Talkin' Baseball (MLB Podcast) - 282 | The Kevin Mather Saga

Episode Date: February 23, 2021

Go to https://kushydreams.com/​​​ and use Promo Code 'BASEBALL' for 20% off your next order Presented by DraftKings Timestamps: 2:45 - Kevin Mather 23:30 - Taijuan Walker signs with the Mets 32:15 - Brett Gardner returns to the Yankees 36:30 - Bunch of Moves 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. Kevin Mather got himself into some trouble. Taiwan Walker signs, Brett Gardner signs, Chas Rowe signs, let's do it. Let's talk about everything. Hello and welcome to talking baseball presented by Draft Kings. Thank you very much for joining us today. My name is Jimmy. Sit next to me is Jake.

Trevor Plouf out in California and producer Bug Bug Bug Dude behind the dish. We got some stuff to talk about. We got some things to discuss in the baseball world. but first I got to tell you about the very proud people that support us. And that's Andy Gruble. Thomas J. Schlingk. Wow.

Schlink. That's so many constants for only one valve. Schlink. John Wolfe. Tim Prescott. Chris O'Kane. Corey Metling. Trey Cooper.

Zeti Ching Fong. Tina Kim. Aaron Gronky. Gronky? Blake. Rock, Evan Petricelli, Justin, Raul Vasquez, Cody Freeman, Fryman, Pablo Salas, Ryan Winchock, David Lefkin, Jared Rodriguez, Michael Fields, Bill Leheca, Robbie Rodabow. That's a fun name. Robert Rodabow. Nathan McCray and Matt Surway. Thank you very much for our most recent patrons. Appreciate you kindly. Jake, how are you doing?

James, Trevor Plouffe, big baby David Mendelsohn. Doing well, doing well. Baseball hot in the streets for all the wrong reasons once again. It'd be crazy to go back through this offseason and show all the wrong hot in the streets day. We got a couple Mets days. Now the Mariners get in the mix. Baseball with a little shot in the foot, but proper course of action taken afterwards, I guess.

as Mather resigns, all his very willingly. So I'm doing all right. And, you know, I think what's making today better is that I'm drinking out of a very special mug today, Trevor. I kind of love you now. You came at me like super early, like 4.30 in the morning, my time. You threw the tweet out and said, where are you?

You're not in the gym. Yeah. But you brought yourself back with the sequel mugs. I'm very happy that you're doing that. What's up, guys? You know we're fired up for today. At least I'm very fired up. I did get my workout in just so you know, Jake.

I got it in. It's big. But yeah, you know, there's a lot of stuff that we got to talk about. A lot of stuff. And I'm excited. I'm excited. What do you want to talk about first? It says here on my sheet, Kevin Mather had a disaster of a press conference.

I think you're the leadoff hitter, Jim. Big J. When Big J. Johnboy comes out, you're in for a bad time. I just have to give you a small golf clap. You're a 16-minute breakdown on Kevin Mather is what the world needed. I listened to it twice. It was so good. There's just so many things that I think would have slipped by.

I mean, go watch it if you haven't. So many things I think would have slipped by the average person. And reading the quotes doesn't do it justice, like just how matter of fact he was just saying this shit. He was addressing, right, for anyone that has no idea, Kevin Mather did a Q&A for the Bellevue Breakfast Rotary Club. Huge fan. And I guess they do it every year. And he just, he addressed them as if they were the Seattle Mariners Board of Investors. And he was trying to impress them with how much money they've saved.

and that was everything he said but, you know, he insulted a lot of people on the way. He just openly talked about contracts and like the Kyle Seeger one when he's like, you know, Seeger's a great leader. He's overpaid, but he's a great leader. It's like, why, what? Yeah. Why did you throw that in there?

I left some stuff out of my video too because it was so long. Like, it talks about how, you know, Paxton, um, at one point he says, Paxton agent said that he was, that Paxton was going to make the same amount of money he made in 21. More money. He's going to make the same amount of money in 2021 than he made in 2020. He was like, I don't believe that to be true.

