Is the Ohtani rule stunting unicorns? Are the Texas Rangers TOAST?

00:00:02
Speaker 1: In the weeds powered by Arena Club. I mean, the most popular card in the marketplace is Sho Tani. Right, why are there not more show? Hey Otani's let's just start their period because.

00:00:15
Speaker 2: It's really impossible, almost impossible to do. Okay, But that's why there hasn't been any Babe Ruth. One hundred years.

00:00:22
Speaker 1: Ago, Donnie Joseph wrote an article in The Athletic about how Otani was supposed to usher in a two way player revolution, and included in the article is that rule change that might be preventing it, which we'll get into in a second. I just want to preface what I said when I say Otani, I mean anybody that can pitch and hit in the big leagues not be a superstar at both. It's too hard to even get It's too hard an average player.

00:00:50
Speaker 2: It's too hard.

00:00:52
Speaker 1: You think that's the only way.

00:00:53
Speaker 2: One can't recover enough. And the guys who have tried to do it, like remember Brooks Kishnik back in the day, he tried to do it, but he was a reliever, remember him, like, he.

00:01:01
Speaker 1: Tried to fine though. I mean Michael Lorenzen is a more recent example, but he couldn't do it.

00:01:05
Speaker 2: Either I mean, because you either don't pitch well enough or you don't hit well enough. There's there's one guy, that guy right there, Shoo Tani, that can do both. He's he's the only one I've ever seen that was able to do both. Either you get hurt and you can't hit, or you get hurt and you can't pitch and you're too tired. Plus nobody else is six five, two forty or whatever that show a and runs like a deer and is just the super athletes. Like, there's one this guy when we like when we say he's a unicorn, This dude is a unicorn. He is one of one. There's one guy and his name is shoe Heo Tani. And there have been others of Brenda McKay. He was drafted as a two way guy. He got hurt a lot. All these guys have tried it, Yeah, but one of them isn't good enough. There's one guy that can do this. There's been two guys in the history of baseball do this. Bay Ruth who didn't really pitch and hit at the same time. He pitched and then he hit kind of and then show Heo TONI. Other than that that's been hit. Nobody else can do this. It's a it's all, it's next to impossible to do this.

00:02:02
Speaker 1: Guys frequently it's too hard. Obviously in college, but then even in the pros. I mean there's recent guys. Jack Kaglion was a star in college.

00:02:11
Speaker 2: Jack Kaglean is a I'm a Gator fan. I watch Jack kagly on play almost every game. He wasn't a pitcher.

00:02:18
Speaker 1: He was a hitter.

00:02:19
Speaker 2: I mean he threw hard, he could he could throw kind of hard through well, but he didn't throw a lot of strikes, right, I mean, he was a good college pitcher, right, he was. He was an above average college pitcher. But what is he What can he be as a big league He could be a fifty homer guy for a forty to fifty homer guy every year, That's what they what happens is Team C one. They said, well if he can, if you they go to these players and they say, hey, Jack, you could be a forty to homer guy every year, or you could be a twenty homer guy and a seven and seven pitcher every year? Which one would you rather be? And he's like, I'll take the forty homers in five hundred million check please.

00:02:52
Speaker 1: I'll add one to you, and if you make a decision, you will be in the big league significantly. Quicker example right now now, Nolan McLean, he was a two way player in the pros. They're like, you should pitch, you'll be up pretty quick. Boom, he's up for the mats.

00:03:08
Speaker 3: I've never seen Nolan McLean play the field. I've seen Brendan McKay when they first when he first came up and cron Zone. I faced Cronzone in the minor leagues. I faced him back to back nights. Came out of bullpen. The first night he opened. The second night he came out of the He came out of a bullpen. He opened, he was ninety four to ninety six.

00:03:31
Speaker 1: I think.

