Latest / Foul Territory / Fair Territory: José Ramírez contract extension, Market update, Yu Darvish retiring? SF needs

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Fair Territory: José Ramírez contract extension, Market update, Yu Darvish retiring? SF needs · Foul Territory

0:02
Speaker 1: Welcome everyone to the Monday edition of Fair Territory. I
0:05
Speaker 1: hope everyone had a good time over the weekend watching
0:09
Speaker 1: not just football, but the one hundred and first annual
0:12
Speaker 1: New York Baseball Writers Association Dinner that was broadcast live
0:17
Speaker 1: here on the Foul Territory Network the Fouls Territory Channel.
0:21
Speaker 1: And now we resume our normal work schedule. Now we
0:25
Speaker 1: start off today with something that came out over the
0:28
Speaker 1: weekend that was a bit of a surprise, the Jose
0:30
Speaker 1: Ramirez extension with the Cleveland Guardians seven years, one hundred
0:35
Speaker 1: and seventy five million, with seventy million in deferrals. Now,
0:39
Speaker 1: Jose Ramirez wasn't up until after next year, if I'm
0:42
Speaker 1: not mistaken, so there was no urgency here. But Ramirez
0:46
Speaker 1: over the years has been quite vocal about wanting to
0:50
Speaker 1: stay in Cleveland, wanting to finish his career in Cleveland.
0:53
Speaker 1: He's comfortable there, he likes it there. So we talk
0:57
Speaker 1: all the time in our sport about how little, small
0:59
Speaker 1: markets can never keep their players. Obviously, in many cases
1:03
Speaker 1: that is true. It's not always true though. Now Ramirez
1:07
Speaker 1: in his case, has taken below market value. But we've
1:10
Speaker 1: also seen Corbyn Carroll remain on a long term deal
1:13
Speaker 1: with the Arizona Diamondbacks, Julio Rodriguez remain on a long
1:17
Speaker 1: term deal with the Seattle Mariners, and Bobby Witch Junior
1:20
Speaker 1: with the Kansas City Royals. Ramirez obviously is an older
1:24
Speaker 1: player compared to those guys, and this deal will take
1:28
Speaker 1: him through his age forty season through twenty thirty two. Obviously,
1:33
Speaker 1: by then, I don't know that Jose Ramirez will be
1:35
Speaker 1: the same player he is today. But this is a
1:38
Speaker 1: player who, in my estimation, is a likely Hall of Famer, honestly,
1:43
Speaker 1: a near certain Hall of Famer. He is likely to
1:46
Speaker 1: end up the franchise leader for the Guardians in a
1:49
Speaker 1: number of categories. But beyond that, here's the thing that
1:52
Speaker 1: stands out to me and really distinguishes Jose Ramirez from
1:56
Speaker 1: a lot of players today. Seven top five MVP finishes.
2:01
Speaker 1: Seven that's astounding. Now, he's never won because he plays
2:05
Speaker 1: in the same league as Joho Tani once did and
2:08
Speaker 1: Aaron Judge now does, but he has been a top
2:11
Speaker 1: five finisher, which speaks to his dominance over the years.
2:15
Speaker 1: Just a wonderful player, a guy that you like to
2:18
Speaker 1: see rewarded and Jose Ramirez. You see the cap or
2:20
Speaker 1: the helmet flying off. Zach Meisel of the Athletic keeps
2:24
Speaker 1: track all year long of the helmet counter for Jose Ramirez,
2:27
Speaker 1: how many times he loses his helmet running the bases.
2:30
Speaker 1: He's a fun player to watch. He is an excellent player.
2:34
Speaker 1: He's the heart and soul of that team. And now
2:37
Speaker 1: he's under contract through the age of forty. Other news
2:41
Speaker 1: over the weekend, a little bit of a different twist
2:44
Speaker 1: here you. Darvish comes out in a San Diego Union
2:48
Speaker 1: tribute and report on Saturday. I believe that he was
2:51
Speaker 1: going to retire, that he was planning on relinquishing the
2:55
Speaker 1: final three years of his salary, and that was going
2:58
Speaker 1: to be it for him. Well not so fast. Darvish's agent,
3:02
Speaker 1: Joel Wolf, immediately issued a statement saying nothing is resolved.
