Winter meetings wrap: Will the Giants spend? And how might some of the moves this week impact their options? Plus: Tony Vitello is new, but so are many other managers; and still no Frick honors for Duane Kuiper. Will the Hall ever put him and Mike Krukow in at the same time? And SF acquires a Rule-5 catcher, Daniel Susac
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:07):
All right, the quick intro. You gotta be ready, man,
that thing jumps on you quick. It's our twelfth episode
of Splash Hit Territory. Susan Slusser joins us again today. Susan,
how you doing. You're great, So I'm in San Francisco.
We're both in San Francisco.
Speaker 2 (00:22):
Back back in the Bay. Very happy about that.
Speaker 1 (00:25):
Yeah, well, we're also happy about the subscribers we're having
right now. We're getting there, so we want you guys
to like and subscribe. Go to YouTube check it all out.
It's super easy. We're checking out the views for these
they're growing every single time. The shows are starting to flow.
We're having a great time. We're gonna have Buck show
Walter on a Monday, so we're excited to have Buck on.
(00:48):
But in the meantime, you're fresh off of Orlando the
Winter meetings, you're back in San Francisco. Maybe a little
recap from somebody boots on the ground who is there.
Speaker 2 (00:57):
Yeah, well, and you mentioned Buck one of the reasons
that we are eager to talk to Buck, and we've
been hoping to talk to him for a while as
obviously he's somebody with not exactly the same background as
Tony Vytello, but a little bit, you know, he kind
of was against the grain, hadn't played the big league's
kind of manager, and he had to fight some of
that early on. So I think his take on Vytello,
(01:19):
and you know, Buck obviously has been a member of
the media as well as one of the successful managers
in the last couple decades. So I'm going to be
interested to see what he thinks of what the Giants
are doing and or are not doing, because so far
it's been kind of slow, slow winter meetings for the Giants,
slow winter meetings in general. The Dodgers get better, shocker
(01:43):
that one truly great closer out there, they get him.
Pete Alonso goes to Baltimore, Kyle Schwerber goes back to Philadelphia.
Besides that, not a lot else, although we we'll talk
about some of some of the smaller things that I
don't want to say small. Getting a Rule five draft
potential backup catcher, I think is a big deal, and
what we'll get to that too. But what were your
(02:05):
impressions from here about the winter meetings and what may.
Speaker 1 (02:09):
Or what's there to have an impression about. I mean,
I just watched MLB Network and you were there. I'll
say this, Susan. I was out last night with a
bunch of Giants fans and they're friends of mine, and
they're very concerned. They're worried. So you know, I don't
think you necessarily have to get deals done at the
(02:31):
winter meeting to get deals done, But like you're hearing
things you're there. Should Giants fans be worried right now?
Should we be upset? Should we be scared? Should be worried?
Like the ones I talked to last night are like,
we're not spending any money. What are we doing?
Speaker 2 (02:48):
My takeaway from everything is it's really hard to read
what the giants are doing right now, Like it's some
mixed messages. I think I wrote a couple times during
the winter, like Greg Johnson tells the Chronicle me last
month and John Shay, my former Chronicle colleague now the
(03:09):
SF Standard, he told both of us last month that
they're not looking to do long term deals. I think
everybody is more than familiar with this whole scenario. Not
looking to do a lot of long term deals for
five six year time things. Nine figures not something I'm
really looking to do. Buster Posey has and zach Manazien
have been talking to a lot of the big name
(03:29):
of particularly starters. Almost every agent I spoke to, and
all of this is sort of on background, you know,
not for attribution. So I'm not going to name some
of the names that I was asking about, but they
all said, yeah, the giants have called on him. So
that was a question to Buster Posey the day one
in Orlando, are you in are you out on some
(03:53):
of these big name guys? And he said he feels
like anytime he goes to the front office, goes to
ownership with a really good plan. I think I mentioned
this in the last show. You know that ownership has
been very supportive, so but not getting anything done. I
mean they still have not as we are taping this,
still have not announced their coaching staff, which seems you know,
(04:15):
after what are we talking more than five weeks? That
seems a little bit as surprising. So I don't think
that that's certainly connected to any of their free agency
pursuits or what they might do in trades, but it
just seems like and Buster's not cautious. We know Buster
Posey is not a cautious person. He's willing to be bold,
but it does seem like, let's see some news. You know,
(04:39):
I know they're not going to go like fans want news,
media wants news. We got to do something, but it
does seem a little slower than usual. So maybe it
is we're doing our due diligence on all of these guys,
but maybe nobody's appealing enough to them to go to
ownership to say, let's spend big bucks. My impression. One
agent told me he thinks that they have laid the
(05:00):
groundwork for some things, and zach Manascien said the same thing,
and that agent thought that the Giants will probably fill
at least a whole or two sometime in the next
two weeks and potentially with something significant. So honestly, we're
not privy to these things FP as you know, we
just kind of have to ask people around the edges
(05:22):
who have an idea, and the agents think they're going
to do something, and the Giants are signaling maybe they'll
be a little bit more cautious. Reasons for it. They're
in a division with a team that is going to
be tough to compete with no matter what you do.
We said this before last year and the year before
the Giants could spend you know, hundreds of extra million
(05:43):
dollars more and still finish third or fourth in this division.
And that's exactly what happened.
Speaker 1 (05:48):
So I was telling my friends last night at this function,
the same thing I said on the podcast last week
about you know, maybe they're keeping it close to the vest,
that's what Buster does. And then as I'm saying that,
I'm like, am I full of crap?
Speaker 3 (06:01):
Now?
Speaker 1 (06:02):
Like I'm starting to doubt what's coming out of my mouth?
Because am I just giving the company line because I
believe this before the winter meetings? Like I'm I'm a
big believer, and you just don't show your cards. We
disagree on that, you think you should let the fan
base know that you're trying. I would just like, I'd
like to, you know, out of nowhere, out of left field,
where we traded for this guy or we signed this guy.
(06:24):
And then as I was saying it to my friends
last night, I'm like, are you completely full of s
right now? Because I'm starting to wonder, and I'm if
I'm wondering, I guess the reason I'm saying this is
are the players wondering? Like what are the players thinking?
