Talkin' Baseball (MLB Podcast) - 260 | Hendriks to the White Sox & Schwarber to the Nationals

Episode Date: January 12, 2021

Jomboy, Jake, & Plouffe break down the unique Liam Hendriks contract with the Chicago White Sox (8:00), Kyle Schwarber's deal with the Washington Nationals, guys returning to Japan instead of coming to MLB (20:30), Tommy Lasorda's passing (48:45), Rusney Castollo signing in Japan (55:00), Ryne Stanek's deal with the Houston Astros (59:30), and an update on MLB's issue with sticky stuff (1:01:30). 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 Talkin Baseball. Schwurber goes to the Nationals and Liam Hendrix goes to the south side of Chicago. Let's do it. Hello and welcome to Talk in Baseball. We thank you very much for joining us today. My name is Jimmy sitting next to me is Jake. In California is Trevor. And behind the desk is Bug Bug Dude the producer.

He's wearing a purple. I love baseball shirt. Jake is wearing a black John Boy Media shirt. Treve is wearing a white women belong in sports shirt, and I am wearing a gray baseball is fun hoodie. Treves is a hoodie as well. My bad. Jake, how are you? James, great updates to start.

Trevor, big baby David Mendelsohn on the ones and twos, and we are about to get funky. Baseball from cold in the streets to hot in the streets right quick. Liam Hendrick sits the market. And we'll talk about the importance of that. Coming up, I'm doing well wearing my all black sleek outfit. I don't know if you've noticed I've been mixing this in. You like that? No, but.

Trevor, you should have seen Jake. You should have seen Jake yesterday. Fashion. Slim. My shoulders looked really dainty yesterday. Really dainty. Trevor, how are you? Was that some new like Instagram filter you put on or is that real life?

How about you crushing that? Was that a D-Rob hanger you just posted on Twitter? You put that to... Well, sometimes I had to put Dallas in his place on Twitter. So I think that was a Eovaldi hangar. Yankees, obviously. Let me just ask you guys, do you want the good news or the bad news? Yes.

Yeah, I'm just a fan of news in general. What do you think Sugano's going to do back return? No. I don't care because I only pay attention to one league. Major league. My baseball snob. But bad news is I have an elusive gopher. I cannot.

Oh, my God. He's tearing up my grass and I can't catch him. So that's the bad news. The good news. It's my eight year anniversary today with Olivia the goat. Thank you. Happy anniversary. Thank you.

We got a nice little day planned. Why don't you catch that go for her? Yeah. You know, she's probably thinking, hey, honey, doing stuff in Malibu is great and all, but why don't you catch that damn gopher for my anniversary? She would like that. for sure. We're doing,

guess what we're doing? This is so romantic, you guys. You're doing, you're going to eat sushi off of her body and then she's going to do it to you? Don't, don't you dare talk about her like that? What did I say that you didn't like?

So I can correct it next time. Yeah, yeah. Just let him know what he said wrong. I feel like, have I done sushi off someone before? I think I have. Okay.

Is that weird? So L.A., yeah. Anyways, we're going to have shamp. Let's see. Sushi off Jake. That'd be disgusting.

Oh, I'm in. You guys just ruined my whole story. Yeah, champagne, love. Champagne and oysters on the beach, watch the sunset. Wow. I mean. Baby Jake, nine months. Throw up some rose petals.

It's beautiful. Congrats on eight years, Trevor. Congrats on eight years, Trevor. I'm having a great day. A great day so far. Can't wait to talk baseball. It is a little hot in the streets. I don't want to say it's hot in the streets.

It's warming. Okay. Katie and I are celebrating our 12-day anniversary. Congrats. Thank you, Jake. So catch that damn gopher. Yeah. I don't know what it is, man.

I've got some good news to talk about. I'm excited about it. BPD, you're doing well? I am, thank you. Okay, great. Manfred tells teams to prepare for a 162 game season as scheduled. I'm going to put this in the like, news but not news category that Manfred actually said it to the public is a step more than we had

it's still very much like pending all the rest of the stuff he's still leaving the wiggle room like like prepare but he has to i'm not trying this isn't like a bashman fred's session right here but obviously a lot of stuff can happen like three days ago was the worst day in u.s history of the pandemic so um i i think that they will start on time a lot of people inside of baseball that i've asked, don't think they will. They have no other knowledge than I do. But I just think comparing it to, you know, football just ended, college football just ended, basketball started again.

Kind of talked about it already. But it is news that Manfred said this. I think they will start on time. I think it'll just be a weird starting point. I like my idea that you go like, they're not going to do this. But like you go 10% capacity in April, then you just go 25, 50. scale it up. And when you get to October, like the first playoff game is 100%.

And it's just the energy is just. Yeah. Bow with the bow. I think, I mean, look, they have no choice but to say this and then execute because we just saw football have a complete season. We have basketball in the midst of a complete season. NCAA, they had a shit show of a season. So I guess they could look at that.

Football kind of laughed in everyone's faces. is really hard. What's that? Football laughed in everyone's face is really hard. Like the lineman wearing masks on the bench is hilarious and just such like an F you to everyone. Like, oh yeah, we're just breathing on that other dude's face on the other team. And we're in the huddle together.

For the last 10 minutes, we were in a huddle together, breathing heavy. But sitting on the bench casually, we'll mask up for the public. It's such like a- Humans running into each other for three hours. Fuck you to everyone. Like, this is one big. So I don't know if baseball wants to go that route. I think in a lot of ways they want to copy football,

and that way I don't think they do. I'm interested. Jimmy, you were kind of on this. I'm interested if Manfred has kind of realized that they don't have a ton of leverage because they literally played last year with the COVID condition. So I wonder if he's, you know, he went around to the owners and he was like, guys, like we don't have a case.

Like upcoming CBA, we could get more. nasty if we want, but we've got no ground to stand on. Like, hey, let's roll it out. And they're like, hey, we want to wait till we can have fans in the stands. Well, we didn't do that last year. If you want to get really. Yeah, that's what they want to say, but they can't say that. Or if you want to get really twisted, they're just going to roll spring training as normal,

wait for the first outbreak. And then they'll say, oh, my God, what's going on? We got to figure something out. I don't think there's going to be fans a lot of spring training, which is a bummer. Although Florida and Arizona, if there's going to be two states that kind of. They don't care. Yeah, they don't care. And look, the vaccine is getting rolled out, you guys.

We're so freaking close, man. Do you hear that city field is going to be a vaccine spot? Needles and arms. They said even Yankeesians are about to go. My mom is already vaccinated. Like, let's go. BPD's dad's vaccinated. He gets the second dose next week.

Didn't you say he grew a second wiener? Oh, it was a big? He had that. He's proud of that one. That was just from birth. He had that. I mean, you want to talk vac? You want to talk in vacuum?

