Latest / The 3-0 Take / Episode 500

Transcript

Episode 500 · The 3-0 Take

• 0:00
  Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Three O Take, where we talk
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  all things Major League Baseball.
• 0:06
  Here's Kyle Corwin and Nate Reyes.
• 0:10
  It all starts right now. Welcome back to the Three O Take
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  presented by Sea Geek. This is episode 500.
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  I'll be your host Kyle Cord. I'm here with my Co host Nate
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  Reyes. Nate.
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  The 500 Club buddy. Wow.
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  I never, I legitimately never thought this day would come.
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  I was looking back at, I was looking back at this sheet of
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  paper. It was just scribbling on it
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  back in 2018 and it was. You still have this piece of
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  paper. I it's probably somewhere, but I
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  know that I have a picture of it.
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  So I was just looking at the picture and I jotted down sort
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  of some, some structure, like a little bit of an outline of what
• 1:03
  I wanted the the podcast to be knowing that I was going into it
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  solo because at the time we and, and we'll get into all this
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  later the episode, but hadn't hadn't touched base with you yet
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  about about getting on the podcast.
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  So I was going to this thing solo.
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  So I'm like, OK, I need to, I need to structure this thing
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  out. And I tell you what, I'm glad I
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  didn't continue doing this solo. I'm glad I didn't follow that
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  structure because if we had or if I had, 500 was never going to
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  be in the picture and 500 was never going to be part of the
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  plan because, my goodness, that was a that was a mess.
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  So I'm, I'm glad, glad we didn't follow that, that route.
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  But here we are, episode 500 starting off the new year.
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  How about that? Like, yeah.
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  It's almost like we planned. It's, it's almost like we
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  planned it that way. I'm a I'm a big fan of that,
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  yeah. Welcome back.
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  I mean, shoot, Merry Christmas, Happy New Year.
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  All the good stuff has already happened.
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  When is your clause for Happy New Year wishes to end?
• 2:09
  How long do you have a buffer there?
• 2:13
  How many days are you allowed to say that?
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  I mean, today is probably sort of the got to be the cut off,
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  right? Like it's a, it's a fresh week.
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  Yeah. I mean, Monday is pretty much
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  over now, but I mean, yeah, I mean past the 6th, No, yeah,
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  that's it. That's it.
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  Yeah, I think it. What's his face?
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  Larry? Larry David Kirby.
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  Enthusiasm is like, you get 3 days, like that's it.
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  Otherwise, you just don't say it, you know?
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  Well, the holidays sort of were aligned weird this year, like.
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  This is a weird year. Christmas and New Year, I don't
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  know what day it is honestly. Christmas and New Year's were
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  both on Wednesdays this year. So it just threw everything off
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  it, it threw the whole, the whole thing out the window.
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  But, but here we are episode 500 to start off the new year.
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  We do have some I I definitely want to spend some time sort of
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  celebrating the accomplishment, looking back, looking through,
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  reading through some, some memories submitted by listeners.
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  But there are some baseball topics we do have to, we do have
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  to touch on real quick, some of which, I mean, we've been off
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  for the we, we've taken what, the last two weeks off.
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  So some of these are certainly outdated, but I just wanted to
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  be able to check the boxes, say we covered them.
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  One of which is rather significant.
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  And I wish we could have made it through those two weeks
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  unscathed without getting hit with any breaking news such as
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  this. But we'll just start here.
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  Corbin Burns again, relatively outdated, so we don't need to
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  spend a whole lot of time on it. But I mean, you, you texted me
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  sort of in a state of confusion. Just be like, I don't, I don't
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  get it. I I don't get it.
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  But I think ultimately here the the take away is that this is
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  one of those guys. And and as as we talk about each
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  free agency, you have to you have to take each guy that's
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  looking to sign a new deal with a new team and put him on the
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  spectrum of how much or how little does playing close to
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  home matter to this guy. Yeah.
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  And it's not going to be the same for every guy.
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  We've learned that some guys could not care less.
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  They just want to follow the money.
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  Some guys, it's very important them some with with some guys
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  you already have established families back there to maybe
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  where you're at your home state, whatever that whatever the
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  reasoning is. Corbin Burns, however, fell on
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  the end of the spectrum where that it was an important factor
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  to him. And I think that's ultimately
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  why he ended up there with the with the Diamondbacks.
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  Yeah, I'd assume. I mean, Milwaukee's out here for
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  spring training, right? Am I crazy for saying that?
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  I think they share a facility. Yeah, they're out Broadway.
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  Who do they share a facility with?
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  I don't think they have their own.
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  I don't know. So you got to assume that maybe
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  there was that chapter. I don't know the details, but
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  like maybe they, they called, you know, he started calling
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  Arizona home when he was still a Brewer.
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  And it seems like maybe he's just kind of been on the road
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  with Baltimore in that phase. And, you know, obviously spring
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  training being in, in Florida for that.
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  So like having this, this break in the in the offseason, you got
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  to assume that like as Christmas is rolling around and just this
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  whole, you know, family at home, maybe you're, you got family in
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  town or loved ones or whatever. Just like as that goes on,
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  there's probably a little little, you know, you and I are
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  married. Like there's a little bit of a
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  hint from the wife like, Oh, this would be really nice if we
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  could just keep this going. You know, maybe if it's just,
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  hey, maybe it's just a West Coast thing to extend spring
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  training and be in your own bed for a little while and then it
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  turns into all right, well, what if we just did this year round?
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  So it's cool that like from, from what I could tell, from
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  what I've read, didn't really seem like the Diamondbacks were
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  like in the hunt. I don't, I don't know how much
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  communication there was there, but seems just like, hey, let me
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  hit my agent up and then let's give him a call and see if
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  they're down. Here's our number.
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  Can you get to that area? Can you get around, you know,
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  the 200 million area? And yeah, I mean, it just seems
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  like what a cool thing if you're a Diamondbacks fan or in the
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  Diamondbacks organization, like to for this to fall in your lap
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  of, you know, arguably a top three.
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  If you know, probably some teams to be a bit top priority this
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  offseason of a highly touted free agent.
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  And maybe you didn't consider yourself in the hunt and all of
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  a sudden you find out that this guy wants to be here and wants
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  to be a part of your organization.
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  I don't think it's solely about being at home.
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  I think it's also recognizing that this is a a really good
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  roster. It's young.
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  They were the top offensive team in baseball last year in the NL
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  at least. And now you're like, all they
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  need is pitching. So it's a match made in heaven
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  and seems like a win win, I think.
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  I think your East Coast teams probably maybe miss their window
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  of not getting this done sooner in the offseason.
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  And I don't know whose fault that is.
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  But I bet the longer he is at home and with the holidays being
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  around, it's like, this seems nice.
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  Let's keep this going. You're, you're still on holiday
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  break, dude. You haven't even back.
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  You haven't been back to work yet.
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  And you're like, I don't want this to end.
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  This is the start of my third week not being in the office and
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  I tell you what, I don't know if I ever want to go back,
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  especially with getting hit with a snow day today.
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  Oh my goodness. Like we're if, if, if, if we're
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  not immune to it, there's no way that these guys are.
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  So like you said, I think there's probably different
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  priorities for for players and different types of of points in
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  their career or, you know, it's all the stars got to align.
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  But like, man, what a good deal for the Diamondbacks.
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  That rotation, Oh my goodness. Yeah, I this makes me curious
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  because I think Zach Allen's a free agent next year.
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  So it makes me curious of like, is this the soften the blow for
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  next year kind of thing? I mean, I don't even know if
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  it's like a softening the blow because, I mean, Courtin Burns
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  has been one of the best pitchers in baseball.
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  So it's like if if you miss out on Gallon, it's like, all right.
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  I mean, not be able to bring him back.
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  Yeah, yeah, yeah. But I mean, it's not like you're
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  necessarily bringing in a guy that's a tier below Zac Cow.
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  And we're like, if you're the front office, you're going will
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  this will this appease our fans? Like, is it is this OK?
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  Like, is this enough? Like, no, you went out and got
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  Courtin Burns, I think. I think they're in good shape,
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  yeah. Worry about the Zach Gallon
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  situation when it comes. Yeah, that's fair.
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  But it's interesting. And if you do bring them back, I
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  mean that's a great 1-2 punch. Merrill Kelly, the three spot
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  like. That's what I'm saying.
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  You get it for at least a year. Yeah.
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  And that's what makes me curious on like, can they find a suitor
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  for Jordan Montgomery? Can they go get a bat?
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  Get Jordan Montgomery out of there.
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  My goodness. What?
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  What's? Coming out saying that, you know
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  what I mean? He's gone.
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  He's definitely gone. February by the by the latest.
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  You have to think because you don't, if you're Jordan
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  Montgomery, you do not want to run through that situation
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  again. In fact, no, I'm not even going
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  to say. I'm not even going to say
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  February by the end of this month, he has to.
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  He's got to be somewhere else because you, you, you don't want
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  to put yourself in the same situation.
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  It's so weird. I know we kind of touched on it
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  when it happened, but like it's so weird for an owner to make
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  that comment and just like catching the most ridiculous
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  ricochet and just I know it's a down year, but like, dude,
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  Yikes. So I don't know, maybe the team
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  kind of lost leverage there of like everyone, every other team
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  in the league is like, all right, well, you're desperate to
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  move this guy. We're not going to give you
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  anything that you're asking for, you know, so that's probably the
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  issue they're running into. But like, I don't know, there's
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  question marks with like, you know, going from Christian
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  Walker first base to Josh Naylor.
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  Like do that is is Josh Naylor your everyday first baseman?
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  Or do you do you get a court and burns and then just like really
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  push all your chips in the middle of the table and and go
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  for a Pete Alonzo and say no, you got it?
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  Josh Naylor's your guy. Josh Naylor's your guy.
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  Or does he step into that Jock Peterson role and just DH every
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  day? You know, he's not a good first
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  baseman. It's and to have a young infield
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  and go from a Christian Walker, who's a Gold Glover to a Josh
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  Naylor, like that's got to be a part of the equation for me.
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  So I don't know. It's I'm interested to see what
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  else they do. It's not like this offense
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  struggles in any way. Like I said, I do their top
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  offense last year and and run scored, I believe so like by a
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  pretty wide margin. They had the the top scoring
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  offense. So this is it.
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  I'm really when I came out, I was like, what?
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  Like this is so random. And then as details start to
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  come out, I'm like, all right, well, I mean, I guess this makes
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  sense. And you got to be happy if
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  you're the Diamondbacks for this to fall in your lap.
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  Keeping it in the NL W your guy. Hi Song Kim, not Hi Song Kim.
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  Hi Song Kim is heading to the Los Angeles Dodgers on a
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  three-year, $12.5 million contract.
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  I'm I was thinking about this today.
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  I don't know the guy from Adam and I'm sure the experts that
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  are are are covering this, this guy, this transaction in this
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  guy's career know far more than I do.
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  But do we not think that this guy is getting a little bit too
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  like a little bit overplayed? Like the coverage just seems to
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  be it. It seems to be far outpacing.
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  The talent. The caliber of player that
• 12:55
  you're getting, because they're already talking, talking about
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  him being, you know, like this guy that you can sort of float
• 13:01
  around or whatever. And, and now obviously with the,
• 13:04
  the news breaking tonight of the Gavin Lux trade, you'll have
• 13:09
  even more flexibility to sort of move them around if, if you need
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  to, I guess. But I'm like, you're giving a 12
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  and a half, $1,000,000 / 3 years and we're talking about this
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  guy's, If he's the, the infield equivalent of Roki Sasaki, I, I
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  don't know, like, like. It has been weird.
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  It's gotten a lot of play and I don't understand.
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  Just maybe a little too much play.
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  Why necessarily? I don't know, man, But it's
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  clear the Dodgers are just committed to being the deepest
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  team in baseball. Like what they've what they've
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  proven over the last year plus is that we will go get the most
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  talent, but we're also going to be the deepest in case there's
• 13:58
  any injuries. And that's clearly they're
• 14:01
  injury proof. They're injury proof right now.
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  If you saw that with the rotation last year, I mean, they
• 14:10
  could lose a Freddy Freeman in the postseason.
