Talkin' Baseball (MLB Podcast) - 249 | Big Names Get Let Go

Episode Date: December 3, 2020

Some big names got let go by their teams on Wednesday night, including Kyle Schwarber, Eddie Rosario, and Archie Bradley. Jomboy, Jake, & Plouffe run through the names that change the free-agent landscape the most as well as Trevor May's two-year deal with the Mets and the Jose Iglesias trade to the Angels! The guys also announce the Jomboy Media Winter Meetings on December 10! 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.

Hello and welcome to talking baseball. A lot of teams got rid of a lot of players because they don't want to spend any money on them. And we're going to discuss that. Hello and welcome to talking baseball. Thank you very much for joining us today. My name is Jimmy Jake's there. Treb's there. Producer Bugbugs there.

Music end. We got some stuff to discuss. The free agent pool got larger. We thank you for joining us. Jake, who are you most excited to have listened to this episode today? I'm excited to have Eddie Rosario listen. Okay. Trev, who are you most excited to have listened to the episode today?

Jess Story Ellie. I'm gonna knock you out. Now Jess has to listen. Her nightmare. Yeah, Jess is not listening to the podcast. She hates everything I do. Who are you most excited for Jim? BPD.

Wow. BVD. He's the only one that gets a live, live, live. Who are you most excited to hear this podcast? Yes. Oh. Is that the answer? Oh, guy he knows named Dahl.

Tim the Toolman. Zach. Zach has busy. He did that. Don't talk about Zach like that. We'll not have that Zach slander. Okay. All right.

And we got the first order of business out of the way. Trev. How you doing, man? People like when you wear the white hoodie. Yeah. Not a commenter. It's like white hoodie treads the best dress. It's like a virgin robe.

I've been watching a little bit of the crown with my wife, which is a horrible show. For me, it's not my type of thing. It's like a history book acted out. So I fully understand when people don't like it, but I like it. It's okay. The acting is actually really good. But then I heard that, like, in real life, Princess Diana, Her, like, mistress problem, Camille, Camilla, whatever her name is.

She wore white to their wedding. How fucked up is that? That is messed up. Can't wear white to somebody else's wedding. Can't do that. Yeah, that's kind of... I feel in this. I feel very, like, mischievous.

Dirty, even though it's white. That's always a really exciting moment when someone else shows up to a wedding and they're wearing white and you're like, yo. You kind of can't. Can't do that. Has that happened to you? Like, have you seen that in person? Yeah.

I mean, Jimmy's the Wedding King, so I'll kick it to him. But yeah, I mean, I know one I felt bad for because she was foreign and like from where she's from, them ain't the rules. So like I felt bad because you know everyone else is like that's a nightmare. But yeah, that's tough. Yeah. Yeah, wedding guess is always funny. Trev, you're from California. So it's when I moved to.

California, I was very shocked at how bad weddings are out there. No one has fun. It's like a dinner party. Really? Yeah. California weddings? No one dances until you finish dessert. It's fucking weird.

It's like a two-hour dinner party. On the East Coast? Yeah. You do the ceremony. You fucking dance. Then they put the food down and the DJ's like, please go back to your tables to eat. And no one listens. They're like, please go back to your table to eat.

Then you eat. then you get back up, you dance, and they're like, dessert's at your tables, please go back. California for the first three hours, you just sit, it's like a quiet dinner party.

They're so boring. And then at the end, they're like, now the dance floor is open. Turn up. Yeah. I don't know. I haven't had that experience

with the weddings, but I mean, look, you are the expert. I think really all that matters is, like we had like a two-hour cocktail thing before dinner. That's what gets the people going. You got to grease it up a little.

Yeah. Yeah, cocktail hours are good. But in California, There's no dress codes either. So you'll always have a guy in the back with shorts, like a golf polo, and a cowboy hat. Every wedding I don't know what weddings you're going to. I've never seen anyone show up the shorts to a wedding.

Or, well, I mean, summer weddings. North California weddings. Yeah. But like a cowboy hat and like very not dressed up at all. Where in the East Coast is like prom. Everyone dresses up like way too much. I don't know the South. We had a belly dancer at my wedding.

That's fine. I don't know. My beautiful Egyptian flower is Egyptian. Big time wedding culture. Zillion people came. Everyone was dancing. Egyptians know how to party. So maybe it's just like the stuffy kind of like,

I don't want to say white people, but maybe the stuffy white people, you know. You know, you know, that a party? Jewish people. I told BPD this.

Yeah. If I ever get to a Jewish wedding, I was like, hell yeah. This is going to be fun. Catholic's boring full of guilt. Yeah. My mom gets so upset when I said.

I think I've shared this before. Stop sharing Catholic weddings are boring. They are. They are boring. Statistically, they're very boring. They're just like, inviting someone to a Catholic ceremony is maybe the rudest thing you can do. Nobody wants to do that.

Even the bride and groom, when I film them, they're like, let's just get to solve it. It's like, nobody wants to do that. But anyway, a lot of players got non-tendered the other day. And the free agency pool for some positions has drastically changed. Specifically, corner outfield and reliever market just got like flooded with more bodies that teams can now go after. And these players that got non-tendered kind of have like a cap where everybody's like, well, we're not going to pay. that because we all already decided he's not worth that.

So the whole situation is kind of messed up by MLB and they need to fix it. But it is where we are. So we will discuss it. Treve, you got non-tendered. You told us a little bit about it when we did tender and tough last episode. Is this a tough day? Like, do you follow Twitter? And it's just like every second non-tender, non-tendered?

