Bruce Meyer takes over MLBPA, Mike Trout wants CF back, Jordan Westburg out longer, Kris Bryant done?

00:00:02
Speaker 1: We're camping bron Toddfather Pizinski on the road in Arizona FT spring training tour continuing. We're going to talk to the A's pretty soon. But this tour is engineered by Fast and All Boom. Check out more info at passmall dot com and check out this calendar. We put together two camps down Many to go. Royals Camp Done, Guardians Camp. Thank you to both the Royals and the Guardians for being so gracious with hosting us and for giving us access to so many players.

00:00:34
Speaker 2: That is a big part of what we do as.

00:00:35
Speaker 1: A network and as a show, and we will do that again with the A's today, Dodgers tomorrow, Mariners on Saturday, Rangers on Sunday. Remember we have live shows over the weekend to continue the Arizona tour. A little Cactus League action. As you can see, they're getting the field ready. There's gonna be games soon too, right AJ, when's the first game tomorrow?

00:00:56
Speaker 3: Tomorrow? Tomorrow's Friday? Right, Yes, Cubby Birds, Kubby Bears, White Sox tomorrow. I know that one is on Friday, So that's the start. I think. Well, heck, they gotta get ready, Todd. They got the WBZ starting in like two weeks.

00:01:11
Speaker 4: This should have started the day after the Super Bowl. Let's go.

00:01:16
Speaker 1: Well, no, some of them get their Valentine's Day in and then they jump.

00:01:20
Speaker 2: Right after that. Right, that's part of the deal.

00:01:24
Speaker 1: But I mean, in all seriousness, Todd, if you were playing the WBC in the first game's Friday, and then the WBC starts in like two weeks. You know how guys say, oh, I need X amount of at bats to be ready for the season. Well, for most of these guys, they treat it like a big deal.

00:01:39
Speaker 2: They want to be seasoned ready way sooner.

00:01:43
Speaker 4: Yeah, and I think that starts with live at bats too.

00:01:46
Speaker 5: It's one of those things where you know only a select number of pitchers can throw that day. But at the same time, hey, man, if I can hop in and get an extra bat or see an extra four or five pitches, don't mind if I do. And now game starting, you don't want to play all in the beginning. Of course, you know your body is not fully ready for that. And I always tell everybody you can't really get ready for spring training. That's standing around you put your cleats on and stand in the rocks in your backyard for you know, an.

00:02:13
Speaker 4: Hour and thirty minutes. It still won't it won't help you out.

00:02:16
Speaker 5: But yeah, I would like to get extra bats, extra this extra work, all that kind of stuff to make sure I'm in tip top shape to play this this big classic.

00:02:27
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's gonna be big. We're gonna be covering it extensively. We'll have some postgame shows too.

00:02:31
Speaker 3: But by the way, you can't play nine innings except if you're Tom Kelly. If you're playing for Tom Kelly, who would play the catcher nine innings the first spring training game. Oh christee, if you were in shape or not. Oh yeah, it happened. It happened. Marcus Jensen, who's a coach of the A's here, he had it happen to him, and he got me. I think I made eight innings and he finally took me out one year. So yeah, he'll tests you right away, test you right away.

00:02:58
Speaker 2: Right after the little I feel like that's a little much. No, you were okay with it, Listen.

00:03:04
Speaker 3: I was young man. I was like, I'll play. I'll play forty innings if you want me to. Like twenty two, twenty one, two twenty three years old, the first day of spring shame. I got a chance to make the team, I'll put You need me to play a doubleheader, I'll do it. I'll figure it out.

00:03:18
Speaker 1: Yeah, Tom told you to do that. When you're thirty five and you got a lot of dirt in your spikes, then what.

00:03:23
Speaker 3: You might have had a little different conversation.

00:03:27
Speaker 2: Let's chat in the office.

00:03:29
Speaker 1: All right, Well we have we have some office conversation to get to here and then we'll talk to some Aze players later on.

00:03:35
Speaker 2: So let's charge.

00:03:38
Speaker 3: Let's charge it out.

00:03:40
Speaker 1: So this is three days in a row now leading charge of the mound. It's the replacement for Tony Clark, and it's somewhere to that everyone is very familiar with in the Players Association. So since we had our last show, we now know that Bruce Meyer is going to lead the Players Association aka the Union. This came out yesterday, passing first breaking that he was unanimously elected as executive director of the Players Association. Now it sounds like there's dissension. I'll let everyone know because we do this all the time on both sides. Owners and players when they're voting for things often will disagree on things, and then it's almost like a revote, and then everybody says, yep, we agree because.

00:04:18
Speaker 2: You can chat.

00:04:18
Speaker 1: I mean, remember aj they had a meeting first the day before, and then they're like, wait, hold up. There's probably a million phone calls that go down with different players, and then they all get on the same page and they say, Hey, this guy has been here for years. He knows the deal, he knows how to say no, tam lb. He's still going to be the lead negotiator, which actually a little bit uncommon. Usually have the leader and then the number two, which is Matt Nussbaum who enters that role.

00:04:43
Speaker 2: But Meyer has.

00:04:43
Speaker 1: Been in this role now for a while, going up against Manfred's number two, the deputy Commissioner, whose name is Stan Halem. That Meyer and Halem will still duke it out starting in a couple months when negotiations begin. And I say that in air quotes because they're really not going to do much until like next.

00:05:02
Speaker 3: Jeez, Scott, you're putting a loan.

00:05:04
Speaker 1: I'm just being real about how this stuff goes blah blah talk in ten months.

00:05:10
Speaker 3: Yeah, I hope they don't. I saw Bruce last night at the UH Playmakers Classic that we were at, and he was he was happy. He looked relieved. He looks stressed, but when I talked to him, he gave me a hug and relieve. He looks stressed, but then he looked relieved after we talked, and he said, uh, you know, I'm happy that it's over with. I'm very excited to get this job done and now I'm ready to rock and roll. So I think it was the right move for the players to have someone that was already in the room. And the most important part for me is the owners know what they're getting in Bruce Meyer. Whether you love him or hate him as a player, you know what he's gonna do, and he's going to negotiate the hell out of the CBA for his side, which is the players. And listen, we had sky Bar song, We talked Terrek School arbitration case. Bruce Meyer went in there and was the final argument for Trek Scoogle. That's what you want because I know, and I heard this from numerous people when they saw Bruce Meyer. They were not happy on the owner's side when Bruce Meyer sat down, because he knows the CBA, he knows labor law, and he knows how to get things done. So I think this was a nice hire. Now how long will last? I don't know. Bruce, does he have the greatest personality in the world. No, but you're not getting this job for personality. Don fear to have the greatest personality in the world either. So, but he was great at what his job is. And Bruce Meyer's job is to get a win on the CBA for the players and to keep baseball going strong the way it is.

