Fair Territory: Realignment predictions, Red Sox-Yankees juice

00:00:01
Speaker 1: Welcome everyone to the Thursday edition of Fair Territory. I'm Ken Rosenthal here with Alana Rizzo. I am in New York. Fox has the Yankees Red Sox series opener tonight. But we're not just going to talk about the Yankees in Red Sox. We've got realignment, We've got Kyle Tucker, We've got dudes in dorks. We've got your questions as well. So Alana, greetings, I hope you're doing well.

00:00:23
Speaker 2: It's good to see you.

00:00:24
Speaker 3: You're in New York, I'm in Boston. Do we have a rivalry? I am not sure, but Ken, the rivalry returns. How much juice is there with this series beginning?

00:00:35
Speaker 1: Alana, It's a really good question, and I like the way Chris Kirshner put it in The Athletic this morning. In his mailbag. He thinks that this is the most meaningful meeting between the Yankees and Red Sox since the twenty twenty one Wildcard game, and I would tend to agree. Both currently in wildcard position, Yankees at the top of the standings based on their recent run, and the Yankees have closed by winning seven of eight too, with a four games of the Toronto Blue Jays in the Al East, so things are heating up. The Red Sox need to kind of start getting going again. They're three to seven in the last ten, have not played well of late. They've made some moves in advance of this series, some pretty interesting moves. They send down Isaiah Campbell, bringing Richard Fitz. Now, Richard Fitz has been a starter his whole career, but it appears for now the Socks are going to use him out of the bullpen at least in this series. And then just today it was reported that the Socks also have designated Abraham Toro for assignment. He gave them some good playing time at first base until kind of fading after the All Star break, and they've brought back David Hamilton. Now, David Hamilton gives them additional speed for this series so they can pressure the Yankees. And David Hamilton also plays second base, and perhaps that will enable the Socks to move to Don Rafaela playing more in center field, where he is so brilliant. Rafaela has struggled offensively. Perhaps it's related to moving back to the infield. I don't know, but this is going to be a really interesting series for sure. Alana.

00:02:03
Speaker 3: Does it solve their issue?

00:02:04
Speaker 2: Though?

00:02:04
Speaker 3: At first base, Ken we're talking about the Boston Red Sox. Obviously there was a platoon situation there between Abraham Toro and romy Gonzalez, especially when you know there was a left hander on the hill. Romey Gonzalez, though, is starting to play against right handers as well. Rob Refsnyder is on the il. What is the plan for the Socks at first Well.

00:02:25
Speaker 1: The signing of Nathaniel Low changes everything for the Red Sox, and that really is what led to the move with Toro. So the other night, Low at the game tying home run in the ninth inning, it would have been a huge moment if the Red Sox had won that game. They did not, So now going forward, they've got Low, They've got Rome Gonzalez in the mixed. Roman Gonzalez also play second. Once ref Schneyder is healthy, he'll be in the equation as well. What they are clearly trying to do here as we enter the final six weeks of the season is put their best team on the field, and that is the goal here and with these moves, that is clearly the intention, and it's going to be interesting to see the lineup tonight. It's going to be interesting to see how this plays out going forward, both at first base, at second base, and in center field. There shouldn't be a both there. There's three positions, all three of those positions, and.

00:03:14
Speaker 3: You know Roman Anthony ken is going to be in that lineup for the Red Sox, a big extension for him. He wrote about it currently in the Athletic This kid is way beyond his years in terms of maturity and specifically played discipline.

00:03:27
Speaker 1: That's exactly what I wrote about Alana. And it's interesting to me that this kid just turned twenty one in May and is unphased by everything that he has encountered so far. And I am sure quite certain he will be unphased by playing at Yankee Stadium. He's going to be a centerpiece of this rivalry for the next eight or nine years at least, and Yankee fans, I'm sure are going to come to dislike him. But it's hard to dislike this guy. He's kind of quiet on the field, doesn't show much emotion at all, just plays really well a really high level and yes, play discipline. In this column, I wrote Alex Cora compared him, Wait didn compare him to Barry Bonds. He said, I can't compare him to Barry Bonds, but he kind of thought maybe like an early Wan Soto. And that's high praise obviously for Roman Anthony.

