Talkin' Baseball (MLB Podcast) - 263 | Porter Fired, Musgrove Traded, & Kluber Signed

Episode Date: January 19, 2021

Jared Porter got fired by the Mets for being a creep (5:00), the Padres traded for Joe Musgrove (13:15), Corey Kluber gets a 1-year deal with the Yankees (29:45), Jon Lester lands with Washington (40:30), The Angels are frustrating (52:15), and there are some interesting names potentially heading to arbitration (52:15) 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. We got a whole bunch of topics. Klobber signed with the Yanks. Lester went to the Nats. Porter kicked himself off the Mets for being a creep and a bunch of other fun stuff. Let's do it. Hello and welcome to Talking Baseball.

Thank you very much for joining us on this fantastic Tuesday afternoon. My name's Jimmy. I'm coming to you from the Bronx. Jake's here. He's in the Bronx as well. BPD's in the corner. He's also in the Bronx. and Trev is in California.

So we're in the Bronx, the nitty gritty, just grinding, stepping on gum, picking gum off the street and chewing it for substance. And Trev is in California sitting pretty looking good. It's accurate. Okay. I will say it's a little windy today, though, Jim. So I'm not super excited on the weather. That's brutal, man.

That's brutal. I enjoy them. Yeah. wind advisory all day to day, fire weather, earthquake weather, you name it. It's that kind of weather today for us. So I'm on alert. I'm on the cert team for my neighborhood, which is like a... The cert?

CERT. Like certainly don't trust this guy. Certified emergency response team. Oh, oh. It's like a beefed up neighborhood watch because we already have security. Do you have a badass flashlight? Like a flashlight that feels more like a weapon than a flashlight? I have also the headlamp

I'm trained to be responsive Let's headlamp Oh headlamps Jim are like next level If you don't have one you should get one I'll send you one cool if you want to read while you fight crime Or just have your hands Yeah yeah it's true Jake how are you doing James Trevor David Mendelssohn

Live with the Patreon people Hope everyone's doing well Baseball cooking with gas again, hot in the streets, partially for the wrong reasons today as well. But there is a ton of good baseball movement, a lot of fun signings, a couple reliable lefties on the move, Jim,

which I know you're looking for. So I'm good. Yeah, we left the office yesterday, and I didn't say it at a BBD, and I was like, man, what are we going to talk about? I'm talking baseball tomorrow. And then last night, like at late night, we got a three-way trade.

Yep. We got Lester. and then we got Porter. And I was like, okay, there's three huge topics right there. And you and I have mentally kind of moved past Kluber because we did some live talking Yank stuff on it. But yeah, the Klubop for the talking baseball people, we got to get there.

So when you start doing that, a lot of arm movements still, three-way trade, and then a human idiot arose this morning. We haven't talked about Kluber? No, we did a lot of Kluber talk last episode, but I was saying that the White Red Sox should get them and not a team in contention. So, I mean, we got to discuss. that. Before we do any of that, this episode is brought to you by the shop at Johnboymedia.

Shop.com. There's currently a big discount going on. The code is winter and all of our sweaters, holiday sweaters, regular sweaters, are 25% off with code winter. We've got designs for whatever you're looking for. You can wrap your team. You can rep your favorite player. You can rep your favorite podcast, your favorite show on the network, or you can just get your a Jake's suck shirt, which kind of does everything you're looking for in one. The discount is only going to be live for one week. So make sure to act fast. Shop.jomboid media.com, find your sweater and use code winter at checkout for 25% off.

I've been saying if you've ever been cold, go look at them. That's not what you've been saying. You've been saying if you've ever been cold, go buy one. Well, yeah. And the first one that got bought the other day was a Dodgers championship shirt And I was really happy for someone Because I was like, they were like sale

I want to go get a Dodgers championship sweater So that's pretty cool Jealous, jealous of the Dodgers It's a great promo code too Whoever came up with that's very inventive winter Did Jeff come up with it? I thought like Did Jeff?

I didn't come up with it Oh It's me. Jay came up with it If Game of Thrones ended better We'd always be saying winter is coming, but nobody even uses that anymore. It's so sad, man. I blew it. Incredible. It's just been white from like our memories.

People are embarrassed to reference it. Remake, 10 years. Anyway. We can start with the Jared Porter News. Met's GM just got hired. It was with the Cubs forever. ESPN article just came out detailing his harassment of a, I don't know her name, a foreign reporter that was, She's still anonymous.

She's still anonymous. That's part of the, like, deal. Oh, okay. So she's a foreign reporter. Back in 2016, so we're going five years back, but that still puts Jared Porter, I think he's 41 now as like a 36-year-old man doing this. Insane, insane behavior. 62 texts in a row, sending pictures of his bulge, of his bed, just saying you like, using, drawing out his own emojis like it's 2002. and giving them noses, which is always weird.

Like, why would you give your emoji a nose? It's the ugliest part of the face, and everyone knows that. So it's just a really disgusting and it just, like, it's harassment. That's why foolish baseball, who's a friend of the program, I was trying to wrap my head around, like, wording this. Because, like, it's not like this dude was trying to, like, flirt with a girl and she didn't respond. It's not like, like, oh, he shot a shot and he missed. It's not that.

Like so foolish baseball, Bailey, our buddy, he said this. Everything about this situation is sickening. 62 unanswered text messages, targeting a foreigner while she's still learning the language and culture, and then making her feel unsafe at the ballpark. It's not just a failed attempt at making a pass. It's not a faux pa. It's predatory. And that's kind of how it reads.

And I thought Bailey did a really good job summing it up that way. the Mets acted swiftly and fired him. I know sociopaths exist, but it always blows my mind. Like you could be that unhinged. He was sending these texts at like afternoon time, Trev. Like 7 p.m. Like a string of five at 7 p.m. Like, you know, part of my brain,

I try to make excuses for everyone right away. It's just like kind of how my brain works sometimes. And sometimes you'll get mad at me for it. But I was like, yeah, maybe he's just really drunk and, you know, hopefully it's still terrible. They were like afternoon. Like while he's working, like while he's working,

he was harassing this woman, bizarre and terrible. So he's gone. Trev? Yeah, he's a loser. He's a loser. That's like the best word to describe someone like that is you're a loser.

