Bryce Harper versus Rob Manfred, Emmanuel Clase under investigation, Royals extend Seth Lugo

00:00:02
Speaker 1: Big week trade deadline week, but other news is trying to take it away. We'll get to that. We'll also get to I think Judge going down. We're actual, Yeah, that's true, that is true. That will be your MVP. We'll get to that. Yeah, your Mike usually is good. I mean we can hear you, but we like to hear a while.

00:00:26
Speaker 2: Sorry apologize, Yes it has.

00:00:28
Speaker 1: We have Busy teamed up in cudo AJ for a minute, so we'll get to Judgey. We actually have our injury expert, Will Carrol later in the show to cover that. Of course, plenty of trade deadline action, including Jim Bowden joining us in a little past ten minutes from now. Ken Rosenthal's fair territory Fresh one is already out and we'll talk to him tomorrow. But that episode should be listened to and consumed after this show and then real quick, just for a minute, you weren't on when this went down last week? What did you think of the trades so far? I mean, the big one is Nailor to the Mari McMahon to the Yankees. Those are the big name moves.

00:01:05
Speaker 2: Yeah, is McMahon considered a big name?

00:01:08
Speaker 1: You can play defense, Yeah, you can pick it.

00:01:11
Speaker 2: Listen.

00:01:11
Speaker 3: If you can't hit Colorado, I don't know where you can. Really, that's the spot be able to rate there. So I mean, I think they both feel needs. Would surprise me about the Yankees. Give McMahon though, is we all thought they were in play for Suarez, right, So didn't that kind of close that windows?

00:01:25
Speaker 1: Yeah, they're they're out on Suarez. So there's like six to eight teams in on Swar.

00:01:29
Speaker 2: I know, we think Yankees were a match.

00:01:32
Speaker 1: They either didn't have the capitol or didn't want to give up the asking price, or like Kratz and I talked about the other day, they really needed to fix defensive issues. Gino Suarez in my mind, is a little below average now. His metrics rate really low, and you know, the Yankees are definitely looking tight at that and McMahon rates elite, so that was part of the mix. But Naylor, that's a guy that hits good pitching. I like that one for Seattle. I thought that was a great move.

00:02:01
Speaker 2: Yeah, I agree, I thought that was a good one. He gets big hits, to the think about Josh Taylors. He gets big hits. He loves to come up in the clutch, for them, and plus it energizes their their clubhouse. Now I want to see what some of the other teams do, Like, what are they we get Jim Bodeno, what do the Astros do to answer this? Right?

00:02:17
Speaker 3: The Rangers are coming by the way too. The Rangers are charging hard at both those teams. So are they going to do something surprising? I mean, I think I think this is gonna be fascinating the last three days until it's over.

00:02:29
Speaker 1: Yeah, even a team like the Royals, who many wanted to sell, they're like, oh, well, they're going to sell, and they're like, no, we're not. We're actually not going to sell, which I thought is pretty cool.

00:02:36
Speaker 2: I love that too. I believe that as a former Royal, Right, they're not going to sell. I'm they're even they're even doing extra, not just not selling. They got grit Chick obviously paying out money. A guy that I heard Seth Lugo's name on the list of Hey, you know what maybe the Royals that they sell. Maybe he's a guy that they could move and get a lot of pieces back. They're they're going for it. So yeah, my Royals love it.

00:03:03
Speaker 1: We'll talk more about them later in the show. And later this week we are on for a trade deadline special one o'clock Eastern time regular showtime, and then we'll go until six pm Eastern if you're watching us online on TV. The crowd watching us right now one to three Eastern regular time, but we'll extend that for three more hours after TV time. Guests every hour to report on your team's latest moves. When things happen, we'll bring people on, we'll break it down throughout the day. And I think there's going to be a lot because we haven't had much yet, and I think there are a ton of teams that are going to do something. Now there's one name that we can scratch off the list. He had been talked about quite a bit. Let's get to breaking news. Cleveland Guardians closer Emmanuel class A has been placed on nondisciplinary paid leave as part of MLB's sports betting investigation, and class A is joining Luis Artiz on that investigation and the paid nondisciplinary leave situation. So basically, you get paid to sit they investigate. They don't want you on the field while they try and figure out what's happening. We'll let you more know more details as we learn of anything. Remember this was two three weeks ago, around July fourth weekend, when we learned about his teammate Luis Ortiz and two questionable pitches that they were investigating. We haven't heard anything since questionable, very questionable pitches. And now his teammate is part of this investigation as well. It sounds like no one else's That's what the guardians came out and said, So no one else, it's these two.

00:04:39
Speaker 3: So why didn't this come out when Ortiz came out? Why didn't class A come out at the same.

00:04:43
Speaker 1: Time, because maybe deeper they found more stuff.

00:04:45
Speaker 3: Yeah, so did they do I mean, just we have a million questions like that with Ortizo? Did they do something together? Did he do the same thing? Possibly not saying they did him, but are they being accused of doing the same thing? Because I think Kratz tell me if I'm wrong here, but I I think is a pitcher if you could do I mean, I'm I don't condone this, but I mean, as a pitcher, if you could say, if you have friends and you say, hey, I'm going to pitch. When I come in to pitch, you know, a bet a ball on this pitch and I'll throw a damn pitch out to make sure that they don't swing at it. I mean, that's that's about it. Easy of a bet to fix as you could ever get.

00:05:20
Speaker 2: Right, I'm saying they did it.

00:05:23
Speaker 3: I'm just saying, but that hypothetically, like that would be the easiest one to fix in the world.

