Trevor May’s All-Star Game thoughts, Rest of season predictions, Fact-checking commish Rob Manfred

00:00:10
Speaker 1: Oh, and welcome in. It's may Day, a show about the show. Welcome to a special ish edition of All Star Week. I'm your host, Trevor May Here. As always, I apologize for not being here on Monday. But my whole body herd, plus my head, plus my shore throat, I think I just burned out. I had a little sick day. Every once in a while, you got to have a sick day, so I had to take advantage of that. But it just so happens that we had a nice little slot here about territory on Wednesday. So we've had the game. We get to talk now about a lot of the highlights. So we actually have a lot more to talk about now than we did then, which is great in my opinion. So great show planning for you. Very excited to get in to it, and we're just gonna have a really good time today, So I hope you're ready. Baseball is back very soon, but not quite yet, so you're stuck with me. Let's talk about all the things coming up, all the things that have happened and everything in between. I got some new kind of things that we're going to be seeing pretty regularly here on the show. So we're just gonna get right into it. It is May Day, July sixteenth to twenty twenty five, and away we go. And today we will be starting with the news. But before we get into that, a couple housekeeping things for you. My substack is up. It is available. You can use this QR code or you can use I'm tremany dot com. Either way, they're there. We have several publications that are being regularly updated. We have the may Day Report that used to be the newsletter, but now that is our custom editorial. For example, producer dk David has his first article on there discussing discussing where he breaks down where the potential emmanual Class A trade would be because he is one of the hot commodities being discussed here in this impending trade deadline. It's great work. I highly recommend you go check it out, and it is free. There's also a bunch of other things. We have a weekly newsletter that tells you everything you may have missed, not only from this show, but any other things that I'm working on making or talking about. We've got some special substack only content in the works for there as well, and producer Henry is also going to be joining in writing some articles, so please go check that out. It's free to subscribe, and if you want to support financially, there's gonna be a whole bunch of goodies, a few already up there, more to come that you will be able to take part of. And we appreciate you, Sporting Mayday and everything, and the whole team here appreciates your support there as well. Without but that's about it, so without further ado, let's just go right into the news. All right, let's get into some pec in news. Quite a few things happen here going into the final week of spring training. As we get ready, I'm gonna try to develop my skill like waitting quickly through these things, just hitting them, hit them, hit.

00:03:15
Speaker 2: All right, let's get into the news.

00:03:22
Speaker 1: It's time for the news. I gotta bring you back. He'll be here though we are here. We are in the news. And first things first, there is a subject that I'm gonna be covering very very regularly all the way up through the impending CBA negotiations and beyond twenty twenty six that I call fact checking Rob Manfred and I need to come up with it. A little jingle. I didn't have time to do it with the sickness and everything. But I think it's going to go something like this, he said some stuff, but is it true? Probably not. It's Rob Manfred, So maybe we'll do that throw music anyone at home? Can you? Can you do that? What other show does the host sing come up with jingles in real time? Huh? Name one? That's what I thought. All right, So first thing, first story. We have some more comments from our friend Rob Manfred when it comes to the impending CBA negotiations that I just mentioned. Okay, there were he the day before the All Star Game on Tuesday, him and Tony Clark Clark fielded questions or they spoke in front of and filthy questions. Spoke in front of the Baseball Writers of America, sorry, Baseball Writers Association of America, the same group of people that vote in the Hall of Fame and our biggest governing body of all the writers around the game, and touched on a variety of topics. Evand Relics from the Athletic has been reporting extensively on comments that that Rob has made recently. And the reason that these things are happening right now is because this is a foundational argumentative. They're trying to set the framework for how these arguments are going to happen and to in order to move public sentiment one way or the other, because that is usually the strongest force in making these arguments, and they can sway players or they can sway sway the ownership group. Accordingly, right where the fans are going is usually where one of the two sides has to try to bring them back or not. So that's just that's how every negotiation happens. But that's why we're seeing comments being made right now because they're just going to come up there. They're kind of they're buzzwords. They they're little earworms. People like, it's dramatic whatever, and it can get people talking. So they're going to just try to get people talking, all right, So here's what the comments were. To break them down, and what we're going to do every single time this happens is just talk about what was said, and then I will give you context on how things work and whether or not anything was actually said or not what you expect moving forward, just so you can say, I stay educated with maybe strategies from both sides, and then where maybe we'll know what might happen moving forward based on that knowledge. So and it also allows me to not get so riled up and be more objective because I was a player. Okay, I was active in the union and my father was a president of a union for like thirty years. So like, I have a very distinct direction. I come from this because I believe that workers. The ability for workers to negotiate and have some sort of leverage or some recourse to create an environment that takes care of them more is important. Now what that looks like can change very wildly left right, but just having the mechanism that exists is important because otherwise then it's just one one group of people has a bunch of power and then there's nothing anyone can do about it. And that doesn't work out very well usually for the other side. So here's what the comments were, and we're going to start with Rob because Rob was the first two field questions. So he was asked whether or not the salary cap was something that he wants. Okay, so salary cap. Salary cap is usually a big no no. Right, it's a non tender. It's a non starter conversation when you say that phrase. So you're gonna notice that Rob wants to stay away from that phrase a lot, and he what he says lines up with that a lot. Says when I talk to the players, I don't try to convince him that a salary cap system would be a good thing. Okay, technically true. There's a lot of technically going to happen today, so prepare for that. Literally, what I say to them is I identify a problem in the media business and explain to them that owners need to change to address that problem. So first claim there is a media They don't know how to make money off of media the same way that they have for a long time because of the death of because of cable cord cutting and because the death of the cable television industry. Like I don't know anyone who watches movies or TV shows and anything so knows all about this, right, And of course professional sports are also having the same problem. They don't know how like Fox, this isn't going to shell out five hundred million dollars because they don't know if the viewers are going to be there, because the viewership keeps going down no matter what they do, because of the nature of the distribution. So that is a problem right, that's a problem that they are actively working on constantly, and it's the biggest thing they struggle with. Players don't really care about that a lot, but identifying that the problem is important. So okay. The second problem we need to work is that we need to work together. So okay, it takes through the tango. We'll talk about that in a moment. And that there are fans and a lot of our markets who feel we have a competitive balance problem. Okay, So very keywords here. The keywords here are there are fans. So one, he's like, fans are on. Fans know about this, and we are for the fans very nice to hear. If you're a fan, I will push back against it a little bit. And for him to think of fans in any other way of we'll give you more money for this thing. He doesn't think about them as this is what they want. He thinks about what this is what they'll pay for. And those things a lot of times are different. So let's just be very clear here. Those are not the same, okay, And he's going to try to make them do the same a lot, and they're not. There are different things. There's different situations where one of them applies to the other one doesn't, okay, and then there is a competitive balance problem. So for me, I want to know specifically what the competitive browance problem is. And other than saying there is a competitive balance problem, Rob doesn't really spend a lot of time ever, giving any detail what that means. What I'm assuming he means in this situation is the idea that the Dodgers are a super team, even though they just lost seven straight and they're barely in first place, and they've won one World Series since they become a super team. But I understand that. But at the end of the day, No, there's no sport in the world that has more parody. Well, actually that might maybe a soccer has more parody, But no, no, We've had no back to back World Series champions. We have people who are in the playoffs all the time. They are the better teams, that's true, but the champions are different all the time, and that you can't say that about other sports quite as much.

