Latest / Foul Territory / Ken Rosenthal on Braves pursuit of Rizzo before Olson, Elly’s rise, M’s choices + Cubs-White Sox battle
Transcript
- 0:07Speaker 1: All right, time for our first guest of the day,
- 0:10Speaker 1: a dear friend of mine, the senior writer for The Athletic.
- 0:14Speaker 1: You guys know him as your insider on foul Territory. Hello, Kenny,
- 0:18Speaker 1: how are you today?
- 0:19Speaker 2: Katie?
- 0:20Speaker 3: I must commend you on your hosting so far already
- 0:22Speaker 3: You're way ahead of the game. You took a break
- 0:25Speaker 3: at the appropriate time. That usually doesn't happen, so thank you.
- 0:29Speaker 1: I have to put on my best for you. Kenny.
- 0:31Speaker 1: You know this, plus c AJ prisients let him know.
- 0:35Speaker 1: Let him know that the first nineteen minutes or so
- 0:38Speaker 1: not terrible. But let's get to you got a new
- 0:42Speaker 1: notes call him out on The Athletic this morning, headlining
- 0:46Speaker 1: with some previously unreported news on the Freddy Freeman Matt
- 0:49Speaker 1: Olsen saga. Remember when the Braves acquired Olsen and Freddie
- 0:53Speaker 1: went to LA That was over five years ago. You've
- 0:56Speaker 1: put reported that the Braves also tried to sign Anthony Rizzo.
- 1:01Speaker 1: Let's break that down a little.
- 1:02Speaker 2: Bit, well, Katie.
- 1:03Speaker 3: As I mentioned at the start of the article, it's
- 1:06Speaker 3: no point, there's no point relitigating what happened Freddy leaving
- 1:10Speaker 3: at Landa.
- 1:10Speaker 2: The whole saga that we heard about.
- 1:13Speaker 3: But at the same time, when I was talking to
- 1:16Speaker 3: some people about just what I wanted to do with
- 1:18Speaker 3: a comparison between Freddie Freeman and matt Olsen, I did
- 1:22Speaker 3: learn that, yes, the Braves, in between finding out they
- 1:27Speaker 3: were losing Freddy and trading for Olsen, actually tried to
- 1:29Speaker 3: get Rizzo. And why is this significant. It's not that
- 1:33Speaker 3: significant in the grand scheme of things. But if you
- 1:36Speaker 3: recall at the time, there was a perception, a narrative
- 1:39Speaker 3: that this is what the Braves wanted all along. They
- 1:42Speaker 3: just wanted to get rid of Freddy get matt Olsen.
- 1:45Speaker 3: And granted they acted very quickly after losing Freddie Freeman
- 1:49Speaker 3: to acquire matt Olsen. This all happened within a span
- 1:52Speaker 3: of three or four days, and they signed Olsen right
- 1:55Speaker 3: away to a long term extension. But before they even
- 2:00Speaker 3: got serious with the a's about Olsen, they did try
- 2:03Speaker 3: for Rizzo. It never got closed. They wanted to do
- 2:06Speaker 3: one year, according to one source. Another source said, well,
- 2:09Speaker 3: Rizzo wanted to opt out, and the Braves don't do that.
- 2:12Speaker 4: Whatever.
- 2:13Speaker 3: The point is that the idea that they were simply
- 2:17Speaker 3: on the Olsen train never made that much sense to me.
- 2:20Speaker 2: They tried to sign Freddy until the end.
- 2:22Speaker 4: You can debate whether.
- 2:23Speaker 3: They tried hard enough, okay, but that is why I
- 2:27Speaker 3: reported what I did. The gist of the item is
- 2:31Speaker 3: that both teams, the Dodgers and the Braves, end up
- 2:34Speaker 3: extremely happy.
- 2:36Speaker 2: Obviously, the Dodgers.
- 2:37Speaker 3: Have won two World Series, Freddy said two of the
- 2:39Speaker 3: great home runs in postseason history, and the Braves have
- 2:44Speaker 3: three more years of Matt Olsen after this one plus
- 2:46Speaker 3: a club option. He is in his prime, he's having
- 2:48Speaker 3: one of his best years. He has played every game
- 2:52Speaker 3: possible since joining the Braves. So they're quite happy too.
- 2:56Speaker 5: So when we get into trade season, we can be
- 2:58Speaker 5: reminded of this train because it was a trade. Yes,
- 3:01Speaker 5: they didn't they didn't re sign Freddy. They traded Matt
- 3:05Speaker 5: Olson for the a starting catcher, Shae langleires. So there
- 3:10Speaker 5: are trades like this.
- 3:11Speaker 4: That work out well.
- 3:13Speaker 5: But is there fear that one side's always getting ambushed
- 3:17Speaker 5: in a trade. When I'm talking about just this trade,
- 3:19Speaker 5: part of the Shay langliers for the Matt Olsen side.
- 3:23Speaker 3: There's always fear, and certainly in the Braves case, they
- 3:26Speaker 3: traded four prospects. That's not something they generally like to
- 3:29Speaker 3: do that. They've done it a couple of times. They
- 3:31Speaker 3: did this get Sean Murphy as well. And yes, when
- 3:35Speaker 3: you trade prospects, you know that there's a possibility that
- 3:38Speaker 3: they might come back to haunt you, that you might
- 3:40Speaker 3: have traded the wrong players. But the Braves knew what
- 3:43Speaker 3: they had in Langoliers. They knew he was very good.
- 3:45Speaker 3: They also knew that they were getting Matt Olsen. I
- 3:47Speaker 3: don't remember the amount of club control he was under
- 3:50Speaker 3: at that time, but it was multiple years so and
- 3:54Speaker 3: that was before signing into the extension.
- 3:55Speaker 2: So they make the trade.
- 3:56Speaker 3: You do what you have to do, and come trade
- 3:59Speaker 3: season you will see teams we know this, We see
- 4:02Speaker 3: it every year that are reluctant to move prospects, that
- 4:06Speaker 3: hug their prospects. And sometimes that's for the better and
- 4:10Speaker 3: sometimes it's for the worse. Look at the Baltimore Orioles
- 4:13Speaker 3: right now, a reasonable argument can be made, a more
- 4:17Speaker 3: than reasonable argument can be made that they held on
- 4:19Speaker 3: to some of their young players too long.
