Talkin' Baseball (MLB Podcast) - The Shohei Ohtani Situation is WILD | 815

Episode Date: March 25, 2024

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Hello and welcome to talking baseball. Thank you very much for joining us today. Otani's interpreter Ipe. Bad news over there. You've heard about it. We're going to talk about it. And some odds and ends as spring training comes to a close. Hello and welcome to talking baseball.

Thank you very much for joining us today. It is March 25th. We are three days away from opening day, even though we've had two official games of the season. happened already, but league-wide opening day, March 28th. Talking Baseball is brought to you by Seatkeek, and like I said, opening day is coming, so you want to go see your team play? I know Jake and I do. We want to go.

Opening day for the Yanks in the Bronx is a one o'clock game. So we opened the Seatkeek app. We found some tickets, good value, bad value, good seats, bad seats. We're going to use code Talking, which gets us $20 off and have some fun. so you can do the same. Thank you to see you for sponsoring the show. Jake, no Trevor today because he is missing. Unavailable for comment.

How are you doing? James Davis, active player only podcast today. Wow. Doing well. We just came back from spring training, got a little taste of it. Some good ball, some good weather. Hope your team is opening up in some good weather. It's always funny to, we're going to be tuning into some.

42-degree baseball games that opening week. And you're like, wow, that kind of stinks. And yeah, hey, our little inside scoop is all of the baseball players want to be playing real baseball at this point. It was funny just chatting up to different guys and like, yeah, we're ready to go because we're not pitchers. And yeah, our friend Zach Shore to the compound, we got to see him, I don't know, hours ago.

And he was like, yeah, I'm just hoping for the best, doing the best. I can't he officially made the Mets. We're starting to get official who made the team announcements. And there's always a couple sneaky ones. I know our yanks already have a couple that have kind of turned our heads. And we've got a little basically waiver period that's going to be going on where you're going to see some veterans or different guys land on your squad. So we're here after the 6 to 6 a.m. baseball games.

And those were distracted by a little bit of bigger news. involving some guys on that field. So I'm Jazzy. You're Jazzy. Jazz Chisham also mid-news. Probably not talking about that today. If Trev's here, I wanted to ask him some questions. Also some MLBPA stuff want to wait till Trev's on to chat about.

Probably what's going on. They will at least sit that a little bit. But for now we're going to be talking about this Otani news for a little bit because it is absolutely bizarre. And it's a crazy story that I think because O-Tonni news, He's not spoken for so long, and he's about to speak today. They gave a giant window of speculation, interpretation, trying to figure out what the hell's going on, because the story is bizarre.

And I think the only kind of facts we have right now is that the Dodgers fired IPE that ESPN found and the federal government found bank statements from Shohei Otani to Matt Bauer, who was an illegal bookie in Orange County. Like those are all true. And then the how did this happen? What's going on here is wild. Because we've, we had one, we've had a bunch of stories. We've had all these facts coming out. It's either Ipe's the best friend in the world and a fall guy for Otani or

Ipe's the worst friend in the world and stole millions of dollars from his good friend Every rabbit hole you go down, you're like, okay, that tracks a little bit, and then you end up running into question marks. And, yeah, Otani's press conference today, it's going to be super interesting to see his general tone in a bunch of ways because is it, is he throwing IPE under the bus? Is it game over? Ipe did everything wrong.

let the legal system deal with this. Bang, bang, bang. Is Shohei going to give kind of, I don't know, when you see people give lawyery answers of a statement and then I'm not going to really answer that? You'd like to think that they've announced it and they've had some time to think about it that they're going to attack it.

