Talkin' Baseball (MLB Podcast) - Ohtani Speaks to the Media & Montgomery Signs with Arizona | 817

Episode Date: March 27, 2024

Use code TALKIN for $20 off your first SeatGeek order. https://seatgeek.onelink.me/RrnK/TALKIN  Head to https://under510.com/jomboy and use code OPENINGDAY to get $10 off your order!Go to https://usejoymode.com/BASEBALL and get 20% off with code BASEBALL at checkout.Find The Deal with Alex Rodriguez on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. https://link.chtbl.com/A2Mcr1Oc++++Timestamps: 0:00 Intro4:55 Shohei Ohtani Read His Statement to the Media20:25 LHP Jordan Montgomery Signs 1-year Deal with the Arizona Diamondbacks27:40 What Does This All Mean for Scott Boras? 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. Show Hey addresses the media. Arizona addresses their rotation and baseball is on its way. Hello and welcome to talking baseball. Thank you very much for joining us today. It's brought you by Seatgeek where you can use code talking. My name is Jimmy. Jake is here.

Trev is here. BPD is here. All three of them are wearing plain black t-shirts. I'm wearing a black shirt. It's not plain, but it's black. I guess I did, I partially got the memo. This is exciting news. Treb, how are you?

As I get naked. James. Oh, this is, that is salty for the idea. Yeah. I like this a lot for us to me. Look at my hair. It's a lot for this show. We need some more views.

Now we're getting it. Should I do it too? We're struggling so much. The sweatshirt's tight. Jim, I'll distract. Figured perfectly. All right. Black shirt episode on its way.

Oh my goodness. Okay. Okay, guys. I'm doing great. I don't know. If you guys can hear me or not, but I'm doing great. Same old, same old. I got a sunburn.

I got the pencil in my hat. Ready to talk about show hey, which I haven't talked about on this program yet. And a little late night bomb for us and the snakes. That's nice. Jake, how you doing? I'm good. Trev, James Davis, the day before baseball.

and all through the house. Trev, you know about that. I'm hyped, man. I'm excited to see some games that count. I mean, I'm not Chris Rose level of testosterone, if you'll call it that right now. Go check out baseball today for that. But I'm ready to go. And yeah, a little snakes present under the tree.

While meanwhile, they're doing like a Snakes Alive kind of docus series on the snakes. and I got a heads up from their, their social media guy that get ready because you're about to be killed because I think they're documenting some clips during their run where I was like, it's not looking so good for the snakes. So I don't know,

the fact that I guess I motivated the team to go to the World Series. I don't know. I guess my fingerprints are all over it and now Jordan Montgomery, Jim's Jordan Montgomery, you know? I like Jordan Montgomery.

I like the snakes. I don't like the deal. Like the friend? No, I'm not as a friend, but I'm like, dude. Uh,

okay. I do, but I guess that's the second top. That's the second top. Got to address show hay first. Because. And maybe it's the other guy would show high. You pay?

Because he's under 510, right? Showay's so big. He's so hard. It's tough to tell. He's a hard, like, I don't know. Well,

if you're under 510, and honestly, it's become a large amount of my wardrobe, because I am. And the funny thing is, the clothes fits for the first time in my life, which I didn't put it. Why is it a little long?

Under 510 makes modern basics for shorter dudes, including jeans, chinos, joggers, button-down shirts, hoodies, teas, and more, all at a great price. Some of their newest items include super soft joggers, ultra-stretchy casual pants and long-sleeve t-shirts. I think my joggers right now are, under 510. Usually my shirts are under 510. Anything you want, it's stylish in the solution that

actually fits if you are. Well, yeah. And when you use code opening day at under 510.com slash Johnboy, you'll get $10 off your order and get free shipping on orders over $150 and free returns. Head to under 510.com slash Johnboy. Use code opening day, $10 off your order, or free shipping over 150. We need to we need to reach out to them and tell them let's partner up with an MLB player under 510. Okay. Altuvei

like Kwan. It's a triple deal thing? Yeah and then we'll do like a photo shoot with them. Who's your favorite player under 510? I mean it's kind of Altovae which I know the people you know,

