Talkin' Baseball (MLB Podcast) - Stroman to NYY, Hicks to Giants ROTATION, & Dodgers-Cubs Trade | 766

Episode Date: January 16, 2024

Use code TALKIN for $20 off your first SeatGeek order. https://seatgeek.onelink.me/RrnK/TALKINGet your ticket to Talkin’ Yanks Live w/ Aaron Boone here! https://shop.jomboymedia.com/products/talkin-yanks-live-w-aaron-boone?variant=Gambling problem? Call one eight hundred gambler or visit W W W dot one eight hundred gambler dot net. In New York, call eight seven seven eight HOPE NY or text HOPE NY (four six seven three six nine). In Connecticut, Help is available for problem gambling call eight eight eight seven eight nine seven seven seven seven, or visit C C P G dot org. Please play responsibly. On behalf of Boot Hill Casino & Resort (in Kansas). Twenty one plus age varies by jurisdiction. Void in Ontario. Bonus bets expire one hundred sixty eight hours after issuance. See D K N G dot com slash football for eligibility and deposit restrictions, terms, and responsible gaming resources.+++++Timestamps: 0:00 Is Plouffe Responsible for the Rams' Loss?3:35 Marcus Stroman Signs with New York Yankees18:05 Jordan Hicks Joins SF Giants Rotation30:40 Dodgers Trade Michael Busch to the Cubs38:30 Braves Extend Alex Anthopoulos Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Hello and welcome to talking baseball. The Yankees got Mark Strom and the Giants got Jordan Hicks. The Cubs made a trade and other stuff. Let's talk some ball. Hello and welcome to talking baseball. Thank you very much for joining us today. It's brought to you by Seatkeek. Code E.

Talking helps you out over there. My name is Jimmy. I'm sitting with Jake, Trevor, BBD, me, Jake, and, Trevor all wearing the same sweatshirt. I have blue on and they both have black. Jake wearing a turtleneck and a windbreaker over that. Pretty good look for him. I think so. And if you aren't subscribed to the YouTube channel, you can do that. That helps us out a whole bunch. We have some signings to talk about. Not the big ones. Those still have not come. There's like 20 players out there that will get signed that are nothing doing. So that stinks.

Jake, how are you? James, Trevor, BPD, Marcus Stroman, and BPD's wearing the matching hoodie. I said that. I think there's some names got twisted along the way, but for the people at home, welcome. And go check us out on YouTube because James is bringing, James is bringing that new year stuff today. That, you know, everyone starts talking about that new pitch they've been working on over the offseason. I think this is what I wore when I auditioned for bench warmers. I think we're seeing it today.

A reliever getting a shot to start, Trev, the American Dream, man. How are you doing? Blamed for the Rams lost. Yeah, that was all on me. That was a tough one. It was. But I'm doing well. I had a, you know, yesterday I told you, I was like in a dream because I was recovering from a weekend of football in Detroit.

And really recovering from a football season. And I was banged up a little bit yesterday. But good times, I want to give a shout out to the city of Detroit and the fans there. That was like, I told you guys before the show, like the most incredible atmosphere I've ever been to. Like it was awesome, eight o'clock game. So people were, you know, scissurbed up a little bit. But everything was good, no problems. Just good old fashioned rooting for your team the right way.

I thought it was awesome. So shout out to them. And yeah, Rams, a tough one, but they look good. They'll be back next year. I am excited to talk some ball. I'm probably most anxious to talk about Jordan Hicks and the Giants and all that stuff. But we got some good signings. I would argue, James, that I know these aren't the big names,

but I think a couple of these signings would be very, very impactful, or have at least a chance to be very impactful next season. How you doing, James? I agree with that. I'm just, I'm just, the four big guys. I'm angry that how slow this off season's going. Yeah. Where 30 days out from like pitchers and catchers reporting.

And if you look at the list of free agents, like there's the four big guys that are all Boris agents, Monty, Snell, Chapman, Bellinger. Yeah. But then there's like 16 dudes that are going to get contracts. I think if they don't, then we're, I don't know what's going on that, you know, aren't even being talked about or anything. I don't know where they're going to go.

