Talkin' Baseball (MLB Podcast) - Bryan Reynolds Still Wants to Be Traded, MLB Expansion, & Who Could Surprise Us | 601

Episode Date: February 15, 2023

Trevor Plouffe, Jolly Olive, & BBD predict the surprise teams of April, react to Bryan Reynolds' reiteration of his trade request, the possibility of MLB expansion, and more!Use code TALKIN for $20 off your first SeatGeek order. https://seatgeek.onelink.me/RrnK/TALKINTune in to the Daytona 500 on Sunday, February 19th at 2:30 PM Eastern on FOX++++++Timestamps:0:00 Blitzball0:30 Intro4:30 Our Picks for a Surprising April30:00 Bryan Reynolds Still Wants Out43:00 MLB Expansion50:30 More New Rules Announced! 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.

Hey guys, thanks for tuning in to the podcast. Just want to let you know that one of the best tournaments we've run thus far is premiering on the JM Warehouse YouTube channel. One inning league roulette, quick games, lots of action. One team doesn't make the postseason. One team doesn't get drafted. Hearts get broken. Heroes get made. Make sure you tune in and join us in the live chat.

JM Warehouse YouTube channel, game premiere at 6 o'clock. Oh my goodness. Welcome to talking baseball. It is Wednesday, February 15, 2023. We all got late last night. We got the kids on the show. Let's go. What is up, everybody?

We got the kids on the show today. We got topics. We got questions. We got Jolly Olive. And I just started liking martini's. And here you are on the show. episode 601, that's one better than our 600 show. The bosses are off frolicking on the beaches of St. Lucia,

but somebody's got to keep the company's lights on. And that is where we're at today. So we got Jolly. We got Beavers. We got the amp going. They're going to give us questions today a couple topics before we hit that. But Jolly, welcome, welcome, my man. Thank you for filling in.

How you doing? How was your Valentine's? My Valentine's Day. My Valentine's Day was great, Trou. I appreciate you asking that. We had a nice Italian dinner, classic red wine. Got my girl a nice gift card to Ulta. She loved shopping there.

And I don't know. That's like, way to go, bro. Come on, man, all day. Go get an item. Go get an item. Whatever you want on me. Wow. And, you know, I had my walk-offs against Jimmy and Jake.

So naturally, I get their chair when they're gone because that's kind of the deal. and I'm feeling good. We're flying high. It's like a king of the court situation. Exactly. Once they walk off me, then they can have it back. A couple walk off.

The last one against Jake was an absolute bullet too. Beaver's, what about you? How was your Valentine's Day? Yeah, in a long distance relationship, so I'm seeing her tomorrow. Tough.

Did not get laid last night. Just, just she's going to listen to this. So just to be clear, I did not. Okay. See you soon. That's great, man. What are you guys going to do?

Do you have any plans or? Going to a dinner Saturday. We like to have a plan in place. We're going to a dinner Saturday. I sent the flowers, sent some chocolate covered strawberries, all that, and a couple gifts making the trip down with me. Allegedly, I have some gifts waiting for me there. Huge.

There's a lot of pressure on, you know, when Valentine's Day comes around, you got to go the flower route, you got to go the gift route, and then, you know, what are you going to get? jolly, you hit it right there. A gift card to Ulta? Come on. I don't think any girl is going to be mad at that. Can't say no. I think it's kind of the way to go. I did the spa package, the massage,

all that, because it's one of those things where you think about getting massages, but you never go, but when you have a gift card and like a package ready for you, I think it makes it a little easier to get out the door. That's the husband gift, I got the boyfriend gift. That's the husband gift. Valentine's you can thread that needle pretty good. Doesn't got to be anything too too,

extraving have been something nice and personal. It's got to be something. Depending on the relationship you've got, maybe it's tickets to an event. And talking baseball is brought to you by Seatgeek. Use code talking for $20 off your first order. We're always brought to you by Seekkeek. They've got, if you're familiar with the traffic light system,

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It's all good. $20 off your first order, code talking, seat geek. Easiest website app in the world. Get tickets. It's what I use every time. Really good segue. Speaking of easy. Speaking of easy.

No, we're not talking about me on Valentine's Day night. We're talking about April schedules. And one of the questions, we sent out a tweet. We said, hey, man, we're going to be doing a show. We want your questions. We're going to take some live for Matt, but on the Twitter sphere, send us what she got. And one of the things we came up with, which I don't know if we have the Twitter handle, want to shout it out, Beavers.

Oh, grabbed topic for the other one. The question comes in from her name's Commissioner Shayla. It is at Shaylars on Twitter. Yes. Which teams you. Oh, that's the wrong one. That was the other one I was considering. Oh, Shayla.

She asked about schedules in there, but great question. She's probably in the chat right now. Probably is so mad, but maybe she'll call in later and we can answer that question. This comes from some guy named Ed at the Ed Riley, which team will have the best start to the season and who will have the most surprising April? Okay. Yeah, we like this one. This is, for me, it's one of those questions that I'm like, I don't know.

because nobody knows. Because we don't know anything about the baseball season. Last year I picked the White Sucks and the Brewers to be in the World Series. That didn't happen. They didn't even make the playoffs. So sometimes you got to let ball play. You got to let the ball play a little bit, Jolly. I agree.

Before the show, we said who we were going to pick. And we said the division first. And we all had an ALE East team as one of our teams. So we were scared that we were going to have the same team. We ended up picking three different teams, which is interesting. So I'm going to let Jolly go first. I think you have an interesting team here. I'm curious to see why you think they're going to get out to a good start.

Trev, first of all, thank you for the courtesy letting your guests go first. I mean, that's great etiquette, pot etiquette. So for me, I'm going to kind of tackle the second part of this question, who will have the most surprising April? And it is an AL East team. It is not BBD's Yankees. it is not Trevor Ploof's race famously played for that franchise. We all know that.