00:04:15
Speaker 3: And I love the fact that you talked to Alex kra about this, and he said that when they told Roman Anthony Ken that he was going to start the season in Triple A, he shook Alex Korra's hand. He said, I'll see you soon, and Alex Corr was like, I'm sure you will, and sure enough, Roman Anthony had to wait until June. But it's been a good change ever since. Aaron Boone and Aaron Judge, what more can you tell us about the disagreement, if you will, in the throwing ability of Aaron Judge right now?

00:04:41
Speaker 1: Well, it seems that Aaron Boom when he said that Judge might not throw the way he normally throws for the rest of the season, was kind of getting ahead of himself, and Judge quickly corrected him. I don't know that this is going to be any issue. Those two are very close. But the real question is when does Aaron Judge get back into the out field. And I don't know that it will happen this series. I would not be surprised if it did. He has been throwing, and clearly, when you're playing with some kind of elbow issue, it's going to be a little bit dicey at times. But fully, the full expectation of the Yankees, I should say, is that he will be back in right field. Then you have judge and right Grisham and center, Bellinger and left. That's a really good defensive outfield. And that's where the Yankees are heading with this.

00:05:26
Speaker 3: All right, let's talk about the New York Yankees a little bit more. Can their schedule stiffens beginning this weekend? Obviously, the Red Socks are trying to make the postseason team. The Yankees obviously are doing the same. It's not going to get much easier for them going forward.

00:05:40
Speaker 1: It won't for this particular period, but going forward totally. When you look at Fangrafts and the remaining strength of schedule, they actually have the Yankees as the easiest remaining strength of schedule based on a couple of different factors. Now, other websites Alana don't have them with the easiest, but it's not that bad. And they end the season with a pretty easy schedule with a number of non contenders. So the Red Sox after this series, play I believe, five straight series against non contenders and they're going to have some different teams that they play to that are more competitive. So well the Yankees. The Yankees play each of the division leaders one series each remaining this season. So it's funny we talk about schedule all the time. I talk about it constantly, but it really depends on which teams are playing the best at that particular time. Now, it certainly helped the Yankees to beat up on these three sellers as they did in these last three series, but they've got to play well to win games. We know that. We've seen that with them, So that really is their challenge here to play at a high crisp level, something that they haven't always done, regardless of who the opponent is.

00:06:50
Speaker 3: Yeah, no question about that. It's going to be interesting to see how many teams in the Al East can get into the postseason. As far as that picture is concerned, Let's talk about another topic here, unfair territory with Ken Rosenthal, where there is a lot to unpack, and that is realignment and a lot of folks have been talking about this ken for a long time.

00:07:09
Speaker 1: What is the latest. The latest day is Rob Manford went on ESPN Sunday Night Baseball and of course talked about the possibility of expansion, which would lead to realignment. Now it's important to note as Jason Starke did this morning in The Athletic in a really good article that gave a lot of context to the situation. Basically, Jason starts by saying this isn't close. None of it is close, not expansion, not realignment, and not, as he mentions here, the possibility of the schedule shrinking. And Jason makes some very good points in that article about why the schedule could shrink if the sport indeed goes to thirty two teams, That too, is a discussion to come. But the realignment conversation is one that got fans really excited or I would say intrigued, because obviously it would lead to major implations. It might lead to the sport looking unlike the way it has looked for quite some time now. So there have been a couple of proposals thrown out there. Let's get into them, all right.

00:08:12
Speaker 3: So if you think about the proposal from Jim Bowden, two years ago. Let's look at that one first, because again, this has been talked about for quite some time, and there's a bunch of realignment when it comes to where teams are going. But moreover, where are the new teams going.

00:08:28
Speaker 1: To be housed? Right?

00:08:29
Speaker 3: Is it going to be Nashville? Is it going to be Charlotte? Like, that's a whole other picture too, in terms of another piece of this puzzle.

