MLB in-season tourney lurking? Royals ballpark shrinking for homers

00:00:10
Speaker 1: Well, if the NBA has an NBA Cup in season tournament, then why shouldn't baseball do the same thing. So this was lightly floated out there by Rob Manfred, and we are going to kick around an article from The Athletic that was put together by Chad Jennings, Andy McCullough and Sam Blum. They said, could this really work in baseball? They talked about how baseball's had the one sixty two game season since sixty two, and how the NBA Cup is a regular season round robin eight teams advanced to a week long, single elimination tournament and every game counts towards your regular season record besides the championship game. If you don't advance to the knockout round, you play non tournament games so that they can keep the schedule even. And in the article they floated how thirty two team expansion would help this, but of course it would be really difficult to actually execute doing this and keeping the same number of games and keeping everyone even, and it would start to of course mess with baseball records, and that's a big deal in baseball. Like Cal's sixtieth homer, a Tany's fifty to fifty season somewhere.

00:01:19
Speaker 2: Those were some of the best storylines of the year.

00:01:22
Speaker 3: Okay, let's just start with this. The travel would be a namer do you know how far in advanced teams have to book hotels.

00:01:30
Speaker 2: But the NBA does this. They do it in Vegas.

00:01:32
Speaker 3: They do it in one spot.

00:01:33
Speaker 2: So you do it in a neutral spot?

00:01:35
Speaker 3: What spot?

00:01:36
Speaker 1: You could switch that around? Or you could do it in one place. Okay, you could do it in John Fisher's new Vegas Ballpark.

00:01:40
Speaker 3: Okay. So let's say that MLB goes ahead with this. Okay, and in the NBA it works and this and that. But baseball's played every day. So you take a week out of the season and only these eight teams are playing for something and the rest of the teams are just playing. But these games col even though they're technically more intense in the NBA. Nothing has become more irrelevant in the NBA than the regular season. Twenty of the thirty teams. We had this suscussion, Twenty of the thirty teams in the NBA make the playoffs.

00:02:08
Speaker 4: That is insane. Some former fashion, right, they diluted the product.

00:02:14
Speaker 3: Okay, so people only pay attention to the playoffs and even then their look at their ratings are way down to Okay, baseball makes the regular season matter. And how many races have we had in the last even since they went to even more expanded playoffs come down to the last two games? How many times, scrats have you looked? I look back on my career and I'm like, in twenty thirteen when I was with the Rangers, we lost Game one sixty three, and I go back and I think, if we just would have won one more game. The year I was with the Giants two thousand and four, we lost, we missed the playoffs on the last day of the year. What you know, what, what if we would have won one more game somewhere along the way. But then you're gonna have some teams playing games that are because it's so much harder to get into the playoffs for baseball.

00:02:57
Speaker 2: But that's what NBA teams say.

00:02:59
Speaker 1: What if we just won one more game, we would have been the twentieth best team and not the twenty first place team. I'm kidding, But do you know who would have made the playoffs this year if we did that? Past who already made it? The Astros, Astros, Mets, the Royals, the Rangers, the Giants, the Marlins, the Rays, the Braves, and the last three teams I said all were sub five hundred teams. That's the setup that the NBA currently has, twenty of thirty. That's disgusting. I know that it's playing. Someone's going to try and throw somemantics at me. You have a shot of winning a title after the regular game's end. Ten teams don't everyone else does? It makes it mean nothing. We've already battled right with people that didn't want expanded postseason. I thought it was so small and so difficult. There is a line, right, and you also do want From a business perspective, I'm presenting MLB side fans to keep interest all as it is.

00:04:01
Speaker 2: Krats.

00:04:01
Speaker 1: Let's use the A's as an example, because they had an historically awful May.

00:04:07
Speaker 2: And what lost like twenty out of twenty one. Whatever it is. Your season's done, right, you're the pirates.

00:04:12
Speaker 1: You have a slow start, Your season's done, and you have months and months to go of meaningless baseball. Every once in a blue moon, a team comes back, but usually they don't if they're double digit games back at a wild card spot or whatever. Early on in the season, you're not coming back, so you try and keep the fan interest. And if you can't keep expanding the postseason, then they try and come up with other your favorite word gimmicks to keep fan interest.

00:04:39
Speaker 3: Okay, so keep fan interest.

00:04:41
Speaker 5: So basically they're going to have a the MLB Cup is going to be this past year, it would have been the White Sox, Angels, Nationals, Pirates, Rockies, and then there's two wildcard other crappy teams. Like that's how you're keeping interest. No, the only way MLB is gonna have it is if you have all the best teams in this tournament.

00:05:06
Speaker 1: Like why did you just name crappy teams? Though, I'm confused where did you get that from?

