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Pirates Desire to Spend Dominates Headlines Again · Bucco Territory: A Pittsburgh Pirates Podcast

0:09
Speaker 1: What's up, everybody?
0:10
Speaker 2: Welcome back to another episode of Buco Territory, presented by
0:13
Speaker 2: the Foul Territory Network.
0:14
Speaker 1: I'm your host, Noah Hyles, wishing everybody a.
0:17
Speaker 2: Happy Thanksgiving and joining me as always on this Turkey
0:22
Speaker 2: Week are my two pals and my two co hosts,
0:24
Speaker 2: j AKA Josh Harrison and Mark a.
0:27
Speaker 1: Ka Platinum Key.
0:30
Speaker 2: Guys, we already talked, we already did the small talk
0:33
Speaker 2: for Thanksgiving, so we're just gonna dive right into the
0:35
Speaker 2: show this time.
0:37
Speaker 1: Wouldn't you believe it?
0:38
Speaker 2: Another national story talking about how hard the Pirates are
0:42
Speaker 2: gonna try has been published. It seems like a weekly
0:46
Speaker 2: occurrence now. I mean, they're they're leading the league and
0:50
Speaker 2: trying this offseason, and that's got to count for something. Yes, right,
0:58
Speaker 2: I don't know, Josh, I mean, I gotta pull up
1:01
Speaker 2: your Baseball reference page.
1:03
Speaker 1: I know you're a multi time All Star.
1:05
Speaker 2: How many trying awards did you get? Zero?
1:10
Speaker 1: Zero?
1:11
Speaker 2: Zero?
1:12
Speaker 3: Okay, well get that little mema fell forward again on Twitter?
1:19
Speaker 1: But yeah, yes, so we've got We've got a lot
1:23
Speaker 1: to break down in this Athletic Report.
1:25
Speaker 2: We also have an exclusive my coworker Jason Mackie just had.
1:30
Speaker 2: We're recording this on Tuesday evening, so Jason got a
1:33
Speaker 2: one on one exclusive with Pirates team president Travis Williams.
1:36
Speaker 2: We'll dive into that a little bit as well. But first,
1:38
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Speaker 1: Awesome. So, guys, the Athletic runs this report earlier this week.
2:48
Speaker 2: I believe it dropped Monday. Ken Rosenthal and Evan Drolich
2:53
Speaker 2: were the two authors behind the report. To guys that
2:56
Speaker 2: I have a ton of respect for, especially when they
2:58
Speaker 2: work together. This is the duo if you're aware, that
3:01
Speaker 2: uncovered the astros cheating scandal. So when they get inside information,
3:04
Speaker 2: it's pretty good. And there's a lot to break down
3:08
Speaker 2: in this report. I'm just gonna hit some bullet points
3:10
Speaker 2: and then we can kind of discuss everything. It starts
3:12
Speaker 2: off by talking about how the pirates are indeed interested
3:15
Speaker 2: in Schober. Jorge Polanco, Ryan O'Hearn, that's a new name
3:19
Speaker 2: that surfaced the Oriole Slugger, longtime Oriole slugger. I believe
3:24
Speaker 2: traded to San Diego.
3:25
Speaker 1: Is that right? Where did you get traded to again?
3:27
Speaker 6: Correct?
3:27
Speaker 1: Yeah?
3:29
Speaker 2: And then Okamoto is one of the two premier Japanese
3:34
Speaker 2: players that they've already been linked to the news that
3:39
Speaker 2: came from this that got a lot of people in
3:41
Speaker 2: Pittsburgh's attention is that they never actually offered Josh Naylor
3:45
Speaker 2: a contract.
3:47
Speaker 1: Mark showing this graphic.
