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When Patti and her potty-mouthed friend talk baseball, you'll know this is not a baseball podcast for lightweights. This is the real deal, from real fans. Because diamonds are a strong woman's best friend, and there's no crying in baseball.
Patti 0:17
Hi and welcome to episode 436 of No Crying in Baseball, the Those Guys are Frickin Cool episode. My name is Patti, and here's my friend, Pottymouth. Hey, Pottymouth
Pottymouth 0:26
Hey, there. That could be like our constant byline say that they're just fucking cool.
Patti 0:32
Yeah, no, I'm more of the fricking type, but that's because I'm such a lady, right? Everyone's always saying that exactly. Can I just say you've been cross training since I arrived today.
Pottymouth 0:42
Yeah, yeah, Basketball is fun. It's really fun. It's it's way more stressful than baseball. And I was talking to, actually, a colleague, is it? Because things happen all the time and constantly? Yeah, you can't stop watching. So that's me, and hockey, yeah, and hockey is the same too. And soccer kind of, I mean, it's the same concept. It's just, I don't know, for some reason it feels like less intense than hockey does.
Patti 1:04
It is, yeah, they don't really check, them each other into the boards. There are no boards, and there's no checking, so,
Pottymouth 1:10
you know, and the whole fighting and stuff like that, right? Yeah, you get suspended, and
Patti 1:14
the noises aren't as good, right? Hockey, yeah. So
Pottymouth 1:17
basketball, yeah. Basketball lacks on the the I guess, the authentic noise, like the noise from the sport, but there's a
Patti 1:23
lot of like, there's a swish and that they're swooshing and they're
Pottymouth 1:27
sweeping, yeah, I couldn't hear the squishing from we were up in the, you know, the high level, but we're in the first row. So this is, I don't think I actually said I went to a basketball game, like in the Live This Week, we went live in person. We went to see the wiz the Celtics at the wizards. What night was that Thursday night. It was just a couple nights ago, and it was the first half was competitive to competitive, to the point where I was feeling a little uncomfortable, because I like a cushy lead. And when the Celtics play the wizards, I'm used to going there and boom, there's a cushy lead. But Jason Tatum is out for the foreseeable future, and who and and fuck. So I would right before we went to the game, we're out to eat at my favorite veggie fast food place, and I bring up the phone saying out loud, like, can't wait to see Jalen Brown. Wonder if he's gonna have a reunion with Bill Nye, the Science Guy, because we were there when they met a year ago, I've had this big friendship since the science videos together.
Patti 2:23
And did Bill Nye just turn around from the next table over and say, What potty milk?
Pottymouth 2:27
Well, that would have been good. But no, not only was Bill Nye not there, but Jalen Brown came down with a little something, and he was ill like not I mean, injured would have been worse, I guess, but he was ill enough. It was the first fucking game that he missed all season, and it's the one that I'm going to see him at. So I didn't take it too personally. I may have grumbled a little bit in the restaurant, and I didn't interject. Then a couple of people sat down next to us, and they were like, all excited to see Jalen Brown, and I really wanted to say eavesdropping on your conversation, and he's not actually playing tonight, but I didn't. I restrained. But despite that, despite no Jalen brown D White did amazing, and Celtics won 146 to 101. For the wizards. So I felt bad for wizards fans. And I, you know, I'm usually a stay the whole game kind of person, but when wizards fans started leaving in the fourth quarter, I was like, go. You know, just that's fine. Save yourself. You can go. Everybody can go. And there weren't that many of them too. You know, when they do like the scan the crowd for the the video board, so hard for them to find wizards fans. It was green. It was very green. But we had a lovely time. And Jason Tatum was actually there in a pink hoodie. And when he came out during the first quarter. I don't know if that was staged that way, because he got a very big round of applause, like as he entered. All right, yeah. So there's hope. And the win, the Celtics just won today. And you know, anything's possible.
Patti 3:54
Well, if you so, our intern is actually cross training, even as we speak with the pwhl in Boston. That's so cool. I'm so jealous. That's possibly not rooting for Boston, but I'm not going to speak for the intern. But the how this affects me is, I've got the cat. I'm Cat, yeah, for the intern for several days, and I'm going to tell you a cat cross training story, and I hope you're okay with it. The cat plays hockey. The cat sort
Pottymouth 4:18
of like bats stuff around,
Patti 4:20
yeah, like a mouse. It was adding a tiny little mouse around. Oh, no, so the cat was doing its its predatory job. But I'm thinking of it as cross training, because at one point it's it's not a painful or bad thing. It is for me, because I want the mouse out of my house. But the situation is actually more funny. I was, like, on the sofa with my feet up watching this, this happen, right? Just like riding around and you know that they were friends, they were chasing friends. Okay? Well, no, chasing was going one way, but, um, but, but the cat looked happy. But at one point, the cat had picked up the mouse by the tail, and I blinked, and the mouse was gone. And I know the cat. Did not eat the mouse. I'm like, where's the mouse? And also the cat is looking around, like, Where does the mouse go? And in my head, I had this picture of a catcher with a pastball where they didn't know where it went, because eventually the cat stood up and the mouse was just under thinking,
Pottymouth 5:16
oh, so the mouse didn't know enough to get away. Or,
Patti 5:18
I think the mouse was probably encumbered by legs and tails and things of the of the catcher who missed the play. But it was so funny, because the cat had this look like it was right here, yeah, where the hell echo? And then it was like, Oh yeah, I've seen that play. I've seen catchers do this exact same thing. That's hysterical, yep. The other thing that happened today was we stimulated local economy. It's our favorite shopping day of the year locally, with pajama Rama, if you shop in your pajamas, you get percentage off at the local stores. So we supported small business. We hung out with our friends, and we ended up at the bar in our pajamas at 11 o'clock in the morning. So it was kind of perfect.
Pottymouth 5:53
You got a specialty hot drink that was just amazing, you know?
Patti 5:57
Okay, talk to your bartenders. I was looking for a drink that I'd gotten there at a previous pajama Rama, and I couldn't find it, and the bartender came over to where we were on the sofa. Because we were just sprawling on the sofa. They referred to us as the couch. Oh, this, this order is for the couch. And I was like, Todd, because he said, Hi, my name is Todd. I'm like, Todd, you're my new best friend. I can't find this drink. It's like, well, what do you like? I'm like, Well, I wanted a warm drink and I wanted, like, it had a whiskey thing happening, but not hot toddy ish. But, and he's like, okay. And he came back, I said, free reign, yeah, please make me something Wow. And he came back with this. It was a chai latte with whiskey and a little bit of caramel and a little bit of cardamom. And it was so freaking good that then you walked in, you're like, Yes, me too, please. Exactly. So talk to your bartenders. Your bartenders like to show you that they are skilled at their jobs, and you know, they want to make you happy. You are the you are the patron. And, I mean, it worked out really well for both of us. Yeah.