It is my second team, my second love, the team that I got to see played twice last year at Camden Yards. The Baltimore Orioles, I think, are going to have a very good first month of the season. And here's why. The Orioles, they didn't have an amazing offseason. In fact, they kind of underwhelmed me a little bit, thought they would do a little bit more.

It was a little sad about it. But they're letting the kids. play this year, Gunner's going to get some playing time. Kyle Stowers, he's going to get some playing time. They got some arms in the rotation. Maybe we see Grayson this year. And I'm looking at their schedule. I'm perusing around. And they're playing a lot of teams that I think are kind of on their level. And they have a lot to prove after last year. They shock some people. In April, they have the Red Sox they have the Rangers. They have a lot of games against the Tigers. And then they have a couple series against the Yankees, which, you know, could get a little bit, you know, they could derail

maybe against that team. But I like this schedule for them because they're not playing insanely easy teams. They're playing teams that are also trying to prove themselves, trying to prove that they can get out to a hot start and maybe this year will be different. And I think that's important because I don't want these Orioles to coast. I want them to, I want them to continue to feel like they have a chip on their shoulder. They have something to prove because people still aren't really taking them seriously. I still see a lot of people putting them last in the ALEs considering all that talent they have on their roster. So when you got four in the middle of the month

against the Oakland A's, when you got seven games total against the Tigers, two Red Sox series, I feel really good about the Orioles maybe getting three, four, five games over 500 exiting April. That's my pick. I like that one.

And it's interesting because, you know, they have said, Gunner Henderson's probably going to start the year there. I think he is going to start the year there. Grayson Rodriguez, I think they're deciding on in spring training. They're going to give him every chance to win that spot. I don't know what that means.

Front offices always say that. In my experience, they know who's going to make the team before you get the spring training. Very rarely do you have a true spring training battle because, and I've said this before on the show, if you're a front office and you're relying on a sample size of 20 of bats or 15 innings in spring training

to make your decision, that's not what you want to be doing. We don't do small sample sizes, not smart people. We don't do. it. Dummies like me like small sample sizes, not these Harvard educated dudes. So I'm curious to see if they've already got Grayson in the rotation or are they going to wait to see what kind of start they get off to? And if they do get off to a good start, does that mean they're going to bring up, you know, the other guys, D.L. Hall and bring them up and say, hey, maybe last year wasn't a fluke. Like, let's go get this thing. But on the flip side of that, bad April, now do we wait

for sure until we get these guys an extra year of service time. That's kind of where I'm at with all of this. And I think I lean on the side of this team is probably going to come out with a chip on their shoulder. Brandon Hyde's going to get the boys fired up for the start of April, but they got to go

do it. Yeah. I think, you know, the first couple series is going to be really telling for the Orioles. And I mean, they're kind of a trade deadline team to watch for too. They have Santander, who you guys love talking about. He's a big question mark, whether he stays or goes come August. And, you know, they did buy themselves some innings with Kyle Gibson and Cole Irvin in that trade.

So they have guys they can lean on in the rotation. They didn't make the big splash move that I think a lot of people thought they would make. But at the same time, they have the pieces to succeed. So I'm very curious about them. Yeah, like a lot of their young guys in their crew, I thought they were going to make at least one, like, long-term investment type signing, especially with that left field. Like, I think a lot of people were hoping they'd be in on a Carlos Brodan or someone.

against righties, to prevent some homers. I like them for Waka, too, but he just went to the Padres. Just went to the Padres. Do we know where his deal with the numbers ended up there? It was like $6 million or something? Not a lot. I know he was looking for multiple years. But yeah, I think my pick is almost in direct opposition to your pick.

So I think I'm going to go. And I think my pick as a team that could surprise us with a big April is the Boston Red Sox. Oh, wow. Do not have an off-season people like? I don't really like it. I don't like the outlook for their season as a whole. But in April, the rotation they have, they can stick to the plan with them,

with their revamped bullpen. I think that pitching plan can work for April. I don't know how equipped they are to withstand uninjury. But if they're healthy through April, that lineup is capable of banging. And they have, you know, if the Orioles stumble at all, they have six games against the A, against the Orioles in April.

They play the pirates in April. They play the tigers in April. Then there's some harder teams, but they can, again, if the plan's working and they're banging in April, which can very much happen. There's good vets. They can take care of business against the Ray, Angels, twins, brewers, any given series

they can upset one of those teams. And we could be looking at the end of April and saying, why do the Red Sox have such a good record after the offseason? We just bashed them for, I don't know how equipped they are to withstand a whole season. with this crew and with the loss of Xander

and their rotation looking the way it does, but I think it's a group that can survive April. I'm not a big Red Sox believer this year. Trevor's story being out is, I think, really bad for them. I was really counting on a bounce back year. He elongates that lineup a lot.

Let me set the mood and the picture for you guys. We're in Spring Train. We're in Fort Myers, Florida. We're at JetBlue Park down there. Red Sox. A couple guys on the back field, but most guys are in the clubhouse. Justin Turner stands on his chair and goes, hey, listen up, guys. Nobody believes in us. And it's true because this is not me talking. It is true. Nobody believes in you guys except Red Sox Nation. I think they made some good moves, BPD. I didn't mind their offseason. I don't

love the pitching staff, the starters that much. I know what they did for the bullpen. I understand that. We got to have a lot of guys living up to their potential in the starting rotation, which hasn't happened last couple years. All right, back to Justin Turner. Hey, guys. nobody believes in us Kike's over here and he's like yeah man nobody believes in us you guys know what we did with the Dodgers and everyone's looking at it and like what's

fucking talking about the Dodgers bro we get you guys were good and then Yoshi's over there he's got his big ass cash trying to get his socks over him it's tough because they're so big and he's like yeah man nobody believes in us and then I could see them Alex Korr comes out and he says the same thing and you bring that energy

into the year and I could see them riding that high for a little bit you can have that. That could that could elevate the T levels a little bit and get them to overachieve. But that doesn't,

you can't ride that all year long. I don't believe in them. Maybe they do get out, maybe they do get out to a fast start in April, using that as some motivation. But I have a tough time believing in this team because of that starting rotation. It is a little thin.

