Transcript of Who's Blowing Their Division in September? | Pitch Clock

So I called my dad last week right after we played the game.

It was embarrassing.

And I said, Dad, I'm so sorry.

Yeah.

And he asked me what happened, and I explained to him the results of the game, and he filed paperwork to disown me as a son.

I was wondering why I got a text from your dad with adoption, like a link to adoption papers.

He wants to adopt you?

Yeah.

Not Michael though?

No.

Well, Jason and Chris.

Yeah.

Will you change your last name?

Yeah.

Or will you at least go by Cote now? Like Taché?

I'll convert in any way needed.

Chris Taché. Taché.

Christopher the Jew. Who knew?

Let's start the show.

Yeah.

Welcome to the Pitch Clock. Here's the pitch. A 2-part baseball segment combining a nostalgic baseball trivia game and an interview with an expert.

This is the Pitch Clock.

All right, Pitch Clock is back, blowing out the eardrums because I'm, um, I'm, I'm locked in. I'm ready to go. Yeah, I'm, I'm, I'm taking the failure of last week, I'm throwing it out of my mind. I'm thinking about a playoff race in Major League Baseball. I'm excited for that. I'm in good spirits and I'm not going to fail today, right, Ethan?

Didn't Chris Cody fail already by forgetting to do something?

Hi everybody.

There it is.

I mean, he started with his cold open was just like a story time instead of the classic, the pitch clock.

Hi everybody.

Yeah.

Well, Jeremy, good news for you is you won't be able to make a Lou Gehrig-like flub because we're not using hitters today. We're going to talk about some pitchers. So within that folder there, there is a list of criteria. 5 criteria.

If I had to have a strength, it'd be hitters.

Okay.

Yeah.

Okay. So there is a list of 5 criteria in front of you. Okay. Uh, we are going to build a rotation based off of these 5 criteria. So for those playing at home, we have a less than 3-time All-Star, a player that pitched for multiple teams in the same division, a multi-time Cy Young Award winner.

Spent time as a reliever.

Spent time as a reliever.

And a Pirate.

And a Pittsburgh Pirate.

Okay.

Why are you writing so fast?

What we're gonna do is we're going to take the best, uh, their career best ERA. We will average those ERAs pump out a rotation ERA. The best rotation ERA wins the game.

Their career best ERA for a season?

Single season best ERA. Jeremy, you were awful last week. You do not deserve to go first. Chris Cody, you will draft first.

Oh, this is so hard. It was hard before you made it— the last 2 make it so hard. I'm like, this is— I need a second here. Um, okay, a pitcher that was a Pirate.

can be from any day and age, Chris Cody.

If only Darren Oliver had won a—

What?

I'm sick of this guy helping people over and over again. I'm helping both of you. I'm the one coming off a tough week.

Both of you.

Best ERA ever. Pedro Martinez.

In—

for which category?

Cy Young. Okay.

Pedro's career best ERA was in 2000. It was a 1.74.

Unbelievable.

Spent time as a reliever is a slippery Yeah, I'm going with spent time as a reliever.

What's the minimum time here? If we're talking like one relief appearance?

We're talking about a guy who was a reliever. Just someone that you can always— Yeah, a guy who—

and so it's like, you know, when you see it.

Multiple, not one.

Yeah, exactly.

And so I know when I see it, I'm going John Smoltz.

Yeah, okay.

That's—

I'll allow it.

Allow it.

I made that category with him in mind.

It's textbook.

But I guess if you spent time as a reliever, you could have just always been a reliever.

But you got to be a starter.

Oh, so you've had to have had one start. So you spent time as a starter, technically.

Gabe knows what I'm talking about. Yeah.

Wow. In 20— in 2003, when he was a reliever, he made 62 appearances out of the pen and pitched to a 1.12.

That's right.

Tom Glavine.

Okay.

For which category? Multiple teams in the same division. Nice. I had him written down.

A 2.47 in 33 starts in '98.

I'm very excited about this because we have the triumphant return of David Sampson as our 2026 MLB guest, one of our very favorites, one of my favorites. Couldn't be happier to have you back here, David. Thank you for taking the time to join us here on The Pitch Clock.