00:06:40
Speaker 2: Todd, can I just bring up an analogy that I think will help this case too.

00:06:44
Speaker 1: So let's say you have an agent and some people are like, Eh, he's not the most fun to get drinks with, or he doesn't totally understand my game, whatever, but he always gets me the best deals are the best contracts. That's their job, right. So you may not like or love the person. I bet Bruce Meyer is not the funniest person in the world. I don't want him to be the funniest person in the world. I want him to be the guy that knows how to say no if he's trying if another entity like MLB is trying to bully the players, right, because they have a billion lawyers, the Player Association is a billion lawyers. Too, But you can't have a guy that's like, yeah, you know what, that's fine, We'll just do that.

00:07:20
Speaker 2: It's okay.

00:07:21
Speaker 4: Yeah, I think you're one hundred percent accurate with that. He's a guy for me.

00:07:27
Speaker 5: When I was there, he went unnoticed, and I think that's, in all fairness, that's a really good thing. These are the type of people that are the quietest in the room, the person that's like, who's that in the corner, I don't recognize him, Oh that's you know, that's Bruce or whomever. But for a guy like this, I said hi to him a couple of times, never really got in depth in conversation. That's the guy I was always looking out for in a good way, you know what I mean. Like, this guy wants to be here and he wants to help out these players, and I you know, whether you love him or hate him, he's the guy now for how long again, we don't know, but he's the guy. I think he's going to put it in his back pocket and say, listen, it's my turn. However, I got this job right now whatever, we're going to put that away, put that to the side. It's my turn to show what I got here.

00:08:13
Speaker 4: Into you know.

00:08:14
Speaker 5: All due respect to the owners, I think they're you know, maybe a little worried here about who is in charge and how new and how different there. Bruce is going to go about his business to protect these players. And we'll see next year, you know, come twenty seven. But ultimately this changes the game for everybody and everyone involved.

00:08:37
Speaker 4: All right.

00:08:38
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00:08:46
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00:09:02
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00:09:10
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00:09:12
Speaker 1: Warby Parker gives you quality and better looking prescription I wear at a fraction of the going price. Our listeners get fifteen percent off plus free shipping when they buy two or more pairs of prescription glasses at Warbyparker dot com slash foul. That's fifteen percent off when you buy two pairs of glasses at wa r by Parker dot com slash foul. After you purchase, they will ask you where you heard about them. Please support our show and tell them foul Territory sent you. Yeah, and Chris Bassett had some really strong public comments over the last few days. But Aje has pointed out that there's a lot of confusion sometimes because if you go back a couple years, there was a group of players that were trying to get a new regime to take over, and Bassett felt like there was a lot of confusion about who you know, is friends with who and who's supposed to talking to who. He's like, you know, some players are like, oh he talks to Boris, No shit, he represents a ton of players. Here's one of the quotes, so Andy Coska pointing this one out from Bassett, who's now on the Orioles MLBPA subcommittee member on the salary cap debate, he said, the CAP's not the issue. Having suppressed salaries across the league's owners can make more money is not the answer. But also he gave credit to Bruce and to Matt Nusbaum, who's now the number two here for having players backs during this investigation that was going on.

00:10:30
Speaker 4: As you know, Tony.

00:10:31
Speaker 1: Clark had the sister in law thing going that we just found out about, and I think it was a shock to many, and that was discovered by this outside firm that was hired because Tony Clark was being investigated by the FEDS. So if they end up finding something with Tony, who is representing the players, you bring in this firm, they start their own investigation, they find out what's going on with Tony outside of the investigation, which was the inappropriate relationship, the Jerry Springer situation going on with Tony and his sister in law. But I'll take the quote here from Bruce Meyer about Tony Clark because he worked for him, right. But he said, I'm not going to say this is a great thing. This is unforeseen. There have been some issues hanging over as you know, and in some respects it's good to get them out of the way sooner rather than later. It's the same so he said, same legal team, same player stance as all of that. But now you don't have the distractions of everything that was going on with Tony.

00:11:28
Speaker 6: Yeah, exactly, Yeah, everything. There was a lot happening, FBI investigations. Do you find this guys trying to get him out? And if you remember Scott, I think it was the CIA's group of guys that kind of banded together and then went, I don't know, I hate to call out certain people.

00:11:43
Speaker 3: And then you know, there was a little bit of.

00:11:45
Speaker 1: We said, say some names Flaherty and uh and gild.

00:11:50
Speaker 2: Yeah, they were part and there were other group.

00:11:53
Speaker 3: What they wanted though, if you remember, is they wanted it. They wanted an audit to see where they were spending the money, right, because I think for years the union has kind of gone un checked. I know, I was in the Union forever and I don't know what they spend all the money. And they took a lot of our money, right, Todd and and they said, oh, we're putting it in at a war chest and they're doing this for later, right. But I mean, and then you got it, you gotta check of it back. But it wasn't always the full amount because they had to spend some for time and for to do things and to you know, fly the the guys around and which is fine. I get that part, but no one has ever checked what they were doing, so that I think that I think if I'm correct, that's kind of where this all started, is they wanted an audit to see what the thing was spending on. The union fought it back, and then after a while they got those guys out because those guys are on the subcommittee. They kicked them out and now here we are with a different subcommittee, and they improved Bruce Meyer. So it's a lot of and it's too much to get way too deep into the weeds, but they I just feel like they chose the right guy. And I think this will unify the players because everywhere you look, oh there's blood in the water. There's blood in the water. Tony's gone, well, guess what, you just brought a bulldog in and Bruce Meyer to clean up that blood.

00:12:57
Speaker 1: Yeah, and he's not held back with any of the actions now, Todd, Sorry, he's not helping.

00:13:02
Speaker 5: No, that's what I was gonna say. It's his game now, you know what I mean. He can step on toes now, he can he can say some things that maybe he's been wanting to say, you know, to a couple of guys on the other side point some fingers, so without you know, being two over the top.

00:13:18
Speaker 4: So it's falls in your court now, so we'll know.

00:13:23
Speaker 3: Todd, he can go over the He can go over the top if he wants. At this point, he can do it because he's in charge now, and I think he's in I think he was named interim, right, so listen, he's got however long this negotiating takes to prove that this is his job, and this is I'm assuming for a labor lawyer, this has got to be a top job. I don't know what he's gonna make or what they make, but I'm sure it's not chump change, right, and if you probably okay, if you're passionate, Todd, if you're passionate about this, sure go ahead.

00:13:50
Speaker 1: So he was making about one and a half mil and Tony Clark was making about three and change. Now in comparison, Rob Manford makes like twenty mil and many of his people around him make tons of money. But you know, some people still look at that. Yeah, it's a lot of money, right, So.

00:14:05
Speaker 4: We don't know. I had no clue, nobody.

00:14:07
Speaker 2: Yeah, those mbers happen to be filed it's it's labor law.

