Rays up, Framber Valdez suspension, Matthew Boyd knee surgery, Former A’s owner blasts Giants

00:00:03
Speaker 1: What's up. I'm back, Kratz, Broun, Prazinski. Hey, AJ. Since yesterday's show, the Fromber suspension news came out, you guys covered it great, So thoughts on the actual number before we get into some other biz and how it went from six to him immediately saying cool, I'll take five on a deal, and then basically not miss any time for what he called was unfair right, completely unfair treatment from the umpires. Uh for throwing fastball for the first time.

00:00:39
Speaker 2: Five games is nothing he basically just gets. I'm sure they'll mix it in where he hasn't. They have an off day one of these days, and he won't even miss a start. And dude, by the way, yes, I know it was his first forcing fastball. We beat this to death yesterday. Whether he was throwing at him because they were given signs or whether he was throwing on him his piss because he was getting whack. Either way, you know it was wrong, and he threw a Trevor story and he should have gotten longer. If they want to get this out of the game, if they're not gonna allow him to fight and they're not going to let teams retaliate, then you got to give them longer than five games. I'm sorry, it's got to be at least seven or eight to stop the to make the team hurt, because five games are like, oh, we'll just give him an extra day off and he'll come back in six days and probably go out and pitch well. So I disagree with this, but again I'm not in Major League Baseball.

00:01:24
Speaker 3: They have different thoughts than I do. Yeah, they're not clearly looking to set a precedent here. They're just doing the status quo with the suspension. And he did throw at him, but I did look it up. Not only has he only thrown one this year, he's thrown six four seam fastballs in the last in the last two years. So I would like to see if any of those other four seamers hit anybody.

00:01:51
Speaker 1: Just checking, well, I did this backup plan, Yeah, the backup planning.

00:01:56
Speaker 2: It was his backup plan. And what they were hitting the two seamer. To throw a four seamer right between the one and the zero of Trevor Story, that was his backup plan.

00:02:05
Speaker 1: It's a choice, it's a backup plan. When you're getting lit up for ten runs. That is one way to do a backup plan. It looked like I think it was what two four seamers in the past two or three years, and they both hit dudes, So that was when he.

00:02:18
Speaker 2: Was one of them hit. Did one of them hit his catcher? Just wondering.

00:02:24
Speaker 1: That's not including that good call in the last year too. This is official now, two four seam fastballs and they both drilled dudes.

00:02:35
Speaker 3: Maybe he should maybe he should mix in a sinker when he's going to hit somebody.

00:02:40
Speaker 1: Mm hmm, yeah, just to try and hide it a little bit more. He is not hiding it except in the postgame when he was stating out it's so on fair, it's so on fair. All right, I'm done with this. Let's let's move on to something.

00:02:53
Speaker 2: Somebody you get ejected. I mean, it's so unfair. It's just so. It doesn't it's so I'm just so unfair.

00:02:58
Speaker 1: Yeah, back to back homers and you chuck baseball at someone like a weapon, and it's on fair, So on fair. Life is tough. Let's go over a team that's surprising the world right now.

00:03:12
Speaker 3: Charging.

00:03:13
Speaker 1: Yeah, we're charging the mound with the Rays. They are twelve and one in their last thirteen games, and they've given up seventeen runs during that stretch. They shut out the Blue Jays and completed the sweep against them, so AJ three to nothing win for Tampa Bay. The pitching is shining, the hitting is definitely doing enough. And do you think the Rays are legit in the American League East? Like, I guess you can start this way. How do you stack up the way you see the Ale East right now?

00:03:43
Speaker 2: Oh, I still think the Yankees are the class of the East, but I think that the the Rays, the way they're pitching, are not far behind. I think you know, they don't score a ton of runs the Rays, I'm looking at it right now, they're in the lower half of their below average, but they score sorry four point four to two runs per game. But they're pitching is what has been unbelievably good. They're pitching is crazy good.

00:04:10
Speaker 3: Right now.

00:04:11
Speaker 2: They're fourth in the league with a three and a half VRA. And if you have Shane McClanahan and some of the other guys they have starting for him, and then their bullpen, which has kind of been mixing match, but Baker has taken over the back end have been really good. But plus they throw some other guys in there for saves. This is kind of how the Rays have always been built. Real good pitching, real good defense. We'll mix and match, we'll define the matchups, will win on the margins, and then hopefully we get enough hitting. And when they get enough hitting is the years they're really good. And right now they're getting enough hitting to be really good.

