Effectively Wild: A FanGraphs Baseball Podcast - Effectively Wild Episode 2302: Opening Delay and the 2025 Team Fun Draft

Episode Date: March 29, 2025

Ben Lindbergh and Meg Rowley react to assorted frustrations and delights of Opening Day, then (42:07) conduct the fifth annual Team Fun Draft, in which they draft all 30 teams in order of how fun they expect them to be to follow in 2025. Audio intro: Jonathan Crymes 2, “Effectively Wild Theme 2” Audio outro: El Warren, […]

I wanna know about baseball I wanna know about every single team I wanna know about sat-glass and fan crafts And about oh oh oh, darling I'm a very modern fan Reading up on all the analytics I wanna know about baseball Presented by Patreon supporters Oh, effectively why oh Hello and welcome to episode 2302 of Effectively Wild, a FanGraphs baseball podcast brought

to you by our Patreon supporters. I'm Meg Rowley of FanGraphs and I am joined by Ben Lindberg of The Ringer. Ben, how are you? Doing well. I've picked up a bit of a cold from my daughter, but I'm healed in a spiritual sense because Major League Baseball is back. It's back, we're back. It's been nice.

I hope that you had an excellent opening day. All your labors are behind you, or at least some specific labors that were more laborious than the usual ones. You got the staff predictions out, the positional power rankings are done, your work is at an end and I hope that on Thursday you were able to just veg out in front of the TV or the MLB TV for a while and watch baseball.

Did you get a baseball nap in? I got a brief baseball nap in. I had an early morning. We had so many things run on the site yesterday, Ben. And a chat. We had a chat. I didn't chat. I took out baseball now. You know, we got it all out. We predicted. We then predicted boldly. You know, we were doing all of that. I edited a piece to run today, and then my little tum tum was engaged in an hours long rebellion which I was worried would be norovirus 2 electric boogaloo.

Yeah. Thankfully, that did not manifest. Took a little baseball nap. Then I was too high while I was taking my baseball nap. So then I woke up. Then my tum tum felt better. Very exciting stuff. Whatever trouble my tum tum was having, small in comparison to the trouble MLB TV was having for the early part of the day. I imagine we'll talk about that for a second. And then I got to, you know, settle in with some evening baseball, some Diamondbacks, some Mariners.

Got to watch the Seattle Mariners win on opening day. Did not get to do that with the Arizona Diamondbacks. But that's okay, you know, we sometimes face disappointment, trial, tribulation. What were your, what were your favorite things about, um, the day in baseball yesterday? Like if you were gonna, if you were gonna list some of them, I won't make you rank them, but I will say like, if you were going to list some of them, what would, what would they, what would they be? It probably would not be MLB TV performance in the early going MLB TV

Look, here's the thing Ben. I'm in order to okay before you answer the question that I put to you I think MLB TV as a product is actually very good, you know Particularly given how much you pay for it Which is in the grand scheme of things not very much for being able to watch every out of market game. Now, people complain about the boundaries of those markets and they're not wrong to, but you get to click, click, click around and you get to watch all the things. And I think that in general, the platform works very well. I think that the tech is pretty smooth. I'm a fan. Here's, here's the thing about it though. It didn't do well yesterday. And like, I got up at five, you know, I put in the work, Ben. I was ready for opening day.

What way? You know? And I don't think that MLB TV struggling for like three hours indicates the death of baseball. I don't think that it is personally Rob Manfred's fault. I don't think that it is indicative of him hating baseball or its fans. He may well hate both of those things, but I just don't find MLB TV's performance on opening day to be evidence in that case, you know? But it wasn't, it wasn't good that it didn't work. And I don't know that we know why it didn't work. I do think it's very funny how quick people are to jump to Rob Manfred Hits Baseball whenever

anything goes wrong with MLB. I do think that while MLB TV not working well on opening day, as I said, is an evidence of this, it is evidence of a problem for the commissioner, right? That this perception is so well-crystallized. It's so present. It's operating just ever so slightly in the background so much that if any little thing goes wrong that can be attributed to the league, people are, they're ready. They are ready to lay that at the feet of the commissioner personally and to question his love of the game. And it's like if I were Rob, I would be like,

oh, I got a, I got a perception issue. Yeah. Well, criticism is not uncommon for commissioners. And if anything, that might be part of the job description. You're just supposed to be the person who takes those blows, absorbs them. So exactly. Right. And I think that in that case, yeah, it was not great timing for MLB TV to malfunction. And I haven't seen MLB explain what went wrong. I've seen some speculation that this was maybe

an Amazon Web Services issue because there were other outages going on at the same time. Reddit was down or at least unreliable and some other sites as well. So there seemed to be more of a pervasive internet issue happening at that moment. I guess you could also say, maybe it was just overwhelming demand.

There was just so much appetite and enthusiasm for baseball that MLB TV didn't plan for how hard their servers were going to be hit. But yeah, I would assume that it was something else, some underlying issue that was going on, but it was not good timing. That is true. And though people do question Rob Benford's affinity for baseball, they do not question his affinity for making money for baseball. And that was not a great advertisement for the product, making the product inaccessible. But yeah, I was gonna say, oh, it's spring

training for MLB TV too, but it wasn't, it was no longer spring training. It was opening day. So you got to work those hiccups and bugs out during spring trading when many fewer people are watching. But it is true that MLB TV is a pretty miraculous product. It is very much one of these things where we get used to these modern wonders. And then if we don't have it at our fingertips at all times, then we get very upset and understandably we pay for it. We're supposed to have access to it.

But it's also something that within our lifetimes, within living memory, people couldn't have even conceived of such a thing being possible. I remember when MLB TV started. And of course, back then it was far lower quality and it was much less reliable. I mean, it was common at that time to have to endure buffering or unavailability.

And you kind of put up with it at that point because it was like, I can watch all these games just on the internet, on my computer, wherever. It was incredible. I remember when I was thinking about where I was gonna go to college, a big part of my decision was like, am I going to be able to watch baseball? Like, how am I going to maintain my access to baseball?

That mattered to me as much as anything specific to the college that I was going to attend, as we have both said, neither of us visited our college before we showed up for freshman orientation. So I was giving a lot more thought maybe to maintaining my access to baseball and of course to the Yankees at the time because I was still very much a fan. And so I was thinking, if I'm going to DC for college, how am I gonna watch the Yankees?

And technology provided really just in time because at the time I had XM or whatever it was called then, I had satellite radio so that I could get the broadcast and then MLB TV came along and it was just perfect timing for me that those things showed up. But yeah, MLB TV was not even close to what it is now, quality wise and reliability wise. And we've gotten so used to just having it all the time,

crystal clear, that when it goes away, then we are quite upset. And that was the worst time for it to go away. So yeah, opening day was quite pleasant. If I had any criticism, it would be, it would have been nice if it could have been more of an all day affair. If there had been some earlier games on the schedule and also if MLB TV had cooperated so that the games that did start, we could have actually watched them right from the schedule. And also if MLB TV had cooperated so that the games that did start, we could have actually watched them right from the start. Other than that, it was great. The thing that saved it and I, you know, other people's mileage on this might vary because the thing about it is that most people aren't satisfied to watch baseball. They want to

watch their baseball. Right. And so if you are, you know, if you're an Orioles fan or a Blue Jays fan, the fact that you could watch, you know, the Brewers and the Yankees on ESPN, cold comfort, you don't care about them. You want to watch Adley bop, right? You can feel the warm relief wash over you to be like, that Adley's gonna be okay. Cause guess what like, that Adley's gonna be okay. Cause guess what?

I think Adley's gonna be okay. You want to watch Tyler O'Neil, right? If you're a Blue Jays fan, you want to watch the inexplicably long pregame serum. Just like, what was that? It went, before the MLBTV crapped out, I was just like, well, they're still doing pre pre game stuff. Like when it says delay ceremony, I'd never seen that before Ben on MLB TV. It's a delay ceremony. I was like, well gosh, got a lot of business to

take care of up there. I guess I think the vibes at blue jays games are going to be kind of weird all year, you know, and not, and not for like, they haven't extended Vlad reasons yet, but for like, we're not doing great in terms of our relations with our friends to the north kind of way. I felt weird in that game. But anyway, so like all of that to say, you want to be able to watch your guys, you don't care as much about the other guys. But like, at least there was an ESPN game, although so early in the ESPN game, we're talking to Reese Hoskins in the field and I just like, Reese Hoskins seems like

a charming enough guy. It's nice. It is nice that he got to have a full normal off season as opposed to last year when he was coming off the injury, right? Like that's great. But I feel like I could have guessed that he would say that and maybe heard him say exactly that during spring training. So I was like, we could have just been watching the baseball. Yeah. That's something we lose if MLB and ESPN actually do divorce. They're going to do it no matter where they go. What are you talking about? Yeah. It still has happened on other broadcasts. It's not exclusive to ESPN, but ESPN seems

like the main offender, maybe the first offender, they've popularized the practice. So I would not miss that. I have to say something. I feel nervous sharing this thought and I'm going to refrain from attaching this notion to particular Yankees. Because I'm a professional, Ben, you know? And I don't want to be in a clubhouse and be like, hey, remember when I said you were hot on my podcast? But I got to say this.

I'm just going to say a name. I'm going to say a couple names. The Beards are great. And so many of these guys. I'll say a name. Carlos Rodan. Carlos Rodan? Jason Dominguez?

We knew what Devin Williams looked like with facial hair. And he's a handsome guy. I am uncomfortable how many times during that camera was like, is that guy really handsome? Has he always been really handsome? Like, is he just a handsome guy? And, you know, but don't mean it as a slight on clean shaven Jason Dominguez, but I'm just saying like the beard is good, looks good.

It depends on the person, obviously. Sometimes a beard can enhance handsomeness and sometimes it can detract, arguably. Maybe it has to do with the characteristics of said face. Perhaps it has to do with the strength of the chin, the strength of the jawline. There are certain things that facial hair can camouflage, it can compliment. So it depends on the person. And that's why it's nice to offer the option of having that personal expression to perfect your look.

Right, and so I was struck by that in a way that made me feel uncomfortable. And then I was also struck in a way that made me remember how silly the policy was all along. You know, there were a number of shots of the Yankees dug out, just like a sweeping shot. And I was like, there are a bunch of beards in that dugout now.

And I just like, these guys, they wanted beards. They begged for beards. They thought I want a beard and they were toldout now. And I just like, these guys, they wanted beards. They begged for beards. They thought I want a beard and they were told no beard and now beard. So good for them. Yeah. It's funny how quickly that becomes a non-story. Like the Cincinnati Reds used to have that no beard, no facial hair policy. And they had it for decades, longer than the Yankees did. I think it became official in the late 60s when it was like, oh, you know, mop tops and counterculture and long hairs and the reds were gonna hold the line

and be the conservative facial hair types. And so that stood for them for really a few decades until Greg Vaughan arrived in 1999. And Greg Vaughan had facial hair and he wanted to maintain his facial hair and he didn't make that big a stink about it, but he lodged a protest. He brought it up and Marge Schott, who was maintaining, yeah, maintaining the policy at that, quickly caved and reversed course and said, Greg Vaughn, you can have facial hair.

And that was that. And Greg Vaughn had his 45 homer season for the Reds and he was good and they were good. And he took some flack and then he even said years later, I didn't even mean to make a big stink about it. Like it seems sort of silly that people couldn't have facial hair if they wanted facial hair. But you know, I didn't, I wasn't really out to rock the boat.

I just wanted to have facial hair for myself. I wasn't trying to change a team policy. I was just, you know, worried about myself more than anything. But of course the team policy affects oneself. But they had that policy formally for a few decades and informally for far longer because I think before it became codified, it was just sort of an unwritten rule for the Reds. And that was that. Greg Vaughn comes along and he speaks up and says, I would prefer to have facial hair and he's a big player for them. And that's that. And then it's

gone and no one really minds or cares after that. So it's really sort of silly that it lasted as long as it did for the Yankees, that there wasn't some other free agent in the past 40, 50 years who pulled a Greg Vaughn until Devin Williams, I guess, and just said, you know, I don't love this. So once it's gone, then it just seems silly in retrospect that it was ever there or that it lasted that long. I love that Marge Schott was like, I will demonstrate growth as a human being one time. Yeah. This is it.

We're using it on the beards. It is an interesting thing. It did get remarked upon on the broadcast, but it took a while. It took a while for them to say anything about it. And then they moved on fairly quickly. But yeah, so beards, I noticed the beards. It took a while for them to say anything about it and then they moved on fairly quickly. But yeah, so, so beards, I noticed the beards.

