Latest / Foul Territory / Trevor May on Brewers arms & Freddy Peralta’s rise + Dodgers crumble, Why YOU should root for the Rays

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Trevor May on Brewers arms & Freddy Peralta’s rise + Dodgers crumble, Why YOU should root for the Rays · Foul Territory

• 0:04
  Speaker 1: Mace Blaning, Trevor May. Follow the content. Trevor's back.
• 0:08
  Speaker 2: Part of the FT fam. And it's good to see you, dude.
• 0:12
  Speaker 2: Let's just start out, because we haven't talked to you
• 0:13
  Speaker 2: in a moment, about what we just saw in the
• 0:16
  Speaker 2: NLCS and your thoughts.
• 0:20
  Speaker 3: I don't know about you guys, but I wasn't surprised
• 0:22
  Speaker 3: one bit.
• 0:24
  Speaker 4: Maybe by the sweep, but I thought those teams were,
• 0:27
  Speaker 4: you know, as matchups go, as evenly matched as possible.
• 0:32
  Speaker 4: I just think that the... you know, the Dodgers have
• 0:34
  Speaker 4: been going, playing in November every single year, and they're
• 0:37
  Speaker 4: all in their mid-30s with the oldest team in the league. Eventually,
• 0:39
  Speaker 4: they were going to slow down and run into a
• 0:41
  Speaker 4: team that was as relentless as they are, and that
• 0:45
  Speaker 4: team was the Brewers this year, and I think that
• 0:47
  Speaker 4: they had that sour taste in their mouth from last year,
• 0:50
  Speaker 4: where I think that they got swept, but that series
• 0:53
  Speaker 4: was way closer than people remember.
• 0:56
  Speaker 3: There wasn't a huge, what was it, a.
• 0:57
  Speaker 4: Six-run differential in four games when you get swept? That's
• 1:01
  Speaker 4: a lot of heartbreak there. So, Um, but they, they were,
• 1:05
  Speaker 4: they came out.
• 1:05
  Speaker 3: On top this time.
• 1:06
  Speaker 4: I think they, they just had the pieces to do it.
• 1:08
  Speaker 4: That's a team that just, they don't let up, man. Um,
• 1:11
  Speaker 4: and that's been the Dodgers demo. So, um, I think
• 1:13
  Speaker 4: they got through the Goliath and now, uh, well, we're
• 1:16
  Speaker 4: going to, at least we got one team that's never
• 1:18
  Speaker 4: won one in the show. So there's a 50, at
• 1:21
  Speaker 4: least a 50% chance that we see the first time ever,
• 1:23
  Speaker 4: which I think is pretty cool too.
• 1:24
  Speaker 3: All right.
• 1:26
  Speaker 5: You got old and you stopped playing. You just said
• 1:29
  Speaker 5: about the age of the Dodgers, um, Do you feel
• 1:32
  Speaker 5: like a team that wins 100 games, people who are saying, oh,
• 1:36
  Speaker 5: they got old. Is that a bad narrative? Because they
• 1:41
  Speaker 5: did win 100 games in a better National League than
• 1:44
  Speaker 5: we saw from the American League side.
• 1:48
  Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean, maybe from a regular season situation. We
• 1:52
  Speaker 4: know this team's built to.
• 1:55
  Speaker 4: Get guys on the aisle of America around and have
• 1:57
  Speaker 4: lots of depth.
• 1:58
  Speaker 3: Like, that'll get you 100 games. And they're built that way.
• 2:01
  Speaker 4: But when it comes down to having to go play
• 2:04
  Speaker 4: another month of baseball, like, it's just a ton of,
• 2:06
  Speaker 4: I mean, you know just as well as anybody, it's
• 2:07
  Speaker 4: a ton of games. And every year you play, those
• 2:10
  Speaker 4: games feel a little bit heavier every single time you
• 2:12
  Speaker 4: do it. So, you know, they've relied on the big moment.
• 2:15
  Speaker 4: They're going to get in the big hit. And they
• 2:16
  Speaker 4: only had, I think, what, four total hits with guys
• 2:22
  Speaker 4: in scoring position for the whole postseason, that's just not
• 2:26
  Speaker 4: going to get the job done. It really comes down
• 2:27
  Speaker 4: to one team did, got the hits, and the other
• 2:30
  Speaker 4: team didn't. They both had plenty of opportunities, and I
• 2:34
  Speaker 4: think that that just comes down to these guys, their
• 2:37
  Speaker 4: experience is so valuable, but at some point, you put
• 2:43
  Speaker 4: yourself in a position to hit a guy throwing 99,
• 2:44
  Speaker 4: and just your body doesn't quite get there the same way,
• 2:48
  Speaker 4: and being able to execute in those big moments maybe
• 2:50
  Speaker 4: is a little bit harder to do, and if that
• 2:52
  Speaker 4: compounds a little bit, then We have this situation. Now,
• 2:55
  Speaker 4: do I think this group's done? This is the end
• 2:58
  Speaker 4: of this group on the Dodgers?
• 2:59
  Speaker 6: No.
• 2:59
  Speaker 4: Do I think they're going to probably win 100 games
• 3:01
  Speaker 4: next year, even with all the same guys being one
• 3:03
  Speaker 4: year older?
• 3:03
  Speaker 3: Probably, because they're very, very good.
• 3:06
  Speaker 4: I think it just that maybe if I know how
• 3:09
  Speaker 4: I feel and I didn't play.
• 3:10
  Speaker 3: A baseball season this year. And so it.
• 3:13
  Speaker 4: Must be, you know, you're just you're just more tired
• 3:15
  Speaker 4: every single time you do it.
• 3:17
  Speaker 3: And you get one less month every offseason.
• 3:20
  Speaker 4: Eventually it's just going to be really hard for any
• 3:22
  Speaker 4: major league baseball team to win five straight world series
• 3:24
  Speaker 4: ever because it's hard from the beginning but also you're
• 3:27
  Speaker 4: just going to have five less months of rest than
• 3:29
  Speaker 4: everybody else that that takes a bigger toll than i
• 3:32
  Speaker 4: think people.
• 3:32
  Speaker 6: Realize yeah and i think people don't understand not only
• 3:36
  Speaker 6: physical toll it's the the mental toll of doing the
• 3:39
  Speaker 6: same routine over and over and i i think of
• 3:41
  Speaker 6: a guy in shohei otani it looks like there's going
• 3:45
  Speaker 6: to be some possible stuff going on with him in
• 3:47
  Speaker 6: the off season injury bug wise, they got to figure
• 3:49
  Speaker 6: out and get to, um, you brought up that he
• 3:52
  Speaker 6: is going to pitch next year. Like, was that ever a,
• 3:55
  Speaker 6: not an option? What do you, what do you think
• 3:57
  Speaker 6: and expect from him moving forward?
• 4:01
  Speaker 4: Ah, yeah, I, I, it's one of those things like
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  Speaker 4: you gotta keep trying it until it's very abundantly clear
• 4:07
  Speaker 4: that he can't hit.
• 4:09
  Speaker 3: Or unless he is.
• 4:12
  Speaker 4: So, um, Unless he's pitching. He's got to pitch unless
• 4:17
  Speaker 4: it's affecting his other abilities. And then that's when you
• 4:20
  Speaker 4: have to make the choice, when you're sacrificing one for
• 4:22
  Speaker 4: the other. Though, I think that's a little bit of
• 4:25
  Speaker 4: what we've seen for the first time. First time ever,
• 4:28
  Speaker 4: we've seen a little bit of, like, he's human. And
• 4:32
  Speaker 4: so maybe that conversation is going to be happening, but
• 4:35
  Speaker 4: I think we still have some runway here.
• 4:37
  Speaker 3: The guy still has an electric arm. Like the arm hasn't, like.
• 4:40
  Speaker 4: The talent in either way hasn't gone anywhere either. So
• 4:45
  Speaker 4: it's when we feel like he's healthy and there's nothing
• 4:47
  Speaker 4: to really do from the health side and it's still
• 4:49
  Speaker 4: kind of taking away from each other. I think that's
• 4:51
  Speaker 4: when it's going to get sacrificed. And I think just
• 4:53
  Speaker 4: because hitters have more effect on more games, it's going to,
• 4:56
  Speaker 4: they're going to lean towards that side. It makes sense.
• 4:59
  Speaker 4: It makes sense to me, but I just don't want
• 5:01
  Speaker 4: to see it happen Very soon.
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  Speaker 5: He's not going to become a reliever because the schematics
• 5:09
  Speaker 5: of him, semantics of him coming in and then leaving,
• 5:12
  Speaker 5: all that stuff. When you transitioned as a young player
• 5:16
  Speaker 5: from a starter to a reliever, because maybe that's how
• 5:20
  Speaker 5: they keep him healthy. Maybe he starts just low innings.
• 5:26
  Speaker 5: What do you think that inning threshold would be to
• 5:28
  Speaker 5: be able to keep your body at a, like he
• 5:31
  Speaker 5: makes a three-inning start? They're not going to relieve him.
