Talkin' Baseball (MLB Podcast) - 167 | Tests are Taking Too Long and Players are Opting Out

Episode Date: July 6, 2020

MLB is getting the first rounds of testing back and we are seeing more and more positives, with more guys opting out (25:00). The league, however, is also experiencing huge delays in testing that are creating HUGE problems for everyone (4:30). Masahiro Tanaka took a line drive to the head (17:55), the Cleveland Indians are considering a name change (31:00), and Nelson Cruz is losing his entourage (37:55) as the league preps for its schedule release Monday night (44:00). 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 back to talking baseball. We hope you had a great 4th of July. We got test results not coming in. We got practices getting canceled. And we got a lot of news to discuss. What's going on, everybody? Welcome back to Talking Baseball. My name's Jimmy sitting next to me is Jake.

We got Trev coming you from California. July 4th weekend is officially over. It's time to get into some baseball talk. See what we missed out on. There's a lot of stuff going on. Jake, Trev. I hope you guys had a fantastic weekend. I hope you guys are excited to find out that this episode of Talking Baseball is brought to you by Spunky Girl Stitchery.

Kevin King, Stefan Malone, Stephen Milan, Joshua Don. Don, you think it's Doan? Don's kind of funny. Beat Whartonweiler, John Yarberry, and Jamie Jem. A lot of fake sounding names, but those are. our most newest Patreon, so we appreciate the support. Thank you very much. They are chilling, hanging out, watching live during the season. That's a big thing because we go live at 10 a.m. And then it doesn't get the podcast apps until after that. So if you're a Patreon

member, you get to watch it live as it goes for our series recaps. Anyway, Jake, Trev, Jake, how was your 4th of July? Hello, James. Happy 6th of July. It was good, man. I was back in Connecticut CT Repin, bounced all over the state, somehow had noodle with me almost every step of the way. So it was like a nice little package deal, me and my lion just showing up over different parts of the state of Connecticut.

So that was good. You know, kind of got away from the baseball as much as I could, but a lot of this news that we're going to talk about rolling in obviously got to me. And yeah, I'm trying to keep my, July positivity up and I think this is going to be the toughest week. I think, you know, we're going to talk about a lot of guys opting out and a lot of guys getting COVID and it's, you know,

in our little pre-show thing, we did a little bit on, you know, just talking some of the numbers and details coming out and I said the word death rate and any time you mention that, like there's something insane going on in the world. So it's baseball's doing the juggling match. I'm still good. I'm still flying high. And I know Trevor, you're flying over there and you're Russell Wilson jersey. Yeah, I mean, I woke up in a bad mood. But, you know, there are certain things that I can do when I'm in a bad mood that'll bring me out of it. One of them is to put my Russ Wilson jersey on because that guy, all he does is positivity.

Yeah, and he's a Yankee. so you're a I love that he's my favorite NFL player we were just talking we were ranking quarterbacks I have him at number two

behind Patrick Mahomes slightly ahead of Aaron Rogers but I will say this I will say this it's usually this works really well for me I just all of a sudden

become very positive when I put this jersey on it's not having the same effect I have a a good weekend, but a lot of this baseball news, I'm seeing a lot of people on Twitter, and I'm just getting sick of people. So that's kind of where I'm at. I'm excited to discuss baseball and how they've done with the opening up of summer camp.

It hasn't gone that well, obviously. But I think that's to be expected. I'm not letting myself get upset about this or mean. You know, can the season end, sure, but when that happens, it'll happen. through the labor. Like, you know, we have the shirts on the store now. I survive the 2020 labor negotiations. And I'm not putting myself through the ringer again.

So I'm officially happy until it's over. And also, you know, we have a lot of teams, or you're referencing is a lot of teams closing camp today and a lot of problems and people are opting out. I think the Angels, the Astros, the Nationals, the A's, all the teams that start with A closed camp. Angels, Astros. Athletics.

Athletics. Any other A names? Anyway, they all closed camp. Argonauts. They closed camp not because they got negative test results. It's because they got no test results. So they're in a state of limbo. So that's not terrible news.

It's just bad news that how did you not prepare for this? Yeah. What happened? Can I run hot for a second? Have that. Yes. So we had the other breaking news today is that the schedule. is supposed to come out.

And they announced that they're going to be doing a schedule release show, brought to you by Camping World. 6 p.m. MLB Network. It's brought to you by Camping World? I believe so. Shout out. What's Camping World? And it is important that I said that because,

if you'll remember during the labor negotiations, the MLB said they couldn't sell their playoff games. They said, who could we possibly sell our playoff games to? Well, if you can sell a schedule release show, you could sell a playoff game. So that's the first thing I'm running hot on. The second thing I'm running hot on is the fact that they planned a schedule release show, but we still can't get test for the players. They have tests.

We can't get the results. No, that one team couldn't even get tested. The angels, I believe. They said they showed up and nobody was there. And that's, again, everything that was supposed to be discussed over this two months, three months of how we were going to do this properly and safely. And we've, you know, I understand that there's going to be some hiccups in a new process. And, you know, we have people in baseball organizations who now they just have an extra part

of their job is like managing this situation. And that's brutal. I feel for those people. You know, we talked to Vanika a few episodes back. And, you know, a lot of those people involved in front offices are going to have a role in this now that wasn't a part of their job. So I understand that part of the mistake. The tests are going to an MLB facility.

You know, we are supposed to be running this. And that's the part that's getting me. It's not hiccups and mistakes. Somebody did something wrong. I mean, people didn't show up in Anaheim. Two teams are just waiting for results. Yeah, but you never know. Could have been stuck behind a boat at an intersection that fell off the back of the trailer.

