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Did the Mariners make the right manager hire? Award finalists announced, MLB’s latest labor proposal… · Foul Territory

• 0:03
  Speaker 1: I can't believe that you guys let me get away
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: with yesterday's show going two hours and not mentioning one
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: of the option moves that occurred. It's a theme that
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: we've talked about over the last few years. And we've
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: been befuddled sometimes by the interest and the option getting
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: picked up. Yes, there was a bright season about a
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: half a decade ago. The player's fun when he's in
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: his prime and he's thriving and he's healthy, but it's
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: happened for five minutes in his career. It's no offense
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: to him, but Luis Robert has had a massively disappointing
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: career and made a lot of money. The Baltimore Orioles
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: traded for him. He played, I don't even know it
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: was five minutes. It might've been three minutes if we're
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: counting minutes as games and they declined his option. So
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: he gets 2 million bucks. He hits free agency. He's
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: going to sign with the team. I'm not saying that
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: he doesn't deserve to be in the major leagues. It's
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: just that AJ for years, he's looked at as a
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: $ 20 million player and he just was not.
• 1:00
  Speaker 2: Well, it's hard to justify anybody being any kind of
• 1:02
  Speaker 2: player when they can't get on the field. Sorry. If
• 1:06
  Speaker 2: you can't play, you're not worth anything. I mean, yeah,
• 1:10
  Speaker 2: he's ultra talented, but I can find you a million
• 1:12
  Speaker 2: ultra talented guys that can't play. So yeah, if you
• 1:15
  Speaker 2: can't play, it doesn't matter what your talent level is,
• 1:18
  Speaker 2: but excuse me. Yeah. I mean, the Orioles traded for him.
• 1:25
  Speaker 2: I mean, I don't know what they gave up for him,
• 1:27
  Speaker 2: but they had to give up something for him, and
• 1:29
  Speaker 2: I think they thought they'd maybe be able to fix him. But, hey,
• 1:32
  Speaker 2: like many of the Orioles' prospects, they are now no
• 1:35
  Speaker 2: longer Baltimore Orioles, and they maybe should have traded some
• 1:38
  Speaker 2: of these guys a while ago, like we've also discussed.
• 1:41
  Speaker 2: But what do we know?
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: Yeah, right. I mean, playing to that, Kratz, Heston, Kerstad,
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: free agent, DFA cleared waivers, second overall pick in 2020,
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: often disqualified. involved in trade conversations where you'd at least
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: see reports that he was a big guy in the
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: ask and they held tight and he didn't develop.
• 2:05
  Speaker 3: It's tough it's tough it's not look there's plenty of
• 2:09
  Speaker 3: people that don't i'm just trying to look up his
• 2:11
  Speaker 3: stats here there's plenty of people that don't necessarily live
• 2:15
  Speaker 3: up to the hype which is exactly why from i
• 2:20
  Speaker 3: don't know like December 1st to January 30th, we're like, hey,
• 2:27
  Speaker 3: this prospect, all that's good. But, man, if you could
• 2:29
  Speaker 3: upgrade with this player or this pitcher, it would really
• 2:33
  Speaker 3: finish your team off. Credit to the Orioles. They got
• 2:36
  Speaker 3: Corbin Burns. And then at the trade deadline, we do
• 2:38
  Speaker 3: the same thing. And you know what? You get something
• 2:42
  Speaker 3: for the guys that you can get something for when
• 2:44
  Speaker 3: the opportunity for your big league team is to strike.
• 2:49
  Speaker 1: Yep. Well, the Orioles sold at the deadline. Then they
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: added Robert later. I think they thought they.
• 3:00
  Speaker 2: Could fix him. I think they thought they could fix him.
• 3:03
  Speaker 2: And I think that they were like, oh, we'll take
• 3:04
  Speaker 2: a shot. If we can figure him out and we
• 3:06
  Speaker 2: can get him to play, well, we'll pick up his
• 3:08
  Speaker 2: option or it's worth $ 2 million. Instead, they were like, yeah,
• 3:11
  Speaker 2: we figured out like every other team. We'll just give
• 3:13
  Speaker 2: you the $ 2 million.
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: I just remember last year. There was a Mets report,
• 3:20
  Speaker 1: I think from Steve Gelbs on the broadcast. He does
• 3:22
  Speaker 1: a great job that went really in detail. And I
• 3:25
  Speaker 1: sent it to you guys. It was like this elaborate plan.
• 3:28
  Speaker 1: And sure, you're going to try that. But the way
• 3:31
  Speaker 1: it sounded was almost like we know how to fix this.
• 3:36
  Speaker 1: It was so detailed, like. off on Tuesdays and then Thursday. Like,
• 3:40
  Speaker 1: it was so detailed. And I know teams have plans
• 3:42
  Speaker 1: for everyone, but this was like an above and beyond plan,
• 3:45
  Speaker 1: and that's why it was reported on. And then five
• 3:47
  Speaker 1: minutes later, he got hurt. Some guys just can't stay
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: on the field, period.
• 3:53
  Speaker 2: It happens.
• 3:55
  Speaker 3: I'm not going to comment on injuries and hurting, but, like,
• 4:03
  Speaker 3: it's hard to have a lot of injuries in a
• 4:05
  Speaker 3: row when you're putting everything you have into it.
• 4:08
  Speaker 2: Pain? There's a lot of pain. But again, I'm not
• 4:12
  Speaker 2: going to go deeper into that.
• 4:15
  Speaker 3: He'll find another job because there's talent there and he's
• 4:17
  Speaker 3: going to get whatever it is. But you can't, if
• 4:20
  Speaker 3: a guy's only going to get 300 at-bats, you can't
• 4:22
  Speaker 3: like mix and match your entire roster around him. He
• 4:26
  Speaker 3: needs to step up and he could make millions and
• 4:30
  Speaker 3: millions of dollars if he.
• 4:31
  Speaker 2: Stays on the field. Yeah.
• 4:35
  Speaker 1: Oh, yeah, here it was. Two types of off days. Yeah,
• 4:40
  Speaker 1: maybe we'll post it somewhere so that people can see
• 4:43
  Speaker 1: the tweet I was talking about with the specific plan.
• 4:46
  Speaker 1: And again, this isn't on him. I get it. Some
• 4:48
  Speaker 1: guys just can't stay on the field, but just the
• 4:50
  Speaker 1: way that teams were valuing him for a while. So
• 4:53
  Speaker 1: I'm not trying to just crap on the player all day,
• 4:55
  Speaker 1: but he's been a disappointment. All right, let's get to
• 4:58
  Speaker 1: some news.
• 5:00
  Speaker 2: He's charging the mound.
• 5:03
  Speaker 1: Jason Kanzler is the name. The Mariners hire him to
• 5:06
  Speaker 1: be their manager. They spoke to a number of people,
• 5:09
  Speaker 1: and then they ended up coming up with Joe Espada
• 5:11
  Speaker 1: versus Jason Kanzler. Kanzler gets the job. Player development director
• 5:16
  Speaker 1: with the Cubs. Spent a good amount of time with
• 5:18
  Speaker 1: the Astros before that. And with the Astros, he was
• 5:23
  Speaker 1: a minor league hitting coach, hitting coordinator, coach on the
• 5:26
  Speaker 1: big league staff. So he has coaching experience. No manager experience,
• 5:29
  Speaker 1: just like Scott Service. And just like Dan Wilson, who
• 5:34
  Speaker 1: obviously was a highly regarded player in the Mariners organization
• 5:38
  Speaker 1: for a while, but more of a unique path higher.
• 5:41
  Speaker 1: This was traditional versus non-traditional, and they went that route. AJ,
• 5:44
  Speaker 1: what do you think? Wow.
• 5:51
  Speaker 2: Yeah, cool. I mean, I'm just reading his bio. I'm like, okay,
• 5:56
  Speaker 2: so he was teaching high school in physics in 2014.
• 6:03
  Speaker 2: Played college baseball, University of Buffalo. The M's were due
• 6:08
  Speaker 2: to his intelligence, creativity, and intensity. Okay. What about experience
• 6:16
  Speaker 2: and being able to talk to players about experiences? I mean,
• 6:20
  Speaker 2: you know what this is? They said they were going
• 6:22
  Speaker 2: completely the opposite way. The last two guys they had
• 6:24
  Speaker 2: were players. They were players, and they probably had their
• 6:27
  Speaker 2: own ideas. And Jason Kanzler will do any analytical thing
• 6:31
  Speaker 2: that Jerry DiPoto wants. And I think that's what he
• 6:34
  Speaker 2: got here. We'll see how it goes. But I thought
• 6:36
  Speaker 2: for a team that's ready to win and supposed to
• 6:39
  Speaker 2: be ready to win, you should hire a guy that's
• 6:41
  Speaker 2: ready to win, not a guy that needs to learn
• 6:42
  Speaker 2: on the job.
• 6:43
  Speaker 1: Sorry.
• 6:43
  Speaker 2: I don't know Jason Kanzler from Adam. He might be
• 6:46
  Speaker 2: the nicest guy. He might be the greatest manager of
• 6:48
  Speaker 2: all time. But for a team usually that's ready to
• 6:50
  Speaker 2: contend and to win like the Mariners are supposed to be,
• 6:52
  Speaker 2: usually hire a guy with experience because he's been through
• 6:55
  Speaker 2: the learning curve And he's been through the mistakes, as
• 6:58
  Speaker 2: Joe Maddon so eloquently said it on our show. He
• 7:00
  Speaker 2: might work out greatly. All I know is the Bears
• 7:04
  Speaker 2: beat the crap out of the Seahawks last night, 34-17.
