Breakdown of Phillies-Royals trade & Philly player beef, MLB already red-flagged Clase’s cell phone use

00:00:09
Speaker 1: All right, Matt Strom got traded from the Phillies to the Royals. You just heard Ken Rosenthal talk about it, and Kratz is our Philly expert. He knows this team. Well, so what happened here? Kratz? I mean, the Royals get a great, very durable, reliable reliever, not a closer, but a guy who can set up or pitch and high leverage situations. Royals have been very active. The part that I think we should start with is why are the Phillies trading away a guy who's making seven and a half million dollars this year and could be a very valuable part of what three headed monster in terms of left handed pitching that they have in that bullpen, which is a nice luxury to have. The answer appears to be a little money saving, but also some issues between him and the team. We didn't get further details yet. I'm sure we will, but mackelb reported on how they're is a growing rift between him and the team.

00:01:04
Speaker 2: Who knows, I mean, obviously Matt gil wrote it, so you know there's definitely some where there's smoke, there's fire. But without talking to Strom, which I have a hard time believing he's not gonna come on the show at some point to talk about it, because he's very open about things. When you're open and you're opinionated about things and also you're good, sometimes that rubs people the wrong way. And sometimes as a player you do need to check yourself in the things that you say, But as coaches sometimes you need to check yourself too and understand that, Hey, you know what, players are going to say things in the heat of the battle, in the heat of emotional ups and downs of the season, and you know when you hear there's like rifts from the front office or coaching staff. Come on, man, Like you're talking about a guy who was an All Star in twenty four. Yes, he kind of had a down year compared to twenty four All Star season, but I mean his twenty four season didn't look that much different than his twenty five season. Except in his twenty four season he had like almost it was a little over two months where he didn't give up a run. Like this is a guy that's not just a lefty lefty specialist. This is a guy that gets strikeouts. This is a guy that can can throw significant innings for you. And to me, it's it's a prime case of what happened to the Phillies bullpen last year. Yes, they added Johann Duran, but they had already lost Jose Avlado.

00:02:34
Speaker 3: Anytime you have to push all.

00:02:36
Speaker 2: Your relievers up a little bit, you put them in situations that maybe they would have been more successful had they been able to.

00:02:43
Speaker 3: Hit this part of the lineup.

00:02:45
Speaker 2: And I think this trade pretty much was gonna happen once they signed Brad Keller. Ironically, Brad Keller comes in, used to be with the Royals, then Strom it used to be of the Royals, is out. So you it's funny how you know. It's a cyclical world in baseball. But the strong trade and what Matt Gelb said is interesting to me that they're willing to because we heard some riffs about Costianos too, and we'll get to that a little later. But they feel like those things need to be cleaned up. And if that's the case, good for the Phillies for trading a really good player. If they truly felt like it was going to be an issue.

00:03:29
Speaker 4: Yeah, I like strong Man. I've always liked him, you know, I like hitting lefties. I remember facing him a bunch of times and He was very hard to figure out.

00:03:37
Speaker 3: Man.

00:03:37
Speaker 4: It was like, oh, it looks so good and then whoop. I mean, if I'm any other team finding a way, if I know about a guy like this, god, I would you know, trade him for who womever? But another great left handed pitcher. Ye know, what's what's going on there in Philly town? Man, There's there's a lot of little rifts going on, whether it's with coaching staff or brass or whatever. You know, I don't know, there's got to be more to this story, like you said, because there's always there's always something else. And you know, if Strom's happy, okay. But you know, he was a nice little fit in there in Philly, and I think a lot of people liked him when he came in. And you know, it wasn't gonna overpower you. But the dude that found a way to get outs in my opinion.

00:04:20
Speaker 1: And I know Strom can get out lefties and righty's and he is one of the what was it, it's him Alvarado and who am I missing from the left side?

00:04:30
Speaker 3: Tanner Banks?

