It is the JR Sport Re Show here with you coast to coast on the Infinity Sports Network. I'm in Atlanta, Georgia. Atlanta and the metropolitan area is certainly hosting all of Major League Baseball's all-star festivities. We're about an hour away from first pitch. We've had the home run derby.
We're going to get the big game tonight. We're going to get into the stretch run of the Major League Baseball season. We're going to pull up on the trade deadline to talk about everything we will see here between now and maybe the end of the season. And joining us right now is a host and analyst from the Foul Territory Network. It's Kyle Glazer.
Kyle, thank you for taking the time to join us. My pleasure. Happy to be on with you.
Well, thank you.
Well, let's go backwards before we look forward. What were your thoughts on the home run derby last night? I don't want to say a lot of controversy because it is an exhibition, but moving guys and advancing them and Jazz Chisholm not caring. What were your impressions on what we got last night? Yeah, there's no question.
It was not by any means the eight best power hitters in baseball. If it was, you'd have Shohei Otani, you'd have Aaron Judge. At the same time, this is always an event where young guys can come out and kind of make their mark a little bit. And look, as much as Cal Raleigh has been an absolute superstar this season playing in Seattle, a lot of the country hasn't gotten a chance to see him.
So seeing him go out, showcase his power, win the home run derby, I thought that was pretty spectacular. Obviously, you know, advancing over Brent Rooker by inches, less than inches, is certainly controversial. I don't know if Hawkeye is actually that exact, but it is what it is. And I did think the entire country getting to see what a special talent he is was a highlight of the Derby.
Well, he won. He certainly won joining Ken Griffey as the only Mariners to go out there and do it. What is your expectation? The man has played in 90 plus games. He has 38 home runs.
He swung in it another 40, 50-ish home runs last night.
Okay. Can he maintain this pace as the season continues on? You know, it's funny. I think the natural inclination is to say no, just because once you get into the dog days of summer, the wear and tear of catching, but he's already done so many things that no one thought he would be able to do, which was, you know, hit 38 home runs by the all-star break, a number surpassed only by Barry Bonds while doing it as a switch-hitting catcher. I mean, I don't want to put limits on this guy.
He's already blown past so many expectations of what he can or can't do. I think saying he can't or won't do something is probably a fool's bet right now. Kyle Glaser is here with us from the Foul Territory Network.
Well, we got to see what he does the rest of the season. We're going to see an all-star tonight that's only had five starts, five career starts, and here he is. Of course, it is an exhibition just like what we saw last night. What are your thoughts on the selection process and even getting a guy like Jacob Miserowski in here? Obviously, it's not ideal, but the real issue is so many players opting out or electing not to play or not being able to play because they're pitching on Sunday.
Whenever you have so many players saying no or opting out, you're going to have to start moving down. Look, Ranger Suarez, Christopher Sanchez both deserved it over Jacob Misarowski, but Suarez said he didn't want to pitch and Sanchez started on Sunday. Nick Pavetta in San Diego, same thing, deserved it, but he pitched on Sunday. Realistically, Major League Baseball is going to have this problem unless they start saying, hey, if you're too injured to play in the all-star game, you're too injured to play in any game period. You need to go on the 10-day IL.
And fans say, well, it's an exhibition. Major League Baseball isn't charging exhibition prices for this. They're charging premium prices and they have to deliver a premium product for it. If it's truly an exhibition, they should charge spring training prices, which they don't. At the end of the day, as long as players have no incentive, not, you know, they're disincentivized from participating or there's no incentive for them to participate other than personal pride, we're going to continue to.
see problems like this.
Well, we're not moving the way of the the NBA All Star game, are we? No, Major League Baseball's all-star game is still the best all-star game around because the players actually try. The pitchers are still out there trying to throw 97 to 100. The hitters are up there still trying to hit 400-foot home runs.
So you're still getting the best effort from players, which you don't get in the NBA All-Star Game. You don't get in the NHL All-Star game. You certainly never got in the Pro Bowl. And that will always make MLB the best all-star game. But Major League Baseball needs to ensure the best players are participating.