And speaking of having time to think about it, this kind of goes back to January. Like that's when stuff was starting to get dug up that, I don't know, it definitely got, it got to Otani and they talked to his people so they've known this storm's coming so if you really want to put on the tinfoil hat and start digging which we did a little bit this weekend late night uh you can stumble into some theories but yeah it either seems like hey Ipe dug a hole for himself and they knew that you know he had his big bro Otani lurking or this was kind of all Otani and now Ipe might

take the fall. The story that they're painting right now is basically a, like, um, uh, Ridley. What's that movie? Talented Mr. Ripley. Yeah, like a catch me like, like, like IPE is just like a giant con guy. That's like what they're painting is that he is, uh, con. Because it came out that his bio, the angels have like employee bios on their website. So I got a little paragraph with a couple borkers. Uh, Ipe is the official translator for Shohei Otani. He graduated from UC Riverside. and formerly worked with the Yankees and Red Sox translating for ex-player, forget the name. And so that was like the little blurb that the angels had, which they, I don't know how they,

I don't know where they sourced from. I'm guessing they just asked eBay. And what should we write about you? And they were like, here you go. And all that has, is not true. He never worked for the Yankees. He never worked for the Red Sox. And he did not graduate from that college.

So that's suspect. Where did he come from? Do we have any understanding of what he did before he was Otani's interpreter? Like there has to be some info out. I haven't seen that. If you need the full recap or the first part that on the channel, I did a video just reading the article, trying to figure out when it just broke.

But the federal government found out about this in January. People that have been reporting on it have known about it for a long time, like Jake said back in January. So Otani in his camp had to know this was happening. and the first story, Ipe did a 90-minute interview with ESPN, Tisha Thompson, and, like, gave this whole story with all these details about how he's a gambling addict. He lost all this money, and he asked Otani to help pay his debt. And Otani, he said, me and him, like, went to the computer together and paid the gambling off.

In installments, there was installments of thought. 500,000. They saw two installments of 500,000 last September and October, I believe. But I think Tissor Thompson alleged that there was like many more. So they were paying it off in 500,000 installments. The other detail that scares me a tonne is that Boyer, the bookmaker, knew Otani's name was on the bank statements. And that's in the article. And just, just pause and think about that because that's the most blackmail you could have. over a professional baseball player, especially someone of Sho Hay's talent, is that a illegal bookmaker knows and has blackmail over Rotani that he's been paying

a bookie. That's just a very scary world that was out there, whether it was IPE stealing the money or Hotani actually money. Like, man, that is the catalyst of a lot of terrible, like, poise or things that can happen. I don't we don't as far as we know nothing really came from that but still like that's crazy yeah I guess I haven't been as much wrapped up in the quote unquote illegal sports gambling because there is legal sports gambling which I don't know that feels like a whole other layer

of this that we're going to get to at some point like with I don't know between Las Vegas being there or you know we're with draft kings and certain states league gambling is legal and if you do want to gamble legally it. It's pretty accessible at this point. Well, I don't care about, well, I'm just saying the fact that Oteni was exposed to that someone having that blackmail on him is crazy. Well, what's the blackmail that he illegally gambled? Yeah, it's, yes. Right.

But that's, I guess that's what I'm saying. It's that if he's gambling on not baseball, which that's a layer we got to get to at some point. Like, I don't, I don't really care that he's betting through Matthew Boyer in California. Sure. But the government does. and the league. Right. And it's I pay betting. It's literally the same rule is you can't.

I guess that's one of my wise. Why what? Why is he gambling? Why couldn't he have a person in Vegas that places bets? Why couldn't it, why couldn't you do? Because those bets can be legal. Yeah. Very closely.

Yeah. So why? Well, it's not legal. It's not legal. It's not legal in California. Right. So he would have to have someone drive and place the bets for him or something instead of just texting. I think there's people in Vegas that literally live for that.

I mean, I don't know. I guess that's why you say that is like a scary blackmail thing. Because it is against the rules of Major League Baseball to place bets with an illegal bookie. Right. But as well, the consequences can be pretty bad. Well,

that's why you pay place the bets, Pop. Exactly. But the fact that it was all out there is scary. Because it could crumble a sport. Because we're just trusting a ton of liars right now. Yes. That he didn't bet on baseball. Right.

