Talkin' Baseball (MLB Podcast) - Giants Finally Get Their Power Threat! | 775

Episode Date: February 14, 2024

Use code TALKIN for $20 off your first SeatGeek order. https://seatgeek.onelink.me/RrnK/TALKINHead to https://factormeals.com/talkin50 and use code talkin50 to get 50% off++++Timestamps:0:00 Intro2:15 Jorge Soler is a Giant20:10 JD Martinez Should Have More Offers?22:35 The New Jerseys Look Awful24:25 Schedule Quirks42:00 Most Interesting Veterans in Camp 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. Happy Valentine's Day. The Giants get Solair. The schedule is funky, kind of. There's schedule stuff and other stuff. And more after that. Hello and welcome to talking baseball. Thank you very much for joining us today.

My name is Jimmy. His name is Jake. Trev's wearing a two-toned green hoodie, BPD behind the dish. It's brought to you by Seatkeek. It's Valentine's Day. And the Giants get their slugger. Jorge Soler. Also, there was an article on The Athletic about the schedule

and it's oddities that I really enjoyed. And some other names bouncing around camps that you might not know are bouncing around camps. That's the agenda. Jake, how do you think Trev is? Trev. Hey, guys. How are you? Hopefully my voice is okay. I'm under the weather today,

but I'm built different than Jake. I show up for work. Things are going well. I actually forgot that it was Valentine's Day today. So I retract that statement. I love every single one of you, including you, Jake. Olivia and I celebrated yesterday.

I gave her flowers and card and chocolate and all that stuff. Sounds like you didn't forget it at all. I'm just not feeling great right now. Okay. But I do love each and every one of you. So a big heart goes out to Jake, who is wearing pink today. It's Valentine's Day.

Wear some pink, guys. Be better. James watermelon sugar right here Davis I call that we call that pink

Trev feel better little guy I know you had that facial peel the other day so you're really hurting right now yeah that's tough huh excited to yuck some ball

my short king Jason Stark who you know sometimes people forget about him on the short king hierarchy and then he drops some missiles like this, some scheduled deep dive stuff with Starkey.

And so Laird to the Giants, what, I don't know, I love that. Is that the day, was that the day before the Giants went to camp? And it's like, hey, we're going to invite this Cuban guy with his own missile hanging. So I like that for the Giants. And we'll see what else. What does it mean for J.D. Martinez?

Like, that guy's still a free agent. Go look at his stats last year. And just his career, five straight All-Star games. I know all-J-M is more important, but Janie Martinez. How are you doing, Jimmer? What did the kids get you for V-Day? We don't celebrate Valentine's Day, so I checked in actually today at 930. I was like, hey, we still don't do anything for this, right?

And she's like, yeah, I don't care. I was like, okay, good, good, because I also forgot until I looked at the date on my computer this morning, which great. So I got to check in. It's been eight years? we've been together. So it's still like, you let me know when you want to start. But if you still don't give a shit about this day,

I'm also with you. So that's nice. I don't know if we've ever got each other stuff once. I don't get anything. That's the thing about all these holidays. You know, like I don't receive a gift for Valentine's Day. I mean, I have to beg for a card.

I'll send you something. Yeah, send you some. Maybe you and I could be Valentine's Day buddies. I like that. Because I like chocolates. So, like, I'd eat chocolate. I know you don't. Just get you a beer or whatever.

That's nice. See? Yeah, isn't that like the man flowers, the six-pack, right? That's what I say. Maybe. Although, I'm going two weeks with no alcohol as well. I'm just doing a real flush for my skin, Jake. You know what?

Some people are on. TV. How are you going to do it? You got to go back to the whole mill. I went two weeks without having a drink. I don't know. When's last time you went two weeks? Jim, last time you had a drink?

Yeah, exactly. Yeah, I'm done drink. I'm sober. I'm not sober. I just don't drink. But I might have had a drink at one point. I got a beer the other day. I think I took a sip of a beer and I was like, I don't care.

I don't care. This was for you guys at the table. For you to feel comfortable. I don't really want this so that I didn't drink it. Okay. Good luck on your two weeks. We'll pray. How many days in are you?

And you're sick and you're peeling? Damn. It's tough. Yeah, my body's reacting. Yeah. He does that. I think it's been three days since the Super Bowl. Hey, they say the first three days are the toughest, you know?

Once you don't identify. If you and I got off on the wrong foot today, you really did. I'm in a good mood. I don't know why you're coming at me like this. You said I don't show up for work. Oh, that did. You know what? I apologize because I know that does ruffle your family.