00:14:11
Speaker 5: You know, all right, Yeah, but I'm just saying if you ask all the players, I wouldn't I would say fifty percent at least don't know, which is fine. I'm just saying, and I think AJ brought it up a little bit. There was a lot of stuff, you know, players that we didn't know about, which at the at the time.

00:14:27
Speaker 4: It's like whatever, they're doing their job, good stuff.

00:14:29
Speaker 5: But there's a lot there's a lot of little things where that would go unnoticed and maybe maybe something different here now for the players that they'll know more.

00:14:38
Speaker 4: But yeah, that was it.

00:14:43
Speaker 1: Yeah, So those are those are the numbers. That's as much as we can tell you about what goes on.

00:14:47
Speaker 3: As much as listen. Yeah, but Scott, the money's nice, right, But if you're Bruce Meyer and you want to keep that job and you want to move up to the Tony Clark salary, you go prove it. You have twelve months a year whatever it is till just prove it. Prove it you're behind the players, Prove that you can get a good deal done, because once you do that, then I'm not saying you get four years off after five years or three years or whatever the next CBA is. But then you get time to kind of reload, relax, get all your people in place that you want in place for the next war, which comes, you know, every three, four or five years. It's usually four years they signed these deals for, so it's about every four years when they have these. So if you get a good one and the players are behind you, guess what, You can keep this job for a long time. Ask don for your Ask Marvin Miller, right, the guys that ever, the main people that everyone knows you can keep this job for a long time. And listen, three and a half million foul Territs are ain't even paying todd three and a half million.

00:15:40
Speaker 2: Let me you don't know that.

00:15:42
Speaker 1: Let me tell you this though, because people look at player money, right and they think, oh, that's crazy. But then you're like, hey, they're splitting a pot. Otherwise it's going to you know, an owner who just runs a team and makes plenty of money off that team too, So they're splitting a massive pot. Just to give you perspective, I did the math quickly because actually read an article just randomly last night.

00:16:01
Speaker 2: Couldn't sleep.

00:16:02
Speaker 1: Wall Street Journal top rate right now that's going for the top end lawyers, you know, because.

00:16:07
Speaker 2: They always keep uping it.

00:16:08
Speaker 1: Do you know if it's at now per hour if you get in the tippy top on the competition, thirty five hundred dollars an hour, So if you lay that out over the course of a year, do you know how much money that is salary wise? Seven million dollars.

00:16:24
Speaker 4: I got.

00:16:24
Speaker 5: I got two cousins that just got finished there. So I'm like, you know what smart move law schools.

00:16:32
Speaker 2: Yeah, so it's good living.

00:16:35
Speaker 1: If you're at the top of the class, you can make Obviously there's plenty of lawyers that make one hundred grand. But I'm saying the tippy top are charging thirty five hundred to the Wall Street Journal article from yesterday.

00:16:45
Speaker 3: I saw it. Plus don't know that, Scott. Depending on what kind of article or sorry, what kind of lawyer you are. Let's say you're a class action you know, Morgan and Morgan, whatever you want to call it, you can make way more money because if you hit the side. I know a friend who is one of those guys, and they hit one of those big ones and they are stupid, crazy rich because they you know, they hit these big ones. That are tobacco asbestos. Right, what was the Julia Roberts movie that one time went the water thing in the South? Aaron Brokovitch. Aaron Brockovich, I mean her lawyers made a killing. So if you lawyers, if you like reading, then it's a great profession. If you like arguing, then you become a defense attorney or a prosecutor. But there's a lot of behind the scenes stuff that you can do. That is, you can make a lot of money. How come, by the way, but how come nobody puts a salary cap or wants a salary cap on lawyers?

00:17:40
Speaker 1: Scott, Well, there's not a salary cap on a free market in our world.

00:17:44
Speaker 4: Right.

00:17:45
Speaker 2: If you yeah, you're allowed to make more.

00:17:48
Speaker 1: Yes, this is a free market country and baseball is Americana, And that's why we really should be looking at the reverse end of if you can't spend one penny in the offseason and no offense. But like yesterday, we got a lot of backlash. We're talking to the guardians. They were great with us, but like when they say we basically couldn't do anything in the off season, fans are like, if you can't do anything, are you the right person to be owning the team. I'm talking about the front office. But if you can't spend a dime, maybe you need to re look at how you're running your business. So that's real talk on what's going on here. So hopefully this was informative for everyone. And I will say, to sum it up from a fan perspective, I think that's important because most of the people watching and listening are baseball fans. They don't work within the industry. They go, how does this affect me? It affects you just about zero. It's the same exact people that would be putting together the case to have conversations with the league, like the same exact to a tee. Tony Clark is not the lawyer in this conversation. He wasn't the one doing the negotiating, so almost nothing changes. And yes, if anything, the guy who was doing the lead negotiating now will have more say. So does it affect how the next CBA works yet? Probably a little bit.

00:18:55
Speaker 2: Does it affect the timing if we'll miss games or not?

00:18:58
Speaker 4: Not?

00:18:58
Speaker 1: Really, it's gonna be the same stance from this team and from the players. All right, any questions or anything we missed there if you watch this afterward, drop comments. I know we post this separately on YouTube, and then I'll go back and forth with fans and explain to them how I truly don't care who gets what out of all of this. I just want games to be played and teams to give a crap. Mike Trout leads off hot corner today he is going back to center field for the Angels. Trout has battled injuries for years, and you've got first year manager Kurt Suzuki in there. Trout has a conversation with him in the org and he's like, I've actually feel better in center field. Sounds like he feels as if there's less wear and tear there. And also, this had been discussed for the past couple of years. If he's just eching all the time, he's going to take too many swings. He thinks he'll stay healthiest in center field. We posted about it, and actually I'll show you one reply from Mike Cameron, who manned center fields for a long time in this sport, and he said ego is crazy man.

00:19:57
Speaker 2: Of course he got some pushback for that. I understood what he was saying, right.

00:20:02
Speaker 1: It's like Todd father you're the best in the world for a long period of time, and you feel like you still got it and you can handle it out there, and you desperately want to stay on the field, you know, Troudy. I'm just going to take the organizational side here and just the fan side of watching Mike for years battle through injuries. I know he's taking a lot of swings. If he's a DH, to take less swings, you got a DH. He's got years left on this deal and he's not grading out well in the outfield anymore.

00:20:31
Speaker 2: So what do you do here?

00:20:33
Speaker 1: If you're the Angels and you've got a manager on a one year contract who doesn't want to say no to anybody, let alone the best player.