And the trade guys too. They were supposed to all be traded. Yeah. Sometimes those fall through. But it's like, come on, do something. Make moves. But we do have some guys. We can start with the Yanks and Stroman.

that was the first one that happened and we're at Quran Pod. Yankees signed Marcus Stroman two-year, $37 million contract. The deal includes a vesting option for a third year. So if in year two, 2025, Stroman reaches 140 innings pitched, he gets a player option for 2026 worth $18 million. And that's an interesting number, $18 million in 2026, because he just turned down one year $21 million this winter. So for him to say yes to one year, 18 mil, three years from now,

I think he'd have to be coming off a pretty bad season. And then he'd have to be coming off a bad season where the Yankees continued to pitch him over 140 innings. So it seems like if he's good, he's not going to take that offer. And if he's bad, the Yanks are going to make sure he can't take that offer in year three. So I have it kind of just as a two-year 37 million contract.

Because that third vesting option to me seems like not going to happen. But I've been wrong a lot. Two years 37 mil is a great deal contract-wise. Giolyto got two years 60 mil. 40. No. 40. Yeah, 40.

So and Stroman's been better than Gialito almost every season besides one. Certainly the last two. Yeah. So what do you got, Trev? Me and Jake and Beaves have talked about this a ton. I mean, I like it for the Yankees. I agree. I think the number is great.

I know his season last year didn't end the way that he wanted or, you know, if you like Marcus Stroman or have him on your team the way you wanted it to end. But he was dealing with some injuries. and the beginning of the season last year, because that's what I'll kind of go off. He has a track record as well. He's pitched for quite a long time in the big leagues. We kind of know what he has.

The beginning of last year, he was absolutely untouchable. Then he runs into some injury stuff, has a bad ending to the year. And we kind of say this a lot on the show, like when guys signed for something that seems a little bit light, you know, the Yankees kind of be happy he struggled at the end of the year. They got him for cheaper. You know, they know what kind of pitcher he can be.

So I think he enters rotation as a very solid middle piece. We know he's not going to give up a bunch of homers. He's going to keep the ball on the ground. He doesn't necessarily strike a bunch of people out, but he can. It doesn't walk guys. Like, this is a guy that you want to play defense behind. You know, as an infielder, you want guys that put the ball over the plate. You know, it gets put into play or he can strike guys out when need be.

But I think he's uniquely fit to pitch in that stadium. I think a lot of times we get caught up on, especially with Stroman, what's going to be off the field? How is he going to handle the media? Like, none of that really fucking matters. It's how do you pitch? How do you perform when you're on the hill? And like I said, I think he has the traits, you know, to be a guy that can really throw in that stadium. So I do think it's a savvy sign for the Yankees.

And, you know, Cashman and Stroman had, you know, a little bit of beef, you know, in the press. and I think the ability to put that behind him, you know, that's not a lot of guys can do that. So Cashman's understanding, I think, the value of this sign and said this is going to help our club at a good price. And I have like a really good feeling about this signing. I know there's the potential for it to really be interesting and there can be some moments, maybe some peaks and valleys here.

But in my mind, I just feel like it's going to be like a smooth working relationship. I don't know. Maybe I'm wrong about that. It has been through the first step because that's what happened with both sides. The Yankees kind of weren't in on Stroman because there's some history there. But the pitching market, they've been overwhelmed or outbid or the trade market hasn't been where they've wanted to. That Marcus Stroman came out and they didn't think he was going to be interested in them because he's got some old tweets that got deleted and some shots fired. at the Yankees.

And then he kind of came to the table. And the Yankees were like, all right, if you're at the table, let's talk. And then it seemed like it happened pretty quickly after that. So the contract, you can go see our instant reaction on our talking Yanks YouTube. Go check that out for even more of a deep dive on it and just pure reaction. And we were both really high. You were really high.

I was a little high. I was in route. levels to that. Surprise signing. There was an initial like, wow, like almost from our end, if we're being genuine from the work side of it, it's like, okay, this year's going to be kind of wild with Stroman.

