Talkin' Baseball (MLB Podcast) - 291 | Britt Ghiroli Talks JBJ, Callaway, Power Lifting, and Chris Davis

Episode Date: March 4, 2021

Britt Ghiroli of The Athletic joined the program to talk all things baseball with Jomboy, Jake, & Plouffe! 5:30 - Callaway 19:00 - What Spring Training stop are you most excited for? 24:30 - JBJ signed with Milwaukee 30:00 - Chris Davis 36:30 - Should there be a salary floor? 41:30 - How do you build relationships? Presented by DraftKings 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 special episode with a special guest. We're very excited to talk about everything that's happening in the world of baseball. Good, bad, ugly, fun, and other stuff. Ran out of one adjective. All right. Hello and welcome to talking baseball. My name is Jimmy.

Sitting next to me is Jake. We got Trevor coming from California, producer Bug Bug Bug Dude in the Corner. And special guest from the athletic joining us today. Brett Droly. Hey. Hello. It's like magic, magically appearing. It's a very cool effect.

I had no idea. There's going to be a musical component to this. Oh, yeah. You got to dance a little. Oh, we sing the whole episode. So I hope you're prepared. It's Hamilton. I'm an atrocious voice, but I'm a scream talker, so I'm here.

Okay. That's Jake. Yeah. He's atrocious singing voice, we sings all the time. It's a Hamilton meets baseball is what we're doing here. Britt, how are you doing? You just got to spring training. I just found out you're a Connecticut person, so I'm all jazzed up on that.

Go green, go white. Give me everything. How are you? Give me everything. Yeah, I got to spring training, found out a little late that I actually can't get into camp without a 24-hour notice. So taking a beach day down here, get a little tan. Definitely in Florida, guys. I went to the gym this morning, and I walked in, I'm all masked up already, you know, basically drinking hand sanitizer.

And the bro who, like, check me in is like, hey this is Florida like take that off and I'm like oh what are your COVID protocols he's like wash your hands walks away huge man it's different yeah and then you're gonna you're gonna you're gonna have to tweet you have protein shake you're gonna have to start tweeting about if you haven't already about how bad the traffic is and the drivers are in Florida which I partake in that when I'm down there as well because it is crazy how bad they are at traffic it's awful like it well I mean like the tam miami trail all the years I cover the Orioles is like the bane of my existence. Like nobody, nobody knows where they're going. Nobody knows how to is any kind of rush. It's awful. Would you rather

drive on that? Not great either. Would you rather drive on that or 95? Oh, God, that's close. 95 is awful as well. The George W. Bridge, I think we're counting that bridge, then I would rather drive down here. At least it's sunny down here. And people are a little nicer, as you guys know. That whole New England thing, everyone's flipping you off. cutting you off. Nobody's very nice. I had to explain to my wife that New Jersey and New York are honk first states. Like, you know, their first reaction is to honk at you.

Then they'll apologize and be like, oh, my bad, my bad, or something like that. But, you know, it's a honk first state. Like, don't take it personally. People are just going to haunt no matter what. I'm not like you said to that because I, my husband and I get into this all the time, he's in New Orleans. And it's more like, oh, whatever, they just cut me off. And I'm like, beat your horn.

That's why it was created. Yeah. beat your horn. He's like, no, it's created for accidents. When you're in an accident, you beat your horn. I'm like, no, no, no, you beep your horn when someone does you wrong. You beep your horn when someone does something, anything. Like, that's just what you do. Maybe it is a Connecticut thing, a New England thing. Yeah, you know, I have to deal with you guys all the time, you northeasterners. You guys are a little bit more rude than us down here in California. It's okay.

We're just not passive as the other way to say it. Places to be, man. Okay, I'll give that to you. Yes, we are aggressive aggressive. There is no passive. Britt, I have a question for you right away. Do you hate Brittany's that are N-E-Y at the end, or are you still bonded with them? That's an excellent question. I don't mind the N-E-Ys, the N-I's. I'm kind of skeptical of. Also, the thing I tell my parents all the time is, like, could you have named me something a little more professional?

Like, as soon as I was coming up, we have Britney Spears, right, with baby one more time. And do you know any older Britney's? Is anyone's grandma named Britney? my parents almost named me Tiffany which is also the same kind of basically the same name either way this is why I go by Britt a lot just sounds like more like oh cool there's Britt over there Britney's just not a

like take me seriously name right it's like oh there's that girl over there what is she doing like no no one knows it's just my poor mom is probably if she figured out YouTube is probably watching this upset because I go over this all the time we have what's the male equipment The male equivalent of Brittany.

Trevor. Is it Chad now? Trevor. No, it's not on the level of Chad. No. Not even Clairin are tough right now. Chad and Karen. I think Trevor's the comp.

Jake's a dog's name. I mean, my name's not great. We have someone on this podcast that loves looking at the trending charts of names. And that's someone's me. Brittany was in the top 10 from 1987 until, 1998. Wow. So that's a,

what a run. It's a great run. It's a good run. Thank you to Britney Spears, but then the downfall, you know, once it started getting associated with that, I think, you know.

Free Brittany. But she's N-E-Y, so you're good. You're good. He is. She is. I'm good. Well, Brett,

I think we're going to go to a little more serious twist for a second. You were all over in the Mickey Cowell away story and it's still going. I know the press conference just happened with what's his name, the guy on the Blue Jays now. Ross Atkins, he just came out with his press conference. So, I mean, where are we at with that? Are we waiting for more news to

break on that or kind of what's next, I guess? Yeah, I mean, I hope what's next is all these nice words of we're going to do better. We're going to change this actually happens. Maybe what's next is Mickey Calloway, they've reached a resolution because it's been over a month. Yeah. I will say this. I've had the kind of, I've just been wondering, you guys, in your experience, whether it's steroids or the Astros cheating or this Calloway stuff, has there ever been an investigation where we learn something new?

No, I tweeted that out as soon as they said we're going to investigate Mickey Calloway. I think that was my exact tweet. Like, MLB has never said we're going to investigate something. and come away with new information. Like the Astros thing, all they had to do was open their inbox because the A, the Rays and the Yankees, and there's another team that I'm blanking on. The A's, no.

Dodgers? Dodgers had been sending proof and examples and complaints for three seasons. So like, we're going to start an investigation. Like, okay, open up your inbox. And I guarantee it's the same thing here. Right. Ask anyone on the 2019 Nationals who had to change their signs a million times. You know, I was there that year.

