Effectively Wild: A FanGraphs Baseball Podcast - Effectively Wild Episode 763: Predicting the GM Predictions

Episode Date: November 10, 2015

Ben and Sam banter about Mike Trout and Brian Cashman, then predict and discuss the results of Jerry Crasnick’s annual executive poll.

Well, I'd relive the blunders and mistakes that I've made And sacrifice the precious, useless money that I've saved For Washington Saturdays, and I am Tuesdays For Washington Saturdays, and I am Tuesdays Good morning and welcome to episode 763 of Effectively Wild, the daily podcast from Baseball Perspectives brought to you by the Play Index, baseballreference.com. I'm Sam Miller along with Ben Lindberg of ESPN. Hi, Ben. Hello.

How are you? All right. Are you a divisive or a divisive? Divisive. Divisive. Which are you? I enjoy saying divisive more. Like, I think it's more pleasing to say, but I think that probably if I had to choose the prescriptive correct answer, I would say it's divisive. Yeah. But it's not obvious that it would be divisive. Nope. They're both options.

Yeah. All right. So let's see. Quick thing. There might be a breakthrough. I'm not sure. On the Mike Trout punctuation front, somebody noted on the Facebook page that the recent, a couple of recent no space sentences have been one exclamation point, and that Trout almost always uses multiple exclamation points. And it would make a lot

of sense that any sort of phone typing system would not recognize five exclamation points as punctuation, but rather as a word, and therefore would have a space that it would only automatically seal up that spot if it saw this as the end of a sentence and so that would probably may be true for almost all phones and therefore it wouldn't be some like weird explanation that involves Trout and his mom both having like the only phone in America that doesn't immediately close the end of a sentence because it doesn't have any reason to think this is the end of a sentence. Although maybe in this day and age it should. So I haven't gone fully into this, but it would make sense. It would explain the proper punctuation that he shows in other mediums,

although there are other explanation for those as well, and probably I should have said media instead of mediums. So that is something I'll probably look into, but right now I think that is my working explanation. Can we test that? Can we text each other right now? See what happens? If you want. Hang on. Let's see here. This is not going to be...

I don't think that Sam texting Ben is going to be in the effectively wild bracket. No. All right. Test. Mine fills it in. You have an old phone and I have a newer phone, so we'll be testing multiple generations of phone. Huh. Well, so let's see.

Testing. Mine. Mine does not automatically make any spaces ever i have a pre i have a pre space phone my phone my phone was invented before we even separate my phone was invented like in the old english where like it was all done hand by hand by monks on scrolls yeah and for space they just ran all the words together so i'm not a good test you want to test so if i type a word and then one exclamation point yeah so if you start typing the word like exclamation it doesn't and and like three letters in does it recommend exclamation

and then you just tap that and the word appears? Yes. And when you tap that, is there automatically a space after it? No, but when I start, I don't have to hit space, but I just start typing another word and it'll add a space. So, okay, so type exclamation, but midway through choose exclamation. Okay. And then put an exclamation point. All right. Just one.

Okay. All right. Is there a. Just one. Okay. All right. Is there a space? No. Okay. Now do the exact same thing, but this time do five exclamation points. Okay. Still no space.

And now do the same thing, but instead of any exclamation point, do exclamation and then just write the word point. Okay. Well, if I write the word point, then there's a space between exclamation and point. So interesting. So yours, okay. So yeah, that's how it should be. And yours is smart enough to realize that your five exclamation points are the end of a sentence. Yes. Okay. All right. Good to know. Well, so Trout might still have an anomalous phone, but that might still be a reasonable explanation. I have a question. Do you think that Mike Trout might still have an anomalous phone, but that might still be a reasonable explanation. I have a question.

Do you think that Mike Trout owns a computer? Not proving a point here. I'm just curious. The way that people live these days. Mike Trout is super rich and so on. He's also young and grew up in a phone computer economy. And so do you think he owns a computer? I do.

