Talkin' Baseball (MLB Podcast) - 150 | Jack Flaherty Clears the Air on MLB Negotiations

Episode Date: May 28, 2020

Jack Flaherty makes his third appearance on the podcast to talk about the MLBPA negotiations with the owners, Max Scherzer's tweet, and his desire to get back on the field and play. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Welcome to talking baseball. We've got recurring guest, good friend Jack Flaherty with us. Let's talk some baseball. What's going on, everybody? Welcome to talking baseball. We've got an impromptu emergency episode. We got Cardinal Stud, Jack Flaherty, joining us. Third time on the program, probably, you know, just the fourth co-host now, officially.

And before we get into it, this episode is brought to you by coveragegear.com. Go to coveragegear.com. click baseball, click Cardinals, and go get yourself a Flarity hat. Let's see how many they have. They got trucker style. They got Dad Hat and looks like that's all. They got a bunch of other teams, a bunch of other players and all that. Yeah, Jack Flaherty, number 22, Dad.

Holes, Wainwright. Snapback. And they're fully licensed. So Jack gets to cut. So just go buy one. Like that. Use discount code. use discount code John Boy for 20% off coverage gear.com.

See you there. All right. Jack, what's up? Welcome. Man, you know, just going through these days slowly but surely, lose my mind. It feels like every week. It's like one week. I'm in a great spot in the next week.

I'm like, what is what's going on? What are we? What's going on here? How am I going to go cycle? That's how it's all been, but you kind of have more at stake than us. So it's been a recurring. cycle just like what's next like i'm i don't even know we we left in march we're like there's no way i want to be back home for the rest of march april may sitting here on may 28th like goodness i didn't

think i'd be living at my mom's house for the last three and a half months before we before we get into the the gritty stuff and and trevor tells you to to stop talking at certain points how uh the time we talked to you, you were making lists, you were watching classic movies. Did that last like a week? It did not last long. It didn't last long. I got into it. We started, we made some lists. We did a couple things. And then, you know, I just shut it down. I was like, all right, this is way too much. I'm going to start. I watched the wire, watched that through in about two weeks, two and a half weeks, which was very impressive that I did it that quickly. and then since then I kind of shut it down.

I went like, didn't do anything. And I was like, all right, now I'm bored again. I need to get back and start doing some things. Maybe play baseball? I don't. Is that something you're interested in? In what? Baseball?

Yeah. Yeah, you know, playing baseball would be phenomenal. That's what, it's all I do every day. I go play catch with Freed and we kind of sit there and hang out for about 35 minutes after we're done playing catch because we're like, what are going to do? to go home and sit around and not do shit. It's such a weird time in the game. We talked about this.

Right before we got on air here, there was a tweet by Field Yates saying that the governor of Texas is now opening professional sports back to Texas with 25% crowd capacity allowed in the stadiums. That is a big deal. That's unbelievable. That just happened. You know Florida and Arizona are going to follow soon. because they don't want to miss out on the action. So, you know, by the end of this episode,

we may have three states being like, yeah, fuck it, we'll do that too. Then what happens? Like, you can't have everybody everywhere because, you know, California is just going to be continuing to be shut down forever. I don't know, but it's going to get, it's another added wrinkle. I want to go all the way back, Jack. Like, you had you on at the very beginning of this.

You were searching for a hobby. Your hobbies playing catch with Freed. And, you know, and just sitting around talking, which is some of the all-time good times, just sitting in the cage and talking or in a field. Where, what, what, who are you checking, like Twitter, what articles, who's been like your source that's been hitting you up? And then where were you when commissioner of all baseball, Trevor Ploof,

dropped the big news that the June 10th, July 1st plan was in motion? I was so, I actually felt bad about that whole thing. But we, so we come home and, you know, obviously we go through. negotiations and discussions about, you know, what's going to be the plan going forward from March, I think it was 13th, you know, whatever it was, the end of March through whenever we start baseball. And, you know, we figured out, you know, the negotiation on pay and we're going to figure out games down the road. We're going to figure out the health stuff. But all that mattered was, you know, once the game is, once it's safe and it's, you know, once it is safe and it's, you know,

once it is safe and is reasonable to play, we're going to go back. But who am I checking? I don't even have to check. I feel like somebody will just tweet it to me or text me and I just like get it. I'm like, all right, great. But then when Trev said that, I hadn't heard that. And obviously I responded with, man, that's news to me because I was like, Trev, where are you getting this?

And then I felt bad because everybody started going at him. And I was like, damn, I didn't think that was a good. I was just like messing with him. And then not like 10 hours later, I get a word that, yeah, that's the plan. I was like, all right, Trev, well, so I bad. I was wrong here. That's my fault. But he was like, that's what the plan ended up being.

So he was, I mean, look, Trev has been right about everything that's gone on. He's, uh, thank you. And your boy, Jeff Passing are going like neck and neck for who's getting information first. I like to think that I lit a spark under all of those big. guys, the guys that are, you know, they were coming at me, I like to feel like I lit a spark under them a little bit. Like they were a little stale, a little stagnant. And all took was a little shot in the arm for me.

And boom, Passons got everything out there. He's trying to go fast as possible. Yeah, he's got everything out there. But yeah, everybody was like, but everybody kind of doubted you. They were like, no, that hasn't been the word. I was like, I hadn't heard that. I was like, yeah. You had heard of them.

