Latest / The 3-0 Take / Dodgers sign Sasaki, Scott
Transcript
- 0:00Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Three O Take, where we talk
- 0:04all things Major League Baseball.
- 0:06Here's Kyle Corwin and Nate Reyes.
- 0:10It all starts right now. Welcome back to the Three O Take
- 0:16presented by Sea Kick. This is episode 504.
- 0:19I'll be your host Kyle Cordon. I'm here with my Co host Nate
- 0:23Reyes. Nate, Alex Bregman, you're a
- 0:36Dodger. Pete Alonso, you're a Dodger.
- 0:41Jack Flaherty, you're a Dodger. They're all Dodgers.
- 0:44Who's not a Dodger at this point?
- 0:50You mentioned it before we hopped on.
- 0:54I don't I I'm I'm struggling to to sit by I'm struggling to sit
- 1:02by the, you know, stand, stand on like the, you know, if your
- 1:07team isn't doing this, you're just jealous kind of thing like
- 1:10it it is. This is tough, man.
- 1:15Like this. This is not like anything we've
- 1:18seen. And I know that everyone likes
- 1:21to go back to like the dynasty Yankee years and just be like,
- 1:26well, the Yankees, the Yankees did it.
- 1:28They would get every free agent they wanted.
- 1:29And it's like, I don't, I don't think it was like this.
- 1:34This is different, man. This is different.
- 1:36They are. The Dodgers are quite literally
- 1:39assembling as as best as they can do within the limits that
- 1:46they have, which at this point are pretty much none.
- 1:48But I mean, aside from going in and hand selecting each team's
- 1:52best player that's already under contract, a la you know, a Bobby
- 1:56Witt or or something like that, they are assembling one of the
- 2:02greatest collections of on field talent that the game has ever
- 2:08seen. And again, they're doing it
- 2:10within their parameters, within their quote UN quote limits,
- 2:14which again are essentially nothing, whether it be
- 2:21monetarily or or otherwise. They are they They have a vision
- 2:27and there is not a single thing in their way stopping them from
- 2:31accomplishing this vision. Look, I I can fully understand
- 2:41and support the idea of of doing things well in each department.
- 2:45They obviously scout well, they develop well, they do those
- 2:50things really well. They the analytics department
- 2:54excellent. I it's, it's a perfect storm
- 3:01man. And it's and it's an
- 3:03organization that like it focuses on making sure that
- 3:06there are no weaknesses and the idea of it.
- 3:10Yeah, like I can, I can understand.
- 3:12But I mean, and we're going to talk numbers obviously, and
- 3:17we're going to talk these two deals, but you know this Jeff
- 3:20Passan tweeted a couple hours ago.
- 3:22When Tanner Scott deal is made official, the Dodgers luxury tax
- 3:26payroll for 2025 will exceed $375 million.
- 3:31That is 70 million more than the next highest team, which is the
- 3:35Phillies. The Yankees are the only other
- 3:38team with the CBT payroll projected to be over 300.
- 3:41And I think they're staying at like 3O13O2.
- 3:49It's tough, man. Like there's other tweets you
- 3:52can go by, like there's other things you can look at the I
- 3:57think I saw one that the entire AL Central combined is 544, 150
- 4:06million more and you have the entire central.
- 4:12Etalk Tweets there's a tweet in particular that I came across
- 4:16today that I I, I want to dissect here with you get your
- 4:19thoughts on it and those in there who are in the chat
- 4:23following along, please feel free to chime in.
- 4:26Ryan Cohen 24 on Twitter For those saying that what they're
- 4:30able to do, they, as in the Dodgers are able to do is not
- 4:33bad for baseball. For those saying who what
- 4:35they're able to do is not bad for baseball and in parentheses
- 4:39says not taking a side, genuinely asking a question.
- 4:41Is there a point when it is bad for baseball?
- 4:45And what is that point if not now?
- 4:48And I, we talked to you or we were talking before we hopped on
- 4:50and I said, they're, we're at the point now where a lot of the
- 4:55takes I've had up until this point have turned on their head
- 4:59like I'm I, I, you can't, you just can't defend this anymore.
- 5:03And I'm not you're, you're, if you're listening, you're
- 5:05probably going well, it's because you're not a fan of the
- 5:07Dodgers. So of course you're going to be
- 5:08upset. It's not I, that is one thing
- 5:11that I will stand by and it's that I'm not upset at the
- 5:14Dodgers. I, I'm not, I'm not frustrated
- 5:16with the Dodgers. I'm not angry at the Dodgers.
- 5:18I don't hate the Dodgers for what they're doing.
- 5:20They're doing that. What they are doing is fully
- 5:24legal within the scope of Major League Baseball.
- 5:27You may not like the way they're going about it.
- 5:29You may not like the, the, the, the names that they're
- 5:32accumulating. You, you may not like the way in
- 5:36which they're handling the contracts of these players that
- 5:38they're accumulating, but it's fully legal.
- 5:41They're allowed to do it. So I'm not going to be upset at
- 5:44the Dodgers for it because I, I've, I've tweeted out before,
- 5:47I've said it on this podcast. What do you expect them to do?
- 5:50Just sit back and do nothing? No, they're going to make their
- 5:53team better. And for, for that, every team of
- 5:55every other or every fan of every other team should be
- 5:59envious because you would you, you could only hope and wish
- 6:03that your team would behave in such a manner as the Dodgers.
- 6:06But chances are your team's not because the Dodgers are the only
- 6:09team doing this. But I think my frustration now
- 6:13is shifting towards these players where it's like, and and
- 6:17I was trying to go back and find whether or not I said it after
- 6:19the Snell signing, because I I thought I remember saying after
- 6:24the Snell signing, something to the effect of, you know, this is
- 6:28kind of it for me, Like anybody that signs with the Dodgers from
- 6:31this point forward, I'm like, I'm out.
- 6:34I'm I'm out because you, you very clearly.
- 6:36And even I mean, let's not kid ourselves.
- 6:38Even Snell knew what he was getting into, But I'm like, I
- 6:41got to draw the line somewhere. So from here, from pretty much
- 6:43this point forward, if you sign with the Dodgers, you know
- 6:46exactly what you're getting into.
- 6:47And I'm not going to sit here and say that I wouldn't do the
- 6:49same thing. But it's like how many more star
- 6:53talents like superstar level players are going to choose to
- 6:58sign with this absolute juggernaut, making it almost
- 7:03inconceivable that such a product would be able to be
- 7:07manifested the way it is. Like this is just insane.
- 7:10It's it's almost impossible to wrap your head around.
- 7:14Yeah, it gives me like the KD to Golden State vibes, you know
- 7:18what I mean? Where like it it it almost feels
- 7:23illegitimate. And if somebody starts to go to,
- 7:27you know, winning those, winning multiple trophies and and I
- 7:35don't know, last year was last year, I think it was, it's
- 7:41probably going to get roped into whatever they do during this
- 7:43window. But I don't, I don't know, like.
- 7:48Can we talk about this comment? The Chad said Somebody called
- 7:51the wambulance. I don't see you all protesting
- 7:53the trash shows. Johnny, welcome, Welcome to the
- 7:55Three O Tape 'cause you're you're clearly new here.
- 7:58Yeah, we took our fair share of punches.
- 8:02Towards them, it's very evident who's who's new here.
- 8:05But we're not talking about individual trophies of a, you
- 8:08know, an MVP being stolen. Like that's, that's not what
- 8:11it's, it's getting to. It's it's we're talking in a
- 8:15more general scale of like, like you said, like where where do we
- 8:18draw the line? When is it bad for baseball?
