Rates & Barrels - It's Resolution Season!

Episode Date: January 7, 2022

Eno, Britt & DVR, inspired by Andy McCullough, share their New Year’s Resolutions and set a few for teams with varying levels of expected success in 2022. Along the way, they attempt to make a few blockbuster trades as the A's prepare to shake things up after the lockout.  Follow Eno on Twitter: @enosarris Follow Britt on Twitter: @Britt_Ghiroli Follow DVR on Twitter: @DerekVanRiper e-mail: [e-mail] Subscribe to the Rates & Barrels YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/RatesBarrels Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Welcome to Rates and Barrels. It is Friday, January 7th. Derek Van Ryper, Edo Saris, Britt Giroli, got the whole band back together here on this Friday. On this episode, we will share New Year's resolutions inspired by our colleague Andy McCullough. We are going to not only share our own personal resolutions for the upcoming year, which I know everybody is anxiously

tuned in for, but resolutions for big league teams as they try and make things better for themselves in 2022. Once they're able to do so, I know we're still limited to minor league deals and hiring bench coaches and hitting coaches. And so our rumor from Zach Buchanan that Eno is a candidate for the bench coach position for the Mets. So, you know, if you accept that position, I would appreciate it if you told me first, just so I know to pack bags accordingly to go figure out what I'm going to do with the rest of my life.

And so I can at least break the news and break some news to then take advantage of what you're doing. So just please make this as beneficial to me as you possibly can on your way out the door to become a member of the Mets coaching staff. out the door to become a member of the Mets coaching staff. I do have one friend in baseball who's got a running joke that he thinks that's where I'll end up is on the bench next to someone, but I just think that's insane. Next to Buck Showalter would be truly insane. That would be really funny. Having covered Buck, having known Buck, that would be a tough sell. I love you, Eno. That would be a tough sell i love you you know

that would be a tough sell i think you have a better chance joining their analytics department joining buck's bench coach team especially wayne kirby uh is about to be hired uh joey cora wayne kirby is like an original buck showalter guy so that that definitely fits uh what's interesting about joey cora guys is he's like a hand-picked lindor uh guy to help lindor they're from the same hometown um idolized lindor lindor idolized jory cora growing up um and you know that's a buck move like a chess piece move so i'm trying to think could be hired eno who would eno be in charge of keeping in line right now they'd have to hire like Jed Lowry next. Yeah. You're in charge of only Pete Alonzo. Like I don't even know Pete Alonzo. It's fine. You know, that's it.

I know a lot of people associate, you know, with pitchers all the time, but I really, of the players on the Mets, Brandon Nimmo is the first player I think of on that roster. When I think of, you know,o we had we had an amazing conversation actually uh that was that was that was really fun it's for a piece that i'll i'll come out with this spring about um not swinging and uh brandon nimmo is elite at not swinging so and he's just a he's just a fun guy he's just gregarious. They smile. Just a great smile. Oh my God, you know what would be terrifying? If they put you in charge of

Jacob deGrom and Max Scherzer. They're like, these are your people. The two people that just make my insides wither. You have to report to Buck also. Have fun.

I think I would take up coffee. I'd take up something stronger than coffee. Yeah, exactly. Something to match the intensity. Fantastic start to this Friday show. So New Year's resolutions are the theme. Look, I think it's a year to be optimistic because we've been taking L's the last two years.

Again, not the three of us necessarily, but just everyone in general. It kind of feels like we're taking L's as a team, big, broad team, like all of us. Humanity. Humanity, right. So we have to stay optimistic. We can't take another L.

You can't have a three-year losing streak as humanity. You can't imagine what that would do to us. I've seen what a two-year losing streak is doing to us, and it's ripping us all apart. So focusing on the positives. Do you guys actually like to make New Year's resolutions? I think of you as the most dedicated athlete of the three of us by far. Eno and I are battling for the silver in there. You as the most dedicated athlete of the three of us by far, you know, and I are like battling for the silver in there.

I give it to, I actually had to give, you know, the silver because I actually saw him out running recently. Like I there's proof. I was, I was standing there like daydreaming, throwing the ball with Hazel.

So I'm clearly in the third position right now. But what do you think about new year's resolutions? Brit? Is that something you believe in? Oh, actually, no, I hate them. Here's my opinion on New Year's resolutions. One, the New Year actually starts for everybody on their birthday. So if there was a time that you were going to make a change, have a fresh start, it should maybe be your birthday. And two, my thing with New Year's resolutions is most people only keep them statistically. I think they're already broken.

What's today? January 7th. People don't keep them because what happens is, and one of my sisters who I love dearly, I have three sisters, is like the epitome of this. Like her resolution is work out every day, drink a green smoothie every day, do yoga every day. And people set these like such high expectations that they have no choice but to fail. Nobody ever says I'm going to do 10 minutes of movement, right? Nobody ever sets these tiny little micro goals. Maybe your goals to run a marathon, but you still have to

set these like micro goals along the way. Like my goal every day is just to hit 10,000 steps. There's days where I just walk my dog as my exercise and that's fine. There's lots more days where I go to the gym and I lift or I do Pilates or whatever. But I think you have to set yourself up to succeed and people don't do that with New Year's resolution. So that's kind of like my main problem with them. It's like, I'm going to eat healthy every day. It just never happens. How about most days and you're and you're yeah and you're you're tapping into this the the the thing that i have with self-improvement which is incremental is way better um and like these these huge lives i know it happens it works for some people some people

will run up against some sort of health problem and be like whoa i just need to cut red meat out completely now from now on or whatever it is you you know, and that that if you know, if you're facing like something really big, like sometimes you can make that life decision. If you need to lose 60 pounds, then you need to make a huge decision to lose that much. But I think for the for the broad swath of the population, just something smaller that is attainable makes sense. I do think that like having some sort of year attainable makes sense. I do think that having some sort of year-long goal makes sense. I'm interested to hear from you about your lifting. Last year, I ran 750. That was a goal for me, 750 miles. I made it to 760 or so. I'm struggling with the number. I'm going to do a new number this year. It might only be 800 to 850. I'm going to run an official half marathon.

