Sam Miller: 1st pitch fastball fever, WS timing + Why root for LA?

00:00:03
Speaker 1: Hey, we've got to Sam Miller joining us right now.

00:00:06
Speaker 2: Check out his substack Pebble Hunting, and I'm going to ask him about an article in there right off the jump.

00:00:11
Speaker 3: Here.

00:00:11
Speaker 2: You've seen Sam for years also in the past his editor in chief of Babesball Prospectus.

00:00:16
Speaker 1: Sam, great to have you on. First off, thank you for the time.

00:00:19
Speaker 4: How you doing, Yeah, I'm good.

00:00:21
Speaker 3: I'm excited.

00:00:21
Speaker 4: You know, I've been a big fan of Eric Kratz since since his rookie year, so I'm kind of excited to be here.

00:00:27
Speaker 1: Since his rookie year. Wait, hold up, since his rookie year. You've been tracking him on the.

00:00:31
Speaker 4: Prospects, Sam. I don't know how much you remember, but twenty twelve verit Kratz was a phenomenon. And yeah, I mean I remember learning what he drove that year. He was driving a ninety eight Honda Cord with one hundred and ninety thousand miles on it, and I thought, that's my guy.

00:00:50
Speaker 5: Not quite one hundred ninety thousand, but yes, it was a white, white Honda Cord. And also Sam, twenty twelve, Yes it was a phenomenon, but actually, maybe my debut in twenty ten, I just never got enough at bats in ten or eleven until I got to twenty twelve.

00:01:06
Speaker 2: Yeah wow, I mean I do type in aircrats wait onto coordinate pops up with multiple articles, which is kind of crazy. Although I think the mileage off means that some stories were embellished in the past, so we might have to do some research on that, but it adds to the story anyway. I'm going to start you with the beginning of games looking very similar, So can you tell us about the research you've done on first pitches and how it is playing out here in the postseason.

00:01:38
Speaker 4: Yeah, So, you know, it used to be that the first pitch of the game was always a fastball, is usually down the middle, and it was usually taken. And it still is usually a fastball. It's usually down the middle, and a few years ago hitters started to swing at that pitch and they're doing like huge damage on it. Probably the best way of putting this in perspective is that in twenty ten, there were six homers on the first pitch of the game. This year there have been fifty three homers on the first pitch of the game. The swing rate has been going up pretty steadily for the last like seven years and it's now about triple what it was seven or eight years ago. And this has just been really fascinating to me because pitchers aren't adjusting, they're still just as predictable. And I think we all kind of know that, you know, like there are no fastball counts anymore. Three to one count, Well, it's like as likely to be an off speed pitch as a fastball, But the first pitch of the game remains the one super predictable moment in baseball. It's ninety four percent fastballs, it's a higher strike rate than any other count. It's not even as hard. They usually throw a somewhat softer fastball, and pitchers are not adjusting as fast as hitters are, and so it creates this one moment that I'm always excited to see of like will the batter do damage on the first pitch of the game. And there have been two homers in the LCS round already out of five games on that pitch, which delights me, and I'm looking forward to the next one.

00:03:16
Speaker 3: Sam, how much of this, though, also includes foul balls? Is it just?

00:03:20
Speaker 6: I mean, obviously, like if you look at first pitch numbers and I swung it more for as money first pitch as anybody did, but if you foul them off, it doesn't count it, right, So it's only when the ball is put in play, So yes, can you do more damage on that yes, But also pitchers, and I'm gonna tell you this from experience, I think Kratzio back me up. They don't want to throw a first pitch break the ball because they say, if I come out and I dot one down in a way and I get one pitch and one out, I'm off and rolling.

00:03:45
Speaker 3: Here we go right now.

00:03:46
Speaker 6: If the guy gets a hit obviously changes things because you don't make a good pitch. But to me, it was like, man, if you can just dot a fastball down in a way for strike one, or you know, if you throw a sink or sink one in and get one pitch, one out or off to the races, baby oh.

