Latest / Foul Territory / Why the FBI investigation into Dodgers owner Mark Walter matters

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Why the FBI investigation into Dodgers owner Mark Walter matters · Foul Territory

0:02
Speaker 1: Hey, we're back on FT with Britt Jerole joining us
0:07
Speaker 1: from The Athletic. And you can see her sometimes on FT,
0:10
Speaker 1: like when I'm out. Appreciate you, Britt. Always good to
0:12
Speaker 1: see you. And we want to get right to a
0:15
Speaker 1: huge story. I mean, this is the one that fans
0:17
Speaker 1: are asking us the most about right now. And We
0:20
Speaker 1: actually spoke to your colleague, Melody Gutierrez, the other day.
0:23
Speaker 1: We wanted to get your thoughts here on the reporting
0:25
Speaker 1: you've been doing too. So in The Athletic, what's next
0:28
Speaker 1: for Mark Walter and the Dodgers? Five key questions. We'll
0:31
Speaker 1: dive into that story. Can we go backwards, I guess,
0:34
Speaker 1: or go through the recent events of the statement from
0:37
Speaker 1: his holding co and what you learned from that?
0:42
Speaker 2: Yeah, pretty strong statements, guys. First of all, thanks for
0:44
Speaker 2: the cool graphic. I feel like I've made it. I
0:46
Speaker 2: got the cool graphic introducing me on FT. But I
0:50
Speaker 2: think that a couple of things. One, if something happens,
0:53
Speaker 2: it's going to look really foolish, I guess, for lack
0:55
Speaker 2: of a better word, because of how strong they were
0:57
Speaker 2: on we're not selling the Dodgers.
0:59
Speaker 3: Nothing is wrong.
0:59
Speaker 2: Nobody was harmed, I thought was the weirdest part of
1:02
Speaker 2: that statement. But it was very strong and very long.
1:05
Speaker 2: and made it very clear that Mark Walter has no
1:08
Speaker 2: interest in selling the Dodgers, which we've heard before from
1:10
Speaker 2: Stan Kasten, who spoke to reporters and said that same
1:12
Speaker 2: thing twice. So where we stand now, of course, is
1:16
Speaker 2: the federal probe is continuing, and we kind of are
1:19
Speaker 2: in a little bit of wait-and-see mode. Like, does Walter sell?
1:21
Speaker 2: a stake in another sports partnership. And I'm not talking
1:25
Speaker 2: about the Dodgers per se. I'm talking about Chelsea or
1:28
Speaker 2: F1 or any of these other teams. He has a
1:30
Speaker 2: pretty vast sports portfolio.
1:32
Speaker 3: We're in a little bit of.
1:33
Speaker 2: Wait and see mode, but this is tangled and it's
1:35
Speaker 2: going to take a while for people to parse through
1:37
Speaker 2: everything that's going on. Everyone that is involved is, This
1:40
Speaker 2: is not going to go away anytime soon. And I
1:42
Speaker 2: think when the dust settles, the next question will be, well,
1:45
Speaker 2: what will MLB do? Will they investigate this? Will they
1:47
Speaker 2: have to look into this? So we're like at the
1:49
Speaker 2: tip of the iceberg when it comes to this story. Yeah.
1:53
Speaker 1: And just for context here, too, and I know Fabian
1:56
Speaker 1: Ardaia also wrote about this the other day, your colleague
1:59
Speaker 1: at The Athletic, in regards to the statement that came
2:02
Speaker 1: out from TWG Global. There's been no fraud. That was
2:07
Speaker 1: in the statement as well. Sure. Technically, there's no fraud charge,
2:11
Speaker 1: I guess, right now. But a year ago, Mark Walter,
2:14
Speaker 1: this is the owner of the Dodgers, had his phone
2:16
Speaker 1: and his laptop seized by the FBI. Usually, that's not
2:21
Speaker 1: a great thing. Not much has come out, and it's
2:24
Speaker 1: going to trickle out over time here, but it does
2:26
Speaker 1: at least appear that they're being investigated for these investments
2:31
Speaker 1: through the insurance companies. And we got into this with
2:33
Speaker 1: Melody the other day. I know it starts to get
2:34
Speaker 1: kind of complicated to understand for us and I'm sure
2:37
Speaker 1: for others, but this isn't nothing. So I just want
2:41
Speaker 1: to make sure that's clear too, right? Like FBI investigation
2:46
Speaker 1: sold the Lakers, maybe not selling the Dodgers. That's okay.