Like until actual official IRS or MLB or MLB will never come out with that, investigations go in and check it out, we're just trusting the bookie and the IPE right now. Like they're not to be trusted. I'm not saying I think he did or didn't. I'm just saying everyone. that has made a statement on it is has lost all trust. Right.

So that's still an open situation. I guess that's still just my why. Why use that guy and not use anything else? Well, you guys asked so tiny that. Okay. So you don't, I thought you had a reason for that. No. Okay.

They met at a, David Fletcher introduced them at a blackjack game. Oh, Fletch. We're looking at, yanks. We're thinking of picking you up. That's how Ipe met the bookie, supposedly. is at a poker game in Orange County. Fletcher introduced them. But Fletcher said I didn't know he was a bookie.

But I did introduce them, something like that. So yeah, that's crazy. And then the biggest question is why would this bookie extend a $5 million line of credit to a translator if he didn't think someone was backing him? Yep. because that's like question number one that everyone just conveniently going beyond and it's like well let's can we go back to why this would happen now I'm not in the illegal bookie situation I don't know if uh regular old people with normal salaries get extended five million dollars of credit I've seen

hardball Keanu Reeves uh got beat up and I don't think he owed that much right even like I think in the CBS sports article I pulled up like eBay, compared to most people, makes a very nice salary between $300,500,000 a year. That's not a $5 million. That was like with the Dodgers, the one they reported with the Angels like 80 to $100,000. Yeah.

That's his like most recent salary. He said he lost a million dollars in the year one, eBay. Yeah. It becomes. And you don't collect. Math because that, math ain't math. That heads down two paths.

It's, is showage is straight up betting through Ipe, which again is very much on the table, if not option number one. Or like you're talking about these, you know, these aren't the world's most uptight, religious, believe everything they say people. Like, I don't know, this guy, Boyer that was running it, you know, he probably knows who Ipe's connected to that maybe that's why he did all this.

Like there is an angle for that that he's like, well, if this dude gets in trouble, I do know that his best friend, guy that he spends 365 days with brings in 50 million a year and has 700 million coming his way that if this guy does rack up a debt, we'd be able to solve it. Yeah, but it's just a little... Well, it's fuzzy because this dude could think, he's just getting text messages and then he's getting statements from Otani's bank account.

And he saw that it was Otani. So... And it was advertising to grow his book that Otani was betting with him. That's pretty scary situation. for baseball in general. And then, and then, like, yeah, of course, it's going to be hard, like,

oh, it's going to be very easy to be like, O'Tani didn't place those bets. Ipe did. Well, yeah. Because Ipe was the one texting on the phone. Like, that's a, it's like how celebrities, like you said this,

how like Snoop Dog has someone on salary to buy his weed for him. Right. Snoop's never bought weed. Right. His dude did that. It's literally a fog. I wonder now that if weed's legal. He has someone,

on staff now to roll his blunts for him. They make 50K a year. Snoop Dog. Not a bad gig. Yeah, be good at your job. But yeah, you probably do other shit too. But that's the other thing is like, IPE was more than just an interpreter.

It's like, okay, but how did that happen? Because if this dude is the talented Mr. Ripley, Leach, uh, con man, did he, is he not an interpreter? And then he just latched on a Otani because everyone is just taking at face value. Right. He was with him 365 days a year. He went to the World Baseball Classic with him, even though he didn't need a translator there.

He does the offseason. He does way more than translate. Why? How did that happen? If this dude is the snake in the grass, they're painting him to be, how did he become like the caretaker for Otani's life? Yeah, I guess I'm not freaked out as like, you know,

WBC and stuff like that. Otani's still doing a lot of American interviews along the way. And I know it was a thing that like, well, they let Lars Neupar use him because he doesn't speak Japanese. Sure. But the rest of it is like, if you're painting this. dude is such an awful guy. Right.