00:08:36
Speaker 1: Can a lot? It sure is, And you make a great point, we don't even know who the expansion teams are yet. Is it Charlotte? Is at Nashville in the east? Is it Salt Lake City? Is it Portland in the west? Are there other cities that are perhaps in the mix that we don't even think about or haven't even considered yet. I don't believe so. But all of this will depend on where those expansion teams end up. Games proposal, what he brought about a couple of years ago, basically is done purely on geography and natural rivalries. So you see, the Midwest division would have the Cubs, White Sox, Brewers, and the Twins. They're all rivals. Even the Brewers and the Twins have a rivalry. Southwest Astros Royals, Cardinals, Rangers, Pacific Coast down that Rockies don't belong on this Pacific coast, but it doesn't always work perfectly. Colorado, the Athletics wherever they might be, Seattle, San Francisco. Then the Western Division Arizona, the Angels, the Dodgers, and the Padres. That makes a ton of sense. And then you go to the East. This would be an amazing division. The Red Sox, Mets, Yankees, and Phillies, the North Reds, Guardians, Tigers, Blue Jays, and you see the others as well. Mid Atlantic with the Orioles, Charlotte. Perhaps maybe it's Nashville, Pittsburgh and Washington, and the Southeast Atlanta, Nashville, Tampa Bay and Miami. Another one that makes a lot of geographic sense. Now that's that's an interesting proposal, no question about it. But what I liked a little bit better because it kept the leagues kind of more intact, was what Stephen Nesbit suggested in the Athletics the other day. Now, what Stephen doesn't have that Jim does are the Mets and Yankees and the Dodgers and Angels and all those teams necessarily in the same divisions. He did it more like the way the leagues are currently constructed. I'm not going to read all the names here, but you can see them. And in the East, for example, he doesn't have the Mets and Yankees together, but he has the Mets, Phillies, Pirates, and Nationals. And then another example for him that would be interesting would be in the West the Diamondbacks, Dodgers, Padres, and Giants. No Angels, but you have the four natural remaining n L West rivals. It's sort of the same in the American League the way Steven has it laid out East kind of preserved the way it is now without Tampa Bay, every other team is in there. And in the West it's a little bit different. The A's wherever they might be, the Angels, saw Lake City or Portland, plus the Mariners, and you can see the North and South divisions there too. Now the question is going to be if this all comes to pass, and again we're not close yet. We're not close to expansion, we're not close to realignment. But if it does come to pass, then at that point Rob Manford, whoever is Commissioner of Baseball at that point, will have to decide, Okay, do we want to sort of preserve the leagues or do we want to go just pure geography and natural rivalries. That's the decision. But again, we're talking about something that is years away. A lot of fun for us to talk about, no question, but we're not there yet.

00:11:37
Speaker 3: Okay, do you have a different opinion or different solution? Do you or do you have a preference and how important is it to you, Ken Rosenthal to preserve the rivalries.

00:11:48
Speaker 1: I don't have a preference. I would lean a little bit toward Nesbitz, but I understand Boden's And I understand Bodens because if you're a met Yankee fan, if you're a White Sox Cubs fan, if you're a Dodgers Angels fan, you want to see those teams and you want to see them in the same division. I assume not everyone would agree. No one ever agrees entirely on anything, but that would be the appeal of Jim's proposal. I kind of lean towards Stevens a little bit, and that's where I am with it. I don't have my own proposal. I've not sat around thinking about this too much, but it is cool to imagine what might be and then of course, if you have a reduced schedule, as Jason suggests this morning, what would be the point of that, Well, mathematically it might work better with thirty two teams, and the other point would be more playoffs. I don't know that we need more playoffs. I don't know that Baseball agrees with me on that.

00:12:36
Speaker 3: Yeah, they're going to have to find a way to make up the revenue if it is only one hundred and fifty four game regular season, so perhaps expanded playoffs are the play I do think it's funny, though, that Colorado would be in the Pacific Coast Division if it were to be new divisions, because some would argue Ken Rosenthal, me not you, that Colorado doesn't even belong in Major League Baseball.

00:12:56
Speaker 1: Okay, boom boom, we don't have relegations. If we ever get your relation.

00:13:02
Speaker 3: Maybe yeah, although they have taken two of three so far from the Los Angeles Dodgers, but that's for another conversation. All right, get your questions in for Grill and Ken. It's fair territory continues here on all of our different networks. We appreciate it. We're going to take a quick break and we'll be right back ft FAM.

