Talkin' Baseball (MLB Podcast) - 447 | MLB & The Players Met Again Last Week

Episode Date: January 31, 2022

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Hello and welcome to talking baseball. The players, the baseball. They met again. They chatted. We'll discuss it. Welcome to talking baseball. Brought to you by Seatgeek. My name is Jimmy.

His name is Jake. Coming to you from California is Trevor Plouf. And behind the dish is producer BBD. And right off the rip, I think we did it last. week, but yes, presented by Seatgeek, new presenting sponsor for the company. Very excited about it. Seat Geek, um, I, they like, uh, sneaky were a huge part of our like 2019 trip, just to let you know.

We didn't have an affiliated code set up, uh, but people that were watching the breakdowns just were trying John boy at Seatkeek, but we, it, uh, it didn't exist. Um, but we were getting. money from it because they were, then it did exist. But I didn't do it. It was just because the people were doing it so much. Seekek was like, all right, cool. So that was wild.

But now fully on board. Seat Geek's super easy to use and you can get $20 off your tickets at Seekek. If you use code Talking, $20 off your first purchase with promo code talking. Make sure you click the link in description to download the app. If you're super dumb like me, it's great because they put good deals and green and bad deals. in red. So it's very much like, you know, a stop and a go situation. Like stop. Don't buy that. There's better deals. Green, good, red, not good. Yeah. Red stop. So seat geek. Use code talking for $20 off your first order. Seat geek. Okay. Now I will throw it to Trevor, who's

celebrating his best friend going to the Super Bowl. I feel like I'm part of it a little bit. I don't know. even though I'm absolutely not at all. Mm-hmm. So I'm kind of conflicted, but I'm very excited. What a game again. The NFL playoffs has just been incredible. Like, they are showing up right now. Even with like a weird Super Bowl,

I think Rams bangles is kind of strange, but you got the quarterbacks. You know, that's good. Yeah, but congrats to the Rams. Took care of business last night. I had, I told Jake, I had a big night, but an early night. I didn't go out afterwards.

After traveling back and forth, like cross-country a couple of times last week, I'm a homebody right now. I need to just chill. So we watched a game in the neighborhood and I just celebrated quietly and went to bed, man. Here I am. Ready to talk some ball. We have some news, not really news going on in baseball. It's jam-packed. We've got a lot of news.

Jake, I asked you this question. He never answered me. One, how are you? And two, why do you look like that today? I don't get it. Trev comes with his futuristic glasses and his bandwagon Rams hat started the season as a Seahawks guy.

Trev, John, King BBD, everyone in chat. Hope you had a nice weekend. Like Trev, good for the football. Good! Have your fun now! Because guess what? They only got one more game, baby. and then it's baseball. Wow, BBD on the soundboard there.

Baseball. Oh, my God. So excited for that. I know we have actual CBA updates, which I'm pretty excited for, being the number one CBA labor pot in the world. We're continuing to make really slow, like handshaking, friendly progress.

So I like that. And Trev, I mean, I'm sorry you're a little jealous of this you know kind of preppy goatee combo but it's uh I mean this is what it this is what a do baby Is that better for you?

You look okay I think if we had to rank everyone's look it'd be BBD 1 Me and John boy tied for one and you last Hmm Okay I think 1A

Tide 1B Jimmy has the whole like What's the guy from Apple again? Not alive anymore. Steve Jobs? Yeah, man. You got the whole Steve Job things going with the Decision fatigue sweatshirt.

Yeah, I did. Does Jobs do that? Zuckerberg did that and so did someone else. You guys are all the same kind of person. I ate an apple for breakfast. So it was interesting that you said that. Steve Jobs only ate. fruit smelled terrible his employees didn't like being in the same room as him so maybe we are similar

maybe i'm yeah i was going to say maybe we've all got a little steve job okay let's get out of here you want to abandon that conversation and move to a different one because we do have updates from the meeting which is what people want to hear about so i'm going to start it are you ready yes they met twice last week huge m lbPA took 10 days they were you responded they put together this is what we want MLB, I guess, move quick and swiftly because the ball's already back in MLBPA's hands. Like it happens so quick. Yeah.

So, you know. It's in the city too. Like, should we swing through? That's what I'm saying. You guys need to swing through. And by the way, is there really a meeting today? Hmm. I don't know.

But that's, I like that I won't be responded so fast. There's, there's reports there was going to be another meeting today. And then I see Chris Dahl, who's the head of the players association communications, whatever that is. And he said that's 100% inaccurate. So where are we? Chris, all you guys are familiar with him. He's, he's yelled at us before, just like everybody yells at us all the time now. But he said it's 100% inaccurate.

Chris Dahl yelled at us. Oh, he yelled at me. Okay. Yielded me on behalf of us. Why? Because what I said? Yes. Yeah, but it's all right.

