Toronto Mike'd: The Official Toronto Mike Podcast - Keegan Matheson: Toronto Mike'd #689

Episode Date: July 20, 2020

Mike is joined by Milon Talsania from Fast Time as they chat with MLB.com's Keegan Matheson about the 2020 Toronto Blue Jays season live from the backyard studio.

Welcome to episode 689 of Toronto Mic'd, a weekly podcast about anything and everything. Proudly brought to you by Great Lakes Brewery, a fiercely independent craft brewery who believes in supporting communities, good times and brewing amazing beer. Palma Pasta, enjoy the taste of fresh homemade Italian pasta and entrees from Palma Pasta in Mississauga and Oakville. Garbage Day. Weekly reminders for garbage, recycling, and yard waste pickup. Visit GarbageDay.com slash Toronto Mike to sign up now. StickerU.com. Create custom stickers, labels, tattoos, and decals for your home and your business.

The Keitner Group. They love helping buyers find their dream home. Text Toronto Mike to 59559. CDN Technologies. They provide managed IT services to businesses throughout the GTA. And Pumpkins After Dark. Save 10% with the promo code Toronto Mike. I'm Mike from torontomike.com and joining me to talk Blue Jays baseball is MLB.com's Keegan Matheson.

Welcome back, Keegan. I was hoping that would be the topic. Don't bring much else. We're going to talk about Netflix series. You need to watch. I're going to talk about Netflix series. You need to watch. I have to be back, though. Was this my third time?

Just put me on the silver tier? What are your tiers there? Last time you were here was like, you came straight from spring training in 2019. Yeah, right from Montreal, those games. Oh, Montreal, right. Yes, okay, right, right. And you were representing the wonderfully independent baseball Toronto? That, right. Yes, okay, right, right. And you were representing the wonderfully independent baseball Toronto.

That's right. Every time I come here, I have a new job. People keep getting sick of me. And you were with Julia Cruz. I was. And she was helping you out with baseball Toronto. And today you visit us as a sellout. Am I allowed to call you that?

Big old sellout. A proud Nova Scotian sellout. Am I allowed to call you that? Big old sellout. A proud Nova Scotian sellout. Maybe before I introduce my esteemed co-host for this Blue Jays deep dive, is it just money? Why did you sell out? I was so proud of you in that independent venture

baseball Toronto. Talk to me. That wasn't easy. That weighed on me for a while. A lot of it, of course, people don't admit this, you know, when we ask players, why do you sign here? Why do you sign there? Of course, money matters. A lot of it for me was simplicity. I thrive on simplicity. I create enough stress by myself on the best of days, right? But being able to be now just the writer is such a relief, and it's made my life so much better.

I'm so disappointed to hear you say this. It is tough. As much as I loved doing Baseball Toronto, and it was, honest to goodness, one of the great joys of my life, the writing and the baseball part of it, loved it. Couldn't have been happier. The times where I had to step to the side or step back from that and advertise not my strong suit market myself push the brand i guess you call it

that was not my subscribers you need to be hustling exactly and you learn quickly which types of stories sell subscribers which are light and cheery stories. And you learn which types of stories lose subscribers, which are real stories. Real talk. Which is extremely interesting to me. Some of my favorite stories I wrote on the most interesting days I had at the ballpark lost me a lot of money. Wow. And it's fascinating to see that.

I assumed that going in. It kind of broke my heart when I found out it was correct. Because, you know, I will write the happy story. I'll write the story about, you know, ballplayer gets new puppy, et cetera, et cetera, whatever. Some days those are the story, but someday the story is that so-and-so popped off or somebody did something stupid and you still want to be able to write those. And, you know, that's not why it's just an interesting thing I learned along the way, but the, you know, the simplicity now of of of just writing and not worrying about the rest and I think being able to turn my mind off is a good thing you know come home from the ballpark and just sit down

have a drink breathe instead of saying well shit I should jump on again did I did I gain did I lose is the site still running is the email still running you's as if, like, let's say I was, the way I built Toronto Mike Empire here, the real talk was turning off somehow sponsors or something. And if I had to, like, suppress my inner urge to dig for that real talk and just give the people these, like, sanctioned stories, like, me and Mark Weisblatt are going to talk,

Mark Weisblatt and I, me and Mark, yeah, Mark Weisblatt and I are going to talk about this i'm no writer okay keegan don't judge me we're gonna talk about this next week but there's a number of uh major like msm publications that are reprinting like pr sanctioned and created pieces as if they wrote these pieces and stuff like like like forget the fact that if i have you on and you say, Mike, I'm not talking about, I don't know, I'm not talking about the federal government decision to kick the Jays out.

Like, I'd be like, well, I don't play that game. Which is hugely concerning for me, you know? It happens on the kind of the macro and the major level in terms of things like that. And it also happens on the micro level. You know, I work with a lot of young writers and young journalists entering sports and knowing the line between PR spin and what's true. Right. But you work for the league.

Having a BS detector is important and a thousand times more rare than you would expect. But are you allowed to do the tough stories when you work for the league? Yeah, the way that I describe it to people, for myself working at BlueJays.com, number one, I don't work for the Blue Jays, which is what most folks think, including my family and their loose understanding of what my job is up here in the city.

But the way I describe it to folks now is that it's in my job as a reporter versus maybe a columnist, which is a division that I don't think a lot of people outside of media understand, because frankly it's not that interesting. But the types of stories that I write at MLB.com, if somebody sucks, you write it. If somebody does something dumb, you write it. But I am reporting it, not offering my opinion as a columnist, for example, which frankly is where I think I should be. You know, I haven't been in this long enough to think that my opinion on that carries weight. You know, does my opinion matter?

Maybe a little bit, but give me another five, 10 years. You know, moving into my job, for example, I took this job that Gregor Chisholm used to have. Now he's at the Toronto Star as the columnist. job, for example, I took this job that Gregor Chisholm used to have. Now he's at the Toronto Stars. He's an FOTM himself now. Yeah. And he did more time in this job than me. And I think that's the proper way to do it. It's good that we have ways to get our opinions out early, but I think that learning to report and do it the hard way is important too. So it's more in the types of stories that I'm writing, analysis, reporting on news. The types of stories I'm writing are not, types of stories that I'm writing, analysis, reporting on news, the types of stories I'm writing are not, I think this player is bad because it's, he is because here's the data. Well, Keegan, I'm just glad you're writing somewhere, to be honest.

Happy to be here. Yeah, I mean, goodness, I have to recognize how privileged I am to be a baseball writer coming out of a pandemic when there was no baseball. That's a lot of luck, a lot of privilege, and those do go hand in hand. All right, you have a sip of your beverage there, and I'm going to introduce my esteemed co-host. See, I'm listening to Keegan in these headphones. Sounds amazing. Right.

Get ready for amazing, Keegan. All righty. Welcome back, Milan Telsenia. Back again by popular demand. Am I the Dan Schulman of the watch repair industry? The Dan Schulman of, oh, yeah, he was, no, he was going to be an actulman of the watch repair industry? The Dan Shulman of... He was going to be an actuary. Not a watch repairman. I get those

confused all the time. Alright, Milan. Thank you. We're going to co-host. So unlike the wrestling episode where I let you host and I was sort of just moderating or whatever. Sorry, was that the first time ever? That was probably... I think that was the first time in the history of Toronto, Mike,

I wasn't the A host. Okay. I wasn't the guy. Oh, I'm honored. You were the straw stirring that drink, okay? And you did a great job. Thank you. You did a great job.

Thank you. But this episode, I'm going to be more engaged. Quite frankly, I am a much bigger Blue Jays fan than I am a wrestling fan. But tell us about how things are going at Fast Time Watch and Jewelry Repair before we dive into the heavy hitting questions. Thanks a lot for having me on again and Keegan pleasure to meet you and thanks for being on the show

here. Things are going great. All of our stores have now reopened. We're located all across Ontario and of course we've got the big offer coming or still continuing. The Toronto Mic Offer exclusive. 50% off all watch battery installations valid at our Richmond Hill location. And for a location near you visit fast time,

watch your pair.com. Okay. Get into a little more specifics there because we, I think the Keegan Mathis and Blue Jay 2020 season set up. I think it's got going to have more appeal even than the wrestling one, I think, because this is what we do. We talk a lot of Blue Jays baseball here.

Like you're saying, basically, if you go to the Richmond Hill location and you need a new watch battery, you throw in the watch. That's it. And you guys put a brand new battery in there at half the regular price. That's it.

50, 5-0, not 1-5. That's Toronto Mike exclusive. Do you have to say anything? Or you just say, I heard you on Toronto Mike. Yeah, that's fine. Just somehow convey that you want the Toronto Mike deal. Exactly. Ask for the Keegan special.

That's it. That's it. Don't do that at most places. Don't do that at Great Lakes Brewery because... No, those keep you in one of everything. That's it. Don't do that at most places. Don't do that at Great Lakes Brewery. No, those keep you in one of everything. That's right. I think that's amazing because you told me this is the biggest discount

you've ever offered. We never do that. It's for a limited time offer only. Offer expires end of the month. Good stuff. What's the website? Give the address and the website. Yeah, sure.

So the address of Richmond Hill location is 120 Newkirk Road. We're located on Unit 6. Major intersection is Bayview and Major McKenzie in Richmond Hill. And our website is FastTimeWatchRepair.com. Awesome. And thank you for the coffee. Thank you, Great Great Lakes for the beer So Keegan's going to toggle

He's got some cold I know for a fact Like you're a big Great Lakes beer drinker That's all I drink when I have beer now I do I had a couple Great Lake Canucks Yeah the Pale Ales

We were up in the junction there It's I'm not as big a beer man as I used to be They You know As I age rapidly They don't agree with me as much as they once did. But no, whenever I do, whenever I'm out to the bar and I have a beer, it is always a Great Lakes. I'll always look for that.

Where were you in the junction? Where were, I don't know the name of the place. We were along one of those kind of sidewalk, spilling onto the street, little patios they have. I'd never been to that area of the junction, maybe around the junction much at all. I keep realizing how small my bubble in Toronto is, but no, I was up that way with my girlfriend and a couple of her friends. We found a nice place and had a couple of drinks and some food, but it was very good. Always good when there's great lakes. You're disappointing. Women listeners of Trotter Mike. Are you off the market?

