Talkin' Baseball (MLB Podcast) - 261 | Kluber Threw, Baez to Houston, & What's Marcus Semien's Market?

Episode Date: January 14, 2021

Jomboy, Jake, & Plouffe are breaking down the biggest headlines in the sport right now! 5:00 - Corey Kluber threw for 25 teams 17:00 - Trevor's Tidbits 27:45 - Andrew Benintendi Trade Rumors 35:15 - What is the market for Marcus Semien? 44:00 - Pedro Baez signs with the Astros Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Hello and welcome to talking baseball. Pedro Bay is signed with the Astros. Corey Kluber threw some pitches and the Red Sox are dancing around in the articles. Let's do it. Hello and welcome to talking baseball with my two best friends and BBD as well. So my three best friends. My bad. My bad.

Tough. I got to, uh, yeah. We're in these intros. I will no longer be describing the clothes that everyone's wearing. if you're interested, go see them on YouTube because I botched it last episode. But Jake's here and he does look great today. I want to talk about the outfit you'd want to see. I want to talk about the outfit real bad.

I just tweeted it out. I fleeted it. BPD's wearing the same shirt where we have a cycle here where there's like always two people wearing the same shirt. Oh my God. This might be the best outfit day and we just banned no outfit talks. Me and Sam are wearing the same shirt today too. Can you believe it?

I almost wore that shirt. Yes. Trev's got the same color hat and hoodie. kind of on. It's a really bang-up day for outfits. You've got to check out the YouTube if you want to see. Add. We have some things to discuss today. Most importantly, Jake, open-mouthed kiss to horse. Jake. James, Trevor, David, a little scared of horses. That's, uh, that's full disclosure. That's fair. Yeah. Everyone should be a little scared. Like my first time, my first time as a semi-adult meeting a horse, like, I, like, went to pet it, and it whipped its head up and hit its head on the barn stable.

And then it was kind of shook. And I was like, I don't like any part of this. Yeah. So besides that, I'm pretty good. I'm pretty good. Looking fly today. Got a couple looks on the Chubway this morning. He turned the subway into the Chubway.

Well, when Poppy's there. Yeah. And, yeah, I wouldn't say baseball is necessarily the hottest in this. the streets right now, but I could see something happening this episode. Last episode, I said that. I got lucky with that. We got someone signed. And I don't know, like these Benny rumors are flying. We got some workout stuff. Hashtag workout season, some other rumor mills. So I'm doing pretty well, Trevor Pluth. You know, horses, they're most comfortable around, like, confident alpha-type male. So it makes sense that it was very uncomfortable.

they can they say that as soon as you sit on a horse's back the horse knows everything about you just by the way you're you're like riding it so you know every horse has known like jake's up to no good like why you chubbed up you know i can see that every time i get around a horse my mind goes to one thing and one thing only like literally this this happens all the time get around a horse you realize how big they are and then you think about like being in a battle when your side doesn't have horses and the other side has horses. It's just not a good, yeah, it's not a good look. So you think about, uh, when your side gets the gatling gun. I was more thinking like just swords and bows and arrows and stuff. Yeah. Before the, before the guns and explosives. But just the horses,

what an advantage. I would never lose a battle if I had horses and the other side didn't. Come on. Yeah. Well, you've never seen Braveheart. Got to be real inventive with some trenches and some spikes. mud catapults are cool catapults are cool catapults are cool BPD they're cool

yeah I mean catapults are really cool there's a scene in gangus con no Marco Polo which is about gangis con where they use the catapults one of the most badass

like war scenes you'll watch it's really cool I'm always a fan of the hot oil like that fuck whoa well I mean what are you talking about

your anniversary night or you're a chemical warfare guy. Like you're trying to climb my walls. Okay, here's a vet of hot oil. Enjoy this hot oil. Oh my God. I went to a castle in Ireland when I was there, like by where my relatives live.

And they just like walked us through the tour of like all the defenses. You see it in movies, but it's pretty cool. Like this is where the guys threw oil down on the people coming in the front door. I'm like, okay. And they're like, this is the spikes that dropped on people. I'd like to feel like this is medieval. I could have been an oil spiller. I like to think that could have been my job.

You would have got too cute with it. You would have done like duck, duck, drop type stuff, like drip, drip, drop. No, that wouldn't be the problem. I would have got just a ton of it on myself. For sure. I mean, for sure. You'd come out with a melted hand. I spill on myself every day.

Speaking of melted hands, Cory Kluber. Pitched for 25 teams. Allegedly. Yeah, yeah. Actually, Jake and I think 26 teams were there. We think the Rays were in center field. One guy with a binocular in each chance. stacking them.

Yeah. And they just, you know, the race can't do anything that every other team's doing. They're like, no, no, we're different. So they sent the guy there, but they wanted the public to think he wasn't there. And then the Marlins, the pirates. Who else did we say? It didn't show up. You said Cleveland wasn't there?

I thought Cleveland and the Rangers, because they've seen what Cory Klob is all about these days. I thought Cleveland might do a little, hey, fans. Like, we're back, baby. You know, all this stuff about us getting rid of players. We just signed our, you guys love. the CluBot. Look at his Twitter account. I don't know, man. Well, anyway, we talked about this.

Kluber hasn't pitched since 2018, and he pitched what? I got out of his stats up, like 25 ennings in 2019, 35 endings in 2019 and one inning last year. I mean, prior to that, though, three straight all-star seasons. And the thing about him, I didn't know you went two Salyangs, too, my goodness. Yeah. The thing about him is he doesn't have to have V-Lo to be effective.

