Talkin' Baseball (MLB Podcast) - Dansby Swanson to Chicago, Rodón to the Yankees, and New Catchers | 585

Episode Date: December 19, 2022

Are the Cubs Good? Is the Yankees Rotation the Best in MLB? Your team probably just got a new catcher.Use code JOMBOY to get 10% off your order + free shipping at https://mugsy.com Get 20% Off and Free Shipping with the code TALKIN at https://manscaped.com Visit https://athleticgreens.com/baseball to get a FREE 1-year supply of immune-supporting Vitamin D AND 5 FREE travel packs with your first purchase.Timestamps:0:00 Intro1:50 Cubs Sign Dansby, Bellinger, Taillon10:53 Carlos Rodón to the Yankees21:30 WIllson Contreras Signs with St. Louis Cardinals31:52 Sean Murphy Traded to Atlanta, William Contreras to the Brewers43:40 Vinnie Pasquantino IMPORTANT Story 47:15 Minnesota Twins Sign Joey Gallo & Christian Vazquez 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.

Hello and welcome to Talking Baseball. The Chicago Cubs are going to be a part of the 2023 season. Dansby, Tyone. What are they up to? Rodon to the Yanks and a couple other moves. It's players home. Hello and welcome to Talking Baseball. Myself, Jake Strombole, Trevor Fluke, Big Baby Davis on the ones and twos.

John, he's at his winter meetings right now. Um, we, uh, between Thanksgiving, Christmas, winter meetings and we had a, another big blitzball thing going on. By the way, big blitzball thing tomorrow night or tonight when you're listening to this. Go check it out on warehouse games. The forgotten rotten. Trev, your forgotten rotten in another championship game versus Nikki Cass, Dalton Feeley, and the love you. Uh, make sure you check that out 6 p.m. Monday night. Trev, how you doing, big daddy? Jake and BBD, it's great to see you on this Sunday morning. Yes, we're recording it for the fans now because look, so much stuff has happened.

We got to cover it all. I'm doing well, you know, the Blitzball thing, I got to say. I love Nikki Cass off the field. On the field, probably the most hated I've ever had someone in my mind, like playing against. Like, I cannot stand Nikki Cass on the field. And I think it shows up during the game. But, dude, let's talk about some of these moves. Let's get right into it.

And Nikki Cass, big reason I ran into Vinny Pass with Tino last night. I've got to tell that story at the end of this. But you're right, Trev. First, we got to talk about the Chicago Cubs. Because they brought in Jameson, Tyone, our guy, big coffee, dude, nice little contract. Sure, middle of the rotation guy. All right, Cubs. What else?

Dansby Swanson. They were rumored to be in on all the big short stops. There was one left. People were, I was wondering, would Boston get involved? With the Dodgers, they haven't really made their move. The Cubs had been rumored. They did it, Trev. They bring in Dansby.

What is it, seven for 177? Did I get that right? Holy smokes. Something right around there. And they've been rumored this entire time. You know, they wanted to bring in one of these short stops. The other guys went off the market. here they go and bring in Dansby at last.

You know, we were talking about, does the fact that Dansby's now wife playing soccer in Chicago, does that like get him to go there? And I think Chris Rose is like, that doesn't matter. It doesn't matter at all. But when you're doing these negotiations and like maybe this was the best offer, maybe it wasn't, maybe it was similar. But when there's things like that pulling you, I think it probably did factor into decision.

but also playing for the Cubs at Wrigley is very attractive to a lot of baseball players. Chicago is a great city. You know, the Cubs have a great fan base. You know you're going to get treated well. So I think this is a great all-around fit. I'm kind of like looking at the Cubs roster. And there's a few things they can still do, but they've made some moves. Like, you know, we keep thinking about them as, you know, this team that's in a transition.

Like, where are they at? Are they going for it? Are they rebuilding? What's going on? are they retooling. I think they're going to be competitive in a division that's not very competitive. I don't think they're at the Cardinals level yet, Jake, but a few additions here and there,

and we could be talking about this team like competing for the NL Central. Yeah, I hate to have some dumb irony here, but if this roster had Anthony Rizzo, I think I really like this team. It feels like they're missing one, kind of consistent bopper and first base is kind of available for them right now. Alfonso Revis listed as they're starting first baseman. I'm just happy for Cubs fans.

You know, they still didn't know where their team's head was at. You know, they brought in Stroman last year. They brought in belly. Ian Hap has his free agency coming up, nine figure Hap, maybe 10 figures with the way the CBA's working nowadays. Sheesh. And then they bring in my guy Tyone. and you're like, all right, you know, pencil, pencil that in for, you know, 165 good MLB innings, however it ends up looking.

But it's still, you're right, compared to the Cardinals, they weren't there. The Brewers are retooling. They're going to be one of our more fun PPPs this year. The Brewer Sneaky added, you know, Jesse Winker to the middle of that lineup. They added another righty bat, too. I'm blanking, but they were retooling on the fly. But the Cubs, you bring a dude, man. And the biggest thing that was kind of driving me nuts about Dansby's free agency, because I get it.

