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Little Buds · Talking About Birds: A St. Louis Cardinals Podcast

• 03:46.75 Nate hello everybody and welcome back to talking about birds. The only cardinal podcast more underwhelming than John Mosalle's approach the free agency my name's Nate Heininger and I am joined as always by my cohost Ben Simorka. 04:03.90 Benny Hi everybody. 04:03.98 Nate Nice and this week we are talking about some of the the news coming out of the Nl central. We're going to talk about the aforementioned cardinals approach to free agency since the lockout ended we're going to be talking about some of the news coming out of the cardinal spring training. And we're going to touch on some of the blockbuster deals that are happening around the league Nate 04:57.31 Nate All right? if you have a an idea for the opening joke please don't hesitate to tweet us at talk about birds love to throw in some other ones in there Ben we ought well, that's the I don't know does a joke is a joke to define. 05:06.83 Benny Can we call it a joke got em. So. 05:15.85 Nate Is a joke defined by its impact or its intent because ah intent it's there I don't know about impact. Um, so Ben there's baseball. Yeah. 05:17.17 Benny Oh okay, all right I'll give you a break on that. 05:27.67 Benny Holy Cow There's a Cba players are doing baseball activities in baseball stadiums not in Backyards and high schools and I think there was like a some type of camp or workout thing going on at ah vanderbilt and they kicked all the college kids out. Yeah. 05:36.53 Nate Right. 05:45.25 Nate Get out of there. 05:47.41 Benny Your professional baseball players are on professional baseball fields with their their organizations behind them. So you know if anything has happened over the past three months like ah maybe motorcycle accidents or lingering shoulder issues. We're just now finding out about those which is. 06:03.67 Nate Just now. Yeah you know I That's been one of the the reminders of like oh yeah, baseball's back I'm so excited telling all my friends and family. Finally I've got you know baseball to to be a part of again and it's like oh yeah, this sport as hell as. 06:06.70 Benny Nighting. 06:23.41 Nate As we just hear about injury after injury after injury for cardinals or otherwise but um, but yeah, it's we at works side. It's back. We're it's in the rearview mirror. We're not going to talk about the cba we just want to talk about baseball but I will say our our run of impeccable diming. Continues we switched the whole format and the release date of this show to try to be more on top of the news and more relevant and of course the day we release our last week's episode is the day the cva was agreed to. Rendering like the first half of our entire conversation. Ah moot. So ah, whatever here we are now that did give us now a weeks full of you know, almost a week full of actual baseball activity to talk about. And yeah, we're we're super excited to get into it. So. Um, just jumping right in Our first topic we want to talk about is ah the inel central what is going on with the Nl central. We we know the carnals are they're they're steadfast ah approach to ah. Getting around 88 to 90 winning 90 wins and seeing what happens from there but we're seeing some some clear decisions being made ah in other teams of the nl so Ben what are your thoughts. 07:45.27 Benny Ah, well I think you know as as far as this conversation goes. There's one team to talk about 1 team to be mad about and that's the reds I think we were talking shit on the reds last week we can really do that this week and I mean like. 07:58.22 Nate We are always talking shit on the reds. 08:04.21 Benny There's 1 thing of of you know like I guess taking a step back just take ah to take a step forward and then there's just absolute tanking and tearing down your team like literally ripping down the walls to the studs and giving the middle finger to your fans and I like. As somebody who watches the reds they have good like obviously I have great disdain for them in my heart that will always be there but you know you Kudo um, and even Joey Vatto I love them butdy like in that way where you want to punch him in the arm or something. 08:28.00 Nate Quado. 08:32.21 Nate Um, yeah, he's a heel. 08:36.17 Benny But yeah, and a great heel baseball needs more of that. But I do really feel for the reds fans right now I like I think it's horseshit. Um, they had a team that was probably a few pieces away or at least from being competitive. Maybe not necessarily winning a world series or anything like that. But from playing meaningful baseball late in the season. I was looking at this just so well I guess we should reference what I'm actually talking about. Yeah if you're living under a rock or not aware. Ah they have lost sunny gray. They trade away. Ah ah, not Dan Straley ah Wade Miley Dan Straley Wade Mile I basically like the same guy. 09:13.82 Nate That's a yeah, it's the same. 09:15.55 Benny But actually wade mile only had a fantastic year in a perfect game last year so he had he had a great season I think he is a cub now and then they just traded traded Aouhan Yu Suarez and Jesse Winker wink and hit to the mariners for a bucket of young guys and I was looking into this in just those those names that we've just talked about. They've subtracted almost 14 war from their team last year which pretty much puts them in the bottom. You know the basement of the Nl central assuming you know, obviously the cubs I think we'll talk about the cubs later but the cubs are improving somewhat the pirates are obviously basement dwellers as well. The the. Brewers are somewhat competitive and the cardinals are competitive or that I put them on equal playing field really but how unbelievably disappointing for reds fans. Um, they just took a lot of fun like I don't see any way. What if you're a reds fan. What are you watching this year I think Joey Vato's kind of sort of asked for a trade with the media recently I mean it really I mean it. It makes me a little bit mad to be honest, like I hate this. 10:19.72 Nate Yeah, yeah, it's um, kind of what everyone was hoping would be solved with cba stuff and and I think we all walked away knowing that tanking wasn't really solved and I think this is a clear indication that it wasn't really solved. Um, it is a frustrating thing from a fan standpoint even ah as ah, you know someone who is this obviously benefits the cardinals the cardinals are going to play a weaker team more frequently. But even with that like I like it when the reds are competitive. It's been a good rivalry and you know it's it's been I think disappointing for the reds that their window for competition really lined up with a couple other teams in the nl central also peeking at the same time you know there's almost always one team. Usually the cardinals that are competing in the inel centralral but the cubs and the brewers and the pirates have all faded in and out over the over the decades and when the when the reds were really competing which was over the last four years you know you saw the the explosion of the cubs you saw the emergence of the brewers and and. The reentry of the cardinals all in line with the reds ah window and they just never got over the hump you know I think all that really comes to mind is that in Lds where they got smoked by the by the Phillies which was of course great. Um, but. You know they definitely felt like a team like they were competing all the way up until the end of the last end of last year we talked about it in our first episode part of the cardinals 17 game run and their ah vault into the playoffs included the reds kind of falling apart at the end of the season but they were there. They were in the wild card. Contention for most of the season and with the expanded playoffs. You know I think even just standing Pat they would have been considered a team on the fringe of the playoffs let alone if they had made the other decision to instead try to improve instead of blow up. Um, so yeah. 12:24.24 Benny Yeah I I think I think they could have attempted to retain castianos and maybe gotten a bullpen armor too and you know been maybe not the scariest team in the Nl but definitely a team that's going to come up against cardinals and and fight hard and be interesting. 12:26.23 Nate It's frustrating. 12:40.56 Benny And actually before right before we started recording I forgot about this but they just straighted away Amir Garrett as well who had a weird year last year but is still you know a talented. Ah you know back of the bullpen type guy. Um, but yeah I think boo. 12:45.30 Nate Um, he's talented. Yeah. 12:55.92 Nate I Think boo as well. Um, yeah, it's it's disappointing just to see any team sort of tank like that. But it's It's always weird when you see a team that is really at that crossroads I Just it doesn't feel like they were far from competing and and a lot of these guys. Um. 12:57.95 Benny Yeah. 13:14.90 Nate Still in their prime still young still could compete for several years trading winker. You know so strange I guess they did it. Um they they paired it with Aouhanio Suarez is contract and I guess that's part of the whole deal. Ah, which was they were. It's essentially a salary dump. 13:16.38 Benny Yeah, yeah. 13:34.26 Nate Which is maybe the most boring thing in sports and maybe the the least fan satisfying thing is trading a really good player so you can get rid of a bad player just feels bad. 13:48.71 Benny Yeah, yeah. 13:50.57 Nate There is nothing fun about that unless you are a huge fan of managing the owner's ah wallets um than there's there's nothing fun that comes from that. 14:01.11 Benny So yeah, and you know like on the winker thing specifically he had broken out a little bit in 2020 and I think broke out really last year and had a great year although a little bit injured and you know with the n elk or the dh coming to the NL. 14:09.43 Nate Yeah, yeah. 14:16.58 Benny Perfect spot for winker to sit in you. You know I like I said if I was a reds fan I'd be pissed and if there happened to be any red fans that are listening to this episode. First off what up. Sorry second you should go be mariners Fans. You should not watch the reds this year you should watch the mariners and at least you can watch winker hit and yeah. Team is actually trying to win even though they have publicly gotten caught suppressing so players salaries I mean they're all bad. Oh no, owner is good and we're not going to sit here and stump for any owner. But at least they're trying to do something unlike the red's front office right now. 14:38.33 Nate Ah, he's just yeah yeah yeah yeah I um I've been a fan of mariners you know, really since the 90 s right I think anybody any kid who grew up in the ninety. S. You're a fan to some degree of the mariners and so it's fun to watch them compete I think weaker is going to do really well over there. Um, on you know, staying with the with the in l central. 15:06.50 Benny Yeah, agreed. 