00:10:44
Speaker 2: All right, Summer, we almost forgot what it feels like to play just because, but even Summer needs back up, a little partner in the good kind of chaos, someone to bring the kung fu kicks to train some dragons. Fly, you, old dragon writer.

00:11:03
Speaker 1: Fly.

00:11:03
Speaker 2: The kind of fun that keeps the days going, that turns living rooms into playgrounds and reminds us what our bodies and our hearts were made for. Play that moves you.

00:11:16
Speaker 1: Last quot, he said, I have never used the word salary within one of cap. Basically said I've never set salary cap together. What I do say to them is in addressing this competitive issue that's real. Again. You can say things are real all the time, but you have to be a because boom boom boom still yet to see it. You should think about whether this system is a perfect system from a player's perspective, perfect system is ever going to exist. So I don't really like that word either. My only goal here is to not convince them of one system or another, but to convince them that everybody is going to the table with open mind. Just keep an open mind, guys, Just keep an open mind. Okay, just keep an open mind. So what we're trying to do is remove this like the word salary cap is a bad word. He wants to soften that so that he can start using it more. That makes sense. He's a lawyer, that's what they do. Changing what language means in the context what they're talking about is very important. And then we have Tony Clark gets up here. He's a lot shorter. He says, this is institutionalized collusion. That's what a salary cap is. Sure it is, but like there's more understanding. I don't think people fully understand what a salary cap is. And I think we could do better job of explaining that there are no illusions of grandeur here in regards to what is worth hearing. What is the interest in the other side seems to be as result, players are being told as much. Okay, so what he's trying to say is, don't as anything they say. I think that that is a good stance to take. But again it's about nuts and bolts. I think people are like, yeah, we know why, why like specifically what is lie? So like that's what I'm trying to attempt to do here, And I don't want to stay on this forever, but I do want to get through this point. So I just mentioned salary cap up and the conversations around it kind of are driving me crazy because salary cap is a very specific thing. So what we're gonna do is we're gonna I'm gonna give you a clear definition what it is and how it is determined, and then and that in itself will show you what the what the problem is. Okay. So salary cap or our salary cap is a dollar amount set as the maximum a team can spend on their payroll. Okay, So it's a number that everyone, all the teams have to think of when they do it. Okay, we have the NBA, in the NFL are given as examples constantly by rob the other North American major sports. If that is the case, okay, we are going to model after them, we have to look at what they are. So in the NBA, they have what's called a softcap where when you go over it certain amounts of time, you get escalating penalties. Does that sound familiar. That's that's the luxury tax, guys. We have a softcap. They literally added a four tier for Steve Cohen, the Coen Tax. We have a softcap. So if in effect that is a salary cap, because that is what the NBA has, So there already kind of is a softcap in place. So we can't act like that if this doesn't exist, because it does the difference is in the NBA. It is determined determined by something called b r I or basketball related income. Very very important to pay attention to those words basketball related income. Okay, so this, uh so, then they take the bri I and then they take the percentage of that and then that is what the players get paid. They also use an ESCRO system, so they put it into escro, meaning that money isn't touched until the season is over, just to make sure they don't accidentally overpay players. So this ESCRO system, like they don't even pay like they want to. It's to protect the owners from ever having to have any accounting mistakes where they pay only exactly the amount they need to pay and there's no adjustments later. That is what escrow is. Okay. The NFL uses something similar, but they have a hard cap and their split is at forty eight to forty eight point five percent, which is terrible. Okay. So I just want you to know the NFL in general has the least player friendly agreement they always have. Okay, So he would love those two things. He would love something like that for the league because they could set a number. But the difference is it's about related income to the sports. So what happens is every league starts to remove different income streams from that bri or whatever it is for the NFL, from that pile of money that goes into revenue sharing. It's just not reported as revenue part of revenue sharing, and they figure out ways to do it all the time. This is constantly happening. It's happened over and over and over again. It was the major reason when this was proposed in nineteen eighty four when the World Series was missed because of the strike. They wouldn't establish what was revenue up front. They wouldn't do it. They wanted the ability to manipulate it later. That doesn't sound like good faith to me. Does it sound like good faith to you? No, probably shouldn't anyway, So Rob wants this. Players rejected it back ninety four. Okay, every league has conveniently left out two things when it comes to the salary cap. Okay, clear definitions of what revenue is like strict definitions. And then if there's a disagreement, there needs to be some sort of thing that kicks in where you get to negotiate it again by itself right, or you get to argue about it. Those two things need to exist. They are always, always, always denied by the league because that's too much power for them. That's not they want as much unilateral power. They just want to make a decision. They don't have to worry about what the players think as much as possible because they're business owners. And then two, there's never any tru financial transparency, meaning they don't let anyone like they just go it's this number and you're like, oh, can we see the books to see if that number true? Like, no, it's it's it's literally a trust me bro system. It's they're just like, trust us, we got we care about you, trust us. This is the number. Well, I just gave you the number. What do you mean, Oh you want to look at the books now? You don't need to just believe me. What that literally sets it up to just it takes one person being like, hey, we could to pull this out, and then no one can verify anything. What's the point. It's just really easily manipulated. And when money is what everyone cares about, that's what happens. So that is what a salary cap is, and that is why players don't want it. Right, There is probably things to adjustments to be made. Deferments probably do need to be looked at. I think that a lot of people agree with that deferments are kind of being taken advantage of. Now that's where we should say, hopefully the arguments go there. But what we're gonna see is rob using deferments to make the case of salary caps a good thing. And they're not the same thing because deferments don't even go on your salar cap anyways. So like he's go, but he's gonna say, fans talking about deferments means they want a salary cap and that just doesn't make any sense and it isn't true. So you're gonna hear that connection made a lot pay attention to it. I have a proposal though, Okay, this is how a salary cap will work. And this last part I'm gonna say about this. It needs to one come with a high salary floor. We just need a minimum because the whole point is competitive balance. So Bob Nutting needs to be able to not run his place like a corner grocery store and run it like a like a like a professional sport sport team sports team. And then two, the definition of what revenue needs to be clearly defined. And if there is a dispute, there needs to be a third party system for bringing that into it. So you have an arbitrator, which honestly, most of the time that arbiter will probably just side with the league. But you gotta have a recourse so the players can say, hey, we think this should be included in revenue, and then they can go over there. So they need both those things. Three, A third party needs to audit the league's financials every year to verify that the revenue numbers being reported are true. Right, the players need to know what the numbers are, even if it's limited and some other third party does it. The players aren't like rooting around in the financials. Someone needs to and it needs to be verifiable. It needs to be unbiased in third party. Now I don't know if that's possible in this world anymore either, but it would be a step in the right direction. And the last thing is the last part of that to get a salary cap is I would say Rob manfred Is salaries capped at two million dollars per year including bonuses, because Rob Manfred made eighteen point five million dollars last year, which is more than like ninety percent of the league. At least that's a ballpark number. But he made almost twenty million dollars a year. So if you want to save some money, guys, I found somewhere just saying anyway, what do you guys think? Let me know down the comments. All right, let's get into more news here with the draft. We had the twenty twenty five draft, and there were some really interesting things happening at the top of this draft. It was almost as crazy as the NBA draft this year. Hooper flagged to the Mavericks. What were the chances really high? Evidently, Scott? Do you have a Built Rewards card? Right? I do CRATS.

