Latest / Foul Territory / Fair Territory: Boston turf war, Cubs miss, Trout to RF, Doc & Boone extensions soon?!

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Fair Territory: Boston turf war, Cubs miss, Trout to RF, Doc & Boone extensions soon?! · Foul Territory

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Then you have to ask again, if not now, when,
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: And once again I must say, with Tom Ricketts lately
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: the owner of the Cubs, the answer seems to be never.
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: Welcome everyone to the Monday edition of Fair Territory, the
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: President's Day edition. We've got a ton to talk about,
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: as always, but the big story on this Monday is
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: in the Red Sox camp. Raphael Devers spoke today about
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: the addition of Alex Bregman and his potential position change
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: and heshed repeat quashed any idea of him moving off
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: of third base. He said he's not changing positions. He
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: said he is not going to DH and now the
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: Red Sox have what we would call a situation. I
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: want to go back to Sunday when Bregman was introduced
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: as the Red Sox new infielder. Let's put it that way,
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: and what Chief Baseball Officer Craig Breslow said when asked
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: about how they would continue putting the team together.
• 1:01
  Speaker 2: AC and I. We have an obligation to the team,
• 1:06
  Speaker 2: to the organization, and most importantly to our fans to
• 1:09
  Speaker 2: put the best offensive and defensive team off the field
• 1:12
  Speaker 2: that we possibly can.
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: All right, so what is the best defensive alignment for
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: the Red Sox. It does not include Raphaeld Devers at
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: third base. I wrote this last week and I stand
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: by it. Rafaeld Devers great hitter, good guy, but his
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: defense at third base has never been good and in
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: recent years has been among the worst in the league.
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: Alex Bregman is a gold Glove third baseman. He won
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: his first goal Glove at the position last year. In addition,
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: the Red Sox have a top prospect, Christian Campbell, top
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: infield prospect, who is seemingly ready to take over at second. Now.
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: Bregman can play second, there's no question about that. And
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: would he be as good as he was at third?
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: Probably not. Initially, Alex Korra has said Bregman can win
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: a Gold Glove at second, but it's not that easy. Again,
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: Devers here is taking a stand that is not necessarily
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: surprising for a player who is only in the second
• 2:07
  Speaker 1: year of a ten year, three hundred and thirteen point
• 2:10
  Speaker 1: five million dollar contract. Raphaeld Devers has a lot of pride.
• 2:13
  Speaker 1: All players do, That's why they're who they are. But again,
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: the question becomes what is best for the team. And
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: here's my concern. If Devers is indeed adamant about not
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: changing positions. Okay, season opens, Let's say he makes a
• 2:28
  Speaker 1: couple of errors in the first week. Fans are aware
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: of what's going on. Red Sox fans are particularly aware
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: of what's going on, and it could get ugly. Fans
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: could get down on Devs because, hey, you got a
• 2:41
  Speaker 1: better third baseman playing second base if that's indeed where
• 2:43
  Speaker 1: Alex Bregman winds up, and I don't see any other option.
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: So this situation is festering now for the Boston Red Sox,
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: and you could make the case that maybe they should
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: have had this all worked out before they pursued Bregman,
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: or certainly before they signed him. That is an interesting question,
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: and it is an interesting question regarding what exactly was
• 3:05
  Speaker 1: said and when. But now you have a third baseman
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: who is not very good defensively saying I'm not changing positions,
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: and that is not going to be taken well by
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: a lot of people. Now I get it, I get
• 3:17
  Speaker 1: Devers totally here, but it's going to come off badly
• 3:21
  Speaker 1: to fans who are watching and wanting the best Red
• 3:24
  Speaker 1: Sox team possible. It might even come off badly to
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: the Red Sox officials Breslo, Alex Cora, Sam Kennedy, the
• 3:31
  Speaker 1: team president, who have tried to put together what they
• 3:34
  Speaker 1: feel is the best team possible. So we have a
• 3:38
  Speaker 1: sticky situation here and it's going to play out. It's
• 3:41
  Speaker 1: going to be a lot more interesting than even we
• 3:42
  Speaker 1: thought the night the Red Sox initially agreed with Alex Bregman.
