Talkin' Baseball (MLB Podcast) - 82 | The New Playoff Format

Episode Date: February 13, 2020

MLB sent out a new proposal that expands the playoffs and has the top seeds picking their opponent like a reality TV show. Plouffe and Jomboy discuss if they are into it or against it. 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.

It's talking baseball and we are talking baseball changes. New playoff format. Let's talk all about it. What's going on, everybody? Welcome back to Talking Baseball. I know you've been enjoying our little mini episodes, but this is a full episode, but not the full cast. Jake is skiing on a mountain. It is just ploof and myself, John Boy, and we are going to be talking all about these changes that have been proposed.

and I think just a little spoiler. I think Ploof and I differ a little bit, so that should be a fun conversation. Anyway, how are you doing today? I'm doing great. I think this is going to be my favorite episode because Mr. Jake is not here. Yeah.

So just a little bit more screen time for myself. I'm always all about that. A lot of people just turn the volume up a little louder. Like, oh, okay. Let me tune in. All right, this episode of Talking Baseball is brought to you by Daniel Whipple, Ben McKinney Mike Farber

Bradley Ray Noah Dubois Zach Moore Brent Bonn Joseph Owen Dylan Byrnehart Stephen Simon and Jimmy Donnelly

Those are our most recent Patrions ploof Noah Dubois I feel like I nailed that name That was pretty good I was I'm impressed with that And no random sounding names again this week I think everyone's being like truthful

Danny Whipple Danny Whipple is a pretty fun name Danny Whip. That's a good name. Yeah. Yeah, that's a good one. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, man. I don't know. How are you doing? You good? You're excited? Yeah, we're getting ready for our spring training trip. I guess I don't know if we've announced that. I mean, you guys have announced that I'm going. I really haven't announced that I'm going. But I made it official yesterday. Yeah, you kind of announced it to us yesterday. Yeah, I said, hey, I'm coming. Let's pack some more people on that sardine can of an RV and let's go, baby. So it'd be fun. I think it's to be a lot of fun. It'll be a lot fun. Are you, like, are you, is your ex, is your ex. player like are you jonesing seeing all these guys show up to spring training and it's like the happy hopeful time or are you any part of you like damn it i'm happy for everyone you know this is so i wasn't spring training last year that was my last like official baseball time so this is your first non-spring training since 2004 it's been a long time man so yeah i definitely you know all my buddies are leaving i'll meet up with a couple of them before they go but the pitchers and catchers are already gone and

It's awesome, man. It's such a fun time to see, you know, everyone back out there. You know, it's a good time for baseball. Did you see the Astros didn't allow any of their players to talk to the media today? I did not. First day and they, what, they say, like, no media? They roped off the parking lot, like barricaded it. And then, yeah, no one's allowed in, like, where the players are.

That doesn't make any sense. No, it's bad PR. Oh, yeah. Which is kind of what they're... Nope, it's no PR. Yeah. Going with a no PR situation there. Okay.

Yeah, they've been blowing it. But that, that's, that's a fiery issue we're going to not really touch today. It's a whole different issue. A whole different issue. And this, I mean, fiery as well,

like the reactions to this were incredible. And actually different than I originally thought. When I first read, was a Sherman who put the article out? I, I'm not sure. Maybe. But when I first read it,

I was like, sounds interesting, like kind of stupid. My gut reaction was that I'm like, this is kind of stupid. But then I started thinking a little bit more about it. And I was like, I can get on board with this. And then I read just like the replies and mentions. And it was people absolutely hate this proposal. Yeah.

You included. Yeah. I'm not a fan. I'm not a fan for it's kind of not just the proposal. it's more just, and this, maybe we're just diving right into it. So can you tell everyone the proposal first? Yeah, let's go over the proposal. So currently it stands, what do we have, three division winners and two wild cards.

So five teams, so ten teams total. It's a third of the league. And this proposal would add, how much would it add? It would add two teams per size, so 14 teams total. And the way they have it set up is you would have the, first, the best overall record in each league would have it by. Okay. And then you'd have the two remaining division winners and then the top wild card.

So that's three teams. They would host a three game series between the next three teams. Yeah. And the biggest. All home games for the top seed. All home, all three home games. And the, why people hate this. the most oh there's a couple reasons but I think this is why people hate it the most but

the big reveal here was that that first I guess the second best record in the league which would be one of the division winners most likely would get to pick their opponent then it dropped down the next team could pick their opponent and then the remaining two teams would play each other and people found and there'd be like a selection show and people likened it to The Bachelor and they thought it's very gimmicky which I also think it's a little gimmicky. It's very gimmicky.

But wouldn't you watch it, Jim? Of course, but that's not what we're arguing here. I mean, we are people saying, hey, we need to get more fans and join the game. Different fans. I think that's what this is for. You know,

the people arguing about it on Twitter, I said this on my Twitter. I said MLB doesn't want, doesn't need you guys. The people that are arguing about this on Twitter, they already got you. It's the other people, the casual fan that they need to go and figure out. I know it's just a proposal. Exactly. I'm glad you brought that at first.

