Talkin' Baseball (MLB Podcast) - Winners & Losers of the MLB Offseason | 595

Episode Date: January 25, 2023

Jomboy, Talkin' Jake, & Trevor Plouffe give their biggest winners and losers of the offseason (so far!)Get 20% Off and Free Shipping with the code TALKIN at https://www.manscaped.comGambling Problem? Call 877-8-HOPENY/text HOPENY (467369) (NY),If you or someone you know has a gambling problem, crisis counseling and referral services can be accessed by calling 1-800-GAMBLER (1-800-426-2537) (CO/IL/IN/LA/MD/MI/NJ/PA/TN/WV/WY), 1-800-NEXT STEP (AZ), 1-800-522-4700 (KS/NH), 888-789-7777/visit ccpg.org (CT), 1-800-BETS OFF (IA), visit OPGR.org (OR), or 1-888-532-3500 (VA).21+ (18+ NH/WY). Physically present in AZ/CO/CT/IL/IN/IA/KS/LA(select parishes)/MD/MI/NJ/NY/PA/TN/VA/WV/WY only. Void in OH/ONT. Eligibility restrictions apply.Timestamps:0:00 Intro3:30 Los Angeles Angels11:15 Chicago White Sox17:00 Boston Red Sox23:55 SF Giants & LA Dodgers32:10 Winners32:30 Minnesota Twins41:10 Philadelphia Phillies45:30 New York Mets50:30 Texas Rangers54:15 Houston Astros & Toronto Blue Jays56:45 One Final Loser 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 off season is pretty much over. It's time to figure out which teams won and which teams lost the off season. And is winning the off season good? Wow. Turn in to our test off. Hello and welcome to talking baseball. It is episode 595, January 25th.

Jake's here. I'm here. Trev's here. B.B.D. With a loud shirt behind the dish. And we are recapping a little. Little bit of the MLB off season. Winners, losers. Get ready to be mad and have strong opinions.

I disagree. They'll say. No way. Wrong. Trev, how are you? Similar sweatshirts. I feel like we're wearing. Super cool sweatshirt you're wearing, James.

You look great BBD. That shirt looks like you just had sex last night. And Jake, you look like a low level, very low level investment banker. Thank you. Promise I did. Maybe you're going for an internship at Enterprise, like an interview. Enterprise is a good one, James. Just slapped that logo on there.

You know what? I'm okay with people coming at us this episode because this is going to tug on the heartstrings. Many people in the offseason are optimistic when they shouldn't be optimistic because it's the off season. That's what it's for. Everyone has the goal of making the playoffs, save what? about five teams.

Five teams know that's just not going to happen. Maybe a little bit more than that. But I'm excited to talk about it a little bit. We've kind of like peruse these moves. And now that the offseason is almost over, we can kind of take a bigger look at the landscape here. Who won the off season last year? Like who is the big talking?

Was it the Blue Jays? I mean, a team you might hear a little bit about the Texas Rangers. They signed Simian and Seeger, but everyone knew like it wasn't for that year everyone it wasn't for 2020 I think I can know it's like oh they'll be a little better but you gotta see what they do next off season we might get into them I don't know who you guys got

2022 Mets that was the first Marte Scherzer oh yeah yeah let's see who else is up there Detroit Erod Javi Bias they didn't win no that wasn't it was a positive off season for

them. No one thought they were like winning, like they weren't the team number one. Is it? Well, you know, the Braves at the end. I'm looking for the Braves of the end. There's one team that's like they. Team that became like a contender. Consensus number one became a contender to got all the guys.

It would be the mats. All right. The other thing is as Trev kind of said before the show is sometimes you, you want to say something that hasn't been said a ton. And if we all go that route, we might leave out some obvious choices because we all want to have a little more of a. an interesting thing, which is tough for, you know, the social media graphic that people just see. But hopefully we don't, we'll have to say like, you know, general consensus,

this team, but we all said these three instead. If that happens, just letting the audience know. I have a lukewarm team. Nice. Yeah, I got a team. So I put five down on my winners because we're all going to have different. So if you guys take one, then I have to go somewhere else. I put three on my losers. But one is kind of like, um, A half and half. So I don't know. I'm interested to see where you guys land and all that. What's a loser you've got?

I can't just leak answers. I thought we're starting. Well, I'll let Trev go first because I said, like, I got extras. Super mid-Trever. What do you got? Trev, who lost the off season? Nice. This is it.

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Yeah. Details. I'm out. I was started to be like an ironic joke making fun of them and then it just became I said it. I'm going further. So I'm out. Dem tales. Details.

Trevor. Trevor. Announce your loser. Ruin someone's day. I want to announce my lukewarm pick first. Well, what if that's one of our losers? Almost not the game.

Yeah, you can't do that because it might be one of our losers. So you have to announce. Or winners. With authority. a team you think lost the offsys. Do you not want to go first? Do you guys want me to go first? I'm the guy that hates every team.

The Angels lost the off season. Oh, that's what I was going to say. That was my lukewarm team. Luke warm. They have one more year of Shohei Otani, a generational, now we're talking. Decade talent.

One more year guaranteed. Well, yeah, I meant 100 centuries. Yeah. Talent. And they should be going all in to support him. Yes. You have Mike Trout.

Yes. Later in season. And they should be going. All in. Improved show. Hey, hey, dude, not only do we want you back. We want to win with you right now. We're going to go all in. They got a bunch of reclamation projects that they hope stick, who did have great years, and they hope stay. And like, Drury, so happy for that dude that he got a contract and he got picked up off his good work. Tyler Anderson, happy for him too. But they're not sure things. They're, you're banking on someone else like, you know,

finished a project. And then they're handing it to you and you say, okay, you just keep this running. The angels can't just keep things running. And I think they are, they were the easy losers. You have show Hey Otani for one year guaranteed. You need to at least show him that you're going to go all in. And look how much money was spent. And instead it was like, are we going to sell the team? Are we not going to sell the team? No, we love baseball. Okay, well, then go support your players. So I think the angels were the easiest loser for me of the offseason. The reason I say to, Luke Warmers. I actually like the moves that they made. I know that's not big splashy moves. They've tried that before going out and signing, you know,

big name free agents. It just, it hasn't really worked for them. And I don't know exactly what the recipe is for them to just come in and automatically be a contender. Like, it's really, there is no recipe for that. You could go out, what, they were going to sign a shortstop? Like bringing Dansby? Was that going to be enough for Otani? I don't think anything they could have, I don't think anything they could have done, James, was in the keep Otani there. That's my personal opinion. The reason I like the move.