3:48
Speaker 2: Now, well, we could take it down because we're gonna
3:51
Speaker 2: really dive into this in a bit. But in addition
3:54
Speaker 2: to that, it kind of questions the Pirates intent on
3:59
Speaker 2: why they want to spend It seems like everyone is
4:02
Speaker 2: hearing word about how they're going to spend their money
4:06
Speaker 2: this offseason and how payroll might go up and this
4:08
Speaker 2: and that. But this was the first article that kind
4:11
Speaker 2: of questioned why exactly they're motivated to do that. So
4:19
Speaker 2: I want to start there, guys, I thought that was interesting. Candidly,
4:24
Speaker 2: I kind of always had that in the back of
4:26
Speaker 2: my head too. You look at last offseason, who was
4:31
Speaker 2: the surprise big spender that no one saw coming. It
4:35
Speaker 2: was the team that had to relocate to a minor
4:37
Speaker 2: league baseball stadium, the Oakland Athletic, Well not even the
4:41
Speaker 2: Oakland Athletics. Now the Athletics formerly known as the Oakland
4:45
Speaker 2: Athletics signed Severino to that big deal, right, and they
4:49
Speaker 2: were talking, didn't they extend Rooker as well? Yeah, they
4:54
Speaker 2: were dishing out all this money and people were like, Wow,
4:56
Speaker 2: why are they trying now they just relocated.
5:00
Speaker 1: But sometimes when you don't spend money for a while,
5:03
Speaker 1: it's a bad look for the sport.
5:05
Speaker 2: And that is kind of implied to be the case
5:09
Speaker 2: behind the Pirates and the Marlins desire to spend this offseason.
5:15
Speaker 2: The reporting from Drolic and Resent Rosenthal excuse me, kind
5:19
Speaker 2: of suggested that they're trying to spend, potentially to make
5:25
Speaker 2: themselves look better.
5:26
Speaker 1: With the new CBA ahead.
5:28
Speaker 2: They're they're trying to show that, hey, with this collective
5:31
Speaker 2: bargaining agreement that we're gonna that we're gonna come up with,
5:34
Speaker 2: we're not trying to upset all the owners of the
5:38
Speaker 2: big market teams who are consistently putting together high payrolls.
5:42
Speaker 2: And look, we're trying to Look, we just signed such
5:45
Speaker 2: and such, we just spent sixty million dollars this offseason. Look,
5:48
Speaker 2: we're trying to see See that's one thought of it
5:53
Speaker 2: that would be under the frame of mind that a
5:55
Speaker 2: salary cap isn't coming. And if there is a salary
5:58
Speaker 2: cap coming, I guess you could say that maybe they're
6:00
Speaker 2: trying to add payroll because they know that they're going
6:03
Speaker 2: to have to get close to a cap floor, and
6:07
Speaker 2: I would have to imagine neither of those teams right now,
6:10
Speaker 2: both of them sub one hundred million dollar payrolls would
6:13
Speaker 2: be anywhere close to what the floor would be.
6:15
Speaker 1: So are they doing this to actually compete?
6:19
Speaker 2: Or are they doing this to simply stay in the
6:23
Speaker 2: game as owners? Josh will start with you, it's not
6:27
Speaker 2: a question of rather what you think, but more does
6:31
Speaker 2: it matter?
6:32
Speaker 1: Does it matter the intent for a team.
6:34
Speaker 2: When they're spending money or if they're spending money on
6:38
Speaker 2: better players?
6:39
Speaker 1: Is that just who cares why they're doing it? It's
6:41
Speaker 1: a good thing.
6:43
Speaker 6: I'm gonna go yes, and no one. You gotta spend
6:47
Speaker 6: money to win. And as you said, the two teams
6:50
Speaker 6: mentioned have not spent money. And I mean you look
6:53
Speaker 6: at the Marlins. I'm sure they're probably looking to trace
6:56
Speaker 6: Sandy al Contra, who will probably you know, free up
6:58
Speaker 6: some more money. And whether they're trying to do it
7:01
Speaker 6: to keep up with the CBA or not. Honestly, I
7:04
Speaker 6: think it doesn't really matter. If you're gonna spend money,
7:07
Speaker 6: there's gonna be some people that are gonna be really
7:10
Speaker 6: excited about it, and that's your fan base, and that's
7:12
Speaker 6: who you should be worried about, is the guys that
7:15
Speaker 6: you know wear that uniform in that fan base. So
7:17
Speaker 6: if they spending money in hopes of, you know, trying
7:21
Speaker 6: to make themselves look good amongst other owners, you want
7:24
Speaker 6: to make yourself look good amongst other owners and stuff.
