Talkin' Baseball (MLB Podcast) - Dodgers Rotation FINISHED? + Power Hitters Sign in NL | 770

Episode Date: January 29, 2024

Use code TALKIN for $20 off your first SeatGeek order. https://seatgeek.onelink.me/RrnK/TALKINRegister at http://SupercutsHighScore.com and you could score a haircut after this year’s Big Game.Head to https://nutrafol.com/men and get $10 off your first month’s subscription + free shipping when you use the code TALKBASEControl Body Odor ANYWHERE with @shop.mando and get $5 off of your Starter Pack (that’s over 40% off) with promo code TALKIN at https://shopmando.com! #mandopod #ad++++++TIMESTAMPS:0:00 When Will Boras Clients Sign?5:55 Dodgers Sign LHP James Paxton13:15 Is Clayton Kershaw Coming Back?20:15 Brewers Sign Rhys Hoskins!31:30 Joc Pederson Goes to the Arizona Diamondbacks39:50 Hector Neris to the Chicago Cubs41:50 David Robertson to the Texas Rangers45:15 Nationals Get Joey Gallo and New Jerseys49:15 Remaining Free Agents53:00 Twinsfest & Teddy Plouffe 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 Dodgers round out their rotation and some power bats land in the NL. Let's talk ball. Hello and welcome to talking baseball. Thank you very much for joining us today. My name is Jimmy. I'm sitting next to Jake. Producer BBD is in the room.

And Trevor Plouf's joining us from his backyard in California. Trev, how you doing? I'm doing great. Love, love Monday episodes. We go through the weekend. We speak, you know, randomly on our group chat. But then I get to see your beautiful faces in the morning. I'm having a, I'm having a good morning. I'll say that. You guys probably know what that means. But I am excited to talk some ball. There's a lot of stuff kind of like, maybe not crazy topics, but I think a lot of really important pieces going to these teams. So I'm excited to talk to. some shop and and I got a little bit of like a little bit of Trevor's tidbits. Oh, that's a little teaser. For Trevor's tidbits. Brought to you by Seatgeek code talking. I forgot about that. Jake, how do you do?

James, Trevor, BBD. I'm doing well, man. I'm doing well. One of these signings turns my head for a team. A bunch of relievers go at the end. And it's, uh, it's almost Fibrio. I'm very over January. Yeah.

January just gray. And I thought January had so much more like kick off the year energy. Like, let's get it. It's like, no, dude. Just get out my face. So I'm glad. January is hibernate. Month.

January is hibernate. Yeah. Month. And yeah, I've been good. You know, I went on vacation with Jimmy and Matthew and the wives. And then I went straight up to Twins Fest. Love seeing all my twins nation Where are we at?

We're at, yeah But it's good to be back in Cali In my horse barn Everything is so true You had a good time, Treff, good Heard you got a lot of love, good. James, how you doing, bro? I'm good.

I also enjoy the Monday episodes I'm interested to see how these signings do for you guys If I was to Chris Rose this, I'd be like which one is actually going to make the biggest impact and which one is going to be just like a trade piece or a non-impact? Because I don't know, to be honest.

They could all be impact. They could all be kind of like nothing. So I am interested to hear how you guys think these moves stack up. It's good to see some movement. All the articles about Boris agents clogging up, clogging up the free agency, are interesting me a lot because, so I was going to tweet this, but I forgot. Maybe I still will. Passing out a good article about the last time the top four free agents slowed everything down or whatever.

They were also Boris guys. And see, I don't know if I get in trouble for asking this question. Boris signed Monty, Jordan Montgomery, in the middle of the season last season. Now does Boris and his group have the foresight to know, hey, we have Snell, but the next big starting pitcher on the market is probably going to be Jordan Montgomery or one of them and we don't have him. It helps us out if we have both. And then they go meet with Monty and pitch.

And Monty switched agents halfway through. So I was trying to wonder, like, is that a long game that they play? Like, does he want both? Did he not want Monty? He just wanted both two starting pitchers. And then is that working for or against him? So the Boris stuff has been out of my mind a lot. That is interesting because if you're,

if you're Jordan Montgomery or Blake Snell, you're like, who are you taking care of the best here? Like, who are you really shopping? Because obviously teams, you know, prefer one or the other. But you would think usually a guy like Boris's number one priority would be the guy that makes, is going to make the most money, right?

And maybe Boris doesn't know which one's going to earn more. So he goes out and says, I want both. But he, he, Jordan, Montgomery joined Boris midway through last season. I think around the trade deadline, because Monty was pitching really well in a commodity. So I was just wondering if like, if we were to go back in the past and see people that signed up with Boris mid right before their free agent. And you're like, is there something about the landscape that alters who he wants in his portfolio? Conflict of interest.

If one of those two top free agent starters wants to come, we'll represent you. I don't think any of us are clear to do that, but we could figure it out. 10%. That's all I charge. Snell's gotten one offer so far. And they said Chapman's gotten zero offers so far. That's surprising.

I'm doing this later with Chris Rose. I like Chapman to the Cubs. Yeah, but when they say offer, they mean like really like a piece of paper that says, we are offering you this. Numbers have been discussed. Yeah, like, you know. Who's the team that offered Blake Stone?