It would help. You'd want to see him running the ball up there at 93, 94, 95. But if he can, what he does, Clubot, the man, he plays the X game on the outside part of the plate. So he brings that two-seamer. He'll start it where it's completely off the plate and bring it back. And then off of that, he'll throw his little cutter slider thing. We'll eat those both.

But when you see that ball and one of them comes back over the plate and the other one goes further away from the plate, you have to make the decision and you have to be able to read it. And his ball, his arm path is so similar on all of them and the ball comes out. He tunnels the shit out of his pitches. So I could see him like, you know, if his arm holds up and he's able to locate, he still has plenty of value to teams. And that's why 70 teams were out watching him. We're up to 70. 70, yeah. I, so we were supposed to do Baez first, but I, Pedro Baez signed with the Astros.

You had that really good, melted hand transition. To Kluber. To Klubor. So I skipped Baez. Have to make the transitions. And it was because he's so fire. Well, it was because Jake would misuse the oil pouring it on to the army. And he would definitely do a good job with the oil and stop people from invading the castle.

But he'd definitely melt one of his own hands. Yeah. hand and with the oil, which perfectly transitioned us to Corey Kluber, who's currently recovering from a melted hand, pitch for 25 teams, 26, if you count the raise behind center field. We're up to speed now. I have a whole plan for the Red Sox. Let's hear it.

They're going to sign Kluber. Yep. Because this is, on talking Yanks yesterday, Trev, Jake and I have a little different buckets of where Kluber lands. I was saying that if Kluber wants a major league deal, He's not going to go to the minors. He needs to be in the starting rotation. I don't think Padres, Dodgers, Yankees,

Ray's a team that thinks their World Series bound, the team that believes that they are World Series bound, will commit to that. You're like, no, dude, like, if you're sucking, you can only throw 85 and getting shelled, like, and you're not going to do Phantom DL. You're not going to accept to go to the minors. We're not, we can't do this.

We'd love to have you if you want to come because we're World Series bound, but you've got to give us a minor league. options or whatever. So I took those out. I also don't think Kluber wants to go to a team that's not in contending at all. So I think the Red Sox are this perfect, weird middle ground where like they're all sprinkling this thought in their head now.

You know what? Maybe we can surprise everyone. We make some last second moves here. No, that's what they're saying. I don't believe this to be true, Treb. But I think that's what the GMs and the Red Sox and they're telling. And Kluper kind of fits that. And they need starting pitching.

And if they get the upside on them, that's amazing. And if they don't, the Red Sox. have a down year, they don't really care if they don't make the playoffs because they're still re-figuring things out. So I kind of love that landing spot for him in a way. Thoughts. Jake. Okay. Yeah, go Jake. I got a lot. Well, the part we differentiated on is, well, A, none of us know what Cory Klooper looks like. The word we got that, again, me and Jim viewed differently was the scout said he looked like a pitcher that was on early spring training, which Jim took as like best shape of his life spring training out there.

Ready to go. I took that as, you know, he's not pumping his hardest heater. He's not doing, you know, he's not going 100%, but he's showing the people what he's got a little bit. Who knows what he actually looks like? And I mean, if Cory Kluber looks anything like he did up until 2018, you know, that guy gets a spot in any major league rotation. He was gross.

I mean, five years, 200 plus innings, a 285. he already to Sy Young's. Really good. He was disgusting. So if he looks anything like that, he could be in a major league rotation. Now, I think where Jimmy and I are landing is that you know, Kluber probably doesn't look like what he was, you know, being a veteran and, you know, if he can still be 90% of what he was,

80% of what he was, he's still a rotation guy. I think that if he is a back-end guy, there's obviously a huge injury risk. You know, you're not getting 200-efficient. from Kluber this year. But with how many pitchers have to be used, especially in this upcoming season, because of the shortened season last year, I could see a good team taking a flyer on Kluber because if he looks like Klooper, awesome. You just got to steal. If he's injury prone or he doesn't look like Cory Klooper, well, you were going to need other young guys to step up and pitch anyway.

So that's kind of where I'm at. What do you name about where the Red Sox are, though? I don't know, man. I think the Red Sox still want to lay low for a year, which, hey, if Kluber, if they got them and then they could flip them at the deadline or something, sure. But I don't think the Red Sox are about to do this full, hey, nothing's happening in free agency. Let's go for it. I'd actually love it they did. Okay, what if they signed Kluber?

They trade Benintendi for a bullpen piece, and then they pick up Simi and put them at second. Go Sox. Tref, where are you at? I just, I think he can help everybody. I do think for him, does he want to go to a place that is in contention? Yes, but I also think he's just going to paper chase, man. Like at this point in your career, like, let's go get the money.

Hasn't he gotten the money already? He's got the money. He's got 60 million career earnings. But like, you know, he knows he's probably got maybe two, three years left. And he wants to go somewhere where A, that he knows he's going to get an opportunity to just throw his innings. And B, he wants some money.

So, like, I'm thinking, like, dude, where could he fit in? Like, would the Dodgers make a play for him? Put him in the back end of their rotation? They don't really need pitching, but they wouldn't offer him enough money, I don't think. But you could go to some other teams. Like, I kind of think he's a cool fit on the Marlins. You know, a team that has some top end guys that maybe needs to fill out the rest of the rotation. But I think for him, like, he's going to just chase the payday.