Like I said, you got to have Chris Sale coming back and being. He's got to be Chris Sale. you can't be he's not going to be chrisill bro like like i want him to be you know he's a hell of pitch i face him so much in my career i understand what he can be and i do think he can make the transition into like well he's not going to throw that hard anymore but he can still pitch i think he can do it he's got enough funk enough you know his repertoire is good enough to do that but then going down the line i mean i don't know i really feel like this bullpen is going to get tax in april oh i think so

for sure i i don't believe in them to get off to a good start and April and then maintain that for the season. I think that's how you kind of, you got to pace yourself over a full year. It's a long season. But I think if this formula that we think they've got as their plan, I think for an April, you can execute that. I mean, I'm looking at their schedule. And I see your thought process because I see, you know, I see pirates, I see tigers.

And it's in direct opposition to the Orioles. Which is why I don't like it, because I love my oath. but also one thing I'm circling right in the middle of that April is four games down at the Trap against the race. Are you trying to segue me? I mean, I don't like this people. We didn't do this on purpose. When we were coming up with teams,

we all came up with an ALE's team. We were scared that we all had the same team. That's why we confessed to each other when it was. We love the AL mid, okay? We do. We don't necessarily love the NL mid too much here, but we've been coastal elites and we're going to continue to be coastal elites apparent. I'm sorry.

I thought I was going to be the guy that took a central team or a West team, and it just didn't happen because I'm believing in my Tampa Bay raise. Now, their schedule is very interesting. I'm going to start there, and then we'll go over the roster. Now, we just did the TPP with them, I believe, and that's kind of where my head's at right now. The guys they have on that team, I'm looking and I'm aliking. But check out this first...

What is this? quick math, eight games. Two with the Tigers, three with the Nats, three with the A's. They could be eight, no. Yeah.

They could be eight and no to start April, people. At worst, at worst, I'm giving them a six and two start to the season four games over 500, and then they get your red socks. Then they go to Toronto where things will get a little dicey,

but I think they can handle that. Obviously, they're very comfortable playing up there, but then you get the reds, and then you got seven, games against the White Sox to end it. So the schedule is there for me. And you know, you can play the schedule game all you want, but what do you got on the field?

I talked about this on the TPP. I won't give away too much. But this is the first time, I believe, in quite some time, that the rays kind of have a traditional starting rotation, which is scary for people because we know what they can do with their bullpen, how they mix a match. And they had the octopus arms, you know, every single angle coming at you, right? the whole clock. But you got Shane McClanahan who, you know, is going to be one of the better pitchers in baseball.

You got Tyler Glassnow who has been one of the better pitchers in baseball. Go check out Drew Rasmussen and the stuff that he's got. Led Zefflin, Jeffrey Springs just got his extension. Zephlin comes in. He's got his deal. These guys are comfortable. These guys can, they're not five and dive guys. I'm not sure if the rays are going to make them that.

I hope not. And then as you get through the season, if these guys are going into the six, in the seven and that bullpen's less tax i think this is going to equate to a better overall season for the raise now the offense you know wanders got to go but they have some guys that can really have bounced back years like be low or be loud excuse me he's loud i always missed that one he's loud let's get back doing your dang thing let's stay healthy which i think is really important for the raise it's important for anybody but i like this lineup and i like that they have a traditional starting five, and they really haven't had that in quite some time.

I mean, I'm going to say this as a Mets fan, because I want that out there. I think the two best starting rotations in baseball are in the ALE East. I think it's the Yankees, and I think it's the race. Wow. And a lot of it hinges on health, and you can say that for so many different teams. But this race team won 90 games last year and made the playoffs, and they had a league average offense. They were 100 way to runs created plus.

They had like the worst injury team ever. Their guys were not guys last year. And you know what? I kind of expect them to be guys this year because Wander Franco got a bag and he's not going to be the guy you saw last year. He's going to be good. And you know what? When I look at the race bullpen and I see some names that I don't know, that scares me because that means those guys are going to be good because I have no idea who they are. And they probably throw out some funky arm slot with some pitch you've never seen.

The race are going to be there. You guys always say it. But I think this is maybe the most talented race team I've seen since their 2020 run. Wow I like it I'm on the raise big time I think I even went under on them last year or maybe it was just one of us went under on them last year

and I think it was Jimmy he's like dude they just can't keep winning every single year the way they do I'm like dude yes they can't count them out yes they can I don't know if the trop effect because you get pretty depressed when you have to go into town and play that in that stadium it just gets a weird feeling Sometimes I loved it And they got good trot matchups too

Like they got the Astros coming to them They got the Red Sox coming to them White So that's big Even their tough teams are at home I like I do I like the philosophy there Jake and I did a Who's the biggest threat to the Yankees

And the ALES talking Yanks And it's Rays might have it Yeah It's between them and the Blue Jays I think fairly obviously But you can say you believe Either of those teams

And it's that Those. Right. So, 22, Jake called his shot on the raise being under, 89 and a half. And I guess they won 90 games,

so he wasn't far off. Jimmy took not the over. He wasn't, just like the Yankees, he took not the under. But I want to, I want to get away from the ALE East. I think Jolly,

you're going to give us one more. You said you had another team that's not in the ALE East, right? Yes. Yes. Wait, go off. I'm sorry.

Before we get there, because this ties into, Ray's magic. Did you guys see the John J-So article? I did. The life-living pirate man. I think we kind of got to talk about it a little bit. Pirates talk.