7:26
Speaker 6: Go put a winning product on the field and don't
7:28
Speaker 6: worry about the CBA, because you know that's something that's
7:31
Speaker 6: down the road. But you know that that can get
7:34
Speaker 6: a little dicey, that can get a little tricky. So
7:37
Speaker 6: for me, the motive has to be about putting a
7:39
Speaker 6: winning product on the field. And if you're going to
7:41
Speaker 6: do that, you have to go spend money. And if
7:43
Speaker 6: it's anything to do with the CBA, you'll probably see
7:46
Speaker 6: a lot of moves that don't make sense. And when
7:49
Speaker 6: you filled it out a roster we talked about a
7:51
Speaker 6: last episode, you gotta filled out. You got to fill
7:53
Speaker 6: out death. But at the same time, when you're talking
7:56
Speaker 6: spending money, you got to make sure you're spending money
7:58
Speaker 6: and that it makes sense. And uh, right now, if
8:00
Speaker 6: they're gonna spend money, it has to make sense about
8:03
Speaker 6: bettering the product on the field and putting forth a
8:05
Speaker 6: winner and not learning about getting you know, reprimanded for
8:09
Speaker 6: not spending enough money.
8:12
Speaker 1: I agree.
8:12
Speaker 2: I mean it's this isn't an outfit. You're not spending
8:15
Speaker 2: money to look good. This is a business.
8:17
Speaker 1: You're investing in things that will improve.
8:20
Speaker 2: Your overall product. So Mark, I want to ask you
8:23
Speaker 2: another question now.
8:26
Speaker 6: To me.
8:28
Speaker 2: This last stretch, this last week or two, where it's
8:32
Speaker 2: been the ESPN article, there's been the athletic reports. If
8:37
Speaker 2: someone who's covered this team, I see the potential storm coming.
8:42
Speaker 1: Right on January twenty fourth, Pirate Fest.
8:45
Speaker 2: Is going to take place at the Convention Center downtown,
8:49
Speaker 2: And if a big move is not made before January
8:52
Speaker 2: twenty fourth, after all of this gaslighting, for lack of
8:57
Speaker 2: a better term, it's gonna get ugly. Do you think
9:01
Speaker 2: the Pirates are cognizant of the position they're putting themselves in,
9:05
Speaker 2: the pressure they're putting themselves on. I mean, we're recording
9:08
Speaker 2: this again on the twenty fifth, so they have two
9:14
Speaker 2: months to bring in not just one player, you know,
9:17
Speaker 2: not just spend a little money, not just do something
9:20
Speaker 2: a little different than what you've done. But I mean
9:23
Speaker 2: you've promised big changes and you have two months to
9:26
Speaker 2: put these.
9:26
Speaker 1: In motion or you're in for a world of trouble.
9:30
Speaker 1: Do you think they're cognizant of this, Oh.
9:32
Speaker 3: Yeah, absolutely. I think just you could see it with
9:35
Speaker 3: Travis Williams comments to Jason macke in that article that
9:38
Speaker 3: was published today. They understand that there's a perception even
9:43
Speaker 3: right now that this is just talk still and talk
9:46
Speaker 3: is cheap. That was a quote that got thrown out there.
9:51
Speaker 3: So it's they recognize that they have to do something concrete,
9:54
Speaker 3: and it's more than just fan perception. I think it's
9:57
Speaker 3: also the perception of the team owner, I think Nutting's
10:00
Speaker 3: perception of Williams and Sherrington. They have to recognize that
10:04
Speaker 3: their jobs are on thin ice. They've been here since
10:06
Speaker 3: twenty nineteen. They haven't made the playoffs, for one, and
10:09
Speaker 3: if that's the goal, they haven't accomplished it. So there's
10:12
Speaker 3: a lot of reasons to go out and be aggressive,
10:15
Speaker 3: way more aggressive than they have been. I think it
10:18
Speaker 3: was interesting that they acknowledged that these past two off
10:21
Speaker 3: seasons in particular were failures, almost stopping, maybe just short
10:26
Speaker 3: of saying that, So at least there's some cognizance that
10:30
Speaker 3: what was done in the past wasn't enough, and this
10:33
Speaker 3: offseason has to be better in a concrete way.
