Terry Francona joins FT @Reds camp + 2026 Reds Season Preview

00:00:10
Speaker 1: Reds manager Terry Francona is here, Tito. Great to see you. Happy spring training to you, and how is camp with this young Reds crew that is coming off a playoff appearance last year in your first year at the home.

00:00:23
Speaker 2: Well, I mean we're two games in and we had an off day yesterday, so you know, like like everybody, our glass seems half full and it's supposed to. I think we have good reason to be optimistic.

00:00:35
Speaker 3: Now.

00:00:36
Speaker 2: We're here to you know, get some work done, get a lot of work done, and get ready for what we want to be a really good, long, productive season.

00:00:44
Speaker 4: And you weren't at you worn out after two games? You needed an off day that bad?

00:00:48
Speaker 2: I just think actually it's because of the way that, you know, last year we had a split squad the first game. There's always an odd team because that's fifteen. I didn't but you know what, good because you'll take it anytime you can get it. We were not tired yet though.

00:01:06
Speaker 3: That's good.

00:01:07
Speaker 1: Hey, Tito, are you guys ready to practice the ABS challenge system? Weren't you one of the guys last year in spring training you were like, Hey, why are we practicing this when I'm trying to get ready for a season without it.

00:01:20
Speaker 2: Early on, I told our guys we weren't going to use it just because we weren't going to use it during the year. And then when Michael Hill and his guys came through, they were like, hey, there's a reason we'd like you to do it. They were so good about the way they asked that. We actually did use it during the spring, and it grew. I think it grew on everybody, you know, the way they did it. The fans really enjoyed it, and it didn't slow the game down much. And now that it's going to be you know, implemented, it's going to be a strategy. So we're working into that. You know, we told our guys will work towards a strategy because it's got to be a team strategy. It can't be a per person it can't be an emotional, you know, strategy. So we're we have a month to figure that out. Is it catchers only, hitters only, no pitchers, no pictures, no catchers, not seeing a pitcher that throws a ball yet that thinks it's not a strike. And like I said, that's the emotional one. Where not that we don't love our pitchers. But our catchers, as you know, take care of the pitchers and they really get a good feel for it.

00:02:21
Speaker 4: I watched so I watched the game last night. It was the Brewers Padres and in the first three innings, it was almost every other pitch. And we were at the Brewers yesterday and they were having a sim game behind us live with some of their big league guys, and they told they had an umpire. They brought an umpire and they had the abs going and they said, hey, we want challenge every chance you think it's even close. Just so our hitters and our pitchers, is that the way you approached it.

00:02:46
Speaker 2: We've been in our in our inner squads, cause we don't have but in our lives. Bill Hasselman has been sitting with the system and the catchers will look at him after every pitch, just so we get a better feel for Okay, that ball was an inch off, that ball caught the plate. Just trying to get as good at it as we can.

00:03:07
Speaker 5: And how and how good are they? Like, what's what's the feedback? I know it's not been long, but like when they see that feedback, how good are the catchers? How good are the hitters, And do you think this is gonna like dudes are going to be completely locked in because the zone's never gonna like really rotate and shift throughout games.

00:03:27
Speaker 2: Well, I think, like anything, some guys are going to be better as than others. And you know, it's it's up to us to get our guys good at it, because it's gonna be a strategy and if you're good at it, it's gonna help, you know, trying to figure out do you save one to the end? Do you you know, like if you tell a player, hey, just use it one, it's important. Well, I haven't seen a pitch thrown yet, that's not important. So that's where the strategy come into play. If I'm glad you know we have it here where if you make a mistake early, it's not probably you know, it's spring training and we can learn from it and say, okay, this, we might not want to do this when the season starts.

00:04:02
Speaker 3: Right.

00:04:03
Speaker 5: I had the pleasure of being in sprit Big League camp with you in twenty seventeen when you were the manager of the Indians. You're very intentional with a lot of things. Do you still do the player of the game the next day here now that you're with the Reds or did you leave that? Did you leave that with Cleveland? No, we still do it.

00:04:24
Speaker 2: In fact, I was thinking the other day, I was putting on some notes on my card, things I could say to the MVPs. And then we lost. We gave up a touchdown late and but no, we have fun with it. But there's, like you say, there's a reason for it. You want to reward things like base running. It's not necessarily somebody hits a home run. But we want to accentuate the good things that we think can separate us from other teams. We're always trying to accentuate that.