When we started negotiations, we were well below that. And it did. Paxton signed for $8 million and he made like $11 last year or something like that. He said that Taiwan Walker is looking for a three-year deal. I don't think he's going to get it. He did get that. He got two-year with an option. So he said like we're about to sign a second baseman.

he outed Mike Leak as in like made Mike Leak look bad so weird how weird was it Trev in the one part where he uh like has a conscience and he's like you know there is a pitcher I'm not going to say who it was it's like now now you're going to hold some stuff back to me like yeah the way he was able to go from like slight compliments to just absolutely roasting guys and and not even like it was like a monotone thing like compliment roast compliment roast and he was just like you said jim just so matter of fact about everything and i think the biggest thing that you know when i listened to it it's just confirmation on everything that we ever talk about here you know what what you know the front office is trying to do um and they're all almost all of them are this way and they we talk

about how they are ripping the soul out of the game of baseball. And even Theo Epstein, who kind of like almost started this whole thing, admitted to it. But now you get Kevin Mather and he's just, it's all right in front of you. And it wasn't just audio. It was video too. Like everything. Like you have to see them say it. And now it's, I don't think anybody can watch that video and then say like, get on the front offices. Get on the front offices. Get on the front offices for, you know, the way they are conducting business. Like, that is, it was racist. There was talks of collusion. He talked down about his own employees. He talked about how bad the deal was with their TV, their TV deal is. Like, anything that you could possibly go wrong with, Kevin

Mathur just said, you know what, screw it. I'm going to tell the Rotary Club all about it. It's unbelievable. And Trev, I know some of the CBA stuff, some of the stuff you get your most passionate about because it's players, man, and it's money in guys' pockets, and it's this riff that, you know, some people wonder how much of it is dream between the players and the owners. And then to see that on tape, I mean, it's, it sucks. And that's, I think, adding to what you were saying about, you know, the racist parts of it and the parts that sucked, the light bulb that went off in my head that I think was pathetic was, you know, because we were kind of wondering, you know, he issued that, you know,

heart-filled condolence later that day where he was on the call, on the phone apologizing to people most of the day, sure. He was, I knew that he was no longer going to be with the Mariners, because I knew with the CBA coming up, they couldn't bring this guy to the negotiating table. they had to cut the court. And the fact that that is probably what put them officially over the edge to have him resign, step down, is sad to go along with, you know, the stuff about Iwakuma.

I mean, it's, you know, it's disgusting. Everything's disgusting. Never mind going back to his sexual harassment allegations going back a decade now or whatever it was. So sad. Very sad. It's funny when they, like, one of the old dudes in the Rotary Club was like, can you tell us about Julio Rodriguez and he was like, oh, he's got more character than everyone in this room combined. English is horrible.

Like, don't need to add that. So does he have good power the other way or? Oh, no. Bad English. I've actually had talks with people about this because, you know, there is obviously a huge influx of Latin American players coming. And we talk about all the time how good it is for the game. I mean, players want the best players on the field. And that means the best players in the world.

We want the best parts on the field because that's what the fans want. And we are in the entertainment business. You want to be entertaining. And that means you put the best, the best on the field. But a lot of people that I'm serious, I've had this talk with people before. They don't like seeing a different culture come in and shift America's pastime. So a lot of people feel this way. And I think it's ridiculous.

And they talk about, oh, they can't. you know, they need to come learn the language. Dude, go to another country and you learn the language. See how hard it is. You're not only having to, you know, be part of one of the most difficult jobs there is as far as skill level. You have to worry about making it in a cutthroat industry where you're not making any money in the minor leagues, but then you have to learn a second language. You have to navigate a new country, these small little cities that are a lot of times in places that don't have people that look like you around. And you have to navigate all of this

while trying to play your best baseball. And you have some guy talking, one of your bosses talking shit about you because it's your second language. And I'll tell you this, most of the guys that come over learn English and they're good at speaking English. And they can have all sorts of conversations.

If it's me and another guy on the team, it'll be totally fine. The reason they have interpreters is they don't want to get misquoted. When you're talking in front of people who are asking you questions and it affects your career, it's kind of nice to know you're not getting like, you're not saying something you don't mean to be saying. Yeah.

You know what I mean? That was the point I made. If Mathers had an interpreter at this rotary meeting, the interpreter would have cleaned up a lot of what he was saying for him. It's not a little filter. Make sure you don't sound dumb or just misspeak. also be prideful as a baseball fan that a sport that America invented and cultivated people from other countries have love and they want to play it and they want to play it the best. That's awesome.

I mean, American football, no one wants to play it. I was watching an interview the other day with someone from Denmark and they were like, Americans only care about their game of football that they invented that none of the world plays because we don't want to die at 50. And I was like, oh, if that other words. world sees American football. Just like Americans love this sport and all the players die early. And it's like, oh, my God. That's a terrible viewpoint.

And the only place is cultures as of right now that play baseball are where the Americans had missionaries or naval bases or our military that taught the culture's baseball. I mean, that's we spread it for a reason. So other people will play it. And we can get the best talent everywhere playing it. I mean, it should be a thing of pride. Do you know how hard it is to learn.