Pottymouth 6:47
Oh, absolutely. And talk to your towns about doing a pajama day, because it's the best to see everything on
Patti 6:55
today's show. Our hot stove today is about, what is this? Pre arbitration bonus pool? Anyway, we've got our second week of boyfriends this week. We've got Minnesota and the Nationals. We've got World Baseball, classic news. We've got some more winter ball. We've got labor and cross training with labor.
Pottymouth 7:11
Cheers, cheers. And as you said, nationals, another like shopping tip is, don't wait like you have this gorgeous city. Connect from the Old City connect NAT sweatshirt, and I love it, and I miss that boat like those are gone. Poof.
Patti 7:27
So you're saying, if you if you see it, get it. If you see it, get it. Yeah, sure. You never know, sure. Hey. So I was reading all these things about about Pauline's and what are you looking for? The bottle opener. Thank you. Okay, that's super important. Well, while you're at you should feel free to open mine too, because I'm going to need it. So I'm done talking. All right, okay, so I was sequencing, oh, Paul schemes, record breaking, pre arbitration bonus pool take. And I'm like, wait, I do this podcast all the time, and I can't remind me what this means. And so I got to look it up. So like, if you're listening and you have heard this before and you remember, well, you did better than me. So I'm going to tell everybody about this pre arbitration bonus pool. So the the collective bargaining agreement last time around, established a $50 million bonus pool. And the goal of this, and you'll hear this goal as labor negotiations proceed from here on out about getting more money to younger players sooner. Because, as you are aware, a lot of these young players are doing their best work while they're working for the league minimum, or, you know, just have these smaller contracts. Are not ready. They can't they can't go to arbitration and try to arbitration and try to get they're not free agents yet, they can't get the big bucks so, and they were paying a lot of money for players when they're in their 30s and not playing as well. And you know, good, you know they are. You know, good on them, because they have, like, built up this body of work and maybe rewarding them later, but maybe we should be rewarding players sooner. So the CBA says $50 million a year that gets divided among some of the players that have not reached they're not arbitration eligible yet. They don't have enough service time yet. And so why is it, how they get the $50 million every team, 30 teams each contribute $1.67 million to this pool. So this year, 101 players got a piece of this arbitration pool. Wow. So 18 of those awards are based on of those monetary awards are based on achievements, and these achievements don't, aren't in effect every year, because some of the people who win these prizes are not pre arbitration eligible. They're veterans, right? But if you are in this pool of not yet eligible for arbitration, and you do any of these following things, if you win MVP or Cy Young, $2.5 million from that pool, if you are second in either of those voting, you know, for either those awards, 1.75 and then 1.5 million for third and a billion dollars if you're fourth. Or fifth, or you're selected to the all MLB first team. Wow, right? So there's lots of opportunities to get some big money added on to your less than a million dollar, you know,
Pottymouth 10:11
salary, right? Love that it's not just number one. Like, it's not just
Patti 10:15
right, it's not just number one. And that also allows for some of the some of these awards to go to players who are not veterans, right? Like, you had a really good year, but you're not MVP material yet. You're not Shohei Ohtani. So what are you going to do? So please reward all the other people that were, you know, pretty close. Okay, so also, so Rookie of the Year, you get $750,000 or if you're second in voting, $500,000 or if you're on the all MLB second team $500,000 so if you are in this group and you get one of those things, you can only get one of those things, like, if you were MVP and you were also rookie of the year or something, you would pick the higher one, or they would give you the higher one. So you wouldn't get all of those. So whatever is not awarded, because we'll say, oh, MVP this year, right? You know, if the people who won that, for instance, are not in this pre arbitration pool, that money goes back into the pool to get divided up among everybody else, right? So that's right. And then there is this mysterious wins above replacement formula to divide to figure out who gets how much of everything else. And I'm calling it top secret, because everything else everything I read said there's this top secret. No one is saying what that formula is to figure out who in this pool gets what, because of how this wins above replacement works. So, so the highest award this year went to Paul skins, Cy Young winner, right? He got $3.4 million in change for that. So because he also got a bunch last year, he said, like five and a half million dollars just out of this award pool in two years. And his regular salary this year is $875,000 or something. So it makes a real difference, like he's being paid what a starting pitcher would be paid as a free agent, almost because of this award, right? So it's kind of making it more appropriate to the work he's doing, to the output of the work that he's doing. Right? Last year, Bobby Witt had the record in 2024 because he had just over $3 million out of this pool. So day in life, what we're talking about, a little bit later, got the smallest bonus. He got $150,000 out of this pool. He was not in the top 100 by wins above replacement, which I think is a clue to this mysterious formula. But he finished fifth in National League Rookie of the Year voting. So he got some Wow. He finished fifth. That's impressive. Well, yeah, just wait till I tell you more about him. I don't know how we weren't paying more attention to him during the season. And Milwaukee had 10 players, which is the most ever for a team who got a share of this pre arbitration pool, huh? So how about that? So if you win an award, or if you you know score well on this mysterious, top secret wins above replacement formula, and you are also not yet eligible for arbitration, you are, you are you are eligible to receive some payout from this. Well, that
Pottymouth 13:03
makes it, you know, I'm wondering about, like, the application of this to other places, like teaching, like just thinking about, I worked so much harder my first three years than I do now. And, I mean, you're really just coasting now, yeah, well, relatively, but I made so much, like, so much less than I do now. But weren't you in the Rookie of the Rookie of the Year conversation? That's so that's a thing, like, I actually got an award in my whatever, third, fourth year of teaching. And I'm thinking, like, huh, if I had gotten, like, payment for that, rather than the plaque, which I think is, like, under that shelf over there. It's like, All right, yeah, they should. They should do shit like that for us public servants.