So go ahead. And I liken these proposals to Facebook updates since 2007. Whenever Facebook updates or Twitter updates, people just fucking go crazy. And there's all these, like, Facebook groups. Join this, and it'll revert you back to the old Facebook. And I don't know. That's like from 2008. And people get so mad.

And then now, if I look back at the Twitter from 2011 that I was once clamoring for, I'd be like, wow, that's so bad. I'm so glad we changed, you know? So it was kind of just social, like society just kind of rejects these things outright. And then it becomes whatever. And the wild card game right now is a really good thing. it sounded crazy and it's kind of fun. I will say now, as a fan, okay, but as a player, last year, think about this, Jim, you know,

we had the raise and the A's playing in a wild game, a one game fucking playoff. Those teams won 97 and 96 games respectively, and they have to go and play one game to decide their playoff fate, who they're going to play or where they're, you know. It's that is stupid. I love. So I've had this proposal for a while to change it because I love that it's like it opens up with a bang. Hearts are on the line right away. Yeah.

As a fan, I love that too. Yeah, as a fan, unless you're a fan of a team that's playing in it. But you can do that in a way and you can say so like it was A's, Ray, it was A's raised last year and the A's were the home team, right? Yes. So the way I would do it is the A's have to win one game. Okay. The Rays have to win two games.

All of the games are in the Coliseum. That way you still get that game seven feel because the race... So the A's in that situation would just have to win one of two games, essentially, if they win the first one. Yes. Okay. And the Rays, if they win the first game, now they've got to win the second game. And that's basically the elimination game. You can't do that because you have to sell tickets and stuff

But I guess you know You sell tickets for games five, six and seven And they may not happen So yeah, stand by I still think that's my favorite way to handle it You get the game seven feel The Rays are playing for their life right now And then if the Rays win or the bottom wild card wins

Bam, you have game seven the next day And now there's a little more of a fighting chance For this 96 win team Yes, I mean What you're saying there is a change And like, I think that's what I disliked most about all this reaction that was happening to this proposal was the fact that people are like, we don't want anything to change. Why does everything have to change? My own wife said that, you know, and, you know, I have to agree with her to her face, but she's not here right now.

There's been so many changes throughout the game. And I actually watched the Joel Sherman. He went on MLB network and was talking about it. And he's like, when did you become a baseball purist? Was it, you know, before they had a DH? Was it before the wildcard game? Was it before there was integrated play? Like there's been changes to the game

and most of them for them. Most of them are good. And we end up just becoming, they become commonplace and we end up liking them. So it's okay to like have these exploratory talks and these proposals, keyword there, proposals for something that could possibly make the game better. And my biggest,

my biggest thing right now is that one game playoff. Between two 97, 96 win teams playing one game is nuts for the players. It's horrible. You play that whole entire season, 162 games, dude. Comes down to one. That's just not fair. I get that. And I think the simplest idea would be to make it a three-game series, then make all the

other series seven-game series. You have more playoff games there, so you're making more money, and it's more interesting for the fans. I think I'd like that more if it was three games and then seven. I still like the first game being... Would you like this proposal if there wasn't the Bachelor or

we pick you thing? No. No, because I, no, because I still think that many teams shouldn't make the playoffs in baseball. You play so many games, they have to count for something. If you let half the teams in, now you are rewarding a team that's not necessarily trying to win. They didn't put their best foot forward at the trade deadline or at the off season to win, but they may be able to sneak in, and now you're kind of rewarding the owners that were trying to kind of not reward. I've heard that argument, and a lot of players have kind of come out and said that too,

but I don't know if that's necessarily true. You know, if we have, the way I see the game going right now is you have those five playoff spots. Typically, there's like three that are already like before the season. Everyone kind of knows, like this season, the Dodgers have a 99.9% chance of making the playoffs according to these Pocoda standings that we're going to get into a little later. So you have these teams that are already going to be in the playoffs. And then, you know, because.

there's the wild cards, you kind of know that certain teams know if they don't win their division, they're just out of it. They're not going to win that wild card. So when it comes to the deadline, they look. Like, our chances of making the playoffs are very slim. That's why all these assets have been available at the trade deadlines for these teams. So there's guys leaving, you know, and essentially kind of creating these super teams towards the end of the year. And I think this might have the opposite effect where there'll be that team that's projected for 80 to 82 wins, 84 wins. And maybe they're like, hey, if we can add this guy who's going to add a few extra wins,

we'll get into playoffs. And like we saw last year with the nationals, yes, did they have the best record in baseball from whatever it was, you know, May 1st on or something like that. But they were a wild card team who almost lost the wild card game, should have lost the wild card game. Yeah. Shout out Trent. World champions. Yeah.

So they, you know, I think there's. I think people are just saying this, but I don't know how to work. You know what? I'm open to exploring it. Trade deadline already. We're not really understanding how this trade deadline with two wildcard team works because it was like a lot of teams hesitant to sell a lot more thinking they get by. The twins in 2018 bought and then sold.