00:04:00
Speaker 4: I think like when you're talking about any other batter in the game, that's definitely true. I'm talking specifically first pitch of the game, you know, the first pitch to the first batter of the game. That's like the pitchers like deep breath, get settled, figure out the mound, throw it down the middle. Right, that's that moment where like he doesn't think the batter is swinging and he's just gonna get ahead with an easy strike one. And that's specifically the pitch that batters are jumping on now that they never used to jump on before that it used to be an automatic take. Now it's not an automatic take anymore. They're swinging like a lot and they're like, batter's on the first pitch of the game this year slugged about eight hundred. They're like demolishing it, like like O'Neil. Cruz only led off sixty games, and his slugging percentage is twenty points higher just on the just because of what he did on the very first pitch of the game. So not one zero counts, not first pitch of the third, first pitch of the game raised his slugging percentage for the entire season by twenty points because he's getting fastballs right down the middle and pitchers think he's gonna take it, and he's not taking it, and they're not adjusting. It's hysterical to me that they're not adjusting because the game is so quick to adjust in everything else these days, but pitchers this year, still ninety three to ninety four percent fastballs right down the middle, usually not even their hardest fastball bombs away.

00:05:30
Speaker 5: But is that because the leadoff hitter is now a different player, Like we're putting we're not putting that guy in who's gonna work the at bat. We're not gonna put that guy in that's gonna, you know, change things. Kyle Schwarber's led off quite a bit, not this year, Shoho Tani's leading off. Like there's dudes that are coming out looking to make the game one and nothing.

00:05:55
Speaker 4: That is absolutely true. That's like a that's I think that's probably what started the swinging going up in that situation because you're right in the you know, when you had like I don't know, Luis Castillo leading off in the two thousands, you wanted him to take seven pitches and maybe work a walk and give the batters after him a chance to look at the pitcher and all that. Nowadays you've got your best hitter Byron Buxton's leading off. You want him to do damage. And so they started swinging more and more when more power hitters got put in the leadoff spot, and the fact that pitchers are still throwing meatballs to those guys who are the most damaging batters in the lineup is really interesting.

00:06:35
Speaker 1: Like you look at.

00:06:36
Speaker 4: Three Oho counts nowadays three Oho counts. We know, like they don't want to get beat by a power hitter, so they're throwing three oh sliders, three Ozho change ups. But first pitch of the game, it doesn't matter. It's still fastball right down the middle.

00:06:55
Speaker 5: What about what do you think about a guy that almost went forty forty, Juan Soda if he leads off. Are we taking too much into this or we talk about in the postseason the team that scores first has a better chance of winning.

00:07:11
Speaker 4: Yeah, well, I mean, like you look at I think if Juan Sota were leading off, he would get that pitch and he would do damage. I mean, one, Soto is a very patient hitter, but he's also aggressive in the strike zone. Sho Heo Tawny hit two or three first pitch of the game. Homers this year slugged eight hundred, no sluged one thousand, slugged one thousand on the first pitch of the game, So he's looking to do damage. Byron Buxton hit three homers, slugged eight p fifty on the first pitch of the game. Fernando Tatis swung at the first pitch of the game. Almost half the time, he's looking to do damage on the first pitch of the game. This is obviously not a storyline that lasts very long. The game starts in within ten seconds, you already know whether the first pitch of the game was hit for a home run. But it's really interesting how many games are starting with like fireworks explosion, and I think that's to Is that part of why teams are willing to put their power hitters in the front of the lineup, to have you know, non traditional power hitting leadoff hitters. I don't know. I don't know if the fact that they're getting fed strikes is a factor there, but you certainly see kind of a mismatch between the pitcher's goals in that spot. The pitcher wants to get established, he wants to find his footing, see what's working. You know, he's not looking to get creative on the first pitch or the first couple pitches of the game. He just wants to get settled. And you put someone out in the lineup who can hit the ball. Four hundred and seventy feet and it creates this like immediate mismatch, this immediate advantage for the offense. And this year was the record for most first pitch of the game home runs. It's the second highest slugging percentage ever on first pitch of the game. It's the highest swing rate ever on first pitch of the game. So far, pitchers haven't adjusted at all, and like I'm looking to see, like the Blue Jays, sorry, the Mariners and the Brewers have both allowed first pitch of the game home runs in the LCS, so they know that leadoff hitter is going to be swinging, and so I will be interested to see whether they adjust. My guess is they won't. It's not something that anybody's adjusting on yet.

00:09:25
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00:11:18
Speaker 4: Could Yeah, it could be potential that Friday will tomorrow will settle both of these series, and then the World Series doesn't start for a whole week. You know, I would say that the the fact that teams are always talking about what a disadvantage it is to have a week long layoff is a pretty big factor.

00:11:40
Speaker 5: You know.

