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Jun 9, 2026
A Numbers Game | June 9, 2026 | Hour 3
A Numbers Game | June 9, 2026 | Hour 3
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45:12
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Transcript
0:01
The numbers told the story, they always do. So, one of those idiots who believe in analytics. This is a numbers game with Gil Alexander on VSiN.
0:09
Hour number three of a numbers game at VSiN, eSports betting network, vsin.com, Game Plus, iHeartRadio, YouTube TV, Sirius XM Channel 158. So many ways to take us in. You just have to choose one of them.
0:21
We appreciate that you do. Joe C, by the way, haven't heard from Joe C in a while. I know. He was the guy who put them all together at once. That's right. We miss you, Joe C.
0:28
Yeah, he chimed in, what, it was like a week or two ago. Oh, he did? Okay. Yeah, he did. And he was like, "Hey, first time tweeting in a while." And I'm like- Joe C... "Man, yeah, I haven't heard your name in a while."
0:35
We miss you, Joe C. By the way, uh, are, are, do you have Serena Williams fever? Hell yeah, man.
0:41
Uh, in about a half hour or thereabouts, you know how this goes with tennis, Serena Williams making her return to the tennis court. Now, it's not singles, so it's a little bit of hype here, right?
0:53
But she is taking the court, um, at the HSBC Championship, the Queen's Club, if you will. It's a good one. Queen's Club Championships, where the, uh, brick building is right on the court. I love it. It's great.
1:04
Uh, Victoria Mboko of Canada and Serena Williams are doubles partners, and they're taking on, uh,
1:11
I don't even know how you pronounce these, Erin Routliffe and Nicole Melichar-Martinez, I believe, uh, is how you pronounce that.
1:18
And they're taking those guys on, and those two are seeded third in this tournament in doubles. And we'll see how Serena does at least on the doubles court. She will be playing singles by the time Wimbledon rolls around.
1:30
Grass court season, a grand total of five weeks. That's it. It's lovely to see. We have no bets on anything, but there you go. For you Serena Williams fans, the return to the competitive tennis about to happen.
1:42
Uh, we get tweets of beating the book. Mark Bono or Bono,
1:46
@phila, uh, phili, uh, phila76, says, "Every time I see a 15 to 14 MLB score, reminds me of when my dad and I went to game three of the '93 World Series here in Philly. Phillies blew a 14 to nine lead,
1:58
uh, in Tampa Bay when Ricky Henderson hit a bases loaded triple in front of my seat. Still the highest scoring World Series game ever." Oh, you mean Toronto, right? Not, uh, not TB, as he put out there. Um, yes, indeed.
2:13
Remember it well. The Toronto Blue Jays World Series champs of '92 and '93, and then of course the strike hits in '94. Uh, this is from LosVegas514. "Yo, I've been to Oracle Park before. One of the best.
2:26
Is this true you can have your bratwurst delivered to your seats by Uber Eats delivery from Or- in Oracle Park? Sheesh." Uh, I don't know that to be true, but it sure sounds true. Little Uber Eats right to the ballpark.
2:38
How do they get in the ballpark, though? You have to meet them at the gate? Is that how that works? Or maybe they're just Uber Eats-ing in the, in the stadium. [laughs] Yeah.
2:45
Like, they'll go to a specific, uh, pla- restaurant for you. Oh, maybe. I guess. Maybe. I don't know. Oh, that's true. Right. That's how you do it.
2:52
Vinnie Vincent, @DeputyVinnie, "Kelly, my nine-year-old loves chicken tenders and orders them everywhere we go. He always wants to pick the restaurant, but orders chicken tenders.
3:00
He no longer gets to pick after ordering chicken tenders at Red Lobster." [laughs] That's a lot of chicken tender drops. This is, this is exactly how Gracie was, by the way. It's just, hey, the kid's playing it safe.
3:11
I don't blame him. Gracie, you want anything besides chicken tenders? "No." [laughs] It, it, it- It's very, it's a, whatever a non-refi- whatever the opposite of a refined palate is at that age. Yeah.
3:20
Yeah, they love their chicken tenders. You know why? 'Cause they're manageable chicken, is what it is. I think that's what they love about them. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. You still like McNuggets and all that? Nuggets?
3:29
Who doesn't love nuggets? Yeah. Well, you know, I love a good chicken nugget, chicken tender.
3:33
Uh, Gary_Philly, "How could you talk so much about those champion SuperSonics," first of all, we only talked about them once, "uh, without mentioning my favorite player, Downtown Freddie Brown? Come on, man." Oh, yeah.
3:44
Downtown Freddie Brown, instant offense off the bench for the Sonics.
3:48
Uh, in an era of basketball where Chrissy Andrews, my mishpucha, used to say, literally in the NBA finals with the Seattle SuperSonics, Gus William [laughs] Gus Williams and Dennis Johnson would talk to each other while bringing the ball up court.
4:02
Like, that's how slow the game was. That's great. Yeah, yeah. They would have a conversation while bringing the ball up court.
4:07
Uh, Freddie Brown also reminds me of one of the great Vegas stories of all time, as told by, um, not, not my mishpucha, Chrissy Andrews, but by the legendary Roxy Roxborough. You're familiar with Cryin' Kenny?
4:18
Do you remember the Cryin' Kenny stories- Yeah, I do. Yep... from story time? Mm-hmm.
4:20
Cryin' Kenny's most for, most famous story is when he lost a bet, and he came back into the sportsbook with a gun and shot the screen on which he believed he lost the sports bet.
4:32
By the way, he walked out of the, uh, of the sportsbook. Nothing ever happened to him. He wasn't prosecuted. No one knows whatever happened to Cryin' Kenny. That's the most famous Cryin' Kenny story.
4:42
The second most famous Cryin' Kenny story is the one [laughs] that Roxy told, which is lit- uh, a much more, uh, album cut B-side Cryin' Kenny story was he had the under in a Seattle SuperSonics game.