What else do we take away from opening day? What else washed over you? Yeah, that is the word for it because it's just you're inundated in baseball. And of course, spring training is on, but I tend to tune out spring training after the initial buzz of it. I'm not necessarily watching a ton of spring training action. And so opening day, it's just, yeah, it feels like, you know, you've been without baseball for five months, at least major league baseball. And then, you know, what's another

hour or two with MLB TV being out after five months of withdrawal? I mean, I guess you feel the absence even more acutely because you're anticipating that you're just gonna have immediate access to baseball. But I'm glad that you got your work done, that your stomach mostly cooperated, that Mookie Betts' stomach has been cooperating as well. Why was he playing then? Do we know?

I'm sorry. I guess he's just very eager to get back out there. I mean, you know Mookie, he just wants to play. He does look very slim. Just, you can tell if I didn't know that he had been ill, I just wants to play. He does look very slim. Just, you can tell. If I didn't know that he had been ill, I would say to myself, yeah. So you can tell, but I mean, he's playing okay.

He's getting some hits and hopefully he is keeping his food down now. There was a listener on Reddit who said that it was a huge miss on DookyBets to go along with PukeyBets on our preceding episode. I will not read that listener's username for reasons that I will not detail on this podcast, though people are welcome to visit the subreddit at r slash effectively wild. If they want to find out why, yeah, I guess that's why, right?

We don't, we don't know exactly which things were emerging from. We know one, but I don't want to presume that it was necessarily double-barreled action. Exactly. We didn't call him Dooky Betz because we didn't know that he was Dooky Betz. We know he was Dooky Betz. We prioritize accuracy, effectively.

Often those things go hand in hand or other body parts and other body parts, but not always. Sometimes right at the same moment. Yeah. I can't tell you how much better, even with all of the work that I had to do, even with enough work that at a certain point on Tuesday evening, I said to you in desperation, please find a sub. I cannot podcast tomorrow.

Even with all of that, Ben, to get done, which is just like, you know, it's like being an accountant and it's April. You just know it's one of your busy seasons. It's not a, it's not that it isn't a taxing hat, but, but that like it's anticipated, right? You know what's coming and you just, you, you gird your loins and you get it done and you're in it with your people, right? Your teammates at Fangrass and you feel like we're all in this together, we're rowing the big boat and you get it done. But it's still a lot and you're very, I'm so tired, very tired.

And then I was sitting there on the couch preparing to take my baseball nap. Tell me a little, no, it was on Wednesday. I was like, you know, this is a lot and I'm busy and I have stress, but like it does feel like this opening day or lead up is better than last year. Why is that? And it's because I was not afflicted with neurovirus, which did make opening day and adventure last year. And it made me feel bad for, for, for pukey bats as a person, but also for them, the nickname, because I was like a Mookie I know,

but also do we know that what he had, whatever he was dealing with was not contagious because apparently Kike was also puking. I think he said at a certain point that, because he stayed away from the team for a little while or he went home, but then came back. I guess they were pretty confident that. But then Kike Hernandez was apparently puking

because he wasn't in the opening day lineup. Also, I just wonder if there's like a weird stomach then going around because, you know, you also had, will Tanner Bybee had to be scratched from his opening day start? Although that did occasion me to recall that, uh, Tanner Bybee used to talk about how he would always eat Chipotle the day before he started. So maybe we just have our answer there. I think he said that he, he fell ill before his pre-start superstitious Chipotle. So maybe, maybe he, yeah,

he was deflecting blame or maybe Chipotle was actually innocent in this case, but he did defend the honor of Chipotle. Yeah. So, you know, like people were, there were many pukers, but just not all of their names rhyme with pukey. So I don't have, uh, we will rank things a little later in this episode, so I don't have a ranking of things I enjoyed on opening day, but I was gonna bring up Retchman.

You know, typically on this podcast, a lot of people will do sort of the confirmation bias reactions to opening day or to the first week where it's kinda half joking, but it's like, oh, here are some things that we've seen. Yeah, in the early going that I actually believe or that kind of confirmed my priors. And we don't typically do that, I suppose.

We just try to keep in mind that we will forget all of these individual things by the end of the season. And it doesn't necessarily mean anymore because it is the first game or the first week. But, Richmond is a case where the early returns, I think, do seem more meaningful. And I had faith in Adley and when I was asked to rank the catchers this off season for MLB Network, I put Adley as my number one, despite his second half swoon and might be charitable for just... Yeah, he was really, really not good.

And I sort of assumed, yeah, that it was injury related and there were foul tips and such that seemed to coincide with his downturn at the plate. And he and the team denied that it was and I don't really know what incentive they would have to do that if they didn't think it was, and I don't really know what incentive they would have to do that if they didn't think it was after the season. Often you do hear players come clean about some nagging injury that was hampering their performance

that maybe they don't want to acknowledge while the season's still ongoing, but then after the fact they say, yeah, I hurt in some significant way for a very long time. And Adley didn't do that, but it just was such a significant and sudden and steep drop off that it was hard for me

to think that there wasn't something physically wrong or that maybe some passing physical issue led to a more lasting mechanical issue. So perhaps it could have been that, but I bet on the bounce back just because of the track record and I'm not gonna say I'm vindicated based So perhaps it could have been that, but I bet on the bounce back just because of the track record. And I'm not going to say I'm vindicated based on one game, but he did have three hits and two home runs in opening day. And he had two home runs total in his last 57 games last year.

With a 569 OPS over that span. So something was wrong. And just to have a single two homer game says to me that maybe whatever that was is fixed. Plus he had a thousand plus OPS in spring training too, which makes me somewhat more confident that he's back. So that really would be a big boost for Baltimore because we've talked about the pitching issues, but having those hitters goes a long way toward making up for pitching problems. And if you have Adley being back to his basically MVP caliber self, then yeah, that's going

to go a long way. Yeah. I think that their fortunes change appreciably if he is, you know, more like the guy that we saw in the early part of his career. It is interesting that they, you know, I'm inclined to believe them that there wasn't a real injury issue just because there is incentive after a season like that to clarify like, no, this guy is just like dinged up. Yeah. You know, but that didn't happen. It guy is just like dinged up. Um, you know, but that didn't happen. It was sort of like when Corbin Carroll was, you know, in a spiral

in the first half last year. And we, we wondered if, you know, he was dealing with a shoulder thing, but he didn't, he didn't have surgery. So it's like, well, I guess, I guess not. And then his batting stance is totally different. It's so weird. It's so wild how different it is now. I hadn't really paid attention to Corbin in spring training except to see that he was hitting. But yeah, it's totally different. He totally changes his stance.

Yeah, it's funny. Some guys are really tinkerers when it comes to that. They're consistently inconsistent. I guess Caldrickin Jr. was like that. He would just kind of change on the fly and just go by feel, whereas others are just very rigid and want to stick with the same approach. And who else?

I guess Spencer Torkelson's day was noteworthy. Yeah, four walks and a homer. And this was against the Dodgers and Blake Snell, who was in his usual form. And that was also coming on the heels Dodgers and Blake Snell, who was in his usual form. And, uh, and that was also coming on the heels of a strong thousand plus OPS spring training for Torkelson. And he has talked a lot about how he's trying to refine his approach and he's

trying to be more selective. And he hit five homers this spring. He wasn't like ultra walkie. Like he was, I think he had four walks in all of spring training against 11 strikeouts. And then he had four walks on opening day. It was the first ever opening day, four walks with a homer performance. So there's a fun fact for you, I guess, mildly fun.

But he did really seem to see the ball well and you know, he's going to be in there against lefties, but still it's Blake Snell. And he was just not biting at those Snell pitches outside the zone. He was just letting them go by. So if that is a real change for him, then that's exciting for the Tigers.

Cause I don't know that they have enough offense, but if Twerk managed to find some of that potential, then that would go a long way for them too. I mean, their hits went a long way on opening day too, but I mean more in the season sense of actually having a productive long lineup for the year. If Torquilson was not a lost cause, you're not saying he's gonna step right up

and be the tandem with Riley Green that the Tigers were hoping that he would be, but if he could be a productive hitter as opposed to a guy who's getting demoted, then that would be big for them. It was encouraging. I think the assumption coming into camp was that he was just going to start the year in the minors because they made these moves. All of a sudden they were moving Colt Keith around because of signings. They had to like kind of rejigger their infield, but he really forced

the issue. He had a great spring and you're right, we'll see how long he's able to sustain that, but it would be a tremendous boon to their offense because, you know, as I'm sitting there, you know, like remembering that I'm not throwing up and preparing our staff predictions and thus making my own, I really struggled to decide what I thought was going to happen in the central because you have all these promising teams. I've taken stuff forwards, but how forward are the steps? Like, you know, the baby steps, the big steps. And I ended up coming away thinking that the twins will still win that division even if I don't have a ton of conviction in the selection. And part of that was just like their pitching is I think in a more consistent sort of sustainable spot. But also it's just like, it's not a

great lineup in Detroit, you know? It's like, it's really not. Some of it is like Riley Green. It's just like legitimately very good. But you know, like Kerry Carpenter is a half a player just based on, you know, when you're adding like Manuel Margot in trade, like the day before the season starts, like, where are you really? You know, where are you? Well, yeah, I guess that's what happens when you have injuries. Right. And some of this will be dictated by like, what does Parker Meadows and Perez, what does Juan Siel Perez look like when he comes back early?

Yeah. Yeah. I mostly escaped having to make predictions this year. We didn't do a staff predictions post at The Ringer, but we did an entrance survey, sort of a little shoot around. And I did have to predict a World Series matchup. And so I went with Dodgers and then I was like, do I have to pick an AL team? I guess I have to pick an AL team.

But man, it's tough because there's just a lot of mediocrity in that league. I mean, it's just the best teams in baseball are in the National League. And the AL, it's just the best teams in baseball are in the national league and the AL, it's just a jumble of, I can't really separate these teams now. Maybe the best teams are in the AL East, but they're gonna be beating up on each other.

And so I did ultimately go with the twins just because I felt like, eh, throw a bone to the AL Central and long suffering twins fans because there's no separation really among the top AL candidates, but I'm far from confident in that. And I also picked the Tigers as my most interesting team.

I think the Tigers are fascinating. That's a fun prediction. I love that I'm adding things to make both the staff and me edit. Yeah. Once the bold predictions started rolling in, I was like, oh good, I just assigned myself an extra 6,000 words to edit before opening day.

Real smart, Meg, doing great. Well, we're about to talk about which teams interest us the most, but other than what we've already said, on opening day, I guess one of the pitfalls of it is that you tend not to get the most commanding pitching performances. You think you will because you've got aces everywhere. It's everyone's number one starters if they're healthy, but it's still early in

the season and people are still ramping up and building up arm strength or they're not at full strength yet. And so you tend not to see guys going really deep into games, not that you ever do these days, but even by modern standards, opening day tends not to be when you're pushing people. So, you know, we've got Framberval Des going his usual seven strong and we got Mackenzie Gore looking great, 13 Ks.

Gore looks great. Yeah, but some of the other pitchers that you're most looking forward to were pretty pedestrian or just, you know, not overpowering performances. So that's a little bit of a letdown. You kind of have to calibrate that, yeah, you're going to see all these exciting pitchers,

but you're probably not going to see them at their best in that first outing. Yeah, but there were some good, there were still some good pitching performances to be had yesterday. It sort of depended what you were watching, but like, you know, Skeens was Skeens. Skeens skeened, right?

Yeah, he was pretty good, yeah. He was pretty good. His bullpen blow a lead, probably not for the last time this season. Not for the last time, but that wasn't Paul Skeens' fault. And I'm going to be fair, and I'm going to put this to both ends. Luis Severino looked good for the athletics. Logan Gilbert looked great for Seattle. I was so happy that a hanging slider didn't upend his evening. I get to enjoy it when the Mariners pull out a win.

I get to like it, you know, just because I was critical during the off season. You only criticize because you care, you know, that's why you do it, Ben. You criticize because you care. And then you get to watch, you know, Randy or Rosarina and Jorge Polanco homer, and then you realize you have to take back every annoying thing you ever said about Jorge Polanco last year, because maybe you just hurt. Maybe you'll be great, Ben. You know, did you ever think about that,anco last year. Cause maybe it was just hurt. Maybe you'll be great, Ben, you know, did you ever think about that?

How maybe he'll just be great. Rowdy Tlez is the starting first baseman for the Seattle Mariners in 2025. Where, what are we? See, it's not all, it's not all lollipops. Well, it is kind of nice that you have a backup team to follow now. Cause you, you kind of have an AL team and an NL team,

I guess, right? Because I know you're not as intense a fan of any one team as you used to be of the Mariners, but because of your proximity to the Diamondbacks now, you kind of have a soft spot for them. You get to see them most often. And Diamondbacks Mariners, unless they meet in the World Series,

they're usually not going head to head. Yeah, but look, if you have that dilemma, you'll probably be pretty pleased about it, Unless they meet in the World Series, they're usually not going head to head. And what will I do? Yeah, but look, if you have that dilemma, you'll probably be pretty pleased about it, I would guess, ultimately. But it's nice that you have kind of multiple rooting interests, even if they're a little less intense than they used to be. Yeah. It feels good to get excited when the Mariners end a game on a great J.P. Crawford play. That's a fun time.