Did I miss that? The Yankees. Heard of them. Oh, that's right. Yeah. He's right. But he apparently wants way more money, almost double. At least he's got a floor set, I guess that's nice.

Yeah, that's, I would love to be a fly on the wall some of these talks that Boris has. Just because he has the two lefties, it's, it is very interesting. Yeah. Anyway, if that's not what we're talking about, we're talking about the people that did actually sign. We can start with a pitcher since we're on pitchers. The Dodgers go get James Paxton. a one year $11 million deal for Big Maple. Deal is $8 million salary,

$3 million signing bonus, $1 million opening day roster bonus. That's the freaky part of it. Or 500K if he starts the year on the injured list, but returns by April 15th. Is he battling an injury we don't know about? Didn't he finish this season healthy last year? Is this just James Paxton Clause?

Placed on IL September 10th with right now. knee inflammation, but I think it's, I mean, Paxan's just got a lot of history with that. Okay. And then he'd lock in an extra 250K for making 16 and 18 starts apiece and would max out the deal with another 500K for reaching 20 starts. So interesting move from the Dodgers here who have Yamamoto and have Otani next year.

Reminder, Otani needs a six-man rotation. Yamamoto comes from Japan. where they have six-man rotations, or they have just an extra off-day in their scheduling. Actually, I'm not sure which one it is, but it lends itself to being part of a six-man, the off-days. So do the Dodgers, are these their five? Are they going to, like, rotate off-days?

Are they just getting themselves ready to have a six-man next year with Yamamoto and Otani? Those are kind of my first questions, but Jake, is this the one that excites you? Is this the one that excites me of these signings? No. But it's pitching depth and it's a name. James Paxson is an awesome dude.

Like go go check out the old highlight of the eagle landing on him. Go check out some of his pitching highlights. Remember when he was like the ace for Seattle, came over the Yanks for a little bit, had some big boy outings. He's just had a lot of injuries and he's 35 now. To pencil him into your rotation for 150 innings, you just can't.

But right now he's listed, the Dodgers fifth started, started. He threw 127 innings last year, which it didn't feel like that. It's a 445 ERA, but he's pitching at Fenway for half those games. And you love the place. You have to remember it's the Dodgers who have tapped into basically every pitcher they've touched for the past decade. And right now it's listed Yamamoto, Glassnow, Puehler, missed him last year.

Bobby Miller, your guy, Guy, Treb. James Paxton. And when we were looking at the Dodgers rotation and we're like, well, you know, they should believe in some of these kids and maybe we need to believe in some of these Dodgers kid pitchers. Well, right now with Emmett Sheehan, Gavin Stone, Michael Grove, your guy River Ryan turning heads this off season. Like seeing those first couple guys I mentioned as now is their depth pieces, like Emmett

Sheen threw 122 big league innings last year, and now that's your story. six. Like now the Dodgers have the MLB starting pitching depth that you'd expect from them. And, you know, I want to hear your guys' thoughts on it, but I think that it will lead into like, is the next thing that's going to happen? Kershaw and, like, Paxton and Kershaw are supposed to combine to be one pitcher for them next year, but I don't know.

What are you seeing, Trevello? I agree. It's just depth. And I think, you know, finding a guy that's going to be 150 to 180 innings right now is like seems like a fool's errand, right? Like no one's doing that anymore. So you almost have to have a stable coming from my barn back here. You got to have a stable of guys. And that's what they're doing.

I mean, you have some really high end, you know, top of the rotation stuff here with the Dodgers. Yomoto's going to be a guy. I know he hasn't thrown a pitch in the big leagues yet, but he's fucking nasty. He's going to be a guy. Bobby Miller is going to be a guy. Walker Beeler is going to be a guy.

Like, I have no doubt about that. Now, Glassnow also, like, I mean, those four guys right there you can rely on. But, you know, the innings is a factor. So you have to have the guys in the back end, the young guys coming up. And I think Paxton is just kind of another piece of those depth endings, essentially. And the thing I really am interested in was, the Dodgers in this signing is they're over the third competitive balance tax threshold so every single signing that they have they're paying 110% on top of the salary they're given the guy so so he's

actually going to make or cost them like almost 25 million dollars this year they don't care they don't give a shit they want to win the world series they want all of the lights and the spotlight on them and they're willing to do whatever it takes. They needed to do this. Whether it was Paxson or somebody else, they needed to go get essentially just more innings. I like that he's a left-hander because they don't really have that in their rotation. They don't have that in their rotation. So I think that plays a little bit of a part in it. But again, I think you get a guy like Paxon, you don't expect him to, you know, put up gaudy numbers, but a guy that's going to take the ball and what do you think? I mean, I think a good over-under

innings pitch for him is like a hundred. Yeah, and I just want to correct myself. He threw 96 innings last year. He's projected to throw 127 this year. So, yeah, it's, and Paxson actually really looked good early in the year last year. He kind of like stumbled later in the year. It wouldn't surprise me if one of these young guys came up and basically planted himself in that fifth starter spot. And we see kind of Paxson and a swing man.

type role going forward, but you're paying $25 million for that. Think about that, man. I'm interested. You know, I know the Dodgers have a lot of injury prone guys in the rotation and the money to do this, but it's not that much money. Like some other teams out there need guys in their rotation. It's not that much money. I don't know.

