VSiN PrimeTime | August 3, 2026 | Hour 4

**SPEAKER_1** (0:00)
This is VSiN PrimeTime, live from the Circus Sportsbook in downtown Las Vegas, on VSiN, the SportsBetting Network.

**Tim Murray** (0:13)
It is VSiN PrimeTime alongside Matt Youmans. I'm Tim Murray. Matt, the MLB trade deadline was on Monday, but the biggest splash of that deadline, of course, took place over the weekend. Got a lot of people fired up.
The Dodgers making the big move, and they go and get Tarek Scubal, the two-time AL Cy Young winner, and he will make his Dodgers debut on Tuesday against the Chicago Cubs. The ball on Monday night was flying out of Wrigley Field. Will we see it get calmed down a little bit more with Scubal making his Dodgers debut?

**Matt Youmans** (0:51)
There'll be a lot of hype around this game with the Scubal starting for the Dodgers who need a win. They got swept by the Red Sox over the weekend. Their pitching staff got bombed at Wrigley Field on Monday night. Scubal, a pretty big favorite in this game. Circa minus 200 I see Cauchy minus 186 So you basically, about $2 here you gotta lay if you're gonna bet the Dodgers.
The Cubs are a hot team though. And sometimes Tim, a pitcher like Scubal, get a little bit over hyped for a first start for a team like this. And I would not be laying the price. The Dodgers are not playing great baseball right now. But if you look at the big picture, I certainly can understand why the Dodgers are plus 150 to win the World Series. We talked with Johnny Avello of DraftKings about this. I can't recall ever seeing a shorter favorite at this point in the baseball season with two months to go plus 150 to win the World Series. But it's deserved. When you look at the Dodgers and that starting rotation with Scubal, Otani, Yamamoto, Blake Snell when he comes back, right? And it's back in form and Tyler Glass now. And then you move Sasaki to the bullpen.
Dodgers certainly, I think, warrant being a plus 150 short favorite to win the World Series.

**Tim Murray** (2:09)
Chicago Cubs, though, they have been hot. They were very busy at the deadline, making a handful of moves. Also went out, got a starting pitcher, not of the caliber of a Tariq Scubal, but got Kevin Gossman from the Toronto Blue Jays. How about this from over the weekend, Matt? It was the first time in MLB history a player who won the MVP of the previous two seasons, Shohei Otani, and a player who won the Sai Yung each of the previous two seasons, will play together on the same team. Hard to believe, but that is what we have and what we will witness on Tuesday night as Tariq Scubal makes his Dodgers debut. He had some interesting comments. I'll read those for you in a moment. But first, let's hear from Dave Roberts. He was asked about acquiring Tariq Scubal and some of the pushback around the league as the Dodgers went out and made the blockbuster deal on Saturday.

**Dave Roberts** (3:04)
It just seems like there's always blowback with us. People are passionate. We feel good about it. There's nothing that we did that no one else couldn't have done.
You know, I just laud our front office. You know, we have to have the players to be able to pull something like this off. And, you know, we still got, you know, arguably one of the top two or three or one or two or three farm systems in baseball, you know, a day later. So it's a credit to a lot of people in this organization.

**Tim Murray** (3:33)
Scoob will then double down, Matt, on that. Said, quote, every team could trade for me. I don't sympathize with the people that blame the Dodgers for anything they've done. It's a winning organization.
I really don't sympathize with people that are complaining because the Dodgers do all the right things. Not wrong. I know it didn't sit well with a lot of people, but not wrong, Matt, with what we've seen from that deal. And it just, it makes you scratch your head. And, you know, you could talk about the conspiracy theories with the lockout potentially coming next year. Why would the Tigers make a deal for Scoobel on Saturday as opposed to Monday when it wasn't a blockbuster deal like, let's say, the one that the Orioles got for Adley Rutchman when they shipped them up to Boston?

**Matt Youmans** (4:22)
I really thought the Tigers would get more in return for Scoobel and the deal they got with the Dodgers was a good one, but not a great one. And that's not a deal that had to be made on Saturday, was it?