English? Yeah, I'm still worried. English is one of those languages that's like has a lot of stupid things that go with it. You know, it's not like, boom, boom, boom. There's pitfalls everywhere in our language. That's why these guys want an interpreter. And like to have, I mean, do they have the audacity to come out and say, I didn't want to pay for his interpreter anymore?

Oh, his English perked up really a lot when I said that. Like you're like you're bragging about that. Like what? Just. And by the way, that's, It was the matter of how he was saying everything, too, that really pissed me off. He's talking about Hisashi Iwakuma, a guy who pitched a lot of good games for the Seattle Mariners. 136 starts, a 342 ERA, and Passon got that one on the nose.

Rosenthalen Passon deserved claps for their articles. They went at it properly. Jim did his video article properly. But Passon hit this one on the nose. He's like, Iwakuma made 50 mil playing baseball. he doesn't have to come back to your crappy Mariners organization and coach. But he wanted to because he loves baseball. He wants to be a part of it.

And this is how you treat him. You're worried about the 75K. You're paying a translator. Like, what are you doing, dude? So I think the craziest part is, like you guys have mentioned, how matter-factly, he says each of these things. And it's like, oh, my God. There are pride points.

It wasn't even matter of fact. His biggest pride points were saving money and that he gets to charge $50 for parking. Like that was like a pride point. Make the staff walk. I hate the, you know, obviously there was clear talk of service time manipulation, and we talk about that all the time on here,

and it kind of like, you hear it so much as a fan that it kind of doesn't mean anything. You just, it's just, okay, this is what the teams do, and, you know, what are you going to do? When you hear it put out like that, and I'm absolutely admitting it, talking about how, you know, who was, it wasn't

Kellanek that he said wasn't going to be up for two years. It was, it was the prospect. No, no, I mean, Julio Rodriguez. And also Gilbert, they're like, Gilbert will be here in April, but not April 1st. A Matt, like, as a baseball player, they almost need to bring him up April 1st, Gilbert now. That's like, they probably will. I mean, he's in a file of grievance if they don't.

And he's going to win the grievance. Depoto has some quotes we can get into, but finish your thought first. So, yeah. I know in the public perception, we talk about athletes and like, look, you choose to do this job. It pays, you know, a lot of money and you're playing a kid's game. That's kind of like a general consensus when you talk about players. But you have to remember, you sacrifice a lot and you put a lot of work in and years in where you don't make any money. And then only very few people get to the point where they're actually making money that can, you know, sustain them for a little bit.

I know I could just go on and on about how many players leave this game with next to nothing. So if you say, you know what, I don't care. I'm willing to put myself in a position where I could leave this game after six, seven years with nothing because I wanted to give it my shot. This is my dream. I've worked my whole life at it. And then you work hard enough and you get good enough to be in the big leagues. That's your dream.

You've done it. You have risen to the top in an extremely challenging. and tough industry. And then some guy like this comes out and says, he's ready, but we're not going to bring him up, obviously, obviously we're not going to bring him up. You're talking about summer camp out if they got hurt. He would be on the field before his top prospects would be on the field.

He's talking about he's ready. He'll be up in April, just not at April 1st. Now tell me, I would love, maybe Depoto answered this. I haven't read any of DePoto's quotes. I would love for them to tell me why that guy needs to spend 10 days in the minor leagues. Well, that's the thing with Glaber

and with Brian and with all these other players that it's happened to, Vladdy. And Vladdy might have been the most legit. He did need to work on some D. But, you know, there's always, he needs to work on this. He needs to work on that. He's not working on that. Everybody needs to work on something because no one's a complete player. And if you're a complete player, you're Mike Trout. Yeah. So

yeah, I mean, that that line is the most telling. He'll be up in April. Not April 1st. Well, as clear cut as it gets. He needs, he's put in 10 years of work from the time he was in college to now. He needs those 10 extra days. And at summer camp, they definitely sold the dream to Kelnick and all these kids that were in summer camp last year. Like, they probably thought if someone got hurt that they would get boosted up because they were in camp and they're playing well and putting in all the work.

and if they were the replacements for the big leaguers. So to hear him come out. And to hear him come out now and say there's zero chance they ever would have been called up. Maybe logically they thought that. But I think players are always like, no, if I work hard and I'm performing, I should get the call. And now to hear like, oh, way, that's how sports work. That's how every other sport works. Everything I did during summer camp meant nothing.

