Fair Territory: Betts, Soto & Hunter Brown injured; O’s & Red Sox slow starts, Jo Adell's ELITE night

00:00:03
Speaker 1: Welcome everyone to the Monday edition of Fair Territory. I'm Ken Rosenthal here with you for the next half hour or so.

00:00:09
Speaker 2: It is only April.

00:00:11
Speaker 1: Sixth, only the early early part of the season, and yet what are.

00:00:15
Speaker 2: We talking about already?

00:00:16
Speaker 1: Yes, Abs, Yes, Connor Griffin, Yes, a lot of things, Joe Adele, But one of the key themes to emerge from the weekend was injuries. Got a ton of injuries already.

00:00:27
Speaker 2: Two big star players start off with Bookie Bets.

00:00:31
Speaker 1: Mookie Bets of the Los Angeles Dodgers, the shortstop right oblique. Normally it's four to six weeks for a right opaque. Dave Roberts is hoping it will be less. Managers, coaches, players always hope it will be less. We shall see the Dodgers slow play every recovery.

00:00:47
Speaker 2: We've seen that over the years.

00:00:48
Speaker 1: Why because the Dodgers put only so much meaning into the regular season. Now. Obviously they want to win the division and they want to get a bye in the first round, which they did not have last year. But the Mookie Bets injury coming this early in the season should be one they are able to overcome. So what are they going to do? They've got Miguel Rojas, who of course can play shortstop. They've got his son Kim, who can do the same, and they can actually platoon at that position, maybe play Alex Friedland at second. Each of these players can play either middle infield position. So obviously the Dodgers will not be as good without Mookie Betts, who was hoping for a resurgent type season still might happen for him, but it's not going to happen right away. Perhaps an even bigger injury in terms of what it means for that player's team is Hunter Brown, and the right shoulder strain that he suffered goes on the injured list. Sunday, Chandler Road reporting about this for The Athletic and he noted that Hunter Brown threw one hundred and two pitches on opening Day, that was the most of any starter in the sport. And he's a guy who also pitched on four day's rest to start, or at least on Tuesday, and then last year made just five starts on four days rest.

00:02:02
Speaker 2: I'm sorry, yeah, just five starts on four days rest. So he was reasonably protected.

00:02:07
Speaker 1: You would think he didn't pitch in the WBC team USA wanted him, but he did not pitch, so he can't blame this on the WBC. But for an Astros team that has made an effort, a strong effort to deepen its rotation over the course of the off season with am I, with the trade from Mike Burrows with Ryan Weiss, this is still a blow. This is the guy who finished third in NASA Young Voting in the American League last season, a legitimate ace in our sport. Now we don't have a diagnosis yet, We don't know or other than the right shoulder strain, we don't have a timetable yet for a Hunter Brown, but I would expect it's going to be some time before we see him again on the mound.

00:02:47
Speaker 2: For the Astros, who have had a.

00:02:49
Speaker 1: Really good start to their season for the most part so far, offensively they've been excellent, and they've got Josh Hater coming back as well at some point, So ultimately, as long as Brown is not lost for eight significant length of time, they should be okay. And they've got Spencer Aarraghetti ready to go and join their rotation. So those are a couple of the injuries, but not the only ones. Alejandro Kirk, this is a big one too, premier catcher in our game, a guy who means so much to the Toronto Blue Jays. He suffered a fracture and dislocation in his thumb. He's going to be out for some time. And then the Blue Jays also lost Addison Barger on Sunday. He had problems with both his ankles. Doesn't seem like it's serious, but pitching injuries, Kirk Barger, these are things that are seemingly mounting for the Blue Jays. And obviously with Kirk, he's a guy that they rely on so much. And they've got Tyler Hyman, they've got the kid they brought up from Tripaa, the prospect, but without Kirk, there's something missing.

00:03:52
Speaker 2: For sure.

00:03:53
Speaker 1: He does so much for them on the defensive side, mostly of course, the where he controls the game, but also he is merged as an offensive force in I don't know the last year or so.

00:04:04
Speaker 2: So that too is a big blow.

00:04:06
Speaker 1: And finally we've got Juan Soto now on that one that seems to be the least significant of all these injuries I'm talking about.

00:04:13
Speaker 2: It's a mild calf strain.

