Talkin' Baseball (MLB Podcast) - 274 | Andrew Benintendi Traded to the Royals + Dead Ball Talk

Episode Date: February 11, 2021

Get 20% off and free shipping with the code 'BASEBALL' at https://manscaped.com​ Go to https://kushydreams.com/​ and use Promo Code 'BASEBALL' for 20% off your next order Andrew Benintendi was traded to the Royals and a bunch of other moves happened! Jomboy, Jake, & Plouffe break it all down. 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're talking about stuff. There's so much stuff we're talking about. Ben and Tendi got traded, three-way trade. The balls are dead. Let's do it. Hello and welcome to talk in baseball. Thank you very much for joining us today.

My name is Jimmy. Sitting next to me is Jake in California. We got Trevor Plouffe. And behind the dish, we have producer Big Baby David. Welcome to Talk in Baseball. Got some stuff to talk about. Baseball once again gave us a headline. as we were winding down last night.

I thought, great. Now we got something to talk about on tomorrow's episode. So I appreciate their timing there. But first and foremost, we got to tell you about Manscaped again. Manscaped is here to provide you the best tools for your grooming experience, offering precision engineered tools for your family jewels.

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Use code Yanks. Trev, how are you doing? I'm doing great, Jim. We talked about this. Lord of the Rings, excuse me. Game of Thrones killed winter. Like, forever winter is just not what it used to be just because of Game of Thrones. but look, I'm doing great.

I'm a little bit tired. I told Jake that before the show, but I'm going to dig deep and get the energy from like here. You know what I mean? I'm going to bring the energy even though I'm tired today. I'm a team player. Okay. How are you guys?

I mean, I'm coming here full of life. Went for a 10-mile run last night. I was dealing with my kids this morning, and I'm a ball of energy, so don't really see where you're coming from. Doing well, doing well, man. The Benny stuff, a lot of different emotions getting pulled different ways. It's an interesting one on the baseball spectrum,

and it's, man, how quickly things can change in this weird sport. One day you're going to be a super utility weapon. The next day you're podcasting on the top baseball podcast in the world. So that's how it goes. You are trav, and then you talked about trav. What do you mean? Everything's going on. I like it.

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Trying to get some butt move In case you're wondering what's going on Even the manscape box are showing. Yeah, okay, I'll start doing that. All right, there was a three-way trade like we said. It's kind of interesting, so I'll go slow with it Andrew Benintendi, the Red Sock, goes to the Royals, and Boston is paying 2.8 million of the 6.6 he makes in 2021. Now, he has another year attached to that that the Royals will be paying in full, I believe.

So the Royals are going to get Benny for two years. The Red Sox in return get Outfield Prospect Franchi Cordero, who's like the same age as Benintendi and has the same amount of service time left, still only getting Franchi for like 2021 and 2022. He's just much cheaper because he hasn't really panned out and gotten any money in arbitration or anything yet. Then the Mets kind of got involved in this trade in like a three-way prospect swap where the Mets are going to get Josh Winkowski.

Is that you say it? Wynchowski, Kowski? Oh, yeah. I don't think there's no h in there so I'm going to go with Winkowski winkowski um the the the Red Sox get him from the Mets sorry and the the Mets are getting outfield prospect Khalil Lee from the royals so yeah I don't know I'm it's confusing It's a lot of moving parts it's a lot of moving parts and there's like five players to be named later and we have no idea what the players PT NBL

T-P-T-N-B-N-L? We have no idea what caliber these players are going to be, but basically because there was no minor leagues last year, and because there's only five rounds of the draft, no one knows how to evaluate prospects, so we're seeing a lot of player to be named later deals in these traits. So there's a lot of moving parts here. Jake, do you have a...

No one... This doesn't change anything. Ooh. So it's hard for me to really go deep and dissect it when I don't think... You're a World Series or bust guy. It changes some things. The Royals' new ownership is winning over Royals fans. I like what they're doing.

This changes the Royal ceiling from maybe they can be fourth in the division and now maybe they can be third if they have the best year they can have. And that's kind of the difference here for me. I mean, I think A, in Royalsland, it's kind of a big there's a world where the Royals can compete with the Indians this year which who knows what that means, who knows what the playoffs looks like,

who knows how much that really matters. They would still need a lot to go right. There's a lot of young guys. The Royals lineup is kind of fun. And if you compare that to the Cleveland lineup, the Royals win there. They might win Bullpen too, but Cleveland is built on starting pitchers.

Enough about Cleveland. Can't even talk about their mascot. Kansas City, hey, you're excited. And this, we've been talking so much about owners and teams not making moves. Kansas City has been active. I mean, you added Carlos Santana, you're adding Andrew Benintendi. We'll see what both of them got in the tank.

That lineup, 1 through 7, is actually a pretty decent baseball lineup. You'd like to see another bopper in there. But Marifield, Mondesi, Salvi Perez, Santana, Solair, Benny, and Hunter Dozier ain't a bad ball player. So they've got a lot of young pitchers. I don't know what it means for Kansas City. I hope it means it's a step for them in a positive direction. And maybe we can be talking more about Kansas City 2022. I don't think the World Series shifted in this trade.