Look, you know, those were the dates that were getting sent out there. and then what we talked to was after that it's kind of barring unforeseen circumstances is just you just know that when you put something out there I think the unforeseen circumstances for baseball was the owners were going to go try to get a little bit more and a little bit more just a little bit more so it's like that's kind of what's going on here and now we have all these opinions about why they're doing it you know just recently you know I put something out that maybe they don't want to play as many games they want to play the least amount of games as possible to get a full postseason in. I think that's a very viable strategy for them. And I think it's one that they've long considered and we're just kind of grasping now. Yeah, so also, I mean, when everything went on in March, we were, you know, the discussion was, you know, we don't know how many games were going to play. We're hoping for like half a season. We're trying to figure out, you know,

what's the pay situation going to be like because, you know, once it was declared, once, we were trying to figure out what the pay situation was going to be like for that time up until we were going to play games and what was going to happen when we did play games. And then it was kind of just like, all right, wait around until this stuff kind of clears up or whatever, you know, whether it was wait until the, you know, we flatten the curve or whatever it was from a health side, we just have to wait it out until it is deemed like safe to go back and play. And up until like recently, it hasn't been safe. You know, it's like with basketball, they ended on the same date as us. And they haven't gone back to play either. And none of that, I mean, at least in the media, none of it has been

money negotiations at all. It's just been trying to figure out how do you make it safe to go play? NHL's been the same way. I haven't heard anything about that. So it's been, the whole thing was, when is it going to be safe to go back and play? Nobody, nobody knew. Even still, it's, it's safer, but it's not, you know, it's not going to be 100% regardless. We're going to be at some type of risk, especially going from city to city, playing in different ballparks, playing in different stadiums, the amount of people that we could potentially come in contact with, regardless there's going to be some type of risk.

And I think it's what, you know, basketball, they've tried to condense it to just Orlando so as to take away all that risk or do, you know, I've heard Orlando and Vegas and kind of put two different places. but that was the only thing was when is it going to be safe and then we can go play like we'll figure out however many games we were willing to go play regular season games into October so as to play the most amount of regular season games and still play playoffs and go deeper and you know make off seasons a little bit shorter to a point where it wasn't going to hurt next year and um yeah but just in terms of everything, it was, when is it going to be safe? Basketball hasn't come back?

Basically, you thought the money was taken care of because you agreed to something in March. So that was like on the back burner. It was like, when can we play? When is it safe? Do you feel like they've checked enough boxes where you feel like if you do go back, it's going to be safe to play? So it just depends what you consider safe. From a health side, like I've, you know, when it first came out about all coronavirus and everything, like, I have asthma, so they originally reported, like, okay, as, you know, people who have respiratory or preexisting conditions, they are, like, more at risk and all of that. So I literally, like, went and met with my doctor the other day to be like, look, how, what are we looking at here? Yeah. And he actually informed me, he was like, look, with what you have and the medicine you take, it's actually not as much at risk for you, but it's like diabetes and other people with more pre-existing.

existing conditions. Like, okay. So for me, that made it, that made me feel better. Uh, I was nervous going to see him. I was like, I don't know what he's going to say. I don't know if he's going to say whether or not like, hey, I don't feel comfortable with going back at all. Yeah.

Potential bad news in that meeting. Yeah. It was, it was a little bit nerve-wracking. Um, but it worked out. So in terms of it being safe, there's going to be a risk regardless. I think guys just want more tests because. there's a risk. You know, there's the, there's a gray area, you know, in hotels, you got to, you're staying in the hotels when you're on the road. And at home, you get to go live at home.

You go be with your family and whatnot. And you just kind of hope that everybody follows proper hygiene and follows the proper protocols. And that's, that's kind of it. So there's, there's a gray area. There's, there's risk there regardless. There's still things to iron out. I think guys are like not super happy with some of the in-clubhouse things that they want to take away. They kind of feel as the season goes on, those will, you know, become a little bit more lenient. You know, they've tried to take every precaution as possible and it's, you know, it's appreciated. Regardless, though, there's still some risk when you're traveling from city to city, flying on plane, going in in different hotels and guys get to go home to their families and whatnot.

So you definitely feel better about it. There's still things to iron out, though. It's not 100% and it's never going to be 100%. What of the, which one of those crazy rules? You know, I'm sure the text between players when the full safety messages came out, which one like hit you the hardest?

Was it like no spitting, no seeds? No spitting was for me. I was like, because no spitting and licking your fingers as a, as a pitcher. Yeah. It was the hardest one to kind of fathom. And it's like, I'm out there throwing bullpens right now, and I'm just, like, constantly doing this because I'm like, I don't know if I could do, like, not do that.

It wouldn't be able to, yeah. What about new balls? Like, every time a ball's put in play, as a pitcher is at. We are. I mean, it's already kind of done. It's done that way. Like, a second of balls putting in play that things usually got a scuff on it. I mean, guys take ground balls and pitchers will hold on to that because there's usually a scuff.