Patti 13:44
So the idea of I agree, and but, and also the idea us publics, I'm also public service. Oh my god, we're back to French again. That's the second time today. Oh my gosh. But the conversation about pushing more money to younger players who are excelling is a constant conversation, and you'll see that come up as the labor negotiations continue over the next year. All right,
Pottymouth 14:14
so we're going to talk about these guys. We're in our off season this time where we get to do one guy per team, because they're cool that we call them our baseball boyfriends, because we want to hang out and have a beer with them, because there's something about them that we like, that we feel like we could get along with them, and ideally they will be also good on the field, because then we're going to make our fantasy team from them next season. And so we're up to the twins. And so at first this week, I thought that I had two great picks, and I was like, all over it. And then as I started digging into them, after I'd already committed, I kind of went, huh? I don't know how much is actually there. So I ended up getting a lot from my nats guy, but my twins guy is a little sparse, um, but he. Was like that, that shiny thing, right? That like, and I get easily distracted, as folks might know, Emmanuel Rodriguez, second base, maybe left field, maybe catcher, I don't know. 22 years old. He was the shiny thing at the recent Dominican Puerto Rican All Star game at Citi Field. And there were a lot of stars there from both of those leagues, and he got MVP, and so that name was like out there. And then as I've been following the Dominican League, I see it a lot, and I thought perfect. This is the guy I'm going to pick for the twins. He might not be on the roster opening day. He might not be on the roster, but I'm hoping that there's a debut at some point, and so I can use him for a sub. And this is where it comes into like this. Into, like, the strategy of our fantasy league, of like, do you put them but keep them on the on the bench until he actually shows up? Or do I just hope nobody else in the league picks them, which I don't think they will right guys, and I can just scoop him up if I get an injury, that might be the situation. So he's the number four twins prospect right now. He's from the Dominican Republic. Grew up in Santiago and fell in love in baseball at age seven, which is interestingly late for folks in the Dr. So basically, in the DR, you're born with the baseball in your hand, and that's it. He apparently took karate lessons at a young age, but then when a neighbor who worked in not the actual League, but sort of a local rec league, invited him and his friends to come shag balls, ie help us clean up the field during our practice. Framing is everything. Yes, exactly. You guys get to help the players. He got really into it, so he was drafted as many folks in the DR at age 16 and 2019 and then did the like, very steady. Well, there's 2020 so that was out. But then 21 to 25 basically went up a level a year, but he never has played over 100 games because of injuries. So this is where somebody should say, hey, potty mouth, maybe you shouldn't pick an injury prone guy. You should have learned your lesson before, but here's what I'm thinking. On the bright side, they were all different injuries, so it's not like something is recurring and might not that problem
coming back to bite you. Yeah, exactly. Exactly.
One year was the oblique, the first year was a knee, then abdominal strain, then a thumb issue, and then right hip. So I'm hoping that he's got all the kinks worked out. He's not gonna have anything else going wrong. In 2025 in triple A, he batted a 269 average 840, ops. His mi OB, minor league career, interesting, a little lower on the average 254 but a 912, ops. And he does walk a lot, so that bodes well, I think, for, you know, a rookie coming in recently, he was playing in lead on. I thought he was like a lead on guy, especially in my flash in the pan kind of thing here, with the with the all star game, but it was his first season actually playing in lead on, and the twins only let him play 18 games, and apparently, like this is common that they don't know how long they're there for, like they go down for a little while and then just get yanked or at least that was how the press was showing it, like we don't know how, oh, there he's gone. He was with the Aguila ceballenas, who are solidly in first place, and took, like, a commanding lead on the season. And as a Leones del escogido fan, I am really glad that he's gone, because he did really well. There 292, average, 1.063 ops with four home runs, 11 RBI, 10 runs, scored three stolen bases. And while he was there, the aguiles went 16 and two, meaning 16 games. Funny side note, so this is Emmanuel Rodriguez. Well, two funny side notes. First of all, a rod's middle name is Emmanuel. So I got too many a rod hits when I was doing searches. Second side note, there are five other I'm not sure if it's Rodriguez's or Rodrigue guy. What do you think I like Rodrigo I like that better. But I bet it's Rodriguez is probably is. There's five others on the aguas so if, like, somebody said, Hey, Rodriguez, like, six heads are turning around while he is there. The other five are Richard Arlin, Jose, Augusto, Alberto and Julio. So he grew up as an aguas fan, so this was a big moment for him, being able to come back and actually not only play in the field that he was always watching as a kid, but play with people that he was watching as a teenager, like Juan lagares, who is like a he, I think, was in the miners for a little bit about up here, but has been in lead on since 2018 really solid. And he's and Emmanuel said, for me, it's, it's great pride to be able to contribute here. This is the team that I've loved since I was a little kid. To play with the Aguilas is very special. And then when he played in Citi Field, he was like surrounded by lead. Um heroes that he grew up with, Junior Lake, who's been in lead on since 2009 Socrates, Brito since 2014 yet Emmanuel gets MVP at that game. He went two for three with a walk two run, home run in the eighth. And Dr won either five to two or six to two, depending on which source I look at. But the funny thing is, his mom did not grow up an ayulas fan. She was a tigueres de Lisa fan, and so the Dominican paper that has an article about him. That's the big headline, like, you know, star of the aguas, and underneath, Lisa. So Lisa fan, mom still supports her son. So she saw, in spite of the fact he plays for the wrong team, exactly, and she said that she is still at least a fan, but she supports her son, and there's a great video of the whole family in the stands watching his first home run, which was hugely emotional, and she is wearing an ugly shirt. He also has a wife and a kid. I didn't get the names of either one, except for the kid is fanatic on numero uno, number one, fan.
Patti 21:06
I like it. I like it. Okay, I
Pottymouth 21:10
was really good. This is repeat we're. Repeat bearing
Patti 21:13
we are. This is the tidings, good time beers. So we're, you know, we're feeling a holiday festive because of our, you know, stimulating local economy in our in our pajamas, holiday event today. So it's very delicious. What was our first beer?
Pottymouth 21:26
It was the tamale. Did I say that? Right? I feel it's, yeah, the port, port city. We did the same one two punches last week. Okay, yeah,
Patti 21:35