Just Dodgers can just pull the trigger on shit. Or if you need a legit rotation piece that you're not concerned about injuries, which clearly they are. with all the incentives, and you're a team that can't, like, have that risk. You can't go sign James Paxson for this deal, even though it's cheap. So it's just nice to be nice for the Dodgers.

I am interested to see if they change his pitch mix at all, not a James Paxon thing, but just a Dodgers thing. Like, they kind of love tap it into stuff. And he doesn't throw many of the pitches that usually they tap into because he's a lefty. So there's no two seam or, like, sinker, sweeper in Paxton's

repertoire really. So I'm interested if they try or they're like, nah, you're good. I know we kind of like hit on it a little bit, but I think another story like that comes from this is the Kershaw saga. Like when when does he sign back? And is there, are they even considering

it right now? They have to be considering it right now. But one year, whatever he's going to make, 17 to 20, that's what Kershaw makes every single year, means 34, 35, $40 million. I have a question. If this sentence is uttered in the conversation in the conversation from the Dodgers and Kirshah, let's just see where he's at come June and chat then.

Is it the Dodgers saying that to Kirshaw's agent or is it Kirschau's agent saying that to the Dodgers? Like who would rather be like, hey, you know, let's let's just rehab and keep going and see where the team's at and where you're at come June. Which, if that was to be said, who would be more likely to want that? Jake, you go first. Who would be more likely to want that the Dodgers? Yeah. Because the Dodgers, you know, Clayton's, let's knock on wood, if something went bad with

his rehab and he got hurt again, then the Dodgers don't have to pay him whatever the Dodgers have to pay him. So, yeah. Yeah. I'm just thinking of Petit and, um, And Clemens, they wanted that when they got older with the Yankees. They would call the Yankees halfway through and not be under a contract. And Kershaw might have made enough money, might be test.

Like, you know, I have no idea. But yeah, that, that is what it, it could remind me of that. Like, I remember, was it 2011 or 2014? When was it when they called Pet it halfway through? And they're like, hey, dude, can you come on retire? We need a pitcher. And he was like, yeah, you know what? Yeah.

And they struck Bryce Harper out four times. He was like 44. Harper was 19. He was like, here's a cutter. Ever seen that? Bryce was like, no. Looking at the reference page, I believe it's 2012. 2012.

So, yeah, Yankees had oddly had, maybe a lot of teams have had guys older pitchers that just hate spring training and hate the first half of the season. Clemens hated it. And Petit used to say, I don't want to do spring training, you know? Let's just say that everything goes to plan and those top four guys

that we mentioned, plus Paxton or one of the young guys comes up and like the rotation's stable and we're into June and they're all looking good, decent enough, healthy like what does that do for Kirchoff? Does that make him like you're not coming back to L.A

and if he wants to play he's got to go somewhere else like I got to feel like they're in lockstep about him being a Dodger for life but I think this presents itself as a situation where maybe it could come to an end because they're not going to sign him for because if he comes back midseason they're not going to give him

20 million bucks. Say they give them 12. Again, it's another $25 million that they got to dish out. And if everything is going right and they have all these guys, I don't think they do it. And if he wants to pitch, then somebody else is going to go. And it's not going to cost them 25 because they're not going to be over the tax that the Dodgers are. He's going to the Rangers.

I don't know. We do the same Kershaw thing every year. We do. We used to laugh at the Rangers idea. And then they go out and win the World Series. So it's almost like he kind of missed the boat on that one? Like, you can't, you can't join now, dude. I don't know. In my head, Clayton Kershaw is going to be a Dodger and we'll laugh that we talked about it again. But they can't sign him if things are going right, right? Or is there room for him? I would think he'd want to have something figured out before the season, unless the new Clayton Kershaw that we've dreamed about every offseason for the past five years shows up and is like,

yeah, I'll be a true vagabond. And I would love, I've, I think every, Every year I dream about, I know Jim brought up Clemens and Petit, with all this talk about innings and, like, you know, to find a guy who throws 150 innings doesn't exist anymore. Like, I don't know, Clayton Kirshaw, if he really wanted to, you know, if he didn't care about the Dodgers and legacy and all that, which he definitely does. But, like, I don't know, if Clayton Kirschaw just waited until June 1st

and whatever teams are in the race and whoever's not and said, open bidding on me, he'd probably still get himself, what, 15 mil for half a season at that point? Like, that's not a bad way to do life. But I'm just not going to believe Clayton Kershaw is going to do that to himself. But if you're a pitcher and you're in that boat, it's not a bad lifestyle. And just our annual, hey, here's some Clayton Kershaw stats. His last 46 starts over the past two seasons. 237 ERA.

No way. Oh, my God. He's washed up, though. 258 innings, 237. It's good. He gives up a few homers in the playoffs, and you can't get any respect. Gross.

Gross. I've got a new partner announcement. Uh-oh. Someone I might be linking up with after the big game. Supercuts. Brees. Sirens go off. And.

Uh, I'd tell you to run down there right now, but you may want to wake two weeks or so because if the teams combine to score 75 points in the last football game of the season, they combined for 73 last year, just short. If they combined for 75 or more, Supercuts is given out a chance for free haircuts.