Ben, I was so tired by the time the 10 Eastern slate rolled around. I'm sitting there watching. The other games ended, so I put the Mariners pregame on and less Blue Jays fans think I'm picking on them. All of these pregame ceremonies are so long, they go on forever. But I have emotional attachment to one of them. So I wasn't as bothered. The Mariners are playing the athletics. So they did a really nice tribute to Ricky. And then they had a make a wish cancer kid run the bases. And I was just like bawling on the couch. I was like, I'm gonna even love this, and that little Cancer Kid, I hope she's okay.

And I hope she has a long life of good health. She looked great. She did like all their little celebrations at the various bases. It was the cutest, it was the cutest, but I was just like, I hope the little kid is okay. And then E.G. Rose out here like hucking like 84 to Dan Wilson. And you can watch the two of them leaving the field and, you know, Ichiro's asking Wilson

like, did I have a little something on a beautiful, great day of baseball? I was so once, especially once MLB TV started working and I knew that I was going to be able to just like enjoy it, you know, like Christian Campbell got his first hit and Bray looks great. And I'm just like engaged with these guys. Oh, Tony's homering and it was great. Tom Hanks is just celebrating like a little kid show. Hey, homers. He's. Yeah. You know, I also am sitting there like, what happened to Rob Lowe though?

Like, why does he look like that now? What's going on over there? You got to get out of the Atkins, man. It's making you look funny. Yeah. Maybe he's crossed over into looking great for his age to looking unnaturally youthful, but in a way that doesn't look like, wow, you look very young, but you're trying to preserve your youthful appearance in a way that ends up having almost the opposite effect. It mostly, and look, people should do whatever they want to their faces. It's none of my business, but it was, it was just a, it was a funny contrast,

studying contrast, right? Because there's Tom Hanks and maybe Tom Hanks has, I've worked in, I don't know. I don't know if Rob Lowe's that worked on, but you know, Tom Hanks is like, he's in that phase of being an older man where there's a lot of gray and he's got the distinguished glasses and he looks great, but he looks like he's a man his age. And then he's like almost 70, Tom Hanks. And then you have Rob Lowe and it just Looks like he looks like he has an Instagram filter on him, but it's real life, you know

And it's not they're not that far apart age-wise. I guess it's almost a decade, but it's not a full decade yeah, people would always point out the age difference between like Rob Lowe and The actor who plays Jerry on Parks and Rec was yes Not not really that much Jerry. It's Eric Jim O'Hare. Yeah, it's uh, what is that actual age difference? It's like it's it's like two years. Maybe if that much so yeah He's 63 Yeah that much. So yeah, he's 63, Rablo is 61. So, yeah. But see the thing that anyway, that's not the point of this. It becomes, yeah, it's like, you know, aging gracefully, just embrace it. And it's, it's quite becoming.

But I was just going to say that I do kind of like it in a sense when a, a former player sort of stays at their playing weight, you're entitled to let it go a little bit when you're no longer a professional athlete, you know, just sure, that's fine. You don't have to stay as trim as you once were. But Ichiro, for example, now when he takes his cap off and his hair is almost white, you say, okay, that man is 51 years old. And obviously he played until he was like 45, right? But he does. I mean, it's kind of a cliche to say like, he looks like he could still go out there, you know?

But when you do superficially look like that and you come out firing 84 for your ceremonial first pitch, it is nice just because when you see a player who, you know, you remember them in their youthful prime and then there's a little bit of a middle age spread going on which, hey, that's perfectly fine. You're entitled to that. But it does remind you of your own age and mortality

because it's like, oh, I remember that man when he just broke into the league or, you know, and now he looks his age, which is an older age, which means that my age must also be older. And then you see Yichiro who looks like he's probably still not even squeezing into the same uniform, just comfortably wearing it. And you think, oh, okay, well that's reassuring. My understanding is that he is just like around a lot. He's like around the team a lot. He's just around the team a lot. And that's nice. That's great.

Yeah. You do have to like, you have to grapple with the age thing. I continue to believe that, you know, sure, it feels a particular way when you see, when you see players who are, you know, they're 32 and the way that we talk about them is, oh my God, I can't believe that he's managing this. And then you do the math and you're like, wow, I'm seven years older than that guy or whatever. But the thing that gets me is when the, when recent players become coaches that continues to be like, did you

know that Herodopara is the first base coach for the nationals now? Did you learn that yesterday like I did? Because I went, what the f***? It is jarring sometimes. Yeah, it was jarring. I went, what the f***? And then I remember Baby Shark. Wasn't he involved in Baby Shark? Oh, very much so. Wasn't involved. He was like the perpetrator. He was Daddy Shark, as it were. Anyway, so that happened where I was like, mmm, don't care for that. I mean, good for him, but also, mmm, don't care for that.

I'm glad to see that Phillies fans are still anxious masses. Good job. Every Phillies fan I follow on social media was having a time yesterday, but we're tough for you. So I don't know that Romano is going to be the solution for them in the late innings, but that's neither here nor there. Good to see Bryce Harper hitting home runs. Miraculously, not one of the people dealing with stomach issues on opening day,

despite the raw milk. So what do I know? Still think pasteurization is good. Nats fans did not agree that it was good to see him or to see him hitting home runs. They gave him some booze, but yeah, that's not new. But yeah, it just feels, it feels very good to have it back. It feels really nice to, you know, you feel like you're seeing friends again, you know? And you can't watch everything. And on opening day, you end up with this kind of on the one hand, panicked feeling because it's like, Oh gosh, I like missed what seems like it was like a really compelling game between the guardians and the Royals. And

yeah, I caught, you know, I caught the extras part of that, but I didn't get to see all of it. Oh no. But then it's okay, Ben, because guess what? They're playing again today, man. Not everyone, because this is always the funny thing about opening day. And to be clear, the Guardians and the Royals are not themselves playing again today because this is the thing that happens is you get this off day they have to build in flex in case there's a rain out but it's okay I don't have to feel that that

sense that you do toward the end of the playoffs where you're like oh my god I only get so many more of these you know until I have to wait again it doesn't it's okay. They're going to be, they're going to be playing baseball again today. Ben is so great. You know, I get very, I will admit something. I've been faking it a little bit in the last couple of weeks, like my enthusiasm, because it's like, it's busy and work is hard and there's so much of it and the world is a mess.

And I've been faking it a little because I want our listeners to feel excited about baseball and I don't want to be a downer and there's enough in the world to make you feel that way. And so I've been trying to have a pep, but some of the pep has been artificial pep, Ben, you know, I've been juicing. But then I'm sitting there on the couch yesterday and I started to feel confident that I wasn't going to throw up and all of the pre-opening day work was done and I watched Ohtani hit that home run and I just, we get to watch these guys for like seven months now and they're really good at baseball and it's a joy and I, it turned the whole thing around for me, it really did. So my pep, whole thing around for me. It really did.

So my pep, not artificial today. Excellent. Real pep. Well, good. And I'm glad that there are more games than usual, I think on the second day. Very often there are very few games, but I wish everyone were playing,

but most teams are playing and the Rockies and Rays had to wait for Friday for their first game. So it's opening day for someone still. So plenty of baseball. Should we get to our exercise unless you have any other opening day specific observations? No, I don't think I did. I think let's, um, let's draft some fun, you know? Yeah. So that's what we've done. I think at least for the past couple of years, we've done this at this same time, although maybe we've done it more times at other points on the calendar,

but we're doing the team fun draft, or you could call it, I don't know, the MLB TV rankings or something when MLB TV is working, but basically which teams we think are the most fun this season, which teams we find ourselves gravitating toward. And that's just purely subjective based on our own rooting interests or watching interests.

And the way I approached this at least was to look at it as sort of a full season projection of fun as opposed to a snapshot of who's fun today. Because of course, a lot of teams, they might have particular players who are fun, who are hurt right now, who we expect to be back at some point, or maybe we know that they're gonna trade some guys

before the deadline and thus they'll get less fun, or maybe they'll be promoting prospects at some point by the end of the year and that is a fun prospect. And so that could enhance your funness. So it's not necessarily reflective of the roster as it's constituted today, but it's sort of a holistic measure. And there's clearly a strong correlation, I think,

between funness and just goodness, so just how good at baseball you are. But it's not a perfect correlation. But there are some teams that I think their level of fun outstrips how good the team is and vice versa. So that's how we do this. And I didn't devote a ton of time or research to this.

It was kind of a snap judge. It's about vibes. Yeah. How fun I feel with this team is. It is very much. I remember what I wanted to tell you, Ben. Can I tell it? Can I? I don't want to let, I'm not trying to like you, Ben. Can I tell it? Can I, can I, I don't wanna let,

I'm not trying to like garner sympathy. Like it all got done. It was very good. But at one point earlier this week, I had almost gotten out of the shower before I realized that I had shaved one of my legs twice and the other leg, not at all. Cause I was just thinking about my to-do lists

and all the little, the degree to which, you know, there's like a lot of redundancy and planning and care that goes into the site. But at some point, like every major site that you like is predicated on someone writing down what they have to do and then checking a box that they've done it. And so I was just like, you know, I'm like thinking about all the stuff I have to do. And then I looked down and I was like, one of these legs is still hairy and the other one is very much not. And then I was like, I gotta shave both of them, you know, I or not, you don't have

to shave any of them if you don't want to. But I had committed to doing that. And then I had done it twice on one side and not at all on the other. And I was like, well, I guess I should do that before I get out of here. Otherwise I'm going to be imbalanced. So anyway, that was a glad you realized that before you left the shower, I guess. I mean, yeah, cause I had to get back in, get wet again.

And it's like, I've already toweled off. And then you just kind of, do you leave it until next time? Anyway, who should go first in our draft? You can. Okay. Do you feel like I was begging for sympathy with that story? You're not wrong.

Look, sometimes you're going on vibes, and because it's vibes, and it can be on some level a little disconnected from run production, or from how dominant a pitching staff is, or the prospects of the team, literal or figurative, but you can get too cute with these things. And so I'm taking the Los Angeles Dodgers because Ben, holy crap. You know, and, and look, I say that having gritted through a Blake Snell start on opening

day, which is just daring people to not be into your team. I'm sorry. It's still, still not fun. It went fine for a while. Then it was less good. But, there are so many fun guys on that club and they're going to get more of them back. Some of the ones they have are going to be less pukey and even more productive. The arms that they're getting back are great. And it's even just like some of the role player guys who are not the biggest stars, for whatever reason just have been like really spending a lot of time watching Andy Pies this spring.

I feel like Andy Pies is just like a really good baseball player. He had a great spring. He had some nice defensive plays yesterday. He is just like a really good baseball player. He had a great spring. He had some nice defensive plays yesterday. He's just like a good, and like he's not the biggest name on that team, but it's just like, even that guy is like really good. And, you know, I love how, you know, Tony hits his home run and he's in the dugout and they, you know, it's easy when you've won a world series and you've spent all this money and you have a really good club and you get to

wear the special World Series jerseys and you know, I love how like he and Teoscar are still buddies and Mikael Rojas is in there and you have this like cross-cultural exchange of guys and it's so beautiful and You know, they're just a, it's a lot of fun, man. And you get to watch Tom Hanks be happy and Rob Lowe look weird and that's fun too. And no, it's it's the obvious pick and I would have made it if you hadn't. And I mean,

I was taking the angels number one in the team fund draft when Otani was on the angels. So even when, even when Otani was on the team, that was an indefensible pick. Well, wherever Shohei is, is going to be my number one. But in this case, it's not just Otani or Otani and Trout. It's the entire team just about is made up of compelling players, good players at least. I don't know whether as a spectator experience, Blake Snow is all that compelling, but just about everyone else in that rotation is.

It's just like the most brutal. Yeah. I want to tune in to watch Yamamoto. I want to tune in to watch Sasaki, obviously. I want to watch Glass now. I want to watch Hershaw at some point this season. I want to watch Dustin May. I mean, just everyone is watchable.

And then everyone in the lineup is good, just about too. And so you're not just getting Shohei, you're getting Freeman and Mookie and Te Oskar and Uncy and just on and on and on. So yeah, I mean, at some point you just have to take the team with the best baseball players and that's obviously the Dodgers. And sure, are people plenty tired of the Dodgers?

