Latest / Foul Territory / MLB tech enforcement crackdown in the minor leagues + A’s to-do list

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MLB tech enforcement crackdown in the minor leagues + A’s to-do list · Foul Territory

0:01
Speaker 1: Craft that's on the case. Buckle up, ladies and gentlemen.
0:08
Speaker 1: There has been a change that is flying under the radar,
0:11
Speaker 1: and we are going to bring it to your attention
0:13
Speaker 1: because it will affect your favorite baseball team and your
0:17
Speaker 1: favorite sport, which is baseball. They are going to centralize
0:20
Speaker 1: all in game data and technology in the minor leagues,
0:25
Speaker 1: just like they have done in the major leagues. This
0:28
Speaker 1: article coming out from you Know Cyrus. We also hit
0:30
Speaker 1: this topic on Baseball America Hot Sheet, which is on
0:33
Speaker 1: the Baseball America YouTube channel. You can check that out
0:35
Speaker 1: at some point. But beginning next season, MLB is going
0:38
Speaker 1: to regulate the technology in game that is available for
0:41
Speaker 1: use across all minor league parks.
0:43
Speaker 2: I want to make.
0:44
Speaker 1: Sure I clarify this doesn't have to do with sign
0:48
Speaker 1: stealing and all that kind.
0:49
Speaker 2: Of stuff, right.
0:50
Speaker 1: This has to do with what innovations come to our
0:53
Speaker 1: sport and how teams can take advantage of that. This
0:56
Speaker 1: often creates advantages for those small market teams who do
1:00
Speaker 1: invest back into their club. I'm going to leave it
1:03
Speaker 1: at that. Although an MLB spokesperson wrote in a statement
1:06
Speaker 1: confirming the change, quote, we are taking the step to
1:08
Speaker 1: ensure that all thirty clubs are working with the same
1:11
Speaker 1: set of information as they make baseball operations decisions. Each
1:15
Speaker 1: club can use that info however they say fit, But
1:17
Speaker 1: it is important that we provide a level playing field
1:20
Speaker 1: on access to information.
1:23
Speaker 3: Crafts on the case trash statement by that MLB official,
1:28
Speaker 3: because that is not the genesis of this. If the
1:31
Speaker 3: genesis of playing major league baseball, which is minor league
1:35
Speaker 3: baseball coming up through the minor leagues, is to make
1:38
Speaker 3: the best players you can possibly make in your minor
1:40
Speaker 3: league system to make your big league teams win. The
1:43
Speaker 3: genesis of the reason for this is control. Major League
1:47
Speaker 3: Baseball wants control of Gee. I wonder what players values are. Well,
1:52
Speaker 3: somebody has kind of text, somebody has skin a text,
1:55
Speaker 3: somebody has this tech, somebody has that tech.
1:59
Speaker 4: We're all of across the board.
2:01
Speaker 3: But if we can centralize it now, we can lock
2:04
Speaker 3: in one value for a certain demographic sets position of player,
2:12
Speaker 3: so that everybody across the league knows exactly how much
2:16
Speaker 3: you should value that player wise, So they're essentially controlling
2:21
Speaker 3: players value, which people will say, who cares in the
2:25
Speaker 3: minor leagues? You know, good minor league players make it
2:27
Speaker 3: to the big leagues. You're right, but there's also a
2:31
Speaker 3: lot of biometrical stuff that people are taking and understanding
2:35
Speaker 3: that that value. Oh, this guy's really not that great
2:38
Speaker 3: even though he's in the minor leagues. All of a sudden,
2:40
Speaker 3: no teams are trading for that type of player. All
2:43
Speaker 3: of a sudden, everybody has the same evaluations on everybody,
2:47
Speaker 3: and it's a way that they can control it. I
2:50
Speaker 3: heard this said by a big league VET when I
2:53
Speaker 3: was in the minor leagues. Let your play on the
2:56
Speaker 3: field show what you can do. The pictures in the
3:00
Speaker 3: MRI scans, not the fact that the organization I was
3:04
Speaker 3: with at the time was giving out wearables like a watch,
3:10
Speaker 3: like a whoop type of thing, or it wasn't Apple
3:13
Speaker 3: Watch at that time, and they were giving them to
3:15
Speaker 3: the players. He's like, they're not doing it to make
3:18
Speaker 3: you better. They're doing it to monitor you. They're doing
3:21
Speaker 3: it just like an insurance company says, ooh, you can
3:25
Speaker 3: be a safe driver if you just install this.
3:29
Speaker 4: No, they're going to hike your rates up unless you.
3:32
Speaker 3: Unless you drive at the exact way that they're going
3:35
Speaker 3: to have for the lowest rates. It's exactly with players.
3:38
Speaker 3: They're doing this to control the player, and you have
3:41
Speaker 3: one career. KP knows this, Every player that's ever played
3:46
Speaker 3: knows this. You have one career. And if a team
3:48
Speaker 3: knows what's going on inside your shoulder, inside your elbow,
3:52
Speaker 3: if a team knows every single day that you know,
3:56
Speaker 3: your bat lags a little bit behind on this. Well,
3:59
Speaker 3: you did hit three thirty, you did hit twenty homers,
4:02
Speaker 3: but I don't know.
4:05
Speaker 4: Your value isn't that much.
4:06
Speaker 3: It's a way to squash the value of players, along
4:10
Speaker 3: with other things too.