I mean, another social media guy, a guy that can run hot, like coming off of the Yankees last season where things got ugly a little bit, it was like, okay, we're adding kind of another little bit of a wild card factor here. But the other thing we're doing is we're adding

a really reliable starting pitcher who keeps the ball in the ballpark sinker heavy that's kind of Yankees pitching coach Matt Blake that's his specialty and yeah I think this is equal parts

exciting equal parts scary but for the value they got Stroman at we're comparing him to Gioledo Erod got a similar deal little more money two more years and I think those guys can be similar pitchers year in year out for the Yankees, they got a guy that compared to what's coming back,

injured Rodon and injured Nestor, young Clark Schmidt. After Cole, you know, Stroman might be, he's like the Draft King's kind of safest bet for having a solid season next year. If the Yankees want to be successful, I think they need Rodon to fully bounce back or Nestor to go or something like that. But Stroman's kind of a lock to get you at least 100. 130 innings at a pretty high level. Yeah, we were disappointed, though,

because this probably marks the end of the Yankees signing starting pitchers. And we were excited for a Yamamoto guy, you know, a guy that a stud, even Snell, like, started getting a little interest in, but the Yankees leaked that they offered him something right before the Stroman got announced or a trade for C. Sir Bieber. And it's looking like none of that's going to happen now. Like they got Stroman and they got five starters in that.

their rotation now. So that was a bit of a bummer. It wasn't about Stroman. I was like, oh, I think we liked him as Yamamoto and Stroman, but now it's Stroman and Weaver, Luke Weaver.

So different meal than we thought we were getting. I was going to go into a little bit of a comparison. I think I will just quickly because the numbers have been a little bit different. I face both these guys. Sunny Gray and Marcus Stroman, very similar to like how you prepare for them. difficult. Now, Sunny has like more or more pitches that he throws more often. Is that a hand up? That's a hand up. When you say more difficult, I know you're kind of leading into it, but is, is it

pitch mix? Is it unique because they're shorter? Is it like they're not going to give in because they have good control? Like when you say difficult where, I guess where do you jump? Difficult to game plan? Kind of, yeah. Yeah. Okay. I know, Stroman's like, he's not. a two-pitch pitcher. He throws those a majority of the time, sinker slurve. But he has other pitches that he throws enough. He's got five pitches that he throws enough that you have to kind of game plan for all of them.

And even with his sinker and his slurve, he can add him some track and kind of make him do different things. So it's like you can't just look for that pitch in one quadrant and say, okay, if I see this fastball, this is where I'm going to go get it. Like it just, everything is not straightforward. Like, okay, some guys you face, He's okay, this guy's got, you know, his four steamers got a little ride. Sinker's going to have a little bit of, you know, vertical movement.

It's going to bust you in a little bit. Okay, here's what his slider looks like. And that all looks kind of the same pitcher to pitcher. You know, velocity is different. With Stroman and with Sunny Gray, like, it's just a little bit different. Like the pitches don't move necessarily as much or they can move a lot depending on the day. So it makes it just difficult for a hitter to go up there and say, okay, this is my plan against Marcus Stroman. or this is my plan against Sunny Gray.

That's kind of the comparison. Like pitch mix is a little bit different, but it's just the fact that it almost looks different than any other pitcher. And it might be because of the height. But I think more importantly, it's just the pitch mix is there enough and they can add and subtract on those pitches

to make them run a little bit more, run a little bit less. I always thought it was just a difficult to game plan against both those guys. In my mind as a hitter when you're up there, it's like, well, you kind of do have to cover like the entire plate and when you get into a situation like that it's bad like you don't want that you want to be able to slice the plate in half you want to be able to slice the repertoire in half and

these guys sometimes i think it becomes very difficult to do that so we were watching i was watching a bunch of his pitches yesterday as we were recording talking yanks and the adding and subtracting is is very accurate which is like david cohen talks about him doing that and sonny did that and i think bass it does it a lot because i was watching his sinker or two seamer trying to see is this just like a runner does it really have dip, and each one was different. Like sometimes it really did have a lot of armside run. And other times it was kind of a force seam that just like was a little dip. And so, yeah, he does manipulate the pitch itself, which is cool.

Who do you think's got a higher release point? Strowman or Sonny Gray? Yeah. Who's taller? Sonny's taller, right? Sonny's got two lynches. Both not height focused guys. I think Marcus is a little, got to be a little lower, but this sounds like a trick question.

I think Sonny's kind of over the top. a little bit more. I'm going green. Same. Same. You had it when you said two inches. Five foot three for Stroman, five foot five for Sunny Gray. Okay. Treve, you reached on an E6 against both of these guys. So, oh, smoked it probably. Yeah. Yeah. I didn't really have much success against Stroman. He was, like I said, he was difficult. Just, you know, you had to really, a bat to ball guy and you just had to kind of go up there and react and you don't, when you're, when you're reacting as a hitter, it's not. You're in a

place. Treve, I've got another little bit of a loser question for you. I think the first thing we were consensus excited on is to watch Stroman Field. When you have like a gold glove type pitcher, like, do you feel that at third base? Like you're less worried about like choppers and nubbers and stuff or is that kind of not in your head either way? I don't know how any good pitcher, good fielding pitchers I played with.

