Talkin' Baseball (MLB Podcast) - Ohtani's Decision is Imminent & Soto is a Yankee | 756

Episode Date: December 8, 2023

Use code TALKIN for $20 off your first SeatGeek order. https://seatgeek.onelink.me/RrnK/TALKINVisit http://get.bluemoonbeer.com/BASEBALL to see delivery options.+++++Timestamps:0:00 Is Shohei Ohtani Going to Toronto Today?9:10 Jeimer Candelario Signs with the Cincinnati Reds18:15 Juan Soto Traded to the New York Yankees31:10 Arizona Diamondbacks Sign Eduardo Rodriguez 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. Otani's announcement is imminent. The Reds get Jamer Candelario. The D-backs get an E-Rod. The Yankees get Soto. Let's talk some ball. Hello and welcome to talking baseball. It's brought to you by Seatkeek.

Thank you very much for joining us today. My name is Jimmy. I got Trevor here and BBD behind the dish. Trev's back from his mini-vay. BPD's back from Nashville Winter Meetings. Jake still. I don't know if he's flying back today. You're still on his honeymoon.

I'm guessing he wrapped a weekend in there. I think today's the flight. I was looking at his camera. If someone on the flight tracker stuff, please figure out when Jake's flying home. Either way, not here right now. Trev, how you doing? Can you imagine if we started tracking Jake's flights? I probably might have him on find my people, you know.

That's funny. I'm doing great. I want to first take this chance to, thank Beaver's and James and Jolly for filling in and let me go do that charity stuff in Vegas. It's a lot of fun and a lot of good networking for me and for us, to be honest with you. And I want to apologize to everyone for not being on the show, but I'm back. And there's a lot of news to go around. We get the Juan Soda stuff, like you mentioned, all these other trainings, or excuse me, signings.

And then the Otani countdown has officially, I guess, begun. Yeah. Got a couple reports that it's coming today. I had a couple of people saying there's a flight at a John Wayne airport down in Orange County going to Toronto. So that must be Otani right now. Nobody else has ever gone to Toronto from John Wayne Airport. Well, it's way deeper than that traps, way deeper than that. You're deep in it.

I'm on the surface level still. I have some people I want to get mad at today. I want to, you know, there's a lot of emotions. I put out a video on the conspiracy about the Otani flight stuff because basically I am a, I am a, able to get lost in that world, but not like truly believe it, but just be like, oh, my God, imagine. Oh, that's cool. And some people can't.

So I apologize. And the people that can't get really mad at the people that can. And some people truly believe everything. And that's like maybe why the other people get mad. But I love like shit like that. I'll tell you what. What you sent on the group chat kind of got me thinking that, well, that's December 8th. That I truly, I do believe.

The December 8th, I believe too. The flight stuff is just hilarious and fun. But someone said that he announced with the Angels, and I still haven't found that tweet. Can you try to find the first tweet? I can find that he announced he signed with the Angels on December 8th. And December 8th is Day of Luck in Japan. And that, that I'll put some stock in that.

If that's all true, that December 8th is a day of luck. And that that's the same date he announced with the Angels. then I'm in on that. Can I tell you something? Yeah. I guess we're starting here. We're starting with Otani to the J's. MLBMob.com article from December 8th, 2017,

this morning after a third detailed process, Otisci to sign with the Los Angeles. Yeah. Oh, yeah. And Dalton told me, or not Dalton, Max told me it was at 2 o'clock when Eastern time when that happened. So I don't know if you know that craziness that happened with the Yankees, Trev, but I told everyone it was going to be at 1057,

because that's when the Yankees usually announced news and it officially got done at 1054. So. Okay. I haven't even thought about Otani with the Blue Jays. Very rarely have I thought about him in that stadium with that crowd in that uniform.

But if you put it all together, it's nice. I mean, the stadium they just redid. It looks great inside there. You know I love the city of Toronto. Toronto. You know I love the uniforms there. It all makes sense. I think he might hit 80 home runs there. I know they say that they say that place has gone back to more of a neutral ballpark than it used to be. But I don't know, man. That ball absolutely goes there. If it does happen, I'll be a little confused at first. I've been going over the tax laws of the relationship between Japanese citizens making money in Canada.