00:04:52
Speaker 5: Okay, well that was twenty seventeen. We're almost we're at nine years now. Has inflation in east with your awards? Have the awards increased with inflation? Or do you still give out the same dollar.

00:05:06
Speaker 2: Amount inflation has increased. Not in our clubhouse. Not for the manager. They just might have to order one less thing at dinner.

00:05:19
Speaker 5: It used to be it used to be one hundred dollars. It used to be for people who don't know. We would give one hundred dollars to the MVP, and I believed it was it was from your wallet because it was holded up in your in your trifold wallet, so it was like it was like a wrinkly one hundred dollars bill. But if there was two MVP awards, you would split it and give fifty to each. It was something that a lot of people really.

00:05:43
Speaker 2: Enjoyed and and don't tell our players, but now I've been given out fifty. But we've been with there some days where we'll have three, four, five MVPs just because, like you say, if somebody runs, somebody into an air or something like, you know, we try to reward those types of things.

00:06:00
Speaker 3: And I was getting tired of losing like four or five.

00:06:03
Speaker 2: So we did make it a little less I care about, but not to the point where I one be broke.

00:06:09
Speaker 3: You got plenty of money, keto.

00:06:14
Speaker 1: And now let's talk about the number one rated ticketing app. It's called seat Geek. And what I'm going to do here each day is just run through a few reasons why you should be checking out tickets for spring training guys. So again, today's Tuesday for Tuesday show, but I'm looking at Wednesday games. So tonight you can go and find Paul Skeens pitching actually against the Braves on Wednesday. That's probably the one start, and then you go on to Team USA and the World Baseball Classic. Kratz is boy, I know the ticket you're getting. Krats. Johann O Viedo, your favorite pitcher in baseball I think's making his spring training debut for Boston against the Twins on Wednesday. Cody Ponce making his debut for the Blue Jays. Signed for thirty million bucks this offseason, Casey Myz pitching against him, Hunter Brown making his spring day, Nico Lodolo, as we're at Red's camp, He's going to pitch on Wednesday, and Roki Sazaki for the Dodgers. So a lot of good pitchers to look at, and you can find them in Arizona or in Florida in those spring training games and also aj of course World Baseball Classic around the corner. So each ticket rated on a scale of one to ten, so you know you're getting a good deal or maybe a not so good deal, and then you can find yourself a better deal.

00:07:23
Speaker 5: Thing I love about Zekik too is people that are people that are scheduling their trips to Florida especially, you got to kind of figure out your drive. You can go through the schedule of when, where all the games are, where you'll be sitting, because in Florida you're you're a Northerner. You sit there and you go, ah, I don't want to be out of the sun. You'll know which side of the stadium during that game time has that and you have a little shade if you want it or if you want the sun, you get it.

00:07:52
Speaker 1: And of course we have a code for you Territory ten ten percent off your next set of tickets at sziki ten percent off any tickets with promo cod Territory one zero. Make sure you click the link in the description to download the app, have the code automatically added to your account at that point so you can use it later. Thank you, see geek. While while we mentioned Cleveland, we're gonna get to your Reds players, I actually have one player I wanted to ask you about that you used to manage your cashed out big time this offseason in Josh Naylor made himself. I think it's ninety two and a half mil on a contract. I remember I used to call a lot of games in the Midwest, so a lot of Cleveland games and talking to you about Josh and about all the talent potential and the drive and how proud are you of what he's become because when he first came to the league as a pub I mean, you can explain it better than I can. I mean, this guy was full of emotions and he was like what do I do with them? And you helped him figure that out?

00:08:44
Speaker 2: You know what, I'm kind of glad you brought that up. We played Seattle a couple days ago and before the game, Nails came over and came over to our dugout, gave me a big hug and said, thank you. And you have no idea what's something like that? How it makes a manager feel because with Dale's, like you said, he had a ton of energy and we always were trying to get it funneled in the right direction. But and so when a player comes up to you a couple years later and says that I really appreciate it. Man, my day was already good and we hadn't even thrown a pitch yet.

00:09:15
Speaker 4: That's great. Now you're in Cincinnati and you have a guy in Ellie de la Cruz, maybe not as emotional, but with that much energy. So how do you funnel his energy into the same thing.