• 7:08
  Speaker 2: So bear down, Seattle. That was a great game for you,
• 7:11
  Speaker 2: by the way. Because you were going to win no
• 7:13
  Speaker 2: matter what. I love that for you. That was like
• 7:15
  Speaker 2: the greatest hedge game. But my thing is, Jason Kanzler
• 7:22
  Speaker 2: was part of, I talked to somebody this morning that
• 7:26
  Speaker 2: was also part of that managerial search. And the questions
• 7:31
  Speaker 2: they were asking, the route that they were going, they
• 7:35
  Speaker 2: clearly wanted to cast a wide net that was going
• 7:40
  Speaker 2: to give them so many different points of view.
• 7:44
  Speaker 3: But they were leaning towards this higher because of what
• 7:50
  Speaker 3: the intangible things that the last managers didn't have. Like
• 7:55
  Speaker 3: AJ said, like the things that, you know, experience in
• 8:00
  Speaker 3: different ways of developing players, experience in different ways of
• 8:03
  Speaker 3: all things that I'm like, that's awesome. For the Nats,
• 8:09
  Speaker 3: the Mariners, like you need somebody who's able to get
• 8:12
  Speaker 3: Julio Rodriguez to hit in April. How is that? And
• 8:17
  Speaker 3: maybe the first two managers, they couldn't do it. So
• 8:19
  Speaker 3: maybe this is the route. It's not the route that
• 8:22
  Speaker 3: I would have gone. It doesn't mean it's the right
• 8:25
  Speaker 3: route or the wrong route.
• 8:28
  Speaker 1: Yeah. I'm going to play a little game with you guys,
• 8:30
  Speaker 1: a little both sides game. So I like to try
• 8:32
  Speaker 1: and present what the one side is thinking. Clearly, Jerry
• 8:36
  Speaker 1: DePoto is picking managers that don't have prior manager experience,
• 8:42
  Speaker 1: and that's been a thing for him, or in some
• 8:44
  Speaker 1: cases not a ton of coaching experience or big league
• 8:46
  Speaker 1: coaching experience, all of that. They don't feel like their
• 8:49
  Speaker 1: players have improved enough at the big league level. And
• 8:52
  Speaker 1: they felt like that was one of the separators because
• 8:55
  Speaker 1: this person directly comes from player development. Okay. So I'm
• 8:58
  Speaker 1: just giving you that side of the equation. And hey,
• 9:00
  Speaker 1: we had, for example, the Nats hire just now was
• 9:03
  Speaker 1: unique and they had a pretty good season in terms
• 9:05
  Speaker 1: of developing. That team's in a very different place right now, though.
• 9:07
  Speaker 1: That's a total rebuild team. Okay. Now the other side
• 9:10
  Speaker 1: of the coin. Ready, AJ? I'm just going to name
• 9:13
  Speaker 1: the past like 10 World Series winning managers. Pat Murphy.
• 9:18
  Speaker 1: Dave Roberts, Bruce Bochy, Dusty Baker, Brian Snicker. I'm not
• 9:24
  Speaker 1: going to repeat names because Doc 1 and 20. Dave Martinez,
• 9:27
  Speaker 1: Alex Cora, AJ Hinch, Joe Madden, Ned Yost. I'll stop there.
• 9:31
  Speaker 1: We went back to 2015. How many guys didn't have
• 9:37
  Speaker 1: a ton of experience? They didn't all have direct manager
• 9:40
  Speaker 1: experience right off the jump. I mean, obviously, Hinch, it
• 9:42
  Speaker 1: was his second time through. Most of them have been– No, most–
• 9:47
  Speaker 1: I'm just saying coaches for a.
• 9:49
  Speaker 2: Long time or had already been fired from their job
• 9:51
  Speaker 2: once or twice. And this was their second go-around. Yes.
• 9:56
  Speaker 1: I'm just trying to prevent someone saying, oh, Dave Martinez
• 9:59
  Speaker 1: wasn't a manager before that.
• 10:01
  Speaker 2: No, he was Joe Maddon's bench coach for like 10 years.
• 10:05
  Speaker 1: For life. Exactly. So how did I do? How was
• 10:09
  Speaker 1: that list? Is the industry proving that you don't need
• 10:12
  Speaker 1: someone that has done this for a long time?
• 10:16
  Speaker 2: They don't care, Scott. They think that their formulas can
• 10:20
  Speaker 2: figure it out. I mean, am I wrong, Kratz? I mean,
• 10:24
  Speaker 2: they think that their formulas can make whoever they want.
• 10:27
  Speaker 2: If they have enough analytics people and they put enough
• 10:31
  Speaker 2: people in the right, and they win 54% of the games, sorry,
• 10:34
  Speaker 2: Mariner fans, but if you win 54% of the games
• 10:37
  Speaker 2: and you put your manager in enough spots and you
• 10:39
  Speaker 2: give them enough of the script to go by, then
• 10:42
  Speaker 2: you'll win more games and the manager doesn't matter. This
• 10:45
  Speaker 2: is one of the things, listen, analytics I understand, But
• 10:48
  Speaker 2: I totally disagree with this. Managers matter. They really, really
• 10:51
  Speaker 2: do matter, especially now in a data-driven world where you
• 10:55
  Speaker 2: need people. And I hate to say it like this.
• 10:58
  Speaker 2: I don't know how else to say it, Kratz. But
• 11:00
  Speaker 2: you need people that can tell your players they're okay.
• 11:03
  Speaker 2: Because I have a kid. Kratz, you have kids. I
• 11:05
  Speaker 2: have kids. Kids today, they need to be told repeatedly
• 11:08
  Speaker 2: they're okay and that everything is going to be okay.
• 11:11
  Speaker 2: And you have to have the right guy telling them
• 11:12
  Speaker 2: it's going to be okay at all times. Otherwise, you
• 11:14
  Speaker 2: can lose guys. And that's just the way the game
• 11:17
  Speaker 2: is right now. And, I mean, listen, again, Jason Kanzler,
• 11:20
  Speaker 2: I don't know him at all, but he might be
• 11:22
  Speaker 2: the greatest guy in the world. I don't know this.
• 11:24
  Speaker 2: It's just weird when you have a guy like Joe
• 11:25
  Speaker 2: Espada in your division who's been really good, and you
• 11:28
  Speaker 2: pass over him for a guy who worked underneath him.
• 11:30
  Speaker 3: That's interesting to me. It also could be a money thing.
• 11:34
  Speaker 3: I just feel, I mean, I love what you said. Like,
• 11:36
  Speaker 3: tell them they'll be okay. At some point this year,
• 11:41
  Speaker 3: some of the Brewers players were pissed off at Pat Murphy.
• 11:44
  Speaker 3: Some of them this year needed Pat Murphy. Did he
• 11:48
  Speaker 3: have all the experience to draw from, from his failed
• 11:52
  Speaker 3: college or failed situations that he was coaching in before? Yes,
• 11:58
  Speaker 3: where he can build this team up. That experience helps
• 12:01
  Speaker 3: him grow in those situations. And without that experience, I
• 12:05
  Speaker 3: want them, I want the Mariners to be a really
• 12:07
  Speaker 3: good team. And I think Jerry DiPoto wants them to
• 12:10
  Speaker 3: be a really good team. It just seems like we've
• 12:13
  Speaker 3: lost the North Star of what drives the success at
• 12:18
  Speaker 3: the big league level when you don't have enough experience
• 12:22
  Speaker 3: because it is so tough. I've watched coaches come in
• 12:26
  Speaker 3: and out of the big leagues without experience, and it
• 12:30
  Speaker 3: is like deer in headlights. And I don't feel like
• 12:33
  Speaker 3: this team's window is necessarily like a five-year window that
• 12:38
  Speaker 3: they have. To me, they should be AL West champion
• 12:42
  Speaker 3: this year with a shot at going to the World
• 12:45
  Speaker 3: Series with the pitching staff.
• 12:48
  Speaker 2: By the way, Crouch, there's something I used to always say,
• 12:49
  Speaker 2: and I mean this with all my heart, and you
• 12:52
  Speaker 2: don't have to be an ex-player to be a great coach, okay?
• 12:55
  Speaker 2: You don't. You don't have to be. I mean, there's
• 12:57
  Speaker 2: been some, there's been guys that I had as coaches
• 13:00
  Speaker 2: that never played, or they played some, and they were awesome.
• 13:03
  Speaker 2: And then I had some guys that played in the
• 13:04
  Speaker 2: big leagues, and they weren't very good. But I'll say
• 13:07
  Speaker 2: this about coaches, and this is the one thing I
• 13:10
  Speaker 2: I believe to the bottom of my heart, if you
• 13:12
  Speaker 2: are coaching or managing and you are worried about losing
• 13:15
  Speaker 2: your job, you are not going to be the right
• 13:17
  Speaker 2: guy for any job. I'm sorry, you cannot coach to
• 13:19
  Speaker 2: be worried about keeping your job and you cannot manage
• 13:22
  Speaker 2: to worry about keeping your job. Because if you are,
• 13:24
  Speaker 2: you're not going to be able to give guys the
• 13:26
  Speaker 2: truth and guys will find out and they will not
• 13:28
  Speaker 2: trust you and they will not be able to believe
• 13:31
  Speaker 2: what you're telling them. Kratz, tell me I'm wrong, but
• 13:33
  Speaker 2: to my core, I believe that if you are managing
• 13:36
  Speaker 2: and coaching to keep your job going, you will be
• 13:39
  Speaker 2: unsuccessful as a coach or manager. Preach.
• 13:42
  Speaker 3: I couldn't, you can't sum it up any more than that.
• 13:45
  Speaker 3: It is 100%. And that doesn't take somebody, that doesn't
• 13:49
  Speaker 3: take somebody that's played before. Sometimes people that played before
• 13:54
  Speaker 3: are not the right answer. That is not what we're saying.
