Latest / Foul Territory / Ken Rosenthal: Struggling teams, Inside Konnor Griffin’s long deal negotiations, Umps upset with ABS?

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Ken Rosenthal: Struggling teams, Inside Konnor Griffin’s long deal negotiations, Umps upset with ABS? · Foul Territory

• 0:05
  Speaker 1: It's the inside scoop Ken. I took some time, like
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: to really read through your article about the ABS Challenge
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: system and really enjoyed it. I thought, I have so
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: many questions, so I'm going to jump right in here,
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: and let's start with the overall tone that you think
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: is out there right now from the umpires who did
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: agree to the ABS challenge system. Do you think it's
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: more positive or more negative?
• 0:30
  Speaker 2: I would say more negative. And it seems to me
• 0:33
  Speaker 2: that not all fans, but some fans, including some of
• 0:37
  Speaker 2: my children, think this is a great thing because it's
• 0:40
  Speaker 2: making the umpires look bad, and it's showing that they
• 0:43
  Speaker 2: aren't great at their jobs, and it's correcting mistakes and
• 0:46
  Speaker 2: all of that. The bottom line is the umpires are
• 0:49
  Speaker 2: grad at their jobs. They're really great at their jobs.
• 0:52
  Speaker 2: But like anybody else, they're human, and they're dealing with
• 0:57
  Speaker 2: pitches that break like never before, are thrown harder than
• 1:00
  Speaker 2: ever before, and their job as plate umpires is more
• 1:03
  Speaker 2: difficult than ever before. So it was written the story
• 1:07
  Speaker 2: with the idea in mind that, hey, these guys are
• 1:10
  Speaker 2: doing a good job, and Baseball's put them in this position,
• 1:14
  Speaker 2: even though of course they did agree to it in
• 1:16
  Speaker 2: collective bargaining where they're kind of getting embarrassed. And part
• 1:20
  Speaker 2: of this was about showing more sympathy to the umpires
• 1:24
  Speaker 2: I feel that should happen, and part of it was
• 1:26
  Speaker 2: just kind of an expanded discussion of ABS and where
• 1:30
  Speaker 2: this is because the other aspect of this is that
• 1:33
  Speaker 2: some umpires believe that this is not such a great
• 1:37
  Speaker 2: thing for the game. And what I mean by that
• 1:40
  Speaker 2: is they believe that there are going to be more
• 1:43
  Speaker 2: walks and that pitchers and catchers eventually are going to
• 1:47
  Speaker 2: get upset and agitated over losing so many strikes, and
• 1:51
  Speaker 2: that's what's happening with the system. So this all remains
• 1:55
  Speaker 2: to be seen whether that actually happens. In many ways,
• 1:59
  Speaker 2: ABS is overwhelmingly positive and I've written that I like it.
• 2:02
  Speaker 2: I do like it, But in talking with some umpires
• 2:06
  Speaker 2: over the last couple of weeks, there have been some
• 2:09
  Speaker 2: concerns raised, and those are valid concerns. And when you're
• 2:12
  Speaker 2: talking about ABS, it's not simply oh, man, I love this,
• 2:16
  Speaker 2: it's great. There are layers to it, and that is
• 2:18
  Speaker 2: what I wanted to get into here, the different layers
• 2:21
  Speaker 2: that are going on.
• 2:22
  Speaker 3: Nobody wants to be embarrassed in their job. Do they
• 2:24
  Speaker 3: have any ideas or thoughts about how it could be
• 2:31
  Speaker 3: implemented differently? We still have ABS challenge system to take
• 2:35
  Speaker 3: away the embarrassment part of it, like that they feel
• 2:38
  Speaker 3: like Major League Baseball has kind of put them out
• 2:41
  Speaker 3: on an island, like, oh, you got it wrong and
• 2:43
  Speaker 3: everyone forgets it's by you know, a tenth of an inch.
