Talkin' Baseball (MLB Podcast) - 338 | MLBPA Files a Grievance, Dumb injuries, & Trade Deadline Targets

Episode Date: May 19, 2021

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Hello and welcome to Talking Baseball. It is the midweek episode. We're going back to our roots, labor pod. Also, dumb injuries and something else. Let's do it. Hello and welcome to Talking Baseball presented by Draft Kings. Thank you very much for joining us today and watching along as we discuss some things that we want to discuss. My name is Jimmy.

Sitting next to me is Jake. We got Trevor coming to you from California. California and producer BPD in the corner. Now, for everyone that watches live with us on YouTube, this is a premiere. We did pre-record this. It is a bit different. The midweek episodes will be pre-recorded from now on because it's more conducive to our schedule. It allows us to mix and match different conversations from different parts of the week,

mix and match interviews. If we get a 20-minute chat here and there, we can slice it in. It's just going to be much better for us. and we appreciate that you understand and still enjoy. Jake, how are you doing? James, Trevor, Big Baby David, everyone premiering in the chat and yucket it up. Give a handshake to each other. Give a handshake in the chat.

Enjoy today's episode. We got our topics. We got our, I got my dudes here. Oh, my God. I'm excited. Jim, you've been researching this labor dispute. You're an expert. Trev, you've been poking from the outside to some of your old amigos. We'll see if we get some live updates on that. Talk some injury bug.

And, yeah, hidden third topic, which is sneaky deadline pickups, platoon guys. Jim and I got lost in those numbers a little bit yesterday. And you'll hear about all the big names coming up. Some sneaky names that you might want to know for your team as we get closer to the trade deadline. the easier transactions to make that actually happen around the deadline. So excited jazz about that. Speaking of jazz, Trev. All right.

I dig the segue there. I get it. And guess what? Sneaky transaction pickups. The entire Minnesota Twins team is for sale. That'll be interesting to see. You think there's any way that's not going to happen? Do you think they are 100% going to sell pieces now, Trev?

I didn't want to start the show off like this. But yeah, I think there's no. There's no way to avoid it. I mean, you have guys on one-year deals. You had a lot of older veteran guys on the team that, you know, look, the teams that actually are competing right now, and look, man, maybe there's a miracle comeback in these twins. I really hope there is.

But if there isn't, in which that seems the likely case, I think that a lot of those guys, I think we can see Nelson Cruz bopping it for some contender, I think even Jay Hap and some other guys as well. Pinedaid is there, I mean, Burrios is there, they're all there. Got it all there. Be careful around Treves Burrios. You're getting an ace.

You're getting an ace. A diamond in the rough. It's not really in the rough, is he? It's a two-time all stuff. That was some A-Rod stuff. Yeah, it was. Jose Berrios, a diamond in the rough. His dad reads comics.

I say, Poppy. Can he play baseball? he says, can he play baseball? Can he play baseball? God, he reeled, last, I know we skipped our A-Rod Sunday night segment, but there was another one where he clearly reeled off the five fun facts immediately,

and you're just like, God, that's good. Oh, the producers gave him like a list. There's some stat kid. It was like, you know, you could stretch that out. You know, four at-bats. Maybe they get a play in the field, too. No. Why would you do that?

Let's get it out. Do you want to start with your, Treve, or do you want to start with mine? Let's get the people through the labor pod. Then we could end it with a little bit more fun and some shenanigans. Now, we've grown a lot in the last couple years, so a lot of people might not know that. Our roots are as a labor pod. We're the best labor dispute pod in all of the land.

This labor dispute conversation is brought to you by Blue Chew. Hmm. Because we're going to talk about the fun stuff. You're going to want to make sure you can get hard while we do. Guys, it's been a hell of a year. Hell of a year. A lot going on. We'll talk about that because the labor stuff is all about it.

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Sign up at bluechure.com, consult with one of their licensed medical providers, and once you're approved, you'll receive your prescription within days. The best part, Trev, it's all done online. Blue Cheers licensed medical providers provide you with, work with you to find the right ingredient and strength for your prescription. Don't like swallowing pills. No problems here. They got a special deal for our listeners.

I always forget how crazy their special deal is. Basically, you just get it for free. Try Blue Choo free when you use promo code baseball. At checkout, just pay $5 in shipping. That's BluChu.com promo code baseball to receive your first month free. Thank you, Bluchu. All right, guys, labor dispute is back in action, Trev. The MLBPA officially filed their grievance.

two weeks ago, they filed it. They are filing a grievance with Major League Baseball for $500 million, the largest grievance ever filed. And they're filing it because they are saying that MLB did not negotiate in good faith, that they actually acted in bad faith, and they could have played more games last year than they ended up playing. They are saying they could have played around 80 games, and it's $25 million a game collectively for all the players, which gets you to $500 million.

That's what they're saying. Math pot. Yeah, well, I wrote it all down. Helps. Yeah. That's what they're saying. So what gets interesting is MLB baseball or MLB immediately filed a counter-agreference saying that the league had to do a 60-game season because it was. was health and safety reasons.

And they had to, even though, you know, the whole when and where thing happened around 80, gave them room to play 80 games when that whole went and where happened. And the league kind of paused that and waded out until the 60 games was the minimum. They had to play 60 games. The MLB could not play less than 60 games. And the union knew that they were going to drag their feet and drag their feet and drag their feet and drag their feet and drag their feet and drag their feet and drag their feet and drag their feet. until they got to 60. So what happens next is, a couple things.

They either meet in the middle and settle on their own. That's not going to happen. They either go to an arbiter. That's kind of what's going to happen. If they don't settle, they'll go to an arbiter. The arbitration panel is made up of three people, one representative of the union, one representative of the league.

So those guys are going to vote for the union and league So really it's made up of one person And that dude's name is Martin Shimon And he is a professional arbiter He is the number one neutral In all of America That's what his website says And he

Wait what? Is that really what it says? Yeah Yeah Like the number one neutral in America And he is This is He's been a professional Arbiter since 1979 and has mediated more than 1,000 business and employment disputes worth

nearly $10 billion. That's his gig. He's a lawyer turned middleman. I'll just, you got a dispute, you got Kangaroo court going on, I'll be your arbiter. You don't want to go to a real court. You just want one dude to make up the mine. So Martin Shimon is the guy in charge here. Yeah, it's the biggest grievance they've had.

