Spring Is Here Again!

In the first episode of the Inside The Diamonds podcast, we cover the Spring Breakout, Gerrit Cole Injury news, Joey Votto in Toronto, fantasy baseball thoughts, and much much more! 
Tune in with us weekly as we cover the entire MLB season.

What is Inside The Diamonds?

Inside the Diamond is your one-stop shop for everything MLB! From in-depth analysis of the latest games and breaking news, to minor league prospects we've got you covered. Join us for insightful discussions on the game's history, current events, and future trends. Whether you're a die-hard fan or just getting into baseball, Inside the Diamond has something for everyone.

welcome back everyone to

inside the diamonds podcast

I'm your host jc and I'm

joined again tonight by

co-host cj how you doing cj

not too bad how are you

not bad getting ready

excited the season's

inching closer a lot of

stuff going on we had a

good uh first podcast

together talking about a

bunch of different stuff

and I think tonight's

episode there's a lot more

to cover uh as things are

starting to kind of shake

out with rosters and we've

got some exciting things

that are new to the uh

baseball world that are

coming up sets that stage I

believe this weekend are at

the end of this week so

Real excited to kick this

off tonight and kind of

talk it through with you.

Can't wait.

All right, so speaking of,

the newest thing in

baseball right now is the

MLB prospect spring breakout,

where each team is going to

have anywhere from 20 to 25

of their top prospects

facing off in a game.

And this is something that was new,

and I don't think they

really announced it until, like, January.

Yeah, it was under wraps for a while.

It was weird.

So it's – I mean,

I guess it's kind of new.

It's exciting.

It's kind of neat.

We've been kind of covering

it with the prospects that

we've been talking about for each team.

I know just today the Cubs, for instance,

announced that PCA, Pete Crowe,

Armstrong is going to join that roster,

which after being option two, Iowa,

makes some sense.

But there's going to be a

lot of interesting games,

and I hope that they generate enough –

availability to the fans, you know,

whether it be through ESPN, MLB Network,

just make it available

because if they really want to grow it,

it's not just about those

folks are down at spring

training to be able to see it.

This is something for these

baseball fans that.

you know,

maybe only get to read about

these guys or, you know,

maybe once or twice a year,

they come to a park near

them for a minor league

game that they can go and see them.

But I think this is really

big for baseball in general,

to be able to go and see

these top up and coming

prospects that some will be

in the majors this year and

others in the years to come.

So I'm really excited to

watch the Cubs in general, um,

a couple of other teams I'm interested in,

but I wanted to get your

take on it and what you

thought and any other details, you know,

about what's, what's to come.

I am very excited for this.

The second I heard about it, I said,

this is going to be fantastic.

Um, I, myself, I subscribe to the MLB TV.

So I watch all of the minor league games.

I can win.

My teams aren't playing

right before the big red

zone beginning comes on for

all the other games.

But, um,

One thing I know that they

did is they kind of jammed

it all together on,

I think it's the 16th.

I forget what day it is,

but they kind of jammed it.

15th and 16th, I think, yeah.

I think there's a game the 14th, too,

which is the big game.

It's the Orioles and Pirates,

so you get to see Paul

Skeens and Jackson Holiday,

which is exciting.

Yeah.

But then I think, yeah,

I'm looking at it right now.

On the 16th, everybody plays at 1.

They just jammed everybody to 1 o'clock,

so it's great.

It's going to be good for the game, but

you're going to miss good

prospects that aren't on your team that,

you know, a couple of years down the road,

you could be trading for at some point.

But I think from what I'm seeing, um,

you're going to get three

games on the one game on the 14th,

three games on the 15th,

it looks like five games on

the 16th and one on the 17th.

So you're going to get to

see a lot of the top

prospects in baseball, um,

You get a chance to see one

of the best pitchers, I think,

when he gets a chance in Paul Skeens.

I mean, that game on the 14th,

I'm going to be locked in.

I'm going to be watching

that game from first pitch

to the last out.

So it's exciting.

It's very exciting.

The White Sox Cubs will be a good one.

One that I'm very interested to see,

one player, is Blue Jays at Yankees.

It was on the 16th.

It's at 4.05.

Ricky Tiedemann, left-handed pitcher,

he will be taking the ball

to start for the Blue Jays.

I watched a lot of him last

year being a New Hampshire

kid for the Fisher Cats last year,

and he's exciting.

He is very exciting.

So I think that will be a good game.

And MLB hyped up Spencer

Jones being on the Yankees.

And I haven't seen – it's

slowly coming out day by day,

but they're slowly starting

to announce who the

starting pitchers will be for each team.

So that's something to watch

as you listen to us talk about prospects.

Look to see who's starting

for your team coming up

because that's something

you're going to want to

watch for the future

because it definitely could

be a potential guy you're

seeing on opening day four

years from now.

I was looking at the same

schedule you were looking at, and to me –

The timing obviously sucks

because you've got college

basketball that's starting to wind down,

right?

Getting ready for March Madness.

You've got ESPN that's

obviously locked into that.

So you've lost that avenue

to kind of propose and pitch these games.

You've got TBS that's not

going to be interested at

this point in time.

So to me, if this goes well this year,

if I was MLB,

next year I would look to do this –

First, first week of March,

second week of March and

kind of do it like they do

with opening day.

You know, ESPN,

that's that's one day a

year that I generally if

I'm not at the Red Sox opening day game,

I generally try to work

from home and or take the

day off and I'll start at

noon and watch all night long.

And if you've got that and

you've got this opportunity for me,

if you start early in the

year and I know that camps and this,

that and the next thing are

all kind of spread out.

But if you got this going and you did,

let's say,

especially for MLB network and ESPN,

if you've got it set up and

you've lined up your top 10

or top 12 prospects, like teams, right?

Here are your teams in the

top 12 with prospects.

Line them up, match them up.

Show the top 12, top 14.

If you do it two days in a row, shit,

you show seven games,

you can show 28 teams.

You know,

and really kind of showcase this

and kind of build it up and

allow fans to watch it.

You know, let it be on ESPN.

Not everyone is going to

subscribe and pay for MLB

Network or MLB TV like we do.

know so I think it's

something it's a great

thing that they're doing

but I think they've missed

the boat a little bit again

timing wise with all the

sports going on kind of

makes it hard but if you're

going to try and grow this

having it only available to

those that are actually

down in that area for

spring training or those

are going to fork over the

money to mlb tv not

everyone has that

opportunity not to mention the fact that

not everyone has the luxury

of pulling up a second

screen and popping it up at work,

you know, without getting in trouble.

So I really hope they,

it goes well for them this year.

I'm excited for it.

I know a lot of other people

that are excited for the fall baseball,

but I really think that to

capitalize on this opportunity,

if they could team up with ESPN MLB,

even if they showed five games,

you start at noon, noon, three, six,

and then a late game out in

Arizona on one day.

And then MLB network does the same thing.

A lot of people have the

opportunity to do split screen.

Yep.

There's a lot that could be

gained by structuring it a

little bit differently.

I know camp is a little bit

different and that comes into play,

but at the same time,

depending on what the true

goal is of this project to me,

spreading it out and doing

something like that with

the folks earlier is going

to make it that much more successful.

You know what I mean?

Cause now all of a sudden

you've got someone that is

watching a game, you know,

say they're a Mets fan and

they're watching them play the Mariners.

Well,

let's say they do end up getting MLB TV.

and the Mets are playing, they're over,

the Mariners are on.

They're going to go and

watch that game and follow maybe Brian Wu,

or they're going to follow somebody else.

It's just going to grow the

game that much more and get kids,

even kids,

more involved with some of the

– especially now that

baseball cards have kind of

come back into the scene

and it's kind of a big thing again,

collecting cards,

and everyone's going after the prospects,

you know, the Bowman cards.

You do this,

allow these kids to actually

see them play.

Give them an opportunity

because once the season starts,

unless they're called up

and it's on in market and

they're playing their team,

they don't get to see them

other than highlights.

And highlights aren't going

to show a guy that puts out

the effort time in and time

out if he's not getting on

base or hitting a home run.

Right.

So the more opportunities

kids and these fans have a

chance to see these top stars,

it's going to grow that

excitement faster.

not just for their team,

but baseball in general,

as it kind of goes through the years.

We talked last time in

regards to all the

different things they're

trying to do to grow the game,

but it's all about availability.

The more you make it available,

the easier it is to grow followers, fans,

and just fans not just of the team,

but in baseball in general.

So I kind of hope it goes well,

but I hope they structure

it different next time

because that was the one

thing I was a little

disappointed with and how they set it up.

Yeah,

you definitely missed the opportunity

where, you know,

if we did this a week earlier,

you could have it stretch

out the whole week and you got,

unless aside from hockey and basketball,

it's your prime time.

People are getting, you know,

once the calendar flips to

March and everybody knows, hey,

we're only three,

four weeks away from opening day.

let's take advantage of this.

Like there's a chance,

like that they do with the

world baseball classic,

the world baseball classic

starts in the end of

February and runs to the

early part of March.

You could do that with this

and you could have even, you know,

more than one game, you know,

you could have like, we're all excited.

I think that's the game to

watch on the first one is

the pirates and the Orioles.

Yeah.

But you know,

you could run in the Orioles

and the nationals and do a

rivalry game of prospects.

Like,

I think I came out with our

top 100 about a month ago,

and in the top 10 already

is one Oriole and two Nationals.

Yeah, two Nationals.

That's three of the top 10

prospects in one game.

I'd be tuned into that.

I want to see the future.

The future of the game is in hands,

especially with Cumming.

Advertise it.

You know, showcase it.

Yeah.

So...

It'll be good.

It's new.

It's kind of like World

Baseball Classic when they

rolled that out the first time.

They made improvements.

It's going to go.

I think it's big for baseball.

I think it's just exciting

in general to see these kids play,

especially with college baseball.

College baseball kicking off, too.

You know what I mean?

Not that the top prospects

are playing with minor league teams,

but now all of a sudden,

if you're paying attention

to some of your top prospects or even,

you know,

wondering who's available in

this year's draft,

depending on how big of a fan you are.

Now,

if you're watching some college baseball,

you're paying a little bit

closer attention to different players,

different positions.

So there's a lot of stuff

that it could grow the game in general.

And I'm looking forward to it.

Yeah,

it's going to be exciting and I can't

wait for that.

All right, so as we know,

Garrett Cole suffered an injury today.

What do you think is next for the Yankees,

given the news of Garrett Cole's injury?

The timing to me is what I

find interesting.

Yesterday,

for those of you who have Instagram,

if you follow Blake Snell,

he tweeted a story of just

a black screen with the eye emoji.

now all of a sudden about 24

hours later we find out

garrett cole is going for

an mri on his elbow a

little bit weird timing um

now I just found it I

looked it up real quick

garrett cole is also a

scott boris client so is

boris putting a little bug

in the year say a little

something going on here you know

Is your star race is going

in for an MRI on his elbow.

Could it be Tommy John?

Who knows?

I mean, they don't,

from what I've seen in all reports today,

they don't sound overly

concerned about it, but you never know.

I mean, you could be,

you're going in for

anything on your elbow.

Who knows?

So the question becomes if

Garrett Cole is done for

the years that opened the

door for a Blake's now one year contract,

you know, or are we talking longer term?