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  They could lose a Mookie Betts, They could lose an Otani for a
• 14:15
  certain stretch. And they're so deep.
• 14:20
  I spent $17 million on freaking Michael Conforto, and you're
• 14:27
  like, what? How does that guy keep getting
• 14:30
  paychecks, by the way? Like no.
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  Offense for like. $17 million, I don't know, he hasn't done
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  anything since like 2019, but it, this is a team that's just
• 14:41
  like it's, they're willing to, to do everything 110% and I
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  spent $12 million on and take a flyer on a guy.
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  This is a depth piece for them. Whereas like any other team that
• 14:58
  maybe that's snagged, this guy, they're going, you know, like
• 15:02
  this is this is going to be a pretty integral part of our
• 15:04
  infield next year. And the Dodgers, like he may not
• 15:07
  even be on the team by the end of the year.
• 15:08
  Who knows? Bro that's what I'm saying like
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  I don't think any team is even doing 3 year deals on depth
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  pieces at all. Insanity.
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  It's it's weird, it's wild. I don't know, like good luck.
• 15:21
  Maybe I don't know, like it. I'm curious to see what kind of
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  town he has. He just.
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  He just look. Slap hitter for the most part,
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  right? He just slaps it all you.
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  Know yeah, I mean, I and look, I'm not I'm not trying to knock
• 15:34
  the guy. I'm I'm sure he's going to
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  provide the Dodgers exactly what they're looking for because
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  that's how they run that or that that franchise they identify
• 15:42
  need they go out and plug the hole.
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  I'm sure he's going to be great for them.
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  Because the other thing you have to take into account too is the
• 15:50
  Dodgers have a pretty decent history with, with utility men
• 15:57
  and and and and roster flexibility.
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  Like they just figure out ways to make it work because they can
• 16:02
  afford to do so, like you said, because they have they're so
• 16:06
  deep. So even if a guy maybe doesn't
• 16:10
  pan out, it's like you, you almost forget about it because
• 16:12
  he's sort of pushed to the back because then they just got the
• 16:15
  next guy up in line. So I, I, I'm not knocking the
• 16:17
  guy, but it's, it just seemed like we were talking about, it
• 16:20
  just seems to be getting a little bit too much play.
• 16:21
  That's all I was saying. Yeah, I, I don't know, it's,
• 16:24
  it's a lot of something that's not super proven and everything
• 16:28
  that I've read is like, you know, we're not sure if he's big
• 16:33
  league talent worthy. And then all of a sudden it's
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  like you got a ton of play for a few weeks and now it's a
• 16:38
  three-year deal. But I mean, they're going to.
• 16:41
  They can write a line up for literally any scenario they come
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  across. Exactly.
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  In a season and and the flexibility of having three or
• 16:50
  four guys that can rotate between major positions and give
• 16:55
  you production offensively at the same time, it's like, yeah,
• 17:00
  anybody that is hating right now is just strictly jealous.
• 17:09
  Me, I'm jealous. A team that's Speaking of
• 17:13
  jealous, a team that I think is jealous right now of these moves
• 17:17
  that are being made around the league, the Baltimore Orioles.
• 17:21
  They I don't, I don't know what's going on with the
• 17:24
  Orioles. And look, I, I know I, I bring
• 17:27
  this up probably more often than people like hearing, but that
• 17:32
  that the offseason where Trey Turner was looking for a home
• 17:37
  and I said, look, I and this was this was pre gunner Henderson
• 17:41
  rising to the MVP scene that he is that he is created for
• 17:46
  himself. But I was like the Orioles with
• 17:52
  the baby O's that came up with the baby birds that came up
• 17:54
  there. There was plenty of talk about
• 17:57
  like, what can we move this guy to this side of the infielding?
• 18:00
  Can we move this guy to this corner?
• 18:02
  So at the time I'm going, OK, maybe Gunner Henderson isn't the
• 18:06
  answer for them at short. Maybe slide him to 3rd and go
• 18:11
  out and get a guy like Trey Turner.
• 18:14
  They haven't done it. Like that was the last time I
• 18:18
  think we talked about them making any sort of big splash
• 18:22
  because at this at this rate, they went out and got Corbin
• 18:25
  Burns. But clearly we saw how that how
• 18:28
  that turned out and walked right out the door.
• 18:31
  It's it's just making you wonder have has the front office has
• 18:36
  ownership who we thought we were going to come in with all these
• 18:40
  grand grandiose changes. Have they forgotten that like
• 18:45
  they also need to spend money in order to supplement this young
• 18:48
  talent that they have? Because I'm really starting to
• 18:50
  wonder because they're, they're just not making splashes.
• 18:53
  And we arrived. I say all that to say that we've
• 18:55
  arrived here at, at Charlie Morton, signing Charlie Morton
• 18:59
  of all people to a one year, $15 million deal.
• 19:01
  Good for Charlie Morton. That's that's quite a payday at
• 19:04
  at what, 41? But it's like you're, you're,
• 19:11
  you're above this Baltimore, you're above this.
• 19:14
  You don't need to be in a no disrespect to Charlie Morton,
• 19:18
  but you don't know, you don't need to be dumpster diving for
• 19:20
  for 40 plus arms. You've got the you've got the
• 19:25
  youth. Now go out and supplement it
• 19:26
  with proven talent that you can pay for, that you don't need to
• 19:30
  give anything up. For it's all been a head
• 19:34
  scratcher, man, like it's all been a head scratcher.
• 19:38
  I do you bring back Santander like is that is that your last
• 19:43
  opportunity for a move to somewhat salvage what seems to
• 19:48
  be a massive ball drop here? Like I'm really confused and and
• 19:56
  look, call me a hater if you want.
• 19:59
  You're probably going to say it, but we're talking about an
• 20:04
  organization that tanked for years consecutively.
• 20:09
  And don't get me wrong, there's still.
• 20:14
  A process in evaluating and drafting the correct talent.
• 20:20
  There's plenty of draft picks that don't pan out.
• 20:22
  They've totaled up a lot of studs, what seem to be studs.
• 20:28
  So they've hit on that and they've done that well.
• 20:30
  But let's face it, it was consecutive years of tanking.
• 20:37
  And I just wonder, like, what kind of message does that
• 20:39
  eventually send after years and years of like, this is what we
• 20:42
  do best. And then not really knowing how
• 20:46
  to turn the corner and turn the page after that, not really
• 20:49
  knowing how to take that that organizational mindset and
• 20:54
  shifting it into being a winning culture.
• 20:58
  And we've seen organizations where they have Buku talent and
• 21:06
  it and it's oozing, but they just can't seem to figure out
• 21:09
  what's missing. And you've seen organizations
• 21:13
  now that have just committed to a winning culture.
• 21:17
  And it's odd, but I, I, I'm not overly surprised when you sit
• 21:23
  back and analyze like, hey, you know, this is the reason they're
• 21:27
  built this way is because of this.
• 21:29
  I'm not surprised they can't get over the hump and change their
• 21:34
  mentality, get into a new chapter.
• 21:36
  So I don't know, man. I mean, like, don't get me
• 21:39
  wrong, I'm not going to be surprised if they roll out 94
• 21:43
  wins next year and, you know, are still in the hunt because
• 21:46
  like the AL is kind of up for grabs.
• 21:48
  But then at the same time, like, I'm also not going to be
• 21:51
  surprised if they're, you know, barely edging out the Blue Jays
• 21:57
  for 3rd place in the division. Like it?
• 22:01
  I don't know where I'm at with them, It's hard to tell.
• 22:04
  I mean, I tweeted it out the other day.
• 22:05
  Zach Eflin is the highest paid player for the Baltimore Orioles
• 22:09
  right now. Zach Eflin.
• 22:10
  So like, we can talk about, well, they're most likely going
• 22:14
  to find a way to to squeak out 90 to 94 wins even.
• 22:21
  But that just means that the offense is going to have to step
• 22:23
  it up even another level to account for what is ultimately a
• 22:28
  lack of of rotation depth. Yeah, like high caliber rotation
• 22:33
  depth because you just don't have it.
• 22:36
  Yeah, man, I mean, look across the road, like look across the
• 22:39
  the just the division as far as rotations go.
• 22:44
  And like, do you have a 1-2 punch that can go up against a
• 22:49
  Garrett Crochet or, you know, a a Max Freed and and Garrett
• 22:54
  Cole? Like it there's names in this
• 22:56
  division, like even going over the Blue Jays.
• 22:58
  I know it was a down year, but like, yeah, Kevin Gossman, like
• 23:02
  you have a lot of young talent, but they're coming off of
• 23:04
  injury. So like, I don't, I don't, they
• 23:06
  haven't done anything, Jose. Barrios even turned a corner
• 23:10
  points last year so. Like they they have, you know,
• 23:13
  big names and, and grace. I'm sure Grayson Rodriguez is
• 23:15
  going to be good. I think we've seen flashes of it
• 23:17
  and I'm I'm sure he's going to be great.
• 23:20
  Bradish, I'm sure these guys are going to be really solid.
• 23:23
  But like, I don't know, like you can only roll the dice on so
• 23:27
  much youth. And at some point, like I, I
• 23:33
  felt like Corbin Burns was in my mind needed to be like a safety
• 23:37
  net fall back plan not getting Blake's now.
• 23:41
  And now they've missed both Flaherty still out there.
• 23:44
  But I think we saw that like that didn't work out great the
• 23:47
  first time he ended up being in the bullpen after, you know, a
• 23:50
  couple rough starts. So it's like there's nowhere to
• 23:53
  really pivot here. And outside of making trades, I
• 23:59
  don't know. And how comfortable are you
• 24:01
  going to be pulling in a top end or frontline starter midway
• 24:06
  through the year at the deadline and banking on that being your
• 24:11
  savior? I have seen as late as or as as
• 24:16
  recent as today Luis Castillo's name tied to the O's but.
• 24:20
  That has to happen, but that would.
• 24:22
  But again, that goes back like you, don't you?
• 24:25
  Well, you didn't, I'll say you didn't have to part ways with
• 24:29
  any pieces in your organization. If you would have just jumped
• 24:33
  if, yeah, if you just would have jumped at the opportunity
• 24:36
  earlier in the offseason, you wouldn't be in a situation now
• 24:38
  where you're having to scramble to maybe make make trades that
• 24:42
  are going to ship out guys that you were.
• 24:44
  Well, especially with the with the new structure of of deals
• 24:48
  that you're starting to see where it's like, here's a two
• 24:50
  year deal with an opt out and a crazy amount of AAV.
• 24:54
  If you're so worried about needing to pay an athlete
• 24:56
  rushman, a gunner, Henderson, if you're, if you're so worried
• 24:59
  about having to fork over that money soon, then don't do a
• 25:03
  super long term deal for some of these names.
• 25:05
  Do a shorter deal with an opt out and let these guys revisit
• 25:08
  the market again after a few years, because there's plenty of
• 25:11
  names that are happy to do that and they just they just swing
• 25:15
  and miss on a ton this offseason.
• 25:18
  And now we're all scratching our heads saying like, are you ever
• 25:21
  going to get over that hump? And I bet it's a pretty
• 25:23
  frustrated fan base. Oh well, other teams in division
• 25:31
  getting better. Man, you're just sitting there.
• 25:33
  That's what I'm. Saying, man, all that's all
• 25:35
  we're saying is we can sit here and talk about how the Orioles
• 25:39
  window is, is far from being closed, But we we're all human.
• 25:45
  We, we we recognize how quickly time passes and it's it it'll be
• 25:49
  it won't be too long before we're going.
• 25:52
  The Orioles better do something now.
• 25:55
  Look at look at how we're talking about the Phillies and
• 25:58
  look at how just a few years ago we're going, you know that
• 26:01
  they're going to be a perennial Pennant winner coming out of the
• 26:04
  National League. And we're talk like I don't, I
• 26:08
  don't want to put that on the O's, but I'm just saying just
• 26:13
  capitalize now why you still can't that's.
• 26:15
  The time to do it when you have money to spend in a core that's
• 26:17
  controllable, like eventually the core is not going to be
• 26:21
  controllable and you're going to have to pick and choose.
