Latest / Foul Territory / Jim Duquette’s Front Office Insight: Skubal’s rehab start, State of the Mets & Orioles, CBA ish

Transcript

Jim Duquette’s Front Office Insight: Skubal’s rehab start, State of the Mets & Orioles, CBA ish · Foul Territory

0:08
Speaker 1: Hey, we're gonna have some more regular appearances with Jim Duquette,
0:11
Speaker 1: our front office insider here, so we're looking forward to that.
0:14
Speaker 1: You can see him and hear them on a number
0:15
Speaker 1: of other spots too, so we'll get into some of
0:17
Speaker 1: the teams that you probably see the most. Dude, great
0:20
Speaker 1: to have you, though. We're excited to have you a
0:21
Speaker 1: little bit more frequently here. What's up, man? So I'm
0:24
Speaker 1: going to give you a dealer's choice. Yeah, we're excited, man.
0:28
Speaker 1: You want to go Metsa Orioles first? Which road would
0:31
Speaker 1: you like to would you like to dance down?
0:34
Speaker 2: They're equally below average, So let's go with Baltimore for now?
0:38
Speaker 2: Why not? Okay?
0:39
Speaker 1: Well better lately?
0:40
Speaker 2: Right? Better? Last two weeks and that's all it takes.
0:43
Speaker 1: To get back in the American League Wildcard. So anything
0:45
Speaker 1: looking different?
0:48
Speaker 2: You know, I think their pitching has been better, for sure.
0:50
Speaker 2: You know, I think the offenses has perked up a
0:53
Speaker 2: little bit too. You know Pete is you know, he's
0:57
Speaker 2: off to a slow start, but now he's been swinging
0:59
Speaker 2: up much better. You know, Cowser has been I mean
1:02
Speaker 2: since he had the back to back walk off homers,
1:04
Speaker 2: he seems like he's playing better. You know, there's still
1:08
Speaker 2: there's still some hiccups along the way. Uh you know, offensively,
1:11
Speaker 2: defensively too. Yesterday defensively it cost I mean, they really
1:15
Speaker 2: should have won that game. I thought, you know, they
1:17
Speaker 2: had their they had the lead. Obviously there's a bad,
1:20
Speaker 2: bad call in my opinion on them from the umpire
1:24
Speaker 2: in the out of the base line there by Clement.
1:26
Speaker 2: But ye know, I think that's still a game they
1:28
Speaker 2: should they should have won, but their defense tripped them up.
1:30
Speaker 2: So you know, there's been some issues there. But to
1:32
Speaker 2: your point, I think they have been playing better. I
1:34
Speaker 2: think mostly the starting pitching has been has turned around
1:38
Speaker 2: a little bit, you know, not with Standon bradish Is
1:41
Speaker 2: outing the other day, but Boz was Boz has been good.
1:45
Speaker 2: They've had a couple of the young pitchers obviously pitching better.
1:47
Speaker 2: So I'm a little more optimistic. And then to your point,
1:51
Speaker 2: just because of how average the American League is, you
1:55
Speaker 2: know they can stay in this. I think this race
1:57
Speaker 2: a little bit longer than than most and it's going
2:00
Speaker 2: to end up turning it up to what can Michael
2:03
Speaker 2: Ias do at the trade deadline. I don't know if
2:05
Speaker 2: there's another guy in their system that can come up
2:07
Speaker 2: and help them all that much. But I do think
2:09
Speaker 2: they're gonna have to make a trade, probably for pitching
2:12
Speaker 2: here moving forward. So yeah, I like what I've seen,
2:16
Speaker 2: you know, the last two weeks or so, in particular,
2:20
Speaker 2: Prior to that, man, I wasn't sure they were going
2:22
Speaker 2: to be able to come out of it, and so
2:23
Speaker 2: thankfully they have Jim.
2:26
Speaker 3: A couple of things you just mentioned. One, they don't
2:29
Speaker 3: have any prospects. Wait.
2:31
Speaker 4: I thought this was the this was the team that
2:33
Speaker 4: had a million prospects. They had so many prospects. They
2:36
Speaker 4: were just falling. They were falling all over themselves with prospects. Right,
2:40
Speaker 4: What happened to all the prospects? And then what's going
2:42
Speaker 4: on with Gunner? I gotta know what you look up?
2:43
Speaker 4: You see Gunner two twenty two. That's not Gunner Henderson.
2:46
Speaker 4: I've watched some of their games. What's going on there?
2:50
Speaker 4: Answer the prospects obviously first, and then we can get
2:53
Speaker 4: into Gunner a little bit.
2:54
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, for sure. You know, I'll tell you what
2:56
Speaker 2: a the prospects, you know, and sometimes when I was
3:01
Speaker 2: in the front office for as long as I was,
3:03
Speaker 2: you know, there was always this, Oh yeah, we've got
3:06
Speaker 2: all a ton of prospects. Thirty prospects, thirty thirty. Big
3:10
Speaker 2: leaguers like, no, you don't. I mean, nobody has that many,
3:13
Speaker 2: but you like to think that, right, And so your
3:15
Speaker 2: scouting directors like, yeah, yeah, this is we've got you know,
3:19
Speaker 2: the impact. You know, this guy is a major leaguer,
3:22
Speaker 2: he's an everyday regular, and you're always trying to self evaluate,
3:25
Speaker 2: but a lot of times it's an over evaluation. And
3:28
Speaker 2: I think with them, what I don't know is is
3:30
Speaker 2: this age old question. Is it the scouting director and
3:33
Speaker 2: their issues when they're not playing, you know, not playing
3:35
Speaker 2: well at the major league level, or is this a
3:37
Speaker 2: development issue where they're not getting them ready to play
3:41
Speaker 2: at the major league level. And I've talked to a
3:44
Speaker 2: lot of scouts that have seen their system here recently.