00:20:41
Speaker 5: Maybe it goes to show you where Mike Trout is right now. Maybe he feels really really good. Maybe it's a thing where he feels like, all of a sudden, if I go in this position and I'm the DH and I'm not playing outfield anymore, it's kind of fizzling my way out of there. I don't mind it. I like always come out. I think it shows confidence. I think it shows his ability of where he's at and his body right now. I don't have all the answers to why he wants to play center field, but I feel like, if that's it and that's what he wants to do, man let him do it. I feel like he wants to show everybody that he can play, you know, one hundred and forty five hundred and fifty games a year and be the guy of old and you know, listen, I don't know how many years he has left in his contract, but it's got it's coming.

00:21:29
Speaker 4: Oh he has a lot, Yeah, he has a lot. Yeah.

00:21:33
Speaker 5: I mean, so listen, I'm not worried. I'm not worried about it. I'm not worried about it at all. I want the guy to go out there and play center field. He's one of the most electric players there is when he's healthy, and I don't see that as a bad choice. But then all he gets hurt, it's going to come back home. Anybody has a chance to get hurt in this game. I think it just goes to show where he is and where he's at in his program and how confident he is of being healthy.

00:21:57
Speaker 3: Here's I agree with you, Todd on that part. But here's here's the one thing I'll say to that though you cover so much more ground in center field. And yes, I understand he's more comfortable out there and he's done it, but you have to cover so much more ground. And what has Mike Trout had most A lot of his issues with right calves and hamstrings and stuff like that. So if you can back right, you have to lessen that. If you're Mike Trout at this age, and I kind of agree with it. You said, if you have to DH some don't take a million swings. Take find a routine, or you take five to ten swings in between you don't take you don't have to take one hundred swings in between the bats. And I mean, we just want to see Mike Trout on the field. And if it's center field, that gives them the best chance. If it's left field, if it's right field, if it's shortstop, if it's first base, if it's DH, whatever it is, baseball is better when Mike Shout's on the field. So if he thinks it can, he can do it. We'll see. Well, we just want Mike Trout on the field, so let's just do whatever helps him stay on the field the most.

00:22:57
Speaker 2: Okay, well, what helps him stay on the field.

00:22:58
Speaker 1: The most is that that he mostly DHD last year.

00:23:03
Speaker 2: He did twenty.

00:23:04
Speaker 1: Two games in right field and one hundred and six as the DH, and he actually appeared in one hundred thirty games last year. It was the most games that he's appeared in since twenty Nope, we're not even in the twenties since twenty nineteen, okay, And there's a lot of like, you know, twenty twenty one, thirty six games, twenty twenty two, one hundred nineteen, twenty three, eighty two games, twenty four to twenty nine games, one hundred thirty games last year. He might not have been totally pleased with his bat, but he still was one hundred and twenty one ops plus. That's a very valuable bat within an organization that always needs offense.

00:23:43
Speaker 2: Right, So I don't know if.

00:23:45
Speaker 1: I need to activate roleplay here, but like, if I'm the organization, then I'm smart about it. I'm like, dude, enough, you're dhing because we haven't to do twenty thirty.

00:23:55
Speaker 2: I don't give if that's what so like, yes, but they can't mistake that was an awful movement.

00:24:05
Speaker 1: And if only there was a show that absolutely torched that move let me know if you find it.

00:24:11
Speaker 2: Oh, is this one?

00:24:12
Speaker 3: I'm gonna look.

00:24:14
Speaker 2: Okay, there's a billion clips from it.

00:24:18
Speaker 5: Let me ask you this question with what Mike Cameron said, ego was crazy. Man, you could take that a couple of different ways.

00:24:23
Speaker 1: Now, yeah, so fans thought that he meant like, oh, Trout is an ego.

00:24:29
Speaker 2: We all know Trout.

00:24:30
Speaker 1: He's humble, he's nice, he is he is a great personality. To me, I took it as Cameron saying, Hey, you want to be the guy forever, right. Nick Castianos just moved on from a team. And what was part of what sparked that the team saying, hey, dude, you're not grading out well defensively anymore, and so we don't want you out in the outfield. We want to mix it up. We're going to replace you in a game. And he got pissed. So to me, there's this confidence level here. I'll bring up the end now, top father. A player gets hurt, or even someone that's not a pro athlete gets hurt, they think they can return in five minutes, and you want to return in five minutes.

00:25:08
Speaker 2: But sometimes you got to take your time.

00:25:09
Speaker 1: So for this one, for me, it's like, hey, centerfield's not the spot for you anymore.

00:25:14
Speaker 2: You don't grade well there, and we got to keep you on the field.

00:25:18
Speaker 1: You're getting paid a ton of money through twenty thirty, so DH worked. And if you feel like you're taking, like Aj said, you take it too many swings, you're a human being.

00:25:25
Speaker 2: Take less swings. I don't feel like this is complicated.

00:25:28
Speaker 1: But the Angels, I think, feel like they're in a tough spot because they have a manager on a one year deal. If the manager's on a three year deal, he's he's almost taken his deal through the end of Trat's deal, and he's like, listen, bro, I want to get along with you, but I want to win games, and I'm going to put a better outfield out there. Really, I am going to put some blame on perrimanation here because I've been I've been trusting his process for years and I'm starting to turn there Todd Father, because I thought the Solaier move was a disaster and it almost put them in a corner where they had to put Trout in the outfield because Solaire's not going to play the outfield much or shouldn't. Okay, what he should be doing is like this offseason, I'd be going after Harrison Bater, so Trout can't even look at center field because you know, Bader is one of the best in the biz out there, so I'm spending money on that so that I don't have this problem, because it would be hard for Trout to sit down with Kurtzuzuki and be like, I should play center field. But they're looking right now, like who's playing centerfield?

00:26:17
Speaker 5: Okay, I'll play it, Yeah, yeah, who else are they're going to put out there?

00:26:25
Speaker 3: Dude's well. Adella last year was the guy who played center fields. He wasn't bad, was he? I don't know the number.

00:26:30
Speaker 1: No, I'd rather have him, but he doesn't grade well as far as I remember either. I mean, he made plenty of mistakes last year, but I would rather have him out there fresh legs than than Trout, who's had trouble staying on the field.

00:26:43
Speaker 2: Yeah, but.

00:26:45
Speaker 1: I mean Josh Slow's there now, but I think he's better in a corner.

00:26:48
Speaker 4: I don't know it's in.

00:26:50
Speaker 3: Listening, but whatever. In as far as Cammi's comments my Cameron, I think, yes, there comes a point in everyone's career. Todd you went through. I went through it where you have to look yourself in the mirror and say, I can't do what I could do at twenty five years old. I'm thirty plus. Now I need to take less swings. Hey, maybe I need to catch less or I need to play the field less.

00:27:11
Speaker 2: Right.