There were so many rumors that these guys are cheating. Just nobody could nail down exactly how. So I actually saw Yankee scouts showed me their phone and all the pictures of MinuteMade Park that they took and sent to the front office. And I asked, can I send those to the public? And they said, no, because they're going to know it came from us. So like, this is something that teams had been doing forever sending proof that the Astros were cheating. And the investigation just confirmed what. The athletic broke.

And same thing here. Right. And the same thing with steroids. They were never like, oh, you know what? You know what? Ten guys were named that did steroids. But in fact, we found 50, right? That just didn't happen.

In fact, it was the opposite of that. So I don't hold out too much hope just based on precedent that they're going to find, like, this whole, oh, it wasn't just Mickey Calloway. It was everywhere. And I think we all know it's everywhere. It's not just a Mickey Calloway thing. What I liked today that Ross Atkins was saying was, you know, he took accountability. He said he was sorry for his involvement in it. And he also said, like, we have to get better.

We're too all white. We're too all male. We're too all of one thing. Which I think people reading that should hopefully realize is it wasn't just this one incident with Mickey Calloway, right? It was the fact that people didn't really know that was wrong. People didn't really consult with other people to be like, yeah, that's actually an issue that's been happening for years.

Like, there's a difference between having an extramarital affair and what Mickey Calloway was doing. And I don't know if a few years ago people really realized that there was. So hopefully we're getting there. Hopefully it's not just like empty hollow words. I will say I'm a little disappointed that as a league, they come out really strong. And, you know, what's his name? Joe Kelly hits someone in the head. It's like an immediate one-month suspension.

MLB says, that's it. The next person who does it's in trouble. But why couldn't they say this with Mickey Callaway? Like, that's it. The next person who does this is in trouble. What is so gray area about position? because to me it's pretty black and white to not harass women. Yeah.

MLB, I mean, we can just go over how long you got because we got a list of things that they just don't do well. And we talk about that all the time on our pod here. And you're right, Mickey Callow is not an isolated incident. You know, however many minor league teams there are and minor league coaches and major league coaches and shit players too. I mean, this is something that needs to be changed throughout the entire system. So it's not just the Mickey Callaway thing. It's like you said, it needs a whole, a whole shift in the way we think about things, 100%. Oh, not even just baseball.

Just kind of like guys locker rooms and clubhouses from high school on. And maybe you give teenagers a pass because they're learning and they're growing and they're dumb teenagers. But when that same attitude and mentality stays the same, which is bad then, but when that stays the same in 30-year-old, 40-year-old men, 50 year old, six year old men, and they're still treating their environment, like they're 13 year olds who are just like going through puberty for the first time and full of all these hormones like, it's like gross. That's like, so it's not even a baseball thing. It's kind of just like a, we need a re-culture like boys and boyhood and that clubhouse and what stays in the clubhouse. No, treat every room you're in like it's the same room you're in anywhere is like what

I would try to say to young kids. Right. It just feels like, and I think people are always the first thing they go to is, as Trevor mentioned, like the players, and it's actually, in my opinion, in my, I can only speak for myself. In my own personal experience, the players have caught on and caught up to the times quicker than other areas of the sport, quicker than some coaches, minor leagues, you know, some people in the front office.

So I think, in my experience, anyway, by the time players get to the big leagues, they've interacted with enough females and clubhouses. They've, you know, the guys coming up, especially now, kind of get it more so than, other areas. And it's crazy to me, what I didn't realize until this whole shit hit the fan was that the players get sexual harassment training, but the front office and teams weren't required to. And that should say everything I guess right there. Now it's going to change obviously. But in my

experience, players have been largely allies. And it's the rest of the sport that kind of needs to catch up. I'm hoping that's kind of a youth thing. You know, like as generations turn, our young, our youngsters are just being more aware. And not being groomed in the same fashion that the other, you know, the older guys are. But that's insane that you just said. That's why we're talking about it right here because we're getting the message out. Then young kids who watch our show understand stuff like this. It is the younger guys are better with it.

And all players do go through these sessions we have during spring training. Sometimes they pop up during the year as well. So it's definitely something that Players Association has done and tried to, you know, change that culture. Yeah. No. And I don't know if you know this, Britt, but so I have the Rangers probably on the top of my worst run organizations list. There's some little bit of bias because they treated me poorly. Yeah. But the angels are fast approaching that number one slot for a variety of reasons, not just the Mickey Kelly.

So if you need me to get on the train and just go after the angels, I am I am your God. You're dry. I agree with you. I think, like listen, like they had the lawsuit. with the clubby going, right? They have everything with Caller's gags. Part of the reason that this is taking so long with Callaway is the angels are letting MLB investigate and they're not

doing it for themselves and obviously we know they don't want to pay what's left of his salary. So now we're putting a price on sexual harassment, really, right? Like, yeah, you know what, though? We still owe him 900K. Like, what? You know, these are billion-dollar organizations.

So, yeah, I agree with you. I think you guys should do a whole episode on like worst organizations like worst run organizations i mean it's pretty much all we do not a town however like it's not very hard to come up with at least the top five it's not very hard to be like yeah this team this team this team this team a lot of them are in the a o west unfortunately yeah we did um like an agent survey at the athletic we did like 30 agents that we spoke to and it was like where do you not want your client stand up and oakland was a big one um technically so people had mentioned like the way it was handled the way people were treated. So I've heard that before too. So it's interesting to see what

the agents say where they're like, you know what? I don't want my client in the big leagues, but shit. Does it have to be here? I don't know. I don't know that. I don't know about the culture of Oakland, but I'm guessing that agents don't want their guys ending up on a team that doesn't spend any money. So maybe that's why they're the forefront and not bad culture. So, but maybe, I don't know. But that's a very interesting. I'd love to see the results. It's not a culture thing in Oakland, like as far as kind of what we've been talking about. It's more. like the facilities are bad they'll platoon you like that you know what i mean so like your bats could go down and yeah if you do perform there it's not like they're going to you know write you a check

they're going to ship you out and then you have to figure it all out again so it's there's a lot of things but like i said the angels man they are like right right there on the the step of number one of worst run organizations and perio is a former clubby he started out as a clubby and he's not stepping in for Bubba and this whole pine tar situation and it really pisses me off and obviously Skaggs as you can see right above my shoulder here that's a big part of the reason why I hate them too so right yeah no I mean I think you should just do a whole like Trevor shit list episode and just be like you know what this organization sucks this

because there's like a big difference I don't think people realize until you talk to guys who like get traded for the first time and they're like whoa like I guess you think right as a player the first place you're at, you're like, this is it. This is the big league. You think that that's it everywhere, whether it's good or bad, like guys who got traded out of Baltimore, I remember talking to Zach Britton and him being like, holy shit, like this is the Yankees is like a totally different world, totally different galaxy. And I think it's like that for all players when they get traded, what, you know, to another team, they're like, whoa, this is actually run better or it's run much worse or I'm treated better or worse. It's not just an even playing field

that I think people imagine, like, I'm in the big leagues. Like, dude, you're in Tampa Bay. Like, does that really count compared to some of these other organizations, you know? And we're Yankees fans, so we're getting ripped on for bringing the Yankees up all the time. But you brought it up first, Brit, so I'll add on to it. C.C. Sabathie always says to other team, other players on his podcast, like, you're not in the big leagues until you're on the Yankees. I'm sure there's other teams out there that he didn't play on.

