Fantasy Baseball Today - Bonus ⚾️ Talk: Jon Lester Talks Nationals, Pitching; Who is the Face of Baseball? (2/10 Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

Episode Date: February 10, 2021

Danny Vietti and Will Middlebrooks are back, just a week out of pitchers and catchers reporting. According to sources, there will be a minor league baseball season (2:30). ... Who is the face of baseball according to Will Middlebrooks (6:00)? ... What's the difference between playing in Los Angeles and playing in New York (12:40)? ... If Mike Trout isn't the face of baseball, who is (16:35)? ... How should the MLB market Trout better (25:38)? ... Jon Lester joins the show (31:08)! How does it feel to sign with the Washington Nationals? ... Did he receive any interest from the Red Sox or Braves (34:45)? ... What are Lester's thoughts on technology and analytics in the game (39:00)? ... Is this Lester's final season (44:25)!? ... Email us at [e-mail]. Subscribe to our YouTube channel: youtube.com/FantasyBaseballToday 'Fantasy Baseball Today' is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, Google Podcasts, Castbox and wherever else you listen to podcasts.  Follow our FBT team on Twitter: @FBTPod, @CTowersCBS, @CBSScottWhite, @Roto_Frank, @AdamAizer Join our Facebook group at https://www.facebook.com/groups/fantasybaseballtoday For more fantasy baseball coverage from CBS Sports, visit https://www.cbssports.com/fantasy/baseball/ To hear more from the CBS Sports Podcast Network, visit https://www.cbssports.com/podcasts/ You can listen to Fantasy Baseball Today on your smart speakers! Simply say "Alexa, play the latest episode of the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast" or "Hey Google, play the latest episode of the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast." To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Welcome to the fantasy baseball today podcast from CBS Sports. I drive, center field, and swing. This is magnificent. Got a fantasy question? Email fantasy baseball at CBSI.com. Get ready to win your league. Well, fantasy becomes reality. Now here's Frank, Scott, Chris, and Adam.

What are people? What's good? Welcome to the fantasy baseball today podcast. Wednesday, February 10th, and guess what? Broxie, Willowmane Brooks, my co-host. We are one week away from spring training. I should say pitchers and catchers reporting, but as a former pitcher, that's the start of spring training.

I mean, that's got to fire you up. It absolutely fires me up. Because we've been so focused on obviously the free agency, because that's what the off season is. COVID, COVID protocols, owners versus players, where are we going to be, a CBA, blah, blah, blah, blah. well now we get to just focus on putting together rosters you got you got guys coming in trying to win spots you got new players on new squads you got Trevor Bauer and with Dodgers camp I'm fired up man

there's a lot there's a lot to be seen over the next two weeks and and as a position player I was always a get there early guy so I was already there for pitchers and catchers I couldn't show up the day before my physical and be ready I needed like two weeks before that to get the field, take BP, getting that Florida heat a little bit, sweat it out. And this is a fun time. This is a fun time for baseball and I'm ready to get going. You're a sweaty guy, aren't you? You're a sweater. Oh. Yes, you are. You're like Texas people, like everyone from Texas, like they sweat a little more than others, I feel like. In Texas, maybe, because it's really hot. But you got to put a little extra deodorant down. No, no, no, no, no, no. I'm probably the, I probably smell better than everybody

you've ever met in your life. And that's a pet peeve of mine. Now, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, like personal hygiene, smelling good, teeth. I just want to be clean. That's one of my like OCD, like I have to be smell good. If I smell bad at all,

I'm not leaving the house. Yeah, I like to hear that. There's a reason we do this thing over Zoom and not in person. Anyways, but no, it is really good news just because there's kind of a lot of concern and pessimism going into the season.

We didn't know about health protocols. We didn't know about fans. My only league baseball, which is kind of another news. I have sources, Brooksie. I do have sources. I believe you.

Little Bernie told me that there were going to, it's going to be a minor league baseball seat in this year too. That should make a lot of people happy. A lot of little towns across the country that get behind the team. So that's expected to happen. That's huge. That's not only huge for those towns. It's huge for these kids who are going to have a job and have a salary

because they, I mean, they don't make a ton of money anyways, but these guys, some guys sign for a plane ticket sometimes. They don't get these huge signing bonus. is that we see. These kids need the 10 grand, 15 grand.

It's not a lot, but they're going to make, they need that money. And they need the opportunity because go out and have a big year. Look up. You're in double A, triple A. You're step away from the big league. So a lot of careers were altered last year with no minor league season. I'm glad you brought that up.

Not to go too much on a tangent here, but I wrote a piece on minor league players during a pandemic. Yeah. Hearing their stories, thank you. Hearing their stories, I mean, these guys are making a living off of $10,000 a year sometimes. And they're expected to make a living and support of family. And last year, I spoke with one player and we'll continue on, but let me just give this

little tidbit here. There was one player. He got drafted two years ago out of Santa Clara, came into the league and made about five grand. After the draft, he had about half the season left, made about five grand, came back the next year, there was the pandemic, and they were given about $400 per week. he was not qualified for unemployment because he didn't play enough the season before, but he didn't play enough because he was playing for his collegiate team.