• 5:35
  Speaker 5: So he's like a bulk opener almost. But we saw
• 5:38
  Speaker 5: what happens. He wanted to win a Cy Young this year.
• 5:40
  Speaker 5: They've admitted to that. And his body broke down through
• 5:44
  Speaker 5: the rigors of the season, or maybe it was something
• 5:46
  Speaker 5: freak that happened, and that's why the knee is– he
• 5:49
  Speaker 5: broke down. Where do you think that threshold is? Because
• 5:53
  Speaker 5: you transitioned from a starter to the bullpen guy where
• 5:56
  Speaker 5: he's like, okay, I know I can go for three innings,
• 5:58
  Speaker 5: and I can be fine in five days to come
• 6:00
  Speaker 5: back or in six days to come back.
• 6:03
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
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  Speaker 4: I mean, that might be the, the, the way they
• 6:06
  Speaker 4: handle it. Um, we have a lot of like, what
• 6:08
  Speaker 4: ifs coming up as well with the proposals to shorten
• 6:12
  Speaker 4: the season. And that changes a lot of things that
• 6:15
  Speaker 4: would change how pitching staffs look probably pretty drastically for
• 6:18
  Speaker 4: a lot, a lot of teams as well. And the
• 6:20
  Speaker 4: six man rotation becomes an option, um, an extra day
• 6:23
  Speaker 4: of rest for everybody. Um, but I would say maybe
• 6:26
  Speaker 4: we start with looking at how Chris sale was, uh, uh,
• 6:30
  Speaker 4: work used this year. Um, Basically, every time someone got
• 6:34
  Speaker 4: pushed back, it was Chris Sale because they wanted to
• 6:37
  Speaker 4: keep him healthy and keep him on the mound and
• 6:39
  Speaker 4: keep him as the ace because they had other guys
• 6:41
  Speaker 4: that were eating bulk innings. Maybe that's something they tried
• 6:44
  Speaker 4: and they kind of did it.
• 6:45
  Speaker 3: A little bit.
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  Speaker 4: They keep him around 5-6. They don't just let him roll.
• 6:50
  Speaker 4: That could be it, giving him the extra day rest. Again,
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  Speaker 4: it's the Dodgers. They have tons and tons and tons
• 6:56
  Speaker 4: of options. Lots of different guys can do different things.
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  Speaker 4: If any team's positioned well to do it, but Maybe
• 7:02
  Speaker 4: so to kind of hit the innings limit, like the 120,
• 7:07
  Speaker 4: 130 kind of seems like the top to me, just
• 7:10
  Speaker 4: to maximum. And that's with built-in maybe skips in full
• 7:15
  Speaker 4: resets where he throws a live BP or something in
• 7:18
  Speaker 4: the middle. Like those are all options just to keep
• 7:21
  Speaker 4: him throwing off a mound. But like you can, that
• 7:24
  Speaker 4: allows you to kind of pump the brakes more. and
• 7:27
  Speaker 4: be dynamic with it and make the decision week in,
• 7:29
  Speaker 4: week out, as opposed to needing this six-month plan drawn
• 7:33
  Speaker 4: up that will never go right.
• 7:35
  Speaker 3: So that would be my guess. I would say they would.
• 7:37
  Speaker 4: Be happy with 120 innings, 130 innings out of Shoya Otani,
• 7:41
  Speaker 4: especially with all the other talent they have.
• 7:44
  Speaker 5: Yamamoto's looking over there. He's like, I'll just keep doing
• 7:47
  Speaker 5: what I do. But he's not hitting. So I got
• 7:50
  Speaker 5: to go to the other side now, the Brewers. They
• 7:53
  Speaker 5: had the hardest average fastball velocity ever. of any team,
• 7:58
  Speaker 5: not just the bullpen guys, the entire team averaged over
• 8:01
  Speaker 5: 97 miles per hour on their average fastball velocity. Is
• 8:07
  Speaker 5: this one of, when you watch this stuff, not the results,
• 8:10
  Speaker 5: the stuff that these guys throw out there from Gasser
• 8:14
  Speaker 5: and his weird arm angle to Ashby to Trevor McGill,
• 8:18
  Speaker 5: is this one of the nastiest bullpens and starting rotation,
• 8:23
  Speaker 5: just basically cavalcade of arms that you've seen in a while.
• 8:28
  Speaker 4: Yeah, especially for guys who, you know, well, presumably they're
• 8:32
  Speaker 4: going to have one Cy Young combined after this year,
• 8:35
  Speaker 4: but like guys who are all still pretty new to
• 8:38
  Speaker 4: the scene relatively compared to other staffs, right? We can
• 8:42
  Speaker 4: talk about the Yankees, but those guys are proven, you know,
• 8:45
  Speaker 4: guys we've known about, guys who are all-stars. But in
• 8:48
  Speaker 4: terms of just top-level, top-ceiling talent, There's just nowhere where
• 8:54
  Speaker 4: you're kind.
• 8:55
  Speaker 3: Of like, ooh, here's a let off here.
• 8:57
  Speaker 4: Because even the guys who throw average, and it's funny,
• 9:01
  Speaker 4: watching Robert Gasser throw 94, 95, I'm like, that's an
• 9:03
  Speaker 4: average lefty. If this were 2007, that would be 90, 91.
• 9:09
  Speaker 4: But he's got funk and he's got the weird movement.
• 9:12
  Speaker 4: And then all the different looks. We got Mizorowski's throwing
• 9:14
  Speaker 4: from three inches from the plate. And then we got
• 9:16
  Speaker 4: Kyle Harrison with the.
• 9:18
  Speaker 3: Weird riding movement.
• 9:19
  Speaker 4: Heater and then we got henderson with his like recoil
• 9:22
  Speaker 4: thing he does in his crazy ride he throws invisible
• 9:24
  Speaker 4: balls if anyone throws invisible balls it's that guy uh
• 9:28
  Speaker 4: and then then he got ashby like you know like
• 9:32
  Speaker 4: he looks like he's throwing 92 and it's 99 so
• 9:35
  Speaker 4: i just think there's just there's not a lot to
• 9:37
  Speaker 4: get comfortable and then each individual guy is uncomfortable for
• 9:40
  Speaker 4: a different reason I mean, they put together something really
• 9:43
  Speaker 4: impressive there, but it's not really that surprising with them
• 9:46
  Speaker 4: with with the team that has produced the Devin Williams
• 9:48
  Speaker 4: right after Josh Hader. You know, like they keep this
• 9:52
  Speaker 4: keeps happening. Like we've seen the signs of them putting
• 9:55
  Speaker 4: together truly dominant bullpens. I think they just finally all
• 9:57
  Speaker 4: kind of came together at the exact same time and.
• 10:00
  Speaker 3: Some really great trades. D.L. Hall for Corbin Burns, kind
• 10:04
  Speaker 3: of underrated.
• 10:05
  Speaker 4: He's been huge, considering that he's won four of their
• 10:08
  Speaker 4: seven games. It's a combination of incredible High ceiling talents
• 10:16
  Speaker 4: all clicking at the same time and all just doing
• 10:18
  Speaker 4: their jobs well. No one seems like they're trying to,
• 10:22
  Speaker 4: it needs to be all about them.
• 10:23
  Speaker 3: Like we got Aaron Ashby.
• 10:25
  Speaker 4: Throws three innings and Trevor McGill's not offended that he
• 10:28
  Speaker 4: didn't get to close the game. Like he's like, great,
• 10:31
  Speaker 4: but that's one less inning I got to throw in
• 10:33
  Speaker 4: this series.
• 10:33
  Speaker 3: I can throw the next one. So I just, it's
• 10:37
  Speaker 3: a freight train, man. I wouldn't want to be in
• 10:38
  Speaker 3: front of it right now.
• 10:40
  Speaker 5: The person that closed out the game was Ashby. Ashby
• 10:45
  Speaker 5: closed the game out. He didn't throw the night before.
• 10:48
  Speaker 5: I want to talk to you about guys seeing the
• 10:51
  Speaker 5: same pitchers. As nasty as you talk about, all these
• 10:54
  Speaker 5: dudes are just filthy coming out of the pen. If
• 10:59
  Speaker 5: you see a guy, were you able to make an
• 11:01
  Speaker 5: adjustment if a team had seen you in the division
• 11:03
  Speaker 5: during the regular season where you're like, oh, he's seen me.
• 11:07
  Speaker 5: We've played these guys back to back. I've thrown in
• 11:09
  Speaker 5: four of the six games that we've played. Do you
• 11:13
  Speaker 5: see Or did you see like, okay, I need to
• 11:16
  Speaker 5: make an adjustment or throw differently? Or am I just like, nope,
• 11:18
  Speaker 5: my best stuff versus his best stuff? Because we see
• 11:21
  Speaker 5: hitters starting to make adjustments against pitchers during this time
• 11:25
  Speaker 5: of year.