00:04:15
Speaker 1: It's expected that he'll be out a little bit, but it's not even certain he's going on the injured list yet. The MRI came back as I said, mild okay. Good calves though are tricky and you don know how this is going to go. Now, the good news is the Mets without Juan Soto the last two days poured on some runs against San Francisco in San Francisco, tough park to hit normally, and.

00:04:39
Speaker 2: They looked pretty good. They had some things go right.

00:04:42
Speaker 1: Fianto's had a big weekend. They had Tyrone Taylor step up big. A lot of good things happen for the Mets in San Francisco. So without Soto they're still formidable. But of course with Sodo they are a World Series contender. We all know that. For more on the latest bumps and bruises, Will Carroll hosts in Injury Territory. The latest episode out now is an in depth conversation with a pioneer of UCL repair and internal brace procedures. Subscribe to Injury Territory on YouTube and wherever you get your podcasts. It's part of the Foul Territory Network. All right, we resume now with the lead with our first segment and the other thing I want to talk about today, at least at the start of the show, is the slow starts of several teams, particularly in the Al East, because yes, it's still crazy early, and yes, with twelve teams making the playoffs, it's never too late really in our sport to make a comeback and correct your season in the final suxx weeks.

00:05:40
Speaker 2: It's happened that way.

00:05:41
Speaker 1: It's happened in any number of ways. But while the old adage you can not win a pennant in April, but you can lose one no longer holds not with expanded playoffs. It's still somewhat alarming, I'm sure to fans of the Red Sox Orioles, and to a certain extent, the Blue Jays, mostly because of their injuries. What is happening so far, and on top of all that, the way the Yankees are playing now. I don't expect the Yankees are going to run away with the division, but the Red Sox certainly have been a huge disappointment so far. Their offense has not done much at all. They're averaging barely three runs a game range of Suarez two poor starts. Their rotation has not been quite as good as advertised. This is a team that right now just doesn't look like we thought the Red Sox might look.

00:06:28
Speaker 2: Now.

00:06:28
Speaker 1: I've been worried about their offense. I've said that from their very beginning. You lose Bragman, you lose Devers, you don't really replace them, and I'm not counting Wilson Contreras as a replacement.

00:06:37
Speaker 2: You're putting a lot on their younger players.

00:06:40
Speaker 1: And let's see what Roman Anthony said yesterday Sunday after their latest loss about their situation right now. He said, we need to find a way to just bring more energy and just be better. This is unacceptable, It's unacceptable to fans, it's unacceptable to the standard that we set for ourselves. So clearly a little bit of tension with the Red Sox right now. Not much different with the Orioles. In fact, some of the same problems. They too are not hitting, They too are having some issues with their rotation hasn't been spectacular by any stretch. Also, they haven't played well. They haven't really played well defensively either. So the Orioles too had a big statement from their top player yesterday that was Pete Alonzo, and he came out and said this we can do all the practice, take all the ground balls, take all the swings in the cage, take all the swings during our BP time.

00:07:33
Speaker 2: Just because you put in the.

00:07:34
Speaker 1: Work doesn't necessarily guarantee execution, and it comes down to individual efforts, concentration and execution. Okay, So those are the Red Sox and the Orioles kind of trying to find their way in this early part.

00:07:47
Speaker 2: Of the season.

00:07:48
Speaker 1: Again, it is way early, too early for fans to panic, though I see them panicking all over social media, and too early in general to make any judgments. But these two teams clearly want to play better. I mentioned Toronto and they're in a similar kind of.

00:08:05
Speaker 2: Deal, but for different reasons.

00:08:07
Speaker 1: They too have not really ignited yet. But they've got an entire starting rotation on the injured list. I'm talking about Burrios, Bieber, punts Y Savage and even Boden Francis. You have to count him even though he's out for the year. That's five starters. It's a problem for them, no question. They also really haven't hit yet. Flat has Andres Jimenez, has.

00:08:29
Speaker 2: Ernie Clement a little bit, o Komodo a little bit, but they haven't ignited. As an offense yet.

00:08:34
Speaker 1: So the Jays two have some work to do, and they've got the Dodgers coming up this week in Toronto World Series rematch.

00:08:42
Speaker 2: Finally, one other team.

00:08:44
Speaker 1: Not in the Al East I want to talk about that has also struggled. This is the team I wrote about on Friday. It's the San Francisco Giants, and I wrote Friday that for the Giants.

00:08:55
Speaker 2: There's some pressure there, there's some urgency.

00:08:58
Speaker 1: They just fire their mat Andrew who had a five hundred record, who three time manager of the Year, Bob Melvin.