00:04:40
Speaker 3: It's enough hitting and we can get into the hitting. But as every time everybody brings up pitching, especially when it's not just starting pitching or just relief pitching on a team, you bring up the defense. They're seventh in defensive runs saved on the year. Now they have some places where around the field that are a little below average, but shortstop, I think they're second in the league in defensive run saved outfield. Two of the outfield positions they're right up there, center field and left field. So they're putting guys in positions to succeed. And the whole like hitting enough hitting, Like are they doing are they playing winning hitting? Yeah, because they don't have enough. They don't have enough power up and down their lineup. When they get rid of Brandon Lau, when Josh Lowe was supposed to be a guy and he's gone like, where's their power coming from? One guy Kim and Air Like that's great, But if they're not going to succeed with power, what do you have to do. You have to put the ball in play. You have to be able to make enough contact on pitches that are going to give you, you know, maybe move the runner, maybe maybe get the job done. I think I think it's something that this team is always you never count them out, even when nobody picked them for the playoffs before the year. You never count them out because they're not afraid to do the little things to be able to give them a chance to win the game. And when you have a pitching staff that gives up seventeen runs in the last thirteen games, you're in every single game. So a bunt to move a runner over does matter. A ground ball to the right side to move a runner over does matter. And those are the things, along with some base running that helps you win in the margins when the games are close.

00:06:30
Speaker 2: One thing I'll say about this team is they do have a little bit of power. Jimmer Caernaro, Jonathan Ronda have been good, Yondi Diaz has been good. But the one thing they do do, which is one thing they've always done, is they take the extra base. They have Chandler Simpson at the top of the order that is causing havoc if he gets on base. Cedric Mullins is having a better year this year for them, right, you know, Walls and some of these other guys. They get on base and they cause a little havoc because they'll run and they'll put pressure on other teams. But then they hit the home run, and they have a lot of guys that seem to get key hits for them, which is what they need if they're going to continue to be good and stay in this race, which they've had to because the Yankees have been really good also, so I think they have staying power because they're pitching.

00:07:13
Speaker 3: Now.

00:07:13
Speaker 2: Would I love for the Rays to go out and find a bat or two. Yes, I think they could be unbelievably good, like to the point where they could contend possibly for a World Series, But we also don't know that they'll do that. But I just love the way they play team baseball. Kevin Cash is a guy that just gets it as a manager. He knows how to mix some masks. Chad Mattola, they're they're hitting coach Snider. They're pitching coach. These guys have been there for a long time. They know what Kevin Cash wants, they know the kind of team they want, and they put this together with Neander Eric Neander and now they have a team that's rolling. Where they won twelve out of thirteen I think something like that, and they are nipping at the Yankee heels. Let's talk love life ft family. I know it's an important part of everyone's life, but if you need help, or if you don't gluech you Gold is changing the game and it is turbo charging your love life.

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00:08:50
Speaker 3: I saw this. I saw this in person when I played there for I don't even know five weeks, however long it was there, Like we had two different homes series, and in those home series, when teams go out and do their PFPS, they would do out, go out and do a team fundamental and both times they tried took five to ten minutes trying something that, as Kevin Cash put it, we're trying something I don't know if it's gonna work. We want to see what it looks like on the field, see how the guys take to it. Like the one day it was first and third, they're trying to pick to third when they know the runner is going and they wanted to see how fast their third baseman could catch the ball and relay it to second. And I'm like, what are we doing here? Like this was something in all my years I'd never seen it, but they were like, let's see how fast let's see how fast we can do it, so that if you have a guy that just automatic first, first, and third, the guy on first just goes as soon as you pick your foot up. It's because they banned the third to first move for pitchers. Maybe you can get the guy at second. And they're like, eh, I've never seen them do it actually in a game, but it's something that they weren't afraid to try. And you're not afraid to put a tailor Walls out there, who has been one of the best defensive run save shortstops out there, and they really want Carson Williams, who's in the minor leagues, to take the job. But neither of them are hitting. But yet they're getting a ton of value out of the defensive position of shortstop, and they hope the offense from somewhere else comes along.