There's no way I was going to crack the team. Show me the other professional sports. where you want to keep your best players from playing. It's incredibly, and we can tell, I mean, I just want to go into one more thing real quick. I do want to hear DePoto's quotes, but I talk about this all the time. Baseball, we say, oh, it's a business.

It's not like any other business because they have the antitrust. There's no competition. I read an article and it said, Jeff Bezos can't, you know, make an eight-team startup league and put teams in these big cities. You can't do it because in 1922, there was some stupid Supreme Court ruling. They gave them this gift and they lobby heavily to keep it now.

But there's no competition. So it's not like a regular business. You owe it to your community to put the best product on the field. The stadiums are publicly funded. It's 72% of the stadium in Seattle publicly funded. Now, it's publicly owned also. The Mariners rent it for $1.5 million. They don't have to pay any property taxes.

there are so many things that these clubs gain from the antitrust and having all this public funding. And then you're going to go brag about service time manipulation, not putting the best product down the field. Selling this dumb story to the fans that you lost $2.9 billion last year. Do you know what billionaires did in the pandemic? Doubled, tripled their network. Don't come at me and tell me you were losing money. Don't tell me that. I know you weren't.

Maybe overall in the grand scheme of things, baseball players or the baseball teams lost a little bit of money. But go ahead and look at the franchise values over the last 10 years. Go look. These guys don't play the short game. They play the long game. Don't tell me the long game looks unfruitful for these guys. It's ridiculous what they're selling to you.

Don't believe anything they say. And now Kevin Mather gave everybody all the proof that they need. Yeah. I didn't put this in my video, but he opened it up saying that he thinks the West is trending down as they trend up. So shots fire out to the A's and the Astros. Bang. I like that.

Let's go Mariners. That's far to everybody. Pretty funny that they came out. I talked to the PA about this. They're not, I mean, they're laughing. They're laughing.

They're pissed, obviously. I hope they use it wisely. They handed, they handed the PA. I don't know how they can not use it wisely. Well, we'll see,

Jeff. Yeah. You and a couple twins 24's mad about it. Donaldson with the tweet. And hey, while we're at the hot corner, out to Kyle Seeger, one of the best Mariners players ever getting dragged through the mud for no reason. So a little cherry on top for a guy.

He said he's overpaid. He said he's overpaid. Also, I think his option is incentive-based. So the fact that he says he's not coming back next year, I think that means manipul... I should have looked into that before I said, but I don't know. Seagers might be, there might be a house for sale in Seattle. If there's any organization that can get this big of a gift and fuck it up, it's the MLBPA. So I hope they don't.

it's either Rosenthal's or Jet Passen's article. He talks how Seeger got paid seven for a hunch, but he's brought in $150 million of value. So he's, you know, we're not a math pod, but I don't think that means he's overpaid. Pretty sure that means he's given you value. There's an incentive-based escalators on his salary for the next year's option,

which I guess won't matter because they're not picking it up. Maybe. How about embellishing a story about Marco Gonzalez pushing Mike Leak into the locker? No, Marco Gonzalez and some other pitchers all pushed Mike Leak into the locker. Just a big old bully session. He was happy about his eating.

A veteran was like, hey, I have a bullpen routine. I'm not going to change at this point of my career. Pretty standard. Obviously, we don't know the. full story, but the tip that he gave was that bike leak was like, no, I'd do my own thing. He didn't even like paint it that terribly. The words were that got heavily embellished, right? A lot of people came out and said that, like, nobody's hands got put on anyone.

Yeah, because how would Kevin Mather know? You think he's in the clubhouse? These guys probably know what this guy looks like. I guarantee a bunch of Mariners players, be like, who? Yeah. Joy retirement, Kevin. He resigned after coming back and say he didn't speak for the club, even though he was the manager or president of the club.

He said he didn't speak on behalf of the club, which is bizarre. Mariners' GM, Jerry Depoto, has some quotes here that are, you know, he's spewing a bunch of bullshit now. Our players understand that Kevin's comments don't define who we are, literally was the president of the club. He says he reached out to players in phone conversations, including Seeger Gonzalez, Rodriguez. in Paxton.