• 13:57
  Speaker 3: And it's probably going to get lost on what we
• 13:58
  Speaker 3: said here. But that is, clip that, what you just said.
• 14:03
  Speaker 1: There was a time not long ago, when a team
• 14:06
  Speaker 1: that was rebuilding would hire someone and you kind of
• 14:09
  Speaker 1: knew that it wasn't going to be the guy once
• 14:11
  Speaker 1: they were good. And then they'd come in with like
• 14:13
  Speaker 1: the Joe Maddon, you know, I'm just using the Rick
• 14:15
  Speaker 1: Renterie example, no offense to Rick, but that was a
• 14:19
  Speaker 1: thing for a while.
• 14:20
  Speaker 2: And Joe Maddon, let's not forget Joe Maddon coach. He
• 14:23
  Speaker 2: told us the other day, he was in the angels
• 14:24
  Speaker 2: for like 30 years, minor league coach, minor league manager,
• 14:27
  Speaker 2: minor league coordinator. And then he became, you know, he
• 14:30
  Speaker 2: got to work with Socia for years on the big
• 14:32
  Speaker 2: league bench and, before he came up with all these
• 14:35
  Speaker 2: what we called wacky ideas, which are now ideas, which
• 14:37
  Speaker 2: were kind of outside the box that worked, that he
• 14:40
  Speaker 2: had been able to try and test and fail and
• 14:43
  Speaker 2: try to, you know, make them work. And that's how
• 14:47
  Speaker 2: you learn. I mean, that's why, listen, did, I always
• 14:50
  Speaker 2: want to call him Drew Butera. Did Blake Butera work
• 14:52
  Speaker 2: great in Washington? I guess. But did they have a
• 14:55
  Speaker 2: million bullpen questions and pitching questions they had? Of course,
• 14:58
  Speaker 2: because the number one thing that's hardest to learn is
• 15:01
  Speaker 2: how to deal with a bullpen and how to deal
• 15:02
  Speaker 2: with arms and when to use guys. Guys aren't robots.
• 15:04
  Speaker 2: They need days off. You need to be able to
• 15:05
  Speaker 2: think about three days down the line. And I think
• 15:08
  Speaker 2: that's what veteran managers figure out over time, where you
• 15:10
  Speaker 2: better have one hell of a pitching coach. And also,
• 15:13
  Speaker 2: you know, it's not plug and play. That's the thing
• 15:16
  Speaker 2: that I think people realize over time as managers is
• 15:19
  Speaker 2: it's not plug and play. You just can't plug guys
• 15:21
  Speaker 2: in and they're going to just do exactly what the
• 15:23
  Speaker 2: computer says. And again, analytics are very useful. I don't
• 15:26
  Speaker 2: want people to say, oh, you're anti-analytics. I am not.
• 15:29
  Speaker 2: But it's not plug and play. You have to have
• 15:30
  Speaker 2: a feel for both sides of it.
• 15:41
  Speaker 1: Shake it up.
• 15:42
  Speaker 2: All right.
• 15:42
  Speaker 1: So we have qualifying offers that went out officially soon
• 15:45
  Speaker 1: after we recorded or we did the live show on Monday.
• 15:49
  Speaker 1: We don't record. We're live. Eight players. $ 23. 15 million. Randy Rosarena,
• 15:55
  Speaker 1: Seya Suzuki, Jake Bowers, Brandon Lau, Trevor Rogers, Adrian Morajon,
• 15:59
  Speaker 1: David Bednar, Ryan Jeffers. Not one for Ian Happ, Alec Boehm,
• 16:04
  Speaker 1: Josh Chisholm. Maybe there's some other names that some were
• 16:07
  Speaker 1: thinking about, but most prognosticators pretty much nailed this list. AJ,
• 16:12
  Speaker 1: anything stand out to you about who received or did
• 16:14
  Speaker 1: not receive?
• 16:16
  Speaker 2: Well, Ryan Jeffers to me was a guy that we
• 16:18
  Speaker 2: heard might be traded last year, and he wasn't. Now
• 16:20
  Speaker 2: they're qualifying off from him. I know no one's going
• 16:23
  Speaker 2: to accept this offer, but he would be the one,
• 16:25
  Speaker 2: if I'm looking at this list honestly, that might. $ 23
• 16:29
  Speaker 2: million for a catcher is a lot of money. And
• 16:32
  Speaker 2: he's still relatively young. So I think he would be
• 16:35
  Speaker 2: the one that might. And maybe Jake Bowers. I don't
• 16:37
  Speaker 2: think Jake Bowers will do it, though, because he's a
• 16:39
  Speaker 2: little bit older and won a longer-term deal. But, I mean,
• 16:43
  Speaker 2: no surprises here. There's some teams that are happy that
• 16:46
  Speaker 2: their team didn't offer guys a qualifying offer, so good list.
• 16:51
  Speaker 2: Probably no one's going to accept, and they'll get draft picks. Congratulations, teams.
• 16:54
  Speaker 2: You're going to get draft picks.
• 16:57
  Speaker 3: I would disagree. I think Brandon Lau is 32 years old.
• 17:02
  Speaker 3: I think to make $ 23 million, I get it. He
• 17:04
  Speaker 3: wants to get in, but when you're starting to look
• 17:07
  Speaker 3: at that $ 40 to $ 60 million contract, those are the
• 17:13
  Speaker 3: guys that clearly have been hurt by the qualifying offer
• 17:16
  Speaker 3: because teams don't want to give up that draft pick.
• 17:19
  Speaker 3: So when I look at Jake Bowers, again, I agree
• 17:22
  Speaker 3: with you with Jeffers. And I look at Brandon Lau, too.
• 17:27
  Speaker 3: Maybe even a Seiya Suzuki. I think Seiya might be
• 17:31
  Speaker 3: just a tick outside that window. But I think there's
• 17:35
  Speaker 3: going to be a chance. And even Trevor Rodgers. I
• 17:38
  Speaker 3: think Trevor Rodgers is He kind of faded down the
• 17:41
  Speaker 3: stretch last year. He wasn't as dominant as he was
• 17:44
  Speaker 3: the year before. He has age on his side a
• 17:47
  Speaker 3: little bit.
• 17:47
  Speaker 2: Pitchers get a little bit longer contracts. I don't think
• 17:50
  Speaker 2: they're all going to decline it.
• 17:55
  Speaker 1: I could see one.
• 17:57
  Speaker 2: Say Suzuki, the fact that we're already hearing stuff about
• 18:02
  Speaker 2: him getting offers, that takes Say Suzuki out right away.
• 18:05
  Speaker 2: I mean, the fact that there's already teams we're hearing
• 18:07
  Speaker 2: about interested in the Blue Jays. He's already like– why
• 18:09
  Speaker 2: would I take this qualifying offer? I already have teams
• 18:11
  Speaker 2: talking about me. So I think he's the one that's
• 18:14
  Speaker 2: for sure out. I mean, I could see Lowe and Bowers,
• 18:17
  Speaker 2: but I think Bowers and Lowe are going to try
• 18:19
  Speaker 2: and chase a multi-year deal because of what you said.
• 18:21
  Speaker 2: They are older, and I think that they're going to
• 18:23
  Speaker 2: be expecting to get a bigger contract now while they
• 18:28
  Speaker 2: have one last shot at the Apple. I hear that.
• 18:32
  Speaker 2: I hear what you're saying. I see both sides.
• 18:34
  Speaker 3: My biggest thing is how teams have interacted well with
• 18:39
  Speaker 3: that player that is 40 to 60, 30 to 55 million. Like,
• 18:46
  Speaker 3: are we willing to give up a first-round pick for
• 18:51
  Speaker 3: this player, this contract?
• 18:54
  Speaker 2: I agree. I don't know.
• 18:56
  Speaker 1: Also, I don't know if Seah's gotten offers. Are you
• 18:59
  Speaker 1: talking about when Ken was asked about him being linked
• 19:03
  Speaker 1: to the Blue Jays as a fit? The point is,
• 19:05
  Speaker 1: he's going to have plenty of interest. Say Suzuki's not
• 19:07
  Speaker 1: taking $ 23 million. He's going to make more than that,
• 19:10
  Speaker 1: and a team will pay for that. Also, look at
• 19:13
  Speaker 1: the market. This is not a strong free agent class.
• 19:17
  Speaker 1: That will help some of these guys. This is a
• 19:19
  Speaker 1: very weak position player class. That will help these guys, right? True.
• 19:26
  Speaker 2: Yes. Yes.
• 19:28
  Speaker 3: But it's still really where you see them falling into
• 19:32
  Speaker 3: that what type of contract. Because teams are so unwilling
• 19:37
  Speaker 3: to give up that draft pick. And then they're getting
• 19:41
  Speaker 3: less and less.
• 19:44
  Speaker 2: Right.
• 19:44
  Speaker 1: And then when every player gets a value and a
• 19:49
  Speaker 1: player with a qualifying offer is looking at the market
• 19:52
  Speaker 1: and saying, well, why is my number lower? Some teams
• 19:56
  Speaker 1: put a high number on that draft pick they're giving up.
• 19:58
  Speaker 1: Point is that could carry into post lockout. And I
• 20:03
  Speaker 1: think that's actually the biggest factor here. I think one
• 20:06
  Speaker 1: of the most underrated components of the next few weeks
• 20:08
  Speaker 1: is is how many players would feel more comfortable locking
• 20:11
  Speaker 1: in a spot. We always talk about how certain players
• 20:14
  Speaker 1: absolutely despise signing in February, March, whatever it is, right?