• 3:47
  Speaker 1: For more on Alex Bregman's Boston fit. Robbie Hyde hosts
• 3:50
  Speaker 1: Monster Territory, part of the Foul Territory Network. The latest
• 3:54
  Speaker 1: episode takes a deep dive into Bregman's relationship with Alex
• 3:57
  Speaker 1: Cora and where Bregman fits in the Red Sox club.
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: Subscribe on YouTube and wherever you get your podcasts to
• 4:03
  Speaker 1: the entire Foul Territory Network. So that is it for
• 4:06
  Speaker 1: the Red Sox. There are other issues in the game
• 4:09
  Speaker 1: we want to address this morning as well. We'll get
• 4:11
  Speaker 1: to the Cubs in the Inside Dish and some other
• 4:14
  Speaker 1: teams that aren't spending the way they should. I've got
• 4:17
  Speaker 1: a long list, but first I want to talk about
• 4:19
  Speaker 1: two managers. The world series managers last October Dave Roberts
• 4:23
  Speaker 1: of the Los Angeles Dodgers, Aaron Boone, of the New
• 4:26
  Speaker 1: York Yankees. Both are entering the final years of contracts.
• 4:30
  Speaker 1: Both are discussing extensions with their teams now. I expect
• 4:33
  Speaker 1: both will be signed before the end of spring training.
• 4:36
  Speaker 1: That's generally how these things will work. It's not going
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: to drag into the season. But at the same time,
• 4:41
  Speaker 1: there are fans I'm sure of both teams who say, hey,
• 4:44
  Speaker 1: wait a second, this guy's not that good. I'm not
• 4:47
  Speaker 1: so sure. Fans of the Dodgers are still saying that
• 4:50
  Speaker 1: about Dave Roberts after his performance last October. He is
• 4:53
  Speaker 1: in a really interesting situation here because his winning percentage
• 4:57
  Speaker 1: is the all time highest among manager who have managed
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: at least two hundred and fifty games, a six twenty
• 5:03
  Speaker 1: seven winning percentage again number one if you've managed at
• 5:07
  Speaker 1: least two hundred and fifty games. Dave Roberts can really
• 5:11
  Speaker 1: argue quite successfully that he deserves more than Craig Counsel,
• 5:15
  Speaker 1: who of course received a record five year, forty million
• 5:18
  Speaker 1: dollar contract from the Cubs just before last season. Roberts
• 5:23
  Speaker 1: is far more accomplished than Council, and you would expect
• 5:26
  Speaker 1: the Dodgers, the money bags, filthy rich Dodgers can pay
• 5:29
  Speaker 1: their manager more than eight million dollars a year, and
• 5:32
  Speaker 1: guess what, they don't even have to defer it because
• 5:35
  Speaker 1: Dave Roberts does not count against the luxury tax. So
• 5:38
  Speaker 1: Dave Roberts will be signed. The only question is will
• 5:41
  Speaker 1: he set a record with this contract. Aaron Boone more
• 5:44
  Speaker 1: of a controversial figure among Yankees fans, and yes, the
• 5:48
  Speaker 1: Yankees have not won a World Series in his tenure.
• 5:50
  Speaker 1: They have not won a World Series since two thousand
• 5:52
  Speaker 1: and nine. But Boone has the second highest winning percentage
• 5:56
  Speaker 1: among active managers behind Roberts. He is a five to
• 5:59
  Speaker 1: eighty four. He led the team to the World Series
• 6:02
  Speaker 1: last year. And sure, as with any manager, you can nitpick,
• 6:05
  Speaker 1: you can question certain things, decisions, the way he talks
• 6:09
  Speaker 1: to the media and is always so positive. I get it.
