Talkin' Baseball (MLB Podcast) - Jeff Passan Explains How the Trade Deadline Could Get INTERESTING | 848

Episode Date: June 12, 2024

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Hello and welcome to talking baseball, the first big trade of the year. Plouf out, passing in, let's talk ball. Yeah, we're going for it. Look good, Jeff. Has anyone, so a couple days ago, I'm on Twitter. Sure. And I think I saw like a picture in the Minnesota Twins booth. Mm.

And I said to myself, what is Nick Jonas doing calling a Twins game? That's right where we need to be. Has anyone thrown that comp out there? Or like, am I just? Because Treve looked great, like, looked fantastic. And if you're getting compared to a pop star, I feel like that's a really good thing. I had to go and double check and see if anyone's made that comp on the internet before. No one had.

And so am I just seeing things or is there something there? Well, you've just made his day, unfortunately, because Trev is still a sucker for being compared to a Jonas, bro. That'll get him going. I was going to tell you Yankees broadcaster, Michael Kay, I told this last episode, so I'll keep it quick. He asked Treve, it was, you know, the boys in the press booth, obviously, because that's where we deserve to be. and Michael Kay turns to me and he goes, is Trev the best-looking broadcaster? And I don't know if you had you in the running for that still.

Are you a broadcaster? Who are you, Jeff Passon? We were discussing this earlier, right? Twitter personality. Yeah. In my heart, I will always be a writer. Like always, always, always. I'd like to think I still can write some decent things on occasion.

But no, I would not call myself a broadcaster. I would say I'm a journalist who does broadcast work. Oh, that's a nice. Yeah. Yeah. That makes sense. Oh, yeah, there's Trev. Yes, that was the one.

Yeah, I mean, again, I don't want this to be shots fired at the other people in the booth. I'm not sure. Is that Glenn Perkins? That is Glenn Perkins in the middle. It's Glenn Perkins looking very Minnesotan, which is totally. like I if he hears this he will take that as the compliment that it's intended. Glenn Perkins is like one of the most interesting guys in baseball. He was like I met him pretty early on in my baseball writing career and, you know, he was always

very nice and very thoughtful, super intelligent guy. But he, I think like he wants to be Ron Swanson. He has his own wood shop. Oh, yeah. Yeah, like has his own, like, giant warehouse where he makes wood items. And he knows how to make a bowl out of wood. I would have no idea how to do that. Right.

But Glenn Perkins, abilities beyond a fastball. Man, three really good years there is Minnesota's closer, too. He was a really good pitcher. Absolutely. Three straight All-Star games, Glenn Perkins, making wooden bowls. that's how we're ending the episode. But until then, I want to talk some ball with you, brother, Jeff. And I know you said in an honest slash half-joking week,

this is half-joking way. This is like you're once a year, you know, you get to put the hoodie on. You get to bop with the boys. That's best. Say a couple inappropriate words. And I don't know, everyone kind of goes their way. And we see it the World Series.

I do have an identity this to you a little bit The only read I'm going to do with you This is not a joke We are with Kirshaw's beef Trev Our office freezer is filled with Clayton Kershaw's beef.

Not a joke I took home a pile of meatballs Yesterday I took home some steak I took home a chunk of it Dude Clayton Kershaw One of the best pitchers to ever play this game. He's in the beef game.

And you can be to snag your box today at curshawbeef.com. Use code Johnboy. 15% off your order. Kirshawbeef.com promo code Johnboy. Kershaw beef. No curve balls just beef. This is not real. This is real.

This is not a real thing. This is completely made up. Trev. Or Trev. Oh, God. Now that's, I'm going to have both of you, Matt. Thank you. Yeah, I know.

I guess that's a win for you. I don't know. And Clayton Kershaw has an argument for one of the best pitchers to ever play this sport. And we've joked about the personnel. I've done Mike Trout and the weather thing a lot. This is Clayton Kershaw, man. He's a Texas boy. He's in the meat game.

Are you going to have a Clayton Kershaw beef versus Nolan Ryan beef? blind taste test because I feel like that that has to happen. I will talk to our people. I mean, obviously that's something I'm very open to doing. But yeah, I don't know. There is a weird moment yesterday where I was on the New York City subway with Clayton Kershaw's meatballs in my bag. And I was like, wow, we're really here.

We've really made it. So I beg our listeners, go get you some of Clayton Kershaw's beef. Jeff. I'm just, did you see me, like, actively, like, bite my lips there, so I didn't say what I was saying. So it's incredible, and I knew you, I knew there was a chance you'd think it was a straight-up joke. But it also just makes sense, because that's baseball players. And I don't think we need to do the star power around baseball and social media and any of that. We'll avoid Caitlin Clark for today.

