Latest / Foul Territory / Inside Scoop w/Ken Rosenthal: Skubal’s future, Bieber’s shocking decision, Braves choose Walt Weiss

Transcript

Inside Scoop w/Ken Rosenthal: Skubal’s future, Bieber’s shocking decision, Braves choose Walt Weiss · Foul Territory

• 0:05
  Speaker 1: It is the first inside scoop with Ken Rosenthal of
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: the off season on FT Ken, very good to see
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: you rested back from the World Series. We can get
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: to a couple World Series questions on the back end.
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: I do want to start with off season freshness, and
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: we didn't get to Shane Bieber yet. So your thoughts
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: on Bieber returning to the Blue Jays for sixteen million dollars.
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: You just covered him in the World Series.
• 0:28
  Speaker 2: I was surprised. People with the Blue Jays were surprised,
• 0:31
  Speaker 2: people in the industry were surprised, and you just don't
• 0:34
  Speaker 2: see this kind of decision very often. He could have
• 0:37
  Speaker 2: declined the option, taken a four million dollar buyout, so
• 0:40
  Speaker 2: he's at four million dollars ahead, and then in free agency,
• 0:44
  Speaker 2: I would think three fifty something like that, three years,
• 0:47
  Speaker 2: fifty million, maybe even more. But for whatever reason, he
• 0:51
  Speaker 2: wants to be in Toronto one more year now. Maybe
• 0:53
  Speaker 2: the rehab is part of this. Maybe he feels that
• 0:57
  Speaker 2: they treated me really well, He's comfortable with their medical staff.
• 0:59
  Speaker 2: He's still only eighteen months removed from Tommy John surgery.
• 1:03
  Speaker 2: And my initial thought also was, well, okay, perhaps an
• 1:06
  Speaker 2: extension is coming. But my understanding is that there is
• 1:09
  Speaker 2: no extension as part of this. It really hasn't even
• 1:12
  Speaker 2: been discussed. It has not been a motivator for him
• 1:15
  Speaker 2: in making this decision. So it's curious. I don't exactly
• 1:19
  Speaker 2: know what Shane Bieber was thinking. Obviously he liked it there.
• 1:23
  Speaker 2: We know that all people like it there. It seems
• 1:26
  Speaker 2: like all players and even their wives and girlfriends based
• 1:29
  Speaker 2: on what we've heard the last few days. But he
• 1:32
  Speaker 2: still could have leveraged that into one or two more years. Guys,
• 1:35
  Speaker 2: let's do it, and at least to this point, he
• 1:38
  Speaker 2: hasn't done that.
• 1:40
  Speaker 3: Ken. This is your time to shine. If you ever
• 1:41
  Speaker 3: had a time to shine, now is your time, Ken.
• 1:43
  Speaker 3: So it's time to step up your game and remember
• 1:46
  Speaker 3: who you are. Okay, Okay, thank you, Okay, Well, the
• 1:50
  Speaker 3: book behind you. That's why you have the book behind
• 1:52
  Speaker 3: you that remind you every time you look back there,
• 1:54
  Speaker 3: remember who you are. Ken. Here's my question.
• 1:57
  Speaker 2: Pedrial Gomez, by the way, the late Pagri.
• 2:00
  Speaker 3: And I love big one of that. I'm not making
• 2:02
  Speaker 3: fun of that at all. I love Pedro. Now my
• 2:06
  Speaker 3: question is Shane Bieber ops in Is there any of
• 2:08
  Speaker 3: these that are more surprising? For surprising Trevor story two
• 2:12
  Speaker 3: years fifty five right, Jack Flaherty one year twenty That
• 2:16
  Speaker 3: seemed like a no brainer kind of with the qualifying
• 2:18
  Speaker 3: offer thing and what he went through last year. But
• 2:21
  Speaker 3: any of the opt outs, I mean, Shoda was the
• 2:23
  Speaker 3: biggest one that was like, wait, they didn't get this
• 2:25
  Speaker 3: done with Shoda. But the other one, it almost tho
• 2:27
  Speaker 3: seems like chalk, right, Like it's chalk, and like these
• 2:31
  Speaker 3: are pretty easy to predict going to the offseason.