Is this what we're hearing? Yes. After some initial confusion that I was with last year's co-guest. I wasn't going to bring that up. I love it. I felt you guys were very close, and then I found out I was wrong. But you do live together? Do you live together?

We do. She actually just moved out and moved in with her partner. Yeah, we lived together for a year. Oh, she just moved out and moved in with her partner yeah we lived together for a year uh at our place now yeah it's uh we i live now by just uh near trinity bellwoods uh just off of queen west there thought i saw you on cp24 that day uh oh yeah just you know you know shirtless with a beer running around in a crowd full of people just like you always do look at mike being chuck woolery-ish two minutes minutes, two seconds. I love it. But, you know, that beard is very Trinity Bellwoods, right? Like, when was your last beard trim?

Or is this the maintain? Like, all the way down? Yeah. Like, shorter than this? It's been a few years since shorter than this. It's funny, when I log in to do my credentials now for Major League Baseball games, they still have, you know,

they have an updated picture that I can click on and keep everybody away from the horror. But they still have an old picture from, gosh, 2016, when I still would have been first credentialed. And not only is it the eyes of a young man full of hope, but it's a short beard at that point. Well, I mean, what I'm mesmerized by, it's a very thick, full beard.

I'm very jealous of that. But its pigmentation is completely intact. Like, uh, cause I recently grew a little something on my chin and it was pure white. Yeah. I'm just completely jealous of that. It's reddish brown. It, uh, it, it, um, kind of softens up a bit in the summertime. That was a, uh, that was a, uh, a debate, I guess I lost, I lost with my girlfriend recently, that I was ginger. I think we agreed on a ginger beard, but it comes in like that. My mother was a redhead, so I get it in the beard at least.

It comes out a little more red, but it's, yeah, thankfully I had a lot of time to focus on that during the quarantine, just sitting there actively not shaving. Now my final Julia question, and again, you were never dating Julia, but you did cohabitate. Best friend. Best friend. And you're no longer cohabitating here. But since you built up this independent empire, this Baseball Toronto, and then you completely sold out and took the MLB gig, was there any discussion that maybe you passed the keys of the

baseball Toronto Empire to Julia and she tried to build that up? There was initially. She was still working heavily at Sportsnet at that time and she's come down from that a bit now doing some freelance writing. Just the lack of sports, I guess, is hitting us all.

There had been at the time. It's still something that I keep the domain name for and all of that. Like any good, anxious sports writer, I always have a parachute to pull, but it's still there, still something I'd like to make use of, whether it's with a young writer or working with some journalism students like I do. a young writer or working with some journalism students like I do, if there's ever a way that a platform can be beneficial, it's at least alive, kicking around.

You can bring Milan in as a writer on Baseball Channel. You'd probably give him a 100% discount on his watch battery installation. All right, I got two questions, and then Milan's got a few questions, and we're going to share the load here. Let's talk about the big news that the federal government, I guess that was on Sunday? What day is today? Okay, it was Saturday.

No, Sunday, was it? No idea anymore. I think it was yesterday. Once baseball starts. It was Saturday? Saturday afternoon. I can't. I've lost track.

Okay, so Saturday, we learned that the federal government was denying the Blue Jays' request to play the home games at the Dome. And last I checked, which was about half an hour ago, the Blue Jays were still homeless. What say you about this? What have you heard about where the Blue Jays will play home games this year? Man, it's just, well, actually on the way over here, the first part of my street car ride, and while I was at my house, we were on a Zoom call with Ross Atkins. And, you know, we're used to hearing these words when we talk about players with Ross, but it's all about options and alternatives and et cetera, et cetera, et cetera.

Yeah, the gobbledygook he does in the board games. Yes, so there are a lot of options right now for the Blue Jays. And sometimes having a lot of options is good because you have options. Sometimes it's bad because you'd rather just have a decision. And, you know, the Blue Jays need this decision soon. It's opening days in four days, home openers in eight or nine. This has to happen quickly. Right.

Now, the three different types of options, I guess. Now, number one is they just go to Buffalo. And that is a viable enough option. You know, it's not a perfect ballpark. Then you need to add some things, expand some things. But a ballpark is a ballpark at a certain point under these circumstances. Well, I mean, there's no fans, so if you have the dimensions. It's a lot about adding, you know, moving weight rooms and bullpens,

adding space to clubhouses. But you can use suites. You can use the bleachers now. It would take a lot of work they need to add lighting if you propose that in a normal year gross maybe not but the realities of this year you know you can find a way to play baseball in a triple-a park lots of people do every day and going from there the other options would be sharing a major league park with another team which would require some tinkering with a schedule, or kind of a hybrid. If they were to say, let's go to Pittsburgh and we'll play 25 of our home

games there. The five that are kind of screwy with the Pirates schedule, we'll play them in Buffalo. So none of those options are great. They've at least decided on a country to play in at this point. But surely they anticipated the possibility that they would be not allowed to play in this country i was expecting this to be more of a situation where the decision was in place uh i understand that the realities of covid numbers and trying to pull off something without a blueprint is tough because i i keep reminding myself of that you know this isn't something we do every year where a team scrambles for a home in another country. That's not normal, and I'm not used to writing the words

even federal government in a story, right? I'm used to just sitting in the toy factory covering baseball and smiling and nodding along. It's been strange but interesting. They do need this to happen soon. You know, the next couple of days would be great, but just for certainty for the players to get ahead on some construction and building and planning, because the more uncertainty there is, the more you're doing this on the fly,

players are going to be unsettled. And these guys are routine-based to the point of being extremely superstitious in some situations. So they like routine, and like any of us, if you told me or either of us, hey, go do your job in Pittsburgh, but a little bit in Buffalo, and then travel every other weekend, I'd be out of sorts.

I'd be writing bad stories. So it's easy to see how routine has value. Milan, we were talking before in the red carpet about the Travis Shaw tweet. We think that sealed the deal here. I don't know if you can pin it on a tweet, but when I saw that tweet, it was essentially like an LOL.

If you think we're going to like adhere to this quarantine beyond two weeks, like, and I don't know if I don't think the federal government had much choice. Like it was such a wildly once it's not before the tweet, but especially with the tweet, like it was so unpopular the idea that teams would just come in from tampa bay for a few days and then go like regardless of what rosie and everybody will tell you about the number of people who are actually crossing this border

every day like that's sort of almost like well you know this is something very big in public that we see and you're flaunting this in our face meanwhile you know we're we've all been living like uh you know exactly the optics of it were so tough from the start um you know just seeing a lot of people's responses and you know coming from my own angle i was through this very fortunate and privileged where it didn't really hit me or my family directly and i'm introverted and happy to stay home alone. I coasted by, frankly, pretty easily through the last four months. But to see the response from a lot of people to those Shaw tweets and tweets of other players, my opinion would be that the Shaw tweets,

I don't think were showing up on Trudeau's desk, for example, but I think they made people like me step back for a second and realize, like, whoa, you know, people are reacting to this. This helps shape my opinion and my understanding a lot more people's reaction because you're seeing a lot of Blue Jays fans just saying, listen, I mean, I haven't seen my grandmother in four months. Right. Through a window. I haven't seen my father because he is immunocompromised for months and months. And you're going to let the Tampa Bay Rays fly in and stay in a hotel and play baseball on TV?

Come on. So the optics of that are tough, and it's also a situation, I don't want to call it no win for the government, because there will be some Jays fans who would say, fantastic, good, you have my vote. But the best case scenario was that you pull it off in an anxious way.

Well, that's like there's no reward, right? Like the risk-reward, it never computed to me way. There's no reward, right? Like the risk reward. It didn't ever, never computed single other outcome is maybe someone dies. That's very difficult. Now, this is not really a baseball question. So I'm going to jump in here,

but like politically, like we saw John Tory who we, we know, and we know his history of Rogers, right? So there's already like an aura of conflict there. And then, and even the Doug Ford provincial government

was almost celebrating on like, I think it was Friday. They were almost like touting and celebrating like, we're going to let this happen. And I mean, I do Hebsey on Sports with Hebsey and we were like, who wants this? Like, who? Because there's not much economic kickback, right?

I think other than my buddy stokely my buddy stokely might benefit economically but i think we got like a handful of like local freelance people who do help put these games on tv and things but other than that small group of people i don't we can't go to the games these players can't go to your bar and like i mean i think keegan could probably shed more light on this but i think i think this decision caught the jays uh organization off guard a little bit, definitely. Yeah, I got the vibe that they were expecting this to happen, to be allowed to play in Toronto because of...

That sense of entitlement makes me angry. Number one, the early success with summer camp being allowed here, but at the same time, the approval or the support, maybe is a better word, from Tory at the municipal level and then from Ford and the government at the Ontario level, it's great. It helps. Did it matter at all? Not much. You know, that's frankly why I didn't really even touch it.

Right. Because this was always about the federal decision, you know. John Tory doesn't control the border. about the federal decision, you know? John Tory doesn't control the border. My understanding of politics is not deep running here, but I at least know that the mayor doesn't control the border. And that was the only issue throughout all of this.

But it's curious that Tory and the provincial government were so like upfront about like celebrating this news that they were allowing it. When I always felt it was a wildly unpopular decision. Like typically typically when you do that move it's to pressure the feds on something that's popular amongst your constituency but this was i think 80 or something or didn't want teams flying in and out like that from america yeah i think he's absolutely right i think it was perception optics that ultimately made the decision rather than, I think, facts. I think a couple of days ago, I would have said Buffalo was probably a no brainer. But after listening to the comments yesterday from Anthony Bass and from Teoscar Hernandez, I think a major league stadium is definitely going to be. talk about there's obviously a relationship there uh from ben sharrington and steve sanders and uh you know with mark shaparo from before but i think from a logistics point of view and this is just from a fence looking at it this whole season is being played let's face it for one reason

money money and money from it's not every season yes but money especially and it's going to be a made for tv product right and now if you have two teams sharing a stadium, and I get it, it'll be, you know, some days will be, you know, the Pirates will be out of town, that kind of a thing, but I don't think Roger Sportsnet's going to be too fond of having games at a prime time with two teams sharing a stadium in a way. But I think I saw Longley tweeted something about how there's only, like, seven shared dates or something.

