Talkin' Baseball (MLB Podcast) - 66 | Wild Boars, Nationals Sign 3 Guys & White Sox Lineup is Set?

Episode Date: January 6, 2020

Céspedes got chased by a wild boar. The Nationals have signed Will Harris, Starlin Castro and Asdrúbal Cabrera. The league has issued German an 81-game suspension. The Angels have agreed to a one-year, $6.85MM deal with catcher Jason Castro. The White Sox have reached a long-term agreement with center field prospect Luis Robert. The Twins singed Homer Bailey and Rich Hill. 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.

Welcome to talking baseball. We're talking wild boars, the nationals, signing up every infielder out there, and the white socks grabbing every Cuban. Twins got some pitchers and some more. Let's do it. What's going on? Friends, welcome back to talking baseball. Another episode in which Jake and I will talk about baseball, major league baseball, maybe some Little League, maybe some college. I haven't discussed it with Jake. I don't know what he wants. but I thought we were just going to do just Major League Baseball. I guess I will throw it to you.

What do you want to talk about today? Well, Mike McCarthy just gets hired as the Cowboys coach. No, we don't talk. You're a son of a, did he really? Yeah, yeah, I did. See? It just happened. Mike McCarthy got hired by the Cowboys instead of the Giants.

That's kind of fun. But we don't talk football on this podcast. We talk baseball, Jim, and it's good to be back, man. We got caught in like a four-week whirlwind between winter meetings and the Honda days, and I wish I lived in the golden age. Living it up on the Broadway stage. Some of us had our teeth removed, so it's been kind of chaos for four weeks, so it's good to be here on a Monday a.m., ready to talk baseball.

Yeah, talking baseball. like we haven't done it. I feel like we haven't done like what we do since before winter meetings. And like we busted our ass at winter meetings and we've been rolling out some interviews more on talking yanks. And we have done episodes. But like I'm so excited like Monday morning. Let's do an app. Let's get back to the grind. I love the holidays. Now I'm sitting here like, fuck you holidays. You made me stop doing talking baseball as much as I like. That's so I'm retroactively. Yeah. I'm mad at them. Retroactively.

It's like a, yeah, it's like a transaction player to be named later. No, it's, I mean, it's exciting. It's exciting to get it going again. And, yeah, winter meetings kind of worked out for us really well because we both kind of had a lot of stuff planned around the holidays. So we got to drop a lot of our interviews and stuff and we still got more. But there's live stuff to talk about, I guess. Is that the phrase?

That is the phrase. And as we say this on Monday, we are doing this. But on Wednesday, we are going to L.A. To do some business meetings and cover some events. And we are hosting our own live event. So I guess that will be our Monday show or our Wednesday show. The later in the week will be our live event. If you are in L.A. and around the Santa Monica area, come out.

There's a, we are, we'll be with Trevor Plouffe, been on the show before. Jack Flerty, 0.93 ERA in his last. 16 games last season. He's pretty good. He'll be sitting down with us. We'll have some beers at Santa Monica Brew Works. That's next Monday, right? Next Monday.

Wednesday we fly out. Next Monday is that show. I think Thursday we fly out. Maybe you. Oh, it's Thursday the 9th? I don't know. I don't make the schedules. See?

Yeah. So, all right, we'll talk about some of that stuff. Monday, the 13th. Come out if you live in Santa Monica. Boom. Yeah, it's going to be really cool. We, uh, we were kind of, kind of nervous. We were going to do like a John Boy and Jake event at a brewery and we're like,

I don't know, like maybe people show up and that'll be cool and we'll drink a beer with them. And then we're like, oh, should we invite ploof? And we're like, that'll probably bring our attendance down. And then we're like, let's reach out. And so yeah, Flaherty's going to come through. And I think there's going to be like other baseball dudes hanging out because we're supposed to see some at a charity event. So I don't know. It's kind of unbelievable that it's happening. But if you're somehow in the L.A. area next Monday, it's going to be right after the college football championship game, which I was wondering if that was a good thing or a bad thing for us. I think it's a good thing.

I don't care. I think people go out and be like, hey, we'll watch the game and then we'll watch these idiots. But yeah, pretty cool. Yeah. We'll see. First live show we're ever going to do. So it's no cost. free to get in, but get a ticket on event right so we can have a head count, see if I start

gagging like D from OASNI due to stage fright. And, uh, I don't know. It'll be very interesting. If you go, you'll be like I was. This is your first, this is your first stage fright test since blank. Like college, talking in front of a classroom. Okay. And you did that.

Yeah, but I would just look directly at the teacher and just have like a one-on-one conversation, take everyone else out of the room. That's exactly what you're going to do. You're going to talk to me, Trevor, and Flash. Don't call them that. I won't. Okay. Thank God.

Jake, there's been a lot of fun news. It's been a lot of signings. We're getting to the end of the signings, but then I still looked and there's a ton still out there, so maybe we're not. But we're at such a better place that we are last year. Like the people that are left unsigned, you're like, yeah, okay, they'll sprinkle those guys in at the end.

And then I was looking and I wanted to do a fun. game that I think is zero fun, was looking at all the free agents that are still left and wondering, how many of these don't get a job? And I was like, oh. That's, because I was like, some of these guys, like, probably aren't wanted. And that's mean. But I don't want to open the show up with meanness. I want to open the show up with funness.