And yeah, if you're a Fenway analytics guy, you're going to be excited because a lot of the geeks love Franchi Cordero. He can hit the ball as hard as anybody in Major League Baseball, but he hasn't done it for a season or an extended period of time. So that's what they're going for. And I think the Kalia Lee side of this is the Mets. We talked about this in some of their previous trades. But I think Kalia Lee is close to the majors.

If they need to call up a guy this year, he could be that guy. So I think that's all the moving parts. Can't comment on the players to be named later. Literally don't know who they are. We'll know later about those players to be named later. Huge. That's the gist of it. You basically covered everything right there.

Hot, Jakey. Franchi is an interesting piece for me. Everyone talks about how hard he hits the ball. Has it translated into game pop yet? Like, I don't know. Like, he's never really hit, like, slugged in the big leagues. Like, I know he can hit the ball hard, but he hasn't done it consistently enough.

I mean, he's only had 284 bats in the big leagues. And I don't think we can calm a prospect anymore. 26 years old, you're not a prospect anymore. It's time to, you got to go. Put up or shut up. We should tell Kyle Gibson all the time. Like Gibby, you're 27 years old. Not a prospect anymore. I don't know why they keep referring to you as a prospect.

But, so the high ceiling, low floor kind of guy for the Red Sox. We'll talk about Kalia Lee a little bit. I went and watched some of his swings from the minor leagues. He kind looks like he takes a rip, but he's 5'10, 170, so maybe he fills out a little bit and can add

some pop, but he's got speed. He's still 50-something bags in 2019. So definitely another high-ceiling type of guy. I think the Mets, you know, that's a good kind of player for them to have in the organization, create some depth for you. But, you know, this one is interesting with the Royals taking on Ben Intendi. Like you

said, Jake, I like their lineup right now. It's kind of like a fun lineup. Is it a bunch of boppers who you're totally scared of? No, but I could see this lineup getting hot and stringing together. wins. And the Royals know how to build teams quickly. I saw it firsthand. They were the bottom of the barrel and then boom. World Series appearance, World Series championship. I don't know if that's in the cards the next couple of years, but I like what they're doing. I like Santana. They added

some on base percentage with some of these guys. It is a good lineup. But it's only two years of Benny. So that's where I'm confused. I don't get it. Yeah. I don't get it. Yeah. I don't. don't really understand, like, what the process is here. But, like, this isn't a window. They're, like, hitting a window now. I think it's new ownership that just took over that they're trying to get fans on their side and rally. And I, I'm not knocking.

I don't, I like it. I appreciate it. Make your team as best as you can within the parameters you can. I just, if Danny had, like, five years or four years, like, well, I, he's going to be, I think, I don't, I don't know. I think they're getting, someone in the Kansas City front office likes Benny. I went into the numbers the other day, and, hey, we talk about how fast baseball changes. You know, that year and a half, two years baseball can change almost quicker than any sport.

You know, it talked about it with the Colorado Rockies, how quickly they went from, you know, back-to-back playoffs and leading the wild card to absolute dumpster fire. Benny, man, they win it in 2018. That outfield, he's going to be a problem for a decade. He was even having a good 2019 up until September, and then he kind of finishes his year horribly. He comes into 2020. Peter Gammon's tweeting out some of the weird basketball-shaped stuff.

What's he's looking like? He gets hurt. He doesn't hit a thing. He's basically had a bad 50 games coming off of being Andrew Benintendi. You know, kind of the, you know, 800s OPS, solid defense in left field. How far we've come since there is wild to see, especially when you look at it's actually just 50 games. So, hey, maybe the Royal Song.

something. Maybe they just thought the value was so low. And maybe, you know, they had Franchion in-house, this guy that a lot of people in love, he's going to his third team now. So this goes into Jimmy's theory of the how much do you really love them if you're being traded this many times? And you've made appearances in four big league seasons, but you really haven't done anything. Hey, maybe Franchi hasn't gotten the opportunity and this is the one and it figures out. But I don't know. I don't know why he hasn't gotten more run until now. I don't think either team trying to not be like just be a poo-poorer. I think one thing.

The Red Sox don't care how Franchie performs in 2021, 2021, I don't think they care. They just got a cheaper roster spot than Benny and they have a rebuild in mind. Yeah. The Royals. They also got more years on Franchie than Benny. How many? He doesn't hit free agency until 2024.

Oh, okay. So there is some years. So then that makes sense for the Reds. There's a play there. I don't get the Royals getting Benny for just two years. It doesn't make sense. You're buying low, but he's going to be out of there by the time you have a chance at the division. I mean, look, where he's at right now, if say he comes into camp and they like the way he looks, they like his attitude, they like the way he fits with the team.

What's to say they don't say, hey, Benny, let's give you two more years and they can do it cheap right now. What if they say we want this guy for four years? Let's go do it. I think Benny will be open to it. Right now, if someone was to sign him something, he'd sign anything. That's what I'm saying. So maybe they have that idea in mind, like, hey, look, if we like this guy, we can go extend him for a couple of years, get four years out of him for pretty damn cheap. I mean, he's making, what, five and five or something like that?

