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That's Mozartimmersive.com. We have players like Ian Hap, like Horner, like Bellinger. Lots of stand out guys that you wouldn't really think would produce like that. What do you think?
Like you said, Ian Hap, Marcus Strollman, and they have a couple of guys like Patrick Wissom, 14 Horn runs on the year. He might be a guy at the Cubs, we'll be trading at the trade deadline. Come towards July 28th through August 3rd. I believe it's the trade deadline, right?
Right. So I think for the Cubs, they have a lot of young talent and they have a lot of bright spots. Obviously they had Danzie Swanson on the team. Quote Bellinger, he's injured right now.
He's been out since what? May 15th? May 17th? I said may 15th.
The injury. The injury. Personally, if I'm on the Cubs like GM or whoever makes the decisions, I do not really sign Bellinger because although he wasn't going to be peeing in 2019, he just keeps away his by himself. Then with the Dodgers, when he got to the Cubs, he's been better.
But I think overall, I have on the Cubs, other for something a little bit better than Cody Bellinger. Who else have they had that he stands out? I think you got most of them. I think I really like Strowman.
Hap has been there for a while. I really like him. And Blinger, too. He's been pretty good, but not like two 54 batting average, seven home runs, 1.4 wards to name a few.
But that's it. I think their pitching has been pretty good. Justin Steele. I think that's their second guy in the rotation.
2.62 ERA, 8-2 record. Very nice season for him. Walks hits, divided by innings pitched. Got 1.063 on there.
So yeah, very solid season in terms of pitching for the Cubs. They got some bats in their lineup. Yeah, let's just see how their season turns out because they're currently three and a half back of the Reds and the Brewers are a half game back. So they're very much in this race to win the division.
Pretty open division here in the Uno Central. Probably one of the most up for grabs, divisions in baseball. Yeah, the Reds are going through a problem for the Cubs along with the Brewers, I could say. The Reds had just exploded this season with 12, on 12th Game Winny Street.
They get snapped a couple of days ago by the Braves, by the Braves. But they have a young guy in De La Cruz. Yeah, Kelly De La Cruz. Yeah, De La Cruz.
I really like him. But overall, I think the Cubs, they're having challenges in the division. But how many games are they back? Three and a half.
Three and a half games back in the division. So I think if they just keep on developing and I think the only question concerns I have, the make it start with the Cubs is their coach. And David Ross, David Ross, for the Ross. And when I've heard he's not been the greatest coach, this is what this is making and the lineup and ball pen.
But yeah, overall, I think if the Cubs just keep on developing and yelling, then they should be in a pretty good position. Right, I think if they end up the deadline, I think they could make a push for the playoffs. Maybe swipe that division from the Reds because like I said, it's very off for grabs. Any teams could go cold or just go away at any certain point.
So yeah, certainly intriguing for the Cubs. The team to keep an eye on a division to keep an eye on. Because even the Pirates are five back, which we still have a chance, which is interesting. Pirates are really good.
It's the season and the Nuke just fell apart. I think they were first and N.L. Central at one point. Well, yeah, if they'll head up the second best record in baseball behind the Rays.
Yeah, that was crazy. So move on to White Sox. Yeah, let's move on to the White Sox here. The White Sox are very disappointing.
Yeah, very disappointing. Kitchen, I mean, hitting very untimely. You got Robert, who's the main producer, probably. 22 home runs, 272 banning average.
He's in right there on the race for most home runs in the league. He's kind of behind O'Tani, which O'Tani faced the White Sox last night. He made history with two home runs and what, 10 strikeouts or close to that? O'Tani had a historic night as he usually does against any R.T.
and M.L.B. He's a L.L. Tani along with Mike Trout. I remember watching the game at Mike Copac through a pitch right down the middle of Tani.
And that's just like one of the pitches, like why do you throw a, you know, right down the middle of Tani? And then he had another one off of, I don't know what pitch we had up after Copac. But yeah, I think it comes down to poor management for the White Sox, injuries, inconsistency. With both the pitching and the bullpen.
One's great, one's just not that very good. I think the one thing with the White Sox, I guess you could say, is the positive is that most of these guys are on their last deals. So like, you guys want to grind all is going to be gone. I believe I'm going to assume that one, Kada is going to be gone.
So I think most of these guys are going to be going to ride around the trade deadline. But another problem with the White Sox is what they have is their farm system. They're ranked 26th out of 30. Yeah, 30 teams.
They did bring up Zach Rama-Lart in which he's been showing a lot of flashes. He's his first debut against the Seattle Mariners. He hit the game tying RBI in the ninth. And then he hit the game winning RBI in the 10th or 11th inning.
So I think that this kid, the White Sox have, he's not a guy to keep an eye on in the near future. But I think like you said, the only guy that I can look at and say, that's a guy we can trade for a lot and develop around offensively is Luis Robert. Like defensive way they have, don't see some agility that they can trade away. Luis Robert is the only guy I can look at and say once again, do you sign them or train away for a lot?
A lot of teams want them. A lot of teams want to have power speed, combo like that. Get a lot of doubles, steal some bases. It's very intriguing for a playoff team to have.
But it would take a lot to get Robert away from the White Sox. But the other path I can take is trying to build around Robert because he's still relatively young. If they rebuild and it's a successful rebuild, I think they can win maybe a championship in the next three, four years. If they rebuild right, pick the right guys, send everybody up.
Right now for the White Sox, kind of looking down. Lance Land is being 6.4 ERA, very not good. Sees, he has a 4.04 ERA, which is not great, but it's better than Land and maybe POCO PEC too. He's still starting to play better recently.
