Sonny Gray to Red Sox, Ohtani confirms WBC, Yankees not profitable?

00:00:03
Speaker 1: Happy Tuesday before Turkey Day people, Kevin Polar is back Polar crafts Brown here. We'll have this exact setup for the next two days and then Thursday and Friday no live shows, although we are preparing some exclusive content for you on YouTube, so we don't want you to be deprived. You'll still be able to check back and get some new things from us later this week. KP, good to see you, man. We're excited for the next couple of days. Dude, did you get a Did you just say in the chat you got a little workout in this morning?

00:00:35
Speaker 2: Yeah?

00:00:36
Speaker 3: I told you. You inspire me. You know, I wasn't working out much because you hadn't been on the show with me, but I knew I was gonna see you, so I know how to get a little workout in.

00:00:45
Speaker 1: I love it. I love it. You look great. Also a reminder to everyone, KP is wearing a foul Territory shirt and those can be acquired online via foul Territory shop dot com. There is a special Black Friday sale. There are also new items added to the website. The Black Friday code is difficult. Ready for this. It's not foul It's Black Friday. Black Friday is the code. You can also scan it on the screen right now. We don't ask about this very often, but it would be cool if you check out the website and see if there's anything fancy, bougie or just comfy that you'd like to acquire. Foul Territory shot dot com. Also, all of our team dedicated shows have their own pages and you can check those out as well to buy merch there with a black Friday code. Okay, we had significant action just before the show started, so let's get to it.

00:01:39
Speaker 2: Let's charge it about.

00:01:42
Speaker 1: Sonny Gray moving over from the Cardinals to the Red Sox, and the Cardinals are going to cover about half of what he's due for twenty twenty six. That's twenty million dollars. They're also going to receive Brandon Clark, who is a left handed pitching prospect from the Sox system, and Richard Fitz who made some starts last year for Boston. They both go over to Saint Louis. The Red Sox are on the hook for twenty one million dollars for twenty twenty six. There's some complications with how the salary works for twenty six and the buyouts and all that, But all you need to know is that this is a starter Cratz that the Red Sox will have for one year and twenty one million dollars. They were looking for someone that can be a playoff starter. Do you feel like that was accomplished?

00:02:29
Speaker 2: Man, he is right on that fringe. I mean he didn't. Honestly, they said they're looking for ones and twos. They're looking for somebody to slot in behind Crochet. I don't know. I don't know if I can say he's a playoff starter. I just feel like, can he start games in the playoffs?

00:02:46
Speaker 1: Yes?

00:02:47
Speaker 2: His track record of not going past the fifth inning makes me leary, makes me feel like, man, you got to have an absolutely banger bullpen. What's the Red Sox do to say? Yes, we trust him to be a playoff starter. But I think I think he's I think he's got the ability to. I don't know that that length is going to necessarily bode well for the playoffs, but maybe, Hey, nobody goes over five innings, you know, you go right to your garret windlocks, your Eromus Chatman's and the game's over.

00:03:24
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think Sonny, I think the name may be a little sexier than the guy. But I think you got to believe in Andrew Bailey over there and what he's been able to do with some some pitchers. And I don't think they're going out and spending this much money if they don't believe that he is a number two. I think you got to believe in the process, the people that they have in place, you know, what they believe Sonny can kind of, you know, either turn back to or turn into I mean I was looking at his numbers today. They're not overly impressive, but he did strike out over two hundred guys. You know, maybe changing the pitch our arsenal a little bit, you know, pitching behind a Garrett Crow may help him.

00:04:01
Speaker 2: I just like that.

00:04:01
Speaker 3: It's two Tennessee boys at the top of the food chain for them over there.

00:04:07
Speaker 2: Okay, okay, I like that. I like Vanderbilt. You know, you have Sonny Gray has something that not a lot of guys have. And I don't know how this ages. I don't know how this even works for pitchers later in the career. He's really athletic. He is super that We're talking about it in our production meeting, Like this dude can sling the football and then people will be like, oh, what does that matter. You have to be able to change, You have to be able to make adjustments. And if you look at his pitch usage, which I'll kind of talk about when we bring up the whole like big market, small market type of picture, But his pitch usage has changed significantly throughout his career, and I think it's him adapting to what he needs to do. Like he used to be. He used to be like almost equal sinker slider. He'd mix that slider into a cutter, and then he started working in a ton more curve. Now that cutter is one of his more predominant pitches. Like, it's something that he's able to. Some people would say, you know, he can spin the ball, but he can really manipulate it and change it. And I think that's just it's a testament to his athleticism. So if there's something and Andrew Bailey says, hey, you know what, try this, Hey, you know what, do this physically, he's a guy that could pick it up super quick because he knows how his body works.