00:27:12
Speaker 3: It kind of happens to everybody. Heck, even Tom Brady had to freaking succumb to father time at a certain point, and he thought he'd played for till he was seventy because he didn't need tomatoes. Right, So you have to look yourself in the mirror and say, man, I can't do this every day in centerfield. If it's best for me to stay on the field, and listen, Mike wants to do it. They're gonna let Mike do it, whether his manager's on a one year deal, a five year deal, whatever, because he's still might trout. But whatever Mike helps you get on the field, please do that because I want to see you play more.

00:27:46
Speaker 4: Agree.

00:27:49
Speaker 5: So inconclusion, yeah, it's still his team at the end of the day, So I mean, listen.

00:27:54
Speaker 2: I agree.

00:27:55
Speaker 1: But like, okay, so let's say there is somebody that's that's thinking they're going to be there beyond this year, because this is part of the problem, and this is where there's always an ownership issue.

00:28:04
Speaker 2: Right.

00:28:04
Speaker 1: People are on like year to year situations basically there, so it puts you in a tougher spot to be able to back something up when Trout's going to be there longer than you. Let's say I'm Kurt Zuzuki and I'm on a longer term deal, so I feel more stable in my position and Todd Father we have an offseason chat. Hey, Trouty, you played one hundred and thirty games last year, Bro, that was way more than you'd played previously, and we want you to stay on the field. You can be our best bat. Your defense has been great in the past. You're in your mid thirties and it's not great and as well anymore. And I can't see you, but I feel like you're probably doing that thing where you kind of roll your eyes and you rotate your finger, like, yeah, keep going, Kurt, but I need you to mostly DH and then play a little bit of corner outfields a skipper.

00:28:55
Speaker 5: I haven't got a grade since high school. I'm not worried about grades. I'm worried about getting on the field and helping this team. I gotta go because I got another workout to tend to. We'll talk and spring.

00:29:05
Speaker 1: Okay, great, so I know you hung up, but I'll have you hitting third dhing on opening Day.

00:29:10
Speaker 2: Awesome. Thanks, But I mean to me aj like it's hurting the team. It is. I'm sorry.

00:29:15
Speaker 1: Like his percentage chance of getting hurt is much higher in centerfield. We all know that that's a fact.

00:29:20
Speaker 4: But everybody has a percentage chance of getting hurt. Scott.

00:29:22
Speaker 5: That's where I'm not trying to argue with you. I'm just telling, yeah, he's been hurt a lot more. But if he's healthy and he's not rehabbing or getting massaged out after every game and ice and this and that, if he's if he's there, which we don't know hopefully he is, then I'm not worried about him.

00:29:40
Speaker 1: Man, Let him go play DH and some corner outfield he doesn't want to.

00:29:46
Speaker 2: Centerfield is a demanding position.

00:29:48
Speaker 1: It's it's one of the most demanding positions, and you need you need someone out there that's that's a stud.

00:29:53
Speaker 2: At the position.

00:29:55
Speaker 4: He's still a stud at that episode.

00:29:57
Speaker 2: Stud Bat, stud Bat.

00:30:00
Speaker 1: I'm taking a hard stance on this one, because this is a team that needs to win every game they can. And I just feel like we always talk about these stories that wouldn't be a thing with another team. Another team would have had a center fielder in there that they feel really good about, and then it would put Trott in a position where he couldn't even ask for centerfield.

00:30:17
Speaker 5: I want to go back. You don't think he's a good center fielder when he's healthy.

00:30:21
Speaker 2: Not anymore? No, not above average, not anymore.

00:30:25
Speaker 4: All right, Well we'll disagree on that one too.

00:30:27
Speaker 1: Perfect storm right, He's not an above average center fielder. He's been injured a lot. He actually stayed on the field as a DH. I love the guy, I love the player. I want him playing as many games as possible every time. This happens almost every year besides last year. Obviously you didn't miss as much time. When he goes down, you just feel like someone popped a balloon and you're like, all right, and Traut got hurt and the Angels are toast.

00:30:50
Speaker 5: You got to put money on yourself and if you if you're confident enough and you feel that way, I want to play. I want to play center field, like go ahead, go ahead, you think Angels are winning the World Series?

00:31:02
Speaker 1: No, but I think I think if the Angels want to shock the world and win eighty two games or whatever the heck, their goal is, you need a full fledged Trout, hey, j I mean if you were the manager, would you be okay with this? Would you be like, yeah, go for it, knowing that there is a higher percentage chance he's gonna get hurt and it's going to screw your team over.

00:31:20
Speaker 3: Scott, I'm gonna ask you this. Do you remember the time that Bryce Harper got bench for not running a ball out by Matt Williams? He was not on a one year contract and who got fired from the Nationals.

00:31:32
Speaker 2: But wait, what does that have to do with it?

00:31:34
Speaker 3: Not Bryce Harper? You said, if I'm the manager on the long term deal, I'm telling him he ain't playing center field, Dude, Matt Williams tried to out Bryce Harper. Guess who was not in Washington very long after that? Not Bryce Harper. Right, Mike Trout is the icon of the Angels franchise for a long time. Now, Mike Trout wants to play center field, you give him a shot. If it doesn't work out after a month, you say, Mike, you're banged up. Here's the metrics. Right you pull out the I old iPad and you say, Mike, here's the metrics. The defensive run saves ain't great. Now we're gonna try someone else. And then you go to whatever his DRSS were last year in right field and you say, Mike, you were better in right field last year, or you're gonna be better in left field. We need you to play there. And then if Mike says no, then you have another conversation. But for right now, you give him the shot in spring training, You give him a month or whatever it takes, and if it's not working out, then you go to him. But right now, he's Mike Trout and he's got he's earned that right to try.

00:32:31
Speaker 1: Okay, that's fine. I mean, I see what you guys are saying. I just disagree. I would have had the combo now because I already had the years.

00:32:38
Speaker 3: I guarantee you, I guarantee you. They've already had this conversation. Why do you think he played right field last year? Because they had this conversation. Why do you think he dh last year? They had this conversation. Mike Trout went in the off season, built a new golf course, worked out probably the best shape of his life. Right here, he is, I want to play center field. You give him the shot. The Angels aren't winning the World Series more than likely, right right, American League West, Mariners, Astros, Rangers, Athletics are all probably better than the Angels. Correct. Correct, Give him a shot.

00:33:10
Speaker 1: Okay, I don't think it's gonna go well, but I hear you it's not really gonna matter. That's actually a good way over there, Non negative, Nancy. I'm only saying it because he's missed so much time. When you guys miss that much time and he's thirty four years old, you don't put him in center field.

00:33:28
Speaker 4: I get it. I get it.

00:33:30
Speaker 5: But if he's telling me as a manager, hey skip, I work this offseason.

00:33:34
Speaker 4: I feel good.

00:33:35
Speaker 5: I'm I'm ready to get back in the center field. I want to prove to everybody I have no fluke. I'm gonna help this team win. I'm gonna be a leader. And guess what, you're first team manager. What will you say to that? You're like, you know what? Gave me goosebumps? Right there, let's go. The Mike Trout of old is coming back and guess what, like AJ just said, Honestly, if he's not getting the balls, if all of a sudden, you know, he made an error here or there, or he's like man and you know what, I need a break by DH mean put me there.