We can do that. This thing might cure cancer. Here we go. Sign me out. I'll send you guys in your article. It's incredible. Let's go. Vaccinate me.

I want six different vaccinations right now. I'll take them all. You probably have six already in you. To cure rabies? That's my biggest one. Tetanus. Six new ones. Okay.

I don't know of any of the ones I said are vaccines. Moving on. Huge. That's exciting. The big news of the day got dropped on us last night. Liam Hendricks, the top reliever on the market. I think a lot of people would say that. I think some people may debate it, debate it, but I think it's fair to say he's a top guy in the market. For this off

season. Well, yeah, on the market. Yes. To be signed. Signs with the White Sox. So that's exciting because it's another team that's going for it and doing good things. Actually, I kind of wish that that was spread out a little and it wasn't just Padres, White Sox, who's a third team? Who's a third team? Mets. Mets, yeah. But I'll take it. The contract, and anyone that's listen to any of the shows that we've talked baseball on. I love intricate contracts. And I actually like this one a lot. So I'll try to explain it best I can real quick. It's a, it's really weird because there's three years guaranteed and there's 54 million guaranteed.

But in the first three years, he's going to make 39 million. That's guaranteed three years. He's on the White Sox for $39 million. Now, after the third year, he's going to get $15 million. It's either to not be a White Sox, White Sock, and then they slow roll the payments so their So their Aav doesn't take a huge hit in that year. They just go like 5,55 for three years, I think it is. Or they say, you know what, Liam, we want you back. 15 million for this year. So it's 54 guaranteed million dollars to him and three years.

It's very interesting if they're like, we'd rather not take the. hit on Aav and you'll see you later and then he still gets paid out for three years. But what do you got on this, Jake? You made a video this morning on your Twitter account. You like it. I'm on the bird app as people are calling it. A, I like it, Jim. You're a big set the market guy and we have the top player at their position going,

which I'm hoping sets off the relief market. Liam Hendricks was the best reliever in this year's relief pool. So now you can start checking boxes below this. your Colomays, Brad Hans, whoever you want. Maybe we'll circle back on them in a little bit. The contract's really fun. And the White Sox basically took a play out of the NBA's playbook with that last year. The NBA has it where if you want to cut a guy, Knicks and Joe Kim Noah, how about that,

where you can spread out the remainder of the contract over a three-year period. So, yeah, it's going to be really interesting to see by the time we get to the end of this Liam Hendricks contract, what he looks like, because if you're going to give him the money anyways, do you want to keep him on the roster, or would freeing up $10 million that season or whatever it might be, be worthwhile to bring in a different player to the White Sox mix? So happy Liam gets paid. I think when everyone saw those numbers initially,

it was kind of a little bit like, whoa, especially. Yesterday I was feeling pretty low. I was wondering if guys were going to get paid. I was wondering if the White Sox were done. This makes sense. The other phrase I said is, what's all? all these advanced teams do, tightening the margins, sharpening the margins. It's, uh...

Kissing the margins? It's, I don't know. It's like a loser business phrase that the Astros use. You get better every step of the way. So they go from Colomé to Hendricks. Makes a lot of sense. Colomé, as Trevor always referenced, I mean, he was good last year, but you're playing with fire, almost every appearance.

Uh, so man, happy Hendricks gets paid. This is a real payday, man. I mean, you know, four for 54. However you want to dice up the money, I mean, that's a real contract, especially for a reliever when I don't think relievers are getting a lot of big paydays like this anymore. Highest paid reliever by AAV, average annual value should be salary in baseball history. Is that true with the fourth year? I don't know how. I think if they don't pick up that fourth year, because it retroactively is applied to the previous years of the contract, like spread evenly.

because like Chapman makes more. I think if they don't pick that up than every year, I guess if they don't pick up the fourth, then it ends up. So it gets me quirky. Someone tweeted it. Yeah. Trevor. It's up there. I love it.

I mean, I love it. Look, I've known Liam since he was a young lad. A young Australian lad in the twins organization. I saw him get DFA. I think someone even was writing me on Twitter. I was starting at shortstop during his first ever appearance in the big leagues. So we go way back and he's worked for this. And yes, this is a awesome payday for him.

I think up until this point, he's made around $12 million. So he's already going to surpass that his first year in this contract. 54 guaranteed. And really, when you look at the numbers, I mean, over the last two years, he's been one of the better relievers in all of baseball. And I don't, you know, there's been some things. He changed his pitch repertoire. You stopped with the two seam, one with the four seam, up in the zone,

which you see a lot of guys doing. and we watched him this postseason when he had that ballsy appearance against the Astros when he was pumping 98 on like back to back to back days. I mean, the guy is all, like that's who he is. He's, he believes he's the best player on the field when he's out there. He's come out and said that. I know that that is his mentality. Even when he wasn't the best player on the field, he thought it.

And that's kind of what you have to do. but like I said the last two years have been incredible and all-star in 2019 and then last year he got si young and MVP votes so this is much it's a much bigger contract than I thought he was going to get Trevor may got two years 16 with the Mets something around there and this blew that out of the water have his stats been better than Trevor's the last couple years yes but to go this high I mean the white socks wanted him and they went out and got him and I I think it's great for both him and the White Sox. I was just looking at their bullpen who's in it,

and I didn't really recognize many names, besides a crochet, the lefty, and him. Those are really the only guys I know. It's not a ton of household names. Aaron Bummer should probably get on more baseball radars. He's pretty good. I think, you know, Marshall getting there. You'd like, as, you know, this team is now one of the favorites in the AL.

You'd probably like one more bullpen arm. We'll see how the rest of the market sorts out. But yeah, man, and I don't know, the other funny kind of thought I had in my head, because Trev, you're right, there was almost this weird reliever free agent moment where it was like, okay, Trining gets two for 17, May gets two for 15. You know, a lot of those guys are really well liked. The Hendrick's story isn't normal per se, how much he's been DFA'd and what he's doing now.

And I think we haven't said this phrase in a while. Whenever you're telling your GM to go sign your player, sign LeMayhew, signed Springer. Guess what? Your GM probably wants to sign them, but it goes back to the owner. And how about Reinsdorf, man? I think this kind of has the feel

where we're getting away from kind of the traditional closers. It's supposed to be all hands on deck. Reinsdorf, he went out and he got his guy in Larusa. I think, you know, the GM said, hey, we need another arm in the bullpen. We want a closer. And Reinsdorf said, yeah, go pay that man. So good.