10:37
Speaker 2: I'm going to ask you another question. Mark these names listed, Schwarber, Polanco, Ohearn, Okamoto,
10:44
Speaker 2: is one of them enough? That is, if they land
10:47
Speaker 2: one of those four guys and they bring that one
10:51
Speaker 2: of them on stage along with Connor Griffin and Paul Skins,
10:55
Speaker 2: is that going to be enough to feed the fans
10:57
Speaker 2: appetite or is it going to take a little bit
10:59
Speaker 2: more than one big signing.
11:01
Speaker 3: Yeah, I don't know, after all the years of neglect,
11:03
Speaker 3: if there's really any amount of signings that can feed
11:07
Speaker 3: this fan base enough right now. I mean you're looking
11:09
Speaker 3: at a team that was twenty six in attendance last
11:12
Speaker 3: year despite having the best baseball stadium in America. I mean,
11:16
Speaker 3: there's no better ballpark than P and C. Why is
11:19
Speaker 3: it not getting filled? And it's because the product down
11:21
Speaker 3: the field isn't sufficient to motivate people to actually go
11:24
Speaker 3: and be a fan of this team. And so yeah,
11:27
Speaker 3: I mean, if you sign Kyle Schwarber, that's gonna bring
11:30
Speaker 3: some more people in. But all those years of apprehension
11:33
Speaker 3: are still baked in. You're still gonna be wondering like, oh, yeah,
11:36
Speaker 3: they signed Schwarber, but he's probably gonna be hurt. Maybe
11:39
Speaker 3: it'll just be like this terrible contract that just looks
11:42
Speaker 3: terrible for the Buckos. It's always the same thing. But
11:46
Speaker 3: so with that said, you still have to do it.
11:48
Speaker 3: You still have to go out and try to sign
11:49
Speaker 3: a few of those guys, even if it's not gonna
11:51
Speaker 3: be enough, and then you just have to go out
11:53
Speaker 3: there and show it on the field in twenty twenty
11:55
Speaker 3: six that we're actually a winning baseball club.
11:58
Speaker 2: Now, it's funny to hear you, of all people say that, Mark,
12:02
Speaker 2: because like you're the only guy I know who like
12:05
Speaker 2: doesn't cover the team but just spends every day in
12:07
Speaker 2: the summer tweeting about like Pirates White Sox in late July,
12:11
Speaker 2: you know, when both teams are thirty teams under five hundred.
12:14
Speaker 2: But it's it's a true sentiment, and you talked about
12:18
Speaker 2: just that that anger that's baked in to the franchise.
12:22
Speaker 2: I want you, now, Mark to pull up that graphic
12:25
Speaker 2: that you showed earlier, the snippet from Rosenthal Androlic's report
12:29
Speaker 2: in The Athletic.
12:30
Speaker 1: The Pirates never actually made an offer to Naylor, according
12:33
Speaker 1: to people briefed on the discussions, just two weeks after
12:36
Speaker 1: the conclusion of the World Series, Naylor reached an agreement
12:38
Speaker 1: with the Seattle Mariners on a five year contract with
12:41
Speaker 1: an aa B of eighteen and a half million dollars.
12:44
Speaker 1: The deal happened so quickly, the Pirates did not get
12:47
Speaker 1: seriously involved. Listen, I don't.
12:55
Speaker 2: Think this is as big of a deal as some
12:57
Speaker 2: people are making it out to be because I think,
12:59
Speaker 2: like calm logic kind of shows that they weren't seriously involved, right,
13:03
Speaker 2: Because I mean, Naylor did sign so quick, like he
13:06
Speaker 2: was the he was literally the first domino to fall
13:09
Speaker 2: this offseason. So yeah, like, there's there's no real way
13:12
Speaker 2: that I think the Pirates could have been seriously involved
13:15
Speaker 2: in him. But I had that frame of reference, that
13:19
Speaker 2: point of view as someone who covers Major League Baseball
13:21
Speaker 2: and kind of knows how some of this stuff works.
13:23
Speaker 2: Josh probably has the same point of view because he's.
13:25
Speaker 1: Been a part of it. Right.