Right now? What is Logan Web thinking? What is Matt
Chapman thinking, What's Willie Damas thinking, what's Raphael Dever's thinking.
What's Robbie Ray thinking? What are these guys thinking right now?
(06:46):
When you turn on TV and you're like, this team
that we're trying to chase is getting even better. And
there's rumors about Trek Scouble going to the Dodgers in
a huge trade. I mean, if they get that guy,
why even play the games this year? Seriously?
Speaker 2 (07:01):
So even radical realignment would not get the Giants away
from the Doctors.
Speaker 1 (07:07):
So what is going on there? Anyways? So yeah, I'm
hoping there's some things on the back burner that we're
going to get surprised. But even even I'm as if
I go player mode right now and be like, are
what are we doing? What are we doing right now?
Speaker 2 (07:23):
One thing I will say is Scott Boris. You know,
he does his punny little State of Scott Boris's Clients
thing at the winter meetings as entertaining, slash grown inducing
as usual, and he did connect the Giants pretty firmly
with Cody Bellinger, who, in my mind, let's let's put
(07:45):
the money aside. How much it would cost, how likely
it is that they could get him to me would
fill basically two huge needs the defense obviously in the outfield,
and he's also a pretty good offensive player. Cost is
going to be high, the years are probably going to
be high. That's obviously not what we're hearing that they're
interested in doing. But he got thrown out there with
(08:05):
a bunch of other guys. Thoughts on Cody Bellinger and
then we'll talk about another potential Boris client, and you
know they haven't really jumped at Boris clients in this
last year, not since they did the chat finish the
Chapman deal. So your thoughts on Cody Bellinger.
Speaker 1 (08:20):
He's a winning player in the Giants deed winning players
and my first thought about Cody Bellinger is the elite
defense in the arm strength and the Giants need to
improve on defense. He made some plays in left field
last year for the Yankees, shoe string catches, throwing a
seed on the money right to the first basement, doubling
guys up. And then another thing the Giants need is
(08:40):
two strike approach, and Cody Bellinger does have a two
strike approach. He'll do that little crickety swing where he
flips something softly into left field. I know he can
strike out, but like the power, the average, the speed. Still,
he's an above average first baseman too, So I don't
know where that fits into the scheme when the Sis
have a thousand first basements, but like he's a plus
(09:03):
defender and a plus base runner. I just that just
popped into my head too. So the Times need all
of those things. And I've always been a fan of
Cody Bellinger.
Speaker 2 (09:12):
They if they go and spend, to me, he's the guy.
He's going to be far less than Kyle Tucker. I
know a lot of people would rather say them get
Kyle Tucker. But Kyle Tucker is going to be in
the four hundred million plus range. And these are all
just projections that we work off. But I think Bellinger
is projected for more like the one hundred and fifty
million range, which they're saying, we're not crazy about the
(09:35):
nine year or the nine figure deal. Okay, I think
you're going to have to do that to get somebody
like him. It's probably not likely, you know. I'm not
saying they're going out and getting him, but they certainly
have been among the teams that have called in on him,
and that's to me, I think that's a good thing.
I know fans sometimes go, we're tired of agents using
us to get bigger deals. But I will tell you,
(09:59):
you know, that's some of the deals that already have
been done in Orlando I think will have already affected
that market, particularly Alonso going to the Orioles. That signals
the Mets are going to have to pay for a bat,
another bat, and the word is they're going. I mean,
(10:21):
of course the Mets got cut listed in that long
list of I don't know if everybody saw the sort
of who needs which team needs a giant bat and
who's going to dodge problems all at whatever he's whatever
it was. But I think the Mets are going to
go hard after Bellinger. So I think that that potentially
(10:41):
drives at the cost, and at that point, I don't
know how enter out they would be. But Schwarber also going,
You know, that takes a big bat off the table too,
So I don't know, you're gonna have to spend Do
you do that?
Speaker 1 (10:54):
For me?
Speaker 2 (10:54):
They have to have a good defensive outfielder who also
can swing the bat. Bellinger's the guy.
Speaker 1 (11:00):
What if they don't do anything. What if that's it
and this is the team.
Speaker 2 (11:05):
I mean, they're conceding, and look do you put a
do you go out and make kind of an outside
the box, very outside the box managerial higher and then
give him a roster that is going to have a
tough time in an incredibly difficult division. Or do you
give him enough of a roster to snag a playoff spot?
(11:29):
Finished second, maybe even third? You can, you know, you
can still make the pup postseason. But if you're conceding,
why do you go out and do that? That would
be very unfair, in my opinion, to Tony Vaitello to
go like, hey, well, welcome to the big leagues. You've
got a roster that is probably not going to be
among the top three in your division.
Speaker 1 (11:51):
Speaking of the new manager for the Giants, we've been
joking in this podcast that you haven't met a me.
You haven't met a met You have met him. Now
you spend some time with the We talked to him
at the winter meetings. I would love to hear your
initial impressions of the Giants. Do a manager? Yeah?
Speaker 2 (12:07):
On our last show, I really it had been just
such a small sample size. I wasn't sure, but it's
really interesting.
Speaker 3 (12:13):
He after.
Speaker 2 (12:15):
Since since that time, he did his manager official manager
interview session at the Winter meetings, which is open to
sort of every media group. Talked for about twenty twenty
five minutes, and he also did a little breakfast just
with the San Francisco sort of beat that's in town.
All the managers do that. So sit down for breakfast
(12:35):
in a big conference room and just chit chat, and
the one takeaway I have really I mean, of course,
all the things everyone says personality plus super engaging, very
much a people person, all of that is true. He
has mentioned numerous times sort of how overwhelmed he is
and how new he feels. Everything is new. And I
(12:58):
said at one point during the breakfast thing, sort of
like there's so many new managers this year, right, there
are ten new managers. He's actually part of a big
group that's very new. And yes he's the one that
has no previous pro baseball experience of any kind, which
means people are watching looking if his manager's interview session
(13:19):
was pretty heavily attended by people who are kind of,
you know, the novelty of it all, And at one
point during that section session, he referred to himself as
a guinea pig and as a potentially a sacrificial lamb,
which is I hope he starts to feel a little
less overwhelmed really quickly. You know he's going to get
(13:41):
up and running. Of course, once spring training is going,
and Jase Tingler is unsurprisingly going to be his guy
and sort of in charge of spring training. Former league
big league manager has done this a bunch. I think
the day to day everything, I think he'll start to
feel more comfortable. But yeah, he's one of ten new guys.