• 26:23
  Some of them are going to leave because you can't afford
• 26:25
  everybody. And then now you're banking on a
• 26:28
  a window happening around less names.
• 26:32
  I just, I don't understand the hesitancy that they've had.
• 26:36
  And again, I don't know, you and I are both fans of the AL ES
• 26:40
  team and we're happy with it, but it's weird.
• 26:47
  Keeping it in the DMV. Josh Bell heading back to the
• 26:52
  Nationals on a one year, $6 million deal.
• 26:56
  Nothing terribly exciting going on with this deal, but it was
• 27:00
  worth noting that he is he is coming back home if that's what
• 27:05
  you want to call it. He did he he saw a good deal of
• 27:08
  success in DC. He hits it's 278 with 41 homers,
• 27:15
  had 145 RB is across 247 games and this was pre trade to the
• 27:22
  Padres when he actually got packaged with Soto.
• 27:33
  I I, I don't know, I, I kind of feel bad for this guy honestly,
• 27:37
  because I've, I've seen, I've seen a handful of tweets talking
• 27:41
  about like how how much more meaningless baseball is this guy
• 27:45
  going to be subjected to? And it's like, it's kind of true
• 27:48
  when you think about it. Like you think about his run
• 27:50
  with the Marlins, the D backs Cleveland I get yeah, didn't
• 27:58
  the. Padre before it was.
• 28:00
  Padre before it was cool to be a Padre, I guess so I mean and and
• 28:05
  obviously DC once already, so I don't know.
• 28:10
  I don't know man. I will say, I mean, I do, I do
• 28:12
  like what the what the Nats are doing.
• 28:14
  I I think they're moving in the right direction.
• 28:18
  It's just it's hard to really see any of this being enough
• 28:24
  considering how top heavy the NL is.
• 28:28
  And I mean, again, if you're in the NL Central, it's division or
• 28:35
  bust. And if you're in the NL E, it's
• 28:41
  you're looking to compete with the Padres and the Diamondbacks
• 28:44
  out West for wild card spots. And it's just kind of how it is.
• 28:49
  So I don't know. I mean, I like what they're
• 28:54
  doing. I like some of the pieces out
• 28:55
  there and and I think it's, you know, promising talent, so.
• 29:00
  Sort of under the radar and I would have added it more as like
• 29:04
  a topic to to touch on here. But again, I didn't really see
• 29:07
  it until a little bit earlier today.
• 29:09
  But they they they brought back Trevor Williams, which I think
• 29:14
  sort of an underrated move there because before getting hurt, he
• 29:18
  he was throwing the ball extremely well.
• 29:20
  Like I want to say he was hovering in like the high twos,
• 29:24
  mid to high twos there for a while.
• 29:27
  They Fort wise it was through the roof too, wasn't he?
• 29:30
  I mean he was like, I think he was like top 3IN baseball deep
• 29:34
  into the season in saves. No, not no.
• 29:39
  Are you, are you thinking of Finnegan I or no?
• 29:46
  What's his name? What's his name?
• 29:53
  Long hair, beard, right? What's his name?
• 30:01
  Think of it. No, Finnegan was their closer at
• 30:05
  one point. Last Finnegan I was, I think I
• 30:10
  was thinking. You were thinking of Finnegan.
• 30:11
  You were thinking of Finnegan I. Think I was thinking no.
• 30:14
  Trevor Williams. Trevor Williams made 13 starts
• 30:17
  last year before before hitting the shelf.
• 30:20
  But Oh yeah, when, yeah, I finished the season with A22O3.
• 30:24
  So yeah, he, I mean, he was throwing, he was throwing lights
• 30:26
  out. Yeah, they're, they're making
• 30:30
  like they brought in friend, friend of the pod Mike Soroka.
• 30:32
  That sort of went under the radar a little bit.
• 30:34
  They're doing competitive things.
• 30:36
  That's all you can ask for. That's all you can ask for.
• 30:39
  Nathaniel Lowe. Yeah, that was the other trade.
• 30:42
  I was. That's interesting.
• 30:46
  A little rotation between 1st and DH there.
• 30:49
  All right. Like, if you're not going to
• 30:50
  take a massive leap forward this offseason, just bring in
• 30:53
  recognizable names, give like, 'cause they're there for a few
• 30:56
  years. That was the issue.
• 30:58
  It's like like people in this area, they're like, I'm not, I
• 31:00
  don't want to go to nationalist games, 'cause I I don't know
• 31:03
  anybody on the team. And like me, we are like you and
• 31:07
  I obviously knew the names, but like to the average fans, like,
• 31:10
  yeah, nobody's going to want to go see Joe Blow go over three
• 31:14
  with a walk. Like there's no interest in
• 31:18
  that. So at the very least, just bring
• 31:20
  in some more recognizable names and maybe try again next
• 31:24
  offseason with with the the bigger splash or two the the two
• 31:32
  the two deals that happened this evening.
• 31:35
  Gavin Lux, Michael Lorenzen. We sort of alluded to the Gavin
• 31:39
  Lux situation already, but he is headed to the Cincinnati Reds
• 31:42
  via trade. The Dodgers in return are
• 31:46
  getting outfielder Mike Sirota, not Soroka.
• 31:51
  Mike Sirota and a competitive balance round a pick
• 31:56
  approximately around like 37th pick in the draft.
• 32:03
  And yeah, this is this is following the high Song Kim
• 32:07
  signing last week. And I think this finally
• 32:12
  ultimately here for for Gavin Lux, this brings closure to sort
• 32:18
  of a up in the air situation for, for it seems like for some
• 32:22
  time it's been a question mark surrounding like, what's the
• 32:26
  deal with Lux? Because what was it coming into?
• 32:31
  What was that, 2023 when he was slated to be the starting
• 32:35
  shortstop and that you got hit, you got busted up in spring
• 32:39
  training, right? Was that 2023?
• 32:46
  Yeah, but it was 2023. You know why?
• 32:48
  Because that the World Baseball Classic is when Edwin Diaz went
• 32:52
  down. And I remember people talking
• 32:55
  about like this, This is why this tournament is garbage.
• 32:57
  You have elite players getting hurt.
• 33:00
  And Gavin Lux in spring training went down with an injury and
• 33:04
  missed the year. And it you, you're sitting there
• 33:07
  going, well, is he in this in this World Baseball Classic?
• 33:10
  No. Yeah.
• 33:11
  That's exactly what it was, Yeah.
• 33:12
  Yeah. And then he got like a he got
• 33:15
  hammered with like, is his arm dead last year?
• 33:17
  So everyone was like, he's got no arm.
• 33:19
  He's weak. Yeah, weird, weird.
• 33:22
  I mean, maybe it's just a little change scenery, Go play
• 33:25
  everyday, not be in the spotlight of LA, not be like,
• 33:29
  the sole weak link in the most dominant roster ever assembled.
• 33:37
  Give me a chance to do that. I'm a little confused by the
• 33:39
  Reds, to be honest. I don't.
• 33:42
  Did they have beef with Johnny and Jonathan India that just no
• 33:45
  one knows about? Like.
• 33:48
  Well, I mean, you remember they were like actively trying to
• 33:51
  shop them. What was that last year even and
• 33:56
  and then then didn't shake out, I think the way either party
• 33:59
  maybe wanted to or wanted it to. So yeah, maybe it was just a bad
• 34:05
  blood situation. Maybe.
• 34:07
  Who knows, but it's it's very possible.
• 34:10
  Yeah, go get your ABS. Good ballpark to hit in fresh
• 34:16
  start new threads. Few few threads cleaner.
• 34:22
  The black, red and white is just.
• 34:25
  It's a top tier. It's a top tier color team,
• 34:28
  yeah. Speaking of the Reds, former Red
• 34:30
  Michael Lorenzen is staying put in Kansas City.
• 34:38
  One year, $7,000,000 contracts, 12 million mutual option for the
• 34:43
  year after last year between the Rangers and Royals, Posted
• 34:47
  A331-A124 WHIP and a 97 to 60 strikeout to walk ratio over
• 34:53
  130.1 innings. Depth baby, rotational depth eat
• 35:01
  up those innings. Nothing wrong with it, had
• 35:04
  success. I'm impressed by them.
• 35:09
  I know, I know. It's there's a lot of people
• 35:12
  saying there's a flash in the pan that may not may not repeat
• 35:16
  same success this year, but I like what they're doing.
• 35:23
  Go get moves where you can. You know what I mean?
• 35:26
  Know who you are, Bring it back. Seth Lugo right away.
• 35:34
  I like that fan of that, just getting it done right.
• 35:37
  Away. Yeah, the Royals, I think we're,
• 35:39
  we're intent on setting the tone pretty early and I think.
• 35:44
  That's that's a lot. It was like the first.
• 35:46
  Deal. It was one of the yeah, it was
• 35:48
  one of the early ones. And and that's I mean, that's
• 35:51
  more than a lot of teams around baseball can say.
• 35:53
  And especially when you think about teams that we thought
• 35:56
  would have been more active, like the Orioles as we were
• 35:59
  talking about. Yeah.
• 36:01
  So you know, Yeah, you know, it's, it's.
• 36:07
  I'm not going to hate on the move the seven. $1,000,000 it's
• 36:11
  fine. Yeah, with walk, you got to
• 36:14
  remember they traded for that Earth's egg kid from the A's
• 36:18
  last year. Sure.
• 36:20
  Up the bullpen a little bit. We all know Cole.
• 36:24
  Cole Reagan's is is the new Cole Hamels.
• 36:28
  So it's just smart stuff as aforementioned, Jonathan India
• 36:33
  being added like I, I like all the things they're doing.
• 36:41
  It's not to like doing it in a budgetary way, a sneaky
• 36:47
  budgetary way. Well, you're not bringing back
• 36:49
  41 year olds. Yeah, you know that's.
• 36:52
  What I'm saying, I'd I'd much rather have the Royals offseason
• 36:55
  than a lot of teams offseason, correct?
• 37:00
  Speaking of the offseason, that about wraps up our offseason
• 37:04
  talk for this particular episode, which means now we can
• 37:07
  switch gears. You know, like, look, if if
• 37:10
  you're just here for the ball talk, I guess this is where we
• 37:14
  part ways. But you know, if, if you've been
• 37:17
  listening to us for any length of time, stick around 'cause now
• 37:21
  we're going to be, we're going to be transitioning into a
• 37:23
  little bit of time of reflection, a little bit of
• 37:25
  celebration as we, we talk about the last 500 episodes of the
• 37:31
  three O take. So let's start here with an idea
• 37:38
  that that you had thrown out back when we were brainstorming
• 37:40
  about this a while ago, where you said like, let's, let's,
• 37:45
  let's look at, let's just take a snapshot of baseball when we
• 37:49
  started this. Just to put into perspective,
• 37:52
  like how long we've been doing this sort of where the game was
• 37:55
  at when we started doing this and, and do a little bit of a
• 37:59
  little bit of compare and contrast, knowing what where the
• 38:02
  game's at now. And then looking back to where
• 38:05
  it was in 18. I'll just I, I'm in in no
• 38:09
  particular order. I've just got some random
• 38:11
  Nuggets here that that can read off and, and we can sort of we
• 38:15
  can talk about and then we'll get into some other things later
• 38:17
  on in the show. But Dave debuts in 2018.
• 38:25
  A guy by the name of Shohei Otani sure made his debut in
• 38:29
  2018. Ronald Acuna junior sure made
• 38:33
  his debut in 2018 when we started it.
• 38:35
  And it if, if you've heard us mention this before, we didn't
• 38:39
  start at at the beginning of the year because for whatever
• 38:44
  reason, I didn't decide to pull the trigger to start the podcast
• 38:47
  until like the summer. So we, I think we ended up
• 38:52
  starting in like July or August. So we're able to get a few
• 38:55
  months of the season in. But anyway, 2018 Shohei Acuna
• 39:02
  Soto made his debut in 18 among others.
• 39:05
  But those are some of the ones I wanted to highlight retirements.