00:05:27
Speaker 2: Yeah, if you can buy if you can buy that prop of like, hey, the next pitch is going to be a ball or something, how they'd figure it out. It's a little different with our teas because he's starting, so it's like, hey, you know what this inning is. When I'll do it, it's not really going to affect the game class you're closing, So I I I'm reticent to say, oh, well, something that he was fixing. Maybe there was something, you know, maybe he was gambling on things that I just I just I don't get it. I don't get it. I'm not gonna spec I just think it's just why do it? Why do its thin? Here's my thing.

00:06:05
Speaker 3: Even if he's closing, he can just tell his you know, the people say, if I come in next time I pitch, the first pitch is going to be a ball, right, like, and they can because you can live bet these things. Now again, I'm not saying he did this, but I'm saying, if you were going to do this, this would be like the easiest one because as a hitter, you can't guarantee I can get a hit or I'm gonna you know, or you say, well, I'm gonna swing at this pitch.

00:06:30
Speaker 2: You know that.

00:06:30
Speaker 3: But like what if they throw it at you and it hit you, Like, I mean, there's you know, he can't The easiest thing to control on a baseball field is if I'm a pitcher and I throw that ball like Ortiz through that bounced fifteen feet in front of home play and be like, oh, I slipped up. Sorry guys. Yeah, but I mean, I'm not saying they did this. I'm not saying any of that. But out of all the things that we've ever talked about as far as gambling goes, this would be the easiest one to self control.

00:06:57
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00:09:14
Speaker 2: He's definitely rich. I mean, look, Luis Artiz is definitely rich too, Like he doesn't need to have little piddling things it is. It is not good. It doesn't look good for the whole situation because they're both on the same team. They're both pitchers on the same team. So if somebody got to these guys, if there's you know, one of them is one of them's buddies, somebody talk to them. Doesn't look good that they're both on the same team. And you hope that no other guardians are sitting here going. I thought this was like I wasn't gonna get caught because it's really I'm not demeaning it if these things are true, like it's not really affecting the game, Like a closer throws a ball all the time. Starting pitchers throw balls all the time. So they probably feel if this is the case, like, hey, you know what, we'll get away with this. There's no there's no really ramifications. It'll be interesting to see what happens or how what what we find out about it. But no, they shouldn't need this money whatever that money is.

00:10:18
Speaker 3: Yeah, but here's here's the thing, E pay and show. Hey hee Pey was making good money. He's still lost a ton betting. Yeah, Epey was rich, right, pep Rose was rich pep Rose played for like thirty years in the big leagues.

00:10:32
Speaker 2: No, it was different money back then, but he was still rich for a normal person.

00:10:35
Speaker 1: True.

00:10:36
Speaker 2: And he was the manager of the Cincinnati Is. He was betting on games.

00:10:39
Speaker 3: Sometimes it doesn't matter how much money you have, you can have debt we don't know about.

00:10:42
Speaker 2: There could be things that are happening we don't know about, right, And.

00:10:45
Speaker 3: If someone listen, people are always no matter how much money you have, they're always looking for a quick way to make another buck. Again, we're not saying we just want to make this quid. We're not saying that they did this.

00:10:59
Speaker 1: No, he's under investigation. That's what we do.

00:11:01
Speaker 2: Yeah.

00:11:02
Speaker 3: Yeah, But the thing is is like, just because you're rich, just oh he's rich, he didn't gamble. I know a lot of rich dudes that gamble a lot for no reason.

00:11:10
Speaker 1: Yeah, but gambling is different from betting on baseball.

00:11:13
Speaker 2: The thing about betting.

00:11:14
Speaker 3: Again, I'm gonna say this again, the easiest thing to fix in the world in baseball is I am a pitcher, and people in the chat are like, oh, the catcher and pitching coach call the pitches.

00:11:25
Speaker 2: I could call whatever pitch I want.

00:11:27
Speaker 3: But if that dude has the ball and I want to call first pitch heater and he throws it over my head, that he can do that.

00:11:33
Speaker 1: And he can do this too, or he can shake you off.

00:11:35
Speaker 2: And hit the button right like that. Whoever calls the pitches doesn't even matter.

00:11:40
Speaker 3: I could call slider like cossa cutter one hundred miles an hour and he throws it four feet outside and he's like, oh the mound, Oh dang, I slipped on the mound and then goes back and see the kicking the dirt right like, or they grab the rosin bag and like ah wow, man sweaty like that.

00:11:56
Speaker 2: Would be honestly, like the Ortiz pitch.

00:11:59
Speaker 3: The first one was kind of closed, the second one was literally nowhere closed like that. Again, not saying he did this, but that is the easiest thing for me in baseball. That would be to say, if I could bet on something doubt to fix, that.

00:12:11
Speaker 2: Would be it.

00:12:12
Speaker 1: Here's the other factor. Now, let's get to the team. Sad of things. The Guardians seem to be in light listen for cell mode. This is not necessarily their year, right Manuel class A might have been traded. It's well documented that clean were very disciplined in trade talks, and some would even say stubborn and difficult. And that's fine. I mean, if you're a Guardians fan, they've been very successful in that front office, so you give them credit. Well, Kratz, it's not getting traded now. They might have been behind the scenes going, hey, this is the year, right, let's trade them. We've got multiple years left of control, plus the options, Let's trade him.