00:05:26
Speaker 1: This is a much higher floor than the same price they paid for Walker Buehler last year on a one year deal around the same number, right, This is a much higher floor. I think the floor for Sonny Gray is what a number three maybe a number four starting pitcher if you do think he's going to decline. This past season of four to eighty RA, he made thirty two starts, very healthy year for him. Fielding independent pitching was much lower expected RA lower, right, so some of the results maybe didn't go his way. Maybe look at the defense, not that it's necessarily going to be better over in Boston, the work to do to improve that. But the strikeout to walk ratio was literally the best in the National League. And like you mentioned Kratz, I mean he's still getting elite results on some of those pitches, curveball and sweeper in particular. So there's a lot to like here and KP it's only for one year. Sonny does have a little bit of a track record of struggle in a big market. That is a factor. That was the one part where I looked initially and said, oh, really, he's waving his no trade clause for Boston. But he wanted to be on the East Coast to be close enough to Tennessee, where he's from, and also he wanted to pitch for a contender, and he probably learned from his teammate now former team in Nolan Arnato that if you're too picky and you say no early on, you might end up in Saint Louis next year on a team that's somewhat in a rebuild mode under High and Bloom who takes over.

00:06:51
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean I love the durability aspect at the very least. Like you said, if the floor is getting thirty two starts at a four ear ra, it's a very valuable pitcher to have. And you weren't here last time. I was on Scott But me and Cratsey went back and forth about there's no such thing as a one bad, one year deal. There is a price you teams are willing to go to, and apparently for the Red Sox, twenty one million is not too much for them to go to for a one year deal. So hopefully Sonny is a guy that they think that he has, like Crassey mentioned, the athleticism, They can, you know, manipulate some things with him a little bit, you know, maybe get his era down a little bit. But you know, I love the fact he's willing to get rid of his no trade claws. To go to a place like Boston, which historically has kind of been a big market, but I think it's a lesser, a tier down from a New York. And maybe there's still some bitterness in Sonny from his failures in New York, and maybe it's an opportunity for him to go back and feel like he can really stick it to the Yankees.

00:07:51
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00:08:51
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean that's chance Chapman. Chapman lives. Chapman lives in that land. Chap He's like, yeah, you know what, I'll sign with who the Yankee Saint Boston and I hate the Yankees, so I'm gonna go there. No, I don't think that's how. I don't think that's how. And if I wasn't there, maybe I would jump on board with the whole camp pitch and the big market thing because he's got that country accent. That's just a narrative. I was there, I saw it. It was a contradiction of pitch usage. Larry Rothschild was the pitching coach and I've said his on before and it's definitely been something that's gotten play. But he wanted him to throw more of what was considered as slider registers more as a curveball. When he was more slider and curveball. And if you talk to and maybe remember to ask Steven Vote when he comes on next time, what it was like to catch Sonny Gray in Oakland. He's like, it was it was a guessing game, because there would be times where I'd call a sinker and he'd throw a cutter, and voters like, why on earth did you throw a cutter? Or he'd call it cutter, you know, cutter slider, and he'd throw he'd throw the opposite. He's like, well, you know, man, he says, sometimes i just get to the top of my motion and I'm like, nah, I think I'm gonna do this instead, and voters like, well, I'd like to know. And so when he goes over to New York, they kind of took away some of that, like, hey, I want to feel this out, I want to manipulate this, I want to throw the way I want to throw, and it was more of like a strict like this is what works. We need to throw more of this. And if you go look at his usage while he was there, it didn't work and and or it didn't work as well as it was working. And everybody's real quick to play the narrative of ooh, big market. The pressure got to him. I was there watching him. It wasn't the pressure of the market. He's like, we were sitting in the bullpen in the playoffs and he's like, I just want to throw how I want to throw? I've had success? Why do they want to change me? So it's not a fear of a big market. It's not. It's not anything like that. He wouldn't have accepted it if he was like, ooh, Boston scary.

00:11:11
Speaker 1: What about the home road splits though back then.

00:11:17
Speaker 2: I don't know. I'm only telling you what he told me. Helped him, you know, have the most success, and you know home road splits. So so because he's in in Yankee Stadium, he feels like, oh I can't handle this. The guy's you know, the fans are booing me. I don't know, Kpe, did you ever feel like you couldn't play somewhere because fans were on you?

