Patrick Mooney, Blake Mitchell & Rational Yankees fan; Padres hire Craig Stammen | Foul Territory

Patrick Mooney, Blake Mitchell & Rational Yankees fan; Padres hire Craig Stammen | Foul Territory

Couple [Music] [Applause] [Music] crazy things from earlier today before we dive into some breaking news. I hosted fair territory today with Ken Rosenthal. It was a blast. I got to do my first ever dude and dork of the week. Who did you choose? Dude was Kirby Yates. Okay. Dork was Jim Murray. Both very very deserving of their awards. Um, but two things that stood out from that. One is it’s just weird. We were doing five intriguing teams to follow this off seasonason. We’re talking Padres’s and then I looked out on my phone because Grill and Ken was going to be next. So, I was starting to look to see what Grill and Ken questions there were. And then it was like breaking Padres’s higher Craig Steam. And I was like, that’s weird. And number two, this is for AJ. Ken at the top of the show called me emperor and wanted you to know that. He was like, I’m on with the emperor of foul territory. The emperor. That was the word he used. I was like, hey, I like to try and be humble, so I’m not going to use that, but I will use that just in my later show. and he said, “Please do.” Now, Ken must be really looking for a leader. He’s really searching far and wide for a leader for him. Oh, wow. Yeah. Emperor. Wow. Ken, Ken, you need to quit texting me. I told him to come up with better name for you and something for you maybe by the next time we have him, which I believe is tomorrow. Oh, tomorrow. Yeah, he can come up with something for me tomorrow. It’ll be easy for him to come up with something tomorrow because he won’t have a response. You’ll have to wait till Monday. So anyway, yeah, off seasonason means a little more back and forth. Just wait till he gets to Orlando for the winter meetings. I’m gonna pick him up and put him in my pocket and carry him around for a few days. We need to He will be my number two. Yes. At some point we need to talk about winter meetings like a guide to Orlando for everybody coming to the winter meetings. That might be your favorite segment ever in a month. I know. But the problem is where they stay. There’s not much around there. Well, you have use your car, drive around, take an Uber. Ubers are cheaper in Orlando. You need Ubers because it’s not really around much. Okay, just for some context, since I’ve got the New York City and Orlando balance going, two blocks on any ride share service in New York is equivalent to like a 30 minute ride in Orlando. Just to give context how easy it is to grab a car and spend 20 bucks or whatever to go somewhere versus New York, two blocks traffic. You get out, you’re like, actually, I could have walked. problem is is where I think it’s JW Marriott in uh is that where it is? I think it’s at JW Mar which is one of the great hilarious things of all time about Orlando and Disney World. So Disney World has this massive property, right? Hundreds of thousands of acres. Well, there was a guy back in the day that heard that Walt Disney was going to build Disney World here and he hated Walt Disney. So he bought a bunch of acres right in the middle of his plot first and he has it where you can never build and never be sold to Disney. So, in the middle of this big gigantic expanse of Disney World, there’s a circle. It’s called Bonnet Creek and there’s like a Waldorf, there’s a JW Marriott, and there’s another hotel. And they’re not part of Disney, but they’re in the middle of Disney property, and they can’t ever be owned by Disney. It was like the biggest FU to Walt Disney of all time. He literally has this giant property in the middle with a golf course, you know, multiple hotels, all this stuff. And it’s right there in the middle. That’s where I think the winter meetings are. And then to get anywhere, you have to go out. Yeah. Out. Out. There’s a rooftop restaurant where I’ve been a couple times and everybody watches the Disney fireworks because they’ve got a prime view. Oh, yeah. I mean, it’s right. You can watch those in my backyard if you want. But they’re like right there. They’re in the property. I mean, it talk about an FU to some pe some some Yeah, that’s good. Oh, yeah. And he has it like in when he died, he had it in his will that it can never be sold to Disney ever. I mean, it’s it would be prime. It would be prime hotel property for Disney. Yeah, they would spend anything to get that back. Exactly. Wow, that’s good. All right, so we’ll do an Orlando primer at some point to talk more about everybody coming down here in a month. But let’s get to breaking news. [Applause] Craig Stamon is the next manager of the San Diego Padres’s. 41 years old, spent the last six seasons of his big league career, a long one as a reliever with the Padres’s. And this would have comes out of left field. Three-year contract with Stamon and the Padres’s. He’s been working for the team since he retired. So 2023, 24, and 25 as a special assistant to the general manager. And he worked a little bit with the major league team, a little bit with the minor league team. What do we think about this? Then we’ll get to the poo holes and anyone else that was in the running factor. But what do we think about Craig Stamon, a young Craig Stamon taking over in a big-time role like this with some big personalities in a team that is expecting to be in their winning window still. This is the new way. This is they say in the Mandalorian, another Disney reference, this is the way you get into an organization and you become a special assistant to the manager, the GM, the owner, and then when they have a job opening, they hire you because they already know you and you’ve already told them all your ideas and they’re like, “I like his idea.” And oh, if you get and then they can say, “Oh, well, I’ve heard him talk about this. I like that idea. I like this. I like that.” And then this is this is kind of the way. And then also they say, “Oh, wait. I can I already know him, so I can tell him what to do. we have the same ideas on everything and then we do, you know, this and that. So, I mean, I hope it works for the Padres’s. We’ll see. But, I don’t know. Craig Stamon has always come across as a smart guy and a nice guy, but we’ll see. I mean, he’s been there for a couple years now, so they know him better than we do, but you know, good luck. Everybody I know that played with him says, “Incredible dude.” My biggest hangup anytime a pitcher gets a managerial job. It is hard to part of probably one of the biggest things of managing a team is how you manage your bullpen. So he knows that part of it. He knows you know when guys lie, when guys don’t lie, how far to push some guys, you know, how far he could be pushed. So I think he’s got great insight on that, great experience on that. But how much does he know the other ins and outs of being in the dugout? I’m not talking about X’s and O’s of baseball. I I think you can you can learn that at the, you know, bench coach that does all that, but how much does he know the ins and outs of pushing a Manny Machado, pushing a Xander Bogarts, pulling back the reins on a Fernando Tatis. Like that’s the kind of stuff that he’s going to have to navigate. I think sometimes pitchers don’t always have the the experience, the insight. He’s been in the organization, so he knows how the organization works. Great dude. Sounds like he’s an incredible people person. But to make a political reference, back when George Bush was finding a a uh vice president, he hired Dick Cheney to be his vice president after he had hired Dick Cheney to be the person to go find him his vice president. So, is this what happened with Craig Stamon? Craig Stamon was in on all the all the managerial meetings and he’s like, “It’s pretty good. It’s pretty good.” And he just took everybody’s ideas and he’s like, “I’ll be the manager.” I just I I just I don’t know. I mean, again, this is another fascinating hire because who’s his coaches going to be? That’s what this this all comes down to with Vital Butra and now Stamman. all these guys that really have no experience ever being in the dugout of a major league. Not that Sam hasn’t been in the dugout, but I mean like running a team, not a coach. Who are they hired to help them? That that’s the biggest that’s what I want to see. Like who what’s their network like and who can they bring in that they trust to help them run the bullpen? I know Neba is probably going to stay there. So I’m assuming Sam is just going to be like, “Ruben, you run the you run the pitching staff and I’ll just take care of the other side of it.” But who’s going to be their bench coach? Who’s going to be this guy? Who’s going to be that guy? That’s the things to me that are fascinating about these hires is can it work? Absolutely. But they’ve also never had to make decisions. Do I bring in a pitcher? Do I bring in do I pinch hit? Do I do I do this? Do I do that? How do we do this? How There’s a million things that happen so fast. And I think every manager you talk to that does this for the first time is amazed by how fast the game actually goes when you’re sitting in that seat. And you better have somebody sitting next to you that one you can trust. you can have arguments with and get over with it and get over it and also know that they have your best interest and also the team’s best interest in mind because crowds I’m sure you played on teams and I’ve been around it where coaches don’t always mingle because sometimes guys have different motives and you know because they’re like oh maybe if he gets fired I can slide into that job right like so I mean there’s always there’s always ulterior motives and and that’s the thing that’s fascinating is how do you find the right guy to be by your side through thick and thin. Maybe Craig has somebody like that. Maybe. I don’t know. I I I don’t know. But I know Ryan Flareity was on that staff. I’m not sure his status now, but he’s been interviewing for some jobs. Ruben Dabula, I think, was actually in the running for this job. So, do you bring two coaches back that didn’t get the job that they wanted and now they’re just being your, you know, on your staff instead of being the head honcho? I saw I saw one time we had a bench coach and I won’t because I’m not going to throw I’d love to throw the one person under the bus, but I’m not going to throw the other guys under the bus. the bench coach and then there was like a big league coach on this team that the manager would look past the bench coach. They would all stand all three right on the rail and look past the bench coach for the other guys the other guy’s opinion on on subjects and the bench coach incredible, very talented, knew the game, all that stuff. And he just had to stand there and just it was it was so awkward. It changed the next year, but it was so awkward to to see him always like, “Hey, what do you think about this? Hey, what do you think about this?” And the bench coach was like, and anytime he spoke up, it was bad news, but it was I was It’s so awkward. So, hopefully that doesn’t happen. How do you think a recently retired player will do who has spent time now in the front office and I would assume is on the same page as AJ Prowler with this particular ball club. This is a team that expects to keep winning. It is a party. It is an awesome scene. We’ve talked about this in San Diego. They fill that place up. The fan base is ravid and they want more winning. I don’t know what they’ll do this off season yet. I don’t think they’re going to spend like crazy AJ, but this is the type of team in my mind that has some veterans who are strong personalities and I don’t want to say necessarily had a say in this, but I wouldn’t be surprised if there were conversations. Manny Machado has been there for a long time. He really likes to be involved with the leadership portion of a team. I’m assuming that he gave two thumbs up on this one. Yeah, he would have to. Mhm. He would have to. Now, did he play with Stamon there as a player when Manny got there or was he already gone? I’ll I’ll check that while you’re talking about it because Yeah. Listen, there there’s probably two people on this team you really need to get Well, there’s probably three actually. Manny, Fern, Fernando, and I would have said you Darvish, but you Darvish is out for 26. So, I would have said those are probably the three people you would have they did play together. They crossed. Okay. So, they know each other. So, they have a they have a relationship prior to this. So I I think that yeah, I think they definitely had to ask probably those three guys before they made this higher because Manny has a lot of pull. He had a lot of pull, especially with Peter Sid that was alive. He had a lot of pull. He could go to the owner and just get anything done. So I like the fact that they probably involved players. We don’t know that for sure, but it just sure seems like it was part of it. Okay, good luck to Craig. We’ll learn more about how that all went down. Next layer for the last couple minutes, Albert Poles will be shut out from a manager role. There were a ton of openings. The only one left is the Rockies as Ken said on fair territory. He does not want that. I wouldn’t call it smoke fog. Uh so he’s not going to be a manager to start 2026. He will manage the Dominican Republic team in the World Baseball Classic. But are you surprised that he didn’t get one of these? Especially after the I thought he was going to get Angels. I thought Angels was going to be the one. Right. and you just said, “Hey, work with a team.” Then they bring you on. Arty was interested, but the owner might have offered him a one-year deal or a game by also got a new GM this year. That team and Albert played for for a long time. Cardinals. Bingo. Yeah, but Yachti wants that job, too. And Oi Marmal might No, I know. Listen, I mean, Heimloom, though, is new. Olly Marmal. I love obviously I love Ollie Marvel, but new GM, new front office, new everything. Maybe Albert sits out for a year and says, “Hey, look what I did for the Dominican in the World Baseball Classic.” Much like Mark D. Rosa does all the time to that thing to try to get a job, right? Well, he has to sit out now. I know, but but I’m just saying he sits out and he says, “Oh, I really wanted to go to St. Louis the whole time, you know?” I don’t know. But like I I thought he was going to get the I thought he was going to get the Angels job. Everyone was saying that he was going to get the Angels. Yeah. And he didn’t. Kratz, question for you on Pooh Holes. Do you think that he should spend this season on a major league coaching staff? I don’t know if he will. He does some TB work. He’s doing the DRW WBC and it gets complicated. He shouldn’t be worried about money, but he’d probably have to give up the one million bucks for a, you know, $150,000 coaching contract instead. Should be no big deal if the long-term goal is manager. I’m just saying the Angels do have that situation by the balls to some extent. But if you were him and you really want to manage, shouldn’t he try to link up with a team this year? It might be too late because most of the coaching staffs have been picked. But your thoughts? 