In August. In August. And then made the wild card. Yeah. And they had no business being in the wild card. So if there's a team that was going to be worse than the twins in 2018 also in the wildcard, now you have two teams with no business being in the wild card in 2018. Yeah, but what does that mean?

No business. Like the record might not indicate it, but maybe they, I mean, the difference is being. They were going to, they'd be a bad product moving forward. If they snuck out two games, then you have like shitty teams in a DS, which you can have anyway. I think that I think that is true in other sports. but I don't think in baseball that's true. In basketball, there are just teams that aren't going to win. In football, you can kind of say that too.

But in baseball, if you have a strength like the Nationals did and their starting pitching was excellent, they rode that. And if another team gets hot at the end, like we've seen a ton of wildcar teams, guys that, you know, well, they're, you know, they barely made it and they just get hot at the right time baseball you can win you can win series like that and so i'm okay with the lower seeds getting in there and upsetting a hundred win team i mean

don't you like march madness we like march madness because we want to see 16 seeds knock off number one seeds never happens but it can and you know yeah that's that's why i like that's why everyone watches it for the for the destruction for you know for that doomsday scenario for those top teams, those blue chip teams to go down. That's what everybody wants them. And I would love to see that. But also, like, it's different because March Madness is just one game. So say a bad team wins that first wildcard series.

And then you get an instant sweep the next series. And that, like, keeps happening. I don't know. And honestly, like, anything can go. And that's these, these situations can occur right now. I think, I think, and what you're finding and you're annoyed with, like, the people on Twitter and the baseball fans, the root of this problem from my point of view as someone who loves baseball

and the fans that you're seeing that are upset is that baseball is adamant that their sport isn't lovable right now and is adamant that it's not their own doing so now they need to make these changes which just sends the message to anyone that's not interested in baseball just a bad message

like it just sends that message like you know if I found out there was some sport that I'm not into and they're rapidly changing the rules. I just think of that as like a weird bad sport that doesn't know what it's doing. I think the message to be like, hey, our sports, great. It's fucking awesome. Come watch this game like the London series and the Iowa series and different marketplace. That's the type of marketing that's better.

This and all these proposals and the nonstop proposals every off season to change the game just sends the message to fans that don't like baseball. like there must be something wrong with that sport. Their own people don't even like it. So that's where I get so frustrated. It's like, oh. And Bauer said this in Hishbiel, and I've said it over and over again. They didn't market to the youth for a straight decade.

And now that youth is the 20 to 30 people, and they don't have them because they didn't market. It's not because the game's boring or the rules need to be updated. It's because you fucked up as a sport and you didn't market to these people. So now that you don't have their attention, don't go change in the sport, change your marketing. That's so no matter what rule they put forward, just that every off season we have to think we're talking about drastic rule changes to help the sport grow to people who don't like it in spite of the people that do like it. It's annoying. It's like, come on. Why are we doing this?

I get it, man. I get it. I just think those can, it can be two separate things. Like, did they fuck? up marketing players. Yes, look at me. I'm like the most markable guy ever. Yeah, you should have have a mic in your hand the whole time you were playing. Unreal. But no, I'm just kidding. But yes, they missed the window there. They created bam and they centralized their content, like Bauer said. And thankfully, the heroes at John Boy Media, we're trying to, we're trying to

figure that out. Yeah. We're working, trying to figure it all out. So I think that's a problem that they can easily solve that. And I think they will. I think they're on they're taking steps, um, in doing that. But you can also try to improve the game. Like I just don't think the way it's set up right now is, you know, the optimal playoff structure. I understand why people want less teams in the playoffs because it makes a regular season worth more. And that's kind of what baseball's calling card has been. Like it's very hard to get into the playoffs. So once the playoffs comes around, you know, it's really, I guess really more meaningful games. But, it's okay to explore and just read some proposals.

And how about like you propose something, then we go back to you with something. It's okay to do that. Like those two things are separate to me. When you start lumping them together and just saying, look, you guys fucked up your marketing and now you're trying to do all these things. I don't think that's necessarily the case.

I think that there's, they're just two separate things. But, I mean, you know the real reason they're doing this. Like we can really just get into the real reason they're doing it. 2021. A couple of things are happening in 2021.

We've already talked about the CBA on this. Yeah, Mark Gorman in the chat asks like, how does this play into that? Yeah, link down to the CBA for dummies. So once there's that going down where we're going to have to talk to the MLBs have to talk to the players about stuff. And then there's a couple different TV deals that are up. So what do TV networks care about? They care about playoffs.

They care about meaningful games. They care about elimination games. So this is a play. This is their play to maximize profits, to maximize the deals that they're going to negotiate in 2021. They're saying, hey, we can add more playoffs. Let me get my thumb in the picture. There it is. Add more playoffs.

