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Fair Territory: Best Deals of Extension Season, Slumpy Braves · Foul Territory

0:00
Speaker 1: I had someone tell me yesterday that because he would
0:02
Speaker 1: have been a free agent at twenty six as opposed
0:05
Speaker 1: to what he will be now it's thirty two, he
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Speaker 1: left perhaps one hundred and fifty to two hundred million
0:09
Speaker 1: on the table. Welcome everyone to the Thursday edition of
0:19
Speaker 1: Fair Territory. I'm Ken Rosenthal here with Alana Rizzo. We've
0:24
Speaker 1: got games to talk about, but we also have extensions
0:28
Speaker 1: to talk about.
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Speaker 2: Yes, it seems like a lot of contract extensions. I mean,
0:32
Speaker 2: it's it's the thing to do this week, apparently in
0:34
Speaker 2: the first week of the season. But Ken, not all
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Speaker 2: extensions are created equal. What more can you tell us?
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Speaker 1: A Loni, You're absolutely right. And when you judge these
0:43
Speaker 1: things or when you look at them, let's not judge
0:45
Speaker 1: just yet, because there are two sides to every story,
0:47
Speaker 1: as we will see with extensions. But when you evaluate
0:50
Speaker 1: an extension, you have to understand first where the player
0:53
Speaker 1: is in his career. Jackson Merrill only one year of service.
0:57
Speaker 1: He had five years before free agency. Garrett Crochet had
1:01
Speaker 1: only one year after this before he would become a
1:04
Speaker 1: free agent. Katel Marte he was a guy who was
1:06
Speaker 1: already under contract. And then Christian Campbell, Well, he's five
1:12
Speaker 1: days into his career when he starts in science his extension.
1:15
Speaker 1: So all different aspects are all different stages of these players' careers,
1:20
Speaker 1: and that effects, of course the money that they get.
1:23
Speaker 1: The other thing that I want to stress here is,
1:25
Speaker 1: and as I said earlier, there are two sides to
1:27
Speaker 1: every story, and people will look at some extensions and
1:30
Speaker 1: say not enough money. People will look at others and
1:33
Speaker 1: say that's better. But what we don't know often are
1:37
Speaker 1: the financial circumstances of the player, the family pressure he
1:41
Speaker 1: might be experiencing, and just his overall viewpoint. Now, Merrill
1:46
Speaker 1: is the one I want to talk about first because
1:47
Speaker 1: it's the most interesting to me. Nine years, one hundred
1:50
Speaker 1: and thirty five million, with plate appearances incentives that can
1:55
Speaker 1: grow to one hundred and sixty five million over nine years.
1:58
Speaker 1: There is no question this is a team friendly deal.
2:01
Speaker 1: Jackson Merrill would not deny this is a team friendly deal.
2:04
Speaker 1: And when you look at it compared to Julio Rodriguez's
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Speaker 1: deal which he signed a few years back at a
2:10
Speaker 1: similar stage, actually he was in his first year. That
2:13
Speaker 1: was twelve years, two hundred and nine million, and a
2:16
Speaker 1: deal that will probably grow to fifteen years and at
2:20
Speaker 1: least three twenty. That's where the baseline probably is because
2:23
Speaker 1: the Mariners have an eight year club option they have
2:26
Speaker 1: to pick up after twenty twenty eight. So compared to
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Speaker 1: Julio's deal, certainly this deal is undervalued. But what did
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Speaker 1: Jackson Merrill say yesterday at his news conference? He said,
2:38
Speaker 1: I want my team to be able to build around me.
2:40
Speaker 1: I want to leave them enough payroll flexibility so they
2:43
Speaker 1: can do that. Now, that's a very noble sentiment, and
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Speaker 1: actually a lot of fans responded quite positively, as you
2:50
Speaker 1: would expect to a player saying I'm leaving money on
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Speaker 1: the table so my team can do other things. The
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Speaker 1: other side of that, which would come from other agents
3:00
Speaker 1: in the Union and players themselves, would be hey, you're
3:02
Speaker 1: hurting the market for other players. Now, I don't know
3:05
Speaker 1: that that's necessarily true. Kyle Tucker's going to be okay
3:08
Speaker 1: when he becomes a free agent. Vladimir Guerrero Junior will
3:11
Speaker 1: become a free agent. If he does, he'll be okay too.