There's usually like a little bit of something. You want that one. Yeah, you want, like, you want that one. But anytime the ball gets put in play, like, it, and it hits the ground, it hits the dirt, it's usually got something on it. So the ball one wasn't really. I think it was like, you know, some of the no spitting, you know, have, keep your distance in the dugout, the potential, you know, no high fives or celebrating like that, which is like, okay, you guys have to really think about controlling your emotions in a big game. and you know you get a big somebody gets a big hit like

hang on nobody comes close what about a stands okay go ahead oh in the stands yeah like I think it would be like the starting pitchers who aren't there's no way

in the middle of summer you're going to convince guys to sit in the stands and watch the games there's absolutely no way that one that was like and no cover I don't go to day games

fuck that it's too hot I mean, if you're going to put us in a suite up in press box, I'm like, all right, that's not in a different story. But if you don't want to let us be in the clubhouse, like to sit in the stands with no cover, especially if it's a day, there's no chance. There's no way. What's amongst the Cardinals guys or even, I mean,

freed and, you know, some of the Cali guys I know you're tight with. And we'll keep it with health stuff for now. We'll stay away from the money for a little bit. but what and I know safe like you mentioned there is so much gray area because your safe is different than my safe is different than Trevor's safe when when those guidelines come out were did for safety wise the guys think like we're getting close like okay you know we'll figure out the ice baths and stuff or were guys still like we still got a lot to figure out I think guys just had questions about what to do, how do you handle this,

what's our real risk factor of getting it, do we really need to take away the ice tubs, the hot tubs and the cold tubs, is that necessary? And then the big one was, okay, so we're just going to kind of let guys roam around when they're at home and, you know,

right, hope that they're following protocol. Like, all right. And then it just comes, you know, that comes down to, you know, being a team and having a talk and discussion of like,

look, this is our circle. Don't break the circle. Don't. And if you go, you're going to have to go get food. You're going to have to go to the grocery store. You don't do that. And just, you know, do what you've been doing since you've been home or wherever. Like, you've got to follow certain protocols, a certain hygiene.

Like, do that and take as much preventative, you know, caution as you can. But at the end of the day, at the end of the day, like, there's still, and guys, we're still nervous about we don't have enough tests. We need more tests. We need to test every day. We need whatever it is. And so it was moving in the right direction. I think there's still stuff to figure out on that end.

And the Cardinals group chat is there a guy that's like complaining, like they're not going to let a shower. And you're like, dude, you don't shower anyway. That was me. I was, well, my big thing was if we go on the road or at home and we got the end of a series, we're just going to hop on the plane, no shower? Like, what? It's a stinky plane, bro.

That is a tough plane ride. For however long, wherever you're going, I mean, if it's, if it's, they know you play in St. Louis, right? That is a hot, hot place to play baseball. Sinty, St. Louis, you know, Milwaukee, you can put the roof over, Chicago gets hot, every, all those places. I mean, but like, you leave a city. and what, you just no shower, get on the plane. I was like, I mean, if that's the case, if we're going to roll up, like, you know, high school college team fully dressed, like, yes, straight, leave the field, hop on the plane

in uni, like, all right, then that's the way it's got to be. But I'm not putting a suit on after a day game getaway. And, like, that's not going to happen. I'll be like, I'm going to wear some shorts and some whatever. But there'd be so many players doing, like, you know, baths in the same. Just like cup in water and do it like fake shit. Like bacteria all over. Sanitizer, I mean.

Yeah, that was the one. You know, you could figure out not showering after games, but not showering and then having to fly. That was the one I was like, I don't know how that's going. Brian Dozier used to. No, Brian Doge used to call that a Mississippi shower. He would just take and get some soap under his armpits, you know, wash his face, done.

You're good to go. So maybe that'll be a new protocol for, for MLB guys. Was he, I saw something that he was doing a, like a wiffleball league in his, or a wiffleball games that he was running. All the kids in their neighborhood,

they had like painted a wiffleball field at the end of the cul-de-sac and they've been doing stuff as all the families had been home on quarantine, so they've been having fun with that. It looks sick. But let's call a spade of spade, okay? Here we go.

Let's just break it down. Let's write it out. MLB has been putting the ball, the players court this entire time, forcing them to make decisions in the public. They sent over a health declaration that was well thought out, probably overkill, but that just goes because they want the players to say, okay, we like it, but let's take off some of these restrictions. Then MLB can say, well, look, it's not really about health. We sent them over a health thing. They wanted it dumbed down. that's what they're doing with the money.

They did it with the health. That is the game that they are playing. How do you counteract that as a union? Like how do you get in front of that? Do you even try? Do you care as a union? What do you mean by like get in front of it or counter it? How do you put the ball in their court as they've been doing to the players so often?

I think with what's going on with the, I don't know. The health thing, I think it's just coming back and, you know, we have questions. we would like this, we'd like more tests. Can we maybe ease up in the club? Like if we are good to, and I understand you want to mitigate risk as much possible, but if we are good to enter the facility, if we are good to enter the facility

and go and play the game, there's little things like, you know, hey, you know, if you're at first and holding a run or run in between pitches, like please just step away, you know, as, you know, once like there's a foul ball or something, just like step away from each other. We're like, if we're good to go and enter the facility and we're good to go play and we're good to go work out, like we should be good to go.