We're getting a little deep into it. But if that does happen, I think I'll be happy. Yeah. It's kind of like my first initial reaction to that is like, okay. Like a little bit of a curveball, but like it makes sense. If he goes to the Blue Jays, I'll be very happy. We have your Yankee fans in the building. So it's, you know, some people don't share the same sentiment.

I want to watch him play. I haven't watched that many Mike Trout full games. when he's not playing the Yankees. Because, you know, I'm guaranteed to watch 162 Yankee games a year, maybe 160, I might miss two. And that doesn't leave me a lot of time to watch that many other regular season baseball games on the calendar. And I'll watch all the playoff games.

And Trout hasn't been in a lot of playoff games. So I haven't really seen Trout play play. I've seen highlights. I watch at bats. I, you know, and that stuff. But like, you know, throughout a game, the nuances and all that, getting to learn a guy. And that's just the way, nature of baseball, you know.

But like David Ortiz, Manny Ramirez, when they were fucking in their prime, I had to watch him all the time. Yeah. And I really want to watch Otani. So I, and I'm a northeast biased dude. So, and an ALE East. And this puts pressure on the Yankees to still fucking go get more players and be better. So I would be very happy if he signs with the Blue Jays over the Dodgers.

I want to, I want to want to on the East Coast time. I want to watch him play. see him 15 times a year versus the Yankees or whatever? That's, I would enjoy that. He might burn us a bunch. So did Ortiz. I still loved watching him bad.

What's the time difference between Japan and Toronto? Do you have any idea of Beavers? We need you right now. That's what all I've been hearing is. I think it's so big that it doesn't fully matter. It might be like 17 hours to 20 hours. That's a big example. Yeah.

If Toronto, Toronto is the same time zone as us, right? So there are 14 hours. Tokyo is 14 hours ahead of Toronto. So it's 12.30 a.m. there right now. Doesn't sound that. Wait. So it'll be a morning games.

Like 7 o'clock would be what, a 9 o'clock game for them in the morning? Yes. The next day. I mean, we just do it. There's got to be like a time zone converter somewhere. I just do it in my head. Did you really? 7 p.m. game would be a 9 a.m. game.

Okay. If it's, I got, I'm on, I can't believe how much time. This is not our lane people. I apologize. We've done a lot of time zone stuff this week,

and it's kind of nuts. There's a time zone converter, but you need military time. So what's, what's seven o'clock is, 1900. Okay, so, 1900 L.A. time is, well, what the fuck?

I think I nailed it, guys. Whatever. I'm over this. This is website. Anyways. I think it's too big of a difference to fully matter. And I think Toronto in Japan or Toronto and Tokyo, there's some like sister. There's some connection between those cities.

Right, Beavs? There's something going. They're like, they have a lot of tourists or a lot of expats or just Toronto in general, like outside of New York is considered. the most diverse city and the western hemisphere. It's a melting pot there for sure, man. It's a beautiful city.

I have to give love to the city of Toronto. It's always shown me love. Well, there's a website. I know they have huge Japanese populations, huge Korean populations, Indian populations. Like, they're, they got all kinds of cultures there.

You're happy about it because you get to see them. I am kind of like, I can see it, and it makes me, happy to think about him there. But yeah, I am, I guess, a little jealous. If he does end up on the East Coast,

I can't just swing down to Dodger Stadium to see the greatest player of all time. That's tough. Yeah, that is. It's opposite. Because I can go to it. Opposite. Yeah.

He'll be in town. Double as often. All right. Well, if that does happen or whenever we get news today, we'll hop back on when it does. There are some things that have happened. And let's cover something we haven't talked about. And then we'll do Soto next.

Like, well, let's do Jamer Candelario to the rest. I love this. Because that was a guy that was at that position, that third baseman position. You have Chapman and some others. But Jamer was up there. Like it was like three options when we did that episode, I think. And he was one of them. He switched hitter.

