The Windup: The Roundtable | Get Ready for an Exciting Weekend of Baseball!

Episode 179, September 26, 2025
Hosts: Andy McCullough, Grant Brisbee, Sam Miller

Episode Overview

This week’s Roundtable dives deep into the frenetic final stretch of the baseball regular season, where playoff races tighten and narratives crystallize. Grant Brisbee, Andy McCullough, and Sam Miller dissect the chaos of the pennant chases—with a spotlight on the Guardians and Tigers—debate the state of the Dodgers bullpen as October looms, and argue over the closest MVP race in years. The episode is filled with playful banter, honest self-reflection on being “gassed” at season’s end, and the group’s trademark blend of humor and sharp analysis.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. End-of-Season Exhaustion & Getting Old (01:16–03:20)

• Bantery Open: The hosts open up with candid laughs and personal admissions about fatigue, pickup basketball injuries, and feeling the aches of aging, drawing a parallel to the baseball grind.

  • Sam Miller admits: “Yeah, I’m a shell of a man.” (01:41)
  • Andy McCullough reflects: “I was using parts that I don’t use for my daily life of writing missives.” (03:02)

• Aging & Mechanics: The challenge of sports mechanics as you age becomes a metaphor for how taxing a baseball season is on players.

2. Guardians vs. Tigers: Divisional Drama (04:05–19:35)

• Ace Discourse & Mental Errors: Discussion of whether one bad play—a “shotgun snap” overthrowing first base in a crucial moment—dings a pitcher’s ace status. The group debates what defines an “ace” and how momentary mistakes play into narratives.

  • Sam Miller muses about the infamous play: “He had all the time in the world ... It would have felt sort of strangely sure of himself, I guess, if he had nailed it.” (06:54)
  • Grant Brisbee jokes about ace standards: “He’s an ace. He’s an ace.” (05:10)

• Guardians’ Lineup Struggles: A deep dive into Cleveland’s historically weak offense relative to modern standards; shock over seeing sub-.650 OPS hitters at the top of the order.

  • Sam Miller quips: “Number two hitter with like a .610 OPS and you’re like, is that so that he can get the runner over? No, no, that’s their third best hitter.” (15:32)
  • *Andy McCullough: *“Just rank their hitters... Who’s number four? Carlos Santana with an OPS of 650.” (15:59)

• Pitching Hot Streaks: The group muses on what usually drives an unexpected hot stretch—hot bats or hot arms?

  • Sam Miller poses: “Would you guess that their hitters all got hot or their pitchers all got hot?” (18:13)
  • Andy: “I refuse to play your game.” (18:27)

• Spoiler Teams & Final Weekend Dynamics:
  Discussion of how teams out of the race play (spoilers), whether “laying down” is real, and quirks of the final-week schedule. Highlights the competitive professionalism present even in “meaningless” games.

  • Sam Miller: “There’s not really a way to 90% baseball… you can’t do the Pro Bowl defense or the NBA All Star game defense in baseball.” (12:09)

• Personalities & Pickup Basketball: The hosts draw parallels between how a person plays pickup basketball and their personality, further riffing on identity and authenticity both on and off the field.

  • Sam Miller: “I do it as my own personal hero’s quest. It means everything in the world to me.” (09:34)
  • Grant Brisbee: “I firmly believe that a person’s pickup game is very relevant to their personality.” (09:08)

3. Dodgers Bullpen Meltdown & Postseason Pitching Strategies (25:20–40:20)

• Roki Sasaki’s Role: Sasaki’s up-and-down 2025, his disappointing adjustment to MLB, and the surprising possibility he becomes the Dodgers’ late-inning savior as a converted reliever right before October.

  • Grant Brisbee: “He is most likely going to somehow be their highest leverage reliever heading into October, thanks to the utter collapse of their bullpen...” (25:20)
  • Sam Miller cautions about Sasaki: “He threw some pitches where you thought, oh, well, this is a relief ace … He also made a bunch of mistakes.” (27:26)

• Bullpen vs. Rotation Trust: Spirited debate: is it better in the postseason to have shaky relievers or shaky starters (if you must be weak somewhere)?

  • Sam Miller: “I would rather have no relievers… the problem is you’re going to simmer in an uncomfortable state the entire time.” (31:51)
  • Andy McCullough, ever the romantic: “I would rather have the starting pitchers be awful … I just want it out of the way. I want the starting pitcher to give up seven in the first two.” (35:46)

• 2025 Dodgers Parallels to Prior Champs: Reference to the 2019 Nationals and 2023 Rangers as examples where a “bullpen just good enough” or random unlikely heroes (“Josh Spores finds you”) can carry teams to glory.