15:16.13 Nate Um, the cubs have done a few things and you know the cubs. It's it's kind of yeah they've gone through something similar but it just it's very different. You can tell this seems to be more method to it than what the reds have just done. You know the the cubs traded their entire team at Midseason last year um but it also made a ton of sense. They weren't competing those were in those were debt. You know those contracts were coming to an end and they got some really really good pieces for those players. It made a ton of sense and I thought you know I hate to say it. But I thought the cubs did a really good job last year at the trade deadline. They got a lot of great value and and have been able to. Um, you know rebuild relatively quickly or at least they've started started their rebuild quickly and it seems now that they're already starting to aim towards wins their next competing window adding players that I think will help them right now. Um. Most notably they just added Suzuki. Um, probably the the most sought after international ah free agent this year um what was the contract five years eighty five million. Yeah. 16:22.94 Benny Yeah, five years eighty five yeah that sign this morning when I woke up I was reading about it. 16:30.44 Nate Yeah, so um I guess cardinal fans can look forward to really getting a good look at at this guy. Um, you know, always yeah. 16:35.29 Benny I am I'm excited to watch him. You know, almost 20 times this year even though it'll probably be him beating up on the cardinals but seeing a young guy like this with the with the scouting reports that you read about I like just being a baseball fan I'm excited to see him play. You have to assume he's going to take over centerfield for the cubs. Um, you know hopefully he can stick in the bigs and it makes sense. He's still a young guy and I mean he's got power speed. He's 5 tool player at least in the Japanese Baseball League so I'm hoping that translates just for the good of baseball. 17:08.11 Nate Yeah, well fortunately at least for for next year um you know there they are in they are in real rebuild mode and I don't think anyone is really expecting them to compete. Of course you never know people can pop and things can go well. But um. 17:10.18 Benny Not for the good of the cubs. 17:26.79 Nate You know I'm really I'm begging cubs at third place next year that's my that's my prediction for the cubs. 17:32.21 Benny Yeah I'm curious to see the the thing that really stumps me is the Marcus Stroman signing because of its its high dollar short length which doesn't really align with how I think you and I and and a lot of folks are evaluating the cubbies right now. 17:38.76 Nate Um, yeah. 17:48.90 Benny Maybe it's a thing that they're going to let him have a good year trade him try to get more pieces and build up around and I think also a really big question for the cubs coming into this year is are they going to extend Wilson Contreas um it would be kind of bizarre to me if none of the core from the championship was. 17:59.59 Nate Um, ah. 18:08.96 Benny Extended. Um, he seems like the obvious candidate because he's still there. Ah I I thought there was a pretty good chance this morning the yankees signed Anthony Rizzo I thought there was a pretty good sign or a pretty good chance that the cubs were going to bring him back because it seems like it wasn't goingnna be for high dollars and I think. 18:11.17 Nate Ah, he's the only one left. Yeah. 18:27.62 Benny Just the ticket sales alone in Chicago that you get from being back Rizzo probably pays for itself because he is a that guy. But yeah I'm surprised to see that I really don't fully understand it. But I do agree like they definitely seem to have a ah move forward plan and based on you know they're they're like last. 18:32.55 Nate Yeah. 18:47.12 Benny Quarter of season last year they had some pretty good player evaluation. Some guys came out of nowhere and they played better than they you at least than I expected so like don't sleep. Yeah, don't sleep on the cubbyies just yet I don't know they're there. Oh crap. What's the new Gm's name it's not theo. It's Theo's little little buddy. 18:54.33 Nate Um, swindle. And yeah. 19:03.83 Nate Is it hoyer. Yeah. 19:06.93 Benny Yeah, Jed Hoyer you know obviously seems smart and cardinals fans should you know be worried about that. So. 19:11.98 Nate Yeah, well I imagine I think you know teams that are smart like that also make some of these signings with the intent to trade if things go well and I could see Stroman being a part of that as well. Um I actually I don't think he has a no trade clause. But even if he does that you know can you usually. 19:24.11 Benny Sure. 19:31.93 Nate You usually get around that we'll talk about it later or we're gonna talk about more of these signings later when we talk about the broader league. But I think of like the national signing Nelson Cruz um that to me is another one that feels like if he you if he continues. No one thinks he's gonna. Rather everyone thinks at some point this has to end this has to stop right? So teams don't want to take the gamble on signing Nelson Cruise but if he does continue his dominance as a dh ah, he could be a huge trade chip for them at at Midseason. Um. So the last team to really dig in on. They haven't made a lot of major changes but they also are already pretty stacked at least in a few departments the brewers I think you know if it wasn't for what the mets were starting to do um, could arguably have. The best rotation in the nl I know that that is yeah, there's ah, there's a couple teams that you throw into that bucket. But I think if you said the brewers have the best rotation in the nl you wouldn't have to argue for very long when you look at Corbin Burns Brandon Wood Roof Freddie Peralta you know I would rather face almost any other 3 than those 3 except for maybe asurzer and de gram in in ah New York 20:47.10 Benny Yeah, good. Yeah I mean gram de gram scrub scrub and I'm still pretty terrified of that and there there are 2 placeholders for those scrubs or max sheser and Chris Bassett now so I definitely give it to the mets. 20:56.14 Nate Right? right? so. Yeah. 21:05.81 Benny Obviously they're aged and injury prone so we'll see how that plays out I think the thing that you like so much about the broods starting rotation is not only are they young. Not only do they throw like 98 but they're cheap and they're just now like Freddy perulta and corbin burns like just now are figuring it out. Um. 21:13.28 Nate Right. 21:21.87 Nate Right? They're still on the up. Yeah. 21:24.70 Benny So you yeah, you have to be afraid of what that is going to look like especially Freddie Peralta can stay effective for the entire year. You know that's that's scary. 21:32.69 Nate Right? And their bullbin continues to be great. Still you know, fronted by Josh Hader you know they they're pitching is what carried them to the division championship last year and I think I it it could again this year 21:45.16 Benny did did Devin Williams punch a wall last year am I remembering that right? he was drunk or something like that and then hit a wall. 21:51.77 Nate I Think that's right? Yeah yeah I think we should just stop letting baseball players go near walls. 22:00.59 Benny Or you remember those ah those like Blowup toys that we had when we were kids where you could box your brother. It's making like forced pitchers to walk around with that. They're like soccum Boppers sock and Bo it's. 22:07.69 Nate Yeah, no is it I kept thinking rock them Sockumm Robots and I knew that was wrong. So you I think you're right? rock Oh no Sockum Boppers buffer. So. 22:16.98 Benny Wait what did I just call it like buff I'm looking it up soccer soccer boppers. It's yet. No, they're soccer boppers I found them. They're still available on Amazon soccer boppers. 22:26.18 Nate No, it's not soccer or um, those but soccer boppers. 22:36.56 Benny They are twelve seventy eight on Amazon prime right now for 1 pair. Well they should make pictures wear that after their starts I'm smart. yeah yeah I have one of those with a beer like you could. 22:38.72 Nate I hope you order some for yourself. Um I think that's a good call or at least those big hulk. The big like Hulk cans I know you do? Yeah i. 22:53.82 Benny You could fit a beer in it. Yeah. Ah, brewers Hey we're professional podcasters. 22:58.38 Nate Yeah, so I the the brewers speaking of beer the brewers what a segue? Um, yes, they're their problem last year you know if you could call that because they did win the division pretty handedly and you know the playoffs are whatever. But. On the and the full stretch of the division the the year the division um you know they were pretty much clearly the best team and but their problem was their offense. You know we've seen yelitch is maintained his state of decline. Ah, Wong was hurt or ineffective for a lot of the year um you know some of these guys that they've relied on over the years were just not there and you know ultimately that was their decline in the playoffs so they've done at least 1 key signing that i. That we've got written here but I don't I think this is all but it actually feels pretty big. They've signed Andrew Mccutchen former star of the nl central we're used to this guy you know personal favorite of mine over the years he is set to be their starting dh and I assume will. 23:58.14 Benny Yeah, yeah. 24:10.55 Nate Spell some guys in the outfield from time to time. But I think they want to keep him healthy. Keep him in the lineup. He's gonna be their dh. 24:16.33 Benny Yeah I think you know probably makes a lot of sense to have him probably be 1 or 2 in the order he still walks at a decent rate. He kind of had a down year last year but I actually thought this would be an interesting target for the cardinals for a dh role. 24:31.69 Nate Yeah. 24:34.26 Benny I think he's an interesting target for the dh role just because his hands are still quick. He still is a good eye and mean he's Andrew Mccutcheon that's just I think people are willing to bet on a guy like that. Ah, but yeah I you know there's seems to have been over the past I don't know handful of years players who are going over to Milwaukee they people like hitting there I know Jim Edmonds has talked about it on the broadcast. How they just have an awesome batters eye. You know all that's kind of those intangible crap that you can't really dig your fingers into but. I wouldn't be surprised if Mccutchen has a decent year I don't think he's going to compete for Mvp or anything like that. But I wouldn't be surprised if he gets on base at a decent clip hits a few dingers and you know is is a pain in the cardinal's ass all year it's kind of what he does. He's done that for the past like 12 years 25:19.98 Nate Um, yeah, um, right? Yeah so you know Mccutchen you know is able to return to some degree of consistency maybe hira returns to what everyone thought he was. Ah, when he broke into the league and yelitch even returns to seventy five eighty percent of what you know he used to be the brewers are set up to be a very very good team and they already were last year so you know when we look at this division I think. It's pretty fair to say it's a it's a 2 horse race um, barring any insanity from the cubs where a bunch of these guys pop that we weren't expecting um and you know I'm a cardinal fan. So ah, you know I'm a diehard homer over here. So my prediction is cardinals win the division. Brewers and second making the playoffs cubs third reds fourth and then pirates fifth. But I think we all have to be very prepared for the brewers to continue in that rotation just to blow everyone out of the water. It is a it is a clear advantage that the brewers have over the cardinals. 