Cause right now, I mean, let's be serious.

I'm a big Red Sox fan,

but I didn't like the

Yankees when I was younger.

They've grown on me.

I like Judge.

I respect a lot of those guys.

But is Nestor Cortez really

going to be the guy at number one?

Or is Carlos Rodon your number one?

They've had great sprints, great sprints.

But, I mean, you're going to need a guy.

Stroman's not a number one.

Stroman's a good pitcher.

But to me,

a number one is somebody who's

going to come out and dominate.

Strowman has those starts,

but he doesn't produce it.

And you don't expect it night in,

night out from him.

Snell can do that.

He's won two Cy Youngs.

Is that the move?

But again,

now we're all speculating with

doing that with...

It's just an MRI.

It could be nothing.

It could come out tomorrow.

Level of discomfort is what he says.

There's a level of

discomfort that's concerning.

Now, it could be nothing.

It could be one of those

situations where they say, all right,

we're going to shut him

down for two weeks.

Two weeks goes on.

He's not there yet.

It could be one of those

situations where they drag

it out just enough that he makes a start,

two starts.

It's still not there.

And then the end result is Tommy John.

And again, that's jumping the gun,

everyone.

We're not saying that we

know something that you don't.

We know exactly what you do.

Garrett Cole has elbow discomfort.

He's going in for an MRI.

I know that Blake Snell

probably is having the time

of his life just screwing

with people left and right

with social media because

everyone bites hard.

I mean,

I myself put out an article there

the other day yesterday

about Blake Snell.

going to the Cubs because it was rumored.

Me personally,

I don't think Blake Snell

being a fourth left-handed

starter for the Cubs makes sense.

I also don't think Blake

Snell going to the Yankees

makes a whole lot of sense

unless they overpay,

just simply because he

stated he wants to stay on

the West Coast.

So that could just be a play

for get more money,

whether it be the Angels, Padres,

whoever.

But I think Boris, as you said,

being his client or his agent,

certainly could be pushing.

And I think Blake Snell could be,

if he were to go to the Yankees,

would be one of those situations,

whether it's similar to the

Bellinger contract or Matt Chapman,

where it's a three-year deal

with an opt-out after the

first and after the second,

and it's high money first year,

and it kind of teeters down

to level out the next two.

I personally think Jordan

Montgomery is the guy that

would end up going back there.

Familiarity, he's been there before.

I want him to go there.

I don't want him on the Red Sox personally,

but I'll be very interested

because you look at the

rest of that rotation, like you said,

Garrett Cole,

the one thing about Garrett Cole,

when he would come out,

you're guaranteed that he's

going to get you deep in the game.

So after the fourth and

fifth starter come out and

throw five innings and kind

of get the bullpen worn out,

you have Cole back up.

He's going to go seven,

six strong at least,

and it gets you to that eighth,

ninth inning guy.

So Stroman can do that.

I watched him all the time

when he was with the Cubs

and even when he was with Toronto.

He can do that.

He can get late in the game.

You know, he's a ground ball pitcher.

He's not a strikeout guy.

He's not an overpowering guy.

Generally, he will eat up innings,

but he's not that shutdown

number one starter.

He could, I mean, with that said,

on the teams he was playing

and pitching for before,

never really had the

potential or should say never really,

except for last year in the first half,

put up the run support.

I do believe the Yankees

could make a Marcus Stroman

into a number two.

Number one, he's not Garrett Cole.

He's not going to be that

shutout guy where he's

going to go in and just dominate.

Um, he may go in and pitch six innings of,

you know, four or five hit ball,

throw 95 pitches,

but he's going to give up two runs.

You know, he's going to leave a sinker up.

Someone's going to take

advantage of him in the

left field portion in Yankee stadium.

Uh,

The other name that we

talked about last podcast

was Trevor Bauer.

He just pitched in that

minor league game against the Dodgers,

was dominant.

He wants very little money.

The Yankees, if Cole goes out,

I could very easily see

them making two moves,

Bauer and one of the two,

Montgomery or Snell.

I don't want to see it, mind you,

just because I'm not a fan

of the Yankees either.

But I could see them being like, okay,

we need to double down

because Cole is our ace.

Cortez, you don't know what you have.

And then the rest of the rotation,

you don't know what you've got either.

So it'll be very interesting.

I don't think they want to

do that to Clark Schmidt.

I think that's the problem

of why they haven't signed

Snell is they don't want to ruin him.

He's young.

They don't want to ruin that

psyche on him.

So I think that's why you

haven't seen Snell.

That's why with this hit happening,

Snell might make sense.

I don't think they signed two.

I agree with you, Montgomery,

but the only issue with Montgomery,

like you and I have talked

about lengths on end,

he's not a number one.

You're losing your number one.

You got to replace him with a number one.

So it has to be Snell if

they go a route to sign somebody.

If not, they're going to go.

I think you got to go.

Strowman is your one.

I mean, granted,

we're all speculating that

Cole's injury is Tommy John.

It might not be.

It might come back.

And like you said, it might be two weeks.

They sent him out.

He comes back.

He's fine.

Yeah.

But if speculating that he's

out for the year now, that's interesting.

But.

It'll be very interesting to

see the next couple of

weeks in regards to what news comes out,

what's the results of the MRI,

do they slow play it,

do they – because

oftentimes a lot of these top guys,

we saw it with Sale,

drag it out for a little

bit just in hopes of seeing pitch.

So if they were to do something like that,

That would hurt, but at the same time,

it would get them there to

see because maybe it's not a signing.

Maybe it's a Dylan Cease,

Shane Beaver type trade.

Again,

Garrett Cole very well could be

there for opening day.

He very well could be there

for his second start.

We don't know.

It's all speculation and

probably wouldn't be

spending much time on it if

it wasn't the Yankees and

their number one ace.

So there's going to be a lot

of stuff that's going to

come out of this.

And now that you mentioned

Boris being Cole's agent as well,

because he's Montgomery's

and Snell's agent.

So you've got to think that

if it is serious with Cole,

he's going to want to push

that they make a decision

sooner rather than later,

because he can see dollar

signs everywhere.

back in New York and he's

comfortable negotiating with those guys.

Not that he's not

comfortable with any of the teams,

but it's very interesting

dynamic that Boris has a

role in all of this.

If there's a big injury again,

the if is the biggest thing here.

We're not, we're not doctors.

We're not reading an MRI

before it happens or it's made public.

It's just,

it's something interesting to

see how it plays out

because you've got to think

after last year,

finishing the way they did,

that the Yankees in spending

money and going to get Soto.

For one year.

Yeah, for one year.

You got to assume that they can't let him,

if it is worse than we're thinking,

they can't just sit idle.

They'll have to do something.

So that's the question though.

So say,

like I just pointed out and you said it,

Soto isn't here for one year.

Sounds like he's going to

test the free agency market.

Does Blake Snell sit there and go,

next year's free agent class is loaded?

I mean, the pitching, if you look at it,

is just loaded.

So does Snell go,

I'll take one year with the Yankees,

try to go win another Cy

Young if Cole's out for the year,

go do a one-year deal with the Yankees,

try to win another Cy Young.

Oh, and now on top of that,

I have a second straight Cy Young,

and I'm a free agent again.

Yeah.

Do I go get the bag?

It's, you know,

the Yankees are going to go for it.

This is kind of the

situation he's waiting for, right?

He's waiting for a team that's desperate,

that's willing to overpay,

but also on his terms, knowing,

like you said, in regards to next year,

similar to this year with Yamamoto,

there's going to be a need.

Someone's going to overpay.

So I can very easily, like you said,

see him play the market,

go one year deal.

This is what he's waiting for, right?

He's waiting for a number

one to go down so he can plug himself in.

Probably didn't want it to be New York.

I don't think he really,

truly wanted to go pitch there.

Um,

But it's going to be a very

interesting situation to

see how it plays out.

And again,

with it being the Yankees and

having it be Garrett Cole,

there's obviously going to

be a lot more attention on

it than if it was, you know,

someone pitching for the A's.

I did see two,

and I don't know if this is true.

I only saw it one place.

Cole was struggling to go

start to start in the spring.

So he struggled to make his next start,

and that's what brought this on.

They're just having him get looked at.

But the fact that he

couldn't go start to start,

even if it's not Tommy John,

that's a concern for the

regular season because you

might line him up.

If it lags on,

we're talking August and you

get a big game against Houston,

who you're fighting for a

wild card spot with, or Texas or whoever,

and now your best pitcher

can't go in a series where

he's going up against

Justin Verlander or

DeGrom's back for the

Rangers and he's going up against DeGrom.

And now you're talking,

I don't have my best pitcher.

Are we in trouble?

So even if it's not Tommy

John and he's having

discomfort this early,

it's a cause for concern.

I'm just making note because

now that talking about this,

you just kind of generated

some ideas and a thought

that I've got for at the

end of the show that I want

to bring up and kind of

just talk through with you

in regards to what would make some sense.

But we'll touch upon that down the road.

So like we said, MRI could be nothing.

But at the same time, like you just said,

if you're coming off an off-season,

you weren't in the playoffs,

you weren't taxed,

you weren't going into it.

You didn't end the year with

an injury and you're

struggling to go start to

start where you're starting and throwing,

you know, first start,

you're throwing maybe 30

pitches and ending maybe two next one,

maybe three innings, right?

If you're not being able to

bounce back from that and

you're having a level of discomfort,

There's some concern there.

So it'll be very interesting.

We'll make sure to keep an eye on it.

And I'm sure if you're

following us and check in

with the website at Inside the Diamond,

there'll be plenty of

articles and plenty of news to be broken.

And we'll make sure to be

covering it all and kind of

giving our analysis of

what's going to happen next.

But it's definitely

something that I'll be

paying attention to just

out of my pure dislike for the Yankees.

and seeing what's going to happen.

But with all that said,

one thing I wanted to kind

of hit on tonight with you

as we're getting geared up

for the start of the season is, you know,

we've talked about who we

think is going to be surprise teams,

who are players we're looking for.

And with me paying a lot of

attention to the NL Central team,

I kind of wanted to get your

feel for who you think is

going to be the bust,

the surprise bust team of the year,

similar to the Cardinals last year,

which to me, looking at their roster,

at least offensively,

and finding out and realizing that,

holy shit, you know,

you finished last in the NL Central,

20 games under .500.

Who do you think could be a team that,

on paper –

should be, you know,

fringe playoff team or

wildcard team or at least

top of the division that

you think is going to fall

flat on their face this year?

So this is the thing.

When you sent this to me, I was like, ooh,

I don't know if there's a

single team I can think of.

But because you just put

that aspect out there of

they not fall flat on their face,

but they don't make the

playoffs and they should,

is the Texas Rangers.

And the reason why I say that,

I love them in the second

half next season.

I mean this season.

I think second half,

they'd be the best team in baseball.

They might post a record as the best,

but they have no rotation

to start the year.

And they've already said,

I think we actually had an

article about this.

Maybe we didn't,

and we should if we didn't,

that they're not bringing

back Montgomery.

They can't afford him.

