VSiN By The Books | September 8, 2026 | Hour 3

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SPEAKER_2 (1:13)

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

Dave Ross (1:26)

Top of the hour, it is VSiN By The Books. I am Dave Ross right here at the Midgaming Hall, Franklin, Kentucky. Our closer, Jensen Lewis, back home in Cleveland, Ohio. Paul Kelly, kind enough to join the program once again today. We'll catch up with Paul later on this hour again. There are some people that have not had their fantasy drafts, maybe Jensen, they wait till the very last minute here, get those rosters finalized here before week one of the NFL season, which is tomorrow. We can't wait to have our best bets and we'll do some season previews coming up here before this show is over on this edition. But lots of baseball talk, lots of changing players and maybe a big name coming back here for the Yankees. That's where we begin today's edition of the Daily Diamond.

Say what you will. Oh, I got a fire alarm right as we start the segment here, Jensen. But say what you will about the Yankees and the Dodgers. Oh, boy.

Okay, thank you very much. We have a fire emergency. Hopefully, I'm going to be okay. Jensen, Aaron Judge coming back to the Yankees is big news. They've been waiting on this with his rib injury. It looks like he's going to be back in the lineup tonight. Just a day ago, it was the show Aotani coming back for the Dodgers. It's good for the game. Whether you like the Yankees or the Dodgers or not, the two biggest stars in their respective leagues to come back.

Jensen Lewis (2:47)

Well, and it's going to be huge for both squads. First and foremost, start with the Yankees. I mean, they have been just dying for offense or at least some continuity in the lineup. And when you get the big guy back, I think that's going to go a long way. As I had said earlier in the program, just for the morale component, when you see him suit up and you know his name is in the lineup, it's a different vibe in the locker room. And when you take the field and that will have already a tenfold increase in productivity for guys that are just saying, okay, we finally got the big guy back.

We are feeling really good about it. Same thing with Ohtani. And I know this is more, you know, looking at Dave Roberts, I suppose short term and long term of, they're going to be in the post season. And their real challenge is going to be, how much do we want to push, you know, for this top two seed? If you look at where they are right now, they currently occupy the number two spot behind the Milwaukee Brewers. And they are two games ahead of the Atlanta Braves. Now the issue there is Atlanta, I believe, and I'm double checking right now, Atlanta, I believe, has the season series tiebreaker over the LA Dodgers. They do, they went five and one against LA. Now that's critical, Dave, because essentially, knock a game off and Atlanta is technically just, you know, two games behind, but one because they would own that tiebreaker. So the Dodgers will be motivated to try and secure a top two seed. Now the other irony here too, when you look at Milwaukee, here we are again with this team that has a chance to surpass their win total last year. We were like, God, they won 97 games. They're on pace to win almost 100 games again here this year. Okay, where are the key tiebreakers? And I'm going to do a little exercise tomorrow to kind of give everyone a full look at the playoff picture because it is actionable if you're on a DraftKings and you want to play the exact seeds that some of these teams can occupy. If you look at Milwaukee, Milwaukee does have the tiebreaker over the Dodgers. They won the season series four to three. Milwaukee tied with Atlanta three to three. Now the second tiebreaker there, Dave, is best record intra-divisionally. So meaning Milwaukee's record against the National League Central versus Atlanta's record against the National League East. So keep that in mind. And there obviously are still plenty of divisional games left to go.