Yes. Do they resent the Dodgers? Yes. Understandable. But there's just so much talent on this team that if you just want to tune in to watch the highest caliber of baseball being played or just the most notable players on the screen at any one time, I mean, it's not even like there's a back of the rotation that's boring or like the

bottom of the lineup is, is a dead spot or something. It's just kind of, everyone is, is pretty good or everyone is pretty, pretty watchable. So yeah. You're like, Oh yeah, Tanner Scott is on this team, you know? And it was because of the, I mean, he did open one of their games, but like some of the innings that Dan Kasperius pitched during the World Series or the playoffs more generally were like kind of lower leverage. And so I started calling him low leverage Ben, which is like rude to him and also not going to be true. Cause like if he's just

going to anyway, so I was like, Oh, low leverage Ben. And then, and then I was like, he's probably not going to be a low leverage guy. Yeah. They're just like, they're really great and they're going to be really great. And, and it was nice that even though they're really great and they're going to be really great, like the tigers gave them the business, you know, like it wasn't until later that that, like that game didn't like get out of hand and then never, they weren't ever in it. Like they, you know know torque was doing towards seven schools Yep, I did admittedly goes zoinks scoops at one point during that game because then it wasn't going as well Anyway, that was a good joke. That was those a funny little quip

Dodgers it is number one. I will take your diamond backs number two actually Yeah, I think I think they're just a really fun team They're a fun Regardless of whether they're the closest team to you. I think there's just a lot of compelling, watchable players on that team. I need to play better in field defense, but yeah. Yeah, but just top to bottom, like the lineup, a lot of guys I enjoy watching there. I mean, they've got speed, they can kind of do it all. They've got Corbin Carroll, they've got Speed, they can kind of do it all.

They've got Corbin Carroll, they've got Moreno, they've got Cattelmarte. Like it's just a lot of good players in that lineup. And then also you get Corbin Burns and you get Zach Gallin. It's another rotation that top to bottom is pretty strong. You know, there's no like total weak link there. And then there's some fireballers in the back of the bullpen too.

And it's kind of a pity really that the Dodgers are in the same division as the Diamondbacks and the Padres because those are also two of the most fun teams to watch. And that I think is one of the downsides of the Dodgers being as dominant as they are, that you're essentially just blocking out two other excellent teams of a division race unless things go really right for them

and really wrong for the Dodgers. But man, those teams are good and the Diamondbacks are good and you got your boy, Garrett Hampson there, right? Like, it's just a lot to like on this team. And they're kind of like easy to root for. Like they've been aggressive when it comes to player acquisition and also adept at it. They've acquired players in a lot of different ways and they've won some trades and they've signed some big guys

and international free agents and free talent fines. So yeah, there's just, there's just a lot to enjoy about the Arizona Diamondbacks. They're in a unique vibe state where it's like, you know, they gave $200 million to Corbin Burns this off season. It's not like they're not spending money. They are acquiring guys, but because they exist in the same division as the Dodgers, they get to occupy this like weird, liminal space where they are simultaneously like trying really hard and have a lot of

talent on their roster, but they're still just inherently an underdog. And so it's like a cool, that's like a cool, that's cool. You know, it's not a kind of space that a lot of teams get to occupy. So yeah, good pick. Before we continue, I want to applaud the Cleveland guardians. I'm not selecting them here, but I do want to applaud them because I've just seen on awful announcing that, you know, the guardians are one of these teams that had like a weird broadcast situation and they have a MLB in market option Cleveland Guardians TV and like the situation for that was only announced hours before and then obviously they were affected by this MLB TV issue yesterday. Their platform is cleeguardians.tv which is really easy to say.

They're giving subscribers to that in market streaming option the ability to get a free ticket because they had streaming issues yesterday. So they said, are offering affected viewers four free upper reserve tickets to a home game of their choice in April or May, excluding the already sold out April 8th home opener. I feel like that's nice. That's a good thing to do. Yeah, like that. Okay. But that's not my pick, despite that being a good vibes thing. My next pick is I'm going to take the Philadelphia Phillies. And here's why. I think this is a good baseball team. That that rotation stacked even though they're down Rangers for us right now and even though

again, their fans are Ready to at any given moment fling themselves into a fire, you know Just like the concern that was present yesterday So I gotta say some of this some of the fielding on this team yesterday was it was very poor Then it was very poor. Ben, it was very poor. One of our kind Patreon supporters, one of the Patreon benefits at a particular tier is that you can ask us to do a little video, kind of like cameo. And I would like to thank our patrons for taking us up on that just the right amount,

which is not very much because it feels weird to do. But one of the things that folks have done is use that benefit to have their fantasy team draft order announced. And we each did a couple of these. Well, I did one this year, you did a couple just because of how it worked out. And this is a very long windup to say that one of the team names in the one I did was Stott2Go, which I, beautiful, no notes. But I got, I was like ready to do some Stott2Go jokes with credit, of course, on Blue Sky, but then like it didn't work out because of who's it. Anyway, all that to say, still a lot of really good players on this team.

Great, many good players. And I think that they actually are fun and will have a good vibe. And to your point about how this is like a season long projection really, the Phillies have a card up their sleeve because if the vibes turn wrong, they'll figure out a way to put Garrett Stubbs

back on the team and then the vibes will get fixed. So they have a vibe out, you know? They have like a vibe check down to mix sport metaphors here. Just ready to go, start to go, you know? Yeah, no, that rotation is so strong, even with Suarez out now, that every day, you can tune into the Phillies.

You don't even necessarily have to look at the matchup or who the probables are. You just know it's gonna be a good pitcher because it's the Phillies. They and the Dodgers might be the only two teams that you could really put in that category, where it's like, I don't even need to know who is scheduled to start today.

It's gonna be someone good. So that rotation is so stacked. And then, yeah, you just got a lot of very watchable, just very famous, you know, kind of mean character of baseball guys just on that lineups, like Schwartzer and Turner and Harper and Real Muto. And then Castellanos is always entertaining. It's just a team that has a personality and just maybe the strongest or second strongest

staff, pitching staff in baseball top to bottom. And you know that they're going to stay aggressive and make mid-season moves if they need to. Yeah. They got Painter on the way, you know? And as soon as they buy into pasteurization, look out, you know? I'm gonna keep talking about this because I really need people to like go to bat

for pasteurization, among other things. Yeah. Okay, well, I've taken one of the 2023 pennant winners. I'm gonna take the other one. I'm taking the Texas Rangers. Okay, I thought you were gonna take my Seattle Mariners and I was gonna be mad at you. Not yet, no. But I'm taking the Texas Rangers. Okay, I thought you were going to take my Seattle Mariners and I was going to be mad. Not yet, no.

But I'm taking the Rangers because, well, A, I just, I want to see Jacob DeGrom, like he's a top five player for me this year, just in terms of I want to watch that guy. And it's not just DeGrom, it's also, I love that both of the Vandy boys are in this rotation right now. Vandy boys.

You've got Jack Leiter and Kumar Roker sharing a major league rotation, which is pretty special. It's also another top to bottom, pretty strong, or at least interesting rotation. And then it's a team that should really rake, which is also what we thought last year, and then they didn't, but I think this year they probably will,

or at least will come closer to raking the way they did two seasons ago and just having Semyon and Seeger and Peterson and Young and Berger and Lankford, who is one of my most anticipated players. And I don't know what the state of Evan Carter is and how much of a role he will play on this team, but they have just a lot of great bets in that lineup, just not a lot of automatic outs. So combination of good top to bottom lineup and fun starting staff. That's enough for me to say Texas Rangers. I think that that is, is justifiable.

I think that's a good pick. Wyatt Langford has like an old timey face. Doesn't Wyatt Langford look like a, there are a couple of different kinds of bootlegger face, right? Like Tim Hill is like the, is, is the kind of bootlegger face where like he's the guy in the movie who gets killed by the feds early in the in the movie Right and then he has to be a bitch. But Wyatt Langford is the guy who avenges him. I think that's right You know and the Fed who kills him is Kyle Manzardo who has a

know, and the fed who kills him is Kyle Manzardo, who has a simultaneously very old and very young face. He's like a weird, he's Schrodinger's young old face. It's a, he's in between. I don't know what it's like very baby face, but then he's got the stash and it makes him look old. Anyway, sound off in the comments, friends. Um, okay. So I'm picking now and now it's my turn. Manzardo. I just like saying that. Manzardo. I am going to shock myself and also the world with my next pick. I think I'm taking the Boston Red Sox? Wow. Okay. I had the Red Sox fifth on my board, so they were going to go soon. I talked myself into this team representing the American League in the World Series when we did our staff predictions.

And I don't think it's a bad pick. Part of that is to your point earlier, like the AL field is just like pretty weak this year, at least it feels weak now. I'm sure that by mid season we'll be like, I can't believe we underestimated the bruh bruh bruhs. But as it is currently constituted, like it's, it's, if we wanted to be more generous, it's a wide open field, right? There are a lot of teams that could kind of like force their way to the top.

And I think that Boston's rotation, you know, it's hurt at the moment and it has injury risk beyond its current state, but it could be very potent. That's exciting. And then they've got some interesting young guys who I am excited to see take a step forward. Like David Laurel was bold prediction was that Rafaela would like be a very good player this year. And I found myself, you know, I don't know if I have quite as much confidence in like Rafaela taking a step forward at the plate as, as David does, but I do, I found myself moved by his argument that when that guy just gets to be a center fielder, which

he's like really good at, that that's going to be great and I think stabilizing for him and maybe he sees some benefit to that at the plate when he's on having a pop back and forth, pop, pop, pop. And then they have these young guys coming up and like I already said, like Christian Campbell got his first big league hit yesterday and his family was there and it was so nice. And then they pulled him for a pinch runner because David Hamilton is a better runner and he's like a superior defender.

So it was like a good, but then it didn't matter because a Braille just hits his second home run of the day. This like shot, you know, and it was, as soon as it left the bat, I was like, Oh, he just hit a second dinger. I also like, well, he just hit a second dinger. I was like, well, her brain was like really good and they have young reinforcements coming up from the miners too. And yeah, other than Breckman and story, everyone in that lineup is under 29.

It's pretty young and it's going to get younger. So yeah, so you already have Campbell and there's a possibility at some point this season, maybe you have Campbell and Anthony and Meyer all up. Yeah. Like that would be exciting to go with Abreu and Raffaella. Yeah. You get young guys, you get, you know, every, I think it's a secret ingredient. We, I promise this episode is not going to be seven hours long. I know we're talking a lot. We will talk a lot less about the later selection, so it's going to be fine hours long. I know we're talking a lot. We will talk a lot less about the later selection,

so it's going to be fine. Everybody. Some teams are less interesting. Yes. Yeah. Everybody relax. But, you know, I think a underratedly important ingredient in a vibe team is you need a weird guy and they have Tristan Costas and he's a weird guy, you know, like I don't think it's a bad weird, but he's like, you know, he has a, he's a unique sort of individual and, um, and a guy who, we don't have a lot of that kind of guy in major league baseball, you know?

And I know that that, that he has rubbed vets the wrong way sometimes, but like, it seems like he's just like a guy who has a perspective on the world that is his own and a good baseball player went healthy. And so like, you got that in the mix and you have established vets that are really good. And it seems like we were, we mostly me were right to say that the drama in camp around third base was like a kind of a non-thing and it would get sorted out and it did, it did Ben, you know? And so I, I, and I'm not normally, I don't normally like lean into the vibe of the Red Sox.

Because sometimes like, it can be a very, it can be a vibe, you know, that is like a very Boston vibe. And sometimes I'm like, Boston, you sports fans there, it's a lot, you know, and I think that that can sometimes like taint my experience of the team itself, as opposed to like the, taint my experience of the team itself, as opposed to the vibe of the people who, and not everyone is a mass hole, just some of them. And who am I to judge if they like donkey? That's none of my business. I don't have to drink it.

So all of that to say, I'm taking the Red Sox. Yeah, it's a good pick. And it also feels like they've been decent in recent years, but not really that good and not that watchable. They wouldn't have ranked that high on a team fun draft for recent years. And so it feels like, oh, they're suddenly much more interesting than they have been for a while.

