Talkin' Baseball (MLB Podcast) - 57 | The Orlando Dreamers, Grandal & Abreu to ChiTown, d'Arnaud to Atlanta

Episode Date: November 26, 2019

The Orlando Dreamers put in their bid to get an MLB team. The White Sox and Braves are the only two teams signing free agents. The Dodgers say they are in on the big names but not really and Jake tries to guess the Miami Marlins depth chart. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

The Orlando Dreamers have been put into existence. Jacoby Ellsbury and Yankees are in a fight. The Braves and the White Sox are signing guys. Let's talk baseball. What's going on, everybody? Welcome back to talking baseball. My name is John Boy. I'm coming to you from the Bay Area.

I have a computer. I have a printer calibrating right by me. I wonder if that's loud. And Jake sounds loud. And Jake is. coming to you from, dude, where are you actually? South Carolina? South Carolina.

You're all over it. South Carolina. Yeah, right over the border from Charlotte in North Carolina. Tegah K, if you remember. Yes, it has an interesting name, Tega K. Interesting name. There's a lot of different ways to say it. I'm probably still saying it wrong.

Little A-Rod baseball in the intro. That put a little lead in my pencil. Bisbao. How else would you say Tega K? Tiga K? Tiga K. Tiga K. Tega, yeah, I don't even know anymore.

It looks beautiful. I'm looking at Google images of Taga K. It looks blue waters, green trees. Dude, there's a really nice lake. Do I remember the name of the lake? No. Tega? I'll send you a picture of what I'm looking at right now.

And that'll come over in a minute or two. There's water. There's nice little houses. So you're living large in Taga K. Living large in a barge. Oh, I found one Google image here. The water looks green and gross. They should scrap that one from the record books.

I'll talk to Google about that. Yes. Where are you? Pleasanton, Dublin? Pleasanton, California, the East Bay. Yep. So Jake and I have been on a little wild trip. If you've been following along on social media as we went down to L.A.

Now we are in our separate places. Heading towards our girlfriend's family's houses. Well, I'm here and you're there. We went to our girlfriend's family's houses for Thanksgiving. So there's no video of this if you usually watch on YouTube and I apologize about that. We still haven't perfected our traveling road setup because Google Hangouts deleted themselves from existence. and they were the easiest way to do it. And it's tough.

It's tough. It's very frustrating. Here we are. I know we kind of missed a day. We're late. A lot of things are going on in baseball. And we were hanging out with a lot of cool people. We met.

Who do we meet? Lino de Shields. Ramon Luriano. Dallas Braden was there. Chris Rose. We hung out with Trevor Plouffe and we'll be hearing from him in a coming episode. So that was a cool weekend for us. Yeah.

We went to an Easton event, follow Easton on social media and comment, stuff like, whoa, John Boy and Jake, you guys sign them to that big sponsorship deal. That's awesome. We would love that you did that. Give them all the money. Just put that on their Instagram post. Wow, Easton, looks like you had John Boy and Jake at your event. Cool. Pay them to do it.

Pay them the money. Finally sponsoring some real athletes. In your face. Yeah, it was a cool event. If you haven't seen, check out our social medias or whatever. But they set up Dallas Braden was actually all over this, which confirmed he's a gamer. But there was an old NCAA baseball game that used to have a hitting mode

where you hit targets and you get points. And they basically set that up at Easton. And so we did that in real life and we did a couple other events. It was a good time. I single-handedly won money for a charity. What else did you also single-handedly do? I gave, because of that, I gave less money to the other charity. You, you, the Lord giveth and the Lord taketh the way.

It was a relay race. And the last event, it was me versus coach ball game, putting together a puzzle and then running to the end. And I won, and which means my team, charity won. and it all came down to me. So that's on my resume. Resume now. Chris Rose pretty good on his toes, huh? Chris Rose.

Yeah, good guy. Chris Rose, good on his toes. Toes on the nose. It's your favorite surf brand company. And everyone buy a I Love Baseball shirt for Black Friday. And that's it. And that's it. That's the show today.

Thank you very much. We appreciate it. Thank you. Let's talk baseball, man. Good having the mic. Good having the rock. my hand again, man. Let's do a fun segment on the Orlando Dreamers, and then we'll cut it to a break and do some real

storylines, because we're a little behind. This is, we're behind on this. This is the perfect storm for you. Like, this is, this is everything. This is a poor effort. This is a lonely old man. This is, this is a city that's made a clear mistake. And you, you have full permission to take out the fingernails here.

because it's so ridiculous. So if you aren't aware, Orlando put together a group, a former NBA executive made his pitch Wednesday to bring a Major League Baseball team to Orlando. Pat Williams, who co-founded the Orlando Magic, said Orlando was more deserving of an expansion team than about half a dozen cities who have made proposals. So I didn't know that the MLB was this serious about expanding in general. So I'm like, okay, let's see this proposal. And if you haven't seen the video, it's must watch.

It's basically an S&L skit, but in real life, there's this old man. He's standing next to an easel that has the logo on it, but is tarped over. So he can reveal the logo. This is my favorite part of it. But he's wearing the logo on his shirt. wearing a shirt with the logo, but getting ready for a big reveal. If this was an SNL skit, you'd walk away and be like, ah, that was funny, but a little ridiculous.