00:05:10
Speaker 5: Because your argument was that they're they're they're trying to keep interest for the A's, for the Pirates fans, for the Rockies fans. They ain't gonna be in the NBA, they ain't gonna be in the MLB Cup, Like these are these are things that are gonna be won by teams who are like good, know how to win games, put rosters together to win games, like we're not, Like, the MLB Cup's not gonna be won by the Rockies just because they put it in there. Whow man, that really kept my interest. To me. The gimmick, the gimmick isn't about. Isn't about the events that happen on the field, you know, not having the Zuperstars come to games. The gimmick that will get people to come to the park is a full push for every team to say, you know what, we're putting the best team that we can out there. That doesn't always mean money, It just means the best team out there because we want what the fans want. As an ownership group, we want to win and we're gonna do that in whatever way we can possibly fiscally do it.

00:06:18
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00:06:23
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00:06:33
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00:06:44
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00:07:45
Speaker 3: You win the first half championship ya team, and it.

00:07:49
Speaker 6: Gives you one of the buy spots or a playoff spot or something like that, And it incentivizes teams to I mean not that they need it, but to.

00:07:59
Speaker 3: Kill You can't even get MLB to take a break for the Olympics.

00:08:04
Speaker 2: Well, that's a money insurance thing.

00:08:06
Speaker 3: You think they're gonna take a break for this in season cup thingy.

00:08:09
Speaker 2: If they make money. Yeah, everything's about money. We know.

00:08:13
Speaker 1: We always talk about this, especially in baseball, more than probably any.

00:08:16
Speaker 3: How much more money are they gonna make?

00:08:18
Speaker 1: The NBA apparently is making a ton of money from their tournament for two reasons. One, they were able to use it as another chip in their media rights deal and it mattered to places number. Two, they have found significant sponsorship money just for this, just laying out the facts, I think an n season tournament in baseball is so fucking stupid. So just to lay that out, I'm just presenting what is being put in these articles and what leagues and teams are doing.

00:08:44
Speaker 5: And three, they actually have their stars playing in games. They have an issue of stars not playing in the NBA. So how do you incentivize them? I think every player gets a few hundred thousand dollars check for the winning for winning it. Okay, yeah, I'll go out there like they actually have a banner that they're going to hang in the in the Knicks rafters. They were the NBA Cup champions this year. They can't win the NBA team for that.

00:09:12
Speaker 1: Yeah, but I mean, I'm not going to speak for all basketball fans. I'm not gonna act like I'm a die hard. But most people think it's a joke. And even though it's short term gain financially, I do think it further proves that you don't really believe in your regular season product. You're like, Eh, it's not that important to me.

00:09:28
Speaker 2: Here's my.

00:09:31
Speaker 3: Regular season has lost a lot of its luster because of the now twelve team and they're possibly talking about going to it what.

00:09:37
Speaker 2: Was sixteen, gonf it may.

00:09:39
Speaker 3: Lost a lot of its luster because you can lose two games. Before, if you lost one game, you were like, man, we're not making We're not making it. Now the Alabama made it this year with three losses. Yeah right, so you can argue, we're not even gonna get into that argument. But you know, Notre Dame Miami the team that got over Notre Dames in the championship. But it has people say it's diluted the regular he's in college football because you can lose two three I remember back, you know, fifteen twenty years ago, you were like, please go undefeated. Please, my team has any chance. I got to go on to field, maybe lose one game early in the year to a really good team. Other than that, you had no chance.

00:10:17
Speaker 1: I'll counter that it was so small back then, just like we're talking about with the playoffs. It's like once your team would lose one game, especially if it was early on in the season, then you would lose interest too. So I will say there is a happy medium. Now, are they going to extend it too much?

00:10:30
Speaker 2: Yes? But do you agree with that? Right?

00:10:32
Speaker 1: If you're a big fan of your team and you're all in, then your team loses like Week three in the SEC and you're just like, all right, fuck it, we're not making it this year. I mean I never cared about bowl games besides the actual championship game, so for me, it would actually it made me worse of a college football fan because it was it was too small, right, small Hall, it was too small. So for the NBA, they have the other problem going. I think the NBA is telling casual fans nothing matters until the playoffs, so go to sleep and wake up when playoffs start. Everything else does not matter at all.

00:11:07
Speaker 3: Sure you see say it?

00:11:14
Speaker 2: Yeah?

00:11:14
Speaker 3: Yeah, the big leagues.

00:11:18
Speaker 5: You they already took away your division games so that everybody can go and see everybody in play. It kind of shows that they want everybody to play it.

00:11:28
Speaker 2: Now.

00:11:28
Speaker 5: If you have a tournament, the MLB Cup, now you're having a game. Now you're having games against teams, and it's not a balance schedule. They wanted to. They just made a move a few years ago to have a balance schedule, and now they don't have that. Like they're trying to go away from the divisions. They're trying to go away from all that stuff. To me, this doesn't make sense because of how baseball's played and how it's sport.

00:11:54
Speaker 3: I agree, yeah, it's a part about being able to get through the grind yeap okay, But here the NBA teams are already they already come out and say it, Oh, we don't care what seed we are to get in, we just got to get in.

00:12:06
Speaker 2: Oh.