And he should. I texted Swarzak as you were given your lengthy take there, Jake, and I asked him how to go and how did Clubot look? So we'll see if he gets back to me. Swarzak's your boy. Sweezy's my boy. He's got Swizzi Swizzle sticks, Swiss Califah, lots of nicknames for him. We'll see if he gets back to me.

He might be working out right now. But like I mentioned, CluBot doesn't need his Velo. It'd be nice to have it. but if he can hit his spots and continue to X that corner like he does, he can still be a very effective pitcher in the way that Jake Peavy learned how to pitch and was an effective pitcher later on in his career. The club has to do that, make that transition. And I think his stuff, the way he attacks hitters already lends itself to be able to

adjust and learn how to quote unquote pitch and still be successful. I like Kluber for like all these teams. And there's no surprise that there was a zillion teams at the workout because they know the last time this guy was actually healthy, he was an All-Star, and he has that potential to come and be that easy sign that didn't cost much that really outperforms his contract. I was thinking of him more along the lines of like,

not fully spring training invite, but maybe spring training invite with a ton of incentives if you make the squad. otherwise for teams in contention, like the five up there. That's what I'm saying. He's only going to go, though, he's like, I'm going to go pitch.

I know. So that's where I'm having trouble if he does. I don't know. I'm just, I'm overthinking it, obviously, but that's kind of the game we're playing. But I mean, that's ideal for the team. Yes.

That's not ideal for Cory Klobber, who I think if he's got any of his arm talent left, is going to get more than that. Yeah, which I think is a question. How about maybe this is the game? because I saw someone say in the chat, the Angels, and like, yeah, I could get myself excited for that. I mean, at least the Angels are taking a chance.

Where don't we want to see Corey Klooper go? The Rangers? The Rays, as a Yankees fan. I mean, I'd actually be kind of hyped for that because that would be kind of cool. Wait, as a baseball fan, I want him to go to a team on the French. Okay. Because then if he's really good, he puts. them over the top. Kind of like the Rangers getting Lance Lynn and like the Rangers should

have, they should have done better. So a team that like if he is good, it then like puts them like, wow. Maybe the twins to compete with the white socks. He's not yours. I was going to say. I thought it's going to be rude if I said it. What's that? What's that, Treve? A lot of the twins bloggers are talking about, you know, a clue bot would be make a lot of sense for that. Well, that's, that's kind of why I stumbled into that question because the chat's going more and I mean, I'm seeing giants. I'm seeing Detroit. And that's where that minor league invite thing, I just don't think makes sense. Because all of these teams can talk themselves into if Cory Klover's right.

Well, I'm thinking of Padres. If he's like, I only want to go on one of the five teams that's going to contend. Right. I don't know if he gets a straight up deal. Just because there's. Well, who are those five teams? I mean, it's. Dodgers, Padres.

Padres, no. Dodgers, he'd have to look really good. Yeah. I don't think they're going to guarantee him like, yeah, getting the ball every five days, no matter what. I think the Yankees would have to guarantee Cory Klobber contract. I think so, too, because he's...

I don't think his stuff plays at Yankees Stadium. That's the only thing. I like that, Trev. I don't like that he lives in the outside corner so much and that there's a short right field. Yenkes, I think, would be the only team in that conversation that maybe can offer him like the fifth spot right now.

Yeah, because they don't have a staff. They don't have anyone. Want to hear what Trev said about Corey Klober five years ago, six years ago, six years ago? Sure do. There we go. There's a good bitch early to say.

Yeah, especially against him, like I said, because once you get behind, he's got the curveball. You know, he can do a lot of things to you. So, you know, when he's trying to get ahead, that's usually the pitch that, you know, that's the one pitch that you might get into bat. And, you know, I think. God damn.

Aggressive with that game plan today. And it's worked out for us the last couple of times. But with a guy like that, you know, if he comes out and he spots the ball where he wants to and he has his plus stuff. you know it's going to be a tough game so you know we never look forward to facing him but the last two times we've had some success how much better did he seem once he got rolling this time was he his old self and was it important to get him early yeah I thought he started pitching a little

backwards after we got him aggressive early you know he started a lot more curveballs that's not a pitch you really want to hit it against him and and that's the thing if you let him get in the rhythm he can do that so luckily for us you know we got some runs early and Tommy came mountain. It's great to do. 2015, Trevor. Someone called me in the moment. Humble Trevor, because you crushed Corey Klobber in your career. Wow. And that's

probably, you didn't mean anything that you were saying there. You wanted to say, oh, I was pumped to see Kluber on the hill. He can't get me out. He can't get me out. I'm the best there is. I call his fastball Swedish meatball. Because he's made of horse. I call him the horse. I want that meat.

I got a first of all I meant everything about Cluer because yes I've had a few of bats where I got some hits against him but he also struck me out a ton and there are games where I look like an idiot against him so when I say you're never stoked on facing him I really meant that

but Sweeney Sleazy we're not the media This is media stuff This is a live update Wait wait wait hold on hold on Hold on Trev You'd what can you let everyone know you texted a player to ask how the workout went.

Player texted you back. A tidbit you will not get on anywhere else. Trevor, what is the tidbit on Kluber's performance? Well, like the guy, the player, is my guy, Anthony Swarzak, a long-time roommate of mine. We got into a lot of shenanigans together over the years.