In the 90s, they settled on the 80s collusion case where the league had to pay the union 280 million with inflation actually is 570. So that was the last time this really happened. Well, years out again, I'm sorry. 1970. But for the 1980s collusion. Gotcha.

Yeah. So the league wants to expedite this. They want to do it really fast because they know that the players want to do it really fast because if there's a settlement, the players get their money faster and everyone wants that. And the league wants to get it done before December because in December the CBA is up and then they have to negotiate the CBA. What a lot of people are guessing, Trev, is that the union doesn't want to settle this. doesn't want Marty Shimon to settle it. They want to say, why don't, they want to say, we'll eat this as part of the CBA as a bargaining chip. So a lot of people think the union just filed this to use as a chip in the CBA saying, you know what, if you give us this and this and this in the new deal, we'll drop the $500 million lawsuit. The union's going to deny that because they can't really publicly admit that that's, their plan. I believe that that's their plan. I think this won't get settled. It'll just get absorbed by the big collective bargaining agreement. So that's kind of everything that's going on.

I find this stuff interesting. I know that we've talked about a lot. Trev, you were part of the MLBPA for a while. You have a lot of friends on that side of the fence. What are you, what are your thoughts on all this? First, Jim, I think that you'd be an excellent arbiter. And I feel like it might even be your dream job is that am i way off on that i am jealous of marty martin chyman i'd love to hear cases and be like no you're i'm with them yeah that's exactly seems like a great position if you want to make some cash under the table too and just like a professional i get bribe money job wow hey no way marty does this marty does not do that 500 million dollars in the balance if your mlb throw them 50 milt jimmy this is the number one marty doesn't do it how does marty get

paid is, that's kind of my first question. Is he get a percentage of the, is he getting a percentage of that 10 bill? Oh, he probably bills him hourly. Hourly and a percentage. So the MLB just fired the last arbiter that they were using. Either side can fire the arbiter at any time if they think he's being swindled or they get a bad feeling is what I read, which I thought was wild. Yeah. Gotta have some rules around that.

Yeah. Yeah, you know, this is, I think we knew this was coming because like you, like you, like you, mentioned Jim in that beautiful opening there, there was enough time to play more games. Like they delayed it and delayed it and delayed it until their only option was 60 games. And even when they did that, they were like, oh, well, they were claiming player health and safety. They ex the fans. Fans were gone for the whole season. But they wanted to play more playoff games.

So they didn't want to play more regular season games. They wanted to play more playoff games because, and we cover this in our labor pod, that's where they make a lot of their money. And they don't pay player salaries in those extra playoff games. So it's a win-win if they do that way. And that's exactly what MLB ended up doing. I got my first live reaction from a player. Do I'm going to read it?

Live reaction. And also correction. Martin Scheiman's website says that Shyman is widely viewed as one of the busiest and most acceptable neutrals in the United States. So not the number one. Not number one. That's so different. Yeah.

I'm going to wait to see how this shakes out, but like I'm pretty much a big Marty fan right now. Like I think he's got life figured out. Like he found like a nice little niche for himself. Well, do you, he once, he was a, he owned a third of one of the most winningest race horses in America. Does that do anything for you? Kind of. Yeah.

That's pretty cool. The horse was called the, Yankee affair. Is that like a Lou Gehrig reference? Not a Lou Gehrig. What's the guy's name? Joe DiMaggio reference. I don't know.

The nomadig course name was Juju Jen, because two of the owners were Jews and one was a Gentile. So it ran under the name Juju Jen, which I think is funny. So I like that.

Okay. First player reaction, obviously not going to name any names. I think we could have played more regular seasons just fine last year. especially if we weren't going to let in fans anyways, and then they were still trying to delay the season this year for no reason at all.

That's a great point. They were trying to delay this season. Like, these guys don't want to pay regular season salaries. They want everyone in the stands, and they're willing to do a lot to make sure that happened. So that's a good point. And just to cry poor, when they didn't even really lose money, they just made less than they were accustomed.

We're not sure if that's actually true or not. I kind of agree with that, but we don't have the numbers in front of us. And any other business, that's part of life. But these blank blank just want all the money they can get. So you see the sentiment of players right here. Like they believe firmly in this grievance and their cause. And to your point, Jim, about not wanting to settle and using it as a bargaining chip, I see how that could play out.

because to be honest, and we've talked about this in full extent when we were a labor pod, the players in the players association doesn't have a ton of bargaining power or a ton of leverage. So if this is a way to get that leverage, okay, I could see that happening. That part's fascinating. That part's really fascinating. If they try to tie it into all this and, you know, we're 99% pro player on this. used to play. I'm still considering. Same with James, David. I'd be interested to see. I mean, it's kind of, you know, the shower is kind of my dark place. Whoa. And, you know,

every now and then I tune in and I think and I'm like, man, you know, this season's going to be awesome. I'm so excited. The world's getting better. This is great. And then I'll have that little like, man, the second baseball ends this year, we are going to be in a weird place. And that doesn't get me too excited. So, hey, if the players have another negotiating chip and that gets us maybe a step closer to getting a deal figured out, I'm kind of, I'm here for that. And yeah, I mean, here's, I'm dumb. Don't put that on the record. So I don't know how any of this is going to play out.

I'm fascinated to watch from the outside. I'm scared how far to dip my toe in. I think it's, you know, for me, it's a case of, like, you know, you just know enough to be dangerous and get in front of a microphone and say what you're going to say. Man, I don't know, because the whole thing is, you know, Rob Manfred, the whole reason he's the commissioner of Major League Baseball is because he's supposed to be a labor expert.