3:47
Speaker 2: I don't I don't get out to see their minor
3:49
Speaker 2: leagues at all, but the scouts that cover that are still,
3:53
Speaker 2: by the way, employed by teams. That's a whole different topic.
3:56
Speaker 2: But the fact that ones that are still out there
3:58
Speaker 2: and are covering the minor leagues here time and time
4:00
Speaker 2: again in their player Develoma system, they chase velocity more
4:05
Speaker 2: than they chase pitchability. They chase exit velocity versus approach
4:11
Speaker 2: at the plate, and it kind of checks out when
4:14
Speaker 2: you see them at the major league level. That's what
4:16
Speaker 2: you're seeing, you know, with some of their offensive players
4:18
Speaker 2: and some of the you know, the lack of versatility
4:21
Speaker 2: on the defensive side, you know. I mean, we've been
4:23
Speaker 2: talking about roster flexibility for at least a decade. I
4:28
Speaker 2: feel like in that the Orioles don't either they don't
4:31
Speaker 2: believe in it, or they're not paying attention. They're just
4:33
Speaker 2: not paying attention to it. I don't know what exactly
4:36
Speaker 2: the issue is, but they've had those problems. They've had
4:39
Speaker 2: a host of injury problems up and down the organization.
4:42
Speaker 2: So I don't like any any problems that you have.
4:47
Speaker 2: There's no one specific thing, but those are some of
4:50
Speaker 2: the things that I think are highlighting why their minor
4:54
Speaker 2: league system is taking a pretty big hit over the
4:56
Speaker 2: last couple of years.
5:00
Speaker 5: Jim, what what do you got?
5:02
Speaker 2: Adley?
5:03
Speaker 5: I mean, Adley was I remember when he made his debut.
5:06
Speaker 5: Adley was the next coming and he's had some he's
5:11
Speaker 5: had some really down years the last couple of years. Uh,
5:15
Speaker 5: as as a guy from your lens, do you still
5:18
Speaker 5: see him as a guy that can kind of carry
5:21
Speaker 5: this team with with with Gunner? I mean, and Gunner's
5:24
Speaker 5: obviously not playing like he should be playing, But do
5:26
Speaker 5: you see those two as being able to carry that
5:28
Speaker 5: team two to get deep into playoffs?
5:32
Speaker 3: Yeah?
5:32
Speaker 2: You know what uh I've said, you know, and I
5:34
Speaker 2: didn't finish AJ's question with Gunner, but we can get
5:37
Speaker 2: into that a little bit more. But you know, he,
5:39
Speaker 2: for me, Gunner, the talent is still there. He I
5:42
Speaker 2: think he's going through some struggles in the frustration. I'm
5:45
Speaker 2: not sure he's handled the frustration all that well. You know,
5:48
Speaker 2: and you see a lot of you know, there are
5:52
Speaker 2: guys who have who get the ass you know when
5:55
Speaker 2: they when they struggle and they're throwing stuff or their
5:57
Speaker 2: they're breaking bats, and in the dugout, he he he
6:01
Speaker 2: throws a lot of a lot of equipment, shows the
6:04
Speaker 2: frustration and wears it on his sleeve a little bit
6:07
Speaker 2: more than I had thought. But I think he's got
6:10
Speaker 2: he's got too much talent to not come out of
6:13
Speaker 2: this at some point, and he has the right mindset. Adley,
6:16
Speaker 2: you know, Adley is an interesting guy. Because I feel
6:18
Speaker 2: like his his development at the major league level was
6:20
Speaker 2: affected by a couple of injuries. I don't think he
6:24
Speaker 2: was in the greatest shape a couple of years ago.
6:26
Speaker 2: He's fixed that and or had you know that doesn't
6:29
Speaker 2: it's not as big of an issue. You know, that
6:32
Speaker 2: catching spot, as you guys know, that's a that can
6:34
Speaker 2: be a grind. But I think they're doing a better
6:37
Speaker 2: job of balancing the the playing time between him and
6:41
Speaker 2: Besia behind the plate. And so I do think with
6:44
Speaker 2: with Rutchman, well, maybe he's not going to be the
6:48
Speaker 2: you know, superstar that they had hoped and and and
6:52
Speaker 2: maybe that you were expecting with the number one overall
6:55
Speaker 2: pick a couple of years ago. I still think he's
6:57
Speaker 2: going to be, you know, a good every day regular.
7:01
Speaker 2: But it's it's you got to change your your mindset.
7:04
Speaker 2: I remember when when I was with the Orioles and
7:05
Speaker 2: we had Matt Wieters right and they and they were like, oh,
7:09
Speaker 2: he's he's Joe Maher with power Like he didn't. He
7:12
Speaker 2: didn't turn out to be that, but he was still
7:14
Speaker 2: a really good major leaguer for for over ten years.