26:21.29 Benny So yeah, yeah. 26:33.40 Nate Especially with some of the news that's coming out of spring training. 26:35.60 Benny Yeah, ah you know we should also take a minute to note that the pirates did sign the annual vogelbox so look out. Yeah yeah. 26:40.66 Nate The thumb. Um I bet you know he's gonna pop some dingers for the pirates. He's full time starting job. 26:49.59 Benny Oh yeah, he'll probably get 600 played appearances for the first time so that might be interesting. But yeah, that's about all they've done. 26:56.69 Nate Yeah, ah, it's a big boy. Ah so yeah, inel central um, really shaping up to look kind of what it's looked like for a little while now top heavy each of the teams. Racking up wins against the bottom of the half to inflate their win total and you know make the make the playoffs. Ah so we've talked about all the other teams in the division. Let's move into what the cardinals have done since we've returned from ah from. The lockout we talked about maths in the previous episode. So we're not really going to touch on that. Um the kernels have not done much in the in the in the week since returning, but they have done a little bit so Ben. Why don't you outline what we've seen so far. 27:46.20 Benny Yeah I think the only thing that they've done that I am I don't think excited is the right word but I am I guess is a smart and frugal move is signing Drew Verhagen um so verhagen spent the last two years in Japan he was good um he was not great. You know a lot of times you'll see pictures from Mlb over to Japan and dominate and then they'll you know get a deal like mielaus ah or Linbaum although linbaum hasn't had a great return to the mlp but verhagen was fine. He operated as a swing man. He was mostly starting in Japan. Ah, guy six six throws right? Handed. He's a big big dude. Um, and you know when he's coming out of the bullpen. He's high ninety s when he's starting. He's low 90 s um I think if if I had to look into the crystal ball. I'm hoping that you know a libertor is the type of person or an oviedos type of person that is stealing most of those starts and he's mostly a bull pin piece a maybe a mid-leverage ridy like I said if he's coming out of the bullpen. He's hitting ninety seven Ninety Eight ninety nine um so yeah, you know nothing. I don't think we're going to expect him to take the clo's job I don't think we're going to expect him to come in and take the fifth starter' job. But it's a guy that can throw innings. He's had a decent you know, decent success and he improved on his control a little bit while in Japan. 29:14.84 Nate Yeah. 29:15.61 Benny You know I don't know there's I don't know if there's much else in ah, he's six six that's kind of fun I guess I don't know what else there is to talk about him. Um, he isn't ah you know I don't know so those those kind of my thoughts I kind of see I think like his role will be similar to that of John Gant 29:25.54 Nate Um, yeah I. 29:33.50 Benny Maybe hopefully less walks first. 29:33.50 Nate Yeah I was thinking he's like mazaak went to try to find his J a hap before we needed him like we did last year. Um. 29:42.58 Benny So yeah yeah I think that that's apt although underwhelming, um, speaking of underwhelming another guy another right handed picture the cardinals went out and got nick wikren. Was with the indians guardians last year threw up a five yeah era threw up a 5 fip ah throws low 90 s right hander. He's got a decent change up. Ah this yeah really of this is a depth piece. Ah. 30:12.22 Nate Get them in here. 30:19.48 Benny Maybe he finds something. Maybe there's something the cardinal' see in him that the guardians didn't see that being said I think the guardians of indians whatever can we just call them the guardians now we don't have to refer to them as the indians anymore right? Okay, so I think you know the guardians have been like a ah sort of pitching factory recently over the past like 11 years 30:27.74 Nate Yes, it's done. They're guardians. Yeah. 30:39.48 Benny I kind of trust that they can get everything they can out of a picture I don't know if we're going to find anything new with wikran he signed a big league contract so you know he's making like one point two million um I talked about the repertoire you know he's a guy he'll be there. 30:56.21 Nate He's he'll be there to throw a pitch. Yeah yeah, me too. Yeah to me this is they're just stacking depth. You know I think we already see some gaps in ah the rotation. 30:58.51 Benny Definitely more excited about Verhagen over Wikran but you know. 31:13.22 Nate Um, it doesn't take very many injuries for the rotation to start to become a problem just like it was last year and it was these you know that that taxes the bull bin so you know start to stack up these guys now just to be prepared so we don't have to. Reach deep into the miners to pull out guys like o v eighto before they're ready. That's to me what this looks like I think trying to model so some of the success that happened from last year get some of these throwaway guys if he'd come in bring them to the better defense maybe to a better ballpark see what you can find. Low risk. Hopefully I won't say high reward but hopefully low risk some reward and you know just stack them. That's the um, the only other guy we have here is Zach Mccolllister who they signed to a minor's deal. 32:06.14 Benny Yeah I started to look them up and then I just got bored and I didn't take any notes. He's. 32:07.92 Nate What do you know about Zach Mcallister 32:15.81 Nate Ah, and that's the kind of coverage. We promised to bring to you week in and week out here on talking about birds. 32:22.71 Benny Well Nate he throws and you know throws another average fastball and he's got an average off speed offering end of story I think like right now. Is where we should go back to you know the early offs season the first half of the off seasonson and I think all cardinals fans could look up to the sky and say why didn't we sign Louis Garcia he didn't go to the padres for much he arguably saved the bullpen more than anyone else at the end of last year 32:48.34 Nate Ripe. 32:56.30 Benny Give the guy another look um right I found that extremely frustrating. It's hard not to fall in love with a ninety eight mile an hour sinker and that guy like the energy and everything you just fun to watch. So um, that yeah. 33:03.30 Nate Right? Yeah, yeah, always pretty bummed when when they didn't sign them either and it it obviously was a choice. Um and not some sort of Market Dynamic. So You've got another note here and I guess well we can kind of talk about some of the rumors still going around. Ah ah you know Cardinals free agency I think I think most people believe that Cardinals are not done yet, but whether it's gonna be big or not I guess we'll find out. 33:29.27 Benny Yeah, well. 33:37.94 Benny So yeah, nates wrote I wrote down on on our little outline here referencing the idea of the cardinals looking at Colin Moran the reason I wrote that down is well first off, it's been reported a couple of times second off. Seems like the kind of deal that the cardinals would go for just because he's a guy that he could probably invite to big league camp see what he does and sign him for very low. Maybe some incentive things or incentives incentives in the deal to earn some extra money. 33:54.82 Nate Yeah. 34:06.96 Benny But yeah I didn't write it down because I thought ohh yes Colin Moran what an ad to the team more just like ooh this really feels like something the cardinals might do like a Brandon Moss type signing that that kind of thing and I think it's interesting to talk about only in the sense that he has hit right handed pitchers above average. Um, the cardinals really don't have a lot of lefty hitters over the pat like over his career. He's got almost an 800 ops against right handed pitching his ops. Plus is one nine and that is by no means anything to write home about but that is an above average left-handed hitter that you. Probably get for extremely cheap. So my kind of thought on that is I guess that's good I guess he could spell Nolan if needed I guess he could spell Goldie if needed but isn't that why we have Nolan Gorman it's 34:57.67 Nate Yeah. 35:00.46 Benny Kind of hard to even sell myself on it even though I was the one that brought it up. Yeah, and tried to get myself there and now that I've talked out loud about it I'm kind of like yeah I don't know. 35:03.53 Nate You You were trying. 35:12.48 Nate Um, yeah, you know if it's a invite to spring training you know for what for what spring training there will be that's fine I would be bummed if he got a ah roster spot because you know I think we're all in on. On gorman although it certainly seems like they're planning for Gorman to start in aaa at least right now. But um, the games have it started so we'll see um I'm excited about the cardinals signing Moran for 1 reason or 1 reason alone just to bring around. Um, to add some some cosmic justice to the to the meme that is several years old at this point. Ah, but there's that poster of a guy with a cardinal's shirt and a bandana and he just he looks great and he's holding a big sign that says get a brain. Moran having misspelled moron but had it spelled moran the same way. This guy's last name is spelled so you know we could. We'd have a lot of fun I think ah for an hour or 2 online if they sign him just with that that old image and his last name. So. 36:17.54 Benny Yeah, yeah. 36:24.86 Benny What the hell we supposed to do you moran that is an animal house reference that I delivered early and so you're welcome. Thank you. 36:27.10 Nate Um. 36:31.67 Nate Yeah, it was good though. Um some here hey you come to this show for breaking news. Ah Zach Grenki who who some people thought the cardinals should pursue has just signed with the Kansas Sea royals 36:49.81 Benny Oh well, that's cute. 36:51.31 Nate So ah, take that one off the board. Um I kind of thought he was just going to retire. But I also think he might pitch till he's seventy five years old so that's fair. 36:58.62 Benny I think he likes the money I think he likes yeah I think he likes the money and I could also see him you know parlaying that into a front office job with Kansas City because I think he wants to do that too. But ah. 37:11.64 Nate Yeah. 37:13.98 Benny Yeah, that's a bummer. He would've been really fun to watch I don't think there was any real shot of the cardinals signing him although early this off season I did advocate I thought the cardinal should have gone for schzer khaw Grantnki Verlander out with ah young and end with the old. But. 37:17.22 Nate No. 37:27.77 Nate Yeah, and most of them for a lot of money. Um, yeah, so ah, the only other thing I guess we'll talk about here as far as spring training or um or free agency goes is. 37:30.84 Benny They obviously all found homes. Yeah too bad. 37:47.67 Nate There have been sort of 2 rumors going right now that I think are of note that we'll touch on briefly. We talked about it last week a little bit but I wanted to bring it up again. Apparently the Yankees have shown interest in Paul de young and. Cardinals have at least checked in multiple times with Trevor's story here's what I think has happened. You can tell me what you think I think that the cardinals have received interest in Paul Young probably light interest. No one is going and breaking the bank for Pauly Young and part of their due diligence to. Decide whether they should or should not move paul de young is what would it cost them to replace him on the free angel market. So if we trade paul de young then maybe we sign trevor story so let's see what Trevor stories costs would be so that'll help us decide if we're gonna trade Paul yeah paul de young or not so. I believe that these are likely tied together which ultimately ultimately makes me feel like neither are going to happen. Those are 2 pretty big things that would need to come through and especially with the Yankees recent um acquisitions. So I just. Don't see it happening as much fun as I think we both agree it would be to have trevor story on this team. What are your thoughts. 