Some of his early career hitting stats aren't that impressive. Even the past three years where he's been pretty consistent and he's, you know, a 110 OPS guy, OPS plus guy. But from shortstop, that's super important. And everyone's freaking out about his arm and his defense. He won the gold glove last year. It's working for now. I don't know when the wheels are going to fall off on it.

but for now you just got the all jm shortstop from last season and you got it at the cheapest shortstop contract so i'm interested how do you feel about all that i mean compared to the other shortstop contracts where danesby landed well i think that this is like the price of doing business nowadays especially with this cba so yeah i mean like we're getting guys making 300 million dollars I never want to like encourage teams to spend less. But I mean, look, this is still a, you know, a contract that the Cubs can surely afford, can surely afford to go do more stuff with. And you're right, they do need to add some more pieces.

First base is there, you know, probably a rotation piece. Because right now it's like Tyone, Hendrick Stroman and then a couple other guys. Like I'd like to see them add something there. But yeah, I mean, look, there were four good short stops available. and you got one of them. I think you should be really happy about that. And there is something to be said about guys figuring some stuff out, okay? You could look at the 5-7 war last year and say, well, that's by far his biggest output of his career.

And maybe it's an outlier. But you could also say, hey, maybe he's kind of figured this thing out a little bit. He's 28 years old right now. That's like kind of when guys used to be entering their prime. Like give the guy a chance to prove the Cubs front office right. And I think you like the guy, and I think he'll be a good presence in the clubhouse. He's a winner. He's a star.

He really is, man. So be happy. But the Cubs, I think you just got to go just a little bit further. Just a little bit further. I feel that. Go a little bit further. And your Mugsy jeans, I think they've got some Chicago roots to him. I was wearing my Mugsies last night.

I wear my Mugsy's almost every day. If you don't know, they're the most comfortable jeans on the plowsy. planet and they're having their biggest sale of the year. Do you like that? That sounds pretty nice. Entire site will be up to 30% off all of your favorites with free shippings and free returns. So if you get a pair, they're a little too snug, a little too baggy. Free return, send it back.

They'll get you the right one. Man, the holidays are like full blown here, Tref. Sheesh, man. What happened? So you need to go to mugsy. dot com. No code needed for the 30% off the entire site. No code. Just go to mugsy.com. It's simple as that. Simple as that for your simple ass kid cuddy. Thank you, Mugsy. They are the exclusive gene of Johnboy himself. I don't think we can fully say John Boy Media, but they are the official gene of

John boy himself. No code. Go check out Mugsy.com. It's Mugsy. Um, so Trap, I guess we we should wrap up on the Cubs before we move on. Like, do you expect another move? Is that weird to say? Because it feels like they need either one piece on the hitting side or one piece on the pitching side to get all of us like, all right, Cubbies, let's go. I do expect another move. I expect like a rotation piece, some sort of depth there to come their way. And then also, yeah, probably a corner infielder.

And there's some veteran guys available. Would Longo look good in the Cucson? Cub's uniform, would you go out there? I know our boy, wisdom is kind of been playing some third base, but I don't know, man. I see them bringing in either a first baseman or a third basement and probably some rotation depth. And then if you do that, the roster kind of starts to round out. And again, like this is not some banger of a division, dude, like make the right moves,

have some guys step up. Bandsby, you know, like work that plate discipline, get that on base percentage up. The slugging, I think, will be there in Wrigley for him. I'm starting to like the team. But, but I liked the team before. And we kind of, last year we kind of got giddy about when we're doing the PPPs or the TPPs. What the fuck are they called? And then it didn't really happen for them.

So, you know, I think I always kind of just associate the Cubs with, you know, having some sort of stuff figured out. But maybe I, maybe I should stop that and really take it. Yeah. Last year, you know, I was giving speeches about Raphael. They could do it. Raphael Ortega and like, how is this all going to work? And it didn't. That, you know, that was the, that was the end point of it. Yeah, I mean, there's, there's a couple interesting guys.

I guess you just wonder, Brandon Drury. We've been wondering where our guy, Brandon Belt, is going to end up. Like, you know, even a couple of those small things that would help make us feel a little better because they would still need a lot to go right. And they would need a lot to go wrong with the Cardinals to really become, uh, I don't know, for the Cubs to be back in the NL Central, but you got to, you have to love it as a Cubs fan. I don't think I saw any Cubs fans being like, oh, my God, we game seven, because I don't know, juxtaposed to those other contracts. I think I'd rather have Dansby's contract potentially over Bogarts, but I don't know.

Who cares? You get one of the best players in baseball, figure it out later. Trevor, I think we're jumping to your Yanks. Me and Jomelam.com did with BBD on Talking Yanks. Go check it out if you want the full flushed out thoughts. But Carlos Rodan is a Yankee. One of the moves that was somewhat rumored from the start of the offseason. But to be fair, this guy was rumored with a lot of teams because he's been incredible the past couple seasons.

Yankees, you know, Garrett Cole, Nestor, Sevy, they add Rodon to the mix, more of a power lefty to pair with Cortez from the left side.

