Talkin' Baseball (MLB Podcast) - 60 | Wheeler to Philly, Hamels to Atlanta, Mets Being Sold

Episode Date: December 5, 2019

the stove is hot! Moustakas to the Reds. Hamels to the Braves. Wheeler to the Phillies. Bundy to the Orioles. Profar to the Padres. The Mets are being sold. The Rangers showed off their new stadium. A ton of guys got non tendered. 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.

Wheeler to Philadelphia, Hamels to Atlanta, and Dylan Bundy to Baltimore. Let's talk. What is going on, everybody? My name is John Boy. I'm coming to you from New York City, and I got my co-host, Jake, coming to you from Denver, and we weren't going to make an episode today. We were going to wait until Friday morning to record because we dropped the Trevor Pluth episode this morning. We hope you enjoyed it.

He was fantastic. The hot stove went sizzling on us, Jake. It went so crazy. This is one of the biggest newsdays of the off season. We texted each other. So we got to do an episode. So much stuff has happened. There's non-moves that are fantastic talking points.

And on top of that, we have like 10 moves that are great talking points. There's a lot going on. Jake, are you ready to talk some baseball? I'm ready. I'm ready. I think I don't want this to bring you down early in the app. I think you said Dylan Bundy to the Orioles. He's escaping Baltimore.

He's going to the Angels. And yes, going to a bird sanctuary, full of Orioles to reminisce about his time. His memory's there. And that's pretty emotional. Yeah, it is. If you've never done that, that's emotional.

He was just walking around, looking out of the birds, saying, I was an Oriole once. And Jim, I'll give some people some behind the scenes stuff. One of the strengths that me and Jimmy have because we currently have no life or existence and we do all this podcasting stuff and you can relay this to your friends so they listen

is that if someone big signs, we can hop on the mics and rip it. And Zach Wheeler counts. I think people in the baseball world, baseball-wise, might not say that, but 100 million plus does. And I think with, everything else that happened.

We said it's time to go, and I'm excited. Wheels up to Philly, bro. It's insane. It's insane. So we're going to talk about a lot of the bigger names at the top of the show, just to give you a little insight into the structure here. As Jake said, Wheeler, and then Hamels and Moose. Then we'll talk about some of the smaller trades,

and then we'll talk about some of the off-the-field stuff, like the Mets do's and the Rangers New Stadium and Anaheim and some non-tendered guys. just to give you a little insight into how the episode is going to go. Can we start with Wheeler or is that bad podcasting? Do we have to do an appetizer starter like Cole Hamels to the Braves? I think the rules of the podcast world haven't been written yet. I think you're supposed to lead with the meat and then be good enough that people want to hang around for the potatoes.

So I don't know if that puts too much of an onus on us. people are probably here for Wheeler, so let's go Mustakis. Okay, Mustakis goes to the Cincinnati Reds. Dude, M-O-B is doing good things. Last year, you were so mad at Major League Baseball. You personally, you wrote letters saying, oh, go fuck yourself baseball, you piece of dog shit, you fucking dog shit.

You were like, they don't make any moves. This is boring. NBA has it figured out. I love you, National Basketball Association. I heart you heart, heart, heart, heart, 143, MBA. Are you come back from that? Come down a little bit? I'd say once a month I give myself the like Peyton Manning speech and I'm like,

I should start writing letters. I couldn't tell you the last time I wrote a letter. And it's not fully out of laziness. That's a part of it. But my handwriting is awful. So if Rob Manfred got those letters, he probably thought they were from a sick child or something. thing because they're

unlegible, unreadable? Allegible. Allegible. Is illegible a word? That doesn't seem like a word either. I feel like it's non-legible. Illegible is like one of receivers downfield, but he's not allowed to catch the ball.

Yeah, that's, well, all right, we're, hey, this isn't a football pot, bro. That's on me. So anyway. Jimmy talking football and NBA, wow, let me reel this back in. But honestly, last year, we were both disappointed in,

baseball because they just didn't get any news. They had all this to do. They didn't do anything. And they've dominated this offseason, Jake. Like some of it, the Astro stuff is not by design. And MLB probably wishes that didn't happen, even though it is good for the sport to be talked about. But now all these signings, the stove's been hot. It's December 5th, 4th. Like usually things happen before Christmas and that's good. But like so much has happened. And we're not even at December 5th yet. So are you happy with baseball? Are you happy with the way this off-season is going? Yeah, I think this is what baseball wants its ideal off-season to look like,

minus the non-tender stuff. We'll talk about that a little bit later. But yeah, there's been good action, and this is a little baseball romantic in me, but there's a good pace to it. Like, we're, it's, you know, nothing's felt nuclear so far. It hasn't been like five signings in one day. It's kind of like, all right, Mustakis signed. Ooh, that's fun.

and then it's like, all right, let's breathe for a day. And now it's like, Hamels, wow, I didn't know he was still worthy of that kind of money. Zach Wheeler, big money. So it's been exciting. There's kind of been some ebbs and flows that you don't get too, too bored in the offseason. So, yeah, I'm liking it. And I'm also interested, Jim, to look back because I was looking at last year's transactions a little bit. And I've been trying to wonder, were we just being dramatic last year?

And is it my expectations rules? Like last year we were so excited for the offseason that it let us down. And this year we came in with no expectation. So we're like, yes, Stephen Voight signs with San Fran. We start celebrating. I looked back and I don't know. I think Corbyn signed December 7th. But I think before that there really wasn't anything.

So we are making a lot better pace. And yeah, I think this is good for baseball. I would still love an MLB signing period. where teams have a frenzy. Because I think it would just be insane. I'm not saying it would be good for baseball, but I think it would be insane. Yeah, I actually do like this better,

where it's not one day everything happens. Like you said, every day we're getting nuggets. It's been a lot of fun. So let's start with Mustakis going to the Reds because that happened first. Yeah. And this is a cron pod. It's a cron pod, and everyone knows that.

I wasn't too shocked by this until I saw four years. years and that is playing second and that they're having a second have we had two moves now the the brewers picked up a second baseman and they're going to make him a shortstop and now the reds have picked up a third baseman and they're going to make him a second baseman and they're like going all in on this so good for moose um dude i do like that the reds are like halfway through last year they could have decided to sell and like kind of ditch money and they said no like let's build off what we have. And they're putting together a nice club.