But they're going to be without DeGrom.

scherzer uh they signed

tyler I forget how you say

his last name mailey this

offseason he's out um and

so they what's your

rotation I trust you of all

the evaldi's not going to

go undefeated to start the

year he'll probably have

two to three losses but now

you're talking about

piecing together rotation

and you know they're

defending world series champions

But they still got to take on the Astros.

They got the Mariners.

You know, if the Angels get snout,

the Angels will be okay.

The A's okay.

The A's are the A's.

But then now,

because of the new schedule

that started last season,

you're only facing your

division 13 times.

You're facing everybody else.

And you don't have your two best pitchers.

You know,

they pieced it together last year.

Montgomery wasn't great in the playoffs.

I had an argument with a

friend the other day where

I thought Montgomery was

actually better than he was.

And I looked at his numbers

in the playoffs.

He wasn't great.

I told you that with the eyeball test.

I had to watch the Altuve at

bat against the Astros.

and then looking at his

stats like I think we

talked about this as soon

as I came on with uh inside

the diamonds and you were

big we were talking red sox

we were talking cubs we

were talking to everyone

and we were talking

rotation pieces at that

time because that's when

glass now that's when you

know cease all these trade

rumors were bouncing around

and you were very high

originally on montgomery and

Again,

last year I didn't pay a lot of

attention if it wasn't the

Cubs or Red Sox watching any games,

playoff games.

Just so happened to start

when my son's hockey does

and I'm usually not around.

So I'm listening to it.

So it's not an eyeball test

you get to hear.

So I went back on MLB TV and

watched game one.

And that to me was when I

started looking into stats,

especially at Fenway.

And I think we both agree

now that he is that number three.

He's a comfortable number

three for a stud team.

And the fact that the angel

or the Rangers aren't

willing to try to find a way, I mean,

after what the Dodgers did,

I don't think there's any

real excuse to not sign

someone that you want to be

on your roster.

There's creative ways to do it.

It all takes, you know, again,

you have to be a little bit

outside the box thinking, but yeah,

If they really wanted him

and they felt he was that

valuable and in the situation they're in,

they'd bring him back some way.

I would think so.

I don't know why you're not.

So you think the Rangers,

that was originally who I

was going to say as well.

I'm pulling up right now.

I'm pulling up fan graphs right now.

I want to see what their

rotation on fan graphs says

for the start of the season.

So we got Nathan Eovaldi, John Gray,

Andrew Heaney, Dane Dunning,

and Cody Bradford.

I'm okay with Eovaldi.

Gray, if healthy,

isn't a bad four or five guy,

but he's not a two.

Heaney was good last year.

I think he pitched primarily

out of the bullpen, but a three?

Again,

we just said General Montgomery's a

two or a three.

Is he really going to hurt that bad?

You're going to bump Cody Bradford out.

And think about come playoff time.

Because, I mean,

if you add Jordan Montgomery,

that might hold you over until, you know,

DeGrom, Scherzer are back.

And then at that point,

your playoff rotation, you're talking,

you know, Eovaldi, DeGrom, Scherzer,

and Montgomery.

It's not a bad rotation.

No.

Especially knowing the

background of both Scherzer and DeGrom.

Yep.

How many starts are they

going to make once they come back?

probably double digits,

at least the low double digits.

They hope.

Yeah.

So that's, you know, coming off of, again,

you got to wonder with the Rangers,

one of the reasons similar

to what you mentioned is

they're coming off the World Series win.

So the players may be very

highly motivated.

What about the front office?

Plenty of excuses there to

have a down year.

with a pitching staff, right?

They have to spend the money.

They don't want you to spend the money.

They've got the bats and

kind of just try to piece

it through that division,

which wasn't very good last year.

But I think the Ranger,

the Astros are always going to be tough.

I think the Mariners have

put themselves in a position,

and I think they have one

of the top three rotations in baseball.

And I'm not high on the Angels.

I just think that, unfortunately,

Mike Trout is –

you know,

getting towards the back end of

his career and they have

done nothing really to support.

I think they've tried to bring in pieces,

but they've all seemed to

being the wrong ones at the wrong time.

And as you said, the A's are who they are.

So we both agreed or both

were thinking right off the bat,

the Rangers.

So to be a little bit different,

And as you were talking and

I was agreeing with you,

I'm rifling down through each division,

right?

We just talked about the Yankees.

I wasn't very high on them

to begin with because of

their pitching staff.

I mean,

I think they have the offense to in

that division to compete,

but I think that division.

is Baltimore's to lose.

And I unfortunately don't –

I can't say the Orioles – some would say,

well,

you've got the sophomore slump coming,

but they've got too much talent.

Not all of them will slump

at the same time.

So for me – God,

I hate to even – I don't

think the Phillies –

If I have to go out now and

not say the Rangers,

if I have to say a team

that I think could be a surprise team,

I don't think the Phillies, I should say,

because in all honesty,

I do think that they're

going to have a great season.

But if I have to pick another team,

that's not the Rangers that

could pull off a Cardinals

like season on paper,

have all the players to compete.

I think that you could see

the Phillies fall in that category.

Noel is a great pitcher,

but he's not the same

pitcher as he was a few years ago.

Zach Wheeler has had two good years,

just signed that big contract extension.

And then you've got Suarez.

You've got, I think Walker's still there.

So the back end of that rotation,

if Nola and Wheeler

struggle or there's an injury,

there could be some trouble

in Philadelphia.

Now, offensively, they're stacked.

I really like that team a lot offensively.

But

I also thought that the

Cardinals on paper had

plenty of talent with what

they had and finishing dead

last in the central was not

something anyone saw coming.

Now I'm not saying the

Phillies will finish dead last,

but could I see a scenario

where battling it out with

certain things going wrong for them?

I could easily see the

Phillies being one of those

teams that's battling for a

wild card and perhaps miss out.

Very unlikely,

but if I had to pick someone

that had on paper talent

that should be way better

than where their standings put,

if the Phillies missed the playoffs,

that would be a bust given that roster.

Not saying they're finishing dead last,

they could finish second in the East and

Two teams from the Central,

two teams from the West,

or three teams from the

West if the Padres get

their head out of their ass.

And the Braves just dominate the East.

You could have the Braves,

you could have the Cubs and Reds.

And again,

the Cardinals could bounce back

and be that.

There's a lot of things that

would need to go right,

but the Rangers are my first pick.

I don't want to be the same as you.

The Phillies would

definitely be a team that I

think if things went

worst-case scenario for

them when they're starting pitching,

could be a team on the

outside looking in and

would be in that category of a bust.

I don't like the pick,

but it fits the narrative

of what we're talking about right now.

So right now, since we're on this topic,

I just got the notification to my phone.

The Tampa Bay Rays have optioned.

our seventh overall prospect

and their top prospect, Junior Caminero,

to AAA.

Now,

he was expected to be their starting

third baseman, I believe.

Yeah.

And so he's going to AAA.

And you and I,

I think we had this

conversation the other day

where everybody's talking about, you know,

how, okay, it's Baltimore's division,

Yankees too.

Yeah.

Rays and Jays fight for three and four,

and the Sox are five.

Are we crazy to sit here and

say the Rays may

potentially be the worst

team in the East this year?

They have a good – this is a

whole off topic,

but fall flat on your face.

I mean,

they have a good top five of their

lineup.

I'm excited about it.

The bottom four have a lot

of question marks.

Their pitching staff has a

lot of question marks.

It's not your – I mean,

the Rays are a pitching factory.

We can all admit that.

They just seem to call up a

pitcher and he's a stud out of nowhere.

It's just how they are.

Ask the Pirates.

They know all too well about it.

Everyone goes there from the

Pirates to Tampa and just dominates.

Let's also say they're

missing Drew Rasmussen.

They're missing Shane McClanahan.

They don't have all of their

arms this year.

Are they a team that could

fall flat on their face?

And now their top prospect,

who was supposed to be

their starting third baseman,

is going to AAA.

That doesn't say they can't call him up.

It could be a thing like the

Cubs did with Chris Bryant,

where he's in AAA for a

couple weeks for service time,

and then they call him up.

That could be the thing,

but he was slated entering

spring to be in the

everyday starting lineup,

and he's in AAA now?

What?

I want to...

You can take it away.

I'm going to look up what he

was doing this spring that

made this a move to do because it doesn't,

to me, it doesn't make sense.

So while you're looking that up,

I guess that makes Parades

their starting third baseman, right?

Yep.

So, you know,

Tampa Bay is one of those funny teams,

as you said, and as you're mentioning,

I did have them dead last in the East,

which we'll get into during our previews.

But at the same time,

as I was working through their roster,

looking at it,

and then looking at possible outcomes,

you mentioned it.

For some reason,

whether it's their – the

way they go about it,

their pitching coaches, their programs,

whatever.

It seems that whoever goes

there seems to do well.

And Eflin,

Zach Eflin is a pitcher on Tampa

Bay that when looking at it, to me,

is probably going to make

himself a lot of money over

the next two years.

Because I think he's going

to go and not be the guy

that Philadelphia fans and

the Phillies saw,

but the one that they wanted to see.

I think he's going to be a

guy that dominates,

and I honestly thought prior to this news,

I thought Candelero

provided more offensive

firepower and kind of that

spark plug that they're

missing with Wanda Franco

and that whole debacle being gone.

I thought there was no way

that he would go down.

Now, hearing that news,

I wouldn't be too shocked

if they're playing the –

service time game with him.

He'll go down for whatever

six weeks and then come back up.

I do believe it will be a

down year for Tampa Bay.

I do think they'll finish

probably at the bottom of the East.

I don't know what everyone

else feels about the Rays

coming into the year.

I know the East with the Red

Sox being kind of

up in the air,

even with the blue Jays

being up in the air with

their starting rotation.

And now with what we just

talked about with Garrett Cole, Tampa Bay,

there was a path for Tampa

Bay to finish at the top half of that.

Just sounds like it's a runaway right now.

So I found his stats.

Yep.

This is what's interesting to me.

So in February and three games, he went,

Three for seven with a run, a home run,

four RBIs.

And then so once the

calendar flipped to March,

he struggled a little bit to start.

But over the weekend,

that Dominican Republic World Tour Series,

he went three for eight

against the Red Sox in both games.

So he finished the spring

right now because now it

sounds like he's getting sent down.

He was hitting 269 with a 719 OPS.

Now,

would you like to see the OPS a little

higher?

Yes.

But hitting 269 is not bad.

And I just don't get the move.

It's an interesting one.

But I think it all goes back to,

like we said,

it's got to be a service time move.

It's got to be the Razor is

a smart organization with prospects.

So it's got to be they're

sending him down for I

think what's it I think you

have until like middle

towards the end of April

and then the service time cancels out.

So I think we have to.

I'd be shocked if we don't

see him back in a raised uniform by May.

Shocked.

But they did that with Franco, too,

in one of his first years.

And again, that's a.

that's a whole nother

situation that just

continues to get worse that

I don't think we need to

spend the time discussing that mess.

So yeah,

when looking at this question that

I put out there,

the only team that really

stuck out to me was the

Rangers due to the way they

start the season in the rotation.

Do they have enough

offensive firepower to win

those high scoring games?

Cause their bullpen's not bad.

But if the starting pitchers

can't get to the fifth or sixth inning,

then you're really starting

to tax that bullpen.

And, yeah,

it's normal in the early parts

of the season and tail end

of the season to shift guys

up and down to get fresh arms.