Don Varsho and I haven't been in the same room. I don't know. There's options. I should come up with my short boys list. That gets controversial. Speaking of. Altube is the number one most fun player to watch. But, yeah, Shohei came out and had his press conference, and it was bizarre because he read, like, one sentence at a time,

and the translator read a sentence at time, and, like, the translator, it wasn't, like, great. But if you go online, there was other translators that was like, here's a coherent reading of what Shohei was saying, which I found much more informative. There's, like, on Reddit and Twitter, people were like, wait, here's an actual, like, sentence structure. and stuff.

And then after that, um, a lot of people like translators, Robert Stock who's played overseas, a lot of players, uh, tweeted out and answered like one of the big questions that I and a lot of people that like are curious people had was how could he get a hold of the money?

And I'm pretty fine with, uh, I'm satisfied that IPE could have had access to show his money. after hearing all these people come out. Like it was a translator that I retweeted him. I'm forgetting the name. But he was like, no, this is very normal. Like they can't read English.

So they sign up for banks. You do that for them. And he even said that some overseas players have a separate account that like an interpreter or their team can just do shit for them. Pay the car payments. Pay those payments and have access to. That's like not even part of the main account. And then Robert Stock was like, dude, when you play,

I retreated this too. You have to put so much faith in the interpreter. He's like your fucking only way to communicate. So that question I'm satisfied with that like, okay, a lot of people have come out and said, no, it's normal that he would have access and Shohei might not be monitoring it if he did have full trust.

So like, that was a big question that I was asking and like kind of like, eh? And now I'm like, all right, fine. Heads up. I also let showy coming out and kind of going on the offensive is pretty telling because his lawyer,

are going to tell him to just don't say anything if they think there's any risk. But telling him, no, dude, you can go call him a thief and say he stole. Like, that's, like, eBay going to go to jail now. So, like, show his lawyers would only tell him, hey, feel free to do this, I think, if they felt like they were really solid in there to back that up.

So I got way more out of the Shohei Presser than I thought I was going to get. Yeah, I mean, I think that I get the, like lost in translation type situation, but even beyond that, I mean, I know so many guys, and probably myself included, who doesn't, you know, I don't keep an eye on all my accounts every single day. So my question was, where's the financial advisor? Like who is, he does have people that are watching his accounts. Where was that person and saying like, what are these wires for. Now, if he had a totally separate account, there was more just like a checking account that he said, hey, just put some money in here and this will be my American spending account,

maybe that's how you get around that. And 100%, uh, I pay could have gotten his passwords, gotten security codes. That's, to me, that's like not even a, uh, a question that that could have happened. That's very plausible, um, especially, because again, I'll go back to it. Like a lot of guys who are playing ball and how many stories have we heard prior to this about guys losing their money or getting taken advantage of like that's the sports is littered with stories like that this isn't something new um but specifically a guy like show hey i mean since the day he's you know turned 17 he was playing pro ball and he'd had to put trust in people because he's like i got to like focus on baseball a lot of guys are like that let me just

focus on baseball and I'll hire people or I'll have people take care of the rest, including bills, including like anything related to finance. So it's not far-fetched to me whatsoever to have him not even really know what's in his account. He's like, yeah, I'm making money. Like I got safeguards against this, you know, and if there was an extra account for the states, like all this is very plausible. The thing that really changed my mind or not chain oh nine kind of like formulated my opinion on this was when uh the whole like background stuff with ipe came out like you didn't go to uc riverside you didn't work for the red sucks that shit shady bro like if you're willing to fucking lie about something like that that's so

easily looked up like you're brazen with your lies so like it's it says a lot about that and and do I 100% believe that show I had no idea about this until the meeting? I'm not there yet. I still think there's a chance that he was just like, fuck,

like I'll help my boy out and I'll pay, you know, you're dead off and we'll figure something out. And I don't think he, and like I know maybe like legally you should get in trouble for that, but I also like don't think like

you should get in trouble for that. If that's like the actual story, like you're just being a good friend, fuck, you know. But I am Ipe's background got me off Like I'm like okay this guy's He could just be like a shadester