• 2:48
  Speaker 2: Well, the margin for ERA has been an issue with
• 2:50
  Speaker 2: this all along, and the ABS system is not perfect,
• 2:54
  Speaker 2: and I've written about this. Jason Stark has written at
• 2:56
  Speaker 2: length about this, about how there is a margin for
• 2:59
  Speaker 2: ERA that it is accurate to a very high degree
• 3:04
  Speaker 2: but not totally accurate. Guess what umpires are accurate to
• 3:08
  Speaker 2: a very high degree but not totally accurate. So is
• 3:11
  Speaker 2: this better than what we have before? Yeah, in many
• 3:14
  Speaker 2: ways it is. But what the umpires ultimately wanted, or
• 3:17
  Speaker 2: originally wanted, I should say, was the same kind of
• 3:21
  Speaker 2: buffer zone that existed under the previous system before ABS,
• 3:25
  Speaker 2: which was a zone in which a ball could be
• 3:30
  Speaker 2: missed but falling into a given area where they're not
• 3:34
  Speaker 2: penalized for it. Now, in the old days, they were
• 3:37
  Speaker 2: not penalized in their evaluations in this, it would be
• 3:40
  Speaker 2: you're not penalized for missing a call that is maybe
• 3:43
  Speaker 2: within a certain margin for error. Now, the problem with that,
• 3:47
  Speaker 2: according to Major League Baseball, and I see their point here,
• 3:51
  Speaker 2: is that if you have that kind of margin, ferreh,
• 3:54
  Speaker 2: let's play this out a little bit. Pitch is called
• 3:57
  Speaker 2: a ball, and it's actually a strike, but it's within
• 4:01
  Speaker 2: a certain amount let's say a tenth of an inch,
• 4:03
  Speaker 2: and you put it on the screen. It's shown as
• 4:07
  Speaker 2: the strike, but you're giving the umpire the margin for era.
• 4:10
  Speaker 2: Then it's a ball, and people get confused and they
• 4:12
  Speaker 2: get upset. People being fans, you don't want that. I
• 4:16
  Speaker 2: understand that. But at the same time, again, the umpires
• 4:21
  Speaker 2: aren't getting the benefit of the doubt, even on calls
• 4:24
  Speaker 2: that may be correct, but by the machine are shown
• 4:27
  Speaker 2: not to be correct. And that to me is kind
• 4:30
  Speaker 2: of a flaw in the system. I'm not sure it
• 4:32
  Speaker 2: could be corrected. But I got into that in the
• 4:34
  Speaker 2: article as well.
• 4:35
  Speaker 3: All Right, one more human element that he brought up
• 4:38
  Speaker 3: kind of in the article talking to I think it
• 4:40
  Speaker 3: was Seth Lugo. Yeah, talking about Seth Lugo and about
• 4:43
  Speaker 3: how Andy Fletcher there was like eleven overturned calls or
• 4:47
  Speaker 3: eleven challenged calls in the game, and they were concerned
• 4:51
  Speaker 3: he was getting upset. This is something that I think
• 4:55
  Speaker 3: I would love to hear what an umpire has to
• 4:56
  Speaker 3: say about, like are they upset in game? Like are
• 5:00
  Speaker 3: you serious you're challenging again? Or is it like a oh,
• 5:04
  Speaker 3: they're feeling bad about themselves. Dang it, I just wish
• 5:07
  Speaker 3: I was better. What's the reaction that you.
• 5:10
  Speaker 2: In this particular instance, Lugo related to one of our reporters,
• 5:13
  Speaker 2: Cody Stavenhagen, that he thought the umpire was going to
• 5:17
  Speaker 2: get upset Andy Fletcher, but it turned out Andy Fletcher said,
• 5:21
  Speaker 2: you know what this is? Okay, I'm learning from and
• 5:23
  Speaker 2: I'm learning as we go along. And granted, this is
• 5:26
  Speaker 2: a new system now it's been tried out at TRIPAA
• 5:29
  Speaker 2: and used in spring training, but it's a new system,
• 5:31
  Speaker 2: so there is always going to be with any new
• 5:35
  Speaker 2: toy that's introduced, an adjustment period, and that is what
• 5:38
  Speaker 2: has happened here. There has been an adjustment period and
• 5:40
  Speaker 2: there will continue to be an adjustment period. Some umpires
• 5:44
  Speaker 2: are more comfortable with it than others, and some aren't.
• 5:47
  Speaker 2: We talking about a group of I don't know how
• 5:48
  Speaker 2: many people, but it's a large group. And in any
• 5:51
  Speaker 2: large group, you're gonna have some who are okay with
• 5:54
  Speaker 2: something and some who aren't okay with something, and you're
• 5:56
  Speaker 2: seeing that division of opinion to some extent. I don't
• 5:59
  Speaker 2: know that empires unanimously feel one way about any aspect
• 6:04
  Speaker 2: of this. So for some umpires yet they've seen it
• 6:08
  Speaker 2: as something where okay, it's a different strike zone. That's
• 6:11
  Speaker 2: one of the big issues here, a different strike zone.
