Rates & Barrels - The Playoff Push & Awards Predictions

Episode Date: September 21, 2020

Eno, Britt & DVR discuss their expectations for the final week of the season as several National League teams jockey for the four available playoff spots, before making their picks (and predictions) for Rookie of the Year, Cy Young and MVP winners in each league. Rundown1:43 A Futile Attempt to Understand 2020 Playoff Tie-Breakers7:20 The National League Playoff Race18:24 A High Stakes Week in Philadelphia24:20 Is the Expanded Postseason Here to Stay?34:27 Rookie of the Year Selections43:00 Cy Young Selections51:43 MVP Selections Follow Eno on Twitter: @enosarrisFollow Britt on Twitter: @Britt_GhiroliFollow DVR on Twitter: @DerekVanRipere-mail: [e-mail] Subscribe to The Athletic for $1/month at theathletic.com/ratesandbarrels Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Welcome to Rates and Barrels, episode number 140. It is Monday, September 21st. Derek Van Riper, Eno Saris, Britt Giroli here. On this episode, we will discuss the final push to make the postseason. Who's in? Who's out? Also, we're going to talk about the potential longevity of this new expanded playoff format. We'll start to give out some hardware as well. Rookie of the Year, Cy Young, and MVP award selections for each league. So, a lot to talk about on this episode. A lot of great series on tap for the upcoming week.

How's it going for you on this Monday, Britt? It's going well. I kind of like this post-weekend show. You've watched baseball all weekend. We're here now the last full week of the season. And I think it's going to be awesome. I mean, we've been waiting for this, right? the reason why they added so many teams everyone complained uh but this is what you you wait for now is this going to be utter chaos especially with the nl wild card in the last few

days of the season and i for one can't wait to see it yeah i think this is actually a great race in the national league we're going to dig into that in just a moment. How'd your weekend treat you? Pretty good. Had friends over, grilled, ate, drank tons of beers, enjoyed myself, and now I have to figure out how to jam all the stories that I wanted to get done

before the end of the season into one week. That'll be fun. One thing that I'm not looking forward to, actually, though, is I'm firmly on Team Chaos, which is, you know, I remember, what was that year where there were, like, four ties in the wild card on the last day? And, like, it got down to, like, the last game. Somebody got in just barely. like the last game that somebody got in just barely. I just remember watching, I was with David Appelman in New York City,

just watching like every game because they had started every game and there were like four ties that had to be, oh, maybe it was the day 163. Well, see, I love that. I love that, but we're not going to get that. I mean, they already said no extra games. So there's going to be this weird feeling maybe on the last day of the season where you're like, and then we'll all have to go do math and be like, I think the Phillies are in. Because it comes down to like, the rules are that,

I think it comes down to like intra-division. No, it comes down to your record against that team and then if that's a tie it comes down to your record in your division? I don't know, man. I've read it. I've read it three times. I don't understand it. Yeah, the tiebreakers

are very different this year. Looking at it now, if two teams... Thanks, Ad blocker. Thanks for not showing up right now. It's all that questionable malware you download. So much malware. You have no idea how much malware is on my computer.

Real talk, did you guys have LimeWire back in the day? Oh, yeah. Yeah, and it used to give me like a million viruses. My parents would get so mad, but it was like the best way to download music. That's what i have i'm imagining derrick with like limewire going in the background all these ads all these viruses you got to be careful i tell you the idea now of just like downloading a song the questionable provenance like you know onto my computer and then clicking on it i'm like whoa we did that the amount of extra care i take now compared to back then i probably ruined three or four computers family computers from downloading music for free the amount of money we paid for

that free music probably significantly exceeded getting an allowance to go buy cds every week the parents paid for it. Yeah, right. I didn't get the CD money, but I got a new computer when we needed one because, you know, homework and everything. So, all right. I think I finally found something that explains this. What if there's a tie for Division Championship?

All ties will be resolved mathematically. No additional games are played to break any ties and expand a postseason field. There's less time to play additional games. First tiebreaker is head-to-head record, if applicable. Yeah, that would almost certainly be the case since these teams are in the cross-division. They're not. It might not be that applicable.

If you're talking about Phillies versus Giants making it, you know. It's okay. So then what happens there? If there's still a tie, the tie is inter-division record. What does that mean? That's still tied. That means how the Phillies have done against their own division? Mm-hmm. Yeah, but is that their new division, like the teams they're playing this year,

the East, or is that just NL East? I would say NL East. It doesn't clarify that. So I guess we're going to learn. I'm going with NL East. That's still the official division. Because the word says intra-division, and then in the next part, if that's still a tie,

the next record is in the final 20 division games. I'm going to say the intra-division is the new division. And then, yes, then the final 20 is only within your family division unit. And it's the final 20? What? That's so nonsensical. What's going on? I mean, I feel like almost at this point,

they should just do something crazy to decide tiebreakers, like home run derby with your best player or something insane. Because at least that would be cool to watch. Virtual, right? No one has to touch each that would be cool to watch. Virtual, right? No one has to touch each other, be around each other. You could just put a camera at both and we could just watch. Watch them go head to head.

That would be pretty wild, actually. Here's what I want. Any teams that are tied at the end of the day on Sunday, I want family feud. I want every team to send their five smartest players onto Zoom. And I want Steve Harvey to send their five smartest players onto Zoom. And I want Steve Harvey to host and mediate.

And I want an elimination round-robin style tournament of Family Feud to determine who gets into the postseason this year. I mean, it would be better than us counting on our fingers and trying to figure this out on Twitter on Sunday. Yeah. Imagine Mike Moustakas playing fast money to try and get the Reds into the postseason. Imagine that. I mean, the Reds honestly are a team

I wouldn't want to play if they get there. To me, I don't know how you guys feel about this, but they're a dangerous team. I know they're not a lock for the postseason because the NL is a cluster,

but I would just not want to play them. I feel like they're the kind of team that stumbles in and goes on a little bit of a run and we're all like, who was sleeping on the Reds? I don't know how their last 20 games have gone. That to me is the most ridiculous tiebreaker there

is going. It should be runs scored or runs allowed or something. Who cares if you had a fast start or a slow start? Why are we weighing wins at different points of the season differently? That's never been done.

Run differential would have been a nice tiebreaker to include in there. They use goal differential in other sports. That would be kind of good. But let's talk about the NL playoff picture because there are four teams that are in. The Braves are in, the Cubs are in, the Padres are in, the Dodgers are in. But there are six teams really still battling for the final four spots.