That's kind of where I'm at with it Could be Could be I mean it's you know There's part of me that Didn't love that that was the only article That came out between this breaking And Otani coming out

But again if this is If this is all true Then like we have that story And it's not insane. Like, Ipe having access, it never super freaked me out. They've been together for a while and Shoah's got a lot of money. Like, that's not crazy to me. And a lot of agents and different people came out and said, yeah, like that, that can happen.

Yeah, for me, it's Shohay not knowing at all. That part starts to get a little tricky because we know how close these two were. We think we know. I mean, they were together 365 days, Ipe's words, which, again, who knows if he is a fibber in all of this? Maybe that's a little. But, you know, everyone's posting the clips that they're Dodgers press conference where show he's like, yeah, we're business partners, not friends,

but he's laughing and making a joke. Like, these guys are obviously close that, I don't know. You'd like to think if you had a friend that was gambling that type of money, you'd know, but I guess if it's a friend that's gambling with your money, he might hide that from you. So I don't know. The story's been laid out, and that was, words aren't always my strength.

Welcome, welcome to the show. That I was saying, like, I was happy that Otani was coming out as aggressive as he did. Like Jimmy was saying, you know, because denying and like, hey, we're going to let the lawyers deal with this. And he closed with that. But to come out accusing someone of stealing, and I'm taking, pitch ninja, Rob Friedman, who is a lawyer himself. So he put it into words I was trying to find.

Cooperating with authorities, pressing charges. Like, that is, that's laying it out there. Because then if you are lying and Shohei said he never placed a bet on any sport. Yeah. So to lay that out there, Shohei laid out the full. I am innocent gauntlet. Ipe did this. And again, going back a week, this is someone that we would have considered one of his

closest friends or, you know, tightest in his circle, however route you want to do it. So the fact Shohei laid it out there, it's exciting for the baseball side that, hey, maybe, maybe this guy that we have anointed next and one of the best players of all time, he is fully clean and he, you know, a guy he trusted, screwed the pooch a little bit. I am interested to see what other details come out because Shohei laying down that gauntlet if something does go the other direction that's going to raise a whole other set of flags

but it's hopefully a good step. Yeah and the other question is of like the other big question was two for me were just like need to know because nothing was adding up really or wanted to hear about it before like figuring everything out. One was how does he have access? The other was how does he get? get the line of credit.

In my head, now I'm thinking like, dude, Ipe could have just been telling the dude, hey, this is Otani's. You know what I mean? Like, that bookie, just kind of clicked in my head.

No, I never, like thought of it, but I should have thought of it or I should have seen someone tweet it. Like, the bookie might just now be fucking finding out it was Ipe. Wait, that wasn't Otani?

And he's like, oh, wait, how could I prove it? No, wait. I thought it was Otani. It's just text messages. Ipe could easily be texting and saying, this is Otani's money, don't worry. And that's how he would get extended to the line of credit.

So that kind of clicked to my head too. If this dude's just a fucking liar, then that kind of makes sense too. I think we've established that he's a liar. I think that's like established out there now. Like, Ipe is a liar. There's one part that didn't add up from what the first report said,

which was kind of, I was just, I was like, after like coming to this, all right, fuck yeah. I could show it. He stole from you. And then I was like, wait, what? And it could just be lost in translation. But they said that when Ipe confessed to the locker room,

the original report from Tisha Thompson and the reporters was that show I turned to like the other translator and like found out there and got mad. And showy said they went back. Just him and Ipe went back to the hotel room together, just the two of them. And that's when he found out. Which was just like again for the people that are like this, why do we have keep having inconsistencies?