Then how did he go from like, because there's other interpreters in major league baseball. No one does more than this. There's other guys who speak English and Japanese. They said, they said some, like, do help with banks damage

because they have to interpret all the legal and the paperwork and all that, but this went beyond like what the angels were paying them to do. Game one of the Korea series, we saw Tani and Ipe hanging out in the dugout. Yeah.

Like the, and the vibe seemed very normal. didn't seem vibes of a guy that had stolen $4.5 million out of another guy's account. So at that point, they're saying that Otani didn't know about that. And that in the clubhouse, Ipe made a statement to all the Dodgers that there's a story coming out. And I want to apologize for it. I'm a gambling addict. And all the Dodgers players were like, okay.

So? And then Friedman came up and said he, he, Otani paid off his debts. How would Freeman know before Otani? And then Otani turned to a second interpreter. It was like, what did he say? And then heard it for the truth. So they're playing it like this dude was like fake interpreting for Otani. But doesn't Otani speak Spanish?

I don't know about Otanis. I thought that would came out like maybe like very casually he does. It was a story of like a batter and player saying, no, he speaks Spanish to me when I'm the bass pass. And everyone was like, whoa, this dude can do it all. So maybe just very like casually hello on the base pass. stuff. And also a video of him talking with all of his ex-teammates on the angels and all laughing and chummy. And that's, yeah, I mean, he's not there. That's, it's kind of been, since Iechero and a lot of guys, they, they just want to make sure they're covered talking to the media because it's another

language. So the story that, like, it took another interpreter, like, you know, other people can have conversations with him. It's not like he's, uh, right, no, mute to everyone besides but that's how they're painting it that this dude was a master criminal this whole conversation hasn't really been a joy mode um but you probably need to get your joy mode on baseball's here treb would be talking about some high tea stuff um promo code baseball remember that when we get there but here's the deal the issue with the over-the-counter erection pills contain unregulated chemical unsafe doses include the risk of several other health problems. That's why we are partnered with Joy Mode,

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Solved naturally. Ooh. Right? Right. Speaking of. So Tony's going to talk today. I'm guessing it's going to be a lot of no comments because his lawyers are involved and MLB said they're investigating the matter now.

So he's not going to be able to talk much, but he's just going to be like this is a very unfortunate situation. I'm saddened. Where was Ipe's lawyer? Ipe's text message exchange is, uh, it's not, it's crazy to read. Buster only retweeted. you. Yeah. I mean, you know, you walk around MLB clubhouses and talk to people in the media, and there's a lot of people asking more questions than just like accepting what we know at face value.

Because you can't really just accept what they're saying at face value. There's so many questions that come from what's being told to us. Yeah. And I don't know. As we obviously, we try to be silly where we can. And I don't know, a lot of this turns into actual reporting or reporting on reports. just really sad. I mean, Ipe was like a dude. It was like silly Ipe. He was the catcher during the home run derby for Otani. He was kind of the guy that was always with him. And I don't know.

Like every team's translator kind of has a sweet spot. You know, Marlon for the Yankees. We got to hang out with him at spring training. He's an awesome dude. It was a Franco for the Braves. Yes. He ended up getting some big time. shine and he was really nice to us at spring training a couple years ago.

You know, these guys are part of the crew. They're on the team. Yeah. You know? He basically was his like the suckerfish on the whale. Oh. Turns out he was a parasite. Could be.

And yeah, I don't know. It's funny, I'm reading articles now trying to get more of the background because it, hey, I'm not sure how you fully get in the translator game. Like, I want to do this now. I believe like Franco from the Brave. We met him and he was really nice. He was a different job. Right.

And then I think the Marlon with the Yankees was the same thing. Yeah, my understanding is Marlon was, you know, we know the Yankees the best. I believe I've heard he was like any other analytics or baseball ops gig, forget exactly what. And like, well, he's bilingual. So. Yeah, I think he worked a different job and then they needed one. And I'm, I'm interested to see because like we talked about with Okajima, you know, those reports are getting kind of miffed or debunk.