Like we know their staff's pretty good. They're top three. Casillo, Bauer, Gray is good. They have Vado and Eugenio at the corners. Now they have Moose at second. I don't know defensively how he's going to be over there. He doesn't look like a second baseman. But what do you got on this?

So I was surprised by that. Four years is kind of crazy to me. Everyone's getting overpaid, and that's good for baseball, I think. Give the players the money. Yeah, the players are getting paid, and that just means good things for the sport. Jim, I think we deserve early claps that Moose finally got paid. I mean, Moose got thrown in the franchise tag ringer, and he was the qualifying. I mean, he's been waiting for his payday for a couple years now.

He finally gets it good for Moose, and just as he expected, it's as a second base. baseman. I mean, kind of wild stuff. And that's, you know, he's listed at 6 foot 225. I think he might have pushed the limits of that a couple, a couple seasons when I've seen Mustakis. But yeah, it looks like, again, I didn't see his, let me see how many games he played at second base.

He played 47 games at second base this year. Apparently, he rated out pretty well analytically, enough that Cincinnati was ready to make them their second baseman for at least a few years. And I think another interesting thing we haven't seen messed with too much in baseball is that there's something to baseball with all the shifts that are happening that the positioning is more important than the dude almost. So if Mike Mustakis can, in theory, field a ball and make a throw, you can put them in different spots on the field.

So, you can take a bad defender, but match him up with a great defensive chart. And he's good. And I mean, it just feels like we've lived in this baseball world. And you know, I hope, I have hopes that, I mean, don't get me wrong. I love the fact that only so few people can play an awesome third base and like the same thing with shortstop. But there is something to the fact that like, hey, if you can make a throw, and you can feel the ball and we can put you in the right position, let's have some fun with this.

Like, let's get the best bats on the field. And it'll be interesting to see what since he does at shortstop. And I don't think they're done spending, Jim. The rumor was they were in on Wheeler. Well, John Heyman had everyone in. John Heyman had everyone in on Wheeler. We'll do our Heyman segment later. But no, this is fun for the Reds.

We'd like to see more teams doing this. Well, is Freddie Galvis going to be the shortstop? Are they going to match them up with Dede? now are like they were rumored to go after dd they need a shortstop they didn't get wheeler they have three starters are they going to go after ddigroryus now i think there's still a chance i wouldn't rule it out who knows what dd's prices at uh like i mean this is kind of wild right everyone has been getting paid and short stops never hit free agency are things going really well for dd right now or not going well i don't know we haven't heard his name mentioned at all yet have we uh yeah

So I don't know. I wouldn't rule it out for Cincinnati. I think Cincinnati has a number that they're willing to spend this offseason, and they want to go all in. And I think the numbers just have to line up. I think they're going to get another impact player. I don't know if that's D.D. Grorious, I don't know if that's a starting pitcher. I'm not sure what that looks like, but since he's in, I mean, the Cubs have taken a step back.

They're not the juggernaut Cubs. St. Louis is good, but I mean, Ozone is good. gone and they're not a team that scares you. So go get it. And the brewers, our brewers, that team looks a little funky right now. I'm interested to see what they do this offseason. Travis Shaw's gone now. We were talking about their corners before with Shaw. Their team's a little bit of a mess. So I'm excited for the Cincinnati Reds. Yeah, I'm excited as well. I mean, Moose isn't a top-tier player. Like, don't get us wrong. there, but he helps them, and he's good that he got the money.

Like, the best thing people say about Mustakis is, you know, he's had two seasons where he has hit over 30 home runs and less than 100 strikeouts. But that would make you think he's a power on-base guy. He's not an on-base guy. I think his best on-based year was last year, and it was still below or just barely above league average. Yeah, he got on base at a 329 clip, which ain't great. but he's he's got serious power.

I mean, 2017, he hit 38 homers last year, 35. So he's got some pretty solid OPS seasons, and especially of late. I mean, he earlier in his career, he had a couple rough seasons that really kind of hurt his total numbers. But over the last since 2015, so what's that, four seasons, he's got an 817 OPS. So he's a left-handed bat with some real pop. You know, he's going to give you 25 homers on a bad season, 35 homers on a good season. Okay. Do you like him in Great American Ballpark?

It's a hitter's park. He should fare well there. Okay. What about close your eyes and picture him in a reg uniform? Ooh. Some of the weird ones might not look good on Moose. He never really looks good in a uniform anyway. Sleeveless day?

that might be tough for Moosey. Oh, he's going to look like an armless Bob kind of. Maybe Moosey's planning on losing a couple LBs. I think he's going to have to. Doesn't look good. That's good for longevity. Next on the table, Zach Wheeler is off the board.

A reported five-year $118 million a group agreement with the Phillies, 118, divided by 5 for the average annual, what's the V stand for? Value? Value. Jake, what is it? Oh, God. The number? Yeah, what's his Aavie?

It's 23.6. You know I'm not a number. I just did it in my head. Cameron didn't show me on the calculator at all. Yeah, no. It's, well, it is 236. And for those asking, Moustakis is 16 on the nose, so you're well. Can I tell you something about this Wheeler deal?

Please. All these deals this season, dudes are getting overpaid, and I'm happy for it. It's better for baseball. I root for the player to get money, more than the owner to get money. This deal's fucking crazy. Yeah. Zach Wheeler getting more money than Patrick Corby is nuts. A.AV.

A.A.V. Average annual value is. Corbans was less. than Zach Wheeler's. I mean, $100 million for Zach Wheeler is nuts. We joke that, you know, we joke that like if Houston grabbed him, they can turn him into coal. So we do think there's a lot of potential because he's got the armed talent. He's got the raw abilities. He's like had Tommy John surgery and that's way in his rear view now.

So I think he's a good pitcher. But like $118 million over five years, I'm kind of shocked and scared at what this does to the Colin Strasbourg deals. which were already high. Yeah, I don't know. I'm not too surprised. I mean, when you put Wheeler and Corbyn in a bucket, the numbers aren't that crazy. I think the bigger thing with Corby is,

A, he's a lefty, and B, his slider significantly ticked up that you could link that to his success. Wheeler's numbers, when I got into baseball reference today, I thought I'd be a little more depressed by the signing. he's got one outlier season, and I think it was the year he got hurt or the year he came back. Otherwise, he's been pretty good. But Patrick Corbyn had the benefit of being the top of his class.