got it. Okay. So my two guys are have weirdly similar things. So maybe as I talk about the second guy, we can say, Oh yeah, that happened. Oh yeah, that happened. Oh yeah, that happened, and see just how many there are. So I want to say that if you listened to last week's episode, you heard our interview with Clara Rice, who was drafted to the women's professional baseball league, and I was very inspired by her that she's currently in college and she's playing both softball and wrestling, and then also, oh yeah, that whole baseball thing is happening that inspired me to pick Luke keshaw from Minnesota, who is second base, 23 years old. Because what did he do in high school? He both played baseball and he wrestled. And I'm thinking, you know, Clara was pretty inspirational. So made this work for Luke, too. So he grew up in Watsonville, California, a couple hours outside of San Francisco. He went to Aptus High School. He was all league in both baseball and in wrestling. His dad wrestled at the University of Nebraska, which sort of inspired him to try wrestling. And he says that wrestling piece kind of gave him his work ethic and a lot of mental toughness. He says wrestling is a tough thing. Wrestlers can survive in anything. They are tough as nails. Yeah. So there's that so that he was inspired for wrestling because of his dad. He was inspired to go to college for baseball because of watching his older brother who played baseball for a junior college. So he's got a lot of you know, my family's showing me things that I really like. I want to do those things. So he played baseball at the University of San Francisco for two years, and then transferred to Arizona State for junior year. His walk up theme has been consistent since Arizona State. I don't know if it was before that, but he walks up to the theme from Rocky gonna fly. That's awesome. And the fact that that's still going on really, I love it. I that really kind of cracks me up. When he was in college, he said the following, there's nothing I want to do with my life besides play baseball. I want to play for as long as I can. I want them to rip the jersey off me when I'm 60 years old. And as a person who has been 60 years old recently, I am both amused and impressed by this goal. I like this a lot. He was asked, What do you do for fun? He's like, Well, I think about baseball, but also photos of him, you know, out with a very attractive girlfriend for many years. So I think there are maybe, like he's got other other things. Okay, he's got other things while thinking about baseball. Maybe, I hope she thinks about baseball too, because otherwise, boy, would that be a problem. So Minnesota picked him up in the second round of the 2023, draft from Arizona State. So he played single a in 2024 you know, the next year he stole three bases in one game. All of those on bases started, started with walks. So like three in one game. Pretty good. And remember that? Because this is going to happen a lot, this whole stealing a lot of bases thing, he reached base. So that, that season, he started in single A, then he went to double A. So over the course of May, 4 to June 15, which spanned both of those leagues, he reached base successfully in 38 straight games. That's a lot of games. That's a lot of games, May 4 to June 15. He was the Minnesota Minor League Player of the Month for both May and also. For July. He was the Texas, Texas League Player of the Month for May, and player of the week in July. So we had a couple of like, you know, really spectacular. We're going to highlight this. You were great over this period of time moments. So he played in the 2024, futures game. So you, you talked about Brooks Lee before he was a past boyfriend of yours, he he was, yeah, he was supposed to go to this futures game, but he got his call up, so we didn't go. So, so my guy, Luke, went instead, but nobody told the announcer, so he was announced as Brooks Lee. Oh no, when they did like the whole like the beginning of the game thing, that's not but he laughed. He thought it was pretty funny, because he understood how it happened, but he was kind of amused by this thing. All right, so in August of 2024 he has a UCL tear. This season, he's in double A right now, so he ends up having Tommy John, what in August and out for the rest of the season right now. Remember, Tommy John is different. The recovery is different for position players than it is for pitchers, right? That's it's typically a shorter recovery time, but it's not as short as it ended up being for for my guy, Luke. So even though, even though he was out in August because of the surgery in athropocene, he still won the Minnesota Minor League Player of the Year, because what he did before that was so impressive, so good on you, right. His debut with the majors with the twins was, I was April 18, 2025 remember Tommy John? Was in August of 2024 so he wasn't fully recovered from Tommy John. He actually had been playing in triple A but like, just like DHing. Remember, that's how show he came back, right? He was DHing and he wasn't pitching yet when he was recovering. So it's, it's kind of like that. There we go. That was a good picture of it, right? So his defense was not so great because throwing arm, right? So he was initially drafted as an outfielder, but because of the whole throwing arm, still throwing arm, still recovering from Tommy John, they started him at second base. So he's been playing second base for quite a while, mainly to protect his arm, right while he's recovering.
Pottymouth 27:11
So just shorter, faster throws. Yeah, better, yeah. Okay, yep.
Patti 27:14
So his debut was versus Atlanta, where he went two for four with a double an RBI run scored and a stolen base. Not a bad crazy debut. It gets crazier. He stole five bases in his first five MLB games, which tied the record five stolen bases in the first five games of your career, same right? And then in the seventh game of see of the season, he was hit by a pitch, broke his forearm, and was out for three months, three
Pottymouth 27:47
months recovering from Tommy.
Patti 27:49
John, yeah, it went and also it was, like, if you're batting, it was his back arm too. So usually you get hit, like, up front. It kind of passed that and got and so just, like, kind of hit him in just the right way to cause the breaks. It was out for three months, so his first game back after being out for three months, he homered in his first at bat. His first 12 games back, he hit 415, he had a 1.207 ops and 12 RBI. He reached base safely in all 12 of those first games, and had at least one hit in each of the 11 games where he had an official at bat. In that he had a career high three hit game versus Kansas City on August 10, including a walk off two run homer. Holy shit. So his comeback again, offensively, amazing. Defensively, still a little, you know, muted, because arm not quite back. So remember how we talked? I talked about Will Smith. He was like, Oh, there. He's so, like, stoic and all this, and he hardly shows emotion. That's kind of how Luke was, until he hit this walk off two run homer, and he said, I'm usually calm, cool and collected, but I kind of lost my crap and went crazy. That was probably the most fun game I've ever played, right?
Pottymouth 29:02
That makes him a patty pick. So, so, like this whole season, the 2025,
Patti 29:06
season, where he's recovering from the elbow surgery, broke his throat, you know, the forearm out. He had a thumb issue. It was still one of the best rookie seasons in history, in Milwaukee, sorry, in Minnesota history. And he only played 49 games, and his numbers were such that it was one of the best. Like rookie seasons in Minnesota history, he set twins records for the first 12 games of his career. Remember, those were the first seven games, then three months off, and then the next games, right? So, all right, the record for the first 12 games of a career for ops, 1.207 times on base, 24, RBI, 12 and stolen bases, five, first 12 games of his professions, major league career. He says, I just go out there and play the same game I've always played. It doesn't feel like I go out there and I'm like, oh my goodness, there's Bobby Wood Jr or There's Mike Trout. Don't get me wrong, those guys are freaking cool. I just don't think of it that way. I'm confident in myself. Wow. He was the American League player of the week in August, August 15. He was the Minnesota outstanding Rookie Award for 2025 again, which is that tiny number of games, he was named First Team All rookie. And manager Rocco valdelli said, from his day one of spring training. He said, It's all hard work and eagerness. He makes you wake up, sit up and pay attention. Wow. The other thing that I'm amused by is he says, I really like to play golf, but I'm really bad at it.
Pottymouth 30:33
That's my guy, Luke. That's awesome, right? You know, I was just thinking that it's weird that we're talking about the twins so early. Like, what a disappointing season for the twins. So he
Patti 30:43
was noted as quite the highlight, like Byron Buxton as like the veteran highlight, and Luke as the as the rookie highlight. Kind of like really pumping up the fans and giving the putting some excitement out there.