You, me, I'm actually looking to get one. And I like super cuts. It's kind of made for the jakes of the world. Come in there. Open arms. We'll take care of you. And if you had to supercuts, highscore.com, register, read the terms and conditions. You can get free haircuts at supercuts.

So go check it out. You're going to watch the game, so you might as well have super cuts in the back of your head. Maybe all four of us head in. Take James. He's in the haircut. Yeah, he's in the haircut game. He's got one hair. I mean, for a two and a half-year-old, he's bald as shit.

But is he going to get those lines on the side of his hair? Like the cool kids do nowadays? I mean, if he wants them, no, you won't get those. Dude, he's going to be such a swag. Get that little cool hair. Oh, I can't wait. I like my hair right now. I looked at it at when we were filming when we could dumb.

And I said, oh, yeah, my hair looks all right. That's a super cut. I brought a hat, though, for the Boone event. Nice. Mondays are no hat day. But end of the day. Thanks, supercuts. Let's move on to.

Colt Keith. You want to talk Colt Keith next, Jake? Is that the one here? Listen, the two big ones, man. That's the one you want? Reese Hoskins goes to the Brewers on a decent, like, contract and young jock, Boeing to the debacks. I think we got two good power hitters here. And Hoskins is the story.

Two for 34 with a one-year opt-out. All the conversations that we've had about this free agency, if Reese Hoskins had one of his normal years, which every time Reese Hoskins has played over 100 games, he hits 27 plus homers. Like, think about the bats and conversations we've had about this offseason. Like, Belly, he was awesome last year, and he was obviously awesome with a big gap in between. Matt Chapman, no, platinum-type defender. What are you going to get from the bat? Reese Hoskins is consistent as consistent comes. He just missed a year with a torn ACL that if this free agency, if he just had a regular Reese Hoskin season,

I think we'd be talking about him as like the second most reliable bat. And where does he land? Milwaukee, a team that we've almost mentally written off because it's like, well, they're going to trade Corbyn Burns. It's his last year. They haven't.

They haven't. The Cubs still don't have belly on their team who was their MVP last year to get back to the however many wins they landed with last year. What was it? 84? So, like, the Milwaukee Brewers, who we've almost haven't talked about a lot this offseason, we've always waited for them to do an impact move. They locked up their super prospect trio, so he's going to be out there balling.

And they bring in Reese Hoskins that, like, I don't know, they won 92 games last year. The Cubbies won 83 in second place, and I don't think they've gotten better yet this off season. You know, maybe when Belly comes back and they have made other moves around it, But the brew crew, like, I've been waiting for them to bring in a Reese Hoskins for three years. So I'm kind of jazzy about the brewers. I think it's even been more than three years we've been asking them to like, go get a bat, please. Like, you know, we got Yelly there. We need some more thump.

You know, we've tried the Rowdy Telez's. We've tried that. Shout out Rowdy. Not, I don't want to put you down or anything. But Reese Hoskins is a different hitter, much more consistent. I think exactly kind of what they need in that lineup. And I did, you know, you guys know, I sat down with the alley. We talked a little bit about Brewers baseball and the state of the union and all of that.

This is before they had signed Reese. So, or was it? I'm not really sure. We talked about what he said, what he said was the young guys got to step up. And he said, Tariot is supposed to be the guy. So that's kind of the formula that I think they're taking is we have in-house options. They had room for Reese, and I'm glad they did that because he's going to stabilize the middle of lineup, and he's a patient hitter who's, he might strike out a little bit, but he's going to walk

too, he's going to hit some homers. I love him in that park. You know, going from Philly, which is a great place to hit as well, and you kind of stay, and now you're in Milwaukee. I think he's going to really like just the atmosphere. fear of playing in Milwaukee. I think he's really going to thrive there. But this is, this means something. And if they end up not trading Burns and, you know, just offering the qualifying offer at the end of the year, like, I'm thinking a little bit differently about the Brewers because of this move. It seems to me like now they are kind of saying, you know, you sign Jackson Truroo to the deal,

you bring in Hoskins. It points to the sign of, yeah, we still consider ourselves the best team in the NL Central. We still think we can do this, which I don't know if I had that thought process earlier in the off season. So this signing, I think, not only for me, but for the fan base, it's got to give them, like, hope, like, dude, 2024.

Okay, we're still doing it. We're not doing a mini rebuild or a retool or something like that. So I think it's a great signing. The opt-out is, you know, you probably were going to get that with Reese. He wants to go in and re-establish himself in the market. If he has a good year,

I think he's probably gone from Milwaukee. So it's essentially, you can bank on the one year 17 or whatever, however they split it up. I think it's a really good move for Milwaukee. Yeah, I mean, they're looking for first base production for a long time, kind of just rotating big men for the last couple seasons traded for Santana. Yeah, and Reese can bang. The, where does he go in the lineup?

I mean, are they going to put them clean up? Was one thing I wondered. and then the other thing was defensively. Does this help or hurt the rest of that infield? At one point, the Brewers' Infield was awesome. I think Reese graded out a little below average, but sometimes first-based metrics are, I'd have to just ask people that watch trees play at first

because they, first-based metrics were telling people, Rizzo was bad two years ago, and I watched him every day, and he was like saving errors non-stop on picking balls. So I guess let me know. Is Reese a plus or is this going to hurt the infield? Are the shortstop and third base happy? Run prevention.