3:14
Speaker 1: But those are the two sides that you look at
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Speaker 1: with that particular deal, and that's just one of several
3:19
Speaker 1: that were signed this week.
3:21
Speaker 2: Ken, What do you think was the amount of money
3:23
Speaker 2: left on the table, If, in fact, to your point,
3:25
Speaker 2: Jackson Merrile did leave money on the table for whatever
3:28
Speaker 2: reason he decided he wanted to sign this deal, what
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Speaker 2: do you think he could have gotten.
3:33
Speaker 1: I had someone tell me yesterday that because he would
3:35
Speaker 1: have been a free agent at twenty six as opposed
3:38
Speaker 1: to what he will be now at thirty two, he
3:40
Speaker 1: left perhaps one hundred and fifty to two hundred million
3:42
Speaker 1: on the table. Now you don't know that, and you
3:45
Speaker 1: don't know where his career is going. The one thing
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Speaker 1: also I should mention, and this maybe applies more to
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Speaker 1: Christian Campbell than any of these other players. Christian Campbell
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Speaker 1: was not a top prospect, fourth round pick out of
3:56
Speaker 1: Georgia Tech. I believe he just came on in the
3:59
Speaker 1: last year year or so to be what he is now,
4:02
Speaker 1: obviously the starting second basement for the Red Sox and
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Speaker 1: a young player that really burst into everyone's consciousness. The
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Speaker 1: Red Sox puts sixty million dollars in front of him,
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Speaker 1: And if you're Christian Campbell's parents and you say, well,
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Speaker 1: how do we know that he's going to make sixty million?
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Speaker 1: When this kid wasn't even that highly regarded not that
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Speaker 1: long ago. You don't know that, and if you're a parent,
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Speaker 1: you're looking at it. It's tempting. Now. What I would say,
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Speaker 1: also again presenting the other side, is for position players, Alana,
4:34
Speaker 1: there's much less risk, much less risk of injury. They
4:37
Speaker 1: happen injuries, no question, But the pitchers, you can certainly
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Speaker 1: understand why they would jump at extensions more enthusiastically than
4:45
Speaker 1: position players would. And yet at the same time, when
4:48
Speaker 1: you're putting life changing money in front of a person,
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Speaker 1: when there are no guarantees in life, I can understand
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Speaker 1: where the player is coming from. If that indeed was
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Speaker 1: Christian Campbell's motivation, I don't know, but that is kind
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Speaker 1: of the dichotomy that we see here often with these extensions.
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Speaker 2: Yeah, perhaps it's not generational wealth like a contract that's
5:09
Speaker 2: two hundred, two hundred and fifty million, but he certainly
5:11
Speaker 2: can take care of his immediate family, and it is
5:13
Speaker 2: hard to walk away from sixty million dollars. I don't
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Speaker 2: care who you are. And he's been in the big
5:17
Speaker 2: leagues for about five minutes.
5:19
Speaker 1: Now.
5:19
Speaker 2: Marte is a different case, Ken, because it's a six
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Speaker 2: year one hundred and sixteen million dollar extension. But this
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Speaker 2: is on the other side of the spectrum, a veteran player,
5:27
Speaker 2: I guess, rewarding him for service time.
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Speaker 3: What do you make of this deal?
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Speaker 1: He wants to keep playing for the Diamondbacks. It's pretty simple, actually,
5:34
Speaker 1: and he was signed through I believe age thirty one.
5:37
Speaker 1: This takes him through age thirty seven. I don't know
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Speaker 1: if I have the years exactly right there. This deal
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Speaker 1: includes sixty four million dollars in new money, and the
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Speaker 1: Diamondbacks were willing to do it extend him into his
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Speaker 1: mid thirties even upper thirties, because Marte gave something back too.
5:53
Speaker 1: He deferred a lot of money, he took less money
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Speaker 1: this year, lowered his salary for this year because he
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Speaker 1: was already under contract, which could again enable them to
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Speaker 1: do some other things. So this is a deal that, really,
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Speaker 1: unlike the others, was kind of just a veteran player
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Speaker 1: saying I want to be where I am, I'm comfortable,
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Speaker 1: and let's go. And it seems that in this particular
6:16
Speaker 1: case you can certainly see both sides perspective. Now a
6:20
Speaker 1: lot of crochet is perhaps the most interesting of all.