00:20:52
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00:21:58
Speaker 1: First things first, Nationals Angels surprised a lot of people with the first two draft picks, so let's talk about him. The Nationals were widely expected to take Ethan Holiday, brother of Jackson Holiday, a son of Matt Holliday, to be the one of one power hitting infielder. They need that right over there. A second second baseman would be great or LSU left hander Kate Anderson, who was unanimously and pretty much everyone's draft board as the top pitcher available in the draft after a great season, national championship, so on and so forth. He's been great. But instead they went with Eli Willitts, a seventeen year old high school shortstop who is the third youngest person to ever be drafted, which was pretty cool, behind kenkra virgr and a man named Tim Foley, which I don't know who that is, but that he was very young when he's drafted. So the National said, we think he's the best hitter in the draft and the best field in the draft, aka the best player, and they're very happy with their pick. He was the number five prospects, so it's not like Willitts was a crazy stretch. I think one of one is usually that people are used to it being a foregone conclusion, so for it to kind of switch up as weird. But I think the big one with the crazy pick was notorious pitching developer the La Angels taking taking Tyler Bremner, who was ranked number eighteen and was the fifth or he was the sixth highest rated pitcher. They took him with the second pick out of UC Santa Barbara. It's big, riety, throws real hard, and that cleared the way for the Seattle Mariners, who had the third pick to take the guy we just mentioned, Kate Anderson. So the team that is terrible at developing pitching or at least selecting pitching went and got the went and got the power arm, and then the guy who's more polished went to the Mariners, who is good usually good at putting pitching together. Now we probably will see Bremner very quickly into the big leagues. That is kind of the la'smo at this point. They're known for just rushing people up, and it seems like that might be happening once again. So very very interesting that Kate Anderson then got to drop to the Mariners as a local seattleite. I don't hate it for us, but just just thought it was an interesting way approach to the draft. And it's just, I don't know, it's LA Angels just something. There's something happening. It just feels like, you know, there's some places that like if the Rays drafted him second, you'd be like, what do they know? But when the Angels draft him, you're like, are they guessing? Again? Like that's Kat's kind of the vibe I'm getting, and I'm hoping not because I would love for the Angels to become more of a powerhouse. They're just it hasn't worked out yet. But I think Netta was a hit. I think going to getting No Hoppy was a hit. I think Sannuel is a solid player. So who knows. We could all be wrong. I hope we are. I hope these guys. I hope they're both studs. I hope all these guys are great. But very interesting that this happened, and pretty amazing. Speaking of Ethan holiday, he actually ended up going forth to his old to his dad's old team, the Colorado Rockies. Now he is a hitter, so congratulations man, you gotta go hitt And course he is. He is the first ever first rounder drafted by his dad's first team, which is cool. I thought that would happen more often because there's been a lot of legacies in the MLB, but the first time it's ever happened, he was going to be first. I don't think there's a huge difference between first and fourth frankly, and I think that he's gonna have a lot of success there. So congratulates to Ethan and graduations of the Jackson family. Must be nice to be that good at have that many people that good at that many things. So moving on, let's get into some hom Run Derby highlights because it was pretty lit as well, and there was a lot going on there. So as we all know, big dumper Cal Rawley takes the home run Derby. He is also the current home run leader. We're going to do some crazy home run homer in Derby stats later in the show, so stay tuned for that. But he's the first catcher ever to win a home run Derby, which is surprising. Frankly, I thought Piazza maybe would have gotten one, but I can also see there's probably not been that many catchers in and he as and he became the champion when he out outlasted Junior Cameronaro, the Monster Junior Cameronaro, eighteen to fifteen. In the final round, Rowley's dad, Todd pitched to him his little brother, Todd Junior Cott, which I thought was awesome. Also I thought was awesome that Todd Junior was most excited to meet Livy Dunn. We will get in that in a minute too, but just shows how the internet works these days. And it was overall pretty good though it was pretty long, and we're gonna. I have some ideas for how to fix it or make it maybe a little shorter, but we had We had a five hundred and thirteen foot home run from onneal Cruz, which no one was surprised by. They also hit one of the hardest home runs ever, only behind the Stanton and Judge of all people, because of course, and Jazz Chisholm hit I think the lowest total in a forty in one of these tine rounds with three. But he did look like he would liked to be there, So there's that. And another big story from this from this thing was the first round of my guy Brent Rooker. Did he get snubbed for moving on to the next round as you as you can? As you know, because everyone watched it, right, All eight guys kind of went and a round robin, not round robin. They all just kind of went in order and the top four numbers moved on and then they matched up. I like that a little bit better. Fourth place was cal Rawley. In fifth place was Brett Rookers. Interestingly enough, they had to go because they tied they hit the same number of home runs. They had to go to longest distance and according to Hawkeye and statcast we have cal Rawly's traveled four hundred and seventy point sixty one feet and Brent Rutgers traveled four hundred and seventy point five to three feet, which I did the math for you. That is zero point nine six inches. So cal Rawly hit his home run one inch farther less than one inch farther. That's nuts, and then he went on to win it. Many people are like conspiracy theorists, it's rigg da da da. You could just bump that number up whatever. Okay, I did, though, m run devery right. It is it a good