So he reveals the logo, which is the same exact thing on his shirt, and it's clip art. It's honestly, it's just two bats, a ball, some stars. And the name he's going with, or they're going with, is the Dreamers. which by and large means you haven't attained the dream yet. Right. It means you haven't done it. So like if the team was called the Orlando dream,

because, you know, you've made your dream of playing pro ball or whatever. Like it's a dream to play for us. Dreamers, it's like you're heading the clouds. Like, yeah, keep the hopes alive, not knocking you. But you haven't made it yet, which is kind of Florida baseball. It's stupid. that. It's borderline unbelievable. I think the Astros paid Orlando to try to make a distraction from Trashgate, because that's a more logical excuse than Orlando putting a pitch together

for the team. Shout out to the Atlanta dream of the WNBA, give them a little love. But yeah, I don't know. I guess they're big. And I thought this was fun. because we've done a little bit what cities would be good for getting a baseball team right before this. We landed on like Portland, Vegas, Nashville, Charlotte, a couple other sleepers out there. Orlando is a big time no. And I think what they actually used as their argument was that if they can get 2% of the tourists to come to the games, that they could have like the best attendance in baseball. It's like, yeah, yep, make sense.

If can't any other teams say that? I mean, almost any major city could say that. Can't they say like if we can get 1% of the population of New York City to come to Yankee Stadium? They'd be fucking hanging off the rafters. Or the tourists or, yeah, I mean, any incoming flights to a city. If we can book up this place, it'd be full. You best believe it. we sell all the seats and people are in them, we could have a team here.

I feel bad, but I don't because it's very funny. Dreamers is such a bad name. The logo was incredible. You know what, though? Maybe this is the inside job for the next team. Maybe like Portland paid Orlando to have a terrible presentation. So now if Portland comes out with just like kind of like, you know, a real, a real name and logo, people are like, all right, hell yeah, better than Orlando. So bad. Why Florida? Why Orlando? No. No. No. And the other stupid news is Jacobiel is where in the Yankees are fighting. If you are into like the nitty-gritty of contracts stuff.

I don't think majority people are. I think it's somewhat interesting. Ellsberg has been hurt forever. He went to some like, did you read the story, Jake? Do you know the actual details of this one? I saw some of the details come out and how they're saying he went to see another doctor, but I think he refuted that. No, he went to see the...

He's bad and hurt. He went to see the... We got to do this more on talking Yanx because it's interesting. I think the Yankees are going to lose this and are in the wrong. Yeah. The Yankees are trying to say that he went to a different doctor for an injury that occurred as a Yankee. And that made it worse. Their treatment made it worse.

Their treatment's super weird. It's like this very weird doctor place. And then people think the Yankees leaked that this doctor's office uses steroids to try and damage Jacoby. reputation. So that would be bad if that came out as true. Basically, Jacobi Ellesbury had insurance on his huge contract for 2017, 2018, 2019. So the Yankees just kept him on the DL and they got 70% of his contract back the insurance. There's no insurance on 2020 and 2021 buyout. So they don't want to pay him. So this is the Yankees trying to snake their way around paying him as guaranteed money.

Sheep Yankees not wanting to pay an injured bad player. Hey, that's good news for 29 MLB teams. Jacoby Ellsbury added to the free agent pool. He says he wants to play. Bring him to camp. Pick him up. Toulot put on a show this year. Ellsbury can do that for another team.

Yeah, that he could get a double and then retire. It's all good. Team Jacoby. All right. We have some actual science. signings and stuff. Let's take just a quick smidge of a break and we'll be back. Jake, we had some signings, some movement.

Actually, you know what? Are we happy? There's been some movement. There's been action. Yeah, it's not bad. But it's going to be funny once we dive in because I was starting to get ready with a speech like, hey, there's been some good movement. Guys are getting paid.

This is a good sign for baseball. and then I realized it's two teams. It's only two teams, and they're the ones that are overpaying guys. So I don't know if that... And let me take a step back from overpaying, because we'll discuss the contracts a little bit more. But we've been kind of going off the estimates on fan graphs. They did kind of a crowdsource round robin of what contracts they thought guys were going to get.

And basically they've been low on everything. which again, you're like, hey, that's good for baseball. Guys are getting paid. Let's see what the big guys get. And then I was like, hold up, though, because it is just the white socks and the Braves. Yeah. Well, and the Yamahiro Giants. Yeah, Baby Shark going overseas.

Gerardo Parra is going to Japan. Now, do you think they're going to love Baby Shark over there, or do you think that it's so old? I think it might be like five years old. We'll see. I mean, if he, I think this is going to be. a classic case. If he plays well, I think it'll be electric. Like, I could see baby shark fever

resweeping the nation over there. Maybe they get an actual baby shark hanging out in the dugout or something. And knowing Parra, he's an electric factory. I think it's going to be a hit. All right. Good for you, Parra. Have fun in Japan.

Enjoy. So like Jake said, the Braves continue to sign people and the White Sox continue to sign people. The White Sox made the biggest splash with Yasmani Grandal going. I think that's the highest free agent we've had signed thus far on the leaderboard. And he gets paid pretty well. Four years, $73 million, the biggest contract that the White Sox have ever given out in their history.