A laptop? Yes. Yes. Do you think he owns a computer? I do. A laptop? Yes. Yes. Do you think he carries it around with him? I would say yes. All right. All right. And lastly, I'm curious, because this is what got me wondering about it.

My guess is that he doesn't use a laptop that much, that he doesn't have to, for instance, write a lot of blog posts. No. He did have to write for the Players' Tribune, though. Yes, he did. That's true. That's true. Or, quote-unquote, write. So he could probably get by with the phone, but also he has many millions of dollars, and why not? Why not have a computer, too?

he has many millions of dollars and why not? Why not have a computer too? And so I wondered, I didn't get an answer from you. If you had, if you signed the big Mike contract, Mike Trout contract, I already said my, my, my change in lifestyle would be the socks. But what, what would you do? What would your change in lifestyle be? Do you think what would the first thing that you would change about your life be if you had that money? I don't know. I also think I wouldn't do anything that dramatic, at least right away. Maybe I'd buy the market diner. Well, that was the first thing I thought.

I wondered whether you would just open a diner. And then I started wondering, would you rather have the market diner or would you rather have a personal chef? If I had a place for the personal chef to live and be on call at all hours, that'd probably be better. I do enjoy the community aspect of the diner, but probably I'd go for the personal chef. Yeah. One thing about Ben is that I make a lot of fun about his eating habits and his seeming tolerance for non-food food. But I also did get to observe that he does have a refined palate and an appreciation for good food. It seems to me that you're just sort of like Einstein not caring about whether his socks matter. You're just – to some degree, you just don't want to invest a lot of time in your food.

Yeah. And you would love it if you had good food all the time. And that's why the Market Diner was good for you. And when you don't have that option, then you're happy to open a can of beans. Yeah. But you prefer the good food. Sure. Yeah.

I have taste buds. I don't think the price of food always correlates to the quality or the taste of it. But yes, you're right. I'm not willing to put the investment of time in to prepare or to go somewhere to get a fancy meal. All right. Shall we move on to the topic? Sure. Well, one quick thing.

This is the season when we start getting non-revelatory slash revelatory rumors, and we probably won't chronicle them with the depth that we where writers asked him, I guess, if he's willing to talk about anyone, specifically Andrew Miller. And Cashman said, we're open to all ideas as always. When asked about Miller, it doesn't mean I'd do anything. But if the Dutch never asked the Indians for Manhattan, you'd be living in New Jersey. So that's his response to non-revelatory rumor mongering. Hmm, okay. He's open to all ideas. By the way, did you see... Just asking questions, Ben.

Yeah. Did you see Brian Cashman's look at the GM meetings? I did. It's pretty good. I like it. I like it a lot. He's wearing a ratty Georgetown t-shirt with a messenger bag slung across his back and a Groucho mustache and round spectacles. I don't know what he looks like, but he doesn't look like a GM at the GM meetings. I love Brian Cashman.

Maybe, probably my favorite GM meetings. I love Brian Cashman. Like, maybe, probably my favorite GM now. Not as a, just as a guy. Yeah, he just, he's, you know, he's been with the Yankees for almost three decades. He's had this job for almost two decades. He's survived Steinbrenners. He's outlived Steinbrenners. He is very comfortable in this job. He still seems to be pretty good at the job, but he just has kind of relaxed into the stage that everyone relaxes into when they've held a job for a long time and they feel good about their job security and it's all routine. And he's just not gonna bs anyone he's just gonna say what comes to his mind

and he's gonna wear what he wants he went to georgetown prep so that might actually be his high school shirt huh all right he went to catholic university of america that's right yeah i've never even heard of catholic university of america in dc oh okay all right well we're gonna be talking about brian cashman and his ilk if you don't mind. I don't. All right. I'm going to send you something. I hope you haven't read it yet. And if you have, don't start scrolling yet. Okay. In fact, I'm going to wait. I'll hold off. Have you read the Jerry Krasnick's today? No. Okay. So this is one of my favorite articles every year. Oh, the survey. The survey. Krasnick's surveys. One of my favorite articles every year.