Like he was going to get the much. And everyone was kind of in agreement that the Nationals overpaid for Corbyn. Well, that's why our friend Zach Wheeler deserves to make a nice call to young Patrick, because Patrick might have got Zach a little. extra cheese. Yeah, yeah. Because he, Corbyn, had a really nice season and a really nice playoff run for a team that ended up winning the World Series. So that's, that's exactly what the fills are telling themselves right now. And yeah, I don't know. I think injuries have been a thing for Wheeler. Maybe he's got a little bit of the Met Stench. We'll talk about that

at the end of the show a little bit. Yeah, I mean, right now you have to be, if you're If you're a Phillies fan, you're excited for now, you're scared for the future. I think a lot of baseball people are shocked. He got that kind of money, but I don't know. I think this is kind of it. He doesn't get that six year, though, but we'll see. I mean, they need, the Phillies need three years out of Wheeler. And I don't know if they're going to get that.

Say that again, you broke up a little on me. I said the Phillies are saying they need three years out of Wheeler. and I don't know if they're going to get that. Yeah. Where do you think he slots? Is he their number one now? And Nola's the two and Velasquez is the three? I think Nola's the one.

I think Nola had a slow start last season, but he's still the guy that's supposed to be kind of their rock. I mean, 2018, Nola was 17 and 6 with a 2-370 R.A. I mean, I agree with you, but it's just funny to sign this guy for this much and he's not your opening day starter. Yeah, I mean, I don't know. You could go different ways,

with that conversation. Opening day starters. I hate that combo. I can't believe I just know that. It's overrated anyways. I mean, you know, the Yankees traded for James Paxon last year. And it's that that became a whole thing. Guys ended up getting hurt.

But yeah, no, I don't think that's a thing. But yeah, I mean, hey, good, good for Philly. Good for the NL East. Girardi, your dude. Joe's putting together squad here. I mean, they got a pretty good group, right? need maybe, I don't know if the whole five pitchers are that great. I mean, you still got Velazquez, Eflin, and a less than Arieta, but whatever.

They're competing. They're going out there and getting guys, so I like that. And maybe that's what's happening this offseason, Jim. How many teams have we heard, like, are on the brink of doing really good stuff? I feel like that wasn't the story last season. Like, Machado Padres rumors were like, yeah, they want Machado, but they want Machado, but they still might be a couple years away and it's like that's not exciting at all like right now. Like right now we've got a lot of teams that are trying to strike and like Donaldson's such a

wild card right now like where's he going to end up like I feel like the Phillies are in on him. The White Sox want to be on everyone like Zach Wheeler and now you're the most hated person in Chicago. Oh, that's so stupid. I was being sympathetic to White Sox fans because their GM is going out there. And like so if you don't know, the White Sox offered. uh, Wheeler more money than the Phillies. Maybe not AAV was higher, but more money for sure. Who knows how they loaded the contract? But he, he said, no, he'd rather go to Philadelphia. And the reason

that they're telling the public is because his wife's from New Jersey and, uh, they wanted to stay close to New Jersey. But like, if you're the white socks, if you're the, I know white socks fans are using that as like an excuse. Well, what are we going to do? His white. His white socks. You, if you're the, I know, wanted to stay in New Jersey. If you're the White Sox GM, you're thinking, fuck, what could we have done that we could have made it more enticing than his wife not moving? You know what I mean? Yeah.

Because a lot of teams have conquered the, I have family close. You also can never give a guy's shit if he says, oh, I need to stay close to my family. So I don't buy that that's 100% why he took less money. I think there's something else going on. And I'm not saying that to be like a bad guy or talk shit about the White So. They're my second favorite team in the AAL, you dicks. They were coming at me hard. And I was like, I didn't even insult you.

I didn't even insult you. It just sucks for you guys. Last year, Rick Hahn, the GM of the White Sox, he said he went to sleep feeling very confident because they gave the best offer. But the Bunchado wanted guaranteed money. They were giving more money, but not more guaranteed money. So maybe they did it a little different with Wheeler. They made sure they give him the most guaranteed money. Go get their guy.

They go to sleep confident again. They wake up. He's not a white socks. White socks. So I feel bad. That's terrible. You did get Grandal and you did get a brayor to come back and you got a bunch of good teams. I think you're going to be competing in the central.

So like I wasn't trying to knock the white socks there as saying this sucks for the GM. Like his ownership and his fan base is telling him go sign guys. And he's fucking. doing his best and it just hasn't worked out yet you uh you got the backfire jim and we we love a good backfire in this podcast and all our podcast um and yeah you accidentally turned chicago against you i'm trying to figure out i think the phillies i mean they're going nola uh wheeler arietta should be back um a couple other efflin uh and then i think they have a couple guys that should fight for spots, Povetta, Ike off.

So I wonder if they're done with the pitching. I think they're going to be rumored in for a couple more arms, but we'll see. I'd like to see one more splashy move on them because that would make it seem like the Phillies are very real this year. Yeah. Well, people thought the Phillies were going to get a reunion with Cole Hamels. But next on the table, Cole Hamill signs a one-year deal with the Braves. you smirking? I'm smirking because I'll say it. I'll say it. I know we've talked about this.

We want to make the show a little more segmented so we could make some nice clips for Instagram and YouTube and stuff. And mentally your head has just gone back to your old when a beer pawn game over used to slam it and say next on the table. So this has been you casually segueing us into different topics. It's working great. Well, speaking of speaking of reunions next on the table. Yeah, that's my code to when I'm going to cut it to do the new. It's really good. Okay, great.

Glad we all agree. We got it. Cole Hamels and the Atlanta Braves are an agreement in a one-year $18 million deal, basically a qualifying offer that he did not receive from the Cubs. Hamel's taking his physical today? Great. Glad I read that line to the podcast. Yeah.