You started the whole thing. You started the whole thing. Okay. You reacted poorly to it. Anyway, what's in his basement? Okay. Hey, first topic. The San Francisco Giants,

they got themselves a slugger. Jorge Saler declined his $9 million player option with the Marlins. He said, I can get more than that. And he did. He signed a three-year deal worth $42 million. Includes a $9 million signing bonus. I do think this is a pretty good, like, in a vacuum value pickup for the Giants.

They got a slugger to put in their lineup. I think if you go bigger picture giants, I think that's where it might be harder to be like, I don't think this changes them a ton, which we were talking about before the show. But I do think in a vacuum, this is a nice quality deal for both sides. So that's my initial thoughts. Jake, what was your initial thoughts? I liked it. I know we've got the San Francisco giant Homer fun fact

that's been going around our office and baseball today. Now live with Chris Rose and Trevor Plouf. Go check that out on the Jam Baseball channel. I like it. One of my running jokes with BBD and Wake and Jake has been like, the Giants have six, six-hole hitters that, like, if that guy was in your six-hole, you'd be like, ooh, I like Tyro there. I like Lee there.

I like J. Solair is not that guy. Solair, I mean, has some thump. And the thing that I do think, I don't know if it's underappreciated, but I think being able to DH is more of a skill than we appreciate. Like I respect the teams that have kind of a floating DH spot to get guys off their feet, but to be a DH is hard.

And so Lair career has really good numbers as a D.A. And yeah, I think there's a little interesting. What are you going to get? We've seen Soler with some up and down seasons. And that's where the J.D. Martinez part of this, I want to get to in a little bit just because he's kind of been the model of consistency. So I'm wondering where his price tag lands, and you've seen him a lot more in the NL West.

But Soler is younger, and obviously that matters come for ages. He's still 31. So, like, you know, as a DH, you can still be kind of peaking a little bit. And he did last year on a Marlins team where if you're a lineup support guy, he didn't have a ton of that. I don't think another Marlin had over 20 homers or something like that. So Lair was the thumper in that lineup. He thumped last year.

Worst case, worst case, he mauls lefties. Like he's always mauled lefties. And we know the Giants are going to get, they love doing their platoon and matching up type deal. So for that contract, they obviously are thinking of him as the everyday D.H. and maybe you get the 20 games in right field. But I like that he's a pure threat. 36 bombs with the Florida Fish last year,

that that's another franchise not known for their pop. So you have to like it if you're a Giants fan. Why not? Yeah, this doesn't like stop you from making any other moves. I think that's why I like it so much for them. You know, it's not an outrageous amount of money to pay for your D.H. So you can still go out and try to get one of these guys. I said that before the show.

They shouldn't be done. They can't be done with this. I do like the move. He is a guy that can carry your team. He's a little streaky. But last year he had three months, May, August, and September and October with OPS over nine.

Like this guy can carry your team. You put him right in the middle of your order. Like you said, he matches left. He'd be on base percentage just fine. Like he's not a guy that's just going to, all homers, all nothing. So it's a good signing for them. You know, they bring in a couple bats this off season.

I don't know if I agree. I like your six-hole type hitter analogy. But I think with, if you talk about these guys like all coming together and having a good year at the same time, which is what kind of happens when a team wins. Like, you have guys just have their career years together. Like, I think it's a little bit better than that. I think the lineup is actually okay. I know last year was not great for them off.

Offensively overall the statistics aren't there but I think there's some promise that Conforto just wasn't himself last year If he gets going now you bring in so layer hopefully you sign another one of these guys then you could dream upon that But I still think there's so much work to do in San Francisco I'm I'm just every time I look at the roster There's obviously players I like and I understand kind of what they're trying to do It just feels incomplete to me There's really good players on there but there needs to be at least some more depth at the very least and And adding a Matt Chapman to this team

and allowing you to make some trades off of that, I think would be really good. I just think he fits so many places. Well, I think they have around 25 mil left until they hit the tax, which could get you a Chapman, you know, for the AAV for the yearly money. So they probably have more moves they want to make

because it doesn't change their roster much. Flores now becomes like a platoon guy, finds that bats all over the place. maybe. I did go in to the weeds to find out how many home runs will be given or taken from Jorge Soler. It's now in San Francisco. And I have great news. He gets home runs added.

If all of his home games in the last two years were played in San Francisco, he doesn't lose a single home run. Not one ball he hit out in Miami would be contained by... Is he a pool monster? Is that one? Yes, he gains one home run a year. Two balls he hit in the last two years. The wall in Miami kept him in, but they would be homers in San Francisco.

So you see that 36, 37. I mean, something that they obviously very much needed. Jake, you reference the stats. Are we going to give it to the people? The last time, the San Francisco Giants, this is a Chris Rose stat. You got to give credit where credits do. The last time the Giants had a third.