But it could turn real bad

real quick for the Rangers,

especially if Scherzer and

DeGrom don't come back as

at least 90% of who you

expect them to be.

I'd even say 70%.

Yeah, 70% would be probably a better fit.

But that bullpen is going to

see a lot of innings if

those guys can't come back and dominate.

And that team, I think,

can go from being one of

those World Series winners

to missing out.

And that would be just – it

was the only team –

that really stuck out to me

and I think the Rays make

sense in regards to how

they've been finishing.

I think that they're another

team that people also write

off and I could see them

being a team that's just,

they could be the

Diamondbacks just as easy

as they could be the

Cardinals this coming year.

I think it's more unlikely,

but I think that they're

just that type of team that

there's never a year that you're like,

holy shit,

the Rays are the clear favorites.

There's just never really –

not since Snell left.

They haven't been that dominant team,

but they're there,

and they just make it work.

I think, like you said,

this could be a year where

they finish dead last,

and it would be a

disappointment for that organization.

I think my take with the

Phillies is probably a piss-poor one,

but on paper, if things went wrong –

That could be one.

They could win 82 games,

82 to 86 games and still

miss the playoffs if things

went right for the other teams.

What about the Brewers?

What do you think of the Brewers, I guess?

I know we're going to get

more in-depth with this,

but that was a team that –

We'll do the predictions next week,

but they were the other

team besides the Rangers

that popped in my head

because they lost their

number one and two.

Corbin Burns.

I hate that I have to say this.

I really like the Brewers.

I really like the NL Central

this year in general,

just because of the

competition and the talent that's there.

You see the Brewers have Sal Fralick,

they have Garrett Mitchell,

they have Jackson Chiro,

and they still have Yellich,

who they were contemplating trading.

Then they go and sign Reese Hoskins.

Still have Willie Adamas.

For now.

Yes, for now.

But then the one guy that I

am just probably more high

on than I should be being a

Cubs fan is Junis, Jacob Junis.

There's just something about

what he's done over the

last 24 months and pitching –

Mostly out of the bullpen

last year for the Giants,

and he was lights out.

And he's working on his sinker,

and I believe a changeup.

And he's not that kind of guy.

He's not a Corbin Burns by any means,

but they've got Freddie Peralta.

And I don't know about the Brewers.

The Brewers easily could be

a team that they could

finish in fourth place.

You know,

I don't think the Pirates are

going to contend to climb

out of the basement there,

but the Brewers,

I don't have the Brewers

currently as a playoff team, but on paper,

I don't think,

I think they're a lot

better than what they show

on paper personally.

But I can see him finishing dead last,

especially if they trade

Adamas and Yellich.

Wade Miley's your number two.

I know,

but... Just think about that for a

second.

Is he 38?

He's got to be getting up there.

He's old.

He's like 38.

So, but he's... 38.

I don't know how the hell

Fangraphs maps this out, but yeah,

he's 37.

Yeah.

So...

So he'll be 38 at some point

during this year.

And I wrote,

I wrote an article about the

Brewers starting rotation,

which is why I'm like,

I dove into Junis and they've got,

I think their team that this year,

if they come out struggling,

Yelich is gone.

Willie Adamas is gone.

And then what you start to

see at the back end,

they have some top prospects, uh,

some pitching prospects.

that are really talented.

And I think that's probably

what made it so easy to realize that, hey,

look, Burns isn't coming back.

If he reaches free agency,

he's not coming back here.

And we've got these guys in

the minors that, you know,

I can't think of his name right now,

but there's one.

He's like 6'10".

You talking Misurowski or

however you say his name?

Yes, I think so.

And he's throwing complete gas.

And he's got the size, the frame stature.

He's a little thin,

kind of reminded me a

little bit of Chris Sale,

which is sort of subject

for the two of us.

But I could see the Brewers

not necessarily tanking it,

but if they're in fourth

place rolling into June,

they could be a team that

could be very active at the deadline.

And

they could get potentially

surpassed by the Pirates

and be bottom feeders of

the Central at their own will,

in a certain sense,

by making those moves.

Misarowski is expected to

start the season at AA.

Yeah.

So I wouldn't expect him this year.

I think he could be a guy

you watch next spring,

and he makes the team out

of camp next year, which, again,

the Brewers don't have a bad team.

I'm not going to sit here

and say they don't.

They have a bad team.

But the rotation doesn't excite me.

Next year you add Misrowski

and you add Brandon Woodruff back.

Now we're talking.

This year.

Because Miley's gone.

They could very well be last place.

Yep.

Especially because I think

you could see schemes this

year in Pittsburgh.

And that would help me.

I think that team... I hope so.

Like I said,

if the Brewers finish dead last,

a lot of that is going to

be made with them conceding

the fact that they're not a playoff team.

And I think they would jump

the trade deadline to try

to get to teams early

before some other bats come available.

Or maybe...

you know,

a team comes up and there's an

injury at short.

So Adamas makes sense.

Or someone needs a

left-handed bat and Yelich makes sense.

So I do agree.

I think the Brewers can be better.

But I think that there's

going to be kind of a

waving a white flag and

getting the most we can out

of these assets before it's

all said and done and then

have to be pennies on the dollar at the

you know, later on and, or,

or lose them in free agency.

So Brewers are an interesting team.

And I think when we do the

review for the division, their team that,

you know,

when we talk about will be very

interesting because the

central to me might be the

most interesting division

to watch from top to bottom

in regards to what happens.

Both of them.

I think that goes as well.

Okay,

so we've kind of beaten that one and

beaten that dead horse,

and there's plenty of

different ways of looking at it.

So right now,

I had messaged you and was thinking,

we talk a lot about these

players that are either...

You know, we had the discussion last week,

and I won't bring it up,

but I asked about who was, you know,

who do you think was the

most overhyped or

overpopular player and didn't deserve it.

So I want to switch at this time,

maybe give you a chance to

redeem yourself.

Which player, in your opinion,

doesn't get enough credit

for how good they truly are

at the game of baseball?

Why don't you go first?

I can think about this for a minute.

All right,

so the one that I have is kind

of a homer pick,

and it's Nico Horner from

the Chicago Cubs.

I truly believe he's the

best shortstop on that team,

but he won a gold glove

last year at second base.

He stole over 30 bags.

He's just a, to me,

being a Cubs fan and loving Ryan Sandberg,

he doesn't have the power

necessarily that Sandberg did.

But I think as he gets older

and grows in a little bit,

I think you can see him hit

18 to 22 home runs.

He's going to steal those 30 to 40 bags,

and he's going to hit for

at least in between 275 and 290.

And he's going to play lights out defense.

And I don't think,

especially in the National League,

when you've got Albies,

you've got Mookie Betts, who now,

which we'll talk about in a minute,

you've got all these

talented middle infielders.

And he kind of gets

overlooked because of some

of the bats that are out there.

And I think he's one of

those players for me.

That is again, like I said, a Homer pick,

but I think he just doesn't

get talked about as much as

he probably should in

regards to the talent he

has and what he does and

means to the Cubs.

So my, now I,

this player was over hot or

very hyped up when he came up,

but you don't hear anything

about him anymore.

and he's died off over the

last probably season and a half.

Maybe it was because he was injured.

O'Neal Cruz from the Pirates.

He's an exciting player to watch.

I mean,

he makes Pirates baseball fun to watch.

But you just don't hear about him.

It's like even before the injury last year,

he had – I think it was

against the Red Sox.

He almost hit for the cycle.

And you didn't really hear about it.

It wasn't like it was the

next day sports were talking about it.

He's not –

It's like he just fell off.

I want to look that up now.

Yeah, no,

he's definitely – that injury he

had last year sliding into home,

a hustle play.

I can't remember exactly if

it was – if he was trying

to score from second to

home on a single or if it

was even a tag-up from an outfield fly.

But he's definitely one of those guys.

And unfortunately for the Pirates,

when you think top prospects,

you think Kebron Hayes, injury, injury,

injury, injury.

Now he's coming into it.

Then you see O'Neal Cruz

last year get injured,

and everyone's like, ah, shit.

It's just another typical year,

another typical prospect

that can't stay healthy.

And I didn't see it that way

because like injuries in any other sport,

there's a muscle problem.

where there's a bomb.

muscle injuries different

stuff like that whether

it's you know not taking

care of your body the way

it should be or it's just

an unfortunate situation

but if someone's hustling

like that making a slide in

the home plate and if I

remember correctly and I

haven't seen the video in a

while I want to say the

catcher was doing his job

blocking the plate and it

probably could have been

avoided if he slid head

first and tried to get

around and do one of those

other slides but

I think that O'Neal Cruz is

better than Ellie Della Cruz.

In my opinion, he may not be as flashy,

but I think if you look at this year,

if they both play similar amount of games,

O'Neal Cruz will, you know,

across the board, stats wise,

he may not have the amount of home runs,

but he'll hit for a much better average.

And he'll probably, you know,

be even with him in doubles

and all the other categories.

maybe not stolen bases,

but I think he's a better,

more consistent player and

not as flashy as De La Cruz is,

personally.

Just for concept, in 2022,

he only played 87 games and

had 54 home runs.

I mean, 54 RBIs.

So just for aspect,

imagine if he played in 100,

we'll go 150-something.

We're talking over 100 RBIs, most likely.

So...

But he just, it seems,

it might have been the injury,

but he just fell off.

It's like you don't hear

about him anymore.

And, you know,

he was the same as Elie De La Cruz.

He was talked about the

second he got up here.

Everybody was excited about him.

But then it was like even

going into last year before

the injury was he talked about.

It was like he just wasn't there.

And he makes, you know, to me, he screams.

I mean,

we all probably thought Andrew

McCutcheon was a pirate for life.

I mean, that's just the player he is.

Didn't work out that way.

O'Neal Cruz screams pirate for life.

Hopefully it works out that

way because I think the

Pirates could be back to what they were,

you know,

a couple years ago in their playoff team.

They could be very easily.

if everything goes right,

have a chance to be in the

top half of the NL Central this year.

But that's – everything has

to go right for them.

They get no injuries.

You know, we call it Paul Skeens.

He goes lights out.

There's a lot of question marks,

but they have a good team on paper.

They just have to do something with it.

There's a lot of –

there's a lot of talent

coming up in the game in general.

And it'll be very

interesting to see who pans out,

who doesn't,

and to see which teams

benefit the most from all

this young talent coming up.

Now, in talks of that,

and I've got an article

that'll be coming out tomorrow

that another player that I

think doesn't get the

credit and again he's he's

going into his first full

season with the reds is

matt mcclain everyone is

talking about ellie de la

cruz they were talking

about novelli marte before

his stupid suspension which

is when I say stupid stupid on him

And I'll get into that

before we close out tonight

in regards to PEDs and my

thoughts on that in regards

to how that should never be an issue.

But in general, Matt McClain, I think,

is one of those guys.

He's not flashy.

He's not flashy like Elie Delacruz,

who's going to hit a 480-foot home run.

But he's a guy that's going

to hit – I think he hit 290

last year in –

I think he played like 82 games,

had 50 RBIs, 16 home runs, 22 doubles,

and still stole, I think, 14 bases.