Pottymouth 30:57
Yeah, we'll see what happens. Yep. So not surprising, however, to see our nationals as number two. I'm I'm hoping, I'm so hoping that the nationals have a decent year this year, because I like these guys, yeah, and I like them last year too. I just, I feel like they need a spark. And that's what drew me to Nassim Nunez, second base, 25 years old, hoping that he's on the starting team once again, but it's looking pretty good, but he has that super positive, energetic attitude, and that's what the Nationals need. He was born in New York and grew up in Atlanta, and you know, the other part of baseball, boyfriend, stuff that we often look at is the generosity and giving back. And he said that he's gotten that from his mom, that he's been taught to give back at a very young age, and when he was a kid, that she took him to food drives, charity drives, and that growing up in New York and Atlanta, gave him a certain awareness of other people's needs who are that are out there. He was drafted also in 2019 so I've got another theme going by the Marlins in the second round out of high school. So that's always a tough thing, because we like to see some, you know, education people deciding to take that advantage opportunity to go to college, especially if it's getting paid for. However, he said, My parents always told me to follow my heart and chase my dream that the only person who could stop me was me. And so he signed, and he used the bonus to pay off his parents house, then covid. So then there's that disappointing year, he did the home gym thing. He said he had two chairs from the kitchen and a pole over them to do incline push ups. Got into documentaries, which I super appreciate, and reading, and got a Rottweiler 2021 in the Marlin system. And then 22 up to double A was on the championship the Pensacola blue Wahoos. And we talked about this before. It's actually a fish, nothing to do with the formerly known Wahoo of Cleveland. And after that successful season, he decided it was the a good opportunity to do his first annual he's done a couple since then, off season clinic for your local youth, and he talked about how mom and dad influenced him. And he said that we talked about it before, even before I got drafted, I always talked about doing something like that. And he was like, All right, I've had a good year. I'm gonna give back. He was in the futures in 2023 and got MVP with three RBI and the Marlins. And I feel like this is a flashback to my guy last week, Troy Johnston. The Marlins didn't protect him. He went to the NATs on the Rule five draft. All right, so you know what's fair? Is fair? What's what's very cool is he feels like this, this nats team. He really fits in with these other young, promising players. And his mom and James Woods's mom are part of a Facebook group. And I don't think this was going when you talked about Jane Woods last season yet called the black baseball moms. I don't recall it. Did it was it? Yep, all right. So Mama Nunez is on there as well, and they were, they were there together when a group of the players in the mons came to nats Park in March for the NATs versus nats futures game. So it was like the babies against the actual players. I think the babies got kind of crushed. But Nassim said it's crazy when you see it online, and it's a big community, and then everyone comes together and gets to meet in person and ask questions. You get to actually see it's real. And his mom said the young players were looking at them and saying, if they can do it, I can do it, perfect. And that's the whole thing. And this nats team for Washington, DC to be so like, if you look at the lineup for next year of black players, you've got James Wood, Nassim, you've got your guy that you're about to talk about, CJ Abrams, like, right there is so out of proportion for any other team, and I think it's promising, and I'm hoping that they do well, um. Nassim has had better luck on the sexy defense than the bat, and he's super fast on the bases. In he hasn't played a lot on the major league level. He debuted in 24 and played 50 games with eight stolen bases. And then in 25 he only played 39 games but had nine stolen bases. So improvement there, but the character is what I really love about him, and what I think is going to hold him steady and hold the national steady. He started journaling in the Marlins minors, and props to the Marlins coaches for giving the players journals. And he said, quote, It was a way for me to release because in the game, if you have these thoughts and you keep everything trapped inside you. There's no way of getting them out, you're going to crumble. So using the journal to sort of process all of that, you know, anxiety and everything that the game brings to you. So he brought his journal and the lessons from the Marlins when he came to the nationals, and then, like, added to it. So he had mental health coaches in the Marlins, but then sort of took it upon himself to be his own coach, and he added reading, sort of those positivity books and meditating. And said, as long as you can continue to work on yourself and get help when you need it, you'll be good. He had a super key game this past year, one of those few games that he played, but may 16, four, three, win over the O's, and we saw, I think, the game before that, or a couple. So it was a three game series. Two of the games the NATs, like, just crushed. And we saw one of those games. This was like the last one where the O's really had a fighting chance, except for Nassim. Nunez really sort of did it in. So he caught the first out. So it was, it was a Nassim game. He caught the first out, scored a run in the six by getting walked, stealing second, going to third on the passball, and then sprinting home on a single. So the speed really came into play. There. They moved him to center field in the seventh inning. He had not played center field before in the major league but you know, he had his his comments on it are so sweet, is like it there's a lot more room out there. Like stretch you get to interact with the fans. Like, super positivity about it. And then in the ninth inning, he had the go ahead RBI single to base to win the game, right four to three. And even after that, in center field, this position that he's not familiar with, he caught the last out of the game. So he gets the interview after the game with Dan Kolko, and he said, quote, I was talking to my boys and our teammates, and was just about time to pop our shit. So potty mouth pick there. And what he was saying is they hadn't had that positive attitude that, like, just fuck it. We're gonna go for it, attitude. And it feels like that's what Nassim brings to the game, and that's what he's going to bring hopefully next year, September 22 so he was clearly up and down a lot last year, down most more than up. But it when he was at Atlanta, where his family is. His family showed up September 22 at Atlanta. So before the game, he said, I hope they observe me doing something cool. Very cool. First pitch, lead off, home run off. Chris sale, nice, right? Only other first pitch home run sale had ever given up was in 2016 when sale was on the White Sox on an inside the park home run by Byron Buxton, he so NASM went three for four that game. Then that still lost 11 to five. But you know, it's there's always this year, all four of his home runs in 2025 came in September, and they all came against teams that were meaningful to him. He had two runs against Miami, two home runs against Miami, one against the New York Mets. So it's New York where he was born, not not the Bronx, but still. And then one against Atlanta. So, like, I'm hoping that he can also hit home runs against teams that he doesn't have personal connections with,
Patti 38:51
because probably more of those. Yeah, yeah, numerically, that would be your favor.
Pottymouth 38:55
He So in April, May and June, he played a few games, but then in September, was most of his games played last year, and he batted 282 average with a 916 No. PS for the month of September. That's what I'm looking for. For 2026
Patti 39:10
I like it. So my guy, Dalen Lyle, who plays right field, 23 years old for the NATs, also cited that whole clubhouse. We need to click more thing that you just mentioned. We need to have more fun as a group. And that's one of the things we need to work on cool, right? And he also talked about loving people like Josh Bell, like these veterans that you can talk to, but also the rookie class, the NATs brought up a whole bunch of guys at kind of at the same time, and they they are kind of their own, like, little subgroups. There's a lot of the young guys who and even the guys who came up the year before to learn from them as new guys. Like, what do I need to know as a new guy? And then you go to the veterans for, what do I need to know as a. Professional ball player, so I was very injured anyway. So Dan and Lyle is my guy for the nationals. He's from Louisville, Kentucky. He apparently was starting to play baseball inside the house at age three, not the best choice. In fact, he broke a door at his grandparents' house hitting a ball. Oops, inside. His dad took him outside for batting practice from then on, for a very long time, like they, like regularly did batting practice together, and he said, We, my dad was pretty good, until we got to, like, the second bucket, and then his arm was done. So a little bit trash talk against dad, which I thought was amused. So he went to high school at Trinity High School in Louisville, and as a senior at Trinity, he hit 550 with 18 home runs, and was only struck out six times. So he got those are drafted out of high school. He was also the National High School Player of the Year, as identified by perfect game in Rawlings. The thing that blew me away the most was Indiana offered him a scholarship when he was in eighth grade.
Pottymouth 41:05
What I didn't even know that was a thing.