That's what the brewer's specialize in. It's true. Yeah. With the first baseman, like the corner guys, it's all about kind of stopping the balls down the line. That's how you get the good defensive metrics for you. But really, you know, if I'm just speaking as a third baseman or a shortstop, Like you just want a guy that can pick the ball a little bit

Who is a decent size target And I think Reese Reese can do both those things Last year the Brewers slugged 389 from the first base position That's not good from a Thumpin position This Fangraph's projected lineup is

They have Freelick batting third Hoskins Batting fourth I don't think that's how it's going to line up. Yeah, I think they're hoping that one of the lefties can break it up. Freelich was, Freelik was pretty solid for them, but you wonder how much thump is going to be in his bat. But, you know, Yelie's on-base, veteran Yeli has become like a pretty good lead-off guy.

If you're a Contreras brother, you're just going to bang. Like, that's what you end up doing. And then Rieser's going to bang. And Adamas is going to, like, his numbers are going to land in a good area. for like a short stop. So yeah, for me, the next step is like, who's going to be the guy? Like Garrett Mitchell, you know, he had the pretty much season-ending injury. And who of the young guys is going to step up?

Or is Truro like, that dude? Like, he's projected for 17 homers and 25 swipes next year, hasn't played major league baseball. So I don't know. I guess I've been doing the mental exercise of the NL Central. I think he even brought that to one of our off-season. and episodes. And, like, the Brewers have,

if they've played a full season since 2017, they've won 86 plus games. Like, that deserves a little bit of respect. The counter to that is, and you'll love this, Trev, well, now counsel's gone. And Stearns is gone. Wow. So if you believe in, you know,

that shake-up throughout the organization, that's something you could say can worry you. But this team has been the class of the, NL Central with like zero hiccups. And I don't know. Brewer's lineup, we always do this conversation. Right now it looks sexier than it has. Really?

Benet for the breweries. I mean, Reese helps out, sure, but who's the biggest free agent they've signed? Like, as of late? Free agent? I think it's Reese. Is this it? 17? I mean, that's a decent number, but

I mean, they've been taking flyers. To your point, to your point, I go in every year skeptical of the Brewers. And like, I know they're going to do it. I know they're going to, you know, they're going to win more games than they lose. But I just can't really wrap my head around how it's going to happen. We should talk about their pitching and, okay,

they got their pitching issue to hit a little bit, run prevention, blah, blah, blah. I look at this lineup and I look at the roster. I look at, you know, the back end of the rotation. I'm like, how are they going to do it? Like, I don't want, I said a 500, ball club. I think Reese helps that out. I think they're going to finish above 500. But it just seems like things have to go right for them all the time. And they end up,

they do. And you do have to give credit to the front office for, you know, whatever system that they have, you know, finding guys and their projections are better than we see online. But I don't know, man. I'm still skeptical, which is, I hate to say it, but I got to see it. And they're probably going to just say, yeah, Treb, you're an idiot, and here's a 91 win season. Yeah, I don't, I don't know where the sexy, sexy factors coming in. It's a lot of, it's a lot of young guys that haven't done it yet. It's sexy compared to previous Brewer's lineups, is what I was saying. I feel like every year you've been asking them to go get that reliable, especially

specifically a righty power hitter. And Reese brings a lot of stability there. And if you believe in any combination of the kids being, taking that step of this year, you can get excited in a way we kind of haven't in a little bit. Like for what Churillo is projected to be in past Brewer's lineups, we would have been like, can he hit third? And they have him hitting seventh. He might hit third.

He might. Yelly was adamant. He goes, people that are around the game, people that he trusts, this guy is the best player they've seen in a long time. He's 19 years old. He was mostly in double A last year, kind of crushed it. He played, you know, a week or so in AAA. I went and watched this swing.

His swing is airtight, bro. Very low, low front foot, which to me, I think that's like a key of someone that can be consistent. And a guy that's 19, about to turn 20, you don't see that too often. It's got pop, you know, can go opo. It's, it looks awesome.

But we got to see it, you know, at the big league level. But I think when you give a guy that type of money before. All the metrics suggest, all the data suggests he's going to be a guy. And he passes the eye test too, Jake. Say Joey Weamer just before we move on. Jelly Weamer. Jack Peterson.

Boing. To Jake's snakes. What's the deal here? It's one year, 12 and a half mill? It's, yeah. What did he originally sign with the, No, it's a one year, nine and a half, but he has a mutual option at 14 for 25, and the 3 million buyout is what brings it up to 12.5 guaranteed.

Okay. What did he sign with the Giants? I feel like it was less. And then he took the qualifying offer with them. Last year had a down year according to the results, but a fine year according to the metrics. Goes to the debacks where I believe I read that Mike Hayes, the general manager has said he's wanted a full-time DH for a while,

and Peterson fits the bill. You like this for your snakes? I do. I mean, you just know what you're getting. I think Jock isn't going to play against lefties anymore. You know, we kind of went through that time period where it was like, well, he's young and the best way to get better against it is get reps, and the Dodgers kind of never let that fully happen.

