Latest / Foul Territory / Giants sign Harrison Bader, Guardians/José Ramírez extension, Cutch vs Pirates, Yu Darvish calling it?

Transcript

Giants sign Harrison Bader, Guardians/José Ramírez extension, Cutch vs Pirates, Yu Darvish calling it? · Foul Territory

• 0:02
  Speaker 1: Happy Monday. It was a happy Saturday. It was a
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: fun night BBWAA Awards. We streamed the entire thing live.
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: It's about a four hour live stream. You can skip
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: through and pick and choose your spots including Otani, Judge Skiens,
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: Schooble speeches, interviews with guys like Pat Murphy, Rookie of
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: the Year Drake Baldwin, Carlos Rodin was on our show,
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: so you can go back and look at that.
• 0:27
  Speaker 2: It is on the FT YouTube channel.
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: We're going to post some parts of it on our
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: podcast platforms this week, but if you're listening in the
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: car anywhere else right now, on Apple, Spotify or otherwise,
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: you can head over to our YouTube.
• 0:40
  Speaker 2: Channel to check that out. It was fun and Todd
• 0:44
  Speaker 2: Father Kratz was dressed up nicely.
• 0:46
  Speaker 3: It was I saw. I saw a couple of pictures
• 0:48
  Speaker 3: he was dressed to impressed.
• 0:51
  Speaker 4: I gotta be honest, I'd give him credit for that,
• 0:53
  Speaker 4: but I'm glad he's got his hat back on and
• 0:55
  Speaker 4: we can move on, so we're good.
• 0:58
  Speaker 5: I was gonna wear a hat. It got k it
• 1:01
  Speaker 5: got Oh really yeah, I got a nice new Era
• 1:07
  Speaker 5: came out with a line of Fedoras and uh, what
• 1:12
  Speaker 5: are the what are the ones that like the taxi
• 1:14
  Speaker 5: cab hats with the short brim that that kind of
• 1:17
  Speaker 5: John I got him back in the day. So I
• 1:20
  Speaker 5: was gonna wear them, but didn't quite match my suit.
• 1:22
  Speaker 5: So until next.
• 1:24
  Speaker 2: Year it got kebashed by us by.
• 1:30
  Speaker 5: Higher up, higher up than Scott, higher up than Mark,
• 1:33
  Speaker 5: higher up than Claude cab. The higher, the higher.
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: Up, the highest, the highest up, the familial highest up.
• 1:42
  Speaker 5: Yep, okay, my daughter, my daughter, I'm saying it was
• 1:45
  Speaker 5: my daughter. You look, you look stupid. Your face is weird.
• 1:50
  Speaker 4: Dad's She's not wrong, she's not wrong.
• 1:54
  Speaker 5: It's not wrong.
• 1:57
  Speaker 2: And Todd father would tell her checks in the mail.
• 1:59
  Speaker 2: I got you.
• 2:00
  Speaker 4: Yeah, relax, come on now, it's let Doddy, Let Doddy
• 2:05
  Speaker 4: love a little bit.
• 2:06
  Speaker 5: Well, it's we get a suit that matches it.
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: I wanted to make sure that it was clear that
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: we aren't preventing you from doing anything like the ft
• 2:14
  Speaker 1: network supports whatever you do and where your family not
• 2:19
  Speaker 1: anything right, but your family is there.
• 2:21
  Speaker 2: To keep you in check. All right, let's charge.
• 2:26
  Speaker 5: Let's charge about.
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: Get ready for the statue in Cleveland. Top Father Jose
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: Ramirez signs an extension and he gets more money added on.
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: So he had three years left on his contract, and
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: now his deal runs through twenty thirty two. He turns
• 2:43
  Speaker 1: forty later that season in twenty thirty two, so that'll
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: do it twenty five million a year from twenty twenty
• 2:50
  Speaker 1: six to twenty thirty two. Ken with the details on
• 2:53
  Speaker 1: this part. Ten million deferred each year during that time period,
• 2:59
  Speaker 1: so twenty five and then ten gets pushed back ten
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: years later for each of those years. Also, Ken notes
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: private jet travel for one round trip per year, plus
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: one trip to and from the All Star Game, also
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: an additional hotel room on the road besides his suite.
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: Awards packages also doubled from current contract. Five hundred k
• 3:16
  Speaker 1: for MVP, three hundred k for second or third, one
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: fifty k for fourth or fifth, plus bonuses for All
• 3:21
  Speaker 1: Star Gold Glove Shortstop or Star Sorry Shortstop, Silver Slugger LCS,
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: and World Series MVPs. And guess what, He's finished top
• 3:30
  Speaker 1: five seven times in MVP, so he might be getting
• 3:33
  Speaker 1: a little extra.
• 3:34
  Speaker 2: Kashish.
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: He's always kind of mentioned how he could have gotten
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: more and he could have pressed the Cleveland Indians at
• 3:41
  Speaker 1: the time now Guardians, but he decided to take the
• 3:44
  Speaker 1: quote team friendly contract so that he could stick around,
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: not get traded, and never hit the free agent market.
• 3:51
  Speaker 2: What do you think about all of this?
• 3:53
  Speaker 4: I love it. It's like a dream come true, man.
• 3:57
  Speaker 4: I mean all this stuff, one free round trip per
• 4:00
  Speaker 4: year plus one trip to him from All Star Game,
• 4:02
  Speaker 4: like he already knows I'm making the All Star Game.
• 4:05
  Speaker 4: I love the confidence and it's true. He's an absolute beast. Yeah,
• 4:09
  Speaker 4: I've always wanted to hear about stuff like this. You
• 4:11
  Speaker 4: get the outside stuff. And now, yeah, where's he gonna go? Man,
• 4:15
  Speaker 4: He's gonna go to you know, Fiji. I mean that
• 4:18
  Speaker 4: one round trip. I would take that up and go
• 4:20
  Speaker 4: go somewhere special. But yes, he's sitting pretty. He always has.
• 4:24
  Speaker 4: He's and he deserves it. He's been a really good
• 4:27
  Speaker 4: UH baseball player.
• 4:28
  Speaker 3: Through the years.
• 4:29
  Speaker 4: And he's gonna make some incentive money too as well,
• 4:31
  Speaker 4: pay for the groceries. And yeah, he's got to be
• 4:35
  Speaker 4: smiling right now no matter what the weather is. He
• 4:37
  Speaker 4: is in really good shape. I mean, this is this
• 4:40
  Speaker 4: is really incredible, and you know, not many people get
• 4:43
  Speaker 4: stuff like this and this is you know, he deserves it.
• 4:45
  Speaker 4: He took a team friendly deal, and now he's the
• 4:48
  Speaker 4: face until twenty thirty two, which he was already pretty
• 4:52
  Speaker 4: awesome deal for him.
• 4:56
  Speaker 5: I mean, this is, without a doubt, year in and
• 4:59
  Speaker 5: year out, the most underrated player in the game. If
• 5:02
  Speaker 5: he played in a bigger market and put up the
• 5:04
  Speaker 5: numbers that he has, and he doesn't. His game doesn't
• 5:09
  Speaker 5: not have blemishes. You know, he's not perfect, but he
• 5:13
  Speaker 5: is a top five player in the game year in
• 5:16
  Speaker 5: and year out. And I don't think a lot of
• 5:18
  Speaker 5: people know about his game. Like I think they know
• 5:22
  Speaker 5: who Jose Ramirez is. They know he's an All Star,
• 5:24
  Speaker 5: they know he's the face of the Guardians right now,
• 5:27
  Speaker 5: and they know he's a really good hitter. But if
• 5:30
  Speaker 5: you really look and delve into what he has done
• 5:33
  Speaker 5: and how tough he is, the fact that he has
• 5:36
  Speaker 5: a career one thirty ops, plus the fact that he
• 5:41
  Speaker 5: has he has a little bit of inefficient deficiencies at
• 5:47
  Speaker 5: third base, but the fact that he is possibly the
• 5:51
  Speaker 5: last three years he's had a shot at being a
• 5:54
  Speaker 5: forty to forty guy, he's a thirty thirty guy. Like
• 5:57
  Speaker 5: the numbers are just there. That's nomical to me, and
• 6:02
  Speaker 5: for him not to get more love It's okay, because
• 6:05
  Speaker 5: I think that's why he resigned with the Guardians. He
• 6:08
  Speaker 5: loves it. I've heard him saying plenty of interviews, my
• 6:10
  Speaker 5: daughter is born here, like familiarity and the opportunity to
• 6:15
  Speaker 5: stay at a place really does mean more than a
• 6:20
  Speaker 5: certain amount of money to people. So good for Hosey
• 6:23
  Speaker 5: and great for the Guardians organization because he will go
• 6:25
  Speaker 5: in as a Hall of Famer as a Cleveland Guardian.