Patti 41:07
I didn't know that was a thing either, but apparently, it happens it is insane, so he didn't go for it. But he had committed to Louisville because, you know, that's like the home team right next to he's right there. He's in Louisville. NATS picked him in the second round in 2021 out of high school. And it was kind of a big conversation from a lot of soul searching, do I want to go to college, or do I want to go right now? And he decided I'm going to go right now. So that was 2020 21 so in 2022 in spring training, he tore his UCL. And what do you have? He had Tommy John surgery. Wow, that there you go. Yeah, yeah, for my other guy, yeah. So he missed the whole 2022 season. Came back, you know, did you know the usual? Like, move your way through the miners. He debuted in May of 2025, he hit the first pitch thrown to him for a single versus San Francisco. Wow. So you know how the NATs called a bunch of guys at one time? His buddy, Robert Hassell, the third was called up, like, two days before he was Wow. They had been, like, through all the miners together, so they were pals. They're pretty excited to be called up pretty much together. Robert Hassell, the third also hit his first single off of the first pitch thrown to him, like two days prior to Dalen doing that. In fact, when Dalen read that the day, like him his call, his new first game, his debut game, Robert said to him, swing at the first pitch. They're gonna throw you a fastball. Wow. That is so that worked out okay for them. Lyle was talking about what it was like to like have his debut at nats Park and all that. He said it was surreal. It was a dream that I've been dreaming since I was a little kid, to go out there and see the fans and run out there in that big outfield. It was awesome. So after 11 games, they got sent back down, yeah, aaa, right. But 10 days later, they brought him back up, wow. And injuries like Jacob young, I think, went out whatever. So he had a home run in his first game back. It was also Brady house's debut that day, and he actually overshadowed Brady, who I also love, who I considered briefly because of this whole my first major league home run. Sorry, dude that this is your debut, but I'm gonna hit the whole run. Wow, today. So that happened. His 14 game hitting streak that went into July was the longest in the majors at that time. Dalen Lyle, no one knows who he is. He had the longest hitting streak in the majors for a time over the summer, September, 20, he hit an inside the park home run in the 11th inning versus the Mets, which was the very first ever inside the park home run in extra innings for a nats player, right? He it took him 14.86, seconds to round the bases. That was also the Nationals fastest home to home time recorded in the stat cast era. So this is when things get even crazier. How did we not pay attention? So we live here, we did not pay attention. I mean, we saw his games and we said, hey, he's good. Let's watch him. It'll be fun, right? You know what he did in September? He won National League Player of the Month and National League Rookie of the month for September. It was the first time a player had won both of those things in the same month. Here's why. He was in the month of September, the first player since Willie Mays in 1957 to hit seven or more triples and six or more home runs in a calendar month, seven or more triples, triples, those are super
Pottymouth 44:51
hard to hit. How did we not see those? He had two
Patti 44:54
or more hits in 14 of the 25 games he played in September, which was the most multi. Games in Major League Baseball that month, this little rookie guy that just came up, right, right? He only played 91 games for the season, but over those 91 games, the 11 triples that he hit Set a franchise record for the most by a rookie, and tied the whole franchise record set by Dennard Spann. Remember Dennard Spann in 2013 that's a lot of triples. It's a lot of triples. He led all rookies in triples. 11 ranked first among qualified National League rookies in batting average at 299, slugging percentage at 498, and ops at 845, which is how he ended up finishing fifth in the National League Rookie of the Year voting, unreal. So for fun, he plays a little video game. You might have heard of it. He likes to play MLB The Show. So he said he always played Ken Griffey Jr, Mike Trout, Shohei, Ohtani, again, a little shade at like the old guy, right, right? Shohei is the old guy. And this answer. So now he started playing as himself. That's okay. And he said being a playable character is a dream come true. Wow. If anything, he'd make a few changes to his ready so that, yeah, they knocked my power down a little bit, but we'll get there. And again, he also is considered kind of earnest and intense. And he said, This may sound familiar to I just love this game so much. The way I think about is, I want to do this until I'm, like, 40 years old. I really want to be great. So 60 goes down to 60 goes down to 40. Sounds Ouch. I know realistic, however. And also, he started out of high school, and, you know, Luke started out at college, so there's a couple three years difference there. So you can see why there's 20 years difference. And they're like, end end goals, but yeah, there were just a lot of things. Anyway, next week we're going to talk about the angels and the pirates.
Pottymouth 46:54
That's so I already have my pirates guy noted, all right, it was and not. It's not a shocker, because there was news this week about a trade. So yeah, all right, just a little bit of a hint for anybody who likes the Red Sox. So I didn't talk about international ball last week, so I've got a bit to catch up on this week, because there's stuff happening. World Baseball Classic is months away, unfortunately, being played in places that we just can't get to or won't get to. But there are excited. People are excited about it. Players are excited about it.
Patti 47:29
This past week, MLB is really promoting a lot, which is cool.
Pottymouth 47:32
Yeah, I think it's just building like crazy. This past week, all the countries and Puerto Rico had to hand in their 35 man preliminary roster. It's going to get cut down to 30 in February. So these lists are guys who could play. So somebody who's not on this list can't play. People on this list could play, but might not. So we've got to sort of hang on to it. So for Puerto Rico, there were some surprises people were not expecting. Riley Green, George Springer and Nolan Arenado, all of them are there on mom power. Them have Puerto Rican moms. Nolan Arenado, who has the most Hispanic sounding name. His dad is Cuban. But there is a lot of enthusiasm in Puerto Rico, so the group tickets sold out within hours. So even if you are planning a flight there, you're going to be going to StubHub, other stars on that team are, you know, Francisco Lindor, I believe he's captain, Javier Baez, Carlos Correa and Eliot Ramos. Nicaragua is a little who knows what's going to happen. Dusty Baker is managing, so that's huge. Mark vientos had already said that he would rather go with the Dominican side of his family and play for Dominican Republic. However, he is on the 35 man roster for Nicaragua, so I don't know if he might have second thoughts. Now that dusty is there. We'll see if he has any pull, or maybe come February, he's not going to be on that list anymore. Venezuela Ronda CUNY Jr has officially stated that he has permission from the Atlanta team to plan Venezuela and he's also currently sticking in the Venezuelan league. And he says until the end of the league, and he's willing to go as long as the tiburones go. And he, according to him, he wants to be a reinforcement if the tiburones don't go on to the finals, because they get to pull like that. So we'll see what Atlanta says about that. But he's pretty gung ho and very excited to be playing in front of what he had said was, you know, the people that where he came from, the people that he wants to be playing for, is where he's at right now. And we just, you know, keep an eye on politics, because this is Venezuela. Might be in the news a little bit recently. You know, we've got a lot of guys down there and
Patti 49:47
boats that are in question, yeah, holy shit.
