Talkin' Baseball (MLB Podcast) - 258 | Puig, Sugano, Bianca Smith, and Baseball's Return

Episode Date: January 5, 2021

Happy New Year! Jomboy, Jake, & Plouffe are breaking down all of the top stories in baseball 5:15 - Phil Hughes retires 10:45 - Tomoyuki Sugano is expected to make a decision this week 20:30 - Dodgers are in on DJ LeMahieu 32:25 - Yasiel Puig rumors 40:00 - Baseball SHOULD start on time 50:00 - Red Sox hired Bianca Smith 58:00 - Hall of Fame 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.

What's going on? Welcome to Talking Baseball. We've got so many exciting things to discuss. So let's do it. What's going on, everybody? Welcome to Talking Baseball. My name is Jimmy sitting next to me. Taking a sip out of his drink is Jake.

Trevor Plough is in California. And producer Bug Bug Dude is behind his desk. We're all behind our own desks. Respect. but especially BPD. It's Tuesday. It's 1226. There has not been a lot of news.

I lied in the intro. Straight up lie. But then we got some bullet points here that we have to discuss in the baseball world. Most importantly, happy 20, 21 to you guys, all three of you and all the listeners and all the patrons. Jake, how are you? James, Trevor, Big Baby David, patrons, everybody else listening, like he said. Happy New Year. We're out and cooking.

Will Sugano sign or go back? Who's going to sign with the Giants? There's a chance. They're in on them. Yeah, man. You know, baseball, not necessarily hot in the street right now. But I need it. I need it.

It's coming. Still all those talented free agents. We did have a lot of little things. And Trevor Plufe, you said it best. I mean, when we're set up just to yuck like this, this is when things get real. we've already gotten like kind of deep we're talking about hitchhikers and jimmy picking up some dude in the middle of Arizona that's like serial killer alley so that's probably a bad idea by you probably shouldn't do that ever again

but it was nice kid Blake Harlow is that really his name yeah okay it's from Kentucky well I'm doing great I had a great new year's we ordered sushi we watched the east coast ball drop how insane was watching Times Square this year compared to like the adult diapers can't move Times Square of years past. Like such a weird dystopian vibe. But here we are. Did you watch it?

I checked in a little bit. I had an appointment with Dr. Unk. So I was attending to that. But all the shows are weird now. I mean, A, they're all pushing their stuff, which is obvious and I get it. But, you know, Joel McHale and Ken Jong, I feel like they're doing everything.

Anderson and Cooper and that other guy were talking about doing acid and stuff. Kelly Clark, not Kelly Clarkson, Kelly Osbourne, Kelly Osbourne. So I don't know. The shows don't do much for me. And yeah, Trevor, the bigger thing on our end was we were living in New York City during the pandemic. So, you know, been through Times Square and it's been empty. And that's scary. Hey, Jim got married.

Yes. I did. Two? My fiance slash Jake's mom. Jake's mom also got married. My mom also got married. Wait, hold on. See, I wasn't sure about that.

Hold on. Hold on. Your mom got married. Like, really, are you just messing around? Why does everybody say that? Yes, she got married, unfortunately, not to Jake's dad. Not my original dad. Yes.

So that dream is out the window momentarily. So Mom 1 has now married dad too. Yes. Jake now has steps siblings. Dad one remains unmarried. And they're all moving in together and it's going to be like step by step, day by day. We're working out the details. There are rumors out there that I married your mom.

There are rumors. My mom married a gym. Yeah. And I'm a gym. Very happy for everyone. You're from a broken home. I'm from a broken home. Then you got these two guys.

These two guys are from loving families. Can you tell a difference? Yeah. A little bit of crazy for us Yeah And then wholesome Jim Wholesome Bug Bug bug dude Happy New Year's

Thanks for tuning in You know I didn't watch the ball drop The two guys that made it to the MLB From Broken Holmes Hmm I watched a different show Jim was at a concert

Well I was watching it from my couch But I saw that Um Do do do do do do what's her name Cindy Lopper Made a mess of herself I saw that I was upset because I've been watching her sing time after time on Howard Stern on YouTube, like a lot.

If anyone wants to go tune into that, it's kind of weird to hear a song that sounds like a classic in its infancy. And it's a good time. Oh, snap. That was lit. Yeah. What do you think Coach Ballgame was doing for New Year's? Oh, sex. Yeah, probably.

Big sex. We got Coach Ballgame hats. I don't know. Mine's in the other room. Anyway, we do have some bullet points here to talk about. We can start with the first and most important friend of the pod, friend of Trevor in real life. Phil Hughes officially has retired from baseball. Trev.

I don't understand. I didn't even send in the text like, what? I just, I've been thinking that since I read his little note. I guess, good for you, Phil. there's got to be some reason I'll get to the bottom of it taxes, something, I don't know 12 step program, who knows

but it's, he had a great career so I guess you know, it's worthy of applause. World Series chant for the Yanks you know, made a bunch of money, set a record, I think it got broken now, so sorry about it, Phil. Maybe his wife, you know, kept asking him like, Phil, are you going to play again? And he was like, no.

And then this was really just for her. That's one guess. He went no tap on you. on you, Trev. We asked him if he had retired when we interviewed him and he said no. And he left like an inkling of maybe he might come back when we talked to him. Small inkling. I don't know if Phil Hughes could pick, like bend over to pick up a baseball right now,

let alone go out there and pitch on the mountain. When we met Phil, I was something on my mind because, you know, A, he was in the infancy of his card stuff. So I was like, you know, I was kind of cut. into the episodes of the office when Michael Scott sees David Wallace and he's kind of, he's inventing that vacuum thing. It's kind of like a little bit of a little bit of a midlife crisis. And he's like, yeah, you know, like I, if I could throw again and there's all this technology out there, blah, blah, blah.

So I wonder if he tried throwing the pill or if he just tapped out. We should be asking you this. He's a friend of yours. You stay at his home. He is, but Phil is a, reclusive person, dude. So, you know, I don't think he's Fills go out and put on a retirement tour.

