Live Bet Saturday | August 22, 2026 | Hour 6

**Will Hill** (0:00)
This is Live Bet Saturday on VSiN, the sports betting network.

**Brad Taylor** (0:06)
Here in Franklin, Kentucky, at the Midgaming Hall, right above the Circus Sportsbook, I have Brad Taylor, along with Will Hill, here on your Live Bet Saturday, as we are watching the National Football League, and of course, Major League Baseball. So no better time to bring in a baseball expert slash guru. He is, you can find his stuff at hassonshacks.substack.com.
He's on the Progressive Guest Line. He is Jake Hasan. Jake, nice to meet you today, sir. How are you doing?

**Jake Hasan** (0:34)
Doing well, guys. Thanks for having me on.

**Brad Taylor** (0:38)
Watching a game right now. You're in Chicago, but you're more of a White Sox fan, but you're following these Cubs right now.
Your thoughts on this new Wonderkind rookie for the Mariners, taking it to the Mariners right now. And what does this do to the Mariners prospects going forward because there's been no bigger underachieving team in all of Major League Baseball this year than the Mariners?

**Jake Hasan** (1:00)
Yeah, first part about Cade Anderson, who's making his debut after being one of the most highly touted prospects in baseball for the last few months, if not the last year. I mean, he's electric. This is everything that we wanted. This is, he's living up to expectations. Granted, we're only a few innings in here, but he's been great. He's awesome. He's fantastic. I'm a little upset that he debuted already because I was hoping to bet him for AO rookie of the year next year.
Maybe he doesn't clear the threshold this year and isn't ineligible next year, but he's great. As far as what this does for the Mariners, I don't think this does anything for the Mariners.
Pitching wasn't their problem. Pitching has been something they've had all year long. It's the fact that they can't hit. It's the fact that Julio Rodriguez is finally starting to turn it on in the second half, but where has he been all year? Cal Raleigh is still a big fat zero. This lineup is just nothing. So I think that's the Mariners issue. So for me, even though Kate Anderson is awesome on a baseball level, I'd love to watch him. This doesn't move the needle for me on the Mariners.

**Will Hill** (2:00)
Jake, what do you make of Scoobel here? Gave up three runs in the first to the Pirates, had to pitch out of trouble in the second. He's not been overly dominant for the Dodgers. I know it's a high bar when you're comparing him to his prime self, but any concern about Scoobel or is this going to look dumb come October and he's going to be fine and just going back to being his usual dominant self?

**Jake Hasan** (2:19)
You know, the fact that this is a couple starts now, I mean, really, since he got to LA, it's felt underwhelming the whole time, right? So I think this is something to watch. Now, it's the Dodgers, they can still throw Yamamoto at you, or Tony if he goes back to the mound if they decide to, or when Tyler Glasnow comes back, they still have all of these guys that they can just throw at you over and over. So you don't necessarily need Scoobel to be ultra dominant himself, but that's what they acquired him for. I think we still have some runway. Once we know the Dodgers don't care about the regular season, we know that it's just when the playoffs go, they'll flip the switch. So it's something to watch for sure. And maybe we do continue to fade in in the regular season. But once that calendar flips to October, I have a feeling we're going to see the same guy that we're used to.

**Brad Taylor** (3:05)
Jake, I love to bet these future props on the awards. And one of the most kind of mind numbing ones is the National League Rookie of the Year. Sal Stewart's got all these stats that are a little bit better than JJ. Weatherholt, including he is competing for the Major League lead in RBI seemingly every day. He's back and forth with some other people. Yet, you look at the war numbers, Weatherholt has a much bigger advantage over Stewart, and Weatherholt is the favorite to win the National League Rookie of the Year by a minus 155
Is Sal Stewart going to win this thing, or does he have to win the RBI Championship just to get the voters to get on his side?

**Jake Hasan** (3:46)
This is going to be a really interesting case study going forward of what the Rookie of the Year is going to be over the next few years, because historically, usually, literally every single year before this, the guy who has the most wins above replacement, the guy who has the most war in baseball as a rookie, just wins the Rookie of the Year award. We've seen this time after time after time. And now, here we are where we have this debate where, all right, JJ Weatherholt doesn't have the greatest offensive numbers, but he has a lot of wins above replacement. I juxtapose with what you said about Sal Stewart racking up stats and maybe leading the league in RBI when it's all said and done. So it's going to be a really interesting knife edge of, do the voters still look at war or are they going to look at counting stats? If you could tell me that it's just going to be war, then yeah, Weatherholt is going to win. And I think what's going to help JJ Weatherholt here is that he's on track to win a gold glove as a rookie and awards matter, hardware matters to voters as well, just as much as counting stats do. So if he's going to win a gold glove, I think he is going to be able to win and then we're all just going to cry and whine and be really mad and shake our fists at the clouds about how a guy who hit 240 won rookie of the year.