4:54
He had the under, a full game under, and, like, for the first five minutes of the game, nobody scored, or it was, like, three to nothing or something like that. Mm-hmm.
5:04
And all of a sudden, five minutes into the game, Freddie Brown's got the ball at, like, the free throw line, like, around the elbow, and he gets fouled, and he just throws up this circus shot that somehow goes in, and Cryin' Kenny screams, "Are they gonna hit every shot this damn game?"
5:19
[laughs] The Freddie Brown story. Yeah. [laughs] That's very good. Yeah. I love that one. It's a great one. Joe C has checked in. Oh, nice. He says, "Still listening every day. Just slammed.
5:28
Construction company day job, now a restaurant, coaching both my daughters' soccer teams, and jujitsu for both." Boom. Thank you, Joe C. Yeah, he's always coaching soccer. Glad to know you're doing well.
5:36
By the way, Gil, for the, uh, like, what?
5:39
Seventh consecutive year now, I just did, whi- while you were bringing us into this segment, I'm like, "Hey, let me, let me check around and see if any of these quarterback markets are-" I noticed you've been doing a lot of research on that...
5:48
are, are available to us. Yeah. None. No. Nothing in Nevada. So, like, for the eighth consecutive year, I've, I've asked myself that question. I've stopped to look, and no, I don't know what I'm gonna learn.
5:58
When this state gets sports betting, boy. Yeah. Legalized sports betting comes here, this state is gonna be something else College World Series is set.
6:06
Uh, Alabama and Oklahoma did in fact get the job done yesterday in those two suspended games where they had huge leads, uh, in them.
6:13
Uh, here are the, the latest odds now heading into the College World Series, which begins on Friday with the final eight.
6:21
Again, what you have is two brackets of four, and by the way, thank you, the Vcockta bracket has arrived- Mm-hmm... now that we have all, all eight teams.
6:29
So you have West Virginia, Troy, North Carolina, and Ole Miss in bracket one. And then in bracket two you got Bama, Oklahoma, Georgia, and Texas. Wow, is that an all SEC bracket? You're damn right it is. Wow.
6:44
The entire bracket two is SEC. So you will have an SEC team guaranteed for the best of three finals of the, of the men's College World Series once we get there.
6:54
But now remember, bracket one and bracket two, these begin as double elimination format as they do each and every year, right? Because we've alternated, right?
7:03
Regionals were double elimination, super regionals were best of threes, now we're back to double elimination here in both brackets one and two.
7:14
Whoever emerges as the one that doesn't have two losses then will compete in a best of three in the College World Series, which begins on June 20th.
7:25
So this is gonna last all the way till June 21st or June 22nd if that in fact goes to a third game. But here it is, odds to win it all. North Carolina and Georgia, co short shots at plus 275. Texas is three to one.
7:39
West Virginia plus 750. There's hotty toddy Ole Miss at eight to one trying to win their second championship in five seasons.
7:48
Then it's Bama at 14 to one, then it's Oklahoma at 16 to one, and Troy bringing up the rear at 35 to one. Any thoughts, Kelly Bidley? No, you got your Ole Miss future, man. This is, I- Well, I don't have what Jensen had.
8:03
Yeah Jensen has it at, like, 60 to one, I believe, on Ole Miss. Yeah, I think it's some- I'd say 20... around there. Oh, man, Georgia looked damn good. I watched a lot of these games over the weekend.
8:12
You're ca- you're catching bits and pieces. Thought Georgia looked really good. Um, North Carolina coming back to beat USC, uh, looking pretty good, but man, no- nothing I'm gonna dive in yet on the futures board.
8:23
Happy to bet some of these games, though. We'll be talking to guys, Jensen and Gri- uh, Matt Grissom here end of the week.
8:28
[lips smack] Uh, game lines for game one's West Virginia, this is over at DraftKings, West Virginia minus 210, Troy plus 160, and then North Carolina minus 166, Ole Miss plus 130 dog for that first game.
8:43
And then in the all SEC bracket, uh, Bama minus 120, Oklahoma minus 110. So had a bit of a coin flip in that game. And then true coin flip, minus 115, Texas and Georgia both.
8:56
What about Stanley Cup game four tonight here at T-Mobile with the Vegas Golden Knights up two games to one? We had Sia on earlier. He's on the Hurricanes, uh, to win the series.
9:08
Uh, sort of quoting the fact that they were favorites, um, and substantial favorites, substantial-ish favorites, right, heading into, uh, the series, and now find themselves at plus 158 down a game.
9:20
I agree with Jake's take, which is, you know, listen, we, we, we're always talking about sports betting. There's content and hours to be filled of content, right? Sometimes it's okay to just say, "You know what?
9:32
If you have a better idea on this, good for you."
9:35
I don't know how anyone with any kind of conviction, unless you have a thought on the goaltender, right, unless you, unless you believe Carolina's gonna make the wrong decision per your handicap- Mm-hmm...
9:44
in goal tonight, maybe that's something that, uh, we'll allow here on the show. Mm-hmm. Fred will allow it.
9:50
But I don't know how you can otherwise, with any kind of conviction on the side, tell me why you think one of these teams is going to win over the other. The money line reflects just that.
10:00
Carolina is just a tick of a favor. I mean, this is as close to a, close to a coin flip as you can get. Carolina's minus 109 we're showing here courtesy of Circa. Golden Knights are minus 103, totals at six.
10:13
Every one of these games has soared over. We've had two overtime games. There you see the puck line as well. I have no idea what to expect tonight.
10:23
Yeah, I mean, it sounds really boring, but I, every, every one of these games I keep looking at the over. Like, like five and a half, six. Yeah. Like they're just, they're scoring goals.
10:30
You're talking about Carolina with, uh, with goalie issues now. See how that comes into play. I think I'm gonna pl- I think I'm going to tail, uh, Jake on a couple of his props.
10:40
I thought the Stall over shots on goals was a good look.