- 4:23Speaker 6: I want to talk about the Mariners now a little bit,
- 4:25Speaker 6: talk about starting pitching.
- 4:26Speaker 7: Specifically, how do you think, what do you think this
- 4:30Speaker 7: team is going to do?
- 4:30Speaker 6: I mean, come trade deadline, you think they'll find another
- 4:32Speaker 6: starting pitcher. We talked about Luis Castillo struggling with a
- 4:36Speaker 6: little bad luck.
- 4:38Speaker 7: Kate Anderson's looming too.
- 4:40Speaker 6: Man, talk a little about this team and what you
- 4:42Speaker 6: see as the future looms forward here, Todd.
- 4:45Speaker 3: Right now they've got six including Emmerson Hancock who is
- 4:48Speaker 3: not going anywhere, and yes, Kate Anderson is tearing up
- 4:52Speaker 3: double A in the minors. So conceivably at the deadline,
- 4:56Speaker 3: if everyone is healthy, they can at least enter tain
- 5:00Speaker 3: the idea of trading a starting pitcher. Now, we all
- 5:03Speaker 3: know that doing that is extremely dangerous because the minute you.
- 5:06Speaker 2: Trade one is the minute you lose another, and then
- 5:09Speaker 2: you need starting pitching.
- 5:10Speaker 3: So I don't know that the Mariners will do this.
- 5:13Speaker 3: But what's interesting about their situation is that next year
- 5:18Speaker 3: they've got Randy Rosereina, the left fielder facing free agency.
- 5:21Speaker 3: They've got JP Crawford, who will be replaced most likely
- 5:25Speaker 3: by Colt Emerson, also facing free agency. They'll need a
- 5:28Speaker 3: third basement if Emerson is playing short as well as
- 5:31Speaker 3: a left fielder. So if you're the Mariners at the deadline,
- 5:35Speaker 3: do you address this or try to address it now
- 5:38Speaker 3: or do you wait until the off season when you'll
- 5:40Speaker 3: have more options available, Although the free agent market is
- 5:45Speaker 3: quite thin and you're going to be looking.
- 5:46Speaker 2: At a lockout and all of that. So I don't
- 5:49Speaker 2: know what they will do.
- 5:50Speaker 3: My suspicion is that they'll keep all their starting pitchers,
- 5:53Speaker 3: assuming they're healthy, and if they're healthy, they'll count their
- 5:56Speaker 3: blessings and go from there.
- 6:00Speaker 5: I mean, we kind of can meld these two teams together.
- 6:03Speaker 5: They had a ton of starting pitching and they needed
- 6:06Speaker 5: a bat and they weren't willing to trade away from
- 6:09Speaker 5: that starting pitching to get that bat. And now they've
- 6:11Speaker 5: signed some guys. But before we hit another topic, I
- 6:14Speaker 5: want to ask you about col Nobody can find the
- 6:17Speaker 5: replacement for cal Raley. Do teams at this time of
- 6:21Speaker 5: the year say, starting catching is just so difficult, we
- 6:26Speaker 5: just have to find two backups to fill it in.
- 6:30Speaker 5: Because even at the trade deadline, you rarely see starting
- 6:32Speaker 5: catching get moved. It's like, if it's going to happen,
- 6:36Speaker 5: it's rare case, and it's usually like more of like
- 6:38Speaker 5: a backup kind of guy, like a Christian Vasquez, that
- 6:42Speaker 5: type of thing. But do the Mariners make a move
- 6:45Speaker 5: here with Col's news of him being out, because they're
- 6:48Speaker 5: never used to him being out and they're barely able
- 6:51Speaker 5: to cover it with him being out well.
- 6:54Speaker 3: First of all, Eric, we don't know how long he's
- 6:56Speaker 3: going to be out yet, and they have not.
- 6:57Speaker 2: Said anything about that.
- 7:00Speaker 3: Obviously, it's an oblique it's going to be weeks and
- 7:03Speaker 3: maybe even months, who knows. But I don't expect them
- 7:06Speaker 3: necessarily to make a move. And remember they did trade
- 7:10Speaker 3: Harry Ford in the offseason to the Washington Nationals. He's
- 7:13Speaker 3: still in the minor leagues, but he was their top
- 7:15Speaker 3: catching prospect and they got Farrere.
- 7:17Speaker 2: For him, a left handed reliever. They're sitting on Mitch.
- 7:20Speaker 3: Garver right now, who they re signed because they wanted
- 7:23Speaker 3: him to be the backup to cal Raley. Cal Raley
- 7:27Speaker 3: wanted him to be the backup as well, and they've
- 7:29Speaker 3: got Parada, who is a strong defensive catcher, as the
- 7:33Speaker 3: backup to Garver. If that's how they're going to play it,
- 7:35Speaker 3: they'll probably split time with both of those. So I
- 7:38Speaker 3: don't necessarily see them making a move. We just did
- 7:41Speaker 3: see a starting catcher get traded, a highly unusual trade,
- 7:44Speaker 3: especially in May. Patrick Bailey went from the Giants to
- 7:47Speaker 3: the Guardians. But you're right, Catchers routinely do not get traded,
- 7:53Speaker 3: in part because it's hard for a catcher to adapt
- 7:57Speaker 3: to an entire new staff and pitching system going from
- 8:00Speaker 3: one team to another. That's a difficult thing to ask
- 8:03Speaker 3: of anyone. So I don't know that they're going to
- 8:06Speaker 3: replace him. I don't know that they can replace him.
- 8:08Speaker 3: Probably what happens here is they simply wait for him
- 8:11Speaker 3: to return.
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- 9:12Speaker 1: Thank you see Geek now, Kenny, if you would have
- 9:16Speaker 1: told me at the beginning of the season that the
- 9:18Speaker 1: Washington Nationals would be one of baseball's best offenses. Offenses,
- 9:22Speaker 1: I would have said, what, But.
- 9:24Speaker 7: Here we are.
- 9:25Speaker 1: They can slug, they can hit, and as you wrote here,
- 9:27Speaker 1: there's been a new emphasis on on better swing decisions.