2:49
Speaker 2: Right.
2:49
Speaker 1: Where baseball fans are like, how does this affect us?
2:51
Speaker 1: But it's not nothing.
2:54
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's not a thing. And money is fungible.
2:55
Speaker 2: So the claim that this doesn't affect the Dodgers, I think,
2:58
Speaker 2: is like borderline impossible to make because we know about
3:02
Speaker 2: the loans for Dodger tickets that was listed on one
3:04
Speaker 2: of the insurance companies.
3:05
Speaker 3: We know about all these different shell companies.
3:07
Speaker 2: We know that Mark Walter, who owns the majority of
3:10
Speaker 2: the Dodgers, is being investigated for for allegedly self-dealing. So
3:15
Speaker 2: it is impossible to say, well, all the Dodgers money
3:17
Speaker 2: is clean or none of that is impacted. I think
3:21
Speaker 2: what's getting confusing for people is like, yes, this does
3:23
Speaker 2: implicate the Dodgers.
3:24
Speaker 3: They are impacted on one hand. On the other hand,
3:27
Speaker 3: I do believe.
3:28
Speaker 2: What Stan Kasten said in that their revenue is the
3:31
Speaker 2: best in baseball and that they could sustain the payroll
3:34
Speaker 2: and all those deferrals alone based on their revenue and
3:38
Speaker 2: what they make. I think that's also true. But to
3:40
Speaker 2: make the claim this doesn't involve the Dodgers, I think
3:43
Speaker 2: just doesn't make any sense. I think where people get
3:45
Speaker 2: confused is like, oh, the Dodgers are spending all this
3:48
Speaker 2: money they don't have or they're cheating to win. And
3:50
Speaker 2: I don't think that's necessarily something you can say.
3:53
Speaker 3: Certainly not right now.
3:54
Speaker 2: I don't think that's accurate. I do think the Dodgers
3:57
Speaker 2: could stand alone. And that's not the question. The question is,
4:01
Speaker 2: what funds did he use to buy this team? What
4:02
Speaker 2: funds has he been using for not just the team,
4:04
Speaker 2: but the subsidiaries like Dodgers tickets? Those are the questions like,
4:08
Speaker 2: was he self-dealing?
4:09
Speaker 3: Not whether the Dodgers can be profitable on their own.
4:13
Speaker 1: And I know this came from a different publication, but
4:15
Speaker 1: there was a puck report that was referred to in
4:17
Speaker 1: this athletic article that stated that he, Mark Walter offered
4:21
Speaker 1: to get out of the Dodgers and Lakers sweetheart television
4:24
Speaker 1: deal with charter communications early in exchange for money, which
4:30
Speaker 1: was disputed actually by TWG. So, okay. But I mean,
4:34
Speaker 1: reputable spot coming out with that. There's a little bit of,
4:36
Speaker 1: he said, she said again, like that's, If there's any
4:40
Speaker 1: semblance of truth to that, that's pretty juicy there. Again,
4:43
Speaker 1: that's a cash flow thing that gets at least dissected
4:47
Speaker 1: by people like us.
4:49
Speaker 3: Yeah, we know a few things, right?
4:51
Speaker 2: We know that he's in a little bit of a
4:52
Speaker 2: liquidity crunch and he has to move roughly $ 20 billion
4:57
Speaker 2: off the books by the end of the year. These
4:59
Speaker 2: are things that we know. We couldn't confirm the TV thing.