story, sure, but I think Brent Rooker also moving forward is also a good story. So looking too far into it, but it is a little bit odd and Brent, Brent said some interesting things. He said. They told me before I went up there, I could take two pitches because he was a little bit confused about the format, didn't know that told me there were only forty balls already in the crate. So I took two pitches that didn't count, but then went to do the round. There was only thirty eight remaining, so we got down to having two pitches with five second flats. And they're out of baseballs. Interesting, so what he's saying is he could have hit another one and the rules weren't that clear beforehand, which is also something that commonly happens with this event. So feel bad for Brent. It's tough, but also him being out early means we got a whole bunch of tweets from him. Let's talk about the All Star Game itself. A lot of highlights, a lot of fun things. We got our first ever swing home run swing off to bring it all together there at the end because we don't like extra innings. I actually have a good breakdown of it Star Game that I will finish with here today, so we'll talk about it in a second. But Kyle Schwarber ends up bringing the championship home for the NL All Star Team with a four to three homer edge. So anyone who doesn't know the rule change of twenty twenty two, this is the first time we've actually had the swing off going to extras, which is pretty cool. And each team picks their three best hitters. Each one of those guys gets three swings and the total number of home runs wins. Okay, so what actually happened with Schwarbro was the second hitter. He hits I believe he hit three that to take them to four total. Junior Cabinaro needed to hit one of his three in order to keep it tied, and he ended up not hitting one at all, and so it never actually got to the third round, which was then going to be pet Alonzo, which I think pt Alonzo probably would have brought it home as well. Now, if you're noticing, no show Heyo Tani, no aeron judge, both guys were already out of the game and on their way probably home. We had no Vlad Greer Junior, no no big dumper. Like, there's a bunch of guys who probably could have been good on both sides that just won't weren't weren't chosen because it's still the All Star game and it's still not necessary that we exhaust everybody in order to get the game done right. So again, that's a whole another thing we got to talk about in a minute. But it was pretty pretty awesome, pretty awesome either way, and I thought that I think this is a great change of the game, and I like it. I like it, I like the shootout idea. I like a bunch of pressure behind one swing. That is what baseball is all about. So the more you can mimic that, the better the ABS system will always was also used in this All Star Game and it was used five times now. If you're not familiar with the ABS system, it is the challenge system that's going to end up going into probably the major leagues next year, where you get three challenges a game and if you're wrong, you lose it and you get it right, you get you get it back right, just like challenges are insurgram play. It's very quick, but the five work. Cal Rawley and Tarrek Scoogle. I got Manny Machado with an O two in the first inning. That's where this little smile is coming from. And Trek Scoole had a great time with the game, which he always does a great time, and we got to watch him again this Sunday Sunday Night Baseball, Tarik Schooble probably again. I don't think that's official yet, but I hope, so we're hoping. The fingers crossed against Texas, and then the second one was Jacob Wilson successfully challenged a strike call from Mackenzie Gore because the horse he did he's got a great idea of the zone. Ali Hunter Kirk got one with the raalds Chapman against Brandon Donovan, Edwin Diaz. Edwin Diaz got one against Randy in the ninth which was a big one. And then Kyle Stowers was wrong on his third strike. So the people who challenge were right for the five times. And I just can't notice, but the guy with the least amount of service time of all these people was the guy that was wrong. No shade to cal Stowers, but get that experience up, my guy. We also had my people micd up left right and center. Trek Scooble was one of them, but also so Hyton Kershaw was was was miked up, which I freaking loved it. I was watching this live. I caught bits and pieces of the game. I was coming in and out and in and out and out. I had a bunch of stuff going on uh lately, but it was pretty great. He gets the kind of legendary invites to the All Star Game. I mean, he would tell you that he probably didn't pitch enough to make it this year, but like he does deserve it. I think it's a great celebration of him. Went out there, he had a good time, said I'm gonna try to throw cheese. Was worried about giving a homer to cal Rawley. But there was one exchange that I love more than anything. Kershaw was he was probably on his last hit. He goes, what do he wants? Malty? And Smoltz goes cut her in and he tried to quickly see slider in and as he's deliberately goes, I don't throw a cutter s malty And I just was like, this is so funny because this is exact, and he just he and then he just spiked it because like in our heads, it was a perfect example as a pitcher that if there's any confusion, if there's any confusion up here, even if it's just like joking around and someone says something semantics were wrong, if you're not locked in, you automatically it is an automatic like abort a ject system where you just throw the ball no know where there's zones, a kicking crush because you're not committed. It was awesome. So Adam Antavino does this a lot, or he talked about doing a lot in his career. I did a few times too. You're in the middle of the pitch, you're about to throw it, and you were kind of like wishy washy on what you wanted to throw, and then in the middle of your delivery you just remember or you decide that now I don't want to throw this, so you just abort and you just throw it off into the dugout, or just get rid of the ball and make sure it can't be hit. I loved it. I thought it was great. I like micing up pictures in the All Star Game. I don't know about micing up shortstops anymore because we keep seeing airs, but maybe pictures pictures talking through what they want to do. Give me more of that. All right, well done, Clayton, Well done.