00:10:27
Speaker 1: And what they have to do is figure out ways that they can be different from the rest of the league. They did that for a while, then the league copied them, and this was over a long term stretch. Right, the league got much smarter. They didn't have those same advantages. Now you look at some of the things that the Rays used to value and you're like, Wow, they're kind of going the other direction. Look at the strikeout number. They're twenty seventh in Baseball out of thirty teams in punch outs from their pitching staff. One example is Nick Martinez absolutely dealing and awesome signing for them. So far this year, he's got an one seven to one ERA in his first seven starts, He's punched out twenty eight hitters in forty two innings. That's a pretty low k rate over nine and hit a strikeout percentage low two. Right, If that's the stat you're going off of, so that's working, you utilize the defense. Let me show you a tweet with one of the other potential inefficiencies that they think they're finding that the rest of the league is being a little bit too textbook with Inosires pointed out that the Rays as a team have the flattest swings in baseball, and this is not him telling a story. This is statistically where they're measuring where the bats are and they're able to do that so much better these days based on the stackcast data. He said, from what I've seen, having a flat bat path is good for hitting fastballs, decent for contact overall, not always the best for slugging, particularly down in the zone. So AJ playing to your point, this team making contact at the Ray times. They do have some power guys like Junior Camenero also has the one of the top bats beat bat speeds and Baseball and they're a cool little visual of what he's able to do. One of the fastest and flattest swings. But do you think that the Rays are emphasizing stuff like this as a ball club and an organization while other orgs are still in more of the launch angle mode.

00:12:14
Speaker 2: I think that what they're doing is they're looking at the people they have and trying to maximize it and say, hey, you need a flatter swing. Junior Kemen Arrow can hit home runs with this. Yanni Diaz Aroanda, they can hit home runs doing this. But they've also said every team is throwing as high fastballs. We can't have the loopy swing because everyone team is trying to run the four seamer ride balls up. So how do we combat that? And that's what they've done. The Rays have always been one of the first and fastest teams to adjust everything that's happening in baseball started with Joe Madden. When Joe Madden was there and is carried over to Kevin Cash. They adjust in their front office and their coaching staff adjust to what's happening in the game. They've been one of the best at it for years and this is just one of those things where they know they're getting a lot of high fastballs. We can't have a lot of guys that have the certain guy the doopy swing right that certain guys have. We need guys that have flatter swings that can get to the high fastball and make more contact. And again, if you have a bunch of fast guys that can't really hit the ball out of the park, why are you gonna try to make him hit thirty home runs when they can't do it. Take advantage of the strengths of the players you have, and that's what the Rays have always been good at.

00:13:18
Speaker 3: I play with Yandy Diaz back in twenty seventeen when he was a Guardian's farm hand. He was up and down kind of play for the Guardians, got traded over to the Rays and it's taken off. I played with Chad Mattola, the hitting coach, and I talked to Chad about, Okay, well, what's changed. He's like nothing's changed that much. All we did was talk about, well, what does it take with his swing, with Yondy's swing, not the swing that Chad taught him or the swing that other players are doing. With Yondi's swing, what does he need to do to be able to drive the ball more still wanted him to. He had one of the lowest launch angles on our team in twenty seventeen. Hit so many balls, so many balls to the right side through that whole, to the point where Louisville he played eighteen times a year. The Reds Triple A shifted him like a left handed pull hitter, and then he hit a ball to the left side just because they weren't there, Like he is a really, really good hitter that when he got to the Rays, they just talked about catch the ball out front a little bit every once in a while, catch the ball a little farther out front with your swing, and that's how you elevate it, not by swinging up. He has great contact rate, He has incredible zone discipline, and they just said, do you and maybe add just a little tweak.

00:14:37
Speaker 1: Yeah, and look what he's putting together. So a special start for the race. They are twenty four and twelve. While we're doing.

00:14:44
Speaker 2: This, Scott, let me say this also if I can. You know, we talked about Anthony Volpie getting sent down right all the time, right, And what's the one thing, what's the one knock on Anthony Volpi that we've kind of always said he strikes out too much? Right swing, he's trying to hit thirty five home runs. Well, if Anthony Volpi would go a little flatter. And I'm just using him because he's someone we've told everyone talks about all the time. Right. So if you have Anthony Voltan, you have Taylor Walls, and you tell Taylor Walls, hey, we need you to hit thirty homers. We need you to back leg and go underneath the walls. Guess what, Taylor wall is probably not gonna be a very good player. But you tell Taylor Walls, hey, we need you to be flat and your You know, your power is speed and getting on base and contact. Now, I'm not saying this is what it can happen to Anthony Volpi, but you take away, hey, we have to have you hit thirty home runs even though you were a smaller guy. It doesn't work for everybody the race. Figure out what you do really well, and they make you even better at it. And that's why the Rays have had success. They find a pitcher in the bullpen, Hey, you have a really good slider. Now they'll make you throw one hundred percent sliders till your arm falls off. But for those year or two you'll be really good because they figure out what you're good at and they emphasize it.

00:15:53
Speaker 1: Yeah. We brought up Robert Stevenson the other day. They made him a ton of money.