I said, you know, hey, how'd the workout go? Because he was there as him, C-Shek and Cluber, who were all under the same agency. and I just texted him how did they go and I said how to Kluber look and his response was good morning nice of him to say that but he said uh I threw the ball well for being January 13th I feel effing great well rested for sure and then he said cluber looks looks good he didn't miss a spot he threw a crisp professional bullpen Kluba at his finest the guy can't be rattled

and then he added at the end there was a lot of fucking people there managers pitching coaches GMs legit guys so this is a real managers what managers I'm calling bullshit on managers maybe this is all

all going down in Florida what no managers were there who is there Jim Leland why would he why would he make that up I don't understand

I just think maybe he's talking about maybe a clubhouse managers or general managers. We said GMs. That's general manager, Jim. And he said managers. I'm sure they were managers. There are guys that live in Florida that are there. Just need two of them to be there to drop managers. Yeah, I guess so.

You're a bored old guy in Florida who loves baseball and someone's throwing it. Larosa drove up on a golf cart crashed into the first base. When you guys become full adults, you'll understand. I'm a full adult. Treve, I've been married for 13 days. You're not a full of. doubt until you have a child. Oh, gotcha.

I'm telling you. I got a steal one right now. You gotta go get, you got to get out of the house, bro. These managers are probably like, honey, uh, so-and-so's throwing a bullpen. See ya.

Yeah. That's pretty cool for Cishack and Swarzac. What are that? Their names are like pretty similar but different. Yeah. And I think Cishak had a video going on the internet yesterday. I think he has a daughter that, uh, popped him in the backyard.

took him Yardsky. So I believe that was C-Shack. If not, still a good video. Trev, question. Obviously, Klobber brings a lot of the names there, which benefits the shacks or the shawaks and shore shacks. In high school, was there a kid on your team that you would always like nudge and be like, dude, dude, scouts are here.

Like, come on. Like, you're like, I know they're here for me, but I think you can get something out of this. And then that dude just laid an egg every game. Name that guy. Oh. No, but I do have One of my best friends

He ended up getting a scholarship to UC Irvine And becoming a college world series star But You know, he did it on his own He was good enough to do that But he wouldn't have got the exposure If it wasn't for me Like there was a lot of people at our games

But so I don't have one That ploof juice Oh man, we should make a sure It says ploof juice Talking about my ploof juice That's actually We should look at some videos up He has some awesome videos

from the college world series. He literally became like a sports center star when he was doing it. Now he's an agent. Stud. I named one of Teddy's 15 names is after him. Trevor Plufe versus Cory Kluber, 46 at bats, zero walks, 13 hits,

two RBIs, I mean 10 RBIs, two doubles, three home runs, 804 OPS. No one. No walks. You went up there to hit, you know that guy had horse balls. Swanging. Trevor, thank you for texting Swizzy, Swiss beats. Because, again, sometimes when you hear the way baseball players talk, it's just like, yeah.

Like I didn't even give you the full text. Didn't miss a spot in a bullpen. Like, you know, no regular fan would ever say anything about that. And just calling it. professional bullpen is kind of a big dick move. I mean, really, like, Kluber's baseball reference page is one of those. You're like, holy shit. Like, he's already racked up close to 40 career war.

And you just look at, like, 2014, not an All-Star, but Cy Young, then Say-Young 9, Cy Young 3, Cy Young 1, Sy Young 3. That's a hell of a five-year span right there. And, dude, it's a bang-up Twitter account. It's old school, man. It's old school. I mean, 215, 2222, 2.35 innings. Like, you don't, that doesn't happen anymore. He does that because he doesn't want people.

Like, he gets ahead of everybody. So even though he strikes people out too, like, you know, he's got 270, 240, 245, 260, like he strikes people out. But it's so quick. Like, he'll strike you on three fucking pitches. You know, like he doesn't have to set you up for anything. And that's why he's able to throw all those endings. But there's a ton of bold on his baseball reference page, which I love.

And he's just one of those guys, man. Like, you know he's a good pitcher, but until you go look at his numbers, Kershaw is the same way for me. Because he Kershaw has that stigma, the playoff stigma. But you look at his baseball reference page, you're like, this is one of the greatest pitchers to ever live. Yeah, I mean, Kluber's five years, Kershaw's like, what, 12 years of that now? Something stupid.

Hey, what's Corey Klobber's two best years? The two Si-Young years. The two Sai Young years are 14 and 17. Let's just do 17. Okay. How many three-pitch strikeouts do you think he had in his Cy-Young season, Trev? 265 strikeouts that year. Three-pitched strikeouts?

Three-pitch punch-jee. That's really tough to do in the big leagues, so I don't know if it's a huge number. I would say if 265. I'm going to go 40. 33. 33. Calculating. It's calculating.

It's calculating. We have in 2017, 64. Wow. Three pitch strikeouts. I thought about going 65 just to make it around 200. How hard it is to strike a major league hitter out in three pitches. That's fucking incredible.

64. Can you get like league leaders? No, I don't know how to do that. but let's see I'm trying to see who what name on here is on here the most we got a couple a fourth of his strikeouts dude a fourth of his strikeouts for three pitch strikeouts that's crazy that's pretty nice yalmers sanchise looks like the only person he got him three times three pitches i guarantee i'm not in 2017 because i didn't really face him that year much but if you go back to 15 16 and 14 i guarantee i got some three pitch strikeouts

Huh. And it's stupid. An April 15th game against the Tigers. He had four in the one game. Oh, wait, hold on. And then his next game in the 21st of April, one, two, three, four, four again. And then one, two, three, and then five in his next game. And then four later, I mean, he averaged like four games, three-pitch

strikeouts. That's impressive. You're so embarrassed as a hitter when you go out there and you strike out in three pitches. Can you give me another? who won the Sai Young in 18? Barry the Frog. No, that's not right. I just want to do a quick one comparison.