Add elimination games and keep fans in trying to keep fans interested throughout the season as well. So this is just their play. You know, they're already starting to have. their pitch for those that 20-21 negotiations with the players and with these TV networks. You know, there's a lot of streaming sites that are going to be there, you know, along with traditional broadcasting like the Foxes and in the ABCs. So like they're going to pit each other, they're going to pit them against each other. And this is one of the ways they're going to do it.

They're going to say, look at this brand new proposals we have. It's going to keep eyeballs on the sport at the most important time. Who wants us? How much money you're willing to give us? That is the play. I don't think it has anything to do with, you know, do they really? care, like that the playoff system isn't optimal? Probably not, but

it's, this is their way to up the price. You think there's any smarts behind it where they offer the two things, the expansion into the playoffs and then the, the Super Mart Sweet Stakes where you choose you know, who you're going to play? And they're like, people will hate the choosing and we'll sneak the

expansion. Because that's where I'm at. Like, all right, expand, fine, but don't do the fucking. Don't do. Don't do the TV game show pick your opponent like this is American Gladiators. We already thought about the sleight of hand that they use. So yes, yes, that's possible.

That's just silly, man. It's just like, I know you want it to be a reality show and we want it to be fun. But come on. I can't be the only sport that does that. I would fucking, I would be on the edge of my seat waiting to hear these picks

waiting to see who they picked, why they picked them. I mean, I think they'd have it, you know, set up in a way that you'd have to explain your pick. You know, you'd have somebody like at the draft, like representing you. They'll never do that. I want the GM. Let's get the fucking front office out there in front of everybody. They'd send judge and he'd be like, he'd say something that means nothing. But everyone on the internet and everyone that analyzes stuff will try to interpret it.

Why did he mean by that? Yes. Well, guess what? That's what, that's what, look at this off season, as shitty as it's been for baseball, there's been scandals and he had this and all this stuff. Everybody's talking about baseball. And that's kind of what they want, you know, so. Yeah, I actually think, I think the Astro stuff has been great for baseball. I was explaining this with someone the other day.

I think, I think, you know, you get the casual fan and they go, wait, what did they do? Wait, how did they do it? And in those answers, they're learning. about the intricacies of the sport, which that needs to be promoted more. So you think this is last season been good for baseball overall? I think it's the best offseason baseball's had in a long time.

Wow. And last year, last year when Harper and Machado were free agents and it was supposed to be the best, it was the worst. It was the worst. You know, Bill Simmons tweet, my buddy sent me this tweet today,

Bill Simmons. Bill Simmons is like a big deal and I don't even know who he is. I know. We compare ourselves to the ringer when we're going through, investments and stuff, but I've never consumed a second of ringer stuff. But Jake, Jake likes his stuff, and so does some of the people.

He's got 6 million followers on Twitter. So, like, obviously he's doing something right. But his tweet today was garbage. Jake, can I read it? Yeah, Jake likes poking at him because he's a Boston-centric guy. Is he? Okay. I'm going to get this tweet up right here.

My buddy sent it to me. Here it is. From Bill Simmons. The fact that Rob Manfred hasn't punished the players in evolved or said that he's at least planning on it is one of the most indefensible sports commissioner moments ever. I don't mind that part of the tweet. Obviously, he's talking about the Astros scandal and all that shit.

So this is the part I don't agree with. Since 1994, baseball has been steadfastly destroying itself abhorrent leadership. Now, he probably doesn't watch baseball. I don't know. That's just someone, like that's what the, like, the zeitgeist of, and I use that word all the time and Jake's like, what's it mean? I mean, the common thought of the time and place of the people that don't love baseball. Yeah.

Like that's the perception of people that don't enjoy baseball. Like that sports hemorrhaging fans, no one watches it anymore. It's not true. The numbers don't support that. But that's what Manfred spreads. That's the headline reading. I fucking can't stand that shit. Like read the article.

Like read the substance. The headline shit kills me. So my buddy sent me that and I said, well, I don't think it's true. I just did a quick Google search. 2002, the average team, guess how much they were worth? $20 million. Well, come on, bro. $2,000.

$286 million was the average team value in 2002. Today, $1.77 billion. You're telling me the sports hemorrhaging? No, but I'm saying, I'm with you, man. Yeah, Bill. But, dude, that's the message that Manfred and the top do send. Like, Bill Simmons only thinks that because Manfred. Every year says our game is too slow.

The youth don't enjoy our game. We need to speed up the game and they make these dumb rules. Batters can't step out of the box now in between pitches. We're going to have a pitch clock. We can't have a pitcher throw more than... None of that fucking matters. And all it does is send to the people like Bill Simmons the bad message. So that's why I'm sick of every winter.

Manfred trying to fix problems that don't exist. Yeah, I'm not like... I'm not trying to like defend. Manfred though I think a lot of the stuff he's done is ridiculous and a lot of times I think he's just trying to like make his mark on the game for some fucking reason like I think dude I I I thought it was funny when people were pinning these like proposals on Manfred like this was proposed by owners and they approved it and he just signs his name on the bottom yeah there's a lot of things that he's done that are just not right you know um lacking quality control on the baseballs we can start there

how he's handled the astro situation we can go there but like this proposal there but everyone just absolutely just lit on fire, I don't think it's that bad, you know? And I know we wanted to talk a little bit about Powers video. So, I mean, I don't know if anybody's watched that. Yeah, I hope he'll say this. He's probably going to get in trouble. And he doesn't speak for all the players.