00:15:59
Speaker 2: And then they don't want to make everybody the same though, Right, That's the other thing about the race. They let you be yourself, and they let you be you, and they find what you're good at and then they make it better and they emphasize it. And that's what makes you a big league player for them.

00:16:12
Speaker 1: Add it all up, they have the second best record in the American League. I asked aj about this, Kratz, what do you think are the Rays legit? Do you think they're going to make the playoffs this year?

00:16:22
Speaker 3: I don't. I don't. I don't think it's a sustainable, a sustainable way to make it through an entire season. But if there is a team, I think it's one of those things that they're going to be battling for that wildcard position for the whole year, and I think it's gonna be I think they're gonna have the toughest time of any American League wildcard team because they have to play the East, and I think the bottom three in the East are going to start playing some better, but not a ton better. So I really think it's it's something that they're going to battle for that the whole year because where is that pitching going to be able to be sustained to the level because the hitting's not there right now, and if they have to like come on and get hot, I just don't see where it's going to come from besides a few homers from Junior, Like where will it come when the Rays pitching hits a little bump in the road?

00:17:22
Speaker 1: Yep, And it's May seventh. But better to be in this position than in the position of Baltimore, Toronto or Boston. I mean, they just swept through the Blue Jays, Okamoto's having an insane little road trip for Toronto, but a lot of other bad news around them and not being able to sustain their pitching while the Rays have Martinez, Like I talked about Chane McClanahan really looking like he's rounding back into the Shane Mack that we found or that we watched back when he was a cy young contender before all the injury issues. So good stuff, good little chat. You know, we don't always have to do things because that's how it's always been.

00:17:58
Speaker 2: Look, people consider me school, and I thought I was, but then we had the pitch clock and the abs and ban on shifts and all these things that we've had for a long time in baseball. And you know what, much like Mintmobile and the other mobile carriers, I'm here for the new school and the changes that have been made.

00:18:13
Speaker 3: It's a good call.

00:18:14
Speaker 4: You can ditch over priced wireless.

00:18:16
Speaker 1: You don't have to say, oh, I'm paying that, because that's how it's always been. Get three months of premium wireless service from mint Mobile for fifteen bucks a month. All plans come with high speed data and unlimited talk and text delivered on the nation's largest five G network. If you like your money, mint Mobile is for you. Shot plans at mintmobile dot com slash territory that's mintmobile dot com slash territory. Upfront payment of forty five dollars for three month five gigabyte plan required equivalent to fifteen bucks a month. New customer offer for first three months only, then full price plan options available, Taxes and fees extra. See mint mobile for details. Get after at FTFAM. Hey, quick little note on TV viewership in baseball. So the national exclusive window through the first weekend of May is two point two eight million, a forty four percent increase over last year, best start in nine years for baseball. I feel like every league tries to like huff and puff on this, but baseball's keeping up. If not, I think aja soaring past. You know, we've always talked about basketball and the regular season action. It's more fun to watch a regular season game right now for MLB. I'm saying, compared to what it looked like five years ago, the products more enjoyable. You're at a game every weekend.

00:19:32
Speaker 2: Absolutely, the game is better. The game is you know, more action with the pitch clock. People like the two and a half hour average now instead of three and a half four hours. It's been fun, it's been good, and I love that baseball is heading in the right direction and everything is up. Viewership's attendance is a owner's franchise values are up, but don't worry. Somehow we'll get it. We'll mess it up with a collective bargaining shutdown. So's way to go baseball all because they want more.

00:20:04
Speaker 1: We're gonna be talking about that.

00:20:07
Speaker 3: I'm sorry, trying.

00:20:08
Speaker 2: If everything is going so well, if everything is going so well, and everything is going so good, why do we need to what?

00:20:14
Speaker 3: It's not fair. It's not fair. And it's because there's teams that spend money, and I mean, I mean that's teams that have money, and there's teams that don't have I mean, don't spend money.

00:20:26
Speaker 1: It's not fair that some NBA franchises are valued higher than some MLB franchises. So that's the real battle within the battle. Yep, injuries suck. The good news. The Chicago Cubs are off to a roaring start. They've already had two win streaks that are seven games plus the one they're on right now is eight in a row. Yet they cannot keep their arms healthy at the moment. This is a fluke injury. In this case, Matthew Boyd going down. He's gonna need surgery on his left meniscus and it is from playing with his kids, So Aja, I have a lot to get to here. Let's talk about the impact on the Cubs first, and then we can, of course get to the carefulness that you need playing with the kiddos. But there's Taylor McGregor, the reporter for Marquee. The injury happen this morning playing with his kids. They won't know the timeline until after surgery. Boyd was an All Star last year. This team is down quite a bit of pitching, so much so that anytime something gets announced, social media is flooded with Cubs fans being like sick joke kind of memes. How much does this actually hurt the team if he misses significant time? If not, I don't know if it's something that would take him out for the year, but he's gonna miss a while.