00:04:31
Speaker 1: Tanner Banks. Yeah, so that those are the three. So you still got two there. And remember they just replaced him. I mean in terms of important arms, high leverage arms in the bullpen. They just signed Brad Keller. Brad Keller had a sick year with the Cups or if you're buying that, you know, two years, twenty two million. It's not like they're losing a guy in the bullpen that they feel like, you know, they can trust and not replacing him. They are bringing in a guy who is supposed to be e a very solid, high leverage reliever. When you're paying eleven million dollars per season for a reliever like that, So Kratz, I know they're not the same guy, but one probably led to the next, right, Okay, we just spent eleven million bucks on brad Keller. We've been thinking about trade and Strom. We've got another guy here that we feel comfortable with our circle of trust, and now boom, we trade Strom.

00:05:23
Speaker 3: Yeah.

00:05:23
Speaker 2: I mean, I think it's one of those things that probably had the trade kind of in the works, and then you sit there and go, we can't trade a legit reliever like this until we know we have somebody replace them. And ultimately, at the end of a season where you lose in the NLDS to the eventual World Series winners, you probably figure out, Okay, well, what exactly did we need to do more of to be successful? And maybe they felt like they needed more to be more right handed in the bullpen. That's what I heard from different people with the Phillies that maybe a little bit more right handedness in the bullpen. Not saying that just because ta Oskar hit the home run and that's why they traded Strom, but it's it's a case where I don't think I don't think topper Rob Thompson, the manager of the Phillies, deploys his bullpen as a matchup only base like this guy kills righty's. He you know, he loves to have and that's what they have down there, guys who have success against righty's and lefties, And it's more of who do you fit against in the lineup and maybe being a little bit more right handed heavy is where they wanted to be because they went into the playoffs last year with two lefties and Strom and Tanner Banks and now this year, all health being the same, they will go into the playoffs if they make the playoffs with two lefties and Alvarado and taaror Banks.

00:06:49
Speaker 1: Yep, and Kansas City has gotten a lot better the last couple of weeks too, so credit to them get a nice piece for the bullpen. Also, they locked up mikel Garcia long term and bought out a couple of years of free agency. Why you don't love what they've done so far?

00:07:05
Speaker 3: Is it enough?

00:07:06
Speaker 2: And everyone's gonna say the Ale Central is winnable. These are little pieces that will be cool if nothing else happens. They will be great if they get if they're able to take care of that slug and they need the slug. And it's tough to find slug in Kaufman. Like you can find dudes that hit dingers, but if you find dudes that hit dingers in Kaufman, now we're talking a different level. Even more so that doubles hitter, the doubles hitter that fits into the Royals lineup without punching out because you can't. You can't sacrifice and be like, okay, everybody hit dingers now and they become, you know, even middle of the pack strikeout their team. That was first or second with the Blue Jays the whole year in strikeouts. The issue was they weren't driving the ball. They got to figure out how to drive the ball, and they got to put somebody in that lineup that enables other hitters like Bob with Vinnie Pasquentino, mikel Garcia to be able to drive the ball. They have to have somebody that looks afret, looks scary in that lineup so that those other guys who do have power get pitches to drive or else it's just corners. You got to take your singles from all those from all those elite, all star level hitters, because you're never you never need to really throw to them because the bottom part of your order or even like five six seven part of your order doesn't do enough damage.

00:08:34
Speaker 1: And maybe one more big boy bat I mean Mike g in the chests like Donovan or can tell Marte to case next book at Scott Now that now we're talking right, Because then you add Isaac Collins, Lane Thomas. You've got some of the superstars in place in Wit and Michael Garcia, butting Star Salvi's there, Vinnie p Jackkags. You get one more, you start to feel really really good. In my opinion, one more like that. Either of those two guys are are huge. Cantello is a superstar. Brendan Donovan is an All Star level play player. I don't know if he's made a team yet, but he's that level player. So either way, Todd fother that would be a massive pickup for Case if they're wieling and dealing right now, and it's easier to do that for them generally than hit free agency.

00:09:19
Speaker 3: One hundred percent.

00:09:20
Speaker 4: I think the ongoing theme, as you've said one hundred different ways, one hundred different times, is if they can get one more big bat, and I think that's for every single team. But yes, Marte, I've seen one of the furthest policy's ever hit. When I played against him the one year right handed.