Pretty bizarre. As a player, I mean, look, if you get tender to contract, you kind of know what you're going to make. And that's always a good thing in the offseason when you're going through arbitration. I remember getting non-tendered and being like, I don't know, maybe I have to settle for a minor league deal. Like I didn't know anything. I didn't know what was going to happen.

So the uncertainty of it is really tough. But it's also the first time it happens. It's a little, it's exciting because you get to finally choose your team. Like typically, you know, you're in an organization and you're just there until something like this happened. So that was like an exciting part of it. But the uncertainty I think is is tough on guys. Because you got to do you got to when you're a free agent, you know, yes, you got to pick your team. But like there's so many other things that go along with that. Where am I going to be in spring training? Do I have a house in spring training? You know, where

are we going to live? All this stuff is, you know, it's not just the baseball part of it. It's the off the field stuff too that makes it, uh, the uncertainty makes tough. And we have a couple guys on the list that we're going to talk about, where I think it hits even harder because they haven't bounced around yet. Like, so, you know, they had your experience trap where they were signed by a team. They went up. You know, you got Al Mora who spent his whole major league career with the Cubs, same with Schwerber. You got Dahl with the Rockies, even though I think the Rockies suck anyway. Rosario. And Rosario, those are the guys where it's like, that probably sucks for them. Yeah. Yeah, I mean, you're probably trying to spin it. I mean, you know, Eddie,

Rosario is the free agent, and I hope he does well. He's the one that's really stuck out for me. I mean, we talked about it. And our whole conversation around it last episode was really good. We didn't peg all of them perfectly, but, you know, I mean, with Schwabber, you know, we felt kind of this Cubs thing coming along, and they're going to be making a lot of changes. And we, you know, at some point the first ball had to drop it. It kind of felt like Schwabor, and you get it.

Like, he wasn't that good last year. He's been looking for a position his whole life. There's some platoon stuff there, and it's, you know, it's baseball nowadays. I mean, at the same time, I think I said I thought they'd keep him because he's, you know, this weird season removed from a 38 bomb season. So there's part of it that doesn't feel right. The thing for me is just like Eddie Rosario, man, he has been a part of this Twinsorg for over a decade, if you include minor league stuff.

He's been on the professional roster since, let me see, since 2015. and, you know, I get it. And this is where analytics and regular baseball fans always find out. You know, I posted, I was mad about the Ed of Rosario thing. And I'm like, well, you know, you can get more value. And I get it, man. And we'll talk about the Trevor May money, and you can spend your money on pitching. And they've got these young outfielders that they should be able to contribute as much.

But it's what we want baseball to be as a sport. And, you know, we won't do the whole baseball as broken thing. but it shouldn't come down to the twins and Eddie Rosario looking at each other in a room. I mean, they're not actually doing that. But saying, Eddie, we love you. It's been fun, but you're not worth this $9 million that we've had you trapped under our roof for. It's just terrible. And it's not, you know, we were, me and BPD were thinking about the kids earlier.

And, you know, try explaining to the 12-year-old kid that loves Kyle Schwerber, Eddie Rosario, that, oh, did they trade them? Are you getting prospects, back? Did they hit free agency? What happened? Oh, well, they got non-tendered because they just wanted to pay him like a million dollars less. And it's like it's just not good for the sport. So, and, you know, I could do a whole thing about Eddie Rizaro.

I get the analytics. I get he's not special defensively anymore. The guy is a rock in the middle of the lineup. He's going to give you an 800 OPS. He's batted two through six for different twins teams for the past five years, really good hitting twins teams. He's a constant threat. He gives you good at bat.

and, you know, some of those things, analytics still don't rack up to the point that he's for one year, $9 million, the twins didn't want to do it. And hey, maybe that organization is moving on with a lot of things. They've kind of been sitting in this same area for a couple years and maybe Nelson Cruz,

maybe Rosario, maybe this is a bigger turning of the page. It just rubs me the wrong way that this is how it ends. I mean, I agree. I think Eddie's situation is a little different than that. I don't think it was strictly a lot. money thing because there are times where you have someone ready like we talked about last time and Alex Kirolov coming up they think he's ready and you know you got to open the door somehow um that could be a reason that being said if Eddie Rosari was going to make five million this year

they probably tender him um instead of the whatever nine he was projected so I I love it you know he may not be worth nine million in your analytics analytical like projections for next year but the guy puts asses in the seats. I'm sorry, he does, man. That outfield sells tickets. Kepler, Buckson, Rosario. That is like, you can market the crap out of those guys. And now they're getting rid of Eddie.

So, you know, he'll land somewhere. I think the Marlins, I have a feeling like they could be in on him, someone like that. He'll get a chance to play every day somewhere. And that's kind of all you want. If you're non-tendered, you just want to have a job somewhere. he'll land on his feet for sure. Same with Schwerber.

Shoreber's very interesting. And MLB's in such a state of disarray on this D.H. nonsense. Like, I don't expect Schwerber to sign till late spring training because he should wait. I mean, his agency knows this, until they announce there's going to be a D.H. in a 2021 season or not. Because if they announce it, if he signs with an AL team on February 10th, and then spring training starts February 18th for every team.

And everyone reports and they're like, you know what, we're getting underway. We need to resolve this. There will be a DH across both leagues this season. Well, there's 15 teams that could have been in the bidding for Schwerber that probably weren't. So I expect him to wait it out as long as possible, right? It makes no sense to sign.

You double the amount of teams that would be interested in you. I don't think if there's no DH, no national team's really going to give a definitely not a multi-year deal or any deal, I would guess. Well, that's not happening? Are they talking about announcing it before spring training? I figured they'd wait and have it as a bargaining chip. in the off season of 2020.

