Latest / Foul Territory / FairT: Ken's predictions, Campbell makes Red Sox, Active Guardians

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FairT: Ken's predictions, Campbell makes Red Sox, Active Guardians · Foul Territory

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  Speaker 1: Simply being unafraid and not worried about perceptions and not
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: worried about what's going to be written or said. That
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  Speaker 1: is a competitive advantage. Welcome everyone to the Monday edition
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  Speaker 1: of Fair Territory. This is the week, the week we
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  Speaker 1: have been waiting for, the week in which the baseball
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: season officially begins. We had, of course, the two games
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: in Japan, but these are the domestic openers coming up
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  Speaker 1: on Thursday. Obviously we're all very excited for that, and
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  Speaker 1: we have some news to discuss in the first part
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  Speaker 1: of the show, and then I'm going to give you
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  Speaker 1: some of my picks. Now, of course, my picks every
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: year are a source of great amusement for most of
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: the people who read me and who watch me and
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: listen to me. So I advise you to, of course
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  Speaker 1: take the picks as seriously as you want to, which
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  Speaker 1: is to say it's probably best not to take them
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  Speaker 1: seriously at all. But first, some news over the weekend.
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  Speaker 1: The big news coming out on Sunday. Christian Campbell, one
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  Speaker 1: of the Red Sox Big three prospects, is going to
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  Speaker 1: make the team as the starting second basement. Now, this
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  Speaker 1: isn't really that much of a surprise. It's kind of
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  Speaker 1: been in the works for some time now, but it
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  Speaker 1: now explains why the Red Sox were never going to
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  Speaker 1: play Alex Bregman at second and Ralphael Devers at third. No,
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  Speaker 1: it's going to be Campbell at second, Bragman third, Endeavors
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  Speaker 1: at DH, and this is the best alignment for them Defensively,
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  Speaker 1: There's not much question about that. Christian Campbell played a
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  Speaker 1: number of positions last year, and he is not necessarily
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  Speaker 1: an accomplished, skilled second baseman on the defensive end just yet.
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  Speaker 1: But he is a prospect the Red Sox have been
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  Speaker 1: excited about all winter long. They were talking about him
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  Speaker 1: even before they signed Bregman. They were talking about him
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  Speaker 1: playing a major role. So this is what the plan
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  Speaker 1: was all along. It's why the Red Sox never announced
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  Speaker 1: Regman was going to play second after they signed him.
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  Speaker 1: It's because they wanted this to happen. Campbell at second,
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  Speaker 1: Gregman at third, and again Devers at DH. A couple
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  Speaker 1: of more notes on Campbell. He's an interesting guy. He
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  Speaker 1: is a fourth round pick, a compensation pick from twenty
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  Speaker 1: twenty three out of Georgia Tech. Now that was a
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  Speaker 1: one hundred and thirty second pick overall. He actually was
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  Speaker 1: the player the Red Sox gained for losing Xander Bogart's
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  Speaker 1: to free agency. They got a compensation pick, but it
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  Speaker 1: was only after the fourth round because of course they
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  Speaker 1: had exceeded the luxury tax, not a revenue sharing recipient.
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  Speaker 1: That's the game. Well, they obviously drafted, well, they obviously
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  Speaker 1: developed Campbellwell, here's a guy who had some swing questions
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  Speaker 1: coming out of college. They focused on ballflight with him
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  Speaker 1: getting the ball in the air, and look what has happened.
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  Speaker 1: He is now their starting second baseman, So big news
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  Speaker 1: out of Boston. Christian Campbell is a guy I wrote
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  Speaker 1: about earlier this spring. He was mentored by Dee Gordon
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  Speaker 1: at was the other good prospect out of Georgia Tech,
• 3:03
  Speaker 1: Chandler Simpson. Dee Gordon is a guy who mentors a
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  Speaker 1: lot of young black players, and Kristin Campbell is a
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  Speaker 1: guy he has known or a kid he has known
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  Speaker 1: since he was about I don't know, seven or eight
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  Speaker 1: years old. Read the story. It's kind of a good one.
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  Speaker 1: It's actually my favorite story that I wrote this spring.
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  Speaker 1: Also in the news this weekend, the Cleveland Guardians. Here's
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  Speaker 1: a team I wrote about in The wind Up in
• 3:24
  Speaker 1: the Athletic on Monday. The wind Up is our free
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: daily baseball newsletter that comes out every day starting last week.