7:17
Speaker 2: I think we might at the end have the same
7:21
Speaker 2: opinion of Rutchman at the end of this when his
7:24
Speaker 2: career you know, gets towards the end, but I still
7:26
Speaker 2: think that there's time obviously because of the switch hitting
7:29
Speaker 2: abilities and some of the health issues that derailed his
7:32
Speaker 2: early part of his career, that that he has a
7:35
Speaker 2: chance to be, you know, maybe not the superstar, but
7:38
Speaker 2: you know, an everyday regular and sometime all start. And
7:41
Speaker 2: I think that's that's why I view it from the
7:43
Speaker 2: from the you know, scouting Lens.
7:49
Speaker 6: Crouch.
7:49
Speaker 4: You know why I travel all the time and I'm
7:51
Speaker 4: always looking for possible tickets to go see events, concerts,
7:54
Speaker 4: MLB games.
7:55
Speaker 3: When I do, I always find seakeek.
7:58
Speaker 6: Yeah, I'm not traveling so pretty much. I'm looking for
8:01
Speaker 6: the games all in my area. I'm gonna look for
8:03
Speaker 6: an Orioles game. I'm gonna look for the Phillies game,
8:06
Speaker 6: the Mets game, the Yankees game. But you know what
8:09
Speaker 6: else is coming up? The All Star game. Sea Geeks
8:11
Speaker 6: got me.
8:13
Speaker 4: Hey, you're gonna need them. Tickets for the All Star
8:14
Speaker 4: Game is gonna be crazy. Hey, they have over thirty
8:17
Speaker 4: five million downloads for a reason. It's because they have
8:20
Speaker 4: everything you need. Green dots, red dots, you pick your seat,
8:22
Speaker 4: see the scene from your seat. It's the best app
8:26
Speaker 4: going for tickets, and of course I have a code
8:29
Speaker 4: for you guys. You can use code Territory ten for
8:32
Speaker 4: ten percent off your next set of MLB tickets at
8:34
Speaker 4: seat Geek. That's ten percent off any MLB tickets with
8:38
Speaker 4: promo code Territory ten. Make sure you click the link
8:41
Speaker 4: in the description to download the app and have the
8:43
Speaker 4: code automatically added to your account so you can use
8:46
Speaker 4: it later.
8:47
Speaker 3: Thank you, Seat Geek. Jim.
8:49
Speaker 4: There's another team we mentioned, the Mets. What do you
8:52
Speaker 4: think is going on with the Mets? It played a
8:53
Speaker 4: little bit better recently. They have some guys coming back.
8:58
Speaker 4: Lindor is supposed to be coming back. Segah knows Luis
9:00
Speaker 4: Robert he never wants to play, so ye'll probably know.
9:03
Speaker 4: Poloko's not coming back anytime soon. So what's happening with
9:07
Speaker 4: the Mets? The Soto thing where he didn't run the
9:09
Speaker 4: ground ball out and he was you know, people are
9:11
Speaker 4: all over him on social media.
9:13
Speaker 3: But are the Mets?
9:14
Speaker 4: Do they have a chance to get back in this
9:15
Speaker 4: with as good as Atlanta and especially Philly has been playing.
9:19
Speaker 2: You know, I don't know a j I don't think
9:22
Speaker 2: they can catch Atlanta and I you know, and we
9:25
Speaker 2: all get a chance to watch a lot of baseball.
9:26
Speaker 2: I don't think there aren't many teams as good as
9:29
Speaker 2: Atlanta right now, you know, the Dodgers for sure. The
9:33
Speaker 2: way the Phillies have been playing the last whatever it is,
9:36
Speaker 2: thirty five thirty almost forty games now, you know, I
9:40
Speaker 2: think you can put them in that company as well,
9:42
Speaker 2: even though they had such a slow start. You know,
9:45
Speaker 2: I think with the with the Mets, first off, they
9:48
Speaker 2: don't have the starting pitching that the Phillies have, but
9:51
Speaker 2: they also you know, still have then Door out for
9:54
Speaker 2: a while, and like you said, Robert, you have to
9:57
Speaker 2: almost plan on him not coming back. The guy that
9:59
Speaker 2: I was hopeful for the Mets would come back was Polanco,
10:03
Speaker 2: just based off what he did last year. He helps
10:05
Speaker 2: give that lineup some balance. You know, he had a
10:08
Speaker 2: setback in his recovery, so I'm starting to wonder if
10:11
Speaker 2: this is more twenty twenty four Polanco than last year's
10:16
Speaker 2: version that the Mets have. So, you know, to your point,
10:20
Speaker 2: they've been playing better. I was just looking at their
10:21
Speaker 2: record before it came out nineteen and fifteen. Since May first,
10:25
Speaker 2: I mean that you would take that under normal circumstances.
10:28
Speaker 2: But they were ten and twenty one in the early
10:32
Speaker 2: on April thirtieth, so you're really and I've been trying
10:35
Speaker 2: to see if there's a way, a pathway for them
10:37
Speaker 2: to get better kind of go on that run that
10:40
Speaker 2: the Phillies have, and until you know, they get McClain
10:43
Speaker 2: back completely, maybe Manaia, you know, it's started, even though
10:48
Speaker 2: he's in the bulk roll, maybe he's starting to figure
10:51
Speaker 2: some things out here. You know, with Christian Scott pitching better,
10:55
Speaker 2: maybe their rotation, while it's not the Phillies can help
10:58
Speaker 2: them kind of go on a little little bit more
11:00
Speaker 2: of a run. But until they get lind Door back,
11:02
Speaker 2: I don't know what to think of this team. You know,
11:04
Speaker 2: And even even with Bishett sometimes showing that he's swinging
11:07
Speaker 2: it better, you know, it's still been you know, I
11:10
Speaker 2: was interested hearing Wit talk about, you know, the hitting coaches,
11:13
Speaker 2: and you know, Bishette is kind of his own dude
11:17
Speaker 2: and doesn't really trust the coaches and any coaches for
11:21
Speaker 2: that matter, and you know, can he stay with his approach.