00:34:55
Speaker 3: Hey, let's do a little player spotlight thanks to Arena Club. AJ give me a player this season that you think is underrated and you might want to try and grab his card.

00:35:03
Speaker 1: James would.

00:35:04
Speaker 4: I don't know that he's underrated, but Washington National's superstar in the making, and the first slab pack I ever opened had him in his rookie card, and the value is only going to go up and up and up, and I'm not gonna sell it quite yet. Scott, I'm gonna hold on to it because after he continues to hit big homers and put up the stats make All Star teams, it's going to get more expensive for someone to buy.

00:35:23
Speaker 1: For me, this is his.

00:35:24
Speaker 3: First full season in the majors.

00:35:26
Speaker 1: Keep that in mind. I think he's underrated.

00:35:28
Speaker 3: He's on a Nationals team that's man adding enough attention.

00:35:31
Speaker 4: He might underrated when he makes the All Star team this year, They're not going to be underrated.

00:35:36
Speaker 1: That helps. He's been intentionally walked four times in a game.

00:35:38
Speaker 3: Anyway, If you want to try and find a wood rookie card, go check out slab packs on Arena Club and right now you can get twenty percent off your first slab pack. Or if you just want to go with a card purchase, go to Arena club dot com. Slash foul, use code foul. If you buy, sell, trade, collect, go for it.

