Latest / Foul Territory / FairT: Hal's money comments, Rays ink Kim, Royals sign Estevez, Reds moves

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FairT: Hal's money comments, Rays ink Kim, Royals sign Estevez, Reds moves · Foul Territory

0:00
Speaker 1: They had him, nobody else has him. They're paying him
0:02
Speaker 1: the major league minimum. This man is not even arbitration
0:05
Speaker 1: eligible yet.
0:06
Speaker 2: Palestime Brenner groups himself with all these other low revenue teams. No, sorry,
0:11
Speaker 2: you don't get that pass. Welcome everyone to the Thursday
0:22
Speaker 2: edition of Fair Territory. I'm Ken Rosenthal here with Hannah Kaiser,
0:25
Speaker 2: stepping in for Alana Rizzo this week and Hannah. The
0:29
Speaker 2: last couple of days have been kind of busy. No
0:32
Speaker 2: Alex Bregman, no Pete Alonzo, but quite a bit of activity.
0:37
Speaker 1: Yeah, a lot of little moves, which of course ends
0:39
Speaker 1: up being the difference so often over the course of
0:42
Speaker 1: one hundred and sixty two game season. We're going to
0:44
Speaker 1: get to that. Before we do, I want to invite people,
0:47
Speaker 1: implore people put your grill in Ken questions in the chat.
0:51
Speaker 1: We'll get to those a little bit later. But yeah,
0:53
Speaker 1: like you alluded to, Ken, we've gotten through the big
0:57
Speaker 1: teams making big moves for of the off season and
1:01
Speaker 1: haven't quite gotten to the everyone who still left scrambles
1:06
Speaker 1: to find a chair before the music stops part of
1:08
Speaker 1: the off season. So now we're into some smaller market
1:11
Speaker 1: teams making savvy little moves. We're gonna start with the Reds.
1:16
Speaker 1: What have you got for us?
1:18
Speaker 2: Yeah, the Reds have been really interesting all off season. Actually,
1:21
Speaker 2: Hannah and the last couple of days Austin Hayes on
1:24
Speaker 2: a one year deal. That one is pending a physical,
1:27
Speaker 2: Wade Miley on a minor league deal, but they expect
1:29
Speaker 2: him back from Tommy John surgery in mid May. And
1:31
Speaker 2: then yesterday a trade for the left handed reliever Taylor Rogers.
1:35
Speaker 2: And when you look at the entirety of their off season,
1:38
Speaker 2: they have made, as you described them, a bunch of savvy,
1:42
Speaker 2: kind of medium moves, and Brady Singer was the first
1:45
Speaker 2: of them. Brady Singer, the right handed pitcher from the
1:47
Speaker 2: Kansas City Royals that was in exchange for Jonathan India.
1:50
Speaker 2: They've also added Jose Travino, Gavin Lux, They've re signed
1:54
Speaker 2: Brent Soonter, they brought back Nick Martinez on a qualifying offer.
1:58
Speaker 2: And the biggest move, of course is the hiring or
2:01
Speaker 2: was the hiring of Terry Francona as manager. So you
2:04
Speaker 2: see the different names there, and it's a different kind
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Speaker 2: of team. It's a little bit more veteran. They've brought
2:10
Speaker 2: in high character, people that they think can lead some
2:13
Speaker 2: of their younger players. Of course, this is the team
2:15
Speaker 2: of Elie Dela Cruz and Matt McClain coming back from
2:18
Speaker 2: injury and as we reported this morning, Will Salmon and
2:22
Speaker 2: I and the athletic They also made a run at
2:25
Speaker 2: Luis Robert Junior before signing Hayes. They couldn't get to
2:28
Speaker 2: an agreement with the White Sox on Robert, but they
2:32
Speaker 2: made that attempt. They made that try, and it's just
2:36
Speaker 2: interesting to see with Francona now what they might be.
2:42
Speaker 1: Yeah, they're in this weakish NL Central Division. They finished
2:46
Speaker 1: fourth last season, but they had a lot of promise.
2:49
Speaker 1: I mean, I was thinking back sort of to the
2:53
Speaker 1: ebb and flow of last season, and there was a
2:55
Speaker 1: time where it looked like all these teams with young players,
2:58
Speaker 1: the Pirates being one of them, at least at the
3:00
Speaker 1: start of the season, we're in it. And then everybody
3:02
Speaker 1: kind of fell by the wayside. They the Reds ended
3:04
Speaker 1: up finishing what seventy seven and eighty five, fired manager
3:08
Speaker 1: David Bell, like you said, replaced him with Terry Francona,
3:11
Speaker 1: And it's just encouraging to see a team try a
3:15
Speaker 1: lot of things to get a little bit better. I
3:17
Speaker 1: thought this was interesting. They had the worst record in
3:20
Speaker 1: the majors in one run games last year, so they
3:23
Speaker 1: have a reason to think that some amount of just
3:26
Speaker 1: regression will benefit them. And I like these moves to
3:29
Speaker 1: be like, we are not only banking on regression. We
3:32
Speaker 1: think will be a little bit better just through luck
3:35
Speaker 1: going our way, and we want to make sure that
3:38
Speaker 1: we're ready for that luck and maybe ready to take
3:41
Speaker 1: a run at the division. Where do you like them
3:43
Speaker 1: kind of in the division as a whole. I know
3:45
Speaker 1: the Cubs have done a lot, But.