There's so much I love that. I love all this.
(14:01):
You know that we're not just going with sort of
some of the same old names, some new faces, but
there are a lot of teams kind of going through
this right now. It's the Giants are not the only
one with a super newbie manager.
Speaker 1 (14:14):
Well, I mean, I guess I like the transparency and
the authenticity. But but my hope for the Giants this year,
and Tony Vitello is the captain of the ship, I
want them to be the most hated team in baseball.
I want them to have flair, to be cocky, to
piss other teams off, to to have their manager be
(14:38):
like that too, and to hear him say things like
I'm a guinea pig or whatever I need I need.
Once the he gets going like you said, I need Cocky,
Tony Votello. I don't want Tony to be I wanted
to be the most hated manager in the Big leagues
because his team plays with swagger and cockiness and flair
and not just like last year there was time when
(15:00):
they're just playing like I want the Giants to play
with an edge. I would love for them to be
This is probably gonna piss a lot of Giants fans off,
like the Oakland Raiders or the Las Vegas Raiders of
the National League of Baseball to where they're playing hardball.
They're playing this brand of baseball where they're sliding late,
(15:21):
they're sticking their foot and gloves and trying to knock
the ball out. They're diving everywhere, They're flipping the bats
like Drew Gilbert didn't call, who cares baseball is so friendly? Now?
I don't want them to be friendly. And I think
if they play that way that now all of a sudden,
whatever the roster construction is and whatever deals they do,
they have a chance to compete, and it has to
(15:44):
be with an edge every single night. It can't just
be once in a while. And it all starts with
their manager. So you know, I'd spend some time with them,
you know, you know, out and about after his press
conference and he was very overwhelmed, and that's understandable. And
there's this sports psychology thing where it's called admit and
conquer where if you're if you're afraid of something, you
(16:05):
just admit it and then you conquer it. But if
you suppress it, it's going to stay there longer. So
maybe that's kind of the thinking right now. It is.
He's laying in the weeds. He's telling people he's overwhelmed,
but meanwhile he's going to come out guns blazing. That's
my hope. But I want to I need Kacky Tony Vitelo,
I really do.
Speaker 2 (16:20):
Well. It's a little bit of a hustle, huh.
Speaker 3 (16:24):
Maybe I like that theory a but he he and
Buster are both very much on the same page of
you are not friends before the game, and I think
we're gonna I don't think we're going to see a
lot of hugs from Giants.
Speaker 2 (16:39):
Players to guys on the other team. Which you know
it is going to be very tough for Willia Domis
in particular because he's like everyone in baseball's best buddy,
tie his hands behind his back.
Speaker 1 (16:49):
But just you play slap shot on a loop in
the clubhouse and you the Hansen brothers and we're coming out,
and that's how we're playing baseball for one hundred and
sixty two games this year.
Speaker 2 (17:00):
Yeah, but Tony said, you know you can be friends
after the game. That's great, just not before the game.
You want to crush them. You want to absolutely demolish them.
And I do love that. And you know, he's a
guy who got ejected from college games. His teams were
kind of noted for their brawls, So I do think
we're going to get some of that kind of flavor.
Maybe not some brawls, but hey, they didn't got into
(17:22):
a little bit of a dust up last year, so
there's some guys in there with that we did. As
long as Chapman stays away from getting suspended, I think
will be good. But two other quick little things, okay
from the winter meetings that I don't want to miss.
First of all, it seems we could have had all
assumed that Logan Web was going to be on the
(17:43):
WBC team, the US team. He's had some talks with them,
I asked Mark de Rosa. They have had chats. We
then asked Buster Posey and Buster, unsurprisingly and Zachmanasian do
not sound overly enthusiastic about having their best picture involved
in the WBC. So I think that is still TBA
(18:05):
very you know, whether I'm no Logan wants to on
hundred percent. If he doesn't, this is going to be
because the team says, hey, maybe and you can join
in later rounds. I think if he participates, he might
be a late ad. That would make some sense. But
I have always thought that teams have every right to
say to any of their top players, you know what,
(18:25):
we need you to either ease up or do it
next time. Remember Scott Kashmir, who was one of my
favorite people at the Olympics. He basically had was retired,
came out of retirement and was a big part of
that Olympic team. You know, maybe that's the sort of
guy for for even I know the WBC is a
very good very you know, it's a great tournament for baseball,
(18:48):
a lot of national pride. But I think maybe some
of the guys on the at the later stages are
like Wainwright, did I think that would be great? So
anyway that that's not a done deal. And then the
other is the Giants. You know, we have not mentioned
the backup catcher spot very much at all, and the
Giants in the Rule five draft, they didn't take a catcher,
(19:09):
but they traded for a Rule five catcher, Daniel Sussak,
who yes, is Andrew Susa's brother and doesn't necessarily mean
he is the backup catcher. But it does create some
interesting competition there with Hayesus Rodriguez, who I think is
still probably the front runner but doesn't have as much experience,
and I'm looking forward to seeing that. A little competition
(19:32):
is good. Also does not rule out them signing somebody else.
I'm sure they'll sign a minor league free agent catcher,
maybe even something more significant. I'm not quite sure. I
know you love real mudo, but I'm not sure I
could see that happening. But options are great.
Speaker 1 (19:47):
Options are great. My thoughts on Logan Web He's led
the league at endings how many years in a row. Now,
there's a lot of miles on that car man, and
I need him to be in his routine and be
ready for the season. I'm not anti w I think
it's great, and I think Mark de Rosa is doing
a really good job of assembling a good team. But
with your ace, it leads the league in innings every
(20:10):
single year. You need to conserve those innings and you can't.
The Giants can't afford to have him be thrown out
of whack and it affects his thirty something starts this year.
So as much as I would love to be like, yeah,
that's webbing, that's our guy, USA, I'd rather see him
on the corner of third and King dealing than that.
All Right, we have to get to Dwayne Kuiper and
(20:32):
talk about the Ford Sea Frick Award. I'll start this one.