So for me,

McLean is a guy that I'm very

high on in regards to watching him play,

but I think he's

overshadowed due to the

fact of Elie Delacruz and

all the other hype that they have.

So I actually am pulling up

right now the top 10 by MLB by position,

and I'm curious on this.

So their top 10 was Corey Seager,

Francisco Lindor, Bogarts, Swanson,

Turner, Bichette, Correa, Adamas, Witt,

Crawford.

Now, I think O'Neal Cruz,

going back to mine,

I think Bobby Witt's better than Adamas.

I think Adonis strikes out too much.

I think Bobby Wentz is a

better shortstop

defensively and as a hitter.

So if you move Adonis to nine,

I think O'Neal Cruz fully

healthy might be better

than Adonis and J.P.

Crawford.

Yeah.

Yeah.

No, I agree with that.

It's going to be very interesting.

I think some of these

conversations that we have

now will be interesting to

look back on as the year

gets going and see, you know,

what maybe we were right about,

what we were wrong about,

and just kind of follow up with this.

That's baseball, right?

Anything can happen each and every day.

Someone's going to show up.

Someone's going to get hot.

We can talk about that.

But I thought that was an

interesting kind of topic

just to kind of go back and

look at guys that are kind

of under talked about,

not underappreciated necessarily,

but guys that don't get the

discussion or the hype that

perhaps someone else on

their team gets that may be more flashy.

Yeah.

So one thing I kind of

wanted to just hit on tonight was,

in general,

the impact on fantasy baseball

and how it kind of impacts

the perspective in

everyone's viewing how they

watch the game compared to

perhaps maybe 10, 15 years ago.

So I am big into fantasy baseball,

as you and I have discussed.

And for me personally, growing up,

I was a big diehard Red Sox and Cubs.

Didn't care about any other

team unless their names

were Ken Griffey Jr., Kirby Puck, Puckett,

Cal Ripken Jr., and some of those,

Nolan Ryan, some of those pitchers.

As I've gotten a little bit

older and I've gotten more

involved over the last 20

years in fantasy baseball

and fantasy sports,

I noticed my interest in

baseball as a whole has grown.

So let's say that the Red

Sox are playing on the West

Coast and there's a game on TV.

whether it be ESPN or TBS,

whatever is showing a game,

I'm more apt to turn that

game on because chances are

I've got someone rostered

that's playing in those

games or someone I'm

interested in either

picking up on waivers or

whether it be a trade.

So for me personally,

I know that my interest in

the game as a whole depends

has increased.

So it turns into not just

being a homer and watching

and being a diehard sports fan.

I'm still that.

I'm still going to pick the

Red Sox over any other team they play.

Same with the Cubs when they play.

But when it comes to

watching baseball or paying

attention to baseball, for me,

it's definitely changed how

I watch the game and what

I'm paying attention to.

A lot of fans watch these

games of other players and they're like,

yeah, that's a good player.

They hear something that's a good player.

But from my experience and

the folks that play fantasy

baseball that are putting

and I'm not judging those

that play free or play home leagues,

but those that are playing

fantasy baseball and putting big dollars,

bigger money than I put out there,

playing these games,

they know more about these

players and their stats and

their capabilities and

projections to what to

expect than so many of

these novice fans that are

only glued into one team.

And I think...

it's definitely helping grow

the game of baseball,

but in a different way,

it's growing it as a whole where,

you know,

a guy that joins is big in

fantasy baseball and just like statistics,

he may not have a favorite

team that he's watching every night.

He may have, uh,

the big ending on and

watching that just to see like in,

you know, football, everyone will watch,

uh,

whatever they call it,

the Red Zone channel.

They're watching that

because they're invested in

it because they get fantasy

football going.

I think fantasy baseball has

definitely grown in regards

to the way people watch the game,

but also the way they are

prepping the game,

they know an awful lot

about a lot of players on a

lot of different teams.

And the knowledge I think in

regards to the game and the

players involved has grown

to those folks that play fantasy sports,

not saying, you know,

If you don't play fantasy

sports that you don't know

a lot of stuff about what's going on.

But just speaking from my

own personal experience,

the time it goes into either reading,

looking at projections,

building your own projections,

you have to look at each team.

You have to look at each team's rotation.

You have to look at their bullpen.

You have to look at the ballparks.

It's just a different

dynamic that I think is

helping grow the overall

interest in the game of baseball.

And the only thing I think

that could help grow it

more is like we talked

about previously is when

they could just make it more available.

But I just kind of wanted to

get your input, you know,

from a different perspective.

I play, you know,

between nine to 15 money

leagues a year and put my

time in and looking at it

and it's something it's a

hobby that I do for both

baseball and football but I

just want to kind of get

your perspective on your

thoughts of the impact of

fantasy baseball on the

game itself and how people

view it and watch it I

personally think it's

starting to come back

slowly I think the more that

We're starting to see things

where we're starting to

know more players outside

of your home team.

It's starting to grow more.

The issue that I think a lot

of people have and that I

don't know how you can fix

it unless you just don't

have a bench is people

don't like to set their

lineups in the middle or

the end of the season.

Because like you said,

a lot of us play fantasy football.

once the season hits

September football starts

and everybody focuses on

their fantasy football lineup.

And for us, that's,

if you're a fancy baseball player, I am,

um, I'll tell a story in a little bit,

you know,

about a funny story from when I

was younger, but, um, you know,

once fantasy football

starts for a lot of people, they tune out,

you know,

baseball's a filler for them as

far as fantasy sports and

they stop paying attention

to their lineup.

And so, um,

But I think it helps with it

growing a little bit more.

I am seeing more people get

interested in it.

We're going to have our league.

I don't know if we're going

to do it as an episode or anything,

but we'll have our ITD

Fantasy League as a video,

which maybe we'll snip some

of it and do that as a

TikTok or whatever.

We'll post shorts or whatever.

But I'm sure you and I will

yell at each other for some

picks we make.

And I'm sure we'll also talk about it, too,

in regards to standings.

It depends on where we are.

If we're both at the bottom,

we probably won't talk about it much,

and the league just didn't happen.

If you don't hear about

fantasy baseball from us,

then our teams clearly are

injured or we suck.

Yeah.

But I think it's slowly getting there.

I think one thing I did notice,

and I don't know, some people use it,

some people don't.

one thing,

especially like fantasy hockey does,

I think fantasy baseball is getting there,

is one thing you can do on

Yahoo is there is an option

to start active players,

which is making things more

interesting for people who

want to play fantasy baseball.

Because the thing is they

don't want to check their

lineup every day,

which I can understand if you're not,

like me and JC, if you're not a...

162 guy is the way I call it.

I mean, I'm a 162 guy.

It's once the opening day happens,

there's baseball on my TV every day,

all day.

I mean, opening day is a holiday to me.

I take a half day, and I'm home,

and I'm actually doing a

tradition this year.

My son's going to be, Jesus,

he'll be 19 months on opening day,

and he's getting a –

Mother is taking care of the

Easter basket.

I have the opening day basket.

So he's got a couple hats from me.

We're going to actually go out, I think,

this weekend and get him

his first fitted hat.

So that's my new tradition

with him is an opening day basket.

But the second that calendar

hits and it's opening day,

that's all that's on my house.

Whether it's beginning,

like you just mentioned,

or it's the game.

So, I mean, I follow everybody.

There's not a team that I don't watch.

So there's people out there

that obviously like that, like me and you,

who are doing it all the time.

But there's also – it's –

they're starting to know more names.

Like I have friends who

don't like baseball,

and I hear them talk about

players that are starting

to pique their interest.

So it's coming.

I think we're about three

years away from it getting

to the point where it's

going to be – you're going

to start seeing a lot more

people doing it.

Yeah.

And I think that –

And I know we're doing the ITD League,

and I know that we're at

least doing hopefully one

of the big money leagues or

money league through NFBC,

the Roto Wire Online Championship.

I'm hoping that we get to do

one with a couple of the

other guys and then do one

with just you and I, where, again,

it's something that, you know,

whether we –

do I did a draft last night

and it took me or yesterday

afternoon it took me I

think an hour and a half so

I don't think it would be a

full pod but I obviously

think that there's stuff

that we could do again just

to cut snippets out take a

look at it it gives us

something to kind of

discuss and it's going to

give us more content as the

year goes on in regards to

what we're doing but for me

like you baseball is one of those things

once it hits it's something

that comes from the

childhood you know there

was a the year the red sox

won the world series I was

still living at home in

2004 mind you um I was

working full time but every

night when I would come

home my life was I'd eat

I'd work 12 hours go to the

gym come home and watch the

games with my my mother and father

And that year,

I think I watched every

single game of the Red Sox or listened to,

depending on what was going on,

all the games.

I either listened to or saw each game,

whether I fell asleep, you know,

the West Coast games or whatever.

You know,

I saw at least half of each game

or listened to all the games.

And baseball is just one of those things.

And I love the tradition.

You're going to start with your son.

It's one of those things

that come together.

And that's kind of something I've got.

With my son, when it comes to hockey,

my 14 year old,

who's been a big hockey fan,

I have only been to two

Bruins games without him

because that was our thing.

And the only other time I go

without him is if it's business related.

It's just a rule I have.

Sucks.

I get asked by friends to go.

Just, you know,

it's something I'm not

going to do without him.

And because we spend so much

time with his own hockey

that that's all we ever do

is talk about that.

So, you know, fantasy sports,

baseball in general,

it's just another way to

tie a community together.

And to educate, too,

because there's a lot of

people that get sucked into

these fantasy leagues at

work or whatever.

They have no clue about baseball.

But then by the end of the year,

they're telling you, oh,

did you see this?

Did you see that?

Did you watch this game last night?

And it's definitely helping

grow slowly some of those

folks that aren't or didn't

grow up around baseball to

get them involved.

And I think, like you said,

it's only going to continue to grow.

yep um all right so I've got

a couple of other things

I'd like to just kind of

quickly discuss and the

first one is your thoughts

on joey vato signing with

the toronto blue jays I

love the idea that he's a

blue jay simple with the

fact of it's where he's

from yeah my question is

what's his impact like you

got guerrero at first base

I think Justin Turner is the DH.

So what's his purpose?

I love the idea of him being a Blue Jay.

Who's at third this year?

I thought it was Biggio.

Oh,

they're moving Caden Biggio over there?

Yeah,

and the only reason why I ask is that,

I mean,

not that you want to put Justin

Turner at third by any means, but.

I mean, I would.

Why not?

He wasn't bad there last

year for the Red Sox.

He's another old one.

He is,

but he plays – that's the one thing

I love about Justin Turner as a Red Sox.

He plays through every injury.

That heel was bothering him

the whole second half of last year,

and he played almost all the time.

I mean, he was playing second base,

a position he's never really played,

and he's sliding all over

the place for you.

He's a grinder.

He's one of those old school

baseball guys.

It's just a grinder.

Meaning Turner.

Yeah.

Connor Fluff is at third.

Oh.

Turner is your DH.

I think what you're going to

see with Votto is he's

going to – this is the tough part.

He might start the year in Buffalo at AAA.

Yeah.

And do you do that for a couple weeks,

see what happens?

An injury pops up and you

got a presence like Votto

in the clubhouse?

I mean, overall,

him as a presence in general,

I love the idea.