00:11:40
Speaker 3: No?

00:11:41
Speaker 2: Never.

00:11:41
Speaker 3: I mean everyone's a little bit different. I mean I think his starting picture is a little bit different. I think the starting picture home road splits are maybe a little bit different because, as you could probably attest, because you've stood on the mound more than I have Cratzy coming out to talk to pictures. Every mound's a little bit different too, So I mean there is an element of things being a little bit different, you know, from a hitter's perspective, every box feels a little bit different. But you know, I never kind of went into a specific city and was like, oh, I can't hit here because of the fans, I can't do something on the road. There's obviously some elements that you know, played a factor that made certain road ballparks a little bit more difficult, whether it was the visual off the hitter's eye, the way the sun was in the outfield, maybe you weren't used to, but it had never had anything to do with the fans.

00:12:32
Speaker 1: Yeah. That my thing is, if okay, there's two layers here, do you think that things change when he goes over to Boston or do you believe what Kratz is talking about here It didn't really have to do with the size of the market. I do think, even though you guys don't feel this way, there are definitely players that we've seen in the past who cannot handle certain markets. Do we all agree on that we've seen some players look like the same person in terms of their skill set, but move over to a team like the Yankees or even the Mets or the Red Sox and really struggle. Don't you feel like you've seen some cases like that.

00:13:08
Speaker 3: I don't put the Red Sox in that same tier though, I mean I was there. Granted it was the COVID year, so it was a little bit different, but you could always get a feel I played in. I played in New York with the Mets, and I also played in the Red Sox and even pre COVID. Just judging off of spring training, the amount of media that was around, the amount of you know, kind of feel of the bigger market. I mean, I don't put Boston up there. I mean, it is one of the bigger markets in the game, but in terms of like that kind of external pressure you feel from a market, Boston was way different than New York in my opinion, KP.

00:13:40
Speaker 2: What do you think? What do you think about, like when people say the big market, what I think of when I hear guys struggle, or when I think like how I was uncomfortable at places? It was your environment that you lived in. Some people don't like living in the city. So you play for the Yankees, you got to drive out to White Planes. You got to drive out, you know, north of Yonker, so you're not in the city. You know, some people don't enjoy that part of it. But do you feel like, do you feel like there was ever place when you were in when you were in Queens, were you ever like, Man, I can't handle this because these media guys, they're just always all over me.

00:14:17
Speaker 3: No, it's a fair point. I mean, the media wasn't like the bigger thing. It's obviously maybe some like external pressure from like the way that the fans are a little bit and obviously the media and New York's just a little bit different. Like there was things where you may feel like you're having a conversation with the player and next thing you know, it's on the cover of the New York Post. Right, So, like things like that bothered me a little bit about New York. But I think you nailed it perfectly. When it comes to bigger markets, that's just call them bigger cities. Yeah. I felt like at the end of my tenure of being in New York, the Mets, it weighed on me a little bit. I was commuting from Long Island City to Flushings every day, which you know, if you look at your map, it says it's eight miles, but it could take you up to an hour and a half and you're sitting in bumper to bumper trap and it's just you know, by the time you get to the ballpark. And I was commuting every day. I was driving Aaron Loup, who lived in my same building. I'd drive him, his wife would drive my wife and kids. We kind of carpooled that way, but I was the one driving him every day. And there'd be times I get to the field I just have to sit in my chair for like thirty minutes and just kind of decompress. And I hadn't even played the game yet, and I was already worn out from the drive. And then I think about other places I played in my career where you know, Atlanta has some bad traffic, but I'm thinking about like my setup in Atlanta. I was living in a nice house in a neighborhood, I had a backyard, my family was really happy. I was happy. Like I think that's a bigger factor in certain places that you play. When you talk about big markets or big cities, it's just kind of your living arrangements and the way you commute to the stadium. Maybe that's kind of something that weighed on Sunny a little bit. But Cratsey, you would know more. You were in the clubhouse with him.

00:15:53
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, for sure. And for me, the place where I didn't feel comfortable, it was such a it was such a burdensome drive to the field where I was staying. I forget even where did we stay when we were out in San Francisco, because it took me forever to.

00:16:09
Speaker 3: Get Lofayette maybe or wut Lofayette, maybe.