Pottymouth 49:50
You know, speaking of controversial countries, Cuba is marching forward. So there was also a lot of are they playing? Are they not playing? We saw them play in Miami. Are. They playing this time around. Jim Small, the WBC president, said that visas will happen for Cuba now he is not a member of the United States government, so take that with a grain of salt, or whatever you know, salt for the rim of your their Margarita. Yes, the roster includes a couple of guys, baseball, boyfriend picks of mine from last season who had not previously said that they would play for Cuba, because this is a very controversial thing, but Andy Ibanez from the Tigers and and a package from the Dodgers are both on that list. So we'll see what happens with that. Juan mancala actually played in 2023 he's back up. I actually picked him in 2018 for the right Sox, White Sox. There have been mixed reports on Zach NATO, who says that he wants to play. But as far as Cuba wanting Cuban Americans, American born, Cuban ancestry, to play, there's mixed reports on that, depending on what source you read. So we'll see if Zach NATO is actually on the list or not. For fun stuff. The Dominican team is going to host the Tigers on March 3 and fourth, for preparation for the World Baseball Classic. And, you know, spring training for the Tigers. So fun stuff there. There's also a whole bunch of stuff happening in spring training with various teams, like moving around, and I'll talk about more about that later in Puerto Rico, Red Sox folks, Christian Campbell, who, you know, started out last year like wildfire and then fizzled and got put down to triple A. And we're hoping for the best for Christian Campbell, because we really need a solid second baseman on the Red Sox. He's going to Puerto Rico, along with Jose Miranda, who I picked in 2023 for the twins. He's actually now a free agent by choice, instead of going being sent down, the two of them are going to the Criollos de Caguas, who which is the hometown of Alex Cora, which is probably how Christian Campbell got sent there, because Cora both played and managed for the Criollos. So we'll see how that goes. And I'm really, really hoping that Christian Campbell can get it together. Because, man, he had such a great start last year. And man, the Red Sox really need somebody solid at second in Venezuela. Speaking of above, you know, we just, there's more guys just going down there. So let's keep the country safe. Shall we? Gabrielle Moreno, Diamondbacks catcher, is now down in the Venezuelan league playing. So watch Venezuelan baseball. He is joining. This is my team, the cardinales de Lara, the team of My Love, Luis angelicunia and Andres Chaparro, who's, I don't think even mentioned was on the cardinales. They're all down there. Gabriel Moreno was last in the Venezuelan League, way back in 2020 and 21 he debuted yesterday. We're courting on Sunday, December 7. So he debuted on the sixth, and got two hits in his debut, and one five to two over the tiburones. And that is Ronald Acuna Junior's team. So baby Acuna won over big brother yesterday. Notably, currently the Cardinals are in fifth place, and the tiburones, that's the sharks, they're in seventh. And we know that five and six are really key, because they get to battle for the wild card. So things are tense. I had mentioned that our favorite turtle, Tortuga Williams, Castro Dio asturio. Why did I put a C on his name? Williams Astor deal was going to the cardinales, and so I looked on the roster, and I was like, where's astur do? Last week I said he was going two weeks ago, I said he was going there, where is apparently he's serving a 20 game suspension for PED use that he earned last year when he was with the caribes and Swati, yeah, so he's not gonna be playing for a little while, but they're very excited to have him. He was with the caribes for 11 years, three championships. He has literally played every position in Venezuelan ball, yes, every fucking position. So he, they're happy to have him. He's 34 I mean, he's getting up there. But, you know, the expert on the on the team, is always a good thing. And then this past week, the huge like fanfare, will your Abreu of the Red Sox, and I am really looking at him, won the homeroom Derby, which was happened like, I think, as we were recording last week, or right after he beat Andres Chaparro in the final. So that was my nats pick last year. I believe, after knocking out YAC el Puig. I don't know how the fuck he got there. I mean, he's Cuban. He's been, you know, in Japan and now, and I don't know he got in the in the home run dirty, somehow made it to the semis. So apparently he's just trying to come back and Ronald Acuna Jr, so the semi finals were Abreu, Chaparro Puig and Acuna. Interesting, yeah. So Chaparro and Abreu were the two who went on. So the others who got knocked out earlier were Salvador. Perez, Michael, Garcia Jackson, chaudio Wilson, Contreras, and then Jared arenamo, who's a raised double a player and the most fascinating one of the bunch. Remember this name folks write it down right now. Francisco Renteria, 16 years old, came in fifth after the first round. Fifth after the first round. Hit 18 home runs in the first round. The guys above him hit 19 and 20 and 21 and then below him were much less. He is six three and 200 pounds at age 16 and growing. He is number three, somehow on the MLB pipeline, and somehow he's expected to sign with the Phillies in mere months. So keep an eye on this guy, and I will try not to pick him prematurely, but someday he may be a baseball boyfriend, 16 years old, playing with the big boys like crazy, crazy shit. The Dominican League has been all sorts of fucking crazy. My Leones are in the gutter. They fired their manager, Alex intro, and they replaced him by Ramon Santiago. And I'm hoping that they can, you know, work their way up a little bit. And the other team that has been sort of not as bad as my Leonis, but kind of in the middle is the estrellas Orientales, formally managed by Fernando Tati senior, no longer. This has happened twice. So we talked about this fuck. I forgot to write down the episode, but I was like, didn't this happen before? Fernandez tattoo senior was fired before and then came back. So he he had managed them in 2018 when they were the champions for the first time in 51 years, and then the following year, 2019 they fired him after 10 games. They had a two day, two losses, eight win start, and he was out. And tatis Junior, like said, I'm not going back anymore. Anyway, they both went back. They literally both went back. Something happened, but now Fernanda Tati senior was on, like, a, I think it was a podcast or an on air radio thing, like complaining about his players. Yeah, he called them. And here's your vocabulary word for the week. I had to look this one up, no nos. So this is a double Enya nos, which is like cry baby. So he basically said that these guys, like, I got a headache, I have a hangnail. I'm not playing. And he lit into them. So there's people on both sides support, you know, supporting her against him, but the players, like, grouped up and said, We're done with this guy. He was fired tatis Jr, who was about to come down to play with them, was like, not anymore, go back. I am gone. He said, before being a ball player, I am a son. I stand by my word, oh, and by my dad, yeah. And I don't know if this is coincidental, but right before this happened, it was announced that Fernando Tati senior is going to manage the algodoneros de union Laguna in next season's Mexican League. That happens at the same time as Major League Baseball. That's much more, well, I don't know. I guess it's a little bit of a level up from from Lead on. So I don't know if that loosened his lips or like,
Patti 58:09
wow, I've got job security. I can say what I think interesting. It's also bad
Pottymouth 58:14
form, right? Yeah, I don't know. I don't know. Like, if the players really were being cry babies, maybe. But you know, to talk about that's, yeah, that's not what you do. Not cool. The nearest thing that's going to be happening is the city of the Caribe, which is still planned for Venezuela December 1 was the first deadline on that Venezuela is still planning to host. There's going to be another update on December 15. I will let you know.