6:23
Speaker 1: On the other side of this, I don't know that
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Speaker 1: anyone will question whether Garret Croche got market value. If anything,
6:30
Speaker 1: he maybe got a little bit above market value. Here's
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Speaker 1: a guy who landed a sixty or one hundred and
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Speaker 1: seventy million dollar extension when he has only been a
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Speaker 1: starting pitcher for one year now. He would have been
6:43
Speaker 1: a free agent entering his age twenty eight season. That's
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Speaker 1: very young, and he's already had his Tommy John surgery
6:48
Speaker 1: in twenty twenty two, so he should be good for
6:51
Speaker 1: a while, you would hope. But at the same time,
6:54
Speaker 1: the Red Sox seed this enormous potential that he has,
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Speaker 1: and we saw it yesterday against the Orioles, of course,
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Speaker 1: and they believe that this is a guy who will
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Speaker 1: ultimately be with in his beworth in his free agent
7:06
Speaker 1: years thirty thirty two million dollars a year, and that's
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Speaker 1: where this contract takes him. So again, all different aspects here,
7:14
Speaker 1: all different things to consider, but each case is different
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Speaker 1: and each player is different.
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Speaker 2: It's crazy to think what a few months have made
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Speaker 2: for Garrett Crochet going from the White Sox and saying
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Speaker 2: I am a starter. I don't want to be traded
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Speaker 2: and be put in the bullpen for the Los Angeles
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Speaker 2: Dodgers to signing a very hefty six year, one hundred
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Speaker 2: and seventy million dollars deal with the Red Sox. Much
7:35
Speaker 2: more to come here on Fair Territory with Ken Rosenthal.
7:37
Speaker 2: Make sure you load up the questions for Ken and
7:40
Speaker 2: Grill and Ken that is coming up. But first a
7:42
Speaker 2: couple of words from our friends at Foul Territory and.
7:45
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7:49
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Speaker 2: All right, thanks lomuch for being a part of the
8:50
Speaker 2: foul Territory family. Ken, I don't know that many people
8:53
Speaker 2: are going to be wearing Homage Braves jackets right now,
8:56
Speaker 2: because I tell you what, my friend, The Braves are scuffling.
8:59
Speaker 2: Maybe it's just because they've run into a buzzsaw this
9:02
Speaker 2: first part of this season, but no team in Major
9:04
Speaker 2: League Baseball history has made the postseason. Ken, you know
9:08
Speaker 2: this better than anybody after starting the season. Oh and seven,
9:11
Speaker 2: what do the Braves need to do to write this ship?
9:15
Speaker 1: Well, you're talking to the guy who picked them to
9:17
Speaker 1: win the World Series, Alna, So maybe you're asking the
9:20
Speaker 1: wrong expert about the Atlanta Braves. First of all, oh
9:25
Speaker 1: and seven, Yes, it's daunting, but keep in mind we
9:27
Speaker 1: have expanded playoffs now, so the fact that no team
9:30
Speaker 1: has come back from that to make the playoffs. It's
9:32
Speaker 1: a little bit different because only in the last couple
9:35
Speaker 1: of years have we had twelve teams. All right, That's
9:37
Speaker 1: one thing to encourage the Braves. What I would also
9:41
Speaker 1: say is they're going to hit. Some of their players
9:44
Speaker 1: are not hitting right now. Austin Riley yesterday described his
9:47
Speaker 1: performance as embarrassing. Acuna is coming back, Strider's coming back,
9:52
Speaker 1: Sean Murphy's coming back. So once they get some of
9:55
Speaker 1: those players back, Strider obviously is a pitcher, their offense
9:59
Speaker 1: and stay in general will be in a better place.
10:02
Speaker 1: And the other thing that's worth noting, and I'm ringing
10:04
Speaker 1: the optimistic bell here trying to anyway, for Braves fans,
10:09
Speaker 1: they are a team that with the Profar suspension, the
10:12
Speaker 1: eighty game ban for Jerks and Profar because he used peds,
10:16
Speaker 1: they're going to save about six million there, almost six million,
10:19
Speaker 1: and right now they're about fifteen million, fourteen million, I
10:23
Speaker 1: should say under the luxury tax threshold. That's a lot
10:26
Speaker 1: of room to maneuver at the deadline. And their president
10:29
Speaker 1: of Baseball Operations, Alexanthopolis, has always almost always been aggressive
10:34
Speaker 1: at the deadline, so they'll get their players back, the
10:37
Speaker 1: injured players, they'll be able to do some things as
10:41
Speaker 1: the deadline approaches and at the deadline, so all is
10:44
Speaker 1: not lost. But keep in mind also they're in a
10:47
Speaker 1: good division. They're in a division with two powerhouses, the
10:49
Speaker 1: New York Mets and the Philadelphia Phillies. So it's not
10:53
Speaker 1: too late to think this season can be salvaged. But
10:58
Speaker 1: it's not early enough to just simply dismiss this either.