• 11:27
  Speaker 4: One thing that I think is super interesting about the
• 11:30
  Speaker 4: Brewers specifically and their ability to throw to the same
• 11:32
  Speaker 4: guys is they threw over 60% fastballs as a team.
• 11:37
  Speaker 3: When you are going right.
• 11:39
  Speaker 4: After guys with heat, That leaves a lot open to
• 11:43
  Speaker 4: go to later, like adjustments you can make. And if
• 11:46
  Speaker 4: I was the same way, like everyone knew they were
• 11:50
  Speaker 4: going to, I'm going to come at you with heat
• 11:52
  Speaker 4: at some point. Like that is my bread and butter.
• 11:54
  Speaker 4: That's the thing that's my best pitch. And until that.
• 11:58
  Speaker 4: starts to get adjusted to a little bit, then I
• 12:01
  Speaker 4: don't need to change things much. And I, it's kind
• 12:04
  Speaker 4: of what I'm most comfortable doing anyway. So I might
• 12:06
  Speaker 4: still not change it. And that's kind of like, I
• 12:08
  Speaker 4: feel like as a hitters generally, like he's going to
• 12:10
  Speaker 4: throw fastballs at least like I, he knows that I
• 12:12
  Speaker 4: know I'm going to get one at some point. Um,
• 12:15
  Speaker 4: and then the cat and mouse can then go from there.
• 12:16
  Speaker 4: And if the adjustment doesn't start to happen, then you
• 12:20
  Speaker 4: never really need to get off your fastball. Then you're just,
• 12:23
  Speaker 4: it's stuff on stuff at that point.
• 12:24
  Speaker 3: Like, They know everything. You know everything.
• 12:27
  Speaker 4: Now it's just my stuff versus your ability to hit
• 12:30
  Speaker 4: it where you need to hit it right now. And
• 12:32
  Speaker 4: they were just– pitchers have the advantage. They just have
• 12:36
  Speaker 4: the advantage right now. It's going to be interesting, though,
• 12:38
  Speaker 4: and maybe if a team– if they go– either one
• 12:40
  Speaker 4: of the next two teams, honestly, that have the same
• 12:43
  Speaker 4: kind of peskiness, the ability to put up a 12-pitch
• 12:47
  Speaker 4: at bat, like how does that change– how the relievers
• 12:52
  Speaker 4: specifically pitch, like Aaron Ashby, is he going to be
• 12:55
  Speaker 4: able to throw three innings and 30 pitches? I would
• 12:58
  Speaker 4: say probably not against the next two teams that they
• 13:02
  Speaker 4: might run into.
• 13:05
  Speaker 3: Interesting.
• 13:05
  Speaker 6: I want to go on another pitcher, Freddie Peralta, man.
• 13:09
  Speaker 6: Talk to me how this guy has been putting up
• 13:12
  Speaker 6: three good performances in this playoff series. Well, in all
• 13:17
  Speaker 6: three performances he's had in both playoff series.
• 13:21
  Speaker 4: Yeah, it's really interesting because it looks like he got
• 13:25
  Speaker 4: back to doing the things that made him really tough
• 13:29
  Speaker 4: in Milwaukee after moving to the Rays. And what I
• 13:32
  Speaker 4: mean by that is he's made a few really small
• 13:36
  Speaker 4: mechanical changes, really leaned into being on the third base
• 13:40
  Speaker 4: side of the rubber, towards the third base side of
• 13:41
  Speaker 4: the rubber, because he kind of steps across his body.
• 13:43
  Speaker 4: He's got all those arms and legs, really long extension.
• 13:46
  Speaker 4: But they really wanted to get his angles weird, where
• 13:48
  Speaker 4: he's stepping at a righty and kind of throwing the
• 13:50
  Speaker 4: breaking ball across him.
• 13:51
  Speaker 3: So he started doing that a little bit more.
• 13:53
  Speaker 4: They straightened him out a little bit in New York
• 13:56
  Speaker 4: because I think they were trying to get him to
• 13:58
  Speaker 4: be a little bit more over the plate and be
• 13:59
  Speaker 4: able to go east-west a little bit more than he was.
• 14:02
  Speaker 4: And it didn't work out as well. It didn't seem
• 14:03
  Speaker 4: very comfortable. So he's back doing that. And then he's
• 14:05
  Speaker 4: doing all this like he's going to throw a bunch
• 14:07
  Speaker 4: of sliders. And he's been throwing a ton of change-ups,
• 14:09
  Speaker 4: which no one is prepared to do. He has a
• 14:11
  Speaker 4: great change-up, but it's never been his thing. his go-to
• 14:14
  Speaker 4: swing and miss pitch. So I think he's got people
• 14:17
  Speaker 4: really off balance because it looks like he's going to
• 14:20
  Speaker 4: try to go east-west and then he's dropping down change-ups
• 14:22
  Speaker 4: all the time. And then his velocity, we've known this
• 14:25
  Speaker 4: about Peralta, he's comfortable throwing a 92 or 99. And
• 14:28
  Speaker 4: now he's got that adrenaline going and he's feeling dialed in.
• 14:32
  Speaker 4: He's a scary dude to run into at this point.
• 14:34
  Speaker 4: So he looks like A-stuff again. Perfect timing going in
• 14:38
  Speaker 4: for agency.
• 14:38
  Speaker 3: Love that for him. But you know the race. They're like,
• 14:42
  Speaker 3: let's create weird angles.
• 14:43
  Speaker 4: Let's give you the confidence right away to do the
• 14:45
  Speaker 4: things that you know how to do again. And just
• 14:47
  Speaker 4: give you a very simple plan to follow. And he
• 14:49
  Speaker 4: did it for a couple weeks. He got in a
• 14:51
  Speaker 4: groove again. And now we're seeing dialed in Freddie Peralta.
• 14:54
  Speaker 5: Nationally, it came out that Garrett Cole, when he throws
• 14:58
  Speaker 5: in the trop, he's got more induced vertical break. Freddie
• 15:02
  Speaker 5: P has that also. Is that... a superpower for the
• 15:08
  Speaker 5: Ray where they don't even have to touch the guy.
• 15:09
  Speaker 5: They're not even, they're not changing any angles, extension, anything.
• 15:13
  Speaker 5: That's a superpower for the Rays. Did you see that
• 15:16
  Speaker 5: also in any stadium where like, okay, we just don't
• 15:19
  Speaker 5: hear about it yet and they should take advantage of
• 15:22
  Speaker 5: it because everybody hears you get no induced vertical break
• 15:24
  Speaker 5: in Colorado. And so teams have to make that change.
• 15:28
  Speaker 5: Was there other places or is there other places that
• 15:30
  Speaker 5: you know of that now, okay, maybe we start taking
• 15:35
  Speaker 5: ownership or taking advantage of this and everybody's going to
• 15:39
  Speaker 5: know about it?
• 15:41
  Speaker 3: Yeah, that's an interesting question.
• 15:43
  Speaker 4: It's funny because Tampa is the one that we had
• 15:45
  Speaker 4: some knowledge of it just because.
• 15:47
  Speaker 3: Of the way that it's closed, the climate controlled.
• 15:52
  Speaker 4: When it comes to that, you can kind of Manipulate
• 15:55
  Speaker 4: it to an extent, but you're not affected by weather
• 15:57
  Speaker 4: as much. Humidity won't kill you as much, which deadens
• 16:00
  Speaker 4: the ball. It's thicker air that the ball has to
• 16:02
  Speaker 4: travel through for a bunch of different reasons. And so, like,
• 16:06
  Speaker 4: chase field, same thing.
• 16:07
  Speaker 3: You get higher.
• 16:08
  Speaker 4: You could generally, like, guys would feel like they were thrown.
• 16:10
  Speaker 3: A little bit harder there.
• 16:11
  Speaker 4: A little bit less wind resistance, but the ball would
• 16:14
  Speaker 4: ride pretty good. But very similar to.
• 16:18
  Speaker 3: The same thing as the trop.
• 16:19
  Speaker 4: I think the trop was the one where you felt,
• 16:22
  Speaker 4: for whatever reason, the ball felt like it was spinning faster.
• 16:24
  Speaker 4: really like you had your high spin rates out of
• 16:26
  Speaker 4: there too. Um, and so when that happens, like I, you,
• 16:32
  Speaker 4: you kind of want to go to those, those pitches
• 16:34
  Speaker 4: that make you the best. The interesting thing though, is
• 16:36
  Speaker 4: the way they've used their power changeups this year, because
• 16:39
  Speaker 4: if you usually are getting additional ride, then sometimes that
• 16:42
  Speaker 4: affects the ability to like sink the ball, but that's
• 16:46
  Speaker 4: not the case. They don't have true sinkers outside of
• 16:48
  Speaker 4: Kevin Kelly. I really, uh, it's a lot of like
• 16:50
  Speaker 4: side to side guys, but they have these power changeups
• 16:53
  Speaker 4: that are all Like, the Baker's changeup just was not
• 16:57
  Speaker 4: there in Baltimore, and now it's there.
• 16:59
  Speaker 3: I just think that.