5:03
Speaker 2: Did it happen? Did it not happen? Were talks informal?
5:06
Speaker 2: Were they so preliminary that they could go on the
5:09
Speaker 2: record and say this didn't happen and it's technically true, right?
5:13
Speaker 3: We're in a lot of gray area. I don't know.
5:15
Speaker 2: There's a lot we don't know. But we do know
5:17
Speaker 2: that he sold the Blakers. We do know that he
5:19
Speaker 2: needs to move a lot of money. And to do that,
5:22
Speaker 2: you need lump sums of cash. And that's why the
5:24
Speaker 2: Dodgers have been tied into this because, of course, he
5:26
Speaker 2: owns 27%, the majority of a very profitable Dodgers organization.
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6:34
Speaker 5: Is it true?
6:35
Speaker 4: Because when I looked into other situations like this outside
6:38
Speaker 4: of sports, is it true that he could just let
6:41
Speaker 4: this hang up in litigation for five years and we
6:43
Speaker 4: could be hanging on to this, which would almost end
6:47
Speaker 4: the Shohei Otani contract at the end of five years
6:50
Speaker 4: when these things go for five years in other cases?
6:56
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, this is the thing with super rich,
6:59
Speaker 2: super wealthy people, right? Is it feels like those people
7:02
Speaker 2: have a different set of rules at times. And that
7:04
Speaker 2: certainly could be the case here. It could drag on
7:06
Speaker 2: for a very long time. It could end up being
7:09
Speaker 2: settled in court. You know, those things could happen. Like
7:12
Speaker 2: I said, I think we're at the tip of the
7:13
Speaker 2: iceberg in terms of like what we know about this.
7:15
Speaker 3: We don't know the depth of the probe. We don't
7:17
Speaker 3: know the scope of the probe.
7:18
Speaker 2: We don't know what the Fed's exactly what they're doing
7:21
Speaker 2: or what they're looking into. This is still going on.
7:23
Speaker 2: This is still active. But this could be a multi-year thing.
7:26
Speaker 2: This could be something hanging over the Dodgers for quite
7:29
Speaker 2: a while. And that's where I start to wonder, is
7:31
Speaker 2: MLB going to be okay with that? Are they going
7:33
Speaker 2: to start investigating on their own? Typically, they wait until
7:35
Speaker 2: the federal investigation is over.
7:37
Speaker 3: But if this is.
7:38
Speaker 2: Something that will not go away, does that change the
7:41
Speaker 2: calculus a little bit?
7:42
Speaker 3: I don't know. But it's fascinating to think.
7:45
Speaker 2: And it's also interesting because he already got out from under...
7:48
Speaker 2: the Lakers deal. So the NBA doesn't have to worry
7:50
Speaker 2: about this at all. He's already out. He's already selling
7:52
Speaker 2: the team. It's just now MLB that's going to have
7:55
Speaker 2: to deal with this big question mark from one of
7:57
Speaker 2: the most prominent owners of one of the most prominent
8:00
Speaker 2: franchises in baseball.
8:03
Speaker 1: And when it comes to MLB investigating at some point,
8:06
Speaker 1: I do want to state a fact here. And I
8:08
Speaker 1: always value that we're able to do this on our platform.
8:10
Speaker 1: Same thing on, on the athletics platform, right? The, the,
8:14
Speaker 1: bosses of each league here. And I'm talking about MLB
8:16
Speaker 1: and then even beyond NBA, like are the owners of
8:19
Speaker 1: the team, right? So there's a fine line when you
8:22
Speaker 1: are punishing or forget punishing, even just looking into something
8:26
Speaker 1: like this is one of Rob Manfred's bosses. He has
8:29
Speaker 1: 30 bosses. This is one of them. And this isn't
8:32
Speaker 1: just a Manfred or MLB thing, right? Like we've seen,
8:35
Speaker 1: we haven't touched on here. It's a baseball show, but
8:38
Speaker 1: in the basketball world, Kawhi Leonard and that whole Clippers
8:40
Speaker 1: investigation with, with Steve bomber and all of that. And,
8:43
Speaker 1: part of me looks at that story and I'm like, yeah,
8:46
Speaker 1: this is one of the bosses of the NBA. So
8:49
Speaker 1: there's a lot going on behind the scenes. So how
8:52
Speaker 1: does that factor into this conversation here where I'll give
8:56
Speaker 1: you one more example for you before you chime in
8:58
Speaker 1: the Astros, right? We had this, the, um, scandal from
9:02
Speaker 1: almost 10 years ago at this point, players had their
9:04
Speaker 1: old world where they couldn't really get punished under the stipulations.