The manager, Scott Service, reached out as well. Depoto said this is not how we want to be viewed, but unfortunately now we are. Depoto said he spoke to Kelnick this morning. There's very little I can say with the contract situation with him, and we offered that a year ago. He said, I'm not sure you can construe a service time manipulation

with someone who has played 20 games over A ball. So he's just lying and talking Doing the dance Doing the dance You're not going to come out and say That is how we're Obviously the president of the club Speaks for the club

And this isn't just a Mariners thing Like other teams all do this And the manipulation and all that But the Mariners are like the worst team in baseball I haven't made the playoffs They haven't had a winning season And forever They're horribly run

So the fact that They're bragging about how they're run while being one of the worst run organizations is insane. They don't measure themselves on wins and losses. That's the problem. Yeah. They measure themselves on $50 parking tickets. How about that, huh? Yeah.

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orthers can I do say one last thing about Kevin Mather yeah One last thing Say it Ear muffs Everybody that's out there Earmuffs if you have kids listening

Everybody listening Stop listening Fuck you Kevin Mather Tress Yeah Wow Sorry I don't know I had to get that out

Okay Okay Good for you Taiwan Walker Speaking of someone that Kevin Mather said was searching a three-year deal He gets a two-year 20 million deal with the two-year $20 million contract with an option for a third with the Mets.

We had Taiwan on the show. Happy form. Mets bullpen gets another piece who has some high upside. You got anything on this, Jake? Rotation, yeah. Man, I like it. I like it. We knew the Mets were going to be in on the remaining starting pitching market because they were, you know, the final two with Bauer.

They were ready to give him that bag he was ion that he got from the Dodgers. So, you know, we kind of wondered, was it going to be our guy Oda Rizzy? Was it going to be our guy, Taiwan Walker, somewhere else? They go with Taiwan Walker. And, man, he's an interesting dude. Like, we talked about in our interview with him, like, this guy's pitched a lot of Major League Baseball. He got called up young, big-time prospect. He's starting to get into the analytics.

I think he's learning more about himself as a player that this guy's, already logged a good amount of MLB innings and he's 28 years old. So I'm interested to see, you know, he's younger than Stroman. I don't know if a lot of people would think about that from how much he's pitched. But I'm interested to see how he develops. There's some baseball savant numbers that do like him. There's some baseball savant numbers that don't like him. Interested to see how he continues to develop.

And, you know, I think Taiwan Walker, a guy who's going to slot in as their fourth or fifth pitcher, you like his upside there. If Taiwan Walker's your two-three guy, I think you're a three guy. I think you're a little worried. But I like it for the Mets. This year is going to be a war of attrition for who's pitching innings, and they get a guy that can throw good Major League innings. You there, Trev?

I'm here. I'm just making sure I'm not choppy here. Yeah, I love the signing. And I was thinking, like, is there a Major League staff with more like bravado than the New York Mets? I mean, you got the Grom, who's kind of like the silent killer, but obviously he's probably the most confident person because he just is the best pitcher in the league right now.

And then you got Thor who only lifts and throws with a shirt off. So clearly he's very confident. That was a million miles an hour. You got Stroman who lacks zero confidence. And then you got Taiwan Walker, who's also in that category. Very confident. You put those guys in a room together. I'm excited to see what comes out.

Imagine if Bauer signed up. I like this guy. It would have been a mess. Well, Cookie Carrasco See a big personality? To my knowledge, very humble But I mean, he's got to be confident It's been a freaking great pitcher in the league for a long time

I just think you put these guys in The knowledge that they have The confidence pushing each other every day Kind of like that Thor Strowman work ethic Not saying that Taiwan doesn't have a good work ethic But you got to believe it's going to go up It's just the everyday competition between those four guys, five guys. It can be cool to see.

You also got Trevor May in the bullpen. Host. Yes, sir. The John Boy Media podcast called the Chris Rose Rotation. They recorded episode one to yesterday. It'll be out next week, I think. Ad. Taiwan's contract is 10 million year one, seven million year two.

And then he has a player option, as we know, from Kevin Mather. He wanted a three-year deal. So the Mets gave him a player. option. He can opt in. It's a base of $6 million for year three. Incentives can rise it to $8.5 million. So we'll see how that goes. And what is there a $3 million buyout or something? Because isn't it listed as two for $20 or something like that?

There's a $3 million buyout if he doesn't take that. Yeah. So, yeah, I mean, not a lot of risk for, again, this guy's 28 years old. got a career 384 ERA and 105 major league starts. Like, it's out there. Matt's rotation, pretty good. Pretty itty good. Where's Odo going, Trev? You need to have it.

I've been talking to him. I've been talking to him. So you have anything in the works? It does? There's some things in the works. Yes. If you had to guess when he's going to sign. Are we talking like next week, something like that?

