the NFL it happens all the time in the playoffs because oh it is the best of one it's the best of one it doesn't I'm telling you right now Super Bowl winner is not always the best team I'm just gonna say it it's not always the best team I think the other sports more often than not have the best team winning at all for the Super Bowl yeah it's not always the best team and now a lot of times it is but sometimes it's not and that's part of it it's part of the best of one but I just wanted to talk about this because I think there's a lot of Truth in that and I think there was a lot of unfair expectations for them and John Collins came out when talking about the Nate McMillan thing later and said that name McMillan's more for a team that's mature ready where they just weren't there yet a bunch of young guys like you think about John Collins as one of the oldest guys on the team and he was still only like in his fifth year or something like that at that point um which is relatively young NBA wise because I think LeBron you're 18. um all right is that right you're 18 or you're 20. I don't know he's he's been only forever um I think it's your 20 actually sorry he's 38 you're 20. yeah so if you think about it NBA players typically hit their Prime between year five and seven and they stay in their Prime from like year seven to year 13 14. it's been getting later actually um and someone like LeBron's broken all the definition of what that looks like for sure he is he is but I think there's a lot of Truth in this and I think um it sucks that that happens in sports sometimes because I I liked the core we had there and that run did give unfair expectations in that if you look at the Heat and the reason I want to bring this up is you look at the heat um I kind of want to talk about where they're at now as they are one game away from going to the finals is the eight scene I'm curious do you feel like the heat were a team that also over performed too quickly because we're talking about the covid year they were in the finals two years ago and they lost to the Lakers right yeah in 20 uh 2020 yeah they did and well I won't say they overformed because last year they're the number one seed coming out of the playoffs are coming into the playoffs of the East and they were they played like the best team in basketball they did get bounced by the Celtics last year I don't think it's that they over performed I actually think um part of what is so good about their success and why they're successful is their continuity they've had over the last three or four years the only player they lost from last year's team was uh PJ PJ Tucker yeah who's now playing for the Philly who are on vacation now but that's the only player they really lost and it was a big loss for them and that's why you kind of saw them go down from the first dollar to eight um but if we're going to be honest about it I I part of the reason they're in the uh Eastern corresponder now is part of its luck grit coaching continuity and Jimmy buckets and like I want to talk a little bit about this the continuity they've had because the team's been the same base team since that 2020 run helps them and has helped them work through tough times and Eric Spoelstra is the definition of continuity he's the best coach in the NBA right now he is what we talk about all the time coaching doesn't matter except for it does in the NBA and he's the definition of when it matters yeah um he's he's definitely out coaching the hell out of Missoula right now in these playoffs he's making him look dumb what do you think they have one Superstar really with Jimmy Butler and then that's it baby mama bio is above average um and he's their second best player and I would say he's probably a top 30 player so it helps like the same with the Hawks the Hawks are the same way Trey young or Superstar and then John Tamer is a top 30 player so like it we're kind of a similar boat the difference is the rest of their team's built around those guys they're defensive minded they're good Shooters they're gritty um and they're not afraid to do all the dirty work that the Hawks are so bad about like we're so bad and then if you also think about like DeAndre Hunter is our small forward he's kind of a probably a replacement player like I don't think he starts on a lot of different teams and Jimmy Butler and a lot of these teams best players started that position so it's hard when you're at a deficit at one of the key positions in basketball um the reason I say luck is because like I was talking about earlier onto kumpo got hurt in that series I do not think that he they might get through the Bucks maybe I don't think they get as far as they have the way they have without that because if you look at their games they took the Knicks to they took them six games to beat the Knicks but they beat the Bucks in five and now what that does for you is if you look at the Celtics they had to go to six and seven in the last two series and the Hawks were Scrappy like it was a six game series was a scrappy six game series 76ers take them all the way to seven so that by the time they get to the heat they're a little tired whereas the it's a little bit opposite for the heat Nick series um and then especially with the Bucks having so you get more time off and that time off does matter yeah I really do think it matters uh the luck the other luck part it's not really luck but if you Miami was down three points with three minutes left in the play-in game against Chicago and they end up winning that game by double digits and it's just like that run has really set the tone and set the pace for the rest of this playoff series for them so what I'm trying to compare here is that I do think the Hawks had unfair expectations but like those expectations happen because you win winning always raises expectations yeah um but sometimes you would wish in sports they're a little bit more patience especially when your star at that point it's only in year four um or year three going to year four like can you practice a little bit more patience to maybe see if you can develop these guys a little more but Nate McMillan was never the guy for that we've talked about that several times Ali wasn't but yeah I just thought it was a really interesting conversation and I think it Kevin herder pointed out like I like the peel back of the curtain to be able to hear what he has to say about that because I mean he's a instrumental part of the team makes sense but I mean I think you see it all the time in sports I think you see overachieving leaving to expectations that aren't fake or whether they're fair or not they become the expectations well hopefully we go for more of a an approach now that we have a core like that we build around from here without more turnover so we have cherry young we have uh Quinn sniper Snyder and that's the big deal and I think you hear all the time heat culture heat culture and that all comes from Air exposure he's been their coach for over 10 years now he's been with her organization for 20 years um maybe that just proves like you know it can be beneficial to hold on to these guys longer than you think which is interesting because like coach Bud was with the Hawks when we were