Talkin' Jake is comparing the current MLB standings to this date last year... and the results may shock you. Jake's also looking into the Grimace Mets' hot streak, Playoff Odds, and the Boston Celtics winning the NBA Finals
Wake n Jake is available on YouTube! Check out everything from this show there: https://www.youtube.com/@WakeNJake
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Timestamps:
0:00 Intro
1:20 Marlins & Rockies lol
3:00 CRICKET?
3:30 AL on This Day Last Year
5:35 NL on This Day Last Year
6:25 Cubs are Concerning
19:05 Mets are HOT
20:15 MLB Playoff Odds are Fascinating
30:05 Back to the Grimace Mets
33:05 Leave More Comments!
34:45 Boston Celtics Win the NBA Championship
46:25 Bad Story to Wrap This Thing Up
#dpshow
Hello, and welcome to Waken Jake, myself, Jake's story, Ellie at Talking Jake, Big Baby David producing his butt off. June nineteenth kind of like a newer holiday in the US. ME and BBD are here grinding, partially because I was gonna come in yesterday did not. I am under the weather, but I had to talk about the people, about some sports, and we've got a big tournament at the warehouse this weekend. You can hear in my voice a little bit. If I pass out by the end of this, it's because I like haven't spoken in four to eight hours, which is very rare for a guy going by the name Talking Jake. Want a deep dive on some baseball topics because the NL roller coaster of being boring and exciting is at a fun spot right now. Partially because if you look at the standings today, my Arizona Diamondbacks found their way into the playoff picture. On Talking Baseball, I predicted by Monday they would be in the Wildcard because they had a kind of easier schedule getting some bodies back, which I want to I want to focus on that a little bit, and uh, well, I guess a little shrapnel early if you go upwards in the standings, upwards in the standings, if you look at the bottom of the National League, Marlins and Rockies have been dueling fun one in Colorado last night. If you didn't see that check swing should have been called. I mean it was close, but I think that gets called. A decent amount would have ended the game. Two strikes, two outs, ninth inning, one more pitch. Ta Oscar hits a grouchy home run, really good Jake Jake Cave reaction, shout out to Luis Heel. Jake Cave watches the ball go over the fence and just starts screaming at the first base umpire. Why I'm talking Marlinsies because it's Marlins and Rockies, and then the team above them right now is the Chicago Cubs. Like I feel like we've talked about how bad the Cubbies have been. Is it a little unfair because they are a half game back of the Pirates, Reds, and Padres. Yes, so with one day's worth of action, they're right back in the mix. And that's been the whole National League topic. But I think I am gonna grow the Cubbies a little bit. The New York Metropolitans are back in the mix. I did my jaky little previous year research just to see where we are and where we're at, and a couple other things from around the league, while also circling on the Boston Celtics. My Boston Celtics that won it all. Congrats to them. Cool some funny Tatum memes on the memes on the internet. Not that I'm going to bring those to your attention, but whatever Internet you may use, you may have seen them. Let's dive into the world the baseball. We also make it a live USA cricket reaction as they're battling South Africa right now. It's looking not so good as possible, but anything's possible. Let's get a couple more sixes on the board.
And they just sit one seventy eight meters. Ooh, they just need the need for fifteen.
Boom, get hot swing, big lou, there's a wide I guess. Let me do my NL thing a little bit. I did my I want to do my Yankee standings check in uh, I'll be honest, not a huge chunk of data that can be transferred over slash. It doesn't fit whatever narratives I'm pushing right now because in the al coming from last year, at least, we were still waiting for the Yankees collapse, which happened right around this time. Aaron Judge broke his toe, he missed the chunk of the season, Rizzo hurt his head, and the Yankees didn't realize it yet. What else we wrong for the Yankees last year? I guess their pitching got thin, like it was kind of a survival mode and then it fell.
Apart, especially just like statistically it was like, oh Cole and statistically nobody else was good. The vibe around anyone individually wasn't that bad, but probably got a round of injuries around here to that group.