It was another inconsistency in the storytelling. I think he said at that point he knew something was amiss but didn't fully grasp it until he went back and talked to IPE one-on-one. Yeah, it just could be lost in like event translation. I also have one thing that still kind of bothers me and it's the in the article it said a representative of Otani. So not Ipe. A representative of Otani was the one that said, oh yeah, Otani knew and was just helping his. friend out. Then they changed their story.

Who was that representative? Well, apparently they're saying that representative just got told that from Ipe, who everyone, everyone believed. Because even Roberts just came out and was like,

yeah, it's kind of weird. He's like, it's going to be easier that our coaches can talk to Shohei a little more now because apparently this was like, Ipe was the fucking like little finger. Like everything goes through me.

You can't talk to them. You can't talk to the dude. I freaking love that, James. What would you like to ask show A now? Stay away from Sonsa, bro. You get away from my girl. Crazy shit. When, do we know anything timeline-wise?

Just like the stark ladies, that's all right? It really did. Do we know anything timeline-wise? Like, is this investigation going to be two weeks, two months, two years? Like, I guess that's where I'm kind of flying blind right now. Is it weird that I'm over it? Like I don't want it to happen anymore. That's how I feel.

All right, cool. You've won me over. You've answered enough of my questions. Let's play ball. Keep Bay, see you in jail. Hey, if you're tinfoil hat crew, that's exactly where they wanted us to be. Yeah, they got us. You know what it is?

But you see Shoah in a Dodger uniform. And I don't, there was good pictures of him in an angel's uniform. There was. But there's something different. He looks like a superhero. People have been saying that, and I was like, that's stupid. Then I looked at some pictures, and he's, like, wearing a lot of protective gear, and it looks like a fucking superhero outfit, dude.

Like, he looks like he's got like a Batman suit on sometimes. I'm fully, I'm just, they just got me. I'm an innocent until proven guilty guy. Chohay's saying he's innocent, and Ipe said he's ready for whatever punishment's about to come. So I don't know. Again, maybe Ipe needs a new PR team, but Where does Ipe go now? What's he going to do?

Where is he right now? Is he going to go to jail in California? Did they just leave him when they flew back? And then he like can't be extradited? I don't know what that word means. Yes, you do. Seen it in movies. I don't know where he is now.

The Joker says he can get loud to talk. I don't know. I would love if he just like went missing and he's somewhere in Korea now, whatever. This is my life now. I'm on the run. Is it my life now? I'm down for that story.

I can't. Where is I Pei? That's a good question, guys. Crazy story. Not at UC Riverside. No, never was. Is that by the school being like, uh, no. There's,

there's one like Japanese news outlet that people are linking where they tell the backstory and they say he, he went to casino school to how to become a dealer. and like, but that, but I don't know what to trust at all anymore. Like that could be a Laipa said or just misinformation or like, I don't speak Japanese and it was a Japanese thing that they were post. I don't know. So.

Okay. Shit's wild. Speaking of wild. Trev, I know you're trying to get wild, get your joy mode on. You're always looking to have better sex. You know, when you step. into the arena, I don't think anyone's saying, God, I want to have worse sex.

So if you're looking to have better sex, why don't you get involved with Joy Mode? Some of that over-the-counter erection pills, hello. They contain unregulated chemicals, suggest unsafe doses, include the risk of several other health problems. eBay. That's why we partnered with our friends

over at Joy Mode. Joy Mode, their trademark product, the sexual performance booster, is every man's solution for increased blood flow, firmness, stamina, and performance. It's like pre-work out for sex. I need to try this out. I'll try it out and then I'll report back to you guys. What's up?

That might be a YouTube. Well, I was going to say it might be a YouTube short we post, but I don't know if it can be. Mixed with six to eight ounces of water 45 minutes before getting it all. baby, redefine your intimacy. Go to usejoymo.com slash baseball. Get 20% off with code baseball at checkout. 20% off.

Free shipping. Joy mode.com slash baseball, code baseball. Create sex. Solved naturally. Click the link in the description. I'll click your link. Ooh. All right.