I didn't really see this one coming, and I like it for the Braves, and I like it for Hamill. I would have liked this for any team, to be honest. Like, Hamill's on a one-year deal. If you need, what is he, three, four, five? Is he still a one-two? Dude, he's kind of a solid three. I was surprised when I ended up looking at his final numbers. He had a 381 ERA last year, 27 starts, 141 innings more than a strikeout per inning,

in his age 35 season. And Jim, I saw this quote that you'd love from him. He said he was looking, he's looking for one-year deals with contenders the rest of the way because he doesn't want to hamstring a team. He's like, what if I get bad soon? So that's nice by Cole. And hey, 18 million dollars. I think it's more he wants to play on a winner because he's old and doesn't, just one-year deals

because he doesn't want to have to, like, be stuck playing for a shitty team. I like it. I was trying to think of, like, a national. league team that I wouldn't like this for. And basically it's only like non-competing teams. Like if the Marlins did this for a one-year deal, I'd be like, dude, guys. And that's why Hamels wouldn't have done it. So, right? Like, if the Reds did this, I would have been good job, all around. If the Padreys picked him up, good job. Anyone that's trying to win, this is a good pickup. Yeah, I kind of would have liked him in San Diego. But yeah, no, this is a solid signing for the

I think the Braves have now doled out $100 million. And I think it, again, we'll circle to our conversation we had at the end of the offseason. It's like, what could the Braves have done with this money? I think they're putting themselves in a little bit of a dangerous spot there. But they've also left themselves super flexible. Pisan was all over it that, I mean, Hamils is one year. Most of their contracts are one year. It's Will Smith for three and Darno for two.

I think everything else is one year, which, I mean, part of me likes, because it leaves yourself a little bit of flexibility. But part of me is also like, you got these young guys, you've got this young core. If you're going to start spending, like, go for it. Like, go all in. And it feels, I don't know, that's the catch-22 here. Are you going to walk away saying, hey, we had another really good team? Or are you going to walk away?

And I don't know, if you sneak out a title with this crew, you're going to be stoked. But none of these signings say that. I like this for the rotation a lot. I think this really helps them. It's a replacement for Kikel, what better. And interesting note from the chat, Andrew Pelham, said, Brian McCann said last year that Max Fried reminded him of a young Cole Hamels, and now they're both together so they can do some father-son stuff and have a lot of fun.

I added the end part. We do like a little bit of pupil stuff. He is the reason why I said I liked Cole Hamils to San Diego. He's from San Diego. So I was going to play that card, but you get the father-son card, which that's a good card. Yeah, he hates San Diego, man. He's got PTSD. Yeah, yeah.

His body rejects. San Diego gets the shits. What's going on in Hotlanda? Soroka, freed, Fulti. Fulte. Hamels. Is Tehran back? I feel like you told me he's a free agent, but I don't think he is.

He is. He is. So eat a bug. Yeah? Yep. Just kindly eat a bug. Cool. Yeah, they currently only have four pitchers.

They bought them out. And you need more than that. Well, change the game, Atlanta. Change the game, Atlanta. Brewer's already doing that. Change the game. It's been done. I mean, that ends that.

Let's go to a quick break, and then we'll come back with the next stuff. Okay, Jake. What's next on the table, Jim? Next on the table. We've got a bunch of like little stuff here. That is kind of cool, kind of interesting. If you're like really into the weeds in this, you're casual to like, I like baseball fans probably wouldn't care.

But if you're really into baseball, here we go. Oakland has officially announced his acquisition of catcher Austin Allen and a player to be named later from San Diego for second basement Juddickson ProFar. ProFar had a down year and I believe there's a lot of rumors that the A's are trying to trade vaguely to get some money off of the books, which means that they have that rookie catcher, forget his name, Sean something maybe. Yeah, Feigley's gone. Feigley was a non-tender casualty. Fuck. And so he's gone. So this is why they traded for a catcher and they use ProFar to get it. So they get Austin Allen from San Diego.

San Diego picks up second baseman Jurekson ProFar. I haven't looked into this a lot. Where's profar? Where does that pencil? Man, is he just a utility guy for the Padres? He's got the ability. I mean, the left side of the infield is taken. So it's either second base or bust.

And they traded Urius. I think he was the plan there. So, yeah, I think you could pencil him in to second base with some flexibility if they need to move him around. I think he's going to be the starter there. Yeah, I think they got him with the intentions of starting him. He's played 139-plus games the past two years. Yeah, man, I mean, former number one prospect in baseball, 20 home runs the last season.

Last year was not a good season for him. He hit 218. I don't know if there's been a bigger lock in the world for someone to have a big year before free agency and then get paid a ton of money and be bad. again than jerks and pro far oh wow wow i mean i think i think that's just the prototypical like top prospect couple teams have tried to figure him out they can't do it his final year before free agency he's going to go nuts the light bulb clicked he gets paid big money and then he's bad again so if anyone here is a uh fantasy baseball player jake just gave you his uh what the fuck

the term for a guy who's like, okay, um, sneaker, sneak, sleeper? Sleeper pick. Jake's a sneaker too. He's a sneaker, too. He's a sneaker sleeper. Hold on. He's a bit of a sneaker. I was going to give you a sound effect. Jake's, what's the fucking turn sleeper? Okay. Jake's sleeper. Jerks and pro far. Pick him up around 20. It's going to have a fantastic year. Then if you're Keeper leak, don't keep them. Because Jake Sleeper

is going to have a bad 2021. And you put that down in your locket wearing around your neck. All right. Okay. Do you have any more advice for everyone? Interesting. No, I think Austin Allen,

you know, he's a catcher, you're right. He'll fight with the other kid for the A's. And yeah, I think it's just the, the, the pro far story. We want this dude to be to be good. He's only got like one year of solid baseball. His brother was just in the Little League World Series. So, Austin Allen has not yet hit his first career home run. Thirty-four games played for the San Diego Padres, zero home runs. So that's something you can look forward to in Oakland, a career first. Coming next year. Coming your way. He's going to hit the drummer right on the head. Feel it. Feel it.

Jim, I'm about to get heated. Yeah, stove's been hot. This next topic has me pre-mat. Dylan Theodore, Ted Bundy is heading to the Los Angeles Angels in exchange for quantity four

minor league pitchers Isaac Mattson, your guy, Mack Peak, your dude, Kyle Braddish, your bro, and Kyle Brinovich, your amigo. Jake, Jen, can I let you know something? What? I think I may make you more mad because I think this is a good move by the Angels. Oh, no. Yeah.