- 8:21When is it ridiculous? I mean, they could run out an 8
- 8:27man rotation with no problem with no problem.
- 8:34And you're talking about very competitive solid teams around
- 8:40the league who who are maybe struggling with a fifth spot.
- 8:47And I don't know where my my specific issue is and I I can't,
- 8:54it does feel a little whambulancy, I'm not going to
- 8:57lie, Like it does, like I can't, I can't.
- 8:59But it I think you and I are on the same page, though our
- 9:02frustration doesn't lie with the way in which they're handling
- 9:06their personnel, the way that they're handling their
- 9:08offseason. And for the people saying you
- 9:10got to sub cry, there's a guy, somebody in the chat.
- 9:12Adam, I see you. You got to stop crying about the
- 9:14Dodgers. Please let me go back in, in my
- 9:17in my feed here and share some thoughts that I've tweeted out
- 9:20over the last few months. Just shy of the Dodgers winning
- 9:25the World Series. I think this was like game three
- 9:27or four of the World Series. I said, if and when the Dodgers
- 9:30win the World Series, don't be upset at the Dodgers for
- 9:33spending money. Be upset at your owners for not.
- 9:37Later the next month, I said, did people think the Dodgers
- 9:39were going to spend $0.00 this offseason?
- 9:43And then I went on to say, yeah, just yesterday I said last year
- 9:47the Dodgers disproved the theory that it's not always the best
- 9:50team on paper that wins the World Series.
- 9:51They were the best team. They won the World Series, and
- 9:54they just got even better. And this was after signing
- 9:56Sasaki. And I've said countless times
- 9:59before, I, I, I want the Dodgers to, I like, I, I think I tweeted
- 10:05out like a month or two ago, I said, I want, I, at this point,
- 10:07I want the Dodgers to go out and sign everybody just to show the
- 10:10rest of the league what it's like to actually invest in your
- 10:13product and make your product better.
- 10:14Yeah. So the whole like, stop crying
- 10:18about the Dodgers. I'm not crying about the
- 10:20Dodgers. I've, I've made that abundantly
- 10:22clear. I don't know how many other ways
- 10:24I can express that. I'm not upset at the Dodgers for
- 10:27the way that they're handling their franchise.
- 10:29I'm envious of it, but it's again, my frustration lies with
- 10:34these players now where it's like Sasaki, like I, I don't
- 10:41know how you feel. I'm I, I could not be more out
- 10:44on Sasaki as a player. Don't know the guy from Adam but
- 10:47I'm like this whole this this just felt like a game.
- 10:51This just felt like a ruse. Like I felt like the the all of
- 10:54baseball got punked even though we weirdly knew he was going to
- 10:57end up in Lai. Just feel like the whole song
- 11:00and dance was far more grand than it needed to be.
- 11:02Where it's like I. Agree.
- 11:04It was rumored that he possibly might want a smaller market,
- 11:07that he he wanted to to go elsewhere and and not be center
- 11:12stage. He didn't want to be center of
- 11:14attention. It's like, OK, well, naturally
- 11:16he ends up in LA. That makes sense.
- 11:18I don't know, but I'm I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm done.
- 11:24I, I will say like, you know, if we, if we go back to the era of,
- 11:29of having the Yankees as the villain of baseball and everyone
- 11:33hating it and, and hating them, like one could argue like it's
- 11:39that part of it is good for baseball.
- 11:40And this, this is naturally going to happen with the
- 11:42Dodgers. Everyone's going to hate the
- 11:44Dodgers. Can I ask you as a Yankees guy,
- 11:48being a fan of that franchise, was there at, at like did you
- 11:51were you ever at a point as a fan growing up where you thought
- 11:55to yourself, like you looked around at at the team and you're
- 11:59like, no, this kind of does seem a little bit unfair, like how
- 12:02good we are. Like, did you ever feel like
- 12:04that was the case? I mean, sure, the Yankees were
- 12:07good there for a good stretch, but like, did you ever look
- 12:10around and go this almost feels illegal?
- 12:12I I think the only time where I kind of felt that way was O 9:00
- 12:18just because of like the addition of to share ACCAJ
- 12:22Burnett. It, it did feel a little bit
- 12:25that way. But like when you go back to the
- 12:29late 90s in the early 2000s, like a lot of that was
- 12:34homegrown. Like when you when you talk
- 12:36about the core 4, that's that was homegrown stuff and they all
- 12:40you know, that was development. And you look at like the
- 12:45addition of some names, you know, Rodger Clemens being added
- 12:48to that mix, you know, with Tina Martinez.
- 12:51But like, even then, like they traded for Paul O'Neill was a
- 12:54part of that first part of that run and they traded for him when
- 12:57the Reds no one knew who he was. Like they weren't trading for
- 13:01multiple MVPS during their peak years.
- 13:08You know, I I think when you look at like the Patriots, you
- 13:11know, mane in the chat pulling up the Patriots as an example in
- 13:16the 90s, Bulls, like, you know, Tom Brady, Teddy Brewski,
- 13:23Gronkowski, you know, big names with those organizations.
- 13:27Those are home grown guys. And you weren't talking about a
- 13:32payroll that hovered that far over everything.
- 13:39Did the Yankees lead the league in payroll multiple years during
- 13:42those years? Yeah, they did.
- 13:44But again, when you're talking about, you know, 9698992000,
- 13:49that core was still, you know, minuscule dollar amounts towards
- 13:54your main guys, Ohtani, Freddy, Mookie, Snell, Yamamoto, this
- 14:03these, none of these guys are home grown.
- 14:06None of these guys, you know, are coming up through your
- 14:08organization. So I don't know, like I I don't
- 14:14know if there was ever a point where I felt like, all right,
- 14:17this is a video game at this point.
- 14:19O 9 was kind of close, but you're talking about other guys
- 14:23being towards the end of their career, other guys that just,
- 14:26you know, like the Robinson Cano was in his prime to Shara, you
- 14:30know, reaching the end of his career, Jeter reaching the end
- 14:33of his career. These are all back end things
- 14:37where it's like right now you're talking about half of an All
- 14:43Star lineup. I don't know man, it is what it
- 14:50is. They're going to have a target
- 14:51on their back the entire year. Every team is going to give them
- 14:54their best every game. And is that part good for
- 14:58baseball? Absolutely.
- 15:00I absolutely agree. But when you are the sole
- 15:04example of rules needing to go into effect and no other team is
- 15:12doing like I and you're going so far to the other other end of
- 15:16the spectrum, I don't know, I'm, I'm just, I'm struggling to wrap
- 15:19my mind around it. And, you know, you can bet your
- 15:22ass we're going to see a lot of negotiation going on with the
- 15:28next CBA to figure out, you know, this deferment money and
- 15:31to figure out how to kind of close some of those loopholes.
- 15:37Well, you talk about the target on the back for the Dodgers in
- 15:402025 this coming season. What are what are we, I mean,
- 15:48what are we looking at in terms of win total here?
- 15:50Like it is it or really not just win total just expectation for
- 15:55the 2025 Dodgers in general? Like are we, are we setting a
- 16:01minimum for number of wins that this team has to, has to tally
- 16:05this year for it to be a success?
- 16:07Because it like it gets to like even last year with the a World
- 16:11Series winning team. You look at the team last year
- 16:14and you're like, you know, like they, they have, they've got a,
- 16:19they've got a, a wealth of talent here and they're most
- 16:22likely going to win the World Series.
- 16:23But if they don't, well, that's just baseball.
- 16:25But we're at a point now with this Dodgers team a year, not
- 16:29not even a full calendar year later after winning the World
- 16:33Series, where you're going, they're 234 steps ahead of where
- 16:38they were at the end of last season.