But isn't the easiest thing to do for the Jays, whoever they're playing, to play at their stadium and just be the home team bat last? Right. So I know that they don't have a home. This way they still have their secondary. Yeah, there's no crowd cheering anyway. Right. They still have their setup in Buffalo for the younger players.

Milan, why aren't you? That's the answer right there. Just, yeah, just play at the visiting teams ballpark. It's not ideal because you're going to be moving around quite a bit, but yeah, if the Jays are, you know, supposed to host the Washington Nationals, they play in Washington and they bat last.

Yeah. Is that not the simplest? I know nothing simple or ideal right now. Sounds very sensible to me. I think that would be there as I Okay, what are you popping open there? I'm popping open a Monty English style bitter. Okay, give that a go. Let me hear it on the mic.

Come on, please. Let me get it right up here. I just don't want to get any spray in my beard here. All right, right. Actually, when I was out having a beer the other day, since I don't have them much anymore, I'm normally just sipping a goblet of whiskey. I was getting the beer mustache I have not dealt with in a long time. It's not the most attractive look.

It's okay. The camera's far away from you. There we go. It's okay. Enjoy. But what we just mentioned there with playing road games, I think that is what the Blue Jays, when they're weighing maybe a hybrid model, like if they were to say, can we do 25 in Pittsburgh and five in Buffalo? What they would weigh against that is just, you know, for those five games, why don't we just go to their stadium? Instead of trying to get Buffalo ready and lighting, because lighting is the big issue in Buffalo. They put in that lighting right before standards kind of ticked up towards LAD.

I don't want to go too in on that because I don't know the exact, I don't want to get an acronym wrong or something, but it was about a decade ago and they put in big lighting right before everyone else upgraded. So they were just a bit ahead of when would have been ideal. So the Blue Jays would need to not replace it, but Shapiro said supplement. So probably add in

some light posts as well. I thought we might get the day games. I miss. How big of a competitive disadvantage is this? You know, the half-class full folks said, well, you got, you know, Ryu starting can start 12 of the 60 games. And Nate Pearson and Matt Shoemaker can stay healthy for a short season. You know, that's more than half the season that you got three capable starting pitchers

that you can maybe sneak in a wild card. And now with this whole road setup, to me, seems like a major, major competitive disadvantage. Yeah, it's not good um because especially if you even though the blue jays will have a quote-unquote home you know 30 games at a new home a fake home with 30 on the quote-unquote road does that have the same wear and tear as 45 being on the road type of thing it's it's a an awkward stumbly thing to try and quantify but you know a big part of it is the routine for players, like I kind of mentioned.

Frankly, part of the home advantage here in Toronto, I think that we see home advantage more in the NBA or NHL even, where you're in a tight building and everyone's loud and it's intimidating. At a ballpark, if you're playing the Orioles on June 4th or something, your home field advantage isn't a wild crowd. It's the fact that you woke up in your own bed, made your own coffee, and you didn't really have much else to think about other than the game that night.

You know, you didn't have to find your hotel and your room and all of that stuff. So that's part of it, but a lot of that competitive disadvantage just comes in in terms of facilities, which is why they want that Major League Park. But it is a real legitimate disadvantage. Now, how much? I don't know how we can measure it. It's difficult, and a lot of it is going to be up to them. You know, do they use this as a thing that is rah-rah, let's band together, us against the world, which, I mean, whether adversity is real or you just make it up in your head, like a lot of great athletes do, whatever works for you. Or will there be players who are kind of,

woe is me, oh my gosh, another day in a hotel. It's interesting actually to see the younger guys versus the older guys. Guys coming from the minor leagues, I mean, this is still awesome. You know, talking to a couple, I mean, even their number three prospect, Simeon Woods Richardson, he's just still 19 years old. And I was talking to him for a separate story the other day, but I said, you know, how are you dealing with staying in the hotel? And I kind of said it in the tone that I've been asking a lot of 28-year-old guys

who have been around the league and lived the life. And he said, man, this is awesome, you know. I'm an only child. I'm 19 years old. I'm here in this ballpark said, man, this is awesome. I'm an only child. I'm 19 years old. I'm here in this ballpark hotel. This is fantastic. So some of the guys closer to remembering that minor league life might be a little more used to it.

Thankfully, the Jays don't have any end-of-career, real big ego players, but I think that's who this would be tough on, if they had a kind of 36-year-old superstar who's made his $200 million. Before we get to more of the actual baseball questions, who's calling the games for Sportsnet? If they made the announcement, is it still Buck?

You know what? We got this press release today, actually. Let me bring that up. This is breaking news. Because I don't think I've seen news as to like official news that it's pat tabler and buck and maybe they have dan shulman doing so i will read this just since it was a sports net release at 11 a.m so you know breaking from my email four hours ago um so let's see uh the way that they'll be doing it it says on this uh press release

is from the booth in quotation marks, will be Dan and Buck. In the studio will be Jamie Campbell with Joe Sittle, bookending each game on Blue Jay Central, it says. Remote reporting, so whether that's Zoom or at the studio, we'll see, will be Hazel with a rash, and then Pat Tabler and Justin Morneau sometimes as well. And then on radio, Benny Wags and Mike Wilner doing that. No surprise there.

But that is kind of interesting. We're going back to, yeah, it's going to be Dan and Buck, which I think most Jays fans would applaud. You look disappointed, Mike, that Greg Zahn won't be returning. Well, you know. Yeah. I will say, I recently was lucky enough to produce a I wasn't the host of this,

I was producing a very interesting conversation between Jamie Campbell and Ralph Ben-Murgy. This was just about a week ago. And I would just say with regards to Greg Zahn, that I think there was a period of time where everyone got painted with the same

brush, like not all me too crimes are equal that's all i'm gonna say like we sort of like put everybody in this one bucket like if you were flirty via email you got put in the same bucket as the guy who might be even you know sexually assaulting somebody like that's all i'll say is that we gotta we can't paint everybody with the same brush. He was before my time. No overlap with me in terms of media, so I don't know myself. He was the manalist, you know. He was.

Yeah, certainly. That doesn't age very well. I have a tendency to stray from people who make masculinity their brand. He did hit a walk-off Grand Slam on a Father's Day game that I was at with my two children. I've doubled that since, but the two children.

And I was very happy that we got to see such a nice moment. We were all there for Father's Day. Not quite John McDonnell levels, but that was the best one. Not quite, but there's only been four walk-off Grand Slams in Blue Jays history. And my son James has been at three of them. No way.

And the first one was in the 80s when he was in Field of Dreams. Not even a thought in my mind. So, yeah, I couldn't have attended that one. Impeccable timing. Yeah, he doesn't go to many games either. It's funny. We had a windy day here in the TMDS backyard studio, and I had a couple of empties, Great Lake beer empties,

and they're flying around. It's kind of fun to watch. All right, so thank you for that breaking news there on the Sportsnet. I didn't know what Pat Tabler's role was going to be this year, but there you go. Cool. Now, do you want to ask a question, Milan?

Yeah, let's get a little bit inside baseball here, Keegan. I just want to pick your brain. Lost in all this COVID hysteria is the contract status of Mark Shapiro. My understanding is that his contract runs out at the end of the year. Ross Atkins still has one year left. What, what happens now moving forward?

Isn't it a good idea to, to, you know, lock up your president before his contracts up? That's one I'll, I'll genuinely need to check on. Not, I promise you not dodging.

It's just one that I haven't checked on recently to confirm the, I, I, i swear to you i i would uh if it's something i had poked around on recently and and had on my mind i would know but uh i'd have to check on what the the remainder on their contracts is but this is the point i think for shapiro and atkins and when you say shapiro and atkins you're also talking about a umbrella of 500 front offices. Front offices are so massive now with so many job titles that I understand some of. But that group, I would argue that this is really the first year it's the team in the vision they had all along. Last year they did get there by the end, but it was kind of a scrambling, who's going to pitch today

type of deal down the stretch when you got boba shed up when you had vladdy up most of the year cavin bijou up most of the year this is what they were always working towards you know blue jays fans would have loved it got here quicker but regardless i think entering this year is when the the team is in the full image of them now they're responsible for the last few teams as well. If you're running a team, you're responsible for it. But I think this is the year that they are 100% responsible, not starting out at 90% and then 98% and 99%. This is all them.

What about Masai Ujiri? You got an update on Masai? That seems to be the guy I want to lock up. Do we have an update, Milan? I'm looking at you because I know you follow. No, he's got one more year left, as far as we know. But he's the guy, like, we need this. We need that guy here.

Is he just too good for basketball now? Like, should he be running a country, a company? I think Masai's in the driver's seat here. That's a good point. And can he run all the Toronto teams? Well, it's the whole thing, I think, with Masai is that he's looking for ownership stake. And I think that's why the Washington, I wouldn't rule that out yet with Ted Leonsis.

You're talking about someone with, you know, I think that's where he's really aiming for. He's not going to get it here. I'm supposed to get Doug Smith on this podcast in the backyard. We'll see what he says about that. But speaking of Doug Smith, because Keegan, because I know Milan was mid-sentence there, another hard-hitting question, but you've actually,

I know you have the credentials that you've been to the Dome to watch these intra-squad games. Yeah. So how are all my friends doing? Like, Longley's there. Is Laura Armstrong doing okay? Longley's there. I've seen Laura a couple of times.

Yeah, I've seen Longley a lot. We have our many Sportsnet writers and TV talents there, of course. That's been the part that I've, frankly, enjoyed the most. I'm someone who can certainly hang out at my house for four months, no problem. That's my comfort zone. That's my home field. But getting back into that routine of just waking up and finding something to eat for breakfast in your house because you've forgotten to get groceries because you've been at the ballpark all week and then

going in and hanging out with your friends and complaining about the same things and going for a drink after that that routine is you know it just makes my heart grow it's a it's so much fun to be back into that you're gonna say makes your beard grow oh you know what i handle that myself but uh but it's fun to be back. The writers I'm closest with on the beats. Yeah, who is your besties in Gregor Chisholm? Gregor from The Stars. He's a Maritimer.

And Scotty Mitchell from TSN. We spend too much time together, probably to the point of codependency at some point. Okay, tell Scotty he's never been on. He's got to make his debut. You can kick out the jams to make his debut. He would, you can kick out the jams with him too.

