Yankees Struggle, Tigers Excel in American League Race

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00:00It's just bad baseball all around.

00:01Like, it's just unforgivable.

00:03It's bad situational baseball.

00:04They don't manage well.

00:06Boone has – the Yankees threw a reliever out there with a broken leg

00:10four times after he broke his leg.

00:12Two of those games he was directly involved in a loss in with Mark Leiter Jr.

00:16Like, what is going on?

00:17They've become sort of a joke right now with the way things are run.

00:21And, look, I saw it said best on Twitter.

00:24If you think there is one shred left of what George Steinbrenner

00:28built this organization into, you're dead wrong.

00:31There is none of it left.

00:32It is gone.

00:33It is out the window.

00:34They are a business, not a baseball team.

00:36They're not serious about winning a World Series.

00:38That said, are they going to be good enough to make the playoffs?

00:40Yes.

00:41Are they going to be bad enough to get bounced in the first or second round?

00:44Absolutely.

00:45Because this is not a World Series roster.

00:47It's Aaron Judge, eight jabronis, and maybe one decent starter

00:50when Garrett Cole is not hurt.

00:52So, I mean, that's really what this boils down to at this point in time.

00:55They're just not a very well-constructed team from top to bottom.

00:58It took them two and a half months to realize,

01:01DJ LeMay, you can't hit a baseball anymore.

01:03I could have told you that in the first two and a half weeks.

01:07Yeah, you take a look at the Yankees.

01:08And, again, Mark is right.

01:10They're still going to be in it here because the quality of opponents

01:12in the America may not be that high.

01:14You take a look at the team that, if the season ended today,

01:17would be the Detroit Tigers.

01:18Then you have the Houston Astros who are sort of reestablishing themselves

01:21as one of the dominant forces in the American League.

01:23The Toronto Blue Jays who are slightly ahead currently right now

01:26of the New York Yankees, the Tampa Bay Rays, the Mariners, the Red Sox here.

01:30It's not a deep field in the American League.

01:32So, as you look at the New York Yankees as it pertains to the Jays,

01:35Astros, and Tigers, are the Tigers really that far and away above everybody else?

01:40Or do we treat them like OKC?

01:42We don't care about your regular season.

01:43Let's wait until you do it in the playoffs.

01:45Well, that's true.

01:46Let's see you do it in the playoffs.

01:47But, Ben, I've talked about this when we showed the odds over the past month

01:51and the Yankees were ahead of the Tigers, and I kept telling you that's a wrong number.

01:54The Tigers are better than the Yankees and should be the favorite,

01:57but they don't have the Yankees logo, nor do they have the Yankees' respect

02:00in the marketplace from public bettors.

02:02That's why the Tigers weren't their favorite.

02:04But I've been telling you guys for two months the Tigers should be the number one favorite

02:07to win the American League because they are that much better than everybody else.

02:11Their pitching, starting pitching particularly, is extremely deep.

02:13So that's number one that automatically helps them.

02:16They have a really good bullpen.

02:17I mean, it's top 12 in Major League Baseball and ERA and WIP.

02:20And guess what?

02:21They hit, and they hit on the road more than anything else.

02:25And, look, this is a Tigers team that's probably going to get better at the deadline.

02:30Like, better than the Yankees will be at the deadline.

02:33I mean, if you handicap it right now, who's going to have a better trade deadline?

02:36It's the Tigers.

02:37They have more to give away.

02:38The Yankees have nothing to offer anybody.

02:41Nobody wants what the Yankees trash is at this point in time.

02:44They're not giving away their top prospects in the minors because that's the only hope they have

02:48to add some power to the lineup in the future.

02:50So the Yankees have nothing to give away to anybody.

02:53The Tigers do.

02:53They have a great farm system.

02:55And let me just clarify just for one thing.

02:58We are anti-terrorist organization here on the early line.

03:01Not that that needs to be shared by any means and disavow the rooting for them.

03:06As we look at the American League, Bennett odds, you know, in a very harsh transition,

03:10the Tigers are the favorites now at plus 240.

03:13More than a dollar in front of the Yankees at plus 350.

03:16The Yanks, as you saw, remain the even money favorites to win the American League East,

03:20but are trailing Toronto by two and a half games.

03:24So the Tigers now rewarded as the favorites and have a three and a half game advantage

03:28to be that number one seed in the American League and earn that opening round by.

03:34I ask you this, though, Zitto.

03:35When you look at the AL pennant prices, would the Tigers be the bet?

03:39Or is there another team that you would rather wager on ahead of the all-star break?

03:43I mean, if you like the value of the Blue Jays right now and you believe they can sustain

03:47this thing, then yeah, that's the way to go.

03:51But I don't know that the Tigers would lose to the Blue Jays in the American League Championship

03:56series should the path go down that road.

03:59But you're getting a much better price.

04:01Look, I think that Astros number is way off, by the way.

04:03And they're only giving it to you because they're not going to lose the AL West.

04:07But they are not that close to the Tigers.

04:11And they're not that far ahead of the Blue Jays.

04:14So that number would not pique my interest at all.

04:17But again, Toronto, if you believe in them and the lineup that they're putting out there,

04:21because again, their starting pitching is sort of so-so, right?

04:25Jose Barrios is okay.

04:27Kevin Gosman is inconsistent but good.

04:29Chris Bassett's only good at home.

04:31It's not like they're trotting out there, this front-line starting rotation that scares

04:35the bejesus out of you.

04:36That's not what's going to happen here.

04:37So they're going to hit the ball, and they have a good bullpen that's going to be able

04:41to shut you down.

04:41They're smart to keep the game to six innings.

04:44If they can get to their bullpen with a lead, guess what?

04:47They've got a really good chance to beat you.

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