00:16:12
Speaker 2: Walnut Creek, because I drove by and i'd pick you up in the morning one or two times for like a day game, and I'm like, man, well my wife comes out here. She's gonna come out to watch me play in a day game. And I remember it thinking like it's gonna take her an hour and a half to get to the game the only day I play, Like the day games were the only days I play. So that's when she would come in to see the game. And I'm like, that's gonna suck. She's not even gonna be out here. So yeah, all that stuff goes into it, but rarely, rarely, rarely is it? Is it the fans that are really getting on you. I remember Carl Crawford said some things about playing in Boston where he was like, it was one hundred percent of the fans that were getting on me, the Boston fans. He became a red sock. Yeah.

00:16:57
Speaker 3: I mean, there's definitely certain places you go. There's definitely certain places you go where the fan engagement is different. Like Philly is obviously a tough environment to go into as a visiting player. Going into Yankee Stadium is a tough environment to go in, but I never like went into a game or like on the bus ride over, I wasn't like, well, I can't perform here because the fans. It's just you knew it was going to be part of the environment that you were going to play in, and you know, you just had to have tough skin to do it.

00:17:24
Speaker 1: Hey, we did get more information on that film Aton deal with the Cubs. It's fourteen and a half million dollars two years, plus a club option and two hundred and fifty thousand dollars in incentives per year based on games pitched. So, as John Hayman wrote, there's a good chance it ends up as a two year contract for fifteen million bucks. Here's a tweet from Jeff Jones. This is good for all involved, including the Cardinals two straight years. Also, Kittridge that one year in the bullpen in Saint Louis spun forward into multi year eight figure deals for veteran relievers. It makes it easier to sell the role to similar free agents. I love that point, KP. There are some guys that see the bigger plan and go, hey, this is one of those teams that can turn me into a little bit of magic for my next run at free agency.

00:18:07
Speaker 3: Yeah. I don't know much about their pitching development and department, but sometimes it's just opportunity. Maybe a little thinner bullpen, more opportunity to go out there and pitch, and you know, good for guys who kind of see the long term picture. Let me go somewherehere I can play and eventually, you know, they get their ten figure deal.

00:18:25
Speaker 2: Yeah. Honestly, you know, with with Yati gone, you definitely need to have somebody that's at the helm getting pitchers better usage. A lot of this is on Ali Marmal, so you know they're building. Hopefully they're building something, but that's not changing your team by bringing little dudes like you're looking to win. You want to bring in some monster dudes are already established, but until then creating having guys that can create more value and go somewhere else. A cool neat little niche for the cardinals.

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00:20:00
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's what he said.

00:20:01
Speaker 1: That's what he said.

00:20:03
Speaker 2: That's what he said.

00:20:04
Speaker 1: That's what he said. We just love how we get to cover this and many other places can't. So Hal Steinberner, owner of the New York Yankees, talking about a number of things payroll wise and revenue wise. Here's Brendan Coody, who writes for The Athletic, and you tweeted this out among his story to promote it. Was it fair to assume the Yankees turn to profit this year? Words from Hal quote, No, it's not actually, And then he wrote a story about if the Yankees are profitable or not. I don't know, O KP. If the Yankees don't know how to make money, I guess the sport really is broken.

00:20:48
Speaker 3: And the season. If the Yankees aren't making money, we should all just hang it up. But you're not going to get any empathy or sympathy for me. I'm really tired of this conversation, because there's just one simple answer. If that's truly the case, prove it. Just open the books, you know, and then I think players would have maybe I don't want to say players would act a little bit differently, but I think maybe there would be a little bit empathy or sympathy when a player is like trying to demand X amount in a contract and they're like, man, these teams actually are losing money every year. Like you, maybe you would have a little bit of a you have a little bit of better feel for it. But right now, all we know is the evaluation of a franchise, and we know the Yankees are the only sports franchise valued over eight billion dollars and that increases every year. So until they open up the books and improve it, I don't want to hear about it.

00:21:39
Speaker 1: And some people say, well, just because the team's worth this doesn't mean that they have that money available now. Okay, fine, cool, but again, they are still profitable when you own a company or whatever, and they give out dividends like that's a thing. Sure can they just dip into the eight billion dollars at any point that they want that they're worth? I mean kind of with loans but not completely get it. But we don't think the Yankees are making money on a year to year basis. Here's one note from the article, how profitable are the Yankees of breakdown? Using publicly available data, Their revenue in twenty twenty four per Forbes seven hundred twenty eight million per CNBC, which does these kind of figures as well, seven h five. So let's say they're seven to seventeen. If we're averaging those two, their player payroll in twenty twenty four was three hundred and sixteen million dollars minus CBT tax sixty three million dollars. Hold on, we're still missing hundreds of millions of dollars unaccounted for. Kratz help me out here, I get it. Super nice facilities, many employees, blah blah blah, they're not worth hundreds of millions of dollars per year.