the number one seed back in yeah 2015 or something like that he left us because of the I mean there's a long like history of what all happened there and our GM at a time has had some remarks that were racist and he says he was reading a tweet or reading a message or whatever it was but he got fired and then Bud became the GM when he shouldn't have been and he did a horrible job creating the roster and then he ended up just leaving us together the box and why not I mean you go to have the best player in the pool and now you know a couple of years off of him winning a championship with the bucks he got let go already too because it was on which is I just you know I don't know why these guys that have won championships are proven winners they don't get more leash I guess um because you can like what's a better situation I know the Spurs have not been good in a couple years but you know Greg Popovich um I mean he's he led the Spurs along with Tim Duncan for so many years yeah and they're always relevant and now you see the same thing with the heat in Eric's bolstra and getting these teams to over perform and it makes such a difference to have a core of players that are going to be there right so Ultra he's been in the finals once since LeBron's been there but he hasn't won a final since LeBron but they haven't fired him because Pat Riley understands he understands the continuity you know but he also understands what he has since bolsterer and spolsterer like I said he's more than just a coach there he's ingrained in the culture he's part of the front office he's part of the like and that matters it's all interesting because like back when LeBron was there it wasn't really he wasn't given recognition as much I would say yeah absolutely I don't even know if until recently people really thought that he was the best coach that LeBron had played for but I think looking back through his career now he definitely was yeah yeah he's not even close which is super interesting yeah and I think I mean you can also say the same about Jimmy buckets like he's been tossed around the league he started got drafted by um the Bulls 30th pick overall then he ended up going to I can't remember if it was Minnesota first or the 76ers first but he played for both of those teams before he ended up in the heat in um Minnesota refused to pay him and said they went with cat and it's like well y'all made a huge mistake huge mistake like I mean because he has playoff Jimmy's a thing I mean he's ascended this playoffs and Nicole not take away anything from Nicole jokic she's also plays for well um I know last week we talked about what we thought would happen both things I thought would happen haven't happened at all the Celtics are down 3-0 and then the Lakers are also down 3-0 I'll be honest the Lakers it's very different series though it would be very um you'd be diminishing the Lakers effort if you said oh they're they're about to get swept because every game's been closed so they lost the first game by six lost the second game by five and they lost his last game by 11 but it was it was a cup it was a really close game until like the last minute yeah um everything's been close and I'll be honest it's taking a whole team effort for the Nuggets to win those games every other day Davis every other Davis uh Anthony Davis he like like his name is he's been every other game not there so we'll see if that ends tonight I actually don't think the Lakers will get swept but if they do I don't think it's in the world a lot of people are saying like is this LeBron is a tarnish his legacy no it's his 20th year he just beat they just beat the Golden State Warriors who are coming off the championship of last year like that was a that was the biggest series if he does if he only if he loses the Western Conference Finals good for him like I mean how many finals did he make in a row like oh yeah yeah who cares like six the Michael Jordan thing too is people act like he won the six in a row where he won three in a row retired for a year and a half two years and then won three more in a row and then retired again for a couple years and then came back and wasn't great like people forget about that and LeBron what he's done for 20 years has just been incredible so and nothing diminishes what he's done I he his legacy is already set in stone he's yes to me the best ever play um but I understand those who want to argue Michael Jordan and we can have that argument another day well speaking of LeBron James let's talk about who could potentially be the the number one pick of this year's NBA draft and the lottery just happened last week to a lot of fans dismay uh yeah so who won the who won the lottery this year so the Spurs won the lottery um they will have they will be drafted in Victor when by Anna which is the crazy part about this is Victor Homeland is from France their last Spurs have been known to have great French players and Tony Barker who is one of the most notable ones so this is like where all of France wanted him to end up playing for the Spurs yeah and it just happened to work out that way some people want to say it's rigged I heard a radio show talk about it and just talk about all the reasons they think it's rigged and I don't know like I don't know if him Landing the Spurs shows that it's rigged or not what was their percentage like were those type of the best they were tied for the best percentage to get them um you know that means that they had like a fair fair shot at it it's not yeah if you're looking at like League parody it it honestly was really good that he went to the Spurs there were some a couple teams where if he would have went there like if he's as good as they say he's going to be like if he is the next LeBron because like that's that's where he's at when you're talking about um his like how highly touted he is that is how highly touted he is he's the best Prospect since LeBron James and some people some people argue he's better I don't I don't know if he is he's having five and two to three and has handles like a point guard so oh my God yeah so he could he could be better than LeBron as all things are said and done if you look at it just as physical tools he is small like like thin so you really about that in the NBA yeah is he played a couple years like in the European League now so Victor Biana age he is 19. um something impressive is he actually has averaged a double double in Europe averaging 21 points a game you're like well that's how many points 21 points a game and European basketball professional basketball is a [ __ ] ton of points like Luca didn't even average that many points a game when he played over there it's just a different different game this is different all around a little bit more probably well defense is a little more it's it's officiated a little differently so they can be a little bit more um I guess cool physical and defense so if you look at the Spurs their last winning season came in 2018 so it's been one two three four four losing seasons in a row um I'm fine with them getting Victor wimiana because they don't they don't win instantly they're not a plug and play all right now we can go to the finals they're a team that still wants to build