He pitches to you and you go barnstorm your way across the country. We would lose baseballs. We'd have to be too expensive. We have to get a new ball. Why? You have a backstop. You guys know my history against Phil.

I'm happy for Phil. Like I said, great career. I'm happy that we got to play together. Our friendship was started off very, very rocky in high school. Wow. You get some really mean things to me. didn't like him at all.

What was the main thing he said to you say in high school? Yes. So the story goes, we were at a showcase. Wow. I didn't know any of this. Phil and Mark Trumbo were there. Now, you guys have to know, like, we were the big deals in our area for high school baseball.

We all knew who each other were. We're in the paper a lot. We're at these showcases together. I mean, I'm just, I'm being serious. I was pretty good. Anyways, I go and I'm like kind of there and I'm like, want to go say hi to these dudes. And they just kind of like were talking to each other and just really went like, like gave me one of these.

Like, you know, like just the chin up. I'm like, okay, I hate, I hate both of you now. And it's going to take a lot for me to not hit you. So, yeah, I hated them until he became my teammate. I like reading Trevor Plu's stuff. He's got a lot of good takes. When are you going to go? Treve, when are you going

Notes app retirement? We need it. I'm not. The company needs it. I might NoteSapp for you. Like honored that at Trevor Plouf allowed me to make this announcement on his behalf and then I'll write a whole notes out. I'm doing that. Bad news, Treve. You missed it.

I want to get to the bottom of it because it was like one of those moments where I opened Twitter up and I was like, what is Phil doing and now. So I'll get to the bottom of it for us. Treve, you want a deep cut segue? Sure. Part of the reason Phil Hughes retiring,

Thoracic Outwood Syndrome. Yes. Chris Archer. Trying to come back from that. You retweeted him the other day and he's signing with, who did you say? He's talking to a lot of teams, man. A lot of teams interested.

But yes, got to hang with Chris again Sunday. So he's progressing well. He's throwing. Feels good. He's thick. You saw my text. You saw the video. It looks good.

I was waiting. I mean, I have a definition of thick. It's a little different than that. But on his follow through, there was some upper leg area that that counted as thick. I thought when you said that, I thought you were kind of doing like fat Tony for the skinny guy.

Because he looks very skinny to me still. Oh, Well, I'm comparing I'm not comparing him to like the world thick. I'm comparing him to like old Chris Archer. Chris Archer is a bean pole, dude. Yeah. Just put a little weight on those legs.

What do you think about Phil Hughes haircut here? I like it. It's pretty good look for him. He looks great. I mean, he was good looking back then. I don't know what happened. It's a great look. All right.

So Bill Hughes has retired Chris Archer signing with the Cubs. Wow. Great news all around. I don't think. he's going to sign with the gun. Bochiambi did. That wasn't in our notes. That's exciting.

Good job, Boog. We like it. Good job, Bug. Sugano's the big news. Heyman reported that he's going to be, Sugano is a free agent coming over from Japan. He's 31. He's been dominant over in Japan.

John Heyman reported that he will be signing today at some point. So to me, I don't think this is going to be a team in contention is going to sign him. I think it's going to be like the Giants or the Royals or the Reds. You know, some team doing, like I don't think we're going to hear the Dodgers, the Reyes, the Yankees, the Padres, like any. I mean, the Mets allegedly were in and now they're out. Red Sox have been linked to Cigano. That could maybe happen.

Red Sox aren't doing nothing. I did a breakdown on. him. He didn't get any calls from the ump. It was a good one. He's 30 years old. He's going to be 31. His numbers are crazy. He pitches a lot of innings. He's pitched over 100. 30 and what's the last two years? 130 last two years. But before that, 202, 187, 183,

179. Looks like one year he got. No, he's thrown around 150 every season. So he's a horse. Trev, you're very baseball elitist, so you don't like this guy? Wow. No, I think it's, I think he should come over. Like when you have these guys that dominate the way they do in these,

I'm going to call them lesser leagues. I mean, they are. Like even the Japan League is not on the same level as Major League Baseball, obviously, we know that. So I think when these guys dominate the way they do, it's like, I want to see if I could do it against the best of the best. And guess what? I think fans are curious too.

I think his fans in Japan are going to love it. They're going to see him go over. They're going to root for him. I think people over here are really interested in seeing him come over. And, you know, he's faced big leaguers before. When I do the World Baseball Classic, he's able to face these guys, guys that go over and play towards the end of their career. But it's a different ball game when you come over here and it's day in and day out.

You got the lights. This is the show. This is it. There's no league. above MLB. So I welcome that. I think it's awesome when guys want to take that challenge. Obviously he's going to get a payday for it too, which is great.

But we'll see. You know, it's an adjustment, man, like language, food, culture. I mean, they work differently than we do. They work way more than we do. So like, is his regimen going to have to change with whatever staff he goes to? Be a lot of fun things to watch with him. Well, he is six. foot, one inch tall,

210 pound, right-handed pitcher. With a three-quarters delivery, Sagano throws two fastballs, sitting 90 to 93, a solid slider, a curveball, and a fork ball. So he's Tanaka.

I've got as a split finger. I've got it as a split. Yeah, this is Wikipedia, so untrusted baseball knowledge of us. That's Tanaka. That's... Yeah,

He's Tanaka's age and has Tanaka's Arsenal. The thing I'm looking at right now, I mean, he supposedly has six pitches. I mean, we've seen this style before. They throw a lot of pitches up for further breaking stuff. I mean, we've gotten to watch a lot of Tanaka. And Tanaka, you know, go check out his baseball reference feel however you want to feel about Tanaka.