It shouldn't be a, you know, because if you just think like, okay, when basketball comes back, where they can do tell guys, like, you really can't play defense. Like, no touching, no nothing, you got to stay away from each other. Like, it's not going to work. It just doesn't, it doesn't work. So from a hell side, it's, I mean, it's. just like if we're good to go, we're good to go. And then from, I mean, a proposal standpoint, like what I think we're going to come back

with something. I don't know all the details on them. I think it was, you know, more games, you know, playing later, kind of what we talked about in March of like playing later into the, into the year so we can play as many games as possible and, you know, try to do anything to create as much revenue as possible for the game. I mean, you know, at this point, there's no other sports on. We don't know what's going to, we don't know what's going to happen if we find our way back soon will be one of the only things on TV.

You've got millions of people in America wanting to watch something. How has it been working for, like, the Cardinals, like, who are your guys' reps that are kind of in the meetings and then it gets down to you? Is it way now? So, Miller, Andrew Miller. Oh, yeah, he's a huge part of it. He's a huge part of it. He's on our, he's on our, I kind of run through him and Goldie.

him and Paul Goldschman, I kind of run through. And then I've been, I mean, I've been in on the meetings and just having a lot of discussions with them. I don't like to not have, I try to have as much understanding of things as I possibly can. I don't like to be hearing it from somebody else or somebody else. And so, but those two guys are the heads of our team in regards to that. And then, you know, Waino, Yadhi, myself kind of, within that we're in constant communication between all of us. So the actual proposal where they did the sliding scale of pay.

You know, a lot of people, like you don't know for a fact what MLB's intention was, but I think a lot of people have interpreted that as union busting or trying to divide the ranks of the union and split the players up. Was there any preparation from top down like, hey, be ready for this. we need to stay together or when it hits because, you know, Scherzer put out that thing last night. And, you know, I thought it was awesome. Like, good. Union, you know, just took that attempt and kind of had a strong backbone and said,

nah, I get the fuck out of here. We're staying as a unit. But how much was there like, did they, did like the union prepare you guys? Like, hey, they're going to try and do this. I think that, I think in general, you know, from a union standpoint, it's always been, you know, stand strong, stay together. it's not just about you, it's not just about your buddy, it's about everybody in the league and looking out for the best interest of everybody. And that's kind of what went on in March with, when you look at this one, for a guy like myself and other guys, you know, what was it, 65% of the league making a million dollars or less, which the fact that 65% is crazy.

but like 65% league you look at it and be like that's not a bad deal for me like you get you know from what it was you know we agreed like pro rated pay so if it was 50% of games I get 50% of pay and they want to dock it like 10% so I'm not really losing a whole lot more you'd think okay that's great but then you look at you think back to march and you think back to what those guys gave up and they gave up the right to you know to sue for the other half of their salary. rate. And in order so that we, you know, guys like myself, guys like Bellinger, guys like Walker Bueller, we would have a full year service time regardless of what happened. So what next year I could move into arbitration. Next year, Cody Bellinger moves in the second year. Next year, Moogie Betts hits free agency. And guys at the top, we're like, okay, we won't worry about the salary. We'll take what we can get as long as the 65% of the league gets their service time, which was the most important thing. So for guys like myself, I'm like, I can't take this and be like, and be okay with it, knowing what they did early on. I don't even think about that way. Yeah, I got to think about them.

I got to think about those guys being like, you know, even like I told this to Bruny the other day. I was like, look, and I told us to Gold Day. I was like, you guys gave that up. You gave up the right to get the rest of the money that you, you earn for us to move forward with, with our, I can't look at this. I can look at this and make, okay, it's not a bad deal for me, but this other, but the rest of the league who is making that money to, to take that much of a pay cut, it doesn't make sense at all. Yeah, I didn't even put that together.

It's kind of like, you know, they did, they did take a bigger hit for the younger guys then. They really did. They really looked, they looked out for the younger guys. and I was there and like, you know, how can we figure out a way to get service? Like, there was, it was, it was very easy where it could have been. If we don't play this year, those guys don't get service time. And if you guys want to get paid, like, all right, you can, you're going to, whatever it was. But it was very easy, but we weren't going to get service time.

And it was going to kind of be like, well, this sucks. Like, I got to go a whole other year under this and then then try to get an arbitration. And so for them to work out. that deal and get that was huge for a bunch of the younger guys and I think the young guys got to look at it and be like well now we got to look out for the veteran guys who helped us and who have continued to help us along the way yeah that awareness that's what drives the union that's why it's been so strong from an early from your early days as soon as you break into major the baseball as soon as you're on the 40 men roster and you're within the players association

protection it's drilled into you what guys have given up to put you in this position So it's just one of those things where, like, that is the mindset of the union. And Jack expressed it beautifully right there. Like, these guys gave something up for me. I have to do the same thing when it's my turn. That's how unions work and that's how they become successful and strong. And it's been that way for decades. And, like, something like this, you know, as crazy as a time we were kind of going through right now in baseball specifically,

like, it's not enough to divide us or to divide the players. Sometimes I go back and like I say us. I don't mean that. I'm not a player. I'm not in the association. You still. You're still with us. Thank you.

But although many people on Twitter say, call me you're an idiot player. Go play for free or whatever. I'm like, dude, I don't do anything right now. You know what I mean? Like, leave me out of this.