But he supposedly worked with. other like ML, like he worked with supposedly Chris Martin when Chris Martin pitched overseas, the stud reliever for the socks. Yeah, that is like, and apparently, apparently he met Otani in 2013 or something, might be getting that wrong, in Japan first when he was working with American players there. And that's how they met. But I don't, I have no idea now. Like, you know, because like the Red Sox came out and we're like, yo, this dude didn't

work for us. And the college came out like, we got no records of this dude. So. It's wild. I mean, you know, with his time on the Angels, Joe Madden has a, Ipe plays a crucial role.

He manages to convey every nuance. So I know how Shoay is feeling about things. I don't know. These guys were supposedly thick as thieves. And that's... And to send $5 million over a wire transfer, there's a lot of security, questions and matters and pings and stuff.

And they're going to, they're saying, well, they haven't said this yet, but I'm guessing this is what they're going to say. It may be true or may not. Is that, yeah, O'Tani did help him wire them, but he told O'Tani it was for something else. He told O'Tonni was to cover personal loans or personal debt. And that's why it said loan on the wire transfer.

And he didn't tell O'Tani was for an illegal. gambling and that's where the the theft came in. Like not that he got into his bank accounts and did this because he had access. Because that's hard to believe. Especially somebody with as much money as Otani had, like there's probably a whole team at a firm that's like just focused on his finances. Or it's just eBay. That like monitor his books at any one transaction that big you get a call at least the next day.

asking like that was you right yeah uh yeah the the text exchange with ipe and tisha thompson the reporter first broke the stories it's wild i don't know why i kept texting said uh when did otani become aware of the situation he responded they told me i can't answer anything otani's representatives are they representing you no so he's not being represented by Otani's counsel. Are you taking any form of payment to tell me these things? No. Have you made any kind of agreement to say these things?

No. You're doing this of your own volition and free will. Yes. Did you bet on baseball? No. Did you lie to Shohei? Yes. Did he ever purposely misinform Otani while interpreting the issues the reporter is asking about?

No. I have never done that. was the I'm I'm ready for all the punishment yeah that was a tough I believe he said I'm ready to accept all consequences yes this was all on me Otani had no idea that was the next day the first day he came out and said you know Tani knew he paid off he was being a friend and helping me because they were covering my debts that was Tuesday and then Wednesday Otani's lawyers were like dude no he's a liar and then I peake came out said everything I said was a lie this was all me Otani knew nothing I'm ready to face all consequences. And I don't, again, tolling the line between serious and silly, we were having some chuckles over, I'm ready to accept all the consequences?

Yeah, the exact quote is, obviously this is all my fault, everything I've done. I'm ready to face all the consequences. We're a couple days removed from 90-minute discussion from Ipe. Actually, hold up, wipe all that from the record to Ipe then saying I'm ready for all the consequences like I don't know I again not a lawyer but that feels like something you're not supposed to say going in into it until you're like

in the court of law and playing guilty uh I don't know it it seems like the two the two most obvious things and I don't know how you put them on your pie chart or your percentages but hey this was all Ipe. Ipe operated. He got too deep in this stuff. This is stuff people get too deep in. You hear about it all the time. And Ipe kept digging a hole, thought it would get better. It got worse.

Some lying to Otani and we got here. The other side of it is, I don't know, maybe this was just straight Otani. We know a lot of the, a lot of very famous athletes. It's a mix of being competitive and being wealthy. Michael Jordan, like the, you know, one of the most famous gamblers in our country. Charles Barkley is, like, still celebrated as one of the more, like, delightful people the U.S. has to offer is a known big-time gambler. So, I don't know, that Shohay could have a huge part in this.