He's throwing a lot of bullets for the Yankees, a lot of good bullets. His accuracy is pinpoint some days. So, I mean, that's the part I don't know about Sagano because, you know, a 92 mile per hour fastball. You don't see a lot of dudes in Major League Baseball. do that. You have to be kind of pinpoint. And I assume he is. I mean, he's got the reputation. And as we know, overseas, they throw a lot more breaking ball. So he's got those in the bag. I'm interested to see. Career 1.0 whip. Whip? Yeah, he doesn't walk anybody, which would lead you to believe he's accurate. Which you'd think. And, you know, again, you put this all macaroni in a pot.

And it's, you know, does he need to throw more pitches out of the zone in Major League Baseball? Are there better hitters that if he's attacking the zone, they can counterback? So I'm not going to say who really knows. The guy's got stuff to be a major league pitcher. We just don't know if he's a three-starter or a five. And some team's going to supposedly take a chance on this, or he's got the offer to go back. So I think his final day is Thursday.

Interested to see what happens. He flew over here, so kind of interested if there's a sad puppy dog flight home. like he clearly did plan on coming to play Major League Baseball. I don't know. Obviously, interested to see what team would step up and take a chance on him. You know, there's a- Jimmy figured it out. The Angels to give Otani a friend.

Yeah. That could work. Yeah. Need pitching. He does the same arsenal as Tanaka, so it would be funny. Him and Tanaka. Him and Tanaka go to the Angels. Yeah.

With Otani. Bundy learns Japanese. Yeah, oh, he already knows it. Like, you know, offhand. Kind of becomes a culture vulture and everyone's like, Bundy, stop. Yeah. It's getting weird. Just because you have three rotation mates from Japan does not mean you need to act like you're from Japan.

Bundy ends up becoming like a Jeremy Jam type character from Parks and Rec. Yes. It's like, all right, dude. We don't like this. You don't need to do this. They trade Bundy and now he's like taking the Japanese culture to another place and they're like, Bundy, stop. Yeah.

That's a bad look for him. But the angels, look for them. They're getting Tanaka and Saganu. The same exact rotation and stuff. So he's, I'm just looking at it. This is kind of cool. Like with the technology with pitchers now, you can kind of break down his pitches.

You know, we can talk about spin here. So he throws a splitter and his bread and butter is like a slider. And I'm reading here in an article of saying that it, he has been registered over 3,000 with his spin rate on his side. on his slider. Then obviously the splitter off of that with, you know, basically zero spin rate.

If we were going to 2020 on a breaking ball spin, I mean, MLB averaged 2,500, you know, the top five guys in a league, there was only five of them that averaged over 3,000. So like, they can play that up.

And can we make his four team do a little more? Like, can he bring maybe some secrets over? So there's a lot to Shigano. Is it Sugano or Shugano? Sugano. I think it's whatever you want type of thing. Sure.

He's going to bring over some knowledge and he's a veteran over there. So I think he's a fit for a ton of teams, man. I think the Angels are great. I see the Blue Jays have been mentioned. I see the Giants like you said, Jim, have been mentioned. But I don't know what his contract is going to be, but I'd assume it's pretty affordable when you're talking about starting

pitching. So teams will be in. Now I Googled Sugano Scouting report. just try to give the people some info you know right the first website that came up was sports info solutions blog dot com s i s yes mark simon yes next one bleacher report next one cbs next one beyond the box score which one would you click well you're mark simon i mean and we're simon we're simon guys i'm mark simon i was shocked that bleach report came up so quick why i don't do you ever read i don't know. I'm not familiar with Bleacher Report.

You don't read a lot of websites, though. I don't read Bleacher Report. None of the websites I wanted to come up came up, I guess, is what's surprising me there. Sports Info Solutions, we should start reading this. Sure. Okay. You don't like Bleacher Report? Always makes me think of bleach and not bleachers.

But we have a company called John Boy, so, you know. Shit happens. Yeah. John Boy Corp is the official name. Okay. It is. Because we had no idea what we were doing. Anyway,

that's all we got. He's signing with the Giants or the Angels or the Mariners. I mean, I'm starting to get to the point where I think it might be a sad flight home. And he's like, why aren't these MLB teams offering me a better contract? Why are these teams a mess? I don't know. He's probably going to get a... I kind of like the Blue Jays.

been looking for, you know, I think they can go high risk, high reward a little bit. I don't know. Come to, come to M-O-B. Let's see what you got, dude. I'm in. I'm a Sus-Sugo guy. Su-Sugo. Sugo, Sugano. That's fun. Next bullet point. Play the noise. The next bullet point noise? Yeah.

No, that's not it. It's a decent one. It's this one. Jim's got better. No, that was wrong. No, that wasn't it. This is the next one. The Dodgers are reportedly in on DJ LeMayhew.

If they, uh, Jake, can you take over because we did this on talking yanks. And, um, none of this is real is what I just want to. Ooh. Jake boy media. What?

No, no, no. The DJs is the Dodgers using it against Turner. What are we doing? Yes. Not saying, like even, I was going broader than just the DJ. Right. Like, the state of baseball right now, like, nothing's real. Like, I've been tuning myself out.

Jimmy doesn't like where the game's at right now. Because you've got teams leaking stuff. You've got agents leaking stuff. You've got players leaking stuff. And it's all, you know, it's all the great game, man. You know, Massahiro Tanaka the other day. It was leaked that he's going to be Japan or Yanks. and then Tanaka came out on Twitter and said, like, that's not totally true.

And it's like, well, there's a chance it is, but he's also got to say that because you need bargaining leverage. So everyone's playing the great game. And, hey, I'm sure the Dodgers are, have contacted DJ LaMayhew and said, hey, we offered, you know, two for 40 to Turner. You want that? And DJ probably said no. So I don't know. Everyone's doing a dance right now. it's a dude I don't know what's going to happen Treve I've started going to the deep dark place again because I think I don't think anybody's signing anyone dude we we should be ready for this because I mean think about where we were in April talking about baseball and we said this off season this one we're in now is going to be a disaster it started out with those little signings we thought it was going to be better turns out it's exactly what we thought it was going to be these two

teams are going to freeze the players, make them weight, make them shake in their boots. By the way, Justin Turner, not going to get two years 40 million from the Dodgers. He's asking for four years. They want to go to Justin Turner has asked for four. He's going to get two years, probably around 12, maybe, I mean, maybe pushes 15 a year. I don't think this is complete BS, though, Jim. I really don't. I think the Dodgers are like, you know what?