• 6:14
  Speaker 2: I've got to adapt to it. I've got to get
• 6:16
  Speaker 2: better at it. And if they challenge and challenge and challenge,
• 6:19
  Speaker 2: that's how I'm going to learn.
• 6:22
  Speaker 4: Also, some kind of worrysome about the boss operator. I
• 6:25
  Speaker 4: know you've talked about this a little bit when it
• 6:28
  Speaker 4: comes to umpires too. Can you go over that a
• 6:30
  Speaker 4: little bit and see why umpires are a little mix
• 6:33
  Speaker 4: match on this too as well.
• 6:35
  Speaker 2: It was brought to my attention Todd that the people
• 6:38
  Speaker 2: who are matching the strike zones with the hitters, and
• 6:42
  Speaker 2: obviously every hitter has his own strike zone now because
• 6:44
  Speaker 2: it's based on height his height, those people are not
• 6:50
  Speaker 2: all full time employees of Major League Baseball. Some are
• 6:52
  Speaker 2: hourly employees. Now there are hourly employees throughout Major League Baseball.
• 6:57
  Speaker 2: The question a couple of THEMS rays were, well, should
• 7:01
  Speaker 2: hourly employees be in charge of such an important thing
• 7:04
  Speaker 2: and matching those strike zones? And it's the same with
• 7:06
  Speaker 2: pitchclock operators. Some of them are hourly employees as well.
• 7:10
  Speaker 2: It seems we haven't had any controversies along these lines.
• 7:13
  Speaker 2: But again speaking to the concerns of the umpires, and
• 7:16
  Speaker 2: that was one of them that was expressed to me.
• 7:20
  Speaker 1: With over thirty five million downloads, what is the number
• 7:23
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• 7:25
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• 7:28
  Speaker 4: they have a lot of things that helps you out
• 7:30
  Speaker 4: along the way. They have green dots meaning good and
• 7:33
  Speaker 4: red dots meaning bad. And it's on a scale of
• 7:35
  Speaker 4: one to ten, showing you, Scott, how good the seats are.
• 7:38
  Speaker 4: And sometimes you want to sit in the nosebleeders. Sometimes
• 7:40
  Speaker 4: you want to sit in really good seats and Scott,
• 7:43
  Speaker 4: you know the code.
• 7:43
  Speaker 2: Right, yeah, I do.
• 7:44
  Speaker 1: And also I know that you always like a good deal.
• 7:46
  Speaker 1: Oh so Seek helps you out all the time with that.
• 7:48
  Speaker 1: They also help you out with the exclusive FT code,
• 7:52
  Speaker 1: which is territory ten for ten percent off your next
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  Speaker 1: set of tickets at sea Geek. That's ten percent off
• 7:58
  Speaker 1: any tickets with promo code t E R R I
• 8:01
  Speaker 1: t R Y one zero. Make sure you click the
• 8:04
  Speaker 1: link in the description to download the app and you
• 8:06
  Speaker 1: can have that code automatically added to your account so
• 8:08
  Speaker 1: that you can use it later. There are regular season
• 8:11
  Speaker 1: MLB games going on right now. There are hot tickets
• 8:14
  Speaker 1: across the country, so make sure you go to seat Geek.
• 8:18
  Speaker 1: They will take care of you.
• 8:20
  Speaker 3: Umpires would want umpires to run those, so it's more
• 8:23
  Speaker 3: employment for more umpires. I like that. Good good by them.
• 8:27
  Speaker 3: My question to you is young guys versus old guys.
• 8:32
  Speaker 3: Is there a clear division of guys that have used
• 8:35
  Speaker 3: this in the minor leagues and said, you know what
• 8:38
  Speaker 3: I see, it's very similar to what's happening in the
• 8:40
  Speaker 3: minor leagues. Or is it the you know, quintessential old
• 8:44
  Speaker 3: guys are like, ah, whatever, you know, we don't even
• 8:46
  Speaker 3: I don't even need this.
