Fantasy Baseball Today - Bonus ⚾️ Talk: Padres GM A.J. Preller Talks Offseason, Lamet plus a Mailbag! (1/27 Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

Episode Date: January 27, 2021

Danny Vietti and Will Middlebrooks are back and will be joined by Padres General Manager A.J. Preller later in the podcast! First up, they start with the latest news regarding a potential delay and the DH in the National League (1:50). ... Mailbag time (8:49)! Who's been their favorite guest on the podcast? ... Where will Trevor Bauer sign (11:35)? ... Will offers his thoughts on the Red Sox offseason (15:20). ... Should pitchers be allowed to use substances on their hands while pitching (17:55)? ... Who are Danny and Will's favorites to breakout in 2021 (23:10)? ... Padres General Manager A.J. Preller joins the podcast (28:34)! How is this 2021 offseason different than 2015 when Preller was also aggressive? ... How good did the Padres front office think Fernando Tatis could be when they acquired him (32:08)? ... How did the Blake Snell trade come together (33:33)? ... Preller provides an update on Dinelson Lamet (40:35). ... How does the DH in the National League or lack thereof change the team (45:08)? ... 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. Funny people, is good.

Dani Gennie here, your host, along with my co-host. As always, my friend, Will Middlebrooks the World Series champion. What's good, Will Middobrooks? Every week, I laugh harder and harder at your intro. I got to keep it fresh. Like, I can't just say, what's good? It's pretty funny. No, I get it.

You got to do something. But it just every week, I'm like, I'm not going to laugh. I'm not going to laugh. I love Danny. I'm not laughing at you. I am laughing at you. It's funny. But it's who you are and it's who we are. And we're going to have some fun today.

For the longest time, my legacy was wearing a diaper around the state capitol building. And so I am manifest. I'm trying to change that. I want something new. I want a new aura. And this is it. Okay. This is it.

Yeah. So we're going to do a mailbag session today. And we also have, along with the mailbag session, we're going to have Padreys General Manager, A.J. Pellar joined in the show. which is I'm pumped for because this guy's been really at the forefront of everything that's gone on this off season. Everybody wants to know what is going on in San Diego because they're doing all the right moves. They're making all the right decisions.

AJ is going to tell us how that process is going. So I'm pumped for that one. As for news in Major League Baseball, Cactus League asked Major League Baseball to possibly suspend spring training or at least the start of spring training. Oh, boy. It's a bit complicated for more reasons than one. And you can probably explain that a little bit better than mine. I am just confused a little bit by it. I know where we're at as a country right now with the pandemic and the numbers and all that.

But the coyotes are having games and they're have fans. They're indoors. The basketball team has limited fans there, I believe. They're in Phoenix. So why can't you just do it with no fans? You don't have to suspend the season. I don't know. This starts, I try not to go down the rabbit hole of conspiracy theories and baseball.

And you know I'm very pro player. Like, does this, are they trying to delay the season until there's more vaccines so you can have more fans, which is more revenue, which means they're not paying the players out of their own pockets as much? Like, that's, I don't know. You didn't. Don't, don't call me. crazy. I know I'm a little crazy, but I don't know. Something just seems weird with it because other teams are playing there. So just do it with no fans. Right? Am I completely nuts for thinking this way? No, you're not. You're not crazy. That's why it gets complicated. And we can

you mention that. We can talk about COVID all day. All the, there's double standards involvement. Hey, I'm not the guy that's going to stand up here and say COVID is not a real thing. It's a real freaking thing. I'm not right but there are some complicated issues at hand and one of those is now coming to the forefront with major league baseball. Jeff Passon did say look this isn't going to affect a ESPN did say that it's not going to affect the start of screen training. Everyone's saying right now Ken Rosenthal tweet this too that spring training's probably going to start on time. So this might just be a little bit of a bump in the road, a little bit of a scare. Another scare in major league baseball that people really want answers to is

no Universal D.H. Major League Baseball, the owners and the MLBPA did not come to agreement on Universal D.H. And we'll... Shocking, right? Well, it's just going on too long. I mean, the season's a couple months away. And we...

It comes down... Look, there's a whole lot of different variables here at play. Universal D.H. I honestly think both sides want it. There's going to be a bargaining chip with the new CBA coming up after the season, which, pray to God, it's not a mess,

but it looks like the negotiations are going to be ugly. Hopefully not. We'll see. But it just, having the universal DH, I think just somewhat changes teams payrolls a little bit. Because, you know, and I tweeted that it adds a job. It doesn't exactly add a job. It just changes a job.

So you're not going to, most teams are going to bring in a bopper for that or use a bopper, a guy that slugs. hits for power. That tends to fit the shape of a DH. So that guy is normally like Nelson Cruz, these guys, OZuna, like these guys who are on the free agent market right now who haven't signed, there are some NL teams waiting for them pull the, you know, the, not the plug, but hit the switch and say, we're going to have a DH in the NL and then those guys are going to sign most likely. Which is a big reason why the free agency market is moving so slow because if I'm Nelson Cruz, I'm waiting to see how many offers are on the table because he might get a little bit more

money if he waits a little longer. No, for sure. And part of this decision and the negotiations is because the owner said, we'll give you the universal DH if we can have expanded playoffs. And the players turned it down because you bring in expanded playoffs, now free agency, teams aren't going to be as aggressive to be as good. So they're not going to overpay for players to bring them to get them extra wins when you can possibly make the playoffs with a 500 record. We saw it last year with the Astros. Like teams limped into the postseason because of the expanded system. You don't have to go out and spend the big bucks to get in the playoffs.