Don't do Glenn Perkins No, you're obviously aware of it And for a guy like him Who can really feel the ball And is very athletic and can make plays I think you just have to communicate You know, because you Third Baseman

You just go for everything to your left You can, that's your ball Anything you get you to to your left That's your ball Usually you're coming in You're calling the pitcher off You're calling the catcher off All these things

But you got a guy like Marcus Stroman Who can guard the line a little bit It allows you to play back So you're guarding against the extra base hit a little bit more, but that's that you got to communicate. And I think for the most part, he'll choose a side. If there's a guy that can bunt or, you know, if you want to pay back, he'll say, okay, I'm going to guard this line. I got that coming out of my, my delivery. So it does make a difference. And it is, it is nice. Main thing that I think

we've seen last year that you really worry about for a pitcher as far as just like, how do you defend is how do you hold the runners? Last year everyone was running like crazy. I think for me that's the main thing I think about. But Marcus is a different. That's a good point. I mean, it definitely allows you to set your defense up differently

because you can rely on him to cover that part of the field. He's nasty out there, dude. He can't really do it. And you hit a big sack fly against him in June of 2014. We had some words. Marcus and I had some words on the field

but that's you know that was more probably the me thing frustrated you allowed 17 steals in 27 27 games last year I have no idea how that fares seems like a decent amount but I don't but they have that now there's a stat on

is it on savant that talks about the grades a pitcher's ability to hold runners oh I don't know maybe that's like a new one Miami and the national and those back-to-back three stolen-based games versus him. So that's Marcus Stroman. Yeah, Trevor the Grand Slam, I'm Sunny Gray.

That's true. Thank you for bringing that up. If you have any more Marcus Stroman questions and you're in the New York City area on January 29th, you could ask us or Aaron Boone, the manager of the Yankees. We are doing a live talking Yanks episode, Downtown Social and NYC. Doors open at 630

We've got a couple different VIP options I think two out of three are sold out We're almost sold out So if you want to come see us If you want to come see Booney If you got questions That you've been waiting I tell you what Aaron Boone

Why aren't you? Soto! Go buy some tickets Click the link in the description We'll see you there It's going to be a good time We're going to have a lot of our people Floating around Bebebs

Joe's McFly an obio, and maybe some more. So come on through. It would be a good time. Jordan Hicks signs with the Giants. And he has expected to join San Francisco's rotation after being used mostly as a reliever in his career,

sans the start of 2022, when they used him as like, we thought opener, but then sometimes he did go like four innings. So it was a starter, I guess. It was like two times through the order, I guess. Yeah. Hicks is the second starting pitcher the Giants have acquired over the last week because they also acquired Robbie Ray, even though he won't pitch this year or half the year.

He might come back. So this was a bit of a surprise that they signed him to be a starter. And he's got incentives in his deal if he hits innings and all that stuff. So Jordan Hicks, starting pitcher, San Francisco. Jake? I, here's where I'll start. I like it. I like it.

When we were talking high-end relievers, like if this contract came out for Jordan Hicks, just the reliever, we would say, wow, like, that's, you know, that's a decent number for Jordan Hicks' career, but we would point out to, you know, his ground ball rate still stayed good last year. And he's 27 years old.

Like, I thought Jordan Hicks was 2930. He's 27. And he got more, he got more whiffs last year than he'd been getting. So he's a guy with unique arm talent, like 1% of the 1%. He can hit 104 on the gun. He keeps it on the ground, and he's starting to get more swings and misses, which, hey, as he gets older and learns his stuff better and batter's approaches,

the guy should be really good. In your worst case, this guy should be a bullpen weapon for you. Then it becomes the price tag because 4 for 44, that's probably a really, around 11 million a year? Yep. Now we're going to some San Francisco Giants bullshit. Hey, can we make this guy a starter? Can we get 100, 120, 140 innings out of this guy?