- 9:30Speaker 1: The walk rates up. The chase rate is up, though
- 9:33Speaker 1: on the swing rate down. But no matter what they're
- 9:35Speaker 1: doing here, it seems to be working.
- 9:38Speaker 5: Now.
- 9:38Speaker 1: When we talk about the Nationals, we've been talking about
- 9:41Speaker 1: them in this state of a perpetual rebuild. They have
- 9:43Speaker 1: a new front office that this seems to be the case,
- 9:46Speaker 1: never a good sign for a fan base. When your
- 9:48Speaker 1: rebuild results in another rebuild. But right now, dare I
- 9:51Speaker 1: say the Nationals have a little bit of hope. Do
- 9:54Speaker 1: you think that will impact any possible trade conversations of CJ.
- 9:58Speaker 1: Abrams going forward?
- 10:01Speaker 2: Yes and no. Both, And here's why I say that.
- 10:07Speaker 3: Yes, because the new front office, liked the new front
- 10:11Speaker 3: office in Saint Louis sees this as not something that's
- 10:14Speaker 3: going to be fixed in one year. It's going to
- 10:16Speaker 3: take some time.
- 10:18Speaker 2: So therefore C. J. Abrams is a trade candidate.
- 10:21Speaker 3: And when I say no, it's not going to have
- 10:22Speaker 3: any impact because he already was a trade candidate. So
- 10:24Speaker 3: I don't know that it makes much difference. It is
- 10:27Speaker 3: what it is now. We had Spencer Andnusbaum of the
- 10:29Speaker 3: Athletic Right yesterday about how while Abrams has been dynamic offensively,
- 10:34Speaker 3: really the best offensive shortstop in baseball, his defensive metrics
- 10:38Speaker 3: are not good and there's always been talk of him
- 10:42Speaker 3: possibly moving to second base. How does this impact them
- 10:45Speaker 3: in trade discussions?
- 10:47Speaker 2: Unclear.
- 10:48Speaker 3: Clearly a team could trade for Abrams to play second base,
- 10:51Speaker 3: or they could trade for him to be their shortstop
- 10:54Speaker 3: and hopefully improve his defense. Generally speaking, as I wrote,
- 11:00Speaker 3: position players at the deadline are difficult to move. Shortstops
- 11:03Speaker 3: in particular, are difficult to move unless you haven't open it.
- 11:06Speaker 3: Now with shortstops, most teams are set, So unless there's
- 11:11Speaker 3: an injury, I don't really see it. I did mention
- 11:13Speaker 3: Tampa Bay as a possibility for Abrams, but Tampa Bay
- 11:17Speaker 3: greatly values defense, so if his defense is in question,
- 11:22Speaker 3: I don't know how interested the Rais would be. But
- 11:25Speaker 3: at the same time, the Nationals at some point are
- 11:27Speaker 3: probably going to want to leverage what they have with
- 11:30Speaker 3: Abrams to get multiple pieces back. He's got two years
- 11:34Speaker 3: of control after this one.
- 11:36Speaker 2: His salary is rising. It shouldn't matter.
- 11:39Speaker 3: They don't much have much of a payroll anyway, but
- 11:42Speaker 3: they're going to look to move him, if not at
- 11:44Speaker 3: the deadline, which they probably will explore certainly.
- 11:47Speaker 2: I would think this offseason.
- 11:49Speaker 6: As you know me, Kenny, we talk about this all
- 11:51Speaker 6: the time. One way together, about results. I'm a results
- 11:54Speaker 6: based guy. I'm not a numbers guy.
- 11:56Speaker 7: I look at you in the eye, I watch you play.
- 11:59Speaker 6: I want that guy my team, right, and we're talking
- 12:01Speaker 6: about Elie day La Cruz, one of the best in
- 12:03Speaker 6: the game. If we're talking about results and I think
- 12:06Speaker 6: that's fantastic. Got the guy that wanted my team. Now,
- 12:08Speaker 6: can you enlighten us a little bit more about this story?
- 12:10Speaker 6: How he wasn't you know, spoken about in an article
- 12:14Speaker 6: or in the news about you know, positively, and you
- 12:17Speaker 6: know about what the Cincinnati reads, how good.
- 12:19Speaker 7: They've been doing even though they've been struggling.
- 12:22Speaker 2: Well.
- 12:22Speaker 3: I wrote about him because I was talking with our
- 12:25Speaker 3: Beat writers. He's Trent Rosecrants, and I said, hey, man,
- 12:28Speaker 3: what's up with Elie? Why the improvement? Is there any
- 12:31Speaker 3: story there? And Trent said, there is a story here,
- 12:34Speaker 3: and the story is that he is focused on becoming
- 12:38Speaker 3: a winning player, not just chasing metrics, not just trying
- 12:41Speaker 3: to throw the ball as hard as he can or.
- 12:43Speaker 2: Hit it as hard as he can.
- 12:44Speaker 3: So he certainly does that. He's trying to do things
- 12:47Speaker 3: that winning players do. What you're talking about, Todd results.
- 12:51Speaker 3: So I thought that was really interesting and for a
- 12:53Speaker 3: young player, a guy who has not yet made money
- 12:56Speaker 3: to understand that he needs to operate within a team
- 13:00Speaker 3: concept and get the best out of himself for the team,
- 13:04Speaker 3: to me, that's a good story, and that's why I
- 13:06Speaker 3: wrote what I did about him. I talked to a
- 13:08Speaker 3: number of people before I wrote that, and they all
- 13:11Speaker 3: kind of had the same view of this, that this
- 13:13Speaker 3: is a guy who was doing some really special things.
- 13:17Speaker 3: Nathaniel Lowe said, when I was on the other side,
- 13:20Speaker 3: when I was his opponent, I thought, Okay, he's really dynamic,
- 13:22Speaker 3: he does all these cool things, but is he going
- 13:25Speaker 3: to be consistent? Is he going to be that kind
- 13:27Speaker 3: of player? And the answer Nathaniel Lowe has found is yes.
- 13:31Speaker 3: And then I talked to their general manager, Nick Krawl.