• 39:09
  Adrian Beltre retired in 2018. Joe Mauer and Mets captain who
• 39:17
  was actually it was just announced today that is getting
• 39:20
  his number retired next year or or this coming season.
• 39:24
  David Wright, Those were just a few of the guys that still
• 39:28
  active. We're still playing when we
• 39:30
  started this thing. Speaking of active, the oldest
• 39:34
  active player when we started this Bartolo Cologne, who
• 39:37
  retired at the end of the season.
• 39:39
  So he was still he when we when this show began, Bartolo Cologne
• 39:44
  was still still putting around the old, the old ball league.
• 39:49
  Still don't understand the amount of attention that man
• 39:52
  has. Gone.
• 39:55
  I, I, I never understood it there for a while.
• 39:58
  I got it. But I'm like we this is a cult.
• 40:01
  This is a cult now this is a cult.
• 40:04
  The youngest player when we started Juan Soto the high.
• 40:09
  I'm going to let you guess this one.
• 40:11
  Who do you think was the highest paid player in 2018?
• 40:16
  2018 highest paid player. And I'm completely putting you
• 40:22
  on the spot. But I, it just it like it's, it
• 40:25
  made sense, but there was a little bit of like sticker
• 40:27
  shock. It kind of, it kind of blew my
• 40:29
  mind a little bit when I saw it because I'm just like, man,
• 40:31
  this, this is one of those things that puts into
• 40:33
  perspective how long we've been doing this.
• 40:35
  I don't know, maybe Albert Pujols?
• 40:38
  Clayton Kershaw, 35 and a half, 35 and a half million dollars he
• 40:46
  was making that year. Speaking of money, the San Diego
• 40:51
  Padres, who we know, who we now know are willing to go to
• 40:56
  whatever ends to pay a guy to spend my like you.
• 41:01
  You talk about having a hole, like burning a hole in your
• 41:03
  pocket. They have got money to spend.
• 41:06
  The San Diego Padres in 2018, when we started this, they were
• 41:09
  24th in payroll, just passing the $100 million mark at $101
• 41:18
  million. Yikes.
• 41:21
  Oh, simpler times. Simpler times.
• 41:26
  Casey Mize was the top pick in the draft that.
• 41:28
  Year. Oh yeah, I remember that.
• 41:30
  Detroit Tigers. The Guardians were still the
• 41:33
  Indians. MLB had implemented the rule
• 41:37
  change of limiting mound visits. Oh, we were hating it too.
• 41:43
  Oh yeah, there was nothing that the Commissioner's Office could
• 41:49
  could suggest. But there's people that now
• 41:53
  don't even realize that there are a limit on mount visits.
• 41:58
  That's what, again, points to how long we've been doing this.
• 42:00
  Like you kind of just think of it.
• 42:01
  Oh yeah, like it. Showed up and it's snuck into
• 42:04
  the background of rules. Kind of here.
• 42:09
  The All Star Game. I'd pulled some.
• 42:11
  Some. I'd pulled the starting lineups
• 42:13
  from the All Star Game that year.
• 42:14
  Javi, I won't necessarily read them all.
• 42:17
  Javi Baez was the starting second baseman for the Cubs.
• 42:22
  Matt Matt Kemp was starting in left for the Dodgers, Sure.
• 42:27
  Nick Markakis was starting in right for the Braves.
• 42:30
  Brandon Crawford was it short for the Giants and Max Scherzer
• 42:35
  was your starting pitcher representing the Nationals.
• 42:40
  And this was 18 was in DC too. So you had you had Harper
• 42:45
  starting in centre that year. So when you won the Homer in
• 42:49
  Derby, that's correct, yeah. A wild one, by the way.
• 42:53
  Yeah. Great.
• 42:54
  Wild but. Controversial even with the
• 42:58
  clock. Yeah.
• 42:59
  Yeah, exactly. Yeah, bunch of this.
• 43:02
  Yeah. American League you had, it
• 43:04
  wasn't as I think the National League was more of like a shock,
• 43:10
  shock to the system. American League, I mean, you got
• 43:11
  Mookie Betts, you got Altuve, Trout, JD Martinez, Jose
• 43:15
  Ramirez, Aaron Judge Machado, Jose Abreu, which I believe that
• 43:20
  was no, he he didn't win MVP. Until 2020, Machado is still an
• 43:26
  Oriole, so that's. Yeah, that's fair.
• 43:28
  Salvi Perez was the was behind the dish and a lot of.
• 43:32
  That a lot of the teams still doing their thing.
• 43:35
  AL was that was that they were in the the heart of the run of
• 43:39
  just American League dominance. The Oakland A's were a
• 43:43
  postseason team that year. They ultimately lost in the wild
• 43:46
  card to the. Yankees, that was great.
• 43:49
  Went to that game. The Orioles team, actually
• 43:53
  Orioles and Royals, both two teams that we talked about in in
• 43:57
  our current event talk. Orioles finished 47 and 115 that
• 44:01
  year. Royals finished 58 and 104 that
• 44:04
  year. 2018, when we started, was the 4th and final year of Chris
• 44:10
  Davis's stretch of hitting 200 and or, I'm sorry, 247.
• 44:16
  Yeah, he had done that four years in a row, and he also LED
• 44:19
  all of baseball with 48 homers that year.
• 44:24
  I had, did not, did not. Register Tough.
• 44:28
  I did did not recall. That until no one remembers the
• 44:30
  good part, just a terrible arm in left and hitting mediocre
• 44:35
  batting average year after year. Red Sox won a franchise record
• 44:39
  108 games, ultimately winning the World Series that year,
• 44:45
  which I I got to say just really set the trajectory of the
• 44:48
  podcast and, and correct direction.
• 44:50
  No, I mean, we had, we had plenty of material that that
• 44:52
  October. It was excellent bullpen carts
• 44:57
  returned to baseball in 2018. And then the last note I got
• 45:02
  here, the Tampa Bay Rays. This like jokes aside about all
• 45:06
  the some of the other stuff this one hits, this one shocked me.
• 45:09
  2018 is, you could say, revolutionize the game of
• 45:14
  baseball. Tampa Bay Rays introduced the
• 45:16
  opener in 2018, man, and here we are just starting out 2025
• 45:24
  looking back what, 7 years later?
• 45:26
  What a look back. My goodness.
• 45:32
  And then your award winners that year you had Acuna and Otani
• 45:40
  winning Rookie of the Years. You had degrom and Snell winning
• 45:45
  their Cy Young's, Snitker and Melvin won Manager of the Year
• 45:50
  and MVPS. You had Yelich and Bets.
• 45:54
  Christian Yelich winning an. MVP and that's.
• 45:56
  Dude. And that's your state of
• 45:59
  baseball when we started this thing.
• 46:01
  Crazy. That's insane.
• 46:05
  I like it. We forget how quickly this game
• 46:09
  can change and how how quickly like dominant names become
• 46:16
  afterthoughts. I had the same exact thought
• 46:20
  when I was going through this. How?
• 46:21
  Young names are you just don't even really like truly pay
• 46:24
  attention to them. Like we didn't, let's be honest.
• 46:27
  Like we we gave Tani, oh Tani his flowers, but like we didn't
• 46:30
  really like go deep into what Otani was and now look at him.
• 46:35
  Well, yeah, 'cause I mean, remember when Otani came over,
• 46:38
  like there was like we, I think we were justified in and still
• 46:43
  having a little bit of like, there's a way he's.
• 46:46
  Going to continue to pitch and hit.
• 46:48
  Yeah, Like, is this going to translate?
• 46:50
  Because how many like the, the, the cases in which Japanese
• 46:54
  players coming over not working out, I think far outpaced the
• 46:59
  situ, the the scenarios in which it did work out.
• 47:02
  So like, we're going, OK, you know, we're hearing about this
• 47:04
  being this guy, being the Japanese Babe Ruth.
• 47:06
  But. But we let's let's pump the
• 47:09
  brakes. And he was one of the.
• 47:11
  We used to have a big leg kick back then too.
• 47:13
  Yeah, he was one of the few that panned out.
• 47:15
  Yeah, different times, man. So that was that was baseball
• 47:23
  when we started. But when we did start this
• 47:25
  thing, as I sort of hinted at it earlier, very, very interesting
• 47:31
  start. Like I'm, I'm going into this
• 47:33
  thinking I'm going to just ride this thing solo for as long as I
• 47:36
  can. And if it doesn't pan out, it
• 47:38
  doesn't pan out. And I, I think it was one
• 47:41
  episode in, yeah. And I, and then I gave you a
• 47:46
  call and I said, I, I hope, I hope you're prepared to do this
• 47:51
  because I'm not doing this by myself.
• 47:53
  I remember where I was when I. So for those who don't know,
• 47:58
  haven't heard this part of the story yet.
• 48:00
  Kyle and I have known each other since we were two and three.
• 48:04
  We grew up neighbors, grew up playing ball together through
• 48:06
  Little League. I moved out West and kind of
• 48:09
  just like, you know, lived teenage life, you know,
• 48:13
  separately and kind of stayed in touch occasionally on a on a
• 48:18
  visit, back and forth, whatever. But for the most part, we just
• 48:21
  hadn't talked in a while. And then I saw the Dirt to
• 48:25
  Diamonds page on Facebook that had popped off from that
• 48:30
  baseball science post and I shot you, I think I shot you a text.
• 48:36
  And I was like, dude, like, good work on this page.
• 48:38
  Like it's going, it's going nuts.
• 48:41
  And I remember because I was in the parking lot of a Chipotle
• 48:44
  when I saw it eating a burrito when I saw the post.
• 48:47
  And then I texted you and then you were like, yeah, I'm
• 48:50
  thinking about doing like you heard about these podcasts and I
• 48:53
  was like, no, not really. Like what do you do?
• 48:57
  And and yeah, man, you're like, I think I'm going to give it a
• 49:01
  go. But like I'm also maybe thinking
• 49:04
  about having a Co host so I'll let you know.
• 49:07
  For the love of God, please do not go back and listen to those
• 49:11
  episodes. I almost pulled it.
• 49:13
  I almost pulled your your first introduction to the three O take
• 49:18
  world, but I was like I I can't, I can't do.
• 49:21
  It the most fearful, shakiest voice you'll ever hear.
• 49:27
  They just didn't look back, man. Yeah, I was recording, stealing
• 49:31
  it on my phone. I don't know.
• 49:33
  Did you have a microphone back then?
• 49:35
  I had like a blue Yeti. It was like, yeah, it was not
• 49:39
  ideal, but it was better than I will say your situation because.
• 49:43
  You literally just holding my phone up.
• 49:44
  Holding your phone and we would have to have you go into your
• 49:48
  car and like record in the car because like whatever rooms you
• 49:52
  were in at the time. Just didn't work.
• 49:54
  Just it was. Too noisy and I was like hyper
• 49:59
  aware of just like background noises.
• 50:02
  And I'm like, oh, what was that? I, I hear that when ultimately
• 50:05
  nobody cared, it didn't matter. But I would go back and I would
• 50:08
  edit our, those early episodes for hours.
• 50:12
  And I'm like, yeah, we would do it.
• 50:14
  Nobody's even listening to these early episodes, but I'm spending
• 50:16
  hours on them. And I, I got to a point where I
• 50:20
  was like, I, it, it doesn't matter anymore.
• 50:22
  People just don't care. And then we eventually were able
• 50:24
  to upgrade. Pops dropping at like 2-3 AM
• 50:27
  Eastern Time. I'll never forget that, that
• 50:30
  post I put on the, the IG story, it was like 3 in the morning.
• 50:34
  I, I, I don't know who I thought I was, but I had gotten, I had,
• 50:38
  I had finished up editing an episode and it had taken me
• 50:42
  forever. Because I think I go figure we
• 50:45
  are having technical difficulties.
• 50:46
  We always have technical difficulties and so I, it was
• 50:50
  like 3 in the morning and I remember like laying, laying in
• 50:53
  my bed and I've got my head on the pillow and I've got this,
• 50:56
  I've got my like camera facing me.
• 50:59
  And I remember being it was something the effect of like
• 51:04
  I'm, I'm exhausted right now, but I'm doing this for you guys
• 51:08
  episodes out now. And I'm like, it's three in my
• 51:11
  head. I'm like, it's 3:00 in the
• 51:12
  morning. Nobody cares.