00:11:40
Speaker 4: I guess I'm a little I've always been a little skeptical that the layoff discourse of like whether teams are disadvantaged by having too much time off. I guess I've always thought it was probably a little overblown. But teams are pretty consistent, like they you know, batters do not like falling out of that routine. They don't like taking five or six days off, and you don't want the World Series to be a situation where teams feel like they're going into it cold or disadvantaged for any reason. So for that, you know, for that reason, it does seem like being more nimble with the schedule and just figuring out a way to start it two games after the last game is settled would just like from a competitive standpoint, it'd be a lot better. I know that the league has a lot of people who like their primary interest is broadcast ratings, and there are people whose interest is in, you know, booking hotels, and there's a lot of different people with a lot of different jobs in the game who have different interests. But no, I mean, if it happens that both of these lcs's are settled by tomorrow, or you know, if only one is, I guarantee you that there's gonna be a ton of discussion this time next week about well would the other team do to stay, how much of a disadvantage is it. Are they going to be rusty on the first game back? You know, it doesn't really seem like a particularly fair way of doing things, given that this is a pretty consistent message coming out of teams that they don't want six days off in the middle of their postseason.

00:13:18
Speaker 6: Sam, well, I'm gonna snap back at you here, because here's the thing. I was on a team twenty years ago. We had time off and we kicked everyone's ass. I don't care about time off. It's postseason. Figure it out, right. The only teams that complain are the teams that lose. If you lose, you go wan wow, whow. We had time off, right. The Dodgers had all kinds of time off last year they won. They didn't complain once right now when they lost the year before, like oh yeah, too much time off? Right this year or last year the Yankees and Dodgers number one seeds, they had the time off, they won, they got to the World Series. Right this year, I look at it the same way. The teams who had the time off they advanced. So I don't understand where the Brewers had time off.

00:13:53
Speaker 3: They won.

00:13:54
Speaker 6: They didn't complain about the time off. They were like, man, we're grateful we had those days off so we could get our pitching in order. Right as you're saying like, oh yeah, we need them to go, right, away this the super Bowl takes two weeks off. Nobody complains about the two weeks and the weekend between there. Right, It's just because the team that lose has to have something to play and they can't look in the mirror and say, man, we just lost, we got beat Oh no, we had too much time off. It's an easy excuse.

00:14:18
Speaker 3: I hate it. It's stupid.

00:14:20
Speaker 4: I am personally glad to hear you say that, because again, I think that that discourse has always been overblown. I try to defer, you know, when I hear a lot of professionals tell me what their job is, like, I try not to say, no, that's not how your job is. I know better than you, because they do the job and they do say it a lot. Like they say it a lot. A lot of people in the game will say it, so I you know, I believe that it makes people uncomfortable. But you know, in the back of my mind, deep in my heart, do I basically agree with you aj? Yeah, basically, Like it does seem like everyone's probably having a good time getting their bodies in order at this stage of the season. Everybody's got aches and bruises that they would like to have a couple of days to heal as well. So the data for this so called layoff curse being real is mixed at best. So that said again, like players say it, I don't want to call them myers. I believe it makes them uncomfortable, and I think they would probably like if you were voting, probably the players would want to start a day or two later, right if you were voting at the stage of this time.

00:15:35
Speaker 6: It's my question of course players are going to say that, because it's kind of the thing to say. Right again, if you ask cal Rawley after catching one hundred and thirty five games, if he enjoyed the five days off before he got to catch five more games in the in the DS, and now he's gonna catch every game in this LCS, which can go a bunch of games.

00:15:52
Speaker 3: Right, Yeah, do you want the days off? Yeah? You do. You want to stay hot?

00:15:57
Speaker 6: Absolutely, But I also think it's a mindset if your manager goes into an says, look, the days off aren't going to affect us.

00:16:01
Speaker 3: We're just gonna go out and play instead.

00:16:04
Speaker 6: Of oh man, we have this time off, Like it's just it was just a mindset like, hey, we got time off, great, we don't have time off. Okay, we'll figure it out, right, And I think that's it's just all about a mindset of oh no, whatever excuse we can find, and baseball players are one great at finding excuses and two even better at complaining.

00:16:19
Speaker 4: I'm with it, And I mean I remember that two thousand and five run when you know you guys swept the LCS, and it was everybody agreed at that time that it was an advantage, you know, like, oh, you know, everybody's rested, you know, you've you've you get to sit back and relax while the other team has to keep fighting. And so I think you're probably right that, like these narratives, a lot of times they come after the fact and they're whatever's convenient to explain what happens next.