39:03.30 Benny Yeah I think you know that's got to be dead in the water, especially with the deal that castine made the other day getting isaiah kind of Philaifa and Josh Donaldson if the yankees did want to trade for Paul. He'd be on that side of the infield that you know. Isaiah kind of fafffa is definitely a better fielder and Josh Donaldson is just a better player. So I guess they could use him as a a floating spot but they they have too many people on the infield as it all is it is they still have labor. They still have labor. They still have um. 39:31.85 Nate Yeah, labor. 39:40.00 Benny Rug ned which is weird and they still have Dj Lamaue so they have too many players for like quality players while Ruy isn't that great obviously good enough for the car or the yankees it just isn't going to happen. 39:44.17 Nate Um, yeah. 39:54.65 Benny I would not be surprised like the you know all the shorts stops are are soaked up unless you want to go spend a bunch of money I would not be surprised if other teams are interested paul de young or so so or Tommy Edmin um I don't know I don't know if the cardinals are going to move from those guys at least it doesn't really feel like it The only thing I want to add to the conversation is that I feel like I've seen on Twitter that Trevor Story wouldn't be that much of an upgrade from paul de young I just think that that is a terrible take. Ah I think Trevor's story I think Trevor's story is far better than paul de young I think Paul Young is a steady fielder. Not a great fielder. 40:19.37 Nate Get them ben. 40:29.41 Benny Um, and I think that as long as Trevor's story comes back with a healthy elbow. He'll come and put up you know in between 3 and 5 or easy and as I've talked about in the past his power speed combo is underrated I think he has the since he has come up to the big leagues. He has hit the most home runs by any shortstop. He's just a better player. It would be an improvement and something that we talk about with cardinals all the time I feel like I'm going to say this 75 times a season is they're a hard team to upgrade. This would be an upgrade not a massive upgrade. It's not a carlos correa upgrade because there's like 1 of those 2 of those I guess if you want to throw Koys Corey Seger in that conversation. 41:03.44 Nate Right. 41:08.56 Benny You can't upgrade like that all the time but this would make the team better. He is a very good player I'm sure he's going to have a great year wherever he goes and it's definitely not going to be with the rockies. So yeah, just to you know, left setting the record straight. 41:17.38 Nate Um, yeah, you're setting the record straight. 41:26.61 Benny Paul de young is not as good as Trevor's story I find it silly to even have to have that conversation. But. 41:30.80 Nate Well, everyone looks at trevver story splits and he has something like a seven fifty ops out of out of course and you know I think that there is some merit to that. But I think there's a bit of an overcorrection to assume. That his 80 away games per year which include a ton of different factors. Um is would be directly copy pasted over to you know 160 games in another you know for another team is he the. You know 900 plus ops player that he you know often is for the rockies. Ah maybe not. But I think most people myself and yourself included believe the core's effect is overrated. At this point we see good players come from the Rockies and and rake all over the place all the time. Um, sometimes players even improve look at what djmill le may hu did with the yankees after leaving the rockies. So. It's not a cut and dry thing and you know I think. 42:28.74 Benny Exactly. 42:36.37 Benny There's there's so many factors to it. Nolan Aonnato has talked about how you have to a slightr brakes different in Denver than it does somewhere else. So if you're on a long home stand. You get certain used to a certain break and then you have to readjust there's the offensive environment that exists in the and nl west the team quality that exists in the nl west. 42:47.30 Nate Um, yeah. 42:54.13 Benny So much to it I think I just find the conversation silly. 42:57.78 Nate Yeah, um, but that could also be all the the lack of oxygen your brain is receiving because you live in Denver so it could be that. Also. 43:07.60 Benny Sure That's yeah um I can't argue with that. So I'm just we'll just keep going. 43:15.67 Nate Ah, all right moving on. Um, before we get into our next segment I want to take a moment to remind everyone that this show is supported on Patreon we are trying to grow the show grow what we can do and and what sort of content we can bring to you. Um, if you enjoy the show and want to support it go to http://patreon.com/Nate anyone who joins gets to join will be invited to join our new Discord trying to build a little community in there. We truly appreciate anyone who listens to the show. Um, and we really appreciate anyone who takes the time to um, throw us a couple bucks ah we we you know we we love doing this and we really want to continue doing it shoutout to Daniel Shopta and Regan Kelly our first 2 patrons. So thank you for being a part of the. 44:10.24 Benny Let's go. Okay. 44:11.91 Nate Of the ah of the community c seventy we're gonna get you on the show. Ah, ah, very soon one of the next few episodes will have to be a c seven e focused episode. We miss talking to you. so ah so yeah and you know again, if you can't. Ah, support us on Patreon we totally understand you know there's a lot going on in the world right now. But if you can. It's been a few minutes and give us a a review on Itunes. It really helps we had to restart our feed with this new launch and we lost all the old reviews that we had. And so we're trying to sort of rebuild. So thank you for your time and and and supporting us in that way as well. Ah Ben where can people find us and support us online as well. 45:00.14 Benny Yeah, and I g find us at talking about birds. We are just starting that off as well. Please you know, give us a like give us a follow there on Twitter talk about birds that is I think probably where most of our conversation is going. Ah, we have really good jokes on there. Please follow there. You can follow Nate personally at Nate Stl and you can follow me at samora although I don't tweet so you're just wasting your time if you want to send in any questions thoughts tell us we suck tell us we mess something up, please email us at talk about birds at http://gmail.com and if you have a good question. Maybe we'll answer it on the show. Yeah I think that's everything please. Ah, other than that you know word of mouth is really important share this with any of your cardinals friends. 45:44.86 Nate Tell your mom tell your dad tell your kids your sister get a can of spray paint I want to see hashtag t a b all over St Louis 45:48.72 Benny Just go out into the street and shout it shout it? Yes yes, ruin your community by spreading our good work. 46:03.70 Nate All right? Um, so next we're going to talk about what news we have gotten out of spring training so far for what it's worth there have been no games yet that's happening this friday first game. Cardinals Astros Wainwright Verlander what more can you ask for? Baseball's back baby. Yeah i'm. 46:25.17 Benny Unbelievably yes, hell yes I am so excited I feel like a fool like I have checked to try to buy rocky's opening day tickets 6 times already and they don't even go on sale until Friday. Um. 46:38.72 Nate Yeah I um I think I'm going to try to go to the home opener here in st louis that's you know that's always a you know a a holiday here in St Louis and I love being a part of it. 46:40.47 Benny I am so pumped. Yes. 46:50.31 Benny So. 46:54.88 Nate Ah, and if I go I'm going to try to boo the hell out of build a wit when he comes out on this out on the field I'm going to try to get as many people around me to boo him too. But I'm also you know, just excited to be back at the stadium and be a part of it. But um, ah so. 46:58.26 Benny Yes, so. 47:10.10 Nate What would how would you classify the news that is coming out of spring training thus far here early on. Oh no, don't know I We can't keep making baseball spooky. Okay. 47:17.45 Benny Ghoulish spooky corrified. Well it keeps happening. Um the Alex Rays News is worrisome we know that he is having some shoulder issues again. He's going back for reevaluation and I believe he is scheduled to get a shot like a like an anti-inflammatory anti-pain shop. Shot from Dr Andrews who is Mr. Repair your elbow. So that's horrible news. Obviously this kid just can't catch a break. He is you know the glass cannon I guess is what we'd call him and I think probably even more horrifying. Although I think. You know in the offseason. It was really easy for us all dream on what Alex Rayyes was going to do with his really really good first half last year um Jack flaty. Ah, now you know if you watch what Ali Mar mall said earlier today. And what Jack said last night after they were kind of done working out. He said that it was just general soreness. They're going in for reevaluation I don't think it's time to hit the panic button yet. But if I had to give this a rating I'm probably like a 7 or an 8 I'm pretty worried about what this means. You hat like he is the guy I think you could make an argument that he is the most important player on the cardinals as far as like he establishes the pitching staff and we've said a couple episodes ago I think on our first episode. We really don't like the idea of the cardinals having to rely on what Adam Adam Wainwright to lock down the entire starting pitching staff again the second year in a row. Essentially I mean I mean I guess really, it's but over the past like decade and a half or so but yeah, ah, you know and we're talking about this is why mos going after depth. 