• 8:48
  Speaker 2: I don't know that it's that clear cut. Now, I
• 8:51
  Speaker 2: would assume younger guys are more comfortable because the ones
• 8:55
  Speaker 2: who have come up through the minor leagues have dealt
• 8:57
  Speaker 2: with abs and understand it, understand the strike zone that
• 9:01
  Speaker 2: ABS has introduced, and are just more experienced with it,
• 9:05
  Speaker 2: and you have some older ones who are less experienced
• 9:08
  Speaker 2: and are going to have more problems with it. Some
• 9:10
  Speaker 2: players have expressed that that is their feeling, so that's understandable.
• 9:15
  Speaker 2: And I don't know that it's as simple as this
• 9:18
  Speaker 2: old guy is old school and hates it, this young
• 9:21
  Speaker 2: guy is more progressive and likes it. It's never that simple,
• 9:25
  Speaker 2: but it's probably fair to say that the younger umpires
• 9:28
  Speaker 2: who have experienced with ABS are going to be more
• 9:31
  Speaker 2: comfortable with it.
• 9:33
  Speaker 1: It's a great article. I encourage everyone to check it
• 9:35
  Speaker 1: out because it's it's pretty in depth, so you'll learn
• 9:37
  Speaker 1: some things like I didn't even know the whole Boss
• 9:39
  Speaker 1: operator system there Ken, And I'll finish with this. Is
• 9:44
  Speaker 1: it perfect no? Is it going to get better yes?
• 9:47
  Speaker 1: Is it good for the game yes, we're getting more
• 9:50
  Speaker 1: calls right? And is it entertaining yes? So more yes
• 9:54
  Speaker 1: than no. Not a perfect system.
• 9:56
  Speaker 2: I would agree with that, Scott. And again, as I
• 9:59
  Speaker 2: point out in the article, I like it, and don't
• 10:01
  Speaker 2: get me wrong, I like it, and I think overall
• 10:04
  Speaker 2: it is good for the game. But it's the job
• 10:08
  Speaker 2: of a journalist to kind of look at all sides
• 10:12
  Speaker 2: of it, and that's all I was trying to do here.
• 10:14
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and it was great. We got really good insight
• 10:16
  Speaker 1: from many around the sport. Let's get to another article
• 10:18
  Speaker 1: that you put out this week, the Connor Griffin extension. Yes,
• 10:21
  Speaker 1: this has been talked about for a minute. But the
• 10:23
  Speaker 1: thing is, we also again learn new things from your story.
• 10:26
  Speaker 1: So can you enlighten us on some of the things
• 10:28
  Speaker 1: that you learned and found interesting?
• 10:30
  Speaker 2: For me?
• 10:30
  Speaker 1: For example, how long it actually took These conversations went
• 10:34
  Speaker 1: on for almost what half a year?
• 10:36
  Speaker 2: Yes? They started back in the general managers' meetings in November,
• 10:40
  Speaker 2: so yes, that's about half a year. That was one
• 10:43
  Speaker 2: interesting thing that they were talking about, this deal for
• 10:45
  Speaker 2: a guy with ninety eight played appearances above double above
• 10:49
  Speaker 2: class A excuse me, six months ago. And that's how
• 10:53
  Speaker 2: highly the Pirates thought of Griffin and how badly they
• 10:57
  Speaker 2: wanted to get this done. The most interesting thing to
• 11:00
  Speaker 2: me was the back and forth between the two parties,
• 11:03
  Speaker 2: and that's the case in any negotiation. The Pirates wanted
• 11:07
  Speaker 2: ten years, and they wanted ten years of club control.
• 11:10
  Speaker 2: They originally offered eight years with two club options. Griffin's side,
• 11:15
  Speaker 2: Excel Sports Management, was not having it. They talked about
• 11:18
  Speaker 2: eight years with one club option, and they ultimately could
• 11:22
  Speaker 2: not come to a financial agreement there and that is
• 11:25
  Speaker 2: how they landed ultimately at nine years. Now. The most
• 11:29
  Speaker 2: interesting thing, at least from Griffin's perspective, and the most
• 11:33
  Speaker 2: appealing thing I should say from his perspective, is that, Okay,
• 11:37
  Speaker 2: he signed a long deal, and these deals traditionally work
• 11:41
  Speaker 2: in the club's favor. But he will be a free
• 11:44
  Speaker 2: agent again at age twenty eight entering his twenty nine season.
• 11:48
  Speaker 2: Not again, he hasn't been a free agent yet, but
• 11:49
  Speaker 2: he will become eligible for the open market entering his
• 11:52
  Speaker 2: age twenty nine season. That's a win for him, and
• 11:55
  Speaker 2: one hundred and forty million guaranteed is a win for him.