11:02
Speaker 1: They've got to get going. And we've seen teams, the
11:05
Speaker 1: Astros last year being so prominent among them rally from
11:09
Speaker 1: this kind of start. The Astros, I believe were seven
11:12
Speaker 1: to nineteen. The Mets were zero to five last year,
11:14
Speaker 1: if I recall. So it's not burying or anything like that.
11:18
Speaker 1: But at the same time, some warning signs have emerged.
11:22
Speaker 1: The rotations thinner than they thought, especially now with the
11:25
Speaker 1: loss of Ronaldo Lopez and the bullpen, it doesn't seem
11:28
Speaker 1: to be in a good place.
11:30
Speaker 2: Let me ask you this, Ken, because I've heard a
11:32
Speaker 2: couple of different places that perhaps this is going to
11:34
Speaker 2: be Brian Snicker's last year at the helm of the
11:37
Speaker 2: Atlanta Braves. I mean, how much stock are you putting
11:40
Speaker 2: into that and certainly I never discount what Alex Anthopolis
11:46
Speaker 2: has done with that team, and I really have a
11:47
Speaker 2: lot of faith in Brian Snicker.
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Speaker 3: Do you think this is it for him?
11:53
Speaker 1: Remains to be seen. He hasn't made up his mind,
11:55
Speaker 1: and I don't expect him to make up his mind
11:57
Speaker 1: just yet. Next year, if I'm not mistaken, would be
12:00
Speaker 1: his fiftieth year in the organization. Now he can be
12:03
Speaker 1: in the organization as a special advisor if he's no
12:05
Speaker 1: longer managing, so that's not necessarily going to be decisive
12:09
Speaker 1: for him. But let's see how the season goes. Because
12:13
Speaker 1: if the season ends in disappointment, there would be every
12:15
Speaker 1: reason for Snicker to say, Okay, that was it, and
12:18
Speaker 1: every reason for the Braves to say, let's move on
12:20
Speaker 1: and let's try something else. Snicker might think, well, I'd
12:23
Speaker 1: like to take one more shot at it. But at
12:25
Speaker 1: that point, yeah, the Braves would have certainly ample justification
12:30
Speaker 1: to say let's end this nicely and move on with
12:33
Speaker 1: Brian in the front office in some capacity. But again,
12:37
Speaker 1: it's warily and I do want to see how this
12:39
Speaker 1: plays out. I know fans are upset with Sniker two,
12:42
Speaker 1: but oh and seven is not Ohen seventy. It's not
12:47
Speaker 1: even twenty and fifty. Let's see how this all shakes out.
12:51
Speaker 2: Yeah, Snid is a great baseball man, and this has
12:53
Speaker 2: just been a weird week for those Atlanta Braves. I
12:55
Speaker 2: never count them out all right, time now for Grill
12:58
Speaker 2: and Ken. All Right, Ken, we get some questions in
13:07
Speaker 2: here from our listeners and our viewers. We always appreciate
13:09
Speaker 2: you guys being a part of the show. The first
13:12
Speaker 2: question comes from Greasy. How are San Diego in LA
13:15
Speaker 2: still undefeated? That NLS looking tough.
13:19
Speaker 1: They're good, and that's the easiest obvious answer. But with
13:23
Speaker 1: La we knew that was the case. With San Diego,
13:26
Speaker 1: I don't know that we were as certain, even though
13:28
Speaker 1: they had a great run last year, especially at the
13:31
Speaker 1: end of the season, but they lost you Darvish, and
13:34
Speaker 1: I know they were concerned about the state of the
13:36
Speaker 1: rotation going into the season. Maybe they're bullpen too and
13:40
Speaker 1: right now they might be playing even better than the Dodgers. Honestly,
13:44
Speaker 1: the Dodgers had a sloppy game last night. They haven't
13:46
Speaker 1: been perfect even though they're eight no, but the Padres
13:49
Speaker 1: are doing things in a way that maybe they haven't
13:52
Speaker 1: even done before. And I'm talking about their situational hitting.