Triumphant, I'm not so sure about, but thank you. It's good to see you, Jeremy. Appreciate everything. Appreciate having seen you at Kira's funeral and shiva. It was It's just nice to see you again. I look forward to being down in Miami shortly.

It's great to see your face. We can't wait to have you down here. And I can't wait to talk about a little bit of baseball with you because that— it has been too long, sir. So I want to start in a fun place because, hey, you're joining me for the first episode of September. We're heading to the homestretch of the Major League season. And the incredible Sarah Langs put out a stat that, that sort of caught my eye, which is that 80% of division leaders on September 1st go on to win their division. That's since 1996. So basically through my entire lifetime. Right now you got the Rays at a 4.5-game lead in the AL East. The White Sox hold a 3-game lead in the Central. The Astros hold a 2-game lead in the West. And then in the National League, the Braves hold a 4-game lead and the Central and the West feel a little like runaways. The Brewers hold a 7-game lead. The Dodgers have a 9.5-game lead. So, David, as we sit here at the beginning of September, which of the division leaders is most likely to statistically be that team that blows it and doesn't end up winning their division?

And is it more about them or is it more about the teams chasing them?

Well, generally it has to be about both because it is true. Sarah's stat is right. And I actually would have taken the over thinking it was over 80%. When you're in the lead September 1st, generally you bring it home. When I look at what's going on in baseball right now, I'm going to focus more on the American League, where I think the 2 tightest races are the White Sox and the Guardians, and then the Astros and the Rangers, with the Mariners very much on the periphery. I don't think the Mariners can catch the Rangers and the Astros. So the question is, which of those 2 teams, White Sox or Astros? It's either going to be one or none. It won't be both. You're not going to have Cleveland and Texas win the division. If I had to say who's the biggest risk, I'm going to have to go White Sox. And the reason is not that I'm pro-Guardian.

Yeah.

I'm actually more anti-White Sox. That doesn't mean that they're bad or have had a bad season. They've outperformed in many ways. There's a recent article in The Wall Street Journal. They have increased their bat speed. They've increased their personnel. Well, frankly, they did a lot of increasing by subtraction. when they realized the team they'd put together all those years just wasn't getting it done. However, finishing the job, it's hard. And if I had to choose a team out of the 6 division leaders currently, I'm going to say the White Sox are the one most in danger of getting caught.

I think it's a totally fair assessment in that you're also looking at the other 5 teams and going, Rays, Astros, Braves, Brewers, Dodgers. Those teams and those players have won a ton of divisions over the last several years. They're people who have been there. They've played important games in September. And you have a White Sox team that's sort of new to the party. And Cleveland themselves has won that division in the Central over and over again. So it makes a lot of sense that they would be the most at risk, even if they're the team amongst all of these that I think we're all rooting for the most as the underdog to be able to take that division and ultimately go to the postseason.

Yeah, I am definitely rooting for the White Sox to win that division. I think it's great for the city of Chicago, and anytime baseball benefits when both the North Side and the South Side are doing well, much like they would benefit if the Mets and Yankees were doing well or the Angels and Dodgers. So when you look at the 2-team cities, the best chance this year is Chicago. So I would like the White Sox to win the division or certainly at least play in the playoffs because it definitely helps with ratings. It helps with excitement. It helps with storylines.

Well, you mentioned the South Side. Let's go to the North Side because the Cubs have had literally the best power offensive month in Major League history. They actually had in August the most home runs hit by any team in a single month in Major League history. It doesn't hurt when you cap it off with a 9-home run game. You have a couple of different individual 3-home run games with PCA and Alex Bregman down the stretch. Those guys had had a month, I believe, that was only comparable with Mickey Mantle and Roger Maris. I think they said— I'll go find the stat later on. We We can put it up on the visual side. But you're looking at a team here, David, that has the likely MVP in PCA, that's had this ridiculous offensive month, that is not going to win their division. So how seriously should we be starting to look at the Cubs as a legitimate contender to win that National League over teams like the Braves, the Brewers, and the Dodgers?

When I think about the Cubs and where is their point of pressure on the Brewers, I don't see one.

Hmm.