So that might be my goal, but I'm not doing that from zero. I ran 13 miles in one go last year. So I'm like, but this time I want to get the number and go do it. And maybe I only run 800 or 850, but I do like setting a numerical goal. So do you have in your lifting program, like, do you have like something you want to do this year that you haven't done? You want to, you know, you want to deadlift something or you want to squat something you haven't done before? Yeah. I want to squat 300 pounds, um, which I've been chasing for a little while. And so, yeah, again, like you go in increments, right. And you, you kind of have that goal, I think, and you have that, for me, that's what gets me to the gym every day is I have that long term goal in mind.

But also, like you were saying, the tiny goals, like, okay, today, I'm doing five by five at 80%. And I feel terrible. Let's just get through this. Let's just make sure we do that. Yeah, just every concentrate on every rep, just try to get through every little, little step and don't get too overwhelmed with Oh, my gosh, 225 feels terrible today. How am I ever going to squat 300? I think you have to just take it in this tiny little day-to-day approach. I've been learning Spanish for the last year. And what's really been working for me is 10 minutes. I say to myself, at least 10 minutes a day, you have to do Spanish. Some days I do it for an hour because I get caught up and I'm like, yeah, let's go. days I'm like looking at my watch like all right it's been eight minutes it's been nine minutes you know like it's a struggle oh man I need to

step up my Spanish I'm doing Duolingo and you can keep your streak alive on Duolingo by almost it's like two minutes yeah and I could keep my streak alive but I just I feel like that's not enough I need to I like this 10 minute. I might borrow the 10 minute from you. Yeah. Cause again, you're never too busy. 10 minutes is a great number. I think for a lot of people, that's why I mentioned it with like exercise and movement.

10 minutes is a great number because if you're feeling good, no matter what it is, you're going to blow past that 10 minutes, 10 minutes of reading, 10 minutes of studying, 10 minutes of walking. Um, but if you don't feel good, you can, you can grid out 10 minutes. Yeah. 10 minutes. Everyone has 10 minutes. No one's too busy, 10 minutes of walking. But if you don't feel good- If you're not feeling good, you can grit out 10 minutes. Yeah. 10 minutes. Everyone has 10 minutes. No one's too busy for 10 minutes. So I think you get these bigger numbers. People are like, I'm going to do this for an hour a day. And I don't always have the hour. People don't always have the hour. But 10 minutes, again, this is how you approach these chunks, these tiny little things. This is how people write books.

They don't sit down and write books. I read Stephen King's book all about this. He writes a chunk a day. He has a period where he writes in the morning, and that's it. He doesn't just sit at his computer and type away all day. That's it. He has a tiny thing. That seems like a better way to live your life. Did you make any resolutions, Derek?

No, I didn't. I'm kind of in the Brit camp of they just don't work if you do them right. I have enough random times where I'm like, I'm going to try something new that pop up during the year where I feel like a birthday resolution or even just like a, I feel like garbage today. I'm just going to try to do this pivot to make things better. So I don't use the start of the new year quite that way. But I think it's, if that's what works for you, by all means do it.

I think it's interesting too. We we're getting questions about this a little bit on Twitter. People keep asking because of the news from Thursday that the athletic is being purchased by the New York times. Is the podcast going anywhere? No, it's not like, I think as far as

the three of us go, it is business as usual. It's what you've seen in tweets and press releases and stuff that's out there, but it honestly does feel like things are exactly the same for the foreseeable future. I just want to throw that out there on the pod in case

people were like, hey, what's going on with you guys? Is the pod still going to be here? Yes. Changes to the schedule that were in place anyway. Those are still going to happen. But as far as just like what we're doing, that's not changing all that much. Yeah, you may be able to find us in some other spots. But, you know, I think that, you know, generally self-improvement is really difficult. I mean, like, for example, I have this one thing on the phone, right?

Like, I would like to look at the phone less. I would like to use my phone less. However, it's really important to my job. You guys are both trapped in that. It is actually a legitimate, important part of your job. For most people, it is purely a distraction. part of your job for most people it is purely a distraction it is just a machine of distractions that it's up to us to really like find ways to just not get on there like i don't know how you separate yourself from your phone unless you had two unless you had like a work phone and a non-work

phone almost seems like it's adding well garbage to garbage like we talked about before let's say also replace phone time with some stuff. I like what Britt was saying. I want to read more. She was saying that she puts the phone down at some point and reads to go to bed. That was off air. Sorry if you didn't want anybody to know that. You need an actual book. Don't read on your phone.

Don't scroll the paper. I think I like that idea where I'm going to try and put the phone down before bed and not look at it all the way up until I drop dead. Maybe that's why the chargers for phones are so short. So that way you can't plug them in and read them in bed. You have to plug them in and they kind of only go to the one side of the nightstand but i think everybody out there has leaned awkwardly out of bed held the phone like stretched to its limits because it was going to die i just gotta scroll twitter i just gotta see

what these tweets are it's 12 30 at night you get out of my bedroom what are you talking about what am i doing because we've all been there so i guess if i had a new year's resolution it's to kind of continue something i started doing around the time that we moved to California last year and keep Twitter off my phone. Like, I don't have Twitter on my phone. I haven't had Twitter on my phone for months. I don't doom scroll it. I can't. It's not always doom scrolling.

Sometimes it's just like it's fantasy baseball draft season what are my friends doing how do their teams look it's all going to be there when i get back to my computer the stupid algorithm even knows what i like now it's starting to show it to you it's back at me anyway even though i think the algorithm is stupid it still actually kind of does its job you don't need to doom scroll and do that all the time so that that's the thing that i already changed that i'm just going to try and like stick to because sticking with these goals is really important we should talk about this from a a baseball perspective and i think the practical application of this would be like let's say let's say you're the kansas city royals

keep law and i talked about them on the athletic baseball show that went up on friday we're looking at the al central and you know what those teams might do when the lockout ends. The Royals are one of those teams that I think need to have realistic goals for what is going to come in 2022. If the Royals' goal, their singular goal, is to win the World Series in 2022, they're probably going to be disappointed. It's okay to want that, but I think the intermediate goals are more important to them. It's to bring up the trio of young prospects and to have all three of them, Bobby Witt Jr., MJ Melendez, and Nick Prado, to have all of those guys in the lineup as comfortable big league regulars by mid-season or whatever their timetable is for that entire group. Have all those guys as fixtures in the lineup.