00:12:52
Speaker 2: He would have been the most valuable asset. I get it. Hey, Henyeo Suarez thirty thirty five plus Homers being able to be traded. Everybody needs slow. Everybody would line up for a manual classe. So to me, that's when teams I mean, look at a team like the Phillies. They don't have a closer, and you sit there and you go, holy crap, okay, are we willing to go like big time because hey, you know what, we still have him a few years down the road. And I think those like you said, those those team options are like ten million a year, ten million a year for a closer. That's that's once you kick in those options. I think some team would have gone a little bit crazy for a manual class. I think they would have given up three marquee prospects, and now the Guardians don't have that choice.

00:13:42
Speaker 1: And last year he was insane, he was historic six.

00:13:46
Speaker 2: This year he has not been.

00:13:48
Speaker 1: No, he's been okay, it's not like he's been a mess.

00:13:50
Speaker 2: But he hasn't been as good as he's been in years. Not question is did he know about this? What do you mean did he know that this investigation was happening.

00:13:57
Speaker 3: Oh, it's like a steroids thing, right, the player know that they tested positive. He just don't tell anybody until it comes out publicly.

00:14:05
Speaker 2: If he was doing the same thing as Ortiz, if they're connected, I'm sure he's been a little nervous ever since Ortiz got put on paid leave. So sucks.

00:14:19
Speaker 3: Don't bet on baseball one more say it. Don't bet on baseball. Don't bet on baseball. Don't freaking bet on baseball.

00:14:26
Speaker 1: What if the Guardians made a surprise run. So there's the cell side. There's also the fact that they're a game under five hundred and the Royals are looking to buy a little bit. They're a half game better than the Royals right now. Guardians made the Alcs last year. It's a pretty similar roster from last year. It wouldn't have been the craziest thought to go, oh, here comes Bieber in the second half, Bullplant pen looks more like it does last year. If you guys get hot and they're a wildcard team, now you lost your closer, at least for now. Through a long period of time.

00:14:57
Speaker 2: Ortiz has some stiff coming back, and we know.

00:15:01
Speaker 1: These guys are on leave. His leap got extended, right, These guys are both out until at least the end of August. It's a massive blow two pitchers, especially, you're a freaking superstar closer. So we'll let you know if we hear anything else about specifics. But what we do know is Emmanuel Klass is not getting traded and he's not pitching in the major leagues until at least September. As this investigation by Major League Baseball continues. This is crazy. We had a commenter on Friday, randomly during the show say something along the lines of when are we gonna give more respect to Nick Kurtz. This was Friday afternoon, and I'm monitoring the chat pretty closely. I'll give you the name later. He had the best rookie performance from a hitter in Major League history and perhaps krats the best right in history, but perhaps the best performance period from a hitter in major league history. In one game, six or six four her Runsbi's six runs scored, which is super rare in our game, nineteen total bases in a fifteen to three win over Houston. WHOA.

00:16:08
Speaker 2: That was unbelievable, unbelievable. He's just like I wonder if he slapped Jacob Wilson or not and was like, hey, Jacob, this is my Rookie of the Year award now, So if you weren't paying attention, I would still take Sho Hayes game last year that he broke the broke the record and he had like ten twelve. I think that was more like more of an impressive game, but six for six. He pushed his average above three hundred. With this game. He's twenty three dingers in this by this game, and he's ops is over one thousand at the end of this game, Like is a career. He may never have another game like this, and he could have a really good career. It was unbelievable to have that as a rookie. He was in college last year.

00:16:53
Speaker 3: He's never gonna have another game like, there's no one in the history of baseball's ever had a game like this, and he missed a fifth home run by about a foot and a half. So listen, this is the best hit. This has got to go down as the best game a hitter has ever had in the history of.

00:17:04
Speaker 1: The sport, which reminds me I do want to shout out. David k was the commenter last week on Friday Afternoon who randomly was just like, Nick Kurtz is a g I mean, that's just for this game. I know that, but just the context, there was nothing going on related to it, and he just randomly put that in the chat, and then that night I'm like, oh my gosh. Anyway, he debuted on the twenty third Kurtz, He's got the second best ops since to Aaron Judge, his first home run wasn't until his seventeenth game, second in his twenty fourth game, and then he went on a twenty two homer and forty three game stretch through Friday. This was a top five pick last year out of way farest he went number four overall. Just amazing. Do you know the last four homer game before Gino Suarez, which was in April. So you had two this year. Do you know the last ones before that? I'm going to give you guys the year. It's been a whi. That was one in twenty seventeen, and the other one was JD Martinez. Last American League player with a four homer game was in twenty twelve. Do you guys know who that was?

00:18:09
Speaker 2: It's been a while, twenty twelve. Jeez, what team? Give me a team? JD was with the Diamondbacks, right, it was against the Dodge.

00:18:17
Speaker 1: Yes, yeah, Josh Hamilton just.

00:18:19
Speaker 2: Yeah, in that game where the Orioles gave up like thirty is that?

00:18:23
Speaker 1: What is?

00:18:24
Speaker 2: That was a game where they gave up like thirty runs?

00:18:27
Speaker 1: One more nine time in history of players scored six runs only nine times ever, last time in two thousand and four. Joe Randa of the Royals.

00:18:36
Speaker 2: That's awesome, joker crazy.

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00:19:42
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's what he said.

00:19:43
Speaker 1: That's what he said.

00:19:45
Speaker 2: That's what he said.