00:03:33
Speaker 3: Whacked him because I didn't whack him, but straight heater. Next night he comes out, he was ninety one to ninety three. He played the rest of the game at second base, the night before at shortstop, I think, and then he played the next game at shortstop, and then he came Then he came in and pitched like it's a It is hard to do. Yesterday, AJ was talking about how banana ball is like good baseball. There are people who can do really good baseball things. In a banana ball game. Two way guys, they can do really good baseball things. Jake Croninworth hit ninety six on the radar gun in the game I saw him. Brendan McKay threw left handed. His swing was good. But the big leagues are that much better. The big leagues, you have to be that much better to play the position you're playing that day, and to have to do that at two positions, it doesn't happen. It just doesn't happen. It's too hard. And in my opinion, they shouldn't have a rule that's league wide that affects one player one player.

00:04:43
Speaker 1: That's what this article is about. So let's dive into that for part two of this discussion. So this article said, starting in twenty twenty, the Otani Rule altered who qualified to have two way classification on an official roster. To officially get that distinction, a pitcher or player would need to pitch in twenty innings and play at least twenty MLB games as a position player or a DH with at least three played appearances in each game, and either the current or previous season. That matters because, of course, if you're a two way player, it doesn't count towards the limit of thirteen pitchers on a twenty six man roster. Jake Croninworth is quoted in this story saying that held him back. He said, he got reps pitching in Triple A like Crats is talking about through bullpen sessions when he was acquired by the Padres. But he said, quote, why does somebody need to qualify for something they've already proven they can do in college or the minor leagues, and all of a sudden they have to qualify to do it in the major leagues. To me, that doesn't make any sense. Now you're taking away this guy's natural ability to do two things at a high level, and now you have to make them basically earn it again. So he said, And outside of getting the two way classification, the only way a hitter can pitch in a game or vice versa would be in a game that goes to extras or when their team's either winning or trailing by six runs or more in a contest. That's when we see the position players pop up. So Cronenworth said, you could go four games where you have that, you could go three weeks where you never have that. So you're getting put on the roster is a hitter, but you're a two way guy. You can only pitch in certain situations. So if you put a guy on the roster as a pitcher, you're now taking away that bullpen spot, which is critical to teams. I'm adding that part and then corona Work said that was really the thing that hurt all the two way guys.

00:06:14
Speaker 2: Makes sense. What he's saying makes sense. They made this role for the show. Hey, right, they made this rule for show, Hay, is it right? Not if it if it's affecting other people from being able to do it, that's what so they would have Like what they're saying basically is corona Worth had to be designated a two way guy, but because he didn't qualify with enough innings or on the mound, then he would count as a pitcher and a hitter. And you're really only playing twenty five against twenty six is basically what they're playing in a pitcher short, which is the bigger problem.

00:06:46
Speaker 1: No team wants to do that team wants to guys up, so they're like, hey, go this route go that route.

00:06:52
Speaker 2: Now they change that rule though after a Taani missed the year last year.

00:06:56
Speaker 1: Didn't they change They tweaked it again to say what it was for this year or the year before or something like that. Right, so he counted multiple spots. They are making it an Otani rule. But this case is, hey, you're hurting us. Now. We don't have proof that someone's saying, hey, we're not going to groom this guy as a starter or as a pitcher and a position player because of this rule. But I think it's a valid point from Croninworth. You're put in a tough position to actually get this status. And if you're a superstar, who cares, You're going to rack that up in five seconds. But if not. Kratz, the only other thing he brought up is you gonna have your bench guy who comes in makes a start, sometimes pinch hitter at the end of the game, also available in the bullpen. So now you kind of have this super utility bench guy playing one hundred and fifty games a year, some as a pitcher, some as a hitter. He said that would be the next best thing. But I read that, I'm like, damn, how are you gonna find a guy that's doing that. That's not easy.