100%. I think he went through all the I think he went You have to interview first. My buddies who have become managers are like look the interview process is different like it’s long. It’s not like oh I can’t handle it but it’s exhausting because it’s just you know they put a situation the lineup what the record of the team is at the time and then a situation that happens in the clubhouse and then you know this is going on during the game. How would you handle this and you have like an hour to figure it out. It’s like basically taking tests. Now he’s gone through that. to me, whatever reason he didn’t get the job, like if it’s with the Angels, he didn’t get the job because he was like, “No, you’re still going to pay me my million dollars that I would have gotten and you’re going to pay me like a regular manager.” You know, maybe he isn’t that far off of being a manager. If the other teams are like, “Eh, you know, we’re we’re going to go in another direction. It’s not me, it’s you kind of thing.” He needs to work on that kind of stuff. And I never being a manager but only talking to my buddies who have managed and are working towards being managers. Being on the bench matters so much. It matters to your street cred with players. It matters to how you figure out I mean Albert’s been out of the game for a few years. Things change. You figure out how to deal with the new player. And I think Albert has to learn how to how to talk to the 20 to 26th man on the roster. Not saying he didn’t when he played. I’m just saying superstars will that will always be their hurdle when they go to be a manager. Some of these hires or candidates like Albert could have a high ceiling but he also could have a low floor. Craig Stamon being part of the org now for multiple years knowing that guys like that gives him a higher floor than Albert Puhol. I think that’s part of this like hey what’s the best and worst case scenario here for a team that’s contending for a playoff spot. I think that’s a factor when they made their decision. But again, what when does this work out? We asked this about the Blake Butra thing. When does this work out? When does a Hall of Famer step in to being a manager without any experience and it work out? Yeah, not often. I mean, Albert has some people very much on his side that think he’s going to be great, but nobody made the choice this time around. Okay, coming up next, we’re going to continue our offseason to-do list. Third team on the list is the Chicago Cubs. We’ll give you their top three. Patrick Mooney on line one. [Music] [Music] Omaha Stakes is the official sponsor of tailgating. Yes, tailgating. I know about tailgating. This guy knows. You want a good burger? Mhm. Omaha steaks. I’ve even gone so far as to buy little charcoal grills that you can take with you that are about the big and take my Omaha Stakes and put them on a grill right there and eat them before a game and sometimes even after. For more than a century, Omaha Stakes has delivered the world’s best steak experience. We all know it’s not just about the stakes. And if you want the ultimate tailgating experience, you’re ordering the steaks, shrimp cocktail, sign me up. And the burgers are next level, as you would expect. You can even do the chicken on a grill. The chicken breast, the chicken right on the grill. Boom. Make game day delicious with the official sponsor of tailgating. Visit omahastak.com and get $35 off with promo code FUL at checkout. That’s omahastak.com and promo code foul at checkout. Terms apply. See site for details. A few things transaction-wise. Number one, the Orioles signed up Leody Tiveres. He was once more highly regarded. One year, two million bucks, I think, is the number. Yeah, it’s been a while. He hasn’t shown a lot. Um, wait, let me get two more in there that popped up in the last hour. Raone Laniano had an option for like less than seven mil that got picked up. He had a great year. That’s with the Padres’s. I’m just tying these teams together because they made that trade. And then we also learned Ruben Neba is going to stay on as the pitching coach for the Padres’s. That’s from Alden Gonzalez. So, a lot of little things coming through. So, yeah. So, Craig Stam saying, “Hey, just go run the pitching staff.” I’ll take you should have some ideas. Although, his ideas have already been expressed. He’s been with the team for years. Yeah. He does a great job. Yeah. This is good for continuity if that’s what you’re into. The other side is more of a I don’t know. We’ll see. We’ll see. Yeah. I hope it works out for cuz for the Padres’s cuz they have a good thing going. I don’t want it to go away. Yeah. I don’t think they want to shake things up too much. I think they like what they’ve got right now. Okay. Bring someone else in. There’s risk factor. External hire. I hope they spend some money and bring back some of their players. I don’t know if they’ll bring back the same guys, but they’ll do something. Hey, they made one of the best signings of last offseason. Nick Paveta is signed up to a nice contract. He He was a number two starter this year. Yeah. Pitched like a two. Like a really good two. Look at those leaves. [Music] the Cubs turn offseason to-do list. Patrick Mooney joining us right now and you can read all of his articles about the Cubs in the Athletic and listen to Patrick along with Sahadev Chararma on North Side Territory. Patrick, great to see you again and let’s do what we do. Offseason to-do list for the Cubs. lay out your three and then we’ll ask you follow-ups. Sounds good. Obviously, besides getting AJ to sing the seventh inning stretch at Wrigley Field next year, the top priority. Yes, you would do it. That should be number one. Yeah. Uh letting show Managa test the market uh is clearly a sign that they want to do things differently. Their pitching staff got a little exposed by the second round of the playoffs. It was not good enough to keep advancing. Uh the other part of that is the rest of the pitching staff. The bullpen has to be almost completely rebuilt. Uh that is what the Cubs like to do though. They don’t like putting making huge investments in the back end of the game. They like taking chances. They feel really good about their ability to identify talent. They have a excellent manager and and Craig Council in terms of putting those guys in positions to succeed. And obviously they have, you know, gold glove defenders all over the field to uh help those guys out. And then the final thing, finding ways to replace Kyle Tucker, our assumption is that he is likely going somewhere else. The Cubs are going to monitor this. They’re going to stay in touch. Uh, but if Kyle Tucker gets what we thought was possible at the beginning of the season, a decade long commitment, a contract that begins with whatever, a three or four, that’s just not really how the Cubs operate. So, I would look for them to kind of internally replace him, then find different ways to kind of cobble together that type of production. All right, Patrick, we’re going to start at the top. Upgrade the rotation. They had Chota. They should get Steel back, right? Kion is there. Kate Horton was a really nice rookie season, especially after the first game of his career. I called and Craig Councel didn’t want him to face the top of the Mets order at the start, which I never figured out. Then this they came up and the bases were loaded. He had to get out of it. So, but I mean, and then Tyion’s a nice piece. They have pieces. What I don’t understand is why let test the free agent market. He’s been good for him. He’s he he likes Chicago. The fans love him there. and and then it and before we get into the bullpen because I’m gonna hit on this now. Well, they spend the money that they need to really upgrade that rotation. We’ll start with Shota and that they did not want to make a three-year commitment right now. Uh I believe that also would have given Shota a no trade clause. Uh he was just sort of a little lost at the end of this year. I mean, them not using him in an elimination game in Milwaukee kind of told you everything you needed to know about what they thought of him in that moment. I still think, you know, the qualifying offer is a possibility. Um, I also think like Sha’s overall body of work is outstanding. Um, and this is something that if you mention to Cubs officials, they’ll probably like cringe or roll their eyes. I still think Shota brought something. uh in terms of charisma, in terms of entertainment value, just the way he competed, uh the joy he showed on the mound that there are intangible things that, you know, he can bring. Uh but ultimately, it’s whatever the the model told the Cubs, right, of they see a guy in his early 30s creeping toward his mid30s. They love keeping their options open and they’re going to have there’s a good class of free agent pitchers out there and I think they’d rather just sort of maintain flexibility rather than committing to Shota right this second and I would think that Shota isn’t pleased when an option is not picked up. It’s not going to help you pause because the team is telling him we don’t think you’re worth this. Perhaps you’re worth less than this. That’s usually a tough tell. So, I want to ask you this because we had a good debate the other day, AJ Kratz, me about his 2025 season and what you would do, you watched every pitch, right? We watch a lot, but we don’t get every single pitch of Shotaag. What did you see this year versus 2024? Did the league adjust? Did the stuff get worse? We see the peripherals like the home runs up and strikeouts down a lot. So, did the Cubs make the right call in your mind to not give him that type of contract? And you have to assume at that point that he is gone. Yeah, I think part of this was the concerns that the baseball industry had when he was leaving Japan started to pop up. And that’s what you’re alluding to, Scott, of of the home runs of if he loses a little bit of oomph on that fast ball, if he gets a little predictable. I think from Shota’s side, they can say that he had a, you know, a lower half injury that may have disrupted his rhythm. Didn’t quite get all the way back there. And and this was just really his first time dealing with this at the major league level that he had been so good at staying ahead of hitters that he kept winning that cat and mouse game. It just caught up to him at the absolute worst time. Like if he had that bad month in April, maybe the Cubs would have picked that up, that that three-year commitment. Because I do think we go through this all the time of teams say, “Man, you can never have enough pitching.” and then they get to the trade deadline and it’s like, wow, those prices are way too expensive to go get a controllable starting pitcher. That just didn’t make sense. And then in October, your pitching gets exposed. But then there’s a whole new crop of free agents. And then, you know, the front offices, their imaginations start working and then usually by like day three of the GMating, some crazy pitching deal kind of uh goes across our uh Twitter screen. So, I’m really interested to see like where this market goes, not just for Shota, but for the Cubs. Maybe it is a pitcher who’s coming over from Japan. I mean, they’ve been invested heavily uh in that market to establish relationships. They have good contacts there. I think Shota kind of falls into that bucket of talented but kind of flawed pitchers. I mean, there’s a lot of maybe there’s like a dozen guys like that who who have been excellent at times. uh but who are coming off of down moments and I want to see you know whether they can guess right this time. Is it time to move like they moved with Tucker but in the rotation? Do you see the Cubs saying you know what Terrick Scuba wouldn’t cost us that much to move from Detroit to Chicago? Do you see them making a big splash to upgrade the rotation? They’re definitely going to check back on the pitching market. I don’t see Jed Hoyer and Scott Harris are longtime friends. They work together very closely. They see the game uh in similar terms. I have a hard time seeing them lining up for a deal. But last summer, I mean, the Cubs are asked about Mackenzie Gore, Joe Ryan, the Marlins pitchers. I think they’re almost certainly going to circle back uh in those directions. you know, some of those teams have undergone changes, whether it was, you know, the Nationals having a new leader of baseball operations, the Twins no longer being up for sale. Uh, I think kind of what worked against Shota here was the Cubs have a decent amount of pitching depth now. I mean, we went through some of those names at the top of this segment. Uh, but I think to Eric’s point of like, yeah, this is a chance to go go for upside, whatever that is, however you think you can get it, you know, now is the time to at least see rather than locking in three years of showed up. Okay. Well, then let’s go to your next point. The bullpen. They already came out and said they’re not going to spend money on any of the top bullpen arms. So, they’re just hoping and Palencia and some of these other guys can just come through for them and then at the midway point, they’ll make trades and see what happens. Are they bargain shopping again? And by the way, this is still the Cubs. They still make a ton of money and they do not spend like a big market team. So please, if you are listening, Rickettts family, spend your money on players. Please. This is coming from a White Sox fan. Uh I would say the Cubs are completely open-minded in terms of hunting for good deals. So, they are not going to give a reliever like a four-year deal around Thanksgiving. That’s just not how they operate. They do not think that is a good way to spend their resources, which are ample, but maybe not commensurate with uh the Wrigleyville machine that you see AJ every time you come in uh for a national TV game. So, look, I think you Devin Williams could make sense. There’s a good connection there with Craig Council. I think having an established closer, yeah, that if he’s looking for a bounceback type deal, a nice platform to go try and save 50 games for playoff contender, sure. But like, you know, giving a a reliever like a six-year hundred million dollar deal, that’s that’s just not how they operate. And and this is an area where I do think they get a little bit of the benefit of the doubt. like Drew Pomerance was sitting on his couch last year thinking he was done in the game and he wound up uh being a huge part of their bullpen. Caleb Thebar was not a name that really uh animated people last offseason. He became extremely valuable. Brad Keller a minor league deal. Uh he’s probably going to get paid pretty well this year. I don’t think the Cubs would rule bringing any of those guys out, but they’re just going to have a limit. They’re going to have a a strategy and a philosophy that