But he played with Cleveland, he played with Milwaukee, and they played with the Yankees. and he was like, you know, the food I eat, the hotels I stay at, the quality of care for my family and my children, like, no, like, he was like, I don't experience this. And then I know that the Yankees bullpen coach, Mike Harky, he went and was the Diamondbacks pitching coach for a little bit. And he was like, I mean, I used like, I upgraded in job. I downgraded it in quality of job.

So he came back to be the bullpen coach. So, yeah, it's wild. You would think that it's much more even of a playing field. Yeah, you would. I remember, like, the Yankees said, like, an off day early on, and Britain was like, yeah, you know, in Baltimore, you hang out. You go to a restaurant. And I think it was Sabathia who, like, rented a plane and they went to, like, the Bahamas for the day. Like, whoa, you're like, easy, Dorothy. Like, you're not in fucking Kansas anymore, you know. The big thing.

The big thing with Britain was the Orioles made him pay for daycare. Like, he had to pay them for them to watch his kids. And he was like, the Yankees, like, have a nice daycare. And we don't have to pay for it. Just plus. And we were laughing. Like, that's why he signed back with us. Like, if that's what it takes.

Right. I'm not going to name the organization. I think, right, Trevor, like, everyone's making good money in the big leagues. It's like the amenities and feeling like you matter. Like the big thing with the nationals that, you know, the players in Anthony Rendon spoke out against was they made the wives fly commercial for the world series. It was like a big deal for the playoffs. And finally, they got another plane for the World Series.

The players were pissed. It's like you make the World Series and now your families have to coordinate like with kids and commercial flights and stuff like that. and having another plane like the Dodgers do all year for their significant others, that's a big deal to people. It just makes their life. They have a plane for their significant others all year? Yeah, they can come back.

The rule is they can come back, travel back to L.A. with them. Travel back, okay, yes, travel back is normal. Travel back is pretty good. I'm not going to name the organization, but there was one organization that had daycare, and that's a huge thing for families. I mean, God bless baseball-wise, they have to put up with so much stuff. know, like, you know, there's some good things about it, but, man, it's a lot. This organization would end the daycare, like, strictly at 10 o'clock or like 945.

The game's still going on? Like, they have to go get the kids and then what? Like, why not just stay till the end of the game? And one of those things, like, I don't understand. But, yeah, the Yankees, the Dodgers, and I would say, I mean, Philly was very show as well. But I would say the Yankees and the Dodgers are probably like those two organizations where people are like, I'm in the big leagues now. Brett.

I love your idea for Trevor doing the worst franchise list, but we try to get him to do extra work, and he's just kind of not built differently. He's kind of built the same. So hopefully we can get him to do that. Right, you just got to spring training. You mentioned now the 24 hours. You have to check in with the teams, which is a little ridiculous.

But we'll start getting into some of the more fun baseball stuff. What's your spring training visit? you're most excited to check in for this year. Like, what was the one when you were coming down on the plane? You're like, all right, I need to see this. Well, I want to go to Yankees camp and see the, what is it, the gas, the Velo garage? Gas station, yes. Yeah, that's what it is.

I'd also like to go to West Palm Beach and see if Eric Cressy will let me use the gym, because that used to be a highlight of spring training. So, Eric, or if someone is listening to this, Eric, I'll be calling you soon. As soon as I get to the state, please let me in. Okay. But I think the Yankees thing is cool. I think the VLO thing in general, and I have a story I'm working on that's coming out soon,

about organizations, which ones are really good at improving Vilo, and which ones are drafting guys who throw upper 90s, and then a few years later they've actually lost velocity. I think that's what you're going to start to see now, is the teams that are able to draft a guy who doesn't throw that hard and add the velocity are getting that value, right? So you're seeing, like, the Cubs have the pitching lab, and you're seeing all these things kind of come out now

where teams are really trying their best to get two to three. If you can get two to three miles an hour on, you know, 10 guys fastballs, that's a huge difference. So I want to go to Yankees camp. I want to see how, like, that's kind of shaking out. And also, like,

when the Yankees are healthy, I know you guys are probably like, God damn it, we got a guest on. No, this is perfect. But that lineup, to me,

if they stay healthy, it's just insane. I want to go to Blue Jay's camp, if they'll let me there because I think that they have a lot of young guys, and they kind of got good like a year early. And I want to see like, is Blackboro Jr. really that skinny? Was it really just the area? Skinny, Brad.

This is best shape of my life season. And usually I would go around and talk to guys and see who actually looks like they're in good shape or who's just like lost five pounds and they're going to put 15 back on. Just walk by them, size them up and say, no. So like that's usually what I like to do in spring training because I'm a lifter as well. So I really enjoy like the health fitness. like that kind of nonsense. So I don't know if I'm going to be able to do that, but that's what I would like to do.

So didn't really answer your question, but we talked about the Yankees, so I feel like that was still a good answer. You made it. And you mentioned Cressy, who's a health and performance coach, and he's working with the Yankees, but one of the coolest stories we got last year

was from you and Eric Cressy's under league, underground, baseball camp that he was putting on. For any of our listeners that, maybe miss that or forgot about it, Can you just tell some people about what was happening last year during quarantine? Because I think it's kind of sandlot games with professional professionals is awesome. And dream.

Yeah, it's like Field of Dreams kind of shit, right? Yeah. You know, it's funny because that's kind of how Luke Jackson described it. Like, he had heard that there was stuff going on at Cressy, so he drove over and he gets out of the car. And it's like the who's who of baseball. You know, you got Goldschmidt there. You got Klover. You got Scher.