And apparently, I mean, it's not like he didn't take no for an answer. She didn't even respond, bro. like just give it up stop what are you doing like that's my thought is like i can't even like get into that headspace i guess because i'm not a loser i don't know like i just to be i feel the same way as you it's obviously just like crazy wrong you should never do anything like that but i can't even comprehend even like wanting to do that or trying to do that and he's not a one-off like if you

were to ask any female that's in our circle of baseball world that we like love and enjoy working with to show us their DMs like it'd be there's so many people out there there's people listening right now that I've done it to this show so if you're one of those people never do it again and that's the the other part you mentioned foolish baseball's tweet that summed up a lot of our thoughts I mean it started with like the casual abuse of power where he was an insider I forget his job title at the time I forget if he was the director of the farm or something like that. But she initially, like when they started talking, she was like, oh, like this guy can give me information and like help me be a better reporter.

And then it spun into what it did. And it's disgusting. It sucks. Good on Cohen and the Mets to act on it. I mean, they had to with Steve Cohen coming in and being the king of Twitter. And what do you guys want to see at the ballpark? Well, not your GM. So he, uh, they made the move.

it had to be done. And Jim, at the same time, I told you this earlier, because I am a believer in, you know, like second chances. And, you know, it's weird. Where do you draw the line? And blah, blah, blah. And I get that. So, you know, I was, I go back to the Mike Vick example. He did some terrible stuff with dog fighting. I mean, went to jail for it. And then he also, he got involved in that community. He, like, dedicated part of his life. He still does to stopping dog fighting. And in a certain point, time goes on. And it's like, okay, like, he's clearly learned from his mistake and move on like I don't even know what to do with this cat like I it is like sex rehab no because it wasn't even that it's just like creep rehab and I went to his wikipedia to see if he had a family um and

the only thing it says on his Wikipedia about his personal life is like his cousin is a coach for the penguins or something like that like an hl team so I wanted to be like you know seems like a dude that it doesn't have a female in his life a lot that's what I was looking for like no sisters no daughters or anything sure so i think get a sister would help him out get a sister adopt a sister adopt a sister and that maybe might help him out like the female perspective i also have his phone number trev weird flex like someone gave me his phone number i've never once texted it because i don't know what i would even do like hey but i was thinking about sending um a stock image of uh like not an actual dick like richard dixon

Oh, like a Because he Just harassing him Because he said that the picture of his dick No, it was just a stock image joke It wasn't really my dick So what if I just sent him like a string of stock image I can't send him mine

Dicks and docks No And I'm part of the problem Then you're part of the problem Yeah His Wikipedia does now say He was married and divorced in 2014 So I don't know

Oh so he was just out on the lamb He's like hey I'm a free man now That's what I'm wondering He's going to come back with like I was on hinged and I had a bad day or something. I don't even know, but. It wasn't even one day, right? It was over the period of a bunch of months. Years.

Here's my advice to any young male out there, young kid, specifically male because that's obviously what I know. Get yourself a mentor, dude, a good person to model yourself after. And if you're my age, be a good mentor, be a good example. like this doesn't happen. It's annoying. It's stupid. Nobody wants to deal with it. It's abusive. And I think part of the reason is these guys don't have a good figure to look up to. So either get one if you're young or be one if you're older. Solves a lot of problems. You could save someone from doing something stupid like this. I think a good lesson is like don't annoy people. And it's very simple. Also, yeah, girls don't like that. Newsflash, desperation is, like,

is horrible. It's probably the worst things that you can do around a girl. Don't be desperate. And like, I mean, that's a whole other story, but like I said, get a good mentor. It will change your life. And I was wondering because I was like, wow, this is really bad.

Is there a world where they somehow say this? Like, this is Cohen's guy? Like, what are they going to spin? What are they going to do? And then I was picturing like the female Mets beat reporters. And I was like, that you literally can't. There is no spin zone in the world. There is literally nothing.

Because it's as creepy and as, like, as bad as it gets. Yeah. So he's out and they have to get a new GM. Imagine if they get Theo now, which would be so weird because Theo was part of the problem kind of. Because this was a Cubs problem that the Cubs kind of swept under the rug. And they sent it to the mess. Did they know?

I read somewhere that they knew. I read some of the Cubs employee. I didn't even think about that. I didn't put two and two together. Maybe Theo was like, let's leak this. Maybe Theo, no, I'm not going to make a joke. Yeah. We don't know.

We don't know. We don't know. The big news. Baseball. The big baseball news. The Padres acquired another pitcher. Joe Musgrove from the Pirates in a three-team trade. The Mets are involved.

Mets are getting Joey Luketi, Lugo, from the Padres. And the Padres are getting Joe Musgrove. And the Pirates are getting five prospects. Some of the names of the prospects are David Bednar, Drake Fellows, Omar Cruz. Andy Rodriguez. Hudson Head. Andy Rodriguez. Went from the Mets.

Yes. Yes. So it's a lot of moving parts. I don't really care about the prospects a lot. It's a lot of 18-9 Charles. looked in briefly. It's a lot of far away. Good luck, kids. Good luck kids. Pirates. Hopefully you can do well. Trev, I want to give you a little insight. We did a talking yanks episode, Jake and I, where I went through every pitcher yesterday that makes $5 million or less. And we went through them one by one and said,

no, that guy will never be traded. No, this guy will never be traded. Yeah, okay, that guy could be traded. And then all the people that fell in, they're like, oh, okay, that guy's on a team that might trade away. We talked about how much we liked him. Jake and I landed. We wanted the Yankees to get Joe Musgrove. He was our like number one we came away with kind of like, yeah, go get him. Five hours later, the Padres get him. So that was a bit of a waste of an episode of talking yanks, I guess. But Joe Musgrove is a dude that had really, really good stats last year, analytics. He was in top 7% in exit velocity against him. He was in the top 10% for K percentage, top 6% for walk percentage.

His whiff rate went up a ton. The analytics really love him in the small sample from last year. And he's cheap. It's $4 million. The Padres are just scooping up everyone. Yeah, I was curious to see what you guys thought about it because the first thing when I saw this trade was a bunch of people raving about Musgrove.