Patti 58:42
Can't wait to hear about that. All right, let's talk about labor. The the CBA is going to expire December 1 of this next year, so everything is starting to come to a head right now. Fun fact. We're starting with a fun fact. So Major League Baseball, earlier in the calendar year, they formed this fan council of 90 members. Most of them are baseball fans who have pretty significant social media, you know, following we weren't invited. We weren't invited. So I not all. I don't know. I don't know. So they have monthly zoom calls with this group. And they do presentations every month. MLB does presentations. They do things like, when, when the the torpedo bats were a big deal. They did a presentation on those. They have done things on like, here's our social media strategy. So, like, they do, like, kind of like keeping folks in the loop. Like, here's how Major League Baseball works. Here's interesting things that you might want to new know more about. And we want your feedback. We want you know, please. This is your opportunity to ask questions of the league. Sure, right? They just got a little weird and workshoppy about the CBA, the collective bargaining agreement. They, they, they had a conversation in November, and they titled it basically like competitive balance, which is like, let's talk about a salary cap without talking about a salary cap. So it feels like they were sort of workshopping how to present some issues that are come up in the CBA to the public, like, how does this fly? Which seems itchy. I'm glad we're not on it seems itchy. Oh, I would have had some things to say about that, but it seems itchy to me. So I it doesn't, doesn't feel like, okay, this is like, Yeah, this is how you it's like, they're doing market research, and they're using these 90 people, their fan Council, to do market research about how to approach their bargaining strategy.
Pottymouth 1:00:49
It's a little icky, yeah.
Patti 1:00:51
Also a little icky is Dave Roberts, so, yeah. So you know, the Dodgers are like the poster team for the league, saying we need a salary cap, because look, Phil Dodgers are spending all this money they've won back to back World Series, yada yada. So Dave Roberts just recently said this, which he could say, but I think he said it badly. Okay, here we go. You ready? Sure you know what? I'm all right with that salary cap. I think the NBA has done a nice job of revenue sharing with the players and the owners. But if you're kind of, if you're going to kind of suspend, suppress spending at the top, I think you got to raise the floor to make those bottom feeders spend more money too, bottom feeders, bottom feeders,
Pottymouth 1:01:40
that's really poor choice bottom feeders.
Patti 1:01:44
You know, there's going to be some owners and some managers of some teams with smaller payrolls who are not going to take kindly to being characterized as bottom feeders. Now, I don't, I don't have a bone to pick about, yeah, I think other teams should also spend some money, because we don't. We never know how much money these teams have. We don't know if they're just, like, not willing to spend it, or they don't have the money, but I think they just don't, yeah, care to spend the money, so that's that. But bottom feeders, Dave, Dave, please don't do that anyway. Okay, so a little more information for you about how this negotiation is going to progress. There is an Executive Board of the MLBPA, the players union, and in the past, it has been, it's always it's one, one rep from every team that's the rank and file representation, plus this elected board. And in the past, we were joking about it being very picture heavy. And what does that mean? This one also picture. This one is pitcher and Patty's former boyfriend heavy, which I don't mind at all, because I feel good about like having picked guys who then are who are invested in labor. So the the E Board, in addition to the one rep from every team, includes two Cy Young winners, Paul Skeens and Terryl, right, a couple more pitchers, veteran Chris Bassett, Pete Fairbanks and Brent Souter, and also Patty's former boyfriends, Jake Cronin worth Cedric Mullins and Marcus Simeon. Oh, wow. So that is interesting to me. So in the past, the elected members differed in their opinions than the one rep from every team did. So I'm curious to see how this plays out. But that's who's going to be basically negotiating, basically the front line for the players union. They will have, you know, official representation by, you know, lawyers and whatnot, but they're the ones who are going to express, here's what the players want. Here's where we get to cross training. Turns out that the WNBA is concerned about many of the same things that, Oh say, the MLBPA is concerned about. They are on their second extension on their collective bargaining agreement. Their agreement has run out, and they haven't completed a new agreement yet. And the practice of that is, your old agreement stays in place until you have, until all sides have passed a brand new CBA. So their current extension goes till January 9. Their point of contention, revenue sharing, right? Sound familiar? So the players union is proposing that revenue sharing changes over time with the game, so as the game's revenue, the league revenue increases, player salaries should increase. So for instance, the example that was given was, if the league revenues go up 18% then salaries should go up. 18% salary should keep up with the growth of the game. Otherwise, the game continues to grow and salaries are suppressed. Yeah, and then I want that exactly. So just sense. It makes sense, unless you are the you know, bazillionaire owner who is trying to protect your own personal wealth. So Alicia Clark, who's the vice president of the players union, e board, says we want a meaningful revenue share model, because we want to compensate players for what we do to help grow the business. Seems fair to me. So we will be keeping an eye on how WNBA negotiations are progressing at the same time as when the MLBPA negotiations kick off, which is going to be probably formally more during spring training. There's preliminary meetings now and whatever shady crap the you know Major League Baseball is doing with their fan Council and whatever, but they will have, like, official negotiations probably starting in spring training, damn. But we'll keep an eye on other sports too. So wow, um, what's going on this week? What do you got?
Pottymouth 1:05:54
So in general, Today is December 7, Sunday, and apparently the winter meetings kicked off today. They Yeah. So between now and December 10, you guys are probably heard a whole shit. I mean, maybe trades or deals or something is going on, but we'll talk about that next week, I imagine.
Patti 1:06:12
And we've got really exciting stuff for next week. We hope. We hope we're, hope we're gonna have our third in our series of interviews with women who have been drafted to the women's professional baseball league. Excited.
Pottymouth 1:06:25
I'm so excited. And just like, spoiler alert, this one is not going to Boston.
Patti 1:06:31
God is going to Springfield, because everyone's going to Springfield. Yes. Okay, well, so this week, let's see. I'll be doing important things like continuing to Cat sit for the intern, hoping to see the apex predator do her job. All right, you know, around my house, because I don't want the mice gets cold outside, and all of takoma parks houses get get mice. Yeah, I know how that goes anyway. So that's my story. So if you are dear listeners, I mean potty mouth apparently doesn't need any help in picking boyfriends for next week, for one team, for one team, I need but if you have ideas for the for the angels or for the pirates, of who you think we should pick that we haven't picked recently, please let us know. You can find us on social media.
Pottymouth 1:07:18
You can find us on blue sky at ncib podcast, will check the Twitter messages if that's where you need to be, Facebook and Instagram are no crying and B ball, and join the fun on Patreon, P, A, T, R, E, o n.com/no, crying and B ball. And you can be part of you know, just knowing that we keep going, you're supporting us. Patreon, folks. Thank you so much and and definitely, you know, speak up when you need your Patreon bonus stuff, even though we, I mentioned it last week without naming anybody. You know, there's stuff coming to you, so let us know. Excellent. That means, like, if you join at a certain level, you can make us say stuff on the air.
Patti 1:07:57
Yeah. Correct, correct. Okay, my friends, we hope you have a good week. We would like you to please get boosted in advance of your travel plans for the holidays. If you are in a place that allows you to practice safe public health, we want you to to fight the man now more than ever and send your game balls to Meredith until next week. Say goodnight.
Pottymouth 1:08:17
Potty mouth, good night. Potty mouth, you
the woman that was sitting in that table was listening. I mean, we were loud, listening, like, how could you not? We weren't conflicting. Ourselves, apart, exactly.