That was, like, his expertise. That's kind of why he got the position. So if the players win a $500 million case, of labor negotiation, to me that feels like not the goal for the owners to give back $500 million in a year when they potentially lost money. Again, we don't know the books like you're saying, Trev. They either didn't make as much money as they normally do

or they did lose money. So that's the part for me that's wild because, hey, the stuff on paper in front of us, you know, negotiating in good faith, they essentially gave the same offer three times in public that we saw. So that doesn't necessarily seem like good faith. And the condition they ended up playing games in, it seems like they could have done that for more.

And like you're saying, in that update we just got from a player that, you know, they still tried to drag their feet this season while they knew there wasn't going to be as many fans in the stands. It seems like the players have a really good case. So I have no idea, but however it sorts out, doesn't feel good for Bobby and the owners right now. Yeah, I don't think they're scared in the slightest. I think my guess would be that MLB and the owners are like,

cool, you think you have a chip to play. We'll give you the DH you want so bad, knowing they want it to. Are you sure? We'll give you extended playoffs knowing they want it to. MLB probably settles this for like half of it quietly early like they want. Or they go into the CBA and they're like, yeah, cool, you got shit. What do you want for it?

And they give something that they don't care about anyway. I root for the union. I have no faith in them in CBA negotiations. I don't think that that's what the PA is going to be asking for. They're not going to be asking for a D.H. They're not going to be asking for extended players. I think those things are just going to happen. That's not what they're going to.

My sentiment was they're going to get something that both sides don't really break the back either. What they need to be asking for is higher minimum. and last years of control and arbitration. But we can do the full CBA talk then. But that's where this lands. So we'll get an answer soon or we probably won't. Yeah, I think you're dead on with like the demands that the PA is going to have. I think that, you know, owners and, you know, anybody that knows baseball understands that

when you are valuable to a team and when they value you the most is when you're not making you're making a league minimum. You're not making what you should make. And then when you get to the point where you are finally going to get paid what you're worth, a lot of these teams are getting away from those players. Clearly, that's just like not right. And the whole thing needs to be restructured.

I think that is going to be the main focal point of these talks. You know, there are going to be those things, the Universal D.H, expanded playoffs. Are we going to relocate Oakland? Are we going to expand teams? Like, there's going to be a lot of things that come into play during this, talks but you know i i just don't think there's really any way around this like they're either going to settle it or the MLB's going to lose this like it's pretty clear that they didn't act in good

faith and they their motives and like their like reasoning like they just didn't want to play any games with no fans in the stands and they wanted to play as the minimum amount of regular season games because that is when the salary is paid out to players yeah from every From everything that we know, I don't think the MLB winning this, if it stays as an isolated grievance, I don't think there's any way MLB can win. I'd really have to, you know,

get into what the number one neutral Marty's doing. Yeah. If he sides with MLB or like, what did you know that no one else knew? That's why I think this gets absorbed into the bigger CBA as just more leverage. And that's what everyone wants. people are more interested in leverage than winning right now

because the war hasn't started. Do you think... It's just grabbing more soldiers. Do you think that the pandemic lessened the percentage of a lockout? Like these... And I'll say this because we know that there was a big hit taken or at least they claim a big hit was taken

on the MLB... owner's side. So they don't want to... How could they want another lockout where they're going to go, you know, what they think is going to be a two-year thing maybe. They don't want to go another two years

and not make a profit. Like, I think... But they won't lose money. They lost money because they had to pay players and stadium crew and travel and less games. Well, I think the... No, they lose...

Did they lose money or do they not make as much as they're accustomed to? I think if they're equating those two things, they're not going to make as much as they're accustomed to with two years of lockouts. So in my mind, it might even, this might actually play in favor

of an agreement being, uh, an agreement being agreed upon. An agreement being agreed upon. If you know what I mean. I don't. Uh, Treve, I think to what could potentially tie into that, because normally, you know, at the end of the day, the owners kind of do have the power, you know,

whether it's money or the chips they're playing or whatever they're trying to do. It is an interesting angle with the pandemic because, you know, the players, and like we talked about, not everyone is a $30 million player. In fact, very few are. A lot of guys make, if you're in the show, most make the minimum or under a million bucks. So they lost a percentage of that last year, which sure is a lot of money. But these owners who are very smart and very intelligent businessmen say they, say they didn't lose money last year, but say they were projected to make X hundreds of millions of dollars,

whatever it was, and they did not, how much did that change their outlook and what they do, and whether it's just tied to one business or multiple business? So that'd be an interesting wrinkle. I think when the owners have their meeting before the CBA, I think they say, no, nobody can have that attitude. Like, that's got to be out of here. We're trying to do something bigger than that. But, man. The dark day after the world. Second live update. Second live update.

Time for Trevor's tidbits. Oh, I'm back. I'm back. Another text, another guy I won't name. This one's interesting because we kind of forgot to mention this. I asked him, straight up, bargaining chip, or do you want to resolve it? He says, from what I know,

not being used for bargaining chip purposes. They wanted us to forfeit the right to file this and we didn't for this reason. And that's true. If you go back, they wanted M. That was what M will be put in. I forgot about M will be put in their offer that.

You know, we'll play this many games, but you can't file a grievance and M. That was their last move to get it down to 60. Yep. Because they kept just sending offers that they knew the other side would reject just to get it down to the minimum 60 games. That was the final one.

So that's, MLB's play. Like, well, we, yeah, we could have played, but you guys wouldn't waive the grievance. It's like, well. I think, what's the guy's name again? Marty? Martin Shineman. Marty's not falling for that from MLB.

Marty's seen it all, dude. He's in Long Island. We might have to go, go scope him out. Should I message him? Do you want to come on number one labor dispute pod in all land? Should we have a dispute and see his rates? Yes. You should try to work for him.

Try to get in there. Say, can I be like your protege? I have no bias. It's one of the better episodes ever of always sunny when they hired the third party arbiter for the lottery ticket scratch off. It's really good. Let me finish this text.

Okay. I think we can move on. He says, as we learn more this offseason about last year, the PA believes we have a legitimate case with how things unfolded. Look, this is coming from the inside. I agree with that. I'm just interested how it's going to play out.