3:47
Speaker 2: The Cubs have and they look to be the favorite.
3:50
Speaker 2: Milwaukee has done almost nothing. We addressed that in our
3:52
Speaker 2: notes calumn today too. They have yet to sign a
3:55
Speaker 2: player for more than one million dollars. They're always competitive,
3:58
Speaker 2: they're always good. They've traded Devin Williams, they traded Corbyn
4:01
Speaker 2: Burns last year. I expect they'll be in the mix.
4:03
Speaker 2: But I am interested to see how Francona makes his
4:08
Speaker 2: mark on this team. And Hannah, you mentioned that one
4:10
Speaker 2: run record that is generally, as you said, an indicator
4:13
Speaker 2: of poor luck. Yes, you lose one run games at
4:16
Speaker 2: times because of poor managing. Or bad breaks or whatever.
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Speaker 2: But it is like I said, there luck and that
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Speaker 2: said they generally those teams that have those poor run
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Speaker 2: records generally come back the next year and do a
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Speaker 2: little bit better. But we'll see how it plays out
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Speaker 2: for the Reds with Francona.
4:36
Speaker 1: What do you think ends up happening with Luis Robert
4:39
Speaker 1: the West Sox find a taker for him before we
4:41
Speaker 1: get to spring training.
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Speaker 2: Well, if you remember last spring, Hannah Dylan Cees did
4:47
Speaker 2: not get traded until mid March, and certainly, if Robert
4:50
Speaker 2: shows he is healthy and a team has a spot
4:52
Speaker 2: for him, it's a little different than Cease. Cease was
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Speaker 2: a potential free agent one year. Roberts a couple of years,
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Speaker 2: bigger money, but certainly, if not in spring training then
5:02
Speaker 2: by the trade deadline. And look at Luis Roberts record
5:04
Speaker 2: there and the problem, as you can see is the
5:06
Speaker 2: Game's played column only one season over one hundred, and
5:10
Speaker 2: that was in twenty three when he had a monster year.
5:13
Speaker 2: That was when he had all the home runs, the
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Speaker 2: thirty eight home run the ops. Actually that's the batting
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Speaker 2: average category. I believe it's not ops, but regardless, it
5:22
Speaker 2: was about eight thirty and he had a really outstanding season.
5:25
Speaker 2: So once that happens, the White Sox will collect another
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Speaker 2: prospect or to perhaps eat some of that money. But
5:32
Speaker 2: they could not get it done with the Reds and
5:34
Speaker 2: another team in that division. Hannah is making a lot
5:37
Speaker 2: of noise and kind of like Cincinnati has been going
5:41
Speaker 2: all off season. And we're talking about Kansas City. Kansas
5:44
Speaker 2: City yesterday reaching an agreement with Carlos Destevez two years,
5:48
Speaker 2: twenty two point two million their bullpen. Now, man, it's
5:51
Speaker 2: looking pretty good.
5:55
Speaker 1: Yeah, I like the bullpen move. And I was looking
5:58
Speaker 1: at last year the rotation era second in Major League Baseball,
6:02
Speaker 1: their bullpen era twentieth in Major League Baseball. So again,
6:07
Speaker 1: that's a team that kind of I mean, they did
6:10
Speaker 1: make the postseason. They got that second wild card spot,
6:13
Speaker 1: first World Red spot, second worlderspot. It was all Central
6:15
Speaker 1: teams in the wild card spot them. But yeah, they've
6:18
Speaker 1: there was we had so many wildcard spots. Now they
6:21
Speaker 1: keep drag of I mean I think it was I
6:24
Speaker 1: picked the Royals to be like a whatever, like a
6:29
Speaker 1: a Cinderella team in twenty twenty three, and they were not.
6:32
Speaker 1: They'd lost so many games in twenty twenty three that
6:35
Speaker 1: looked so stupid. That was a terrible pick. And every
6:38
Speaker 1: time I saw them last year, I was like, you
6:39
Speaker 1: couldn't have done this a two year before in twenty
6:43
Speaker 1: twenty three, I would have looked really smart. Now now
6:45
Speaker 1: they're like an actually good team and they have Bobby
6:47
Speaker 1: Woo Junior, and they have stars, and they have this
6:49
Speaker 1: great rotation and right sort of finishing out the bullpen
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Speaker 1: is such a smart way to take a team that
6:55
Speaker 1: has like a lot of promise and actually make it
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Speaker 1: a team that can contend into October.
7:02
Speaker 2: Right, and we showed all those names. They have depth
7:04
Speaker 2: as you mentioned in that pen now and the back
7:06
Speaker 2: end with the Steves, Lucas, herseag and Hunter Harvey who
7:10
Speaker 2: they've acquired in the trade last July. That's pretty interesting.
7:14
Speaker 2: And Hunter Harvey, I know, is not maybe as good
7:16
Speaker 2: and he got hurt and there are some questions about him,
7:19
Speaker 2: but you look at all the names that they have there,
7:21
Speaker 2: that's an impressive group overall. It's depth. Same with the rotation.