00:12:06
Speaker 3: And sometimes it's better to be the seventh seed than the eight seed because teams will, oh, I'm the sixth seed. If we lose a couple of games at the end, you become the seventh seed. It's a better matchup against the two than the three. It's it's not what I want as a fan. I want to I want I want to watch games where the team is trying to win every game.

00:12:26
Speaker 1: Right, But the NBA felt like they already had an issue there where it wasn't happening. They have a much more significant load management issue in their sport than MLB does. Right, They play half the game that MLB does, and guys were sitting left and right. Why because everybody makes the playoffs, So that's their issue they're dealing with. I just don't think this is an issue that MLB is dealing with at all now.

00:12:47
Speaker 3: And by the way, MJR. Sports Cards when I said making the playoffs in baseball is the hardest thing to do in the world, it is because look at the other sports. The NBA has twenty, right, NFL has fourteen out of thirty.

00:12:58
Speaker 2: Two Yeah, so it's on more half, so.

00:13:00
Speaker 3: It's almost half. And then I don't even know NHL is sixteen I think out of thirty. Either way, MLB is twelve out of thirty, which is by far. That's why when I said that, this guy keeps mocking me. So but that's what I meant. It's the hardest sport to make the postseason because of the teams, the amount of teams to get in. Think about it, when it was two.

00:13:20
Speaker 5: Teams, it's not it's it's not even close, and it's more than it used to be and it's still not close. Like other leagues have added more teams, yes, Major League Baseball has added more teams, but before like when you guys, when you guys won the World Series and O five, what was your route? The route that you guys took to get there?

00:13:44
Speaker 2: What do you say?

00:13:45
Speaker 3: I heard something about a route, but my my thing is you can see is just cooked.

00:13:50
Speaker 2: What is it? You're wired?

00:13:51
Speaker 3: I don't know it's going in and out, but I was getting like every third word. It was like crats had a bad cell phone reception.

00:13:56
Speaker 2: Oh, I'll switch your pack in a second.

00:13:58
Speaker 3: Hold on, sorry, I think you said what was our route? We played the Red Sox, then we played the Angels, and then we played the Astros. The Red Sox defending champions, smoked their ass, swept them. Angels have Bartolo in the so Young I think Vlad was MVP that year. We beat him for one and then we played the Astros at Clements pettit Oswell Berkman Now you've got a whole another round.

00:14:17
Speaker 5: Guys, Now you've got a whole another round, like like I'm getting up, all.

00:14:23
Speaker 2: Right, you switch it.

00:14:23
Speaker 5: It's so it's It is definitely the hardest sport to make the playoffs, Okay, of the four major ones.

00:14:32
Speaker 2: I agree.

00:14:33
Speaker 1: Yeah, I don't know what the banter is online right now, and AJ is going to switch his ear coming up in a second, so he's going to pass me righty, here he comes.

00:14:41
Speaker 3: And I love big, but I do.

00:14:47
Speaker 1: Have one more component of this. I do want to get to. Okay, here's something that you can do without disrupting the regular season and really just changing the complexion of this at a pretty significant level in terms of how the regular season plays out and the records and the whole deal. You want a gimmick, you want marketing, figure out more games like Field of Dreams. I know the NASCAR version had its issues this year, but I do think there's a lot more room to go there where it does make things exciting and we look forward to, oh, what's going on.

00:15:21
Speaker 2: All right this month?

00:15:23
Speaker 1: They're going to play a game on an aircraft carrier whatever? Right, Like, I do think there's more there that we can do, and hey, what's one of our favorite things that's so easy and basic. That seems to have been an issue ever since it was created. It's like they created something good and then they ruined it. Players weekend with the names on the back of the jerseys.

00:15:41
Speaker 2: That was awesome. People fucking loved that.

00:15:44
Speaker 1: And I know they've had their issues with the uniforms and getting stuff approved whatever, But there are things like that that you can do that don't affect the regular season numbers and the playoffs and even the games themselves. Right, they do affect the game because they're play in a different environment. To me, I would like to see more of that. I don't think we've reached our cap on that.

00:16:03
Speaker 3: That's fair, But listen, the problem with that is are expensive. They have to build these stadiums in places. And I was fortunate to play in twenty sixteen for Brag. They built the stadium on for Bragg and then they ripped it down right after. They didn't even keep the stadium. Williamsport they go back to every year, which is cool because they have a minor league stadium. They're going back to Field of Dreams this year. Some of them have worked some of them haven't worked right. I thought the Field of Dreams honestly should have been a one and done because that game was so epic. No Yankees on the White Sox. But the next year didn't have near the hype or any of it. But I know this year, do you even know who's playing at Field or Dreams?

00:16:36
Speaker 5: This year?

00:16:36
Speaker 2: I know one of them. I think I do know the teams, and I know not one of them.

00:16:41
Speaker 3: Twins. I know that.

00:16:41
Speaker 2: I know that's not good. This is not a good year to be promoting.

00:16:45
Speaker 3: But the year they did Cubs in reds.

00:16:48
Speaker 1: Okay, I mean people it did, okay, clubs fans, I mean there's actually a lot of Cubs fans in Iowa. And also I would love I haven't been out there.