I'd love to hear about it. J-So and I, you know, we played together, you know, against each other for quite some time. So I got to know him. Very, very solid dude, good dude. Definitely had some drinks and maybe some other stuff with him at some point. But if you haven't seen it, just Google John J-So. It's going to come up for you. he, you know, retired from baseball, I believe, in 2017.

17, and it looks like his last year with the Pirates. So he, you know, made some money and was like, I'm done playing. He could have continued to play, but instead was like, you know what, I'd want to go sail on my boat. And during his last year in the big leagues, he went and found his boat. And then ever since then he's been learning or he learned how to be a captain. And he's just been perusing like the behind. Bahamas and the keys down in Florida and just kind of going everywhere.

It's so interesting. I don't want to give the whole article away, but go ahead and get your read on it. He's got the dreads like he did at the end of his playing crew. He looks like he should be sailing a boat around the Bahamas. It's awesome. He's got his girlfriend there. I think they do some YouTube stuff.

So they're kind of making, you know, content and just having fun. And I'm like, how could you look at that and not be just a little? little bit jealous of John J-Sos life. I mean, he played for the pirates his last two years, and I think he decided, you know what, let's just, let's go be an actual pirate. He's not a pirate, though. He's not stealing his for people. He saw

all the imagery. Should be. What if he is going around just stealing? Listen, if I'm on a boat and John Joso pulls up in his boat and demands all my treasure, I'm giving it to him. I'm not messing with that guy, dude. Look at him. Come on. And he looked, he looked kind of like a pirate

when he played. That's like his, that's his aesthetic. Real life pirate. Love John Jaso. So is this the year of the race? Because John Jaso, Ray's and famously caught the last perfect game in the big leagues, Felix Hernandez. So is it going to be, wow, we just found out the AOCS, Mariners versus Rays. I wouldn't doubt that. That sounds like a good pick to me this year. I'd watch it. I'd tune in. And he'd be a good ref guess.

Give us your other team. Give us your other team. So I went A. I win A.M. Mid here. Because you know what? I think the A. Central is going to be a good time this year. Thank you. I think it's going to be better than the NL Central. I'll say that. You got the twins who had a big off season, the White Sox, who the hell knows what they're up

to. Still talented. Still talented. And then you got the Cleveland Guardians. And I want to talk about their April. Now, I don't know if the guardians are going to repeat in the Central, but I think they had a fun off season. They went out.

They got Josh Bell. They have a dynamic one, two at the top of their rotation. And they've got some fun April matchups. You have your Royals games in there. You have your Marlins games. But one thing I want to highlight is that the Guardians play the New York Yankees seven times in April. The reason I want to highlight that is because do you remember

who ended that Cinderella run for the Guardians late last year? It was the New York Yankees. And as serious that I thought, It rings a bell to you, of course. And it was a series that I thought was very competitive, a lot of fun, really fun moments, a walk-off in there in game three. The Guardians were on the cusp of upsetting that team and go into the CS against the Astros.

And I got to think that they're circling that on their April calendar and saying, hey, let's go get our revenge. Let's jump out to a hot start. Let's not even make it a race in the A.L. Central. The twins got the headlines. Why don't we go out there and get the division? when no one's talking about us. So I like the Guardians.

I'm very eager to see where they end up. They've got seven against the Royals. They got a series against the Nationals at home. There's plenty to feed on. And you've also got those big-time Yankee series. The Guardians are kind of an enigma to me. Similar to where the Mariners were two years ago. I think this is a year that prove it to me.

Now, I know that I like the squad. It's not like I don't like the squad. I just feel like I got to see it happen again. like the way they were winning games last year. There's a lot of close games and they were doing it. We had some really bawling years from some of the starters there. They did find, you know, a back of the bullpen that they could just shut people down with there at the end of the year. I always think you have to have that.

That's right. You could have a lot of things, but if you don't have a bullpen, you're going to lose games. You're not going to win those close games. I always referenced the 2014-10. Tigers, I guess, or 2013 Tigers, you know, they had that really awesome starting rotation. And they had that really awesome lineup. But the defense stunk and they couldn't close games out. That's the bottom line.

So you just had to wait it out a little bit, keep the game close, and then you could score runs at the end. Now, Guardians don't have that problem. They have people at the back end. They can shut the game down. They have the starters. The offense got to continue to go for me. It's going to be probably where I see them having to, like outperform expectations or projections, I guess.

And if they do that, they're going to be a hell of a team to play, especially come those playoff series. I mean, they're a team that can really win series with what they have. I mean, they got Mike Zunina behind the plate, mashing, I feel like people forgot about that. Josh Bell, if he's him, who knows, there's a cleanup hitter. I like it. I was going to say they, you know, they win the division last year.

It was close all season until they pull away at the end. So it was a close race, closer than it appears. But they had probably the two biggest impact additions, like the twins, it's still bringing back Correa. Adding Pablo brings them into the group. Gala. And Gallo. But adding Josh Bell, it's like one of the bigger free agent moves they've ever done.

It might be the biggest besides Santana. And Zanino getting pot behind the blade. They kind of punted offense behind the dish the last couple years. So having him back there is a new. dynamic to the team they haven't had in a bit. That's right. So they have a chance to just actually be way better than they were.

Like every team, they need things to go right. Josh Bell's projections are light to me. I'm looking at his projections right now. They haven't slotted for 600 plate appearances. Great. But 20 homers, 253, 345419. I think the slug will probably be a little bit higher than that. Interesting.

I don't know. What is he career? Because right now they have them for like a 7-7. 64 OPS. What is he career? I think it's got to be higher than that. Yeah, I mean, last, first career,

it's an 810 OPS. With the Nats last year before the trade, he was bawling out. He was one of the sneaky bigger all-star snubs. He has an 87 OPS 301 batting average before getting flipped over.