The other thing that jumped out, which again I don't ask me what to do with this one, but the Anaheim Angels were your fourth best team in the American League on this day last year, at forty one and thirty three. Uh my goodness, how how quickly that changed from Otani's the best. The Angels have some juice, Let's get trout a playoff game they bought then sold in what will be a jolly olavideo in a couple of years. Maybe foolish Bailey, who we were trying to link up. He was busy, so he'll probably be on next week. Sorry for the fake advertising. He's got some thoughts. What a tease? Yeah, I guess the only other thing I'd say Currently at this point, the weakest team to make the playoffs were the Twins, who were around five hundred and they won a week central, so that's a little bit of an outlier. Otherwise, in the AL last year, the last team in was Toronto. They were thirty nine and thirty five last year in the National League. Something wrong with the Bay Area. I'd said I wasn't gonna do this, but I guess I'll tell you why I chose not to. The San Francisco Giants were also fourth best record in the National League at forty and thirty two. They ended up missing the dance, but no no teams with an under five hundred record, So maybe that's why you could put in your pipe and smoke. Although I feel like the National League is going to ruin that this year seeing as current playoff team. Technically someone would have to. They don't have enough playoff teams above five hundred right now. Someone under five hundred will make the dance, so that is fantastic news. I do want to talk about the Cubbies a little bit in a negative light, and I'm sorry Chicago, but you guys are probably willing to talk about Chicago and a negative light because as I mentioned, as of today, they are the third worst team in the National League, and as I looked at last year's standings, they were the fourth worst. They were just covered up by Saint Louis's stink. If you remember correctly from last season, the Nats, Colorado and Saint Louis the only teams before Chicage Man, I think a yellow flag has already been up in Chico Chicago, so I'm not going to raise a red flag or I don't think this is a new piece of news. But Chicago's been thirsty for a few years now. I mean, when have we Okay, when was the last time the Cubs were in the playoffs? Pobe ding m.
I think they were in the twenty twenty expanded playoffs.
So the Cubs were in the twenty twenty expanded playoffs thirty four and twenty six. Happy for them. The best war on their team was you Darvish baseball moves quick.
Good there.
They have not played a complete playoff series if you take out twenty twenty since twenty seventeen. In twenty eighteen, they lost the one game NL wild Card play into the Colorado Rockies. So think about that. Chicago Cubs Wrigley, they beat the curse, they won a World's Series. They had this core of guys. You know, although I guess I shouldn't be penalizing the Cubs too much because out of that core, Rizzo has been really struggling. And he just went down for like eight weeks if not more.
Yankees like immediately said eight, So.
Let's see what's going on with him, And he was not killing it this year either way. Hobby Bias has just gone straight into oblivion. Chris Bryant has been an oblivion and seems happy there, and that seems like the problem.
Uh.
I mean, the only guy that you can say is like killing it, killing it Schwarves, which I think, who is the one the Cubs like, right, the one the Cubs fully gave up on. If you were if you were a betting person, Schwarves' lack of position, body type would have seemed to run out first love baseball, that's baseball a little bit. Uh. That the Cubbies. Man, they're in a tight spot, and we were so quick when they got out of the gates playing well, let me see what's their best butterknife seventeen to nine. Again, that's very early that they were twenty three and sixteen. That starts to get a little uglier. They're finishing a series with the Giants right now, which again, like I don't want to depict like the Giants are this god sent franchise. With a win today, they'd be a half game back of the Giants. The Cubbies, man, they hmm showed him. An Auga signing has looked like one of the best signings of free agency. They looked like they had a plan to rebuild till right now. They still have a top juicy pharm system that they haven't really tapped into. So let's see the next steps. And as I talk about how wide opened this National League, genuinely, if the Cubs went on a six game win streak, they'd be in the playoffs. So I do want to be careful with how much I drive the stake into them right now. But it's been a while in Wrigley, Like I've been tough on the Red Sox because Heim some time they've got a similar thing, except with a fantastic run in twenty twenty one to the CS. Outside of that, there's some parallels, but that's a pretty big notch to have in the belt. The Cubs have nothing close to that that. I don't know. I guess what I did want to compare it to. He's talking about the Yankees again. Last year when things fell apart with the Yankees, we do talking Yanks. It's kind of what started this company. And there's been a couple of things that haven't passed our sniff test, and the Yankees have more or less adjusted. I mean, even the fact they called up a rookie to play first base yesterday who hadn't had a lot of minor league experience, he wasn't a top prospect. He's a guy that's been killing it at every level that on a lot of other teams, you'd look at it and you'd be like, well, it's kind of a no brainer, Like this kid's been killing it quick.
The team's just like depth at that position isn't in some like crazy deep spot. The other options aren't there.