00:09:36
Speaker 1: I was like, whoa, this guy's for real.

00:09:38
Speaker 4: So yeah, as long as you're doing something, teams are doing stuff and everybody's like, oh well, oh okay, well this and that what they're they're thinking, They're trying to do some other things. Yeah, there's some bad trades, of course, but ultimately it seems like the same team's over and over are trying to get things done, that's all, And you come, I'm happy with that.

00:09:57
Speaker 3: What are the Royals okay? Trading?

00:09:59
Speaker 2: Obviously, we have Rex Huddler on the other day and he was talking about No, you can't have Cole Reagan's like Cole Reagan's just throwing game on of a playoff series. You can't have him. What do the Diamondbacks want? They want pitching. The Royals have been willing to trade some of their pitchers. JJ Piccolo said there's one guy who's untouchable and he didn't name it, but you can pretty much figure out who it is for the Royals rotation. But if you are able to help the Diamondbacks out with their pitching need, and you're able to add at Katel Marte, people will be like, oh, you know, there's a little we're worried about his you know, his makeup, the things that happened. This is why you kept Salvador Perez on this roster. His value is getting the most out of every player, Latin players, American players, pitchers, position players, because he sets an example of I don't care what's going on around you. I'm going to be out on the field. I might not catch one hundred and fifty games anymore like when crats my backup, but I'm gonna be out there one hundred and sixty games because that's what you do when a team pays you. His His focus is I'm a Kansas City royal, You're a Kansas City Royal. We're gonna go out there and play. Bobby Wit can be a great example to that. But Bobby Wits, you know, would be much younger than a could tell Marte he's a budding superstar. But Salvi has that like the Don the Godfather type of focus for a lot of Latin players that I think could tell Marte would fall into that. He would enjoy that. He would definitely he would feed off of that. And you're automatically getting you know, a guy who can be in the MVP consideration year in and year out.

00:11:45
Speaker 1: Who is the untouchable for k C. Is it Reagan's because he's their best arm? Okay, just make it?

00:11:51
Speaker 3: I think yeah.

00:11:53
Speaker 1: I mean it sounds like, you know, Waka is gonna be there. Chris Boubage could get down. I mean he was kind of a bust for them for a bit and then he broke out last year. But maybe they sell high on Boo bitch. I would seth Lugo didn't have as good as a year last year. Noah Cameron had a breakout rookie season, A little old or was he twenty six, which you could look at as a good or a bad thing. You should get some prime years of him at a really cheap rate. I don't think they're going to be shopping someone like that. It would be shopping someone that's got a little cash to them and then that can offset. Say if it was Arizona, and it doesn't sound like they're necessarily the front runners, but that would be a deal. If they could figure out.

00:12:32
Speaker 3: A can tell, they would be the AL set.

00:12:35
Speaker 2: I love when we talk about this kind of stuff because it's like, well, what does that make that team? It makes that team the favorite in the American League if they keep Cole Reagan's in the American League Central, I'm sorry, in the American League Central. To me, it makes them the favorite when it happens. Obviously, Detroit has to do some stuff. Obviously Detroit still has Scooball, but the Central. That's why the Royals started pushing. Yes, they started pushing some of these contracts because one they signed Bobby Witt. They want a new stadium. I get that, but they know that look at what the AL Central is right now. The White Sox are down, the Tigers, are you know they've had a good resurgence, but are they willing to push all in?

00:13:18
Speaker 3: I don't think so.

00:13:19
Speaker 2: The Guardians are never looking to push in, So it's an opportunity for them to possibly take this division with one move. That move will be expensive, but it's not like you're getting a one year rental, which the Royals hate one year rentals. They beginning to tell Martez think for five more seasons, either four or five more seasons. I'm not sure what his contract at a great price too.