What do you think of the move from the Yanks? Well, obviously, I love the move for the Yanks, but I want to mention, like, you know, we keep talking about Steve Cohen and he's the new,

he's the new Yankees, if that makes any sense. He's the new boss in town spending all this fucking money. And I think the Steinbrenner's kind of solid. that. And then with the Aaron Judge thing, yes, that was a lot of money. But in my opinion, that was the bare minimum. And that's kind of weird to say $360 million is the bare minimum you

could do. But right, like if you're the Yankees, signing judge is the bare minimum for the offseason. So if you do that, you're happy, obviously. But hey, like, we need to go get more. I think Rodon is that kind of like, F you move. Like, we're going to go after this. Because now the rotation sets up to be one of the best in baseball. I don't, I have to like, check every rotation out before I put out my updated rankings, but it's going to be one of the best in baseball. Frankie Montas is going to be your five-starter. You got some guys there.

So I like that. I still think they need to continue to add to that lineup because, you know, as we saw last year, like it can get a little top-heavy there and we can have some outs at the bottom of that lineup. I think they're going to probably rely on some of the young guys, and that's kind of what I'm gathering. But the Rodan move to me again, this is like, an answer. Like, we're still the Yankees. We're still going to go get guys when we want to go get guys. And

I know you guys have to be happy with this because he's a fucking animal, man. He's, uh, the, the stats don't lie. And by the way, the contract six years, 162. In the days leading up, people were rumoring seven, eight, because he is, he's 30 years old. You know, we, we see, we saw Jacob de Grom at 35 get a five year deal. And in this year of free agency, bogey brought in 11. You know, we've seen a 13 or. out there. You were wondering where it was going to land with Rodon as kind of the last big fish pitcher. So when six for 162 dropped, I mean, I know me and BVD looked at each other and kind of shrugged like, that's fine, roll him out there. And yeah, it's this, the Yankees have a new window right now

where you brought Judgey back and you're paying him a ton of money. You brought in Garrett Cole and you're paying him a ton of money that if you're not attacking it now, I mean, five years from now, the Yankees could be a little funky to watch, man. I mean, you know, what's Aaron Chudge look like in five years? What's Stanton look like in five years? What's Cole? Is he still going to be under contract in five years, Stanton? I think Stanton has five left, so, but in four.

So, you know, there's going to be an interesting stretch five years, four years down the road for these Yankees. But for now, you need to attack the win. and they've got some youth on the way, some big prospects in Volpe and Paraza that everyone's been waiting to see. Dominguez has been waiting in the wings for a while. And now the question is, are they going to flip them to kind of retool that left side? Because people thought they were in on Ben Intendi. He signs with the White Sox. We'll probably dive into that more next step with John Boy.

But, man, if they didn't do Rodon, and this is Snooty Yankee stuff, then the Yankees kind of had like three to five moves they were going to have to do. And we didn't know what they were. I mean, were they going to cash in all their prospects? Bringing Rodon, your rotation's pretty good. I mean, you've got four you love. Montas is your question mark. And he, you know, he had a tough sample size and an injury with the Yankees.

They got to retool that left side. And I wonder if it's trade market or I wonder if it's just they bring. in a couple shots at left field, and if they need to make big moves at the deadline, they can do that. I don't want to like, you know, I love my twins, right? Sure. I love Minnesota. They're my people. My son was born there.

They got a lot of outfield depth that that's the talk of the town, getting rid of some of those guys. I know Joe's McFly's on record are saying he doesn't want Max Kepler, but they got a lot of different guys out there. And it wouldn't surprise me if something like that happened. I think the trade market for them probably does make a little bit more sense because who's really out there on the free agent side that makes sense for them in left field right now. Not a lot, man. I mean, there's- Confordo maybe? Confortos, like David Peralta, your jerks in ProFar, you're just starting to get to a different, you know, a different level of ball player.

Not to be shots fired at ProFar. It was great last year. I think he's going to get a nice contract, but it's probably not the piece the Yankees need, but we'll see. To me, I'm like, let's get someone that can play some defense. I know left field, it's small out there

in the corners, but when I think about the Yankees, I'm like, okay, they had a really good year defensively last year, right? Yeah. Like, let's keep adding to that. You know what I mean? Yeah. Or, I mean, do they need a bopper out there?

I guess you can go either way. I would hope you get a little bit of defense, but you could also use some more bats there towards the end of the lineup. I don't know. It's going to be interesting to see what they do. From talking to you guys and kind of like seeing what they did last year and holding on to all these guys, I'd assume they're going to try to do some youth movement stuff there in the infield

and maybe they have too much depth there now? I don't know if that makes sense. Kind of at the top level minor league, you have those guys and you either got to play them or you've got to trade them. I mean, the Yankees have now passed. I think I saw the tweet the other day. day and I forget who it was, so I should give someone credit. But it was now in the past two years, the Yankees have passed on eight all-star

shortstop. So if you do that and you have Paraza and Volpe on the way to guys, you know, Volpe, I mean, they treat as the next judge. Like he's, he's become a religious figure within the Yankees or so I think at some point you got to find out this year. Everyone's kind of assuming they're going to do two months in the month. minor leagues with him, though. So that leaves Paraza, who played a little bit at the end of last year, but they gave him kind of the Jeter doc treatment. And, and then we've got our guys, Waldo Cabrera

hanging around who's got the necklace. He came in with swag. He can play everywhere. And he's in discussions for left field, shortstop or trade. So I don't know. I think for me, I think the move is a left fielder. I know Kepler's been rumored. Brian Reynolds has been on a lot of teams rumor list. And it is a big left field. So you need kind of a rangey guy out there. It's how Brett Gardner racked up all that war that makes some Yankee fans mad. I would love if they bring in a left fielder, you can begin to talk yourself and everything else between the prospects. Does Josh Donaldson bounce back at all? He was incredible defensively last year, but he was awful offensively. You just, you've now given yourself options that when you come up to the trade deadline, you still know you're going to need a couple things. Every team does.