You just have to be hot at the right time to go deep into the playoffs and have good pitching. Really? So that's another reason the union turned it down because it's going to affect the way guys are paid in the free agent market. I think it just sucks for fans because it seems like baseball fans, not only are they losing, not only is Major League Baseball losing touch with their fans. You know, we could talk about block out games. We could talk about all kinds of different things.

It seems like fans talk as much about stuff outside of the game as they do stuff within the game. You don't see that with the NBA, NFL. We're talking about things that happen in the game. You know, NFL playoffs. We're talking about how Matt LaFleur shouldn't have kick the field goal. We're talking about in-game stuff, whereas baseball fans, it seems like half the time, we're constantly saying, oh, why did Manfred do this?

Why is Major League Baseball deciding not to do the Universal D.H? And this is bad. This is what we mean by it's bad for baseball. We don't talk about the game enough. We talk about everything that happens behind those closed doors because there's no transparency. Right. And we don't hold anybody accountable in this league. And this is why this is everything that's wrong with baseball or everything that's going

wrong with baseball, at least recently. Well, the union and the owners use social media against each other. That's why we're, that's why you hear everything and you don't hear it with the other sports with CBA negotiations and all that. So like I said, hopefully the CBA, we get through it. It's not that big of a deal. It doesn't turn too many people away from the game because we saw how players versus owners before the last season with COVID and all that

turned a lot of people off the game. So hopefully they, you know, I said this yesterday to my wife and everyone's looking out for themselves. Players are looking out for the players, owners looking out for the owners, but who's looking out for the good of the game? No one. Everybody's looking for more money in their pocket.

It's pushing people away from the game. And at the end of the day, that means less revenue. for everyone. So they need to figure this out and figure it out quick because I'm getting sick of it. I couldn't agree more. So we mentioned we're going to have a mailbag day. We asked you all on social media, what questions you guys had for us?

And thank you to all those who did submit questions on Twitter. We're going to answer as many of those as we can. Of course, I mentioned we're going to have AJ Preller coming up in about 10, 15 minutes here too. So got a lot of action for you today. Let's start it off with this one here. Who is your favorite guest? This was submitted by one of our Twitter users. Who is your favorite guests so far on this show?

Boy, can I give you two? Fine. It's 2021. You get a participation trophy. You get however many you want, Bruce. Well, there's two because they're two different. I have Marcus Stroman. Yes.

Who was so insightful on his training regimen and how he goes about his business in the offseason, even gave us a little view into his mind and just the way he views himself as a pitcher. And you don't have many opportunities to get to tap into some of the best pitchers in the league into their mind and how they go about their business. So that was cool.

And then Ken Rosenthal, I mean, arguably the best reporter of baseball, he's a goat when it comes to reporting baseball in reporting news. And he made time for, for us and he came on and talked about Hall of Fame voting and where it's at and how he, you know, he's contemplating maybe not even voting anymore, which I thought was like, that kind of blew my mind because it's, it's an honor like he said, to be able to vote, but with social media and the backlash for your votes, he's just sick of it.

I just thought that was a really interesting conversation. We had a lot of, we've had a lot of really good guests, but those are my two favorites. I like this. I like those selections. I really liked Chris Rose for more reasons than one. I'm not going to make him my favorite, though, just because I'm kind of a fanboy when it comes to players, and so I have to pick a player.

I really like talking with Justin Upton. When he told us that Shohei Otani is the greatest, he didn't say greatest, the quote, most talented player he's ever seen, that blew my mind. And I knew, I've heard different stories about J.Up. I've heard he's a good dude. I heard he does a lot of things for his community.

everything in between. And I never got to meet him. When I got to meet him and we had that conversation with him, I got to know Justin up in the person. That guy is a better person than he is a player. And that was a cool person. Side note, Justin Upton was in my wedding party. I think you know that, but our viewers don't.

Very close friend of mine. We played together in San Diego, got super close. Our wives got close. So he came on the show not because he was, excited to talk to us, but because I made him. And he's one of my buddies. But yeah, he gave some really cool stuff. And that was a, that was a fun interview for sure. We're better for it. So another question that this is going to really surprise you. Who would have thought of this outrageous, crazy question? Where's Trevor Bauer going to go? What a wild question that is.

Nobody's asking this question. I got it narrowed down. I think the whole world has it narrowed down. Well, maybe not. I'm saying the angels or the Mets. I think the Mets are just Steve Cohen's going for it right here, right now he's not necessarily planning too far down the road other than the next two years I could see him landing Bauer

they have enough cap space I feel like to make it happen I can't imagine him in that in that rotation especially with a healthy center guard de Grombs Schrohman the list goes on and on how good they are

So if they add Bauer, they're automatically like World Series, I don't know, favorites, but they're in the top three probably. Yeah. Yeah. You can make the case that they're definitely the favorite. You know, he's even over Atlanta, even though Atlanta was able to add Charlie Morton. Because I would like him go to the Angels, though. From day one, I've been saying the angels are my pick.

