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ChumbaCasino.com. We are headed to the last ten days of the big league season and I was excited back in June when the Orioles were playing great and I wonder how many people thought it would last but they're still the best team in the American League although just two games ahead in the lost column of the Tampa Bay Rays. Ryan Fagan, baseball columnist, writer, sporting news who's going to open up a pack of cards probably while we're discussing the sport so let's get right to it at Ryan Fagan on Twitter. Alright sir, the Orioles are an incredible story this year. Nobody thought that they would be where they are. I think they won 83 games a year ago but this is sort of, I think this surprised even all of their fans so tell me, do they have what it takes to do this again for another month? I think it's an incredible prediction. You know, look, I love what the Orioles have done.

They've been so much fun to watch. When you look at the trajectory of this franchise and hitting on some of the number one picks, the early picks, guys like Adly Rutchman and Gunnar Henderson and Grayson Rodriguez, those are three top of the first round type guys that you have to hit on those if you're going to make the type of impact you need to and they've done that and that's part of the reason they are ahead of scheduling. If you'd have said the Orioles would challenge for the AL's best record in 2025, you'd have said, yeah, I can see that. Absolutely.

If you'd have said that in 2023, I don't think you would have found many takers. Even the most optimistic Orioles fans didn't see it happening this early but you know, this is a team that when you get into October, right, you know, we've seen time and time again, it's the, it's the pitchers that missed bats, right? They have the most success and so when you look at the Orioles staff, you know, Grayson Rodriguez, you know, they've been so much fun to watch, guys like Adly Rutchman and Gunnar Henderson, those are three top of the first round guys that you have to hit on those if you're going to make the type of impact you need to hit on those if you're going to make the type of impact you need to hit on those if you're going to make the type of impact you need to hit on those if you're going to make the type of impact you need to hit on those if you're going to make the type of impact you need to hit on those if you're going to make the type of impact you need to hit on those. put qualifiers on what Ronald Acuna Jr. has done this year. I know it's easier to steal, steal, steal bases, but he's got 68 of them and it leads the major leagues. So it ain't like everybody else is stealing 60 bases as well.

Does Atlanta, I mean, Atlanta is the best team in baseball. It's silly to say, silly to ask the question, do they have enough? They obviously have enough.

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See website for details. If you give me like 20 minutes, maybe I can come up with something because this is a brave team that is so good. I mean, you know, you look at it and I tweeted earlier today, you know, Michael Harris in his last 92 games is batting like three 40 with a nine 30 on base. Our ops, 15 homers, 15 stolen bases, 60 runs scored, and he's been hitting seven, eight, nine, most of the year. This lineup is just, it's, it's, it's ridiculous. I mean, it's scary.

It can beat you all up and down. I think when you look at the history of the game and you look at, you know, American league and national league teams, and you look like team ops, you look at home runs, like all of these things. They are way up there and you know, competing with the best lineups in major league history. And it really is just impressive what they have.

And you know, I'm with you with the CUNY people are like, Oh, it's easier still basis. Well, why hasn't anyone stolen more than he has? Right. Right.

Not in user hit home runs. He's got 39 of them, right? You know, I mean, he was the first member ever of the 30 60 club. He's on the precipice of being the first member of the 40 70 club.

And I don't want to hear anybody saying that it's because it's a little bit easier to me. It's because he's healthy and he's focused. And the thing that has impressed me the most about Acuna, which is a long, long list, but this is a guy that used to strike out so much more than he walked.

Right. And this year he has taken that number down the strikeouts way down. And it reminds me a lot of when Mike trout kind of made that jump, you know, his first three or four years, he struck out a lot more than he walked. And then he really focused on cutting down on those strikeouts. Now that's when he put us on his best numbers and Acuna has followed that same kind of pattern. You know, he's, he has understood that maybe just because I can hit the pitch out of his own, maybe I shouldn't because if I get on first base with a walk, I can go ahead and steal.

And I think that's just made him an even more complete player. And it's really cool to see a guy who's that talented, stay healthy and be that focused and put together the season that he has. Here's the thing that when I watch Acuna now, I actually see like the younger version of Albert Pujols, you know, pool pools was not a big strikeout guy right away.