Oh, the survey. The survey. Krasnick surveys. A bunch of GMs about some hot issues of the day. And I've always liked it. It's always a fun article. It's a great article. A great survey.

One of the best. Maybe the best poll the industry survey going. Way better than like, for instance, when they poll players and like they all say they hate A-Rod and Bryce Harper. And you're like, okay. And way better. Also way better than the gold gloves, the gold glove voting. And I always have loved it, but I especially love it, especially love it, because three years ago I went back at like 10 years of these, and I realized that GMs do no better than random chance at predicting anything,

that they are essentially just as dumb as we are, or that baseball is just that confounding but but you know kind of dumb so these fall under generally they fall under two categories one is the how good will this player be and they are horrible at saying that and the other is where will this player sign and they are horrible at that or what transaction will happen are they horrible at that and of course these questions are specifically designed to be somewhat difficult to answer to be divisive that's why i asked ben to be divisive to uh to get controversial controversy i guess uh among the responses but in fact a lot of times the responses are way lopsided and uh so they you know they they should have some lean and yet they don't do any better

than flipping coins. And especially shocking to me is that they don't do any better than flipping coins at predicting industry movement, at predicting whether a guy will get traded. Like a lot of times the question will be like, is Cole Hamels going to get traded? And they're like, 100% and then he doesn't. And it's like, dude, you're the guy who's going to do it. You don't even know if you're going to do it. I mean, you're not necessarily Ruben Amaro, but you're the guy Ruben Amaro is talking to and the guy trying to decide whether you're going to get Cole Hamels and you just can't do it. It's like asking them, what are you going to have for dinner tonight, steak or chicken?

And they're like 27 to 4 chicken and they all get steak. It's so fun. Anyway, I want to quickly review last year's because I do like to keep track to see whether they're getting smarter. Yeah. The great thing about the survey is that there's a history to it. So there's this long library of correct and incorrect responses that you can use to do these sort of studies. Exactly.

So I want to quickly review last year's and then I want to go over this year's. So don't look, if you haven't looked, don't look at this year's because I'm going to ask you to predict the predictions. Okay. All right. don't look at this year's because I'm going to ask you to predict the predictions. Okay. All right. So last year, which marquee free agent started will provide better value over the course of his next contract? Obviously, some of these are hard to answer after one

year. Fortunately, we have them going back to like 2003, so a lot of them you could answer, but a lot of them are also kind of obvious after one year. John Lester or Max Scherzer, the response was overwhelmingly John Lester. And I would say that at this point, that looks bad. I mean, it's still a long ways to go. It's not hugely lopsided, but clearly Max Scherzer and his contract are seen as the better value now than Lester's is, correct? I think so. All right. Which veteran outfielder are the Dodgers going most likely to trade this winter? Kemp, Ethier, Crawford, or Puig? Or will they not trade any of them? Only three out of 30 said don't trade any of them. They traded Kemp. All

right. So seven of 30 got Kemp right. And that's okay. That seems like that's a, well, that's a coin flip. They basically had five choices and slightly less than one-fourth got it right. So a little bit better. Not bad, guys. All right. Are the Marlins more likely to trade Stanton this winter or sign him to a long-term deal? Or will the situation remain unresolved? Three choices. We need 10 to say sign him for this to count as a coin flip

only five said they would sign him 20 said the situation would remain unresolved uh so that's a miss uh victor martinez and nelly cruz both had big years which mid-30s hitter is more likely to maintain that success during his next contract very clear answer to this one already three and a half to one said martinez 21 to martinez six to nelly cruz disasterful who is more likely to get traded this offseason now see this one is phrased in a way that saves them because neither is not allowed as an option the answer was was neither. They were split. I will say the only truly wrong answer are the three out of 27 who said both. Which players?