30 homer guy was Barry Bonds in 2004. That's crazy, dude. That is really crazy. That's a crazy statistic. I heard that on the other side of the office. And I was like, what? Yeah, the last right-hander was two years before that in 2002.

And it was Jeff Kemp. I mean, we're talking about a generation ago. That's crazy to me. So much-needed pop added to the lineup in San Francisco. I've got a fun game. You like games? James? Your whole life.

You know James likes games. If the San Francisco Giants, who we think and have been rumored for a big free agent for years and, hey, Jung Hulie, like they rolled out over 100 mil for, and we should respect that a little more. Let's find out who he is. But let's say they are in on one of the,

the bore four. Which way would you guys go if you were GM? Would you add another, would you add Chapman or Belly, or would you add Snell or Monty? I would add Snella and Monty. I would add one. I mean, I think you have to be very surprised if someone didn't choose pitcher there.

Because if you look at who their starters are, I mean, they're trying to get Jordan Hicks to be a starter. Right. They're desperate for innings. I guess where I brought it up is you just mentioned Chapman could be a fit there, and I've daydreamed that too a little bit. And the other thing that needs,

as we look at the Giants page, They did trade for Robbie Ray this year, who's going to be back at some point, and Alex Cobb is what should be back at some point for them. So with that, you know, Kyle Harrison's a big time prospect, you know, like you are right with the Hicks. I'm also a team like if they sign Snell and you look at Webb and Snell at the top of the rotation, like Webb kind of one of the true inning guys with Snell, who's not that, but he's one of the more dominant pitchers.

And then you just say, hey, in this lineup. and I say the six-whole thing in a half-enduring way, because guys are going to click. And, like, Lamont Wade's on base percentage last year. It's a little rude to him. I guess I'm comparing it to some of the elite, elite offenses in the games when I say that. Like Wilmer Flores went nut job last year. What's your deal, Wilmer?

That, yeah, you'd bank on, if I'm the Giants, I'm making one more move. You say, hey, maybe this lineup can come together and be chippy and be fun. But, yeah, if you added Snell up top, then, like, the whole tone of this Giants team, changes. Is Robbie Ray coming back this year? I mean, he had TJ last year in May. I thought it was a next year signing. I think he'll get back this year.

But it'll be like three stars. You can't count on him for really any innings this year. Alex Cobb had hip surgery on Halloween. That's an interesting day to have hip surgery on. Oh, I had some of the set. Oh, yeah, Wilma Flores. How about this? I was doing research, I believe, for the Tigers, TPP.

He has a brother, a pitcher named Wilmeret. Not Wilmerette, but close, just Wilmer. Well, Robbie Ray had Tommy John May 3rd of last year. So May will be a calendar year. I think they were aiming for summer all-star break. There's always setbacks. If it's the full Tommy John, unless you've got that new hybrid one,

it's usually like a handful of starts at the end of the season, less your Verlander. You guys are, we're missing the biggest thing the Giants did though yesterday or two days ago whenever it was Otto Lopez yeah purchased got him from the Blue Jays people loved Otto Lopez that's your next Wilmer Flores Tyro Estrada you know Lamont Wade reclamation piece that it's not even reclamation because it's still young that you're going to be like whoa who's this guy projected to have 60 grade speed and hitting, Trev.

60 grade hitting? I believe so. Contact maybe, like not power. Okay. Just the hit tool. Yeah. That was a career 600 batting average in the majors. Yeah, six for nine.

Ted couldn't do that. Whoops. And here's the thing about power. And he plays all over. We talk about power and oh, it's great to have these 30 home run guys, but the Giants won three-world series without a 30 home run hitter. As long as you just have a bunch of six-hole guys in there that are all producing at the right time, you're going to be okay.

But this team needs some pitching. I mean, 98 Yankees do anything for you? Most home runs on that team? 28. Tina Martinez. They were all juicing and all they could hit was 28 homers? That was before the juicing. Forever.

All before the juicing. The juicing is like 0-1. through A rod. Giambi through A rod, basically. Two. I mean, Darrell Strawberry might have been. I'm just kidding.

I don't know. Just around that time, there was a lot of juice in the game. None of them fit the profile. Like you said, if they were, it wasn't the home run muscle juices. They weren't putting up crazy.

They were a contact, moved the runner over team, the 98 Yanks. But you go into the 2000s. What other Yankee questions do you have? Trev You're always bringing us here. I think we need to move on from Jorge Solair.