• 6:29
  Speaker 1: That's right, three years, sixty nine million was left. Now
• 6:32
  Speaker 1: new money is seven years, one seventy five. No, no, sorry,
• 6:35
  Speaker 1: New Year's New year money is four years one oh
• 6:38
  Speaker 1: six to the existing deal. Seventy million of that is
• 6:42
  Speaker 1: deferred money. Wait, I thought only the Dodgers did deferrals.
• 6:44
  Speaker 1: I thought only the Blue Jays did defarls. Just anyway, Yes,
• 6:48
  Speaker 1: last year, one hundred and fifty eight games ops plus
• 6:51
  Speaker 1: one thirty seven thirty homers, forty four stolen bases, still
• 6:54
  Speaker 1: a plus defender. I mean, he's got it all. He's
• 6:57
  Speaker 1: also mentioned how he loves the fans and they never bow.
• 7:01
  Speaker 1: So maybe he gets to the late stages of his
• 7:03
  Speaker 1: career and does show decline like a normal human would,
• 7:06
  Speaker 1: and fans will still appreciate him. You don't always get
• 7:08
  Speaker 1: that in every market. You don't always get the loyalty
• 7:12
  Speaker 1: from team to player either. We'll talk later about Andrew McCutcheon.
• 7:17
  Speaker 1: Here's my question for you, Todd father. Do you feel
• 7:20
  Speaker 1: like Cleveland needs to show him a little more love
• 7:23
  Speaker 1: and support in the lineup. I don't know what to
• 7:26
  Speaker 1: believe anymore sometimes when something pops up on social media,
• 7:29
  Speaker 1: but I do remember seeing March twenty twenty five, he
• 7:31
  Speaker 1: was on some podcasts and it was in Spanish, and
• 7:33
  Speaker 1: I don't speak Spanish, or at least not well, and
• 7:36
  Speaker 1: they were talking about how at least it said, and
• 7:40
  Speaker 1: I don't know if this is true or not, that
• 7:41
  Speaker 1: you know he wanted the team to kind of take
• 7:43
  Speaker 1: advantage of the discount and build a winner. Even if
• 7:47
  Speaker 1: that's not true, let's say that was the case in
• 7:49
  Speaker 1: a hypothetical right, because the Guardians haven't won a World
• 7:51
  Speaker 1: Series since the late nineteen forties, do you feel like
• 7:54
  Speaker 1: Cleveland owes it to him to give him a little
• 7:57
  Speaker 1: bit more. They stay pretty silent during the offseason and
• 8:00
  Speaker 1: still put together a nice contender, But can you imagine
• 8:02
  Speaker 1: if they could add a bat or two.
• 8:05
  Speaker 3: I think they owe it to Cleveland.
• 8:06
  Speaker 4: Yeah, Jose, of course he's been there through the long haul,
• 8:10
  Speaker 4: through the good and the bad.
• 8:13
  Speaker 3: But I think they owe.
• 8:14
  Speaker 4: It to the city to put a contender up there.
• 8:17
  Speaker 4: You know, they make the playoffs, but you know, getting
• 8:20
  Speaker 4: beat by the Tigers and you know, not scoring that
• 8:22
  Speaker 4: many runs. So I mean, listen, at the end of
• 8:27
  Speaker 4: the day, they need a couple more bats. They need
• 8:29
  Speaker 4: some help. For sure, they find ways to win. They
• 8:32
  Speaker 4: got good pitching. They they're good enough, but will they
• 8:36
  Speaker 4: get catapult over to where they want to be and
• 8:38
  Speaker 4: win a World Series?
• 8:40
  Speaker 3: Not yet.
• 8:40
  Speaker 4: I just think they do need They need somebody else
• 8:43
  Speaker 4: in that lineup to help him, you know, without pitching
• 8:46
  Speaker 4: around him all the time.
• 8:48
  Speaker 5: For sure, Wait help him. Wait a minute, you're saying
• 8:51
  Speaker 5: that a better lineup Jose Ramirez could be better than this.
• 8:57
  Speaker 5: I totally agree with you, Todd. Like if they added
• 9:00
  Speaker 5: if they added a piece behind him, not a Carlos
• 9:04
  Speaker 5: Santana again, not a you know, not a one year
• 9:08
  Speaker 5: prove it kind of free agent deal, but like that guy,
• 9:12
  Speaker 5: like maybe Pete Alonso last year, What that would have
• 9:15
  Speaker 5: done to this lineup. It was clearly going to be
• 9:17
  Speaker 5: a one year thing. What would that have done to
• 9:19
  Speaker 5: this lineup? Massive? What would have done to Jose Ramirez production?
• 9:24
  Speaker 5: It would have It would have taken to me, It
• 9:26
  Speaker 5: would have taken him to that MVP level. And I
• 9:28
  Speaker 5: don't think he can do it on his own. But
• 9:30
  Speaker 5: there's one stat that is so crazy at Jose Ramirez.
• 9:33
  Speaker 5: The last ten seasons, ten straight years, including the COVID season,
• 9:38
  Speaker 5: he has had more RBIs than strikeouts. In an era
• 9:41
  Speaker 5: where we have just been totally okay with the strikeout,
• 9:47
  Speaker 5: his short little arms keep getting to the ball and
• 9:51
  Speaker 5: keep driving the ball out of the ballpark. It is.
• 9:53
  Speaker 5: It is a wild thing to say that somebody's that's
• 9:57
  Speaker 5: ended up in the top five in Envy he voting
• 10:00
  Speaker 5: so many years, is underrated. But I will say it again,
• 10:03
  Speaker 5: Jose Ramirez is underrated.
• 10:06
  Speaker 1: It's not just Cleveland. It's also that he's kind of
• 10:09
  Speaker 1: boring in a good way. He just consistently puts up
• 10:12
  Speaker 1: the same numbers every single year. It almost makes it boring, right,
• 10:15
  Speaker 1: He's fun to watch, I'm just saying from a national
• 10:17
  Speaker 1: stage or like cool, same dude every year, Top five
• 10:20
  Speaker 1: MVP consistent and Wyatt doesn't speak much publicly, so that's
• 10:25
  Speaker 1: part of it too.
• 10:26
  Speaker 5: And he doesn't hit and he doesn't hit five hundred
• 10:29
  Speaker 5: foot home runs. Guys with forty home runs, you're like,
• 10:32
  Speaker 5: whoa did you see that tape measure? I mean the
• 10:35
  Speaker 5: first year where he really broke out and he had
• 10:36
  Speaker 5: a ton of doubles. The next season something like something
• 10:41
  Speaker 5: like seven of his doubles the year before either hit
• 10:45
  Speaker 5: the wall or were at the base of the wall.
• 10:47
  Speaker 5: And the next season he had like seven or eight
• 10:50
  Speaker 5: more home runs. So he he's just he is a
• 10:53
  Speaker 5: pure hitter with power in a lineup that he carries
• 10:57
  Speaker 5: it all himself.
• 11:00
  Speaker 1: Yeah, he gets pitched around all the time, so it
• 11:02
  Speaker 1: makes it even more amazing. Good for him, good for Cleveland,
• 11:05
  Speaker 1: good for the organization. Breaking news during FT and we
• 11:12
  Speaker 1: have a resident GM, Jim Boden, to help talk us
• 11:15
  Speaker 1: through at Harrison Batter signs a two year contract to
• 11:18
  Speaker 1: play center field for the San Francisco Giants, something they
• 11:21
  Speaker 1: wanted to upgrade. And there was a story from your
• 11:23
  Speaker 1: colleague Andrew Baggerley in The Athletic the other day about
• 11:26
  Speaker 1: how they were going for CJ.
• 11:27
  Speaker 2: Abrams they came up empty.
• 11:29
  Speaker 1: This I don't want to call it is a pivot,
• 11:31
  Speaker 1: but they still needed to do things. What do you
• 11:33
  Speaker 1: think about this particular move for San Francisco and their
• 11:36
  Speaker 1: offseason as a whole.
• 11:38
  Speaker 6: Yeah, So, I mean, to me, Bater's a fourth outfielder.
• 11:42
  Speaker 6: You know, he's a pretty good defensive player. He is
• 11:45
  Speaker 6: a good base runner, His uniform is dirty by opening day,
• 11:49
  Speaker 6: and he tends to irritate coaching staffs by the end
• 11:53
  Speaker 6: of the season.
• 11:54
  Speaker 3: You know, he was a member of the Yankees.
• 11:56
  Speaker 6: He thought he should be hitting clean up on that team.
• 11:59
  Speaker 6: So what I I've heard, you know, in terms of
• 12:01
  Speaker 6: clubhouse guy not the best, but he plays hard. Fans
• 12:04
  Speaker 6: love him because of that. And to me, you know,
• 12:07
  Speaker 6: it's a good fourth outfielder. We all love pitching in defense,
• 12:10
  Speaker 6: and so to me, Harrison Bader is a plus when
• 12:13
  Speaker 6: it comes to that. But my view on the player
• 12:15
  Speaker 6: is more of a fourth outfielder than a starting center fielder.