So that's even more, though. Even more so, go try and be a legit contender in your last year with Otani. I think they know they're not going to resign him. But then set yourself up for years to come. Go get Roton for five years. Go get, like, even there's. Rodon's a little unfair. We've heard he won it.

Yeah, I know. He wanted to sign with like an actual contender and stuff like that. The real reason they're losers is because everyone thought Artie Moreno was selling a team. And all of a sudden, he's like, nah. Yeah, no, I spent the opposite season not going and acquiring, like, you know, high in talent in a year where every team with money acquired high on talent. So I like their moves. I understand what you're saying. It's not enough to show, show, hey, hey, this is what we're trying to do to keep you there.

But I don't think anything is going to keep this guy there. So if you're just looking at baseball specific moves, I like their moves. I think the reason they're losers is the Ardi Marino factor. Because every single Angels fan that I follow on Twitter or that I know personally is, fucking pissed. And they talk about it's not it's not just about you know them not making the playoffs in the last eight years. It's about you know the land deal like the shady deals with the the mayor of Anaheim, you know, all sorts of. I can point to my guy four or five back here and some of the stuff that's gone on in the organization under Artie Moreno's tenure. So like there's

a lot of things that have happened that are negative and they thought they were going to get a new owner and people are seeing Steve Cohen in New York and they're saying we want one of those. And it could have been a Steve Bomber or the dude that owns the Warriors. They said there was some dude from China that was going to buy the team. I'm assuming all three of those guys. I know Steve Bomber has massive pockets. And they wanted that. They haven't done anything in January.

They made all their moves before Christmas, and they haven't done anything since. And, yeah, I sell the team. And then that fell through. And then they just kept going. I don't know. Brett Phillips patrolling the outfield late in the inning. signed January 9th, Jim.

No, man, it's tough. I mean, Tyler Anderson, I told you guys roster resource they went to projections for this year instead of last year's stats. Tyler Anderson, who, again, would be a tough guy to project because he clearly had a breakthrough season with the Dodgers, a team that has a program of, you know, players making the turn or taking a step. Tyler Anderson's projections this year, which, again, tough to quantify, but 31 starts a 4-4 ERA.

He's there, too. So, yeah, man, the Angels. Will Draft Kings have this Angels team projected higher than last year's Angel team? Did they, like, even get better in sports books? I would have to remember what they were projected for last year. People thought they were going to be decent. I don't know. It's tough because the other thing that makes them a loser is the Texas Rangers.

I don't know if we'll talk about them in a little bit. And the Mariners. And the Astros. Well, yeah, you have, obviously. That's the biggest problem in the room. Like, you know, you can, I love the vision of sports and baseball, and if a couple things go wrong with the Mariners, the Rangers have nothing promised.

Houston is promised. Like, they're going to be there, and those other teams are going to get you that, yeah, I think a good news for John Boy Media, we're going to have a pretty good clickbait trade deadline because the Angels, I don't think they're going to be in it. Last year of the Angels over under was 83.5. And all three of you were over.

Oh, we bought in a little bit, huh? My halos. We like to convince ourselves of the angels from time to time, just because of the shiny objects, they dangle in front of our face. How much could this off-season have moved them up, if anything at all? The 85, I might be lower this year. Yeah, I can't imagine the line.

That line is going to get higher than that, right? Yeah, no. So even if you like the moves, I don't think they're... They underperformed last year should be the same. Same line. Yeah. Yeah, we'll find out soon. All right.

Jake, Trev, which wants to go now? I need a loser. I've got a loser. Do you go? Okay. My loser of this offseason and some recent developments tie into it. Chicago White Sox. Yeah, I had him on my boy.

My goodness. Tref, you're so. You're the worst. What do you say? He just took mine. Loser. We've offered you to go twice. Yeah.

Let's start. I'm optimistic. We'll build ourselves up here. Johnny Quedo, who's just a bonus piece for them. But ended up being awesome for them. He's gone. Fine. Good.

AJ Pollock, Josh Harrison, veterans, whatever. Elvis Andrews ended up being really good for them down the stretch. Whatever. They signed Andrew Bent and Tendi. Okay. Great. Benny's a solid dude. I think you know what you're going to get from Benny.

they lost Jose Ibrahim. To the Houston Astros reminder, we'll get to them. Jose Abraeu, I loved it. I compliment Trev whenever I can because I got to keep him kind of perky, otherwise we lose him. Jose Abraeu has an argument to be the best player

on any baseball field he steps onto, and he's had that for about a decade. And he was that again. This White Sox team, that they made a cultural shift that they wanted to focus on batting average and get away from power. They were fifth in batting average last year. Nice.

Guys, the team was a dreadful watch all year. So they bring in Benny. They lose Jose Breu. So a team that was 18th in OPS, 22 in homers, like, that swap is tough to start.

I know they had the injury bug. Every team does. Guess what? They're going to have some injuries this year. and then Liam Hendricks, I mean, you get the update from him with the non-Hodgans lymphoma, which is just brutal,

and you know, your heart goes out, you hope for the best and all of that, and that's unfortunate. And then we get the Clevenger news yesterday, who was kind of their other free agent signing, who let's see what all comes from that. Right now we're just going off Instagram post, but looks bad.

The White Sox, they were supposed to be a team last year. Trevor Poof locked them in for the World Series. And now, as we're also talking about the teams around them in division, the Minnesota Twins have had an awesome last month that, my God, give me the twins over the White Sox. This was a White Sox team we thought was going to be in a golden, like three-year period with dominant starting pitching in a mean lineup. And now I'm over them.