00:21:44
Speaker 2: Well, they're playing good, they're playing really well right now. They just keep hitting walkoffs every day against the Red So they're like, Red's never leave town ever again, because we're just going to keep walking you off PCA and everyone else is getting walk offs. So do I think this hurts him? Absolutely? Matthew Boyd was an All Star last year. He's a really good dude. He's a great Pitcher. Yeah, but this is this is a lesson to all you people out there. Don't play with your kids.

00:22:05
Speaker 1: Let them be, leave them alone, let them play it on their own.

00:22:10
Speaker 2: Kidding, play with your kids. Please. We need more, we need more, we need more, We need more of that.

00:22:15
Speaker 3: So, yes, that was not an FT. That was not an FT public service announcement. I do not approve of that. I say, play with your kids in the big leagues and you tear your meniscus playing with your kids, you know what, you went down a hero just wasn't worth it.

00:22:34
Speaker 2: Just it just it just wasn't meant to be, is all I can tell you. It just wasn't. I mean, if this happens, it's like when you know, some guy slips in a shower or cut hurts his back lifting a suitcase or things like that, Like it's just you were just gonna get hurt no matter what. It's just so happened to be because of this. So it sucks for It sucks for Matthew Boyd. The Cubs are playing great, though, I mean, wow, they're like, please Red staying Wrigley for like the next three years, because we will beat you every time. In the ninth day.

00:23:00
Speaker 1: Yeah, the Reds are tumbling.

00:23:02
Speaker 2: Did you guys see the tie score thing that came out. I was checking scores last night and it said tie score, and I'm like, wait, what the game ended in a tie and the Cubs didn't get to bat in the ninth inning or the tenth inning. What's happening here? And later it refreshed, Well, it came out it said the Cubs win. The notification said Cubs win, and it said the score was six to six. Yeah, exactly.

00:23:29
Speaker 3: That was good. They were like, we know what's gonna happen. Cubs are gonna win. I know it's still tied right now. But all this to say, like with an injury like this, yes, it sucks. Teams that boy's already been on the injured list for I think it was fifteen days earlier this year. Teams that are winning and this stuff happens too. Sometimes. I don't want to say galvanizes them. Nobody's gonna say, oh, it's okay, you know, we're gonna we're gonna band together. But they're just they're a train running downhill right now. They just are. They're rolling to win the games at the way they've won them against the reds in regularly. The fact that they won fourteen fifteen straight now in regularly like they are. They are rolling. And it doesn't mean that this injury doesn't hurt them, because it clearly does. I think one of their biggest weaknesses or least amount of depth that they have because of other injuries already is pitching. But they're finding other ways to win. They're finding they're finding ways to win games. And I'm not gonna say it's Alex Bregman, but I'm also gonna say I saw the same fricking thing happen when he was on the Red Sox last year, and you have them now in the Cubs, and I just sometimes when teams have winning, are starting to win, and they're winning in ways where you're like, WHOA, what's going on? How are these guys having good team at bats all this stuff, you look at certain guys and I guess it's it's an easy, lazy narrative by me to say Alex Bregman is making a big impact. But I'm gonna say Alex Bregman is making a big impact on this team that already had a bunch of good players.

00:25:08
Speaker 1: Yeah, and their lineup and their bench is deep. They're pinch hitting ops right now in close to forty at bats is over a thousand. They are getting some significant production from the bench. Definitely give credit to Craig Counsel pressing some buttons at the right time for the team. That stuff matters when you press the pinch hit or button at the right time. And then lastly, you look at the rotation here. So now Cad Horton, Justin Steele, Matthew Boyd. I mean that's a better big three than the three that you'd put together. That's not hurt, right, I mean Immanaga, Edward Caprera, Jamison ty On good but Boyd, Horton, Steel damn. I mean those are the guys you want to pitching in playoff games. And then Porter Hodge, Riley Martin's on the shelf, Hunter Harvey like, it's okay, deal bar. It's a long list for them at the moment. So credit to the Cubs for building depth. See this is the different thought to pick on the Angels. But like, this is the difference between the Cubs and a team like the Angels. Right, a guy or two goes down and they're still able to put together a winning streak like this and have a really nice start to the season where they've won eight in a row.