I mean,

I want to hear that guy fucking

talk about everything he's

seen in the game and

provide his presence.

I mean,

his tweets this whole offseason

have made the offseason

better than it's been.

Just the pictures he's

posted and everybody quote

tweeting it saying,

someone sign this guy.

Just someone sign this guy.

And I can't think of anyone

that has ever said anything

negative about Joey Votto

in the clubhouse or anything.

He's just he seems like a

great baseball guy.

I could I could see a

situation where and the camp comes now,

like, hey, look,

you've shown what you can do for us.

There's not a spot on this

roster of the big league club,

but we'll give you the availability.

You can go to Buffalo or you

can seek another team.

Just out of respect, you know,

of his age and everything,

I still – I would hate – I

would love to see him,

even if it's that bench bat,

for the Blue Jays.

One way or the other,

I would love to see a

season of Joey Votto in Toronto.

because I think he's still a great hitter.

I think he's still a great

baseball mind will always

be a great baseball mind

and just his impact on some

of those young players in Toronto.

I think,

I think that would be worth

keeping him on the bench and giving him,

you know, I could see Turner play third,

a couple of games,

move auto against the righty at DH and,

you know, nothing for nothing.

Vlad didn't have a great year last year.

He struggled.

So his presence is,

And his hitting knowledge,

just keeping him up with the big club,

could be between Turner and Votto,

could mean a lot, even for Biggio.

Biggio has never really

panned out to be the player

he thought he was going to be.

So we both like the signing

of Votto and Toronto and wish him well.

Looking at their bench,

their bench is interesting.

that it makes more sense for him to be,

like you said,

a bat off the bench or a DH

for them if Turner's at third.

Because, I mean,

they're going to keep Danny Jansen.

He's your backup catcher.

He's staying.

Ernie Clement's 28.

They signed him as a free agent in March.

He's an option to go AAA.

Davis Schneider, I like Davis Schneider.

I think he could provide a decent bat.

He's young.

So he's got a little something there.

And then the fourth one is Nathan Lukes,

who he's 29 and

They got him from Tampa as a

free agent in November of 21.

You could send him to

Buffalo and keep Votto there,

and or Schneider can play

the outfield too, as well as Vigio.

I mean, Vigio's the outfield.

Now you're talking, you know,

you can move IKF to second base,

put Cameron at third,

and Votto's your DH.

I mean, that's their form.

Yeah, he can play three,

four games a week.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I like the idea of keeping up.

Something tells me that he

might start the year in Buffalo,

and we'll see how long.

I mean, it might be short-lived.

He might very well be up in

the middle of April, end of April,

being in May.

I mean, they might tell him that.

He might be fine with it.

He might say, hey,

we're going to get these

young guys from the bats,

let them see some stuff,

but we're going to send

them back down to AAA.

and let them get their work in.

Cause they're going to get

more at bats down there and

we'll call you up and

you're going to play, like you said,

three to four times a week.

And that's just, that makes sense.

And I think as Votto,

as a person from what I've

seen and knowing him as a player,

I think you tell him that he's, he says,

yes, absolutely.

So he's home where he's from and okay.

He goes to Buffalo where

obviously that's New York,

but he plays there for three weeks.

And then all of a sudden

he's back with his hometown team home,

grown team and that presence

in the clubhouse,

especially if they start off hot,

you add that presence in the clubhouse.

That's absolutely.

Where do I sign on that?

I'm surprised, you know, there wasn't,

there's 30 teams.

I was,

nobody wanted him for a couple

months and all of a sudden

Toronto comes calling.

I also want to know,

that's another question.

What made Toronto decide all of a sudden,

yep, we're going to sign him now.

Is there something there?

Is they playing Guerrero

could be a DH and they're

sliding turn of third and

IKF and Vigio share second.

Is there a trade coming?

You know,

they had definitely different

scenarios for the Blue Jays

who had a down year last year.

where Votto and Turner,

they never really had a

true veteran presence for

these young guys.

They had Brandon Belt.

Oh, that's right.

I forgot about Brandon Belt.

But in terms of a – they don't now,

and they need it now.

Yeah.

And I think these guys still have value.

It'll be interesting.

Votto's one to watch.

Another breaking kind of

situation is with the

Dodgers and with a player that is,

you know, close to both of us,

Mookie Betts,

who we all thought would be

a Red Sox for life,

now out in Dodger blue,

played out in center, played right,

played second last year.

and is now going to move

over and take over the

starting shortstop job from Gavin Lux.

What do you make of it?

It's interesting.

And the reason I say that is

actually while you were

doing that whole little intro to him,

I pulled up his baseball reference.

He played,

the only shortstop he has played

was last year, 16 games.

He had a 935 fielding percentage,

which scrolling up,

was his lowest fielding

percentage of his career.

Yep.

It's an interesting move.

I knew they were going to

start him at second base,

and it made sense.

Yep.

The shortstop move is iffy to me.

You have Miguel Rojas,

who was good there last year.

What's wrong with him now?

Why can't he be your

shortstop and make it

second and you do what you do?

I get they want to get Gavin Lux in there,

but something's not right with Gavin Lux,

even moving him second base.

He just doesn't look right.

I don't know.

And I said this to you

before we came live.

Is there an injury there?

Is there something that's

lingering that makes him go

into second base and

they're trying to limit his throwing?

You know, is that the move?

Is that what's going on?

I don't know.

Um,

But, I mean, Rojas – and if you do that,

I mean, Mookie at short is, again,

interesting.

But you do have Rojas who can play short.

You put Mookie at second.

You do have Chris Taylor.

And you do have Kike.

You have a bunch of guys who

– They have so much depth on that team.

Yep.

Mm-hmm.

And flexibility.

Yeah.

I watched the Dodgers last week for,

I think it was just a half inning.

And the first thing when I

switched it over to the game,

it was after hours.

I was the only one in the office.

The first ball hit was to Lux.

And the first comment when

he threw it in the dirt, still an out,

from the commentators was,

that's his third ball in the dirt today.

And it's funny because I

didn't even go injury first

when thinking about his struggles.

I went straight to Chuck Knobloch.

Now, granted...

He's not sailing the ball

over Freeman's head.

He's not throwing it wide right,

wide left.

It's all just, it seems,

arm strength related.

And now when you mention an

injury or undulating or

whatever it may be,

I don't believe it's the yips.

There's just something there

that... Because, I mean,

I don't know the Dodgers all that well,

but Rojas played there last

year and they traded for him.

So...

There's always been question.

There's hope that Lux could

be their starting shortstop.

But there's also been a lot of doubt.

So it'll be very interesting.

I think Mookie, as we know, he came up,

I believe he came up a second baseman.

So he's an infielder.

by nature and Pedroia was

there to get started.

Right.

So then he moved out the

outfield and they just find

out that this kid,

he's just a baseball player.

If he was built for any team,

he was built for the race, you know,

in regards to where they

play everyone everywhere.

He's just that type of asset,

and I think that's what

they look for players like that.

The Dodgers have this

resource on their hands

where if Otani wasn't there,

Lux would just be the DH.

You know what I mean?

Get him off the field, hide him,

and let's have his bat.

But Mookie,

I think you'll see his fielding

percentage go up because I

think he's one of those –

dedicated guys that he'll be

damned because he knows the

numbers just as well as, you know,

you looking them up,

he's well aware of what his

fielding percentage is and

he's going to make sure

it's damn better than that.

He's just seems to be one of

these guys that you can

plug him anywhere and he's

going to find a way to succeed.

He's just one of those guys

that I struggle with.

not to cheer for regardless

if he's not a red sock or

whatever you just I can't I

have a hard time not

rooting for the guy to do

well because of you know

he's undersized he is just

seems like a great guy in

general good clubhouse guy

and he just works his ass

off so I won't be shocked I

mean I don't foresee a gold glove

coming out of him from short,

but I don't think that

won't be because of the

results on the field.

I just think it's kind of

tough between Trey Turner, Dansby Swanson,

and some of these other

great shortstop defensively

that are out there in the

national league right now.

But I won't be shocked to see him be,

you know,

one of the better shortstops in

the league by the end of the year,

just because of the work he'll put in.

Let's ask this question.

Are they doing this to think

bigger picture?

Is this to find a way to put

Mookie at shortstop, be your shortstop,

and maybe Lux is hurt,

and then maybe there's a

move out there for somebody?

Or is there a prospect in

their system we're not thinking of?

I mean, they traded Michael Bush away.

So that's out.

But is there something we're

not thinking bigger picture on?

I have a

that I'll get to probably

when we talk about our prediction,

but I don't think Dave

Roberts is the manager for

them next year.

So is Dave Roberts trying to

make a move to save his job?

Dave Roberts coming to Boston next year?

I think he's fired.

I think he's replaced by

Alex Cora is my personal opinion.

Oh, Jesus.

But I – Yeah,

I don't think – I'm not going

to get into that.

But, yeah, I mean,

there's obviously something

going on in L.A.

right now that, you know,

having Otani be your DH

basically all year because

of his injury to his arm,

And what they're trying to

save for next year's pitching.

It kind of handcuffs them in

a way with Lux.

Because if there is something there,

you're going to have to find it at bats.

And second base is the only

place you can hide him if

there's something wrong with his arm.

Or it's just not as strong

as what was once thought.

I want to make things even

more interesting.

Hold on,

I want to see what their lineup

looks like.

What if...

Again,

I think the Dodgers are a good team.

Yeah.

I think they'll – and we'll

get to this next week when

we do the National League predictions.

What if Jason Hayward isn't

the same player he was last

year and Mookie's got to go

back to the right field?

Now who's your shortstop?

Rojas.

Has to be.

Or you could go, and again, this is,

I guess,

speculating that Mookie might

struggle a shortstop.

Could Kike go to right field?

Yeah.

He could play short.

I mean, you know what I mean?

He's not great at short.

We saw that last year.

Listen,

I was a big Kike at shortstop last year.

I thought he was going to be

okay there because I

trusted what you can do in center field.

You could translate that to shortstop.

I was big on it, and it bit me in the ass.

So I don't want to ever hear

Kike Hernandez is our starting shortstop.

I don't.

I just – I don't care what he does.

I mean, Chris Taylor could play short too.

But do you want him there every day?

Do you want him there every day?

I wouldn't.

Jesus, I wouldn't put him there.

I wouldn't put Kiki there.

But Kiki is another guy like

Betts that I have a hard

time not rooting for.

Even prior to him coming to

the Dodgers or prior to him

coming to the Red Sox the

first way before going back

to the Dodgers.

He was a guy that just he

was fun to watch play baseball.

But, yeah,

there's obviously something

there for the Dodgers.

And, you know, Lux is a top prospect.

He's been one of their top prospects.

And now it's like, Jesus, you know,

what do you do?

Yeah.

so kike is interesting what

happened I want to know

this is a good thing to

bring up so with the red

sox last year at shortstop

kike had a 935 fielding

percentage and that was in

64 games he goes to the

dodgers because they trade

him because it didn't work

out and so he 10 games with

the dodgers he had a

thousand fielding

percentage at shortstop oh interesting

You didn't have a single

error at shortstop in 67 innings.

How many chances?

Hold on.

You get 67 innings.

That's the weird thing.

30.

67 innings, right?

And only 30 chances at short.