11:24
Speaker 2: He's had a lot of you know, expected I don't
11:27
Speaker 2: believe necessarily in the expected numbers. But when you're struggling
11:30
Speaker 2: like bashett is, that's all you can really hang your
11:32
Speaker 2: hat on right now, you know, Can he at least
11:34
Speaker 2: stay with his same approach and maybe eventually those numbers
11:37
Speaker 2: start to creep up. I'm hopeful for him, but you know,
11:40
Speaker 2: until he starts to really swing it the way he's capable,
11:44
Speaker 2: they're not going to go on that run either. So
11:46
Speaker 2: they have a lot of things that are wrong with
11:48
Speaker 2: the team. And you know, they are playing a little
11:50
Speaker 2: bit better, no question, but I don't think we're going
11:52
Speaker 2: to see the best of them until Lindor comes back.
11:55
Speaker 5: We talked a little bit earlier in the show about
11:57
Speaker 5: the Red Sox and where they where they were as
12:01
Speaker 5: far as rosters set up. With the Tradeline trade deadline
12:04
Speaker 5: coming up, what do you see the Mets doing, Because
12:07
Speaker 5: I mean, Mets just spent one hundred million dollars for
12:10
Speaker 5: two years on Bow or whatever crazy number it was.
12:13
Speaker 5: And you know, they got all this money invested in
12:15
Speaker 5: the Door and Soto, and I mean, they're not scared
12:18
Speaker 5: to spend money. But do you see them do you
12:21
Speaker 5: see them kind of jumping ship on? Some guys come
12:23
Speaker 5: come this trade deadline.
12:24
Speaker 2: I think we're gonna know in a month for sure
12:28
Speaker 2: if they should or not. You know, if they keep
12:31
Speaker 2: playing at this pace, you know, and they're like five
12:33
Speaker 2: more games over five hundred over the next month, you know,
12:36
Speaker 2: another let's say seventeen and twelve month of June, something
12:40
Speaker 2: along those lines. It wouldn't surprise me if they held
12:45
Speaker 2: those guys. You know, Peralta is the one guy that
12:48
Speaker 2: would get I think a lot back in return if
12:51
Speaker 2: you're gonna make him available. You know, they don't have
12:54
Speaker 2: a ton I don't think. You know, they might decide
12:56
Speaker 2: to move bout Bow at the end of this because
12:59
Speaker 2: he's got an out at the end of the year.
13:02
Speaker 2: But I really think that they are so wired to
13:06
Speaker 2: win now that trying to you know, I know, if
13:10
Speaker 2: I were in David Stern's shoes right now, if I
13:12
Speaker 2: went to the owner and said, we need to we
13:14
Speaker 2: need to pull the plug on this season, I probably
13:17
Speaker 2: would duck underneath the desk and hope that he, you know,
13:20
Speaker 2: wasn't ready to punch me.
13:22
Speaker 3: You know that.
13:22
Speaker 2: I mean, you know you're going to suffer the wrath
13:24
Speaker 2: which he's I'm sure are we receiving from Steve Cohen,
13:28
Speaker 2: So you know, I think that they won't do it lightly.
13:31
Speaker 2: I think they're going to delay that decision as long
13:34
Speaker 2: as they can. But you know, we were talking about
13:37
Speaker 2: this with Jim Bowden today. You know when when you
13:42
Speaker 2: kind of look at yourself in the mirror, eventually you realize, hey,
13:45
Speaker 2: you know what, we're not the team that we that
13:48
Speaker 2: you know, we hoped to be, and you have to
13:50
Speaker 2: you know, that reality comes. It comes to some people
13:52
Speaker 2: a little bit later. You know, I'm hopeful for the
13:55
Speaker 2: Mets since I follow him so much, that they're going
13:57
Speaker 2: to be in the mix, but it feels like they're
13:59
Speaker 2: more t ending in the other direction because I just
14:01
Speaker 2: don't think they have the starting pitch now. They could
14:04
Speaker 2: stand there until Holmes comes back. You know, that's a
14:07
Speaker 2: different story. But he would be an interesting trade candidate too,
14:09
Speaker 2: once he gets back and healthy.
14:12
Speaker 4: Yeah, he's a free DGE at the end of the year,
14:13
Speaker 4: so he's he would be, but he's got a previous
14:15
Speaker 4: healthy and that sucks. Hey, as a former front office guy,
14:18
Speaker 4: we had this discussion before he came on about the
14:20
Speaker 4: Padres and Aj Preller hires Craig Salmon.
14:23
Speaker 3: I don't know how many much.
14:25
Speaker 4: Choice Craig Salmon had and who he hired his coaches,
14:28
Speaker 4: or if he was just said hey maybe you know
14:29
Speaker 4: sometimes you front office guys, you give him one coach
14:32
Speaker 4: or two coaches and you say, hey, you got to
14:34
Speaker 4: keep these guys around. But the hitting coach situation, how
14:37
Speaker 4: how soon is too soon to fire a hitting coach
14:40
Speaker 4: or a pitching coach or a coach in general? And
14:42
Speaker 4: how much leeway do the managers have and picking their
14:45
Speaker 4: own coaches.