He was getting his degree in college. So that's just essentially a microcosm of minor league baseball. Mine league baseball is a dollar and a dream, man. That's what it is. You get about a dollar and an opportunity to make it to a pinnacle of a sport, which is worth more than money. Yes. Or it gives you an opportunity to make a lot of money.

You get your shot. here. We're going to have John Lester joining today's show. Former teammate of Wilmaidenbrook. Leftander. Yeah, man. He's the best. He's made a heck of a career, number one. And he's still going. He's

37 years old now. He's been doing it for a while. Beat cancer. Hopkins lymphoma. Doing no hitter. I mean, this guy's a legend. He was a great teammate. Too much red socks on this podcast already. All right. But we're going to be talking with John, of course, about what to expect because he is on the Washington Nationals now.

Long time Red Sock, long time Cubby. He's with the A's for like half season, but whatever. So we're going to be talking with John Law about 2021 season upcoming. What we're going to get into is kind of a heated topic. And I think it's really fitting with Trevor Bauer signing this last week. We're going to be talking about who's the truth face of baseball. And with Trevor Bauer and what he's done with his social media presence, everything he's done on his YouTube channels and with his agent Rachel Lubba.

He's basically at the forefront of every conversation, especially on social media. I'm not making the case that Trevor Bowers is face of baseball quite yet, but I'm really curious to hear your thoughts. And we're going to give our top three. We each have our top three faces of baseball. And we talked a little bit before, offline before this show. And Brooksie just expects me to tell him my list that I told him, I refuse. I want you to be surprised when I give you my list.

And so I'll let you out the floor first. Okay. Well, number one, it was really hard for me to make a top three list. Yeah. And I don't know if I have a number one. I don't know if there is a singular face of baseball right now. Because it all depends on really, how do you want to determine the face of the game? Is it the best player?

Is it the most marketable, the most popular? Because there's different in that different players that match. each of those categories. Best player we know is Mike Trout. Best all around, most consistent. You know what you're going to get every single year, every single game almost from Mike Trout. In that case, he's the face of the game.

But there's a marketing problem there. And we know that. And does that fall on MLB? Yes, partially. I also think Mike Trout doesn't care to be the face of the game. I think he, yes, should what he does on the field be enough? Yeah, I think so. But in the age we're in now with social media and the access that everyone has to these players' lives,

you have to want to be in the spotlight more. So that being said, also in my top three, other than Mike Trout, is Fernando Tatis Jr. He only has a year in the league. I get that. There's not a whole lot on the back. of his baseball card yet. There's going to be, there's going to be a lot. He hasn't played a 162 games yet.

Nope, but this is more of a projection for me, I guess. But, you know, and I get on Twitter and I talk to people about this, because I like to hear the fan side, because ultimately the face of the game isn't decided by ex-player or players. It's decided by fans. So I got on Twitter and I wanted to talk to people about it in here. and it was, I'd say a majority of people said trout, but they thought there was a marketing problem.

What did you? You asked who was the face of baseball on Twitter? Yeah, it wasn't a poll because I didn't want to like put a player in your mind. I just wanted to see what people replied. So a lot of Aaron Judge, which I like that as well. There's some Bryce Harper. But I say the top two were top three on. Twitter were Trout, Tatease, and then Moogie.

Okay. All right. Now, we know Trout is the number two L.A. team. We know his team hasn't been to the postseason. We know he plays on the West Coast. And so you don't get to see many Sunday night baseball games of Mike Trout, unless he's playing on the East Coast because their games will start until 10. They don't want to play at 5 p.m. there and deal with shadows and 0.0.0.

game going into the six waiting for the Sunday set because the shadows are awful and you can't see the spin on the baseball. That's a real thing. It's true. Dodger Stadium, L.A., both of them are terrible when it comes to shadows. So to answer your question, top three. I don't know if I can make an exact top three. I think Mike Trout is one of the faces of the game. I think Tatis is very marketable, his hair, his sweatbands, his swagger. That's easily imitated by kids. And that's we need in the game to grow it and to continue because it's going down a path now where people are starting to not be done with baseball but there's just other things to get kids attention now I was talking about this with my father-in-law the other day because he he grew up a huge Mets fan in

Brooklyn in the 60s and you grew up listening and watching baseball it was cheaper to go to the games it was easily accessible there's no blackout so you know what I mean like there's it was easier to market it then then not easier. It's way easier to market it now. They just don't do it. I know I'm ranting. I can talk about this all day.

So I'm going to let you go. But Mike Trout, Tatee, Muki, and it's hard not to put Judge and Bryce Harper in this conversation. Because Bryce has been marketed. They marketed Bryce. They marketed Bryce Harper more

than they marketed Mike Trout. Bryce Harper's been on every baseball fan's radar since he was 10 years old. Okay, but here's the difference. Bryce Harper's been to the playoffs more than one time. He's played more than three games in the postseason. Bryce Harper hasn't had that much postseason success. Him and the nationals fell short a number of times.