That happened to me one time and I was late to work. Seems likely. It seems likely. It was crazy. It was just a boat in the middle of the intersection. It was like, how do you get that back on the trailer? So you don't know what happened. Wasn't it the A's GM or the A's owner that came out? Because he, he like gave a BS press conference and he's like, yeah, you know, we're just kind of wait and see and we're on our toes. And then later that day he came out and he's like, no, this is that we are waiting on MLB. Yeah, he's David Forst. He's the GM of the A's. And like, I love that you're running hot.

Join me on my parade, baby. The hot parade. I'm running so chill. Let's March. Oh, man. All right. That's fine. We need the balance.

We need the balance. I think what you said makes plenty of sense because when you really break it down, you can have as many health and safety protocols as you want. But when you're putting them in the hands of people that have no experience in that field. And just in human hands in general, humans will fuck things up. time to time, you know, especially in something that has this many moving parts. You know, we were so jazzed about getting baseball back. The financial part was the hardest part of the negotiations by far.

And when we figured that out, we're like, you know what? They said the health and safety protocols are in place. We're ready to go. But I think all of us didn't maybe read too far into it or we needed to read more into it. now we're seeing like what happens when you have 30 different teams in 30 different locations trying to set up, you know, two-day testing, getting all the results. Like there's going to be hiccups. And if there's this many hiccups now and they don't fix it quickly, we are running the risk of this season just being completely shut down. And I think this week is going to be a big

week for those opt-outs. We kind of talked about it like, cool, like yeah, we're going to get guys to show up to this spring training 2.0. But if the guys show up and they're like, this is a fucking disaster, they're just going to opt out. Are there still a lot of guys that haven't showed up yet? Well, I mean, they can opt out during. Yeah, yeah, but a lot of them have showed up already.

They showed up. That's what I'm saying. They showed up. They're seeing the protocols and they're seeing how teams are handling it. And I just, I believe this week's going to be a big week for opt-outs because guys are going to be like, this doesn't make any sense. We just had Marcakis right beforehand. But yeah, I don't know.

I'll just wait. I'll wait and see. What if all these, all these test results do come back and it's like 1%. Then that was a lot of worry for nothing. And they should shut down camps until they get the results down. Just fix that process. So I'm putting that aside for now.

It looks shitty that they don't have the right protocols in place. But, you know, MLB, who knows the reasoning. It's uncharted waters for literally everyone. Like to hold MLBs to the fire. like how could you fuck this up? It's like there's no precedent. We didn't know the boat was going to fall off the trailer in the middle of the intersection, you know?

So here's a fun tidbit. Terry Francona said Francisco Lador told him, hey, you need to use some hand sanitizer, Tito. So he handed him some hand sanitizer and Tito rubbed it all over his hands. It was firm grip. Oh my God.

Tito said we almost released him on the spot. Just guys being dudes. And Tito's been using rubbing alcohol, but he hasn't gotten it off yet. So just a great Lindor prank. Just guys. The D-Dor's trying to get out of there. He's trying to go to the twins.

That's funny. Tito liked it. Tito respected the twins. That's funny. Craig Counsel, on the other hand, looks like, you know, he's in the middle of a war and, you know, like those,

like Abraham Lincoln during the war photos. And he's like, I'm not even thinking about, did you see this quote? I mean, he looks so, oh, here it is, here it is. Hold on. I need to see a photo of this. Abraham Lincoln.

Did Abraham Lincoln fight in any wars? No, I meant he was the president during the Civil War. Brewer's manager Craig Counsel said the season is not on my radar right now. Counsel says keeping everyone safe and healthy is the first priority. Look how beat up he looks. He looks worn down. He's got like sleepy hair. Yeah, yeah, it could just be sleepy.

It's like sleeping. But even his posture and stuff, it just looks. like he's not into it. He looks worn out. Looks worn out. Counsel. Counsel, an early early candidate for manager of the year, though.

In the Brewer's first practice, he had all the guys' families on Zoom on the big screen in the Brewer Stadium. That's really cool. Yeah, I knew you'd like that, family man. That's nice. I don't know if I would like that, to be

honestly. It's a little weird. A little weird. Get my wife off the jumbo tron. Well, it's weird if the wives were just watching, but I would hope it was mostly the kids. Families. Where's daddy?

Families. Nah, that's a cool thing. I think council, everyone really respects him. Yeah. We got a lot of other news, Trev. So do we want to do opt-outs and stuff first since we're on there? Then there's some funny stories I got here. You know, a lot of people tested positive.

Yeah? Let's talk about the, the, the text message I sent you. Okay. Let's get the doom and gloom out of the way, because I don't want to talk about that the whole time. I do want to bring that text message up. Like a Band-Aid.

Like a Band-Aid. Just rip it off. Because we do need to be realistic about this. I really, really, really want this season to happen. I know what you guys do, too. Anyone listening to this damn podcast wants the season to happen. But I'm getting text. And I'm going to read it.

I'm going to scare you, and then we'll move on. That's it. Testing, not going well. Teams haven't gotten the results a week later. Players had it who are practicing. That's bad news. Not here, but with other teams. I feel like they could shut it all down soon.

At least that's what we're hearing. That's a scary text. I mean, my response to that is, duh. Did you not think players were going to have it and not, and, and, like, duh. Well, no, because they want. That's part of the risk. Players are going to be practicing with it. Then they're going to find out they had it the next day.