00:09:26
Speaker 2: His energy is really good Ellie's you know, we people forget Ellie's young. You know, he's still learning on the job. I think last year was really good for him in a sense that he played hurt, played every game. I don't think I did him a ton of favors. I think we need to manage I mean to manage that a little bit better this year, and I will.

00:09:44
Speaker 4: He came an off day after two spring training games to see.

00:09:47
Speaker 3: That to him.

00:09:48
Speaker 2: We're working on it, working on aggravating. He's a wonderful kid. This kid will try to do anything you ask. The thing we've tried to explain to him is with your tools, if you just do it in though, in the confines of us winning a game, your tools are going to show through. And that's what we care about.

00:10:08
Speaker 5: Is there somebody that you I hate when guys do comparisons, but you've been around the game so much. Compare somebody that had the same energy. I'm not talking skill level because I think his skill level could you know, the ceiling may maybe higher than we can even look, but like the same energy level and what he brings in a clubhouse.

00:10:28
Speaker 2: You know they're they're completely different players, but I would say like they're motor like a Jose Ramirez. You know, somebody asked me the other day, how about managing Jose? You don't manage him. You just wind him up and get out of his way. And that's a good thing. And because other players follow them, and at least the same here where guys watch him and even at that age, and it's a lot of extra I don't want to say pressure, but you know it's there's some things to think about because when he's playing the game the way he's supposed to, a lot of our guys have their chest out a little bit more. And and it's real. And we've told him that would you give some of your own money to sign him to an extension? Were you and the Reds went to him and said, here's a franchise record extension. Did you pull out that krusty hunter and say I'll throw in a hundred in a minute, a minute in a minute. I mean, we love the kid, and you know what, nobody begrudges. You know, players have a right to either take money early, bet on themselves late. I get it, and we have him for four more years regardless, but that's a personal preference and nobody will ever hold that against him.

00:11:34
Speaker 1: Hey, Tito, what's with the new look body for Elie de la Cruz. It looks like he's a little bit more jacked coming into camp. He's growing into baby.

00:11:42
Speaker 3: Does to me too.

00:11:43
Speaker 2: You know, same thing with McClain, man, they look like they really got after it. And you know the guys now, man, they do so good in the offseason, and I remind him of that all the time. I'm like, hey, you work so hard. There's a reason you do it. It's for the games. So I don't work your rear end off and then jogged down to first That doesn't make sense to me, And I just try to remind them that all the time because they are. They're really good workers.

00:12:09
Speaker 5: One of the things I noticed when I was with you in spring training was how intentional you set up the lockers in your locker room. Can you tell me a couple of the pods or groups that you intentionally set where you get your locker and then you have somebody around them, or you have somebody that you put in between certain guys. Is there any pods that you intentionally thought of this year that you feel like will really help guys.

00:12:34
Speaker 2: No, because I actually was comfortable where they were before. And you know what's amazing in this group here, there are no pods. Everybody's together, and you know, we have a nine o'clock meeting every morning, and every day when we go in there at nine o'clock, everybody's sitting facing us. Nobody's eating breakfast. It's one of the things I noticed right away. And I love it because when you talk to them, they're listening, and like you say, they don't have bacon or syrup going down their shirt, and they listen to what you're saying, and they're not late. And I really love that about this group. That's an outstanding It's it is, and it's it's not a little thing. It's a big deal because I think when you're late, you're announcing to everybody that what we're doing is not a priority, and this has to be a priority.

00:13:16
Speaker 3: Agreed. Agreed.

00:13:17
Speaker 4: You guys made the playoffs last year, and again it didn't go as y'all oneed a two against Los Angeles. That's fine, but you did make the playoffs. How can you take the next step this year? Because I think people forget that you guys were in the postseason last year, and now you bring in Suarez. You make some other moves that are nice moves, and people say, oh, they didn't make the big splash in Schwarber, but Gino's pretty good. I'll hit you, yes, yes, How do you continue the momentum you gain last year and take the next step, which would be going deep.

00:13:45
Speaker 3: In the playoffs?

00:13:46
Speaker 2: One I thought our guys, and by that I mean ownership in front office. I thought they did a great job because sometimes standing in your lane is important, you know, I mean, we kind of know who we are. You don't always make splashy moves. But they really made our bullpen a lot deeper, which for me, it really.

