VSiN By The Books | October 16, 2026 | Hour 2

SPEAKER_1 (0:00)

This is VSiN By The Books on VSiN, the eSports betting network.

Dustin Swedelson (0:07)

On the air everywhere on a Friday morning, he's Jensen Lewis, I'm Dustin Swedelson. You're locked into VSiN, the sports betting network. Still to come on the program, we are 90 minutes away, talk a little baseball with World Series Champion, Ryan Dempster, Kevin Harlan. Voice of the NFL joins us in our final segment of the show.

But let's look back at what went down last night, J. Lou, because we got to dive into this a little bit more. History in the making in Milwaukee, no, it's not Laverne and Shirley being reincarnated. It's the brew crew back in the World Series since 1982 You know what a great listener, it's like Angry Hank is his Twitter handle. He brought me some Spotted Cow in the summer and he DM'd me last night. He's like, since we linked up and he brought me some Spotted Cow beer in the summer, the brewers went on a tear. They're in the World Series. Like my life is amazing since then. And now we've got Milwaukee coming off the sweep. I just want to frame this for all the people out there complaining about a salary cap. The Dodgers spent $339 million, second highest payroll in baseball. The Brewers were 19th at $146.

Then you have the Rays who were 28th at $95. The Guardians at $74 were 30th.

I feel like Jensen, this puts a little bit of a dent into the argument that you need to spend to win. Therefore, I'm not sure we actually need a salary cap in baseball.

Jensen Lewis (1:29)

Yes, indeed. You're going to find this narrative, especially, regardless of what the matchup is going to be, because you have bottom five payrolls in both Cleveland and Tampa Bay that will eventually match up here with the Milwaukee Brewers. The Dragon has been slain.

The Big Cheese now resides, as it usually does there, in Milwaukee. And game one will be there next Friday night. And what a sign, what a scene it will be.

But again, it's the little guys. And ironic that there is a storyline here. Jake Bowers probably had two of the most consequential at bats in this National Championship Series. One in game two against Yoshi Yamamoto that eventually turned the tide in favor of the Brewers for good. A home run that will long live in brewer lore with he and Garrett Mitchell going back to back. And then again, yesterday, just a guy that, you know, weird, weird how baseball works and how life comes at you fast. Dustin, he was ready to retire before the season started. Called his agent, said, I'm done. His wife, Jake Bowers' wife tells him three days later, hey honey, we're pregnant. And so the sole reason or at least the biggest one he went back to play this year was for the healthcare benefits. And oh, by the way, at the end of the year, you're arguably the most important guy in the roster and now an Ashley Championship Series MVP.

Dustin Swedelson (2:50)

Career year, 266, 26 home runs. But you mentioned the at bats and the playoffs. And we'll hear from Bowers here in a second, but I want your perspective on this. I didn't play in the major leagues. I did play men's league baseball though, after high school in Atlanta and DC. I played against minor leaguers, which just, by the way, it just lets me realize like how much better you guys are when I realized the guys I played with couldn't get above like high A or single or double A. Like the difference in the levels here. And they were awesome.

But I'm watching the Brewers and they're at bats. And I can't tell, is this old school spring training, we hammer it in because we have to win on the margins, or is it new school? They come in with a specific plan and they only look for certain pitches in certain situations because they are grinding out at bats. They're making pitchers work. And based on what we just saw, after the Dodgers were the team with the power, and we know power plays in the playoffs, Milwaukee just out homered them in the NLCS.

Jensen Lewis (3:48)

Yeah, homers are one thing. And the irony there, Dustin, they were one of the worst teams Milwaukee was in the regular season, as far as the power goes, one of the bottom feeders in that power department, they were excellent and elite at everything else. Two statistics I always look for when grading out teams at different junctures of a regular season and a post season. That's strikeout percentage and that's walk percentage. So for offenses, if you strike out the fewest amount of times, you're putting a bunch of balls in play and you're creating problems for the defense. Milwaukee right now, a 23.4% strikeout percentage in this post season, only Philly, Tampa, Cleveland and San Diego struck out fewer as far as percentage, a lower percentage, but the walk percentage, only the Braves have a higher walk percentage than Milwaukee right now.