• 6:13
  Speaker 1: But Aaron Boone does the one thing that is essentially,
• 6:16
  Speaker 1: in this day and age, the number one requirement for
• 6:18
  Speaker 1: a manager. He keeps the room together. And what I
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: mean by that is he has an open communication with
• 6:25
  Speaker 1: the players. He seems to get the most out of them. Now.
• 6:29
  Speaker 1: They were defensively flawed last year, and that is somewhat
• 6:32
  Speaker 1: on Boone, no question, but a big part of a
• 6:36
  Speaker 1: manager's job is keeping the players at a high effort level.
• 6:40
  Speaker 1: You might think that sounds simple. You might think, oh,
• 6:43
  Speaker 1: what's the big deal. These guys are professionals, they all
• 6:45
  Speaker 1: should be trying. But you got to keep the group together.
• 6:47
  Speaker 1: It's a bunch of big egos, and Aaron Boone does
• 6:50
  Speaker 1: that at a really high level. He communicates well, he
• 6:53
  Speaker 1: keeps the guys engaged. That is extremely important. And I
• 6:57
  Speaker 1: know again there are fans out there dismissing this not
• 7:01
  Speaker 1: a big deal. No, it is a big deal. When
• 7:03
  Speaker 1: a manager loses the team, that is a huge problem.
• 7:07
  Speaker 1: Boon has not done that in all those years. He
• 7:09
  Speaker 1: has not done that. He has kept that team going
• 7:12
  Speaker 1: and that is perhaps his number one attribute as a manager.
• 7:15
  Speaker 1: So he too, is going to get an extension, I expect.
• 7:18
  Speaker 1: I don't know that it's going to be a record,
• 7:20
  Speaker 1: but he will be signed. Also, over the weekend, I
• 7:23
  Speaker 1: had a notes column. This was on Sunday we published this,
• 7:26
  Speaker 1: and in that notes column, I had a note about
• 7:29
  Speaker 1: Anthony Rendon and the Angels. Now, as we all know,
• 7:32
  Speaker 1: Anthony Rendon is scheduled to undergo hip surgery. He most
• 7:36
  Speaker 1: likely will miss the entire twenty twenty five season. His
• 7:40
  Speaker 1: contract seven years, two hundred and forty five million before
• 7:43
  Speaker 1: the twenty twenty season has essentially been a disaster, a washout.
• 7:48
  Speaker 1: He has barely played. If he doesn't play this season,
• 7:52
  Speaker 1: he would have missed seventy five percent of the Angels
• 7:55
  Speaker 1: games over the last five years. Think about that, last
• 7:58
  Speaker 1: five years, he's played in only twenty five percent of
• 8:01
  Speaker 1: their games. Again, if he misses the entire season. Now,
• 8:04
  Speaker 1: the note was about how the Angels do not have
• 8:08
  Speaker 1: insurance on Rendon or any of their other players for
• 8:11
  Speaker 1: that matter. That is a choice the owner, Arty Moreno makes.
• 8:14
  Speaker 1: It's a business decision. He doesn't want to pay expensive
• 8:17
  Speaker 1: premiums when he might never need to invoke the policies.
• 8:22
  Speaker 1: Not all teams carry insurance on their players. In fact,
• 8:26
  Speaker 1: a good chunk do not, so Arti Morino is not
• 8:28
  Speaker 1: alone in this regard. But as I reported, I spoke
• 8:32
  Speaker 1: with an expert on baseball insurance and how these things work,
• 8:36
  Speaker 1: and he said, in the Angels case with Rendon, not
• 8:40
  Speaker 1: taking out a policy has cost them probably at least
• 8:43
  Speaker 1: fifty million dollars. That's fifty million dollars that could have
• 8:46
  Speaker 1: been applied obviously in other places, Rendon scheduled to make
• 8:51
  Speaker 1: thirty eight point six million this year and thirty eight
• 8:54
  Speaker 1: point six million next year. This will go down obviously
• 8:58
  Speaker 1: as one of the worst contracts of all time, and
• 9:01
  Speaker 1: again it is not insured. We'll be back after a
• 9:05
  Speaker 1: quick word from our friends at foul Territory.