He would be the most stylish jam kicker on the beat. Does that mean he's picking jazz tunes? What does that mean? No, the hottest, newest hip hop songs

that I can name none of. But yeah, we spend a lot of time together. Okay, Scotty's on my hit list. I actually booked, I booked for Humble and Fred next actually booked, uh, I booked, uh, for humble and Fred next week.

This week I booked Laura. Okay. To make her humble and Fred debut. And if she fails me, Keegan, you're getting the tap next on the show. We're a, uh,

I don't know if it's something we call ourselves or that the rest of the beats started calling us, but it's a click. They call us degenerates row because we, uh, not deplorable for a long time. We sat, you know, we sit in our own row off to the side or where we cannot be, uh,

heard from in our loudness. But, uh, yeah, DGN row is a, uh, thing I missed very much and it's, uh, good for the heart. I don't know about the body. It's been interesting. It might get Keegan's a lot younger than us, but I think he's half my age. Yeah. Yeah. I think, well, you and I are the same age.

I've got the big 30 coming up in six weeks. Oh, they grow up so fast. Man, oh, man. There's been a real turnover, not to put you on the spot, Keegan, but about the whole turnover with the media. Oh, yeah. You know, we grew up with Dave Perkins and Bob Elliott and Marty York and Alistair.

Bob Elliott. Sort of all those guys, and you're seeing a real turn up of the guard. Did you say Marty York? Put a toonie in the bucket over there is that okay i'm just like i'm just thinking about the old school guys no i love those guys yeah so to speak you're fergie oliver's i know one of your favorites just like mom days that's playing out how about those blue jays oh that's jerry what was the what did he say all the time fergie was it was it how about those Jays? That's him. I don't want to confuse my Jerry with my Fergie.

There's more millennials tuning out. But remember, Griffin, he sold out. He's with the Blue Jays now. I was part of that string of sellouts. Tell us the domino again. Remind us. It's amazing how media works because it's so small. Can I guess it here quickly?

Okay. Yeah, sure, sure. So Griffin leaves the Toronto Star to become the Blue Jays PR guy. Correct. That leaves an opening at the Star, which is eventually filled by MLB.com's Gregor Chisholm. Bingo. Now there's an opening at MLB.com where baseball Toronto's Keegan Matheson can slide in. Exactly.

Seven degrees? I remember late last season I was talking to Ross, and he asked me about the job, and I said, thanks for the job, Ross. Good hire with my effort. Right. It's funny. It's funny how it works out.

If Julia took over Baseball Toronto. If only. You never know. You never know. I'm a big fan of hers. ...coverage in... She is the... one of the most talented

writers that I know and can write me under the table in five languages. Right. She's from Colombia, right? From Brazil. Close enough.

From Brazil, but... Different language, though. Just such a great writer. And, you know, the ability to have languages when you're working in baseball is such a gift something i wish she's fluent in spanish yes italian i don't know if portuguese helps you of this blue but the spanish would have one brazilian prospect but the spanish is is an incredible asset eric pardino right yeah yeah do you care

i'm serious as a media from a media perspective do you care if Vladdy ever speaks a word of English or if he just goes through a translator? No, I don't. Because I understand it from covering Edwin Encarnacion at the tail end of his career. He was comfortable to make small talk with me. Just with Bob Elliott. I would walk over and say like, hey, Edwin, do you mind if we talk for five minutes? Like we can go get the translator. And he'd say, hey, Edwin, do you mind if we talk for five minutes? Like we can go get the translator. And he'd say, okay, absolutely.

But if I am being represented in media, I want to be doing it in my natural language where I can control as much of my own message as I want. I am, I can't even say I'm fluent in English. I guess I'm fluent in Nova Scotian, I guess fluent in, you know, Nova Scotian, I guess. Yeah, maritime English. When I go back home and my speech doubles in speed and it sounds like I have a mouthful of something. But if I were speaking another language in another country, I would want to be

interviewed in English so that I could express myself clearly because it's so tricky. And also, I have an appreciation for how impossible it is to learn to speak english after you are you know not five years as an adult right yeah the i mean they're there and they're like how are you figuring that out i'm with you so many uh people raised with english can't get that figured out how many people do you know who get the wrong or the you're you're challenging the you're you're like so i I never have a problem with that. Even if he is fully comfortable and fluent in English, that's his choice.

I'll make it work on my end. Easy. Let's hear the next Milan Telsania real talk question. Yeah, just continuing on with the whole Mark Shapiro theme. Like you mentioned, this is going to be really their first season to sort of, you know, mark their stamp on it. Last year was always going to be a bit of a write-off, I think in the sense of they had a ton of payroll devoted to Russell Martin that they were paying off and Kendry's Morales and $20 million to

Troy Tulewitzki. I think half their payroll was to players that were no longer with the team. And if they can never get to that $160 million mark payroll, I mean, I think, I think a lot of exciting things can happen down the line. Are you in favor of an extension for Mark?

Like you talked about earlier about this BS detector. And I have no question about the baseball intellect of Ross and Mark. What drives me nuts a little bit is this third-year Harvard MBA speak that they do a lot of. That sort of tunes me out as a fan. There's no doubt questioning about their baseball intellect. Like I said, you look at all the executives that have learned underneath them, the Neil Huntingtons and I think Chris Antonelli in Cleveland and so many more.

But it's just this perception still with the public that Blue Jay fans have that it's not the real talk, Dakota, Toronto Mike thing, like an Alex Anthopoulos or Brian Burke with the Leafs or even a Masai with the Raptors. Yeah, that's so prevalent in baseball now. A lot of front office folks across the league, like Mark, like Ross, speak a language that just frankly is not the common baseball fan's language when you're looking at options and alternatives and the words that we all know. You know, a lot of the times we have fun with those words

and the phrases that come up a lot. And it's not an issue of what they're saying, but for a lot of fans, how they're saying it or the language involved in that that might not always be accessible to just the common, you know, Fred from Saskatoon watching the game, you know. And you see that in a lot of front offices as they get bigger and broader with more positions where it's no longer just like maybe Dombrowski when he was in Boston where it's just a GM who's making the calls.

You've got these rooms full of 20, 40, 50 people having meeting after meeting. And that is the way baseball is going. It looks a lot better when you win. I think if you win, it looks smart. If you lose, it might look irritating. So I think that wins and losses frame it well. I do think that they should have a chance to see this out now that it's all theirs. When you have some continuity in a front office, as long as there's nothing that's glaringly wrong, let them see out what they've built the start of. I think the teams really get into trouble, and this isn't just baseball, but across all sports, you really get into trouble

when you start churning and churning and churning and starting over with new visions over and over. I would much rather see one full vision than 90% of a bunch of visions, because that's when you get frustrated and that's when there's a lack of identity, I guess. And we've always been a city, I think, obsessed with our GMs. You go back from Pat Gillick to Gord Ash, to JP Ricciardi, to Alex,

and now here we are with Mark. I can name all of them since 77. You go back with the Leafs and the Raptors. It's the same thing. The city's always been obsessed, I think, with its president. Other cities aren't like that? I don't think so. I keep hearing you guys talk about how this season is the key season.

We can see what they built and how they do and everything. But I feel like, don't you have a sense that maybe this season has an asterisk next to it? Will this count like a normal season? It just feels like it's so can I say fucked up? If you lose, it doesn't count. If you win, it was more

challenging than ever. It's like you're playing with house money or whatever. And for some teams, frankly, that's a bit of a, not a dream scenario, but a flexible scenario. If you get whooped over 162, you suck. If you win a World Series over 162, you're a god. Now over 60 games, if you have high expectations and you fall flat,

you can blame it on an injury or two. If you are a underperforming team who gets hot, you can have some fun with it. I think it really is going to allow teams to frame things and really how they want it to be framed. Every team will stay from the start. You know, this is no asterisk. This is a real season. We're going after it.

And it is. It counts. They're handing out a trophy at the end. It's a Major League Baseball season. But I think at the end, you might see some creative framing from people. What does the trade deadline look like this year? Not much. Yeah, you talked about, you had an in-depth interview with Ken Giles.

I think it's tomorrow. The trade deadline. Yeah, it talked about, you had an in-depth interview with Ken Giles. I think it's tomorrow. The trade deadline. Yeah, it's going to sneak up quick. Do you see something where, and with the exception of Travis Shaw and Ken Giles, I don't really see too many veteran pieces on this team that are really going to be tradable. Really not. Guys, is there something you can see with the excess infielders? Yeah, like the major problem here is just being able to trade from your player pool.

Some teams, like the Blue Jays, have kept a couple prospects in that pool. But you're not going to trade Austin Martin. The only young guys being kept in these pools are first overall number one prospects who you want to develop. You don't have a lot of those, you know, the guys that you see in trades every single year, that 19-year-old toolsy right-handed pitcher, that 17-year-old shortstop who was signed out of Venezuela, their Dominican Republic a couple of years ago, who might be the lottery ticket in the deal. That's what makes so many of these deals work. It's very rare just to see number one prospect for a really good player, boom, pull the trigger,

it's a deal. And it's also, you'd only be looking at a month. So what's a one-month rental valued for you? One month in a season where there's still a threat that you get halfway through the playoffs and boom, there's another wave or another outbreak. There's so much uncertainty that I think teams will only really explore a deal if there's a huge need.

What it could lead to is maybe more trades like we see, let me think, I guess NBA would be a better example, where it's roster players for roster players. And that to me is really fun because I think that the common fan would be really into that. I love seeing the 17 and 18 and 19-year-old prospect dealt in a six for two package. Sure, Nerd out.

That's great. But the average fan who turns in to watch the Blue Jays and wonders why Jose is still not in right field. Right. Right. If you see a starting second baseman traded for a starting center field or something like that, that's, that's a little more fun. That's easier to digest. And maybe if we see a couple of those, it would be interesting, but I don't think we'll

see very much. So what do you see for a Ken Giles, for example? He's a free agent at the end of the season. I don't see this regime giving him a Will Smith, three years, $40 million type of deal. So are we going to lose him for nothing? That might be the likeliest outcome. Not to say it's a 99% outcome, but the Blue Jays,

let's say one month into the season, how far down do you have to be to give up six seven games and you've got to stumble to be down that far so the likeliest outcome that we're going to see is a month in maybe the Blue Jays are half game back or three and a half back something like that's more more realistic of course but you can still believe you can make a run then and the offers that they would be getting for a Ken Giles, of which I don't think there would be a ton, probably aren't going to overwhelm you.