00:09:04
Speaker 2: We all understood it.

00:09:05
Speaker 1: They seem kind of lethargic, he did at the end. But they hired Tony Vyteller with the expectation that they're going to be better, and ultimately they might be better. But offensively too. Here we go with the Giants lowest scoring team in the majors twenty six runs in ten games so far. That's an average of two point six runs per game. I'm terrible at math, but that much I can figure out. So the Giants, I'm not quite sure where they are just yet, and again, new manager, they're trying to find themselves. It's way early, and their rotation should be okay, but we sold bullpen problems yesterday on Sunday, and we've seen an offense that with some big names, Devers, Chapman, Arise hasn't done much at.

00:09:50
Speaker 2: All, and Chapman four errors this week.

00:09:53
Speaker 1: It's kind of interesting that that happened after he aired out Casey Schmid on the mound the other day, telling me to catch the bleeping ball.

00:10:01
Speaker 2: But Chapman did not have a great defensive week.

00:10:03
Speaker 1: The Giants have not played especially solid defense all around.

00:10:08
Speaker 2: So here's a team we'll be watching all year.

00:10:10
Speaker 1: And I know fans are saying, wow, Tony Baiitello news conferences, they're really cool.

00:10:14
Speaker 2: He says a lot of cool stuff he does. But if you don't win.

00:10:18
Speaker 1: All that is not so cool anymore.

00:10:21
Speaker 2: All Right, we are going to be right back with the Inside Dish after this.

00:10:27
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00:10:51
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00:11:28
Speaker 2: Well.

00:11:31
Speaker 1: Time it out for the Inside Dish, the part of the show where I talk about maybe a story I've written, maybe a trend in the game, or maybe something really cool that happened over the weekend.

00:11:40
Speaker 2: And something really cool did happen over the weekend.

00:11:44
Speaker 1: We're talking, of course about jo Adell and his three home run saving catches, his three robberies that occurred Saturday night in Anaheim. Now, I often talk about how I love covering major league debuts such as Connor Griffins. That's one of my favorite things, one of my favorite parts about the job.

00:12:03
Speaker 2: The other part of the job I love. I love lots of parts about the job. But another thing that I do.

00:12:08
Speaker 1: Love is when guys who were kind of down make their careers go in a better way. They turn it around. Now, Joe Adell was someone who was a top prospect in the game, tenth overall pick out of Ballot High School in Louisville in twenty seventeen, top ten prospect from Baseball America in twenty nineteen, and twenty number thirteen overall in twenty twenty one. This was a big time guy, and it took him some time and has taken him some time to find himself. If you remember, early in his career, defense was a real problem for him. He was a liability in the outfield. Now he improved to the point where in twenty twenty four he was a Gold Glove finalist in right field. Last year he goes back to center because they put trout and right to start the season and in centerfield just was not good. He struggled again, and ultimately once he got back to right field that the trout started dhing more.

00:13:09
Speaker 2: He was better.

00:13:10
Speaker 1: So at the same time, in the middle of that twenty twenty five season, actually the entire season, he emerged offensively thirty seven home runs, career best seven to seven to eight ops. But I don't know that any of us would say at this point in his career, Joe Adele has fulfilled what people thought.

00:13:29
Speaker 2: He might become.

00:13:31
Speaker 1: Saturday Night, he was that guy, and it was one of the coolest things we will ever see. And it also reminds us yet again that in this sport, unique to this sport, in my opinion, you cannot know on any given day what crazy thing might happen in any park across America. Now. I talked to Brady Anderson, the Angels hitting coach, about Adele on Sunday.

00:13:57
Speaker 2: I exchanged texts with him.

00:14:00
Speaker 1: Brady for a long time in Baltimore, Brady Anderson, if you remember, was an excellent defensive outfielder. Early in the nineties or so, they had Brady Anderson, Mike Devereux, Steve Finley, three really good defenders out there.

00:14:14
Speaker 2: They didn't stay together.

00:14:16
Speaker 1: They ultimately traded Finley for Glen Davis.

00:14:19
Speaker 2: He was part of that deal.

00:14:20
Speaker 1: Finley, Pete Harnish and Kurt Schilling for Glen Davis didn't work out so good, but we digress. The point is Brady Anderson is a guy who appreciates great outfield play because he was an outstanding center fielder himself, and he took a lot of pride in it. So when I asked him what he thought about that, and I'll read you what he said, he had a really interesting response. He said, the first two catches were very good, really good. The time you're jump it feels easy, but of course it doesn't look easy. Those first two catches the Jo Adell made I would classify as standard fair home run.