• 9:07
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• 10:06
  Speaker 1: Nice.
• 10:07
  Speaker 3: Well, well, well.
• 10:10
  Speaker 1: Time now for the inside dish, the part of the
• 10:13
  Speaker 1: show where I talk about maybe a story I've written,
• 10:16
  Speaker 1: a trend in the game, something else entirely. And today
• 10:19
  Speaker 1: I want to build on a note that I had
• 10:21
  Speaker 1: in my Sunday Notes column, the one about the Cubs
• 10:24
  Speaker 1: and how they whiffed on Alex Bregman. And I started
• 10:27
  Speaker 1: the note by saying, or recalling what THEO Epstein said
• 10:31
  Speaker 1: when the Cubs traded for a role as Chapman during
• 10:34
  Speaker 1: the twenty sixteen season. THEO, who is trying to break
• 10:37
  Speaker 1: a one hundred and eight year World Series title drought, said,
• 10:40
  Speaker 1: if not now when now? As I mentioned, the situation
• 10:44
  Speaker 1: for the Cubs now is not as urgent as it
• 10:47
  Speaker 1: was then. But Alex Bregman for them, presented an opportunity,
• 10:52
  Speaker 1: a pretty rare opportunity, at a moment in time when
• 10:55
  Speaker 1: they should have been ready to strike. Now, why is
• 11:00
  Speaker 1: or why was Bregman such a rare opportunity. A couple
• 11:03
  Speaker 1: of reasons, this is perhaps the only year that the
• 11:05
  Speaker 1: Cubs will have Kyle Tucker. At this point, you probably
• 11:08
  Speaker 1: can say it is going to be the only year
• 11:10
  Speaker 1: the Cubs are going to have Kyle Tucker because of
• 11:12
  Speaker 1: the way that they've resisted spending long term for the
• 11:16
  Speaker 1: most part in recent years. So you've got one year
• 11:19
  Speaker 1: of Kyle Tucker at least one certain year of club control.
• 11:22
  Speaker 1: You've had years in which you were financially disciplined, cutting
• 11:25
  Speaker 1: the payroll, trying to put yourself in a position where
• 11:29
  Speaker 1: when an opportunity like Regman arose, you'd be ready to go. Well,
• 11:34
  Speaker 1: what do the Cubs do? They made the fourth highest offer,
• 11:38
  Speaker 1: behind the Tigers, behind the Astros, behind the Red Sox.
• 11:40
  Speaker 1: I'm talking about total guaranteed money, and obviously they didn't
• 11:44
  Speaker 1: get the player. So I was critical of them in
• 11:48
  Speaker 1: this particular note, and I said, if not now, when
• 11:51
  Speaker 1: that's the question THEO asked, and Tom Ricketts, as owner,
• 11:55
  Speaker 1: his answer lately seems to be never. And when you're
• 11:58
  Speaker 1: charging the highest ticket price in the game, or among
• 12:01
  Speaker 1: the highest ticket prices, I should say that's a problem,
• 12:04
  Speaker 1: and that's a lack of commitment that frankly deserves to
• 12:07
  Speaker 1: be called out. We are talking about an industry right now,
• 12:11
  Speaker 1: and I'm mentioning the entire industry here, not just the Cubs,
• 12:15
  Speaker 1: an industry that had last season record revenues of twelve
• 12:19
  Speaker 1: point one billion dollars twelve point one billion, and fans
• 12:22
  Speaker 1: wonder at times why I call out teams for not spending.