around them like yes it will turn them around and I don't think there's gonna be like the Tim Duncan turn around so if you don't if you're not aware of this when Tim Duncan got drafted by the Spurs which is pretty crazy um they were 20 and 62. the year they drafted them or the year before they drafted them and they drafted them and then they went 56 and 26 the next year holy [ __ ] yeah so it was like the best turnaround ever um part of it is because they actually had some other good players on that team as well and that were injured the year before because the year before that they were 59 and 23. so it was weird they were like 60 62 and 20 59 23 then 20 and 62 draft Tim Duncan and then right back up to being great obviously they've won uh one two three four five finals with Tim Duncan including being the Heat and Lebron in one of them um it is weird that every time I feel like the Spurs get the first overall pick they do get like a generational Talent so Tim Duncan me in the last one um the one before that His Name Escapes me right now is Robinson hold up I don't sound strong it sounds right Duncan Robinson is that it it's a little before our time it is I think it's Duncan Robinson though uh oh wait no that's not him hold up Spurs it is Duncan Robinson oh no I am right cool so wait no Twin Towers it is David Robinson I was close David Robinson so they were called the Twin Towers back in the day him in um Tim Duncan so it is weird that they do get generational talent but I I don't know I don't this doesn't make me feel like it is rigged but something I want to bring up though is because a lot of people do and we had Anthony in the Discord talking about it it's been all over radios people think it's rigged and the people always like to point back to the Frozen envelope which what this was was back in the 80s the Knicks have been bad for years NBA popularity was going down um this is back when like if big big basketball won games back then I wasn't shooting it was the big guys right dominating the post Patrick Ewing was the number one pick coming out of college um and he had just won a NCAA Championship for Georgetown the year before that and so Georgetown as you know is up up in that kind of area I guess it's DC right Georgetown I think yes that sounds right yeah around that but yeah so New York ends up getting the first pick in the draft and they say it's a frozen envelope or a folded envelope so that way David Stern could pick out which one was the Knicks because that was the weird part about it it's in like a ball a cylinder and he reaches in there and grabs an envelope um and so I I guess my question is for you is do you does the lottery because of the way it is is that why people think it's rigged because unlike every other sport where it's like all right you're the last place you get the first pick this one there is that there out of all sports you can rig it like the lottery is riggable because of that because of the fact that it's like based on a percentage it's not just yeah straightforward right and it's not like the ping pong balls where you see it get popped out pop up like I kind of like that like this year was online like it was like a generator so like you could say like well what they hacked the code or what if like or what if they manipulate the code to make it worse like you don't know they're not peeling back to let you see how this works so I see why people are very suspect of it um I see both sides of it though because like it could you could say it's like the most Fair system or like it doesn't promote as much tanking even though we've seen that uh in the NBA still at times but yeah it discourages it really because you could be the worst team in tank and still not get the best pick um which I kind of like that factor um yeah but I don't know at the same time it feels like maybe big Market teams or like historically good teams do end up winning the draft lottery or like the Cavs they won twice like it feels uneven I think in years past I've said like it needs to be way differently like if you've gotten a top a top like a number one overall pick that in the past five years or something like that that needs to affect your win percentage Yeah yeah it just means like you haven't used that pick or like you maybe you [ __ ] up that pick you shouldn't get it again and like Atlanta never gets the number one overall pick even though we've been awful for years and years yep and so it feels unfair and it feels like you know some of these teams that like maybe you know like who do the Cavs say the second time Kyrie no Kyrie was a the first time no oh it was the other guy did they get did they get it three times they got yeah so LeBron was early 2000s they got it twice again it might have been Andrew Wiggins let's see Cavs first overall picks um LeBron was 2003 Kyrie was 2011 and Anthony Bennett was 2013. and then Andrew Wiggins of 2014. they had it four times yeah what the hell see like that that's exactly what I'm talking about like but that's weird though like here's my thing is so the guy was arguing that the Spurs getting the over first overall pick was like it's rigged because it's dispersed and I'm like well the Spurs aren't a big market like yeah that doesn't make sense to me like there are historical team right they are but the Cavs aren't historical team LeBron's the only reason they're anyone even knows about that that one would be like a narrative driven so like with them getting Kyrie and then like getting like decent on their own again that's what lured him back to Cleveland to actually get a championship which that was you know and they went to multiple finals yeah and they ended up trading Andrew Wiggins for um yeah and that's the crazy part Anthony Bennett was such a bus that they got the year before that like literally busted in the first year so yeah I don't know it is weird and I guess you're you're right in some ways that um that's so here's my thing I don't think it's rigged but it's the fact that it is riggable and you can like you just said you can make a narrative driven or you can do it for the market or you can do it for um the historic aspect of it there there is always there's always gonna be that question there's there's a lack of transparency about the process that creates issues but yeah I mean until they decide to open that up uh I think the only way it would work for me is if they hand count the ping pong balls they put them in the ball so that way you know the odds are all correct and they put them in there on live TV and then they have a kid like a little kid go up there and he get I want I want members of the audience to go up there and blindfold and grab or something they don't even have the air like putting the correct amount of balls in there but they didn't even air this is just live stream like okay here's one this is this team here's another one this team like to get the odds correct or whatever but yeah like if they're just running in like I don't know like a random generator that you can assign percentages to or something uh I like to imagine they just like Google like free online generator or name generator yeah but it's just like they need to show everybody what's happening if they if they