00:07:46
Speaker 3: Either, because he's not coming in to pitch any high leverage games because then he wants to get his seventy appearances out of the bullpen so he can get paid. It's not like like as a backup. Like I think somewhere in there you have a backup catcher Lorenzen. He would come in and play left field. I remember when he was with the Reds and but he was definitely a pitcher. He just got some good swings off and hit some dingers. But like let's say a backup catcher, he's probably not that good of a hitter. He'd be the starting catcher. He comes in pitches now, all of a sudden, he's throwing. At this day and age, you can't come in and throw anything less than ninety seven if you're coming in a game in useful spots. Now it's like, well, why don't you just pitch all the time because you stink as a hitter. So to me, it inhibits. This rule is only helping Otani really, but to me it's pointless. To me, it's a it's doesn't it's hurting more people than it's helping, and the few people that it's hurting. It's so silly that it's getting in their way.

00:08:52
Speaker 1: So will we get a two way player unless it's a superstar. Can you get a more mid two way player? It's gotta be super or starts worth.

00:09:01
Speaker 2: How do you get to the point though, where you count as only one player? Because you have to be able to pitch in enough games right to get to that point, and those games don't happen enough in a regular season, So how would you ever get to that point? They should Here's what they should happen. They should make Yes, the rule is fine if they want to have this rule, but there should be like when a guy comes up, all right, he's a two way guy, and you get a year or two to get this numbers right, to get these numbers under his feet so he can then carry this over. But in order just to say you have to do this your first year, it's not gonna happen because the team doesn't want to lose to be down a pitcher.

00:09:34
Speaker 1: Wait, I actually like this. You incentivize teams to promote two way plays, that's what they want to do, and say, hey, you get a two way player spot, even if that player doesn't end up working out. At least you gave it a shot, and that player has to participate an x amount of every team.

00:09:49
Speaker 2: Yes, I like that, but the pitcher has to pitch.

00:09:53
Speaker 4: The guy has to pitch.

00:09:54
Speaker 1: You have to do both otherwise you're cheating the system.

00:09:56
Speaker 2: Yes, he has to pitch.

00:09:57
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's a little complicated, but I like it because it would incentivize teams to get that extra spot if they're actually.

00:10:04
Speaker 2: Because nobody can get to those innings limits. Because if you can't, if you're not designated to way impossible. That's what I'm saying, it's impossible to ever get there. So Showy is the only guy that could ever do it well because they made this rule after he.

00:10:15
Speaker 5: Was already there.

00:10:16
Speaker 1: No, but also with show Hey, let's say he's starting from scratch. He's like when he starts his career, he's in the rotation, so he's going to rack up the innings. And then he's also dhing, so he's racking.

00:10:26
Speaker 2: Up, but the team is playing down a position a picture that for the wall. He's just on the roster. Well, he threw it as a rotation member, but they're still down a picture. Right with the rule, now, they don't lose the picture. You can only have thirteen pictures, right, so he'd have to be designated a picture.

00:10:46
Speaker 1: Right.

00:10:47
Speaker 2: But let's then they're they're playing with thirteen right.

00:10:50
Speaker 1: Yeah, but let's say let's says let's use.

00:10:53
Speaker 2: That Tony, let's use let's we'll use Corona one. Crona was a starting pitcher, yepka in the rotation, in the rotation, right, but then you know he's hitting or whatever however they want to use him. But then they then they're basically down a position player of those games he pitches, because he can't if he's pitching, they usually don't take the pitcher and put him in at second base or outfield or shortstop or wherever they want to put him for that game, first base because they're like, oh, he's got to get his arm stuff in. That's why Otani pitcher. The DH is fine, right, but there's still down a pitcher because let's you know, if he's if they want to use Lorenzo and we use Lorenza, if he's a reliever, then your really reliever is more complicated.

00:11:35
Speaker 1: Rotation makes sense. I mean, if you have a five man rotor, there's very.

00:11:39
Speaker 2: Few guys that can hit well enough though to justify pitching once every fifth or sixth day and then playing the field every four other four days.