We straightened things out. I basically yelled right back at him. So we're good. Tell them that I think they should not take 10 days. And that's my only critique right now. Okay. Sorry, Crystal. I'm not sorry.

All right. So there's some tangible stuff we got. But if anyone wants to know my meter of optimism, pessimism, it's pessimism. We're just really close. Dang it. Yeah. I think I'm doing Monday's pessimistic Wednesdays out. Not by design.

It's just naturally how I like having to feel. It was flipped last week. It was flip last week. All right. Damn. Well, they're still not talking about the stuff that's the biggest things to talk about. And what they're doing is bad. And MLBPA and MLB both agreed to something here that's just dumb.

They agreed to accept parameters of pre-R bonus pool. So the top 30 players eligible or not eligible for arbitration determined by war. So it's been super two, which means, you know, if you're 2%, that's super too, super confusing. But there was a system basically that you advanced out of your service time to like the next year. so you would reach free agency quicker. If you were in like the top 2% of the 2R of eligibility or whatever the hell it was, right? Well, it didn't get you to free agency quicker. It just got you paid for that year.

So it's like the top 15% of service time guys with under three years. They'd enter essentially a fourth year, a year early in arbitration. Yeah. So you wouldn't get to free agency faster. You would just get into the arbitration system faster and you do four years. I was a Super 2 guy. That's go. Yeah.

That's awesome. It's like not that. It's like good or bad really. I don't. That's good. Super 2. Who was your Super 2 buddy when you were Super 2? That's actually a great name for it.

Like it does sound like I did something like awesome. Like I was a super 2. But really. Top 2% of the eligible players. No. It's like top 15. Whatever it is. Well, anyway, they want to.

And dude, I would. We've talked to some players who were like against this. So I'm shocked that they're agreeing on it now. But they're going to use war. What war? Fan graphs, baseball reference. War can be good. But like to determine salary, I love what the guy, the guy, it's a word way.

He has a name. The guy. Sean Foreman, who invented baseball reference. Just followed him on Twitter. Did a whole thread on this on why this is so stupid and scary. and he's like I mean, did you see this yet, Treve?

Did you see everything he said about it? I'll read it. Then I'll throw it to you guys for thoughts just to give everyone complete in the loop of what's happening. So the Sean Foreman who invented baseball reference to they have a war. Fangress also has a war.

He said there are a couple reasons why I don't like this idea. Occasionally mistakes are uncovered and we recalculate war. So it's like, you know, you could be, earning millions or getting losing millions based on a mistake. Two, new rules like extra innings base runner, no NLDH, force us to reformulate things.

Three, our data provider like BIS recalculates historical DRS with better values. If you've listened to me and Jake talk about defensive analytics for the last two years. They change every year. Every, and then you backtrack how good a guy was three years ago based on the new formula they invented. Like how good was D. DeGaroreus in 2018? Oh, no. I'll find out in 27 when they updated again based on the analytics. It's just not like, you know, defensive analytics are just not a good thing you can actually stand by. The park factors change due to more info for Y plus one. Or we decide to change how positional adjustments are calculated

to handle modern usage. Something unexpected happens like no starting pitcher ever goes five innings again and we adjust factors. Because of the above, I'm not really interested in our war, and I doubt the other sites are either, being used to assign millions of dollars, millions of dollar salaries to players, whatever. Are the sites getting paid for this? This is a good question he has. Maybe MLB is all in on Fangraph's war. And if so, best of luck.

And I thought was that they would do this and then just buy Fangraphs and then just like have the ability to make sure it's what the same thing to do with Rawlings. but yeah, it's super scary because also war for a pitcher doesn't, it's not real, you know? If you're Lance Lynn, who has a, and you got a really good defense behind you, so you just pitch to contact, your war is going to be worse. There's a lot of issues with it. Pitchers, D.Hs, and we just saw David Ortiz get put in the Hall of Fame.

If you look at his war, it's not up to standard, really, but it's because he's a D8. So, you know, those guys get beat down. You know, but if the PA is wanting this and it looks like they're seeking $105 million in like the bonus pool, maybe they did calculations and like if we do this, we can get more money to these guys. And maybe if you, I don't know, because it's going to be used as a benchmark for arbitration. Like whatever salary these guys earn or the bonuses they earn is that going to be their floor for arbitration? Because that's kind of what you do.

Like you go off what your previous year was. Yeah. There's a lot of things that we need to figure out about this. But yeah, I mean, the two sides agreed to parameters. But look at these parameters, dude. 105 million MLBPA seeking and LB is like, I got 10 for you. Yeah. I'll be less than 10% of what you asked for.