Technically, the Rockies are still in, but let's be realistic. They're probably not going to get in. Their playoff odds, I think, are in the 2% range. So we're talking about the Marlins, the Cardinals, the Phillies, the Brewers, the Reds, and the Giants as those six teams that have those four spots left. And the Giants actually line up with kind of a favorable schedule. Even though they catch the Padres in their weekend series, they get the Rockies for four at home, so they don't have to go to Colorado. And it's probably a Rockies team without Nolan Arenado. He's been dealing with a shoulder injury. He's having further tests today. So you get the sense that given where they're at in the playoff race, given how important he is to their franchise, he might be done for

this 2020 season. So San Francisco has maybe one of the easier paths because the Padres, they don't need to win those games over the weekend. Sure, you want some momentum going into the postseason, but you could also rest a few players throughout. You could go a little shorter with your starters, try to line up your rotation the right way. So I think even though they're the longest odds, they're at 43.8% according to Fangraphs, they're set up really well schedule-wise to find a way in. The schedule is really outsized importance at this point,

and it's interesting how it interacts with how many wins you have banked because the Marlins have the most wins banked in this group, and so therefore they have 84 know 84 to make the playoffs and they seem like they're the safest team they have the roughest schedule Atlanta and the Yankees they have to get lucky and the Yankees be resting people but the Yankees are kind of in a position where you know they could have the division or you know want to stay out of the wild card. They could want those wins. Even the second division of the Yankees is better than, say, the Royals. Even if you're playing Andrew Haar and Davey Garcia, it's still better than...

I think St. Louis is a lock. They've got Kansas City for three, and then five against the Brewers. That's a little bit tough to end, but in sum, I think that's a little bit better than Atlanta and the Yankees. The Phillies get the Nats and the Rays, and I think the Nats are kind of hard to figure out, but also seem like they've given up on the season a little bit. They're dead in the water. Yeah, right. So Milwaukee gets the Reds in the car. That's a tough one. That's probably the second toughest schedule next to Atlanta and the Yankees. And I think you're right.

I think the Giants get four against the Rockies with no Ironado, and then four against a Padres team that might already be resting at that point. Then I think, because the Padres don't look like they're gonna have the division uh open for them so they'll just be resting people so yeah i think uh giants got the best schedule and the marlins and uh the brewers have the worst schedule i think the interesting thing though is at least the brewers kind of control their own destiny having three at c Cincinnati and then the five at St. Louis. Having to go on the road for eight games is not ideal, but they're starting to play well. They swept the Royals over the weekend. They took three of five from the Cardinals last week. They put up 18 runs against them,

which I got to say, as a fan of the Brewers who hates the Cardinals as much as anything in the world, that felt really good for a team that hadn't scored a lot of runs for the better part of this season they're getting contributions from guys that you would not expect like jacob nottingham hit the pivotal grand slam on friday night to break that game open uh you know orlando arcia is driving in some key runs dan vogelbach hit two home runs it's it's a scrap heap sort of team around a star who's underperformed in Christian Jelic and maybe a rising star in Keston Hira who has some swing and miss issues but has been coming up with some big hits. So they're dangerous if they get into the postseason because in your piece looking at playoff caliber starters or above average starters, the Brewers actually are pretty well

set. They have four above averageaverage starters based on the projections, and their bullpen is better than people realize. It's not just Hayter. We've talked about Devin Williams as one of the best breakout relievers of this season. Drew Rasmussen's another guy that comes in and throws 99 and locates on the corners. You start getting three or four deep. Freddy Peralta's good in the bullpen. Eric Yardley's been a nice story for them.

That's a dangerous team. I think the lack of off days might hurt a team like that quite a bit because they don't go 6, 7, 8 deep in the bullpen the way that a team like the Yankees typically do on the AL side. But I think we're going to get two out of the NL Central just because the way the schedule works, all three really can't get in. It would take some very odd things happening with everybody else. The Phillies, to me, are the ultimate unknown. I could see them completely choking against the Nats. I mean, Britt, what kind of spoiler vibe are you getting from the Nats radiating through Zoom interviews over the last couple of weeks? Exactly. Well, it's funny. I was trying to get Scherzer to **** yesterday because all year, no one has exploded. And as you guys know,

the worst teams to cover are the teams that are supposed to be good that are terrible. And the Nats right now are going to be, if they stay in last place, which barring a crazy week, they're like four games back of the Mets, they will be in last place. They're only the second, third team in history to win the World Series one year, finish last in the division the next. The other two teams, the Marlins in 98, we know they had that fire sale. Yeah, and then the Red Sox in 14,

who halfway through woke up and were like, God, we're terrible, and dumped a bunch of contracts. Is that the Matt Kemp trade year? Yeah, that's the year where they dumped a whole, shed a whole bunch of salary. They kept Ortiz and Pedroia, but they really didn't burn it all the way down to the studs, but they did finish in last place.

They finished in last the next year. And then I believe they won shortly thereafter. So but the Nats haven't really said, hey, we're bad. Let's, you know, put our chips in the middle of the table and be done with it. So they say they're trying to play spoiler right now. They just have so many holes that, you know, I wrote this over the weekend. They you could say what you want about this not being a real season. The holes are real.

The teams that are really bad is real. Um, they have got to make some, some changes, but you look at the Phillies and I think they'd be in the same position with whether we played 60 or one 62. I mean, the Phillies to me are just the, the epitome of a team that's constantly underachieving. You look at the money they spend, you look, are just the epitome of a team that's constantly underachieving. You look at the money they spend, you look at some of the guys on their team, and you wonder, how can they be this bad? Well, we know their bullpen is historically terrible, right? But it just seems like they've been historically terrible

for the last three, four years. And at what point, I think now you're starting to see a hot seat that Matt Klintak has had for a while. Their GM getting hotter and hotter. And I probably would have said at the start of the 60 game season, there's no way guys can lose their jobs. You know, it's kind of a fake year. I take all that back. I think there's going to be three or four GM openings.

I think, you know, people have learned to deal with it. It is what it is. And, you know, the Marlins and Cardinals are, it could very well be in the postseason. Both those teams had to shut down for COVID for what felt like forever. So to me, if those teams can rebound, there's really no excuses anywhere else.

Uh, the Nats have said over and over like this year sucks. We don't have fans. And at first it was like, okay, now I find myself just being kind of like, get over it. You know,

every team is dealing with the same thing. I think a lot of the excuses guys maybe, um, fall back to you look around and you're like, get over it. You know, every team is dealing with the same thing. I think a lot of the excuses guys maybe fall back to, you look around and you're like, okay, well, none of these guys are allowed to leave their hotel. None of them are allowed to have a life. You know, none of them have fan noise or, you know, enter a tight game with the atmosphere. So I think what you're seeing are the teams

that were able to kind of brush that aside and get over it. And, you know, some teams just haven't been able to do that. And I think the Phillies are one of those teams that like some weeks they look like, oh, here's the Phillies here. You know, they're good. And then other weeks you're like, this team is is terrible and they need a rebuild. They need to just, you know, throw in the towel, which you can't because they have so much money committed to a lot of players, obviously most famously Bryce Harper he's a little dinged up too he left with a back issue I think it was back tightness what they were calling it coming out of Sunday's game JT Real Muto has been hurt Reese Hoskins has been hurt so that really deep lineup that they had when everybody was healthy is thinned

out quite a bit right now too if you're you're playing the schedule game, though, I feel like the Phillies could have the best schedule. And you were talking about how the central guys, they all sort of have their own division. They have their life in their own hands, right? Like the Brewers, the Reds, and the Cardinals are all going to play each other in this last week. They might just duke it out to near 500 or or below even, you know, in certain ways. And then the Phillies get the Nats and then they get a raised team that by that point of the week may just be sitting, you know, confirmed as the first place team, you know?