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Speaker 2: The rotation you mentioned Lugo Waka, Cole Reagan's Michael Lorenzen
7:30
Speaker 2: and then you've got some younger pitchers Boobach Daniel Lynch,
7:34
Speaker 2: Alec Marsh. They're all in the mix too. They could
7:36
Speaker 2: end up in the bullpen, some of them. So I
7:39
Speaker 2: like what they've done in terms of adding depth. What
7:42
Speaker 2: they've done is just collect a bunch of arms, many
7:44
Speaker 2: of them quite good, and that can be the foundation
7:48
Speaker 2: of where they are. They need still more offense with
7:51
Speaker 2: written everything that they have going there, but I sort
7:55
Speaker 2: of like where they are. Cleveland hasn't done all that much.
7:58
Speaker 2: Remember they lost their first basement and second baseman, replace
8:01
Speaker 2: them Carlos Santana, and they've going to play some kids
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Speaker 2: at second. They've got Bieber coming back at some point,
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Speaker 2: and of course they've signed Paul Seawall. But the rest
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Speaker 2: of the division has been largely dormant. So there's an
8:12
Speaker 2: opening here, perhaps for Kansas City, and they're trying to
8:16
Speaker 2: barge through it.
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Speaker 1: I mean, that's so often the story in these central divisions. Right,
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Speaker 1: there are sort of some perennial not quite powerhouses, but
8:25
Speaker 1: teams that do well, and maybe the Cardinals or the
8:29
Speaker 1: Brewers or the Guardians. But then right it does feel
8:32
Speaker 1: like we'll push your chips in when you feel like
8:36
Speaker 1: you're on the precipice of something and maybe you can
8:38
Speaker 1: knock the Brewers off the top spot or the Guardians
8:42
Speaker 1: off the top spot. I like these Bords a move
8:44
Speaker 1: that I like, but I don't really know why, because
8:47
Speaker 1: I certainly don't understand it. The Rays signing Hot Song
8:51
Speaker 1: Kim two years twenty nine million with an opt out
8:54
Speaker 1: that makes him the highest paid player on the RAIS
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Speaker 1: and the second highest free agent average annual value to Ethlyn,
9:02
Speaker 1: who does not pitch for them anymore. On the Rays
9:06
Speaker 1: helped me make sense of this move.
9:09
Speaker 2: Actually had a I thought it made a lot of sense.
9:11
Speaker 2: Now Kim is coming off shoulder surgery and he's not
9:15
Speaker 2: going to be ready until May, probably at the earliest,
9:19
Speaker 2: and the Rays have a shortstop right now. Taylor Walls,
9:22
Speaker 2: with a career one to eighty eight batting average is
9:24
Speaker 2: no wonder Franco. Remember he's not in the picture. And
9:27
Speaker 2: Walls is a guy who can really feel, but he
9:30
Speaker 2: is not someone who has given them any offense at all. Kim,
9:35
Speaker 2: as we all know, is a really good player. Now
9:37
Speaker 2: he's coming off the injury and there's always a question there,
9:40
Speaker 2: but once he gets there, he's going to be a shortstop.
9:43
Speaker 2: Cam and Arrow will be a third they've got Brandon Loud,
9:46
Speaker 2: They've got Jonathan Auranda in the mixed, Yondi Diaz. They
9:49
Speaker 2: were an offensively challenged team last year in a big way,
9:54
Speaker 2: but they've made some interesting additions. Danny Jansen to catch
9:58
Speaker 2: and Johnny de Luca will now ta over in center
10:01
Speaker 2: for Jose Siri, who they traded. And now what they
10:04
Speaker 2: have common with Kim is another guy who can give
10:08
Speaker 2: them a little bit more offense. They're not going to
10:10
Speaker 2: be this slugging monster, but they're going to play in
10:14
Speaker 2: a more offensive oriented park Steinbrenner Field this season because
10:18
Speaker 2: of Tropicana Field situation, And I just think kinda that, Yeah,
10:22
Speaker 2: Kim can opt out after one year, but you know what,
10:25
Speaker 2: maybe he gets into the playoffs this year. Their pitching
10:27
Speaker 2: is really good. They always seem to find a way
10:29
Speaker 2: to compete. And yeah, I kind of liked it. I
10:32
Speaker 2: know it, to the average person and to you, obviously
10:35
Speaker 2: not an average person, someone who covers baseball, it seemed
10:38
Speaker 2: a little weird. None of us knew that this was happening.
10:41
Speaker 2: This kind of came out of nowhere. But when you
10:44
Speaker 2: think about it, they're needed shortstop. Yeah, I see it,
10:48
Speaker 2: and I like it.