I don't know. Maybe. I know they tried it in St. Louis. It didn't go so swimmingly. He's still young. And maybe, you know, I don't know how the Giants are looking at it. It is the goal for this first year to get 100 innings. And then maybe he could start half the year

and transfer to the bullpen when Robbie Rai comes back, something like that. There's a low-ish floor on the risk of this signing. He should be able to participate in the bullpen in some way. If they can get him to be a starting pitcher for, I don't know, two out of four of these years, look at the prices we just talked about for starting pitchers. And the Giants, maybe they're viewing things a little more unique than that. We saw them finish down the stretch this year with like two and a half,

half-starting pitchers and they were basically trying to put it together, that maybe they can just see Jordan Hicks pitch innings for them. I don't know. It obviously was a little bit of a surprise when it was like, oh, and they're going to have Jordan Hicks start. The Giants are taking their chance, and their off-season starting to be a little fun, at least. I mean, Robbie Ray and Jordan Hicks get added to the roster.

I don't know. I'm interested to see what it looks like, and I, of the off-season signings, you know, this one has a high upside potential. And I don't think the risk is too, too low. High, yeah. Fairly low risk. Low risk. Yeah, I mean, I like it as well.

I think it's an interesting discussion about contract negotiations. If you're Jordan Hicks, you've worked mainly as a reliever. Obviously, you talked about his time. as a starter in St. Louis a little bit, but you're a reliever. And you probably went into this offseason saying, I'm going to get paid as a reliever. And you kind of did get paid as a reliever. But are those discussions about him starting during the negotiations or afterwards, like, hey, got you as a reliever, except we're going to use you as a starter. Like, you know what I mean?

I think they had to be in the talks. Like, hey, this is our plan with you. They can't just sign you as a reliever and say, psych, we're going to get an extra 40 innings out of you. this year, bro. So buckle up. I like it. I'm going to give credit to somebody because, although we've thought about this, this sparked it in my mind, Michael Bauman at Fangrass talking about Hicks in this situation. He's talking about, you know, this is the way pitching has been evolving, you know,

since the beginning of baseball. We used to have guys throw 350 innings a year. And now the benchmark is 200 innings a year. And I think we're going to have to look at that benchmark and probably bring it down to closer to like 150 innings for modern day. starting pitching. We're not, teams want a workhorse for the regular season. But that's all they want it for is the regular season. And they know that you can't really find those that many places anymore.

So they got to find these innings in different places. Now, what if that means you have a seven-man type of swing rotation where guys are throwing five innings apiece or can, you know, go two times through the order for you and you're piggybacking throughout the season? Maybe that's what you're going to do because guess what? during the playoffs, you're going to do that anyway. You're not going to have your guy go seven innings in the playoffs. It doesn't work that way.

So I think teams are reimagining what the role of a modern-day starting pitcher is. I'm not saying Jordan Hicks is the first guy that's going to go out there and he's going to go out there. And he's going to go, okay, look, he's going to throw 120 innings and throw this amount of pitches per day. I'm just saying I think teams are viewing pitching differently and how you get to the playoffs and how you get through a season because there aren't those guys I mean how many guys last year be because if you could look this up I'd really love it how many guys through

200nings last year in the big leagues I know 20 guys through 180 innings so there you go 20 freaking guys in the big leagues last year through only 180 innings that's crazy so like you have to

if you're a front office or an organization I mean that's the way pitching is going I don't know if this is going I don't know if this is going to work out. I'm very curious because it's not easy. I don't think we know how it's going to work out. So I guess we have to see how they're going to use them. I don't think it's going to be as that every fifth day.

You're going to get the ball for as long as you can go. That's not going to be the case. I'd rather have this guy just throwing bullets at the back of my bullpen. That's how I see it. We'll see how they can use them. They did this with Gossman before he came over to San Francisco. He spent that season before, I think it was in 2019 in the bullpen. And then they got him back to being a starter.

They think they can do a lot of different things up in San Francisco. So we'll see. I think, like you said, Jake, best point you ever made in this show. Wow. Pretty low risk. Yeah, he's good at being a reliever. He's got a lot of talent. I was trying to look at a lot of guys that have relieved and then been turned into a starter.

Because we have seen a ton of this the last couple of years. and be successful. But I wanted to see if they were, like, you know, if they were starting in the minors. Like off the top of my head, I had Ranger Suarez. He was a reliever. They turned in the starter. Nestor, Michael King, the Yankees did it with last year.

Lorenzen, the Angels, did it with. Seth Lugo. Seth Lugo. Jeffrey Springs. And then I researched Zach Little, Lattel for the raise. And they all been, pretty successful. A lot of them started in the minors.