4:13
Speaker 5: Yeah, I mean, I agree with everything you're saying, and
4:15
Speaker 5: I think in addition to that, I hate the fact
4:18
Speaker 5: that they're trying to take away some sort of competitive
4:21
Speaker 5: advantage that some teams have when they do invest into
4:25
Speaker 5: their minor league organizations. As someone much like Ukratz, at
4:30
Speaker 5: some point in your career, much like myself, when you
4:33
Speaker 5: were an established big leaguer and you have to take
4:36
Speaker 5: a minor league deal, you kind of go down a
4:38
Speaker 5: list of teams where you feel like they have a
4:41
Speaker 5: track record of making guys better. I had to do
4:44
Speaker 5: that after the two thousand, twenty twenty one season with
4:49
Speaker 5: the Mets. I had to sign a minor league deal
4:51
Speaker 5: I chose to go with the Dodgers. I could have
4:53
Speaker 5: picked any minor league team to go in, and I
4:55
Speaker 5: probably had a better opportunity to make the big league
4:58
Speaker 5: team with pretty much any team besides the Dodgers. But
5:01
Speaker 5: I love the way that they presented their case to
5:05
Speaker 5: me about look at these list of players that we've
5:08
Speaker 5: had in our minor league systems. These are the things
5:10
Speaker 5: that we offer that not all these other teams offer.
5:12
Speaker 5: We feel like we can maximize you as a player
5:16
Speaker 5: because of the things that we invested in, the way
5:20
Speaker 5: that we're able to break down the information, the way
5:23
Speaker 5: that we've invested in all these different areas to make
5:26
Speaker 5: you the best version of yourself. I just hate that
5:29
Speaker 5: they're making that a blanket statement because it is a
5:32
Speaker 5: competitive advantage. Yes, teams want to go out and spend
5:36
Speaker 5: money and buy the best free agents on the market.
5:38
Speaker 5: Teams want to draft and develop the best guys. But
5:41
Speaker 5: there's also another component of it is when you get
5:43
Speaker 5: these guys into your minor league system, or you get
5:46
Speaker 5: guys that were kind of on the fringe, you know,
5:48
Speaker 5: had a cup of coffee that hadn't really made it,
5:51
Speaker 5: but they see something in it, much like Mike Soroka
5:53
Speaker 5: was talking about with you know, certain players or certain
5:58
Speaker 5: things or certain resources that certain teams have that are
6:01
Speaker 5: going to, you know, maximize a player's value. And I
6:05
Speaker 5: really hate that they're making this a blanket statement for
6:07
Speaker 5: all teams. And more importantly, I hate that we ultimately
6:12
Speaker 5: know this is a way of suppressing player's value. If
6:16
Speaker 5: you can put everyone into a certain box, it just
6:18
Speaker 5: makes things that much tougher for players to be an
6:22
Speaker 5: outlier or to kind of navigate their own way or
6:25
Speaker 5: carve their own path.
6:26
Speaker 4: And I just I hate everything about it.
6:31
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6:33
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6:36
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7:32
Speaker 3: I wish I would have said this first, because some
7:34
Speaker 3: people don't listen to an entire entire segment. But if
7:38
Speaker 3: you want to hear one thing, listen to this. KP
7:41
Speaker 3: brought up the Dodgers, and people will be like, oh, great,
7:44
Speaker 3: Dodgers are spending more than everybody else. Here is where
7:47
Speaker 3: the Milwaukee Brewers, the Cleveland Guardians when I played for them,
7:52
Speaker 3: they were the Indians, the Pittsburgh Pirates. I know people
7:56
Speaker 3: will say, all the pirates. You're going to bag on
7:58
Speaker 3: the pirates. All these teams invested in tech that gave
8:03
Speaker 3: them an advantage because of how they used it. Now
8:06
Speaker 3: the pirates didn't use it as well. The Guardians and
8:10
Speaker 3: the Brewers used it so.
8:13
Speaker 4: Well a piece of tech.
8:14
Speaker 3: I'll tell you about one system that costs two hundred
8:17
Speaker 3: and fifty thousand dollars for an organization. Two hundred and
8:20
Speaker 3: fifty thousand dollars for an organization, that could be a steep,
8:23
Speaker 3: steep price. Now, all of a sudden, if you can
8:25
Speaker 3: implement that in your minor leagues, you create one big
8:29
Speaker 3: league player. Obviously, these players are gonna happen not no
8:33
Speaker 3: matter what. But let's say this system helps one big
8:35
Speaker 3: league player. You pay a big league player the minimum
8:39
Speaker 3: seven hundred and twenty thousand dollars that system paid for itself.
8:43
Speaker 3: To me, for Major League Baseball to say we want
8:45
Speaker 3: an even playing field is trash, and it is definitely
8:50
Speaker 3: something that they want to push their own agenda on
8:54
Speaker 3: because if they really looked into it, teams like the Guardians,
8:58
Speaker 3: teams like the Brewers, they're okay spending that much because
9:02
Speaker 3: they see the value in the things on the fringes
9:06
Speaker 3: because they're not going to go out and get the
9:08
Speaker 3: twenty million dollar player. They're not going to go out
9:10
Speaker 3: and get the long term extension for three guys on
9:13
Speaker 3: their roster. The Guardians, this is not tech. But the
9:16
Speaker 3: Guardians said, you know what, we're going to hire a
9:20
Speaker 3: full time chef. That full time chef is going to
9:23
Speaker 3: be down in Surprise, I'm sorry, in Goodyear, at their facility,
9:29
Speaker 3: their big league spring training and their minor league spring
9:31
Speaker 3: training facility, and he's going to teach guys how to
9:34
Speaker 3: eat healthy, how to he's going to take them out
9:38
Speaker 3: to the grocery store to buy the products that they're
9:41
Speaker 3: going to buy to cook, to help them reduce inflammation,
9:45
Speaker 3: sleep better, recover better, all those things. What is that
9:49
Speaker 3: investment two hundred thousand dollars at the max when you're
9:53
Speaker 3: talking about hiring a full time professional chef to teach
9:56
Speaker 3: these guys. It's like the difference in get having a
10:00
Speaker 3: man of fish or teaching a man how to fish,
10:03
Speaker 3: which one feeds him for a lifetime. That's where I
10:06
Speaker 3: think Major League Baseball is sadly mistaken. If they want
10:09
Speaker 3: us to believe the fact that, oh, we're making this,
10:13
Speaker 3: we're making this an even playing field, save it. If
10:17
Speaker 3: the teams aren't doing this little extra stuff, good riddance.