We won the whole series. What don't you think is BS? I think it's real that the Dodgers have reached out to DJ LaMayhew. I think they formulated a plan like saying we could get DJ if we did X, Y, Z. And they're thinking about it. Like, can we dump some salary somewhere else and bring this guy in? I mean, do you know who reported this? Hmm?

Do you know who reported this? My boy, Bob? No, the equivalent of us. a radio host out in L.A. was like, oh, the Dodgers have definitely talked to DJ LaMahue. They're interested. And then the articles went crazy. It would literally be like if I came out and said, like,

you don't think the Dodgers have talked to DJ LaMahue? Of course they have. But I said it better. Yeah, it's definitely like a headline grabbing. But I think it's real, Trev. I just don't think there's any. No fan should react. react to this and unfortunately every fan reacts to this like it means the Dodgers are going to

sign DJ and they may but like we don't know like we didn't hear anything about the Blake Snell trade until the Blake Snell trade happened we didn't hear anything about the you trade until it was a day away from happening so I just I mean but anyone that's listened to talking yanks or me talk about baseball for three years knows I hate reporter season and it's so funny because John Heyman kind of like runs the roost of all these reports and these leaks and all this interest and every baseball player I've talked to doesn't even know how to pronounce his name and it's like, who's that? And like for fan, yes, I've talked to a bunch who are like, Hyman guy? I think they're making a joke. No. I've, I've told you I couldn't, I don't know

what he looks like. That's what I'm saying. Like for fans, we like, people like put faith into all his tweets. And then you talk to the. players that he's tweeting about and they don't even know who he is and it's like this is all fake. The whole middle area is just fake so I don't like it. Let me just dive into a little bit of Yankee

universe real quick. Perfect. A minute. 60 seconds. Let the record show this was Trevor's call. Thank you, David. I think he ends up back with the Yankees. I don't think there's a ton of suitors for him. Or at least there are suitors but he means

more to the Yankees than other organizations. We've talked about that on this podcast before. But I do see happening is the Yankees playing a dangerous game. If they want to freeze DJ and say, here's our number, we're not going any higher than that. And we've seen these teams make trades. They can open up, they can open up room in their budget. All of a sudden, you know, he can go somewhere where maybe you don't got to pay New York, Texas. And this offers the same, but he's going to recoup 13% on his money.

Well, those California taxes are pretty light, if I remember correctly. California is not one of those places, but there are obviously other states where there's zero income tax. And that means a lot to guys. When you get to this point, he's trying to maximize his payday. Yeah. So I do think he's going to be back, but they are playing a dangerous game where it could open up. Just like that, dude, a trade happens, and it could open up DJ to go somewhere else. And I think he really, really means a lot to the Yankees.

But I think Treve just... Just like every other team, and our apologies, we are a little burnt out from talking about this on Talking Yanks ad. But, Trev, the waiting game. It's what you just said, man. Everyone's in on it. We're going to get another, like, oddball, old man professional minor league camp, which, if that happens, you're going, by the way, tell Olivia and the kids.

You will be there for a week. Yes. But, like, dude, it's, you know, I think the Yankees have made their final. to DJ LaMayhew, and they're playing the waiting game like everyone else. What's their final offer? Because, dude, what else is happening? It's, this is, I'll go across sports with you, Trev. I did this yesterday on Talking Yanks ad.

Like, this is somewhere baseball is missing. NBA free agency, it's like a race for the players, and who's going to get the max contract, who's going to get the most money. This is the exact opposite. It's like, ah, let's wait, let's wait him out and see who'll take less money to come to team. Like, it's just, it really isn't a great experience. And it's hopefully, you know, this next CBA will be a CBA pot again and we'll see

what they do to try to address that. But, yeah, I kind of, like, I don't need the free agency to be entertainment. Like, I kind of wish it, there was no reporters. They ruin it for me. Like, as soon as all this gets announced, it'll be fun. I'm really excited to hear where DJ lands and where Bauer lands. but all the middle ground that they think is entertainment for me isn't.

It's like embarrassing. And I think back in the 80s, 90s, when you didn't have this, didn't have Twitter and the daily updates and you just went about your life and then eventually they dropped it on you. I think that was probably much more enjoyment. A-Rod trade.

Boom. And it came out of nowhere kind of. But social media and like all the tweets like he's talking to him, rumors this, rumor's that. Ruined the whole. experience for me. So like, I don't need it to be fast. I just need all the

reporters to stop reporting nothing. Like Tanaka, the rumor was that he like was Yankees or bust. And then Tanaka, the player comes on. It's like, oh, that's not true. But maybe it is true. And now, Tanaka is saving face or maybe not. But like, that sucks. It's just annoying.

Like, just drop something on me once a week. I don't care if it's big or small. I had an epiphany, actually, though, day along the same lines. we have these guys, they're insiders. That's what they are called. You know, Haman's an insider for God knows who. You're an insider for Archer.

Whatever. This is the thing. And I'm not telling people to go unfollow all these insiders. Here we go. But like, to me, what's, if this guy doesn't bring anything to the table for you, other than inside information, like, oh, I might hear. where DJ LeMayhew is going to sign 30 seconds before I hear it from somebody else. Like, that's your value that you're first.