• 17:01
  Speaker 4: Whatever the advantage is, whatever they see in terms of
• 17:05
  Speaker 4: effects on the ball, like, the staff there knows about it.
• 17:08
  Speaker 4: And as soon as you go there, they tell you
• 17:10
  Speaker 4: exactly what your thing is that would.
• 17:12
  Speaker 3: Take advantage of that.
• 17:13
  Speaker 4: It looks like when they traded for Freddy Peralta, they
• 17:16
  Speaker 4: were in the back, like, just fist pumping and trying
• 17:18
  Speaker 4: not to celebrate too much unless they took it back.
• 17:21
  Speaker 3: I think they were that excited to get him.
• 17:23
  Speaker 6: Mm-hmm.
• 17:23
  Speaker 1: Yeah, there's a lot of, we love change-ups. They're really good.
• 17:26
  Speaker 1: You should try more of those.
• 17:28
  Speaker 3: That happened.
• 17:29
  Speaker 2: That appeared to not be happening in other places. Yeah,
• 17:33
  Speaker 2: but we're going to stay with Trevor, so let's step
• 17:35
  Speaker 2: aside for a moment, and then we're going to tell
• 17:37
  Speaker 2: everyone why, if they need to adopt a team, the
• 17:40
  Speaker 2: Rays could be their team.
• 17:41
  Speaker 1: That's coming up.
• 17:43
  Speaker 7: Hey, enough key in the Foul Territory Network. We have
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, AJ, you can have a plumbing business, electrical, HVAC.
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• 18:40
  Speaker 2: After you sign up, they'll ask you where you heard
• 18:41
  Speaker 2: about them. Please support our show and let them know
• 18:43
  Speaker 2: we sent you. Oh, this is a fun one for me.
• 18:47
  Speaker 2: We have two minutes and then we'll be back with
• 18:49
  Speaker 2: the whole crowd to do our other segment. But Trevor,
• 18:52
  Speaker 2: just a minute from you on this tweet from Mike
• 18:54
  Speaker 2: Puma and a million other people. MLB needs competitive balance.
• 18:57
  Speaker 2: The large market teams just can't keep up.
• 19:00
  Speaker 3: Anymore.
• 19:00
  Speaker 2: In all seriousness, I was talking about this the other day,
• 19:02
  Speaker 2: the Mets haven't won since 86. The Chicago White Sox
• 19:05
  Speaker 2: are in a top three market city. They've won once
• 19:07
  Speaker 2: in a hundred years. Do you think that we should
• 19:10
  Speaker 2: make some changes to help the big market teams out
• 19:12
  Speaker 2: now that we see what this final four and what
• 19:14
  Speaker 2: this World Series is going to look like? I, for one,
• 19:17
  Speaker 2: feel bad about it.
• 19:20
  Speaker 4: Just so everyone at home knows the numbers, last time
• 19:22
  Speaker 4: I checked, the last three teams left, the Brewers are
• 19:26
  Speaker 4: 19th in payroll.
• 19:27
  Speaker 3: So we're not So we're not going to have.
• 19:29
  Speaker 4: A team above the top half, in the top half
• 19:31
  Speaker 4: of payrolls. So we have 19th, we have 28th, and
• 19:34
  Speaker 4: we have the worst in 30th in the Cleveland Guardians.
• 19:38
  Speaker 3: It depends on who you ask with them and the Marlins.
• 19:40
  Speaker 4: It's truly a slugfest to see who's last in payroll,
• 19:43
  Speaker 4: but it's one of them two. So we're going to
• 19:45
  Speaker 4: have a bottom three team in payroll in the World
• 19:47
  Speaker 4: Series this year.
• 19:49
  Speaker 3: That said... I want to be very clear here.
• 19:51
  Speaker 4: I think the narrative, maybe I can go on a
• 19:53
  Speaker 4: rant like, ah, like, you know, salary cap, we don't
• 19:56
  Speaker 4: need it. And it's not the teams that spend the
• 19:58
  Speaker 4: most money aren't actually the best team. Spending a lot
• 20:01
  Speaker 4: of money does help you get the talent to win
• 20:03
  Speaker 4: in the postseason.
• 20:04
  Speaker 3: That's absolutely true. The thing is, though, Salary cap, yeah,
• 20:09
  Speaker 3: it might help competitive balance, or it might not.
• 20:11
  Speaker 4: We don't know because they're not really that correlated, and
• 20:14
  Speaker 4: they never have been for any sport anywhere.
• 20:18
  Speaker 3: It's just that simple.
• 20:28
  Speaker 2: Pick your poison, presented by Lids. All right, so the
• 20:32
  Speaker 2: series continues. as we've hit on a couple teams already
• 20:36
  Speaker 2: and now move to the Tampa Bay Rays. And Kratz
• 20:38
  Speaker 2: is the teacher's pet right now. We're in the Lids
• 20:41
  Speaker 2: Rays hat. So you can start us off since you
• 20:43
  Speaker 2: had a minute in that organization. Why should people root
• 20:46
  Speaker 2: for the Rays? And we'll kick it around here. If
• 20:49
  Speaker 2: your team is already out, how do we get into
• 20:52
  Speaker 2: adopting this team?
• 20:54
  Speaker 3: All right.
• 20:54
  Speaker 5: Well, if you're going to adopt a team for this year,
• 20:56
  Speaker 5: you root for the Rays because they have an MVP
• 20:58
  Speaker 5: candidate in Junior Caminero. You root for the Rays because
• 21:02
  Speaker 5: This pitching staff from 1 to 13 is nasty. You
• 21:06
  Speaker 5: root for the Rays for the long term because you're
• 21:09
  Speaker 5: not going to have to go to the Trop. If
• 21:11
  Speaker 5: you're like, man, I love being down here in Florida
• 21:14
  Speaker 5: and the weather and everything, but I don't really want
• 21:16
  Speaker 5: to drive.
• 21:17
  Speaker 3: To the Trop.
• 21:17
  Speaker 5: You're getting a new stadium in the future. But for
• 21:19
  Speaker 5: this series, for this year, and moving on to the
• 21:23
  Speaker 5: World Series, to be a part of an organization that
• 21:27
  Speaker 5: does it this way, you're never going to really have
• 21:30
  Speaker 5: to worry about, eh, they might lose a game here
• 21:33
  Speaker 5: or there, but they're always going to be competitive, and
• 21:36
  Speaker 5: it's a fun team to watch. Stuff's happening all the time.
• 21:41
  Speaker 6: Okay, and I'd say you root for the Rays because,
• 21:43
  Speaker 6: first off, everybody talks about how their creativity with making
• 21:48
  Speaker 6: pitchers that start losing it a little bit and come
• 21:51
  Speaker 6: over to the Rays, and now all of a sudden
• 21:52
  Speaker 6: everybody's like, how do they do it each year? Their creativity,
• 21:55
  Speaker 6: they redefine, basically, how to develop a pitcher again. And
• 22:00
  Speaker 6: they have one of the smallest payrolls in baseball, and
• 22:03
  Speaker 6: they play against some of the biggest teams in the
• 22:05
  Speaker 6: Yankees and Red Sox.
• 22:06
  Speaker 3: That's why I'm rooting for them.
• 22:08
  Speaker 6: I think they have a big opportunity, and I think
• 22:11
  Speaker 6: it's a team that has a really nice chance of
• 22:13
  Speaker 6: getting there, even though they're down by a game. I
• 22:15
  Speaker 6: still think they have a big opportunity. Trevor, what do
• 22:18
  Speaker 6: you think?
• 22:20
  Speaker 4: I mean, my big thing, We should root for the
• 22:22
  Speaker 4: Rays because they never won one before. If you put
• 22:27
  Speaker 4: your hipster hat on like I have, they've never done
• 22:29
  Speaker 4: it before. They'd be on the ground floor here. The
• 22:32
  Speaker 4: three teams left. There's been one World Series since 1948.
• 22:36
  Speaker 4: Something new, something that hasn't happened in a long time
• 22:41
  Speaker 4: is going to happen. The Rays, they never won one before.
• 22:44
  Speaker 4: They're a loyal group of guys. They seem to all
• 22:47
  Speaker 4: like each other. This has been their MO. And the
• 22:51
  Speaker 4: Island of Misfit Toys taking the championship, it's always a great,
• 22:55
  Speaker 4: always a great story.
• 22:56
  Speaker 3: So that's why you should root for the Rays.
• 23:00
  Speaker 5: And if the Rays win, because we're telling you to
• 23:02
  Speaker 5: cheer for the Rays, if the Rays win this, I
• 23:05
  Speaker 5: think this will catapult this organization more than it has.
• 23:10
  Speaker 5: I think there's a stigma around the team that they
• 23:15
  Speaker 5: don't come to games, that fans don't come to games
• 23:17
  Speaker 5: and all this stuff. I promise you, they win a
• 23:19
  Speaker 5: World Series, just like The Tampa Bay Lightning wins a
• 23:24
  Speaker 5: Stanley Cup. All of a sudden, people are like, I
• 23:28
  Speaker 5: want to be at a Rays game. I want to
• 23:29
  Speaker 5: be a Rays fan. And that's how a team grows.