00:22:48
Speaker 2: They pay one hundred million dollars every year to the City of New York for the bond on the stadium, so one hundred and more million comes off of that. Also, like New York City loves the fact that the Yankees are there, there's commerce that happens, but it's not a little less than that.

00:23:05
Speaker 1: By the way, it's I think it's in the eighties, but okay, it's.

00:23:07
Speaker 2: In the eighties. Okay, the number I had read was one hundred million. But either way, that's every year. That's their mortgage on the house that Aaron Judges built. But I've seen the inside of Yankee Stadium, the organization, the facilities, the coaches that they continue to add, the performance coaches that they continue to add, and I know they get the best that are out there. They went out and they got Eric Cressey. I don't know that Eric, you know, really says he's part of the Yankees, but he is a consultant. He sets up a lot of what they do. They have more strength coaches at each at each stop. They have more video guys, they have more analysts, they have all that stuff. Why do they have all that because they want to be the best and they feel like there's a value in that. I promise you that number doesn't get all the way up to the seven under and whatever million you think they made in revenue last year. But we're showing we're looking at a picture of how right now. How is not like George, don't expect them to be like George George owned the Yankees. George answered to nobody how answers to a group of ownership that Now, let's say they make one hundred million dollars and there's x amount of people that's one hundred million divided by x, and everyone's like, wait a minute, I own part of the Yankees. Why am I not getting more and more and more and more. Easiest way to suffice and make those people happy, We'll try to cut our spending. Well, what's the way that you cut your spending payroll? Well, why do four of the nine owners for the Yankees not want to increase payroll? Because they don't care about winning as much as some of the other owners. All they care about is what kind of check they're getting in their wallet each year, each month, however, they're paid out. So it's not not just how's the forward facing person? And yes, the Yankees are profitable. All of these teams are profitable. If they weren't, they would be selling them.

00:25:11
Speaker 1: David Ripkin, who's a big FT fan and often puts things in cool perspective on Twitter, said, so, Hal Steinberner's not one hundred percent or the Yankees, He's general partner, he has other owners to answer for. He was summarizing some of the other quotes from him during his public outcry for more money. He said, the mistakes in summer Swoon need to stop. He said last year's failure was on the players. He said he'd like a lower payroll to appease certain investors, but also it doesn't necessarily happen. He said, payroll decisions can change quickly with proposals, and of course mentioned the salary cap to appease his owner fraternity. People forget, how is one of the owners who pushes to avoid work stoppages. And I give him a lot of credit for that, But you got to be in the room and agree with your brethren. Anyway, it sounds like from a payroll perspective, the team's going to be in a similar range as usual. That's the demand of Yanks. Krat you know about it, KP, you know about it. Yankee fans want to see the team spend way more than everyone else, and they're just not going to do that anymore. And the thing I will give on house side is they spend a lot. They put the team in a position both player payroll and resources wise. In general, with the organization to be able to compete, and right now they're getting embarrassed in my mind by the Dodgers, because I think they've become the Evil Empire, just a more likable version, because it's hard to dislike some of the players on that team. Admittedly, I did get a little bit distracted in the chat the last couple of minutes. Somebody was off the rails and got time out. Anyway, bet MGF futures, n L Pennant, Phillies what oh? I just left Phillies at plus five hundred currently that is second best in the National League in terms of odds. What do we think, gentlemen.

00:27:06
Speaker 3: I don't see why not. I mean Phillies depending on what they do this offseason. But the Phillies is a pretty darn good team, you know, like Crassy mentioned, they took the defending back to back World Series champs to you know, a fourth game, and they were all really close. They just the bullpen kind of crumbled at the end.

00:27:24
Speaker 2: I don't think this number moves in the way of I don't think it goes down at all based on the moves that they make. I don't think the Phillies are going to be in on Kyle Tucker and Bregman and bring back Schwarbert. So I don't think this number moves based on where they have the Dodgers at. I think the Dodgers at like plus one sixty or plus one ninety, So I wait to see where where their off season goes. But if it's at plus five hundred to start the season, I'm taking it.

00:27:54
Speaker 1: I think the Dodgers would have beat them anyway, but it would have been nice to see a seven gamer.

00:28:00
Speaker 3: It is what it is, and what if they had a healthy What if they had a healthy Zach Wheeler? Though? Does that change anything for you too?