Well, you're over them. And also, I think they might be over themselves. They got $120 million coming off the book if they don't pick up any of these club options. So you're looking at, they're looking at their ledger right now thinking, okay, if we don't pick up the option on Lance Lynn, on Tim Anderson, on Joe Kelly, on Deekman, we got Gialito's a free agent, Lopez is going to be a free agent. There's a lot of money coming off. And they might be at a tipping point, like, what's better for us?

Because you know how these guys think. not doing that and then trade in a lot of those guys this year. Like, dude, the White Sox, if they don't get off to a hot start, might be the wholesale team. This year's deadline team we're hoping for. I mean, that's tough. Lance Lynn on the move. They got Lance Lynn, they got Granddall,

they got Jim Anderson, Joe Kelly, Deekman, Gialito, Lopez, and then Graveman. I mean, if they are not in it, if they're way out, that's what to watch for like they might offload. Now they do have club options on those guys. So the other team would have to take that option. So there might be harder to move as well. Yeah.

Interesting. They were supposed to be good for a while. The Clevenger news, the Liam Hendricks news, obviously much different news, but it takes away from the roster. Me and my guy, Fuzzy, got invited and paid to go do content with momentum. I had to sit at a table with Bauer and Clevenger. Those pictures aren't great now, both those guys being bad guys. See this $2 bill right here?

Yeah, I see it. Many consider $2 bills to be lucky. I think the White Sox, I still believe in the White Sox. And I think they might need this $2 bill this year. I look at the roster, and I don't know if it's just me trying to save face from last year when I picked them to go to the World Series. but I still think there's massive potential on this roster in a weak division. Did Minnesota get better? Sure.

Did the Guardian surprise last year? Sure. I don't think they're that far off from competing for an AL Central Division title as currently constructed. I agree with you. They haven't had a great offseason, but they didn't really have a lot of holes to fill Ben Tendi coming in as great. They still have the pieces to do it. I just can't quit him.

I don't know what it is. Subtraction by subtraction, though. subtraction by subtraction. I was with you there on the offseason because they could have made some moves and bolstered. And, you know, they made some moves. But you're right, man. I think they did lose a little bit here in the offseason.

I still believe in them, though. Who is your... There's two off the board. Now you've got to choose a third. You should have won first, Treff. No, I'm fine. This is the one I kind of had in my mind all along. Yeah, there's one big one, I think we have to say.

another team that I'm I can buy in on because I'm so optimistic during the off season that's how I'm wired guys and I look at the lineup and I'm like you know they could they can hit a little bit and then when I get to the starting pitching it just isn't good and they didn't do a lot to bolster that

so I'm going with the Boston Red Sox. Okay, I had them on my confused team. Yeah, it's a little bit confusing because I do like some of the moves they made. I think signing Justin Turner was one of the most underrated moves of the off season. I think the Dodgers should have kept him.

I don't know if that was like what happened there. I like that move. You go out and get Yoshi. I can't wait to see this dude in the big leagues. I can't wait to see what he can do. It's difficult transition. I'm optimistic about him. You know, the lineup, they extend Devers.

That's a very positive part of the offseason. You lose out on Bogart, so those are kind of, you know, washy right there. But then you get down to the starting pitching. It's just it's not. there for me. You talk about being optimistic and thinking best case

scenario in the offseason. Chris Sale, Corey Klober, Nick Povetta, James Paxson, Garrett Whitlock. It's just not doing it for me in 2023. And I hope these guys prove you wrong because we've seen pictures, you know, at these quote unquote older ages come back

and have nice seasons a la Justin Verlander like this, Max Scherzer's up there in age. And these guys have the pedigree and the prior seasons of good ball to fall back on. But when I look at that rotation and I look at where they ended up in the ALE East last year, which is last place, I don't think they really made improvements to get out of the seller.

Like, are they going to be battling the Orioles for fourth place in the ALE East? Is that the Red Sox that we're talking about right now? I think, to me, it's just, I like some of their moves are kind of lost. I like Turner. Do enough to get out of the cellar of the AL East. Their pitching is crazy. And the fact that they bolstered up the bullpen without helping the staff is insane to me. Mondesey trade that just happened.

If that guy's healthy, I think he'll be an absolute pest in Fenway, like just like running and stealing. And you got to put the ball in play, but then I think he's good. Not great, but they need a shortstop. But where the Red Sox lose this offseat? season is in being planless, not trying to extend Zander before he becomes a free agent. And because he said he was a little open to it and they didn't even really do anything. Spending so much money on, um, what's his, uh, the Japanese player that I'm blanking.

Yoshita. Shita. Yeah, spending so much money on Yoshida when everyone was like, what? He could be good. But it just feels like they were in their own world. and then not knowing about story or having a plan where you have to the very, everything felt reactionary. Like, even the Devers contract felt reactionary to losing Zander by so much.

I felt like they got forced into that. It felt like every move the Red Sox made was like, Hime was like, oh, fuck, we got to do something. We got to do something. Who's got ideas? And then they just like did a move. And nothing felt like this was their plan and they executed their plan. So that's where I think. But they might have some talent and they might win some games.

I don't know. I don't like the rotation either. I feel like Yoshi was part of the plan. And let's see who he is. Let's see who he is. I have no idea. But the problem is the Bogarts, I think they got completely blindsided. I think the new CBA, the Padres, I think they, you know, it's hard to anticipate

that. But that's also, that's kind of why you get paid the big bucks to be doing that gig, right? So their lineup in Fenway Park and when the summer gets going, you can believe in that. but you're right. I mean, I just, I mean, Sale, Kluber, Paxton, the question's there. I mean, Whitlock, as much as I like him as a young pitcher, to be able to put it as a starter for a full year. I mean, that's a really tough ask for any pitcher in the world. And then it's to our guy, full pension Piv, who he's projected to have a 471 ERA this year. So it feels like they added bullpen help this year, which we've been asking the Red Sox to do for a while now.

And yeah, Heim, you know, coming over from the Ray's family, it almost feels like an old school raised team where if you looked at this pitching staff for the raise, you'd be like, okay, like these guys could give you five innings, and then if we get it to that Ray's bullpen, they tried to get to the bullpen this year. I don't love it as much as an old race team, and I don't love the starting pitching.