9:08
Speaker 1: And then The Ashlands got punished, but most people felt
9:11
Speaker 1: it was late. Well, guess what? Jim Creighton's one of
9:13
Speaker 1: the bosses of Major League Baseball.
9:15
Speaker 4: Right, right.
9:16
Speaker 3: I think it's difficult because, like you said, there is
9:19
Speaker 3: that ball structure.
9:20
Speaker 2: But also, if you look historically, it's very difficult, and
9:23
Speaker 2: MLB really hasn't forced any team to sell. The closest
9:27
Speaker 2: example were the McCourts, the previous owners of the Dodgers,
9:30
Speaker 2: and that team was placed into bankruptcy so they could sell.
9:33
Speaker 2: So there's not a whole lot of precedent for kind
9:36
Speaker 2: of pushing or pressuring an ownership group to sell. And
9:39
Speaker 2: as we talk about other examples in sports, look at D.C.,
9:43
Speaker 2: look at how long it took the Washington commanders to
9:45
Speaker 2: get Dan Snyder out of town.
9:46
Speaker 3: That was years and years for that to happen.
9:49
Speaker 2: So I don't think that that's like a likely scenario
9:52
Speaker 2: at all, especially at this point.
9:54
Speaker 3: Where we really don't know much.
9:55
Speaker 2: And really right now, I don't think MLB would even
9:57
Speaker 2: look into things or try to look into things.
9:59
Speaker 3: Until the federal government. investigation was over.
10:01
Speaker 2: But yes, the power structure is such that it would
10:04
Speaker 2: be incredibly difficult. And I think it would only be
10:06
Speaker 2: a scenario where, like the McCourts, the Dodgers can't pay
10:09
Speaker 2: their bills, right? This is what drove the McCourt situation
10:13
Speaker 2: is that MLB was about to be on, on the hook.
10:15
Speaker 3: For the Dodgers payroll.
10:16
Speaker 2: That's what became all of a sudden a dire situation
10:19
Speaker 2: where they had to send people in there. And until
10:21
Speaker 2: that happens, I just don't think there's a whole lot
10:24
Speaker 2: of things incentivizing the league to take over.
10:28
Speaker 5: Britt, is this the thing that finally gets Shohei to
10:30
Speaker 5: opt out of his contract? If Frank, if Mark Walter, no,
10:35
Speaker 5: because he has the, he has the clause, right? The,
10:38
Speaker 5: The clause, if Walter sells the team or if Andrew
10:42
Speaker 5: Friedman is gone, he can opt out. So is this
10:44
Speaker 5: the thing he's going to look at and say, man,
10:46
Speaker 5: I don't want to be involved with anything that might
10:48
Speaker 5: be construed as illegal. I'm going to opt out.
10:51
Speaker 2: I doubt it.
10:52
Speaker 3: I was talking to a prominent agent about this.
10:54
Speaker 2: And if you actually read the clause, it says like
10:57
Speaker 2: Mark Walter, if he is removed or something like that,
11:00
Speaker 2: if he voluntarily sells, let's say hypothetically, if he voluntarily
11:04
Speaker 2: sells out of his ownership stake, I don't know if
11:06
Speaker 2: that's enough to trigger that clause the way it is written.