They haven't announced anything, and there's, like there's so much discussion around it, but there's no timeline that, you know, winter meetings are coming up for baseball that's a weird winter meetings this year. You might want to check out some John Boy winter meetings.

Look out for that coming up. But, Jimmy, everything you said, the other side of that is kind of what we just talked about, the other side of baseball players. It's having that security, knowing where you're going. So if you're Adam Duval, and let's say you get a contract offer

from the oral. It's one year, $8 million. You were nice last year, Adam, go rake again. But do I want to play with the Orioles? Am I going to get a better contract later? Or am I going to be sitting here late February? And now I'm looking at one year $3 million offers. It's a scary proposition.

Like free agency, we talk about the big dudes who are going to get paid, paid. And that's exciting for Real Mudo and those guys. But that middle class continues to kind of go back where we were two, three years ago, where it was like, are guys going to get signed? I don't know. I don't either. It's a big glooming question they need to address, and they're not going to address it because the league is going to try and do the same thing they did before last season and try to snake it in.

I mean, they announced expanded playoffs the day. That's crazy. Of opening day with the Yanks Nats kicked off the 2020 season. Like they announced like four hours before that pitch. they announced the no-off days in the postseason. So everything that people could have planned for, they didn't announce in time they could plan for. So maybe they can't wait it out because MLB is not going to do it until, you know,

they're going to use a bargaining chip forever about the DH. But if you want to sign shorter for multiple years, then NHL team should still be in because it's going to, 2022, there will be no DH. That'll be very easy. the players union just wants to use it as a bargain trip in the CBA and not give away, give it away earlier, which I agree with. So Schwerver's interesting.

He's linked to the Yankees because of the short porch and because Cashman has tried to trade for him before. So, and obviously we live in Yankees world, so there could be another team out there that also has a ton of articles about being linked to trying to get him and all that. But it'll be interesting to see where he lands. Duval. There's a lot of, there's a lot of good out.

Outfielders now. Duval, Rosario, Schwarber, that kind of just opened up that whole market for outfielders. I mean, and then our guy David Dahl, who's been on the show, been on sequence. He had a rough year in Colorado. And just get out of Colorado. That's my advice for every player. Just get out of there. And go to a team that operates nicely or nicer.

Sure. So I think this is a big win for Dahl. I'm actually clapping for him. Good job, dog. Get out of there. You know, yeah, there's, there'll be a bunch of suitors for him as well. I mean,

the guy can hit he's one year removed from an all-star season. The 2020 season is such a crapshoot, man. Some guys relished it. And some guys, I think, just never found their footing. Guys that are used to a routine and a consistent work, probably weren't able to do that this year. So a guy, I think, and that's the, impression I got from Dahl when I had him on sequence was that he's very

detail-oriented, likes his routine, and probably wasn't able to do it as much this year. So I give everybody a pass on 2020. If you're good, great. If you're bad, I don't really consider it a lost year. Dahl's got some weird injury stuff too. I mean, I think he had a weird spleen thing when he was in the minor league. When you put it all together, it's weird. And the other thing I stumbled into is with this weird year, like what if what if David Dahl had just opted out of this season?

Would he still have a contract with the Rockies? Would that be a better situation? Would that be a worse situation? You know, again, you could start going a million ways, and that's where I've really gotten frustrated with this single season, this 60-game analysis. I mean, again, that's normally two months for these guys. It's normally a third of their season.

And now, you know, if Kyle Schwerber is the kind of hitter that could have come back and had another 60 games where he hit 20 bombs. Like that wouldn't surprise us at all. If he got really hot and had two good months, are you kidding me? So it's where it's bizarre, and I hope these,

I genuinely hope these guys make the teams they left feel bad. I hope Schwarber goes to Baltimore first season, hits 45, hits free agency, double birds and says pay me now. I don't think he'd look good at that uniform. You kind of know what type of players you have here. These guys are all been in the league enough. They have a track record.

you kind of know what you're going to get with them. I think Schwarz finds himself in a platoon role somewhere. We talked about that a little bit last time. You talked about Eddie and he's going to give you an 800 OPS. He'll make some fun plays in the outfield. He'll make some bad plays in the outfield. But I think these guys, teams know what they're going to get with these guys. I don't think there's any, like, massive year coming from any of them.

I don't think there's any massive drop-off either. I think it's, you take him for face value, and there's a lot of value. and the guys we've talked about so far, in my opinion. Almora and Jorge and Jose Martinez are the other people in this camp. A little lesser, but in the camp. Jose Martinez ties to the D.H. D.H.

I mean, same with Duval, kind of. Talk about a guy. Yeah, absolutely. I mean, a guy who rakes Almora, it just felt like it's never come together. Maybe the whole change of scenery thing, blah, blah, blah. And yeah, I just did a weird jakey stat research on Rosario because I was trying to quantify what I was really trying to say. I did OPS plus of 114 and 475 games played since 2017.

So that's four seasons, you know, playing most games and having a good OPS plus. There's only 25 guys that have done it, Eddie Rosario's on that list. So just from a fact of being out there consistently being solid, again, I know that doesn't translate perfectly to war, and I'm sure the defense isn't going to improve at this point, but there's value in that. Consistency. Consistency.

You know, he's like, I know a lot about him, so I guess I just keep talking about Eddie. He's one of those guys that could probably benefit from going to somewhere that, you know, had better shifts. Put him in a better position. You could easily up your defensive war if they just kind of put you in the right positions, you know? like if he went to a field with an easier left field to play or whatever it is.