And if they're truly hurt, then they need to be on the IL. The two starters that we're going to see tonight, one of them is making his second consecutive start just to start his career here. In Skeens, you also have Schoolbull out there. When you take a look at Skeens, we know the Pirates are going absolutely nowhere.
Meanwhile, the Tigers have been able to improve upon their offense based on what we saw last year. What is your confidence level in the Tigers being able to go on a run? This is a real threat to reach the World Series out of the American League this year. When you look at this rotation, you can go Terek Skoogle, Casey Mize is having a great season, Jack Flaherty. And by the way, Reese Olson, who's the best pitcher no one has heard of, that's not a rotation any team wants to face down the stretcher in October.
And you have to give the Tigers hitting department a ton of credit. They have helped so many guys have turnaround seasons. Javier Baez, of course, essentially back from the dead, but also Glaber Torres, Spencer Torkelson, guys who really looked like they were kind of on the fringes on the way out or on the downslope of their careers. And the Tigers have helped them get better and perform at a high level. Add that to guys like Kerry Carpenter and Riley Green.
This is a scary lineup with a great starting pitching staff. There's no reason why the Tigers can't continue this and represent the AL in the World Series. Kyle Glaser is here with us on the JR Sport Reef Show. He's a host and analyst for the Foul Territory Network. We know the old guard in the American League.
The New York Yankees are currently on a downswing trying to figure out their offense as well as their pitching. The Astros are seemingly right back in it. Are there any other teams that you would take a look at in the American League and just go, oh, they they can also go for a run, but people aren't showing them love? The Toronto Blue Jays, let's not forget this is the team that leads the American League East right now. And they've always had tons of talent.
The issue is they just underperformed year after year after year. There were so many guys you looked at and said they're capable of more. Clearly, there's something wrong organizationally. They fixed it this year. John Schneider's talked about a better culture.
You can see it. Players are more focused, more dialed in, just play more cohesively. And now you're getting bounced back years from guys like George Springer and Beau Bachette and Alejandro Kirk. You still have a really good starting pitching staff. I mean, you can go Kevin Gosman, Jose Berrios, and if Max Scherzer's at his best, that's a scary rotation.
The Blue Jays have always had the talent. They just kind of played beneath their talent.
Now that they're actually playing to their true talent level, this is a very scary team. As we have this conversation, the New York Yankees are getting a photo op in with their All-Stars and free judge. You got Ed Boone is sitting out there taking some photos. We saw what the Yankees did in the World Series last year, and they're going to have to fight to get back there. But we know who the champs are.
It's the Dodgers. And we know they've had to deal with tons of injuries. Is it? Can we check a box and just say they're the favorites once again? Not necessarily.
They have not played to the level of a World Series favorite, and a lot of it is injury-induced. Once they get their pitching back, they should take off, but there's been a lot of points this season where it's like, okay, they've been underperforming or underwhelming, but they're going to figure it out. And while they are in first place, They struggled going into the break. They went to three and seven into the break. I mean, you look at the Phillies have every bit as much talent as the Dodgers do.
They're very much a threat. The Cubs have, for my money, the most explosive and dangerous offense in baseball. They're always a threat. And you have teams like the Brewers who can pitch as well as anyone in the league and just completely shut the Dodgers' offense down.
So the Dodgers are going to be in the mix once they get their starting pitchers back healthy, their best arms on the mound. They should be better, but by no means should we assume, oh, it's just going to be the Dodgers again. The Phillies, the Cubs, these are legitimately good teams who can absolutely compete with them. Kyle, you talk about the Brewers. We talked about seeing Jacob Mazurowski on the mound tonight.
We may see him going down the stretch run. But if we think about something that we'll see tonight, we're going to see the challenge system utilized for the first time in an all-star game. Major League Baseball most certainly trying to push it toward the forefront and just garner some excitement, I'd gather, in the game today and bring it to the largest audience. What are your thoughts on how fast and how soon we might see this implemented? As soon as next season?