You're going to hear that, you're going to hear when DJ LaMayhew signs, there's going to be someone that puts it out first. And then 30 seconds later, everybody else is going to put it out. So what's the value in following guys if all they do is break news? You need to, this is straight up for the reporters out there. You better bring some other value or you're like no one's going to care. This, that you're ruining what, like, exactly. what you're talking about, Jim, they're ruining free agency. Nobody cares about this stuff because

it's all BS. They know their pawns for organizations. Well, that's why I actually like Buster and Ken and Passen and Sherman, although he's kind of dipped himself into the other way recently. They don't report like the rumors. They just tell you when it actually happened. And they bring something else to the table. They write stories. They, you know, they do other things. But if you're just following someone for like because he might be first with some news get out dude it's not worth it i mean i mean i mean no down haman hayman does mlb network and it's not awful he's fine and i don't i don't read his columns or whatever so i'm not trying to bash john hayman on the hall i'll bash his twitter it's the worst twitter ever and if you're a baseball fan looking for news all it will do is frustrated

and aggravate you and it won't help you find out which way the wind is blowing in the slightest i could recommend on following him on Twitter more. There it is. There you have it. Thanks, John. Kyle, do not clip that for socials. Don't be scared of the boogeyman, Jim. I'm not. He's already blocked me a million times. It's true. We are the boogeyman.

But I guess, Trev, what I'm saying is with the Yankee stuff and DJ, like you're, you're saying that would be like a potential doomsday for the Yankees, which it's sad. I mean, he would be their best player for the past two years. years, but literally every other backup option is still out there. All the other elite free agents. Don't start with this. You guys love DJ so much. He's really good.

Trevor, we did a whole talking Yanks. Francisco Linderre would be cool, too. Trevor's story. We did a whole entire truck. Chris Bryant. We did a whole entire episode talking Yanks telling Yankees fans that if the Yankees don't sign DJ, the backup plans that might be better. Not better, but they're fine.

They will be better. Francisco than Dorado. No, like, even like just taking that $25 million and using it towards pitching our bullpen. So. Tyler, wait at second. Oh, my God. Hi, hey, let's be like the Yankees. We're going to get a bad podcast review.

We will. Trevor Bauer, no rumors there. Who else is the third? Who is the big Springer? Springer, Real Mudo. That nothing. Nothing on anyone. Nothing.

Springer a couple weeks ago, it seemed like, was about to make a decision. People were talking about being down to Matt's blue jays. But I guess not. There's Puee Grumers. And this is classic, Trev. Classic just using the Dodgers and Yankees to get the tweet off. The Yankees are not interested in Pueek.

How does that make sense at all? Unless they have some huge trade of like Clint or someone in it. Like it doesn't literally like one plus two equals. five on that thing. Unless tweet's ready to take a minor league deal, which he shouldn't be. Yeah, with options. There's no, like that,

so that is just literally someone just using the Yankees name to make the tweet get more retweets because there's no chance the Yankees are interested to bring Puegen. Anyone with a brain can tell you that. Or Preek is willing to take a minor league deal. Like to bring Puegan and paying money with no minor league options, how is that even?

They're in. Yeah. that's where I get like, like you read that and you're just like, oh, that tweet is bullshit. There's something so patently false. You can't tell me the sky's orange and then think I'm going to believe anything else in the tweet as well. Yeah, I think he lands the major league deal somewhere for sure. I think he ends up being a starter somewhere.

Yeah, he should. Whether that's like straight out and he just is there right away starting in right field, I don't know. But he'll, he'll land somewhere. I love, I love the Marlins for him. I just kind of now who was he last year he signed with the Braves

positive COVID test that whole thing fell through I think the Orioles were in on him I think the Marlins offered him something just do the white socks and just get absolutely nuts with the sweat

party just I mean they got eaten now though I mean they might be full as well yeah yeah yeah I mean it's it's a really weird thing man I mean and I know

I think they just put a video out about some of Puegg's reputation and stuff like that. And it's go look at the numbers. It's crazy. He's actually a reverse splits guy. He's better off righties than lefties. He can be an everyday guy for you. He's a 845 career OPS versus right-handed pitching. You know, that's 120 games that you get like a slightly below all-star level hitter.

You know, Yassil Pueek should be on a team. You know, another dark horse that should be in on him is the Texas Rangers. Again, I've been saying upgrade every position. If they could get him for one year, four mill, you have a cleanup hitter. Like, that's what I don't get right now, and I think baseball is missing. And part of the reason they're missing it is the money situation, which is also a mess, and they don't have figured out on their end. So it's really starting to worry me.

I mean, like, I wish Steve Cohen would break the sport. Just break it. sign everyone, go middlebirds to every owner, welcome to the league. I think it's clear that I think he's not doing that. I know, because he's a smart business man. He's not an idiot like me. Well, I think he's also smart baseball, like smart baseball strategy is for the Mets to build up a farm a little bit and not go spend to win right now.

I also think this is a good old boys club. Yeah, Steve Cohen, you're different. He's an outsider, you know, whatever. Then you get in the club and the guys, oh yeah, Jerry Rinesdorf calls you up and he's like, hey, this is how we do things. The mob syndicate of owners. Just kidding. Not really.

You know, he knows he's kind of got to play the game a little bit. He can't just go in there guns blazing. Are you kidding me? He maybe wants that persona out there. But I guess what I'm saying as a part of that is like, you know, I'm trying to picture Mark Cuban kind of came into basketball guns blazing and the league kind of reworked its way around him. I mean, you know, there's...

Well, that's a different thing. I know. Revenue is public. There's so many different moving parts here, but I'm even saying with some of these old, the older free agents who are veterans, like Nelson Cruz is still a free agent and he still mashes. I'm not saying he's a fit for the Mets because we don't even know if they're going to have

a D.H in the National League this year. Welcome to baseball. But I mean, you know, like Brantley's out there. Do you go throw one year 40-mill at people and just go double birds? Right. He's still out there? I thought he's signed. Yeah, dude.

Everyone is still out there. Nelson Cruz will sign with the twins Trevor May and James McCann signed with the Mets How about it? Puegg's OPS Plus for the last four years is 109, 9% above league average And that's like his worst four years of his career

Still got a cannon and right He was playing center field and lied on Like Like this ticket Yeah if we can have tickets sold He sells tickets. People want to go see Pueg When he was in L.A. doing his thing He was big man.