There might be more value in defense because he throws. He's one of the league leaders in outfield assists every single year. How about this? I got one coming off the hip. Eddie Rosario to the White Sox, stays in division, gives the middle finger to the twins, joins a good lineup. They need some more lefties to balance out those big righties. Wow. From the hip.

Padres, the Slam Diego shirt I'm saying around? Eddie's going to have options. Eddie on the white socks would be like, it'd be a show. Would that hurt you a little bit? Oh my God, joining those dudes having so much fun. I'm saying, dude, like he might even automatically be like number one. And Jim, you know, I hate this word.

He might be the number one swag guy if he went there. Because he's had to button it up with the twins. The twins aren't very like swaggy, you know what I mean? But you go to the white socks. like he got the lines. I'm saying cat scratch. He would definitely chain it out. He could go, man.

It's Tony LaRosa's white sucks, though. Yeah, that's true. They're all going to have to shape the heads. I mean, I actually saw a hilarious tweet. They're like, oh, because he like announced his coaching staff. It's actually bald mustache only. Bald mustache only. He said golf polos.

Bald and mustache only. Someone that he announced his coaching staff and someone wrote like, here's a list of interim managers for, you know, halfway through the 20, 21 Cs. And it's so true. Like the guy's not going to make it. It's not going to make it. Sorry.

I got so like, guys, this is, we're in for exciting December and January. No one's come off the board yet. I have like the free agent tracker up. Yeah. It's like Ozuna, LeMay, you Bauer, Cruz, Springer, Real Mudo, D.D.

Colton Wong, Liam, Hendrix, Justin Turner. He should be back with Dodgers. But, you know, Simian. there's a lot of people on this list. It's pretty cool. And the reliever market just got like,

there's a lot of relievers out there now. And I'm mad at the Yankees all over again. For not trading for Archie Bradley at the deadline last year. The Reds traded for Archie Bradley last year. It cost them, I think, what was the number? 500 grand? Maybe, maybe you're the rest of the season. 200 grand and no prospects?

The two borderline prospects. Two borderline prospects. And like money-wise, it was like 500 grand max, I think. And at the time I was saying, but you have to take on him for the next year. You don't. The Reds didn't. Yeah. They non-tendered him.

So, so God damn it, Yankees, we needed relievers. This dude costs 200 grand, 500 grand and no prospects. So he's available. So go get him now. Archie Bradley changes bullpens. he's really good. People were mad at the Reds because they gave up two prospects. They gave up stuff for Archie Bradley and Goodwin from the Angels,

non-tendered both of them. Yeah. None of that makes sense. Yeah. I need, dude, this is the worst thing that baseball does right now. And I think people think it's a good thing. Stop having teams trading for big talent that clearly aren't going to win. It's like, you know,

The Reds traded for Bauer, the Reds traded for Archie Bradley, the Mets traded for Stroman. Like, you guys aren't even in contention. Stop stealing. The Reds thought they were going to be in contention. Yes, because they're delusional. They should go to an arbiter and be like, hey, come to us. Do we have a chance to win the World Series? No.

So then don't steal the top talent. It's bad product. All the top players that can be traded to playoff team should be traded to playoff team so the M&B has a better product. but now no one wants to get anyone in free agency. They want to get people in trades before they're even good because everyone's obsessed with the rebuild instead of the tack on when you're good. So I'm mad.

Archie Bradley's situation has me heated. I don't know about that. I don't know where you're going with this, but. I want lingering teams to stop grabbing talent as if they're real. There's only really five or six teams that can win a World Series right now. Yes, and those should be the teams that trade for big games. Okay Can I tell you guys who just texted me?

Who just is the most random baseball player You just guess the most random baseball player Vanessa Tucker Would have played When I played Got a spit take out of BVD Random player Played when you played

In our division Brandon Inge It's a good one I love Brandon Inge But I like Brandon I just like that his first letter And last name made the word binge Yep, as a binge eater

What are the parameters around this? I'm just going to tell you It's going to take too long No, I have it Just give me the parameters I'll get it first try Someone in our division When I played

Random baseball player Random text He's texting me again Yeah Can't wait Double text See what's this says What's Furlander up to?

It's not Verlander up to Send in you that zucchini More random More random And geromine It's late. Who is it? Billy Butler.

Okay. Yankees great. Country breakfast. Yankees great. Country breakfast. Hey dude, it's Billy Butler. How you've been, my man? It's been a long time.

Look at that. So, let me tell you a story about Billy Butler. I mean, I have so many stories about Billy Butler. Here we go. We played together on a Team USA when we're 16. Oh, that's right. I think I told you guys a story. Yeah.

This dude would ask for my phone number. almost every series. Like he, we would hit BP and he would like come out like early, like before their stretch. He'd come out and talk to me. Every single time he'd like, hey, give me your number. I'll send my number over. I'm like, Billy, we've exchanged numbers now three, four, five times, okay? Like this whole thing isn't working out.

Like I'm not texting you. You're not texting me. He always wanted to have my number. And apparently it was so he could text me in 2020. The time is now. The time is now. Respond and be like, this doesn't Trevor Poof. I should.

Wrong number, Bill. Billy, who? We just fired our Butler. Golly, Billy Butler. I have inappropriate Billy Butler. Good rake, huh? What a hitter. He could hit.

He could hit. He'd be screwed up. He went to the A's, gave him a deal. Might have been. Billy Bean, love Billy Butler. That's a kind of. kind of a funny combination when you really think about it. And Jim, you said this about DHS while we're on Billy Butler.