I wouldn't be a broadcaster or in broadcasting if it
wasn't for Dwayne, and I think it's I would love
to see him and get in together because there's such
a great deal and in my mind, my idols when
(20:54):
it comes to broadcasting and people too, and I would
like to see that award beside reflect the grind of
the everyday broadcaster. And I know they've cut back on
games recently, but throughout their career. You know, they've done
all the games all year. And when I first became
a broadcaster full time in Washington in twenty eleven, my
(21:17):
boss told me, he said, FP, this is a grind man.
He goes, and I laughed at him, like, come on,
I'm not playing. It's all I do is talk. And
it's true one hundred and sixty two games when you
have to articulate and be on and the flight gets
in at three of the morning and you got a
day game the next day and you're kind of staring
at the screen, going I should probably talk right now.
When the season's over, you take a big, deep breath
(21:38):
and you're like, oh my gosh, that was hard. It's
not physically hard, but mentally hard. So I love Joe
Buck and I hear a lot of criticisms of Joe Back.
I think he's wonderful. I enjoyed listening to him on
the on the football broadcast. But I think the Ford C.
Frick Award, no matter if it's a Giants guy or not,
should be representative of the person that has a connection
(21:58):
with the city, the fan base, the team for a
number of years and is great at doing it. So
I tweeted this the other day and it got a
lot of play. I said, what other broadcaster has lost
a spouse, battled cancer and still brings it every brings
excellence every single night. And it is what he's taught
(22:20):
me what it means to be professional, and he knows
how important it is to be the voice of our summer.
Like he Kipe and Kruk, as funny as they are,
they realize how lucky they are, and they realize they
have the greatest jobs in the world, and they realize
it's important to the fan base. So I'm kind of
bummed that he I mean, I was bummed all day
and we've been texting back and forth and saying some
(22:43):
nice things to each other. But yeah, I think he
needs to get in and think group needs to get
in eventually.
Speaker 2 (22:50):
Well, this has been my take for a long time.
You know, put them in together. The hall has pushed
back against that, saying that's essentially saying we don't do that.
They did do that the very first year, Mel Allen
and Red Barber went in together. A lot of times,
when either different wings or halls are starting, your first
class is going to be bigger for obvious reasons. But
(23:13):
those two were a broadcast team, so it is not
totally unprecedented. Perhaps there's some sort of like we don't
want to say they're Red Barber and Mel Allen because
you know, those are two icons of forever. Cook and Kuiper,
local guys iconic here, not national guys. Joe Buck clearly
got the sort of the national angle there. There's the
(23:35):
neat connection with first father and son both to get
the award, first guy to be both in the NFL
Hall of Fame and the Baseball Hall of Fame. Okay, great,
but Joe Buck. Love him or not care for him,
it doesn't matter. He's almost twenty years younger than Dwayne Kuiper.
(23:56):
He barely does baseball anymore. And there is a backlog
of really good. When you looked at that whole ballot,
that whole ballot was really strong, sort of like when
we were talking about Bonds and Kent, that whole ballot
was you know, I talked to us Dessie Baker the
other day about Kent. He was like, you look at
that ballot. He's like I thought Maddingly could get in,
you know, like, oh, Dale Murphy, that was like, these
(24:18):
are all packed ballots, so to me, even more reason
to put Kruk and Kipe in together. They are both
so wonderful. When you talk to either one of them,
they say like, if only one of us goes in,
I wanted to be the other guys. They consistently say that,
and it's genuine, It's absolutely genuine. That's what the Hall
of Fame should be rewarding. You know, they love character.
(24:39):
These are two high character guys, and you put them
in together. What a joyous, wonderful moment that would be.
That would be great for the Hall of Fame. It
would be great for baseball. It would be great for
sports broadcasters everywhere to have that kind of beautiful, wonderful
That's what the Hall is supposed to be about, is
Joel joy of baseball and all of that. Celebrating this
(25:03):
would be celebrating one of the great pairings of broadcasters
all time, absolutely beloved in their home area and starting
to get a little up there, and obviously both have
have had challenging health issues. Put them in together, you
can say it's a one time thing, we'll never do
it again. Whatever, I don't care how it happens, and
(25:24):
I will tell you some of the voters have argued
for that. I know some of the voting body is
past Frick winners. John Miller is among them. I can't
say who has championed the both let's get him on
and grill, but but there have been past Frick winners
who are very much in favor of putting in Krook
and Kuype together. I think this has been sort of
(25:45):
a hall thing that maybe this isn't what they want
to do. But uh, you know, I live in hope
if they show up on the ballot together the next time,
I hope that's a harbinger that maybe they go in together.
We're not both on this ballot, so maybe.
Speaker 1 (26:02):
Well, look, it's not going to change Dwayne's life whether
he gets in or not. I mean, it isn't, but
we we want that for him, and we want that
for Mike. And Dave will be there someday too. So
you're gonna have four. Dave is going to be our
Vince Gully.
Speaker 2 (26:19):
Yeah. Oh he's phenomenal and also and also versatile. He's amazing.
So we you mentioned we have Buck on Monday. Yes,
we also I think we're going to do our first mailbag.
We've been talking about a mailbag. I think we're going
to do that later next week, so make sure and
maybe next week because there will be news in between then.
(26:41):
But next week, feel free to start sending us questions
either in the YouTube comments on Twitter. FP and I
are both on Twitter at X. I think that those
would be great. We will have little, I hope snapshots
of questions and be able to answer that. But I
think everybody's gonna enjoy you talking to Buck. I think
(27:03):
on on Monday or Tuesday of next week. So fantastic,
the best.
Speaker 1 (27:09):
Did you see our our mutual friend Eric Chavez, he
was the hitting coach of the Mets, and he got
let go and on Instagram yesterday he did the question
thing like what do you think about the Mets offseason?
So all the former as teammates we got on there
and we're like, what's it like being so ridiculously good looking?
And we were just asking ridiculous questions like Frankie Metichito
(27:30):
and me. So yeah, we'll take the ridiculous questions too.
Those are those are always fun.
Speaker 2 (27:35):
Absolutely all right, Susan, good.
Speaker 1 (27:37):
Job, I'll let you go. Thanks again, you're the best
and matcha look forward to next time. Follow us, you guys.