And I want to talk about the Cespitus bore incident. Well, yeah. Let me, let me comment on that before we open up with boar talk like we normally. do on talking baseball. I think there's still there's still a tier of guys that are going to get major league contracts. I think what I want to call it, though, what you're talking about, it's the Brad Miller line. Brad Miller every year finds himself looking for a baseball team with a spring training invite or in AAA, and then that team ends up being like, well, the fans of that team start talking themselves into Brad Miller. Jimmy, Brad Miller, Jimmy, Brad Miller,

30 years old. He's played all over the infield. He's a lefty hitting infielder that always finds his way in a team, but he just can't get like a, hey, two years for one and a half million. That's just not going to happen. So I think I'm going to call that my Brad Miller line. But we still got a few guys above that. I think our guy Todd Frazier's above that. Maybe Jason Kipness, Alex Gordon. But you are right. It's getting thin. The only true impact guy, left is Donaldson, which we'll talk about. And then Ozuna and Castiano's are still fun. After that, it gets pretty dire.

It gets like minor league invite, like Matt Harvey, Greg Bird. Is Pedro Strop going to get a sign somewhere? So you're going to get a minor league invite. Neil Walker. You love Pedro Strz. You know, David Phelps, Fernando Rodney. What's happening with these guys? There's still a couple in between.

Eric Tames, Hunter Pence. So, I mean, there's a couple. Yeah. Hunter Pence had a great. I don't know how Hunter Pence year ended, but he had a great first half for the Rangers. After Donaldson, Ozuna, and Cassiano's, none of the other guys you can go. Pueg. If you don't already have a winning offseason, you can't add anyone else and be like,

now I think, you know what, now that we brought in Hunter Dozier, or Brian Dozier, excuse me, Hunter, he did a lot for the Royals. Let's talk about boars. So Cestinus got injured, fractured his ankle. They do the whole dispute of his contract. And neither side really, like, goes hard because I read both sides thought they were going to lose. So they both went like pretty uncomfortedly. Let's just meet on the middle because I don't think either of us have solid ground.

And the middle was Cestinus losing $20 million. But the one thing they all agreed on, Jake, was that the accident happened. from stepping into a hole on the ranch after being chased by a wild boar. I agree. I actually think the term was like he tried to sidestep a wild boar. Cespitous. Right. Vice had this video on Cespitus and his ranch from 2017.

And in it, I tweeted it, they showed him setting up his wild boar traps, which weren't too elaborate. They were kind of home aloneish. It was you put a bucket of feed. and then when the boar knocks the bucket, a string latches a gate. But 300 pound boars in the gate that I was looking at, like that's just going to break through it. So maybe that's what happened.

In 2017, he had trapped three already. One was 300 pounds. Half of it's like, should players be allowed to live their lives? You know, like, should like Aaron Boone be allowed to play pickup basketball? Should Barry Zito be allowed to surf on his off days? but then I also get like, hey, dude, you just got injured doing something dumb. So now we're going to take back some money. Like, I get both sides of it.

But it is funny that it's a bore. The bore part is funny. Back to the life part a little bit. I mean, yes, guys can live their life, but when your livelihood is built on Yoannis Cessbit is having healthy legs so he can earn his 25 million year playing baseball. I think the Mets do have a right to be like, hey, man, you're going to have to save your boar trapping days

till after you play. And I'm sorry, and I know that hurts you. But I, and, you know, would you want a Yankees pitcher who is a really good, I don't know, quarterback to play football in the offseason? No, I'm a selfish. with an arm season, no. But I'm a selfish fan. Do you remember like Barrisito, the Giants said he wasn't allowed to surf when he went

to the Giants? And then people like, he was bad. And they were like, well, it's because he can't surf. That's like his therapy. I mean, probably dumb storyline. But I was like, that's interesting that they put it in the contract. You're not allowed to surf. But I also get it.

Do you think you could trap a boy? I think as we millennial up, oh yeah. I mean, I saw your, your vision. video of vice's video of yoannis's uh setup and i mean i could rig that i mean that that looked like i rigged that yeah that looked like they they put six poles they put like a twine fence around the poles and they had an entry for the bore to hopefully enter and then yeah home alone style dropped the gate um because because yeah i i could i i didn't listen to i did you put audio over it or did you just straight put the vice thing on there because i didn't listen with

audio, but I knew we were having the same thought process because, I mean, when they, when they showed the gate, you're like, oh, you're trying to trap a bore in here. This is, yeah, maybe they're smart animals, but they're also just stronger than the fence you're putting up. Yeah, no, I didn't add audio. I mean, it was Caspidus talking about trapping bores was the audio. Right. Yeah.

And, hey, everyone's got to have a hobby. Later in the video, right? Later in the video, Jake, he climbs a tree, like really high. It's just like very like scales at like Spider-Man. And Evan from Evan Roberts from WFN, like quote, he was like, what about the tree? Like that's just as ridiculous. Like don't be climbing trees.

Don't be trapped in boars. Come on. I don't know. Maybe it's his Zen. Well. Yeah. And I mean, it does lead into a whole 2020 type conversation where you mention if Barry Zito, if he clears his head out on a surfboard.

The wild boar thing, again, still a little more complicated than that. IMO, playing basketball, blah, blah, blah. But yeah, it's, I don't know, man. Like, we've said this a couple times now. Almost kudos to the Mets, because like you said, you found yourself on both sides of the argument,

and somehow the Mets in Cesspit has both left the room with a firm handshake and ready to move on, which I don't know. If you look at Mets history, normally this would not be the conversation we'd be having. And it would be, wow, the Mets and Cespitas are in a gunfight.

And you're like, whoa. I'm on the side of he shouldn't be trapping boars. But anyone that's like, well, dude, what if, like, are players not allowed to have, like, hobbies?