He's next two years. I thought it was six and eight. Six and eight, but the Red Sox are picking up a chunk of the tab this year. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. I mean, I just, to me, it's really a by-low situation. and if you like him, you can continue to buy a low

and extend them if you like them. Like I said, they're used to having a guy out on the field. Alex Gordon. Maybe they want to stabilize the outfield. I don't know, man. I'm trying to make sense of it. It's an interesting trade. I always wonder, how do the three-way deals come about?

How does that happen? Hey, we got this guy, you got this guy, the other team who's got this guy. Can we get on a conference call? Was there a three-way conference call? Was it Zoom? Was it just FaceTime? I don't know. The Red Sox just like hear that they were making a trade and be like, actually,

mind if we sneak something in here and everyone? And they were like, wait, what? Royals called up the Red Sox. We're like, do you have the Mets want to be part of this? They're like, yeah. Who proposed the three way? Who was like, hey, let's have it. I think, you know, when you're kind of younger, if you've got two sides that are into it

and you, you know, you've each talked about it. And there's a third side that you're kind of thinking about working in and everyone's. That's not how it works, Jake. One of them, you know you don't ever. want to talk to them again. Okay. You know, like, hey, we're cool. It's the ender.

Let's end the relationship on a bang with this third person because, wow. Obviously, no one recovers and stays friends. Guys, I think we need to take a step back into the Royals and the Royal Family and how they threesome. No, I think we need to appreciate more. I mean, that's all. Oh, yeah, it's all in there. That's, I mean, Hollywood's one big orgy.

Check out the Royal Family. The Royals have made moves as opposed. season. I'd love to, I think we need to kind of appreciate, they brought Greg Holland back, they brought in, who is it, Mike Minor, they brought in Carlos Santana, they now bring Ben and Tendi, like,

the Royals are making moves. Eric Stone Street, let's get him on the damn show. Let's get them on here. I've got a lot of Cam for modern family and me, three sums. You know, can Alberto Mondesie make a little bit of a leap? Jorge Soler is a monster. Let's say, how about this? They fix,

Benny and we go Whitmerfield, Benny, Carlos Santana, Jorge Soler, Salvi Perez. There's a lineup there. So I don't know. The World Series trophy seems safe. If this Kansas City team can start winning games, like this is what we want teams to do, so I'm happy about that.

Yeah, exactly. I'm glad you brought that up. We want them to be doing stuff. But you don't want them to be like the Red Sox, a huge market and just selling your assets. It's true. I wonder if any of these guys are going to get traded so there's a free agent well we'll do that when we do the royals uh team profile and

projection we'll take a deeper dive into all of that this trade happened and now you know about it um i have a lot of bitterness and i'll uh like do yankee bias warning trav i have a lot of bitterness about ben and tendi because red sox fans will will straight up tell you brett gardiner sucks and then they'll tell you benny's awesome and they're the same fucking player and their numbers have been the same for the last three years no brettner brettarer's a better player than Yeah, yeah, if that. I mean, I was trying to be a little humble there. And, like, that's an annoying thing that I've dealt with for three years where they're like,

Brett Gardner sucks. And I'm like, but you think Ben and Tendi's good. And they're the same guy. Because he's good looking, bro. That's the difference. You're about to run into a wall. Yeah, we'll pass. Brett Gardner.

I split the gap. No, Jimmy's on a Benny's not hot. You're relaxed on that. Well, Benny is hotter than Brett Gardner. Oh, obviously, Trev. Benny, well, actually, Brett Gardner's got a, like a cult hot daddy following. Benny, me and Bieber, talked about this a little bit. I think Benny has good pictures and bad pictures.

It's something with the teeth there, but his hot is pretty hot. Benintendi looks like a 10-year-old that got blown up to be an adult. So if you're calling him hot, I think you're weird. That's my, and I was trying not to talk. He doesn't look like a 10-year-old, okay. Like some pictures, he kind of does. And you're a twist in mind, I guess he does. But look, I think that's why he gets that rap.

You know, he's a young, kind of good looking dude. Gardner's like a grinder, like bald. Same guy. Their slash lines are like always the same. Maybe it's just a hair. I don't know what it is. Better at defense is always more valuable. Whatever.

So that's where I get like. There's a 43 career war guy. That's huge. I think a lot of this is stemming from going back to 2018. When Ben Intendi was 23, they just won the World Series. He was on, Benny was on a pretty special trajectory. And I also think the other side of that argument is that Brett Gardner wasn't supposed to be on a special trajectory. And he ended up on a really nice career trajectory.

So, I don't know. I think that was, we were discussing with some of our Boston friends a few years ago. I think they've also made the turn on Benny. But, you know, there was, his age 23 season, he had a 123 OPS plus, 290, 366, playing good defense. Like, you know, we're almost saying, like, the book is written on Benny. He's 26 years old and he had 50 bad games. Like, I think that's what the Royals are betting on here. Yeah.

Yeah, I just, you know, you're right. It's a great move by the, not great move, but it's a good move by the Royals. And we want to see this happening. Taking a chance. And amongst all the other move the Royals have made. And it's not a high risk chance. We're not saying that the Royals got rid of their top prospect because I think Benny's going to figure it out.