Soon. Okay. Is what happening is the angels are the highest bidder, but he does not want to go there. Hey, it's Anaheim. I cannot divulge any information at this time. It's probably like, hey, who's your pitching coach, though? Because the one dude is suspended.

Yeah. And you're probably going to fire him soon. So I won't sign with you. Who's the best rotation in baseball right now? Are we still doing Padres? We're doing Dodgers. We're doing Nats. We're doing Mets.

Who are we doing? The Dodgers. Probably the Orioles, right? Dodgers, Padres, Oreos. Dodgers. Dodgers is pretty good. Bauer, Kershaw. Nats is pretty good.

Nats, they still got that big three. If everyone's at peak of their powers, it's probably Padres. But they're toe-to-toe with the Dodgers. It's those two, I think. Yeah. Just Padres, Dodgers. I think the Mets are kind of up there.

I mean, anytime you had DeGrom. Yeah. You got to see what Thor's got. The Mets are up. there for sure like top five and we got seven are we talking white socks at all in that I mean maybe maybe

probably not at that level they'd have a lot to proof they'd have a lot to prove the ceiling on the Dodgers and the Padres is crazy the depth is incredible I think I think the Padres have a slightly higher potential but the safer bet would be the Dodgers

yeah yeah I would agree with that I mean there's Cy Young people could win this I young, you won't be surprised on both teams. Three, four deep. Yeah. And I mean, do you count Clevenger? I guess if you can't for this year, but if you do, that's another one.

Yeah. I mean, are the Indians sneaky, like, still there? Like, I was so down on them last year, but you got the Bebes. You got Pleasek. You got Tristan McKenzie. Who else you got there? They could be good, but not on paper. I mean, you got Bieber.

The other guys got to really show it for full season. All right. Brett Gardner, he finally signs with the Yankees. It's a two-year deal with a $5 million guarantee. It's very tricky how they did the contract. He gets a... The AAV is like 2.15 million. They, like, made it all signing bonuses and opt-outs and opt-ins and all that to get the AAV down.

I don't think nationally anyone truly cares about this. So that's all I'll say. We did a whole thing on talking Yanks for Yankees fans. I asked him. We had news. While we're on the Yankees, we did just get Justin Wilson financials. It's structured very similarly to the Gardner deal, but he has a player option for your two.

If he exercises that, the Yankees get a team option for team three, but salary structure, it's very similar. So the Yankees rounded out their club. Gardner takes a bit of a pay cut if you compare him to other people of his skill and caliber, but he should just be the fourth outfielder. Have you got anything on this? I'm excited for you guys. and for the Yankees team.

He's just so ingrained in the culture. And I don't know what kind of role he's going to be playing this year. I watched a video, and Jim, I think you had the point, like, you don't want him to be the everyday left fielder. You want Clint to step up. But he will, I mean, in my mind, I still see Brett playing quite a bit. Someone will get hurt. Yeah, and what a great depth piece.

And he means so much to that organization. It's a similar situation to like a yachtie. Brett's worth more to the Yankees than any other organization for what he brings and how he's going to present himself to the rest of the guys in the clubhouse. It's just, I don't want to say this, I hate saying this. It's the Yankees' way that he's going to teach the younger guys. Yeah, no, Trevor.

Great influence. You know, we, Jimmy and I walk on eggshells around you to not catch you too hot about the Yankee stuff, but they lost Cece, who, you know, was at core. core part of everything that went on with the Yankees. They're losing Tanaka this year, who was beloved inside and outside of the actual Yankees. And so if they were going to lose Gardner, too, that was going to sting a little bit. But he's going to come in.

He's going to be the veteran. I mean, this is his 14th season? Is that right? And Trev, by the way, the guy against right-handed pitching, he's got an OPS over the last two years that's in the high eights while playing really good defense. and, you know, I think he was 803rd sprint speed or something. So the old man can still get it done. You want Clint to grab that left field job by the haunches and hump it into submission.

Yeah, the good point, J-Cad was if Gardner doesn't start, he gets the Jack Peterson treatment and just doesn't get any starts against lefties, his offensive numbers will actually look really good. An 890 OPS against Ritees over the last two seasons, that's all-star level OPS. So just hopefully the outfield stays healthy enough where Brett Gardner can just play against Rides every now and then and then be a pest in the playoffs.

Yeah, what I think like a guy like that, just for fans to kind of look out for this year, like when you're watching Yankee games or whatever, if something goes on on the field, everybody in that dugout is going to be looking at what Brett Gardner. doing. They're following that dude. If something goes on off the field, Brett Gardner is going to be the one that's talking to the media about it. Like he is, he's going to be like the leader of that club as far as stuff like that.