• 20:18
  Speaker 1: This is an extreme case. I mean, we might have
• 20:21
  Speaker 1: a unique scenario where all of a sudden the lockout
• 20:25
  Speaker 1: ends in whatever month, March, April, May, and players have
• 20:29
  Speaker 1: to be at ballparks in five minutes. And you guys
• 20:31
  Speaker 1: know about the scramble behind the scenes to make all
• 20:33
  Speaker 1: of that happen, right? So if you're a player that's like, hey,
• 20:36
  Speaker 1: I can make 23 or Let's say it's Jeffers and
• 20:40
  Speaker 1: the market thinks he's a three at 40 mil. Maybe
• 20:44
  Speaker 1: he's like, you know what? I'll take the 23 and
• 20:46
  Speaker 1: bank on myself and get this locked in and then
• 20:49
  Speaker 1: have another good season. And then maybe I can get
• 20:52
  Speaker 1: that 340 the next year and end up making more money.
• 20:55
  Speaker 1: So there's a few ways to look at it. I'm
• 20:56
  Speaker 1: with you guys. I think one or two tops out
• 21:00
  Speaker 1: of this list. Yeah.
• 21:04
  Speaker 2: We'll see. We'll see. We'll see. I don't know. You
• 21:07
  Speaker 2: just never know. I mean, last year was pretty obvious.
• 21:10
  Speaker 2: Trent Christian was like, huh, $ 20 million? I'll take that.
• 21:13
  Speaker 2: To go back to the Yankees where I had a
• 21:14
  Speaker 2: good time? Duh. There's not an obvious lock for me
• 21:19
  Speaker 2: on this one this year, though.
• 21:22
  Speaker 1: Who would you say is most likely Jeffers, you guys think,
• 21:25
  Speaker 1: on this list to take it? A $ 23 million catcher?
• 21:32
  Speaker 3: I mean, right when I saw it come out, it
• 21:34
  Speaker 3: was Brandon Lyle for me. He went to Pittsburgh. He
• 21:39
  Speaker 3: hit 30-plus dingers. The fact that he's 32, he'll play
• 21:44
  Speaker 3: his 33 season. Does he have a three-year deal coming
• 21:48
  Speaker 3: to him? And would that three-year deal pay him $ 50 million?
• 21:53
  Speaker 3: Or does he have three one-year deals and can he
• 21:57
  Speaker 3: get $ 20 million a year after next year? Because he
• 22:00
  Speaker 3: improved his defense too. He has extra value than just
• 22:04
  Speaker 3: his offensive output that he put out there this year.
• 22:10
  Speaker 1: It's crazy. Even with Bowers, I mean, dude was basically done.
• 22:14
  Speaker 1: And then now he's going to say 23 mil on
• 22:18
  Speaker 1: a qualifying offer. I'm good. The one other guy I
• 22:20
  Speaker 1: wanted to ask you about AJ is Trevor Rogers. I
• 22:24
  Speaker 1: appear on radio in Baltimore a lot. We've got the
• 22:27
  Speaker 1: Orioles show that's talked about him a lot. And Trevor's
• 22:30
  Speaker 1: been pretty public. I don't know if there's been anything
• 22:31
  Speaker 1: in the last month. I guess I'm guessing no, but
• 22:34
  Speaker 1: He wanted to stay. And I think he said they
• 22:37
  Speaker 1: never even spoke to him, like no offer, no conversation,
• 22:40
  Speaker 1: no nothing. Right. Because sometimes it's like, hey, a player
• 22:42
  Speaker 1: says he wants to stay, but he's asking for a
• 22:44
  Speaker 1: lot and they're not on the same page. So I'm
• 22:46
  Speaker 1: just curious, like Baltimore gives him the qualifying offer. So
• 22:49
  Speaker 1: clearly they're interested in bringing him back. If you had
• 22:51
  Speaker 1: no interest at all, you don't give that out. Right.
• 22:54
  Speaker 1: So just curious, like why they wouldn't have tried to say, hey,
• 22:57
  Speaker 1: let's try and get something done for three or four years.
• 23:01
  Speaker 2: Or they just want the draft pick. We know how
• 23:03
  Speaker 2: much Baltimore loves draft picks and prospects. So maybe they're
• 23:06
  Speaker 2: thinking Trevor Rogers isn't going to accept it. And we'll
• 23:08
  Speaker 2: get it. We'll get us another draft pick that we
• 23:10
  Speaker 2: can DFA in a couple of years and get nothing
• 23:13
  Speaker 2: for them. Like here's to like Mountcastle, like those guys.
• 23:16
  Speaker 2: I don't know. Scott, I don't know why teams do
• 23:18
  Speaker 2: what they do. If I knew that I'd be a
• 23:20
  Speaker 2: general manager and I'd hopefully have a couple of world
• 23:22
  Speaker 2: series under my belt as a general manager. I don't
• 23:24
  Speaker 2: know why teams do what they do. And I'm sure,
• 23:27
  Speaker 2: At some point, Mike Elias and the new GM, his
• 23:30
  Speaker 2: name just went out of my mind, that they just
• 23:32
  Speaker 2: hired will maybe come out and say, hey, we offered
• 23:34
  Speaker 2: him this because of A, B, and C.
• 23:37
  Speaker 1: Yeah, Jared Banner, by the way. Jared Banner, just to
• 23:40
  Speaker 1: get the name out there, GM.
• 23:41
  Speaker 2: Yep. Great. What a great name, Jared Banner.
• 23:44
  Speaker 3: But his ERA Plus, besides last season, not this past season,
• 23:51
  Speaker 3: he was essentially league average.
• 23:53
  Speaker 2: It was a 221.
• 23:54
  Speaker 3: So do they think that they offered the qualifying offer
• 23:57
  Speaker 3: because he is what he was last year, 2025, or
• 24:01
  Speaker 3: he is what he was this year in 2026 because
• 24:04
  Speaker 3: I don't think they would have offered him the qualifying offer.
• 24:06
  Speaker 3: That's why I brought his name up originally as possibly
• 24:09
  Speaker 3: somebody that could accept it. That's 23 million. He'll still
• 24:16
  Speaker 3: be able to go to be a free agent the
• 24:17
  Speaker 3: next year at 30. Plenty of pitchers coming off much
• 24:21
  Speaker 3: better years than he has this year. get a six-year
• 24:25
  Speaker 3: deal at age 30.
• 24:29
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 24:30
  Speaker 2: Agreed.
• 24:32
  Speaker 1: The Yankees one's interesting, too, because we went from– I mean,
• 24:36
  Speaker 1: I think Jazz Chisholm's stock has dropped a lot, right?
• 24:39
  Speaker 1: I mean, I think most people would have anticipated a
• 24:42
  Speaker 1: qualifying offer. I do think a little bit of this
• 24:45
  Speaker 1: has to do with the Yankees giving Trent Grisham the
• 24:47
  Speaker 1: qualifying offer and thinking that he was going to reject it,
• 24:51
  Speaker 1: and then he took it. And so they're looking at
• 24:54
  Speaker 1: jazz thinking, you know, we're ready to move on and
• 24:58
  Speaker 1: there is always a chance. But I mean, realistically, I
• 25:02
  Speaker 1: know obviously jazz is very eccentric and always says crazy quotes,
• 25:05
  Speaker 1: but you know, hundreds of millions of dollars and then
• 25:07
  Speaker 1: the Yankees are worried he's going to take 23 mil.
• 25:09
  Speaker 1: So just a big difference there, but all right, let's
• 25:13
  Speaker 1: move on. Let's get to our next guest. Hold on.
• 25:16
  Speaker 2: Sorry. Before we get, sorry, before we get to him,
• 25:17
  Speaker 2: but before we get to Spencer, Spencer, I mean, Jim
• 25:20
  Speaker 2: Bowden said it yesterday. He didn't want Jazz. He's like,
• 25:22
  Speaker 2: I don't want Jazz on my team. So maybe there's
• 25:24
  Speaker 2: a bunch of teams out there. And the Yankees were like, whoa, whoa, whoa.
• 25:27
  Speaker 2: We're not going to offer him the one spot at
• 25:30
  Speaker 2: $ 23 million. And listen, again, Jazz is a nice player.
• 25:33
  Speaker 2: But Jim Bowden said, I didn't say it, but maybe
• 25:36
  Speaker 2: there's other teams out there. And this is all speculation.
• 25:38
  Speaker 2: They're like, I don't know that we want to offer
• 25:40
  Speaker 2: Jazz that big of a contract. He might have to
• 25:42
  Speaker 2: go on one of them prove-it deals. And $ 23 million
• 25:45
  Speaker 2: isn't a prove-it deal.
• 25:47
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I think what hurt him the most in terms
• 25:49
  Speaker 1: of perception is being pissed about not playing in a
• 25:53
  Speaker 1: playoff game, stuff like that. It just doesn't play well.
• 25:56
  Speaker 1: You can feel that way to death. You've got to
• 25:58
  Speaker 1: fake it. I know he likes to be real, and
• 26:00
  Speaker 1: we love players being real, but that's the one time
• 26:03
  Speaker 1: where you've got to at least fake that you're a
• 26:05
  Speaker 1: team player and you want whatever's best. And if the
• 26:07
  Speaker 1: team thinks that's best, that's fine. That's my take. I
• 26:09
  Speaker 1: think that really did resonate in the industry. Hot corner. So...
• 26:18
  Speaker 1: Votes come in at the end of the season for awards.
• 26:21
  Speaker 1: And then what we just learned is the top three.
• 26:24
  Speaker 1: It's not like anything changes here. I see that sometimes
• 26:27
  Speaker 1: where people are like, oh, well, who's going to get picked?