• 23:33
  Speaker 5: I don't think they do a great job of marketing
• 23:35
  Speaker 5: their team in the city of Tampa because they're in
• 23:38
  Speaker 5: the city of St. Pete, the town of St.
• 23:40
  Speaker 3: Pete.
• 23:41
  Speaker 5: And when they're moving to Tampa, they win this year.
• 23:45
  Speaker 5: it will, you'll be part of the like, not ground floor,
• 23:49
  Speaker 5: but you'll be part of the swell that I think
• 23:52
  Speaker 5: moving into the new, moving into the new stadium, moving
• 23:55
  Speaker 5: into the new location in Tampa is going to be,
• 23:59
  Speaker 5: is going to be huge. And like, it'll be like
• 24:01
  Speaker 5: the place to be. And you're like, yo, I got
• 24:04
  Speaker 5: on board in 2026 when them Johns won that thing.
• 24:08
  Speaker 2: And Trevor, you can speak to this to a tee.
• 24:11
  Speaker 2: The Oakland A's are no longer the Oakland A's. They're
• 24:14
  Speaker 2: the Sacramento A's. They're eventually going to be the Las
• 24:16
  Speaker 2: Vegas A's. The A's and the Rays have been teams
• 24:20
  Speaker 2: linked together for like 20 years. MLB essentially said they're
• 24:24
  Speaker 2: not doing anything with realignment, with expansion until they figure
• 24:29
  Speaker 2: out those two cities. And I remember hearing about that
• 24:31
  Speaker 2: when I was like a teenager at this point and going.
• 24:34
  Speaker 3: Oh, okay.
• 24:35
  Speaker 2: So after that's done in a few years, we'll get
• 24:37
  Speaker 2: to see if they come up with any expansion teams
• 24:39
  Speaker 2: 20 years later.
• 24:41
  Speaker 1: They finally have it figured out, right? The A's are moving.
• 24:44
  Speaker 1: The Rays are not moving.
• 24:46
  Speaker 2: So you can root for a team if you're in
• 24:48
  Speaker 2: the Tampa Bay area that is not going to move.
• 24:54
  Speaker 4: Yep.
• 24:55
  Speaker 3: Go team. Go Rays, right? I don't know.
• 24:59
  Speaker 4: This is an underdog fan's dream, what's left here to
• 25:02
  Speaker 4: root for. I just don't think– I think it's a
• 25:04
  Speaker 4: win-win for all the fans who don't have.
• 25:06
  Speaker 3: A team in it right now. It's a win-win. I
• 25:08
  Speaker 3: think this is awesome. Yeah.
• 25:10
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 25:11
  Speaker 5: And there's tickets available. There'll be tickets available too if
• 25:14
  Speaker 5: you're a Rays fan. I'm not trying to meld our topics.
• 25:20
  Speaker 3: No, no.
• 25:22
  Speaker 1: It's true though.
• 25:22
  Speaker 2: Hey, if you want to be able to get into
• 25:26
  Speaker 2: the ballpark at an affordable fare, I know some Rays
• 25:29
  Speaker 2: fans were complaining about pricing.
• 25:31
  Speaker 1: Go to many other parts of the country. You won't complain. Wait,
• 25:36
  Speaker 1: can we show that again?
• 25:37
  Speaker 2: So I think someone who covers the team locally pointed
• 25:41
  Speaker 2: out they're offering $ 49 upper deck, $ 75 lower level seats
• 25:46
  Speaker 2: for military active or retired first responders, nurses, teachers for
• 25:51
  Speaker 2: the Monday, Tuesday games. If they happen at the chop
• 25:54
  Speaker 2: for the LCS, that's cool.
• 25:57
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 25:58
  Speaker 1: Up to eight tickets to for people to purchase.
• 26:02
  Speaker 2: I mean, Trevor, part of that has to do with
• 26:04
  Speaker 2: them struggling a little bit to fill the ballpark.
• 26:07
  Speaker 1: The other part is sweet.
• 26:09
  Speaker 2: I mean, 75 bucks to sit lower bowl or 50
• 26:12
  Speaker 2: bucks or less to sit upper for a playoff game
• 26:15
  Speaker 2: is essentially unheard of. It's like three G's to go
• 26:19
  Speaker 2: to the world series in Milwaukee and Milwaukee is not
• 26:21
  Speaker 2: New York in terms of pricing.
• 26:23
  Speaker 4: 75, 75 bucks for lower bowl.
• 26:27
  Speaker 3: Ever anywhere for a regular season game. That's crazy.
• 26:31
  Speaker 4: I do love that they have the carve-out for the
• 26:34
  Speaker 4: first responders and people in service.
• 26:35
  Speaker 3: That's awesome.
• 26:37
  Speaker 4: And I think that you're just not going to be
• 26:39
  Speaker 4: able to take advantage of it.
• 26:40
  Speaker 3: Why it's there?
• 26:41
  Speaker 4: Like we said, the bandwagon, people might start pouring into
• 26:45
  Speaker 4: it more so than you realize. So you might not
• 26:47
  Speaker 4: get this opportunity again. It's a pretty awesome experience. And
• 26:51
  Speaker 4: I think, and honestly, I can say, having played against
• 26:55
  Speaker 4: them a lot in that stadium, they do a great
• 26:57
  Speaker 4: job with the infield vibe. Everyone's into it. All the
• 27:02
  Speaker 4: ushers are, are, are great and they love their team.
• 27:05
  Speaker 4: Like it's, it is a good atmosphere in there. Especially
• 27:08
  Speaker 4: when it's as close to PAX as you can get it.
• 27:10
  Speaker 3: Like it really is a good atmosphere. It's a close team.
• 27:12
  Speaker 3: It gets loud. So yeah, go to the games. Yeah.
• 27:17
  Speaker 2: And my last point here is if you're a Yankee hater,
• 27:20
  Speaker 2: which those still exist all over baseball for, Maybe people
• 27:24
  Speaker 2: growing up and watching them win a ton. The Rays
• 27:26
  Speaker 2: are kind of like the anti-Yankees. They're in the division.
• 27:29
  Speaker 2: They won the division. They beat the Yanks, right? They
• 27:31
  Speaker 2: spend a lot less. They're essentially smarter than them in
• 27:35
  Speaker 2: some ways, right? They're both super analytical organizations, but the
• 27:38
  Speaker 2: Rays seem to have a more consistent edge in my
• 27:41
  Speaker 2: mind right now. I know the Yankees make the playoffs,
• 27:43
  Speaker 2: but the Rays certainly keep up with them and they
• 27:45
  Speaker 2: spend a fraction of what the Yankees do. So if
• 27:47
  Speaker 2: you're into that narrative, go for it. Trevor, thanks for
• 27:50
  Speaker 2: joining us, dude. Good to see you. Enjoy the World Series,
• 27:53
  Speaker 2: the fall classic with the heavy hitters.
• 27:56
  Speaker 3: Absolutely. Pleasure. See you.
• 27:59
  Speaker 2: Everyone check out Trevor's channel. A lot flowing on there
• 28:03
  Speaker 2: right now, too. And Trevor, part of the FT fam
• 28:05
  Speaker 2: on FT. You might see him on an upcoming show again.
• 28:08
  Speaker 2: And props to Lids for helping us with this segment.
• 28:11
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• 28:23
  Speaker 3: Hey, everybody.
• 28:26
  Speaker 7: It's the best time of the year for sports right now.
• 28:28
  Speaker 7: You got the NFL. You got the NBA about to start.
• 28:31
  Speaker 7: You got college football. You got hockey going on here.
• 28:35
  Speaker 7: And the best part of all? You got the MLB playoffs.
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• 29:23
  Speaker 1: Gracias, SeatGeek.
• 29:27
  Speaker 2: Reporting live, presented by the Fox One app. Fabian Ardaia
• 29:29
  Speaker 2: joining us, and he covers the Dodgers for The Athletic.
• 29:32
  Speaker 2: Nice and simple here to start. First off, thanks for
• 29:34
  Speaker 2: joining us, dude.
• 29:34
  Speaker 1: Good to see you.
• 29:35
  Speaker 3: What happened?
• 29:36
  Speaker 1: What happened out there?
• 29:37
  Speaker 3: It wasn't one move.
• 29:38
  Speaker 1: It was a whole series of getting. smacked after taking leads, right?
• 29:43
  Speaker 8: Yeah, the Dodgers got outplayed.
• 29:44
  Speaker 9: I think that's pretty clear and that's what Dave Roberts
• 29:47
  Speaker 9: said to his team in that meeting after the game.
• 29:49
  Speaker 9: That's what he said at the podium. That's what he
• 29:51
  Speaker 9: told Ken Rosenthal. They got outplayed for four straight games.