So maybe you hang on and you take a run at it and you try, but at the same time, we've seen over and over, teams giving big deals to closers just doesn't work. You can nail it. You can get a really good guy, and I always am in favor of the player cashing in whenever possible. I wish more closers could hit the market when they were like 24, you know, when they have those years left. But every team in baseball right now, today,

they're looking at that and saying, Ken Giles, wow, 99 miles an hour, massive slider, incredible year last year, got over that elbow stuff, one of the best in baseball. The second free agency opens, they're saying, well, you're 30. There's a lot of innings on that arm. The conversation changes very rapidly from admiring to poking holes. And it depends on if you're an opponent or a buyer. It changes very quickly. So I think that'll be interesting to see what he's valued at. But man, if he pitches like he did last year,

that's sub two ERA, 14 point something strikeouts per nine dominant. And he's a guy who likes Toronto too. Frankly, he arrived here, people knew him as the guy who punched himself in the face. Let's be real. He was a hothead classic. You know, you picture those closers, Jonathan Papelbon's who are just hothead to hothead, classic. You know, you picture those closers, Jonathan Papelbonds, who are just hothead to an extreme, too much of an extreme. Right. That's the rep he showed up with, and he has calmed down. It happened last year, but he has started accepting more help with his game.

He's not that lone wolf anymore, and he's really found a comfort zone here, I think, which I'm not going to pretend that's going to tip the scales. And it rarely happens where a player is just happy somewhere and they sign there for whatever. But it might matter a little bit. Do you want to ask about another question before I thank some of the partners? One of the things that, and Keegan, maybe you can shed more light on this, it's one of my pet peeves about this organization,

is this obsession with versatility, where every prospect can play multiple positions. You're seeing it already with talk about Caban Biggio playing the outfield. You're talking already about Austin Martin, who can play the infield and the outfield. And I get he's young. But there's this obsession of trying to find that next Ben Zobrist

or Marwin Gonzalez with Shapiro and Atkins. And it drives me nuts because I still remember Edwin Encarnacion when they got him in the Scott Rowland deal. And he was a throw-in. I think Zach Wheeler was the prize prospect. And nobody remembers Zach Wheeler anymore. You know, he was E5, and then when they put him from third to first and DH,

it calmed him down a little bit, and he really produced with the bat. You look at Lourdes Gurriel last year. He had sort of the Steve Sachs, Chuck Knobloch-itis at second base until they moved him to left, and before he got hurt, and he was terrific, you know, for the short time,

you know, while he was healthy. He was fantastic. And that's my concern now. Isn't it better for, hey, Austin, you're our center fielder. This team's got a dearth of outfield. Their outfield is awful, in my opinion. And there's not too many young prospects coming up the horizon. Isn't it best to give these young players a set position?

And Vlade's the ultimate example, right? Moving him to first in DH to remove the whole stress. It's hard enough to hit in this league, and when you have the talent that you have for them to focus, that's sort of my rant. No, I think the players should be allowed to focus, and I think Vlade's a good example. I think that it would have been a mistake to waste a couple of more years

with let's see what he can do at third. He was just playing bad last year. a good example. I think that it would have been a mistake to waste a couple of more years with, let's see what he can do at third. He was just plain bad last year. He was bad at third base. I think that we too often frame it as, well, he's developing. He has the tools. Fantastic. Great. You have to do it. It's Major League Baseball. Having the tools is not enough. You have to do it. He was, by the numbers, when you look at runs above average or runs saved defensively by stat cast, he was the worst infielder in baseball last year. Negative 16 runs. And he was really bad coming in on balls. Bending over, I know he has a lot of weight, a big upper body, bending over, keeping his balance, making those plays. The fact of the matter is, he was bad. So, moving him to first base, I think is proactive.

And that's a good sign from the Blue Jays because it's showing that like, you know, let's, let's try to win a bit more this year. Let's forget about this two years down the road, seeing how a guy develops. Let's try to win some ball games finally. And that's a good sign. I think a really good sign. I would like to see that with a guy like Martin too, because there is a line and that's where you almost have to be a bit heartless as a team. I mean, you don't have to go full, you know, everybody gets a turn everywhere. But with a guy like Martin, you have to look at that and say, gosh, you're such a talent. Let's see if you can be great at one position.

Because I always have had a bit of a pet peeve with versatility for the sake of versatility. Be versatile because you're good. That's great. Like a Zobrist, somebody like that. Santiago Espanyol is a good example. He's a guy who's versatile because he's good at those positions. There's a difference between playing around the diamond and playing well. Some teams force versatility.

But I think if the Blue Jays can get a guy like Espinol, he's what they need. We talk about Biggio, Bechet, Guerrero. They need that Espinol guy who can just come in and keep that roster steady. That's so valuable. You see with the Zobrist. But having that finally allows them to, they don't need

to lean on the Joe Panics and the Eric Sogards of the world, but they can take guys like Gurriel and hopefully Martin early in his career and say, listen, you are this. Focus on it. Because I think that if Austin Martin can be a center fielder, I think that's massive. This team is dying for a long-term center field option.

You know, that was Kevin Pillar for a long time, and you wish he hit more, but still, playing that great defense was amazing. How many articles have we seen? Well, he was drafted as a third baseman, but he can also play shortstop, and with his athleticism, could play the outfield as well. No, put him in center field, because another player I see this with is

Teoscar Hernandez. This is an organization that loves his bat, obviously, but he can't play the outfield. I mean, we've seen that. That time has come. Isn't it best to maybe be our team's fourth outfielder and slash DH? I know they want to use the

DH position as sort of a revolving door giving guys a days off between Vladi and Rowdy Tellez and Ante Oscar, but I think, again, that's another one whose bat sort of stipulates that let him focus. I think if you remove that stress level of center field or right field now that they pegged him to play,

I think it would help his career and the team. I think it would. You see that really clearly with Curiel last year when he pretty much got the yips at second. You send him down to AAA, he figures out left field, and you saw him when he came back. It's hard to correlate defense to offense, but when you're confident at a position,

it's not that you can forget about it, but you can go out there and just say, okay, cool, left field, let's do it. You're not trying to focus on how am I going to F up this throw from a few feet on the diamond, right? That's a really crippling anxiety for a player. So a guy like Teoscar, number one, the organization really believes in his bat. Like they think that he could even have a bigger power outburst this year. And, gosh, when you see players even just walking around the clubhouse taking BP, he is in phenomenal shape. Like, just absolutely ripped, big arms, huge power.

So he doesn't need to swing out of his boots. Just make contact, lift the ball, he's going to hit home runs. He's also, when you measure it by stat cast, feet per second, I think he's their fastest player, which I don't think a lot of people would guess. You know, you always look for the center fielder or the shortstop or something, but Teoscar is sneaky fast. Now, of course, you see what that means. It relies a little bit on your reactions and your routes that you take in the outfield, and those have not been natural for him. So he was a guy, I even thought, you know, long-term,

if you didn't have Vladdy, do you try him someday at first base? You know, you'd love to have that speed elsewhere. You know, the only team in baseball with their fastest guy at first would be just, you know, wonderfully fitting. But I think he is a guy that you will see DH-ing quite a bit when they get another outfielder that they're confident in. So, for example, if Anthony Alford or Derek Fisher or somebody just catches fire this year,

maybe you can have them in the outfield and T. Oscar DHing. That's a lot of ifs, and they are capital, bold, italicized ifs. But I think that would be their best lineup. So, Jose Batiste is not out there anymore? No longer. He hasn't retired yet, officially. No matter how much my grandmother asks where he went, he's no longer there.

That's funny. Okay, quick pause here. Do you know the singer of this song is an FOTM? Did you know that, Malone? I believe I did, yeah. You don't sound convincing there, but it's Keith Hampshire. Okay, okay. So, you know, last year...

I was mixing him up with Dalton Pompey's dad from Electric Circus. Oh, that's, yeah, the cowboy, Kay Pompey. It's sneak peek. I guess a spoiler alert. On Thursday night, I'll be playing a song by Dalton Pompey's father on Toronto Mic. So there's a little... Wow. Little heads up.

But just a quick pause so that Keegan can see if there's any breaking news on his phone and you can catch your breath. You're doing a great job, Milan. Thanks so much. Thanks, Mike. I just want to thank some partners who helped fuel the real talk. We talked about Great Lakes Brewery. We know that Keegan's a big fan.

Delicious Fresh Craft Beer. Thank you, as always. I want to say thank you to Palma Pasta. They sent over a Are you able to carry a meat lasagna home with you on that streetcar? Always. Look at me. I just want to make sure

that you can handle the load there. So Palma Pasta, I have a lasagna in my freezer for you. So Keegan's going to take home a delicious lasagna from Palma Pasta. Thank you, Palma Pasta. Who else we got? I want to thank StickerU.com.

I'm actually wearing the StickerU t-shirt. Malang's going to get me a Fast Time t-shirt. Medium, please, sir. And I'll wear that on a future episode. StickerU.com is where you get your stickers and such. You go to, yeah, StickerU.com is where you get your stickers and such. You go to StickerU.com. Great partners. If you're looking to buy and or sell your home in the next six months,

I can't think of a better idea than contacting Austin Keitner. Austin Keitner, not Austin Martin. Austin Keitner, you text Toronto Mike to 59559. Shout out to Barb Paluskiewicz at CDN Technologies. If you have any issues with your network or your computer, any questions at all, you can call Barb right now at 905-542-0925. And it's GarbageDay.com.

Keegan, I hope you know, you got to go to GarbageDay.com slash Toronto Mike to sign up for the garbage day notifications. Take the guesswork at a curbside collections. Milan. You've done that, right? Yeah,

absolutely. Cause if you hadn't, I'm going to cut your mic. I got the mute button right here, buddy fan. And finally, this is exciting news. And I know Milan,

you got a, a young son. So this is kind of cool that, uh, Halloween's going to be different this year, as you know. There's a pandemic. Sometimes we forget that,

but it's happening. That's why we're in the backyard. But I feel like if there was no pandemic, we'd be lucky to be out here. Much better out here than in the basement, right? I dig it. I'm digging the vibe. I saw a squirrel.