Make a run at 500. Make a run at 500. Yeah, at least be a 500 team. At least be within three games of a playoff spot at the trade deadline or whatever the actual numbers are. I think that's the type of goal that a team like that should reasonably set. And you can be an exciting team that sells a lot of tickets, that actually gets people watching you again without being a playoff team i think they're among the groups of team

among the group of teams that that could actually fit that sort of description so i think the resolution definitely needs to fit the team correctly uh the same way that it has to fit a person correctly i'd add like um hit hit on a pitcher or two yeah for them i mean especially because they keep bringing up these guys and you get every time you're like oh jackson co-op or this guy or this guy and you're like come on one of these guys got it you gotta be a little bit better than like a four or five era yeah for sure yeah but you're right there are teams that like okay if you're the orioles like don't you have to they're in year four now this rebuild you have i mean add the rushman's probably

going to be up at some point in time i think we all know that um do you need to see improvement in record i think for a lot of these teams the answer is yes um you can't convince fans you're headed in the right direction when the record's headed in the wrong direction uh baltimore top of that list i think detroit's kind of an interesting team um in terms of like we saw some forward progress and forward momentum and then obviously texas because what offseason we had they sort of won the mini offseason right them and the mets and um the mets we'll get to a little bit later because they're just a fascinating team i think stealing coaches from the yankees and kind of drumming up what may be like a really renewed rivalry between those two teams uh but you know there's it's interesting to me to look at the teams that yet are not going to

compete for the world series but need to compete for something like need to give their fans some kind of hope here um and i think there's a lot of teams in that category, maybe not to the degree of Baltimore, but still in that category. Yeah, I think there's a few ways we could do this. We could go division by division and kind of throw some ideas out there for each team. We could go from the bottom of projected war to the

top, and then the teams that are similar at least get goals that kind of fit. I'm open to going about this any of those ways. Let's just throw some out there. If we go systematic, then we're going to be here for three hours. That's true. It'll be a very long pod.

I think just what jumps out at you. One thing that jumps out at me is I'm sorting the depth charts, and the Rangers have crept their way up when it comes to bats. They're a representative team now with bats uh they're they've got the worst pitching a war projected pitching war in baseball and it's not like oh they're you know in a group and they're no they've got the worst by far they've got seven they've got 7.9 projected war from, uh, their, from their pitchers. The second worst are the Orioles with 10. So they're,

they're, they're missing some bodies and it usually, it does come from the bullpen and maybe bullpens are volatile. And there are some names there that could get healthy. And we've talked about this, but really, uh, the second worst pitching staff in baseball behind the twins.

So if I have a new year's resolution, uh, for the Rangers, it is go get some pictures. Yeah, that's a big one for sure. And it's clear that they are willing to spend an ad. Like they've done that already this off season. They're going to continue doing that.

They got the new stadium, all of that fits. We spent there. We spent that money in like eight minutes on a pod, like before they spent it. And they've been decent at finding pop-up pitchers like Kyle Gibson and Lance Lynn in the past. So they've got some sort of good process there, and they need to follow that process. Maybe buy a big-name pitcher, too.

I just think there's a lot of teams in this position. I would say Minnesota is there, as you mentioned. I had to mention Minnesota right there. Minnesota for sure. Texas. But they don't spend at all. Well, Cleveland. Minnesota really doesn't.

Especially on arms. I mean, they spend on Donaldson, but they don't spend on arms. Cleveland is in a weird spot. What's Cleveland doing? They're watching their name change? I mean,

that was like. What do you wish for them? I mean, do you what do you wish for them i mean it's not it's not clear when i look across that like oh they need to do this exactly you know no no it's not i do think especially like bigger market teams like the yankees like do you have to get a correa or a trevor story because you look at the yankees and they're so terrified of the luxury tax right i kept hearing about getting under the luxury tax. If they go to the stopgap auction, like maybe an Alderson Simmons, as they wait for their young prospects to maybe get to that point, are they kind of waving the white flag on this year? But they're the second best projected team right now in baseball.

But they're always projected. But look at what have they done that's made them so much better than last year's team. Yeah, I know. It's true. So why are they projected, right? Like, why are they projected to be so high? Well, they were a good team

last year, too. Yeah, they're being right behind the Dodgers. I mean, they made the playoffs. I think perception of the Yankees, this is the problem with goal setting. The Yankees are,

I don't know imagine your most athletic friend where everything just comes so easy to this person and and they're the kind of person that's like I'm gonna do an iron man this year and you're just like come on who does that I know people actually actually do iron man it's a pretty amazing I didn't know what it was until this until this break and I'm it's I'm impressed it's a lot yeah physical accomplishment. I didn't know what it was until this break, and I'm impressed. It's a lot. Yeah. You're like, oh, look, all of that?

All of that in one day? All of those things? All of that in one day? Back to back to back? What is it? It's a half marathon plus two miles of swinging. It's a mile swim. A mile swim.

It's a mile swim. A half marathon and then like 30 miles of biking or something yeah because i swam the mile in college and i've run marathons well yeah so you've kind of you've done two-thirds of it already yeah um i don't i'm not crazy about spending that long on the bike though i'm not like part of the big peloton craze or anything so so I don't know how I would fare. But I'm curious where this analogy was going about the Yankees. Well, their goal setting is like, I'm going to do an Ironman. I'm going to win

it all. Or it's like the college football programs that have to win a national championship or their season's a disaster. If Alabama doesn't win a national championship in college football, they had a bad year. That's it. There's one goal by which they are measured. The Yankees are measured that way're there's only a handful of teams like that the dodgers are like that now too if those two teams don't win the world series they had a bad year

by their internal measures correct but on the micro level how do you get that team which is already projected as the cycle how do you get that team to the world series you have to get a short stop don't you well the thing that they're missing is the thing you don't get in free agency the thing that they're missing is a combination of athleticism defense and offense at a premium defensive position and starting pitching depth because behind garrett cole has always you can get that in free agency but i think i think when we at that, we're like, oh, Aaron Hicks is the center fielder, and if it's Glaber

at short again, right now Urshela's at top of short in the depth chart. Usually, if they do buy a shortstop, he's going to have to move off a shortstop. So I actually do like the idea of getting shortstops. I think they should go get one of the shortstops

because you get them for shortstop for two or three years. You think he's going to be their third baseman after Gio, and you hope that one of your prospects becomes a young shortstop of the future. Right. Yeah. Sorry. Go ahead.