00:19:47
Speaker 1: That's what he said. Whoa, whoa, whoa. Absolutely scathing quotes coming out from that Phillies Player meeting that Rob Manford held a week ago. We heard some of the fire that came out of it from Nick Castianos last week, but now we've got the full back and forth exchange that involved Bryce Harper and Rob Manfred quiet for the majority of the meeting. This is in an ESPN article. New York Post was on this a bunch of the sites now have all this up, but in Jeff Passon's article, quiet for the majority of the meeting, Bryce Harper, sitting in a chair and holding a bat, eventually grew frustrated about and I'm paraphrasing here Manfred's salary cap in undo, because they talked a lot about how he was hinting around that and talking down to the players, and said if MLB were to propose a cap and hold firm to it, players quote this, according to Harper, are not scared to lose one hundred and sixty two games. Sources in the meeting told him. Harper stood up, walked toward the middle of the room, faced up to Manfred and said, if you want to speak about that, you can get the bleep out of our clubhouse. Manfred, sources said, responded that he was not going to get the bleep out of here, saying it was important to talk about threats to MLB's business and ways to grow the game. Nick Castillanos did speak on the record again about this. He said both of them, commiss and Bryce, were giving it back and forth to each other. He said, that's Harp. He's been doing this since he was fifteen years old, it's just another day. I wasn't surprised. Castillanos later said Manford seems to be in a pretty desperate place on how important it is to get this salary cap because he's floating the word lockout two years in advance of our collective bargaining agreement expiration. So that's nothing to throw around. That's the same thing as me saying in a marriage, I think divorce is a possibility. It's probably going to happen. You just don't say those things. And in the back of our heads were like, why are you talking to us Like owning a baseball team is like owning a nail salon that you're only going to be a functional business if you can make up the money that you put in this year.

00:21:51
Speaker 2: I love this, dropped the mike. Oh my god, I love this. Wow. I mean Bryce Harborough knows the nose.

00:21:58
Speaker 1: Can we air that next time? That would get millions? Oh my gosh, MLB, you want to fix some content issues, because Manford was on record the other day saying he's buying into creators like us now and he's into it, right, you want to fix it? While he said it on the record, Well, U not us yes, he doesn't own a piece of us. They do not touch us at all. Then, in fact, don't let us use like any highlights anyway. You want some content, give me that meeting streaming live.

00:22:26
Speaker 3: Yeah, And people in the chatter like Harper should get suspended. Why would nothing to do with anything?

00:22:32
Speaker 2: This is his opinion in castianis what he said, Like, that's what he said perfect, Like what he said was awesome.

00:22:39
Speaker 1: You're not allowed to tell the commissioner to get out of your clubhouse in the middle of a playoff race because he's talking to a bunch of veterans about why they need a salary cap to fix their lives.

00:22:49
Speaker 2: I think I think maybe Rob should have maybe tempered measured his words. I think he's going into other clubhouses. Think about how young some of the other clubhouses are. And if he goes in there and says, I could get you guys more money, and those guys are like, I could get three hundred four hundred thousand dollars more a year, that would be awesome. He's going into these guys clubhouse and you got Schwarber, Harper, Wheeler, Nola, I'm Casiano's like Turner. Dudes that are making hundreds of millions of dollars, and they're like, no, no, no, no, we're not looking for three hundred extra thousand dollars a year to the minimum salary. We want what's best for the game. And he obviously is coming in here like a preemptive strike for a lockout. I loved his analogy. You use the word divorce in a happy marriage, like you're giving yourself and you're making that kind of thing happen like they're using he's using the word lockout before it's even like, how is that good faith? Legally, federal law says you have to negotiate. You have to have good faith negotiation. And if he's already saying, oh, you know what, you know, to build the game, we're gonna have to lock it out, all right, fans, just make sure you know if that happens, who's the one that locked it out. It's not a strike. The players aren't doing this. This is an ownership that's saying we're gonna go ahead and lock you guys out till we get what we want.

00:24:24
Speaker 3: My thing is is were there any of the other the players in.

00:24:27
Speaker 1: There, the cap, the players that he brings around. It's a good question we should ask one of them. I actually think that's making his case worse because everyone knows the deal, Like, you're bringing what you think.

00:24:45
Speaker 2: That's helping you. Why is that making it worse?

00:24:49
Speaker 1: Because don't you think current players are like, why are you bringing these guys around to try and turn us against ourselves and vote for it? I think you want.

00:24:59
Speaker 2: I think there's an informed players that are confused by that tactic. But I don't think he's trying. Maybe I'm wrong. I don't think Rob Manford is trying to get to the informed players. He's getting to the uninformed players, and he's getting to the people who Major League Baseball are calling up six What is it? It's fifty two percent of the league has less than three years of service. Of the of the guys with more than three years of service, fifty two percent of them never make it the free agency. So that whole group, that's who he's talking about. The guys that make it the free agency. He's not talking to them, he's talking to the majority in the clubhouses. So he's bringing those guys in and being like, hey, guy with a year of service, just coming in here to talk about how we can make you guys more money, and that guy's like, sure, I can use more money. Oh sick you brought over this star. Oh man, Gry Sheffield's coming in with your dexter fowlers. Can I remember watching those guys. It's all young players that they're bringing in to smooth those over Bryce Harper's You know, Bryce Harper might dab somebody up, but if you come in and start talking, he's not looking to like talk to talk to players that like he played against and battled against for a majority of his career.

00:26:21
Speaker 1: Krats. If I'm new to card collecting and I'm looking for the safest, most trusted way in the game to acquire cards or to buy a card, but not go through a ton of work where I'm going to the shows, I'm going online doing auctions. I want it all in one place. I'm going to Arena Club.

00:26:40
Speaker 2: It's all one place. You know you're getting a good price, whether you're buying it or you're selling cards. If you're new to it, you don't want all the other crappy cards. You can get the ones that you want. You can start your collection, and if you get them on Arina Club, your collection will look a bouse.