Good for baseball. If you just look at this guy's stats, I got his baseball reference page up right now. Before 2019, Liam was very much so an average pitcher in the big leagues. So his Velo increased. His strikeout per nine went from right around, you could say he probably averaged nine

strikeouts per nine. The last two years has been 13.1. That's a huge jump. He's limited homers, down from averaging about 1 per 9 down to 0.5 per 9. Like he's done everything better the last two years and he's gotten paid because of it. Adjustments are the key in baseball

and he was able to do it at his age 30 season, man. So like, you know, the guys that you might have given up on, like all it takes is one thing for it to click and then all of a sudden you're sitting on a four-year-fifty-four being called the best reliever, one of the best relievers in the game. So. Is he a spin rate guy? I think he is.

I read an article about how he went and changed from throwing sinkers to throw on the four seamer, a ton more. Yeah, I mean, yeah, his graph, he was sinker was his biggest, was his most popular pitch. In 2016, it was basically like, you know, those were his number two, fastball sinker. That was his repertoire. And then he just completely ditched the sinker in 17. And then that's when he took off. started taking off. So, I mean, we all watched that game against the Astros and the gutsy-ass performance, man.

That was awesome. His spin rate last season was 2,445. Huge. Fastball or curbball? Fastball. Same pitch. For his curveball, it was 2,250. That's not that good.

That's around league average, right? Yeah, it's average. You want to be higher to 3,000. Yeah, but when he throws cheese and he's got like a really Short arm action when you watch him pitch, you know, he's not a big guy And he but he comes off the mound. He's got big freaking legs and looks like he hides the I mean I faced him Not in the last couple years where he's changed, but he does hide the ball well And if he's hiding that ball and he's throwing it at the letters and it's just it's a tough pitch to hit

He's figured that out man he's in Jimmy's book not in your book The other thing he, again, I'm sure there's probably advanced stats to look this up. He, you know, we're going through all the things of pitching, spin rate, how hard you throw it, probably. He dots pitch is pretty nasty. He's one of my favorite daughters. He can pick a spot and hit it. And we have some White Sox people in the chat, also noting Hoyer and a couple other guys in the bullpen. And I'll take this as a friendly reminder.

We haven't said this in a while. You guys know your team better than us. So if you've got some White Sox bullpen takes, come tweet at us. I know some Mets fans weren't happy about the way Poppy was talking about Jady Davis's defense the other day. So you guys know your team better than us. We just talk. I make fart jokes. Trevor's hot.

Jimmy, it depends on the day. He'll come at you. He'll make a joke. He's cute. Liam's from Perth, Australia. You have been to Australia. No, Perth's like, it's not an island, but it's kind of an island. It's like there's the whole Western Australia is the outback.

So it's kind of like a bunch of. It's like, you know. He's the craziest. He's like the Australians, crazy weirdos. Like they grew up in Perth. We used to have a ton of Australians in the twins organization. Luke Hughes, another former A that, and they were all from Perth. Yeah.

Little baseball community over there. And now I think, I mean, Liam has got to be the highest earning Australian. So me and Liam. Me and Liam, only two people in this conversation that have played baseball in Australia? I've been invited Is Delman Young here? Is Delman Young in the Patreon right now? North Sydney Bears represent.

NSBs. Dell's there right now. He's in Australia. Okay. All right. It's a great deal. What the market, what the effects that this has,

Jake, Brad Hand, Rosenthal, Archie Bradley, who else is out there right now that is like top of this list? Well, a funny thing I did see some White Sox fans commenting was because when this contract came out, you got a little bit of the first time in a while for baseball that some people were like,

that's a lot of money for a guy. And I saw some White So, wait, we didn't want Brad Hand for one for 10? Because that is a lot less risk. That's a lot less risk for a guy who's had a better career. So interesting scope. We don't normally go there on this show because get paid. You laid. Ooh. Kirby Yates, Cahill, DeRob, Rosenthal.

Yeah, just a lot of guys out there. Speaking of the Brad Hand, if you will remember, the Indians, DFAed Brad Hand instead of paying him the $10 million, and they didn't trade for him. And it was like, well, that means Brad Hand's going to get less than $10 million because you could have got him for $10 million. Kind of pivots us into the Schwerber deal because the Cubs got rid of Schwerber, and they could have got him for how much? I think it was 8 mil.

8 million. The Cubs could have got Chorber for 8 million. They didn't even DFA and trade him or try to trade him. They just straight up said nah. So that would lead you to believe they think he's not worth 8 million and they don't think anyone else thinks he's worth $8 million. Wrong. Schorber signs with the Nationals for $10 million.

So it seems like the Cubs could have traded him and got a player. in return an 8-mill unless the nationals would rather pay 10 million not lose a prospect that's exactly what it is jim but still it's just weird it is weird and we talk about prospects all the time what are they worth prospect capital now is is you know worth a lot to these organizations i i get that you have to have your farm system and develop from within but i am not on the prospect capital as much as these teams are uh but it is interesting that you know i don't know if the number was $8 million, but he was going to be in arbitration where

the numbers, his comps were right around there. So it could have been higher, could have been lower. But I think the nationals are also seeing the market and saying there's not a lot of teams acting. The weird thing for them is the NLES

is the best division in baseball right now. So now they're making some of these smaller moves. And does it put them over the top of the Mets and the Braves? Like, I don't know. They still have that, they still have the three-headed monster. So they seem to think that they can compete and continue to do it.

And we love that. We love that here. Like a half-important distinction to wipe like a little bit of the egg off the Cubs face on it. He technically, Schwerber's salary this year is only $7 million, and it's a $3 million buyout for year two. It's $11 million for year two. So he gets $10 million guaranteed. I'll put an egg on their face.

They've been trading free. It wipes a little egg. They've been trading for 18-year-olds all off-season. Go get one 18-year-old from the Nats and see if it happens. Fun for the Nats, man. I mean, if you're a Nats fan, you talk yourself into my favorite Scott Van Pelt phrase. How good is you're good? If you get Josh Bell's best, if you get Schwerber's best,

Trey Turner, I mean, that top four of the lineup is nasty. Or, hey, flip a coin with Bell and Schwerber. If you get one good year out of all of them, you got a lineup starting. I like it. I mean, so don't need a protection so. bad after Rendon was gone. And, you know, you're Chorber's going to play left field now? That's what they have him listed as.

Because I think he's much better in left field. Does that mean Soto's going to move to right? Soto's going to play right. I'll look it up because I know we've got the sticklers watching us now. I mean, there's no reason to think he can't play right field. I want to get the numbers on it. He's played only six games there. So, yeah.

Someone, so one. And neither of those guys are amazing. Amazing defensively, so is Robles just going to track every ball down? And I think Robles does have good defensive numbers, putting him in a tight spot. And I don't know. Again, this is where the defensive metrics... Some Cubs fans say Schwerber's not as bad as... We've watched some Schwerber.