00:14:03
Speaker 3: Leaves your heart.

00:14:03
Speaker 2: Oh, my goodness, sake, my goodness sake. But you know, we won eighty three games. That was not our goal. We did, we worked, and we won. We got in the playoffs. I told our guys, remember how good it felt the pop champagne that they in Milwaukee, but also remember three days later how much it hurt when we got sent home before we were ready. You try to take anything, whether it's good, bad, or in between, and use it to your advantage, and you're right. As long as our trajectory is going this way, I'm okay with what we did last year.

00:14:34
Speaker 5: Who do you see is somebody that maybe had a down year last year, but it needs to come into spring training to show you something that Normally when you look at spring training, it's like, all right, whatever, the dude hit four point fifty, but you know he's getting a lot of laid at bats. Who is somebody that needs to show you something for this year coming out?

00:14:57
Speaker 2: Well, when you started that question, I was gonna immediately answer McClean, but then you said needs to show Mattie's going to be our second basement. I do think there's so much more in there with him, to the point, you know, the confidence I have in him. I was probably stubborn moving him out of the two hole because I have so much confidence in him. But he plays the game. Even when he was struggling, you never saw him throwing stuff. He played defense, He runs a basis really well. He had that shoulder and sometimes it takes guys some time. You know they can play, but they're not the same player. He showed up. He's about twelve pounds heavier in a good way, not like me and he looks like, I mean, this guy's a good baseball player and there's a lot in there and we want to get it out of him.

00:15:41
Speaker 1: Hey, Tito, what do you think of all of these rookie managers, this whole class coming in this year? So what did you think of the change? I mean, I know this happens usually in sprinkles, but there were so many from different backgrounds that didn't involve being a manager already in the big leagues. And do you feel like someone who has a lot of dirt in your spikes as a manager in the bigs, you can have an advantage. I mean, a rookie manager think back to when you were a rookie manager is going to make mistakes. There's no chance they're going to be as good in year one as they would be in year five.

00:16:12
Speaker 3: I hope you're right.

00:16:14
Speaker 2: I do think you know, some of these young guys, they're really smart and and gms and owners are betting on people, and I get it. Personally, I don't think I could have done it. I went to the minor leagues and that took that route, and I got to make my mistakes that weren't on Sports Center, and it worked for me. But there's something like Kevin Cash never managed in the minor. He didn't need to. He's really good. Like I said, I don't think I could have done it. But they're betting on people, and I know the guys I've talked to, they're pretty impressive. So it keeps us going because I know if I just stay like, well, this is what I've always done, that's not gonna work. We got to keep working at it. They're going to pass us right by.

00:16:55
Speaker 5: All right, what's the one thing from your year off that you miss the most? Because when everybody's off, everyone asked what do you miss the most from baseball? What do you miss most from your year off?

00:17:07
Speaker 2: You know? Okay, so originally I didn't and that probably spoke volumes that I needed the time off.

00:17:15
Speaker 3: But the ninth inning, man is like a drug.

00:17:17
Speaker 2: Like I mean, I'm telling you, man, it's like your heart's in your throat and you think you're gonna win. You're not sure how, and it's like you know, but but when you get tired and you it gets a little it overwhelms you a little bit. But that part of the game, man is oh my god, like like my hands are sweating now, Like, I love that part of the game. And when you go through with people, like I love our kids. They're good kids. They try to do the right thing, and I like going through it with them. And so when we lose, it's not them, and when we win, it's stop us. It's always us. And I like trying to figure things out with people that I respect. That's what we have here.

00:17:55
Speaker 3: Awesome.

00:17:56
Speaker 4: We had Will Benson on the other night at the charity.

00:18:01
Speaker 3: Event speaking of guys you respect.

00:18:03
Speaker 4: Oh and just guys you want to do well, I mean you want to adopt him route for Will Benson, I mentioned to him that you managed Michael Jordan and he had no idea. How many players do you think out there? If I went nasked, knew that you managed Michael Jordan in the minor leagues. And then because I'm to think the number is pretty low. And then my other question is what did you learn from mj about leadership and winning? Because he's one. I mean I was winning NASCAR, he won, and then he won to get So what did he teach you about leaders.