00:26:56
Speaker 1: That's right, and may I mention they also have Pokemon cards in those slab packs that we talk about every week. You can rip a pack for as low as twenty five dollars and hit on a card that's worth tens of thousands of dollars because every pack has grails that are at least twenty x the price of the pack. So get involved at arenaclub dot com slash vul use the code foul to get twenty percent off your first slab pack or card purchase. Yeah, I mean, I'm just like, what do you expect a veteran player to say to one of the players that Rob is whining and dining to go around for these meetings, Like, Oh, everything you made your money on now you think we should change it?

00:27:36
Speaker 2: Oh?

00:27:36
Speaker 1: Yeah, that sounds like a great idea.

00:27:38
Speaker 3: I mean, Rob doesn't do anything by accident. Also in the name of the system, no doubt.

00:27:43
Speaker 1: That's why there is a massive distrust issue. And he has been on the record multiple times though. Yeah, but he's been on the record.

00:27:50
Speaker 3: Els article in The Athletic about he kind of and I was quoted in it because we had the deckster falery, which kind of opened this a little bit yea mice.

00:27:58
Speaker 1: To people, but.

00:28:01
Speaker 3: He says it in there. He's like there's a storm coming, which everyone kind of knows. But now that's like two sides. It's almost like politically right, like how left and right we are? Whichever side you're on, Like, why can't we just get to the middle. It's almost like with the owners and the players, why can't we just get to the middle. And everyone says we want to grow the game. We do, but why can't we get it together?

00:28:20
Speaker 2: Instead?

00:28:21
Speaker 3: It's like, we gotta do this, and then he just does, like we gotta do this right, Like why can't we just meet in the middle somewhere.

00:28:27
Speaker 1: So Commissioner Manford's on the record saying that he has done a bad job of relations with players. He will say that himself, and he says he's trying to fix that and that's part of why he does meetings. Yet the meetings from most players I speak with are just about him using innuendo to talk about a salary cap. So you want to make friends right and say peace, it's like going to war and then after war saying let's actually have meetings and let's have dinner. But then during that dinner all you do is talk about the war. Do you know what I'm saying? I get you, Like, if you actually cared about relations, you would have that meeting and be like, how we doing. I'm not going to talk about anything with labor. How we doing? Like, let's try and just be friends and talk about even smaller issues and also just growth. Let's talk about growth. How do we make more money, how do we how do we bring in younger fans?

00:29:12
Speaker 2: Right?

00:29:13
Speaker 1: But to me, it sounds like you're getting an hour with a team and the hour is revolving around the salary cap. I don't get it. I don't get that. Like I understand that everything's for a reason, but that's like too blatant. If you're trying to if you're trying to win people over, don't just come at them with the thing that's going to piss them off. Right, isn't it just a bad tactics? Think about it. If you guys are players, I'll stay out of the rest of this. You're a player. Someone comes in and says, hey, I've had crappy relations. They come in and say, hey, business is not great or should be better because we should have a salary cap. What would your response.

00:29:50
Speaker 2: Be no, just immediate. No, that's not Here's the other thing. Yeah, it would be no.

00:29:58
Speaker 3: But here's my thing for veter and players. If you talked about salary caps in other leagues NBA, NFL, NHL, the players who are already like, let's say they somehow do get a salary cap. Say the salary cap is two hundred million and the Phillies are at two fifty already.

00:30:12
Speaker 2: I don't even know the number. These are just fake numbers. Okay, then do Harper, Turner, Rio Muto, Schwarber.

00:30:18
Speaker 3: The guys who were signed Castanos have to give money back to help them get under the cap.

00:30:22
Speaker 1: Yes, like that's what happens.

00:30:25
Speaker 3: It's like, it doesn't make sense now. In other leagues they've done this. The NHL gave back a quarter of their salaries one year after they were locked out for a year, just to get back on the ice.

00:30:35
Speaker 1: But also players all will like even the NFL happens all the time, Like Tom Brady's like, oh, I gotta get cut go to a new team because I'm signed to a guaranteed deal, but I'm cut before mini camp And I mean.

00:30:47
Speaker 2: I don't know, Listen, I don't know enough about it. But I know this. Players don't want to give back money.

00:30:51
Speaker 1: Yeah, and super teams are formed when a bunch of players get together and they're like, hey, we're all going to take less so that we can dominate here. So that's what they want. Because you're restricted at that point, you can't have an open market. Let's be real. There's plenty of fans that feel like their team doesn't have a shot. The problem is most of the fan groups are rooting for organizations that are not run properly. That's it. And I don't know what the answer is in those meetings. I'm sure Harper goes, hey, we're in Philly, what's going on in Pittsburgh? And I would love again for this to be streamed and to hear his answer. What's the answer? What's going on? Why is that a thing?

00:31:40
Speaker 2: What do what do the owners and the players have in common about baseball? They both want to make the most money possible. Can we agree on that? Okay? So that's what we should be doing, is how do we grow the game? The tagline for foul territory baseball the way it's supposed to be covered. We are supposed to grow this game everybody on this show, working with this show loves the game of baseball. If you are trying to get selfishly one side more than the other side, just you're cutting your own feet out from underneath you because you're not allowing yourself. Baseball is not allowing yourself to get out of its way. Sell the product, which is the players, which is the game that's being played, and then that rising tide raises all ships. Everybody gets so there is a happy medium somewhere in the middle. Players say no salary cap, Owners say salary cap. Okay, we couldn't be farther apart on those two issues. Wipe it off the table. We're not talking about it. Sorry, that's not growing the game. How do we grow the game? And it's a content. It's letting the players actually have a say in different things. It's having owners maybe be a little more outfront and explain to players and not be so cloak and dagger and well, we would never actually open our books anything because we don't want you to see this. Like there has to be a give and take. So everybody's like, just open open all of your books and say, you know what, this is what's going to grow the game of baseball that we all love and we all want to compete at.