He got traded for last trade deadline. And now he signs a three-year, 45 million contract with the Reds, who have a lot of infielders, third base slash first base Fangrass has him slotted in to play first base as of now He hit a career high, 22 homers finished with 39 doubles

Which was tied for six most in MLB last year Went from the Nationals to the Cubs He's a switch hitter who can face Both right-handed and left-handed pitching Very, you know Wow, 813 OPS Versus Lefties or Righties And then 792 versus lefties

So that's, yeah, so he's balanced. It's a guy you want in your lineup, so what you're going to hit both sides. Yeah, and I think this allows, I mean, they're going to have to trade somebody. We were talking about this before the show, like who do you think it's going to be? There's a lot of people saying that India's out of there.

They're going to put Candelaria at first base, and they have all these, they have all these young guys, basically a bunch of short stops playing a bunch of different positions. And they need some pitching, dude. They have some guys, some young guys that, you know, they think they can count on. You know, a couple guys,

stepped up last year. Obviously, you have Hunter Green and Ladolo there that they think can still be, you know, top of the rotation pieces for them. But I think this allows you to take advantage of the trade with Minnesota. When you got Stier and Encarnacian Strand for Malley, like you have all these guys. It allows you to take advantage of your surplus. So I think that's what's going to happen here. Like, Candelario is a very, he's an above average player who doesn't cost that much. You kind of like slot him in, let him do his thing, and then you go get rid of what, in my opinion, the right move would to be move one of the younger guys and keep India. I don't know if that's what they're going to do. I don't know if there's extension talks that have stalled

with India. I think the best case scenario would be to keep him. I feel like he is a guy that's been a leader for them that goes about things the right way. And in my mind, you could probably lock him up for not that much money. And then you have a veteran presence there. I know he's only 27 years old, but you have a guy like that there. You can trade one of these young guys at peak value. And because of the extensive control you have, a couple more years than India has, I think the return will be better too. So in my mind, it's it's a steer and Conaccio Strand that gets traded and brings in, you know, whether it's a starter and then some minor league guys, whatever it may be. I think that's the route the Reds are going to go.

They're definitely going to trade someone. I guess it's just up to them who. I think, well, I mean, I agree with what you're saying, but I think it actually leads to them trading India and not steer because the returns for trades have been underwhelming so far this off season. And it seems like a trader's market. Steer played 156 games last year and had a, you know, a 2-3-4 slash line with 820 OPS and played a bajillion positions. Now incredibly well anywhere, I don't think, according to outs above average.

But that's pretty versatile. And he has all those years left. I mean. But I think a team would bite at that. One, two, three, four, five. It's almost hard to find a match. there. You know, we saw Logan O'Hoppy and Brandon Marsh go when you had five years of service time available.

Already on the 40 man, that much service time, like looking to play. I'm trying to, what's another time it's been, you know, not into arbitration where we've seen that happen in a big, um, big trade for like a big name. Like, like, they would need to get a guy they have a, for, couple years in return. They're not going to do that for like, you know, any rental pitcher or anything. It would have to be a team that has a stud pitcher for like three years, if that's what they're looking to replace is pitching. So I just feels very hard to do where you might be able to get that two year pitcher or the rental or two year pitcher for India easier because it's just like makes more

sense. Like I don't know if they're going to be able to find the value return because steer's got five years left. And his values high. Do you get what I'm saying? Like I agree with you in theory that you could get more. I just don't know if there's that much out there available to get because it is, it would be a big trade. I mean, I haven't scoured the roster's enough to see like who's a potential fit.

I mean, there are pictures out there that are available. We know the razor shopping glass now. I know he's, you know, not there long term. So, you know, you're giving up somebody for, a year of Glass now, right before he gets free agency. He's got one more year. He's a rental, I think. Yeah, the big four pitchers.

