A's Season Preview, Chatting with Manager Mark Kotsay + Picking AL Roy Winners

00:00:06
Speaker 1: Time for a little season preview. Let's do it.

00:00:08
Speaker 2: We're talking about the A's right now and their twenty twenty six campaign. So first, let us show additions and subtractions. Todd Father, we can slice up what happened for this team.

00:00:18
Speaker 1: They did a little adding.

00:00:19
Speaker 2: Jeff McNeil, former teammate of yours, now joins the mix with the A's. There's one thing he's been able to do.

00:00:25
Speaker 1: For his career. It's what it.

00:00:29
Speaker 2: That'll help yes, Mark Lighter Junior, Aaron Savali, Scott Barlow also added to give you a little more pitching depth, Sean Neukom signing with the White Sox and JJ Bledet out of the mix there. But there's your additions and your subtractions. Now, this is a team that is very simple to analyze from last year good young, core pitching, not good enough. One abysmal month, the worst month in baseball last year belong to the A's in May. If you don't go through that, and a lot of averages means you probably won't, and you take a slice of what they did in the second half of the season.

00:01:10
Speaker 1: Can this team compete for a wild card spot?

00:01:13
Speaker 2: When I say compete, not necessarily get one, But can they be in the mix when we're in September, are we like, Hey, the A's are a few games out, They've got a chance.

00:01:21
Speaker 3: Yeah, on the simple fact that they're scrappy. They're not going to back down from anybody. How far and how long that takes you over one hundred and sixty two, you know, it'll test you a little bit. I do like Jeff McNeil's signing. I like all these little signings here. You know, guys that are not going to be oh man, that was the guy to get, but guys that are dudes that go in about their business and do the right thing. They got a tough they got a tough road man. We talked about the managers or Mariners, Rangers, I mean, Astros, even the Angels might give them a little run for their money, depend on how they're doing. But it's a nice team. But how far they'll go, we still don't know. But they you know, playing in that park last year, they look comfortable in the minor league park, and you know, I think it plays their advantage overall at the end of the day.

00:02:14
Speaker 2: Yeah, because it could be a nightmare for a pitcher. So let's show the Al West projections from fangrafts. They have the A's pretty close to a couple of teams.

00:02:24
Speaker 1: Ahead of them. They have the Mariners way ahead.

00:02:26
Speaker 2: Aj They have the Mariners at eighty eight wins, then the Rangers at eighty and a half. And this is a projection system, so obviously, yes, no one's winning eighty and a half, but this is that we're going to play it out. So eighty point five on the Rangers, eighty point fourt the Asters, they basically have them projected out the same way as at seventy eight point eight. That's pretty close, and the Angels at seventy two and a half. So I know you were big on this team last year, and again, you can't wipe out a bad month, but if we did, they would have been in this range and.

00:02:51
Speaker 4: They would have been in if they win ten of those twenty out of you know, they go ten and eleven instead of one and twenty, they're close to the playoffs, if not in the playoffs, So correct I. You know, I get to go around to all these camps and you talk to people. They're really excited about this team. And I've been buying this team for a couple of years, Nick Kurtz, a full season in Nick Kurts another season or Rooker Langeleiers continues to improve if they get any kind of pitching and they brought in some pitching for some bullpen help, and Severarino pitches better at home. The rest of their young starters come up. They have some good guys they're super excited about to pitching wise to come up. So I'm bullish on the A's. I think they've got a chance to be really good. Now does that put them in the Seattle category, I don't know, but I just think if they can get off to a decent start, they can be five hundred, if not a better, and be around to make the postseason.

00:03:50
Speaker 5: I love what they've done.

00:03:51
Speaker 4: I love Katsee obviously as a former teammate of mine Brookers. I just I'm bullish on the A's and I think seventy eight might be a little.

00:03:58
Speaker 2: Bit lowy six wins last year A Jane, like you mentioned, if they won ten more games, that's eighty six wins. That's on the cusp of a postseason spot. That's impressive.

00:04:08
Speaker 4: The criticism, I'll say this about the A's as much shit as we have given them over the last couple of years, they've signed some guys to some nice contracts and the A's in the past.

00:04:20
Speaker 5: Let's not forget even.

00:04:20
Speaker 4: When they were in Oakland, if they were in it, they were not afraid to make some moves to help their reinforcements come in. Now, they never won anything because of it, but they were not afraid to go out and make some moves to help this team win. And the way they've spent money and they have more money now because of revenue sharing, whatever you want to call it, they're not afraid to make the move if they think they can get to the postseason. They've done in the past and they're willing I bet to do it again if they're close.