13:26
Speaker 2: But to the casual fan reading that, that's just another
13:29
Speaker 2: it's just another gallon of gasoline on a fire that's
13:32
Speaker 2: been burning for quite some time. Now, I guess my
13:37
Speaker 2: question and it kind of goes back is and both
13:40
Speaker 2: you guys can answer answer this, like why point it
13:44
Speaker 2: out in the first place, if like he knew it
13:47
Speaker 2: was never really that serious of a thing, Like it's
13:50
Speaker 2: just being like is it Like it's kind of comes
13:52
Speaker 2: off like the guy who sees the beautiful girl walk
13:56
Speaker 2: by with a boyfriend and be like, well, I was
13:58
Speaker 2: about to ask her out for he just like kind
14:00
Speaker 2: of like met her before me, Like she could have
14:02
Speaker 2: been my wife too.
14:03
Speaker 1: Yeah, you know, like that's kind of what this is.
14:05
Speaker 6: And it's like I like the picture first.
14:08
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, right exactly, like I went to second grade
14:12
Speaker 2: with her. You met her in third grade? You know, like,
14:15
Speaker 2: what are we talking about here? Why would they what's
14:17
Speaker 2: the points of even making that, know, because it's clear
14:22
Speaker 2: the pirates were the ones you made that No, no, right.
14:24
Speaker 6: Josh I would say yeah and hit on the point
14:29
Speaker 6: that Mark just spoke on not too long ago, is
14:33
Speaker 6: why why mention it to you know, to make it
14:36
Speaker 6: seem like they're trying to do something, not that saying
14:38
Speaker 6: that they're not, but putting that in the media is gonna,
14:42
Speaker 6: you know, rile up some fans. Oh man, we were
14:44
Speaker 6: in on Naylor. Oh we're going for it, and as
14:46
Speaker 6: you said, knowing the behind the scenes and how things
14:49
Speaker 6: happened very quickly to know that you know, yeah, yes
14:53
Speaker 6: they were interested, but to say that they were ever involved,
14:57
Speaker 6: didn't really have time, but to put that out is
15:00
Speaker 6: definitely going to get people switching from being upset to oh, man,
15:04
Speaker 6: if they're gonna they missed out on Naylor. And it's
15:07
Speaker 6: just one of those things that I don't want to
15:09
Speaker 6: say it's a pump fake, but it tugs at people's
15:11
Speaker 6: emotions because once this happened before, it's you know, kind
15:15
Speaker 6: of in the back of mind, here we go again.
15:17
Speaker 6: It's going to continue to happen, and this off season
15:20
Speaker 6: has a chance for them to say, hey, we're not
15:22
Speaker 6: pump faking. And I'm gonna use the word pump fake
15:25
Speaker 6: because you know, this could be one of those situations
15:27
Speaker 6: where oh, we're in on them and then you come
15:29
Speaker 6: out and say, oh, they never really made an offer,
15:31
Speaker 6: and you say that that's gonna be a big deal
15:34
Speaker 6: to some people. But for people that know how, you
15:36
Speaker 6: know how things go behind the scenes, you know you're
15:40
Speaker 6: gonna talk, Okay, what's the starting point, But at the
15:42
Speaker 6: end of the day, you know, if the pirates never
15:44
Speaker 6: got to a starting point because Seattle was so aggressive.
15:46
Speaker 6: I mean, what can you really say, Yeah, we were
15:49
Speaker 6: in on them, but you know it might have lasted
15:51
Speaker 6: for thirteen seconds, you know.
15:52
Speaker 3: Because agency it doesn't mean anything.
15:55
Speaker 2: Yeah, especially like when the actual offer never happened. It's
15:59
Speaker 2: maybe just or just you know, say who you are?
16:03
Speaker 1: Actually?
16:04
Speaker 2: Yeah, right, like hasn't signed yet, that's worth talking about.
16:08
Speaker 2: I don't know, yeah, it's And again it just sets
16:12
Speaker 2: like I want to go back to like what I
16:15
Speaker 2: brought up to Mark and like give some more of
16:17
Speaker 2: my own thoughts on it. They're putting a lot of
16:20
Speaker 2: pressure on themselves, man, And I mean this, this is
16:22
Speaker 2: a team that's run by a general manager that has
16:25
Speaker 2: not been able to sign a single external free agent
16:29
Speaker 2: to a multi year contract.
16:31
Speaker 1: It's a team that's.
16:32
Speaker 2: Ran by a general manager that for a long time
16:35
Speaker 2: has been on the wrong end of a lot of
16:38
Speaker 2: trade returns. And now all of this rhetoric that's running
16:42
Speaker 2: in the Athletic that's running in ESPN, that's running in
16:46
Speaker 2: the Post Gazette where I work, it's it's.