But, I mean, so the reasoning behind that is he's a Cali boy, right? he's Bauer he's from Helen yeah he went to UCLA when we had his agent Rachel Lubba on she said his main like reason for picking

a place to play is his own happiness which is that I keep hearing that my head why would you not want to play at home with a lineup like that with run support like that I understand the Mets and they're hot right now the Padres they're hot right now

they're going to win right now. I don't know if the angels are going to have enough other pitching outside of Bauer to be contenders. They have the offense. Their offense has one of the highest ceilings in the league. You add Bauer, obviously, they're a lot better,

but he only plays every fifth day. So if they added, you know, maybe one more good arm, then maybe that persuades him to go that way. But right now, I think he wants to go to the Mets. Yeah, I can really see it go either way. And keep in mind, this is strictly speculation because we've talked with, you mentioned, we talk with Rachel, we've talked with Ken Rosenthal, we've talked with anyone you can

possibly talk to within this business. Nobody knows where Trevor Bauer is going besides Trevor Bauer. Does he even know yet? I think he does. I think he's still like, he loves eating up like the offers and people wanting him. And I mean, that's the beauty of being one of the best. players at your position and being... He's earned it. I guess. He's earned it. I would love to see him in Los Angeles. I'm right there with you. And by Los Angeles, I mean

the Angels. I should make that note because the Dodgers are supposedly in the mix now, too. I'd love to see him in Los Angeles. I've been trying to get Mike Trouts of playoffs for years now. That would certainly help that that whole case. They did add Jose Cantana, which is a good start for their rotation, really good lefty arm. If you can get back what he was, absolutely. So if you add Trevor Bauer in there Tonics gets that sinker

Hard slider Very good change up going It's all about control for him And health Because he's not going to blow your doors off He's going to pitch Probably 93 And just miss barrels

That's how he's going to do so This isn't about Jose Gantana Sorry I could just start talking about pitching Repettoire right now Quite okay, I forgive you Our next one This one's probably more for you because it's a Red Sox question, and you were a Red Sox.

For those that know, no, no, Will Middlebrooks was a Boston Red Sox. If you didn't, yeah, right behind them, those jerseys that it's pointing out. What do you think so far are the Red Sox moves? They've added Hunter Renfro, they just made the deal for Adamatovino. They added Kiki Hernandez. So minor moves, what are your initial thoughts on the Red Sox? Minor moves, yeah. I'm a little confused by Bloom.

I can't decide. I don't know if he knows which direction he must go. do you want to rebuild? Do you want to compete? I think he's leaning more towards, you know, building the system. I like the auto vino move in taking on the money. I think what ended up being like 11 million. Is that right?

10 and a half because of the signing bonus plus the salary, the salary of eight. I don't know. It's at least $8 million, which they can handle right now. But they're going to trade them. All right. They did not get him, like if he, if, and I think he's going to be a closer.

Because that gives him more value at the trade deadline because contenders need shut down players. If he's a closer for the Red Sox, that gives him more value. Even if another team wants to put him as an eighth inning setup guy, it still gives him more value for trade and they can flip him for a couple good prospects, which Chimbein Bloom is all about is building a system. We saw that in Tampa. So I think that's a good move.

Kike, I think he is going to be a stud getting to play every single day. Because he was a stud and he was a backup. He was a utility player. And I think he's going to have a chance to play every day in Boston. I think he's a chance to play second base every day. He's an exciting player. There's not a moment too big for him. He's exciting.

He's that personality. And the Boston fans are going to love him if he plays well. And then the Gary Richards, I like that. he was on our underrated list of pitchers. He leads to league in spin rate, which is a big deal. Because that, I mean, yeah, once you start spinning the ball, that means you're getting more break. It means your fastball has more ride through the top of the zone,

which in the launch angle area that we're in right now, you want to miss bats at the top of the zone because everyone's trying to swing up. So you go 95 plus with high spin rate on a four-scene fastball, you've got a really good chance of swing and miss to the top of the zone. So I like Gary Richards a lot. I faced him. He's got good stuff. I like where he was at with the Padres.

He looks really good. I think he's going to be a good addition to that team as well. Yeah, it's just about health. We've talked about this before on the show. You mentioned spin rate. That leads me into my next question. Oh, boy. Okay, so we talked about a little bit of before,

especially offline. But what are your thoughts on pitchers being able to use grips or substances out on the mountain? Because this is really complicated. It is very complicated because, as a hitter when it's in New York and April it's still going to be 30, 40 degrees

at times that makes it really hard to grip of baseball as hard as they are now and as low as the seams are now I don't want to get hit in the neck with 98 or the face

this region, all right? It doesn't feel very good it doesn't feel good to get hit in the butt with 98, much less, you know, your face. So I'm all about guys having something to grip the baseball, especially whether it's sweat, whether it's cold, whatever hurts your grip on the baseball.

I want you to have a little bit of grip. But if you, I've talked to some pitchers about this. I'm not going to put any names with it because that's not who I am. I'm not throwing guys under the bus. I had pitchers tell me it's not about control, which kind of blew my mind. because I thought, you know what? If it's about control, I'm all for it. I'm on board with it.

Look, control means you're throwing the ball over the plate. It means I can hit it. All right. He told me that wasn't the case. He said you could get 200 to 400 more RPMs on your pitches, on your fastball with a certain amount of stick them. So spin. Spin.

So now I got to thinking, wow, if that's the case, like this is an issue because like I just said about spin rate on fastballs at a four seam at the top of the zone, you add 300 RPM to that that is now a foul ball or a swing and miss.

You take away the RPMs. Maybe it's a homer. Maybe it's a double. It's a big difference in 2 to 400 mile or RPM. Okay, let me play devil's advocate. Hitters are allowed to use pines are. Hitters are allowed to use batting gloves.