All right. Thank you very much, Blue True, for bringing us that topic. We're going to go to Trevor's topic next, and it is brought to you by Doug Out Mugs. They are still doing the early bird Father's Day sale. It's happening right now. The first 500 orders with code John Boy get 35% off Big Boy discount. I got them all right next to me.

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Trev, you sipping on a serva right now? I waited for this moment. Don't judge me. It's only 1130 where I'm at. But, man, I kind of needed one, guys. thought I'd tie it in with the whole dugout mugs. I did it. Dugout mugs.

Use code, John boy, you get 35% off the next 500 orders. Trev, what is it that you would like to discuss? Well, man, we're talking about dumb injuries,

and this is coming on the heels of Yanoa, Husker, Heesker, Yanoa of the Atlanta Braves breaking his hand after punching a seat when he was upset

about how a start went. you know our um co-worker ashland put out just an incredible incredible video look i don't know who needs to hear this but if you're a pitcher in major league baseball and your literal job is to throw a ball with your hand every fucking day it's what pays your bills It's what makes you're living. You probably shouldn't go around punching shit when you get mad. I mean, just a fucking thought. Because now, what the fuck are we supposed to do?

Because your stupid ass got pissed off and decided to punch a fucking wall. Why can't you fucking beat the shit out of a fire extinguisher like nuke did? That's fine. Beat the shit out of the fucking bullpen phone with the bat. I don't give a shit. Do whatever you want. But don't punch things. That's not smart, baby.

That makes no sense. Don't do that. Because now we're fucked because you're a fucking dumbass. What? Basically how every Braves fan probably felt. She laid it out on the table and it got me thinking like, what other of these dumb injuries have happened? We've already had some this year,

so we'll talk about those. And then I kind of want to go back in time. And you really just go through and you can even Google dumb sports injuries a lot, show up and it's fun to think back and how how much it affects like you think yeah it affects the team a lot but man it affects the fans too like like you know was the brave saving grace he's kept them in this race he's given people a reason to watch the braves when a lot of other things weren't going right he was giving them a reason you know soroka has the injuries already you know

he had another setback. The other starting pitchers weren't doing so hot, but this guy comes up. He's hitting grand slams. He's doing, he's pitching well, and then he does something dumb like this. And the collective fan base,

I mean, the air just got let out of them. So I wanted to talk about dumb injuries. I know, Jim, you mentioned some in our group chat, and I think it'll just be kind of fun to talk about it, man. I posted the Bulldorum clip,

like, dude, if you're a pitcher, come on. Rule number one. I do find. he was how snicker handled it though I thought it was about as good as you can have no what did snit say basically he just said look this is what happened and he laid it out there was no fluff about it he said he was you know he wasn't happy he punched

something he felt the scumper and then on the flight started to hurt him more they got it checked out in the morning turns out he has a fracture I think the best line that he had Jim was he said it's not the first time this has ever happened it's not going to be the last time it's ever happened so he was taking more of the Look, it's a young guy. You know, obviously we're a little bit disappointed because he was pitching so well, but let's have his back. Like he didn't do it. He did it out of frustration because he wants to win.

He didn't do it to sabotage anybody. So I like the way he handled. I thought, you know, there's a few ways you could go with that. And in these situations, it doesn't have to be just an injury. Like, I've heard people talk about that, like when guys get popped for steroids. But I thought Snicker handled it extremely well. All the weird injuries. So, like, that one's, I think, and Kevin Brown did that.

And that one is frustrating as a fan because of all the weird injuries that we can, like, reflect on, punching something because you're angry is very controllable and very something that, like, as a fan base or even snit off bikes as like, come on, dude. Same with Lazzardo slamming his hand playing video games. Like, I know that's kind of routine, but still. still, like you just control your frustration because that, like, you use these every single day. But there's a lot of really weird ones and fun injuries that we've had recently, man, that I don't blame at all the player.

It's just like freak of freak. I mean, do you remember last year, Wheeler was pulling, pulling his pants up and, like, sliced his finger on the zipper of his pants? Like, I don't, how could, like, you can't tell that. You can't tell Wheeler, like, you can't be putting your pants on. Kintana was doing dude. Yeah, the dish is a tough one. The sneezes is also a good one. That's happened quite a bit. I know Sosa had a sneeze issue. I feel like there was times where I sneezed. I'm like, I might have just pulled something right there. It's a violent action. Guys, it's the story of my pandemic. I had hurt my neck. We did a couple big watching days. We watched some old World Series. Go watch those. Those are still up on the channel. And I had hurt my neck because I was staring at a screen. I did like, neck turn all day. It hurt. And so I was hurting. I was having a bad time. I ripped a sneeze,

and it felt like on the left side of my body that all of the muscles had been disconnected from the bone. That's what it felt like. And it was an awful feeling. And Sammy Sosa, he had that. We've seen other guys throughout the years. And I was, if you're going to play the sneeze card, I can't argue against you. Because it has affected my life. I have this article up and I you know when we started talking about this I googled like you know dumb sports injuries and there's an old bleacher report article that has like the 50est dumbest injuries and this is back in 2011 so you could probably add on to this a lot but there's some really good ones can I can I read a few to you please well this one's really funny because

I think we've all experienced this in some in some way shape or form Brett Barbary of the Florida Marlins missed a game because he made some nachos. And when he made those nachos, he wanted to have some peppers on it and some hot sauce. Well, he ate him, forgot to wash his hands afterwards and then touched his eyes and missed the game because his eyes were so burnt. That's a funny one, man. Jeremy Alfelt did, he was separating frozen hamburgers with a knife and cut his finger. That's such a relatable, frustrating feeling.

I can't argue that. So frustrating. I mean, come on. David Cohen, your guy is on this. You guys want me to tell you what happened to him. Do you know the story? I'll know it when you tell me. I don't know it right now.

He got bit by his mom's dog. Yes, yes, yes, yes. Yeah, I remember that now. That's funny. And who they called up. El Duque called them up for the miners to make a start for David Cohn. You know what? You know what ones that I...