No, it is hard to get premium defense and offense at a premium defensive position in free agency because you're buying post-peak players. players well there's still options trevor story is still out there i think here's the thing if they don't get trevor story they're not ruined it's just the best thing they can do in free agency with the current build of their roster now i think the other thing with the yankees kind of bridging the question that Britt put out there, like how do they really get there with this roster? By projection, they should be there already, even without a shortstop upgrade, even if they run it back with Glaber, which will piss everybody off in the Bronx and lead to that cloud of negativity that just hangs over the Yankees when they're not winning 10 to nothing every night. They're not winning 10 to nothing every night.

Okay. The problem, I think, based on how projections work and the makeup of that team, if that's an older team, we know older players have favorable projections that they're not as likely to meet because of health and decline. Stanton has currently a 581 plate appearance, three win projection, which is possible, but we know Stanton. Three win projection for a DH is actually pretty amazing. That plate appearance number is staggering. He's still hitting missiles. In terms of underlying numbers, there's not a lot of evidence of loss of strength of any kind for Giancarlo Stanton. Piss missiles, please.

Please use the technical term. Piss missiles. So I can entertain the argument that even though the projections have them as the second best team, Fangraph's war projections have them as the second best team in baseball right now, that they're not actually the second best team in baseball right now. That they're

like the seventh or eighth best team in baseball because of added injury risk and a reduced likelihood of them actually hitting those projections compared to... Their age and oldness, which is a hard thing to fix in free agency. Compared to the Dodgers or the Astros or the Blue Jays would be a good example. The Blue Jays are a

younger team that have a lofty projection. They're probably more comparable to the Blue Jays than the war projections would lead you to believe. The Blue Jays aren't a bad team. The Blue Jays are a likely playoff team in 2022, so I don't think that's necessarily a bad thing, but yes, how are they going

to fix their flaws? Their resolution should be upgrading at shortstop, but what else could they do? Adding Trevor Story doesn't fix some of the concerns. Britt has issues with the pitching depth. I think a lot rides on Luis Severino being healthy this year.

That rotation looks a lot different with him versus how it looks without him. I'm still a Jordan Montgomery truther, so I look at him and I see what could go right more than what could go wrong. I think there were some steps forward last year. I mean, Cole at the top, you know, mentioned Luis heel on our last episode as a guy that could have a more prominent role. I could definitely see that working out. Uh, tie on could be a little better

this year than he was last year. That wouldn't be much of a surprise. I don't think any of these things are stretches. I actually think the biggest stretch with the rotation is banking on a fully healthy Luis Severino. It's kind of like a, or a Nesta Cortez repeat or a Nesta Cortez. Relatively speaking compared to other teams, we were just talking about teams at the bottom of the pile for pitching. The Yankees are in a good spot overall with what they have for pitching.

And sure. Could they do a pitching and sure could they do a little more will they do a little more probably but I don't think that's a major weakness I think it's actually a strength relative to the field I have an idea for for them trust your kids instead of signing Brett Gardner again uh instead of signing Corey Kluber again, pencil in heel, pencil in florial. Trust the kids. And have three

roster spots. Just have three roster spots next year. They're going to go to totally untested young players that you think are ready for the show. That's a tall order in the Bronx. I know, I know. It's crazy in the Bronx. It's a tough place.

This isn't Kansas City. I know. And it didn't work out necessarily with Clint Frazier or whatever. And they always try to like, you know, kind of do it slowly and see if they can make it. But I would love to see some youth in New York.

You know, I'd love to see them. I always think of like Chamba Chamberlain though. It's like the poster child for like what can happen to somebody who's just like brought up i've been clint fraser too dude i mean like yes yes exciting and they they ruined him yeah so there's that hanging over the head too but i i like it it's a bold idea do you guys have any other bold New Year's predictions for teams? I like the bold. Here's one. Washington Nationals revamped your entire player development setup. That to me isn't bold. It's long overdue.

Clean house. They won't. Here's something I've got that is eye-opening to me. So this guy, Prateek Brennan, at Painting Corner on Twitter, did an extensive analysis of players in the minor leagues and how they improved from year to year and how they improved all the way up to the major leagues and kind of scored everybody on player development

and how much their players improved over time. And the Washington Nationals were 25th in hitter development and 24th in pitching development. The only teams that were worse in both were, well, there was Baltimore. That's the only team that was worth it. Worse than both was Baltimore.

Well, you know, I think me and you have talked about this before they yeah we wrote a whole story we wrote a whole story about it because I had a coach that used to be there tell me that like check out the fastball velo when these guys get drafted versus when they make it up I mean they just don't have a good history of like adding anything and I challenge you to give me a player that Washington has developed. And I'm not talking like Steven Strasburg, which was a very obvious top pick.

I'm talking. When was the last time? Him and Soto were like, we, we, we selected great players and they were great. Harper, Harper,

Harper, Strasburg picks were legitimate. No brainer. One ones. Undisputed. Number one, overall picks any GM in history would have picked those players in those spots so there's no there's no find there like it's the thing that happened you just you happen

to be bad enough at the right time to get franchise altering players right i've had like but yes totally so it was different so that was that was a That was a fine, but it wasn't a development win as much as it was like a scouting win, I think. That was my point. It's like those guys didn't spend barely any time in the minor leagues. So when was the last time they had a fourth rounder, fifth rounder, seventh rounder who came up and contributed to the big league team? They really haven't. I've had subjective reports like sort of you know this is more like you can't really report it like whispers of like

players that do poorly in their minor league system and then have to go to you know these pitching labs and places and get better and then it makes it makes it look like the nationals did something but no that player actually got better when he went to you know this place or that place you know so that is not unique to the nationals though that happens with a lot of teams yeah that does happen and and they'll even have they'll even sort of count on it or have sort of contracts with these labs to kind of outsource some of their pd which makes analysis of pd very hard because a lot of these guys are going to driveline or you know kinetic pro or these other places they go. Cressy's compound.