Why aren't pitchers allowed to use something out there on the middle. Like I said, if it's control, that's fine. But if it allows you to manipulate the baseball more, I feel like that's an unfair advantage. Me having Pinesh are on the bat doesn't help me hit the ball better.

It helps me from throwing the bat in the stands. Yeah. So my thing with this with the substance thing is people overdo it. People, certain pitchers, the Paneda thing, we were talking about this online. You were part of that.

when they had all the pine tar. Yeah, they had like a full rack of pint tar on his neck, dude. That was awful. Some people abuse the rule. And the problem is that some umpires don't always enforce it. So I think what you need to do, what Major League Baseball needs to do, is you have certain substances, substances, excuse me, that are allowed. However, you want to determine what's allowed, what's not allowed.

You figure that out. And you have to enforce the rule. And so when you see someone with Pine Tar, bye, see you later. All right. Guys aren't going to really use pine tar. Pintar is not really like what guys go to anymore because the color, the color is different. So you can see it. So guys, the main thing guys use, which I think is okay. Rosin mixed with bullfrog or sunscreen. You see like guys have like white marks on their arms. And they always go to their arm and touch their arm. And I always put the rosin on their forearm. Well, they have sunscreen on that as well. And that makes a really sticky. substance. It's not super sticky. It's not the like really sticky stuff that a lot of guys use. And

I'm fine with that. I'm fine with you having a little bit of control and grip. That's cool. The issue with them saying, you can use this, but not that how are you going to police it? You saw the thing with Bubba Harkins, the clubhouse manager for the angels that was making his special

substance for the players or whatever. Like that's not Bullfrog and Rosen. I don't know what it is, but obviously that was too far, but how are you going to police that? You can't. So if you even give them an inch on that and say, oh yeah, you're like, you can use something, guys are going to go far and beyond to get more out of it. That's baseball. That's professional sports. Guys are always going to try to get a leg up. Agreed. I think if you provide something, it's kind of like we're getting a little dicey here. It's almost like drugs. If you give them an alternative,

maybe they'll stop doing the really hard stuff. You know what I mean? It's like given like some type of like mental clarity medicine instead of guys taking Adderall. Yeah. Yeah. Or like some type of lesser. Yes.

I don't know. And make it to where it's freaking pink. So you know if they're going to their arm is if they're not going to their arm and their arm's not pink, they're not using the approved stuff. Is that a Rolex, Danny? This podcast doesn't pay me enough. to buy a rollout.

I didn't play in the pros like you will. I just a little bit. I tricked them for a few years. Who are your breakout players? This is the last one. We'll get to AJ Feller. Breakout players in 2021. What's your breakout hitter?

Breakout pitcher. Ooh. I'm thinking. I'm going to go. Well, okay. You brought the Red Sox. go. Let me think about the Red Sox. Bobby Dahlbeck. First baseman, third baseman. Originally a third baseman. Stupid, stupid pop. Like crazy pop. I hit with this kid.

I was training in Scottsdale and he came in the cage with us when he just, it was like his first, after his first full year of pro ball. He got draft. He played at Arizona. And I hit in the cage with them and just a beautiful swing. Like this was when people were just starting to talk about launch angle and getting on playing with the baseball and he just naturally does that and I love his swing and I tell you the boy sounds like a gunshot when he hits the baseball in the cage.

It is awesome. So he had a lot of swing and miss last year. He struck out of like 40% there for a little bit. But that was just a learning curve to the big leagues, honestly. I think he's going to be just fine. He's a really good hitter. His last two years in the minor leagues he hit 59 or 60 homers total.

Just a good player. And I think he's going to be a good defender at first base too. it's a natural third baseman. All right. They have Devers over there. And I think he'll play a lot of his, I think Bobby will play most of his innings at first base. And that's a really athletic first baseman.

I've played third. I've played first. I loved playing first base. It felt easy to me. You don't have to catch the ball and throw it. You just got to knock it down and tag the bag or flip it to the pitchers. Not that big of a deal. It almost felt like a day off mentally for me.

So I think that's going to help him at the plate when he's spending a lot of time at first base. As far as pitchers go, to go to the Nationals, Joe Ross. Okay. He sat out last year because of COVID. So he's going to have a very, very fresh arm. I don't think it's going to affect him that he missed a year. I think it's going to be good for him.

Kind of clean it out mentally, cleaning out physically, getting really good shape. You know he's still been throwing. I'm buddies with his brother, Tyson Ross, who I played with. That was my dog. He said, hello. I don't know if you could hear that right outside my door. but I love his arsenal.

He's going to pitch it 94, 95, 93 to 95. He's got some good sync. He's got a hard slider. Just like one of his teammates. Oh, Max Scherzer, ever heard of him? He's been sitting on the bench watching baseball games with Max Scherzer, Strasberg, Annabelle Sanchez, like all these studs who've been around the game for a long time.

So he just sits there and soaks it all up because this is a really smart kid. I've talked to Tyson about him. He loves to learn the game. He loves to get better. and I think he breaks out this year. I like those two picks. I do.

I'm going to start with pitching first. I'm going to go with Michael Lorenzen of the Cincinnati Reds. Because if they're going into a new direction, obviously Bauer's probably leaving. He's going to be on his way out. There have been certain pitchers from Cincinnati that have been floated in trade rumors from Sunny Gray, Luis Castillo.

That's going to open up a spot for Michael Lorenzen. He's been working with Derek Johnson, the ex-bandy pitching coach turned major league baseball coach. He's supposedly the guy when it comes to pitching. We had him in Milwaukee. You guys are stuck. And Lorenzo's been working with him. I've been watching his workouts on Instagram.