Yeah, it's interesting. Like this year and the reason people hate the expanded postseason, right, is that all of a sudden at the end of the year there's nothing to play for for a lot of these teams and because there's no off days this year with the playoffs you know the way it's set up i think if you're a team that's already in it you do rest your guys because you're going to have to really ride them um especially if you're a team that was kind of counting on having some off days right um you look at some of these teams just like atlanta that, that their pitching is just not going to hold up. You really need to figure out what you're going to do because you can't do what the Nats did last year.

So I think you're going to see a lot of teams like the Rays and these other teams that are in it, you're ready to just kind of fold because they've got a couple days. They might as well rest these guys because they have no other option in terms of resting guys during the postseason. So looking at this group, which two teams fall out? I think the two for me who are going to fall short are actually the Brewers and the Giants. I think the Giants just aren't that good.

I don't think the Giants against the Rockies team without Arenado have any sort of actual advantage. It's still be 500. Right. It's still just like coin flip games. They have the longest odds. So to me, they fall short. The reason I think the Brewers fall just short,

not that they were going to fall short over 162 as they were constructed way back in February when I first made a prediction. I just don't think this is a team that has enough quality depth in its lineup. Maybe those guys that have been coming through continue to come through, but the pitching matchups especially,

they're dogs in two of the three games in Cincinnati it's a push sort of matchup in the opener tonight it's Woodruff versus Luis Castillo but when you're throwing Adrian Hauser who struggled all season out there against Trevor Bauer on Wednesday that's huge I think going into St. Louis where the Cardinals have their flaws the Cardinals should roll against the Royals it's a bad Kansas City team. They've got nothing left to play for now. They just got swept by the Brewers. I think the Cardinals end up taking the second spot in the division

and the Reds are the wild card. And I do think the Phillies and Marlins are going to find a way to get in. So it's going to be the Brewers and the Giants on the outside looking in for me in the NL this year. What do you think, Britt? See, I think the Phillies are going to end. I know they have an easy schedule. I just have a feeling that the Nats,

who really haven't played for much of anything all year, would love nothing more than to keep Bryce Harper out of the playoffs. I think you're going to see guys kind of like step up. And I do think, I know there's a faction, and this should surprise neither of you, there's a faction of Phillies fans who are rooting against their team because they want the front office to change over,

and I don't think even if the Phillies make it, if they make it and are eliminated quickly, is that even enough to save the front office there? I don't really think it is. I think you don't really need to root against the Phillies if you're a Philly fan. I think ownership's probably going to look to make some changes anyway uh but I see the Phillies is bowing out I agree with you I think the Marlins make it in I think the Cardinals make

it in we're not mentioning the Mets at all right because I think that their days are kind of over here uh the DeGrom injury um obviously depending on on what happens with him it was a hamstring right um they would need need a crazy role, and more importantly, they'd need teams so much to happen in front of them that's out of their control. They'd have to win out. They'd have to have a seven-game win streak, basically.

Right, right. I mean, they're five games under.500. Yeah, it's tough for them. Yeah, so I think I agree with you. I don't know if the Brewers can kind of hang on, but I like the Reds. I'm all in on the Reds. I think if they make it, they're a scary, dangerous team,

particularly with the way Bauer's been pitching. Yeah, I mean, just look at the Reds versus the Phillies. You have Aaron Nola at the top for the Phillies, but when you have Trevor Bauer and Luis Castillo, I think when you shorten a rotation and you shorten a bullpen, the Reds have a little bit more in place in those places that can scare you. You can shorten the Phillies rotation and shorten their Phillies bullpen, and it will still suck.

Exactly. And Jay Carrieta, what a terrible free agent signing he ended up being for them. You look at ERA over four of the length of his contract. He was hurt a lot. Just never the guy that they really they really expected him to be. And, you know, that's that's just another hit for a team that, you know, just never, never seemed like they got it together. They're just I don't know if they need to clean house. And there obviously is what I think they need a fresh start start and um you know changing managers was clearly not enough i would have said that like it was somewhat predictable on the area at a front uh just to not give that much money to

older pitcher and you know not the same amount of track record but look at the nationals man they like won a championship based they're like three free agent starting pitchers in their rotation yeah it's true and they've spent up carefully i mean jordan zimmerman left and that was the right call so they even got that decision right when the time came and maybe in the grand scheme of things not paying bryce harper was the absolute right thing for them to do because of the way they had that organization built. Having Juan Soto coming up, having Victor Robles there, not spending $300 million for a corner outfielder, even though Bryce Harper might actually live up to that contract over time,

that's not the right way to do it when you can go out and spend that money on an ace or possibly two aces in the next decade. They could be in some trouble long long-term though in Washington, because I don't think any other team deferred as much money as they did. Yeah. And they've also gotten old and bad fast. You know, Scherzer's in his next year, last year.

I mean, next year is his last year. He's going to be 37. Strasburg obviously was hurt this year. Patrick Corbin hasn't looked that great. And they've got an old roster and they don't have a good farm system. So it could kind of get ugly there, especially if they don't start well. They could absolutely have a fire sale at the deadline, sell Scherzer, look at Trey.

If you can't extend Trey Turner, I think you sell him. You try to see right now if you can throw the book at Juan Soto, you know, offer him $250 million. He's not a free agent until 2025. But, you know, any extra years of Juan Soto, you know, offer him 250 million. He's not a free agent until 2025. But, you know, any extra years of Juan Soto would help you. But they're in a precarious position, I think, just because they spent so many years trying to win. And now they're going to pay for it because they just don't have the farm system. They just don't have the youth. And like you said, you know, they've got a lot of money on the books. Even when these guys leave, they're still paying them a significant amount of money,

which is kind of their M.O. and how they've been able to have this huge payroll. But eventually it's going to kind of catch up to them. And I do wonder, and I know you've touched on this, you know, but with all these teams cutting back now in personnel and player development, does player payroll, is that the next thing that gets cut here, 20%, 25% by teams? Yeah, I can't imagine even though we had the mookie bet signing i can't imagine this off season will look normal i you know i think it'll it'll definitely there'll be less spending and you know not for nothing the way that the

playoff the way that the playoffs are going to be scheduled like how many teams make the playoffs next year is is is relevant to to how much you'll spend on a team. The more teams make it, the more you can be mediocre and run all the way through and just get to the postseason and see what happens then. There's not as much value to making a super team. There's not as much value to adding that incremental win on top. You basically plan for an 85-win team, and you're all good.