Seas, Beaver and him. I think you could do India for those. I think I would just shoot for more. This is the time to go make like a big deal. So maybe you go get Glass now and a pitcher in the minor leagues as well, a prospect. Maybe the raise will give you that for Spencer Stier or incarnational. on the Strand. Like maybe you go get more. I just think that those guys, because they have

them, they have more control. And you know, India's bat's been, you know, here and there. Like, you can sell high on these guys right now and go set yourself up for this year and possibly the future as well. I think they just have this chance right now in this window, where like they can get max value for these guys. And I just think they got to. I think Ellie's untouchable, Novo, Noel Mertes,

untouchable and McLean probably also is untouchable so that leaves the two guys I was or the three guys we've been talking about a lot. It's interesting man. They're in a good position. They want a rent a really good position. They want a rental pitcher. I think they could trade India and and stuff. India and like another prospect like down for one of these rentals. Rentals don't go that much. You don't I think India is worth more than a one year of a pitcher. Me too. But teams aren't going to give up. That means you for sure can get him. That means, yeah.

I agree. That's why I'm saying, I don't think they shop steer and everyone's going to be like, here's what we got. And they're going to be like, that's not worth steer. And they're like, well, that's what we got. Because of the years of control means so much to these GMs. We'll see, man. This is going to be interesting because they do have a lot of goods.

If there's a big trade out there, I agree with you. I, where I'm disagreeing is I just don't know if it's out there for them. Yeah. Whoever like the. steer and Carnacian Strand and another pieces trade is like some guy we haven't even thought about a rumor for yet like it would be a guy that catch this by surprise I think those two guys sound like A's like they're gonna make a trade with the A's or something like that

Cease and Kopeck get them both for India something's gonna happen I actually like the signing too I think it's a Kind of a low risk, like a high floor, probably a low ceiling, just to kind of a, you have a guy that you can put in your lineup and it's going to be great. That trade I said isn't good just for everyone getting upset with me. I wouldn't do it. Three years of India for two years of CIS and two years of Cobra. It's like, you're just muddying up your window there. It's like, are we going for it or not?

I'm from the White Sacks point of view. I'm interested. Okay. Well, they're going to make a move, so it is interesting. Someone's moving. Yeah, true bad the Mariners didn't, you know, they did all their moves already because that was fun times for the Braves. You want to talk? What's the next up?

So do you want to do Soto in the Yankees trade, Trev? I obviously have done like, I think maybe five episodes on it now between talking Yanks and live reactions and all that. So I have all my thoughts. Were you the first person to call it official? I feel like you did. You were like, it's official. No. I was the first person that doesn't have the limitations of, like, my being a journalism guy to be like, duh, like, guys. Obviously, they announced the full package.

They announced the full package doing medicals. People were being obnoxious like, guys, wait told us. It's like they, all the reporters have announced the full package. Yes, Network did a whole show talking about the trade with the exact five guys done. With the exact five guys the Yankees were sending. and not saying it with any doubt. They never were using the words. If this is the right package, they're just saying,

well, they're giving up King. So the trade ended up being the Yankees sent to, well, the Padres sent to the Yankees, Juan Soto for one year, Trent Grisham, two years of Trent Grisham. And then the Padres got Michael King, two years for Michael King. Drew Thorpe,

he hasn't started his service time. He hasn't made his dad. debut yet. Those are the two big pieces, though. He's a big pitching prospect for the Yankees. And then Johnny Brito, he's probably got five years of control left. He's up most of this year. And Randy Vasquez, also, I'm guessing,

is five years of control left. I would honestly guess more. I feel like he came up for a lot of one-day stints. Okay. So he's got basically all his years left. Four pitchers. And Higie. And then Higgy, a rental catcher.

The Yankees said a lot of catchers. and we did we our prediction had Higke going and some people were like why and they're like because they need catchers and the Yanks need to get rid of a catcher and it just seems like they're going to they lost one of their two cashers because Gary hit free agency yanks have to many yeah send Higke home so what are your thoughts Trev I think um you know I'll start with San Diego's side of they had they had to do this they had to trade Juan Soto they couldn't keep him and then let him walk after they gave up a lot for him. It didn't work out last year. I don't know why. I mean,

we know about the one run games. We know about the X-raying games, but still it's like it doesn't register my brain that that team was 82 and 80 last year. So they had to do something. I think that they ended up realizing that there's the debt service ratio that they had to get under. So they had to cut some payroll and Juan Soto walking after this year made it an easy choice. So we knew he was getting traded. Kind of knew he was getting traded to the Yankees almost the entire time. So I thought, you know, from their perspective, I think it's a pretty good package for the Padres. I mean, they had a bunch of pitchers leaving free agencies so they needed the shore up their starting rotation.