10:48
Speaker 1: It's a I guess maybe what a higher risk, higher
10:52
Speaker 1: reward you're giving. You're making your highest paid player someone
10:56
Speaker 1: who isn't going to start the season on the field
10:58
Speaker 1: and who will likely opt out if they have a
11:01
Speaker 1: great year. But the upside being that you need to
11:06
Speaker 1: it's there's a reason that he's the highest paid player
11:09
Speaker 1: on their team, and it's because they're not spending a
11:10
Speaker 1: lot of money anywhere else. So they're trying to buy low,
11:14
Speaker 1: take advantage of Kim looking for a pillow contract. They're
11:17
Speaker 1: trying to be like, maybe we can benefit from this
11:21
Speaker 1: half season, three quarters of the season of someone who's
11:25
Speaker 1: looking to cash in. Because I thought he was just
11:27
Speaker 1: going to get a bigger deal. I thought he's had
11:29
Speaker 1: great He's had a great couple of seasons with the Padres.
11:33
Speaker 1: There isn't a ton of offense left out there. I
11:35
Speaker 1: was sort of surprised to see this from his side
11:38
Speaker 1: of things.
11:39
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's a good point, and I agree with you,
11:42
Speaker 2: and I see what you're saying about. Okay, he's coming
11:44
Speaker 2: off the surgery. You're not going to have him for
11:46
Speaker 2: a whole year, and he might opt out. From that perspective, Yeah,
11:50
Speaker 2: from the rays situation. It might not turn out that well,
11:53
Speaker 2: but they have a hard time getting anybody to play there,
11:56
Speaker 2: and especially now with Steinberner, Field and Kim. It's seems
12:00
Speaker 2: to me, Hannah, that the injury just compromised him in
12:03
Speaker 2: the marketplace and that is what cost him. Obviously, there
12:06
Speaker 2: are questions there. We think he's coming back in May,
12:09
Speaker 2: we think he's going to be fine. You never quite
12:11
Speaker 2: know for sure with injured players, so that seems to
12:14
Speaker 2: be what held him back. But I just like the
12:17
Speaker 2: idea of the Rays taking this upside play. And yes,
12:21
Speaker 2: there is risk, there's no question about it. But to me,
12:25
Speaker 2: there's still going to be the Rays that they always are.
12:28
Speaker 2: They're going to compete, it's going to be different. They're
12:30
Speaker 2: going to be again in a more of a hitter's environment.
12:33
Speaker 2: But I just kind of like what I see with them.
12:37
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think they'll I think they'll probably draw better
12:40
Speaker 1: too an actual Tampa proper then then Saint Pete maybe
12:43
Speaker 1: that'll maybe they'll the sellout crowds every game will power
12:48
Speaker 1: them to a posseason appearance.
12:50
Speaker 2: Again a thousand seats, but yeah, hey.
12:54
Speaker 1: She's really selling before I eleven thousand people in an
12:57
Speaker 1: eleven thousand seat ballpark feels better than twelve thousand. And however,
13:02
Speaker 1: Big Tropicana is fair point. All right. Valentine's Day is
13:10
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13:44
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14:02
Speaker 1: hundred flowers dot com slash ft. Okay, we got questions
14:15
Speaker 1: from Joshua Campbell. Hey, ken, are talks between the Reds
14:19
Speaker 1: and the White Sox for Robert dead or do you
14:21
Speaker 1: see them eventually working something out for this trade?
14:25
Speaker 2: An excellent start to the Grill and Ken segment and
14:29
Speaker 2: they're dead for now. I don't know that the Reds
14:31
Speaker 2: and White Socks are gonna work it out before spring training.
14:34
Speaker 2: In spring training, but certainly as the season progresses, who
14:37
Speaker 2: knows what might happen. And for instance, the Reds might
14:41
Speaker 2: have an injury. Who knows the Austin Hayes deal, it's
14:44
Speaker 2: still pending on physical. If it doesn't happen, maybe this
14:46
Speaker 2: thing gets revived, but I expect it to happen. I
14:49
Speaker 2: know Austin Hayes had the kidney infection last year and
14:51
Speaker 2: that's why the physical is a little bit more of
14:54
Speaker 2: a concern. But once the season goes, and once spring
14:58
Speaker 2: training starts and this then the season goes. Yeah, it's possible,
15:02
Speaker 2: but it seems to me the Reds are pretty complete
15:05
Speaker 2: where they are right now. Right now being the key phrase.
15:10
Speaker 1: Okay, we mentioned a couple teams that hadn't done much.
15:12
Speaker 1: The guardians, Henry asking how come the Twins haven't done anything?
15:20
Speaker 2: The Twins have been a source subject for a lot
15:22
Speaker 2: of Twins fans all off season, and this is the
15:26
Speaker 2: second straight year where they've kind of gone backwards after
15:29
Speaker 2: finally winning a playoff series. Last year, they cut payroll.
15:32
Speaker 2: This year, they're at about the same level with raises
15:34
Speaker 2: and that kind of thing, but they haven't improved. Now
15:38
Speaker 2: they're thinking as well, we've got Pablo Lopez, Carlos Korea,
15:41
Speaker 2: Byron Buxton, and that's the core of a really good team.
15:44
Speaker 2: And they do have excellent players, there's no doubt about that.