- 13:34Speaker 3: He said, Ellie's not just stealing basis to steal bases anymore.
- 13:37Speaker 3: He's doing it strategically, doing it for the right reasons.
- 13:40Speaker 3: And then Brian Hayes, the third baseman, who was kind
- 13:43Speaker 3: of an influence on Elie Delacruz because to Brian Hayes
- 13:46Speaker 3: is one of the great fielders in the game. He said,
- 13:49Speaker 3: he's not worried about throwing the ball one hundred miles
- 13:51Speaker 3: an hour across the field anymore. He's worried about getting outs.
- 13:55Speaker 3: All of these things combined to make Elie Delacruz not
- 13:59Speaker 3: just an extremely gifted player, but a player who is
- 14:04Speaker 3: all about winning, trying to do the best he can
- 14:06Speaker 3: for the team.
- 14:07Speaker 2: And making plays.
- 14:09Speaker 3: As he has done is like detail in the story
- 14:12Speaker 3: that really go to those lengths. So it's a cool
- 14:16Speaker 3: story because he is just twenty four still and it's
- 14:19Speaker 3: a cool thing that he has kind of founded and
- 14:22Speaker 3: his work ethic has responded to all these challenges that
- 14:25Speaker 3: he's faced, and here he is now and he's a
- 14:28Speaker 3: top five war guy. I think right now there's not
- 14:32Speaker 3: much more he can say about it than that.
- 14:34Speaker 5: Can you tell us what you wrote in the article
- 14:36Speaker 5: about the penalties that the infield I think it's all
- 14:39Speaker 5: the infielders with the Reds incur if they make an air,
- 14:44Speaker 5: and I think Heno Suarez came up with it, but
- 14:47Speaker 5: I'm not you you know more.
- 14:49Speaker 3: Yeah, Henria Suarez in his first stint with the Reds
- 14:52Speaker 3: twenty fifteen to twenty would do this with Joey Vado
- 14:55Speaker 3: and Zach Coozart and that group. And basically, I don't
- 14:58Speaker 3: know if there's inflation here spending much money on this
- 15:01Speaker 3: betting game that they have regardless, but what happens is
- 15:04Speaker 3: an infield practice.
- 15:06Speaker 2: If one of the infielders misses a throw.
- 15:09Speaker 3: Or botches a ground ball, he has to pay the
- 15:11Speaker 3: other infielders twenty dollars.
- 15:13Speaker 7: Now.
- 15:14Speaker 3: One of the funny things about this is that second
- 15:16Speaker 3: baseman Matt McClain is generally not included in these games
- 15:20Speaker 3: because they feel the throw from second the first is
- 15:23Speaker 3: too easy and he's got an advantage. But first baseman
- 15:27Speaker 3: Sustar aohaner Suarez who still plays third, as well as Dhing, Cabrian, Hayes,
- 15:32Speaker 3: Elie Dela Cruz. They're all part of it, and there's
- 15:35Speaker 3: some dispute who has the lead right now.
- 15:37Speaker 2: Cabrian said they're all even and Aohan said, no, I
- 15:41Speaker 2: haven't made a mistake yet.
- 15:43Speaker 3: Whatever, it's something that again forces players to get in
- 15:48Speaker 3: the right practice habits for the game and actually kind
- 15:53Speaker 3: of enhances.
- 15:54Speaker 2: The attention to detail, which is what you're seeking.
- 16:03Speaker 1: Welcome back and hello to Jesse Rogers of ESPN, our
- 16:08Speaker 1: next guest here on this Friday edition of Foul Territory.
- 16:12Speaker 1: Jesse based in Chicago, Big Series in the South Side.
- 16:16Speaker 1: How are you today.
- 16:18Speaker 4: I'm good. I mean, i'd like to say I put
- 16:19Speaker 4: on the sport coat for you guys, but it's Cubs
- 16:21Speaker 4: versus Socks, both teams above five hundred. That rarely happens
- 16:25Speaker 4: around here, So we're all juiced up for this series.
- 16:28Speaker 4: I mean, the White Sox are playing some really good baseball,
- 16:30Speaker 4: and of course the Cubs got off to a great start.
- 16:32Speaker 4: So good to be with you.
- 16:34Speaker 1: Yeah, let's talk a little bit about Let's talk about
- 16:36Speaker 1: the White Sox because I think coming into the season,
- 16:39Speaker 1: you saw some of the moves they did on the margins,
- 16:41Speaker 1: you're still thinking, all right, they're a little bit of
- 16:43Speaker 1: ways out of out of playing into contention. The Ale
- 16:45Speaker 1: Central is one of the I would say, more mediocre
- 16:49Speaker 1: divisions in baseball. But as we're looking six weeks into
- 16:52Speaker 1: the season, we passed the forty game quarter mark threshold point.
- 16:56Speaker 1: Do you think the Chicago White Sox are legit.
- 17:00Speaker 4: To think so? And I've been doing this for about
- 17:02Speaker 4: ten days or so, just kind of looking under the hood.
- 17:04Speaker 4: Are they doing something so amazing right now that they're
- 17:07Speaker 4: bound to have some regression? I don't see it. Yes,
- 17:11Speaker 4: A lot of their offense has been concentrated in three
- 17:13Speaker 4: players more Commy Vargas and Colson Montgomery. But even as
- 17:18Speaker 4: of lately against the Royals, they just swept them more
- 17:20Speaker 4: Commedy didn't do much except take some walks. Their six
- 17:23Speaker 4: through nine hitters are pretty good. They're league average. They're
- 17:26Speaker 4: pitching really well in clutch moments, but not so much
- 17:29Speaker 4: that you expect some regression. Like the Reds, for example,
- 17:32Speaker 4: we're in that category. They were way above everyone else
- 17:35Speaker 4: in clutch moments, pitching wise, high leverage, and they came
- 17:37Speaker 4: back to the pack. In fact, I think the Padres,
- 17:39Speaker 4: for example, are in that category. Hitting wise. I think
- 17:42Speaker 4: they might come back to the pack. So that's what
- 17:44Speaker 4: I'm getting at, Like the Socks are not doing something
- 17:46Speaker 4: where you're like, well, that's not gonna last, other than
- 17:49Speaker 4: they're very young and you just don't know if young
- 17:52Speaker 4: team can pace themselves for one sixty two. And of course,
- 17:55Speaker 4: the biggest thing is what you just said. The division
- 17:57Speaker 4: seems wide open. There's a couple of rebuilds that have
- 18:00Speaker 4: somewhat stalled. The Kansas City Royals might be one of them. Certainly,
- 18:04Speaker 4: Detroit Tigers have some issues with Scooble down and some
- 18:07Speaker 4: other issues as well. Cleveland is still Cleveland. But I
- 18:10Speaker 4: do think the situation the division is going to allow
- 18:13Speaker 4: for the White Sox to hang around.