• Playoff Roster Jigsaw: Creative suggestions for how the Dodgers might piece together their innings with piggybacked starters and relievers, and pondering if narrative momentum can flip after one good game.

4. The AL MVP Race: Judge vs. Cal Raleigh (40:20–50:07)

• Narrative vs. Numbers: The hosts hash out the closest, most hotly-debated MVP race in years: Catcher Cal Raleigh’s historic 60-homer season vs. Aaron Judge’s all-around excellence.

  • Grant Brisbee predicts: “I think that Aaron Judge will receive 20 first place votes.” (41:27)
  • Sam Miller surprises them both: “I would have said Aaron Judge gets like four… Cal Raleigh is just a more emotionally satisfying pick.” (41:38, 42:07)

• What Matters to Voters?
  Discussion on whether voters will default to WAR, narrative, or what feels best in the moment.

  • Grant Brisbee, tongue-in-cheek: “I also think too, though that voters are going to engage in some harm reduction and they do not want Yankees fans to yell at them online.” (42:43)
  • Sam Miller agrees on emotional logic: “In the privacy of their own voting booth, they’re going to do what’s emotionally satisfying.” (42:35)

• The Value of Catchers: Counting stats vs. position, the difficulty of comparing WARs due to framing, volume, etc., and whether voters “just double” catcher WAR in their head.

  • Andy McCullough: “When I look at ... war for a catcher, I just double it. Just double it. They’re doing so much.” (46:20)

• Legacy & MVP Fatigue: Comparison to years when Trout or Ohtani deserved the MVP but lost to another player with a more compelling “story” that season.

  • Grant Brisbee on standards: “For Judge and Ohtani, they have reached a point … where it’s like, they’re the favorite. ... Cal Raleigh has done something really, really, really memorable.” (49:03)

• Memorable (and Silly) Quotes:

  • Andy, deadpan: “Who are you voting for?” [talking to Grant's cat] “More like Cat Rawley.” (46:09)
  • Sam Miller on WAR as gospel: “If you’re within one [WAR], then to me, you don’t know anything about those two players that says one is better than the other.” (50:07)

Timestamps to Key Segments

| Timestamp | Topic | |:-------------:|------------------------------------------------------| | 01:16–03:20 | Hosts discuss exhaustion, pickup basketball, aging | | 04:05–08:31 | Ace discourse, “shotgun snap” play | | 09:43–19:35 | Guardians/Tigers breakdown, playoff implications | | 21:06–24:56 | Guardians’ offense, “Guards Ball” branding | | 25:20–33:49 | Dodgers’ bullpen panic and postseason pitching debate | | 35:46–39:24 | Starters vs. bullpen dilemma in October | | 40:20–50:07 | AL MVP race: Judge vs. Raleigh—voter psychology |

Classic Moments & Notable Quotes

• “I am a shell of a man.” — Sam Miller (01:41)
• “If you ever, like, step into a batting cage ... Your obliques will. You'll be able to feel that you have obliques.” — Grant Brisbee (03:07)
• “Just give me that chance. Just put me on there. I can 100% throw a baseball 60 ft 6 inches without embarrassment. Probably, maybe, maybe not.” — Andy McCullough (03:20)
• “No, the problem is ... he had all the time in the world.” — Sam Miller, on a critical in-game error (06:54)
• “It’s tautological for them, basically just be like, yeah, that was Guards ball.” — Grant Brisbee (23:38)
• “You can't find Josh Spores. Josh Spores finds you.” — Andy McCullough, on playoff bullpen randomness (38:22)
• “I think that Aaron Judge will receive 20 first place votes.” — Grant Brisbee (41:27)
• “In the privacy of their own voting booth, they're going to do what's emotionally satisfying ...” — Sam Miller (42:35)
• “When I look at ... war for a catcher, I just double it. Just double it. They're doing so much.” — Andy McCullough (46:20)
• “More like Cat Rawley.” — Andy McCullough, to Grant’s cat Harry (46:09)
• “He just wanted to emphasize he’s an elite defensive catcher.” — Grant Brisbee (46:01)

Tone & Style

The episode is marked by the hosts’ characteristic blend of analytical rigor and playful humor. Friendly ribbing, offbeat hypotheticals (“if you became a billionaire, would you buy a team?”), and baseball nerdery abound, but always undergirded by respect for the nuances and randomness of the game. The conversation is candid, occasionally self-deprecating, and consistently insightful for both hardcore fans and casual listeners.

Final Word

This episode is a must-listen for anyone craving both depth and delights at the intersection of numbers, narrative, and the wonderful, absurd tension of the MLB regular season’s closing days.