This kid seems like he's next. He's checking a lot he's checked every box at the minor league level that he would be the guy that be called up. Yanks don't do a lot of that. Like someone was texting me who went to the game last night, and I was like, yeah, I mean Yankees Orioles first and second, that's kind of cool, but you don't. Not a lot of Yankee position players make debuts. It's kind of it's a little bit of an obnoxious thing, or at least when they do. I don't know it's a bigger thing because it's the Yankees. I think other teams get a lot more opportunities because other teams don't do most of their bidding in free agency or shopping, Like Trent Grisham isn't a bench player on a lot of teams. Trent Grisham would have been a player that a lot of teams would have probably got as a dump in a trade. But they said, well, Trent Grishiam's gonna play for us this year, Like that's the Yankees bench outfielder. We want Soto.
Yeah, the Yankees typically, like you're saying, not a lot of position player debuts like like that, unless their hand is like absolutely forced. They there were other moves they could have done to replace Rizer on the active roster Oswald Perraz at least, you know, has a bench there's some bench utility in his tool chest and and has been in the big league locker room before. Like they could have called him up and done some shuffling and sure he'll get some days versus lefties at third and DJ can just be your first baseman and all that. They could have made a waiver claim or an actual trade for JD. Davis who was dfade.
Still might and.
There's an argument he'd be an upgrade on the roster spot, but uh, it felt different to call the kid who's been very exciting at the minor league level and has checked every box so far and really came on last couple of years without that super highly regarded pedigree.
Our whole talking yank scroup chat was surprised. We didn't think they would do that. And so that's one of the things, I mean, the thing that has been a joke and we still get hot about was the Yankees didn't have lefties for a few years. A franchise literally built on lefties. You know, I think one of the things that we think they've stumbled into now is that their whole bullpend bullpen bullpend has gone sink or slider, which is nice, and they get a lot of effective innings, but they don't have the strikeout guys when they need it. That that's probably going to be next evolution for the Yankees lineup balance. Not only did they not have lefties, but then when they only had a couple guys, they try to slide them up the lineup, which kind of major whole teamers. I don't know. We've had a couple of these Yankee moments that from the fans zoomed out lens seemed off and then they had to make that correction. I'm interested to see. And if there's Cubs fans listening, I guess, let me know what I'm missing from the outside. This may be obnoxious, this may be nothing. This could be something that again with a six game winner, can be ruled out. And like the Minnesota Twins just reeled off another six games. Although that left side of the infield that's not only has that gone from meh to like special? Well, Korean Royce Lewis are doing yo. The Yankees were very hmm. And we see this all over baseball. When the front office has too much power. The Yankees had a little bit of that. Like end of the day, the game is played with ballplayers and a chunk of the reason the Yankees are better they have one Sodo. It was one of the best ball players ever. They traded for Alex Verdugo, really solid, plus player Luis Heals breakout. A lot of the pitchers are performing better Cubs thing that just irked me a little bit this morning, especially when I was looking at the standings. Do you guys remember they did Cubs Day or the Cubs fan Fest, Cubs Winterfest. The graphic came out and they tried to copy Lallapalooza, the big music festival in Chicago. Know who their headliners were? It was Jed Hoyer, the GM or president or whatever he runs the team, and Craig Council, the manager. They plundered from the Brewers Division rivals. How could Craig do it? Probably all the money team Craig on that part, but I don't know. I think it's one of those things. In hindsight, it rubbed me the wrong way. In the offseason. It always felt like they should have kept one of those guys from those Cubs teams like you had the Cubs team that broke the curse, and you didn't bank on any of them. And I don't know, hopefully for Cubs fans, I'm misreading it, and the Cubbies are about to get hot, hot, hot after they've been cold cold, cold. But I don't know. It feels like a team that's leaned a little too much into we can out coach baseball when at the end of the day, you need guys on the field. That's the difference. Go look at the Phillies roster. Go look at the Yankees roster. Go look at the Orioles roster. Go look at the Dodgers roster. Those teams all did it in very different ways, but they accumulated a lot of talent that I don't know. I think the Cubs on paper this year