- 18:15Speaker 6: You talk about them hanging around, Now, tell me and
- 18:17Speaker 6: explain to me who who's the leader of that team.
- 18:20Speaker 7: Who's the guy right now that.
- 18:22Speaker 6: Is leading in the charge there with this resurgence of
- 18:24Speaker 6: this white White Sox team and how good they've been doing.
- 18:27Speaker 4: It's funny. I asked that of Sam Antonaci the other
- 18:30Speaker 4: day and he said, Mike Vassel, who's had elbow surgery,
- 18:34Speaker 4: is not even part of the mix on the mound.
- 18:36Speaker 4: But it does feel like a little bit of a
- 18:38Speaker 4: group effort. More Commie has certainly injected some life in there.
- 18:41Speaker 4: Chase my draft might be the heart and soul kind
- 18:43Speaker 4: of thing along with Antonachi since he's come up, but
- 18:46Speaker 4: mydraf has a little bit more experiences. It's hard to
- 18:50Speaker 4: pinpoint one person. I think they congregate around Miguel Vargas
- 18:53Speaker 4: a little bit. So it is a different sort of
- 18:57Speaker 4: feeling every day over there. It is in some ways
- 19:01Speaker 4: similar to the Cubs. The sum is better than the parts.
- 19:04Speaker 4: They certainly had a MVP Calbert kind of candidate early
- 19:08Speaker 4: on here with more Kami. But you think of that
- 19:11Speaker 4: team like that bullpen is as important as anything, and
- 19:14Speaker 4: you can't really point to one guy. It's a bunch
- 19:16Speaker 4: of guys back there, Hudson and Sir Anthony Domingus, who's
- 19:20Speaker 4: given up some runs but gotten the saves done and
- 19:22Speaker 4: Sean Newcomb. So my best answer is Mike Vassil, who's
- 19:26Speaker 4: on the injured list, or else it's Chased my Dress
- 19:29Speaker 4: who's kind of leading the charge.
- 19:31Speaker 5: Do you think more Kami is what you said, an
- 19:34Speaker 5: MVP type of candidate or is it more of just
- 19:37Speaker 5: like a second place rookie of the year.
- 19:40Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean that's a tough question. I do think
- 19:42Speaker 4: he is turning into that three true outcome kind of player,
- 19:45Speaker 4: a mini or man's Kyle Schrober. I think that's in him.
- 19:48Speaker 4: I think that's the most surprising thing, as it was
- 19:51Speaker 4: told to me when he was in Japan. He hit
- 19:53Speaker 4: fifty six runs a few years ago. I think he
- 19:55Speaker 4: started to chase those home runs as like the true
- 19:58Speaker 4: slugger in his lineup, and he got a kind of
- 20:00Speaker 4: got away from himself. Comes over here. And what's been
- 20:03Speaker 4: so shocking is is the takes, the walks, the on
- 20:07Speaker 4: basis at three seventy, a lot of strikeouts, a lot
- 20:10Speaker 4: of walks, a lot of home runs. That nearly got
- 20:12Speaker 4: Kyle Schwarver the MVP last year. So I'm not gonna
- 20:15Speaker 4: say no, but you know it's hard for a rookie
- 20:18Speaker 4: to do it for one sixty two and and and
- 20:21Speaker 4: you know, hard enough to win Rookie of the Year.
- 20:23Speaker 4: I don't know if he'll be an MVP candidate towards
- 20:25Speaker 4: the end of the year. You got Aaron Judge, you
- 20:26Speaker 4: got some good players in the American League, but certainly
- 20:29Speaker 4: Rookie of the Year and certainly surprising people. His takes
- 20:32Speaker 4: are elite, and after a good take usually comes a
- 20:35Speaker 4: good pitch, and he's been able to do damage on it.
- 20:39Speaker 1: Jesse, knowing all the time that we spent together in
- 20:41Speaker 1: the NL Central, I'm a little surprised, to say the least,
- 20:44Speaker 1: about the quality of baseball from all five teams in
- 20:46Speaker 1: that division. And I'm also still surprised about the White Sox.
- 20:50Speaker 1: So my question for you here is what's the bigger surprise,
- 20:54Speaker 1: how well the Cubs have played given all of their
- 20:56Speaker 1: pitching injuries, or that the White Sox are simply a
- 20:59Speaker 1: five hundred team.
- 21:00Speaker 4: No, it's definitely the White Socks. I mean, the Cubs
- 21:02Speaker 4: are coming off of ninety two when a season they
- 21:04Speaker 4: added to their pitching staff, they reinforced got some depth,
- 21:08Speaker 4: Edward Cabrera being the main guy there. So I don't
- 21:11Speaker 4: think what the Cubs are doing is a surprise at all.
- 21:14Speaker 4: I thought it would be a lengthy, deep lineup, and
- 21:16Speaker 4: for the most part it has been. It's a little
- 21:18Speaker 4: bit streaky because when they're not passing the baton, when
- 21:22Speaker 4: they face at Jacob de gram or Chris Sale, it
- 21:24Speaker 4: can stall a little bit. They don't have that true
- 21:26Speaker 4: MVP caliber player in the middle to carry them through
- 21:29Speaker 4: some tough times. Maybe Saya Suzuki's as close as they get,
- 21:33Speaker 4: but they're ten to twelve deep if you include Michael Confordo,
- 21:35Speaker 4: who's come out of nowhere. So not surprised by the Cubs.
- 21:38Speaker 4: I think everybody in Chicago, including the lighte Sicks themselves.