Yeah, 1825 AAV. That's everyone's favorite term come free agency time. Yeah, man. the the the the the yes man yes moni grandal you and i he he was the guy that we couldn't peg um i you know i kind of in our free agency fun episode i tried to talk myself into laa um he goes to the white socks which was a surprise because james mccann actually had a pretty solid year from the catcher position for them um but this allows them to do a lot of things and they can put yes moni grandal around the middle of their lineup, switch hitting.

You can pencil them in behind the plate most days. And if, you know, if they need to slide them over to first a little bit, I think there will be a little bit of a transition plan. He's 31 now. You know, those catcher knees give out at some point. But, yeah, I mean, good for the White Sox. And when you put all, again, the salary might be a little high. Fan graphs estimated him getting a three-year,

48 mil he gets four for 73 so good for the yes man and if you're the white socks you're excited and you're this this is a team that's going to have like they're going to be everybody's sleeper this year

they're going to say hey you know the twins and Indians have to look out for this year it's those Chicago white socks I'm rooting for the white socks someone asked me on the AMA like what team am I rooting for to be good I want the white socks to compete in the central give everyone a run for their money.

What's the move here with McCann? They signed McCann last year. I know that on the depth chart he's slotted in as the DH right now. I believe he's got one more year in his contract. He's making 4.9 Mill in 2020. What's the move here, Jake? I mean, he had a breakout year and it's a clear outlier, and he's a guy who's older.

It's not like he's a prospect that kind of broke out. So I don't know. I think they still want to use him behind the dish some days, and they can maybe start moving Yasmani to first or Abrae you at first and have Yasmani, DH. You and I definitely raised our eyebrow at that because they've got a couple young outfielders that are due to come up this year, so they could have a really fun, deep lineup. But when you look at someone like James McCann in the DH position, no offense to James McCann, but if he comes back to the 600 OPS guy, he's been his whole career before this year, that don't seem like a good DH.

Yeah, and I was thinking, well, maybe they try to flip him if someone thinks that he can be their starting catcher, you know? But the catching, there's so many catchers out there. It's not a position. Write that down for note when we start talking about the Braves in a minute. Because, yeah, and the other name, there was an Omar Narvaez tweet. from Seattle. He had a really good hitting year.

So there's kind of this dearth of catchers. Is dearth the word? Am I using it right? GERTH? DIRTH. DIRTH I'm not familiar with. How are you spelling it? He's the real word.

How are you spelling it? D-E-A-R-T-H. No, so I'm using it the wrong way. I'm using it the opposite way. Dirt is a scarcity or lack of something. So it's the opposite. It's an anti-D-E-Rth. Like Jake has a dearth of brains

Yeah Oh, how could you be so dearthless in the brain Jake Dirtless, that's cool That should be your band- Not a word The dearthless wonder Dirt Dirt is upon us

Dirt needs to be used word Yeah, I think It's death with an R in there People got to start using Dirt more I think we got to really bump up the dirt usage. I just found out it's a word. Bump up the dearth, baby. I had been durthing dearth. We're happy for yes, Moni. He bet on himself.

Yeah, I have fun. I mean, I think the White Sox are, I've said this a lot, so I feel like I'm repeating myself. They're, there, this is a pressure year. They had one last season, 2019, no pressure for the White Sox. They were having fun. They were having a blast. They were a loose clubhouse. They got into some tiffs with the Royals, there was no pressure for them to win that division. With Grandal coming, and I think we may get another move, and with everyone just kind of leveling up, and with G. Alita becoming the real deal, and who was the other pitcher that started doing well for them?

Like, this is becoming a pressure year for the White Sox where they're not just going to be able to have fun and it is what it is. Like, they got to win. Yeah, I think they still need a little more pitching-wise. I think they're going to be exciting, and we'll see what kind of start they get off to. You know, they've got Gialito, Kopeck, the big prospect. He should be back for that season. Dylan Sees was a big prospect, but he got knocked around a little bit.

Your guy, Rinaldo Lopez, he was either do-or-die-die-mose games. So you'd like to see them have one more reliable, maybe veteran starter, and those guys are in the free agency pool. But this is kind of good for the White Sox. I think it's good to learn from life's lessons. And last year they told themselves they were big fish hunting, and they struck out big time. And this year, I think if they went big fish hunting again,

you know, I think they would have struck out again. So they're still getting some quality guys. They're the second tier guys on the market in Abraeu and Yasmani. So, and Abraeus stays in town. We like any time a local guy stays in town. Yeah. So Abraeus, and before we started talking about it, he gets three years, what did he get? Where is it?

He gets three years, 50 million, which is 16. Was he getting other offers close to this, Jake? I mean, I think he was because he could still play a little bit of first base, and he led the league in Ribby's last year. I'm not trying to knock him. It's just no one's looking for him. J.D. Martinez opted into his contract because he knew that no one was looking for a D.H. slash first base guy. And that's, it's a little bit of the unknown.

And it's kind of, again, what we'll talk about with the Braves and the White Sox is, you know, who were they bidding against? You and I are pretty deep in this now. And I mean, you know, I'm sure there were teams that wanted yes, Moni Grandal, but it, Again, like you were saying, he signed pretty early. It seems like he almost got more of an offer than he expected and he signed. So I think that's kind of an overlying question for the White Sox and the Braves is who have they been bidding against? Maybe have they been bidding against each other? Because they're the only two teams making moves right now.