16:49
Speaker 1: It's writing a lot of big checks.
16:50
Speaker 2: We're seeing that Nutting has these expectations right that Travis
16:54
Speaker 2: Williams has these expectations, right, Well, Ben Sherrington better deliver.
16:59
Speaker 2: He has had six years to deliver and it hasn't
17:02
Speaker 2: worked out. It's clearly do or die time for him.
17:06
Speaker 2: And the clock is ticking. And every time.
17:09
Speaker 1: You see another team make a trade animo uh to
17:13
Speaker 1: the to the Rangers, or an O'Hearn or excuse me
17:16
Speaker 1: not to know hearn a Taylor Ward to the Baltimore Orioles,
17:20
Speaker 1: it's just one more guy where you're thinking, Okay, well
17:23
Speaker 1: Pirates aren't getting him. You're seeing free agents get signed.
17:26
Speaker 2: All right, Well that guy's not going to the Pirates either,
17:29
Speaker 2: and it's gonna make his fans very antsy as this
17:33
Speaker 2: time goes on. I understand the Winter meetings haven't started yet,
17:37
Speaker 2: but the more they keep talking on record, off record,
17:42
Speaker 2: on background, the more they keep talking and saying how
17:45
Speaker 2: much things are going to be different, is the more
17:48
Speaker 2: pressure they're putting on their front office to actually make
17:51
Speaker 2: it different. And when your bucket of resources aren't going
17:55
Speaker 2: to be that exponentially different than past years, you're writing
18:00
Speaker 2: a lot of checks that I can hope that I
18:03
Speaker 2: hope you can catch both figuratively and literally, so that'll
18:08
Speaker 2: be interesting. And to conclude this whole episode here, I
18:11
Speaker 2: want to dive into something that Mark already alluded to
18:14
Speaker 2: a little bit. The interview between the interview with Travis Williams,
18:19
Speaker 2: my coworker Jason Mackie had it. Just want to read
18:21
Speaker 2: some of these quotes, and I mean, he talked about
18:24
Speaker 2: how great the pitching staff is, but this quote the
18:28
Speaker 2: first I believe it's the second quote in.
18:30
Speaker 1: The story from Travis. We think we.
18:33
Speaker 2: Missed the mark and being aggressive loss last offseason. We
18:37
Speaker 2: didn't add to the offense the way we needed to
18:40
Speaker 2: in order to support the pitching staff that we had.
18:43
Speaker 2: You think, like, I mean, that's just one thing that
18:47
Speaker 2: I noticed, Like, we think we missed the mark. Why
18:51
Speaker 2: has it got to be we think? Why can't speak? Yeah,
18:54
Speaker 2: we screwed up. And I don't know why that even
18:55
Speaker 2: has to be stated.
18:56
Speaker 1: And I don't want to completely just dissect every piece
19:00
Speaker 1: of rhetoric that Travis said here, but I want to
19:04
Speaker 1: circle back to the quote that you brought up.
19:05
Speaker 2: Mark, talk is cheap. We can't just talk about it.
19:08
Speaker 2: We can't just try. We've got to execute.
19:11
Speaker 1: We know that.
19:12
Speaker 2: That's much of the work being done in this offseason.
19:17
Speaker 2: That's the quote that we've all needed to hear. That's
19:19
Speaker 2: the quote that should have been said the day after
19:23
Speaker 2: the regular season ended, when he was stumbling over his words.
19:26
Speaker 1: In front of a group of reporters.
19:29
Speaker 2: I don't know why it took so long for this
19:32
Speaker 2: quote to come out, And that's that's the one fan
19:35
Speaker 2: want to read. But again, Mark, again, Josh, these guys
19:40
Speaker 2: are promising.
19:42
Speaker 1: Big and good for them. I hope they can fulfill it.
19:47
Speaker 3: I hope.
19:47
Speaker 1: So.
19:47
Speaker 3: I mean it's talk is cheap is a lot better
19:51
Speaker 3: than period full stop or full stop period, so it's
19:56
Speaker 3: an improvement. One other trade that I saw kind of
20:01
Speaker 3: floating around. I think it might have been mentioned in
20:03
Speaker 3: the Athletic article was the Pirates and Cardinals talking where
20:10
Speaker 3: the Cardinals were looking and they they move, Yeah, one
20:12
Speaker 3: of their lefty bats, either Donovan or Gorman or Lars
20:15
Speaker 3: Newbar and trying to kind of retool.
