Talkin' Baseball (MLB Podcast) - Biggest Storylines Heading Into Spring Training! | 1092

Episode Date: February 11, 2026

Use our code for 10% off your next SeatGeek order*: https://seatgeek.onelink.me/RrnK/TALKIN2026. Sponsored by SeatGeek. *Restrictions apply. Max $20 discountHead to https://www.factormeals.com/talkin50off to save 50% off your first box!Book your next trip at https://www.bestwestern.comSame night out — way better morning with Cheers. For a limited time our listeners are getting 20% off their entire order by using code TALKIN at CheersHealth.com.  #Cheers #ad Coach Trev and Talkin’ Jake break down all the stories heading into Spring Training for different teams, how new managers will fare in MLB, Lindor-Carroll and Holliday broken hamate bones, Skubal not being traded and more!  0:00 Intro3:50 PECOTA Standings5:00 Dodgers 3-peat7:15 New Managers coming into MLB21:55 What needs to happen with MLB Coaches42:30 The Giants & Mets infield what is it?49:50 Hamate bones get Carroll, Lindor and Holliday out59:00 What level of bad baseball that gets Skubal traded?1:04:15 3 Japanese stars entering MLB1:16:45 Where’s Zac Gallen going?  Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Hello and welcome to talking baseball. It's storyline season. Pitchers and catchers have reported. What are we going to be looking at this year? Let's talk ball. See this bicep? That's Michael Lorenza. Drew Butera, throw the mouth.

Oh, Lake Butera. He's going to get mentioned. Hello and welcome to talking baseball. Happy February 11th as we're yucking ball. myself, Jake Storelli, Trevor Loof, Rob Seraco producing, Dalton Faley, getting the sheet ready.

The comments were really nice to me last episode. I don't know what I did, but thank you everyone. Maybe give the big guy some lot. He's already jealous. Dude, I was shocked. It was like, it was a lot. We're going to hit some of the big storylines today.

Well, we're going to hit some storylines that we want to chat about. There's obviously some big ones looming this year, 3P, ABS, stuff like that. But we've got some topics we're passionate about. We want to bring to the forefront and yuck with y'all today. So coach, getting nasty and Calabassey. How are you? I'm doing great, Jake.

I'm happy that you got some nice comments. Because it goes both ways. Sometimes you get nice comments. Sometimes you don't. Sometimes you get some bad ones. Don't. So, yeah, that's congratulations. I told you I went to dinner last night, celebrated Valentine's Day with my love.

Nice. And a new restaurant that I will not mention. Wow. I didn't love it. Yeah, it's tough. Yeah. Good, decent meal. Decent meal, but I guess maybe I hyped it up a little bit too much.

And maybe that's been part of like what we're talking about today. There's probably some people that are hyped up here. Are they going to live up to the expectations? I think we'll see. This is going to be an interesting episode, Jacob. Expectations are everything. thing in life. I always compare it to a movie. If you, if you go in and you're, Tropic Thunder, I was looking to see the best movie I've ever seen. And it wasn't that. It's a very

funny movie. That's a great movie. But dude, that cast was like my dream at the time. Did you think it was like a real movie or no, no, no, no. It was just like my dream cast at that time that I was like, this is going to be my favorite movie I've ever watched. And I was like, oh, this is good. I laugh, but it's not my favorite like one one movie. But if you go in and you watch a movie, you have no expectations for. We were talking scary movies before this. Go watch the movie Cube. Just one of those like comes off as like a you'd look at it and you like this can't be a good movie. Good scary movie. But that's what expectations do for you. So I'm sorry about your dinner last night. I get that. I get that. Whenever you whenever you can undersell and over deliver,

that's that's the key right there, pop. And that's, I guess, you know, again, sometimes we do talk baseball on the show. Are we doing life advice? Is it a Wednesday? I guess baseball terms, it would be 83 wins for the pirates this year. That would be, I think that would be nice. If it was my Yankees, that would be a disaster. So you want to talk baseball real quick? Let's talk a little baseball.

Okay. And then we'll get back to cinema. Before we get to the big story line, the Piccota standings came out. I don't know if you got a chance to look at them yet. You're a Picotta guy? These are always so fun. And it's getting to the point of TPP.

we are going to hammer some of these. I think I'm actually going to bet on some of these this year. Every year there's one Pocoda team that it's just like, what the heck is this? And I don't, I feel like it doesn't play out that way. I mean, I know this,

some people aren't sports gambling people and that's fine, although we thank our friends of the Graph King Sportsbook. I just like, hey, if you're looking for an honest number, like go to Vegas because they're playing with money. So that, that's like the most honest expectation. you'll get on the team.

Milwaukee. Oh my God. They're so disrespect. 84. 80. Stop it. 80. Come on.

That's so obnoxious. Computer. Like, figure it out. Like, life actually happens, computer. Like, it's happened every year. We do this every single year. I think the, I think the most money I made last year was on the Milwaukee. Brewers winning over 83 games, which did like August 27th.

All right. Let's get into, didn't plan it, but Rob was ready on the YouTube. Go check that out. Had the Bacota lined up. Let's get into some storylines. Again, we're going to go back and forth. And some topics I think we're going to get lost in. There might be some manager talk people.

I know that's what you're here for. And yeah, like I said, I mean, some of the topics that are going to be overarching for this season. Dodgers 3P. We're currently not going to dive into that because I think if you're listening to talking baseball, you might know that that's happening and you might know the talent they've brought in. Yeah, I think that that story is written and still being written. Okay. ABS is one that if we wanted to, and we're probably going to end up doing episodes on ABS coming up

because as it actually gets implemented and we learn some little ins and outs of it, I remember batters learning the new timeout rules that now every batter with two strikes calls time out, basically, that I'm sure ABS is going to have some ins and outs that we learn throughout the season. And Rob had a great point before the show where he was like, I'd say like 80% of ejections are because of balls and strikes that now we have a little bit more of a, I don't think it's going to affect it because I think if guys just want to be mad, they're going to be mad.

I did laugh. I was watching some MLB network the other night, and they told the famous Greg Maddox story where Maddox, Glavin, and Smolts, they're like sitting there watching the game. And they're like, yeah, you know, Maddox said something like, yeah, the umps's been fine today, like whatever. And then Bobby Cox was getting pissed off.

And Bobby's like, Maddox, what do you think about this up? And Maddox was just like, he's been terrible. He got Bobby Cox ejected. That's baseball. So after all of that, So we're kind of missing the main storylines because that's lame stream media. That's not who we are. Coach, we've got some topics on here per usual.

You and me end up off the board. Do you want to kick off or receive? We're still coming out of football season. Okay, so we're out on the three Pete. I think so. Picota, by the way, has the Dodgers at 104 win projection. So that's where they're at with their roster and how they're doing. shout out Los Angeles.

I think there are some that have a little bit more meat on the bones and some that I'm like kind of like interested in talking about. And this is probably going to shock everybody because you've heard me talk about like managers and what they mean and what they don't mean. But I think that is one of the major storylines, not just this year,

but just throughout baseball like what's changed in the way that we teach baseball? and the way we coach baseball, it's bubbling over big time to the major league level. I think a lot of that started in college, in like the PD kind of aspect of your organization, minor leagues, really low level stuff.

And in prior to, I don't know, the last five, six years, a lot of it, a lot of like coaching in baseball was done. Once you got to the big leagues, it was just like, hey, man, this guy's got it. Yeah, we're going to help you continue to get better. But it's more repetition-based.