I think sometimes it comes off like he speaks for everybody. But he made some good points about, you know, how MLB is behind on sharing their content and how I think he said, like the NBA when Steph Curry, you know, has a bounce pass for an assist. Five million people see it within five minutes. And when Mike Trout robs at Homer, you can't find the clip on Twitter, which is true.

Well, follow talking baseball, follow John Boy, because if you're a Yankees fan, I've been doing that forever. And we're friendly with Major League Baseball, so we're in the clear. We're trying to really mix it up. But what I, about Bauer, I love that he uses this platform

and he shares and he has opinions. I think we need another player who differs from him respectfully to do the same thing. So that Bauer's not the only guy doing this. So we're like one step. You know what I'm saying? It's insane that he's the only guy doing it. But then I think back when I was a player, which isn't too long ago, you know, like,

you're just focused on playing. Like that's how you make your money. You know, it's so hard that you have to focus on it. But it's crazy to me that more guys have done. I guess Bregman's kind of done it. Well, that's kind of shit. shit hits the fan or has hit the fan so now they're barricading the parking lot so he can't even talk yeah uh so yeah bowers kind of out there on an island with this and good for him that he's actually

you know figure this out he has his youtube channel he's doing stuff like that but um yeah i think that going back to what we're talking about you can kind of just separate these problems you have with mlb these problems you have with manfred you can separate those with this proposal and just be like hey, it's okay to think about some of these things while these other things are getting figured out. Yeah, like the rule about the cleats, obviously it's fucking stupid. Like you should go to wear whatever cleats you want, which I think now you can. You know, like they need to showcase and market players more. They're way behind on that.

They need to let their content breathe on social media. Yes, that all makes sense. But like, it's okay to propose things. It's okay to try to progress the game and just try to keep going because that's what we've done throughout the history of baseball like are we the slowest major sport to make changes yes

but there's been a lot of changes made and there's going to be more changes made in the future and it's like I just it just made me mad that everyone just like dismissed it entirely right away without even thinking about it at all yeah but you're you're following the diehard fans and those are the ones

that feel slighted by baseball seems like the only sport that is constantly trying to go get to get to like get the people that don't like them to love them you know like if you're like if you're in love with a girl but she keeps trying to impress the guy who clearly doesn't like her you'd be like I'm right here I'm willing to take you out on a day every night entertain me like do me not that guy doesn't like you yeah man let's I don't know it's it's interesting because i do believe that like they kind of feel like they they do they have their hooks into the the baseball fan and like they're like hey let's go try to get a little bit more

somebody else yeah but we always talk we're talking right now about how manfred and whoever spreads this idea the zeitgeist that baseball is dying and then we talk about how the nfl my gosh their product is it's going crazy and everybody loves the nfl it's the new national pastime meanwhile The youth isn't playing football. Nobody wants their son or daughter to play football. There's a fucking new league trying to go up against the NFL. The XFL is trying to fill time and take players and take, you know, views away from the NFL. But the whole narrative on the NFL is that it's the best that it's ever been and all this.

And I haven't looked at any of the numbers, but I bet you it's bullshit. You know, I bet baseball is actually probably doing better than the NFL. if you really look long terms and how it's going to be in 50 years. I don't know if the NFL's going to be here in 50 years. I mean, the fucking, the Pats have to sell out eight games. Yes. The best thing they have going for them is the reds.

The Red Sox have to sell out 81, you know, like, and they do it. Yeah, I guess you can make a case for both. Like, I just said that that's the best thing they have going for him. And I guess I'll give a reason for that is because you have. an arc. You have Monday, Tuesday, you're talking about the game on Sunday. Then Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, you're doing lead up to the game. Saturday is like, let's get ready. Sunday's the big game, and it starts over. And that's why there's just constant chatter about football. They have their, you know, everyone's always talking about it. And then, but that's also great for MLB because we're playing 81 games.

There's always someone talking about it. So it goes hand in hand. What MLB needs to do, in my opinion, and I'm not the smartest of guys, but I give things thoughts. sometimes. Know the youth, you know, the zero through 20-year-olds, don't care if they watch a single regular season baseball game. I don't think that should be a focus at all. You should have those kids playing baseball. So you should make them play baseball, youth sports,

go into the inner cities, go into places that don't have it, like, you know, put camps in Wyoming and whatever. have them play it because, you know what, kids should not be coming home every night and watching a baseball game from 7 to 10 Monday through Friday. They should be out playing and doing homework and stuff. And then when those kids turn 21 and they graduate college and they go get a 9 to 5 and they come home at 6 o'clock every night and they're miserable and they're like, what do I do?