No, but he gets to play under those bright lights and be seen in that. And I fully agree with that. So I don't know if he saw this, but MLB.com, they put, I think this feeds into your point. They put out their most intriguing divisions going into 2021. Who do you think were they're top to? I'm going to let you guess. NL East and the NL West. You would think, right?

ALE's NOS, especially with all the Padres moves and the Dodgers bringing in Bauer. The American League East and the National League East. That right there. Wait, American League East and what? National League East. Okay. Two Eastern Division. And the writers, that's because they're on TV.

They're on TV more. Right. And the writer, this isn't a, I'm not condemning the Major League Baseball writers who took part in this, this ranking. However, I think that says a lot about. the way the western part of the United States and baseball is viewed. And so when we're talking about like- You think it's secondary to just people's lifestyle in California? Yeah, part of it is culture.

And you can speak to this a lot. And I will ask you about this. And so when you go to an angel game, you're not going to necessarily catch a game. You're going to have something to do. Because there's so many different things to do in Southern California. And there's a lot of really good Los Angeles Angels fans. I've gotten the opportunity

to interact with a lot of them through social media just person to person too and there's a lot of really good angel fans out there. But when you compare that to the East Coast, the weather has a lot to do with it. History has a lot to do with it. Everything in baseball

started on the East Coast. It started in New York, started in Boston. Even the best West Coast team, the Dodgers started in Brooklyn. Exactly. And so when you go to an angel game when you go to a Dodger game and you go to a Padre game and you can even go up to Northern California with San Francisco. You're going to enjoy some good food, maybe even hang out with your friends a little bit. And then there's also a game going on. When you go to a Red Sog game

and you can hit this, you're going to watch a baseball game. No doubt about it. L.A. You go to a Dodger game, it is a show. The music, the lights. A quick story. When I played in a Dodger game, Dodger Stadium for the first time, I will never forget how loud the music was. And I that was one of the things that stuck out to me the most. And then I went back there in 2015 with the Padres and they needed me

to play shortstop. I didn't play shortstop since high school. But we had a couple of injuries and I was capable. I could do it for a couple times if they needed me to. And I was like, yeah, sure. Like I'll play short, whatever. And I'll never forget, man.

I'm out there. It's like Saturday night too Saturday night game in Dodgers stadium starting at shortstop for the Padres first time since high school I'm pretty nervous first battle of the games Jimmy Rollins came right out of you I'm sure smoked a ball at me but before that like they all had like gangster walkout music and like the the whole batter's eye in center field like it's black that's all speakers behind that bro yeah I can still to this day close my eyes and just feel like my body moving to the like the beat of like and like the ground was shaking under my feet and I'm like yeah I'm about the E6 coming up I'm about to launch a ball into the popcorn stand the ball gets hit to me

he smoked the ball that be like lefty inside out of but he hit it really hard like short hop and took it off my chest and I threw him out and after that I was like oh okay I can breathe now but I just it to the point of the music the lights it's more than baseball there and to your point It is a show. In Boston and New York, yes, it is somewhat of a production, but the most important thing

is the baseball. What's funny, too, building off of that is the Dodgers just kind of renovated their outfield area with new food places. And I think they have a couple more shops too.

Yeah. And fans are fired up for it. I only know if they've been able to take advantage of it because of the pandemic and no fans. But when New York built their new stadium, the Yankees put essentially a ball in the New York Yankee Stadium and fans hate it.

Yankee fans are like this, why do we have them all on our stadium? Like, what is the point? What does this have to do with the game? Just give me a better seat. They should are just fixed up and renovated old Yankee Stadium. That's what they wanted. Yeah. Because that place was like on top of you as a player.

It's like even like the upper deck you felt like you could hear people. It's just funny how fans on the West Coast and fans on the East Coast, it's not to say they don't love their teams. That's really not the point. I think it's more of a priority. I think it's more of a die-hardman. mentality on these. It's just a different culture.

That's just a different culture. It's not like you see more Yankee jerseys out on the West, or I'm sorry, East Coast than you see Dodger jerseys over on the West Coast. You'll me to explain it. So in the fall, if you're from Boston, you're a Patriots fan, or it's April or it's October and you're a Red Sox fan, it's really cold outside. Oh.

It's all right. I played games in April where it was 30 degrees. It's not spring yet until like May. end of May and the summers are beautiful but it snows a lot there it's cold people aren't going to go outside they're going to if they do go outside they're going to come to a socks game or a pat's game but otherwise they're going to go to a bar or they're going to sit in their house and they're going to watch their team they're not going to go spend hours and watch sunset at the beach

no it's too cold so they're going to focus on what they can watch and that and I think that plays into it too is just the weather so this is I know we've obviously kind of branched off into other conversations here. But back to my crowd. This is our show. We can do whatever the hell we want. Today it's our show. Today,

we're going to send it back to Frank and the boys tomorrow. But today, yeah, you're right. This is our kid. Trout, back to Trout. Okay. I don't have them in my top three. And that's probably going to anger you a little bit. It doesn't anger me.