00:34:04
Speaker 4: Yeah, then do it.

00:34:05
Speaker 5: But if he looks if he looks good, and you get involved, which I still disagree with you. I still think he's above average center fielder, We'll see what happens there. But spring training's gonna tell a lot. Spring training's gonna tell a whole heck of a lot because he's gonna do with four or five innings, take a day off, maybe two, another four or five, you know, and it's gonna ramp up a little bit.

00:34:24
Speaker 2: That's fair, right.

00:34:25
Speaker 1: You let him run around in spring training and see what it looks like and see how he feels.

00:34:29
Speaker 2: Okay, next up. Injury not good.

00:34:33
Speaker 1: We've talked about it a little bit, but it sounds more serious than initially anticipated. And we don't even know as of now, unless there's something that's come out in the last like thirty to sixty minutes. Jordan Westburg is hurt for the Orioles and he is a very valuable piece of the puzzle Jacob Calvin Meyer with the tweet from this morning to help explain what's going on there. Manager Craig Albernaz, when asked if Westburg's injury to whatever body parts, since they won't say, we don't know, it could be oblique, elbow is worse than originally feared. Quote, just want to make sure that we're doing our diligence and make sure Jordan isn't the best chance to play this year. And then Calvin Meyer put at the bottom this year question mark. So aj when we initially learned about the oblique because he had some imaging done also on his elbow. This is from the Baltimore Banner saying that he underwent imaging on the elbow. Prognosis is to be determined. Currently unable to participate at camp. So we initially heard about the oblique and then you know, it was like, oh, they'll slow play it, but he should be ready for spring training. So I'm gonna like give the educated guest that it's more elbow related at this point, that's the bigger concern, and then we'll see what happens here. But this would be a huge blow. They've got some depth there in the infield. But Westburg is an all star caliber player.

00:35:50
Speaker 3: Yeah, he's one of the leaders on this team. If you talk to the Orioles, I'll tell you that Jordan Osburg is a big leader for him. Orhere'd the elbow come from? We were all talking oblique, like Todd, what happened? He was doing some crunches he heard an elbow, like what happened? Because remember the whole talk was early on, like you said, Scott Oblik oblk oblique and now and the thing that's weird is when you said when Craig Alberna said the year, like, is he gonna miss the whole year? A bleak? Is you know, it could be a month or two, but elbow, I guess could be a year if you get the old Thomas Jonas.

00:36:21
Speaker 5: Tomas Jean. Yeah, this is this is different. This is different than what we've expected, and specifically for me, when you hear about an injury you don't hear much about and then it finally comes out what it was, not the exact prognosis, then you're like, hmm, okay, why were they trying to hide this a little bit more? I've had tons of o bleaks I'm sure AJ has. They're painting the in the side, literally, but eventually they do go away after about you know, twenty five thirty days. Elbow knock on wood man, it's scary, so there could be a whole bunch of things in there, you know, hoping it's maybe a little tenlbow or something. So he takes a couple of weeks off and he's fine. But position player with an elbow, that kind of scary it is.

00:37:10
Speaker 1: And hey, AJ, they kept Mountcastle. I mean, Ken has talked about how he might be on the trade block, but Kobe Mayo is still there, so you're able to mix the match a little bit and fill the spot with someone who could be a regular big leaguer, you know, a full time player.

00:37:29
Speaker 2: Those guys got to prove something good position I know, yeah, you guys.

00:37:32
Speaker 3: You know Mountcastle has had some good years, he's had some injuries. To Kobe Mayo hasn't proven anything. I'm sorry. I mean, he's been a prospect forever and he every time he comes up he doesn't hit, which is what's supposed to be his tool. So maybe this SERI he figures it out. But Jordan Westberg, you know this when he's in there, he's going to give you a good at bat and he's going to hit you some power. He's a good defender, and like I said earlier, if you talk to guys in the oriols, they'll say Jordan Westberg is a leader in that room and that's important.

00:38:00
Speaker 2: Yeah, he's a stud.

00:38:01
Speaker 1: Hopefully it's not too bad for him, but it sounds like Westbrook and Holiday will not start the season for Baltimore, a team that's looking to rebound from what was a disaster year.

00:38:12
Speaker 5: Results come to Blue Jays first, first two months, watch out, they might take us commandingly.

00:38:18
Speaker 1: Well, that actually perfectly transitions us to the New York Yankees and Ryan McMahon. McMahon might get some reps at shortstop in spring. Todd Father, do you like this? I mean, he's a supreme defender over at third. How about a little shortstop time to see if he can be a backup option if needed. According to manager Aaron Boone, I mean those Yankees are going to be chasing the Blue Jays, you would think all year battling it out with them. What do you think about McMahon getting some time over there at shortstop? Since you know you're not gonna have Vulpi to start the year and his caballero and everyday shortstop.

00:38:52
Speaker 5: Yeah, it's okay, I mean nothing that's going to be like whoa man, that's a really good idea. I like him over at third base and anything I is a versatile enough to play shortstop most likely. Most likely there are two different positions, a lot more ground to cover at shortstop, a lot more stuff. You gotta worry about, double plays, you know, tagging guys out, being the leader a little bit more there too, as well.

00:39:16
Speaker 4: Positioning.

00:39:19
Speaker 5: It's a different ballgame and the field looks that much bigger when you go to shortstop. So I do like I'm a third He'll be the third baseman, but you have to have a backup. Maybe there's something else they got going on in case they got to move him over and put somebody else there at third base. I know Rosario is an option. There's all different types of players you can put there, but the more natural position is third base.

00:39:43
Speaker 3: Scot or tug. Do you know the hardest position to find in a lot of times for a baseball team is do you know you guys know what that is? A backup utility player that can play shortstop in case your shortstop goes down, that guy is super valuable if you can find a utility guy that can play shortstop when if your shortstop goes down for a week or two weeks or a month, that guy is There's you can't put a value on that guy for a team to know that that guy is there, because the great shortstop is his second for me only to the great catcher as far as importance on a team, because they command the infield, they command everything, and and it's tough. Now can a man do it, probably, but can he do it for a long period of time, we don't know. But according to what Scott said, if if Scott said like Scott said about Mike Trout, I'm not telling him. I'm just telling him he can't do it. So Scott, he can't play it because you said it.

00:40:40
Speaker 2: They're saying Ryan McMahon can't play shortstop.

00:40:43
Speaker 3: Yeah, because he you know, he's willing to and they're gonna give him a shot, Scott. So since Mike Trout can't do it, McMahon can't do it because you said it in role play with your phone.

00:40:52
Speaker 2: The phone, that's a troll comment, they said, totally. Situation is a little different.