3:05
Speaker 1: Then Darvish followed with a statement. You see his statement
3:08
Speaker 1: right here. You may have seen an article. And although
3:11
Speaker 1: I am leaning towards avoiding the contract, there's still a
3:13
Speaker 1: lot that has to be talked about over with the Padres,
3:16
Speaker 1: so the final details are yet to be announced. I
3:19
Speaker 1: am not announcing my retirement yet. Now this one is
3:24
Speaker 1: a complicated case. You, Darvish is a complicated guy. He
3:28
Speaker 1: indeed is willing to sacrifice money. He did that a
3:31
Speaker 1: couple of years ago with the Padres when he went
3:33
Speaker 1: on a bit of a hiatus for personal reasons. But
3:36
Speaker 1: he has three years left on this deal. Three years
3:39
Speaker 1: left on this deal, and he's currently injured. So from
3:42
Speaker 1: the standpoint of the Major League Baseball Players Association, their stance,
3:47
Speaker 1: I would imagine, as well as his agent stance Joel
3:49
Speaker 1: Wolf is not so fast. Let's see if we can
3:53
Speaker 1: negotiate something here. And I'm not saying this is happening.
3:55
Speaker 1: I don't know, but I imagine this is somewhat of
3:59
Speaker 1: a factor here. He is injured, and an injured player
4:03
Speaker 1: who is covered by insurance, as I would to anticipate,
4:06
Speaker 1: Darvish is can remain active or at least trying to
4:10
Speaker 1: rehab while collecting his salary. Now, will he forfeit some
4:14
Speaker 1: of that salary? Perhaps, and perhaps that will happen, But
4:17
Speaker 1: it's pretty rare when any player walks away from guaranteed money.
4:21
Speaker 1: You Darvish is a rare guy, and he's the one
4:23
Speaker 1: guy probably in the game you could see doing it.
4:26
Speaker 1: But this isn't gil Mesh going back, I don't know,
4:29
Speaker 1: over a decade now, walking away from the final twelve
4:32
Speaker 1: million on his contract in one year when he was healthy,
4:36
Speaker 1: that was one year. This is three years. Darvish is injured.
4:40
Speaker 1: So it's a little bit more complicated than just saying,
4:43
Speaker 1: you know what I'm done, and I'm gonna walk away,
4:46
Speaker 1: give the Padres back their money. Not happening so fast,
4:49
Speaker 1: So the story was premature in the San Diego Union Tribune. Obviously,
4:54
Speaker 1: Darvish and his agent responded and we will see how
4:57
Speaker 1: this ultimately gets resolved. It will get re I anticipate
5:01
Speaker 1: it will be resolved by opening day, but again they're
5:04
Speaker 1: not quite the finish line yet. They're kind of a
5:06
Speaker 1: long way from that. Right now. Conversations have to take
5:09
Speaker 1: place with the Union, with Major League Baseball, and of
5:12
Speaker 1: course with the Padres as well. So that's you, Darvish
5:16
Speaker 1: and staying out west. The San Francisco Giants report by
5:20
Speaker 1: Andrew Baggerley of The Athletic over the weekend that they
5:23
Speaker 1: made an aggressive push for CJ. Abrams, and they would
5:27
Speaker 1: have played Abrams at second base. William Doomas of course,
5:30
Speaker 1: is at shortstop. You have Ralphael Devers at first, Matt
5:34
Speaker 1: Chapman at third. That would have been quite the dynamic infield,
5:37
Speaker 1: but it didn't go very far. And obviously the Giants
5:42
Speaker 1: are still looking. They're in a division in which the
5:45
Speaker 1: Dodgers obviously are a powerhouse. The Padres are kind of
5:49
Speaker 1: a question still. They are trying to do some more things.