And yeah, in addition to all the young guys we're mentioning, they do have Duran Endeavors and Bregman. Like, they have these veterans who are really good too. And they have Crochet at the top of the rotation, which they've lacked just that ace type for a while now. And yeah, it's just, it's a fun team. And I'm drafting based on the roster more so than the aesthetics of the broadcast,

but Fenway is one of those parks that it actually does enhance watching that team for me, just seeing that incredibly distinctive historic park on a broadcast, if they're at home at least. I just, I like the site of Fenway. So that helps too, but yeah, they deserve to be a topic. Okay, I'm going to take the New York Mets because the Mets,

they're always interesting. When are they not interesting? Could be bad interesting, could be good interesting. They're also a good team. Now the goodness is more concentrated in the position players for sure. And that would be the knock on them here. Pitching wise, I don't know,

but there are at least a couple guys I look forward to watching there. I'm very interested to see how good Clay Holmes is going to be and just how good and available Kodaisanga is going to be. And beyond that, maybe a little less compelling pitching wise, but there is still the Edwin Diaz entrance theatrics. So that's always fun, but you have Juan Soto and you have Francisco Lindor. So that alone, not only are those two of the best players in baseball, but they're just two of the most visually

arresting players in baseball. There are good players whose entertainment value doesn't necessarily match their war value. Those are not that type of player. These are two players who are every bit as watchable and fun as they are good at baseball. So they're just magnetic and you want to watch every pitch and you want to watch everything they do. So Lindor and Soto and then just having your old school slugger in Alonzo and then also some younger guys who are also good and hit the ball hard, just you know, Vientos and Alvarez when he's back. It's just there's a lot to like about this team and you know there's always going to be some sort of drama or nonsense going on so yeah it's fun

and you know they have a lot of different types of hitters in addition to the guys I named. They'll also have like a Nimmo or McNeil. It's just like a lot of guys who have different types of offensive approaches. So yeah, New York Mets and you can bet that they will upgrade at the deadline if needed. So they're a pick for me. And of course, if you're watching the Mets broadcast on SNY, then you have one of the consensus best booths in baseball too. We promised not to draft the Mariners so I can do it and take something else. I will not take them imminently.

So yeah. I'm going to take the, I'm going to take the Lance Braves. That's the team I would have taken next, yeah. Look, it can't be worse than last year. And even last year, when it was arguably the worst, it could have been in terms of key guys getting hurt or underperforming, or in the case of Ozzy Albies, getting hurt and underperforming, they still made the postseason, which is wild. They will get better over the course of the season as guys return. In theory, right, they'll be better because they'll have a Spencer Strider and then they'll have a Ronald LeCunha Jr. And as long as those guys are healthy, they

could be fantastic. Will they be for sure? We don't know. But like, Spencer Strider was just like, Spencer Strider faced, I think, 16 total batters in spring training and struck out half of them. That seems good. So they're going to get guys back. And as they get guys back, they will get more fun. Like they will hopefully not have a load bearing Jared Kelnick, which would be good because

that doesn't tend to go well for franchises. They still have dynamic and interesting guys on their team as it's currently constituted a fun rotation. They can hopefully use Chris Sale less and have him pitch in October, which would be great. I will be fascinated to see what does Profar do. They have all these guys who will be healthy. I think that they are a very good fun team and I look forward to seeing them at their

full strength. And I hope I have not engaged in any jinxing here by saying that, but they're pretty good. The Braves. Yes. I think there's maybe a sense of fatigue just because they've been good for quite a while now. And one thing that could propel you higher in these rankings is if you have a bunch of new faces, maybe you were active over the off season

or you're promoting prospects. And so, oh, we haven't seen these guys before. We haven't seen them on this team. And you don't have that much of that with the Braves, but it almost feels a little like that because some guys missed so much time last season that we haven't seen them for a while. So, you know, it's nice to have them back

or hopefully to have them back soon. And so Acuna and Strider, if they are back to their usual selves, well, they're two of the best players in baseball. And there's the intrigue of, well, will they be back? Right, will they? Yeah. And so that's fun, interesting to tune in and find out and can profile sustain that performance

and Albies and Riley and also it just, it's a lot of good players on this team. Yeah. And you know, I, it's never good for a guy to be hurt. I don't, I don't want anyone to get it twisted and think that's what I'm implying. But like, you know, so Sean Murphy has this bad year last year, he gets hurt in spring training, he's going to miss time and that sucks. And I hope that he comes back and bounces back well, but like him getting hurt has opened the door for us to get to watch Drake Baldwin, you

know? So it's like they don't have a very deep system. They it's, it's just okay. Baldwin is their best guy, but like Baldwin is very good and interesting. And now we get to see what he can do with the big league level. So like that's exciting. And then, you know, maybe Sean Murphy comes back, but like Baldwin has sort of made the case and then you'll get this like Baldwin Sean Murphy tandem. Like that's very cool. So I just, I think there's stuff there that is cool and fun to watch, even though, you know, it is sort of predicated on guys who are hurt, being good when they get back and guys who were kind of in a swoon last year, bouncing back.

And I say all of that, and I am even adjusting their level of vibe for Blooper who remains an abomination, you know? Get that fleshy mess out of here. What's up with, why is he, why is he that color? I know you have many questions about Blooper that can never really be resolved. I'm right about this. And every time I bring it up, we get emails and I, I'm not going to answer any of them. I'm just going to refer you to all of my prior appearances on the

show where I've talked about blooper and abomination, a curse upon humanity. Okay. Also enjoy Harris and Schwellenbach. Yeah. Yeah. And they got, they got, they got a bunch of like intriguing, young pitchers, right? Like they got Schwellenbach, they got AJ Smith-Schauver. Like they, they got some guys. They, you know, spoiler alert, the team with the second best projection in baseball is thought to be good. You know, like I'm really breaking new ground. I will take the San Diego Padres.

Their fun quotient has sometimes outstripped their success, but they remain fun. I think maybe they're not quite as fun as they used to be, but I think they retain enough fun players that I'm still putting them toward the top here. Just as long as you have Fernando Tatis Jr. and you have Jackson Merrill and you have Mini Machado and you have Bogarts and you have Arise and we don't have to do a whole debate. It doesn't have to be some kind of culture war thing over Luis Arise. We get it. He isn't super valuable because he's just a batting average guy but he's so good at being a batting average guy and being a contact guy that is totally fun. Yes, absolutely fun. And he's just unique. He's a unicorn. He's an outlier. No one is like that in

baseball these days. So I love watching him and he just seems like a delightful fellow as well. And then the pitching, now it hurts if you Darvish is not around and I worry, I fear for his elbow. I hope that he'll be back at some point, but not having Darvish for now, not having Musgrove this season, that takes down the fun quotient somewhat, but you do still have Dylan Cease and you have Michael King. And you of course have- Dave Pavetta.

Yeah, and my man, Matt Waldron. So as soon as he's back from his oblique thing, he's going to be knuckleballing even more this year. So I'm excited for that. And you've got still a pretty good back of the bullpen, even without Scott, you've still got Suarez and Adam, et cetera. So like, it's just, it's still a fun team. It's still quite good. They have Jose Iglesias, who knows what hit singles he'll have this year.

Jackson Merrill, very interested to see what his second season looks like. Jason Hayward, I don't know how good he is at this point, but I like Jason Hayward. So just vibe. This is all about the vibes. Yeah, so Padres for me. Padres, I like it. I think it's a good pick.

Okay, I'm gonna try to move us along. Let's go. That would require me to make a pick and put some haste and some speed. I look whatever I'm taking my Seattle Mariners. Okay, I'm doing it. Will this vibe be good the whole year? I don't know will Embarrassing load-bearing part of my own vibe be tied to that vibe remains to be seen You know, like the fandom as you've noted, it's come and gone. It's waxed and weaned. I do think that the way that they approached

assembling their offense this offseason is negligent and I am annoyed, but also I gave them the business about Jorge Polanco. And as we have established, he hit a big home run last night and that home run went very far. Centerfield and like he, they won them the game and Randy smacked the baseball. And Logan Gilbert looked great. He did hang that slider, but you know what?

Everyone gets one bad pitch, you know? And if you, if your offense can pick you up, then you can give up a run, Ben. You can give up one run. You're allowed one oopsie. I'm even getting on board with a Trident thing. I still think it's a risk and it's weird that they have like a weapon in there, but like, you know, it evokes the sea. And who doesn't love the sea? I love the sea. Do you love the sea? We all love the sea, you know?

And like whatever mermaids are down there, you know, mermaids and men, you know? Why is it always the mermen who have tridents? Let the mermaids have a trident, you know? Doesn't matter. You can't see their junk, it's hidden under a fin, so. Yeah, my daughter's going through a little mermaid phase, so we've been talking about Ariel a lot lately,

and yeah, King Triton, yeah, but it's a good point about the Tritons. Is it a good point? I don't know about that. I will say the one thing that kind of dinged the vibe for me yesterday watching this team other than the anxiety I had that they would score no runs and then after they had scored a run that they would not score enough runs.

And I don't mean this as a knock on either Aaron Goldsmith or Ryan Rollinsmith, a lot of Smiths. I miss Dave Sims, you know, I do. I'm happy for Yankees fans, but I miss Dave in the booth and I'm sad for him to be gone. And I miss Blowers, I miss Mike Blowers in the booth. I thought Mike Blowers was a good analyst and he kind of, you know, he grew up into a good thing, which doesn't say that the replacements they have won't be good. It's fine.

But I do, I miss Dave. So there was that, but it just, you know, it's a good, also Ryan Rollinsmith was like, Andres Munoz has improved his walk rate every year. And I was like, that's just like empirically not true. But it was fine. It ended up being, it ended up being fine. I think that this, like Ryan Bliss made a fun little play. Ryan Bliss got thrown out at home and originally the A's were like, there's a dead ball and then it wasn't a dead ball, but he did get, he did get thrown out,

but it didn't, it didn't end up mattering. And it was a, it was still like heads of base running and like the coaches did a good job. Anyway, I'm taking the Mariners and I hope I don't regret it, but maybe I will, maybe I won't. We're going to find out. No, it's, I had them fairly high. I think if they get Kirby back, hopefully they will, then they are in that Dodgers Phillies category of you don't even have to check the starting pitching matchup cause it's going to be someone good. Really, really good and obviously bound for the postseason. Okay.

You were doing a different thing. That's fine. But the rotation specifically, and apologies to Emerson Hancock. He's not a bad six starter to have around. I'm just saying. He also has a bootlegger face. We have to have you exactly like qualify what bootlegger face means at some point.

Maybe you can do a strict, it's just you know it when you see it, I suppose. Discrete and distinct from three musketeer face and hair. We could do a Meg Cass baseball players in movies draft at a different time. That's not today's project, Ben. It's good starters and starters who are good in different ways and control artists

and not control artists and different pitch types and the offense, it's not a strength obviously, but it's not quite as much of an abject weakness once you T-Mobile adjust as people think. Maybe if you think about the mid season acquisitions from last year and Robles and Rosarena and then hopefully Julio has the year that everyone's waiting for Julio to have and Cal Raleigh. And yeah, so, yeah, they got the big dumper. They got guys down on the farm. Again, like rowdy to last is there starting first baseman, which is shocking in the year of our Lord 2025, but it is what they are

doing. Maybe it'll be, you know, it could be fine. Maybe it'll be fine. Maybe it'll be better than fine. Maybe it'll surprise us Maybe they'll call up some of their young guys. Maybe those guys will produce maybe They will take some of this new Nintendo money and they'll be willing to like take on a contract at the deadline I don't know, you know All I know is right now they're 1 & 0. They're 1 & 0. We want to go 1 & 0 every day If we go 1 & 0 every the vibes will be immaculate. What if they won 162 games? Just take it one win at a time.

It's better than starting 0-1. One win at a time. I will be taking the Baltimore Orioles. Now the Orioles are, they're really the polar opposites from a starting pitching standpoint. So there isn't really a single guy here who I'm gonna tune in to watch specifically, maybe if and when Grayson Rodriguez is healthy, but right now, and look, there are some perfectly competent pitchers in

that rotation. I do love Charlie Morton, but again, I don't know that he's moving the needle that much for me. I'm not like, Ooh, it's, it's Charlie Morton day. So he's like a cousin you like where you're like, I don't need to see that person every day, but I do love him. Yeah. But the position players are more compelling and entertaining groups in baseball. And so I do want to see, okay, is a peak Adley back and Jackson holiday among the more intriguing players in the league this year, seeing how he does in his sophomore season. And then gunner Henderson, just being one of the best

players in baseball and all the other younger guys who were establishing themselves, uh, Westberg and Couser and cursed dad and Mayo at some point. And how are they gonna fit all these guys in, and are they gonna make trades, and we got our annual Tyler O'Neill opening day homer. That's nice, okay, but it's just, it's the young guys. It's, there's like a lot of stakes. There's a lot of pressure on the Orioles and the front office. They gotta win a postseason game,

and they're perfectly capable of doing that, but will they? And what would the consequences be if they don't? So yeah, the blandness of the starters, maybe Kyle Bradish comes back and is good and would be watchable and maybe Grayson Rodriguez does, but yeah, other than that, it's fairly blasé, but the hitters are just so good and so fun

that that makes up for a lot of it. I agree with all of those things. I need Kyle Bradish to come back and be good because despite having a mental block about how to say his last name, I have finally learned it. And so I want that work to have been for something. They got a bird as a mascot. It doesn't have a creative name, but it's a cool bird. They are a team with an underrated number of bits, at least in terms of how much guff I gave the Mets. They had a lot of bits. I do want to know how often they're cleaning the Homer hose.