Yeah. Did you see what the White Sox did to Yalmers Sanchez? Yeah, they just waived them, right? He just won the gold glove at second base. but he was set to make $6 million through arbitration. And they were straight up said, nah, we're not, we're not going to pay you that. What a shitty system.

Tough. 638 OPS for Yalmer. Man, get excited for the White Sox to be a fun team, man. Yes, Mani, Abraeu, Tim Anderson, Moncada, Eloi Jimenez. and they've got a couple other young guys in the pipeline, too. So that's exciting.

Be excited. And competing with them in the Free Agent Splash competition are Jakey's Atlanta Braves. My Braves, man, I'm happy for them. I'm happy they're getting the guys they want, I think. But I don't know. I think I've got a good question for you after this, but so they signed Tyler Flowers to come back at the beginning of free agency.

And it's like, okay, yeah, flowers, they like him, sure. They go out, they signed Darno to some real money. And, you know, as Yankee fans, we got to see the best of Travis Darno this year. He had a three home run against us this year. But yeah, he gets two for 14. Wait, he got two years for $14 million? Excuse me, two for 16. He's getting 8 mil a year.

That's good. And that's when you said... It's great for him. He was a guy that got straight released from two teams this year. That's true. And I guess I'll just get to my Atlanta thing now. So if you're keeping track at home, Atlanta has now technically signed in free agency. Darren O'Day, who they brought back.

Nick Marcakechis who they brought back Tyler Flowers who they brought back Chris Martin who they brought back Travis Darno is a newcomer and Will Smith the relief pitcher from the Giants so and we talked about this and there is an actual dearth

of relief pitching on the market look at that all over that word now so we were kind of excited for them that they got Will Smith because he's pretty reliable I mean he's not a not super lights out intimidator of the game, but he's as solid as they come. But Jim, I mean, the Braves have now

spent a pretty penny. Will Smith's getting 13 mil per year. Darno 8, Chris Martin 7, Flowers 4, Marcais 4, and Darren O'Day, essentially 3. So, I mean, this isn't a math podcast, but we've got what? Over 35 mil in contracts going out? And not saying this in a rude way, but to who really? Well, the relief pitching's good. I like that money. There was a dearth of relief pitchers, as you said. So scoop up Smith.

I don't mind that. But yeah, yeah, man. Like, how much is Flowers and Darnow making combined? So Flowers is making 4 mil, and Darno is making 8 mil. So right now we've got 12 mil in free agents, from the catcher position. And like, you don't think you could have went out and just like,

I don't know, signed Torinos for that? And then it's another roster spot open? I mean, that's, I guess that's exactly what I'm saying. If you've got Marquakis for 4 mil, flowers and darno for 12, I mean, we're up to 16 mil. I mean, you're in Yasmani Grandal range. And like if Yasmani Grandal signed with, the Braves, I think you and me would be sitting here like, let's go Braves.

Good move. That's interesting, man. They still need a third baseman. Are they going to roll with Camargo? Like, you know what I mean? They're still, they're going to roll with Riley as a third baseman? Young Thick Austin Riley? Like, I don't know their plans there.

They got Colberson still around, but like they don't have a guy at third base. Yeah, I think they want to try Young Thick Austin Riley. but no, I mean, reportedly they're still in on like Mad Bum and they want a starting pitcher. So it's, I don't know. I just, I get worried for my Braves, because I'm such a huge Braves fan, is that, you know, let's say the Braves do sign Mad Bum.

And let's say he's good, but he's clearly not the Madison Bumgarner of old. He's got, Madison Bumgarner has thrown a thousand more innings than Zach Wheeler. I saw that today and was like, Holy smokes. But, I mean, what, if you end up spending Atlanta, I mean, 60 mil this season on free agents, and you're looking at, you know, Mad Bum as a third starter, a couple middle inning relievers, and then a catching platoon and Nick Marquakis, I don't know.

I think, hey, give me two guys and we'll fill in the blanks. Yeah. And what if Bumgarner and Darnel hate each other? I mean, there's a chance Madison Bumgarner could come in and hate half the team. Likely chance. Actually, I don't know. Maybe date another Madison Bumgarner. Madison Bumgarner went to South Caldwell High School in Hudson, North Carolina. You know how many other professional players have come out of South Hudson?

One. Jimmy Messer got drafted, but didn't sign, never played. No. Wow. You know how many professional players have come out of Travis Darno's high school? Lakewood High School? Five, probably. Fifteen.

Damn. Yeah. Jim Strickland, John Flaherty, Craig Grebeck, Matt Duffy, J.P. Crawford was his teammate. I think Matt Duffy got cut too in other news, but Matt Duffy got cut. We got some more bad news. Is there another side to this argument we should be making of the Braves that like they already have star talent.

So just filling up the rest of the team with these kind of guys. I mean, maybe that is the way to go. Yeah. I mean, so like let's look at their team from last year. They replaced McCann with Darnow. Darnow slash Flowers. Flowers is back. Flowers was there.