You know, obviously there's some big names there. You got judge, you got Cole. Cole will be another one probably on the pitching side. He's that guy. But even then, I think everyone's looking, if something happens on the field, they're going to see how Brett Gardner is reacting to it. and they feed off of that energy. That's what he brings to the club. It's a very important role. Final note on the other center field free agents. Kevin Pilar, his Aavie is looking like 325.

Gardner lands at 258. I think he's been a better player than Pilar. And in a lot of metrics, I mean, you're looking at the other center field. Adam Eaton got one for seven. So the Gardner deal looks good for the Yanks. I like it. Trev name of basketball team. Oh.

Lakers. Okay. You think they're going to hit a three-pointer in their next game? I do. Why don't you put your money where your mouth is and throw down a $1 bet? Because if you bet $1 with Draft Kings that the Lakers hit just one three-pointer over the course of the game, you will win $100. That's the new crazy promotion draft Kings is doing right now. Download the Drafking Sportsbook app now and use promo code Jamboy to get your shot to turn $1 into $100 when you bet on any.

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If you have a gambling problem, call 100 gambler or in Indiana 1-800-9 with it. Or in Virginia, call 8-8-8-3-2-3-5-0-0-3-0. I think that promotion only goes through the rest of February. Just getting you ready for March Madness. So you just choose any team. Then you get free money, basically. Has there been like a team that hasn't hit a three-pointer in the history of basketball over the last 10 years? I'd love to know the last time a team went a full game without hitting a three.

BPD, could you hit the passing button if it's been a passing? Breaking news, something we just talked about, Tywin Walker. he will be wearing number 99 because Mr. Met wears number double zero. Okay. I try to get him to go triple digits. We had a little Twitter exchange.

I don't know if anyone's ever worn triple digits before, but hey, he's big enough. It'll fit on his back. But 99's good. I like 99. Whoa. What's a whoa?

From 1980 to 2016, a lot of teams have not had a three-pointer in a game. New basketball. One three-pointer? Yeah. Didn't they used to talk crap about Michael Jordan couldn't shoot threes? Is that a thing?

In 2013-14 NBA season, six times a team didn't hit a three-pointer in a game. Not great. It's wild. It's more than I would have said for sure. We got a bunch of little things that I'm so excited. to talk about games. Very excited to talk about games and spring training updates and all that because I'm going to be as transparent as possible.

The rest of this, the news that I know that we got to deliver to the people. Capital B boring. Ray signed Chas Rowe, Brave sign Jake Lamb, Cubs, re-signed Cameron, Maven, Ian Desmond opts out again. Shinsu Chu goes to the KBO, Tiger sign Julio Tehran to a non-guaranteed deal. and Todd Frazier goes to the Pirates on a minor league deal. That is what I said that in the Pirates TPP we did, that if you're a veteran player just looking for somewhere to get starts

and hopefully traded, the pirates are the perfect place to go because they need warm body. So Todd Frazier listened, took my advice. He goes to the Pirates. If any of you have any thoughts on any of these bullet points, toss them out there. I think first thing, everyone should give Shinsu, Shinsu Chu some golf clubs. Really nice major league career, if that's it for him.

Really good baseball player. Like really good baseball player. And then the other thing that really jumps out to me is maybe Jake Lamb. We saw him get energized a little bit in Oakland when he went over there. The Braves, we laughed when they brought back Pablo Sandoval, and were like, for some reason, they like him, and they kind of want him a part of their bench. I like Jake Lamb a lot on their bench, a lot more than Pablo Sandoval.

Like Jake Lamb right now, I think, is arguably their best bench hitting option. So, you know, injuries happen in a baseball season. Jake Lamb, if he can find it again and get some run for the Braves, it's a good ball player. Do any of our Braves fans have insight to that? Am I allowed to make a joke? Like, do we have pictures of Pablo in Braves Camp? Did he show up just like even bigger? And they're like, oh, my God.

I don't know if he can. Get Jake Clam. That's what started all this? Yes. Oh, my God. Pablo walked into camp and they were doing like the scene from Major League and they were just like, what the fuck? Yeah, no. That ain't going to work.