But their bullpens in a good place, their rotations in a good place, the top of the lineup, well, outside of kind of a true leadoff guy, we'll see where DJ Lemayhew's at. But no, Yankee fans, I think when they signed Rodon, it was a little bit of an exhale, which is completely obnoxious. It's not obnoxious. That's what you should expect from the Yankees. I love it, man. I love it. quick before we move on yeah you know there are times when the student becomes the teacher yes i think it might be time as i'm working with kotuck in the cage and as i'm getting my bearings back as a hitter and i'm like oh i know how to teach this do i need to call jd do i need to call jd and say let me help you this time bro yeah you're still playing and i'll help you get the yankees back to the promise Maybe I'll do that. I don't know. Depends how you treat me over the next month or so, okay?

Is that your official offer to JD? I could take a look at some things. Take a look under the hood. You know what I mean? You know I do. Speaking of looking under your hood, manscaped. Fellas. This episode of Talking Baseball brought to you. Just manscape at, JD. The global leaders and below the waist grooming. Wow. That's a big one. And they got their brand new, they got some new products, Jeff. They've got the Kologna, a little cologne for you. I mean, hey, they got everything else. Why not?

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Yeah. Is Reggie Bush your dude? Wasn't he at some L.A. thing you were at? He coached my son football. We're not... We're not friends. I mean, look, I'm not like saying I wouldn't be friendsmen, but we're not friends. We're saying...

Saying Reggie Bush coached your son is pretty badass, man. Should have thrown my son the ball more. Yeah, well, that'll be up in the final hour. All right. So where are we jumping, boys? We got Rodon, or we did the Cubbies. We did Rodon. I say move on to everybody's got a new catcher segment.

Every new segment alert. Everybody's got a new catcher. So we haven't full, we haven't done Wilson Contreras. We haven't done the Sean Murphy trade. Zanino Vasquez, Narvaez. Our guy hedges signs yesterday to the pirate. Let's go, baby. So I guess it does deserve to be mentioned.

We did all that Cubs talk, Wilson Contreras, out in division competitor, the St. Louis Cardinals. So that feels like a big one. And then the big trade, and then we should do the rest. But maybe we do Wilson as we already did some Cubs talk. We have to decide right now if Wilson is the new Adam Frazier or Adam Frazier is going to continue to be Adam Frazier, because he did just sign with the Orioles, I believe. Maybe we'll talk about that next episode. episode we talk about the Frieser signing. Okay.

All right, we'll start with Wilson Contreras. Five years, 87 and a half goes to the Cardinals saying all the right things. I love this move. I think the Cardinals have made like some of the smarter moves in baseball over the last couple years. It's kind of shown up for them. Aronado, thank you Rockies for paying for us to have him. That's one of the all-time heists in baseball.

baseball. We talked about this at the trade deadline. Would the Cubs do it? Would the Cubs send him over to the Cardinals? It didn't end up happening. But now they kind of get their guy. And like I said, at the press conferences, he's been saying, look, Cardinals fans know me from the Cubs. They might have hated me there. But when I'm on your team, you're going to love me. I play with passion and drive and all this stuff. And he's showing respect to Yadi. And he's saying all the right things. Now, I think the biggest thing for him to do. We know he's going to show up offensively. We'll see how much he actually ends up catching.

I think that's important to figure out. Is he going to be 130 games behind the plate type of guy? I don't think he is going to be that. Probably some more DH, stuff like that. But it's going to be important for him to learn that staff and to be able to call a good game because those dudes in the Cardo's rotation are so used to that. Having, you know, maybe the best catcher of all time defensively, I don't know, people are probably going to be mad if I say that. I'm not even sure about the numbers on that,

but one of, okay, people. That's a big, that's something that pitchers really like love, consistency behind the plate, knowing, you know, the game plan and how he sets up and all that. That's going to be different. I think it's going to be okay. Obviously, I have spring train to work through it and way no back helping kind of, the transition, I think, is really cool. And I wonder if Yadi kind of like has some sort of role in this transition. To me, it makes sense that he would. And that's like saying a lot about the Cardinals and the relationship that Yaddi Armalina has with the city. Well, I mean, the two things you mentioned there, St. Louis being one of the best baseball cities and well-run organizations, times Yadi, who, you know,

is a legend in his own right. Yeah, you wonder if we start a little catching tradition here in St. Louis. I'm fascinated to see the next step because, I mean, Wilson Contreras is going to hit. I mean, that's that's kind of all he's done. He's had a positive OPS plus every year except one. And that was 2018. He was still an all star that year. Career 808 OPS. I guess the thing that I don't know, because, you know, a reminder, the talking baseball

new year reminder, you know your team better than us. Like, you know, I've seen Wilson Contreras catch, but I haven't watched Wilson Contreras catch, you know, over a, over a. four games set. So going from Yadi, who's, you know, one of the kingpins of baseball catching. Like if there, if there was a book that came out like how to catch at the MLB level, you know, Yaddy or Molina would be featured on one of the first few chapters. Now Wilson Contreras, a guy that the Cubs, it seemed like for years, we're almost trying to get off catcher. Remember, they signed Yon Gomes and, you know, he's playing left field and he's moved around a little bit. The kid can hit.