• 12:25
  Speaker 1: I was critical of the Red Sox for not spending,
• 12:28
  Speaker 1: and here they are. They finally did spend. Yes, congratulations,
• 12:30
  Speaker 1: good for them. But I'm critical of teams who do
• 12:34
  Speaker 1: not give their best effort. And this is a problem
• 12:37
  Speaker 1: that has plagued this sport for a while. And it's
• 12:40
  Speaker 1: not just the Cubs, and it's not just the Red
• 12:42
  Speaker 1: Sox before them. We're talking about the entire NL Central
• 12:46
  Speaker 1: right now, with the exception of the Cincinnati Reds. The
• 12:49
  Speaker 1: Pittsburgh Pirates have Paul Schemes, They've got them under club
• 12:52
  Speaker 1: control for only five more years, and what have they
• 12:54
  Speaker 1: done this offseason? Essentially nothing. The Saint Louis Cardinals taking
• 12:59
  Speaker 1: a step back. The Milwaukee Brewers, the division champion Milwaukee Brewers,
• 13:03
  Speaker 1: the perennially powerful Milwaukee Brewers. They lost Willia Domas, they
• 13:08
  Speaker 1: lost Devin Williams, traded Devin Williams, and what have they done.
• 13:13
  Speaker 1: They've not signed a player for more than one million dollars.
• 13:16
  Speaker 1: And it's not just the NL Central teams, of course,
• 13:18
  Speaker 1: the Mariners, the Twins, they're off seasons, have essentially put
• 13:21
  Speaker 1: their fans to sleep. The Nationals haven't done as much
• 13:24
  Speaker 1: as you would expect for a team that is on
• 13:26
  Speaker 1: the rise. The Rockies are perpetually irrelevant. That's just some
• 13:30
  Speaker 1: of the clubs now. Fans talk about a salary cap
• 13:34
  Speaker 1: or they want a salary cap, and okay, I get it.
• 13:37
  Speaker 1: You would think, if you're looking at this from the outside,
• 13:40
  Speaker 1: that maybe a salary cap and a salary floor would
• 13:43
  Speaker 1: perhaps help solve the revenue disparities that exist between the
• 13:47
  Speaker 1: haves and the have nots, the growing revenue disparity. I
• 13:49
  Speaker 1: should say, Okay, that's fine, but here's the problem. To
• 13:53
  Speaker 1: negotiate a salary cap. To convince the players that a
• 13:56
  Speaker 1: salary cap is worthy, you have to have their trust.
• 13:59
  Speaker 1: And when you have teams, small market teams pocketing revenue
• 14:03
  Speaker 1: sharing money, big market teams not spending to the level
• 14:06
  Speaker 1: they should, you lose that trust. You don't have trust,
• 14:10
  Speaker 1: and that is the essential problem here, besides the union's
• 14:13
  Speaker 1: philosophical opposition to a salary cap. At some point, if
• 14:17
  Speaker 1: you gave the union enough money, maybe they would accept
• 14:19
  Speaker 1: the salary cap. But the problem is trust. The union
• 14:23
  Speaker 1: is not going to trust the owners to report their
• 14:25
  Speaker 1: revenues properly. They're not going to trust the owners to
• 14:28
  Speaker 1: account for the revenues they make with some of these
• 14:31
  Speaker 1: ballpark development projects that exist in different cities right now.
• 14:35
  Speaker 1: So there you are, and that is the essence of
• 14:38
  Speaker 1: the issue, and that is why these teams need to
• 14:41
  Speaker 1: be held accountable for not spending the way they should.
• 14:46
  Speaker 1: The sport will not be everything it could be until
• 14:49
  Speaker 1: we see that corrected to some degree. Now, some teams
• 14:52
  Speaker 1: are going to go backwards in certain years. Some teams
• 14:54
  Speaker 1: can't spend as much as other as we all understand this,
• 14:57
  Speaker 1: but it seems to me that the Cubs, the Brewers,
• 15:01
  Speaker 1: some of these other clubs that are competitive, they're thinking,
• 15:04
  Speaker 1: you know what, we can go get a number six
• 15:07
  Speaker 1: seed in the postseason, spend a little less money. We
• 15:10
  Speaker 1: don't have to push for the number three seed as
• 15:12
  Speaker 1: a division champion. We can sneak in. See what happens,
• 15:15
  Speaker 1: the Cubs are going to draw their two point a
• 15:17
  Speaker 1: two point nine million, what's the big deal? Why push?