don't want to have this discussion because it's a cool process I I actually enjoy that it's it's a lot of like kind of like a show like a game show Almost that they're doing um but it's kind of like a quirky thing that they do that other sports don't yeah well it's the other sport that does do it actually is hockey so NHL is the one other sport that has a lottery and so this year um the Chicago Blackhawks who are historic historic they're part of the original six black what Blackhawks Chicago Blackhawks yeah um yeah not not what you thought I said um they are historic they're one of the original six NHL teams which is a big deal for hockey um they're one of the major Market teams they had the third best chances of getting the first overall pick and wouldn't you know the best Prospect in hockey history is in this year's draft and guess who gets the first pick Chicago so over Anaheim and over Columbus who had both better odds than them to get it so people this year were also saying that's rigged and I mean I have a really good friend at work who loves hockey it's his favorite sport um he Chicago's his favorite team and he's like sus he says it's very sus that they got it and I know the odds are there like it could happen it's 11 it's 11.5 chance they could have gotten the first pick um Anaheim had an 18 and a half percent chance and Columbus had a 13 and a half percent chance but Chicago ended up getting it it is a little sus when that stuff happens it's how percentages work though like it is it is I mean the only other option is to like I don't even know what you can do really besides just change it to like the worst team gets the first pick then that takes away like they're Dancing Yeah Yeah I I it's a damned if you do Dan if you don't thing it's it's odd and it's one of those things where it's like in principle everyone agrees that no that makes sense and then when it happens everyone's like no that has to be rigged it has to be rigged so I don't know it's interesting it is interesting it's funny how that works um I don't know let us know in the comments guys if you are a pro lottery or against lottery or you're Pro Victor ramayana going to disperse I think it's a great for the NBA days going there so overall I mean if that's the narrative they wanted they picked the right narrative to go with because it is great like it is the best landing spot for him it's best for the NBA when it comes to parody um and for Chicago they've been bad the last couple years so the fact that this is for hockey in the sense that they're getting the best Prospect and it's good for the sport of hockey when Chicago is good so yeah yeah for sure um well speaking of another Atlanta sports team that rarely gets the number one overall pick that we're talking about dude yeah they don't when's the last time Matt Ryan was Falcons Schedule Release pick number two I think or three he's picking number three I think that was the closest we've been let's see Falcons overall wait what should I say found in this number one overall draft pick all right so Falcons have select number one overall four times Tommy Nobis Steve Bartowski Andre Bruce and Michael Vick we haven't had a first overall pick since 2002 is that right yeah and we've had seven losing seasons in the last like we've been bad like we've I mean don't we were wrong though we're also going through our best stretch of franchise history too in that period of time so and it makes sense a little bit but in our last 10 years you know we've had seven losing seasons in our last 10 years and that includes our Super Bowl run isn't it nuts yeah that's bad oh it's a bad luck that's probably why we you know we haven't won a Super Bowl as a franchise it's a it's interesting maybe like you know if there was a lottery for NFL that should be considered part of the equation is like this there needs to be a whole algorithm of like these are all the different factors and like almost nobody would be able to understand what's going on but like the amount of titles yes yeah so like the Spurs should be hurt by the fact that they've won so many titles instead of helped but then people would argue well why would you punish a team for the past when then the president had been really bad because this person's been one of the worst teams in basketball if I was a nurse if I was an owner I would be like what the hell why can't I build any because it it goes on for years and years right so because the Spurs were so good in the early 2000s I think that's the institutional problem no I don't know systematic is that what you're saying I don't know what either of those mean and I'm just gonna ignore it uh you're throwing a lot of big words at me and I feel threatened um I feel threatened I don't I don't like it I don't like how I feel but I mean I don't know it just like like I say and the Spurs winning all those times in the early 2000s now they're like a glorified franchise right as opposed to like the Hornets or like you know the Hawks yeah the hawk suit I don't win yeah so like yeah maybe the percentage should be higher for teams that haven't won the finals or haven't won a Super Bowl but that would mean you'd want but the thing is these these um leagues want their better teams these historic teams these teams that have big markets they want them to do better they feel like they haven't seen them there's bigger fan bases because they're good there's hundreds of millions of dollars at stake in sponsorships and advertising deals and TV deals and all that because of these and that's why I think that's why a lot of people think they are rigged but what when you get a random team that wins like I don't know who's a who's a good example what's better the Cubs or the Guardians to win I don't know I mean it's hard to say because like the Cubs the Cubs are a historical franchise right they are even even though they have sucked a lot of the time but you know the Guardians who have never won I don't think I don't know well I don't know if they will yeah but it's been a really long time it's been 40 something years I think they're the longest drought um but that that raises a new type of fan so like a kid growing up and they see the Guardians win a World Series well now you're thinking long-term hating we don't do that oh I do yeah money cash now we want the money tomorrow that's that's also true yeah and then or today actually so I mean I know I get what you're saying and I I I agree with you and I think it's best for the sport but what's best for the sport and what's best for the money now and that's that's why there's arguments that it's rigged let us know like I don't I don't even know how to feel about it I'm 50 50 if it's rigged or not it makes sense that it can make sense that it is but I also like to think in the fairness of sports and that it's not but at the end of the day there's a lot of money behind all of this so anyways let's get back into the Falcons I don't even know where it happens yeah no we uh we're talking about draft picks this is for the Falcons first off everyone's training camp uh darling from last year Jared Bernhardt feel the burn he retired today so he I guess he saw the writing on the wall that he probably wasn't gonna get much