00:13:44
Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm with you. Hey, last thing on the Royals Phillies situation, back to what Todd father was talking about, because it seems like you guys are on opposite ends here. Todd Fithers like, hey, there's a little bit of beef here with some players in Philly, and Crats is like, man, it's not that much, right, Well, let's up the other part of this. Nick Castianos is probably going to get traded or he'll definitely get released. If not, right, he's not going to be with the Phillies next year. And you know, we keep getting little bits and pieces. So the Philly Show, our show talked about it and Jess, who's his wife, right, has been commenting on some things on socials. Just just chime in on a little bit of action here and there, So I mean, gabble it. You kind of run point here and throw stuff up on the screen and we'll react to it, and then we can show a clip too. But I'll follow your lead. So I can read some tweets here. My computer is a little tiny today for me to read them, so if you want to bring them up, I can rack them for you. We can start, I think with the Philly Show where Todd Zelecki said the Castianos trade is more likely to come later in the off season despite the Phillies seemingly having his replacement in place, and that is dolely scarcia. By the way, I've heard people say I'm not interested in Nick Stianos at any price, mentioning the defense is a big reason why. So we saw that from the Phillies Show, and I believe there was a comment there from Jess after that, but also will show John Stoleness only one player had an issue with Rob Thompson the last four years. You'll have to forgive me if I don't buy the spin that the Castianos camp will put on all of this. He's not a good player. He talked his way out of town? Is that a Philly guy, Kratz.

00:15:25
Speaker 2: I didn't see the name of who it was Stonemas, I don't know.

00:15:32
Speaker 1: I don't know prout right now. Finally, Oh, a news producer and reporter who as a Phillies He covers Phillies, Eagles, all that kind of stuff. He's a writer. Jess Castianos replied to Lol. And then there's one more here, I think from a fan who said, I hope that once where Nick is playing is settled, he can go on a podcast or something and tell his side of things, because a lot of what is being said about him and had this being handled doesn't pass the sniff test. Jess Nick's wife posted, Oh, you guys would love it.

00:16:06
Speaker 3: Lol.

00:16:08
Speaker 1: It sounds like a future Nick Castiano's appearance on Foul Territory to go over what happens. That is what the show is for when needed.

00:16:19
Speaker 2: Look, Nick Castianos is outs above average, all the range stuff everything. It's not very nice to Nick. You also want to look up on Baseball Reference how many airs Nick has in the outfield.

00:16:34
Speaker 3: Zero.

00:16:35
Speaker 2: You also want to look up the last two seasons. When Scott Braun says the Phillies are a regular season team, one of two guys that shows up in the playoffs for the Phillies on a year in and year out basis, it's Nick Costiano. So just be careful everybody. When you're like, I want to run this guy out of town. You know his defense and baseball is gonna be like, oh his defense is this. Go to a Philly game. Look where he plays. Look where they have him played. Is that because they don't think his range is good?

00:17:08
Speaker 3: Maybe?

00:17:09
Speaker 2: But understand that the range and the outs above average is only a math equation that is set up based on where the defender starts and where the ball ends up. Is he winning a goal? Glove and right field? That's not what I'm saying. But do the eye test. Do the eye test to knicks defense and understand what he's bringing. Maybe right field might not be the place, but I guarantee you I can name a lot of players that played left field before all this outs above average and range factor and everything were really as as public and as you know, mainstream as it is now. Because everybody leans right onto it. They're like, oh yeah, yeah, look look at this terrible, terrible, terrible. Go watch him play, Go watch him play, see where he starts for every play. And then I went you to make your own evaluation. If you think he's as quote everybody wants to jump on board as terrible as he is because I don't believe it.

00:18:08
Speaker 4: I agree, I agree totally. You you are spot on with everything. And they you know, they always talk about defense and this and that. You know about someone's highlight reels. He gets to these balls and he's a great player. He can hit the ball, and you know, he's like anybody else. They'll go through spurts where they're struggling. That's baseball in the nutshell. As you get older, that's going to happen. I think he's a phenomenal player. You know, people are going to say something about him speaking up. That's been him. He speaks up about things, and there's nothing wrong with that. You know that that's just part of his mo He's going to tell you how he feels. And if there's a problem, if it's not going to get solved, he's going to tell you, so so be it. If he can't handle that, then move on. But he is he's a great player. You know, he came up as a third baseman. He was good there too as well. Put him in right field. I there's two types of players there. There's I call him those five o'clock hitter, the seven o'clock hitters. Five o'clock hitters. You don't want. You want those guys when the lights come on and they shine bright. He's been doing that for a long time now.