Snell. Erlander was second. Snell throws a lot of pitches. Snell didn't have a lot of innings either. Snell had 50. Pretty good. Pretty good. Soy Young winner.

Anyway, that's the Kluber talk. Red Sox are linked in a lot of rumors right now. Who knows if it adds up? Some people say that, Ben Intendi will be traded, which is trading him kind of at a low value right now. I don't know what you get back, but Mark Feinstein said that he will be shocked if the Red Sox don't trade Ben and Tendi at this point. So, I mean, that's a fun talking point we'll have later on about him.

I don't know what he brings back at this point. Yeah, I mean, it's just, it's crazy as a Yankees fan. I mean, this is a guy when he's right and you're playing against him. He's one of the biggest thorns in your side. That he's 26 years old. That's insane. I was just going to say he's young, dude. I did not know that.

26, man. So he, you know, he kind of did the every other year thing for those first few years. And then he really had a meh, 2019, that led into an, oh, my God, 2020, which, again, how much substance can you take from him? that you're right jim i mean when you talk about value-wise if you're the other team trading you have to say like we i'm pretty sure that 2019 season didn't bennie finished terribly or something like that so we we haven't seen andrew ben intend to be the guy that plays elite defense and he's a really tough at bat since 2018 so uh i don't know i mean it's not a bad flyer everything every trade depends on value um but yeah man i don't know i mean talk about a weird this

guy in, you know, 2018 was a problem in elite defensively. The defensive numbers gone down. His like speed and metrics have gone down too, which is... In 19, he had a good summer. He had a good June, July, August, April, May, September. April and May

were all right, like a little below league average. September was horrible 21 games for him. But I don't know if they've ever been an elite defender. I mean, I don't... And part of that is maybe he's playing left field. At left field, Fenway. it's hard. It's kind of like, you know,

right field at Yankee Stadium. Kind of two similar spots. Like, yeah, pretty easy. I mean, Aaron Judge. Aaron Judge puts up great defensive numbers in right field of Yankee Stadium. That's what I'm saying. I think Benny might have put up great numbers, but you have to take into context.

They're both playing the easiest, probably maybe the two easiest out on the spot. Oh, no. Benny has not put up. Oh, he has. The analytics aren't crazy. No, but the way he handled the monster was well. And he's got that famous, the famous catch against Houston that saved.

that game and you know when it was him jvj and mooky and the outfield the other two are obviously a different level of defender but they were a very good defensive outfield yeah i would say if you're a team bank trying to go for andrew benintender you're banking on he's entering some sort of physical prime you know 26 27 you'd want him to return to form get back into the eights with his ops serviceable defense he's not going to hurt you could help you uh but if I'm a team, I mean, he's still got how many years of arbitration? He's got two more years, two years of control? Like, I'd go after him in a heartbeat.

He starts, I don't want to say he starts getting paid. In 2021, he is supposed to make 6.6, which again, you know, looking at some of the performance. Shit, dude, that is shit. I don't want to get that narrative out there that that's a lot of money. I'm not going to do that. But, Trevor, it's what else can you do with the 6.6 million? And, you know, we saw the other guys that hit free agency this year. I mean, you know, Adam Duvall, what's he going to bring in?

Like, he was disgusting last year. So I don't know. It all depends on the value. You know, I always reference my Texas Rangers, like, and I know they're a team rumored in this. Like, if they take a flyer on Benny, he plays a buck 50, and he looks like the Benintendi from 2018, you know, that's a huge win for them. So, I don't know.

Take a chance on a guy who's 20. and does have some good Major League experience. I don't put a lot of stock behind this because I don't for all of it, but the defensive analytics do not tell the nice story. I mean, he's ranked in the one percentile of outs above average. Last year? They don't even have it last year. In 19, he was in the second percentile.

In 18, he was decent. 29th. Still not good. In 17, which was kind of his best year. He's the first percentile. Outfield jump also very bad. So that's interesting. I just don't know what the Red Sox are going to get for him.

I mean, the team's going to get two years of Ben Intendi. And they'd have to believe that he can offer them more than what they have in their system of team-controlled guys. Because like you're saying, Trev, $8 million is not a lot of money for baseball standards. But the way teams think, which you kind of have. to we have to understand is they're like well can we get what ben intending is going to offer us from a dude is in triple a right now or a dude is in his first or second year and can make 500 grand because if we can get anything near they're thinking is there are two guys that we could put together in platoon that exactly make 500 grand a piece that's how all they all think but i think the difference with the guy they've been attending is um his age and like he's already pretty accomplished hitter. And now, you know, this, like I said, like the physical prime thing, like, is he going

to hit for a little bit more power? Like, how does he fit in your stadium? Could his defensive metrics tick up if we put him in a regular ass outfield without a huge wall behind him? Like, I think he runs okay. Like, I don't know, has stolen me, look up his stolen bases, but like, to me, when I think about him, like, he's not slow per- Sprint speed is around 45 to 55%.

So it took a big drop. In 2017, he was 80th. Yeah. So that's what everyone points to, is that the speed literally took a drop, which, again, at that age, it's not supposed to drop off that quickly. Well, let's get some more power then, Benny. Come on, man. Any biceps.

According to all the rumors that... Stop getting your biceps so big. Lift your legs. Astros, A's are reportedly in talks. Astros. He becomes the next reddict. I love the A's with him. I love that.