00:36:00
Speaker 1: Cotinue to talk a little bit about the All Star Game because there's some conversations happening on the internet, which is I don't know if you noticed a lot of what kind of drives this conversations here on this channel. Let's talk a little bit about the All Star Game and what it's here for because the spirit behind the All Star Game has changed dramatically in the last few years. So what is it for? All right, what is it for? So let me let me let me tell you why I think this conversation has been changing the last few years. Last year, PAULK Skins started the game with only eleven starts for the National League. He was the hot commodity. He was also throwing incredibly well, so, like, you know, that was a little bit like it doesn't have quite as many innings as everyone else, Like there was other guys a seventeen eighteen starts. He only had eleven, but it was like at least kind of comparable, and he was so dominant that it made sense. But it was obviously very clearly to drive excitement. This year though, about two days before the end of the first half, Jacob Mazeroski, the phenom from the Brewers, was announced to go to the Ulcer game after twenty five innings and five starts, which is a little bit more glaring. Some Phillies players were spoken out with the decision. They were not happy about it. Trey Turner called it a joke. Nick Castiano said, it's starting to look like this, like Savannah bananas banana ball. I mean, he's not on stilts. He might look like he's on stilts, but I don't think he's technically on stilts. But they believed, and I tend to agree that by doing that, they are snubbing to their teammates Ranger Suarez and Christopher Sanchez, especially Christopher Sanchez because he's thrown great again after making it last year, which I tend agree with that frustration that what they're saying is like, if we're not are we rewarding the bust players as that was his four are we going to start carving out more and more spots for guys that are throwing well but also are very exciting to walk? Like? What is this game for? And what should we think if we're selected? If we're not selected? Right is the conversation. And I think that if that's the definition of the game or that is why people go, yeah, of course that should be frustrating, right do. I think Jacob Meyscrowsky is a phenom and very excited this Like it's not like he's a flash and pan. It's very clearly he's a very good pitcher, and I think it'd be fun. But at the expense of other guys who have like grinded it out and deserved to go, especially because there's like contract incentives, which by the way, the Phillies ended up giving are going or are going to give Christopher Sanchez his fifty thousand dollars incentive in his contract, because most contracts have those, by the way, even basic ones, arbitration contracts and such have little lump sums that you get an extra for going to the All Star Game from your team, right, which is cool, And so some guys are like, I would like to have my incentive. I'm just because I'm arbitrarily not getting to go, and shout out to Phillies for actually doing that. I think that's pretty great. So if it's not completely merit based, what is it. Is it an exhibition or or is it going to be a competition or is it just publicity and like hype? Like what are we what do we want this to be, what do we feel like it's going to be, and how do we feel about those conclusions. So let's do a little bit of let's go back and let's talk a little bit about the timeline the advent of the Major League alscar Game, where it comes from and what was what it was about at the beginning. So the first ever All Star Game was held in on July sixth, nineteen thirty three, at Chicago's Kimiski Park. Classic a lot of really, really, really famous players there. It was conceived as a one time exhibition, so there's no plans to keep this going to boost baseball's popularity during the Great Depression, right, so like, hey, I know everyone's sad, We're going to watch some baseball. And it worked. It was wildly successful, and they kept it going after that through the thirty and forties. The Ulstar Game showcase the era's biggest stars and really dramatic moments. In nineteen thirty four, Giants pitcher Carl Hubber, Hubble famously struck out five future Hall of Famers in a row. Those Hall of Famers, you asked, Babe Ruth, Lou Garrig, Jamie Fox, Al Simmons, and Joe Cronin. That's crazy and has yet to be done since I can't imagine just starting just starting with Babe Ruth to Lou Garrett to Jamie Fox. Like at that point, you're like you're having an out of body experience as a picture. I don't care who you are, you can be the greatest. Like I can't believe these are the greatest hitters ever, and two three of them they're all still wildly conliated, considered some of the best hitters ever to this day. Then we go to the nineteen fifties and the nineteen sixties of format and the competitive balance saw several changes, so like they started to make adjustments to make it more competitive or less competitive. That this is where we started the tinker Okay, with this tinkering came that n Ashley winning. They won thirty three of forty two from nineteen fifty nineteen eighty seven. The National League was absolutely dominating, right, and they were messing around with all kinds of little voting of fans votes. Actually, in the first one, the fans could vote by submitting ballots from the newspaper, which is pretty cool, gedious, but pretty cool. But we had a major controversy also erupted in nineteen fifty seven ballot stuffing by the Cincinnati Reds fans. Ballot stuffing what fan voting filling up the starting lineup? Never heard of that before. Ballot stuffing took resulting in seven Reds being elected to the NNAL starting lineup, so like seven and the nine players were started, which is now you're just watching the Reds. The dramas that peaked during that area. The nineteen sixties alone saw four games going to extra innings, which is sick. In nineteen seventy, game ended with Pete Rose running over Ray Fossey to it in the twelfth separating ray Fossi's shoulder and he what Pete Rose said, that's all the way on a plan. I don't care if it's a next vision, like, it's only no only way I know how to grind. This came out and people seem to love that, except for probably ray FOSSi. I don't know if he enjoyed that too much. So it's pretty clear the game has had a long history like drama. Like it's like a break sure, but it's also like a lot of fun. You want to see the best talent playing us the best talent because you don't get to see that very regularly, and that was the point of the game. And then it's at some point something changed, and there's a few things that started to be added, right, So in nineteen eighty five we had the first home run derby added. And this is our winner right here, which is so funny. I am Dave Parker, did it, got it? Boom won the first ever night in nineteen eighty five. In nineteen ninety one we saw our first fan fest. Nineteen ninety nine we saw a future first features game. In two thousand and one we saw the first celebrity softball game. All four of these things are still being done around the game, so now it's no longer just a game. It is a week of festivities. It is a festival, which I think is a great thing. I think generally more things that fans like, especially if like the game itself, maybe isn't the number one thing, but they like to like meet the players and want to bring young kids that don't really understand. Like you're widening the range of people that can go and enjoy themselves. And if you can't afford a ticket to the game itself, which is usually the most expensive part of going there, you still have a lot of things you can do. You can still see players milling around, you still go to the red carpet, still do all kinds of fun stuff, And I think that is that is great. I think it's a positive trend. I think that is great. You know, a lot more people can enjoy the game then can just fit in the stadium. But the thinking that it's fueling these changes, especially lately, has been increasingly clear. DMIB has a game in the middle of summer that is guaranteed to be sold out. There's no other major sports happening really. The Stanley Cups is over, the NBA Finals are over, and we haven't gotten to OTAs yet for football, so it's baseball only. Also, there's no other baseball games competing either, so there's one game to watch. The eyeball funnel is has never been more aligned. The planets are aligned for baseball, and so what can you do with that money? You can make lots of money, and you got to take advantage of that. And that is usually what is now going mind the thinking, and it's been happening more and more and more and more and more and more and more over time, specifically since the two thousand and two debacle when bud Sea Lake ended a game in a tie because there were no more pitchers to throw. Both teams use nineteen pitchers and eleven innings because they thought they weren't going to go in extra innings, so they ended the game in a tie. In order to solve that problem, bud Selik then made a rule that the winner of the All Star Game determines home field advantage. The World Series that went till twenty sixteen. Tell who took over rob manforg got rid of that immediately, right immediately. It wasn't very popular. I would say that it had nothing to do with the World Series the All Star Game. It just didn't have enough to do with it. Like the guys playing the All Star Game weren't going to play in them, you know what I mean, Like there's not enough players involved in both things to where they should be that closely linked. But that was his goal in order to make it more competitive because he saw this trend of it becoming less and less competitive over time. But again, once you added all these extra events and there's more stuff to do, the players more tired and they start to weigh is this really rest or? Is this a lot of work? And that is something I heard a lot in clubhouses. It's a ton of work. It's a lot. You sign autographs for like four or five hours one of the day is like the game's season is long, so guys are opting out more and more. We can't we can't be focused so heavily on adding all this stuff for players to be involved in and also wanting them to go out there and put it all out on the line. So we just since two thousand and two that has slowly but surely gone away. And then Rob Manfred by getting rid of that rule, has just given up on this being the thing at all. Now it's about how do we create an experience that people enjoy and we'll spend more money at which isn't bad or good but is real. So got it, caught it. So as players players slowly over time have stopped associating like pride or competition with the game. They just have Like I know a lot of players that were like you know what, I've been to three or four of them. I thank you for inviting me the All Star. I'll still be an All Star on my Baseball reference page. But I don't need to go to the game. I don't need to do all the stuff. And if that means I don't get my pay, I don't get my pay for that. But like some guys are making lots of money already and it's not really Maybe that's just not the most important for them thing to them. Maybe they need the break, maybe they're working on some little injury thing, and most guys just say I got a little nagging turf toe or something and they want to take some time off. But it's just not competitive like it used to be anymore, and it's probably not going to come back. So a lot of people say the old way was better. A lot of people like this. I actually asked a question like, do you guys love I did a poll probably three weeks ago. I was like, do you guys love the All Star Game? Do you guys really look forward to watching it? And the majority of people said yes, which was a little bit surprising, Maybe because I'm a cynical, annoying person sometimes, maybe because I'm apathetic at times, but that was good to see and it seems like people are enjoying it the way that it is. I think there's a couple things that need to be tweaked, but I think overall, the All Star Game is a destination and people like to go. So I want to hear what you guys think. Let me know it, not in the comments, let me know over in the chat wherever you may be watching Slash listening to this because do we prefer one or the other, or however it coalesces, is the way I like it. And also let me know what your favorite parts of the festivities are, if you just watched on TV or if you were there even better, I want to know what you liked the most about being there, because at the end of the day, it is for the fans, it is for you, and if things aren't being done the way that you want them done the words of Rob Manfred, we all listen to fans, so we got to make sure that's happening. So let me know. And that is max plaining, which I did not do the intro for so actually that's not explaining. That was our shock, Trevor. Okay, thank you all right, last little word from our sponsors here and we are going to get into some more mayde in just one moment see a minute.