I'm just a mediator. But that's why the union is strong knows because you're able to see what guys have done for you and what you need to do for guys coming up behind you. Yeah. And I think a lot, what kind of hurts is that, you know all the deep like people don't really understand okay well what does this mean like somebody asked me on twitter today well and it was just i don't know if it was a real person or whatever but

was like okay i don't really understand if you're going to play half the games and you're going to take half the salary that makes sense and i was like okay well that does make sense but or if it was like if i was go to work for half the number of days as normal i'd get half the pay i was like okay well now go to work for half the number of days, but instead of taking, you know, half the salary, you're going to get 25% of that. You're working for half of half.

And are you going to go to, like, for the risk that is being taken, like we're at risk, we're at a health risk, everything that's going on. It doesn't really make sense. You know,

there's in other jobs, there's things, you're at hazard pay and kind of working in reverse of that right now with what was, with what, was going on. So just as as players, you know, we want to play. We want to play the game. And I'm freaking losing my mind over here trying to figure out what to do every day.

Working into early June. When, when Scher drops the notes app message yesterday, and I know, you know, you were, you were kind of wanting to come on here and get your message out a little bit. I mean, were you, is there almost like a sigh of relief? Like the players kind of have something out there. What, I guess, what would you have added to your notes app? How many times have you had the notes app open as well ready to fire? It's all up here. It's all up here.

It's all up here. I can't write another. But when he did that, I was like, okay. Now the players are going to, now everybody's going to kind of speak up and just express the fact, like, we want to play. We negotiated what went on before. especially a guy like Max who this is his first year of making like big big money and he says like we took we accepted a pay cut already he took he took a pay cut for guys

like myself to get service time and like a second pay cut doesn't make any sense for from that kind of standpoint but it was just it was good because you know he says and he's glad to hear other players voicing the same viewpoint. And they talks about making all the information public, which I don't know about that. It's not going to happen. There's obviously different views on what would actually happen if we played and played for salary.

And that's kind of been the back and forth issue of what's been going on. Yeah, well, the thing is, don't leak that you're going to try to get a 50-50 revenue split if you don't want to open the books up and show what the freaking revenue is. That was the whole thing is, well, what's revenue? What's revenue? You have to, and that is something that gets, that is something from my understanding that continues to get negotiated and talked about. And you have to have a whole documents on what is defined as revenue to define what is actually being split. Yeah. And that would take forever.

That's a whole off season of negotiations to figure out, okay, what is actually being defined this revenue? And that was like, okay. But it was never even proposed. It was just out there. Like, oh, we're going to do a 50, 50 revenue split. Nothing ever came through. And then it was two weeks later.

And it was like, okay, now we get something. Now we can actually talk and be in discussion a lot more, hopefully to get, you know, to spring training. you know, hopefully 14 days, 12 days, whatever it is. Has anyone been in contact with you or the Cardinals players from the team side? Like, you know, GM owner, like is there any communication? I don't talk to the front office like that. But just to the managers and to our manager and our pitching coach, we talk about, you know,

this last week, like, okay, we're going to start ramping up a little bit, hoping that something is going to happen and we're looking hopefully just one day it's all like that and like, all right, I'm on a plane tomorrow and I can get out of here and I'm in a good spot. I'm in a great spot about how I feel where I'm at. We're ramping up a little bit more. So we talk about, you know, we talk to the guys on a team. We talk to guys around the league, see what they're doing, talk to our pitching coach, like, okay, how can we develop a strategy?

What do we need to do? What do we need to do to make sure, like, when I go back that we're good to go because there's, you know, it's going to be a quick ramp-up period. It's not a full spring training to get ready. And, you know, what are we going to do to make sure that we don't do this too quickly? Have you and Max been developing any new fun pitches? Max's, his stuff is, it's really, really good. I mean, we play catch every day.

I don't really want to get in the box and face him with this stuff that he's working with right now. I'll get a freaking box. You say you want to get in the box? Yeah, you should make a new pitch. Come up with a new pitch every day and just take a video of it and text it to Yaddy and say, got a new pitch. Hey, what do you think about this? Trev really wants to get in the box and he wants a piece of that action.

I told you, I said if you need to be humbled a little bit before you get back to the season, let me know. I'll step in the box and we'll square up. That is something that I would, I would look pathetic. I'd talk a big game right now, but you would just. But that's what you do. You love to talk.

You love to be like, I would get you. And at that point, I would challenge you. I'm like, all right, let's go. You wouldn't throw me. Believe this, I'm coming first pitch ready to have it. I know you. I'm not trying to get behind on you. No, you're trying to hit the first pitch heater.

Yeah, and there's a track record. Don't tell them. Don't tell them. Just say no. Is there? Yeah, we face you. each other in the minor leagues. It doesn't necessarily count, but yeah, I got a hit off of them.

I think I got two hits. Treve would be so ready for the fastball. And if I wanted him to get hurt, I would throw something. No, no, I'd throw a slider and he'd swing as hard as he could. I don't know what would happen. Or you throw something close to me. But I wouldn't get up around the head. That's his money.

That's still his moneymaker, you know. You guys still show the faces once that goes. You know, bruise on the cheek. could go a long way, though, just up the cred. I'm not really confident stepping in the box right now. I know that. But I am willing to do it if you need someone, because I know I'm better than some scrub, you know, whatever.