Oh, sorry, Cole Hamels and Starling Castro. Uh-huh, okay. So having to choose, I cannot blame the 13 who said Hamels or the 11 who said Castro. However, the three who said both went above and beyond they were very very wrong yeah uh what's the over under on a rod's home run total oh good one combined average of survey respondents was 16 the highest anybody went was 25 wow so he beat them all he hit what 33? 33? 31? I don't know, but more than 25. Will the Giants re-sign Pablo Sandoval? Yes, 25. No, 3. Wow.

Goodness gracious. Will the Pirates re-sign Russell Martin? All right, here we go. Yes, 3. No, 25. So those two, they had two chances. Perfect coin flip accuracy between the two. All right, here we go. Yes, three, no, 25. So those two, they had two chances, perfect coin flip accuracy between the two. Potential landing sites of the 25 who said no, one got the Blue Jays. 15 Cubs, five Dodgers. That's it. Okay.

So not getting smarter. No, it doesn't seem like it. All right. So we're going to look at this year's. And so, I'm going to ask you, and I'll answer. I haven't seen the responses yet. I'm going to ask you what the response will be. Okay. So, not necessarily what my response would be.

Right. And maybe we'll then say what our response would be. Yeah, I think we will say. But we're kind of trying to figure out, based on the operating assumption that these guys don't actually have any extra information, what they're going to overwhelmingly say anyway. Which staff ace would you be more comfortable giving a nine-figure deal, David Price or Zach Greinke? I'll say Greinke is the more popular answer. Interesting. Price seems to be on top of, or just behind Hayward,

on top of all the free agent prediction threads or free agent ranking threads. So the blogging community is pro Price. It's very close. I'm sort of thinking of him as the Lester to Price's Scherzer. Last year they all went for Lester in that he was, maybe he seemed like he would age better because he has more pitches and he's smart and he, you know, maybe you could project him to do better if he loses some stuff, that sort of idea. I would say that six weeks ago, it would have been Price. But there's this weird

shift where for years, David Price has been the makeup guy, you know, like he's a mentor, and he's Steady Eddie. And Granke was the one who the industry always, you know, under their breath or privately talks about, you know, how he's got, he's got some issues, right? And yet, in a way, in the last year, particularly in the last month, I predict that that has flipped and that it will be Granke primarily because Granke has emerged as the more reliable one in whatever situation you're thinking of, in postseason or whatever so i will also say cranky all right the answer is cranky okay 19 to 14 all right well not overwhelming and uh are you

price or cranky in your own life what the answer is who will be a better value or what what's the now who would you be more comfortable giving a nine figure deal which by the way either nine figures that's only a hundred million dollars pretty comfortable with either of those is this for like a two-year deal i mean nine figures is pretty safe either way it should be like who are you more comfortable giving a nine figure deal to ian desmond or like dexter fowler or something like that yeah because that would be difficult. But basically, say the dollars are the same, who would you sign? I mean, the reasons to say Granke are persuasive to me, but Price is two years younger, so maybe I'd go for Price if it were the same deal. Yeah, I like Price more as a pitcher, and I like Price more at his age,

so I'd go Price. Okay. All right. Which former Uber prospect slash outfielder will be the better performer over the life of his next contract, Upton or Hayward? And again, it's not your answer. Better performer. Mm-hmm. There are different ways you could interpret that, I guess. But I mean, that probably just means

better player, right? Or does it mean better value? I guess it's open to interpretation. But I'll say that they'll go for Hayward. Yeah, it seems to me that the answer is, the answer appears to so clearly be Hayward to me, that i don't see how they could talk themselves into upton yeah even if it were value as opposed to performance which it's not yeah so i mean certainly certainly probably well 15 years ago you might expect it to be upton because the flashier flash stats although even i mean it's not like upton is putting up like ryan howard minds or anything like that he's he's you know he's a good fairly generic star corner outfielder at this point hayward i assume is younger yeah uh but not by much yeah if you

argue that defense has a steeper decline curve maybe but it's not like Hayward's there yet, and it gives him more. I mean, it's a lot more likely that, it seems a lot more likely with body type and skill sets that Upton will be a defensive liability by the end of the contract than Hayward will. So I will say Hayward, and I'll say that it'll be lopsided. Okay.