The fact that they were just going through the illegal California casino rather than another casino, I don't know if that's laziness or there's something strategic there that we're going to, find out during the legal process or if it's just dumb but um i don't know super interested to see otani's presser today because like he pays his guy just otani just perfect english is he just devastated because either way this is one of his best friends right this is a guy he's spent almost every day with for the past seemed unfazed eight years that clip of him laughing with all the the dodgers what do you think they're talking about yeah angels So yeah.

I'm guessing his press conference is going to be a little bit of nothing through another translator. We're wearing an IPE wig. You've been commenting on Ipe's hair. A lot of people have. It's bizarre. Comment below if you're in or out on Ipe's hair. Please.

You could. One detail is all his Dodgers teammates or Angels teammates said he didn't even watch sports. So they don't think it was him. Yeah. I mean, it's, there's so many, we won't even tinfoil hat for you, but if you want, Sho Hay's wife announcement was one of the weirdest things I've ever seen. I've never seen anyone announce they have a wife like that before.

I just have not. I've seen, I'm pretty active on social media. I've never seen that. The dog being named Decoy, if you really want to get into theories, what's that all about? I don't know. I don't know. It's also once you start getting into something like this, you start digging and digging and hoping you find other weird stuff.

But I don't know. Weird off season. Not even Tinfoil Hatting. They said he's not interested in other sports. His wife is a rather famous basketball player in Japan. She's a normal. And he called her a normal Japanese woman. Normal Japanese woman.

He didn't want to put her on. Didn't want to put her on social media, which we were all like, okay, respect. Yeah, respect the privacy. But then. those Korea games She was Taylor Swift treatment A lot of cut scenes

So I was odd I don't know I don't know what you want to do with that But yeah We'll keep you updated I guess That we will Moving on next Some topics around

Around the league Some quick hitters if you will The Mets signed J.D. Martinez A couple days ago a while ago But we haven't talked about it on this program Yeah One year, $12 million deal. Get this, though.

The Mets will only pay $4.5 million of the salary this year. The remaining $7.5 million will be paid in a 1.5 million installments between 2034 and 238. So he gets paid this year, 4.5 mil. And then there's a 10-year gap where he's not being paid. And then he gets a seven and a half million or one and a half million a year for 10 years. Or for seven years, whatever the hell it is. Four years. I don't know, man.

Again, I never thought I'd see myself in, well, and I don't see myself in J.D. Martinez's financial situation. But everything everyone tells you, if you're getting that kind of money, is get it in now because you make that money work for you and you get more money. Um, whatever. It used to be comical to me when I was in, like, high school or college because I was like, well, this is beautiful. What a good safety net if you lose all your money. Like, J.D. Martinez, well, I guess, you know, unless he's got his translator stealing his money.

Like, I don't know. Whatever. I'm over that part. I'm more into the baseball part of it. And, Jim, I know you really like Jady Martinez's quotes. Uh, this was supposed to be one of the landing starts, spots for Jady Martinez, all off season, like Mets were rumored. By the way, makes their lineup pretty fun.

Nimmo, Linder, Alonzo, McNeil, Starling Marte, Jady Martinez. Like, that's, you know, you can go six, seven guys deep there. And then if you have, if Alvarez full-on clicks this year, Bader's a solid platoon guy. Zach Short made the team like we told you. I like the fit. It could be a punchy fun squad. You know, Mets with expectations scare you?

Mets without expectations. It's kind of scare you. other way. Get gritty in Queens, baby. Trevor's flushings. So yeah, I like that. And if the Mets season doesn't go, I don't know, if they're not competing, man, J.D. Martinez at the trade deadline, one-year deal where he's getting paid this weird fake contract, he should be on every team's radar. If the Mets are keeping the deferments to themselves, going to be a pretty reasonable number for whoever wants them.