Like, in the video, it's not about traving gores. He loves his ranch and the boars eat all the seed that he plants and fuck with his ranch. So he needs to trap them. Right. Like hire a guy. Higher guy to do that part.

Right. Yeah, you know. 50K a year. You make, I'll be the bore trapper. Pay the Cespitas Barbecue guys and they will do it. Yeah. It was a good call.

Jake. I mean, yeah. I mean, yes, could, yes, we could do that, James,

but they kind of get dibs on that. Yeah, I was saying the other Jake should do it. Not you. Right, right, right, right, right,

right, right, right. I, I want to know, did he, successfully sidestepped the bore or like once he was in the hole did the bore have its way with assessiveness like did he get got or did the bore like see him fall in the whole fracture his ankle and like okay sympathy like i i just got you did a little bore laugh and walked on its merry way

oh that's interesting see i think i think the bore got in there a little bit and i think maybe there's footage of it and that's why yo yo was so comfortable giving up $20 million because he was like, hey, I'll give up the $20 million, but this video, the boar in me doesn't leave the room. What is, they're like, that's fun. What I'm wondering is, is the whole he stepped in another boar trap? Because that'd be funny if he was, the boar made Yueness step in his own boar trap. That's why I was watching the video.

I was hoping for that and he didn't point to a whole boar trap. I don't know. When you're trying to trap humans and boars, it's kind of a different process for me. So I don't think so. Okay. But there's a chance. I watched a video on Reddit the other day of a pigeon trapping.

When people grow pigeons and then train them to steal other pigeons. Yeah. That was interesting. It wasn't nearly as cool as I thought it was going to be. Can do anything you want in this world, James, 2020. He's got to put your mind to it. Should I play a sound effect, then we move on to the next topic? Yeah, play the next topic sound effect.

Okay. You couldn't hear it, but it played. The Nationals, Jake. The Nationals did a lot. Did a lot. Up until the... Your defending World Series champion nationals. Yeah, up until now, the Nationals had just brought back guys that were already on the team.

They brought back Strasbourg. They brought back Kendrick, right? Correct. they did lose out on Rendon so they lost him and then Zimmerman they have an opening at first base Jan Goams

Yeah they have an opening at first base They signed I think the order of the events were First they signed Will Harris Which is the first guy that they're bringing To them that wasn't with them last season So he's the first outsider To join the World Series champions

He's most famous for at this point helping the Nats win the World Series with that low and in fastball to Howie in the World Series. So it's like a tough pill to swallow, but it really just like money speaks. And they offered him a three-year contract for $24 million. And I read the three years was what Will Harris really liked. So that makes sense. He wants more money. It's a little odd that he goes to the team that just beat him.

I think like back in 1960s baseball, they'd be like, but now we kind of understand like well that's how it works if you are a houston teenager and you hate will harris i get it i get that right if you're like don't know how to control your emotions and you've won you hate will harris because he allowed the go ahead home run in the world series or tying whatever it was and then b he signs with that team and now you have to see him in that uniform yeah if you're a 14 year old in houston you probably you probably you can can hate Will Harris just a little less than you hate me. Yeah.

And yeah, I mean, this is this is the same thing when the Red Sox won the World Series. They re-sign Steve Pierce, the World Series MVP. They re-sign Avaldi. This is the Nationals. They re-sign Will Harris. It's a sentimental signing, you're saying. Hey, you helped us win the World Series, so we'll throw you some cash. It's a little IOU.

Yeah, made that joke on Twitter. A couple people got it. But yeah, I think the Nationals, they were looking for a lefty reliever, and they quickly found out that there isn't really a lefty reliever market. But Will Harris has great numbers against lefty. So they add him to the bullpen. And there are some really good articles about them. I'm not going to give proper credit, so I won't even quote them. But look up Will Harris signing with the Nationals because they said the process was pretty weird because this has never happened.

And I think Will Harris had a good quote out there that he's like, yeah, that's the only time I plan on giving up a home run in a game seven of a World Series. So it was pretty awkward to talk to that team. But yeah, you're right. They get the third year. Will Harris became a total kind of wild card and overlooked his free agency. We talked about there not being a ton of free agency. He's 35, but he's clearly figured something out.

A lot of guys in Houston did. Three years for a 35-year-old reliever. I know that he's good. And I think he has a really good track record of not being injured. But I understand why no other team did that. And Nats, even though they won the World Series, they are desperate for bullpen. And they did it.

But, I mean, it's probably not going to work out the best. Well, it's interesting. And if you're national sports radio, you're probably talking about, I mean, another wild card reliever who's out there is Daniel Hudson, who had such a good playoffs for you. But yeah, I mean, Will Harris, he had a 1-5 ERA last year in 60 innings. He doesn't have a ton of mileage on his arm because he's never been like the go-on, on his garm.

He's never been the go-to guy in a bullpen. He has under 400 career major league innings. So there's a chance that he doesn't have the same mileage that a 35-year-old reliever would have. you are you're hoping to get two good years out of Will Harris and that's kind of the contract yes i do want to say i didn't want my last sentence to be taken the wrong way i don't think the third year the odds the third year works out aren't good first and second sure good that's that's kind of the that's that's where we're at in free agency and that's what our

our guy josh donaldson is doing he's just sitting on a beach right now saying first one to go five years wins, babe. And they're all saying, don't do it, don't do it. And waiting for one crazy owner to crack. Yeah, well, the Nationals most likely don't need Donaldson. They're still in. They're still the one of the two teams in on Donaldson. They're interested.