00:48:38
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00:49:11
Speaker 1: Tap in to get twenty percent off Next Playground, a fifty dollars savings player for forty five games including Fruit, Ninja, Storry, and Home Run Heroes Star Strikers. Once again, tap in to get twenty percent off of Next Playground. Thank you, Thank you for sponsoring ten days Show. All right, let's move on two our mace plaining segment. This is mace plaining, and I did this recently. You guys hear that garbage truck. They tend to be here right in the middle of everything all the time. So I apologize if you can hear that mace planning. I made a bunch of predictions at the beginning of the year. We're gonna look back and we're gonna check. Am I hitting on them? Or am I missing on him? So we'll see you, We'll see what we got. I'm sorry, I'm distracted by that garby Struckfitz literally right outside my door Wednesdays. That's why we don't usually do it on this day. All right, So we did my predictions and then we have I had some bold takes and we will be doing that going into hour two of the show. So biggest surprises, biggest disappointments, and then all the awards prepare to get blown away. So first up, we have biggest surprises so far in the season, looking back at the first half, these three gentlemen, I'm gonna give a shout out, and there are quite a few guys out there that are doing well, But biggest surprise we have Pete crow Armstrong with the Reds. He is an all star, hitting two sixty five twenty five home runs a se everyone RBIs, which is astronomically above his career averages so far. A little shout out to Chris Flexen, a guy who is back against the ropes, really is just trying to find a job and has been really effective out of the bullpen for the Cubs. Now he is greatly over forming a lot of his peripheral stats. I hope he continues to work within that area at least for the whole year. You want to get through a whole year. But he has a one four seven and a point nine to three whip and he has been a bright spot for their bullpen and a little bit of love for Ramon Loreano joining the Baltimore Orioles. He has been one of the few bright spots over there this year, hitting two eighty fourth, eleven home runs, thirty five barbiyes And it was a little bit of like a throwaway signing for them. And he's been very good. He's been a good he's a good defensive outfit there. He's got a great arm, and he plays hard. He's got energy. I can attest to that, and he's a great duty work and he just loves to talk hitting. He loves the game, and it's good to see him doing well as well. The biggest disappointments aren't necessarily maybe a biggest disappointment in the scope of the world. And I also want to hear you guys feedback on this because I'm sure, I'm sure every team has their biggest disappointments, but a couple interesting ones that I think guys who are notoriously so good and they just haven't been uh. Mookie Bets and the San Francisco Giants version of Raffael Devers Mooki bats is sitting two forty fourth eleven home runs of forty five RBIs, which hilariously is a little bit better than Loreano. But like, those aren't Mookie bats numbers. That's that's just pretty good, right. I think he would say that, and that's considered underperforming in his mind. But yeah, that's a little lackluster, more lackluster than I've really ever seen from Mooki. So it's interesting to see what he'll do in the second half. But he's been around for a while. Man, that's what happens. And for Raffi, twenty five games with the Giants, he's hitting two to two, with two of them runs, ten RBIs and a six fifty six ops. Hasn't quite found his footing there and probably not the greatest look on the planet to not come out super hot. So let me know again in the comments, who are your biggest disappointments? Who are your biggest surprises? Because I'm sure there's a lot of guys I'm missing. I could have been sitting here talking forever, but we have time limits. This is a live show, so I got to make sure that I'm on top of that stuff. All right, Let's go, who did I guess the awards winners? Would be at the end of the year, and if the season ended right now, who I think they would be. So we're gonna go my prepredictions and then how I think that would change, and if I was right at all, So four AL Rookie of the Year. My first guest was Christian Campbell, who has recently been sent down to Triple A with Jackson job who has been hurt but he's been okay, he's been fine and he could still be in the running if he comes back healthy. But like, it's not out on these two guys, but they've just been They've they've had their struggles and they haven't been as electric as I thought they would be. And right now my ALE Rookie of the Year is Jacob Wilson, All star, never walks, never strikes out, looks like he's playing withiffle ball. But he's having a good time. And the guy can hit. Man we defense notwithstanding, the guy can hit, and he right now is my ALE Heat of the Year. In the EDL, I thought we're gonna have a rookie Sasaki followed by Bubba Chandler. Now this one was a big whiff. Okay, Roki has struggled at the beginning of his career and now he is hurt potentially for the rest of the year. Bubba Chandler has yet to make his big lead debut, So I don't think I'm gonna be right about those two. So but in the NL, who would I give it to a guy I was just talking about gumby the misz Jacob Misrowski. Uh. Also this picture, just look how Jackie is. Dude, Just jack six seven one fifteen pure fury. Jacob Misrowski. He's been incredible. If he keeps going the way he's going, say says healthy for the rest year, he's They're just gonna give it to him. But he needs to stay healthy, and he needs to throw twenty plus starts. He needs to get to he needs to throw fifteen starts at the half. It just needs to happen. So hopefully he does, and hopefully that's what we get. Uh. Al Reliever of the Year, My guest was Mason Miller. Though he has been very good and he's striking out about seventeen per nine. The ra is greatly inflated both from a couple there's like he's had two season killers, like he's given up nine runs and two innings, which that'll kill you as a closer. And he also has the pitching sacramento, which is not fair to anybody, anybody inclusing the away team. So not quite there. If I had to guess, and right now, if it ended and the playoffs happened or whatever, it would likely be. Andris Munoz, I think there's a bunch of other