Dude, they currently have one pitcher. Now, hold on, hear me out. They need to sign someone else. If they get Cole, then I'd love, I'd like this move. they need someone who can eat innings. They can trust him to at least keep them in a game. Bundy can do that. He's not going to be fantastic.

He's not going to be good. The prospects they gave up for him two are like... I want to say that last sentence again. He's not going to be fantastic for him, but he's going to be... He's going to be an innings eater, and he's going to keep them in the ball game once every five games. But they need to pair him. They need to go get a legit starter. otherwise this is more slop to a slop fest but it's he's like we said this last episode bundy

has pitched 160 innings the last two years the orio suck there's no motivation they zoom in too much on his face on the broadcast he doesn't like it there there's there's no reason to try in or in in baltimore you know what happens if you try they fucking trade you away or they non-tender you're like valar so i like this move the angels need that angels need to make get a other guy, though. And Cole is rumored to be going there pretty strongly. If they get Cole and then they have Cole and Haney and they have Bundy as like a four or five somewhere, I think it's good move. And Otani, they're hoping that he comes back and they can give him, give him some starts.

Jim, you know Bundy's ERA over the past two years? It's probably terrible, dude. Probably five or four, five. Five-one three. Yeah. Sixty-one starts. He has a five-one three. E-R-A, and if you're going to play the Camden Yards card, he's actually been better at Camden.

He's been worse on the road. Dude, I'm not playing the Camden. I don't like this. I'm not playing the worst defense in the history of defense was the Orioles outfield last year. They'd hit pop-ups and they'd just get hit in the head and it would drop. And there's no, like, there's no like, hell yeah, I'm going to the ball game today and we're going to put in a hell of an effort.

That was zero. LA for the past decade. Not there. He's not going to the right team for that. No, but he may be if Otani's coming back and if they do get a Cole or Strasbourg or someone, maybe Bumgarner Ryu, I don't know, someone to make them have three pitchers

and then he's the four, it works. But they need to get that next guy. They need to get the other guy, which is a bigger step. Jim, let me read off some names for you. Who would you rather have next season. Would you rather have Tanner Rourke or Dylan Bundy?

Tanner Rourke? I don't know. Brett Anderson or Dylan Bundy. Same guy. Nope. Ivan Nova. Well, that's unfair because I like Ivan Nova. Jim, there are a lot of free agent arms

out there that could be had for a cheaper than I think the $6 million that Dylan Bundy's going to land at in arbitration this year. And B, they're flat out better than him. Dylan Bundy's not good. And you can play the Orioles card all you want. He's gotten progressively worse, and maybe that plays into your Orioles theory. But he's just flat out not good. There's nothing to it.

This is such an angel's move. This is such an angel's move. Who are we going to bring in to help out Mike Trout this year? Hey, how about Dylan Bundy? And let's give away four arms. I don't care if any of the arms are good or not. They're probably not great if they're giving up four of them for Dylan Bundy. But it's the classic, and you know we've seen this in Yankee land.

Hey, you just, it's baseball, bringing more bodies. If one of those guys figures it out, you got a body to work with. You could have gotten so many dudes who could have been Dylan Bundy for you and probably pitch a lot better than the 5-1. three, he's given his last 61 starts in Major League Baseball, and you didn't have to give up four minor leaguers to get them. This is such an Angels move, because they are still going to sign another impact starting pitcher, whether it's Cole, Strasbourg, if they miss on them, maybe Ryu or someone like that. They still need other arms, and they're going to bring someone

else in, but they're going to tag this move on and say, like, look at the offseason we had. We went out, we got, we traded for Dylan Bundy. Don't care. You can. You could have gotten so many other guys without having to cash in four prospects, even if they're not legit prospects. You went out and made a move for the dude with the 513 ERA in his last two seasons. 61 starts. He's not good. He's not good.

Okay. Let me do some math real. 20. Okay, we got 20 on one side. Okay. Remember that. Okay. And one, two, three.

three, four, five, six, 20 on the other side. Fuck, they're the same. Dylan Bundy and Tanner Rourke, or Roark, however you fucking say it. Both gave performances that both had 20 quality starts last year. Cool. And then, so like,

Tanner Rourke's bad. He just, he just didn't have any six earned run starts and Bundy had two. So the ERAs are actually pretty similar. Their work is pretty similar. Same amount of pitch. whatever. Rourke was in Cincinnati

and then the Coliseum. They're like the same guy. What if they go sign Tanner Rourke and Cole? Good. Why didn't they sign Tanner Rourke and Brett Anderson and get two guys with Moxie who have pitched and done anything? Dude, aren't two of the prospects that they gave away like 2009 prospects that aren't projected to be good?

That's how four prospects, like two of them are nothing. Oh, yeah. I mean, it's a four prospects. But you know this. I mean, we've seen it in a lot of Yankee trades, throwing guys turn out to be something. It's baseball. If you can find something or an organization can find something in you, hey, that's not a bad way to go about it. You could have gotten a litany of Dylan Bundy's in the free agent pool and made something of it. Instead, they're going to bring him in and they're going to look midway through this season. He's going to be bad. And they're going to say, oh, well, we tried to get Mike Trout help and it didn't work again. No, it's because you focus. on getting pieces like Dylan Bundy instead of getting Mike Trout actual help. I do think that there's other options they could have gone that are better than Bundy, but I don't think Bundy is as terrible as you're saying. He's got the arm talent.

Like, you know how Cashman likes getting number one picks because if you can fix him, you can fix him. He's lost three miles per hour on his fastball in the past two seasons. He doesn't have armed talent anymore. He's a dude His average fastball went from 94 to 91 He's trash Okay

Dylan Bundy's going to come beat you up I'm now rooting for Dylan Bundy I know and that's what I've set myself up for And now I'm kind of rooting for him No what I've been rooting for I've been rooting for Mike Trout to get help Because he's the best baseball player ever And nobody knows him

Because he's never been to the playoffs Get Mike Trout help I think if the angel don't land like Cole or Strasbourg or Madbom or Ryu. And if they like fill their rotation and it's like Haney, Otani, Rork, Bundy, then like I'm fully with you. 100% fake news that you're trying to make your team good. But if they get Cole or one of those top tier guys to match him with Otani and

Haney up there and like, how good is Hainey even? I'm not even positive on that, then I don't hate. Hey, he's solid. He's like a solid three, four. Okay. Then I don't, I don't, if they. I mean, give me to Hey Ron. Tehran.