But if they don't get them, they signed some backup. First, they signed Starlin Castro for $12 million, two years. And I think a lot of Nationals fans were saying, oh, okay, he's going to be our new, he's going to be our new as Drewball Cabrera. He'll be the second baseman, infielder. And then they sign as Drewble Cabrera. So then they're like, wait, what? What's going on now?

They also have this dude Carter Key Boom, who's a big time prospect, middle infielder. So now they're kind of stocked up. I believe it's going to be, Castro is going to be their starting second baseman. And as Drewble's 100% utility infielder, if everyone's healthy. I think that's how. because they signed as Drew Bull Cabrera for no money. Right, 2.5, I believe. But I think, and Jim, I'm going to do Jakey Cross Sports comparison a little bit

slash just modern day baseball. Like, it's still kind of an old way of thinking. Like when the Yankees signed DJ LaMayhew last year, he technically didn't have a position. DJ LaMayhew didn't start opening day for the Yankees, but you knew he was going to play a buck 40 games. I think all of these guys are currently in that role, Maybe, you know, it's given them a little bit of a liability if one of those dudes has a bad year.

It's crazy how good ass crabs was for the Nationals in his time there. Same with Howie Kendrick. Howie Kendrick was nuts last year. Starlin Castro, you wonder, I mean, do the Nationals have either a hitting process or a hitting coach where they can find something? Because Starlin still loves the game. I know you and I were blown away that he played 162 for the Miami Marlins last year. Um, it'll be interesting to see if they can find a little pop in as bad or maybe just being around a winning team brings out a little more.

But what they have right now is options. Um, if, if someone gets hurt or if someone's hot, they can figure it out. It will be interesting. I mean, if they are the ones that land with Donaldson, I, I don't think they're planning on that right now. Um, because you're right. Now, now if you do that, you might be stunning a prospect's growth. You might have an angry veteran on your team. Uh, so interested. I like it. When you look at Kendrick and Estrebel Cabrera, like those guys had to sign with the Nats.

They had to. Jake? Yeah. I like this. I like Starlin Castro and he gets so much shit. The guy's 29 years old. He feels like he's 39. He's been in the league for so long.

I felt bad for him. He's been on the Marlins for the last two years. Now I know that he's not. a stellar player. But what Starlin Castro is, is consistently average to slightly above average baseball player.

Every year. Last year, he played 162 games on the Miami Marlins. He played 162 games on the Miami Marlins. Give him a contract just for that. Reward him. He's a four-time

All-Star. I know I know All-Star games can be a joke, but Starlin Castro is a four-time All-Star. And my cross-sport comparison that I was going to make, Jim, which I don't know, it might fall on deaf ears with you a little bit, but I was going to compare the Nationals to the Toronto Raptors, both teams that just won the title. The Raptors kind of won the title by having Kauai,

and then just everyone could make an open shot. So if you double-team, they just had someone open. That's kind of what the Nats did. They had Soto and Rendon. now they still have Soto. They might add another big bat, but they have guys who give you major league at bats. There's not really a hole in their lineup.

And that's kind of what the nationals have. They have a bunch of major leaguers. Yeah. Yeah, it's a good call. And that's what they did last year. They were the team doing things opposite of everyone else. They were the oldest team. They put the ball in play the most.

They had the most bunts and all that good shit. Southern Castro, career OPS plus 100 is average, is 98, so that's slightly below. But he has one outlier season at 73, which is really bad in 2013. His last four years, he's got a 94 OPS plus last year, 102, 106, 93. So he just hovers right around that average baseball player, which you're not going to go to the Hall of Fame, you're not going to go to any more All-Star Games, you're not going to be really like celebrated. But to be an average baseball player 10 years in a row, That's pretty cool.

Better than a lot of guys that play the game. I think he gets shit on too much. You get skewed. Well, it gets skewed, it's expectations. It was my word of 2019. I have to find a new one for 2020. Exbuncations. But, I mean, the guy was a 22-year-old two-time All-Star,

and you start talking Hall of Fame and stuff like that, and Starlin Castro is not that dude, but he's a solid ball player. solid ball play ball player that's all we wanted that ends the nationals talk wow

now we move on oh I have this next the league has issued domingo her mom an 81 game suspension the suspension is retroactive to last September meaning herman will sit the first 60th 63 games of 2020

it's the harshest punishment MLB has given for domestic abuse or domestic violence. I don't know the correct phrase. I think the MLB and the Yankees both handled this situation well. They didn't leak it. They didn't play it the wrong way. We are completely in the dark as to what actually happened,

how many times it happened, any, all of that. I think that's good. It should be an internal issue. I don't really have anything to say because we don't know exactly what happened, although Domingo Hermann, kind of a bad guy, hopefully from this he can slowly become a better guy and learn his lesson who knows maybe he will

maybe he won't it's a really tough situation because he will be playing again he's a young controllable arm and he will start again and if he does well people will clap for that result i mean i i i don't think you can clap for the person unless they really show signs of improvement and like genuinely turned a new leaf. But I think, you know, you will, people will clap for the result if he goes out there and pitch as well. And then people will all have a problem for that. I think, uh, all I have to say is I think MLB and the Yankees handled this situation

well, taking them out of the team right away, doing a full lengthy investigation, not spilling any of the details and then dealing with it. Seems like he complied. Everyone complied. or Hermann, bad guy. Don't abuse people. Yeah, and it's obviously it's always a little bit of a tricky

conversation a little bit, but he did something bad. Like you said, we don't know the details of that. Not, well, they matter to a degree, but not that they should, but he did a bad thing. I think it was like, what, the third or fifth longest suspension

they've given out for domestic violence. and something along those lines. And it comes back to my kind of going away line on this. It leaves the baseball field, and it comes back to you and however you feel about this. I mean, there are some people that feel firmly that if you are a professional athlete, you don't deserve a second chance at anything. You should be, if you have any domestic violence, you are no longer, to play baseball.