I don't even understand how that is considered agreed upon. Hey, we're only 90. They agreed upon the concept, not the amount of money. So they're only $95 million off. So that's, I mean, that's not a problem. More info here. The union proposed using an average of B-Wor and F-Wor. Yeah, so Erica, who helped us with our research and it's now in the chat,

would be, they suggested average of B-War, F-WR-W-M-L-B-countered with F-Wor, because they're obviously in on that. And then Marshall McAllister said J-Wore in the chat, which I agree with, and we're working on feverishly. Yeah, that's a good word. Ferociously. Feverly. We're ferocious and we have a fever and we're working on J-War

And we're going to run it down. And feathers. To where they're talking about this. Feathers to get involved. Yeah, man. I mean, it's war is a moving target. I mean, that's our guy, Sean Foreman, my most recent Twitter follow. That's his main takeaway.

This is a moving target. Every year, it's evolving. And if they're one step behind or if they miss something that you could take money out of a guy's pocket, I wouldn't want to live with that. And that's kind of what Sean Foreman said. So I don't know. I mean, it's tough to find the answer because when, you know, we're talking arbitration, which, you know, it'd be kind of hilarious if someone said,

hey, maybe is arbitration one of the worst things we do in sports in general, have a team tell their player how bad they are? It would be cool if we could reset that. Doesn't seem like that's happening. And, yeah, I don't know where your solution lies. I mean, do you just do fully open cases? I mean, then you'd need what, arbiters that are super well-versed in baseball? Trevor Plouffe, the arbiter.

So if someone comes in and says, you know, I've played seven positions and, you know, these metrics are good for me. And I did hit 22 doubles. And then the team comes back and says, well, you know, your OPS with runners in scoring position was only 696. I don't know. I don't know where you land. But, yeah, I mean, it's, you know,

know, I feel like every year there's a list that comes out that's players' wars that didn't feel right, or whose war is off. And then the next offseason, you see like, oh, you know, we just updated our defensive war metrics. It had Matt Chapman rate out poorly. Now he rates out one of the best in the league. So what are we going to do then? Does Matt Chapman get repaid now that they updated the numbers and he looks better? Don't think they factored that in yet.

But besides this 95-mill, handshake. Done. Yeah. That's why I don't even understand like what we agreed on the parameters of this. What? I hope not.

But what does that even mean? I think they agreed to table the discussion. Maybe they're like, let's just chum the water with this agreement for just give it to the, the fans out there for a little bit of optimism and hope. But really, because now that we're really digging into this, it seems kind of ridiculous.

And we, you know, I'd ask guys about it or been it got brought up to our attention before this was like public that this was something they wanted to do and it was told how dumb it was I mean hey we've agreed on the parameters of a pre-arbitration bonus pool for top 30 players so that so is that is that the top 30 players should get a bonus is instead of like it being a roving percent is that the actual tangible difference here they just don't know how much money or what's going to calculate it yes

So there's something tangible. It's basically like saying, hey, I'd like to take this job. Could you guys offer me 105 grand per year? And they say, we'd love you to take the job. But instead of 105 grand, we'd like to offer you 10 grand. And that'd be a tough handshake for me. I know I showed the handshaking before. I'd be a little hesitant of that.

But they've agreed, good players should. get paid a little bit more. I mean, that's an obvious, like, obviously the owners are into that. Like, sure, if you're good, we'll pay you. But if you're, we don't want any, uh, if you suck, we'll just pay nothing. But the only way this makes sense, I, in my opinion, for the, the PA is if we really get started on this minimum salary raise. And right now it kind of brings us like to our next point.

They wanted, they offered to raise the salary to 650 minimum salary, excuse me, to 615K. and the NLBPA is asking for 775. If we're getting guys paid, you know, rookies, pre-arb guys paid a little bit more, then I could say, all right,

let's take those 30 guys, let's do the bonus pool. How do we get there and what number it's going to be. Obviously, it still needs to be ironed out. But then it starts, the bigger picture starts to make sense. I think that's kind of where we're going here

with some of the things that we've agreed upon, is that all together it makes sense. And we just got to find those numbers. but 615 ain't going to cut it. Yeah, and a really good note by Erica in our notes here is the league offer the 615K if you had just pro-rated the 2016 through 2021 CBA, then this would be a step backwards.

It would be 650K if they just kept rolling at the rate of inflation. But instead, they've gone back. So yeah, MLB offers to raise the minimum. That's a good MLB headline, but in the scope of things, it feels like a step backwards. This will get done. I think this is an easy give from MLB. I think they know, like, if you just look at the numbers, like you just said, they know that they've been behind on that. It's the lowest minimum salary event of the four major league sports and more people make it in this sport than any other sport. So it's, you know, I think this is a no-brainer and this will get done.