00:14:56
Speaker 2: Robberies, if such a thing exists now.

00:14:59
Speaker 1: The other play, the one where he fell into the seats in right field to rob JP Crawford late in the game. And remember this was a close game the entire time, so any one of these catches could have made or would have did make the difference in the score. The last play, that one in which he spilled into the stands, Brady Anderson said, is one of the best I've seen a nearly impossible play. He did everything perfectly. He had the wherewithal to get behind the ball slightly, which is hard because the ball seemingly moves faster as you approach foul territory at.

00:15:35
Speaker 2: Nearly full speed.

00:15:36
Speaker 1: I hadn't thought about that, but think about it. It's true. You're staying behind the ball and the ball's moving.

00:15:42
Speaker 2: Okay.

00:15:43
Speaker 1: Then Brady Anderson talked about the best catch that he remembers seeing, and it was a catch going back to nineteen ninety five, Kevin Bass was with the Orioles Ken Griffy Junior was the spectacular center fielder, the future Hall of Famer for the Seattle Mariners, and this was a game in which the bases were loaded. Randy Johnson is on the mound for the Mariners, another future Hall of Famer, May nineteen ninety five. And Anderson said, I had a terrific view of it from the dugout, which was the field level in Seattle, and I saw Griffy track me it and I sort of knew he could catch it, but I wasn't sure he would want to.

00:16:18
Speaker 2: He did want to.

00:16:19
Speaker 1: And he broke his right wrist in the process. This was one of the great catches I can remember seeing too. It was an amazing catch. And the key here and where we come back around to Joe Adele Is Brady said, the catch by Joe gave me that same thrill of admiration of another's play. Singular great plays are rightfully impressive. That game was an accomplishment, and that game is something that not only Angels fans will remember for a long time, but really all baseball fans. And one more note on that third catch, because it was mind blowing and it was so cool when Joe Adell ends up on his feet in the stands holding up the ball. Now people might ask, well, whoa why did that play get.

00:17:06
Speaker 2: Reviewed or not reviewed?

00:17:08
Speaker 1: But why did it end up after review being called a catch Because his legs were touching the wall when he caught the ball, or they were at least aligned with the wall.

00:17:17
Speaker 2: He was actually in play when he caught the ball.

00:17:20
Speaker 1: That's why the challenge by the Mariners was not overturned, it was not upheld.

00:17:26
Speaker 2: He simply caught the ball.

00:17:27
Speaker 1: In the umpire's estimation and in the estimation of the replay Reviews Center in New York, unbelievable play and how about when he ends up in the stands, stands up, high fives a fan comes back into the field of play. That was one of the great individual performances we'll ever see. And it happened on an April night in a game that probably will be forgotten or would have been forgotten otherwise. So Joe Adell early candidate due to the week, no question about that, and really just.

00:17:58
Speaker 2: A memorable, memorable performance.

00:18:01
Speaker 1: All right, we will be back after this, and ladies and gentlemen, the Foul Territory Network is growing. Twenty sixteen. All Star Brad Brock, Steve Moleski and Tim Barblace dropped the first Birdland.

00:18:13
Speaker 2: Territory episode yesterday.

00:18:15
Speaker 1: The trio will cover the Oriols with in depth analysis and authentic insight all year long. Subscribe on YouTube and wherever you get your podcast. Welcome Birdland Territory to the Foul Territory Network. All right, we are back with one more segment here on the show, and I'm going to talk about a column I wrote that we published today in The Athletic about Nico Horner and the contract he signed with the Cubs. The extension six years, one hundred and forty one million. Some deferrals in there, the net present value is about one hundred and thirty seven and a half million. And I wrote about how this contract would have been unthinkable ten years ago for a player like this, and even now the number surprised people. People thought, wow, Nico Horner, a guy with thirty six career home runs, is getting.

00:19:01
Speaker 2: One hundred and forty one million.

00:19:03
Speaker 1: Yes, he got four one hundred and forty one million.

00:19:07
Speaker 2: And he got it for a couple of reasons.

00:19:09
Speaker 1: One, of course, he is an outstanding player, and he's a top defender and base runner.

00:19:15
Speaker 2: He isn't the.