49:00.21 Nate Thank you? Yeah 12 of the last fifteen years or whatever. But yeah. 49:12.54 Benny Think that everyone on this everyone who's listening to this and everybody who's on Twitter would like the depth to be a little more high quality but this is a real concern. We have no I think you can't have any real expectations of what the cardinals are going to get from Jack Flaty I think I don't think the cardinals can have any real expectations of what they're going to get from Dakota Hudson and miles micelauuse we just don't know what to expect? Those guys could give us 200 innings apiece they could give us 20 and I think the fact that it's happening. This early is pretty scary and I wonder you know it's impossible. Not to wonder similar to the Fernando Tatis injury ah the the motorcycle injury. Obviously the circumstances are much different. But if the lockout had not have happened would Jack Clarity have been getting. You know the best treatment in the world over the last three months and there would have been more of a plan rather than coming inop. He's starting to warm up and. Ooh. There's tightness. There's soreness. You know that that could mean anything and especially you know the shoulder is scary I don't have to tell anybody else that you you all know that but the shoulder is very scary. It makes me think a high make Garcia I had an orthopedic surgeon tell me 1 time that the shoulder the human shoulder. 50:10.20 Nate Yeah. 50:17.21 Nate Scariest part of the human body look. 50:23.80 Benny Does not make sense. It should not work. Yeah, it's just it's just like a a ball on a plate with a bunch of meat wrapped around it. You know I'm ah it just sounded really smart there I am a doctor. 50:25.33 Nate What's going on in there. 50:32.97 Nate I Will that sounds delicious. 50:40.68 Nate This is medical advice. 50:41.41 Benny Um, right. But ah, yeah, no I'm big. Sad, not not happy about that I Really want to see Ja flair which we're calling him I really wanted to see Ja flair I Thought we I thought we decided that that's it. It's bad but that's it. 50:51.56 Nate What we decided we're explicitly not calling him J flyer on the last episode. Oh Okay I had a different takeaway from us deciding. It's bad. 51:05.41 Benny Ah, tweet at us at talking about birds on Twitter tweet at us what we should what nickname should j flair have because I agree we need to move one Jackie boy. 51:14.70 Nate I'm gonna throw out there I was just say Jackie flames better than jackie boy or whatever you just decide Jackie flames come on. 51:25.22 Benny I'm not saying mine is good but yours was worse. Ah, flap flapjag because because flap cause he's a cardinal. He's flying away flap. 51:32.80 Nate Flapjack that's not better than Jackie flames flames because he throws hard come on. Yeah, ah, you never want to go into a season um with shoulder your shoulder you know shoulder problems. 51:39.27 Benny Okay, all right. 51:49.61 Nate Ah, it doesn't tend to get better. But we're seeing a lot of really reserved answers from the organization right now and that could be 1 of 2 things either. They don't want to start panic over something that's. Pretty normal. You're sore from an off you know from a weird off season or it's like there's real concern and they just don't want to? ah you know start broadcasting that already. It is strange. You know I I don't totally understand the dynamics of the lockout as far as like player seeking medical care. Um. Because they were obviously locked out from the team. Yeah from the team resources but were they not able to go to a doctor on their own or was it something that flairdy never really recognized until he got to spring training and started throwing. 52:26.78 Benny It was ninety nine days yeah 52:43.40 Benny So he said he said that there's general soreness throughout the offseason I do know that the like the team doctors are team employees and their Mlb employees so they cannot talk to them my what I wonder is I'm sure that they can go see another doctor. 52:45.32 Nate Same with. 52:52.91 Nate Right. 53:01.50 Benny I wonder how the team feels about that I wonder if they instruct you know people who are in a situation like Jack hey do this please don't go talk to anybody we'll talk to you when we get back, not knowing that it was gonna be ninety nine days that's a really interesting question I wish we could we we should find. 53:14.80 Nate Yeah, yeah because I don't know and I try hard not to put myself in professional athletes shoes because those are maybe the last shoes on Earth that I could fill. 53:18.40 Benny That answer out. 53:32.45 Nate Um, but it it just seemed to me like if you're an athlete and you are feeling something same with the tatti situation and there are other guys that this is happening to throughout the league. These are just 2 of the higher profile ones where they're coming in with some sort of injury and they're just like well I couldn't go to the doctor. Ah, you know for the last three months and maybe that's just the case. Maybe they are truly restricted. Um. 53:55.16 Benny Ah I mean they are large babies I wouldn't be surprised if they're like oh no team doctor that mean, no doctor. Um, but they're also men of means so you think you know it's a confusing thing I don't know. Um, yeah. 54:02.22 Nate Yeah, they are large babies. 54:11.40 Nate That's what I'm saying like I feel like I would be like my shoulder is my entire existence and it doesn't it don't feel good I'm going to go to the urgent care. You know so. 54:19.77 Benny Right? You you would also think I'm Fernando Tati I should keep myself healthy I am not going to go I'm assuming he was drunk. Although that's that's definitely me just making a. 54:29.71 Nate I Yeah wouldn't make that assumption. That's all unfair people fall off of Motorcycles for all, no all number of reasons. 54:34.91 Benny I Guess it's irrelevant. You're driving it. You've getting multiple motorcycle crashes in the offseason. So like man know I'm sure there's some I'm invincible type thought process going on there. 54:41.82 Nate Um, I yeah I saw that the Padres um at least felt like they could have lobbied to have his mega deal voided off of this accident. But they have chosen not to in order to maintain a a good relationship with their superstar which I think is cool I think that's good I mean I think it it really is just a raw baseball decision. You know they signed maybe the best player in the league to a very long team. Friendly contract. So um. 55:15.51 Benny It would be insane to go after him. Yeah. 55:17.63 Nate I don't think yeah, um, but I just thought that was interesting that like you don't really hear talk about teams being able to avoidid contracts very often and yeah, crashing your motorcycle multiple times during the offseason. that's fair, I think that's fair they wanted to go ahead and go try and avoid it. Um, but yeah, the the ah Rayas and flarrity news was really dominating I think the current mindset of cardinal fans. Um, outside of that. It's mostly just been standard. Early spring training things I've been watching some I watched aonato take some bp off of mats earlier today looked great felt great, um, just enjoying. Dubois down at spring down at the down at Jupiter having a good time. So um. 56:08.25 Benny Yeah I think it is notable although unqutifiable the reports that are coming out early about aonauto people saying he's sting the ball. It's all fields and all that kind of stuff it all seems much more positive than it was last year. So. I Don't know what that means maybe he's made an adjustment but kind of exciting I Guess I'm excited to watch him play in Spring. Yeah. 56:28.98 Nate Yeah I mean I think this is best shape of your life talk. You know you don't you don't get a lot of guys coming into spring training being like yeah you know I'm just not feeling it this year this one this one's not my year you know it's. 56:40.77 Benny So yeah, yeah. 56:46.65 Nate It's pretty exclusively the opposite but um and he's always been very self-aware and talked about his desire to be better and to improve and whatnot and and I do appreciate him saying that like last year for by his standards was not ah the year he wanted and. 56:54.33 Benny Yeah. 57:05.15 Nate And I guess like technically it was a down year offensively for him but he's also you know he's a hall of fame colliver player so down year is still I think we were all pretty happy with the year that we got from Nolan aranado last year you know if he wants to ah return to peak. You know, 26 year old aonato. Of course we'll all take it but I don't think anyone's gonna be too upset if we just continue to get what we got last year from him. 57:29.65 Benny Yeah, agreed I mean just locking down that position like he has that has been a rotating door for the cardinals is yeah I'm not going to add anything to the Nolan conversation. He's great. Can't wait to see him play. 57:35.14 Nate Yeah, yeah. 57:40.70 Nate Yeah, the last guy I think we want to talk about in this segment is who may be an answer to some of these problems Jordan Hicks he is coming in and this is the sort of best shape of your life conversation that I actually am more interested in hearing because he's coming in. With details about injuries that he has finally fully recovered from so elites according to him. He has finally fully recovered from you know his Tommy John and some and some lingering smaller injuries that occurred. During his return and he's feeling now coming into spring training. This is the best that his arm has felt you know since before the Tommy John stuff um and and that to me actually means something ah and has a more material impact and. Um, you know he's a guy that has served in multiple different bullpen roles over the years at times has looked like the best reliever in baseball and then at times looks like he can't find the strikes down and is going to be out of the league I the. 58:52.97 Benny And at times pops Yadir Malina's testicle. 58:57.58 Nate At least 1 time. Um, oh my god that was ah like ah I don't even I don't even know why why did you say that you may. 59:03.60 Benny Sorry. 59:08.46 Benny But I'll never never not remember that because it horrifies me yeah ah something I read him talking about was that he feels like he is most effective and most healthy. 59:15.57 Nate Yeah, that is the worst thing that can happen on the field I think um. 59:27.24 Benny Chilling at 96 to ninety nine and I just found that hilarious that he's like no guys I'm gonna pull it back a little bit so I'm only gonna top out around 100 which is that just speaks to his talent. Um, and yeah I think I think I cut you off. But I think what you're getting at like. 59:27.76 Nate Yeah, yeah. 59:35.52 Nate Yeah. 59:44.19 Benny Want to see him try out as a starter right? I think it makes a lot of sense and also you know this is just conventional baseballism stretch him out in spring if it doesn't work out. You can put him in the bullpen really easy and maybe he can be a swing guy. But I think you know something that I heard is they like the idea of having him on some type of schedule. 