my whole thing, that part of it I've been wrong on. It was replacing Stroman, who was so good for them, and they did that with im and Aga, who's been better, and then Cody Bellinger. It was getting the lineup back to neutral and they did that, but it hasn't been enough in an NL Central That probably what it is. There are a couple teams that can tip their hat and say that as a franchise, we operate a little better. It isn't was the Rays, although they're pretty dearth of talent right now and they're heading the wrong direction. The Milwaukee Brewers as a franchise, they're kind of running laps around the Cubbies right now. Sure, take our manager. We've got all these kids who are going to start performing because everyone we have plays defense, so when they hit, that's a plus, and they've been hitting a lot. And then the other turned out to be one of our favorite signings of the offseason, Rhys Hoskins. Haven't the Cubs had a coal at first base for a while? Could that have not been a great landing spot for Reye Hoskins. I don't know if that's the difference between the Cubbies in Milwaukee right now, but looking at those standings, because I don't know, if you look at the bottom of the American League right now, White Sox A's Angels, I think everyone would have been pretty close on that. Maybe the Royals, who still in the playoff picture, and I want to do some playoff percentages in a second, but those bottom three seem to add up Marlin's Rockies. Cubbies tough can flip in a moment of hours because the Pirates and Reds are right there. But I don't know which flavor of ice cream do you like more between the Cubbies, Pirates, and Reds right now. I mean that's before you get to the Cardinals, who are five hundred the second team in the NL wild Card. Right now, National League is still a mess. You could overanalyze it for hours. The hottest team in the National League is a team that has linked themselves to Grimace. That's right, the Purple Blob character from McDonald's a W seven for the New York Mets, a team that I was riding often was willing to sell because I think they want to sell. Thirty five and thirty seven has them a half game out of the wildcard, eight and two in their last ten, winners of seven in a row. They faced Texas again today. Who you know, everyone's had a lot of eyes on Houston. Go check in on your Texas Rangers. They have the same record as of today, thirty three and forty for Houston and the Rangers defending the World Series champs. The team that's been to the ALCS pretty much every year. Houston playing the White Sox lost last night. It's pretty insane, pretty insane. I guess the other thing just looking around baseball, not a ton of commentary on the good teams. I guess this. I can segue into playoff percentages a little bit. Our friends over at Baseball Reference they have a playoff odds page which you can click and say. There's a button that says, learn more about our methodology. The main thing that I take away from it is they basically sim the seasons a thousand times over and that's how they get their results. So are their variables involved? Sure? And I think what I want to point to, especially in the National League Wildcard, where literally anything can happen. Those cubs that I just ripped into could be the second wildcard team in a matter of a week. Health you obviously can't prepare for that. Uh And and they were saying in their simulations, you know, they take into factor this season a lot, and they kind of can't take into factor previous injuries a little bit. I don't know, if you want to go click on it, it's their playoff odds page and there's a learn more about their methodology. But I think there's there's some good that we can take on it. And these a thousand simulate simulizations. He says he died. He died at the desk that day. Teams. There are four teams with ninety nine point nine percent postseason odds. What are those teams? Staven?
I would guess I would start with Dodgers and Phillies. Yes, the Braves, not the Braves. Not the Breves. Well, I'll say Yankees. Yankees, I'm believing in funny business. But they're in Okay.
And this is the only team that I would consider funny business. But it's not funny business. Brewers, it is not. The Brewers are at ninety nine point six, so you get partial.
Credit upside down. It's a nine.
Now it's true, it's the Baltimore Orioles. Oh yes, hey, you know wild Cardwithstanding, the Yankees and Orioles are ninety nine point nine percent of the time, they're going to make the playoffs in these thousand simulations. So you know, if I was sucks that this show's popular, now, thanks everyone, I was gonna say something like over the top if blank happened to this team, that's the one simulation I won't even make that joke. It has the worst case records. I don't know if I believe it. This for the Orioles and the Yankees. Ninety five wins for the Yankees, ninety three for the Orioles. Their best case at one, ten, one, eight, respectively.
So that's just a tight window.