So, you know, it does make it hard. But I don't hear good things ever about Washington PD. And I don't think the results on the field bear it out. And I think that it's going to get really tough for them pretty soon. Because, you know, they're not going to get the one one pick uh without a major tanking and they have soto who's going to keep them one like single-handedly from being the worst team in baseball and so they're going to do this weird uh mediocre thing unless they revamp pd correct and they're not interested in tanking they're not a tanking team like rizzo has said

that before which i do admire and i wish more teams had that mindset of like we're not interested in tanking. They're not a tanking team. Mike Rizzo has said that before, which I do admire. And I wish more teams had that mindset of like, we're not going to tank. We're going to try to be good as soon as we can. Now, they did get some prospects from the Dodgers when they traded Scherzer and Trey Turner. I don't know how much those guys are going to work out. But how much do I think that Gray is going to develop in Washington when they don't have a track record of developing? You know, Josiah Gray. Correct. Yeah, there is problems there. Question. Gray is going to develop in Washington when they don't have a track writer developing, you know, just correct.

Yeah, there is problems there. Question. Uh, how different is the big league coaching staff when they acquire young players who are big league ready, which I would say that Josiah Gray and keep it. We use would count as two guys who are big league ready. How much does that differ from when they try to develop a prospect from, you know,

rookie ball all the way through? Like, I think that's potentially different because I'm going back. ready how much does that differ from when they try to develop a prospect from you know rookie ball all the way through like i think that's potentially different because i'm going back you should have a really good pitch major league pitching coach and paper over some of your pd problems sure i'm just looking at like the 2019 world series roster and like where where did these players come from a lot of them were via trade and free agency. Even Trey Turner. They traded for Trey Turner. That was a freezing trade. Trey was a trade. Morton was a signing.

You're talking about Braves now. You said World Series. I'm talking about 2019. Trey Turner they traded for. Anthony Rendon was actually a guy they drafted. He's closer in terms of what he was as a player in college he was closer to a can't miss he was more like a strasburg or

harper they should they should still get some sort of credit for not wrecking him but there were injury concerns and he dropped to them so yes but you're right that whole roster but that was the thing they were the oldest roster in baseball this wasn't a team of homegrown guys brought along that year they were the oldest team in baseball they had brian dozier and uh you know harada para and you know like so like and even that rotation they bought scherzer they did so much money in that they bought corbin they bought anel Sanchez. They didn't really have... They had Eric Fetty and Joe Ross. Joe Ross, I believe, is not homegrown. I think they got him

a little bit later as a trade. Eric Fetty's homegrown, but they don't have those big homegrown impact success stories at all. To me, the best player development organization in baseball, or top three at least, is the Astros. Think about how different their World Series rotation was. was now they didn't win but you know

uh they signed three 21 20 21 22 year old uh like latin american guys and they were in their in their uh starting rotation in their bullpen doing prominent things and nobody else in baseball is signing 22 year old Latin American kids. You know, like that's like kids is not even a word that, you know, the 22 is like, Oh my God.

Yeah. What are you doing there? Talking to adults. Yeah. I do think they have the nationals done a better job internationally than they have, um, anywhere else.

Johnny DePuebla. I think it's really turned around that organization. We mentioned Soto DVRs's boy, Victor Robles. What did they do to him? He's in winter ball right now. I saw him make an awesome throw. I think Maria Torres retweeted something, and I was like, hey, I'm clicking on this. This is a Victor Robles video.

Victor Robles, exactly. It's going to happen. I agree with you. Eno is throwing out all these crazy scenarios. I like it. I'm trying to think of some other bold projections for other New Year's agree with you you know he's like throwing out all these uh these crazy scenarios i like it i mean i'm trying to think of some other bold projections for other new year's other new year's teams i mean could tampa bay rays finally get a stadium or i don't know something handled is that it's

not even bold let's go let's go to the more pressing still i still just the las vegas a's please no please don't do that i agree i mean i don't know oh well mccullough had that build a dome for the rockies which was interesting um here's the thing the rockies have a ton more problems than whether they're doming their stadium. How about let's start with ownership. Let's talk about blowing things up. The GMs, everything was just like, hey, let's just promote some people internally. The guy who's been here forever, he'll fix it.

He'll change it. He'll fix it. He'll come in and really light a fire. To be fair, probably the scouting was the only thing they were doing anything at, and he was their scouting guy right yeah i i mean i would look at that team and say there's actually some development success stories on the position player side i know that gets amplified by the ballpark and then it becomes hard to separate well in patrick's estimation they were 16th and hitting but 30th and pitching yeah there's always there's got to be ballpark effects in there but yeah you know uh i i've got i've got i've got a piece i'm working on with nick groke and i've

got a my new year's resolution is to to to to work on that because i've got like an hour long i've got an hour long interview that i don't want to transcribe because transcribing an hour long interview is just like oh it's so awful so that's why i keep putting up sorry nick if you're listening we'll get to that but i also have a interview planned with a sleep expert uh at stanford uh and and so i there's something to this doming but i i almost like want them to like have a pressurized room uh like a pressurized nap room you could sleep at uh at sea level at the ballpark would that cause more problems though because then your body has to adjust again back well i think the whole thing is rest and recovery and so if you

can just give people a way to rest and recover, the other part is yes. Uh, getting enough oxygen into your lungs, like that sort of, uh, the thing where like, you know, all the high altitude guys win the Olympics, right. I win the, uh, marathons. Um, but I think that that's just going to happen on its own and you're, that's just, you work out, you do that. But I think the i think the when i talking to players rest and recovery is just super difficult for them and you'll see injuries you'll see uh just suboptimal performance um so something like that but i do i like that idea dvr you got any bold new year's predictions for teams yeah i mean i i'm i'm looking at the the blue jays and saying like what should their resolution be because it feels like they've been doing pretty much

everything right trying to launch this team as the core came together right and i want to say like what in in that division which we talk about year over year just being so incredibly difficult to win, what do they have to do to actually get into the playoffs and do damage? What's missing with the Blue Jays? And I think it's probably more bullpen depth. They need a little more impact there. It's one spot. Otherwise, one more infielder.