And you'd be like, shit, you were practicing yesterday. And then they're going to lock down. Like, that's the whole situation. To think that that's not going to happen or guys aren't going to test positive means that some of these players went into this training camp like as naive as could possibly be. That was the risk going in, Treve. I think, I think what this guy is trying to say is, you know, they screen, they wanted, they screened everybody. Before you could practice, you had to test negative. And then.

players were practicing who hadn't got their test back again. Like you're continuously being tested. And if you're not getting your test results back, you shouldn't be out there practicing. I understand that. And that's why they shut down the practices today because to stop that from happening to make sure everyone gets the results. So, yeah, you have to rely on organizations to take that process.

If you want to go into the actual nitty-gritty, not if it makes sense. So they're going to get their test results back from a week ago? I agree. Okay, we're free now, go practice. No, dude, you just spent seven days doing stuff. You know what I mean? So, like, if you really think about it, that was a concern this entire time.

So to not understand that, like, of course it's not stick the thing in your brain, find out you don't have it, play three innings, stick the thing in your brain. Like, there was always a delay from taking the test to finding the results. It's not supposed to be a week, but it's not instantaneous. So if players are opting out now, why'd you even play? That was known from the start. Like to think that no one was going to have it. No one was going to test negative after playing a day. Like, obviously.

And maybe that's why it was stupid from the start. But like to write, I understand it's scary. But to be like blindsided by it, obviously that was how this was going to work. It's not instantaneous. It's not spit on a piece of paper. If it turns red, you have it turns green, you don't. I wish it was that way. I agree to, but you know what I'm saying?

Like they went into that knowing all this. Yeah, I agree with that. I think everyone is smart enough to understand that's going to go on, but when you're faced with it, you show up and it's right there. You're like, holy shit. You know, and we could talk about this virus all damn day. I don't want to. I really want to move on from this. But the fact is, yeah, we know that the death rate is low.

But we don't know anything about the long term effects because it hasn't been around that for that. fucking long. So I think that's what a lot of guys are thinking about now. It's like, what are the long-term effects on this? Like, what, what's it going to do to me long-term? And is it fucking worth me being out there? And now they're there. People have been quarantining for months. And now all of a sudden, they're fucking practicing and, you know, they're in locker rooms, trying to be, you know, as distance as possible. But when it's in your face and you're like, fuck, there's players out here with it. Guys are getting tested, positive. We don't know how guys are Like every single person has to follow protocol.

And I think they're seeing these guys up close and personal. You know some of them aren't doing that shit. And when you, when it's right in front of your face, I think it changes your thought process. I 100% agree. And anyone that opts out, like Marcos just opt out after Felix and someone else tested positive. And they're like, hey, I can't do it. Or they opted out after four Braves tests positive.

And you have to make that decision. But we can't act like we're surprised that players are getting it. you know you if you go into camp saying hey if a lot of the teammates get it i'm going to opt out that's totally fine and reasonable but like let's not be like obviously guys are going to get it is what i'm trying to say like that was a risk going into it what's weird is like you know like i personally don't know anybody that's had it besides like the guys that are getting announced now from you know in baseball i know some of them but like in my circle my social circle at home i like don't know anybody so i think when you're like surrounded by that

And you're like, oh, I really don't know anybody that's had it, whatever, whatever. Then you get face-to-face. Like I said, it's just a different, it's a different feeling, man. Yeah. And it's a little scary. Oh, yeah. Like, my, my, Katie found out that, you know, or one of her friends found out that a friend had it and they had been in a hike. It's scary when you actually get hit with that.

Like, oh, shit. You know, we had someone else that we know that had it and were like asymptomatic, asymptomatic. Yeah. So it's just crazy But like yeah The risk has been there from the start I agree with that All right

Let's move on to some more fun talk I say sarcastically Because the first headline I have here Is that Masahiro Tanaka Suffered a mild concussion After being hit in the head by a line drive Which puts it very lightly You got smoked in the brain

By a Stanton line drive But Once I rewatch the tape Jake The sound is bad But the old Dale Dale I was gonna say I got you.

You got it. I've got even more Jakey science. What's the Dale Earnhardt? What does that mean? So it's the Dale Earnhardt effect. As a lot of people know, this is Dale Earnhardt senior died on the racetrack in NASCAR.

And it was, he got hit by a car, his car turned and he went headfirst into the wall. It didn't look like a big accident. You kind of pictured one of those NASCAR accidents where the car goes flying and it hits the ground. But it turns into a whole energy science equation because the energy has to go somewhere. So that was like a direct impact.

Tanaka, the line drive comes back and it pops up his head and shoots off. So that means the baseball still had a lot of energy. If it hit his head and stopped, that means tank just took 112 to the dome. It took a big ricochet, which again, we are starting to get into some guerrilla science. I wouldn't use this in your school books. But no, I do think there is something to that and to the fact that, like, the natural reaction when you try to get your glove up as you move your head back, and it kind of hit his head at that angle,

shot straight up in the air. It goes real high up in the air. It goes crazy high in the air, which, again, looks horrifying, but the energy of the baseball is still going. And I don't know if we're allowed to laugh at it, but the catcher. Do you know what the catcher was, BPD? the catcher just watches the ball like his head just goes like

wow yeah it's kind of funny yeah I love listening to Jake I love listening to you try to explain science you want more science there

was that beautiful anyway that was very very scary if you haven't seen the video it's crazy the Yankees Treb did you see this the Yankees afterwards which is weird but I obliged and I'll explain why the Yankees afterwards

Glaber and Judge came out and said like we think it's sick that this video is being spread on social media You know, that was our teammate almost dying, not good, and all this stuff. But, like, it was shot by Yes Network who was covering practice live. Of course it's going to go out there. I do agree that, like, zooming in on him is kind of weird and stuff like that. But I deleted, I shared the video, and I deleted it after the players came out and said they didn't want it being shared.

