Dodgers vs. Padres: Division Title Debate Amid Injuries
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00:00Mark, Browner and I are having a debate. We want your opinion on this. I've been saying
00:09for weeks that given Mookie Betts being hurt, Clayton Kershaw just coming back, Yamamoto
00:15who hasn't been back, Max Muncy who's been hurt, Walker Buehler who didn't make it back
00:20this year. I mean, the Dodgers, credit to them, they've got the second best record in
00:24the National League, but with all of their injuries, the Padres should be going for the
00:30division and the Padres have been playing their best baseball of the year since the
00:34All-Star break. Do you think that there is a benefit to winning the division, which is
00:40what I think, or Browner, represent your side to Mark Loretta, let him judge.
00:45So Mark, by the way, you look very managerial in your glasses and hat.
00:49The idea of winning the division, in my opinion, is vastly outdated because of the format
00:56now in which baseball is played in from a playoff structure. So most of the teams we
01:02see now who win the division, who get the week off, those teams tend to struggle when
01:06the playoffs first start. And those are the things that those are the things that get
01:09knocked out by, quote unquote, hot teams who snuck in and all of a sudden now they're riding
01:15the wave of momentum. So to me, at this point in professional baseball, the division is
01:21irrelevant. Get in the playoffs and play the best baseball you can to get to that point.
01:27That's what I think is to be the main focus, as opposed to people, you know, putting the
01:32division on, put the division on this pedestal when oftentimes, like we just said previously
01:37before you came on, the Dodgers won 10 divisions in a row. They got one World Series in a shortened
01:44season.
01:45Yeah, no, I hear you. I think I definitely agree with the fact of just get in the playoffs.
01:53It's a tournament now. It's tournament style. Just get in. However, even though it has looked
01:58that way in the last few years, I do think it is an advantage to have that buy. Just
02:03think about if you've got a guy like Tatis or Cease or Michael King who's up against
02:09some innings limits, you're going to have a chance to arrest those guys. That should
02:14be an advantage. It should be. And I think it's just kind of been a little bit of a quirk
02:21the last few years, where you had last year, of course, the Texas and Arizona Wild Cards
02:25who made the World Series. So obviously, just get in, that's number one. But number two,
02:32I do think the division is important. And the other thing is you play these 162 games
02:38to win your division. And that's a sense of accomplishment. I think it would be big for
02:42the Padres to win a division when they haven't won one in so long. And by the way, the Padres
02:47don't have any World Series. So let's get in. Let's win the division and see if we can
02:51go that way. But it's going to be tough still. I mean, LA's got two teams behind their neck
02:57now with us and the Diamondbacks who are playing unbelievably well as well. But yeah, I mean,
03:03we win this game today. We're up 4-0. The Diamondbacks will go into tonight's game just
03:09being up two and a half games on us. That's pretty close.
03:12Can I ask you a more, like, let's bring it way back question? Because the Padres are
03:20the hottest team in baseball. Them and the Diamondbacks are both the hottest teams in
03:24like the last 30 days, 60 days, whatever it's been. Is this sustainable for this team? Like,
03:31can they keep this going? Or like, is this just one of those baseball runs? Like the
03:35White Sox just lost 21 in a row. I know that's ridiculous. But like, is this just one of
03:39those? Is this just one of those runs that they're going on? Is this sustainable all
03:42the way through the end of September for the Padres?
03:45I don't think 800 baseball is sustainable for any team. You're not going to play, you're
03:49not going to win 8 out of 10 for the rest of the year. You know, that's pretty, that's
03:52pretty much unrealistic. Although, you know, the Rockies did that one year in September.
03:57They went nuts. But I do think, we've talked about this all year, you know, I think we're
04:03finally kind of hitting their stride. You know, the pitching has been incredible. I
04:06think the offense is, I love the fact that it's built around making contact. They're
04:10never out of games. They're great when they're down, they come back from games, etc. So yeah,
04:16to your point, your question, I wouldn't expect it to be, you know, 800 baseball, but I think
04:21they're going to, you know, they should be well above 500 continually going on.