It is the JR Sport Ree Show here with you coast to coast on the Infinity Sports Network. The NBA might be in free agency. The NHL probably in the same. They both handed out their championship trophies, but Major League Baseball has now reached. The time on the calendar where it's their time to shine.
We have a Major League Baseball All-Star Game here in Atlanta, Georgia, next week. We've already gone past the halfway point.
So, to talk about everything that we've seen and what we might see the rest of the way, joining us right now, courtesy of Fox Sports. Is Rowan Cavner. Rowan, how are you? I'm good, man. I'm in the bowels of Angel Stadium for a Jacob deGrom start.
So I hope you can hear me okay. I hear you perfectly loud and clear. We appreciate the time knowing that you're getting ready to go out there and check out one of the best in the game.
Well, let's start off here. Not best in the game. The Nationals just woke up yesterday. Mr. Lernis said, I'm getting rid of Rizzo, I'm getting rid of Martinez, regardless of what they did.
What the hell are the Nationals doing? I think the timing is interesting. We're about a week away from the draft, you have the trade deadline coming up, and now is the time you kind of wake up and say, and maybe this hasn't been so good.
So I think the timing is interesting. It's not so much. A shock necessarily to see them clean house. It's just sort of when it happened. And obviously, you know.
They win the 2019 World Series, but at some point you can't just rest on that. And since then, It's basically been a disaster. And pretty much everything other than the guys that got back from the Soto trade, which looks like a huge success now, just hasn't been good enough. They're not a good team. They are 37 and 53.
And I guess the fact that you have guys within the organization who are going to be kind of taking over, at least in the interim, maybe when you look at the fact that the trade deadline's coming up in the drafts here, they're at least familiar with the system. But not a surprise to see them go just based on the results we've seen, which just haven't been good enough. But yeah, the timing was a little surprising. Are there any other teams that you've taken a look at now that we're pulling up on the all-star break that have just been very disappointing so far throughout the course of the season? Yeah, I mean, we can stick with the host city.
And I think you look at the Braves, I think that's been the. Probably most surprising thing that we've seen here. And I don't think it's a shock to, you look at the worst teams in baseball. Not a shock to see the Rockies down there, the White Sox, but the Braves in the National League and the Orioles in the American League, sticking on the East Coast there have definitely been the two most surprising teams to struggle. And look, I think when you look at the Braves, you look at all the pitching injuries they've had, I think you can at least understand why it hasn't gone well on the pitching side.
It doesn't explain what's going on on the offensive side for them to be a bottom 10 offense in baseball. Obviously, definitely a huge disappointment. It'll be fun for the hometown crowd to see Acuna. He's been awesome since. He came back.
I guess that's kind of one thing that the fans can be excited about right now. But man, it's tough out there. It certainly is. Rowan Kavner joins us, covers all things baseball for Fox Sports. When we look on the positive side of things, we see that the Tigers are surging, the Blue Jays have now surged.
Past the New York Yankees, we know there's a lot of ups and downs throughout the course of a season, but do you see them maintaining pole position in their respective divisions? It's interesting. It's hard with Toronto. I still think the Yankees are probably the best team in that division. But man, lately, it's hard to really say that.
You know, you get so it's such a long season that whatever's happening in the last week feels like More like a month. And it's been a bad couple of weeks for the Yankees. I still think they're probably the most talented team. In that division, you know, the Red Sox are kind of coming on strong right now. It's been a horrible disaster first half, and yet here they are a little bit over 500.
I think I could see all three of those teams still fighting, kind of, you know, down the down the stretch of the second half. But yeah, man, the Blue Jays, W8 right now. And, you know, they sign, they give Vlad the big extension. And the question, kind of, with his team for years, is: what about the other guys? You know, do they have enough?
Of those kind of secondary pieces to kind of get them where they wanna go. And you look at guys like George Springer, who's having his best offensive season in years. And we can get to the all-star game. He should be there. He was, I think, the biggest snub in the American league.
Really, no reason that he shouldn't be on that team, but he's been incredible. Vlad's been good. But you got guys like Barger, like David Schneider. You got these guys who have really kind of stepped up for them that I think has led to what you're seeing over these last couple of weeks.
Well, Rowan, you talk about all-star snubs. Yesterday, no Juan Soto go into the game, at least on the selection from yesterday. What gives with some of these selections? What is this? Yeah, that's got to be the biggest surprise, the biggest snub, but definitely not alone there in terms of guys who were surprised to see.
And granted, I think it's important to understand how this happens. I think the fan selection, obviously, they're the ones who decide the starters. We're mostly right. I was surprised to see Baez for the Tigers get the start in the outfield. I mean, it's been a resurgent year for him, but mostly right there.
The rest of it is player picks, player ballots, and commissioners' office picks. And that's where I've seen the biggest surprise. There weren't a ton of huge shocks on the National League side. I think you could definitely question Tatis. It's been a tougher first half for him than I think people expected.
But American League, man, there's a lot of guys there that I was surprised to see. You've got Julio Rodriguez in there. Bregman and Jazz Chisholm have been hurt for a lot. Of that first half, really good when they're playing, but banged up. And so you get it.