guys that can be considered for this, but he's up there, like Josh Hater. It's going to be a closer probably, but he's up there and saves. He might lead in saves actually, and he didn't give up run for twenty outings end of the year, so he's been incredible for the Mariners and he is probably my guy on the end al side. I guess Justin Martinez. Justin Martinez has been hurt for a lot of time. He did get a sign a contract before the season started, a little team friendly guy Firz. I think he's got a bright future, but he just hasn't been healthy, thrown enough, and he's just not him. It's not him. I was wrong. I would say probably up there. And again, the en Al's got a ton of guys that are right in this area. Healthy, whatever. But for me, it's Edwin Diaz Man. He's having a season pretty close to twenty twenty two, and I think he's going a little bit under the radar because the Mets have been good, at least for me. I'm sure Mets fan's like, uh, we know, what do you mean? But Edwin Diaz is once, he's got a one and a half, The ray's saving all the games, he's throwing really really well. He's having a good time, and he was made another All Star. But I would say a guy who deserves some flowers and isn't a closer is the setup man for the Giants, one of the setiment and is Randy Rodriguez. This guy's filthy. And if you don't know about Randy Rodriguez, go look it up. He's been good for a while. So Ottawa mentioned to Randy Rodriguez he is in the running. He's in the running. Adrian Morijane is also another guy. I think they could be thrown it into that conversation. Okay, let's talk about Sy Young's al I Cole Wagans because it was different, right. I thought he was gonna take one more step forward. Yeah, See, he's been solid like he is, but hasn't really turned into the crazy a's And unfortunately Terrek Scooble has been better than he was last year somehow. So I think this year is Terrek Scooble. I think Terry Scooble is now the front runner, at least in the AL side for Lisa Young currently. So I was close finally on something, but I don't think. I don't think people that close to him right now, he's been just absolutely ridiculous. He's been absolutely redunk. So Terry Schooble. In the NL side, my guess it's Paul Skeans and Hunter Green. Now, before Hunter Reen got hurt, dude, he might have been ahead of Paul. Hunter Green was right there. If he weren't hurt, I would say this would be these guys would still be top five, right. I think Skeens is very very close. I think it's like one A in one B. But I'm gonna give I gotta get some flowers to a guy who's at one one and probably should have won one by now. Right now, it's Zack Wheeler. He's got just an edge on everything with Paul Sken's a little bit strung more inning somehow he struck out more guys, he's given up plus hit somehow, like the year that Skean's is having is credible. Zak Wheeler has been a little bit better for a team that's better, so I will give the edge to him. And honestly, he hasn't won one yet, and Sken's gonna win if he continues to be this good for ten years, he's gonna win like seven. So I think we need to give Zach Wheeler his his look Zach Wheeler, Zach Wheeler his looks, and Otto will mention obviously, I think Paul Skin's right behind him. So it's a it's anyone's game at this point. Now real quickly, let's hit the MVPs. A L MVP my guests with Bob Way Junior. He's been solid, not MVP yet And sorry Maren's fan, and sorry for the writer's got over in the writer's room guys, but I changed my mind. It's Aaron Judge. I just don't know how you don't give it to him. He's just too good. He's just too good. And his uh, his batting average is still one hundred point, like if it's batting average were sixty points above number two, it'd be better, but I have mentioned obviously right behind him kyl Rawly, and then he just won the home run derby two, so who knows, maybe he goes even off even more. But if it ends up Aaron judges like two thirty and cal Rawly's hitting like two eighty five or three thirty and two eighty five, now we're cooking. And also cal Rawly has the most important stat between these two guys more stolen bases. Okay, and then in the end al my MVP guest was gonna be Juan Soto. Now he is back into that top ten conversation. Even though he didn't make an All Star team. He's been very very very good lately, very good, actually insane. He's been the best hitter in the league last month. But now it's Joe Hey Otani got this picture. That picture is so tough. I love it. I love this picture so much. I think it's awesome. So shoe Heltani show Atani's probably are are an l MVP at this moment. He's just the best hitter in the league. And uh he's also pitching whenever he wants, just to add a little bit more value. I don't know, nobody do whatever rolls out of bed best player on the planet, okay, and then finally we have the playoffs. We have the seating. This is what my guesses were playoffs seating before Rangers, Red Sox, Guardians, Oils, Tigers and Astros. And on this side Dodgers, Phillies, Brewers, Mets, Dbacks, and Brave. Now I got seven of the twelve right, which I don't know if that's great. I think that's just average. But right now, this is what it be if the season ended. Right now, we have Dodgers cut. I don't know why I mess. I did this all formata differently, I was in a hurry. Dodgers, Cubs, Phillies, Brewers, weird, they snuck, they're snucking any stinging again, Mets and Padres and Detroit, Houston, Toronto, New York, Boston and Seattle. On the other side, this is how I have the playoffs playing out Phillies versus Boston, and I ended up having the Phillies winning the whole thing, even though they're not showing up here. For some reason, my guess was Phillies win the World Series this year. But I have amended my stance because Chicago Cubs have joined and if I were to guess based on the guy that the people I just showed you, who would come out on top of that bracket right now with how everyone is playing, I think the Cubs would ended up taking down the Boston Red Sox, who are on a ten game heater going in the playoffs. That would be a great spot. So I'm talking about the the Boston Red Sox being the hottest team in the planet and the Cubs just being a solid team. I think at the end they would end but I think the Cubs took it for the first time. It's the twenty sixteen I know, hot take. That's just my guest. Now I'm amending it from there, so you can yell at me all you want, and I'll take