00:19:16
Speaker 1: Slugger that you normally associate with big money, but he is an above average hitter and has been, and the Cubs believe also that he can grow into maybe a little bit something more offensively. Now, beyond that, and beyond the fact that he has tremendous makeup and is beloved in that clubhouse, there are some circumstances working in his favor here. Obviously, teams value defense in a greater way than perhaps they did ten twenty years ago, and in part they do that, as Craig Council notes in the story, because we are better able to measure defense, we have a more accurate view of which players are the top defenders in the sport. And Nico Horner, without question, at second base, is one of the top defenders at any p position in the sport. Some other things too. The Cubs before signing Bregman, and remember they've signed Alex Bregman, Pete Crow Armstrong, and Nico Horner in a span of three months, three nine figure contracts span of nine months. A team that we've criticized quite a bit for not spending enough, suddenly they are why in part because their commitments for twenty seven, twenty eight, twenty nine were so low they had plenty.

00:20:27
Speaker 2: Of room to grow.

00:20:28
Speaker 1: So with that they were going to have to spend on somebody.

00:20:32
Speaker 2: They're gonna have to build a roster for those particular years.

00:20:36
Speaker 1: And Nico Horner of the number of the many free agents that they have on their roster this year, from in Half to Jamison Tyne, to Matthew Boyd, to Seya Suzuki, to some of their relievers, a lot of potential free agents. Carson Kelly is another one. Nico Horner was the youngest of them, or is the youngest of them, and projects to be the best of them, in part because he is on the younger side. He's twenty nine next month. Also with regard to what is going on in a greater sense, in a more global sense, with the sport Collective Bargaining Agreement expires December first, what happened the last time the Collective Bargaineering Agreement expired.

00:21:16
Speaker 2: This was in twenty twenty one.

00:21:18
Speaker 1: There was a mad rush right before the end of the CVA, right before the start of the lockout, when teams were signing players and signing them phrenetically. Corey Sieger got paid, Marcus Simon got paid, Javier Biaz, even Afasel Garcia got paid, and a number of pitchers did as well. Mac Scherzer was in that group. Nico Horner likely would have benefited from the same dynamic, and the Cubs knew this. And the other part of that is the upcoming free agent market is not very good at all. In fact, it wasn't even that good when Horner was going to be a part of it. From a position player standpoint, we're talking about Boba Shedfi ops out, We're talking about Jaschism jor Saya Suzuki.

00:22:02
Speaker 2: Really not a great group. The big free agent will be Schooble.

00:22:05
Speaker 1: Freddie Peralta will be another big name, but those are pitchers.

00:22:08
Speaker 2: On the position player.

00:22:09
Speaker 1: Side, Horner would have been in considerable demand and in considerable demand as well because he plays or can play shortstop.

00:22:19
Speaker 2: He is a very capable shortstop.

00:22:20
Speaker 1: He just happens to play second for the Cubs because they have an excellent defender in Dansby Swanson.

00:22:26
Speaker 2: So all of these things contributed to the.

00:22:29
Speaker 1: Cubs A wanting to keep him, be needing to keep him, and see having the wherewithal to keep him. So it worked out great for Niko Horner. He got paid an average of twenty three point five million per season. Great job for him, great job for the Cubs, and they end up with the player who is homegrown. Was the twenty fourth overall pick in twenty eighteen. A guy you want in your organization for a long time.

00:22:55
Speaker 2: All right.

00:22:55
Speaker 1: One more note before I go, I mentioned earlier the Blue Jays Dodgers series. That's the tomorrow night at Rogers Center in Toronto. Fox is doing a pregame show and postgame show and carrying that game tomorrow, and I will be part of the pregame show with Kevin Burkhardt. I believe Dantroll Willis is on that as well.

00:23:12
Speaker 2: We're gonna have fun, we always do. We'll be talking a lot of baseball, so I advise you.

00:23:16
Speaker 1: To tune in on FS one for that, not Fox FS one, and I'll be seeing you then. And in addition, of course, I will be seeing you Thursday with our normal show with Alana Rizzos. I want to thank everyone for watching, for listening. Foul Territory coming up at one pm Eastern. Eric Kratz, Kevin Palar and Scott Brown host and.

00:23:36
Speaker 2: Guess who the big guests are. Joe Adelle is one of them.

00:23:40
Speaker 1: David Sampson is the other.

00:23:42
Speaker 2: Have a great week everyone, We'll see you Thursday. Bet.

00:23:45
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