they’re not going to waver from very much. Just mediocre moves that turn out to be really neat, Patrick. Right. Right. I mean, yeah. I mean, so they’re not going to rebuild the bullpen. They’re just gonna they’re gonna throw a lot of stuff against the wall and see what sticks. And this is why they spent. This is why ownership said, “You know what? We will spend on Craig.” And I’m sure that was probably one of the big selling points. Look at what Craig’s done with the DFA bullpen up north. Well, you know what else that DFA bullpen had? They had four starters that went into the seventh inning. They had a closer closer of the year, reliever of the year, four straight years between hater and Devin Williams. like they they basically had to find Craig Council up there had to find two innings. He had to find two innings and he’s like, “Oh, he’s a masterpiece.” Anyway, so if we’re not going to spend money, we’re going to go to AJ’s favorite movie and we’re going to go in the aggregate. How are we going to replace Kyle Tucker? Because you don’t replace Kyle Tucker. The only way you get Kyle Tucker is because you gave up Esoch Parades, you gave up Cam Smith, and you got a aircraft carrier for your team. Most teams that do this, besides the Orioles and the Cubs, now you make a big move like that because you’re like, “Yeah, I’m going to keep that guy.” Obviously, the Cubs were never going to keep Kyle Tucker. He had a great year. Some fans will say, “Uh, he tailed off at the end. He’s not worth it.” I would say fooy on that. How do they replace him? Where do they start? You would start with Sea Suzuki playing right field. Uh which isn’t a bad place to start. Uh you would have as sort of a floor or as a worst case scenario, you’d have two young hitters in Moes Basteros and Owen Casey, two left-handed hitters. Uh that would give you some flexibility. And then yeah, like if we’re going to keep ruling out ways that the Cubs are going to spend money, they’re have to spend it somewhere. And so maybe that is an interesting position player elsewhere. Whether it’s circling back to Bregman, whether it’s a hitter out of Japan, like there I think this is how they look at it’s the Craig Council, I’m using the air quotes here, solving for wins. like they have no sort of like core philosophy in terms of like oh we have to get that player or like we are one piece away that that is just not how they look at it and we’ll see if they can replace first half Kyle Tucker. Uh second half Kyle Tucker was you know it was eerie to hear the silence uh in terms of like beginning of the year it was thing you heard and that really kind of went away. And I don’t think there’s that sort of uh pressure on ownership or pressure on front office to sign this guy right now to like a 10-year deal. And what the Cubs will do is what they’ve done the last several offseasons is they’ll stay in touch with everyone. They’ll see where the market goes. They’ll react. And then you get to spring training and there’s probably going to be several good players still out there and the Cubs will be one of the few teams left in that mix. That’s why we saw it with Bregman. We saw it with them bringing back Cody Bellinger. We saw it several years ago with you Darvish. Like like it or not, that’s just how they run their business. So they’re looking for bargains is what you’re is basically what you’re saying is yeah the Cubs I mean you just you just say that and I understand that. I mean listen again I get it. I mean that’s the way some teams do it. But I’m not defending it. I’m just explaining Wes what they’re thinking. No no I I’m not saying you’re defending it at all, Patrick. What I’m saying though is why trade for Tucker if you’re not going to even, you know, try it. It’s like the old Red Sox that we always used to make fun of last couple years. Oh, well, we were in on this guy. Oh, well, we were in. We tried, fans, right? Oh, we tried, but oh, you know what? At the end of the day, we just don’t have enough money. But come get your $20 beer in the bleachers, and we’ll keep doing that, and we’ll keep having, you know, so and so sing the seventh inning stretch, Chris Chelios, and Eddie Veter every day, right? But here’s the thing for me, the Cubs have the core, I feel like, to make a deep run in the postseason, right? They shouldn’t be losing in the I know they they won the wild card round, so I’ll give them that. You know, they shouldn’t be losing in the DS. Maybe they should be going for it because, you know, I know 2016 is 10 years ago now, but they proved when they go out and spend the money correctly and they get a Lackey and they get a Leester and they get a Hayward and they get Dexter Fowler and they get some of these guys, it can put you on the next level. And they did that with Swanson, right? But that’s re Sorry, excuse me. It makes me makes my stomach hurt when I talk about it. Okay. But when they do these things, it it’s been proven that it works. So why are they so resistant to going out and making these move? I that’s what that’s what as as a baseball fan I look at this and I as you mentioned when I go in to these games it’s packed, right? Every bar and restaurant around Wrigleyville is packed. Every rooftop they own is packed. The hotel they own is packed. The McDonald’s is packed. All everything is packed. And then they’re like, “Oh, we can’t spend.” And I’m like, “Wait, why why not?” That’s why I think this bothers me so much. For a White Sox guy, I think you absolutely tapped into the frustration of a huge the vast majority of Cubs fans. And you’re right, the lesson in 2016 was not just elite young talent. It was going out and spending for proven veterans and championship caliber players to put you over the top. And if you listen to the Cubs over the years, it seems like a lot of sort of pointing at, you know, Jason Hayward’s contract or, you know, we’re still paying John Lester part of his signing bonus. like that’s like that seems to be they’re just so afraid of being kind of hampered by long-term contracts in the future. Uh I will say though like they’re in a better place to make that argument now of building off a 90ish win team uh that does not have a ton of huge holes versus them making that argument when they were losing 90 games a year. Maybe they will surprise us. Otherwise, you know where to go. North Side Territory. If you want to vent, I do good mailbag segments. Anytime you need me as a guest to to to just, you know, I’m I’m always white. For Cubs, for Cubs fans, for their grieving, if they need a they need a counselor, I’m here for you, Cub fans. Cubs blue. I appreciate that. Thank you, Patrick. Great to have you back on. Appreciate the time as always and great work on North Side. You got it guys. Take care. You too. North side territory with Patrick and Sahadv Sharma. It is part of the FT network. Half of the 30 teams are covered on the FT network these days. And you can also read Sahadev and Patrick in the athletic. Be right back. [Music] Hey, congrats to Kent Mietta. He is returning to Japan. So, I think he’s retiring from MLB. I don’t think he’s going to come back at this point. Had a nice run. I mean, he wasn’t as good the last whatever couple years, I guess, at this point. But, he was really good for a bit. He was had a good career. Yeah. Made some money, too. Made some money. Yeah. Dodgers, Twins, Tigers. Where else was he? It’s only three I can think of off the top of my head. That might be it. Mets. No. No. He didn’t spend a half season with the Mets. No, just those three. You got it. Oh, okay. Just those three. I mean, he listen, he was kind of a interesting guy because he was came up as a starter, but then as his career went, he kind of became like a swing man at the end of the season. Always they would try they put him in the bullpen and Yeah. make him because he had that nasty slider. Mhm. He’s an interesting He did a nice job though. He’s did a nice career in Japan. Now he’s going back. He’s also almost 38 years old. So, what I’m amazed is like a lot of the Japanese guys I played with crowds like Tatahito Auchi, I thought he was done over here and then he goes over to Japan and plays like seven more years. It’s incredible. It really is. Incredible fitness. Those guys, they they do it completely different. Japanese players do it completely different than American players do. From high school all the way on up. Super dedicated, super very intricate workouts, flexibility, mobility. Ichro would always talk about it. Roas would talk about all the stuff Ichro would do. I know Ichiro is a freak. He’s, you know, Hall of Famer, but they they really you go into a gym in Japan looks completely different than the gyms over here. Uh, a couple Cubs questions. One was say if why did they get Tucker in the first place? Well, rentals are real. Other teams do rentals. The Yankees rented Sodto and Yeah, but the difference in Sodto is that the the Yankees actually tried to resign. They wanted to resign Sodto. I mean, the Cubs have pretty much come out and said, “Yeah, we don’t really care. He was here for one year and we’re going to move on because we can’t afford him.” The Yankees legitimately wanted Sodto back. They they threw everything at him and the Mets just beat him. So Orioles, I mean Corbin Yeah, but to me the Corbin Burns trade they made an offer. They made him an offer. They made him a huge offer. He didn’t accept it. Mhm. That’s fair. So the Cubs different. The Cubs will say, “We tried. We tried.” Exactly. And also, there was another question about Danby. Someone was asking Dan’s got like four more years left. Yeah. Don’t worry about They were like, “Can you go into detail how they only have him under contract after 26?” And I was like, “Is there an opt out?” No, there’s not. He’s he’s there for a long time. [Music] [Music] See, finally a good finally a good front end graphic. Finally. Finally. You like that? Yeah. But the only problem is Michael didn’t have his socks on in that in that. Shake it up. Well, you need to tell everybody what you just saw because there are many people that listen to via podcast. Just me being a bartender and serving drinks to Michael, our social media, our underage, our underage intern. He’s not underage. He’s not underage. And he’s not an intern either. And he’s famous now. Whatever he is. Let’s get He sleeps in his socks. He’ll always be my intern until he doesn’t sleep in his socks. Uh Jace Tingler is going to join Tony Vital’s staff in San Francisco. They were college teammates at Missouri and they have remained close friends. Okay. It’s a good start. He’s got experience, Jason. He’s got experience. He’s managed. He’s coached for a while. He’s managed. That’s a good one. Yeah, that’s a good start. Staff, especially they’re close friends. He’s got someone there that supports him. And I don’t want to I don’t want to bury the lead, but 90% sure he’s coming on the show tomorrow, Tingler, to talk about it. So, but he’s in the middle of Zoom meetings. So, I’m just being completely honest. If he gets a Zoom meeting, he won’t be able to make it. But tomorrow, FT fans, so you’ll get more Tingla. That would be awesome. I would love that. The person I’ve played with that had the least the least power ever. Me and Jayce played in HA together. Minus power. Minus power. You know when you see like the little kids like the little kids hit and the ball hits their bat and the bat like bounces back. That was Tangler. But in pro ball was Was he a contact hitter? Super contact. They would draw the left fielder in because he would just He made the All-Star team in high A because he was just serving balls over the shorts stop’s head and then they started bringing the left fielder in. Super contact hitter. What if we combined you and Jacece Tingler as a player? I mean, the amount of sexiest men of the year award that you would win, it would be ridiculous. But I do like it because now you have somebody that has been a manager in the big leagues knows Tony as well as you can know Tony. And Jace has done everything. Jace has gone from he ran the Dominican Academy. He then brought like Rugie um I’m trying to think all those guys Jericho Profar those guys that came up with the Rangers brought them up back up to the states and then he managed them at East level then he was like a quality control coach then he was a big league manager then he’s been a bench coach for a while so he’s seen he’s seen a lot so I think it’s a great hire. Speaking of buyers, Bruce Bochi back to the Giants as a special assistant. So the Giants are just bringing Why did they hire Bruce Bochi as the bench coach? I don’t think he I don’t really want to do that. I’m just I’m always a manager. I’d rather be in the office with Buster. That would be a demotion. Susan Sleser, who is the special contributor to Splash Hit Territory. Brand new show and FP Santangelo hosting. Susan tweeted, “I joined FP again on Splash Hit. We talked about my chat with Greg Johnson in the San Francisco Chronicle, including Bruce Boch’s return and other topics, but Greg Johnson is the controller, right? Is he the main guy controlling the team these days or whatever? No, I have no idea. I don’t know. But he’s a decision maker. Uh, so this is great though. This is another thing person that Tony Vital and Jace Tingler and the rest of this crew, Buster Posie included, can bounce ideas off of. I love this. Listen, just because you’re in a position of power doesn’t mean that you can’t have people that one aid you can have conversations with. And they might disagree with you, but at least you get ideas and you can bounce ideas off people and as long as you’re okay with not always agreeing with you, like Boch probably won’t agree with everything Buster Posey says, but at least you have a sounding board and and Boch and Tingler and Vital can bounce things off of each other and see where it goes because this is how you learn and get better. You got to be able to talk and not get mad and then move on. And I think the Giants are trying to assemble a staff from front office down that can have open dialogue and that’s a good thing. I sat in I sat in the catchers and pitchers meetings pre-series when I played for the Giants. Boch was in there, Buster was in there. Like the guys like those are two guys, Buster and Bochi, that just watch a lot of baseball. They remember a lot of baseball. So, are they going to be the guy who’s just taking over meetings if they’re sitting in there watching? No. But they add different things that that will help. And I think Tony seems like somebody that’s open to other people’s opinions and isn’t afraid to listen to somebody that has more experience in an area. Bruce Butchie is a legend. You want him around as much as possible and he’s not going to get in the way either. You know what I’m saying? Like there’s some guys that are there and it’s like you got to be careful with that’s what I’m saying what they’re doing and saying Bo is the opposite of that. It’s just like good times, good hangs, great advice, the whole deal. It’s like they’re bringing the band