You got Berlander. You just got, you know, Stanton was there. he was rehabbing though. I want to make that clear because people freaked out. They thought that Staten was playing like crazy nine inning games and sprinting and then oh my God,

his cats hurt. He was rehabbing. But it's this huge list of guys and they're playing legit games at Palm Beach Gardens High School. So can you guys just imagine just being like a high school kid or whatever just being like

yeah, let's go use the open field and then basically like just just seeing all these guys out there and be like, holy shit. Like how did that not leak out in the age of social media? I don't know. Like how, like, oh, actually though, Richard Blyer,

all the guys were told like no social media. Richard Blyer, come, I love Richard Blyer, puts it on his social media and the guys harassed him forever because nobody knows because it was Richard Blyer. Right? Like, everybody was always putting it on the internet. So it actually stayed a secret even though Richard Blyer posted it. Another Yankee great.

That's brutal. Yeah, just because it was Richard Blyer, which is I, Richard Blyer. is great. I really wish MLV said no, but he just wanted to put Dick on his MLB players jersey last year because it's a nickname for Richard and shut it down. Just a funny, underrated. I'm probably going to get in trouble for like 10 things I say on this show. But anyway, the games were kind of leaked, but not really leaked. Cressy was like, hey, listen, if you shut up about this, I'll tell you when it's all over. And he did, true to his word. He did tell me about it all. But just a really cool thing

while everyone was, like, sitting all in their homes, not sure what to do. It's dark, it's cold, at least where I was. And just the image of, like, Max Scherzorzorz or grunting and Goldschmidt, like giving tips to Blyer as he's throwing to him. It's pretty cool. And, oh, you know who was there at that game that I didn't write about? Who's the guy who had to walk off for Tampa Bay that ruined the Yankees season?

I know you can't know. Well, now you've balanced out. Brassau. Now you've balanced out the Yankees talk. I blocked that from my memory, but it was a scene. Oh, it wasn't it bad. So when he hits that, Cressy texts me and he's like, God, I'm so, I'm so like torn. Like, I'm sad the Yankees are out.

But Brasso was the secret baseball game guy. Like, there's just kind of like a full football. That's what they refer to it as a secret, the secret baseball game? Secret baseball. Yeah. And I guess after that, Gullchman like reached out to Brasso after that hit because they had become friends from secret baseball days. So it's kind of like this cool little story that I never got to tell like the follow up.

But yeah, the Yankee season was ruined by a secret baseball. baseball game guy. So sorry. Wow. All right. Let's change it to. That was the coolest story that came out. That was Britcheroli with the athletic. Thank you for joining us.

Let's talk about JBJ. Yeah. J.B.J. He was bad. J.B.J. joined the Brewers today on a two-year deal. There's an opt-out. It could be a one-year deal if he does take the opt-out.

The brewers, we've talked to some people around the brewers, and they've said that, you know, they like, they're like top-heavy on both. sides of the ball and then they really wanted to focus on their defense. So they brought in Colton Wong and now they have JBJ and Kane's going to move to the left. I don't know. We haven't really discussed this. Britt, I'll let you go first. Do you have any gut reactions or thoughts about this move? I think it's a good move. I think the Brewers are going to be better than people realize. They didn't have this like huge splash, right? They tried for some guys, but didn't

ultimately end up getting like a big name per se. But I think when you look at Colton Wong, I thought he was going to be a good addition, no matter where he went, like an underrated. Nobody talks about defense anymore, right? Like an underrated defensive player. I think adding JBJ already, I think they were favored by the Bokoda projections to win their division. This to me puts them even more out in front. I think if they stay healthy, like besides their depth remains a little bit of an issue, I think that's always an issue with small market teams.

Like if everyone stays healthy, their starters are really good. But what they don't have and what those deep payroll gets you are like, the better backups, right? The better 26th man, 27th man, whatever it may be. But I would not sleep on the Brewers. I think they're going to be a really good team. And I think this was a good move for J.B.J. And also now you look at the Red Sox and it's like the golden years are truly over.

I saw you guys posted like a picture with him and Mooky Betts. Someone else was in that too, I think. But it's like, man, I was going to go to Fort Myers and I'm trying to figure out like, who do I care about on that Red Sox team? Ben in 10. He was the three Bs. It was Ben Intendi, Betts, and Bradley. Yeah.

Treve. Joe, say who she should care about it on the Red Sox. You know exactly who I want you to say. Who do you? Bobby Dolbeck? Yes. Oh, my God. He's a pissa.

You've been going off. Have you been watching any of the spring training games? I did see that, Treve. I did see that. Spring training homers. Treve, where are you out with your brew crews? Are you coming around? We're always believers in the brew crew.

what we say about the brewers brit tell me if you think this is the of how their organization runs things they always like to see where they're at in the middle of the season they have their guys they know they're going to be competitive and then like you said if they stay healthy they're in the race they're not afraid to add at the deadline but they rarely ever come into a season a juggernaut they are they you know kind of find uh victories in the margins and like i said if they're there come, you know, June, July, they'll go get somebody. I feel the same way about the team. We've talked, Braun's one of my buddies, he's thinking he could come back in July.

He doesn't want to play until then. So he could be an addition for them. It's pretty much the only place he'll do that for. But then, yeah, like, as far as depth, I think that's when they can acquire depth is at that point. But they're never out of it. They always have this culture there. It's like they hang on, they hang on, they hang on. and lately it's been like September they go.

So we'll see how it goes. I have the Cardinals as my favorite in the division, but the Brewers are just always right there. And when you got Yelly and some of the guys they have, I mean, like you said, they're top heavy and they can add the depth when they need to add the depth. Yeah. I mean, what's crazy to me about the Cardinals being favored

is they only made one move. I know it was Aronado. The big move. Exactly. But like they really didn't do anything else. I like Kim. So he doesn't really well. Hicks. Hicks will be back.

That's a, you know, back end of the bullpen type guy. That's another kind of, I guess, an addition, if you will, because he wasn't there last year. Well, I think they're- I love the cardinal, sorry. The one other thing that they did do was they moved Fowler, which we thought was going to be the LEMS shedding more space to add someone else. Instead, it was kind of, it wasn't that. They were eating the salary just to get rid of them.

And it's to give their young guys a chance to give Tyler O'Neill, Carlson. So that's kind of the other part with that Cardinal story. Yes, they brought in Aeronado in those corners, Goldschmidt and Aeronauto, you can't beat that. But man, if they have one or two of those young guys step up, that changes the whole dynamic of that team. So I'm interested to see because I think it's always funny. One of the things we say here a lot is that you know your team better than us. Like, if I give us the full Tyler O'Neill scouting report, I'm just going to be talking out my ass, so I'm not going to do that.