00:26:09
Speaker 3: I'm gonna say, I'm gonna say, don't look at the Angels, look at the blue Jays. Look at who the blue Jays have lost in their rotation, and they're you know, they're pitching injuries. Teams that are losing say, oh, look at our look at our injuries. Teams that are winning. Injuries are like the second or third thing brought up, like, ooh, you know they're doing this right, they're doing this. So it's it's more of a narrative that a lot of teams have injuries. Who overcomes them. Yes they got depth. Yes the Cubs did go out and get Cabrera. Yes the Cubs did go out and get Bregmant. But the Cubs have been building what they have for a little while now, with the fact that they're really really emphasizing the defense that's out there, which is going to enhance any pitcher that's out there. And I don't think they build a bullpen very well before this year, and now this year it seems like different guys in their bullpen are stepping up, even when Porter Hodge is not is not necessary, is not in there for them. So it's it's something that the Blue Jays last year were killing it. They weren't void of injuries. So how you bounce back from those injuries dictates how you do in the season. It's very basic.

00:27:25
Speaker 1: Yeah, and Matthew Boyd needs to not give his kids Christmas presents just for like a minute, just to punk them and say, well, kids, remember when your tour dad's meniscus, Well, no Christmas presence, that's what happens.

00:27:39
Speaker 2: Did you guys see Eli's two RBI sack fly last night?

00:27:42
Speaker 3: That was so awesome.

00:27:43
Speaker 2: Raise your hand if you have one of those.

00:27:45
Speaker 3: No, that was so awesome. I mean not awesome for Saya, but like when they go went back and watched it where he Saya landed and then he thought he was going to hit the wall and he was like kind of up against the wall. Good for PCA for in there, for him to be the Johnny or to be the Manny Ramirez cut man. But good for was it It was Matty McClain who didn't stop running like that was that was awesome. I'm showing that to the boys on the high school team tomorrow.

00:28:14
Speaker 1: YEP. That's a good clip. AJ has done it? When was it? AJ? And then we got to get to.

00:28:19
Speaker 2: Our guest Kansas City. Uh, it was raining, and I think David Dehaes, who's dove and made a catch in like right center. He just kept sliding, and I think Alexi Ramirez was on second and so there was I think it was baseloaded and both both of them scored because Dahesis couldn't stop sliding because it was wet. He slid like you know, forever and then by the time he stopped. Yeah, that was cool. I never thought i'd seen one of those, and now I've seen it twice.

00:28:43
Speaker 1: Wow. Yeah, very cool, fun series, really fun series, especially if you're a if you're.

00:28:48
Speaker 2: A Cubs fan, not for the red they lost, They lost for gone and lost three games on a walk off. I don't think it was very fun if you're a Reds fan.

00:29:01
Speaker 1: What's the beef? Well, this continues. The A's have departed Oakland. They're now in Sacramento. They eventually will head to Las Vegas. But whose fault is it? The name that you often hear is John Fisher. John Fisher is connected to the prior owner, Lou Wolf. He's ninety years old. He is a super rich real estate developer, and he put out a book, and I can retitle the book for him. He basically says, don't blame me, don't blame Fisher, blame the Giants. He goes all out to say in this new book that the giants are despicable and it's all their fault that the A's are not in the Bay Area in the long term. Right, So I'll give you a little sneak peek of what goes on here, and I can also pretty much summarize what was going on a j eight. This guy's trying to clear his name. Right, you're ninety years old. We always mentioned the legacy component for owners, Right, you have some that will be glorified and some that can have all the money in the world, but everybody hates them. And this is one way for someone to say, it's not Fisher, it's not me. Right, Because this goes back to Bud Selig giving the team to Frat Bros. And then those guys taking over the team, lou eventually giving the control to John Fisher, who bought out more of the shares, and Low's claim here is that the Giants have territorial rights over the county where San Jose is in right, Santa Clara County, and San Jose definitely can field a baseball team. There are people, there's money, like they've got it all going on. But San Francisco, the Giants will not give those rights to the A's and that was the battle that went on for a while. We can discuss and debate that part of it. But aj here's where I want to start the way I'm portraying the book, and I read the excerpts that were put out there. An evandralic article in a couple other spots is that the Giants wouldn't give them rights to San Jose. Even though the Giants weren't supposed to have those San Jose rights. They were only supposed to have them if they actually ended up moving there at some point, which we know is never going to happen. Okay, I don't know enough about the background of that back and forth. This is the part where lou Wolfe, the ninety year old lost me. In the book. He claims that if they had gotten the rights to San Jose, then everything would have been fine, and they would have used that as leverage against the city, so they weren't actually going to move to San Jose. They wanted to use it just to try and get more out of Oakland. And then in his mind he thinks everyone should say, oh, so you wanted to save more money and get more from taxpayers, and that would have led to them staying here. This, to me is where the disconnect occurs when a billionaire tries to get sympathy from the crowd saying I just needed this leverage point and then we would have stayed in Oakland. We would have milked them for every dollar. So, unless you're interpreting this differently, I have clueless as to how this guy thinks that people are going to feel like, Oh, it's okay, Lou, it's okay, John, I'm not pissed. Oakland fans probably saw this and got even more pissed.