It's more like, hey, how can we help you, you know, learn how to scout for yourself? Learn how to, you know, pour over video and we're going to go over and try to chop these pitchers up or the mental aspect of the game. Like, those are the things you worked on. And I think we're starting to see a little bit of change in that. Not only that, I think the most important thing that I want to talk about is who is coaching. Because coach, we have a ton of like first time managers and not just at the big league level, guys that have never managed at all. Greg Stammon comes in, a reliever who has, you know, experience playing.

But now he's running the Padres. He's never coached before. Kurt Suzuki, a guy who I'm very, very familiar with. shout up my my my Hawaiian brother right there uh also teammates right yeah yeah uh god he used to make fun of me so much love him for really yeah yeah he was you know i was kind of like a big dog on that team a little bit he was he put me down many times he kept you in check i needed it kind of what i do yeah yeah um he also has never coached before i think he was a special assistant um but never coached before and i think the big dog that everyone will talk well there's

there's actually several of them Blake butera being 33 years old. Craig Alburnes, who's young, but he's at least he's coached before. And Blake Bitterer has as well in the minor leagues. But like the big, I think the big fish is Tony Vitello and coming straight from the college ranks into, you know, like a team that like has expectations is going to be very interesting to see how they all handle, you know, their first year. Because we had a ton of openings this year and not a lot of guys with expectations. got those jobs. I think it says something about kind of where we're headed as far as what front offices want and what their expectations are in a manager. I think this is going to

lead to like a broader discussion about majorly baseball alumni and where do they fit in in the future of baseball because I see their numbers, our numbers, shrinking in the game. And like, is that a good thing or a bad thing? I have some thoughts on it. But I'll let you kind of go a little bit. Yeah, I'm more into this than maybe people would think because, A, I think this covers all of sport because I think, like, and again, this is where there's, there aren't exact answers. That's where it's a fun conversation because I guess I'll start with a lame Jakeism.

Like, I think the cream does rise to the top in a lot of situations. Like, go look at who just won the Super Bowl, Mike McDonald, 38 years old, didn't play college ball, but he's supposedly some sort of genius, and he climbed his way up through the ranks fast and earned his way there. David Popkins, who gets mentioned a ton on this show, and I kind of want to talk about that.

Like, he seemingly changed things with the Blue Jays, and I think he made it to double A ball. I was looking at him before, that it just becomes a recipe of who you are as a person, how you fit, your experience, how you got, there that the biggest experience is still playing Major League Baseball and it feels like we've wandered away from that. Now, I think you would admit and you don't have to name names, but I'm sure you have

plenty of teammates that you'd be like, that guy shouldn't manage anything. That guy is struggling to manage themselves that they shouldn't be managing a Major League Baseball team that your personality matters, how your personality fits with a front office, which I think that's probably something you're going to start relating things to that as these front offices have changed, kind of so are the personnel in the dugout. And then the other thing that I get passionate about

is when you start getting in, because I think there's two different discussions here. I think there's like pitching and hitting discussions and how players treat that. And then there's the manager position, which, dude, it's just funny as we look at this. Like as I look at it, Tony Vitello, So, Stammon and Suzuki.

Okay, I've got two ex-players. You got the catcher. You got the relief pitcher, which is an interesting one. And then the guy that was a coach, but at the college ranks, which, like, used to get no respect. And now here he is with Buster Posey and the Giants in that infield. That I don't know. Like, I think there's how many, there's eight new managers this year in different spots. And, like, I don't know, if I had to bet on a couple of them to be successful, it

be Walt Weiss with the Braves and Skip Schumacher with the Rangers, and that's because, well, A, they have good teams, and B, they've managed before. So, again, that turns into, like, lame sport, but I want to see where you continue to lead this. I think if we're talking to managers here, we'll start there. The biggest thing you have to do as a big league manager is be a leader of men. I talk about that all the time. Like, you are in a clubhouse with a bunch of guys who, you know, I don't want to say they have egos, but like they, they're very confident.

You have to be that way. You can say that, Trev. Look at me. I'm, that wasn't even that good. Look at me. I have a little bit of an ego. I didn't do shit. Like, Trev, these are the best athletes in the world who are now getting paid,

like the most successful people in the world. Like, that's the biggest change from like, even going back to the 90s. Like, now guys get paid on the level of. elite human beings. And yeah, that leads to an interesting, an interesting clubhouse dynamic. So that's where, you know, I say, well, can he do that? Because that's the most important thing here. Like, you know, deciding whether your reliever is done or when to pull a starter or when to throw a pinch hitter in there. Like a lot of that stuff, you're ready for that because you got a staff behind you. You got your bench coach. You got the sheet. You got the binder.

All these managers got the binder coach and you just kind of live and die by the binder. That's fine. Got a lot. That's why it's an organizational sport now because a lot of these decisions are kind of clear cut, especially during the regular season. There is a plan. Most managers just follow that plan during the regular season. I do believe managers earn their money in the postseason because there are some gut instinct feelings that you need to follow.

And those decisions are just scrutinized and scrutinize. and scrutinized. So there is a difference there. But you have to be able to lead guys through 162 games in 180 days. You got to bring them through spring training. And the biggest thing is to make guys feel good. Make them want to play every single day. Because believe it or not, like there are days where guys are going to show up,

they're just not motivated. And you can say, well, how are they not motivated? It's just part of it, man. Like they might be playing like crap or something might be going on at home. I mean, these are, they're just, regular the people man so like things happen uh so that's the biggest thing can you be a leader of men and and decipher who needs what kind of um motivation because they're different there's different types of motivation there so i think that's where you got it you got to start um and and there have

been instances in the past so like i'm not like saying what we're doing as far as these hires is wrong because if you look at like Dave Roberts, he's done pretty damn good and you could argue like he's got a pretty good team. Right. Which helps me out a lot. But I don't believe he had so he had one game of managerial experience at any level before being hired for the Dodgers. Your guy, you're like best buddy, Aaron Boone, had none. Yeah. He was an analyst on ESPN. Yeah. And they hired him and he's done, I think, a fantastic job with the Yankees. Yankee fans might disagree, which I'm not super into. I think he's done a fantastic job as a manager there.

So you don't have to have it, the experience to do it. But I think we're seeing more and more and more that kind of hire. And I think it's happening for a couple reasons. Number one, it is being, as a sport, we are getting more like organizational based. Where are the guys making these decisions, like the guys that running like baseball ops? Like, when did GM this not become the GM anymore? Like GMs don't make decisions. It's the baseball ops president now.