• 15:19
  Speaker 1: You push because you're trying to win, because that is
• 15:22
  Speaker 1: the object of the sport. So the Red Sox in
• 15:26
  Speaker 1: this case with Bregman, made the push that the Cubs
• 15:30
  Speaker 1: did not. Now we can argue about whether Bregman was
• 15:33
  Speaker 1: worth the money. It's a forty million dollar aav thirty
• 15:36
  Speaker 1: million essentially when you factor in the deferrals. But the
• 15:39
  Speaker 1: Cubs in twenty twenty three, according to Forbes magazine, we're
• 15:43
  Speaker 1: top five in both revenue and franchise value, and yet
• 15:48
  Speaker 1: their payroll currently ranks thirteenth. Not good enough, Not right?
• 15:54
  Speaker 1: And when you have a front office that was pushing
• 15:55
  Speaker 1: for Bregman, a front office that essentially has avoided long
• 15:59
  Speaker 1: term commitment. They've got Imanaga, and they've got Swanson signed
• 16:03
  Speaker 1: through twenty seven and twenty eight or under contract through
• 16:05
  Speaker 1: twenty seven and twenty eight, and that's it. Their books
• 16:08
  Speaker 1: are pretty clean. When you have all that and you
• 16:10
  Speaker 1: still put together the fourth best offer for Alex Bregman,
• 16:14
  Speaker 1: then you have to ask again, if not now, when,
• 16:17
  Speaker 1: And once again I must say, with Tom Ricketts, lately
• 16:20
  Speaker 1: the owner of the Cubs. The answer seems to be
• 16:23
  Speaker 1: never again, not good enough. For more on where the
• 16:27
  Speaker 1: Cubs go from here, North Side Territory is available on
• 16:30
  Speaker 1: YouTube and wherever you get your podcast My colleagues from
• 16:33
  Speaker 1: the Athletic Patrick Mooney and Sahadi Sharma host Their latest
• 16:37
  Speaker 1: episode is all about Kyle Tucker's future with the club.
• 16:40
  Speaker 1: Subscribe on YouTube and wherever you get your podcasts to
• 16:43
  Speaker 1: the entire Foul Territory network. Before getting into grilling, can
• 16:47
  Speaker 1: want to talk about some news that broke on Monday morning,
• 16:50
  Speaker 1: Mike Trott revealing to reporters that he will be playing
• 16:53
  Speaker 1: right field this season. Right field, not center field. He
• 16:56
  Speaker 1: will play a little bit of center, a little bit
• 16:59
  Speaker 1: of DH it sounds, but right field will be his position.
• 17:02
  Speaker 1: The idea, obviously, is to reduce the wear and tear
• 17:05
  Speaker 1: on Trout, perhaps protect him from injury. He, like Anthony Rendon,
• 17:09
  Speaker 1: has had a terribly difficult time in recent years staying healthy.
• 17:13
  Speaker 1: Whether this actually works or not remains to be seen.