13:55
Speaker 1: I'm talking about their aggressive base running. They just seem
13:59
Speaker 1: to be clicking on all cylinders, playing beautiful team baseball.
14:03
Speaker 1: So they're a little bit of a surprise to me. Obviously,
14:06
Speaker 1: they're not going to go undefeated. We all know that,
14:08
Speaker 1: they know that there will be ups and downs. But
14:11
Speaker 1: if they get Darvish back, and we know AJ Preller
14:14
Speaker 1: will make whatever moves are necessary at the deadline, they're
14:17
Speaker 1: going to be in good shape. And hat tip to
14:19
Speaker 1: AJ Preller here, because there was talk all season, all
14:23
Speaker 1: off season that he might trade one of his potential
14:26
Speaker 1: free agents or multiple potential free agents, Dylan Cees, Michael King.
14:30
Speaker 1: He fought to keep all those guys. He resisted all
14:35
Speaker 1: the offers, and look, he's got another nice team.
14:39
Speaker 2: Yeah, and they just locked up Jackson Marylyn. As we
14:41
Speaker 2: said at the top of the show, for quite some time,
14:43
Speaker 2: Elisheva Jones, our girl wants to know, how are the
14:45
Speaker 2: Marlins so high in their division?
14:47
Speaker 3: Albeit early, But if you're going to crack on.
14:49
Speaker 2: The Atlanta Braves, let's give the Marlins a little bit
14:51
Speaker 2: of a credit too, Elisheva.
14:53
Speaker 1: I don't expect this to continue. But they have played
14:56
Speaker 1: very competitive baseball through their first six or seven games,
15:00
Speaker 1: and it has been impressive. They're pitching in particular, looks
15:04
Speaker 1: probably stronger than we thought. And it's not just al Contra,
15:07
Speaker 1: it's kind of the whole group, including the bullpen, which
15:10
Speaker 1: has been used quite heavily. Do I believe they're going
15:13
Speaker 1: to be a competitive team?
15:14
Speaker 4: No?
15:15
Speaker 1: And one thing about this time of year that baseball
15:17
Speaker 1: people like to say the bad teams don't know they're
15:20
Speaker 1: bad yet. That will come. And I don't expect the
15:24
Speaker 1: Marlins to be competing at a high level, but if
15:27
Speaker 1: they compete at a better level with all their young kids,
15:30
Speaker 1: that would be at least somewhat promising.
15:33
Speaker 2: And it would be nice if they could get some
15:35
Speaker 2: wins with a little bit less of a heart attack
15:37
Speaker 2: for their management, because I mean, through what is it,
15:40
Speaker 2: three walk off wins in the first four games of
15:42
Speaker 2: the season, that's enough to make you crazy, all right,
15:45
Speaker 2: Daniel Rothenberg, thanks for being here, Thanks for being part
15:47
Speaker 2: of the super Chat. Two dollars from him? What is
15:49
Speaker 2: Clutch's legacy and will it end in Cooperstown? Obviously talking
15:53
Speaker 2: about Andrew McCutcheon of the Pittsburgh Pirates Daniel.
15:57
Speaker 1: I haven't given much thought to McCutcheon as a Hall
15:59
Speaker 1: of Fame handed at my initial top of the head
16:02
Speaker 1: reaction is he's not going to get there. But when
16:05
Speaker 1: you talk about his legacy, he will go down, and
16:07
Speaker 1: certainly as one of the great Pirates, a guy who
16:10
Speaker 1: helped transform that franchise for a time right when they
16:14
Speaker 1: were rolling in the mid twenty tens, he was at
16:17
Speaker 1: the heart of it. He also, beyond that, has been
16:21
Speaker 1: just an outstanding citizen and person in the game. And
16:25
Speaker 1: too often we overlook this. It's we talk about guys
16:28
Speaker 1: who may not be great characters, and this guy has
16:31
Speaker 1: been an upstanding individual wherever he is gone. And if
16:35
Speaker 1: he does not make the Hall of Fame, he does
16:36
Speaker 1: not make the Hall of Fame. But he's had a great,
16:39
Speaker 1: great career, and I know in Pittsburgh in particular, he's
16:43
Speaker 1: beloved and he should be.