00:04:44
Speaker 2: And they did that last year with Sebarino, who I've talked about a lot this episode has. If he can figure out what he did on the road and do it at home, and he did that the year before with the Mets, then you have a guy that's going to win you a lot of games. My criticism is I would have liked another arm or two. You know, could they have landed some type of mid tier starter. I mean, hey, as right now, uh, he should be in the rotation. Okay, yeah, he's he should be in the like three four spot here Vangrass right now has Severino Springs, Savali, then Jacob Lopez and Luis Morrales. However, you want to slice up the five, that's the five they have for now. So yeah, no Savally, nice nice piece, but I would I would have loved one more. I still think when we're overall looking at the starting staff and the relief corps, that's where you're going to have some trouble. And Todd fil playing to your point about the ballpark, the offense is going to click. I feel like if you get in trouble and you're in a rut in that ballpark with your staff, it can get bad quickly. There were some games where teams were putting up video game numbers there, and I think it's a pretty inexperienced staff still overall, like when I'm looking at the full staff, Mike, is this a postseason pitching staff, because I think it's a postseason lineup. Is it a postseason pitching staff. I don't think they're there yet.

00:06:09
Speaker 3: No, I perfectly said, And there was a lot of when balls are struck there, the ball was flying out of there a lot of back to back home runs, even back to back to back, there's guys hitting three home runs there, So your stats can boost up going to that place. And as a pitcher, it's not friendly at all, so and I think the A's are understanding that and trying to capitalize on that, knowing that when you get five runs in the first you still got a long ways to go in this game. And I think they understanding that, and they're coming together and knowing that, hey, we have a good day here, knowing that these teams got to come in not have the same stuff they usually have on the road, Let's take advantage of it. And I think that's what they've been doing.

00:07:00
Speaker 5: Here.

00:07:01
Speaker 4: With my ex teammate and now the manager of the Athletics, I can't call you Sacramento. I always would still say Oakland because they were always Oakland. Mark Costsee, one of my all time favorite ex teammates that I ever played with. Just an awesome, awesome fellow. Talk to me about camp a little bit here in Mesa. Yeah, it's been great so far. We've obviously we've got a lot of players in camp this year. I think the most that I've ever had in camp as the manager of this club, you know, we brought a lot of six year guys in to help with the depth. You can never have enough depth in pitching. But it's exciting. We've got a lot of young, talented players.

00:07:38
Speaker 6: If you're familiar with our club, you've seen some of them come to fruition with some nice long term contracts that we've handed out this offseason. Others that we would love to secure, and you know, we're building something here. We've been building it. You know, we went through one of our hardest years as an organization in twenty three. Since twenty three, we feel like we've moved the needle in the right direction over the last two seasons and the expectation is even higher this year.

00:08:05
Speaker 4: So extensions. Are you going to get an extension? Are you next venue? Do you go to John Fisher? Do you say, hey, you know you're sending all these players and you know who molded those players with me?

00:08:13
Speaker 5: Well, I was thankful to be rewarded with that.

00:08:16
Speaker 6: Yeah, I had an option year that was picked up last season and we'll be managing the team, well, contractually managing the team through twenty eight.

00:08:26
Speaker 5: That's awesome.

00:08:26
Speaker 6: Yeah, So it's been great, and you know, I'm looking forward to continuing to lead this young group and win a championship.

00:08:34
Speaker 5: With this team. How do you get these guys to take the next step? Right, because I was so high on y'all last year.

00:08:38
Speaker 4: We kind of had that May that was like twenty out of twenty one or some crazy number.

00:08:42
Speaker 5: You guys lost, right, and then you got hot again.

00:08:44
Speaker 4: So we had a geloff on the other day and I said, just have Cotsay tell you guys it's June and July on opening day. Because every year, you guys get to around the All Star break and then you just explode and take off and finish as one of the best teams in baseball.

00:08:57
Speaker 5: So how do you start faster?

00:08:59
Speaker 6: Yeah, that's a great question and one that were you know, hopeful to figure out this season. I think last year, you know, we had a circumstance, different challenges that we'd never gone through before, you know, in terms of changing ballparks, going to Sacramento, playing in an environment that we never played in before. There was a lot of learning. There was a big learning curve for us. You know, April was kind of the honeymoon phase and then we got smacked in the face in May, like you said, you know, and for me, this ball club learned a lot through that time. They learned a lot about themselves, they learned a lot about adversity, they learned a lot about you know, worrying about the things that you not worrying about things you can't control.