We'll circle back on that. first of all, you're Kansas City man, is the town hype? I know our Yankees are giving you the business right now, but it's a great baseball city and the Royals are playing really good. It's been fun to watch Bobby Witt turn into one of the 10 best players in baseball. And at this point, I don't think that's an exaggeration. Like, I have a story running on him coming up soon and was going through the list. And if, you know, if you go through like the different categories,

categories, best short stops in baseball, right? You've got Mookie Betts. You've got Gunner Henderson. You've got Bobby Witt. Best guys under 25 in baseball. Gunner Henderson, Juan Soto, Bobby Witt. And you add Aaron Judge and Shohei Otani to the best player list. But he's right up there, man.

And the combination of everything he does is the incredible part. if you look at the fastest sprint speed in baseball this year, it is Bobby Witt, Jr. If you look at the most outs above average, which is a defensive metric that tries to encapsulate all you do, he's second behind Marcus Simeon. And if you look at the most hard hit balls like 95 plus miles per hour, it is Vladimir Guerrero Jr., Shohay Otani, Soto's up there, and Bobby Witt. And so it's like, you know, what more can you ask for for a player than being the fastest, like among the two best defensively and among the four who hit the most hard balls? Like there's not much more you can get out of a guy. And so to have him performing the way that he is, Salvador Perez is having a fantastic year. Cole Regens and Seth Lugo have both been good.

like I was I was not admittedly bullish on the royals coming into this season, but this is a team right now that has, I believe, the seventh best record in baseball. And you have this group once you get past like, you know, the 10 teams that are over 500 right now, this group that's just lingering around 500. The Royals have built themselves a really nice cushion to this point. And I'm not going to say that we're going to be seeing them playing in October. and I think the Yankees have illustrated very clearly against a team with the seventh best record just how damn good they actually are right now.

But it wouldn't surprise me at all to see the Royals, if not sustaining the pace that they're on right now, then at least being in the playoff mix for the remainder of the season. Yeah, I mean, to open up Bobby Witt's baseball reference and see four war on the page, Wednesday, June 12th, at age 23. That's, hey, good for him, good for Kansas City. I do want to keep it in the Centrals. We're clickbait guys. Who's the second best team in the NL Central?

You know, for those audio only, Jeff Passon just threw up on himself. I want to say Pittsburgh. I'm not fully there yet. because I still look at that lineup and I'm like, how are they going to score runs? Yeah. But when you can trot out, Paul Skeen's, Jared Jones, and Mitch Keller, when you can come with Colin Holderman in the 8th, he's got a sub 1 ERA this year,

and David Bednar, who, you know, after a bad start, established himself in the 9th, it's the sort of pitching that would be so good in October if they can just manage to get themselves there. And in the National League right now, that is eminently possible. Now, I pick the Reds to win the division, but got, you know, all the injuries that they've had this year and missing Noel V. Marte, who's going to be back 20 or so games from now coming off a PED suspension, the Reds have a lot of talent. And the Cubs who have a $200 plus million payroll, you go and look up and down their roster,

and you're like, okay, this is a deep team. There are no superstars on this team, but Imanaga and Assad and Justin Steele, like that's the, you know, that's a pretty good top of the rotation there. But they're just, they're just so frustrating. And Cubs fans are understandably frustrated.

I'm not at on the Cardinals. I know they've made a run recently, and so they, they two, have some guys and they've gotten good pitching from Kyle Gibson and Lance Lynn and Sonny Gray's been awesome this year. So the free agent signings were decent. They just haven't hit. And, you know, seeing Alec Burleson hitting second in their lineup behind Mason win, you're like, what went wrong with the Cardinals? But no, they're actually pretty much all that's gone right with the Cardinals offensively this year. So it's a big pile of math.

in the National League Central. And if the Pirates can go out and actually make a move and acquire a bad or two to go along with Nick Gonzalez, who's been really good since he's come up and O'Neill Cruz and Brian Hayes and Brian Reynolds, you know, maybe there's something there. Connor Joe, I think that the Pirates litmus test is going to be, do they or do they not trade Connor Joe? Because they're going to be so few good outfielders, I think, on the market at trade season, that they could do pretty well if they move Joe. But he's been their best offensive player this year.

And I think with the pirates being where they are right now, they would be better suited to hold on to him and try and add rather than subtract. Yeah, the Pirates part of this story has gotten really interesting. Because like you said, with the Reds, the injury stuff is kind of crazy. I mean, I think there's a top heavy part to baseball that I want to talk about you at the minute. and again not in a non-ducey Yankee fan way, but what the Yankees and Royals are exhibiting right now. You're never a douche.