00:33:27
Speaker 1: Also, I'm just reminding everyone, because we talk about this somewhat frequently, we already have a soft cap. It's called a luxury tacks. Most teams don't touch it. It's not like they do. They jump underneath it, right, But they're not going to suddenly be like, oh now we're gonna have a cap and everybody is you know, going to go to the cap, right, everyone's a cap of two hundred and a floor of one to seventy five. Like, come on, this stuff is ridiculous. So anyway, we'll cover it a lot more in the offseason. But it's super big news when you have one of the five faces of the sport going up to the commissioner of baseball and saying, get the bleep out of here, and then they go back and forth and the fact that someone didn't get that on camera. Damn we missed out.

00:34:04
Speaker 2: I'm kidding, what last word. And always remember owners make way more than players. Even is now one owner that makes that makes less than one sota who's the highest paid player in the game right now?

00:34:19
Speaker 1: Correct net worth of ever any owner in baseball is much higher than won Soto. It is not even close, not even in the same stratosphere, not even close. All right, let's dive in on the Kansas City Royals, because they said, I don't care how many games back we are. We believe in our team and we are buying. They trade for Randall Gritchick, get themselves someone who can handle a little bit of left handed pitching. They got a lot of lefty bats in the outfield. Jack hag just went on the injured list too, Jack agleon, So Gritchick joins the party for this team. There you go a little trade with the Diamondbacks over the weekend and breaking news on Sunday night with their starting rotation which still has Cole Reagan's on the shelf and Chris Bubach hit the IL this weekend. Other side of the spectrum, Kratz, your former team signed up Seth Lugo to an extension. He was in some trade rumors. It sounded like they wanted to keep them and they figured something out, so now he's staying. It's twenty million per season in twenty twenty six and twenty twenty seven. There's a vesting option for twenty million dollars in twenty eight, or a club option for seventeen million dollars in twenty twenty eight, or a three million dollar buyout plus a three million dollar signing bonus. Seth Lugo has been fantastic with the Royals, a load of mid threes ERA and close to sixty starts with them since he joined them. So it's two years guaranteed forty six mil. Otherwise he would have been a free agent after this season.

00:35:51
Speaker 2: Thoughts, I mean tremendous. I think tremendous for both sides. It locks up their uncertainty as far as pitch. They got rid of Singer. So to me, that was a guy that was gonna kind of be that Kansas City Royal pitcher. Goes out there, throws strikes, gets you deep into games, and to me, maybe I just haven't looked at what what else is out there, But I know there's a couple of dudes that signed some nice two year, thirty eight million dollar deals, and so you're essentially getting Seth Lugo for a little bit more than that. He was an All Star last year. I think he was top five in cy young maybe if I'm wrong. Two second he was second in say young last year. So this park suits him, and I assume he loves it because I've never heard anybody play for Kansas City. It's like, I really don't like playing there. It's a sick place to play, great fan base, too good for him, Good for him.

00:36:51
Speaker 1: Do you like the move? Yeah, Kansas City.

00:36:53
Speaker 2: He's a quality pitcher. It'll take.

00:36:55
Speaker 3: If he was a free agent, he's probably get a little bit more. But likes he's at. He's been great for them. He's a veteran presence in their club. It's like when they signed to Walka. It's kind of the same thing. Right, he fits, They like him. He's been effective.

00:37:07
Speaker 2: Twenty million dollars for a good starting pitcher is not really a lot of money.

00:37:11
Speaker 1: Last year he was a one in this year, what he's a two?

00:37:13
Speaker 2: Yeah? I mean and if they get Reagan, if you go into the next season with Walka Lugo healthy, you.

00:37:18
Speaker 1: Know, Reagan's bitch du bitch and.

00:37:21
Speaker 3: The uh, what's the guy Crawford, the guy who's less No Cameron, no camera Cameron.

00:37:26
Speaker 2: That's been really good for him. It's a pretty good rotation start. You have some pieces in the back end.

00:37:30
Speaker 3: They have a stebs, they get some good years out of some good They they they could be a team.

00:37:35
Speaker 1: But that's why they're like, don't count us out yet, because entering today to the games tonight, they're fifty two and fifty four, which is not great. But they wouldn't be the only team that's hovering around the five hundred mark that suddenly goes on a run in the second half of the year. There's been plenty the Atlanta Braves in twenty twenty one, where that team until August and then they took off. I think the Royals are going to do something here. I think they're going to surprise some people and do something else big one more bat. Yeah, you don't think so.

00:38:06
Speaker 2: I mean, I'd love to a lot.

00:38:07
Speaker 1: Of superstars available besides Gino Suarez, but I do think they're going to do something else. They've already indicated that they're buying a little bit, so good for them. You feel good about Lugo. Reagan's is going to come back. Not sure the extent of Boobitch. It sounds like he's still getting some testing done, but good for you. They still think they've got something this year and they can hang around and they're probably craps looking at the rest of the American League, like if one team falls off, here we sneak into a wild card spot.