Don't do it. Don't do it. I love Tyler O'Neill. You know that. I know you do. Short King, right? Short thick? He's jacked. I love that. Unlike you, he's jacked. Okay. Jake's been jacked once. Yeah, I was in shape in like 2013 for a little bit. It was awesome. Can I ask Britt the next question? Please. Sure. Okay.

So, obviously, you were with the Orioles for a long time. I just did a video First I don't know if you saw but I need to get some Pats on the back I fixed Gary Sanchez's swing Just right here two homers now in spring training thank you Yankees fans I appreciate it Trev He's my favorite player and I like when he's good

Is there a guy that gets more like hate from his hometown fan base than him No no no no we love we support Gary I fixed his swing he's back anyway So I did that it was successful and then I said you know what, I got another guy I need to do. I think you know where I'm going with this, Chris Davis. Yes. I just did a video. I haven't released it yet. It's going to come out next week, add sequence, check it out. What, in your opinion, I found some mechanical stuff. In your opinion, like what was the start of the decline and why did it happen so quickly? Yeah, it's interesting.

I think I still think to this day that most of the problems are not physical with him. I think it's mostly a case of like mental because you go back to his rangers days and they mess with his head. And he was kind of, I mean, I don't know. I don't think I have to tell you that like the Rangers can do that. And they kind of had him ticketed as that 4A guy. And he got to Baltimore and their fuck was like, listen, we're playing you every day. I don't care if he suck or not. Like we don't have anyone else.

And he kind of settled in. So I think a lot of it is a mental stuff with him. Like if he gets going again and has a good month, I think he could be, he could take off again. go on a run. But I think a lot of it, for him, is believing. And it sounds like total BS because we hear this kind of stuff all the time from players. But like, Trevor, as you can test, like, this game is so mental. And I think he's had so many hitting coaches.

He's made so many tweaks. Every spring he comes in and he's trying something different, which is also, like, best shape of my life. It's the same thing. I think it has got to be between his ears because he's in good shape. He's not a guy who, like, gets bad or gets out of shape. He's not a guy who's really changed. in terms of physique too much over the past few years. I honestly think it's between his ears.

And if he starts to get going, he really could at least salvage some of that contract. And he's a great guy. I really like Chris Davis. I really hope he can salvage some of it because he's become a punchline in Baltimore. Less so now because people don't care as much about the Orioles. But like at the tail end of when they were good and when he was nosed diving, it was, oh, God, Chris Davis this, Chris Davis that. people have kind of just I guess dealt with it

I think it's been forgotten I think like the app Do you need his phone number You should definitely send him this video I hope it gets to it I really kick your ass trav Yeah I touched I touched on what you're talking about as well Hitting obviously is very very mental

Like you have to be confident If you're not confident you're going to get blown up Every time you get in the box just how it is And from all the accounts I don't know Chris that well I played against some obvious obviously everyone says he's a hard worker and he's always doing something so like when people say he's lazy and i understand why they say that uh because gary's kind of has the same uh demeanor almost like they're trying it's it's just like they have a laid back demeanor out there people used to

say that about me too like oh the california boy he must be lazy it's not it's just i don't have to scream and yell and be so pissed off all the time like that's not how i was raised or whatever but from all accounts Chris works really hard. So yes, mentally he needs to get going. I had, I think, two or three mechanical things that I saw that I think he needs to do. But mentally for sure. I can't, I can't spoil. Wow.

Oh, Brit. What don't get like a preview? You don't get like a tease? I know, I have one big thing he should do, Treve. Okay, tell me. Change his swing. He does need to change his swing. Because.

He's been the same. His thing's the same as it was in 2013. in 2015 is now. There's a little bit of thing. I'll give you my first note on him is posture. Poster in the box. That was the first thing I saw. It's a little bit different.

He's a change. I elaborate more on my video. But yeah, I think I was just curious if there was like an instance that you saw or they talked about in that club house like that happened with him.

But it was you're kind of saying it was more like a slow gradual. Yeah. And I think it's confidence because like when he's going well, he's the guy who's like shirtless walking through with like a big drug. of like water drinking it

making jokes with people like he's a big confidence we always show ground he'd be a great politician because like he's got like the Texas drawl and he's got this huge presence and he's a really big speaker and I really think a lot of it is confidence and he's been so beaten down now by all of it

you know by people saying he's just collecting the money or you know he whatever was cheating and now he's not like there's just been like this barrage of like shit thrown at him that I think now it's almost like well might as well just ride it out to like done like all his friends are gone like how many orioles you know what you guys are big yankees fans how many orioles can you name not chris davis can you name three yes renato nuneas

john means us hayes mount castle if we weren't doing this podcast i'd be much harder yeah we know because we do we do stuff like that but i know what you're saying yes well are like faceless like all of his friends are gone you know like they've traded away that whole core of the team that When I was there, was good. People forget that they were actually good for, I was like five years. Those buck years. I think that's part of it too. It's like, okay, who's hitting anywhere near him now?

Like, oh, you guys didn't even mention Tram Ancini. It's like the most. We were trying to show off. We were trying to do. That's why I went Austin Hayes. I was like, yeah, you know, he can hit a little bit. Like, whatever. We were going Pat Velika and Thomas Hustleman.

You guys, that was pretty good. I mean, someone asked me to name five Marlins last year, and that was tough. The rotations. You got rotations out with Pablo and Sixto and who's Ryan Anderson. Alcantara. I mean, this is like kind of our job, so we're getting better. Arlet Marte. Them go to the playoffs.

Yeah, that's true. Watch them a little more, but yeah. Who's our first baseman? Coupaloupe. Our guy, Miggy Rojas has a show on the network. I think we, uh, well, we stumbled into something there. I like a Chris Davis resurgent that Trevor can claim and then he can run. for mayor of Baltimore and he can speak about the highs and lows and he's donating and stuff.