00:19:07
Speaker 2: And he also they're gonna we're gonna get We're gonna get roasted. You're gonna get roasted from from Philly fans. They're like, well, did you watch every game when he would swing at the very first pitch and everything?

00:19:18
Speaker 3: I did it too. We all like that.

00:19:21
Speaker 2: That is the that's the beauty of playing in a major market. That in my opinion, I think Philly fans still look at the batting average and when it's on the board, they're like, what look at his batting average? This guy stinks, Yo, this guy's go we gotta get Nick out of here. I don't think you were saying that in the twenty four playoffs when he was coming up clutch, clutch, clutch in the playoffs and people would be like, yo, well, I remember what about display in the World Series when he popped out on a slider down and a way against Ryan Presley to lose the World Series for US. Obviously, you can you can pick you can pick a million different videos of a guy chasing out of his own. The reality is Nick is somewhere in between a twenty million dollar player and somebody who should be released. And I think when you play in a city and you speak your mind, sometimes everybody thinks you better be hitting three hundred or you're not a good player anymore because you opened your mouth. And that's why I think sometimes players don't want to say things. They don't want to you know, they don't want to buck the system, they don't want to rock the boat. The reality is, the best teams have people that are willing to say things and step up, not just for your own selfish ambition, but for the betterment of the team. And I think Nick truly believed he should have been a guy that was out there every single day, and he strapped it up, he strapped it out. He came up with like Manny Machado play. You know, they all learned young. And we even had Nick on here talking about well what does that mean? What does that mean to play every day? He's like, it means everything, Like sometimes you play at eighty percent because you should be out there every single day. And when he got taken out of the lineup, that was that was definitely something that he you know, I think he didn't take it like it hurt his feelings and he voiced his opinion. Now he might leave, but I still think he's got a lot of talk about meat on the bone. Somebody's gonna get a guy who's gonna go out there every single day. Might not play right field for you, but he's gonna hit and he's gonna get some clutch hits.

00:21:24
Speaker 1: Yeah, he's still a big league ballplayer for me. If you're obsessed with defense and you want to leave him out of there pretty frequently, that's fine. But I still think he's got the chops. And just two quick comments on this one. Which guy would you rather have in the outfields? Tay Oscar Hernandez or Nick Castianos. Right, Castianos doesn't cover as much ground, but he doesn't make the mistakes that Taeo does.

00:21:50
Speaker 4: Yeah, it'd say Nick Castianos.

00:21:52
Speaker 1: Yes, Okay, So those guys are just working in two different worlds right now in terms of how can I look at that.

00:21:59
Speaker 4: If you can hit, I'm taking you over, you know, an they've both.

00:22:02
Speaker 1: Had no tail over. Yeah, but they're I'm just saying those two guys like there's a difference, but I just don't think it's as much bit of a difference as most of the public views.

00:22:12
Speaker 2: There's also a difference in playing left field and right field. I was crying for tay Oscar to play left field last year. I thought they were doing him a disservice because they had Confordo, who they just kept putting out there, and they could have possibly upgraded in right field and pushed Tayo where I think left field. Not to get into the intricacies of it, but left field you can mitigate a lot of the issues that right fielders are getting dinged on the range and outs above average.

00:22:46
Speaker 1: And then one more thing to comment on your batting average situation. Do you guys know how many players hit thrown three hundred or better this year internationally? No total that hit three hundred better than When you say like, because I agree, I still talk to plenty of fans that watch the sport regularly and bring up batting average so frequently like, oh, it isn't even it close to three hundred. I'm like, bro, do you know how many people hit three hundred in the big leagues this past season? Give me a guest.

00:23:13
Speaker 2: Guys this past season, I'm the National League was one. I know that Trey Turner was less than.