I wish that they would have like confidence to call it a bong because that's what it is. It looks like a bong. You know, they should call it the dong bong. Like why aren't they? Just have courage. You know? Weed is legal in most states now. I think that they are a great fun team. I'm curious, will a lot of their guys who have sort of a similar aesthetic be required to cut their hair or grow something so that they look more distinct from one another? Or is it a competitive advantage to have them all kind of look alike? So there's that, you know.

I think it's a good choice. It's a good pick. What's yours? What is mine, Ben? You know? See, I have a preff list here and I'm just going down the list. I'll just snap.

You make a pick, I make a pick. I'm not deliberating at all. I am trying to like have some rigor. You messaged me earlier and you're like, I'm doing it like a season long projection and then that made me panic that you would have math involved in this. And I am so relieved that we are just doing vibes because then I can just do some vibes. So which vibes will I do? Which ones am I going to pick? I think my next set of vibes will include the Cincinnati Reds. And look, this is really about just wanting to watch Ellie Dayla Cruz play

baseball every single day, because he is magnificent. That's what that guy is able to do. The way he has like, he's so big. He's a good defender. He's improved in that respect and is just like, he's so big, he's a good defender, he's improved in that respect and is just like, he's good out there. He's so fast, but like the reason he's a great base runner isn't just the speed. Like he's also just a good base runner, you know, he has good base running acumen, he knows when to go and when not to. He still strikes out a lot, but he has these big home runs.

He's got, you know, a joyful expressive face. He's got a joyful, expressive face. He's just a joy to watch. It's incredible that a guy his size is able to be, not just a starting shortstop, starting shortstop is so hard to say, but a good shortstop and a good player. And then they have all these other guys where you're curious what they're going to do.

Like, what are we going to get from Matt McLean this year? You know? And what are we going to get from Spencer Steer? And will Candelario bounce back? And will some of their bigger, like, you know, guys who were prospects, will they become something, right? Like, will Christian and Cronostian Strahan manage to rebound? And are we going to get anything out of Noel V. Marte?

I mean, I know he's not like playing right now, but like will, and the major set is, you know, how will Gavin Lux adapt? And then I'm really curious, like they've got their rotation as it's currently constituted with Green and, you know, famously Brady Singer Singer who is not dating Sabrina Carpenter. But they also have some really exciting guys down in the minors. Will they play well enough where they're like, hey, we got to get the Chases up here and we'll wait mightily come back. So it's just like, it's an interesting group and I don't know, you know, they've got guys who are hurt.

Will they be good when they're back? You know, what are we going to get out of Andrew Abbott and like Rhett Lauder and it's an interesting team. And I don't really know what it's going to look like even a couple of months from now. Like they could just be bad and none of this will matter. And we'll just like tune in to watch Ellie when he bats. But I think that it could gel in a way that's interesting. Yeah. Look, a couple of seasons ago we were talking about the Reds like they were

really on the rise and young and exciting. And then we were talking about them at all. You know, we were talking about them. Period. Yeah. Right. So which for our new listeners, there was a bit for a long time where we would just not talk about the Reds and they didn't force the issue, but then they started to. And having one Ellie, who is just maybe your number one pick when you're talking about just watchability or certainly, I don't know, top three that can drag a team's rating up and Green, who's kind of that for pitchers.

Yeah, Ellie, especially. Okay. Pukie. pitchers. Yeah. Ellie, especially. Okay. Speaking of pukey. I'm going to take the Tigers who, as I noted, just one of the more interesting teams to me this season. Now it's possible that when that uncertainty about how good they're going to be as resolved, it will turn out not that great. And then the answer is not very. Yeah. And so they might not be that interesting at a certain point, but they do have arguably the best pitcher in baseball in Terrence Goople.

That's a strong start. And they have Riley Green and they have these young guys who I just wanna see how good they're gonna be. I wanna see Torque now. I wanna see Colt Keith and I wanna see my man, John Brebbia, one of my favorite players in baseball all of a sudden who looked great on opening day. Good for him. Love a Brebbia. Yeah. When Parker Meadows is back and,

and carpenter just being limited, but also really good at the limited thing that he does. And, and yeah, I just, I really want to know how they follow up last year, just being being the Cinderella team of the last couple months and then getting Flaherty back and how hard will the regression bite them and can they compensate for that with progress from young guys? And if not, will they try to add at the deadline instead of subtracting if they think that subtracting isn't the way that you miraculously become the best team in the league after the deadline and Jackson Job,

how good will Jackson Job be? So there are just a lot of questions about this team that I'm very interested in the answers to. And also I'm always interested in listening to Jason Binetti. So it's like less about any individual player than it is just can't quite nail this team down but I am eager to.

And so I want my answers to the mystery of how good will the 2025 Tigers be? And so I will tune in to find out. To find out. Okay. I'm going to take the Kansas City Royals who famously employed Bobby Wood Jr. who my bold prediction for our bold predictions draft is that a shortstop would win MVP, one of the MVP awards because it has been like a good minute since the shortstop won MVP, Jimmy Rollins. And it is weird, right?

It's weird. And you know, if Aaron Judge has a slightly less good year last year, Bobby Wood Jr. probably would have rendered that prediction moot with his 2024 season, which was superlative. He's incredible. He looked f**king great this spring. He's just one of the best players in baseball and he's committed to Kansas City long-term. That's really exciting. A lot of the rest of their offense is pretty punchless, but the idea of a full healthy season maybe from many of us, like I'm a teenager, is very exciting. And Jonathan India, who as we've noted could be in a Three Musketeers reboot because of the hair. He just looks like he's about to say, come to our town,

y'all, it's time to save the king. Even though the guy who said that is Oliver Platt, who doesn't look anything like Jonathan India, that Three Musketeers movie occupies a surprising amount of mental real estate for me, even though it is objectively not a good one. But it is. It's beautiful. It's perfect. And then I remain intrigued by their pitching. Cole Regan's is incredible. I look forward to seeing what step forward he might take. Can't break through already did that. And then, you know, like they've had guys who like, what is the, what is this year's version of Lugo going to look like? And you know, they're, they're interesting. Like, I don't, they got, they got Salvador Perez, you know, so that's Alvi. They now employ Marmar Cana, which is surprising and very recent.

They have good defenders who can't hit in the outfield, so there's that. But yeah, what does Lugo look like? What is Wach able to do? How is Chris Bubic able to progress this year when he has more distance from Tommy John? What does he look like now that he's back in the rotation? I think that they have some interesting guys and they've got some interesting dudes in their bullpen. Anyway, this is a good, potentially interesting team. Um, I think that their offense will be bad outside of wit and maybe Pasquantino, but like whatever.

So yeah, all right. Speaking of bad offenses, I'm taking the Pittsburgh Pirates. This is very much in the vein of I'm really doing it because I want to watch one guy, but I want to watch that one guy so much that I will probably be watching a Disproportionate amount of this team. That's Paul skeins obviously and Paul skeins starts our events and I am extremely curious to see how good he can be With just all the limits removed or mostly and new pitches and full season skeins Can't wait. So that's it.

And that's every fifth game. So the other four games, not quite so much, but now look, if they do get Jared Jones back at some point, remember before skeins arrived last year, it was like Jared Jones day. That was an event. And I know he didn't sustain that for the full season. And now there's the elbow.

So look, I'm not counting on Jared Jones being a staple of this rotation. It doesn't sound good. It doesn't, right. So, but maybe you get Bubba Chandler at some point. So it won't be just Skeens who's interesting. There's some other competent pitchers in that rotation, but it's a step down from an entertainment standpoint.

But the hitting, look, you have O'Neill Cruz who remains interesting. I'm less hopeful for a true O'Neill Cruz and KeyBrien Hayes just full flowering and blossoming than I was once. Full flowering is unfortunate as facing for me, I don't know. Well, nonetheless, look, he remains interesting

and how will the O'Neill Cruise outfield experiment go, the center field experiment specifically. It doesn't look good right now. It looks bad out there. Yeah, I harbor less hope for Cruise in that sense and Cabrion Hayes just generally than I have in the past, but there's still some hope. And Andrew McCutcheon makes me happy whenever I see him.

So that is enough, but look, it's mostly peg two Paul Skeens and that is fine. Where do you think we rated for him in terms of his interviews? Cause he did a lot of them. It seemed like he was having a pretty good time with us. It seemed like he was into it. Do you think we did okay?

I was talking to Hannah Kaiser about him because she talked to him briefly during spring training because she wrote a feature on him for us at the Ringer. And look, he's not the most verbose. Yeah, stoic, as you noted during our interview with him. But he is thoughtful and candid. He just really seems like he's considering your questions, which is something that a lot of star athletes don't do. They are asked a lot of questions and they just default to the cliche. And is he always going to have the most scintillating answer? Not necessarily, but

he seems to give it some thought and say what he really thinks. And I appreciate that. And, and there's a character there, like there's some personality that he will show, even if part of the personality is like a lack of personality, you know, it's like kind of leaning into the stoicism or blandness, but then almost making a joke of it kind of. I enjoy Potskians as a personality. Yeah, I did too. Okay. I'm gonna, wow, I can't believe we haven't done this yet. I guess I'm going to take the Yankees. It's sort of surprising they're still on the board. I mean, like, look, we know about the injuries. That's what it is. They have Aaron Judge, that seems pretty good. They're all very handsome

now because they have facial hair. I mean, not all of them, but some of them are like handsome. It's uncomfortable. I don't know, I feel worried about it. So here's the thing that I was noticing as I was watching that game and really only that game yesterday for a while because of MLB TV's aforementioned issues. I'm really excited to watch Jazz Chazam Jr. on the infield this year. I'm not breaking new ground here. He looked good at third for them last season in a way that was pretty impressive given all the moving around he had been asked to do. It's not just that he's going to be playable at second. I think that he's going to be like, you know, playable at second. I think, I think that he's going to be really very good there. I thought that watching him play there in spring, um, and I have felt

that way so far, you know, in the one game. Um, and you know, people forget like he was a middle infielder, right? So before they were like, go be a center fielder. So I'm looking forward to that. They had off season additions that I think will be good. I think that that bullpen, I know Devin Williams looked shaky and like threw so many pitches yesterday. They were just like, Hey, go out there buddy and like get it done, I guess. But I think that that team is going to be interesting.

I want to see how Jason Dominguez does. You know, let's see what they get from some of their other young guys. Obviously Austin Wells is quite good. You know, the fully actualized version of this team isn't on offer right now. And we don't really know if it will be right. Like I hope that Luis Hel and Clark Schmidt come back, but obviously no coal. So like there's some guys.

Yeah, Rodan and Fried are a pretty good one, two in the absence of coal. It's obviously less entertaining without coal and without Soto, but they do have sort of a homegrown youth movement going on there for better or worse and not by choice in all cases because LeMahieu is out and Stanton is out. But without those guys, other than Judge and

Goldschmidt, no one else in that lineup has turned 30 yet. And they're a bunch by Yankee standards just, you know, Dominguez and Volpe and Rice and Cabrera and Wells, and what will some of those guys be? That is kind of interesting. And even if it's not a great lineup judge aside, it's not quite as bereft of a supporting cast as they were two years ago, where it was really just judge just doing it alone. You at least have some hitters

who should be above average at least. You know, you hope that Goldschmidt will be bouncing back a bit. You have Bellinger and Wells and you hope that, that Dominguez and Volpe will take some steps forward and, and Rice certainly seems to have been unlucky and you know, has hit the ball hard and everything and there's hope. And so, yeah, I think more intriguing than, than they've been in some respects there for a while. Which is surprising because the injury thing and Soto, but like, I think you're right. It's interesting.

I will stay in the AL East and I will take the Toronto Blue Jays who they've underperformed. You sound so excited about your decision that isn't the last one you'll make. Yeah. Well, we're, we're out of the top tier here, but the blue Jays pretty consistently have been, I think more entertaining than they have been good, but this could be kind of the last hurrah with this core we shall see. And so there's a lot of intrigue about Vlad and will he stay or will he go and how good will he be and Bo Bichette too. They're just like a lot of well known players around here, even if they're past their peaks, players like George Springer, just, you know, guys you recognize and there's like really

good defense on this team, which I, yeah, Varsho is, is out now. But if you have Varsho and you have Menez and some of the other good gloves and just, you know, some, some good bats here, not the ones you wanted in every case, but you know, having a Santander in there, it helps. And, uh, Alan Rodin, I like him cause he's a astrophysics guy. He'll be a good meet a major leaker candidate, look good, won a job this spring.