20:19
Speaker 6: Uh.
20:20
Speaker 3: They just traded Sonny Gray today, so it seems like
20:23
Speaker 3: they're kind of committed to the rebuild, which makes sense
20:27
Speaker 3: for the Cardinals. So you know, maybe they would be
20:29
Speaker 3: interested in some of the young Pirates starters for one
20:33
Speaker 3: of those lefty beats. I don't know what are your
20:35
Speaker 3: thoughts on that?
20:35
Speaker 1: Now send them out? I mean, maybe you go and
20:39
Speaker 1: send them back up Johannovi.
20:40
Speaker 3: I was just about to say.
20:43
Speaker 1: Traded with them a lot. I don't know.
20:46
Speaker 2: I mean in inner division, trades are tricky, right, Yeah,
20:52
Speaker 2: so that's that's.
20:54
Speaker 3: Especially giving up a young picture.
20:56
Speaker 5: Yeah.
20:56
Speaker 2: And I mean none of those guysmpletely move the needle,
21:01
Speaker 2: So I mean I wouldn't think of like a Mitch
21:02
Speaker 2: Keller deal for that, but I would consider moving.
21:05
Speaker 1: Like a braxonn Ashcrop right those.
21:07
Speaker 2: Yeah, I wouldn't be opposed to that, or a Joan
21:09
Speaker 2: Obado or a Mike Burrows. You Thomas Harrington, you want
21:14
Speaker 2: to move one of those guys like a guy who's
21:16
Speaker 2: going to be competing to be your fifth starter, I
21:18
Speaker 2: have no issue with that.
21:19
Speaker 3: Yeah, And especially for Donovan, he's just the same thing,
21:23
Speaker 3: like we were mentioning with Talkman earlier this week, just
21:26
Speaker 3: gets on bass consistently. It doesn't really have a lot
21:30
Speaker 3: of power, but he wanted gold glove I think in
21:33
Speaker 3: twenty twenty two when he was a rookie as a
21:35
Speaker 3: utility player. So it gives a lot of defensive versatility,
21:39
Speaker 3: which could be really helpful when you have a shortstop
21:42
Speaker 3: who's about to take over here long term. So play
21:45
Speaker 3: him at second, move him around the infield a little bit,
21:48
Speaker 3: and I think it could work out well for the Pirates.
21:51
Speaker 2: All right, fellas, as we wrap up the show, this
21:54
Speaker 2: was not part of our planning. I'm going to spring
21:56
Speaker 2: it on you now. This is our final show in
21:58
Speaker 2: the month of November. If my calendar serves correct, Yes,
22:02
Speaker 2: Monday is December first, So is our final show in
22:06
Speaker 2: the month of November. I want us to give a
22:08
Speaker 2: bold prediction for the month of December, something that is
22:12
Speaker 2: going to happen between now and the end of twenty
22:16
Speaker 2: twenty five pertaining to the Pittsburgh Pirates. I see Mark's
22:20
Speaker 2: eyes lighting up. Do you want to go first year?
22:22
Speaker 3: I want to take the easy one. I think there's
22:24
Speaker 3: one obvious one out there, all right, go for it,
22:27
Speaker 3: all right? So I think the bold prediction is Mitch
22:30
Speaker 3: Keller gets traded to the Baltimore Orioles. Okay, I yeah,
22:34
Speaker 3: it makes so much sense. We've talked about it in
22:37
Speaker 3: circles at this point. It just makes so much sense.
22:41
Speaker 3: It's got to happen soon.
22:43
Speaker 6: Josh I don't have a name, but my bold prediction, Hey,
22:49
Speaker 6: I'm speaking into existence, the Pirates will sign a multi
22:53
Speaker 6: year free agent. Let's go for December twenty twenty five.
22:56
Speaker 1: Let's go, man, I'll put a name to it. I'll
23:02
Speaker 1: say Ryan O'Hearn as a Pittsburgh Pirate.