• 12:19
  Speaker 5: What does this say about Jung Hu Lee, who they
• 12:21
  Speaker 5: paid one hundred and third one hundred and thirteen million dollars.
• 12:26
  Speaker 5: Is it maybe a misstep on evaluation or his game
• 12:29
  Speaker 5: or his defensive game, which is supposed to be his trademark,
• 12:33
  Speaker 5: hasn't translated to the big leagues for the Giants.
• 12:36
  Speaker 6: Yeah, I mean again, I think they just they wanted
• 12:38
  Speaker 6: outfield depth here. You know, I haven't talked to anyone's
• 12:40
  Speaker 6: who's the news just broke, so I haven't had a
• 12:42
  Speaker 6: chance to pick up the phone and call Buster Posey
• 12:46
  Speaker 6: or Manassian to get kind of their take on the role.
• 12:49
  Speaker 3: That Bater's going to be.
• 12:51
  Speaker 6: But they still do love young Holy Bader is not
• 12:54
  Speaker 6: taking his job in this transaction. Again, I just think
• 12:57
  Speaker 6: it's a depth play there that they're here. I haven't
• 13:01
  Speaker 6: seen the contract yet, Is that part of the breaking news?
• 13:04
  Speaker 6: Is that out there yet? Scotty?
• 13:05
  Speaker 2: Not yet? Not yet.
• 13:06
  Speaker 1: We just have two years, so no money yet in
• 13:09
  Speaker 1: terms of what he's getting.
• 13:10
  Speaker 2: You know, it appeared that he was looking for three
• 13:12
  Speaker 2: but he gets two years.
• 13:13
  Speaker 6: Yeah, I think it's going to be a pretty low contract.
• 13:15
  Speaker 6: And look, he's a solid fourth outfielder and in that ballpark,
• 13:18
  Speaker 6: as you guys know, you know, you really need centerfielders
• 13:21
  Speaker 6: in all three outfield positions. So you know, Vader coming
• 13:24
  Speaker 6: off the bench giving you depth. You get an injury,
• 13:27
  Speaker 6: you can still catch the ball for your pitching staff.
• 13:30
  Speaker 6: So yeah, I like to fit in that ballpark. Farris
• 13:31
  Speaker 6: and Beata as a quote unquote extra player.
• 13:34
  Speaker 1: Last one here on this. Did they do enough San
• 13:37
  Speaker 1: Francisco if this is the end of their offseason?
• 13:39
  Speaker 5: No?
• 13:39
  Speaker 1: Right, I mean you load it up with guys who
• 13:41
  Speaker 1: you want to take advantage of right now, Adamas, Stevers,
• 13:43
  Speaker 1: et cetera. Don't you feel like you have to keep
• 13:45
  Speaker 1: pushing while you have them in their prime?
• 13:48
  Speaker 3: Yeah?
• 13:48
  Speaker 6: I mean I love the fact they were chasing CJ. Abrams, Like,
• 13:51
  Speaker 6: I really love that they were having those conversations because
• 13:54
  Speaker 6: I would have loved him at second base on that team,
• 13:56
  Speaker 6: and I'd love Abrams in an environment where he can
• 14:00
  Speaker 6: be put in his place by veteran players and be
• 14:02
  Speaker 6: in a place where you know he can be a
• 14:04
  Speaker 6: little more disciplined on and off the fields. I would
• 14:06
  Speaker 6: have liked that fit a lot. But I know, to me,
• 14:08
  Speaker 6: Franber Valdez gives them the good offseason. Like go, I
• 14:12
  Speaker 6: like the Tyler Maley signing.
• 14:13
  Speaker 3: I do.
• 14:14
  Speaker 6: If he's healthy, we know he's a good picture. He's
• 14:16
  Speaker 6: underrated if he's healthy. But to put Valdez at the
• 14:19
  Speaker 6: top with Web and Ray, Okay, now you got a
• 14:22
  Speaker 6: chance for a wildcard. You're not catching the Dodgers, so
• 14:25
  Speaker 6: you're fighting for a wildcard Berth and you got a
• 14:27
  Speaker 6: lot of good teams that are kind of the same
• 14:30
  Speaker 6: as you, and so how do you separate yourselves. You
• 14:33
  Speaker 6: really haven't done that this offseason, so hopefully their offseason
• 14:37
  Speaker 6: isn't done. I mean, you know, look, a lot of
• 14:39
  Speaker 6: things can happen. We still have a couple of weeks
• 14:41
  Speaker 6: until spring training. There's still some free agents out there,
• 14:44
  Speaker 6: there's still trades that can be made, so we got
• 14:46
  Speaker 6: to show patients. But as of now, the answer is no,
• 14:49
  Speaker 6: San Francisco has not done enough. Outside of the fact
• 14:51
  Speaker 6: they bought the current Theater, which I think is a
• 14:53
  Speaker 6: cool acquisition. I just wish they had put the money
• 14:56
  Speaker 6: into pitching or another.
• 14:57
  Speaker 1: Bat I'm with you, the good ol real estate instead
• 15:01
  Speaker 1: of player payroll.
• 15:03
  Speaker 2: Yeah, that one plays out over the long term. I
• 15:05
  Speaker 2: like that.
• 15:06
  Speaker 1: That's a good way to finish this conversation. JB are
• 15:08
  Speaker 1: the best. Thank you, appreciate you. Thanks guys, all right,
• 15:12
  Speaker 1: we'll keep the conversation going right now with Todd Father
• 15:15
  Speaker 1: and with Kratz. So for San Francisco, the other layer here,
• 15:20
  Speaker 1: like JB mentioned, is how they just recently made a
• 15:23
  Speaker 1: strong push to get cj Abrams and Andrew Baggerley of
• 15:27
  Speaker 1: The Athletic, who covers the team, wrote about this here.
• 15:30
  Speaker 1: It included a prospect package that could have had I
• 15:33
  Speaker 1: don't know if I'm going to say the name perfectly here,
• 15:35
  Speaker 1: Josh war Gonzalez, thank you. He's eighteen years old, so
• 15:39
  Speaker 1: he's still got probably a couple years to marinate. He
• 15:42
  Speaker 1: is the number thirty ranked prospect by Baseball America, and
• 15:46
  Speaker 1: there are some others that are in the top one
• 15:48
  Speaker 1: hundred from San Francisco that looked like they had a
• 15:50
  Speaker 1: shot of being in a package. For Abrams, you'd get
• 15:52
  Speaker 1: three years of him and Krats. This would of course
• 15:55
  Speaker 1: be for him to play second base, not to play shortstop.
• 15:58
  Speaker 1: Your old teammate Willia domis the shortstop for a while
• 16:01
  Speaker 1: there now, But that.
• 16:02
  Speaker 2: Would have been cool. That would have been a nice ad.
• 16:04
  Speaker 1: It seems like they've been trying to pluck Brendan Donovan
• 16:07
  Speaker 1: away for a while and haven't been able to come
• 16:09
  Speaker 1: up with a prospect package for Saint Louis. So your
• 16:12
  Speaker 1: thoughts on what they've done here so far, including the
• 16:16
  Speaker 1: addition of Batter. I'll go against JB by the way
• 16:18
  Speaker 1: and say I think Bater's going to get some pretty
• 16:21
  Speaker 1: serious playing time. I mean, if you just flip real
• 16:23
  Speaker 1: quick to the lineup right now from Fangrafts and they
• 16:26
  Speaker 1: added instantly Will This against Righty's Willia Domas one devers
• 16:31
  Speaker 1: set first base, hitting second, Elliott Ramos left field. They've
• 16:35
  Speaker 1: got in the three spot. They needed another outfielder in
• 16:38
  Speaker 1: addition to him. He had a nice year last year
• 16:40
  Speaker 1: for them, a bit of a breakout. Matt Chapman clean
• 16:42
  Speaker 1: up Jung Hulee in right field, and then Bader batting
• 16:46
  Speaker 1: sixth in center.
• 16:47
  Speaker 2: They've got Bryce Eldridge, the rookie who is a.
• 16:50
  Speaker 1: Top I believe twenty prospect right now in Baseball America's
• 16:53
  Speaker 1: top one hundred at DH, Casey Schmidt at second base.
• 16:57
  Speaker 1: They'd like him to be a super utility and get
• 16:58
  Speaker 1: someone like Donovan or Abra and then Patrick Bailey catcher
• 17:02
  Speaker 1: in the nine spot.
• 17:04
  Speaker 5: I mean, yeah, it's great. It's great that they brought
• 17:06
  Speaker 5: Beata in. And I agree with you. I'm against what
• 17:08
  Speaker 5: Jim said, like I think he steps in right away.
• 17:12
  Speaker 5: You know, they traded away Yas last year, didn't resign back,
• 17:16
  Speaker 5: so you have a guy that needs to step in.