• 2:34
  Speaker 2: I would agree, Aj and even Shoda to me was
• 2:37
  Speaker 2: kind of an obvious one. The Cubs were not going
• 2:39
  Speaker 2: to do three years fifty seven and a half million.
• 2:41
  Speaker 2: That's the option they would have had to have picked up.
• 2:43
  Speaker 2: I think it was fifty seven and a half in
• 2:45
  Speaker 2: that range. And then at that point, Shoda gets the
• 2:48
  Speaker 2: right to decline his option in that deal, and he
• 2:52
  Speaker 2: knows that he could do better with a qualifying offer,
• 2:54
  Speaker 2: which I assume he's going to get from the Cubs
• 2:56
  Speaker 2: one year twenty two point zero five million. To me,
• 3:00
  Speaker 2: this is kind of check bate by the Cubs two Shoda,
• 3:02
  Speaker 2: because if he gets the qualifying offer, then he is
• 3:07
  Speaker 2: saddled with that in free agency. It's always more difficult
• 3:10
  Speaker 2: with the qualifying offer than without, and maybe it's best
• 3:13
  Speaker 2: for him just to come back on a one year
• 3:15
  Speaker 2: deal twenty two point zero five million, and then the
• 3:19
  Speaker 2: Cubs are happy because they'd always rather have a player
• 3:22
  Speaker 2: on a one year deal than a three year deal
• 3:24
  Speaker 2: when that player had some questions about him this season.
• 3:27
  Speaker 2: So none of those that you mentioned were surprised Trevor's
• 3:31
  Speaker 2: story on the open market. Could he have done better
• 3:34
  Speaker 2: than fifty five million in total guarantee, maybe, but he
• 3:37
  Speaker 2: certainly wasn't going to do better in average annual value.
• 3:40
  Speaker 2: And with regard to Jack Flaherty, as you mentioned, AJ,
• 3:44
  Speaker 2: he had a really difficult free agency last year. Now
• 3:46
  Speaker 2: he would have had the qualifying offer on him this year, okay,
• 3:50
  Speaker 2: But if I'm him, I understand why he did that.
• 3:54
  Speaker 2: I think it drives players crazy to a certain degree,
• 3:57
  Speaker 2: certain players when they linger on the market and endless
• 4:00
  Speaker 2: and it goes into February and they still don't know
• 4:02
  Speaker 2: what they're doing. This way, he knows what he's doing.
• 4:05
  Speaker 2: It's on him. He's on a one year deal. If
• 4:07
  Speaker 2: he has a good year, go back in the market.
• 4:09
  Speaker 2: And if he doesn't have a good year, while he's
• 4:11
  Speaker 2: back in the market anyway, but he kind of is
• 4:14
  Speaker 2: in control of this situation.
• 4:16
  Speaker 3: During these decisions. I know you're not an agent and
• 4:18
  Speaker 3: you've never been a free agent, but you have inside info.
• 4:23
  Speaker 3: Is there some tampering in the sense of very mild tampering?
• 4:27
  Speaker 3: Maybe I'm not even using the right word, like, hey,
• 4:30
  Speaker 3: you know what if we take this opt out, what
• 4:33
  Speaker 3: does it look like for you?
• 4:35
  Speaker 2: I do expect and think that when agents are surveying
• 4:40
  Speaker 2: the market, it's not necessarily tampering. But maybe they were
• 4:43
  Speaker 2: calling around the team and saying, hey, what do you
• 4:45
  Speaker 2: think of my guy? What would he get on the
• 4:47
  Speaker 2: open market? That's not tampering. That's perfectly within the rules
• 4:51
  Speaker 2: as far as I know. And yeah, that I would
• 4:55
  Speaker 2: expect happens to some degree or at least their feel
• 4:57
  Speaker 2: for the market talking to people. That is something that
• 5:01
  Speaker 2: does take place. Now. With regard to teams tampering, my
• 5:06
  Speaker 2: answer to that would be, I don't know that anything
• 5:08
  Speaker 2: totally illegal goes on, but is contact made at times
• 5:11
  Speaker 2: between teams and players and agents. Come on, it's baseball.