I understand it. It has nothing to do with Mike. You know, a lot of people say, and yourself included, he doesn't do enough on the marketing aspect in order to be the face of the game. I personally disagree. I personally think the way you play the game and the way you interact on social media is enough. He does enough on social media. He has the most Instagram followers of any. It's not because of what he posts. It's because of what he does on the field. Agreed. Agreed. But he does have that in his back. He's the greatest player we've seen. And I think that's enough.

where and a lot of people say Rob Bantford fails in. And usually baseball fails him. No. His franchise has failed. You cannot market a player who does not play when the most eyes are on the game of baseball. The most eyes are on the game of baseball in October. Agreed. So we're talking about like Bryce Harper.

Bryce Harper has been on not the biggest stage. He hasn't played in the World Series. He still can't take Mike Trout on the top three. He's not the top of the game. I'll give you my top three. First of all, let me confirm yours. Your top three was... I'll go Trout.

I'll go Tatee. And that's more of a projection. Yeah, that's fair. You know, but I have to put him in there because he's the hot topic right now when it comes to this argument. And then I'm going to go Mookie because he played on the East Coast and he's got a ton of fans there. And now he's in L.A.

He's well-spoken. He does a lot for like minority groups, which helps him out a lot. And on top of that, he's one of the best players in the game. Doing it for the Dodgers. And he just won a World Series. So you have to put him in that mix, too. And then my honorable mention was Harper and Judge. So I think there are two different types of,

we're getting back into the subjectivity of this conversation. That's the beauty of it. I think there are two different types of faces of baseball. I believe there is a face of baseball or baseball fans. I believe there is a face of baseball for the rest of the world. And what I mean by that is I think Mike Trout is the face of baseball for baseball fans. The people that watch baseball on a day-to-day basis, they know who the best player is. Even if they're not even watching on day-to-day, if they're following baseball, they're seeing the scores and they're, you know, they have an idea of what's going on.

They know Mike Trout is the best player. They know Mike Trout plays for a crappy team and his team has failed him. For those others, that maybe catch a game or two throughout the season, maybe they like baseball, but they're not, you know, they're not die-hard fans. That's a whole other list. And that's the list I'm going to say here. And I believe Aaron Judge is the face of baseball simply because he plays to the New York Yankees. And he is the face of the New York Yankees. And he led the league in Jersey sales, 2017, 2018, 2019. Last year was the first year he did not lead in Jersey sales in his career. And it was because is that a subject of the market he's in as well?

100%. The two big because I literally in my notes I wrote down Aaron Judge would be in my top three if he was healthy more. And on the field. I know he's still popular.

I know he's still popular. He's popular to me too. I love the guy. But he is a much bigger figure when he's on the field. But when he's hurt, we're talking about the Yankees and saying if Aaron Judge was here, you know,

so part of that has to do with the stature. Too, just the fact that he's massive. Seven large a huge. Right? like superstar or a super superhero to kids when guys are that big. You know, that's that's that's part of it. You're right.

He's a really good dude too. Just like with the media with fans, he interacts. He does a lot of autograph signings before the game. He has a big social media. Very personal. Yes. So Aaron Judge is personally,

if you're talking universal wide face of baseball, Aaron Judge is my guy. Simply because he plays with the Yankees. He's not all I agree. He's not on the field. Can I ask you a question? Okay, so you agree that, okay, I'm trying to think of the best way to phrase this. So Judge clearly isn't the best player in the league, but you think he's a face of the game.

So that's like the 90s Griffey. I don't think Griffey at the time was the best player in the league, but he was the face of the game. All right. And no, I'm agreeing with you. And I'm saying, and Derek Jeter wasn't the best player in the game either. Hey, you just took the words right out of my mouth. I was just about to say Derek Jeter was the face of the game for 10 plus years. He was not even close to the best player.

There was out of pool holes in the league. There was Barry Bonds was playing. Griffey was not downplay Jeter's excellence either, though. Yes, he was an average fielder, but he also had 3,000 hits, which is very hard to do. That's not what I'm doing. But he wasn't the best player in the game when he was playing. I agree. I agree.

All right. I'm just proving your point. I agree with you. I agree with you on that front. Okay. After that, I have Fernandez, Tanti Jr. And again, that's more of a projection. I agree with you.

But he's very, he's the most marketable. player in the league. He's on the face of MLB 21 the show. He's doing the new Gatorade commercials. He's swaggy. He's swaggy. It's funny. I had a scout. He's a PBR scout. He messaged me this

last week and they had a showcase out in California. He sent me a video of this kid. I guess he's from Fresno. And he said hey, this is the Fernando Tatsis Jr. of Fresno. Look out for him. So people are emulating Fernando Tatsy Jr. even though he's only played

a year in the league. So more of a projection, but he's number two on my list. Third, I have Bryce Harper because I think when you walk into a mall and you ask different random people, you say, name one baseball player. First baseball player comes into your head. I think Bryce Harper is probably one of the first guys. After that, I have Trout and then actually I have Trevor Bauer after that. Let me say what. So my fiance, she's not the biggest baseball fan, but she follows what's going on. And she doesn't really know all the players, but when Bauer made his decision, she was like, oh, Bauer made a decision.