It is Hayward. It's very close, though. 20 to Hayward. 20 Hayward, 14 Upton. Wow. Maybe they're on to me and they have coordinated to essentially be coin flips like before it even starts like they're just like we're gonna split we're gonna split on everything and then you can't make fun of us huh that's yeah that's pretty perplexing I I mean, Upton is 28. Hayward is still 26. He must be close to 27, but 26. And

they were like, I think roughly equal as far as their offense, even just this year. Upton OPS plus of 121, Hayward 116. And I'm guessing if you looked at weighted runs creative or true average or whatever it would be even closer because hayward's maybe more of an obp guy so yeah i don't know i mean hayward doesn't turn 27 until august so he's not even close so i don't know what uh basis you would pick upton over hayward on if up i'm gonna give you some quotes. If Upton were to get into a Toronto-type lineup, he would prosper, one scout said. Shouldn't seem great.

Okay. It really depends on what you're trying to put on the field, is how one person described it. Upton has more sex appeal with the power consistency. Consistency with the power gives him more offensive value going forward. One scout, I really have a pet peeve with Hayward.

So much of his value is tied up in defense, and that makes me nervous. The speed of defense will begin to erode in the 30s, and then you're left with a tweener bat, which is true. It's also five years away. It's still way away from 30. They had identical 294 true averages this year. Interesting. That's interesting, too. So Hayward is younger, just as productive a hitter, and a far better defender. I don't know.

People love Upton, though. Yeah? Well, not the Diamondbacks. Okay. All right. Which free agent power hitter would you rather invest in for the long haul, Chris Davis or Jonas Cespedes? I would guess that people would say Cespedes. Uh-huh.

I don't know. He's less one-dimensional. He's toolsier. He doesn't have a fairly recent, still fairly recent, history of failing massively in front of everybody. They both had great years. Cespedes had a great second half, though, and probably carries a little bit of extra narrative power in people's minds although

bad postseason maybe that hurts yeah i also will say cespedes will be their pick and you know just the there's i think cespedes even being able to hang in center field like a lot of times the question is like is sort of rephrasing your mind who would you start a franchise with or who would you want on your team and it's just easier to build around a guy who can even plausibly hang in center field than a first base DH-ish type. So I will say Cespedes in a landslide. Yeah. Oh my goodness.

Jerry did his job well this year. Cespedes 17, Davis 15. Wow. That's interesting. I mean, yeah, Cesped has looked bad in the postseason i mean he he did play center and just the ability to convince a manager to stick you in center in a postseason game says something about you of course he also didn't look good there and kind of maybe didn't look like he was giving full effort at times. And on the other hand, he ran really fast when he was on the bases. Like the stat cast stats on him were like he had the fastest top speed

on a steel of third all year or something like that. It was like 23 and a half miles per hour or something. So he clearly moves better than someone his size seems like he would move. But I could see how you might think he would get thicker and slow all of a sudden. But what are the quotes? I mean, if you just want pure power, then Davis is your guy. Well, I will say just to be for the record, I would choose Davis. So I don't think that this is, I'm surprised by the prediction

because people like broad skill sets and athleticism, and they don't like the strikeouts. So I'm sort of surprised is all, but I'd rather have Davis. Let's see, some of the quotes. This is a tough one. Thank you, yes. Thank you, that's why I called you with this question, Jerry replied davis has a better overall track record and special on base ability that is a major cesspitous weakness cesspit is more athletic and gives a club outstanding defense

on the outfield corner short-term davis long-term cesspitous all right and also here also, here's the answer that probably is not the right way to make this decision. In my view, he's developed a pretty big chip on his shoulder from being traded so many times in recent years. I think that will drive him for a while. Okay. Okay. Is it also relevant that so many teams have traded him though yeah but every time he gets traded he gets stronger the chip gets bigger yeah at a certain point you just don't want to have to carry that chip around though like you're the team