Let's go projections. Give the guy a little bit of respect. Put respect on this dude. It's hard to hit in Petco. Like, I get it. New team? First trade?

Like, come on. Like, yeah, he didn't, he didn't, he didn't have the power we typically get from him. He hit almost 30 homers the year before and finishes with 17. So I, but he's got more pop than that in the tank. He's a 30 homer guy. He can do that. Yeah. He has done that 2019.

Hey, big AL pod today. Big AL pod. Oh, we didn't even mention one NL team. Sorry, guys. Sorry, what's that the senior circuit? That's what they call them, right? Wow. Yes.

Trap, not an NL guy besides the walkoff homer and. NL hater. But we have one NL team we can discuss real quick before we open it up to AMP. What do you got? Ryan Reynolds reported to spring training today. Reiterated his trade request. I watched that video. Ryan Reynolds has a way deeper voice than I thought he would. I don't know if that was me underestimating him, but that is a man's man.

And you know what? He deserves his bag, so I kind of get it. What did he say on the video? because I didn't watch this video. I'm reading up on it right now. They asked him about the trade request and if anything's changed there and he basically said,

no, nothing's really changed on that front and it sounds like the bulk of what the request is about is how far apart they are on extension talks. Yeah, it's a little tough because I feel like the pirates, considering their standards, where they're at. Had one of the better off seasons they've had in a while.

But I'm not surprised at all that they're not in the ballpark of what Brian Reynolds probably thinks he deserves as a really good center fielder when that position is so light right now. Not that many fully good center fielers and he's one of them. Okay, we're going to do an exercise again. I'm going to get you guys into Dreamworld. We're going to set the scene. You guys are Brian Reynolds. I'm the Pirates. Go.

Listen, I think that I'm a top three centerfielder in the game right now, maybe even top two, maybe even top one. Hell, I kind of look like him. I can really pull this off. You can do this. I deserve to be making nine figures. I like playing in Pittsburgh. The ballpark is beautiful. Go out and try and find a power hitting center fielder that can really feel the position.

I don't think you can. Give me what I think I deserve. And let's go out there and let's win the central man. I'm not scared of the Cubs. I'm not scared of the Cardinals. I'm not scared of the Brewers. I just need to be making what I think I should be making. And then we can move on from there.

Do you want to get traded? If you're not going to pay me. Well, we're not going to trade you. Not yet, at least. You want to know why? We control you. 2023, 24, 2025. You're just going to do what we say.

Because we control you, bro. that's evil that's evil I hope they don't really do so but they can say that it's tough man I like the Brian Reynolds is coming and trying to force the issue

I'm on Brian Reynolds side of course the problem is man this is the way the game works like the team has all the leverage until they don't and right now they do and I know the NBA has shown

that some players have kind of taken over that league and have forced their way into some situations but it doesn't really work that way in baseball. We've talked about this before, Brian Melty is an excellent player. He does deserve to get fairly compensated. But right now, where we stand as a sport,

I mean, you kind of just got to, you got to just wait your time, essentially. Hopefully behind the scenes, there's a little bit more going on between the front office and his agency, and they can kind of figure some things out, whether it is some sort of extension, whether it is a trade. Because I feel for Brian here, when you're giving your best year, of your career and you know your team's not really competing. They brought in some players.

They're bringing cuts. They have a young core. They're kind of trying to build it down there. But by and large, they're not going to compete for any sort of playoff position in the near future. And as a guy who never played in the playoffs, I tell you what, Brian, do whatever you got to do to get out of there, bro. Like, I'm down. I'm on your side here.

Like, go to a contender. Try your best to get to a contender because I think about almost. every fucking day that I never got to play in the playoffs. I swear I know that sounds stupid and, you know, I'm making this about me right now, which is totally fine because I'm kind of hosting the show. It's a show, man.

I think about it, man. Like, that's the best type of baseball there is. So I understand where the pirates are coming from. I understand where Brian Reynolds is coming from. And I just don't know how the situation is going to shake out. But I do know that the pirates have all the leverage and Brian can get in front of the cameras and say everything he wants.

And I hope he continues to do that. but it just, I don't know if that's going to change anything. Yeah, not a free agent until 2026. 27 home runs last year, career high, switch hitter, 807 OPS, play center field. He'll get a bag somewhere, but you'd rather see that. You'd rather see it happen sooner rather than later. He seems like he's looking for the security of a early lock-in, but just pirates aren't getting to the price he wants,

and baseball, the trade requests just don't really work. like in basketball where it means if you ask for a trade, you'll get one. Also sneaky 28 years old this year. Yeah, like obviously. No way. No, we're not doing that.

We're not doing that, Jolly. We're not doing 28. Udarish is 35. I've got six years, bro. Times are a change. It's the time you'd want to trade for him if you're going to trade for him. That's what I'm saying.

The Padres might just go out there and say, hey, we'll take him off your hands. We'll pay you, the Pirates organization, 100 million, and then we'll give him 100 million. I didn't say the P word. The PR-I-M-E word. Didn't say it.

Oh, okay. Well, this is, I mean, so they list the numbers in this article. His side has been asking for 130 to 135 over eight years, and the Pirates' top offers come in at six years, around 80 million. So they're about 50Ms apart, a couple of years apart. And when they asked him about the numbers, he said pretty much everything out there has been fairly accurate. That's, you never really get that out of someone.

He's being very honest. Yeah, I mean, Nimmo gets 8 and 160, and I feel like that's a good deal for how good he is. But Brian Reynolds. There's some where you're at in the process stuff. Yeah, he's only at three years service. So there's some service time math you got to do on it. But you know what?