What I do see is that the Cubs need to hold off the Phillies. Why does it matter? Because when you look at the breakdown of the first round in October, the bottom 2— the top 2 wildcard teams play each other. Remember, a division winner plays the worst wildcard team. The Cubs and Phillies are fighting to host a series against each other. If I'm the Cubs, I want to play the 3-game series at Wrigley. So they are highly incentivized to have a good September. Problem coming off what they did in August. If they start getting down on the knob and literally just swinging for the fences, that is not a sustainable strategy. It's not a winning strategy. They had a great month. PCA is the MVP favorite. If Ohtani doesn't take the mound again, my guess is PCA wins with an average September. But the Cubs have to not go away from what it is that in my mind has really been the difference maker. And it's not the offense. I'm focused more on the Cubs pitching.

Yeah, their pitching is huge. And I know in talking to our producer, Ethan Bedowski, who's a huge Cubs fan, he feels like they're, they're just like a pitcher away. They need someone to step up to be good enough to potentially go compete for an actual chance at the World Series.

All right.

Well, I'm just going to go Pittsburgh Pirate and take Paul Schemes.

I mean, we'll see an ERA. I can beat you. I'll beat that ERA. I got one. I got a better Pirate pitcher.

I want— I have a, I have a Pirate that if you don't say, I'm going to immediately blurt out his name just because I want to know.

Schemes in his rookie season, he made 23 starts and he pitched to a 1.96.

Yes, he did.

We got to have a minimum amount of starts here. That's some bull.

Okay. We can take his next season when he made 32 starts and had a 1.97.

All right, we'll take that one.

Okay. All right. You know what? I'll give you that.

A 1.97 instead of a 1.96.

That's ridiculous.

That's why I'm doing it, because it's ridiculous.

It's ridiculous how— what both you're doing.

Okay, Cody, go ahead.

Jason Schmidt.

For?

Pirates.

Nice.

Nice.

Zack Duke.

Oh, nice.

That's the name I thought of. Zack Duke.

Wow.

What a name, right?

His best season, he made 29 starts in 2003 and pitched to a .234.

Ooh, few— fewer than 3-time All-Star. Sandy Alcantara.

Career— his best career ERA is when he won the Cy Young in '22. He pitched to a 2.28.

I'll take that. I'll take that.

Jose Fernandez.

Ooh.

For less than 3-time All-Star. Nice.

Hey, that's awesome. I like that one.

It wasn't— I think it was twice he made it.

I'm just checking. I'm checking to make sure, but there's no way. Yeah, he was a 2-time All-Star.

That's a great one. He had, he had to have one of those years had to be in—

No minimum of starts here.

Yeah, right. Well, he doesn't have to do a minimum.

You know what? I take it back. I'll give him that one that he had.

The 1.96?

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

We'll go 1.96.

I'm glad you put up a stop.

Okay, so we're back to 1.96. Okay.

Yeah, I think that's important.

So in, uh, what, 2013, his Rookie of the Year season, Jose made 28 starts and had a 2.19 ERA.

He was spectacular.

He would have been the best pitcher I've ever seen. He had a career .258, never higher than a .290.

Can you look up how many starts Eric Gagne had?

I'm going to go zero. So now I'm, I'm cruising.

Bruising.

Because you are looking for time as a reliever. I'm going to go ahead and do multiple teams in the same division. One Roger Clemens, please.

And how about this for the Red Sox, the Blue Jays? 3 teams.

3 of them.

Did Houston Street start?

I think he might have.

I think he did.

Let's find out. What's our minimum games started? 1.

No.

No.

We'll go with 3.

The guy had to be a starter.

Yeah, we'll go with 10. Huh? All right, Clemens. No, huh?

Look up Houston Street starts.

Clemens had a 1.

Oh wow, geez, I'm running out of this.

This guy was so good.

Is Joe Nathan a starter?

I'm running away with this.

Get this, Clemens had a 1.93 in 1990, and then in 2005 he had a 1.87.

Yeah, because he was incredible, dude. Yeah, I mean, it is what steroids will do, but man, were those steroids great. David, I want to talk to you about another National League storyline though, because we have one of the weirder player situations I have seen over man, the course of the last several years. Ketel Marte, which for, for those who are unfamiliar, we did talk about this on the Pitch Clock a couple of weeks ago with Danny Alvarez as Ketel Marte was a no-show in Boston, then was away from the team for a couple of weeks, returns to boos, then says he has nothing to say to the fans, then says he didn't understand the question, which is confusing because it was through a translator. There are all sorts of things going on here. David, have you ever seen a situation quite like this one and how would you have handled it? when you were with the Marlins?