59:44.58 Nate Yes. 01:00:01.30 Nate Um, the earth. 01:00:02.98 Benny Obviously you know every fit 5 or 6 games makes a lot of sense to facilitate that I don't know why he was a starter before let's try it out the kids obviously unbelievably talented. So I say run him out there until it doesn't work. 01:00:08.19 Nate Right. 01:00:14.20 Nate Yeah, he got into the bull bin because of a need and his ability to throw as hard as he could. You know if you remember he kind of leapfrog through the miners and went to the majors very quickly because of his his velocity. And the need of more support in the bull pin. But I think the cardinals ever rightfully recognized that he has a starters repertoire as well and I'm all in on him getting a real long shot at the rotation. Even if there's a need in the bolt pin I'd rather see him. Staying at Triplea or wherever working on that starter's you know workload and it's obvious we're gonna he's gonna get spots even if the the normal 5 are just always healthy. You need a 6 starter every once a while guys just need breaks injuries. You know, small injuries that make you misstarts we thought Alex Ray is might be that 6 startter type but he's already you know running into the problems that we've already talked about so like there's gonna be a need and I can think of nothing better than to have Jordan Hicks and then also while on the topic I just show throughout. Let's get libertor up up there too. Um I think you know we're going to see him in the rotation at some point this year but anyway hick should be a starter or at least we should see it give him a real extended shot at ah at a rotation spot. So let's ah, let's round out this ah our topics here and talk a little bit more broadly. Um, you know the the end of the lockout was marketed as a is what was going to be a a moment of insanity for baseball. And for the transactions you know huge list of big time free agents still out there. Um and to some degree. It has been a little bit of chaos. Ah, but not really in the way I think I was anticipating. We've not seen these. Huge free agents flying off the shelf like we thought we would um, a lot of especially from the position player standpoint lots of guys still out there looking for jobs. But ah, the more shocking things have been a couple trades that have happened over the last few days and I thought it would just be fun to talk about get your take on it. I think the biggest one at least in my mind is the brave's ah decision to not make an offer to or make a suitable offer to Freddy Freeman and subsequent what felt like immediate. Ah. 01:03:05.60 Nate Acquisition and extension of one of my personal favorite players Matt Olson crazy newsday for for in this particular transaction. What were your thoughts. 01:03:15.95 Benny Yeah I think it is a very smart baseball move and a very bad move for fans I think it's a shame that Freddy is not going to finish his career in Atlanta probably will never be in Atlanta again. I you know I think if I was a betting man I would say he's probably going to be a blue Jay and he'll have a ton of fun there and be beloved there. But it's a very good trade. Um Matt Olson is a top 10 player in the league. He is getting better He's gotten better every year massive power great glove. Quick enough for a first basement. You know he's big, big, big lefty bat and that with that short portch in Atlanta hit hope he'll be great. Um, and that team deal is really really good for the team and it's hard for anyone who's 26 or 27 years old or have old Mattson is to say you know. No thanks I don't one one hundred and sixty eight million dollars ah obviously you know the Braves have done a very good job at locking up young talented players for team. Friendly deals. You know si ozzie alies and Ronald Lacuna Junior who both signed for way less than Matt Olson did ah. Did have to give up a lot to get him though. La jalis is a very good catcher who can hit a bit and is a fantastic defender Christian Poche is a you know gold glove would not be surprised if he takes the gold glove in the a l this year and center field this batch dragging a little bit. Um, but those are 2 really really good prospects. So I have to say the a's did a fine job even though I hate what they're doing I put them in the same camp as the reds they could have pushed in a little bit harder and been really good but they are deciding to take a step back and play this. So I guess at least for a's fans. At least you got some interesting guys to watch you know I have to imagine poche is probably gonna start in center this year with Ramon Larryiano still serving as ped suspension I would guess that he's gonna hold on that but they might have the best defensive outfield in the league this year which is kind of fun for as fans I suppose. But yeah I'd say all in all, it's you know. 01:05:20.26 Nate Yeah, um. 01:05:24.38 Benny Interesting, very interesting anthepolis crying or fighting back tears when he was making the announcement I don't know if I believe that or not ah but was you know it was slightly charming and I don't know it's this this is kind of like what happens when a corporation owns. Ah, baseball team you you do this kind of thing. Ah all that to be said it's impossible not to compare this to the poohos steel worked out really well for the cardinals. Although I think a lot of cardinal sands would still be like have been great to watch Albert Either way but 01:05:45.60 Nate Yeah, right. 01:05:55.50 Nate Yeah. 01:05:58.52 Benny Yeah I don't know that's that those are my thoughts. It's exciting on one end and disappointing on the other. 01:06:01.56 Nate Yeah, um, couple thoughts on on what you were saying. First of all I think as an Oakland Athletics fan you at least have to have some ah you know ah solace in the fact that the team has kind of always done this and is always competitive. You know? So this isn't if I'm an a's fan I'm probably not feeling as bad as I am if I'm a reds fan where it's like oh you traded all of our good players and I have no faith that you're going to be able to restock us with good players whereas the a's are kind of always doing this. You know cycle of. 01:06:25.80 Benny Right. 01:06:38.20 Nate Produce a guy trade them. You know Josh Donaldson came out of the a's like they they do this and they man and simian and they they manage to you know field competitive teams and make a run at a very difficult decision ah division pretty frequently and well this might be a step back for 2022 I don't know I feel pretty confident that the a's are gonna be right back in it pretty soon? Um, yeah. 01:06:59.59 Benny They they got talent in this deal and they got talent from the the chapman deal too. So they're they're gonna be fine like you said I I think we all have some faith in Billy Bean in the baseball ops folks and in Oakland they sure did. 01:07:11.30 Nate Yeah, they made a movie about him. Ah, ah and to the other point I'm a little torn on you know I'm you're usually the first in line to yell like corporate greed and whatnot. Um at at really anyone. And I I think that that is in play here to a degree but I also think like just from a baseball decision. Freddy Freeman is 32 obviously he's been an Mvp caliber player for a while but if he's really looking for five to eight years in a deal. I think you can understand why any team even you know his hometown or his his you know the team that brought him here like may be a little gunsh shy about that and it might have been more of a baseball decision than it was just a he wants a lot of money decision. 01:08:04.85 Benny Oh yeah, and I don't want to be misconstrued I agree it was a good move I would you know if I could have Matt Olson um Matt Olson is a better player I think right now. Um, and I think Matt Olson is you could easily project him to be better than Freddy Freeman over the next four years 01:08:14.75 Nate Yeah, well. 01:08:24.67 Benny I'm more just kind of speaking from the fans point of view I know how I would feel um and I'm sure you know when Freddy does sign then we'll we'll be able to have a lot better of opinion on that dollar amount in that length and then we can kind of get into it more but ah I would if I was building a team today I would take me Olson. 01:08:25.18 Nate Yeah. 01:08:42.17 Nate Yeah, same so just it's an interesting one. It is kind of like pools but there's also its differences. We'll see you know I it seems at least right now as we record the rays are really big in on ah Freddie Freeman 01:08:43.00 Benny Over Freddy Freeman yeah 01:09:00.35 Nate Which makes you think the the dollar can't be insane. So if he goes in signs for like 1 25 or something like that to ah to the raise then I'll be a little more like come on phrase. You could ah you know there's a DH now sign him and you know he's your legacy. Um. 01:09:02.71 Benny I Just don't see it. 01:09:17.22 Benny Um I one could argue they could still sign him. They could have him and him and Olson be first base DH together but that's not going to happen. 01:09:19.31 Nate So. 01:09:23.45 Nate He did just put out a big statement thinking Atlanta Braves fans and for all of his time there and how he'll always remember them so it'll be a pretty wild it. You know you like re releasesees it same state statement just puts at the end like and that's why I'm glad I'm back. 01:09:29.25 Benny Oh it's not going to happen. Yeah. 01:09:38.39 Benny Um. 01:09:43.18 Nate Um, the other big trade is the Yankees acquiring from the minnesota twins Josh donaldton and Isaiah Kinder Philpha who had just been traded from. Oh. 01:09:57.60 Benny and and Ben Rortvert don't forget about the swol daddy. 01:10:02.00 Nate Yeah, ah who they had an isaiah kind of fallava fefa had just been traded from the rangers to the twins and I and you know I was thinking about like what a day Matt Olson had had where he went. He was traded and extended in basically the same day. So he you know became a you know nearly a fifth of a billionaire in in one day that he also traded changed his position or changed his teams but isaiah at least according to him on third on Friday. He was told he was the starting third baseman for the rangers and that even if Josh Young had been healthy. It would have been ah Isaiah's position on Saturday he was traded to the twins where he was told he's their new sharding starting sharding starting shortstop. And I hope he's not a sharding sorts it up. Um, and then on Sunday he's traded to the Yankees. Ah what a life. 01:11:05.85 Benny Yeah, yeah, and you have to imagine he's gonna be the starter there. He had it pretty interesting. He was super fired up I like listening to him talk. He's a bit crazy but in the good way. Um, just super intense. So I think he'll he'll go there take over the short stop job. 01:11:14.16 Nate Um, yeah. 01:11:24.85 Benny I think what's really interesting is that they made the evaluation that Josh Donaldson is better than Geo Gonzalez ah sort of to finish that thought up it was Josh Isaiah and Ben traded for Gary Sanchez and geo orella. Um, and I guess I probably would have put Geo or Shea and Josh Johnson closer together than the yankees did obviously they made the evaluation that Geo was no longer the answer there a third and to move to Josh so that's interesting and then obviously you know ah you everybody's seen the news about Josh Donaldson and and gart cole bearing the hatchet and everything like that I'm hoping that. Ah you know there there is maybe some pushing and shoving in the lock room that we'll never see but love that I mean Josh Donaldson is a great player to watch I think the same for kind of philefa. Um, and Ben Rovert might be rort vet might be more interesting than it kind of appears he is. 01:11:54.75 Nate Right. 