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00:14:25
Speaker 1: All right.

00:14:26
Speaker 3: Time now for Grill and Ken, the first one comes from Armand. We always appreciate the conversation and the questions, which National League team do you trust? Believe in more Ken to clinch the third wildcard spot. He's putting you on the spot, either the Mets or the Reds. I don't trust and believe in my Mets. Armond is obviously a big Met fan.

00:14:45
Speaker 1: Armand might have a point. Now. The Mets lead the Reds by one game for the final wildcard spot. If you had to pick this based on starting pitching, you would pick the Reds Winter Green, Lindolo, everything that they have Andrew Abbott. That's a stronger rotation than the Mets are offering right now. Single last night again not great, and David Peterson really has been their only consistent starter. Now, perhaps Norm McClain, will Nolan McClain not Norm, will give them something that they've been looking for, and perhaps they'll bring up some of their younger prospects as well in addition to McLain to kind of fortify themselves. But they still have the lead. They don't have as good a run differential as the Reds. For whatever that is worth. I just trust that their players, their position players. In the end will carry them, but I'm not convinced of that. And the Reds rotation is dangerous, and if the Reds get in, they're dangerous for that reason. And their offense has been a little bit better of late, so armand I would say that I cannot give you words of comfort here. I'm not so sure this is going to go exactly the way the Mets want it.

00:15:49
Speaker 3: Is that the biggest collapse in your opinion of the season, ken considering if they don't make the postseason, considering all that was put into in the offseason, obviously Wan Soo, all of the different things. I mean, that would be an epic fail, would it not?

00:16:03
Speaker 1: It would? And in fact, my friend Joel Sherman and your friend as well, Alana, wrote a column recently basically asking the question, would this be the most disappointing Mets season in history? Now there's some competition there for most disappointing season in Met's history, but the mere fact that Joel would be asking that question in Juan Soto's first year with the team and a year when they've resigned Pete Alonzo, that is troubling alone. And we'll see what happens here. I still expect the Mets big players Alonzo, Sodo, Lindor, et cetera, to step up, and certainly the loss of Alvarez for however long it is behind the plate, hurts them. I just see their position club as being stronger than the Reds, and that's the question I have with the Reds. Will they score enough to support that rotation? Now?

00:16:47
Speaker 3: The fact that the Reds are even in the conversation is fun. I'm not certain that I would have put the Reds in the postseason picture. Good for Cincinnati. Another question on Grill and Ken in regards to realignment. Of course, a lot of folks want to talk about this because it's been a topic of conversation for some time. Bernie Suarez, in what world would it make sense to have the Dodgers and Giants in different divisions, preserving those rivalries? Bernie wants to.

00:17:10
Speaker 1: Know, Bernie, not my world that I don't believe in Alana's world either would that makes sense. So I don't know which proposal had that, but I hear you, man, and certainly the balance here. The trick here, if we ever get to this point, will be for major League Baseball to preserve what is good Dodgers, Giants, Dodgers Padres for that matter, while still doing this realignment, which basically is all revolving around geography anyway, So why would you not have the Dodgers, Giants, Padres, and Diamondbacks all playing each other. I would rather have that than Dodgers' Angels, for instance, in the same division. So I'm with you on that. Put it that way, I agree.

00:17:50
Speaker 3: I think the rivalries are important for the sport and obviously just for the history of this great game of ours. Next question on Grill and Ken is from Craig Osterberg. Appreciate you, Craig, Well, pitching or decide these divisional races.

00:18:02
Speaker 1: That's a good one, asking a general question here, and it's a good one. I'm not exactly sure how you can break down each one along these lines, because I'm sure pitching will decide some. It may decide the NL wild Card, for instance, as we just discussed, and I would imagine hitting will decide some others. For instance, if the Yankees slug their way to the Aleast title and the Blue Jays don't start playing better again, that could happen. A lot of things gonna happen, So I'm not exactly sure how to answer that, but basically, put it this way, the team with the best combination is going to be a really good shape.