And specifically it was like the analytically driven people. and there was a bunch of numbers, and I'm in baseball. A bunch of numbers I didn't understand. But they were raving about it, so I went to the baseball reference page, a little bit more my speed, and checked it all out. And yeah,

it seems like he maybe figured some things out last year. His Ks per 9 spiked. He had his best year, obviously last year. He pitched to a 116 ERA plus. He is cheap. A couple things I noticed that are a little strange. He was a first rounder, but he was

the 46th overall pick. How many picks did we have in the first round that year? What was going on? A lot of compensation picks that year. That was interesting to me. The second thing I started to think about was the podgers have too many pitchers. Can never have too many pitchers, man. You know who it really sucks for? Paddock. Paddock. Like, this guy, the sheriff, he was the guy

and now he's not the guy. He might even not even be in the rotation. No, no, I think he'll be in the rotation. What does he do now? So right now they're starting five because Clevenger is out next year. So, you know, it's not like we can just add Clevenger to the rotation. Some of these moves they're making do the fact that Cleve is out next year.

So right now the rotation is Darvish, Snell, Lamett, Musgrove, and Paddock. That's listed as fan graphs. They have the top prospect gore. They can probably Yeah, McKinsey Gore coming up. Well, Trev, now they kind of have options with him. If they want to either mess with a service time. This guy was like a one for them.

Paddock? Yeah, Paddock was like a one or a two. Well, Lemets was better last year. But Trev, you want guys. Think of it this way. Paddock's going to get starts. And now he has all these guys to talk to and bounce off. You want seven guys.

You want seven starters. right someone's going to get hurt. Cleve's already out. And now they have Musgrove for two years. They have Snell for three years. They have Darvish for three years. They have Paddock, Lament, Gore, and everyone else for like, whatever, four to six years between them all.

And musgroves in there. Am I missing anyone? Like they have so many now. They got Bades. Marajon is a young pitcher that he's supposed to be a starter at some point. So, yeah, Trev, I understand what you're saying, but I also think we're getting to a point with baseball that there's all these teams that are selling

that, you know, Yankees' Twitter's been going nuts about Luis Castillo fed the beast a little on that. But, you know, look, the Padres are building somewhat of a baseball super team, and it's because in their same division is another baseball super team. So, like, you know, I don't think we can even, you're saying that the Padres, maybe they have too many starters. Like, no, dude, they might not even be the favorites in their own division still.

And if they're all healthy, you just take you take some of these rookies and you put them to the pen at the end of the year and now you got a you know if gore gets if he can gore can get some starts more home to get some starts and then you know while someone's hurt for a month and then all right well now you're just going to go to the pen and be like a bolt guy or a one inning guy like we've seen that happen a lot david price back in 2008 like waka did it um a lot of obviously that you want pitching i that's not my i guess that's not my point it's like i didn't mean to say they have too much pitch because you could never have too much pitching.

My point is they have too many, like, good starters that, like, they aren't going to get the value out of them. So, in my head, they've still kept a lot of their top prospects, but they lost some depth in their, in their farm system. I'm thinking one of these guys is going to go somewhere else.

Starting pitching is still a big need throughout the league, obviously. Like, I don't see how they might, I replenish the farm system with one of these guys. And then they upgraded, kept all their top prospects and still kept their depth. It's going to be. It's a wonderful place to be, Trev. Wonderful place to be.

If everyone's healthy and they want to move, you know, next year, if they want to move one of these guys like Musgrove next year, if they want to move him at the deadline or at the end of next year because Cleves getting healthy, great. If they want to move one of these younger guys for a bunt, for a haul, they can. The podgers are in a great spot. I like it for them. They, again, didn't give up much. Some of the guys in this name and this weren't even in their top, like, 30 prospects of their own system.

That was the big thing going around Twitter yesterday was that they still have the most top 100 prospects in baseball, which, again, you know, prospects of prospect, but that top 100 is kind of the group we look at that it's like, okay, these guys should have a shot of some sort to make it to the major. So, yeah, and I mean, Trev, you know, Paddock, short season last year, he had a 473 R.A. So it's going to be a little bit sink or swim. Like if you can't figure it out, you're going to go to the pen and we're going to call up Gore. So, I mean, those guys are going to get used. Like pitching, especially next season coming off of the short season, there's no such thing as too much pitching.

Yeah, totally. And like you're saying, it could be a good problem to have. The guy that was also part of this equation, who was a guy I kind of liked that was starting to get overmatched, was Joey Lucchese, who moves in this trade. He goes over to the Mets as part of it. I think me and Jim, if we haven't, sometimes when we're doing talking baseball, we kind of look at each other and talk around the topic, but not fully in the topic, because we want to save the juice for the show.

I think we both kind of like Lucchese for the Mets. He's a lefty. He's going to throw you some innings. You know, the high-end potential isn't there, but also I don't think the low-end potential is there. I mean, he's a younger guy who's thrown some major league innings. And again, I think this year is going to be a race for innings, where the Mets just gave up a minor league catcher

who I don't think, you know, people aren't screaming from the rooftops about to get a lefty that can twirl it this year, sure. I think he's listed as a catcher slash outfielder. So he might not even be a catcher. Same. So he's just a hitter in the minor. Pick me.

You know, what's really cool about this is, yeah, we're talking about Padres. They've done all this. They've had an excellent off season. But the Dodgers are still there. The boogeyman is still there in the division. The thing this really does, the way they've constructed their team and their farm system,

they can go get something at the trade deadline. They have like prospects or prospects. They're slapdicks until they're not. Thank you, Blake Snow for that. But what they are is they're worse something. It's capital, man. So they have a ton of capital to go work with. It doesn't have to be money.

It's prospect capital. If they need another bat, if they need that lockdown reliever, which I think that'll probably be what happens for them if they get into the season like dang we'd really like a good closer and this team stinks so they want to get rid of everybody we have the prospect capital to go out and get someone

to make themselves I mean if they're not already a real world series contender which I believe they are that's the way that they can hit the next tier to get to the Dodgers level I mean they can go out and get I mean I don't even know who will be available who's a lockdown or leave it will be available somebody will be available

They have the means, Hater, exactly. They have the means to go out and get somebody through prospect capital. So this has just been a masterclass of an offseason. And we talked about this. We said teams that are aggressive

are going to be able to get some really good players for cheap. Guess what's happened? Teams that are aggressive have gotten some really good players for cheap. Yeah. And the pirates, who knows what they got? Yeah, Coltucker.