And like you said, Triv, they were last last year. So, yeah, man, that's a, I was sniffing it a little bit, bit after last All-Star break. This, it's got potential to go up in big flames this year. I don't know, Boston, first or last, baby. They made a lot of moves. That's the thing. So, like, when teams do that, most of the time, like, hey, great job.

You really, you know, made a concerted effort to improve your roster. You bring in the bullpen help, which I think is good. I think Jansen and Martin are going to be good back there. You get Joliet Rodriguez. and then that's not good. The lineup, the lineup

you can dream upon. With Trevor's story at shortstop and kind of like a bounce back year, then you're like, okay, I think that news really hurt them as well.

You got Kike slotted in and shortstop right now. Maybe Alberto Mondesie sneaks over there. They just required him from the Royals. So, like,

I think they're figuring that whole thing out. And I just think about 162 games against a lot of them against A.L. East foes who were just going to come in and I feel like they're just going to feast on that pitching staff.

Who had a 93 ERA plus. They were bottom of the, not bottom of the barrel, but bottom third in the league last year in pitching. And it just doesn't seem like it's going to get better to me. Only other thing in my head right now is if you think about win streaks, because we talk about players and offense, you know, they're out there every day.

So if you got a good lineup, good offense, it's, to get a good win streak, you need efforts from your stuff. starting pitcher. And I'm just picturing being an opposing team. And if you see Klobber, Povetta, Paxton, like, if I'm a bat on the twins or whatever team I'm on, I'm, you know, I'm hoping to have a big boy series. Like that, that feels like it lines up good for me. And it also feels like you could, you could have a series busted instantly, where if one of those guys gets popped in 3.1 innings, now you're burning bullpen.

That has carryovers to the next series. It's, it's a scary formula. The other team that I don't know, I just throwing out there, I saw on a lot of lists we didn't say was the San Francisco Giants. They were trying to go get Judge Correa spent a lot of their offseason courting these guys to get big contracts and weren't, they lost Judge. They weren't able to renegotiate with Correa if they wanted to, to a lesser, like, would they have wanted him for what the twins got him for? Probably if they handled everything got handled differently.

maybe that is a possibility, or maybe you needed two teams to publicly pass on you to then get down to that level. I don't know. But they did make moves, but in an off-season where fans were thinking they were going to jump, they didn't really take that big of a leap. But they did add some people that I think will help them.

They got Manea and Stripling. They got Webb and Cobb. So their rotation can still be pretty good. But the offense is, it's an odd. lineup. They signed this on Confordo. They signed Mitch Hanager. They brought in some people, but you're right.

I mean, the original Correa news kind of hurt their, you know, the perception of their off-season. And then it kind of got like, okay, like maybe they were rights. But yeah, you're right. They missed out on Judge. And now they have an aging roster, a farm system that I don't think is elite. So, yeah, they're almost on my tier of like, where are you at? where are you at tier?

I just made that up. Nice. Or did you make that up? The expect, they definitely, their offseason fell below expectations. They went to a different plan that I don't think is awful for an off season, but expectation-wise,

I think it's funny, we all went three AL, AL teams. The American League, man, you start thinking about teams that can really make the World Series. It's, it's kind of a thin bunch right now.

The other NL team that I, I think if they weren't who they were, you could throw them out there. Would be the Dodgers, man. The Dodgers lost dudes. But they're the Dodgers. They lost Trey Turner. They lost Justin Turner.

Cody Bellinger. Tyler Anderson, who we just talked about, had an amazing year for them. I don't know. I think the parts going out are more than the parts going in, but they're also the Dodgers. So it's almost like a, eh.

Oops. I also think I wanted This is not a personal thing I wanted to put the Marlins as losers Just because I hate They're just tricking their fan base Into thinking that they don't have money Like

We we, how do we get more talent? Well, we only can spend talent to get talent Well, no, you can just spend money To get talent Like you didn't need to trade A pitcher with two years, three years of control To get a player Could have just signed players

So they're just, just playing the trickery game into this is how we have to operate and I don't I don't like that. I think the Dodgers is a fair assessment that they didn't they didn't do a ton. They didn't need to do a ton. I know the people they lost. I think they were hamstrung by the Bauer decision. And they had to wait and see how that played out. So that was something that hindered their ability to go out and get guys.

But I also think they really, really are trying to set up. up for Shoah Oton. But you better go get him then. Yeah. If you're setting up like this, you better go get him then.

I usually don't do big contracts. So I think in free agency, I think they're going to try and trade for show hey. That's why the the Angels got

Anderson. He's Dodgers like, you know, Dodgers need to make a couple players good in the first half of the season that weren't good. like Drory, like Anderson, and the Angels will be like,

yeah, we'll just keep that engine run and give us four of those. And the Angels will be like, and we want MLB ready players because we want to compete right away and they'll trade Shohei for just nothing. Like the Mooky trade and everyone would be like, that was dumb. That was dumb trade. And the Angels will be like, oh, yeah, maybe we'll sell the team. And they'll change the headline. One more team that kind of want to mention here?

Mariners, I like the two big moves they made Trading for Teosker and Colton Wong But I think their fans thought they were going to do a pretty big signing And they really didn't I like their offseason I like the moves they made But I know the Seattle fans I interact with online They are

They thought they were going to get involved And take a big step with some move And it just never happened So they're in a good spot And the guys who should get better and I like the moves they made. Teoskers awesome, but he's a one-year move. So they're a little disappointed going in,

but they have good vibes. Yeah, like Wong. I ended up, I wanted to speak on them, but I'm terrified of Mariners fans, so I just, I didn't allow myself to really. I wouldn't call them a loser loser, but they thought they were going to win. Yeah, I have them more towards winner than losers.

I like the Wong trade. I like getting better at defense up the middle. to Oscar slots in with some, some bop for them. And their staff is still good. I mean, they got Castillo. They didn't need much there. They felt like...

I never thought they were going to get a big free agent, so maybe I wasn't part of that. Where I thought the Giants were really going to do it. They felt like the Red Sox with a plan. If the market went nutty, they were like, okay, well, then we'll go to Oscar Wong. If we could get a Trey Turner for 225, we're in. But if we can't, we got other plans.