And I can't tell you that stance is wrong. If that's how you feel, that's how you feel. What the Yankees are going to do or wherever Domingo Hermann ends up, I mean, they are going to follow Major League Baseball's guidelines. These are the rules that they have set up and maybe they'll get adjusted in the CBA. Maybe they won't. But yeah, I mean, it ends up becoming a personal thing. It's, do you believe in second chances?

Do you believe in people can change? like you were saying, does any of this, not that it makes it right, but if Domingo Hermann, you know, gives back to charity and does charity work and gives speeches trying to change people, it doesn't make what he did better, but does it in your mind make him allowed to play baseball

and still pursue that career in his only profession that he's known up to this point in his life? It becomes a little bit of a personal thing, so it's a kind of look look yourself in the mirror and what do you think tweet it us don't don't all right don't tweet at us about that true is for other things yeah it's not a fun conversation i think it was handled the right way even herman besides going he went on instagram live at one point in the middle of all this and it was like dude don't fucking do that but he takes a suspension he's been going to rehab or classes hey how to be a good person if you do something that makes someone

else get hurt or feel shitty, don't do it. I mean, you know, some people aren't taught life lessons shake and it's a bizarre thing. Yeah. Moving on. A quick one. The Angels have agreed to a one year. 6.85 million deal with catcher Jason Castro. So many catchers on the market. The Angels catchers last year were putrid. I think they like had the worst like WRC OPS, everything from the catching position than any other team. So they needed someone. I don't know if Jason Castro's the answer, because check this out. I was checking, catching position is so bad in baseball.

People don't realize that. Why, like, when a catcher can hit, why it's so celebrated. Jason Castro has been in the league for nine years, Jake. He's started over 100 games, one, two, three, four, five times. He started 80 last year. 87. So what I'm saying is the dude has been catching a lot. So he can't be that bad comparable to the rest of the league to continuously be catching. He put up his best season of his career with the bat last year.

And the slash line is a 232 batting average, a 332 on base percentage, a 767 OPS, 101 OPS plus. best of his career and the dude is a catcher for going on a decade getting regular at bats that's how bad the catching position is at hitting baseballs but good for Castro he gets signed

he's really good with the glove and he comes from the twins Jimmy where Mitch Garver was and the now guy respected as a catching guru that he left to go to the New York Yankees you know he he made Mitch Garver and you know it this is kind of

unfair to Mitch Garver because he's kind of got a Midwest name that you can emphasize points with, but he made Mitch Garver into a gold glove, silver slugger catcher. And yeah, I mean, Jason Castro, Jim, you mentioned the numbers. He can't touch lefties. Last year, he had a 125 batting average against lefties. He is a lefty if you didn't know. Hitting. He throws righty. I'm looking for a lefty catcher in 2020, by the way. I'm so done with only righty catchers. We'll get there in a little bit. But Jim, against right-handed pitchers, 73 games, 254 batting average, 354 on base, and 851 OPS. That is really good for against right-handed pitching for a catcher.

So I love it. You know, again, people thought I hated the Angels just because I hated the Dylan Bundy trade. You hate the Angels. I love the Jason Castro signing for them. And yeah, there still are a couple other catchers on the. the market. He was on my fan graph sheet I've been going off of. He was expected to tie with Robinson Chorinos for the second most money gotten by a catcher. Obviously, Yasmani Grandallan first. But yeah, Chorinos is still out there. He's the one that's still a wild card. Russell Martin and

Luke Roy are kind of the real catchers that are still out there. So who's going to be the backup then? Is it going to be Max Stasi? Because they have, they had Bamb boom last year. Ben Boom's a lefty though So if you're saying that Castro is going to be a platoon catcher Or should be a platoon catcher Ben Boom's a lefty Hit her as well

Max Stassie's the righty Max Stassie last year Got traded to the Angels Halfway through And I mean it was just like terrible Yeah he was terrible They had Jonathan LaCrooy Who uh you know

Former former All Star Was he or am I just speaking of of my butt. Yeah, two-time All-Star. Good for you, Jonathan LaCroix. Good for you, Jake. He's still a... Good for me, Jake. He's still a free agent. I mean, does he want to come into the bad sign of a platoon? I don't know. But yeah, I think you've got a nice piece with the signing, and if the A's want, if the angels want to go out and sign another righty, they can. Or if they believe they have a right-handed hitting catcher that can hit off lefties, I think you can be kind of comfortable with that position. Max Stassee is a righty, but he's worse versus lefty pitcher, so maybe he's not the best platoon guy. But I mean,

a backup catcher, well, if they're doing a platoon, that's not really a backup catcher. But if you're the guy facing lefties, you're kind of a backup catcher, but a backup catcher isn't really known for a splits, having an inner dialogue here.

Don't think anything that we just talked about matters is what I'm coming to. Yeah, and the guy that I couldn't believe they just released this guy, and when we saw him in May, he was batting cleanup for them. Kevin Smith, I mean, he's just kind of a guy, and this is, we're getting deep tracks baseball. But again, he crushed lefties last year, and they just, I think they openly released him. But if they could bring him back, I would enjoy that platoon.