And I'll tell you why I did that. I want to be on the player's good side. So. You're just pandering to the players. Yeah. Ding, ding, ding. Yep. Yep.

Well, it's funny is I... You can find the video anywhere else. I saw it happen and I, you know, kind of wanted to see, like, make sure he was okay. I went on Twitter and I noticed that you hadn't put anything out there. And I'm like, well, this is the Yankees fans, Fearless Leader here. So I FaceTimed you. Yep. And I FaceTime a little bit buzz Jim.

I don't know if there's a little bit, a lot of bit. No, I wasn't, bud. I don't really drink. I was just in the sun. Sun drunk. Pretty sure I had one high nooner. Yeah. It was the only thing in the cooler.

But, yeah, I don't know. I mean, it's kind of strange that they did say that. I guess I sort of understand it. But they got to know that like, yeah, the Yankees literally, they own the Yes Network, right? Yeah, like their majority of them. They put it out there. Whatever.

It's like Sinclair. I'm glad he's okay, because that is a scary thing. Yeah. I mean, it's scary, but it's also like, it's scary. I'm glad he's okay. But, you know, if it pushes him back two weeks, that's two starts out of 12. Do you remember when I said, like, these simulated games aren't going to be the same because we're probably going to have guys throwing with screens in front of them.

It's just a whole different vibe. I think teams are trying to avoid that. So, like, they had him out there, no screen. They're trying to simulate games as best they could. I got to think more teams are going to be putting screens up there. Well, they're doing screens now. But, no, it's a freak accident. I think he's still giving him the option.

Given the option. Yeah. It's a freak accident. So, like, you know, you can't practice in bubble wrap. Like, it sucks that it happened. It was terrifying. But, you know, you got to get ready for the game somehow. They're doing an inter-squad game tonight, so we'll see, I'm guessing they're going to go no screen.

Yeah, I know Paxton pitched with an L-screen the next day, but he wasn't using it properly. Yeah, that's what they do. They put it out there just kind of. Yeah. And usually the choice is when you do the live pitching, if they're telling you what pitch is coming, they kind of go through a sequence, they're going to have the screen out there. If you're doing live at bats where the catcher's calling the pitches and you don't know, that's when they'll take the screen away. But some guys just feel way more comfortable with it. Yeah.

It definitely fucks with you. Like it's not the same. Like it doesn't feel like a real thing when you have a screen out there. It's going to be interesting to see how many teams do that. Not to dig up any bad memories, but did you ever get a picture pretty good? Did you hit one? Yeah. You ever get a pitcher?

I did. Nothing like in the head or anything like that in the body. Okay. You were talking about with a Dale Earnhardt effect, that's when I got hit in 2016, I actually broke a rib from a fastball. That's exactly what happened. I mean, I got smoked in the ribs with a fastball, and the ball just landed right at my feet. Yeah. I absorbed all that fucking energy, and I've never been hurt worse by a ball hitting me.

All right, so Tanaka is okay. He's a beautiful man. it's going to be interesting to see for the Yankees because he came to the facility the next day and they labeled it a mild concussion. And just in recent Yankees history, Ellsbury missed some time hitting a wall, or he got a concussion, and then Clint Frazier had the same thing. So again, it's just, it'll be an interesting storyline for the Yankees to see if, you know, everyone's concussions are differently.

Oh, yeah. And how are they going to respond to it? How's Tanaka going to respond to it? I think as of right now, he's planning on making his next throw day. But craziness, you just never know. It feels good. I mean, they're going to keep him out there. Yeah.

If he's just like, I feel good, they're going to go. Yeah. The next thing I have on my sheet of news that I put together this morning. And this is kind of like, you know, Zach Wheeler, I'll just say a tidbit. I don't think we have spent time on this. Zach Wheeler is weighing his options about participating in the 2020 season. Wheeler and his wife expecting a baby in the late July. Now, we saw Price opt out, and Price was supposed to be the third starter for the Dodgers,

but he opts out and I understand it. I get it. I don't care. Price is a good guy. He's done a lot. He's MVP, Cy Young, World Series, all-star. He doesn't need this. And he's still got two years after this.

I heard Price might not get his money. They don't know. Friedman was like, yeah, we don't know if he's getting paid. So he'd lose 12 million. He's making, I think, 64 over the next two years. Yes, but I think for this, the pro-rated and the 30% is like 12 million. That's crazy. I don't think price affects the Dodgers that much.

They have stripling. They have guys they can plug in. If Wheeler does opt out because his wife is expecting a baby, Philly's rotation turns into not a good. So just from a baseball standpoint, Philly's rotation turns not good if Wheeler's not around. And we said that on our team profile and professional. projections back in February.

Like if one of these Philly starters, top two starters go, it's not good. We said that back then, and we said that on the gambling episode. I mean, right now the Phillies rotation has listed on fan graphs is Nola, Wheeler, Areeta, Velasquez, and Eflin. And I mean, hey, Arieta, you know, I hope he bounces back. He's a friend, a friend of the program through Trevor. We haven't exchanged present trees as Jake's yet.

But, you know, Arieta hasn't been the Cy Young Areeta in a couple years now. So having him in your two-slot, if you end up getting a four-five Arieta, I mean, that's going to feed into the bullpen, which feeds into, you know, if Aaron Nola, even if he goes nuts, the other four days, you're just fighting every day in this 30-gamer. I don't think that holds up. Not for nothing. I'm pretty sure Nola tested positive, too.