10:21
Speaker 3: We'll see at fourth place in your division every single year.
10:25
Speaker 1: On Baseball America, we talked about how this is very
10:28
Speaker 1: helpful for college programs. They're not going to have this
10:30
Speaker 1: regulated in the college scene. You're going to have more
10:33
Speaker 1: and more players go to college baseball, which might be
10:35
Speaker 1: what MLB wants. It creates a free minor league system
10:38
Speaker 1: for them, So that is part of this that does
10:41
Speaker 1: enhance the college baseball world. Just small side joke I
10:45
Speaker 1: have to throw in there before I get back on
10:47
Speaker 1: the serious side.
10:47
Speaker 2: Are we going to regulate air conditioning too? Like?
10:51
Speaker 1: I mean, while we're at it, right, everybody should have
10:53
Speaker 1: a C and a guy who's working on that at
10:56
Speaker 1: all times. Is just funny how we're pointing to something
10:59
Speaker 1: that some teams clearly invest in and it helps their
11:02
Speaker 1: players directly. And it's not something that is just linear
11:05
Speaker 1: with the big market teams. Right, the Angels spend more
11:08
Speaker 1: money than many teams on player payroll, yet they have
11:11
Speaker 1: been known to not spend on things like this, hence
11:14
Speaker 1: the air conditioning joke. But it's not just that the
11:18
Speaker 1: Rockies have been known for this for a long time. Shocker,
11:21
Speaker 1: the Rockies have been in the Stone Age and now
11:23
Speaker 1: they're bringing people in to try and fix that. So
11:26
Speaker 1: this is where the conversations happen. And there's a business
11:29
Speaker 1: component to this too, if you want to add to
11:31
Speaker 1: the conspiracy theory, that has some good insight behind it
11:35
Speaker 1: and research. When a tech company or data company now presents,
11:40
Speaker 1: it's going to be presenting for the entire league.
11:43
Speaker 2: Right, It's like state run TV kind of situation. You
11:46
Speaker 2: can choose.
11:47
Speaker 1: Your political pathway to come up with a comp I'll
11:50
Speaker 1: let you do that on your own, but you present it.
11:54
Speaker 1: Most likely if one of those companies wants to give
11:57
Speaker 1: a great deal to the league and give them equity
11:59
Speaker 1: and all of that, they will win out, even if
12:01
Speaker 1: they're not the best. And so instead of going to
12:03
Speaker 1: an individual team and creating more of a free marketplace
12:06
Speaker 1: and essentially capitalism, you are doing what socialism, communism, whatever
12:12
Speaker 1: you want to call it. Right, that is the direction
12:14
Speaker 1: that you're going here. And sometimes, sure you want to
12:17
Speaker 1: make a case that it works fine for the sport, okay,
12:19
Speaker 1: But in this particular case, it just hurts innovation in
12:21
Speaker 1: our sports. It's ridiculous. Anyone of the last thought on this, Yeah,
12:26
Speaker 1: I mean.
12:26
Speaker 5: I just think about what the Blue Jays had done
12:28
Speaker 5: with their spring training facility. I mean, it's a big
12:31
Speaker 5: reason people are wanting to go there. The team decided
12:34
Speaker 5: they wanted to invest in their spring training facility to
12:37
Speaker 5: give the players all the resources to be better, and
12:40
Speaker 5: you're seeing it pay off. So what was the next step?
12:43
Speaker 5: Everyone has to have similar complexes, facilities, et cetera, et cetera.
12:49
Speaker 5: I hate it.
12:50
Speaker 1: Yep, exactly exactly where is the line here? Where do
12:55
Speaker 1: we go from here? Everyone has to have the same everything. Yeah,
12:58
Speaker 1: And I mean my question is, right as just a
13:01
Speaker 1: fan who just wants the best players and the coolest
13:04
Speaker 1: shit in terms of innovation, is there any way to
13:08
Speaker 1: fight this? I mean, the fans never can fight anything,
13:10
Speaker 1: but I'm saying players like this isn't something that they
13:13
Speaker 1: can bargain. I didn't realize that you can just create
13:16
Speaker 1: whatever you want. Right to me, this feels like a rule.
13:18
Speaker 1: I know it's not an on field rule, but it's
13:20
Speaker 1: a regulation. And the minor leagues are unionized. Now, I mean,
13:24
Speaker 1: I guess, you know, I could check with league and
13:26
Speaker 1: with union officials.
13:27
Speaker 2: But can they not fight this.
13:31
Speaker 3: I don't know how they can because they're just implementing this.
13:34
Speaker 3: This is they're going to say it's a infrastructure type
13:37
Speaker 3: of thing, and it's not directly affecting players because it's
13:40
Speaker 3: organizational rules.
13:42
Speaker 4: Like it's not like.