In 10 games.

Okay, so three games.

Little over three games.

He didn't have an error.

He's got a good – Is it Freeman?

Is it Freeman?

Wow, I mean – Did Freeman – I mean,

I would love to go look in

some highlights and whatever,

but – That would be

extremely – Did Freeman bail out?

The Dodgers are an interesting club.

And like you said,

we'll get into that next in

one of our future podcasts

before the season starts with, you know,

when we're looking at the

NL and all the teams.

But this Lux situation and this move,

I guess what we'll be

telling and I'll have to

look at it tonight or, you know,

in between now and the next pod is like,

how does he perform while at second?

You know what I mean?

How does that go for him?

Because let's say it's a confidence thing.

What if it got into his head

and now they move him back

over to second where he's a

little more comfortable?

It's an easier throw, you know,

similar to the Garrett Cole

thing where we're all speculating.

We could talk next pod.

And Gavin Lux has gone, you know,

played four games in second

base in the spring training,

had six attempts and hit

Freeman right in the chest

every single time.

Could be a go glove

candidate for all we know.

I mean, like I said, yeah, I mean,

you know, I'm winning over Horner, but,

you know, whatever you want.

Okay, the bias is coming in now.

Yeah, yeah, sorry.

Just had to throw that out there.

But, yeah, I mean,

it's going to be very interesting.

The Dodgers just, like you said,

with all the depth, different options,

and now they've got this

piece who they're very high on.

Obviously,

if they thought he was going to

be their starting shortstop,

they want his bat in there.

They want his athletic

ability in the game.

But if he can't throw the ball,

he's not stealing at bats.

From Otani.

So as of right now,

at second base in 10 innings,

he has a 909 fielding percentage.

Jesus Christ.

I wonder how many of those

are throwing errors.

Because I think that's the bigger concern.

So at shortstop, he has, in six games,

31 innings,

he has an 800 fielding percentage.

Fuck me.

Jesus Christ.

One of us could do that.

I mean, I got to...

If he's got an elbow injury,

I get it because I've got

something going on with my arm.

I haven't been able to throw

really a baseball without

my arm bothering me since I

was 16 years old.

What was he?

He missed time.

What was his injury he missed time for?

I don't know.

This is interesting.

In spring of 2022, he played nine games,

50 innings at second base.

Yeah.

Had a 923 fielding percentage.

Jesus Christ.

Oh, 2021, 84 innings.

Perfect.

So that's the question.

Are they going back and

looking at what he's done

at second base in his

career and just saying, you know what?

You clearly just don't have

the arm for shortstop.

Maybe it's me speculating

too much about arm issues,

but he had – it doesn't say the injury,

but as of –

March of last year.

Oh, there it is.

Right knee surgery last year.

Okay.

That was in March 30th of last year.

Well, shit.

Even when Turner was there,

when Trey Turner was there,

Lux was to be their second baseman.

He can't stay healthy.

I'm at 2021.

He had right wrist soreness in April.

And then in July of the same year,

he had a left hamstring strain.

Correct me if I'm wrong.

Last year,

didn't the Dodgers also trade

for Tim Anderson?

No, he was a White Sox all year.

All year?

Yep.

I don't know why the hell I

thought that they grabbed

him to play second base.

But either way,

Mookie Betts moving to short.

They grabbed somebody.

I think.

I can't remember.

It's an interesting move.

It's an interesting move,

but I think we both, or at least myself,

I think that he'll get it figured out.

He may have his struggles.

There's going to be some challenges,

but in the end,

I think Betts will probably

see the majority of starts at short.

You're thinking of Ahmed Rosario.

Yes, sorry.

Yes, Rosario.

They traded for him from the Guardians.

That's right.

Yep.

Okay.

That's another interesting one.

He's a Ray.

I didn't even think of that.

Yeah.

That's an interesting one.

Because he was one that I

thought that would make

sense for the Mariners.

The Mariners were not sure

what to do with Josh Rojas.

They didn't really have a second baseman.

They had just traded Suarez

earlier in the year.

And in my head, Rosario,

not a big flashy name,

but you throw him at second.

put over Rojas to third and

he would solidify up the

middle with JP Crawford.

But I think that's moving to short.

It's going to be an interesting,

they're going to have to figure it out.

If Lux is healthy and he's at second,

then the only other option,

unless you've got Rojas and you've got,

you know, Kiki who could play, but yeah,

I think bats will do fine.

It's going to be very interesting.

I think that Dodgers team,

there's a lot more pressure

on that Dodgers team.

We'll get into this next pod.

When we talk about the national league,

there is a shit ton of

pressure on that Dodgers

team because they're one on

paper that again, like last year,

they could go out and win, you know, 105,

106 games, but again,

On the flip side,

if there's injuries to that

pitching rotation,

Glass now shits the bed

like he has every other year.

Yamamoto doesn't do what he's thinking.

There and Buehler,

who knows what Walker

Buehler is going to do.

There's a way that the

Dodgers could seriously

underperform this year and

look like fools.

I highly – I don't think it's –

Yeah, possible.

But there is a path for them

to kind of fall flat on their face.

But I do.

I am rooting for Mookie to

do well at short.

And I think that just speaks

volumes to the athlete he is.

And I'm looking forward to it.

So I'm rooting for him, too.

I just it'll be fun.

It's interesting just how

they're trying to piece things together.

Yeah, it really is.

And that's kind of important.

So to kind of wrap up tonight's podcast,

I was thinking of different

things and I do this quite a bit,

whether it be with my son

when we're traveling to

hockey tournaments and

generally it's in to do

with hockey or I'll do it

with my father when we're fishing,

just discussing and kind of pick one.

I'm going to go down through

quickly from one starting catcher,

one first baseman, second, you know,

everywhere.

One outfielder,

one starting pitcher and closer.

I've got an option, two options at each.

I just wanted to say either or and why.

And we'll start with catcher

season coming or better.

Who would you take?

Who would you take?

If you're building your team

and these are your two options,

who are you going to have?

All right, at catcher,

which of the two Contreras

brothers are you taking?

Are you taking Wilson?

Are you taking Willen?

Wilson.

Okay.

William to me ever since

starting with the Cardinal.

Oh, wait.

Do I have him backwards?

No, Wilson's with the Cardinals.

No, William's the Brewers catcher.

Yeah, so William.

Willen, yeah.

Wilson has...

fallen off since joining the Cardinals.

I don't know what it is,

but he's just not the same player.

I think he took the bag and ran.

What happens when you screw the Cubs over?

Yeah, I guess.

So the curse of the Billy Goat,

just when you leave.

Jesus.

They broke the curse.

Yeah.

All right.

First base.

I already know where you're going,

but I had to throw it out there.

Nolan Jones or Spencer Torkelson?

Spencer Torkelson.

You watch this year.

Let's just go right here.

30 home runs this year.

30 home runs and 100 RBIs.

He's got the frame for it.

So I liked Torkelson last

year for fantasy baseball reasons,

but you and I have talked a lot.

You're obviously big on the Tigers.

He's a guy to me that

Detroit being a good

baseball team and being

good is good for baseball.

For that fan base, it's good for baseball.

So I figured you'd go that direction,

but I had to throw it in there.

And I'm not throwing names.

These are guys that are –

I'm not going to throw a

Corbin Burns versus a Tanner Hawk,

that starting pitcher.

I'm going to put guys that

are close together in

performance and just to get

a feel for who you are.

Second base, Glaber Torres or Nico Horner?

I think Gleyber Torres.

Okay.

I think I like Nico Horner.

I think he is good.

But I think Gleyber has more pop.

I think that's the difference.

You may have drank too much tonight.

We'll see.

You just need to watch more Cubs games.

I think Gleyber is good.

a solid fit.

And I think adding Soto to

that lineup this year,

because I asked you, I said,

are we talking this year?

Are we talking in general?

You said this year.

I think adding Soto,

somebody like Soto to that

lineup could provide a good

boost to Glaber this year.

Yeah,

he'll have an impact on some of those

other guys.

allow them some freedom, some protection.

So, no, I can't.

Like I said, I'm pairing them up together.

So, either way,

it's just an interesting little test.

That was the toughest one.

That was the toughest one through three.

Okay.

Shortstop.

You've already mentioned him.

O'Neal Cruz or Haesung Kim?

O'Neal Cruz.

I don't even think I need a reason.

I think I went through that earlier.

Yep.

third base and I heard this

one earlier on another

podcast and Jose Ramirez or

Austin Riley wow I take

back what I said this is

the toughest one yeah this

is one that these guys went

back and forth on and they

both landed in one

direction and I was kind of

flabbergasted that it wasn't split

Oh, wow.

Because, again,

this is a little different than theirs,

the discussion they had.

This is for this year.

Jose Ramirez.

And I say that as – that's a tough one.

I just – I think with Otani

out of the American League,

do I think the Guardians are good?

No, not necessarily.

And we'll get to that in a

couple weeks when we do the

American League.

But –

I think Jose Ramirez could

be an MVP candidate this year.

Do I think Austin Riley is?

I think Austin Riley is

shadowed by Ronald Acuna and Olsen.

So I think we're about maybe

a year to two before we get

the full Austin Riley impact.

And so if we're talking 2024,

I got to go Jose Ramirez.

Yeah.

Now,

just mention that without getting too

in-depth.

I think Austin Riley could

be one of those guys that's

underappreciated just

because of who he's shadowed by, right?

But, yeah,

that's an interesting one

because those guys are like 1-2.

Yeah, I'd say 1A, 1B.

Yeah, absolutely.

So, outfield, I went a little different.

Didn't want to pick top guys.

I went with Jazz Chisholm or

Adolis Garcia.

Wow.

You're really going to do me like that.

I am a big jazz Chisholm fan.

I think he's great.

Hell of a ball player.

Love watching him.

Really,

he reminds me of the way he treats

the game and the happiness

he has on the game.

It's somebody that played for the Marlins,

Jose Fernandez.

He's just happy to play the

game all the time.

In this aspect,

I got to go with Dulles Garcia.

Yeah.

Really?

Yeah.

I can't stand Garcia.

I don't get it.

I don't get the hype.

Is he a good baseball player?

Sure.

But there's something about

him I just can't stand.

I'm not sure why.

I think we talked about this

earlier with Fantasy.

You know what the one thing

that makes guys known now is?

Is the Home Run Derby.

Yeah.

And Adoles Garcia made a

name for himself in the

Home Run Derby last year.

And then it transferred into

the postseason.

He was must-watch every at-bat he came up.

Yeah.

You know, I mean, again,

not to kind of steal,

what he did last year in

the postseason reminded me

of Randy Oroziano.

Or however, you know, butchered that.

But for me, that's what I kind of put –

That's how I link those two

players together is his

postseason run was very

similar in my eyes to what

Randy did for the Rays.

Well, if we're talking 2024,

it makes a lot of sense

because Garcia has that

injury he dealt with last year.

Yep.

Chisholm seems to get injured a lot.

Yeah.

So it goes to that.

And I think Garcia could put

up 30 plus home runs this year.

Yeah.

It very well could.

In that lineup with the protection?

You're going to add – I mean,

I expect you're going to

have Evan Carter and Wyatt

Langford there.

Did you see – I was watching

the Cubs-Rangers yesterday.

