Major League Baseball has reached its virtual midseason point, the All-Star break. That presents an opportunity on WISE Sports Radio to look back at the first half of the season. Which teams have surprised? Who are the disappointments?
And Juan Soto has become the talk of baseball by turning down a $440 million contract offer from the Washington Nationals. If he wants to be a $500 million man, which team will pay up? And who might offer a trade for the 23-year-old sensation?
It’s a slow time in the NFL with training camps set to open during the next seven to 10 days. So we began our WISE Sports Radio segment with some baseball talk, thanks to the Toronto Blue Jays’ surprising midseason firing of manager Charlie Montoyo.
On the football side, most of the news is off the field with Brett Favre continuing to be named in a welfare fraud lawsuit against the former governor of Mississippi, Washington Commanders owner Daniel Snyder avoiding a House Oversight Committee subpoena, and the Pittsburgh Steelers taking a big payday from a new corporate sponsor for their stadium.
The WISE Guys were off on Monday, so Wednesday’s baseball segment was a bit longer than usual. That worked out just fine, since there’s already plenty to talk about with MLB’s offseason under way.
Among the topics Pat Ryan and I discussed on WISE Sports Radio were the New York Yankees apparently moving on from shortstop Didi Gregorius, the top free agents available this offseason, the Atlanta Braves bringing back outfielder Nick Markakis and buying out pitcher Julio Teheran, and the Modern Era Ballot for the Baseball Hall of Fame. Detroit Tigers second baseman Lou Whitaker is among the nine players selected and, yes, I had some thoughts on that.
We know one of the two teams that will play in the 2019 World Series, following the Washington Nationals’ 7-4 win over the St. Louis Cardinals in Game 4 of the NLCS. A four-game sweep was a surprising result, considering the path that the Nats took to the postseason, through the Wild Card playoff against the Milwaukee Brewers, then a shocking NLDS win over the Los Angeles Dodgers, who had the best record in the National League.
Naturally, the Nats led off our baseball segment on WISE Sports Radio, with the Los Angeles Angels hiring manager Joe Maddon, and the ALCS between the New York Yankees and Houston Astros also among our topics. Wednesday’s show was hosted by producer Jordan DeVere, filling in for the vacationing Pat Ryan, along with Asheville High coaching legend Charlie Metcalf.
Ian Casselberry 