Give me Porcelo, and you know I'm a Porcelo hater. Give me Porcelo over Bundy any day of the week. But every free agent's getting overpaid and over years. Like, this is what, Bundy for one year and $6 million? Right, but I'm digging through the debt chart. I'm skipping a lot of names to get to these guys. These guys are going to be available. Jason Vargas, you're dude.

I mean... No, no, no, no, no. Take it back. Take that back right now. He's not your dude. He's not your dude. I'm sorry. And he's not a better option.

Dude, I mean, statistically, he is. I mean, probably not in the clubhouse and stuff. But, I mean, I'm just telling you, like, Dylan Bundy's been one of the worst starting pitchers in baseball for the last two years and the Angels made their big move and got him. Yeah, he faces the Yankees. the Red Sox and the Reyes or sneaky or good

a lot. Astros can't cheat anymore. Mariners have no idea what they're doing. The Rangers will be good. And the Angels. That's going to be a sloppy division. It's going to be a sloppy division. Yeah. Okay. Next on the table.

What's the next topic? Oh, so Baltimore, speaking of getting rid of guys who did well, Jonathan. And Vla, he goes to the Miami Marlins, Jake. And then they also, before that, they picked up Jesus Aguilar, who he is a classic shooting, fading star in MLB. There's so many of them. I'm happy for him that he got his good seasons.

Hopefully he can do it again. But now that's the right side of the infield, Valar and Aguilar? Like, what are the Marlins doing? Is this a scene? I think, I think VR is going to play shortstop because they've got. Isan Diaz, Isan, the one guy I named from their depth chart. I think these moves are widely regarded as pretty good stuff by the Marlins, because they're essentially getting them for free.

And it's like zero risk, right? And if they can do something, maybe they can flip them. The Marlins put together an infield. We played this game the other day, name people on the Marlins, and we struggled. Now they've got Aguilar, Diaz. I think Diaz is sliding over to short. I mean, they could be doing that. He played a little bit in the minor league,

but I mean, our Villar played there last year, and he rated out pretty well as a shortstop. So, I mean, either way, you've got your middle infield. And then Brett Anderson's another solid baseball player for them. He can play third base. Now you could do some stuff with Garrett Cooper. He can play a little corner outfield.

I mean, you're the Marlins. You're putting a team together the Marlin way that you can for now. good for them. So this is the quote from Hill. Who's Hill? Marlin's president of baseball operations Michael Hill. We feel like each player was an offensive upgrade for us. We know that Valar is incredibly versatile and athletic.

We'll look to move him around the field. We'll look at him at third base and the outfield. Additionally, we know that he's played second base and shortstop historically. Weird use of the. It's a weird. That's a weird. Just actually, I scratch that. It's not a weird use of the word historically.

It's wrong. Yeah. He's just an offensive upgrade. So it seems like they plan to have Rojas and Diaz still in the infield with Aguilar at first and Valar as their Benzobras, their rover. And hey, if that's what they want to do, knock yourself out, Marlins. And yeah, I saw Rojas had an okay year for them last year. Nothing crazy. There's one breakdown I did.

I like Rojas because there's one breakdown I did where he was telling the ump like, it's not professional and do your job. It's just wrong. It's like very earnest. Straightforward. The confident little kid argument. Yes.

It was like a seven year old that's got too much vigor. You're like, you should not talk to me like that. You told me if I do my homework in time, That I would get a freezer pop. And I just want the freezer pop. That's what it was like. Now that's funny, Jake.

Go Marlins. Okay, let's take a quick break so we can all think about Jake's joke again and laugh. And then we'll be back. Wrong break music, but we're going to let this ride. Yeah, it's sexy. That break music was called Slow. Jam loop. Mm.

Yeah. So, yeah. Okay. Now we got our final section of the show. The odds and ends, Jake. Actually, we were supposed to do non-tenders before the break. I fucked it up. Can you run me down the list of all the players that got non-tendered?

Yeah. Do you want to do that game we joked about? Yes, I do. And this is mean. As mean as you were to Dylan Bundy, I'm going to have to be mean to some people. kind of here. Explain the game. So, and if you don't know,

so MLB has this non-tender deadline that wasn't a thing in baseball really a few years back, and what it is now is that guys who are in arbitration, the major league team can just say like, oh, no, we're good, and the players hit free agency. So it's kind of this weird dynamic in major league baseball that I'm interested to see the winter meetings conversation because it's, It's good that guys hit free agency, but also some guys aren't getting paid. So that's kind of problematic for baseball.

But so we had a lot of third-tier players or so hit free agency that in past years they wouldn't. All right. How about I'll start with MVP vote-getter Kevin Pilar, Jim? Yeah, I care. Yeah, he could be an impact player somewhere, right? He deserves to be somewhere and be getting money for what he does. Here's one where I cut myself off. I didn't realize how solid of a ball player Cesar Hernandez is for the Phillies.

Oh, really? I'm not aware as well. Yeah, Career 352 OBP. He puts up some good war numbers. Like, he's a good baseball player. I left him off my all non-tendered team I posted the other night. Kevin Gossman. Kevin Gossman.

Yeah, I care. You don't care because you hate Orioles. You hate Orioles pitchers. I'd rather have him than Dylan Bundy. Gossman was so bad at a time. Like it was worse than Bundy, dude. Gossman had a stretch. That was gross.

Let me see if I could find it. It might have been just against the Yankees, but it was like automatic, like 10 runs. Also, he's from... Kevin Gossman's from Colorado, so you should be friends with him. Your gold glove winning second baseman, Yolmer Sanchez gets the cut.

That was a tough one. That's weird, man. I want a gold glove. It's a fucked up system. Like you said, this was put in place. So if a guy does really well, the team has the option to get them at a discounted price almost. But that discounted price has turned into too much money that they're saying no. It's like a really weird turn in this situation.

Let's see, some of the other guys we've got on here. Do you think Aaron Sanchez can figure? it out? He went to Houston. No. Nah. He's got injuries and stuff. I don't know. Yeah, he seemed a little broken. Addison Russell, he's got some off the field stuff going on. He got picked up, right? Padres or something?