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: We do it a little bit less often during the offseason,
• 3:34
  Speaker 1: but you can read it for free. You don't have
• 3:36
  Speaker 1: to subscribe, you can just subscribe to the newsletter. And
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  Speaker 1: I wrote about the Guardians in this sense that we
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  Speaker 1: don't look at them necessarily as a powerhouse. But since
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  Speaker 1: twenty sixteen, guess which team has the fourth most wins
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  Speaker 1: regular season wins in the major leagues. It's the Cleveland Guardians,
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  Speaker 1: behind the Dodgers, Astros, and Yankees. The Guardians are obviously
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  Speaker 1: a low revenue team, but my point here is they
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  Speaker 1: always seem to figure it out. Now, the two moves
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  Speaker 1: over the weekend were kind of interesting. Tanner Biby, that's
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  Speaker 1: an obvious move. They obviously wanted to extend him. They
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  Speaker 1: give him a contract that will buy out at least
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  Speaker 1: one of his free agent years and perhaps two with
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  Speaker 1: the club option. It's five years, forty eight million. And
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  Speaker 1: here's a guy who has emerged as their staff ace
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  Speaker 1: and to get additional club control with him is something,
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  Speaker 1: of course the Guardians wanted badly to do. They got it.
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  Speaker 1: The other move much more under the radar, Tyler Freeman
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  Speaker 1: to the Rockies for Nolan Jones, a player that the
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  Speaker 1: Guardians originally drafted second round twenty sixteen, if I'm not mistaken,
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  Speaker 1: and traded away to the Rockies a couple of years
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  Speaker 1: ago for Jan Brito, a player that could figure into
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  Speaker 1: their second base mix this year. So they get Jones back,
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  Speaker 1: and here's a guy who in twenty twenty three finished
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  Speaker 1: fourth in the National League Rookie of the Year, voting
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  Speaker 1: twenty home runs twenty stolen bases that year, and yet
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  Speaker 1: last season he regressed. He was hurt, he had a
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  Speaker 1: lower back issue for most of the season, and just
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  Speaker 1: wasn't the same player. Seemed to lose confidence, at least
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  Speaker 1: of the Rockies' opinion, then had a bad spring, wasn't
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  Speaker 1: going to make the Rockies team. But with the Guardians,
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  Speaker 1: they see him as the strong side of the right
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  Speaker 1: field platoon. He's the guy who's going to play as
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  Speaker 1: a left handed hitter against right handed pitching, and they
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  Speaker 1: believe that he's going to offer them on base percentage
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  Speaker 1: and more power. We'll see how it works out. But
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  Speaker 1: the Guardians, they forever operate on the fringes, and they
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  Speaker 1: had an interesting offseason. Remember they traded him and as
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  Speaker 1: their second basement. They traded Naylor, their first baseman, Josh Naylor.
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  Speaker 1: This is coming off an ALCS appearance, and yet they
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  Speaker 1: are constantly churning trying to figure out how to kind
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  Speaker 1: of just keep competitive, and they do an excellent job
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  Speaker 1: of it. Not every year, they're not in the mix
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  Speaker 1: every year, but again since twenty sixteen, fourth in the
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  Speaker 1: majors in regular season wins. And here the leveland Guardians
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  Speaker 1: again in an increasingly competitive AL Central. I would not
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  Speaker 1: be surprised to see any of the four leading contenders winning.
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  Speaker 1: I'm talking, of course about the Guardians, about Detroit, Kansas
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  Speaker 1: City and Minnesota. So that's going to be one really
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  Speaker 1: interesting race to watch all season long. We'll be back
• 6:19
  Speaker 1: after a quick word from our friends at foul Territory.