00:16:46
Speaker 1: Hey, Sam, last one for you, another big picture question.

00:16:49
Speaker 2: We are in a copycat league, right They look at what's going on often in the postseason.

00:16:55
Speaker 1: And say, oh, let's do a little bit more of that.

00:16:57
Speaker 2: Owners, especially since they're paying more attention and they might be jealous that their team is not involved. So what do you think the theme might be this year heading into the offseason based on what we have seen thus far? Do you think that starting pitching gets valued a little bit more because of the impact that it makes in the postseason. Do you think that contact comes into play a little bit more with the Blue Jays and Brewers or anything else that we're missing.

00:17:24
Speaker 4: Oh man, those are I think those are both really good possibilities. It's funny because copycat You don't tend to see a lot of copycatting of the team that loses in the LCS, even though like that's also a successful season, right, Like they could have gone all the way, So you kind of have to see who's going to win the World Series before you know what message really gets amplified. I think that there is a lot of talk this year about the Brewers as a team that was able to play up because of a you know, a prioritizing fundamentals, so prioritizing hustle for a lot of reasons. I think those two things have kind of fallen by the wayside in the last few years. They aren't seen as a priority in a lot of in a lot of teams. And the fact that the Brewers were able to take this team that you know, was basically hitting ground balls to the shortstop, but by hustling on every play. They were forcing a lot of airs, beating a lot of infield singles out. I think that's a pretty strong message that's coming out of the season, and I would expect that there's going to be a lot more talk about that coming out of clubhouses in the next couple of years. But you know, the Brewers probably aren't gonna win the World Series, so the answer is probably gonna be something that the World Series winner does. I think that the fact that the dot I mean, you can't really replicate what the Dodgers are able to do, but having so many starting pitchers has allowed them to outrun a lot of their flaws. Having starting pitchers that were handled pretty lightly during the regular season so that they're now healthy in the postseason despite pretty much all of those guys having long injury histories, is something that I think people will be taking a look at. One of the big tensions in the game these days is how do you balance the regular season against the postseason? How much do you put into winning in the regular season versus leaving something in the tank for the postseason. And the Dodgers I think will really come out of this season being remembered as a team that sort of sleepwalked through the regular season, made roster decisions that weren't aimed at winning every game, left players on the il maybe longer than they needed to so that they wouldn't be overused by the postseason, and didn't really prioritize, you know, winning one hundred and ten regular season games. They're prioritize being like the fully operational roster when October came, and it's worked. It's sort of like frustratingly worked. You know, we watched this team kind of look bad throughout the regular season and now suddenly like snap their fingers and they're dominating and they might just you know, win every game until the World Series is over. And I think that to the degree that teams can copy that that might be something that gets talked about. Like basically, the marginal value of a win in the regular season in a playoff system that's this deep is pretty low, whereas the marginal value of having your rotation healthy in October is pretty high. And the Dodgers might be the proof of that.

00:20:48
Speaker 1: Yeah, good call.

00:20:48
Speaker 2: I even think about Trey Savage and how the Blue Jays made sure that he had plenty of pitches left and the way that they built him up from a ball all the way to this point. I know it wasn't as flashy of a last start, but anyway, Sam, really appreciate it.

00:21:02
Speaker 1: Good stuff.

00:21:03
Speaker 2: Much more of this on pebble hunting the substack that you've been running for a minute, so for our fam check it out, appreciate it.

00:21:09
Speaker 1: Just Sam good talking.

00:21:10
Speaker 4: To you YouTube.

00:21:14
Speaker 2: This episode of Foul Territory is brought to you by Fox One. Fox one is now live stream all of your Fox favorites together in one place, from MLB postseason games to the NFL on Fox to Big Noon Saturdays with Fox One. You get it all live. Start your seven day free trial today. Offers are subject to change. Go to Fox one for complete terms and conditions. We have the website in the description of this episode. It's Fox one. It's streaming now for the baseball fans here on FT and we know you love baseball. If you're listening to the show. You get LCS games right and the entire World Series every year is on Fox. So if you don't have normal cable or you can't get the channel, Fox one is the solution for you. Now, the app that solves it all again. Go to Fox one and start a seven day free trial to see for yourself how money it is. We have reached the conclusion of our Pick Your Poison series and we saved one that is a little bit difficult for last. We now have each team covered in the final four and we will finish with the Los Angeles Dodgers. If your team was knocked out, we are going to try and make a case for you to root for the Dodgers. There are many people that are going to watch this clip and say, oh, I'm Dodger fan, I love them. There are more people that are going to watch this clip and say, I'm a fan of the twenty nine other teams. AJ and I consider the Dodgers the evil Empire at this point because so successful and spend more than anyone else.