11:09
Speaker 2: And also, where else are you going right now where
11:12
Speaker 2: you think it's more stable or better? You have a
11:14
Speaker 2: better chance of winning the World Series. It does seem
11:16
Speaker 2: like Otani genuinely cares about winning. So I don't think
11:19
Speaker 2: this is a situation where Otani is going to.
11:21
Speaker 3: Be like, oh, forget it.
11:22
Speaker 2: I think Friedman is more closely tied to Otani's interests
11:26
Speaker 2: than a guy like Mark Walter. Sure, they've put money
11:29
Speaker 2: up and now we're unsure about kind of what the
11:31
Speaker 2: future is with them. But, you know, if you talk
11:33
Speaker 2: to other agents, they're not entirely certain if Walter was
11:36
Speaker 2: to sell even some of the shares, if that would
11:38
Speaker 2: be enough for Otani's camp to trigger it and be like, no.
11:41
Speaker 3: No, no, we're out now.
11:43
Speaker 1: Otani seems pretty happy. Where he's at. And he's seen
11:47
Speaker 1: the other side too. I mean, he didn't make the
11:50
Speaker 1: playoffs in Anaheim. He's got a couple of rings right now.
11:53
Speaker 1: I think he's a happy guy. I'm with you. Question
11:56
Speaker 1: for you on the reporting side and really the journalism
11:59
Speaker 1: side of things, Britt. How difficult is this story to
12:03
Speaker 1: report on? It must be tough to get details when
12:07
Speaker 1: it's the feds, MLB is not putting anything out there.
12:10
Speaker 1: You're certainly not going to get anything from an owner, right?
12:12
Speaker 1: Owners barely speak in general about anything. So I'm just curious,
12:16
Speaker 1: like I have kind of like, I feel for you
12:18
Speaker 1: here when I'm seeing it on our side. Fans really
12:22
Speaker 1: want information on this. And there are people on social
12:25
Speaker 1: media not tied to anything that can just throw random
12:27
Speaker 1: crap out there. And that's the part I get where
12:29
Speaker 1: TWG puts out this huge statement. They're pissed. They're probably
12:32
Speaker 1: seeing stuff go viral left and right. And some of
12:33
Speaker 1: it's completely BS. So from your perspective, like you work
12:37
Speaker 1: for The Athletic and The New York Times. How hard
12:39
Speaker 1: is it to sift through this?
12:42
Speaker 2: It's incredibly difficult because in cases like this, also, guys,
12:44
Speaker 2: even when you get people to talk, nobody wants to
12:46
Speaker 2: use their name.
12:47
Speaker 3: Everyone wants to be anonymous.
12:48
Speaker 2: And the bar to use anonymous sourcing is so very
12:51
Speaker 2: high at a place like the New York Times, and
12:53
Speaker 2: as it should be, you know, because you're giving people
12:55
Speaker 2: a cover to lie, right?
12:56
Speaker 3: Your name is not associated with.
12:57
Speaker 2: It's very different than me saying, Richard Rowley said something
13:00
Speaker 2: versus like an anonymous journalist at The Athletic said something.
13:03
Speaker 3: You know, you're going to be a little stronger when
13:05
Speaker 3: you have that cloak of anonymity. So, This is difficult.
13:08
Speaker 2: I was late signing on today because I was on
13:10
Speaker 2: the phone with someone. And you're just constantly working the phones,
13:13
Speaker 2: but in a different way, because this isn't necessarily a
13:16
Speaker 2: baseball story.
13:17
Speaker 3: This is a financial story.
13:19
Speaker 2: So now you find yourself like a little fish out
13:21
Speaker 2: of water, one, trying to understand how this works. I
13:23
Speaker 2: spent a lot of time on the phone with people
13:25
Speaker 2: in that world. Explain this to me like I'm five
13:27
Speaker 2: years old. You know, and part of the reason Melody
13:29
Speaker 2: and I wrote that explainer and that five questions is
13:31
Speaker 2: because both of us were like, this is so much
13:34
Speaker 2: for us to wrap our heads around and we're reporting it.