- 21:41Speaker 4: Maybe not the players, but I think the personnel around
- 21:43Speaker 4: that team are pretty surprised. This team's twenty two and
- 21:46Speaker 4: twenty one. This was supposed to be just another stepping
- 21:49Speaker 4: stone in their rebuild, and they may actually contend for
- 21:52Speaker 4: a playoff spot.
- 21:53Speaker 5: All right, Jesse, make sure we say this about the
- 21:55Speaker 5: Cubs first, because this is AJ's team. We have to
- 21:57Speaker 5: make sure we get no love here. But most teams
- 22:02Speaker 5: stall when they face Jacob deGrom or Chris Sales. So
- 22:04Speaker 5: that's okay for that Cubs lineup, But I have one
- 22:07Speaker 5: more socks question. With the team doing better, I get it,
- 22:11Speaker 5: I don't believe they're a playoff team. I don't think
- 22:13Speaker 5: anybody don't think you said that. I don't think anybody
- 22:15Speaker 5: said that. With Andrew benattendee struggling still, do you think
- 22:19Speaker 5: this front office is okay taking at bats away from him,
- 22:24Speaker 5: a guy who's still up for one more year on
- 22:27Speaker 5: his contract, of his five year, seventy five million dollars
- 22:30Speaker 5: deal that he signed four years ago. Do they would
- 22:34Speaker 5: they be in a spot to take at bats away
- 22:36Speaker 5: from him this year to give them to younger guys
- 22:40Speaker 5: as most rebuilding teams do.
- 22:44Speaker 4: The answer is yes, I think so. We've already seen
- 22:46Speaker 4: him get dropped in the lineup. It's not necessarily playing
- 22:49Speaker 4: every day now. They don't have a deep outfield, so
- 22:52Speaker 4: that's where he's going to get some some bats still,
- 22:55Speaker 4: But they have some guys coming like Bradon Montgomery's on
- 22:57Speaker 4: the rise. He could be up here basically any day.
- 23:00Speaker 4: So the answer question is yes. And look, the longer
- 23:03Speaker 4: they stay in the race, the more you think about
- 23:05Speaker 4: only winning, and you put out the best nine guys
- 23:08Speaker 4: every day that are gonna help you win. So we
- 23:11Speaker 4: get to the second half and they are in the race.
- 23:13Speaker 4: I think, yeah, benettende's hitting, he'll play. If he's not,
- 23:16Speaker 4: he'll play less. I think he has been a good,
- 23:19Speaker 4: sort of experienced veteran in that locker room. But there
- 23:21Speaker 4: are other guys certainly performing better. He's no longer in
- 23:25Speaker 4: like the top four or five hitters, which he was
- 23:27Speaker 4: a lot early on this season. So I definitely think
- 23:29Speaker 4: the answer to your question is yes.
- 23:31Speaker 5: All right, now let's go to AJ's Cubs, because this
- 23:35Speaker 5: team is leading the NL Central. This team spent money
- 23:38Speaker 5: in the offseason bringing in a bragman that we normally
- 23:40Speaker 5: wouldn't see this team do other years, and they extended PCA,
- 23:45Speaker 5: and they extended Nico Horner. Is this team succeeding the
- 23:48Speaker 5: way that they built the team to succeed, because when
- 23:51Speaker 5: you look at it, the money's given to kind of
- 23:54Speaker 5: the intangibles, sometimes defense, base running, and not necessarily the
- 23:59Speaker 5: super We brought in Kyle Tucker because he's the star
- 24:02Speaker 5: and we're gonna sign him. So are they succeeding in
- 24:05Speaker 5: that way or are they succeeding because they put runs
- 24:08Speaker 5: on the board.
- 24:10Speaker 4: I think they're succeeding in the way they built the team.
- 24:12Speaker 4: You're right, they didn't want to concentrate money into one player,
- 24:16Speaker 4: that this was going to be more spread out. Add
- 24:19Speaker 4: some free agents along with guys that have come up
- 24:21Speaker 4: you know from their miners themselves Pca and Nico Horner
- 24:24Speaker 4: for example, but add in Bregman and Danceby Swanson a
- 24:27Speaker 4: few years ago. No, I think this is the division
- 24:29Speaker 4: that Jed had when he broke up the last team,
- 24:32Speaker 4: you know, back in twenty one, trading Rizzo and Bryant
- 24:34Speaker 4: those guys. It was always going to take some time.
- 24:37Speaker 4: They weren't going to be a quick, fixed team because
- 24:39Speaker 4: that usually costs you money right away. So I think
- 24:43Speaker 4: he is slowly but surely added on and and yeah,
- 24:46Speaker 4: it turns out like, Okay, you don't have to pay
- 24:49Speaker 4: for defense as much as you do for home runs,
- 24:51Speaker 4: but home a run saved is just as good as
- 24:54Speaker 4: a run scored. So they've been able to put together
- 24:57Speaker 4: a pretty good offensive team. Would they really good defensive
- 25:01Speaker 4: team and enough pitching to win? We saw that basically
- 25:04Speaker 4: last year, and I think they're a little bit better
- 25:06Speaker 4: this year.
- 25:10Speaker 1: Let's uh, there we are. Jesse when you look at
- 25:13Speaker 1: the NL Central, the Cubs I think, based on their
- 25:16Speaker 1: off seasons, should be right where they are even with
- 25:18Speaker 1: all those injuries. We can never really count out the Brewers.
- 25:21Speaker 1: They just find a way to win every year. The
- 25:24Speaker 1: Cardinals supposed to be going through a rebuild. They're playing
- 25:26Speaker 1: their best ball in the last three years. Who is
- 25:28Speaker 1: the front runner in this division right now?
- 25:31Speaker 4: Well, I think it's the Cubs, though they have the injuries.
- 25:34Speaker 4: Having said that, until they knock the Brewers off, you
- 25:37Speaker 4: kind of respect Milwaukee, you absolutely do. I'm not going
- 25:41Speaker 4: to pick a winner, but I will say this, and
- 25:43Speaker 4: I said this in February and March regarding the Cubs.