So it's like, you know. They lost Donaldson and they added Smith. I still think they're worse than last year. Is that mean? No. Tell me where they got better. I mean, Will Smith doesn't put you better than what Donaldson gave you. Yeah, I mean, Will Smith, we went through the stats and he was pretty good.

He's a little underrated, I think. And, you know, maybe this is his chance he goes to Atlanta and he can do what he's been doing and he'll announce himself as the quality reliever he is. But I think you can hear the skepticism in our voice a little bit. And yeah, I mean, right now it's, you know, Marquakis O'Day, Martin, and flowers are back. We've got Will Smith and Darno in. And right now Josh Donaldson's gone and I don't think he's coming back. so it's net net, I don't know. 37 home runs, 900 OPS for bringer of rain,

Josh Donald's the last season. So yeah, he was pretty good for them. Good defense too. Second highest OPS plus on the team behind him Freeman. They still have a lot of guys, but yeah, they're signing guys and picking up a lot of guys and not one of them has been splashy in the slightest. And I mean, maybe they're going to prove us wrong.

And maybe, again, that's where it gets, it gets interesting. I mean, if this is the tip of the iceberg for these two teams, they're about to have insane free agencies. Yeah, they also lost Kikl and they lost Tehran, right? So they need starters. Is Tehran gone? I knew Keikle was. Yeah, I believe so. Yeah, I don't know.

There's still a lot of mad bum stuff. And it was funny. I don't know. I put that ESPN article on. Maybe we'll talk about it at the end of the show a little bit. But, I mean, there is a chance that the Chicago White Sox, Jose Obrayu and Yesmani Grandal, I mean, that could be one of the biggest free agent halls of the offseason. Obrayu and Grandal?

Yeah. Yeah, that's pretty good. So far I like what the White Sox have done more than the Braves, the two teams that have been active thus far. And so let's see, Abraeu and Grandal are making – What are you always telling me 18 plus 16 is? 32. 32.

Okay. So then I'll let you keep track of this. Will Smith, we'll do it as a team. This is a new math pod. I'm not positive on the 18 plus 16 stuff. Will Smith is 13. Chris Martin is 7, so we got to 20. That's easy.

That's an easy 20. Darno, 28. Tyler Flowers is making 4. That's 32. Marcaic is. is four, that's 36. Darren O'Day is basically three, so that's 39. So for 39 mil, you could have what the Braves brought in.

Or for 32 mil, you could have Grandal and a Brayu? I mean, I'm lean in white socks there, right? Yeah, there's needs and stuff. Braves definitely don't need a Brayu. But I mean, the anti-derth of catching, I don't know. The anti-Deerth, I think is, I think the official opposite of dearth is plethora. It's tough to say. It is.

But I think plethora and dearth, I think, are going to be dearth. It's going to be a great word. Great. Brought it back. What's the next thing we have on here to talk about? Okay. A little live producing. Well, so another contract was given out.

Do you want to do this, Mariners? Have you heard about that? this one, Jim? You put it on our sheet here, and I didn't, I clicked it, but I forgot to read it, but the Mariners give prospect, Evan White, 24 million six-year deal. He's in double A. Yeah, so he hasn't played a lick a pro ball yet. Essentially, this is kind of the new thing the teams are doing. They want him to come in and be there starting first basement next year, so they gave him the Scott Kingery contract. I think it's literally almost exactly that six-year, is 24 million. So basically they bought out his team control and arbitration.

And they're going to give him a go. I think it's interesting. The Mariners do have this a lot of young guys that are either going to prove themselves or not prove themselves in the in this coming season, essentially they got Kellanick, Justice Sheffield from our Yankees. Who are there other young guys? I was going through the list earlier. Kyle Lewis, Logan Gilbert, Justin Dunn. So, yeah, I mean, the Mariners believe in him. And if he comes out and he plays, like, it's one of those cool stories. If he comes out and he looks bad, I mean, it's going to be a brutal look for the Mariners.

Scott Kingery and Eloy Jimenez for the Phillies and the White Sox, respectively, both did this. They signed contracts before ever playing in the MLB. But they had played in AAA and been doing well there. This dude has never played in AAA. This is where I want to make sure, like, people know I'm not trying to poo poo on this kid, 23-year-old signing this deal. It's great for him. But why would you do this?

I know that you want to be, like, nice and good faith, and buying out arbitration is cool. And I get the buying out arbitration process when you have a proven guy who you don't want to go to war with every offseason. The Yankees did it with Severino, and I thought I was incredibly smart. the Braves did it with both Akuna and Ozzy, right? Yeah, got them for really good prices. So if you have a guy who's proven it in the big leagues, buy out his arbitration so you can stay friendly and not even have to worry about anything,

but just playing until he hits that free agency? I like that. Why would you do this, Jake? I mean, hey, if he's legit and the Mariners clearly think he is, I mean, it could end up looking really good. I mean, look at the Pete Alonzo stuff with the Mets this year. They didn't do the contract, but they didn't horse around with them either. They just brought him up for opening day.

They didn't mess with his service time, which, by the way, the service time discussion is still going on with Chris Bryan and stuff and potentially a couple other guys. But I don't know if he comes up and he plays good ball, you know, it's kind of a win-win. It's like the franchise did him good and now he's doing the franchise good. But yeah, there's some liability. if you're the Mariners. And I don't know.