Dude's working his tail off. So I got Michael Lorenzen. He's going to figure it all out in 2021. That's my breakout candidate. How many homers does he hit? He's not cool. If there's a universal DH, probably not too many. I could see him playing some outfield in D.H. N. Pinch hitting. He did. Dude, dude, he can hit. He can hit. And he's got the biggest biceps in the league. Dude, he's jacked. All right. Moving on. Don't interject me again, Will. I'm sorry.

Last one is, or not last one, but my breakout hitter, Huston Kim, with the Padres. And that's how I'm going to transition into our conversation, because we're going to talk to Padres general manager. The general manager, for Hassan Kim coming up next on the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast. Welcome back to the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast. We're joined by San Diego Padre's general manager, AJ Preller, who's been at the forefront of it all throughout this for agency process, this whole offseason. Padres are making moves. Let me start by asking you this, AJ.

How awesome is it? Because Will played in San Diego. I lived in San Diego. We know how hard times have been in San Diego baseball-wise. you've been at the forefront of this entire evolution and transformation of that franchise. How special is it for you to be the leader of bringing baseball back to San Diego? I think you guys know, San Diego is a, you know, it's a, obviously it's a great baseball city. It's a great city in general, but, you know, it's, you know, the only major sports team in town is the Padres.

Southern California, you know, pretty much the baseball mecca right now. I think, you know, baseball crazy. And I think we saw it a little bit even last year, even without the fans being. able to be at the ballpark, you know, winning that series against the Cardinals and the playoffs. The gaslam district was going crazy. I mean, the fans have been waiting for this for a long time and they're hungry. You know, they've been the World Series Padres, you know, 84-98, you know, but in general, I think they're really excited about the team. It's just fun to see a fan base that's really baseball crazy in the region that's baseball crazy,

getting really excited about their team. Yeah, so we can rewind back to 2015 when I was there, and I was a very small piece of revamping that ball club back in 2015. We brought in Matt Kemp and Justin Upton and Shields, Derek Norris, all these players to rebuild that team. I think my biggest question is going into 2021, what did you take away from that year? Because we didn't have the most success, clearly. And coming into this year, as loaded as you are,

did you take anything from 2015 as a GM to help you, moving forward this year. Yeah, each situation's different. I think 2015 was a lot different. I think, you know, in 2015, we had a situation where we had Andrew Cashner, Tyson Ross, Ian Kennedy. We had three, you know, established starters. And honestly, I think the initial game plan was to look at potentially moving those

guys. And when we, when we talked to other teams about them, they didn't really have the market that we thought would have made sense for us to move them. So we saw some deals that we looked up and said, you know what? Like, you know, in general, let's try to take a shot with, you know, in the near term, to contend. and let's see if we can make some trades for some now big league ready pieces that were very talented. You know, and ultimately, you know, like you said, the pieces didn't quite fit together.

We had a lot of holes on the club. You know, I think the biggest thing is like the foundation for like what would be successful teams year and year out wasn't really built. So I think we were trying to take a shot in the short term to be competitive. But the game plan from day one, me getting this job, I think, you know, bringing our staff in place was you got to have a strong farm system. You got to have a ton of talent in the organization. You got to have that foundation in place. So whatever happened in 2015 in terms of the success of the big league club, and I think we were obviously hoping to, you know,

play in the postseason and have a successful club, and we felt like we were talented. We knew the heavy lifting was going to be done in the out years, and it was going to be done in the draft international trades, etc. So, you know, I think a lot of people look at that, and they try to compare the two seasons. It's honestly night and day just because, you know, I think from, you know, that's really what the last four or five years has been about.

And these pieces now are, like, designed to go with a team that's already been one of the more successful teams in baseball last year to try to help us get further. than where we ended up last year and get better. Whereas there, we were trying to kind of jumpstart something that, you know, had not been, you know, they had not been successful for a while. So it was, you know, two different situations, honestly. Let me ask you this.

When you made that trade with Chicago to get Fernando Tatech Jr. over, did you have any idea what kind of player you were getting? Yeah, we did. I mean, our staff felt like, you know, they felt like honestly, he was a guy with big upside, big talent. He could be a game changer for the organization. You know, they felt like that was the potential. You know, our staff, Pete DeYoung on the pro scouting.

side. He's our director pro scouting. He had done a great job. We had some history with Fernando from his amateur days. So we had seen him, you know, from when he's 14, 15, 16 years old. So we had an idea about what, you know, what he could be. And then I think what we did was we passed that on to our pro scouting department led by Pete, had some different guys go in there and take looks. Nick Ennis, some other guys. And they came back and said, look, this guy has, he hasn't played a professional game yet. So obviously, you know, you're projecting. But that's, you know, that's ultimately what we ask our scouts to do. And, you know, they said, look, in terms of every box, you want to check from an ability standpoint and an instincts and the way he played the game standpoint with excitement, that was there, you know, even though he was playing, you know, extended spring training games on a backfield in Arizona, that was there.

You know, to predict and say, hey, is he going to be a top five player in the game or a potential MVP? You know, obviously, that's, you never really know that when you draft somebody or, you know, or trade for somebody. But he was a guy that our scouts had indicated it was a high impact player. that could be somebody that could get this thing turned around. So that was the evaluation that our group had on. So staying on the subject of acquiring players, Blake Snell, you Darvish, two guys that you went on and got to really build your staff around. Obviously, you have Clevenger on the DL.