00:38:36
Speaker 2: And they feel like they can. They feel like they've built their team to win, which is we just got done having a lengthy conversation about money, money, salary cap, all this stuff. The Royals believe Jj Piccolo and that front office ownership believes they can win, and they do it the way that they do it athleticism, pitching in a monstrous park. That's why I have a tough time, Like it's gonna they're gonna have a tough time luring a hitter to get there. They were in on Santander, so clearly they have some cash. I think Santandre's their final offer came after he had already agreed to hit the Toronto final offer. So luring a luring a free agent there that that bangs, that has some slug, maybe is a little bit tougher. But this team doesn't want to just win this year, and I kind of like what Jim Boden said about that. They're they're not saying, oh, this is an all in big time rentals. This is just a team that wants to try to take a shot this year, but continues to see this winning window in the next few years too.

00:39:47
Speaker 1: I think if most people were asked, well, Bobby Whippy better in the second two months here, the last two months than he has been in the first war. He hasn't been bad, but he hasn't been last year's version. Sure, I'll take that. I think he could blow up for the last couple months of the season. Salvi was better after a really slow start. Mikel Garcia has been a really solid player for them. Jack Kags maybe comes back Caglion and blows up for the last couple months of the year. So I could see this team is seeking get the playoffs. Good for them. I like this and nice signing with Lugo who has a billion pitches. Hey have you heard of Built? No? Do you pay rent?

00:40:21
Speaker 2: Yes?

00:40:22
Speaker 1: Okay, good, let's talk. There's no cost to join, and just by paying rent, you unlock flexible points that can be transferred to your favorite hotels and airlines, a future rent payment, your next lift ride, and much more. When you pay rent through Built, you unlock two powerful benefits. First, you earn one of the industry's most valuable points on rent every month, no matter where you live or where your landlord is. Your rent now works for you and you gain access to exclusive neighborhood benefits in your city. Built neighborhood benefits or things like extra points on dining out, complimentary post workout shakes, and much more unique experiences that only Built members can access. And when you're ready to travel, Built points can be converted to your favorite miles and hotel points around the world, and your rent can literally take you places. So if you're not earning points on rent, my question is what are you waiting for? Start paying rent through Built and take advantage of your neighborhood benefits by going to join Built dot com slash valve. That's j o I N b I l T dot com slash f o u L. Make sure to use our ur L so that they know we sent you. Some other little moves. Eric Fetti traded to the Braves from the Cardinals. He had been DFAYE just for cash or a player be named later. Carlos Carrasco also traded to the Braves. They lost their entire opening starting rotation.

00:41:32
Speaker 2: They just need inns.

00:41:32
Speaker 3: They don't have anybody to fill these innings, and they have veteran the two veteran guys can fill innings for them.

00:41:39
Speaker 2: Was just defaid by the Cardinals. Carasco was in minor leagues, wasn't he with the Yankees.

00:41:43
Speaker 1: Yeah?

00:41:43
Speaker 3: I think they just need guys that can throw innings. I know right now, they know they're not making the playoffs.

00:41:47
Speaker 2: They're just trying to get through this season.

00:41:49
Speaker 1: Braves are not hurt their young guys. Sixteen games under, not hurt their.

00:41:53
Speaker 3: Young guys because I don't know if they have any young guys that they could bring up at this point. They're just they just need innings from anybody, Like please, oh you can pitch, you can give us five six innings a start, We'll take you.

00:42:04
Speaker 1: Strider didn't start the season right because he came in, So the five that were on the opening day rotation krats all hurt. Right now.

00:42:12
Speaker 2: That's crazy. That is a crazy that's a crazy stat especially what AJ said about they don't have anybody in the minor leagues. What are the Braves known for since I've been alive since the ninety pitching. They just produce pitching, and they're all hurt. Just super unlucky season, super super super unlucky.

00:42:34
Speaker 1: Hock Corner Marcelo Meyer is on the il. The rookie has a right wrist sprain. For the Red Sox, that means Saddan Rafaela is going to get a lot of infield time. That means they have three outfielders.

00:42:47
Speaker 2: I mean Jared duraneing get traded.

00:42:48
Speaker 1: That means Jared Duran's not getting traded. Okay. Also, Masataka Yoshida is not hitting well. He just came back. Chris Catillo put out a tweet. I think this was last or yesterday. Correy said he expects to see raphael at second base a lot and an outfield of Anthony Duran A bray you with yo sheet a dhing. Turns out they didn't have too many outfielders after all. And then later Cantello pointed out how your sheet is not looking good yet with the bat that might turn around. But people were like, oh, we got to find a spot for him and we'll see, but they're not trading.

00:43:22
Speaker 3: Something usually happens to make all this work out exactly. Time Meyer going down, Rafaela moves to the infield and he just a straight immediate impact. Raphael the play made last night, catch caught the line drive, dives back into in the second to get the out with a runner on second, obviously there's one out at the time.

00:43:46
Speaker 2: Ends up going to review he is. He is one heck of a defender. Swing He's gonna swing too. He swings a little bit more than AJ even swimming.

00:43:56
Speaker 1: He likes to swing swingers.

00:43:58
Speaker 3: I saw p Eights on Sunday with the White Tugs. They were playing the Cubs, and I did a game Saturday hit a homer. So now I just wust to have to affect a lot of people because PCA came up to me and I go, hey, take it easy on the White Sox today, right, And he's like.

00:44:10
Speaker 2: Man, I can't take it easy on him, but I've had a rough week.

00:44:13
Speaker 3: I'm like, last time I did your game, you hit a homer, and he goes all right, and first of bat to run double.

00:44:18
Speaker 2: I'm like, man, I don't know.

00:44:20
Speaker 1: Well, yeah, all right, let me know who you're talking to you next time. I mean, seriously, got the magic touch. But anyway, we got a lot of rumors to sift through over the next couple of days. One that we probably won't deal with is the Red Sox trading Jaron Duran. It looks like they should be doing some buying though.