I mean, I just read one scouting report on him that I think was from Passan from ESPN. And they're like, yeah, he's good with the glove. And it's like, okay, so did you just give six years $24 million to a good defense of first baseman? Because are those in high demand? So I don't know. I think his numbers were good at AA. I mean, it's one of those catch-22s. If he comes in and he starts hitting and he looks really good, you're like,

that's great, great, great job by the Mariners, showing their guy they believe in him, making him secure and letting him play good ball. If he plays badly, it's going to be like, why do the Mariners give him this money? They put too much pressure on the kid and he's garbage. Yeah. He actually has played some games at the AAA level.

In 2018, he played four games. But 2019, 100% of the time was in AAA, where he had an 838 OPS. No one cares about minor league's numbers. I know I don't. Interesting. I hope it works out, but there's also a part of me on my shoulder

that loves a good backfire. But that backfire includes this kid not being a stud, and it's much more fun to see first-round picks become studs than fail. But it just seems, dude, the Mariners just, they just like doing shit. their front office just like what can we do next is I think how their meetings go active they're like let's trade someone now we did that a lot okay just got nestor cortez we didn't really cover that transaction but for uh international signing bonus money Yankees love that they signed they traded Nestor Cortez where I believe we're straight waived by the no they got picked up in the rule five draft by the Orioles and then returned to the Yankees right I believe so, something like that. Crazy.

So, I don't know. Good for Evan White. Weird for the Mariners. I wonder what the new CBA is going to do. Do we go commercial and then hit those last topics quick? Sure. Let's take a quick break. And then we'll be back for the last topics.

Hey, Jake, welcome back to the show. Dude, these last topics. What a tease. The last topics. Uh, yeah. Actually, before we get into the show. the last topics. Rich Hill is getting surgery. He's 40 years old. He's going to miss half the season. Update for the Dodgers. But did you hear the quote about the Dodgers? I put it in here

because I thought it was funny. The Dodgers read it to me, Jim. I don't know if this is their quote, but the Dodgers basically said that they're in on Garrett Cole, Strasbourg, and Rendon. They are indeed considering them. However, the luxury tax will come into play and they're going to be disciplined and it's in their pursuit. So Dodgers aren't in. Yeah, there's a couple moving parts here. Let's start with emotions. If the Dodgers signed Rendon, Cole, or Strausberg, would you kind of be like,

what the fuck? I don't, yeah, kind of. No, I think it would make a little sense. Why not? Why wouldn't they sign Rendon? I mean, for me, it's just funny. I mean, like Josh Turner has been one of the more solid threats and players on their team. I mean, you could shuffle guys around, but, and then, like, the starting pitching,

it's like, you guys have had that. Now you're just going to put more, more gas on that fire, I guess. I don't know, to the riches go, the spoils, I suppose. Well, they're losing Ryu and Kershaw's getting old. Yeah. Now they lost Rich Hill. Yeah, I don't know. I guess it would be cool.

I guess if you're a Dodgers fan, you'd be stoked if you could go in and be like, hey, here's, here's Cole. What do you call him? Moxie Bueller? Yeah, he's full of Moxie. Walker Buehler? Moxie Bueller, whatever Rich Hill and Kershaw's arms are made out of these days. But, yeah.

I don't know. And then, so getting into what we know stuff, I guess they, you know, the luxury taxes, in play here for the Dodgers, and they said they're, like, they have the price that they're going to bid in those guys, and they're not going to go away from that. And I guess there was a good quote. I think it was from 2016, the Dodgers GM said something like, yeah, you know, if you follow, if you're disciplined in your approach in free agency, you're going to finish third for every free agent. So a lot of people were having fun with that quote. Who said that quote?

I think they're GM. Oh, wow. Yeah, they're not in. They're like, hey, yeah, we'd love to have those guys, but we don't think they're going to sign with us because we can't give them the money they want. But we'd love to have them. Andrew Friedman.

And, okay, this is mean, Dodgers fans. Turn your ears off for a second. I mean, I'm half rooting for Garrett Cole to go to the Dodgers just so when they lose in the playoffs that literally everyone is staring at Dave Roberts and asking why he's still there. Wow. Anti-Dave Roberts pod.

I don't know why he's still the coach of the Dodgers. It doesn't make any decisions. Jake, we heard a rumor, some hearsay. Rumor. Put this in your rumor bin. Put in your rumor pipe and smoke it. That Rendon may actually be more interested in a short-term deal. we did hear a rumor about that.

Yeah, which is kind of interesting because, like, he's, he's 30, 29. And we heard like, dude isn't going to want to play baseball until he's 37. Pay him until he's 35 and he'll be happy to walk away, which I thought was, I mean, obviously, this is just hearsay. It's a thought process. but not one that I ever considered. We're talking about free agents. You always hear money in years. It's funny.

I mean, the concept of it, you wonder if free agency is going to start going that way and if it does what took baseball long to get there. But I mean, Jacoby Ellsbury, our friend we mentioned before, when that Ellsbury contract was signed, everyone knew it would end in disaster. You pay for the first three years of the contract. So with that in mind,

why don't you just overpay guys for three years, get some good stuff out of them, and then they're off your books? Yeah. It'll be interesting to see if any teams walk away, especially with these three big-time free agents in the pool. What would you do if you were in a pool with Garrett Cole, Strasbourg, and Rendon?