So Monty goes to the Diamondbacks. One year deal worth $25 million. with a vesting option? Yes. Do we know the, is it on the sheet? Do we know what that is yet? It is a $20 million with 10 starts in 2024. It's 22 and a half with 18 starts in 2024 and 25 with 23 starts in 24.

What? Uh-oh. Uh-oh. In 20? So if he makes 23 starts, it'll match the first year. So it'll be two years 50 total if he wants it. Boris have his, like, grandson do this fucking deal for him? I mean, how old is his grandson?

Maybe 10. I think Boris is old. This is in complete control of the Diamondbacks. Yes. This is a one-year deal. But the vesting option... Those numbers, it's Montgomery's option. Yeah.

It's Montgomery's option. The Diamondbacks get no decision after this season. They just... Yes. It's just Montgomery can decide. You can still talk shit about Boris because this deal is atrocious. This deal sucks. Like this is great for the Diamondbacks.

Great for the Diamondbacks. Yeah, it's the offseason that Scott Boris had this year. It's just it's bad. I think we're going to get into it a little bit here. But this is just in part for the course, really, for this off season. Think about this, James. We just taught us before the show. Erod got four years 80.

So he got guaranteed 20 a year, for four years. And we're talking Jordan Montgomery, who has probably a better track record over the last couple years. I mean, definitely a better track over the last couple years

is looking at one year 25. I mean, that's... Does that make any sense? Not really. No. And Monty, dude, just switched to Boris for his free agency.

So I wonder if he's pissed, man. He's before this year. Oh. Like, he got recruited by Boris to switch for this year. and then was seemingly an afterthought. Yeah, I don't really know where to go with this.

I mean, I think there, a lot of people are talking about, do the teams have something against Boris? Is this them finally sticking it to Scott Boris? I think that, I guess we'll get into it a little bit. Do you guys want to talk more about Montgomery?

You don't want to go on to the Boris side of this? Well, let's cover diamondbacks. They have a lefty. Erod got hurt. How long is he out for? Do we know? I haven't seen a timeline,

but it's a last strain. So those. can kind of vary and re-trigger pretty easily. Yeah, on the throwing arm, that can be... And you have a four-year deal, so take your time a little bit. When everybody is healthy on the Diamondbacks, they have a legit five-man starting rotation, which is unfathomable because of where we thought they were last year

or where they were last year at the beginning of season. We said, these guys got two guys, and what the hell are they going to do? All of a sudden, you get Zach and Merrill Kelly back, and then Fott establishes himself in the playoffs. I think that's still a little bit of a question mark, but we've seen him freaking do it at the highest level. So to me, him as a fifth starter is awesome. And then you bring in Ira, you bring in Monty,

and now you're like a legit five-man rotation. Like this, I think the NL West, the off-season that this fucking division had, is one for the ages. every single team except the Rockies went out and made freaking plays. They locked up as a keel Tovar.

And they brought back Kelsey Wingard. So that's... Maybe they had the best off-season of them all. But think about what happened in that division, what the Dodgers did. The Giants snatched up everybody for cheap. The Padres went out and traded for CIS and, you know, got themselves back into contention.

And now the Diamondbacks, I mean, sneaky great off-season. and I think the NLS is probably the premier division in baseball right now. It's wild to think that, you know, one or potentially two of those teams is going to miss the dance. You know, the snakes who I'd become an adopted son for, and I love the city, I love that fan base, they're ready for baseball. Like that city's blown up, the sports in that city have blown up. And we wondered, like, hey, are they going to do much?

Like, Lordus Gurriel was kind of their biggest free agent. They resigned him, resigned him. We wondered, they had all these young guys, like Jordan Lawler top prospect is coming. They had young pitchers breakout during the postseason. They brought in two of the best lefty options in Erod and Monty. In the lineup, they re-signed Lourdes, like I mentioned. They traded for Eohenio Suarez,

which third base had been kind of a hodgepodgey spot for them last year. And then they brought in the Jock Peterson-Randall Gritchick-D-H platoon that they added at every facet that if you're a snakes fan, you kind of came into this off-season a little bit blind that you didn't know which way it was going to go. And not only did they make the one or two moves that you were kind of hopeful for, but they went above and beyond. And yeah, man, I mean, think about how long ago we were talking about the Boris Forer

and where are any of these guys going to sign? It was all in El West. It's nuts. It's nuts, dude. So, like, you're going to have one or two very disappointed teams by the end of the year. That division should be an absolute bloodbath. And, yeah, the Monty side of it, I mean, it's a bit of a bummer, man. I think for the other guys, like, you've heard me talk about for belly and snell and chappy.