- 16:40So at what point does it do we look at this team and go, they,
- 16:46they have to win the World Series And, and we, we hear
- 16:49World Series or bust thrown a lot, thrown around a lot with,
- 16:51with other teams. But truly, they, you cannot
- 16:56acquire this much talent, like not just talent, superstar
- 17:00talent and not win the World Series, not go out and set the,
- 17:05the, the, the regular season win total, which I believe was 116
- 17:09from the O1 Mariners. You, you can't not go out and,
- 17:13and and surpass that. You can't not go out and
- 17:16steamroll your way through the postseason in route to winning a
- 17:19repeat World Series title. You just can't because anything
- 17:23less than that has to be deemed a failure because this team is
- 17:27too good not to. Yeah, man, I don't know.
- 17:34Like, I think there's probably going to be a point where it's
- 17:37like a little bit of a coasting at some point during the regular
- 17:41season to where you don't have to have like you don't have to
- 17:45have anyone in this rotation throwing 190 innings plus.
- 17:50You don't have to have that. I think the goal and now that
- 17:54you have 3 Japanese starters in your rotation who are very
- 18:00comfortable having a six man rotation, that's definitely
- 18:03going to happen. That's absolutely going to
- 18:05happen. You don't have to push the
- 18:09envelope for a Freddie Freeman maybe not being fully healthy or
- 18:15you know, a Mookie Betts, you know, having a tweaked shoulder,
- 18:18like whatever it may be. You don't have to push the
- 18:20envelope. Put them on the IO like it's
- 18:23fine. Glass now doesn't feel is back,
- 18:25doesn't feel great. Ride that out like whatever next
- 18:28man up. The depth is incredible and when
- 18:32you talk about any of that homegrown talent that they have,
- 18:36none of those guys are going to have much of an opportunity.
- 18:39None of those guys are going to get too many ABS or too many,
- 18:43you know, innings. So I don't know, man, I mean
- 18:46like it's it's definitely 100 win season.
- 18:49That's that has to be and I'm not going to sit here and say,
- 18:54you know, if they only win 99, but then they take the trophy.
- 18:57Is that a failed season? Of course not.
- 18:59I don't know. It's it's weird, like every
- 19:02every team has the mentality. At least I hope every team the
- 19:05mentality is, you know, World Series are bust, but this is
- 19:12this is now. I mean, where it's your 2025, if
- 19:17you don't have three rings before 20-30, none of this was
- 19:25worth it. I don't I don't know.
- 19:26I don't know how to I don't know how to chalk it up.
- 19:28I don't know how to express any of this.
- 19:32This is such uncharted territories that like there's
- 19:35such thing as like, well, you still got to play the game.
- 19:40To what extent man, Like to what extent when you when you want to
- 19:44go play Monopoly and and your opponents already have a lot
- 19:51more properties and money than you like, I don't know.
- 19:57That's a great no, that's a great analogy.
- 19:59The rest of major and this isn't me like again, I, I don't, I
- 20:02don't want to go back and read all my tweets again to prove
- 20:05that I'm not upset at the Dodgers.
- 20:07But this is just the, the, the reality of it.
- 20:10The 2025 season is one team showing up to the Monopoly board
- 20:14with $1000 cash. Three sets of monopoly or
- 20:20property monopolies and hotels and then the 29 other players
- 20:26are showing up to the board with nothing that I mean, that's
- 20:30comparatively speaking, That's, that's the reality.
- 20:32Of it and I and I, I would like to hear why because you've made
- 20:35the argument that this is going to be better for baseball.
- 20:38This is good for baseball having, having other owners, you
- 20:43know, start writing checks to keep up.
- 20:47I think it's crossed over to the point where like owners are
- 20:49going to be like, we're not, we can't, and then we're done
- 20:51writing checks because we might as well try to save money and
- 20:55and. Make it to the.
- 20:59Championship here, yeah, exactly.
- 21:01Like, what's the point? What's the point for Oh my gosh,
- 21:06I mean, you could run through half the league.
- 21:08You could, you could run through pretty much both leagues in the
- 21:12central can run through at least 15 teams that are just going to
- 21:17be like, why? Like what?
- 21:19What are we going to do? And OK, so in the chat, I mean,
- 21:22I'm seeing they should have got in reference to the monopoly
- 21:25analogy, they should have gotten more before they showed up to
- 21:27the board. And I absolutely agree with that
- 21:30sentiment. And that's what I've been saying
- 21:31to your point of, of talking about like, well, this should
- 21:34this should inspire, motivate owners around the league to pony
- 21:37up. But we're getting to the point
- 21:39now and hand up. Maybe I was just naive.
- 21:42I didn't think we'd get to the point so far into this thing
- 21:47where even if you had teams offering well over the amounts
- 21:53that the Dodgers. Think about pay cuts.
- 21:55Well, over years that the Dodgers were offering you can't
- 22:00you, there's nothing that you can do The, the the Dodgers have
- 22:04established themselves as such a destination at this point.
- 22:08And you, you take, you take Yamamoto out, you take Snell
- 22:12out. If, if you've got Los Angeles, I
- 22:15mean, certainly not to make light of it, but you, you know,
- 22:19obviously pre for wildfire situation, you, you take, you
- 22:25take Otani and the city of Los Angeles.
- 22:28And that's really all you need to sell your product.
- 22:31Because the reality of it is, is the Dodgers have absolutely
- 22:35cornered the Japanese market. You're if there, if there is a
- 22:40Japanese player worth anything, you are not getting him unless
- 22:44you were the Los Angeles Dodgers.
- 22:47And, and I, I understand it. I understand why it, if you're a
- 22:51guy like Sasaki, why, why wouldn't you want to come play
- 22:53with Yamamoto and Otani again? I'm still sort of out on on
- 22:57Sasaki at this point because I feel like he really could have,
- 23:01he really could have shaken things up had he gone to San
- 23:04Diego and and still had a great opportunity to succeed, a great
- 23:08opportunity to to develop as a pitcher, I believe.
- 23:11But I mean, there, there's nothing that these that these
- 23:15teams can do. And it's it's sort of a
- 23:18demoralizing blow when when this whole time I've been saying,
- 23:22well, again, these these owners should hopefully be you know,
- 23:26it, they should serve as a kick in the gut a little bit to them
- 23:29to be like, all right, we need to step up.
- 23:30We're but it like we're talking about.
- 23:32I think we're at a point now where.
- 23:34They're going to throw. This out, it's just it's why
- 23:37bother? Why bother?
- 23:39Yep. Yeah, if you're the Rockies, why
- 23:42bother? You know what I mean?
- 23:45And but that was that. But that's what I'm saying.
- 23:47That was before this offseason. You're you're going well, of
- 23:50course the Dodgers aren't really going to care.
- 23:51But now you, I, I, I, I'm hoping that this isn't coming across as
- 23:55like an overreaction, but it, we're dangerously close to
- 23:59getting to a point where even the, the, the teams that rival
- 24:03the Dodgers in terms of, of financial force and star power,
- 24:08I think even those teams are going to be like they're, it's,
- 24:12it's the, the, it's the, the crap at the bottom, you know,
- 24:16like the, the A's, the Rockies, the Marlins, like no, no offense
- 24:20to those teams. And then you've got the next
- 24:23year where it's like, OK, you look around, there's the big
- 24:25market. Teams.