14:47
Speaker 2: So you know that has changed over the over the years.
14:51
Speaker 5: You know, now with.
14:52
Speaker 2: Craig being there in the front office prior, you know,
14:55
Speaker 2: and it was right next to AJ, you would have
14:58
Speaker 2: thought that they could have come to this conclusion and
15:01
Speaker 2: these decisions together. You know, I don't think Craig was
15:05
Speaker 2: in a position once he became the manager that he
15:08
Speaker 2: was going to say no to anything that was recommended
15:10
Speaker 2: by a J. But you'd like to think of all
15:12
Speaker 2: of the groups that were, you know, the GM and
15:16
Speaker 2: manager slot, that they would have been on the page
15:18
Speaker 2: a little bit more than anybody else. The Mets, as
15:21
Speaker 2: an example, you know, they fired all of Carlos Mendoza's coaches,
15:26
Speaker 2: and basically it felt like they told him here's here's
15:29
Speaker 2: where you're gonna end up hiring. So you know, and
15:33
Speaker 2: I'm not a fan of that either. I always felt like,
15:36
Speaker 2: you know, the manager or GM should be able to
15:37
Speaker 2: do this together and figure out the coaching staff and
15:40
Speaker 2: and by the way, they should decide if they need
15:42
Speaker 2: to make a change together. But a lot of times
15:44
Speaker 2: in the front office, you guys were talking about this earlier.
15:47
Speaker 2: You know, the manager has he's he's vested in the
15:51
Speaker 2: coaching staff and what they're doing and how they're doing,
15:54
Speaker 2: and they have that view behind the scenes, and you know,
15:57
Speaker 2: you're trying to look at it either objectively by saying
16:00
Speaker 2: you know what the message is stale or you're not
16:03
Speaker 2: seeing the results, and so you can't change out all
16:07
Speaker 2: the players on the roster, So the only thing you
16:09
Speaker 2: really can do is doing the coaching staff or one
16:11
Speaker 2: of the coaches. I was never a big fan of firing.
16:14
Speaker 2: I fired a couple of coaches in the middle of season,
16:16
Speaker 2: hitting coaches. One time it worked, the two other times
16:21
Speaker 2: it didn't. And I feel like it's very very limited
16:24
Speaker 2: what you can expect out of that. But you're in
16:27
Speaker 2: a position where you're like you're just frustrated. You want
16:29
Speaker 2: to try to do something. You know that it maybe
16:31
Speaker 2: you know, changes the mindset, or maybe maybe it fires
16:35
Speaker 2: up you know, a player or two, or change, you know,
16:37
Speaker 2: just a little different message. So there's things like that
16:40
Speaker 2: you can try to do. I am now that I've
16:42
Speaker 2: seen it on both sides, I'm a little skeptical that
16:45
Speaker 2: it works at all in season. So you know, if
16:49
Speaker 2: I'm in a Podres situation, it does feel like a
16:53
Speaker 2: change needs to be made, but I'm not really sure
16:58
Speaker 2: that that's going to help all that much. You know,
17:00
Speaker 2: maybe adding a player too, if they could in a trade,
17:03
Speaker 2: might help. That's probably what Ages decides to do.
17:07
Speaker 3: Jim.
17:08
Speaker 4: Recently, we've had a bunch of CBA talk. I'm already
17:10
Speaker 4: sick of talking about it. I'm sure you've talked about
17:13
Speaker 4: it on your show plenty. I know the first proposals,
17:16
Speaker 4: I mean, they don't mean anything, although I guess it
17:19
Speaker 4: means that they're at least talking a little bit.
17:21
Speaker 3: But is there any hope for this? Is there any
17:23
Speaker 3: hope on the horizon.
17:24
Speaker 4: We're not going to have a long labor stoppage because
17:26
Speaker 4: baseball is on fire right now.
17:29
Speaker 2: Yeah, you know what, And I'm with you, man, I've
17:31
Speaker 2: already tapped out in the CBA talk just because, like what,
17:36
Speaker 2: we're killing our own product if we're talking about how
17:39
Speaker 2: supposedly different our opinions are on what the next CBA
17:44
Speaker 2: is going to look like. And we've had all this momentum,
17:46
Speaker 2: positive momentum, you know, with the way the play has been,
17:49
Speaker 2: the way the players have helped turn things around. Obviously
17:52
Speaker 2: there's a lot more interest here in the last four
17:56
Speaker 2: or five years that you've seen in the attendance. So
17:58
Speaker 2: you know, for me, going back to when we had
18:02
Speaker 2: the strike and the lockout, I was just starting out
18:05
Speaker 2: in the front office at the time, but I remember
18:07
Speaker 2: it well. The one thing that I'm fearful of that
18:12
Speaker 2: would would cause us potential work stoppage. Back then, a
18:17
Speaker 2: lot of the owners took for granted the product they
18:22
Speaker 2: didn't and they took for granted how unified the union
18:26
Speaker 2: and the players work. And I mean some of those
18:30
Speaker 2: owners are still involved, but a lot of them have
18:32
Speaker 2: changed and have sold and they're out. And what I
18:36
Speaker 2: worry about is, you know, commissioner's job, We all know
18:39
Speaker 2: that he works for ownership, but the other aspect of
18:44
Speaker 2: that is making sure we don't lose any games. If
18:47
Speaker 2: they are insistent on having a salary cap, and the
18:49
Speaker 2: players insist on not having it, then we are going
18:52
Speaker 2: to miss games going forward. But I'd like to think
18:55
Speaker 2: that there's so much money at stake here that these
18:59
Speaker 2: initial proposals they're they're more, they're closer than it appears,
19:04
Speaker 2: you know, from a pr side of things, and we
19:06
Speaker 2: could actually come to an agreement without a salary cap.