King gives them a one, two, three now. Then you have those other guys as debt pieces as well. So I kind of like the package that they got. I understand trading Juan Soto's hard. but if you have talked with them and you understand that this guy's going to go out in free agency and you just can't do it anymore you already signed three guys to massive deals

and you can't add another one. So San Diego side, I think it's a win for them. They tried it, man. They tried it last year and it didn't work for whatever reason so they got the best deal possible for them and I think it worked out. I also love it from the Yankee side

for a couple different reasons. I mean, I've tweeted some of this stuff out there. You guys have heard some of my takes on it. But I think this is, and you guys tell me this, you're closer to the brand than I am, but I think that's what this is about. This is about the brand. This isn't about, I mean, it is about on-field.

You bring Juan Soto in to, you know, help that offense out that was just horrible last year without judge. So, like, he comes in and hopefully you have a healthy Rizzo who's been going to judge's guy. have you seen the clips on that? That's awesome. But you bring in, you bring in Juan Soto. Obviously it helps your team for next year.

But I think the point that I like to push across is look, now we got maybe Otani to the Blue Jays. You got the Orioles who just won over 100 games. You have the raise that won 99 games that are doing their thing.

You have Steve Cohen moving into town across the street. like the Yankees brand has taken a little bit of a hit as far as being what cash called they want to be the mecca of baseball they're not the mecca of baseball right now and they haven't been for quite some time so if that's what they want that's about the brand and bringing Juan Soto who a Dominican kid in the Bronx is awesome dude like this is he I see a lot of youth baseball now with Teddy I see a lot of people impersonate one Soto. Like this guy is maybe a bigger star than we kind of give him credit for. So I think I think it's about the Yankees just going out and getting what they need. And that doesn't always mean going out and paying, you know, all the free agents to come. Like it's just about going and getting your fucking guy, dude.

And they went out and got their guy. So I just think it's, I don't usually say this about trades, but I think both sides came out well this. I really do. I like what the Yankees did. The Yankees take a big hit because they traded away four pitchers that were probably five through nine on their depth. You know, you want to start spring training with eight starters. And King Vasquez, Brito, Thorpe might have been five, six, seven, eight on their depth chart. So you're just like hurting depth. But if they go get Yamamoto and another pitcher to slide in.

I don't mind it at all. I think it's interesting because, you know, we were talking to Ryan Cohen, who's a Padres fan that we've been hanging out with and listens to the show and stuff. And they're like, none of these guys are starters. Like none of these guys are good. They're arms, sure, but none of them.

And yeah, I mean, I, Vasquez and Brito, I enjoyed watching. They were fun last year. Showed some talent. If they were in the Yankees' rotation to start the season, I'd be pretty livid. like, I'd be like, this isn't, this isn't a winning rotation. They can be good.

I actually really enjoyed watching Vasquez pitch as a starter. Brito was much better when they put him in the pen. He's got, Brito's got a live arm. I like that. But I don't think the Yankees ever had those guys in their plans to be in their top three of their starting rotation. I think it was much more likely that if you said a top three starter or a, you know, long man reliever role, you would.

say they were on their way there with the Yankees. So they get a chance to be starting pitchers, which is nice. King's very interesting. They moved him to the rotation when the season was dead and gone. And he got nine starts and he looked really, really good. And he wanted to be a starter. But that's a little nuts, man. Like, I don't think they had trade value in their brain when they were doing that.

Oh, you don't? They had no pitchers last year. I mean, they were starting, you know, they were down to their 10th. like this guy can number one cost controlled because he's been a reliever and if he put him as a starter then all of a sudden he's and he did well very well yeah I don't I don't think so because

they had no other starters and we ask you know maybe we ask I would say maybe if they're in the room and they're like well and it does up his value if it comes to that like it would be like and and sure it wasn't like a secret plan he wanted to start he had given been given chances to start before but he He didn't have a full arsenal of pitches,

and then he got like four pitches at this point. And so they started stretching him out. I mean, King is a fan favorite around these parts. I love him, so I'm sad to see him go. He's an awesome dude. And yeah, when he's on, his stuff is electric. Yeah, awesome. But you strip all that away, all that, like,

it's a dude who's been a reliever for three years and got nine starts. And now he's a centerpiece of a trade. That's a little wild. But that's what happens with money dumps, you know? They needed to dump soda sour. You're not going to get a top prospect back if there's money involved. Give me, Rosie asked me this question yesterday on baseball today. Give me, like, as currently constructed, so we're not talking Yamamoto.