• 5:15
  Speaker 2: People are always looking to get an edge. Something's going
• 5:19
  Speaker 2: on at all times, and I don't know the extent, Eric,
• 5:22
  Speaker 2: I couldn't tell you that. I've never actually witnessed it
• 5:25
  Speaker 2: or kind of experienced it as a reporter understanding what
• 5:29
  Speaker 2: might be going on out there. But do I think
• 5:31
  Speaker 2: it goes on? Yeah, I think it goes on all right.
• 5:35
  Speaker 3: Well, again, you couldn't break a big story for us
• 5:38
  Speaker 3: of who was going to be the Braves manager until
• 5:41
  Speaker 3: a long time we had nothing. Alex Anthropolis didn't let
• 5:45
  Speaker 3: us know anything about it. What do you feel like
• 5:48
  Speaker 3: or what do you know? Took so long because obviously
• 5:52
  Speaker 3: it came out that Danny Lehman was probably going to
• 5:54
  Speaker 3: be there. Hey, he's still playing, he's still coaching in
• 5:56
  Speaker 3: the World Series. And it comes out that as Walt Weiss,
• 5:59
  Speaker 3: which on this show we felt like was a great
• 6:01
  Speaker 3: hire for the Brakes, I.
• 6:03
  Speaker 2: Don't know it took so long to be perfectly honest.
• 6:05
  Speaker 2: And as Walt Weiss said yesterday, Alexanthopolis their president baseball operations,
• 6:11
  Speaker 2: he likes to operate in the shadows. He likes it
• 6:13
  Speaker 2: when people don't know what he's thinking. And I actually
• 6:16
  Speaker 2: said this on my show yesterday before the hiring was announced,
• 6:20
  Speaker 2: that when it came out that Danny Lehman was maybe
• 6:23
  Speaker 2: the front runner. This was reported by MLB dot com
• 6:25
  Speaker 2: and other outlets as well. I was immediately skeptical because
• 6:29
  Speaker 2: with Anthopolis, I've come to learn that if you hear
• 6:31
  Speaker 2: a name and there's something going on and gets public,
• 6:35
  Speaker 2: that's usually not the guy. Now, what took so long?
• 6:38
  Speaker 2: I imagine from just an outside perspective, he was surveying
• 6:43
  Speaker 2: all of his options, probably Liman included, and in the
• 6:46
  Speaker 2: end decided, you know what, I'll just stick with Walt Weiss.
• 6:49
  Speaker 2: But I don't know, and maybe I'm just speculating here.
• 6:53
  Speaker 2: Maybe ownership stepped in. Maybe there was a difference of
• 6:56
  Speaker 2: opinion in that front office with ownership, but within who knows.
• 7:00
  Speaker 2: But this is where they ended up. And to me,
• 7:03
  Speaker 2: Walt Weiss is one of these guys like Brandon Hyde,
• 7:08
  Speaker 2: like David Ross, who deserves another chance. Now is he
• 7:11
  Speaker 2: going to be a great manager? I have no idea,
• 7:13
  Speaker 2: But in all of his years managing the Rockies and
• 7:16
  Speaker 2: then being the bench coach for the Braves for what
• 7:19
  Speaker 2: eight years, now, should he be in a better position
• 7:22
  Speaker 2: to succeed than he was before? Absolutely he should. So
• 7:26
  Speaker 2: we've seen a couple of hires here kind of off
• 7:30
  Speaker 2: the radar, right by Tello and Blake Terra in Washington.
• 7:34
  Speaker 2: I get it, and hey, those guys might really be successful.