00:18:36
Speaker 2: So I think the number when I first came here last year was really low. Now that I've been here year they've kind of heard it at times, but I think the number is probably still pretty low as to what I learned. I didn't even realize the time a J. I was trying to survive. I mean, you're in double A. You're just happy the games on radio, and now all of a sudden, you got national media. You got to arguably the most high profile athlete. But he was so good, he was so respectful of our game. It made it easy to be patient with baseball because you had to because he hadn't played.

00:19:09
Speaker 3: But you're right.

00:19:10
Speaker 2: I mean, I saw this guy break ping pong, paddles, tennis, rackets, golf clubs. I mean, winning is what he's all about. And I respected that in him and I still do to this day.

00:19:21
Speaker 3: That's awesome it.

00:19:22
Speaker 4: I mean lessons in life you learn from.

00:19:24
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean you learn everywhere you can. And I got lucky, and I know it. I was fortunate. I got put in a position by the luck of the draw, and I was really fortunate.

00:19:33
Speaker 1: That's really cool. Well, Tito, we really appreciate the time. Awesome to catch up with you. Good luck this season. We'll talk son.

00:19:40
Speaker 3: Oh you got it, guys, thank you so much.

00:19:43
Speaker 1: We're going to get into all of the nitty gritty details about why you should switch to mint Mobile. But I brought a special guest in for this one to alert you that you might be paying way too much for your wireless bill. Eric Kratz, Can you give me the bullpen dugout phone? Please?

00:20:01
Speaker 3: Lu lu lu lu lu lulu.

00:20:03
Speaker 5: You want to pay fifteen bucks a month unlimited switch to mint Mobile.

00:20:08
Speaker 1: You heard the man, unlimited talk, text and data at a fraction of what others charge. Ready to stop paying more than you have to? New customers can make the switch today and for a limited time, get unlimited premium wireless for just fifteen bucks per month. Switch now at mintmobile dot com slash territory. That's mintmobile dot com slash territory. Upfront payment of forty five dollars for three months, ninety for six months, or one eighty for twelve months. Plan required fifteen dollars a month equivalent taxes and fees extra initial plan term only over fifty gigabytes. May slow when network is busy. Capable device required, availability, speed and coverage varies. See mintmobile dot com. We're season previewing and we'll talk to Ameliopegan later. Still many more interviews to go here on FT from Red's camp, But let's talk about a Cincinnati team that made the postseason last year. Successful run for the National League Central. Sometimes it doesn't get the best rap, and that includes from Us Kratz, But if you look at last year, Cubs made the playoffs, Reds made the playoffs, Brewers had the best record in baseball. Pirates should be better this year. Cardinals should be worse this year. So first off, let's start with what happened in the offseason for Cincinnati. Amliopegan staying put with the team for at least one, if not two more seasons. He has the player option after this year. They do lose Nick Martinez, who's kind of a do it all guy for them. Zach Lettel also put some nice innings together for them down the stretch. Gavin Lux is gone, but they did add some some talent here. Let's start with the lineup, so some guys have actually been here for a minute now. TJ. Friedel, Ellie is Ellie and hopefully a healthy season for Ellie. I know he played every game last year, but he was, as you know, some were saying, dealing with an injury. Here it is Noel vi Marte in there, Sal Stewart a full season from him, the big Geno Suarez acquisition, Tyler Stevenson still above average at the catcher spot. Matt McLean hopefully bouncing back after you know, the shoulder surgery from two years ago looked like it was still holding him back last year. Key Brian Hayes over at third base is still one of the best in the visit at picking the ball, has his offensive issues. JJ Bledet added to the outfield among a few others to try and fill in the mix there. Dane Myers in the outfield. So let's start with the lineup. What do we think? Man?