5:53
Speaker 1: They want to get one more starting pitcher, probably in
5:56
Speaker 1: the eight to twelve million dollars a year range, that
5:59
Speaker 1: kind of aava to twelve million, and they'd also like
6:02
Speaker 1: to get a hitter. Remember, they were in the Nolan
6:04
Speaker 1: Ornado sweepstakes, but ultimately didn't want to really pay any
6:09
Speaker 1: of the remaining obligation to Ronado. The Diamondbacks took on
6:12
Speaker 1: eleven million of the forty two million, and that's how
6:15
Speaker 1: they got him. But back to the Giants. The Giants
6:18
Speaker 1: are a team that really has had a quiet offseason.
6:21
Speaker 1: And it's curious because here's a team that in recent
6:24
Speaker 1: years has signed Chapman a Damas Endeavors acquired into trade
6:29
Speaker 1: two big deals. Devers was already signed, but the Giants
6:32
Speaker 1: inherited that contract. So they've got those players under contract.
6:37
Speaker 1: They've got them in the primes of their careers for
6:39
Speaker 1: the most part, and yet this offseason they seem to
6:43
Speaker 1: have stalled. They haven't done much at all. They've added
6:46
Speaker 1: to the rotation Tyler Malley and Adrian Hawser, good pitchers,
6:51
Speaker 1: serviceable major league starters, but not guys that are really
6:55
Speaker 1: lighted out by any stretch of the imagination. They're in
6:58
Speaker 1: a position with their payroll where their cash payroll is
7:01
Speaker 1: one hundred and eighty five million and their luxury tax
7:04
Speaker 1: payroll is more than thirty million dollars below the threshold,
7:08
Speaker 1: more than thirty million below. So you would think that
7:12
Speaker 1: they have room to do at least one major thing,
7:16
Speaker 1: maybe even two. But it seems that they're stalled. And
7:20
Speaker 1: it seems that for whatever reason, the aggressiveness they showed
7:25
Speaker 1: in to devonstrate a particular but also last offseason in
7:28
Speaker 1: signing a damis for whatever reason, that has I wouldn't
7:32
Speaker 1: say disappeared, but it's not the same level for sure.
7:35
Speaker 1: So where do they go from here? As Andrew Baggerly mentioned,
7:39
Speaker 1: Harrison Bader is a possible target. Their outfield is thin
7:43
Speaker 1: right now. They've got Elliott Ramos, they've got Jung Huli,
7:47
Speaker 1: they need one more. They could also use a second basement,
7:50
Speaker 1: and I would suggest that they also could use a
7:53
Speaker 1: starting pitcher. Now, Tony Vaiitello is their manager, the new manager,
7:57
Speaker 1: another reason why you might want to support him as
8:00
Speaker 1: much as you can. It's his first year coming out
8:02
Speaker 1: of college. But with Vtello, you have the intriguing possibility
8:07
Speaker 1: down the line of maybe Max Scherzer coming aboard. And
8:11
Speaker 1: as I wrote over the weekend with Will Salmon, Max
8:15
Speaker 1: Scherzer is kind of in a wait and see mode.
8:19
Speaker 1: He's ready to go right now. He'll sign with a
8:22
Speaker 1: team if it's one of the teams he wants to
8:24
Speaker 1: sign with at this moment. But if he doesn't get
8:27
Speaker 1: the right offer from the right team, he's willing to wait,
8:30
Speaker 1: willing to wait until after Opening Days. So I wonder
8:34
Speaker 1: if Max Scherzer is a guy ultimately who ends up
8:39
Speaker 1: with the Giants sometime in mid season. Now, before we
8:41
Speaker 1: end this segment, I want to show you the remaining
8:44
Speaker 1: free agents. The top free agents remaining according to the
8:47
Speaker 1: Athletics Big Board, we had a top fifty. Here's who's left.