00:23:02
Speaker 1: But you can't do that in this segment. You have to tell.

00:23:04
Speaker 2: People why they would love to root for LA to win again if their team isn't there right now.

00:23:11
Speaker 6: It's good for baseball if the team that spends wins, and it should put pressure on other teams to spend money. I know that the owners are going to argue that they don't because oh, you can't afford.

00:23:20
Speaker 3: But you can spend enough money to compete.

00:23:22
Speaker 6: Okay, the Brewers, the Mariners, whatever team you want to name, the teams that made the Tigers, whoever, the Guardians, you know whatever. They can spend more if they want to. Okay, but this is the argument right here. Star power, star power. If you like, pick your star, you want to like show Hey check Mookie check, Freddie check, will Smith check, Yamamoto check Glass Now check Snell check.

00:23:47
Speaker 3: I mean rookie Sazaki.

00:23:49
Speaker 6: Pick your pick your star, pick your star in baseball that you want to watch, and you want to see. Most teams, most most other sports wants the stars to win. For some reason, baseball doesn't believe Baseball fans don't believe in that. Put your stars on the biggest age.

00:24:02
Speaker 3: Right. The Dodgers have all the stars, not all of them, but a lot of them.

00:24:07
Speaker 5: I think my argument is based on the fact that your team just lost. You want to know how to have a winning team. Follow the Dodgers. You want to know what it looks like to have a team full of, like AJ said, stars, do the little things base run, run, the correct bunt play in a situation, execute those plays. But also they're not a perfect team. They pick each other up. Tommy Edmond almost almost jointed the ball into the dugout at the end of that bunt game where the Phillies were coming back. Guess what, Freddie Freeman picked them up. Taeoscar Hernandez dropped the fly ball in right field when Yamamoto was pitching against the Reds in the first of it in the first series to tie the ball game up. Guess what, Yamamoto picked them up. These guys, yes, they're stars, but they play together as a team and if you're a fan, they will accept you in. They want all the backing that they can get because they're like, we all back each other. Why not our fan base, So come on the train to Dodger Town.

00:25:14
Speaker 2: Hey, how about the fact that the roster construction is leading to success as well? Is key Key Hernandez. The best regular season player is Tommy Edmund. The best regular season player is Max Munsey, the best regular season player. We can go on and on with quite a few winners that they have been able to identify and fit into the cog and it's working for them. It's not like we're looking at this team aj and saying they have the best player, regular season war, all that stuff at each position. They have quite a few superstars like you mentioned, but it's not all around where you're looking at like the National League All Star Team.

00:25:51
Speaker 1: No.

00:25:52
Speaker 6: But also you're right, but they do a great job of also building depth. Which is why they're the best team. Is because they build enough depth in their organization, not only at the big league level, but in Triple A. They have guys injured, They sign guys that are injured. They take chances on some guys knowing they have the financial might, which is which is a huge.

00:26:09
Speaker 3: Positive for them. But also I'm gonna go back to my other point.

00:26:11
Speaker 6: The NFL, Right, they love the Everyone loves the Patriots and Tom Brady because he won all the Super Bowls, right, the NFL blew them up, the Chiefs and Patrick Mahomes. You go to basketball and you have MJ with his three peats, and you go to Lebron and Steph what they're winning, right, And then you go to hockey with who they want to win with the Panthers and Lightning because Florida owns the NHL, right, and we own the Stanley Cup. But other sports once these teams win for some reason, baseball fans, we can't have a repeat winner. It's been twenty five years since we've had a repeat winner. This might be the chance because this team is special because of all the things that they do correctly.

00:26:49
Speaker 5: When you become a Dodgers fan, I do have to give you one piece of advice. Don't go to the games. There's too much traffic. Be a Dodgers fan who watches on TV. Okay, oh that's the best.

00:27:02
Speaker 1: It's a really nice ballpark though. I like that ballpark experience. It's fun.

00:27:07
Speaker 2: But yes, you need to get yourself off of work early or something.

00:27:13
Speaker 1: You got to get there really early.

00:27:14
Speaker 5: It is failing second.