I love that. Britt, we have a Patreon and we have our members. They give us a donation. Is that what we call it? I don't know. Well, they get a lot in return. It's just kind of like patrons. We have patrons and we always, whenever we have a guest, we let them know ahead of time

and we let them submit some questions. So we have some questions from patrons specifically for you. So Corbyn Simon Simons, I think, I'm getting that name right. He asked, should the MLB make a salary floor? And, you know, he goes in and he starts talking about the variety of teams that are spending their money or not spending their money. And, you know, I don't know if you wanted to speak on that or if you wanted to spin it to the upcoming CBA and maybe something that you'd like to add if you were in the room hammering on the table. Okay, so my, I personally think you already have a cap so when I have a floor.

however people who are smarter than me who I've talked to like in the commissioner's office or other agents and stuff have said that there's still it still doesn't really help with parity uh because correct me of myrugger but say they say you have to spend a hundred million all it does is entice them to maybe get one or two big names and then fill the rest out with like lower level guys so it actually like the Bryce harpers the Mike trouts of the world those guys are still getting paid right even without this it doesn't actually help the middle class of players it doesn't actually help the middle class of players it doesn't doesn't actually make or force teams to compete. I think the only thing that forces teams to compete is you start taxing them. You start penalizing them if they miss the playoffs for X amount of years in a row. Unless you start taking actual money from them, that instituting a floor is never really going to work, unless it's a high enough floor, which the owners are never going to agree to.

So that's my main, like it sounds like a great idea in theory, but the closer you get to it, the more you realize it doesn't actually, it's like putting a bandaid on a bullet, it doesn't actually fix the problem. I love a loser's tax. Like if you're like under 500,

five seasons in a row, you get started getting taxed. And then that six season, you're going to see people like, okay, crap, we got to get a winning season under our bell here. I don't think it's,

I don't think money will do it. Money is like the tax, I like the idea of like a penalty, but I don't think a tax does it because, I mean, the worst kept secret in all of baseball is these teams have money to spend. They're not poor. Like, they have money.

Money is not the issue. I think it's the draft. And how about this? International money. International spending money. When you start taking draft capital away from these teams and you start, or at least at least the very least stop rewarding them for finishing last. Right.

Take some of that international, what are they called? Like the pool bonus. I don't know what they call that. International spending money. Take some of that away because that's where they love. They love that money. That needs to be. be figured out because someone one of our Yankees listeners asked us like why don't the Yankees

care about the draft i said because they care they can they can just get gary sanchez and they can get louis severino and they can get uh all these players in the international like the yankees don't care about the draft at all they they care about the international signing so if there's a way to you go get the best player international player and you sign him for like three million bucks yeah he's young right look at once i'm i agree i think it's interesting because when I went from the Nationals to the Orioles, the Nationals don't really care that much about the draft.

They certainly don't care about the Rule 5 draft because they care about winning. For the Orioles, it was like their Super Bowl. Like, we can get players for 20 grand. So it's like the ethos of different organizations. I think the top draft pick has got to go to the team that missed the playoffs, right?

The last team that didn't get in. Like you were both the teams that came close and fell short. And then you work your way back from there. Like there should not be, somebody proposed this to me, like, why is Michael Ius going to be considered a genius if they tank for five years, build up draft picks and then stumble into a good season? Is that impressive? Or is that something that we could do as GMs? Yeah. Right?

You're opening. That's a different, it's a different spin that I, the loser tax and the team that was the best missed a playoff getting to draft. I like it. I mean, I got to wrap my head around fully, but it's a totally different. Drafting would get dangerous if there was a team that was rebuilding and if they lose, they get the number one pick or if they win, they go to the playoffs and they get run over by the Dodgers. Like right now, right now, would you rather be,

would you rather make the playoffs and lose or be one out and get Kumar Rocker? You know, like that would get, but that's interesting. You still got to be good. You got to get yourself to get to that decision. You need to do a lottery then. A lottery is what they need to do, just like the NBA has. I mean, you can't reward last place with the first overall pick, especially in a year like this.

Like, you're talking. Kumar Rocker's going to, he's going to the pirates, right? Like, they shouldn't be rewarded for that. Like, maybe if they get lucky in the lottery, okay,

but at least every team should be, or whatever, how many teams should be in the lottery, whatever it is, have a chance of that guy. I think rewarding the losing is, is essentially killing payrolls in the game. Yeah,

I like that. It's an interesting conversation. and spin on it all. We have another question from the patron. This one comes from Kristen, who asked, clearly it is unfair that female reporters have to worry about being harassed or having their intentions misrepresented on the job. In light of that, how have you built relationship with coaches and players,

what strategies worked for you or just some general advice for young women that want to go into this field? What does work for me? I like to lift heavy weights. I like to I think that helps it's like I've always kind of thought of myself as a bro like okay protein shakes and deadlifts like I'm in um I'm in the Michigan state yeah there you go um so I've been an athlete uh so to me it was never like oh I had a lot of male friends I still a lot of male friends it was never like oh boy how do I fit in in this group no I think right away it was kind

of like okay like she's one of us she's fine like I have had in bad in interactions, but to me, what's been nice is the longer, first off, the older you get, you kind of age out. It's like, I'm 35 now. I'm older than pretty much all of you. Like, no one is hitting on me anymore, you know, like you, you have phased out of that phase. Um, so I think that helps. Also, I just like, the first year, too, when I was like 21, 22 and I was like their age, um, you know, I would, the thing that no one tells you is you get thrust in this job where your coworkers are 50 years old, white male, mostly. And then you have players. And it's like, well, who am I supposed to be friends with here?

Right? So I was their age. So I was friends with players. I would go places with players. But I guess that would look bad in the optics of 2021. But like to me, I think the more they got to know me, the mother, they were like, okay, cool. Brittany's cool. Like she's fine to go out to eat with guys or go jet skiing with guys or meet other guys' families. I made it a point to get to know the wives or the girlfriends or the kids because those are the ones who feel, I think, the most threatened if they don't know you. So I think that was important. You know, I'm married now, but even when I wasn't, it was important that my boyfriend or fiancé, whatever he was at the time, was around a lot. So people were like, okay, she's actually here to do her job. I think that's important too.

But at the end of the day, it's just word of mouth, right? Trevor, I mean, it's like fifth grade. One guy likes you in that clubhouse and thinks you're okay. if it's the right guy, it's the veteran, then you're fine. You're really not going to have any problems. I've had instances where a player has, you know, come into a clubhouse and one of the old, tried to hit on me or just tried to be inappropriate and say some, you know, some, some shit. Like, not even going to get into specifics, but a veteran was like, listen, Brittany's not like that. Like I've heard people stand up for me. I think that's important, too, is to have the buy-in. And that's why I say the players are the least of the problem, because to me they are, they're the ones.

that are like, no, we don't tolerate that here. All you need is a couple really good veterans, and it's never a problem. So I don't know if I answer that or not, except I really enjoy power lifting. I enjoy lifting heavy weights, and I always have something to talk about with the guys in there, and I think that helps too. Do you really go around and talk, like, hey, how much you clean in right now? Yeah, so what's funny is like, is it, what's funny is the year the Nationals went to the World Series, before I took the job, I told the athletic, like, listen, I've got this power.

powerlifting world, world championships that I qualify for. It's in Ireland. It's end of October. They're like, whatever, that's fine. Like, the Nats choke in the playoffs every year. They were terrible in May. I'm like booking shit, getting all ready. We all know how that ends, right?