• 11:58
  Speaker 2: The salaries and arbitration are reasonably competitive where you would
• 12:04
  Speaker 2: expect them to be. The free agent numbers might be
• 12:07
  Speaker 2: low if it turns out that he is a superstar.
• 12:09
  Speaker 2: They are about twenty seven to twenty eight million. But
• 12:12
  Speaker 2: at the same time, there were some escalators in there,
• 12:15
  Speaker 2: and he will get another bite of the apple at
• 12:19
  Speaker 2: a relatively young age for a free agent, not as
• 12:21
  Speaker 2: young as he would have been twenty five twenty six,
• 12:24
  Speaker 2: but certainly going into the age twenty nine season, that's
• 12:27
  Speaker 2: still a sweet spot for free agents, so he's in
• 12:30
  Speaker 2: great shape. Put it that way.
• 12:32
  Speaker 4: There's been some struggles here in the beginning of the year,
• 12:35
  Speaker 4: not only teams but players too as well. The Averagers
• 12:38
  Speaker 4: have dipped a little bit. I want your or your
• 12:41
  Speaker 4: answer from this question to say, which team right now
• 12:44
  Speaker 4: do you think is the most alarming to you that, hey, man,
• 12:48
  Speaker 4: if this team doesn't get going, we're going to have
• 12:51
  Speaker 4: a big problem here, and they might not be the
• 12:53
  Speaker 4: team that everybody thought they were going to be moving forward.
• 12:56
  Speaker 2: I heard you guys talking about Seattle, and that's a
• 12:58
  Speaker 2: good one. I do expect they're going to be better.
• 13:01
  Speaker 2: And I will preface what I'm gonna say here by
• 13:04
  Speaker 2: saying that in looking at box scores every day, it's
• 13:07
  Speaker 2: remarkable how many players are not hitting period now. Part
• 13:11
  Speaker 2: of it's the cold weather, part of it's the early
• 13:13
  Speaker 2: adjustment to the season. All these things come into play.
• 13:16
  Speaker 2: The team I'm worried about offensively is the team I've
• 13:18
  Speaker 2: been worried about offensively all along, and it's the team
• 13:20
  Speaker 2: I'm going to see tomorrow with Fox. That's the Boston
• 13:23
  Speaker 2: Red Sox, and it seems to me from the start
• 13:27
  Speaker 2: they have asked too much of Roman. Anthony asked him
• 13:30
  Speaker 2: to be essentially a David Ortiz type impact player. And yes,
• 13:35
  Speaker 2: we'll good start, but offensively, I just wonder whether this
• 13:41
  Speaker 2: team has enough. And we all know that they have
• 13:44
  Speaker 2: not started great. They're gonna play better, we all know
• 13:47
  Speaker 2: that too, but is there enough impact there? Remember Devors traded,
• 13:53
  Speaker 2: Gregman replaces him, Gregman lost, Wilson Contreras comes in, Caleb
• 13:58
  Speaker 2: Durbin comes in. They have some pieces and it could
• 14:02
  Speaker 2: be that their younger hitters emerge and they're fine, But
• 14:06
  Speaker 2: that's my concern. That's the one team that I look
• 14:09
  Speaker 2: at and I'm still just not sure they're going to
• 14:11
  Speaker 2: have enough offensively.
• 14:14
  Speaker 1: Hey, Ken, quick question. I know you're covering the Red
• 14:18
  Speaker 1: Sox and the Cardinals all weekend here with Fox. How
• 14:22
  Speaker 1: do you think Alex Korra and the front office are
• 14:25
  Speaker 1: handling the playing time situation. I'll specifically bring up Jaron Duran.
• 14:29
  Speaker 1: We were gonna do it as a segment. We're not
• 14:31
  Speaker 1: gonna have time. We have too many other things going on.
• 14:33
  Speaker 1: But Chris Catillo, who does a great job covering the
• 14:36
  Speaker 1: Red Sox, put this out on Twitter last night. He
• 14:38
  Speaker 1: said Duran is on pace for five hundred twenty six
• 14:40
  Speaker 1: plate appearances this year after seven thirty five and twenty
• 14:44
  Speaker 1: four and six ninety six and twenty five. He has
• 14:46
  Speaker 1: sat in three of twelve games so far. I mean,
• 14:49
  Speaker 1: this is a guy who looks like he could be
• 14:51
  Speaker 1: an every year All Star. It certainly doesn't help the
• 14:54
  Speaker 1: cause if he's not going to play every day and
• 14:55
  Speaker 1: he's been in trade rumors for two years.