And then he kind of did too. He just was in the minors for a really, really short amount of time. So it can work out. I mean, teams have done it before. They had AJ Puck on the list, but like they used him as a starter. And then he wasn't fair.

He was really first and they tried him as a starter. And now he's kind of fully back. There's definitely like a learning experience. Just learning how to get out in the bullpen. Yeah. And then a lot of guys do this. or used to do this when they would, their first couple of years.

And like the goal was always to get him back. Like Louis Severino spent 2015 or 2016, one of them as a reliever. And he said it helped him become a starter. Like it helped him realize, oh, that's empty in the tank. And this is not empty. And this is saving. And this is how to attack. So maybe it's not that crazy.

Maybe like Phil Hughes, like figured it out in the bullpen. Then yes. Went back to starting. Yeah. You know, or the Ray's always had their best AAA. starter was like their closer. David Price did that. Didn't Waka do that for the Cardinals that his rookie year in the playoffs. Lance I think did did some of that too. So maybe this is like that just was a prolonged stint as a reliever. I'll answer my own question from earlier.

Last year, only five guys through 200 endings. Logan Webb, Zach Gallen, Garrett Cole, Michaelis, and Chris Bassett. It's about to do a trivia because there's no way you guys were going to go five for five. Good job. Chris Bass. It's, I know we've, and I think this is all part of this cycle, and we've gone, there's a time when relievers were getting like paid, paid. And I think teams are slightly trying to get away from that, because that can make your bullpen a little non-flexible. But yeah, I think this might be kind of a kickback, because I don't know, we're a couple years removed from like Adamadovino was getting 10 mil a year to pitch out of the bullpen, you know, with some good years and a lot of. arm talent.

Like, you know, Jordan Hicks can be that guy. And I think he's already proven that. So if they can get, you know, a couple seasons of 100 innings out of them, I think there's your win. And he added a sweeper last year. That helped him out a lot. Yeah. His pitch mix is...

Prince and repeat for everything. Just the sweeper. His pitch mix is still just two pitches, really. Like, he threw a slider, but he changes slider to a sweeper. He has a change up, doesn't throw it a lot at all. So I'm very interested to see... Yeah, they're going to up that. I guess if I was a Giants fan and I was tuning into Giant Spring Training,

I won't be. I don't even probably, well, MLB TV, I could get access. I won't be doing this. So Giants fans, you do it. Let me know. What pitches Jordan Hicks working on the most? He's got the two seam with the sinker and he's got the sweeper. What's going to be his third?

You would guess it's change up or four seam fastball. I think he's, I think last year he threw two different types of fastballs. I'm pretty sure. He threw his four seam fastball 10% of the time. Sinker 64. That's a lot. It's going to be a good test of that. Giants coaching staff.

Yeah. Yeah. If anybody is more curious about Jordan Hicks and wants more Jordan Hicks content, I did a sequence episode about him tipping his pitches, which was one of our best performing episodes. You want to go check that out. Sequence, Jordan Hicks.

You'll get a video. You'll get a video. get a video and you'll get a video. Yes. San Francisco made their bet with Hixie and you can make your bet at the Draft King's Sportsbook. America's number one sports book. The NFL playoffs are here.

Trev apologizes to L.A. for ending their season. But you can bet five bucks on any game and get 200 instantly in bonus bets. Download the Draf King Sports we have now in Use Code Talk and new customers can bet just five bucks to get 200 instantly in bonus bets only on drafting sports book with code talking. The crown is yours or today it looks like it's gyms.

Gamling Prom, call 1-800 gambler, visit www. www.1-800-Gambler.net. In New York, call 8778-8-Hope-N-Y or text-Hope-N-Y and Connecticut help is available for problem gambling. Call 888-789-7-77-or or visit ccpG.org. Please play responsibly. On behalf of Boothill Casino and Resort,

21 plus age is varied by jurisdiction Voided Ontario bonus bets expire 168 hours after issuance CDKNG.com slash football for eligibility and deposit restrictions terms and responsible gaming resources. Nice. Your cubbies

made a trade with the Dodgers. That's kind of interesting. The Dodgers needed to clear space off of their 40 man. They have a lot of players signed for a lot of time and they had some good prospects, Michael Bush, It was their first round pick back in 2019.

Big bat blocked. He's blocked. And been blocked. Been blocked for a while. He was on the 40 man. They needed a clear 40 man space. They trade him to the Cubs. And they also send Yensei Almonte to the Cubs.