Kevin Smith? That's deep. Kevin with an A and Kevin, so you're not going to like that. Kevin Is there What is it? Kevin Is it C-A?

No, that's C-A That's Bigio? Yeah I can't find this dude on baseball reference K-E-V-A-N It's like Evan with a K in front of it Wow, he did not come up It is like Evan with a K in front of it

K-Evon, that's what I should call him Yeah, that's kind of good Yeah, K-Evon Well, I don't, I finally got to his page, but I feel like we're over it. So I'm going to move on. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, that's deep tracks catching.

More White Sox talk, Jake. I feel like we talk about him every episode. Yes. But they keep doing things. They keep making news. The White Sox have reached a long-term agreement with Centerfield Prospect, Lurice Robert. This is not the first time they've given a long-term deal.

to one, prospect Luis Robert and two, a guy in their system has never played in the major leagues before. So that's, White Sox are doing their own thing. They, the deal is 50 million and guaranteed money over six years. This guy hasn't played in the MLB yet. It features two club options, meaning the max he can get is 88 over eight years. It's record setting for a player who hasn't debuted in the majors. and it's the second contract he signed with the White Sox because he was a Cuban international player and they signed him for $26 million a couple months into 2017 season to even get him into their system.

He's been raking in AAA having his way with the miners and now he gets a potentially an eight-year deal before even swinging a bat. Very interesting, but they did it with Eloy Jimenez. and I mean it helps them out it's team friendly in a way because well no they are taking a big risk but they can play him right away there's no service time manipulation it's super good for this dude if you're this guy had signed this contract in a heartbeat um and they don't have to do arbitration they skip all the shitty parts of a of a team player relationship and they just say say, hey, we just want you to play ball for us, and we want to pay you to do so.

But hasn't played yet. Yeah, there's going to be a lot of hot takes early on as people get their eyes on Louis Robert for the first time. It would be really nice for him to get off to a hot start. Yeah. But, yeah, he owes Eloy Jimenez, and he owes Pete Alonzo, a nice little high five when he runs into him because those guys kind of set the tone, and they lived up. to their early contract so far, which has been good.

And yeah, man, I mean, this has been everything we've been saying about the White Sox. I mean, they've gone out and they want to compete. And this turned into one of the final questions for the White Sox. It was, you know, are they going to hold back Louise Robert to start the season and then bring them up? There was rumors the day before he signed the contract that he was in trade talks for Nolan Aronado for the Rockies. so when he signed this, this was kind of the White Sox keeping the noise out.

It would have been a question all spring training. Even like the Aeronado stuff probably would have gone until spring training. They keep out that noise. They keep out the service time noise. And the dude supposedly a stud. I think he's like a top five prospect on some rankings. I'm interested to see him. I know you're rightfully skeptic of prospects until they play at the Major League

level because this is a sport that you need to have that mentality. I'm interested, man, as the technology gets better, I mean, can we start projecting these guys more? Are we going to do these types of contracts until someone does fall on their face and then what happens? But good for the White Sox and better for Luis Robert. And what were you doing, Ozzy Albies and Akuna with your guys' contracts? Yeah, man, those are tough. No, I like this by the White Sox, like I said, they need to go all in. And I also what I, and I am overtly, overly skeptical of prospects as a person. Like I'm just cynical in that way. But if the White Sox believe in him, what this contract does guarantees that they give him a shot. Like they're not going to like give

him a cup of coffee and then be like, nah, never mind. We're going to trade your pass on you. This dude's going to get a full shot to be the best he can be. And that's pretty cool. good job the white socks are done dude they're they set they got eloy in left they got this dude louise robertson center mazara in right they got montata at third anderson at short garcia at second abray you at first edwin at dh like they're they're good to go they're ready for spring they got gilito keicle gonzalez lopez um who else do they have that can round out their rotation Copac should be coming back. Copac.

Dylan Sees. Carlos Rodon. So if you're a White Sox fan, I mean, the rest of your January is going to be fucking boring because you're done. Ah, they're going to make up rumors. They're going to pretend they're still on Nolan Aronado or something like that. But do they have room to go, do they have room to go get a reliever? Do they need relievers?

Ash, what team doesn't have room for a reliever? You know what I'm saying? Jim, what about this, though? And this is the risk that has been run. This is the risk that's being run that kind of hasn't happened with one of these guys yet. Yon Moncada, his teammate. Yeah. Got traded, the Chris Sale trade, big-time prospect.

Munkata's first 211 games, so like a season and a half. He had a 234 batting average, a 319 on base, a 17. a 719 OPS, and he led the league in strikeouts one season. Last year, 2019, Moncada goes beast mode. I mean, he has a 915 OPS, 315 batting average. He's great. He's the Moncada that people thought he was. But he didn't get crazy pressure on him

because he didn't sign an $88 million contract. So it's going to be interesting to see Luis Robert how ready he is. Because if he has the first two seasons Moncada had, White Sox people are going to be down his throat. They're also not rebuilding anymore. Like Moncada, Yon had that. I'm like, there's no urgency to win now anyway. So figure it out.

This dude's being dipped into a big contract and a team that wants to win immediately. So yeah, fans might have a little less patience. But if you're White Sox fans, be happy. This is a nice squad that your team has went out and put together. I like it. Good. Next. Boom.

You want to do twins? Twins rounded out their rotation a little bit. They pick up Rich Hill, aka Dick Mountain, and they picked up Homer Bailey, two fun names. In baseball, I believe last episode, we ended it with like the pitchers that were still remaining. And I was like, yeah, Homer Bailey and Rich Hill are still out there. And then boom, now they're not.