I think the resolution is to commit and say, we're going to go get Jose Ramirez in a trade. We're going to add that one more impact guy. That would be really, really interesting. Because they're already flirting with the Houston level, you know, big WRC plus low K percentage lineup that just beats you up a ton of different ways. You go one more in with

Ramirez, you're better protected in case injuries are more of an issue. I know they missed George Springer for a good chunk of last year. I think they have to do it. I think especially in that division, you can never have too much. Starting Vigio and Espinel in this division and on

that team just seems like, yeah, you're right. I think it's begging for one of them to be pushed into kind of a utility role. Yeah, you've got to push the last few chips in if you're Toronto. I have no qualms with how they've got to this point, but don't stop now. Yeah, yeah. They're an interesting team. And you look at their roster and how young they are, and you know those guys are going to continue to get better. We talked about the Yankees and how their projections might be higher.

Toronto, I mean, good luck projecting how good Vlad Guerrero Jr. is going to be. It seems like there's no real limit for some of these guys they have. So I agree. Let's go all in. Let's absolutely make Toronto just be mashing and run the AL East. That would be a great story. I'd love it. I'd love it. I'd love it. If it's Jays and Rays and then like five games of separation or more between

Yankees, Red Sox this year, I would love it to turn into more of a two team race. Yeah. And the free agent options. I mean, you know, what do you get?

I guess BGO is the left hander. You could go get like a Josh Harrison or a Donovan Solano, two right-handed infielders, and that would be the kind of incremental approach. But I think I like this idea of going big. Yeah, I do too. Speaking of going big, if you're the Mets, it has to be also a big resolution, right? I mean, one, they need to unsurp the Braves to basically run the NL East the last couple of years. But I think when you look at the moves that they made, they're a team that like, it kind of seems like World Series or bust, at least NLCS or bust. I mean, this needs to be a huge step forward after last year and all the optimism and then that whole collapse towards the end of the first half.

I think if you're the Mets, if you're the Mets fan base, you've got Buck Showalter, you've got Max Scherzer. You've got all of these exciting additions. You've got the money. You've got the ownership. The Mets are going to have to go big or go home. That's exactly what it feels like. We talked about the Yankees being the same way, and I think it has to be like that for the Mets are going to have to go big or go home. That's exactly what it feels like. We talked about the Yankees being the same way,

and I think it has to be like that for the Mets. Yeah, I think it's interesting because they got a little change in their pockets, right? Like in Jeff McNeil and J.D. Davis and Dominic Smith, I mean, we talk about wanting to build teams that have depth, and so the depth is never bad, and so you could go to battle with those guys. But it does seem like you could go to battle with two out of those three guys and turn that last guy into maybe a fifth starter. That's better than Tyler major.

Right. And, and get more depth on the pitching side. I think that might be, that might be the move is, is trade Jeff McNeil for a pitcher. I think, I think they line up really well with Oakland.

And we were just talking about this under the radar earlier today. If you look at Oakland, we've talked about all the ways this team could be dismantled. They always try to play the middle, as we've said. I believe that that's generally true. Things can be different this time. Frankie Montas is the guy that you want the most if you're trading. The question isn't even like, how long do you have him even? Of the pitchers they have, which one do you like the most?

I think the consistent answer from everybody is going to be Frankie Montas. Now, you would have him longer than Bassett and Minaya. Two years, so it's a one. That's nice. That's extra. I think they line up perfectly with Oakland because part of playing the middle is being willing to take guys with flaws and who are big league ready and just letting them play and see what happens. And I would say that describes Dominic Smith because we've seen him show signs of being a well above average big league hitter. He's played out of position for a long time.

If they also trade Matt Olson somewhere, guess what? Dominic Smith's your first baseman. JD Davis. Yeah, he's not at all. Matt Chapman, buddy,

throw him at third base, throw him in left field, maybe even make him a regular DH. He's going to hit enough to, to be an everyday guy. Jeff McNeil fits really well in Oakland too. You could take a bundle of guys, some combination of those guys are all of them and actually make a package that

Oakland would be willing to give up Frankie Montas to get because I think Oakland's different. I think they kind of either go injured prospects to get more or they go big league ready guys where the star

level ceiling's not necessarily there but you're getting years of control, and you're getting guys that you can throw in that lineup on a regular basis. Yeah. They want pop-up prospects is another thing they like, is prospects that are performing well, but aren't thought of that well in the scouting community. I'm sure you can find one.

If you're Oakland, you have to hit on all these trades, right? That's going to be your New Year's resolution, to hit on all these trades right like that's gonna be your new year's resolution is hit on the trades because we're dismantling our team and if you hit on them you hope that the rebuild cycle is fairly quick and they can kind of get back to being that you know plucky competitive oakland a's type of team um but honestly i kind of feel bad mark hot say the first year manager there um it's going to be a rough sledding for a couple of years in Oakland. But again, you just have to hope that the front office that has been fairly savvy.

They make that Simeon Bassett trade again. Yes, exactly. That's really what you have to hope for. And, you know, they could have a quick turnaround if they hit on these trades. It could be, you know, a fairly quick cycle where they're back up again. You just don't really know.

Like you guys were saying earlier, they've got the stadium issues. Just a really tough time to be an Oakland A's fan. What did you both think of? I don't remember who the original report was. I just know trade rumors picked it up, and I just saw the headline. Matt Chapman to the Yankees, but maybe as a shortstop? I just thought that was kind of bizarre. If the Yankees don't get Trevor Story, you could see him going somewhere else and playing second base. I've suggested the White Sox. I've

suggested the Blue Jays. He could follow Marcus Simeon's footsteps and try to go that route. That worked out just fine for Marcus Simeon in the end. One difference, Marcus Simeon a year ago did not have the qualifying offer or draft pick compensation on him. The A's did not give Marcus Simeon the qualifying offer when he became a free agent. The J's, of course, did, so they got the draft pick when he left for Texas. But if you miss on story, Brian Cashman doesn't go into panic mode, but the Yankees will still try to do something. And it's Matt Olson or Matt Chapman, or maybe both, probably just one.