• 6:22
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• 7:22
  Speaker 1: Finally, also in the news, the Blue Jays they extend
• 7:26
  Speaker 1: Alejandro Kirk five years fifty eight million dollar extension. Here's
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  Speaker 1: a guy who had one more year of arbitration left
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  Speaker 1: after this one, and what the Blue Jays did was
• 7:36
  Speaker 1: effectively buy out for free agent years. An executive over
• 7:40
  Speaker 1: the weekend made an interesting point to me. He said,
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  Speaker 1: you never see catchers go to the market. They never
• 7:45
  Speaker 1: become free agents. Never is a strong word, but he's
• 7:49
  Speaker 1: basically right. JT. Realmuto was the last big free agent
• 7:53
  Speaker 1: catcher that we saw. Most of the other ones do
• 7:56
  Speaker 1: get extended, and as we know, they're hard to find. Now,
• 8:00
  Speaker 1: the Jays a couple of years ago were in a
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  Speaker 1: really interesting position. Remember that Gabriel Moreno. They had Kirk,
• 8:07
  Speaker 1: of course, and they had Danny Jansen, so they traded
• 8:10
  Speaker 1: Gabriel Moreno for Dalton Varcho traded Jansen last summer. He
• 8:13
  Speaker 1: subsequently signed with the Rays as a free agent, so
• 8:17
  Speaker 1: Kirk was left as their guy. He is an excellent defender, framing, throwing,
• 8:22
  Speaker 1: receiving especially. He's also a guy who won a Silber
• 8:25
  Speaker 1: Slugger and was an All Star in twenty twenty two.
• 8:28
  Speaker 1: Hasn't hit that effectively since, but they believe with their
• 8:32
  Speaker 1: new hitting coach, David Popkins, there's more in there. We'll see.
• 8:35
  Speaker 1: Alejandro Kirk is now a Blue Jay into the next decade.
• 8:40
  Speaker 1: How about that? Still Vladimir Guerrero out there As far
• 8:44
  Speaker 1: as extension candidates for the Blue Jays, they want to
• 8:46
  Speaker 1: get that done. I don't know that there's been any
• 8:49
  Speaker 1: movement on that in recent days. Perhaps in the next
• 8:52
  Speaker 1: few we'll see something leading up to Opening Day, not
• 8:55
  Speaker 1: counting on it. And finally, some awful news over the
• 8:58
  Speaker 1: weekend as well, Brett gar the former Yankee outfielder, losing
• 9:02
  Speaker 1: his son, Miller, just fourteen years old. The family was
• 9:06
  Speaker 1: on a vacation, a number of family members fell ill
• 9:09
  Speaker 1: and Miller for reasons that are still not known, died
• 9:13
  Speaker 1: in his sleep. And Bet Gardner, for all Yankee fans
• 9:16
  Speaker 1: and really all baseball fans, was kind of a model player.
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  Speaker 1: He was a guy who never really attracted attention off
• 9:22
  Speaker 1: the field. He just played hard all the time. He
• 9:25
  Speaker 1: had two sons, Miller was the younger of those sons.
• 9:28
  Speaker 1: He's been married for some time. He's a guy who
• 9:31
  Speaker 1: had dedicated himself since his playing career ended to his family.
• 9:35
  Speaker 1: And for anyone who has ever lost a child, anyone
• 9:39
  Speaker 1: who even knows anyone who has lost a child, there
• 9:42
  Speaker 1: is really nothing worse. So our condolences go out to
• 9:46
  Speaker 1: the Gardner family. The entire baseball world is mourning for him.
• 9:50
  Speaker 1: Bet Gardner, We're all thinking of you and your family
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  Speaker 1: as well well. Time now for the inside Dish part
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  Speaker 1: of the show, where I talk about maybe a story
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  Speaker 1: i've written, maybe a trend in the game. And this week,
• 10:05
  Speaker 1: unfortunately for everyone listening and watching, I'm going to give
• 10:08
  Speaker 1: you some of my picks, not going to reveal all
• 10:11
  Speaker 1: of them. I did that in the Athletic today we
• 10:13
  Speaker 1: had all of our supposed experts make their picks for
• 10:16
  Speaker 1: the season, all thirty three Baseball contributors, and we'll see
• 10:19
  Speaker 1: how they all turn out too. But I'm going to
• 10:21
  Speaker 1: start off with two off the board categories and then
• 10:24
  Speaker 1: we'll get into some more traditional ones. Let's start off
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  Speaker 1: first with most improved Player, and I'm going to go
• 10:31
  Speaker 1: with a guy who a lot of people thought might
• 10:33
  Speaker 1: be the rookie of the Year last year. Team was
• 10:36
  Speaker 1: very excited about him coming out of camp. He even
• 10:38
  Speaker 1: drew comparisons to Mike Trout, body type, style of swing,
• 10:42
  Speaker 1: that kind of thing. His name is Wyat Langford. He
• 10:45
  Speaker 1: didn't have the year everyone expected. Last year certainly wasn't
• 10:48
  Speaker 1: a bad year seven to forty ops, missed some time
• 10:51
  Speaker 1: with a strain and hamstring. But here's a guy with
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  Speaker 1: all the ability in the world and someone that I
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  Speaker 1: feel is really ready to break out this year. I
• 11:00
  Speaker 1: had some other guys I considered for this. One was
• 11:03
  Speaker 1: Matt McClain, who's on the Reds, of course, at their
• 11:06
  Speaker 1: second baseman, who missed all of last year with an injury.