El Duky is awesome. You know, ones that are, I am kind of like, you know, cesspitous with the wild boar and Madison Bumgarner on his quad or whatever it was. Those and Aaron Boone playing basketball, those are a little bit like, I don't know, guys, is that worth it in the middle of the season? But again, like you got to, these guys are playing sports professionally. So, like, they should, if anyone's able to handle playing, pick up basketball, should be a professional baseball player.

But it is funny that that's in their contract. I mean, Barry Zito couldn't surf because it was in his contract that he couldn't surf while he was in San Francisco Giant. Lost all of his Zen. Joel Zemaiah's all time. He said guitar hero. That was a fun. Because I was in the, I was doing the guitar hero thing, man.

I was rocking and rolling on that. I could see you on that. I like guitar hero, a good amount. I mean, obviously, Bauer, you got that one. Yeah. Clint Barnes. Clint Barnes with the D. Deer meet.

Are you guys on this list? It's really good. Yeah, there's a lot of good ones. And actually, we should give a shout out to David Adler and Manny Rendawa, who I actually, I met when I was in Colorado. They just did MLB.com article that has a lot of them laid out there, and it's pretty good. And I think we're in a stretch. What I'm seeing from their article is there's some stretches like, you know, in 0405.06, Clint Barms,

Deer meet, Joel Zemaiah with the guitar hero. I mean, that's tough to beat. Julian DeVarres had a hand thing there, and that's also Sosa Sneez. So that's a three years with, I mean, three all-time, pretty ridiculous ones.

And I think we're done now. I got another really relatable one. Another really relatable one, and this could go for a couple different things. But what's this? Adam Eaton. This is not Adam Eaton that we know. It's Philly's pitchers.

Adam Eaton back in the day cut himself trying to open a DVD Now if you guys remember back in the day CDs and DVDs were like It was like a damn Rubik's cube to open those things up So I see him getting frustrated Trying to open it

Grabbing a knife So that's where you've lost yourself Like if he stabbed himself in the stomach though Yeah because he was coming in with it Like slicing in But if you're well The packaging like that does even exist anymore? Because if you're getting to the point where you fought with the DVD or the CDD,

and everyone has, but if you get to the point where you reach for a steak knife, you've already lost. Yeah. And like you need to have the mental ability to regroup. You know what? If I'm going to use a steak knife, maybe I go slow.

There is still packaging like that, Jim. I mean, when you buy like anything like, electronic. Like it's in that like hard plastic that's like you know kind of like sucked in shaped perfectly for the electronics like getting in those things like you literally have to get a knife or scissors to open it. And a lot of these guys, you know, they didn't have enough time as a child playing with these things to get their coordination right. It seems like they paid the price for that. This one says Kevin Kyle. I don't know who that is. Do you guys know that is? It's not necessarily a baseball player. Okay. A Scottish

retired soccer player, footballer, from Scotland. They come up. He received first degree burns on his penis when someone threw a pot of boiling water at him. That's a bad time. Oh. That's a bad time. Yeah. I would not do that.

Yeah. No. I would carry deer meat. I would Marty Cordova's tanning booth, guitar hero. I would not. I do all of those. I would not do. The boiling hot water on the weeners.

Oh, I thought it was like a lover's quarrel. He had the younger of his son perched on his knee while holding a jug of hot water to warm up a bottle of milk, but the kid slipped and booted the jug splashing the water under his dad's lap. It was understood to have burnt Kyle's testicles. He went to the hospital and was kept overnight. Yeah, so that sucks. Don't like that.

Spilled out on him. trying to warm up a bottle for his kid. Why was it so hot that it could burn your testicles, Kyle? It shouldn't be that hot. I've done, I've had the warm up bottles before and like it, I guess, yeah, look, man, I have like a little tea kettle, like an automatic tea kettle that warms out water. It gets that hot. So that's relatable. You're dad and I got another one that actually I've done before. Actually, I didn't do it to myself and you guys were a witness to this one. John Smoltz got injured because he tried to iron his shirt while he was wearing it. Didn't end up missing any starts but had to, you know, get it taken care of.

Do you guys remember when Bill tried to, like, steam clean me? Yep. Yeah. While I was wearing the shirt, I still have a scar from that. He steam cleaned me. I just didn't wiggle around, so I didn't get burnt. I didn't know what was going on. I don't think I was paying attention.

He just started steam cleaning me out of nowhere. Hindsight. I'll never, gosh, dang it. Ever came out of nowhere. So, you know, he's going to miss. And now what, you know what he's going to miss, like, two months. Sucks. I do, Trev, I like what you said about Snicker, like, you know, you know that you're,

you have to answer some questions to the press. And this is a young man and you can either, you can drive the steak home and call him an idiot and say it's stupid and you can never do that. Or, and like he did, like a true baseball guy, like, he wasn't the first, he won't be the last. I'm sure in the next two years there will be another young pitcher that punches something and hurts his hand. Did you ever get injured playing sports growing up in high school?

Did you ever have anything bad? I sprained my ankle like five times, that's all. My good story is I got subbed in up top playing some footy, trying to be a hero. We were down like three goals, so I was just like, I'm going to let it rip. and if I'm a hero, then I'll finally get laid. If not, I'll continue not.

So I'm like, I'll just barely across midfield, don't have a great leg, swing, full tilt. Defender pokes the ball away right before I kick it. So I ram into his leg, and I start limping and hobbling, but I'm a tough guy. I'm not going to give up. So I play the rest of the game. Go to a house party that night.

The man, don't get laid, sleep in my buddies. What's it called? bunk beds from when he was a youth wake up take one step fall right over I had like sprained my ankle pretty good from that kick but I hadn't realized it

with the adrenaline and then partying so yeah I was just on crutches for like a couple weeks for a sprained ankle it was like bad I mean it was like I couldn't put weight on it interesting yeah

I had a good joke I had a fat joke but I'm not going to do that Okay. You can do a bad joke right now. I did back in the day, 2005, I was playing in Beloit, Wisconsin. Great this time of year. Yes, I was going to say it, beautiful at this time of year. But when the sun starts coming out, a lot of little midges. You ever know what midges?