You know what I mean? So you don't have to add that extra free agent. You don't have to buy depth. So I think that it'll be a pretty mellow offseason in terms of how much money is spent. Yeah, I think we're going to see a lot of non-tenders. More surprising non-tenders than ever with guys you know second third year of arbitration those big salaries big in air quotes of course they're

getting sent out and making half as much money that they were scheduled to make as they signed cheap free agent deals for 2021 i think you're exactly right is this postseason expanded field at least here to stay i don't know if this format is necessarily the format that MLB is going to stick with in the long term. I think this is definitely a laboratory sort of year. But as you guys have read the reports and heard things from around the league, do you get the sense that a 16-team postseason is exactly where we're going to be this time next year? Or do you think they might find a way to split the difference, maybe go back down to a 12-team postseason with a few extra games just to sort of meet somewhere near the middle? I mean, what have you heard and what do you think here, Britt? I think it's terrible they can't keep this again. It's not – I mean, that's just what I think. Like Ina was saying, there's no incentive to win the division.

Anything that de-incentivizes winning the division, by effect de-incentivize the regular season. Right. So why are you going to watch your favorite team in July and August when it doesn't matter? You know, I think the problem that they could make here is you can be so focused on the playoffs and playoff money that you become short sighted. And you realize that, wait a second, less fans are going to come or watch or participate in the regular season. And that money counts too. So I would hope they would find a better way. I personally would leave it the way it is. Teams complain, you know, about getting in the wild card, only getting one game. Okay. You don't like it. Play better. Win the division. You know, I don't understand why we need to add more playoff teams. This isn't the NBA. We're not going to reward mediocrity.

To me, it's just a money grab. And I really don't like anything about the expanded playoffs beyond this year. So as you can tell them on the fence. Yeah, you're definitely not sure how you feel about this one. You know, I think I think the thing that bothers me the most is something you mentioned, the lack of incentive to win the division, the lack of incentive

to be a truly great team. I think they need to find ways to say if you are a top seed in either league, you don't go on the road. Every game's at home. There's got to be some kind of advantage

like that, right? There's got to be something. There's got to be a carrot out there that rewards a team for being truly better than the field over a full 162-game season. Because unless they decide they're going to scale back the regular season, if they're going to drop down to 144, I don't see that happening. That seems completely impossible. I think we are stuck with some sort of expanded postseason and figuring out how to tinker with that,

it's going to be something different if it's going to work well and make everybody happy. I think we do have this sort of internal nudge to always fight back against change in baseball, but we've reached a point where I think we do need some changes in the game. Expanded playoffs would not have been on the top 10 of my list if I were putting something together. I mean, how realistic is it that we're talking about a 16-team field this time next year, you know? We have the commissioner saying he wants to keep it, but there's a couple things working against it. And one, I would say that I don't think the fans have been super into a full 16, and I think it's a little bit much. But I will say that I'm a little bit in a different position maybe than Brett. I am definitely in a different position than Brett.

I would add to the postseason situation we had before. I would add teams. And the reason is I think that there's going to be kind of a tighter correlation between how much money a team has and how much they win. correlation between how much money a team has and how much they win. And so I just want to add a little bit of chaos that allows some of these other teams to get in there. And I think just in general, just having a few more bites of the apple in terms of postseason roster, postseason berths for teams just makes it a little bit more interesting. I think even in the regular season to follow a team like the Cardinals who are near

500. Even in a different situation where there's not as many postseason teams, it would be more interesting to follow a near 500 team longer into the season because they might have more of a shot at making the postseason. Just generally, I think we could do a little bit more than we did before and less than we had now. The problem with what the commissioner wants and just sort of keeping this or keeping a really big schedule, postseason schedule, is that this was something that the players gave. And if you see it within the context of the labor struggle between the baseball's owners and baseball's players you know the postseason traditionally players don't get they don't

get paid the way they normally get paid they don't get a game check and what they've done in the past is they get 50 of the gate but it's like in this weird way and it's it's formulated in this weird way the bonuses are formulated in a weird way basically it's it's formulated in this weird way the bonuses are formulated in a weird way basically it's one of these places where the owners take more money and so of course the owners like having expanded playoffs because that means more money and more money they can make off of the games that they don't necessarily have to split with the players and And so it's like, why won't we have a smaller spring? Because the owners don't pay the players in spring and they make money off of them.

So it's similar with the playoffs. This is going to happen, but the players are going to also, from what I've heard, I've talked to a few players about this, they're going to dig their heels in and say, no, no, we didn't give you playoffs in 2021. We gave you playoffs in 2020.

And so I hear you out here talking about how we're going to definitely do expanded playoffs. Because the players need to have something to have any leverage in the negotiation. And one of the few things that they could give up that would still get them something in return from the owners, like doubling the minimum salary or something about arbitration. If they want any of that, they have to give something. And expanded playoffs was the thing to give. So I think we might take a step back where in 2021, it's back to normal. And then in 2022, we add a little bit of, you know, after their negotiations are complete on the CBA, we add playoff teams. Yeah. And I think I could live with a 12-team postseason where the two best records in each

league get a bye and the remaining teams play a shorter series, like a three-game series. You could even go down. If you're worried about time, you don't want the teams with the bye to sit for too long. I think the KBO has that format where the home team, the team with the better record, only has to win one game and the visiting team would have to win two. That's a really interesting way to do it. You get a few more games for TV. You're not completely screwing up the schedule. You're not making it easy for half the league or more than half the league to make the playoffs. And maybe that's more of a happy medium. You are getting that revenue. You are keeping more teams in the hunt,

and you're not necessarily abandoning the more traditional postseason format. We've already moved pretty far away from that. 16 is obviously too much. It's like more than half of the league makes it. That doesn't make any sense. Yeah, and there's a lot of bad teams. And as we know, baseball is weird, right? Like you really want a team that's 10 games

under 500 winning the World Series? Like how is that real to anyone? You know? Like the wild card team as it is, is the underdogs the whole way through. games under 500 winning the world series like how is that real to anyone terrible yeah you know like the wild card team as it is is the underdogs the whole way through um i just think like it it also like you know said like for players what's the point right they're gonna get less in-season money because teams are not gonna want to spend as much on a guy who hits 30 home runs who cares over a guy who hits 10 uh you know there issue of, okay, well, if our regular season doesn't matter, why are we paying these guys so much for the regular season?

So it's fascinating. It's got a ripple effect. I don't like rewarding mediocrity, obviously. My little tirade here. But I understand why they might look at doing it. Would you guys like it if we're talking about the Phillies winning the the world series or the mats who as we said like probably can't go but like some crazy happens and all of a sudden they're in the playoffs and they're winning like does that feel real to anyone i don't know um that's my biggest problem is some team that has

no business winning all of a sudden stumbles in say what you will about the wild card teams over 162 there really aren't any cinderellas right this isn't march madness um if they want to do it that way then they might as well just bracket all these teams and have a tournament you know like i don't know i don't know i i don't like it at all i'm generally there i'm probably more in the middle of where you two are at right now but let's fight you know there's a happy medium yeah well i don't i don't know why you just keep picking on the Phillies. I mean, if the Reds make the postseason, you said you like the Reds in the postseason, you know. Listen, Eno, I've watched a lot of games against the Phillies this year, and they make noise every at-bat, and I just got to tell you,

it's terrible. It's awful. They're chirpers. There's this group of fans who has an air horn after every out, and let me tell you, it gets old by the third inning. Fake fans? No, real fans that are behind the gate in Philadelphia, and you can hear it on the TV.