Like, no, they got rid of kind of a more enigmatic guy in Franchi Cordero, who I'm really hoping the Red Sox don't have the key to his success because a lot of smart people I like are interested in it. I was talking to a Red Sox fan today that has been a little out of the loop. They're not diehard. They don't follow every second. And I was reminding him like, it seems pretty good still. Not pretty good.

Like, it's so different. You don't have JBJ. You don't have Bany. You don't have Mookie. And that was the three Bs in the outfield. That was a ton of fun. But the infield, I mean, you still got Vasquez. You guys like him.

You got Devers. You got Bogarts. You brought in Kike. That's second. I like that. It's fun. Dahlback? Do they still have faith in him?

Prospect. Prospect. And then Verdugo goes good. But then you got Renfro and now Franchi in the outfield. So the outfield is a little lackluster. They did bring in Garrett Richards are taking a chance on him and they got Perez back and they're hoping sales.

So like there is hope that this team can be fun, the Red Sox, but I just think that the ownership and the GM, they don't fully care. Kind of I said this a couple weeks ago. They're in a decent spot where it's like, they have enough where if they make a run, like the Red Sox making a run is possible. But if they don't, I think the fan base and everyone is like,

yeah, well, it's okay, we're reloading. Should we give the front office some time, Trev? I don't know. Honestly, yeah, I guess. Okay. You know, we've said it before. I love Heim. The moves don't make sense to me yet.

How about that? Well, that doesn't mean they're not making sense. It just don't make sense to me. Jim, let me butter knife before you push me up. Andrew Benintendi. It's August 16th, 2019. You're coming off the World Series. You're a hot 10-year-old.

August 16th, he's hitting 290, 363, 839. And this is after the World Series. After Benny's been good, he finishes that season, 29 games hits 151, a 465 OPS. He follows that up with last season where he only plays 14 games and hits 103. And his whole kind of career trajectory has changed. It's pretty wild. They're hopping.

want to get cushed up. I think Benny's got to get cushed up. I need to get cushed up. Well, 2020 was a rough year for the Red Sox Trev. And 2021 starting out just as wild for them. They lose Mookie. Now they're losing Benny. Spring training hasn't even started yet.

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It's just CBD. It's not even TH-T-H-Y-Dreams.com. Code Baseball for 20% off your next order, and you get free shipping on orders over $20. Smoke CBD with promo code baseball for 20% off to day. We got a bunch of other moves here that they happen, so we'll talk about them. My dude David Phelps goes to the Blue Jays,

so I'm happy for them. Do we have any idea what, I'm guessing it's like a one-year-five-mill, one-year-three, one-year-six? Do we know? Chock full of nuts. 1.75. It can earn another $750K and incentives.

That sucks. It's really cheap. Your boy, David Phelps. Yankees should have got him. David Phelps had a good year last year. Not when he went to the Phillies to fix their bullpen. Yeah, but, I mean, he put on a Phillies. He put on a Phillies uniform.

You can't judge him for what he did over there. Bullpen was cursed. You know Phelpsi, Treve? Have you guys ever link up? No, I don't. Not in your book? You walked against him once, 0 for 6 beyond that. Oh, 0 for 6, huh?

That's why I don't remember him. I don't think about that. That's over. Phelps' career last year, talk about the Phillies bullpen curse. He started the year with Milwaukee. Gross. Hold on, let me pull this up so I have it correctly.

Started the year with Milwaukee, and he was pretty good. He pitched in 12, games, and three of them he gave up a run. Like Summit didn't matter. Two where he lost it. He goes to the Phillies. And it's just bad news.

City. 13 innings, 20 punchies in Milwaukee, kind of lights out. 7.2 innings with the fills gives up 11 earned runs. A bullpen was cursed, though. Oh, or is this the NL Central experience? Oh, you're going there on Phelpsi. Your guy, you just said you want him on the Yanks. Maybe he can't go there.

Maybe he was a product of the NL Central. We had all the Sy-Young people coming from the Central, and before the playoffs, they were like, we all, the pitch, all this, and then the Central sucked. David Phelps. I think the Central really did suck yesterday, or last year, yesteryear. And yesteryear.

Can I start using yester month and yesterweek? Splat. I'm sorry Why I just think if I start splatting You'll start splatting That's what we want isn't it Splat

What else is going Yeah Phelps I don't know A lot of moxie A lot of moxie Goes to the Blue Jays John likes a Motsie Jake Mariznik Not high on my Jake book

You actually think he's Personally bringing the Jakes down He's trying to back for the Jakes. But yeah, man, I've got beef with Mariznick, just because his best hitting numbers ever were home in Houston, 2017, which makes me think. He actually hit last year at 16 games, though, so I don't know, man. Keep getting paid. Keep getting the Jakes paid, Mariznick, and catch fly balls in center,

because that is what you are good at. How many hits did he get last year? 11 and 33 at bat. So he hit 3.3. 33? So he's a stud? 666 career OPS. Devlish Trev.