And hot. Treve, the only thing I'd add to what you say is, I mean, look at what they've traded or slash paid for some of these guys. Like, you know, I don't think they'd trade McGenzie Gore for anyone. Like, there's a day in baseball where it's like you trade a top prospect. Like, no, like they're as vested in him at this point that if they make a move for a reliever, they still don't even have to give up their guys. They've tried to build themselves up for a sustained run for the next five, ten years, which also makes me a little nervous,

because it was the line you got mad about the other day. Exactly. It's the reaction you just had now where I think the new formula is, let's be as good as we can for as long as we can and get in the dance and see what happens. So at the same time, I hear what you're saying, but I don't think they'll ever do like a Death Star move. Like, could they go out and get a closer during this season?

Absolutely. But like, they've already got a lineup. They've already made a bunch of Death Star moves. I mean, they went and got all the pitchers. They already are a Death Star, and this is... Teams that win in the playoff. We're saying they're not the favorite in their own division. They could be now.

They could be now. Teams that win in their division, or excuse me, teams that win in the postseason, like, they have bullpens. Now, I don't know about the Padres bullpen. It's not completely true. Ignorant to it. But like they, like I said,

I think that'll be the move during the season. 19 Nats, 18, 18. Red Sox. If you have pitchers that you can go throw into the bullpen to give you innings, then that's kind of the new formula. Dodgers did it last year. Yeah. Padres got some guys to throw in the bullpen in the playoffs. Yeah. So, yeah. Musgrove might be one of them.

Interesting to see for Musgrove, because it was only eight starts last year. I think I like the Padres rotation better than the Dodgers now. I think the rotation, yeah. Yeah. I don't know. Dodgers have, I mean, who? Clayne Curshaw. Bueller, Urius, David Price and Dustin May is what, like, they kind of have listed right now. Dude, I think Dustin May is an absolute, and I think he, we haven't even seen the best from that guy yet.

Someone needs to hone his ability because he just gets hit. Al Leiter would love to be his personal pitching coach. Hot. And I know what he'd say. Stop throwing the cutter. I think he'll end up being the number two there. I think it's going to be, I mean, and it's so dope, I feel like so disrespectful to Clayton Kershaw. Like the guy's like literally like top three pitchers ever.

Royalty. Like he's royalty. Is that what you just said? Yeah. Welcome. He is. I feel like I disrespect him so much. But I could see a scenario where it's like Walker, Dustin May, those are your two dominant starters.

Then you have Kershaw who's obviously dominant. Still, I don't know, man. I think Dustin May needs to develop a new third pitch. otherwise his third pitch right now isn't doing it. The cutter, it gets hit hard. So I don't know. But I don't know anything. I'm repeating what Al Leiter says.

Just the right grit mixture. And he'll turn into this monster. Bam. What about the, we talk about the Mets enough. Mets fans are always feisty. I like Likese. How do you say it?

Likessi, Cassie, Italian boy. Lugo. I like him. They've had a Seth Lugo, so I don't think he can say Lugo. That is, Lucchese's nickname

Sorry He'll just bounce Seth out It'll be a fight for the Lugos I think I'm the Lugo Deptard Seth is hiring I don't know Well he's gonna be battling out for the fifth spot With Mats they're getting depth here with this

And you know Matt's has been pretty bad So make it a battle See he didn't he pitched what a couple Innings last year he got hurt 5.2 innings It was a bad. It was not good. It was bad for the Cassian last year.

Good move for the Mets. Now the pirates have to trade Tyone. Tyone. Tyone. And I think the Yankees are going to grab them. Wow. All injured squad. Hot.

Who else do they have? I mean, like, if you're the pirates, you have guys you want to build around, or do you not even have that? And you're like, we need to find guys to build around. Key Brian Hayes. Yes. You're saying we can build around him.

Cole Tucker on and off the field. Isn't there Reynolds there? Reynolds, he had the really good rookie year. Adam Frazier. There's a couple pieces. I mean, they're very early in the rebuild. Yeah, I mean, they only have Frazier for two more years. Tyone for two more years.

Chad Kuhl for two more years. Eric Gonzalez for two more years. Michael Fulis for two years. So, like, those guys, they can trade now if they want. And then they have Gregory Polanco. still doing it. Is this the worst organization in baseball or is that still the Texas Rangers? I feel like it's probably still the Texas Rangers.

You're Texas Rangers. They're going full rebals. I mean, if you look at who's on their payroll, they have only one guy with a guaranteed salary, like out of team control or arbitration or anymore is Gregory Polanco. Besides Felipe Vasquez, who's still getting money. It sucks because the city of Pittsburgh deserves a good baseball team. Good sports team. Yeah.

Baseball team is good. It's like an incredible place to be. Like when McCutcheon was winning MVP's, they're making playoffs. Like that's a sports town, man. Yeah. Well, they're work. I mean, at least they're kind of like activating a plan. Yeah.

I mean, it's just the plans probably three years away, which is tough. Ooh, I got a little something here. Okay. Joe Musco's nickname, Moose? That's not allowed. Oh, illegal. Two Lugos, two mooses. Wow.

Kessi's nickname is listed as Fuego. Fuego? So, how about that? All right. End of trade. End of trade talk. Bada da da da da. Klober goes to the Yankees.

Very interesting. where the price point rose to. And behind the scenes, people are reporting now that after Klobors, what is it, inning that he pitched in front of scouts and stuff, he threw 30 pitches, that he had multiple offers, and the Yankees came in at $9 million. They thought he was going to get six, and everyone came in higher.

The Yankees went with nine, but that wasn't the highest bid for Corey Kluber. Other teams went nine, other teams went 10, so the Yankees had to agree up, to 11. That is what is being reported. So the Yankees get Kluber for one year, $11 million. Because Trev, I know you hate this, but because the Yankees are staying under the luxury tax, I'm not really a fan of how much they spent here and how much a tax it is on Corey Kluber, who is a little bit of a coin toss, hasn't pitched since 20, hasn't pitched well since 2018,

hasn't really pitched since, what, May of 2019, very early May 2019, through one inning last year before getting hurt again. So it's the Yankees are building a coin flip squad. We're calling it Colin the question marks. He's just another question mark. Will Sevy be good? Will Hermann come back? Will Davy become good?