I'm always. I can't just get. I can't stop. It's okay. Look at you. The pirate. Did you get a perm? Man, the hair is a hot topic right now.

I've stopped jelling it. I basically just shower and shake like a dog, and then I kind of run my hair through it twice and see where it lands. There's good days and bad days. Right. now I'm this is a C plus I've had a couple days though that I've looked back and I've been like holy smokes I've got the juice again I'm yeah have you have you have you like have you figured out what the difference between a C plus a day and an A day is no and if no no no we're

we're doing our bullpen sessions and we're seeing if there's anything different but no that makes sense we're just getting on the hill throwing it as hard as we can and we're praying Is this hair design? Yes. Seeing what the spin looks like on the curls. Yes. The shape. The pitch shape, the X-axis.

I wonder how loud the Pirates skeins, Keller Jones gets. Because I feel like we've mentioned it once or twice. I heard on a broadcast last night. And with the central being, not wide open, because the brewers are doing their thing and they've proven they're just kind of a better franchise

than those other central teams at this point. That, yeah, because the Pirates offense, I don't want to say it does nothing for me, but if you truly believe in that, and we've got the expanded playoff format, and we saw what the snakes did last year, then it's time to go. Like, Pittsburgh's been bad for what, six years now?

Is it more than that? Yeah, more than that. So then it's, yeah, of course, here's the thing, of course it's time to go. But the truth is, the truth is they're not given the resources to go. And that's why I think it is so incumbent on Bob Nutting to step up and to act like somebody who wants to own a good Major League franchise, not just someone who wants to own a major league franchise, but own a competitive team.

You know, when you have two guys, in schemes in Jones Shake, who throw 100 miles per hour pretty regularly and who live, if not at 100 in the upper 90s. As an organization, you need to steal yourself to the fact that they are probably going to get hurt at some point. We just look at all of the guys who throw extremely hard and all of them either need Tommy John or miss a significant chunk of time because of an arm entry. So if you have both of them right now and they are healthy, you go and take advantage of that while they're there. Because what happens if one of them gets hurt one year?

And then as he's coming back, the other one gets hurt. All of a sudden, you're not at full strength for three years. Like that's just the fact when it comes to Tommy John recovery or when it comes to recovery from arm injuries, it takes a lot of time. And if you have a window, if you have a moment that is. pitching based, you go for it. And I think the perfect example of this is the Seattle Mariners right now. They understand that if we have Luis Castillo, George Kirby, Logan Gilbert, Brian Wu, you know, on the injured list right now, but Bryce Miller as well, like,

we need to take advantage of this moment in time where we have five guys who are sitting mid to upper 90s with their fastballs and all have. at least one elite secondary pitch. And we need to go out and get an offense that matches that. And maybe not matches that, but at least is representative for having pitching the way that they do. And you go and look in the minor leagues right now. And Logan Evans, their best starting pitching prospects last two outings,

two innings and one inning. Looks like they're getting him ready to be a bullpen force down the stretch. And so all of these things tell us. me that the Seattle Mariners are doing it the right way. They're saying we need to be urgent because we don't know when this thing is going to fall apart. We don't want to look back on it and say we missed our opportunity because we were too cautious. I think the same can be said for the pirates, even if it is a little bit early in their process. I had forgotten about the Jeff Passing late night, a little age Seattle Mariner tweets. Are you still on the Mariner,

us because I'm kind of frustrated with them because obviously the pitching is like world class or whatever term you'd like to use for it. The offense is frustrating. I do think they've now landed on the side of they believe they're going to win those close games. I feel like when it's the seventh inning and it's one-nothing, like they feel like they're going to win that game, which I don't know if previous Mariners teams have felt that way. But I guess, I guess I don't know, they're great at home. They're on top of the West. I think every baseball fan is currently living partially in fear of Houston.

The light bulb is going to go on. And then Texas, I don't know. Like, they're Simeon's going nuts recently. They've got, you know, Scherzer's actually throwing that I don't know. I think Seattle, having not proven themselves in the past years, Houston with one of the best track records we've ever seen a baseball. ball team put together and the Texas Rangers, the defending champs, it's, it's tough to believe in anything out West. Yeah, and I just keep waiting for the Rangers to show up. It, you know, with the

Astros, it almost feels like they're bound to, but there was going to be a regression there at some point. In the fact that that is aligning with so many of their pitchers being hurt, they're not going to have Christian Javier for the rest of the year. No, they're not going to have, Jose or Petey for the rest of the year. They're hoping to get back Luis Garcia and Lance McCullers, but you can't rely on that at this point. And along with the Blue Jays, to me, the Astros are the most interesting team when it comes to the deadline. Because if Houston does decide to move, let's say, Alex Bregman, are they going to say, hey, we're not going to spend the $300 million it's going to take to keep Kyle Tucker around.