And the same way, like, he hasn't been great for his lefties. So, hey, you got, if there's a righty starting pitcher on the mound, which there's going to be for 125 games, Jack Peterson can be in the middle of your lineup. And, you know, the snakes have some fun because we saw Gabriel Moreno last year. You know, he's a guy that against left-handed pitching, he's a one-daughter against right-handed. He's like a 700-op-type guy.

So you've got a fun little lineup dynamic here, where, you know, for how often we praise the raise about putting their guys in positions to succeed, these are guys that you can put in positions to succeed. Like, Jock, hey man, D-Hing in itself, kind of like you said with the hazing quote, it is a skill, like to have to sit on the bench for three hours and you get four at bats. Like some guys ain't going to be wired that way. So Jock, who's got experience doing it, you know, pretty plug-in-play for, more than three quarter of your games,

something like that. And if it's a righty, hey, you got to see Corby, Coytel Marte, Jock, Christian Walker, like, that's the start of a lineup. If you're a lefty, Kattel be in the switch there, and then Christian Walker is the riding in Gabriel Moreno.

Yeah, the snakes have put together, you know, everyone thought they were going to lose Lordus Garreal. He comes back. They've added Jock, and they added Erod.Rod. So, like, Eugenio. Eugenio. Eugenio Suarez. So like coming off of a World Series,

like this has been a nice little offseason for the Snakey's. This is how I know you don't know sexy, bro. Okay. This is a sexy lineup right here. This is a World Series team. We're talking to compare it to the Brewers. Was that a fluke, Ron? What the freak was that?

Okay. Are we ready to talk about that yet? No, this is a, I love this lineup. I really do. And I was, all these quotes about, oh, snakes need a left. handed bat. And I was like, were they really bad at hitting right-handed pitching last year? They were better against right-handed pitching. 737 OPS against right, 7-11 versus lefties.

But obviously, the vast majority of starting pitchers, you know, around the league, especially in the N.O. West are right-handed. Jock is one of those guys that could carry this team for a couple weeks. Very streaky type guy. He can hit, you know, seven homers in a week if he gets right. I think this is great. You know, the one year with the mutual option is always good for, you know, the team and the player, really. So this is, I was pretty excited about this one. I didn't really know exactly where he was going to land.

But thinking about him in this lineup, there's just a lot of, like, fun players. Still some question marks, I guess. Like, is Gabriel Moreno going to be the guy that he was, like, in the postseason? he's a young dude you expect him to get better I want to see what kind of year

he's going to have but I think bringing in jock you kind of know what you're going to get and when you have some young guys and I don't know

the more I look at this line the more I'm thinking it's going to be what it is I don't think there's a lot of like up and down here I think they're going to be pretty consistent

they have like enough righties enough lefties speed power it all kind of plays together. It's a well-formed lineup. Now, tell you who I'm very excited about. I think Alec Thomas is going to have a great year this year.

I just like this guy. When I watch him play, I'm like, this guy is going to do something. I think I predicted he was going to hit a homer at some point last postseason. It didn't happen. But I like watching him play. And he's probably the last guy you'd think about

in that lineup. And I think he's a pretty dang good player. So go snakes. I'm working on a little algorithm right here. Jim. Trying to butternice some stats for Jock. The only thing I'm missing is slugging percentage because I got to get the actual like calculator out.

Right. What do you got? Well, he just, he was like a part-time player a lot last year. And I was trying to look at in games where he had three at bats or more, did he perform better? In games where he had three at bats or more, he had, holy shit, the same exact on-base percentage.

Well, that's crazy But a worse batting average But I'm guessing the slugging was higher Because he only had one home run And he played like a lot of games Where he only got one at bat You know, pinch hitting Or he got two

He had 25 games Where he only had two or less at bats And in those he only had one home run So I was guessing that his slugging And his output was better When he was starting and playing full games Because I saw his game log And I was like, that's a lot

to just be a part-time player just go get an at bat and that'll drag your stats down. I probably could have done the splits as a starter versus as a sub. But the slugging calculator's too much work. I bow out. I just had a thought because Jock posted a picture.

He has a cyber truck. And then I had a, he just got one. And I thought about Jake driving a cyber truck. It's a great image for me. I've got a little Jakey Jock Peterson butter knife, and you can think of me in the cyber truck. While I tell you about Nutrafall, because they're who's bringing you Jakey's Jock, fun fact,

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He was a 790 OPS. He finished the year at 764. So he was just sad boying with the giants. They were dead. So Jucks, remember when Jock had the whole city of Atlanta wearing pearl necklaces? It was awesome. he's something bro he's something he's something he's something he's something something something something this line of this sex i'm interested in the narris steel unless you guys want to go somewhere else

i'm trying to read rosenthal's article about like why he was so why it's so low i know he wasn't we talked about that before the show i know he wasn't closing in uh with houston and like they use saves as a number but i thought you look at some of the the other release, like the dude, I know he's older. Stevenson. Stevenson and the guy from Cuba. You're a Rio. Yes.

We just did. Rodriguez. They got like, what did they get? They got more than this. They both, I think, 33 and four years respectively. Now, Neres can earn up to 23 million of this $9 million deal, which is a ton of incentives.