Follow us on Instagram at splash hit Territory, on Twitter
at splash hit territory, go to YouTube search us. We
love you guys. Like I say on the way out,
every single time, swing hard in case you hit it.
All right, the quick intro. You gotta be ready, man,
that thing jumps on you quick. It's our twelfth episode
of Splash Hit Territory. Susan Slusser joins us again today. Susan,
how you doing. You're great, So I'm in San Francisco.
We're both in San Francisco.
Speaker 2 (00:22):
Back back in the Bay. Very happy about that.
Speaker 1 (00:25):
Yeah, well, we're also happy about the subscribers we're having
right now. We're getting there, so we want you guys
to like and subscribe. Go to YouTube check it all out.
It's super easy. We're checking out the views for these
they're growing every single time. The shows are starting to flow.
We're having a great time. We're gonna have Buck show
Walter on a Monday, so we're excited to have Buck on.
(00:48):
But in the meantime, you're fresh off of Orlando the
Winter meetings, you're back in San Francisco. Maybe a little
recap from somebody boots on the ground who is there.
Speaker 2 (00:57):
Yeah, well, and you mentioned Buck one of the reasons
that we are eager to talk to Buck, and we've
been hoping to talk to him for a while as
obviously he's somebody with not exactly the same background as
Tony Vytello, but a little bit, you know, he kind
of was against the grain, hadn't played the big league's
kind of manager, and he had to fight some of
that early on. So I think his take on Vytello,
(01:19):
and you know, Buck obviously has been a member of
the media as well as one of the successful managers
in the last couple decades. So I'm going to be
interested to see what he thinks of what the Giants
are doing and or are not doing, because so far
it's been kind of slow, slow winter meetings for the Giants,
slow winter meetings in general. The Dodgers get better, shocker
(01:43):
that one truly great closer out there, they get him.
Pete Alonso goes to Baltimore, Kyle Schwerber goes back to Philadelphia.
Besides that, not a lot else, although we we'll talk
about some of some of the smaller things that I
don't want to say small. Getting a Rule five draft
potential backup catcher, I think is a big deal, and
what we'll get to that too. But what were your
(02:05):
impressions from here about the winter meetings and what may.
Speaker 1 (02:09):
Or what's there to have an impression about. I mean,
I just watched MLB Network and you were there. I'll
say this, Susan. I was out last night with a
bunch of Giants fans and they're friends of mine, and
they're very concerned. They're worried. So you know, I don't
think you necessarily have to get deals done at the
(02:31):
winter meeting to get deals done, But like you're hearing
things you're there. Should Giants fans be worried right now?
Should we be upset? Should we be scared? Should be worried?
Like the ones I talked to last night are like,
we're not spending any money. What are we doing?
Speaker 2 (02:48):
My takeaway from everything is it's really hard to read
what the giants are doing right now, Like it's some
mixed messages. I think I wrote a couple times during
the winter, like Greg Johnson tells the Chronicle me last
month and John Shay, my former Chronicle colleague now the
(03:09):
SF Standard, he told both of us last month that
they're not looking to do long term deals. I think
everybody is more than familiar with this whole scenario. Not
looking to do a lot of long term deals for
five six year time things. Nine figures not something I'm
really looking to do. Buster Posey has and zach Manazien
have been talking to a lot of the big name
(03:29):
of particularly starters. Almost every agent I spoke to, and
all of this is sort of on background, you know,
not for attribution. So I'm not going to name some
of the names that I was asking about, but they
all said, yeah, the giants have called on him. So
that was a question to Buster Posey the day one
in Orlando, are you in are you out on some
(03:53):
of these big name guys? And he said he feels
like anytime he goes to the front office, goes to
ownership with a really good plan. I think I mentioned
this in the last show. You know that ownership has
been very supportive, so but not getting anything done. I
mean they still have not as we are taping this,
still have not announced their coaching staff, which seems you know,
(04:15):
after what are we talking more than five weeks? That
seems a little bit as surprising. So I don't think
that that's certainly connected to any of their free agency
pursuits or what they might do in trades, but it
just seems like and Buster's not cautious. We know Buster
Posey is not a cautious person. He's willing to be bold,
but it does seem like, let's see some news. You know,
(04:39):
I know they're not going to go like fans want news,
media wants news. We got to do something, but it
does seem a little slower than usual. So maybe it
is we're doing our due diligence on all of these guys,
but maybe nobody's appealing enough to them to go to
ownership to say, let's spend big bucks. My impression. One
agent told me he thinks that they have laid the
(05:00):
groundwork for some things, and zach Manascien said the same thing,
and that agent thought that the Giants will probably fill
at least a whole or two sometime in the next
two weeks and potentially with something significant. So honestly, we're
not privy to these things FP as you know, we
just kind of have to ask people around the edges
(05:22):
who have an idea, and the agents think they're going
to do something, and the Giants are signaling maybe they'll
be a little bit more cautious. Reasons for it. They're
in a division with a team that is going to
be tough to compete with no matter what you do.
We said this before last year and the year before
the Giants could spend you know, hundreds of extra million
(05:43):
dollars more and still finish third or fourth in this division.
And that's exactly what happened.
Speaker 1 (05:48):
So I was telling my friends last night at this function,
the same thing I said on the podcast last week
about you know, maybe they're keeping it close to the vest,
that's what Buster does. And then as I'm saying that,
I'm like, am I full of crap?
Speaker 3 (06:01):
Now?
Speaker 1 (06:02):
Like I'm starting to doubt what's coming out of my mouth?
Because am I just giving the company line because I
believe this before the winter meetings? Like I'm I'm a
big believer, and you just don't show your cards. We
disagree on that, you think you should let the fan
base know that you're trying. I would just like, I'd
like to, you know, out of nowhere, out of left field,
where we traded for this guy or we signed this guy.
(06:24):
And then as I was saying it to my friends
last night, I'm like, are you completely full of s
right now? Because I'm starting to wonder, and I'm if
I'm wondering, I guess the reason I'm saying this is
are the players wondering? Like what are the players thinking?
Right now? What is Logan Web thinking? What is Matt
Chapman thinking, What's Willie Damas thinking, what's Raphael Dever's thinking.
What's Robbie Ray thinking? What are these guys thinking right now?