White Sox ranked, I would look out because I would not be surprised if Kenny Williams or Rick Con will let go to season. I would even say Pedro Gefol or Ethan Katz. I think there's going to be a lot of changes over the offseason for the White Sox. But I think since then, everybody's for sale on the White Sox, even Luis Robert and even Dylan Sees.
A lot of the White Sox can trade here. I don't see anybody taking a loy or who's another guy? Granddall is going to be a hard guy to get rid of. People would take one, people would take Tim Anderson.
It would be hard to, but I think people at the end would take Tim Anderson. People would also take, I can say people who I say teams would take our pitching staff and Dylan Sees and Lucas Gileto. What are your thoughts on that? Yeah, I agree until you talk about Vaughn because I really like Vaughn.
I think they picked him third in 2020, maybe 2019, something like that. But I think he was the third overall draft pick and he had a great year last year, you know, drove in some runs, hit some home runs, but having a worse year than he did last year, obviously, which is the case for most third players over there in Chicago. But I think Vaughn has a lot of upside, especially only being, I don't know, but he's still very young. You can't early 20s, I'm going to assume.
Yeah, he's hitting 241, he's got 12 home runs. I mean, he's having a decent year, not the greatest of years, but it's, you know, not as good as last year. He had 17 home runs last year, but he was hitting 271 on base percentage, it was 321, but... He's 25 years old.
He's 25, so yeah, still young, still has time to improve and maybe could be another piece around Robert, who's also 25. So that could be an interesting young core if maybe Vaughn can prove himself in the second half because I was always high on Vaughn. He just hasn't really been the guy that we thought he was going to be, kind of like with Gavin Shies Square, we kind of thought he was going to be a 30 plus home run player, you know, this year. But unfortunately, he just hasn't been that guy.
I think the only contract the White Sox do had to deal with her a while is the Andrew Band 10D contract, where they have them five years, they're 75, $72 million. That was $5 million, $75 million. Which to me, I don't think it's going to be the worst thing in the world for the White Sox, because including the Andrew Band 10D is still a pretty solid player. It's more, even more of a solid player on defense than he is on offense, but you can still drive everyone, you can still get on base.
But yeah, I think that's the only contract that the White Sox actually have to deal with if we want to be the cross-down series. Yeah, I don't know how this cross-down series is going to go, maybe a little uncompetitive, because I do like the Cubs better as a team in terms of their stars and just in terms of their general guys. Like most likely any game that Strowman starts is going to be an L for the White Sox. So, yeah, for one, I've heard is that before at the London series, there was a set that he's like his last couple of stars, he's given up like two or last runs.
Like he's like a one-summer or a very low two ERA, his last couple of stars before the London series. And obviously he had a bad game too in London against the St. Louis Cardinals, but I think the only day he's still Marcus Strowman, 32-year-old. I think like he said, I think if he does start against the White Sox, he's going to dominate them.
Yeah, good pitcher. Interesting stat is that he leads the league and quality starts. Yeah, I think it's 15, but it's good that you can throw a guy out there and he impresses every time. You can just expect like six innings out of him, maybe one run ball, and yeah, just throw a guy out there and he puts you in a good spot to win the game.
I think an interesting part of his game is that he's only 5'7", so he's a smaller guy. He's a very small guy actually. I'm following him. I get to play.
Yeah, it is crazy. 14 quality starts. So, yeah, he leads the league in that. I mean, it's just, you don't see guys that are 5'7", producing as good as he does, but here he is leading the Cubs in their pitching and just being a solid player in the MLB and top 10 pitcher I would say.
So, for my prediction for the White Sox and Cubs, I think the first series in the game, I think the White Sox do take a game against them. And I think when the White Sox had to really field in August, right around the 16th, I think they dropped two games out of three against the Cubs. What was your prediction, right? I think that prediction, I can't say it definitely because the White Sox get out obviously and improve over the trade deadline.
I don't know if they're going to do that. I would say that prediction is pretty valid. They take maybe two games out of the game since they're in that series, it's a 5. Oh, total?
Yeah, I think they're 5 games. I think they maybe take three and regularly into the guaranteed field. Yeah, so dropping two in regularly is to be expected and splitting it in guaranteed rate is also fairly realistic, even though. You know, you never know it's baseball.
It's a good game. Well, sports are starting to become well, but upset's happened. One quick last thing. Off the top of your head, do you have a World Series prediction?
World Series prediction? That's a tough one. I would say the Rays, but I think a lot of times, all sports, the best team just doesn't pull it off. It's kind of like maybe it'll look very good teams as tough one.
I'm going to stick with the Rays out of right now. I'll not be surprised if a team does get hot. Maybe trying to get a team that would get hot. Houston still Houston.
I think if they could stay healthy, your Alvarez can get back to his World Series form. If Jose O'Brien can stay healthy, then I think Houston doesn't make a run. But I think right now it's just Tampa Bay's time. Yeah, I could agree with that, but obviously the best team always doesn't win.
And the top of the National League right now, the Braves, 52 wins, 27 losses. Yeah, Rays 54 and 28 at the top of the American League. I'm going to make the prediction. It's kind of hot, but let's go with the Texas Rangers.
I really like the Grandmover there. Texas is a very good team right now. What's the fourth best team in baseball? Yeah, something like that.
They're at the top of the ALS by five games. So I really like to Grandmover there. See, you're obviously, Simeon over there. I think he is.
Mark Simeon. But yeah, very solid team. They have over there, 48 and 31 right now. They just played the White Sox and they took that series against him.
That was fun. Baseball talk with... At the comics. And Henry Hogan signing out.
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