• 17:19
  Speaker 5: It's a large it's a large left center to right
• 17:23
  Speaker 5: center and then right center is really tough to play.
• 17:26
  Speaker 5: So does Lee play center? Does Beata play center? Who knows?
• 17:30
  Speaker 5: Either way? You're having a guy that has defensive upside.
• 17:36
  Speaker 5: I hope because we don't know the money yet. For
• 17:38
  Speaker 5: the giants sake, they didn't pay for what he did
• 17:41
  Speaker 5: offensively last year because that was a in my opinion,
• 17:44
  Speaker 5: it was an anomaly, and I think his offensive production
• 17:48
  Speaker 5: will be diminished in San Francisco. I think he can
• 17:53
  Speaker 5: be a contact guy because it's essentially what you need
• 17:56
  Speaker 5: to do. But I think you look at what Buster
• 17:58
  Speaker 5: Posey is doing, and it's only because it came out
• 18:00
  Speaker 5: about the whole c J Abrams, you know they didn't
• 18:03
  Speaker 5: get him. He's okay having guys who are utility guys,
• 18:09
  Speaker 5: but that super utility role like you're talking about with
• 18:11
  Speaker 5: Casey Schmidt, where you go, Okay, we have somebody that
• 18:15
  Speaker 5: can play all those positions. Not we have somebody that
• 18:18
  Speaker 5: plays second, but he's not a great second basement, So
• 18:22
  Speaker 5: we need somebody that plays this and that he looks
• 18:25
  Speaker 5: like he's making moves for guys who play every day.
• 18:29
  Speaker 5: That's what he did, That's what his entire crew of
• 18:32
  Speaker 5: young guys that came up when he was playing, and
• 18:34
  Speaker 5: they had successful teams. They had dudes that were out
• 18:37
  Speaker 5: there every single day. And I don't think they want
• 18:39
  Speaker 5: to be a huge platoon team. You take advantage of opportunities,
• 18:45
  Speaker 5: but I think this Batter signing also helps them. Is
• 18:48
  Speaker 5: Elio Ramos going to be the guy that he was
• 18:52
  Speaker 5: two years ago in twenty twenty four? He had a
• 18:54
  Speaker 5: step back last year, But can he still be that
• 18:58
  Speaker 5: guy or can he recapture that twenty twenty four Eli Oramos,
• 19:02
  Speaker 5: because if not, he may find himself getting slid to
• 19:05
  Speaker 5: the bench a little bit, depending on you know, Drew
• 19:09
  Speaker 5: Gilbert was a guy that was up there and plays
• 19:11
  Speaker 5: that plays, you know, kind of a hard nosed type
• 19:14
  Speaker 5: of baseball. But it's tough to build a lineup without
• 19:18
  Speaker 5: saying that guy is a banger defender, like you need
• 19:22
  Speaker 5: your offense needs to be defensive when you're playing eighty
• 19:26
  Speaker 5: one of your games in San Francisco.
• 19:28
  Speaker 1: And good call, real quick top father. Twenty twenty four
• 19:30
  Speaker 1: was the breakout for Ramos.
• 19:32
  Speaker 2: He was fine. I mean, he was still a productive player.
• 19:34
  Speaker 1: Last year, but his best season twenty four, Yeah, it
• 19:37
  Speaker 1: was not as good of a year.
• 19:39
  Speaker 2: I mean twenty four he was just.
• 19:41
  Speaker 1: Going off some basic advanced stats here seven ninety two
• 19:44
  Speaker 1: ops one, twenty four ops plus. That's really good two
• 19:48
  Speaker 1: point three Baseball Reference war. And then he took a
• 19:51
  Speaker 1: little step back on offense this past season seven to
• 19:54
  Speaker 1: twenty eight ops one O eight ops plus. Again still
• 19:57
  Speaker 1: a productive player, that's still a starting talent player. It's
• 20:01
  Speaker 1: not by any means, you know, it's like a little
• 20:04
  Speaker 1: above average player basically.
• 20:06
  Speaker 5: But it felt like, sorry Todd, like it felt like
• 20:09
  Speaker 5: Elio Ramos. Elio Ramos last year became like, Okay, he's
• 20:15
  Speaker 5: got it. They wanted him to take that superstar leap
• 20:18
  Speaker 5: he wanted. They wanted him to hit the thirty home runs,
• 20:21
  Speaker 5: hit twenty five home runs, and it looked like his
• 20:24
  Speaker 5: swing became like it almost looked like he was trying
• 20:27
  Speaker 5: to carry the weight of the fact that they had
• 20:30
  Speaker 5: Lee back in center and wasn't going to give you
• 20:33
  Speaker 5: a lot of offense and wasn't going to give you
• 20:36
  Speaker 5: more than just you know that contact and on base
• 20:38
  Speaker 5: makes stuff happen type of thing. And I think he's
• 20:41
  Speaker 5: going to be I think Elio Ramos will benefit from
• 20:45
  Speaker 5: Bryce Eldred doing really well, an entire season of Raphael Devers,
• 20:50
  Speaker 5: and I think it's something that the whole adage of
• 20:54
  Speaker 5: rising tide raises all ships. When you have when you
• 20:58
  Speaker 5: have aircraft carriers in your lineup for the entire season.
• 21:01
  Speaker 5: It helps a guy like Elliot Ramos, who is a
• 21:04
  Speaker 5: good player and above average player. That makes him be
• 21:09
  Speaker 5: closer to that All star that he was in twenty four.
• 21:13
  Speaker 3: And like to kind of button all this up. You know,
• 21:16
  Speaker 3: we talked about Bata.
• 21:16
  Speaker 4: I love him, good signing, but are they gonna Is
• 21:19
  Speaker 4: this a team that right now can beat the Padres
• 21:23
  Speaker 4: and the Dodgers, you know, to hump up and get
• 21:25
  Speaker 4: back into the playoffs. I don't see that, So yes, Scott,
• 21:28
  Speaker 4: back to your point, they do need some more. But again,
• 21:32
  Speaker 4: really good defender saw him in New York. He looked
• 21:35
  Speaker 4: really well and we'll see, I mean conflicting reports on
• 21:38
  Speaker 4: both sides whether he's gonna start or not, or position
• 21:41
  Speaker 4: he's gonna play, So all up to what the Giants
• 21:44
  Speaker 4: want to do next.
• 21:46
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it's a good fit, right. You want a super athlete.
• 21:50
  Speaker 1: Bater is a super athlete. Yeah, you want super athletes.
• 21:53
  Speaker 1: In San Francisco, Kratz always talks about this, Eric, you
• 21:55
  Speaker 1: want to build around your ballpark. You can't just have
• 22:00
  Speaker 1: no pop in your line. It's not like Bader doesn't
• 22:02
  Speaker 1: have pop. They're going to have more pop than they've
• 22:05
  Speaker 1: had in a long time. With Adamis, who finally cracked
• 22:08
  Speaker 1: thirty for San Francisco first time since Barry Bonds, that
• 22:11
  Speaker 1: you had to player crack thirty homers, that's crazy. Devers
• 22:14
  Speaker 1: should do that if he's healthy this season, and I
• 22:17
  Speaker 1: mean Bryce Eldridge should be able to do that eventually,
• 22:22
  Speaker 1: whether he cracks the team in spring training to opening
• 22:25
  Speaker 1: day or not. I mean, he's a guy who has
• 22:28
  Speaker 1: serious pops. So this gives you pop, but then you
• 22:30
  Speaker 1: still want athleticism from this team. So Buster Posey's trying
• 22:34
  Speaker 1: to put his stamp on this ball club.
• 22:36
  Speaker 5: I think when you said what I said, you build
• 22:40
  Speaker 5: your team around the park. Only when you have a
• 22:42
  Speaker 5: certain park that it really plays like Oracle, like Kaufman,
• 22:47
  Speaker 5: even though they're moving the fences in like Colorado. You
• 22:51
  Speaker 5: have to be able to But to me, you have
• 22:53
  Speaker 5: to be able to bring those guys up from the
• 22:55
  Speaker 5: minor leagues and then supplement them with other guys that
• 23:00
  Speaker 5: bring something to the table because you do have to
• 23:02
  Speaker 5: play eighty one games on the road. But to me,
• 23:08
  Speaker 5: they have a distinct advantage in San Francisco of finding
• 23:12
  Speaker 5: ground ball pitchers, guys who don't walk, guys on the mound,
• 23:18
  Speaker 5: don't chase the strikeouts, and then offensive players who are
• 23:24
  Speaker 5: also elite defenders. I mean, the Matt Chapman fit there
• 23:28
  Speaker 5: is ridiculous. The fact that they have platinum Glove at
• 23:32
  Speaker 5: third base and he can still hit. Like I'm not
• 23:35
  Speaker 5: saying these dudes are, you know, are just bobo hitters.