8:51
Speaker 1: Frobert Valdez at five a, Johannio Swarez at sixteen, Zach
8:55
Speaker 1: Gallan at twenty one, Lucas Giulido at thirty, Crispasset at
8:58
Speaker 1: thirty one, Harrison Better just mentioned at thirty two Luisa
9:02
Speaker 1: rise at thirty three. Andrew Baggerley and his story about
9:05
Speaker 1: the Giants the other day also mentioned a rise as
9:08
Speaker 1: a possibility for the Giants at second base where they're
9:11
Speaker 1: looking at Casey Schmidt right now. I don't know that
9:14
Speaker 1: I see that happening, but right now the Giants are
9:18
Speaker 1: looking kind of at all available options, that is where
9:21
Speaker 1: they are. So with that we close out our conversation
9:25
Speaker 1: about the Giants. We get ready for the Inside Dish
9:27
Speaker 1: and FP Santangelo hosts splash Hit Territory. So go to
9:32
Speaker 1: San Francisco Giants show in the Foul Territory Network. FP
9:35
Speaker 1: and special contributor Susan Sluster answer your burning questions in
9:39
Speaker 1: the latest episode. Subscribe on YouTube and share with a friend.
9:43
Speaker 1: Rate five stars wherever you listen to the entire Foul
9:46
Speaker 1: Territory Network. We'll be back with the Inside Dish right
9:50
Speaker 1: after this. Well, well, time down for the Inside Dish.
9:59
Speaker 1: The part of the show I talk about something happening
10:01
Speaker 1: in the game, maybe something I've written, and today I'm
10:04
Speaker 1: going to focus on The story that I published this
10:06
Speaker 1: morning in The Athletic one about the new Angels hitting
10:10
Speaker 1: coach Brady Anderson. The former oriol center fielder. Brady Anderson
10:15
Speaker 1: is a guy I've covered virtually his entire career, from
10:19
Speaker 1: the time he was traded from the Boston Red Sox
10:21
Speaker 1: to the Orioles at the July nineteen eighty eight deadline.
10:25
Speaker 1: That was an amazing trade for the Oriols. It was
10:27
Speaker 1: Brady Anderson and Kurt Schilling for Mike Bodeker. Worked out
10:31
Speaker 1: pretty well for Baltimore, but Brady Anderson struggled to establish
10:35
Speaker 1: himself really for three plus years, and it wasn't until
10:39
Speaker 1: nineteen ninety two when the late manager of the Orioles,
10:41
Speaker 1: then Johnny Oates, basically said you're going to be my
10:46
Speaker 1: leadoff man in center fielder that Anderson took off in
10:49
Speaker 1: his career, and at that point he was a guy
10:52
Speaker 1: who could really run, could really defend. He stole fifty
10:56
Speaker 1: three bases that season in nineteen ninety two as the
10:59
Speaker 1: Oriols leadoff man and really took off fifteen year career.
11:03
Speaker 1: Three time All Stars, stole more than three hundred bases
11:06
Speaker 1: career ops nine percent above league average career ops plus
11:11
Speaker 1: I should say the adjusted ops now. As I mentioned
11:14
Speaker 1: in the article, his fifty homer season in nineteen ninety
11:17
Speaker 1: six triggered suspicions of ped Us. There was never any
11:22
Speaker 1: form of evidence presented to show that he did that,
11:25
Speaker 1: and we're not living in a world to hearsay, at
11:27
Speaker 1: least not in my world. So that is that. Now
11:32
Speaker 1: the story is about, of course, how he has been coaching,
11:36
Speaker 1: not formally but kind of informally for many years now,
11:40
Speaker 1: and his last professional season was two thousand and three.