Like, I kind of think for them, if Matt Chapman has one, like one good year again and hits free agency, I think he's going to get that long-term deal that he deserves. Snell, I mean, my God, he just won the Cy Young that if he goes out and shoves again, there's just no excuses. Monty is really stable, and that's kind of what teams are looking for, that I don't know, hey, maybe he goes out shoves this year, gets another contract. I was going through a lot of the guys that kind of did one-year bet on themselves deals, and it ended up paying off.

And there is a list there, but there's probably another list on another website of things that didn't. So it sucks. It sucks. It sucks. Jordan Montgomery put himself in his best position to be a free agent. Like he was peeking at the right time, mowing down Yordan in the playoffs, like tapped into different stuff after he left the Yankees with the Cardinals and Texas Rangers with his fastball that, I don't know.

It sucks that it landed like this. I'm stoked for the snakes. But the Boris side of this, I think that's where things get bizarre. Yeah. Really bizarre. Because he has so many players next year now. Yeah.

And if I was to be a fan and just have fun, conjuring up theories. Isn't that kind of what happens on this show? Yeah, but people get very upset when we do it even though that's like just some dudes fucking around i don't know you look at what boris has next year and you're like hey guys maybe we fuck him over this year see if some people ditch he's got now corbin burns max freed jordan montgomery blake snell mccuchy mccurzer you say cacuchy

wait no he doesn't have max freed oh yeah he he's up burns montgomery snell sherser if he wants to go cacucci i believe i had an old list of all boris clients And, yeah, I found some that are like, I don't think that's right. So there might be some that correct me if you know. Soto, Bragelonzo. I've been trying to check. Yeah, the hitters is a lot. Frankie Montas, James Paxson, got them one-year deals.

But like, you're not going to be a priority next year. So then you got Juan Soto, J.D. Martinez, Bellinger. They had Paul Goldschmidt on this list. It says he moved to Excel. So he's off. Alonzo, Braggman, Chapman, Conforto. You know who's going to get all the attention? One freaking Soto is going to get all of the attention.

And until he signs, it's going to be, I've seen it happen with him before. And I'll go back to, you know, the old school, Hosmer Mustakis days. He had both of them. He worked on Hosmer's deal. Didn't get Mous anything. And yeah, so the guys that I would be worried, pro far, Josh Bell, Joey Gallo, Justin Turner. They signed one year deals. If they have a good year and we'll think they can capitalize, that's what Mande was just thinking.

Man, I'll, Trave, I'll jump in because I've got a little more free agency experience than you. I mean, I'm not going to throw the C word out there. But you have to wonder if the owners kind of, like, you know, looked at Boris's crop and Boris kind of became king of the world. And every year you're hearing he got blank billion dollars worth of contracts and blah, blah, blah, and maybe they're sick of the weird quotes. I don't know.

Maybe this is a bit of an odd free agency. Like we talked about it. Teams are freaked out by Snell's walks. We knew that was going to be a little unique. Belly had a gap, a massive gap in his resume, if this was just a business world. Like he went to, you know, basically looked like he left the working world for a little bit and then came back and was a stud.

But I mean, for like Jordan Montgomery, that's kind of inexcusable. He's been stable, been good. good and played better than I'm interested to see. Are we going to get Boris strikes back next year? Like, is this going to be, is Scotty B going to be doing like package deals next year? Like, well, if you want the A guys, you, oh, you really want Alonzo? Well, you're going to have to throw Monty that four-year deal too. Like, you need a starter.