00:41:01
Speaker 1: Right Man is a nice third, but he's no Mike Trout and that's what's causing this problem. You should be able to, as a manager put your chest pieces in the best position to win you games.

00:41:12
Speaker 2: Period.

00:41:13
Speaker 1: Every player says the same thing, I want to win the most games possible. Cool, let me tell you how to win the most games possible.

00:41:19
Speaker 2: We know it and it's you playing.

00:41:21
Speaker 3: Every player games, hold on, hold on. Every player says that every Every.

00:41:26
Speaker 1: Player publicly says that some of them might be full of shit, but every player publicly does every player not say my number one, number one goal this year, Sam Kennedy, as possible, did Sam Kennedy.

00:41:37
Speaker 3: Say that Raffi Devers did that when he would pick up the glove, Remember he would pick he would pick up the glove. We needed to play first. He wouldn't pick up the glove.

00:41:44
Speaker 2: That was Tom Warner. That's a different Red Sox Detective.

00:41:47
Speaker 1: Sam Kennedy talked about how he basically kind of dodged the question about Alex Bregman and the no trade clause, which is weird and I cannot wait to talk to Bregman at some point and just be like, hey, dude, I think we should just lay it out once and for all. We're the reds going to give you no trade cause guarantee you. He's going to say no, and then I don't know what the Red Sox response to that.

00:42:05
Speaker 2: Is, But okay, sorry, I got Mountain around the al East.

00:42:10
Speaker 3: I got, I got my Boston executives with strange quotes, confused, I apologize.

00:42:15
Speaker 2: No, You're good.

00:42:16
Speaker 1: They were all strong candidates for Dork of the Week this This was probably in our history of Fair Territory, one of the most rigorous battles. And I actually don't even know which one got chosen because there was probably five or six Dork of the Week candidates this week for Kennon Alana and I didn't get to watch the end of the episode because we have our show, so I will be listening to that on Apple Podcasts on my car ride home after this show.

00:42:39
Speaker 2: But let's get to that's what he said.

00:42:42
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's what he said.

00:42:43
Speaker 2: That's what he said, that's what he said. That's what he said.

00:42:50
Speaker 1: All right, So let's spin forward the Chris Bryant conversation. He's on the sixty day il. He has barely played since being a member of the Rockies. He is at camp, and he did speak, so let's listen to what he said and then we'll talk about it.

00:43:05
Speaker 7: But yeah, it's difficult.

00:43:06
Speaker 2: It's not.

00:43:09
Speaker 7: Easy waking up in pain every day. So yeah, so now we're here, and I think just trying to determine next steps while I'm here and with the training staff and the doctors.

00:43:26
Speaker 1: So I mean, to me, when I hear that Todd father, I don't feel like he's ever gonna play again.

00:43:31
Speaker 2: I mean, he's in significant back pain. He's got a.

00:43:34
Speaker 1: Degenerative whatever it's called chronic back situation. You know, my questions are is he going to ever play again? Nobody knows, you know, except for maybe doctors and him. And then also, is there nothing that can be done? You're like where we're at with medicine. You know, if somebody's waking up in massive amounts of pain and they're in their early thirties, that's a problem for anybody.

00:43:55
Speaker 5: Yeah, And not to be an example, but that happened to me at the end of my career. Just anytime I woke up in the middle of the night or in that morning, it took me a good.

00:44:06
Speaker 4: Two three hours sometimes four hours just to be able to walk upright.

00:44:10
Speaker 5: And it's you know, I don't know what a pain he's experiencing, the general dist disease and the lumbar I mean, nothing, nothing compares to you. Your back is, you know, right in the middle there, and I just I feel for the guy man, and you know, for him to come out and say that, I hope there's something they can do. I'm not going to count him out just yet, but this could be a whole year long process. I mean there's a lot they can do. Surgery, I don't know, you know, can they give them, you know, a couple of needles here to maintain it? We have no clue, but you can see it on his face and the way he's talking. You feel for the guy man because he is He's a great dude. He's a great player and love playing against him.

00:44:55
Speaker 3: It's sad. It's just sad, that's it. It's just sad that he didn't beget to become what everyone thought he would become when he first came up with the Cubs in twenty fifteen, twenty sixteen, twenty seventeen, that that great run the Cubs had there.

00:45:09
Speaker 2: So.

00:45:11
Speaker 3: Remember he was the original guy for the player manipulation of service time. And remember they had the billboard for I think it was Adidas that had the big billboard let's get Chris Bryan here whatever, right outside Wrigley. It was a shame. It's a shame because everyone thought he was on a Hall of Fame track. You know, I think you were a Rooie of the Year in MVP. They won a World Series in Chicago. Then he gets traded it didn't work out there. Then he signs this huge deal with the Rockies and he hasn't been able to play, and if he never plays again, the amount of games that he's gonna miss. I mean, you could put this contract is one of the worst contracts of all time. Whoever you want to Strasburg, Rendel, whatever, whoever, Chris Davis, whoever you want to throw out there, is the worst contracts of all time. This Chris Bryan won is definitely gonna be on the list if he doesn't play again. And it's in the biggest part of what people understand is it's sad. It's just sad. This guy's played baseball's entire life. Now it's going to be taken away from something that is kind of out of his control. It's just sad. It's just sad for Chris and his family. And I know he made a lot of money, but it's still sad.

00:46:11
Speaker 1: And if you want to learn more about the injury, we have an injury Territory show. Will Carol injury Expert covers it. And just to give you a sneak peek, I mean, he said players do not come back from this, so he's not thinking that he's going to play again. And that would be one hundred and seventy games played with the Rockies out of a possible one thy one thirty four, so fifteen percent of games in that seven year contract.

00:46:35
Speaker 2: And yeah, this is not.

00:46:37
Speaker 1: Like a player going out there under performing because when he played the first year of Colorado, I think he got hurt at some point during that season, but he was hitting pretty well.

00:46:45
Speaker 2: I'm looking real quick.

00:46:46
Speaker 1: I think he had like one twenty eight ohps plus, which is pretty close to a lot of the numbers he was putting up before that. But then once once he went down, I mean, he just has not been able to pick it back up. So it sounds like something chronic that could knock him out for the rest of his career, got a few extra minutes for slap.

00:47:13
Speaker 2: So I got two things.

00:47:14
Speaker 4: Prepped for you.

00:47:16
Speaker 1: Actually, first we're going to start with Sean Manaia, a former athletic spending a little time in a college bullpen in casual clothing spotted. You know, he pitched for what Indiana State and he's at their game going up against Miami.

00:47:37
Speaker 2: So he was down in Coral Gables and he hung out in the bullpen with the guys. To me, that's pretty cool.