00:44:40
Speaker 2: Yeah, perhaps a.

00:44:41
Speaker 1: Starter and a reliever. Chapman is a little hurt. I don't know if it's an il stint, but his below was down a ton. I don't remember what they said postgame, but it sounds like it's not bad. He was down to like ninety three ninety four. He's pitching ninety nine average sheaters this year. It happened they took him out. Yeah, and he he usually has like the one or two weeks a year where he's just off kilter. But the vello that's usually command the villa was the problem here. Hey, let's slap. Ichi Row spoke yesterday for the Hall of Fame ceremony. The Dave Parker poem too that he wrote was incredible for that speech to the late great Dave Parker, of course from his son speaking, But Ichi Row stole the show for his jokes. He's known as a funny dude, and he showed off his skills. He said he didn't know who the Marlins were when they called him to sign in twenty fifteen. How about the writer that he invited over to his house for dinner who didn't vote for him? The one writer he said, offer ended, he took it off the table too late. Didn't come show yourself, you're done. He was good.

00:46:00
Speaker 2: It was comedic gold when he said, he said, thank you for David Sampson coming to to today's induction. He's like, I had no idea what team you were.

00:46:14
Speaker 1: That's good. That's impressive. Big turnout for him with Seattle fans, with International Baseball fans of course, a ton of people coming in from Japan. So I give a lot of credit to him. He said, easy on the hazing because he's a rookie again, it's the third time. He's a rookie kind of thing. And he said, Japan, the MLB than this.

00:46:32
Speaker 2: And he said thanks to the Yankees fans. He said, even though you're here to see CC, it's cool. Thanks for all your support, like he was everywhere former Yankee.

00:46:42
Speaker 1: Yeh, all right, we're back for a few minutes here now charge the mound. We were going to go over trades and then we're gonna later go over rumors, but then the Class A news took over. So I'll try and get a couple of things in here now.

00:46:55
Speaker 2: Before we get can we discuss the series it's about to.

00:46:58
Speaker 1: Happen Cubs Brewers Cubs Brewers.

00:47:00
Speaker 2: We didn't even mention it.

00:47:01
Speaker 1: Yeah, but people want to hear about trades, like what are the clubs doing? What are the Brewers doing?

00:47:05
Speaker 3: I don't know, but I know that Matthew Boyd and two all stars are pitching against each other night and the series is gigantic against Misowski.

00:47:13
Speaker 1: Sign me up.

00:47:13
Speaker 2: I mean that's a I mean, Jesus want a game to go to. That's the game I want to go to.

00:47:18
Speaker 1: They're both battling for Gino Suarez. Yeah right, that's Mooney last night said even though Shaw's playing better, they're still in on Suarez. The Brewers seem to be in on Bob Knight and go put out today that the Tigers don't want Suarez to leave because the Reds are in town. They want him to stay and acquire him.

00:47:37
Speaker 3: It comes to Brewers have the best record in the National League. They're playing for the you know, they're playing for the division and wildcard seating and players.

00:47:44
Speaker 2: There's a great series. We didn't mention it.

00:47:46
Speaker 1: Wow, we haven't gotten to today. Yeah, there's way to mention the Tigers.

00:47:50
Speaker 2: And the Tigers are what one and twelve their last thirteen games.

00:47:53
Speaker 1: I think they've lost twelve of fourteen beginning they won, they won last they want Yeah, Jack fiery pitch well for them, they needed it, and then.

00:48:02
Speaker 2: Pitched great from the other night. Still couldn't win.

00:48:03
Speaker 1: No, No, they dropped the first three against the Blue Jays. Mets have won a season high time uh seven in a row. They swept the Giants, who looked awful. Oh for twenty three Giants with runners in scoring position over the weekends. That was ugly.

00:48:16
Speaker 2: Blue Jays are really good. But they are really good putting some distance. Best record in basketball. They have got distance.

00:48:25
Speaker 1: Who are they getting. I don't got to get a reliever like a big.

00:48:30
Speaker 2: One somebody class.

00:48:34
Speaker 1: If you do, it's not going to be very helpful, at least for baseball. Yeah, too soon Duran for the Blue Jays. No, they're not true.

00:48:42
Speaker 2: Yes, he's not. Sorry, not Jarant Sorry. I mean sure. I like I like. I like Duran there because when you look at all the list of all those guys that are out there, it's strikeout, strikeout, strike out. Duran can strike dudes out. But the Blue Jays play great defense, and I think there's a lot of surplus value there and I think they could get I think I think they could be in play for Griffin, Jacks and Duram. But that's why that's kind of who I was leaning towards when I talked when we were talking to JB earlier, I thought they could really make a huge splash and just crush the rest of the American League.

00:49:24
Speaker 1: I want a reliever for the Tigers who's big swing and miss. I think they're like twenty eighth in strikeout percentage from their bullpen, and I think they need an offensive boost now with what's going on here, there's a lot happening. We'll do lots of rumors tomorrow. The Cardinals are still trying to get Gray and Arnaudo moved. I mean, there was a ton from the weekend that's called about al Contra andres are looking into Stephen Kwan ormon Lereano. Where's healthy going?

00:49:56
Speaker 2: It wouldn't been trained now he might.

00:49:58
Speaker 1: Healthy, Elsley's a He's gotten Delt.

00:50:02
Speaker 2: Phillies might get Juarez. Phillies might get you Hennyo Suarez with Boem's rib cracked.

00:50:08
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