I forget if it was in the office one day or whatever it is. He's... If a play is to be made, he makes it. He's got a great arm. He can catch it. He has a good arm. He's obviously not athletic. And I think when you start going into, you know, the advanced defense of

matrix. He's not covering ground. So it's one of those, yes, he's not going to grade out well. It's not, if there's a fly ball to left, it's not hold your breath time. I think you can say that. He's done a lot of work to make himself like not a disaster. Better, yeah. So again, and the realm of defensive left fielders, you're going to find a lot better than Kyle Schwerber. But they're trying to get 40 homers out of that bat. And it's not crazy because he hit 38 in 2019, if that stats right, trying to remember off the top of my head. Set it in the office confidently this morning. BPD's nodding yes.

Bang. I want them to get real Mudo. When you talk about competing in the NL East, I think the two teams that's going to come down to are the Phillies and the Nats. Their lineup... Dis in the Mets? And the Braves? For getting Real Mudo.

Oh, okay. Forgetting real Mudo. Excuse me. Sorry. I was like... Because they like some of the guys in their lineup. They like Turner, Soto. Shoreber obviously don't need to go there.

They love Robles. Carter Keyboom is supposed to take over a third. Big prospect for them. And they have Luis Garcia, too, who's 20 years old, top prospect in their organization. He got some rum, along with Starlin Castro. So you kind of have the pieces there. The one guy, I mean, Jan Goams is supposed to be their starting catcher this year. And, you know, Jan's solid, but he doesn't move the needle. Give me real mood on that team.

Because, like, Jimmy started off with, I mean, it's the three-headed monster. if Scherzer, Corbyn, and Strasbourg, if those guys shove, like, yes, then that's are a really good team. If those guys are getting hurt, then they're kind of weak. So, interested to see what they do. What a division, though, seriously. Oh, my God. The rest of the divisions are, you know, one team is good, very top heavy, and now we look at the end at least, and all five teams are good. one of the Marlins made the playoffs last year

they got a bunch of young good pitching and the Phillies are the worst team and I like still believe in the Phillies that maybe I'm crazy but one of the Mets Phillies are your worst team that's that's good one of the Mets Phillies

Braves and Nats is going to finish either fourth or fifth place in their division that's going to be a lot of money down the tubes I didn't ask this. I asked how Hendricks affected the reliever market, Trev. Are twins fans watching the White Sox?

Have they had a reaction yet? Are twins fans? You know, last year the twins were, by and large, the best team in that division. And I think easily, and they won, they may not be anymore. And I don't know. What's the, what do you think?

think how do you think the twins are feeling watching this unfold they still have a great team but yeah i follow some of the beat riders and the you know bloggers that that really are in depth with the twins and they're a little shook and they should be i think the zips projections already have the white socks outperforming the twins um and the twins have lost some people they haven't brought nelson crews back yet i i assume that's inevitable but who knows maybe he goes somewhere else and I think if that happens, I don't think anyone's catching the white socks. I think the twins need to make some moves. There's still a ton of guys out there.

Time is running out. But as we stand right now, I think that there's no doubt that the white socks are the favorite in the central. And could be the favorite in the American League. I don't know. I mean, who's the other team that you would say on paper matches up better with the white socks that they can play with them? It's Yankees and Rays. I don't, I'm off on the Rates right now. But the Rays are going to Rays.

I was high in last year. I don't know. Rays are going to ray. As it stands, the Yankees shouldn't be making a lot of lists. Offense is great. I don't know if the Yankees are a top. Literally until the Yankees finish the off season and we see where they finish, they currently don't have a rotation that a single person is scared of.

Who are the good A.L teams right now? Seems like the NL has all the good teams. teams, the Dodgers, the Padres, the Braves, the Mets. I mean, like, we can go on and on, but the A.L. You're looking. A's, White Sox, twins, Reyes, Yankees. Houston? Houston are still there. But I get what you're saying.

They all, I mean, White Sox are like the only good team interested in spending real money to improve the roster right now. Yeah. They got Lance Lynn earlier this offseason. You forget about that. Their rotation's pretty nice. They've got the bonus young guys that could be. really good. I mean, Kopec went missing last year. He took himself out of the season. He didn't

go missing. We found him. I think he was on milk cartons and stuff. There's a whole big thing. Well, Google him. He's got some life stuff going on. Trev, I like what you said. If you could assume Nelson Cruz is going back, which isn't locked up, but it makes a lot of sense. That lineup is still disgusting. I mean, you put Kirillov and Rosario's spot. And, I mean, again, they've got some young guys. Does Jeffers and Garver are catchers a pretty nice situation is Brent Rook or something real. How about this, Twins deep dive? Getting me hard. I'd like to see

them do something else, Trev. I mean, make a splash. Maeda, Berrios, pinata, Dobnack, Smelzer right now. Bring Odo back, you know? It'll be interesting to see what they do. And speaking of you said, they got you hard. The only team that gives you know, Bonner City in the

A.L, if you look at their roster is the White Sox. I'm not excited about anybody's roster in the AAL besides the White Sucks right now. Now, do I have my twins, you know, feelings. Like, yeah, a little bit, but they got rid of my guy, Rosie. They need Nelson back big time. And they need another pitcher.

You know, they need another pitcher. They lost Trevor May out of the bullpen. Like, let's go, fill some of these spots. And then we can talk about, you know, the twins being, you know, towards the top of the ale again. But right now, it really seems like the white socks and everybody else. Well. Which is good for them.

That happened so quick. Are you kidding me? What, two years? Well, they've been rebuilding for a while. It just, like, it took some of the prospects and some of the people to get there. Because you're not going to go get all the free agents to supplement the homegrown talent until the homegrown talent actually blossoms. And it took a couple years afterwards. So it has been on a slow path.

But now that they blossomed and they're filling it with talent, it does feel quick. I get that as well. And, man, remember how hard they went to. for Machado and Kenny Williams gave that press conference, and he's like, we had the best offer. Same with Corbin, right? Machado was kind of like, not really. And, yeah, I mean, hey, that Machado money, you know,

did that turn into Yasmani Grandal, Adam Eaton, Lance Lynn, Liam Hendrix, you know, it's how you divvy up the money. I understand what you guys are saying on paper, and, hey, maybe this is just pure Yankees bias coming out, and I do expect them to do some follow-up moves, but the Yankees have also won, you know, in 2019, they won 100-something games. They were still good last year.