That's just the Rays. Reddick teams, right? Red Sox, Astros A's basically. Got a type. Yeah. Okay. And he's going to have to, like, dirty up to look a little bit. Oh. Can't be Pretty boy Benny anymore. He's going to have to go, like. Pretty boy, Benny. Oh, that's what a lot, everyone, I mean, this is my biggest gripe.

These are coming from you. That's why I'm confused. Well, that's his image. I don't agree with him. Right. I think the power will jump getting out of Fenway. Because, I mean, the right field in Fenway is a joke. Obviously, down the line, it's very small, but you get 15 feet off the line, it jets out, and it's big. I wouldn't trade him on the Red Sox. I just let him play.

And he could have a good April, May, June, July, up his value a tiny bit. Trade him to a contender at the deadline. And you probably get a little more for him at that time, even though they're only getting him for a year and a half instead of two full years. I don't really see why you would trade him right now. Unless a team's going to over return, which isn't really the market. right now, so I don't know. Anything else?

Simeon is another guy getting a lot of hype and rumors right now. Shortstop Mwaka Simeon. Red Sox are linked, and they haven't had a second baseman since Padraeroy went down. Like Brock Holtz been there. Nunez played a little bit. Who is the guy from,

that played last year, Jose. Piraza. Jose Piraza. So, I mean, if the Red Sox are interested in getting, like a core up the middle moving forward. They can move Simeon to second base. There's rumors to that. But like basically listen to the teams that they say are interested in Simeon.

Mets, Yankees, Nationals, Red So, Cups, Rangers, Marlins, tigers, pirates, Blue Jays, Diamondbacks, and Indians. So. Everyone's interested in him at the cheapest price they can get him because he had a bad year last year. and he was amazing the year before that. He finished third in the MVP.

Treve, you were saying before he turned things around at shortstop. He was a bad defensive shortstop, and then he had a good couple years. I think last year he was bad again, so that's why all the teams are wanting to get a bargain bin price as Marcus Simi in the second baseman. I don't know. I think, you know, the Reds have been rumored to him because they've got the whole at shortstop.

I don't think one of the big teams comes into play. I think this is a mid-market. You take a chance on him for three years and you hope to bottle up that 2019 and he can outperform his contract or two years, whatever it is. I think he's 30 now. I think I read the wrong list anyway.

Okay. But there was a lot of teams. It's mostly Philly-Cincy Boston and a lot of other teams, but we'll see. We had disagreed early on about him, Jake, where I thought because the market and because of down year that he might sign up. a one-year prove-it deal somewhere.

Do you have, you said you thought he would get multiple years? Do you have any, I think he may be a two-year deal, but I don't think it's going to be big. I'm just saying, 2019, he played a buck-62 every game, 892 OPS, played shortstop, third in the MVP, and then you take the 2020 sample size, which is 53 games, and he was bleh. So. I agree he should get a nice deal, but you can't fully torpedo him. I mean, and it depends what he wants to do. If he thinks it was just a blay year

and he could go out, find the right team, break for a year and get the big payday, sure. A lot of short sucks. But I'm kind of thinking of it as the Sunny Gray contract with Cincinnati. When Sunny went to Cincinnati, they paid him, even though coming off the Yankee stuff, he didn't look great. But they knew like, hey, if Sunny Gray fixes it,

which we think we can do, we'll have a pretty good bargain price on Sunny Gray. So I could see Marcus Simeon doing the same thing where, sure, he could get a one-year, taster deal with whatever team he really wants. I mean, he's a good ball player. But I think a team like the Reds or a middle market team could say, hey, let's go two for 20, three for 30 and see if we can make him that 2019 guy, I mean, you're getting a 20-mill-a-year player. He was third in the MVP. Now, I will say if you look at all his analytics across the last five years and just the quick

baseball savant, if it's a red bubble, it means he's above average, if it's a blue below, 2019 is the biggest outlier year for easily. I mean, I know 2020, you can't count because it's only 60 games and you have to huge grain of salt. But, you know, even if you wanted to extend it further, 17, 18. He doesn't want anyone to look at those numbers. Yeah. Yeah. That's kind of the thing with him is, I mean, like, I know he's a great ball player

and, you know, what you're going to get with him is a strong work ethic, a guy that you can just, like, count on. And I think that counts for something. but when he dig into the stats I mean he's he's a mass like 22 war but almost half of that was in one season it 8.9 war in 2019 and you know he had he platformed that in 2018 with 4.7

and I think if he had a good 2020 people be like okay okay but he didn't so now they look back and I said okay 13 14 15 16 he really wasn't ever an elite ball player until 2019. So he's got that's a that's tough for him. You know, it's a tough sell to teams.

Teams are able to use those numbers and manipulate them. I don't know what kind of contract he's gonna get man. I don't know. It's it's very, this is an interesting case. I do see like you guys are saying like maybe a team's like, hey, let's give the guy a two for 20 and that's not crazy expensive. We know he'll be serviceable at the very least. But the days of him getting a four-year, you know, 15 to 17 AAV, probably not going to happen. And, you know, after 2019, we were thinking this guy was going to get a five-year hunch. But I think just because of the 2020, he reverted, then they can go back and look like you're doing Jim at the five-year window. So it's going to be hard for team to pony up the money for that.

We could be underselling him a little bit. This is the Fangraphs, crowd source results that I've referenced a few times on the show. And they've actually been low on a lot of the free agent signing so far. They had Simeon at a 3 for 51. So I don't know. I mean, a team would really have to buy in. I was surprised by those war numbers you just said, Trev. I know the MVP year is nuts.

but I mean a four and a half the year before that that's still, that's a number that speaks to a lot of organizations. I'd like to ask Oakland A's fans about his defense because it was really bad, right? A lot of trouble throwing in the ball. A ton of throwing errors at first. He also has one of the best third basemen to kind of take away his right side from him. And first basement.