They've the simulations have both those teams doing very well. I don't know about the bottoms there. I think a ninety one could still happen anyways, Yankees, Orioles, Phillies, Dodgers ninety nine point nine, Brewers ninety nine point six to make the postseason again. They're sitting at forty three and thirty when I just told you five hundred currently gets you in the playoffs in the NL. No real arguments there. You could put a baby asterisk that if things really fell apart for the Brewers and they get caught up in the slog I'm not gonna do that. They deserve compliments as a franchise. Three teams in the eighties Seattle Mariners. Sure they are forty four and thirty one. They have no competition in the division right now? That yeah, there, that sounds right. They're cruising the Cleveland Guardians. Again, they've got a lot of wins in the bank forty four and twenty six that the wheels would just have to completely fall off, and in that division, I don't see a way that happens. Then, the Atlanta Braves eighty three point three percent. I think the best thing they have going for them is the National League at forty and thirty one. They're not positioned two differently than the Yankees from last year. Huh gosp The National League is on the struggle bus. The Braves haven't clicked, and like Austin, Riley matt Ols and those guys are still there and they're gonna click. Eighty three point three is still a high number. There's only two other teams above fifty percent chance to make the playoffs, so everything else is lower than a coin flip. And they play in the same division, the Kansas City Royals and the Minnesota Twins. So this is where I would argue with the simulation just a little bit. The Twins have been awfully streaky. I was tough on them because they only had their wins basically over the White Sox and the Angels. That's the only reason they're above five hundred. That being said, all the other American League teams get to play those teams, and I think the biggest thing for me seeing Correa and royce Lewis actually do it. Obviously Correa is playing over his skis right now, but his numbers are back to where Carlos Corea's numbers are and he's still under thirty. Like we've just seen that guy for so long, it makes sense that he's playing well. And as mentioned on Talking Baseball, it does correlate with him shaking my hand. Royce Lewis, he's also a guy guy. So this segues into two parts of the speeches. The Twins are very different than the Twins team you may have seen in that left side of the infield. That just makes it so much if they get anything from Santana Polonco Jeffers Buxton, like with those two guys, then when one or two other guys on the team they're clicking, they have a team. It is kind of a bummer. And thank you guys for your comments on last episode that Twins. Few Twins fans chimed in on the pee Alonzo and they're like, the Twins aren't gonna do that, Like pay for a rental.
We talked about it a little bit on Talking Baseball, and Trevor's like the win Alonzo, No.
Right, they it'll be on the margins. I think they'll add and they'll play in player capital, but they don't have actual capital.
Yeah jolly, you know, because we linked those two up yesterday, he was sad at that reaction from trev because he has a lot of Twins prospects.
He likes, Oh, get out of here, jolly, and thank you for filling in. The one team that looks a little sus to me is the Kansas City Royals at seventy seven point six percent the Twins. They have a track record. You know, there's an argument they underachieved up until this point. Slash health and players available. Royals a little bit of the opposite. I think they they've played above their skis pitching wise. I think you could argue Bobby wit Junior is that guy, so no knock on him. Love Vinnie Pasquatch, mikeel Garcia, Salvi Perez has been bawling. We love that, and I do think they're gonna add. I guess I would just say in the American League, the Red Sox have a little bit of juice. Now they are thirty nine and thirty five. I think they're interested in being invited to the party table this year. And then the other thing that's rude to the Royals, because maybe I shouldn't be saying this, because it's it's both sides. It's there's a lot of teams we wanted to believe in, but it's how much longer can we believe in them? And the next WHOA, just pump my mic the next real check in point and I think I bit my tongue. Oh my god. The next real check in point is the All Star Game, which is under a month away. I'm guessing off the top of my head, teams probably have twenty one games or so until the All Star Break. You kill those twenty one games, I'm looking at you, Texas and Houston. Seven games below five hundred. I mean, you gotta get hot in a hurry. Will the Tampa Bay Rays or the Blue Jays join the party? It's doubtful. But that's a crew of four teams in the American League that we've wanted or expected to have the good juice, and they've got to tell the break to do it. So if you have twenty one games, can you put up a fifteen and six and rejoin the party? Would love to have you. And then I think it turns into a big chase of the Twins or the Royals, which both have some collapsibility. Not sure if that's a word, but it'll be interesting to track as we as we move forward. And I thought it was funny as I told you, no teams, Uh, those are the last teams one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight nine ten. So ten teams have above a seventy five percent chance of making the playoffs. That's pretty good. I could see one of them dropping out. Why not? It's baseball? No other teams above fifty percent. The team with the next highest playoff percentage beabs in a rude way. I will give you a guess, but I do have it in front of them. Okay, now, well, if I had given you a guess, though I don't think you're getting that.
I only think I would have said that team.