Yeah, man, I think I don't know the full backstory. Great time to start talking, Jake. but I do I think it has to do with it was teams like it's to prevent other teams from hiring your guy like if you elevate them to a certain position then they can't be taken yeah so I always go back to like hey the GM says this like the GM's like second right when the president of baseball ops he's the guy that's hiring everybody he wants someone that's going to agree with him right wants to run the organization the way he wants to wants to run the organization so you can't just have like you know you can't be buttoned heads every second so i think that is why we're continuing to see that and like i don't know if that's a great thing in my experience as an adult like i want pushback i want people to be like actually let's talk about this and there has to be you know a level of respect and right and cohesiveness there but if you're just like I'll use a buzzword like echo chambers out dude yeah like I'm not trying to

have everyone agree with what I say like that's that's not what I'm about and I think front offices need to like kind of like get back to that but but I do think that is a driving force in why we're seeing probably less and less like quote unquote like baseball alumni guys like being hired for these jobs and i'm not saying they're out of the game completely because they're not but if we're talking about trajectory i'd i'd bet a lot that over the next 10 years we're going to see we're going to see that continue to climb where like the non big league alumni being named managers and guys outside of normal hires being named managers and i think a lot of it has to do with well if i'm hiring this guy and i'm running this organization i want them to agree with me and i don't think

that should that should not be the case If you have everybody saying the right thing, that that works if you're the best. Like, if everyone in the Dodgers org is saying the right thing, or the same thing, okay, then they get snaps. Everyone else would not currently. And yeah, I think a phrase I learned maybe a therapy shout out. Conflict leads to resolution. Like, and not always, but either way, if it's someone you're working with in an adult manner, well, you have the conversation and then it's out there.

And then maybe you find out. And maybe you rolled the ball out there for the 25 season. And then that's when you talk about, you know, it's old school corny stuff about being a man. And sometimes we think being a man is like Jim Leland with a cigarette in the dugout. But sometimes being a man is being like, hey, I beefed that one. I thought that was going to work. It was wrong.

My bad. Let's move forward. I saw Jim Leeland Dude great Jim Leeland I've been watching a ton of MLB network Which I guess that's kind of good for my career in a way It was Barry Bonds was supposed to be traded to Atlanta

During their dynasty years And apparently they agreed on a trade And they said Jim Leeland Through such, pardon my French A shit fit That by the morning They canceled the trade Oh, I love that

How awesome is that I mean, he's like, no, he's pretty good. I don't want to say. Know who you're not trading, Barry Bonds for anything. Trev, I cut you off a little bit, and I do need to tell the people about Factor, so I hope you remember what you're talking about. And I hope that people remember to get some factor in their life. Whether you're trying to eat better, factor is where you need to go.

No meal planning or following recipes. It's two minutes, real food, and you're done and ready to go. So whatever you're looking for, those lean proteins, absolutely. Colorful veggies, healthy fats. Yeah, people don't talk about that enough. They have meals that fit your goals and schedule, whether that means healthier eating, calorie management, more protein, or anything else. Factor has what you're looking for. They've been a huge factor in our office because we're busy.

We're go, go, go, go, and Factor two minutes, you're ready. So head on over to FactorMeals.com slash talking 50 off. Use code talking 50 off, 50 off your first factor box. Plus, free breakfast for one year. Offer only valid for new Factor customers with code and qualifying, auto-renewing subscription purchase, make healthier eating easy with Factor. Coach? So, I mean, I don't really know exactly where I want to go with this other than saying,

and Dalton and I were talking about this. Shout out, Dalton, our guy, about like what needs to happen. Because even at the big league level right now, now as far as not even getting away from managers, like what the coaches that are being brought up. A lot of the guys that are being brought up again, like say let's talk about hitting coaches. That's what I know more than anything. And I think hitting coaches and pitching coaches are completely different. Although I guess there's some similarities there.

We were talking about, well, okay, there's there's a difference between swing coaches and hitting coaches. And I, if I'm an organization, I want both of those in there. The difference between a swing coach and a hitting coach, well, it's pretty obvious. obvious. Like a swing coach is a guy that understands mechanics, biomechanics, can like hook you up, analyze what your body is doing and get you back, you know, get a baseline for you and get you back there quick, which is quickly, which is a good thing to have. Like I don't, I don't think I really had that as a player. I had more like hitting coaches, which is like, yeah, we got some drills. here's some feels and let's talk about like the pitcher and the mental aspect of the game.

And a lot of times you need that and other times you need these swing coaches. And I think as far as like a swing coach, you don't need to be have experience at the major league level or even in pro ball. Like I guess it would help because, you know, you want to be as well around as possible. But swing coaches can come from from anywhere. I think we're seeing a lot of that throughout the game. You know, whether it's like via like the drive line, type like analyst coming in and being input into that.

I think if you're an organization, you have to be able to do both. And so I keep talking about a lot of these alumni are getting pushed out from these roles. And a lot of that's their fault too. I will put that on them. If you're not embracing what the hell is going on in the game and the way the game is moving, you're not going to be part of it. So like you can't sit here and just disparage like what the game is today and just say,

we need to go back this way. you're not going to get fucking hired, dude. So like, learn. Because again, like, it is, it should be a mesh of these things. So swing coaches, great. You don't have to do it. But I believe every organization should have someone that's played at the big league level as part of their hitting culture.

Because you got to know, man. You got to know what it feels like to suck. You got to know what it feels like to be really good. You got to know what it feels like to be just mired in a slump so bad you want to cry. because it's going to happen to these guys. Right. And they're not going to want to swing coach at that point. They're going to want to come talk to you, like, hey, what do I do?

And a lot of times you're going to say, ain't nothing you can do, big guy. Like you're going to be okay and talk them through it. And like there's a difference there. I think the same thing goes on the pitching side as far as there are, I mean, that's been the biggest development in baseball is pitchers, biomechanics, you know, learning how to throw harder, using their body. correct way. Getting down that freaking mound with the power behind you and adding Velo has been the biggest difference in baseball over the last 10 years. There's just nothing. You can't prove me wrong there.

And like getting in front and saying, hey, here's your arm slot. This is what it means for the friction of the baseball when you throw it and we're going to manipulate it this way. Like you have to have like to me that's so much more important than a swing coach is having. I don't even know what you would call that. Like, there's pitching coaches who will teach you how to sequence and, and how to read a hitter in the box, what he's doing. What's the guy that teaches you how to throw harder and talks about your arm angle and you're more mechanically driven?

Yeah. What's that called? That would be like the mechanics coach? Mechanics, yeah. We got to come with a better word. The mechanics tie, at this point, pitching mechanics tie into the analytic side of the game. I think those are more closely woven than swing coach hitting coach. I think so.

I think so. You can talk about sequencing and stuff, which I also saw this article talking about like stuff plus doesn't really fact. Like Paul Skeens doesn't really factor into a lot of like the stuff metrics. Like he's not like at the top of the leaderboard because they can't, they're not quantifying like, and command and stuff. That's a whole different aspect that we don't need to get into right now. But all this to say, I do think that a lot of alumni are getting disenfranchised with the game and getting pushed out. And I don't think that's a good thing.

For instance, I'll call my team out. Okay. Let's go. Man, that was some of the best, that was some of the best alumni in all of sports the twins have. we're talking and they still have rod carew comes back tony oliva comes back harman killibrew walking around you just couldn't get better um tory hunter we're talking you know even guys like cuddy and more no and mawer like they were always around always around helping out and like if you wanted to go talk to guys you can go talk to us and even now man because we're kind of lacking

that in the organization when i'm there or more no is there calling you're calling you're games or Perkins is there calling games like you'll find a lot of the guys coming to us to talk up just about the game um so it's still such a valuable aspect to coaching that i think is getting pushed out and again i will say that a lot of alumni do it to themselves by just not accepting the new the nuances and like kind of what we're doing in today's game but not having tory hunter in this organization is why to me. Yeah. It's wild to me. And there's some stuff going back to like COVID with that. But it's, it's time to like reach out and say, please come back to the organization. It means so much. I know

the Yankees have like a storied franchise with the old timers game. Like I know guys like to be around them. It means a lot. We need to be able to bridge the gap between where we're going and where we've been. Like it has to, you have to have both, man. And when I'm when we, we're We, excuse me, are running the Rockies whenever that day come. I'm telling you right now, we're going to have some alum. We're going to, you know what? They're not even going to be Rockies alum. It doesn't have to be.