playing time he's a former lacrosse uh National Champion or I guess they won professionally too um in America lacrosse champion and so he retired today so feel the burn won't be happening this year I was kind of hoping to make the rosters wide receiver five did not happen and to replace him Falcon sign wide receiver we signed um JJ arsega Whiteside who was a former High he was he was dropped really high by The Eagles he played most recently with the Seahawks so he came in another huge guy we love our Pig receivers so he will be competing for hours here four or five something like that it doesn't really matter we've talked about it wide receiver two all this stuff doesn't really matter for the Falcons because of the just the um the roster we do have in the depth chart we have in the I guess the way we're going to try to win yeah mostly Run game or better better be well that that and tight ends too like you're you're gonna Kyle Pitts is going to be your wide receiver too yeah so uh what else is going on with the Falcons I feel like it's it's kind of uh starting Desmond Ritter uh has been on some interviews recently so he threw out the first pitch yesterday if you're watching that and then he was on um at the Reds game yeah and he was either on Fox Sports or ESPN or he was on an interview he had a nine minute interview somewhere I watched it on Twitter today um they're asking questions about how like how it feels like that the Falcons passed over uh Lamar Jackson to go with him I was like that's yeah that's not a really good like uh that's not what happened but okay but yeah more Jackson obviously wasn't actually available yes we and we all know that so it wasn't an open market exactly so nothing besides that's really going on right now the Falcons you're gonna maybe I think a lot of people are kind of hoping that Corey Davis is trade Target but uh Jets Insider Frank uh he let he let me know he doesn't think the Jets will trade or cut Corey Davis um he said because Corey Davis was like their wide receiver three I looked at the roster though he's technically Riders here for four because you got um Garrett Wilson will be one alanizards two their slot is now Miko Hardman S3 so Corey Davis is four there and 10 and a half million dollars for your wide receiver four is a lot of money to be paying water table for sure I would say I'd say he's wide receiver three and a half because McColl will be in different sets so like if they're like going with a deep ball McCall's gonna be in but like if it's a short yardage situation oh really like yeah Corey Davis has burners dude he's fast a bigger guy I'm pretty sure let me check actually Corey Davis 40 time I just feel like we haven't seen McColl in like short situations really maybe like Jet Jet or wheel routes or I don't know Corey Davis runs a 448 what 10 years ago when he was drafted 2009 yeah no it wasn't 2009. when did he get drafted 2016 2017. ah it's right there yeah dang hey I mean he'd probably still turn it on I don't know I don't know so I he would be my ideal Target but I don't want to trade for him I don't want to pay 10.5 million for Corey Davis um so if they cut him I'm signing up other guys would be interested in or Hunter Renfro also from Vegas we've got Matt Collins but rinfro would be great here um and then honestly besides that I was told that Bajan is such a good receiver we don't need a slot receiver Bajan will just be our slot receiver well that's the thing I don't care personally I don't think we do I I really don't see it as an issue you always need depth though so like that's that's the only reason I think we should go out and get somebody um but it's to me it doesn't have to be anyone to note like it just needs to be someone who can play uh like are you satisfied that Matt Collins is essentially our wide receiver three or honestly maybe four no these are two I'm saying as in like Kyle Pitts is our wider yeah our second option okay I guess I should say like our offensive options yeah no I am he had 57 receptions last year for 690 yards and four touchdowns that's pretty good I wonder if our first round draft pick next year is going to be a wide receiver I think it that's the only thing that makes sense we're gonna draft offensive skill position then that's what we need we need like a solid wide receiver too Drake the funny part is and Kyle will be four four yeah and I don't know maybe we'll just take another tied into her no it's like rock Bowers I've told holy [ __ ] very awesome I I hope we're not we better not be there next year yeah he's got to be top five pick right he's a freak he's a freak yes that's like as a Georgia Homer obviously but yeah no but he should be though everybody has to acknowledge how good he is yeah cause he's like he can do this is a weird comparison Bruno Ben scaronski or the like the small water tuber the Rams he's not that great but he's like in a lot of different positions he's like a much better version of him like Brock Bowers doesn't come in just as a tight end he's like Kyle Pitts but in a different way than Kyle Pitts Scott Pitts kind of takes you over the top Brock Bowers is going to do all the small stuff intermediate stuff and take it over the top like the guy took a Jet Sweep for like a 70 yard touchdown this that's not natural it's not right what do you think what do you think his party time is I don't know do I mean I don't think I do it yeah until yeah not until they start like practicing food yeah I don't know he's he's got burners though like I don't I don't know if he's Kyle Pitts fast because Kyle Pitts is what'd he run the Ford five no four four dude if he might run a 4-4 yeah might run a 4-4 he breaks away from people I'd like to see him like in pads what is he around a 48 because like I feel like he's a guy like he puts the helmet on and then he's like he gets faster for some reason oh yeah right like yeah that's incredible the way like Titans don't have that pull away speed I'm trying to think of another guy like maybe Gronk in a different way he's more of like a like in his prime Gronk was like a rough and tumble like he had that there's no tight end but it's like more of a stride thing right there's no time in with that I'm trying to think maybe like a Vernon Davis no Vernon Davis Vernon Davis would be he had he had burners like that back like when they were in this like making runs with Eric Smith Vernon Davis ran a 4-3-8 okay that's a good comparison then that is Vernon Davis he's got that pull away speed wow yeah I forgot about him dude I couldn't call him Kaepernick years yes in San Francisco um legit um yeah but yeah honestly I would love to see that but it would be also be ridiculous if we were at that high no for that high we better not be taking that damn time we have started seeing some better projections coming out about like around the schedule next year yes a lot of people are projecting or a lot of sources are projecting that the Falcons will win the division which is what we have said that we should based on continuity absolutely and talent that we've brought in and let's talk about that in the off season yeah Falcons win loss record this is a way too early win loss record because I don't think the roster like although