• 26:29
  Speaker 1: Like you don't re-vote. So we got a top three
• 26:31
  Speaker 1: here from all of the categories, rookie of the year,
• 26:33
  Speaker 1: manager of the year, reliever of the year, which is
• 26:36
  Speaker 1: a new one. There was a different reliever of the
• 26:38
  Speaker 1: year award, but this is the main one now from
• 26:40
  Speaker 1: the writers, just like they do for Cy Young, MVP
• 26:44
  Speaker 1: and all of that. So where shall we begin? Well,
• 26:47
  Speaker 1: we know that MVP is pretty easy here. Pete Carr
• 26:52
  Speaker 1: Armstrong's had this thing wrapped up for months, right? And
• 26:55
  Speaker 1: I know what, Bowdoin was one of the few that
• 26:58
  Speaker 1: I think was calling for Junior Caminero over Yardan Alvarez,
• 27:00
  Speaker 1: and Junior looks like a clear-cut number two.
• 27:02
  Speaker 2: You know what I find awesome, Krabs? Parker Messick is
• 27:06
  Speaker 2: going to finish in the top three in Cy Young,
• 27:07
  Speaker 2: and they would only let him pitch two innings in
• 27:09
  Speaker 2: the playoffs because they didn't trust him. But he's going
• 27:11
  Speaker 2: to finish top three in the Cy Young as a rookie,
• 27:14
  Speaker 2: but they didn't trust him enough. He's also in for
• 27:17
  Speaker 2: the rookie. He's going to finish top three, rookie of
• 27:19
  Speaker 2: the year, top three in Cy Young, but they only
• 27:21
  Speaker 2: let him pitch an inning or two in the postseason.
• 27:23
  Speaker 2: I found that very interesting. But most of these are
• 27:25
  Speaker 2: pretty easy. It's when you get into the manager of
• 27:28
  Speaker 2: the year ones that it gets a little tougher for me.
• 27:33
  Speaker 2: Manager of the year, is it Will Venable? Is it
• 27:35
  Speaker 2: Chad Tracy who came in the middle of the year
• 27:36
  Speaker 2: in the AL? Reliever of the year, Brian Baker and
• 27:39
  Speaker 2: Kate Smith tied for saves. Louis Varlin pitched every day.
• 27:42
  Speaker 2: And those are where it gets interesting. Rookies of the
• 27:45
  Speaker 2: year is going to be McGonigal in the AL. National
• 27:49
  Speaker 2: League is going to be– it should be Sal Stewart.
• 27:53
  Speaker 2: And then the rest of them, I mean, Cy Youngs
• 27:55
  Speaker 2: we have, MVPs we have. It's just when you get
• 27:57
  Speaker 2: into the more lesser defined kind of awards is where
• 28:00
  Speaker 2: it gets interesting. By the way, I thought nobody even
• 28:05
  Speaker 2: really knows this. I get it.
• 28:07
  Speaker 3: He's not going to get any first place votes. But
• 28:10
  Speaker 3: Bobby Witt. Bobby Witt's a top three again. Bobby Witt
• 28:13
  Speaker 3: missed a little bit of the season too. I picked
• 28:17
  Speaker 3: him as the MVP at the beginning of the year.
• 28:18
  Speaker 3: I think I'm probably going to pick him again next
• 28:20
  Speaker 3: year because he's just always hanging around. Like he's always,
• 28:24
  Speaker 3: I get it. He's only top three. But to me,
• 28:28
  Speaker 3: I don't think anybody saw that coming midway through the year.
• 28:32
  Speaker 3: And he just continues to put out just ridiculous. I mean,
• 28:37
  Speaker 3: war is his friend for sure.
• 28:39
  Speaker 2: Yeah. All of those numbers.
• 28:40
  Speaker 3: 18 homers, 54 stakes, 281, 800 OPS. People are going
• 28:45
  Speaker 3: to be like, eh, 45 stolen bases. He's got the
• 28:51
  Speaker 3: defense that goes, like, anyway.
• 28:54
  Speaker 2: I get it.
• 28:54
  Speaker 3: He's only a number three. I think he's a far
• 28:57
  Speaker 3: number three, but he is in the number three. He's
• 29:00
  Speaker 3: number three right there. And the other one is Carson
• 29:02
  Speaker 3: Bench for me in the National League. I heard what
• 29:05
  Speaker 3: his words were, and I get it. You look at
• 29:10
  Speaker 3: Carson Bench, Bobby Witt on the other side would say,
• 29:14
  Speaker 3: you know what, I'm putting up MVP type of numbers.
• 29:17
  Speaker 3: Carson Bench is putting up those types of numbers compared
• 29:20
  Speaker 3: to the rookies of the year. And he's not going
• 29:23
  Speaker 3: to win it. I think Sal Stewart's going to win it.
• 29:26
  Speaker 3: But he has a very valid case and it leans
• 29:32
  Speaker 3: towards the overall type of player. Murakami's not in the
• 29:37
  Speaker 3: American League and Murakami had 35 pumps like Sal Stewart did.
• 29:42
  Speaker 3: He had quite a few less RBIs, but he had
• 29:45
  Speaker 3: it in less games too. So it's a good discussion.
• 29:48
  Speaker 3: It's a fun discussion. And Carson Bench should get more
• 29:51
  Speaker 3: votes than I think a lot of people would have
• 29:54
  Speaker 3: originally thought of.
• 29:56
  Speaker 2: Oh, yeah.
• 29:56
  Speaker 1: Bench has some similar offensive numbers to Bobby Witt. The
• 30:00
  Speaker 1: slash line was pretty close. The homers, RBIs, obviously a
• 30:04
  Speaker 1: little less on stolen bases. And Bobby Witt's the best
• 30:06
  Speaker 1: shortstop defender. Top three shortstop if you want to make debates.
• 30:11
  Speaker 1: Top three shortstop defender. One thing to go back to, too,
• 30:13
  Speaker 1: from the beginning, because I think you're going to hear it,
• 30:16
  Speaker 1: not that you care, AJ. Parker Messick did give the
• 30:20
  Speaker 1: Guardians a five inning and a four and a third.
• 30:23
  Speaker 1: But yeah, he also had a two and a two
• 30:25
  Speaker 1: and a third in his starts in the postseason. So
• 30:28
  Speaker 1: just throwing that out there.
• 30:31
  Speaker 2: Yeah. But I, how do you lean on your best?
• 30:36
  Speaker 2: How do you lean on your best pitchers in the
• 30:39
  Speaker 2: post season? Like he's going to be a top, he's
• 30:42
  Speaker 2: a top three in the Cy Young. If you say
• 30:44
  Speaker 2: before the year, okay, we have Gavin Williams and then
• 30:47
  Speaker 2: we have another pitcher who's going to be top three
• 30:49
  Speaker 2: in the Cy Young for the season. I think what
• 30:52
  Speaker 2: AJ saying and AJ tell me if I'm wrong, like,
• 30:56
  Speaker 2: You can lean on this guy when he gets in
• 30:57
  Speaker 2: a little bit of trouble. It's not just, hey, rookie,
• 31:01
  Speaker 2: got to take him out type of thing. Or maybe
• 31:03
  Speaker 2: that's not what you're saying. No, it was. It's exactly
• 31:06
  Speaker 2: what I was saying, Cratch. It was exactly what I
• 31:08
  Speaker 2: was saying. They didn't trust him at all. I mean,
• 31:11
  Speaker 2: it's surprising to me that they just didn't trust him.
• 31:13
  Speaker 2: I mean, those– by the way, those numbers you showed
• 31:16
  Speaker 2: were earlier in the postseason. And as the postseason got deeper,
• 31:19
  Speaker 2: I think, Scott, when they got to the LCS is
• 31:21
  Speaker 2: when he went two and two and a third, by
• 31:23
  Speaker 2: the way. And that's also– No, no. No, those were
• 31:26
  Speaker 2: the earlier starts?
• 31:28
  Speaker 1: Well, no, I mean, it was every other. So DS,
• 31:30
  Speaker 1: he was four and a third against the White Sox.
• 31:32
  Speaker 1: Then the two and a third where they pulled him early.
• 31:36
  Speaker 1: Then the CS was five innings. He went against the
• 31:39
  Speaker 1: Rays in game two. And then in game five, he
• 31:43
  Speaker 1: went two innings.
• 31:44
  Speaker 2: That's what I have for his position. They didn't trust
• 31:47
  Speaker 2: him when the series was on the line. They trusted
• 31:48
  Speaker 2: him when they could lose and still be alive.
• 31:52
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and I think, I mean, if you look at
• 31:55
  Speaker 1: what the guardians do, there were definitely some serious question
• 31:58
  Speaker 1: marks about how everything played out.
• 32:01
  Speaker 2: Right.
• 32:01
  Speaker 1: I mean, you're so excited and anxious to get to
• 32:04
  Speaker 1: the bullpen. And at the first sign of trouble, this
• 32:06
  Speaker 1: is what you guys are alluding to. You're going to
• 32:08
  Speaker 1: pull the guy because the bullpen is so good, but
• 32:11
  Speaker 1: that can create issues. And they lost to a team
• 32:14
  Speaker 1: that actually really let their starters eat the rays. Right. Yeah.
• 32:22
  Speaker 1: So that was part of it, but. I mean, also
• 32:24
  Speaker 1: in fairness, they did mention this. I mean, you know
• 32:27
  Speaker 1: Voter well, Kratz. Like, Parker Messick pitched a lot this year.
• 32:31
  Speaker 1: In today's world, he pitched a lot for his first season.
• 32:35
  Speaker 3: Look, I trust Voter to be understanding the analytics. I
• 32:41
  Speaker 3: also trust him to be able to understand what's going on,
• 32:44
  Speaker 3: use his eye out on the mound.