01:12:13.78 Benny Unbelievably strong. He is like a slightly smaller version of Tyler O'neill um it is a plus plus defender behind the plate so could be a great deal for the yankees I don't really get the deal from the twin side I know that they're talking about having ah gary being the dh kind of thought they already had a dh. 01:12:19.96 Nate Yeah, how. 01:12:33.35 Benny Um, I guess we'll kind of see how that all plays out weird deal. Um, it seems like a salary dump. Maybe the twins are going to go sign somebody Maybe they'll drop some money somewhere but it it seems one-sided. Yeah I don't know that's kind of my thought on it. 01:12:44.33 Nate Yeah, the read ie I got on it was that this deal only makes sense for the twins if they are adding a shortstop or something like that a middle in field or through free agency because otherwise. 01:13:04.40 Benny Agreed. 01:13:04.12 Nate Very very strange deal. Um, but Josh Donaldson when healthy is still pretty good so he could be very good for the yankees. 01:13:13.39 Benny Yeah, yeah, yeah, like I said I kind of put him and Geo or shirt. Ah or shea closer together than obviously the yankees evaluated him Ras Shea probably a slightly better defender and slightly were and are definitely ah, a worst offensive player and obviously the inverse for Donaldson but ah. That being said, you know Donaldson is a firecracker a little little chippy. Maybe maybe they wanted some shakeup there. You know I think the the Yankees have been criticized for being a little too businesslike so getting away from that's probably good. So. 01:13:40.25 Nate Um, yeah. 01:13:46.85 Nate Well and yourshela is he's like 31. Also, he's not young, you know and I think he everyone's been expecting him to be better. He hasn't been badby also hasn't been great. So you know if that's the price you have to pay in order to get a guy like Isaiah. Kind of falaffa or or even a year or 2 of Donaldson like you know that might be worth the gamble, especially if Donaldson fully comes back and has another forty home run season in that lineup you know it should be good. So last guy we're gonna touch on real quick Carlos Correa still out there. 01:14:16.28 Benny So totes. 01:14:25.79 Nate Um, do you think Teams Do you think he's asking prices too high or do you think that? um people are legitimately worried about all of the trashcan shit and that he would he would be like poorly received on a team. Or What do you think is is the delay here. 01:14:42.74 Benny I think that my or my if I have been trying to put my brain swap places with these gms I think what they're thinking is that big body shorts stop who plays really really aggressively all over on offense and defense and he's had but back problems I think. I think back problems freak people out, especially when you're talking about somebody like I said of his size and his physicality and you know anyone who's had back problems knows how chronic those can be and how horrible they can be and debilitating they can be I think that's where it's at I think he wants Cory Seeger money um but Cory seekers back is fine. 01:15:14.82 Nate Yeah, yeah. 01:15:20.94 Benny Um, so I think that's what it's good I think that he's he's saying I feel good I feel good and people are saying I'm sure you do I'm not sure I'm going to put a $300000000 bet on that. So what I think is going to happen. You know, looking through the the crystal ball again is that think you'll probably sign with the astros. Probably be high a maybe 2 years with an opt out of after the first year I think he's gonna have to do ah a approve it thing but I really think that back is freaking people out. Obviously he's a good player. He's one of the best players in the ml be probably the best shortstop in the Mlb when he's healthy, but the back. 01:15:50.98 Nate Yeah. 01:16:00.41 Benny And all the things I just said I think is what is freaking people out and he wants he wants to make the bag. You're the bag. 01:16:04.75 Nate Yeah, secure the bag. Um Yeah I I Yeah I think you're right and I think he's going to be an astro. They'll look past all the other things and whether it's going to be a mega deal or some sort of in between. Um, that's right I think it's going to go ah all right? Well, that's going to conclude our our the primary you know the business end of this of this episode but before we end um. Time to to Force Ben to play another stupid game. So we're taking a break from ah who is this Guy. You've been.. You've been great at it ven. So I'm giving you a break on it introducing a new segment. Um, you know I think. 01:16:45.26 Benny Who is this guy. 01:16:55.72 Nate If you look at both of us. It's pretty obvious that we love food. Um, and so this ah this ah this segment is called league choose. And ah this segment will be focused on on food and and baseball related food. So this week Ben I have a list I have an article that was published in Usa today in 2019 called. 01:17:10.77 Benny Wow. 01:17:25.31 Benny Okay, okay. 01:17:30.95 Nate Ranking the 10 craziest ballpark foods for the twenty Nineteen mlb season so I've got at least Usa today's opinion on what were the 10 craziest ballpark foods all I'm asking for you to do is you have to guess. 01:17:34.69 Benny Ok. Yeah, oh god. 01:17:49.55 Nate What stadiums or what teams rather have ah foods represented on this list and ah 3 strikes and you're out buddy all right? So it's since see how many you can get. 01:17:51.46 Benny Okay, so. 01:17:58.50 Benny Okay, okay. 01:18:05.15 Benny Just like family food or feud style family food style family feud style. 01:18:10.29 Nate Um, what do you mean. 01:18:13.96 Benny Like like there's a category I say it and it's like Cincinnati's number 1 you get 8 Michael. 01:18:19.10 Nate Oh sure. Yeah I can do it that way I you know family feud they like poll the audience you know and that's how they come up with the ranking this is just Andrew Joseph's top 10 Um. 01:18:25.96 Benny Yeah, but this is Usa today. Okay, so. 01:18:35.00 Benny Ah, okay, so. 01:18:38.91 Nate Yeah, and and I'll give you a bonus points if you can guess what the food is going to be okay. 01:18:43.40 Benny Okay, right on all right I guess I should just go okay, well I think so the first one that comes to mind and I feel like I'm really picking on the reds today but I'm gonna go with Cincinnati because of skyline chili. 01:18:49.87 Nate Yeah, give me it give me a ah team. 01:19:01.14 Benny And skyline chile is absolutely disgusting. Damn it. What. 01:19:04.40 Nate I Swinging a miss. It's a good guess but according to ah to this list. Um, that's not a crazy food. You know. 01:19:13.62 Benny So it's like spaghetti with like cheese on it. That's not that I think that's crazy. No no chili mac is different than skyline chili skyline chili is gross. Chili Mac is fine. Okay, all right I'm gonna. 01:19:20.13 Nate It's a chilly Mac baby wait. No and do they have now. 01:19:29.96 Nate Ah, it's a good guess though. 01:19:32.90 Benny And I'm gonna go I'm gonna go with a city who I think it's it's crazy because they're foody I know that they have like sushi and all kinds of interesting things at this stadium. So I think it's a good guess I'm gonna go with the dodgers. 01:19:46.42 Nate Um, that's a home run baby. You've actually ah there they are represented twice on this list. Ah number 10 no sorry number 9 01:19:49.48 Benny Yes, yes. 01:20:05.26 Nate They've got what's called the esquite. It's a if you think of like Mexican corn you know mexican street corn. Ah, but you know it's served in an upside down tiny dodgers helmet um, it looks. 01:20:12.45 Benny Okay, yeah. 01:20:19.53 Benny So of course no corner to helmet does not sound good. 01:20:24.57 Nate Yeah, so it's sweet grilled corn mayo quotia cheese and chipotle aoli out of a souvenir mini helmet sounds delicious to me I love a ah good like mexican street corn. So that was number 9 01:20:29.68 Benny I I. 01:20:36.70 Benny Something about a helmet full of corn does not sound good to me. 01:20:40.87 Nate They also come in at number 6 on this list with what's called going yard. Can you guess what it is. You're close. It's a footlong hot dog. Oh wait wait. 01:20:44.45 Benny Okay. Going yard a three foot long hotdog? No oh well, what the hell that's just false advertisement. 01:21:00.68 Nate Hold on. It's a sixteen and a half inch jalapeno cheddar sausage topped with grilled onion roasted corn and avocado relish with sour cream that sounds great. Ah so that's the that's the going yard all right? So you've gotten. 01:21:08.97 Benny Oh yeah I would eat the hell out of that. Yeah, that sounds really good. Okay. 01:21:20.33 Nate Number 9 and number 6 01:21:20.68 Benny Okay, all right that feels good at least be on the board. Um, all right I'm looking at my list here again. I'm gonna go with so they have a brand new ballpark and it's Texas and Texas people like to eat. I'm going to go with the rangers as my next guess. 01:21:40.16 Nate Ben you've got number 1 Ah so they have a an item called the foul pole. Can you guess what it is. 01:21:42.23 Benny Yes. 01:21:52.90 Benny Ah I'm going to guess it is a whole chicken like a beer can chicken and then they like wrap it in bacon or something like that. 01:22:03.13 Nate you you again you're in the you know you're in the ballpark pun intended. So um, it is a £2 chicken tender. It's served on a bed of waffle fries with ample dipping sauce options. 01:22:05.29 Benny Down. 01:22:13.67 Benny What? what. 01:22:19.59 Benny So they deep fry like half a chicken who wants that the whole thing of chicken tenderders is they're supposed to be you like you dip them in a sauce and if it's a true chicken tender. It's just a lab that's stupid that does not sound that good to me. 01:22:22.27 Nate Yeah, a £2 chicken tinder 01:22:32.25 Nate Yeah, that's no social Texas you know you're at a game. It's a ° out and you've got this like massive piece of fried meat in your hands. 