Oh, that's devilish. Yeah, I don't like it. Okay. Did you have anything on Phelps Trayv? You got booted from the internet there when we were talking about Phelpsi. Yeah, this connection is no good for me today. I don't know what's going on. What's going on?

I don't have anything on Robes. I don't have anything on Riznick. I don't really have anything on most of this. the rest of stuff we have, but I'll find it, man. I'll find it within me. No, the rest of the stuff is really just, like, things you've got to say. Duval's the best player that came off the board, and Jim, you'll like, because he kind of has a fun contract.

You're my contract. Oh, I do like contracts. Someone in the live chat, you on the Bauer episode, when you were moving, I was telling, I said, you know, I like, changing. You were changing apartments. I like interesting contracts. And someone in the YouTube live chat just said, like, why would you like? like that.

It made me laugh. But I do. I'm very, I, I openly admit, like, interesting contract deals is something I enjoy knowing about. It's true.

So what's the Duval one? I haven't seen it. Adam Duval, he's one year two mill. Okay. But there's a three million buyout. So essentially it could be one year, five million,

or the next year is a $7 million contract. Isn't that pretty standard? I mean, like half. I mean, it's either... To see the number for the buyout to be higher. To see the numbers that big is kind of weird. A $3 million buyout?

So it's $2 million contract this year. Yeah. And then he's either going to make $7 million to play with them next year. So 9 mil total, or it's 5 mil to play this year. So he got one year 7 mil guaranteed. 1 5. 1 5 guaranteed. The 2 year total could be 9.

He's hit the past 2 years. 8-852 OPS the past two years 26 homers in 98 games Are we totally off the fish? I am. They made the playoffs last year. Well, yeah, no, we're off the fish. I still, I'm now wanting the Nats to sign Justin Turner

so they can help Soto, so it's just a big, bleep, bleep. You saw the Pocoda rankings, another one came out today. They're just, they're mind-boggling. All of them have the Braves finishing in fourth or something like that. Yeah. Kyle.

He's winning almost 100 games. Abe Vigoda? I don't know. Kyle who runs all the socials for talking Jakesh, talking baseball, Jumbo Media, he was asking about them. He was very confused. Like, what are these? They don't really make, like, is this guy good? And it's, it's, what is it,

baseball prospectus? Like, it's supposed to be, like, very real. Max, who's now the researcher, hit me up on Slack, haven't responded yet. And he was like, should I use these for the over-unders for TPPs. And I didn't respond, but I'm just like, no, because I think they're all bad. They're crazy what they've done to the Cardinals, the Braves, and no offense, the Yankees, in

my opinion. Yeah, I mean, I haven't looked at them. So what do they have the Yankees? 97 wins for the Yankees? That's a lot. It's not, man. That's not a lot. I can't.

I forgot who I'm talking to. Never mind. Just focus on the fact that they have the Braves finishing. close to 500 and third in the division. And then the, I didn't have the Cardinals under 500 in their division, or at least close to it. So this,

it's a strange, strange thing. Yeah, I mean, the Yankees won 100 games and then 103 games. And, and they didn't have a call then. Like,

or DJ. That division's not getting better either. The race. The whole AL, except the white socks. Yeah, the whole AL sucks. So I don't think that sounds better.

Okay, you want to tell the white sucks. They have them finishing, I think, third in the division. I know, I saw that. Then I don't like the Abe Vigota ratings. Yeah. Well, except when it's the Yankees. They do...

Well, they're super accurate for the Yankees, but they do have... They do have the NL East, like, beating each other up? Because when I heard they had the Braves at 82 wins, I was like, do they have everyone in the NL just at 80? NL East, just at 80? But they have the Mets at 95, and then they have, like, the Nats at 85, Philly at 83, so... be a mess. It could be a mess like that. I don't think the Mets are winning 95 games.

If that's the over under, I'm going to take the under. Yeah, I would take the under too there. Check team profile and projections for that, except for the bad teams because they weren't out yet for a couple of them. They have Pittsburgh winning 61 games. Ooh. All on the Cole Tucker with a 61 war. So they only have 101.

They only have two. They only have two teams losing 100 games when half the league doesn't care about winning. Well, you researched this the other day, right? It was you or Treve that looked into the... Trev was blown away that we had... Trev was blown away that we had more people, more teams losing 100. And then he looked it up and he was like, oh, I guess a lot of teams lose 100 games nowadays. Wasn't there two years in the past 10 where no teams lost 100 or something?

But it was like in 2019, it was like four. I wasn't exactly what I said there, Jim. You're putting words when I'm out there. There was like four teams like last in 2019 that did not. That was a lot. And then as we went back, it's more like one to two teams per year. Do it. And then there was 2016 or 17 where no teams did it.

So it's a, like I said, it's a lot of games to lose. You got to be big, bad to lose a Hyundai spot. It's happening though. More than ever. Yeah. Ask me if I talked to Cole Tucker already today. I did. How's he doing?

It's doing great. Putting the work, he's going out to win that shortstop job. Very committed to that. Love that. What else do we have on this list? Do you have it in front of you? I got the list. Jake McGee, two-year-seven mill with the Giants.