00:16:54
Speaker 2: I would love to go. I think it's still a destination for people.

00:16:56
Speaker 1: I know that's not about just selling the tickets, but I do think visually it's cool ass crushed it. I know Netflix is going to do stuff now with that too, right, I think they're carrying it, But like, I think there's a component there that they found that works even if the ratings aren't here.

00:17:10
Speaker 2: If they're here, I think, but they need more for.

00:17:13
Speaker 3: Me they need more signature games, which is what the The one at Bristol last year was, right, like figure out different places that you can have cool games. Now, listen, you said aircraft carrier. I went to a basketball game on aircraft carrier. It was a disaster. They couldn't even make it through halftime because the field pork got too wet, so it was they didn't even count as Florida versus Georgetown.

00:17:33
Speaker 2: They got wet because of rain because it's a.

00:17:35
Speaker 3: Condensation, so they couldn't play the second half. So that was kind of They're kind.

00:17:39
Speaker 4: Of I just threw something out there, I know, but I'm saying, like some of these works, some of these, but don't but at least try them.

00:17:44
Speaker 3: That's right, try them right and everyone complains, Oh, the Cubs and the Dodgers opened to Japan last year, but it was huge ratings and it.

00:17:52
Speaker 2: Was cool for the game.

00:17:52
Speaker 3: It's cool, right when they used to open in Australia and they used to open in Korea and they opened they play those games in Mexico City. Isn't it about growing the game? We I went and did a London game. It was unbelievable atmosphere, right, they haven't done it in a couple of years. Right. They wanted to do them in France, but they lost. They couldn't find the right sponsor. Right, Like, if the NFL does this better than anybody, and even the NBA. The Magic right now, the Orlando Magic overplaying in Germany. Right, the NFL was in Madrid this year, they were in Berlin, they played in London. Right, you can figure this out if you really want to make this happen, if it's truly about growing the game globally, send a team here there for five games or week whatever and make too you know, whatever it is. I don't know. There's got to be a way to figure this out to help the game grow globally.

00:18:40
Speaker 5: And people don't be so insular if you're in the Major League Baseball higher creative people don't don't say it works for the NBA. We're going to do that. Oh, the NFL does this, We're going to do that. Like, be creative, don't don't try to keep playing catch up. It's okay if you do something and that's creative and you're like, ah, fell on our face, But we're trying new stuff. Hire some younger people. But all the owners are all the same. They're all the same ilk, and they all try to agree on the same thing.

00:19:19
Speaker 1: Kaufman Stadium, home of the Royals, getting a little bit cozier. They are moving in the fences around a good chunk of the ballpark by around ten feet. They also are lowering the fences by about a couple feet, so they'd like to make it a little less picture friendly. They did a very detailed, multi year analytical study, and it became a running joke in the GM suite with JJ Picolo that a deep flyball caught at the track is going to be a home run in twenty twenty six, and so we'll see if that actually happens. They think that with the new run values on flyballs, they project to add one and a half wins annually.

00:19:56
Speaker 2: In home games. There's been years of discussions.

00:19:58
Speaker 1: Like I mentioned, Piccolo said, I'm going to try to summarize here so we can get to your thoughts. That the organization felt like guys were changing their swing even if they didn't try to change their swing, and that it was affecting their overall game. Of course, it also affects free agency when you're recruiting hitters. I don't think this kind of change is suddenly going to make it a bandbox and a hitters ballpark. So it should help them be able to recruit pitchers like they always do, but then hitters as well.

00:20:27
Speaker 2: They think it'll help them win games. YadA, YadA. I'll get some more details as we go, but your overall thoughts.

00:20:31
Speaker 3: To start, I loved hitting in Kaufman Stadium, so I had no problem because I could just hit in the gap and get my stand up double and not have to hustle all the way and there breath huge out and everyone. So I also got a two RBI sack fly once in Kaufman Stadium, so that I also like it for that. But you can hit your homer's there. Here's my thing with this. Every team did Baltimore moved their fence and move their fence back, put the wall up, put this, do that. I love that they're lower in the fence, more chance for home run robberies, but just really, I mean, I know the analytics say this or that, and you know, but are they going for a more offensively powered team? Because when the Royals won ten years ago, eleven years ago in twenty fifteen, they had pitching, defense, guys that could fly around. Yeah, they had a couple of dudes that could hit Homer, Salvi, Hosmer and Mustachus, but they were more athletic and they just covered all the ground and they just were better at pitching and defense than every team they played. So now it's a shift in philosophy, like we want to go full power and then just bring them in like twenty five.

00:21:29
Speaker 2: Feet, make it a bandbox.

00:21:31
Speaker 3: Let's make a great American small park. Let's make it somewhere like that, or you can just hit Homer after bring them into Like what if they just did something revolutionary, were like, you know what, center field is going to be three point fifty, the Lions are going to be two fifty. We're just gonna outmash you.

00:21:45
Speaker 2: League would not approve it.

00:21:46
Speaker 3: Why not? It's my ballpark. I can do what I want.