00:23:18
Speaker 1: Five seven total three hundred or better. Like Yondi Diaz hit three hundred on the dot, Trey Turner three oh four, Jeremy Paniea three oh four, George Springer three oh nine, and we had three to eleven for Boba Schett and Jacob Wilson and Judgy at three thirty one. That's it.

00:23:35
Speaker 4: We had. Those guys had injuries too, so they missed some time as well.

00:23:39
Speaker 1: So yeah, I mean they were still hitters. But my point is qualified, that's fucking how many people hit three hundred anymore? Like relax when people are oh, it isn't it you know even to eighty right the league average? I think right now, what is it? Krats two forty five or something like that, I'd still be part of average most teams it was, Yeah, it.

00:24:01
Speaker 2: Would be a trickle lower and it definitely is in on base percentage. And Nick had it down year this year, there's no doubt. But you're also talking about a guy who can contribute at a higher level than what he has in the last two years.

00:24:14
Speaker 3: Nobody's gonna deny that.

00:24:16
Speaker 2: Nobody's and you know, my Philly Twitter account is going to get get you know, roasted for saying that. But the reality is you do want the best player out there. Just be careful when you ask for an upgrade because the grass isn't always greener. That's all I'm gonna say. With getting rid of Nick Costianos.

00:24:43
Speaker 1: The news is fast and furious today, let's get to a manual class popping back up in the news. And this story came out right before the show started, so I did not read the full article yet, but we like to bring it as soon as we can, and I'll give you bits and pieces. The article from Evan Drelik and Zach Maizel and The Athletic is titled before Betting Probe MLB caught a manual Class A breaking cell phone rules built for the sign stealing era, and it talks about how Evan and Zach learned that MLB had reprimanded Class A for impermissible cell phone use at least once before knowledge of the entire betting scandal that came out. And we know all about that story. We've done plenty of videos on that, so you can look back. I mean, he was involved allegedly, right, there's court case coming up in helping betters on certain pitches that he was manipulating to win bets. So the indictment here does cite an instance of Luis Ortiz using his cell phone. He's the other guy in that case, right or Te's and Class A both will be in front of a court at some point soon. But it was a Class A who I guess apparently was using his cell phone. I'm kind of learning this stuff as we go, But thoughts on this one, guys, and could we show the other Evandralic tweet or I can read it because I think that's important context here, I.

00:26:15
Speaker 2: Mean, while we bring that up, Scott, Like I, when I read the court case or when I read the indictment, it said Class A minutes before going on to the field made a phone call too. And I forget the person's name, but made a phone call. I don't and I didn't look more into it when I first read that, I was like you mean minutes before he went out to be on the field in like the sixth inning, or did we mean like he had his cell phone in the bullpen? Like I feel like we kind of heard this, but then it kind of got glossed over. So for this to come out to japers days, come.

00:26:59
Speaker 1: On, I'll give you a little more here before Todd Father time in so Evan Drelik said, MLB kept hearing player complaints about the restrictions on cell phone usage that was put in for sign stealing, so the league agreed with the union before this past season to a change. Cell phones were now allowed in clubhouses during games for personal use. That wasn't the case because we had sign stealing happening illegally within the game itself. We had issues with phones being used in the past. So they were like, hey, you can't use your phone during games, Todd Father. Here's the problem. Players are like, yo, I might need to use my phone for personal use during a game. There's a lot of shit going on during life, and sometimes the game can take three four hours. I mean, I know they're shorter now so we're on an average too and change, but you know what I'm saying, it could be that day or somebody sick or whatever it is, and you're not in the game and you need it, so it starts to get dicey. Real life interferes with what's going on with them trying to police sign stealing, so they pushed that back. But then I guess class they got caught before the betting probe doing other things that were not following the league.

00:28:08
Speaker 2: Rules the proto call, and and he got caught for peds earlier in his career. So if we're talking about all the things he got caught for, that's just a lot that to it.

00:28:16
Speaker 3: Thought.