• 32:46
  Speaker 2: So maybe I lean towards trusting him. But, again, like there's– Obviously,
• 32:55
  Speaker 2: the series doesn't hinge on that one thing. The series
• 32:57
  Speaker 2: hinged on the fact that the Guardians' bats just shut down.
• 33:02
  Speaker 2: They shut down, and they had an opportunity. They could
• 33:05
  Speaker 2: have been up 3-0 in that series, and as soon
• 33:07
  Speaker 2: as the Rays had that rainout, and Jose Ramirez's error
• 33:12
  Speaker 2: gave them game two, they were down 2-1, the rainout,
• 33:15
  Speaker 2: and then the bats just came alive against what I
• 33:18
  Speaker 2: thought was kind of a more sleepy team. exhausted bullpen
• 33:23
  Speaker 2: that was overused. The other one that I wanted to
• 33:26
  Speaker 2: hit on was the clear third place finisher for the
• 33:31
  Speaker 2: MVP in the National League, Bryce Terang. Just saying. That's
• 33:37
  Speaker 2: so impressive from him. Again, another war darling that I
• 33:41
  Speaker 2: think is really starting to elevate his power game that
• 33:47
  Speaker 2: could push him. Could he be a 30 homer guy?
• 33:51
  Speaker 3: And does that, with his platinum glove defense, does that
• 33:56
  Speaker 3: get him an MVP one day?
• 33:58
  Speaker 1: I don't know.
• 34:00
  Speaker 2: He's only 26.
• 34:01
  Speaker 1: 100 stakes, too. And the Brewers had a great offense,
• 34:06
  Speaker 1: so you've got to have the opportunities. But yeah, all-around player,
• 34:09
  Speaker 1: same thing. All-around player, just like you were referring to
• 34:11
  Speaker 1: with Bobby Witt. And AJ, I know we've done this before.
• 34:14
  Speaker 2: RBIs don't matter, Scott.
• 34:16
  Speaker 1: Sometimes they don't. They selectively matter. Sometimes they do. Sometimes
• 34:20
  Speaker 1: they don't. If you need to drive in a run
• 34:21
  Speaker 1: to win a World Series game, they matter. We've talked
• 34:27
  Speaker 1: about this where wins above replacement can be looked at
• 34:30
  Speaker 1: too much for certain awards, including MVP for sure. Even
• 34:34
  Speaker 1: writers and super analytic nerds will be like, make sure
• 34:37
  Speaker 1: you look at the whole package. I actually think the
• 34:40
  Speaker 1: number being simplified has helped players like Bryce Terang get
• 34:44
  Speaker 1: more recognition. And I know it's not a perfect science
• 34:48
  Speaker 1: with defense, but defensive metrics, being weighed in two wins
• 34:52
  Speaker 1: above replacement, especially in the last 10, 15 years, I
• 34:56
  Speaker 1: think has really helped us recognize someone like Bryce Terang.
• 35:01
  Speaker 1: And even Bobby Witt, for that matter. To make sure
• 35:03
  Speaker 1: that we recognize how impactful those guys are on defense.
• 35:06
  Speaker 1: And guess what? A lot of the best teams in
• 35:08
  Speaker 1: the sport are playing sick defense. And I get it,
• 35:11
  Speaker 1: the Brewers had a decent amount of errors in the postseason,
• 35:13
  Speaker 1: but The amount of sick plays that they made, the
• 35:16
  Speaker 1: amount of ground that they cover is special. You're not
• 35:18
  Speaker 1: going to be perfect, right? But I do like the
• 35:22
  Speaker 1: fact that we are valuing defense with this statistic a
• 35:25
  Speaker 1: little bit more. If there are going to be people
• 35:27
  Speaker 1: lazy going off one stat, I like the fact that
• 35:30
  Speaker 1: it's doing a pretty good job of finding defenders that
• 35:32
  Speaker 1: are making an impact on the sport. Do you agree?
• 35:35
  Speaker 2: I mean, I think it's weighed a little bit heavily,
• 35:39
  Speaker 2: but that's my opinion. I think war is... War is
• 35:42
  Speaker 2: a good staff, but I don't think it's the end-all,
• 35:43
  Speaker 2: be-all like we're starting to treat it as. It's just
• 35:47
  Speaker 2: my opinion, and my opinion stinks.
• 35:50
  Speaker 1: Let's finish on a fun note. AJ, if you're Bryce
• 35:52
  Speaker 1: Terang and you've got to do the award show, but
• 35:55
  Speaker 1: you know obviously that you're not winning, how do you
• 35:59
  Speaker 1: play it on the interviews? Like, hey, we've got our
• 36:01
  Speaker 1: top three. We're excited to announce the winner of MVP,
• 36:05
  Speaker 1: which we all know is going to be Pete Crowe-Armstrong.
• 36:08
  Speaker 2: Do you have fun with it? It's the same in
• 36:10
  Speaker 2: the American League, isn't it?
• 36:12
  Speaker 1: Yeah. It's the same with the Cy Youngs too.
• 36:14
  Speaker 2: With Bobby Witt. You're like, oh, cool. I got third place. Like, cool.
• 36:18
  Speaker 2: I mean, I guess it helps him. He probably made
• 36:20
  Speaker 2: some money. But I guarantee if he has Bobby Witt,
• 36:22
  Speaker 2: he ain't real happy with the year he had.
• 36:25
  Speaker 1: Nope. No, no. The Royals had a terrible year. But,
• 36:29
  Speaker 1: you know, if you're Christopher Sanchez and you're like, hey,
• 36:31
  Speaker 1: you know, how much would it mean to you to
• 36:33
  Speaker 1: win Cy Young? We're like, I'm not winning. but it's
• 36:40
  Speaker 1: a great honor.
• 36:40
  Speaker 2: That might be the best.
• 36:43
  Speaker 3: Have we ever had a unanimous one, two, three, like
• 36:47
  Speaker 3: where Christopher Sanchez gets all the third place votes, sale
• 36:50
  Speaker 3: gets all the second place votes and the minutes gets
• 36:53
  Speaker 3: all the first place.
• 36:55
  Speaker 1: I bet we haven't. And I bet you that we
• 36:57
  Speaker 1: won't because somebody will be a little bit of dancing. Yeah. Okay.
• 37:02
  Speaker 2: Somebody will, somebody will vote in, somebody will vote for
• 37:04
  Speaker 2: somebody in third place or something. Yeah. Three guys. I agree.
• 37:10
  Speaker 1: But let's see. We'll get the results next week in
• 37:13
  Speaker 1: terms of, yeah, the intrigue is not the top spot.
• 37:16
  Speaker 1: The intrigue is to see how the voting played out
• 37:18
  Speaker 1: the rest of the way since we already know who
• 37:20
  Speaker 1: won some of the big awards. Reliever of the Year
• 37:22
  Speaker 1: could have some intrigue to finish up here. Duran, McGill, Miller. Well,
• 37:29
  Speaker 1: I guess on that side, Mason Miller is going to
• 37:30
  Speaker 1: win that one. But on the American League side, you've
• 37:33
  Speaker 1: got Cade Smith, Louis Varlin, Brian Baker. That one's a
• 37:35
  Speaker 1: little bit more of a debate, right?
• 37:38
  Speaker 2: Mm-hmm.
• 37:39
  Speaker 1: We could have some fun with that one. Three great
• 37:42
  Speaker 1: relievers this year. All right, let's slap a couple little options.
• 37:58
  Speaker 1: Not little. I mean, they're big for the players involved,
• 38:00
  Speaker 1: but news. And then we'll finish with some CBA news
• 38:04
  Speaker 1: since it's always AJ's request to finish that way. But
• 38:07
  Speaker 1: a few things did emerge. while the show's been happening.
• 38:10
  Speaker 1: Blue Jays declined Myles Straw's option, $ 8 million for 2027.
• 38:14
  Speaker 1: He got to pay out for $ 1. 75 million. Guardians are
• 38:19
  Speaker 1: covering that. Remember this trade when the Blue Jays were
• 38:23
  Speaker 1: trying to find more money for Roki Suzuki? Do you
• 38:25
  Speaker 1: remember that hole? Where will Roki go? And then Straw
• 38:29
  Speaker 1: actually ended up being... Yeah, but Straw ended up actually
• 38:32
  Speaker 1: being a nice contributor to the Blue Jays. And they
• 38:34
  Speaker 1: loved him, apparently. They loved him. Like... great in the
• 38:38
  Speaker 1: clubhouse obviously had two years ago a pretty good year
• 38:42
  Speaker 1: and uh it was looked at as a money dump
• 38:44
  Speaker 1: for cleveland so worked out for its time period um
• 38:48
  Speaker 1: and maybe they bring him back on on less than
• 38:49
  Speaker 1: eight yuki matsui uh not opting out of his contract
• 38:54
  Speaker 1: he had a pretty underrated nice year too aj yuki
• 38:58
  Speaker 1: for the uh for the.
• 38:59
  Speaker 2: Really good year check his numbers yeah i mean he
• 39:02
  Speaker 2: didn't pitch in very high leverage but the padres pitched
• 39:04
  Speaker 2: him in good situations and He did a really nice job.
• 39:08
  Speaker 2: He had barely a two ERA for the whole year.
• 39:11
  Speaker 2: He figured something out. He struggled for a couple of years,
• 39:13
  Speaker 2: but he figured something out this year. So yeah, of
• 39:15
  Speaker 2: course he wants to go back. Who doesn't want to
• 39:16
  Speaker 2: go back to San Diego?
• 39:19
  Speaker 1: And doesn't want to test the market. No, I'm with you.
• 39:21
  Speaker 1: I mean, good team.