Like, thank God, it was going on forever. I was tired of hearing all his, you know, all his antics. And that says a lot. The fact that she doesn't really follow the game, but she knows, one, knows who he is, and two, knows where he's playing. I think that says a lot. My answer would have been completely different a year ago, but what he's done with his platform over this past year.

year. I think if we're just talking popularity, I'm not talking about ethics, morals, anything else. Or even the fact that he's only on the field once a week. That too. I think Gary Cole would be higher on this list if he was more often. But just just popularity, social media presence says a lot. And that's why I have Bauer and my honorable mention here. That's a solid list. That's super interesting. And that's what I love about this discussion is every single person has a different outlook on it. And that's, it's really interesting to me. There's, there's, and I think that brings me back to my original point is I don't think there's a singular face of the game right now. I agree. That is a really good point. Yeah. I think there's a combination of guys who are the

faces of the game. Bryce Harper, going back to that, I think that is an issue though, because, and ESPN's World Fame 100 that they released, I think it was a year ago. Bryce Harper, was the only baseball player in that top 100 list. He is the only baseball player on that list. Soccer players, hell, business insider, they put out the 20 most famous athletes this last year. They had a damn cricket player on that. There was not a baseball player on that list.

There was a damn cricket player, though. He was on Business Insider's 20 most famous list. So baseball marketing, not the best. That's the thing with the next teammate in mind, David Ortiz, is we would always say, like, yeah, he's a really popular baseball player, but he's a rock star. Like, people know him all over the world. Big Poppy.

That name is, if you say Big Poppy in any country, someone knows who that is. Maybe not David Ortiz, but if you say Big Poppy, like, I thought his nickname was marketed really well. And obviously, he played in exhibition games in Japan and all that. And they fell in love with them because he hit like 900 foot homers. But, I mean, he does a good job. of marketing himself, just his personality and stuff like that as well. But this is good, man.

This is really good stuff. I love this. I do. I hate that MLB missed out on Mike Trout. I know you don't want to blame MLB, but they could have done a better job. At the end of the day, at the end of the day, though, it came down to Trout not wanting it.

If he wanted it, they would have given him more. Let me ask you that. Now, I'm going to put you on the spot. What could Rob Manfred Major League Baseball done differently with Mike Trout over this past decade? In specific, I mean, that's okay, so that brings me to the end of that last point I made

was they could have pursued more and trying to figure out better ways to get him on TV. Like I said earlier in this show, when they're playing 7 o'clock games on the West Coast, no one's watching it. except the people on the West Coast. And if they have a choice between the Dodgers and Anaheim or the Angels, they're going to watch the Dodgers because they're a better team,

which is the point you made of putting together, spending the money, and putting a team around a guy like Mike Trout, which they haven't done. They put an offense around them. They protected them in the lineup, but doesn't matter when you give up six and a half runs a game. What could MLB done better? They could have, I think, eliminating it. blackout stuff or guys people can watch games more i think making the schedule in a in a way

to highlight him more um but i also think it comes down when to self-marketing and commercials and showed like that's not who mike trout is i played in the fall league with him when he's 19 we spent a lot of time together he's as simple as they come and i think that's what makes him as great as he is and that's who he is he still lives in his hometown he's married to his high school so week heart like that's that's who he is he's a simple minded guy in the best way possible and that's that that's fine with him and he's happy he doesn't need more he doesn't need to be the face of the game to feel content at where he's at in his career that's why he doesn't care about this he's like he honestly he wants to win so that's the frustrating part for him is we're not winning not that oh

I'm maybe not considered the face of the game because I'm not in commercials and movies and this and that he doesn't care about that and that and that's part of the the reason he's not a lot of people's face of the game. So a lot of me... I just want to say one more thing and then I'll let you go. I talk to a lot of players. I talked to a lot of players about this. And players within the game, if you ask him who the face of the game is, they will say

Mike Trout. That's because it's based off of they know what goes into each day. They know what it takes to be as good as he is. So the players who understand the game, I mean, to understand what he's doing right now and how absurd it is and how what he does isn't a normal like normalcy people can't touch what he's doing um that's why they think he's the face of the game now i said earlier the fans decide who's the face of the game because face of the game is determined by the people who people want to see that's the fans so it doesn't matter what the players think i'm i can say like right now who would i rather

go watch in person right now fernando tatis junior i'd go buy a ticket to watch him before trout just because of the way he's marketing himself, the league's marketing him, and he just seems like he's more fun to watch. Mike Trout is boring in all the best ways possible. I would agree. And I said this for the past year. If you go to the ballpark to go see FTJ,

he can go 0 for four with four strikeouts, and he's still worth the price of admission because he might make his sweet play in the field. He might steal a bag or somehow he gets on base and still the bag. Right, right, right. I'll leave it here. We got John Lester on deck here. you make your name in the postseason.