Canoe is lighting up Lytum right now. Huge. He's batting like 500, Trev, and he's your idol. Because, have you, okay. Here comes Hater, Treve. Here we go. It's Arbeno. I know, I'm just, I'm on one.

But listen, I watch these highlights of Tatees and anybody playing in this winter ball league. My goodness, these are meatballs these guys are hitting. Are you kidding me? It's supposed to be a pitcher's league. league. Dude, every pitch is like 88

like cement mixer slider over the middle of the plate. Come on, I could hit that. I'm serious. I could hit that right now. Treff. Like, winter ball stats and everything mean absolutely nothing. It's December

next year. You and me get sponsored for a little boy's trip to light him. How many weeks of actual baseball training, do you need to look serviceable in that league? A week and a half? Wow.

Done. Sales team. Like, I didn't need to face some live pitching. Take some ground balls. Make sure my body's in shape. Absolutely, I could go light up that league. Look at the damage I would, I'd do against soft tossers, man.

Anybody throwing above 94, I'm not going to hit, but... Go to Japan, make a living. I'm not about me. It's not about me. All right. Well, this next segment is brought to you by the John Boy Media Trivia show. It's a new show on the main John Boy Media, I mean Facebook page. Episode 1 is out now. Go check it out. Christian Yellich is on it. Episode 2 comes out next Monday at 6 p.m. with Ian Hap. There's five episodes in season one. It's a lot of fun. Johnbo Media trivia show. Check it out. I watched it. You watched it? Yeah, I did. It was really good. Thank you. How'd you think Yelly did? exactly how I thought he would do very like well thought out like you know like

I think you're going to find that and maybe you already know this now baseball players can remember a lot of shit yeah no it's it's fun to prod it to like poke where they do and where they don't there were some good sound effect moments I don't know who was running the board was that you Jim was that BBD it's all post so it's all done in post oh that was

all post okay so Zach's everything you liked about it was Zach everything you didn't is me. I love Zach. I'll tell you one thing. And this is just, we're straight up. The transparency on the highlights,

I think needs to be a little more. You can see the highlight a little more. Yeah. Well, that's what you think and I think, but not MLB licensing. I get that. I get that.

That's what I figured. Got played the game. Evan Drellich, your old friend, who reported the Astro stuff originally. He reported, that the season is scheduled to start on time. If you read it, though, it, it, I don't want to be, like, rude here.

It kind of seems like he's saying, because no one said elsewise. He got a statement from MLB, which says, you know, we've planned out spring training. We've planned out the season. And that's the plan unless the doctors and people say otherwise, which, okay, yeah, that's kind of where we're at. And then I think the players union also gave a statement that was like ready to play. So I don't know. The quote is MLB said, we have announced the dates for the start of spring training and the championship season. Always weirds me out that they call it the championship season because like publicly it's not referred to that at all. But in the paperwork and like the commissioner's

office called the 162 game season the championship season. So weird. No, it says that man. Quit it. As we get closer, we will. So this is where it's like the MLB says, as we get closer, we will in consultation with public health authorities and medical experts and the Players Association determine whether any modification should be considered in light of the current surge of COVID-19 cases and the challenges we face in 2020. So this is nothing.

Exactly what we knew. Yeah. It's going to start on time until we announce that it doesn't. Yeah. I think, I mean, the biggest thing that, people can bank on or like say hey you should start on time we just saw 17 week football season conclude where yes there were some positive tests there were some facilities shut down but they got through it all i mean we saw 60 we saw we saw 60 game MLB season but it's a bit different

because they did just the east and the central and the west and i don't think MLB wants to do that again i think they want to travel and i do think they want to have fans as fast as they can But even, well, that's the thing. You can't have fans, can have fans. But you get to play the games. Yeah, I think they set the precedent last year that they can play without fans. So I think the players union has like a pretty big case right here. Be like, what?

You made us do it last year. We can do it again for 30 days. And then you can slow roll fans in come May. I think like the players actually have a pretty good argument right there. If it goes to like an arbiter or anything like, yeah. Yeah. Are you saying that, are you saying you put him in harm's way last year? Because that's what it comes out to.

The arbiter or the judge would be like, so wait, are you saying that what you did last year was wrong? Because then the MLB would be like, oh, no, no, okay, I guess we'll play without fans. Like, that's how I see it playing out. I mean, are these teams losing money or not making record profits? Obviously, they're not making record profits last year. but I do think they lost a lot of money. What's that? I do think they lost money or profit.

Yeah, there's a lot of ways to look at it. For sure, this was not a banner year for baseball owners making money. We know that. The thing that we always have to remember is like, it's not a revenue sharing sport. Like, I just, I don't want to get into the labor negotiations and we've talked about this before. But like, don't tell me.

that you don't want to play because you're not making money and you can't pay guys when things are going bad if you're not going to say, hey, we want to pay you more because you outperformed your contract or we made a ton more money than we thought we were going to make, let's give the MLBPA some more money. That's never going to happen, ever. So they're doing what they need to be doing

to recoup their losses. They're not signing guys. There's going to be a freeze and free agency. They've already let go a ton of people. They've cut the minor leagues in half. They've, I mean, they're doing everything they need to be doing. They need to play the games. I've got one for you guys.

Jake has one. What team has kind of been the surprise team of free agency so far? Padres. Not a free agency. The Royals, to me. Kansas City Royals. Know what football team has been letting the most people in the building? Kansas City Chiefs.

What's the connected out there? Can't money? And and and here's a good point. The chiefs have been letting 17K people in the building for their games. The NFL's just going off of whatever the state rule is. Yeah, yeah. So you think the MLB is going to change to just state rules? So I think the Royals think they got fans coming in the building.