Did he? I don't know. I believe he got... Soon to be 26-year-old Addison Russell. That's insane. No personality at all and also kind of a bad guy, so I don't care. Yeah, we're pretty sure bad guy. He went on part of my take a couple years ago. Maybe I missed that. He went on part of my take a couple years ago,

and it was just like, you're a human? You don't understand anything. Door knob? Oh, like, total brainless, like, doesn't get jokes, or, I don't know, it was fucking weird. Yeah. But, yeah, 25-year-old All-Star and Tensual. 2016. It'll be interesting to see.

If he could figure out his life on and off the field. Blake Trinan was a big one, Jim. Yeah, I bet Cubs wished I had Glaber still instead of Russell. Blake Trinin. Trinan. Yeah. It's weird. I thought he was... Someone's going to fix him.

You would guess. He's good. At baseball? He's good. At baseball. I don't know. We don't have to... I'll read off a few at a time. You could say who jumps off. Domingo San Tana, Taiwan Walker. Oh, he was supposed to be good.

Yeah, Jimmy Nelson. Let's do we got. Kevin Smith, who bad to clean up a few times for the Angels, and then they non-tendered him. Nice. Got a little louder on that one. Michael Franco. Are the Angels your most, you hate the Angels more than any other team? It's just, I just don't get what they're doing.

You have a cheat code in Centerfield, and you're, you're, You're doing nothing to help him. I mean, we've gone through the roster. We do this, I say we do this like monthly. We end up on the Angels roster, and you just walk away Stad. You're like, wow, Tommy Lestella had a good first half. The Royals let him go. Not going there.

Free Mike Trout. He deserves better. What about if my brother-in-law, Brett,'s listening to this? You apologize? I think Brett might be on my team. No. No, it would be cool. Brett says that the combination of Stacey and Dice is killer.

He does say that. Travis Shaw got non-tendered. He'd be nice if he could figure out how to hit again. I mean, he's proven to do it, right? Does he fuck up the Andahar trade pool? Because, like, who would you rather, Shaw or Anduar? Oh, I think there's going to be a lot of teams willing to give Travis Shaw a chance and just call it a bad year because 17.

and 18, he had combined for 63 homers and 844 OPS. He was a big left-handed threat that can play first and third base. And last year he just flat out lost it. Yeah. Anyone else? I don't know. A couple minor guys, Stephen Sousa Jr., your dude, Jose Paraza. Um, Alex Claudio led the league in appearances last year.

stuff. Hey, we're going to fry out your arm and then we're not going to pay you. No loyalty in this business. That's messed up. It's kind of messed up, man. It's kind of like, I'm going to be honest. It's kind of mean.

Yo, in hindsight, that's, like, really messed up. You know what they call that? They call that the use them, then lose them. You've been hanging out with the schmuz too much. Two relief pitchers with the last name, Guera, made that? We're getting deep into I don't care territory. CJ Cron, 55 homers the past two years.

What was the splits there? 50 and 5? I think it was 50 and 5. About damn juiced ball. There's a couple of decent relievers. I don't know. It's a really weird thing that baseball needs to figure out how to address so teams don't just burn out young relievers.

Yeah, he was our most used reliever just because we know where he's not going to be used next year. We don't want to pay him the two mill. Yeah, he threw too many innings last year, so we don't want to bring him back. It's tough. It's messed up, Jake. Quit joking about it when it's such a serious issue. That's a tough one. Let's move on to the fun updates.

We have fun updates. The Mets is the biggest one, but we had the Angels in the city of Anaheim have reached an agreement on a new deal that keeps the team in town through 2000 and 50, 2050, so you won't even live to see the next Angels Stadium. The Angels will buy the stadium and surrounding parking lots for $325 million. I like this. I like when a team is loyal to the city when the city is loyal to them, even though Jake hates them. Well, yeah, they're loyal to the city of Anaheim besides just putting another city in front of their team name.

Super loyal. Well, you know, you got to do what you got to do. Oh, we just don't want to be super associated with you guys. We like you, Anaheim, but you're just not really the hot chick we want to go out with. Yeah. Yeah. It's like having a girlfriend who's a hard six and you make her wear a mask every time you go out to dinner. A mask of a 10.

I was going to say an eerily similar comparison. Yeah. Yeah. No, good, good for them. They'll be in Anaheim to watch Mike Trout die. Nice. Okay. the Rangers new stadium, Jake, they put out their dimensions today.

And can I give just a round of applause to the Rangers PR team that put forth all the new stadium stuff today? I think they did a bang up job. First, we get the pictures with the dimensions and the layout and all of the dimensions and with a player they're honoring. They have meaning. They have meaning. They have meaning. 329 down the line is for who's 29 beltre beltray and then i'm not going to pretend to know any of the other

numbers and like was this happenstance or was this really planned i don't know but it's cool it makes people talk about things then they had joey gallo go take bp at like the stadium but it's not finished jett that was cool there's no dirt on the field there's no grass and he's just hitting it into like the rafters really cool move every new stadium should copy that and paste it because that's kind of like just a cool site. That looked like a video game. That looked like Tony Hawk met a baseball video game. And it was like, all right, we're hitting in the construction field.

Yeah, it was cool. I liked it. So my claps were not, they weren't ironic claps. They were real. Good job, Rangers PR team. I'm proud of you. The big news here is that the New York Mets are going to maybe change owners, Jake, in five years.

billionaire Steve Cohen, $9.2 billion to his name is going to buy the team and it's a five-year transition where the willpons will be in control for five years and then Cohen's going to take over at the end of it. The Mets fans have got to be ecstatic. As we've chronicled this for a while

and everyone knows it, everyone's chronicled this. The Mets from top down are bad at being a baseball franchise. and it starts and ends with the willpons. So get them out of there. I heard from a secret source, Jake, that the willpons do just want the money and the family doesn't like each other

and they just want to be like, let's get done with this. Let's get some money and then never see each other again. Free at last. Is there more to that song? I don't know. I think he'd just say free at last again. Yeah, I should have repeated it, but I got caught up looking at you.