It doesn't matter if you're a big name player or you're a role player. People would not know who Kikei Hernandez is if he didn't play for the Dodgers. Steve Pierce. Steve Pierce. We could go on and on about these postseason heroes. Major League Baseball didn't market them. They were simply, they simply rose to the moment on the biggest stage when every spotlight was on them, and people now know who they are. I agree.

So it goes back with Mike Trout. their team, his team has not done enough. Their front office has not done enough to market him. Yeah, there's a lot of variables. That is a big part of it. But there are a ton of variables that go into this discussion, but that is definitely a big piece of it. This has been good, and I enjoyed this.

I personally put more blame on the Angels and Major League Baseball. But again, we can talk about this. We can talk about this for hours. Location, region, that's part of it too. location, location, location. That's it. John Lester, coming up next. Welcome back to the Fantasy Baseball today podcast.

We're back joined by three-time World Series, champ five-time All-Star, new Washington National Southpaw, John Lester. A whole lot of accomplishments, resume we could break down for you, but first and foremost, thanks so much for joining us, John. Yeah, man, thanks for having me. All right, how pumped you to go to Washington

because obviously they're one-year removed from winning the World Series, of course, And then you got your buddy Schwartz joining you, too. So that's kind of a nice little surprise for you. Yeah, I'm excited, man. I'm excited for a lot of different reasons. Just a little new chapter in my career in our lives. And, you know, there's actually a lot of guys over there that I've played with

or known for a while to make the transition a lot easier. Obviously, having Davey there, you know, adds an element to it. You know, I got to work with Hick for a year in Chicago. you know, bogeys there from Boston. The trainers are from Boston. So a lot of guys there that I've known for a long time. And like I said, makes that transition a lot easier going to a new place.

Yeah, absolutely. Man, I was fired up to see you sign because, I mean, you've been around forever. We know what you've done, accolade-wise. How hard was it to leave Chicago? I know how close you were. And I know what they're doing in Chicago, too, and kind of getting rid of some money and the business side of things.

But I know how close you are to David. And I guess my question is, how hard was that to be best friends with your manager? He was your personal catcher, favorite teammate. You guys went hand in hand together, and you guys were a perfect match. So how hard was that to go from playing with him to having them as a manager? How did that, did that dynamic change at all? Or was it just, you know, you're at that point in your career where you could still be that close with him? Yeah, I mean, I think that's part of it, you know, being older.

You know, I think if it would have been earlier in my career, it probably would have been a little bit harder than, than then. But no, I think the biggest thing is, is in spring training, we really made an effort to make it not about us, you know, not about our friendship, not about us playing together or anything like that. We really tried to make it. He's manager David and I'm player John. So it was like, you know, obviously the giving each other a hard time and still having fun is all there. But, you know, when it comes down to the baseball side of things, you know, you still have to look at it as he's my boss, you know. So when we're at the game, when we're playing and I'm pitching, he's making a decision based on the team, not on me. And, you know, that's, that's hard at first, but it's something you just have to kind of go, well, that's, that's the way it goes. Whether he's pulling me or anybody else, he's doing it for, you know, for the better of the club. So, you know, it was a little weird, but I think everybody had to get over that, you know, like Riz had a, has a really good relationship. Well,

we all did, you know, in Chicago. But, you know, to leave, you know, I think it's, it's one of those deals, man, you get down, you know, to January, whatever it was, 20th, and I didn't have a job. So then it becomes, you know, I want to play and I want to be a part of an organization. I would have loved to have been the Cubs, but just the way the things worked out at, you know, Washington came in, and they came in hot and made our decision, you know, I don't want to say easy, but it was presented in front of us and we made a decision. Well, let me ask you because a lot of, especially Boston fans, would have loved to see you back at Fenway, back where you really became a star and, you know, helped that team obviously win a couple World Series. You're beloved in Boston.

Was there any possibility that you could have gone back to Boston for one more year? Well, I think, you know, I think there was a possibility to go anywhere, you know, at that point. You know, obviously it's a, it's a team that I would have liked to have gone back to and finish it all out. kind of go out on that note. But, you know, same thing. They got a business to run. They got a team to put together. And you have to be part of those plans.

And I, you know, I understood where I was at as far as the free agent level, you know, coming off a year that wasn't great. You know, other guys were way above me and who they wanted and what they wanted to fill their roster with. So I understood the pecking order and all that. And, you know, like I just said, it got down to, you know, we were three weeks away from spring training. And, you know, you got one, maybe two teams knocking on the door.

So you got to make that decision. But that would have been a place that would have been great to finish. And, you know, for a lot of reasons. Another place I had you tab going was Atlanta, because it's close to home. You can sleep in your own bed. It's good for your family, especially where we're at with the pandemic and all that mess right now. Good hunting. Did you ever, yeah, did you ever hear?

Yeah. Yeah, no kidding. And did you hear from Atlanta at all or not really? Not really. Not really. I mean, early on, it was a possibility. You know, obviously, I think you, I would imagine you guys saw they signed Smiley right out of the gate. So, you know, when you sign another left-handed pitcher, that kind of knocks, knocks my worth off of there.