11:44
Speaker 1: He goes to camp with the San Diego Padres on
11:46
Speaker 1: a minor league deal. He gets released in spring training
11:50
Speaker 1: and asks the late Padres general manager Kevin Towers, hey,
11:54
Speaker 1: can I go to Triple A? And Tower said, you
11:57
Speaker 1: want to go to Triple A? You've played fifteen years
11:59
Speaker 1: in the major leagues. Anderson said, yes, I'd like to
12:02
Speaker 1: go there. And while he was there, he actually played
12:04
Speaker 1: pretty well, didn't stay very long, but found himself being
12:08
Speaker 1: a mentor to younger players, and that was really the
12:11
Speaker 1: first time he had kind of done that, and it
12:15
Speaker 1: seems like the light bulb went on. Now years later
12:18
Speaker 1: he joined the Orioles front office. He was very close
12:21
Speaker 1: with the Angelo's family, the owner Peter Angelos and his
12:24
Speaker 1: sons Lou and John, and he joined the Orils in
12:28
Speaker 1: kind of this undefined, vague front office role. Ultimately rose
12:33
Speaker 1: to vice president of baseball Operations. He was second on
12:37
Speaker 1: the depth chart under Dan Duquette, and yet he wasn't
12:41
Speaker 1: really a front office guy. As I said, his role
12:43
Speaker 1: was undefined. He did a little bit of everything, and
12:46
Speaker 1: a lot of it involved coaching. He ran the strengthen
12:50
Speaker 1: conditioning program. He through batting practice, He assisted with analytics,
12:54
Speaker 1: He collaborated with the hitting coaches. In twenty twelve, he
12:58
Speaker 1: was even in uniform and that year he was almost
13:02
Speaker 1: an active coach Major League Baseball of hearst had rules
13:05
Speaker 1: on how many coaches could stay in the dugouts, so
13:07
Speaker 1: he didn't stay then in that particular spot as a
13:10
Speaker 1: uniformed person in the dugout. Buck Show. Walter, the Oriol's
13:14
Speaker 1: manager at the time, loved Anderson, but some players and
13:19
Speaker 1: some coaches were uncomfortable with the fact that a front
13:22
Speaker 1: office guy was always around. And pitching coach Dave Wallace
13:27
Speaker 1: at the time, bullpen coach Don Cheaty at the time,
13:30
Speaker 1: they both felt that Anderson was operating with a lot
13:35
Speaker 1: of autonomy but without accountability, and ultimately those two coaches
13:39
Speaker 1: they left for the Braves after the twenty sixteen season,
13:43
Speaker 1: and in twenty seventeen I wrote an article for Fox
13:48
Speaker 1: Sports dot Com I was not yet at the Athletic
13:50
Speaker 1: detailing Anderson's role and how it was vague and how
13:54
Speaker 1: it was uncomfortable for some people, and Wallace and Cheaty
13:58
Speaker 1: both told me in that story that part of the
14:00
Speaker 1: reason they left was because of their own happiness with
14:04
Speaker 1: what Anderson was doing. So Anderson still hung around the
14:09
Speaker 1: Oils for a few years after that, until twenty nineteen.
14:12
Speaker 1: Mike Elias had taken over as VP general manager. I
14:15
Speaker 1: should say and Anderson was not part of his group,
14:19
Speaker 1: kind of was let go. Still worked with players over
14:22
Speaker 1: the years, so after that he didn't hear much from him.
14:28
Speaker 1: He wasn't active in the game, even though he was
14:30
Speaker 1: still working with players on the side, and when he
14:34
Speaker 1: was named the Angels hitting coach under a first time manager,
14:37
Speaker 1: Kurt Suzuki, I was very surprised, but I was even
14:41
Speaker 1: more surprised to learn that not only was Anderson going
14:47
Speaker 1: to be on that Angel's coaching staff, but Dom Cheaty,
14:51
Speaker 1: one of the coaches who had problems with him in Baltimore,
14:54
Speaker 1: a bit of a contentious relationship with him in Baltimore.
14:57
Speaker 1: He was also going to be on that staff. It
15:00
Speaker 1: raised questions in my mind because I remember that article
15:03
Speaker 1: vividly from eight years ago. I remember the whole situation.
15:07
Speaker 1: I called Cheaty. I called a lot of people, and
15:09
Speaker 1: I asked Cheaty in particular. I said, Hey, what's up here.
15:13
Speaker 1: You told me all those years ago that you left
15:15
Speaker 1: because of Brady, and now you're gonna work with Brady again.