back together, right? No, it’s kind of my Let’s bring the winners back. That was beautifully done by the way with the the glare was getting in my eyes. Subscriber little thing. You got the glare right out. Beautiful. Okay, just want to remind everyone splash hit territory and bucko territory and riverfront territory. Three new shows. There they are. Gonna keep reminding you this week to tell your friends. Subscribe. Say splash. Three times guest. Splash it. Splash it. Splash Hit [Music] didn’t go the direction you want. Those are good logos. They are right. You guys should see how much work is done. Yeah. The whole the whole team production social, we are all in this Slack channel. We just go back and forth like, “Oh, let’s try the skull on the O and let’s switch the boat.” It’s cool. We have a free agent coach, John Haymon, reporting that Don Mattingley is stepping away from the Blue Jays on great terms and leaving them in excellent position. But this is not a retirement announcement. He is open to new opportunities. I want him to get a This is interesting to me. Why? Cuz everyone got along so well there in Matting. I mean, does he want to be a He’s not going to be a manager. I have an idea. I think he maybe moved back to the US or wants to move back to the US. I mean, I he’s got a young kid, I think, still. Yeah. But no, you don’t think that’s what it is? I just I think this one’s interesting to me because everyone’s you know all you hear from every guy is like man we got along so great and and wow we loved each other and we wanted to be with each other and this and that and then all of a sudden Mattingly’s like I’m stepping away now maybe he hasn’t you know he’d be a great hire as a bench coach for Greg Stamon in San Diego. I don’t know. I mean true. You know just someone that’s been around it. He’s managed. He’s done it all. So I don’t know. I’m just It’s just interesting. You want the title, too? You got so close just now. Yeah. Great. That’s all you got? Did you come across? That’s all I got? No. Donny Despull and I never did. But Schneides was like a kid in a candy store. He was like He was like a kid when he like, “Hey, you have $500 to spend at Toys R Us.” And he was like, “Wow, this is amazing. I get Don Maddenly as my bench coach.” He’s like, I don’t even know what to do. I don’t even know what to do with my hands. Like, he’s a legend. And I think he’s somebody that did great managing. He did well. Obviously got a lot of players that played for him, enjoy playing for him. But what now? I mean, do you run it back with the same team? Maybe didn’t like being up in Canada away from family. Who knows? I mean, the dudes had 39 years in baseball. 40 years in baseball. That is so many years. He’ll find a job. He’ll get something. He’s pretty wellliked. Yeah. Schneider was funny because you got to see more personality from him this year as they were very successful and he’s loving being with Donnie baseball. He loves that he gets to pull Sherzer, right? He was I was waiting for that moment. I enjoy that kind of openness from a manager. I’m dialed in, but I’m also having a lot of fun, and I know how appreciative I should be in this position. I liked that. Relatable, guys. [Music] Let’s welcome in PT Tyranny, aka rational Yankees fan. You can follow him on Twitter Yankee. There is and he’s the guy. There’s no such thing. Let me read the bio. I’m only rational compared to other Yankees fans. I have always have to give that. Okay. Okay. That’s relative. I like that. I am I am hearing a little bit of fuzziness on the mic. So, I’ll get your reply here. Otherwise, we’ll have to check it here. Get uh So, let me let me read the bio. Um Yankees baseball thoughts minus the hysteria and stupidity. Jack Curry follows me. You probably should, too. and he is a member of the MLB fan council which a lot of people didn’t know about. So, we’re going to get into that as well. So, PT, first off, great to have you on and I want to just make sure your mic sounds good otherwise we’ll reset you. How you doing? I’m good. You guys hear me better now? No, we are crackling we we might have to do a little thing and get you back on here because I want to make sure everyone hears I want to hear about this clear. Yeah. So, leave. So, so here and you’re good on tech. I I’ve followed you. So, uh, jump out and then reset your link and come on back in and we’ll see if that sounds perfect. All right, do it right now. Okay. All right. So, we’ll talk to PT in just a moment about his MLB fan council experience, about the Yanks, the whole deal coming up. Um, so stay tuned on that. I love that rational Yankees fan. There is no such thing as he’s rational in comparison to the completely irrational Yankee fan. Yes. So, I mean, that makes it like, you know, they have the hot crazy matrix thing that everyone goes to on YouTube with the women where like the hotter they are, the crazier they are. It’s like Yankee fans, like it’s it’s the same thing. Rational versus Yes. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. All right. So, let’s get back into this. All right. So, uh PT, great to have you on the show. And I’ll just reiterate for everyone, you can follow him at rational_yankee, not irrational, rational_yan. We’ll get into the Yanks in the second portion here. Let’s start with your involvement in the MLB fan council. These guys didn’t know about it. It’s a way for MLB to connect with fans. So, what can you tell us about your experience so far and how you went a little viral with with a tweet talking about how you were on a recent call with them and and I’ll cherrypick here. He said, “I’m now almost 100% convinced there will be a work stoppage after next season. A lot of the content presented to us was in support of a leaguewide salary cap. definitely felt like the league was making its appeal to fans as to why a salary cap makes sense. Clearly, the league has a firm stance on the issue and if the players dig their heels in against the cap, I think the 27 season will not happen. Prior to this call, I knew this was a possibility, but was subtly hoping that cooler heads might prevail prior to missing a season. I’m now a lot less confident in that. So, instead of cherrypicking, I decided to just read the whole thing. And now, you go for it. Tell us what that meeting was like and why we should be concerned about this. Yeah, I I my stance was if we’re a year out from these negotiations really kicking off and you know I’m just a random guy with a Twitter account on a call with a bunch of other random people with Twitter accounts and we’re spending 20 to 30 minutes plus but honestly it was more than that um talking about salary caps and um that as a solution to competitive balance in baseball. Um, it was just kind of alarm. I don’t want to say alarming, but it was just surprising to me that the league was that upfront with us about why a salary cap could could make sense because I feel like I’m the last person that that you’re you’re going to articulate that to, right? I’m just literally some guy who fires out tweets into the ether, you know, a couple times a day. Um, so I I don’t I don’t want to say concerned, but you know, kind of going in I was like every other fan, right? You know, we everyone knew there might be a work stoppage, there might not be, but I I don’t think I knew how serious Mo might be about instituting a salary cap uh in the next CBA negotiations. And that kind of alarmed me a little bit that it it felt like they they meant business about it. Okay. First of all, how do you get on this fan committee because I want to be on this fan committee. How do I how do I get Rob Manfred to call me and let me listen in on these phone calls? And then did you guys get to ask questions back or was just who was who was on this call? Because now you have me completely interested and I want in, right? So I got to figure out make a make an account, call myself irrational Yankee fan and then I’ll get all your followers. They have cap for you commissioners assistance program for the players. True. There there there’s there’s a lot of irrational Yankees fans. I don’t think you’d get uh you get too much traction there. Um, but uh I literally just one day got a DM from the MLB main account asking me to be on the MLB fan council. And um it that that’s really what it was. And then when it started, I had no idea what I was getting into. I mean, it was really just kind of a a once a month Zoom call. And you know, I will give MLB credit. They they’re not trying to hide anything. they they are, you know, telling us anything you take off these calls, you can go out onto your platforms and talk about. Um, you know, they they gave us some say into what we wanted to talk about. So, they weren’t really trying to control the narrative from that perspective. Um, how I got selected, I really have no idea. I mean, I was either someone at MLB or maybe someone with the Yankees knew my account, gave it to them. No, no idea. But, um, yeah, I mean, I’m It’s interesting for me because I’m not I don’t work in baseball. I don’t really play baseball. I’m just a guy with a Twitter account, so to get kind of that inside access there um was pretty interesting. All right. Did they give you any other options? Like, did they give you like how they’re going to fix the what they’re calling the inequality in baseball or was it all just the salary cap? They were up front and saying, “We’re not here to present solutions, right? We’re just here to kind of talk about the problem.” and and they it was it was almost weird because they were they were saying you know a salary cap might help but we also don’t want to talk about solutions which the salary cap would have been the solution but you know um I I think uh I I you know they they they they really just kind of focused on you know over the last you know the argument is you know there’s baseball there’s a ton of parody in baseball but when you go down the list of who’s actually won the World Series no one outside of the top 15 has done it um in terms of payroll So, how how do you fix that? A salary cap might be the way to do it. That we did not get deep into what if you fix the luxury tax system. What’s going on with maybe some of the owners that aren’t spending money? They didn’t say anything about the pirates maybe pocketing all the revenue sharing. Um, so yeah, it definitely felt a little bit more one-sided toward a cap than anything else. And you know, and and and I did ask the question, and I think it’s an important question for the league to answer. You know, is it necessarily a bad thing for there to be a system in place where your star players get to play consistently in the biggest markets with the most fans with the most exposure and they’re consistently going to the playoffs in the World Series. And I thought that last World Series, you know, as painful as it was to watch the team that beat the Yankees last year, uh, play the team that beat the Yankees this year, I mean, any baseball fan would would would put that World Series up there with, you know, one of the best World Series of all time. and you know with a salary cap in system uh system in place um does that world series happen and and and you compare it to leagues like the NBA where we had where we have Oklahoma City play Indiana and the NBA finals and you know no one watched it right so um I I think it’s easy to say hey the markets in you know Tampa Cincinnati you know whatever other small markets are out there having a hard time competing um but number one does a salary cap necessarily fix that. I I I think we’re jumping to conclusions if we say yes. Um and then number two, you know, what does that do to your core markets and the fan engagement in them? PT, we’ll do this again. Uh just click right back in. For some reason, we’re get you were good for a while and then it did a little hiccup. So, just give us a little reset. Thank you. We’ll have him back in five seconds. I have so many questions on this. All right. So, let let it rip. I want you to I want you to ask him about this because he gets inside info that a lot of people aren’t getting. I that’s what’s amazing to me. But it’s and it’s not secret. It’s not like they’re signing. But this is a PR battle that the league is trying to win by doing having these influencers on their call and then saying go spread this news to the world and and I get why they’re doing it, but what I want to know is was anything else discussed? Did you get to ask questions? Did they give you any answers? Did they listen to any of your ideas? Or is this just I know you said you got to ask questions, but do they listen to your ideas and say, “Oh, man. They they might have an idea to help fans.” Or is it just like, “Oh, yeah, we heard you. We’re just going to spew you more information out.” Oh, you guys got me better now. Yeah, you’re good now. All right, good. Um, yeah, they let us ask questions. I I would say that the fans on the call were overwhelmingly in support of a cap. I think that’s important to point out, but also at the same time, you know, the Yankees have the biggest fan base in baseball, and I’m the only Yankees fan out of probably 70 or 80 other people on this call. So, I won’t say that the fan base was or the people on the call were necessarily representative of MLB’s fan base as a whole, but yeah, a lot of the a lot of the fans from small market teams were in favor of a cap. So, there really wasn’t a ton of push back from a lot of the other people. Um, but yeah, I I did ask the question, you know, why is it a bad thing that the best players play in the big markets? And the answer I got back was, you know, what do you It depends on what we want baseball to be. Do we want it to be a league where, you know, only 10 or 15 teams have a chance every year or do we want to give everyone a shot? And I I don’t buy into that premise that that’s what it is right now, but um that’s the answer I got. Would you want to hear from the players? Because obviously the Major League Baseball is is putting this together, putting this group together. Wouldn’t it be beneficial to hear the players side? If the players association, the union, put something together, you’d be open to listen to that part, too. Yeah, I’d want to hear that, right? Because again, you know, I I want to be educated on these issues. I didn’t start putting out content or giving my thoughts about baseball thinking anyone’s going to follow me. But as I’m learning right now, I’m on foul territory. So, every once in a while, I say something and people actually read it and listen to it and want to talk about it. Um, and when I do, I I want to be knowledgeable about all sides of the issue. You know, I’ve gotten the ownership side. I, you know, I I I get it. I I hear where they’re coming from. I’m not going to say I agree with it. Um, but, you know, to hear from the other side of it, you want to get a balanced view. So when I talk to, you know, my followers, I I have, you know, something to say. Okay. My question is is then all other leagues have caps, right? The Chiefs