00:28:17
Speaker 4: Listen, I remember coming out of a game when they first started doing that. You know, I got subbed in sixth, seventh inning for a pinch hit or whatever. Going back and trying to get changed, there was a guy in there looking every little movie you did, and it was it was kind of like you're like, come home, man, I can't just take a peek at myself home, but you don't.

00:28:33
Speaker 3: Want to do it.

00:28:34
Speaker 4: But yeah, if if he was doing this before games and checking his phone and talking to people before even before he went out there, man, it's tough because you know, this just shows you about what was really happening, and how big of this was and how problematic this was for him. So oh man, it just seems there's more turns and twists as we move forward here into close to the baseball season.

00:29:03
Speaker 1: How do you handle this krats in general, the cell phone situation during games, because you know, I know some fans are going to be watching this and go put your fucking phone down for three hours. It's not like they're sitting in the dugout with this. But can you take us through the everyday nois of a major league game and how sometimes you know, yeah, ship hops up, that gets real. Your kid's got a one oh two fevers in the hospital and you're out of the game now and you want to get an update from your wife. Like stuff like that happens pretty frequently. There's a lot of players in the big leagues tell me I'm wrong.

00:29:38
Speaker 3: No, that happens, one hundred percent. No, that happens.

00:29:41
Speaker 2: I got called out of a spring training game one time and somebody called the club, or my wife had called the clubby and the club he came and got me off the field, and you know, my son was going into the hospital. This is back in like two thousand and nine or ten, I forget.

00:29:55
Speaker 3: But.

00:29:56
Speaker 2: I would also be on the camp, the side of the camp of get off your phone, like I don't need you to be on your phone at work. Like people who say, well, I need to be on my cell phone are probably not that productive at work. Like if you're always on your cell phone, I think there's issues with that. But I also think in the middle of a game, I don't think there's a lot that you need to be on your phone. For the cases you're talking about. Yes, I'll remember the late Jeremy Gonzalez with an I. He was a pitcher. He was in Triple A. He was trying to we were playing in Syracuse. He was trying to get over. I think he went to Korea or Japan. I'm not sure, but part way through the season he was pitching. He would start. He would come in after every single inning he pulled his cell phone out, and I remember it because I'm like, man, that's a big cell phone. All I had was a flip phone at the time, and he's.

00:30:48
Speaker 3: Like, I got to back it, yelling at it. I'm yelling at something. Put it down. He'd go back out and I was like, is he is he gonna do that again? They go, Bro, you gotta come up here. He's gonna yell it again next.

00:31:01
Speaker 2: Inning, between innings, yell, yelled, yelling, whoever. He was yelling at every single start. It was like ritual for him. He was on his phone. I was like, it's maybe a little bit too much. I like, I don't think guys need to be on their cell phones. I have a hard time, besides those emergencies, thinking you need to be on your phone during a game. That's even if it's a four hour game. Sorry, Like that's you, that's your workday.

00:31:28
Speaker 1: Right, So basically, you know you have the monitors, right, I think they The article says there's three of them now that are at games that are making sure that there's no sign stealing.

00:31:38
Speaker 2: There's one in the there's one in the video room. There's one usually in the batting cages, which kind of like connect the clubhouse, dugout video room, and then there's one up in the clubhouse.

00:31:49
Speaker 1: Okay, so with all of that, I mean, this might already be happening. It's Hey, I've got an emergency situation I'm dealing with. Can I grab my phone and go off to the side and make or something's okay. Yeah, that's like, let's just have the human element here. This is the human element.

00:32:07
Speaker 3: Yeah, totally that we have.

00:32:08
Speaker 1: I agree. I don't know enough about it, honestly, I'm kind of learning as we go. It just sounds like, you know, they were already on Class a's case, and I mean the article it's long, so I just didn't get to all of it. But you've got people in there like, yeah, I think if someone's violating federal law on facing jail time, they're not too concerned about MLB's little rules about cell phones. So this is just an outlier case. This guy is a rule breaker in the past with certain things, and now an alleged law breaker on a very big case that I'm sure is not the last time I'm worried to cover