• 39:22
  Speaker 2: They have 40,000 fans a night. They're always pretty, recently
• 39:25
  Speaker 2: they've been pretty decent. San Diego is not a terrible
• 39:28
  Speaker 2: place to live. I mean. who wouldn't want to go
• 39:31
  Speaker 2: san diego is easy to get to japan if he
• 39:33
  Speaker 2: wants to shoot to japan too so yep who wouldn't
• 39:35
  Speaker 2: want to.
• 39:35
  Speaker 1: Go six and a half million bucks for 27 seven
• 39:38
  Speaker 1: million dollar player option he still holds for the next
• 39:40
  Speaker 1: year 2028 tigers declined kenley jansen's 12 mil he'll get
• 39:45
  Speaker 1: a two million dollar payout He's at 498 for career saves, too.
• 39:49
  Speaker 1: I mean, he's still going to pitch. He just isn't 12,
• 39:54
  Speaker 1: according to the Tigers.
• 39:57
  Speaker 2: Nats.
• 39:59
  Speaker 1: You like that for the Nats? That's a good one.
• 40:02
  Speaker 2: What did Spencer say? They're looking for cheaper-ish. He's going
• 40:06
  Speaker 2: to be cheaper.
• 40:07
  Speaker 1: He wants to close.
• 40:09
  Speaker 2: Of course. And according to Spencer, they're not ready to
• 40:13
  Speaker 2: compete next year, so they'll give him the opportunity to
• 40:16
  Speaker 2: get his saves. I like that.
• 40:21
  Speaker 1: We mentioned this quickly yesterday, Jacob Webb, one-year deal. I
• 40:25
  Speaker 1: didn't realize this. Bob posted it. Led the Cubs in appearances, innings, saves, strikeouts,
• 40:30
  Speaker 1: all that. So nice year for him. He's back on
• 40:34
  Speaker 1: a couple mil.
• 40:35
  Speaker 2: Yeah. What a stat. All right.
• 40:41
  Speaker 1: You guys ready for the CBA news? You want to
• 40:43
  Speaker 1: show the tweets back-to-back here? Nope.
• 40:46
  Speaker 2: Okay, good.
• 40:47
  Speaker 1: Let's run it.
• 40:48
  Speaker 2: I love them.
• 40:49
  Speaker 1: All right, so Jeff Passan posted within the last hour
• 40:53
  Speaker 1: here on the show, MLB proposed postponing the implementation of
• 40:58
  Speaker 1: a salary cap until the 2028 season, while still putting
• 41:01
  Speaker 1: into place the other elements of its labor offered for 2027,
• 41:05
  Speaker 1: citing the difficulty of teams navigating free agency amid the
• 41:08
  Speaker 1: current uncertainty. In its proposal, MLB also set new numbers
• 41:12
  Speaker 1: for its proposed cap and floor in 2028. the cap
• 41:16
  Speaker 1: would be $ 258. 2 million. And remember, the prior proposal offered $ 245. 3. Although,
• 41:23
  Speaker 1: and I'm commenting here, I think that the prior proposal
• 41:27
  Speaker 1: was for next year, 27. So it goes from $ 245
• 41:29
  Speaker 1: up $ 13 million to $ 258. And then the floor that
• 41:31
  Speaker 1: they proposed from $ 171. 2 is now at $ 180. 2 if you're
• 41:32
  Speaker 1: doing this for the 2028 season. So There we go.
• 41:42
  Speaker 1: Now we can play baseball next year, AJ. No salary
• 41:45
  Speaker 1: cap in 27, as long as they accept one in 2028.
• 41:47
  Speaker 1: What did.
• 41:50
  Speaker 2: Garrett Stubbs say? It's a non-starter. They just keep trying.
• 41:55
  Speaker 2: They keep trying. I don't understand. And the other thing is,
• 42:01
  Speaker 2: how does this get out? How does Jeff Passan get this?
• 42:04
  Speaker 2: Who tells Jeff Passan? From what I've heard, I've heard
• 42:06
  Speaker 2: there's people that have been in this room and there's
• 42:09
  Speaker 2: stuff been tweeted out while they're in the room and
• 42:11
  Speaker 2: it's this stuff. So somebody is leaking something to Passon
• 42:15
  Speaker 2: and other people. And I like Jeff Passon, so I
• 42:16
  Speaker 2: can't blame him at all because he just gets the
• 42:18
  Speaker 2: information and re-puts it out. But who's leaking this?
• 42:22
  Speaker 1: Why does it matter? What do you mean?
• 42:24
  Speaker 2: No, I know, but it sounds like good numbers, especially
• 42:26
  Speaker 2: on the cap end. But then when you look into pensions, insurance,
• 42:30
  Speaker 2: all this other stuff has to be funded by this,
• 42:32
  Speaker 2: it knocks it way down. So that's the other thing
• 42:34
  Speaker 2: for me. It's like the cap is 280, what was it, 281? Sorry, 258. 258. $ 258, right? Well,
• 42:43
  Speaker 2: there's also like 20, I think it's around $ 20 million
• 42:46
  Speaker 2: that's built in that has to pay for all this
• 42:47
  Speaker 2: other stuff. So it's really $ 238, right? So you're, I
• 42:51
  Speaker 2: don't know. I don't know enough about this. We're going
• 42:53
  Speaker 2: to have so much time to talk about this. Cool.
• 42:55
  Speaker 2: Nice proposal, MLB. Way to go. I'm sure the players
• 42:59
  Speaker 2: really love this one and really negotiated the crap out
• 43:02
  Speaker 2: of it with you.
• 43:06
  Speaker 1: We're going to talk plenty about this, Kratz, especially in December,
• 43:10
  Speaker 1: but we'll report news as it comes through to us.
• 43:13
  Speaker 1: You know what I just thought of? How many ways
• 43:16
  Speaker 1: somebody can try to ask someone out? They just keep
• 43:19
  Speaker 1: saying no.
• 43:21
  Speaker 2: Yes, that is exactly.
• 43:23
  Speaker 1: I know you don't want to date me, but what
• 43:25
  Speaker 1: if we go to an event together, just you and me,
• 43:29
  Speaker 1: I pick you up, I pay for you. That might
• 43:33
  Speaker 1: be looked at as a date. I don't want to
• 43:35
  Speaker 1: go with you.
• 43:37
  Speaker 3: Or I got a spam call the other day and
• 43:39
  Speaker 3: they were like, we'll give you three nights at $ 99
• 43:43
  Speaker 3: a night. And I was like, I'm sorry, I appreciate
• 43:46
  Speaker 3: you calling, but I just really can't travel right now.
• 43:49
  Speaker 3: Is it because it was too high? I'll give it
• 43:53
  Speaker 3: to you for $ 59 a night. I was like, nah,
• 43:58
  Speaker 3: that's really generous. How about $ 59 a night plus free breakfast?
• 44:04
  Speaker 3: And I was just like, I don't think you're listening.
• 44:07
  Speaker 3: I didn't know the players responded immediately. Like, hey, if
• 44:10
  Speaker 3: you could change those cap and floor numbers, then we'll
• 44:14
  Speaker 3: think about it. Like, the owners are just like, beep, boop, beep, boop, beep, boop, AI. Yes,
• 44:20
  Speaker 3: cap is now higher. Floor is higher. Are you happy?
• 44:24
  Speaker 2: And Garrett Stubbs is like, what? No, no. Say no
• 44:27
  Speaker 2: to the salary cap. So you only go up, you
• 44:32
  Speaker 2: go up, you go up 9 million on the floor,
• 44:35
  Speaker 2: but you go up and you go up, what, 13
• 44:37
  Speaker 2: million on the, on the, on the top end.
• 44:39
  Speaker 1: For the next year.
• 44:41
  Speaker 2: Like, wow, they're so generous on those numbers. Like, wow.
• 44:45
  Speaker 2: So the, so if you spend less, you're actually rewarded
• 44:47
  Speaker 2: because you, you can, you just have to spend, you
• 44:50
  Speaker 2: can spend less after. I don't know.
• 44:52
  Speaker 1: It's just, it's a good indicator. The cap will go
• 44:55
  Speaker 1: up about $ 10 million a year while revenues go up
• 44:58
  Speaker 1: $ 3 billion a year. I don't know. Yeah.
• 45:01
  Speaker 2: Exactly. How do they know what the revenue is going
• 45:03
  Speaker 2: to be in 28?
• 45:03
  Speaker 1: They don't, I mean, they don't.
• 45:04
  Speaker 2: Have an idea. I mean, they have a guess, but
• 45:10
  Speaker 2: they don't know if it's supposed to be truly 50-50.
• 45:12
  Speaker 2: Wouldn't you say, hey, if we're going to do this,
• 45:14
  Speaker 2: we'll give you guaranteed 50%. We're not going to set
• 45:16
  Speaker 2: the numbers now. Wouldn't that be the way to do it?
• 45:22
  Speaker 3: Well, no, but I mean, there's market experts and economists.
• 45:27
  Speaker 3: And then there's also, if they don't make it, you
• 45:29
  Speaker 3: know what's going to happen. If they don't make those revenues,
• 45:31
  Speaker 3: you're going to have to give your money back.
• 45:33
  Speaker 2: That's what happens. Exactly.
• 45:35
  Speaker 3: That's what happens under this system. And look at that
• 45:39
  Speaker 3: $ 180 million. I know we're going too far into this.
• 45:42
  Speaker 3: Eric Neander's going.
• 45:43
  Speaker 2: Oh my gosh, I have $ 90 million more to spend?
• 45:47
  Speaker 3: He's calling Scooble and be like, Scooble, I know right
• 45:51
  Speaker 3: now you're not thinking about signing with us, but what
• 45:54
  Speaker 3: do you think about living in Tampa, ushering us into
• 45:58
  Speaker 3: the new stadium? I got $ 90 million extra I have
• 46:01
  Speaker 3: to spend every year.