13:45
Speaker 3: I feel like without and I'm not you know, I'm
13:47
Speaker 3: not the legal team of the MLBPA, but I feel
13:51
Speaker 3: like it's something that is very It's some tech is
13:54
Speaker 3: something that has hit when we talk about a players association. Hey,
13:59
Speaker 3: make sure whatever tech you're using, you know you you say, yes,
14:04
Speaker 3: you know, I know what this is and I want
14:06
Speaker 3: to use it. Like it's not like there's no mandatory tech.
14:10
Speaker 3: The issue is basically Baseball doesn't care because they know
14:14
Speaker 3: every single one of these players right now is going
14:16
Speaker 3: to be gone and every single team is still going
14:19
Speaker 3: to be around. So they're making implementations that will streamline
14:24
Speaker 3: things for themselves and will and we'll give them the
14:28
Speaker 3: evaluation of the next layer of players, the next group
14:32
Speaker 3: of players that comes through because and as players, you
14:35
Speaker 3: need to be able to stand up and fight for this.
14:37
Speaker 3: But you're not gonna be able to go and buy
14:38
Speaker 3: your own Hawkeye system to get your data, your biometric
14:42
Speaker 3: data that's at stadiums, Like there's there's a lot of
14:47
Speaker 3: there's just a lot of things that you got to
14:49
Speaker 3: make sure you know as a player, are benefiting you
14:54
Speaker 3: and some things that are inhibiting your value throughout your
14:59
Speaker 3: very very short, finite career.
15:01
Speaker 1: I'll finish with this because I think this can relate
15:03
Speaker 1: to almost anyone. Almost anyone believes in jobs.
15:06
Speaker 2: Right.
15:06
Speaker 1: You want your fellow citizens, friends, colleagues, et cetera, to
15:10
Speaker 1: a jobs. So let me relate it because I just
15:12
Speaker 1: was at the Winter meetings and I spoke to many
15:15
Speaker 1: people that work for teams.
15:17
Speaker 2: The more data video analysis that.
15:19
Speaker 1: We've had, the less jobs because sometimes they're like, oh,
15:22
Speaker 1: we can just use our system. A centralized system actually
15:25
Speaker 1: creates even less jobs because they're all playing with the
15:28
Speaker 1: same numbers. There's no innovation there, so it just completely
15:31
Speaker 1: takes away jobs. That is a direct correlation. That is
15:33
Speaker 1: a guarantee. That is a promise, the number one thing
15:37
Speaker 1: that I can promise you out of all of this,
15:38
Speaker 1: even if you don't care about the player innovation. You
15:40
Speaker 1: want every team to have the same everything, right, Every
15:42
Speaker 1: team spends the same ballpark, Everything looks the same in life.
15:46
Speaker 2: Right.
15:47
Speaker 1: It eliminates jobs guaranteed. And if we had innovation, it
15:55
Speaker 1: would create jobs, period. That's what it is. Sure there's
15:58
Speaker 1: other tech and things that are going to happen. This
15:59
Speaker 1: isn't like an anti tech thing. This is saying you're
16:02
Speaker 1: only allowed to use this one tech, this one data company,
16:06
Speaker 1: instead of having the option of ten, instead of hiring
16:08
Speaker 1: another person to be able to figure this out for you.
16:11
Speaker 1: That part should be important to almost anyone if you
16:14
Speaker 1: believe in jobs. Let's do some shopping for the A's.
16:25
Speaker 1: I know it sounds weird sometimes, but they did a
16:26
Speaker 1: little bit of shopping last year. Melissa Lockert from the
16:29
Speaker 1: Athletic joining us right now, does fantastic work check out
16:32
Speaker 1: or work over there at the Athletic.
16:33
Speaker 2: Well, it's it great to see you, and yeah, let's
16:36
Speaker 2: lay out your list of what.
16:37
Speaker 1: You think the A's could and should do the rest
16:39
Speaker 1: of the way here before spring training.
16:41
Speaker 6: Yeah, it's nice to see you too.
16:43
Speaker 7: I think it's a pretty similar list to last year.
16:46
Speaker 7: You know, they beat pitching pitching and more pitching, but
16:49
Speaker 7: starting pitching, I think first relief pitching. Obviously they don't
16:52
Speaker 7: have Mason Miller anymore. The bullpen still did okay after
16:56
Speaker 7: he left, but obviously you still got to figure that out.
16:58
Speaker 7: And then they've got opening he said, third base and
17:00
Speaker 7: second base. They haven't found their absolute final solution in
17:04
Speaker 7: either of those spots yet. So if there's kind of
17:06
Speaker 7: a free agent there that they can get maybe on
17:08
Speaker 7: a pillow deal that would fit while some of their
17:11
Speaker 7: younger guys come through the system.
17:13
Speaker 6: I think that'd be a great fit.
17:15
Speaker 4: All right.
17:15
Speaker 3: Well, last year they were at this moment and Louis
17:18
Speaker 3: Severino got the tour of Sacramento.
17:20
Speaker 4: Louis Severino came in and took pictures. WHOA, I love
17:24
Speaker 4: what they're going to be doing here. Three years, we're
17:26
Speaker 4: going to be out of here.
17:27
Speaker 3: I'll take a three year deal, and part way through
17:30
Speaker 3: the year he says, dang, this mound sucks. I can't
17:33
Speaker 3: throw here. It's too hard. Other people are coming and
17:36
Speaker 3: his numbers said it. How do they call how do
17:39
Speaker 3: they call starting pitchers and say, hey, come on over.
17:43
Speaker 3: Louis Severino is lying, we fixed the mound.
17:46
Speaker 4: Oh, but it is.