So we might as well do that now, or is that more of an off-season thing? Are they going to say, hey, we're not going to spend the nine figures that's going to take to sign Framber Valdez and move him at the deadline when, you know, the best starting pitchers out there right now are more like Garrett Crochet, who is in his first season as a starting pitcher, is Zuzlizardo, who spent some time on the injured list this year, potentially Jack Flaherty. like Framber Valdez would be a very appealing guy for some teams. So the Astros are holding a lot of cards when it comes to the deadline at this point.

The Rangers, I think, they understand. Marcus Simeon and Corey Seeger are not getting any younger. And so even though they have a lot of good young players and, you know, Evan Carter and Wyatt Langford, even though they're struggling this season, they're going to be good. And Josh Young is going to be good. and Joan Haim and Nate Lowe, like, you know, they've got the pieces still to be a World Series winning team. They just really haven't put it together at this point. I'm kind of confounded still, even with the pitching injuries that they've had that, they haven't been better because they've gotten good performances from John Gray and Dane Dunning and Michael Lorenzen.

Like, all the pieces are there to have another run. and Seattle has let them hang around. Like that's the thing. The Mariners have been the best team in that division. They just haven't broken open the sort of lead that you would have thought they would have wanted to with Texas and Houston struggling the way they have. Yeah, as we're, you know, almost a month away from the All-Star game.

I'm excited to see which team does it because, you know, for the first couple months of the season, one of my corny lines is like, if a team puts together 10 games, they're fine. Like, we even saw it with the Cincinnati Reds. Like the Reds were like the third worst team in the National League. They put together like a nine and one and now here they are. They were in second play.

Like, yeah, that's how it goes in baseball right now. Because you mentioned this earlier. It is such a top heavy game right now. And the fascinating part to me is that when we look back the last few years, and see some of the teams that have gone to the World Series like the Diamondbacks last year. I'm not going to say that it renders the regular season moot or that what you do during the regular season doesn't matter because I would much rather be the New York Yankees or the Baltimore Orioles or the Los Angeles Dodgers or the Philadelphia Phillies right now than just about anyone.

I'm not saying I don't buy Cleveland, by the way. I think Cleveland's very legitimate. but if we're talking about the powerhouse teams in baseball right now, it's those first four that I mentioned. And I think there is a wide gap between those four and everyone else beneath them. But if you're a 500 or within a few games of 500 team right now, why wouldn't you think we have a chance when you have a first round of the postseason that has only three games in it?

Like that's the thing. Baseball's playoff format has made it such that average to slightly above average teams have pretty much a coin flip shot of knocking out teams that over 162 games were significantly better than everyone else. And, you know, your mileage may vary on how you feel about that. On one hand, it's like the traditionalist in me wants the regular season to matter. They play six months of baseball. It is a grind. It is a really difficult thing to get through and be one of the best teams.

On the other hand, I like the idea of a team that you may not know or may not think a whole lot of catching fire and making it all the way to the championship series or perhaps winning a ring. And look, it wasn't just the Diamondbacks last year, by the way. I know that because they had 86 wins, they got a little bit more of the shine of being that. Cinderella. The Rangers blew the division down the stretch and got in with 90 wins. It was the fewest combined wins for a World Series in baseball history. And I think teams see that and say

why not us? So is the deadline going to stink? I'll tell you what doesn't suck. Rone, R-H-O-N-E. I wear clothes every day. There's some analytics from me. And you're always looking for something that fits right and is comfortable. And that's where Rhone, especially their commuter collection, kicks into gear, breathable, versatile.

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there's five good teams, 20, eh? And then there's like four teams out of it. The math never lines up for me. But I don't know. Well, here's where it can get interesting and where I think it's probably going to. Because we have to understand how front offices operate right now. If you're going to make a trade, for example, you start discussing players. And, you know, when you have some kind of a potential framework,

in mind, you go to your analysts and say, what's the expected value here? What are we getting? What does the future value look like? And the numbers tell that story and inform a lot of front offices who frankly just don't want to make negative EV trades. They have no desire to be giving up more than they are getting back and what their models are going to tell them. And so, you know, I think there's going to be, some real opportunity here for the teams that are sharks to go out and say if the market for players at the trade deadline right now is as thin as it is. If this is a complete seller's market, are we being foolish by not going out and selling? Should we take advantage of the fact that all these other teams are in it when we look at the playoffs and our opportunity to