I thought it was going to land on your head. It did this big jump, and he held on, and I was so happy he didn't land on your... I heard did this big jump and I was like, how's, and he held on and I was so happy. He didn't land on your. I heard a blue jay singing you mentioned, right? Robbins. Robbins had been singing.

There was a blue jay sighting back here a couple of weeks ago. But then that was Jose Batista and I found out he's not a blue jay anymore. So I don't know if it counts. But Pumpkins After Dark are going to have a drive through. Like it's a, it's a great drive-thru route in Milton. And you can get tickets now at pumpkinsafterdark.com. But if you use the promo code Toronto Mike, you save some money on that. So this is something fun you could do.

For your son, you could drive through the route. There's like thousands of sculptures illuminating the night sky. Halloween theme. Very safe because it's contactless. They scan your ticket through the window. And again, you can save a little money if you use the promo code Toronto Mike. Thank you for your patience, Milan.

I'm just looking at my notes, but did you want to hit Keegan with another... Yeah, I want to hear Keegan's thoughts. Hit me. A lot has been spoken about the Jays pitching staff, but a concern I have is the overall lineup, especially after you get past the top four, which I'm assuming right now, if healthy,

will be Bobichette, I'll say Bobigio, Bobichette, Biggio, Gurriel, and Guerrero. And then to me, the next five are sort of the same guy. The high power, predominantly right-handed hitting, low on base percentage, high strikeout kind of guy. Is this a concern? That can be, and that's kind of what they're trying to transition out of.

It's almost like the first half of the lineup is the modern one, and the second half is what they were coming out. Because the prototypical Blue Jays hitter over the last few years has been like 230 average, 299 on base, but still some power. When that works, damn, it looks cool. You've got that home run horn going, you win 8-1.

When it doesn't work, oh, it's ugly. And what I like about players like Bichette, Guerrero, Biggio, especially at the top, there's some, like, yes, they hit home runs. Yes, they're cool. Yes, they're young. But they get on base, and that allows you to be in more games. The last few years, the Blue Jays have either won or lost, and there's no in between.

And that sounds a bit stupid, but you know what I mean. There's not a lot of ninth inning, wow, one run, runner on second, because that offense was so boom or bust. That was a holdover of 2015 and 2016, frankly, where the offense was just so good that there was enough boom. When you busted, it was excusable. But once you lose Bautista to Lewicki and Carnacion, those big, huge bats in the middle of the order, that style does not work.

You need the on-base guys. So I think that the Blue Jays will continue to modernize in that direction. That's what they want. They want to get on base. They want to have speed. My goodness, this was the slowest team in baseball for a couple of years. But you see it in the bullpen, too. They have guys who throw over 93 now, which they've been dying for for a couple of years.

But suddenly you have Dolise and Giles, Romano, these bass, high-power arms. So you're seeing just, in general, more firepower, quote-unquote, added to this team. It's no longer just waiting for a big bang and waiting and waiting because even as a fan of baseball, I don't love watching those games. Once the opposing pitcher gets past the cleanup hitter, you're thinking, okay, another two innings, let's see if they hit a home run in the seventh instead. You want to have that threat every inning. I think the Blue Jays' bottom of the lineup could do some damage,

even with a guy like Danny Jansen. I think he is set up really well. Danny Jansen is not a guy you're going to hear from a lot, but he is quietly one of the heartbeats of this team. And sharp as hell, Danny Jansen is working with pitchers, but he's coming with a new offensive approach too. So maybe you see some quiet production down there, but you're right. There are so many guys like, like Gritchick, Hernandez, Shaw.

Yeah, they could break out in OPS 900, but somebody this year on every team is going to fall completely face first. Yeah. That's the nature of a 50 game season or 60 wishful thinking you're going to see somebody hit 371 something stupid there's going to be some really fun numbers this year but on every

team a guy is going to absolutely fall flat on their face that's just the nature of 60 games if we went through the Blue Jays roster last year and picked the worst 60 game stretch for everyone that'll happen for someone this year so I think the Blue Jays will need to year and picked the worst 60-game stretch for everyone, that'll happen for someone this year.

So I think the Blue Jays will need to, and every team, be proactive. You can't give a guy 30 or 40 games to figure it out. If someone's cold, find the hot hand, because this isn't a season for long-term thinking. And that's why I think this is a season for asterisks. Like this is sort of, I don't know how you can even make this the season that will define the Shapiro and Atkins.

Oh, it's true. And I think Gurriel is the key in this. And I hope he can stay healthy. I know it's only 60 games. He's day to day with another injury again. I just hope he doesn't get COVID-19. Yeah, that's a whole nother thing.

Gurriel's a guy that we don't really mention a lot in the core, but he is. You know, this guy, and he lines up with the rest. You know, his father is baseball royalty, where the Gurriels are from. And the talent he has is really incredible. You know, this guy is in great shape, has has natural power can play a decent left field you know not as elite as those diving catches would suggest last year but really some good signs that showed he can do it and after he got called up from triple a last year i think he ops almost over 900 so there you know we talk a lot when you know and i'm very guilty of this whenever

i write the young core of guerrero, Bichette, Biggio. If I had a dollar for every time I'd written that, I wouldn't have to sell it. You need to consider Gurriel in that too, because making up the top four. It's interesting why Vladi wants him in front of him too, because he thinks that pitchers

throw to Gurriel the same way they throw to him, which is, it's got to be good to be Vladi where you can say, throw that dude in front of me, but that's also a compliment to Gurriel the same way they throw to him, which is, it's got to be good to be Vladdy where you can say, throw that dude in front of me. But that's also a compliment to Gurriel. Before you agreed to fill the Gregorchism seat at MLB, did you consider taking baseball Toronto? We could put it into the TMDS umbrella. Like, I feel like we could have partnered together.

I feel like it was a missed opportunity. It is. Another life. Or, you know, another life or another layoff. We'll see. Whatever comes first. You never know in this beautiful world of sports media.

I'm not going to root for that. I'm a big Keegan fan. So we're going to hit you with some random questions, but now I need to know. So I'm going to pull this clip at the end of this short 60-game season.

I don't even... 60 games? Like, okay. Just like, okay. Well, do you want to predict win total for the Toronto Blue Jays over these 60 games? 28.

Yeah, I think 28. If they push towards, that's what I've always expected for this season, is that they would push towards 500 in a way that is a hell of a lot more exciting than last year. The end of last year was exciting. The beginning, you know, there was just, even when you look back to 2017, you know, there's just, when you're watching a team where you know a lot of the players

aren't part of the future, that's tough to stomach as a fan. You know, when you know a guy is just here for a year, ah, come on, give me the future. The end of last year was like that. You weren't a fan of the Clayton Richard era? Oh my goodness, I forgot about that. I was era? Oh, my goodness. I forgot about that. I was in the clubhouse every day, and I forgot about that. Yeah, I'll have some fun in 10 years looking back on these last couple years

of teams and thinking, that guy started? Matt Latos started a game? Yeah. Right. Yeah, this was, I think, I've always looked at this year's team as the one that will be fun to watch. Okay. There will be some days where it's bad, some days where it's real good.

But this will be the year, I think, that sets them up to be legitimate next year. Right, so next year we're a wildcard team. I think that's the competition next year. Because 28 wins in 60 games is not a wildcard team. Yeah, that puts them on the edge. That puts them playing competitive baseball. Oh, yeah, yeah. Competitive baseball down the stretch where they're not out of it three months early, right? And, you know, I'm talking about a team with a losing record and

missing the playoffs, but still as a compliment somehow. But I think that's part of that progression. You know, it was 67 wins last year. That was, you know, not as fun as it looked at the end. But I think this Blue Jays team sets themselves up well for next year and gives the front office every reason to go out and spend some cash. Do you think there'll be a lot of bargains, especially with the economics of baseball with the free agency coming up at the end? Maybe Mookie Betts won't get that $400 million deal. Maybe he's a little bit more attainable.

I feel nervous for those guys. I really do because the dollars and cents of it all, that's something I'll have a better picture of as we approach the offseason. But just from this general standpoint now, not having poked around with teams about what their payrolls will be, but after a season of 60 games with no fans, and when you don't have fans, there's not as many people buying beer and hats,

that can't help your pocketbook. And I do worry about, on the top end, guys like Betts who deserve that every penny. For sure. And then on the bottom end, with those relievers who are looking for a one-year, two-mil guaranteed, does that suddenly become a minor league offer? And that makes or breaks decades for some guys.

But believe it or not, they're still paying Troy Tulewitzki one more year this year, I think $14 or $18 million. You've got to love it. The Mets are still paying Bobby Bonilla, right? That's right, that's right. Before we get to the random questions, though, did you agree with the 28? You're not going to leave that 28?

You're playing it safe? No, I agree, I agree. Okay, I'm taking 27 then. I think moving around is definitely going to be a competitive disadvantage, though. I think that could cost them a couple of games. Easy. I'd say between 25 and 28 games. Don't cry for me, Argentina.

Okay, tell me. Let's hit them with some randos. Okay, just some randos. Mark Hepsher, Toronto Mike, and I, we do a sports media panel every couple of months that we have a lot of fun with. I've got to talk to Mark to firm this up, but we should do one at the end of July. Yeah, we talked about sort of,

we're fascinated with the whole media stuff, and I just want to talk to you about the whole Marcus Stroman, Randall Gritchuk feud. We know from years past about the whole bromance dissolving. I'm going to get to the bottom of this one day with him and Aaron Sanchez. How come the media, the mainstream, I'm going to say media, not to put you on the spot, present company excluded,

never seem to report on some of this stuff? What they were talking about would have been something... I mean, I'm in that clubhouse every day. I never saw it. With a guy like Stroman, not to paint a picture of the literal layout of the clubhouse, but there's corners and there's sides, and a lot of people stay in their corners or sides. And Stroman was certainly in a corner of his where he often stayed. That one was interesting to me because I had people tweet me with that too. Why didn't you cover this? Because it's news to me.