Although I think cash says we are not done, meaning they're going to go after him and possibly some other people, pitchers, most likely. Give me, as currently constructed, like Yankees ranking in the AL East. Can you put them on the same level as Baltimore and Tampa right now? Same level, yeah, I think so. It's still a real tough division. Red Sox are at the bottom of it, I think. It really hinges on Rodon. Like, and Nestor.

Even with their depth it hinged a lot. They need one of those two to come down. Their rotation still needed to work. So like, you know, at no point where we just done. The offense is way big. better. I mean, if Rizzo's bad half was due to concussion, then he was having a good year. And that top of the lineup is really tough to get through. I've said this a lot. I think people think it's a joke. And it's not a, but it's a guess. I would bet money the Yankees started infielders in the outfields

40% of the time last year. They had a whole new outfield. But they didn't have outfielders. They were starting Jake Bowers. He's an infielder. They were. were starting as Waldo Cabrera never really played outfield in the minors. They played ICF in center. They started them like 30 games in center. We were playing infielders in the outfield and at spring training last year

we were saying hey we don't have any outfield debt. You have way too many infields, no outfielders. What are you guys going to do? And it blew up in their face. So now they have four outfielders with Verdugo as well and lefties. So the lineup got way, way, way better. I mean, Judge Soto, having the face the two of the guys

in the first inning is just because the style of that bats too. They see pitches. They don't chase. They grind. And they're just their whole lineup being so much more balanced and so many different looks just all the way through, even if some of the guys aren't like, you know,

not everybody in a lineup is going to be Aaron Judge and Juan Soto, but just being able to give different looks now. Yeah. Well, yeah. Guys get pitched differently. I also agree, Treb's that. I agree that if Judge didn't break his toe, they would have been competitive last year.

I don't know if they would have won or got to the postseason, but I think they would have been competitive down to the last week of the season. And that's just one dude because he does so much. So yeah, I think so. But I don't think it's a lock. It's a very good division, especially if Blue Jays get showy. That's even better. I'm excited about it.

Yeah, so we still have a lot of work to do in the ALE. Sounds like these teams are just not done, which is awesome. It's awesome. Yeah. We still have Erod and the D-BACs to kind of go over, which I think is definitely a fun conversation. Is that going to be brought to us by somebody? Yeah, Blue Moon's bringing us that, I believe.

Oh, yeah, they are. Blue Moon for holiday gatherings, break out the bright stuff, Trev. Yes. Blue Moon's been with us all year. Appreciate that. Appreciate them. I do think of it as a nice winter beer, nice holiday beer. Blue Moon, Belgium, White's refreshing flesh.

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So celebrate. Almost said that word wrong. Responsibly. Blue Moon Brewing Co. Golden, Colorado. Yeah. The Debex went out and got Erod. He's a lefty pitcher on the market.

Four years, 80 million for him. It includes a vesting option for a fifth year that would bring the overall value to 99 or 100 million. Holy shit. What's Monta going to get? Wow. Good for Erod. This is, this deal to me

probably makes the most sense of any deal that's happened. And I think the debacks now can kind of just like sit back and be like, we got our team. Like for the next couple of years, right? Like they have a bunch of guys locked up or that are, you know, pre-arb or are eligible and they can kind of just run. I feel like their roster, like they just went to the World Series with this roster and they added E-Rod. So this is kind of it for the D-BACs.