00:21:49
Speaker 2: No league wouldn't approve it, But.

00:21:52
Speaker 3: They'll approve an end season tournament. That'll change.

00:21:55
Speaker 2: That's another segment I know, but I'm just so jump it. Don't jump it.

00:21:58
Speaker 1: But anyway, they do have raw power guys right now. I mean, they're gonna be excited. Jack Aglion, Carter Jensen, Vinnie Pascorentino has already been talking about it. Bobby Witt, former Royal R Kratz shaking his head, what's wrong.

00:22:12
Speaker 5: I don't think the I don't think the raw power guys care about moving the fence there. You think they care about like the ball like they're still you got to get a ball to get it out. I get that, you get jammed, you get a home run. I feel like I feel like in general, yes you might. I mean, I remember they had the or they just showed the chart for mikel Garcias some of his doubles and triples that would be home runs. Not many outs turn into home runs, but there are some. I get that. But to me, it's just like looking at Colorado, you are not necessarily hitting so many more home runs. You're getting so many more hits. By the third game of a series, a team comes in is not used to the elevation or running after the ball on the outfield. That's where you start getting hits. You start getting games where it's like fourteen hits to eleven hits. You get games where guys aren't throwing strikes. To me, I think I felt like when I was there, obviously we lost in Game seven of the World Series in fourteen. We won the World Series in fifteen. I felt like Kaufman was an advantage that the organization said, we're building guys to play at Kaufman. We're not building guys to play anywhere else in the league. We're not saying, guys, you gotta swing. You gotta have a different elevation to swing. You know, you got to you gotta take your shots. If you strike out more, it's okay. No, like the entire organizational philosophy, how are we gonna win in Kaufman? And if you didn't do those things, especially as outfielders in the minor leagues, you weren't going to get a shot. There was guys in Tripaa that I saw playing that were good players, went on played other places in the big leagues for a little bit, did not get a shot the Royals because there was a there was a level of expectation of how they're gonna play the game based on the stadium, to the point in twenty fourteen and the seventh, eighth or ninth inning, we would bring in Gerrod Dyson, move Lorenzo Kine, who is one of the better center fielders of my generation that I've seen play to right field and Nori Aoki would go sit on the bench. Obviously Locane and Rod were better than Nori, but they were playing that matchup to the defense, to what that looks like for the field.

00:24:40
Speaker 3: True.

00:24:41
Speaker 1: Derek Carty is a Fangrafts writer in similar Actually you.

00:24:44
Speaker 3: Get to the Fangrafts sing it's similar to San Francisco when they were good for those when they won those three titles in five years. Unbelievably good pitching, really good bullpen, tremendous defense. They didn't have a guy that hit thirty homers. They had guys that could get hits some big situations. They had some high average guys, guys would hitch you twenty right, but they'd played to their ballpark. It's just what Kratz said. If that's why I always say, if I'm Colorado, I just go out and go ninety five Blake Street Bombers and just get a bunch of mashers and say we're gonna outscore you. We're gonna try to win sixty home games, win our thirty on the road, and that's ninety wins and we go from there. Just you have to play to your home ballpark, because guess what, you play eighty one games a year in your home ballpark, so you need to win the most of those if you're going to be any good.

00:25:32
Speaker 1: But their stat nerds think that it's not working. What's all working the current setup, and at least I don't want to say it's not working.

00:25:39
Speaker 2: But they think this is the solution.

00:25:41
Speaker 1: They think this is going to help them, and it's not going.

00:25:45
Speaker 3: To help the other team because guess what, the other team gets some defenses moved into.

00:25:49
Speaker 1: Of course, but is this such a drastic change that it's going to affect the way that the Royals can win games?

00:25:55
Speaker 2: Or is it just going to put them in a.

00:25:57
Speaker 1: Place where a few of the wall screen vpers end up going.

00:26:01
Speaker 2: Over the wall?

00:26:02
Speaker 1: Or are they putting in new fountain under fountain stay of the same.

00:26:05
Speaker 2: And also, isn't the batter's eye there really nice?

00:26:08
Speaker 3: Yeah? That's whatever year that stadium was building, like in the sixties. I think it's still really nice.

00:26:14
Speaker 1: It's a really nice park. Yeah, they're trying to get a new park, and I'm like, no, I don't want to do well.

00:26:18
Speaker 3: They had a new park, they thought, and then Frank White, the ex player shot it down. He was on the city council and he's like, oh, I don't know that story. That's that's a crazy story.

00:26:26
Speaker 2: The public vote too.

00:26:27
Speaker 3: But no, but before it got to that, he had already You got to read that sort. It's great because they thought they had it down by power and light. Yep, brand new stadium. That was the thing. Remember we signed Bobby Whitt, We're getting a new stadium, blah blah blah. And then it fell apart. Now the Chiefs are going to Kansas, so now they're really going to be the.

00:26:43
Speaker 2: Kansas, putting the Kansas in Kansas City.

00:26:46
Speaker 3: And the stadium deal they just got is actually the crazy and I know it's football, but look up that stadium deal. What they just got is absolutely incredible.