13:36
Speaker 2: What do you think the average baseball fan is? They
13:38
Speaker 2: are probably confused, which is why we kind of wrote
13:41
Speaker 2: a nuts and bolts explainer trying to kind of answer
13:45
Speaker 2: people's questions in more layman terms and Because if you're
13:48
Speaker 2: not in that world, it's very confusing what happened. It's
13:50
Speaker 2: very confusing why this was wrong and related party transactions.
13:54
Speaker 2: And so you're dealing with that as well. So a
13:56
Speaker 2: lot of this, I think, is difficult because it's not
13:59
Speaker 2: a baseball story. And then certainly, as you mentioned, the
14:01
Speaker 2: feds and certain bars there.
14:03
Speaker 3: And also, guys, you want to be right.
14:05
Speaker 2: And this is so much, so much of our business
14:07
Speaker 2: is like being first and, you know, I've never really
14:10
Speaker 2: subscribed to that. I think if you are right then,
14:13
Speaker 2: and you collect the details and you take your time,
14:14
Speaker 2: but we'll always have more impact than someone who's only
14:16
Speaker 2: half right and wants to race. particularly in this scenario,
14:20
Speaker 2: when you're talking about such big, important people in this ecosystem,
14:25
Speaker 2: you better make sure you're right.
14:26
Speaker 3: You better double check, you better triple check.
14:28
Speaker 2: So single source stuff, none of that makes it into
14:30
Speaker 2: any story on The Athletic. You need to have three, four,
14:33
Speaker 2: sometimes even more people telling you that same thing for
14:36
Speaker 2: you to feel confident enough to report it.
14:38
Speaker 3: So it's a challenge.
14:39
Speaker 2: There's plenty more coming from The Athletic, not just from
14:41
Speaker 2: myself and Melody, from many other of our great writers
14:44
Speaker 2: at The Athletic. And just know that it is a
14:46
Speaker 2: high bar challenge to cross every time you see a
14:49
Speaker 2: story on this.
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Speaker 5: Okay, Britt, give it to me. I'm a five-year-old. Explain
15:54
Speaker 5: it because I don't understand. So give me the short version.
15:58
Speaker 2: Here's like how I would explain it to, maybe not
16:01
Speaker 2: my five-year-old, but how to explain to someone who didn't
16:02
Speaker 2: know anything is allegedly they're looking into whether or not
16:05
Speaker 2: he was self-dealing. He borrowed money from companies and he
16:09
Speaker 2: took that money and gave it to other businesses that
16:11
Speaker 2: were supposed to pay it back with interest, except he
16:13
Speaker 2: also owned those businesses. So it's a very circular thing. Basically,
16:17
Speaker 2: it is whether or not He has been self-dealing and
16:19
Speaker 2: you can self-deal a little bit like 3%, but he
16:22
Speaker 2: self-dealt closer to 50% and they didn't report it.
16:26
Speaker 3: So I think that makes sense, right?
16:27
Speaker 2: Like in that tiny little vacuum before you get too
16:30
Speaker 2: into the details, that's what's going on. Mark Walter was
16:33
Speaker 2: taking money from Mark Walter companies and then loaning it
16:37
Speaker 2: to other Mark Walter companies.
16:39
Speaker 3: One big circle. Does that help?
16:42
Speaker 2: Got it.
16:42
Speaker 5: Yeah. So don't deal to myself.
16:44
Speaker 3: Okay.
16:45
Speaker 5: Got it.
16:45
Speaker 3: Yes. Yes.
16:46
Speaker 2: Do not open a shell AJ Brzezinski company and then
16:50
Speaker 2: loan it to yourself with interest. And then also it's
16:52
Speaker 2: other people's money too. So it's like, I give AJ
16:56
Speaker 2: fixed bicycles. I give you $ 5, you know, to keep
16:58
Speaker 2: my bicycle safe. And what you do with that $ 5
17:01
Speaker 2: is you put it in another company owned by AJ
17:03
Speaker 2: and you're not actually watching my bicycles or my money anymore.