• 7:38
  Speaker 2: We don't know that. But to me, when you overlook
• 7:41
  Speaker 2: men who have done the job, who have proven they
• 7:43
  Speaker 2: can do the job and do it pretty well, I
• 7:46
  Speaker 2: have a little bit of a problem with that.
• 7:50
  Speaker 3: Okay, that's fair. That's fair. Ken. We at the top
• 7:53
  Speaker 3: of the show, we had a discussion what was the
• 7:56
  Speaker 3: biggest thing in this offseason that we're going to be watching?
• 7:59
  Speaker 3: And I said Detroit and Trek's Schooble. And we had
• 8:01
  Speaker 3: Jim Bowden on the other day and he said, yeah, absolutely,
• 8:04
  Speaker 3: the Tigers are going to trade Trek Scoogle. What are
• 8:06
  Speaker 3: you hearing and what are your thoughts on this? Because
• 8:09
  Speaker 3: he could get I mean, I don't know what he
• 8:10
  Speaker 3: could get, but I'm assuming he could get a nice package.
• 8:13
  Speaker 3: Coming off two times two Cy Young's in a row,
• 8:16
  Speaker 3: one year away, get a full year of him, he's
• 8:18
  Speaker 3: been healthy. He could bring back a monster package for
• 8:20
  Speaker 3: the Tigers.
• 8:21
  Speaker 2: Let's go back to Corbyn Burns a couple of years ago.
• 8:23
  Speaker 2: Corbyn Burns was in the same situation that Schooble is
• 8:26
  Speaker 2: in now entering his free agent ear the return for
• 8:29
  Speaker 2: Corbyn Burns was the shortstop, Joey Ortiz, the reliever, maybe
• 8:34
  Speaker 2: starter DL Hall, and a high draft pick. I think
• 8:37
  Speaker 2: it was the number thirty seven pick. Overall, that was
• 8:40
  Speaker 2: a good return for one year of Corbyn Burns. So
• 8:43
  Speaker 2: would school be better than that? Probably a little bit
• 8:45
  Speaker 2: better than that. Okay, if you're the Tigers, do you
• 8:48
  Speaker 2: want to take a step back and deal with that?
• 8:51
  Speaker 2: When you have schoobl for one more year and maybe
• 8:54
  Speaker 2: you can win by building around him in that one year,
• 8:57
  Speaker 2: understanding that an extension is extremely unlike he unlikely with
• 9:01
  Speaker 2: Scott Boris as his agent, and understanding that he's going
• 9:04
  Speaker 2: to walk for a draft pick. Do you do that
• 9:07
  Speaker 2: and take that road instead of the one where you're
• 9:10
  Speaker 2: making a trade and taking a step back. I just
• 9:12
  Speaker 2: talked with an executive this morning who made the point,
• 9:15
  Speaker 2: and a good one, that school has masked a lot
• 9:18
  Speaker 2: of the Tigers ills the last couple of years. Every
• 9:21
  Speaker 2: fifth day, they know they're getting a really competitive start
• 9:24
  Speaker 2: and probably winning. So if you trade him, you don't
• 9:28
  Speaker 2: have that anchor, you don't have that stability that he
• 9:31
  Speaker 2: gives you, and you're taking a step backwards. Do they
• 9:34
  Speaker 2: want to do that after making the playoffs two years
• 9:36
  Speaker 2: in a row. I don't know. My friend Joel Sherman
• 9:39
  Speaker 2: the New York Post has written that they should keep
• 9:42
  Speaker 2: him for the reasons I just stated. At the same time, Man,
• 9:47
  Speaker 2: I would definitely dangle him. I would definitely see what's
• 9:49
  Speaker 2: out there, because you're not going to keep him long
• 9:52
  Speaker 2: term most likely, and who knows, maybe you get something
• 9:55
  Speaker 2: as appealing as what the Brewers ultimately got for Burns,
• 9:59
  Speaker 2: or even and better. The return for Bruns, in my mind,
• 10:03
  Speaker 2: was not bad, but we're talking a two timesy Young winner.