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  Speaker 1: He wouldn't be most improved because he was really good
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  Speaker 1: in twenty three, but he's someone to watch because I
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  Speaker 1: believe he's gonna play a major role for the Reds
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  Speaker 1: this season. And I also thought about O'Neil Cruz first
• 11:20
  Speaker 1: full season in center field. Maybe now freed of shortstop
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  Speaker 1: and able just to kind of focus more on his
• 11:27
  Speaker 1: hitting and just being an athletic center fielder, he will
• 11:30
  Speaker 1: become not just an exit velocity wizard, but a Baseball
• 11:35
  Speaker 1: All Star as well. We'll see, all right, that's my
• 11:38
  Speaker 1: most improved player, Wyatt Langford. For my most improved team,
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  Speaker 1: I considered the Rangers because I do believe they're going
• 11:46
  Speaker 1: to be a really good team this year. In fact,
• 11:48
  Speaker 1: I'm picking them to go to the World Series. But
• 11:50
  Speaker 1: picking a most improved player from one team and then
• 11:52
  Speaker 1: picking that team is the most improved team, that's not
• 11:55
  Speaker 1: all that fun. So I'm gonna go with Matt McClain's
• 11:57
  Speaker 1: team for the most improved team. That's the team with
• 12:00
  Speaker 1: Terry Francona taking over as manager the Cincinnati Reds. I
• 12:04
  Speaker 1: like their rotation if it stays healthy. I like their
• 12:08
  Speaker 1: position player club, though they've got some mixing and matching
• 12:11
  Speaker 1: to do. I am worried about their bullpen and they've
• 12:14
  Speaker 1: got some questions there. Alexis Diaz is going to open
• 12:17
  Speaker 1: the season on the injured list. But at the same time,
• 12:21
  Speaker 1: I'm confident that Francona, like Bruce Bochi and Texas, through
• 12:24
  Speaker 1: his years of experience and expertise, will figure out just
• 12:28
  Speaker 1: what he wants to do with that bullpen and they'll
• 12:30
  Speaker 1: get eventually the right pieces in place. All right, National League,
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  Speaker 1: Cy Young, I'm going with a guy who has finished
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  Speaker 1: second twice, has also been someone who received votes two
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  Speaker 1: other times, finished second last year, and some people even
• 12:45
  Speaker 1: thought he should have won the award in the National
• 12:48
  Speaker 1: League over Chris Sale. Who am I talking about? Of course,
• 12:51
  Speaker 1: it's Zach Wheeler. Zach Wheeler turns thirty five this season,
• 12:55
  Speaker 1: and yet he seems to be at the peak of
• 12:57
  Speaker 1: his powers, and I'm quite confident he's going to have
• 12:59
  Speaker 1: a good year, And of course he is on a
• 13:01
  Speaker 1: good team, so Zach Wheeler my choice for National League
• 13:05
  Speaker 1: Cy Young. American League Cy Young going off the board
• 13:08
  Speaker 1: a little bit here. Tyrek school Will, of course, is
• 13:11
  Speaker 1: the chalk. The obvious choice. Garret Crochet is going to
• 13:15
  Speaker 1: get some attention preseason at least as well. But I'm
• 13:18
  Speaker 1: gonna go with the guy who led the major leagues
• 13:20
  Speaker 1: in innings last year and was fourth in the majors
• 13:23
  Speaker 1: in opponents ops, which is a stat that for pitchers
• 13:27
  Speaker 1: I think is quite revealing. That guy is Logan Gilbert
• 13:31
  Speaker 1: of the Seattle Mariners. He is entering his age twenty
• 13:34
  Speaker 1: eight season. He is someone who seems to be getting
• 13:36
  Speaker 1: better and better. He is on a staff, of course,
• 13:39
  Speaker 1: that is extremely talented, and I just believe that this
• 13:43
  Speaker 1: is the year he's going to take another step forward
• 13:45
  Speaker 1: and become a legitimate Cy Young type National League MVP. Now,
• 13:51
  Speaker 1: my choice is someone who right now is not playing.