And his Velo's down. He's old, but like, I don't know. I thought he was going to get more. Who's his agent? It seemed like Boris. So he gets... The options are interesting. He gets 9-mill,

and then there's an option for 25 that becomes his own if he pitches in 60 games, which is interesting. Which that's... Go ahead, Jake. That's basically a full relief season, right? Like, he threw 71 last year

that's on the high end. So, you know, if he is good for them next year and healthy throughout, he'll beat that and he'll get that option. But, yeah, I think eight, I think he got hurt by age and the predicting stats because, like, his FIP wasn't great last year and relievers can be a little volatile,

but, yeah, that's a... I was a little surprised. I think everyone thought at least two years would be, like, a lock. Yeah. He's going to be in the bullpen, fifth inning, just doing jumping checks. I'm ready, coach.

I'm ready. Put me in. I feel good today. How's your arm feeling? Great. Get those April appearances up. Get like a 13-0. appearance April.

He's fine. Just popping some pain offs. I'm good, coach. Don't feel a thing. Meanwhile, D-Rob, five years older than nurse, goes to the Rangers. Yeah,

obviously, because this is the best signing every off season is David Robertson on a one-year deal. 11 and a half-mill. Yeah, he's gonna go out. Guess who his agent is? Morris.

Well, himself, but we've heard that. Oh. I didn't know that. At least at one point it was himself. Maybe he went back to having an agent. It's still himself, but I've heard there's a technically. Interesting.

Does he give money away for the technically? I think he pockets it. Oh, I don't know. Yeah, I don't know. You know I love there, Robertson. I mean, the stats are what they are. I know it wasn't great with Miami in the closer role, but once he moved out of that, got better.

like he's just a guy his body's good those a good pitch like he's going to be a good reliever he doesn't have to be a closer like he can he can still give you high leverage innings and that ranger's bullpen is still very I would say considered unsettled

at the least like LeClerc is a guy I think he's actually a really good piece he showed up in the postseason last year but that was something that they definitely had to go get in the off season. I think this is a perfect deal for them. I love it, man. I got a fun game. Yeah. You like games? Ooh, yeah. Might be the big... You were one of the biggest game likers in the world. I like games. That's true. Matt Moore, one year nine mill. Hector Narris, one year nine mill. D-Rob, one year 11 and a half. Or all this Chapman, one year 10 and a half. What would you want?

Which one of those guys? Yeah. I think the money comes down to saves. I think you guys are right. Like D-Rob got some saves and I guess that adds to it. I don't know. Which one would I rather have? And what kind of team am I?

Do I need a back of the end? Do I have a decent closer already? Like that matters here. It does become interesting because I, you know, Matt Moore's numbers are great. But I don't know. It is expectation. Like who narrows? I'm taking D-Rob.

I feel like it's like old reliable. Does everything. He was really good before the trade deadline. I think he had like a two ERA. And he was some relief or a funny business in Miami where it's just like stumbled at the beginning. And I think figured some stuff out outside the closer rule. Yeah, he was getting save opportunities the first half of the year.

Yeah, in Miami, his first in his second out and he went three earned runs. No, it looks like he had enough. He had a real rough August. Yeah, you had a real rough August in Miami. Yeah, horrible August, yes. They still made the playoffs. I kind of forget they made the playoffs, but I obviously didn't forget they made the playoffs.

Well, that's because they made the spring training playoffs. Oh, practice playoffs. Yeah. That's not nice. Playing baseball. It's not nice. Any other big national, Joey Gallo? Joey Gallo's in the nationals.

Yeah. People are real. mad they're getting rid of the cherry blossoms after this year, which I kind of am too. Those are beautiful uniforms. Like, why don't you just keep those? Your new one, block lettering needs to get out of baseball. Yankees have it fine.

Tough weekend for Matt's uni news. Why? Like they'll get a new city connect after this year. I like the VNEC. I'm down with that uniform. I don't like their new, just like, uh, wait, this VNAC, this white VNAC with the? I dig it.

It's different. that doesn't look like an actual uniform. That's an MLB uniform or is that like a spring training alternative thing? No, that's MLB uniform. Oh, I don't like that. But I, you know, I'm a boring old person, so don't judge my opinion. I like people don't like that. Oh, it looks better on.

It looks like a basketball warm up pullover thing that you wear like over your basketball jersey. You looking at those two roped up guys wearing it? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, look better on them than on the hangar. but it still, to me, doesn't look like game time. Oh, that's Stone Garrett. He is ripped up.

Doesn't look like a game time jersey to me. I see what you're saying. Sometimes without the buttons, it's nice. To play in a jersey without buttons, it feels good. Oh, is that why it looks odd to me? There's no buttons. Yeah. How many teams have buttonless jerseys?

It's more of like an old school thing. The twins had like the old school powder blues. You know, that didn't have it. They're like V-Net kind of look. Interesting. I was going to say this jersey reminds me of like Hank Aaron. Like I feel like I watch his Braves highlights, and that's what he's wearing.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. Who needs buttons? I feel like the Pirates maybe have or recently had a set that were buttonless, but. Know what you might need, though? Mando. Pay attention, people, especially, you know what?

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If you use deodorant, or if you're needing to use deodorant, go check them out. And I think it comes with some wipes. Oh, yeah, Joe's took my deodorant wipes very confidently. Trev, you're raising your hand. I didn't get a sense of Mando package, but is this deodorant or is it soap or is it both or is it a line? Deodorant.