Why not? The deferments are for the Mets will pay the deferments I mean they'd have to arrange that in any trade I assume But I would guess as part of any trade I would guess depending on the team I don't know if there's rules around it I know because Scherzer got traded with some deferments And the Nats still paid for it

So I don't know if everything's negotiable Or if you put deferments in a deal You're locked into those But Someone's got to pay them someone's on the hook for those and I would assume an acquiring team would make sure the Mets are. Maybe not. They're not like insane.

So, yeah, it helps them stay under the tax. I got a one year, 12 million deal without any deferred money would have come in at 13.2 because they get taxed on surplus because they're over the threshold and luxury taxes. But because the net present value of Martinez's deal will land on. under $9 million because it's getting paid out in future money. So inflation, deflation. That's funny. So you're like deflating the money in a way instead of because of inflation. So then it just lands at $9 million.

So his luxury tax, it is literally just under $9 million, $8.966 million. And Mets, I think if you're having yourselves a good season, this move, just prepare that. They're not adding more salary in the off, in the trade deadline. Like they are at the threshold and they're doing crazy shit like this to be there. They could dump a ton, but it would only be like remain, like it would have to be trading guys with more years. But yeah, so I, that's crazy, weird situation of avoiding the tax. But he said he wanted to go, he got a bigger offer from the Giants,

but had good quotes or fun quotes about how he wants to be in baseball for a while. and not just have a bad year and be out. And he said, if I'm being quite honest, it's not the best hit-hitter-friendly park for me. If I go there and I hit 260 with 20, people are going to say I'm old and I'm washed up and I'm kind of done and I'll find myself out of the game. I wanted to give myself the best opportunity.

It's nothing against the Giants organization at all. I just wanted to give myself the best opportunity to continue my career in baseball and keep playing. San Fran. They don't like that. They're out on him now. is a tough ballpark to hit in, especially when you go the other way there. City field is not like that.

Most fields aren't. That's one of the big ones. So. I love that. Yeah, it's nice to hear just flat out honesty. So I do like that. I'm a free agent. I'm trying to have the best year I can so I can continue to play baseball.

If I go to San Francisco, I mean, it's a great point. Like, JD Martinez is 36. He turns 37 in August. if he goes to San Francisco and the numbers go down, everything goes down. If he can run back what he just did, he had an 893 OPS last year. So I don't know.

If you're a Giants fan, that's a bit of a bummer again. Yeah. Jorge Saler doesn't care. And we looked up his home runs. He hits it out anywhere. Because JD goes to right center a lot. Inside out.

People were talking about this because, like, on paper, City Field is just as bad, if not the same as Oracle when it comes to Park Factor. Like on the whole they measure about equally. But for for home runs to right center where, and he does say that, I go Apo. He would have had 39 last year if all of his games were played at City Field. And if all of his games were played at Oracle, is that what's called? I think so.

So it would have been 24. A 15 homer swim. Pretty significant. Yeah. Yeah. Of course, there's road games and stuff. So. Yes, yes.

But still, but it's cool. The pure number there is interesting. It's cool to have insight like that. Uh, into why a decision is made. Mets be fun. I'm going to trade everyone. Yeah.

Severino throwing hard. Mania. And this also, so the, the, The Mets that got affected by this, JD Stewart was on. DJ Stewart.

J.D. DJ. It was like, you know, their DH. Now, he does break camp with the team, but that's because J.D. Martinez is starting in the minor leagues to get built up. So Zach Short and J.D. Martina, J.D. Stewart make the team. DJ Stewart. That's crazy. Tripped me up.

DJ Stewart make the team. One of them, push is going to come to shed for someone when Martinez up. Now they could have injury and then stay around. There's time for stuff. to happen. Time for stuff to happen. But Jimenez-Joy. And they could still make, like, a waiver claim on somebody or, you know, there's free agents

they might want them. They had other vets. They had Jimenez-Coy and Vientos got sent down. Iglesias. Iglesias. Oh, the hecklese. Well, if you're into legal sports gambling, go to the Draft King's sports book, fans are head into the ballpark.