go to the the Super Bowl every year. The Chiefs and the Eagles, and forever the Patriots were going to the Super Bowl every year, and then the NBA, you know, it’s it’s they have to build these super teams, right? And yes, Oklahoma City won last year, but nobody watched because it was Oklahoma City. But when the Lakers are in it and the Celtics are in it every year, people tune in to watch. So, how does it I mean, it still goes back to my original question. A floor would obviously help the cap because there already is a soft cap. I know you’re we can’t I’m not going to get too deep in the weeds. It’s just amazing to me that they they they go to fans and I’m assuming now I don’t know this, but from what you said, these are people that are probably tweeted things that they were already aligned with. So, they were just trying to get them to say, “Oh, yeah. What you’re saying, we already believe in this. Let’s go spread this. I I don’t know. I just I would love to be a part of this. I I I don’t even really have a question. I just love to be a part of this just so I could hear what they say because I’ve been on MLB calls before. I was there in 2002 when they were trying to contract the Expose and the Twins. Oh, we were never trying to do that. I had a call week, right? And now the new thing is salary cap, salary cap, salary cap, and they’re spreading it to the fans. And then they get you guys who influence people to say, “Oh, this cap is a great idea.” And then more fans. I don’t know. I just I would love to be a part of this somehow and listen to it. Yeah, I I will I do want to say that this was one call at the end of a series of 10 or 11 calls and this was the only one where I felt like MLB was really pushing its agenda a little bit on us. I don’t want to make it like the whole program was that um you this was kind of unique to it. Um but but yeah, I I think that it was definitely alarming that on the last call that was that was the narrative that that was being placed and and like you said, AJ, you can go across any league. I’m a I’m a big New York Giants fan on the football side and you know, there were stories coming out over the last couple days at Metife Stadium was filled with Niners fans this weekend more so than it was Giants fans, right? Because in a league with a salary cap, they were a poorly run organization. They’re up against the cap. They can’t improve their team. And now you have one of your premier franchises in one of the largest markets. Their fans aren’t showing up to the games. Um, I’m sure they’re watching the games, but maybe not to the to the degree that they would have been. Uh, you know, you got Niners fans in Metife Stadium making more noise than Giants fans. And if you create a system where there is a cap and you have teams like the Yankees and the Dodgers or whatever uh you know big market organization uh you’re talking about going through potentially prolonged periods of a downturn, is it good for baseball to potentially disengage some of your largest fan bases in an effort to, you know, pick it back up in Kansas City, uh you know, Cincinnati, Seattle, or whatever small market it might be? It’s a hard question because if I were a fan of those teams, the answer would be absolutely yes. I want to have a chance to win as much as anybody else. Um I don’t know if a salary cap fixes that. And I and I also um you know, for for the greater good of the game, I don’t know if that’s what’s best for fan engagement because I I don’t think there’s anything broken with baseball right now where we need to completely revamp uh the the monetary landscape of it. All right, just at the end of your sentence, we got give me a quick refresh again here. I caught it at the end. So, we got most of the answers. Just give me a refresh. We’re good. We’re going to keep rolling. Uh, give me a quick refresh and then I’ll bring you back for the next question if we can, PT. Uh, it’s just the mic getting a little funky at the end there. Sorry about that. Sorry about that. No, you’re good. You’re good. Um, yeah. So, I was just saying, wait, no, no, no. I’m saying you got to refresh your link, bud. Sorry. You got you’re good. We got We got the answer. Just do another refresh. Okay. Um, and I’ll I’ll also mention that uh it doesn’t seem like the New York Jets have a chance in the NFL. It’s been a really long time since they’ve been anywhere close to relevancy. Listen, I live in Orlando. The Magic haven’t competed forever. They’ve never won a championship. All these leagues have it’s I don’t know what else I can say. I live in Orlando. There’s a salary cap. Fans don’t want salary caps. Okay. Well, let me ask PT. So So what what info did you get? Like did you so in this particular call did you learn a lot? Did they give helpful information and were there any questions like the ones that you said? Hey, there’s already a soft salary cap. Why doesn’t a soft floor exist for these ownership groups of fan and these are the fan base that are often complaining as they should, but those groups are not spending money and then they’re acting poor, but if they really were struggling, they would obviously sell the team. It’s it’s a broken record, but it is true. Do they give any response to that or is it just like are they trying to make it an open form or is it more just hey here’s the solution? There’s also revenue sharing which exists now and can continue to exist. So if a team’s like oh I’m 50 mil short from spending what I want to spend. Revenue sharing can help fix that as well. Have did you get any of that or was it just a one-sided attack? I don’t want to call it an attack. I think that the they geared the content toward what the people on the call were trying to kind of get out of it. And again, it was when when you start talking about salary cap, you’re going to get a lot of the fans from a lot of the smaller market teams coming out um and saying that, you know, we’ve been pounding the table for this for for a long time. And um you know, for for me, I I I was maybe one of the only dissenting voices on there. Um, so we didn’t really spend a lot of time on the other side of the issue because there wasn’t a lot of interest in the other side of the issue. I didn’t feel like Why are there only one Why is there 80 people on there and only one Yankee rep? Like how how does that work? Like other teams had multiple reps, but only one for you guys. I think everyone some teams have two or three. Um, I don’t know if there’s a Dodgers rep. If there is, I haven’t met that person. Um, I don’t think there’s another Yankees rep to my knowledge. It could just be that Yankees fans can be a little bit annoying sometimes and they didn’t want to deal with it. Uh, you know, I’m pretty upfront about that if that’s the case and I can’t say I blame him because I deal with it every day. Um, but yeah, I can’t answer that question. I I really don’t know. Well, you are rational and you are well spoken. So let’s look let’s try to find a positive here from either this meeting or prior meetings because you are the voice and the rep for these discussions. Was there anything good that that you’ve learned an idea floated that you actually saw implemented like over the past year? Is there anything that can come out of it that you think was super helpful for them to understand to help grow the game? It’s no secret and I used to work there, you know, it it’s it’s bosses where you’re like corny and even Ken brought it up, right? Like the it’s like the concert during the World Series from the Jonas Brothers where you’re like they’re trying but they just don’t understand it. So, do you feel like anything gets through for them to be cooler in the way that they run the sport? Yeah, I think it depends on the topic you’re talking about, right? You know, there was some of it that was just purely educational. We had uh someone come in and talk to us about the science behind torpedo bats and and that this was earlier in the season when that was one of the stories. Um and and there’s some things there that you realize pretty quickly the person who’s talking to you about it knows way more than I ever will. So it’s kind of just to sit there and listen and learn. Um but then we had a really cool call where we were given the same uh presentation around player marketing a week after Fernando Tatis Jr. got it. um to talk about, you know, what the league can be doing to help increase his profile um you know and I I learned a lot from that in terms of what what the league is doing to try to help be make its players more uh visible um from our but then they asked us you know what’s from your perspective what what are the things that players are kind of missing on the social media front right now and I I felt like they really did take our suggestions I like one of the things I said was you know I follow a lot of Yankees on Twitter most of their Twitter accounts feel like just straight PR for for for the player. It doesn’t feel like Aaron Judge is sending out a whole lot of tweets off of his Twitter account, right? Um it’s probably maybe someone doing it for him or whoever runs his social media. And you know, fans can see that. They can see through that. Um and it it it doesn’t make you give you the ability to feel like you can identify with someone. Um you know, when it feels like that. Um so I I think just little things like that I think were definitely taken into account. And uh they I do think they made an effort to listen to us after every call. They asked us for our feedback. Okay. Okay. I I I agree with that, by the way, where there are mostly employees working for players and running their accounts, right? Yeah. And they’re busy and some of them aren’t good at it, but some more connectivity would certainly help. And some are better than others, but I I do know what you’re talking about. There there are quite a few players, especially some of the bigger names, where I mean, it’s kind of like when you would look at The Rock or something, right? like they’re just putting stuff out and they have they are their own business online, right? So, everything is either an influencer post and I get it. That pays the bills or something that’s gearing towards that. So, I I understand that and I I agree with that, right? Um I honestly it’s part of why we started this show. We’re like, “Hey, these guys are cool. Let’s bring them on. It’s easier for them to just talk for 15 minutes to us.” Yeah. Versus have them go a lot of these guys feel weird about it. Hey Yankee fans, it’s me talking after the game, right? Like that you’re great on here. You didn’t want to do this. If you were asked to do this, you’d be like, if you were doing this after every game, like here are my thoughts. Yeah. Kind of weird, right? Okay. Um Well, this was Wait, let’s let’s finish with this. So, give me the rational Yankee fan take on the season and what people can expect to follow coverage-wise for you. Well, what coverage wise for me is whatever pops into my head at the moment. I I don’t have a a full uh a full slate there, but I I think you know the the the Yankee it’s a really interesting offseason. The the Yankees um they tied for the best record in the American League if you were to say that to their fans are not going to be happy with it. Um you know, but the reality is they knocked out Boston for the first time in 20some years. And you know, they just ran into a really hot Blue Jays team and and that’s just something that happens uh in the playoffs sometimes. Um, you know, for for me the offseason’s interesting because, you know, they’re going to have to figure out the outfield. They’re going to have to come away, I think, with one of Bellinger or Tucker. Um, and I think the what we talked about earlier, the CBA kind of being up at the end of this year, I don’t know if the if, uh, you know, what owner is going to want to write out a 350 to 400,500 million contract a year before the CBA expires. I I definitely think that’s going to play into it for the Yankees. Um, but there’s a lot of questions they have to answer. They have to answer the outfield. They got to fix the bullpen. Whether there’s some Devin Williams and Luke Weaver there. Um there are a lot of questions they have to answer and a lot of uncertainty on the horizon. And I’m glad that you know hopefully there’s people smarter than me trying to figure it out because it’s it’s definitely uh a lot of puzzle pieces have to come together. Well, we’ll be talking about it and we’ll be following you. PT, thanks for joining us again Yankee for more insights on what we talked about with the fan council and of course his primary reason for being on there on Twitter to talk about the Yanks. Appreciate you, PT. Thanks for joining us, man. Thank you, guys. Really appreciate it. Bye, FT fam. Be right back. We’re getting ready for Blake Mitchell. Super Prop. We have qualifying offer news, by the way. I mean, it’s coming in as the show is going. I haven’t been able to pay too much attention to it, but people like Bob Bashette getting qualifying offers. No way. It’s a It’s a crazy Hey, they the Blue Jays also picked up John Schneider’s contract option for 26 and Oh, Ross Atkins, uh, whatever front office leader of the team. He and I are talking about the potential of that being longer. That makes sense. They just went to the World Series. I would I would keep him. Yeah, we’re talking about that. Yeah. Okay. No, no kidding. What about Oscans? Uh, Atkins and Chapyro though, don’t they both have their contracts up? So, yeah, Chapyro also spoke. They had their presser and and he kind of said they tabled that once things got hot with the season, but it sounds like there’s mutual interest in that continuing. No surprise. I think that was going to continue regardless of what happened this season for them. I had the quote somewhere, but I’m probably going to lose it now and not have time to find it. But when you’ve had that successful of a run just now, you try and keep everything the same. Mhm. Right. Yeah. I don’t know if I’m going to find it in time, but it makes sense. Didn’t look like that at the beginning of the year. Didn’t look like they were going to be extended at the beginning of the year. I thought the moves that they made going into it wasn’t it. Man, like AJ says, or maybe it’s Azie that says it, winning solves everything. It’s probably not the best time to bring this up, but there was one fan that was like really adamant that we were critical of the organization for about the Vlatty contract. And I was like, everyone was most Blue Jays fans were like, get get this done. And then they did. They were critical. We were happy as hell when they signed him. Yeah. How we were critical they hadn’t signed him yet. That’s the whole point. It was taking over the story lines, too. And you guys have spoken about this. Every question to every teammate, hey, what do you think of the Vlatty situation? It becomes toxic. Agreed. When it doesn’t get done at all, we were very happy when it was done. Yeah. Vlatty was public about it, too, because I think he felt a