And the Cubs sent back to teenagers. And that's the deal. So interested to see if Bush have the Cubs, said what's his role going to be is he yeah they've said trev they said they wanted to play first base yeah so he was blocked um in la i think they're going to try him in a couple different positions but you know mookie moving into the infield um and freddie coming over there really just wasn't a spot for him so um that's what i read cubs are focusing on putting him at first base, which is interesting because, I mean, talked about Bellinger. He's a center fielder

first baseman, and they kind of have those positions now. I mean, I don't think Michael Bush is locked in as the first baseman enough where you wouldn't go sign Cody Bellinger, but you have him at first base. You got PCA, Peter Armstrong, they're ready to take over the centerfield spot. So now it's like they're kind of getting away from that saying I guess we don't need belly, although they can still make it work. You know, having too many good players at spots is usually a good thing for a roster. You can move some things around there. And again, Michael Bush is not a proven commodity the way Cody Bellinger is.

But I thought that was an interesting part of this is, you know, those two positions that the superstar they want to bring back plays, they kind of have filled right now with a couple young dudes. So I think this, and I've been saying this a lot, this offseason feels like there's a lot of trades that are makes sense. for both sides. And I guess that's how trades get done. They have to make sense for both sides. But I love what the Dodgers received too. This guy, Jackson Ferris, is this tall, left-handed dude that throws cheese. Like, you know he's going to be really good.

You know he's going to be really good. And they had to give up something to get him, but such his life. I'm happy for Bush to get out of that. Because we've seen this in the past. I don't think he's going to become Ryan Howard necessarily, but, you know, a guy I love Ryan Howard's, you know, ability. Like, guys get blocked in situations, and Michael Bush is a big leaguer, and he'll get his chance now.

Yeah, you lean Cubs early and we'll be scared of Dodgers late. You know, what do they know about these kids that we'll be talking about on, you know, talking baseball 2027? And we'll be like, remember, wow, they got them for Michael Bush. The Cubs get Yenzi Almonte, will slide into their bullpen. if they can tap into his 2022 season where he had a 1.02 ERA over 35.1 innings, we can use that guy.

Michael Bush, who everyone says he can hit, and, you know, my analytics binder last year changed to hit and we'll figure out the rest. They kind of have that with Christopher Morel, too, who is a guy who's been rumored in trades. So, and, you know, we've talked so much on this show about Never Nervis Matt Mervis, the other first base prospect.

Right now they've got, Patty Wisdom, your guy coming off the bench. So the Cubs have given themselves some options and some depth pieces. And you wonder if there's another move to be made right now in the off season. And like you said, if they had a belly, things do start getting pretty tight. Crowded. That, you know, you wonder that trade market that we've kind of gotten away from and it feels like the off season's over. And maybe it could be.

but you wonder, you know, does someone like Bush make a Christopher Morel a little more expendable if they want to push the button for another starting pitcher or something like that? So you like it for the Cubs early as their offseason kind of didn't have any movement and now they've got some stuff going on. And, yeah, I mean, I don't know. Dodgers will see in four years if these kids, they had something up their sleeve. I have trivia. Oh.

How many first baseman for the Cubs last year started 10 games or more? Oh, wow. Okay. We're going to start listing them? Well, you have a guess? You don't have to list them. Four. I know three off the top of my head.

It's more than four. I've found only one other team that started as many, but I haven't looked at all the teams. Started or played? Started. Give me six. Seven. Mancini,

Mervis Hosmer Young Haas Trev's guy Morel get over there Did Belly play Wisdom get over there Belly played a lot of first down the stretch

Wisdom Jared Young Eric Cosmer Candelario Mervis Mancini and Bellinger The only other team I found that had that many start

10 games or more was the Angels who had one, two, three, three, four, five, six, seven, start ten or more and eight, nine, ten, twelve different players start at first over the course of the year. That's crazy. I think that might be a fairly common thing now that we always talk about those.

No, I just checked. I checked all of the NL and then I got through the AL East and the AL central before. It's a big number. Opening my mouth from the halos there. 12's crazy. And then the rest are, it's around four. Travis is like normal to have 10 or more. I mean, unless you're the Braves, you've got one guy, started all the games.

Where are the twins at on that? I feel like they had a bunch of guys over there. Detroit, I saved their tab. They had five and the White Sox had five. The twins had three. Solano, Kirillov, Gallo. Interesting. At least starting games.