Our Giants are always going for it. Jake McGee, Jim, you'll actually like this. He's got one of the best, what's the charts page? Not fan graphs. Savant. Savant. He's got one of the best baseball savants. You'll see it's either 90s.

55% best or it's 5% worst. He throws one pitch. You got hit by a truck. He throws one pit. He throws a fastball. And that's it. It's a good. If you're going to throw one. If you're going to throw one, that's the one you want.

Yeah, I mean, look, he comes right at you. I faced him. I don't know how many times. But fastball, I think he does have a curve, but he throws it like 10% of the time or something like that. So you just, you have to hit the heater and it's tough. Throw me a heater. throw hard. They'll stick around, man.

Me and Jake McGee. Jed Lowry. Jed Lowry, Minor League. He's been missing. Brandon Kinsler goes to the Phillies, which he was the closer for the fish last year. Been good the last two seasons. Trev, don't you have beef with Kinsler?

I don't know if it's beef. I don't love his personality or what he kind of like brings to the cloud house. Could have changed, man. That's just my experience with him. He's like... But they also got... Didn't you say he's like a bulldog, no respect kind of guy?

Like, Rodney Dangerfield. He's got this huge... No, he's got a huge chip on his shoulder. Like, it's too big of a chip for his shoulder. Like, he doesn't need to have the chip, but he like likes to have the chip. He's one of those guys, if you know what I mean. Okay.

But they also sign Matt Joyce, who's like the exact opposite. He's just like the best. So they kind of keep. cancel each other. I actually texted Maddie. He was in that Super Bowl parade with the Bucks yesterday holding the Lombardi trophy, just living his damn life. And I said, hey, I love

the signing for you. I love it. So I don't know if he's got a chance to make the squad or not, but I love him. So go Matt. Huge. Man, there's nothing else. You want to talk about the balls? Balls. Well, what about Braun? Trev, do you have an update on us on your friend, Ryan

Braun? According to an article, it says that uh brawn is uninterested in playing baseball he thinks the sport blows his friend trevor's kind of soft uh no look yeah he told me this morning i talked to him this morning as well he's just he's enjoying being home he didn't like the covid season last year he's thinking it's probably going to be the same this year he's got a newborn baby three kids total i think he's looking forward to just kind of being home being a dad with that being said

he'll continue to work out he's eyeing possibly playing with team Israel in the Olympics this year and he's got to kind of do some things to get on that team but if he does you know figure it out I think he'll go play there in Tokyo

and if he feels good then he'll reevaluate his situation and maybe be like a mid-season acquisition for a team that's looking to add a bet That's cool. He's kind of look. He can do whatever he wants now. He's really rich and he's played a long time so he can kind of pick and choose what he wants to do.

Who would be on the Israel baseball team from MLB? So it's a lot of interesting names. Danny Valencia, old name. Ian Kinsler is looking to play. John Moss got another one of my buddies who pitched briefly for the Reds. there's more. I'm kind of, you know, go blank here, but they actually have a pretty good squad.

I guess it's not active players. Active players, you can grab a couple more. Bregman. I don't know. Yeah, I don't think any active, like, big leaguers will be playing in the Olympics. Max Fried? Why does he go play?

Because he's in the big leagues. What if, like, Team Israel recruited every Jewish player to retire one year early, just so they could dominate the Olympics. Paid out big money. It's a way. Doesn't our dude from the Yes Network, Montefour doing more? Isn't he the coach of the Israel team?

What was his name? Eric Holtz. Eric Holtz, yeah. Very, very good story. You should look him up, Trev. Eric Holtz. I would want, if I was Jewish, I would 100% go play. Like, go to Tokyo, hang out, do it.

Convert. Yeah. Convert. What do you mean? Convert right now. I've already converted once in my life. and declare yourself Jewish. BBD will be your, like he'll get credit for referring you.

Can he pass you on? Yeah. I would. I went from Catholic to Egyptian Orthodox already. So might as well just throw Judaism in there. What's Egyptian Orthodox all about? They like being nice to people? Yeah, it's very old school Christianity.

Very old school. That doesn't right. It's not a ringing. Men on one side of the church, women on the other side of the church. Except when I go there. we all sit together. I'm the like the odd guy. Everyone's kind of like looking at me.

And then I go take communion and we there's, it's cool. It's very old, traditional. Dude, so in this, we're talking religion now, whatever.

I'm used to the little wafers, you know, I had the wafers my whole life. And then this is like bread. Yeah, I want to know why. Because the priests have to eat all the wafers that don't get eaten. So after mass,

if they blessed a bunch of wafers, And then they're not going to throw out the blessed wafers. So the priest's have to finish it all. So they changed it to bread because they're like, this shit tastes terrible. Just well, I wonder what they're going to be. Father Bob and Father Joe scarfing down wafers in the back.

Just being like, I wish more people showed up the mask today. I'm serious. You can't COVID communion now. You can't eat sharing the wine glass. My, my Nana used to crush communion man. She's old.