little bit offended at the time until it got to the number that he was at. And they waited a while, so the price went up. This is part of it, too, is you you take the risk on early, but they they probably could have signed him a couple years ago for like 250 for like half of this. Yeah. But now, who the hell cares? Because you had a banger season. They made a ton of money. They had a ton of success. And baseball is ruling in Canada right now. So, it worked out. Yeah. Yeah. And they’re going to bring a lot of the same group back. Coaching staff. I know we talked about Donnie, but everyone else [Music] We’ve got Royal Super Prospect Blake Mitchell joining us right now on the show and he’s out in the Arizona Fall League and was named to the AFL Fallst Stars game roster. I used to call those games. It was one of my favorites. The game is Sunday at Sloan Park 8:00 Eastern and you can watch it on MLB TV. It’s streamed live on the app as well. Blake joining us here. Blake, great to have you on. Congrats on making that roster. And how’s everything going out there? Yes, sir. Thanks for having me. Um, it’s been great. You know, it’s a lot of good baseball here. A lot of great players, great coaches. Um, so, you know, I’m taking it all in, learning from as many people as possible. What’s been your favorite moment out there so far? It could be anything individually in a game moment with some new teammates that you’re meeting. Um, I would say just getting to continue to play with the guys that I played with this year like Daniel Vasquez, uh, Carson Rockefford, all the Royals guys that I’ve got to play with. Um, and then also our manager, Jesus Suah, who’s been my manager every single year in Pro Bowl. Uh, so for him to continue to be my manager, you know, it’s really special. What What What are you trying to learn? Because when I went to the fall league, I was I was awful because I was I had actually been in the big leagues for the first time and then they were like, “Oh, go play in Arizona.” And I was like, uh, you know, what are you trying to work on? They didn’t really say anything. They just like, just go get more at bats. And I was like, okay, well, what are you trying to work on while you’re out in Arizona? Did they give you a list of things you need to improve? Um, I don’t really have a list of things to work on. Um, I was hurt for the entire first half of the year. So, the main thing for me is just getting as many at bats as possible. Uh, getting to learn, you know, other pitchers, other pitching staffs. Uh, just getting the experience. And you know, the main thing is just getting more at bats. All right, then I’ll give you something to work on. Face some lefties. Did you tell your manager, who is it, Jesus? You said, like I was looking at your numbers from so far in pro ball, they don’t ever let you face lefties. Do you feel like the organization is insulating you from lefties or do you feel like it’s something that just hasn’t happened? We just haven’t faced a lot of lefties. Yeah, I guess that’s just the luck of the draw, you know? I feel like I haven’t faced that many in pro ball. I mean, I played over a 100 games last year in lowe and you know, I guess I didn’t get to face that many lefties and then being hurt half the year probably held me back a little bit as well. Well, how you going to learn to hit lefties if you don’t face them? I was left-handed hitter. I always I always said just and I hit lefties fine in the minor leagues and then finally you get to the big leagues and they say, “Ah, you can’t hit them.” Well, I hit them fine. I never had a problem in high school, minor leagues, I hit them just fine. Just let me play. So tell your manager, “Let’s go. Let me play. Call up Call up Cataro. Call up Q and be like, Q, listen. I’m going to be your catcher in the future. I know Salvi’s got a couple more years, but let me face lefties because I want to play every day.” All right, I’ll let him know. I faced I faced a couple the other day, so that’s a little And how’d you do? How’d you do? I had two knocks. Oh, see you’re bad. Yep. Sorry about it. Being being a minor leaguer, when you look at a guy, when you see that Salvador Perez just got an extension for two years, what goes through your mind? Are you like, “Cool, like now I get to play with Salvi or wait, is it because I was hurt all year this half of the year this year?” Like, do you do you overthink that? And is there somebody in your life that tells you, “Well, relax, bro.” Uh, I haven’t really thought about it much at all. you know, it just happened. And I love Salvi. I was with him last spring training in big league spring training. So, he’s a great guy, great guy to be around and I know everybody loves him in the clubhouse. All the Royals people love him. Uh, so, you know, I’m not complaining at all. You know, I I love being around him. So, I’m going to try to learn as much as possible from him. How hard is it coming to a new team? you you spend pretty much, you know, your season, you might bounce from one or two levels, but how hard is it coming to a new team like your fall league team and you got to go and catch? Obviously, everyone’s going to look at your hitting numbers and, you know, see how you hit dingers and you hit the ball really hard. How hard is it to catch and learn all of these new pitchers? Uh, it’s definitely tough, you know, learning all the signs, um, what they want to use with runner on second since we don’t have PitchCom here. um you know what they like to throw in certain situations, certain counts. Um so now I’m starting to get the hang of it after you know four straight weeks of catching them. Um but you know it’s definitely a big adjustment. What do you mean no pitch? Hold up before I get to the next question. Why don’t they have you guys using PitchCom? They use it in the big leagues. They can’t get you all pitch to get used to for when you move up the ladder. That makes zero sense to me. They have pitch in high school. Yeah. We don’t even have it in the minor leagues. Like I think only AAA has it. Like we we didn’t have it all year. That’s crazy to me. You think that bit I know a guy. Are you not allowed to use it or you just don’t they don’t let you? Cuz I know a guy that can send you one if you want it. Yeah. I’m not sure. I haven’t asked too many questions about it. I’m just like you tell me what to do and I’ll do it. Okay. So, what do you do in the fall league? Is you still get an off day a week? Is that they still do where you get one off day a week? Yeah, it’s been every Monday that we’ve had off. What What do you do out in Arizona? I know you spend time out there obviously in Surprise with the Royals, but what do you do during the fall league on your off day? You hanging out, you golfing, you climbing a Camelback Mountain. What do you do out in Arizona? Uh, most of the time I’m just relaxing, you know, getting my body ready for that week. Um, I’ve been pretty consistent on Mondays going to this uh recovery place called Modern Athlete. Um, they just been getting my body right, you know, getting me ready for that upcoming week. So, I thank them a lot for everything they’ve done. What does that what does that look like? Because recovery in Arizona Fall League when I was there and I’m sure when AJ was there was not quite the same on off days as going to modern athlete. But what does that look like? What do you what do you do? Go in there? Massage, cryotherapy, hot cold tub. What are you doing? Yeah, I mean they have cold tub in there. Um this thing called PEMF um that just runs like electrodes through through your entire body uh to relax it. They have these things called solo dome that, you know, relaxes your nervous system, your body. Um, just a bunch of different stuff that we go through um for about a couple hours and then, you know, it’s kind of a reset for my body and then just come back here to surprise and just lay around, watch some YouTube, just do whatever. I mean, listen, you’re right about one thing. I only recovering from hangovers on my off day in the fall league. There was no there was no there was no modern athlete, trust me. But this is forever ago. So this is way before you were even born. Who’s your roommates? Do you have roommates out there in surprise or are you living by yourself? I had Hunter Owen who’s a pitcher with the Royals, but then something happened with his shoulder, so he went home. So it’s just me by myself now. But I have all the Yeah, I have all the other Royals players that are in the same facility, but I got my own room, so it’s nice. So wait, are you in a dorm or you in like an apartment? It’s like it’s literally an old hotel that the Royals bought and just made it their own. And then all the Royals players stay here. This is where we stay for spring training. Um if we’re here for rehab, we stay here. So it’s it’s a nice setup they have for us. Is Is it nice? Because Yeah. This is something new. This is something new for when I was in the minor leagues. AJ didn’t spend much time in the minor leagues, but I was in the minor leagues. We got we had to go find our own place. And man, you you sit in Arizona and you’re like, I don’t know, some sketchy places, but this is all we can afford. Do it do they do a good job and do they give you like a do they give you options to choose from? Yeah, it’s definitely a nice setup. Um I know like all the minor league guys stayed here. Um so my first spring training I was here, but then once you get to big league camp, then they give you that extra money to stay away, stay off. Um so you get your own Airbnb setup. uh which is not too bad, you know, it’s nice. Um but here it’s called the fountains. They have, you know, a whole kitchen, a whole living room, uh two two rooms in here, so it’ be two beds in a bathroom and then two beds in a bathroom and the other one. Um so it’s nice. You know, in spring training, it’s kind of packed where it’ be four guys to a room. So you’ll be sharing a room and a bathroom. But I mean, it’s not bad at all. Like it’s a really nice setup. That’s bad. I’m sorry. That’s bad. You got to share a bathroom. Like that’s my that’s my number one like oh man like I’m too old for that. People are people are like yeah but he’s a kid. I understand but still man college kid has to I mean most bathroom I know I have two kids in college. Trust me I know all about it. I got two kids in college that are both share rooms. It’s I don’t know how they did it. I like I would have to leave the room for certain things to happen. Find like a find like a lobby or something to It is a part of of life I Well, listen. I was I lived in the minor leagues. I did the minor leagues. We had a hotel room we stayed in. It was It was not as nice as the one he that I’m looking at behind him. And you shared it, right? Yeah. And it was awful and it sucked. Yeah. Life. It makes you appreciate. It does. It does. It definitely makes you That’s one of the good things about baseball. When you get there, it makes you appreciate not having a roommate and not having to shave share a bathroom. So, trust me, when you do get there, Blake, you’re going to enjoy it. Who was your favorite player growing up? Um, it’s okay. I was in Texas when you were about 10 years old, so you could say me. I was left-handed hitting catcher. I get it. Yeah, I remember watching when I grew up, but I think Bryce Harper was probably my favorite. Okay, that’s fair. Original catcher. It was a catcher one time. It didn’t last very long, but that’s that’s I I can understand that. Bryce and I, we have similar power numbers, so I get it. I totally understand that. Similar personalities. Yeah, I like Bryce. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. Uh uh last question for you in terms of you know what you’ve learned so far with Kansas City. I know you have friends in other organizations. What do you think stands out about the Royals organization? I know they didn’t make the playoffs this season, but last year had a nice postseason run. What do you think is part of the identity for KC? And if you can try and avoid a cliche, like what’s something that you feel like is special that they point out that you’ve really learned that maybe you didn’t pick up until you got there? you know, something a little more big picture but not cliche if if it’s possible to figure that part out. Um, I’d say with the Royals, I really like how they strive to make everything homegrown. You know, they’re not going to go out and sign somebody for, you know, hundreds of millions of dollars just because they really can’t. You know, it’s just the reality of it. You know, they have to scout well. They have to, um, you know, get the right players. Um, so I really like that and I really like how they, you know, put all their effort into their players because they know that they have to make them the best the best possible. I like it. Well, okay. Thanks for joining us. Have fun. Are you excited for the Fall Stars game? Yeah, for sure. It’s going to be a lot of fun. So, get to go play out there with some guys I haven’t played with in a few years. So, I’m excited to be on the same team as them. Nice. Yeah, it’s a good event. I I called a few of those. I had fun with it. We used to I was in the fall league so long ago. Well, I don’t even think they had an All-Star game. No, it it it wasn’t there the whole time, but it’s it’s my favorite part because you get all, you know, the guys playing well and a lot of top prospects and we mike up players. The the whole deal. Yeah. So, enjoy it. We’ll be watching. Thanks for joining us. Yes, sir. Thank you’all for having me. Appreciate you. That’s Blake Mitchell. Get to know the name if you don’t already. [Music] Hey. Hey, we’re back. Go ahead, CRS. Tell everybody what you just told us in the chat. I was looking up I was looking up video of Blake’s swings. A left-handed catcher with power. He keeps hitting so many homers. They might bounce him out of the catching position and find another spot where he’s going to they’re going to have him play every day. This dude for a young guy and he’s not like he’s not massive. He’s built. I think he’s like 6′ 61. He he puts some hurting on some baseballs. Hits absolute tanks. I just want to see him hit against lefties. This guy’s your number two prospect. He hasund I I don’t want to be incorrect, but he has 135 plate appearances in three years against left-handed pitchers. Like you just you got to get him out there. Any off day should never be against a lefty because it’s the minor leagues. His swing tells me nothing other than that he’s going to be able to hit lefties. He stays close. He does all those things, but it’s it’s an epidemic in the game. It’s like, “Oh, well, this the day he gets off.” Like, make him play. Make him learn because now’s the easiest time to learn. Yeah, but he’s been hurt. He hasn’t gotten a lot of it. Yeah, that’s my thing. His whole thing is he’s been hurt figuring that out, but I’m like, yeah, he’s been hurt. I also will point this out and I don’t know the whole playing time split. The Royals are one of the top