And Jake, to your point, they allow tailgating at that stadium. So if you can't allow a full capacity crowd in your stadium, you sure as hell can do a socially distant tailgate during the game is maybe put up a big old screen, have people come and still get a little bit of ballpark experience. I'm sure they're talking about all this right now. That's a great point. I mean, they had fans in the building in Texas. I just wonder how that works because the MLB, all the teams pull their money together

in a way where NFL, each team is its own company. They're not as unionized. Who knows what talks they've had about? the revenue sharing, the revenue split. You know. Yeah. Football is easier for football to say we can do this on a state-by-state basis than it is the MLB. So maybe Kansas City's thinking they're going to, I don't know how that would work. Seems messy. Seems messy. Yeah. Always is. Because Jerry complained. Same way Steinbrenner's complained, but they just got told to shut up.

Big Jerry Jones week for you. Oh, that was that? Yes, right? Yeah. They tried to do what they do in baseball, where they're like, hey, on the internet, all the money's just going to get pulled evenly to every team. And Jerry Jones was like, fuck that. We make all the money. Steinbrenner's tried to do that. Hal Steinbrenner tried to do that in 2008, and they sent him to the farm. I was like, no, how you're not allowed to talk publicly anymore because baseball just wasn't going to do it.

Jerry got NFL changed. Like, yep, individuals, you make what you keep what you make. Well, they don't share TV deals and stuff. No, but like, I mean, if someone buys a Yankees hat, that doesn't go to the Yankees. Right, but if someone parks in the Kansas City parking lot, that goes to every MLB team. No, they own the parking lot. No, they own that. But, yeah, I'm just saying the precedent is set that MLB does all teams under one roof.

They try to. Yeah. I think you have a good point, Jake. Thanks, Dad. Yeah, the Royals could very much be saying, like, hey, we're going to. But I don't know if they can make money and other teams can't. That's what I'm saying. And I think it's an all one for all type thing.

The Brewers, you can tailgate in Milwaukee. Maybe that's what they don't fucking know. You guys would go to a tailgate? How cool would that be, man? They had some sort of- We went to the World Series. He should have came. Yeah, I'm just saying, like, I would love to go to a tailgate, watch it.

I mean, when you go to, like, I used to go to UFC football games. The best part is the tailgate. I don't care about going into the game. I actually'd rather just tailgate and go home and watch the game. So Not big on football Live football So

What you Too So I made up some numbers there Because that's what I do Dallas had the number one attendance this year 27K per game Yeah

And Florida Jacksonville Tampa Kansas City Houston Miami Tennessee Cleveland Cleveland was letting 10K in a night There's a way to do it

but I wonder I don't know why they wouldn't. Yeah, I don't know. It's tricky. It's really tricky. I think I'm, maybe I'm just being an optimist because I've asked some other people and everyone says,

no way that we start on time. And I think they, they will. Like the players want to. The teams want to if they can at least do a percentage of fans right away and then gradually build it up. I'm saying is the first playoff game at Yankee Stadium when they can be full capacity,

I might spend so much money to go there. I'm going to touch people. Yeah. Every home run, you just start hugging everyone. I'm going to touch a lot of people one day. They're going to put you guys in a bubble or something. On the field. Been there.

Oh, just running around a giant bubble, like an in-between in-between innings game. Sounds awesome. Should be a bullpen catcher. I'd love that. Bullpen catcher for a day. If any ML team wants to sign me to be a bullpen catcher for a day and we'll vlog it or whatever, I'm in. I've been a bullpen catcher in the big leagues, and it's not fun.

It's definitely fun. You did it wrong. Yeah, we need you catching the right guy. All of them. Hendricks. Chapman. My last year in Philly, Gabe made me go out there and catch bullpens

because I was going to be the emergency catcher. It was, I mean, it's humiliating, dude. It's humiliating. For you, because you were like... Yeah, for me. He's a professional catcher. I'm a guy who says, sits on chair and talks

It would not be humiliating for you. You're right. Okay. I'd do it. I'd just get suited up. I'd make sure that I'm really padded up in the thigh area. Yeah. You want to hear Segway King right now?

The neck. So the person I caught. Yeah. Nick Povetta, you know where he pitches? Boston Red Sox. You know what the Boston Red Sox just did? signed a they hired the first female or first black female baseball coach Bianca Smith

she will be a minor league hitting instructor for the Red Sox now and is the first black woman to coach professional baseball so clap for her that's awesome it's cool obviously I'm not too familiar with her story I'm excited to find out um her past and everything that she's up to, but it seems awesome. I've read a few things. Softball player, a dartmouth. Is it dartmouth?

No, dart mouth. Like when you, you know, you play darts and you throw out at someone's mouth. The Ivy League School, Dartmouth. Yes, dartmouth. Open up the mouth, just catch them. Clearly I'm not an Ivy Leagueer. Stanford. It's a Blue Man Group exhibition type thing.

Allowed into Stanford, Trevor Pluth. But she's also been a hitting coordinator, at Carroll University in Wisconsin. You guys know I love Wisconsin. Big Wisconsin fan. I own property in Wisconsin, just so you guys know. I am famous too.

The reason I think this is cool is because the way player development is going, you need to have an understanding of data. And she's been doing that at the college. Now she gets a chance to do it with a professional organization using all of the cool equipment

they have. And the biggest thing with data is just being able to explain it, make it make it make sense to dumb baseball players. And if she can come in and do that, dude, it's awesome. You want people that can relate and could just make it, what's the word, ingestible? A lot of times you'll have, you want an ex-baseball player, a guy a hitter that's your coach. they didn't do this. They didn't have technology. So they can't relay that information well to you. Someone that's been doing it out of college and they can come over and just, you know, explain things.

Perfect. I would rather have a zillion people like Bianca Smith than the guy that played, had a cup of coffee in the show, has been a grinder. He's just there to pick up a paycheck and can't explain these things to me. There's room for both, I guess. and I'm not generalizing ex-players as bad coaches, but it's okay to bring in someone that would be considered outside the box. I think we're seeing that throughout the league, and it's a good thing. Yeah, got to be able to read the radar gun.