We were actually talking about Otto Lopez. I had already transition to Otto. Did you tell the people about Seekkeek? Seekek exists. Like the number one ticketing app in the world? Yes. Events. Code talking.

I mean, get somewhere, go somewhere for Valentine's Day tonight. You could. Save the day. That's actually smart, Treve. Give me a city. Give Jimmy a city right now. Right now. Give me a city.

Can you say that you think one of our listeners is listening in? Oh, Seattle. Yes. Seattle's always listening. Those dumb dumps up in Seattle. No. Just hit in. That wasn't nice.

There go the comments. West Coast. West side. 70,000 events every day. Code talking. I'll let you know if you're getting a good deal. Download the app. What the shit.

Code talking. Link in the description. green, good, red, bad. Kind of Jake and Trevor today. Yeah. Kind of. Kind of. You're pink. You do look good in that color, though.

I know. Nice color on you. You look like you should be on Modern Family. Hey, hey, hey. Big Cam Energy. Yeah. I like Modern Family. Oh, I liked it.

Do you find what you're looking for, Jim? No, it keeps redirecting me to, like, uh, It's where I am. You're in New York. And I'm not in Seattle. Right. Oh, here, here. Sleepless in Seattle.

That's a love story. 27 bucks at Admiral Theater. So go check that out. Yeah, I think it's probably a play. Boom. Or the Seattle Symphony. Dumbass. Storm Lounge.

I mean, they got tons of shit on here. Ooh, the Wenatchie Wilder at the Seattle Thunderbirds tonight. Okay. Hmm. Johnny Gill at the Emerald Queen Casino? 21 plus for that one. So just be careful. What were you leaning us into, Jim?

Glenn Otto exists. And so does Otto. We got our auto run. And Otto Lopez. Yeah. I mean, that's kind of wild that right now we got a ton of autos in the league. The Angels and Padres. Wow.

There's been three major league managers named Otto. I would have never guessed Otto had so much run That's nuts In like the 20s I feel like Otto was popping I mean You got Otto Veles

Auto Briggs Auto Denning Auto Hubber Auto Nabi Auto Miller Auto Bluge A lot of autos man What do you think so best

It doesn't count Does not count Okay so then Do you want to do schedule stuff now You want to do B Keep saying. The schedule is good. Do you have JD Martinez thing, Jake?

I'm just super, obviously the age is different, but dollar-wise, I think he deserves more on his season and pedigree. But it's probably going to be a one-year deal, but I don't know. Is that 20-mill for JD? Or who's coming to the door? Angels and Mets are rumored to be a bidding for him right now. I guess if you're the San Francisco Giants, I'm very interested to see because if it's one-year, year of J.D. Martinez for like 20 mil, and Jady would have been in on that for the Giants. The way these baseball teams operate, in theory, I think that's contractually. You'd rather

do that for one year than three years of Solair. But I don't know. Again, don't know where the JD's going to land, but he mashed last year and every year. If they thought it would bring them, I'm assuming they still want to get one of those guys. And they're still planning on that. So if there was, the AAV came into place so they did not hit that first competitive tax, competitive balance tax. Maybe that's why they would, but I agree with you.

Like, if I'm a team looking for a DH, a guy that's going to be a hitter in the middle of my lineup, I'd rather have a guy for one year than give a guy three years. For the most part, unless we're talking, you know, Juan Soto or something like that. Interesting. I think maybe it is that the payroll, they don't want to hit that first level

so they don't have to go over it. have to restart. That's what I'm assuming. Because the AAB is what on the solar deer? 14? We're all math guys. I think it's 14, yeah. Everyone knows it.

It is. But the angels are rumored to be in. If the angels are rumored to be in on you, that means that you're waiting out injuries to be somewhere else. And then the Mets kind of came in and reported that they're interested in J.D. as well. J.D. Martinez and the baby angels, fire me up. Him and Trout?

Chilling notes Flip them at the deadline Trout talking weather And how much he loves the New Jersey's Should we talk about the New Jersey's? I mean, I haven't felt them yet But they look like When you put them side to side

To the old ones, it looks like a knockoff Like a cheaper knockoff Yeah, I'm interested Because it just looks like you can see the press Of the square and all that Which isn't great That's what they're saying There's no stitching anymore

It's all heat transferred on You don't have, it doesn't look like an authentic, nice jersey. I don't know what's going on with that. Mike Trout loves it. Maybe respect the best to ever play until he had a teammate come out. Don't you guys love this jersey? The tweet was. But it's not, I thought it was fanatics, but they just have Nike the logo on it.

But it's actually fanatics taking care of it now. Isn't that what's going on? I don't know. Some people are very, very into this world. And I'm not. so I feel like I don't want to completely misspeak and piss off the jersey. The jersey hive is not happy though. Yeah, they're not.