It's awful. That's what I have against Billy. And they're the fans who are also rooting against the team while making all that noise, just to be completely chaotic, I'm sure. Talking about erectile dysfunction isn't easy. Usually it just gets brushed off or it's avoided altogether with excuses. But with Roman, it's easy to talk about it. With a real healthcare professional who can prescribe real medication,

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Eno, do we have a lock for this year's AL Rookie of the Year award? I think we actually have a pretty well-contested vote. I'm going to say it's well-contested because that's in my personal best interest. Because I said Kyle Lewis is going to win Rookie of the Year. Because I said Kyle Lewis is going to win Rookie of the Year. And I think that maybe Robert still has the eye of a lot of people, especially because the White Sox are playing better than the Mariners. And Robert came out to such a great start.

I don't know. And also, like, I don't think, I don't want anyone to think that.2 war is meaningful. That's the difference in Fangraph's war between Kyle Lewis and Robert, and I don't think that's super meaningful. But if you just look at the slash lines, I would say Kyle Lewis is the rookie of the year. He's the better offensive player. I think that's captured by WRC+. I would agree with you that less than a half win

in war is enough. You can kind of argue either side, but Roberts cooled off a bit after a red hot start. Lewis has been a little more consistent. I think the hardest thing for some people with these awards is they always feel like players have to be on a good team, especially for MVP and Cy Young. But for rookie of the year, there should be a lot more leeway. I mean, usually guys that get these opportunities are coming up on teams that aren't contending. Kyle Lewis is ticking a lot of boxes. He didn't come up in our episode last week. We were talking about some future early round fantasy picks. Maybe he falls a little short of that, but the power is legit. He runs a little. The plate skills are getting better. I would

actually vote for Kyle Lewis over Luis Robert. It's close. I'm convinced at this point. Like, Robert's an exciting player. Most exciting rookie, Luis Robert. But most rookie of the year, best overall rookie, if that's what we're talking about, I think Kyle Lewis deserves that award.

It's close. Because like you said, I mean, Lewis is the better offensive player. I think Robert's the better defender. That's probably not really up for debate, right? Although Kyle Lewis had that, like, seminal catch that was, like, super Griffey style. But, yes, I would agree with that. And he's playing center, surprisingly, you know?

I also think that, like, Robert was this hotshot prospect, whereas Lewis really wasn't. And so people who are voting, and I don't have this vote this year, are thinking, like, oh, yeah. Right, remember. Yeah, I've heard of that name. Um, I think he was ranked number two by baseball America. Lewis was out, was in the top 100, but he's also had the top 50.

Um, he's on a team. That's not good. Robert's on a white socks team that like is finally like, yay, we're relevant again. Um, so I think that that kind of helps push some people.

Um, I, I, I don't really have a dog in this fight. I think either guy would be a suitable rookie of the year. I feel like I've spent the whole episode disagreeing with Eno, so I should probably continue. Nobody's going to vote for a 232 average.

Damn you, Eno, and your.2 war is important. Well, I think if I had to predict who I think is going to win, I think Luis Robert's going to win. I think he's getting a lot more ink, a lot more attention, but I think Kyle Lewis deserves to win. So hopefully with that caveat, everyone knows where we stand.

It's going to be one of those two guys, though. I think it's pretty clear at this point. Let's move over to the NL side. I'm curious to know, Britt, where do you go with the NL Rookie of the Year award? There are actually a few contenders that have emerged in the last couple of weeks after it really looked like Jake Cronenworth

was going to be the surprise winner of that award probably four or five weeks into the season. Yeah, it really did. I do still like Cronzone. I think it's a great story. You know, you look at that team, it's a great story. I think Andy McCullough called it that, and I think it's a great story you know you look at that team it's a great story uh i think andy mccullough called it that and i think it's been it's been a great like nickname sicto sanchez

with the marlins probably deserves a little more credit um than he's gotten i've seen him a few times obviously um covering the gnats quite closely and he's everything he was hyped to be right i mean he's still hitting upper 90s in the last inning of his starts. You know, he's a big part of that Marlins team, which has been such a cool story after they got absolutely crucified, including on this show about the way they handled COVID to still be in it. I think there's definitely a couple guys that you can kind of throw in there as well. To me, those are the two guys, and it's really tough to choose between a pitcher and a position player when you're looking at rookie of the year, right?

Like what matters more? I always hate when it comes down to, you know, two guys who you can't really compare it all. You know, we could compare Lewis and Robert. We can sit here and talk about war and stats and things like that. But who, you know, what is this award? Is it the best young player or is it the guy who meant the most to his team? Because if it's the guy who meant the most to his team, I think Sicto Sanchez would probably get the edge.

Yeah, and by war, you know, among the pitchers, it's Tony Gonsolin, you know. Someone said war is not everything. Yeah, war for pitchers is even worse than war for hitters. So I'm not really pointing there. I will say that Gonsolin deserves mention. That's why I mentioned him. That's about all I need to do, I think. But I think, you know, if there's a top five, you know, Cronenworth is in it.

Alec Baum is in it. Gonsolin is in it. Sixto is in it. That's probably – those four, I think, are cut above the rest of the people you could throw on there. So, you know, pick, pick your favorite,

you know, with the Padres surge, if there's a narrative favorite, I think it's Cronenworth, but bomb, you know, I think he's been playing really well. And if the Phillies get in and he has like three homers this week, like recency bias is a real thing.

People like, especially if like the Marlins stumble or six Sixto has a bad start in the last start and Baum just has a crazy week and the Phillies make it, like, I think that'll be right before people vote. What kind of votes do you have? Do you have a vote? Yeah, I have Cy Young. Uh-huh.

Okay. Yeah. Well, we have to kind of recuse yourself. Uh-huh. Okay. You have to kind of recuse yourself. I, it seems like, will be forever voting for the worst, the very worst one. Do you guys know what it is?

Manager? Yes! Is it manager? Oh my goodness. You know when somebody in your chapter has it in for you that you keep getting manager of your votes. Oh God. Oh, God. Yeah, that's terrible.

Terrible. What's the equivalent? If we had an award at The Athletic for our staff, would it be like best Slack participant of the year? Oh, God. Like who dominated the Slack channels the most this season? That'd be like the manager of the year award at another office setting. There's no metrics. It's all narrative.

And it's hard to kind of parse the narrative because especially this year, we're not in the clubhouse. We're barely seeing these guys. So yeah, it is like... No, it's a Zoom award. Yeah. It's a Zoom award. Who ran the best Zooms?

Yes, it is. It's a popularity contest. Who dropped the best zingers? Did McCullough get the best zinger on Keurig, or was it the other way around this year? That's the kind of crap you'd be voting on. Manager of the Year is a stupid award. Sorry.