(06:46):
When you turn on TV and you're like, this team
that we're trying to chase is getting even better. And
there's rumors about Trek Scouble going to the Dodgers in
a huge trade. I mean, if they get that guy,
why even play the games this year? Seriously?
Speaker 2 (07:01):
So even radical realignment would not get the Giants away
from the Doctors.
Speaker 1 (07:07):
So what is going on there? Anyways? So yeah, I'm
hoping there's some things on the back burner that we're
going to get surprised. But even even I'm as if
I go player mode right now and be like, are
what are we doing? What are we doing right now?
Speaker 2 (07:23):
One thing I will say is Scott Boris. You know,
he does his punny little State of Scott Boris's Clients
thing at the winter meetings as entertaining, slash grown inducing
as usual, and he did connect the Giants pretty firmly
with Cody Bellinger, who, in my mind, let's let's put
(07:45):
the money aside. How much it would cost, how likely
it is that they could get him to me would
fill basically two huge needs the defense obviously in the outfield,
and he's also a pretty good offensive player. Cost is
going to be high, the years are probably going to
be high. That's obviously not what we're hearing that they're
interested in doing. But he got thrown out there with
(08:05):
a bunch of other guys. Thoughts on Cody Bellinger and
then we'll talk about another potential Boris client, and you
know they haven't really jumped at Boris clients in this
last year, not since they did the chat finish the
Chapman deal. So your thoughts on Cody Bellinger.
Speaker 1 (08:20):
He's a winning player in the Giants deed winning players
and my first thought about Cody Bellinger is the elite
defense in the arm strength and the Giants need to
improve on defense. He made some plays in left field
last year for the Yankees, shoe string catches, throwing a
seed on the money right to the first basement, doubling
guys up. And then another thing the Giants need is
(08:40):
two strike approach, and Cody Bellinger does have a two
strike approach. He'll do that little crickety swing where he
flips something softly into left field. I know he can
strike out, but like the power, the average, the speed. Still,
he's an above average first baseman too, So I don't
know where that fits into the scheme when the Sis
have a thousand first basements, but like he's a plus
(09:03):
defender and a plus base runner. I just that just
popped into my head too. So the Times need all
of those things. And I've always been a fan of
Cody Bellinger.
Speaker 2 (09:12):
They if they go and spend, to me, he's the guy.
He's going to be far less than Kyle Tucker. I
know a lot of people would rather say them get
Kyle Tucker. But Kyle Tucker is going to be in
the four hundred million plus range. And these are all
just projections that we work off. But I think Bellinger
is projected for more like the one hundred and fifty
million range, which they're saying, we're not crazy about the
(09:35):
nine year or the nine figure deal. Okay, I think
you're going to have to do that to get somebody
like him. It's probably not likely, you know. I'm not
saying they're going out and getting him, but they certainly
have been among the teams that have called in on him,
and that's to me, I think that's a good thing.
I know fans sometimes go, we're tired of agents using
us to get bigger deals. But I will tell you,
(09:59):
you know, that's some of the deals that already have
been done in Orlando I think will have already affected
that market, particularly Alonso going to the Orioles. That signals
the Mets are going to have to pay for a bat,
another bat, and the word is they're going. I mean,
(10:21):
of course the Mets got cut listed in that long
list of I don't know if everybody saw the sort
of who needs which team needs a giant bat and
who's going to dodge problems all at whatever he's whatever
it was. But I think the Mets are going to
go hard after Bellinger. So I think that that potentially
(10:41):
drives at the cost, and at that point, I don't
know how enter out they would be. But Schwarber also going,
You know, that takes a big bat off the table too,
So I don't know, you're gonna have to spend Do
you do that?
Speaker 1 (10:54):
For me?
Speaker 2 (10:54):
They have to have a good defensive outfielder who also
can swing the bat. Bellinger's the guy.
Speaker 1 (11:00):
What if they don't do anything. What if that's it
and this is the team.
Speaker 2 (11:05):
I mean, they're conceding, and look do you put a
do you go out and make kind of an outside
the box, very outside the box managerial higher and then
give him a roster that is going to have a
tough time in an incredibly difficult division. Or do you
give him enough of a roster to snag a playoff spot?
(11:29):
Finished second, maybe even third? You can, you know, you
can still make the pup postseason. But if you're conceding,
why do you go out and do that? That would
be very unfair, in my opinion, to Tony Vaitello to
go like, hey, well, welcome to the big leagues. You've
got a roster that is probably not going to be
among the top three in your division.
Speaker 1 (11:51):
Speaking of the new manager for the Giants, we've been
joking in this podcast that you haven't met a me.
You haven't met a met You have met him. Now
you spend some time with the We talked to him
at the winter meetings. I would love to hear your
initial impressions of the Giants. Do a manager? Yeah?
Speaker 2 (12:07):
On our last show, I really it had been just
such a small sample size. I wasn't sure, but it's
really interesting.
Speaker 3 (12:13):
He after.
Speaker 2 (12:15):
Since since that time, he did his manager official manager
interview session at the Winter meetings, which is open to
sort of every media group. Talked for about twenty twenty
five minutes, and he also did a little breakfast just
with the San Francisco sort of beat that's in town.
All the managers do that. So sit down for breakfast
(12:35):
in a big conference room and just chit chat, and
the one takeaway I have really I mean, of course,
all the things everyone says personality plus super engaging, very
much a people person, all of that is true. He
has mentioned numerous times sort of how overwhelmed he is
and how new he feels. Everything is new. And I
(12:58):
said at one point during the breakfast thing, sort of
like there's so many new managers this year, right, there
are ten new managers. He's actually part of a big
group that's very new. And yes he's the one that
has no previous pro baseball experience of any kind, which
means people are watching looking if his manager's interview session
(13:19):
was pretty heavily attended by people who are kind of,
you know, the novelty of it all, And at one
point during that section session, he referred to himself as
a guinea pig and as a potentially a sacrificial lamb,
which is I hope he starts to feel a little
less overwhelmed really quickly. You know he's going to get
(13:41):
up and running. Of course, once spring training is going,
and Jase Tingler is unsurprisingly going to be his guy
and sort of in charge of spring training. Former league
big league manager has done this a bunch. I think
the day to day everything, I think he'll start to
feel more comfortable. But yeah, he's one of ten new guys.