But Matt Chapman at shortstop was just something I didn't think any team would do, even though he's an amazing third baseman. Like, is that even plausible? Like they could, they could actually go that route and take someone who's not a shortstop and just make them a shortstop.

There's a, there's a real, yeah, I kind of share brits i don't know there's a really interesting piece that's uh relevant to this by russell carlton and baseball perspectives this last week about uh the the defensive spectrum and wins about replacement and just the idea that uh you could take a guy who was a plus 10 plus 15 third baseman like matt chapman and just put him at at short and it would work out because the defensive numbers say they should, you know, which is very different than what it actually what it actually works like in player development or when you're trying to put a team together when you talk to players.

Right. When you talk to players. Yeah. Shortstop is very different than third base. You know, third base, you only have to basically cover half of what you have to do with shortstop because you have the line. You have this line thing that sort of protects you. You're always thinking about how far you are from the line. Whereas at shortstop, you've just got that wide expanse in both directions. You don't have a line protecting you.

And so I do wonder if maybe Chapman plus Urshela, who has a good defensive reputation, like you just put two really good defenders over there and you hope to have basically average defense out of the two. It's, it's bold. It's bold. And I kind of, I kind of dig it from an analytical standpoint, but I think that the players themselves would not dig it.

Yeah, it is bold. I kind of think of Manny Machado and what happened with him. And I remember, you know, he came up, they put him at third base. He was terrific. But he was a shortstop coming up, right? Yes. I was going to get to that. But then they moved him.

No, you're fine. But then they moved him to shortstop because he badly wanted to play shortstop. He came up, he was drafted as a shortstop. He thought shortstop was so cool. They moved him to shortstop and it did not go well for a while because he wasn't used to being involved in every play. I remember how exhausted he was. This was a guy who had surgeries on both of his knees.

All of a sudden, you are literally, as Eno was saying, you're the captain of Enfield. You are involved in so much. It's so much more of a physical wear and tear on guys than they realize. And when Machado moved back to third base obviously in San Diego they had to tease he remember he was happy about it I think it's not quite as easy as people realize oh this guy's a really good defender let's just move him over a little bit they're totally different positions totally different physical

requirements and also it's mentally exhausting guys have talked about because there is no break you have so many more things to worry about, uh, covering bases, backing things up. There's so many more things involved than just fielding from a different position on the field. Yeah. Uh, I was talking to, uh, a team, a coach about, uh, how they track, um, fatigue and how they, how they, uh, how they think about, uh, when they had to rest their veteran shortstop. And they mentioned that one of the things that's so difficult about shortstop and the thing that they track, and they actually have someone tracking this, is starts and stops. And so the shortstop, there's so many more places where they, even if they don't touch the ball,

they have to move towards the ball, right? There's so many plays where they, even if they don't touch the ball, they have to move towards the ball, right? There's so many plays where they're like, oh, no, it's to the second baseman or it's their single or whatever. You know what I mean? Like there's so many plays where they start and they have to, they have to like maybe even dive and not get to it or they have to go to second. They have to do something. I mean, think about the left fielder.

He's like, well, that ball's not near me. Well, that ball's not near me. That ball's not near me. The shortstop is always like starting i gotta go to second i gotta go to third i gotta cover i gotta do this i gotta so they're always they're starting and stopping and they said that's that's like that's fatigue is where you get the the fatigue out of starting and stopping i'm trying to look up right now um the internet is not helping but when was the last time that Chapman actually played short? I just thought when he was coming up, he was part of a team. I think that A's group was, if I remember correctly,

it was Chapman, Olsen, and maybe Daniel Robertson. He never played it. I don't think he ever played it because Robertson was always the shortstop on those teams. I've got it open now. He played 10 games in AA and two games at Cal State Fullerton.

I mean, okay. There's that. One game in the majors. Two games in the majors. You're talking about 14 games in his entire career he's played shortstop. It's just not enough. This is different than Eugenio Suarez trying to play shortstop. Just because that failed doesn't mean this would fail.

Yes, but Suarez even had more history. Suarez had been a shortstop. Yeah, no, that's the funny thing about it. But I think when I looked at defensive measures for Suarez as a third baseman and just kind of seeing his body type and how he moves, it was kind of like, that guy at shortstop again? Yeah. He might have outgrew the position. At his age? Yeah, he got bigger.

He just outgrew it. And with Chapman, it's weird, but I can kind of talk myself into it. He's a little bit closer body type. He's younger. Yeah. And by the way, this, um,

this came from, you know, this came from the Michael K show. Originally Buster only 28 was a guest. Chapman's older than I thought. 28, it'd be 29, pretty much opening day age.

I mean, the end of April, this is 29 season. I don't think I like it. I, there's a part of me that wants to like it because of, you know, it'd be different and it's bold. And the analytics say that maybe it should work, but I don't think I like it. I don't like it either.

I also think with Matt Chapman and curious what you both think about this. Moving a player defensively, I think can have could have downside effects on their offensive performance and you and what you want from chapman is a bounce back offensively right you're already you're already hoping for a better version of chapman at the play i believe in a matt chapman bounce back as a hitter anyway i just do like ball hard and focus on the high fastball figure out how to hit the high fastball i don't want to ask you to also focus on how to play shortstop right now. I think we saw enough from him as a hitter in 18 and 19 with the K rates consistently under 25%,

where I think he can get the K rate back down in the future. Still going to provide power either way. So I bet you would like him as a bounce back. How about Chapman to the Blue Jays? Also good. In the event that Cleveland's asking price is too high

or someone else comes along, yeah, having a backup option, I think that would be a good fit. Agreed. That's a good point, though, DVR. You don't want to ask a guy to play a new position because there are ramifications offensively, especially we talked about the physicality. Yeah.