I do, like, oh, I can watch baseball. I played that as a kid. I know how, I know the ins and outs of the games. I understand it, and then it's there for them every night. Who cares if the under 20s watch regular season baseball? They will when they're adults if they like it as kids and play it. So that's what I do. I hyper focus on getting kids to play it.

I agree. I agree. And you sprinkle in a little bit of better social media presence for baseball. Give them the highlights. Yeah. From 20, give them the highlights. And they'll watch the playoff games. Yeah.

Yeah. Have them know the personalities of the players. and I totally agree with that. I mean, I don't want, nobody wants their kid just watching baseball. And who can watch five games a week? You know, you can't. Jake and that's all.

Yeah, it's like, Jake was, no, Jake was a sports like kid. I wasn't. I played and I didn't start watching like every Yankees game until freshman year of high school. Okay.

So I'm still 14 there, but. I totally agree with your proposal there. Like get the kids to play baseball. Send him to coach ball games, Instagram. He's crushing it lately. I don't know if you've seen some of the videos he's been making. He's cracking me up.

Yeah. So, you know, send him there. Like, get the kids interested in baseball. Have them play. And then, yeah, they'll be, they'll have fond memories. I mean, I think you and I both share that. Like, I didn't go to a ton of games, but I remember those games very fondly that I went to. Mm-hmm.

And, you know, obviously, we're a little different. I played a lot of baseball growing up. Yeah. They asked me to stop kindly. You know, I caught seven balls in. a row. I don't know what that means. Batting practice, foul balls,

home runs, seven games in a row, I got a ball. Oh, wow. From ages like six to 12. Wow. Or eight to 12, yeah. That's really lucky. That's really lucky. Best one was Paul O'Neill's warm-up ball

right to me, Chicago. What do you mean is his warm-up ball? He just threw it right to you? Right field, yeah, he was warming up with it, and then the ending was going to start to turn through it into the crowd. That's like every kid's dream. Seven in a row. Yeah, it was wild.

Did you say BP? BP. BP, I'm counting BP as well. How would a kid get your attention for a ball and BP? My dad always used to say, call him Mr. and their last name when I was a little kid. So if an eight-year-old goes, Mr. Plouf, would you give him more attention than Trev? Yeah. Yes.

Definitely, you know, Mr. Pluth, you can do nicknames, but just be polite about it. Say, please. Thank you. Those go a long way for baseball guys. Because really when you were just... And everywhere in life and everywhere else. But when you're just looking at the crowd and they're like, hey, hey, hey, it's like, what?

Yeah. But if you're a little more polite about it, that's definitely a way to get in Boston. That's good. Hicksey in spring training once he told someone like, someone knew his dog's name. I was like calling his dog's name. And that was like too much for him.

He was like weirded out. And that's something I think my dad would have thought was a great tactic. I think, yeah, that's something personal is good. I mean, whenever someone says, like, my high school or I know so and so, like, that gets your attention for sure. Yeah. You know, it could be a little creepy.

Yeah. If you start going out like, I know your mother's maiden name. Yeah. Weird shit like that. Does your mother have a cool maiden name? She does. I'm not releasing it. Okay.

All right. Isn't that like what they ask you for like your bank records and stuff like that? I don't know. My mom's maiden name's Papa, which is an awesome. awesome name. Should I just say mine? I don't know. Your bank records are attached to it now it feels like. They probably are. I don't know. Did I make that up? It's Armijo with a J. Oh, that is cool. It shows my, it shows my roots. What is it? What's your roots? What's the Latin country tied to Armijo? Well, for a long time, my parents told me I was Spanish and French and then I did the 23

and me thing or ancestry, but I don't know what I did. And I found that I was British, mostly, French, And then, like, 17% indigenous North American, so Native American. Oh. So, but it's like Mexico Native Americans, like Aztecish. Yeah, I mean, Mexicans are just the babies of the Spanish who had their way with the Mayans. This is true. Aztec Mayan, yeah. Aztec Mayans, yeah.

So, yeah. So that's me. Nice, nice, cool. British. I mean, Plouf is very British-sounding name. No, it's French. It's very French. We're like off the rail.

You have these rankings or whatever? This is going to be fun. We're going to go through. What is the name of the site that does this? Pocoda. It's baseball prospectus, I believe, and they put out, I don't know what that stands for. I just say Pocoda, because that's what it's spelled like, P-E-C-O-T-A. And these came out yesterday or two days ago.

So they're fresh rankings. And this is basically, I did a little reason. search into it and they just run a zillion different scenarios and what would you call that like simulations yeah and then they kind of group those all together and and then they put out like the most common scenarios and then they give wind projections. Pocoda stands for player empirical comparison and optimization test algorithm and it to me that to me it sounds like they came up with Pocoda and then filled in the blanks. Yeah, that doesn't make any sense.