Who else are going to stand in against you? Well, if you guys get in the same division as the Astros, I can replicate Altovay's body type pretty good. What are you at? I got to grab. What are you going to say, Jake? I was going to say, Greg. question. I was going to say, and if you, I don't know if you want to,

you know, really. You mentioned Trevor's moneymaker. I'm still looking for mine. What, uh, I don't know if you want to flex for the Cardinals fans, uh, or if, or if you got real answers, but if, if you had to throw tomorrow in a, in a real live game, how many bullets do you have? And then let's say if you got the full three week, or not the full three week, but a three-week spring training wrap-up, where do you think you'd be at? I mean, if I had to go tomorrow, I would actually be, I feel like I could get it up and throw three innings. But that's where I feel like I could go.

I mean, next day I'd be hanging for sure. I'd be like, yeah. Because when you add that extra intensity of getting a, you know, real hitter in the box and do that, it just goes up. But a full three weeks, like, I mean, I would love to hope for, you know, opening day, be able to throw six. Okay. That's my hope.

Is that what's going to happen? I don't know. Are you excited? You're excited? You don't have to get in the box with a bat in your hand? No. Are you kidding me?

That's a terrible rule. That rule needs to go away. I know Trev feels otherwise. You're the only one that thinks that. You're just excited you don't have to pitch to pitchers anymore. No. You're upset. You don't have to pitch pitchers.

I want to get in the box. I could care. If we just had our side, I know D.H. And if they want to have a D.H, great. But when I pitch, I want to hit. Tell them. I don't want to, I, I want that D.H.

I want to hit. Who's the guy that benefits the most on the Cardinals? From not having to hit? No, that, no, that gets to hit. Is it going to be, is it going to be Yadi getting some more days off? It would have been Martinez, but they traded him. It would have been Jose. It's probably going to be, Yadi's going to get a couple more days off,

but I think it's going to be our in-field, outfield situation, whatever it is. I don't know who's going to be that DH. It could be O'Neill might DH more, depending on who they put, like, you know, carp's going to be in the lineup. Edmund's going to be in the lineup, Bader, decks. It's kind of who fills in in that spot. You know, it could be carp dhing. It could be Tommy D.Hing.

It could be O'Neill D-Hing. There's a lot of different pieces that are going to go in there, whoever's swinging the bat hot. And that's how a lot of AAL teams have done it for the past few years. They don't have that kind of big poppy D.H. They don't have a real D.H. Yeah, they rotate guys and get extra rest, which is going to be a huge factor if we figure this out.

Yeah, it's extra rest and a sprint. Who was the guy? You came on here and told a story about, was it Carpenter who you guys got a big lead and he was like look we have we'd have enough runs like put someone else better defensively game five that was game five yeah game five it was a legendary game for him I mean he came in had two at bats in the first inning and then it was done that was you pitched that game right I pitched that game yeah he had two at bats in the top of the first we were up 10 nothing and then Tommy came in and played third the rest of the game so it's almost like a win win situation you can have your what he calls a better defense out there and he still gets the hit yeah yeah yeah Got to love that. Carp does a great job over at third. Yeah. For sure.

But being able to have him and Edmund in the lineup as well as O'Neill or Lane or Carlson, I don't know what it's going to look like, but one of those guys in the outfield, it helps for sure. It's going to be interesting. Whoever the eight-hole hitters benefits the most, he's going to see some pitches now. Yeah. I mean, that's the way it is. But I still want to hit. I'm still going to ask him.

be like, look, can we just say no to the DH today? Like, I'm feeling really good. Just let me get a day, you know. No, I don't shake your head. No hitting, no pinch running for my boy J. Flair. Those are, those days are done. I'm fine, no pinch running. That's fine, but I want to hit.

I want to hit. I like, I'm jumping to a dream world where like baseball, players, we figured it out. We got everything right, but Jack Flaherty is still screaming at the door saying, no, we don't want the TH this year. No, dude. I want a hit. I need that to happen. I need to get in the box.

I need that. Do it whenever you're in the hometown, you know. That's what I just, I just told a story on one of the shows about this player, Juan Eichelberger for the Pirates. He was a pitcher and he was playing in San Francisco and he had 106 fans in the stands. was a tie game in the seventh inning two to two and there's a runner on second base and they're going to pinch hit for him and he told the manager he was like dick i got fans here i know my family so

you got to let me hit he steps up to the box and hits the go ahead double he had only one double in his career before 100 so you just got to wait until you got the home crowd there and you got to deliver in front of the home people you give it to give the people what they want put that story in your pocket and then just give it to the manager, you know, like when you need it. I'm going to drop whatever I, whatever I, whatever I can any time, anytime I get a chance, I'm going to be like, look, just remember, I walked with the base was loaded in that inning. That is true. Like, they walked the eight hole in front of me.

Just remember that. I want to put you on the spot. You're going to do it. You wanted to come on this show. you want to kind of have your voice be heard. So what if there's a message that you want to give to the fans, and we know that like Twitter is not a great medium to get your message out, it's just not.

This is a better medium for it because you're able to talk about what you want to talk about. So if there is a message that you want to get out there, what is it? I think what Max will first and foremost that we want to play. We're ready to play. We've been, I mean, I can't speak for everybody in the league, but I would imagine everybody's been working out in training and throwing since just about the day we got back. I mean, I left Florida on March 15th.