00:26:55
Speaker 2: The deal that Mahomes and Kelsey built.

00:26:57
Speaker 3: I mean, anyway, good for them. The Chiefs got good. God blessed the Hunt family. Ain't selling that team forever, no, because they ain't gonna be able to stop printing money in the stadium deal, it's a mint. But talking about the Royals need a new stadium, the Royals need a new stadium. There's a build back in the sixties. It's still nice. They do a great job of keeping it up. But the thing about it is where it's located is in Crouch. You played there. It's in the middle of nowhere, okay. And the way every team wants now is the battery is the stuff around it, and where that stadium is located. It's not a destination. So a stadium in downtown Kansas City makes a lot of sense. But then they got to get public funding, and they got you know, so, so instead they're like, we'll move the fences in ten fee well, hat a fountain here and there, maybe a passuatch walking back and forth. I don't know.

00:27:48
Speaker 5: All right, Well, the stadium, the Chiefs. If the Chiefs are gone, now you have all that area. The Chiefs practice facilities there. Knockdown, knock down the Chiefs Stadium whatever it's called, Higi Hiji Parker Stadium, and build you it wasn't our it's not our head anymore. It's it was renamed to the to the local. But anyway, why can't they build up that area. There's so much open area. Make it a destination, leave it there, do something, do something. Because I love I love Kaufman too much. But what you were talking about the Giants, I didn't think they had like the greatest pic Yes, Madison Bumgardner was awesome, ten limpsecom was ridiculous at the beginning of their three championship runs, I guess came, but absolutely they had. But the biggest thing that they would do is Buster Posey's back there catching. He would make you beat them with three singles, fastballs down in a way. Here you go, try to get three singles. And their defense was good enough that they wouldn't allow those things. Their pitching was good enough that they could execute. Yes, they had, but they didn't. They played a different style baseball game that even the Royals played a different style baseball game when I was there pitching wise, like, how do you win a World Series with your Dona Ventura, James Shields, Chris Young, Jeremy Guthrie. Tho, those were your start Edison Volcez after he was Edison Volceez, Like, those were your starting pitchers. Like you do it by playing your style of game and not trying to mold it to what everybody else is doing. Well, everyone else is throwing riser fastballs. We're just gonna throw riser fastballs and get swinging miss strikeouts. To me, it's okay that teams win it their way if they have something unique about their stadium. By the way, so this is a completely kind of awful. You mentioned the name of the chief.

00:29:54
Speaker 3: So I hung out with the guy this weekend in Chicago that told me the guaranteed rate, you know, the guaranteed rate field Now the White Sox, the amount of money they got that stadium rights for for I think ten years was less than I believe the Cubs wanted for a billboard in their little park.

00:30:13
Speaker 2: That's a good deal.

00:30:14
Speaker 3: It was a great it was a good way. I was like, we got that offered to us. We took it in a second because we were going to try to get the Cubs something at the cub Stadium, and all they would do was put like a day we could, like, you know, they have to I don't know if that park is called outside Wrigley, they have a park where they do concerts and it's right there. It used to be a street, but they moved in and the whole thing. But they were going to sponsor that little park and it was more than what the White Sox offered them to buy the stadium for ten years. So they were like, well, take the White Sox stadium Gallagher Way, that's it. Yes, it was going to be guaranteed rightway. But instead they were like, oh, the White Sox will give us the whole stadium for less, We'll take that.

00:30:55
Speaker 2: Which hell yeah, of course.

00:30:57
Speaker 3: But it was just funny. When I heard that, I was like, man, that's crazy. The difference in the markets in the same citat sure.

00:31:03
Speaker 2: Yeah, well, the Cubs have the historic component. I get it.

00:31:09
Speaker 1: The White Sox could invest more in what they're doing and create a powerhouse and make more There are plenty of examples of that. The Blue Jays are the latest ones. Anyway, let me get to this projections. This was the part that actually threw me off, unless I'm reading this wrong. Derek Cardy from Fangrafts put out the projections before and after the park change. Old slugin percentage projection for Bobby wit Junior five to twenty one, new slugin percentage five to twenty five. He has him at one more Homer, Salby, one more Homer, Vinnie p one more Homer. I agreed, Okay, I mean they add up because you'll have a lot of people getting another Homer.

00:31:50
Speaker 5: The other team down. I know batting average will go down. And what are the Royals do? What are the Royals do? They put the ball in play. Now, all of a sudden, you shrunk some of that outfield. The defenders come a little bit closer, they can cover more ground. I don't know. I don't know, So I.

00:32:09
Speaker 1: Want to be clear. Krats for you. For example, you were part of the Royals org, would you have done this? If you get presented with years long analysis of what they think should happen and say we will win one and a half more home games.

00:32:25
Speaker 2: Per year if we do this, would you do it? And would you buy the data? Would you be into the data? Yes?