get to the World Series or maybe winter world series and say, you know, it's not all that great, even if we do back our way into the postseason. And I think the Tampa Bay Rays are a perfect example of that. Like, if you're the raise right now, you look at this team that has, generally speaking, underachieved. Then you look at next year. Next year, they're going to have Shane McClainahan back. They're going to have Jeffrey Springs back. They're going to have Drew Rasmussen back. They're going to have Junior Camerroro, Big League ready. They're going to have Carson Williams, Big League ready. All of a sudden, you're adding two of the 10 best prospects in baseball, a guy who started the game, the All-Star game for the American League and two other pitchers

who were fantastic before they got heard. Why wouldn't you try and move a guy right now like Randy or Rosarena, for example? I understand because he has struggled this year, maybe he's not going to get the same type of return that he would have in the past, but there are going to be a lot outfielder hungry teams out there. And I think you could get real markets going for guys and, you know, replenish the system in a way that Tampa does about as well as anyone else. Yeah, I was going to bring up the raise. And I was just looking at this article on ESPN.com written by, oh, Jeff Passon,

your early 2024 MLB trade deadline preview. I did want to give you a little guff, putting hinge teams, tweeners. That's a little soft. I mean, that's the same thing. No, it's not. Why is it not? Because the hinge teams are the ones upon whom the deadline hinges

because they have the most desirable players. The tweeners are the ones who are in between and you don't know exactly what they're going to do at this point. Name some of the tweeners and tell me who their trade candidates would be. The tweeners, you listed the Cubs, the rest. So basically the whole

Central, Pirates, twins, Giants and Cardinals. So the whole Central and the Giants. Yeah, I guess for me, and I was kind of going to bring the Convo here a little bit that the rays are going to clean up, because they

have always operated differently. They don't care. We're going to do our thing. We believe in our thing. It's going to be such a buyer's mark. We're talking about the Pittsburgh Pirates, probably going to buy, because they've been so bad for so long. In the game I always play is pretend you're in that front office.

Like, if you're in the front office of the pirates, you've been bad for a little bit now. It's happening in front of you. Like, you think your team is good, or at least you think you're pitching is good right now, that I think you're looking around and being like, you know, if we get the right thing, we could sneak into this thing. Imagine, you know, we're going to have a parade around the Allegheny. Like the San Francisco Giants, they're in too deep, dude. They can't sell?

No, no, no, they can't. So that... And here's the thing. If they were to, who are they moving anyway? Like, that's why they were in tweeners, because there's not a lot of, not a lot of hinge there. You know, not a lot that... Don't hinge and tween me.

I can't stop looking at your hair. I know. It really does look like you got a perm. It feels like it got better in the last, like, 10 minutes. Did I do something? Again, I don't know. I got to go back to the Rhapsodo and see. Got to just watch the last 10 minutes.

Maybe it's sweat at this point. It's definitely sweat at this point. Let me do a lame generic question, Jeff. Is baseball in a good spot right now? Like, because it's really, this is kind of what we thought baseball would turn into a little bit. Like, the top heavy teams, hello, Yang, Dodgers Phil, like, you know, obviously the Orioles built up to this in a different way, but they're every team's kind of dream right now.

Let's make our farm system just constantly filled with blonde, blue-eyed top prospects. Like, it's a little, I don't know what's going on in Baltimore. Like, there might be some human, like, cloning shit going on. But the rest of baseball is in this weird wild, are we, are we a wild card World Series winner? we a bad team that I don't know, is this good? You know, looking at like a snapshot of where we are right now, I try and think about these things in a macro sense. And I don't know if this is how it's going to continue. Like that to me is the beauty of the sport when you have as much parity, or if you want to

use another word, mediocrity as you do in baseball right now, does that not lead to more teams being engaged during the off season and more teams trying to go out and win and make moves. Like that to me is the sign of a healthy sport. A healthy free agent market tends to promote a healthy sport. And, you know, the free agent market this past off season was not frankly as healthy as it could or a lot of people believe should have been. And so it's going to be interesting. We're going to have a better class this upcoming off season, I think, than we did this past. year where it was extremely top-heavy with Shohei Otani and Yoshinobu Yamamoto. But once we get to the winter, I think I'll have a better answer to that question.

I personally, though, as someone who grew up in Cleveland, which even though when I was growing up, like the Indians had, you know, one of the top five payrolls every year, but still, small market, live in Kansas City right now, small market. So I know what it's like to look at the Yankees and the Dodgers and the Phillies and be like, how do we compete with that? The fact that this many teams are still hanging around and going to be playing meaningful baseball this summer, I think is good for the sport because it's going to keep fans engaged in the season where if you're playing 350 baseball by June, you feel like it's over.