Like, I literally, people are like, I don't know how the athletic didn't fire me, bless their hearts. They let me go to Ireland. I came back and covered the rest of the World Series. I missed the front end of the World Series in 19 as a beat writer because I went to compete in the, USAPL world championships in Ireland. How'd you do?

I can talk about that stuff. And it's funny because some of them are so competitive. Like I remember Max Scherzer one day on the field, it's like, so, so what do you bench? And I'm like, 130 pounds. Like, what do I bench compared to you? Come on. Oh, you know. He's like, well, I don't deadlift very heavy, so I can't ask you what you deadlift.

I'm like, is Max Scher trying to get into like a little bit of competition there? Which is going to do. Everything is a competition. with that. Should have showed up the next day with one colored contact. Really threw them off. I'm playing your getting on. I'm wanting when I'm interviewing him. How did the competition in Ireland go? Terrible. Here's a little front tip for you guys. If you're ever going to compete in a power lifting world championship. Do not cover a baseball team that's in three different cities and up all night. We were in St. Louis before that.

I was traveling, you in L.A. before that. I felt terrible. I also had to cut weight and try to like make, like, try to like make sure I was still in my weight class, even though we were traveling and eating out. I got to Ireland and felt horrible. So, you know, whenever you guys compete in Scott's Tinder, you know, whatever, whatever shit you guys want to compete in. I'll put that in my preparing for powerlifting notebook. I hate when I have to go overseas for my lifting stuff. It just my sleep cycles are off.

Allergies get messed up. My real job gets in the way of my power lifting. What have you been doing now during quarantine when no gyms are open? Do you have your own home set up or what? No, we've still been going to the gym. I mean, they've been open for the most part. I had a friend who has a garage gym, so we lifted there for a little while. But yeah, I've still been going.

And then, of course, down here in Florida, it's just a free-for-all. Like, wash your hands, as they told me today. It's like, okay, watching my hands, but I'm looking at the equipment in this, like, strong-man gym. And that's the least of my concerns is what's on my hands. Yes. Hey, we need, I'll pro out with you. I'll go do some cleans with you. Let's go do it.

Travel on 12 miles every day. Some Olympic lifting? The Olympic lifting. We do pull-ups. I can do 19 pull-ups in a row. Strict pull-ups. No like kipping nonsense. Okay.

Yeah. I think I got you in pull-ups. I don't know about the... I haven't like Olympic lifted in quite some time. We used to do in the off-season. So I can squat 300 at a body weight of 130, which is pretty good. It depends. You're asking me what I squat?

Yeah. Back in the day, it depends. We only did three rep max. It's not back in the day, Trev. Not much right now. Yeah. Plus, I don't have a squat. There's no gyms open here.

I don't have a squat rack. We're doing a ton of free weight stuff, body weight stuff right now. And I'm doing it on a driveway. All right. Yeah, California's tough. My family lives in San Diego. They've got like the garage gym set up otherwise. So my sister, my younger sister is even better than I am.

She dead lives 450 pounds, which is a little bigger, but 450 pounds is a 150 pound of four. Which is, yeah. She has a California state record. Should look her up, Trevor. Really? Wow. Hell yeah. Big eight.

I didn't know this. We're speaking of how soft Trevor is. We have a patron question from Kevin B. here. It says, Brit, how can Trevor Plouf have any credibility when he doesn't pick the Dodgers once for any of his top team draft? Wow. My answer is he cannot. Okay. That's a tough break for you, Treve.

Specifically for you. Trevor Plufe's stuff. He's got a lot of good takes. Thank you, Ron, darling. Thank you, Ron Darley. How can't you have credibility. You can't tell me as one rep max squat, you know guys. Yeah, yeah.

We never did. We were not allowed to do a one rep max squat. Who was watching? Oh. Our trainer was just, that's what he said. If you can't do it three times, you can't do it.

I've been doing a lot of natural body weight work. Yeah. Soft. I also think, you know, look, Olympic lifting was part of people's routines. There's a lot as much anymore in baseball,

but he didn't want us like going. Because, you know, you get in that atmosphere and you just want to keep adding and adding and adding and if this guy did that and we broke down it would you know obviously look bad upon him so it was three rep max only what about cleans what do you clean i couldn't even tell you to be honest with you i don't remember this was back in two thousand last time i Olympic lifted was probably 2015 16 trabb doesn't clean in the kitchen or the weight room i do clean i clean too much no clean too much right now that's not true Anything else we need to know about in spring training?

Any other storyline or player that you have your eye on that you maybe think the general public doesn't? Ooh, that's a good question. I think Michael, you know, I want to go to Astroskamp. Again, like I can't get close to anybody. I want to go to Astros camp. I want to ask Michael Brantley, like, what the hell happened? Was he going to sign somewhere else? What happened with that fake, like, report?

Oh, yeah. The blue jay thing, yeah. But I think he's an interesting guy in general, and I know he's really quiet and really to himself. But to me, like, I've heard that there's just some great stories about him that have you have to be told. So I would love to do that as well. So, yeah, I would just, I guess, like to travel around and, like, actually talk to people. But instead, I'm in Florida where there actually are no rules except for spring training where we can't get anywhere anybody. And there was other news out of Astros camp, Framber, potentially out for the season.

they're getting double-checked. The season? Yeah, that's what Heyman said. Isn't it just his finger does not put your ring finger on his left hand? His throne hand. Well, it didn't stop three-finger brown. I'm, I am reporting from John Hayman, which take that for what it's worth. Yeah.

Yeah. I mean, that's a huge hit. He was like one of their best guys, especially in the play. We're big Framber pub. Yeah, I like Framber a lot. I mean, if I tell you, the Houston Astros are down Verlander and Framber, like, that's, is Quentin in the chat? That's a new team, man.

So our dude Huberner in the chat. Is this true? Come on, tell us, man. Why don't you just tape one finger to the other and keep going? What's that, Treve? I would do it. You know who that opens a spot up for if they got these guys on the shelf all year. Uh-oh.