I probably would have guessed the Padres, who are the second best one I think they are who I have guessed percentage points ahead of them Grimace's New York Mets. So hey, maybe this formula likes a wind streak a little more because that has some correlation to having a winning season. But the New York Mets are back at the party, happy for them, happy for Mets fans. I saw Jolly was tweet out stats how June has historically always been their worst month and they're having a great June. So who knows? Who knows what's in that recipe in that pot of coffee, But I don't know. Then NL is going to be a disaster, and it's going to be interesting to see which gms push the trigger in any direction, because it should be. If you're a seller, feels like a year you could clean up, but you better have some really good job security to do that because otherwise it can happen fast in baseball, and if you sell this here and your team struggles next, you could be out, Hey, let's go snakes. I guess that's a clothing clothing. He's losing it. The closing thing I want to talk about with Royce Lewis and Kray and the twins, a lot of this is gonna be dictated by health. And I know that's such a cop out answer, but the two biggest things coming up are health in the trade deadline with how tight things are if you add the right piece, and a couple pieces are healthy. Like the Twins without Royce Lewis at this point, count me out. And I know baseball is not a sport that's supposed to be treated that way, but I am like Royce Lewis is currently a different maker on that team and in that division. The Mets, like Jade Martinez balling out has been pretty helpful for them. That was a nice little ad, So let's see. Let's see. Health unfortunately, is going to dictate this. Like the Arizona Diamondbacks, they've been play and a better brand of baseball. They got their short stop back Perdomo, They've gotten some pitching out. Monty has started to pitch better. Like circling all the way back to the Cubbies and by the way, at that Cubs fest, they had their star players there. Dansby was there, Happer was there, I think Ryan Sandberg, like they had Hall of Famers there. Fergy Jenkins is everywhere. John's Fergy Jenkins take paper out of baseball. That yeah. Uh, having the guys, the Jimmies and Joe's still matter a lot in this sport. Uh, and that's gonna dictate it the rest of the way. So excited to see as we've talked about the gms that make the moves at the deadline and your team's health needs. I guess, hey, if if you've got some some health concerns or guys coming back on your team that you think are gonna be significant, comment below because I'd love to hear and speaking to comment below. A couple from last episode. I meant, we talked about Josh Rojas potential Ryan McMahon trade. Apparently he's been killing it at third base h third best for MLB third baseman in OAA, and our guy Ryan Battis said it past the eye test. He keeps saying how do you do that? Some good baseball jargon, and a lot of Mariners fans chimed in and said that they have a lot of needs before you get to Ryan McMahon, who again might not be on the trade block that they pointed to like Taylor Ward, Brent Rooker. That was my guy Podunk Party who commented that as long with along with Jess Lyons. So hey Mariners fans, I see you, And then I mentioned a couple of the twins fans that were like a lonso's not gonna happen, and everyone poop pooed the Dodgers ten person trade because I don't know. Gotta be honest, think my guy Bowed in America's GM was trying to just get a couple clicks and it worked. He got a whole podcast on it.
Yeah kind of too.
Yeah yeah, overpay for severareen great Brandon leading this one live. Oh he's saying that everything's an overpay or a bad fit. So just one last trash on the article on the way out. But thank you guys for getting involved and subscribing, sneaking up on twenty k subs on the YouTube channel. So if you guys haven't checked us out there, please go do that. We would appreciate it. Subscribe like button all that good stuff. Bake the algorithm real ones. No, let's finish up you team USA lost the cricket match, sorry, but we're building on it. Let's finish up with some NBA as the finals concluded in your Boston Celtics after getting blown out and Game four is this wait did they figure it out? They put the business down on the Mavericks in good Celtics style. I mean the game was tight in the first quarter. They finished that with a nine to zero run, which made it feel not tight. They kept it going on and on, stretching the lead to about the twenty range fifteen to twenty Peyton Pritchard with the half court shot, which makes you believe like they're just gonna burn down the city and this is how it has to end, and it did. The Celtics win a couple things. As I've mentioned, I'm a bit of a Boston hater. I am a Yankees fan. I'm here wearing my Yukon National champ shirt and my Juega House hat that Jake Cronenworth convinced me to buy. If you know, you know the Celtics for me, and I went on this final rant couple episodes ago where I was like, hey, I I want to see them get tested and I want to see them pass the test, because people have talked a lot of junk on Boston, and they passed the test with flying colors that they didn't have to do the two to two home court season on the line game, they didn't have to go back to Dallas three to two, potentially a game seven, a historic game seven, they didn't have to