And the rotation, some good pitchers in there. Some guys with good stuff, some guys I enjoy watching, Brios, Gossman, Scherzer, and some talent in that bullpen too. So we're in the tier here where it's not all gonna be big draws, but just like big questions about that team just in general, which direction are they going to go and can they finally muster something and put together a run here? So that's enough to make them kind of compelling for me.

I am taking the Milwaukee Brewers. I wonder if we actually made them wait too long in this draft. We might owe the brewers an apology, but I think maybe not, but maybe. It's not a good sign when your roster resource page only has three starters in the rotation. That tends to be a bad sign, you know, something has gone wrong. I mean, Freddie Peralta, like didn't, you know, they didn't win yesterday, but like I enjoy watching Freddie Peralta, but like the, the, the lineup is really the story here, which is interesting given how they're often constituted. Obviously they have one of the

better Jacksons. So that's very exciting. Jackson Chirio is great. He didn't have a good day yesterday, but what are you going to do? Were you too much into one game? You're not going to do that. You're a pro bet. You're not going to do that. They have William Contreras, who is fantastic. Yeah. Who many people notified me did the helmet tapping to signal his disagreement with the call on opening day. It did not take long. My bold prediction that was someone was going to do that and get fined or ejected. Now he didn't get punished at all for it, but he very quickly did that. I almost wonder whether the league put a directive out to their umpires to say, Hey, guys might do this.

Just, just let them get away with it. Yeah. You seem to have fewer red ass umps these days than we did not that long ago. I still wonder if players continue to do this, whether an ump will take offense to that and run someone out of there, give them the old heave ho. But not on this day, but yeah, Contreras is great. And Trejo, I'm very excited to see how good he will be. And Jelic, I hope that his back has been repaired and that he'll be a good offensive performer at least.

Wait, let me talk about my pick. Also, here's the thing, look, this isn't going to matter to everyone the way that it matters to me. This team is underratedly Italian in a way that is profound. Partially because Vinny Capra made the opening day roster, which is a great story because Vinny Capra's had to work. Vinny Capra, Sal Freelick. He's literally Salvador Freelick. And then it's really something. Vinny Capra, Vinny, Ben, Vinny Capra, Vinny Capra. What a Vinnie Capra. So that's happening.

And then like, you know, they, they have a lot, they have a lot of little fast guys and they're going to see if it works with their little fast guys. And they got more little fast guys coming because at some point Caleb Durbin is going to be on this team. Right? So they got, you know, and he just like, it looks like he wasn't a brewer to begin with. This amazing, I can't believe that this team had to go out and acquire Caleb Durbin, that he wasn't just always a brewer. Amazing. I'm really, I, I'm very hopeful that Reese Hoskins

will have a better year this year, fully, you know, a year fully removed from injury. He was, he had a very good spring training. And so, you know, what does that matter? It might not matter at all, but like I want it to matter because I like him. So I hope that Reese does well. Like every team that employs a former fan Grafster, there is some amount of bias in this pick because I want the former fan Grafters to do well and get a ring so that we can say we have one. You know, like that would be cool, man. That would be cool.

But I think that this team can have good vibe. It can be fun. Will it always have enough guys in the rotation? No, like objectively not. But like they should get, you know, like they should get some guys back. I hope Brandon Woodruff, like, you know what I mean? Like there's guys.

Okay, I'll stay in the NL Central. I'll take the Cubs who are probably punching a little below their weight here when it comes to fun. But we maybe made them way too long. Maybe, maybe we slept on them, I don't know. But I think they're the favorites in the division and yet they're not our favorites from a fun perspective evidently

because we took three other NL Central teams before we took the Cubs. But I don't know, I guess it's just like a little lack of star power and now they have Kyle Tucker who lacks star power himself despite star caliber production. Performance, yeah. Yeah, so that certainly helps to have him on this lineup.

And then they have Pete Crew Armstrong and will his midseason turnaround continue? It certainly seems like it has this spring. And then Matt Shaw breaking through as the opening day starter and prospect being called up. And then, you know, there's like other players I enjoy, Seiya Suzuki, and maybe there's more in Miguel Maia with C and Yen Hap. It's just, I don't know, it's, I guess, relative to how good they should be. I'm just not feeling it that much, but it's like the rotation. I like Shota Imanaga, but other guys, it's like, you know, Justin Steele's good,

but I'm not getting super pumped for a Justin Steele starter. It's just- He's not on the watch though. Yeah, so and the bullpen like Porter Hodge, Porter Hodge could be good, could be great I think. People are high on Hodge. Maybe Presley's past his peak we'll see, but yeah, I think the Cubs are more fun than they have been lately.

And I think they're good. But yeah, just, you know, it's not standing out for me from a fun standpoint. It could round into a very fun group. Yep. But it doesn't have to, you know, like it could just be having Kyle Tucker front and center, you know, that makes things a little harder. BF I do still enjoy Justin Turner as a hitter also. AMT Oh yeah, sure. Yeah. Okay. So you took the Cubs. I'm going to take the Minnesota Twins. BF Okay.

AMT Because look, Ben, there's a version of the Twins that is incredible, both from a vibes perspective and from a play and baseball perspective. That version probably involves Royce Lewis coming back healthy and fast. It involves Byron Buxton staying healthy and productive, Carlos Correa staying healthy and productive, Carlos Correa staying healthy and productive. It involves a rotation really being good and gelling. I think that they, you know, like I like Pablo Lopez and I like Joe Ryan and I like Bailey Ober, they are, I think Ben Clemens put it well when he wrote about

their rotation for the positional power rankings that like they are, they are a very good rotation from a projection perspective. And it's because of quality across the rotation and depth as opposed to like having like one really standout amazing guy, which isn't meant to be a slate on like Pablo Lopez or Bailey Ober or anything, but they don't have like a, you know, like Tarek Schubel projects for like five and a half wins this season and they don't have that guy, you know, like Tarek Schubel projects for like five and a half wins this season and they don't have that guy, right? They have, they have a lot of good pitchers.

So but they have a lot of good pitchers and they have a, they have a really good bullpen, particularly at the top of that bullpen. You look at them and you can see how they might be a team where they are being underestimated potentially relative to where they could finish. Or it could be a disaster, you know? That's the other option there is the thing because the song could be about Duran because he throws a sinker. He's working, he throws a sinker. He's working. They he throws a thinker

I'm gonna make this work people hate this bit. They hate it so much I think we haven't gotten emails back and like feel it, you know that they don't like it They're like God talk like Jimmy Stewart again enough already But yeah the twins Yeah, you know like also in the like fan graph soraphs alum, we have, you know, I- Yeah, you have so many now. So many now. Yeah.

I'm surprised that there isn't a FanGraphs ring winner yet, but it won't be long, I'm sure. So, all right, I would have taken the twins soon too. I will instead take the Astros. I'll take the Houston Astros. Oh, I wasn't going to take them, so good job here. Okay. Yeah. Well, the Astros, to me, there's still a lot of talent here.

It's diminished, obviously, compared to what they have been, but they could very well have one more run in them. And it's a good rotation still. You still got Fromber there. You have guys who really put things together last year, Brown, Arigati. You could have other reinforcements coming back. I don't want to believe that Lance McCullers could actually

pitch, but maybe he did pitch the other day, or Luis Garcia, or you never know. But also, Jordan Alvarez is just one of the best hitters in baseball and one of the most entertaining to watch. I want to see how this Jose Altuve outfield experiment goes. I want to see how many home runs. Isaac Paredes actually does yank into the Crawford boxes. Yarno Diaz is a good hitter.

Cam Smith just kind of came out of nowhere to make this roster. That's fun. I want to see Jeremy Pena. He had a really good spring training. I don't know whether that means anything. He also didn't walk once, but he also had a 1300 OPS. It does. Yeah. So, so pluses and minuses. And then, you know, you don't have just zero production or worse out of first base anymore. You got Christian Walker in there. Now there's a lot to like, like the outfield defense. I don't know other than Myers holding it down in center. I don't know exactly how that's going to go, but a lot of questions, but still enough around here. And you know,

you still have like a pretty good back of the bullpen, at least with Hayter and Abreu. So yeah, it's still a pretty decent team. Yeah. I think that that is defensible and I'm glad you picked them because the part of me that is still a Mariners fan could never. So I'm going to take the Cleveland Guardians and look, don't eat Chipotle or maybe do. Maybe it's fine actually is what we've learned from this. I worry Ben that we might look back, we being the collected staff of FanGraphs, and feel as if we did the Cleveland Guardians dirty in our staff predictions. And I don't generally worry about that because one, I don't think they're that serious.

And two, like, you know, you're just going to get stuff wrong, but the social team for Cleveland really likes to give our projections the business. So I do worry about how much business will be given. But look, this team has Jose Ramirez, which is just enough of a reason on its own to pick them because he's great. Every year, we've maybe talked about this when we do our stuff predictions. I do mine last and part of what motivates mine is a little peek behind the curtain is like sometimes I feel like we just have to, we just have to have some guys on there as a staff.

Like there should be someone who picked a guy cause he might win MVP. Like I am nervous that no one picked Julio. I get why and I think it's fine. But I also am like, that one might come back to bite us. And two years in a row now I've been like, well, somebody's got to pick Jose Ramirez. Cause like, is he sure to win MVP? No, but like of all the guys who could like pop a crazy good season, you know, he does that all the time and it ends up being the best one. And then you don't have him on there. You feel and so was a Ramirez you fits that bill like he's like a six and a half win player last year He's amazing. He's so good and a delightful personality and a great great a great time. So they got Ramirez

They have Stephen Kwan. They have that they have Carlos Santana who I adore they have Nolan Jones again Like yeah, you know, they have Nolan Jones again. Like, you know, they have, they have Jankenzi Noel, who doesn't love Big Christmas. We love Big Christmas. They're gonna get David Freyback. Do I think that their rotation is good? I couldn't even begin to tell you if it is. Better than last year's probably.

Better than last year's, right? But the bullpen will be worse than last year's probably. I mean, almost certainly, but also still very good. Still very good. And like, here's me bringing it back to the Mariners. I feel like Paul Seawald, Cleveland is a perfect situation for Paul Seawald, who was one of their, you know, they didn't do very much this off season, except trade guys away mostly. But you know, Paul Seawald, this is a perfect situation for Paul Seewald because

at this point in his career, even though I think Paul Seewald, very good, it's time for Paul Seewald, but it's time for Paul Seewald in earlier innings, you know? But he doesn't have to be the closer there because they have class A. So it doesn't, this is perfect. And you know, like he was, his slider looked great in spring and is he throwing hard? No, but he doesn't do that, but he doesn't have to because he's gonna be, you know, a seventh inning guy. You know, like he doesn't have to, he doesn't have to. So, and Cade Smith, love Cade Smith. Cade Smith, great story.

Everyone should talk about Cade Smith every day because it's a great story. And he's a good pitcher and he's, oh, he's an undrafted guy then. He was an undrafted guy. It's hilarious that Nolan Jones is on the Guardians. Yeah, and that outfield with Quan and Jones and Thomas by Guardian standards,

that could be a super productive outfield. That could be a potent, we get to run it back with Carlos Santana again. He looked great in the field again last year, which makes me so happy. Tetra defense god, Austin Hedges. Yeah, so. Austin Hedges. Also uncomfortably handsome.

You know, he's another, I'm right about this. So anyway, I just think that if you work for the Cleveland Guardians and you are listening to this podcast and you are annoyed at our projections, which I don't think the people who work in the front office are, I'm whispering, I'm acknowledging the fun. Is it late in the front office or I'm whispering. I'm acknowledging the fun. Is it late in the draft? Yeah. But like, you know, you know what you did, you know, apparently

Tyler Freeman and Nolan Jones have remained very good friends and Nolan Jones called Tyler Freeman to like tell him he had been traded and to be like, we're going to, and then they realized they had been traded for each other. Nolan Jones didn't know Tyler Freeman, who he had been traded. And so yeah, anyway, they might have Travis Pizzana. Oh yeah, sure. And, and Manzardo, how good will he be? Yeah. So, okay. Right. And how old is he? You couldn't tell looking at his face, you would never know looking at his face. The only thing you'd know looking at his face is that in a movie he shoots a guy who looks like Tim Hill. That's what you know.