Give him the 8 for 160 on top of the next three years. He's a guy. Give him a big one. Give him a pirate for life. I don't know, man. You think Cutch being there changes his tone? a little bit. Like, what does Kutch do in this situation? I'm trying to put myself in his, in his shoes. You're there, you're back. It's a kind of a freaking, you know, a swan song kind of

thing for you. You're a Pittsburgh pirate legend. You used to play center field there and won an MVP and brought them to the playoffs. You know what the city can offer, but they're not there right now. So you have Brian Reynolds. I'm sure Kutch sees a little bit of himself and Brian Reynolds. Yeah, I bet he does. And if I, I think if I'm Kutch, I think if I'm Kutch, I pat him on the butt and say, hey, bro, keep doing what you're doing. You deserve it. You deserve it. You deserve to get paid accurately and doesn't mean it's going to happen, but.

You go play. You'll get either the deal you want or they'll trade you somewhere that's trying to win. Yeah, what did you say before that they were traded for each other? I believe Brian Reynolds was the return and the McCutcheon to the Giants. Kind of crazy. Oh, wow. Full circle. I feel like we've been talking about Brian Reynolds and,

getting traded for what? Two years? Everybody's wanted this dude to get traded for a while. And now he's asking for it. So it's like, oh, we're finally right to be talking about it. We were early on it as a society. What are you, let me ask you something. Now we're going crazy.

Okay. We're going to go crazy here. What if Brian Reynolds somehow convinced Cutch? Andrew McCutcheon, going to get his number retired by the pirates. What if Andrew, Andrew McCutcheon says, you know what, you should pay him accurately or you should trade him. Now you got two, your two stars on that front. What do they do?

You can't, I mean, I know. They still sit back and say, sorry guys, like talk is talk. This is just how it works, man. Like Cutch said this isn't a farewell tour. He said, you know, he said all the right things when he signed. I think this team can compete all that. Happy to be home, all that. You got to believe he has sway there.

He was there for almost a decades worth of his career. He won an MVP. You got to believe that his opinion carries some weight in that front office. But like, what are the deals they've been handing out? What did they give Key, Brian? Like 70 mil? Yeah, he was, because that was. Yeah, but that was first year.

I know. That's what I'm saying. Like, that feels like the ceiling. 80 mil feels like. They're trying to give him the same thing. I know. And that's just, they're two different players. I don't see it happening.

I really don't. stuff. So you think Brian Rounds is going to rot there until he becomes a free agent? I do. I think they're too stubborn to trade them. I think the pirates probably believe next year they're going to

be like trying to win. Like more kids will take more steps or maybe it's in two years. I think they're willing to wait it out and I guess there's nothing in just how this all works in baseball that they should have to think differently. I think they have their plan

whether it works. Who knows. I'm excited for the Pirates, PPP, or TPP. Do you know how many times I asked for a multi-year deal from these teams I played with? A lot. I never got one. I remember going to the Twins. And I had second to last year of arbitration.

They were going, we're talking. My number is decent. I think at the time it was in the seventh for the one year. And I went and I said, hey, guys, like, let's just buy out my last year of arbitration. to like give me some security I've never had that I've been playing year by year every single year like you know the kind of person I am like I'm not a fuck up I'm going to be I'm going to give you guys a good effort I'm not going to get in trouble cleanest guy in baseball all of that and their response to me was Terry Ryan said no we like the way this situation has been working out for us when your deals are good

I was like all right fuck bro then you weren't even looking for Long-term security. No, just buy out one more year. I just don't want to negotiate one more time. I don't have to a slump and I have, you know, break out and sweats. Then I become a free agent. And I'm talking to the A's now. Oh, no.

And I'm like, hey, guys, I know you want me for one year. Why not make a two? Two years and it's signed, man. David Forrest goes, we have a guy that we like that's coming up. So no, this is going to be a one-year deal. And that guy was Matt Chapman, who ended up taking my job. three months later. Pretty good guy from what I've heard.

Yeah. Unbelievable. Such a crazy way of saying, yeah, thanks, but no, we're good. I actually,

I run into Terry Ryan who was the GM or the twins, you know, quite often at various baseball events. And I remind him of that all the time,

like you could have gave me an extra year, bro. Like, come on. Like, you're going to throw me a bone and he always laughs about that. At least you're on good terms.

We like that. It's all right now. The A's, I think they might have been proven right on that one. Twins, they should have given you one. Who was next? Who was waiting next? I don't remember. Well, we had like Miguel Sineau,

and they tried to move into right field for me. It wasn't going to happen. As soon as they moved Joe Mauer to first base, they kind of took up a corner spot, and it was, Suno was in and I was out. Where's Miguel Sineau at? Did he sign? I think he's still a free agent right now.

There's a crazy story. Hector Gomez retweeted an article about Miguel Sineau's father. and there's some murder going on. I honestly didn't get too far into it, but that is something that's happening right now, which is kind of crazy to think about. He's got some real life stuff.

Yeah, I just saw it. Wow. It's crazy. All right. Let's move on, Bebers. I think we got another, we don't have another topic. We're going to bring it to the AMP portion here.

We're going to answer some questions. And I love doing live stuff like this because we don't have a lot of time to, prep. We have no time to prep. So it's just like off the top of the head, off the rip. I love that. So you got something to say before we start that, right? Yeah, the AMP app that you guys get your questions ready to go.