But then they went and got, you know, Morton, which is a huge, huge sign for them. They kind of needed that. You could see they ran out of maybe that one arm in the postseason last year. and, you know, he's had such a good postseason career, you know, so that's huge for them as well. And then obviously to get Ozuna back, you know, I was probably 10th on their list of people that they, that they wanted. But we tried, you know, I tried through some, through some back channels with Freddie and Chipper and a couple other guys to get a good word in there. But, you know, like it all goes back down to the guys they want for their, for their roster.

Well, the good news is that you've outlawed. lasted a lot of your Boston teammates. Granted, you started a little later. You outlasted Mani. You outlasted Ortiz. Obviously outlasted Will. That wasn't hard. And then you, of course, you outlasted Dustin Petroia, who announced his retirement last

week. Your emotions as he, you know, hangs it up and rides into the sunset. Yeah, it's, you know, I'm happy for him. You know, it's kind of one of those deals, man. I always tell people when they retire, whatever, I tell them, congratulations, you know, because it's, I think it should be something that's celebrated, not, you know, not mourned. You know, like, I think you, you should really be happy with everything. But, you know, it's unfortunate the way it all kind of happened for, for Petey,

you know, just with, you know, the slide and, and, you know, not really getting to go out on his terms. You know, I think that's, that's a big thing in this game, man, is, is being able to decide when you want to stop putting the jersey on, not letting somebody else decide for you. So, you know, I think that was, probably, you know, a frustrating part for me to not be able to see him go back out there and do the things that he wanted to do and finish his career the way he wanted to. So, you know, that's frustrating. But at the same time, man, what a career. I got to play with him. And we did everything together. We came up together. Basically got our our debuts around the same time,

one together, you know, all that stuff. So, you know, he's definitely a big, big part of my career. And, you know, as Will knows, and I'm sure he's told plenty of stories about him, you know, I don't think there's going to be anybody like him ever again. Definitely not. I mean, like you said, you guys came up through the game. You saw the game change a ton since the point where you came into the big leagues until now, the analytical age, the technology age we're in right now. We have a ton of viewers on here. This is a fantasy baseball podcast that we just take over for some bonus content once a week. but they love to hear about technology.

So where you're at in your career now, how much is technology and analytics helped you? Has it hurt you? Has it changed your routine? Because I know how routine-oriented you are. The analytics for me haven't really, I don't say changed, because now you know, now you got all this data and all this technology with, you know, the track man and spin rates and stuff like that.

Repsoto, all that. Yeah, like, and I think there's a time. time and a place for everything. I really do. I do like the Rapsoto and the trackman when it's used for like the, the, the biomechanics stuff where you can put stick figures over each other and figure out, hey, this is when I was right. This is when I'm not feeling so good. What's going on? And really kind of see that. The spin rate stuff, I think, is just another way for people to, I don't talk about stuff. You know, like, well, the spin rate of his fastball is this. Well, what, what does that mean? You know, like, what does that translate to? And, you know, like when we first got called up,

like with Papalban, Papalban, you know, everybody said, well, his ball rises, you know, well, he's probably one of the, like a spin rate guy, you know, if you would go back and look at it, his spin rate's probably through the roof. So, like, I like, I like the stuff, it doesn't translate to me because I'm not a spin rate. And my spin rate's been the same forever. You know, your velocity goes down, but your spin rate stays relatively normal. Um, you know, as far as the technology on the video stuff, I like that. I dive into that just based on, you know, scouting reports and things like that.

But, you know, I think, I think, you know, it's still a game. It's still that cat and mouse of in your head, in your gut, what you're feeling, executing. And then, you know, if you can have a little bit of knowledge to add to that, you know, that gives you that maybe that little extra to guess, you know, hey, this guy's going to throw me, you know, a two-two curveball or,

whatever, he's done it to this guy this many times and done it to me. So you have that in the back of your head where you can make an educated guess. Now it's about, well, does he do it? And if you get it, do you miss it? You know, like that's the stuff that to me drives me and I like that sort of thing. I think they're still trying to figure out where all the other technology comes in and how it plays. I can see where the biomechanical stuff you would like because you're not going to rebuild yourself at this point. You know what works. You know what doesn't work. And for you, that makes total sense because you just want to be able to repeat. You just want to repeat your delivery.

And that's probably when you get in trouble is when, like you said, doing the overlay of the stick figures and saying, oh, I'm step, I'm overstepping this way or whatever it may be. And that's what normally fixes you, I would think. Yeah. And it does. And mine more so is my arm, the angle of my arm or my hand when I come through. And it's, you know, I get into trouble when I get obviously around the cutter. and the cutter's breaking too early, guys can see it, and they're able to get the better part of the bat on it.

Whereas when I'm right and my hand is behind the ball, which a lot of other stuff causes that. But when you're more north and south and you're on behind that ball, you know, that cutter breaks late, which then makes, even though it's still, you know, my velocity's at 90 or 89, whatever, if I can get the cutter with the right break, then it makes my other stuff play better, you know. It all goes together.