And since the day I got back, I mean, we switched up schedules. We went into an off-season program, you know, five days a week, throwing five out of seven days and just now switched it up to two days a week. I mean, I'm not putting, like I haven't been working since I'll be back to November to play this season and to be ready for it and to be healthy. And we want to play. We really just want this game to happen. We want to be healthy. We want to be safe.

We want our families to be safe because it's not just ourselves. It's our families, the people that we're around and that they're going to allow us to be around. So we want to be safe. We want our loved ones to be safe. We want other people's loved ones to be safe. We want something to happen where somebody gets it and then they pass it. to a loved one and who knows what happens, but we want to be safe.

And I think like Max said, just from a principal standpoint, like we came to an agreement, we're going to do whatever we can to figure it out. We're going to do whatever we can to play this year. But I think there's still a point where it does, where it matters, you know, just from a principal standpoint,

like, okay, there's going to be a loss this year regardless, but we're already taking that all. We're taking on the risk. What more do you want? We're going out there. We want to play the game. We're taking on a risk. We're taking on all the health risk.

We're taking on injury risk and all of the normal things that go on in baseball. What more do we got to do? We want to play this game. Let's figure it out. Let's find a way to do it. Whether it's play more games, whether it's play whatever they've sat on 82 games, play a full postseason.

whatever it is, we're just trying to figure it out. I love it. Yeah, it's, yeah. I don't know, I'm trying to, and just like, you know, we want, like obviously the big thing is we got to get through a postseason, and so we're trying to figure out the best way to do it. I think that's the sentiment that a lot of guys have is like, dude, we want to play, but we don't want to be taking advantage of.

We don't want to be taking advantage of. We understand what's going on. We understand the situation. We understand what's gone on the last, five years or so, however much it's been. And the amount of this game has brought in and the situation that, you know, owners are in. We get it, you know, but we understand what went on in March and what we want

to have happened now. And the only thing that was supposed to be figured out was, let's make it healthy enough to play and we can play. Yeah. How it's changed. I think the most common sense, like phrasing when people say like, hey, like you had record revenues last year and salaries didn't go up. So why would the players take the hit when revenues down if we don't get a bump when

revenues up? I mean, if someone drops that and there's a counter argument that makes sense, I'm looking to hear it, but that's just kind of, to me, it's a little bit of just common sense right there. Yeah, that's, I mean, that's doing the big thing of, you know, okay, it's going to be down here. So we got a hurt in it now. I don't, I don't get, I don't really get that part of it. I don't understand.

I'm just not understanding some of what's going on. And like trying to make. Do you want me to tell you so you don't have to say it? Go ahead. There's some greed going on. But they're getting greedy. But they're trying to make trout look bad, coal look bad, sure as they look bad, like for not taking huge pick.

Like those are your best players in the game. It's so stupid. Your mooky bets. like yell it all those guys it's like okay everybody wants to play

and I was like well here's your offer oh you don't want to take it okay well what oh you want more money like it's not all the way healthy yet and you're trying to take advantage of us which doesn't it just doesn't work

well I want yeah I want to find a resolution but I was so happy when shares had dropped that and the union had like a little you know solidarity and backbone and like, hey. And then I loved even more, like the next update was, okay, the union has made their proposal. Because I didn't want you guys to just sit back and wait for the next game for the

manfred to play. So I mean, it's like a game and it's just it's. It is. It feels like this should just be happening so much easier. It should be, you know, it should be us working together instead of going back and forth, like trying to, I don't even know. Yep. Are you ready?

They come to an agreement tomorrow? Okay, Texas has fans. We're playing. You're good to go. Yeah, man. I'm packing my stuff up, hopping on a plane as quickly as I possibly can't, getting out of here and go in. I don't even know if I got a place in wherever we're going.

I don't even know if I got a place there, but we'll figure it out. I'm there. Figure that out when you get there. I'm there. I'll know figure it out. Shoot, man. You say game start tomorrow. Forget spring training.

All right. Give us a week of spring training. I don't even know. No, I'm just playing. playing. We need a little bit of time. We need a little bit of time. You want to play, dude. I love it. That's what everyone, all the ballplayed. They just want to play too, you know, but just don't take advantage of us. Has mom been enjoying having her a little boy home? She's sick of it. She's done. Yeah, she must watch you on TV, bro. She loves, she's enjoying the time. It's the most time my brother, myself and her,

have been around each other. She's always, but she continues to watch like old games from last year because She's like, I can't watch any more TV. Can you guys figure it out so I can watch you play? Then I can watch, you and Yadi figure it out and go shove it up a couple teams. And great having you here. I love you. But come on. Let's go.

And that's a mother speaking. Like, you guys need to let's go. Come on. I agree with your mother that I would love to watch you and Yadi. shoving against some teams very soon. And I feel like we need to end on a slightly higher note. You got any last dance shit you need to get off your chest? I mean, you're a true sports fan.

What else is it? Well, I thought it was very interesting. Well, I think this whole thing that's come out this week of like, you know, it was full of lies and MJ like spun things the way he wanted and then came out and was like, oh, it's going to make me look like a bad guy. There's parts of it that's made him look like he's truly crazy in the way that he went at his teammates, the way that he pushed them. Some people don't understand. Yeah, he was a little bit crazy to him.