• 23:39
  Speaker 5: But let's pump the brakes. Like as good a year
• 23:42
  Speaker 5: as Bader had, he hadn't been above ops plus since
• 23:47
  Speaker 5: like sixteen or seventeen before this, Like he's a career
• 23:52
  Speaker 5: ninety six ops plus. His value is in that defense,
• 23:56
  Speaker 5: and that's where the Giants get a little extra. We
• 23:59
  Speaker 5: don't know what the money is, but that's where they
• 24:00
  Speaker 5: get a little extra in the contract compared to other
• 24:03
  Speaker 5: teams that could have signed Baper.
• 24:06
  Speaker 1: Let's do the classic after a signing power rank the
• 24:09
  Speaker 1: division teams National League West?
• 24:13
  Speaker 2: Who would like to go first?
• 24:18
  Speaker 5: Dodgers? All right, who's second? Then Todd Dodgers.
• 24:21
  Speaker 2: Yeah, let's do it. Besides let's do two through the rest.
• 24:25
  Speaker 3: All right, I'm going I'm going Padres still, I'm going.
• 24:33
  Speaker 4: Arizona, San Francisco, Colorado, Okaya, And I'm like the San
• 24:43
  Speaker 4: Francisco Arizona. I'm I'm torn on a little bit though. Okay,
• 24:48
  Speaker 4: that can go either way.
• 24:49
  Speaker 5: I agree Kratz man, if the if the Diamondbacks had
• 24:55
  Speaker 5: any kind of pitching, if they resigned, gowon all the
• 24:57
  Speaker 5: ifs and butts and all this stuff. Coryn Byrne comes
• 25:00
  Speaker 5: back in June, is he one hundred percent healthy? I
• 25:03
  Speaker 5: think the Diamondbacks have the highest ceiling of anybody. I mean,
• 25:08
  Speaker 5: they need some of their woopen to come back. Like
• 25:10
  Speaker 5: there's there's a lot going on with the Diamondbacks. The
• 25:13
  Speaker 5: Padres aren't perfect. They have a really good bullpen. They're
• 25:17
  Speaker 5: starting rotation. If they get rid of Pavetta, it's scary,
• 25:22
  Speaker 5: like all of a sudden, you know you have Michael King.
• 25:26
  Speaker 5: Your starting rotation was suspect at some points. So I
• 25:31
  Speaker 5: don't think it's I don't think it's the slam dump
• 25:34
  Speaker 5: of the giants of the fourth place team. I'm gonna
• 25:35
  Speaker 5: say the Padres, Padres Giants, then Diamondbacks. Currently, as we
• 25:42
  Speaker 5: sit on January twenty sixth.
• 25:47
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it's tough.
• 25:48
  Speaker 1: I'm I think I'm gonna go with Todd Father for now,
• 25:51
  Speaker 1: but it's close. I just really like the Arizona offense
• 25:56
  Speaker 1: and the core that they have, and they kept it
• 25:59
  Speaker 1: together trading Catl Marte. That's the difference maker for me. Yeah,
• 26:04
  Speaker 1: I'd like to a good offense. I'd like to see
• 26:06
  Speaker 1: them add one more arm. It could make a difference,
• 26:09
  Speaker 1: and then they're gonna have arms coming back at some
• 26:11
  Speaker 1: point throughout the season.
• 26:14
  Speaker 2: Even is Corbyn going to get back maybe late in
• 26:16
  Speaker 2: the year. I don't know. Corbyn burns right, you should
• 26:20
  Speaker 2: have him at some point. Maybe August I thought he was.
• 26:23
  Speaker 5: I thought he was JUNI or july A right, let
• 26:25
  Speaker 5: me it.
• 26:26
  Speaker 2: Could be okay.
• 26:27
  Speaker 1: So anyway, I think that's a that's a tight one
• 26:31
  Speaker 1: with Arizona and San Francisco right now. I think the
• 26:34
  Speaker 1: Patres are one step ahead of those teams. Then of
• 26:36
  Speaker 1: course you have la.
• 26:38
  Speaker 5: Yeah, that's what he said.
• 26:39
  Speaker 2: That's what he said.
• 26:42
  Speaker 5: That's what he said.
• 26:43
  Speaker 2: That's what he said.
• 26:47
  Speaker 1: All right, let's get into this battle, Henry McCutcheon versus
• 26:50
  Speaker 1: the Pittsburgh Pirates. It's the battle that I don't think
• 26:54
  Speaker 1: anybody signed up for but it's happening right now.
• 26:56
  Speaker 2: They had their fan fest this past weekend. Cutch is
• 26:59
  Speaker 2: not there.
• 27:00
  Speaker 1: Why Cutch is a free agent. He has not gotten
• 27:02
  Speaker 1: a phone call from the Pirates. He's been signing up
• 27:05
  Speaker 1: to one year contracts last couple of years, five year,
• 27:07
  Speaker 1: five million dollars and he's very vocal on Twitter.
• 27:12
  Speaker 2: We love him for that.
• 27:13
  Speaker 1: He's a great personality in our sport. He said he
• 27:15
  Speaker 1: hasn't gotten a phone call from the Pirates. At one
• 27:17
  Speaker 1: point this offseason, he explained how he can still do
• 27:19
  Speaker 1: some outfield. I mean, he didn't do a ton of it,
• 27:22
  Speaker 1: but he can right still in good shape to be
• 27:25
  Speaker 1: able to run around in the outfield. Ben Charrington at
• 27:28
  Speaker 1: FanFest for the Pirates, and I'll paraphrase here, was saying
• 27:31
  Speaker 1: how there's laser focused on winning more games this year,
• 27:34
  Speaker 1: and how he didn't say Cutch wasn't in the mix.
• 27:37
  Speaker 1: He just said, we'll see. It was kind of a
• 27:38
  Speaker 1: we'll see, here we go, where's Cutch? And here's the
• 27:42
  Speaker 1: answer from Charrington To be exact, Andrew's meant a ton
• 27:45
  Speaker 1: to the franchise. Our approach this offseason has been laser
• 27:47
  Speaker 1: focused on what gives us the best chance to win
• 27:49
  Speaker 1: more baseball games in Pittsburgh than we have in the
• 27:51
  Speaker 1: past seasons. I will add a captain obvious to the
• 27:56
  Speaker 1: back end of that answer, but that is your job
• 27:58
  Speaker 1: as GM and they've done it.
• 28:00
  Speaker 2: Nice job. They haven't done a ton, but they've done
• 28:02
  Speaker 2: a little bit. Todd Father, whose side are you taking here?
• 28:07
  Speaker 1: Should Andrew McCutcheon be on the twenty twenty six Pirates
• 28:10
  Speaker 1: if he does end up on the Pirates? Should they
• 28:11
  Speaker 1: have figured this out before FanFest? And what does the
• 28:16
  Speaker 1: contract look like for someone who was close to the
• 28:18
  Speaker 1: league average with his offense last year and at times
• 28:21
  Speaker 1: looked like one of their best bats because their offense
• 28:24
  Speaker 1: was so bad last year.
• 28:26
  Speaker 4: This is a tough one, but I'm always I'm always
• 28:28
  Speaker 4: gonna side with the player. I don't think there's an
• 28:31
  Speaker 4: argument like between the two of them, between Charington and McCutchen,
• 28:36
  Speaker 4: But I feel like McCutcheon deserves to at least be
• 28:38
  Speaker 4: in the know about what they're trying to do here.
• 28:42
  Speaker 4: Fun loving guy. Everybody loved him in Pittsburgh. This would
• 28:46
  Speaker 4: not be a good way to go out. Maybe there
• 28:50
  Speaker 4: was a disconnect of knowing, like when he wanted to retire.
• 28:54
  Speaker 4: I don't know if they have had conversations. There's got
• 28:56
  Speaker 4: to be more to this store, to what we're hearing here,
• 29:00
  Speaker 4: then you know what we see on top of the surface,
• 29:03
  Speaker 4: because you know, we don't know how many conversations those
• 29:06
  Speaker 4: two had.
• 29:07
  Speaker 3: We don't know what both of them were thinking. But
• 29:10
  Speaker 3: I love what mccutch and said.
• 29:11
  Speaker 4: You know, he told basically whoever said that, you know, listen,
• 29:15
  Speaker 4: you're not gonna write my story, man, my story's not done.
• 29:18
  Speaker 4: I think I could play, and he's confident, and I
• 29:20
  Speaker 4: believe he still can play, and I believe the only
• 29:23
  Speaker 4: team he should play for is the Pirates. So I
• 29:26
  Speaker 4: hope they come to a conclusion on this. I hope
• 29:27
  Speaker 4: they find a way to get him another year deal,
• 29:31
  Speaker 4: you know, maybe put some stipulations on it.
• 29:33
  Speaker 5: I don't know, but.
• 29:36
  Speaker 4: I feel like him coming out and saying this, I
• 29:38
  Speaker 4: think he wants one more year at least. So I
• 29:41
  Speaker 4: would love to hear, you know, mccutch and talk about
• 29:43
  Speaker 4: this too, just to see where his mindset is.