• 13:55
  Speaker 1: And there's a little bit of concern about Mookie Betts
• 13:57
  Speaker 1: because of all the weight he has lost with this
• 14:00
  Speaker 1: mysterious stomach illness. He said to reporters on Sunday night
• 14:04
  Speaker 1: that he has not been diagnosed with anything. He's just
• 14:06
  Speaker 1: had this stomach virus. He's lost something like twenty pounds.
• 14:10
  Speaker 1: I'm assuming at some point this is going to fade away,
• 14:13
  Speaker 1: this illness and he's going to get back to being
• 14:15
  Speaker 1: Mookie Bets. He'll be playing shortstop this year. He's worked
• 14:18
  Speaker 1: extremely hard at that position, and an up the middle
• 14:22
  Speaker 1: infielder with Mookie bets offensive potential is a classic MVP candidate.
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  Speaker 1: So I'm going with Mooky for my National League MVP, Yes,
• 14:31
  Speaker 1: even over his teammate Shohotani and finally al MVP. A
• 14:36
  Speaker 1: guy who put together a historic season last year and
• 14:39
  Speaker 1: yet was not rewarded. Bobby Wick Junior is my choice.
• 14:43
  Speaker 1: He in almost any other year in twenty twenty four
• 14:47
  Speaker 1: would have won American League MVP. But Aaron Judge had
• 14:51
  Speaker 1: an all time great offensive season, and he might ask,
• 14:55
  Speaker 1: don't you expect Aaron Judge to have another great offensive season?
• 14:58
  Speaker 1: I do, But again, I'm going with the up the
• 15:01
  Speaker 1: middle player Judge was that last year won't be that
• 15:03
  Speaker 1: this year. And I just think that ultimately, Bobby Wit
• 15:08
  Speaker 1: he is still getting better. He is still a guy
• 15:10
  Speaker 1: with unbelievable ability and untapped potential. Yes, as good as
• 15:15
  Speaker 1: he was last year a ten war player, I just
• 15:18
  Speaker 1: see Bobby Witt this year taking yet another step and yes,
• 15:21
  Speaker 1: wrestling the MVP award away in the American League from
• 15:26
  Speaker 1: Aaron Judge. So those are my picks. You can do
• 15:29
  Speaker 1: what you want with them. I would suggest not taking
• 15:31
  Speaker 1: them all that seriously, It's part of the fun. When
• 15:33
  Speaker 1: the season starts, we all get to play expert and
• 15:36
  Speaker 1: try to figure out what's going to happen when the
• 15:38
  Speaker 1: reality is and the beauty of baseball is we never
• 15:41
  Speaker 1: know what is going to happen. Time Now for Grill
• 15:45
  Speaker 1: and Ken, let's get to your questions. The first question
• 15:47
  Speaker 1: comes from Swits, who asks, is Aj Preller a top
• 15:51
  Speaker 1: five GM in baseball? Interesting question, No doubt. Aj Preller
• 15:56
  Speaker 1: of the San Diego Padres has built that team into
• 15:59
  Speaker 1: really a perennial contender. Top five. I'm not sure i'd
• 16:03
  Speaker 1: have him in the top five. I would say Dave Dombrowski, Alexanthopolis,
• 16:08
  Speaker 1: Chris Antonetti, Andrew Friedman, Eric Neander would be my top five,
• 16:12
  Speaker 1: not necessarily in that order, but aj Preller is in
• 16:15
  Speaker 1: the mix, and you can certainly make an argument that
• 16:17
  Speaker 1: he is top five. Now the rap against him is
• 16:21
  Speaker 1: some of those contracts are going to come do and
• 16:23
  Speaker 1: they're going to have financial issues going forward. They're actually
• 16:26
  Speaker 1: having some of them right now. Part of that is
• 16:28
  Speaker 1: due to the ownership situation, of course, but they have
• 16:32
  Speaker 1: awarded some monster deals and not all of them are
• 16:35
  Speaker 1: going to work out well in the end, and perhaps
• 16:38
  Speaker 1: perhaps will hamstring them financially. But what I love about
• 16:42
  Speaker 1: aj Preller is that he is always aggressive, He is
• 16:45
  Speaker 1: always trying to win. He is among the most creative gms,
• 16:49
  Speaker 1: there is no question about that. And he is a
• 16:51
  Speaker 1: guy who is unafraid, and in this era, simply being
• 16:56
  Speaker 1: unafraid and not worried about perceptions and not worried about
• 17:00
  Speaker 1: what's going to be written or said. That is a
• 17:04
  Speaker 1: competitive advantage because so many gms today are concerned about
• 17:09
  Speaker 1: losing a trade, making a bad move, any kind of misstep.