I saw one person made a lot of sense. It was a, they were showing a Michaelis jersey. And it was curved so much when it's like you don't have that many letters. It doesn't need to be curved that much. It was like too much curvature. Too much curvature. Yeah. You know I like curves.

Well, anyways. Can I let you guys know that there was a man named, he went by Woody Wagonhorst, or Wagonhorst. Sure. His full name, though, was Elwood Otto Wagenhurst. Negative 0.1 war. Strong name.

Yeah. Oh, there it is. There's a picture. There's the Michaelis. I don't know, bro. It looks like a Jersey giveaway at the ballpark. Yeah. Yeah, I don't know.

I don't know. Anyway, we've got schedule stuff. Jason Stark put out an article. And I, it's like, you know, it's right up my alley. I understand why I sent it to you last night. I understand it is like stats that exist but don't matter. Like sometimes people get upset about this stuff because it doesn't matter. And it's like, we know.

But there's just some fun oddities that he found. here on the schedule. Since last year was the first time they went to this new balance schedule and all the stuff that goes into it, go read the full article. I'm just going to share with you the stuff I liked. There were some, one of the big takeaways was the twins have, based on last year's record, the biggest gap of, they're the only team out of all 30 that do not play majority of their games against teams that were 500 or better last.

year. And that's because they had two negative 100 win or 100 loss teams in their division. Like the whole article is, boy, does the AL Central absolutely suck minus the twins in like any grand point you want to make from it. But that's not really what my favorite thing about it. It was just kind of like little nuggets of info. One was that teams get to submit now. if they would rather three series road trips or two series road trips, whether it gets fully granted or not. But teams like they get to like submit like our preferences to play three series on the road. Or no, we like only playing two and coming home.

And I found that interesting because last year I said a bunch of times like, wow, the Yankees don't have the three series road trip, West Coast trip. Like they always did like Seattle, Angels. and then Arizona or Seattle, San Francisco, and then L.A. if they were doing Interleague. And they didn't have any last year. So I guess teams do get to decide.

So if your team is doing a ton of three-leg trips, like Boston opens up with one. So maybe they're like, let's just get it out all out of the way. Oh, that was interesting. And then the scheduling, they do think, led to more attendance because it was like weekend. series where stars and interleague play was happening were like way up compared to the last couple years.

There's a lot of factors there, but they liked that. One of the tidbits I liked was that the Mariners, hey, Mariners fans, they don't play in a way game in their time zone until June. Interesting. So as a viewer, as an audience, if the Mariners are on the road, you're getting for them four o'clock or five o'clock start for two months that's a lot that's crazy that is crazy i love the thing i love most is obviously the attendant rising it makes a lot of sense if you're someone that you know you can only go to three or four games a year you don't want to see the

same guys over remember don't want to see the cleveland guardians play the twins four times a year. Like, it's nice to be able to plan out now like, hey, like, I like this guy on that team. He's either going to be here this year or he's going to be here next year, no matter what, or just the influx of new teams, you know, it's going to drum a new interest. It just makes a lot of sense. So there was some really big numbers there as far as attendance. I thought that was really cool. I like the inner league aspect of it. I always liked to play an interleague games, and now they've risen from 46 interleague games. or 246 in the games from 19 to 20.

I like that too. I think that also drums up interest. Teams you don't get to see very often are coming into your park much more regularly. So this whole thing was great. We thought it was going to be good when they announced that they were going to make the schedule changes. I think the first thing that we all said

was going to be more fair. Like you're just playing a more fair, fair balance schedule. You always mentioned the centrals and it hasn't changed. Like those are the two worst divisions in baseball right now, the NL and the ALE Central. So it's nice that, you know, there is a more balanced schedule

because we, you don't want to sit here and talk about, well, this team played this team so many times and that's why they're in the playoffs. You just want the best teams in the playoffs. I think this is a way to get that to happen. So for all the things that baseball has screwed up,

and the last, I don't know, five, six years, they've gotten a few rights. as of late, and you just got to applaud it. The schedule is awesome and the pitch clock is awesome. I was wondering why this offseason feels so terribly dead. And I offended a lot of people with my tweet discussing this recently. And then I remembered, like, we had the schedule change to chew on.

We had a ton of rule changes to chew on, including pitch clock last year. And there was a bunch of other, like, changes that we could do, talk about and think about. and think about over the offseason when the signings were done, but we don't have any. Like we did an episode on the rule change, but it wasn't as crazy as this. They weren't like monumental changes. Yeah, or like anticipating the pitch clock

and getting like everyone else's thoughts. And I was like, oh yeah, that was a lot of fodder last year. And last year was a big off season. We got double treated. New CBA. First, like, true, true off season. Yeah. Yeah, I don't know.