• 10:07
  Speaker 2: As you said, most likely we will win that award.
• 10:09
  Speaker 2: It's tough to trade that without getting a monster return back.
• 10:14
  Speaker 3: Right, What teams are lined up for that? What teams
• 10:17
  Speaker 3: are in a position? Obviously you never had an idea
• 10:19
  Speaker 3: if a J. Prowler is going to say, you know what,
• 10:21
  Speaker 3: we're giving you all thirty of our next prospects for
• 10:25
  Speaker 3: trek Skougel, But what teams are lined up for it
• 10:28
  Speaker 3: and in the position to say, you know what we're
• 10:31
  Speaker 3: willing to it's time to make a move like this
• 10:33
  Speaker 3: like the Red Sox did this year.
• 10:35
  Speaker 2: The Mets would be the obvious team they need starting pitching,
• 10:38
  Speaker 2: They have young starting pitching that they could include in
• 10:41
  Speaker 2: a trade. They are completely a team that would seem
• 10:45
  Speaker 2: to be obvious in this regard. You can look at
• 10:49
  Speaker 2: any team that is a big market team, or even
• 10:52
  Speaker 2: a team like the Orioles. Right, the Orioles took that
• 10:55
  Speaker 2: chance with Corbyn Buruns. They acquired him and it worked
• 10:58
  Speaker 2: that well. He was good for them. So I'm not
• 11:02
  Speaker 2: exactly sure which teams are lined up. The Mets do
• 11:04
  Speaker 2: stand out. I would basically say all the usual suspects
• 11:08
  Speaker 2: would be involved.
• 11:10
  Speaker 3: Ken how mad would the Tiger fans be if they'd
• 11:13
  Speaker 3: made this trade instead of signing And you know because
• 11:15
  Speaker 3: you hear about this, and listen, Corbyn Burns was Corbyn Burns.
• 11:20
  Speaker 3: But this is Terrek's school. Well, this is the guy
• 11:21
  Speaker 3: every fit day that loves being in Detroit when he pitches,
• 11:25
  Speaker 3: it's a different atmosphere and everything. How big of a
• 11:28
  Speaker 3: deal would this be for Tiger fans if they had
• 11:30
  Speaker 3: to make this move.
• 11:32
  Speaker 2: I would expect it would be a big deal. But
• 11:34
  Speaker 2: at the same time, when Boris is the agent and
• 11:37
  Speaker 2: we know that he prefers to take his clients to
• 11:40
  Speaker 2: the open market and Trek Scooble could be who knows
• 11:42
  Speaker 2: the first four hundred million dollar pitcher. You know, as
• 11:46
  Speaker 2: a Tiger fan, it's unlikely that you're going to sign
• 11:48
  Speaker 2: him long term. Maybe the Tigers do that. I don't know.
• 11:52
  Speaker 2: I don't think so. But you know as a fan
• 11:55
  Speaker 2: that that is the logical outcome, that he hits the
• 11:58
  Speaker 2: open market and then ultimately he signed with another team.
• 12:01
  Speaker 2: If you're a Tigers fan, maybe you're thinking, you know what,
• 12:05
  Speaker 2: let's get what we can right now. And while I
• 12:08
  Speaker 2: would prefer if I'm a Tigers fan to take a
• 12:10
  Speaker 2: shot at the World Series this year, we all know
• 12:12
  Speaker 2: how difficult it is to win a World Series, I
• 12:15
  Speaker 2: would understand that I would not like it as a
• 12:17
  Speaker 2: Tigers fan, just as I would not like it as
• 12:19
  Speaker 2: a Pirates fan at the ultimate time that they trade
• 12:21
  Speaker 2: Paul Skeans. But you're looking at what is the best
• 12:25
  Speaker 2: move for your franchise for this season and going forward,
• 12:28
  Speaker 2: And it's an interesting debate, guys. I'm not sure where
• 12:30
  Speaker 2: I stand on honestly, because I understand what Joel Sherby
• 12:33
  Speaker 2: was writing, they should keep him and try to win.