00:28:08
Speaker 2: Maybe in a seven game series, but not like not in that series, Like you could not have gotten more out of their starting pitching than what they did, like Aaron Nola gave them one time through the lineup piggybacked with Rangers Suarez, like they used the starting pitching to perfection.

00:28:25
Speaker 1: Yep, that's why you got to figure out what the problem is. Why is the core getting pitched you in back to back years and not coming up in the big moments. Hey, this Thanksgiving bet MGM is piling your plate high with extra winnings. Players will receive in any sport parlay boost tokens at a parlay of any sport tier bets that activate the token if you win boosted payouts. Okay, if you haven't signed up yet, bonus code is foul at betmgm dot com or on the app for up to fifteen hundred dollars on a new player offer on your first wager and bonus bets. That's what you'd get back up to fifteen hundred VENMGM make it legendary gambling problem or concern called one eight hundred gambler. Let's talk about the Padres for a minute. Here they're hiring Randy Nor and Steven Susan junior as bench coach and hitting coach. This according to Dennis lenn who covers the Padres. He said, both of them spend time with Craig Stammon in the Nationals organization. So Stammond's bringing over some of his friends. Did either of you either spend time with Nor or play I mean against for sure SUSA, but not with.

00:29:29
Speaker 3: No. I never never crossed paths with him, just played against him. But I love the hire. I mean I saw some people talking about, like why would you want to learn hitting from Steven susan junior. Well, that guy he has way more bats in the big leagues than you whoever made that comment about him. Two, he's been in the box. And three, a lot of people when they get done playing, they spend their kind of second life trying to understand why wasn't I a better hitter? You know, I go through moments like that where I'm like, man, I wish I would have done this, this, this, and I go down the rabbit hole and I watch all these hitting videos and I'm like, man, you know, but you know, Steven SEUs is a guy who's been in the box, he played at the big leagues. He's better than one hundred percent of you people out there who are making these comments that saying why would you want to learn from him? And he's probably sent his second act of his life studying the art of hitting.

00:30:19
Speaker 1: Hey Over on Fangrafts, there was a late season conversation with Bubba Chandler posted and David Larela said, what have you learned since getting called up from Triple A. Bubba Chandler's answer quote, I don't want to say the game is harder, but it's definitely a lot more thinking. Pitch to pitch thinking goes into it. Something I've learned is that at each level you go up, the less and less mistakes you can make up. Here, I've made a couple of mistake pitches that were hit pretty hard, where as in Triple A they might have gotten fouled off. So it's kind of how many mistakes can I limit myself to in a game. They're going to happen, but when are they going to happen. Are they going to happen with Kais on base? Are they going to happen with no one on base? Stuff like that. This is one of the best pitching prospects in the game who came up late in the season for Pittsburgh. They dumbly had him as a reliever for a starter to or for an appearance or two, and then decided to be like everyone else. But crats are thoughts.

00:31:09
Speaker 2: Yeah, every level presents its challenges, and to me, maybe kp things differently, but there's no bigger a jump than facing Triple A whatever Triple A hitters facing Triple A pictures or Triple A pictures facing Triple A hitters to big leagues, And it is really just the amount of mistakes you get away with the fact that they don't chase as far out of the zone and the fact that you have to be able to get outs in the zone. So I love that he said it. I hate that the Pirates put him in the situation they did when they called him up. That was so brutal.

00:31:45
Speaker 1: Yeah, a J and Krats were freaking out KP when we saw that.

00:31:51
Speaker 3: No, he's stating the obvious. I mean, it's nice. It's refreshing to hear someone pretend like the game isn't hard, because the game is really hard. And like Kratzy said, every love you go up, the game offers different challenges. The game gets even more difficult the players get better. The amount of mistakes that you get away with from a pitcher become less, the amount of mistakes you see as a hitter become less frequent. The ones that survive this game are the ones that are able to not miss those mistakes as a hitter and the ones that are able to kind of eliminate those mistakes from a pitching standpoint. The only argument I'd make the Crats is I think the biggest adjustment I ever had to make was going from D two Bowl to professional baseball and you probably had a similar experience. That was the biggest jump for me.

00:32:33
Speaker 2: Yeah, D three to facing a Latin number three prospect in medicine hat with wood, Yeah, you know what that was. That was a bigger adjustment. You're right, you're right, but I hit a danger first at Batkrats.