Deodorant, lotions, wipes. Great. They've got you covered on the, on the greening scent front. Yes. Okay. All right, a little recap of guys that are, unless there's anything, anyone we miss, but guys that are still out there

because a lot of things tumbled. What? Oh, there's, According to Fangraph's projections, which have been accurate enough, there are only one, two, three, four, five players remaining that are projected to sign more than a two-year deal. That's Jorge Soler. They have him three years, 16 million a year.

Matt Chapman, Blake Snell, Jordan Montgomery, and Bellinger. So the Boris four and Jorge Soler are that we're supposed to get more than two years. Guys that they said might get two years. You got Clevenger, Lorenzen, Michael A. Taylor, Whitmerfield, Ahmed Rosario, Clayton Kirshaw, Brandon Belt, J.D. Martinez, Duval, fam, Gary Sanchez, Carlos Santana, Justin Turner, Zat Granky, Brandon Crawford, Ryu. I'm down to one year.

Yeah. Donaldson, Grandal, Krohn, Anderson, Pollock, Odurzee. That's kind of what's left. So it actually, a lot of stuff did clear. It is the Boris 4, really. Lair that are out there. Jady Martinez. Yeah.

So mad at Shohei. Yeah. Well, and Jock. Yeah. Yeah, Dalton really wanted J.D. to go to the snakes. I don't think it's happening now. Because not many teams want a full-time DH. So there's only 30 teams.

Then you've got to take away teams that have full-time DHS. And then you got to take away teams that don't want full-time DHS. I wouldn't mind the twins taking a stab at J.D. Martinez. Byron Buckson says he's playing center field this year. How many games? I don't know, but he's a guy that could fit. They got to trade some people. Yeah, because you also got to be in contention.

If you're not in contention, if you're not really like, this is a win year. I don't think you're going to full-time games. You can trade. You could trade them at the deadline. Yeah, if that's your strategy. That would be a good one-year guy. I'm just, it's a tough gig right now.

If you're not already. I'm sure there's teams out there. I think J.D. Martinez is going to be an injury. Spring training. Yeah, Camstarts. Spring training. First week of spring. I believe that's also what Boris is doing right now with his guys.

You know, you saw Graveman go to the IL and Houston quickly went and got hater. And I think, you know, you're at that point right now where some agents are like, hey, let's just wait it out. Something might happen. Things might change. And needs might get. you know, Dyer, and then we'll strike. Angels are going to get one of these pitchers? Probably trying.

You watch an Angels game who's sitting behind home plate, every game. Not Nesbelello anymore. Boris. Yes, Scott D. King. He's at every game. I feel like he's at Angels and Dodger games at the same time. Maybe it may be a body double.

He probably can afford it. Put those rumors out there. That'd be pretty cool. Was Rendon a Boris agent? Was? I think he's had some great quotes this all season. He's killed. Rendon was Boris, right?

How many of the, how many angels free agents? How many angel signings have been Boris agents? Boris Sneakle. Believe Rendon is Boris, yes. Running the halos. Scott Boris endorses Art Moreno to remain owner. Yeah, he fucking signs all your guys, dude.

Good endorsement. I want to give a quick, uh, before we end up. here. I want to give a quick Teddy Plouf, Twinsfest, a very cerebral take that he had. He's eight years old. We go to

this party. We're hanging around. It's a bunch of players on the team, coaches, front office type. So, you know, very familiar with me. And a lot of them saw Teddy when he was a baby in Minnesota. He was born in Minnesota. and so like you know everyone's coming up and talking to him and he's an eight-year-old like that's hard

for an eight-year-old to like you know answer questions and stuff like that but he did a really good job with it it was patient and and polite and all these things and then at the end of the day I'm like hey man like what'd you what'd you think of today he goes dad he goes everybody asked me the same questions just with different words I was like Welcome to life, bro. Like, that's life. Yeah. Great perspective right there.

He did a good job with him. I thought it was funny. Man, so true. That is so true. One thing of note that I'm looking at, because I was trying to look up Boris agents. Paxton's a Boris guy and did deal with the Dodgers. They usually do not work together.

Hmm. Okay. He also got Boris also Gallo Hoskins more. So it looks like Boris. was like, hey, let's clean up all these smaller ones if the top four are stuck. You want movement? I'll go move it. Someone tell me all the, all the free agents that the angels have signed that are Boris guys.

Oh, we're getting to conspiracy theories. No, no, no, no. I'm not, I'm not, I'm not, I'm not. Oh, I'm doing that. Oh, I'm doing that. Oh, okay. I'm just interested to know because if it's a lot, then I guarantee, then I would bet big money the angels are going to get Monty or Snow.

I'm watching the show suits right now. So I got all these like, you know, backdoor, you know, deals. Like what's going on behind the scenes? You know, I'm thinking Boris and Arty Moran are just in cahoots. But I mean, I think one of them is in cahoots. I think the other ones doesn't realize it. What's that being? What's that called?

Cahoo. Yeah. A coup. A coo. Oros owns the Angels. And that's the episode. That's the episode. Thanks guys.

See you later. Max Kepler is so freaking hot. Subscribe. I'm not number one. It doesn't. It makes my list no one void if I don't have Max Kepler number one.