00:09:42
Speaker 5: Really, and I think we've taken a step in the right direction.

00:09:44
Speaker 6: We got through it, you know, I told the team, you know, for a team that went through twenty losses in twenty one games to finish the season, seventy six wins was was actually a great accomplishment in itself, because no team in Major league history had lost twenty out of twenty one and one seventy six games, So there's something to say about that. But you're right, we need to get off to a good start. We need and we have. We need to play good through through May and in the June.

00:10:11
Speaker 2: Hey, do you think it's going to help to have most of the team intact for the entirety of spring training? I asked that because I looked at your WBC list and there are some names, but I don't know if you've checked out some of the other teams in.

00:10:22
Speaker 1: The league where it's like a third of their roster.

00:10:24
Speaker 2: Coming up from the season is going to be playing in a tournament and could be playing deep into the tournament. For example, you have some very talented players that are from the US, but there are some players above them or more experienced than them right now, so they might be in the next go round. So how helpful is it when I look over and I see like Benzel Clark and lu Severino, But those could be the only two guys from your opening day roster that are not here for a week or two.

00:10:48
Speaker 6: Yeah, no, there's no question that, you know, we kind of got lucky in that sense of team of USA and guys like Tyler Soderstroum and Jacob Wilson and Nick Kurtz obviously, you know, keeping them here in camp cantinuing to build something, uh you know, through spring training together. But you're right, we do lose, you know, Uh, Severino, we do lose Denzel Clark, both players obviously projected to be a big part of this club's success and impact type players. Carlos Kortez is another one, Darryl Hernice. So those four guys we leave, you know, we lose out of Big League camp and uh, you know, it can be impactful, but I think you know, and on the on the flip side of that, these guys going to represent their country is something that's once in a lifetime. You did it, right, Yeah, I did. I got to play. We're Team USA. We were amateurs though, and so we were collegiate athletes.

00:11:37
Speaker 1: Uh.

00:11:38
Speaker 6: It's one of the greatest you know, sporting events and and prideful moments that I could talk about in my life.

00:11:44
Speaker 5: For sure.

00:11:45
Speaker 4: Rose the Elementry Olympics ninety six medal. We medled, We we took home a bronze. We got better than any metal I got. Yeah, we got beat by Japan in the qualifying game and uh, and then we ended up playing for the bronze. But it was it's the house, yeah, like hanging it's in the case. Yeah, because I'm KVI.

00:12:04
Speaker 5: You know Minkaevitch, she has the goal from Sydney and he trusts me. He's just bowed his Olympic goal.

00:12:09
Speaker 4: Any chance he gets he gets to I'm like, well, I never got the chance. So I'm just anybody that gets to play for their country, and especially if they metal, even in the Olympics, is I'm jealous.

00:12:19
Speaker 5: Yeah, no question.

00:12:20
Speaker 4: And now that they've talked about in twenty eighth having baseball back in the Olympics and being in LA where I grew up.

00:12:28
Speaker 6: You know, I know Doc's already thrown his name in the hat to manage that club. I mean, hey, Doc, if you're watching this or hearing this, like I bring me on your staff and you know, but I'd love that opportunity as well.

00:12:38
Speaker 2: So hey, while we're on Sebarina, we mentioned him. I mean, this is important. What is the plan and what is the communication process like with him to make sure that he's comfortable. And I give him credit. I know it, you know, can be a bad look, but he was transparent that even though it might seem like not a big deal for some, for him, it was a big deal. The home road numbers were crazy and pitching at times the problem for the team. Imagine if Severino puts the road numbers together at home, and how many more games the team can win. So did you guys go over that a lot internally in the off season?

00:13:08
Speaker 1: Then what did you say to him?

00:13:10
Speaker 6: Yeah, I mean we definitely have tried to make adjustments. You know, one thing for sev and we've talked about this is you know, obviously moving forward and you know, having the right mindset. You know, we didn't know how the ballpark was going to impact us as a team and let alone as individuals, right and so anytime there's adversity in life, you know, you just don't know how you're going to be able to get through that adversity. I do feel like sev In, you know, the later half of the season, was able to pitch at home.

00:13:46
Speaker 5: You know, I think he's got the right mindset right now.

00:13:49
Speaker 6: He looks great, he looks ready prepared his you know, live VP the other day. I mean, this kid throwing ninety seven miles an hour right now, and it's you know, first of spring training, which is different. So I think this he's shown up with a different attitude and the right mindset to have success this season.