They're on the twins. The twins also re-signed Oda Rizzy, and they still have Pineda Nita who was suspended, and they still have Berrios. Rich Hill, I think, is going to be recovering, and Penaid is still suspended. So they really have two spots open to start the season. So I was asking White Sox fans on Twitter,

do you guys have prospects that you're going to fill that in? And a lot of them, like, yeah. Twins fans. Twins fans. I'm like, yeah, we have some, but I still think they're going to try and go out and get another guy. So maybe. but they do get Rich Hill and Homer Bailey.

What were the contracts? We don't have them on the sheet here. Don't have them on the sheet. It can get it from Pissan's tweet. I think they were kind of incentive laid in which I liked because Rich Hill is coming off injury, so they, I mean, they're not sure when he's coming back or how much they're going to get out of him.

Homer Bailey looked like a different cat when he went over to Oakland. he's always going to have a bad stigma with him because he signed the giant contract in Cincinnati and then he was bad. But we saw him a couple times for Oakland and he looked mean. I mean, he's got the Christian bail look going on. He's pumping 95, 96. So maybe his arm found a second life.

Maybe the technology helped him find a second life. The twins are, and I think now I'm copying pasting from the passing tweet, but the twins are a really well-respected organization for how they're run currently, and I think both of these signings were pretty well-liked throughout baseball. Bailey gets $7 million, and Hill gets $3 million guaranteed. It can reach up to 12 if he hits some incentive points, which I'm guessing will be in being pitched. Yeah.

I mean, sure. We're getting a lot of stopgap rotations built up. I feel like we have a couple now. Like these are two one-year contracts. Toronto has a weird rotation that they built. The Angels built one with Bundy and Tehran. But I mean, that's how free and she should work. But this doesn't make me change my outlook on the twins' rotation too much.

Because I still think they're both a little coin flipping. Yeah, and I think if you're a Twins fan, you basically say you're paying 10 million for two guys and hoping one of them works. I think that's the way you look at it. And hopefully they can just give you innings. I mean, we know, this is something a lot of casual fans struggle with. But even innings at a 5-ERA can still be useful innings. If Homer Bailey doesn't have his great stuff this year, but he could still still, you still throw you a hundred forty innings that's huge because that's 140 innings other guys

aren't throwing um so it'll be interesting to see what they look like and yeah i i i wanted say the twins uh well a the twins are in on donaldson which could be uh an impact player for them and then i don't know could they trade some pitching hitting for pitching i don't know ivanova's still out there colin mckew from houston um and then yeah a lot a lot of other guys that you're just really and a flyer on, but don't be shocked if one of those guys ends up in Minnesota. Go give Ivan's Nova a one-year deal. Problem solved. Him in Panetta.

They're back. You know that baseball savant page that has the bar with everyone's skill set? Yeah. And if it's like to the right side and it's in red, that means it's good. If it's the left side, it's blue, that means it's bad. Ivan Nova doesn't have one red dot. Yeah, he's feeling it out. Peripherals are as ugly as you.

You stared into the screen and then you said it. Okay. The show you. The show you. Oh, you hated it. Bad take. Oh, it's like a really, really bad show. Objectively bad.

You just have to know what you're getting into. I knew what I was getting into. I was still horrible. Right. But I mean, serial killers aren't going to have the same conversations that real humans have. I don't know what your point is there. We'll talk about it another time, I guess. Yeah.

Terrible sure. You takes for bad. No. That was like a really bad show. It's a solid show. Go watch it. You don't watch. Unless you like really poorly written lifetime shows where everyone's character

art just changes at the last second at a snap of a finger. Then you'll enjoy it. Sorry you couldn't see what was coming, bra. Terrible, terrible. Speaking and not seeing what's coming, Kevin Plewecky to your Red Sox. Yeah, I don't, this doesn't need to be talked about, right? No, but I thought a half ironic way to cover our butts,

we should mention it. So there's not a Sox fan out there that's like, hey, you didn't mention Kevin Plewecky, but also it doesn't really deserve to be. I don't have a take on this or any thoughts. I'd have to go look at it. No, shouldn't. Okay.

Okay. I forget, did we mention Cole Calhoun last episode? That was my other no. Yep. Arizona dude through and through. Excited about him. We're confused about what Arizona's doing. West Coast guy.

I don't care about the Hall of Fame ballots at all. Do you? No, they all had to be submitted by the New Year's. Larry Walker seems to be on the cusp. Kurt Schilling seems to be on the cuss. Either way, I think a lot of people are going to be mad. That's why I just like, I can't even dive into it because everyone is so polarized for kind of like, it's like, you don't really like you're not going to, you're not really up in arms about this, right? I feel like it's a lot of forced hot takes by everyone.

Oh, yeah. It's very 2020 Twitter. It's very 2020 Twitter. That's tough to say. But yeah, no, the Larry Walker people are going to freak out if Larry doesn't get in. Any of the steroids guys, if they get in and one doesn't. And then Kurt Schillings hit it, hated on multiple fronts. So it's going to be a fun one.

Because he put the fake blood in his sock? Just he's a bad guy, mostly. Okay. All right, cool. Yeah. It's like, Kurt, Band-Ags is this? Yeah. Band-Aids are a well-known thing.

Right. Bandages. Those don't motivate the team. Athletic tape. No, they don't motivate... Those don't rally a city, Jim. No, I heard he licked his sock afterwards in front of, in the middle of the dugout and said, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha. Wasn't bud.

You've done that. So? Yeah. What of it? That's what I'm saying. He's the shortstop. Colos lives Cuba. I'll let you run with this one.