• 51:15
  They'll see you in the morning. It's fine.
• 51:17
  But I was like, this is, you know, this the work you got to
• 51:20
  put in, I guess. Dedicated when you're.
• 51:22
  Laying the foundation since the jump.
• 51:25
  Crazy. Oh, it's so good, Yeah.
• 51:28
  But it's, I mean, it's, it's certainly grown.
• 51:32
  It's certainly, certainly taken off and, and it's taken us some
• 51:37
  places first. What was the 1st place we it
• 51:42
  took us to? We were able to go to Denver,
• 51:46
  right? Was that our first?
• 51:47
  Yeah, that was like our first trip.
• 51:49
  Went. To a couple of Rockies Red Sox
• 51:51
  games got to record. I don't remember what episode it
• 51:55
  was, but we recorded an episode from a mile above sea level at
• 52:01
  the and, and that purple, famous purple row there at Coors.
• 52:05
  We we got to record an episode from that very row, which is
• 52:10
  really cool that like that's one of my favorite.
• 52:11
  When I look back, I'm like, you know, like it was kind of silly.
• 52:14
  Like we didn't have to do that. But I'm like, you know what,
• 52:17
  let's just bring our phone in, go up.
• 52:19
  Someone like awkwardly sat like 3 rows back from us.
• 52:22
  You remember? Yeah, I'm like, I'm like,
• 52:23
  really? Bro we're literally up in the
• 52:25
  corner. We were the only four.
• 52:26
  Ovens that are empty. Insane.
• 52:29
  Like what? What the guy was like?
• 52:30
  What are these guys? What do you think these guys are
• 52:32
  up to? Cracking peanuts.
• 52:34
  Insane. It's we were able to go to the
• 52:37
  wild card game, which I mean, that was that's that's got to be
• 52:41
  one of the best games I've ever been to.
• 52:43
  Of course, bi bias playing into that.
• 52:45
  But that Red Sox Yankees game where Cole started it?
• 52:49
  Was the greatest way. It was a brutal, brutal result
• 52:52
  for me, but it. Was for you, but yeah, I mean
• 52:54
  that game. That was my first time to Fenway
• 52:57
  for for a game. I'd been to Fenway before, but
• 53:00
  not for a game. So like being in like being on
• 53:03
  the street for BP and freaking brushing shoulders.
• 53:08
  With. Zach Campbell out there, we're
• 53:11
  just throwing hate at him during that.
• 53:14
  He was catching strays like we're recording our vlog.
• 53:17
  He's catching strays and. What's crazy is that we've seen
• 53:19
  him like we've seen him in multiple places.
• 53:22
  Yeah, we've been in the same ballpark as him multiple times
• 53:25
  since that moment, which is just wild.
• 53:27
  But yeah. Yeah, I know.
• 53:29
  That was a good trip though, Really good trip.
• 53:31
  Flying out to you, driving up. That was good.
• 53:35
  And then which that was our first like that was our first
• 53:39
  true vlog was that was that wild card game, the trip of the
• 53:43
  Boston. That was fun.
• 53:44
  If if you haven't, if you haven't, if you if you need your
• 53:47
  your baseball fix, if you need your three O take fix and you
• 53:50
  haven't checked that blog out, go back.
• 53:52
  It's on our it's on our YouTube, it's on our vlogs playlist.
• 53:55
  That's that's a fun one to go back and rewatch 2023.
• 54:00
  We're able to do a couple or no, yeah, a couple trips.
• 54:06
  We did the World Baseball Classic out there where you're
• 54:08
  at in. Phoenix spring training games
• 54:10
  with it. Did a bunch of spring training
• 54:12
  and then we, I guess it was later that year we went, we,
• 54:17
  you've flee out here. We drove up to Baltimore for the
• 54:20
  the LDS, caught a couple LDS games so.
• 54:24
  Hoping Philly would advance so we could go to or not not win in
• 54:28
  a sweep in that series, I believe is what it was.
• 54:32
  I think they swept that series and we wanted them to not so we
• 54:35
  could actually go to Philly the next day.
• 54:38
  I, I remember exactly where I was when Bryson Stott hit that
• 54:41
  Grand Slam to ultimately, like put the the nail in the coffin.
• 54:44
  I was, I was literally driving to Dulles to pick you up.
• 54:48
  Yeah. And I had it on my phone.
• 54:50
  I think I was watching, yeah. I was like, I paid for Internet
• 54:53
  and I was watching as he were landing like, oh.
• 54:55
  My hit a Grand Slam against the Marlins and I go, OK, well, I
• 54:58
  guess we're not going to Philly. So had had a good, which sucked
• 55:02
  because it it at that point, like Baltimore, it admittedly
• 55:07
  kind of felt like a let down because I was at that at that
• 55:09
  point, the the vibes in Philly were as high as it could have
• 55:12
  been. I was like, just extend this one
• 55:14
  like to game three, let's just catch 11 game and they ended up
• 55:19
  sweeping them. So that wasn't wasn't ideal, but
• 55:23
  made the most of it. And yeah, going back to that
• 55:26
  World Baseball Classic, man, that was.
• 55:28
  That was that was such a good time.
• 55:30
  That was an experience of a lifetime for sure.
• 55:33
  That was such a good time. I'm already looking, looking
• 55:36
  forward to the the what is it going to be?
• 55:38
  2026? Yeah, right. 763456 it's every
• 55:48
  4-4 years, right? Yeah.
• 55:49
  So 2026, yeah, yeah, if you're listening and you're even
• 55:56
  remotely thinking about going highly recommend do it.
• 55:58
  I mean that is, that is an experience you will not.
• 56:01
  Forget that's a top five baseball experience for me,
• 56:04
  that's a, that's like a, just an overall generic category of a
• 56:08
  baseball experience. Unbelievable getting to see
• 56:12
  culture and getting to see, you know, just like what true fandom
• 56:18
  can look like instead of boring American fandom.
• 56:22
  Speaking of categories, this podcast has also produced some
• 56:29
  interesting segments. I will say the three O fakes,
• 56:32
  which I feel like kind of felt we could we yeah, we we may need
• 56:37
  to bring that back into play because the three O fakes where
• 56:40
  we're just talking nothing but conspiracy theories like that's
• 56:43
  that was a heck of a segment. We.
• 56:45
  Arguably have more to work with now.
• 56:47
  I think there's been since it's been retired.
• 56:50
  We got a lot more conspiracies that we could pull the thread on
• 56:53
  a little bit. Yeah, we could get into some
• 56:56
  real, real dicey topics, but we could have fun with that.
• 57:00
  And then the the I think the crowd favorite three O change
• 57:03
  UPS. I mean that both both of those I
• 57:06
  think were your idea like I think.
• 57:08
  You know, I'm just, I'm out there, man.
• 57:11
  I. Mean you're an idea machine.
• 57:14
  Three O change up some weird stuff.
• 57:16
  Giving us an opportunity to talk about some, some things we're
• 57:20
  curious about, some things we're maybe a little passionate about.
• 57:23
  Like I think Costco was like the first one we did.
• 57:26
  Yeah, we've talked about some things since then.
• 57:28
  Some someone off things here, there.
• 57:30
  Fast food, cereal, pizza, board games, flying.
• 57:34
  Yeah, Christmas, Thanksgiving. Nice way to get us through the
• 57:40
  offseason. The last last couple years, we
• 57:47
  got some we got some DMS. Let's do it.
• 57:50
  I think we even got a horse mail too.
• 57:52
  We can run through here. AJ leading us off here says my
• 57:58
  favorite segments have been you 2 guys or have been you 2.
• 58:00
  Hating the gimmicks the commish has put in and proposed.
• 58:03
  You guys are great at it. Helps me and my friends love
• 58:05
  baseball. I love that.
• 58:07
  If there's anyone that's going to remain skeptical as we get
• 58:11
  older, I think it's with. Age.
• 58:13
  Yeah, we're it's. Only going to get worse.
• 58:15
  I hate to say it's not going the other direction, like where it's
• 58:18
  it's only going to get worse. But you know, the beautiful
• 58:21
  thing about that, though, is like the people that listen to
• 58:23
  us, as they get older, they're going to eventually start to see
• 58:27
  what we've been seeing this whole time.
• 58:28
  Go. You know what?
• 58:29
  Yeah. You know, like, just just leave
• 58:32
  baseball alone. Yeah, just just leave it alone.
• 58:34
  And they'll, they'll eventually they'll, you know, we've crossed
• 58:40
  over the 30, the 30 threshold, so.
• 58:42
  Yeah, it's all downhill from here.
• 58:44
  Yeah, it don't get better. I ain't holding any punches.
• 58:49
  Nate has been known to not hold any punches, so I believe him
• 58:52
  when he says that. Jack says I miss the old Texas
• 58:56
  outro. This is for the OG's that were
• 58:59
  listening like way back in the day.
• 59:01
  Auggie, the Auggie outro. I got to say I was going back
• 59:06
  and forth like the last couple days that brought some heat.
• 59:09
  I was like, should I bring that back?
• 59:11
  Like that was that was a strong way to close out the episode.
• 59:14
  I think he should. I mean, if you want to talk
• 59:17
  about relevance, I mean, that's it's, it's our literal namesake.
• 59:22
  He goes in on it, just talking about taking this, taking that.
• 59:26
  I think we bring it back. I may.
• 59:29
  Yeah, I may. I may put that back into the
• 59:32
  mix. RP Auggie I think he was still
• 59:34
  alive when we were doing it right.
• 59:36
  Oh, yeah, yeah. And I mentioned that sheet of
• 59:40
  paper that I had scribbled my, the, the sort of ideas that I
• 59:43
  had for the pod from like day one.
• 59:46
  That was, I will say that was in there.
• 59:48
  That was in the mix. That was I that was a plan from
• 59:51
  the from the jump was to include that as the outro and I that was
• 59:54
  that was a strong way to close out an episode.
• 59:56
  What it was the The Three O Take Podcast by Dirt to Diamonds
• 1:00:00
  Baseball. Correct man.
• 1:00:04
  Fit that on the business card. Fit on a hat, Ben says.
• 1:00:10
  His favorite. His favorite part of the podcast
• 1:00:14
  was our fantasy league, he said. It's been such a fun two years
• 1:00:17
  in the league. Thank you guys for all you do.
• 1:00:19
  The fantasy league has been awesome, man.
• 1:00:21
  Like that. I'm really glad we started doing
• 1:00:23
  that. That really gave us like I think
• 1:00:26
  we're this year was like had to been like our fifth year doing
• 1:00:33
  it. 4th of I think it was closer to, I think it was our fifth
• 1:00:36
  year doing it. It's just giving us a chance to
• 1:00:38
  like it. There's usually like a dozen,
• 1:00:40
  maybe even 14 people. Gives us a chance to get to know
• 1:00:43
  them a lot more. And yeah, they get to know us a
• 1:00:46
  lot more and, and just gives us an opportunity to to do
• 1:00:49
  something we love doing, which is fantasy baseball.
• 1:00:51
  And yeah, really glad we decided to do that.
• 1:00:55
  So maybe some some announcements on that.
• 1:00:58
  Probably why I've lost all my hair, but yeah.
• 1:01:02
  And you're looking at the reigning champ, by the way, so
• 1:01:04
  careful. Of the stress ball, yeah, Ben
• 1:01:06
  says that because he won one of those years, the two years he
• 1:01:09
  was in it, so it's probably with that comic.
• 1:01:11
  Well, I was. The reason he he didn't win
• 1:01:13
  back-to-back. So careful with anybody out
• 1:01:16
  there. How you address me.
• 1:01:17
  It's fantasy champ before anything else.
• 1:01:22
  Yeah. Mama Reyes actually chimed in.
• 1:01:24
  She said her favorite was the YouTube or the vlog from our
• 1:01:28
  trip to Boston for the a wild card game, which is wild given
• 1:01:31
  the outcome of that game. Like, I don't know if I'd want
• 1:01:35
  to sit there and watch, watch my son just in pain, in such pain
• 1:01:40
  and turmoil, you know? Yeah, well, I don't know.