00:18:38
Speaker 3: Who do you think has the best combination?

00:18:42
Speaker 1: Milwaukee has had a good combination, There's no doubt about that. And they're pitching, in my view from a national standpoint, gets a little overlooked at times because we all dwell on their offense and the cool things that they do, the way they generate and manufacture runs. But if they get mis going again and he struggled a little litle bit yesterday again, then there will be a formidable combination for sure. And then you look at the Phillies as well. The Phillies had an incredible offensive series against Seattle. Trey Turner is ridiculously hot, seven straight three hit games. Match Gel wrote about that today in The Athletic and the Phillies, even without Wheeler, if Ranger Suarez pitches the way he did the other night, if Christopher Sanchez keeps it up, you have the makings of a dynamic playoff rotation with Lozardo, with Aaron Nola possibly getting back in things too. So they've got some possibilities there. They're going to be an interesting team in the playoffs.

00:19:37
Speaker 3: Man, the National League is so interesting because there's so many good teams. You just don't know which way it's going to go. I think a definite easier path is in the junior circuit. All right, much more to come here on Fair Territory with Ken Rosenthal. We appreciate the questions on Grill and Ken, but next we are talking dude and dork of the week.

00:19:54
Speaker 2: Right after this, Okay, Kratz. I opened up Arena Club, put my own money in there, and I wasn't gonna go big.

00:20:01
Speaker 1: I know.

00:20:01
Speaker 2: We went over the Ruby pack a week ago. This time I just went for the low level pack, where it's an easy entry point twenty five bucks. You can get yourself a big boy card. The Grail has many good options. I slice open the pack. We're looking at it if you're watching us right now, and I pull a card from the nineteen fifties. Super cool. I enjoyed the experience looking at it. It's Jim Gilliam, It's the top set from the mid fifties.

00:20:26
Speaker 1: It's cool.

00:20:27
Speaker 2: It's a Brooklyn Dodger. But it's worth more than the card.

00:20:30
Speaker 1: Like I said, I'm going to sell it back.

00:20:32
Speaker 2: I got twenty eight bucks instantly, so I can buy another one of those packs and try and get what I want.

00:20:38
Speaker 4: Absolutely, the excitement I heard Kip say before. The excitement's in the chase. You sold it back. Now you get to open another one. I enjoy when you slide it across the screen there and the pack opens.

00:20:49
Speaker 2: You know where to go. Arenaclub dot com slash foul twenty percent off your first slab Packer card purchase. Get after it, dude, dude, dude.

00:21:04
Speaker 3: All right, where You're nearing the end of the month of August, almost to September. The tide is turning, the calendar is turning, the leaves are changing a little bit. Who is your dude of the week this week.

00:21:15
Speaker 1: Holana, It's going to be the Yankees for hitting nine home runs against the Tampa Bay Rays on Tuesday night. They came within one of the major League record. But really, I'm only naming the Yankees dudes so I can get into another story. And the other story is the record that actually was set in nineteen eighty seven, in my first year on the beat at Toronto's Exhibition Stadium by the Blue Jays against the Orioles ten Homers and Hank Peters, and the Oils general manager later made an instructional video out of that night for the Oriols minor leaguers. He called it the Barrage. He said, this is the lesson on not how to pitch, on how not to pitch. So that is a very distinct memory for me. The next day, I'm twenty four years old. I'm on the beat against Tim Kirkhi and Richard Justice, two of the great beat writers in the country. Tim, of course, still one of the most formidable baseball experts in our game. And I walk into cal Rican Senior's office. He's the manager at the time. I was terrified and I asked him, Cal, after last night, the team's on its way to ninety five loss, as it turns out, are you worried about getting fired? I was terrified of what he might say, and he said, we just put on one of the most embarrassing displays in Major league history. Of course, I'm worried about getting fired. That record still stands. The Yankees challengehip but didn't get there. But they're the dudes of the week.