The only thing you're waiting for is the trade deadline to see exactly what you do. Yeah, it's, you're right. And I, it's, it's one of the funny parts about me being a Yankee fan is I expect them to go out and be the Yankees. And we have a high standard. And, you know, last year is the worst year and 30 years of Yankee baseball or whatever. But I also love, you know, teams should feel like they have a chance. And it turns into an ownership discussion and who's doing it, right way and you know we we saw san diego have their moment and they're still kind of in their moment

but my god talk about a frustrating team like that that team i don't know we it just needs to be in a better spot that jep we talked about the top teams in baseball and you bring up your your cleveland guard dogs which are you and chris rose friends like you guys are i love chris rose absolutely you guys are you guys are the hottest guys to come out of cleveland first off christ first off chris like the nicest dude. He's just the best. He really is. You are, but you don't like being a nice guy. No, not at all. I struggle with it every day.

I ask myself, why aren't you more of a piece of shit? Yeah. It's really something that's tough. No, well, Chris and I also have sons who, baseball playing sons who are of very similar ages. So we'll send videos back and forth. I'm not like. That's the worst. the worst chat i think anyone could jump into you and chris rose sharing your kids baseball highlights

unsubscribe are you still are you still just mad that my child whipped your ass at blitzfall a little bit just a little salty yeah and it's Chris rose would be the first to make this joke but the fact that you two have kids the same age because you look you look closer to his kids than him come on that's going to come back at me that was mean that was i'm seeing him next week. He'll put me in a headlock. Why, like, we should be hype for the Guardians. They are a young winning ball team. We're not because we don't know what they're going to do at the deadline.

Because if, if everything was right in this sport, it would be like, hey, the Guardians, they've built this young, good team. They have their star player. Like, there's a lot of boxes the Guardians have checked right. The final answer would be they should have a big deadline. They should add a couple impact pieces and we should be saying, yo, the Cleveland Guardians are going to be a factor in the American League. And I have zero belief that's going to happen. Because that's the inherent conflict when you're dealing with a small market team

or a team that doesn't have ownership that's willing to spend. It's more the latter, frankly, than the former. It's okay, how invested is your owner? And if your owner's not going out and spending money, Jake, you need to hoard prospects because that's the way to stay competitive. Like, I hate to say it. It's this, it's this natural thing in baseball that exists that makes the sport worse. And it's, you know, it's why there are so many people who are fans of small market teams that say baseball needs a salary cap because there needs to be some kind of evening out of this. but the truth is baseball doesn't need a salary cap baseball needs invested owners period yeah i mean

that's that the the biggest thing san diego opened my eyes to like when when you look at technically that market size like it could be any team with the right owner and i i know i know you know that so i won't give that that speech right now um thanks yeah you're welcome let me take a second to tell you about linkedin you guys already know because linkedin is the one one one Like, you're probably on LinkedIn. And if you're not, what are you doing? Because that's where the professionals are. And if you're hiring for your small business, that's where you're going to find them.

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Yeah. Go check them out. Thanks, LinkedIn. How about this? who will be the big boy at the deadline that we walk away and we're like, shoot. Like, I, my Yankees could put their hat in the ring. Like, we're hype, Jeff. Like, we, Jimmy doesn't have a good poker face.

Jimmy's been like, this is, this is like an actual World Series Yankees team. Hell, the Orioles down the road. Like, now that they made the Corbyn-Burn trade and they have new ownership, and they have prospect capital, my God, or even, you know, In my head, Willie Adomas was supposed to be a Dodger. The fact that the brewers are good. Yeah. That's still a question.

So I guess which one of the big boys? I hear Luis Robert to the Phillies rumors, and I don't know if that's just shelfy in our office, but like which one of the big boys is going to put the chips on the table? Well, let's start with the Yankees here. Sure. Who would be a big boy you would like to see the Yankees go out and get? It's a good question because we

I think there's times when we live in fear of ourselves The corner infield Slash second base You can ask questions Like if you want to If you want to say hey we're the World Series Yankees Let's go out and win a world series We haven't been since 2009

And everyone talks about us like we're assholes So if we're going to be talked about like that Well then let's be assholes So I don't know. And I guess that's like, what's the name? Ryan McMahon? Like I don't, so it's a good point. I don't think, I don't think Ryan McMahon's going anywhere.

I mentioned him in that column that you mentioned earlier. Perfect. Like the perfect fit. Plays first, second and third. I mean, there's like there's, you know, left-handed. There's no better fit for the Yankees than Ryan McMahon right now. But I just don't, I don't get the sense the Rockies are going to do it. And, you know, when I look at the inventory on the market or what we expect to be on the market, there's just not a lot in the way of impact bats.