So, I mean, I don't know. I don't watch a lot of full A's games. So I'm interested to say like what is, is an A's fan say, well, he gets a lot of help or does Naysand say like, no, no, he's really good. He's really good to his left and Chapman eliminates his right. Because if he goes to the Red Sox, the Red Sox, they're going to move him. Cincinnati, Philly would keep him that short.

The tweets yesterday listed him as second baseman, Marcus Simeon, which is kind of tough. I mean, come on, guys. Yeah. Ron Washington really helped him in Oakland, and he just worked out of a ton and got better. I mean, that's what you have to do defensively. And shortstop in Oakland, any infill in Oakland,

position in Oakland's tough because they have you have the foul ground territory when you look over there you're making a throw to first base it's different than any other ballpark it's just like this huge expanse behind the first base of and so so you know obviously he got used to that and that's and he does have Matt Olson over there but you know he's going to work hard I think he'll be definitely serviceable defensively he's not going to revert back to where he was you know those years where he was kind of sailing the ball all over the place like he's learned his body he knows how to to make those throws now. I still see him as a shortstop.

I don't. It's going to be getting out of his hometown city. He's a Bay Area kid. Yeah. You think that helps him or hurts him, Trev? I don't know. Okay. Give me time for a change.

Change is a little scary. You know, he's got his system there, but I think he's, I don't see the 351, man. That kind of threw me through a loop there. I think he's more in the range of a 220 type of thing. And I hope he gets 3.51. It'd be awesome.

Give him the deal of DJ got with the Yankees two years ago. 224. Absolutely. Go back for agency at 31. 100% to do that. Okay. We've done it. We've done it.

Two for 24 for Simmons. On the Yankees. What's that? I think he fits on the Yankees. Well, if they don't get DJ maybe, I think they go Simmons for a one-year deal then. I still think I still like that if they don't get DJ. And they're going to get DJ. I mean, I think both those guys are a great fit.

in Yankee in New York. Can I ask Trevor about the... Please. Well, I was going to end the show because we're done with all our topics. Fully skipped Byes. We did them at the beginning. No, we did.

I said, Pedro Byes went to the Astros. We don't have anything to say about them. I had some stuff to say about them. I literally asked you pre-show, anyone have anything to say, and you didn't say... You just kept saying you didn't have anything to say about it. I asked open forum. He was a 3-A reliever, really good against lefties.

Kind of got a tough rep at the end of the... the Dodgers thing. Yeah, you got a real tough. Did you see Alex Wood defend him yesterday? That was pretty good. One of the reporters was like Dodgers lost confidence in him and Wood came out and was like, like, come on, dude.

Not on the team. Like that guy was a horse for us every year. So give him a little bit of that Houston sticky. Bang. Just stick. Stick. All right. You got anything on bias?

No, I just know. Yeah, like around L.A. people were very nervous when he came in. Now, the Dodgers, players saying they didn't lose confidence in, that's awesome, because that's what you want your teammates. They always need them to have confidence in you. But I know the fans of L.A., 100% lost confidence. And I don't know if it was warranted or not.

Fans are sometimes, guys, fans can be stupid. That's okay because everyone can be stupid at times. You know, like the way they talk about Kersha is so stupid. Well, that was biased. too. He had a couple tough playoff memories, but the guy was literally clockwork. His ERA was right around three every year. You know, 50 to 70 innings. And I think he's a reverse splits guy. I'll double check that because of the change-up.

Yeah, good for him to actually, he got his ring and he leaves. All crowd? Yeah, reverse splits guy. 584 OPS versus lefties, 661 versus riders. I'm actually going to be good again. Like, I'm kind of scared of the a extras, man. Like it. How many home runs do you think Pedro Baez has in the bushes, Trev?

What? Came up with a little third baseman action. Yeah, he came up as a third baseman. I don't know. 45. It's hard to hit home runs in the minor leagues. Oh, you saw it already? I did.

45, 45 minor league home runs. How many years? I mean, let's see. They have, when did he fully transition? looks like 2013 they transitioned him no no no 2012 so from 2007 to 2012

he was a hitter in the Dodger system and he got 45 home runs in that 1 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 year stretch yeah that's about right like I said it's hard to hit homers in the minor least and his nickname on baseball reference.

There's two. The Mule, which is I'm sure the mule, I'd assume. The assumption. And the other one is the human rain delay. Which is Steve Trashley. Kind of what in L.A. talk about. That's tough. That's how you get a bad rap.

That's how fans don't like you. That's why I got to tell my buddy you are, bro, like, dude, you're, you know, you're itching for people to be annoyed when you get called into games. That's how you get the media to not like you. And then they write articles like, thank God he's out. you want to listen to some baseball folks get cranky, listen to John Sterling on a getaway day when there's a slow pitcher on the mound, just like, come on.

That's why Lance Lynn, Mark Burley, loved by the media and stuff. This fucking tossed the damn thing. Hot. And they're both hot, yes. All right, what I was going to ask you, Trev, is I can just feel pushback coming already. Okay. Jack Curry, who's the Yankees beat reporter,

had a thought, and I want to ask you, and you might poo-poo it. And I think a lot of people listening will poo-poo it. But Jake and I kind of subscribe to it as well is that Glaber Torres is a shortstop for the Yankees. Lindor is short-stop for the Mets. If Lendor's short-stop for the Mets and they're sharing the same city, that might put a little pep in Glaber's step as like, hey, I want to be the shortstop in this city.