and it seems like they're locking him in to be their catcher, which, hey, in 2021, he caught 116 games at catcher, which that's a big boy number at catcher at the MLB level. So just interested to see St. Louis's reaction to Wilson Contreras as the catcher because, yeah, I mean, for five years, you know, again, father time kicks in more. I know it didn't with Yadi, basically, but I just, I want to see how Cardinals fans react to his defense and, And maybe I wonder if there is like a yachty pride thing with Wilson that he's like, if I'm going to be catching in St. Louis, I better raise my game to the next level. Which, I mean, again, with all that Cubs talk we just had, if Wilson Contreras becomes a little nastier defensively going to the Cardinals, that would grind your gears a little bit, huh? You know, I think if you're the Cardinals, you kind of look at it like this. Like, sure, you want premium defense at every position, but you have to find a balance between, you know, offensive production and defense. The guys that can do both, we know what those guys go for.

We all know them. They're the superstars in the game. It's very hard to be elite at both. There's very few players that can do that. But when you're looking at, like, you know, catchers and like OPS and offensive production, like, his numbers are like, way. at the time. So maybe you're like, we can have that big of an advantage

offensively from this production. We can take a little bit of hit on the defensive side. They're going to have the time, like I said, in spring training where he's, he's going to have to really learn the pitching staff. And what's funny is when you see new catchers come in,

I've seen this a couple different times now in spring training. Usually like the veterans, guys that are getting deals like this, they don't fucking catch bullpens. they play the game and they do this, they do that. This dude is going to have to be out there bright and early catching those bullpens, making sure he's in all the pitchers and catchers meetings, learning, and every single day.

So this spring training is going to be a lot different for contours, but I think he's going to welcome the opportunity. And once you get into that organization, I feel like it's pretty easy for guys to buy in. And I know people may not like to hear like cars. Cardinals way or whatever. They're a well-run organization. They have the veterans there that kind of like make you respect the jersey.

And when you're around those guys that put in the work like they do, like we know all those guys and the Cardinals do, it just influences you. So whether he was planning on doing this already or not, he's going to get into that clubhouse and he's going to work because that's what they do in that organization. Yeah, and it feels like one of those things that, you know, if you painting isn't the right comparison, but it's what is in my head. right now like hey wilson contraris if you go out and you you go to spring training and you paint that

house 20 times this spring training you won't have to paint it again like if you put in that time now then people won't call you out and there's just easy articles that like you know wilson there's only one veteran player at the field at 7 a.m. today it's wilson contraris and he's working with you know so expect those out of st louis spring training and sorry about the painting thing i don't know what that was about that but i will weird. I want to tell you this. I'm going to give up a secret of mine, okay. Okay. You know, I'm coached Trev. I coach a little bit here and there. Mostly I am, guys can come to me if they need some advice. But one thing I always tell guys, especially in spring training and or if like you have some

question marks about your defense. I say, you know what? Go do your work and do it in front of people. People always, oh, it's all about the work behind the scenes. Bullshit. Sometimes you need to go work and let everyone see you so everyone can start talking about it just like you're saying oh shit contraris was out there before anyone you know working on his framing working on on blocking drills yotties out there with them holy shit like this guy's into it and then you start to believe it too because it's out there in the press and people are asking oh you're working sorry like fuck yeah i am and it snowballs from there so that old adage of do the work behind the scenes sure you have to do some work behind the scenes. But also, do in front of everybody because it holds you accountable too.

I'm serious about that. I haven't given that advice out a lot. Hey, you want to, you want to bust the rumors or the talk that you're not working hard defensively. Go fucking work hard defensively in front of everybody. Right. It's, it's one of those chicken or the egg thing. Like, you know, hey, if you're out there field and grounders before the game and the media happens to see that, guess what? Now I know. You know, if you have a, a third. third baseman who has a bad day at the office and then you don't hear or see that you assume you're like i don't know show guy and taking care of himself but also just as a fan or the media yeah you know it's not working out there it's okay he's working out there you know you don't have to be

scott boris at winter meetings like you don't you don't have to take grounders in the parking lot in front of everyone but you know showing showing people you're doing the work is also doing the work so I've got no qualms with that that's what I'm saying dude I need to start like a consulting firm I got all these little tricks that you know kept me in the big leagues long enough I you're you guys guys guys gotty B and by the way uh just going roster resource and clicking between the Cubs and the Cardinals I mean the Cardinals are it's it's a different animal yes yes I mean they have you know if you take Goldie and Aeronado off the Cardinals then you kind of have the Cubs but so those are two MVP guys.