Yeah, but right now they don't have any pitching. It's Garrett Cole, and then no one else that any fan of any other team would be like, oh. If, you know, Domingo Hermann can be that guy with, like, one good start, like the last time we saw a major. So could Sevy, but it's super question marks. Yeah, no, it's true. It's like. They need, like, at least three guys to go the right way. Yeah.

expecting like bragging about savvy would be like a team bragging about cluber right now like he hasn't been healthy nor pitched well for two years some age stuff different there injuries all the same two different arm injuries and has whatever yeah yeah similar enough i don't think i don't think you can brag about anyone besides colt right now in the yankee staff brag yes yeah uh speaking of shitty stuff MLB loses two guys that want to come to the U.S. to play in the highest tier baseball league there is. Sugano from Japan and what's the other guy from was it China, Taipei or Korea? Do you know what I'm talking about? In the notes, we lost it.

There's another player that tried to came over. Well, it came over, saw what U.S. teams had the offer and went back to Japan and or, I'm blanking on this guy's name, Korea or China Taipei. I forget Taiwan. Which isn't a good look, Trev. I know that when we had, was it Kyler who wanted Murray, who was choosing between baseball and football?

It was like a very easy decision for him to choose football because he gets paid right away and can play right away. And that's kind of not the best look for baseball. You want to be a place that entices big time talent. to choose you over other other places. That's a different sport. Now MLBs can't even do it with other leagues. So it just sucks to like he's been the best in Japan for five years.

He wants to come over, Trev, and no one will even give him any shot. So he's going to go get the same money to play in Japan. It's just, I understand what you're going to say, Trev, that maybe he's not good enough to come over. But he was good enough to come over and at least get a shot. And if we're not, if the MLB isn't the top destination anymore because they won't pay anyone.

That's a really bad look. Is Tanaka just going to turn and go back? He's 32 and like in the top five free agent pitchers available this year. And you're just going to lose him to Japan because no one's paying any money. It's a bad look. I get the Kyler situation. That's so much different because, you know, he's from America. And, you know, he got to choose between two professional sports and two professional sports leagues.

think he made the right decision because nobody wants to play in the minor leagues. It sucks. And he would have had to, and it's very hard to be a hitter. You know, you have to go if you want to be a hitter and make it to the big leagues. The guy's coming from Japan and Taiwan, it's a little bit different. I just think teams, they don't value them as much as a team in Japan values him. He's been the best pitcher in the league in Japan for a while. He's not going to be the best pitcher in a league in the league.

the U.S. And they're just weighing. Like, what's, what's the, what's in it for us? I mean, we're going to sign this guy. And not only do we have to, you know, sign and pay money, we have to provide an interpreter. And there's a lot of things that go along with signing an international free agent like that.

And I think, you know, from what I read, there was offers, but just not as much as he was going to get back in Japan. And good for him. He played the system right. I'll post. I'll see, and I'll see what they have the offer. but if I don't have to leave my country and I can be comfortable, I can dominate this league here and make more money.

Of course I'm going to stay. Yeah, and Trev, I mean, there's something to be said there about comfort level and all right, I'll run it back. But there's also something to be said, you know, I'm sure Sugano's a pretty competitive cat if he's that good at baseball that, you know, he wanted to see it in major league baseball. And the rumors I heard, which again, Jakey deep cuts in baseball, was that he basically got offered the same contract. So it was

baseball saying, well, you could play here or there, same thing, kind of doing a little chicken dance with him. Well, then he didn't want it. Because guess who wanted it? Otani wanted it because he took a big pay cut to come to the U.S. He could have waited one more year

and signed for a bunch more money. But he wanted it. Don't tell me this guy wanted to come over and got offered the same thing and it didn't come over. He didn't want it. That was also kind of dumb on his end, Treb. Because It was. I'm just saying he wanted to come over. Cacucci, who's got one, speaking of weird contracts, Jimmy loves, Cacucci. But I think it basically broke down a three-for-48 baseline.

So, Sugano, who basically had a better reputation than Cacucci, went from Cacucci got three-for-48 with a bunch of stuff attached to it, to Sugano allegedly getting rumored around 4-4-40. So good for him for standing on his. Laurels and trying to get chicken. Treve, that's a rumor. I can't confirm that. How about this, Treve? I know from a skill standpoint, you have somewhat of a point.

If baseball wants to become international and grow the game, and they want to go play games in London to get new fan bases, all the other leagues, when someone's clearly, you know how we talk about, there's guys that are better than MLB level, like, you know, Clemens, Pedro and their prime, Griffey, Bonds, Trout, like, you know, if they could age out of MLB to a super, super, super, then they would age out. Well, all these other leagues, Japan, Taiwan, Korea, wherever,

if a guy's aging out of that league, he should be given the chance to play in the U.S. and MLB, because then what? You're going to have fucking hundreds of thousands of Japanese fans watching this guy's games. There's no better way to grow the game than taking the best talent from around the world and at least letting them sink or swim.

So I understand, in a normal time period, I think any time period besides the last four years, he gets a better money to come play in the U.S. because the league is worth more money and more profitable. So I just think it's like if you want to grow the game, if you want to become international, not being able to afford foreign talent

because you're currently being cheaper than leagues that make less money than you, that's a bad look. I think individually the owners don't care about growing the game. Like they want to maximize their profit and win here. They don't want to overpay. If the league was offering to say, was saying, hey,

if you sign an international free agent, we'll pay for half of it to grow the game. Then yeah, that's a different story. But these individual owners, they don't, that's not their first, you know,

priority. But speaking of this, you know, you're talking about leveling up, getting out of the league. And this has been talked about for a long time. And we call this the world series. Is it really the world series?

No, because it's American. and Canadian franchises or one Canadian franchise. But how cool would that be? If the winner of the, what is it, the JBL? What's the Japanese league?

KBO. That's a great small snob. That's Korean. NPB. MPB versus MLB, champion versus champion. That's a world series. That would be awesome.

We kind of get that with the World Cup. I love the World Cup. When is that coming back? BPD is my World Cup. World Baseball Classic. is what I'm talking about. Oh, we're talking footy. It's ready to talk,

Policic. But that's an interesting idea to grow the game. They would never do that because once you've done winning the World Series in America, you're just done. But it'll be fun to do that. Trev, here's what I'll say.

This guy, his best, best case scenario was Tanaka. We've talked a lot of Tanaka on this show. You know, he had a real, if he comes back, Tanaka was a really solid MLB. pitcher. You know, and then everything below that is the risky run. You know, Kukuchi's been knocked around pretty badly.

He had a good FIPP last year for all my Fippers out there. So we'll see if he turns it around. But Trev, we're going to be here in June, and we'll be talking about the Angels. We'll be talking about Texas Rangers. We'll be talking about a myriad of teams and saying, like, they could use a starting pitcher. And that guy could have been him. And that's, I think what Jimmy said about the international thing and growing the

game. I think all the money stuff involved. I mean, this guy, we should be talking about this guy pitching for the Toronto Blue Jays and be like, hey, could be good, could stink. Let's see it. And the other guy was a sung bum nah, which, hey. Some bum? Yeah, I mean, it's tough. That's a tough translation. Guy couldn't play in any town near New York. Some bum?