And hopefully I pick a good caller because it's sort of arbitrary. But in the meantime, while you guys prepare that, you should know that the biggest race of the NASCAR season is coming up this weekend, February 19th, the Daytona 500. It's also known as the Great American Race. race. It's the one race that every driver wants to win. We're sending some people there. The ice boys are going. They're going to film some content. The talking giants guys are coming. Big NASCAR fans. They're excited. This is their first, like, not football trip. I know they're talking about how big a blast they're going to have. So there's going to be content on our end coming from there. And the race itself is Sunday. If you've never seen it, the event is

unreal. 100K fans. More than that. of all on the edge of their seats, witnessing the stars of the NASCAR Cup series battling for position on the massive super speedway at 200 miles an hour, that's fast, with their cars just inches away from one another. If a driver wins this race, they'll forever recall the Daytona 500 champion

and etched their name in the history books. And this year is even more special. It's a milestone Daytona 500, the 75th anniversary season of NASCAR. If you've never checked out NASCAR, you've got to see this race. Park yourself on the, couch for the afternoon and tune in to the Daytona 500 on Sunday, February 19th at

2.30 p.m. Eastern on Fox. That's a bucket list event for me. It's a bucket list event. Daytona 500, I got to get to an SEC football game. On it. Amp time. Amp time. Let's do it. D. Lopez 1630 looks like the one caller in the queue right now.

We're calling them. Whatever guys. Sending an invite you're going to get. 15 seconds to fire off your question. We won't respond to you. He will hang up on you. So go ahead.

So out of curiosity, I want to ask Chris Rose's question also, but it's all right. Anyways, I'm not sure if you saw Jim Bowden's proposal for the possible like division separation and basically eliminating AL and NL

and they add two more teams to the MLB. I'm not so fond about the location. Maybe just, Nashville, but Charlottesville, me and Charlotte, North Carolina, I'm not sure that'll be a good big of sports town. I really don't know what sport they really pay the attention besides the Tar Hills there.

And there's one of your cross if you saw that layout and how they're going to change the divisions and how they're going to pretty much, you know, put the Angels, Dodgers, Padres and Deepx in one, and then the East is going to be a freaking, obviously the two New York teams, and then the Phillies and Red Sox. I'm not sure if you saw that layout.

out and just curious of what you guys think about that possible doing. And supposedly this year is going to be the big experimental season, you know how everybody's playing each other and all that stuff. And just want to hear your take on that. Thanks, guys. Thank you.

That's a good question. I appreciate that, D. Lopez. A proposal like that has been out for some time. I think Buck Showalter a long time ago put out his realignment proposal, and I was a big fan of that. Baseball always calls it. itself a regional game. And in some aspects, I do believe that is true. And in that case,

if you believe that, I think that these divisions, you know, moving teams, you know, and getting rid of the AOL and just really going by region, I think would spark a lot of cool rivalries. Part of me really likes the idea of the Dodgers, the Angels, the Padres, the Diamondbacks, you know, all the California teams, West Coast teams playing against each other. And again, all the East Coast teams playing against each other. Think about, you know, the road trips that people can have and the dynamic that that causes between friend groups and water cooler talk.

It gets people talking right now. You know, like, Yankees, Mets, you know, you talk about who's the better team, but, like, you don't get to play each other too often. Now this year's going to be different. We know with interleague play, it was different. Now the more balanced schedule you're going to get a series. But, like, having that as part.

of a division I think would be excellent fodder and you throw in the Phillies there and again like now you're now you're getting people able to travel to these different cities because you take a train or you you drive on the freeways of California and check it all that I think it could be good and I don't mean to sound like or but I don't mean to sound like a coastal elias here I think that we might see a lot of talent concentration on those coasts and then the mid being kind of, well, just that. Yeah, I mean, we talk a lot about the Mets Yankees rivalry that really isn't, because we only play each other four times a year. It's friendly. It's friendly. Like, it's not, you know, there's no. There's some people, you know, different from, some people take it very seriously.

But like you look at the NBA and like some of the best games of the year are when the Knicks and Nets play each other. And like the Knicks finally got one. And that was like a huge night. You got your Nick sweatshirt on, of course. So I think there's a lot to love in the aspect of that. I do think Bowden's proposal probably needs some tinkering for exactly what Trev said, like tinkering around with like the dispersal of power.

Because like if you look at one of the divisions, like the Blue Jays have a pretty good go of it, having like the tigers in their division and like who knows where the expansion teams are going to land. And like Mid-Atlantic is Orioles, pirates, nationals, and an expansion team. Like there's not a lot to love in those aspects. whereas you get really top-heavy with Mets, Yankees, Red So I think that the idea is good because I really like the way NFL has their divisions in terms of four per and four divisions total. It just needs to find the right footing, I guess. Yeah, that's sort of, you know, Jake and I discuss this article on Wake and Jake, so check that out.

That's sort of a little bit where we landed. This specific proposal by Bowden, fun exercise, it's changing a little too much. much for the bit for you know baseball's a very purest driven sport which got to combat that a bit it's a lot of a lot of moving parts here i think if they were to realign and and i think that's coming at some point in the next however many years it's been over 25 years since there's real MLB expansion um and realignment there like that mid-atlantic division orioles a charlotte team that doesn't exist pirates nationals none of them have been in the division before there's no longstanding rivalry there.

Getting rid of NLAL, I think, is going to freak too many people out. So I don't think it would happen this way. But we're creating rivalries. I think that's kind of where I'm at with this whole thing is right now, like you said, Yankees, Mets, it's fun to talk about. Dodgers Angels, it's fun to talk about.

You get the freeway series before the year and then, you know, once during the year. But that would create some real deal. Talk, man. I like it because that's what you need. We're an entertainment-based sport. We are. So you need entertainment.

You need entertain people. You need people talking about you. You need people showing up to the games. I think that stuff like this is where we need to be going. Because right now, I mean, look, you talked about like some of these, you know, fairy tale divisions that bowed and made up being top heavy. We could talk to the same thing about the AL East and then the AL Central last year. So like it happens.

Yeah. And like all two. tune into Cubs, white socks. Like, that's a rivalry that we don't really get. And, like,

that could be really good because Chicago's a great baseball town and we've never really seen that. And, you know, the same goes for a bunch of these other divisions. I just think you can realign it in a way that can make it even better.