00:11:45
Speaker 4: You have very few people that can do.

00:11:47
Speaker 1: The concept is if he's a starter, Crats, you have a five man rotation. That picture counts right until he classifies as a DH. So so MLB is looking at it as hey, you've got your five, there's your five. He's included in your five, and then you have your your thirteen pitcher max right, so you have your eight relievers. So they're saying you're getting dinged a little bit, but not really. I mean you're going to get the advantage. Really, it creates an advantage. So if you're in the rotation, you do your twenty innings or whatever, it is, now your two way player. Now you get to add another reliever. So it actually does incentivize the teams a little bit. Right now, Not really am I getting this, Red Crats? Where are you on this?

00:12:26
Speaker 3: I think it gets in the way. If this is something major League Baseball really wants to me, the rule is.

00:12:32
Speaker 4: Getting in the way. You have you have to drop, you have to.

00:12:34
Speaker 3: Lower the amount of innings because it's going to take somebody it's going to take somebody a lot of time to rack up twenty innings.

00:12:44
Speaker 1: Jars story, but as a reliever.

00:12:47
Speaker 4: But it's not. It's not happening.

00:12:49
Speaker 2: So the big leagues, it's the big leagues.

00:12:52
Speaker 4: Go ahead.

00:12:53
Speaker 1: No, I'm saying it's a month.

00:12:54
Speaker 2: It's a month's you're losing a month of a player.

00:12:58
Speaker 4: I agree.

00:13:00
Speaker 1: Didn't Lorenzen promote this in the offseason saying that he could do that. He would, he would, he.

00:13:09
Speaker 3: Would jump right in, he'd have his twenty innings already.

00:13:13
Speaker 1: So okay. I found it when when he was pitching himself as a two way player, he said, I can log twenty games, three played appearances each of those games as a position player or DH. Then I can become a fourteenth pitcher on your roster because at that point it doesn't count against the roster limit, and that a non contender can do that and then trade him to a contender. Obviously you'd have to do that beginning of the season, and no team's going to be like besides, three of them are going to be like, okay, we'll just do this and eat the at bats. But it's it's a cool concept. I remember we covered it. You remember we talked about it in the off season. I think they should change it toward teams. Every team gets a grace period on a two way player, right, Crotchy like, just say, hey, why do you want to have a two way player? Yeah, if they want to incentivize it, then do it like that. Make it to where's it's incentivized from the team to do it, not just yeah, make it easier, make it easier. It might happen.

00:14:06
Speaker 3: People want to see Jack Kagleon throw ninety seven miles an hour from the left side. Honestly, they don't know the intricacies of the fact that he can't locate his fastball as well as a big league pitcher. Should they want to see ninety seven. They're like, well, that dude just hit a four hundred and fifty foot digger. Now he's throwing ninety seven to me. Let everybody have it. Maybe some teams will take advantage of it, but everybody's at the same everybody's at the same on the same level. Right now, it's getting in the way of the three or four guys that possibly could do it at a big league level.

00:14:40
Speaker 1: Okay, anyway, good discussion. If you're watching this afterwards. Let us know your thoughts in the comments. I don't we don't need the trolling. Just what would you do to get more to a players into the show. That's what I'd like to see in the comments. Anyway, we showed you some time, a little bit of Jack cagleon and many more. Best cards in the marketplace one spot Arena Club arenaclub dot com slash foul. Use the code foul for twenty percent off your first card purchase on the platform. And yes, for those of you that asked you, you can get the card sent to you itself, or you can buy, sell, trade, do the whole thing, or your first lab pack twenty percent off with code foul. Dallas Morning News Rangers beat right at Evan Grant back with us having good to see you, but not good times for the Rangers. When I get right to biz this time is this it? We're gonna do a little rip twenty twenty five Rangers pretty soon we.