17:47
Speaker 3: Still going to be one hundred and ten degrees in
17:49
Speaker 3: front of six thousand fans. How do they sell this
17:52
Speaker 3: starting pitching to truly make an upgrade to a team
17:55
Speaker 3: that I feel like did make a little bit of
17:58
Speaker 3: a jump, even though they got red of Mason mill
18:00
Speaker 3: Are now, so you're really banking on what they got
18:02
Speaker 3: back in that trade.
18:05
Speaker 7: Yeah, you know, it's actually it's interesting they can't answer
18:08
Speaker 7: most of those questions.
18:09
Speaker 6: They did.
18:09
Speaker 7: However, they are building a room next to the dugout
18:13
Speaker 7: for pitchers to go in in between innings, so that
18:16
Speaker 7: they can have somewhere to go where they would you know,
18:18
Speaker 7: typically go into a clubhouse to collect themselves when they're
18:22
Speaker 7: not on the mound, which was something that Severino specifically
18:25
Speaker 7: asked for. So I suppose they could kind of say
18:27
Speaker 7: that they are responsive in some ways, but it's a
18:29
Speaker 7: tough sell. I mean, no denying it as easy as
18:32
Speaker 7: a sell as it was to pitch at the Coliseum.
18:34
Speaker 7: Given the you know, the way that that pitchers were
18:36
Speaker 7: able to get away with a lot there, it's the
18:38
Speaker 7: exact opposite.
18:39
Speaker 6: In this situation.
18:41
Speaker 7: So they're going to be looking for someone who is
18:43
Speaker 7: you know, looking for a short term deal, maybe a
18:46
Speaker 7: way to kind of pitch halfway through the year and
18:48
Speaker 7: then get traded to a contending team. I think that's
18:50
Speaker 7: probably their best bet. I wouldn't look at too many
18:53
Speaker 7: long term solutions there, but you know, they also have
18:56
Speaker 7: some younger arms coming up, so that wouldn't be the
18:59
Speaker 7: worst way to get through a season would be to
19:01
Speaker 7: kind of bring somebody in who could get them through
19:04
Speaker 7: to July, maybe pitch well enough at least on the
19:07
Speaker 7: road to convince another team that they'd be worth acquiring.
19:10
Speaker 7: And then you bring up a Gauge Jump or even
19:13
Speaker 7: the Jamie Arnold who they took in the first round
19:14
Speaker 7: last year, and start to see maybe where this rotation
19:17
Speaker 7: is actually going to go in the future.
19:19
Speaker 5: All right, where do they go for getting guys to
19:22
Speaker 5: play second and third base? And do they have any
19:24
Speaker 5: internal options?
19:27
Speaker 6: Yeah?
19:27
Speaker 7: I mean, you know, Zach Geloff had one of the
19:30
Speaker 7: weirdest years ever. I mean, he had this great spring,
19:32
Speaker 7: looked like he was kind of kind of get back
19:33
Speaker 7: to the way he was his rookie year, and then
19:35
Speaker 7: breaks his handmaate bone, maybe two days before the end
19:38
Speaker 7: of spring training and just never got back on track.
19:40
Speaker 7: He ended up with a rib injury before he came back.
19:43
Speaker 7: Then he came back and he really wasn't right, got back,
19:45
Speaker 7: sent back down, looked a little like himself for a bit,
19:49
Speaker 7: and then I think, you know, it just never came
19:51
Speaker 7: together before the end of the year. But he's still
19:53
Speaker 7: their best defender at second, still has that potential there
19:57
Speaker 7: you know, Brett Harris and Darryl Hell and I both
20:00
Speaker 7: shared you know, some time at second and third. Max Munsey,
20:04
Speaker 7: the former first round pick, is also in the mix there.
20:07
Speaker 7: But there's just nobody that you can point to and
20:09
Speaker 7: say for sure this is the guy that's going to
20:10
Speaker 7: be able to cover that void for them.
20:12
Speaker 3: Wrong, are there because all of these needs can be Yes,
20:16
Speaker 3: they can be filled with trade. Yes, it can be
20:18
Speaker 3: the one year deal. Are there any spending mandates? Kind
20:21
Speaker 3: of last year? Obviously it was the quiet secret that
20:24
Speaker 3: they had to spend this money, but they had to.
20:27
Speaker 4: Are there mandates?
20:28
Speaker 3: Are they short of that and they have to come
20:31
Speaker 3: to you know, a certain number?
20:33
Speaker 4: And if you know what that number is, what is it?
20:36
Speaker 6: Yeah, don't.
20:37
Speaker 7: I don't know what the number is specifically. I do
20:39
Speaker 7: know they've been in talks with some of their younger
20:42
Speaker 7: players about extensions and that may be the best way
20:45
Speaker 7: for them to get to whatever number it might be.
20:48
Speaker 6: You know.
20:49
Speaker 7: Also, I think if they bring in a free agent,
20:51
Speaker 7: they're going to overpay him. You know, Mark Lighter Junior
20:53
Speaker 7: signed a three million dollar deal after being non tendered
20:56
Speaker 7: for a year. That might have been a bit of
20:58
Speaker 7: an overpay compared to what he would have gotten in
21:00
Speaker 7: a different situation.
21:02
Speaker 6: You know, obviously, Severino.
21:03
Speaker 7: I think got a much more handsome contract than he
21:05
Speaker 7: would have gotten. So you may see a little bit
21:07
Speaker 7: of that, but I wouldn't be surprised if you saw
21:10
Speaker 7: some of that money going towards extending and Nick Kurtz
21:13
Speaker 7: and Jacob Wilson, Tyler Soderstrom, shayl Angeliers like those are
21:17
Speaker 7: the kind of targets that would make a lot more
21:19
Speaker 7: sense for them because those are the guys that you
21:21
Speaker 7: can already convince to be there because they're there already.