• 12:36
  Speaker 2: Definitely understand that, but I also see that what's the
• 12:39
  Speaker 2: endgame here a draft pick for Trek Schoogl when you
• 12:42
  Speaker 2: can get that much more. I don't know one other
• 12:45
  Speaker 2: element here that's worth mentioning. Let's say they keep him,
• 12:48
  Speaker 2: and let's say for some reason they're out of contention
• 12:50
  Speaker 2: in July. The return they would get in July is
• 12:54
  Speaker 2: probably not much different than they would get right now.
• 12:56
  Speaker 2: So there is that incentive to keep him as well.
• 13:00
  Speaker 3: Ken, you know what you just did. He just made
• 13:02
  Speaker 3: the argument that all the fans are saying for a
• 13:04
  Speaker 3: salary cap, Ken, because they're gonna say, why can't the
• 13:07
  Speaker 3: Tigers keep him? If we had a salary cap, the
• 13:09
  Speaker 3: Tigers could afford to keep them, which I disagree with.
• 13:12
  Speaker 3: But Ken, Rob Manford is online too, and he says,
• 13:14
  Speaker 3: thank you for making his argument for him.
• 13:17
  Speaker 2: I'm not making an argument for a salary cap. In fact,
• 13:20
  Speaker 2: if there were a salary cap, Trek school might decide
• 13:24
  Speaker 2: to become a free agent anyway. Who's to say that
• 13:26
  Speaker 2: he wouldn't want to test the open market and do
• 13:28
  Speaker 2: it that way. It's not a guarantee that Tigers would
• 13:30
  Speaker 2: keep him, just as it's not a guarantee that players
• 13:33
  Speaker 2: wouldn't want to play for the Dodgers under a salary
• 13:36
  Speaker 2: cap system, they still would. So I know this is
• 13:40
  Speaker 2: the conversation we're going to have for the next twelve months, unfortunately.
• 13:44
  Speaker 2: But at the same time, my position has been and
• 13:47
  Speaker 2: it will remain until I'm shown otherwise that there are
• 13:50
  Speaker 2: ways to improve this system without imposing a salary cap,
• 13:54
  Speaker 2: and those are the things that the owners should be
• 13:56
  Speaker 2: working on. And I'm going to add one more thing here.
• 13:59
  Speaker 2: We're coming off world series that got great ratings, not
• 14:03
  Speaker 2: just in the United States but around the world. We
• 14:05
  Speaker 2: have at this moment a little bit of momentum with
• 14:09
  Speaker 2: this sport, maybe even a lot of momentum with this sport,
• 14:11
  Speaker 2: and it's partly due to the rules changes that Banford
• 14:14
  Speaker 2: introduced a couple of years ago. He deserves credit for that.
• 14:17
  Speaker 2: Why would you want to mess with that right now?
• 14:21
  Speaker 2: Why would you go backwards? Why would you have a
• 14:24
  Speaker 2: season in twenty twenty seven that is in whole. I
• 14:27
  Speaker 2: don't know the answer to that. I don't know a
• 14:29
  Speaker 2: reasonable justification for that. And ultimately, the owners can play
• 14:34
  Speaker 2: their game and they can go and scream for a
• 14:37
  Speaker 2: salary cap. I'm not even sure they all agree with
• 14:39
  Speaker 2: each other on this. Particular issue. But they can do that,
• 14:42
  Speaker 2: and they can play it out. They will. They always
• 14:45
  Speaker 2: doing these things, But are they really going to compromise
• 14:48
  Speaker 2: the twenty twenty seven season. Good luck with that.
• 14:52
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and there are media contracts that'll be coming up
• 14:55
  Speaker 1: shortly after the lockout that they will impose to some degree.