It will get raised to very close to what the PA wants. And it should. I mean, it's time. Yeah. The fight here is what I think of the biggest fight. Everyone's saying is that the CBA or the, the union is trying to make up for the lost ground that they signed last contract. and MLB is trying to still have that punish them on this contract. Like, just because we got the better of you last time,

doesn't mean we need to write that wrong this time. We'll just get better now. But the MLBPA wants them to not only correct where they were, what went wrong last time, but then also double it. So they're trying to, the union is trying to advance two CBAs, basically. basically because the last one was what they did a poor job or you know the owners manipulated it after the fact and and the MOB is like no no no we're just going to go up one step so you're still always going to be one CBA behind so why they're offering because they're basing their calculation not on inflation but just on improving from the last one in 2016 or whenever it was I mean so like seems like until one side just says okay fine I mean it's never going to happen If they want to pay, and we keep going back to money, because obviously that's kind of what this is all about. If they want to pay people their fair market value, they need to take like 15 steps forward.

So like they have it so good now. You'd expect MLB to give a little bit more, understanding that, you know, what they have and how valuable it is. I think eventually they will. All of this will get figured out. I believe that MLB knows that. but they're using the time against the players right now. Everyone wants to get to spring training. We got a bunch of free agents that haven't signed.

A bunch of guys want to get their housing. They don't know when to call the realtor and say, hey, let me get my house for spring training. And then for the season, all these decisions have to be made. MLV knows that. And when we force the time issue against the PA, it really works in their favor.

And I think they're trying to exploit that, especially with the free agents. I think that's a big thing here. You know, guys are waiting. They have no idea where they're going to play. Pitchers and catchers are supposed to report in what? Less than three weeks, like 16, 17 days from now. We don't even have anywhere close to an agreement.

So it's interesting. The minimum salary for me, I mean, that feels like a piece that the owners play at the end because that's just a touch point for literally every player. Like, Travis, you just mentioned that top 30 thing, you know, that's kind of rare air. That's going to be guys that are really good, really early on in their career. You're not hitting the majority of the pot here.

When MLB comes back and finally counters, whether it's two iterations from now or three, and they come back and they say, hey, guys, we're raising the minimum salary for every player that enters the league. I think that's a chip that the owners play when this thing is getting close that they try to close it and get the extra votes they need from the player side

because that's you just hit everyone with one swing. Yeah. Yeah, they never even talked about, you know, service time. So how could we be close? You know, like you said, Trev, it doesn't even seem like they're close at all. But I don't think they're going to move on service time. It sounds like they've said, no, like the free agency is going to stay the same. And I don't know if the players have anything to give to get out, like get,

get them off that. That stinks. Do you think there's going to be do you think there's going to be big changes here? Do you think there's a way that everything that MLB that the players and the public has been asking for forever, there's going to be any changes?

I'm not sure. And to be honest with you, you know, I feel like I was more privyed to information back in the COVID negotiations. everyone's playing it pretty tight to the vest right now. And that's exactly what you wanted. And I'm talking to players and we're talking about things. But the information that has been that was readily available to like almost everyone in 2020 is not the same.

Like they're really trying to keep this in-house. And I mean, I appreciate that. I think that makes a sport look a lot better, even though, I mean, how bad can you look right now? They're not even looking. It's just like that's like it's just underground No one can but and who cares Wait till after the Super Bowl Announce yeah let's let football play it out

I mean The shitty thing is if you do that and we're waiting It's just the guys that have to get ready I know it seems like I'm whining about something But it really is hard to set your whole life up Without knowing where you're going to go It's it's really shitty

If they don't change the service time And the arbitration and it's still six years of control After you debut or whatever where are the wins then? Well, that's kind of the thing. That's where if that's where the owners are and they kind of like what we're saying, the six years of service time control is kind of like the nuke.

They hold that. And like Trevor was saying, you are getting immense values for players in those first six years. That's kind of, if that's their stranglehold, just not letting go on that, then we're looking at, you know, increasing the competitive balance, which, again, has been used as a luxury cap

instead of a tax more or less. You know, some of the tanking stuff we've talked about that player minimum salary, obviously, DH and stuff coming into play. But yeah, I mean, it would just be checking kind of all those other boxes, which, yes, there's the negative light there of, you know, that's kind of the one thing the players would love to change. But if that's not even on the table and they can chip away at everything else,

I'm not saying you pocket that as your win, but maybe as a baseball fan, that can be the win where you say, well, that's where shit gets really complicated. If we've got to change service time in those, you know, first three years in those next three years, That's where, and maybe this is where, like you said, time, Trev. This is where the owners might have won the war there. If we're not changing that system, there isn't a ton on the table to be changed.

And I think the players can go and try to get all of those smaller wins and minimum salary, raising the fake salary cap. But I guess expanded playoffs, have we heard anything about that in a little bit? Because that's the owner's big win. So I don't know. That's the player's chip. I agree with you. that what we're going to see out of this eventually.

And again, like, this is not me speaking on behalf of the PA. But in my mind, you know, going, you know, seeing these situations, having been part of it in 2016, I feel like the competitive balance tax has to be raised to, you know, something, I mean, honestly, much higher than it is. Like, we are seeing teams use it as a soft cap. It just needs to be raised. I think that would be a big win for the players, even though, like, it should have already happened because it was overlooked really in 2016.