• 29:46
  Speaker 2: We can try and get him on the show. We
• 29:47
  Speaker 2: can work on that we've had him on before.
• 29:49
  Speaker 1: So there was a radio host in Pittsburgh who said,
• 29:53
  Speaker 1: you know, on the Andrew McCutchen reunion tour, because he's
• 29:56
  Speaker 1: done three years, that's great, but they never won more
• 30:00
  Speaker 1: than ninety or seventy six games during the last years.
• 30:03
  Speaker 1: I respect what he's mean to the franchise in city,
• 30:05
  Speaker 1: but he's thirty nine. At some point you have to
• 30:06
  Speaker 1: look at different, better ways to win, even if it
• 30:09
  Speaker 1: means moving on. Cutch Quote tweeted that, and he replied,
• 30:15
  Speaker 1: I wonder did the Cards do this with wayIn Wright,
• 30:18
  Speaker 1: Pouhols Yati Dodgers to Kershaw, Tigers, Tomiggi.
• 30:21
  Speaker 2: The list goes on and on.
• 30:22
  Speaker 1: If this is my last year, it would have been
• 30:24
  Speaker 1: nice to meet the fans one last time as a
• 30:26
  Speaker 1: player talking about FanFest, talk to them about my appreciation
• 30:29
  Speaker 1: for them over the years, shake that little kid's hand,
• 30:32
  Speaker 1: or hug the fan that's been a fan since Clemente.
• 30:36
  Speaker 1: You see, this is bigger than baseball, bigger than looking
• 30:38
  Speaker 1: at a forty men roster and cherry picking numbers that
• 30:40
  Speaker 1: fit your agenda, prove why your opinion matters. The fans deserved,
• 30:43
  Speaker 1: at the very least to get that opportunity. I don't
• 30:45
  Speaker 1: know what the future holds for me at the present moment.
• 30:47
  Speaker 1: But what I do know is I'm thirty nine, on
• 30:50
  Speaker 1: the back end of my career. I still work every
• 30:52
  Speaker 1: day to be better than I was before. If there
• 30:55
  Speaker 1: wasn't a burning desire to continue this journey, I would
• 30:58
  Speaker 1: be home surrounded by my family, which no one would
• 31:00
  Speaker 1: judge or be surprised.
• 31:02
  Speaker 2: But not yet.
• 31:03
  Speaker 1: There's more work to do and I'm not done. No
• 31:04
  Speaker 1: matter what label you try to stamp on me, rip
• 31:07
  Speaker 1: the jersey off me. You don't get to write my future.
• 31:10
  Speaker 1: God doess So Kratz, what do you think? And when
• 31:14
  Speaker 1: this stuff comes out, people want to pick sides. Should
• 31:16
  Speaker 1: Andrew McCutchen be on the twenty six roster and should
• 31:19
  Speaker 1: the Pirates be handling this differently? I'll just add this
• 31:22
  Speaker 1: one caveat even if the Pirates didn't want him back,
• 31:25
  Speaker 1: why is there not a phone call? And if they
• 31:27
  Speaker 1: do want him back, which Charrington still is alluding to,
• 31:30
  Speaker 1: phone call, Hi, Andrew, We're still working through our offseason.
• 31:34
  Speaker 1: We'll see how the roster shakes out, but we are
• 31:38
  Speaker 1: thinking about bringing you back, and it might look at
• 31:40
  Speaker 1: one year. Whatever the number is that they come up with.
• 31:43
  Speaker 1: We'll keep you posted.
• 31:46
  Speaker 5: Five million, one year five million. I mean, it's like
• 31:48
  Speaker 5: it's just a standard Andrew McCutchen contract. I'm not going
• 31:51
  Speaker 5: to sit here and arc because Todd already said the
• 31:54
  Speaker 5: player is part of it, whether he should be on
• 31:56
  Speaker 5: the team or shouldn't be on the team. It's more
• 31:58
  Speaker 5: about what you said, Scott. It's more about the fact
• 32:01
  Speaker 5: that organizations don't just wake up and go, you know what,
• 32:07
  Speaker 5: we're going to try to compete this year. They knew
• 32:10
  Speaker 5: what their plan quote unplanned, was gonna be when the
• 32:15
  Speaker 5: off season started. That conversation could have been had at
• 32:19
  Speaker 5: the end of last season. Now, maybe Ben Charrington was saying,
• 32:22
  Speaker 5: maybe they're gonna fire me. So I don't really want
• 32:24
  Speaker 5: to be the bad guy and talk to Andrew McCutcheon
• 32:27
  Speaker 5: about this, but the conversation needed to be had last year.
• 32:32
  Speaker 5: I saw Cutch in April and we were hanging out
• 32:35
  Speaker 5: before the game and he was playing outfield at that time,
• 32:39
  Speaker 5: and he was like, because Reynolds was down with a
• 32:44
  Speaker 5: I want to say, a shoulder or something, so he
• 32:47
  Speaker 5: wasn't He was still hitting, but he was not playing
• 32:49
  Speaker 5: the outfield at that point. He was like, he said,
• 32:53
  Speaker 5: at my age it's not the fact that I have
• 32:56
  Speaker 5: to play the outfield, he says, the fact that you
• 32:59
  Speaker 5: have to work into playing the outfield. You have to
• 33:01
  Speaker 5: work into you have to get your reps out there.
• 33:04
  Speaker 5: And when you get your reps out he's like, when
• 33:06
  Speaker 5: I get my reps out there, I'm good. I know
• 33:09
  Speaker 5: where I need to be. He's like, I'm not running
• 33:11
  Speaker 5: around center field, he said, I'm good to go. It's
• 33:13
  Speaker 5: just the fact that if you're DHDHDHDHDH and then all
• 33:17
  Speaker 5: of a sudden, banging in the outfield for four out
• 33:21
  Speaker 5: of seven days, it doesn't work like that. You don't
• 33:24
  Speaker 5: just rip the band aid off right away. He's like,
• 33:27
  Speaker 5: but if I know I got to play the outfield
• 33:29
  Speaker 5: four of seven days in the five of seven days,
• 33:33
  Speaker 5: he's like, then I just work myself up to it
• 33:35
  Speaker 5: and I'm able to get ready for that. So that's
• 33:38
  Speaker 5: where maybe a little bit of a lact of communication.
• 33:41
  Speaker 5: Now there's a new manager, Don Kelly comes in, maybe
• 33:43
  Speaker 5: he's able to communicate with him once he's on the team.
• 33:46
  Speaker 5: But I think he's still a viable piece to this organization.
• 33:51
  Speaker 5: But as a guy who I played with him two
• 33:53
  Speaker 5: thousand and nine, my first year with the Pirates. He
• 33:56
  Speaker 5: made his big lead debut that year. The fact that
• 33:58
  Speaker 5: you're talking about since two two thousand and nine, he's
• 34:01
  Speaker 5: going on his seventeenth season in the big leagues. You say,
• 34:06
  Speaker 5: there's a piece of that organization that they that if
• 34:09
  Speaker 5: they really care about the fans, there's something that needs
• 34:12
  Speaker 5: to be done differently than how it's been done so
• 34:15
  Speaker 5: far this offseason.
• 34:16
  Speaker 1: To Andrew McCutcheon, I wonder what the conversations were like
• 34:22
  Speaker 1: last year. He's been part of the organization for a
• 34:25
  Speaker 1: few years. I know you talked about this a little
• 34:27
  Speaker 1: bit Todd Father. Do any think they would have sat
• 34:30
  Speaker 1: down with him and said, hey, what's your plan? How
• 34:32
  Speaker 1: much longer do you want to play so we can
• 34:34
  Speaker 1: try and make this as beautiful as possible.
• 34:37
  Speaker 4: Yeah, and I didn't hit that. I'm glad Cratty brought
• 34:40
  Speaker 4: that up. Like, where is the communication?
• 34:43
  Speaker 3: Man?
• 34:43
  Speaker 4: That that's the most frustrating part been with the organization.
• 34:47
  Speaker 4: You know, I only played about twenty games, but spring
• 34:51
  Speaker 4: training on the communication was okay, I mean, but at
• 34:56
  Speaker 4: the same time with this guy, come on, dude, Like
• 35:00
  Speaker 4: that's the more frustrating part, Like, hey, dude, we're going
• 35:03
  Speaker 4: to talk to in the off season. If we can't
• 35:05
  Speaker 4: talk now, just something a little leeway of what they're
• 35:08
  Speaker 4: trying to do, you know, and if he gets mad
• 35:11
  Speaker 4: over that, then so be it. But at least they
• 35:13
  Speaker 4: told him exactly what they were thinking. And that's that's
• 35:17
  Speaker 4: that's the issue on hand. It's like, yeah, you want
• 35:20
  Speaker 4: to win more, Okay, I get it. Yeah, you want
• 35:22
  Speaker 4: to surplus of great athletes coming into your organization, but
• 35:26
  Speaker 4: you also want to be respectable and let a guy
• 35:28
  Speaker 4: go out on his terms and what he did for
• 35:31
  Speaker 4: that city can't be unmatched by anybody.