16:45
Speaker 2: Absolutely Cutch is such a good human being. You never
16:48
Speaker 2: heard a single negative thing about him. And when I
16:50
Speaker 2: think of the Pittsburgh Pirates, I certainly, of course think
16:52
Speaker 2: of Clemente and you know, Willie Stargel and all of
16:55
Speaker 2: those guys. But Andrew McCutcheon is as a huge part
16:58
Speaker 2: of the Pirate fabric. Okay, Proctor wants to know, Ken,
17:01
Speaker 2: which Major League Baseball city is your personal favorite to
17:04
Speaker 2: celebrate Opening Day?
17:06
Speaker 1: Actually, Richard, I haven't been to that many cities for
17:08
Speaker 1: Opening Day, and in the job I currently have now,
17:12
Speaker 1: I usually don't even travel for Opening Day. My first
17:15
Speaker 1: game will be the first Fox team Saturday, the first
17:18
Speaker 1: Saturday of the season. I've never been to Cincinnati for
17:21
Speaker 1: an opening Day. That looks like the place to be.
17:24
Speaker 1: They have the parade downtown, it looks like it's more
17:27
Speaker 1: unique than any other place. I did use to enjoy
17:31
Speaker 1: all of the opening days I covered in Baltimore, but
17:33
Speaker 1: I can say that's probably no different an event than
17:37
Speaker 1: any other city.
17:38
Speaker 2: You know what I find so interesting, Ken is going
17:40
Speaker 2: into the season this year, the highest single game ticket
17:44
Speaker 2: for Opening Day was the Cincinnati Reds because it is
17:47
Speaker 2: such a spectacle there. I mean, it's such a it
17:50
Speaker 2: truly is a national holiday in Cincinnati. But then after
17:52
Speaker 2: Opening Day you can't give away seats at Great American Ballpark.
17:56
Speaker 2: It's really unbelievable how everybody sells out, and then for
17:59
Speaker 2: the remainder of the season they just don't seem to
18:01
Speaker 2: have that same type of fanfare. All right, So my
18:05
Speaker 2: opening day city, any opening day, I think it's just incredible,
18:08
Speaker 2: just because opening day is such a rite of passage
18:10
Speaker 2: into summer and it just means that you know, baseball
18:13
Speaker 2: is back, and that is very important. All right, let's
18:15
Speaker 2: talk about this with Cosmic Things. With the torpedo bats
18:18
Speaker 2: and the ABS system, automated balls and strikes and big bases,
18:21
Speaker 2: it seems to be trending to pro hitters. A post
18:25
Speaker 2: to pictures with the pitch clock. Could we see any
18:28
Speaker 2: new rules to combat this to help the pictures Cosmic Things?
18:32
Speaker 2: Was probably a pitcher coming up, is my guess. He's
18:34
Speaker 2: not happy with all these pro position player rules.
18:38
Speaker 1: I would say to Cosmic Things that the pitchers have
18:41
Speaker 1: had the advantage for quite some time now, and there
18:43
Speaker 1: has been, yes, a concerted offense by the league to
18:47
Speaker 1: get a concerted effort by the league to get more
18:51
Speaker 1: offense into the game. That's the stolen based rule genesis, right.
18:55
Speaker 1: The bats are not coming from the league. That's coming
18:58
Speaker 1: from the bat manufacturers, players who are looking for different
19:01
Speaker 1: weight distributions in their bats. And we'll see how this
19:04
Speaker 1: plays out and We'll see, as I said on Foul Territory,
19:07
Speaker 1: if this truly has an impact or not. And I
19:10
Speaker 1: know people are saying, oh my gosh, look at the
19:12
Speaker 1: Yankees first weekend. The Brewers look at their velos that
19:16
Speaker 1: weekend not great, and the Diamondbacks the last couple of
19:20
Speaker 1: days shut down the Yankees pretty well. So I want
19:23
Speaker 1: to see more data. I want to see more things
19:26
Speaker 1: play out here before I declare a state of emergency
19:29
Speaker 1: over the emergence of torpedo bats.
19:32
Speaker 2: All right again, and they are legal according to Major
19:35
Speaker 2: League Baseball.
19:35
Speaker 3: There is not a rule being broken.
19:37
Speaker 2: And it's not just the New York Yankees using the bats,
19:39
Speaker 2: as several players on every team has been using them.
19:42
Speaker 3: It's a player's preference.