And I will say this, I don't love any of these. Like, I don't love any projection systems. I mean, I hate them. I understand what teams use them, you know. But, like, these ones, particularly this early in the season, I think, are off. But we're not, we don't really care about, like, the accuracy of them right now. We're just going to use them as a guideline to see if your team would make the playoffs and then who would they choose. Yes.

So I got it all right here. All right. Before we go to these Pocoda standings, I got to talk to you about something very important. Look around you, Trevor. It's a wireless world. And everyone needs a great pair of wireless earbuds before you go dropping hundreds of dollars on a pair.

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And Raycon always gives you both. It doesn't say that here. But I guarantee they always give you an earphone or your pod for both ears. I would say so. Yeah. And you already know Raycon earbuds started about half the price of any other premium wireless earbuds on the market. And they sound just as amazing as the top audio brands that you know that we won't say. And Raycon's latest model, E25, error on number 25.

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Raycon's wireless earbuds are so comfortable, perfect for the on-the-go listening and taking calls. You know what? They gave me, Raycon sent me airphones at the very same day that I lost my others, which was very, like, the universe is bizarre. And they come with custom fit things. Ooh, I like that. Everyone's ears are different sizes. I have little earlobes and little tiny ears. I don't know if you knew that about me.

And like nails on a chalkboard make me shiver. a bunch and I researched it and it has to do with the size of your earlobe how much you're affected by those sounds. Interesting. Yeah. So the Raycon, they're comfortable. Please share your experience with the Raycon. I didn't even get to that part yet and I've already done it twice.

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Oh, wow. All right, let's do it. Two teams of the buy, very easy to guess to the two teams of the buy, with the best record in both leagues, the Yankees and the Dodgers. So they're gone. So they have to wait six days until everything plays out. That's also a misconception with this that Bauer was very upset about. He said six, seven days after the season.

But right now, last year, the Dodgers had three days off. and the Astros had four days off. But that includes a travel day. And the proposal is Sunday night selection committee, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, home game. And then just say Thursday travel, then that's only, you know, it's five days. Yeah.

So. Still not great. It's not great, but the current system isn't great either. You know, the new system. system would really suck for families traveling. It's really easy to travel if you're a player, you just fucking hop on. Everyone takes care of your shit. It's the families that would really suffer with this.

Anyways. Yankees Dodgers. Bye, sitting pretty. So then you go the two other division winners, which the Astros are projected to win the A.O. West. The twins are projected to win the A.L. Central. And then it would leave the top wildcard team as the raise. On the National League side, and this is the projections for this are fucking insane. We have the Mets projected to have the second best record in the NL and win the NL East.

The Reds are projected to win the NL Central, and then the first wildcard team will be the Nationals. And then back to the AL, your remaining three wildcar teams are the Angels. the Indians in Oakland. Sorry, Boston. Pocoda does not like your chances this year. You miss the playoffs by like 0.5 games. On the National League side, it's the Cubs, the Braves, and the Cardinals.

They would make up the final three, bottom three wildcard teams. And it's important to reference this because people are saying, oh, there's going to be a bunch of shitty teams in the playoffs. The Cardinals are the only team projected to finish under 500, and it's like 80. They're projected to win like 80.7 games, so just under 500.

So they'd be the only sub 500 team in the playoffs. Okay. So in the American League, Astros will get first pick. And it would be... You're going to pick all these. I can't wait to see. I have who I picked.

I want to see who you're going to do. Astros have the first pick of the Angels, the Indians in Oakland. Angels, Indians, Oakland. So that's two in-division teams. I mean, so honestly, like, this pick is going to come down to if the Oakland just, like, went full bore to win, and they just use their good pitcher. Like, it's going to be what pitchers do they have lined up?

Yep. Also, I'm going to be part of it. Yeah. Also, I would choose the Angels because they have less good. starting pitchers that I think that they're going to be scared of. Okay. And that got to go to Houston. So the Astros are choosing the angels in my brain.

Okay. Astros, angels. Twins, up next, you have to pick between the Indians and Oakland. Oakland. Really? Okay. The rays with all their bullpenning and doesn't matter who their starters are and they got a nasty rotation. That's not how you can pick from.

The twins would have to pick between Indians and Oakland. Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, Indian, then, yeah. Okay, so if you were the twins, you pick the Indians in Oakland and Ray's, we'd have a rematch. Yeah, how about that? Three-game series rematch. In the Trap this time. In the Trap. I picked, I thought the Stroes would pick the Indians, the twins would pick the Angels, and then I had the Rays in Oakland.

You think you'd think the Astros would go out of division? I think they'd choose stay in division because they are so familiar. There's so much tape. Yeah, I mean, again, I think there's a lot of factors that would come into play here. Like you said, who's going full board, who's pitched the last couple days? That's going to be a huge thing in the three-game series. It'd be interesting if the bottom team is just, like, they're not even going full board. They just been hot as shit for all of September.

They went like, they won 17 games out of their last 22. in September, and they're the bottom, bottom team, but no one picks them because it's the hot hand. Hot hand, yeah. I went with the shows in the Indians because I figured they wouldn't want to face the best player in baseball if he gets hot. Like, Mike Trout just fucking takes over the series. Rendon behind him, too. And Rendon and Otani. And so I went with the Indians because I feel like they don't have that, like, player that's going to take over the game.