• 17:16
  Speaker 1: A number of Trout's injuries, as I wrote recently, kind
• 17:20
  Speaker 1: of stem from being in the batter's box, from hitting,
• 17:22
  Speaker 1: and not so much being in the field. But for
• 17:24
  Speaker 1: the Angels, it's a smart move because you want to
• 17:27
  Speaker 1: take every precaution possible to keep Mike Trout healthy. And
• 17:30
  Speaker 1: there's no question that playing right is less wear and
• 17:33
  Speaker 1: tear on the legs than playing center. So the news
• 17:36
  Speaker 1: out of the Angels camp this morning Mike Trout will
• 17:39
  Speaker 1: be in right field this season, a new position for him,
• 17:42
  Speaker 1: and it will be quite interesting to see how he
• 17:44
  Speaker 1: adapts and more interesting to see whether this indeed accomplishes
• 17:49
  Speaker 1: its purpose of keeping him healthy. Okay, time now for
• 17:52
  Speaker 1: Bill and Ken. Let's get to your questions. The first
• 17:55
  Speaker 1: question comes from Billy Flanagan, who asks, what exactly does
• 17:59
  Speaker 1: a minor league contract with an invitation to spring training
• 18:02
  Speaker 1: really mean? What are the possible outcomes of such a deal? Billy,
• 18:06
  Speaker 1: this is a question that a lot of fans kind
• 18:09
  Speaker 1: of have on their minds and don't really understand, So
• 18:11
  Speaker 1: I'm glad you asked it. A minor league contract with
• 18:14
  Speaker 1: an invitation to spring training is the kind that a
• 18:17
  Speaker 1: team gives to a player who is not on their
• 18:19
  Speaker 1: forty man roster. They want him in camp, they want
• 18:22
  Speaker 1: to give him a chance, but he's not on their
• 18:24
  Speaker 1: forty man. He is on the outside looking in from
• 18:27
  Speaker 1: that perspective, but he gets to go to spring training,
• 18:31
  Speaker 1: gets to essentially try out before the major league manager
• 18:34
  Speaker 1: and coaches who could take a look at that player
• 18:36
  Speaker 1: and see if at some point he could be added
• 18:39
  Speaker 1: to the roster. Now, some of these players are prospects
• 18:41
  Speaker 1: who are not on the forty man. Others are veterans
• 18:44
  Speaker 1: who are kind of trying to hang on, and in
• 18:48
  Speaker 1: some cases you will see them added to the opening
• 18:50
  Speaker 1: day roster and at that point the team must take
• 18:52
  Speaker 1: someone else off their forty man. So it's a way
• 18:55
  Speaker 1: to give veterans an opportunity who you don't want to
• 18:59
  Speaker 1: give a major league deal to. It's a way to
• 19:01
  Speaker 1: maybe look at some kids that you're wanting camp, some catchers,
• 19:04
  Speaker 1: especially because teams always need catchers in camp, and it's
• 19:08
  Speaker 1: a clear distinction between a major leaguer and a guy
• 19:11
  Speaker 1: who is trying to get into the major league situation
• 19:14
  Speaker 1: one way or another. All right, next question, This one
• 19:18
  Speaker 1: comes from KC, who asks the Astros losing some key
• 19:21
  Speaker 1: pieces definitely hurt, but has any team in the West
• 19:24
  Speaker 1: done enough to overtake them? The Astros are definitely going
• 19:28
  Speaker 1: to look a lot different this season, they have lost
• 19:31
  Speaker 1: three franchise pillars. Bregman is one, Kyle Tucker is another,
• 19:35
  Speaker 1: Ryan Presley is a third. Now they've brought in some
• 19:38
  Speaker 1: players as well, the Zach Parades, But at the same time,
• 19:42
  Speaker 1: this is going to be a much different looking team
• 19:44
  Speaker 1: and probably in my estimation, not quite as good a team. Now.
• 19:49
  Speaker 1: The Texas Rangers have done some things, They've improved themselves.
• 19:52
  Speaker 1: The Seattle Mariners have not done much, but they have
• 19:55
  Speaker 1: arguably the best rotation in the game, so they're going
• 19:58
  Speaker 1: to be competitive. And look at how Fangrafts projects each
• 20:02
  Speaker 1: of these teams going forward in twenty twenty five, it's
• 20:05
  Speaker 1: quite interesting. They've got the Rangers winning eighty five games,
• 20:10
  Speaker 1: the Mariners also winning eighty five games, and the Astros
• 20:13
  Speaker 1: eighty four. All three teams essentially are projected to have
• 20:16
  Speaker 1: the same record in MLB dot COM's Mike Petriello wrote
• 20:20
  Speaker 1: about this earlier this week, just talking about how rare
• 20:23
  Speaker 1: it is for teams to be projected with such similar records.