19:09
Speaker 2: I do not agree with the commissioner. I think that
19:13
Speaker 2: to some way, some degrees, the luxury tax and the
19:17
Speaker 2: threshold has curbed spending. I think they've misallocated the money.
19:25
Speaker 2: That money should go only to the small market teams.
19:27
Speaker 2: It shouldn't go to, you know, spread out to all
19:30
Speaker 2: the teams who stay under the luxury tax when they
19:33
Speaker 2: were when they're spreading out the money, uh for in
19:36
Speaker 2: the you know, from the from the luxury tax itself.
19:39
Speaker 2: So I think they if they reassign it, they increased
19:41
Speaker 2: the tax a little bit more. There's some things like
19:43
Speaker 2: that that I think they could do. To me, that
19:46
Speaker 2: would be the first preference rather than trying to force
19:49
Speaker 2: a salary cap down everyone's throat.
19:56
Speaker 6: My dog Bella would do anything for a treat, and
19:59
Speaker 6: I want to give her a treat that will take
20:01
Speaker 6: care of her long term.
20:03
Speaker 1: And a quick message from today's sponsor, the ASPCA Pet
20:07
Speaker 1: Health Insurance Program. If you're frantically looking for what to
20:10
Speaker 1: do with your pup when they have an issue, the
20:12
Speaker 1: program offers customizable accident and illness plans, making it easier
20:16
Speaker 1: to get your pet the care they need. When you
20:18
Speaker 1: enroll in an ASPCA Pet Health Insurance plan, you could
20:21
Speaker 1: get a twenty five dollars Amazon gift card. It's a
20:23
Speaker 1: little treat for you while you're doing something great for
20:25
Speaker 1: your pet. To explore coverage, visit ASPCA Pet Insurance dot
20:29
Speaker 1: com slash file that's ASPCA Pet Insurance dot com slash foul.
20:34
Speaker 1: Eligibility restrictions apply. Visit ASPCA Pet Insurance dot com slash
20:38
Speaker 1: Amazon terms for more info. This is a paid advertisement.
20:41
Speaker 1: Insurance is underwritten by either Independence American Insurance Company or
20:44
Speaker 1: United States Fire Insurance Company and produced by PTZ Insurance
20:48
Speaker 1: Agency Limited. The ASPCA is not an insurance and is
20:51
Speaker 1: not engaged in the business of insurance.
20:53
Speaker 5: Speaking of salary, gab Jim, I mean that's that's that's
20:55
Speaker 5: the hot word of this labor negotiation is the sale caps?
21:01
Speaker 5: Do you how much of it do you think they're
21:04
Speaker 5: pushing for the ownership is pushing for because it's gonna
21:08
Speaker 5: make it a more balanced playing field versus it's gonna
21:13
Speaker 5: be more money in their pocket. What's the what's the
21:15
Speaker 5: percentage on that thing?
21:18
Speaker 2: Yeah, so you know, I'm skeptical that it's gonna balance
21:22
Speaker 2: it's gonna balance things out from the from the playing
21:25
Speaker 2: field perspective, I think there are ways that like I mean,
21:29
Speaker 2: you guys know as players personally, and you see this
21:32
Speaker 2: in the NBA when there's a salary cap going on,
21:36
Speaker 2: Like people players if they want to play in LA
21:39
Speaker 2: as an example, because they're the ones that seem to
21:41
Speaker 2: take the brunt of this. Players want to play in
21:44
Speaker 2: with the Dodgers, They're gonna find a way to do
21:46
Speaker 2: it within the luxury, within the salary cap. They're not
21:49
Speaker 2: going to go to a small market club if they
21:51
Speaker 2: don't want to. And and so I don't think it's
21:53
Speaker 2: gonna prevent you know, those high end uh free agents
21:56
Speaker 2: from from you know, going to where they want to go.
21:59
Speaker 2: Person they'll have to take less money, but I think
22:02
Speaker 2: they'll be willing to do it, some of them will
22:04
Speaker 2: to win. So I don't think it's going to necessarily
22:09
Speaker 2: improve the imbalance that we have on spending. So I
22:14
Speaker 2: think there's ways around that to kind of curb the
22:16
Speaker 2: spending from a taxation rate instead. And I think from
22:20
Speaker 2: the owner side of things, they are convinced that this
22:22
Speaker 2: is going to help the valuations of their team, the
22:25
Speaker 2: salary cap, and I think that's why you saw three
22:28
Speaker 2: or four teams that were up for sale, then they
22:30
Speaker 2: pulled them off the market, and they're just waiting to
22:33
Speaker 2: have this. We'll call it clarity on the CBA. If
22:37
Speaker 2: there's a salary cap, maybe the valuations will go up exponentially.