Well, we've certainly seen players go AWOL. We've seen some players go AWOL and never come back. We've seen players leave for a couple of days. People don't ever talk about the fact that Pudge Rodriguez left the Marlins in the middle of our World Series year in '03 to go try to get his hitting stroke back with his own hitting coach. And so it's not entirely uncommon. What bothered me about this situation was the lack of communication. Lack of communication both inside and outside the Diamondbacks organization. They didn't know where he was. He didn't tell them. And when he came back, it was just sloppy.

Mm-hmm.

If you get ahead of a player who needs a mental health break or who needs a physical break and you get ahead of it publicly and in the clubhouse, it wouldn't have led to the boos. As for the translation issues, that's a real thing that happens in baseball. more than really any other sport.

Yeah.

And it's something that sometimes becomes unavoidable. Do I believe it? Not always, because we're really careful with our players when we have them out in front of cameras. We've got the best translators. We make sure we understand what questions are being asked. And do you think that I would not have prepared our player for the type of questioning that was going to come to him when he met the media?

Right.

Following being booed, it would be the— we go right to the clubhouse, right to the player, talk to him, make sure there's a proper answer ready to go, and then hope that the player delivers that answer. But it's a complicated situation in that you don't really want to cross the fans. But on the other hand, the Diamondbacks fans, the Diamondbacks organization, they're focused on one thing. They're a half game back of a playoff spot. And they want to get to October.

David, I want to talk to you as we wrap this up about our Star of the Week. We have either Chris Sale, who is coming off of maybe what might be my favorite start that I've seen from a pitcher all year long. He threw a shutout, 11 strikeouts, 5 hits against the Dodgers, brought it to 100 for the first time in 8 years in his career, which is awesome. And there's an incredible visual of his son all excited as he headed back back out for the 9th inning. Or there's the local kid from down here, Miami's own Sal Stewart, who is only the 5th rookie aged 22 or younger in the history of Major League Baseball with 30 homers and 100 RBIs. The last 3 before him: Albert Pujols, Jose Canseco, and Ted Williams. He's off to that type of start to his career. So do we want to spend some time on Sal Stewart or Chris Sale, who continues to impress.

I'm going to spend time on Chris Sale. And the reason is that I had it wrong. There was an episode of Nothing Personal when Chris Sale was signed to an extension, and I thought it was an absolute mistake. I did not think he had enough bullets left in his arm. I didn't think he had enough times that he would toe the rubber. And he has proven me wrong. He has absolutely produced at Cy Young levels. Do I love the game against the Dodgers? Yeah. But I choose pitching and defense every day if I want to win, win jewelry. And when you look at what the Braves are trying to do, again, it's so important to try to not have to play the first round. And we can talk on another episode about not playing for a few days versus playing for a few days, who has the advantage. But the fact is, you do not want to play extra games in the postseason. Period. Chris Sale is going to have 4 or 5 more starts and he is going to be critical to the Braves positionally with their seed. And then when he takes the ball, game 1 of every playoff series to me is the most important.

So I take Chris Sale as being more important to his team, to the season, and in general. Sal Stewart, outstanding. But look at the Reds.

Yeah.

Look at where they are.

Yeah.

What's going on? I'd rather, way rather focus on Chris Sale and the Braves.

And he is going to be so important if you get to an NLCS and you're taking on the Dodgers or even an NLDS and you're taking on the Dodgers, depending on how the seeding all shakes up. That left-handed arm against those left-handed bats is going to be essentially the matchup for the season. And we just saw how it turned out the other night. You look forward to watching a guy like him. And one more stat per Just Baseball that I think you'll like here, David. For Chris Sale, there have been 3 instances in Major League history in which a pitcher has had 550 or more strikeouts, fewer than 100 walks, and a sub-3 ERA in their first 74 games with a team. Chris Sale with Atlanta, Justin Verlander with Houston, and Chris Sale with Boston.

That's— Wow.

How great he's been with multiple new teams. It's pretty cool to see him pitching that way. He's one of the great pitchers of his generation, and we look forward to watching him as things go down. down the stretch here with all of these teams. Hey, maybe we'll see him in one of the final starts of the year down here in Miami. David, thank you so much. I look forward to seeing you down here in Miami next week and couldn't be happier to have you back here on the Pitch Clock.