Let's see if the Cubs have any other moves in them. Good for the Cardinals, a little catching tradition there. And then Trev, it's pretty nuts. The other big one here is the three-way trade that, you know, your boy was.

Are we not talked about this? It's crazy, man. It's crazy. When the offseason starts to go, Sean Murphy, one of the best, you know, butts in the league.

Best butts in the league, top three young, catcher, something like that. If you haven't heard much about, unfortunately, that's the Oakland effect. Traded to the Braves, they kind of make their move. They give up Kyle Mueller, the young pitcher for them.

They give up William Contreras. So the Contreras bros are both going to be in the Central. That was the other big righty I was thinking about that the brewers brought in. A's, they get a handful of prospects. Everyone loves super utility man, Esther, Ries. you know, there's there's a couple other guys. I could tell you about Freddie Tarnock's strikeout numbers, but I don't think we need to. Brewers get William Contreras, Joel Pyeamps, fun name.

Guy had a kind of a breakout year a little bit last year. But I mean, Sean Murphy headlines the deal. He'll be catching for the Braves. And also William Contreras out is big news. So Trev, I know you're pretty connected to Atlanta as you're kind of their Oracle. So what, I guess, what was your reaction? and kind of I want to do a little bit what Braves fans were feeling

because their online reaction wasn't, like, stoked. Like, I saw a lot of people asking, like, is Willie Adomas in this? Like, are we getting a shortstop, too? They get Sean Murphy, who's an all-j-M-type guy. I've given my take on baseball today, my show I do with Chris Rose, that beautiful human being.

This is what I said. This is what I think about this whole trade. I think I'm happy for the Braves because... this is what smart teams do. If you can find an upgrade at positions, and this guy is bangers defensively and can hit, like you don't find catchers. They can do that.

We just talked about William Contreras, and we said, you know, like, we know we can hit. Well, Tom Earth is kind of one of those unicorns, especially at the catching position. So did they give up some prospects? Sure, but that's what it's all about. The Major League roster is what it's about. And you have this awesome team,

and now you're improving one of your holes that you have. and they have very few holes to fill, and they did it. Okay, I think what we're going to see is Murphy. I think Darno is going to stay there. I think they're going to kind of be the one, two, and I think that's great. For the Brewer side of it, you get one player and you get three players. You bring a guy that was an all-star last year.

You needed some thump. You kind of got it. I think it's good for them. I think they were like, what? We can do this and get these guys. Okay, sure. We want to be part of this three-team trade. Sure.

And then for the A's, I could care less, man. I don't like talking about them. I don't like the way they run their team. Every single time, somebody gets good and gets a little bit of recognition, they trade them away. And I know that's like,

I mean, can you say beating a dead horse? I don't think you can say that anymore. That's out. Oh, I just did it, though. Oh, oh. Yeah, a couple things. I just, I can't, I can't, with the A's, look, I mean,

we know this is how they run. on their team, so you have to expect it. But if you're a fan, you're like, come on. What are we doing here? What are we doing here? No, it's, A's fans, Treve was beaten the DH there or whatever. No, it stinks.

I mean, look at Matt Olson, your first baseman for the Braves as well. Like, you know, there's something that's actually sickening to being an Oakland athletics fan that, you know, we do bring up when we have to because it's brutal. I mean, if that organization, was run differently. Like look at San Diego right now. Oakland could be that. You just need a ballpark and an owner who cares.

And they're so far away from that. That stinks. For the Braves, I love them getting Murphy. You know, one of the top catchers in the game. I think him leaving Oakland will be good for him. You know, going to a class. No shit, dude. Going to a class.

To go to this team? Yeah, right. Going to a class organization, you got studs all around you. You know, I think we're going to be talking about Sean Murphy a lot more, which is good for him and good for baseball in a way. Again, sorry, athletics fans. And hey, clicking from the Cubs to the Cardinals to now the Braves, we're seeing a different tier of baseball team.

You know, the Cardinals are the Braves without Ronald Cunia Jr. and Michael Harris. So the Braves are stacked. I guess the conversation was, were they going to get a shortstop? Or do they believe in Vaughn Grisham, who by the way, raked last year? So if they do, all right, you might have your next 22-year-old shortstop. Do you think they're going to do anything there? I'm not so sure. It doesn't seem like it.

The more and more, you know, I know hindsight is 2020 with the whole Dansby situation. I thought he might go back there because it just seemed like I told C. Rose, if it ain't broke, don't break it. But that's not the way they operate, dude. Like they don't, they're not going out and paying free agents. They're either signing you young or like with the Matt Olson thing. Like they had that plan. You trade for him and extend him. I, you know, I think they're saying, look, Dansby, thank you for your service.

But we can, we have enough in our roster that we can give Grissom a chance and not have to give this payroll, this massive spike in payroll. And now we still have flexibility for during the year. if an injury happens or we seem to be deficient at a position, we still can go make a move. I think this is just the Braves doing exactly what they've been doing, which is smart roster development. And this is a little obnoxious, but go look at the Braves roster.