There's so much I love that. I love all this.
(14:01):
You know that we're not just going with sort of
some of the same old names, some new faces, but
there are a lot of teams kind of going through
this right now. It's the Giants are not the only
one with a super newbie manager.
Speaker 1 (14:14):
Well, I mean, I guess I like the transparency and
the authenticity. But but my hope for the Giants this year,
and Tony Vitello is the captain of the ship, I
want them to be the most hated team in baseball.
I want them to have flair, to be cocky, to
piss other teams off, to to have their manager be
(14:38):
like that too, and to hear him say things like
I'm a guinea pig or whatever I need I need.
Once the he gets going like you said, I need Cocky,
Tony Votello. I don't want Tony to be I wanted
to be the most hated manager in the Big leagues
because his team plays with swagger and cockiness and flair
and not just like last year there was time when
(15:00):
they're just playing like I want the Giants to play
with an edge. I would love for them to be
This is probably gonna piss a lot of Giants fans off,
like the Oakland Raiders or the Las Vegas Raiders of
the National League of Baseball to where they're playing hardball.
They're playing this brand of baseball where they're sliding late,
(15:21):
they're sticking their foot and gloves and trying to knock
the ball out. They're diving everywhere, They're flipping the bats
like Drew Gilbert didn't call, who cares baseball is so friendly? Now?
I don't want them to be friendly. And I think
if they play that way that now all of a sudden,
whatever the roster construction is and whatever deals they do,
they have a chance to compete, and it has to
(15:44):
be with an edge every single night. It can't just
be once in a while. And it all starts with
their manager. So you know, I'd spend some time with them,
you know, you know, out and about after his press
conference and he was very overwhelmed, and that's understandable. And
there's this sports psychology thing where it's called admit and
conquer where if you're if you're afraid of something, you
(16:05):
just admit it and then you conquer it. But if
you suppress it, it's going to stay there longer. So
maybe that's kind of the thinking right now. It is.
He's laying in the weeds. He's telling people he's overwhelmed,
but meanwhile he's going to come out guns blazing. That's
my hope. But I want to I need Kacky Tony Vitelo,
I really do.
Speaker 2 (16:20):
Well. It's a little bit of a hustle, huh.
Speaker 3 (16:24):
Maybe I like that theory a but he he and
Buster are both very much on the same page of
you are not friends before the game, and I think
we're gonna I don't think we're going to see a
lot of hugs from Giants.
Speaker 2 (16:39):
Players to guys on the other team. Which you know
it is going to be very tough for Willia Domis
in particular because he's like everyone in baseball's best buddy,
tie his hands behind his back.
Speaker 1 (16:49):
But just you play slap shot on a loop in
the clubhouse and you the Hansen brothers and we're coming out,
and that's how we're playing baseball for one hundred and
sixty two games this year.
Speaker 2 (17:00):
Yeah, but Tony said, you know you can be friends
after the game. That's great, just not before the game.
You want to crush them. You want to absolutely demolish them.
And I do love that. And you know, he's a
guy who got ejected from college games. His teams were
kind of noted for their brawls, So I do think
we're going to get some of that kind of flavor.
Maybe not some brawls, but hey, they didn't got into
(17:22):
a little bit of a dust up last year, so
there's some guys in there with that we did. As
long as Chapman stays away from getting suspended, I think
will be good. But two other quick little things, okay
from the winter meetings that I don't want to miss.
First of all, it seems we could have had all
assumed that Logan Web was going to be on the
(17:43):
WBC team, the US team. He's had some talks with them,
I asked Mark de Rosa. They have had chats. We
then asked Buster Posey and Buster, unsurprisingly and Zachmanasian do
not sound overly enthusiastic about having their best picture involved
in the WBC. So I think that is still TBA
(18:05):
very you know, whether I'm no Logan wants to on
hundred percent. If he doesn't, this is going to be
because the team says, hey, maybe and you can join
in later rounds. I think if he participates, he might
be a late ad. That would make some sense. But
I have always thought that teams have every right to
say to any of their top players, you know what,
(18:25):
we need you to either ease up or do it
next time. Remember Scott Kashmir, who was one of my
favorite people at the Olympics. He basically had was retired,
came out of retirement and was a big part of
that Olympic team. You know, maybe that's the sort of
guy for for even I know the WBC is a
very good very you know, it's a great tournament for baseball,
(18:48):
a lot of national pride. But I think maybe some
of the guys on the at the later stages are
like Wainwright, did I think that would be great? So
anyway that that's not a done deal. And then the
other is the Giants. You know, we have not mentioned
the backup catcher spot very much at all, and the
Giants in the Rule five draft, they didn't take a catcher,
(19:09):
but they traded for a Rule five catcher, Daniel Sussak,
who yes, is Andrew Susa's brother and doesn't necessarily mean
he is the backup catcher. But it does create some
interesting competition there with Hayesus Rodriguez, who I think is
still probably the front runner but doesn't have as much experience,
and I'm looking forward to seeing that. A little competition
(19:32):
is good. Also does not rule out them signing somebody else.
I'm sure they'll sign a minor league free agent catcher,
maybe even something more significant. I'm not quite sure. I
know you love real mudo, but I'm not sure I
could see that happening. But options are great.
Speaker 1 (19:47):
Options are great. My thoughts on Logan Web He's led
the league at endings how many years in a row. Now,
there's a lot of miles on that car man, and
I need him to be in his routine and be
ready for the season. I'm not anti w I think
it's great, and I think Mark de Rosa is doing
a really good job of assembling a good team. But
with your ace, it leads the league in innings every
(20:10):
single year. You need to conserve those innings and you can't.
The Giants can't afford to have him be thrown out
of whack and it affects his thirty something starts this year.
So as much as I would love to be like, yeah,
that's webbing, that's our guy, USA, I'd rather see him
on the corner of third and King dealing than that.
All Right, we have to get to Dwayne Kuiper and
(20:32):
talk about the Ford Sea Frick Award. I'll start this one.