An internal team thing like that. Now, if I had have seen them scrap in the clubhouse, there we go. That's a story. But that was something that even talking with a couple of friends on the beat, it was kind of like, oh, really? Where's this coming from? Because a lot of it, for example, it was kind of like, oh, really? You know, where is this coming from? Because a lot of it, you know, for example, I think the one story that was tweeted about was something about, you know, Strowman clearing out a weight room or a workout room, something like that.

I'm trying to remember. Which isn't something that I would see, which, you know, we don't have access to. I mean, maybe the media should have access to some more weight rooms. I could use it, but it's nothing that I see, you know, we just see the clubhouse for our, what is it, 30 minutes pregame, and then a little bit about, you know, 10-15 minutes postgame, which is when guys are either hidden out back in the, you know, because they know when we come in, there is sometimes they're hidden out back, or they're at their lockers, they're talking with

their two or three guys who's next to them. So that was one for me. As it played out, was I surprised with the individuals involved? No. But it was legitimately news to me, you know, any of that beef. And I'm sure there's a ton more. You know, it makes you curious, you know, who likes who, who doesn't on each roster. Because, you know, we see them celebrating together and we think, yeah, here's 25 best friends achieving something fun together.

I don't know. You ask some reporters who were there before me about those playoff teams. Were they functional best friends? No. It's interesting. Gregor's alluded to it in the Star a couple of times where that 2015 team in particular was very

dysfunctional. And you look at the personalities on the team. And I love that team. From a Josh Donaldson to an R.A. Dickey, I mean, and a Bautista. You look at the personalities on that team. Those are massive personalities. Price, Tulo, just huge. Stroman, yeah. Any one of those would be the biggest personality in this clubhouse

by a million miles. Right. You know? John Gibbons does not get nearly enough credit for knowing when to just stay the hell out of the way. That's an art form. That clubhouse was, you know, again, not one that I covered or was in. But when I hear about that, I always try to use that to frame how I view these current clubhouses. From a media perspective, how did you find dealing with Marcus Stroman?

We heard the issues he had with Arash Medani, sort of isolated. I don't know if it was isolated, just from a fan's perspective. Yeah, I mean, that blow up in Boston. But here was a guy who was beloved by the fan base and then almost, to use wrestling jargon, turned heel. It was interesting to see the different versions of him, who would exist on social media,

who would exist in front of the media. You can curate your image differently based on the avenue and the medium of your message, I think is what I would say there. So I saw some different versions depending on the day, depending on the hour. That thing with Arash in Boston was, I think, just over two years ago, probably recently. That was one that I was there for, just myself and a couple of other reporters. And that's a story that I wrote, and he certainly was not happy with, but he said what he said, and he did what he did. Sometimes there are reporters there who will see, you know,

unlike the weight room or whatever happened there. You know, sometimes we do get to see the fireworks, the fun stuff. You know, his relationship with the fireworks, the fun stuff. His relationship with the media was certainly spotty, some more than others. But at the same time, I say the same thing about Jose when he was here. I overlap with him for a bit. You almost miss stepping into those scrums because you don't know what the heck's going to happen. When I step in with J.A. Happ after a start, he's going to be just a fantastic professional to the point

and, you know, tell us what happened. Same with Hyunjin Ryu now. He's just going to tell us what felt good, what felt bad. Man, when you turned on your recorder for Marcus Stroman or Jose, you had no idea what was about to happen. That's why we love the 85 teams. Exactly. Were they going to jab you?

Were they going to curse you out? That's a bit of a thrill, honestly, for me. When I talk to Hebsey, you covered those teams, right? I want to hear about, like, so tell me again what a dick Dave Steve was. Right. Damaso Garcia. How grumpy was George Bell? Right.

Right. Damaso Garcia. Right. Yeah. Right. Now it's so bland and, like, they're all media trained. It's back to the Harvard NBA. It's much more hidden, I think.

I mean, it's the question I get all the time when I'm out with a friend and they have friends and they find out my job. It's always, what's this guy like? What's this guy like? And I've learned to just let people think what they already think. Well, now you only know what they're like on Zoom, right? It's a lot easier to... It's oddly strange, yeah. Oh, but shout out to...

Well, we're not on Zoom, but we're on Periscope. And shout out to Ron who's watching us. And he just tweeted, Toronto mic outside sounds better. No idea why. I think it's because there's no walls or anything to bounce off of. Like, this is an open sky. Yeah, this is nice. A little shade, a little breeze.

Yeah, the good mics. You guys have great voices. You're right on the mics. It just, yeah, it sounds better. Great. You always sound great, though. Wow great voices. You're right on the mics. It just, it just, yeah, it sounds better. Great. You always sound great. Wow.

Wow. I'm blushing. I'm never going to record in the basement again. It can be freezing cold out here. I'm going to just put on a parka. We're doing it in the backyard, but, uh,

okay. Next Randall. Uh, Keegan, uh, obviously a lot of great documentaries during this quarantine period. The last dance. There's so many things. I just want to get your feedback

if you had a chance to catch the Roy Halliday special. Was it ESPN? Yeah. And to this day, and I guess that shed a little bit of light, I'm still surprised

that they did not go with the Jays cap. But I think now looking at it... But I already told you what happened. Right, so obviously the family is very close to the Phillies organization.

But I think it had to do with... The fact that Doc did not get a job, right? And that came from Bob Elliott, because I don't break Blue Jays stories. Bob Elliott tells me Roy wanted a job working with the pitching prospects in the Blue Jays organization, and he wanted to do it out of Florida, where he lives. And Blue Jays brass said you uh, you have to roll, I guess Pat Henkin has a similar role.

Like you have to row from Buffalo and the different minor league cities and stuff. And, uh, Roy, I guess Roy then took a similar job with the Phillies because he couldn't get one of the Blue Jays and something that transpired there seems to have resulted in a,

uh, but that was fascinating to me because you, he was here for such a long time and we had no clue. No clue. That's a side of an athlete. But no clue, oh. About his issues. About the issues with anxiety and he was such a guy who was always on top. Well, he was the guy who was out there at 5 in the

morning, right? That's right. He was like the Gary Roberts of the Toronto Blue Jays, okay? Just a health nut. His regime was so... But it just goes to show you what Keegan talked about, about the two sides and they'll, you know, some guys will just show you what they want to show you.

And, you know, as a diehard Jays fan, you know, we had no clue about this stuff. I think watching that holiday documentary and even the Michael Jordan documentary, which was so fantastic too,

you see the things that we excuse due to greatness, I think, in sports. If I went into my office and did anything like Michael Jordan did, I'm an asshole. I'm the worst person in the office. Right. Just because he is a dude who plays sports, we think, wow, it's greatness. If I went in and acted like Tom Brady or, you know, who else thrives on this type of stuff? Tiger Woods?

There's no teammates. You totally see it now, that impact of Michael Jordan and creating reasons to have haters, fake haters. If you went into your workplace and behaved like that, you are a nightmare. But since he is good at sports and wins, we chalk it up to greatness. He's achieved something higher than we mere mortals can achieve, which I really don't have much of an appetite for, frankly.

I'd rather cover a good player who I can stand. But when you look at that, and that's for Jordan specifically, then for Halliday, you see it in a bit of a different angle in terms of what he had to struggle with and do to his body to be the great player that he was. Because as sports fans, we see what we want to see. We look at Doc Halliday and say, man, here's a complete game. We look at him and see the results, not how they came to be. So I think that even if you told a lot of Blue Jays fans, even if this was more common knowledge when he was with the Blue Jays, that he was struggling, I think a lot of the reaction at the time would have been, oh, you know, just shush. Don't say that. He's a complete game. He's our ace. Because you want to keep that distance where your heroes can be your heroes, I think.

And it was very sobering to watch that documentary and see what he had gone through. And seeing Brandy speak on that was amazing to see in hindsight what he dealt with and the pain he was pitching through and just that hyper-focused drive which i think is another thing that we romanticize in sports the the drive from somebody who is so singularly focused on success and greatness that does the humanity slip out a little bit. Right. I think that's something I'm more conscious of now, especially after watching that Jordan doc and then watching the Halliday doc in a bit of a different light. You're conscious of what's going on behind the scenes.

If this guy looks invincible, why? If he looks like he's perfect and has it all together, why? I'm suspicious of everything, frankly. That's part of being a reporter. It's part of being an anxious person. When you see something that looks too good, my thought is, why isn't it? But now you really see that. Just switching gears because I'm going to be accused of making it too deep again

like last time. I just want to talk about... At least this is a real sport. That's true. It's a bit different. A couple of prospects. Keegan, get your thoughts on them. Yeah, absolutely.

As a wise person once said, you're either selling wins or you're selling hope. I just want to talk about a few prospects here. I did say that once. I think you did, yeah. Or some other people

call it prospect porn, right? One of your favorites, Alejandro Kirk. Oh, man. Built like a wine barrel. Hits everything. Such great extension with his arms. A fun player. Like, this guy is instantly going to be a fan favorite.

And let's be honest, it's because he is, what's he officially listed as? He's a short guy, built very large. Kind of that Williams-Astadillo type of body. But he makes it work. And when I say hits everything, I mean, this guy barely strikes out. He barely walks. He's just a guy who sees the ball a bit slower, makes contact all the time. So the Blue Jays, between he, Danny Jansen, Reese McGuire, Gabriel Mourinho, their number seven prospect, I believe, they have

a ton of catching depth. And catching is kind of like quarterbacks in the NFL. There's just not enough. Period. There are some catchers who are seeing Major League Time who are just struggling, but they can catch the ball so you get them in there. Now, the exciting thing about Kirk as well is that he's a legit catcher.

When you look at a body like that, the first guess you're going to have is, well, get that guy away from there. It's a legit catcher. When you look at a body like that, the first guess you're going to have is, well, get that guy away from there. It's a DH. And listen, I say this as a guy with a DH body. That's fine. You know, sometimes if you're Vladdy, you're a big guy.