Right now, Mike Soroka is their five-starter. Please, Lord. Can we see him? Please, Lord. The last two guys in their bullpen who aren't long relief are Kirby Yates and Nick Anderson. two guys that have been at the peak of the profession, and those are their bonus pieces to Minter, Iglesias, Jimenez, McHugh.

So the Braves are stacked. I do want to spend more time on the Brewers part of this because I was mentioning it with the Cubs and the Cardinals. Like you said, this is so brewers. It's very kind of clever and sneaky, and they almost probably couldn't believe they were involved in this trade. Now in the middle of their lineup, they had William Contreras, you know,

25-year-old all-star catcher, Bing Bong. And they threw in Jesse Winker, who's, you know, had his one bad year last season, Seattle Cup bait and sold low and on his salary, where I think Milwaukee was like, well, we get one year of him and we tap in. I don't know. I'm interested to see they're going to depend a lot on their young guys. Is Garrett Mitchell a guy? Ureas, can he put it together for a full season?

But when you see Yeli Adamas, Telles, Contreras Winker, I don't know, you just picked up a kind of a dude in Contreras, and if Jesse Winkers any semblance of who he was, this might be the best Brewer's lineup we've seen in a little bit, and that's what we've been asking for. You're right.

I mean, look, they're going to find a way to pieces together to be competitive, and that's what they do. I think we all ask, like, can you do more than that, though? Because you got this pitching staff, and this is what teams dream of. you know, having those top three guys, like, you know, teams, that's when they go. So I, I like

what they've done. I still, I still implore them to, like, let's go make a splash, dude. Like, let's, can we go all in? Can we do that? Or at least any semblance of it? Because I don't think this is that yet. I think we're still saying, well, a lot of things have to go right. And we're going to have to have big years from this guy and that guy when it's like, you know what, that's, and I don't even know who's available for them that they can go out and get right now. There's still some guys out there, I know that, but be a trade, something. I would like to see them make another big move before the season. And I, you know, I think big move, you know, actually me and BPD witnessed it.

I forget if it was talking baseball or talking yanks, but me and BPD debate or me and Jimmy debated if this Sean Murphy three-way trade was a big trade and you just get into a gray area of what counts as big. When you say the brewers make another big move, you know, it's out there to be had. the name that I keep coming back to, because I remember he was rumored there last time, was our guy Justin Turner. You know, are the Dodgers ready to move on from him? He had like the best second half of any player in the league.

Like, does he want to make, you know, a later in his career appearance in Milwaukee? Does he going back to the Dodgers? Because they really haven't made too many moves. What's going on there? But yeah, right now the Brewers are kind of banging with. the Cubs and they're a move or two away from us being like it's going to be them and the Cardinals again and let's let's see what happens Turner makes so much sense there I know they they offered him last year I believe right so he they've shown interest I would love him to go there I think

that'd be a very seamless fit the fine people of Milwaukee would love him uh Kyle Mueller go be a stud in Oakland and we'll see you get traded in a year and a half that's That's kind of the best advice we can give you. Trev, let's wrap it up. I have a funny Vinny Pasquantino story, and I just want to get your thoughts on a couple other things. And those thoughts are brought to you by Athletic Greens, AG1. You mentioned your show baseball today with Chris Rose,

big athletic greens guy, athletic sexual man. Everyone was watching him yesterday as he was presenting that Cleveland football game. Vinny Pasquentine. Oh, my God, huge Chris Rose fan. I'm sure. Who isn't? He was like, dude, I can't believe you work with Chris Rose. I was like, he's all right, man.

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ultimate daily nutritional insurance that's athletic greens.com slash baseball um treb let me tell you i got to get the full viny pascuntono story off my chest uh because that's hot that's been burning me and then benny off your chest if they're um so uh there's a popular bar in n yc that's known as the jam saloon it's more of a younger kids bar i i've already put in my my time there as a youth um i ended up there last year it turns out uh it was uh A friend, significant other's birthday. You know, we had drinks otherwheres. We were like, let's pop in there for one, blah, blah, blah, blah.

So this is last December. And a guy comes up to me and he says, you know, I'm getting a little love in the city these days. And he's like, hey, I love what you guys are doing for the game. I'm Vinnie Pasquintino's friend on the Royals. And I was like, all right, this is before Vinny P got called up for the Royal. So I think I'd heard the name, but also, you know, not super familiar. By the way, Trev, go check out the kid's stat page. 800 OPS, more walks than strikeouts.

No. As a rook. Yes, Trep. His stat page is going to blow your mind. So, whatever, I give them, I give a little dapp and I'm like, all right, you know, nice to see you, but I'm, you know, I'm here with some friends. Thank you. I get a call. I get a call from Nikki Cass last night.

And he says, he says, you know, you big. timed Vinnie Pasquintino. And I was like, what? I haven't big time to anyone. And he goes, yeah, he saw you at some bar at the, it's something like the gem salon last year. And I was like, time out. That was Vinny?

It was Vinny Pasquantino. Oh, no. Oh, no. He hadn't been called up to the show yet. So then I heard about this. I message Vinny. And he was back there. He was visiting a friend.