For a long time, they had ex-players holding that thing. Yeah. What was that, Tony? I don't know. Not sure. Or I read it. I read the number on the bat. You guys know I've talked about this before.

Seriously, especially in the minor leagues. You get a lot of coaches who are just there because they got nothing. else, man, and they're there and they don't... In there. They don't fit in the modern game, essentially. Right. And a lot of them aren't willing to, you know, make themselves better and understand what's happening in the modern game.

And that's just like a recipe for disaster. It's the battle in all sports right now. It's the old school mindset. And, you know, I think the toughest guy we had on this show was Jason Kendall. but, you know, he was a grind, like one of the most grinder baseball players there's ever been, and he had that attitude, but he had the open mind to analytics, and he was open to a lot of it, but he also had his takes on some things, which are still in the gray area, which I think are good, and organizations need that, and that's part of why that conversation was so fun.

Good for Bianca, and I mean the goal is that, you know, one day if more female coaches keep getting hired, you don't have to say a female coach got hired. You just say they got a new coach. And you open the hiring pool. This is the biggest thing. Like, let's get everyone. Yeah. Can I get, yeah, I agree with that, Jim.

I mean, can I get sappy real quick? Really? No. Sure. How sappy? It relates to this. It really does. Like, are we going to cry, sappy?

Maybe. Okay. It was, I almost did because I felt very ignorant in this moment. So, big a big and actually never I'm not going to talk about that anyways throughout this year we've heard a lot of you know social speak and one of the things you hear a lot phrase you hear a lot is representation matters and for us we're all you know white males we've been able to see white males do everything an astronaut a doctor a baseball player

whatever profession you can think of, a white male is represented and you can see yourself as that person. That's not the case for everybody. And I really saw this. And again, this is something I didn't think about because I haven't had to think about it. We sat down on New Year's and we turned on the new Wonder Woman movie. And it's a little much for kids. I have a, you guys know, my daughter's three, my son's five. But when we put that movie on, and we fast forward through some of the battle,

but my daughter was just locked in. And I just saw her face and she would say stuff like, that's me, that's me. Am I like, you're Wonder Woman? She's like, yeah, that's me. And then she's like called Wonder Woman her mom. And like it just clicked for me. Like her whole life, like being a girl when you're that young is like rainbows,

unicorns, Barbie dolls. Like they don't really get to see a badass female. And she was seeing this. badass female on the screen and it was like dude this is i felt like like weird that i haven't introduced that to her yet and i know she's three so she's still young but like to see that i was like that's representation matters i understand it now she started kicking your ass after she it was awesome dude and like uh just to her just her just saying that's me that's me like and then she like the last couple days she's been

running around with a cape on like dude it's it's awesome that's cool that's what the pink ranger did for jake so somebody is watching bianca smith and saying i could do that look she does it becky harmon right that's her name the coach for hammond yeah i don't mess it up spurs you're good you're all around it same thing with her man like how cool is that for a little girl to be like dude she was telling those NBA players what to do i could do that so that's my little rant i thought it was really cool. Seeing is believing, Treve. You could take that. It's the truth, man. You can take that with you.

And if you want to take Michael Kay's quote about the youth is wasted on the young, man. I heard that. It's beautiful story, Trevor. It's not, it's not, though. Beautiful story about your delightful daughter. Thank you. It was true. That was lit. And she was like, fast forward through this scary viz. Did you look at the villain and say, that's me?

Uncle Jake. Uncle Jake. She was okay. It was Teddy. He was like, yeah. Do you think that you want to talk about any of the Hall of Fame drama before we get out of here and end this episode? Because I do not.

But if you, BBD said he really wants to, Jake, do you have any interest in the whole thing? It's all BPD talks about. No. Who cares? Gatekeeping. I think the Hall of Fame Get over yourself. Speaking of old white guys, Jesus Christ.

I think it's the most embarrassing part about baseball or one of the very most embarrassing parts about baseballs. Like the sense of whatever sense they have that the Hall of Fame voters have, it's like gross. So I always try to block it out. So I do not want to talk about it. I don't care either.

I like love that. there is a Hall of Fame, and it's awesome to watch guys get inducted in. It means a lot to these guys. Financially, it means a lot. Their legacy, it means a lot. But the way that they get voted in is stupid. Not one player is represented in the voting category. Like, I saw, I think, Euclis put this out.

If you get your gold card, which is eight years in the show, you should be eligible to vote for the Hall of Fame. Why not? If the writer gets it after 10 years, a baseball player should surely also maybe have the same thing. Everyone who like qualifies for the ballot. I typed out this whole like thread on Twitter about that guy who voted in no one, blah, blah, blah.

And I was like, we're deciding who's the best at a game. And we've turned it into like just the most pretentious, awful self-serving and then I was like but I don't even want to tweet that out because that's me taking it too seriously so it's just I almost block it out

like I don't even know that's what I tweeted Jake I said let's stop talking about this guy like we're giving him what he wants so happy you tweeted at me I've got one final update Sugano sign Sugano has a fun start to his windup

and we just tweeted it out he does like a Tony Batista lean in, which I like. He twists his shoulders before his legs. So how do you say dartmouth again? Yes. Just like that. Yeah, just think of a blue man group routine.

One guy opens his mouth up. The other guy throws darts in him. Is it one of those creepy Ivy League schools? Like, is she in Skoll and Bones? Oh, my God. We knew a kid that was in Skull and Bones, and I was the worst kid to talk to ever. I'm going to tell you guys a story about Skull and Bones

after we get out there. Perfect. All right. That's the end of this episode of Talking Baseball. We thank you very much for joining us. Sugano News Thursday. Yeah, next episode, we'll know where Sugano goes. I don't even cares about that, which is interesting because they don't know them, but it could be make a break.

Could really help your team out. Maybe not. Congrats to the Giants. Oh.