00:00 (upbeat music)
00:03 - The Orioles DRS beat up on the Tampa Bay,
00:07 well I shouldn't say beat up, it was an extra inning game,
00:09 but they've now beaten them twice in a row.
00:12 My question to you,
00:13 and we're gonna talk more about this series in a moment,
00:16 the four three win here,
00:17 is your mind now more interested in Baltimore
00:22 potentially being the best team in the American League,
00:24 or the fact that Tampa Bay
00:26 is now in another five plus game losing streak?
00:30 - Yeah, Tampa Bay is a real struggle for me now,
00:32 because setting up the table for the season
00:34 was can they break a record that the Seattle Mariners hold
00:38 as the most wins in Major League Baseball in a season?
00:40 And now we find ourselves not even to the month of August,
00:42 or even in the first place anymore,
00:44 quite frankly, are reeling here.
00:46 They do have some injuries
00:47 to their frontline pitching staff,
00:48 we get that, that happens throughout Major League Baseball.
00:50 But now we're no longer looking, at least myself,
00:53 that the Orioles are one of those teams like,
00:54 ah, it's a really nice story,
00:56 let's see them maybe bottom out.
00:57 It looks like they're playing their best baseball
00:59 at the right moment where the Rays are going backwards.
01:01 Having said that, we do know ebbs and flows
01:03 in Major League Baseball season always happen,
01:05 even the best of teams go through losing streaks.
01:08 You wanna play your best baseball at the end of the season,
01:11 and maybe this swoon that we're getting from the Rays,
01:13 they can rebound in August and into September,
01:15 and regain that form that we saw earlier in the season.
01:18 But if we're just looking right now,
01:19 I don't care what the price point here
01:21 at the Fandula Sportsbook is,
01:22 I really don't wanna be dipping my toes in the water
01:24 and saying, you know what,
01:25 we've got lots of time to take the Rays.
01:26 It just doesn't feel right.
01:28 - So look, I'll take this a step further.
01:30 I think Tampa Bay has absolutely no argument
01:33 to be favorites to win the American League anymore.
01:36 I don't see the vision.
01:37 We're not pricing this based on what they did on April.
01:40 We just made the point intentionally
01:42 that the Reds have their numbers dropping back
01:44 because of preseason priors.
01:46 Tampa Bay was not supposed to be the best team
01:48 in the American League.
01:49 That would have been Houston, then the Yankees,
01:52 then Toronto.
01:53 There were plenty of teams, Donny,
01:54 that had higher expectations than the Tampa Bay Rays.
01:58 And I'm not saying Tampa Bay needs to be 10 to one
02:00 to win the American League,
02:01 but their plus 210 compared to Texas is plus 360.
02:04 A Rangers team that just swept them
02:06 has a better record overall,
02:08 and is actually leading in their division by four games.
02:12 Tampa Bay is not even in first place in their division.
02:17 And then if you look at the division prices,
02:19 you got a minus 185 right now on Tampa Bay
02:21 compared to a minus 180 on Texas.
02:24 Again, that's a lot of respect for the Astros.
02:26 While understandable here,
02:27 I would even put Houston at this point
02:29 in front of Tampa Bay.
02:31 You want to hold off on Baltimore,
02:32 that's all fine and good here,
02:34 but the Rays pricing has now transformed, Donny,
02:38 into an unjustifiable number that has not moved enough
02:42 based on what we've seen from this team
02:43 in the last month or so of Major League Baseball.
02:46 (upbeat music)
02:48 (bells chiming)