10:43
Talked about how his kind of different, different style that, that he's kind of been playing throughout this series, but still one of their, uh, uh, one of their best goal scorers.
10:52
One and a half shots, I think I'm gonna play over that, and I thought he made a good point on the, uh, the shots on go- or the saves for Hart playing over 26 and a half, and just kind of the muted price you're getting on that with how, how fewer shots on goal the, the hurricanes, H- Hurricanes are getting here, uh, in the Stanley Cup Final.
11:09
So I think I'm gonna play, I think I'm gonna play both of those. Okay. Um, what do you have? Jordan Stall over one and a half shots on goal you had? One and a half shots on goal, and then Hart over 26 and a half saves.
11:19
Okay. He's got those as well. We'll, we'll recap all of the bets. I think Jake had four total prop bets, tonight's game four coming up on the show. Uh, we'll look over all the bets.
11:28
Joe Sheehan is gonna join us, talk Major League Baseball. Uh, on the other side, we'll get back to the NBA Finals, and in addition to the NBA Finals, Giannis Antetokounmpo, his next team.
11:39
This has gotten a little more interesting. Boom, boom, boom. Little more interesting. Is it done? Is it done? Next on The Numbers Game right here at VSiN, the sports betting network.
11:47
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11:58
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12:06
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12:10
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12:26
A numbers game on VSiN, the sports betting network. The World Cup is two days away. Count them, two. One, two. Don't miss your chance to win a million dollars. Entries close Thursday at 3:00 PM Eastern.
12:38
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12:52
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13:00
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13:11
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13:22
So we had previously reported that that deadline was at, uh, noon Eastern. No, 3:00 PM Eastern, noon Pacific. And so it said- Yeah, so just get it in before the first game starts. Yeah, that's correct.
13:31
Mexico, South Africa, 3:00 PM Eastern. Another one where you- Who you got in that game? Another one where you throw out the records- [laughs]... when those two teams meet.
13:39
Uh, we get tweets- Man, Mexico minus 240 favorite. All right. Yeah. I, I b- of all the things that have been said about the World Cup by all of our esteemed guests- Mm-hmm... Paul Carr, Chris Felica, Drew Dinsick,
13:53
we'll have Dallin Cuff to discuss the World Cup tomorrow as well, the thing that has resonated the most with me is the whole Paul Carr
14:03
teams from South America are gonna have a massive advantage with the weather based on teams from Europe- It's definitely the-... and, and Asia...
14:10
it's te- yeah, it's definitely the most interesting thing heading into this for me. Yes. Have you been to Miami in July? Like, does it play out? Yeah. I, not even just that.
14:18
I mean, I think not even just that, the fan base is, right? Like, we're- Yeah. How many cities is England gonna show up to and get a good fan base? Pro- This is dreadful... probably a fair amount.
14:28
You're not showing up to p- in Miami to play Brazil or something like that and having [laughs] an advantage from the f- with the fans. No wonder we let them have their silly colonies.
14:39
JasonH11, "Chicken tenders are my go-to at a game. Rarely they're bad. Rarely are they bad, and if s- and if so, you can make them more than edible with lots of whatever sauce you're dipping them in."
14:49
This one, this is kinda, this is kinda my theory too. It's kinda my theory. Listen, nobody, nobody dislikes chicken tenders. Yeah. Fairway Fred- They're safe...
14:56
oh, the old days of baseball, bottled beer delivered to your seat by just screaming, "Beer here." Well. MoneyGunGuz. Hey, I met MoneyGunGuz yesterday outside the studio. Oh, nice.
15:06
He says, "Has anyone else ever had this thought? Why aren't plane bathrooms bigger? I feel like they're made for Oompa Loompas. Nice to meet you, Gil, yesterday. Can't wait for football. Cheers." That's a random thought.
15:15
It's true. No, it's, uh, it's very true. Look, there's a lot of things too that I've, I've, I've learned along my journey of losing weight, when you're like, "All right, I'm a big guy." Mm-hmm.
15:24
Being in these airp- these airplane bathrooms. Yeah. Nightmare, right? Oh, I can't stand it. And then you lose weight, and you're like, "It's still a nightmare. Who was ever thinking about this?"
15:31
No o- no one's ever like, "This is luxurious." Right. [laughs] Yeah, right. Yeah, no. Willie B.
15:35
Benton, "Never forget when Maurice White was questioned by September co-writer Ali Willis why he used the phrase ba-de-ya and what the phrase actually meant.
15:44
Maurice reminded her to, quote, 'Never let the lyrics get in the way of the groove.'" Ah, perfectly said. Perfectly said. Fairway Fred adds, "No teams from last year repeating at the College World Series.
15:55
Can you say transfer portal? Great ballpark in Omaha. If you love baseball, definitely a bucket list item." I'd love to go.
16:01
You know, as a matter of fact, if only VSin would send multiple shows to Omaha, we could be par- uh, oh, no, we're not, we weren't- Are we doing that this year?
16:08
We weren't a part of that then last year, no, we weren't, right? No. Was it? Is it happening this year? A numbers game. I don't even know. We have never been anywhere historically.
16:15
Uh, Mortal Kapper, "My go-to at Oracle the two times I've been was the bucket of garlic fries." Oh, yeah, the garlic fries are insane. Yeah, see, now that sounds good. They're insane. Yeah. They're insane.
16:23
And good for you, by the way. Oh, so good for you. Manny Davison, "I like Jake's thought to wait for some live numbers either way. I saw as high as 70 to one on Carolina [laughs] going into the third, down 0-4.
16:35
Not a bad sweat for overtime, even though it didn't come through." Yeah, I mean, let's not wait for them to be down four goals. That's just... And what, what an incredible hockey game that was.
16:44
So I will bring up one live betting thing that I did last game, and this is just keep an eye on your books.
16:49
There was a couple, uh, that w- that are very eager to adjust to live lines, which w- which you and I are often complaining about or have in the past, right? Of like, "Hey, well, this book, like, get a live line up."