• 29:54
  Speaker 9: This is a Brewers team that in every facet of
• 29:58
  Speaker 9: the game really pushed the envelope. The Dodgers blew leads
• 30:01
  Speaker 9: in all four games. The Brewers were able to get
• 30:04
  Speaker 9: to the Dodgers starters, all four of them, all four aces.
• 30:07
  Speaker 9: And the Dodgers lineup didn't produce. They had one home run.
• 30:11
  Speaker 9: They went five for 43 with runners in scoring position.
• 30:13
  Speaker 9: There just wasn't a facet of the game where the
• 30:16
  Speaker 9: Dodgers really had an edge by the end of the series.
• 30:18
  Speaker 9: And yeah, it was a pretty resounding sweep.
• 30:22
  Speaker 6: Yeah, I want to talk a little bit about Shohei
• 30:24
  Speaker 6: Otani here, man. It just seemed like A lot of
• 30:27
  Speaker 6: swing and miss, just looked awkward. I know the injuries,
• 30:30
  Speaker 6: it's hard.
• 30:31
  Speaker 3: It's hard.
• 30:31
  Speaker 6: I'm not making any excuse, but I know he won't either.
• 30:34
  Speaker 6: But moving him around, do you think, honestly, they did
• 30:38
  Speaker 6: him right with what they were doing? They ended up
• 30:41
  Speaker 6: hitting a homer yesterday, but still just a little too late.
• 30:45
  Speaker 9: Yeah, I think once they kind of made their bed
• 30:48
  Speaker 9: going into this October, especially with how they handled him
• 30:51
  Speaker 9: during the regular season, to the point where he physically
• 30:54
  Speaker 9: was compromised going into October. Once they got into that spot,
• 30:58
  Speaker 9: it was just a matter of trying to do whatever
• 31:00
  Speaker 9: you could to get something out of him. I think
• 31:02
  Speaker 9: they were waiting for the moment of magic once or
• 31:05
  Speaker 9: twice this October, and it finally happened in the last
• 31:08
  Speaker 9: game of the season, and that was really kind of it.
• 31:11
  Speaker 9: I think they were at the point where, I think
• 31:13
  Speaker 9: even Dave Roberts said this in July, going into the
• 31:16
  Speaker 9: All-Star break, and by that time, he already had the
• 31:19
  Speaker 9: knee issue, he already had the biceps issue, But he
• 31:22
  Speaker 9: said at that time, they want to have Shohei Otani
• 31:25
  Speaker 9: at full strength in October. That mission didn't happen. That
• 31:29
  Speaker 9: didn't wind up happening. And the Dodgers paid for it.
• 31:32
  Speaker 9: Is that the reason why they lost this series?
• 31:34
  Speaker 8: Maybe, maybe not.
• 31:35
  Speaker 9: But they did not give themselves the best chance, but
• 31:38
  Speaker 9: their best player going into this October.
• 31:41
  Speaker 5: Was that decision made when Shohei said, I want to
• 31:45
  Speaker 5: win a Cy Young? Was that a decision that the
• 31:49
  Speaker 5: front office, Dave, and Shohei were all aligned?
• 31:56
  Speaker 9: I think it definitely increased the risk of that, for sure.
• 31:58
  Speaker 9: If you are going to put that much of an
• 32:00
  Speaker 9: emphasis on the pitching side, to the point where, remember,
• 32:02
  Speaker 9: there was times early on in the season where he
• 32:04
  Speaker 9: would pitch but not hit.
• 32:05
  Speaker 3: In the game.
• 32:06
  Speaker 9: If they were prioritizing the pitching side, it obviously adds
• 32:10
  Speaker 9: risk to it. Pitching is more risk to getting injured
• 32:14
  Speaker 9: than hitting would, and we've seen how good of a
• 32:17
  Speaker 9: hitter Otani has been when he's full go as a hitter.
• 32:21
  Speaker 9: And even last year, when he was a full go
• 32:24
  Speaker 9: as a hitter to start the season and started layering
• 32:26
  Speaker 9: on the pitching as the season went on, he still
• 32:28
  Speaker 9: slayed 55 home runs. He just was not the same
• 32:31
  Speaker 9: guy this season, even before the injuries started to pile up.
• 32:34
  Speaker 9: And then he clearly wasn't the same guy from August on.
• 32:38
  Speaker 9: So yeah, I think there's going to have to be
• 32:40
  Speaker 9: some reevaluation of how they scheduled this out how they
• 32:44
  Speaker 9: have him doing both he said he still wants to
• 32:46
  Speaker 9: do both he still wants to pitch do you sort
• 32:49
  Speaker 9: of treat it like 2025 again where you start the
• 32:52
  Speaker 9: season as a full-time hitter and starting in June you
• 32:55
  Speaker 9: start layering on the pitching side of it I wonder
• 32:57
  Speaker 9: if that is a way that they approach this going
• 32:59
  Speaker 9: forward either way the way that they tried balancing both
• 33:04
  Speaker 9: and having to go out for the full season it
• 33:05
  Speaker 9: clearly didn't work because having him at full strength on
• 33:09
  Speaker 9: both sides of the plate they wound up having him
• 33:11
  Speaker 9: only available as a hitter, and really a compromised version
• 33:14
  Speaker 9: as a hitter.
• 33:16
  Speaker 5: That kind of leads into my next question about the
• 33:18
  Speaker 5: surgery or surgeries. Most likely it's the knee surgery. We
• 33:23
  Speaker 5: can't assume injuries, all that stuff. What are the chances
• 33:26
  Speaker 5: if we play baseball on time, Shohei maybe even delays
• 33:31
  Speaker 5: the start of the game based on the fact that
• 33:33
  Speaker 5: there's a lot of conversation about wear and tear on
• 33:36
  Speaker 5: the whole team, let alone Shohei who does both things?
• 33:42
  Speaker 9: Yeah, it's hard to speculate what he's going to need surgery-wise.
• 33:45
  Speaker 9: He said it's still too early to tell. I think
• 33:48
  Speaker 9: if everything goes well, I would imagine that they have
• 33:51
  Speaker 9: him at least starting the season at the plate. I
• 33:54
  Speaker 9: do wonder, depending on how many games there are next season,
• 33:57
  Speaker 9: if they sort of delay the pitching. Sort of like
• 33:59
  Speaker 9: I said in 2025, where really he was making full-fledged
• 34:03
  Speaker 9: starts really for the first time that season in October
• 34:06
  Speaker 9: in the postseason against the Philadelphia Phillies in the NLDS.
• 34:11
  Speaker 9: And you saw probably the best two-way version of Otani
• 34:15
  Speaker 9: as a result of that. This is the guy who
• 34:17
  Speaker 9: was willing to pitch on short rest in Game 7
• 34:19
  Speaker 9: of the World Series. And that started to go well
• 34:22
  Speaker 9: for him, but it wasn't because of stuff. And I
• 34:25
  Speaker 9: think you saw the ability to blend it. If there's
• 34:28
  Speaker 9: only a half a season of full two-way Otani, you
• 34:32
  Speaker 9: might as well have that towards October. And you see
• 34:34
  Speaker 9: this with how the Dodgers treat some of their other guys.
• 34:38
  Speaker 9: Everything is geared towards October, and everything always has been
• 34:40
  Speaker 9: for them.
• 34:41
  Speaker 8: Except in this instance.
• 34:44
  Speaker 5: All right, one last thing on the Shohei injury. Was
• 34:47
  Speaker 5: it one instance or was it wear and tear with
• 34:50
  Speaker 5: the knee? Was there one thing that happened, a slide,
• 34:53
  Speaker 5: a tweak, something, or was it wear and tear as
• 34:57
  Speaker 5: we move forward and we find out what possible surgery
• 34:59
  Speaker 5: or recovery it will be?
• 35:01
  Speaker 9: I would say most likely it is wear and tear.
• 35:03
  Speaker 9: They said that he felt it mostly when he was pitching,
• 35:05
  Speaker 9: the way he was landing. And you have to remember,
• 35:06
  Speaker 9: this is the same knee he had surgery on in 2019.
• 35:09
  Speaker 3: He had a.
• 35:11
  Speaker 9: Sort of a genetic condition called bipartite patella basically his
• 35:14
  Speaker 9: kneecap was uh he was born with a kneecap in
• 35:17
  Speaker 9: two pieces instead of one so they had to fuse
• 35:19
  Speaker 9: them together but that caused him some discomfort in 2019
• 35:23
  Speaker 9: that discomfort impacted him in 2019 and in 2020 uh
• 35:27
  Speaker 9: and this is a few years removed from surgery at
• 35:30
  Speaker 9: this point but if it is the same knee and
• 35:33
  Speaker 9: if he told japanese reporters he was feeling it in
• 35:35
  Speaker 9: that area and it wasn't more ligament damage it was
• 35:38
  Speaker 9: more just sort of feeling in the kneecap area, you
• 35:41
  Speaker 9: have to wonder if there is some lingering effect from
• 35:43
  Speaker 9: that 2019 surgery that they have to sort of address here.