teams in terms of catcher prospects. They traded away Freddy for me and there’s like two or three more that are going to be soon. I I’ll say this as a catcher that was left-handed hitting, they always want to give you the off day against a lefty. Like if let’s say you let’s say you’re on a run of four or five days in a row and they’re like, “Oh, we have a chance to give you a day off and it’s you, you know, they always try to, oh, it’s a day it’s a night game before a day game and there’s a lefty pitching on the night game. We’ll give you that game off so you can get the righty at the day game or vice versa where they say, you know, oh, the lefty’s pitching the day game so that way you get two days off really, you So, it’s also a little bit of because of of the position he plays and trying to give him some rest because he has been injured. So, they’re like, “Hey, we can give you a day off. We’d rather give it to you against a lefty versus a righty where you can hit a bomb.” But that’s in the big leagues. This is the minor leagues. Minor leagues, too. Minor leagues do the same thing. They had an option as a left-handed hitter to give me a day off against a lefty or righty. They would always give it to me against a lefty because also back in this these days we were actually trying to win in the minor leagues which god forbid you actually try and win all the time. Well, some do. That’s that’s a whole some do. Some really actually do. Yeah. Some organizations try to win in the minor leagues. the Rays. It usually revolves around the teams that bring up their guys cuz they’re like, “Well, they need to know how to win to be in the big leagues on our team. [Music] [Music] I did a couple topics here in Hot Corner. This first bit of news was basically known I believe that in his press conference at the end of the season. Dave Drowski mentioned this and it happened. Uh Jose Alvarado was suspended for PDS, missed half the year, had a $9 million club option. They decide to bring him back and Matt Gell wrote in the Athletic how he would have been one of the best lefty relievers on the market. They’ve talked about this a lot on the Philly show. Pratt, you’re our Philly guy. are you good with this? They’re looking at it as we know him and we know what a pitcher like him would get in the free agent market. The other side of it is he got popped for peeds. Is he the same guy when he goes through multiple cycles without it? Your thoughts? I mean, rarely is a guy that got popped only did it once. But yeah, you know what? Who knows? Who knows if he’s going to be the same guy? He was pretty nasty when he wasn’t like this spring training. I think he had like something ridiculous like 20 strikeouts in spring training in like eight innings that he threw and then he started the season out. He was slinging it. Like he definitely had an uptick not necessarily in his velocity but the results of his stuff. So he was good before that. He was good last year. I guess I don’t have a problem with it if the if his teammates don’t have a problem with it. And everything we heard from Topper to different guys we had on, they loved Josie. And so that that’s the only time when it would be, you know, maybe we don’t bring him back. But it’s hard to turn down one of the top left-handed relievers for only $9 million for one year. I I I mean, that would be a that’d be a bold statement by the Phillies to not pick this option up. Well, Dave Droski said on our show he was going to pick it up. I mean, he said it, right? I didn’t remember if we talked about No, he he brought it up. He’s like, “Oh, yeah. Alvarado is definitely coming back.” I mean, so there there was no suspense in this one. I mean, listen, steroid peed guys have they’re just forgiven and forgotten now. Honestly, it’s not, are they? I mean, you guys tell they are by teams. Do teammates care? No, not really. They don’t, right? Because they if he comes back and he pitches well then you know if you’re Bryce Harper or Titer but I mean Fernando Tatis you think the Padres’s care that he got in trouble for peeds? Basically baseball doesn’t even care. They put him on nobody really cares. Well the one risk is I mean if you get popped again then you’re out for the full season and all that. Okay. How did that affect Alex Rodriguez? I mean he’s another world. I’m just saying how did that affect him? Does anybody care anymore that he did that? Yes. Who? Me. Okay. But I’m just saying most fans out there, do they care? Hall of Fame voters. Okay. Do most fans care? I actually think they do. Do they? For him, yes, because he did it a billion times. I think for others, it’s harder to know exactly how deep it got. His story. We know how deep it got. He I mean, he’s told us a million times. He did it since he first started because he had all for Alex. I’m saying for other guys, they usually don’t give information. People love Barto Clone. Everyone just conveniently forgets he was a steroid guy. Nelson Cruz. Nelson I was there when Nelson Cruz got suspended. It was one of the most They’re happy ever. They’re nice guys and they’re happy. It doesn’t We’re We’re not trying to pick on people. We’re getting farther and farther from it mattering actually mattering for people testing positive for steroids because jerks and proofar he still gets all of his the rest of his contract. Was that worth it? Yes. People re people reboot their image. They they get to go back out and they play again. So unfortunately we’re getting farther from it matt from it mattering to the your career. H you know he was a steroid guy but ah who cares? We’re putting him on a on our team’s hall of fame. Ah he’s a steroid guy but who cares? He’s funny. He’s a nice guy. He’s got a great smile. Like it really doesn’t have the effect that I think some players feel like it does. And whether that’s jealousy from those players or that’s just players being like, I know what I put into it and I didn’t cheat and this guy still gets like notoriety and I don’t know what the answer is like ban him from everything baseball. No, nobody’s nobody’s going to do that. Yeah. Do you guys think there should be stricter penalties and do you think players I just don’t think it matters anymore? I mean, I think I think if I’m a person and I just want to make a bunch of money and I can do this and I can get a big contract and I miss half a year. So, let’s say I sign a five I’m just telling random number fiveyear $50 million contract and I have to give up 5 million. So, instead I get5 million45 million seems like a pretty good deal to me because they can’t take that money away. So, I I mean listen it’s it is what it is. We’re we’re out of the game. They’re trying to clean it up. There’s no way to there’s no perfect answer. Yeah. Right. But what I’m saying is is that when you’re talking about this, people forget. They move on. There’s the news cycle with social media is so short now. Oh, he was suspended. Oh, who cares? Oh, he’s back. Yes, he can help us get to the playoffs. Cool. That’s it. That’s where we’re at. I think opposing fans care, but then the fans Yeah, but half of them forget after a year anyways because then it’s on to the next thing. people. I tell I I told the story many times when I was in Anaheim years after the 2005 when I all the stuff happened with me in 2005 fans were booing me and a good buddy of mine I was sitting in the stands and he looks at him and goes, “Hey, why are you guys booing him?” And they go, “I don’t know. I guess he used steroids or something.” They have no idea. They have no idea. They Oh, he’s booing so I’m going to boo. They have no The Astros trash can thing has lasted longer than guys doing steroids hatred to Oh, it’s not even close. Not not even close. Yeah. Which one which one cheated the game more? Which one’s a bigger advantage? I would I would contend almost the steroids. Gosh, if you’re on the right roids, look at some of the careers. I mean, I’m sorry. Trajectories. It’s an important thing. I hate getting into those because it just gets it gets it gets me so we don’t talk about it very often. So, I I thought it was worth a few minutes to find out really if you guys think the penalties are strict enough. And you’re saying no one cares. Okay. Well, it’s it is still half a season. Like you do miss that player and also you do miss that player in the postseason. I do like that part, right? You don’t get to have that player come back. But if your jerks and pro your team doesn’t make the postseason, who cares? I agree. And also, if you sign a contract that’s long term, it’s not like it messes up the rest. There’s some fans that’ll be like, “Oh, that voids the contract. That’s tricky.” No, because then that’s the owners. The owners are like, “Fine, I’ll take I’ll take a no no long-term contract.” So there’s there’s got to be some culpability there where it’s also like you’re protecting you’re protecting players too. So I get it like you void contracts. Oh man, that would be great. Owners would be like sign up for that. We’re combating steroids. It brings in a whole It brings in a whole different thing. I’ll tell you what the thing is because you can listen if there’s a bad contract and I’ve heard people talk about this before. Like you can who’s to say oops oops I put something in your food by you know D and when it comes to that much money that’s what I’m saying like you and I know it’s a crazy conspiracy theory but I’ve heard new many people say like that could be a problem. It’s a it is a significant reason. Here’s a smoothie from the team. Oh it had something in it that oh you’re getting drug tested after the game. You had no idea. I didn’t take anything. You you sign up a guy for $250 million and you suddenly hate him. That’s a way to get rid of him. Yeah. That’s why that’ll never happen. So that’s a slippery slope, but that’s why it’s a good topic. It’s It’s complicated. It’s not easy. No, it’s not. It’s a really complicated. I just asked the question like, you know, that people people forget. They do. Fans forget. Forget quick. You’re right on the news cycle. My solution is you can’t get any awards after that. you test positive for steroids, you can’t you can’t make an all-star team. Can’t win MVPs. You can’t you can’t win those awards. All your team stuff, they don’t care about that. I mean, if you’re if you’re in a long-term deal, who cares? I mean, if you already get popped, you’re not going to the Hall of Fame. So, then who cares if you win MVPs and all that stuff? I mean, that’s if I’m in a $200 million contract and I lose, you know, I Oh, no. I can’t go to an All-Star game. Everyone opts out of those anyways. Oh, I can’t be the MVP. I’m probably not going to win those anyways. So, but this way you’re not taking it from other people. This way you’re not take Jerickson Profar. Jerken Proofar took somebody’s job and I forget what his name was in both of them were on the team at the beginning of the year in San Diego. Obviously, Jerken had the year that he had his ex velocity went up five miles per hour at age 30 and that guy ended up going down. He’s kind of been bouncing up and down from the big leagues the last two seasons. Like that’s that’s where that’s where I think it comes in. Is it the notoriety? No. It’s like I just don’t want I don’t want someone else taking somebody else’s award that did it clean. You’re talking about completely different things. You’re talking about a job. You’re talking about a job that’s not even You’re talking about two different award or a job like No, no, no, no. No, no. I’m saying that it affects other people. When when people do steroids, it affects other people. No doubt. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Well, to be continued. I’m sure this will come up at some point again. But good discussion and really just wanted to know like how else can you make this a more prominent penalty if you feel like it deserves to be that way because players did want more of a penalty and they did up the penalty, right? It was lower at some point and they pushed it up. Anyway, let’s swing back. We’ll do a little That’s what he said. Coming up next, a clip from Crush City territory. [Music] [Music] But MGM social media account, what do you have for us today? Give one MLB offseason bold prediction. Do you want me to read some examples that were replies to that tweet? Mhm. Jordan said, “Pete Alonzo signs with the Atlanta Braves.” Why? They have a first baseman. Yeah, that’s a B. That’s a bold play. That is bold. That is bold. I mean, he can DH. Marceluna is a free agent, they can. Pete won’t want to do that though. I know he won’t. But that that rules him out of a lot of places. Like if Kyle Schwarber leaves for some reason and they want a different DH, Pete could be that guy. But he has to be okay with that. Slide right in there. I think he would do it because you’ll still fill in. Guys get hurt, you shuffle around. I don’t know. Um, one other, I’m not gonna read it. Anyone else? Anyone else? Do you guys have one? What was the other one? I’m sick of it. I’m not I haven’t got into the offseason mode yet. I’m still recovering like Kika Hernandez from that from the World Series. I have something for you that just happened that a lot of fans were asking about specifically related to our show. Alden Gonzalez just tweeted, “The Dodgers have picked up Maxy’s option for 2026. It’s $10 million. That’s the easiest of all time.” They keep signing him to those deals and Max loves staying there. It’s like said, “Not not everybody goes for the top dollar.” No, really. That’s what I learned from listening to territory. Sometimes you’re just happy in a place. Max is happy in a place. $10 million a year is not a bad salary. No, it is not. Super underrated player. Glue guy. Look at their numbers when he plays. quality plate appearance guy. It’s a great interview. You can call us bias because he’s one of our favorite guests, but talk to any Dodger and that’s one of the first players that comes up when they say, “Tell me about the core and what’s super important here. We know Otani is good.” Stuff like that. But he changes the bats, changes the lineup when he’s in the game. Some teams have done that in the past. Like I know that was a thing with Carlos Santana in the middle of his career, right? Kratz knows the Phillies signed him. There were some issues there, but the Phillies initially were like, “Hey, we need better quality ABS. Let’s find the guy who puts together great ABS.” Here’s Carlos Santana. It permeates. It’s like osmosis. Everybody Everybody follows along. Bet MGM players, get yourself a No Sweat token to apply to any bet on Pro Football. To use it, add a bet on a Pro Football event to your bet slip. Activate the token. Receive bonus bets if the bet that was made with the token loses. Gambling problem or concern? Call 1800 gambler. [Music] Yeah, that’s what he said. That’s what he said. That’s what he said. That’s what he said. [Music] I think it’s really interesting because, you know, the the analytics have become such a heavy heavy part of coaching nowadays and um I I had a