17:08
Speaker 5: So that's the other part. That sounds great for me.
17:11
Speaker 3: That does sound great for you.
17:12
Speaker 2: And that's how you are able to afford all this
17:14
Speaker 2: cool stuff that you couldn't afford otherwise.
17:17
Speaker 1: Okay.
17:17
Speaker 5: This is my last, this is our last question, Britton.
17:19
Speaker 5: I don't even know if you know the answer to this.
17:21
Speaker 5: Will he, because of this, have to open his golf
17:24
Speaker 5: course up to the public? Because he does have a
17:26
Speaker 5: golf course that's only like 20 people have ever played.
17:30
Speaker 5: It has rhinoceroses on it and giraffes on it. I mean,
17:33
Speaker 5: will he have to open that up to the public
17:35
Speaker 5: so people like me, schmucks like me, can play next
17:38
Speaker 5: to the rhinos?
17:40
Speaker 2: It feels like a really self-interest question. I didn't even
17:43
Speaker 2: know that the golf course existed.
17:46
Speaker 3: It's a big deal. I'm going to go with no.
17:48
Speaker 2: I think when he's looking at moving billions of dollars,
17:51
Speaker 2: opening the golf course to people like you, who I
17:53
Speaker 2: assume are not going to be paying large lump sums
17:56
Speaker 2: to get in, large relatively to what he is thinking,
18:00
Speaker 2: probably not going to happen. I think you should just
18:02
Speaker 2: open your own golf course. You're making a foul territory money.
18:05
Speaker 2: Get some rhinoceroses.
18:07
Speaker 5: Yeah, I wish. I wish that I had my own golf.
18:10
Speaker 5: I'm not Mike Trout. I can't have my own golf course.
18:13
Speaker 5: Mike Trout doesn't even have rhinos on his golf course.
18:15
Speaker 1: No, only Pablo Escobar has had the hippos in Columbia.
18:19
Speaker 1: I'm like, damn.
18:19
Speaker 5: Yeah, exactly.
18:20
Speaker 1: We're at that status. I'm no Pablo Escobar. Yes, it
18:23
Speaker 1: was a completely self-serving question. AJ has played in some
18:27
Speaker 1: of the most incredible golf courses across the globe, but
18:30
Speaker 1: this one, not yet.
18:32
Speaker 5: Nobody can get on it. Okay, real quick. We actually
18:37
Speaker 5: flew over it. When I went to Scotland, we flew
18:39
Speaker 5: over it because it's right by Jacksonville and I left
18:41
Speaker 5: from Jacksonville. And so my buddy, he's like, Hey, out
18:45
Speaker 5: the window. He's like, look, that's the goal. That's the thing.
18:48
Speaker 5: It's called white oak. He's like, there's white oak and
18:50
Speaker 5: there's multiple golf courses. And one is kind of open
18:53
Speaker 5: to the public, but Mark Walter has one just for him.
18:56
Speaker 5: And literally there's like 10 people on earth that have
18:59
Speaker 5: ever played this golf course.
19:01
Speaker 2: Really?
19:02
Speaker 5: Yeah.
19:02
Speaker 3: Wow. Now, yeah, no, I can't imagine that he would
19:05
Speaker 3: open said golf course, unfortunately. No, I didn't even know
19:07
Speaker 3: this existed.
19:09
Speaker 5: I'm going to have to ask Dave Roberts today if
19:11
Speaker 5: he can get me on when I see him. I'll
19:12
Speaker 5: be like, hey.
19:13
Speaker 2: This is probably not the time to ask Dave Roberts
19:15
Speaker 2: if you can get on that golf course.
19:17
Speaker 5: Why not? Dave and I are pals.
19:20
Speaker 4: I say ask.
19:21
Speaker 3: Probably not the time.
19:22
Speaker 1: Brett, I don't know if you noticed. AJ's not shy.