• 20:27
  Speaker 1: So I would say, yes, the Texas Rangers definitely have
• 20:30
  Speaker 1: done enough, possibly to overtake Houston the Seattle Mariners by
• 20:34
  Speaker 1: adding Jege Polanco and Donovan Solano haven't done much, but
• 20:37
  Speaker 1: they've got the talent to possibly do it. So this
• 20:40
  Speaker 1: looks like it could be a rather interesting race. And
• 20:44
  Speaker 1: I wouldn't rule out the Angels at least being somewhat
• 20:47
  Speaker 1: competitive and the Sacramento as too. Both those teams have improved.
• 20:52
  Speaker 1: How good they'll be, well, that remains to be seen,
• 20:55
  Speaker 1: all right. The final question this one comes from Pinball
• 20:58
  Speaker 1: Wizard eighth nine, who asks what is the most exciting
• 21:02
  Speaker 1: part of spring training and at what point do you
• 21:04
  Speaker 1: want spring training to be over already? To me, the
• 21:07
  Speaker 1: most exciting part of spring training is the day it begins.
• 21:11
  Speaker 1: Is when camp's open. Hear the crack of the bat,
• 21:15
  Speaker 1: the smell of the grass, You got all that going on,
• 21:17
  Speaker 1: And for me personally, it's just good to see people again.
• 21:22
  Speaker 1: I spend the winter basically on the phone and texting
• 21:25
  Speaker 1: and not really seeing people in person. It's just the
• 21:29
  Speaker 1: nature of it. At the winter meetings, yes we see people,
• 21:31
  Speaker 1: but we don't see players. And once spring training begins,
• 21:34
  Speaker 1: you're in contact with players and managers and coaches and
• 21:38
  Speaker 1: scouts and executives, all the people who are part of
• 21:40
  Speaker 1: the baseball ecosystem. To me, that has always been the
• 21:44
  Speaker 1: best part of the job. The people. I love the
• 21:46
  Speaker 1: people in baseball. Now. As for when I'm ready for
• 21:50
  Speaker 1: it to be over, spring training kind of goes in
• 21:53
  Speaker 1: a cycle. At first, you're just excited to see pictures
• 21:56
  Speaker 1: and catchers out there working out, pictures taking fielding practice.
• 22:01
  Speaker 1: Then after a few days of that, you're kind of
• 22:03
  Speaker 1: anxious for the exhibition games to begin, and then after
• 22:06
  Speaker 1: a few weeks of that, you really want the regular season,
• 22:09
  Speaker 1: the real games to begin. So it's kind of a process.
• 22:13
  Speaker 1: I don't know that I ever get tired of it,
• 22:15
  Speaker 1: but at the same time, you're building towards something. We're
• 22:18
  Speaker 1: building toward the regular season, the games that actually matter.
• 22:22
  Speaker 1: And I'll tell you a little secret about my own
• 22:24
  Speaker 1: coverage of spring training. I rarely watch the games, and
• 22:28
  Speaker 1: there's a reason for that. Over the years, I've kind
• 22:31
  Speaker 1: of gotten fooled watching spring training games, thinking maybe this
• 22:35
  Speaker 1: player is really good, or maybe this player is not
• 22:37
  Speaker 1: so good, And I've learned that spring training games are
• 22:41
  Speaker 1: almost entirely irrelevant. There are times I will go to
• 22:44
  Speaker 1: see a particular picture throw, especially a young pitcher who's
• 22:47
  Speaker 1: coming on, but in general I pay very little attention
• 22:50
  Speaker 1: to what is going on on the field. I want
• 22:52
  Speaker 1: to thank everyone for their questions, thank everyone for watching,
• 22:55
  Speaker 1: for listening. You know where to find us YouTube, Apple, Spotify, subscribe, like,
• 23:00
  Speaker 1: and we will be back Thursday with our normal live
• 23:02
  Speaker 1: show twelve thirty Eastern. Myself and Alana Rizzo. Have a
• 23:06
  Speaker 1: great week everyone.
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