15:18
Speaker 1: And he said, basically that he misspoke, that he was
15:21
Speaker 1: speaking out of frustration back then, that he had no
15:24
Speaker 1: problem with Brady Anderson. Yes, they had some differences, but
15:27
Speaker 1: baseball people, when they have their differences, they express their
15:30
Speaker 1: opinions and they move on. And if anything, actually this
15:35
Speaker 1: was the case, he recommended Brady Anderson for that position.
15:39
Speaker 1: So the story is about not all these conflict that's
15:45
Speaker 1: in there. That's part of it because it's part of
15:47
Speaker 1: the backstory. But really what the story is centered around
15:51
Speaker 1: are three former Orioles who basically credit Anderson with helping
15:56
Speaker 1: save their careers. The three are Caleb, Joseph Trey, man
16:01
Speaker 1: and a picture a very prominent picture in his day,
16:04
Speaker 1: Zach Britton. And the story details how each of these
16:08
Speaker 1: guys was in a bad place in his career, and Anderson,
16:11
Speaker 1: through instruction, and in Britain's case more through encouragement, really
16:15
Speaker 1: played a pivotal role for them. So I found it
16:19
Speaker 1: all really interesting, and I felt that if I found
16:23
Speaker 1: it interesting, the readers would find it interesting too. It's
16:26
Speaker 1: one of the longest stories I've written in a while,
16:28
Speaker 1: but it's a different kind of story. And here's a
16:31
Speaker 1: guy no formal coaching experience, never been a coach at
16:36
Speaker 1: any level, but yet he's been coaching for a long time.
16:40
Speaker 1: You see the story right there. Brady Anderson just landed
16:42
Speaker 1: his first formal coaching job at sixty two. He's been
16:45
Speaker 1: teaching players for years. I encourage everyone to read it.
16:49
Speaker 1: I think you'll find it interesting too, at least that's
16:52
Speaker 1: the hope. And for more on The Angels, Mark Trumbo
16:55
Speaker 1: and Mike Di Giovanna host ain Haylio Territory, I'm sorry,
16:59
Speaker 1: not Angel's territory. Helo Territory. Catch parts one and two
17:02
Speaker 1: of their conversation with former Angels skipper Mike Soshia out now.
17:06
Speaker 1: I actually watched some of this last night. It was
17:08
Speaker 1: rather interesting. Subscribe on YouTube and wherever you get your
17:11
Speaker 1: podcast to the entire foul Territory network. Grill and Ken
17:15
Speaker 1: is coming up next.
17:17
Speaker 2: Hey, when you get a chance, subscribe to foul Territory
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18:25
Speaker 1: Time now for Grilling Ken, the part of the show
18:27
Speaker 1: where I answer your questions. Let's get going, Let's get
18:29
Speaker 1: right to it. First question comes from armand is amazing
18:35
Speaker 1: grilling Ken. Who has a better chance to return to
18:37
Speaker 1: their former team fromber or Gallon? Wow? Good question. I
18:41
Speaker 1: would say neither has a very good chance of returning
18:44
Speaker 1: to their former team. With Brombert that would be going
18:47
Speaker 1: back to the Houston Astros. With Zach Gallon, that would
18:49
Speaker 1: be going back to the Arizona Diamondbacks. Could I see
18:54
Speaker 1: the Diamondbacks maybe doing a short term thing with Gallen.
18:57
Speaker 1: I could possibly see that. But at the same time,
19:01
Speaker 1: they are a team that, because they held on to
19:05
Speaker 1: Katel Marte, are not maybe as flexible financially as they
19:09
Speaker 1: were going to be if they had traded him. Now,
19:12
Speaker 1: what's interesting with the Diamondbacks. Remember they were in on
19:16
Speaker 1: Alex Bregman for a time, didn't sign him, so obviously
19:19
Speaker 1: their owner Ken Kendrick in special cases will make exceptions.