Wyatt Langford got hit right in the foot.

fucking chest with the ball

out in the outfield

couldn't see it and you

don't see that as much in

uh the day-to-day because

there's not as many day

games you know there's more

right night games afternoon

games but this ball was hit

deep center and he just

throws his hands up

immediately and couldn't

see it smacks him right off

the body ends up being a triple um for uh

I think it was Canario for

the Cubs that hit that.

But interesting.

All right, two positions left.

Starting pitcher,

Kevin Gossman or Zach Wheeler?

Kevin Gossman.

Okay.

Kevin Gossman is actually –

I think I actually,

when I came out with it,

I didn't do one for the

National League this year.

I did one last year.

But I did do one for the American League.

And I put,

I'm 90% sure I did it like a

month and a half ago,

five Cy Young favorites and

one Dark Horse.

And Gosman,

he is one of my favorites from

the Cy Young.

Wheeler doesn't make the top

five in the National League for me.

I think Gosman, with Manoa's struggles,

Gosman will be the one that

carries the Blue Jays to if

they're going to make the playoffs.

He is actually – we can go

back to my fandom.

He is one pitcher that I may

never forgive the Red Sox

for not signing.

Yeah, I was big on that back then.

I think everybody as a Red Sox fan was.

And now that we're at the

Montgomery sweepstakes,

everybody's wondering about Montgomery,

so they forget about Gosman.

You signed Gosman to a five-,

six-year deal.

What are we talking about

for a staff this year?

It changes the whole narrative.

And that's what it does for Toronto.

You're talking –

If Cole's hurt,

is Toronto second place in

the American League East

now because of Gosman and

the lineup they have?

Yeah.

I mean, he's definitely, to me,

I think you just made a great point.

In the American League,

not that the pitching's

weaker by any means,

but I think he's a clear Cy

Young candidate.

Wheeler is good.

But he's got a ton of

competition to fight

through to get anywhere

near the top five.

Gosman's number one on his team.

Wheeler's number two on his team.

Yep.

Right now.

All right.

Closer.

And again,

trying to pick guys that are

close in comparison.

Trying not to pin it to the top guys.

David Bednar from the

Pirates or Ryan Helsley.

from the Cardinals.

Which one are you taking?

Wow.

Um, I love Bednar, but Helsley,

it's the same Helsley, right?

I'm thinking of, it was the Astros.

Nah, that's Presley.

Uh, while me, uh,

Helsley pitches for the

Cardinals right now.

Um,

Oh, that's right.

No, it was Presley.

I'm going Bednar.

Bednar.

Yeah.

Bednar's always – he's reliable.

He's a guy that I think will

be probably one of the first pieces moved,

if not Chapman, off that Pirates team.

He's talked about every trade deadline.

Every year.

Every trade deadline.

All right.

I won't give you either or on this.

Who's managing your team?

Who is your manager of

choice that's out there right now?

Oh, wow.

Hmm.

This is tough.

I'm trying to think of who's

a manager right now because, I mean,

there were so many changes

this offseason.

Yep.

Or it could be they don't

have to be a manager currently.

Who are you picking that

would be relevant?

Jim Leland.

Jim Leland.

Jim Leland.

All right.

He'd be pissy because he

can't smoke in the dugout.

Can I have a bench coach of

Terry Francona so he can

have butt breaks?

Jesus, that would be terrific.

Jim Leland,

I remember as a kid watching

that young Pirates team with Bonds,

Bonilla, Sid Bream, Ben Slyke,

all those guys.

It's so much different

because I'm older and seeing these guys.

They wouldn't show it on TV,

but there would be

interviews and different stuff.

And you can tell in a room

that it's not the camera

that's making it look a little hazy.

He's just been ripping butts

the whole time before you come in.

That's my manager.

He would never put up with any shit.

And he's one of those guys

that he's an old school baseball mind.

And just he was a good one.

And that's I mean, him and Dusty Baker,

you know, those guys come in.

There's a reason why.

Who was that?

Bochy.

Yeah, Bruce Bochy.

It's different now.

You're seeing a lot of

different names being thrown out there,

going to different teams,

and it's definitely a different look.

But I like that pick of Jim Leland.

Listen,

I was a player coach for the last

10 years in my baseball league.

I smoke butts.

So I was Jim Leland of my

league for a long time.

The only difference was I was a player too,

but I'd be on after my bats.

I always, my knees are gone.

Like I crouched down now and

you'll hear my knees crack both of them.

So I would have a courtesy

runner cause injury.

So somebody would go run for me.

I'd hit a single, come off the,

come off the field and here's a,

but Jim Leland's back at it again.

No, I mean, that was a fun, you know,

interesting exercise.

I mean, I think it's just something,

you know,

to get a little perspective of

what you think of different

players at different levels and tiers.

That was tough.

Yeah.

I mean, it's fun.

It's all perspective.

So is there anything that

you can think of that we

haven't really discussed

tonight of any breaking

news or anything that we've

heard that we didn't cover?

Not that I can think of.

The only thing I do want to

mention is I am hoping

within the next week or two, you and I,

among Brett, who writes for us,

have done a great job

putting out these player profiles.

I think you and I talked by

the end of Monday, maybe Tuesday,

we should have our full top

100 prospects out,

which means we should be

rolling out our prospects on –

the website,

but if you don't follow us already,

please follow us on

Instagram and Facebook and Twitter.

But Instagram,

you can scroll down and Facebook as well.

The top 100 prospects that I

came out with in February

is now available.

You can go see who's ranked

in the top 100.

Also you, me,

Brett and Jamie came out

with the rosters for the Rangers, Yankees,

Cubs, Red Sox,

and Tigers for the spring showdown.

So you can go get that.

and you can go see who's

playing there for that,

but make sure you tune in.

I believe it's actually this

week that we start that.

I think the 16th is what Saturday.

Yeah.

I think you just said,

I think it was the 14th.

So I think we're starting Thursday.

We start with that.

So then that game, again,

I'm hoping this is coming out.

I think Tuesday or Wednesday,

this is supposed to come out.

And I think, uh,

Make sure you tune in for

that game because that is

going to be – the Pirates

haven't announced a starter

from what I've seen,

but my assumption would be

you're going to probably

get Skeens for two to three innings.

Anthony Solometo is there.

Bubba Chandler is there for the Pirates.

The Orioles are stacked.

I mean, they're just –

they have the option that come mid season,

they could trade one of

their top prospects for a number two.

So I'm a little shocked that

they didn't have to give up

more of what they have for Burns.

Yeah.

Because they,

they were the team all along

that had the depth to go

and get whoever they wanted.

And they did.

And in reality,

they didn't give up a whole

lot considering what they had to give up.

You know what I mean?

In regards to what was available, but.

No, yeah, that'll be exciting.

Can't wait to look for it.

So I didn't mean to cut you off there.

No, you're good.

I mean, that game is, like I said,

it's the most exciting game

of this whole thing.

Like when the schedule came

out and I saw that,

how do you not tune in?

Like that is, for us, my rankings,

it's the number one versus

the number two prospect,

which about a week ago,

I think they both faced off

in Grapefruit League play.

And I came out with an

article about how that showdown went,

and it went to Paul Skeens.

So you know when Jackson

Holliday is hitting well right now,

and so you know he's coming,

he's ready to go,

and he wants to get some

revenge for what happened

in that first at-bat.

So that'll be a must-watch,

especially if Skeens gets

to start that first inning.

Better be locked in, ready to go.

Yeah, it'll be very interesting to see.

And I think the Cubs and White Sox,

I believe, play the 15th.

So that'll be one that's a –

that's for this friday so

I'll be trying to catch

that and if not I'll just

watch the replay a lot of

fun stuff to watch it's on

mlb network because okay uh

I believe as well I think I

saw I know the red sox and

braves is saturday tigers

and phillies is saturday

but they both play the same

time so I got two screens

you've seen a picture of

how my setup is yep I'll

have one on each like this

goes back to you know

you're missing I think

there's like four or five

games at one o'clock on saturday

You're missing the prime

opportunity to showcase all

these talented baseball

players that are out there

that you don't get to normally see.

Yeah.

It's too bad, too,

because you know that – I mean, granted,

those stadiums can't hold

as many people as the big league clubs,

but you do something under the lights,

take the sun right out of it, right?

We just got done talking about –

Langford, you know,

and the sun being employed, you know,

there's,

there's things I think they'll change,

but yeah, I think the top 100,

you've done a great job with that,

putting that together, you know,

Brett and I have helped

where we could writing down

some player profiles,

trying to get that banged out for you.

That'll be a nice piece to

the website for everyone to

kind of look for.

The only thing that I really

had was you mentioned it the last time,

if you're interested in

joining us and you love

baseball and you just want

to kind of write,

and kind of talk it through

with us and maybe even have

a chance to jump on and

kind of talk about your

team or baseball in general, reach out,

let us know.

There's plenty of posts that

we put out there in regards

to joining the team,

a great group of people that are writing,

you know, those that are engaged.

It's not a huge commitment,

But if you can put out stuff

and pay attention and put stuff out,

you know, whether it be three,

four times a week to help grow,

we'll welcome you and we'll

join you and join the family.

So the only other news I really had,

and it's not big news.

but J.D.

Davis was waived by the Giants.

So third baseman that's out there,

I don't see an immediate need right now.

Obviously,

with Flores there in San Francisco,

Davis was expendable.

Chapman?

Oh, Chapman, too.

Yeah, that's right,

because they got Flores, they got DH,

too.

So it'll be very interesting

to see if J.D.

Davis catches on with a big

league club over the next few days.

But

For us, follow, like, subscribe,

all those things to all our

social channels, whether it be TikTok,

Instagram, Facebook, Twitter.

And obviously,

when this comes out and is

out on YouTube and the podcast world,

like, subscribe, leave comments,

let us know.

If there's questions you have, anything,

topics you want us to kind of hit on,

let us know,

and we'll definitely work it

into future podcasts that we have.

You had mentioned earlier

our next scheduled podcast

will be next Monday, coming out Tuesday.

We'll be focusing on the

National League because of

the National League games

that are set up later that

week between the Dodgers and Padres.

And then the following

Monday for Tuesday will be

the American League,

and then we'll roll right into the awards,

the pennant,

who we think is going to win

the World Series,

who's making the playoffs,

who the award winners will

be from each division.

And then before you know it,

The season's here,

and that's when things will

get interesting.

We'll start focusing on news,

what's going on, who's surprising us,

who's not, and kind of work through.

So for me, you know,

I really appreciate everyone tuning in,

listening to us, giving us a shot, and,

you know,

hope you like and subscribe and

like what we have to say,

and things will get a

little bit more interesting

as the season goes on and

more stuff comes up.

But really appreciate everyone tuning in.

Yeah,

feel free to roast us in the comments,

too,

if you don't like what we have to say.

But thank you, everybody.

Thanks, everyone.

Thanks a lot and look

forward to you guys joining

us and kind of following

our journey over the course

of the season.

So for CJ and myself,

we really appreciate you

guys tuning in and be

looking out for future podcasts.

Next one will be the National League.

and in the future will be American League,

pennant, award winners,

and then we'll get rolling

right into the season.

So join us next time on the

Inside the Diamond podcast.

Have a good night.