It doesn't have to be. Dude, just bring in dudes. Bring in guys who have had success, who have had failures, because it's going to help the overall, I mean, it's going to help everything, man. So, like, I'm not saying, like, let's not go where we're going. Let's not bring in specialists, because I think that's kind of like where we're at. like we need to bring in some specialists guys that know exactly this um that's fantastic but we also need the guys around that have been there um just to offer a freaking ear to the to the players who have

who are in it right now who are fucking terrified jake yeah the big leagues are terrifying it's not fun a lot of the time you're scared it's hard you don't know what the heck to do you need someone to talk to i think everyone can relate to that I mean, well done, coach. What I can add is for me, again, I'm a pretty basic cat. Like, I just don't know how teams at this point don't have the two sides. Like, how can you not, especially a lot of these teams have two to three hitting coaches like in the dugout now. If one of them is not a former professional baseball player, what are you doing?

And that crew needs to be on the same page. And then pitching-wise, where we've talked about it for years now, pitching has been ahead of the game, and it's always going to be ahead of the game because it's the hardest thing to do in sports is to hit a baseball. So these pitchers that are tweaking pitches on the fly, the word I come back to that David Cohn has been very passionate about on his broadcast is conviction. Like, and I think all of what the pitching analytics is doing is adding conviction to you. like, oh, dude, your sinker runs two more inches now. That's pretty good, huh? You now have the same cutter as prime Cory Klobber. Like, okay, well, why don't I throw that pitch?

So I just don't get how organizations could go too far one way or the other. And then I guess where things would get tricky in that situation is if things do bubble over, you are budding heads and creating that conflict. you need an intermediary where we know, you know, we met a guy, Justin Sua. He used to do it for the raise. Like he was the former player, analytics, just intermediate. Like he almost, I'm saying this in a, this is coming off route. Like, his job title was very loose, but that's what was needed.

And like, if you're had anything from, like, he told us a little bit. He used to host the show with Hosmer and Moylan that like, you know, if you were struggling with your family, whether it was real stuff or like people getting tickets to the game, or you're struggling with inside heaters. Like he was just a good like free space to go talk to. And the fact that organizations, if you're not thinking that way, and going back to what you said of just the echo chamber or not the echo chamber, Hey, we're talking about personalities in clubhouses. You got some personalities in front offices, man, that, like, yeah, I'm the GIA. Do I want a manager that disagrees with me?

No, because I know everything. And that's where I think you can get into some trouble. So I don't know. I go back to a couple years ago when, because we already went through there was a young managerial period. And then a couple years later, we cycled back to Dusty and Tito. and some of the old dogs. So I think it's just going to be a constant cycle

because I just think we've gotten too far away from a manager's job should be to manage the team. And some days that's a dude's got a banged-up shoulder. Some days that's, who knows? We saw guys get kicked out of the league for gambling last year. Like, you did. You got to deal with a lot. And by the way, Stephen Vote,

who everyone while he was playing was like, I think that guy's going to be a manager because he's one of the most well-liked dudes ever. He's a catcher. Remember that video of Stephen Vote during his last season going through his catching drills on like the last day? Because, yeah, I think that guy should be a manager, a guy that went through the grind that earned his place that's well-liked. You mentioned Dave Roberts. Yeah, guess what? Dave Roberts, one of the more likable humans I've ever met.

Like only come across him a few times. That's why he got the gig. And that's why it works with that team. I think a couple managers could work with that team. But that's where you got to know your recipe and that's where you've got to know what you're doing. And I don't know. I think we just sprint too far in a direction

to try to figure it out sometimes when I think a lot of it's been laid out before. What we're saying about, I think the main point here, and then I think we should probably like list the managers to let people know who's there because that's a big aspect of this. A big point I think that we want to hammer is that that you shouldn't be looking. If you're running this team and you're worried about like, like you said, like a little bit of conflict, a conflict creates resolution. Like you should, you should, obviously you don't want some stubborn POS and they just need people that want to be questioned and want to be. and also learn.

Like you need to have that. You can't be someone running a team says, I want that guy to do what I say all the time. Like that's just not like cohesive to progress, right? I think it's the biggest change that happened was GMs managed the roster and how everything work. And then managers managed that team. And that used to be clean cut and it's not.

And I'm not saying that's wrong. Like I think the evolution. there should be more gray area now, but how you manage that gray area is kind of the whole problem we're talking about. So the new managers, and it turned into a half-hour manager talk, welcome to talking baseball people.

So we mentioned the three at the start, Tony Vitello with the Giants, stammer with the Padres, Suzuki with the halos, the other five, Warren Schaefer with our Rockies. Walt Weiss with the Braves Shelty with your twins, Derek Shelton,

Craig Albernaz with the Orioles, Skip Schumacher with the Rangers, and I did leave out one more, the Nationals and 33-year-old Blake Butera, 33. That one makes me a little nervous when you got other managers that are doubling that

and have just seen a lot more life. But like I just said, a 38-year-old won the Super Bowl and the other most well-respected coach who's now your friend, Sean McVeigh, got a coaching job at that age. So sometimes the right guys do deserve that. But I guess what stands out for you? Sean McVey is my friend.

That's pretty wild, huh? Yeah. The MVP of the NFL is kind of your guy. Yeah. I got our Shohei ball. He was so stoked on that. Wow. And that Shoah sign him on, like, congrats on the MVP.

Wow. Pretty stoked. Why don't you get me again? Did you, I don't know. Hey, did you win the MVP of the NFL? No? Working on it. Working on it.

Go win an MVP and Blitzball. Blitzball battle MVP? Okay, done. What stands out from them? Obviously, Blake Viterra, just the age stands out, but at least he's got some managerial experience. I think, I think it is Vitello.

I mean, I know that's kind of like the, the chalk answer here. But from all accounts, from people that we know, even like a Kyle Gibson, shout out Gibby. Yes, about time. This is a guy who doesn't act like he knows everything.

And is a guy that's a communicator. We saw this guy traveling the world just going saying hi to people, dude. Yeah. And you know what? Do you know how much that means to a player that the manager takes time out to come, like, say what's up to you?

I'm about to have a discussion with somebody very high up with the twins. Wow. And talking about the organization. And that's going to be one of the main things I say is, like, just being visible and, like, having a relationship means so much to players. Like, I would have done anything for Terry Ryan, who was the general manager who was running things during my playing time with the twins.

But he was there and he would talk to you and he would treat you like a human and, like, cared about you. And I would have done anything for that guy. I still would do anything for that guy. Shout out Terry Ryan. I believe he's with the Phillies still doing his thing. He's one of the all-time great baseball people. Ask around.

But it's because he made himself available. Like that's kind of it, man. And like Garty, same kind of thing. Like he was just out there. And if you wanted to talk to him, you could talk to him. You were probably going to hear something you didn't want to hear if you asked him a question. But that's kind of what the whole gist of this is like, yeah, like tell me the truth. Tell me the truth is what I want to hear

But Tello, like he surround themselves with a really good auxiliary coaching staff and I think he's going to be fine. And I don't think he's like, he's not a hire that's in it that like pose. He's like, yeah, just go do what I say. I think he is one of those leaders of men.