And, you know, like you said, that stick figure stuff, you know, it helps do it quicker than just watching video. You know, and video when you're watching yourself, you don't get to see the small, you know, little. And I think that stuff they haven't figured out how to really break that down and use it yet. So, you know, that's kind of exciting for the next generation for what they're going to do. Let me ask you this because you have a long lasting relationship with you Epstein. He is with you and boss. He has brought to him in Chicago. He's now going to be in Major League Baseball's operations group.

Good for baseball, I would guess. Yeah, I think so. You know, you have a guy that's been on the GM vice president side for so long that, you know, he's heard what players complain about, what players like. And I think having that, and one thing about Theo that was always great is he would always listen to both sides. So he would listen to the to the player side and the analytical side. if you're able to do that and then he can make an educated guess off of that or educated decision, I think that only, you know, is a positive going forward. So if he's able to still

listen to us and listen to the other side, that's only going to make things better, you know, because a lot of those guys in MLB are only listening to owners, you know, or guys like Theo. So if we're able to get our voices in there, maybe through some back channels, you know, that's only going to help. I think, you know, negotiations coming forward with the labor agreement, you know, the on-field stuff that players don't like or like. And I think it can only make the game better. So just one more thing to finish this up. I know you're busy. You know, to me, you're at the tail end of, in my opinion, a Hall of Fame career. Obviously, I got to see it firsthand. I got to see how hard you worked, how much you cared about your teammates and your organization

and how much you love the game. Is this, is this, is this your last season? Or you got more in the tank? What do you think? I don't know, man. I mean, I think right now we'll just, we'll play out this year, you know. You know, I do know that I need to be a dad and a husband and, you know, let my kids do the stuff I got to do as kids.

And, you know, if this is it, this is it, I don't know. you know, I think that'll be a decision for the end of the year and, you know, kind of sit down and and decide, you know, obviously, too, I think health and performance and all that stuff is a big factor in it. But, you know, I think going forward, I'll just see how this year goes and, you know, make a decision at the end. I definitely don't want like a farewell tour or anything like that. I know you don't like the spotlight. You don't want it to be at the end and, you know, right off in the sunset and be done with it. Well, now that you say that,

I'm going to get in contact with everyone I know around the league and make sure you get the special training. We'll get you walkers and canes and all that. Yeah, yeah, surfboards and, you know, all that stuff, yeah. Well, John's hunting and fishing stuff for John. I'll give them any other. Yeah, there you go. There you go. I wouldn't complain on that.

All right, buddy. Yeah, John, thanks so much for joining us. The five-time All-Star, NLCS MVP, three-time World Champion. Thanks so much for doing the fantasy baseball day podcast. Yeah, guys, no problem. Thank you. I'm pumped up to see John Lester in the National's uniform because I'm pumped up to see what that rotation can be.

If, if, if, if, if, they can stay healthy. Scherzer, Strasberg, Corbyn, Joe Ross, who you love, and then John Lester. That's a, if they're older. Leicester's 37, 37 and 36. Strasberg is 32. he was injured last year. There's injury concerns and age concerns,

but you cannot doubt. The pedigree's there. I mean, these guys have been there. They've done it. They're going to be, I'm not real sure about their bullpen, you know, I'm not sure.

We weren't about their bullpen when they won the World Series either. That's true, but those pieces aren't even there anymore. So, Doolittle will just sign with who the Reds. Yep. I believe.

So that's a question for me, but as far as the starting rotation goes, very, very good. You have Siyang candidates there. You got guys who've thrown no hitters. You have a ton of leadership, number one. Joe Ross clearly or obviously didn't play last year. He opted out because of COVID.

He's kind of one of my sleeper breakout guys. I think he's going to be really good this year. And that's it, either the fourth or fifth spot in the rotation, depending on how they want to go, Corbyn, Lester, Joe Ross, or whichever way they want to do it. And then obviously, Scherzer-Strager at the top is always nasty, when healthy. Scherzer would be healthy. He tends to always

post and be healthy. It's Strasbourg that deals with the injuries the most. But, man, if this is the last year for John Lester, I don't expect him to have a crazy all-star year. I expect

him to just continue to be solid, miss barrels. He's not a high Vilo guy anymore, but he's a good cutter. He's developed a little better of a change-up field to change-up and up to pitch away with the cutter, back door cutters are righty. So I think he's going to be all right. I think he's going to be, I think he's going to be pretty good for him. And if you have a guy like John

Lester on your staff at the end of your rotation, that's never a bad thing. And his leadership will definitely come into play in that clubhouse, especially with young guys like Soto. I couldn't agree on. Join me next Wednesday, spring training. We're going to have a podcast, first day of pitchers and catchers reporting. That's, that's pretty fun. I'm so excited. man. Baseball's here. It's baseball season. Yeah. Super Bowl's over. It's Malian football. It's baseball season. We'll catch you all

next Wednesday. Will Minnow Brooks, Danny, Getty. Next Wednesday, Fantasy Baseball today. Podcast.