we have done the draft and we've had major free agency there's still some free agents out there like there are still some names out there that I think the Falcons may go after Falcons are looking around 10 million dollars left and you probably want to save 5 million of that during the season of emergency see stuff um so give me 15 names that we might go after right now give me 35 minutes I'll tell you some names Clowney's still out there uh someone you can pick up um you have no I don't think we'll go for this but nakama kasu is still out there um there like my point is there's some veterans still out there who are looking to sign later and I think the Falcons may go after one or two of those maybe the receiver position not exactly sure might be more appealing than uh in past Seasons too because like you get better in players like that most of the time they're wanting to font they're wanting to try to win a Super Bowl yeah so like yeah you know not that not saying we're a contender this year for the Super Bowl per se but we're in the right direction that's like why Elias Campbell came and played for us yeah if you look at the NFC too it's a much easier division than the AFC right now and like like we've talked about if you're just trying to get like once you get the playoffs anything can happen especially if you're kind of hot going in the Falcons are in a good spot for that we're in a really good spot for that if Desmond Ritter and like Klass Campbell said and is like all of his different interviews he's done that part of the reason he's coming because he believes him does generator like he does enough to believe that you can get to the playoffs with him not he's not saying like oh he's gonna be a top 10 guy but he's saying he can be a top 15 guy that's what we kind of want out of him he's a top 15 passer this year than the skies we're sitting pretty yeah he's been really pretty honestly if he's top 20 we're probably extremely good if we were top 20 if he stopped 20 we're a top 10 offense maybe top 12. if he's top 15 we're a top seven top eight offense yeah and if he somehow gets like the top 12 top 10 we're a top five offense like that's what you're talking about yeah um but everything like everything hinges on Desmond Ritter like it all it all does hinge on Desmond Ritter it's more important than the wide receiver too or wide receiver three or whatever you want to call it it's more important than a lot of those things it all hinges on him um so if you look around Fox Sports actually has the lowest projected record for us at eight and nine um wow yeah what should be a major disappointment um so they had NFC South will be tightly packed again and I have the Falcons missing the division Title by one game and game the Falcons only only one true Road game in their first six weeks but is a tough competition flip a close loss at Lions Titans and jets they might be on the right they might be on the right track if you flip those games is what they say but they give a eight and nine DraftKings has our win like so this is for odds they have Falcons of the highest win total in the division or second highest behind the Saints they give the Saints nine and a half wins they give the Falcons eight and a half wins as they're over under I'd go over on the Falcons eight and a half wins I'd hit that right now yeah I would maybe we need to find a way to gamble yeah over is over plus 110 under -130 might keep us in the game a little bit more wait that means the under is the the leading BET right if it's minus 130 for under plus 110 for over I think negative numbers are good right I always thought they were it's been a while it's been a while since I looked at this so like if you if you bet on a team that has the negative number then I'm pretty sure like you're betting on the favorite yes yeah yeah so that means you get less of a payout right exactly so yeah no for sure so the Falcons right now you get more of a payoff you bet the over on DraftKings so yeah I'm I'm smashing that right now and I know it's way too early but eight and a half we won seven games two years in a row with Matt Ryan's corpse and a horrible team and then last year was Marcus Mariota plus Ritter like a new one seven both times and this year we have the easiest guys listen here this is an incredible the easiest strength the schedule of any team if you don't know what the schedule is right now I'll go over with you right this second and yeah I wanted to hear your win loss just off the top of your head right now read off real quick I I think I thought at least 10 10 is the over honor for me that's how I'm feeling too so and maybe it changed your mind right week week one Carolina Panthers at home like we're we're the home team yes you should win that home home game versus a rookie quarterback yes week two Green Bay Packers at home yes Jordan love Yeah and they're they're without their best receiver and their best in their career quarterback I think that could be a sneaky good game though like I could because their defense was still pretty good last year I'm not gonna lie like Green Bay had a decent defense top top 15. but I agree 2-0 Detroit Lions at Detroit prior loss let's give that one a loss yeah so 2-1 week four at Jacksonville was in London actually that's a toss-up for me yeah two two week five back home against Houston that's a win yeah three and two week six at home against the Commanders that should be a win four and two I agree week seven at Tampa Bay I think that should be a win me too five and two Tampa Bay they're starting Baker Mayfield I will say this though I think Tampa Bay has enough talent to be maybe a one-on-one kind of thing for us potentially potentially depends on how they play like that's one of the teams I want to see but I agree five and two uh week eight at Tennessee I don't know enough about the toss-up that's a toss-up that's a toss-up for me too I almost I'm leaning towards a win but we can what do you want though loss yeah sure let's give him a lot all right five and three uh week nine at Minnesota no home home against Minnesota I think Minnesota is the biggest fraud I think they're such a fraud I think we win that game at home Desmond Raiders never lost a home game in college or the NFL that's that's actually pretty cool um yeah I'll say okay that would win six and three I don't believe in Kirk really yeah me neither six and three all right week 10 at Arizona it should be a win yeah seven and three terrible then you have your bye week 12. what are we playing we're at seven and three seven and three oh [ __ ] going to buy yeah week 12 uh home versus the Saints when yeah eight and three we'll have week 13. yeah week 13 at the Jets let's say loss all right so that's eight and four week 14 versus Tampa at home do you want to split that yes okay so eight and five week 15 at Carolina twice yeah sure so that's where was I at that's nine and five yeah week 16 at uh home versus the Colts that's a win yeah ten and five week 17 uh at the Bears there's a toss-up toss-up I think they'll be a better team this year but I think we could win it yeah let's say win all right 11-5 and then week 18 at New Orleans loss 11 and 6. eleven six guys I think that was being pretty generous