I think they're going to be really happy with this guy. And like, does that mean the Giants are going to win the World Series next year? No. But I think that he's going to fit in really well there. And if you get a little bit more out of the roster, that's all you can truly ask for a manager. Yeah. And I, I want to put a cap on managers. And there's something I want to pivot off from there. It's, what is your recipe? Like, are you making cake? Are you making bolognaise?

Which Rob makes a fantastic one we just heard about. It won't give away the beef secret. that like you know what pat murphy on the rockies might be a disaster pat murphy grinding everyone might be crying pat murphy grinding guys to the bone with a roster that doesn't like but that's where you have to know and that's where like all the personalities matter and i just think we've gotten so far away from that we we did like a little leadership offside john boy media thing the other day and we did these personality tests and like how they connect together.

And we all just ended up laughing because it's like, wow, hey, this is really on the nose. And it's just like it shows how good people work together. Sam, who everyone within John Boy Media and a lot of people who are outside of John Boy Media know like she's involved in every aspect of our company, like there is part of it that is like the person that loves to finish projects. And she was like the only one in the room. And it's like, oh, so that's why everyone goes to Sam when they need to get something done.

And it's like, your organization, you just need to know stuff like that. Do you need the tough guy bench coach? Or do you need the bench coach that throws his arm around you and he's always there for you? Like, that's what you got to figure out. Wow. Coach. I will say, last night driving home from dinner, Olivia and I were just talking about life and how, you know, we're blessed. Speaker phone me in next time.

I should. I should. And we talked about the twins. organization and kind of my role going forward there. I said I love broadcasting live, I really love it. She's all in on that too. She goes one day I feel like you're going to manage

that team. Oh, oh boy. You know what I told her? I don't want to. It's not the lifestyle for me, coach. That could change later on. It can change. Empty nest. Yeah. I said, what are you going to do and be gone all day? And maybe that was your point. Not that I'm all.

She wants to play more tennis and she wants you out. I did, you know, not to docks her on our show. I did get a good laugh at her Insta story where she was like, oh, if you haven't seen me posting about the kids a lot, it's because they're over me. They're starting to hit those years, coach. Maybe we take over the twins. All right.

I've got a sideways pivot for that. I love that. I hope the talking baseball people did. And for me, it's two in-fields that I think are going to be slightly connected this year. And it's brought to you by Best Western because we're always looking for the best, and one of these teams is Western. Life's a trip. Why not to make the most of it?

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So when we were thinking storylines, and I was not trying to think outside the box, but kind of that next level of like, what am I watching this year? So the Giants and Tony Vitello, we kind of gave the whole, we gave more than the whole managerial spiel, but a college coach going to the MLB rank.

Like years ago, that would have been scoffed at. Just to be straight up. I think the fact that he has Buster Posey as like his layer of insurance a little bit gives him a little more. And like we're over it as a society. Coach Trep. Side note, there's an article out there right now that Joe Madden called it insulting to the game. Joe Madden not shy around a microphone, but I kind of like that. He had to wait 20 years.

He coached 20 years. He's a scout to a manager to get that opportunity. He goes, there's a lot of guys grinding in the minor leagues that I put the time in and aren't even being considered. He called insulting. Do I agree? I understand where he's coming from. We'll find out, right?

Yeah, like, that's, whenever Joe Madden says something, there's a little like, I might be hanging my hat too much on a, he did, he talked about Volpe last year, and he's like, why haven't the Yanks just sent him down for two weeks to reset? That's pretty good. Yeah, man. That's what we're all wondering. Because I like the kid. That's like happened for the eternity of baseball.

If you're not playing well enough, you get sent down. Jackson Holiday. Anyways, A-Rod got sent down like six times. I'll stop. The two infields that I think are a fun tie together. It's Vitello and the Giants. And there's a whole NL West conversation. Like with the Dodgers looming, like what can you do?

Although with the new playoff format, like you're not down and out coming into the season. But now where the Giants infield has landed with Maddie Chapman, Willie Adomis on the left side, two, you know, big money players that they paid for. And now currently on the right side with the rise in Devers, Devers in theory learning the first base position, a rise going back to second base where he kind of got booted that again, like my smoke detector was like,

check with me in May, because I don't know if that's going to stand. but maybe it does, and maybe I'm wrong, that their infield and the Mets infield, I feel are going to be two things that when we look back or we go through this season are going to dictate, like upcoming years of baseball, because the Giants on paper is what we want every team to do.

They brought in Matt Chapman, Willie Adamas, Louisa Rice, and Raphael Devers. Like, in our heads, that should be the formula to start playing a good, a great version of baseball. And then with the Mets, Jorge Polanco going to first. Bo Bichette, we think going to third,

but maybe he's the opening day shortstop because we just got the Lindor news that he's got a hamate. That I don't know. I'm very entertained by these two infields. I want them to work because if they do, I think it could change the way we view infields again.

Yeah, I mean, look, I don't think this is like something completely new. In fact, most of the time where guys get drafted, they don't end up playing there in the big leagues. That's just facts. If you're a shortstop and you get drafted as a shortstop

and you make it to the big ones of the shortstop, you're damn good. Quickly moved off of that. Quickly moved off of shortstop. But that's the truth. I heard it. But here's the thing. I heard it all through the minor leagues. You need to move around because chances are

you're not going to be a short stuff. Like that's just, there's only one shortstop position. Correct. You know, so like you might have to move around. So, and I did. I found a home at third base and moot kind of did all that. So it's not like a new thing. Like guys are constantly moving around in the minor leagues.

And especially for like a first, like first base is one of those positions. Like you don't draft first baseman, really. You draft bangers that eventually kind of like make their way over to first base. And I'm one of the guys, the champions, like first base is not easy. You don't just throw a lug over there. Maybe you do, but you're going to find out quickly it's not great for you. So you have to really put the work in over at first base because the nuances there, although they've gone away a little bit without like a lot of sacrifice bunting because

that was a big part of first base is reeds on that. So that's kind of eased it a little bit. But they're still holding guys on. How far do you go over to your right before the second baseman? That's his ball. And how can you get back to the bag? And there's a lot of things that you have to do. But Polanco, I have no problem with.

I think he's going to be fine. A hard worker, a guy that's going to, you know, played enough infield where he's going to be, he's going to be just fine there. I'm curious to see how he scoops the ball. That's always something. He's going to be in spring training. Someone's going to be working them every single day on scooping the ball.

And just kind of the mechanics over there, staying low, expecting a bad throw. That's like, hey, if you're coaching youth kids, number one thing you can tell him it's going to help them out expect a bad throw every single time never expect a good throw watch the difference in what they do uh so i think he'll be fine and then boba shet moving over to um third base i think again that's a natural progression for a middle infielder to go to one of the corners i think he'll be okay um it's not always about like arm strength everyone's like he got like this strong arm to play third base no like get rid of the ball use your feet like move towards your target uh you can't have a lot of this on the ball at third base i will say

that uh like that it's a little bit longer throw so like it might be a little bit different of an arm action get him over the top which i believe like if i remember watching him throw he's he's decently over the top which will which will work over there at third base i'm not really worried about the met's and kind of what they're doing although franciscoll and door i don't think we're bringing this up but we are now hamate uh injury like can i have surgery uh so he is supposed to be okay for opening day? We will see. Yeah, I don't know.