00:15:33
Speaker 5: Could at the end of this week. I mean, look, they're six on the wild card race, if you want to say that, they're in the race, and they've got a series here at Kansas City and a series home against Cleveland. The two teams that are directly ahead of them to try and get to the fourth spot in the wildcard race. And look, for the last two years, this team has not played well on the road. It's not played well against winning teams, and so they've got their work out for him this week, and first time out on Monday, they didn't really show up all that well against Kansas City.

00:16:08
Speaker 1: There you go. So Texas six games back of whatever you want to call it. I mean the Yanks, Red Sox and Seattle in a similar spot as you can see on the screen, but Kansas City and Cleveland to jump through. Like Evan is mentioning, So what's the main problem here? Where are we at? Or is it the same problem we've been talking about all year.

00:16:28
Speaker 5: All year for two years, Scott. I mean it's the offense, right, This offense is not produced. Whatever the Rangers attempts to fix the offense this offseason have not produced. You look up this lineup. If you look at Sunday's lineups and the Rangers facing off against Toronto, I think the Blue Jays first six hitters had ops's of seven to fifty or better. The Rangers had one hitter in their lineup with an OPS of better than seven to fifty, and so there's been too much volatility in the lineup. There's been too many guys you have been in prolonged and steady declines and there haven't been a whole bunch of bounce back years for guys who had four years last year.

00:17:13
Speaker 3: Is this what is this the end of what? Is this the end of the seasons? You know they're cooked, they're not going to make the playoffs? Is this Boachi's end? Is this the end of how this team is constructed offensively?

00:17:30
Speaker 1: Eric?

00:17:30
Speaker 5: I think those are all very valid questions. You know, Boach put off the managerial question at the beginning of the year, and that's not going to get answered until this season is over. That's just not the way he operates. But when you start talking about the construction of this team, I think there's a lot of questions that the Rangers have to start addressing for the future. You've got two guys, you know, Dolas Garcia and Jonahanan, who're both arbitration eligible and who were both in the bottom can I believe it is in ops over the past two years. So I expect both of those guys to not be in the picture next year. That's two holes you've got to fill. As you guys just showed a tweet from last night. Josh Young, who's going into arbitration and really has kind of been the sign post for what was a renewed farm system when he was taken in twenty nineteen in the first round. He's sitting in the middle of the most critical week of the season being replaced by Cody Freeman at third base. Brings some energy to the team, but he's got five big league games to under his belt, so I think this is a real kind of come to Jesus moment for Josh Young in his development. And we can go around the field one guy after another. You know, Wyatt Langford I think is still a star in the making, but he's had he's gone kind of through a sophomore slump to some extent. Evan Carter, I think there's still some questions about whether or not he can stay on the field to be an everyday starting center fielder. Marcus Simeon is you know, we talk about guys playing through stuff. Marcus Simeon plays through a lot of stuff, but the decline is is pretty evident there in his numbers over the last two years. So I think there is a lot that the Rangers are going to have to attack this offseason, and they may need to attack it in the next week once this season kind of comes to a conclusion in terms of being competitive.

00:19:27
Speaker 2: Evan, I just did I had your game. You skipped out last two weeks ago. Well I heard you were going to be Yeah, I figured, no worry. I still got barbecue without you. Thank you, Jared Sandler, Thank you, Jared. You're the best. But I'll see I want to say this, somebody has said to me after the game, look at the look at the scoreboard.

00:19:45
Speaker 4: There's a giant scoreboard at Global Life.

00:19:46
Speaker 2: It's big as the biggest people's houses, right, And don't look at the names, like you said, just look at the ops's And it was like six fifty six seventy seven oh two six forty and Seeger I think was the only one that was seven fifty year above. The rest were all in the six hundreds or low seven hundreds. And they said, now tell me how that competes against. And it was the Philly So you had Sharper Harper, Castiano's turner Real Muto was like boom boom, boom, boom boom, and you're like, Oh, one of these teams is really good and the other team is really bad. Now they brought in Bret Boone, They've tried to make some things happen, but what just hasn't clicked. We talked last year about the four team basketball. They couldn't hit that. But what changed? Because two years ago this offense was unbelievable and now all of a sudden, it's like it went away.