01:22:47.21 Benny Also are you like eating that like is that a fork and a knife chicken tender. Are you just chomping on. Yeah I hate that Texas you suck. 01:22:55.82 Nate Well, you've got now you've got number one so good job and then number six and number nine 01:23:00.47 Benny Yep, okay, I'm back number six and number nine okay that feels good. Oh I should have been thinking more about my next one. Okay I am going to I don't know why this is popping into my head. This is probably a terrible guess I'm going to guess that. Diamond backs have some type of like fried snake or reptile or some weird like or like a bug you can buy like chocolate bugs or something like that. So I'm gonna hit say the diamond bags are my next guest gonna mess. Okay. 01:23:29.56 Nate O that's a swing and a miss again. My friend so you should know though that at least according to this article for many years the diamond backs were number one on this list but now they're nowhere even on this list. So I don't know. But yeah. 01:23:44.20 Benny So okay, that's lame and I hate that um I cannot believe skyline chile is not on there that was that would have been my first overall pick all right trying to say New York they could you know they just serve a lot of people. Maybe they have interesting food. There. Never really heard anything like that. Oh god well wait. Okay Milwaukee has the running of the sausages I have to assume that the brewers are on this list somewhere their whole thing is around like beer cheese and sausage. So. Get me milwaukee oh my god what I struck out Milwaukee needs to get their shit together. 01:24:23.14 Nate Who I'm sorry back to the dugout. Maybe I should maybe just? yeah um maybe I should have given you more guesses but ah, not rules is rules. So. 01:24:40.22 Benny The rules that you arbitrarily made up 1 more guest. Yeah, all right? Okay, ah fool. Okay I just want to make this one count. Ah okay, I'm just going through. 01:24:41.84 Nate And I I can't change them I can't I'll give you 1 more guess like yeah I just like watching you you know squirm so I'm going to give you 1 more guess and then I'm just going to go down the list. 01:24:59.24 Benny I mean Kansas City they like food like we like food. It could be them. Seattle's a big foodie town. Maybe they have some weird shit. Um Oakland I feel like you probably barely buy popcorn there I oh. Think I feel pretty good about Seattle all of a sudden I'm going to say Seattle Big foodie town right? there on the water. Maybe some fish I don't know what's going on there but let's let's go with the mariners god bless it. What? Okay, give me. 01:25:25.50 Nate Swinging a miss 4 strikes and you're out. So I think there I think there's something and I could be wrong here because obviously the dodgers are are a very successful team. Um, there's some very successful teams on here. But there's a few of them that makes me think like you know you're trying to allure people Lu people to go to the stadium for your wackiness. You know like you're ah like your triple a and double a teams do where they get the really weird shit. Um, but yeah, yeah. 01:25:43.20 Benny Sure. 01:25:50.45 Benny Yeah, is it the the grizzlies where you can get the crispy cream double cheeseburger. Yeah. 01:25:57.96 Nate So but um, this I could be way wrong because obviously the dodgers are twice on here. So starting at number 10 you have the kony dog a girl at detroit tigers stadium. So yeah, it sounds gross doesn't it. 01:26:10.66 Benny I mean I would eat that but I hate it at the same time. 01:26:16.57 Nate We already did number 9 ah at number 8 you have the Pittsburgh cone from the Pittsburgh pirates which is a waffle cone full of Klebassa Pirogi swiss cheese 01:26:22.60 Benny First was. 01:26:33.94 Nate Sauerkraut and Russian dressing might want to change that dressing. Um. 01:26:34.47 Benny Ah, ah, topical. Ah I think I hate that um in a waffle cone I mean I think now. 01:26:42.10 Nate I don't know I think that could be good. Yeah, hell yeah, we're putting pretzels on everything. Why not have a waffle actually um, ah here in St Louis Steve's hot dogs. 01:26:53.43 Benny I think I hate that. But. 01:26:57.18 Nate They do waffle dogs on um, you know it's like ah a special item that they do from time to time and it's think of a corn dog but instead of corn bread. It's it's waffle. 01:27:04.68 Benny Now if Steve is I give Steve way more runway than I give the pirates for obvious reasons. 01:27:09.68 Nate Yeah, that's fair, um, it's delicious though when next time you go to? ah ah Steve's hot dogs enter our promo code talking about birds. Ah in the yeah, they'll kick you out. 01:27:21.73 Benny And and they'll say ha. 01:27:29.90 Nate I'm coming in at number 7 chicken and waffle cone at the minnesota twin stadium. Yeah um this one. Yeah, it's ah chicken tenders huge slab of bacon drizzled with maple syrup. 01:27:34.42 Benny Okay, that sounds good are not crazy but like interesting. 01:27:48.87 Nate In a waffle cone number six was the going yard number 5 the frittos pie corn dog from Houston astros it a frito pie corn dog. It's a foot long hot dog dipped in housemaid fritos batter. 01:27:49.15 Benny Yeah I would eat that. 01:28:07.65 Nate Queso Blanco and Texas Chile. 01:28:08.45 Benny That sounds like garbage that sounds like you're gonna be in the bathroom for 45 minutes which I'm not above but that is doesn't seem worth it. 01:28:15.83 Nate I yeah um, all right number 4 I've never heard of this little buds. Saint st louis cardinals I know. 01:28:26.43 Benny Um, yeah, oh I like it already what gets me need to get some little buds this year who wrote this who wrote this again. 01:28:35.81 Nate Um, ah it is ah I guess scroll all the way up hold on. Um Andrew Joseph from 01:28:45.53 Benny So Joe Joe you're a dumbass whoever that and Andrew Joseph you're a dumbass. Yeah. 01:28:55.56 Nate In extension of Usa today. So little buds tweet at us if you've had a little buds or even were aware that little buds existed. Um I like want to change the name of our podcast to little buds. So I ah, it's yeah 8 burger sliders with budweiser beer cheese garlic ioli and pickles all served in a home plate box with an absurd amount of tater tots. 01:29:17.68 Benny It's better than our name that smart. 01:29:32.00 Benny Um, yeah, but but again Andrew Joseph it doesn't sound that crazy. It's just sliders and fries or tough. 01:29:32.40 Nate I Mean sounds great. Honestly I could go for some little buds. 01:29:39.77 Nate It's a lot though I think the point is that it's a shit ton. It's 8 sliders and an absurd amount of tater tots in a home plate thing did that do you when you go to other sports. Do you eat things out of the like. 01:29:42.50 Benny That Okay, okay. 01:29:57.37 Nate Go to other sports when you go to other games. Do you eat things out of the like accoutrema of of that sport. You know you. 01:30:02.76 Benny Oh every time I see the Avalanche play I say can I get a hockey stick full of French fries and they're like yeah bro. No what are you talking about? can I get deep fried Hockey Brook sliders. No, that's actually a good. Yeah. 01:30:13.10 Nate Ah, um, so this is another one number three I kind of agree with you in that This isn't crazy this just sounds great. But maybe it's like the concept of. 01:30:29.64 Benny Sure. 01:30:29.70 Nate Getting this at a stadium is what's crazy and not that the food is crazy bone in smoked beef short ribs at Washington Nationals Park Dc's a big barbecue town so you know it's it's extended into the into the stadium. 01:30:37.60 Benny Yeah, that just sounds delicious. Yeah. 01:30:45.98 Nate Um, but I mean I guess eating like a sloppy bone in Rib feels pretty absurd at ah at a baseball game. You're like you've got other people like shoulder to shoulder with you and you're like you know? yeah. 01:30:50.43 Benny So yeah, yeah. 01:30:57.12 Benny Lay off me I'm starving. 01:31:04.32 Nate That's the second ah like you know old comedy that you've now referenced involving ah old fat dead kinds. 01:31:10.59 Benny Um, yeah, I'm very funny. 01:31:14.91 Nate All right rounding it out the buy you city dog from Houston astros so you were right when you had clocked Texas with the Rangers Houston has 2 on here. It is a Nolan Ryan hot dog. Whatever that is. 01:31:21.18 Benny Wow Wow! yeah. 01:31:35.12 Nate Smoked pork burnt ends Rico's cheese sauce, pickle chips, green onions, hot barbecue sauce. Yeah I have to imagine why else would you call it a nular iron hot dog. 01:31:40.40 Benny Jesus that's like a Thanksgiving dinner. Do you think the hot dog is made out of Nolan Ryan 01:31:52.37 Benny It is yeah that I mean that one sounds good I again I go back to I think Andrew's a dumbass I think you did bad I think we need to redo this so I'm going to spend the next year eating everything. 01:31:52.42 Nate If if not that is false advertising. 01:31:59.10 Nate Yeah, for. 01:32:05.78 Nate Going going ballpark to ballpark finding the most absurd shit. Yeah I think it really is like what's something that you you never expect to get this in a stadium. Not that it's like novelty. Although some of this is novelty shit like that £2 01:32:10.50 Benny Yeah, yeah. 01:32:22.51 Nate Ah, Chicken tinder or like ah a cony dog egg roll. You know some little buds. 01:32:24.50 Benny That's a stupid. Yeah. the the cony dog a role I don't know because is I think Detroit is home with the Kony dog weirdly enough. Um I don't know maybe I would eat that it also sounds like trash. But yeah, okay. 01:32:33.85 Nate Yes. 01:32:39.60 Nate Yeah I can say I would try all of these things I think they all all yeah I think they all sound uncomfortable to eat in a stadium seat. Um, but. 01:32:45.24 Benny Yeah I mean I if I'm there. Yeah probably. 01:32:58.76 Benny Ah well I hate that. 01:32:58.76 Nate I'll just take it to the bathroom with me. You know. 01:33:06.12 Nate Ah, ah, get out of here get out of here kids I'm eating my little buds. 01:33:13.70 Benny Police. 01:33:17.35 Nate Ah, a local man was arrested. 01:33:19.49 Benny So I had to Google a picture of the foul pole. It's like long. It's like I thought it would be like a thick slab of chicken but it it looks like it's like a tube of chicken. So that's why they call the foul pole because it looks like that. 01:33:33.36 Nate It's worse. Oh. 01:33:38.86 Benny Is I'm back. Okay, yeah, that sounds like absolute shit and I would not eat that um huh. 01:33:41.10 Nate Yeah, yeah, does it like stretch longer than ah than a ah ah stadium seat if you like got that and you sat next to people you didn't know or you like tapping them with your chicken strip. 01:33:53.80 Benny Maybe maybe it's like a romantic thing like you start over here I'll start over here and we'll meet in the middle baby. We'll split of Apple with you. 01:33:59.49 Nate All right? We have a new Patreon here. Um so ah. 01:34:09.78 Benny Ah, wait me and you is that what the people want I don't and I hope not um I hate it. 01:34:11.45 Nate I go I don't know we'll we'll workshop this a little bit more I yeah know what? no it's if you subscribe to us. We'll go and we'll in the the subscribers on 1 end and 1 of us is on the other and. 01:34:26.53 Benny Yeah, um I think we can end. Yeah, let's cancel it. This is horrible. 01:34:29.20 Nate We need to cancel this podcast. Yeah, all right? Well on that note that ends this this round of league choose you did okay Ben but it truly was a guessing game. You never could have known so um. 01:34:40.96 Benny Ah. Yeah, thanks bro. Okay. 01:34:47.96 Nate But better like next time but do a little more research. Um, so with that we'll call this to an end. We're all of course excited baseball's back. We'll be back next week with hopefully some good news from spring training and until then. Have a great week. Everybody and go cards. 01:35:08.51 Benny Let's go.