21:25
Speaker 5: Yeah, to piggyback on some of those names, you just
21:27
Speaker 5: mentioned someone who spent the last two years of his
21:30
Speaker 5: career in the same division as the A's. I love
21:34
Speaker 5: their young core players. I think they have potential to
21:37
Speaker 5: build something really special there. When do you kind of
21:40
Speaker 5: see their window of taking off? Is it going to
21:43
Speaker 5: kind of lead into the new stadium? Is when they're
21:45
Speaker 5: really going to kind of push all their chips in
21:47
Speaker 5: the table, try to sign these guys up long enough
21:50
Speaker 5: to make that transition to Las Vegas.
21:53
Speaker 7: Yeah, you know, chips on the table is going to
21:55
Speaker 7: be a good metaphor for them.
21:56
Speaker 6: When they when they make that move.
21:58
Speaker 7: But you know, I mean, I think they they have
22:01
Speaker 7: built a nice lineup corps. I think Lawrence Butler as
22:04
Speaker 7: well is a really important part of that whole mix.
22:07
Speaker 7: Brent Brooker will be around. I think he's guy who's
22:09
Speaker 7: you know, skill set, should age pretty well, and you
22:13
Speaker 7: know as a leader, he's he's a really important part
22:15
Speaker 7: of that mix. So the core of the lineup is
22:17
Speaker 7: really there, but the pitching still remains a huge kind
22:20
Speaker 7: of mess in a huge puzzle. At the moment, they
22:23
Speaker 7: hadn't really invested a lot in draft capital on pitching
22:26
Speaker 7: in the upper round in in the last you know,
22:30
Speaker 7: decade or so really, and their pitching had really fallen
22:32
Speaker 7: off developmental wise. But the last couple of years they've
22:35
Speaker 7: they've invested a little bit more. I think they're seeing
22:38
Speaker 7: more returns there. You saw Luis Morales come up and
22:41
Speaker 7: pitch pretty well. There's some other guys that might factor
22:45
Speaker 7: in there. The guys they acquired from the Padres in
22:48
Speaker 7: the Mason Miller deal, you know, could factor in as
22:50
Speaker 7: well there too, But it's just going to be hard
22:52
Speaker 7: to know how to transition guys pitching in a difficult
22:56
Speaker 7: environment in Triple A in Las Vegas, then coming up
22:58
Speaker 7: to Sacramento Sacramento and pitching in another difficult environment. It's
23:02
Speaker 7: almost similar to the Rockies, I think in a lot
23:04
Speaker 7: of ways. And until they figure out that pitching part,
23:07
Speaker 7: it's a little hard to know exactly when it's all
23:09
Speaker 7: going to come together, because you know, at the moment,
23:11
Speaker 7: I was kind of thinking, you know, it's a very
23:13
Speaker 7: similar team to like those mid nineties A's teams that
23:16
Speaker 7: was post Dynasty, where they had McGuire and Steinbach and
23:19
Speaker 7: all those big sluggers, and they were kind of fun
23:22
Speaker 7: to watch, but they were just like six runs given
23:24
Speaker 7: up every game, and you know, it's hard to build
23:27
Speaker 7: a sustainable winning pattern. And the only way they were
23:30
Speaker 7: able to turn that corner is when Tim Hudson, Mark
23:32
Speaker 7: Mulder and Barry Zito kind of came on the scene
23:34
Speaker 7: and gave them a pitching identity. So once they have
23:37
Speaker 7: a pitching identity, I think you'll see it come together
23:39
Speaker 7: pretty quickly.
23:40
Speaker 3: I got to hit the extensions because obviously low Dog's
23:44
Speaker 3: in Rookers In. Who of those guys that you mentioned
23:48
Speaker 3: are the guys that really kind of fit that like window,
23:53
Speaker 3: It has to be obviously a really good player. Obviously,
23:56
Speaker 3: it can't be too expensive. Is Nick Kurt's pas is?
24:02
Speaker 3: You know, is there somebody that fits right into that
24:04
Speaker 3: window that says, okay, you know what with rope, with
24:07
Speaker 3: law Dog, We're going to push these guys as our
24:09
Speaker 3: billboards in the four years from now when we move
24:13
Speaker 3: into Las Vegas.
24:15
Speaker 7: Yeah, I mean, I think Nick Kurtz is probably the
24:18
Speaker 7: number one guy there. I think what he does is
24:21
Speaker 7: what has always fit what they like. You know, he's patient,
24:25
Speaker 7: he really understands what he wants to do when he's
24:27
Speaker 7: at the plate. I think he did some things that
24:30
Speaker 7: you know, hint towards even getting better as a hitter
24:32
Speaker 7: and as a defender. I don't think he showed how
24:34
Speaker 7: good of a defender he can be at all last year,
24:36
Speaker 7: but you saw it in the college ranks that he's
24:38
Speaker 7: actually a pretty good defensive first baseman, you know. And
24:41
Speaker 7: Matt Olsen was a guy they should have built around
24:43
Speaker 7: right like this, That was a guy that if you
24:45
Speaker 7: had a different ownership situation, he'd still be with the
24:48
Speaker 7: A's and kind of being their centerpiece. And I think,
24:51
Speaker 7: you know, Kurtz has a lot of similar characteristics to
24:54
Speaker 7: Matt Olsen doesn't have the durability yet, but I think,
24:57
Speaker 7: you know, hopefully for him, we'll get there.