Some bum. That's Gary Sanchez's nickname in New York City. Yeah. I got some bum behind the play. If you're telling me this guy got offered the same to play in Japan or MLB, that's on him then, dude. Like I said, he didn't really want to come. No, that's because you're, no, I understand you're a baseball snob.

But if that's the way you, if you want ownership to be like, well, you want to play for the best, you're going to take a pay cut. Like, you want to get these people over and to play for them. I mean, this dude is going to. It's not a pay cut. Same pay. Whatever. He's going to move his entire family.

He's not going to be NLBT. That's what I'm trying to say. The same reason DJ is not getting anything. So Trevor, what if... He's worth more to the Yankees. Sugano is worth more to a Japanese franchise than he is to an LB franchise. Trevor, what if I told you you could get the same contract you got with John Boy Media,

but you'll be with the number one TV station in Japan. They're huge. They get billions of eyes on them every day. What? But then you have to move your family to Japan. You have to go to a new country. Like, kind of screw that. I get it.

I'm just saying, let's not talk about this guy having this fiery competitive side wanting to come see if he's the best, the best. Because he clearly doesn't have that. Like, if he wanted to do that, he would have came over. He could have that and be a good businessman as well. Yeah, I think if you're going to come to the country that's still suffering deaths from the pandemic. And with the family, you want a little bit of a pay raise.

I remember at one point reading some report that he was very concerned about coming to America with how much different it's been handled here than in Japan. That's 100%. I respect that. I respect that. I respect that. Well, I just think it's kind of a bad luck for baseball. That there won't pay anyone. And like if, you know, Tanaka goes back.

It's like, well, you're really isolating the game. You know what I always find interesting? I've talked to you this about this before. You know, if a Japanese pitcher comes over and pitches for an American team, a lot of the Japanese market is going to watch and cheer for him, you know? I guess, hold on, I might have answered my own question because baseball is one of the most popular sports in Japan. I was thinking, like, if there's, like, a U.S. guy on some Australian professional cricket team, the U.S. doesn't, like, go cheer him on.

But I guess cricket's not popular in the U.S., so I don't know. It would be, is there any U.S. players? A soccer player. Are there U.S. players in. Polisic? Polisic. He's in Premier League. Yeah.

And American audiences follow him and like him. I mean, kind of. It's kind of weird because if you're an American that's into the EPL, you probably have a team. So you're still locked into the team. And I think you approve for him. That's our fourth sport. You know, it's not like that's our top sport. I would say fifth even.

Fifth, yeah. Drinking, partying, football. baseball. And again, Trev, on the baseball front, me and Jimmy just coming at you because you think these guys stink. No, I mean, you're flipping it. We are talking spending money and kind of flipping a coin with these guys because, you know, I was looking at bum-naz numbers before, and obviously they look good, but he's got a decent

amount of strikeout. So if that guy can't handle fastballs over 94, you know, you're talking, you just signed a guy with a batting average that starts with a one potentially. So I get the risk at the same time, I mean, you know, Quang Hun Kim for St. Louis who came over, he's got some funk going on and we'll see how the rest of his career comes out. But, I mean, that dude has dropped dick for St. Louis. And his numbers from the KBO are worse than Suganos.

And you just want as much good talent in Major League Baseball. I agree. Some bum. It's tough. It's that really good. Aaron Bumber. I mean, yeah. The best talent is in the MLB, dude.

We have global talent. It comes. I mean, of any sport, it's by far the most globally inclusive. Do you see that? Basketball's getting there. MLB Instagram posted the number, the quantity of players from each country the other day.

It was kind of a cool post. I did not. Dominican just crushing it, too. But it's also, I mean, the USA obviously is still crazy number one. And when you talk about being inclusive, I mean, you know, I think more rosters could be filled out with international guys, but it's also just easier with the USA guys.

So you wonder if there's something they can do there. Yeah, but dude, that's MLB. If you look at it, got it. Just organization-wide. USA is 943 players. DR-137. Venezuela in third place. Venezuela, third place with 100.

Cuba, 29. What a come up. Well, that's, and Trev, this is the perfect point because you talk about your all-Cuban team. Like, to come to Cuba and come to the MLB, you're thinking you're going to be a pro. You're not going to be the 12th man utility guy, which there's probably a bunch of guys in Cuba that could do that if they wanted. Treve, more Colombians or Canadians in MLB? Hmm. There's not a ton of Colombians.

I would say they're right on par with each other. Wow. Tried to trick you and you bet on green. You got it. They're tied. 11 up. That was impressive. Trevor,

that's more Canadians than I thought we're in the league. I thought there was like seven. It's a hell of a job by you. Oh, my God. Yeah. I know baseball. I'm the best. There is of this.

Come on, guys. Bud over there? All right. What about China and Honduras? China has one. I don't know about Honduras. Also one. Okay.

Come on. Germany has one. Look, who's the one Chinese player? I don't even know. You just knew there was one? I knew there was one, yeah. I don't know who it is and what his name is. But, you know, it's not,

NLB is international in its players. It's not international in its popularity necessarily, where basketball is international in its, popularity. Soccer is international and it's popularity. Baseball's still working to get there. I think there's a few places, you know, you go over Japan, you go down to South America.

Obviously, it's very popular, but Europe doesn't care at all about baseball. So they're still working on that. They're working hard. I'm trying to figure out who the like a chin-ming-law. Who? Su-A-Lin. Who? Su-A-Lin. Oh, okay. Where's he from?

Red Sox stunner. Oh, it says he's from Taiwan. Well, but... I'm going to say, yeah. No, Google... It's Taiwan. Then the other part of the island is like China, Taipei, which technically is China, but it's technically not China. It's the whole thing.

It's kind of like Northern Ireland is part of the UK, but it's not Ireland. But they've got Taiwan on here. It says it's three from Taiwan. Because China Taipei... It's Taiwan. I don't know. I'm just saying. The Chinese political situation is very confusing.

I love that. BPD gets political on me. China. Let's deep dive into China. China. Stop. I don't ever want to hear that. All right. I mean, the other news we have on here is that Tommy LaSorda passed away, one of the greater baseball lives out there. Got to witness the 2020 World Series, which Robert said, like, you know, he just wanted to see him win one. So that's awesome. I mean, you have any Tommy stories, Trev?

Do you ever cross his path or any player across his path? that told you a funny story? If you're a baseball player in L.A., you have a Tommy L.Sorda story. So it's kind of the person he was. You know, even if you didn't make it to the big leagues, you know, just around the amateur circuit, your high school, you know, colleges, scoutball, all that stuff. Like, he was always around, man. Like, I remember playing in a tournament in Orange County and Tommy the Sodor's there.