The result is a lot of guys who should be there who aren't. And you have the NL Hits leader and Trey Turner, who's not there. The Cubs have a lot of guys they could be upset about. Let's say Suzuki is the major league RBI leader. Michael Bush has arguably been the best first baseman in baseball.
They're at least in the national league, rather, they're not there. Of course, Soto. Junior Camanero has a case. He's a third baseman. He's most home runs in the American League among third basemen.
We talked about Springer. I mean, there's a lot of guys right now that definitely deserve it. I think the Astros, you could argue Framber Valdez should be there. He's one of the biggest pitching snubs to me. They have an argument for Paredes at third base.
So a lot, a lot of guys on the American League side. And again, there's time now. There's a week for reserves and injuries and things like that for some of these guys to be on there. But I was really surprised at some of these choices on the player ballot. Or Rowan, we know by the time we pull up to the weekend, as guys pitch and don't pitch, you say get hurt and don't get hurt, we're going to have a lot of adjustments.
To the roster. Can we expect to see Skeens and Schoolbull start the game, or what are we getting you? I think Schubl should without question be the American league starter. I think he's the best pitcher in baseball. National League has an interesting choice on its hand, and you have Skeens and Wheeler, who I think are the clear, in my mind, top two.
I think Wheeler has a really good case. He's been basically unhittable. The last month, you look back at the last five starts, ERA under one, you look back at the last 10, ERA close to like 130, something like that. And a guy who doesn't probably have a ton more opportunities when you're looking at the late 30s.
So I think the fact that Steam started it last year, and granted, I'm an LSU guy, went to LSU, a lot of love for that guy. He started it totally understandable. I think I'd give the nod right now to Wheeler. I think right now he's just been basically untouchable. Rowan Kavner is here with us, covers all things baseball for Fox Sports.
When you think about what we're gonna get.
Next week, and the adjustments that we've had to the game. This is probably still the best all-star game, considering all the changes we've had. Across all sports, would you say so? I think so. I think it's still a really entertaining product.
And I It could be tweaks to the derby, I think, but I mean, that's still an entertaining game as well. But I think I would probably say so. Yeah, I think it's still an entertaining product. And there's ways you could maybe. tweak things here or there, but there's no perfect system.
Yeah, no doubt about that. Rowan, as we start to wrap things up, I know you're based out in Los Angeles. Can we still, even with all the injuries that they've had to deal with, can we just throw this World Series over at the Dodgers as favorites? I think they got to be at least the favorites in the National League. And I think we have mentioned the Astros a little bit coming into this, and they've been really, really incredible.
I think when you lose, you know, and again, I'm talking about American League tier, but when you lose, you know, Bregman and Tucker and to still just kind of pick it back up. I mean, they've won 30 of their last 41 games, and they absolutely obliterated the Dodgers this last weekend.
Now, coming into this, the Dodgers were looking a lot better. They had a really hot start for a good chunk of the season. They didn't really look like the team I think that you expected them to be. They've picked it back up. They've dealt with a ton of pitching injuries.
A lot of those guys are getting healthier now. The Max Muncie injury is really big, but I still think this is the best team in the National League. I think if you had to pick, they had to be the favorites to get out in the National League. Of good teams behind them with the Cubs and the Phillies and the Mets, although they kind of tanked for a little bit there. But I still think they're their favorites in National League.
The American League's still kind of wide open. I think the Tigers, the Astros are the best teams. But yeah, you look at that AL East. I expect we've already seen the Blue Jays get hot, but you could see the Yankees, the Red Sox making some noise in the second half. Hey, Rowan, final question for you.
Is there a team that hasn't peaked yet that you still have a chance to go on a run? We know this World Series now is just who gets hot late? Yeah, yeah, it's a good question. And I mean, I mentioned I mentioned the Red Sox. I think the Devers deal was really surprising to me.
I don't know if I'm going to put kind of. My full faith into that. I think the team I'm watching tonight with the Grom is interesting with the Rangers. That offense, I think people expected to get a little bit closer to that 2023 level. We haven't seen it.
They regressed in 2024. They've been one of the worst in 2025. They have the best, at least by ERA, pitching staff and starting staff. In the major leagues, and the Groms has been a big reason for that. The offense has just been awful.
And even if they were just close to kind of league average, you could see them making a little bit of a run. I thought they were a world T-Race contender. We just haven't seen it yet, but still time for that. And then I think an interesting team at the deadline, at least, is Arizona, who are 44 and 46 right now. Pitching staff's really banged up.
They have a ton of guys who could help teams if they want to be sellers. They might just look at this and say, you know, there's still a lot of talent on the offensive side. Corbin Carroll just came back. Let's sort of see what happens. They're in a really tough division.
Obviously, with the Giants and Padres and Dodgers, but those are the kind of teams that haven't looked the way that they should yet so far and could be interesting at least in the second half. Yeah, we got a lot more season ahead of us. Rowan, thank you so much for the time. Please tell everybody where they can follow you and all your work covering baseball for Fox Sports. Yeah, it's at my name at Rowan Kavner on X.
Also on Blue Sky, you can read my work at Fox Sports.
So there you go. Thank you, Roman. Enjoy the game and the matchup tonight, okay? Thank you for the time. Awesome, man.
Thanks so much.