That's where your power comes from. That's part of the beauty of it all. But Alejandro Kirk has good hands, and he's just, I think he's a good example of what we talk about when we call a player a natural because there's something that you just can't measure with Alejandro Kirk. I think he's a good example of what we talk about when we call a player a natural, because there's something that you just can't measure with Alejandro Kirk. You know, he's, you know, you're going to hear talk about the body being an issue. You're going to hear talk about, you know, how does he get reps as a catcher on this team? But a guy like that finds a way,

and he is a natural baseball player who sees the game just a half a millisecond slower. You know, the contact that he makes, how he extends his arms, you know, a couple of the balls he's hit have been outside off the plate, and he extends out to get it right on the barrel of the bat, and there it goes. He is fascinating to watch, and seeing him hit, his plate approach, is just a model for what you wouldn't want from a prospect. When do you think Blue Jay fans can expect to see him? approach is just a model for what you wouldn't want from a prospect when do you think blue jay fans can expect to see him oh maybe at some point next year this would require you know again it's going to be talk again until this is all sorted out will the blue jays trade one of their young catchers that's going to be the talk moreno as well wire jansen that's going to be a big topic

because that's the kind of the wealth of their value right now. That's where they have the most depth. But I think he's going to hit his way and force his way in maybe as early as next year. Terrific. You had a great piece over the weekend on Simeon Woods Richardson. Yeah. When can Jay Spence? Man, 19 years old.

When they got him from the Mets last year in that Stroman deal, they sent him to Class A high Dunedin, which was way above what I expected. That was aggressive, aggressive, aggressive. And he just shoved there. He was so good. And I asked him how he did it, and he said, I'm just used to being the young guy. He's an only child.

He was always the young guy in every clubhouse and incredibly mature. You hear it in his voice. You see it in his pitching. And, you know, I'm hesitant to really pump up a guy as a person in really in all areas of sports because you see too often you do it and then you learn the truth. But just from a maturity standpoint, so impressive talking to this guy. When I was 19, goodness gracious, it wouldn't have been nearly that close. But he's just so sure of himself

and so understanding of the opportunity that he has right now. Like he is able to balance out the two different sides. One being, holy crap, I'm 19. I'm out here with Hunjin Ryu and Ken Giles. I'm facing big leaguers. This is crazy. But also, listen, I need to learn. I need to show up.

I need to figure out how these guys work. When the Stroman trade was made, there was a lot of fuss made over, you know, these guys aren't even top 100 and they're not top 50. What I was told over and over and over again was wait on Simeon Woods Richardson. And now he is very much on the radar. It was just a few months away the Blue Jays got in early uh not necessarily by a low teams are smart they know the Mets knew Woods Richardson was good they just wanted Stroman um this guy is legit you know number three prospect once Nate Pearson makes his debut Woods Richardson is suddenly maybe their top pitching prospect and I think he's a guy who could move quickly,

not just because he's good, but because there's a good head there. And frankly, that's what makes Pearson so good, is he throws the hell out of that baseball, but he's smart, and he knows what he's doing. Tons of young guys throw the baseball hard. That doesn't matter as much as you think, but having a good head and knowing what to do with it,

that's when you become a prospect. Milano, I'm just warning you, we get it. Rapid fire, the hot stuff you got left on that cheat sheet there. Yeah, for sure. And, you know, it's so hard to talk about these young prospects because today's, you know, hot shot is, you know, yesterday or Marty Jansen. You're thinking of Eddie Zosky. Eddie, Sylvester, I can't be sad. I'm still waiting for him to be the shortstop of the future.

Yeah, but remember Marty Jansen who came over in the David Cohn trade. I remember he was supposed to be the shortstop of the future yeah but remember Marty Jansen who came over in the David Cohn trade I remember he was supposed to be the second coming oh there's a lot of those guys

you're right and you look at all the guys Alex traded during the 2015 trade off how many of them have really from your Jeff Hoffman's

to your you know just one Viking guy in the Mets yeah that hurt Noah hurts a guy who we've kind of forgotten about one of Mike's favorites, Elvis Luciano.

Elvis Luciano, yeah. An amazing young kid and, I mean, forced into a position last year that was equal parts an amazing opportunity for him and kind of unfair. He's the Rule 5 guy, right? Yeah. They kept him for the whole season. It was tough. You have to, right?

Or you risk losing him. That's the deal, right? A couple years ago, yeah. Was George Bell a Rule 5 guy? He was a Rule 5 guy, wasn't he? Manuel Lee was. Not George Bell. No, I don't think so. But with Elvis, just a kid who, when you make a

pick like that, you're believing in the kid as much as the player because you're throwing a 19 year old kid into a major league clubhouse and that lifestyle for the entire year. That is a big ask, and that's a lot of temptation, and that can get dangerous with the wrong guy. Luciano handled it so well.

I asked Ross Atkins about him late last year, and he said the moment he knew it would work was when he saw Elvis Luciano standing outside their complex in Dunedin, waiting for a drive home one day. Ross pulled up, asked him to get in. Ross speaks fluent Spanish. Got in, and they were talking, and the entire way home, Elvis didn't realize that Ross was the GM.

He had just seen him around the stadium, and he thought, okay, you're a staffer, maybe a club employee of some sort, but sure, thanks for the ride. And that was a rare opportunity for Ross, because normally, if you're talking to the boss, you're, oh, yes, sir. You put on your best face. I'm quite happy to be here. But, you know, Ross said that he could tell from that moment that this was a kid just focused on the baseball of it all, you know, not getting lost in the bright light.

He could have said, hey, man, where do I score some good weed? Yeah, exactly. Exactly. It's dangerous. You could have said, hey, man, where do I score some good weed at? Yeah, exactly. Exactly. And I got to interrupt really quickly here to just say that originally signed by the Philadelphia Phillies in 1978, George Bell was selected by the Toronto Blue Jays in the 1980 Rule 5 draft. Wow. There you go. Your credentials have just been... I'm out. I'm out.

What's your final question before I compliment Keegan Beard a little further? My famous two-part question. I don't know if that counts, but go ahead. No problem. Tony Fernandez. Oh, yes. One of our favorites. Yes.

Keegan, did you ever get a chance to meet him? I know he wasn't there, wasn't playing anymore. No. I believe at an alumni event or two uh kind of cross paths but uh i remember being down in dunedin the day that fernandez died and just talking to former players also we had we had buck martinez there with us as well who who had uh you know managed tony broadcast him been around him so much but just hearing the appreciation for other players from other players sorry about his game was so fascinating.

Over four different stints in Toronto, and I'm not someone who by any means grew up covering him, not even close, but I grew up trying to make crazy cross-body throws in the backyard. You better believe it. The flip. I screwed up every one. But it's so rare to see in baseball a player who has a signature play. You can see it in basketball.

You have the James Harden stepping back for a three. You can see it in hockey with Ovechkin setting up on the top of the circle. But baseball doesn't really lend itself as much to signature plays necessarily. It's not like one guy always hits home runs off the foul pole or something. It doesn't lend itself to that. But Fernandez's cross-body throw, moving away from the bag and just floating across the diamond was a trademark and such a gorgeous trademark as well.

And, you know, how he is considered by former teammates and players is one thing. How he is considered by former Latin teammates and players is incredible to listen to. Among so many of those young guys who came up watching him and idolizing him, great baseball players are held up at a level in the Dominican Republic. You're looking at Puerto Rico, Venezuela down through there, held up at a level that I don't think we can understand here in Canada, the United States. Those great baseball players mean so much,

and they really do come to transcend their own sport when you're a guy like Tony Fernandez. Terrific. Love Tony. Absolutely. That's a great way to end it, I guess. If I could hit the right button there, that would be the great way to end it. We were almost perfect.

I feel like Dave Steed. Almost perfect. Although eventually. Kevin Bolin. Who was, okay, Jim Clancy. I remember once listening to a game, Tom and Jerry. Jim Clancy had two outs in the bottom of the. Yeah, Minnesota Twins.

And it was Bush. Something, Jeff Bush. Was there a Jeff Bush? I remember the guy's last name was Bush. Right. Because I was like waking up in the middle of the night haunted by this Bush bloop single that broke up Diamond Gyms. Oh, I forgot.

No, no. Anyway, there were a bunch of those in that time. There was. And at the time, you know, we're so young and we think a no-hitter is like this. Imagine you could see a no-hitter. We haven't had one on our side for a long time. Like anything close. We've only had one ever, right?

Well, anything close even, I'm saying. A long time. When was our last? There's been Paxton and Verlander. Brandon Morrow? No, that was a one-hitter, I think. I remember the Morrow. Yeah, that was right.

That was close. But that's a long time ago now. That's what I mean. Yeah, it was like at least 10 years ago. Yeah. Maybe more? I don't know, man. I do know, just like James Harden, Keegan Matheson has a great beard.

And he's just a great baseball mind. And I'm so glad you got the gig I busted your chops off the top you did sell out but I can't blame you for that you live in one of the most expensive cities in the world and you don't have to worry about hustling for a subscription you got a good thing going there

thanks so much for making the time and visiting the backyard studio that was awesome always happy to number 4 next time will do. Absolutely. And you, Milan. I was lucky number seven today.

Okay, you're getting up there. I owe you a jacket, I think. Keegan gets a jacket next time, I think. But thanks for coming this way, Milan. Hey, thanks a lot, Mike, for having me. Anyone who's got a watch that needs a battery. Or any other repair. Or any other repair.

Jewelry as well. Watch and jewelry repair. Okay, so go to the Richmond Hill location. You can see Milan there and you get the 50% discount on the watch battery installation. And that brings us to the end of our 689th show.

Outside, beautiful weather. Not like the last time I recorded out here on Thursday when it was pouring rain. This was gorgeous. This was awesome. I thoroughly enjoyed it. You're all set for the 2020 Blue Jays season, which might have an asterisk beside it. We'll see. But I'm

on Twitter at Toronto Mike. Keegan is at Keegan Matheson. He's a good follow. Milan is at Fast Time WJR. That stands for Watch and Jewelry Repair. Milan is at Fast Time WJR. That stands for Watch and Jewelry Repair. Our friends at Great Lakes Brewery are at Great Lakes Beer.

Palma Pasta is at Palma Pasta. Sticker U is at Sticker U. The Keitner Group are at The Keitner Group. Pumpkins After Dark are at Pumpkins Dark. CDN Technologies are at CDN Technologies. And Garbage Day are at GarbageDay.com slash Toronto Mike.

See you all next week. This podcast has been produced by TMDS and accelerated by Rome Phone. Rome Phone brings you the most reliable virtual phone service to run your business and protect your home number from unwanted calls. Visit RomePhone.ca to get started.