17:00
Right. Like, we know what's going on, right? But there were a couple of those goals that went under review, and they took them off the board, and, like, I caught one book, like, asleep.
17:08
They had already moved numbers in a game, counted for the goal. So I don't know, keep your eye out for that. Might be some opportunities. Ge- did, did it work out for me in the end?
17:14
No, it didn't, because Carolina didn't win the game. And Patrick Kelly, "Jordan Stall for one plus shot on goal in the first period is plus 130 at DraftKings and plus 148 at FanDuel.
17:24
Just took, uh, just took two o- under two on FanDuel. Stall is fourth line, usually starts the game though, and is on the power play.
17:32
Definitely like the two plus for the game on DraftKings, since that includes overtime." I like the first period angle though too, 'cause then, then it just, for me, for 20 straight minutes, just yelling, "Shoot it!
17:42
Shoot it!" Oh, he's two units on FanDuel. Pardon me. From Patrick Kelly. Pardon me for misinterpreting your, uh, your abbreviations. Uh, Giannis Antetokounmpo, can we go to that?
17:54
Uh, we have been sort of watching this, where his next team... By the way, this saga has to end already. How many years have we been talking about Giannis' next team? It's incredible. Just look. Like, Pat Riley has...
18:04
I wanna know how many hundreds of hours Pat Riley has spent over trade propo- proposals on the phone with them, on the, in meetings with his own staff coming up with new trade proposals. Yeah.
18:16
Who's, like, been for five years now.
18:17
Well, uh, w- we saw some specula- I mean, I don't know if there's anything new on this, but w- I mentioned when we were talking about Giannis' potential destinations, one of the thing was, hey, everyone's like, "Wow, will Giannis play with Steph?"
18:29
That would be awesome. I'd love to see it as a, as a Dubs guy. But Giannis wants to be as close to Greece as possible, some reports indicate, so he'd prefer an East Coast team.
18:38
Plus, as Kelly mentioned last week, why would you wanna go to the Western Conference period with OKC and San Antonio looming large at the top?
18:46
Makes much more sense to go to the Eastern Conference team where everybody, uh, e- to an Eastern Conference team, which, where everyone has a puncher's chance.
18:53
Um, but the Celtics, these reports out of Boston, and I mentioned this at the time, seem to indicate that the Celtics might be done with Jaylen Brown. Like, they just might...
19:02
After, after the Celtics were knocked out this year, Jaylen Brown was quoted as saying it's the most fun he's ever had- Mm-hmm... after that early exit.
19:09
And that didn't sit well with a lot of people in Boston according to reports. Could Giannis end up with the Celtics? Do we have odds on this on prediction markets? Yes, we do. Uh, and the Heat are over 50% right now.
19:21
Uh, that's where we're at. This is a, um, this is a... Look, a, a situation. I don't, I don't think Boston. I'm interested to see what happens with that.
19:31
I, I don't think, I think they're gonna be completely fine, uh, going forward.
19:35
It was Jaylen Brown's comments, I get it, they came at a bad time, but he was talking about how he, like, like, he got to be the guy, and he was, like, calling himself the best two-way player in the NBA.
19:45
Like, it wa- it was a good s- it was a great regular season for him. It was a really, really crappy playoffs. Um, updated odds on this. Miami -132, so we are f- into odds-on favorite for Miami now.
19:57
Stays with Milwaukee or retires +528, Boston +943, Portland +1240, Brooklyn +1462, everybody else 22 to 1 or longer. Go to the mind of Brad Stevens. Yeah. Brad Stevens, GM of the Boston Celtics.
20:13
Do you, do you believe that Brad Stevens, they g- they won their championship, right? They did win one championship, but what was our big thing with the Celtics now for all of these seasons when we get to the playoffs?
20:26
If you're following them during the regular season, it's the same thing. Celtics are a very simple basketball team. They all sit there behind the arc- Mm-hmm... and they just fire away.
20:33
There's never any adjustments, doesn't feel like, right, on the court.
20:37
Uh, maybe I'm being too blanket about this, but it sure doesn't feel like they are the most on-the-fly team on the court under Joe Mazzulla, your Coach of the Year, by the way. Mm-hmm. Give me a break.
20:48
Anyway, I, I just, I can't believe that he's Coach of the Year. Anyway, they make th- th- that entire playoff run again for this season, it's like, we're just gonna keep firing from three.
20:56
Some games they're gonna go in, we're gonna win. Some games they're not gonna go in, and we're gonna lose.
21:00
Do you think Brad Stevens, who is considered to be one of the best basketball minds, at some point here says to himself, "Okay, we've seen this through. We got ourselves a championship.
21:12
We, this is, this is the ceiling of what we are with this current construction. We need to shake this up"? Is that where his head is, or do you think he's more likely to be like, "Eh, you know what?
21:24
Eh, let's run this back again and again"?
21:26
Yeah, I, I, I think it's a great question 'cause I think it's, it's, it's, it's more of talking about stylistically, right, how they play, and then, uh, and then adapting your roster to fit that.
21:36
The, uh, I think the problem is I think that there could be, I, I think there could be a point where Brad Stevens says, "Hey, we need to adjust how, how, stylistically how we're playing these games."
21:45
I think the biggest thing for them is it, they play without a changeup, right? But, but, but what I'm s- It's fastball, fastball, fastball. Right.
21:51
What I'm saying is nothing will precipitate that change more than acquiring Giannis, right? You'll be forced to change how you play. Sure, sure.
21:57
I guess my, my, what, what I would tell, what I would say is I think you could, you could absolutely change the style of how you're playing, and Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown on roughly the same timeline, I think you can get that done with those two leading the way.
22:10
Where it, where you have to change the roster is with some of those surrounding pieces that they have just kept acquiring, right? Three-point shooter, three-point shooter.