15:47
Speaker 2: But at the same time, two of those guys, Korea
15:51
Speaker 2: and Buxton are frequently hurt. They're still looking at things,
15:54
Speaker 2: they're still trying to do things, but it seems that
15:57
Speaker 2: they're financially restricted. The TV deal and all that, but
16:00
Speaker 2: seems to have had more of an effect on them
16:02
Speaker 2: than some other clubs there for sale. And I know
16:05
Speaker 2: Twins owners or Twins fans are looking forward to a
16:10
Speaker 2: day when there are new Twins owners who are more
16:12
Speaker 2: willing to invest.
16:15
Speaker 1: Yeah, it does feel like the Twins have been citing
16:19
Speaker 1: their RSN concerns more maybe than other teams, maybe because
16:23
Speaker 1: of that sale aspect. It feels like they are sort
16:25
Speaker 1: of they are at the forefront of teams saying we're
16:28
Speaker 1: facing a lot of uncertainty, and that's why we need
16:31
Speaker 1: to be conservative with our payroll. Okay, we have a
16:34
Speaker 1: superchat question from someone about teams that are not being
16:37
Speaker 1: conservative at all. What do you think other owners think
16:40
Speaker 1: of the Dodgers spending? I think the Dodgers are not
16:43
Speaker 1: bad for baseball, but how younited our owners in general?
16:45
Speaker 1: Let's from Daniel Rothenberg, a super chat question.
16:49
Speaker 2: Daniel, good question. We're going to get to it a
16:51
Speaker 2: little bit more in more detail later in the show.
16:54
Speaker 2: But other owners in general are frustrated by this, I
16:57
Speaker 2: would say, and they're concerned, and this, to them is
17:01
Speaker 2: another reason why the sport desperately needs a salary cap.
17:06
Speaker 2: You guys know my opinion by now. You've watched and
17:08
Speaker 2: listened long enough. I don't believe the sport needs a
17:10
Speaker 2: salary cap. The sport can do other things to enhance
17:15
Speaker 2: the small market situation without imposing a cap. You can
17:18
Speaker 2: do a lot of other things. We can get into
17:20
Speaker 2: that another time. But are other owners happy, No, they're
17:24
Speaker 2: not happy because the Dodgers are spending in a way
17:26
Speaker 2: that no other team is matching right now, even the
17:30
Speaker 2: Mets with Steve Cohen. So this conversation is just starting.
17:34
Speaker 2: It's not going to end, and it's going to carry
17:36
Speaker 2: us right through the end of this collective bargaining agreement.
17:40
Speaker 2: After the twenty twenty sixth season.
17:43
Speaker 1: Ken, I actually wanted to get your opinion on this
17:46
Speaker 1: because this is something I've been thinking about a lot.
17:48
Speaker 1: I've seen a lot of people so people complain about
17:52
Speaker 1: the Dodgers spending and then smart baseball people, commentators, writers,
17:57
Speaker 1: people say something like, oh, there's the power in baseball
18:00
Speaker 1: is totally fine. Look at all the different teams that
18:02
Speaker 1: have made the postseason, won the World Series. But to me,
18:06
Speaker 1: I'm sympathetic to a fan that says, I don't want
18:11
Speaker 1: the team with all the stars to get ousted in
18:13
Speaker 1: the first round. I want my team to have some stars.
18:17
Speaker 1: What do you where do you sort of stand on
18:18
Speaker 1: this question of like, don't worry about the Dodgers spending
18:21
Speaker 1: because baseball's parody is fine.
18:25
Speaker 2: To some degree, that is true, And the issue that
18:29
Speaker 2: a lot of people haven't the real issue is the
18:32
Speaker 2: economic disparity, the difference and the growing difference between the
18:37
Speaker 2: haves and the have nots, And that is a concern.
18:40
Speaker 2: And again, there are ways to tweak the CBA. You
18:43
Speaker 2: can put tougher luxury tax penalties in. You could put
18:47
Speaker 2: luxury tax penalties on a floor situation. I don't know
18:50
Speaker 2: why that can't be done. If you have a restriction
18:52
Speaker 2: at the top, why can't you have a restriction at
18:54
Speaker 2: the bottom. You can get the small market team's more
18:56
Speaker 2: draft picks. There are a number of things you can
18:58
Speaker 2: do to tweak the current system. Now, some people, some
19:02
Speaker 2: fans might say not enough, still need a cap. But
19:06
Speaker 2: when you talk about parody competitive parody, that is not
19:10
Speaker 2: the issue. Because the expanded playoffs, which came into play
19:13
Speaker 2: in twenty twenty two, that is only enhanced the randomness
19:17
Speaker 2: of the postseason. And the Dodgers we saw in twenty
19:21
Speaker 2: twenty two and twenty three got knocked out in the
19:23
Speaker 2: division Series. And you know what, don't forget last year
19:27
Speaker 2: they were down two games to one to the Padres
19:29
Speaker 2: in San Diego with Game four they were running a
19:31
Speaker 2: bullpen game and they still got out of it. But
19:34
Speaker 2: they nearly were eliminated then too. So I don't worry
19:37
Speaker 2: about that so much. But the economic disparity, sure, it
19:40
Speaker 2: is an issue. It's always going to be an issue
19:43
Speaker 2: in baseball because of the different revenue streams that different
19:47
Speaker 2: markets create. This is a locally generated sport, as opposed
19:51
Speaker 2: to the NFL, which basically has most of its revenue,
19:54
Speaker 2: the vast majority tied up in national television contracts. That's
19:58
Speaker 2: not the case in baseball now. The commissioner, Rob Manford
20:02
Speaker 2: would like to make a national television package and company
20:05
Speaker 2: that with a cap lots of luck. I just don't
20:09
Speaker 2: see that happening. I don't see the Yankees, Dodgers, and
20:11
Speaker 2: Mets how this would work with them giving up revenue
20:16
Speaker 2: even if it means a cap, and how they would
20:19
Speaker 2: essentially lower the franchise values that they've worked hard to build.