• 14:59
  Speaker 1: Even if we don't miss games, there will at least
• 15:01
  Speaker 1: be some type of stoppage. I think we all agree
• 15:03
  Speaker 1: that they'll put the pressure on. One other point, I
• 15:06
  Speaker 1: wanted to make ken MLB would have super teams. I'm
• 15:10
  Speaker 1: thinking about the World Series just now and how much
• 15:13
  Speaker 1: jubilation we saw from Roki Sazaki, sho Heyo, Tani, Yoshinobu
• 15:18
  Speaker 1: Yamamoto together. You have to remember they're coming from Japan.
• 15:22
  Speaker 1: It's far away, they speak a different primary language. They've
• 15:25
  Speaker 1: really bonded and been able to spend a lot of
• 15:27
  Speaker 1: time together. I also do think that most marketing situations
• 15:32
  Speaker 1: and deals right now revolve around you playing with sho
• 15:34
  Speaker 1: hey being on Japan's team, which is the Dodgers. There
• 15:37
  Speaker 1: are a ton of Japanese free agents coming up over
• 15:39
  Speaker 1: the next few week years that are really talented. I
• 15:42
  Speaker 1: did some homework on some guys for this class, if
• 15:45
  Speaker 1: there was a salary cap, they would just all sign
• 15:47
  Speaker 1: with the Dodgers. They'd be like, cool, I'll take half
• 15:48
  Speaker 1: the money, maybe even less because I'll make it up
• 15:50
  Speaker 1: in sponsorship, because that is bigger right now than the
• 15:53
  Speaker 1: contracts for most of these guys. Shoe makes one hundred
• 15:56
  Speaker 1: off the field. I'm sure Yamamoto is making twenty. Whatever
• 15:59
  Speaker 1: the number is off the field, A large number from
• 16:02
  Speaker 1: Japan off the field. So just throwing that out there,
• 16:04
  Speaker 1: they would grab every Japanese player. If you think it's
• 16:07
  Speaker 1: unfair now that they're grabbing many of them, they would
• 16:09
  Speaker 1: get all of them.
• 16:11
  Speaker 2: Fans think of a salary cap as a magic bullet.
• 16:14
  Speaker 2: Some fans think this way, and it's not. And the
• 16:17
  Speaker 2: other advantage of Dodgers would have And I wrote about
• 16:20
  Speaker 2: this after they won the World Series. They're really good
• 16:22
  Speaker 2: at player development, They're really good at drafting, They're really
• 16:25
  Speaker 2: good at every other way of player acquisition. They are
• 16:28
  Speaker 2: good at getting players on the margins and making them better.
• 16:32
  Speaker 2: None of that goes away with a cap. They're still
• 16:35
  Speaker 2: going to be really smart and really good. Now, would
• 16:38
  Speaker 2: a cap address some of the inequities, Yeah, of course
• 16:41
  Speaker 2: it would, But as I've said, there are other ways
• 16:44
  Speaker 2: to address those inequities, and it's never going to be perfect.
• 16:47
  Speaker 2: We all understand that baseball is not football. Baseball revenue
• 16:51
  Speaker 2: is based locally. Football revenue is based largely on the
• 16:54
  Speaker 2: national television contract. It's not on the attendance that you
• 16:57
  Speaker 2: get at your home games. So currently different. I don't
• 17:01
  Speaker 2: know that inherently different is bad. This sport has survived
• 17:03
  Speaker 2: just fine for all this time, and we've heard these
• 17:06
  Speaker 2: complaints over the years from fans. Hey, it's not fair
• 17:09
  Speaker 2: from a revenue standpoint and from a spending standpoint, I
• 17:12
  Speaker 2: can see what they're saying. But we've also seen teams
• 17:15
  Speaker 2: that have thrived in this environment from smaller markets just
• 17:20
  Speaker 2: this year, Milwaukee, Cleveland, any number of them. Again, don't
• 17:24
  Speaker 2: get me wrong here, I don't want people getting confused.
• 17:27
  Speaker 2: I'm not saying those teams shouldn't have a better way
• 17:30
  Speaker 2: to compete. They should. What I'm saying is there are
• 17:33
  Speaker 2: enough smart people on both sides of this equation that
• 17:37
  Speaker 2: they should be able to figure out a system that
• 17:40
  Speaker 2: enhances the chances competitively of those small market teams without
• 17:45
  Speaker 2: a salary cap. Each shouldn't be impossible that's all I'm saying.