- 25:46Speaker 4: If not now win, If not this team with this payroll,
- 25:51Speaker 4: which they're going to pay the tax and everything, how
- 25:54Speaker 4: and win, are they going to beat the Brewers. This
- 25:56Speaker 4: is as good as it's probably going to get. They're
- 25:58Speaker 4: not investing for four hundred five hundred million in Trek
- 26:01Speaker 4: school ball. They already passed on and Kyle Tucker, but
- 26:04Speaker 4: are paying Alex Spragman. I mean, so that's kind of
- 26:06Speaker 4: my feeling. If not now, when having said that Milwaukee
- 26:10Speaker 4: might win the division, I don't know, but I do
- 26:12Speaker 4: agree that I think it's those two teams I mentioned
- 26:15Speaker 4: kind of the clutch, high leverage moments. Saint Louis has
- 26:18Speaker 4: certainly exceeded in that Cincinnati has as well. I do
- 26:22Speaker 4: think there's some regression there. Certainly the Reds have already
- 26:24Speaker 4: shown that a little bit. Pittsburgh is probably being, you know,
- 26:27Speaker 4: doing what they should be doing. They'll probably be a
- 26:29Speaker 4: five hundred ish team and making those kinds of improvements
- 26:32Speaker 4: in the standings based on what they did in the offseason.
- 26:35Speaker 4: So I still look at it as the Brewers and
- 26:37Speaker 4: Cubs as the class. But man, if the Cubs don't
- 26:40Speaker 4: win the division this year, I don't know when they're
- 26:42Speaker 4: going to.
- 26:43Speaker 7: Well that's a tough one.
- 26:44Speaker 6: I mean, if you're a Chicago fan, you're like, all right,
- 26:46Speaker 6: pressure's on right now. Talk a little about their pitching. Man,
- 26:50Speaker 6: they've been hit with some setbacks. Wharton's out for the year.
- 26:53Speaker 6: Still how to set back, talk about my man and
- 26:56Speaker 6: Boyd all of a sudden getting hurt with his kids.
- 26:58Speaker 6: I listen, I tested it out. I've been hurt with
- 27:02Speaker 6: my kids too when I'm messing around with them all
- 27:04Speaker 6: the time. Now, all pun intended, but talk a little
- 27:07Speaker 6: about that, and they're still doing it. So I mean
- 27:09Speaker 6: that goes to show you a sign of winning ball club.
- 27:11Speaker 4: Now, yeah, I mean, we could get to the end
- 27:14Speaker 4: of the year and they just come up short, and
- 27:16Speaker 4: we could blame it on Kate Horton and Justin Steele
- 27:18Speaker 4: set back. Now, Steele was coming back from elbow surgery anyway,
- 27:22Speaker 4: so you better not have counted on him necessarily. But
- 27:26Speaker 4: obviously Horton came out of nowhere in some ways, although
- 27:28Speaker 4: he has shown a history of injury. So I guess
- 27:31Speaker 4: I'm saying there's really no excuses. They did think about
- 27:33Speaker 4: these things when they traded for Edward Cabrera and rebuilt
- 27:36Speaker 4: their bullpen. Jed Hoyer will certainly need to do some
- 27:40Speaker 4: work at the deadline. Best starter available, best reliever available,
- 27:44Speaker 4: that kind of thing thinking I think is important here.
- 27:47Speaker 4: You know, go back to twenty sixteen. They traded their
- 27:50Speaker 4: best prospect for all this Chapman. So I would say,
- 27:54Speaker 4: if you're following the Cubs, I don't care how they
- 27:56Speaker 4: get better on their mound reliever starter. They're going to
- 27:59Speaker 4: need to do that in July. But we're far away
- 28:02Speaker 4: from July. I think Ben Brown has emerged as a
- 28:05Speaker 4: really good pitcher. He's now in the starting rotation showed
- 28:08Speaker 4: to Imanaga has reinvented himself in some ways. He's pitching
- 28:11Speaker 4: like a cy young candidate. So they are overcoming right now,
- 28:15Speaker 4: but as you guys know, six months is a long
- 28:17Speaker 4: time to overcome a couple big injuries. Hopefully Justin Steele
- 28:21Speaker 4: comes back for them, but July is going to definitely
- 28:24Speaker 4: be important. The end of July early August, specifically for
- 28:27Speaker 4: Jed Hoyer. They probably can't go as far as they
- 28:30Speaker 4: want built built as is, but I think they can.
- 28:34Speaker 4: They can still do well and hang in there until
- 28:36Speaker 4: reinforcements come.
- 28:38Speaker 5: All right, well kind of two parter. Then when is
- 28:40Speaker 5: Jed Hoyer ever made that big move in season? Yes,
- 28:44Speaker 5: we got Edward Cabrera, which was not necessarily the like
- 28:48Speaker 5: Corbyn Burns type of last year type of guy that
- 28:51Speaker 5: you're getting, Like, there were some question marks about Edward
- 28:54Speaker 5: and you know they're still there. But is he that guy?
- 28:58Speaker 5: Because you talked about twenty sixteen. I mean, I'm pretty
- 29:01Speaker 5: sure THEO ain't making no trades. THEO works for a
- 29:03Speaker 5: lot of different teams and makes Leaue baseball and like
- 29:06Speaker 5: the women's professional Soccer League.
- 29:07Speaker 4: He's everywhere, but.
- 29:10Speaker 5: It's not twenty sixteen, and I think Jed Hoyer, I'm
- 29:14Speaker 5: not saying he's on the hot seat. I'm saying, with
- 29:16Speaker 5: these injuries, other teams that want to make the playoffs
- 29:20Speaker 5: set themselves up with a little more depth than what
- 29:22Speaker 5: I think Jed Hoyer put the Cubs in to start
- 29:25Speaker 5: the season.
- 29:27Speaker 4: Okay, so I'm gonna disagree with you a little, but
- 29:28Speaker 4: I do think he did well enough in the offseason.
- 29:31Speaker 4: But I do agree that aggressive muscle that you know,
- 29:37Speaker 4: that aggressive GM show. He hasn't always shown like that's
- 29:40Speaker 4: not a club in his bag that he takes out
- 29:43Speaker 4: very often. The first time I saw it as as
- 29:46Speaker 4: the headman was basically when they traded a top prospect
- 29:48Speaker 4: for Kyle Tucker a year ago, one year of Kyle Tucker.