Nola's a posy test? He's sitting out right now, yeah. He's on the list. Who else was it? It was DD also? I don't know. My internet's not working, so I can't find out. On the Phil's.

Well, the opt-outs, should we just... Read him. The opt-outs we know so far. David Price, Felix Hernandez, Eric Young Jr., Ian Desmond, the Rosses, Joe and Tyson, Mike Leak, Ryan Zimmerman, Wellington Castillo,

Marcaicis opted out this morning, All of those players have made over 40 million in their career, I think, besides Joe Ross. Probably not Wellington Castillo. If he did, that's crazy. Maybe he just got added recently. But I had read at one point it was like everyone besides Joe Ross. I mean, those are definitely, there was an article written about that too, like the haves and the have-nots that's going to determine if you're going to play through this, if you're not. And that's kind of like a microcosm of what's going on in the country as well.

like, you know, people, like lesser income people are more apt to get the virus than wealthy people because wealthy people can afford to be quarantined and poor people need to go to work. Yeah, I mean, remember at the start of the quarantine when like, again, here's a stage of quarantine people forgot. Arnold Schwarzenegger posting hot tub videos with his pet horse or whatever. that was like a phase of the quarantine and it was like yeah Arnold we would love to be quarantining in your life looks pretty tits man yeah um stages of quarantine you know how about Harvard saying that

all courses of instruction will be taught online for 2020 to 2020 21 that's the first big break for schools Harvard Harvard saying that but they're keeping tuition the same exact price so stupid it's fucked up And, you know, not to... With an endowment like they have, too, that's a joke. It's a joke.

The whole world can still kind of change, right? If, like, high school students don't go to college and stuff. Like, we might still be in the tip of the iceberg. I'm excited. I think universities are effed. I love it. Good. The whole college system's fucked up.

I totally agree. If anyone's going to college right now, don't do it. Yeah. Figure out what you want to do. If you want to be a doctor or a lawyer, go to college. If you want to be a college. like just if you don't know or go to a cheap one

do not be stuck paying college what is the term? Go wherever the hottest dudes are. That's what I did. What's the Central Connecticut? What's the stuff I pay every month? Student loans. Don't be stuck with student loans to your 40 like I'm going to be. All from one school too. Money for snacks?

Money for snacks is good. Save up on that. Hitch your boat on the trailer better so you don't make people late to work. Been had snacks. Okay. It's a great video. The Mets are going to go closure by committee. Cool.

At first it said, this headline said the Mets and manager Luis Rojas might opt. And I thought that Luis Ross was opting out of managing the Mets. And I was going to laugh and laugh. But no, he's just saying we're going to go closure by committee with Edwin Dias, Seth Lugo, Delo, Delo, Batanzas, and Familia. So if you're, you know, playing fantasy baseball, that's some. info you can have, and it's probably smart move by him. Hey, welcome to the modern day of baseball

Mets. I mean, very few people have closers anymore. I don't think it's smart to have a closer. That's maybe an unpopular opinion. I want to high, all my best relievers, I don't want them in the ninth inning. I want them at the highest leverage part of the game. Yep. That's my take. Cleveland really kind of introduced everyone to that with Andrew Miller back in 2016.

And teams had done it before, but that was the first time you're like, Oh, yeah, that's their best dude. He's using him then. Speaking of the Indians, Trev, they're having a committee to change their name thinking about it. Yes, long time coming. Should have happened a long time ago. When you change the freaking mascot because it's racist, probably should just change the name at the same time.

Like, that doesn't make any sense. I put a paragraph from the article that I thought was funny. You know, in 2014, they changed from Chief Wahoo to, or they didn't. They changed from their primary logo to just the C, right, away from Chief Wahoo. Two years ago, the Indians announced their intention to ditch Chief Wahoo logo, beginning with the 2019 season. So it took them a year because they probably had stuff made and it was all out there. Last year, the team replaced Chief Wahoo on their uniforms with a guitar-themed All-Star Game patch because they were hosting the All-Star Game. They said that they're going to reveal the new symbol for the 2020 campaign.

that never happened. They elected to delay that decision. So in 2020, the Indians will be one of five teams without a sleeve patch on any of the uniforms without a logo. So it turns out the Cleveland Indians marketing department is just so uncreative. Like they just have the sea, which I like to see. I think it's cool and classic. But they couldn't come up with anything? Like three years.

I mean, there's not a lot going on in Cleveland. I got to be honest with you. I don't mean to offend anybody that lives in Cleveland. I'm just trying to think of, like, what we got. You think they should go back to the... Everyone was going spiders. That's bad. What were they before?

They were Naps for NAP Leisure. They just named it after their star player. I can't see that one. That was what they were before the Indians. I saw a lot of spiders, and I saw there was another homage. Spiders is awful. Yeah, I actually hate the spiders. The web kind of looked cool.

I think you can have some fun with that. A spider itself, yeah. I agree. That's horrible. The spiders? Imagine having to root for a team called the spiders. You want to get... I think the original, like, Cleveland baseball team in the very early 1990s.

It was. Yeah. Well, same with the naps. Pulling it from. Yeah, spider sucks. I hope they don't do that. What do you got? What do you want?

I haven't looked into it. I like the red tails for the Redskins a lot. The mock-up logos are pretty cool. The history there is pretty cool. I know this is talking, you know. Yeah, that was a, I commented on the Redskins in there. They're going to have a discussion to find out if the Redskin is racist, which is huge by them. That's a tough name, bro.