I feel like we're still an iteration away from the schedule being where I wanted. I don't know. Like that's the problem. I don't have the answer. It does still feel like there's because I wanted everybody to play everybody. The story I've told a lot of times on here when I was living in Colorado, the Yankees came out to play the Rockies in 2016. Me and roommate Jeff from floorball were going out to scalp tickets.

the price never got to where we got to, and we got a pretty good, pretty good buzz outside the stadium, go check out baggage floorball. The Yankees never came back. I lived in Colorado until 2020. The Yankees never came back. So, like, the whole rise of Aaron Judge, he never came to course field.

Like, that's a shame. That's a shame. So the fact that we've checked that box now, I'm, I guess I'm interested in another iteration, because I do feel like some of the divisional rivalries are getting hurt in this. You know, I know Yankees Red Sox are at an all-time low. How are your four-and-five seeds in the ALEs last year? But, you know, there's a couple times you look at the schedule and you're like,

damn, like, we don't see these guys at all. And I'm sure you're thinking the same thing if you're Dodgers Giants or, you know, whoever your team's rivalry team is, that I think there's another iteration of this where maybe we can sneak in a couple more division games. and we can do, you know, whether they're two gamers or, you know, I'm not the biggest two game guy, so probably not. Or it's just, you know, three games once a year and you switch. I don't know.

I think there's another iteration of this. I'm going to like a little more, but I do think we've taken good steps for baseball. Well, you get four series now against your division opponent, two at home, two on the road. And I think that if they could, I would like them to spread them out. So you get two in the first half and two in the second half and not have them come. sometimes they come in the same 10 days. So like six of your games against your division rival will come in the same 10 day stretch. That's one I-L stint.

You could be missing one dude, but that's half your battle against this team that you might be chasing in the division race. Like let's do, okay, like one in April, then one in June, and then one in July, then one in September or whatever. I do think the planned double headers, I like, let's do more of those so then you get a little more off day and you can like schedule things

a little easier. I feel like it would help out but less ticket sales, less money. Bluple-blis. Is it one of those things like cost of doing business? I feel like the interest in a double-headed day if you do it right will be great. And then you do get

the off day which you know players will like and I think when you start to get like a little bit more scarcity, scarcity. Scarcity. scarcity. I'm sorry. I'm sick, guys. You're scatly wad. When you get a little more scarcity in games, I think that drums up interest. Like having games every single day.

Like everyone talks about it. I don't want to be like Anthony Rendon here, but like it gets monotonous for everybody. That's why the NFL is so freaking successful, man. It's just they don't play a lot of freaking games. They don't. I do think that realignment is probably on the docket and should be on the docket. I think that's the next thing that'll drum up a ton of interest in our sport is if we create more and more of the regional rivalries. That is what we need.

I need to be able to take my car and drive, you know, to these cities. And so I can go experience more ballparks against, you know, the teams that are in our division. I think that would just be awesome. I don't know when that's going to come, if that's ever going to come. But that's my dream to have just a better alignment. in the divisions, more regionally focused. I think that would, I think that would help a lot. I really, really do.

The Yankees and the Blue Jays are a good example. They play each other and six games in a 12-day span in April. It's just like spread those out. There's four teams. You play them twice. I feel like you could do that if like every team is playing someone within the division. You just have like division. You know, first week of every first series of every month is going to be,

you're playing someone in your division. So then it's like But there's weird shit. I am not trying to act like the dude who makes a schedule job as easy Because there's so much that goes into it And there's more than I even know. Tough math. Like in the article they talk about how Philly and the Mets are going to London this year.

So they gave them divisional series Before and after London trip So there wouldn't be a lot of travel Leading up to and when you get back from it. Which leads to the. Mets, they don't host a division rival for a long time. Like seven teams come through before someone in the NL East comes through city field. So, yeah, there's just weird obstacles, but yeah, I think people would like it if it was

more structured. If like, oh, it's double header Sunday or first Sunday of every month, it's double header or first week, first weekend series of every month is going to be a division rival. like you just, I don't know, it feels like it would be easier to be a fan and understand like the rhythm. You think every team has, and I guess I know the answer, it's no,

but every team, do they have a rival? Do you have a team that, you know, drums up interest when you play them? I don't think every team does. I don't think so. It's not the same one. It's not mutual necessarily.