I mean, I think Pete Alonzo certainly could go at the deadline. When people ask me, who's the biggest name you think is going to go at the deadline? Pete Alonzo is, you know, almost always the answer because people, some people don't know who Garret Crouchet is, for example. but I just don't know. I mean, what about Pete Alonzo as the Yankee? How do you feel about that? I'd love the click of it. Like, now that we're kind of media people.

And I'm entertained by Pete. Like, I think it's, he is like people that don't follow baseball. He's like the generic baseball player. Like, hey, look at this big first baseman that's always pumping his mitt. And he tries to hit home. home runs. Here's Pete Alonzo. Like, would that be electric?

Yes, is it like what I think the Yankees need? Not at all. That, yeah, if it happens, I think we would do like five minutes of looking around at each other. Like, excited. I don't know. This is kind of cool. We don't need this at all. But, okay, let's roll it out there and watch four of the biggest men in baseball hit, I guess.

But no, that's not like a solution. Does a team this good need a solution? I feel like the solution is Garrett Cole. Oh, okay. Let's go out and get the best record in baseball. Let's have the two best hitters hitting two and three in our lineup, following our young franchise-type shortstop. And let's go add the reigning American League Cy Young winner just for shits and giggles.

Like, that's the position that the Yankees are in right now. And look, I was very wrong on this team. I thought they were too old. And I think I underestimated what having Judge and Soto back-to-back in the lineup does. Yeah. It's just, it's remarkable how good both of them are. And to have them back-to-back, it's not unfair. Nothing's unfair.

It's a game. You know, they went out and got these guys. drafted one, traded for another. So they did it by the books without, you know, having to go out and spend gogobs of money to get them. But, man, it is just a frightening thing if you're an opposing pitcher to have to face those two. And you, I mean, you mentioned Skeens and Jones before, Luis Heel.

I was doing like generic baseball like, yeah, you know, double Tommy John and let's see where the innings land. You know, the inks should use some bullpen so we'll probably kick him back there. It's exactly what you said about the Pittsburgh kids for me now. Like pitching injuries and how quickly this game moves, it sounds rude, but I'm right and heel into the ground this year. Like, it's special. And I don't know.

I don't know if anyone can maintain anything in any baseball arm at this point that, well, you've got this. I guess close in the Yankee loop because everyone's probably already turned us off. It would just be tough if come October, Glaver Torres, he needs to be offensive, otherwise he's not a plus player, that if Rizzo and DJ aren't contributing, Oswaldo Cabrera, he just hasn't done it at the big league level,

that if you're the Yankees and you find yourself in a five-game set and half your lineup isn't going, I don't know, that's going to be a tough look, because you can't say it came out of nowhere. Yeah. And against better pitching is the thing. That's what we have to remember about October. You're not going to find a bunch of garbage arms out there. Like if you've made it to October, you can pitch. And you're going to be seeing a ton of velo and you're going to be seeing the best spin that you have all year and you're going to be seeing it every day. And it's just as, you know, every level you go to, it's just going to get tougher. And so, yeah, I. It's very first world problem of you to be wondering if you're like 700 baseball Yankees might have a little bit of a lineup boo-boo. But no, here's the thing. It's the question with this team.

It's the thing that's going to separate this team. Now, let me ask you this. What's your Yankee playoff rotation look like? Presuming Cole comes back healthy? It's Cole, Heel, Rodon. Okay. Rodon looks good, man. Stromen.

Yeah, it becomes tricky. Rodon looks great. Go, I'll ask anyone, go look at just a picture of him on the mound last year to this year. The comparison I used, and, like, Rodon's kind of a fun guy on social media, so I don't know if this ends up on me in a headlock. Last year, he had memories of, like, he was reminding me of David Wells. this year he looks like Petit. Like the dude had a body transformation

and he's performing and there is a great juxtaposition of him coming off the mound in Kansas City at the end of last season, zero outs, eight earn runs to him shoving the other night. It just gets tricky because, you know, we've seen such success with starting pitchers

kicking to the bullpen in the playoffs for a lot of recent teams that have done well that you just, you know, Stroman doesn't seem like a guy that goes in the ballpark bullpen and his stuff ticks up. Like maybe Clark does. I forget if I saw you writing about that or someone else. But yeah, either way, I mean, that's, you know, we're a couple years removed from the

Jayhap Davey Garcia outing that the fact that we can list multiple starting pitchers, we're in a very good place right now. Yeah, I don't feel like it was talked about enough how Jayhap. should have been J.A. Hap. It's bizarre. I mean, when we found out, again, like, we're, I don't want to say we have half brains, but we try to, I think we use half of our brains,

snaps for that, that when we found out J.A. Hap is called J.Hap. We were like, this is, what are we doing? What are we doing as a society? It may just have been J-A-Y? Like, if you're going to go J, go full J. Yes. And no one would have cared. Did you ever think about being J. Sorriali?