And it's a, you know, he makes it a big deal when he shows up. he's Tommy LaSota. Like he's, he loves, you know, garnering attention. So like I remember playing the game, all of a sudden,

Tommy the Soros watching the game. And there's no noise. So you just hear Tommy Lasota telling stories while you're playing a baseball game. It was, it was pretty cool. I've got to meet him a bunch. But any play, like I said,

any player in LA is going to have, uh, some sort of Tommy the Sort of story. So it was, it's a sad day for L.A. They lit the whole, all the important, uh,

landmarks Dodger blue for him. He's synonymous with the way that, you know, Magic Johnson is synonymous with the Lakers. It's Dodgers, Tommy the Sorta. He's on par with a Vin Scully, and when you think of that franchise, you think of Tommy the Sort of. And he has some hilarious moments in his career. I mean, everyone always remembers of Vlad Guerrero bat throw in the All-Star game where he put the chess protector on after getting hit. I mean, he seems, he seemed to be like a character. Have you ever heard when he goes off on Kurt Bavakwa? Have you ever heard that sound bite?

Mm-mm. So I'll just play. It's a minute long. I'll play for you. It's amazing audio. It's, um, um, so the Dodgers beamed Lafave and Barak, Barak, two hard names.

Yeah. Barakwa. Bavacua. Bavacca and Lefeb of the Padres. and they kind of talked shit about Tommy in their post-game press conferences. And the next day, they asked him, let's sort of about it. So Bavakwa was quoted as saying, the guy they should have fined was the guy who ordered the person to throw at Joe.

And I think he calls him that fat man over there. That fat little Italian is what he called him. Live there. This is what Tommy said. Think about it. I think that is very, very bad for that man to make an accusation like that. That is terrible. I have never, ever, since I've managed, ever told a pitcher to throw at anybody, nor will I ever. And if I ever did, I certainly wouldn't make him throw at a fucking 130 hitter like Lafay or fucking Bavocla who couldn't hit water if he fell out of a fucking boat. and I guarantee fucking T you this when I pitched

and I was going to pitch against a fucking team that had guys on it like Bavakwa I sent a fucking limousine to get the cock sucker to make sure he was in the motherfucking lineup

because I kicked that cocksucker's ad any fucking day in a week he's a fucking motherfucking big mouth I'll tell you that speaking of you a baby he's all time man

he's all time the MLB Network give them a shout out They rolled, it's a, like, eight-minute clip if you haven't watched it. I mean, some of the umpire stuff is hysterical. I was, you know, and, like, you know, me and Jimmy grew up on Joe Tori, Italian-American manager showed all the emotions out there. Tommy kind of did it in the other way.

I mean, there was highs, there was anger, there was silliness, there was seriousness. I mean, the umpire quote where they showed a bunch of delay tactics he used to use to get his relievers more pitches, so he was asking the umpire what he thought he should do. So the umpire says, I'd bring in the righty, and he goes, well, I'm bringing in the lefty. And I mean, it's just, it's great A stuff all around. And I, the number that always gets me is when I hear, you know, you hear someone's been in NFL for 40 years or they've been, they've been in baseball for 50 years. They live, you know, a baseball life. Tommy Lassorda, 71 years in the Dodgers organization.

That's crazy. That's, that's double our lives with, uh, with even more. How do you respond if you're Bavacqua? Actually, there's a video that says like Bavacca's thoughts on his passing, so I'll watch that on my own time because I don't want to play another soundbite, but I don't know how long it is. But if I was pitching against him, I'd send a limousine to make sure he's in the box that night.

It's great. It's good. That's good. Yeah, that's good. The other good, I forget who it was on MLB Network. I think it was the Dodgers owner or president, Stan. Stan Carston, Trev, am I getting that right? Something like that.

they were like yeah the other the other thing was like you knew a good italian restaurant in the united states if it had a picture of sinatra on the wall i forget who the second was it might have been bill clinton or someone and it was like and tommy lasota well i was going to say kennedy but he's irish really still beloved whatever yeah demasgia yeah Tommy was just a legendary l-a figure and like he's one of those guys you walked anywhere in los angeles anywhere people are all over him. It's one of those guys, man. He really, like you said, 70-something years in the organization. We should have hit up.

Tough loss. Maddie Lowe. Did Maddie Lowe watch a whole World Series game with him this year? Yeah, yeah, yeah, in the suite. Yeah. It's funny. All right. Some ancillary stuff here at the end. Rustny Castillo signs with the recouping Golden Eagles.

So I guarantee half the people listening to this are like, I don't know who. Is there a documentary on him yet? King of Pawtucket. Fifty years in Pawtucket. There's some diehard Pottaugh fans that are like, I had never thought he'd leave. Yeah. He was our favorite.

He couldn't. I mean, if you're a resume. He wanted to get paid his money. He had to stay in Potucket, dude. Open up a bar. He's making 50-something million or more. There's a 70? It's a lot of money to play.

Triple off the top of my head, I believe it was a $72 million contract. I mean, I got to be honest. Yes. Sounds easy, but you go try to play AAA and Pawtuck in the international league for that long. Jeez.

Okay. Okay, you're right. Seven years, 72 and a half mil. Bam. That ain't bad, man. That ain't bad. You know what I'll say about Rusni?

Okay. He didn't pack it in. Like, he still worked at that. And he still was, like, there, like, running balls out, you know, playing good defense, like really playing the game. Where I've seen other guys,

it's not too uncommon of a story. If guys having to play in AAA to collect their paycheck and they just cash it in, bro. I'd tell a story about K.E. Gawa all the time. Kee Gawa used to serve meatballs up in AAA. He didn't care. But Roozyn he wasn't that way, so you have to give credit to him for that.

Kaya Gawa served meatballs up in the MLB as well. I think that was his only offer. I used to send limos. Two people I would send limos. Three people. Kee Gawa, Phil Hughes, and Bruce Chen. They all got the limo treatment for me. If anyone is really confused about Rusty Casillo,

they gave him a contract for $70 million. They gave him a shot in the MLB right away. It didn't pan out. And then the next year it was really bad. So they were like, well, shit, if this dude isn't going to be a major leaguer for us and we're going to have to pay him all this money, we need to take him off the 40 man.

so it doesn't hit the luxury tax. So they put him on waivers. No one claimed them because the amount of money attached to him was insane. So the Red Sox never brought him back. I don't believe brought him back on the 40 man because that meant the money went towards the luxury tax and they were trying to reset it and get underneath it. So he was not on the 40 man.

No other team would take him. And he had to can just continue playing knowing he wasn't going to get called up because the Red Sox weren't going to take the luxury cap hit. So there's just tons of money. It's very weird. I played nine games in 2016. Hasn't played in the big since. Just like a state of limbo.