I believe, and Mariners fans, correct us because you will. Always. Like, I think they had, like, GM and ownership, like, quotes saying that they were ready to spend big this off season. They pay, and payroll wasn't. They've had some GM and ownership quotes before. Yeah, they never spend big.

They spent the most money on a position player they've ever spent. Can we, uh... Every few years, they do a big signing. Should we just... Should we just play the town? Did Nelson Cruz a few years ago? If we just play the town hall the rest of the episode, we'd do that one day? the old Mariners Town Hall.

Yeah, Kevin Mathers. Just let it ride. I would love to know what Kevin Mathers is doing. Probably golfing all the time. He's probably consulting. Golfing. He's probably consulting for companies on what not to say. And he's getting paid off of it.

Fuck that guy. I'd be my honest bet. Don't be like me. Yeah. Let's see if I can find out. All right, let's move on to the second half of the show, which is wasn't brought to you by your beardheader pro kit? My beardheader pro kit is bringing,

I might have to use it because I'm going on vacation three days, so I got to tighten up for the sun. It's going to be hot. Tight, tight. I'll be some pictures. Yeah, we'll take some pictures. Put babies and bellies. Do one picture of a real close above your face, James. I want to see how this manscape thing works on you, okay? Put another one in there. Okay. Cordless trimmer has a rotary wheel, 20 hair cutting lengths. You could get the job, you could get the bebs, you can get the ploof, or all the way down to the Storelli, the titanium coated T-blade. It's tough on hair, but smooth on your face, leading to single stroke efficiency.

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All right. Obviously, comment below all the losers that we didn't get to. We could only do three. Oakland A's. Obviously, the A's are there. I mean, someone just suggested the Cardinals, and I didn't even really think about them, but I, and I'm not, we're moving on to winners.

They had an argument for winners, I thought. Someone in the chat said, Only signing contraris. L. Yeah, kind of like, I like the Cardinals. Yeah. We wrote in an all. All-Star catcher fuck.

Well, spending on catcher, I think is not smart. So I'm not at it. I think a DH. Treb, you want to go first this time on a winner? Sure. Okay, who you got? I think you guys know who I'm going to go with. And it's not, I'm going to change up a little bit here.

I don't think that this team got significantly better from last season. I'm going to go with my Minnesota twins. I'm going to explain to you why I think they're, winners. Okay. Now, some of the moves they made, let's, let's recap. They swooped in and got Carlos Correa on what I think is a really good deal for them. I think that they saw the market. They had the relationship already, and they said, let's go get our guy. So they bring him in. You could say, well, Trev, they had him last year. Didn't really do anything. Okay. The reason I say that they're the biggest, or one of the biggest winners of the off-season, think about where the

franchise will be if Carlos Correa didn't sign back with them. We're talking about a middling team for sure for the foreseeable future. And then you have all these guys kind of, you know, ending their team control and you have to make decisions. What are we going to do? But you bring in Carlos Correa now for six years. And now it's like we're still in it. We're in the hunt. We're going to be playoff contenders for the foreseeable future. If they lose him, and he's not there. The whole mindset changes of the fan base. I'm pretty sure of the front office and the players on the field.

I mean, you're sitting there. You've got a nice group of players here. But if you lose him, it all goes back to just being maybe a 500 club. So I think signing him was huge. They bring in Christian Vasquez. Now they have the Luis a rise trade. They bring in another starting pitcher. And now you can kind of look at their starting pitching and say,

you know, there's not a lot, there's not like aces. Potentially there could be with Joe Ryan, Sonny Gray can pitch like an ace, but I think he got enough good quality starting pitching there between Ober, Lopez, Ryan, Sunny Gray, a couple guys coming up, you know, Simeon Woods, Richardson, Louis Varland, like there's guys that they can fill the rotation with.

I like the pitching depth that they have. And then, you know what? I think Joey Gallo, I think he's going to thrive in Minnesota. I don't think he, I mean, playing in New York. It's hard. You guys always say it. You know, it's a badge of honor for you guys to say that. I think he's going to enjoy the friendly confines. I think they might hit him lead off. We'll see how that goes for him. I mean, playing in LA didn't help him. It's different. Minnesota, they love you. It's warm. It feels good. It's a good place to play. Let me finish, James. I think there are other teams that improve their roster more than the twins did. But I don't think there's a team that save the next three or four years like the twins did. If Carlos Cray is out of town, I just think the atmosphere,

I think the, you know, the zeitgeist about the team is completely different. So they save face by doing that. And I'm going to Twinsfest, so I wanted to pump it up. Nice. I do like the Twins most.

I had them on my winners list. It wasn't the top one or two, but I did have them on my list. I do like their pitching staff for the regular. season a lot if they're healthy. I think that you've got a bunch of guys that can keep you in games. And I like Vasquez pickup. I think he's a gamer of a catcher. I think he brings it every day. He's going to keep his pitchers locked in. He's going to give you clutch hits when you can

and just like good at bats, even if the result isn't great. We've seen him do that for a while now. The numbers at the end offensively might not be amazing. But the feeling he leaves you with is like, I trust him. He can get it done, which is an interesting. formula. But I do like that. Their lineup is all injury situational. Like Buxton, how many is going to play? Correa, I think he's going to be healthy, and I like that.

But you got a lot of other players here, like, I don't love that Gallo's the starting nine plan right now. And some other stuff. We'll see how that turns out. We'll see how spring training goes. We'll see what they do. They bring in Michael A. Taylor, which I think will lead to Buckson probably playing more.

games and maybe he slots in a DH a little bit more on the Taylor run around in center field. He had a really good year defensively last year so that could help. I forgot to mention him in my monologue there, but I don't know, I believe in Joy Gallo. I guess I have some guys I just can't quit.

And I think Gallo is just he has the ability there and if he's in the right situation it could click and I hope it does. If that clicks I think that they're probably favorites to win the L Central. Central. Yeah, he just needs to changes hitting approach.