The other people who are now being weighted out in Free Agency are the right-handed relievers. I heard them talking about this on MLB Network. There's going to be a couple teams that go out and get their guy. They like the Trevor Mays, who, you know, he's got some fastball stuff. The Mets clearly value that because they've got two of the top three fastball guys, whatever it is. But they said there's going to be a handful of teams just waiting to see the trickle down.

which right-handed relievers don't get paid. And then we'll go after them. And we'll all do our February 7th text, one year two mill, and see who caves. So watch out for that. They're all talking about that right now. Like, what are we collectively willing to offer these guys? Yes, I'm speaking of collusion.

I will say, what's the word I should say if I say something like that? Allegedly. No, that's not even the right word. Say allegedly. Or say confirmed at the end. I know they're doing it. And like I said, this is not like a news thing. They've already MLB owners have been caught colluding before.

So this isn't like never happened. So the quote would be MLB teams are allegedly colluding, comma, confirmed. You hear the stories when guys are like, dude, I got no offers. You should see. And then I got four offers all within a week, all for the same exact. exact dollar amount. That shouldn't happen ever. And it does. You should see, I guess, Billy Butler's playing in like a softball league afterwards. You should see the people he's playing with. He feels like the guy that would have one of those highlights where you see you would,

like he would be one of those MLB viral videos for a day where you see one of those guys hit a softball and it never stops traveling. Dude, he, he could hit, man. He has that one highlight where he went yaya and him and it was against the indians him and chris himinez like got into it you probably everyone could look that up it's pretty funny i got a breakdown on that i think you might have yeah jam any final thoughts on that softball team that billy butler looks to be on he looks he's just double everyone else's size he dwarfs them yeah makes them look like a bunch of little girls it almost looks like he's coaching a little girl softball team yeah it does look like it could be seen that.

Yes. So I don't know what he's up to, but. God, he could be a great softball coach. That is so fitting for him. I can't wait to see what. Fast-pitched girl softball. Like,

I just feel like that's... Why do you think he texted you? Why do you think he texts? Yeah, love what you guys are doing. Well, his second text cleared it up. Oh. And you can't share that.

Hey, you got weed? Yeah, maybe. He's like just going through my phone. At the grocery store. Contacts and saw you. I love that. Billy, Billy. Butler on December 3rd just going through his phone.

Hey man. I told you he loves me. So like I could see him being like, oh shoot, I got to text him. I love that. That's awesome. Love that. I don't mean to speak ill of Billy. I like.

Let's get him on, dude. Let's get him on. He had the Danny Valencia, Billy Butler saga where he got punched in the face. Oh, who could forget. Right. Give him some fun stuff in the big. Respond and say, dude, I was just about the text you to come on my podcast. I've been just about to text you for so long.

All right, before we get into whatever the next segment is, we got a little ad and it's for ourselves. On December 10th, a week from today, we will be hosting our own winter meetings. Winter meetings got canceled. It has turned into one of mine and Jake's favorite baseball events. but we don't get to go this year. So we're hosting our own. Can I cut you off? Yeah.

And we're going to start turning winter meetings into one of your favorite events, Jim. Come on to do it. Well, we're just going to do a one-day event. We will be live. Me, Jake, Trev, Bug Bug Bug Dude. From noon till 8 p.m. On the main John Boy Media YouTube channel, eight hour live stream.

Like, we have 10 guests. I'm not going to say who yet. Give them two with a guess. There's some legit players in MLB world. Not literally. Not players. Well, we're not doing players. We're doing mostly media people in the MLB media world.

Passing, good friend of ours has said he'd come on. Passing and Marley Rivera. That's everything we'll give you now. We love Marley, yes. But some big names. So we're excited about it. Big names. Hopefully the technology doesn't crash.

And then it's going to be a lot of fun. Are you guys going to get shit face like you did at the other winter meeting? because the final guest, I'm so scared about being loopy. I'm so scared about being loopy for the final guest at like 7 o'clock. Is he? His name is in so many rap songs that I'm going to get all the lyrics up. Is he more famous than Roblo? Yes.

Yes. Oh my gosh. Most famous guest ever. Yeah. Like universally famous. Wow. I don't know about universally. I told my dad.

American-speaking country is famous. I told Jess and she was impressed. I haven't told my parents yet. I told Jess and she. But they know that I have interacted with him before. Right. All right. Can't wait.

And it's Billy Buckley. Will he like if I wrap? Will he like if I wrap all the lyrics that he's in? Oh, we'll just mute you. Yeah. We'll just mute you. Tell them what's going on. Yeah.

So just December 10th. Put it on your calendar. December. December. What the hell? Like, are you guys going to put a collar shirt on for that? Like, I feel like. When this guest comes on.

Probably wear some John Boy Media merch. Yeah. I need to order some more. You guys. So do I. Send me some or I need to order it. Hey, bug bug, dude, is my,

is my promo code still live? Mm-hmm. To my knowledge. Okay. Okay. All right. September 10th, winter meetings. I think we're going to try and get every guest to just predict.

Like, that's either 20-minute interviewers like, DJ Lemayu. And then we don't ask any questions. We just feed them names. and they have to tell us what teams. Or maybe we tell them Trevor's not going to be on. We start with Trevor blacked out and be like, do you have any Trevor ploof stories?

Yes. And we introduce them. Then we slowly fade Trevor. And he has to just shake yes or no if he likes the story. Okay. So on our program, they'll be able to see Trevor the whole time. No.

No. Okay. It's not like the audience where we could. I'm kind of like a bad boy in the world. We'll have Teddy turn the lights off in your church studio. Yeah, we'll put something over the screen. People are going to be intimidated. coming on.