Will Clark Schmidt become good? Can Jordan Montgomery be a fourth starter, fifth starter? Can Cluber return to form? It's a lot of money. I wasn't a not a fan of it. I'm happy to be wrong. But, you know, one injury. An injury to me seems more likely than a good full season of Cory Kluber.

And they had like 18 million left and they spent 11 of it on Cory Klooper. So I'm not a fan. Yeah, I mean, look, I just did a breakdown on Clubs. Go check it out. Sequence. I kind of go through some of bats, letting people know what. it's like from a hitter's perspective, what to expect. And one of the things I came way with was,

one, his injuries in 2019 were fluke-ish. He got hit with a line dry, broke his forearm. Then he came back and heard his oblique, which happens a lot when you're nursing something. So I would say 2019, forget about it. 2020, he had a little shoulder issue, no surgery. So I don't think these are like injuries that are going to, you know, derail his career.

Some people think the shoulder injury actually. happened early 2019. That's why his results were really poor. And he was battling that while battling the other injuries. And that's why even when the oblique kind of healed, he still never got there. And that's why the Indians traded him. And then there is a lot of whatever about that. And if that's true, it's very scary. I just, I don't, this is the thing, the other thing I came way with is usually a pitcher's V-Lo will drop and that's when he becomes, he's got to figure it out and be a completely different pitcher. I don't think that's the case with Kluber. I think his

VLO is still there. But the real tidbit, which you're going to love, both of you guys and BBD and any Yankees fans out there, is that I don't think he needs that elite Vilo. He's never really had the elite Velo, but he doesn't even need to be in the 94, 95 mile an hour range. Oh, like he ever has been. Yeah. Yeah, he's a 90 to 94 guy, but he just tunnels the ball really well. All his pitches come out of the same exact arm slot.

They all, you know, halfway there look the same. One goes down. One goes right. One goes left. And it's a guessing game. And when he hits his spots, you're in trouble. So I think the Yankees can count on him being able to be that same guy. but they just have to keep him on the mound.

If he's on the mound, I think he's going to be effective because he just has it. I mean, it's just a tough bat against him. If he's missing his spots, you can hit him, but he doesn't miss his spots very much. I was looking at my stats. I faced him the third most at bats in any pitch I've ever faced in my career,

I have zero walks against him. He doesn't walk people. So I think you guys are going to be happy with clubs from all accounts. We talked to my boy Swizzlesticks. He says he's looking incredible. And yeah, we'll see, man. I think the Yankees did a good job,

even if you think they overpaid by $2 million. Talking baseball reporter, Anthony Swizzlesticks. Thank you for reporting on that, our guy. Yeah, man. Sweezy, whatever you want to call him, baby. It was an exciting day in talking baseball and talking Yanks World, because your boy was on it, and we had a nice little workshop, how to do it,

right way and we did take that old media uh when the number came out definitely an eyebrow eyebrow race we uh we thought the number would be lower than that or at least incentive laden the thing we don't know is how healthy is that body because uh you know i i was kind of i was wondering what like what should we be expecting from cori cluber like obviously it's not the high end 2014 to 2018 two si young cori cluber but you know can we expect him to be a reliable number two if he's out there. And then is he going to be out there? Those are the questions you're asking.

I've talked myself into Cory Klobber as the pitcher. I mean, you look at his career and he's been effective. Obviously, if he's older and there's a little more coming off the ball. And Trev, you actually mentioned this as a throwaway line, but I remember it because I listen when you speak to me instead of vice versa. And you said you were a little worried about him in the porch at the stadium because he likes to work that outside corner, and, you know, if the hitter guess is right on the two seamer,

you can find that porch a little easier. So I'm interested. It was a little reassuring hearing that there were other teams in on him at that price, because I guess he does have that high-end potential that is exciting. If he can be Cory Glover, you don't hear a ton of stories about the, you know, 36-year-old pitcher who's been out a couple years and being lights out again, which I think is scary. And, I mean, this is a big bet for the year.

Yanks. They are paying Corey Klover. He's a guy that should be in their playoff rotation. So if he is healthy, which with Jim is the biggest question mark, how good can he be? So I'm excited. Cressy, his performance guy is the Yankees athletic trainer performance coach or whatever. So that scares us more than excites us because it's like obviously he's going to go to bat for his guy. Like, you know, he's. Hey, Cressy, is he healthy? No. I've been trading him for five years and he's not. No, this guy stinks. So I don't know.

Easy, yes. I'm going to be excited about it. The Yankees have enough question marks that I can buy in that a few of the things are going to work out, whether it's Kluber, Severino, Hermann, the young guys. But, yeah, that number was definitely a little, whoa. That's why they're going to go get Jamison Tyone now. Dayo.

And just add another coming back. from injury question mark to the rotation. We'll just have Garrett Cole. And then you got Sevi, Klobber, Tyone, Monty, Hermann, Davy, Clark, Hulishasin. You know the most important thing we haven't talked about when you're talking about a guy going to the Yankees.

The most important thing that has to happen. He's going to look good in pinstripes. Yeah, he's going to look good in pinstripes. Like some guys, are not pinstripe guys. They're not. But Corey Klover is going to look really,

really good in pinstripes. So that's, I think, people who may be doubting this a little bit, just remember that and how important that is to the Yankee. What do you guys call yourself? The Yankee universe? That's a little much, but.

Evil Empire was like the Jose Contreras. Boston named us the evil empire. Yankees Universe. What is it? I think some people do say Yankees, universe, but I don't say Yankees' uniforms.

The other night I blew Teddy's mind the other night. We were reading the space exploration book and we start talking about planets and stars and I blew his mind that the sun is a star.

That was, that blew his mind. I get it. And then we start talking about galaxies and how there's billions of stars in each galaxy and there's billions of galaxies and we start talking about there could be other people other you know other planets he's like like aliens i said yeah and dude he was like

he didn't know what to think i don't probably scared probably you know i you didn't give him a little of i can't rip my mind around that you didn't give him a little of daddy's medicine did you he might have needed it to just to spin it's to go put go watch interstellar with him but he loves he loves he scared of bookshel's forever face and stars and all that stuff right now and uh and Anyways, Yankees universe, just relax a little bit. I think it's pretty smart. I think it's tri-state area better. I don't know.