20:24
Speaker 1: Yeah, we're seeing the owners. They're getting in on the
20:28
Speaker 1: party line early. We're seeing David Rubstein calling for a
20:32
Speaker 1: salary cap, the Orioles new owner in his first year
20:35
Speaker 1: as an owner. What do you make of their offseason
20:38
Speaker 1: under Rubinstein's new ownership but still Alias heading up the
20:42
Speaker 1: front office.
20:44
Speaker 2: I wrote about it today with Will Salmon, and it's
20:47
Speaker 2: interesting they've spent money. It cannot argue with what they've
20:51
Speaker 2: done that way. They've spent nearly one hundred million on
20:53
Speaker 2: free agents, but in replacing Corbyn Burns who was their
20:57
Speaker 2: ACE last year. They've signed two older pictures, Tomioki Sugano
21:01
Speaker 2: from Japan who was an ACE over there, and Charlie Morton,
21:04
Speaker 2: who is now forty one. Sugana is thirty five. And
21:07
Speaker 2: then the Tyler O'Neal signing. We got into this a
21:10
Speaker 2: little bit as well. Early on they got him three
21:13
Speaker 2: years forty nine point five million, but the price might
21:16
Speaker 2: have been high for a guy who's often injured, and
21:18
Speaker 2: he hasn't opt out after one year as well. Profar
21:21
Speaker 2: went for less Tasker. I'm sorry Anthony Santander didn't go
21:26
Speaker 2: for less, but with his deferrals, the AAV was really low,
21:29
Speaker 2: so perhaps waiting would have been the way to go.
21:32
Speaker 2: We'll see how that all plays out. We don't know,
21:34
Speaker 2: but I don't mind what they've done in terms of spending.
21:38
Speaker 2: I'd like that they finally have spent. I'm not sure
21:41
Speaker 2: the choices are going to work out as well as
21:43
Speaker 2: they'd like, and there is talk in the game Orioles
21:45
Speaker 2: fans think I'm picking on the team, but there's a
21:48
Speaker 2: lot of talk in the game about how the general
21:51
Speaker 2: manager you mentioned, Mike Elias. He's obviously really good at
21:55
Speaker 2: drafting and he is really good at player development, but
21:58
Speaker 2: is he really good at power off a major league roster?
22:01
Speaker 2: We have not seen that yet.
22:05
Speaker 1: Yeah, I just want to Okay, I just want to
22:06
Speaker 1: cap that last point. I think people sometimes say, like, oh,
22:08
Speaker 1: it's unfair to be critical of gms who are doing
22:12
Speaker 1: this other thing. Well, like whether a GM can't sign
22:15
Speaker 1: a free agent but they draft and develop well, or
22:18
Speaker 1: if they can't put together a postseason team but they yeah,
22:23
Speaker 1: draft and develop well. And I'm always like, well, it's
22:25
Speaker 1: okay to judge them on the results. It's you know,
22:28
Speaker 1: they it's He's like, people are critical of Mike Elias
22:34
Speaker 1: because the Orioles have these great players. They have these great, young,
22:37
Speaker 1: cost controlled players, and that is a credit to him.
22:41
Speaker 1: But the job is still to win a postseason series
22:45
Speaker 1: at least, if not, you know, a title and a championship.
22:48
Speaker 1: So I'm with you on I don't think anyone is
22:50
Speaker 1: being unfair to the Orioles to say, what are you
22:54
Speaker 1: doing with all this young talent if not turning that
22:57
Speaker 1: young talent into Yeah, you know.
23:02
Speaker 2: Hannah, they're coming off a bad deadline too. Their deadline
23:05
Speaker 2: was not that impactful. Zach Eflin was a great addition,
23:08
Speaker 2: no question, but the rest of it was not so good.
23:11
Speaker 2: And again, as you just said, this is the key point.
23:15
Speaker 2: They've got an opportunity here. They're not going to have
23:17
Speaker 2: Gunner Henderson and Adli Rushman and some of their other
23:19
Speaker 2: young players forever. Right, They're going to hit free agency
23:22
Speaker 2: at some point. It's a ways a way still, but
23:25
Speaker 2: their window is right now and they need to seize
23:27
Speaker 2: the moment. And that's the question. Have they done a
23:29
Speaker 2: sufficient job of that. We'll see how it plays out.
23:34
Speaker 1: All right, Thanks everyone for all of your great grilling,
23:36
Speaker 1: ken questions, and now it is time for due to
23:38
Speaker 1: the Week.