Sure. Yeah, we would get some new rivalries and discussions. Jolly, you need you to rejoin the AMP session. Somehow years think quit. So that would be an added benefit. But I think,

think when they're getting down to the dollars and sense of it, this specific proposal would be, it just would be changing a little much. I don't think they'd want to do. It happened to Jake once. It was weird anyway. Now we're, yeah, we're going to edit this out of the podcast version here,

but we're getting jolly back on AMP. There you go. We're in. Let's go, baby. All right. Thank you, D. Lopez, for that call. We're definitely interested in the expansion. I've been talking about it for years.

I think it could be good for the game. We need to spice it up a little bit. So let's take another caller, BPD. Let's do it. I would love to take another caller. Currently no one in the queue. Fayo's in. All right, inviting.

Here we go. Get your brains ready. This will be, I think, our last question. We've brought a good time. Once he looks like he's joined, I am unmuting him. Go ahead. Hi, guys. They added additional rules to the rule sets of new rules coming in.

And Jerry Blevins yesterday was talking about how both rules are going to be pressed on and how probably a lot of funky pitchers will not be able to do their funky pitching windup. My question is based around that, which is if they're going to impress upon the bulk rules, which are always been confusing, do you think that will actually save time? or do you think it will cause more delays due to box being called and immediately argued? Fail, you know what? Typically you make me think so much.

I don't have to think much on this one. I think what we're going to do here, and they mentioned this, Jason Stark had a really good article talking about how spring training is going to be a shit show. Because they're going to call every single little thing. And I referenced to the boys earlier that they're going to be similar to a... a bad throat right now. Hold on. Oh, my God. I'm just always cough, and that's my whole life.

Here's what I'll say. I'll cover for Trevor. I'll always dying. Oh, my gosh. I want to take into account the young players and what they think of this, because these are the guys that came up through the minor leagues when they were, things were getting tested out, and they were figuring out how everything is going to work. And we've seen that the results from that have been beneficial. Like, we've shortened games by like 20, 25 minutes.

And I saw our guy, I hope I'm saying his name, right? Hermosio, who is going to be in the Yankees minor league system. Hermosia, I believe. I don't actually know that I think so. What he said was, you guys are going to love the pitch clock rules. Trust me. I trust him. Yeah, I think

what Fayo is referencing is the new Bach rules. Like, Gausman's going to be affected by it. Luis Garcia. Luis Garcia rocking the baby is going to be affected by it. As a hitter, I'm down for all this stuff because it makes you have a more traditional windup

and that helps your timing and that's what hitting's all about. But referencing Jason's article, now that I got my throat back a little bit, it's going to be a shit show in spring training. I do believe everything he said in that article. You're going to have guys getting called for a walk or get an extra strike put on them because they're not engaged to the hit or to the pitcher soon enough.

We're going to see some guys being angry over it. But as I was referencing to you guys earlier, it's like a horse that needs to be broken. Like you just got to go do it. You got to get through the ugly part. parts eventually guys will understand you know how the game works the pace of it and everything and i think the end product will be better they said like when they first instituted this last year in the minor leagues they were getting a striker of ball called like twice a game and then

a month later it was like once a game and then now it's like half the times per game so once every two games i think guys will pick up on it quickly because they're going to have to because once you start getting in the regular season games like minor leagues don't mean shit like win loss records they don't mean anything in the fucking big leagues that's all the matters so you better get used to it or you're going to be losing games and guess what's going to happen if you're a guy that's like a repeat offender and you just can't figure out a fucking pitch clock you're going to get sent out you are we can't have you complaining about it and you know and putting your team in a bad situation because you just can't get used to a clock like it's going to have to happen

Spring training, the interesting part of all this is, is spring training is different this year because of the WBC. And they're not implementing those rules in the WBC. So the guys that are in the WBC are going to be playing traditional baseball. Those games are going to be long as shit. Because we're going to have, you know, this is the superstars, and they're going to be walking around, you know, doing what superstars do when they get, you know, to bat and all that.

So those guys are going to be at disadvantage when they come back as far as working with the clock. The people in spring training, they're going to get hit over the head with this thing. I think they're going to be ready as the season starts. But ready or not, it's coming. And if you're going to be a guy, like I said, there's going to be a repeat offender, you're going to get sent down unless you're a guy guy. And if you're that,

you're going to get talked to quite angrily. I mean, if the young guys who haven't been in the show can get acclimated to it, I'm pretty sure anyone can. But I mean, it's going to be very much not like, you know, when we first started seeing the sticky stuff checks and they were very thorough at the beginning.

Over time, they kind of walked it back and it became a little slap on the wrist and then off on your way. Sticky stuff is back. It's back. I mean, we all know. But I'm saying this is not going to be like that. This is going to be strict.

That's why they're tackling it so early in spring training to get everyone in the mode of, hey, this is going to be around. This is part of the game now. Get used to it or get left behind. All right. I think that's it for today on talking baseball. Jolly. You came in and you absolutely crushed

man. Bebers, I love having you on the mic a little bit more. This could be a normal thing. We could tell the guys, take vacations more often. You guys should both go away all the time, get married more. Yeah. Don't say that. Congratulations to

Jess and Jake. The two of them should go get married like every month. Just keep doing. I want the bachelor party that happened. I missed the bachelor party. That was messed up. They didn't invite you? No, they did, but I was, I couldn't come. Oh, I see.

I live on the West Coast, bro. We can spin it whatever we want to come to New York. And the show, Beavers. It's done. Say in the line. I think you should say it. You should say it. Say it right now. She's balked them off.

Jake sucks. Oh. Oh, that's dangerous. Ooh. Hey, Brian Reynolds. No. But keep trying, bro. Keep fighting to get a fight.

If worst case scenario happens, you just ride off on that sailboat with John Jason. He'll find you. Someone said in the chat, is John Jason going to show up at Jake's wedding and rob the whole fucking thing? He might.