But the whole like Isaiah, like I believe, and I'd have to go back and watch how he warded it in the documentary of like, I think it was he didn't, he was like I didn't explicitly say anything. thing about Isaiah, like having Isaiah on the team. And for him, I think he truly believes that, because he was just like, look, you can have him on the team. I just won't be here. I'm going to go and join my, my summer or whatever it is. You can have him on the team. I won't be here, but you can have him. So for him, like, he's still telling his truth. Like, he truly believes he didn't say, no, Isaiah is not on this team. It was like, okay. So however you want to look at it and spin it, he's just like, for him, he's like, I won't be here. Have Isaiah?

Great. I'm out. But you didn't say, no. So however you look at it. I thought it was great. I enjoyed every second of it, not having grown up during that time. You don't watch it? I got to.

I want to, but I just fell behind and I was like, I'm just going to watch it. I'm going to binge it. So I'm excited. I love it. When is that going to happen? I don't. I got plenty of time. You're not going to watch this. What happened?

Of course I'll watch it. Just like give me some time. It's 10 hours long. Dude, you told me to watch Grant. I'm just slowly making my way through that. My goodness, you know. Grant's awesome though. But you can't, I mean, you can't do.

The gummies was bad advice by me. I'll watch the last dance because I want to feel like I know what everyone's talking about. I mean, just for myself, like not having grown up during it, it's it was just very interesting to see it all and hear it from those guys's perspective. Do you think you could have hit 200 in AA? Do you think what? Do you think you could have batted 200 in double a? Yes.

Absolutely. What? Is there any proof? Is there any proof? Yeah. I mean, in a short in a shortened time span, I hit 185 in the big leagues. It's pretty good. And obviously it was not a whole lot of the bats, but I think I could.

could have fit 200. You asked for proof. That's all I needed. I believe it. You're very, you're very athletic. You can figure that out. I've seen it. You're not one of those regular pitchers. I won't put you in that category. Thank you. Ozzie gave me a chance to play shortstop in the big leagues. That's all I, that was all I needed to hear. I don't even have to do it. You're welcome for that. I set that up for you. I appreciate that. That was such a, that was such a moment right there. Yeah. Yeah. So I hope we figure this thing out soon. I'm like looking at the numbers right now

that don't make sense, but yeah, we'll figure it out. Before we leave, give us your percentage, season happening, season not happening. Still 50-50. I think Treb's leaning that way.

I'm leaning more towards, I'm leaning more towards under 50% now. But I do like my theory about the 60 games and they want to just play as the least amount of games as possible. So I go back and forth. They want the playoffs. They want the playoffs to happen. That's where they're big things is.

That's what 60 is. 60 is the least amount of games that they can have full postseason with. So where's that from, Trev? I never saw that. What's that? Where's that number 64 postseason? It's in like the, I don't know if that's in the CBA or some other rulebook.

I'd assume it's in the CBA. I've seen it cited a couple of different times. Yeah, but we want playoffs. They need, well, we as a league need playoffs to happen for everybody's sake. But that's where everything kind of, that's where a lot happens for us is the playoffs. But that's what, you know, in this kind of thing didn't really make sense. We get a X number of dollars bonus for playoffs, but we give up a significant amount more. I don't know.

It didn't really make it didn't really. I mean, that proposal was ridiculous. That proposal was never going to make sense. Because why wouldn't you just take all the postseason money that you're offering and then just put it into the regular season more spread out? Like the only reason they would hand you a sheet with like how they're going to divide money is to divide the players.

And I'm glad it didn't work and the union stayed strong. It made no sense for them to offer it in that manner. Yeah. No, we're all staying together. We're waiting to see how it goes. All we can do is wait right now. That's all we've been doing. All we can do is wait.

And when the call comes, that, hey, we got this thing figured out. All right, cool. Let's strap it up. Let's go. Love it. All right, I'm going to play this outro song here. We appreciate you having to come on whenever you want to come back. You know, we got an open season.

Appreciate you guys. Trev, you've done a great job. You going live anytime soon? Anything you need to hype up? Tomorrow, right? Maybe tomorrow. I don't know. Uh-oh.

I don't have anybody. for it. It's when when things go bad between you know MLB I'm kind of like yeah. Don't give me that free content bro. I know I'm kind of like yeah I don't think so that's what happened it was like it was when it kind of started and I was like yeah this is not happening this way. Hey let him run me get a jeter. yeah no they can just put jeter shit on there. That's how they yeah. Are you going to tune in and watch that? You got that? Yeah. Recorded. Yeah I'm going to watch that right after I watched that. It's literally just it's just 13 games where he played well. That's just what they're running. I don't know. I think that's what they said it was, which like, I mean, I idolized Jeter gone up, but that's not content. It's not Jeter. They're

just playing games. It's just playing it. It's all on YouTube too. Watch it at your own pace. It's all, you could just go look up Jeter highlights and you get more, you'd get way more in, you know, 15 minutes. No, no, no. I'll, I'll be live from 1 a.m. to 5 a.m. for anyone watching the Jeter Marathon. She probably will be I don't doubt it There's four at bats in a game What are they doing It's going to take three hours to show four at bats

He doesn't have any defensive highlights So there we go Oh boy Cut the mics He's just got two of the most Maybe three of the most famous Defensive plays ever Yeah

Yep we'll end on that note It's in the wrong spot Or he's in the right spot Jesus up that.