I'd seen a couple ham-made injuries, and I feel like that six-week timeline pops up, and I've never, it's never felt accurate. I even went back and looked at a swing. A lot of the guys that... Probably hammates. Get that or, like, hanging over the knob here. Yeah.

You know? And he's not. He's above the knob. So I don't know. It's different for everybody. I think what hand What hand is it? Can we look that up Bobbo? And literally,

because obviously the switch hitters. Corbyn Carroll just had a hamate. So it's going to be a hamate spring. That just happened? It just happened to two of the NL's best. Corbyn Carroll and Jackson Holiday. Wow. Broken handmade bone in his right hand.

What? He's having surgery tomorrow. We'll miss opening day. Also the WBC starting left fielder. Corbyn Carroll. Broken Hamate. Yeah, he's out for... I'm going to mark him out.

Spring. Opening day, T.E.D. None of these fan bases want to hear this. Okay, so I saw Ben and Tendie had it with the Yankees when he got traded for briefly. And then there was another Yankee before that, and like the hamate, hands and baseball are important. That's all I'll say. These guys are studs and they're also superhuman freaks that I hope they're all out there for opening day, but I would like, I would temper your expectations.

It is Lindor's left handmate bone. So that's like he did that on his right-handed swing then, because usually the bottom hand that gets that. Would make sense. Wow, that's crazy. We just got Lindor. And you're missing spring training, like. Corbyn Carroll and Jackson Holiday.

Crazy. What are these guys doing? What are we doing? I don't know, man. I never, like, I wasn't a handmate guy. I was always a little bit choked up. And I never, ever had a hammate. Never even thought about it.

Yeah, I don't know. It was, it's a weird one. It's, it's just a weird baseball one that comes up for some guys. I don't know. Yeah, it truly is. And I'm just trying to, like, think, like, guys I played with, like, when it happens, a lot of them are guys that hang over the knob.

But, like, what were these guys doing? Were they in the cage too much? Like, No one really, they do a lot more machine batting practice now, but usually they use foam balls because the regular balls just crush your hands if you go out of a machine. I don't know. All that back to, I think the Mets infield will be completely fine.

I am a little bit, I'm more interested in the San Francisco Giants because it does seem like such a vast difference between the left side. and the right side of the infield. And we have track record for a rise. Like, can he get better? Yeah, but, like, there's a pretty, like, not a great track record at second base. And then Devers, like, if he works at it, like, there's a chance that he could become, like, a plus defender over there.

Like, he's got still young enough. Like, you should be able to move. It's just all about kind of, like, positioning and, you know, just some of the nuances. but that's definitely going to be something to watch. Yeah, I'll be honest. Like, I put a little stock in the Devers. Again, it started as like Yankees, Red Sox almost trash talk. But like his reactions at Third were good.

That it's just like, it felt like he translated to first base perfectly that if he's actually bought in, I'd be in on that. But I also would have loved like, you know, I was kind of picturing, hey, maybe Tyler Fitzgerald figures it out for the Giants and they've got a real they could have like an amazing defensive infield and now it's almost like I don't you're you're scared about half of it and I guess the bigger thing for me is the ripple effects both ways with the Giants it's Tony Vitello it's Buster Posey which we lauded him at first we're like it's kind of everything you just said coach like bring in your guys

and we're like okay the Giants brought back Buster Posey to run the team we love it like that's awesome. they got Devers? And now it's at this weird tipping point of like, oh, you know, they've now divvied out their money. Like, what is this going to turn into with the college coach? Like, it's an interesting recipe going back to my cooking equation before. I think it can work. The Mets, hey, man, I, you know, I think you and I haven't even done a fully, like,

what do I think about the NLEs this year? I like the Braves to bounce back. I still think the Phillies are really good. I think the Mets are good. But how does that sort out? Because, you know, Stearns and the Mets and, oh, the Brewer's formula recipe, the brewer's recipe with all of Uncle Steve Cohen's money, this could be special.

What if they don't go dancing this year? Things could get loud. Like, not to do the Heim Bloom thing, give Heim some time, but it's a, it's a, it's a, a rabid fan base that if they don't start seeing the results and you're looking at if Bichette has a weird time with third or if Polanco is struggling with fur like there's just a lot of interesting parts of the equation that I guess we didn't expect but if it works then okay snaps for both teams yeah they're probably the team that's like

variance of like floor ceiling and that's not what you want not not really like There's a lot of, there's still, there's a lot of question marks going in. I mean, we brought in, you know, Marcus Simeon's going to stabilize second base. Where's the offense going to be? I think Polo's going to be fine at first. I don't worry about the defense here at all. And we might have just like bangor seasons, man. Like you said, we saw Polanco have a great start to the year last year.

I think he's a, I think he is a professional hitter, like puts together good at bad, Bobbushet, obvious. same thing there. Like the Luis Robert trade like that's gonna be that's gotta be like boom or bust right? Like there's no other way to like describe it.

Like is he gonna fall into like a 760 770 OPS guy? I think maybe that'd be great for them because he's gonna play good defense in center field. Maybe that's maybe he is does he have the highest floor? No, that's crazy.

That's crazy talk. That's not. I think he does have a high floor, especially expectations-wise with the Mets and center field. Like they haven't had a good hitting center fielder in a while. He's going to play good defense. And I think just being around other like good hitters is going to like really help him. I think you're right.

Like I like the Robert Gamble. Simeon one I get tripped up on sometimes because the stats would tell me something difference happening with him. And I don't know. Like the Mets are always a story. I just clicked on their best record last year. They were 45 and 24. They had the best record in the National League

by three games over the Cubs. And then things fell apart. So I don't know. Those two teams just kind of, when I was thinking about this exercise, they jumped out to me. that yeah coach i i don't know where what else are you seeing well hey ron washington you got your hands right up there in san francisco that i mean there's a reason you bring that guy into your organization dude if he turns around a rise like just send him into the hall tomorrow

this is what i'll say man like we talk about these guys like they are just pieces of shit Like these are still like major league athletes like let's go like if if they really put their mind to it and focus on defense. What have I always said on this damn show? It's the only it's the only part of the game where you know you're going to get better through repetition. It's the only part of the game. If you take a million ground balls, you're going to be better. Like that's just that is your range might not be there, although it'll probably increase. But like you're going to make the place, the positioning.

That's up to the front office. Right. So like get that right. But like he's going to like I'm banking on Luis Arise having a like a decent. A decent year at second base because Ron Washington is there and he's going to be out there every freaking day. Book it. I guarantee there's going to be an article written in spring training. Luis Arise looks pretty good at second base.

I mentally just, okay, book it, Rob. I mentally went to a different spot. I went to, like, the Giants version of future baseball as they have the least ground balls hit to second base this year. It's just all fastballs into Ritey's. That's the part of your defense. That's the Petriello article that comes out, like, May 30th. Okay, I mean, Trev, we've been cooking, I guess.

What other topics are jumping out to you? The, and this is, I think this one has an answer now, but it's been probably the biggest storyline, I think, um, is like what we're doing with scoobes and the tigers. Okay. I think the answer's there. I think they're running it. It's done. Yeah.

Like, is there, you know, um, there, don't put this on here as like a prompt for us, which I like, what's the level of like bad baseball that gets Terrick Scoobble traded? I don't think there is any dude. Like that division is just not that good. Although Pocoda has them second in the division with who above them? Not the twins, the Royals. The Royals are interesting.