He'll be back next year, hopefully, and you guys are going to be loaded there. But as far as Blake Snell goes, how available was he? Is this someone you had your eyes on you were in talks with, or did this have something honestly to do with the postseason and him being pulled early? Do you think that played into anything with the chemistry between him and management in Tampa Bay to part ways? Or is that something you just don't even know? I don't know. I'm just being curious about that.

Yeah, I don't really know, you know, like exactly what the thing was. I think for us, like when we started the off season, you know, we knew, you know, with the Clevenger injury and Lament not ending the year, you know, pitching for us, I think we had a couple of question marks that we wanted to fill. you know, and anytime you're talking about some of the best pitchers in the game, you know, Snell was one of those guys that was kind of at the top of our, you know, possibility list going into the offseason. And then just naturally, you know, we had those conversations with Tampa.

We've had, you know, we've made a couple trades with Tampa the last few years. We did the Pagan-Margo deal last year and then the fam, Cronenworth for X Edwards and rent for a deal. So we have a good relationship with that, you know, with their front office, they're easy to talk to. And really just from the beginning, kind of as you make those calls canvassing the league, he was the guy that we thought maybe and I think more so not because of the postseason I think it was just because

you know he's getting to the you know he's got three years left on the contract making a little bit more money and you know Tampa we know like ultimately they're you know they're going to continue to look for young, talented upside players when we knew they liked quite a few guys in our system and I think it was more

of a case of you know we had a player or a group of players but especially with Luis Pettino that they had targeted for the last few years in some of our conversations and ultimately, you know, we felt like Blake's a front of rotation type talent that fit in really good with our current club, especially with a multiple year window that we're going to have them for. So, you know, I don't know how much the postseason played in to them and their decision.

But I do know from our early conversations, it felt like maybe, you know, this is something they may consider. But we knew it was going to be a hefty price. And, you know, ultimately, as we kept talking, you know, we lined up. And I think the biggest thing is when you have somebody that somebody wants and you have young talent, that's the greatest currency in the game today. And I think that that's the reason why they ultimately got motivated to try to move them. You mentioned that Blake Snell was on your guys' list of possible available players. How much of everything that's gone on this offseason was manifested a plan,

it was a manifested plan as opposed to for agencies, he's been really slow. The top domino you can make the case, Trevor Bauer, is being very patient in his process. How has that impacted how you guys went about your business this off-season? And how has Trevor Bauer being patient and other pitchers, other for agents available, them being a little bit slow in the process, the unknowns of 2021? How did that impact your guys' decision making this offseason? Yeah, I think each year is different.

Each market moves a little bit different every offseason. I think last year, you know, everybody kind of got done right around the winter meetings, maybe even before, and it was kind of a flurry activity then. So I think you have to kind of read that. I think for us, it was more a matter of, again, having young talent that, that teams valued having depth in your system. So, you know, like, you know, we felt like ultimately, you know, we were, we were trading from a position of strength and we felt like, you know, we still, you know,

we're not, we felt like ultimately we still have one of the best farm systems in the game. So I think that, that lined up in terms of like the time frame for it, you know, did it that that's, games were ultimately, you know, kind of, it looks like kind of waiting for the, for the market to establish itself, you know, and did that factor into our decision? I think more so is just we felt like we lined up with good trades that made sense for us. You know, and the timing of it, it kind of was the timing of it. So I don't, you know, I think from that standpoint, you know, a little bit of in terms of, you know, the planning and everything like that,

I think we felt like because we're a competitive team with the deep farm system, we were going to have a lot of options. Maybe the slow market helped us move a little quicker than than some other teams and may just, you know, able to connect on those deals. but again, I think it was more so a matter of having talent that people wanted and a team and an ownership group that wanted to continue trying to build the championship club. Yeah, I mean, you're loaded. I mean, you're talented. At what point are you comparing yourself to or measuring yourself next to L.A., to the Dodgers? Because that's, in my opinion, obviously, your biggest competition within the division.

So I know there's a lot of pressure there to beat them and to win the division and get back to the postseason, which possibly is going to be a regular strike. structured postseason this year, so it's going to be a lot tougher to get in. At what point are you looking at lineups, looking at rotations and comparing them with L.A.? Yeah, I mean, I think, again, I think to, you know, you want to be the best. You've got to beat the best, and the Dodgers are clearly the best team in our league, our division, and probably all of baseball, obviously they were last year. So, you know, again, it's a big challenge.

They've got a great organization. They're very well run. They've got phenomenal players, top to bottom, depth, quality. these star guys. So I think that helps us because in a way, like, you know, it's, again, like we're going to be battle tested. And I think, you know, it's just like anything, when you play against the best competition, whether that's the AL East from a lot of years with the Yankee Red Sox, you know,

battles going back and forth. I think it raises your bar. You know, I'm sure you saw that will when you were over there playing in those divisions. It helps, you know, it helps all the teams that are there. You know, I think our group is a very talented team. They have a lot of fun. but I think what people don't see is that they weren't, you know, those guys work really, really hard. Like our guys, and they love the game and they respect the game, you know,

and I think for us, you know, there's respect for really a lot of, you know, a lot of those teams in the National League, you know, the Braves and the Dodgers were the two teams that were at the end playing. So that was, again, like, I think what we've talked about is we've got to get better. You know, we weren't good enough last year. We've got to get better. And, you know, for us, the team in the division right in front of us, you know, that's a team that's a really good measuring stick. Because if you can play with them, you pretty much can play with anybody in the game these days. I think your offense was good enough.