And I like when teams have that and they don't have to worry about year in, year out. Like, could they look to improve the team more? Sure. Could they look to do some trades at the trade deadline depending on who's hot, who's injured? Sure, but I feel like the debacks are kind of set right now. And what did we complain about them with last year?

oh who's going to pitch for them and they didn't i mean for a long time they were they were bullpening they were doing a lot of different things so getting a guy like erod is was paramount for them a bunch of righties in the rotation now they got their lefty you got zach you got merrill kelly you got erud and then fought what he did in the playoffs so you kind of hope that that springboards him into you know kind of the pitcher that oh hey that's the pitcher you can be bro like maybe that happens with them and all of a sudden now you got four guys that you can rely on in your rotation. You have this like young superstar. You have some established veterans on your team.

You go out and get you, Hino-Svarez, Gabby and Reno's power came around during the playoffs. Like, I just like the way that they're constructed, man. And sometimes it's nice to just have a team that you say, hey, the next couple of years, this is our team. Let's go. Let's go do it again, boys. We got there. Let's go win it now.

You can sell that to your clubhouse very, very easily if you're Tori Lavella. the way, he just got extended. Like, this is a set team, and I just love it, man. Yeah, I'm, pitchers get so much money. It's kind of, it's kind of, uh, my take, uh, Erod's interesting because when he was with the, when he was with the Red Sox, the sale was there. So it almost felt like, okay, we get Erod today.

It's not as bad. And then he just like, quietly, like, destroy the Yankees and we're like, wait, what? his like, you know, his stats, his baseball reference page doesn't scream a $100 million contract. But he's a lefty that's consistent in what he does, and that's very nice, you know. You know, he's got a 1.29 career whip with a 38 FIP and a career 4 ERA. But being a lefty pitcher is pretty nice thing to be. If a right he has these numbers, I don't think he's getting up to $100 million deal.

He did have a good year in his opt-out year. So that helps with the leverage, you know, 3-3 last year. Yeah, he's a really good piece to have in your rotation. Yes. I fully agree with that. And being a lefty helps, like you said, they had all righties. He's a lefty now. That's cool.

I just, and C. Rose asked me this yesterday, I'm curious, but your take us on this. Like, where do they stand in the NOS? I feel like they're up there now. Like before we wouldn't even talk about the Diamondbacks. We're talking about the pecking order of the NOS. We would go Dodgers. We would go San Diego. What are the giants going to do?

The giants are an afterthought right now, dude. Like, you don't even think about the giants. You put the giants in the same category as like almost, excuse me, I'm sorry, Giants fans, almost like the Rockies right now. Jesus, I'm going to whisper that. I don't know where they're saying. I don't really mean it. I don't really mean it.

But what else you're supposed to do? It's not there anymore. What's the Padres situation right now? You know? Like, they're still trying to win. They just had to shed some payroll, but, you know, they still got men. They have a lot of good players, their offense is still really good. They still got some pitching that is good.

I think Diamondbacks probably on paper the two. But I don't know. I mean, you don't know. It's awesome. that they've done this so quickly. Yeah. It is. Trade for Zach Gallen, right?

Like, Zach Gallen, I'm sorry, they won that trade. Jazz Chisholm is a star and all these things. But you're going to picture like Zach Gallen, you win the trade, bro. I don't even care who you are. Well, easily, I think. They've done this, I mean, and hitting on Corwin Carroll and then going and just getting these complimentary pieces, man. They traded for Marte.

They just got Suarez a trade. They traded for Gabriel. Moreno. I mean. Yeah. Yeah, that is a really fun team to go do the GM game of how did they get these guys. They traded for Paul Seawald. They, you know, like it's, it's then they have draft moves that are that are part of what they're doing. So that's cool. Yeah, they're really fun to look at. I'm Merrill Kelly out of the KBO like this. Wow. Forgot that about that. Yeah. Christian Walker was a waiver claim in 2017.

Was he really? Yeah. It says have a homer. All right. Well, hey, I think we're a little less like, but we'll wrap this episode up because we may be hopping back on soon today. Feels like we had a good chance to be live later. Yeah. So thanks, guys. Appreciate you.

Subscribe to the channel. If you enjoy it, we'll see you soon. Jake, just stay away forever. So it's your paycheck, Ken Rosenthal. Wow. Buster only, let me see your paycheck.