I am one of the, I am one of the big Jays now. That's true. They won't be intimidated at all. Okay, you're right. I had another stranger. Still mad at Trevor May for not giving me the scoop. He's actually big leagueed me

after I texted him twice. Does he know the scoop? Yeah, it's out. He signed. Yes. I was thinking of Iglesias trade. Oh. If he broke that, that would have been nuts.

All right, let's talk about that. Trevor May. to the Mets. Excited for him? I think it's a good fit. He's made himself into an elite reliever, making some mechanical adjustment. So I think he had some help.

You know, just fine-tuning what he throws. He had good spin on his fastball, so he started to throw it more. You kind of hear that story a lot with guys, like, oh, yeah, I do this well. I should probably just, like, continue to do this. but New York is a great city and market for him. He likes to do a lot of stuff off the field.

He's involved in the video game world, the gaming world. I don't think they call it video games anymore. The gaming world, I think this is a perfect spot for him. He's a guy that's going to relish in the spotlight. And I think there's going to be a huge spotlight on the Mets this year. They're not like the little brother Yankees anymore.

They're, I mean, they've crossed that now. Like, they're not the Yankees, but they're not the little brother. Like, they're going to be. They're hoping. Like, right now, the hope is the stink is being completely eradicated. But we're, we haven't no proof of that yet. Like right now, right now the house is tarped up and they're like, oh, man, they must be fumigating that house, cleaning it up. And then when they take the tarp down, we'll find out if they were good fumigators or not.

We think they're really good right now. Do you think it even matters? I don't even think winning this year matters. I think the fact that they're new ownership. They're changing the... They just don't Mets. Like, it's the PR department as well as the on-the-field stop. Like, let's just see if they can run a smooth season and not grab dumb headlines.

Yeah, I don't know. So far, they've been the best PR-D organization. organization of the office. Uncle Steve's the best. Everyone go tweet at him right now to tell him to come on talking baseball. Because did you see what he did after the non-tender shit? Yeah. That tweets hilarious.

Who's the most interesting player that got non-tendered asking for? He didn't say asking for a friend, but it's really funny. Yeah. It's curious. It's crowdsourcing. What are you guys thinking? I love it. I've got a couple things.

I think the Mets do have to make the playoffs. otherwise all the articles and conversations will be same old Mets, same old Mets, no matter what the season looks like. And by the way, Braves are still really good. So, you know, let's see what the Phillies do, but that division is still really tough. Excited for Trevor May. I mentioned the fastball thing before. Good for him.

Talk about hitting free agency at the right time. He gets a really nice payday for a reliever and everything we've said about these hitters, these platoon outfield D.H. guys. Bad time to be that. Good time to be a reliever with a really good fastball and a really good slider. And he's gotten rid of his curveball. You know, they think there's room for him to get even better. I saw some baseball riders wanted him to go somewhere where he had a chance to close.

Doesn't look like he'll have that on the Mets. You never know what the Mets. But hey, I'll tell you this. I think the other thing it told me, and you guys are, this is going to be weird, but the Mets are going to sign Brad Hand. because they've got a nice little bullpen formant. Edwin Diaz, Trevor May, Familia, Miguel Castro, they made that trade. Delam Batanzas, Robert Gisellman, all solid bullpen guys, all right-handed.

So don't be surprised that the Mets go out and get a lefty reliever. I think Brad Hand is the guy. They got money in the bank. I know teams don't live by the lefty-righty thing anymore, but you still like to have a good lefty. And if they had Brad Hand, that's a bullpen. So that's a little Jake. I'm firing from the hip today. Did they tender mats?

I think they did. I think they left the solution in the pen? Yeah. Can he hump it up? Can he go to the pen and change his repertoire and hump it up a little bit? Because he throws 93, 94, right? He's sitting right around there. Did you say pump it up or hump it up?

Genuine question. Hump. Okay, I thought you did. And I like it. Yeah. Yeah. You know me. I do.

on me. Hey, how do I look? Who are we talking about, Matt's? How do I look in this? Did you change the mats or may when you're talking about velocity? You look good. He was saying maybe Matt's kicks to the bullpen. The starting stuff's over and he can hump it up a little bit.

Hump, hump, hump it up. Matt's pitch mix is stupid. No, it's not. It's not. I take it back. He takes it back. What's he throw? His fastball sits.

94 last year. Yeah. Get that up to 96 and a half in the pen, yeah. He's only throwing a two seamer though, and everyone hates those now. That's what I'm saying. You know, you just tell the guy, let's see what your four seam does at the top of the zone. But his velocity got, his velocity was ticked up in 2020. Good.

Let's go. Matt's to the pen. You're here to hear first. We're so good at. And what did Jake just break, Bradhand to the Mets? Bradhand to the Mets. Okay. Unless they move Mats to the Penn.

They could use two. They could use two, though. I'll report it. I reported it. Jake has reported that. Other things... I'm still looking to break news. I still really want to break one major thing this awesome.

I mean, Archer was in your backyard. You could have broke the Vanessa Tucker stuff. You didn't it? You should get on Archer. You guys are boys. Be like, yeah. Arch is going to give me the scoop. Who else?

Who else? Odo said he'd give you the scoop when he goes to the Blue Jays? Is that going to be funny when I'm like, Chris Archer to wherever? Source. Chris Archer. Yeah. Yes. Yeah.

If you tweet that out, that's really funny. The Big Jays will be a little mad at you, I think, which is good. You like that. That's almost... I name my sources. That's almost so cool. Yeah. For you and Arch.

Yeah. If you do that. I think it bumps both your, like, that's awesome. Yeah. Level. So you need to do that. Okay. If you start saying...