No, the tri-state area is a thing, but it's definitely not Yankees tri-state area. It just feels like it ends with a big thumbs up or a big thumbs down. And with the Yankees injury stuff the past couple years, it feels like that. I think it's good. I like this one. I would, I would, I'm usually more pessimistic on these deals with older guys and all that, but I think this is going to work out. Well, we'll see what. The rest of the moves are and how much actually they have until they hit that threshold of the luxury tax.

I also think Clint Frazier is still going to get traded. I know he doesn't want to get traded. I don't think so. He's the starting left fielder right now. And everyone else gets injured all the time. I mean, Hicks, injury prone, judge injury prone, Tockeman couldn't hit a fastball last year. And then do they have enough money to bring Gardner back?

So I don't know. Clint's been a bet to be traded for four years. Yeah. I'm sorry. I misspoke. I didn't mean Clint. You guys know who I meant. Don't.

Voight. Yeah. Oh, I don't think so. I'm sorry. That's who I meant and I still believe that's happening. Okay. Okay. Next up, another pitcher.

Another older guy. Lester goes to the Nats, the new Anni Ball Sanchez for the Nationals. He's a fourth starter now. Scher, Corbyn-Straubbler, Lester. How much do they sign for? I, according to the one side, I saw five, but I don't think I saw a report report. I would have liked five to six for Kluber. Right.

I think that I think teams knew Clube wanted to go to the Yankees. This is very well. This is very woe as me. Anoying, annoying Yankemen. I think they're like, yeah, listen, Matt Blake is his old pitching friend from Cleveland. And Cressy is his performance. some fucking team just bid $10 million knowing they were just going to drive the Yankees price up

because it makes no sense that Kluber's getting 11-000. In cash we trust, man. In cash we trust. Anyway, Lester, this is a nice deal. I like this. The Cubs kind of treated him poorly. It came out that the Cubs didn't make him offer to like the very end and it wasn't even competitive at all. It's like, why even do that then?

I would even want to come back just to say they offered. Yeah, exactly. Old man Nats, baby. Bring it back. are the old man, Nads. Oh, my God. Talk about electric. Shursar, Corbyn, Strasbourg, Lester,

just being old in the dugout, trying to dance and stuff. What's the average age of their top three starters? 33? No one can do that. Sherser's 36, Lester's 37, Corbin, 31,

Strausburg 32. I'll go 34. Okay. Who's 37, Lester? Yeah. Damn, man. So what's the story? There's a story like you wanted to retire a cut.

34.3. Dang. They didn't do it. What's going on with that story? I don't know the whole Cubs stuff there, but obviously the Cubs are kind of a little bit in shambles right now. Let us know Cubs fans. You know your Cubs is better than us.

Yeah. Well, they're poor. You know, one of the biggest markets in the league. They're a poor franchise. They're only worth, you know, $3, 4 billion dollars. No big deal. So do we like what the Nats have done? Josh Bell, they got Schwarber, they got a fourth starter in Lester here.

What are you thinking? I think it's a tough division. I like Turner Soto, Bell, Schwerber gets going. They're my Real Mudo sleeper. I'm expanding playoffs. That's what I think. It feels like they're one stick away. Real Mudo would be nice.

You don't like Yon Gomes? You hate them. First Brazilian major leaguer. I like that. John. At the point where I did not like Jan Gomes. Okay. Tell us about it.

Let it all out. I will. There was a play at the plate, and we thought that he stuck his leg out to trip, I believe it was Ryan Domen. Oh. So after that, we were not happy with the guy.

And I believe we said something, or maybe even threw it him. But then through some other guys that I knew on the Indians, he's nice guy. I talked to him at the plate and kind of got over that. But initially, yeah, I wasn't a big fan of Yon Gomes,

but apparently he's a really nice guy. Send Ryan Dome to text. When's the last time you saw Ryan Dome it? We still text. Okay. But I haven't seen him in a long time, man. It's been a minute. He's kind of like, he lives on a lake somewhere,

like just living his life. Love that. He got out of baseball and got out of baseball. It's out of baseball. It's out. He's hunting now. Lester's fun, man. I saw someone posted that his, like, his fastball miles per hour done, and it's like, yeah. He doesn't care at this point. Well, his last two seasons have been pretty poor, right?

Yeah, but Jim, you know I got in there and butterknifed a little bit. His last start last year was horrible, which kind of ruined everything. And he's got enough decent starts that, yeah, I mean. You want me to do the Jimmy Liddix on him? Yeah, do some Jimmy Liddix on him because you're not going to hate it. Okay. I'm reading an article that says something about his Hall of Fame credentials. Is this guy a Hall of Famer?

What am I like, does I miss something? I think he's a Hall of very good guy. But when you're at the end of your career is one of those guys, people start talking. 44.6 career war. That's not correct. It's five awful starts, Jake, and it's six good starts. and then a six and a half good starts, five awful starts. Not the best ratio there, almost 50% good to bad.

And like the bad was bad. The good was good. Yeah. I mean, I just look. I mean, this was an ESPN article and talked about his Hall of Fame credential. I just look at his baseball reference page. I'm just, sorry John. Good pitcher.

A good, I mean. Crazy. It's so hard to get in the Hall of Fame. Some advice I would give to any baseball fan, mute the words Hall of Fame from your brain to zero conversations or articles about the Hall of Fame are enjoyable to read, in my opinion. This is what the sentence was. 200 wins and a chance at another title while cementing his Hall of Fame credentials are what's on Lester's mind as he begins the final phase of his career. Yeah, if he goes out and he wins a Cy Young this year. Let's talk about it.

Next year. He had 20 good to serviceable starts in 19. And 10 you don't want. Still not amazing. Not amazing. Fourth starter for the Nats. If they can bang and he can give them eat up innings. And then they go to the playoffs and they have their top three.