I wouldn't be a broadcaster or in broadcasting if it
wasn't for Dwayne, and I think it's I would love
to see him and get in together because there's such
a great deal and in my mind, my idols when
(20:54):
it comes to broadcasting and people too, and I would
like to see that award beside reflect the grind of
the everyday broadcaster. And I know they've cut back on
games recently, but throughout their career. You know, they've done
all the games all year. And when I first became
a broadcaster full time in Washington in twenty eleven, my
(21:17):
boss told me, he said, FP, this is a grind man.
He goes, and I laughed at him, like, come on,
I'm not playing. It's all I do is talk. And
it's true one hundred and sixty two games when you
have to articulate and be on and the flight gets
in at three of the morning and you got a
day game the next day and you're kind of staring
at the screen, going I should probably talk right now.
When the season's over, you take a big, deep breath
(21:38):
and you're like, oh my gosh, that was hard. It's
not physically hard, but mentally hard. So I love Joe
Buck and I hear a lot of criticisms of Joe Back.
I think he's wonderful. I enjoyed listening to him on
the on the football broadcast. But I think the Ford C.
Frick Award, no matter if it's a Giants guy or not,
should be representative of the person that has a connection
(21:58):
with the city, the fan base, the team for a
number of years and is great at doing it. So
I tweeted this the other day and it got a
lot of play. I said, what other broadcaster has lost
a spouse, battled cancer and still brings it every brings
excellence every single night. And it is what he's taught
(22:20):
me what it means to be professional, and he knows
how important it is to be the voice of our summer.
Like he Kipe and Kruk, as funny as they are,
they realize how lucky they are, and they realize they
have the greatest jobs in the world, and they realize
it's important to the fan base. So I'm kind of
bummed that he I mean, I was bummed all day
and we've been texting back and forth and saying some
(22:43):
nice things to each other. But yeah, I think he
needs to get in and think group needs to get
in eventually.
Speaker 2 (22:50):
Well, this has been my take for a long time.
You know, put them in together. The hall has pushed
back against that, saying that's essentially saying we don't do that.
They did do that the very first year, Mel Allen
and Red Barber went in together. A lot of times,
when either different wings or halls are starting, your first
class is going to be bigger for obvious reasons. But
(23:13):
those two were a broadcast team, so it is not
totally unprecedented. Perhaps there's some sort of like we don't
want to say they're Red Barber and Mel Allen because
you know, those are two icons of forever. Cook and Kuiper,
local guys iconic here, not national guys. Joe Buck clearly
got the sort of the national angle there. There's the
(23:35):
neat connection with first father and son both to get
the award, first guy to be both in the NFL
Hall of Fame and the Baseball Hall of Fame. Okay, great,
but Joe Buck. Love him or not care for him,
it doesn't matter. He's almost twenty years younger than Dwayne Kuiper.
(23:56):
He barely does baseball anymore. And there is a backlog
of really good. When you looked at that whole ballot,
that whole ballot was really strong, sort of like when
we were talking about Bonds and Kent, that whole ballot
was you know, I talked to us Dessie Baker the
other day about Kent. He was like, you look at
that ballot. He's like I thought Maddingly could get in,
you know, like, oh, Dale Murphy, that was like, these
(24:18):
are all packed ballots, so to me, even more reason
to put Kruk and Kipe in together. They are both
so wonderful. When you talk to either one of them,
they say like, if only one of us goes in,
I wanted to be the other guys. They consistently say that,
and it's genuine, It's absolutely genuine. That's what the Hall
of Fame should be rewarding. You know, they love character.
(24:39):
These are two high character guys, and you put them
in together. What a joyous, wonderful moment that would be.
That would be great for the Hall of Fame. It
would be great for baseball. It would be great for
sports broadcasters everywhere to have that kind of beautiful, wonderful
That's what the Hall is supposed to be about, is
Joel joy of baseball and all of that. Celebrating this
(25:03):
would be celebrating one of the great pairings of broadcasters
all time, absolutely beloved in their home area and starting
to get a little up there, and obviously both have
have had challenging health issues. Put them in together, you
can say it's a one time thing, we'll never do
it again. Whatever, I don't care how it happens, and
(25:24):
I will tell you some of the voters have argued
for that. I know some of the voting body is
past Frick winners. John Miller is among them. I can't
say who has championed the both let's get him on
and grill, but but there have been past Frick winners
who are very much in favor of putting in Krook
and Kuype together. I think this has been sort of
(25:45):
a hall thing that maybe this isn't what they want
to do. But uh, you know, I live in hope
if they show up on the ballot together the next time,
I hope that's a harbinger that maybe they go in together.
We're not both on this ballot, so maybe.
Speaker 1 (26:02):
Well, look, it's not going to change Dwayne's life whether
he gets in or not. I mean, it isn't, but
we we want that for him, and we want that
for Mike. And Dave will be there someday too. So
you're gonna have four. Dave is going to be our
Vince Gully.
Speaker 2 (26:19):
Yeah. Oh he's phenomenal and also and also versatile. He's amazing.
So we you mentioned we have Buck on Monday. Yes,
we also I think we're going to do our first mailbag.
We've been talking about a mailbag. I think we're going
to do that later next week, so make sure and
maybe next week because there will be news in between then.
(26:41):
But next week, feel free to start sending us questions
either in the YouTube comments on Twitter. FP and I
are both on Twitter at X. I think that those
would be great. We will have little, I hope snapshots
of questions and be able to answer that. But I
think everybody's gonna enjoy you talking to Buck. I think
(27:03):
on on Monday or Tuesday of next week. So fantastic,
the best.
Speaker 1 (27:09):
Did you see our our mutual friend Eric Chavez, he
was the hitting coach of the Mets, and he got
let go and on Instagram yesterday he did the question
thing like what do you think about the Mets offseason?
So all the former as teammates we got on there
and we're like, what's it like being so ridiculously good looking?
And we were just asking ridiculous questions like Frankie Metichito
(27:30):
and me. So yeah, we'll take the ridiculous questions too.
Those are those are always fun.
Speaker 2 (27:35):
Absolutely all right, Susan, good.
Speaker 1 (27:37):
Job, I'll let you go. Thanks again, you're the best
and matcha look forward to next time. Follow us, you guys.
Follow us on Instagram at splash hit Territory, on Twitter
at splash hit territory, go to YouTube search us. We
love you guys. Like I say on the way out,
every single time, swing hard in case you hit it.
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