If you say source, Chris Archer just told me that's hilarious. It's really good. But I'm telling you, like, these guys get it really quick. They all pay for people in the organizations to let them know. Yeah, they get it from the other side. That's how they're getting all the scoops. Or from the agency. Like, a lot of times it gets out before the player has a chance to get it out.

Yeah, you need. Dude, I signed with the Texas Rangers a minor league deal. Okay? Mm-hmm. I like, I remember I was at Disneyland when I said, okay, fuck it, let's just go there. What a horrible decision. Should go on some Wild West ride or something?

We were just walking in. I was like, fuck it, let's go. I'm in. Before... Did you like foresee a bunch more Disney trips in your summer? It was already on Twitter. Do you tell a live like I can't do another one of these Disney trips? I'm going back to play baseball.

I love Disneyland, man. Come on. All right. So what happened? Like I said, before I could even tell like my parents or anybody, it was already on Twitter. It's a fucking minor league deal, dude. Who broke it? You're a big name.

I don't know if it was Kenny or somebody like that. Somebody. Interesting, though. I mean, they get it quick. So I'm going to have to really be on these guys. As soon as you decide, you have to tell me. Yeah. Yeah.

Come on, Arch. Yeah. I'm reading the article about when you signed, but it doesn't give credit to anyone for Brits. I mean, we could have a huge Archer episode if he wants to announce it on here. He hates me, though. Him and John Boy squash their beef. I know.

I'm still thinking about how cool those guys were in my backyard. I was telling you guys, I'm wearing my beanie like this. And this is an update for people. You know, we're a big cold tucker pod. Huge. We've been a huge cold tucker pod. He's now A-list. We know that.

I think I'm kind of off-Cotech. Stop it. You want to know why? Because you have this weird, Cali, angsty side to you that thinks No, I still like Kotuck.

I still love Kotuck, but Carson Tuck. I think might even be cooler than that. So he wears his beanie like this. Yeah. And he's like 18, 19, so I'm just trying to be hip.

The whole Tucker family. I am famous too. Carson Tucker is, you follow him on Instagram at like Dookie or something like that. It's an interesting, name, but he is so cool that, like, I'm copying everything he does. Did I DM him?

Yeah, I did. I see what you're saying. Like, Duky Tucker could keep you hip for another 10 years. It's my strategy, dude. It's like I'm sucking, you know, the, the blood, like a vampire sucks the blood to stay alive. Like, I need the young dudes to keep me young. Dude, so there was a big to do about your Rangers reporting, Treff.

Uh-oh. Roto Wire had it first, but no one really cares about them. So they only got one retreat. Not an ad. I don't even know this. I don't think this is the official Roto Wire. So I like Roto Wire, but it's no one follows this account. I don't know what it is.

Okay. But they had it first. Or maybe they didn't, because this is what Ken Rosenthal says. He says that Trevor Plouffe, indeed, is going to the Rangers on a minor league deal. As I reported, then retracted, then Mark Fine San confirmed. So what happened? I remember now.

I mean, I tried to block the whole Rangers thing from my mind. But we, it was reported so fast that, oh my gosh, dude, I am on fire today. You know who just texted me? Cole Tucker watching this, he just texted me. Joe Randa. Oh, Cole Tucker just texted you. As you said, you were off Cole Tucker? This is bad.

He might be saying, don't talk to me ever again. Yeah. What he texts you. I hope he's not saying. Just proposed. He might have told Nessa to hit you up. Oh my gosh. I'm so, I'm back on Coltucker.

Sorry, Duky. He's just checking in on me. So during the course of this podcast, Billy Butler and Coltucker just check in. Which one's cooler? What do you think? Maybe the biggest range. All right, back to my story.

Let's make this about me. If Kotuck and Billy Butler go to breakfast together. Oh, my God. I'd watch. Okay. I'll taste other dudes. I think it would be funny. All right.

Trev, what happened with your signing? I'm curious now. Sorry, sorry. I told you it happened so fast. My agent was pissed because we didn't have a chance to call the other teams that were interested in us and say, thank you for your interest, but we're signing here. So he called Kenny and said, you need to tweet out nothing's official.

And then he did. And then I signed. And then he had to do that tweet. That's fine. And I told him, I said, who cares? It's a minor league deal with the Rangers. But he, you know, he's all about, you know,

my agent was very respectful and wanted to make sure we went through the right process with it. I mean, that's good by your agent, I guess. And nice by Kenny that he retracted. Evan Grant tweeted, hearing from a source that Rangers, Trevor Plouf, are close to finalizing a minor league deal,

would seem curious since Plouf is by trade, a third baseman, and the Rangers have Beltray, Gallo, ProFar, and Alberto. Yeah, I mean, I was strictly... Boy, was he right. I was a backup plan for if Beltray got hurt.

And they lied to me. That's why I have it. You would have raked in Texas, too. I hate them. Now they're the worst run franchise. This kid said, always thought Yang should have checked it on Plu for third base situation.

And he follows me. Carter Hud. You could go. Been a Plu fan, Yanks fan and a Plu fan. And you hate Yankees fans. How about that? I don't hate Yankees fans. You've specifically said,

I don't care for Carter Hud. And he's just been dying to get you on the Yankees since like 2016. I would have crush New York, man. Oh, my goodness. Yeah, but you didn't have the personality Chase Headley offered. Yeah. No, I did. Oh, hell, though.

So many. I would only imagine, I would love to be able to go back in time, go to New York, just to see what you two idiots would have said about me. Oh, God, it'd be ugly. Yeah, it's kind of my- What is this guy doing? You know, kind of my nightmare about anyone who signs with us. Treve, you know, you know I get emotional when I see you hit that second deck shot. And I love third baseman.