- 24:27Yeah, the, the whole, the, the mids and then you got the upper,
- 24:29the, the upper market teams. And then beyond that it's the
- 24:32Dodgers. And I think the, the tier below
- 24:34the Dodgers like these, these big market teams like the
- 24:37Yankees teams like that. I, I genuinely think we're at a
- 24:40point where they're going to look around and go not even we
- 24:43can keep up. And that's that's kind of a wild
- 24:45place to be at in a sport. Well, here's here's where I
- 24:48could say that it it could be good for baseball in a way that
- 24:52if you're not in contention, if you're not even being considered
- 24:57to be able to sign some of these names, turn all your money and,
- 25:04and focus on scouting and development develop.
- 25:07We, we've seen this new age baseball that's created laziness
- 25:13and and a lack of fundamentals. We watched it with my team in
- 25:18the World Series where you know you're seeing professional level
- 25:22players that the grandest stage struggle with fundamental stuff
- 25:27because maybe it's not being taught in their organization at
- 25:30the younger level. So focus on that, develop your
- 25:34young core and that I think that's the only way is that you
- 25:37know, you're going to have a young controllable team that is
- 25:42just really good at baseball. That's the only thing you can
- 25:46do. Because if you're an
- 25:47organization that doesn't have that market to be able to spend
- 25:51on free agents, that's what you have to do.
- 25:54That's what you got to and you got to hold on to them.
- 25:57You can't trade them. So we can talk about all the
- 25:59names that have become, you know, that that time in Oakland
- 26:03Athletic, But if they hang on to them in a Matt Olson, in a Matt
- 26:07Chapman or those types of guys are still Athletics, it's a
- 26:12different thing. It's a different conversation,
- 26:14so develop your guys and do something with that youth.
- 26:18Let them come up, let them play, get younger, get more athletic,
- 26:23but be good at everything that you can be at.
- 26:28That's the only way that I can think of competing because if
- 26:32otherwise, you know, you can't focus on trying to spend what
- 26:36they spend because you're not going to be able to.
- 26:38All right in the chat I'm seeing how many rings does LA one maybe
- 26:42wait to judge JDS third in the chat on YouTube.
- 26:45Appreciate you for the comment. But and that's a valid point.
- 26:52But that goes back to to what I was talking about earlier when I
- 26:54referenced my tweet of saying last year, the Dodgers disproved
- 26:57that theory. Because if you recall, and I
- 26:59don't remember if you, if you sort of were, were on track with
- 27:02me with this thought. But I was basically saying the
- 27:05Dodgers are not going to as good as they are in 2024, as good as
- 27:10they are, they're not going to have a cakewalk to the World
- 27:12Series. And if you remember, they got
- 27:15they were battered with injuries.
- 27:16They had, they had some, some moments where they slipped and,
- 27:19and and had to climb the way back to the mountaintop, if you
- 27:22will. They got everything they got
- 27:24from San Diego, man, that San Diego gave them everything they
- 27:27had. Exactly.
- 27:29And and you know, and the reason those things all happen is
- 27:32because that's baseball. But what did they do?
- 27:35They went and disproved the theory that the best team up
- 27:37because they were on paper, the best team in baseball.
- 27:40And they went out and did it. And I'm not saying that's the
- 27:42first time it's ever happened, but in recent memory, you you
- 27:45look at the Dodgers and go, well, I mean, pretty easy to
- 27:49understand why they're favorited on paper because you look at the
- 27:52rotation, you look at the lineup and beyond that, you look at the
- 27:54depth that they have. So of course, so they did what
- 27:58they did last year. They went out this offseason and
- 28:01got, I won't say infinitely better, but like like I said
- 28:07earlier, 234 increments better showing no signs of, of, of
- 28:12slowing down, of stepping back, of only moving forward in the
- 28:15direction full steam ahead. So it, it begs the question,
- 28:20what's what's stopping them from doing exactly what they did this
- 28:24last year because they're even better this year.
- 28:26I, I, I don't know the answer to that question.
- 28:28And well, I, I do know the answer to the question.
- 28:32As of right now, it's nothing, nothing can, is going to stop
- 28:35them from doing that. It's just a matter of if, if
- 28:38things pan out the same way they did last year, were they able to
- 28:40overcome any injuries they have, if they're able to utilize their
- 28:43depth well like they did last year, but of.
- 28:46Course they will. If you have if you have these
- 28:50guys both in the rotation and in your lineup that are locked down
- 28:53for years to come, outside of some of these guys aging and and
- 28:58getting to a later stage in their career, this window is for
- 29:02them is wide open for for years to come.
- 29:05So sure, they haven't won the titles yet, but they're in a
- 29:09much better position than 29 of the teams in the league.
- 29:12We know that much. Yeah, it's definitely a big head
- 29:15start, man. It's like I said, I I think
- 29:20three more, three more trophies before the end of the Otani.
- 29:28I'm not going to say contract because the deferment, but the
- 29:30end of the of the playing days of Otani, I would look back and
- 29:38say that it was a success. Four rings for Otani era in LA.
- 29:50Yeah, I don't know, man. I think it's, it's, it's going
- 29:56to bring up a lot of interesting conversations and it's going to
- 29:58change how we look at, you know, payroll and everything like that
- 30:02forever. So only thing I can hope for is
- 30:05that other teams get better with their development and make sure
- 30:12that they're they're buttoned up in every other category and
- 30:19windows have to hit just right. For some of those lower market
- 30:23teams, they have to hit just right.
- 30:28Why I do have to say a lot of these thoughts that I that I
- 30:30have stemmed immediately following the Sasaki signing,
- 30:35but which which I don't even know if we've technically
- 30:37touched on, but like we're. Just go ahead and screw all
- 30:39these numbers out, yeah? With the Scott signing, what I
- 30:43mean, what is that? I know it, it only adds, adds to
- 30:47this conversation certainly. But are there any thoughts
- 30:50specifically to the Tanner Scott signing that that you have?
- 30:53Because I, I, I thought, you know, there, there were teams
- 30:58that were very much directly tied to needing a, a top, a top
- 31:06end or a high caliber relief arm such as the Red Sox.
- 31:13But I mean, really, I mean, any, any team could realistically use
- 31:16a, an elite arm like that out of your pen.
- 31:19But teams in in particular team specifically were tied to, to
- 31:23guys like Scott so on and so forth.
- 31:27And seemingly out of nowhere, here come the Dodgers scoop him
- 31:30up. So, you know, like, how does
- 31:33this like, how does this affect the rest of the league?
- 31:35Because now you've got teams that I think we're possibly
- 31:39banking on, you know, like, well, we missed out on on this
- 31:42name. We missed out on that name.
- 31:43But at least we could maybe go scoop up Scott and call it an
- 31:46offseason and and sort of move forward as it stands.
- 31:51But now Scott's off the off the table.
- 31:54So like, where does this leave the rest of baseball?
- 31:59Stop low balling. Stop low balling.
- 32:05You know what I mean? And, and really like figure out
- 32:11the character of the guy you want to sign and what his
- 32:13mentality is. You know, does he does he want
- 32:18to call that place home? Does he want an easier ride to
- 32:21get to a trophy? Does he want the legacy of, you
- 32:26know, etching his name in that franchise's history?
- 32:31I don't. None of most of these names are
- 32:34going to be forgettable. No one, you know, we're going to
- 32:36look down the road 30 years from now and look at this Dodger
- 32:40stretch and no one's going to remember it's Tanner Scott name.
- 32:43If it becomes a Red Sox, maybe that's different.
- 32:45I don't know. But look, let's face it, like
- 32:49we're halfway through January. It's not like these other
- 32:53organizations didn't have an opportunity.
- 32:57But I don't know, man. Like you, you read about some of
- 33:01these names and, and you're, you're recognizing that the pay
- 33:06cuts. I mean, the, the notification
- 33:09came out yesterday that the Padres offered Sasaki $10
- 33:12million. So again, he takes a pay cut and
- 33:17we can talk Japanese connections.