Paint that scene for us. Okay, so it's Garrett, Cool, Strasberg, Rendon. I think Cole is like a crazy competitor. I think he's got stories like that. So, I mean, we're doing some game where we're throwing a ball. Rendon doesn't care at all and he's beating both of us at it. And Stephen Strasbourg just has his feet in the pool and he's not talking to us.

Strasbourg definitely just is sitting on the side with his feet in with a shirt on. Like a hat, maybe some zinc oxide. that I was lockstep there. I have, I have Rendon both elbows on the corner holding himself up with headphones in, just chilling. And you and Cole being competitive. So I've got him in the same pose, but on a floaty. I think he doesn't want to put in the work of having his arms on the side of the pool.

Okay. Maybe there's a seat where he's sitting. God, imagine. I've got Cole, I've now got Cole drowning you. drowning me? But for fun, like, let's see if I can drown you and then you're escaping and stuff. I mean, they definitely,

once they realize I'm not a strong swimmer, they each, like, have a little turn trying to drown me, and that's all right. Yeah. That's just guys will be boys, you know? Yeah, all right, cool. Now that we've pictured that pool. Let's move on to this article at ESPN put out

that has some good talking points and had some people that voted on stuff, which I don't really agree with some of these votes, Jake. How about that? Yeah, I know, and that's why normally I know you're fairly anti-ESPN, and I still end up there just because I'm brainless. But this really was some good stuff. Did you say you're brainless?

What did you guys here? I thought it was you had a dearth of brains. I said mainless. Like I don't have a lion's mane. That's for sure. That's 100%. I mean, that's 1,000% for sure, sure. Let me, the first thing that jumped off for me,

which I think is always interesting because you and I tend to be skeptical on these things until they happen. But one of the questions was, of these three players, who's most likely to be on a new team next season? Mookie, Linder, Chris Bryant. Zero votes for bets.

And then they were pretty much split down the middle. there was eight land doors and seven bryants which a makes me wonder because the the mooky bets trade doesn't make sense no one's going to pay the red sox any value for him or the proper value yeah but they brought in a new gm to balance the bucks heim um so i i think mooky is level with these guys so let let me ask you this do you think that one of these three guys will be traded this offseason. The rational brain is saying no. Like, Brian, I have at zero.

You like having three options on something, though. I've got Brian as zero. Really? Why's that? Why would they trade him? I think they're trying to shake it up, man. They shook it up with the manager. Like, Brian.

It's not enough shake, baby. He's good in the face. fucking and then Linderor, I don't know, Cleveland's a bunch of dumbies. Did you just say he's good in the face? He's good and the face of that club, like. I liked a better when you said he's good in the face. He is good in the face. He is good in the face.

It's not wrong. JD opting in for the Red Sox really put Bloom in a weird position. So I don't know. I would bet that neither of none of the. three get traded. Okay. I like that. I think Lindor,

I think everyone's going to be disappointed with the return for those guys. I think that's the thing that of all those guys where you feel like there could be a proper issue. Like Lindor, if he's going to leave your team and like he's going to give you two years of seven war at shortstop, like, if the Indians are looking for that kind of return, they're not going to get it. Boston, same thing.

Bryant, I mean, he's good, and he had a really good year last year, but he's also had some lesser years. Like, I don't know. I guess I would circle Bryant amongst that mix being like they could move him. All right. What was the next question you liked from this article? What was the next question I liked? Let's see what we can hit quick. Rendon, pretty much everyone said nationals.

There was one Rangers, one Cardinals. kind of fun. I like the Rangers. I don't know if it makes sense, but I just like the idea of him going back to Texas. New ballpark, chilling, and then retiring. I mean, such a chiller. And then tied to that was who's more likely to return to the Nats, Rendon or Strasbourg, Rendon won in kind of a landslide. Yeah, I mean, Strasbourg already has his offer from the Nats, and he's shopping around. So they, they, Like the Nats kind of set their point. Now every other team can go beat it.

And then the Nats can see if they want to. But at that point, they're probably, they're already probably so deep into their plans moving on from Strasbourg that when the opportunity is like, hey, maybe we can still get them. They're like, well, we've done a lot of work on the next phase already. Let's just keep moving forward. Keep it moving.

I think they just turned on the heat in this house and I'm like getting cooked right now. Love that. The one time I wear sleeves, what an idiot. And then, Jim, I think the one question that really stood out to me and is a fun one, because these were asked to GMs, I believe, or 15 team executives. Well, that means nothing.

Yeah, that means nothing. But it was, who is the player most likely to be overpaid on a big contract? four said Wheeler, two said Grandal, one said Castellanos, one said Daniel Hudson, seven declined to answer. Why? Okay, so half the anonymous people declined the answer, cool. What? Yeah. Why would you, dude, that line in it, see, this is why I hate articles sometimes.

Yeah. We asked executives, okay, we asked the guy who's in. charge of food. Yeah. Retail sales. Yeah. What do you mean? Just fucking executives. And then they refuse to answer. I can't answer that. Well, you know, this is an anonymous survey and your name's not attached, nor your position. No, no, I cannot answer that question.