There's nothing to do with fans or pressure. It's like a, sorry, I cut you off. It's just like a bugaboo of mine. It's like this guy is getting so many excuses besides the fact that, like Chris Davis, if he didn't play, if he wasn't doing what he did in Baltimore, would he have gotten this much love and support from the public? Oh, it's just so hard.

It's pressure. It's like, no, dude, you have one swing and everybody knows it. Like Chris Davis got crushed. Joey Guy was doing the same exact thing. and he's getting all this sympathy because New York's hard. So irks me. No, you don't say it like that. You guys say like New York's a tough place to play.

You don't say it like that. It is. It is a badge of honor. When you suck, it sucks to play there. When you play well, it's really, really good to play there. But that's not why he struggled. Do you have any advice for me to give to Joey? So I'm going to see him this weekend.

Develop a second swing. Like have two approaches. There's no shift now. Okay. You can hit doubles to right field now. He's fast. So he doesn't need to just uppercut everything because high fastballs.

No shift now means he doesn't have to change the approach. It's a fear that you probably should have. No shift now means he doesn't have to aim over the shallow right fielder's heads. He can just fucking smack it on a line past second base. Sunny Gray. I'm looking for comeback player of the year. Sonny Gray. teammate. People said a lot of the same stuff. One pitches, one hits, though.

Sonny Gray was really bad at home and really good on the road. I do think New York played a factor for him. It is true for some cases, but like, Gallen never changed, never tried anything. You don't have anything else on my Twinkies, Jake? You had a lot of it, Treve. I like that they've, like we talked about, have retooled their pitching over time. Um, and no, I mean, I mean, You know, if Gallo does click, it looks like a genius signing. I don't know. I wouldn't bet on it.

How about that? And then, yeah, I think what you're saying overall, and as a proud former employee of the twins, both of us, where this ship could have landed? Because remember, the twins had that, you know, we're running the A.L. Central, and then they kind of just pooped the bed and the White Sox looked like monsters.

Remember, Buxton's contract was coming up. Are they going to trade Buckson? The fact that they've locked up Buxden and Correa for the next little bit, you're right. It's changed the outlook of, we could very easily be doing a Twins P. We could have been doing a Twins PPP that would have been like, well, the twins are in full rebuild.

They're not. I mean, and like I'm saying, I'm buying their stock over White Sox stock right now, which if you told me that last year, I would have said you were nuts. So. I guess some real deal process. We're all the prospects coming too.

So this is, I think, again, oh, stop. The Twins outlook, again, I'll say it, why I picked them. If they didn't bring in Carlos Correa, we are talking about a team that is just trying to tread water for the next three or four years. And I think this makes them, it gives them the ability to make other supplemental moves that they wouldn't make if he wasn't there. I fully agree with you. I also think, like, with the Angels, we said other teams in the division got better.

With the twins, other teams, White Sox were saying, lose and, Tigers and Royals aren't winning and the Guardians are going to be there. They got better. They got better. But they're within reach. Yes. So I like to pick.

Jake, do you want to go second on your winner? I can go. Okay. I can go. I think this one, it happened early for the most part, so people moved on. And this is a front office.

A gentleman I've been kind of tougher on, but I'm starting to drink the Kool-Aid. I'm going to BPD's Philadelphia. Oh, wow. They signed Trey Turner. You know, Trey Turner on any given season has a chance to be a top 10 player. This is coming off a World Series run. And by the way, you know, they took advantage of the new Wild Card, right? Like they won, what was it, 87 games last year?

But they went to the World Series. So this could have been a team that kind of sat on their hands and said, well, we went to the World Series. Like the plan worked. they brought in Trey Turner. You know, they had some parts going in and out between, you know, our guy Gibby, Cinderguard at the trade deadline went out. They brought in Taiwan Walker. The other part that puts it over the top for me,

besides Trey Turner being a high-level elite player, and like you said with the Marlins, like, hey, that's another way to add talent. They get Trey Turner in his prime for a couple years. The Gregory Soto trade. In my core of talking about, Walking baseball, I feel like we spent how much time talking about how bad the Phillies bullpen was. It felt like a year and a half.

That was almost every episode. Now with Sir Anthony Dominguez's kind of breakout, Alvarado, they brought in Soto. Kimbril. That was a, he's kind of like an Alvarado, like a cousin. Craig Kimbril, like, in a good Phillies day, your starter can go five, and they could go, Kimbril, Soto, Sir Anthony Alvarado. You got lefties and righties. That's without mentioning Baladi and Brogden, who had been good for them.

They signed Matt Strom, which was an interesting contract, but he's out there for them. The fact that the Phillies bullpen is a strength, their lineup that had been a strength, they just casually add Trey Turner to the top of it. That's a really good offseason, and I just don't think there'd been a lot of spotlight on it. I like it. I mean, the Trey Turner deals great. Go ahead, James. No, I like it as well.

I didn't have it in my. In my top teams, I thought about the Trey Turner. I loved the ad because they were just boppers. And now you got speed and a little more chaos and defense. And then the relievers are good. I do think they're a plus offseason for sure. They got better. Yeah, I mean, Trey Turner was one of the crown jewels of the offseason

and they, coming off a World Series appearance, go in and get him. I think that's great. Because who is going to play shortstop for them? Stott, if it was. wasn't for trade turner i think that's obviously a nice little upgrade there i think taiwan walker coming in and being that rotational depth he's going to be your four that's a pretty nice four right there now you're talking about a rotation that's a strength the bullpen still scares me a little

bit like sodo like i know he's been an all start of the last couple years the underlying numbers like aren't super great but he's got stuff and maybe we maybe we tinker here and there and you know i buy in on on good arms he's got a good arm uh we'll see what kimbril can do that's another card right there. But you can look at the bullpen, you can dream upon a little bit, and I think probably going into last year, you couldn't.

So there's an improvement there. This is, I mean, a lot of these teams that we'll talk about as winners, I think Fayo told me this. I said, why does it look so easy

for some of these teams in the off season? They didn't really have massive holes here. They didn't have to plug in a ton of things. So when they do find the right puzzle piece, you know, the picture becomes clear.