- 33:19You Darvish is still there. Who is revered, revered in
- 33:24Japan? Like, that's that's still there.
- 33:29So if we're going to take that part of the conversation out of
- 33:31it at this point, it is, yeah. You took less money to be less
- 33:36important on a team that has, in my mind, a clear path.
- 33:44So you have to start taking that into account.
- 33:48It's tough, man. And then on the same end, you
- 33:51have agents that are obviously going to try to maximize the
- 33:54amount of dollars that their client gets.
- 33:57Everyone's doing their job, everyone's doing their job.
- 34:01No one's breaking the rules here.
- 34:05So at a certain point, the rules are going to have to change.
- 34:10And that's what I'm saying. That's I, I cannot stress enough
- 34:13people in the chat, you say you don't, you say you're not upset,
- 34:17and then you just keep going on whining for the rest of the
- 34:19episode. That's not literally it.
- 34:20I'm sorry if it comes across that way.
- 34:22I'm not upset. Let me stress again, I'm not
- 34:25upset with what the Dodgers are doing as a franchise because
- 34:29they are doing it within the parameters set forth by the
- 34:32league. I'm not upset at Dodgers.
- 34:38I'm just asking. It's and it's what we started
- 34:41the episode off with it. It's it.
- 34:42It begs the question at what point does what the Dodgers are
- 34:49doing become bad for the sport and where what it where is that
- 34:55point if it's not now? I'm not saying that it is now.
- 34:59Some people think that we we surpassed that point a long time
- 35:02ago with the Otani signing or even before that.
- 35:08But it it, it begs the question, like, where are we at with this
- 35:11whole thing? Yeah.
- 35:13Monetarily, what did, what did we say?
- 35:15Three, 72377, something like that?
- 35:20Oh, for the payroll. Yeah.
- 35:23I think, yeah. I thought you were talking
- 35:25Scott. The Scott deal was 4 four years,
- 35:2872 million. That payroll to the the over
- 35:31370. Now the as we know, once you
- 35:35reach that, that you know, the Cohen tax is what everyone calls
- 35:39it, the 110% threshold. Is that for the whole dollar
- 35:44amount or just whatever they're over that threshold for?
- 35:51Like are they paying 110% on 370?
- 35:54I don't think they care honestly.
- 35:56Or are they paying 110% of the 70 plus, you know, if that's the
- 36:02the 77 or 72, whatever it is, you're paying another 80 on top
- 36:06of that. You're talking about overall
- 36:08money, you know, in that 45460 range.
- 36:12In 2023, the tax rate was 90% on any amount over 293.
- 36:19Yeah. And that's since we've got the,
- 36:24the, the 320 threshold, isn't it like 3-10 or three O 5, whatever
- 36:30it is, that's the 110% threshold.
- 36:33There's different thresholds where you're going to pay the
- 36:3590% or the, you know, 110%. I think it's never 325.
- 36:40That year, the Mets paid $101 million in luxury tax.
- 36:44Yeah, yeah, man, yeah, yeah. I mean, you're closer to, you
- 36:51know, the half a half a bill all out money coming out.
- 36:57So I don't know. I don't know how to feel.
- 37:04I are you bummed because I got my team wasn't necessarily that
- 37:09I think they were in early in the offseason on Tanner Scott.
- 37:13There was some rumors about Sasaki, but like I don't think
- 37:16that the Yankees were like fully in in that conversation.
- 37:21How do you feel as a Red Sox fan?
- 37:22Like are you? You feel kind of gypped cause
- 37:25Tanner Scott was linked to them pretty strongly.
- 37:29Yeah, I I was trying to find the tweet I put out, but it yeah,
- 37:37the the Red Sox were certainly linked to Tanner Scott and and
- 37:40how serious of an offer they made I have yet to see.
- 37:45But I had I had a tweet earlier this offseason.
- 37:51Oh, I said pitchers. The Red Sox have been linked to
- 37:53Corbin Burns and a Mariner started starting pitcher and
- 37:56this was early to mid. This was December 13th.
- 38:00I tweeted this out. Position players the Red Sox
- 38:02have been linked to Nolan Arenado, Alex Bregman, TE Oscar
- 38:06Hernandez, Anthony Santander. Go get one of each, add a
- 38:10reliever and let's roll. As of right now, none of those
- 38:16things have happened. They miss out on Corbin.
- 38:20Corbin Burns. The Mariners laughed him out of
- 38:22the room at a trade offer. First starting pitcher Nolan
- 38:26Arenado is still TBD. Alex Bregman is still TBD T
- 38:30Oscar Hernandez back in LA, Anthony Santander TBD, the
- 38:36reliever that you're linked to most highly, Tanner Scott is now
- 38:40a Dodger. So that's kind of where I'm at
- 38:46with with my situation as a fan. But like it kind of going back
- 38:51to the point about the Dodgers having a a target on their back
- 38:54and then being this being good for baseball.
- 38:57I absolutely agree with that. And, and in terms of them having
- 39:02such a target on their back that it almost makes you forget about
- 39:07other storylines possibly going on around baseball, maybe other
- 39:10teams who are like even the Mets, for example, like the Mets
- 39:14there for a minute were were sort of the king on the seat
- 39:17where it's like, OK, that that's the team to beat right now.
- 39:20Because they they went out and got the guy that so many of
- 39:23these other teams wanted. And they forked out as much
- 39:26money as they were going to to have to make that happen.
- 39:30And they did it. And then you quickly remember
- 39:33there's a team on the other side of the country that oh, yeah,
- 39:36nothing, nothing's really changed.
- 39:37They're, they're still, they're still the team team in charge.
- 39:41They're the team to beat. And by the way, they're just,
- 39:44they continue to get better and get better and get better.
- 39:47So I think the 2025 storyline with the Dodgers just being this
- 39:50absolute juggernaut is going to be good for baseball because we
- 39:55can. We can talk all the time about.
- 40:00You know, they're needing to be a level playing field and you
- 40:03and I have even talked about how like, you know, it's refreshing
- 40:06to to see some smaller market teams get in there.
- 40:08Some even like some mid market teams make a deep run into into
- 40:12October that I'm not saying that's not good for baseball.
- 40:14That's, that's also great for baseball, but at all times, I
- 40:19believe you need a team like this, whether it be the 90s
- 40:23Yankees, the early 2000s Yankees, the, the, the Dodgers
- 40:27of now of, of today. You need a team like this at all
- 40:30times to look at as the proverbial boogeyman because
- 40:34hate them, love them. You have a feeling towards them.
- 40:38And that's what drives the sport forward because you, you, you've
- 40:42always you always have a storyline to look to and say,
- 40:46all right, my team has the Dodgers circled on their on
- 40:50their schedule in July. We got it.
- 40:53We got to make sure that we tune in for that.
- 40:55We got to make sure we make the trip over to the ballpark for
- 40:57that. Whatever things like that,
- 41:00they're they're they're ramifications.
- 41:02There's a ripple effect of the Dodgers being as good as they
- 41:05are that I don't think people are fully taking into account
- 41:08right now. But they are things, believe it
- 41:10or not, that are good for baseball.
- 41:12And I'm curious to see how this shakes out.
- 41:14And I can almost guarantee you before Opening Day hits, we are
- 41:18going to get a handful of Mookie Bet sound bites that are going
- 41:22to only add fuel to this fire because we saw it.
- 41:26We saw it last year and granted, some of those were, were
- 41:30misinterpreted, I believe, But I, I only think that this is
- 41:33going to put a that much more pep in their step through the
- 41:37lens or, or through the words of guys like Mookie Betts and and
- 41:42others on that team. Because you can, you can pretty
- 41:45much say whatever you want at this point.