24:59
Speaker 6: But he he's definitely one of those guys.
25:02
Speaker 7: They absolutely love Shalle Angeliers. It's tough to build around
25:05
Speaker 7: a catcher, and especially ketcher who plays as much as
25:08
Speaker 7: Shaye does, but you know his leadership and and his
25:12
Speaker 7: you know, ability to hit well above what you know
25:14
Speaker 7: a catcher. I mean, if you cal Rally's not in
25:16
Speaker 7: the division, you're talking a lot more about Shallee Engeliers.
25:19
Speaker 7: It's the best hitting catcher in the als.
25:21
Speaker 6: So though you know, I.
25:23
Speaker 7: Could see something getting done there, it's just tougher with
25:25
Speaker 7: a catcher to sort of.
25:26
Speaker 6: Project what what that would be.
25:28
Speaker 7: And then so some sort of an interesting one because
25:32
Speaker 7: you know the fact that he was so willing to
25:34
Speaker 7: move positions and he you know, he did a really
25:36
Speaker 7: good job with it. I think showed a lot about him,
25:39
Speaker 7: you know, as as a person and what he was
25:41
Speaker 7: willing to do for the team there. And you know,
25:44
Speaker 7: obviously as a hitter he brings a lot to the
25:46
Speaker 7: lineup as well.
25:47
Speaker 3: Now that was that was honestly who I was gonna
25:50
Speaker 3: ask about Shye Langeliers.
25:52
Speaker 4: Why is it tough to build around a catcher.
25:55
Speaker 3: How wrong Salvador Perez, Will Smith, J Muto in Philadelphia?
26:01
Speaker 3: Like teams, that's what teams do, They build around a catcher.
26:05
Speaker 3: Why would the A's be reticent to do that? Like
26:07
Speaker 3: are they afraid of injury? Like this is one of
26:10
Speaker 3: the I think he's right outside of top five in
26:14
Speaker 3: the league. But I think he has the ability because
26:17
Speaker 3: he throws, he blocks, it's receiving, could you know, to
26:20
Speaker 3: get him to that consistent all star elite status? But
26:24
Speaker 3: to me, that's the guy because you need a catcher.
26:27
Speaker 3: Every team needs a catcher. That's why there's none on
26:29
Speaker 3: the free agent market.
26:30
Speaker 7: Yeah, no, I agree with you. I think the one
26:32
Speaker 7: concern is you look at the guy that he replaced
26:35
Speaker 7: in Sean Murphy, and how quickly playing as many games
26:39
Speaker 7: as he played, has accumulated injuries there, and so maybe
26:42
Speaker 7: there's some sense of risk. There's also like Shay's a
26:44
Speaker 7: lot closer into free agency and if there's another place
26:47
Speaker 7: he'd want to go, it may be harder to convince
26:50
Speaker 7: him to sign too. I think that that factors him.
26:52
Speaker 7: And you're looking at a guy like Kurtz who's got
26:54
Speaker 7: you know, five more years, six more years with the organization.
26:57
Speaker 7: If he doesn't sign an extension, no matter what, it's
27:00
Speaker 7: a lot easier, I think, to go in there and say, hey,
27:02
Speaker 7: let's sell you on our future here.
27:03
Speaker 6: Because you're here.
27:04
Speaker 7: You're here regardless, so you know that's it. But as
27:08
Speaker 7: I say, I mean, you cannot find anyone in that
27:10
Speaker 7: organization that doesn't think the world of shayl Angeliers. So
27:13
Speaker 7: it wouldn't shock me if he was a guy that
27:15
Speaker 7: they that they were able.
27:16
Speaker 6: To come to terms with.
27:17
Speaker 7: But I think that the position and also just how
27:20
Speaker 7: close he is to free agency, you know, would be
27:22
Speaker 7: the two factors that maybe would make it a little
27:24
Speaker 7: less likely.
27:26
Speaker 1: Hey, this team finished pretty well down the stretch. They
27:29
Speaker 1: had just a garbage month and change where it was
27:35
Speaker 1: almost incredible how everything was going wrong for them, And
27:39
Speaker 1: of course the pitching was in shambles during that time period.
27:42
Speaker 2: Happens to go down during this early part of.
27:44
Speaker 1: The season, Melissa, so it knocks out the care and
27:48
Speaker 1: the fight for fans to pay attention to for the
27:51
Speaker 1: rest of the way. Anyway, my question is how far
27:54
Speaker 1: away do you think they are from playoff contention?
27:57
Speaker 2: It doesn't seem like they're.
27:58
Speaker 1: Going to do major moves this offseason, but can they
28:03
Speaker 1: compete for a wildcard spot? If we wipe away that
28:06
Speaker 1: one month, which you absolutely cannot do, they would have
28:09
Speaker 1: been in the mix.
28:10
Speaker 7: Yeah, I know, I hate to sound like a broken record.
28:14
Speaker 7: I think it comes down to pitching. And it's always
28:16
Speaker 7: come down to pitching.
28:17
Speaker 2: You know.
28:17
Speaker 7: With the A's traditionally the hittings, they are to be
28:20
Speaker 7: a wildcard team. You know, it's like it can compete
28:23
Speaker 7: with the Cincinnati Reds type lineup with you know, some
28:26
Speaker 7: of those guys, those those teams that you see get
28:28
Speaker 7: that last wildcard spot. I think the lineup is in
28:31
Speaker 7: good enough shape to get there because I think a
28:33
Speaker 7: lot of those younger guys are only going to get better.