Not mutual, yeah, I guess. Because my other thought on the schedule was, I love the last series of the year being against your rival because you're fighting to get into a playoff spot and it's against those motherfuckers. Well, yeah, for a while, the Yankees, Red Sox would always, they would always almost like open and close the season it felt like or very close. And I like, I should really like that. That's awesome. Yeah. But again, like, okay, so Red Sox Yankees, like, who is the Blue Jays rival?

Is it, you'd have to make it the Orioles? Yeah. I think teams, a lot of teams have right now rivals because they're both good. They're competing. But not every team has like a longstanding. Blood feud. Hatfield McCoys. It's not going to be that way.

I feel like that doesn't happen anymore. I guess if you're the schedule makers, and again, we do need to preface it. I know Jim just did, but like it's a near impossible task. because I was just about to say, like, one of the rivalries that started last year is Texas and Houston. And it's like, okay, this makes sense. We're in the same state. We're in the same division. Like upstart team, like the kind of a dynasty team, you know, Texas pride on the line.

Like, okay, you wonder if the schedule makers can get ahead of that as much as they can for a season like this, if they could play in the final week of the season or something like that. But again, Texas on our TPPs last year was like the 23rd. team. So it comes and goes fast. A lot of them, you need the actual matchup. Like, I'm trying to think, you know, when the Cincinnati Reds were like that dude BP and Joey Votto, like, who were, who are they going? Yeah, like them and the pirates, which I don't know. And then the Cubs and Cubs and St. Louis. Right. Yeah, I mean, that one's kind of always going, right? Yeah, that's one of the historic ones. Put good teams out there and they'll create rivals.

Are you in the Field of Dreams game again this year? I don't know. They kind of were like building it into a baseball facility and not a random ass field in the cornfield, which was the entire thing that made it unique and fun. They're like, it's only going to get bigger. We're going to build seven fields facility. There's going to be games here all the time.

It's going to be parking. I was like, okay, well, now you're just building a fucking, like, facility. It is changing this year. Like it was cool because they had the fucking highway shot. you know, in this helicopter of the fact that it was one baseball field in the middle of the corn parking and stuff.

William Hendricks, tipping pitches in that game. We'll forget that. People do forget that. People also forget that Autumn Schaumburg had 4.3 war, which makes him six on the auto list.

Would you say that was a factor in what you did on the baseball field? I would. I would. I also want everyone to know that Otto Kruger's nickname was, Paul. And before we get back to that,

Factor Meals is what you guys need to be doing. Jim, keep saying he's going to do it. Do it now. Jim, peer pressure. I already do. I have them in the fridge. Talking 50. Everyone out there has been eating them.

We need to get you more with code. Talking 50 at factor meals.com. Get them ordered to your front door. Easy. Ease. It's what you need. Less time think. Pick them out.

If you're keto, they got that. They got some calorie smart one. You're going to be eating in two minutes. That's the difference with Factor. This isn't one of the meal prep ones. Let's put aside an hour, 15 minutes. No.

They come in, ready to go. You don't have time for that. Nobody's got time for that. And they're flexible. You know, you get six to 18 meals per week. Adjust it to your schedule. Find a couple regulars. I tend to like the chicken dishes with them.

I think there's a sun basil chicken. I like the like the taco-esque ones. We're into cheese and the sauce and stuff. And the cheese. Head. The wellness shots. How about that? You're not doing so well right now.

Head to factormeals.com slash talking 50. There's a link in the description. Go check it out. 50% off is nuts. That's real. So the umpaw is the pipe, Hungarian pipe. The old, it bends down and goes up.

So this guy Otto Kruger, he was nicknamed Umpal. And I thought, oh, he must have been smoking out of that pipe all the time, the Umpal pipe. But the pipe is named Umpal after Paul Kruger, South African president. So that's just how much you can learn if you want to. It's all out there. Get your fingertips. Yep. Terrible nickname.

Um, Paul. M Paul. O-O-M-Pol. Um-Paul. Um-Pol. I don't hate that. I don't hate it. I've heard worst nicknames.

Go visit his grave then. Pay him some respect. Okay. Fair. Leave a pipe. Are we going to do the fun surprising veterans? I think we just run down the list real quick. Run down the list and I'll do a sound effect if I think they're fun.

All right. So we had a dog put together. That I thought was a fun collection of team. A fucking collection of names. I wonder if you guys agree. Are you going to name it? Or do you want me to run down this list? By the way, let's run down the list.

I already see one on here for the Mariners. Baseball, did you not learn anything from what just happened at the Super Bowl and Travis Kelsey and Taylor Swift? The most viewed television event since the moon landing? Is that what they said? What? And guess what? It didn't beat the FIFA World Cup.

120.5 million people. I don't know. Whatever. Bill Tucker, date's a superstar. I'm just saying, put him on your roster if you want to sell some tickets. Married, too. Marriage. Married, sorry.