I still haven't processed. 85 wins for the Royals, 83.4 for Detroit. And then. Bangor of a division. So you know what I'm doing? Betting on the Guardians over at 75. Like I guarantee you that's not the Vegas number

because they're humans are smarter than Roe's. The Cleveland. I disagree with that one. Yeah? I'm going robots. But why did you just, then why did you say you would take the Cleveland over? I don't think Vegas has a line super dissimilar to this. We can look it up right now.

Let's see. Let's see. They have to have some lines up. I'm not claiming to be the smartest guy here. No, and I'm not saying I'm smarter than a lot of the robots. but they don't have everything figured out. Neither do the humans. Did you see Cardi B get pushed over by a robot?

I did not see that. Yeah, she was like twerking on your feed. Fell on her. Is it that generic little guy robot that's like fighting people and stuff? I don't know. These robots are, you know what I don't like? Listen, us.

Is the robot dogs. Oh, really? Out on the robot dog things. That's fine. Draft Kings, odds for the season for the Tigers. over 85 and a half. What about Cleveland? Cleveland.

And if you see Milwaukee, over 80 and a half. Oh, they do have almost a five game difference. Milwaukee's 84 and a half, over 84 and a half. So where are these wins going to? What's that mean?

Like, who's down? If the Tigers have, or the Guardians have five extra wins, where are the other five wins taken from? We're going to have a, lot of over-under season coming. Yeah, I don't, I don't think we need to get lost in that now. Scooble is a massive storyline, or I guess was a massive story. I think it's done. I think they're going to take this guy and they're going to take, we'll take the comp pick for you. Maybe we'll give

the old college try in free agency, but I don't think there's any, barring just an absolute catastrophe of a start for the Tigers. I don't think there's any way that they, um, that they trade this guy. Yeah, I guess, okay, I still have this page up, so I want to see how bad it feels. The Baltimore season got just, they had as bad of a start as they could. Okay. They were, so on this, the same day I went to the Mets best record, Baltimore was 27 and 40 on June 12th.

So, I mean, if they end up in that realm, yes, it will be one of the things we talk about the most. I don't see that for the tigers. I think, dude, him and Framber. Like, I think the tigers are good. JV, we didn't mention Justin Verlander's back. You see what he did the last, like, 10 starts of last year? Jack Flair, the testosterone in that rotation.

Oh, my God. Yeah. They got it, man. Like, they're going to be a damn good team. Jack's, uh, Jack's Insta story. Get off Instagram, Jake. Jackson's Insta got me the other day. He was like, hey, can someone help me out with photography?

and then the next picture in his story was Ken Griffey Jr. with the camera. It's like, nice, Jack. You know who doesn't like confidence? Jack Fleer. No, and he shouldn't. My God. He's wiped up now. Yeah, he's back.

What girlfriend? I don't know. You guys can talk about that on your own time. I, uh, dude, Framber, scubel, Justin Verlander, oh, ho! Fire me up. Trev, cheers.

And this is something I'm going to kick back to you in a second. New partner. Today's episode is sponsored by Cheers. At a certain point in life, drinking responsibly can leave you starting the day the next day, not feeling your best. And even sometimes if you push you, then it's really tough. That's where Cheers Restore comes in. Dual action after alcohol aid.

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Use code talking 20% off after your purchase. They'll ask where you heard. Tell them we sent you. Trev. I'm not going to say who put me on to Cheers. He's a prominent athlete. It's a friend of mine. And yes, let me tell you guys this right now.

You get to a certain age. You need Cheers. I've been using Cheers. I don't know for like almost a year now. And now they're running ads with us, a sponsor of the show. Like, yeah. Let's go Cheers. Like that a lot.

Trev, another one that I feel like it's a storyline every year. But I'm okay, Jake. you're fine. Use your words. We've got three wildcard Japanese stars this year. Murakami, Amai, and Okamoto. Murakami was the guy that was rumored for years. Watch out when this dude gets over here. Two years with the white socks and kind of a literally

an in-between amount of money that they think he could be really good. They think he could not be really good. Okamoto ends up getting four years 60. which this free agency was a big number on the offensive side. And then Amai, who, again, like it feels like the Japanese success rate of starting pitchers that have come over, especially with his resume, his age, et cetera. He ends up, it's a good contract and he ends up with a team we still respect that, I don't know, dude, if all three of these guys click,

I'm giving middle finger to every front office scout. is because it's just like, hey, man, guess what? Japan's good at baseball. If they're good over there, they're gonna be good over here. And that's it. Okay, I mean, yeah, they are. I mean, you can already say that the best player

that's ever played the game is Japanese, dude. Like, what are we doing? Kind of cool. Probably, probably like the third best pitcher in all of baseball is Japanese. Yeah. So, yeah, it's, I think we're already there. They're all different, obviously.

as far as like kind of expectations like Murakami going to the White Sox, I don't mind that for a guy coming over. It's like, you know, like the team expectations aren't there. So you're able to like kind of like settle in, kind of like focus on yourself, get ready to face major league pitching on a day and day out basis.

And I mean, the White Sox, like what their plan for this guy is, I don't know. Like if he's a star, do you try to sign him longer? Or do you say, hey, like,

buddy, like we're in a third. throw you on a different team and reap the benefits from it. I think there's all sorts of options. And then with EMI, we've both heard some interesting things about this guys. Wild card. Wild card is a way to describe him as far as what we've heard. But a guy who has a chance to, yeah, I mean, he could be one of the best pitchers

in the big leagues with the stuff that he has. And we'll see what he does down in Houston. and then Okamoto, I think I'm more, on the most curious about kind of the fit there in Toronto, seeing him play there. They have a recipe in Toronto. And he's supposed to be, like, his scouting report is there. Like, he's supposed to be, you know, another beautiful seasoning and that soup of defense that they have.

How about that right there? That was nice. Did you like that? It wasn't as good as you, like, you came off. Initially, I was like, that's pretty good, Jeff. So yeah, he's going to fit or maybe he won't. Like, you got to be able to do it. They, they've had such a fascinating offseason of Blue Jays.

I mean, coming within two outs of winning the whole damn thing, losing like one of your franchise, like, I don't say icons, but like franchise players. Yeah. And then kind of like banking on guys who have did it for you during the postseason. Like, I want to see what Ernie Clement's going to. do this year, dude. Is he just going to let it hang? Because he's got all the confidence in the world now. And then Okamoto is also a part of it. Like, you said, if these guys come over and are studs,

you're going to give the middle finger. Like, they're baseball players, man. Like, they could come and it could not be good. I know. I know. So it's, I think Okamoto to me, because of the team he's on, and like I mentioned, like the recipe that they do have, I'm most interested. I'm, I'm most interested. to see how he kind of lines up and fits into that roster. Yeah, and that's, I meant to say this before with coaching, David Popkins, who we do talk about a lot as the Blue Jays hitting coach and got a lot of credit for what they ended up doing last year. For me, that's one of the biggest storylines because I,

knee-jerk reaction, and I think I said this on some shows, and I didn't want to because I wasn't the most beloved man in Toronto last year with my Yankees pinstripes. Knee jerk reaction was like, I don't, I didn't think Toronto was going to run it back. Like, A, baseball, it's almost near impossible to run it back. The Dodgers are a super team, and they almost didn't run it back.