They need to do that. And then, yeah, taking care of guys earlier in their careers, as more and more guys are pre-arbed dudes on these rosters. Like, you got to, if you grind your way to the top of your profession, you've got to be compensated better. And I think we'll get that. I think owners are going to do that. But the six years, the control that they have, that I don't think that's going anywhere.

I just don't think there's enough chips for enough. The players don't have enough chips to change that right now. And maybe it changes next CBA, but I don't know, man. Unless they got something I don't know about. But playoffs is really it. Here's something you don't know about. Draft Kings may or may not have the over under on when this gets signed.

That'd be hilarious. I don't think the draft Kings has this bad. I haven't checked. But if Draft Kings, if you went to the baseball section on the app, downloaded it, used promo code John Boy, downloaded the Draft King's app. And the baseball section was just, will the season start on time over under whatever, just yes or no, the only bet on Draft Kings. They should do that.

Can they not legally do that? Probably not. Well, they should do that. And if you wanted to bet on it, you could. You could also, you can also bet $5 on the Bengals or the Rams to win. Super Bowl 56. You get 56 to 1 odds. 280 in free bets if you get it right.

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Can I ask a question here? Yes. Do you think when we do, because it's obviously coming like my draft Kings World Series bet, it's going to be a massive success, right? Yeah. Anyone that doesn't bet,

it is a fool because you just everyone should at least put five bucks on it because if it hits everybody you win what a million dollars probably yeah right right now at i don't i don't know what the i don't know what the odds they can give on a type of bet like that but we'll make sure it's very favorable to the people right now at draft kings you can bet on the winner you can bet on league winners and you can bet on division winners as well as home run leader and wins leaders. Right now the favorite, Glad Grero Jr.

As a home run leader? Yeah. I already have a team in my head that's like a favorite. But again, peeps, we got to go through TPPs. Like, this is not like I just make a freaking guess. I'm not one of those dudes that just put shit out. There was an educated guess.

I think the, when you make your World Series prediction guess, obviously you're going to be wearing a hat that looks like a giant brain. You know what I'm talking about? I think so. I think it's from Boyme's World. And then it'll be like a three-hour live stream

and the first two hours and 58 minutes are going to be all just, you know, preamble. Jake will give some speeches. We will, you know, there will be a PIP shot of you the whole time, Trev. Kind of like the Mansell cam when he was in football, wherever you're going. But, you know, we'll hear,

from Rose, we hear from everyone else. It'll be kind of a pre-show. What do you think his prediction will be? I have us also watching other famous speeches. To get punk. Yes, to get excited. Zell. Yeah. I have us, I have us recreating a couple movie scenes as well. Yes. Yeah. I have it as us like recreating the decision while Treve makes his decision. Yep. Yes. And there will be kids around. Yeah. I should be in New York, I think. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Sometimes girls club. The last, the last, well, when did you make yours?

Because you probably be here for opening day. I think it was the night before. The night before opening day. I made it. I made that prediction at the airport headed to you guys for opening day. Okay. So just make it here, the night before opening day. And we'll do the three hour live stream where the last two minutes will have your prediction.

You just say it. And then we do like a really bad bomb, uh, graphic. And then that's the end of the stream. As long as Bill doesn't mess my flight up again. Oh. Shouts fired, BTS. Hey,

Jim, tell me if you've heard this before. Okay. One of the reasons I love podcasting is stumbling into something. Yeah. The one thing we know the owners want is expanded playoffs. Well, like us personally, no. I think that's pretty, like, we know that, but that's also out there.

But someone else could say the one thing I know they want, and it would be something else maybe. Would you say the biggest thing the owners want is expanded playoffs? No, I would say it's to keep the six years. Yeah, just like be the same. Well, I guess something changing, something new, the biggest thing they'd want, because they already have that. Yes.

Yes. So it's up to out of new things, I would say that they want to spend in playoffs. I don't know. Like determining a worth of the war that they own might be. They're interested in that. It's not a bad spin. And the one thing the players, the biggest thing the players want is to change the ARB system and hit free agency earlier. And both sides currently have kept those off the table.

So maybe that's where the fireworks fly. Let's do it. Week between the Super Bowl. Let's get ugly. I hope they're planning like a real announcement. Like they're like, you know what? Like, they are not. We can do this, guys. Like, we can, I know.

They're not. They're just not. Matt Stafford. I can dream about it. Yeah, me and him. He's holding the MVP trophy. He's got tears in his eyes. He's pointing in the stands. He says, you, you.

Trevor Plouf announces. with Matt Stafford that baseball's back. I light up the fattest joint. Shout out. I got the Lombardi trophy in one hand, a banger in the other hand. And I say baseball's back. Kershaw to the Rangers.