I don't think anyone's complaining. That price point. Especially at that price point, I like the signing. I don't think it's like a game changer, but you got a guy that can eat innings now. Yeah. You can give you a game. we can't fail to mention that when he was done in Chicago, he told three or four different bars,

people can come drink Miller Light on me today for free. And he picked at the tab. It was a big tab. And I think that was a cool way of him saying thank you to the city of Chicago. I saw some tweet or someone refer to him as the greatest free agent signing, like in Cubs history. or I don't know if they said in Cubs history, maybe recent Cubs history. I have no idea, but he's loved there.

Yeah. Got the World Series. That's what they wanted. Treve, I think he was really good against you. What's going on there? Because that's normally your guy, a soft throwing lefty? Oh, he wasn't a soft throwing lefty, bro. Mean.

How soft do you want him throwing? 93, 94 were cut. That's not soft throwing. Okay. A soft toss in lefties Games changed 88 to 90 88 to 90

Yeah like Cassie That's what I would say Played in the Played in 03 Huh You could count on One hand probably

The amount of lefties That throw over 95 miles an hour I mean Chapman Hater Croquette Whatever What's your What are your

parameters for soft tossing? I have like 92 is the top Yeah okay but did Lester ever They're harder than that? I don't know He was good I don't know what my numbers

are against him I felt like I should probably hit him Two for 15 One strike out One walk zero extra base hits That's why I'm asked What years? What years?

I don't know That's just all All of the numbers there Yeah you know If you expanded it doesn't Utter in on my hands man Like I just didn't get extended I don't know what to tell you

I'm sorry Just curious 2011, 2012 1415 in 17. Okay. One of the hits was in 17. I took a hit against them at Wrigley.

I remember that. In 2011, his fastball was sitting 93.3. I'll give him that. I mean, that's... Yeah, that's a decade ago. That's sitting. Three double plays in there. Oh, shit, Treve.

Come on. Big baby, Davey. What the... Come on. I don't know if you guys know this. I was kind of a run-in-the-mill player. So don't be surprised if sometimes I'm good. I was looking for more of a scouting report.

I wasn't taking a dig at you because, you know, lefty, that's kind of, that's your niche market. Hey, Trev, being a run-of-the-mill major league players pretty bad ass. Yeah, that ain't bad. It's better than me. I was hoping. I was fishing right there. Thank you very much. All right.

In news that we have on here that I don't truly care about and I don't care if the teams fans are going to be upset with me because they want me to care. Kurt Suzuki goes to the Angels. Perez goes to the Red Sox. Do either of you have anything you want to say about these moves? I'd say Suzuki to the Angels don't big care. I think it could potentially rule them out on Real Muto.

That catching position was kind of open. How much do they give Suzuki? I mean 1.5, but I think they have somebody else there as well. I don't think that rules them out. If they want to sign Rio Muto this offseason, I would laugh them out of the building. You have one problem that you need to address. The angels are pissing me off.

That's what makes them more in on him. Angels are pissing me off. Sign Tanaka and sign Bauer. Like look what the Padres are doing. Yeah. And be, oh, what do we need? We need pitching. Oh, let's go get two of the top four available.

Fuck, sign Odo, too. You guys don't care about spending money. Honestly, honestly. Don't clip this. Okay. Nobody clip this. I'm about to say. Whisper it.

Just trade Trout. Just trade him. Get him to somewhere else. Don't whisper that. Scream it. Scream it. If you're not going to put him in a position to be in the postseason, trade him. I guarantee there are franchises that will take on his money.

Okay? If you are strapped for cash and you're sad that you gave Pujos all this money and then Rendon and Trout, there are teams that will take these guys. Maybe not Poo Holes. at this point in his career, but he's a Hall of Famer, love him very much. Don't mean any disrespect, Mr. Pouls. But Trey Trout!

Get him out of there. Where would he go? Where would he go? I mean, I think you know. You think the Yankees would go out and get him? Another office reference. When Michael Scott is alluding to Pam that he's dating her mom

and he just keeps nodding his head, it's like, you know, you know where thick old Mike Trow is going, and just hitting dingers the opposite way. Phillies. His favorite team. It's good. Yeah.

Always a New Jersey guy, which is very close to Philly. South Jersey. He grew up a Phillies fan. South Jersey is like Philadelphia teams, mostly. And they talk like they have garbage in their mouth. I'm kind of think of now where, like, he should go. Phillies is great.

Yeah. Well, anyway, they got Suzuki. Then Perez goes to the Red Sox. One, two, three. Throw some bullets, kid. Okay. Arbitration got kind of messy for some players, not all players. Like our buddy Ian Hap is going to arbitration with the Cubs.

Flaherty. Check. Hey, I'm pissed at the Cardinals. Fucking stand-up organization, Cardinal Way. Do right, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. All the Cardinal shit. 600K for the young face of your franchise stud, who's acting. on social media, putting himself out there and a stud on the mound,

and you're going to go dispute him over 600K? Go fuck yourselves, the Cardinals. That's our dude. I've been talking to him. I've been talking to him. But that's just a bullshit move. Like, that's having a good relationship with that guy in the grand scheme of how much money the Cardinals have and all that, like 600K, just make him feel happy to be on the team.

Like going to arbitration, now you're going to go in front of a judge or an arbiter, and you're going to tell, Jack's going to have to sit there and listen to all the reasons they think he's not worth an extra 600K. So you're just going to go to a courtroom and bash your own stud player, 600K? It's so stupid. That was the one that was like, what the fuck? You guys know Jack. I know him very well.

I mean, this is a guy who's very in tune, very with it. he watches the dark night multiple times a month because he likes the quotes in it and like if you're nice to Jack and and like support him he'll give you everything he's got that's the kind of person he is okay but don't think for a second that when you go in here and slander him in an arbitration case that he's just going to forget about it and go back to being that. That is not the kind of guy that Jack is. Now he'll be professional. He'll go do his thing. But

I promise you, you go slander this dude in arbitration. After all he's done for you, he's going to remember it. You want to sign Jack Flaherty to a long-term deal and try to get team friendly with him? This ain't the way to do it, man. Yeah.

There's a lot of big names on the arbitration list. Correa, Dansby, Walker Bueller, Hap, Flaherty, Soroka, Otani. And then even the second tier, but the second tier is where things start to make sense a little bit, like Donovan Solano's on there.