That's huge by them. Yeah, and I know someone, like, and I don't know if it was a kid or who it was, but someone came in in the comments and they'd be like, well, they were like, all right, well, you better be ready for other teams like the Indians and stuff. And I was like, yeah, yep. That's the whole game. That's everything we're doing here. Braves are fine. Chiefs are fine.

Because those are, you know, you're paying respect to their culture. If you do it the right way. Redskins is literally racist. Yeah. And Indians was like a bullshit name that they named them because they thought they landed in India. Yeah. Imagine that. Christopher Columbus is such an idiot, dude.

Oh, my gosh. Yeah. I've been singing that song for a long time saying Columbus Day is so stupid. If anybody ever read the real history of Christopher Columbus, you'd be like, how the fuck is this a national holiday? It doesn't make any sense. Jake's a big Leaf Erickson fan anyway. I really am.

It's, I don't know, man. All right, so here are the top choices. The spiders, I think that's awful. It sounds elementary and very amateurish to me. The Naps is the second one, because that's what they were before the Indians. After Nap Le Geo. Joy. The Joy.

The Cleveland Fellers, after Bob Feller, that's bad. I don't want to be after a player. Yeah, that's weird. Cleveland Rockers, Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Something. It's all right. Rather spiders are rockers. Rockies is tough.

They're like, nah, I can't have that. Yeah, that's too close. Cleveland Crows. Ew. No. Blue socks? No. Something I can't pronounce.

The Great Lakers, no. Spiders is winning. That's what I'm saying. Cleveland Blues. I like that. Changes their whole color. St. Louis. Cinders. I don't know what that is. Hazards. Cleveland Burning River. I think this guy's just making shit up in his article as he goes.

Burning River is something in their history because there's a beer that is made in Cleveland that has something to do with the Burning River as well. But that's a stupid name. Yeah. The Buckeyes were the Cleveland Negro League team, but you'd have to talk to Ohio State about that. but I think they'd be fine with it. Yeah, split merch. Ohio's an oddly proud state, so I think they could figure that out. Now, could they choose a Native American?

So proud, dude. Went to an Ohio wedding, and they just scream OHIO the whole time. I always, maybe this is just because I'm a coastal elite over here. But I always thought Ohio was in the middle of the freaking country. and then you look at the map, it is not in the middle of the country. No. It's very east. I don't know why I just said that, but...

It's like an eight-hour drive from here. What was the Native American tribe that's from Ohio? The Miami. The Miami. Because that's where Miami of Ohio. Cleveland Miami is... Cleveland Miami's. The Cleveland, Miami's.

I think it was originally pronounced Miami, too. the Cleveland Miamis Name it the Tomes spiders or buckeyes I'd have a hard time rooting for a team name the spiders like let's go spiders

just sounds so elementary Do we get some like page rounds in the chat that like have a name because we're not Yeah yeah they're going Seminoles fire Frosties Dude I don't mean

I don't mind the fire Like that's kind of Cleveland Fire Cleveland Rocks is hilarious and awesome, but I just don't think you could do it with the Rockies. Yeah, if the Rockies didn't exist, the Cleveland Rockers would be my number one. I mean, the Cleveland Rocks?

Dude, you could crush a fire logo. Okay. Isn't there a soccer team that is a fire? I think the Chicago Fire. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Cleveland Fire?

And that has a little bit to do with their history? Moving on to my favorite story that has come out recently, Trev. Can't wait to hear your take on this. Nelson Cruz is losing his entourage. And apparently, and I don't know if you know this, Trev, Nelson Cruz travels with like a four-man entourage everywhere he goes. And when teams recruit him for free agency, they understand this. And it's packaged deal. He has one guy named Rodriguez, who does everything from helping Cruz coordinate his

travel and daily schedule to buying his groceries, handling his laundry, and driving him to and from the ballpark. His next guy is as quivel, and he's his public relations manager, handles all of the media requests. Then there's Silverado, the cook, who communicates with the twins nutritionists, and the team even had one of his recipes in their dining area. And I think there was one more, but that's the three I have in the notes here. And the staff simplifies Cruz's life to the point where, as he puts it, you only have to focus on playing the game. You say this is how he can take naps before games and feel relaxed. He's not going to have his entourage now, and people may be worried.

Is Nelson going to be able to drive himself to the park, feed himself, and understand when the game starts? Were you ever teammates with Nelson? I was not. I do know him. Not extremely well, but from all accounts, you know, everyone that plays with them is a big Nelson Cruz fan. I sort of don't believe this. Like maybe he said this publicly, but I got to believe there's going to be people with him

still doing those things. Oh, I didn't know what part you didn't believe. Yeah, when you're that accustomed to the routine, like I think he's probably going to have. Like what, like why would he stop having those people around? Like they're just there for him. Like, why can't they just quarantine along with them? Well, there's the tiers, you know? There's Tier 1 employees, tier 2 employees, all that.

And they're tier zero. Yeah, I guess you're saying, like, traveling with them on the road and stuff, that would be difficult. I don't think they, like, go on the planes and shit like that. I mean, to my knowledge, that's definitely not happening, but... The article made it sound like they're with them all the time. I just think it was hilarious concept. Like, oh, no, Nelson doesn't have his entourage.

I think a lot of people do that. Maybe not to that extent for people, but the laundry, the chef, all that stuff. Like, that's what the guy in the clubhouse. Yeah, I mean, I've never seen like an entourage stick around in the clubhouse all day long, which I don't know if this is true or not. I guess I could just ask some people, but, you know. Oh, yeah.