19:25
Speaker 1: Not afraid to ask just about anything.
19:27
Speaker 3: Good.
19:28
Speaker 1: Good. I'm glad we somehow were able to end on
19:30
Speaker 1: a fun note here and take this to golf. Very fitting. Britt,
19:33
Speaker 1: thank you. Great reporting, though, and very helpful for the
19:37
Speaker 1: crowd to learn. There is a high demand for the
19:39
Speaker 1: crowd to learn about this. So appreciate you, and we
19:41
Speaker 1: will talk to you soon.
19:43
Speaker 3: Of course. Thanks, guys.
19:45
Speaker 1: Hey, Jake Mintz put together roughly what every pro scouting does.
19:50
Speaker 1: looks like. He said, asking around, going through media guides,
19:53
Speaker 1: trying to do the best that he can. He said,
19:54
Speaker 1: these are not exact. Some teams like Milwaukee use the
19:57
Speaker 1: same people for the amateur pro side, but he said,
19:59
Speaker 1: hopefully this is instructive just for the podcast crowd. I'll
20:02
Speaker 1: point out a couple zeros, the Braves, the Marlins and
20:07
Speaker 1: the nationals have zero on this list. Twins won, Brewers two,
20:12
Speaker 1: and then on the other end, the Rays lead the
20:14
Speaker 1: charge here. 18 people in their pro scouting department. Padres
20:19
Speaker 1: at 16, Royals at 16, Dodgers at 16, Diamondbacks at 13. AJ,
20:24
Speaker 1: it's kind of a random list.
20:27
Speaker 5: Can I just say this? Houston's a zero, right?
20:30
Speaker 1: Yeah.
20:30
Speaker 5: What team, they just fired their GM. What was the
20:33
Speaker 5: biggest complaint from Astros fans? They didn't make good trades. Well,
20:37
Speaker 5: they have zero scouts in their pro scouting department. When
20:40
Speaker 5: you trade, you trade for pro guys. Who's the one
20:43
Speaker 5: team that everyone says don't trade with them? Because if
20:46
Speaker 5: you trade with them, they're going to get someone. Who's that?
20:49
Speaker 5: Tampa Bay. And they have the most. It's amazing. The
20:53
Speaker 5: Dodgers have a ton. They make great trades, right? The Padres,
20:57
Speaker 5: they love to make trades, right? The Yankees, they don't
21:00
Speaker 5: make the big trades, but they always find those bullpen
21:03
Speaker 5: guys that could be diamonds in the rough. Look at
21:05
Speaker 5: what Blackburn's doing for him this year, right?
21:09
Speaker 1: I don't know.
21:10
Speaker 5: It doesn't seem like rocket science to me, but I
21:15
Speaker 5: don't know. If you have more eyes on things, it
21:17
Speaker 5: seems like you should be able to get more right.
21:21
Speaker 1: Braves is the shocker for me, Kratz. Braves have zero?
21:25
Speaker 5: It really is.
21:26
Speaker 4: And that's what I'm questioning. I actually just texted my
21:29
Speaker 4: buddy who I'm going to test the number that is
21:32
Speaker 4: on there. Because it's not a 100% accurate number. Not
21:36
Speaker 4: everybody keeps track of everything. But for me, the Braves,
21:41
Speaker 4: because when you look across the number, if you bring
21:43
Speaker 4: that back up, you look across and the Royals have,
21:46
Speaker 4: I thought it was 11 or 14, 16 for the Royals. Well,
21:52
Speaker 4: they learned everything that they do. Same regime, same people
21:58
Speaker 4: from the Braves. So I'm just wondering... exactly how, yeah,
22:05
Speaker 4: I'm just wondering exactly where they're getting these numbers from
22:08
Speaker 4: the media guide because I know different teams run different things.
22:12
Speaker 4: And are you still a scout if you watch from
22:16
Speaker 4: your home on video, if they just don't want you
22:18
Speaker 4: to travel? Like, I don't know.