Maybe they were late, late slides. That's over 10 starts. Vasquez started one. Julian started two. Loplo started one. So, yeah, the Cubs needed a first baseman. Hopefully they get that number down and they find a winner. I think the Hoyer did come out and say at Fan Fest that they're not trading.

Morales. Yeah. That's good leverage. I think I saw that headline. If Mervis like clicks, this year. Bush has a lot of second and third base experience. So they can make the spots work if they... Bush can hit, but it's the Pacific Coast League, Trev. Jake would have crushed it.

That's true. Also, shout out Jackson Ferris turned 20 yesterday. So... J.F. It's a bummer. Dodgers just grab a freak. Leaving his buddies. He'll make new friends. 20 years old? Oh, this next decade, Jackson. Let me tell you about. the 20s. Be careful, bro. Just be careful out there.

What else we got? We got, want to talk some front office? Yeah, sure. Braves. I think we just give this. Braves called it quits on their bullshit moves that they were doing just for fun.

And they, they extended Alex Anthopalach. Is there money attached to this contract? Like, have we seen numbers? Well, 1% goes to the foundation. I was going to say, does he have to do it? He better. Although I saw it.

He gave 1.5. Yeah. I think Foolish Bailey. Just to do it. Quote tweeted the announcement graphic, the Braves post and said no mention of the Braves Foundation. Wow. He should do 1.01% just to say, guys.

Yeah. I can do it. It means more to me. Maybe the Braves, the Braves went to him and they were like, Hey, man, like, what are you doing? You're doing a lot of stuff. And he's like, just trying to keep going, trying to keep going. They're like, why don't you calm down?

It's like, just trying to impress you guys. And they're like, chill. You did it. You're impressed everybody. Stop doing like garage sale stuff. Gary Vee flipping trash. He's setting them up, dude. The Yankees need to take a fucking page out of that playbook.

I mean, you guys are over the Yankees. I'm not shitting on the Braves. Yankees, Yankees. I'm not shitting on the Braves. I'm just. I'm jealous. Why'd you, why'd you take my? I forgot to ask this earlier in the episode. That's why. I want to ask this seriously. And I guess I'm sorry for Braves fans that are like, you guys, that's all you're going to talk about.

This guy's the greatest executive in the last fucking 20 years. We know. Everybody knows. Congratulations. You guys are going to be good for the next 15 years. I feel like he's great in the living room. You know, they say Sabin's great in the living room because he could like sign dudes. Like sign all these young guys to all these deals. is that his biggest skill? It's not that hard to do that, dude. He just got, he just, he got, he did the right ones. If you go into anybody's living room and say,

I'll give you $80 million. I feel like some players have turned it down. Didn't, was it the twins or was it? I feel like, I don't know. You get him as early as he gets them. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Just depends who, where they're from? All these things matter, man.

I feel like I'd be great in the living room. If you gave me, you said, here's 80 million bucks and go sign some, some 19, 20, 20, 20 year old kids to long-term deals, I could get it done. Okay. What was your question? Is he the best ever? Yankees. Oh, yeah. Okay.

My question was, you guys are over the final competitive balance tax. You're paying 110% on your money. Yeah. Extra. Yeah. I'm not bad. How do you sign Juan Soto doing that? You have to cut off so much money.

and then add his on to it. Like what happens? Who goes? How does it happen? Well, I mean... Release, release, release. You re-sign Juan Soto and that money's...

It's not like you're adding one... Like, Juan Soto's... He's already making $30. He's gonna make another $10 on top of that. So you have to like shed like... Glamer's gone next year. Yeah. But they have tons of people walking.

The whole infield's walking. Okay, that was my question. Rizzo. Are they ready to do that? Canely replace them with you got to replace them have a little Hicks Donaldson Rizzo Rizzo right there is 17 mil off the book so give 10 of that to one So that's seven off the books from now yeah and then you got glabors 14 Verdugos 8.7 homes is six so 35

Yankee's secret is every year there's money coming off Okay why you always talking about the Yankees bro so much bias and the episode. Episode ended. Congrats to everyone that signed arbitration. Jake sucks. I've been getting a lot of hitting videos. Best best things ever felt.

Who's sending a hitting video? Best shape I've ever been in. Oh, that time of year. My cage. Your experience should look like flawless. Ball's where you asked for it. But my plane is good.