It was nice. Harris still fighting a good fight over there. You thought I was going to say, I got the lyrics up now. When the part, when the fuck does the free at last part come? This can't be the right song. Can't be the right song. Because it's saying free at last, thought I could escape it, but I can't. Well, no, it was interesting at first because the rumors were coming out and it was like,

hey, the Wilpons get five-year contracts. Does that mean something happens in five-year? years and then it came out later in the day that yeah that Cohen guy after five years is going to own 80% of the team he's a he's a super billionaire I think someone said 9.2 billion which would make him currently the richest owner in baseball I said 9.2 billion and he he came out with a quote that was like yeah I can I plan to compete at the highest level so that's some that's some good bait for Mets fans for the next five years until Cohen lose all his money in a Ponzi scheme. I mean, the Will Pons had to go.

They literally got fleeced in like the game of life. They're terrible. It's a Martin Luther King quote, so now I feel like we shouldn't have applied it to the Mets situation. So I don't know if that was rude of you. He delivered it better than us, to be honest. Well, that was his job, and your job is also the same job. An orator.

I wouldn't say me and MLK Jr. have the same exact job. Fighting the good fight. Bringing baseball to the youth. Yeah. Yeah, we're both like baseball. Yeah, no. Mets, it's a good, is, ooh, interesting.

Is today a good day to be a Mets fan? No, because the next five years, they're going to fucking plummet the team. Why are the Wilpon staying on for five more years? years. Why? Yo, Jimmy. In year four?

Why is everyone ignoring that? In year four, the Wilpon's going to put together a good effort to make the Mets better. You know what this is? Oh, I figured it out, Jake. Microphones coming off the stand. So whenever Derek Jeter takes over the Marlins, right? He's like, we got to put together a plan. We got to tank for a little bit.

And then we got to win. And everyone hated Jeter because they're like, you're getting rid of all the bad good players. you're just tanking this sucks and jeter was the face and he took all the blame and he gets none of like the credit for like being smart this new owner is a genius he's like i'm not gonna come take over the metts and then and then push together this tanking narrative to rebuild i'll just let the willpons run it into the fucking ground for five more years they'll do the tanking part for me people will start to hate them more and more and more and more i'll come in and i'll truly be the savior and as soon as i

come in, the team will be ready and in place to start throwing money at free agents and rebuilding. Ah, it's genius. What a plan. No wonder that guy's worth $9.2 billion. Smart as fuck. So good day for the Mets? Great day. They're about to rebuild.

Yeah, I don't know. I think I started doing... First thing Cohen does when he comes in, okay, well, that guy's an agent, not a GM, so he's out. Yeah. No, you guys made one huge tactical error. You know, you're supposed to hire a GM to negotiate with the agents. Instead, yeah, I don't know. I don't know why people aren't talking about why the five-year thing.

Because, yeah, the five-year thing doesn't end well. It's not like the willpons are going to go out high and mighty. Like, these five years are going to be awful. for Mets fans, I think. I agree. But it's, I mean, it's very smart. I just figured out the puzzle, so maybe I should run a team. There you go.

There we go. I mean, that's the end of the show, I think. Oh, noodle knows. Yeah, noodle knows. Do we want to do an elevator talk? I mean, we did a lot of talk. No, let's not do an elevator talk. Yeah, we did one this week.

Let me give my winter meeting spiel that I said I was going to give last episode. And people go listen to the Trevor Plouffe episode if you didn't. It's really good. Jake and I will be at Winter Meetings. If you have no idea what goes on at Winter Meetings, I'll give you a quick rundown. And then you can follow us along on Instagram and Twitter. Well, YouTube's kind of a tough place to follow us along because we just post like final episodes. So follow us along on Twitter and Instagram and all that.

Winter Meetings is like on the business end, all the GMs are there, a bunch of agencies. are there, some players show up, and it's just a place for them to all gather and meet at the same time. But on the consumer side, it's a huge job fair. So if you're a kid in college who wants to graduate and you want to go get a job in baseball, huge job fair, you bring your resume, bring a ton of them, and just walk the lobbies of whatever hotel, you will run into anyone. You will run into everyone. Like, we just ran into Cashman last time. We ran into Michael Kay. We ran into Aaron Boone. We ran into Shelly Duncan. We ran into Bustererone. We ran into Kenrose. You run into everyone, and they actually have a specific job fair.

There's also a trade show. If you have a upstart business that you want to get into the baseball world, it's a lot of companies that are tailored for, like, at a MLB Stadium gift shop or a minor league stadium gift shop, your product would go in there. Like dugout mugs. Yeah, dude. I got really excited for that today.

I lost your audio. Oh. I got really excited for that today. dude the uh i think Tuesday night is the like happy hour in there and last year that was a lot of fun they had like all the minor league games and yeah so that would be a good time we'll do a lot of stuff on that on instagram and uh we'll do a whole behind the scenes uh vlog of the entire thing then there's also like radio row and it'll be like ESPN mad dog radio yes network the nessen everyone will have a camera crew there and a setup to report live from winter media and I think Jake and I and John Boy Media has a spot on Radio Row.

If not, we'll do a makeshift spot on Radio Row. So we could do a ton of interviews and just pull people aside and talk with them. And those will probably go on the podcast and on the YouTube and definitely behind the scenes. So it's kind of a weird scene. I will say this. If you ever want to attend and you're like, ah, that sounds kind of lame. If you love baseball, everyone talks baseball. You get into the elevator and there's two random guys and you just hear them talking to each other, they're talking about baseball.

And it's bizarre. You don't, it's like, you know, you understand why people go to like Comic Con or all those cons because you're just surrounded by people who love the same thing you love. So that's really cool. Yeah, it's funny you said that because you're totally right. And like we said earlier, we're juiced up for this winter meetings because there's going to be news and it's going to be like a gossip fest, which will be fun. Yeah, baseball, I think if they fluff up winter meetings a little bit more, I think it'd be crazy. Like, if they host a couple player events or something, because even without that, it's cool. But if they tailored it to fans even a little more, like, it could be a big event.

Yeah. And yeah, who knows they don't know how to do that. Maybe we'll start that for him this time. We'll cover it for them. They've welcomed us. Jake's gone ghost mode. And that is the end of the show. Thanks for hanging out with us.

Thanks for talking. A packed episode for one that wasn't planned, and we just got forced to do it. See you later. I think the next episode would probably be from Winter Meetings. Jake sucks.