• 35:46
  Speaker 9: That's speculating, but obviously that seems like more of the
• 35:50
  Speaker 9: wear and tear or the genetic kind of issue than
• 35:53
  Speaker 9: it is any specific instance or slide that where he
• 35:56
  Speaker 9: was able to have more of an acute injury.
• 35:59
  Speaker 6: It seemed like this year, I mean, you go, excuse me, after,
• 36:03
  Speaker 6: did that just take everything off there?
• 36:06
  Speaker 3: No, you're good.
• 36:07
  Speaker 5: We still hear you.
• 36:08
  Speaker 3: You sound crispy. You're crispy cream. You're good.
• 36:11
  Speaker 8: Live show.
• 36:12
  Speaker 1: Oh, he can't hear us.
• 36:14
  Speaker 5: He can't hear us because he unplugged.
• 36:15
  Speaker 3: Sometimes Todd. I got you. Now he's back.
• 36:17
  Speaker 5: We could hear you, Todd. We could hear you the
• 36:18
  Speaker 5: whole time.
• 36:19
  Speaker 6: All right. So my question to you is it's just
• 36:22
  Speaker 6: Dodger team looking at this team this year. It seemed
• 36:24
  Speaker 6: like it just they started slow year ago and then
• 36:28
  Speaker 6: they came on strong. And now like this year, I
• 36:30
  Speaker 6: felt like they never really took advantage or They dominated
• 36:34
  Speaker 6: their division, don't get me wrong, but it never seemed
• 36:36
  Speaker 6: like they stepped on somebody's throat, for lack of better terms.
• 36:39
  Speaker 6: It just seemed like nothing clicked the right way. They
• 36:42
  Speaker 6: were still a good team, but what can you say?
• 36:44
  Speaker 6: Is it just injuries alone? Is it just an older team?
• 36:48
  Speaker 6: What can you say to that?
• 36:51
  Speaker 9: I would say a lot of it probably has to
• 36:52
  Speaker 9: do with age. A lot of it has to do
• 36:54
  Speaker 9: with this is the third straight year of really having
• 36:57
  Speaker 9: these long years. You have to remember 2024, 2025, they
• 36:59
  Speaker 9: started the season overseas on opening day in March, in
• 37:04
  Speaker 9: Korea in 24.
• 37:06
  Speaker 8: And in Japan in 2025.
• 37:07
  Speaker 9: And you've seen now the last two seasons where the
• 37:11
  Speaker 9: offense was the best in baseball through June. They were
• 37:14
  Speaker 9: the typical Dodger offense you expect. And then second half
• 37:17
  Speaker 9: of the season, really July on, the offense has kind
• 37:20
  Speaker 9: of fallen off a cliff. They rebounded a little bit
• 37:22
  Speaker 9: this past September, but both Octobers, the offense was not
• 37:26
  Speaker 9: quite there.
• 37:27
  Speaker 8: During the World Series last year, they hit. 203.
• 37:29
  Speaker 9: That was the lowest for a World Series winner, I believe,
• 37:32
  Speaker 9: in 50 years, or close to 50 years, that a
• 37:35
  Speaker 9: team had hit that poorly in the World Series and won.
• 37:38
  Speaker 9: And you saw this year in October, they got past
• 37:40
  Speaker 9: the Braves because they slugged home runs, but they weren't
• 37:43
  Speaker 9: able to slug the Brewers, they weren't able to hit
• 37:44
  Speaker 9: against the Brewers, and they didn't get the timely hits
• 37:47
  Speaker 9: that they did during last year's postseason run. So yeah,
• 37:50
  Speaker 9: I don't think offensively they had the same firepower they
• 37:52
  Speaker 9: did in 2024, which is part of the reason why
• 37:56
  Speaker 9: the last couple years, it has felt like the margins
• 37:58
  Speaker 9: have gotten even slimmer on them as they've tried to
• 38:01
  Speaker 9: sort of keep this run going.
• 38:04
  Speaker 5: So does that mean that they're going to be incredible
• 38:05
  Speaker 5: next year? They're going to win more than 100 games?
• 38:07
  Speaker 5: Because they're all going to be rested. They're not going
• 38:09
  Speaker 5: to be playing for the duration of October.
• 38:13
  Speaker 9: Yeah, we have to see if there are 100 games first.
• 38:15
  Speaker 9: But I do think that it's one of the things
• 38:18
  Speaker 9: that maybe helps the Dodgers if it is a shorter season.
• 38:20
  Speaker 9: But yeah, I do think that there's going to be
• 38:23
  Speaker 9: areas where they have to It's not easy to find
• 38:26
  Speaker 9: ways to get younger because a lot of the pieces
• 38:28
  Speaker 9: on this roster are kind of nailed down, but they
• 38:30
  Speaker 9: have to find ways on the margins to maybe add
• 38:32
  Speaker 9: some young talent. And obviously they have a really stacked
• 38:36
  Speaker 9: farm system. We saw what Josue de Paula was able
• 38:38
  Speaker 9: to do in a very small sample size in September
• 38:40
  Speaker 9: and really impressed in October. Can he play his way
• 38:44
  Speaker 9: into this lineup, be good enough defensively to be an
• 38:47
  Speaker 9: everyday player? Are some of these other guys that are
• 38:49
  Speaker 9: really highly touted in the system, whether it be Mike Sirota,
• 38:53
  Speaker 9: maybe a Charles Davilon? Can some of these guys maybe
• 38:55
  Speaker 9: break in? Can Alex Freeland be more of a regular piece?
• 38:58
  Speaker 9: Same thing with Dalton Rushing. Can some of these younger
• 39:01
  Speaker 9: guys help raise the floor of this team? And really,
• 39:04
  Speaker 9: that's what Kyle Tucker was signed this year to be,
• 39:06
  Speaker 9: and he really wasn't that for most of the season.
• 39:08
  Speaker 9: He actually wound up being probably the most consistent hitter
• 39:10
  Speaker 9: in October, but he wasn't that guy over the course
• 39:13
  Speaker 9: of the season to help keep the rest of that
• 39:15
  Speaker 9: offense afloat. Can he do a better job of that
• 39:18
  Speaker 9: going into 2027? So, I think it's me coming on
• 39:22
  Speaker 9: some of the younger guys to really level up to
• 39:25
  Speaker 9: help take off for some of the guys getting older
• 39:29
  Speaker 9: on the roster.
• 39:30
  Speaker 5: The roster.
• 39:32
  Speaker 6: So you talk about free agency. I just thought of
• 39:34
  Speaker 6: this one before I had another one to ask. Tarek Skubal,
• 39:36
  Speaker 6: you think there's a chance of him coming back or no?
• 39:40
  Speaker 8: I think there's a chance.
• 39:41
  Speaker 9: I think the fact that we don't know what the
• 39:42
  Speaker 9: labor situation is going to look like.
• 39:44
  Speaker 3: We don't know.
• 39:45
  Speaker 9: What things are going to look like from an ownership
• 39:46
  Speaker 9: standpoint for the Dodgers. I know they say they're not
• 39:48
  Speaker 9: going to sell the team, but how much does Mark
• 39:50
  Speaker 9: Walter being under federal investigation impact their willingness to spend
• 39:54
  Speaker 9: the same way that they have in recent years? I'm
• 39:57
  Speaker 9: sure the payroll is still going to be extremely high,
• 39:59
  Speaker 9: but are they going to be able to layer onto
• 40:01
  Speaker 9: it like they did the last couple of winters where
• 40:03
  Speaker 9: they really went out and splurged for a Kyle Tucker
• 40:06
  Speaker 9: or an Edwin Diaz or a Tanner Scott the winter
• 40:08
  Speaker 9: before that? So are they still willing to do that?
• 40:11
  Speaker 9: And if so, like how aggressive are they going to
• 40:13
  Speaker 9: be compared to some of these other teams, maybe that
• 40:16
  Speaker 9: see a window before the lockout to like really splurge
• 40:19
  Speaker 9: and go after a guy like Tarek Scoble. I think
• 40:21
  Speaker 9: by all accounts, Scoble has enjoyed his time in Los Angeles.
• 40:24
  Speaker 9: I think people with the Dodgers enjoyed having Scoble around.
• 40:28
  Speaker 9: I think there was a good fit there, but you
• 40:30
  Speaker 9: have to wonder like what the timeline of everything and
• 40:32
  Speaker 9: the fact that there is going to be this labor strife,
• 40:34
  Speaker 9: how much of a role that plays into their ability
• 40:37
  Speaker 9: to bring him back.
• 40:38
  Speaker 3: Interesting point. Okay.
• 40:40
  Speaker 6: Um, Miguel Rojas announced his retirement there, too. So you
• 40:44
  Speaker 6: wrote about that. Talk a little about that. Nobody really knew.
• 40:48
  Speaker 6: I mean, he's been playing for a little while. And
• 40:50
  Speaker 6: talk about him. He also said he's going to do
• 40:53
  Speaker 6: something within the organization if I misheard that.
• 40:56
  Speaker 3: Talk to me. Yes, yeah.