00:14:10
Speaker 2: You mentioned how there's some guys that got contract extensions and hopefully some more too along the way. What's different when they show up to camp they are much richer. There are some names that are much richer. Now, even if it's just saying hey, you know, what's different, we can crack some jokes and say dinners on you.

00:14:26
Speaker 1: Whatever it is, what's different.

00:14:27
Speaker 2: And also how do you make sure that not that they stay motivated, but that they know, hey, like we need you guys to obviously feel comfortable because you have long term security, but also maximize your value and you can get paid even more in the future.

00:14:40
Speaker 5: Yeah.

00:14:41
Speaker 6: I mean, anytime you invest in a player, you know that this player has the right mindset that they want to accomplish greatness. And I think for Jacob and for Tyler, you know, they're cut from the same cloth. I mean, they get after it every day. They work their tails off to have success to you know, under stand that that they have a chance to even you know, on the back side of this, as young as they are, get another contract and uh, you know, so that investment shows that that we're making a commitment to this team, to their teammates as well, to build something here that we feel when we you know, over the next two seasons before we get to Vegas, win a division, go into Vegas with the championship type team and and just have a you know, have a blast opening up a new stadium. This new stadium is going to be electric. It's it's I've been there toward it. Uh, it's being built at a pace that you can imagine, you know, the whole lower bowls I think almost come together.

00:15:43
Speaker 5: And uh, the location is going to be unbelievable. That's awesome.

00:15:47
Speaker 4: Two things before we let you go, I'd be remiss. We haven't even mentioned a guy in your lineup so far, your first basement.

00:15:54
Speaker 5: Extend him, please, there's a there's an opportunity, yes, for sure. Now it was Nick Kirk.

00:16:01
Speaker 4: Yeah, for kids so youngs in college and boom for Homer game.

00:16:05
Speaker 5: All the everything he did, Rookie of the Year. How good is he? Yeah?

00:16:08
Speaker 3: He?

00:16:08
Speaker 6: I mean, I think this guy's the limit for this kid. And you know there's a reference. A good close friend of ours, philm Nevan sent me a side by side of you know, two guys swinging and I had to shoot the text back, Hey, I can't tell the guy in the left is and it was actually Nick, but the guy in the right was a former teammate of ours, Jim Tobe. And I mean it was so comparable. The swinging was finish, everything was so much alike. And I know Tony was a big fan of Nick when he was at Wake and sat on him. And if we hadn't draftedn't believe me, the White Sox the pick behind us were taken next week.

00:16:45
Speaker 5: I just can't.

00:16:46
Speaker 6: But you know, not just not just the player, this kid special man. He's just so humble. He's such a he reminds me of like the thirteen year old All Star that's just you know, doesn't even realize how good he is.

00:16:57
Speaker 5: I mean, Nick knows how good he is.

00:16:59
Speaker 6: But you know, I feel blessed to have this chance to be a part of this guy's career. And I mean last season, that game in Houston when he went six for six and set records, it was it was it was remarkable how easy it looked.

00:17:14
Speaker 5: You know, yeah, all right, last.

00:17:15
Speaker 4: Thing, real quick, just give you just give me a quick answer. One guy in camp that we haven't talked about that you have your eyes on Max Months. Max Months.

00:17:23
Speaker 6: He's a talented young player. We drafted him, we were high. He's out of you know, the LA Area, is a high school draft pick. He's got an electric pop and uh, you know, for us as a team, we're still looking to solidify at their base spot. So this kid's got that chance to have an impact year and and you know, the projections in some sense, you know, we're hopeful that that that he has a Tyler Soderstrom type projection where you know, Sodi's scuffled a little bit and then had a decent, you know year, and then it was.

00:17:49
Speaker 5: Last year that he finally put it all together. That's on from Max Well, coach.

00:17:53
Speaker 4: Thank you, thank you very much, and i wish the athletics all the best, and I'm super happy that you got to I don't know that.

00:17:59
Speaker 2: I mean my day, buddy, Hey, jj, I think this is fitting today, Todd Father. We're gonna do bet MGM futures Al Rookie of the Year. So what we're doing is showing the trends that BETMGM shares with us highest ticket, So where's the most money and the most bets going, both of them going to Kevin mcgonagal. We don't even know if he'll crack the team in spring training and be on the opening day roster with the Tigers, but assuming he's healthy and clicking, he'll be up with the team.

00:18:30
Speaker 1: If not opening day shortly.

00:18:32
Speaker 2: And he also becomes the biggest liability for the book.

00:18:36
Speaker 1: He is at plus.