I'm taking the Nationals mostly because James Wood, Dylan Cruz, that right there. But Mackenzie Gore apparently Mackenzie Gore. Yeah. So those three and then Abrams and Garcia, I'm just naming players, but uh, you know, these are all interesting players and young and Ruiz and that's enough for me to see like, can they make the leap and what kind of core did they have here? By the way, meant to mention Bieber could come back for the guardians at some point, so that would help make the rotation a little more interesting. But, you know, and I mentioned, uh, Nathaniel Lowe and helping rend out that lineup with a pretty good hitter. So I don't think the nationals

are going to be good, but there are enough guys on here who could be good or guys who just will, will help us figure out how good they're going to be. And that to me is one of the more intriguing things about a team, the thing that can get me to tune into a team that's probably not gonna be in the playoff race, but can kind of clue us in to their position in future perspective playoff races. So, you know, other than Gore, there's no one in the rotation who really intrigues me.

So the pitching staff, it's not quite the same. Now they could call up some guys, you know, it hurts that Gray is hurt, and then, but maybe Cavalli comes back, and maybe that's interesting, and there are prospects, there are young guys, so that's enough. We're gonna keep it moving,

because we were recording. I'm taking the athletics. I'm taking the athletics, because I think that that rotation is better you know, better than it was. That's not the highlight. The highlight is the lineup, which I think is interesting. A friend of the show, Brent Rooker. Do you think Brent Rooker remembers talking to us? Do you think he's like, I think of myself as a friend of Effectively Wild. I don't know if he thinks of himself as a friend, but he probably, he seemed to remember

the first interview when we did the second one. Yeah. Who could forget a haunted pool? That's pretty memorable. But so anyway, they have, I think, a legitimately kind of interesting lineup. Is all of it good? No. Tyler Soderstrom had two home runs yesterday, which I was not ready for. Um, but like, you know, they have Lawrence Butler. I can't wait to see what he does this year. Got the extension, Rookers, Gray, Bladay. I really, I'm very curious about Bladay. I, I had written off JJ Bladay.

I was like, that guy is done. And then he came back and JJ Bladay was, you know, he was not a bad player last year. One could, one could even venture to say he was reasonably good. He was like a three-win player. Now, do I think that that's his true talent level? I don't know, Ben. I can't wait to find out. Let's find out. What kind of center fielder will he be? And then, you know, they've got some younger guys. They've got guys coming up. They have Jacob Wilson. As an aside, Ben, how much Jacob Wilson have you paid attention to?

Not much. Okay. So I feel a little bit embarrassed about the amount of surprise I had at this because Jacob Wilson famously went to Grand Canyon, which is like in my backyard. I mean, not immediately. It's on like the other side of the valley, but you know, he went to Grand Canyon down here and he played 28 games in the majors last year. He, he's barely prospect eligible. I think he doesn't, he doesn't get over the line or close to it from an at bats perspective, but I think he is

either has exactly one day left or is on 45 days on the active roster. Like we had to count a lot to make sure that Jacob Wilson was prospect eligible, uh, barely, but still is. He is the busiest boy in the batter's box. It is, I know that like it's like a timing thing he wants to like keep. I think the real answer is that he's trying to like stay active so that like the kinetic chain fires. But I also wonder if there is some amount of strategy to the busyness. Like he is trying to be distracting.

And I want one of the A's beats needs to ask him about being so busy. I hated it yesterday. I wonder how I will feel when he is playing a team that isn't the Mariners. So I'm, I'm reserving judgment on what I actually think of how busy he is in the box, but he is Ben today. You gotta watch, you gotta watch the A's Mariners long enough to see Jacob Wilson hit because he is the busiest boy in school. He is so busy. He, he was like third in the lineup yesterday. So you won't have to wait long if you're not like trying to watch the whole game. But so Jacob Wilson, we have one of the Max's Muncie as an aside. I know I said I was moving us along, but I got a lot to say about this. They have to adopt sag rules like enough, enough. Okay. Because

yes, they were born in different years, but they have the same, then they have the same goddamn birthday, the Max's Muncie. They have the same birthday. They were both drafted by the A's. No, no, enough. Okay? Sag rules. We got to get going. You got to make... Muncie came after, so he should have to put his middle initial in his name, or he could

just be a gentleman and do it himself. You know? But someone needs to intervene because this is ridiculous. The other thought I had watching the A's yesterday was it's really shocking to me that Gio or Shella didn't end up a Mariner. That was a thought I had. But then also you like the bullpen part of it is kind of fun, you know, like I'm glad that it had a rough day yesterday.

I also think sorry, I'm going to be done after this. I promise we can move on. Mason Miller is awesome. That's the headline. Tyler Ferguson is interesting and fine. But is your memory of this the same as mine? I think that that World Series run, I think that Jose LaClerc is a little cooked. I think that it's never going to be the same. And me saying that is silly because at least from a war perspective, things were pretty similar last year to the year before, in part because we thought that he got, we clearly thought he got jobbed by the Rangers defense because there's a pretty meaningful FIP ERA split and we also thought he was worse from a FIP perspective

than his ERA in that World Series winning year. But like, I think he's just, I think he's, anyway. They did work him hard. They worked him hard. I wonder if they were like, hey, so look, you're never gonna be the same after this, but you will have a ring and then it'll be fine. It's not that he's bad, it's just like,

it seemed like it's, anyway. A's not that he's bad, it's just like, it seemed like it's... Yeah. Well, I think A's good pick, and also despite the fact that I wish they weren't playing where they are, I think just seeing how that park plays with a Major League team in it is interesting. So, yes. Michael Rosen tried to answer that question for us, and it ran a fan graph today.

So you should read it. Speaking of that, I will take the other team that is playing in Myerleague Park. I'll take the other team that is playing in minor league park. I'll take the race. Yeah. They're playing as we record. One of the Max Muncie should just start going by Maxwell, I think, because they are both named Maxwell, but one of them and probably the junior one should just have to be Maxwell. And that would help. I don't care how they sort it out. I don't care. Like they should pick whatever we need. It's ridiculous. So I'll take the other team that's playing

in a minor league park and the Rays, maybe we've slept on them here. I don't know. They're a pretty decent team, but they have some guys I'm very excited to see. They have Junior Kim and Aro. They have Jonathan Aranda, who is a popular breakout pick. They have Ground Beef, Yandy Diaz,

should be a pretty solid lineup, I would think. And it hurts that McClanahan is hurt because he was their best bet to be a really, really strong starter. I think they have a lot of good starters in that rotation, but who's gonna be like the elite guy? Maybe Shane Baz has that in him, I don't know. But maybe McClanahan returns

maybe as they say, it's not super serious, but it was a triceps thing. It wasn't like, yeah, it was a nerve thing, but I don't know. It just makes me nervous. Any, any kind of, yeah, anything in that vicinity. So you also have a nerve thing as it pertains to Shane McClanahan. Yeah. So Hassan Kim coming back is good and the bullpen, you know, it's going to be good one way or another. It's just, it's kind of forgettable the way that they use pictures sort of interchangeably and then guys get hurt and other guys came back from being hurt. And it's just hard to remember who's ever on the Raya staff at any particular time,

but you know, they're going to be pretty good. Like Ryan Pepeo will probably be good and effectively wild guest Zach Lattell and Drew Rasmussen is now in the rotation. Who's ever in the bullpen in the rotation, you never know with the Rays, but they'll cobble together an effective pitching staff. But I think the, the lineup could be better than it was last year. So that'll make them more watchable. And they have a lot of interesting guys who potentially could, you know, make their way to the majors this year. Like they have a lot of really good prospects and when those prospects

get there, it's going to be exciting. So there's, there's that piece of it. Okay. So you took the raise. So I'm going to, I'm going to take the Giants. Logan Webb is fun. Let's see what verlander has they have Willie Adamis Which will be nice. Jung-ho Lee gets a mulligan of a season which will be good. They have Matt Chapman I don't know that they will pitch or hit particularly well Maybe they'll finally have a 30 home run hitter the San Francisco Giants go. Yep. That's good Yeah, they've been among the more nondescript teams in baseball record wise and also just fun wise They also have Patrick Bailey. So let's give them that. Yeah, Patrick Bailey. Yeah, that's right. They do Robbie Rays looked better Ryan Walker we both discovered was excellent. We're keeping it moving here Ben. We're recording for two hours.

I'll take the angels It's just I have to take someone at this point and Mike Trout is healthy as we speak. And I'm not projecting a Mike Trout injury. I would never do that. And so because he will have a full healthy return to form that, uh, that alone will do it for me. And you know, they've got some, some interesting pitchers. They have Kikuchi, they have Joyce who is kind of fun in a weird way.

Yeah, Brian Johnson, never even pitched in the minors. They have a bunch of guys who were good six or seven years ago. I like Logan Ohapi. So yeah, okay. Cool. Okay, I'm going to take the St. Louis Cardinals. I wanna see what their agent guys like Nolan and Renato have.

I look forward to seeing Mason win. I want to know if Walker will be able to take a step forward and get something done there and be like a a guy, they have Lars Knutbar, what if Lars Knutbar stays healthy? What if, what are we gonna get out of Victor Scott, you know? With a more normal year and sort of coming in knowing he was gonna be on the roster rather than forced into action like three days before the season starts

because someone else got hurt. So there's that. Sonny Gray, sure, he is good. And, you know, then they also have Eric Fetty, and then they have some other guys. They, yep. Yeah, it's a pretty decent team. It's like they could, they could contend. It's just, yeah, they did so little over the offseason that there aren't really fresh faces here. And so, yeah, there are still some interesting players, but it's just, it's hard to get excited about a team that just did nothing all winter. Did very little at all. Yeah.

Yeah. Okay. All right. I will take the White Sox. Take the White Sox because, well, I want to see how much better they will be. The true talent of the team is not necessarily better, but they will be better, I want to see how much better they will be. The true talent of the team is not necessarily better, but they will be better, I think, results-wise. So, I mean, they could even improve.

I think one of Ben Clemens's bold prediction was that they would improve by more than any other team, wins-wise, which I think is possible because they were so bad. So, and even though they will likely trade Robert, they are also one of the teams that you project, okay, they could have some interesting young guys come up before the end of the season.

So that alone is enough. Like if they kind of turn the corner and it looks like it's heading up instead of down and they bottomed out and it's getting better, however, modestly, then that's good. Yeah, we love a modest bottom. I am taking the Miami Marlins. I'm taking the Miami Marlins mostly for Sandy.

Yeah, he's probably not gonna be a Marlin for that long. Yeah, but while he is, you know, and then maybe they will need to, maybe they'll need to bring up some young guys. Maybe, you know, like they have, they have Yuri, we love Yuri. He'll come back mid-season. Maybe Max Meyer takes a step forward. Maybe Matt Mervis will be good, probably not, but who knows? Maybe their other hurt guy, like poor Ryan Weathers, you know? But they have some, maybe Augustin Ramirez will find his way to the majors this year.

I don't know, they're the Marlins. They exist and they have, did you see that they have a new sculpture out in center field? Yeah, but it's really kind of half-assed. It's like, it's supposed to be a cruise ship and it's sponsored by a cruise line and it does fireworks. But it's gonna do fireworks. So I'm sorry, what did the cruise line, what were, they're like, yeah, you know how you want fires at sea?

Like what is the amazing, incredible. I don't know if it's tied to home runs like the home run sculpture was, or if it's just fireworks regardless, but it's also, it's like, it's tied to home runs like the home run sculpture was or if it's just fireworks regardless But it's also it's like it's supposed to be a cruise ship, but it's not it's like the smokestack from a cruise ship It's not the actual ship really. It's it's a poor replacement for the home runs. Yeah sure But I guess they got something so that's nice. It's alright. It's such a bad idea Well, I will take the Rockies by default

It was gonna be close for me whether to take the Rockies or the Marlins last. And you left me no choice. So Rockies it is. And look, I guess I hope that Chris Bryant stays healthy and does something. And you get to see Seth Halverson and you get some good defense out of this team and Brenton Doyle and Tovar. Tolia hits the ball hard and I'm just about out of this team and Bretton Doyle and Tovar, Tolya hits the ball hard, and I'm just about out of reasons.

Hermon Marquez is back. I guess I like that he's still on this team, but yeah, I don't know. I got nothing else, but they're the last pick. So how much did you think it was gonna be? Okay, we did it. We did it, fun. That will do it for today and for this week.

Thanks as always for listening and special thanks to those of you who support the podcast on Patreon, We did it. Fun. as have the following five listeners. Zach Gabali, Tobias Schapinski, Drew Hampton, Tim Cullen, and Nathaniel Kane. Thanks to all of you. Patreon perks include access to the Effectively Wild Discord group for patrons only, monthly bonus episodes, playoff livestreams, discounts on merch and ad-free fan grass memberships, prioritized email answers, the aforementioned personalized messages, and so much more. Check out all the offerings at patreon.com slash Effectively wild. If you are a Patreon supporter, you can message us through the Patreon site. If not, you can contact us via email, send your questions, comments, intro and outro themes to podcast at fan graphs.com. You can rate, review and subscribe to effectively

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