do that, and that's because they were the better team. Sure was the East thin this year? Yeah? Were people expecting the Nuggets to come out of the West and were they a worse matchup for Boston? Probably, but they didn't. And in the words of the great Jose McFly, that's none of their business and it really isn't. They had a great season, historic wind total, historic playoff run, doesn't matter who's in front of you. Take care of it. And they're hoisting the trophy in their back. And you heard me doing a little bit of this. I'll never be the biggest Tatum guy and maybe that's a flaw of for myself and I you know, Zoe from We Got Ice is our biggest public facing Celtics fan in the office, and Tatum's his favorite player ever and he's already there's some funny things about it, and it's new age athletes and it's new age fans that, like Zoe has said multiple times and he'll say it on here, He's like, I know that Tatum's gonna end up being a Laker again for fans from the past, that is that is blasphemous, That is anarchy. You can't do that. And again I mentioned some of the Tatum internet memes of you know, everyone was saying he was recreating everyone else's championship celebrations. Hey whatever, whatever, man, he's twenty six years old. That's before a lot of really good players have won their title. And yeah, the Tatum Brown thing, I want to see the next steps. Like the Jason Kidd quote that Brown is the better player. There was some more rooted stuff on that. Callen Jalen Brown are both or excuse me, Kid and Jalen Brown are both col guys, both went to University of California, and I don't know. I think Jalen Brown's skill set and again I don't know Batman, Robin Batman, Batman, whatever it is. Jalen Brown had some moments in this playoffs and he wins finals MVP, which again I think for us Tatum outsiders can be tough because the guy idolizes Kobe. He's a Celtic wearing Kobe's Lakers purple. Like Celtics and Lakers are never supposed to overlap. The Celtics did get penalized and this isn't my take, it's Forscillos that this whole process got started early, Like they made the twenty eighteen finals I think it was, which was a finals they weren't supposed to make, so they were like ahead of schedule there where then people have you on a certain timeline that they weren't supposed to be on that timeline. So am I probably one of those people? Yeah? I mean yes, And I admit there's a biased New York side to it. Here's what I will say, And I said this, I forget if it was after the first game of the series or before the series because I mentioned a naturally born a not Boston cat fan. Media. That's what we're doing here. When I went through the roster Jalen Brown, I like, man, he's got a turbo busting button, busting, busting, busting. He's got a turbo button that not a lot of players have. There's a couple times he just took the lane and we remember the dunks, but there's a couple others that were just like wow, like he it almost looked like he moved superhuman on the court, uh and was pretty electric. He made a bunch of big shots for them. He wins the finals, MVP. That guy plays defense, That guy's a dog. And maybe it's my speech about expectations in life. If you go to the movie theater and you go to see a movie and you're not really sure it is, your buddy wants to see it, and you love the movie, you go, oh my god, that was the best movie ever. Bro. That movie was awesome. I didn't even know what I was expecting to see. That movie was crazy. You going to see a movie that people tell you is the best movie you've ever seen. I've got two examples. One that lived up to it, The Hangover. When I went to see The Hangover, I went to see it a little late. A lot of people had already seen it heard it was hilarious. I came in the first couple of minutes of the movie. I was sitting there kind of angry. Old man arms crossed. Spoiler when they're on the rooftop in Vegas and he slices his hand open to do blood Brothers. I had spit out my drink and then my guard was down and I was able to enjoy the rest of the movie, Like I just thought that was so perfect. Other side of that tropic thunder. I am like such a big Jack Black fan I love all the characters in that movie, Robert Downey, Junior Stiller, the guy from the Baseball HBO show, blanking on his name right now. But it had all the funny like it had all the funny people I was into at the time that I went in hoping to see like my favorite movie ever, and it's not like it's funny. I deserve myself a rewatch because I remember rewatching it once and I was like, Okay, this was better than I remember. But Tatum had the expectations Brown hasn't. So again, where on that scope do my true opinions lie. My heart's open to it. The rest of the way, I'm interested to find out, because I think the Brown over Tatum argument has a little more juice then people are are saying Zoe keeps comparing Tatum to Tim Duncan, which breaks my brain. I don't see that at all. I see more of like maybe like a Tracy McGrady with a winning team environment around him, I don't know. And then the other thing when you go through the roster, and this is what I did that I was referencing before Drew Holliday, you have to love like all time guy, and we mentioned Iguadala. There's a few other guys on that team, David West. I don't know, maybe not. I mean the guy who's probably now chasing chasing Drew Holliday. Who's my guy that got his teeth knocked out? Gabe? I'm lost?