00:20:29
Speaker 5: I think you've had a combination aj of some guys having career years in twenty twenty three, which is necessary for a team to win a World Series, right, You've got to have some surprises. I think that was part of it. And I think that there has been probably more significant and steady decline from Aduls in Jonaheim and the large part Marcus than the Rangers anticipated. On top of that, it just does not feel like this team has made progress in any of the areas that has identified to attack right the forcing fastball is still an issue for this team this year. The ability to hit left handers is still an issue for this team this year. And so this is a two year process now where the Rangers haven't made a whole bunch of progress, and that is where to me, it gets to a point where you start to say, Okay, we've got to change some directions here. We've got to look at what we want to do with personnel, because maybe the personnel isn't quite as as as productive as we anticipated they would be.

00:21:32
Speaker 3: Can you hit on one of your tweets you talked about adulis how fans are just so use the word vitual. Could you hit on that a little bit about how fans have gotten on a guy who helped bring a World Series championship to their city.

00:21:48
Speaker 5: Look chratzy. One of my big pet peeves on Twitter is that fans like to just toss around DFA, you know, DFA DFA option even if guys don't have options, and the whole idea of the social media where people can get angry and offer their opinions. I think sometimes it just gets out of hand. And I know I'm just screaming at clouds, but I do think you can say that Adolas Garcia has underperformed, There's no question about that. And you can say that Adolas Garcia's time with the Rangers is probably coming to an end. But I think you can do all of that if you need to voice that opinion as a fan, I think you can do all of that without ever, you know, making it personal. And you know, when you talk about a team not having the balls to show a guy the door, it becomes it sounds a little bit personal. That's the other big mystery about Twitter is somebody may just be offering their opinion. It may just be the way they're talking for the moment. They may not intend it to be personal, but that's the tone that a lot of people can take.

00:22:50
Speaker 4: Agreed. Agreed.

00:22:51
Speaker 2: By the way, Bochi has that tone when I brought your name up to him this last week, So I'm just saying I I asked him what it was like not having you there, and him and Rich right for throwing a party, because they said, you want to ask the dumb questions that you normally asked. So they were happy you weren't there, unlike me, I was sad.

00:23:06
Speaker 5: But listen, I've made a career out of asking dumb questions.

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00:23:34
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00:24:13
Speaker 2: All right, so here's what you mentioned. Jonaheim and Adolie Scarcia kind of in the same breath of arbitration. What happened to Jonaheim? I know he heard his risk two years ago, but he was one of you could have made an argument he was the best catcher in baseball. Are close to a top two or three in twenty twenty three.

00:24:29
Speaker 5: Twenty twenty three All Star Game, and yeah, what happened. Well, I mean, I think there's a couple of factors that contributed to something.

00:24:38
Speaker 2: Right.

00:24:38
Speaker 5: He did catch an awful lot in twenty three and basically caught every evening of the postseason, and so that was a heavy workload. And in twenty three he had the risk is issue, which he came back from very quickly. There was a thought that he might need surgery on that ended up not needing surgery. But ever since then, ever he had off season and another off season for extra recovery time, he just has not produced. And I don't know, the Rangers know that he's trying, even though the body language on the field is kind of it's it looks like a low energy kind of body language, But the Rangers feel like he's putting the effort in. I just feel like this is the classic guy who had a career year at the right time for this team. When when they got him from Oakland or what was then Oakland, I think the Rangers felt this is the guy who could catch eighty to one hundred games for us and be you know, kind of that, Like I don't want to say strong side platoon catcher, but a little bit heavier than just a backup catcher, a guy who split job, split time pretty evenly. Maybe that's his best role. Maybe there's some soul searching that Jonah's got to do about where exactly he stands in terms of some swing decisions. But this is just a guy who who has regressed. And you can make that case with a Doles going into his mid thirties and with Marcus going into his mid thirties. Jonah is not in that same boat in terms of age. So that's been the real I think that's been the real mystery. And look, there's greater minds than the me trying to figure this out. Bobby Wilson, as both you guys know, he cares about his catchers like family, and Bobby's put a ton of effort and investment into this and it just hasn't produced results on the field.