I don't know, man. That's not going to. It's entered a weird spot. Here's a thing. I agree with you. Like, all those guys you mentioned, belly, Chenele Chappie, JD Martinez,

you can all point to certain things to say, okay, we're going to pump the brakes on these guys. Good ball players, great ball players, even. But there's, you can say stuff about them

if you want to. You can nitpick. Montgomery, you can't. This guy is a tried and true the lefty starter who's had success over the last couple years, been a workhorse.

There's really no reason why he should be getting a one-year deal. There's no freaking reason. So next year is going to be interesting. I don't want everyone or anyone to misconstru this because, you know, say what you want about Boris.

You kind of have to respect the guy. He's been on the game for a long, freaking time. He's doing it for a long time. Like, he's in it, right? He's gotten a lot of players paid, which is a good thing. Got a lot of players paid. It would not shock me. If we did, as you were saying before, James,

have a few guys leave. If you're a guy who has said, this is my year to capitalize on all my hard work, I'm finally in this window. In my head, if there's even a fucking chance, the teams are saying, I don't want to work with this guy. It makes me think, what should I do? What's best for me and my family? Because in the end, there ain't no loyalty really between agents and players. Like, there just isn't.

They're all kind of like they're doing what's best for themselves. It's the truth, okay? It wouldn't surprise me if we saw some guys leave. And I'm not advocating for that. I don't want anyone to think that like that. Because, again, I told you guys to put a show, like Scotty B has always been really nice to me. He doesn't have to be.

So, you know, on a personal level, I think he's great. But business side of this, I think, I think we might see some of the big boys go. If you're Corbyn Burns, you switched from CIA last year, to Boris. I mean, I wouldn't be surprised to be switched again. Me neither.

I'm interested. It's hard to find a list of players. A lot of the players that one article has under Boris are actually Rep 1 agency, which I'm not familiar with. I don't know if they're split off or something. They're from Irvine. Is it Boris from Orange County?

Yeah, they're Orange County. You know, Scott Boris came to my house. Actually, no, he didn't. He sent one of his guys to my house before the draft. And I said, sorry, bro. They ain't going to work. Yeah.

He didn't really want me. He's like, this guy's not that good. He sent his grandson. Actually, I think Boris won that battle. So, whatever. Whatever. Of the top 10, free agent signed

in order of guaranteed money, Boris didn't crack the top three. Otani, Yamamoto, Nola, then Snell, Bellinger, Monty, then Gray, which is not Boris, then Chapman.

then Hater, who's not Boris, then Young Huli. I don't know. Next year's off-season is going to be a mess if Soto holds everything up. And the pitching market is cool next year, so I'm interested to see, like, it would, content-wise, fandom-wise, there's a lot of names that could make for like a really fun early off-season moves and stuff or, like, you know, evenly spread out. I hope we don't have more players not signed. in March than we did this year.

I do think an overlooked aspect on all this is like what's going on with the TV deals and like what teams are going to are projecting, you know, those deals to come in the future because those are big deals for them. We're talking 60, 70 million dollar a year deals that, you know, quite possibly aren't going to be as fruitful like in realistically aren't going to be as fruitful. So I think there's a little bit of that aspect that I feel needs to be mentioned. How much our team's going to like lean into that is kind of the problem. Like these teams could just point to that right away and say,

oh, this is why we're not signing guys and this. But I think it is, it is a real problem with trying to project payroll and where they want to be is they don't. There's a lot of uncertainty in that arena. Not for all the teams, the teams that have their own networks. all that, like, that's going to be an advantage for them, but the teams that are relying on the regional sports networks and don't know what those deals are going to be, I think that is an actual issue going forward for some teams.

So I've got a couple of the topics we've run into, and King Buster Only has just been going ham on Twitter lately. He's ready for the season. He's in Chris Rose mode. Wait, hold on a second. You mean my rival Buster Only? I think we're team Buster, dude. Like, don't make us pick.