hard time watching this team. Now, it may be because the Astros have kind of have have run through all of these guys that were uh selectively aggressive. They were very good at zone command. and they swung in the zone and when they did they made great contact. When it was outside the zone, they didn’t chase. So, we’re starting to see maybe that generation of hitters kind of filter through the Astros and move on. The Bragman’s, you know, the Tuckers, some of these guys that were very good at in the zone type thing. And sometimes it becomes an institutional thing where you’re not getting the approach taught at a lower level and developing these guys to get to the big leagues because the idea is once you get to the big leagues, you’re going to see more pitches inside the zone. Granted, guys are nastier, spin rates are off the charts and the ball’s moving all over the place, but they have a tendency to be closer to the zone. And that’s where I kind of found some of my frustration maybe in the last couple of years watching Astros baseball is especially in 2025. Granted, there was a lot of roster turn turnover, so Alex Cron and Snicker had to work with a lot of different guys, but when you see a whiff rate escalate as quickly as it did, a contact rate drop as precipitously as it did, um, they were still making hard contact, but they weren’t making hard contact in appropriate situations. For me personally, I’m a I’m a risk guy. I am a get a runner home from third base, less than two outs guy. Those are those are paramount numbers for me for a team to be successful because the Astros will always do a good job of getting on base. That’s good stuff. That’s your former teammate Jeff Blum who calls Astros games for years and was a guest on Crush City Territory our Astros show. Your thoughts? I like I mean listen, analytics are very useful. I I want to make that abundantly clear. But there’s also some to be said for guys that can do both. If you can hit for power and you can drive a guy in from third base with less than two outs. We don’t really use that stat to evaluate players. I know, but that the goal of a game is to score more runs than the other team. So, if you have the opportunity to drive a runner in, a run batted in, that means you’re helping your team score runs, right? And if you don’t strike out with a runner on third in less than two outs and you can hit that sack fly or you can infield’s back and you hit the ground ball to second and get that runner in, that’s a big deal. Like give me those guys. Give me the guys that can get a guy over from second with less than two outs can do some different things because also it puts pressure on the defense because a strikeout it’s like one okay he struck out now what onto the next right like again but I get analytics and there are times where yes go for the homers but there are also times where you might have to do right what’s that hit a ball to the right side yeah I mean listen I I understand analytics and I agree with it analytics are a great way to build a baseball and making contact. You’re just talking about hitting, making contact. Being able to change your swing to be able to hit the inside of the ball to move a runner, pull hook something if you’re a lefty to try to get the runner over. Like, those are things that win you the ball games. So, if you build your team based on analytics, I agree with that. But you can’t run it and play it every single day going, “Here comes a two-run dinger. I know we’re down by one and if I get this runner over to third, it’s great, but it’s even better if I get the runner in. Like I saw people that were complaining about the IKF bunt with Vlatty on second, nobody out and moving him to third with the World Series on the line. Like I I saw people complaining about it. You have three outs and you give one away. Took a really good play to make the play. Like there’s things that you need to do to win games. Like AJ said, scoring runs wins you the game if you score more than the other team. OPS differential. Let let me ask you this though, Katr what you just said. You just said you want to build your team with analytics, but then you also have to have this other guy. How can you do both then? Because if you if you just build your team off analytics, then you also that doesn’t, as Scott said, include certain certain things that aren’t necessarily statistically, you know, so how do you how do you do both? We’re talk we’re talking about a lineup, right? Or just because that’s what Blumber was talking about. I want the guys to hit the ball as possibly hard as they can hit it. And then I’m gonna have coaches who say, “You know what? You hit this ball so freaking hard. We need you to be able to make this adjustment in your 600 at bats, maybe in a hundred of them, maybe in 50 of them to help us win the game. We’re not just swinging for the downs.” Okay? Analytically, you can find guys who steal bases. Doesn’t mean analytics likes stolen bases. just means you got to find guys that are efficient in it, proficient in it. Um, I’m trying to think what else, you know, because people say, “Oh, analytics, all they care about is the three true outcomes.” You are correct. So, build your team with guys that hit the ball really freaking hard and then say, “How can we make an adjustment when this type of pitcher is pitching against us to be able to get the job done?” You can’t just be a lineup that’s like, “Oh boy, you’re facing a Cam Schlitler. You’re facing a Treya Savage. You have no chance to wear him down because of your swings.” You have to be able. And that’s where I think the coaches come in. I think that’s where the coach is understanding that the reason this guy hits the ball hard is because he is full cell in everything that in every one of his swings. How can you teach him to stay in the zone longer? How can you teach him to be okay with hitting 35 homers instead of 40? That’s that’s the that’s going to be the teams that make that adjustment that that take your team to that’s what you just said. You can’t because the Y you just talked about the Yankees. Congratulations. How are they doing in these situations? They stink at them usually that that you have to be able to change. They’re not going players aren’t going to because the Yankee I’m using the Yankees for example, they want the hard guys to hit the ball hard. We don’t want him to change. We want homers. We want homers. Swing hard. Anthony Vulpi. If Anthony Vulpi didn’t try to hit 25 to 30 homers a year, cut down on his swing. His batting average would go up. His OBP would probably go up. His power would go down and he could steal more bases. But what is he going to get paid for? Hitting homers. So that’s what they all try to do. That that that’s the bottom line. So yes, what Blamer is saying I agree with. But at the end of the day, players in their agents say, “Man, you got to hit the ball out of the park and you got to drive the ball because that’s how you’re going to get paid.” Yep. Quick, what did Max say? Answer in the break. Hold on. We’ll we’ll continue for two minutes for [Music] Go ahead, EK. tell you, baby. I I mean, what did Max Muny say? He in the in the World Series, he didn’t care that he went 0 for seven in that one game. There is a way, in my opinion, to take the analytics to create the team that is going to be the best team you can possibly put out there based on analytics. Then when it comes to the games, we got to have different conversations. Why did we pick you up? It was because you hit the ball really hard. And the Yankees, because we were talking about the Yankees, they picked up a lot of guys. They tried to get at one point they had three of the hardest hitting players in the big leagues and they had two dudes in the minor leagues that were the hardest, you know, hardest exit velocity. If you But you can’t you just said you but you build your you just said you build your team off that. Those guys that usually have the highest exit velocity, strike out a lot. John Carlos Stanton, Aaron Judge swings and misses more than any. You can’t coach them though unless you start at a younger age in the minor leagues and develop that which they don’t do because how do they get to the big leagues? By hitting the ball hard in the Yankees organization and hitting homers. Hey, that’s how they get to the big leagues. Right or wrong? This sounds like Dave Hopkins of the Blue Jays this year and how he helped players crash. But they have different types of players though. Yes, they have different types of players. They don’t have all home run guys, right? But Popkins would go to Vulpi, right? Theoretically. I’m not calling out Yanks hitting coach, but development wise and be like, “Hey, dude, like this might be more of the player that you are. Let’s try to go down this path.” Yankee fans, you could check. But then people But then Vulpy’s agent in his ear is going, “Don’t listen to him, dude. You need to keep hitting homers and you’re going to keep getting paid.” Line, but I can’t I’m not going to say it. You what? His agent I’m not I mean I don’t even know whose agent is. I think it’s Jim Murray. It was Jim Murray. He actually called Rob Manford and said, “Hey, Rob, what you think you’re too soon?” But you know what I’m saying? I’m sorry I can’t. I know that’s funny. But you know what I’m saying though is like you Yeah, we can all use Popkins. But honestly, out of their guys, IKF Bose’s a contact guy. Vlatt’s always been a contact guy. Kirk’s a contact guy, right? Springer’s always been pretty decent at making contact. Varo makes contact. Barger is probably the only guy that really swings and he swings out of his ass. Yep. But he still makes pretty good contact. They don’t have Aaron Judge, John Carlos Stanton, Vulpi. These guys are, you know, Austin Wells are just robust. Yes. They don’t have those guys. So you if you don’t if you build your team off analytics, you get one or the other and the one analytics wants and the other one baseball people want. Meaning like old schooler or old school people. It’s fine. Both work. Mhm. The Dodgers have a great combo of both. Correct. Yep. [Music] All right, before we go, this is Pete Machesca. He’s a Fox guy. He did the World Series for the last 22 years. He received the Tony Kubak Tony Kubc Polish Hall of Fame, National Sports Polish Hall of Fame award for media excellence. They they gave this to him during the World Series. So, I wanted to give him some love. Welcome to the Hall of Fame, Pete. We love you. I love you. Welcome to the Polish Hall of Fame, buddy. It’s something he’d been talking about for a while. We got him in now. He’s got to go give a speech. He He retired from baseball. He’s still doing football. One of the great guys in baseball and in and in media for baseball. Always promoting baseball on the game. Just congratulations, Pete. I want to make sure that he got some love for that. Yeah. Awesome baseball career. And his football career will continue producing wise. Was that Go, Pete. He’s got Polish sausage. Oh, man. He’s got the most New Jersey accent. Go P. Oh, it’s unbelievable. It’s just awesome. I love me again. Pete Mesa, one of the best. Congrats, Pete. Uh, for the YouTube crowd, we’re going to stay on for a few minutes. [Music] I have a quote from Joe Musgrove. Remember, Joe Musgrove’s coming back. If healthy. Good pitcher. Good pitcher. I’m saying if when healthy, good pitcher. Why are you laughing? Because you just said if healthy, he’s coming. Well, like I’m saying like I didn’t mean it that way. I I know, but it was just the way the way he came out. The way I meant it is when Joe’s healthy, he’s pretty good. That’s a nice guy to have in the rotation. He wasn’t there this year. Quote on the stammon hire. Quote, a little surprised at first. didn’t even know he was even considering taking a role like that. But knowing he’s in that spot, I couldn’t be more excited. Level of respect he has from everyone in that clubhouse. I’m extremely excited. That’s Marty Caswell uh reporting on that quote from Mr. Musgrove. So, they didn’t know he was going for it. I wonder how it all went down. And he probably didn’t even have to interview. There will be a great story about how it happened because it had to be a conversation where either he said, “Hey, I’m interested in this.” Or Prowler said, “Hey, I think you are interest.” Answer obviously was yes. Mhm. It’s all you need to know. That quote’s all you need to know. I love the surprise hire. So many people were just auto poo holes. And this goes to show a nine and a half hour meeting, which was what it was reported for Pooh Holes and is in person, doesn’t mean and probably is a little too long. Nine and a half hours. I can’t I can’t sit with anybody for nine and a half hours. That’s a If I’m on a plane overseas, man, there’s at least a three-hour nap, right? Was get a break from whoever’s sitting next to me. For me, that would be at least two, if not three meals. There’s a lot going on in that nine and a half hours. 9 and half hours on the bathroom. There’s a lot of sharing a bathroom in the minor leagues in that nine and a half hours. Nobody wants to see me eat a meal either. I’m getting fired. I’m getting They’re I’m halfway through the and I’m getting I’m eating and they’re watching me. They’re like, “Oh, sorry. This interview’s over.” Yeah. So, you skipped the meal, right? I would, too. I’d be annoying. You just have smoothies. I did an interview once with a team for a broadcast role and the guy took me out to lunch and it was one of those oh like it’s one of their places so he ordered everything and I’m like I got bad news for you bud. This is not going to go well though. I have a lot of allergies. You cannot order for me. I did not get the job. Uh all right territory. Yeah I am bougie. Uh Dodgers territory coming up next. Hope you enjoyed the show today because we have another one tomorrow. Friday, Kevin Polar is back on the show with us for Friday’s episode.

A.J. Pierzynski, Erik Kratz and Scott Braun welcome @NorthSideTerritory host Patrick Mooney to talk Chicago Cubs offseason checklist. Kansas City Royals #2 prospect Blake Mitchell joins the show. Plus, hear from Rational Yankees Fan (@rational_yankee on X) about a cyptic MLB call related to a future work stoppage.

The hosts lead the show with news the San Diego Padres have a new manager. Plus, Bruce Bochy is headed back to San Francisco. Join the conversation in the chat!

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0:00 Start of Show
4:28 Craig Stammen hired as Padres new manager
18:32 Leody Taveras signing with Orioles
20:23 Cubs Offseason To-Do List with Patrick Mooney
38:42 Kenta Maeda returning to Japan
41:40 Giants add Jayce Tingler to staff, Bruce Bochy returns
48:21 Don Mattingly leaving Blue Jays
51:20 Rational Yankees fan on MLB Fan Council
1:14:10 Blue Jays moves
1:17:00 Blake Mitchell talks AFL
1:32:00 Phillies bringing back Jose Alvarado
1:42:37 BETMGM bold offseason predictions
1:44:24 Geoff Blum on analytics
1:55:47 Tribute to Pete Macheska
1:57:11 Joe Musgrove on Craig Stammen