We would have been cool. You and Jimmy. Ooh, yeah, Jim. Yeah. We would have butted heads. Buttheads, butt heads. Budheads. We would have both had buttheads.

And I'm going the opposite way with the Tucker family. I think I'm investing in the parents because I think they see the product now. And they're like- Crank out some more. Yeah. We got to help this country out. Wow. Yeah.

Baseball. That'd be really early buying stock right there. There is one more piece of baseball. Yeah. Jose Iglesias was traded to the Angels. Your guy. Oh, he exists. He had a good year.

Angels are out on Simmons. Apparently this is a new trade duo. I like finding out new duos. Like, oh, so you guys like each other. They traded for Bundy last offseason. Yeah. It's like, oh, okay, you guys talk. New GM for the Angels, but.

Yeah, but there's someone there. Is Jose Igleson. Not a free agent? Like, how long has this guy been in the, is he on a deal? What's going on with that? I think he might have had an option and they picked it up. Something, man. I like it for the Angels

Ever. Iglesius, we got to see him live at Spring Training and it was literally a form of baseball art. He was literally doing a drill where he was just backhand. Oh my. God. That was him. Talking baseball, some of our social just posted that video, so go check it out.

Wait, it's posted it recently? Yeah, like within the last week or so. Probably Kyle will talk of baseball. Did that? I forgot about that. I love when memories are not. active or then you activate them and now I'm like, yes, that was bad ass. You've got one more year. He signed a two-year, $6 million deal prior to this season.

So he's making three-mill probably, three or four, depending on how it was structured. To essentially be the starting shortstop for the Angels. He's been known for his glove, his whole career. He was a little banged up last year. I like it from the Angels because, you know, options, versatility, call it whatever you want. He raked last year. So, A, if he's figured it out with the stick, cool. Like he was D-Hing and batting middle of the lineup for the Orioles at time this year,

which say what you want about the Orioles, but they can hit a little bit. If he can pick it at shortstop and hit like that, amazing. Or if he just picks it at shortstop and he's not that hitter, you still get the Jose Iglesias that's been known around baseball. And they clearly, that franchise has gone through a new turn with their front office, but they've had Andrelton Simmons at shortstop, which is a dude you can't really. replaced, but if you get Iglesias on a good day, he can help you out a little bit. So I like it.

Good for them. The video that got posted, you can't tell how cool it was, what he was doing? Yeah, just eating. Because he was, if anyone's watching on YouTube, I'll put my glove in camera. Here we go. He was, the ball was coming, and instead of just catching it like this, he was turning his hand all the way around and catching it backwards. But like, in live speed on the video, you can't tell that he did that. Yeah. Like a backhand from the foreman. forehand side just weird. It was awesome. You know what my favorite thing about Jose Iglesias is? Interested. He's Cuban.

Not in his heart. Cuban ball players. There we go. My guys. The whole roster full of them. Oh, okay. I don't know his feelings towards his home country. I spoke out of turn there. From La Habana, the Habana banana.

He looks thick in his Orioles picture. looks like a he you know he kind of looks like you and your holiday picture on his baseball reference page it's not a great picture it's kind of non-existent did they have multiple picks no so he signed as a free agent with the reds trav in 2019

and then signed with the Orioles last January that doesn't really do much red socks was he came up with the red socks and then got traded the tigers if I believe because the tigers short side got drug popped.

Hey, and you know what else? We've been talking about this shortstop market. How about the Angels don't go out and pay money for D.D. or Simeon and go get pitching. So maybe that's part of what this move was, too. No, they're good what they're at. Okay. Hold the line. Stay with your guys.

Is it the second worst run franchise in baseball? They were. I saw one interview with the New Angels GM. and I like him. So I'm, Is that why you're wearing a red hat today? I'm genuinely in on the Angels now, yes. They pay players.

Yeah. But they forget that there's a whole thing called starting pitching. Imagine his day, like, sign real moodo, how like arms up that would be. Guys! Figure it out! It would be fun.

That would be fun. Be very angels. Strengthen their strength. Yeah. Just need to strengthen our strength. A lot of people say that. All right, I think that's everything we got. Well, we got a catcher, and we got one of the best defensive shorts-ups.

So that helps our pitching. It does. It does. It's funny if they, like, just like, you know what? We love what they do at the Coliseum. We're expanding our foul ground. Yeah. They just bumped out the left field and right-field line.

Like, behind the catcher. It's like everything to help pitching besides signing good pitchers. Well, and that's inventing a new pine-tar. They're bringing that guy back. We talk about how analytics is great. We use analytics and, you know, right now there's a push-pull. I think what we've clearly seen from this market, Trevor May, a reliever who's, you know, 30, he's peaking. I think his career war is two or something like that.

You know, he gets a really nice contract and you're seeing guys, hitters, Rosario Schwabber. I think right now the analytics is saying pay pitching, figure it out hitting-wise, which, is somewhat a proven theory but I do think it's just a little out of out of balance right now I didn't listen to anything you said sorry I saw I'm sorry I also tuned that one

I know I know you're both you're both leaning you both look like third graders in class I'm reading some shit online huge who texted you now bro Jess yeah probably picks only

that's not disrespectful full of you to say something like that. Nice picture of our fucking dog, you creep. Thanks for tone in. I got lost on that one too. Yeah, I know. It's a long gap. What happened?

How many horses? I mean, what a day for my text. Big text episode for you. We're out. Who knows what's going to happen? Make some more talkers. Yeah, we need them.