It just is. It is. The other name I'd throw in here for the NL Rookie of the Year, he won't get it. He probably won't even be top five in votes. Devin Williams, second mention of the show. .39 ERA. He's pitched in 20 games this year.

He's critically important to his bullpen. He might be the best reliever in the entire league so far this season. He's not showing signs of slowing down. It's pretty amazing to watch. I think you'll get on because you just have to fill out the ballot, right? Yeah, exactly. Just keep tweeting it. Someone will eventually, it'll be in the back

of their head and they'll be like oh okay i think i heard about this guy and they'll just i swear to god that's how some people fill out some of it um because i'm anti phillies this entire hour my issue with boom is he hasn't been up the whole season he hasn't been up it feels like very long at all right i know but i think that's kind of out the window because i would say that ian anderson deserves you know somewhat of a look and you're saying 6-0 and 36 innings on 6-0, 26 on Ian Anderson. I mean, somebody's going to get an award for a very small body of work. That's true. I thought Boehm over Cronenworth is kind of how I expected to go.

And I think I would vote for Boehm at this point. But this one, because everyone's dealing with even less of a sample, I think seeing how the final week plays out is going to be necessary. Let's talk about the AL Cy Young Award. This one's easy. This is Shane Bieber, right? I mean, is there even a strong case for anybody else this year, or is it just Bieber and a runaway,

which is hard to do in a shortened season? Yeah. Yeah, I'm not here to say anything bad about Shane Beaver. I've got literally nothing. Nothing else, Beaver. We can talk about like who should be on the ballot below him. I mean.

No, it doesn't even matter this year. The NL is a lot more fun. The NL is just the more fun league this season. You know, we didn't even talk about the AL playoff race because there isn't one for the final week of the season. The Jays are at like 99.7% and they're the only team that's not locked in right now. So unless they completely fall apart this week, they're getting in.

But the NL Cy Young, I saw, I think it was Bob Nightingale, suggest that with the start yesterday, Darvish kind of opened the door for Corbin Burns. It's not just Burns. There's a lot of guys that could win the NL Cy Young Award this year. DeGrom's been really good again. Denelson Lemaitre's been great. Luis Castillo's pitched really well. Where would you guys turn? I mean, Trevor Bauer's ratios are elite of the elite, so he's in the conversation as well. I think this is actually probably the most difficult award to stack up for this season, given the number of quality options. Yeah, this is the one I'm voting for, so I'm going to have to recuse myself. But of course, it's the most difficult one. Do you want to trade Eno?

At least with manager, you could just base it off of what shirts they wore on Zoom. This is a big deal. There it is. No, I will lay out like I have voted for Psy before. And guess who gave me that vote? Me when I was the chapter chair. So I'm sorry. I'm not bitter at all.

So the way I start with this, I do actually start with war. But I start with a war called RA9 war. And why I start with that is that's just what happened on the field. And why it's helpful is it kind of adds up all the contributions in a way. So you're like, what does.2 ERA mean versus this guy had more strikeouts? He did that sort of thing. RA9 kind of does that for you, where it's like, no, I added up the strikeouts, and I added up the runs allowed, and I put it all together,

and this is how good this player is. And I also don't treat it as like point one makes a difference. I do it as a grouping. So let's just look at guys that you'd basically round to a three RA9 war. That's Bauer, Darvish, Lamette, Burns, and Freed. That's where I would start. I should take notes. That's where I would start. I should take notes. That's where I would start.

I would start with those five, you know, and then you can start playing the game about, you know, who did it better, I guess. Like, who did it in a more compelling manner. Because then that's what you are saying. Like, in terms of what the value they provided, those guys are fairly equal. So now you're going to talk about, like, you know, who did it flash what the value they provided, those guys are fairly equal. So now

you're, you're going to talk about like, you know, who did it flashier, who did it, who's more important to their team, who, who had more strikeouts. And, you know, I'm not sure that I, you know, have a great hold on even my own method after that, you know, like I know I have a good grouping method where I'm like, I'm fairly certain these are the five. Now I need to order them. And then every time I have that vote, I just try to figure it out. But I do think there's something really compelling about Trevor Bauer striking so many people out, not walking many people, having a 1-8 ERA, and in some cases, rescuing the Reds. So I think there's a little bit of narrative there. There's really compelling strikeout numbers there.

It's a really good ERA. So I think right now for me, Bauer would be atop that group. Yeah, better ERA, better whip than Jacob deGrom. DeGrom has them in K-BB percentage, but it's because of a 1.1% difference in strikeout rate. So that's very much splitting hairs. I think keeping opposing lineups away from the soft underbelly of the Reds' bullpen is really important.

So that's one of those context things that matters. You know, it's like almost 10 extra innings for Bauer over DeGrom. So that's, I mean, it's ridiculous to say it that way. Because if we were talking about 200 versus 190, no one would care. But if it's 60 versus 50, it's a little bit different. Yeah, I think for me, I'd actually go Darvish here. I feel like part of it is that right now,

if I had to pick one NL starter to put in a game seven scenario, Darvish is actually the guy I like the most. Going back to last season, it's the second half with that walk rate being really elite of the elite, always bringing five plus pitches to the table. It just it seems like teams are increasingly struggling to put runs up on the board against him. So this is a great field. I mean, it's a incredibly difficult vote. So I don't envy Britt for having to make that decision at all, even though I do envy Britt as someone voting on the awards. And I don't envy you having to choose a manager of the year. Maybe

just get a dartboard and put a few managers on there, put a blindfold on and throw a dart. I mean, obviously, you will choose based on reason. But the reasons for choosing manager of the year can only be so deep, right? That's the problem. That's where the gripe comes from. Yeah. It's like, does Don Mattingly get a serious look because, I mean, of what the Marlins have done? I don't know. There's just some interest. Like, does Boone get any credit for the Yankees looking terrible and then being hot?

Like, I have a hard time weighing it, right? Do you weigh it against expectations? Eno is, like, visibly distraught, guys. I'm going in for the kill here. No, this is so bad. It's so bad. Even when I tried to identify a path through the numbers, and it's really hard because you can't take,

some people would be like, oh, take expected what they were projected to win and what they actually won, and the difference is the manager. No, it's not. No, it's not. There's a lot of players on that team you know there's a lot of players that maybe they all kind of collective oh they all collectively overperform their

projections that must be on the manager no it's not right it's on the player development people maybe like i know yeah you're right it's so messed up coach and the hitting coach and like maybe even their private coach you know look at look at lucas giolito you like went to somewhere else you know so yeah you can't even resonate like could you give the white socks credit for lucas giolito's improvement last year maybe 10 of it 15 i don't know so yeah you can't really do it that way so i tried to just look at who puts their best relievers in the game at the at the right time so like leverage index and and how good the relievers were and who put their best hitters in the lineup in the right places right so you kind of look at lineup optimization and i did those two things

and uh one of the top guys for me was uh farrell the guy in in boston john farrell yeah you mean rank Wait, that's not this year. You mean in the past? No, the year I was... Oh, okay, okay. I was like... No, no, no. He's instructed that I put him, I think, second on the list,

and he lost his job that year. Yeah, yeah. I was like, wait. Yeah. And people were like, he pinch ran that knuckleballer in a meaningless game, and he tore his shoulder and never pitched again and i was like well that does sound actually kind of meaningful i i shouldn't have voted for him so i had to go on mlb network and get roasted by brian kenney and a bunch of people and i and i i had nothing to say i i came on there i was like

i was wrong like i, I messed up. I just looked at the numbers, and I didn't really look beyond the numbers. And this is what happens if you don't look beyond the numbers. Yeah. You know, mea culpa. So I think this year I'm just not going to look at any numbers. I'm just going to be like, that team. I like that team.