So she'd just sit there. They wouldn't even like. Shouldn't do the hands or nothing. She just go like this. Stick her tongue out and they'd put it like a little tab of acid on her tongue. Yeah. Yeah, we used to do it for, you know, in grade school, going to math. I've done communion.

They'd be giving you real wine. You're six years old. What's the tip of that? Yeah, germ fest. Come on. Kids got to learn somehow. Everyone's sipping out of the same. What was it?

A chalice? Yeah, yeah. You know, you'd just sip the blood of Jesus Christ, I have a chalice. Well, he'd wipe it. Treve, I don't know. I don't know if you realize this. You've walked in. to another one of Jimmy's wheelhouses with religion and history of religion.

I took a bunch of history of religion courses in college, and then I got A pluses in all of them because I'm obviously fascinated in it. And then I asked my professor if he could give me a reference because I was transferring colleges, and he said, I didn't think there was any way you would pass my class. I thought you were too much of a playboy. I don't think I'd be able to write a nice reference for you. And I was like, what the fuck, dude? I was like the most engaged kid in your damn class.

And you gave me an A plus. Can't. He said you were a playboy? That's kind of cool. He said he thought me too much of a playboy that I would to ever pass his class. Young Jimmy had a little playboy in him. Did you say, did you say, thanks? Yeah, that was back when people used to say I was attractive and stuff.

No, I was like, fuck you, dude. I got to go. I didn't get an A plus and any of my classes. It's because I'm actively very interested in religion, while also I think it's the dumbest thing in the entire world. So a lot of people that are as interested in me aren't coming from my angle. Yeah. It's like, tell me some more dumb stuff you guys do.

That's like how I. What's up? Teach. Some of the teachers don't like that. I went to a Catholic high school. Catholic school my entire life. Yeah, I went to a holy family. History of the Catholic church in high school.

And you have no idea how many people got turned off of the Catholic. Catholic Church after taking a class on the history of the Catholic Church. Hold up. You got to glanced over the Crusades a little bit. Can you tell us again what that was about? It's not good. My school was the Crusaders. It's such a fucking dark part of history and we're just my mascot.

It's so bad. As an eight year old, I'm a crusader. Crusades were tough, selling indulgences. That was also bad. Yeah. All right. So Braun might come back. You might play for Team Israel.

No, and I really like Kinsler's fit in that Philly's pen. Yeah. And then the big news is they're deading the balls. Which, didn't you throw some science at me? No, Trev was hot on this because we love Eno and Trev was doing some 5%, and you were having some troubles digging into that. But tell us about your dead balls. Dr. Meredith is very much into it.

We might need to have her back on. She's, we've been talking to the DMs a little bit about it. I think we have Dr. Meredith Wills on Endale Scott. We all mute ourselves. That's a power couple right there. But essentially, which her point is, and she did an article with Sports Illustrated. So we have Eno's article.

Then we have Meredith's article. And in her, she's basically saying, like, look, they admitted to changing the balls and messing with the balls. And it should be a bigger story. But look, I care about it, but nobody else seems to care. I'm in favor of deading the balls and going back to not just home run or bust baseball. Okay. Then if we dead in the balls, we have to outlaw the shift.

That's my new stance is I do not like the shift anymore. One or the other. Sure. I don't care. I'm interested to see. I think a lot of the home runs, when a guy hits a home run and it really didn't feel like a home run. Like some we saw.

There's one that, there's Todd Frazier's in the playoffs at Yankee Stadium. Oh, yeah. And then there's, there's like a Devers opo shot, I remember. Because I remember all the, like a bunch of pitchers on Twitter were quote tweeting it.

We're like, that's not a home run. Like, what the fuck is that? And there's a bunch of others. As they're pioneering the shit out of their fingers, pitchers can go take a hike. Yeah,

I don't want to lean too heavy into Team Trev. I forget, it might have been Garver or someone, some player active on Twitter was just like, I think it was Garver, and they were talking about players batting averages or something, and Garver was like, well, guess what? We haven't, like, done, we haven't moved the mound back, and guys are throwing 15 miles per hour harder. Like, the sport has changed. Like, we, I don't know. I think we got to, and I know the pitchers run hot on this, because that's part of their job, but, like,

we got to change something. When we watched all those old games, it is hard to make contact with the baseball right now. It's the hardest thing to do in sports and it's only getting harder. So like we need to, if we got a dead in the ball, move the mound back a foot. Who cares? No, we're not moving the mound back. Well, whatever. All of us are in agreeance that we'd like, we'd like baseball to get away from the three true outcomes. So, so that's good. I love that you just said that because our guy, Ian Hap, he was on MLB Network Radio. They're doing the players week, whatever and he had a great explanation for like why the game has done that and it was he's saying it's the shift causes that okay he said if I come up I'm a left-handed hitter if I come up with a runner on

first base the first baseman's holding the runner on he says the third baseman is going to be in the three hole the second baseman is going to be playing shallow right field and the shortstop is going to be up the middle he goes if I hit the ball on the ground I'm out it's going to be a double play. So I only choice now is to hit the ball over them. And that's going to cause me to swing and miss more. And he goes, and even guess what? He goes, if I hit a ball on the ground, that severely hurts our run production percentage. He says, it's better if I strike out on three pitches than hit the ball on the ground. So of course I'm going to try to hit the ball in the air because I can't, there's nothing else I can do. So with all the analytics that have come in the game and they've, you know, everybody utilizes the shift now. It's changed the way people have to swing. And and have to play baseball to be productive. They're also telling you this is the percentage of run production. This helps it this much. This takes it away this much.