So when I was going to college, I debated if I wanted to make the change to J.R. My middle name is Ronald. And I was debating. I was like, do I just want to rebrand this whole thing? Because in high school, it just didn't work. Should I go to J.R? And then I was like, nah. And there was like a, there was another.

guy I befriended who was a JR so that just would have been we would have been all over each other's turf. I think I think it was also like the the disconcerting thing was it was two initials with J. Hap that you just don't see together. Oh. Like J.R. There are enough J.Rs out there that you know you're kind of used to the name and and you never question it. Have you ever met another J.A? No. And that's there will be some kid on YouTube in 10. years who's like let me tell you the story of J.A. Hap. And then we'll be like, ah, you caught you new Jolly Olive. That's not, we call them J. And they'll be like, please stop. Don't contact us. Um, I don't know how we landed here, Jeff. Um, but it's always,

never do. It's always a delight, man. Uh, you usually have a few things to hype. Do you, have a big story in the chamber? I feel like you always say that. And I, and then you usually do. Like there was that guy who like shot her Yeah that was a crazy one What do we got what do we got coming up We've got a Bobby Witt story coming We got a we got a couple other good ones

That are on the way I you know You laugh about Rosie and I Having the worst text thread imaginable but I am in the middle of like youth baseball right now personally

with my kid, but it has allowed me to see the state of affairs in the lower levels of baseball, and it's an absolute nightmare. Jeff, it's- You wonder, you wonder why there are pitching injuries at the big league level? That's where it starts, Jake. And so I've got some stuff coming on that that I think is going to open people's eyes. And hopefully it's the kind of reporting that reaches the ivory tower at Major League Baseball, and they say we need to do something about this

because it's a nightmare. And there's so many misplaced incentives. There are so many uneducated parents. There are just so many problems that are happening at 14 and 15 and 16 that manifest themselves at 21 and 22 and 23. And that can be addressed and that can be fixed and that can be remedied.

But it is one of those takes a village situations. And right now the village just doesn't know any better. Yeah, you probably don't know this, Jeff. Well, you know this first part. I'm a pretty basic cat that I'm giving me the one line that makes sense. And I think I took it from you is that the only thing we really know right now is that pitching injuries lead to more pitching injuries. Like that's kind of the only thing that's bona fide.

Like if you get hurt, that means your percentages to get hurt go higher that the cycle is so broken right now, man. Because, dude, reading some of the facts that you had about young pitchers getting hurt now, it's disgusting because it basically means that for the next 10 years, no matter what happens, it's going to get worse. It's exactly. That's the problem. That this isn't something that's going to go away. anytime soon because all of the things that have led to the pitchers getting hurt so far, they haven't changed. Nothing's changing right now.

You know, I heard from somebody yesterday who is deeply into the arm care end of the world. And we had a conversation about a month ago about the way that youth pitchers are being used. And he said to me, essentially, when we talked, I was. a little bit alarmed. I didn't realize how bad it was. It's worse than you even said. And if it's him saying that, alarm bells should be going off right now at Major League Baseball and even in front offices who, in reality, have contributed in large part to this because of the things that they prioritize. They go after guys who can throw hard, period. That's. just the number one most important thing. How hard can you throw a baseball? Well, what happens when

kids see that? They say in order to get to the big league level, to college level, to play at my high school, I need to throw hard. And so they start doing it earlier and earlier. And it's just the self-perpetuating cycle. It's, uh, yeah, I, I, I won't even add because I, I feel like we could, we could probably do a clean hour on it because the cycle's so broken. Um, imagine, imagine these 21 year old testosterone-filled minor leaguers tell them, yeah, why don't, you know, you might not get the same look, but take a few mile per hours off.

Yeah, let me know how that goes. Like, um, so yeah, it's in a, it's in a crazy spot. So I, uh, they don't want to be throwing a soft 87. In there. But then who does? Yeah. Um, so,

brother Jeff, uh, hey, if there's anything we can do to try to get to the ivory tower, although we're, uh, we're still not best friends in that. Tower, but we're, hey, we're chipping away. We're chipping away because we, uh, we love ball. Um, everyone, go just click on Jeff Passon's articles and scroll down. Like, does that help? It's got to help, right?

Sure. Everything helps. You, uh, you're the best, Jeff. Thank you. Chick sucks.