• 17:13
  Speaker 1: AJ Preller fires away. So if he's not top five,
• 17:17
  Speaker 1: he's in the conversation and I've got him there among others.
• 17:22
  Speaker 1: Next question comes from Darryl McGee, who says, if you
• 17:25
  Speaker 1: could build a team around one young star under twenty five,
• 17:29
  Speaker 1: who would it be. Well, Bobby Rick Junior is the
• 17:32
  Speaker 1: obvious choice. He is not yet twenty five, But I'm
• 17:36
  Speaker 1: gonna go with a less obvious choice because he's an
• 17:38
  Speaker 1: interesting player, no doubt, and a guy who burst onto
• 17:41
  Speaker 1: the scene last year. It could be Jackson Merrill, but
• 17:45
  Speaker 1: I'll take Jackson Churio, who's even younger than Jackson Merrill
• 17:48
  Speaker 1: and a guy that had a monster spring for the
• 17:51
  Speaker 1: Milwaukee Brewers and just has superstar written all over him.
• 17:56
  Speaker 1: Merrill is another guy, and you can certainly pick him
• 17:58
  Speaker 1: in this category as well well among others. But Jackson Cheerio,
• 18:02
  Speaker 1: to me, is rather intriguing and I'm going with him
• 18:05
  Speaker 1: in part because of his age. All Right, Finally, let's
• 18:09
  Speaker 1: see what the last question brings. This one comes from
• 18:12
  Speaker 1: Timothy Kelly, who asks any word on whether Nico Horner
• 18:16
  Speaker 1: will be in the lineup for the Cubs against the Diamondbacks,
• 18:19
  Speaker 1: and if not, how close is he to returning. Nico
• 18:22
  Speaker 1: Horner on Friday played his first game of the spring,
• 18:26
  Speaker 1: coming off right for arm surgery, and yes, the plan
• 18:30
  Speaker 1: is for him to be ready for opening Day. He
• 18:32
  Speaker 1: took Saturday off, played Sunday as well. Maybe they'll decide
• 18:36
  Speaker 1: ultimately he needs more at bats, but he got a
• 18:38
  Speaker 1: ton of it bats in the minor league side when
• 18:41
  Speaker 1: the Cubs were in Japan. He didn't go to Japan,
• 18:43
  Speaker 1: so he obviously is a very pivotal player for the Cubs,
• 18:47
  Speaker 1: a guy that they are counting on to be a
• 18:49
  Speaker 1: huge part of what they try to accomplish this season.
• 18:53
  Speaker 1: The expectation is yes, he'll be ready quite soon. Want
• 18:56
  Speaker 1: to thank everyone for their questions, Thank everyone for watching,
• 18:59
  Speaker 1: for listening. You know where to find us YouTube, Apple, Spotify.
• 19:03
  Speaker 1: We'll be back Thursday with our normal Thursday live show
• 19:06
  Speaker 1: ten thirty Eastern, myself and Alana Rizzo, and I might
• 19:09
  Speaker 1: as well mention my first Fox game coming up this weekend,
• 19:13
  Speaker 1: Mets at Astros, Jan Soto for the Mets, Jose Altuve
• 19:17
  Speaker 1: in left field for the Astros. Really looking forward to it.
• 19:20
  Speaker 1: Have a great opening day everyone, and a great week.
• 19:24
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