00:26:25
Speaker 3: I would say what I think AJ wants to say, but he's not allowed because he's the he's the guy when it talks about playing too much. Yeah, anybody, anybody could. I you could go out in any part of your career and catch one hundred and fifty games in a season that doesn't create a two year decline? To me, do you think the do you think the team kind of lost faith in them after one bad year? They went out and got Kyle Higashioka, who brings a lot of value receiving wise, and now this year he's almost in two seventies, so he's he's bringing it with the with the stick too. But do you think the Rangers belief in their player may have kind of hurt that because you said, as soon as they brought him in, maybe he was an eighty to one hundred guy. He's an All star, and then you get one year, one year essentially to prove it, and they go out and spend twelve million dollars on a backup catcher.

00:27:22
Speaker 5: Yeah, I mean, the only answer I'd happen to that, Eric, probably is that, Listen, last year was really poor.

00:27:28
Speaker 2: It was it was.

00:27:29
Speaker 5: It was a really bad season, and I do think that the Rangers felt like they needed some insurance and they needed somebody who could step in if this slide continued. And you know, they had traded for Carson Kelly last year to kind of be a legitimate backup type split split time. Carson's had a great year in Chicago this year, and I think they felt like they needed to continue that kind of splitting of time this season. And maybe it did in some regard it rode Jonah's confidence in himself. But whatever has been the case. You know, this is a guy who has a six oh four OPS over the last two years. It's the third worst in baseball, and it just he's got to be more productive at the plate to be a to be a regular player.

00:28:21
Speaker 4: I hate that. I hate he playing too much.

00:28:22
Speaker 2: He won a pitcher, he didn't get his arm over exposed, he caught he's a catcher. No have all off season to get better played too much. Come on, evn't quick given quick, quick, quick making stuff up now, Evan, this is what this is what people complain about you about. You make stuff up and then you tweet it the people believe it, So stop stop it all right now. You also told me recently that this was Bruce Bochi's last year. So now since you're making up things, let's go and see. Is this Bruce Bochi's last year?

00:28:48
Speaker 5: I think if I if I had to pick one or the other, I think this is probably gonna be it for Boach. But I I I asked him he's questions. At the beginning of the year, he made it very clear he wasn't going to deal with this and it was going to be put off until the end of the season. And I still feel like this is a very cagy person. He's a cag manager, and he's cagy in his answers, and so I don't rule anything out. But there have been times to me when Bouches looked tired and frustrated this year, and it's got to be a frustrating year. And the one thing for me that would be that would be a shame is this is one of the great managers of the last century. I sure would hate for him to go out with a team that just didn't live up to expectations in any way whatsoever.

00:29:41
Speaker 4: Devin, I'm in Kansas City in two weeks.

00:29:44
Speaker 2: Two weeks or next weekend, So two weekends from now, two saturdays from now, that's barbecue in Kansas City where shuld I go eat.

00:29:51
Speaker 5: Hey, Jay, what's your favorite But you've been here so much, what's your favorite barbecue spot?

00:29:55
Speaker 2: Is it?

00:29:55
Speaker 4: Joe's No stack, Stack's always been in my spots.

00:29:59
Speaker 5: You just like Jack stat because it's convenient because you stay Jack Sack.

00:30:02
Speaker 4: No, what's it's no?

00:30:03
Speaker 5: Sorry?

00:30:03
Speaker 2: Q thirty nine, Sorry, not stack Q thirty nine.

00:30:05
Speaker 4: Sorry.