So I went downtown. I had the hour and a half I needed to get down there. Yuck it up with him. Awesome dude. I think the biggest takeaway is Trev, your and BBD's reaction to his baseball reference page. The dude can hit. Number two, awesome dude, sports guy.

I mentioned how much he liked Chris Rose. And he's a big baseball fan, which not all baseball players are big baseball fans. But he's like, the reason he loves Rose, he's like, I grew up on intentional talk. and my mom used to watch intentional talk every day. So Vinnie Pasquedino, a dude. I kind of accidentally big-timed him, but now we're friends.

Did he mention me at all? Like, he enjoys my work? There wasn't a ton of Trev talk. Okay. Now I can say what I want to say that. Okay. I thought you were talking about Vinny Pistano. I still wasn't sure who that was that you were talking about.

Vinny Pistana was a pitcher that I faced that was with the Indians at the time. But this is a young stuff. Yes. Yes. That flew over my head right there. And then I just checked out his baseball reference page. And yes, it's kind of Boner Central, bro. Yeah.

The Italian breakfast, the Italian nightmare? Is that what we're doing? You Italian boys love to stick together. Yeah. Kind of love it. I did fit in really well in Italy, so maybe I'm kind of, kind of in that crew. A Frenchman in Italy sounds good.

You've got, you've got White Lotus season two vibes. Hey, yeah. I'll tell you this. I'll never make that mistake again. Vinnie, you are on my radar now, and I hope that you watch baseball today

because it's better than intentional talk. Ooh, sheesh. And yeah, by the way, I don't know. Clicking around, you know, we're not to the TPPs yet,

but, you know, are the Royals closer to the Cubs, and the Cubs are closer to the Cardinals? I don't know. I don't know. YARB on there. Trev, any other baseball stuff you need to get off your chest?

I know we actually, why don't we just clean up some of the, I guess Zanino, Vasquez, or maybe is it twin talk right now, Vasquez and Gallo? You drink in the Kool-Aid? I don't know if I'm drinking the Kool-Aid on the Twins. Just yet, I think there's more moves to be made. Like I mentioned before, there's kind of a lot of outfielders out there between, you know, Nick Gordon, Royce Lewis, Larnark, Kepler. or, you know, Kirillov, like, there's a lot of guys out there.

So I think there are some trades that are going to be made. Vasquez, you know, you want to have a veteran catcher there. I'm down for that gallo. I think, you know, on a cheap deal, maybe they think they can tap into something. He played in New York and L.A. That's a lot of distraction going on. Bring it on home to Minnesota, Minneapolis, and just focus on some baseball, some good food, some nice people.

No one's going to be booing you, Joey. How about that? Come on, Joey. Yeah, maybe that. That's all he needs is like a pat on the butt and the twins is like, hey, we'll get this guy because that's what we do here is we make it feel good about yourself. So I like it. Am I going to Twinsfest? I'm not sure yet. I'm still deciding. Figuring it out. Yeah, I mean, Gallo, like you said, they have a little bit of outfield depth.

They probably try to change that into something to retool. I love Vasquez, man. The guy's just a gamer, put him behind the dish every day. If there's a big at bat in the seventh inning, he's going to give you a good at bat. And for today's catcher, that's not. Not bad, man. So I like that for the twins. Let's see what else they've got in the tank because, man, missing out on Correa, were they going to be a mystery team for Dansby? You felt it in Twins.

Like, Correa, they bought what Correa was selling. And he ended up getting the big bag in the bay. That's a nice saying. Yeah. I think, I don't know what show I mentioned on, but like, you know, most of the time the twins are so far away from the elite free agents that, like, It doesn't sting when they don't sign him. But, like, Correa was, like, a kind of a reality for them.

Like, it could have definitely happens, and it didn't happen. And now we'll see. They got, they have to make some moves. I, uh, Zanino with Cleveland. That's fun. Narfayas with the Mets. I mean, you know, when, when you're not mentioning a two-year, $15 million move for a team, that's a good sign for your offseason, uh, go Los Mets.

And our guy hedges with the pirates. Maybe we see the pirate staff. get a little boost from his pitch framing and you get some good stuff on the rose rotation. Sorry about those five racks, bro. Come on to New York and buy us a dinner. Whoops. Sorry about you, Hedgy. For the twins, just gals numbers at Target Field in his career. Very good.

And anecdotally, last year, by far his best series of the year. Hey, just be nice to Joey, Minnesota. You guys can do this. It's easy for you. Just be nice to him. Here you go, Joey. Yeah. You got this.

Spat on the ball. Dude, there's so many other big moves that we're going to get to coming up. I mean, Bassett to Toronto, Ben Intendi, Tendi, Taiwan Walker, Cindergarde, Jady Martinez. There's going to be a little Dodger segment coming soon. Yeah. We'll save that for when the big fella is back. Trev Davis, love you guys. Was Poppy a little late today?

Just watching the World Cup and forgot the start of the time? Absolutely. So I'm going to wear it. Trev's going to hold it over my head for a while, but I like that. That makes Trev happy. So I love you guys. Anything else? We'll talk more on Wednesday.

Blitzball battle. Good love, Trev. Chick-socks.