- 41:47You're coming off a World Series title.
- 41:48You're the best team in baseball right now and you're going to be
- 41:51the best team in baseball for presumably the near future and
- 41:54and possibly even beyond that. So.
- 41:58What's the Ribble effect on the trade deadline?
- 41:59You know what I mean? Like some of those teams that
- 42:02feel like they can compete by still giving up some things, not
- 42:09to beat the Dodgers, you know what I mean?
- 42:12You need as much depth as you can get.
- 42:15So I'm curious to see how many teams punt during this window
- 42:21because that happens. We watched the Orioles do it for
- 42:25a decade and just load up and try to get that young core,
- 42:30young, controllable, really good core.
- 42:33How many teams do that? How many teams where you see a
- 42:40Mariners rotation? We say you have a little bit of,
- 42:43you know, well, you, you got some riches there that you could
- 42:46maybe move on to plug other holes that you have.
- 42:50Is that still a conversation? Does that change?
- 42:55I'm not saying now, I'm saying as that deadline's coming up,
- 43:01then you're probably just going to get a plethora of quotes that
- 43:04are just like, we got to play our game.
- 43:05We got to play our game. We can't pay attention to what
- 43:08they're doing over in LA. We just got to play our game.
- 43:12And that's what I mean is that like, I think coaching is is
- 43:16more important now than ever. Make sure these guys are doing
- 43:19every little thing. You can't give a Dodgers team an
- 43:23inch. They're going to beat you more
- 43:25often than not without you giving them anything.
- 43:28So you can't give them an inch. You can't have a drop fly ball.
- 43:32You can't have a first base going uncovered.
- 43:35You can't have a 90 not being run hard.
- 43:38You can't have it. So I do hope that that spreads
- 43:43to the rest of our game to where it's specifically seeing, you
- 43:48know, AD backs team that led the league in offense last year, by
- 43:52the way, continues to do the little stuff right.
- 43:56And maybe you start seeing the rest of the game being played a
- 43:59little bit. Maybe there is more bunting.
- 44:02Maybe there is we just got to scratch and claw to beat this
- 44:05team and do whatever we can to to get a dub.
- 44:10Maybe you start to see that. And I don't know if it happens
- 44:13during the regular season, but hopefully it does happen during
- 44:16the postseason. And and again, you just see
- 44:19whatever, you know, every team's best version of themselves going
- 44:23up against, like you said, the boogeyman.
- 44:32I've got MLB Network on right now and they're just running
- 44:35through the Scott deal and it's like, yeah, it this was just
- 44:40another example of like, Shirley, Shirley, this, this
- 44:46wasn't going to happen. And it does.
- 44:48And do you know that those, you know, those Emmett Sheehan's and
- 44:51and Dustin Mays are likely just going to move to the bullpen?
- 44:56They're likely just going to be an opener like middle relief
- 44:59guy. Which is crazy You talked
- 45:01earlier about or I was asking you like, what does this look
- 45:03like for the, for the season itself?
- 45:05And you're like, well, there's going to be some coasting.
- 45:06And I, and I'm thinking to myself, imagine, imagine being
- 45:11at a point where there's a week in the, in the, the heart of
- 45:14summer where your guys are just zapped.
- 45:18There's no energy. And like we got to, we got to
- 45:22take the take the foot off the pedal for a little bit.
- 45:25Who do we got? You look, you look on the line,
- 45:27you could look at the roster. Well, we can.
- 45:28We can roll Dustin May out there.
- 45:31Yeah, who would be a middle rotation guy on most most teams
- 45:38it's. Crazy.
- 45:39We got to give. We got to give Mookie or Tommy
- 45:41Edmund a day off in the outfield.
- 45:42Who we got? Oh, we just roll out James
- 45:44Outman. Sure, let's do that.
- 45:49The depth is insane and it's not just a it's not role player
- 45:55depth. It's like they'd be starters
- 45:56anywhere else depth correct. They'd be in the starting
- 46:01lineup, starting rotation first made out of the pen and any
- 46:06other team. So there will be coasting.
- 46:11You don't need to rely on an on an Otani coming back after TJ
- 46:15and being like, wonder what he's going to give us.
- 46:17Who cares? You're not going to have to
- 46:19worry about a Tyler glass now missing 7 to 10 starts because
- 46:23of, you know, a back tightening up.
- 46:26Who cares? You're not going to have to
- 46:28worry. I feel bad for the guys in the
- 46:32in the in in the minor league system.
- 46:36Good luck. Yeah, good luck.
- 46:38I do feel for those guys and maybe that's something I don't,
- 46:45I don't like there's no weaknesses.
- 46:49What's what are the Dodgers organization?
- 46:51What do they do? Do they do they move those guys
- 46:53for what? What else is out there?
- 46:56What else do you need? So like I don't.
- 47:02Know I said, I said we're, we're talking.
- 47:05I mean, we can talk about the Japanese market, but I saw a
- 47:09tweet yesterday that said the Los Angeles Dodgers make history
- 47:12with the signing of Joseph Dang, the first player ever signed
- 47:15from South Sudan. He's 6 foot seven, 185 lbs and
- 47:21can hit 95. 67195. No, I yeah, 67185 it's.
- 47:32A bean pole. And I said the Dodgers are just
- 47:34out here completing side quests at this point.
- 47:36Like they're just, it's, it's insane.
- 47:39It's crazy. And I'm no matter what they do,
- 47:43no matter who they sign. And this is sort of like my, my
- 47:48main take away from all of this. No matter who they sign, no
- 47:51matter who they trade for. I, and I'm sure many other
- 47:57baseball fans could, and I said this earlier, could only hope
- 48:01that our teams would behave the way the Dodgers are doing.
- 48:04You could only wish to have an owner of front office A, a, a
- 48:10coaching staff be this invested and care this much about
- 48:14winning. And I get it.
- 48:15They have money. I understand that, but so do
- 48:19other teams. And I'm not saying that.
- 48:21I, I, I think I'm past the point now of saying, well, the other
- 48:24teams can just do what the Dodgers are doing because we've,
- 48:26we've laid it out very, very clearly here that they can't
- 48:29necessarily do it to that effect.
- 48:32But they're, we talk about it all the time.
- 48:35This was such a, this has been such a big issue in baseball.
- 48:37There's owners out there that also have money and choose to
- 48:41pocket it because this is nothing more than addition.
- 48:45Owning a baseball team, a Major League, a big League Baseball
- 48:48team is nothing more to them than just in addition to their
- 48:52portfolio. And so if you're a fan of a team
- 48:56like that, which is more than not in this league, how could
- 49:02you then look at the Dodgers and say, well, that's not good for
- 49:05baseball. Look at your own team.
- 49:07Yeah, look at how far off you you are now from the standard.
- 49:11Channel the frustration to your own organization, your own
- 49:15franchise and look at, look to your owner and say, what are we
- 49:18doing? And, and credit like that.
- 49:20I, I know some White Sox fans out there in particular, and I
- 49:23know they, they get kicked around more often than not.
- 49:27White Sox fans are very aware of their situation and they're,
- 49:31they are very much aware of who their frustration should be
- 49:35directed at. And I and I and I applaud them
- 49:37for that because they're not looking around going well, woe
- 49:40is us. The let's look at the big bad
- 49:42Dodgers and, and blame them for all of our troubles.