What, right. I mean, he was, I mean, he made a lot of contact and if Acuna is not going to strike out and help you out, you know, 140 times a year, then he's going to get a lot more hits just because he's super fast. He hits the ball hard, obviously too. He has what a 311 mile an hour exit velocity, I think on a, on a home run recently, but look, he's just, he's just an amazing player. And as a Mets fan, I keep saying this, I want people to remember this as a Mets fan, I have nothing but love and admiration for the way that team plays. They don't roll, they hit a ton of home runs, but they don't rely on the home runs and he just scored his 140th run.

These are cartoon numbers. He is putting up a quick question for Ryan Fagan, Sporting News, who has the best bullpen? That's a good question. You know, I think some, sometimes when you get into October, you see bullpen's kind of shrink, right? And I think part of who has the best bullpen in October is it kind of goes to who's got the best starters, right?

Because you're both friends better. If you're only throwing the seventh, eighth, and ninth or the eighth and ninth, right? As opposed to having to roll out for, if you have to roll out for good pitchers and they're each four good relievers and they're each going 15 to 25 pitches in game one of a season. Well then it doesn't matter how good your bullpen is overall because you don't have any of them for game two.

Right? So I think that's the big thing. You just need to be efficient for strikes. And obviously at this point of the season, you want to see guys miss bats. You know, I think when you look back to Atlanta a couple years ago and the success they had making the run all the way in was, you know, they had what, four bullpen guys? They had no starters, but they have like four bullpen guys who couldn't be touched. And you know, that's, that's pretty important.

Best bullpen to me, if it's the most important part of the postseason, is being able to shut teams down, even if you fall behind. By the way, Albert Bullholz has never struck out a hundred times in a season. Zero times. Right. I would have thought maybe he did at one point.

Yeah. Never struck out more than a hundred. I mean, there were a lot of times he didn't play a full season out there, but he also, he just didn't strike out a lot.

And that's, I didn't think I was, like my memory had completely faded. So it's just impressive what, what Acuna Jr. has done. All right, we're going to close on a trivia question for you. Okay.

Ryan Fagan from the Sporting News. The, how many times since the playoffs expanded after the 1994 work stoppage, have the Yankees, Cardinals, and Red Sox, the three winningest franchises in terms of winning? The three winningest franchises in terms of World Series titles in baseball history. How many times have all three of those teams missed the postseason in the same year? I mean, is this the first time since then? It is.

Very good. I can't say because the Yankees, I mean, the Yankees, you can probably almost cover that with the Yankees and Cardinals. They just don't miss. And then the Red Sox, you know, they put, they have more titles.

But yeah, it's, it's, it's crazy. It's, you know, we were trying to discuss like, you know, end of the season type stories we want to do when we were looking at some of the teams we usually write about because they're traditionally there and like, oh, well, Yankees aren't there. Red Sox aren't there. Cardinals aren't there. And even, you know, your Mets, we thought they'd be there too.

And that's another big franchise that isn't there. So yeah. Yeah, except the Mets don't have any success. To put the Mets in that category is crazy.

Well, we were, we were looking at teams that we were expected to be better. Right. I get it. Yeah. Maybe not that has the tradition.

Yeah, but the Mets, the Mets sprinkled pitchers across both leagues and Max Scherzer's hurt, shock, and Justin Verlander's just been kind of okay for, for Houston. Ryan Fagan from the Sporting News. We'll talk to you again very soon. Open up a pack of baseball cards and tweet it out for us. I've already done a couple of today.

We'll get a couple more later. Hey, thank you, man. I appreciate your time. Enjoy.

Thanks, Adam. By the way, the last time we had Ryan on, and I mentioned a baseball card thing, he tweeted out that he had opened up a pack of baseball cards and he actually showed a couple of the cards. My timeline for the next two days were all comments about the baseball cards that Ryan Fagan tweeted out. Baseball cards are cool, man. I grew up, I grew up with baseball cards. Well, and they're on the upswing now too. They've like resurged. Yeah, they have as an investment.

Yes. When I was a kid and I had full sets from 1971, 72, all the way like through 82, like nobody really looked at them as something to you. You collected baseball cards because they were fun and you traded them and whatever. And you put them in your bike spokes.

You did. I never did, but because I never, why would I do that with baseball cards? I want to look at them.

I want to read the stuff on the back. Oh, that was just me. Right. So, but I never looked at it as a collector. Now they're like, hey, if you have a silver embossed Bruce Bochy card, I don't know if those exist. Anyway.

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