And everyone booze me out of the stadium. Wow. Well, and Stafford probably announces Kershaw. And I'm going to bring in my best friend from my neighborhood here because we got some good baseball news. And then he hands the mic to you. you say baseball's back and he says,

and I'm going to bring out my best friend. And he's got some news. And Kershaw is going to say, I retire, fuck this sport. It's a good and bad look. So rich. Yeah. Did we have other stuff on the thing?

I believe we did. There was other stuff to talk about. Like it's Nolan Ryan's 75th birthday. It's pretty big. Yeah. Farm to fame reports that the Dodgers have signed the first to Ugandan baseball players in MLB history. Yeah.

I love this. How'd that happen? I'm super interested. Umar Mal. Is it Molly? Not sure. Ben Surumkima. That's cool.

Pretty cool. I am all in on like scouts like going to places that haven't been scouted before. Like I love like when they did the million dollar arm thing. in India. Like there's so many people out there you figure, hey, we can get some talent, bring it to the sport. Let's make this the worldly game.

And all throughout Europe, there's, like, there's just, I don't know if there's enough baseball out there in places, and it's hard to start it up. Well, there's no more wars or missions, you know. Yeah, it's not an easy game to just teach. You need kind of a lot of things and a lot of players. And maybe that's why soccer is the world sport,

because you just need a ball to kick around. They don't know what positions these guys plays. So I think maybe they just said, yeah, you're athletic. Say the same about me. Yeah. Was there an academy or something? Yeah, how did this come about?

They're sending them to the Dodgers Academy and the DR. Yeah, but there's no news on how they found them that I can find quickly. We talk about, you know, Trev, you were drafted out of high school. no big deal and man we talk about some of these young minor league guys Peter Moyland when he came over got himself into some funny business

I can't imagine these guys going from Uganda to the Dominican Republic to play baseball which they might not have a position they don't know what position they play I mean how do you not root for these guys like this is awesome dude

Like put yourself in their shoes a little bit. It really is like you're going to this crazy new experience and a crazy new place. And how old are they? They can't be, they got to be young, I'm assuming. Yeah, I would guess they're like 16, 17. It's wild, man. I think we should get behind these guys big time.

Get some jerseys? Uganda is number 43 in the world baseball rankings. So there's got to be some academies there, obviously. They're playing some ball down to Uganda. I don't, why does no article give that information? I just read three and it seems like that should be something that you read like they saw them play here. And that's why they got signed. And I just, you know what's, you can't find that.

You know what's interesting about this is you kind of got to flip it. Like when I played a team USA, went to Germany, went to Italy and you kind of see these like baseball operations that are going on. these countries. And baseball is not like a very popular sport in Italy or in Germany. But, you know, there's some people that like it. And there's some leagues out there, like, especially in Italy. There's like an Italian baseball league. I'm trying to think like in the States.

Like what would that, what sport? Like what would equate to that in the States? Is that like a lacrosse? Is it something like more obscure than that? Interesting. Okay, I found all the info. Both Sarakuma, a right-handed pitcher, and male or Mali, a catcher, have been in baseball since 2012,

previously represented Uganda national team in 2019 for the East African qualifiers in Kenya, as well as RBI International Tournament in Vero Beach, Florida. So they've played baseball in the U.S. already. Their coach, who also got signed by the Dodgers to kind of be their Sherpa, will coach at the LA Dodgers Academy. He previously represented Uganda at the 2015 Little League World Series in Williamsport. Awesome.

Glad that article had all the information I was looking for. That's cool. What's the article? Give me a shout out. The Sports Nation. Huge. And the writer was, well,

forgive my bad pronunciation, Kataka, Abel. Iwe and Sanga. I feel like you nailed that. Yeah. Of course I did. The chat is saying like equating it to rugby,

which I could see. But rugby's kind of played everywhere now, innemural rugby. Well, yeah, I think seven that play rugby are fucking nuts, dude. Sevens got popular, right? Vino, I'm seeing some vignos in the chat. I think that's comparable. Cool.

Congrats to them. It's huge. Hopefully baseball gets unlocked out. They got a 10K signing bonus. Wow. I'm roaming ready for these boys to make it. I hope they are. They probably don't need it.

They don't fall in. They don't fall in. They don't. They're young. I'm roaming ready for these boys to make it, is what Jake said. young, healthy d. With ED treatments, you can have the self-assurance that comes from knowing you've prepared yourself for the moment when the moment comes.

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I had a dream that might be relatable to this a little bit. I dreamed. I came up to the plate, bases loaded. Yeah. And I looked, I look at my bat. Mm-hmm.

And it was just a limp pool noodle. Mm-hmm. And I just wasn't confident. Mm-mm. I got out. Mm-hmm. And then I came up later in the game and I said, I don't want a limp pool noodle.