got to pay for that air weight all right right. Which playoff hero is more likely to maintain his October success during his next contract, Colby Rasmus or Daniel Murphy? And for a bonus question, Ben, I will ask you to predict how many jerk GMs refuse to answer? Like totally missing the point of the exercise. Or just say neither. just say neither like instead of answering not answering they'll say neither how many neithers will there be out of i think there's like 34 or something it it varies slightly the numbers vary slightly but yeah about 34 gems and and scouts and etc okay so seven didn't answer seven didn't answer and then what's your pick? My pick is Murphy doesn't sustain it. Okay.

So Rasmus does. Rasmus is more likely to. I will say that, yeah, I think you're right. I think Rasmus will get the vote for maintains it, and I will say three saying neither. Three had no preference. Huh. Not quite the same as saying neither okay three had no preference huh not quite the same as saying neither so i will say we both overshot that one okay uh and the answer it was oh my gosh ben yeah this is our most lopsided answer yet 22 said murphy and nine said rasmus wow i'm surprised

so am i interesting summation, no one expects either, of course. Let's see. One scout described Rasmus as indifferent, which feels to me like old intel. Yeah, I guess maybe we should have predicted that baseball people just wouldn't like Rasmus. Yeah, yeah. But he has been traded a lot, though. That's true. Big chip. Big chip. Another described him as a flake. I feel like both of those, though, there's been a rehabbing of his image in the last year. I just feel like both of those are somewhat outdated. I think Rasmus sees himself as a power guy,

as a mistake-lift-pull guy. In this game, in this era, that has value. Scarcity of power. Scar scarcity of power scarcity of power also outdated right didn't you hear about the royals guy uh both will be productive and have value but murphy's a better hitter if he goes to a smaller ballpark he could end up with a lot of homers uh if i was a team and i had a market for murphy i'd want him playing third i don't like him at second the ball finds him and he gets exposed all right I'll find him which of these free agents is more likely to bounce back Desmond

or Samarja I'll say Desmond yeah I agree am I are we just saying that because we think Desmond though I do think Desmond but uh yeah'm just going to guess the position player gets the vote not just position either like someone will say that he brings tremendous value just by being able to play shortstop and Samarja

I mean it was only a year ago that that guy was like big deal like a clear number two in industry perception. Yeah. And so there is something like he still throws hard, but his fastball wasn't as effective. There will be a feeling that he's there's always a feeling that pitchers once pitchers lose it. It's not just a slump.

It's it's that happening. uh yeah they said samarja 18 to 15 pick samarja we are a lot of deadlocks this year a lot of deadlocks yeah we're also not very good at predicting predictions maybe that means we're good at actual predictions because they're not good at those so uh this scout said of desmond uh from the time he couldn't come to an agreement he was playing so hard for dollars he overswung 90 of the year once he gets his money he'll settle in and be a good player another scout said once he gets his money he'll be trying so hard to justify that contract no i i'm the second scout i made up the second scout. But another scout did think that. And that's why he chose Samarja. Samarja has always been a huge underperformer

considering the stuff he has. It drives me crazy. There's some ceiling with the stuff, but I don't have much confidence he gets significantly better. And no quotes explaining the Samarja pick. Just two quotes explaining the Desmond pick. All right. If the Cubs trade a young infielder, who is more likely to be moved, Castro or Baez? What would they say? I'll say Baez. I'll say Baez. I'll say Baez because Castro responded so well to Joe Maddon last summer. well to Joe Maddon last summer and because maybe they like him at second base more than they like Baez, I don't know, but maybe someone will say that.