• 35:33
  Speaker 3: So that's the problem. No communication.
• 35:36
  Speaker 4: Just like when I tell my twelve year olds in
• 35:38
  Speaker 4: basketball when they're playing defense, where the hex's your communication?
• 35:41
  Speaker 3: There is not so they need it.
• 35:44
  Speaker 5: I don't know how Ben Charrington should have said this,
• 35:47
  Speaker 5: but it got me a little, like it made my
• 35:49
  Speaker 5: neck like hairs on my next and yes, and I
• 35:52
  Speaker 5: do have hair on my neck stand up like where
• 35:55
  Speaker 5: I was like, ah, man, Like he could have said
• 35:57
  Speaker 5: it differently, like hey, where's Andrew McCutcheon. Essentially, he said, oh,
• 36:01
  Speaker 5: we're trying to win, so that's why we're not bringing
• 36:03
  Speaker 5: them back. Like what, first of all, you should be
• 36:07
  Speaker 5: laser focused on winning every single day, no matter if
• 36:10
  Speaker 5: you're playing only the minimum, you know, big league call ups.
• 36:15
  Speaker 5: You should be laser focused on how you're trying to win.
• 36:18
  Speaker 5: It's not just like, well, you know what, we're not
• 36:20
  Speaker 5: trying this year. Oh wait a minute, ben Cherrington said that. Essentially,
• 36:24
  Speaker 5: he said that in his own words and how he
• 36:27
  Speaker 5: should have said it, Like, I just feel like there
• 36:31
  Speaker 5: was a better way to say, Hey, you know what,
• 36:35
  Speaker 5: we're not bringing Andrew back right now because we're looking
• 36:39
  Speaker 5: at other options, like give me a vague, not well,
• 36:43
  Speaker 5: we're really laser foot we want to win, and you
• 36:45
  Speaker 5: know why we're not picking him because we want to win.
• 36:49
  Speaker 5: Is essentially what he said that to me, that that
• 36:52
  Speaker 5: might fire, that might fire, fire cuts up a little bit,
• 36:55
  Speaker 5: get them old knees cranking up.
• 36:58
  Speaker 2: Do you think that this be salvaged or or do
• 37:02
  Speaker 2: you think we're past that point?
• 37:03
  Speaker 4: Right?
• 37:04
  Speaker 1: I mean, you can call and apologizes. You don't think
• 37:06
  Speaker 1: you can be salvagedocrats I don't.
• 37:10
  Speaker 5: I don't, And I think and I think Kutch had
• 37:11
  Speaker 5: no he had no desire to go play anywhere else.
• 37:15
  Speaker 5: I mean, my guy's got he's got all the kids,
• 37:17
  Speaker 5: he's got every one of the kids, and he doesn't
• 37:20
  Speaker 5: want to go anywhere else. And it's tough, Todd. I
• 37:23
  Speaker 5: don't know if you ever played, you never played where
• 37:26
  Speaker 5: you stayed at home. But you play a season where
• 37:29
  Speaker 5: you stay at your house, the house you live in
• 37:31
  Speaker 5: any offseason, and then you go to the season, you
• 37:34
  Speaker 5: go to your games, you come back to that house.
• 37:37
  Speaker 5: All of a sudden, you're like, wait a minute, what
• 37:38
  Speaker 5: does that look like again? Okay, I'm signing with the
• 37:40
  Speaker 5: team in Arizona. That's six weeks away. Okay, and then
• 37:44
  Speaker 5: wait a minute, I'm never going to be home. People.
• 37:49
  Speaker 5: There's other people that are saying, wait, what what did
• 37:52
  Speaker 5: the pirates say? Well, they didn't call, Well what did
• 37:55
  Speaker 5: they say? Why don't you call them? See what they're
• 37:58
  Speaker 5: see what they're thinking, Like, that's a that's a tough transition.
• 38:01
  Speaker 5: But cut seems he definitely is pissed. I'm not gonna
• 38:06
  Speaker 5: say seems pissed. He's definitely pissed from his tweet, and
• 38:10
  Speaker 5: he wasn't necessarily hitting back at the Pirates. More so,
• 38:13
  Speaker 5: what what the guy on you know ninety three seven,
• 38:17
  Speaker 5: the fan was saying, he's zerotated. Yeah, he's irritated for sure, motivated,
• 38:24
  Speaker 5: I'm motivated.
• 38:26
  Speaker 1: Chip on the shoulder, and also this is a legacy player.
• 38:30
  Speaker 1: So I just think it's so important again to go
• 38:32
  Speaker 1: back to what Todd father tells the youngsters and the
• 38:35
  Speaker 1: basketball team communication, because you are going to want Andrew
• 38:40
  Speaker 1: McCutchen at future FanFest, You're going to want him to
• 38:43
  Speaker 1: be at spring training, post playing career, You're going to
• 38:45
  Speaker 1: want him.
• 38:46
  Speaker 2: To be part of future marketing opportunities. That's important.
• 38:51
  Speaker 1: The teams that know what they're doing from a community perspective,
• 38:55
  Speaker 1: from a fan engagement perspective, and even from a business
• 38:58
  Speaker 1: perspective have some of the vets show back up at
• 39:02
  Speaker 1: certain times during the year. And Andrew McCutcheon is the
• 39:05
  Speaker 1: most notable Pittsburgh Pirate in a while.
• 39:08
  Speaker 2: So.
• 39:10
  Speaker 3: They have veteran they have veteran guys.
• 39:12
  Speaker 5: Go.
• 39:12
  Speaker 4: I've had guys at the Reds Vest for the past
• 39:14
  Speaker 4: twenty twenty five years since they've had it. Come back
• 39:18
  Speaker 4: yeah every year, and their lines are always packed for
• 39:21
  Speaker 4: an autograph, for a picture.
• 39:23
  Speaker 5: So now in the last year, last calendar year, the
• 39:26
  Speaker 5: Pirates have covered up Roberto Clemente Wall with a drink
• 39:31
  Speaker 5: with a drink option they got rid of bricks that
• 39:35
  Speaker 5: fans paid for to have outside to commemorate their generations
• 39:41
  Speaker 5: of fans, and now they got a little, not even
• 39:45
  Speaker 5: a tiff, just like poor communication with their current living
• 39:50
  Speaker 5: franchise player.
• 39:53
  Speaker 2: Who is super popular with the fans.
• 39:56
  Speaker 1: Have to be careful, Yeah, you need to do some
• 40:00
  Speaker 1: introspection and say, hey, are.
• 40:03
  Speaker 2: We doing everything we should be doing correctly here?
• 40:05
  Speaker 1: And if not, how do we actually make changes? Because
• 40:09
  Speaker 1: that stuff permeates through an entire organization, and that actually
• 40:12
  Speaker 1: is part of a winning culture.
• 40:13
  Speaker 2: How do you do things?
• 40:14
  Speaker 1: How do you conduct business with everyone, with the fans,
• 40:17
  Speaker 1: with players, with former players. I think all of that matters.
• 40:20
  Speaker 1: We see some of the best organizations really thrive with that. Okay,
• 40:26
  Speaker 1: let's get to the next That's what he said. We
• 40:28
  Speaker 1: had some controversy over the weekend. There was a report
• 40:32
  Speaker 1: out there from Kevin Acy, who does a great job
• 40:35
  Speaker 1: covering the Padres. He often breaks news out there, and
• 40:38
  Speaker 1: he talked about how it appears as if you darbish
• 40:41
  Speaker 1: is going to retire and they're going to avoid the
• 40:43
  Speaker 1: rest of that contract. So as far as leaving lots
• 40:46
  Speaker 1: of money, I look at it as that was never
• 40:49
  Speaker 1: mine to begin with especially considering the money I haven't
• 40:53
  Speaker 1: physically earned yet. That was a quote from Darbish in
• 40:57
  Speaker 1: this article. Great work by Kevin to report on this story.
• 41:02
  Speaker 1: After the story comes out, first we get Joel Wolfe,
• 41:06
  Speaker 1: who is the representation for you, Darvish. He responds, he said,
• 41:09
  Speaker 1: you has not made a final decision yet. This is
• 41:13
  Speaker 1: a complicated matter we are still working through. By the way,
• 41:15
  Speaker 1: darvs is thirty nine and he has forty three million
• 41:19
  Speaker 1: dollars left over three seasons. He's not pitching this year.
• 41:23
  Speaker 1: It was it's Tommy John, right, I'm just clarifying Kratz.
• 41:26
  Speaker 2: Is it Tommy John yet? Okay, just making sure Tommy John.