• 1:01:45
  I'm sure I I know what 'cause I was getting texts from her
• 1:01:49
  yelling. I know she was yelling at the
• 1:01:51
  TV. So she's probably just feeling
• 1:01:54
  the pain with me, but that's I mean, you did a good job on that
• 1:01:58
  man. The vlogs are they hit the vlog
• 1:02:01
  come around every so often. You're going to get another one
• 1:02:03
  this year, but. Because you got to remember,
• 1:02:06
  like we're on, we're on opposite coast here.
• 1:02:08
  Like if you don't, if you're not familiar with our situation,
• 1:02:11
  like our setup here, like Nate's, I mean, he was out here
• 1:02:15
  in Virginia. He was like right down the road.
• 1:02:17
  And then round middle school, he moved out, moved out West.
• 1:02:22
  And the only times we can really get together when it you got
• 1:02:25
  these big events. And yeah, like I said, you'll be
• 1:02:28
  getting a vlog here this year. Maybe, maybe multiple, who
• 1:02:32
  knows, We'll see. Speaking of vlogs, my mom also
• 1:02:36
  chimed in. She said her favorite was the
• 1:02:39
  World Baseball Classic vlog. She said, should you guys never
• 1:02:42
  miss an opportunity to scrutinize stadium food?
• 1:02:46
  Yeah, that's true. High standards, Mom, we have
• 1:02:48
  high. OK, well, that's true.
• 1:02:50
  Well, yeah, we, we do scrutinize stadium food.
• 1:02:53
  But we also tell you when when it hits.
• 1:02:58
  And I tell you what, there were some there were some things that
• 1:03:00
  the I'm thinking of. Oh, I'm going to get this wrong.
• 1:03:04
  I get it wrong every time. But they have the best ice
• 1:03:07
  cream. Oh, scoop, wells, scoop.
• 1:03:10
  I always say, well, scoops or so I don't know what, I always
• 1:03:15
  botch it somehow. But I mean, when, when something
• 1:03:17
  like that pops up, we let you know.
• 1:03:20
  And if you go back in those vlogs, we've we've made our in
• 1:03:23
  those respective ballparks, we make our rounds and, and we tell
• 1:03:27
  you what's what and what's not. So Chase Field with the the D
• 1:03:32
  back dog every every freaking the.
• 1:03:35
  Only entree type food that was available for that entire
• 1:03:38
  tournament. That was a bold move on on their
• 1:03:41
  part. But Jake says my last, his
• 1:03:44
  favorite part, My last two, my last two summer jobs.
• 1:03:48
  I'll never forget listening to Kyle and Nate every day.
• 1:03:51
  How about? That that seems to be that
• 1:03:54
  summer job was yeah, you were too productive, Jake.
• 1:03:58
  Well, that's it. I think that's a theme.
• 1:04:00
  Like there's a a handful of folks out there that listen to
• 1:04:03
  us sort of like on the job as I like that some background noise
• 1:04:08
  or whatever they're listening, but they just, you know, put it
• 1:04:10
  on the background and. I can appreciate that.
• 1:04:15
  AJ says when Nate shaved his beard because he fell off a
• 1:04:20
  bike, that was the scooter, that was the electric.
• 1:04:24
  Scooter, That was the scooter. That was not a proud moment and
• 1:04:30
  that was the last time I've shaved so.
• 1:04:34
  That still caught me by surprise.
• 1:04:35
  You, you just like showed up to the pod and yeah, I'm like my
• 1:04:41
  guy, what happened? Yeah.
• 1:04:42
  Well, not not pretty. I'm not.
• 1:04:45
  I've no interest in getting back on one of those things, although
• 1:04:47
  I did get on one the very next day.
• 1:04:50
  But I've retired. You just got one.
• 1:04:52
  I. Just got one for Christmas.
• 1:04:54
  I'm pumped dude. I've.
• 1:04:55
  No interest. All those death machines.
• 1:04:59
  No interest. I hit a tree, if anyone's
• 1:05:01
  wondering, I hit a pothole because some lady was swerving
• 1:05:04
  into me. And then it wasn't, it was one
• 1:05:08
  of those manhole covers. And then I and yeah, and then,
• 1:05:11
  you know, it wasn't exactly sober when it happened.
• 1:05:14
  So that made it worse. No, of course not.
• 1:05:17
  Hit a tree and busted open my chin and had to shave my beard.
• 1:05:21
  So thanks for bringing that memory back, I really appreciate
• 1:05:24
  that. Vinny says.
• 1:05:26
  You guys calling me out on the podcast for saying the Brewers
• 1:05:29
  are better than the Pirates? What we said was.
• 1:05:33
  When was this? Correct me if I'm wrong.
• 1:05:35
  This was the this was the whole thing when we were talking about
• 1:05:41
  the Pirates making greater stride, like making more of an
• 1:05:45
  effort to improve their club. Do you remember this?
• 1:05:47
  This. This whole saga?
• 1:05:52
  Were like pirates making a better.
• 1:05:53
  Yeah. And like, on paper, the Brewers
• 1:05:55
  were the better team, obviously. But remember, you and I were
• 1:05:57
  both on the same page. Like the Pirates were making
• 1:06:00
  better or like greater strides to improve their team than the
• 1:06:03
  Brewers were. The Brewers were just kind of
• 1:06:05
  sitting on their hands. This was like, I want to say
• 1:06:07
  last offseason, maybe you could. Copy and paste that statement
• 1:06:10
  for I don't know how many offseasons.
• 1:06:13
  I know, but this, this one, this one got heated.
• 1:06:16
  I, I, I do remember. I I do remember, yeah.
• 1:06:20
  Looks like we were both wrong so.
• 1:06:23
  Well, no. Again, our point was we were
• 1:06:26
  right in our point of that the pirates were making more of an
• 1:06:29
  effort like they were doing more at that given point in time than
• 1:06:33
  the. Brewers, it's all relative.
• 1:06:34
  Brewers are just a better team, obviously, Dustin says.
• 1:06:38
  It's been a couple years ago, but I got a call out on the show
• 1:06:40
  for tweeting about you guys giving me the idea to give all
• 1:06:42
  the kids on my daughter's T-ball team a bag of Big League Chew.
• 1:06:46
  Love that, love that, that, that was a fun little ride.
• 1:06:51
  That was a fun little ride. They, they decided to go a
• 1:06:53
  different way. I think they really got into
• 1:06:55
  like NIL and started focusing less sponsorships and more like,
• 1:07:01
  you know, with us having like specific athletes.
• 1:07:04
  So that's why things kind of change.
• 1:07:06
  But they were a great little partnership that we had with
• 1:07:09
  them. Got my favorite shirt in my
• 1:07:11
  closet, the big league chew shirt.
• 1:07:13
  So yeah, that was a that was a fun ride.
• 1:07:15
  Still shout out to big league chew.
• 1:07:17
  No ill will there. That's.
• 1:07:19
  We'll always love big big. Chew and that's hands down one.
• 1:07:23
  I think probably one of my favorite things about our
• 1:07:25
  podcast is that we got to say that we we were sponsored by
• 1:07:29
  them. That's.
• 1:07:29
  It that was that was fun and we got a a little bit of a a what
• 1:07:36
  I'll just say we're going to circle back on the big League
• 1:07:38
  Chew thing here just a minute. We've got some clips from some
• 1:07:42
  of these we've done where are we at here?
• 1:07:46
  Daniel said, okay, so this was the segment that I told or this
• 1:07:50
  was the comment I told you before we hopped on that I said
• 1:07:52
  I don't remember. I know we did it because it's
• 1:07:55
  like that fuzzy memory you have where you're like, I know what
• 1:07:58
  happened, but I don't. I couldn't tell you anything
• 1:08:00
  about. It memory is worse than yours,
• 1:08:01
  so let's see. Dustin says it's been a couple
• 1:08:04
  of years ago, but I got or. No, I'm sorry, I already read
• 1:08:07
  that one. Daniel says going way back, the
• 1:08:09
  accessory segment was gold. Do you remember as an accessory
• 1:08:15
  segment? Like we're talking about
• 1:08:18
  players. It must have been like the.
• 1:08:21
  It must have just been us talking like.
• 1:08:26
  It's just swagger, like sleeves tape.
• 1:08:29
  And maybe like Rankin, like who had the best in the league or
• 1:08:32
  something like that, But it was apparently in a segment and I
• 1:08:35
  remembered, I remember it, but I don't.
• 1:08:38
  Sounds like somebody would do remember it.
• 1:08:41
  What's crazy is that I feel like we were probably pro accessories
• 1:08:47
  back then. I think I've I've since shifted
• 1:08:51
  it's where there's too many accessories now.
• 1:08:54
  No, I think I went back and listened to some old episodes
• 1:08:57
  and we both I think. You cooled on the accessories.
• 1:09:01
  You were just like, I'm more of an old school guy.
• 1:09:03
  And then it was a little bit of a bell curve.
• 1:09:05
  I think you were like, no, I'm, I'm down with the with the
• 1:09:08
  flair. And then you're like, no, no,
• 1:09:09
  no, bring it back. Bring it back.
• 1:09:10
  Yeah. I think that's the evolution.
• 1:09:13
  Yeah, it's been, I don't know, I mean, you need some accessories,
• 1:09:18
  but I just like, relax. Was Joanna Cespedes still
• 1:09:22
  playing? And it's probably like a lot of
• 1:09:24
  my targeted, targeted hate 'cause I don't think, yeah,
• 1:09:29
  maybe Acuna was starting to Razuna.
• 1:09:32
  Just the amount of like highlighter yellow random non.
• 1:09:36
  That was a movement. Accessories.
• 1:09:39
  I hated that. The highlighter yellow was a
• 1:09:41
  movement back in the late. I'm glad that's dead.
• 1:09:45
  I'm glad that's dead. He also said the baseball
• 1:09:49
  history today Baseball history was another good segment too it.
• 1:09:52
  Was a tough one. You eventually just kind of run
• 1:09:54
  out of stuff. So yeah, when you do it a few
• 1:09:57
  years, you either start repeating it or struggling to
• 1:10:00
  find good stuff. But I don't know, maybe this?
• 1:10:04
  No, it's. Done.
• 1:10:05
  No, it's done. Because you're exactly right.
• 1:10:08
  Like it, it's like, yeah, you're making new history.
• 1:10:11
  Theoretically, yeah, every year. But it it's just it you run into
• 1:10:16
  the same ones and and you run into the same ones that you
• 1:10:19
  would, that would be worth repeating.
• 1:10:21
  Do you remember your favorite baseball history?
• 1:10:24
  My favorite and I actually just went back and listened to this
• 1:10:26
  day and I almost pulled it just to have it is when we both found
• 1:10:30
  out. I think you actually read it to
• 1:10:31
  me because we would alternate reading them each each episode
• 1:10:35
  and is when you read off to me the the game that they played on
• 1:10:41
  skates. That's what I was going to say.
• 1:10:44
  I was like playing on a frozen pond playing.
• 1:10:48
  On a frozen pond they had I think there's like 2000 people
• 1:10:51
  there and I and they were, they were allowed to like skate past
• 1:10:56
  the bag. Like you didn't have to stop.
• 1:10:57
  Like if you're going into second, you didn't have to stop
• 1:10:59
  at the bag. Just insane.
• 1:11:02
  And the score was like 25 to. 30 or something which?
• 1:11:06
  The more I think about it seems a little low.
• 1:11:09
  The more I think about it, if you plant on a pond, I feel like
• 1:11:12
  you that would just run up the score.
• 1:11:13
  But yeah, that was that was my favorite.
• 1:11:17
  Imagine like not catching a family ball and it just you miss
• 1:11:22
  it and it lands right next to you.
• 1:11:23
  You just go down in the water because it shoots through the
• 1:11:26
  ice. Everybody else, everybody.
• 1:11:27
  Else, yeah, I don't know when that was.
• 1:11:29
  It was like, it was definitely like the 19, like 100 or 1890s,
• 1:11:37
  but whatever. Yeah, that was I.