00:32:35
Speaker 5: I would be into the data. I would not be afraid of buying into the data. But I would definitely take a look at what we have spent the last hower many years building our farm system to be guys that make contact and run the bases and play defense. And I need to see I need to see the downside because it's not just get we got one and a half extra wins a year at home, which is a huge jump. To me, that's a huge jump. But where's the downside? What is the down how much more. How much less are we going to be getting our hits because we're a team that is been historically the last three years top two or top three in the least amount of strikeouts, lowest strikeouts in baseball. Now, all of a sudden, it's like, guys, it's okay if you strike out, because we need you to hit the ball over the fence. Now you're gonna have a superpower, which is not striking out going down. Now you're gonna have that defense. Okay. Well, you know, I'm not saying they did this because of Jack Kaglione, But if Jack Taglione doesn't cover the outfield like some of the other outfielders that they've had in the history of their game, you know, maybe this benefits him more. Maybe it's more than one home run like it is for vinnp or South.

00:34:02
Speaker 1: Benny p tweeted a lot after this came out. I'll try and take some bits and pieces, he said, from a data perspective. This hits close to home because he's about to go in a room arbitration and here how awful he is, he says the k The ballpark was the sixth most hitter friendly ballpark according to the park factor sixth most friendly. That's overall runs, not home runs. He said, we'll moving the fences in make this better or worse. Hitters like hitting at the k because the visuals are nice, like we talked about, But everyone else also agrees. It's been a pitcher's park forever. What this means is that you can't hit cheap homers. That's literally all a hitter is. Saying a park is a hitter's park or not means but the data firmly supports it being a hitter's paradise because you can get more singles, doubles and triples. Will the park factor actually go down if it's more of a neutral park because there will be less triples Even if there's an uptick and home runs? What will this mean for weighted runs creative plus? We get punished, right, That's how it works when it factors in ballpark with the stat playing at the case, what will happen?

00:35:01
Speaker 2: More home runs, more runs produced.

00:35:03
Speaker 1: But if the park factor goes down, so does the punishment for probably the most important stat in our game from an individual standpoint. It's talking about way to runs create a plus, which is very close to ops plus.

00:35:13
Speaker 2: All in all.

00:35:14
Speaker 1: I truly believe hitters pitchers arelike just want fairness. But we play one of the only sports where the field size changes, and I think that's one of the cooler parts of our game.

00:35:22
Speaker 2: And then he's just joking, like I rammed a lot.

00:35:23
Speaker 1: It's cool, just he's just putting stuff out there to see what people mark.

00:35:26
Speaker 2: Though.

00:35:27
Speaker 3: He gets it. He's one of those guys that gets it and he understands the stats that matter, and he he's kind of what Crat said, it's going to take away. That's why I loved hitting there because I wasn't a huge home run guy, but man, I could hit some balls in that gap and the outfielders had to do they didn't take perfect angles. It was such an easy double for me, right, and you can get a lot more broken bats and bloops and hits. It in other parks are the same as Course Field. It's the same exact thing as Corsefield. You make your decision when you go in there. You play shallow with your outfield or you play deep. I always one of my outfielders to play shallow at Course Field. Take away, it's not the home runs kill you, because if a guy hits a home run. Of course field it's going out anyways, it's over your outfitter's head. You're screwed. But you don't want the ones to fall in before the guy hit the home run, right, And so I agree with this what he's saying, and it takes away hits. But remember, batting average doesn't matter. What do they look for home runs? How many home runs and walks did you have? Can you hit a home run walk? You can hit a home run twenty five times and walk fifty times, but strike out two hundred and fifty times? What a great player?

00:36:32
Speaker 2: Can I affect the way that hitters are judged?

00:36:36
Speaker 1: Like you said, weighted runs created plus akops plus it actually might make some Royals players cost less to the Royals if that affects the metric that is used most commonly to evaluate bats. Just saying, you know, it starts to get really, really.

00:36:53
Speaker 3: Are they taking away? Here's the only thing I want to Are they taking away the plastic warning trick they used to have. They used to have the rubber warning track? Did they are they taking that away they used to have? They probably already they probably already took it away. Okay, because I just I've told the story before. We were playing there and a guy jump tried to jump on the field and he fell and he hit the plastic warning track and broke his leg and they had to come get the cart and cart him off. It was one of the more car mask things I've ever seen. Like the guy jumped right from the left field corner. He jumped on and when he landed, he broke his leg and so he and everyone our outfielders like ay and then jump get the cart and bring him. The cops cuffed him, put him on the cart and drove them off.

00:37:38
Speaker 2: It was more of a hit thing was going to be.

00:37:40
Speaker 5: Yeah, the last rubber plastic track that I saw was the Guardians, and they were still the Indians back then, so that that was the last one, and that one only stretched. I think it was just past the dugout like I don't even think it went all the way actually I think it did go all the way out to the right field line. But then but then the warning track in the field was stone. But that was the last one, and I think they'veged.

00:38:05
Speaker 3: It anyways, just side note, but yeah, we'll see.

00:38:10
Speaker 2: Good discussion, good discussion.

00:38:12
Speaker 1: We'll see what it turns into and we'll be able to see a year of numbers. The problem nowadays is you get to see a year, two, three, whatever of numbers, but then people will still.