• 17:50
  Speaker 3: All right, Well, then leading into that, what team are
• 17:53
  Speaker 3: you most interested to follow this offseason?
• 17:56
  Speaker 2: Well, I'm always interested in all the mereric to be honest.
• 17:58
  Speaker 2: But Philadelphia is really interesting because we've heard Dave Dombrowski,
• 18:03
  Speaker 2: the president Baseball Operations, talk about his discontent with some
• 18:08
  Speaker 2: of the things that have gone on, and he didn't
• 18:10
  Speaker 2: change the manager. He talked about Bryce Harper needing to
• 18:13
  Speaker 2: be better. That caused the stir of course, and last
• 18:17
  Speaker 2: offseason when we thought they were gonna do some big things,
• 18:19
  Speaker 2: they really didn't. They're gonna lose Ranger Suarez as a
• 18:22
  Speaker 2: free agent most likely Schwarber and Real Mutto also are
• 18:25
  Speaker 2: free agents. Yet they need to refresh their team. So
• 18:29
  Speaker 2: while I expect them to sign Schwarber and maybe even
• 18:31
  Speaker 2: real Muto too, how do they get better? That's the question.
• 18:36
  Speaker 2: Do you trade Alec Bohm and sign a third baseman?
• 18:38
  Speaker 2: Can you take on another monster contract? I don't know
• 18:41
  Speaker 2: that you can. So they're a fascinating team to watch,
• 18:44
  Speaker 2: and really we could go through pretty much all the
• 18:47
  Speaker 2: teams and have the same kind of analysis and conversation.
• 18:51
  Speaker 2: It's always interesting to see how each team reacts look
• 18:54
  Speaker 2: at Toronto right now, what do they do? They've got
• 18:56
  Speaker 2: Bieber obviously under contract for next year, but sures are
• 19:01
  Speaker 2: ambasstt are free agents. Boba Shitt is a free agent.
• 19:04
  Speaker 2: How will they look next season? You can go one
• 19:06
  Speaker 2: through thirty, well maybe not one through thirty, but one
• 19:09
  Speaker 2: through twenty five or so and have pretty interesting talks and.
• 19:13
  Speaker 1: We will talk about all of these teams all off season. Also,
• 19:16
  Speaker 1: Fair Territory is live tomorrow. Alana is out. I am in.
• 19:21
  Speaker 1: I'm just pullint guarding and you know what I love
• 19:23
  Speaker 1: to do. I love fan questions. I know there were
• 19:26
  Speaker 1: a few we didn't get to just now. Please join
• 19:28
  Speaker 1: us tomorrow noon Eastern and we will rip through as
• 19:30
  Speaker 1: many fan questions as possible. If you're lucky, I will
• 19:34
  Speaker 1: sit in AJ seat instead of my seat over in
• 19:37
  Speaker 1: studio AJ.
• 19:40
  Speaker 3: Ken, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, Ken.
• 19:44
  Speaker 1: Sorry, n I'm sorry. But I will see you tomorrow
• 19:46
  Speaker 1: and I look forward to it. We will take many questions.
• 19:49
  Speaker 1: See you then, Ken, Welcome back.
• 19:50
  Speaker 2: Sounds good guys, Thanks, thank you.
• 19:53
  Speaker 1: Fair Territory also had their new episode on Monday. Coming
• 19:57
  Speaker 1: off of the World Series. We didn't do a lot
• 19:58
  Speaker 1: of World Series recapping now because we did a lot
• 20:00
  Speaker 1: of that on FT the last few days. But if
• 20:03
  Speaker 1: you want more thoughts from Ken on his World series
• 20:06
  Speaker 1: experience covering the Dodgers and the Blue Jays, go for it.
• 20:09
  Speaker 1: Listen to that episode or check it out on YouTube.