I don't really have a take on this. Like, yeah, I mean, they shouldn't be in the clubhouse. but I doubt that he just threw him to the wind. They're probably just at his house doing all the same things. I mean, I'll tell you what did happen. Nelson Cruz got a bigger fan today in me. Because that's how you live, baby. Yeah.

I mean, what's funny is a lot of this stuff, like I never did any of this stuff either, but I didn't have an entourage. Like my laundry, well, specifically, I would do my laundry, like easy stuff like that, but like dry cleaning you bring to the field, one of the clubbies does it. you know, like food.

Like, I rarely cook for myself during the season because you're never at home to cook for yourself. Like, maybe you make breakfast. That's it. I think his ticket to it the next level. But this is like a, it's funny, but it's like kind of like a non. I think it's funny that they wrote an article about it. Like we're worried. It's pretty funny.

He is a napper, though. He's a napper. I do know that. I love Napper. We asked the Yankees, who was the team Napper. They said they didn't have one, which sucks. Yeah. It's our biggest concern for them heading into 2020.

One of the first things I would do in a clubhouse is, like, find the area that was quiet. Like, you know, a lot of places have, like, team lounges now, but those aren't quiet. Like, sometimes you just need some fucking space, dude. Where'd you go? Depends where I was at. I'll give you Yankee Stadium. Sure. So they have a regular-sized clubhouse.

They have a player's lounge. They have a nice dining area, weight room, all that stuff, obviously. But there's one particular spot that I would go, and it was, like, where they kept all the excess, like, food and drink. And there was, like, refrigerators there. You could just go in there and sit down and, like, not have people around you. And that was really nice. So you always try to find a place like that. Target Field had a little auxiliary meeting room.

And I'd go in there. I'd lock the door and I shut the lights off. And I would just sit there. And then you just hope the other guys don't find your space because it'd be sometimes you'd walk in, somebody's already in there. And it would be, it wasn't. You didn't want that to happen.

Yeah. I beat you there. Me and Ricky in Alaska fought over that a lot. Ooh. But I just gave it. it's old Rick. Some big years with the Florida fishies, Ricky Nalasco. You guys would love him.

I'd like to. What was the question? You got anything else? You're excited for the schedule release? I'm so excited for the schedule release. More for our lives than actual Yankee fandom. It's about to be a crazy 10 weeks if it happens. I'm excited.

I really want this baseball season to happen. I really do. Like just seeing some of these guys, like, show back up and get on the field. it's like pretty awesome to see because we've been just like starved for some sports, you know? So I am excited for it. As dumb as that may seem.

What's like, I don't, we already kind of know who's playing who. It's just like what time's like what part of the season, like what the last 10 games are going to be freaking nuts. So that's the schedule. That's the part I'm looking forward to. We don't know exactly who's playing who.

It's the jump of over and. analyzing. I mean, you know, if the Yankees open up with, you know, the Nationals, the Orioles, and the Marlins, you know, we're going to be saying here like, okay, we need, you know, we got to be four games over 500. I mean, it's over analysis. You could do a little bit of like, you know, at the same time, if let's, I'll get away from my Yankees. I don't need to be Yankee centric. Let's say it's the Chicago Cubs and they finish with, you know, St. Louis. And they finish. And they finish. with, you know, the twins and the Indians, it's going to be like, hey, you know, they better be in a good spot before then because they've got nasty games down the stretch.

And I guess a little bit looking into off days and stuff like that or just like, what's different about the schedule this year? Yeah, I mean, for me, I'm looking at how many Sunday night games do the Yankees have because we record after series ends and how many day games do they have? Because that changes our entire day over here. John Boy Media and that stuff. But I mean, you should be looking at you should be looking at where

the interleague, you know, if I was trying to if someone was like, what should I be looking at if they're a fan of the Indians? Look at where the National League games are and if they're spread out because in my opinion, you don't want

those cramped up. If you cramp them up, cramp them up the beginning of the season when they're going 30-man rosters and have all the games against your rival. Like if I'm a twins fan, I want to play the Indians and the White Sox at the end of the season when you have 26 man and you're in flow

and you're limited. And I want all the games against the Reds and the Cubs and the Brewers at the beginning of the season when you're going through growing pains and figuring this out. So that's kind of like I'm hoping that the Yankees don't end

or in the middle, like a lot of the Marlins Phillies in late September. Who is like the best case scenario, not for actual wins, but like as a fan and for eyes to be on the sport, who's the best opponent for New York that last week? Is it like as simple as saying the raise? Yeah, I think for the sport you want elimination and playoff berths or, you know, wild car You want teams trying their absolute hardest.

But then again, you could have the Yankees versus a National League team, and they're both on the brink. Yeah, I mean, call me stupid. I still go Yankees Red Sox. I don't know how good this Red Sox team is going to be this year, but I know when those team lock up and something is on the line, which guess what? This 60 game season is going to be so tight that, you know,

don't be shocked if the Red Sox have a swing at a wild card in the last series. Don't be shocked if the Yankees could lose home field to the game. the race. So I think it just comes back to traditional rivalries. But at the same time, you know, if they end with four games with the race, I would guarantee the season comes down to that, which would be awesome and completely horrifying. I watched this highlight clip that they put, the rays put out on their Twitter feed. I think it was Nick Anderson. He is filthy. Dirty. Like he's made my raise. Like I was feeling good about the rays. And I was Your race!

Whoa! I love that. I did have a thought off topic, but I think it's funny, and I think maybe we should even do a Jakey video. Oh, no. Viral video, Jake, that's what they call you. Yeah, viral Jake. Viral Jake.