Mm-hmm. I want a firm piece of, wood to drive one. Yep. And then what happened? Woke up. Oh. Woke up. On the couch. Noodle on your lap.

I mean, I feel like it's that's... Go get Roman. You need that for any situation. Even like if you go to an Italian spot that's really known for their pasta, they're not serving that all like floppy. Like Al dente is the way you want it. Like a little hard there, right?

Tough. It's bottom line. next week if we don't get an update let's do a draft or another interview or something because I'm depressed can the chat tell us tell us someone you want us to interview let me put my contacts to work my gosh I need to be I need to be worked here the chat can get us interviews if they want all they need to do is just go comment on someone's Instagram go on talking baseball anyone will come on our show I mean just the chat should they should agree yeah I wouldn't they come on here.

Just bullshitting around. You have got some love. Thanks guys. With the greatest baseball show ever created. The original home run derby show was pretty cool for its time. Jackie Robinson just hit homers and sitting down at the desk. Who is it? Mel Allen doing play or play?

I don't know. That was a good show though. Okay. Top baseball shows ever. That's what we're doing. Oh, rock and jock celebrity softball was good. The celebrity All-Star game softball all-star game used to be good. I think I graduated out of that.

You've never seen me more interested for like five minutes than the start of the celebrity softball game. Yes. And then it's like... Well, they've completely lost me now. But when Kenny Maine used to be miced up, it was hilarious. Kenny Mainsky. Yeah. He's a free agent.

Yeah. Should we try to get Showhay? Just made the cover. MLB, the show. I'm still working on my Japanese. One of the way interview properly. You'd bring an interpreter or he'd have one, I believe. We'd have the interpreter.

Get Trout. What's he doing right now? Dude, I'm flipping the script on the trout and the weather thing. I know you don't like it. What are you talking about? You don't like how much MLB promotes he likes the weather. I don't like MLB taking their generational superstar and saying, let's market the fact he likes the weather.

I love that Mike Trout loves the weather. I think it's the only thing he tells about himself. That clip of him calling in to the weather, oh man. Like, I love being out in the element. So we're the same. I always talk about that.

If there's a blizzard or a rainstorm, I always like going outside and being like in it. But I'm not calling the fucking cable weather people. Because you don't love the weather. I know. I don't like the weather. I've never paid for the dark skies app. I just,

I like being in the weather. Oh my gosh. I have dark sky. Of course. It's baseball players, every baseball player's app. That's their number one. You know who also really loves the weather? Another generational talent, Joe Mauer.

Absolutely. All right. So sometimes I think about if we were to interview someone in any part of my life, like if it's a musician or whatever, I'm like, oh, if I interviewed them, I'd just start taking notes on my phone of what I'd ask. And so I started thinking about Trout. And I want to know what pitches perform best in what weather. That's a question I want to ask him.

What? Does he have like, oh, we're facing a sinker baller today and the humidity's at 80%? We're fucked. So muggy to them. Yeah.

Like, does he have combinations of like, you know, air quality is X. And we're facing Verlander. So, you know, he's in trouble.

You know? From what I know about Trout, it's more like seaball hitball. Yeah. Well, you don't know, but you've never asked about.

the weather. You've never asked. Maybe that's the only thing he thinks about. It's in my... The barometric pressure. It's in my note. How it affects the... I throw out a pitcher.

He tells me the best weather to face that picture. You know? So... Okay. Let's get Trout on here. Joe Mauer and Trout. Is that the consensus answer? We want Trout.

He lives in New Jersey. Sometimes. All right. I'll do it. Has he ever been interviewed? Like, I don't know. I don't think I've ever seen Mike Trout be interview. He didn't even get interviewed.

He called in. No, they did it at like the All-Star game. They were like, oh, and there's weather, so we're going to Mike Trout. Yes. All right. Look, this is how you get Mike Trout. You tell him. I wrote down another question in my own.

How to catch a trout. What's the, it's not an icy machine? What is it? Slurpy. Not slurpy. He likes, like, hush puppy. Is that a thing? Isn't that like food?

I told you guys this. He bought it for the... Slurping. He bought it for a locker room. I think it's all the same. Slushy. Yeah, some kind of slushy. Love slushies. We just got to offer him some slushies.

I do love... No one has done that to him, so that's why he doesn't do interviews. If you get the guy some slushies... Slush puppy. Yeah. The story is that in Detroit's locker room, they have a slush puppy machine.

He loved it so much. I think he bought one for himself. And that just is hilarious that the best baseball player ever possibly just loves slush puppies. Slush puppies and weather. It's a big Wawa fan. And a huge loss for slush puppy

not to like do some sort of endorsement with this guy. I don't think there's doing it. Is there a puppy on the end of it? Slush puppy's doing just fine. Isn't it just slush? I am a major owner in Slush puppy. I would love to like find out

that you're a huge owner of slush puppy. My dad is actually slush dog and I'm slush puppy. Oh my God. If we go and invest in slush puppy, we basically own Mike Trout and all his decision making. Founded in 1970, Slush Puppy, the original non-carbated frozen beverage. The original?