He's kind of short king of the year. And he's talking about some of these deals, and I'm also talking about the deal with Bloomberg and our guy, A-Rod, another guy who's ready. You guys take Buster, I'll take A-Roe. Okay, who's ready for the baseball season. And the deal co-hosted by Yankees legend Alex Rodriguez, and Bloomberg reporter Jason Kelly,

they're speaking to big-time athletes, Maria Sharpova, Michael Strayhan, Derek Jita. The deal takes you behind the scenes in the world of sports media and entertainment, dives into the wins and losses. We just talked about that, wins and losses of the sports business a little bit. And I think the Jets one just came out.

So go check it out. The Bloomberg from Bloomberg podcast and some Bloomberg originals, you can listen to the deal on Apple Spotify, wherever you get your podcast. Click the link in the description. Okay, so I'm going to rip off a couple from King Buster real quick. Jordan Montgomery. This was retweeted Derek Gould,

who I believe covers the beat for St. Louis. Jordan Montgomery signs for the same AAV as Sunny Gray. Shorter term, less of a guarantee. That contract can look a little interesting in hindsight. Buster Only himself, Blake Snell and Jordan Montgomery, two left-handers coming off career years and combined. They receive 50 million less and guaranteed money than Glassnow.

How about that? And then he retweeted Kelsey Winger, which, okay, so Buster's just locked. Are he frozen? I was going to keep it going for the audio. Kelsey Winger, just some moves in the NL West, Shohey, Yamamoto, Glassnow, Teosker, Solair, Snell, Chapman, Junghuli, Monty, Erod, Gouriel, and that leaves out a couple other pretty solid ancillary players.

But that summed a lot of it up. Where there's smoke, there's fire? Like, is, I mean, I don't know, man. it really seems like something might have happened. They do have GM meetings and there's a lot of talk and man, it's just. Could it be as simple as the Dodgers were the only team to really spend money, money, money this year and the Dodgers don't work with Boris? I don't know.

Going back to E. Rod versus Montgomery and the guarantees that he got and maybe Montgomery got offered that deal and he said no I don't want to take 20 AAV for four years but the difference in those two guys I mean and those two contracts is quite telling to me and that's I guess around baseball I you know there's a Boris part of this and it gets a little tin hat theory and we've been doing a lot of that lately but also you wonder if how teams might have misread or saw the market Like Erod 4 for 80 happened pretty early for the snakes. Like if they knew how this free agency would play out, does that go differently? You know, I remember when Stroman signed, we thought it was like crazy bargain bin compared to some of these more recent deals.

I still like it, but it's also, it's not as much as I thought. So I don't know. I mean, Chiolito got two for 40, and that was kind of, we all had a knee-jerk reaction to that. that I don't, when you look at all the transactions now and look at the scope of free agency, weird one. Is Gialito Boris? He's CAA. Zhang Hu Li, a guy that's never played a major league baseball game.

Here we go. Got six years 113 million dollars. Matt Chapman, who consistently puts up three and a half and above war, got three years 54 with opt-outs. from the same freaking team, dude. The glass-now one, yeah, not good. I don't know, man. Yeah, I don't know.

Do you think we... Do you think it'll unfreeze? Can you see us, Trev? I can hear you guys loud and clear, but we're all frozen on my screen. Okay. Just a pop-up at the end. Yeah, future we should pause.

Fix it. I think that's it. What else we had to cover? Opening days coming. Yeah, I think we'll close it up. Oh, we do predictions? No, not with it frozen. Oh, well, guess what?

I'll be doing on baseball today, about a zillion prediction. So check that out. Nice. And we'll be live all day, 1 o'clock Eastern until 10 p.m. Eastern tomorrow for all of the opening day games that fall in that slate of time. So come check it out. Jam baseball. Let me call in a few times. Talk with the bowl.

Boys. Twins game. Twins are going to roll. Cole Riggins? Uh-oh. Lefty de Gras. Lefty de Gras. The Lefty de Gras, but he also keeps going up against Pablo Lopez.

Great name. Really, if you think about it, it's a great.