00:32:49
Speaker 1: We picked you to talk about Miandi's not just because they're ridiculously comfortable, but also because they are very festive. When the holiday season hits, you go on the website and there are just so many more designs to check out, and they just scream Eric Kratz getting little matching sets with everybody that he knows.

00:33:10
Speaker 2: You know what. They're called me Yundies, not you undies. So you go in and you say, this one's for me, this set is for me, This is what is good for me, not you undies. Me Undies a lot of different ones to choose from.

00:33:24
Speaker 1: I'm so confused, but what I do know is that you can knock out all of your holiday gifting needs today with me undies. And to get the exclusive holiday deals up to fifty percent off meyundies dot com, slash foul enter promo code foul that's meundies dot com slash foul promo code is foul for up to fifty percent off matching holiday prints with your person. You can't beat that. First, and most importantly, Shoho Tani is officially back in the World Baseball Classic for Team Japan, the defending champs from a few years ago. He made the announcement official on Instagram. Second, and I think very important as well for some fans that looked quickly at his initial post, he is not retiring. When you post an image of yourself and thank you fans, it could get confusing, especially for people who do not like to read, and that is a large percentage of the social media population. So whoever put this together via post and is running show Hey's social media channel, you did give everyone or some people a good scare and it helped actually with engagement and activity. And it went from normal viral KP with sho Hey making this announcement to a little extra virality that I do not think was planned. I think someone was just putting together some really pretty pictures and they didn't know that it could appear as if sho Hey was announcing something weird and not expected, like WBC.

00:35:02
Speaker 3: Or did they. I feel like whatever show Hay touches kind of turns the gold. It wouldn't surprise me if this was by design, because the obvious the WBC post great, Yeah, we knew he was gonna play, like it's very great for the WBC to have its best players, and obviously players in other countries kind of salvate for the idea of playing for their country, hoping the United players from the United States and they are starting to get better players Paul Skins, you know, Bobby with Junior Aaron Judge committing is great for what the WBC is. But the Dodgers post, Yeah, on first glance, it looks like, you know, he's he retiring? Is he moving on?

00:35:41
Speaker 1: Is he?

00:35:42
Speaker 3: But I think everything Show Hey does turns the gold, And it wouldn't surprise me if this was by design to get just the most insane reactions and engagement on you know, whatever social platforms he posted this on.

00:35:56
Speaker 2: I mean, I might even use producers ladies' words. He maybe show Hey knows what he's doing. Everybody, you know, show he doesn't necessarily know, like, oh I didn't know all the other stuff that was going on, And there's a little bit of it's like, oh, maybe he's naive, and so we don't think he actually trolls people. But producer Lady pointed out that he kissed his dog when he won the MVP and not his wife who was sitting right next to him. He trolled. He trolled uh Lordy Scouriel and after the home run when Lordi's put his hands up like he did the exact troll. And maybe right now he's trolling fans like him. Maybe him and Tayo were like sitting back and he's like, you know what, Tayo, I've seen retirement posts. I'm gonna make it look like I'm retiring and see see if the fans like he might like some sarcastic humor. So just makes more it makes it makes show Hay more endearing to me.

00:36:57
Speaker 1: I agree, we love a little show Hey personality. So if he was behind this, then I stand corrected, and I thank you Show Hey for bringing us a little spiciness to content that's usually pretty run of the mill. We know that you love your country and you love competition, and that he was going to be participating in the World Baseball Classic, so we got it with a little extra sauce to it. Okay, will shoe Otani be playing with Tatsuya Ami, who I think is the top free agent available coming over from Japan this offseason? Dice k Mount Suzaka asked him whether he wants to join a team like the Dodgers that can win the World Series or a team that tries to beat them. The reply from AMAI quote, I want to beat them, if I'm being honest, Hey, let's go more from amay on wanting to beat the Dodgers and sign elsewhere. Of course, playing together with Atana Yamamoto and Rokie Suzaki sounds like it could be fun. But winning the World Series by defeating a team like that is something I feel would truly have value in my life. The Ultimate Underdog story starring Tatsuya am I and I actually know I Seacrats picking up his phone right now, and I know what the call is KPE, So I'm not going to answer, and I'm going to pretend I promise you didn't script this. I think that this is Tatsuya My's agent calling Tatsuya and saying don't do that. Right now, you're kind of ruling out a team. No, okay, are fine? I'll pick it up. Hello, it's.

00:38:20
Speaker 2: This is Buster Posey. Could I speak to Tatsu.

00:38:24
Speaker 1: My what's good? It's in my best hairstyle in the game, and I'm not even in the game yet.