Yeah, I expect it to be implemented next season. I wrote a lot about the challenge system when I was at Baseball America, covering all the rules changes in the minors. I saw it in action in the minors. We've seen it in the futures games. We've seen it in spring training.
It's great. The umpires are still able to call most of the game when there's a close call. You can get a challenge. They figure it out in 10 seconds and get the call right. It's something that also fans get into, having it show up on the video board.
You hear ooze and ahs, whether they're right or wrong.
So I think this is something that we are going to see a lot of people embrace the more they get used to it. And I do expect to see it in Major League Baseball next season.
Well, we've seen a lot of changes in baseball over the past several years, some of them induced via COVID, some of them to try to speed up the game, the Ghost Runners and what have you. What impact do you think this challenge system is ultimately going to have on the game? Thank you. It's going to help some of those late game situations where it's a close call and a batter gets rung up on a questionable strike three. You know, before there was no recourse.
Now they can challenge it. And it's going to change the course of some games in a positive way. We see so many calls missed in big spots late in games.
Now they have a way to fix it and check it. I think ultimately this will make for a better product. And you'll have less games where a bad call is determining the outcome, which I think is always a good thing. Most certainly Kyle Glazer is here with us from from the Foul Territory Network. It's a think even further out.
We know that the Major League Baseball CBA expires at the end of next season. Given baseball's history of stops and starts and stops and trying to figure out how they split the pie and what comes next, do you think that we're in danger of being in trouble by the time we flip the calendar into 2027? I will say that. Many, many people in the game, including in the league office, top agents, a couple folks in the players union, do believe we will have a work stoppage after this current CBA expires, just with salaries getting as high as they are for some teams and the gap growing between the top teams and bottom teams, as well as a lot of the revenue issues Major League Baseball is facing due to the decline of the regional sports network television model. There's a sense that this is going to be one of the more complicated negotiations and that.
there will be some sort of stoppage. That said, a lot can change in a year and a half, so nothing is guaranteed. But I will say within the game, there is a belief that we will see some sort of stoppage. Hopefully one that does not cause games to be lost during the season. Would that not lean more towards the Players Association kind of getting on one accord?
And sure, when you have a thousand-plus players trying to figure one thing out, it seems like even amongst the players, there are a lot of haves and there are a lot of have-nots. We heard from Tony Clark that he doesn't necessarily want to have a salary cap introduced because the salaries continue to go up, but not for everybody. Is it more of a players' issue? It's not like the owners are trying to choke out the players here, no? No, it's an owner's issue.
A lot of small market owners are saying they can't compete when you have teams like the Dodgers and Cubs running up payrolls in the $300 million range. And while that's true, that the Pirates of the world cannot spend $300 million, they certainly can spend more than $90 million. Same with the Marlins and $67 million. Every Major League Baseball team, with the way revenue sharing works, can spend at least $100 million, if not $150 million on payroll. A lot of these small market owners refuse to do so.
They cry poor. And now with the regional television model kind of declining and costing them some revenues as well, it's another. Area they can point to and say, see, we're losing money.
So, this is purely an owner's issue right now. They're claiming that they're losing money and the game cannot go on the way it's currently constructed. That's an argument that happens every CBA negotiation, and the players have been able to avoid a salary cap so far, and I believe they will again, because that's the one issue they will not budge on. Yeah, well, I know Bob Nutting is probably crying poor this very moment and very second.
Well, we'll see how that goes. S say again, Carl? Always, he's always crying poor. Yeah, he says, Hey, fans, show up. Fans, show up.
Oh, you didn't show up enough. I just okay. All right, Bob. All right. Let's go back to uh printing newspapers, I I guess.
Hey, Kyle, thank you so much for the time and and the expertise. Please tell everybody where they can keep up and follow you with the Falaturi. foul territory network and elsewhere. Yeah, absolutely. Tune into File Territory on YouTube every day.
You can follow me on Twitter at KyleAkeLaser. I'm also a contributing writer for MLB.com, so you can read my work there.
So lots of good stuff. I'm everywhere. We'll appreciate the time. We'll catch you down the line. Enjoy the game, okay, Kyle?
Thank you. You too. Thank you so much.