22:41
Speaker 2: But I think there are better ways to do it
22:43
Speaker 2: than just insisting on a salary cap. I keep saying
22:45
Speaker 2: this over and over, and I'm in the minority. It
22:47
Speaker 2: feels like I don't think we're going to miss games
22:50
Speaker 2: because cooler heads will end up prevailing. But you can't
22:53
Speaker 2: insist on having a salary cap and think that we're
22:57
Speaker 2: not going to miss games.
22:59
Speaker 3: That's awesome. I'm happy that someone finally said that.
23:01
Speaker 4: Also, what you brought up is in the NBA, right
23:04
Speaker 4: the super teams, Well, Lebron James got certain players to
23:07
Speaker 4: come and they.
23:08
Speaker 3: Took a little bit less, but hey, we'll win.
23:10
Speaker 4: Or the Warriors right when they got Kevin Durant to
23:12
Speaker 4: come there for a little bit less, but hey, we'll win.
23:16
Speaker 3: That's what I feel like.
23:18
Speaker 4: It's a little bit harder major League Baseball because there's
23:20
Speaker 4: more players. But at the same time, you'd get guys
23:22
Speaker 4: that say, hey, I want to play in LA, I
23:25
Speaker 4: want to win. I'm a free agent. I'll go there,
23:28
Speaker 4: and they'll just I don't know, will it work. I
23:30
Speaker 4: don't know, but I don't I'm just happy to hear
23:32
Speaker 4: you say a super teams and be the You're the
23:35
Speaker 4: first person we've had on that doesn't think we're gonna
23:37
Speaker 4: miss games.
23:38
Speaker 3: So jim to that. Thank you, that's hope.
23:41
Speaker 2: That's hope.
23:42
Speaker 1: Yes, all right, then let's get off of that. Let's
23:47
Speaker 1: go to uh let's finish with Terrek Scoogle here. So
23:51
Speaker 1: I thought that was big news from the weekend to
23:53
Speaker 1: see him actually come back. We've been talking about it,
23:55
Speaker 1: you've been hearing I feel like there were there were
23:57
Speaker 1: quite a few skeptics like, oh, we'll see how quickly
24:00
Speaker 1: come back.
24:01
Speaker 2: It's been a month.
24:02
Speaker 1: Duke Bone chips surgery barely if you call that surgery,
24:06
Speaker 1: And he looked like he was ready to hop into
24:09
Speaker 1: a major league game in that rehab start, and then
24:11
Speaker 1: you know, did some extra pitches. So he's at seventy
24:14
Speaker 1: he's gonna be back in like a week. What do
24:16
Speaker 1: you think of all this?
24:19
Speaker 2: Boy, I'll tell you we're going down this slope, I thought,
24:25
Speaker 2: And I keep wondering, who's pushing the envelope here. It's
24:31
Speaker 2: got to be Terek Schooble, right, And certainly you know
24:34
Speaker 2: you're gonna play it in the front office. You're going
24:37
Speaker 2: to play off of how he feels and all of that.
24:40
Speaker 2: But this is such an unusual thing, and his recovery
24:44
Speaker 2: and response is so unique, and the surgery is brand new, Like,
24:48
Speaker 2: you don't have anything else to base this on. Man,
24:51
Speaker 2: there is a lot at stake here as a player,
24:55
Speaker 2: you know, and you know, just for him being a
24:57
Speaker 2: free agent at the end of the year. Like all
24:59
Speaker 2: of this, I'm all for, you know, the medical advances
25:04
Speaker 2: that we've seen in the sport, and we've seen a
25:06
Speaker 2: lot of good ones, you know, obviously the internal brace
25:09
Speaker 2: with Tommy John and you know, this now looks like
25:12
Speaker 2: it's gonna end up being a you know, a unique
25:15
Speaker 2: way to come back from bone chips and loose bodies.
25:19
Speaker 2: But I just keep wonder going, Man, if it doesn't work,
25:24
Speaker 2: you know, I tend to look at the downside more
25:27
Speaker 2: just from my GM lens, what happens, you know, for
25:30
Speaker 2: for him if it doesn't work and he ends up
25:33
Speaker 2: reinjuring this. That has been my overriding concern. And I
25:37
Speaker 2: know they've tried to be conservative in this and it's
25:40
Speaker 2: been impressive the fact that you said it's got it's
25:43
Speaker 2: a month and a day from the day yet surgery,
25:46
Speaker 2: you know, and maybe there's a way because it wasn't
25:48
Speaker 2: there wasn't a lot of information there that this is
25:50
Speaker 2: going to work out great. I hope it does because
25:52
Speaker 2: it's great for the sport and it's great for him.
25:55
Speaker 2: But you know, we're in that area where I don't
25:58
Speaker 2: know how, we don't know how to budge it right,
26:00
Speaker 2: and we don't know what to expect because we've never
26:02
Speaker 2: seen it before, and that that always is a scary proposition,
26:06
Speaker 2: you know, from from any perspective. So just I guess
26:09
Speaker 2: you keep writing it out. I've had aj Hinge on
26:12
Speaker 2: my show every week. You know, and he was like, Hey,
26:14
Speaker 2: we're trying to be conservative. Derek's the one who's pushing this,
26:17
Speaker 2: and I guess that's the way you go. But you
26:19
Speaker 2: also have to be careful, you know, you want to
26:22
Speaker 2: protect him against himself sometimes too, so you know, I
26:26
Speaker 2: don't know, I get we get two former players down here,
26:29
Speaker 2: and usually I feel like there are times when the
26:32
Speaker 2: front office where the manager is given subtle hints like hey,
26:35
Speaker 2: we need to get you out on the field, you know,
26:37
Speaker 2: and and this seems like it's the reverse. And with
26:41
Speaker 2: his stature and how good he is, why wind ship,
26:45
Speaker 2: you know, playoff of what he has to say and
26:47
Speaker 2: how he's feeling. But man, oh man, it's there's a
26:50
Speaker 2: big risk here if it doesn't work out.