19:43
Speaker 2: Okay, here's another question for you, a ken the last question,
19:46
Speaker 2: in fact, Michael Roland wants to know. Dude hit two
19:49
Speaker 2: seventy on average. When I started watching baseball, it's two
19:52
Speaker 2: forty three. Now do the pitchers need more help? Throwing
19:55
Speaker 2: one oh five miles per hour is not good enough?
19:59
Speaker 1: I'm not sure I understand the question, Michael, because you're
20:01
Speaker 1: saying the batting averages down, and yet you're asking if
20:04
Speaker 1: the pitchers need more help. The statistics you just pointed
20:07
Speaker 1: to show that pitching is more dominant than it's ever been,
20:11
Speaker 1: So I don't know that anyone needs more help in
20:15
Speaker 1: the game. I don't know that it's totally out of whack.
20:18
Speaker 1: It's pretty much in a good place in so many
20:20
Speaker 1: ways right now. Now. You can always wonder about maybe
20:24
Speaker 1: going to twelve pitchers on a staff and reducing it,
20:28
Speaker 1: and that would perhaps affect velocity. Using more pictures pitching
20:32
Speaker 1: more often, they could not throw as hard, and that
20:35
Speaker 1: would balance some things out and maybe protect pictures from
20:37
Speaker 1: getting hurt more. But I don't see the game as
20:40
Speaker 1: being out of whack one way or the other. If anything,
20:43
Speaker 1: it is leaned and skewed toward the pitchers in recent years.
20:47
Speaker 1: But I'm not displeased with the way the game is
20:51
Speaker 1: on the field, especially with the clock coming in and
20:53
Speaker 1: picking the pace up.
20:55
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think Michael Roland was just kind of responding
20:58
Speaker 2: to cosmics things questions about let's help the pictures out.
21:01
Speaker 1: I don't know. I think the picture maybe I missed
21:03
Speaker 1: a joke.
21:03
Speaker 2: Okay, Oh, that's okay, that's okay, so did I. That's
21:06
Speaker 2: all right, We've got it. Clarified here all right.
21:08
Speaker 3: Time now from Grill and Ken to due to the week.
21:12
Speaker 1: Dude, dude, dude, due.
21:20
Speaker 2: All right, Ken, who is your dude of the week?
21:22
Speaker 2: Somebody or something or some organization that stood out to
21:25
Speaker 2: you in a positive way.
21:27
Speaker 1: A lot of we talk often about superstars and super
21:30
Speaker 1: teams as our dudes of the week. But I'm going
21:32
Speaker 1: to go a little bit off the board today and
21:34
Speaker 1: talk about a guy who was twenty nine years old
21:36
Speaker 1: made his major league debut finally this week. His name
21:40
Speaker 1: is Jake Mangum. He plays for the Tampa Bay Rays.
21:43
Speaker 1: He made an immediate impact. He's now hitting in the
21:45
Speaker 1: middle of their order four games into his career. This
21:49
Speaker 1: is a guy who had a great college career at
21:50
Speaker 1: Mississippi State. His nickname was the Mayor of Starkville. I
21:54
Speaker 1: believe he broke the SEC record for hits in a career,
21:58
Speaker 1: and yet as a fourth round pick of the Mets,
22:00
Speaker 1: he could not get on tracked. These are my favorite
22:02
Speaker 1: stories in baseball, and Mangum is just one of them.
22:05
Speaker 1: There are many others that we've heard in spring training
22:08
Speaker 1: into the season, guys who have made teams that kind
22:11
Speaker 1: of came out of nowhere that have been toiling and
22:13
Speaker 1: obscurity for the majority of their careers. So hats off
22:16
Speaker 1: to Jake Mangham and hats off to all of the
22:18
Speaker 1: players who overcame odds to get where they are today.
22:22
Speaker 2: Yeah, it just goes to show you if you want
22:23
Speaker 2: it badly enough and you keep working towards it, goodness
22:26
Speaker 2: knows what can happen.
22:27
Speaker 3: Congratulations to him.
22:28
Speaker 2: Mine is a physical object, that is the torpedo bat,
22:32
Speaker 2: and the reason being can for my dudo the week
22:34
Speaker 2: is just because of the attention that this has garnered,
22:38
Speaker 2: and really more so to Aaron Leenhart, who was actually
22:41
Speaker 2: the former physics professor at the University of Michigan who
22:45
Speaker 2: is credited with the design.
22:47
Speaker 3: He's forty eight years old.