I guess for me, I was thinking about dynasties and sports and kind of zooming out a little more. And like, we always say you'll never see another, like, football dynasty after the Patriots and, like, the Chiefs got rolling. you know, in the NBA, I don't know if we'll say Golden State started going. They're in a, NBA is in a weird spot right now. Anyways, like, I just wonder, what if Popkins in Toronto actually do have it figured out, whether it's a mix of coaching in the players in the mix they brought in,

and the Rogers Center or whatever it is, that it'll be, dude, if their approach works again this year, baseball is absolutely getting changed. Because they, dude, they were so tough to get at it. You have a well-rounded team? Yeah, that's what it should be. You play a little bit of defense. You got a freaking banger in the middle of your lineup.

You got a hitting coach that pumps guys up. That sounds like pretty, like, that's pretty standard to me. Do we get so far away from everything that, like, we're like, this is the crazy roster now? Like, well, that's where. Bernie Khammed and Andres might as well be like a middle infield from the 80s, bro. We're like, you just pick it up the middle. Like, Ernie Clement, like, people like, don't forget, like, I think Ernie Clement's awesome.

What a postseason. He's not a 400 hitter. Like, I don't think hitting is going to be his calling card, people. Contact oriented middle infield that plays defense. That's like a, that's a blast from the past, man. And, dude, we've, we've just seen a couple trends that left because of analytics. And this, again, this wasn't to land on analytics hate. You can come in as 30.

I didn't know that. Remember when starting pitchers stopped throwing innings? Because they were like, well, third time through. And now we're all the way back to like, holy crap, we need innings, dude. If you can get through, we save our bullpen, save yourself. Some of the basic baseball stuff, balance in the lineup. I watch my Yankees with the short porch roll out an all right-handed lineup in 21 and 22, because Ritees can reach the short porch too.

So can fucking lefties. Somebody was like light bulb, hey, Ritees can hit there, and then we also have left field in play too. Let's go Ritey heavy. Every historic power hitter in Yankees history. Rite reliever.

Every power hitter in Yankees history had been a lefty basically before judge. I don't know, man. I just, I spend a lot of time on fan graphs. And like, again, it goes back to strikeouts, dude. They have two guys on their team that strike out an over 20% clip. Addison Bam Bam Barger, who shocked us during the postseason because we've never seen a human swing that hard.

And then Dalton Varshow, who, okay, guess what? When we talk about perfect baseball players, the guy that's one of the best center fielers in baseball, who's 5-7-5-8 who can run like the wind. He also hit how many homers and how many games last year. Okay, he strikes out a couple times. One guy in their lineup. Like, I don't know.

Toronto, I'm rooting for you this year. And a little bit of a spoiler. Me and John Beano are going up to Toronto this year. Bang. Bang. Yeah, Toronto's like, we'll just play baseball. How about we just play baseball better than that? Everyone else is not.

Glad, you be a star. Also, the George Springer breakout last year. Can't explain that one. That was just nuts. And that matters. And maybe also, Trev, and this is the sick part, Toronto, clip that part and listen to this. Don't listen to this.

Like, we could also look at Toronto's infield in June and be like, Clement Jimenez Okamoto isn't working. They're really picking it, but we need some off. It's just the truth of it. God, we're in deep. coach. I think all we have left, it's time. And there's so many, Trev, this was, there's so many topics we caught. We, Dahl had a new clubhouse influences, Bregman, Alonzo, Simian. PCA is all over Bregman already. Like, talk about this. Oh, love that. You know, every year,

the young guys that come up. How do you have this up already, Bobo? I don't understand. He's just different. He's not the same, coach. You talk about, you know, you talk about grip right there. You and Olivia, talking about a blessed life. Always be prepared. You, me, and Rob, always. Got to be. That's what we've got,

man. Anyways. The fact that I just shoot texts to Alex Bregman every once in a while without even really knowing the guy is hilarious. Yeah, you guys are going to have to fully cross the bridge soon. Just like a hug it out. Like, man, like, did we say hi to him at All-Star? Was that him and Crochet?

Were you there for that? I don't think I saw him there. I think I would, I was like a little- Forchet for sure, that big giant of a human. I hate. I DMed him the other day because I remembered how cool it. He posted a, get off Instagram, Jake. He posted a story.

It was him and Chapman throwing. And dude, he made Chapman look normal. And Araldis Chapman is one of the least normal. normally built humans we have. And I said, I replied to it and I said, I wish I was in this picture for scale. And he said, I don't want you making me look small. So that's just Garrett Crochet.

You mentioned third best pitcher in the world. That guy kind of gets overlooked. I met Yamamoto. I went skiing scuba Yamamoto. I know. Yamamoto. And how about the beautiful sport we have? The 510 buck 50 Yamamoto and 7 foot 3,

340-pound Garrett Crochet being as good at the same craft. Trev, before we send everyone out, it's time for the free agent forecast, brought to you by Seat Geek, where we keep tabs on players on the move. I think we wanted to highlight the milkman, Zach Gallen, who his free agency, I think, you know, free agency when you're sitting out there, it can be a long time and kind of brutal. Again, he's not wishing injury on these guys. We talked about all the hitters that are going through hamate stuff. We're getting a bunch of injury updates on pitchers.

Shane Bieber, which you unfortunately deserve some snaps on that we've been waiting to hear about. But he had some injury information come out. Spencer Schwellen back. Yes, some elbow stuff. Reese Olson, Zach, so, and this is just the tip of the iceberg that, I don't know. I think Zach Gallen and our guy Gialito, but I guess Gallen, I don't know. I don't know, man. Where's he going to sign?

Right now, the Braves have been linked to both Bassett and Gialito, which I think that'll kind of, this will expedite their interest in those guys. Zach Galen, to me, really fits anywhere. I don't think the Tigers are in the market for more starting pitching. No, I think, Leander, and they have, like, Troy Melton, who they need to get innings to probably. How about Cater Montero, coach?

Cater, my guy. I've been on it, been on it. Spot start, like you read about. but Zach Gallin, I mean, is he a Philly? The only problem, the Phillies are so far over the tax threshold. Put Zach Gallin on the freaking Orioles for me. Let's go. Okay.

I'll a. I'll a. I'll send him to Toronto. They got the Bieber News and Bowden Francis. Remember, he went into last season like, is there one? They got, they have some depth there, though. They still have five, but I don't know. I kind of believe in what Toronto's doing. doing as a franchise that, why not bring in one more?

That was the free agent forecast brought to you by Seekek. Make sure you use code talking 2026, 10% off your next set of tickets at Seatgeek. Folks, there's a lot of update. We kind of clip some along the way between the injury guys and some of the other. Our Rockies brought in three free agents starting pitchers this year. Watch out. that I think next episode will be a jumbalaya up and we'll throw all the big injuries and signings

and everything in there. If not, we'll see you when we see you. Enjoy your team reporting. Spring training, Jeff. Unbelievable, pop. We just streamed game seven. 11 days until I see you again? Oh, God.

Jake sucks. I haven't even gotten there. Dude, I like, have I practiced? No. No. Do I want to practice? Yes, but will I? No.

You'll mow down Teddy once and then... I'll throw four pitches with the Blitz ball. Yeah. Loose. I'm good. I've been doing some shoulder work though. That's good. That could pay off.

These pecks are kind of showing.