I think that's kind of what happened with the Phillies. It didn't have to do a lot. I know they weren't like a great team in the regular season, but there were flashes of it. I think Trey Turner stabilized them. I think they're going to be very, very competitive in a very, very competitive division.

I looked for them to be around that like 90 win team. Get into the playoffs and anything can happen. Probably where they want to be. Tough now. I think there's two that I had. I guess I have one I like better than the other. I thought both would be mentioned for sure. The Mets.

The Mets had a fantastic offseason. They were the consensus, like, one for me. They, where the hell is this tab? They got, I like their pitching staff. They got Nimmo back at a very important, invaluable position. They went out and got, let me find it.

The Justin Verlander. they got Senga as the three. They got Kintana as the five. They got Adam out of Vino comes back or sign an extension. They brought in D-Robb. They brought in, they signed Diaz to return. So they had some key losses you're looking at it as a Mets fan. Like, fuck, Edwin Diaz, Nimmo, and DeGrom are all might not be coming back.

Now, DeGrom leaves, but they retain the other two. and then they get, like, we're talking like this year and next year, I like Verlander better. He just won the Cy Young and he just keeps going. He's also, besides the Tommy John, he's pretty healthy. Yeah, I know that Correa like might eat it up at the end,

but I love the Mets off season. They made a lot of, a lot of moves big and small. Yeah, I mean, there was a lot of people, like you said, they were leaving. They were going to have to replace a lot of that rotation with Basset, Walker, and who else left then? with de Grom.

That's a, that's a nice three right there for you that you had to replace. They did as good as you can do replace them. Bringing in Verlander, like you said and sang in Kentana. I love the Kentana move. The sneaky move for me is D-Rob. I say that every office. I'm like, go get this guy for one year, $10 million, whatever he's charging right now. Like, this is a guy that can really help you.

I think you can rely on him in some high leverage situations. He's just a really good pitcher who puts up really good numbers. One else they did that sneaky? They have Tim Locke. Castro in AAA and Terran score. So they make the postseason stolen bases are happening. One of those is coming up and grabbing some bags. Jimmy Yacobone is down in AAA.

That's just a fun name to say. I have no other thoughts. Just a fun name to say. Yeah. I played it with a Jay Akenetti. You're looking at their rotation. That might be like, oh my God. And then I like their rotation now.

It's funny. Like you're saying, the Correa thing put just a weird spin on the end. but also shouldn't matter a little bit. I guess the part that's just mental warfare for me is like, just some of these guys are old. Like I don't know. I'm sore right now.

Like I don't know. Scher, Verlander, Carasco. Kintana's the second youngest guy on the staff at 34. I don't know. Like you're saying, I mean, Justin Verlern basically has nothing on his resume that you should question it. And, you know, Adivino's a sneaky 37. D-Rob's a sneaky.

He 37. Like, I don't know. It just, it feels a little weird in my head. It's a show Walter team. But it's a Buck Showalter team. So, no, I mean, if you're a Mets fan, you were, you had to be sure you were going to lose a Nimmo or a Diaz or something like that. And at the end of the day, you lost de Grom, but you brought in the other bad dude.

Yeah. And they got McGill, Le Chessie, Jose. How do you say his name, Budo, butto in the wings that can, like, get, grab some starts? we've seen them grab starts and be good and come up. So if, you know, you need to do Phantom I.L or injuries, they have some depth there that they leaned on last year and had good outings. Other teams, if they signed a closer to what they gave Edwin Diaz, which was five years, 105 million, I believe.

I'd be like, well, you're kind of hamstringing yourself. But the bets don't, they play the game the way it's supposed to be played where they don't really care about the payroll. There's no salary cap in baseball. so you can't say that about them. They can go overpay for everyone, and it doesn't matter to them, to Steve Cohen. What do you think Steve Cohen gives,

like, his nieces and nephews for birthdays? You know, like, you have, like, my grandma sends my kids $2 bills. I don't think Steve Cohen sent $2 bills. Like, are those all hindoes? They have to be, right? He doesn't talk to his grandkids. He gives those, like,

I've never seen one, but like, those original stock things, It's like, this is one of the first of 1,000 apple stocks. Is he so rich that he sends like the worst gifts? Because there's also that aspect where he just like doesn't care. And like maybe he like sends things. The kids are like, why are you sending? Whatever his wife sends is what they get.

Maybe you, maybe when you're that rich, you go with the theme. Like every time he said something made out of wood. Like he has a woodmaking gift guy. Oh, this is a wood mailbox. Thanks. Uncle Steve sent me a present again. I don't like it. He sent me like Legos, bro?

Yeah, the Rangers, I'm surprised we didn't say them. I mean, I know that we're maybe not incredibly high in the offense, but they went out and built a rotation this offseason. You want teams to go spend money and do things and change? Like, I bet their number changed more than, like, you know, the angels that we're talking about. Like, they pick up DeGrom, they pick up Avaldi as their, you know, three or four. They pick up Heaney as their five, which I like.

You know, I don't like the angels taking an angel. Anderson as they're two. You take Heaney as they're five. That's not a bad pickup. They got Odorizzi in the trade to sub in and they have so much talent down in the minors that you could have seen them like our Yankees doing. It's like, no, we're not, we got talent coming. We don't need to add more. They're like, no, we'll do both. We'll keep our, make, not pressure to bring these young kids up, but when they're ready, they'll come up. And then, yeah, they're, they're banking on a lot of the offense to have better years in their career best or repeat career best on these younger guys. And that doesn't always work out.

But, you know, Simeon and Seeger, Lowe had a great year. But I think the Rangers are on every winner's list I've read. Built a rotation. Over the last couple off seasons, it's them and the Mets that have just completely like read. I don't even know what the word I'm looking for is. They've just, they've completely changed the franchise outlook. And like that doesn't happen too often. In baseball, it's very hard to do that.

So they're, yeah, they're winners. There's other teams for sure we could have mentioned. The Yankees, dude, you go get Aaron Judge assigned back to be great. But bringing in Carlos Rodon be part of that rotation is a massive move for them. I think they clearly were a winner in the offseason. And you can talk about a bunch of different teams. So don't get mad if we didn't mention the Padres and them going out getting Sandra Bogart.