• 14:59
  Speaker 2: Right, it's an interesting question. And keep in mind they
• 15:02
  Speaker 2: have Duran, they have Ralphaeela, they have Anthony, they have
• 15:05
  Speaker 2: will your Abreu, they have Masataki Yoshida. Five guys for
• 15:09
  Speaker 2: essentially four spots because they use the DH for these
• 15:12
  Speaker 2: guys as well. And it's going to be a trying situation,
• 15:17
  Speaker 2: but I would expect that by the end of the
• 15:19
  Speaker 2: year it works out okay, at least if they're going
• 15:23
  Speaker 2: the way they've been going now and so far Korra
• 15:26
  Speaker 2: has done a pretty good job of getting all of
• 15:28
  Speaker 2: them in Now. Yes, Duran has fewer played appearances, but Scott,
• 15:31
  Speaker 2: you just said he's still on pace for over five hundred.
• 15:35
  Speaker 2: It's not three hundred, so I expect that ultimately, maybe
• 15:41
  Speaker 2: at the deadline they have to again look at trades.
• 15:44
  Speaker 2: But they've been pretty adamant about keeping these guys, and
• 15:47
  Speaker 2: I understand why. They're all really good players and different
• 15:49
  Speaker 2: kinds of players. But in this kind of circumstance, not
• 15:53
  Speaker 2: everyone's going to get the adbats. Maybe that they got
• 15:56
  Speaker 2: before could be advantageous in certain cases, maybe putting Durant
• 16:00
  Speaker 2: in better situations instead of playing him every day. But
• 16:05
  Speaker 2: what is going on here is going to be a
• 16:08
  Speaker 2: topic of conversation the entire season because it's a delicate situation.
• 16:13
  Speaker 2: And keep in mind, too, Scott, somebody's probably gonna get
• 16:16
  Speaker 2: hurt at some point and that will increase the number
• 16:18
  Speaker 2: of bats for the others who are healthy.
• 16:21
  Speaker 3: All right, let's go to the story he wrote about
• 16:25
  Speaker 3: or the yeah, the story he wrote about Brad Paisley
• 16:28
  Speaker 3: and how the Dodgers have another reason why it's unfair
• 16:32
  Speaker 3: because they have celebrities and artists and singers recruiting their
• 16:37
  Speaker 3: players for them. But what was your favorite part about
• 16:40
  Speaker 3: the Brad Paisley and the Pappy van Winkle getting the
• 16:43
  Speaker 3: job done? Story.
• 16:44
  Speaker 1: Wait, but hold on, Ken before you answer it, can
• 16:47
  Speaker 1: I just I just want to add sorry, because this
• 16:49
  Speaker 1: is an important part of the context for people that
• 16:51
  Speaker 1: are like, why are we bringing it up again, because
• 16:53
  Speaker 1: yesterday Brad was on Dodgers' territory and he was playing
• 16:56
  Speaker 1: out some of the stories that you wrote about.
• 16:59
  Speaker 2: Yes and this story I wrote with fabi on Ardaiya
• 17:01
  Speaker 2: from the Athletic It was before last season, I believe,
• 17:06
  Speaker 2: or maybe even the year before that. I can't remember
• 17:08
  Speaker 2: exactly when it was.
• 17:09
  Speaker 5: You could see there, Okay, well, regardless, it was after
• 17:14
  Speaker 5: their billion dollar off season. We had all these great
• 17:16
  Speaker 5: stories about what had happened and the trades that had
• 17:19
  Speaker 5: happened and signings and all that.