19:24
Speaker 1: I would imagine Gallon in the Diamondbacks' minds might qualify
19:28
Speaker 1: as a special case. So I'll take back my initial
19:30
Speaker 1: comment a little bit. I would say Gallen has a
19:33
Speaker 1: better chance of going back to his former team than Valdez. Certainly.
19:37
Speaker 1: What are the chances of that happening, I don't know.
19:40
Speaker 1: I don't know what the rest of his market is,
19:41
Speaker 1: Gallen's market, but I would say that there is a
19:44
Speaker 1: slight chance of that happening. Gallen back to Arizona. Next question,
19:50
Speaker 1: this one comes from foul Territory Show our people. Do
19:53
Speaker 1: you agree? And that's with C. Trent rosecrants that Elie
19:56
Speaker 1: dela Cruz could be a billion dollar player. No, I
20:01
Speaker 1: don't agree with that. He's a great player, Elie de
20:04
Speaker 1: la Cruz, but he's still developing, he's still kind of
20:06
Speaker 1: polishing his game. And yes, by the time he reaches
20:09
Speaker 1: free agency. Is it possible that we're talking about a
20:12
Speaker 1: billion dollars When we've got Juan Soto at seven sixty
20:17
Speaker 1: five and Shoho Tani it's seven hundred, that's not that
20:20
Speaker 1: far from a billion. I just don't know that Eli
20:23
Speaker 1: de la Cruz is going to be that guy. At
20:24
Speaker 1: this stage of his career. He could develop into it
20:27
Speaker 1: and if he becomes someone who fu fills his potential, yeah,
20:31
Speaker 1: you can maybe see that. But man, that's a lot
20:35
Speaker 1: of money. But then again, seven hundred and sixty five
20:38
Speaker 1: million is a lot of buddy, we'll see. I'm rooting
20:40
Speaker 1: for him. I'm rooting for anybody to make as much
20:42
Speaker 1: money as they can. All right, let's get to the
20:44
Speaker 1: next question. That's when comes from Cody Klegg who asks
20:49
Speaker 1: what is going on with the Pirates in their pursuit
20:52
Speaker 1: of au Haino Suarez. The truth of that question, or
20:56
Speaker 1: the true answer for me, would be, I don't exactly know. Oh,
21:00
Speaker 1: we do know the Pirates are interested. We do know
21:03
Speaker 1: the Pirates have pursued a number of free agents in
21:05
Speaker 1: this offseason, but landed only one really of their targets,
21:10
Speaker 1: Ryan O'Hearn. That was a two year, twenty nine million
21:13
Speaker 1: dollar deal. Their trade editions were Brandon lab Jake Mangum,
21:17
Speaker 1: both coming from Tampa Bay, and the Password coming from Boston.
21:20
Speaker 1: But they haven't gone beyond that as far as trades
21:24
Speaker 1: just yet, and that is how I expect their next
21:26
Speaker 1: move maybe to come through another trade. I don't know
21:30
Speaker 1: how they're going to do with Suarez or other free agents.
21:35
Speaker 1: They certainly are in the mix for him, but I
21:40
Speaker 1: just don't see the Pirates necessarily being anyone's first choice
21:44
Speaker 1: unless their options elsewhere are limited. And that is what
21:47
Speaker 1: I'm talking about here. That's the problem that they've had
21:50
Speaker 1: with Suarez and others. So we'll see what they do.
21:53
Speaker 1: As far as their offense, they need one more bat
21:57
Speaker 1: at the very least. Andrew McCutcheon had some strong things
21:59
Speaker 1: to say about the team seeming lack of interest in
22:02
Speaker 1: him over the weekend. His comments were on X and
22:05
Speaker 1: I encourage people to check them out. All right, let's
22:08
Speaker 1: get to another question. This one comes from I'm not
22:11
Speaker 1: even gonna say his name. We don't need any foul
22:13
Speaker 1: names here. Are the Marlins going to trade Sandy. They're
22:17
Speaker 1: not going to trade him just yet. And if they
22:19
Speaker 1: wanted to trade him this offseason, they probably would have
22:21
Speaker 1: done it by now, but they've already traded two starting pitchers,
22:24
Speaker 1: Edward Cabrera and Ryan Weathers. If Sandy al Contra has
22:28
Speaker 1: a great first half and the Marlins are out of contention,
22:32
Speaker 1: certainly I can see the equation turning in the favor
22:35
Speaker 1: of a trade. But I don't anticipate that happening. I
22:39
Speaker 1: don't anticipate the Marlins falling out of contention so quickly.