It was just your pitching was hurt, you know, and it came down to rotational depth with the, with the structure of the postseason last year, and you clearly added to pitching depth. So I think you guys are going to be just fine. Yeah, just like you said, I think we all would have loved to see what happens with Clevenger, with Lamette healthy, you know, and, you know, obviously at the end, it was a scramble. I think it was a testament to the depth and quality of our staff that were able to get through that Cardinal series and, you know, play a competitive series against the Dodgers. but ultimately, you know, I think what we've tried to do with the Musgrove deal,

with some other moves we've had, some of the other young players coming up is, you know, if we do have an injury or two, which is, you know, usually unavoidable and, you know, disappointing that we've got enough depth that we're not in a similar position next year. And, you know, that's really, you know, part of the, part of the mindset behind some of the moves this offseason. Can you provide any update on to Nelson Lament? How does he feel on? Is his arm feeling better? Is he back growing? Do we have any idea where he's at?

Yeah, and I saw him a couple weeks ago. in the Dominican, he was, you know, he's a workout warrior. He's, you know, one of these, you know, seven days a week. He's, he gets after it. He pushes himself, you know, from a training standpoint. He was, you know, again, he's in a really good spot in terms of being ahead of, probably even last year's pace, but everything they put in front of him so far. He's been, you know, he's throwing program, you know, where his arm health is. He's been throwing bullpens. All of those so far have been good. I think he's actually put a few of them on his, on the internet. I've seen pop up in the last couple days. But I think,

we're realistic. Like, you know, I think for us it's going to be getting into spring training, you know, until he really is able to take the ball and, you know, and throw it at, you know, top effort and in a game situation, come back, you know, and throw his bullpen, come back through five days later and just keep repeating that process. You know, I think we're going to, we're going to see where it goes. But I think the good news is the doctors agree, the trainers agree, that, you know, they feel like he's in a really good place. And so far, his body and his offseason has been very good. He's throwing bullpins and should be full go for spring training. Yeah, that's exciting. I mean, be able to have a guy like Lambe,

as your number, probably number three, and then fast forward a year, maybe number four. That's a little ridiculous. Obviously, I mean, you guys would be sitting pretty on the pitching front. That's exciting to see. Yeah, I mean, I think, I think Lamed is probably one of the most underrated guys in the game from last year. You know, I mean, people are realizing, honestly, if the season, it kept going, he was, stay healthy.

I think he would have gotten even more and more consideration for Sy Young type possibility. It's, you know, he's got the, obviously, the fastball slider combo that's, that's devastating. His command continues to get better. He's a big time competitor. And again, I think what we've tried to do is, you know, like anything, every day when you open the paper, when you look at the matchups that day, we feel like we've got a guy that can win that ballgame and can pitch in the front part of a rotation. So, you know, again, it's, you know, whether Lemette's the three or Paddick's the one or, you know, Snell is the two. Ultimately, it's like, you know, just let these guys go and compete against each other, honestly, and go out and put zeros on the board. And every night have a chance to win a ball game.

That's what we've tried to do. So a report came out that the Cactus League has asked Major League Baseball to possibly delay the start of spring training. Have you heard anything differently in regards to when we should expect players to be reported? No, yeah. We've, you know, really, I think we're just kind of waiting, waiting to hear what happens from the league and the union. And then obviously, you know, the local governments and the city. So I think from our standpoint, we did a really good job last year of being flexible and adapting and just being prepared for every possible scenario. I think we're in a similar boat this year.

unfortunately, I think it's a lot, you know, a lot of, you know, I think everybody, obviously this whole year is how to be flexible and be willing to make adjustments and I know our group's going to be the same. And yeah, don't have any inside information. Just kind of waiting to hear, hey, what's the best thing for the game and for those towns and for, you know, for the individuals that are involved and go from there with it. Well, I have, I can sit here and pick your brain all day, but I'll finish with one last one. Have we seen the last of moves for San Diego going into 2021 are we saying look we got hussung kim we got snell uh we got darvish musgrove we got a good enough team for 2021 or can we see some more fireworks before opening day yeah i mean i think we're always you know

i think you're always searching and make your team better and always considering different possibilities i do think in general like the conversation for us i think we feel like we have you know we've improved the rotation we want to improve the i wouldn't even call the bench we just want to improve the depth and quality of our position player team with guys that we feel like a regular type guys with the hosson kim jerks and pro far Victor Caratini. And now I think it's kind of sit back and see what presents itself. You know, I think we're kind of in that area.

You know, I think for us, like, really the focus is probably shifting a little bit more to get ready for spring training with the current group we have. But again, I think we'll be open-minded. I think the cool part has been, like, we've had a lot of players here in the last couple weeks reach out to us and just kind of say, like, hey, this is a spot. This is a spot I love to be at. This is a spot, you know, because like anything, players want to win. You know, they want to be part of something that's fun and, you know, exciting.