I didn't know what midges is. Don't talk about midges, Yankee fans. Oh, yeah, that's the Yankee thing. Well, anyways, I never really experienced that. You know, California doesn't really, I don't think we have midges, whatever. before doesn't even have a stewardess anyways it's awesome yeah i was out on the field and man i don't know if it was a midge or whatever the hell kind of bug they had out there but i got a bug directly into my eyeball oh you know one that just like flies right into it bro so i had to call time i'm playing short

stuff i'm like time out i'm like time like i can't like i'm like this trying to get a bug out of my trainer comes out manager comes out they're trying to get this bug out of my eye can't freaking open my eye because obviously there's something in there. I had to come out of the game. Wow. They couldn't get it and it just was taking too long. They just said, all right, dude, that's just, that's just bring it to the clubhouse.

That one took a while for me to, like, for it to die down. I got made fun of a lot for that one. If you, that's, Trev, a couple years ago, my Twitter account wasn't as popular, but it went super viral at the time. A bug flew into the umpire's ear and the umpire just ran to the dug out in the middle of the game and the Yankee game.

And Donno, the Yankees trainer had to get Twitter. had to get tweezers and he was like what's you doing what's doing they pulled out and it's a live bug there's a moth there's a huge there's moth it was still alive because in his ear canal they had to get it with tweezers oh i feel like everyone should be like okay like there are some dumb ones like punching a chair is dumb and but i think everyone understands like the frustration but then something like that happens like you got to be like kind of um like shit happens oh yeah like there's gonna be some times where like you get a bug in your eye and have to come out of the game, although that's pretty embarrassing. I appreciate you sharing as soft. I appreciate you.

As someone who gets referenced as soft a lot on this podcast, I appreciate you sharing that, Trev. Yeah. Well, that's some injury talk. Also, I already know there's going to be some people like, California has mosquitoes, Jimmy, like compared to New Jersey and Illinois and anywhere else in the country, like, you don't. Go in the Connecticut woods in July. Go in the Connecticut woods and yeah. It's not, yeah. So it's the tough. I love to you have to preemptively, like, tell people like, don't be Well, I've lived both places, so I've said that. And then my friends in California, you're like, we have the mosquitoes. I'm like, dude, in Connecticut and New Jersey summer, if you don't have at least two mosquito bites on you, you wear long sleeves at all times from June to the end of September.

Like, you just have, especially Jake, he's a goddamn magnet. I hate bugs. It's different. Yeah. All right. Jake's conversation is brought to you by Manscaped. Speaking of, like, harming yourself in a bad way, you won't do it with Manscape. They got no snags, never going to get you knicked up.

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get 20% off in free shipping with the code Talkin at Manscape.com. 20% off with free shipping at Manscape.com. Use code talking to unlock your confidence. Man. They got you. Well, I was going to make a joke about how every time Jake used the ball toner,

BBD's always like, oh, I can't resist. I can't resist. Clamoring for Jake's balls, but I don't know if you can make that joke. So I'm going to say whenever Jake walks through the office with that ball toner on, everyone's just grabbing away. and so he resisto, but, you know.

Jake, what do you want to talk about? When I have to step down from our human resources department, that person is going to have a tough day. I mean, you can't talk about some balls anymore. DVD likes my boss. Let's get over it, America. And our Canadian listeners, Europe, South America. Guys, I...

Australia. You know, wasn't sure. sure how much meat you guys had for your topics. It was a lot of me. Even some deer meat got involved. But I went Jakey Deep Cuts, and me and Jimmer, we had a nice moment. We were in the room. The kids in the office were all chatting and working.

It was nice. And we were the old men locked in the studio, just looking at baseball things. And we were trying to find some stats. Some idiot tried to call us out on the pool holes versus lefty stuff. And I had to get them the numbers on it. He went back to 2017 on it, and it made him not look so good. In the past three years, Albert's been above league average against lefties, and he showed some of that last night in his first game with the Dodgers.

A little RBI single. How you doing, Albert? And it got me thinking, A, we found, on baseball reference, the best way to find splits. And I think my brain started spinning a little bit. As this trade deadline approaches, you know, we're all going to get sucked into the big names, the Chris Bryant's, the guys that we've already been hearing about all year. But I think this year, I think with the lack of hitting, I think teams can kind of diagnose some things a little more

and say like, hey, you know, we need a guy that can hit lefties. We need a guy that can hit righties. Guys that are on smaller contracts or the final year of their contract. Those are the guys that actually get moved. You know, how many years do we approach the deadline? and it's, oh, you know, didn't it happen, didn't it happen? So I wanted to find some guys with some pretty nice platoon numbers that if you're a team out there and you need an outfielder that hits righties pretty well.

A couple names you could put on your radar. If you need a catcher that can hit lefties pretty well, I got a couple names on your radar. So I wanted to bring out a couple guys. A, so let's get the lefty mashers first. So obviously the weaker side of the platoon. Chris Bryant, crazy numbers, by the way, so we'll see if he ends up getting traded. But a couple deep cuts for you guys to look for. If you need a first baseman, a couple guys.

CJ Crone. Kron? We never know. It's Kroon. A bit of a lefty matcher. Like moan. Like the whole ball situation? He's on the Rockies right now. since 2018

C.J. Cron a 969 OPS versus lefties. Colorado's going to be selling. C.J. ain't going to be expensive. That's a guy. If you're looking at your numbers around the trade deadline, you might need a stick. Watch out for him. AL2, maybe some D.H. at bats.

The other guy around first base that stood out, a team that were going to be a coin flip around, Is Darren Ruff? He's on San Francisco. So I've already bought into them. But just something you should circle. Dude's got pretty good numbers. Lefty masher's you're looking at?

These are the lefty masters at first base. Okay. That I've got so far. I have a utility lefty masher if you want him. Okay. I want him. He's, you'd get him for this year and next year. Okay.