00:47:45
Speaker 1: You got a big league accomplished pitcher in there who used to pitch, you know, out of school. That's not pumping out big leaguers left and right. If he calls and he's like, hey, I can stop by, I'd be like, cool, you can do whatever you want. You want to sit in the dugout in the Freedom bullpen for a game. And Sean is also one of the nicest guys in the sport too. He went like the Nice Guy Award I think last year in New York when he was with the Mets. So you know, pop father pretty cool, right.

00:48:08
Speaker 4: Yeah, that is pretty cool. And you know he didn't step on toes either.

00:48:11
Speaker 5: He didn't go in the dugout you know, some people are probably like, oh, you should have did this and that went to the outfield. You know, shoot the shit with a couple of guys, maybe go over a couple different placements of the ball in your hand, just talk shop. And they were in the game there until late, you know, against the top twenty five Miami team. So that's got to be really exciting. The bullpen coach looked like he was having a good time there. Somebody was warming up. Looked like he just came off the street and was just, hey, man, do you mind if I sit next to you. He's that type of dude. He's a chill and to come back to where he used to play and you know, talk a little shop about pitching.

00:48:49
Speaker 4: I mean, everybody should have been around him right there. It was so cool.

00:48:54
Speaker 3: It was awesome. It was awesome. He went back. His alma mater was down there. He went back, and of course he wants in the bullpen talk to the guys. Why not. I mean, he's in spring training right there in Port Saint Lucy drove down to Miami, and what a thrill for those kids, What a throw for those kids that are in college in Indiana State to have shanm and I. I sit next to him and talk to him, and I thought it was awesome. As someone that has a kid playing in college, if there was somebody that came down and talked to him and helped him a little bit, if not only in baseball, on life and from what I know of Sean ma and I, he seems like a great guy. So if you can get someone like that to come in and speak to your children and they help them, I'm all for it.

00:49:31
Speaker 4: Yep, no doubt.

00:49:34
Speaker 2: All right, let's get to one little move that went down.

00:49:38
Speaker 1: Minor league signing, but a guy who could crack the big league team, Mitch Garber agreeing with the Mariners on a minor league contract. He's thirty five years old, he spent the last two years with the Mariners. He's going to compete for the backup catcher job to Cal Raley. So they also have Andrew Kisner on that roster right now. So AJ, if you're in Kisner spot, are you pay when you see something like this or is it pretty standard where someone comes into camp and you see what happens.

00:50:07
Speaker 3: It's pretty standard. Also, remember Garb didn't catch a whole lot of games, right He went a while. Remember, for a while, they're like, he can't catch at all. He didn't catch for a long time when he signed that deal with the Mariners originally, and then finally they're like, well, we got to really catch him at some point. I think he went like a year and a half or someone without catching. And remember they eased him in. They ran it like a spring training game. He caught like five innings and cal Rawley came in and caught the rest of the game, so he wasn't catching a whole lot. If your kissner, you're like, okay, well it's another battle. We'll see what happens. But it's the big leagues. You got to compete and you got to produce if you want to keep your job.

00:50:44
Speaker 4: Exactly.

00:50:45
Speaker 5: Competition is healthy, it's healthy. You know, sign him in what they said as a minor league deal too as well. Yeah, there's competition, but you got to understand your worth and you know what you were brought up to be. Play your game and everything will take care of itself.

00:51:01
Speaker 1: One more minor league signing, because we didn't get to it the other day and a couple of people were asking us about it and just for info for anyone. Minor league signing means that the team can essentially cut you and it'll cost them nothing. Right, it's not a guaranteed big league contract. If you're a big leaguer, then you get paid whatever the deal is that you could make millions of dollars on a minor league contract. I believe Dylan Moore signed a contract where if he cracks the big you know, he gets like three million bucks whatever it is. So it just doesn't guarantee that the player is going to get whatever he's signing for. Walker Buehler signed a minor league contract with the San Diego Padres. Everyone knows Bueller for his Dodger days. That's when he shined and he's bounced around a little bit now. But he'll get a chance to crack a Padres rotation. They're bringing in a few of these flyers ag. I know you guys talked about the Padres the other day. They had so much news that day with Castiano signing and aj Preller signing the extension. I feel like under the radar went Harmon Marquez and Scriffin, Canning and now Walker Buehler, all guys that have a legit shot to be a part of this rotation.

00:52:05
Speaker 3: Depth. It's all depth. What do we say they didn't have enough pitching, they didn't have those teams? What do the Dodgers do? What do the good teams do? The Blue Jays build depth. If you have enough depth, you get through the season. If everyone works out, you get to the postseason, and then you move some guys to the bullpen if you need to and just add depth. You need depth to get through the season. These are nice depth pieces that can help the Padres win this year.

00:52:27
Speaker 1: And are all three of those guys going to be part of the Padres rotation for the season.

00:52:31
Speaker 2: Absolutely not.

00:52:32
Speaker 1: But even if one of them makes it through and becomes a factor, then it was great Canning's recovering. I don't know if he's ready yet anyway, but he was off to a nice start with the Mets. It looked like they unlocked something when he went from the Angels to the Mets. Herman Marquez used to have some good times and it's coming off you know, this will be his first full season coming off injury. I know he wasn't good last year, but also he finally gets out of Colorado and it's not just the environment there it's also for marquees joining a different pitching program. The Rockies up until this year were probably pretty far behind. Now they're bringing in a new staff, but maybe Marquez is able to find something. So that rotation right now is King Paveta, Musgrove, Randy Vazquez, and then could be Marquez, eventually could be Canning, could be Walker Buehler. And lastly, we look at the spring training tour calendar as we'll put a little check mark after today on the Ace foul Territory. Spring training calendar is engineered by Fast and All, So thank you to the a's for Katze and Rooker and Jacob Wilson was great. And then Dodger Camp tomorrow Saturday is Mariners Camp Live, Rangers Camp Live on Sunday next week Brewers, Reds, Cubs, Diamondbacks, Giants, and that'll finish up our Arizona.

00:53:47
Speaker 2: Portion of the tour before we flip it over to Florida.

00:53:51
Speaker 1: So Dodger Camp tomorrow, AJ you'll have a lot of Rizzo helping you out there too.

00:53:56
Speaker 2: Todd Father will be there.

00:53:57
Speaker 1: I will be annoying everyone in the chat, whether you like me, love me, or absolutely despise my haircut.

00:54:04
Speaker 2: I will be in the chat with.

00:54:05
Speaker 3: You tomorrow.

00:54:08
Speaker 2: And wait on my way out. This is how I want to say goodbye. This is important. I wrote this down from yesterday.

00:54:13
Speaker 1: I watched the whole live stream last night. So for Todd Father, the former Derby champ, I'm Scott Braun.

00:54:19
Speaker 2: And for the hit Machine, thank you, I love you. Alex call loved AJ growing up. He called him the Machine as a kid. Yes see you Friday, Come Voya.