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21 and over, age varies by jurisdiction. Void in Ontario. Bonus bets expire 168 hours after issuance. See dkng.com slash B-Ball for eligibility and deposit restrictions, terms, and responsible gaming resources. A couple other, I know you're pretty hype about the Zeke Tovar extension. Michael Lorenzen also got signed, which I think a guy who was an all-star last year, I know that means some different things, but an MLB pitcher,

the fact that he signed and we still have Monty Lumen. Oh, yeah, and Monty, you know, was it a Hayman retreat? He's getting hot. Was it a Hayman treat? I hope it was. Michael Lorenzen goes to the Texas Rangers. What was it, four and a half mill? So not really.

I don't know where people thought that landing price was going to be. I think he's probably still going to get built up and end up joining the team in a little bit. But he's off the table if your team was looking at him. And now it's Monty season. still rolling. Yeah, I'm trying to find the most recent update because it was like, it was like his market is heating up. There's four teams in a bid to get them

and they're all like long-term deals or something, something like that. And I don't know if it was a Heyman tweet, but I'm guessing. You almost started going into your, we're having a big party and you're all invited, that's the, yeah, that's how. That's kind of what it sounded like. Yeah, that's, I believe how Heyman tweets about free agents.

Damn, he's out there a lot. He's tweeting a lot. But it was the Yankees, the Phillies. Red Sox still involved? I think they were listed. Yeah, I wish I could find it. But I can't. But I can't.

There's got to be like somewhere that's got the most recent one. I want to tell people the teams that were listed. Nightingale? Okay, maybe it was Bowden. Southwell's Camp has two long-term offers on the table and that he could sign somewhere as soon as this week. It's unclear which teams have made an offer to Montgomery at this point, though he's connected to the Yankees and Red Sox in recent weeks.

And one club, it appears, is not among the teams to have made an offer for Montgomery is Philadelphia. Okay, so not Philadelphia. Glad I didn't get that wrong. And they're saying long term. Which always kind of made sense for Monty. I mean, peaking, innings. Wait, hold on.

What's this mean? Signing a multi-year pack could certainly make some sense for Montgomery as a Southpah was ineligible to receive a qualifying offer this winter. So he didn't? He was traded at the deadline. Oh, so then he's inel. So he doesn't have it attached to him. Correct. Oh, I didn't realize that.

Yeah. When you're traded at deadline, you can't get it. You're ineligible. Why? It'd be, there's different reasons for it. It's kind of a win for player. Oh, because. So teams trading for guys can't do that.

Because teams would... Yeah, yeah, because teams not in the hunt for the playoffs would just trade for a dude so they could offer him the qualifying and maybe get him at a different rate. Okay. That's weird. I didn't think about that.

Okay, so cool. So it doesn't have that attached to him. So he should go. Where's he going, Jim? I don't know. Yankees are Red Sox. But he should take a long... term deal. He should take like

five years even if it's less like money than he thought he was going to get and deserves and all that like get whatever the biggest deal is Monty. He might get like five years 120 or something like that if this is the market and he wants

length and I think if he wants length it's going to be lower than that I was going to do 5100 but then I felt bad yeah because I just think his agent is going to want it higher and where the numbers are coming. I was going to throw like $590 out there. It just feels like the market's changed.

With an opt-out, depends. Does he want that? He is a lefty pitcher that is going to give you innings. And in theory, he just got better. Yeah. Maybe he would want that. This might be the best. He might be improving.

He's learned stuff the last year and a half or so. He started throwing harder. But he's not pitching in games right now, so he's not going to be, like, ready for her. Opening day or, you know, he might even have a bad couple of months. Like, that's what happened in 2019 or 18 when everyone got delayed. So we'll see. But that is your, uh, it's your show.

Thanks for tuning in. Appreciate you. Baseball is coming. We'll be live streaming opening day. Jam baseball YouTube channel. Check it out. Do na, nah, nah,

Trevor. Jishol. Gazz Chisham.