environment they want to win. And I think they've, you know, again, it's nothing that, you know, it's really what the players have created. You know, they talk to each other and they talk to the Hosmers and the Machadoes and on and on about what's the environment like when and, you know, what's the coaching staff like? What's the city like? And, you know, we've had some guys reach out. So we'll be, you know, I think we'll be open on and kind of see what's there. And, uh, but in general, we like our group and we're excited to go, go, go get started. So I just have one more question. Um, so we still don't know if we're going to have the, the DH and the NL. Obviously, that's a topic of conversation. How much does that change your

bench? How much does that change your idea of building a lineup? I know you have the Hossmer, you have Will Myers, you have guys who can fill that role. Will it be, will you have just a DH or is it kind of a revolving door based on matchups and who's hot and who's feeling good at the time? Yeah, I think with our group, I mean, I think each team's a little bit different. I think with our group, like the way it's kind of played out is we have a lot of athletic guys that have some versatility. So, you know, I think in general, like the true kind of D.H. Masher, middle of the order bat or, you know, I think we have a lot of guys that could fill that. I think we've looked at that D.H. But if it comes to play, we can get, you know, we can get, especially in 160

game season, we can get some of our main position guys a day off their feet, but still keep the bat in the lineup. I think the value of like pro far, Nola, Carriotini, Cronomworth, Kim, these guys are short stops originally, infielders originally that, you know, switch hit bats, guys, they can play different spots. So I think, again, we don't have to have that kind of set D.H. Possibly. So I think we're good to go either way. You know, if the D.H comes into play, you know, we'll have a bat that'll be representative

from, you know, from a D.H standpoint. But if not, we have some first-old players that can play both sides of the ball and do different things. So, again, I think that's all part of what we try to do from a roster construction standpoint to last couple months. I love what you said about it coming, you know, full circle, really, with players now wanting to play for San Diego because that was not the case. even two years ago, three years ago.

So that's pretty great to you. I know Padre fans are going to be absolutely sad to hear that. We can't thank you enough. We know this is essentially the World Series for general managers in front office right now. This is crunch time. So we can't thank you enough for joining us to AJ. Thank you you.

Appreciate it. Thank you guys for having me. Special thank you to AJ Preller for joining us. And I'm just going to lay it out here first. Obviously, he's created a monster of a lineup. And then now he's created a monster of a starting rotation. but the question becomes this, and you kind of asked, you touched on this to AJ, are they ready to compete for an NL West title?

They're good. They got a whole lot of talent. I would make the case they are ready to compete for an NLS title. Do you think the Padres are ready to knock off the Dodgers, have the changing of the guard? Are they ready to compete or do I think they're going to win the division? Is that which one are you asking? They definitely are ready to compete. I mean, they competed with them last year.

and now they're even better. So yes, I think they have a very good chance to win the division. And there's a lot of hype around them too. That's something that people don't understand with players is even if like, when I was with the Red Sox, even when the Yankees weren't like good,

there were still hype around them and you feel that as a player. You go in there and there's like Jeter and Sabathia and Mariano and Petit and these guys, you just see these names and you're like, oh, all right, we're going to have to get after today, boys, and beat these, you know what I mean?

Like the Dodgers feel that. They know they're not alone on the top of the mountain anymore as far as talent goes. Because they were just outpaying everyone. They had the money and they got the best talent and that's how they were better. I mean, that's just how it works. Well,

Audrey's are right there with them now. I think their rotation is better. I think their rotation will, especially with a healthy lament, he's going to be their number three, man. I don't know what order. They'll probably have some crazy order they analytically will do to match up

the start of the season. I don't know. But like Lamat is your number three. And then you fast forward to 2022. Clevenger's back. Is Almet your number four? Like, they're insane. And then they're going to have the young kids coming up with Gore and

those guys and they're good with their lineups good, but Tatis, Hosmer. Oh, don't forget to have Mani Machado. He gets over. He's starting to get overshadowed because Tatees is insane. They're really good. Don't even sleep on guys like Tommy Pham and Will Meyer. Will Myers had a really good year last year.

Does he continue that? They're going to be a really, really dangerous team. As of right now, I think they're a better team than the Dodgers. However, yeah, the Dodgers have a lot of question marks. So that's where I'm getting in. Okay, we don't know what we're going to get out of Kenley Jansen. They did do a good job of sharing up their bullpen. They brought back trying and brought over Cork and Abel.

Yeah. But where they lost, where they had big losses is their depth. The Dodgers, for the last, however many division titles they've won, they were really known for their depth. Not only in pitching, but lineup-wise, they really rely on matches. They lost Kiki. They don't know if they're going to have Justin Turner back. And Jack Peterson is likely going to go elsewhere. Right. That's true.

These are leaders. These are not just like numbers that are being put up. Like these are leaders in a clubhouse that shape the chemistry of a team. and the makeup of a team. So it goes beyond what they do on the field. And so for that reason, I think the Padres are better right now. However, one trade for Aronado or one trade for one big time. They're going to do something.

They're going to do something because they're the Dodgers. And they, just like I asked AJ, are you paying attention to what the Dodgers are definitely paying attention to the Padres because the whole baseball world is. So I'm fired up, man. I can't wait for the season to get gone. The Padres haven't earned the right to call. the rivalry yet. But it's started.

These are how rivalries are some fireworks last year now. There were some fireworks last year. Man, I know I just said it, but I'm, I'm so excited. Not just for NL West games, but like, have a full season of baseball. Start to get some fans back in the stand. Starts them get like normalcy, $47 beers at the park. I'm excited to just get back to baseball, man. This offseason has felt so long.

long because we didn't have a regular season last year. So the offseason is just dragging by. And there's still a lot of question marks. We hit on the DH. We hit on the delayed start. Let's just get it going. Let's start tomorrow. Well, let's kick it in the action starting after today.

Let's do it again next week, shall we? All right. Sounds good, bud. I'm in. All right. Thanks for joining us on the fantasy baseball today. Podcast will be back with you next Wednesday. Adios.