22:43
Speaker 1: They won seventy nine games last year. They arguably are
22:46
Speaker 1: a little bit better this year. They've got an interesting
22:50
Speaker 1: club that they've assembled. They play the game in kind
22:53
Speaker 1: of a Brewer's esque style. They've got Pete Fairbanks to close. Now.
22:58
Speaker 1: I expect the Marlins are going to be a competitive team.
23:02
Speaker 1: Maybe not a total wild card contender, but it's not
23:06
Speaker 1: out of the question. So if that happens, do you
23:11
Speaker 1: trade Sandy al Contra at the deadline? Maybe you do,
23:14
Speaker 1: maybe you don't. Maybe you pull up Brewers and you
23:16
Speaker 1: kind of do that kind of thing, try to get
23:19
Speaker 1: younger players that will be with you longer term. But man,
23:23
Speaker 1: if they're competitive, I would think that they're going to
23:25
Speaker 1: have a hard time doing that, hard time coming to
23:28
Speaker 1: grips with that and less and less. I will say this,
23:32
Speaker 1: their younger pitchers really emerge, and Thomas White's one of them,
23:35
Speaker 1: and they've got some others as well coming and that
23:37
Speaker 1: was one of the reasons they were willing to trade
23:40
Speaker 1: Cabrera and Ryan Weathers to make room for those guys.
23:43
Speaker 1: So we'll see how it plays out, but as of now,
23:45
Speaker 1: I don't expect al Contra to go all right. One
23:48
Speaker 1: more question this comes from Letsheva Jones, who asks Ken
23:51
Speaker 1: on paper, are Reds better than Cubbies? On paper? No,
23:55
Speaker 1: they are not better than the Cubs. The Cincinnati Reds
23:58
Speaker 1: are not. They're still looking for at least one more hitter.
24:02
Speaker 1: Austin Hayes has been on their radar. A oohaner Suarez
24:05
Speaker 1: has been on their radar. As I wrote with Will
24:07
Speaker 1: Salmon last week, one problem for the Reds has been
24:10
Speaker 1: the lack of clarity on their TV deal. They just
24:14
Speaker 1: don't know exactly what that's going to look like going forward.
24:17
Speaker 1: They're hoping for some more answers this week. It's a
24:20
Speaker 1: complicated thing. They're one of nine teams in that mainstream
24:24
Speaker 1: group that is affiliated with that network, and that network
24:28
Speaker 1: is having all kinds of financial issues, so they need
24:31
Speaker 1: some resolution there and then they'll presumably go forward and
24:34
Speaker 1: get another hitter. I don't know exactly how it's going
24:37
Speaker 1: to play out for them, but on paper right now,
24:40
Speaker 1: while they're starting, pitching is very good, and while their
24:43
Speaker 1: bullpen should be okay, I just don't see them quite
24:46
Speaker 1: as strong as the Cubs. All right, with that, I
24:49
Speaker 1: want to thank everyone for watching, for listening however, you
24:52
Speaker 1: enjoy our show. Foul Territory is coming up next at
24:56
Speaker 1: one pm Eastern. It's Jim Bowden and Alex Call. They'll
24:59
Speaker 1: be the guest, joining Todd Frasier, Arik Kratz and Scop Braun.
25:03
Speaker 1: I guess AJ can't work more than two days in
25:04
Speaker 1: a row. We're back Thursday at twelve thirty Eastern with
25:08
Speaker 1: a lama Uso joining us. Of course, talk to you then.
25:11
Speaker 1: Have a great week everyone,