00:30:06
Speaker 5: I was a Q thirty nine yesterday and I like Q thirty nine a lot. I may go to Charbar today, which is a place that I've I've kind of started to like a lot more in the last couple of years. And since I'm here, if I tried to go to Joe's now, there's going to be a line out the doors, So I may save that for tomorrow and an early launch. But there's three there's three great spots in the rotation and more places that I just you know, haven't discovered.

00:30:32
Speaker 1: Yeah, Rose need to play like a ten game series against the Rangers, so you can just do the tour.

00:30:38
Speaker 4: I can hear Evan getting fatter.

00:30:40
Speaker 1: I miss Casey. I missed that Casey barbecue.

00:30:43
Speaker 5: Yeah a j I ate healthy last weekend when I wasn't with the club. I spent the weekend and in your home state eating lots of grouper down by the beach.

00:30:53
Speaker 4: That's that's a great.

00:30:54
Speaker 1: Time you go. That's what you do, so then you can do the barbecue week now in Kansas.

00:30:58
Speaker 2: I got to eat healthy for this week until I out of Kansas City for two days.

00:31:01
Speaker 1: There you go, good plan. Well, I haven't enjoy it. Man, good to catch up with. Do you appreciate the time as always?

00:31:07
Speaker 5: Hey, j I was glad to see that you played some banana ball. I mean, I think that was That's your career right there.

00:31:14
Speaker 4: Banana ball.

00:31:18
Speaker 2: Hey Evan, listen, don't knock it till you try it. You know what, I'm gonna call Jesse and I'm gonna make him get your ass out there and getting it back and see how it goes. And then I'm gonna tweet and talk about it and then we can see whose job is easier to do.

00:31:32
Speaker 5: I would I'd love to go cover a banana ball thing. They're not playing in North Texas this year. They've started the Texas Tailgaters as one of their other teams and they're playing in Frisco. Hopefully next year the Bananas will come to North Texas because I would like to go do that story. There's I think it's a fun event and it looks like all of you guys who have participated have just had a blast doing it. And really, I don't want to say that you never did that. You didn't have fun when you played, but rediscovered how much fun the game can be just in those short little bursts.

00:32:00
Speaker 4: Agreed every If you check on my Instagram, I said it.

00:32:02
Speaker 2: Everyone wants to get to play one more game, and to get to do it in front of forty plus thousand a sold out crowd with Mark Burley, one of my best buddies and best teammates, was something that you can never forget. And I thank Jesse and the bananas and the firefighters by the way, everyone everyone talks about the party animals and the tailgaters, but the firefighters are some good dudes too. So they're adding two teams next year, Evans, so watch out. Maybe they lot of It's a team.

00:32:25
Speaker 1: Somewhere team media team.

00:32:27
Speaker 2: The oh media team.

00:32:28
Speaker 4: That would be awesome.

00:32:29
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeahs to an all media team.

00:32:32
Speaker 5: Yeah, people would love to come see that.

00:32:36
Speaker 1: Anyone that that players would really love.

00:32:38
Speaker 2: The next players would love. You can get us alumni versus media game. That's what someone should start right there.

00:32:46
Speaker 1: They have that. They did that. I think with the Yanks at some point.

00:32:50
Speaker 4: It's not good. I've seen it. It's not good.

00:32:52
Speaker 1: It's not good.

00:32:53
Speaker 5: I well, I did that at camp, like thirty years ago when the Marlins and Reds had a joint fantasy camp and I participated, and the whole time, growing up a Braves fan, I tease Jack Billingham about, you know, giving up seven fourteen to Aaron and I was in third grade and saw you do that, and then when the game came around, he threw a yacker right up my head. So that was a fun moment. M.

00:33:17
Speaker 1: We're glad to see you still here with us. Seven. That's what's most important. Enjoy that barbecue. We'll hit you. See you when we maybe do a post mortem on this team. Thanks seven, Thanks seven, See y'all,