Thank you, Jeremy. Have a great day.

What do we got? Gagne started.

How many starts did Eric Gagne make?

Like 24 starts.

All right. I'll give you that. Starts early in his career.

So Eric Gagne, that's a huge one. It might get you back into it because I feel really good.

Let's go, Gagne.

That's gonna be like a 0.8.

I was gonna say, yeah, I think it— he won the Cy Young in '03, didn't he, or something like that?

Yeah.

Um, yeah.

Wow. Jeez.

Yeah, it's gonna be really low.

He had a 1.20 the year he won.

1.20?

Nothing lower?

Yes, as a reliever, he had 4.7 F WAR that season.

Okay.

That's the lowest.

1-2?

That's the lowest. Yeah.

All right.

And multiple-time Cy Young Award winner.

Hmm.

Well, let's go— wait, this is gonna sound stupid because I don't want to sound stupid. I sounded stupid last week.

Okay.

When did they start giving out the Cy Young Award?

It was founded in 1956.

Okay.

There was one winner from '56 to '66. So starting in '67, it was one for each league.

Okay.

But it used to just be one for the whole league.

Did Bob Gibson win multiple Cy Youngs?

If he did, that's a great shout.

Oh, I didn't even realize.

He is a 2-time Cy Young Award winner.

Then I'm gonna go ahead with Bob Gibson.

Bobby G.

They literally lowered the mound because he was too dominant.

You sure you don't want to go Lou Gehrig?

Great, great history, uh, poll here, Chair Bear.

Thank you.

Gotta love this. Uh, Bob Gibson in '68— this is the Bob Gibson year when they lowered the mound basically because of him— had a 1.12 ERA.

Better than Eric Gagne.

In 34 starts. He threw 304 innings and had a 1.12.

Wow.

That's so stupid. How accurate could the stats be? The stat keeping couldn't have been accurate back then. Oh, this was easy.

All right, so let's add all these up.

This is a runaway.

I'm gonna add Chris first because Jeremy's really hot in this one.

Yeah, because this is a runaway.

Wow.

This is an obvious victory.

And all the ERAs.

Not only is this an obvious victory, every single round, no matter who we were picking, I had the better ERA.

Is that true?

Yes.

You want to go back through it?

No.

Just for fun.

So Chris's ERA—

Number rounds.

comes out to 1— I will round up— comes out to 1.99.

Like average?

Yes, we averaged. I took the 5 ERAs on this sheet, I added them up, I divided them by 5.

A little nervous after hearing that?

No.

Why are you, why are you getting all fidgety?

Considering I had 4 ERAs under 1.99, I feel pretty good.

Do you know how averages work? I mean, this guy.

Jeremy had 2 1.12s. Yeah, I did.

Oh.

I thought—

you thought it was 2-1-1-2. I thought he said 2-1-1-2.

2-1.

Jeremy's ERA—

Gabe also cut that face—

is 1.67. Jeremy, the pitcher in the house, you are the winner this week.

The pitcher in the house.

And I am the pitcher in the house.

And you know it.

And, and you know it.

You broke the tie.

We should go out there. I'd hit—

Did I break the tie or are we now tied? We should do a pitch clock. It's now tied again.

It's tied again. Chris took the lead.

Yes.

Jeremy, you have evened the score.

I want to take it to the pitch clock.

It's 11-11.

Pitch clock versus pitch clock.

Okay, here's the deal.

I'm—

stated for the record, if at the end of the season, after the World Series, we are tied, we will do one more episode. We will have—

You should do this regardless.

A certain—

yes. I'm stroking again.

But, but we will have a certain amount—

Pause.

We will have a certain amount of at We will determine what that needs to be. I don't know if it needs to be a certain amount of hits, whatever.

You're not striking me out. I'm making contact every time and I'm getting like 3 hits.

We will have a showdown. I will pitch, Chris will hit, and that will decide who the winner is.

This is the greatest idea ever. All right.

And we'll let the fans vote on who they think's gonna win. Because we— I mean—

I like that he's already throwing it to the next thing because I dominated so much in this one.

Damn it.