00:32:12
Speaker 2: I haven't read the excerpts, but I'm gonna take I'm just gonna go off what you just told me, Scott. Now, from what you just told me, isn't this what they did with Las Vegas. They tried to use Vegas as a leveraging point to get Oakland to say yes, and Oakland was like, oh, we're not doing it, lou So see you later, mister Fisher. And now they're in Sacramento until they're a stadium in Vegas gets built. So it seems like they use Vegas for this in San Jose. So I can't believe. I mean, listen, did the Giants have something to do with this, yes, but to call them despicable for what they did, which really was nothing from what you just said. What did they do? They did what they were told. They had the rights and they weren't going to give them up because they're their rights. I mean, isn't this what the Orioles and the Nationals fought for years and years and years and I think they finally figured it out after like twenty years of fighting over rights to TV markets.

00:33:01
Speaker 1: And all that was TV rights, right, that was TV rights. This is territorial rights. But but the thing is to me, when I read this AJ, why does it even matter? Because he doesn't.

00:33:10
Speaker 2: They were going there.

00:33:12
Speaker 5: He's just using you were going there. Yeah, but he was used Vegas to do the same thing and it didn't work. So it's just Tim trying to make himself feel better at ninety years old. We all do this at times, we all say things to try to make ourself feel better even though we don't really believe it.

00:33:28
Speaker 1: Yeah, and the mayor was quoted in a response in evandraulus article basically saying how Wolf did have property in San Jose and all around the site, and then Wolf disputed that and said, oh, I sold that to buy the A's. So it's just like, you know what, I think you probably would have been better off not writing a book, because then you just reopen it. And now I think krats for me. And this isn't nationally or internationally, but in that area, I think people start to go, oh, that's right. Actually, I'm not just pissed at one guy that that Oakland doesn't have ball anymore. I'm actually pissed at this guy too. He's telling me about, oh, no, I sold all that property. I was just using San Jose as a front. But I'm also pissed at the giants because they should have given me San Jose to use it. Absurd.

00:34:12
Speaker 3: When I read this, I mean, AJ's rich, I'm rich, You're rich. Billionaires look down on us, and billionaires sometimes have like a false sense of reality. I think somewhat reading through the excerpts, I feel like that's just a false sense of reality of what really is the meaning of owning a team. Are you supposed to lose money? Absolutely not. Nobody would. Nobody would own a team if you were supposed to lose money. I'm not asking owners to lose money. I'm asking owners. It's kind of a little bit what I was hinting at with Carl Ravich about you know, them major League Baseball getting rid of minor league teams. I get it. You know, it might be it might be a line on your ledger sheet, but you know who loses in this situation, whatever it was, whether he had the property in San Jose, whether he going to use it or he was using it as leverage. The millions of A's fans, the hundreds of former and current players who were A's fans when they were growing up and then became Major League Baseball players and their team has gone. That's who's losing in this. I don't care about that, he said. She said, dollars cents, millions and billions of dollars. Like the fans lose out. The fans came out to Oakland. When the fans banded together to show Oakland that to show the A's the organization that we don't like what you're doing, and they banded together, and you know what, they still got slapped in the face. They still got the team taken away. And I've never seen a city lose a team and a fan base go ah whatever, it was fine. But you know what, as much as you did lose your team in the A's getting rid of John Fisher and what he would have done had that ownership group gotten what they wanted, they would have just continued to be parasites to the fans in Oakland because they wanted them to pay for the stadium and they would have continued to make more and more money. So you know what, I get it. You lost your team and that sucks for true as fans, But you don't want that guy around you anyway. You don't want you don't want that to be the guy who owned your team. The best thing that could have happened was he sold it and somebody else kept the team in Oakland because I know there is a lot of fans that love, love, love the A's for years.