Donnie Barrels kind of started raking last year, but the rest of his career wasn't that. So it's like, okay, I kind of get where discussion might start there. How much are we counting this? G. Man Choi, he's saying, look, I hit off the best pitcher in the league really easily. Let's de Grom. I get it. It's a phrase. But, you know, those big names, like, dude, take care of your dude.

man. Correa is the biggest gap. Correa, the... Trevor. Not nice. Correa asked for 12.7 million. The Astros offered 9.7. So if anyone has no idea how this works, I'll explain it really quick.

If you cannot find a compromise and you're going to go to an arbiter, then the team says this is the number we want, and the player says this is a number we want, and the judge cannot split the difference. The judge picks one or picks the other. So Correa is either making 12.7 or is making 9.7. The arbiter will choose. There's no middle ground. There's no more negotiating. Submit your bid. The arbiter chooses it. So that's where we're saying. And in those court hearings, they openly tell you everything they don't like about you and why you're not worth this much more money. So a lot of guys come out of their arbitration hearing and like defeated. And there's a big story. and obviously I'm going to go to a Yankees reference because I'm a Yankees fan

and I read all the Yankees books. Derek Jeter went to arbitration and they just lit him up that he had no power, that blah, blah, blah. So the next year he went out and I think he had like 22 home runs and he like opened up with a tear. And Del and Batansis went and he came out and said like, fuck that. He was like, I will remember this. Like you guys just bashed me in a courtroom. So it's not a fun process. And that's why when it's really close, like that's $3 million.

So I get Correa and Asher's are way off. Swanson's 700K. Bueller is less than a million dollars. Hap is about 900K. Flaherty's 600. And Flaherty, the Cubs are being cheap. The Cardinals are trying to not, they're trying to manage payroll, but like,

Flaherty is your face, man. I'll go a little bit more in depth on it really quickly. I mean, a lot of these teams, have removed the emotion from this and they just say we're a file and trial team so we can't come to an agreement by the deadline we'll file and we'll go to a trial and there's nothing in between that that's the approach they take so it can just go across the board so they have an excuse essentially to go do this like hey this is what we've decided our organization is going to be most teams are not like that it's trending that way just because as we get into more of the

analytically driven everyone is just a number thing like that's all they care about. So they'll be that. And I think the Cardinals have kind of said that that's what they want to be. But for years, the twins, when they were under the general manager, Terry Ryan, who's one of the most respected people in the game, he's still with the Phillies now. He never wanted to go to an arbitration case because of that reason. He's like, these are my people.

I pick these guys to be on the team. Why do I want to go bash them? So there will be some of these cases will be settled before the trial. Yeah. But in the Cardinals instance, I believe they are considered a file and trial organization. So they will go to this only because that's the

that's the standard they've set in the organization and it's stupid. We got out of the 13 guys that did not come to an agreement, five of them are friends of the program here. So we'll be rooting for them to win. And we got Swanson, Hap, Flaherty, Yarbrough, and Bueller. Go get your money. And we laughed at this, I think on this very podcast when we were more of a CBA pod. But man, when you describe arbitration as someone that's not in the baseball world,

it's a comedy show. It's an organization and a player, an organization telling a player, they're not good enough. And it's like, let's fix this system. That's good advice. I think that's everything we have here. For the listeners wondering when the trials happen, they're usually, what, early February? Right before spring training, I think.

I don't remember. And a lot of this is, you know, the Yankees came to a conclusion with everyone in arbitration, which they're trying to stay under the luxury tax. So if you're a team that's skirting that line, you kind of need to just be, know where you're at. Because if say the Cardinal or the Astros, say they were like coming up on the line and you got $3 million

that you don't know if you're giving the cray or not, that alters your moving, your trades. That alters your signings right now because, you know, you're trying to squeeze under the threshold. So the Yankees just agreed with everyone. They don't always, but it was nice to see that this year. For a long time, they, like, never went to anything. Dellen was the first in a while, though.

And then since then, they've had a couple get really close. Severino agreed to his extension on Deadline Day. Yeah, yeah. Right before the trial, Yankee-centric stuff. Yeah. Well, all right. A lot of good stuff happening in baseball. Some bad.

Some bad, a lot of good. Padres, Nats, you guys got better. Mets, I like the move for the Mets, too. Lucchese. O'Cessie. That is the episode. We thank you guys very much. for tuning in and hanging out with us.

Hopefully we get some more breaking news. Hopefully it's fun. It's not bad. Still some big free agents. Got to make moves a band. Ramudo Springer, like, aren't even being disgust. Bauer.

Muccio is. He's essentially going back to the Phillies. Where's Bauer going to go? That was a rumor the other day that the Phillies gave him a nine-digit offer. So apparently Rial Mudo's in the game. He's not going to get that anywhere else. I've heard a single legitimate Bauer rumor.

Well, I think Bauer is trying to announce wherever he goes on his own platform. So I think he's probably opening up with like NDAs and like if you leak this, I'm out type stuff. 100%. So and I also think Bauer wants to win, man. Like he was, he might be changing from the, you know, I only want one year and then make more and I only want one year. But I still think like part of that is I want to part of his reasoning for one year was I want to go to a contender every year. So you wonder some of the teams in if he's like, doesn't believe in them.

Yeah. I have no idea. He said he wants platform to. Foolish to not go out and just take the bag now. Like, there's no chance. No chance he'll take a one-year deal and do that anymore. Like the guy, this is his platform year and he just won the Cy Young. Yeah.

He's going for the bag. I don't know where the bag is coming from. I don't know, man. Angels, just grab them. Dodgers. How about that? Take that, Padres. The angels need to go grab

Angels need to go grab Bauer and Tanaka or they need to trade everyone because you're not competing. Trevor thinks he has it. Yeah. It would not surprise me. It would not surprise me. If Steve Cohen said,

wow, we just had a horrible, horrible PR scandal. We need something to go the other way because this is not what I signed up for. I took over this team because I want to change the culture. This didn't change the culture. set us back. Now let's go change the narrative. It wouldn't surprise me

if this week he signed with the Mets. There it is. Trevor would not be surprised. So be on the lookout for that. Done. Goodbye. See you. What's today? Tuesday? See you Thursday. For sure.

Goodbye. Get out of here. I think the audience is playing.