And they'll say that because Baez is so cheap he'll have a lot more trade value and the Cubs are not worried about adding payroll. Yeah. All right. adding payroll yeah all right castro 20 bias 11 uh-huh castro has four years and 38 million dollars left on his contract uh bias not a lot i mean that's not like a big unmovable contract that's quote uh for bias in a sport of bias he would bring more of haul, and they have enough overall depth to gamble that he doesn't turn into Gary Sheffield. Although you'd think that if you have depth, that's when you gamble that he does turn into Gary Sheffield.

It's more that you'd think that would be a reason to hold on to him because they have enough overall depth to gamble that he doesn't turn into Brandon Wood or whatever. Castro showed enough at two positions that his contract will seem like a fair deal. Actually, a huge bargain. I don't see the Cubs' leadership parting with Baez, given his upside. I don't see teams... But I also see teams shying away from his boom or bust approach. One exec suggested the Cubs would consider shopping Kyle Schwarber,

even though the idea might not set well with Wrigley Field denizens, and even though the idea was not part of the premise of the question, So he just threw that in there. He's so eager to say it. All right. Which pending free agent has the best chance of returning to the Royals in 2016? Gordon, Cueto, or Zobrist? And I will ask you not only to pick, but also to say,

how many of the 30-ish, 34-ish will say none? Even though the question specifically said the best chance. Yeah. I'll say it goes Gordon, then Zobrist, then Cueto, and I'll say that two said none. Okay. I'll say Zobrist, then Quado, then Gordon. Oh, wait.

That's my answer. That my answer would be Zobrist, Quado, and then Gordon. That's not what they're... That's not your answer. Okay. So I will predict Quado is last in theirs. And that... Yeah, I think you're right.

Gordon first. Just because it's almost like in direct proportion to how many times you've seen them wear the uniform. Yeah. It feels more like inertia than anything else. Yeah. Homegrown player. Homegrown player. You know, franchise player, really.

Even though if he was going to re-sign, as Andy McCullough has pointed out, they probably would have talked to him at some point during the year or tried to extend him earlier. They do know him best, though. They have the relationship. Just thinking about who are you most likely to be able to come to terms with, the guy that you've known for 15 years. You know what he's into what he

wants how to appeal to him and so on and gordon probably has a house and a favorite restaurant and a market diner across the street yeah right so all right so i'm saying although yeah i mean i my answer also might be his overest i mean it seems like he really likes being on the Royals, and he grew up a Royals fan, and he had a great experience with the Royals, and he just named his daughter Blaze Royal. Yeah. And so. So I would pick Zobrist by a mile.

Yeah. On this. And I would have Gordon last. I would have Gordon ahead of Cueto. Yeah, they're both. Yeah, you're right. That could be right. Anyway.

What do they say? They say Gordon 25, Zobrist 7, Cueto 2. All right. Just as we said. So we got that one right. But no one said none. No one said none. So they really abided by the rules this year.

They did, yeah. Jerry pushed them. That's the end, Ben. That's all of them. Okay. All right. yeah. Jerry pushed them. That's the end, Ben. That's all of them. Okay. All right. Well, fun as always. I love this.

I wish Jerry would just do this, like, forever. Yeah. Just, like, not, like... He should just only do this. I don't mean, like, look, like, do it again next year and the next year and the next year forever, but I mean just never stop. Like, someone just sits there feeding food into his mouth while he's on the

phone doing this okay i guess it'll be harder to make fun of people in the future because some of them were so close unless it turns out that the right answer seems so obvious in retrospect and they were all divided but okay i enjoyed this exercise great all right so we'll do an email show tomorrow probably so please send us some emails at podcast baseball perspectives.com join our facebook group at facebook.com slash groups slash effectively wild and yes tweet just over the transom transom yes royals more optimistic about keeping zobrist 27 seconds ago take that they heard us they heard us and that's what made him optimistic uh all right a bunch of executives regretting their answer on the krasnick survey already and someone's calling up krasnick and

going can you change my answer and rate, and subscribe to the show on iTunes and support our sponsor, The Play Index, by going to baseballreference.com, using the coupon code BP, and getting a discounted price of $30 on a one-year subscription. We will be back. you