00:22:38
Speaker 5: I have always been so high on this lineup. I love I love the young guys that they had in here. I'm a you know, I've been a Spencer Steer fan where he ends up where that ends up going for them, like TJ Friedel, Matty McLean, like guys that are maybe like the afterthoughts sometime. For this lineup, I feel like can be that above average hitter. I mean, one hundred ops plus is average, so anything above that, I just feel like everybody in this lineup can be an above average hitter because like I just I feel like they haven't lived up to it. How many years do you not live up to that hype and all of a sudden you lose it, like then all of a sudden, well, you know, just never. Maybe he's just not good enough. But to me, I think the middle of this lineup, where it is the projected lineup, is the key here. It's not key Brian Hayes being who the Pirates thought he was gonna be. He's gonna be your goal glove defensive third baseman. To me, it's in that. It's in that five to six hole right now, that's South Stewart. Does Spencer Steer figure out a position to play, even though he kind of got pushed out a little bit? Does Noel vi Marte kind of slide into that five to six hole they have him in in the two spot right now. But to me, South Stewart and Tyler Stevenson, which he'll kind of concede a little bit to Jose Travino too, because it's one of those things that like they're trying to put their best twenty six guys out there, and when you do that, you don't have a consistent lineup and I think the middle of that order is what's going to drive this team to have success because then the lower guys in the order can start picking up the slack like I think they need to. And all of this is happening because they have a superstar in Ellie or a budding superstar in Elie. I don't think he's reached superstar status yet. And they brought in an aircraft carrier with low loan base percentage in a Hineosuarez, who could hit thirty five easily in this in this stadium.

00:24:51
Speaker 1: Yeah, and he's comfy there, he's hit there before. He brings something on the veteran mix too. That's important. I think Gino it's got the special sauce as a clubhouse leader. So we had this up with the lineup and the potential. I think the pitching really took a step last year. The pitching is getting so good stuff wise that it's starting to make the park appear as if it's more of a pitching park, and that I do not believe yet. Sure is it tilting a little bit, perhaps, but it helps when you have Hunter Green, Andrew Rabbit, Brady Singer, Nicolodolo Chase Burns written down for now as you're starting rotation for the opening week of the season. Now there's your bullpen as we're looking at it too, led by Pagan at the back end, Santine, Ashcraft, Brockberg, Connor, Phillips, really good stuff, etc. Okay, so let's look at what Fangrafts projects and what bet MGM has. So bet MGM has them at eighty one and a half. I'll take the over. I think we all did there. Fangrafts projection, say seventy eight point seven on the wins number. Let's look at where they're at in the division. We've got the Pirates ahead of them, the Pirates ahead of the Brewers. I know we went over this the other day when we were at Brewers camp. So they've got Cubs at eighty six point one, Pirates eighty three point zero, Brewers eighty two point zero, Red seventy eight point seven, Cardinals seventy five point one. What do you think the Reds are only a few games ahead of the Cardinals this year?

00:26:18
Speaker 5: No, that gap is to me, that's a ten game gap, and I think I would I would go against you said you felt like the starting rotation took a jump last year. I think twenty twenty four they took that jump, and I think in twenty twenty five they showed it wasn't a fluke. Hunter Green wasn't healthy the entire year and he still had a really good year. So to me, it's so hard to guess the win totals. I think the win totals could be pretty close because one of the reasons that the teams in the three teams in the Central made it was because the Central sucked. The Central was not very good, so you were beating up on some of those lower level teams, and the Reds were essentially they were a weekend away from being a five hundred team. If you only win eighty three games, you're essentially just hanging around five hundred, and then bang, they won two extra games and won eighty three. So is this team better? Yes, I think this entire division is better. Is that going to help or hurt their win totals? They're gonna have to grind to get to five hundred this year just because everybody else is that much better. Like I am, I was high on the Reds last year. I thought they were gonna win the division. I thought it was their year to win the division, and their offense did not do what I think their offense is capable of doing. But this rotation and the things they added to this bullpen, I love it. I really do love this team. I think they're better than the Pirates.

00:27:53
Speaker 1: I'm with you, I think they're better than the Pirates.

00:27:56
Speaker 5: But Paul Skiings is sometimes when you have an a and you can run them out there, and you're like, dude, we have a chance to win today. They have a chance. They score three runs, they might win. He might win twenty of his games. You have a turnaround of where one of your pitchers is winning twenty games, and this day and age, twenty games is a ridiculous number. When you get to sixteen to eighteen games, it's you have a chance of leading the league. To me, I just I think that's the part where I think Fangrafts and everybody's valuing and has that eighty three eighty three wins for the Pirates is Paul Skiing is a generational type of pitcher to the start of his career. You just don't know where that's going to lead. This team that added a ton of home runs with O'Hearn and and Loo and they added Marcelo Zuna, like they've added home runs to a team that didn't hit any home runs. So is that enough to push them over. I can't say it's not. I just I think the Reds team's better.