23:06
Speaker 2: Pirate fans, you're gonna come down the stairs Christmas morning
23:11
Speaker 2: and Santa's gonna have you a Ryan O'Hearn wrapped up
23:13
Speaker 2: right underneath the tree. You've got your designated hitter and
23:16
Speaker 2: a guy who can maybe platoon in the outfield as well.
23:20
Speaker 2: In a semi bowl prediction. Cutch will not be signed
23:24
Speaker 2: by the end of twenty twenty five. I think there
23:29
Speaker 2: will still be he will still be an available free
23:31
Speaker 2: agent heading into the new year. Those will be my
23:34
Speaker 2: two because the tradition is he signs. I believe like
23:37
Speaker 2: the week before Christmas every year, that process, Yeah, that
23:41
Speaker 2: process will be delayed.
23:43
Speaker 1: I believe this upcoming year. Those are my two predictions.
23:46
Speaker 3: So why do you say that now? Just do you
23:48
Speaker 3: just think it's too much in flux right now?
23:53
Speaker 2: Just doesn't seem like from the conversations I've had, And
23:56
Speaker 2: maybe Josh can oppose this view, but uh, conversations I've had,
24:01
Speaker 2: it doesn't seem like there's been a lot of motion.
24:03
Speaker 6: On that front, so you would probably know more than me.
24:08
Speaker 2: Yeah, so it doesn't seem like there's a lot of
24:11
Speaker 2: motion on that front right now. Not saying that it's
24:13
Speaker 2: not gonna happen, but from the talks that I've had,
24:16
Speaker 2: it seems like they're not as close to getting that
24:20
Speaker 2: deal done as they had been at this time in
24:24
Speaker 2: each of the past.
24:25
Speaker 3: Yeah.
24:28
Speaker 2: Yeah, it seems like they're they're probably looking to get
24:31
Speaker 2: some bigger signings done before they're spending that smaller amount
24:36
Speaker 2: of money. So yeah, that's that's the show. I want
24:41
Speaker 2: to remind everyone to hit that subscribe button again this
24:44
Speaker 2: week's prize for everyone who subscribes, you have until Saturday
24:49
Speaker 2: to hit that subscribe button and show us and you
24:52
Speaker 2: will be entered in the drawing for this week's prize,
24:55
Speaker 2: which is two free tickets to any Pirates game of
24:58
Speaker 2: your choice that is not the Home Opener or Paul
25:02
Speaker 2: Skin's Bobblehead Day or any other very expensive game that
25:06
Speaker 2: I signed afterwards.
25:07
Speaker 1: Now, I'm just kidding, when can you keep it to
25:08
Speaker 1: those two?
25:11
Speaker 2: But yeah, that's this week's prize and then next week's prize.
25:13
Speaker 2: The next time we record, we will review another prize.
25:16
Speaker 2: So if you do not win this week's prize, fear not,
25:21
Speaker 2: you will still be eligible to win prizes in the future.
25:25
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25:28
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25:32
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Speaker 2: a review as well if you can, if you want to,
25:39
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25:46
Speaker 2: we're all on social media, find a way for it
25:48
Speaker 2: to be seen and your name will be entered in
25:51
Speaker 2: the drawing. So guys, any final thoughts as we head
25:54
Speaker 2: into the final month of twenty twenty five.
25:59
Speaker 6: No, I'll just wish everybody happy holidays, enjoy you know,
26:02
Speaker 6: for those traveling, travel safe, and continue to hit that
26:05
Speaker 6: subscribe button because I have seen some tweets get sent
26:08
Speaker 6: to me with some subscribers. So excited seeing everybody you
26:11
Speaker 6: know tweeting and you know, joining the Bucko Territory podcast
26:14
Speaker 6: and you know, continued support. We appreciate it, and I'm
26:18
Speaker 6: just want to wish everybody happy Thanksgiving.
26:20
Speaker 3: Yeah, I appreciate the sport. Happy Thanksgiving, drive safe, enjoy
26:24
Speaker 3: some turkey and stuffing.
26:26
Speaker 2: Yes, absolutely Happy Thanksgiving to everyone who listens and watches
26:31
Speaker 2: this show, and even to those who don't. He's Josh Harrison,
26:35
Speaker 2: He's platinam Keaka and Mark. I'm Noah Hailes. We'll see
26:38
Speaker 2: you next time.