23:40
Speaker 2: Dude, dude, dude. All right, we'll start with me on
23:51
Speaker 2: the Dude of the Week, Hannah. And it's actually a team.
23:55
Speaker 2: It's actually an owner, Mark Walter, the Mark Walter Family
23:59
Speaker 2: found and the Dodgers Foundation. All three of those entities
24:02
Speaker 2: combined call them the Los Angeles Dodgers. And the reason
24:06
Speaker 2: we're giving them due to the Week, or I'm giving
24:08
Speaker 2: them due to the week is the one hundred million
24:10
Speaker 2: dollar donation to the Los Angeles Wildfire Recovery Fund. That
24:15
Speaker 2: was an amazing donation. I know. The joke on social
24:18
Speaker 2: media was well, how much of it is deferred? Fair
24:21
Speaker 2: question always with the Dodgers, but wildcut fire recovery and
24:25
Speaker 2: rebuilding is so important right now, and one hundred million
24:27
Speaker 2: dollars is a heck of a lot of money. We
24:30
Speaker 2: know the Dodgers are making a heck of a lot
24:32
Speaker 2: of money, but that was something that certainly warrants due
24:35
Speaker 2: to the week, Mark Walter, the Walter Family Foundation, and
24:38
Speaker 2: the Dodgers Foundation.
24:40
Speaker 1: All dudes, I love it. My Dude of the Week,
24:44
Speaker 1: Junior Caminaro. I was worried everybody had already seen this,
24:47
Speaker 1: but I just want to make sure if anyone hasn't
24:50
Speaker 1: seen this. Game seven of the lead them the Dominican
24:53
Speaker 1: Winner League Championship. Oh gosh, I'm gonna butcher these teams names,
24:57
Speaker 1: the Leones del Escodo and the Tigrist de Lise. I
25:01
Speaker 1: do not speak Spanish. That is a shame on me,
25:04
Speaker 1: because I should in this industry. Okay, Game seven, ninth inning, tie,
25:08
Speaker 1: game five to five, Junior Camanaro hits a four hundred
25:12
Speaker 1: and fifty four foot home run. It's not a walk
25:15
Speaker 1: off because it's the top of the ninth, but it
25:17
Speaker 1: ends up being the game winning home run and The
25:19
Speaker 1: home run itself is not the highlight of this clip.
25:22
Speaker 1: He takes nearly a minute to round the bases. When
25:26
Speaker 1: I watched it the first time, you see the home run.
25:28
Speaker 1: So he swings. It's a great swing. The ball, it goes,
25:30
Speaker 1: and it goes so far, and you're looking at the ball,
25:32
Speaker 1: and then it cuts back to him and he's somewhere
25:34
Speaker 1: between home plate and first base, and he's celebrating with
25:37
Speaker 1: his entire dat managed by Albert Poohols, And I thought,
25:41
Speaker 1: oh my gosh, he runted the bases so quickly. He's
25:43
Speaker 1: already back at home plit celebrating. No, he had not
25:46
Speaker 1: even gotten to first base yet. He took his sweet
25:49
Speaker 1: time as he should, celebrating with his team, celebrating by himself,
25:54
Speaker 1: even even between first and third when there's no one
25:57
Speaker 1: to celebrate with, he was finding ways to pimp the
26:01
Speaker 1: home run in the middle of the base paths and
26:03
Speaker 1: no one got mad, as far as I could tell.
26:06
Speaker 1: I love that there was no brawl for this long
26:09
Speaker 1: protracted celebration.
26:13
Speaker 2: Championship.
26:14
Speaker 1: Come on, No, that's that's the kind of energy we
26:17
Speaker 1: always want. I like this because I truly years ago
26:21
Speaker 1: there was the Reese Hoskins slow home run trot to
26:24
Speaker 1: troll somebody, and I thought, that's perfect. That's a perfect
26:29
Speaker 1: way to bring some kind of like rivalry ish energy
26:36
Speaker 1: to a game that doesn't direct your emotion at the
26:39
Speaker 1: other team. It's it's fun. It's weird. It's so specific
26:42
Speaker 1: to baseball because when you hit a home run, you
26:46
Speaker 1: have complete control of the pace of the game. Now
26:50
Speaker 1: it's all on you. You get to do whatever you want.
26:52
Speaker 1: I just thought this clip is so much fun. Seek
26:54
Speaker 1: it out. If someone hasn't seen it, seek it out.
26:56
Speaker 1: And and Junior Cavin Eara having a great Dominican winner
27:00
Speaker 1: lead ops over one thousand and his leadham appearance this winter,
27:03
Speaker 1: so something to look forward going into spring too.
27:06
Speaker 2: And he will be a guest on foul Territory on Monday.
27:10
Speaker 2: He's joining the guys Monday. So well that's happening. Let's
27:15
Speaker 2: get to our next little segment.
27:18
Speaker 1: Time for the John Fisher York of the Week? Am
27:26
Speaker 1: I going first? Should I go first? With the dorks?
27:29
Speaker 2: Go ahead? Hannah.