Like the money counted for the Red Sox, but also didn't count against their luxury cap, so it was kind of not real for them. But it was real? I don't know. Had to pay him real dollars. Yeah, I know, but, you know, I don't care. So that's that.

So now he's free and he's playing wherever he wants. Drive, can I ask you a question? The Liam Hendricks contract. Some pretty real money. That's some keesh. Do you think that affects the hitters market at all? Is that a weird, weird way to look at it? Because, like, if DJ's like, well, that dude got this, I better get three times. I mean, I just, I think there's teams that are going to

spend money and teams that aren't going to spend money. So if you play a position that a team that's going to spend money is in need of, then you're saying, okay. But if these teams aren't going to spend money, they're not going to spend money, regardless of your position. So we have, so far, the Padres, the White Sox, and the Royals are like the aggressive teams and free agency. Has anybody else signed anybody? Los Mets. Oh, sorry, the Mets. That's another obviously a big one I missed.

Padres, White Sox, Mets. And then surprisingly, number four, the Royals. It's interesting, man. I think things will heat up because spring training, guess what, guys? It's like a month away. It's like two days over a month away before we're back in the RV. covering the game. Are we doing that again?

Pandemic, probably not. COVID, COVID vaccines, vaccine party? That's sad. And the last bullet point here is that the Astro signed Rhine Stannock. Stenic. The pirate that used to be on the Rays, and the Rays traded him to the Marlins for Nick Anderson, which was a pretty good upgrade for them in the reliever department.

So, you know, the Rays used to have just all these pirates out of their bullpen. They kind of one by one been getting rid of them. So goodbye to him. I like Stanick. I played with him. Uh, throws cheese. If he goes over to Houston and gets the good sticky stuff, who knows, man? Who's the other pirate wood?

Hunter Wood. Hunter Wood. Stanick was like the original, the opener. Yeah. Yes. I think Sergio Romo technically is the first one ever. and then Stanit became kind of the guy. Hunterwood is such a pirate.

Like a real pirate? Yes. It could be. Yes. Like a Somali pirate that's going to... No, not Somali. More, you know, old school Caribbean. Old school Caribbean.

I mean... I think it's a Caribbean when you're referring to pirates because that's what Disney says. Oh my gosh. He does look like a swashbuckler. Yeah. They used to have Hunterwood and Stanit come out of the bullpen And I was like, who are these pirates?

Are they doing this? It's not a great look. I was just going to say that. Stanick remembered as one of the early openers That the Rays used to throw out there a lot. Weren't you part of the conversation? I was here. I missed that.

Oh, yeah. Trev said that. That was full circle from Trev's owning me up before. I was looking up and it turns out, Daddy, was right again, Trev. You made me think of Houston and giving them the good sticky icky, which I like a lot. Also, a guy who has massive

splits if he gets rest. When he pitches back to back, he gets roughed up. So, you should see how Houston deploys him. Is Treve out of the hand up? Before, we have to talk about this before. And we could spend very

little time on it. The article that came out. Okay. talking about the sticky stuff, Bubba, Harkins, suing the league, name and names. Named a lot of names. A lot of the prominent pitchers in the league. I've kind of got some insight sources and all that.

If this does go to trial, which I really don't expect it to go to trial, I believe he's going to get some sort of payment and just say, sign the NDA and go away. But if this does go to trial, I have it on good authority that it's going to be a shit show. and there's going to be a lot, a lot of names being named and specifics being named and text, messages, screenshots, all that stuff is there. It's not going to go to trial.

MLB's just going to pay them. What do you guys think about this, though? I think this is a huge story. Nobody else cares. And I don't understand. Well, they attached Garrett Cole's name to it. So that gave it a lot of juice. Smart move by them.

You need a superstar to head a cheating, whatever solution. I do think it's very compared. I think it's very comparable to corked bats. I made that comparison when we had Eno on to talk about it then, and then you made it in your tweet as well, Trev. And it's really weird. It's because hitters have said forever we don't care. And it's stop using the word pine tar.

Someone tweeted at Trevor Power. So you're saying you didn't use pine tar. Very easy no for him in the semantics world because it's not technically pine tar. It's a new lotion or sticky stuff. Substance. So you just need to say, like, wide in the net if you ask people and say, did you use a foreign substance or sticky stuff?

Well, yeah, and Pintar is illegal for pitchers. But the narrative that no one cares about Pintar has been drawn and bought into and believed by the masses forever. So you need to get away from that word if you want people to start caring and just you can't say Pintar. You need to say something else

and then give them all the stats about how, if you throw one pitch one inning, it'll be this good. If you go put the new sticky substance on your fingers, the very next inning without any changes, not working out, not changing, nothing, the same exact arm motion. It's better. I think then people will start to understand this might be a problem. It's going to be a hard route to get people to care about this

because it's been driven into everyone's head that no one cares forever. I tried to meme it. My meme was supposed to mean. this is what hitters are okay with and this is what they're not okay with uh pintar is not they shouldn't be using pint tar okay rosin sunscreen and sweat go put those three things together it's very tacky and sticky it's all you need for grip hitters do not care about that stuff it's the specific formulated foreign illegal substances that takes your spin rate up 300 r pms Instantly, that's what people care about.

But it's hard to, like, explain that. And it's not sexy when you talk about it that way. But this is, it's a big deal. It's a big deal and nobody cares. You just got to follow the MLB's solution problem. Let it run rampant and get out of control and hope something happens that takes care of itself. We'll see a news dump.

There'll be a settlement and then like, that's how you treated the bumps on your balls. Nothing's going to happen until it's day one of an MLB season and four umpires. January 20th, you have the inauguration. Everyone's going to be talking about it. The MLB will come out and say, oh, yeah, we settled this lawsuit with Bubba Harkins, signed an NDA. I don't care about that. Well, I do care because Bubba got screwed.

Take care of Bubba. I'm saying the actual baseball substance solution isn't going to get cured until day one of an MLB season. when five umpires go to the mound and say your pitcher has to leave the game he's using a substance and MLB will never do that they could they could the umpires could just go do that shit on their own if the umpires are feeling spiteful this year love it never know i cannot wait for inauguration day newsdom yeah oh so many thanks are coming they're not giving out the MVP award that day extend cora well that doesn't make sense i'm at the red socks claveland announces their new name oh and it's and it's the red skins yeah i was going to say

it but i didn't want to be the one that's yeah all right hey that's the episode thank you very much for joining us guys leiam hendricks blah blah blah you already listened to it i don't need to recap it we all had a great time everyone was smiling ear to ear the entire hour thank you guys very much for joining. We will see you next Tuesday. And before that, we'll see you on Thursday. Hopefully we get some news. Smooth.