00:27:17
Speaker 1: Best getting in all of baseball.

00:27:20
Speaker 5: No, no, no, no, in the in the.

00:27:23
Speaker 2: Yeah, because there's there's some other teams. Obviously, the Brewers have their own thing going. But there are a few other teams that have a nice parking lot setup where you can get a good, good tailgate going. Yeah, the teams that aren't in that whole like downtown experience where it's about parking, getting out and then going to the other stuff that the owners have. It's about just I mean, like Kansas City, when things are going right and there in the playoffs, right, They that's just a massive parking lot, so they've got some good tailgating action going on. One other thing to play off of the superstar component AJ is that we've barely seen Mike shrout in October and that was a case for a while with the best player in our sport at the moment, who is show Hey Otani. It is fun to watch Otani and he's a really interesting storyline, and for a long period of time during prime years, we didn't get to see him at all at the game's biggest stage. In fact, we rarely saw him play any meaningful games after like May, so I do want to appreciate that, and that again plays to the difference between baseball and other sports.

00:28:22
Speaker 1: And that's cool because then we get to see.

00:28:24
Speaker 2: Stars emerge like Jorge Polanco being clutcher, Tommy Edmund last year as an NLCS MVP. That's cool, but it's also cool to see the best players on the planet actually play in the biggest games. And you're right, we don't get enough of that, and that's just a product of our sport, which makes it both cool but tougher to market.

00:28:44
Speaker 6: People don't understand how hard it is to make the playoffs in baseball. If you want to know, ask Mike Trout, ask show Hey when he was at the Angels, ask the Mariners.

00:28:52
Speaker 3: How long they've never made the World Series?

00:28:54
Speaker 6: Ask him how hard it is to win a World Series and to get to that point. It is really hard. And when, again, every other sport they want their best players to be in it. Baseball the last two years they had the Yankees in the and the Dodgers last year with some of the best players in the in the world at their sport. This year you got a shot at it again with whether whatever team makes it from the AL and if the Dodgers make it from the NL, you're gonna have some of the best players in the sport on the biggest stage where everyone's watching.

00:29:21
Speaker 3: So yeah, it's been great for the game. I'm sorry.

00:29:24
Speaker 6: Look at the ratings. Look at the ratings for these games. They've been off the charts good.

00:29:29
Speaker 3: I'm sorry.

00:29:30
Speaker 2: You can make a case that Paul Skeens is the best pitcher in baseball right now and he's not participating.

00:29:38
Speaker 3: And they're going to make the playoffs.

00:29:39
Speaker 6: So they're going to make the playoffs are out, So remember what did what did they the pirates say we have to make the playoffs next year, Well yeah, right, or what yeah? Or else we won't spend any more money, will trade Paul Schemes and well, and we'll trade Bubba Chandler, and we'll trade Brian Renolds and well.

00:30:00
Speaker 5: True two the Dodgers, Which is why you should be a Dodgers fan, because you'll be able to see Paul schemes soon.

00:30:09
Speaker 2: I have one more at the finish line here. You might look at this team and this segment and be puking because you really don't like the Dodgers and you feel like life is unfair. Right now, the Dodgers have not been like this forever. Nineteen eighty eight they won a World Series. They didn't win another one until twenty twenty. Some people didn't give them the same credit in twenty twenty because it was a COVID season.

00:30:31
Speaker 1: They didn't have to play a full marathon year.

00:30:33
Speaker 2: Okay, Well, then they won in twenty twenty four, so it's not like they've been darlings forever. They have been postseason darlings for a long period of time, but they haven't been able to get over the hump most of that time period. So I think it's important to keep that in mind in our sport and just google the name Frank McCourt if you want to go through a very recent era in Dodgers' history where you were like, oh, they have a lot of resources and.

00:30:57
Speaker 1: It's not working out for them.

00:30:59
Speaker 2: We also to show called Baseball America Hot Sheet where we go we went over the other day hit plus and stuff plus in terms of talent in the minor leagues, Dodgers number one hit plus prospects number one stuff plus prospects.

00:31:13
Speaker 1: I believe it was number one for both.

00:31:15
Speaker 2: So here's and if not top three, So here's my final thought process here. When we do have a salary cap for essentially the draft where you get a prospect amount of money pool that you spend on, and in the international draft you have that too, Guess what, Dodgers are still winning. So it's not going to solve all your problems.

00:31:34
Speaker 5: Don't google Frank McCourt. Don't rule your search