28:36
Speaker 7: But you can't have pitching as volatile as they had
28:41
Speaker 7: last year, and and like you said, everything sort of
28:44
Speaker 7: fell apart all at once and snowballed, and you know,
28:47
Speaker 7: maybe they learned from that and maybe that doesn't happen
28:49
Speaker 7: this year. But I think that's what tends to happen
28:51
Speaker 7: when you don't have a lot of veteran anchors and
28:55
Speaker 7: either in a rotation or a bullpen. Is that just
28:57
Speaker 7: things tend to snowball, and so avoiding the snowball is
29:01
Speaker 7: probably you know, where they would have to get to
29:04
Speaker 7: to get to that, and they just haven't been able
29:06
Speaker 7: to find that consistency yet. You know that said, I mean,
29:09
Speaker 7: for all of Savorino's complaints, he now knows what he's
29:11
Speaker 7: dealing with when he gets to the ballpark. Maybe his
29:14
Speaker 7: you know, e Ra drops a run or two at
29:17
Speaker 7: home this year, and he pitches just as well as
29:19
Speaker 7: he did on the road, and that makes a difference.
29:21
Speaker 7: You know, down the bullpen showed a lot after Mason
29:23
Speaker 7: Miller was traded and that they actually were pretty good
29:25
Speaker 7: as a unit. There's a lot of guys that can
29:28
Speaker 7: pitch a lot of different roles there. I know, Marcotte
29:31
Speaker 7: was quite you know, high in his praise of Hogan
29:33
Speaker 7: Harris and how tough he was at the end of
29:35
Speaker 7: ball games, and I think that sort of surprised him
29:37
Speaker 7: a little bit. So they did have a chance to
29:38
Speaker 7: learn a lot about these guys. But you know, and
29:42
Speaker 7: and frankly, the way that the wildcard setup is in
29:46
Speaker 7: baseball now, teams can surprise. So I'm not going to
29:48
Speaker 7: say that they can't compete even this year, but you'd
29:51
Speaker 7: like to see a more stable picture for the pitching
29:55
Speaker 7: to you know, really look at them as any kind
29:57
Speaker 7: of a contender.
29:58
Speaker 5: At this point, I want to get your sense from
30:01
Speaker 5: what you've heard from either home players or visiting players
30:04
Speaker 5: about playing in Sacramento, because as someone that went there,
30:07
Speaker 5: no offense to the coliseum. I know it had nostalgia,
30:10
Speaker 5: but that plays wasn't very good. It was kind of
30:12
Speaker 5: a dump. The situation with a batting cage way on
30:15
Speaker 5: center field was kind of a makeshift cage for the
30:17
Speaker 5: visiting players. I actually preferred Sacramento better. The hotel was better,
30:22
Speaker 5: the city of Sacramento was better, the food was better.
30:25
Speaker 5: As a visiting player in Sacramento, I thought the setup
30:28
Speaker 5: they created for the players as a visiting team was
30:31
Speaker 5: better than the coliseum. Are you hearing the same similar things?
30:34
Speaker 5: And what about the home players because I never got
30:36
Speaker 5: to experience the home side in Oakland?
30:39
Speaker 7: Yeah, I mean I haven't heard much from the visiting players.
30:43
Speaker 7: I think I think it was mixed for the home players.
30:46
Speaker 7: I think in some sense it helped the team kind
30:49
Speaker 7: of coalesce together. You know, it's a pretty tight group
30:53
Speaker 7: because you know, they're all sort of in this together.
30:55
Speaker 7: It's a very unusual situation. I don't think it feels
30:58
Speaker 7: like a big league ballpark. And I think if you're
31:01
Speaker 7: especially a younger player, and I think you heard Lawrence
31:03
Speaker 7: Butler kind of talk about this a little bit, you know,
31:06
Speaker 7: it's hard to like, you work your way up to
31:07
Speaker 7: the big leagues and this is your home park and
31:09
Speaker 7: it's it's not it's a Triple A stadium. So there's
31:12
Speaker 7: only so much you can do to make it not
31:14
Speaker 7: seem like a Triple A stadium. I think, you know,
31:17
Speaker 7: maybe coming in as a visiting player, that doesn't bother
31:20
Speaker 7: you as much because you end up leaving right away
31:22
Speaker 7: and going back to your home park. But you know,
31:25
Speaker 7: there is something to be said for the amenities that
31:27
Speaker 7: any home park in a major league stadium has, you
31:30
Speaker 7: know versus Triple A. You know, and attendance wasn't quite
31:33
Speaker 7: I think what they had anticipated it was going to be,
31:37
Speaker 7: you know, that said it. I don't think it was
31:40
Speaker 7: like a disaster for the home team at all, you know,
31:43
Speaker 7: I think the frustrations that players had were what they
31:46
Speaker 7: expected them to have.
31:47
Speaker 6: And obviously, you know, there is a nice.
31:50
Speaker 7: Area there around the ballpark that they can go to so,
31:55
Speaker 7: but I don't think anyone would sign up for that
31:57
Speaker 7: long term.
31:59
Speaker 2: Yeah, and that's why to me, try and swing trades.
32:03
Speaker 1: You try and spend the money you have on extensions
32:06
Speaker 1: while it's a tough recruiting case for another couple of years,
32:11
Speaker 1: rather than overspend on a player who gets disgruntled and
32:13
Speaker 1: then he's overpaid so it's tougher to move him. Anyway,
32:16
Speaker 1: I can go all day, as you know, Melissa, great
32:19
Speaker 1: to talk to you. Thank you for stopping by, appreciate it.
32:21
Speaker 6: Thanks for having me. Guys,