00:38:20
Speaker 2: Say, oh, well, there were so many factors involved. There's luck, there's wind, there's this, there's that.

00:38:23
Speaker 3: So Toronto moved their fences in and it got worse of a hitter's park.

00:38:27
Speaker 2: Well, that's because they did a lot of changes there, I know, But I'm just saying.

00:38:31
Speaker 3: I remember back in the day, Texas had like the wind tunnel out to right because of the way the wind blew and it hit and it would get circulated back. And then they made some changes in the old stadium and that went away.

00:38:42
Speaker 2: Cubs have had that.

00:38:43
Speaker 3: Cubs Cubs put up those horrific scoreboards in the outfield and it's just not the same.

00:38:49
Speaker 2: Well, it made it more of a pictures park, I know.

00:38:51
Speaker 1: And the Padres have had that where it was a pictures park and then started to level out a little bit more level Yeah.

00:38:58
Speaker 3: I remember playing in San dieg actually the biggest one of all time. I played the first game ever at pet Go and it was Gigan. You're like, yeah, they had Clussco and Nevin and all these places, and they're like, ain't nobody ever hitting one out of here? I remember like Nevin would hit his best bolt to Wright and the right Filder be like he'd be like right with his growley old voice. And then I played in k America before they redid it. If you think Coffin's big, you should have seen co America before they brought the There was no bullpen in the outfield. The wolfpen was behind the fence. The flag pole was in center field. It was, it was massive, it was.

00:39:36
Speaker 5: It was so big. City Field, City Field's original dimensions. They just keep moving them in. I mean they were so far back in right field. David Wright got into the new stadium, was like what on earth? Because he used to put balls out of shade. He used to just flip him out to right, flip him out to right. I mean, when you when somebody goes back and looks at the old dimensions when they first opened. I was at City Field when they first opened it. Oh my gosh, it was massive.

00:40:09
Speaker 3: When he went to Target Field, couldn't hit one out. He complained about it. They moved they moved other around the man for Joe and Justin Arnaut because they were both. I loved it at target Field. I thought that place was great placed. But they bitched and moaned about that place from the jump they went from the Metrodome to there, and they were complaining left and right about how hard it was to hit there.

00:40:27
Speaker 2: You like all the places people bitch.

00:40:29
Speaker 3: About Seattle, check Minnesota. I love Minnesota Spark. Yeah, I've been to Minnesota. I'm been to target Field. It's it's solid.

00:40:38
Speaker 2: I got to hang there once. No one was there for a while, and it was it was cool.

00:40:41
Speaker 3: It's like on top of you. I mean, I like the parks that are like where. I mean, it's like there are people are sitting. That was the You know what else? I liked target Field because it was like four steps from the dugout to home plate and that was my run. That was my cardio.

00:40:54
Speaker 2: Oh they made it nice and easy for so there's.

00:40:57
Speaker 3: Snow room behind home plate. Yeah, it's literally like one, two, three, four. Okay, squad went to through for them in the dugout, went to through four. It's great. I love those places, not like Boston where you have to run a marathon to get to home plate.

00:41:08
Speaker 2: Well, they weren't thinking about you in nineteen.

00:41:11
Speaker 3: Nineteen twenty or whatever. Yeah, nothing's worse than Boston because people don't realize how far the dugout is Sacramentos. But I'm just saying, like for dugout, from just a pure dugout standpoint home plate to the home to the dugout was so it's.

00:41:28
Speaker 5: Like you get there, oh man, and it's uphill, and it's uphill.

00:41:34
Speaker 3: Yes, it is. I told people the story when I first played at Wrigley Field in two thousand and one, first time I ever played there, you could stand in the outfield and the batting cages are in the outfield in Rayfield. They if you want to call them a batting cage, it was a net. Okay, Like Fenway used to have a batting cage in center field and it was just a net. They hung out there and you would hit and you couldn't even like stand up all the way because it was so small. Regular Field's old bating cage is in Rayfield. You could stand out there and you could watch somebody at home plate and now all they could see was your head because it was so crowned. But behind the behind the dirt, it just it was like a who it dropped off so much. It was crazy. If your outfielder wasn't over five ten, you couldn't see him. You just see the little thing on top of their hat field. You think I'm joking. It was unbelievable.

00:42:26
Speaker 5: It was crazy.

00:42:26
Speaker 3: And when you talk to people, they're like, what are you talking about? You have no idea how crazy, how crazily crowned it was. I mean it was like it just kept going down and down and down. Now they've obviously leveled it out, it's way better. But it was hilarious.

00:42:38
Speaker 2: Yeah, if you have or Bend Revere, you.

00:42:42
Speaker 3: Never you never seen If Al two went out right field, you hit a ball out there, you'd be like, I run it, I got a triple. And then you'd be like, wait, well I didn't even see that guy out there.

00:42:50
Speaker 2: That's good, all right.

00:42:52
Speaker 1: So if anyone else has thoughts that we missed, let us know. If you're catching this later on too,