00:29:05
Speaker 1: I'm with you, better team. The Red's lost a little bit on the pitching side, but I think they've got the reinforcements there. They have really focused organization wise on pitching, on drafting pitching. The pitching development has been excellent for them. But you've consistently seen a theme from them. Right when they have a high pick in the draft lately, they're often targeting an arm. I mean, the prime example was when they chose Chase Burns instead of Charlie Condon in the draft a couple of years ago. And we'll see how that plays out over the next several years. But right now they were saying, hey, it's hard for us to recruit pitching sometimes, so let's get the best arms from the draft, often in college, and let's get them up to the show quickly to help us out.

00:29:51
Speaker 5: We talk about building the infrastructure too. Years ago, in nineteen they took Derek Johnson, who was on our show just a few weeks ago they took them away from the Brewers. The Brewers have since continued to make the playoffs, but they took them away from the Brewers with a long term extent, a long term contract which pitching coaches, hitting coaches, bench coaches, all those guys don't get They're usually year to year guys. So when you can say, you know what, we're committing to one type of pitching coach that has now seemed to show dividends, they realize it's tough to get pictures in and they wanted to develop them, and so they started at to me what's called the ground level, and then they're drafting these guys and then they come up with a organizational philosophy, and I think it's so it's a total organization creating and developing these really really good pitchers.

00:30:44
Speaker 1: Good call. If you're watching this after the fact, let us know your thoughts on the Reds. Drop of comment. Let's get to Leo bet imjam futures one hundred plus wins, we did ninety plus yesterday, Kratz one hundred plus. There's one team, the Dodgers at minus one forty, and then the rest of baseball is some nice plus money. Do you think there are any other teams that have a legit chance at one hundred plus? Where do you find value here? Obviously you're not finding value with the Dodgers at one forty. I would actually recommend skipping that. Mets, Yankees plus six hundred, Phillies plus seven hundred Jay's Braves, and Mariners are at plus eight hundred. Thoughts.

00:31:35
Speaker 5: Again, I said it the other day. To me, the value on here is the Mariners. Why because the Mets have to play the Phillies and Dodgers. The Yankees have to play the Blue Jays, the Red Sox and the Orioles. Like there's just to get to one hundred wins, they are gonna have to absolutely beat the other teams up, and they're going to beat themselves up. The Dodgers. I don't want to take them. We've talked about this endlessly. They don't want to win one hundred games. They don't care about winning one hundred games. They care about winning the World Series. So I don't think it's an important number for them. Could they do it? Absolutely, That's why the number is where it is. But if you're going to take a number here, give me plus eight hundred for the Mariners. If you think anybody's going to win one hundred games. To me, the easiest route, which still is a really difficult route, would be the Mariners.

00:32:29
Speaker 1: We'll have to see if there's a special and if not, sometimes we can actually request this and see if they can cook something up within the bet MGM app I'd like to take the field the field work no last year, Yeah, nobody, nobody get to a hundo. Yeah, we might get some middy high nineties, but it's tough. There are a lot of good teams.

00:32:50
Speaker 3: You know.

00:32:50
Speaker 1: It's funny when you have the parody conversation, you look around and you're like, there are actually a lot of teams that are capable of winning ninety some odd games.

00:32:58
Speaker 5: I mean, they'd be going against themselves because I think the Dodgers' number I just looked at the other days up to one hundred and three, one oh three and a half on BETMGM. You know, I think you would essentially, do you think the Dodgers, because that's where I think the money is. You're talking about win totals. Do you think the Dodgers are going to go under that or do you think they're going to go over that and I think that's where you would get you know the field or not.

00:33:24
Speaker 1: Yep, I'm with you. Hey, there's no better place to be during March matchups than Vegas. So this year, college hoops fans can win a VIP trip to Court of Legends event featuring the Cavender Twins, so you can place some sports bets and position yourself on a leader board to determine if you're going to win one of the twenty five grand prize packages. Sign into your BETMGM account, opt into that promotion, start placing some bets of at least ten bucks to climb up that leader board. Check out more information within your app. Also, don't forget to use Coach Foul to claim your new player offer for up to fifteen hundred dollars on your first wager with bet MGM. Gambling problem more concerned call when a hunter gampling