• 46:02
  Speaker 2: Yeah, but also, I'm going to say this. It also
• 46:06
  Speaker 2: leads to players getting paid that shouldn't be getting the
• 46:09
  Speaker 2: amount of money that they make. Not that I'm for
• 46:12
  Speaker 2: not all players getting the amount of money they should make,
• 46:14
  Speaker 2: but it also... Well, that's the point. I guess. I
• 46:18
  Speaker 2: guess that is the point. But if you just keep
• 46:22
  Speaker 2: upping the minimum, right? Oh, boom, we're going to fire
• 46:24
  Speaker 2: the minimum, fire the minimum, fire the minimum to $ 3 million.
• 46:27
  Speaker 2: And the teams are going to say, well, we can
• 46:29
  Speaker 2: get one great star and 24 minimum guys and call
• 46:33
  Speaker 2: it a team. I don't know. There's so many... I
• 46:35
  Speaker 2: hate talking about this. This is going to have so
• 46:37
  Speaker 2: much time to talk about this.
• 46:39
  Speaker 1: Yeah, but they would cap how much stars can get.
• 46:41
  Speaker 1: That's part of it. That was in the proposal.
• 46:44
  Speaker 2: Yeah, why? Why? No one caps how much a CEO
• 46:46
  Speaker 2: can make in other companies.
• 46:49
  Speaker 1: Yeah, but they cap how much the teams can make
• 46:52
  Speaker 1: and how much they can profit when they sell the teams.
• 46:55
  Speaker 1: You can only sell it at a certain number.
• 46:57
  Speaker 2: No, you can't. I'm being sarcastic. I know. If you
• 47:02
  Speaker 2: start your own business and you're the owner, when you
• 47:05
  Speaker 2: do an IPO, if you make billions of dollars, no
• 47:07
  Speaker 2: one says, just kidding, guys. You can only make $ 100 million.
• 47:11
  Speaker 2: We're going to cap it and the rest goes to
• 47:14
  Speaker 2: the other guy's pocket, whoever's pocket.
• 47:17
  Speaker 1: No. Which country are we talking about? Because if it's
• 47:22
  Speaker 1: a communist country, that is kind of how it works.
• 47:25
  Speaker 3: This is where our show is going to kill it.
• 47:27
  Speaker 3: This is where our show is going to kill it.
• 47:29
  Speaker 3: Any other baseball, like the network, all they have is
• 47:33
  Speaker 3: dudes like you who made tons of money and are
• 47:35
  Speaker 3: going to talk about how they made tons of money.
• 47:38
  Speaker 3: They don't have dudes like me. Because right now, that's
• 47:40
  Speaker 3: what Major League Baseball is trying to do. They're trying
• 47:43
  Speaker 3: to make this divide right here between you and I, AJ,
• 47:47
  Speaker 3: a guy who didn't make millions of dollars and a
• 47:51
  Speaker 3: guy who did make millions of dollars. And they're completely
• 47:54
  Speaker 3: erasing the fact that you are a much better player
• 47:57
  Speaker 3: than I was. And they're saying, Eric, you represent the
• 48:02
  Speaker 3: majority here. We're going to pander to your majority because
• 48:06
  Speaker 3: we're going to get you $ 3 million when you only
• 48:09
  Speaker 3: should be making $ 720, 000 per year as a rookie, as
• 48:10
  Speaker 3: a kind of a 26th man on the roster type
• 48:13
  Speaker 3: of thing.
• 48:13
  Speaker 2: So if they can break my people....
• 48:22
  Speaker 3: If they can break the 85%, that's how they're going
• 48:25
  Speaker 3: to get this done because they're going to convince those guys.
• 48:28
  Speaker 2: That's how they did it last time.
• 48:30
  Speaker 3: And that's why they're making their push this time because
• 48:32
  Speaker 3: they did it last time. They went over the executive committee,
• 48:36
  Speaker 3: and the executive committee was built up at that time.
• 48:38
  Speaker 2: It's not anymore. The executive committee was built of guys
• 48:41
  Speaker 2: exactly like the Players Association, all dudes with 10-plus years,
• 48:46
  Speaker 2: made millions of dollars, and those guys said, no, k-boshed.
• 48:52
  Speaker 2: the agreement.
• 48:53
  Speaker 3: And then the majority said, yes, we'll take it. That's
• 48:56
  Speaker 3: why the owners are going at it. It's not parody.
• 48:59
  Speaker 3: It's not the owners say we see a weak link.
• 49:02
  Speaker 3: We see an opportunity to strike and we're going to
• 49:05
  Speaker 3: hit those 85%. What they're not telling those 85% is
• 49:10
  Speaker 3: once you get two or three years in the big leagues,
• 49:12
  Speaker 3: just like the NFL, you're going to be out because
• 49:15
  Speaker 3: you're going to be priced out. And then we'll bring
• 49:17
  Speaker 3: in the next guys to make $ 3 million as rookies.
• 49:22
  Speaker 1: Yeah. Also, for the record, I mean, the PA's proposal
• 49:24
  Speaker 1: has a higher league minimum than MLB's proposal. But I
• 49:28
  Speaker 1: get it. I mean, that doesn't mean you get what
• 49:29
  Speaker 1: you want. You can't just propose whatever you want.
• 49:31
  Speaker 2: Get it.
• 49:31
  Speaker 1: But I did want to finish with this. And I
• 49:35
  Speaker 1: know this might be a little bit dark. The only
• 49:40
  Speaker 1: reason that these kinds of exchanges are happening right now
• 49:43
  Speaker 1: is because there's like a national labor relations board. I've
• 49:45
  Speaker 1: read about this and Evan Drellick's way smarter about this
• 49:48
  Speaker 1: stuff from the athletic. He'll come on and help us
• 49:50
  Speaker 1: out more, but you actually have to show that you're
• 49:52
  Speaker 1: trying both sides. The facts are, if there's one huge
• 49:57
  Speaker 1: issue that is not being agreed to, it is kind
• 50:00
  Speaker 1: of a waste of time to do anything. If they
• 50:02
  Speaker 1: can't get past that, right. Until we get to like
• 50:06
  Speaker 1: March when there's a real leverage deadline. None of this
• 50:09
  Speaker 1: matters because every conversation is just wrapped around the same theme.
• 50:13
  Speaker 1: And even if you're a person that thinks that the
• 50:16
  Speaker 1: players union is going to ultimately decide, you're right. We're
• 50:19
  Speaker 1: giving in after a hundred something years in the sport.
• 50:21
  Speaker 1: We're going to have a salary cap. Bless you. Even
• 50:24
  Speaker 1: if you do think that's going to happen, I promise
• 50:26
  Speaker 1: you this. It wouldn't happen until probably May, June, July.
• 50:31
  Speaker 2: I don't know.
• 50:32
  Speaker 1: It would be really deep into next year. So my
• 50:34
  Speaker 1: point is, why even have the conversations if you can't
• 50:37
  Speaker 1: have a conversation about something besides a salary cap? I
• 50:41
  Speaker 1: guess I mentioned this a little bit the other day.
• 50:43
  Speaker 1: There are other issues in our sport that are worth covering.
• 50:47
  Speaker 1: I just think that they shouldn't even talk about a
• 50:49
  Speaker 1: cap until we get to the leverage point and then
• 50:52
  Speaker 1: see if both sides are actually willing to miss games.
• 50:55
  Speaker 1: What is the point of a conversation November, December, January
• 50:58
  Speaker 1: revolving around a cap when you know it's a non-starter
• 51:01
  Speaker 1: for a long period of time? If not ever, we
• 51:03
  Speaker 1: don't know, right? You don't know the true decision that
• 51:07
  Speaker 1: would be made by a voting body of many people
• 51:10
  Speaker 1: on the players union side, right? Like you don't know.
• 51:13
  Speaker 1: How long would it take, right? Because there's always a number.
• 51:16
  Speaker 1: If the sports shut down for five years, yeah, eventually
• 51:18
  Speaker 1: they're going to give in to something. But also if
• 51:20
  Speaker 1: you shut down for five years, your sport's basically over, right?
• 51:23
  Speaker 1: That I get. My point is right now having that
• 51:26
  Speaker 1: conversation in early November is a literal waste of time,
• 51:30
  Speaker 1: but it's a formality thing. due to a legal process.
• 51:34
  Speaker 1: So just throwing that out there. Again, it has nothing
• 51:38
  Speaker 1: to do with either side. It just has to do
• 51:39
  Speaker 1: with the fact that it's a complete waste of time
• 51:41
  Speaker 1: for like four months to talk about that topic. Let's
• 51:43
  Speaker 1: talk about other topics. Debating the topic, great, but actually
• 51:46
  Speaker 1: making the exchange is stupid because you just get, it's
• 51:50
  Speaker 1: literally just someone saying, give me your lunch. And they say, no,
• 51:53
  Speaker 1: give me your lunch. No, give me your lunch. No,
• 51:54
  Speaker 1: over and over again. All right, good show. Let's finish
• 51:58
  Speaker 1: on a high note. Aiden Miller, exciting prospect. Looking for
• 52:02
  Speaker 1: a bounce back a little bit. Billy's organization, one of
• 52:05
  Speaker 1: their top guys, he's going to be joining Hot Sheet.
• 52:07
  Speaker 1: Hot Sheet's already starting right now on Baseball America's YouTube channel.
• 52:10
  Speaker 1: So go check that out, please. Also, new top 10
• 52:14
  Speaker 1: lists per organization being released by Baseball America. And today
• 52:18
  Speaker 1: they're hitting the Braves and the Marlins. So a lot
• 52:21
  Speaker 1: of National League East talk on that one. And we'll
• 52:25
  Speaker 1: see everyone else on Wednesday.