- 49:45No, they go, you know what we got to, we got to be better
- 49:49here. And there's other teams around
- 49:50the league that I think are, are getting to a point where they
- 49:52are other fan bases, I should say, we're who are getting to a
- 49:55point where they're starting to come around to that way of
- 49:57thinking. But to the the people that are
- 50:00looking at the Dodgers, you, you, you got to not be upset
- 50:04with what they're doing because it again, it's legal, but
- 50:08instead be more upset with your own team.
- 50:12How do you force owners out? How do you force owners out of
- 50:17their situation of just, you know, cashing checks and
- 50:21enjoying owning A-Team? Like how do you do, I don't know
- 50:24how that can happen. I don't know.
- 50:31Before we get out of here, I was, you know, kind of thinking
- 50:33of this question. What do you what do you feel
- 50:35like you would want more now? A salary cap or a salary floor?
- 50:41Salary floor even. I'm still in that camp.
- 50:43I'm still in that camp. Even with the way this offseason
- 50:46has gone, particularly for this Dodgers team where we we've been
- 50:49talking about this entire time. What would you like to see that
- 50:51floor at? Just kind of shooting from the
- 50:53hip? What number?
- 50:59To be honest with you, I I haven't gotten to a point of
- 51:01thinking about specific dollars, but I just know that when you
- 51:04when you talk about having a putting a cap on what players
- 51:08are willing to acquire, because ultimately a cap is anti player.
- 51:13That's the reality of it. Sure, yeah.
- 51:17And so if, if you're looking at, if you're looking at both camps,
- 51:19I'm going, I'll take the floor because again, my, my anger with
- 51:26the issue in baseball of teams not spending lives with these
- 51:29owners who are not spending. So I'm, I would need there to be
- 51:34just a bare minimum spent across baseball.
- 51:38Like I, I want to see, I want to see momentum as misplaced as it
- 51:44is like we're seeing with the A's right now.
- 51:49And again, I know that they're not spending out of the goodness
- 51:51of their hearts. They're doing it to avoid a
- 51:53grievance. I understand that.
- 51:55And just get some of this revenue sharing that's going
- 51:57around. Sure.
- 51:58But like, I, I want to see that, but in a more altruistic, a, a
- 52:02more honest way, a, a way that I want to see that happen, but in
- 52:09a way that's better for baseball where you go, OK, you know, what
- 52:12this team is, is, is being asked to, to spend more to, to go out
- 52:16and sign names that aren't necessarily out of the dumpster.
- 52:22And you look at what the A's do and you go, OK, like I, I, I
- 52:25kind of like that. I want to see that across these
- 52:27other cellar dweller teams that are, that are around baseball.
- 52:31Like I want to see that happen. And again, I know the A's aren't
- 52:34the greatest example because of their current situation, but I
- 52:37want to see a snowball effect like that.
- 52:39And so that happens with a, with a, with a floor as opposed to a
- 52:44cap, because what, what good does, what good does, does put
- 52:50in a cap on payroll do OK, You, you, you keep the Dodgers from
- 52:57from going above and beyond. What is that?
- 53:00What about these other teams that refuse to spend money?
- 53:02That's why I've never understood the people that are, are in the
- 53:04camp of we need a seller cap. We need a seller cap.
- 53:07OK, the Dodgers are going to Max it out.
- 53:11What about the other team? What about the other third of
- 53:14the league that just does not care?
- 53:18They're going to stay exactly where they're at, So what good
- 53:20does a cap do, at least with a floor?
- 53:24I, I, you get the ball. Rolling a little the.
- 53:25Floor is easy. I mean just raise the the
- 53:29minimum requirement for that that that revenue sharing raise
- 53:33it. I think if I was to throw a
- 53:37number out there, I'd say 200, one, 85200, something like that.
- 53:45Yeah, yeah, I think it'd be a fair number of like what you
- 53:47need to have your payroll at. And if you can't afford it as an
- 53:51owner, maybe you shouldn't be an owner.
- 53:55If you're not competitive enough to want to afford it, then you
- 53:59shouldn't be an owner. I'm sick of seeing, like you
- 54:04said, owners become owners just to add it to their portfolio.
- 54:09Give me competitive owners. Give me winners.
- 54:14It's the, it's the simplest thing that I've I've said for
- 54:18years at this point. It should be a requirement to
- 54:23have an owner who take who, who, who takes on a Major League
- 54:33franchise. It should be a a minimum
- 54:35requirement, bare minimum that they actually like the sport,
- 54:41that they want to make their product better.
- 54:43And people can say, well, it's it's it's a business, OK.
- 54:47I know plenty of business owners that do the work that they do
- 54:52and are in the industry and field and business that they are
- 54:54in because they like doing it. Just because they make a certain
- 54:58amount of money doesn't mean that they should be let off
- 55:01Scott free. And regarding actually caring
- 55:05about this, because unlike other businesses or industries, this,
- 55:09this, you know, element or, or asset that you're, that you're
- 55:16taking on impacts the lives of a lot of people.
- 55:20And you have fan bases. You don't see the, this is the
- 55:25thing that I try to always make people understand.
- 55:27You don't see people we love. We love farmers.
- 55:33We love our farmers. But you don't see hundreds of
- 55:36thousands of people showing up to a farm rooting for a farmer
- 55:41to do his work, OK? You don't see hundreds of
- 55:45thousands of people rolling up to a school to cheer on teachers
- 55:49that they do that they do good work.
- 55:52Baseball, sports. You had this, this.
- 55:55And I'm not saying those other things don't impact people.
- 55:58That's not what I'm saying. But you have other people who
- 56:01would give their left arm to see their their team succeed, to see
- 56:06their players succeed, to see their their favorite player get
- 56:09the respects and and type of contract that they deserve
- 56:12because of how well they perform, the type of money they
- 56:15bring on, bring in, so on and so forth.
- 56:18But the person at the top of the food chain could not care less.
- 56:24There's a problem with that. So we we need to get in.
- 56:28You're not going to be able to enforce this as a league because
- 56:31it's all it's the good, it's the good old boys club up there,
- 56:34which I understand and you know, it's going to be what it's going
- 56:37to be. So I'm not going to sit here and
- 56:39say what, like you said, you, you can't force these owners
- 56:41out. But we need to have a the
- 56:44conversation, I think needs to shift to guys like that.
- 56:47We need to, we need to stop, you know, putting all, all of our,
- 56:51our thoughts and, and concerns about the, the direction of the
- 56:55league on the Dodgers and instead look to these other
- 56:591520, maybe even 25 owners that simply do not care because it's
- 57:06nothing more than a financial asset to them.
- 57:08That's where the issue in all of this lies.
- 57:13Yeah, by the way. I mean, we're going to feel
- 57:16this. We're going to feel this
- 57:18eventually, you know? Nobody in the chat, nobody has a
- 57:23Tyson chicken tattoo. My point?
- 57:26That's exactly my point. Yeah, we're going to feel this
- 57:31eventually as a fan. And, you know, the average
- 57:37family is, is likely not going to be able to afford to go to a
- 57:40Dodgers game. And there's going to be a ripple
- 57:42effect to that eventually. And your MLBTV subscription for
- 57:47the year, instead of 120, it's probably going to be 199.
- 57:51You know, all that stuff's going to start to climb.
- 57:56There's a ripple effect to it. So, you know, I, I understand
- 58:00your sentiment and I'm just playing devil's advocate here
- 58:02because, you know, I agree, but a salary cap does kind of keep
- 58:07some of those things in perspective to where it's not
- 58:12just so much of like the player getting what he deserves.
- 58:16Our fans, you know, we're going to be paying for that and it's
- 58:18going to come out one way or another.
- 58:21And when you're talking about going to a game with your buddy
- 58:24and sitting somewhere, we don't need binoculars and, and trying
- 58:29to get a hot dog and a beer, you know, But where do we draw the
- 58:34line? Where do we draw the line that,
- 58:36you know, just having a day at the park doesn't turn into a
- 58:39four or $500 a day because it's getting there?