too to be honest there's a lot of games of like well there weren't a ton of toss-ups that I was like oh we'll take we'll say the Falcons win that one if it's a Top-Up I was like oh let's just let's go to the other team yeah yeah I that's what I'm saying there is a there's a world where the Falcons may go like 14-3 this year and it's not because of how good we are it's because of how bad the schedule is but also that we could be good I wonder if we run into an issue of like like the Hawks a few years ago of being too good too soon overachief too early so maybe that's not as much of a thing in football I don't know I don't think it is because I mean I will say this I think like if you look at the Vikings last year this is 20 22 Minnesota Vikings so if you look at the Vikings last year they finished the year if there ever was once the Vikings from last year they finished the year 13 and four with a negative uh Point differential negative three oh my God how yes yes that's hard to do it is hard to do absolutely it's actually kind of ridiculous so if you look at the Falcons for example if you want to compare Terry Fontana's first year Terry fonto second year um this was a blurb about ranking GMS I think Terry font know his 21st according to um Roto Sports um we were seven and ten under Matt Ryan 2021 but more notably we were 7 and 10 in 2022 and Marcus Marion Desmond Ritter despite the identical records Atlanta's point to Virtual improved from negative 146 to negative 21. so we were much better much better last year so my point is this I as you all know this listeners and you hate him I believe in Arthur Smith as a coach I think he's a good coach I do I really do and I think the proof's in the pudding when it comes to playing above our expectations especially when you look at a talent perspective and if you think about how much the Falcons improve Talent this off season like just to think about all the names we added especially on the defensive side um I really do and think about who we lost no one we didn't lose anyone of no like yeah you didn't lose anymore you're like ah frick we lost him we lost Calvin really but we'd already lost him like that was right past the opponent we've already lost him um so I really do think like 11 wins I think I would still I think it's safe to say maybe 12. like I could see each other over unders it what eight and a half right now eight and a half yeah smash it now too before it starts going up if you look at CBS they project US 10 and 7 division winners if you look at uh if we if we lose the division and win nine games do we fire art so we'd be nine and eight and we lose the division when we definitely should win it well nine and eight might win you the division this year obviously well but that's not my hypothetical yes I am trying to give you a hard decision the Falcons hire did the Falcons fire art yes probably not do would I fire him probably yeah it really here's my thing is this a super weak schedule but that that's Art's Choice that's completely his choice and what he's done honestly I could see a situation too like if Ritter let's say game three he gets hurt for two three games if heinecke comes in and is good he's the type of guy that could take over the job and Ritter do nothing wrong I think he could probably very good he's very good he's the starting caliber quarterback to be honest in my opinion I would say he's a top 32 quarterback that's what you're saying for starting caliber yeah but I would say he's between 20 and 32. sure could be yeah but he can get hot too um he can't get hot let's say this if you compare last year's Commander's team to our team this year our roster is much more talented that commanders yeah much more talented that's especially when we get in every position yeah so actually I think you're right dude I think even if Richard is bad I think Heineken can get you the playoffs for this team so yes you should you should fire art if we don't make the playoffs this year you fire art especially with a run in defense but I will say this Ivy I don't have an expectation of having to win games in the playoffs I would like to I would like to that's not my expectation for this team yet now the expectations like last year can change like they will change like as we if we start off the year like we just said and we're six and two my expectations are going to change number six and two we look good like you know what I mean like we're like that's a good football team um USA Today they had two guys for us and today do it for the Falcons wire uh one guy said ten and seven the other guy said twelve and five um yeah so I mean here's the thing guys like we just talked about the schedule it's not the hardest schedule the world there are some teams on there I will say too what I like is is an easy schedule but you have some good litmus tests Jacksonville is an up and coming team that you're kind of you're probably you're probably you're behind them um development wise because they just made the playoffs this last year and they gave the Chiefs to run for their money um so you're probably a little behind them Detroit another team that's probably a little ahead of you development wise but these are good litmus tasks the Jets another team still ahead of you probably development wise like um but you're specifically with them honestly it's all because of the quarterback discrepancy there just because well all three of them I got golf I think is the top 15 quarterback uh yeah probably top 12. I'll tell you top 12 quarter I haven't played he played flawlessly last year is that a one year wonder I don't know but I mean if you're basing off last year he gets a batter at him I'll say that for sure yeah so those three games were really good litmus test for us um and the Saints are always going to be out like a good team to play against and then Minnesota I like for us to beat up on them I think they're still like they made the playoffs last year that's a good litmus test I think they're frauds but we'll see if they're better this year I hope I mean for them they're probably hoping to like actually be more worth the record but yeah I mean I just don't see a world where the Falcons don't make the playoffs this year and don't win at least 10 games yeah like 10 games is my as my low I I think probably 11 and 6 is where we'll end up something around that 11-6 maybe I should take my own advice and not be so harsh if we win if we win nine games then maybe maybe would be best to not tear it down and like give a little bit more leeway and like try to keep a core even coaching staff together it depends how you lose those games too like are a couple of those games because of a turnover right at the end of the game or you know what I mean or like something crazy where it's like God or or are we getting our butts kicked like it it I think there's it's really hard to say or if it's like if we lose like three of our last four games or something like that to miss the play right that would be yeah that's a situation where it's like oh we just like we pulled netlanta especially when your last four games are Carolina Indy Chicago New Orleans you shouldn't lose three of those four oh you should win um especially only one of those