Yeah. Dude, the slush puppy mascot looks just like me. Hey, how much is a slush puppy machine do you think? Because if we get one installed here, it ups our chance of having. and trout come in, right? Just tag them. Say, we're ready,

you? Can we make a slush puppy trout t-shirt? All right, I found, I found one for, 1,100. How much?

$1,100, $1,195. Well, you're like Zuckerberg, so to you, it's nothing. Well, dude,

we'll just get it sponsored by slush puppy. Slush puppy with 3,700 followers. on Instagram. Jake, how is Jimmy's moat doing? Are you taking care of it? I'll be honest with you.

I've been doing a shit job. Yeah, I fell on it yesterday. I've been doing a shit job. My dog got loose. Luckily, the moat saved her, but now we're at the ER. It was actually, it was one of those... It would know it was one of those good things.

If the moat was well maintained, dog would die. Oh, because the alligator would be there. I haven't filled it with water. So it's just kind of, it's a hill. It's snow. Well, That would be the opposite of a hill.

It's a river inverted hill. It's a moat. It's still a hill. It's just going down. I think it's a ditch. Downward hill. Ditch. I'm going to get my trout on for us.

How do you think you get out of the moat? Tell them that we got a slushy machine. Come up the hill. And then if he, if that, if that, if he says yes after that, we'll expedite and actually order one. Or just like, you want him in office? Yeah. When, when do we?

tougher guys. Why do we get some fucking twins legends up in here? I thought you had juice. That was, I mean, when we did interviews during COVID, it was just all twins, right?

It was all ex. Who do you want? My Rolodex is fat right now. I'm told you, I'm watching W. You know what? Some players in the league listen to the show. If you're a player,

that's still listening at this point in the show, come on. What the fuck? Should we do? To be honest, to be honest, you, Jains, we kind of went away from interviews and people knew that.

Should we do? I know. Should we do players-only voicemails? And we just have anyone, like have Gibby call in, have Dozier calling, Tori, Big Game, Hunter. Only ex-twins. Yeah. No. X-Twins voicemail episode. I think I'm going to open up to the league. Okay. That's fine. I've been talked out of it.

Yeah. As long as we keep promoting slush puppies. Wait. Oh, my gosh. Guys, we have to talk about next time, but there was a trade the Mariners did pre-lockout. Oh. Yeah, we'll talk about... Have him call in. Have Adam Frazier call in with J.P. Crawford.

J.P. Crawford, by the way, a beautiful honeymoon. Like, the guy is, he's ready for some ball. Shout out J.P. Crawford. I love that guy. I have, you know, I'm logistically thinking through the MLB voicemail episode. And we tweet out and say, only MLB players allowed to call in. And then BPD has to sort through that. Yeah, I wasn't going to mention it and give people any ideas. Yeah.

Why don't we get a second voicemail line, okay? That's secret. Trevor has it. And we say any MLB players want to call in, DM, Trev, he's got a secret number for you. Because if we did an MLB voicemail episode, I think people would like it. And I think we could actually do it.

We could get enough guys. We would just need to give them a topic. Yeah. Like who you're rooting for? MLB, MLBPA. What would those guys say? you think. Les know.

Man, David in the chat just said Burt Plyleven. I think that would be... You guys know Burt. Yes, yeah, yeah. The aflames... He makes out of his own ass. That's true. That's true.

Oops. Oops. Jake, why do you look like that? I don't... Jealousy does not look good on you, Trevor. I'll work on it. I'll be honest. 833.

I think that's it, right? That's all. We got the MLB voicemail up coming soon, so stay tuned for that. And Treves going to work on it with the secret new voicemail line. And then, I don't know, maybe we'll do a draft or like some baseball movie. I want to do a baseball movie draft. Jake's never seen a movie in his life. He's too dumb.

That's what they say, yeah. When you say it like that. Too dumb to watch movies is a special kind of dumb. I watched Star Wars over the weekend. parts of it. No. Still want to... Never mind.

What was that, Trev? Say what you want to say. Say what you want to say. I still want to do our... Remember we were going to profile the owners? Yeah. Each and every ownership group, that one got shut down pretty quick.

Yeah. Rise of Skywalker. Still be fun to do. Good watch. I'll crack that jog. Got it. I got it. All right.

That's the end of the episode. If you're an M.O.B. player, reach out to... Reach out to Trev for our secret new voicemail line. that you can call in on. Should I start turning my face this way? I feel like I look good that way. No.

Do the other way. Do the other way. Oh, it's better the other way. But your eyes, like, look. Now do the other way. Jake sucks. Wow. Treb with the hat swine.

Big time.