27:30
Speaker 1: My dork of the week is Pirates leadership that includes
27:33
Speaker 1: ownership and the front office for not doing more to
27:37
Speaker 1: build around Paul schemes. We have talked so much this
27:41
Speaker 1: offseason about the Dodgers and their unique access to a
27:46
Speaker 1: talent pool of expensive free agents and maybe slightly unique
27:50
Speaker 1: access to a talent pool of a free agents international
27:53
Speaker 1: free agents coming over from Japan. Oh they have. They
27:55
Speaker 1: have all the fun because they get to sign the
27:58
Speaker 1: most expensive players. But the Pirates have access to a
28:02
Speaker 1: unique pool of talented players too, and that it's high
28:05
Speaker 1: draft picks. They had unique access to Paul Skeins, a
28:09
Speaker 1: nearly major league ready pitcher coming out of college. They
28:14
Speaker 1: have him, nobody else has him. They're paying him the
28:16
Speaker 1: major league minimum. This man is not even arbitration eligible
28:20
Speaker 1: yet he's going to get a full season. He got
28:22
Speaker 1: a full season of service time because he won Brookie
28:26
Speaker 1: of the Year. So they're on the clock to make
28:28
Speaker 1: use of him. And they have done almost nothing. Not nothing,
28:33
Speaker 1: because they're making small moves, but they're making moves that
28:36
Speaker 1: are just not going to put a championship caliber team
28:41
Speaker 1: around a pitcher who Steamer has him projected to be
28:44
Speaker 1: the best pitcher in Major League Baseball this year. Zips
28:46
Speaker 1: has some seventh and the Pirates are running a payroll
28:49
Speaker 1: lower going into twenty twenty five than what they ran
28:51
Speaker 1: in twenty twenty four lower than what they ran in
28:54
Speaker 1: twenty fifteen, twenty sixteen, twenty seventeen, twenty eighteen. They have
28:59
Speaker 1: I think the third lowest luxury tax payroll in baseball.
29:03
Speaker 1: Right now, they could afford to make some real moves,
29:07
Speaker 1: some major moves, to capitalize on this moment. I hate
29:12
Speaker 1: seeing small market teams complain about big market teams and
29:18
Speaker 1: what they get access to through virtue of having all
29:21
Speaker 1: this money. But you're getting access to something through virtue
29:24
Speaker 1: of having these high draft picks, and you're not making
29:26
Speaker 1: the most of it in the same way that the Dodgers.
29:29
Speaker 1: The Dodgers spent huge money on Shoho Tani, and now
29:32
Speaker 1: what they're doing is spending more money to kind of
29:35
Speaker 1: capitalize on having that player. The Pirates didn't have to
29:38
Speaker 1: spend a lot of money on Paul Skins, and they're
29:39
Speaker 1: doing nothing to capitalize on having that player.
29:43
Speaker 2: All Right, My doork of the week is on the
29:45
Speaker 2: other end of the spectrum, and it's a Yankees owner,
29:48
Speaker 2: hal Steinbrenner, the Yankees owner in fact. And then we
29:51
Speaker 2: had a question earlier about how are other owners reacting
29:54
Speaker 2: to the Dodgers. Well, here you go. Here's the quote
29:56
Speaker 2: from hal Steinberner to Yes Network. It's difficult for most
29:59
Speaker 2: of US owners to be able to do the kinds
30:02
Speaker 2: of things they're doing. We'll see if it pays off.
30:04
Speaker 2: They still have to have a season relatively injury free
30:07
Speaker 2: for it to work out for them. Last two sentences,
30:10
Speaker 2: No problem, first sentence, It's difficult for most of US
30:13
Speaker 2: owners to be able to do what they're doing. Big problem.
30:16
Speaker 2: Here's the Yankees' franchise value according to Forbes as of
30:20
Speaker 2: last year, seven point five to five billion. That was
30:23
Speaker 2: about two billion more than the Dodgers franchise value. Hal Steinbrenner,
30:27
Speaker 2: he has said repeatedly, we should be able to build
30:29
Speaker 2: a team, a championship team for under three hundred million.
30:32
Speaker 2: He's not wrong about that. But when hal Steinbrenner groups
30:37
Speaker 2: himself with I don't know, the Cleveland Guardians, the Tampa
30:40
Speaker 2: Bay Rays and all these other low revenue teams, most
30:43
Speaker 2: of US owners no, sorry, you don't get that pass.
30:47
Speaker 2: And the Yankees right now they need a left handed
30:49
Speaker 2: reliever and they need another infielder. Are they going to
30:52
Speaker 2: do something? We don't know? They have to trade Marcus
30:54
Speaker 2: Stroman in order to get more flexible. This should not
30:57
Speaker 2: be a position the New York Yankees are in. They've
30:59
Speaker 2: done a lot this offseason after losing Soto. No question,
31:02
Speaker 2: but house dime Bretder that quote not good dork of
31:06
Speaker 2: the week.
31:09
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31:47
Speaker 2: Thanks for watching everyone. Foul Territory is next Jim Bowden,
31:50
Speaker 2: Tay Oscar Hernandez, and Derek Lewandowski from Pinstripe Territory. We'll
31:55
Speaker 2: be joining Todd Frasier, Eric Kratz and Scott braun stand
32:04
Speaker 2: fast