It might give them a little, like, edge, just attitude-wise or push. Do you subscribe to that, the human emotion of that situation at all? You never played in a two-team city. Well, I guess for the A's for a little bit. But have any thoughts on that? I'm genuinely curious. No, I don't subscribe to that. I think he, maybe it'll push him.

I guess that's what you're saying. Yeah, that's what we're saying. It'll push him and motivate him a little bit. But, I mean, the motivation should already be there. Yeah, he had two really good years. And then last year was pedestrian. And I think we go on to say whatever it is. is what the hope.

What's that? Defensively, I think, is the hope. A lot of his errors are mental lapses and like just mindless. It's just really hard to be a shortstop. So like, you know, he's, I don't think he'll fit forever. He's got a maybe, and it doesn't have to be Lindor, but like if someone just gets in his ear and I'm sure people already have, like if you want to be, I mean, being a big league shortstop is hard and you have to work at it.

And yeah, you can go out and bang and you'll be. on a team, but if you want to stick it shortstop, you've got to be able to pick it. You've got to put up worth defensively there. So look, he's 24 this year. Sometimes it takes a little bit of time for guys to understand, oh, I got to do more. You put that guy and you get someone, I don't know who they're infield coaches with the Yankees, but you get a guy and say, hey, if they said specifically, work your ass off of labor this year, there is no doubt in my mind you could make leaps and bounds improvements just by going out there and taking 100 ground balls a day.

That's what Machado said. He learned from, um, was a shortstop JD. Hardy. JJ. J.J. Yeah. He said like,

he's like, JJ threw the ball funny. It kind of looked funny how he played, but he did the same exact thing every day and through the ball, the same exact way. He never did a different arm slot, never did anything else. He's like,

and that's how like he's like, you just everything is just about doing it like a hundred times a day, the same exact way. You have to. You have defensively. It's the only way to get better. I mean, you can maybe increase your range by doing some agility work, whatever, but you just got to go field ground balls, man.

And so once you realize that, you can make steps. I did it in my career. I was shit. Then I became good. You had a good insight on Altuve and the Yips last year with the Astros and what he needed to do to fix that. And then they showed him doing it. So that's why we keep you around, Triff.

Great insight. Tibbits, man. You like feeling ground, I didn't, his, his offensive numbers are great. Yeah, I'm not worried about his bat. I don't think he'll last that shortstop, but I'll give him another year to see, I guess. We go to a field tomorrow and rip grounders at you.

Are you having fun? Oh my gosh. In fact, I was talking to our boy, Cole Tucker. I was asking him who he's taking ground ball with, and he said his brother, and they're doing his high school or whatever. And I was like, dude, I can't. I said, I'm coming out.

I got to get a day of ground balls with you guys. Like, I missed that. I'll play first. He came back at me and said, yeah, you better come before you get too old and too sore to do it. Wow. That was, dude, Cole, it's not coming at you. There's, that's like honest advice. It's very true.

That's Cole being loving. Yeah. It's being very nice to. The thing is, now I'm in great shape again. Right. Dad bods, dad club, dad workout gang. Gang gang. Yeah, workout gang.

But dude, ground balls is like amazing, especially when you get to do it on, well-manicured field. You go take ground balls on a big league field. It's so fun. Jake and I once or twice, definitely twice, maybe three times took like our gloves a bat and maybe like three balls to the college baseball field just hit each other ground balls and college kind of lose their stuff.

But it's fun. It's like a better than sitting on the couch playing video games. But like, you know, then we hear each other fly. We only had like one ball and there was only two of us. So it did get a little bit like. You really need three for a good infield. Yeah, because you have to throw it to first. we're just throwing it at like a ghost over there.

We're like, that was scooped. Hell yeah. Out. Yeah. It's nice when you guys hitting you balls. You got someone catching over there at first base. We need to go have a catch at the park again. Who hit you the best ground balls, Trev?

And why was it Phil Roof? No, I don't think he ever would hit ground balls, but he'd catch at first base. Oh, sure did. I liked when lefties hit me ground balls. Ooh. There was a different spin on the ball. Yeah. I like that.

But I mean, the coaches is hilarious. You'll see a first year coach and him working his way around a phone going like, oh, you're a first year coach. Second, third, fourth year coaches. They start to spin that bad boy around. They got the bat flip. You just get really comfortable with it. And we used to challenge all, because you take infields and shit in spring training,

and you challenge the coach. Like, don't mess one up. And then the biggest, the biggest thing where you can tell a coach has been around for a while is are they going to do the pop fly at the end of infield

for the pitchers? I mean, that's really young. Like, my dad, your dad's show, man. I guess my dad played college baseball so he kind of knows like a little bit of the way around. But I mean, I grew up doing that.

Dude, that's amazing. If you got a guy that can knows how to do it, it's such like at the end of infield, you'll have everyone watching and just saying don't fuck it up man and when he did you made fun of them

but a lot of times you get these guys they're so they're so comfortable with the fungo in their hands awesome it's tough fungos are hard man yeah baseball

go watch our spring training video at Minnesota Twins camp Trev hit us some fly balls with the fungo that was fun that was fun I would love to go do that regularly all right that's the end of the episode

that's all the updates Hopefully something big happens. Hopefully it doesn't happen as soon as we end this. Hopefully it happens right before we're about to start the next episode on Tuesday. If there is something over the weekend, we will hop on and talk about it. And let's hope for that. Let's have some fun. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.