22:18
I think you're changing the roster bu- makeup more. I don't know. I think that can still include Jaylen Brown.
22:24
I'm in the ca- I've always been high on Jaylen Brown, and to me, this conversation was, should've been settled five years ago. We were always go... It, it was always a conversation four or five years ago.
22:33
Can these two play on the same team? Right.
22:35
If there was that big a question back then, you should've dealt with it then because both of them have shown at different times now that they can be star elite players in this league, and I think Jaylen Brown did show that this year.
22:45
Would you bet this market? I would not bet this market.
22:49
I do th- it sound, I mean, there are strong reports that this is, this is going to happen before the NBA draft takes place, so next couple weeks we'll be done ta- June 23rd...
22:58
we'll be done talking about this, and it sounds like that Heat trade package has not ch- changed all that much- Yeah... from before the trade deadline, and they are very much the leaders in the clubhouse right now.
23:07
First round two weeks from tonight. Joe Sheehan joins us on the other side to talk a little Major League Baseball, where he stands on multiple matters next on the Numbers Game at VSiN, the sports betting network.
23:17
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23:52
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24:04
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24:21
Uh, let's talk some baseball. Joe Sheehan joins us now. Joe is the author of the Joe Sheehan newsletter, which you can find, by the way, uh, easily @joe_sheehan on Twitter.
24:32
He joins us now courtesy of the Progressive guest line. By the way, joesheehan.com is also where you can find that. Uh, Joe, where are you, where are you joining us from, by the way? Where do you hail from?
24:42
I'm originally from New York City. I live in Yonkers now- Oh... which is just outside the city. Okay. Uh, were you as fascinated by this, uh, this game in Summerlin, Nevada, as, as we were last night? 15 to 14 Brewers.
24:53
What do you think about that? I checked out a couple of times during it, and then, you know, I was doing some reading and working on some stuff for today, and I just clicked back into my Slack.
25:03
I've got the newsletter as a Slack, and the game was still going. I'm like, "How did that happen?" Like, the Brewers are 14-10, and the A's with two outs, and the A's scored, and it was a lot of fun to watch.
25:12
In a year where pitching has dominated, where run scoring is down, it was nice to get a good old-fashioned 1999 baseball game last night. You gonna play it tonight? You gonna play the over here?
25:22
I'd like to go back in time and play the 10 and a half yesterday. [laughs] It's 13 today. So the books have, uh, have adjusted. It reminds me of there was a series in, uh, Mexico City a couple... I'm sorry- Yes...
25:32
in Mexico, it might have been Monterey, a couple years back, where the total went from, like, 10 and a half to 17 over two days.
25:39
Um, but I do like the over tonight actually, because the conditions are going to be the same. Guys, I'm not sure if you know this, it's very hot in, uh, Las Vegas. What? I'm bringing some new information there.
25:51
Uh, but it, the thing we saw last night was the condition of the field. Rock hard, almost like a turf style field with the bounce you're getting. So hit the ball in the air, it's gonna fly.
26:00
Hit the ball on the ground, it's gonna fly. Not a lot of safe options for pitchers. Uh, what other bets did you land on today? I like the Mariners in the first five innings against the Orioles.
26:11
You've got Logan Gilbert going out. He's been very effective this year.
26:14
Um, Trevor Rogers, he righted the ship a little bit the last time out, but he hasn't struck out three batters in a game since April ni- excuse me, more than three batters in a game, since April 19th. Wow.
26:25
He's really just the number four, number five type starter. He had a long stretch there. He had a, he had an ERA of 11 over about a six-start stretch.
26:32
So I like the first five, too, 'cause it keeps me away from a Mariners bullpen that has been worked very hard over the last four days. Andrés Muñóz a couple of consecutive days.
26:41
Everybody in that bullpen has pitched on at least of the two in the last three days. So give me the first five. The Gilbert-Rogers, uh, matchup is, uh, pretty good for them. Only minus 24. Okay.
26:52
And you have one more, right, as well? Yeah. Uh, Dylan Cease returns for the Blue Jays. He's been out with an injury the last couple of starts. Nothing major. Uh, Cease is incredibly underrated.
27:03
I gave him out at 40 to one for the AL Cy Young Award this year. We'll see if he actually gets there with, you know, guys like Cam Schlitter having big years.
27:10
But he returns 36% strikeout rate, 2.59 FIP, 3.11 Statcast expected ERA. He's one of the best pitchers in baseball, but because his ERAs have tended to run high, he doesn't get that level of respect.
27:23
He's going up against, tonight, against the Phillies team that, guys, believe it or not, this is the third worst offense in baseball so far this year. They have a 299 OBP.
27:32
You think about Trea Turner, Kyle Schwarber, Bryce Harper, all the stars that they have, but they're not hitting at all. On the road, they are actually the worst offensive team in baseball. They got five last night.
27:43
I don't think they can do it again tonight. Okay. So once again, three pack of plays from Joe. Brewers, Athletics over 13. He's going for it here in Summerlin.
27:52
Mariners money line first five versus the Orioles, uh, behind Logan Gilbert, and then the Blue Jays money line versus the Phillies full game today.
28:00
Let's talk, uh, Cy Young, um, because we've talked about this extensively. It's, it's really so different, the NL race versus the AL race.
28:08
Uh, with apologies to Kyle Harrison after last night, the NL race just absolutely a log jam of awesomeness, and then the AL kind of a log jam of I don't know what. Um, what are your feelings on both of these two races?
28:24
You know, the AL, like I said, I gave out Cease at the start of the year. Missing a couple of starts, I don't think that's gonna hurt him too much. I think he can get back into this.
28:31
Cam Schlitter obviously the favorite at this point. I think one of the issues we, questions we're gonna have is how many innings is he gonna throw this year? Uh, excuse me, guys.
28:38
I'm being arrested for this take in there. [laughs] That's it. You're done. Uh, the, Schlitter did throw 140 innings last year between the majors, the minors, and the playoffs.