00:18:37
Speaker 2: Eight hundred one two three four five sixth sixth best odds to win this award. Trey Savage is the odds leader at plus three fifties. So what do you think about Kevin mcgonagal. For me, Todd Father, I can see it's plus eight hundred.

00:18:50
Speaker 1: It's nice.

00:18:51
Speaker 2: But I look at the I often look at the Japanese town and there's three in the American League because they're not rookies. And I know AJ's shaking his head. This is where the good money usually is. Japanese players and sometimes Cuban players too, right like O Jose Bray back in the day. These are grown men and you've got three candidates. So I am focused in on those three.

00:19:09
Speaker 1: Who do you like?

00:19:10
Speaker 5: Yeah?

00:19:11
Speaker 3: I know, And listen, there's always that talk about, you know, do you have to be a certain age to be the rookie of the year. Well, now, that's why baseball is a great sport. You could be fifty one and get your first start and be the rookie of the year and everybody's like, what is going on here? And that's what makes it a beautiful sport. I mean, I think they're all in the right spot here. I think the one am I I like that that's the one for me At plus seven hundred. You know me, I always like to put a little more juice bang to my buck. And where they're McGonagall, we don't know if he's gonna be there. My We'll see what happens. But this is a hard one. This ar when you Savage had a great year to finish, of course, but we'll see in a full year. So I'm sticking with him Iya plus seven hundred, and we'll see where it goes. It could be somebody an outsider coming in. These are these are the hard ones to decide because you don't know exactly the track they have, these guys going on.

00:20:06
Speaker 2: Isaac Collins had a shot at Rookie of the Year AJ at twenty eight years old, and he's, you know, in prospect coming from the States.

00:20:12
Speaker 1: But what do you like A.

00:20:14
Speaker 4: What's what's murkamiet So.

00:20:17
Speaker 2: So I'll give you the three Japanese players that are gonna be rookies. Todd likes and may at plus seven hundred. I'm worried about Murakami because the grading of the defense and the swing and miss maybe goes through some league adjustments. He's at plus five hundred. Okamoto's at plus thirty hundred. That's my guys thirty. Yeah, it's thirty. It helps, but Okamoto might hit twenty five and hit three hundred and played decent defense.

00:20:39
Speaker 4: I mean, if Okamoto does that, a lot of people be mad they didn't get in on him. So let's not forget about that. But also, you know you mentioned your savage. Here's there's a couple of guys we didn't talk about. And one of them has a long term extension in Baltimore. His name Sam Pasaiyo, and that dude can match. He's not gonna catch because of ADLEI Rutchman are gonna find it, bats form dh wherever they need to do it. That's a name to watch because he's gonna get playing time because he signed a long term deal.

00:21:03
Speaker 5: Guys, and ADLEYE.

00:21:05
Speaker 4: Rutchman has been injured, he's been up and down. That's the name to watch for. And then the other one is a guy we were in Guardians camp yesterday, Chase the Lawd. I know he had to drop fly ball in the postseason, but they love this kid and he's gonna get a chance to play every day. And I don't want to say it's a non pressure environment, but playing somewhere like Chicago Toronto is a little different than playing in Cleveland. You get to make some mistakes, you get to learn from him, you get to grow from him.

00:21:31
Speaker 5: And you're gonna get your repats.

00:21:33
Speaker 4: I mean, those are a couple names for me that we didn't even mention the National League for me when we get to that.

00:21:39
Speaker 5: That one's an easier.

00:21:39
Speaker 2: One, okay, But here you took some that were pretty far down the board.

00:21:44
Speaker 1: Interesting. I like it.

00:21:45
Speaker 2: But Sia was right after McGonagall, and I like that pick because he's also only going to catch so much. He'll he'll and he's not even gonna play much first this year with Pete Lonzo there and unless they trade Mountcastle, so he's gonna get a lot of DH time, which is going to help because he can just foke on the bat and mix in a little catching. So he's plus nine hundred, and then you brought up the latter. He's at plus sixteen hundred. So I think he's either in the top ten or right outside of it.

00:22:09
Speaker 1: I believe ten.

00:22:10
Speaker 2: I can't count really quickly, So yeah, this is actually a really good race. I think there are going to be a lot of good rookies in the American League, but anyway, let us know your thoughts and let's talk about what betmgm is focused on before the World Baseball Classics, which we'll be doing our lockscorre, so we'll be early in on season locks. But we're talking about the odds boost token to score a bigger payout on the Winter Games. Hockey NHL A is matching up right now across the country or in Italy, across the pond in Italy in the Olympics. So if you want to get in on that action, betemgam dot com or on the betmgam app.

00:22:48
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