Uh.
Oh, I can't believe I'm blaming everyone. Everyone else underestimates him, and now I've forgotten his name, which makes it even more perfect. Derek White. Oh, I was gonna call him Gabe White. I was thinking of Gabe Pruett Old Celtics roster. Go check that out. Uh, Derek White is like Drew Holliday. Like. I don't know if that comparison gets made. I'm assuming it has, but I think they're the same height. Like, they can both get buckets, they can both pass, they both rebounds, they both play defense, like I think Gabe White is currently entering the all Guy team draft. What you just laugh at?
Call them Gabe again?
Did I call him Gabe White? Why do I have Gabe on the mind? I'll tell everyone why I have Gabe on the mind. It's a really bad story, and I'll tell it at the end of this. I like Derek White, even though I just accidentally insulted him this whole segment. I mean, how could you know he wants to be Gabe? No, no, no, no, Gabe's a bad name. Derek's a great name, Derek White. His games really nice, like Prichard and Howser. That's South Boston. Al Horford a historical good basketball player. He might be the center on that all good guy team. Like is he the center with Drew Holliday and Igwadala? Maybe, Like it's crazy him doing what he did in these playoffs at age one hundred. It's thirty eight. Sorry, Al, But also I'm a college basketball fan. I'm wearing my Yukon shirt. Al Horford was on the arguably one of the best college basketball teams ever. He was on the Florida back to back champs. Like that guy's basketball pedigree is all time, all time him Noah Brewer, Like everyone was looking at that team like, who is gonna come out? I mean, Horford wins. Horford wins. Noah's peak an interesting argument.
He got at least one defensive Player of the Year.
But yeah, the career is unmatched that. I guess there's a little bit of Tatum that I'm gonna leave my heart open for the rest of his career. Some of the step back threes are bad whatever. I've taken bad shots. Too interested to see the next steps for him. But you kind of have to give You have to give love to the Celtics team. Brad Stevens, who's got one of the craziest basketball careers ever. He's like the final Architect Missoula full blown, kind of weird guy, but gets it done and he's seemingly one of the best coaches in the league. Hearing him talk about how they were gonna use Chris STAPs in Game four was pretty cool if they needed him that. Yeah, I respect what the Celtics did this year, he said through grided teeth, And like a lot of the players, even Chris STAPs, I mean, you know, there's some good Knicks memories in there with some of the bad ones that they they deserved it. They crushed the e and they crushed in the finals. No playoff series went to six games. It's impressive stuff from the Celts. Interested to see where the offseason goes In the NBA, there's always some of the best drama. That's where the NBA wins. Here's the bad story to finish it before we think Dan Patrick, I went to a diner in Boston. God, what year is it. It might be twenty fifteen, twenty fourteen, and we went to a diner outside of Boston. You know, the boys are bopping, probably had a couple drinks the night before. H you know, we're loading up eggs, pancakes for the table, all of it, and I think we're talking some hoops at the time. I should probably see when gay Prue was on the Celtics because that helps a story. But our waitress, Gay Prue was on seven oh eight. Okay, so this story goes back a couple more moons than I expected. This is when I'm in college. My god.
Nicknamed Smiling Gabe.
The uh, the waitress and again, you know when you're when you're a little hungover and the vibes are high, things hit a little differently. Uh. The waitress said, we're talking Celtics, and she goes, I saw gay Prude at the club last night, and it just hit us really hard because we were like, there's one place gave Proot should not have been last night. It was at the club. So sorry for comparing Derek White to gay Pruit. Who gave Pruitt had a lackluster NBA career. Uh and Derek White lost his teeth lost one of his teeth in the final game. Has gone full beard bald guy look, which is always crazy when you when someone really leans into that. But he's an absolute baller, so I disrespected him even more by trying to represent him. Good Colorado boy. We like that. So that's the episode today. Congrats to the Celtics. I guess we'll see I mean, no football updates soon. NBA free agency kicks off pretty quick, right The NBA draftis this year? Yeah? Thanks, not as exciting.
See if they'll have free agency.
Coming upham extension. We uh, thank you guys. We will see you guys on Monday. Send them babes, go baseball.
Lake and Jake is a production of Dan Patrick Productions, John By Media, and Workhouse Media.