28:47
Figure the Yankees are gonna try to have him throw maybe 175, 180 this year, but they're gonna need some of those to be in October. So as the year goes on, are we gonna see him pull back?
28:57
Is he not gonna be able to put up the kind of counting stats that will enable him to hold up a deGrom, a Cease, a Williams? I think this is a wide open race right now.
29:06
There's still a chance, it's not a great chance, that Tarik Skubal comes out and is so great over his last 15 starts that he injects himself back into this. You've got Davis Martin in Chicago.
29:16
I don't know that his performance is sustainable. If you talk about the guys in this group who can continue to repeat the performance they've had, I think it's Cease, it's deGrom, and it's Schlitter.
29:25
What about the National League? Where are you, w- who would you vote for now? Christopher, Christopher Sanchez, and I think that's who we're gonna end up voting for at the end of the year.
29:34
You guys talk about this race a lot, and I think one of the factors that doesn't come up enough is innings. Christopher Sanchez has been a Major League starter now for a while.
29:42
There's not going to come a point where the Phillies are gonna feel a need to manage his innings. But you look at Jacob Miazski, and as great as he's been, you know, he's peaked at 140 innings, uh, last year.
29:53
The, again, you know, I mentioned this with the Yankees.
29:55
The Brewers need him to pitch well not for six months, but for seven months, and I do think at some point they're going to throw the brakes on him, and that's going to affect his ability to win these awards.
30:05
I would make the same thing, uh, pa- point about Ohtani, who as of today isn't even eligible for the, uh, ERA title in the National League.
30:12
They've got him on a once-a-week schedule, which means he might or might not get to 162 innings.
30:18
I think Ohtani's only chance, given the fact that he's going to have such low volume, is to break Bob Gibson's ERA record of 1.12. It's very hard to do.
30:28
I think Ohtani's only path, though, is to set that record, be eligible for the ERA title, and that's the way he gets past Sanchez.
30:34
But right now, you look at the guys eligible for this award, and it's Sanchez and maybe Paul Skenes as guys who are expected to pitch a full season. You are so right about innings pitched.
30:44
Tom Tango, a sabermetrician who has had the tried and true Cy Young formula, which has hit at an inordinate rate over time, the first part of his formula is innings pitched divided by two, minus earned runs.
30:57
That's right at the t- at the start of the formula. So it does matter. And Christopher Sanchez in the catbird seat right now, plus 140. Jacob Miazgowski, plus 180.
31:06
Shohei, five to one to win the National League Cy Young as we sit here and do this on June 9th.
31:11
Um, I want to talk about the Giants just for a second, because I think it's one of, one of the more fascinating things in baseball is when the trade deadline approaches or, or in the case of the Giants, the, the Major League Baseball draft right in mid-July as well, where they have an interesting window here to capitalize.
31:25
They've got all these veteran players and they gotta blow this up. You, you, you can't do this. You can't be, you know, one toe in, one toe out in a division that includes the LA Dodgers.
31:36
But I'm curious, Joe, is this going to be easier said than done? Because I don't know who's taking Adames' contract or Devers' contract or that kind of thing.
31:46
And then the guys that you really kind of want to hang on to, right, the, the, uh, the Lees and the Uriases of the world, I'm not sure you want to let those guys go.
31:56
So how does this end up for the Giants, do you think, in the end? Well, Urias would be an easy trade target only because he's only signed for this year. So you can move him and he's not part of your future.
32:06
I want to say Jung-hoo Lee signed a four-year deal when he came over. Um, and sometimes with, uh, Japanese players, I'm not sure, actually it'd be Korean players,
32:15
he- I'm not sure, um, whether he gets to be a free agent at the end of that or not. So you wonder how much longer he's gonna be around.
32:20
One of the issues you have is that the reason the Giants are bad this year are the players that you might now want to trade. So they don't have a ton of trade value.
32:30
I'm not sure what the market is for Matt Chapman at his current performance level with his contract. I'm not sure what the market is for Willy Adames at his contract at his current performance level. It's a problem.
32:40
You're just not gonna be able to move these guys. Even if they might make a team one win better, nobody's gonna take that contract off your hands just to get one win better.
32:48
I think the only real attractive prospect they have here is Logan Webb. Is there an argument for trading Logan Webb, going into a full rebuild and kind of trying to come out the other side in '29 or '30?
33:01
One of the things about the Giants right now is while they don't have a lot of prospects at the top end of their farm system, they are fantastic at the lower levels.
33:09
They've done an excellent job the last few years, both drafting and internationally, in building out the bottom of this system.
33:16
So you can make a case for the Giants going into one of these two-year rebuilds and looking to emerge in '28 or '29 with that core as well as the prospects that they might get for a Logan Webb.
33:26
But to me, if you're serious about this, you have to trade Webb. I think you're right. Uh, last thing, 30 seconds.
33:32
The team in either the American League or National League that you think most people aren't talking about that could slip into the playoffs and make some noise. Uh, I gave them out at 50 to one, 10 to one at one point.
33:45
The Red Sox. I- they've really undercut this, so I'm not sure they're the, the team really either. I would say maybe the Diamondbacks. I had the Diamondbacks giving that a 20 to one to win the division.
33:54
That's probably not gonna happen. But you look at this offense starting to come together. I really like the rotation. If they get Ker- Corbin Burns back, um, I think they can make a run here.
34:03
So I would say the Diamondbacks. Joe, always appreciate it, man. Thank you so much. Thanks, guys. Joe Sheehan, everybody, uh, @Joe_Sheehan on Twitter, The Joe Sheehan Newsletter at joesheehan.com.
34:14
Coming back where we cap the bets next on a Numbers Game. [upbeat music] A Numbers Game on VSiN, the sports betting network.
34:32
A Numbers Game, live from Circa Resort Casino, Downtown Las Vegas. Gil Alexander, Kelly Bidlin typing aggressively away on his keyboard. Keyboard is in big trouble.