We have another international prospect that's going to get a ton of hype. His name is... What's his full name? Oscar Colis? Octavian. They're calling him the Cuban Otani. What's his first name? He's 21 years old.

He's from Cuba. He's been playing professional baseball in Cuba since he was 17. He went to Japan and played there and absolutely was amazing. He didn't pitch in Japan, but apparently he can throw 95 miles per hour. He may not get signed until July because they have to establish his residency outside of Cuba. before they can sign him. And a lot of teams are out of international signing bonus money until July, when they can restock.

As we've talked about earlier, the White Sox love Cuban players. They're building their lineup around them and their team. So they're a front runner. Angels, Got Otani. I mean, there's a lot of teams will be interested in this guy. It's too early for me to really, like, dive into the weeds if it's not going to happen until July. But let it be known. There's a guy out there.

His last name's Coloss. What's his first name, Jake? Oscar. You were all over it. Nice. One of the best prospects from Cuba in years is what they're saying. Yeah, so, I mean, that's exciting. He's 21 years old.

Hopefully he is kind of a special player, and we can see him in a year and a half, two years. I don't know. I mean, my dream is, Jim, and one of my nerdy out-of-the-park baseball leagues I play in, there's a guy that has, like, all the dual-threat dudes on his team. And I think we need a major league team to do that, and it's probably the race,

but they need everyone who's Otani-ish, who can hit and pitch a little bit, to come up through their farm system, nurture them. So that way that we have a team in, we have a team in 2025 that everybody does everything. That's my dream. Little League. Yeah, why not?

Why not? Be an athlete. Left-handed catcher. Be an athlete. Yeah, we did get back to left-handed catcher. Great. That's what I want. Why aren't there any?

Mike Mustakis is playing second base. He's a friend. We'll see him soon. The other thing, the other conversation I want to do before we end this, Josh Donaldson, he has a four-year offer from the twins. He's not taking it, and the twins are likely probably out. and you said he's asking for a five-year deal. All the reports say he wants a four-year deal.

I just think he doesn't want the twins. He wants the Braves or the Rangers or the nationals to pony up and match the twins offer. I've read a couple things and that was the vibe I was getting. We'll see if he gets a five-year deal, then that's it. But I think he's using the twins deal as leverage and in the response, the twins are saying like, okay, well, screw you then.

Yeah, I don't know. I kind of read it a little differently. I don't think there's any slide at Minnesota because, I mean, hey, if you're getting paid, you're getting paid and they're a playoff team, et cetera, et cetera. I think it's more of, hey, boys, I'm the last dude on the market. I'm the last two-way player, throw me in the three-hole, and let's have a party on the market. So I think he's just saying, hey, we got about a month till spring. training if if if any of you three teams want to add a little caseo or thrown an extra year

I'll see in spring training um because I don't know I think Josh Donaldson's in a good spot if you're if you're the Braves and you're coming off last year's um you know playoff failures um you know they did so much at the start of this off season it'd be a nice bookends for them uh does another team does does the old John Heyman Scott Boris mystery team show up? I don't think so. Do the Nats? Do they really want to run it back? Because, God, that would be a lot of fun. And if you're a Mets fan and Philly's fan, you'd kind of be saying like, fuck, I was hoping the Nats would kind of chill and have their World Series slumpier. But if they bring in Donaldson, they are very real again. So I don't know. I think

Donaldson's just sitting back and saying either hit four years 110, 120, or whatever his number is, or he's saying throwing that bonus year and I'll see you soon. Yeah, supposedly from one report from Feinstein, he has four years at $100 million from the Nationals, Twins, and Braves. And he's waiting for someone to go higher. I mean, he's, he's what, 34 years old, getting a four year deal, 25 mil a year. Like, if a team goes higher, good for them. But, I mean, that's a good contract.

For a 34-year-old, you know, he had a great year, but you pay $25 million for the 38-year-old Josh Donaldson. That's crazy. Good for him. Get the money. We mark the Ryu contract and the Josh Donaldson contract as the, hey, we're out of players. Let's give out risky, injury-prone contracts to good players, because that's what's happening. John Hey, Jimenez.

Who's it going to be, and where's he going? I care about ballots again because John Heyman just came out. Oh, yes, your guy. I actually like, I really don't care about these ballots. But he has Barry Bonds and not Roger Clemens. And he has Kurt Schilling. How do you vote for bonds and not Clemens? Welcome back to the ballots, baby.

I just made fun of people. I didn't make fun of. I don't care. I do not care about all that. Tell me the final result. Seems like you care a little bit. Well, no, I just like making fun of Haman. I care more about

Heyman's nonsensical nonsense than anything. All right, Jake, I think that ends this one. Very whimsical. We'll be back again this week. I think, I don't know what day we'll record it. And we still have maybe one more interview we can drop. But then next Monday, we will be doing a live show Monday night.

So maybe we'll post something Monday, morning beforehand. Maybe not. I don't know how we're going to handle that. Probably not. I think maybe we do the Monday. Well, this is a conversation for the backend. Maybe maybe the live show is the Wednesday post and we do one earlier. Who knows? Could. I can try and get our best to get back to regularly published content from talking baseball. Thank you guys for following. Thank you to all the patrons listening live. I forgot to shout out some special patrons, Jordan Funk, Tomothy. Lockdawala, Jonathan Fernandez, and Miranda.

As our most recent patrons, patreon.com slash johnboy media. We thank you very much. We are out of here as soon as I start playing the music. And goodbye forever.