• 1:11:40
  Wanted, I think it was 1861, like we're talking like Civil
• 1:11:44
  War era. I think you mentioned that too.
• 1:11:46
  Yeah. That's when I was crazy, crazy.
• 1:11:49
  But yeah, that was that was my favorite, Murray says, starting
• 1:11:52
  solo on the pod, then adding Nate, who went on to give us a
• 1:11:55
  snippet of a singing career by singing Sweet Caroline.
• 1:11:57
  Congrats on 500. I was curious if anyone would
• 1:12:03
  remember that, so I appreciate. I think about it all the time.
• 1:12:06
  Was that like episode 3 was? Episode 3.
• 1:12:10
  Crazy episode. I do.
• 1:12:13
  I do think about it all the time.
• 1:12:14
  I still hate that song. Whenever it plays at like
• 1:12:18
  parties or weddings or whatever. My wife's singing it, she looks
• 1:12:22
  over at me and I'm like ain't doing it.
• 1:12:25
  The only time I sang that song was for a BET.
• 1:12:28
  That did not go well. I don't know how we got away
• 1:12:31
  with that because I'm pretty sure you sang over the audio.
• 1:12:35
  I had like inserted the audio. Yeah, I was, which I was very
• 1:12:39
  grateful for, by the way. Very grateful for because I
• 1:12:43
  didn't need to be, you know, I don't need that out there in the
• 1:12:46
  universe. I don't.
• 1:12:46
  Go back and listen to that, but like we said, don't listen to
• 1:12:49
  any other like super old early stuff 'cause it was just
• 1:12:53
  terrible. Yeah, don't stick around too
• 1:12:56
  long. You can listen to the voice.
• 1:12:57
  Go back. Yeah, go back and listen to
• 1:12:59
  that. That's a bit oh, he also, Murray
• 1:13:05
  also said. You guys help me get through
• 1:13:06
  some long drives and more importantly, some long work
• 1:13:08
  days. Love you guys in the pod.
• 1:13:10
  Cheers to fight. Cheers to the next 500.
• 1:13:12
  Love that. Love you, Murray.
• 1:13:13
  You're the man. Josh says our Josh, Josh Lutua
• 1:13:17
  says the flashback to the most humble half closet origins of
• 1:13:21
  this dynasty. He's talking about the picture
• 1:13:23
  that I post from time to time where it's literally, I had the
• 1:13:26
  mic, like hanging from the, like, coat rack in my walk.
• 1:13:31
  It wasn't even a walk in closet. He couldn't walk in.
• 1:13:33
  It was one of those like real narrow closets, slam doors or
• 1:13:38
  yeah, yeah. It was like one.
• 1:13:39
  Yeah. Like the accordion doors or
• 1:13:41
  something. Yeah.
• 1:13:42
  And I'm just in there trying to get the best sound quality that
• 1:13:45
  I could. And that's, you know, that's
• 1:13:47
  sort of what we were dealing with when we when we really got
• 1:13:50
  going. So.
• 1:13:51
  Unbelievable. Sean says too many memories.
• 1:13:56
  Been a fan since Kyle solo episode 1.
• 1:14:00
  He also mentioned the fact that we shouted out his engagement.
• 1:14:06
  I think it was like in like I think it was episode 79 or
• 1:14:09
  something all. Right.
• 1:14:12
  But you gave him a little shout out.
• 1:14:13
  I think he did it like during the Home Run Derby, if I recall.
• 1:14:16
  I went back and listened to it and gave him a little shout out.
• 1:14:19
  We were big on the shout outs back in the day because we
• 1:14:21
  really wanted to. I mean, we still try to make
• 1:14:23
  our, our listing feel feel valuable and all that.
• 1:14:27
  But like, it was, I mean, we, we've certainly grown since we
• 1:14:31
  started. But it was, it was a lot easier
• 1:14:33
  when we first got going to yeah. There was like 12 of them to
• 1:14:36
  show to. Show the people some love.
• 1:14:37
  So we need to get back to our roots.
• 1:14:40
  In that sense, we got to. It's probably it's.
• 1:14:42
  Yeah, you're probably right. We got to we got to get back to
• 1:14:45
  creating a build, building the community here.
• 1:14:49
  Lastly here for DMS, Michael says Congrats, gentlemen,
• 1:14:53
  gentlemen on 500 episodes. I'm a big fan of the show and
• 1:14:55
  try not to miss an episode. Here's the 500 more.
• 1:14:58
  Cheers. Is that your brother?
• 1:15:02
  No, no, yeah, these are all of these DMS are just like extended
• 1:15:09
  family. Extended family.
• 1:15:11
  Yeah, yeah, We did have one voicemail that I can, if I can
• 1:15:17
  find it. Here we go.
• 1:15:18
  Here's our voicemail. All right.
• 1:15:19
  Nate, Congrats on 500 Big achievement.
• 1:15:23
  Very nice job with the podcast. Thank you for continuing to make
• 1:15:26
  it for all the listeners. Always appreciate listening to
• 1:15:29
  it every week. One of my favorite moments is
• 1:15:32
  Nate not believing that pool holes could get to 700 homers.
• 1:15:36
  Still makes me laugh all the time.
• 1:15:37
  As we know balls are juiced. That's all I have to say.
• 1:15:40
  Congrats again guys, take care. Heck yes, those balls were
• 1:15:43
  juiced, there's no doubt in my mind.
• 1:15:45
  Dude the that that race to 700 was actually one of my favorite.
• 1:15:53
  It would be real. It's an odd hill to die on, but.
• 1:15:56
  That was one of my favorite bits that we had.
• 1:15:58
  Like you just didn't think it would happen.
• 1:16:00
  And then the whole like apology episode where you had to pen
• 1:16:03
  you, you had to, you had to pen the apology and read it off like
• 1:16:06
  that was that was fun. That was real fun.
• 1:16:09
  Oh. Man, that's a good memory.
• 1:16:13
  Speaking of memories, I know I'm sort of moving quick here, but
• 1:16:17
  still got a little bit more to get to.
• 1:16:19
  I mentioned some clips that I had from interviews that we had
• 1:16:22
  done and I so I went back from and pulled some snippets from
• 1:16:30
  some of the favorite interviews we have done over the years.
• 1:16:33
  A lot of which like you and I were talking about before we
• 1:16:35
  hopped on was like right in the heart of COVID because you know,
• 1:16:39
  like, that's cool stretch that 2020 season, we were able to
• 1:16:43
  talk to a lot of guys because there was just nothing going on.
• 1:16:49
  And these guys like in the early stages of COVID, like when
• 1:16:51
  everything shut down, like. March and podcasts were still
• 1:16:54
  newer. Yeah, like on the newer end and
• 1:16:57
  these guys just wanted to talk baseball.
• 1:16:58
  Like surely as as the pandemic went on, they're like, OK, I
• 1:17:02
  just want to get back to playing baseball.
• 1:17:03
  But in that early, that early bit, we were able to talk to
• 1:17:06
  some, some some pretty cool names.
• 1:17:08
  So I'll just go ahead and play this and and we can, we can sort
• 1:17:14
  of talk through it as it's going, but it's just going to be
• 1:17:17
  a singular clip and we'll just run through it.
• 1:17:20
  Let's see what we got here. All right, so we are joined here
• 1:17:29
  by 2019 second overall pick, Team USA, Pan Am Gold medalist,
• 1:17:33
  Gatorade National Baseball Player of the Year, Under Armour
• 1:17:36
  All American Sports Illustrated cover athlete and Colleyville,
• 1:17:40
  TX native. What an inch.
• 1:17:41
  Bobby Witt Junior, the phrase franchise shortstop popped up a
• 1:17:46
  number of times. How when you hear that, knowing
• 1:17:50
  that the that that phrase is being attached to you, how do
• 1:17:52
  you, how do you interpret that and how do you deal with that
• 1:17:56
  kind of attention on a day-to-day basis?
• 1:18:01
  Yeah, it's always kind of cool to just see those things.
• 1:18:03
  But really it's on on paper until it's in like true fine
• 1:18:09
  print and everything until it's actually true.
• 1:18:11
  Then I'll then I'll believe it what I see.
• 1:18:13
  So I just kind of got to go out there like I've been saying and
• 1:18:16
  just keep keep grinding throughout it all because this
• 1:18:18
  is a this is a grinding. You could say all you want about
• 1:18:21
  this and that, but until let's say if it's not been proven then
• 1:18:26
  I can't take anything for granted.
• 1:18:29
  Right, so we are here with a young Bobby with an All Star and
• 1:18:32
  no. Facial wear no mullet.
• 1:18:33
  BM Hendrix, how did your slider become your go to pitch?
• 1:18:37
  How did my slider become my go to pitch because.
• 1:18:39
  It wasn't when. We started dating.
• 1:18:41
  Yeah, definitely. Like she announced my slider
• 1:18:44
  become my go to pitch because it wasn't when we first started
• 1:18:46
  dating. So that was 2010 when we started
• 1:18:48
  dating and I was your prototypical generic Twins
• 1:18:52
  right-hander through 91 with a little bit of movement and a
• 1:18:55
  good change up. That was just that was my thing.
• 1:18:57
  So my change up was my go to pitch then didn't really.
• 1:19:01
  I had a Cove, I had a slide up, but my.
• 1:19:02
  Change up was my my change up. Was my best pitch.
• 1:19:07
  And then yeah, I just, when I would move to the pen, my
• 1:19:10
  slightest started playing up because I started throwing it
• 1:19:12
  harder. And as I started throwing it
• 1:19:13
  harder, I realized the break and it was a lot sharper and I just
• 1:19:16
  had a lot of good swings and misses.
• 1:19:18
  And since then, I've kind of that's been the the fail safe
• 1:19:21
  pitch where I've always kind of had that in the back pocket.
• 1:19:23
  And I've always just had like if I ever need to have a pitch,
• 1:19:26
  that's just been the one I've gone to.
• 1:19:27
  But I throw it a little differently than I have the most
• 1:19:30
  I've put like Kirsten, can you grab the ball for me on the
• 1:19:34
  table you. Remember this He gave us the
• 1:19:37
  demons. He gave us the demons.
• 1:19:38
  Demonstration I've. Got it.
• 1:19:42
  That was coming in hot, She. She's yelling at me saying she
• 1:19:46
  has a natural cutter. She's like the female version of
• 1:19:49
  Mariana. All right, so we are joined here
• 1:19:52
  by former Oakland A and current premier baseball personality
• 1:19:57
  Dallas Braden. I know you like to joke about
• 1:19:59
  it, that this perfect game was kind of your claim to fame and
• 1:20:03
  you you just happen to have one good day at the park and that
• 1:20:07
  kind of sets you up for the rest of your baseball career out even
• 1:20:11
  outside of playing. All right, like what are your
• 1:20:14
  thoughts on that? Like are you OK with that?
• 1:20:16
  Like are you OK kind of being characterized as this guy that
• 1:20:18
  just went out and had a good day at the park or you you kind of
• 1:20:21
  take a little bit of offense to that.
• 1:20:22
  Why would I ever take offense to that?
• 1:20:24
  That's reality, man. Like like to to be self aware
• 1:20:27
  and to be able to be honest with yourself.
• 1:20:29
  Like that's something that I think very few people can do and
• 1:20:33
  or are uncomfortable doing. That one fired me here with the
• 1:20:37
  electric Greg Am, singer of MLB Network.
• 1:20:40
  I know this sounds like I'm a company shell.
• 1:20:43
  Trust me, I know this sounds like it, but Rob Manfred is a
• 1:20:48
  good commissioner. People are going to be like
• 1:20:51
  whoa, come on, no way hung out with the guy.
• 1:20:56
  He has made more change to a game that hates change than
• 1:21:00
  anybody could fathom. You have to have to agree with
• 1:21:03
  that. But would you argue that that's
• 1:21:05
  by force that like nobody necessarily wants that change?
• 1:21:08
  Or do you think he's just? Kind of No, no, no.