- 58:44And to that point, I say if, if, if a cap is what needs to
- 58:49happen, which I, I don't think it's going to happen, but if
- 58:52that's what needs to happen, it had it needs to come with the
- 58:55floor because it goes back to the point that I made about.
- 58:57For sure. Yeah, I don't think you have one
- 58:59without the other. What is a cap going to do to the
- 59:03the third, if not half of the league?
- 59:05That is fine. Sitting on their hands, yeah.
- 59:08Not to mention you're going to see more advert, you're going to
- 59:10see more sponsorships, you're going to see more patches,
- 59:13you're going to see more ad deals on the helmets and the
- 59:15jerseys and all that kind of stuff is going to start to, you
- 59:18know, hit you more. And this is this is what
- 59:21happens. This is how it goes.
- 59:23And you're going to see more streaming sites, you know,
- 59:28trying to get exclusive Friday night games or Saturday day
- 59:32games and you're going to have to have more, more subscriptions
- 59:35than ever. And that's, that's what's
- 59:38happening, That's what's coming. So buckle up.
- 59:43You know, that's my devil's advocate argument argument with
- 59:46that, you know, just letting teams spend whatever they want
- 59:49'cause that money is going to come from somewhere.
- 59:51Yeah, but and we don't need to pull on this thread because we
- 59:54could spend a whole another episode on this, but there is
- 59:56certainly without a doubt an element here of just gluttonous
- 1:00:01greed where it's like I think in an ideal world, you could have a
- 1:00:06a league where you don't have a salary cap.
- 1:00:09Teams are are are free to spend whatever they want and also
- 1:00:13have. A family of four be able to go
- 1:00:16to a baseball game for an affordable price.
- 1:00:18There, there there is a world out there, right?
- 1:00:20It's not ours, but there there's a, there's a reality, there's a,
- 1:00:25a universe where a family of four, family of five can go to a
- 1:00:29baseball game for under 100 bucks and the guys that are on
- 1:00:35the field are getting their I use fair cut, fair share in
- 1:00:40quotes. I use that loosely because I
- 1:00:42know this, I know that I know there's certain people that go,
- 1:00:44how much money do you need? I'm just talking about how much
- 1:00:47money is brought in by a team and what it, it's the whole
- 1:00:50like, should college athletes be paid?
- 1:00:52It's like sort sort of along that those things.
- 1:00:54It's like they deserve a cut of, of the, the product that they're
- 1:00:57producing. That that's my take.
- 1:01:00But yeah, ultimately there, there is a universe where these
- 1:01:03things can coexist, but it it's not going to.
- 1:01:06Yeah, it's it's not going to. So tell you what, I'll try to
- 1:01:08take the wife out to a Dodgers spring training game and I'll
- 1:01:11let you know what that bill looks like for spring training.
- 1:01:16I'll I'll sit in the grass and I'll let you know what that
- 1:01:18looks like. We.
- 1:01:19You and I went out to one back in 2023 when we're out there for
- 1:01:23the World Baseball Classic, we're like, oh, let's just go,
- 1:01:25why not? Let's catch a dodge game.
- 1:01:26And if you remember, I'm pretty sure that was the steepest bill
- 1:01:29of, of, of the spring training games we went to.
- 1:01:33Understandably so. But I can't even imagine two
- 1:01:36year, 2 year, 2-3 years later, what?
- 1:01:38It's going to be crazy. Crazy, crazy.
- 1:01:44Well, good stuff, man, good stuff.
- 1:01:47Hopefully this starts to have a little bit of a ripple effect.
- 1:01:50I, I think, I think some of those team like I, I think the
- 1:01:56Red Sox are definitely going to go in on, on Bregman now.
- 1:02:00I think some of these, you know, teams that not necessarily the
- 1:02:04Sasaki stuff because that had international money and that was
- 1:02:07going to have some kind of a, a, a limited dip anyway, but
- 1:02:12hopefully there's a little bit of a domino effect with some of
- 1:02:14these other deals. I mean, look, dude, we're
- 1:02:15getting close to February and we got some big names still out
- 1:02:18there, so. We got a we got a boot licker in
- 1:02:21the chat that says whining about prices sounds like a you
- 1:02:24problem. No, you're right.
- 1:02:25I I in fact, I hope they raise the prices really truthfully
- 1:02:29like I'm, I don't know about you, Nate, but I I want to take
- 1:02:33I I want to be able to take out a small loan this spring, this
- 1:02:37summer for it to to be able to enjoy A9 inning ball game that,
- 1:02:41by the way, last two hours and nothing more.
- 1:02:45Yeah. So count me in as wanting them
- 1:02:47wanting to raise the prices. That's that's where I'm at with
- 1:02:51all this. But anyway, you got any, you got
- 1:02:54any final thoughts here before we before we get out of here?
- 1:02:57No, I mean nothing really. Anybody that's new.
- 1:03:00Thanks for thanks for hopping in.
- 1:03:01This was a little bit of a, you know, spur of the moment.
- 1:03:04Let's let's knock it out for Sasaki and Tanner Scott was just
- 1:03:07a bonus because we already decided to record today.
- 1:03:10But we're normally, you know, Monday, Thursday nights.
- 1:03:12We're always going to go live for the most part.
- 1:03:16And once the season starts, things may shift a little bit.
- 1:03:18We may add some other stuff in, do some streaming stuff still
- 1:03:22kind of up in the air with some of those things.
- 1:03:24But thanks for joining us. Definitely like and and
- 1:03:29subscribe big help to us and we continue to do what we're doing.
- 1:03:33But love everybody getting in the chat, whether you agree or
- 1:03:36disagree. That's what we're about, baby.
- 1:03:38That's what we're about. So get in here, chat with us and
- 1:03:41and hang out. And we'll be rolling this out
- 1:03:43twice a week. So you guys are awesome.
- 1:03:47Don't go chasing curveballs. I just want to throw this out
- 1:03:51there. Shout out to MMM for forever
- 1:03:55Yankee fans crying poor. Hey, that sort of closing on
- 1:03:59that note, whether you hate us, whether you love us, whether you
- 1:04:02like the teams that we pull for, whether you hate the teams we
- 1:04:06pull forward, we're just here. We're just talking baseball.
- 1:04:08And at the end of the day, you, Nate and I are going to log off
- 1:04:11of this and we're not even, we're ultimately going to go on
- 1:04:14with our day. We get fired up about this stuff
- 1:04:16because we love baseball, but we're going to, if you want to
- 1:04:20have a conversation with us, reach out to us.
- 1:04:22We're not, we're not, we're not above you guys.
- 1:04:25We just like we're we're baseball fans.
- 1:04:27I like talking baseball. And again, you can hate us or
- 1:04:31love us, but we're not going to take this personally.
- 1:04:34We're not going to get upset with you.
- 1:04:35We're not going to we're not going to write you off as as
- 1:04:39crazy as takes as some of you guys have.
- 1:04:42We're we're cool. So if you want to talk baseball
- 1:04:45with us, if you want to join us for the season, if you want to
- 1:04:47hop on board, you're more than welcome no matter what team
- 1:04:51you're a fan of. We love you guys and we are glad
- 1:04:55that you are here and we appreciate you taking the time
- 1:04:58to talk ball with us. So with that said Nate, I think
- 1:05:03you are good, I am good. Let's get out of here.
- 1:05:07We love you all. And as always, looking forward
- 1:05:08to talking more baseball with you guys soon.
- 1:05:10Until next time, stay filthy.