- 29:51Speaker 4: That showed me something that Jed hasn't necessarily done in
- 29:55Speaker 4: the past as much. That's why I use that phrase.
- 29:58Speaker 4: And this is actually theo's phrase, if not now, when
- 30:00Speaker 4: he certainly said that when he traded g Libratrus for
- 30:03Speaker 4: all this Chapman in sixteen. I think we're entering the
- 30:06Speaker 4: same situation. We don't know what baseball is gonna look
- 30:08Speaker 4: like next year the Cubs are either going to be
- 30:10Speaker 4: in first or in the wildcar race come July, you know,
- 30:13Speaker 4: August second or third, whenever the deadline is. And I
- 30:16Speaker 4: think he really has to go for it. Maybe maybe
- 30:18Speaker 4: you only do it once every decade where you really
- 30:21Speaker 4: go for it. This should be it, And I agree
- 30:23Speaker 4: with you. Let's see if he pulls that club out
- 30:26Speaker 4: of his bag. I think he's been around long enough
- 30:29Speaker 4: and learned at the feet of theo Epstein to know
- 30:31Speaker 4: that if he has to shoot big, if he has
- 30:33Speaker 4: to give up a top prospect, maybe maybe not for rental,
- 30:37Speaker 4: you know, maybe maybe it's someone with team control, maybe
- 30:39Speaker 4: a second best prospect for you know, if he has
- 30:42Speaker 4: to make that aggressive mood, that's gonna hurt in years
- 30:44Speaker 4: to come. I like to believe he'll do it. I do,
- 30:49Speaker 4: and I think he's at least shown the ability to
- 30:52Speaker 4: do it when you think about that Kyle Tucker trade.
- 30:54Speaker 4: But I think Cup fans are gonna be waiting and
- 30:56Speaker 4: watching very closely for that big one come July.
- 30:59Speaker 7: Last question for me, we talk about rivalries all the time.
- 31:03Speaker 7: There's still some good rivalries in baseball.
- 31:05Speaker 6: You know, you got the White Sox, you got the Cubs, now, Yankees, Mets.
- 31:09Speaker 6: I played for three out of those four teams. Where
- 31:12Speaker 6: do you think that Cubs White Sox rivalries sits in
- 31:15Speaker 6: the baseball world?
- 31:17Speaker 4: Okay, I'm gonna be honest. It probably not as good
- 31:20Speaker 4: as it should be. I tweeted this out last night.
- 31:23Speaker 4: You guys know this by now, Like it's been since
- 31:25Speaker 4: June two thousand and eight when they faced each other,
- 31:28Speaker 4: and both teams have a winning record, So it's hard.
- 31:31Speaker 4: I mean, the fans have a rivalry for sure, but
- 31:34Speaker 4: like one team's good, one team's bad, it's just tough
- 31:36Speaker 4: to get a lot of juice going. Finally, both teams
- 31:39Speaker 4: are decent, even if it's just one game over five
- 31:41Speaker 4: hundred for the White Sox. So look, it is a rivalry.
- 31:45Speaker 4: It's a good one.
- 31:46Speaker 7: You know.
- 31:46Speaker 4: It's funny they play the White Sox, the Cubs do,
- 31:48Speaker 4: and then right after that is the Milwaukee Brewers and
- 31:50Speaker 4: the Cubs. Brewers rivalry is at its peak. It is
- 31:53Speaker 4: as good as it gets. I might even put that
- 31:56Speaker 4: ahead of Cubs Socks in some ways, but at least
- 31:58Speaker 4: we have two winning teams going at each other. This weekend,
- 32:03Speaker 4: sold out crowds. One team really hot, the other team
- 32:06Speaker 4: just got off a little losing skid, but they'd won
- 32:09Speaker 4: ten in a row twice already in the in the Cubs.
- 32:11Speaker 4: So yeah, it's good. It's good, and maybe it will
- 32:14Speaker 4: grow if both teams continue to have success.
- 32:18Speaker 5: Jesse, there's no there's like Cole Hamil said, there's no
- 32:21Speaker 5: rivalry between the Brewers and the Cubs. Cole Hamil's exact words,
- 32:25Speaker 5: where there's no rivalry between these two teams, and he's
- 32:28Speaker 5: seen rivalries. But my question is who's to blame that
- 32:32Speaker 5: it's not been a rivalry more because the whole your
- 32:35Speaker 5: whole tweet was since two thousand and eight. Yeah, so
- 32:39Speaker 5: who's been the worst? Who has the most blame on
- 32:42Speaker 5: the Chicago eh kind of rivalry?
- 32:46Speaker 4: Probably the White Sox a little bit more, only because well,
- 32:50Speaker 4: you know, but I say that, but I was about
- 32:53Speaker 4: to say the White Socks have gone through two rebuilds
- 32:55Speaker 4: in that time at least, but some of the Cubs.
- 32:58Speaker 4: Basically now, the Cubs had a World's Series in there,
- 33:00Speaker 4: so you give him a little bit of a pass,
- 33:02Speaker 4: but I mean pretty equal, but a little bit more
- 33:05Speaker 4: with the White Sox. They set the record for most
- 33:07Speaker 4: losses in a single season, so yeah, I mean more recently,
- 33:10Speaker 4: it's certainly been on the White Sox. But you know,
- 33:12Speaker 4: even when Theoepski took over the Cubs, they didn't win
- 33:15Speaker 4: for a few years. And by the way, two thousand
- 33:17Speaker 4: and eight both teams made the postseason, so maybe there's
- 33:20Speaker 4: a little foreshadowing here.
- 33:23Speaker 2: We love it.
- 33:24Speaker 1: That's always the good stuff from Jesse Rogers of ESPN,
- 33:27Speaker 1: so kind enough to join us before he heads to
- 33:30Speaker 1: the ballpark. Everyone's heading to the ballpark right now, Jesse
- 33:32Speaker 1: taking the much great stuff on all the stuff in
- 33:34Speaker 1: Chicago Land.
- 33:35Speaker 7: We'll see you soon.
- 33:36Speaker 4: Great to be with you if you will.