are home games though so three or four are away but you you should win three of the four if not split half and half um so what I'll say is this like I what I hate about ESPN's and all those shows is that they'll do things like this where it's like oh you should fire the coach if this happens but I was on a podcast we're gonna be here and say like well honestly you got to look at everything you gotta see what happened in those games why did we why do we only go nine and eight when we thought we would go so so and so even if we go nine and eight guys remember smash that DraftKings because it's eight and a half is yeah over under still in the money you're in the green the money um so yeah I mean we'll we will get closer to our expectations and we'll maybe revise this win loss again um as we get closer to this season for sure but I as a Falcons fan you got to feel pretty hopeful we'll take another look at it going into the preseason probably um absolutely yeah we're about an hour 30 in here anything else you want to hit on Aaron's our United guy but they've been playing awful which is well well they haven't been super awful as of late they um we will let's hit them real United Up and Down quick five stripes uh a140 on Wednesday against Colorado Colorado's not a good team but this is what you want to see you want to see a dominant performance and we did dominate 68 possession 27 shots to compare to their six only ten of ours were on target which is like 10 to 27 is not the greatest but you can you can live with it when you had 551 passes to their 262. like you just dominated dominated them it's such a head scratcher within you go and play Chicago this uh Saturday and you tie three three not only do you tie three three they Chicago was down a player at the 26th minute or to a red card and we we also got a player got red carded in the 71st minute but still by that point all the goals in the game have been scored minus the last one so they scored in the 89th minute to tie it Chicago did so another one of those let Downs at the very end of the game um I know Aaron was super upset about the coaching I mean that's where his I messaged him today and said yo how did we lose this game like how how do you lose we dominate The Possession again well 56 to 44. we had the advantage of possession we had 480 passes that are 375 shots 15 to their 10. but listen to this they had three shots on Target and they had three goals like that's where it's at and that's what it comes down to um Gigi um jorgeous yakamakis uh he your ghost Jaco Marcus I think is how you pronounce it he scored two goals he scored a brace even though he came off the bench so that was super impressive super happy to have him again and the big news United wise and we're going to talk about this more in the coming weeks of the summer transfer window comes up is Luis arugio our designated player from Brazil it has now been um uh it's not like we're now uh selling him to another Brazilian team so he will be gone and so that opens up a designated player position spot for us which if you don't know like that's where you can spend your big dollars for a foreign player and so the question is what money do we spend I was looking into this a little bit if you look at it's cool so the United one we do spend more than any other team in MLS when it's coming to designated players we have the three we have four of the five biggest transfers of all time in MLS history is us and three of them are the top three which was theoko Hamada who's our best player right now 14.5 million we paid for him uh pity Martinez who we got um we don't have them anymore this was uh back when 1819 we paid 14.5 million for him and then zico Barco who we have out on loan right now to another team we paid 12.2 million for him luisio was number five on that list at 11.5 million we got from Brazil but if you also look at the transfer away Elena United again has three players in the top ten that we so that means we've got good talent taken from us from other teams uh Miguel amarone being the most famous of the three coming off our championship team 24 million Newcastle paid for him so that's a lot um we made money on all the guys we've traded uh pity Martinez was 16 million and then uh actually I guess we didn't make million at least larujo it's only 9 million so we probably lost a little bit on him but that's to be expected he never lived up to Pocket Change yeah so my my thing was oh who do we think we're going to get and at first I was like looking at Players like oh I want to go get another European player and I went like Melee like all right right mid we got to replace arugio right mid and like Thomas Mueller came to my mind who's out of like place for uh Bayern Munich um I looked at his like his estimated would be like 30 million we're not going to pay that like if you look at like the history the most money anyone's ever spent in MLS is us at 14.5 million yeah we may we might go more more than that but yeah we're not gonna trip yeah no not at all but the cool part is so Garth lagerway who's our general manager he never um Seattle never spent money when he was there never so I was going back and re-watching stuff and people were talking about how the biggest hire was him and I think now he gets to actually spend that money I mean your ghost has been a great sign let's see what he does so I'm excited hey maybe brighter days brighter days indeed I mean we're sitting right there in the still in the playoff hunt I think if things don't improve you might see a short leash for our coach a very short leash so why not yeah do you have any um oh yeah especially when you lose your Chicago who's 14th then we're the fourth team right now so yeah good how do you look are we tied and there's a lot as a tie that felt like I lost so do you have any um wisdom you want to instill with our listeners I have none I'm tired my back hurts no wisdom I'm old okay well you guys wisdom teeth taken out recently guys that's why he has no wisdom anymore I was kidding yeah just like 12 years ago my dad always makes that joke that he's wiser than me because he has his wisdom teeth still so you're not you're not supposed to have them anymore right some people can man if your mouth's big enough I think that's how it works I don't know it's space issue I'm not I'm not 100 sure I'm not a scientist I don't know I mean um all right we're getting out of here y'all have a good week later Deuces before you go if you enjoyed our episode please subscribe leave us a five star review and share with your friends if you'd like to see these mugs all of our video podcasts are now available on YouTube where you can like comment and subscribe for more content follow at blursports on Instagram Tick Tock and Twitter you can also follow us individually at blursblake at blurs Hayden and at a underscore Kai's if you're interested in chatting with us directly join our new Discord Community by typing Discord dot IO slash blurst Sports into your browser as always a huge shout out to our music man oh no for keeping the vibe right and laying down straight slappers every week you can find his information in the show notes thanks again so much for listening and see you next week [Music] thank you