Our boy, Jakey. Odo. Yo. Yeah. Yeah. Where's he signing? Why are we pumping Trevor for info here? Yeah, Trevor.

I can't. Just stop. Don't press me right now. At this point you right now. Treve. Don't strong on me, Brin. So you. So I just start guessing.

guessing random team names. You could guess the teams. There's clear-cut teams that everyone, I feel like, should have an idea of where he's going. No, that doesn't help us. They haven't decided yet. Isn't it unsettling for players right now, you would think, to not have a place because of all that...

They're going to have to go in quarantine if they sign, right? So they're going to have to... That's what they want you to think, Brit. That's what Kevin Mather said. It said, eventually they are going to come to us, meaning MLB, with their hat in hand. That's what they want. So I applaud Jake for hanging on.

Thank you. Not you. Oh, yeah, not Jake. What do you think about like an actual signing period, though, like every other sport has where it's a month and then that's it? Like, you have to sign between December 15th and January 15th. I'd like it longer than one month, but I would like some firm dates. But I don't know what do you do? If there's a penalty at the end, I think that only leads to more players coming hat and hand.

Because right now, a lot of teams, so like, we don't need any veterans. Like, you know, would Todd Fraser have gotten the spot on the pirates to get at Batson

and, like, play for a chance to be traded? If there was a deadline, I think that everyone would have just said, no, we're going to run with our rookies because of, like,

if they fix the tanking and the trying not to win, then the cutoff might help both parties, but I think it would only help the teams right now. I fear. It just talks because it's like a slow drip, right? And I feel like there was like two or three just huge like even like weeks.

Can you just imagine like it would be exhausting? Like it would be exhausting for all of us in the media. But it'd be really cool to do like a 24 hour like blitz because there's so much shit going on. Yeah. I just fear that on that last day, five players that are still out there are going to get five offers that are the same exact money at the same exact time and say you got an hour on the clock. Because it already, it already happened. But what if you find teams? not player? Like what if teams get fined? Wouldn't that help? If teams don't sign you guys by the point?

Yeah. If there's a benefit to signing early, that would help. If they can do it the right way, like what you're saying, if they can find the way to do it the right way, that does force the teams to do the issue and get fans of baseball's eyes knowing that something is going to happen, absolutely. I mean, I think it would be so much fun. And then if you do leave a gap, You've got the month to sign. You've got a two-week gap during the Super Bowl or something, so nobody was looking at baseball anyways. Then those two weeks are all speculation.

It's like, oh, Oda Rizzy's still out there. We just signed him. Now let's sign this guy. There is a right way to do it. And I think the first time Michael Kaye was mentioned that. We went to the winter meetings that were dead. It was the Vegas year that was Harper and Machado. 20, 28.

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, terrible. Yeah, in Vegas. Yeah, people are like super exciting. It's the worst week of the year. It was nice when like we got to hang out with people, but signing wise, yeah. San Diego was fun. What if you did like, all right, November's negotiation month, December, you have to sign.

January's negotiation month, February, you have to sign. Yeah, just like something to like condense it where it's not like these weeks of nothing that everyone's just complaining that like nothing is happening. The Machado Harbour year was horrible because. As you guys know in Vegas, like that whole week, I smelled like smoke because there's no escaping those casinos. No actual transactions happened. None.

And then you come home and you're like, what did I actually do? But just talk about like nonsense, right? Like teams had discussions. Well, like no shit they had discussions. They were all together in the same fucking hotel. Like they have discussions. They don't need winter meetings that have discussions. They all have a group chat anyway of what players are worth.

But it is cool. They go like sneaky back, back alley hotels and like go from like one. room to another. Like there was a path that Cashman walked in Vegas that was like all the backwards to like one hotel to a nothing. We caught him on that path and said hi and stuff. Yeah, it was very interesting.

Anyone out in the hotel. Let me give you guys a pro tip. This will probably come to no surprise. But I've had better conversations in the gym at the winter meetings. That's where I spend my time because all those executives, they're like hitting the elliptical or they're getting some like free. They're getting their like workout on. Little panty boys. The only time you see them, not

flanked by like 10 members of the rest of the front office, right? So, well, it might be a little weird to be talking to guys who are like trying to leg press or whatever. It's literally the only, like the only place where I get stuff done. You just start asking them a question and adding more weight. Yeah. Exactly. Like two years ago, two years ago, the hotel gym sucked and I'm like, forget this. I'm going across the street. It was like some like LA fitness type thing. And he's there every morning with me, but Joe Girardi is like we had these nice little chats and Joe Gerardy's getting his lift on and otherwise I would have never made that connection. Popeye.

Probably too many people now. Everyone's going to be hitting the gym at the winter meetings, but I feel confident, given the state of most of the media, that it's still probably not going to happen. Yeah. I mean, now my head's just running away with us and like bad business suits in the gym with mics, just terrorizing the MLB execs while they try to work. How are you doing? Phil Nevin, can you bench press me?

Yeah. Gabe Cavler, always in the gym. It's like the same. My manager. My manager. He's personal. He does trust finances. Yeah, he literally was my manager.

All right, Britt, thank you very much for joining us. We hope you enjoy the rest of spring training. This was a blast. And, yeah, everyone go follow and you got a big story coming up. Yeah, what did you get? The velocity one, as I mentioned. And then, of course, like, we're continuing to investigate. I think this is not the end of the Mickey Cavillard.

fallout. So keep it posted on that. Hopefully some fun baseball stuff. Hopefully guys to let me near a player. I mean, even if I have to wear a spacesuit, hopefully I get near a player here over the next couple of days. I think it's more interesting if you do wear space suit. Yeah. Go with the space suit. I want to do three things. When we end up seeing each other this year, first thing, big high five. Okay. Or elbows if you were still doing that whole thing. And then push up challenge. And then we're going to crush a protein shake together. And that's it. We're going to bond forever. I like it. I need to know, are you a way protein guy?

I'm a whatever protein guy. Just protein. All right, we're good then. Definitely. Any protein. He didn't say we were going to lift together. Yeah. No, I'm scared to lift with you. Trev's hard. Trev puts a straw on a peanut butter jar and just drinks it.

Yeah. I mean. Built different. Yeah. I like it. I like it. Awesome. I'm around you guys.

Yeah. We play some outro music and bob our heads. You're welcome to join or you can just bounce, but I'm going to start it right now. You got to bob. No, no. I'm down. Nice. Jake sucks.

Thanks, Brent.