00:22:35
Speaker 3: I'm glad that Cal Ripken Senior was kind to you in that moment, He's like, of course, I'm worried about getting fired. What a story, Ken, And you've been doing it at the highest level ever since. Okay, my dude of the week is another journalist to have a tremendous amount of respect for Nick Pikoro, who of course writes for the Arizona Republic. He has covered the Diamondbacks for two decades, you know, doing all of the necessary dirty work, and unfortunately he's getting dragged in the process a little bit. He recently had an article in the Arizona Republic on Katel Marte about how there was a little bit of discourse perhaps and seemingly katel Marte asking for some time off in a various in certain times of the season where perhaps there was a little bit of discord amongst his teammates. Obviously, Ken, I don't think a story like this comes out without basis, and certainly with a tremendous amount of research and the need for it to come out. This is not something that Nick, I would imagine, just heard about in terms of rumblings or without legitimate sources. This is something that I'm sure he's worked on for a period of time. But of course fans are now upset about the story and perhaps wondering if katel Marte is going to be traded, if Tory Lavello is too easy on him, you know, just starting some negative conversations. I guess about the Diamondbacks clubhouse. But that is Nick's job as a reporter, and he has earned the right and has the resume to write something like this, perhaps without being questioned about the integrity of the article. I'm interested because you, as as a beat writer and someone that is a baseball columnist for a long time, knows how difficult it is to be in the clubhouse day in and day out. What is your take on this?

00:24:16
Speaker 1: Well, I said this on a foul territory the other day. I'm with you a lot of one thousand percent on this. And here's a message to fans. You say you want to know about your teams, Well, you can't only know about the good things about your teams. We're not out there to be cheerleaders. If you want a certain kind of reporting positive for the team all the time, I can direct you to certain websites that will do that for you. That is not the job of a journalist. The job of a journalist is to tell you what's going on, good or bad. So you can't say I want to know as much as possible about my team, but then say, well, I'd rather not know this or that. And you know what, what Nick wrote is not going to destroy the Diamondbacks. What could tell Marte was doing at the Diamondbacks and he apologized for it so or at least some of it. So when he apologizes for it, that, as I said on FT, further legitimize the story. And it's a really good choice for due to the week. Nick took too much crap for this.

00:25:13
Speaker 3: Yeah, Nick is a very good journalist and he's a colleague of ours, and I stand behind that when I say that he is an unbelievable professional. Okay, time now for dork of the week. All right, Ken, who do you have for your dork?

00:25:33
Speaker 1: This troubles me a little bit because I like this guy. I know him a little bit, Victor Roblos, and he's dork of the week for throwing the bat and getting the ten game suspension. Now, there were extenuating circumstances, as he pointed out in his statement of apology. He's coming off a left shoulder separation, he's missed most of the year. He's been very frustrated about that. He recently lost his mom, and he was hit in three of his first four games. And he also had a history with the pitcher Joey Estes, who had hit him in the So all of these things are true, and all of these things help explain why you see Robust reacting the way he did. There doesn't matter. He still can't throw a bat. And I don't know that Victor Robos would disagree with me naming him dork of the Week.

00:26:14
Speaker 3: Okay, Mine is a guy that decided that he couldn't get enough either fantasy football or he really needed to make sure that his boss could reach him at all time. Mine man at the game at Wrigley bringing his laptop, and not only can did he bring his laptop, he brought his mouse. Do you not have a computer that at least has a mouse on the keyboard itself? What are we doing? I mean again, if he's working on his fantasy baseball league or getting ready for his football draft, no problem. But if you're actually working, maybe you should not be in a place where your boss can find you on the JumboTron. It's like going to a cold play concert.

00:26:47
Speaker 1: All right.

00:26:48
Speaker 3: Thank you everybody for being a part of Fair Territory with Ken Rosenthal.

00:26:51
Speaker 2: We appreciate it.

00:26:52
Speaker 3: Thanks for listening, Thanks for watching.

00:26:54
Speaker 4: Ken.

00:26:54
Speaker 3: We'll be back on Sunday night with the brand new episode. Bet MGM is giving you the chance to win a prize every day during the baseball season. Step into the batter's box for betmgms Swing for the Fences, free to play game. Visit the betmgm app to access the game, and you'll score a prize if you hit a single, double, triple, or home run. Strikeout, no problem, Try again tomorrow. Gambling problem or concern, There is help. Call one eight hundred Gambler