Arb next year, 1.6 mil this year. Interesting. Second base, third base shortstop. Okay. Versus lefties since 2019. He's got a 948 OPS, a 398 batting average of 414 on base percentage. Okay. Hanser Alberto.

Hanser's on my list. Answers on my list. Our guy. It's actually a real good trade target. Royals are going to be selling. He plays every position so you can just slide. him wherever you want when a lefties playing and he matches lefties. Hanser's on the list. He was coming up.

Yeah, he's one of the few infielders. So yeah, that is an exciting one. The only other infield, but he's outfield and also really good is Cotel Martte. So that would be if Arizona, I think you'd still have to pay a full price tag. But no, Hanser's on the list. In the outfield, Darren Ruff can play a little bit out there. And I don't think they're selling. Chris Davis on the last year of his contract Crush can still hit lefties I know his

Some of his numbers have been down over the Over recent years The K, we're talking with a K We're talking with a K My guy 857 OPS versus lefties On the Texas Rangers Has a little bit of money attached to him

But it's the final year of that contract Wouldn't be surprised if he gets in the trade talk conversation And then there was a buck A bucket full of catchers. About Trey Mancini. He's good. Trey's just good. We'll see if the Orioles put Trey in the market.

We've been wondering if he's going to get traded. They should. They should. He probably doesn't fit their timeline, but he's also kind of their only guy. He's only there for one more year. Like if they let it ride out with Trey. The catchers, man, this is wild. Wilson Ramos, crush in lefties, Detroit, should be available.

Tom Murphy. crushing lefties Seattle. He's got to work on the name. You're not buying Tom Murphy? It's so boring. Jan Goams. Still crushing lefties. You're nationals.

He's had such a strange year. Strange guy. He's hitting like 120, but he's on base is like 380, right? Well, that's what it is, man. This year... I think you're thinking of Grandal. Could have been the Yassment. Oh, yeah.

You are thinking of Granddoll. Y names. Y.A. names. Jacob Stollings for pit. I think they're going to hold on to him, but he's low-keeping mashing. So I don't know. If you need catching help, I think a few of those names are going to be going. And the other guy who actually popped up on both lists that I think this team should be selling,

Mitch Hanager could become a popular name. He's raking this year. His lefty numbers are pretty dominant. Also pretty good against Ritey. I wouldn't be surprised if he gets a lot of hype coming up. if Seattle does fall out. I know they just caught up all the young guys, so we'll see if they stay in the mix. But those were the big lefty guys. I mentioned leaving out the big names. Chris Bryant and Nick Castellanos,

if since he falls out, that'd be an interesting one. Great stuff. Yeah, I think, I mean, I love the detective work. You're going deep diving for good platoon matchups. I like that. but I kind of think that this is going to be a year where everyone's dealt. With the uncertainty of the CBA coming up, the amount of teams that are going for it are not that many, right? Like, there are some surprise teams.

We'll see how it goes, you know, coming closer to the deadline. But I think we're going to see, like, big, big names dealt this year. I love it. That'd be fun. A good podcast. We could cover it on our show right here. Yes. Talk all about it.

it. Right here. And then a couple righty hitter, guys that hit righties, excuse me. Oh, you're going on? I got both. I thought you were done. That's why I went there. I'm sorry. I worked hard. A, the team that we've been waiting for fallout, the Cubbies, Jack Peterson on the one-year deal. If they fall out, that would become sexy to a lot of teams.

And another corner outfielder, how about David Peralta, the freight train? Yankees Land, he's already getting mentioned a lot. that dude's got some really good numbers. If he becomes available, that's a guy being in Arizona, now that they're finally getting the press they deserve by hanging on to the Jake Wagon, people are finding out. But man, if David Peralta had been on your baseball team the past five, six years,

you would talk about how good that dude is. I think he's got a gold glove in the bag. I think he's got a silver slugger in the bed. Freight train me daddy. Josh Bell, if Washington, falls out. His numbers versus right. He's still pretty good. Treve, you mentioned your Minnesota twins. You're looking for an infielder? Jorge Polanco. Jorge Polanco, better numbers versus righty. He kind of, I don't want to say fell out with the twins, but a little bit. Like,

he was there starting shortstop, then they went out and got Andrelton and Arias is in the mix. So if Minnesota starts the fire sale, the other fun name that popped up in the search, What if I told you there's a guy you don't even need to trade for? What if I told you? What if I told you there is an outfielder out there with an 837 OPS against Rites, the dominant side of the platoon? Who's a free agent right now?

Don't tell him. I think he's not on Team Israel? No, he's not. He's not good friends with Trev. Saying, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Puig? Yassil Pueg. If teams wanted him, they would have had him.

He's playing baseball right now. He has the, he has like this assault case pending against him right now. I think that's a big reason why nobody's picked him up. It's true. But I think before that even came out, teams weren't making moves on Puegs. And we, people forget, like some of his numbers, man. Some of Puegg's numbers So, Treve, you're absolutely right.

What about Solair? I mean, Solair's kind of... It's having a bad season, but it's crushed right. He's in the last couple years. I mean, he had one of the bigger Homer seasons we've seen. Sollar's a monster. If KC goes in fire sale mode, I mean, Soler's a piece you'd have to pay for.

They still... It's a free agent at the end of the year. But they still value him. I mean... We haven't seen a rental get paid for in a while. Yeah. I mean, Soler would be a big piece. I kind of put him in the big piece bucket.

That's like a game changer piece. At least the Royals are going to shoot him in that way. He's having a pretty bad year right now, and you've got to take on a good amount of money, and you're only getting him for two months. I don't think he's going to cost that much. The other guy on that Royals, if they go fire sale. Because at the end of the day, we are eye in teams here.

If Kansas City continues to fall, the Colorado's, Detroit's, Ben Intendi, who's quietly kind of turned his year around. 283 batting average of 3.46 on base. He's cheaper, and you get him for two years, so. So, yeah. I think, Trev, I'm excited for your trade deadline where all the big names are going, but these second-tier guys,

I think with the lack of hitting around baseball this year, if you can find a guy that when you pencil him in, he's an 800 OPS type guy versus whatever side of the platoon it is. I think those guys are going to be more valuable than ever. Yeah, I agree. You know, the, what's the threshold, whatever you want to call it?