Excuse me. I did miss that one. All right. I don't know how many names to name. Beavers, why don't you give us the team that you think is the best, and let's go over that team. Angels just have the most fun trio of names on there. It's guys that you've seen around. Sinell, Sineau trying to make.

team. He's a big bopper. In shape. He's had a good winter league. Drew Pomerant's healthy now. You've seen him get big innings. He's trying to break camp with the Angels. I like that. Jake Mariznick, you've seen him around.

It's funny because... The ALS is like doing spring training invites well. When you're a veteran like this, I've been one of these guys. You're just looking for the spot that you think sucks and that you can make the roster. So like Kevin Pilar, Jesse Chavez, Corey Kniebel, going to the White Sox.

I think they stink. And I think they have a chance to make the team. That's what you do. If you notice, like a lot of like the good teams are kind of like, we'll invite a few people. Like the ALE East, there's nobody that they invited. Yeah, I felt bad for Pilar. Although we did, Lou Trevino is at Yankees camp. So we'll report that live here.

I was Pilar, I was like, damn, because Pilar's last, he played 81 game for the Braves last year, like going to the White Sox. You're trying something, something a little different. Drew Palm, interested to see his, remember when he just turned into a lights out reliever for a little bit? His last 47 games, a 162, ERA for Drew Palm.com.

I just decided that. I just decided that. I missed that. Well, I've decided that Carlos Cookie Carrasco He made the team Will be the Yankees fifth starter No, he's going to make the team on the Guardians And there's no doubt

Um, they probably release him Because they trade for Bulbin shopper And the Yankees say, well, we'll give you a shot la A la Annie Ball Sanchez 2018 Got Jim on a big Annie Ball Sanchez Sanchez 2018 kick since we went through the signings.

What was I get? Oh, a couple ones that jumped out, Jesse Winker and the Nats, just corner outfield rehab in Washington. Would love if he gets the shot there. What was the other one? Oh, I mean, this one, just like if you've been following baseball, Ken Giles is with the Braves. Rehabed came back through a couple innings with the Mariners,

last year, so he'll come back and be incredible for them. That's a layup. And the Duffy Boys out in Texas. Danny, Danny Natt. Jared Wallace, there behind some angel secrets. Danny Duffington. The Pirates, chill sergeant. The guys that are going to the Pirates are going to make the team.

Jake Lamb. Oh. Corner guy, utility-ish. And then Brent Honeywell. Oh, boy. He's going to make the team. team. The one I thought was also interesting. If you're Josh Harrison, you choose to go to the

Reds. Why? All they have is infield guys that can play all over the place. It's like they have too many of those guys. You're kind of one of those guys. I get like likes how he looks in the uniform. Yeah. Yeah. They send them down. You're on the bench and maybe that's what you're thinking, but there's so many utility.

They're all just short stops. Has a house where their spring training facility is. Yeah, maybe. It's trying out for anybody but the race. Oh, let's do Josh Harrison career total earnings. He's been around for a while. Let me get it up right now. I feel like he never got a big deal, right?

A couple good years. I don't think a big deal. Josh Harrison. I'm going to guess before I look. How many years is he going to leave? He's going to have the same birthday. So he has 11, almost 12 years in the show. I'm going to say he's pushing somewhere like $24 million, $25 million.

Bump it up. 34. Yeah, you're right. You're right. Wordy. What did you say? 34 for you. Through a 40 out there.

And you said 34? Just the years add up. I'll go 36 and a half. Split Jake and BBD. And the final answer is. I think you're too low, Trev. Wow. 39.4 mil.

Damn, I didn't split them properly. Bebs was right. Make the team this year and I'm right. If Jake had said 38. Oh, you know, he did sign a deal. He did sign a deal, James. At least I think he did I think he just

I think he just cranked Arb I think he nailed his Arb pretty good As Jake said He just cranked Arb with the pirates Yeah It's a fun sentence No because like it's well I guess you're right

In the flaw No flaw It's a great sentence He didn't have the same birthday I've got his career earnings on lock Yeah I mistimed his free agency by a year bummer was a good utility guy back in the day, fantasy baseball.

I liked him. They're a pretty good player. All right. Otto Mitchell, Oak Hill Cemetery, Evansville, Indiana, if you want to go pay some respect. He was on the WBC team? Nah, he died in 1938. I'm respecting George Harrison. Respect, bro.

Jake sucks. 40Ms and WBC. I think he was probably an all-star. Two-time All-Star. All right, dude, respect Josh Harrison, guys. Respect him. Doon-do-do-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-o...