34:43
Um, you can follow Kelly on Twil- on Twitter by the way @kelebidelon. I'm, like, beating the book. Always appreciate the tweets. And we got one from Dell Mind the Gap Radio. What's up, Dell?
34:52
Who I thought was the, he'd evolved, I thought, from Dell Mind the Gap Radio, or is that something else?
34:56
Dell Mind the Gap Radio says, "While working at home every day, it's nice to have you and Kelly as part of my regular routine. Knicks in six." Thank you, Dell Mind the Gap Radio. Appreciate that.
35:06
That was Knicks in four chance, uh, changed pretty quick. Yeah [laughs], well, no longer a possibility. Hey, uh, you know what I didn't update today?
35:15
VSiN Killer Sports NBA Playoff Challenge standings, which you can follow at contest.killersports.com, and your boy, Young Gil, is your champion. Look at you. Yeah. Kinda crushed. Dude, dominant. Dominant win.
35:28
Now, now it's just about setting the all-time... I've, I've already set the all-time record, the all-time two-year record for this.
35:33
Now I'm just trying to establish it so far out that no one in futures years can ever match it. What, what was the winning record last year? 24 and 14. Yeah. Yeah. I'm 25 and 11. Clench. Give me my title. What do I win?
35:46
Well, he's still gotta make two more picks. [laughs] I still gotta make two more picks. So that's why I'm trying to set, I'm trying to set it as far- Oh, man...
35:52
I'm trying to hit 70% of the contest is basically what I'm trying to do. I, I, yeah, y- a- as you should. Yeah. I, I would probably, if I were you, I'd probably just make side and total for the next game.
36:02
Make sure I get two picks in before I forget. [laughs] Yeah, that's what I'm gonna do. It's a beautiful... By the way, I'm going to be on San Antonio. I was on San Antonio last night.
36:09
I'm, I will be on San Antonio again in game four. Um, if we could flash those standings up again, because there is race- Oh, race for second. Yeah... there are two places, right? There are two places that get cash money.
36:18
First place, um, $3,000. Second place, $500. The race for second place is a scrum. Mm-hmm. A five-person scrum all the way from Kyle Akins down to Nick Whalen. Kyle Akins, Zach Cohen.
36:32
Zach is the, uh, in the clubhouse at 22 and 16. He has no more picks left. There's 38 total picks. Kyle and Zach both have 22 wins, so Zach's gotta hope Kyle loses.
36:44
And then there's the tiebreaker, whoever everybody had winning the title. And I don't know what everybody has.
36:50
By the way, Steve Fezzik's in there, Carl Sack, the creator of this contest is in it, and so is Nick Whalen for that number two position. The tiebreaker is who you have as the NBA champ. I had the Spurs as the NBA champ.
37:02
I, I doubt anybody picked the Knicks to win the NBA championship, but one of those five might have the Spurs. So- Yeah... tie, tiebreaker will matter. But there you go, those five battling for second place.
37:14
Kelly Midlan not pictured. There you go. Boom, boom, boom. All the way at the bottom. Yeah, man, it's so much fun. The, uh- Shout out to Killer Sports, shout out to Carl Sack for doing that again this year.
37:22
Yeah, great contest. Love doing it every year. Um, think it's a fun challenge through the playoffs. Yeah, I'm, I, I'm, I don't know about if, if someone would've picked the Knicks or not.
37:31
I'll tell you, I got very creative with my tiebreaker selection. Oh. 'Cause I, I, we were talking about that yesterday and I was like, "I don't remember what the hell I sent in for that." Pulled it up, Denver Nuggets.
37:40
Oh, wow. [laughs] I, I'd hate, I'd hate to tell you, they're not gonna win it. Not close. Yeah. Um, Ki- it was interesting though because I said on the show yesterday I was taking the Spurs.
37:51
Kyle had a mathema- Kyle Lakins had a mathematical chance to tie me. If I lost my reigning three, he won his final. He, I'm guessing he heard me say that, he took the Knicks last night or Carl told him. Or saw it, yeah.
38:02
Yeah. Uh, so he took the Knicks, and that may cost him second place in the end. We'll see. Eh, had to though. He had to. That's how he had to play it. Yep. Fun contest. Spurs to win the NBA finals, 19 to 1.
38:16
Still alive and kicking after last night's win. Cubbies most wins in June, 12 to 1. Yeah, it's not looking so good. They're two and four after that ridiculous loss to the Giants on Sunday night baseball.
38:28
Uh, and there's Ole Miss to win the College World Series at 20 to 1. By the way, uh, most wins in the month of June, you may be wondering, currently, there's some great records so far the month of June.
38:39
We have a, uh, we have a two-way tie for most wins. Any guesses? Anyone? Uh- You won... the, let's see, the Braves? No. Close. Phillies, six and one. Brewers six and two.
38:53
Brewers have the best run differential of everybody plus 32. You would think I- Plus 32... you would think that would, uh, be more familiar to me considering I bet on both of those teams a week ago.
39:01
No, I mean, you're super close though. Tigers, Marlins, and Braves all five and one. Royals are five and two. All six of those teams doing really well. Hey, here come those Tigers and Royals. And Marlins.
39:12
And Marlins, yeah, watch out. Braves consistent every month thus far this year. Marlins, uh, they working themselves right back into position where they can sell a bunch of pieces. [laughs] Maybe so.
39:23
Gotta hit that run here. What do you got? Uh, I have Spurs bets with you, my friend, so let's go San Antonio Spurs. Uh, Spurs 125. Well, I've got them to win the series multiple places, plus 125.
39:36
Knicks game one and Spurs, Spurs in six, Spurs in seven, so just keep winning, San Antonio. Uh, let's see, NBA draft. Darren Peterson first overall pick, plus 350.
39:46
You can get a little bit number, better number than that now. Cameron Boozer, third overall pick, minus 125. I don't think you can get as good a number there as me now.