We know there's other winners, but can't mention them all. Get mad. Yeah, I... Texas was kind of the one. I lean them over Mets a little bit, just because the Mets had so many parts going out this year that for one year,

you know, it could not look pretty. Like if DeGrom goes and wins the AELSai Young and looks like Peked de Grom and say Verlander took a baby step back, whatever that means, not that he ever has, A baby step? Baby step.

You know, you can... Come second insight. You can look at those on paper and be like, well, you know, they made their bet, draft kings, and DeGrom did it. It... What Texas Rangers feel like they're banking on that we can't believe in them is that they believe in like a... Like, kind of where I was with the Cleveland Guardians last year.

Like, I look at this roster and why didn't you add, like, one more corner outfielder or something like that, like a Mitch Hanigar or someone like that, that you're like, all right, you know, I know what I can kind of pencil that guy in for. But,

hey, if Josh Smith or Lioti Tavaris or, you know, a Zeke Duran or one of those guys, if they can be one or two of those guys from last year's Guardians team, you're kind of home because, man, when we looked at that Angels rotation

and seeing like some of the projected stats, and kind of who you think those guys are, and then you see it next to the Texas Rangers. I mean, like, give me a Valdi stock. I don't know. I think the Rangers, and obviously we all have it in the back of our head

with Simeon and Seeger to massive contracts. It feels like an accent to what this year was. They're kind of the guys for me. the Astros too another one of those teams that didn't have a lot of holes to fill you go out and get Jose I Brady to play first base for you they got what they needed

they got what they needed and bringing Michael Brantley back one through seven in this lineup is nuts then at the end you have McCormick and Maldonado which those are two up the middle positions that you if you get offense out of them

you're stoked but like you're talking Altuve Brantley Breggman Alvres of Brayu Tucker Pena good look good fucking luck this is clearly, clearly, like, the best team heading into the season. The other team I wanted to mention is the Toronto Blue Jays. I think they are the opposite of the Red Sox,

where it seemed like they very, they had a very specific plan and executed it perfectly. Obviously, I'm not within the wall, so I don't know. But they, on the outside, looked like they said, we need to get better defense. And we have some guys coming off the books that we can help. They bring in Keirmeyer to help patrols. center. They bring in Varsho on a, I like that trade for them a lot. And then they do get Bassett, who's a great key cog into their rotation, which was already good. I think the Blue Jays kind of got

what they needed to kind of sturdy up their team, give it some foundation of day and day out defense with Keirmeyer and Varshow and you're going to hit. They have a good offense. Bassett, Bassett, one of my favorite signings of the offseason, where all the kind of non-tracks landed this year and who he is. I really like that. My only hesitation before giving them like a big win, as much as I love Dalton Varsho, my short king, my former snakes, I'm worried about the adjustment period, just coming over to a new league. That's tough for any baseball player, a young player joining a new team in a new league. And he's the guy that's really been brought in to be their lefty hitter. Like, belt is in, and if he clicks like he has a couple years,

that's nice. But if our show takes some time to warm up, warm up, I feel like, although it's their strength, that lineup can be very righty heavy. And if, you know, if you've got a lead in seventh or eighth and you go to your nasty righty out of the bullpen,

it can be an easier lane for them. Yeah, but they had a really nice option. They got him for four years too. Yeah. He'll make that adjustment. As where it will land, I like it. Treb. I want to give one more loser.

Oh. Before we end this show. All right. And there's a little paragraph here that I want to read from an ESPN article that kind of like really summarizes. And I've said this on baseball today. With Cohen coming in and spending the way he's spending. And then Seidler and San Diego spending how he's spending. The losers, the biggest losers are these teams that are just sitting back on their hands and not going out and self-imposing a cap.

These owners are looking They're looking very bad to their fan bases. Let me read this thing. After decades of essentially saying we can't afford to spend that much but we also won't show you our books, trust us. Owners in this post-Cohen world now look either like,

one, they don't actually care about winning or two, they can't afford to compete financially. These guys don't want to look that way and Sidler and Cohen and whoever the hell owns the Rangers have made them look that way. So it's either going to force the hand into spending or that next CBA,

who knows what they're going to try to put in there. Because I totally agree with the first sentence here. We won't show you the books. We can't afford it. Baseball is a dying business, but you got these other guys out there just going absolutely ham. Something's missing in this equation.

I think they all look very bad. So losers just the owners? Don't you think When you're doing that? More owners look good this offseason than any offseason in the past And the ones then Three of them does make it change

Three of 30 look good That's it What do you got? Well, I mean maybe maybe four I guess I'll give the Steinbrenner some love there But I was going to say Sidelert I think the Yankees Yeah, Sidelier

The Padres. The Phillies. Sure. Middleton and the Phillies is another good one. Red Sox went out and spent money. The Giants tried to spend money. You can't be upset at the owner's wallet. You can be upset at other stuff.

We're still going five or six owners that look good. And the rest of them look very bad. Twins? Best they've ever looked. Six. Mariners gave out their biggest position player contract. That doesn't mean anything. Remember the White Sox kept doing that and we're like, how much?

Also gave out their biggest. biggest contract to a position player, I believe. But that's them trying to save face, James. They're not spending the way these other teams are and they keep saying, like, they keep staying under these tax thresholds or trying to reset and do all this stuff. I think that Seidler and San Diego specifically has really shaking up the owner's room. And going.

But they knew that was going to happen. That's our episode. Tell us everything we forgot to say. You guys know more than us about your team. so. Cubs? Confusion. I had a lot of Cubs fans say, I like the Cubs. I'm also confused and I had a lot of Cubs friends say

Jimmy doesn't always talking about we're going to be good. Jake sucks. Offseason, baby. It's a slight. And you've got Pete Kerr Armstrong in your organization. You're a winner. It's more of a thumbs up. It's not a down.

Yeah. It's up. It's just like it's kind of like you're like. For how much of him will sell you his PCA cards. At a premium. At a premium. At a pream. Yeah.

I love that. Pirates retooled. That's in the room.