26:53
Speaker 4: Hey, Jim, a couple of former teams here. We're going
26:57
Speaker 4: to do a segment next after after you, after we're
27:00
Speaker 4: done speaking with you about injuries and how certain teams
27:02
Speaker 4: have more injuries throughout their organization. Do you think that's
27:05
Speaker 4: an organizational wide thing or do you think it's luck
27:09
Speaker 4: of the draw. Do you think it's the way they
27:11
Speaker 4: make guys play. Do you think more teams are apt
27:13
Speaker 4: to put guys on the il because of money situation,
27:16
Speaker 4: and it's the Orioles, the Mets, and the Yankees so
27:19
Speaker 4: have been even including the minor league. So what's your
27:22
Speaker 4: thought on this as a former front office person that
27:24
Speaker 4: has been through this before.
27:26
Speaker 2: You know, I've enjoyed reading that article you're talking about
27:29
Speaker 2: in The Athletic and it was really well done. You know,
27:33
Speaker 2: in the past, when you're dealing with these type of injuries,
27:36
Speaker 2: what you know, over a certain period of time, when
27:40
Speaker 2: if you have the same type of injuries, you usually
27:43
Speaker 2: would do kind of a self evaluation, try to figure
27:45
Speaker 2: out is there's something in common that that was causing
27:48
Speaker 2: these type of injuries. I remember back in my Mets days,
27:52
Speaker 2: we had a whole host from the major leagues all
27:55
Speaker 2: the way down to the minor leagues with Tommy John surgeries.
27:58
Speaker 2: At the time, there weren't a lot of pitch counts.
28:01
Speaker 2: We were one of the first to institute pitch counts,
28:05
Speaker 2: good or bad. We you know, we didn't want guys
28:08
Speaker 2: getting injured, and so we thought that was a way
28:10
Speaker 2: to to, you know, at least solve the problem. You know,
28:14
Speaker 2: we've seen over time that's not helped much at all.
28:17
Speaker 2: The injuries are still there. At a high level. So,
28:20
Speaker 2: you know, I think when it comes to you know,
28:22
Speaker 2: let's say the Mets and the Yankees, I think there's
28:24
Speaker 2: a willingness there to maybe push the envelope a little
28:28
Speaker 2: bit more. Injuries don't even though they affect every team,
28:32
Speaker 2: they don't it doesn't hurt them as much because they
28:33
Speaker 2: can cover it up with spending more money on other
28:36
Speaker 2: players and replacement. It's teams like the Orioles or some
28:39
Speaker 2: of these other kind of lower spending teams when they
28:41
Speaker 2: have those type of injuries and they can't cover up
28:44
Speaker 2: for it, that's where it really impacts them. I think
28:46
Speaker 2: a little bit more. And just watching some of the
28:50
Speaker 2: soft tissue injuries that the Oriols I've had, I feel
28:53
Speaker 2: like there's a training aspect to this that needs to
28:58
Speaker 2: be really re evaluated, sports perform from the sports performance area,
29:02
Speaker 2: from the medical side, all of it. And I don't
29:05
Speaker 2: know if they're doing it. It doesn't seem like they're they're
29:07
Speaker 2: having that self evaluation right now that needs to needs
29:11
Speaker 2: to be done. So we know that in the game
29:14
Speaker 2: the injuries are, especially on the pitching side, or it's
29:18
Speaker 2: almost epidemic proportions and a lot of that has to
29:21
Speaker 2: do with, you know, the training of high end velocity.
29:23
Speaker 2: We all know that, but I think that with the
29:26
Speaker 2: orioles and some of the soft tissue injuries that you're seeing,
29:29
Speaker 2: even with their position players, there has to be some
29:33
Speaker 2: kind of accountability within the training staff, the medical staff,
29:36
Speaker 2: and the sports performance I don't I don't see it
29:39
Speaker 2: happening with them at the moment. So it's unfortunate, you know,
29:43
Speaker 2: they they've had all those injuries, and you know, I
29:45
Speaker 2: think that you know, they got rid of a couple
29:47
Speaker 2: of really good trainers, experienced trainers replaced them within experienced guys.
29:52
Speaker 2: That's never a good sign either. So I think there's
29:55
Speaker 2: a couple of places that you can point the fingers
29:58
Speaker 2: at least from the oriole side.
30:00
Speaker 1: Yeah, and that's a tougher fix. I mean, when you're
30:02
Speaker 1: dealing with that, it usually takes some time, you know,
30:05
Speaker 1: when you're doing a restructure like that. We're going to
30:07
Speaker 1: get into that in the next segment. Do good stuff, man,
30:09
Speaker 1: Great to catch up with you, and again, great to
30:11
Speaker 1: have you on for more of these yep.
30:13
Speaker 2: I appreciate it. Good to see you. You too,