Different reasons, pre-COV. Virus, Jake. Cyrus, the virus. I was thinking about when these teams clinch, Yeah. What the fuck you're going to do? You're going to stand around and just look at each other. It's like, good job.

Just going to do a bunch of Fortnite dances. You win the World Series. Oh, you're touching. You're touching. World Series, it's over. What are they going to do? Suspend you? I'm touching everyone at the World Series.

But they might be just still scared for themselves. Sure. Like champagne beer showers? Are those over socially distanced champagne showers? When you get to like 20-30? and YouTube has a compilation of like last outs from the World Series and they're all dog piles and celebrations. And in 2020, it's just them like wave into each other.

Just screaming at a distance. Yeah. Yeah. You know like that Spider-Man? Yeah, what was that? What was that? And they're like standing apart each, the Spider-Man meme, they're like pointing at each other from like,

it's going to be the same thing. Like, what a wild, what a wild season this is going to be. And that's, I think this is. is the positive spin and the negative spin that's looming over all this. Like, you know, the news from the past couple days and this upcoming week, in theory, should be the worst of it. Like, they should be getting through the testing kinks. And, you know, guys should be opting out. And, you know, they have every right too. And, you know, in theory after this week, you know, there should be a slighter's more sense of normalcy. Like, there's still going to be a couple COVIDs, maybe even

a couple guys that are just like tapping out or whatever. But in theory, this, should be the worst of it. And I hope, because it did get a little scary there. And you do have these moments of like, God damn it. We can't even get the tests right. I'm giving them an okay on that.

I mean, it's a unprecedented time. So like they're testing people in a different way than the rest of the country's testing people because they have like newer testing where they're just spinning. They're not doing the brain swap. So if they don't figure it out by next week, week. We got issues.

Now we got issues. I'm sure right now. I think everything's fine. Do you hear that some Angels players did their own test? I did hear that. Well, that's how my sister went to, and she had to do it herself, put it up her own nose. It's just funny to think about that. Want to play baseball so bad, they spit in their own cups, taped them up,

and got them ready to go. I feel like there's so much to talk about. And I'm looking right now, we're sitting at right about an hour. I can talk for three hours today. What else is on your chest? Just let it rip. One more. We got tidbits.

Open up your heart right now. Schedule. We have a voicemail episode coming up. We got a lot of good voicemails, but we're going to, if you have more, the theme is, call in and let us know a storyline on your team that we're not aware of. Don't get it twisted. You guys know your team better than we know your team. So let us know what we need to be looking out for. Best dinner you've had with Ricky Nalasco.

Ooh. Ricky was a very generous. Very generous guy. I think... Nice. Big app. God, best dinner? I don't know, man.

Or anything else you have on your chest. You said you could go for three hours. I just thought it was mostly going to be Ricky Nalasko focused. It did seem that way. I remember... I remember Ricky when we were out... Actually, we were out in Minnesota. And we were at this club.

He was doing the whole bottle thing. Yup. You know, it sounds dushy. But when you're, it's so fun. Oh, yeah. It's so freaking fun. So anybody that says otherwise, get out of here. Anyways, I always remember this.

You know, Bill comes. It's a lot. You know, whatever it is. And I'm like, you know, I've made some coin. Let me pitch in, man. Like, you don't always have to pay for me. And he's like, look, he goes, all I want for you to do is when you're in my position is to take care of the younger guys. that's it and took his card put it down pay for the night i never forget it and i always

try to do that and i just love that's so it's not a great story but i will remember that always that's good on rickin alasco and i think um i i've only been at one event where we went like bottles on bottles and it really was a cool feeling it was it was it was it was at a it was at a nightclub in Tulsa. We did it in Santa Barbara. But that wasn't like bottles on bottles. That was like we were nervous about the bill. Yeah. Like we were just letting it rip because they were doing like bottles of champagne for 30 bucks. So we said, all right, let's pretend to be big dig swingers for a night.

And we just, we had the hand signals going, you do feel cool. It is dushy, but you feel cool. It's really dushy. I mean, it's fun. I mean, you got to do like, yeah, Chicago, New York, L.A., Vegas, those are like. man good times shout out pretty ricky and we will be talking about the schedule soon as soon as that gets released tonight we'll talk about that so we got a lot of stuff to talk about

on the coming days we're excited save it we'll have a question have we sent bill over to new jersey to place our bets no but I can do it this weekend we just I should have done it last weekend you just need to have a computer in New Jersey really and what do you just hook up to a site it just read your IP When you go to it. Yeah.

I had a buddy call me once. You like like the casino website? Yeah. Yeah, each of them kind of have their own thing. I had a buddy call me once to place a bet for him. And I was like, I haven't talked to you in forever. What's going on? Had a hunch, man.

I got set up with a, can I even say this online? Who cares? You said you were going to call your agent and ask, man. What's the deal? Allegedly, I got set up with a book. Okay. But as I went to the prop bet section, they didn't have all the Bavada stuff. So I'm going to have to rely on somebody to do this for me.

Yeah. Well, I'll be your book. We might have, yeah, we might have some gambling stuff on the horizon that everyone can sign up for. So spoiler. Spoiler, boom. All right. I think we're good. Covered everything we need to cover.

We'll be back on Wednesday with little... Schedule? A little schedule. Trevor's tidbits. There will be probably more news before then. Whatever else Trevor wanted to talk about for two hours. Yeah. Thank you guys very much.

More working in Alaska stories. Goodbye. The music's playing now. See you later. Enjoy it. BDT and BDR. Jay sucks.