They have some amazing players. Lindor, Ramirez. Jose Ramirez is, you know, but anyways, so I went Stroes Indians, twins angels, raised Oakland. Flip to the National League side now. Dodgers have the buy. Mets, you are up. And you get to pick between the Cubs, the Braves, and the Cardinals.

If I'm thinking with my Mets brain. Okay. What brain? The Mets brain, like they're the way they think, they never call out the Braves. because if they call out the Braves in division and then lose, everyone will just be like L-O-L Mets. Yes. Everyone's already L-L-Mets.

Yeah, they get that no matter what, but they can't do that. I actually think you give the lower seeds bulletin board material. Yeah, that's part of this. Like the first pick almost gets super motivated. It's almost bad to be the team that makes the first pick. Like if I am the Astros twins or Reyes I'd much rather be the Reyes who get last pick than the Astros.

Sure, because it's just like, we just, yeah, we're just playing. Who cares? We don't care who we're playing. You guys, you guys choose who you're going to lose to, you know? Yeah. Like that's the mentality I'd put in the clubhouse. Yes. Okay, so you haven't picked anybody yet.

Oh, so the men. Yeah, yeah, the men. The Cubs. Okay. We have the Reds. And the Reds would pick the Cardinals? The Braves are scary, dude.

Yeah, yeah. So that's exactly what I have. I put Mets would pick the Cubs, Reds would pick the Cards, and then the Nats would pick the Braves. I wouldn't have a choice, but they'd play the Braves. Yeah. So the scenarios, yeah,

Stroes Indians in Houston, twins angels in Minnesota, Ray's Oakland, in the Trop. And then Mets hosting the Cubs, Red's hosting the cards, and that's hosting the Braves. Yeah, it's interesting. It is interesting.

So, I mean, this would be talked about so fucking much. You know, we would probably know, we probably have an idea of who the top three teams are going to be that have to pick. Most likely we would know them, and we'd have a few days to, like, to, like, think about this and to talk about this. Who are they going to pick? Who are the bottom three teams going to be? And if there are these teams, who are they going to pick?

And that's great. You want that. I would love that. Is it stupid and kind of gimmicky? Yeah, but a lot of things are stupid and kind of gimmicky that we like. Americans love stupid gimmicky shit. It just, here's what I'll say. Whatever changes MLB makes, like, I'm hooked.

And that's part of the problem. You know, you're not going to, you're not going to, you're not going to lose me. And if they expand it, I'll eventually learn to like it. I think that's what baseball fans do. You throw changes out of way, complain about them most, and then we're like defending them to our death in a little bit, you know? But I still don't like the selection committee and making it a TV show.

I think it just is so tacky. Yeah. I mean, yeah, I've said that from the get-go. That's gimmicky for sure, no doubt about it. But we're talking about it. Yeah. All damn off season, man. Baseball has been hot.

I know. And this disaster stuff isn't going to go away, and there's going to be more to talk about soon. It's been a good offseason, I think. Some people probably argue you on that one. I don't know. All the signings have been good, too. Signing, free agency has been pretty good.

So many teams. Jake and I have been recording these TPPs, your initials. That's right, baby. And so many teams went out and tried to win. There's like six that aren't. It's one in every division, two in the AL Central. Yeah, it's, I don't know, man. You know, we always talk, like you said,

we always hear about how baseball's in the worst spot, and I just, I don't necessarily agree with that. So this is, yeah, it's been a hell of an off season. I can't wait to hear what the Astros have to say. I know we kind of always go back to that on this damn show, but once they open up the, the clubhouse is going to be interesting man because those reporters now they have ammo they're probably pissed today so now they're like all right let's yeah right they're piss off the reporters by doing that now they're going to ask all the questions but you know what's going to happen they're going to have some fucking stupid statement they're going to read they're going to say we put this statement out and they're or else they're just going to repeat it and just be like you know whatever just how bregman answered in at fan fest you know you know, It would be exactly that.

I hope it isn't. I hope they're smart enough now. They're just, but look, we fucked up. We fucked up bad. Like, I'm sorry. You know, we took it a little too far. And, you know, we don't want that to happen. We're playing the game clean now.

And we want to show our abilities on the field. We still believe in ourselves as a team. We're remorseful about what happens. It won't happen again. We don't want that in baseball. I'm going to clip that sound bite from you and just say, Plouf apologizes for cheating. Yeah.

Just say that. People will be like, what? He cheated too? With what team? Oh, man. I'm the cleanest player out there. Cleanest player in MLB history. That's what I heard.

It's unreal. And I'm so marketable and they really messed that up. It is. All right, man. I think we wrapped it up. Thank you guys for listening. We'll hang out the patrons for a little bit afterwards. But here's the outro song.

Jake sucks. Yeah, we'll see you. Tomorrow for TPP.