Who else is out there? Back up third baseman. Trev? I don't have much on the signings. You know, a bunch of good players towards the back end of their career having to take minorly deals is kind of a theme around the league. I will say yes, Shinsu Chu, I spent very little time in the Texas Rangers organization. a disdain for it as you guys know although i mean there's a couple other a o west teams just skyrocketing up the worst run organizations uh leaderboard the a o west is just we got the astros

we got the angels and all the things that they're doing and being dumb with we got the a's acting a fool we got the mariners acting a fool i mean the whole division anyway shinsu chu when i did get to play with them. First guy at the field every day in spring training. Always working, setting a good example, was very forthcoming with information and wanted to help guys. Just an all-around, like,

one of the more respected players in the big week. So yes, golf claps were deserved and you know, have fun. Going back home, playing in Korea. It's probably, I mean, I got to imagine he's going to mash there. So that'll be fun for him. Anyone want to guess his career on base percentage?

Career. Shinsu. 365. I'm going higher. You're going 370. 377. Nice. That's career.

He's real deal. That's career. He's real deal. I'm currently trying to find any information I can on Chas Roe's parents. I have a theory that they were very young when they had them. Okay. Just because Chaz? Because they named their son Chaz, yeah, by accident.

No. Chas. There's a lot of fun names going on now, Jim. Once you get into the baby world, you start to see a lot of people. This ain't now. He was born in 1986. Yeah, Chad. Yeah, I could see that.

Stubanville, Ohio. Gorgeous. Maybe. They may or may not have smoked a few dupies in their day. I don't know. I don't want to put those. seems like maybe like huge. I'll refrain.

Okay. Chaz also. Excellent dude. Excellent dude. Huge. Frisbee. Hey, what do you think the highest Chaz ever was on the U.S. birth trending chart for boys' names?

We did this all. We did a whole thing of this. What year? Yeah, what year? And then at the highest number of popularity, quick guess. 86. 89. So they were around the spike.

There was a Chaz time. It was 89. 89's the peak Um It could have been us From 87 to 89 It's spiked up Like 300 points

Was there a TV show at that time Like there's got to be a reason right It's got to be a reason Highest it ever landed was 379th most popular name Baseball player Go by Chaz around them Right now it's as low as it's

It's as It's lower than it's been since 1980 the name because it's close to Chad and nobody wants to name their kid Chad now it's one step was a little worse it didn't exist before 1980 it was never on the top 1,000 names so that's interesting when's the next time someone's going to name their daughter Karen

it's probably today yeah maybe today you think someone's still doing it yeah interesting I mean think I like reading Trevor ploo stuff he's got a lot of good takes everything's sickly God, I love Ron Darling. Karen will be cool in a few years.

There's a time when Jake was a dog's name. Now look. Still is. It still is. Yeah, absolutely. I am famous too. Wow. That's the end of the show today. We got nothing else. Good luck to Todd

Father in Pittsburgh. Oh, Todd and Cole. That's some positive energy. Oh, my God. Yes. I mean, that's like two. different generations of just bubbly, happy people. Oh, if you're a curmudgeon on the pirates this year, you're going to be miserable.

Yeah. If you hate happiness and fun? Did you guys see a picture of Cole and the Kobe's walking out to take extra brown balls? I mean, I saw Kyle posted that on talking baseball and I was like, that is. That looks cool. That's our guy. That's our freaking guy. Had an office meeting with everyone about that picture.

You did? Yeah. I wasn't there. I went to get the breakfast sandwiches. Oh, wow. What was it? I just told everyone this is what you strive to. Oh, to be.

Strive to be that. I didn't say to be. Just strive to. Just strive to this. Just want everyone to see it. Strive to. Strive to it. It feels like you're,

strive to it. Okay. It looks like he's taking my advice seriously. You don't have to be it. It looks like he's going to do his work out in front of everybody. Great. Telling you, I know that people used to frown upon that. I don't care.

Go do your work in front of everybody because change the narrative, baby. Be the guy. He obviously works out a lot because we see it every day. Hot. All right. That is today's episode. We'll be back again tomorrow with another team profile end projection.

And then on Thursday, it's another full episode. And then we'll be back. Every day that's not a full episode is a mini episode because we're doing an episode a day every day until opening day. I'd tell you who tomorrow's episode is, but I can't. Because it's secret, but all the patrons know. Patrons know because we give them secret information. You're hovering.

Do you have a... Baseball. I just wanted to hit that. Okay, a little baseball. Oh, snap. That was lit. And also wanted to hit that one for a time. Oh, go off, BBD.

Go off, young king. See you guys. Oh, hold up. Triceratatops. Bad ass. See ya. Goodbye. Love you.

I fixed Gary Sanchez swing on sequence, so you're... Very excited to see what you've done there. I'm told that's Thursday. episode, not today's, but a new one today. Jake Sox.