22:48
Speaker 2: He was a field coordinator for the Marlins, and the
22:51
Speaker 2: date of the back kind of the origin of it
22:53
Speaker 2: dates back a couple of years.
22:55
Speaker 3: But he's been able.
22:56
Speaker 2: To create it to make a little bit more sense
22:59
Speaker 2: for some players that want to use it, and again
23:01
Speaker 2: it's within the rules of Major League Baseball. With this
23:04
Speaker 2: being a sport of purists, of course, and we have
23:06
Speaker 2: a hard time adjusting to change.
23:09
Speaker 3: I just think it's interesting that he.
23:11
Speaker 2: Has us talking about all about a bat, and good
23:13
Speaker 2: for him, you know, he kind of got out of
23:16
Speaker 2: the university world and is in the major league world.
23:18
Speaker 2: And it's just kind of funny because everyone's you know,
23:20
Speaker 2: Ranton and Raven about the torpedo bat. But if it
23:22
Speaker 2: was your team that's hit fifteen home runs in the
23:24
Speaker 2: first three games of the season, you'd be fine with it.
23:26
Speaker 3: All right.
23:27
Speaker 2: What about your dork of the week? Imagine who had
23:41
Speaker 2: you scratch in your head this week.
23:44
Speaker 1: Trevor McGill, Milwaukee Brewer's pitcher. And I've met Trevor. I
23:48
Speaker 1: know Trevor's a good dude. But what he said about
23:51
Speaker 1: the Yankees in the wake of the torpedo bat revelation was,
23:56
Speaker 1: as he later learned, premature and incorrect. What he said
24:01
Speaker 1: was it's the Yankees to let it slide. Well, first
24:04
Speaker 1: of all, Trevor, the bats, as Alana said, are perfectly legal.
24:08
Speaker 1: This is simply a matter of how you distribute the
24:10
Speaker 1: weight on the bats. That's all that's changed here. Nothing
24:13
Speaker 1: is outside the rules. And then, as Trevor quickly learned,
24:16
Speaker 1: as we all did, as you mentioned earlier, guys on
24:20
Speaker 1: virtually every team, or at least thinking about trying these
24:24
Speaker 1: bats if they're not using them themselves. So Trevor, a
24:28
Speaker 1: lot of times, a lot of us speak before thinking
24:31
Speaker 1: I do it myself. But in this case, yes, spoke
24:35
Speaker 1: too soon. Yeah.
24:36
Speaker 2: Maybe it's just a matter of your pitching staff got
24:38
Speaker 2: sheld and it's a little embarrassing. Maybe it's nothing to
24:40
Speaker 2: do with the torpedo bats because Aaron Judge doesn't use it,
24:43
Speaker 2: and he seemed to do okay over the course of
24:46
Speaker 2: that series. Okay, my dork of the week is Jerks
24:48
Speaker 2: and Profar. And it's not just Jerks and Profar, it's
24:51
Speaker 2: anybody that chooses to use peds in this day and
24:53
Speaker 2: age of Major League Baseball, when you know that you're
24:56
Speaker 2: going to be tested, you know that you're.
24:58
Speaker 3: Going to get caught.
24:59
Speaker 2: And I just find it ironic and interesting that after
25:01
Speaker 2: he called Will Smith irrelevance, all of this comes out
25:04
Speaker 2: that he has now been suspended for using peds. You
25:07
Speaker 2: know better, and moreover, not only do you hurt yourself,
25:10
Speaker 2: but you're hurting your team. The Atlanta Braves didn't need
25:13
Speaker 2: to deal with this. Nobody needs to deal with this.
25:16
Speaker 2: You know, PROFI all of the things. So he is
25:18
Speaker 2: my dork of the week.
25:19
Speaker 3: You know the rules.
25:20
Speaker 2: At this point, there's no you know, beating around the
25:24
Speaker 2: bush with that. You know what, you can ingust into
25:26
Speaker 2: your body. If you say, oh, I don't know, you
25:28
Speaker 2: know you.
25:30
Speaker 3: Know better than that.
25:30
Speaker 2: At this point, You're not a young kid in this
25:32
Speaker 2: game anymore. All Right, Before we go, Ken, let's shut
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Speaker 3: Always great to be with you.
26:09
Speaker 2: Of course, Ken has a brand new episode next week
26:12
Speaker 2: of Fair Territory and Foul Territory is next.
26:15
Speaker 3: We'll see you then. Take care