• 41:28
  Speaker 1: So he's expected back in twenty twenty seven if he
• 41:33
  Speaker 1: does want to play in twenty seven. He wasn't going
• 41:35
  Speaker 1: to play in twenty six regardless. We also have a
• 41:38
  Speaker 1: quote from Darbish after the story, after the agent comes
• 41:43
  Speaker 1: out with a quote, and here's what he said from
• 41:47
  Speaker 1: his own Twitter account. You may have seen an article
• 41:49
  Speaker 1: and although I am leaning towards voiding the contract, there's
• 41:52
  Speaker 1: still a lot that has to be talked over with
• 41:54
  Speaker 1: the padres. So the final finer details are yet to
• 41:57
  Speaker 1: be decided. Also, I will not be announcing my retirement yet.
• 42:02
  Speaker 1: Right now, I am fully focused on my rehab for
• 42:04
  Speaker 1: my elbow, and if I get to a point where
• 42:06
  Speaker 1: I can throw again, I will start from scratch again
• 42:10
  Speaker 1: to compete. If once I get to the point and
• 42:13
  Speaker 1: I feel I can't do that, I will announce my retirement.
• 42:18
  Speaker 2: Okay, U Kratz, do.
• 42:22
  Speaker 1: You want to take me through what is going to
• 42:25
  Speaker 1: happen now? When you kind of say something and then go,
• 42:28
  Speaker 1: oh wait, I'm not going to give up all of
• 42:31
  Speaker 1: the guaranteed money yet, And it's not a good look
• 42:33
  Speaker 1: for the players to give up the guaranteed money that
• 42:36
  Speaker 1: they fight so hard for.
• 42:38
  Speaker 2: Where are we at here?
• 42:41
  Speaker 5: I mean, I love I love what he said. I
• 42:44
  Speaker 5: love the fact that he's like, whatever, I didn't even
• 42:47
  Speaker 5: really earn that money yet, like it's fine if I
• 42:49
  Speaker 5: don't get it. I love that he said that, not
• 42:52
  Speaker 5: for the whole like guaranteed contracts, the next player coming,
• 42:57
  Speaker 5: all that stuff. But I also think he knows what
• 43:02
  Speaker 5: level he wants to get back to, and he knows
• 43:05
  Speaker 5: how tough that will be. He knows what he has
• 43:08
  Speaker 5: ahead of him in the next year, and I to me,
• 43:14
  Speaker 5: I think it's a stand up thing that he said.
• 43:17
  Speaker 5: But I also think there's a lot of people that
• 43:19
  Speaker 5: are gonna sit there and go whoa whoa, whoa, whoa,
• 43:21
  Speaker 5: whoa whoah. We're not like, you're really gonna walk away
• 43:24
  Speaker 5: from this. I think he's more of just like whatever,
• 43:28
  Speaker 5: we'll say I'm done. I'm fine being done because of
• 43:32
  Speaker 5: the fact as a player, you sit there and you
• 43:35
  Speaker 5: go I have to rehab for an entire year. I
• 43:38
  Speaker 5: have to put everything I have into rehabbing to not
• 43:41
  Speaker 5: say I'm done like I'm done, like I don't have
• 43:43
  Speaker 5: the energy I got. I think he has a seventeen
• 43:46
  Speaker 5: year old son who's gonna be starting college in the
• 43:48
  Speaker 5: next year or two. I think he's got you know,
• 43:51
  Speaker 5: he's got other kids too, So it's like he's ready
• 43:54
  Speaker 5: to move on. I don't think everybody else is ready
• 43:57
  Speaker 5: to move on. That was hoping to get some of
• 44:00
  Speaker 5: that paycheck too.
• 44:02
  Speaker 4: Yeah, you know, Scotty, let me finish this up. It
• 44:05
  Speaker 4: says there's still a lot has to be talked over
• 44:07
  Speaker 4: with the padres or the finer. Finer details are not
• 44:10
  Speaker 4: yet to be decided. So that's where I'm like, was
• 44:14
  Speaker 4: he in talks ready to get the heck? Out of
• 44:16
  Speaker 4: Dodge and go do his own thing. So that's where
• 44:18
  Speaker 4: I'm a little indecisive about the whole thing. So is
• 44:22
  Speaker 4: he leaning more towards retirement. We don't know, But when
• 44:25
  Speaker 4: you hear a comment like that makes you wonder just
• 44:27
  Speaker 4: a little bit more whether he's ready to hang him up.
• 44:30
  Speaker 1: Most likely, what will happen, in my mind, if I
• 44:33
  Speaker 1: had to predict, is that there will be some type
• 44:36
  Speaker 1: of fire out. Fine, then he will retire and step away.
• 44:40
  Speaker 1: If that's what he's feeling it. It appears as if
• 44:43
  Speaker 1: he doesn't want to go through the entire rehabit process
• 44:46
  Speaker 1: again at thirty nine years old. So I think you
• 44:49
  Speaker 1: can probably come up to some agreement. Maybe there's a
• 44:52
  Speaker 1: bunch of deferred money in there that makes the actual
• 44:55
  Speaker 1: net present value smaller, clears up some money for the padres.
• 44:58
  Speaker 1: On the short term, I think we're to see something
• 45:01
  Speaker 1: like that over the next perhaps few weeks. Hey, did
• 45:16
  Speaker 1: you guys see who?
• 45:17
  Speaker 2: By the way? Dodger's territory coming up part of the
• 45:19
  Speaker 2: Ft network right after this, and then.
• 45:21
  Speaker 1: Baseball America Hot Sheet will prospect Talk at three point
• 45:26
  Speaker 1: thirty Eastern time, So we'll keep live programming going for
• 45:30
  Speaker 1: you on the FT network, just like we did on
• 45:32
  Speaker 1: Saturday for four hours. If you want to go back
• 45:34
  Speaker 1: and look at the BBWAA live stream the award show.
• 45:37
  Speaker 2: It was awesome. Did you guys see.
• 45:41
  Speaker 1: Craig Kimbrel still kicking, still caring to have a base
• 45:45
  Speaker 1: if he makes the team, Todd Father to add to
• 45:47
  Speaker 1: the four HG D forty career saves. I mean, I
• 45:49
  Speaker 1: don't think you're necessarily going to be closing down games
• 45:52
  Speaker 1: for the Mets.
• 45:52
  Speaker 3: But hey, somebody else in the back burner there, you
• 45:57
  Speaker 3: never know.
• 45:57
  Speaker 4: I think that's a good pickup. He's not like he's
• 46:00
  Speaker 4: he's like washed up. The dude gets still pitch. Let's see,
• 46:03
  Speaker 4: we'll see what happens. You know, there's always gonna be injury.
• 46:06
  Speaker 4: So oh let's just throw you know, Kimberling there in
• 46:09
  Speaker 4: the sixth seventh instead of you know so and so
• 46:12
  Speaker 4: we'll put them back down the minors though, But you know,
• 46:14
  Speaker 4: I like it.
• 46:15
  Speaker 3: I like it a lot.
• 46:16
  Speaker 2: He made fourteen appearances last year with the GDRA teams.
• 46:19
  Speaker 2: Think the stuff's going down.
• 46:21
  Speaker 1: I mean, no doubt this stuff's not going to be
• 46:24
  Speaker 1: what it was from five years ago. But we'll see
• 46:26
  Speaker 1: what he looks like in spring training, the Wall.
• 46:30
  Speaker 5: The me as they are with the velocity velocity down.
• 46:36
  Speaker 5: As much as the Guardians haven't done a whole lot
• 46:39
  Speaker 5: this offseason, the fact that they locked up a franchise
• 46:43
  Speaker 5: player in a time when nobody spends their entire career
• 46:47
  Speaker 5: with with the same team. Good for the Guardians. I
• 46:50
  Speaker 5: think the internal workings of the Guardians are one of
• 46:53
  Speaker 5: the best that I saw when I played for a team.
• 46:56
  Speaker 5: Good for them, good for Rosey, and good for his
• 46:59
  Speaker 5: second his second video game room that he gets to
• 47:02
  Speaker 5: have video games and then his kids don't wake up
• 47:05
  Speaker 5: in the middle so he can play some Mario Kart
• 47:07
  Speaker 5: in the second hotel room.
• 47:09
  Speaker 2: Oh that's right, that's true.
• 47:12
  Speaker 5: Yeah, that's for his draft.
• 47:15
  Speaker 1: That's right, right, the separate video game room. I don't
• 47:17
  Speaker 1: think they clarified that in the contract, but he does
• 47:20
  Speaker 1: get two hotel rooms.
• 47:21
  Speaker 2: He's a lucky man.
• 47:22
  Speaker 1: Yeah, he earned it. He is the best player on
• 47:25
  Speaker 1: that team for a long time. Noelan Arnado joined us
• 47:28
  Speaker 1: on tomorrow's show among other guests.
• 47:31
  Speaker 2: Yes, we will see you tomorrow.