Hey, I'm just sorry. I wish I could help you out here, but hands are tied. Who is the one player most likely to be overpaid on a big, contract this winter. The answer is Cole, but I guess people don't like that answer. Ooh. I love it, Jimmer. I mean, Cole is going to be overpaid. There's no way you're paying for this last season. And there is zero chance.

He repeats his 2019 season seven years in a row. He's had two really good seasons. Okay, there's no chance he repeats those two. seven times in a row, but that's what you have to pay for. So Cole's going to be the most overpay. Yeah. That's the nature of the beast.

Yeah, I think there's an argument out there for Wheeler. Yeah. I mean, Daniel Hudson, if he gets, like real money, then him too. Like, I like Hudson. He's got an awesome story, but he's never had sustained success.

Yeah. So if he gets, he's never done the full season as someone's closer, but someone's going to give him money to try it, and then you have the, If someone pays Daniel Hudson clothes or money, yeah. Yeah, that's an easy one, right?

Yeah, that's not bad. Well, there you go. I'm better than your random anonymous executives. Look at that. Boom. And I put my name to it. I didn't decline to answer. Yeah, we'll answer anything.

Yeah, I just did an AMA. Ask me anything. I answered a lot of questions. Jake, I have a fun game to end the show here for you. Okay, hit me with it. It's really fun. Play that fun game. Play that fun game noise.

Yeah, I need to go get the fun game noise because it's like, it's going to be a doozy. Here we go. I have up on my screen. I hope this isn't mean. If you did this to me, it'd be so mean. Okay. I have up on my screen from the MLB website, the Miami Marlins depth chart as of right now. Jesus.

And I'm telling you right now, I wouldn't have named one of the 12. Yeah. I wouldn't have, I would have named one starting pitcher, and that's all. I wouldn't have named a single position player. So there's no pressure. Wow, man. So it's their current. So like Starlin Castro's not there.

He's not here, no. Do they have, do they have, what's his name, Isan Diaz? Isan Diaz. He's the starting second baseman on their death chart. Okay. Do they have Garrett Cooper as a starting first baseman? No.

They have him backing up someone at first base. Damn. Let's see. It's a real mootoh behind the dish. No. Cooper is also the third string right fielder. So you got Diaz at second base. That's impressive.

In the outfield, it's Yelich, Ozuna, and Giancarlo. Nope. It is Ramirez. Brian Anderson, the third baseman. Yeah, you got that guy. Their right fielder is Harold Ramirez.

I love watching him do what he does. Center fielder is 29-year-old, 5-10, John Bertie. Excuse me? Yeah. from Bowling Green State, nicknamed the Birdman. And in left field, they have 26-year-old Austin Dean.

Deaner. Around the Horn, at shortstop. They got Miguel Rojas. Mickey Rojas, yeah. He's kind of cool. I did a breakdown on him. And then behind the dish, they have, let's see what his first name is, Jorge Alfaro, 26 years old.

Dude, none of these guys are even young. Alvaro. Yeah. It's just funny that none of them are young. That's tough, man. God. They're starting rotation. Who do they have starting at first over Cooper?

Dean. They have Dean as the starting first basement and the starting left fielder. You're telling me they have Dean at two positions. The MOB depth chart does, yeah. So Cooper, you got. We'll give you credit for Cooper. Thank you. So their starting rotation is Pablo Lopez, 23 years old.

Yep. Sandy Alcantara, 24 years old. He had a good year. Did he? Yeah, 388. 32 starts, 388, yeah. Caleb Smith, 28-year-old. Our guy.

Jordan Yamamoto. My dude. And Robert Dugger. Dugger, huh? Yeah, Dugger. So that's the Miami Marlins professional baseball team. And that's tough. That's a real tough breed.

It's a tough segment, man. We'll come back to it in two weeks and still not be able to name anyone. Maybe they'll make some big signings. Do you want to feel good about yourself? Do you want to do like the Diamondbacks? I'm not feeling good about it. I'm getting cooked right now, dude, and everyone's standing outside.

Like, I think this is starting to be like a prank. They're trying to smoke you out? I think I'm getting smoked out right now. All right. Well, thank you guys very much for listening. That endeth the show today. Hopefully we get back to normal soon, get back to our home places,

and get back to our schedule. We do have Thanksgiving coming up in a couple of days, so we wish you guys the best of your thanksgivings. Jake, what are you thankful for before we leave this episode forever? I'm thankful for knowing that there's actually Marlins fans in the world. Like there's a couple people out there who are like, yeah, I love the Marlins. They're just bad. There's a group chat out there going right now that someone's like,

hey, you think El Faro is going to have a better year next year? Do you really think Dean's going to play both positions? You think, I know Deaner's athletic, but. You know what they call Miami Marlins fans right now? What do they call them, Jim? The Orlando Dreamers. Ooh. And that's what I'm thankful for.

I am thankful for the Orlando Dreamers and the pitch that got presented to us. I think it was a great gift. Lafter is one of the best things you can offer someone else in this. life and the Orlando Dreamers gave it to us in spades. So I thank them kindly. Go Dreamers, baby. Go Dreamers. We will see you when we see you next.

Thanks for listening.