00:36:33
Speaker 1: Yeah, and he just tried to drag the Giants as the main reason why all of this isn't happening now. Does the Bay Area deserve to have two teams? Yes, they should absolutely be fielding two teams, and could San Jose field a team one billion percent? Great spot, right, But this will all prevent that. I'll finish it with this. I think you guys will like this, and I saved this for the end of the segment.

00:36:57
Speaker 3: Here.

00:36:58
Speaker 1: Do you guys know who he dedicated book to two people? We will dedicated the book to.

00:37:03
Speaker 3: John Fisher yep and Robby No No, Budd Ceelick, bud Selick. Dang it, I should have gotten that right away.

00:37:13
Speaker 1: He literally dedicated the book to the to the frat bros, John Fisher and Bud Selik. And I mean again, I didn't read the full book, so I'm sure he spoke about fans if he's not stupid.

00:37:23
Speaker 2: Two thousand and two twins that he ended Moneyball he dedicated it to the Oh wait, no, sorry.

00:37:28
Speaker 1: That would have been better talk we dedicating to fans would have been better too, But good job.

00:37:36
Speaker 3: I hope lost like just zero social awareness zero.

00:37:41
Speaker 1: I did send a note out. You know, we we try in every way to get any guests we can, and this probably is not going to help the cause. But I did send a note out to the publishing company. I haven't checked if they've replied to try and get him on the show, so I will let you know if I have any luck there. But in all seriousness, as much as I ripped him just now, I'd love for him to come on the show and defend or clarify anything that we went over, because to me, this is bonkers what he's talking about. All right, people, let's slap. Can we go to the Alec Minoa quote? Did you guys see this so you know Manoah's back. The media asked if he would potentially be interested in a little bit of a bullpen action, and he said, the big Leagues isn't for comfort. It's like the lion and the gazelle. The gazelle wakes up in the morning he knows he has to outrun the slowest lion or he's going to be dinner. And the lion wakes up in the morning knowing he's got to go catch the slowest gazelle so he can feed his family. Long story short, you've got to wake and run. That's the name of the game. So comfort level, Who cares about any of that stuff? Let's go play some baseball. So I mean he's down to do whatever at this point, as he should be. Aj. I mean he's still trying to find himself again.

00:39:14
Speaker 2: Yeah, I don't I really understand this quote, but okay, I mean I always just say I don't have to be the slow I don't have to be the fastest guy in a group like we were just an africover Christmas. I don't have to be the fastest one of my family. I just don't have to be the slowest. So I think that's what he was trying to get at it. He just used it a little bit of you know which one are you gonna be? You're gonna be the hunter or the hunt did and he was trying to make a competition kind of thing about the big leagues. But I don't know. He did offer to come bent pitch out of the bullpen, so at least I'll give him credit for that.

00:39:42
Speaker 3: He was also asked if there was a comfort level thing that he would would he be comfortable pitching it out of the bullpen, and he said big leagues isn't about comfort, and his career right now hasn't been about comfort. I mean, he was he was miked everybody remembers he was miked up in the All Star Game. So I remember Alec Manoa was an All Star. Well, he's a long way and a couple of health injuries away from being even a big leaguer. So I think I love the quote. I mean it's kind of awkward, but I love the quote because the fact that you're one hundred percent right when you're an All Star. I think sometimes people think you're the lion and you're going around, prowling around, and you're just devouring all these gazelles that are gonna get sent down to the bushes. He feels like he's a gazelle right now. So he's like, you know what, if they need to be throwing the pen, I'm gonna come out there and I'm gonna throw in the pen. They need me to start, I'm gonna start. You need me to go back to back days, I might break down again.

00:40:37
Speaker 1: All right, Well, Kratsat's on the way out. We love you.

00:40:42
Speaker 3: Middle school semi finalists down in Hess, Georgia, the Hess Bears. Jordan sever sent it to me, so I appreciate you.

00:40:50
Speaker 1: Jordan Go Bears, right, aj Go Bears.

00:40:56
Speaker 3: Yeah, he can say it. You can say it. Come on center down.

00:41:01
Speaker 2: I'll say bear it down, Bear down like you.

00:41:04
Speaker 1: You like the Chicago Bears.

00:41:06
Speaker 2: So I just said bear it down right close enough?

00:41:09
Speaker 1: Yeah, he likes all the Bears.

00:41:11
Speaker 2: All rights.

00:41:14
Speaker 3: Yeah, exactly, baby Bears. He loves Baby Bears.

00:41:16
Speaker 1: He loves her Cubs.

00:41:18
Speaker 3: They're so I heard it. Clubs are winning again classic.

00:41:26
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