I always forget what it's called. You know, the soft cap the team uses as a hard cap, whatever, that's going to be a big deal at the deadline. And the guys that you're mentioning are guys that teams can sneak into their lineups to improve, them without going over. I'm looking at one guy right here, and he's been talked about the last couple of days,

but to think about him on a different team, you know, playing in the playoffs is something special. We're talking Joey Gallo? He's got this year, earning 6.2 mil. He's got another year of arbitration eligibility before his free agent contract,

so he will demand some prospect capital. But the Rangers aren't anywhere near ready to compete. We all know that. Is this the year, are they going to be the smart team that actually will trade him when his value is high, when teams want him? Or are they going to say, hey, we'll keep him for one more year and then see how he goes next year. I'm hoping that they maybe give him to your yanks. Is there enough room there? Do the yanks have enough room? No. Not on the field or in the

payroll. But I also... Three million bucks? How much? Well, it'll be half a year. 6.2, 3 million? They have that, but I would guess they're going to get a pitcher reliever. Okay. I think the Rangers might keep them because how are they going to sell tickets next year? He's the face. They still have that brand new ballpark and...

I don't know, man. If they're a smart organization, they're looking three years ahead, four years ahead right now. Not worrying about that necessarily, I guess. They're trying, like they're still trying. Which I agree with you. It's kind of weird, but they've been trying. Wouldn't shock me if they move on from him,

but I would think it's fairly likely. They at least stick with him through this year while it's like the first year of the new stadium with fans and stuff. They think next year is the year. If you want. Yeah. You've heard that, Treve. Yeah, I don't know.

I don't get it. But you've heard that from people who know. Yeah, we've heard that from people. They think next year's the year. I thought this year was the year. That's what I'm saying. The Rangers don't know that they should go full tank. Hovering around 5-Hundi.

Yeah, and I, Jim, this is kind of what I meant with Solaire. And I think it's the same thing with Gallo. I think the way that their teams value them is different than what proposed trades would be. Like, Texas still pictures Joey Gallo

is the guy who played 2017 through 2019 with a 869 OPS. He's He's got a gold glove in the bag, you know, an all-world type power hitter. And for the past two years now, and we'll see, hey, it's very early into the season. Gallo's got a 751 OPS. He's leading the league in strikeouts. We'll see what he does, but the last two seasons, he's combined for 710 OPS.

So what are teams going to offer for a year and a half of Joe Gallo? What are teams going to offer for half a season of Jorge Solair? because I think the Royals would want a prospect and I don't know if they're going to get offered that. We've never seen it. I mean, the last couple years, like Manny Machado, Dean Kramer headlined that package.

Yeah. Like, it's four prospects, right? Well, it was like Bravick, which barely counts. He wasn't a prospect. A relief pitcher, Dean Kramer,

Bravick. Yeah, it was five people, but it was no one, was big on the list. That's what I think. I think Kansas City would ask for something like that, and I think other teams wouldn't be willing to offer it, is what I'm saying.

I think it'd be less than a man. It's a lot of the bad year. The Royals like their guy. Be interested. They should try and trade them. I mean, someone wants them. They say his last full year, he had 48 ding-dongs played every day. What do you guys? Who do you think the biggest buyer is going to be at the deadline?

The team that's going to add the most? You said the Yankees can't. The Yankees are going to add one guy, a pitcher maybe, right? They got 5 mil to play with, unless they trade off some money. Is it the Cardinals? Is it the Brew Crew? When I look at the standings, like those teams are going to be there, they have the best shot. And I think they have some wiggle room.

They've made big trades before. I guess the Cardinals have already kind of made their big splash, but... The Braves? I don't know. I'm interested to see. The Braves need some help. I mean, the team that we heard talked about all postseason, off season, excuse me. How about the Toronto Blue Jays?

If they're in the mix, we keep hearing how they want to sign these big fish. A little bit of trade capital. Oh, the White Sox. The White Sox have room to spend. They're the best team, and they're going to want to bolster. What do they need, though? You always need something.

Fuck. The rich get richer. White Sox have, if they were staying, they have 40 million, even come close to the attack. So. I'd say there's their. White Sox can go get another pitcher.

They can go get another relief. Like they're flush everywhere right now. There might be an injury. You know something. But the white socks. I like the Blue Jays if they're still hanging around. Your socks, Trev. Cardinals.

I was talking to a guy in the twins last night. He said, man, he said the white socks are so damn good. He doesn't there, they don't have. Was it Lou Bob's gone? and who's the other guy They got hurt Torres Peck Eloy. Eloy hasn't been there all year.

Eloy and Lou Bob not even playing right now and he's like, these guys are scary. Like they're that good. Right now looking at They could go out and try to add something. Looking at the the payrolls and the standings Blue Jays, Braves,

Giants, White Sox, Cardinals. Teams that have room to add a lot of people. Red Sox, they bragged about getting under the tax. They only got like 3 mil, so they're not going to make a ton of moves. Yankees only have 3 or so, 5 mil. Astros don't have a lot of either. I'm looking at the White Sox page right now.

I know we're getting a little off topic here, but I don't know how many times this has happened this deep into the season. But with his freaking Jimmy Jack last night, Nick Madrigal, our guy after we talk shit about him, it's a homer. Madrigo. He got his OPS plus to 100. Every single person in their starting nine right now that they have listed as an OPS plus 100 or better.

That just doesn't happen. There's no way another team in baseball right now has that, and I'm curious how many teams, since they started keeping that, I guess they can go back in time. How many times that's happened at this point in the season? Couldn't it be that much. 100 OPS plus every single damn one.

And they have freaking Danny Mendick hitting Grand Slams. He's got a 142 OPS plus on the bench. And this is without Lou Bob. It does take no account Lou Bob. It does. They're good.

In a year that nobody's hitting. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. All right. That's this episode. Thank you guys very much for tuning in. We'll see you on Friday for the series.

series recap. Goodbye.