• 1:21:10
  When you make a change to anything in Major League
• 1:21:13
  Baseball, you're going to piss a lot of people off, without a
• 1:21:16
  doubt. See, you automatically prove to
• 1:21:20
  the world that you don't care about your approval rating as a
• 1:21:23
  commissioner. Rob Manfred is the best we're
• 1:21:25
  going to get. He's the best guy for the job
• 1:21:27
  right now. I know that's probably not the
• 1:21:29
  answer you were looking for, but that is my opinion.
• 1:21:32
  That was my. Opinion.
• 1:21:33
  I love it. That's it.
• 1:21:35
  I mean, that's a great point. You kind of brought up
• 1:21:37
  presidents, like it's kind of known that your approval rating
• 1:21:41
  while you're in office. I mean, it's said that Reagan
• 1:21:44
  was hated when he was in office, right?
• 1:21:47
  Right. And we look back and he's like
• 1:21:48
  one of the greatest presidents ever.
• 1:21:50
  So do you think that's going to be the same situation to where
• 1:21:54
  we're going to look back 20-30 years down the road and be like,
• 1:21:58
  Manfred really did some stuff? Without a doubt.
• 1:22:02
  All right, so we are joined here by baseball icon and founder of
• 1:22:06
  Big League Chew, Rob Nelson. When I made the first batch, I
• 1:22:11
  baked it because you had to heat it and bake it.
• 1:22:14
  It came out like 1/2 inch thick tray of brownies because I went
• 1:22:17
  with root beer and I went with Maple flavored from the Fred
• 1:22:20
  Meyer grocery store next to the ballpark.
• 1:22:22
  I thought kids would love brown gum.
• 1:22:24
  The Wrigley people said, Rob, you're the idea guy, leave the
• 1:22:27
  gum to us. So that didn't work at all, but
• 1:22:30
  I did. The way I cut up the gum, I used
• 1:22:32
  one of those round pizza knife that when they make slices of
• 1:22:35
  pizza they just roll the knife through the pie and that's how I
• 1:22:38
  shredded the gum. I love it.
• 1:22:43
  Man, there you go. It was like a little highlight
• 1:22:45
  reel from some some interviews over the years.
• 1:22:47
  That's not even all the all the people we're able to talk to.
• 1:22:49
  We've talked to a bunch more, but.
• 1:22:52
  That's a lot of cool. Those are some of our favourites
• 1:22:54
  for sure. Yeah, yeah, but that just here
• 1:22:59
  like putting that that little highlight reel together, I'm
• 1:23:01
  like, man, time is flying by. I know like that Bobby Witt 1 he
• 1:23:06
  sounds like he's 12 years old. I mean he basically was when?
• 1:23:09
  We we weren't kidding. No facial hair, no mullet.
• 1:23:12
  He was not the Bobby Witt that you recognized today.
• 1:23:14
  This was like fresh off the draft at that point.
• 1:23:19
  And then yeah, like somewhat like Greg Amsinger, Dallas
• 1:23:22
  Braden, like they had some like inspirational stuff.
• 1:23:25
  Like if you go back and listen like those were, those were two
• 1:23:27
  in particular that were like I'm.
• 1:23:29
  Going to be honest, I'm probably going to shock some people.
• 1:23:31
  I think Greg Amsinger was my favorite interview we ever did.
• 1:23:35
  That was a. That was a fun.
• 1:23:37
  He's the man. I love that guy and I know he
• 1:23:40
  he's kind of polarizing. He's probably some as I don't
• 1:23:42
  know why he gets hate personally, but like he I think
• 1:23:46
  is one of my favorite baseball people that he's he loves what
• 1:23:51
  he does and he does it really well and I love that guy.
• 1:23:54
  That was a good interview. Forgot about the one that's an
• 1:23:57
  under the radar 1 for sure. That was a fun one.
• 1:24:01
  Yeah. All right.
• 1:24:02
  Well, I guess that's sort of, I mean, we could go on and on
• 1:24:05
  about this, but probably, you know that that that wraps up or
• 1:24:08
  walk down memory lane. Cheers, 500 cheers of the next
• 1:24:12
  500. Who knows where things will go.
• 1:24:15
  I do know, like we sort of hinted at or I mean, we've been
• 1:24:19
  mentioning it, but we alluded to it earlier, we will be in
• 1:24:23
  Atlanta and we'll be there for the All Star game.
• 1:24:30
  But actually, well, I mean, we'll be there for the Home Run
• 1:24:33
  Derby, but we'll, we'll be in the park for the, the, the All
• 1:24:38
  Star game. But actually some some breaking
• 1:24:42
  news. I haven't even told you this
• 1:24:45
  yet. I don't know what's happening
• 1:24:46
  right now. We're actually, I actually
• 1:24:49
  pulled a trigger on the tickets today for both the Home Run
• 1:24:53
  Derby and the All Star hams. So we're going to both now.
• 1:24:57
  We're going to both. That's what I was.
• 1:24:59
  Saying I was like, we're going to be in Atlanta, but I don't
• 1:25:01
  know what's going on. Let's go.
• 1:25:03
  Tickets are not cheap, dude, not cheap.
• 1:25:06
  But I was like, you know it. Hey, credit, credit to Meredith.
• 1:25:09
  Credit to Meredith. She was actually what she's
• 1:25:11
  like. No, you know what you guys, you
• 1:25:13
  guys take like a trip a year. She's like, you need to do it.
• 1:25:16
  Yeah, Which you know what? Before we before we wrap up, we,
• 1:25:19
  we got to. I think that I think the wives
• 1:25:22
  deserve. It's a great way to wrap.
• 1:25:24
  It up. I mean, they they deserve all
• 1:25:27
  the respect in the world for putting up with this nonsense.
• 1:25:30
  Like, what is it like two nights a week?
• 1:25:33
  We're basically just out of Commission for a few hours.
• 1:25:36
  And then when the post season hits, I mean, it's it's chaos or
• 1:25:41
  in the post season and we're always hopping on for
• 1:25:44
  brainstorming sessions and and all that.
• 1:25:46
  So they pulled up with a lot. But you know what?
• 1:25:50
  Tip of the caps. To the wife, yeah, man, I mean,
• 1:25:52
  what's crazy? It's it's kind of hard to even
• 1:25:54
  fathom. I when we started this, I didn't
• 1:25:56
  even know my wife. I didn't even know her yet.
• 1:25:59
  So you know, we've we've both, you've known Meredith a while
• 1:26:03
  since high school. So it like it, it's it's wild
• 1:26:06
  that we've both, we've, you know, we've gotten married and
• 1:26:10
  we've gotten dogs and we've, you know, bought homes and, you
• 1:26:15
  know, huge major. I had hair.
• 1:26:17
  Like there's been big life changes, you know, throughout
• 1:26:22
  the the history of this podcast. So you're right, man.
• 1:26:25
  Cheers to cheers to them. You're right by she's probably
• 1:26:29
  making dinner right now as we're as we're talking right now, so.
• 1:26:32
  Yeah, she, Meredith had asked me.
• 1:26:33
  She's like, you just want to eat when you're done.
• 1:26:35
  I'm like, you may just need to eat whenever you're hungry
• 1:26:38
  because I don't know when I'll be up.
• 1:26:39
  So that's, that's sort of the theme of the show.
• 1:26:43
  That's probably. The what is this?
• 1:26:45
  You're how long you been married now?
• 1:26:47
  You just said your anniversary. 555 year anniversary.
• 1:26:51
  See, we haven't even had our first yet, so I'm assuming by
• 1:26:54
  Year 5, probably not eating dinner at the same time, she's
• 1:26:57
  probably just be like, I'm hungry, I'm eating.
• 1:26:59
  Screw this guy. So as of right now, she's still
• 1:27:03
  waiting it out for me. That's what.
• 1:27:04
  Yeah. Yeah, man, big, big life.
• 1:27:07
  Big life moves, big life changes.
• 1:27:10
  Grateful for you, buddy. I love it.
• 1:27:12
  This is this is. We've said it.
• 1:27:15
  You know, we have big dreams for this.
• 1:27:17
  We have big aspirations, we have big goals.
• 1:27:20
  But if this is all that comes out of it, you know, I think
• 1:27:23
  we're still both pretty Dang happy with what we have, so.
• 1:27:27
  Gotten to do some pretty cool stuff.
• 1:27:28
  Even if this was it, we've gotten to do some pretty cool
• 1:27:31
  stuff. So, yeah, so thank you to all
• 1:27:34
  you, you incredible listeners and, and fans and, you know,
• 1:27:40
  people that have, have DM D over the years that have been
• 1:27:43
  listening for the, you know, for the chunk of time.
• 1:27:45
  If you're new, you know, we're so, so grateful for you.
• 1:27:50
  You know, this is a podcast that tries to keep it real, keep it
• 1:27:53
  friendly to the point where you can play and listen to this at
• 1:27:57
  any point around anyone. And and we hope that there's
• 1:28:01
  some enjoyment there. But, you know, we wouldn't be
• 1:28:04
  here and been able to do the things that we've done or talk
• 1:28:08
  to the people we've talked to you without your support.
• 1:28:09
  So thank you for for all of that.
• 1:28:12
  And yeah, man, like you said, cheers to another 500 next one.
• 1:28:18
  Oh, thousands going to hit a little bit different, man.
• 1:28:21
  No wonder what's going to what do you think life's going to
• 1:28:23
  look like? Maybe kids in the picture.
• 1:28:26
  Maybe kids? Running around crawling all over
• 1:28:28
  us while we're trying to talk about Bobby Witt Junior's
• 1:28:31
  retirement or something. I don't know.
• 1:28:34
  I don't know what's, I don't know what's going to happen.
• 1:28:37
  But no. But I, I agree with everything
• 1:28:38
  you said. Shout out to those of you that
• 1:28:40
  listen. Shout out to those of you that
• 1:28:42
  watch and regardless how long you've been supporting us, your
• 1:28:48
  support is ultimately what drives this.
• 1:28:49
  Because like we say all the time, if it wasn't for you guys,
• 1:28:52
  we'd be sitting here, which we, I think we've said before, like
• 1:28:55
  we, we wouldn't mind sitting here talking to just each other
• 1:28:58
  about baseball. Like we, we could easily pass
• 1:29:00
  the time. But to be able to have an
• 1:29:02
  audience there and, and people that are willing to engage with
• 1:29:05
  us, whether they agree or disagree, it makes it all worth
• 1:29:09
  it. And I think part of I don't want
• 1:29:13
  to say the reward for that. I, I do know that there has been
• 1:29:17
  a handful of folks question or asking me about the possible
• 1:29:22
  merch making return because the merch has been Mia for some
• 1:29:25
  time. And I'm here to tell you, I'm
• 1:29:29
  here to tell you it's coming. The merch is coming.
• 1:29:35
  Still TBD. I was I will, I will admit I was
• 1:29:39
  I was hoping to have things really ironed out so we could
• 1:29:42
  just go full launch into it, but still got to work out some
• 1:29:45
  details. But but just hang tight.
• 1:29:50
  The merch is coming. I'll make an announcement.
• 1:29:52
  This is sort of like the the soft opening, if you will, but
• 1:29:55
  I'm going to make the official announcement once it once it
• 1:29:58
  finally goes live and y'all can finally get to snagging some of
• 1:30:03
  that stuff. But yeah, again, thank you guys
• 1:30:06
  for for everything. And it's kind of weird starting
• 1:30:11
  the year with like a wrap up, sort of like a thank you guys.
• 1:30:14
  But we're, we're very much looking forward to what this
• 1:30:17
  season holds and, and the seasons beyond that, you know,
• 1:30:21
  Lord willing, if, if we're, if we're able to go make it that
• 1:30:23
  far, if this thing keeps moving. We'll go till 80, man, we'll.
• 1:30:27
  We'll be here having probably the same takes when we're 80
• 1:30:31
  because we're just old. We're basically old men now just
• 1:30:33
  sitting here talking, Paul. But thank you guys for for your
• 1:30:36
  support, for listening, for watching and think that's I
• 1:30:41
  think it's about it. Amen to that.
• 1:30:42
  You guys know the drill. Don't go chasing curveballs.
• 1:30:45
  We love you all and as always, looking forward to talking more
• 1:30:47
  baseball with you guys soon. Until next time, stay filthy.