You know, he seems nice. Yeah. I mean, you're going to get roasted no matter what because now in the age of social media, your name's attached. A few years ago, I had MVP, which you guys think is easy. One to three is easy, but you've got to fill out one to ten. So then people are questioning. Why did you put this guy ten? Taylor and the NBA over the weekend, got absolutely crushed, leaving AD off the ballot. If you make a mistake, remember when a few years ago, Kate Upton got on Twitter and called out Bill Chastain, who used to write for the Rays for leaving Verlander off? It's like my biggest fear that I'm going to sign on to Twitter and Kate Upton's going to be tweeting about how I'm an idiot.

I do remember that shirt because of the language that was used in it. It was circulating around Twitter for quite a while. So yeah, I do remember that chirp because of the language that was used in it. It was circulating around Twitter for quite a while. So, yeah, I do recall that. No one wants to look bad in any of this. Going 10 deep on the MVP ballot is kind of... It's stressful. It's stressful. You got to find a way to add up the points and find the absolute best player. So I understand why it's done that way.

But, hey, let us know, Britt. Who are your top 10 in the AL this year? Ready, go. It's really stressful. And then guys get money based off of whether they're in there, that gets used in arbitration or contract negotiations.

And you're like, this guy's 12th, but he could have been 8th. They should get rid of it. Top five only. 10 is just way too many. It's too many. I think.

And then there's too, there's too many, too much temptation to like give a guy you like, like a little, you know, pat on the back, you know, try to slip them in 10th or whatever.

And, and also like, there's too many people who sort by war, you know, and are just like, Oh my God. And you're like, dude,

don't get at me for 0.2 war especially this year oh god can that be on our shirts at rates of barrels someone asked we can make shirts it's just say don't get at me for 0.2 war it's a good shirt i like it you know i put that on the book i gotta put that on the board i'm gonna throw out a war stat though here after all that uh shane fantastic timing had a had a 3.8 uh runs runs allowed war and the highest fan graphs position war is 2.8 so once you start talking about one win full win in in here tell me why shane bieber shouldn't be the mvp of the american league i don't have a strong case against him and i think when you look at how flat hitter production is and how comparable everybody is who's in contention, I think you could easily make the argument that Bieber is both the Cy Young and the MVP. So if you're looking for

a counter argument, I don't have a good one there. Yeah, I agree. You know, there's Tim Anderson, Jose Ramirez, Mike Proud, all guys, Nelson Cruz, where, and war would really significantly alter your discussion when you're talking about, uh, about Nelson Cruz because he only shows up eighth in the American league if you do it by war. Cause he's a designated hitter, but designated hitting might be a skill war might actually get that one wrong. Nelson Cruz was the fourth best hitter by WRC plus, you know, like, you know, he's, he was a dude, and the Twins needed him,

and it would be awesome to give a 40-year-old the MVP, I think. Yeah, it's true. If you are sorting by war, though, Jose Ramirez, he leads the league in war. Lindor hasn't been Lindor this season. That offense is not as good as expected. He had to carry a pretty heavy load. He plays great defense, and he bounced back like he had that brutal first half last year. Obviously, he got really hot, had an injury, played really well throughout the second half. But he kind of showed us that the first half of last season was a fluke.

to give that award to Jose Ramirez either because he's almost been a three-win player this year and he's done everything he needs to do to really keep that team right in the thick of the playoff picture. Yeah, I mean, I think as we have said all show, the NL is more interesting, right? I mean, I think you give it to Bieber and the AL. I think the NL is fascinating

because Freddie Freeman, a guy who like was basically, I mean, I wasn't sure if that guy was going to play after he got COVID when you read about what happened to him, right was like he had like this like praying praying yeah yeah he's like praying to be released from this pain yeah it was like god i hope this guy like hangs on you know it was really scary and now all of a sudden he's in the end in nvp contention here and i mean there's he's got a solid case because Tatis and everyone loves to tease they

love the way he plays he made all those headlines right for the Grand Slam and um he's cooled off a bit here so um I don't know what you guys think about the NL MVP but there's definitely some intrigue do you think there's some truth to like the splitting votes thing I was looking at that when I was looking at Tim Anderson and Jose Abreu um do you think when you've got Tatis and then Manny, especially if you're in the sort by war crowd, Manny's right behind with Tatis, you know, like literally right there.

And I mean, it might, I think it just might split enough where somebody looks at that team and goes, that's Manny's team. And so Manny has to go one or two and Tatis has to go two or three. You know what I mean? Yeah. And somebody looks at that team and goes, that's Tatis' team. So he goes two and Manny has to go one or two, and Tatis has to go two or three. You know what I mean? Yeah.

And somebody looks at that team and goes, that's Tatis' team. So he goes two and Manny goes three. So I think that there's going to be enough of that where they kind of split opinions and kind of steal and maybe make Freeman kind of emerge as, oh, my gosh, the Braves are like the second offense in the National League. And the second best hitter on the team is are like the second offense in the National League and the second best hitter on the team is you know down in the 15 to 20 range so Freeman really just pops if you think about the Braves this year you think about Freddie Freeman you know yeah no it's a good point especially because like Manny no one's really talked about him right like he's had this huge bounce back here I think he leads the NL in home runs uh he's been such a crucial part of that

team and, it comes down to what's MVP? Is it the best player in the league or is it the player that's the most important to their team? We never really say. Everyone's always open to interpretation because the Padres are still good without Fernando Tatis. They're probably

still a playoff team. Are the Braves without Freddie Freeman, especially losing Soroka and some of the things that they've dealt with? I don't know. Who's more valuable? I think each of those teams has a cluster of players. The Dodgers have it. You could say Mookie Betts is the MVP. You could say it's Freeman. Acuna has been a little bit dinged up

this year. Otherwise, he'd be right in the thick of this conversation too. Marcelo Zuna has been just mashing. He's one of those guys who gets dragged down because of his defense. But if you take defense out of the equation for the award, Freeman kind of pops up even more. He's got a 186 WRC plus entering the final week. I mean, that's just a crazy number.