39:55
However, Gil, I keep seeing more Cameron Boozer things just of maybe going second, maybe going- Yeah. Yeah, it's...
40:04
Yeah, you brought up the other day, I, I think there are the NBA level guys I think are looking at him a little bit more highly than we even thought. Yeah. So. Oh, I mentioned the comparison to Kat. Right, yep. Yeah.
40:15
Um, I, and I know JVT's- The more early developed Kat. Yeah... JVT's got a bet for him to go second. A Carlos Boozer does work in the front office for the Utah Jazz. There is that connection too. Um, we'll see.
40:26
Oh, that's interesting 'cause, uh, 'cause the thing is if they're not getting Demanza, which they're not- Yeah... then they might as well take Boozer.
40:33
It's just got, I'm ki- I'm just smiling 'cause when has this ever mattered for an NBA team ever in the past? You know, like it's not- Oh, U- Utah, um, BYU goes to Utah.
40:42
Right, that or my d- my, a family member works for the team. Yeah. I guarantee you kids have been drafted where their father or someone has worked for a team. Oh, for sure. We never bring it up, so. For sure.
40:51
Um- Plus, plus what did Darren Peterson do this year that made, like what is, what is it about his performance or lack of availability more specifically that if you're an NBA team at the top of the draft make, "Oh my God, I gotta draft that guy"?
41:05
I think it's, I, I think he, I think he's a very good player. No, no, I'm not saying he's not. I'm saying he's, he's an out- yeah, I'm sure he's an outstanding player. It's not what I'm saying at all.
41:14
But what I'm saying is you've got to devote millions of dollars to this person. Yeah. Isn't that enough?
41:20
If, if all thing, if all other things are equal, isn't that the tiebreaker where you're like, "I don't know if I can rely on this guy"? So, yeah, I, uh, i- if all other things are equal- Yeah... yes.
41:28
And, and the, the creatine story. Oh, he's blaming it on creatine. Hey, it mi- Yeah... it might be a thing. I'm not, I'm not gonna doubt the kid. Yeah.
41:36
But, uh, my, my little spidey senses, Gil, tell, tell me the truth is probably somewhere in between, you know what I mean, on all those things. Uh- How great would it be, how great would it be if you had spidey senses?
41:45
It would be. It, it would help me out in life. Yep. All right, World Cup bets. France. That's right, Drew Dinsick, France to win the World Cup. Jeez. And to reach the quarterfinals.
41:54
Portugal to reach the quarterfinals plus 125.
41:56
Columbia to win group K plus 260, and I've got about s- I'm gonna say four more bets written down to shop prices that I haven't made yet, but I'm a little, I'm a little scared of going full Paul Carr.
42:08
You know, like I don't wanna roll in here with like 30 bets and I don't even know... We, we talked about it yesterday when we did the survivor.
42:13
You have no idea how the bracket's really gonna shake out outside of the group stage. You don't wanna make, you know, advance to quarters or semis and then your teams run into each other right away.
42:23
So make sure you're, uh, checking that stuff out. Uh, okay, long shots. Wes and I will be recording here in a couple hours. A few outrights that I did make last night already though. Chris Rayton 28 to 1.
42:34
Brooks Koepka, talked about that yesterday on the show, 30 to 1. And the other Fitzpatrick, Alex Fitzpatrick, 40 to 1. We will have plenty more today on long shots. All right, cool.
42:46
Christopher Rayton, you ever bet on him before? I have b- not bet him in outrights, man Kid from Norway. He's playing, playing great golf right now Jake Hahn on the NHL Stanley Cup Final Game Number 4 tonight.
42:57
Jalen Chatfield of the Hurricanes over one and a half blocks. Jeremy Lauzon of the Golden Knights over one and a half blocks. Carolina's Jordan Stall over one and a half shots on goal.
43:07
And Carter Hart in net for the Vegas Golden Knights over 26 and a half saves. Jake pointing out that the, uh, saves number for Carter Hart has dipped a bit down to 26 and a half, so he is taking the over there.
43:19
Sean Najad, who was kind enough to join us to talk Brendan Souersby and did so very adeptly with his law degrees and his two state bar exam prowess. Did I get it all covered? Yeah?
43:31
So- sorry, I'm just, uh, lo- whatever's going on on local news right now is just fantastic. [laughs] The, the, the live shot with reporter out in front of a building with someone just playing a guitar next to him.
43:40
I have no idea what's going on. C also had a Super Bowl exacta, Rams over the Bengals at 90 to 1, and he's got the Carolina Hurricanes to win the Stanley Cup adjusted series bet at plus 158. Man.
43:55
Vegas Golden Knights fans not gonna appreciate that. Then Drew Dincic had... He was talking a lot of World Cup. In the end, he landed on Argentina to win the World Cup at nine to one.
44:04
He also has Argentina beating Spain in an exacta, but we could not locate that bet in our brief scouring. I don't, I don't know that he for sure said he b- he bet that. Oh. He just, that's how he had it playing out.
44:16
Oh, gotcha. Okay. Well, he's got Argentina to win it all at nine to one. He anticipates it being Argentina to beat Spain. Uh, we also had Mark Borchardt on. Trio of baseball bets.
44:25
Mariners O's under eight and a half runs. Braves run line, good dissertation on the run lines from, uh, Mark. Braves run line at the White Sox minus one and a half plus 103, and a parlay of run lines.
44:37
Braves one and a half, that's minus one and a half, Cubs minus one and a half at plus 294. And then Joe Sheehan had a trio of baseball bets. Mariners money line first five versus the Orioles.
44:49
Blue Jays money line full game versus the Phillies. And tonight in Summerlin, Nevada, Brewers Athletics over 13. Let's go, Summerlin. Do your thing. Let's go, Vegas. Hockey, baseball? What a night. Woo. What a night.
45:05
We've done all we can do. Prop Points is next. Enjoy from VSiN, the sports betting network. [upbeat music]
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