So by implementing the shifts, they're causing hitters to react a certain way. They're telling hitters to react a certain way. And then they're complaining about the three true outcomes. It all stems from the shift. And how will they evaluate players? I agree a little bit. I do think, I mean, a part of that, like there's no hitting coaches saying hit the ball on the ground right now.

Like even sands the shift, they're saying hit it up in the air. Like, they're not even saying hitting line drives. Like, hit it up in the air. The tweet I was referencing from Garver before was when they were talking about deadening the balls. And he said, Garver said, good, let's move the mountain of 55 feet. It's not like pitchers have gotten any better in the last 100 years. And I know it's a joke, but it is kind of something that's funny that's like, so wait, the mound's the same distance.

And guys throw significantly harder. What happened? You had your ring in your mouth. I do that sometimes. That's weird. Is that your new thing? I put it everywhere. My new thing is I don't like to shift.

I'm over the shift. Trev. Who else? Didn't Bob Costas come on and say he hates the shift? Trev, you are now joining. You are now joining an elite group of people. Don Mattingly. Theo Epstein.

Bob Costas, Jimmy O'Brien. I've been out on the shift for like a year. Shift sucks. It needs to get regulated. It's boring. It's, and exactly. Can I be with you guys on that? Are you?

Announce yourself. The problem with, the problem with it is is what Hap just said. Like, everyone says, well, if you don't like it, just beat it. Well, the math and the brains tell you, no, it's still better for me to swing for a double than, then bunt and just go to first base because they'll take that. They'd rather me bunt. They'd rather just bunt and go to first base. That's what they want.

want me to do. So it's not in like, well, if you don't like the shift, hit past it. Well, no. The stats still say it's better for me to be one for four with a double than two for four with two, two seeing eyes singles. So I don't like it. And Bob's point was we have some really gifted athletes in the game. And you're going to, you're taking away the opportunities to show off the

athleticism. If you're trying to place people exactly where the ball is going to be hit, nobody wants to see a guy go like this. Yeah. Although they want to see a guy running the gap and steal a freaking extra base hit, man. Yeah, third base, those are fun. But I agree. I agree, Triv. But I don't know how I would do it yet. I don't know if I'd do two on the left side, two on the right side, or just everyone's got to be on the dirt, no grass.

I think I'd do that. I think I'd do that. four on the dirt. I think I wouldn't even care if they combined it. But I do think that as we try to like bring more fans into baseball and make the product more entertaining, defensive plays are better. Web gems are always more exciting to watch than a reel of home runs. Home runs the most boring highlight in baseball.

So let's bring back crazy athletic plays with the glove. I think that's the most, I think that's the best product, baseball has to offer is defensive highlights. I agree. I've I've gotten, came to this conclusion over the last week or so. Wow, welcome here. Huge. Yeah.

That's all we got. Got anything else, Jake? Yeah, I still, I'm trying to figure out the outfield shift solution because I want center fielder's tracking down balls in the gap. So maybe they got to start with one foot on the X. I don't know. It sounds like corny and weird. Also, how about this?

get rid of the sheets dude like this I feel like I'm starting to sound like an old you are a has been guy and I never wanted to sound like that but I and I've had to do this too I've done it in the show my bad I was in the show

I don't know if anybody knows that nobody does but looking at the card come on man like that's I don't like it kind of with you like either memorize it or don't have it I mean we've

learn where you need to stay A lot of ways, like instincts are being thrown out for computers and math. Oh, man. I really, I'm feeling like the old school guy, like, nerds ruin the game. Baseball is the best game. Someone wrote an article that, you know, baseball's dying has been being said since the 1940s. Like, they went through all old baseball articles. And the narrative that baseball's dying has been said every decades.

I think they went like way back. I think they went way back to like the dead ball error when they changed it. They changed the ball and you had to use white balls. I think like it's been it was a good article where you could find it and share it. But I thought that was funny.

Like oh. So if we go ask my dad like, hey, when you were 20 were they saying baseball was dying, he'd be like, yeah. Because it's been a narrative for over 50 years. Child baseball. They're going to have to figure out TV deals on stuff, I think they're going to have to

pivot because nobody watches cable TV anymore. I think they need to partner... They're going to figure something out. Partner with young, up-and-coming successful media conglomerates to try to grow the game

to the market they didn't say existed. No. No. No. No. Instinct. You can't spell instinct without stink. You can't think. Not a spelling pod. No. Oh, Power Rangers.

Good luck, Benny. Are you rooting for Benny to be good? Yeah, I would like if the Royals could be a, I don't think, I think the best case for the Royals and do this on their TPP is that they're just a thorn in their sides. Like, if the Royals just play the Twins and the White Sox real hard, Maybe they split the season series somewhere around 500. I think that would be awesome.

Okay.