That's a level above Tatis and Machado and Betts. I think if I had to make the call right now, it's Tatis over Betts. And I think the tiebreaker in my head is just all the images of this season where Tatis is having this weird, intangible sort of impact on that team. That team would still be good without him, but the energy that guy brings every single day is pretty clearly infectious. And if we're looking at a dozen players who all are at the absolute top of this list and have a case, you have to choose based on something that's probably not in the numbers. I don't ever want to be intangibles guy, but you got to break the tie somehow. And for me, that sort of is the separation for Tatis versus the field here.

I just did the weirdest thing. I mean, I just went on baseball prospectus and sorted by their war. And I don't know why I did that. Now Marcel Azuna is number one. Okay, no. He's been really good. He's not the MVP, you guys. He's a liability in the field.

Okay, if that's the case, they just need to start making it a better offensive player and defensive player because he's good. But every time the ball gets hit out there, I think as a Braves fan, you're like, hold your breath. That's the weirdest part is that this uh they have him as as soon as a plus two runs um fielding runs above average they have him as a better fielder than freeman i just think there's probably something missing there i'm tati silver bets so that's where i'm at maybe the final week somehow changes that. I think the Freeman argument is it's a great story at the very least, because as you said, he was really questionable for the beginning of the season with the COVID symptoms that he had reported.

And Nick Marcakis opted out after talking to him and then eventually opted back in, which is still one of the weirder things that's happened in 2020. Before we go, what are you guys looking forward to the most? Obviously, we're watching these close playoff races. Is there any particular series or storyline or anything for the final week that is really front of mind for you? I'd like a little more clarity on the NL Cy Young, selfishly, because as we said, that's my vote.

So I'd really like it if these guys all got together and they just decided one or two of them was just going to absolutely bow out. That would be cool so gonna be watching uh seeing what happens there uh with those guys so that i can make an informed vote and not be the subject of twitter ire um also you know some of the some of the clinchings i think the a's can do it tonight right um there are teams that are are really close to clinching tonight and then i want to see like which team can can kind of take that last spot that we talked about before.

I hate the expanded playoffs, but this is a one-off, hopefully. And I'd like to see some of these teams that we never thought we'd be talking about, like the Marlins and some of these other teams, the Cardinals, these teams that had all these issues. It'd be cool to watch them socially, distantly separate, I don't know, celebrate. How are they doing it now? Has anyone shown a locker room? I haven't seen one yet. I doubt they'll do that for us.

I think they should mosh pit with sanitizer. You know what I mean? Just spray each other with sanitizer. Just rage with the sanitizer. That's what I... Slip and slide with the sanitizer. Just go absolutely... Tarp slide with the sanitizer um just go absolutely tarp slide yeah absolutely crazy with purell are those celebrations getting worse though brit like

they're getting more like planned and more there's more plastic and there's more of a like ads on them it's just more like a like oh they're they're sponsored the celebration is sponsored by budweiser yes just it just seems less and less fun. It was so not fun. By the time the Nats, like the first few, like you guys know, like I've already been covering baseball since I was eight. Like once you're in one celebration locker room, you've been in a million of them.

It feels that way. Yeah. What sucks to me is it's taking longer and longer for the media to get in there. So by the time we're let in, they've been celebrating for a half an hour. They're drunk. They're drunk. They're just like they can't even form a sentence, right? Sopping wet.

Yeah, they're just yelling and trying to soak you. And you're like, I just want some quotes. You know? Yeah, I'm doing my job here. Yeah. I just want to know how, I just want some quotes, you know? Like, I don't need to see you guys, like, doing, like, keg stands out of the cup over here, which is what the Nats did with the trophy.

Like, I don't need to see Brian D doser shirtless maybe ever again you know so i mean it was funny that it was funny the first time miguel herrera saw that i didn't have a jacket on and just doused me in in in um in champagne that was sort of funny the first time afterwards you're just like please do not do not do please not. Please. Yeah. I don't want to be wet. Yeah. I've ruined phones, tape recorders. I don't ever bring a notepad in there anymore because your notepad gets soaked, right?

Once you've gotten champagne in your eye once, you're kind of over it. You're like, you know what? I like drinking champagne. I don't like having champagne sprayed all over me. We're such downers. That's fair. Well, you guys are ruining the illusion. I've never been in this situation.

I've never covered a team. Yeah, also don't listen to us too. The first one would be fun. Because we're cynical writers. We just, who cares? Yeah, have some fun, right? I mean, like. Your team is weird.

Celebrate. Here's the thing. It's not our celebration. So you always just feel kind of weird like you feel like you've crashed a wedding right like it'd be one thing yeah yeah you know when i can run in there with champagne and we're like this like you know likes the drink i like to drink like i'd be totally fine like i have a screaming voice naturally i'd be great in celebrations but it's not my celebration. You're right. I could crack one. I could do pretty well in one of those if it was mine. It's very strange.

Yeah, if you take the work aspect out of it, it'd be a blast. It's just that you're in there trying to do work and equipment's being ruined and you didn't have goggles. So I get it. I get it. But I think it'd be a lot of fun because I haven't had that experience to this point. It'd be a lot of fun because I haven't had that experience to this point. I had a one note for Dan Tatis by ounce above average on baseball.

Savant Savant is number one, the number one defender in baseball this year. And that is not reflected necessarily in his war total on fan graphs. So I would say that he is my NL MVP. And I, the, the teams I want to watch are the brewers and the reds. They not only play each other, but they play in their division. They're exciting, I think, ball clubs.

They're playing well right now. And they're actually somewhat similar, if you think about them, in terms of how interesting they'll be in the playoffs, in that they both have two really good starters at the top of their rotation. I think the Brewers' bullpen is better. But if the Reds' lineup can hit like it's supposed to, there's a chance that the Reds' lineup is better. And they're kind of starting to play like that.

So I think they're evenly interestingly matched, and they have interesting schedules down the line there. So I think those are the teams I'll be watching the most of this week. Yeah, shocker. I want to watch the Brewers. Who would have thought? But, you know, Britt hates the Phillies. Actually, I find them kind of compelling because I think for all the money

they've spent, for all the drama, I think they're healthy. They're dangerous. Their offense could be really good especially. So I'm curious to see how this week plays out for them. A lot at stake in Philadelphia right now. If you're enjoying this show on a platform that allows you to rate and review it, please take a moment to do that. We'd greatly appreciate it.

If you don't already have a subscription to The Athletic, it's the best deal ever, $1 per month at theathletic.com slash ratesandbarrels. That gets you Brit's articles. It gets you Eno's articles. All of our baseball coverage, league-wide, team-by-team, and fantasy stuff. I'm trying to have 2021 fantasy baseball rankings on the site by

the end of next week. Yes, I am crazy. As always, you can reach us via email, ratesandbarrels at theathletic.com. If you want to reach us, be sure to spell out the word and on Twitter. She is at Britt underscore Giroli. Just guess on the spelling of drolly it's g-h-i-r-o-l-i i'm matt derrick benriper he's at you know saris that's going to wrap things up for this episode of rates and barrels we are back with you tuesday thanks for listening Thank you.