• 17:21
  Speaker 2: It was before Yamamoto and Glass. Now that was a yeah,
• 17:25
  Speaker 2: before their first season. So Paisley, I got him on
• 17:30
  Speaker 2: the phone and he told me about the night that
• 17:36
  Speaker 2: Dave Roberts at the entire Dodgers' front office, came to
• 17:38
  Speaker 2: his place in Nashville. The Winter meetings were in Nashville
• 17:41
  Speaker 2: that year, and it was in the middle of the
• 17:42
  Speaker 2: Winter meetings, and it was the day Dave Roberts revealed
• 17:46
  Speaker 2: that the Dodgers had met with Otani. And if you
• 17:49
  Speaker 2: guys remember at the time, everything with Otani was supposed
• 17:53
  Speaker 2: to be confidential, and Dave shouldn't have said that. It
• 17:55
  Speaker 2: shouldn't have been a big deal also, but it was
• 17:58
  Speaker 2: a big to do. So that night, after all this
• 18:02
  Speaker 2: all comes out, they go over to Paisley's house and
• 18:06
  Speaker 2: Paisley greets them at the door with glasses of Pappy
• 18:10
  Speaker 2: Van Winkle. Now, Roberts basically tells a man, I really
• 18:14
  Speaker 2: needed this, And that's how the night began. Now as
• 18:17
  Speaker 2: it evolved, there was a moment when Eric Neander, president
• 18:22
  Speaker 2: baseball Operations for the Tampa Bay Rays, called Andrew Friedman.
• 18:26
  Speaker 2: And Andrew Friedman picked up the phone, but he didn't pick
• 18:29
  Speaker 2: it up right away. He gave it to Paisley and
• 18:31
  Speaker 2: he said, this is Eric Neander. Tell him we need
• 18:34
  Speaker 2: glass now. So Paisley did that. Neander said, wait, this
• 18:38
  Speaker 2: sounds like some kind of AI generated voice of Brad Paisley.
• 18:42
  Speaker 2: And Brad Paisley said it is Brad Paisley. Long story short,
• 18:47
  Speaker 2: the Ray's front office, they all went over to Paisley's
• 18:50
  Speaker 2: house as well. Neander and Friedman talked about the deal
• 18:54
  Speaker 2: throughout the night and when Neander arrived, Paisley pointed to
• 18:59
  Speaker 2: the top shelf his bar. He's got this whole bar
• 19:01
  Speaker 2: in his house, I guess, and he said, that is
• 19:04
  Speaker 2: the good stuff right there. That's the good whiskey. That's
• 19:07
  Speaker 2: the Tyler glass. Now, deal is done. Stuff. You don't
• 19:11
  Speaker 2: get that until the deal is done. Now. It didn't
• 19:14
  Speaker 2: turn out that the deal was done that night, but
• 19:16
  Speaker 2: it was just a hilarious telling, and Brad went into
• 19:19
  Speaker 2: detail about it with Dodger Territory yesterday. I enjoyed watching
• 19:23
  Speaker 2: him recounted again because it was that was a fun
• 19:26
  Speaker 2: story to write, first of all, and just a great
• 19:30
  Speaker 2: a great night.
• 19:31
  Speaker 1: Yeah, he was awesome on the interview. Obviously, the story
• 19:34
  Speaker 1: is great. You can check it out. It's still really
• 19:37
  Speaker 1: good from Ken too. So Ken's getting disrupted there, so
• 19:42
  Speaker 1: it's just a given. It is so classic. Anyway, Ken,
• 19:46
  Speaker 1: I'll let you go. I just want to end on this.
• 19:48
  Speaker 1: Katie Wu said it's her civic duty now as a
• 19:50
  Speaker 1: journalist to find out which I held the exact face
• 19:52
  Speaker 1: planet leading Paisley's house, because he mentioned right now, I didn't.
• 19:55
  Speaker 2: Have that my story that night. I did not know
• 19:57
  Speaker 2: that detail that what Paisley said on Dodger chart or
• 20:01
  Speaker 2: was that some executive. He didn't mention whether it was
• 20:03
  Speaker 2: a raised executive or Dodgers executive. Face planted when going
• 20:08
  Speaker 2: to his uber at the end of the night. It
• 20:09
  Speaker 2: ended like at four a m. And Katie diligent reporter
• 20:13
  Speaker 2: that she is, claims or says she's going to find
• 20:16
  Speaker 2: out who that executive was, and I trust that she will.
• 20:20
  Speaker 1: Yes, that's the good stuff, the investigative journalism. All right, Ken,
• 20:24
  Speaker 1: tell the housekeeping, just keep you one moment here now
• 20:26
  Speaker 1: we're mini oh mini bar minibar. Very important especially for you. Yeah,
• 20:31
  Speaker 1: we got to make sure Ken's got all the nuts
• 20:34
  Speaker 1: and the snacks and the whatever. Ken, thank you. We'll
• 20:37
  Speaker 1: see you on Fox on Saturday for the game there.
• 20:40
  Speaker 2: Thanks guys,