00:38:31
Speaker 2: We hate the Dodgers too, so an offer will be coming over shortly.

00:38:36
Speaker 1: Okay, just make it, make it really nice, make it, make it, you know, full of money. Because my agent thinks that I'm kind of hurting my leverage with the Dodgers. Can you do that for me? Buster, no messing around? Oh heait, hold on, I'm gonna make this a three way call.

00:38:52
Speaker 3: Hey, this is Andrew Friedman. Whatever Buster is offering, we have more, Mike.

00:38:58
Speaker 1: Okay, Well, Andrew, you lost Andrew Buster? Are you still there? Did you hear that?

00:39:04
Speaker 2: I heard it? But you've been spending for years and my previous GM didn't go past one year with anybody. So I have a ton of money in the chest and the ownership loves me. I control this city. We'll take aim I thank you.

00:39:22
Speaker 1: I love it. I want to see Tony Vaitello with his intensity run through either a glass or brick wall. If you send me that video plus match the offer from Friedman, I'm in Okay.

00:39:35
Speaker 2: Uh, buster hung up. He already said his last.

00:39:37
Speaker 1: Bit done, beauty.

00:39:40
Speaker 3: Yeah, oh, I just tell you what needs to be said and that's it. You make the choice. Hey.

00:39:47
Speaker 1: Brittany Gieroli put an article out that the Marlins and Kyle Sowers had extension talks earlier this offseason, but that the two sides were far apart. I read it, the Marlins are thinking more along the lines of the Saddan Rafaela eight year, fift fifty million. Of course, keeping in mind, Rafaela didn't even have fifty days of service timest hours definitely is way past that and was a four win player for the Marlins this year twenty five homers. Oblique strain ended, you know, his season about a month and change early, but his camp is thinking more along the lines of one hundred million dollars we can show. I think we have one other tweet to show what one MLB executive Burner account put out there. He said, projecting, you know, some ARB seasons in the three years of free agency thirty two to thirty Forks, he's older already seven years, eighty seven million, So the burner said, even with aggressive our projections, camp asking for one hundred is aggressive, eighty more logical. Actually, okay, Kratz fifty to one hundred. The middle is seventy five eighty good done.

00:40:48
Speaker 2: No, this is this is this guy's what he what the adjustments he made playing every day in the big leagues. I think he puts up another three and a half war season. To me, I think I think that number. I think that number grows. I would say, I would say seventy five is too low. I think he's in the eighty seven to ninety range. And I know the projections are not on there, but look, maybe all Star team, he doesn't get hurt. All those numbers were only going to be higher. I think he had a nine to twelve ops, So I say a little higher. I'm glad he's I'm glad he's holding now one hundreds. Probably too much, but hey, you know what, shoot for the stars. He hit the moon.

00:41:31
Speaker 1: The Orioles weren't even finding a spot for HMKP. So maybe I'm playing it a little bit safer here. But I'm like, man, if you think you're worth ninety to one hundred and you can get them to this seventy to eighty range, I would go for it.

00:41:45
Speaker 3: I take your money. We can get your money. This game's hard. You know, we were just on with you know, one of the best to do it defensively. I thought I was pretty good too. Year to year, so much changes. This game's incredibly difficult. The difference between making seventy and maybe eighty five million is not really going to change your life. Go get your money when you can in this game, because you're always one real injury away from not making a lot of money in this game. You know, I was never in that position. But this game's really hard, so you know, maybe they find some middle ground there.

00:42:27
Speaker 1: Have Again. On Wednesday, right before we get to the big holiday break, KP will be on, Kratz will be on. I'll be with you. We've got a big show planned. Krats ats. What do you got a little read today?

00:42:40
Speaker 2: Hopefully, hopefully these guys, because we had Ruben on, Hopefully we can get these guys, you know, jumping into the market here. I really feel like JT Realmuto will be the first of all those of those like big time guys that we talked about with the Phillies that will sign. And I agree with Ruben, I think JT signs back. I don't think they can, and I don't think they can go without a starting pitcher on a world series content. I mean starting catcher on a world series contending too.

00:43:07
Speaker 1: Last words on the way out. For those of you watching on TV, I'll remind you again tomorrow. Tomorrow is your last chance on the current TV channels that you're watching to see us. Otherwise, you can catch us for free, YouTube, podcast, etc. Like we always do. And we'll have more announcements soon on future TV streaming plans. We'll see everyone for a live show on Wednesday.

00:43:29
Speaker 2: Everybody's got YouTube, turn it on.