He's now going to be beat up. And Manny was just exhausted. And again, a lot younger. And I think when you, when you look at that, I believe Manny's numbers offensively may have dipped a little bit. It wasn't quite as fun. I remember in his head, he thought like shortstop was going to be so awesome. You know, he's going to be such a cooler position than third.

And it turns out not only is he much better at third, but it's a lot better physically for him. And I think when you try to ask someone to do a new role, all of a sudden Chapman's legs hurt, right? Because he's been doing the start and stop I was talking about. Well, that lower half is what powers your swing. There's all kinds of ramifications

for that kind of stuff. The other connected thought here, if you want to put Matt Chapman in Toronto and my resolution for them is to keep going. Is that a resolution? It's encouragement. Push the chips in. Keep pushing

chips in. What are you sending back to Oakland? Thinking about, again, a package of players they'd be interested in. I think here, Kevin Biggio is a guy you'd send back. You'd say, okay, he can play every day in Oakland. I think they'd be into that. You've got big league catching depth, but

they don't need that, so that doesn't help you. Sean Murphy's their catcher. They're not going to be as interested in Alejandro Kirk as other teams would be, or as interested in even Danny Jansen as other teams would be. I guess you could go higher end if they wanted to move one of those guys. Right.

Well, they've shown a willingness, right, Toronto, to move some of their top prospects to win now. Right. They did it with the Barrios trade. So now is the time to do that. They've got, what, two guys in the top? MLB.com's like top 100, it looks like. I think Jordan Groshans and Gabriel Moreno are pretty, like, they're, I think Groshans could go. Or Elvis Martinez is in here, too.

Yeah, he's good. Or Elvis Martinez is a good prospect, too. You could get an interesting mix, because if the Jays are willing to move Nate Pearson, the injured pitching prospect is exactly a thing that oakland takes chances on there's a lot of evidence and i was i was looking i was right now just looking for their best you know their best depth but if they made it a bigger deal and it was chapman plus maybe one of the one-year guys mania or um or bassett um then you could put Pearson and Biggio in. And that would be totally an A's deal right there.

And a prospect. Obviously not Moreno. Probably not Groschan. That's a little aggressive. I mean, it could even be somebody like Thomas Hatch. The A's are like, I like that guy. We could plug him into our rotation right away. Here's another A's guy that the J's have right now.

Kevin Smith infielder up at triple a little older has nowhere to play in Toronto. That guy could play a ton, could play a ton in Oakland. They need a shortstop in Oakland. Okay. So we are, we are,

Kevin Smith. It's, it's, it's a lot though. I mean, BGO, you know, still has years of control left and Pearson.

It seems to be a lot of people have high hopes for him, but, but you're getting a though. I mean, Biggio still has years of control left, and Pearson seems to be a lot of people have high hopes for him. But you're getting a lot. I mean, it's an interesting idea. Biggio, Kevin Smith, and Pearson for Bassett and to Matt Chapman. Yeah. I like this. You know what? We should write like a bold trade for Toronto ideas because obviously I have nothing going

on and no story ideas. Maybe a list of five bold trades. Five bold trades. People love bold trades. I love bold trades. I think bold trades are amazing. Everyone loves the bold trade and hopefully we're not that far away from

getting them back. Any other resolution type things on your mind? I got a resolution for you. Get to the table. Oh, God. Why did nobody say that? Get to the table. Not even that.

How about schedule a meeting? Yeah. Jesus. Talk. Oh, God. Here's my bold resolution, guys. I think all negotiations should literally involve both parties locked in a

room, not allowed to come out, not allowed to eat, drink, take bathroom breaks until it's resolved. You want to talk about short lockouts? Here's some cups. We'll use some water so you don't die. Use some water bottles. That's what my husband does when he goes hunting, like takes plastic water bottles.

There you go. Take those water bottles inside with you uh you drink them and then you use them again people are so weird um i'm glad people do it and i'm glad it makes people happy it just um i don't have the the genes that are are happy i've enjoyed shooting guns but i just done it at uh know A shooting range Yeah totally I did it once just because I thought it would be A good skill to have like what if someone breaks in And I'm home alone like I need to know I think it's a good skill

But yeah sitting alone in a cold hole when it's 20 degrees here not for me If I'm home alone and someone breaks in I'm throwing micro machines on the floor And then running through the house and throwing paint cans at them. Hoping Hazel attacks them. Sorry to bring up stats, but the stats

say if you have a gun in the house, you're more likely to injure yourself. Thanks, Eno. Actually, I'm just the baseball bat guy because I'm not missing with a bat. This is not going to happen. True. If they take the bat from me or if they have something better, then I put the bat down bat guy because I'm not missing with a bat. This is not going to happen. Yeah, true. And if they take the bat from me or if they have something better, then I put the bat down and I

say, what would you like from my house? You know what? That's true. Maybe the resolution should be actual home security systems. What would you like from my house except for my children? Yeah. I have a black belt in karate. I have a black belt in taekwondo. My parents,

my parents wanted us to be able to defend ourselves and I've never actually used it. And I kind of always wanted to use it, but now it's like almost too late. Cause I'm like old and out of practice. Do you remember any of it? Yeah. I'd kick someone and like pull a muscle.

Well, as long as you hit them, it's a fair trade off to make, right? You land the kick kick pull a muscle yeah just got to make it a really good kick on that very cheery bizarre note uh we are going to go uh you can find us on twitter you know that you know saris brit is that brit underscores roly i am at derrick van ryper the podcast has a twitter account it has never tweeted but it will

tweet soon at rates and barrels. If you're watching us on YouTube, be sure to barrel up on the like button. If you haven't subscribed to the athletic already, the athletic.com slash rates and barrels gets you 33% off a subscription. I have no idea if there's going to be some kind of super bundle that gets you New York times cooking and crossword and everything else altogether. I'm sure something,

something will be there. We don't have that offer yet. Sorry. If you just like what we're doing, you can still support us at theathletic.com slash rates and barrels. That's going to do it for this episode of Rates and Barrels. We are back with you on Monday. Thanks for listening. Thank you.