• 40:58
  Speaker 9: The way he signed his deal this winter was basically
• 41:00
  Speaker 9: a one-year deal, but also with basically written in there,
• 41:04
  Speaker 9: he's going to have a role in the front office
• 41:05
  Speaker 9: in player development going forward. And he kind of hinted
• 41:08
  Speaker 9: at this earlier. often throughout the last year or so
• 41:11
  Speaker 9: that this was probably going to be his last year.
• 41:13
  Speaker 9: He hadn't finalized his decision yet, but I think everyone
• 41:16
  Speaker 9: kind of involved knew that this was going to be
• 41:18
  Speaker 9: his last year, his last go at it. And yeah,
• 41:20
  Speaker 9: this is a guy who I don't think when the
• 41:23
  Speaker 9: Dodgers acquired him in 2023, I or a lot of
• 41:25
  Speaker 9: people envisioned the kind of impact he would have in
• 41:28
  Speaker 9: the clubhouse, in the room. He was obviously very well
• 41:30
  Speaker 9: respected in Miami for what he was able to do
• 41:32
  Speaker 9: in that clubhouse, but to enter into a Dodgers franchise
• 41:37
  Speaker 9: known for winning and be able to change the culture
• 41:40
  Speaker 9: is something that's pretty astounding. They were in a spot
• 41:43
  Speaker 9: where he stepped in, became the everyday shortstop in 2023,
• 41:46
  Speaker 9: they won 100 games, and really accepted more of a
• 41:50
  Speaker 9: bench role and was the guy who was as instrumental
• 41:52
  Speaker 9: as anyone to helping Mookie Betts become a gold glove
• 41:55
  Speaker 9: finalist at shortstop in his 30s, which is something that
• 41:58
  Speaker 9: is pretty much unheard of for a guy to move
• 42:00
  Speaker 9: to shortstop and be that good right away. And he
• 42:03
  Speaker 9: said it wouldn't have happened without Miguel Rojas. And obviously,
• 42:06
  Speaker 9: All that to say, even before what he did in
• 42:09
  Speaker 9: Game 7 of last year's World Series, where he had
• 42:12
  Speaker 9: one of the biggest swings in baseball history. It's going
• 42:15
  Speaker 9: to be impossible to think about this Dodgers run without
• 42:18
  Speaker 9: thinking about Freddie Freeman's walk-off against the Yankees in 2024,
• 42:22
  Speaker 9: and without thinking about Miguel Rojas' game-tying homer off Jeff
• 42:26
  Speaker 9: Hoffman in 2025.
• 42:27
  Speaker 5: And Will Smith is like, I had a home run.
• 42:30
  Speaker 5: I kind of won it. But no, I get it.
• 42:32
  Speaker 5: Miggy Rowe, you didn't worry about him. You worried about Shohei,
• 42:35
  Speaker 5: who was... who was on deck. My question to you,
• 42:38
  Speaker 5: and I don't know how to pose the question because
• 42:41
  Speaker 5: I already commented on it. I don't want to say
• 42:42
  Speaker 5: my comment, but I'm just going to. Dave Roberts has
• 42:47
  Speaker 5: not lost the team. There's a narrative going around that
• 42:51
  Speaker 5: there's a culture issue. You're there all the time. Is
• 42:54
  Speaker 5: there anything remotely close to that?
• 43:00
  Speaker 8: No, I wouldn't say that.
• 43:01
  Speaker 9: I think going into the season, that was one of
• 43:04
  Speaker 9: those things where like you wondered what the culture would
• 43:07
  Speaker 9: be like without Clayton Kershaw there. And I think a
• 43:09
  Speaker 9: lot of it sort of stayed in place. And Dave
• 43:11
  Speaker 9: Roberts was even kind of saying like this spring, this
• 43:14
  Speaker 9: was the first spring training where he really felt like
• 43:17
  Speaker 9: his message was going out to players without him even
• 43:20
  Speaker 9: having to say anything, just because the players, the veterans
• 43:23
  Speaker 9: kind of understood what the expectation was.
• 43:26
  Speaker 8: And I don't think you.
• 43:28
  Speaker 9: Look at culture or, Dave Roberts, like, obviously some decisions
• 43:32
  Speaker 9: can be scrutinized over the course of this series for
• 43:34
  Speaker 9: Dave Roberts, for sure, but I don't think you can
• 43:36
  Speaker 9: point to that as the reason why they lost this series,
• 43:39
  Speaker 9: or that the Dodgers are going to fall apart because
• 43:42
  Speaker 9: of anything Dave Roberts did. I think it's more just,
• 43:44
  Speaker 9: I mean, they got outplayed, they got beat, and this
• 43:46
  Speaker 9: is a team that has played long seasons for consecutive years,
• 43:51
  Speaker 9: and you could see that they felt that. Like, I
• 43:54
  Speaker 9: don't think they really acknowledged that, especially even after the
• 43:57
  Speaker 9: game yesterday, but, like, they've definitely felt what the last
• 44:01
  Speaker 9: couple of years have been like.
• 44:02
  Speaker 1: I mean, the culture issue is that they lost the series.
• 44:06
  Speaker 2: And when a team loses a series, there are, especially
• 44:11
  Speaker 2: people that don't follow the sport who have to cover
• 44:14
  Speaker 2: baseball for.
• 44:15
  Speaker 1: A minute and change and say, Oh.
• 44:17
  Speaker 3: There's an issue there.
• 44:18
  Speaker 2: That's why they lost. This was not a six or
• 44:21
  Speaker 2: a seven gamer. This was not down to one decision.
• 44:24
  Speaker 2: Even the Dave Roberts stuff. Like you want to pick
• 44:26
  Speaker 2: apart a move or two, a pinch hit appearance, a
• 44:28
  Speaker 2: reliever in all that.
• 44:30
  Speaker 1: Sure.
• 44:31
  Speaker 2: Wouldn't have mattered. Zero would not have mattered. One right
• 44:34
  Speaker 2: wrong move. This was not one of those series. I
• 44:37
  Speaker 2: brought this up earlier in the show. This was not
• 44:39
  Speaker 2: an IKF better lead away from a different result. This
• 44:42
  Speaker 2: was essentially the opposite of what you saw in person
• 44:46
  Speaker 2: last year in the world series, right?
• 44:48
  Speaker 9: Yeah, it was like, and like even the moves that
• 44:51
  Speaker 9: like got scrutinized or whatever, like Will Smith not using
• 44:54
  Speaker 9: challenges in game two. Like, yeah, like that probably impacted
• 44:57
  Speaker 9: that game and probably shortened Yoshinobu Yamamoto's outing. But like
• 45:01
  Speaker 9: that Brewers offense was relentless enough that maybe that winds
• 45:04
  Speaker 9: up happening later on in the outing anyways.
• 45:06
  Speaker 8: I think the.
• 45:07
  Speaker 9: Quickness with how the Brewers were able to basically erase
• 45:11
  Speaker 9: any advantage the Dodgers had, it kind of showed like that.
• 45:15
  Speaker 8: It just felt like a team that was on a
• 45:17
  Speaker 8: different level.
• 45:18
  Speaker 9: And it wasn't because the Dodgers weren't doing the fundamentals
• 45:21
  Speaker 9: or anything like that. Like, Mookie Betts kind of said
• 45:24
  Speaker 9: it before, I think, game three or game four. They
• 45:26
  Speaker 9: weren't playing that poorly. They were hitting poorly, but they
• 45:29
  Speaker 9: weren't playing that poorly in the series. I think the
• 45:32
  Speaker 9: Brewers were just playing better.
• 45:35
  Speaker 1: Yep.
• 45:35
  Speaker 3: Well said.
• 45:36
  Speaker 2: Fabian, thanks for joining us. Great work this year in
• 45:39
  Speaker 2: coverage on the Dodgers and a lot more to go
• 45:42
  Speaker 2: in the offseason via The Athletic.
• 45:45
  Speaker 1: Appreciate you, man. Enjoy the weekend.
• 45:47
  Speaker 3: Of course. Anytime, guys.
• 45:48
  Speaker 8: I'll try to figure out what October's like.
• 45:51
  Speaker 3: Yeah, exactly.
• 45:51
  Speaker 1: Now you get to experience it, right?
• 45:54
  Speaker 2: You need some rest and you need to enjoy a
• 45:56
  Speaker 2: little bit of fall, a little bit of pumpkin patch pick,
• 45:58
  Speaker 2: whatever people do. We cover too much on the national side,
• 46:03
  Speaker 2: but whatever people do, Octobering, Halloween, enjoy it.
• 46:08
  Speaker 3: All right.
• 46:09
  Speaker 8: Thanks guys.
• 46:10
  Speaker 3: Thank you.
• 46:13
  Speaker 2: That's Fabian Ardaya. And that is your Dodgers conversation. The
• 46:18
  Speaker 2: Dodgers Brewers series could be watched on Fox one. And
• 46:22
  Speaker 2: now that same narrative applies to the World Series.
• 46:26
  Speaker 1: You can check it out.
• 46:27
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