January 28, 2026 • 51 mins
Hosts Joe Maddon and Tom Verducci starts with the Seahawks/Patriots Super Bowl and the time commitment it takes for the head coaches. Tom also thinks there's no sport that relies on a single player more than teams do with a quarterback. Cody Bellinger stays with the Yankees and Jose Ramirez reworked his deal with the Guardians. Tom asks if the MacKenzie Gore deal makes sense for the Rangers. Plus, how did the US car market do last year and what's coming in the future?
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Speaker 1 (00:04):
The Book of Joe podcast is a production of iHeartRadio.
Hey Thearon, Welcome back to the Book of Joe podcast
with me, Tom Berducci and Joe Madden. Joe, how is
your weekend? Any reunions this weekend?
Speaker 2 (00:25):
No reunions this week?
Speaker 3 (00:26):
And played some golf done at Saint Pete and yesterday
I played at a place called Southern Hills in Brookville, Florida.
A kickoff was thirty five degrees. I believe it warmed
up to fifty five here in beautiful Florida. So I
had that going on. Maybe a trip to Ava or
two in this coming weekend, which I won't be there for,
will be Gasparilla. Have you ever experienced a Gasparillo?
Speaker 2 (00:48):
Tom No?
Speaker 1 (00:49):
I heard that's a very very interesting time.
Speaker 3 (00:52):
It'sa's Tampa Baysed version of Marty Grass. I used to
live right on the route on Bay Short Boulevard, and
I was told it's like five hundred thousand people walk
in front of your house, so you just to have
my Willie Ford b Street band would play. I had
a food truck out front. I had breakfast in the
back with these wonderfully crafted Bloody Mary's. First thing in
(01:14):
the morning. You know, if you've done it a couple
of times, I think that's plenty. But I know a
lot of folks that are kind of excited about it
for this weekend.
Speaker 2 (01:21):
Too. Very cool.
Speaker 1 (01:22):
I've never been sounds like fun it is. I was
at last weekend at the Baseball Writer's Dinner where they
handed out the annual awards. I had the privilege of
handing out the twenty twenty five n L MVP to
shohe Otani, who did an amazing job with his acceptance
speech all in English. Looked good as usual in his
(01:45):
all black Hugo boss suit. That's always a good time.
It was a great evening, and also because the snow Joe,
I watched a bunch of football, which I'm sure you
probably did, correct.
Speaker 2 (01:56):
I did, of course, yes, I did well.
Speaker 1 (01:58):
I always like talking to you about these guys who
run the teams, in this case, the two head coaches
who will go to the Super Bowl, both fairly young,
both turned around teams as you have done in Major
League Baseball really pretty quickly. Mike Vrabel, after getting fired
by the Titans, took a year off, worked for the
Browns in their front office, and comes back and he
turns the Patriots into a returning Super Bowl team, and
(02:22):
Mike McDonald of the cl Seahawks, a young guy who
never played college football. Really interesting story, a guy who
actually was a standout baseball player in high school as
well as a football player. And he had a series
of stinger injuries playing high school football and they told him,
you know, he probably shouldn't play. He got to a
point where he felt good enough to play his last
(02:44):
game of his senior year, and right before the game,
he tore his ACL and that was that. So he
goes to Georgia and even then he was volunteering as
a high school coach, a grad assistant at Georgia for
four or five years. Basically, the guy worked his way
up to become a coreator in the NFL and then
(03:05):
obviously head coach is Seattle. Now he's going to the
Super Bowl. What got my attention, Joe, and it got
a lot of people's attention. He did an interview with
the Seattle station and he talked about the time commitment
of being an NFL head coach. Basically, he's not home
most of the week, you know, even staying in the
office on Mondays and Tuesday nights, their crunch or days
as they prepare for the upcoming game. And he mentioned
(03:27):
that he gets he's a one year old son, Jack
and he gets to spend thirty to sixty minutes with
his son each week. That's it in the football season. Now,
there's a lot of blowback from people about that. You know, listen,
everybody's different, you know that, Joe. Some people do it
a different way. Some people think they need to spend
that time at the office at the job. I have
(03:49):
a hard time believing that that is a really healthy
work life balance. If you've got a one year old son,
you only spend a half hour with him a week.
But I can't tell someone that's the wrong way to
do it. It'd be the wrong way for me.
Speaker 2 (04:03):
You know.
Speaker 1 (04:03):
I've to talk to you a lot about this, Joe,
about the time people even't even baseball spent at the ballpark.
It just got me thinking, what you think about this?
How much do you really need to devote time wise?
And I understand how big the job is and everybody
is different, but as far as being an MLB manager
or in this case, NFL coach.
Speaker 3 (04:23):
Yeah, I mean you're right, and you do know how
I feel about that with the baseball perspective, because I
was kind of like he is now when I first
started out in the big leagues. I was bench coach
eventually with the Angels early on in my career, and
my days.
Speaker 2 (04:38):
Were like way too long.
Speaker 3 (04:39):
I would get to the ballpark at noon and then
you know, you didn't leave until midnight. And the work
I put in because at that time, nobody was doing
the stuff that I was doing, which was kind of
like analytics.
Speaker 2 (04:54):
But I'm can't even say one on one. It was
pre one on one.
Speaker 3 (04:57):
It was pre less than zero analytics, right, It was
just the beginning of it. And it was my interpretation
of what was necess sorry for a manager. I give
you example. I mean, I remember remember the year of
the two game series. There was like two game series.
There was a ton of them. I can't remember the
year it was. But when you're on the you're at home,
that's not a bad thing. But if you're on the road,
it really requires a lot of prep work. And so
(05:20):
I remember getting into the hotel of Minnesota, like I
don't know, two o'clock in the morning, I set up,
I have my printer sent to my room. I got
my computer, my little laptop at that time, and then
I start putting together the game plan, the defensive game plan,
whatever for the next for the two game series in
Minnesota that night.
Speaker 2 (05:39):
Then you you know, you get to bed whatever hour.
Speaker 3 (05:40):
Then you get up and then you go to the
ballpark to the Kingdom early with this horrible locker room,
and you set it up and you start doing your
work there.
Speaker 2 (05:47):
And when you do like.
Speaker 3 (05:49):
The twenty twenty five two game series, like I said,
especially on the road, it really becomes time consuming and
tough for the sleep. Eventually got to the point where
I figured out it was it was impacting my health.
It was it did in nearly two thousands, and I
kind of figured it out. Ned Berger was our trainer
at that time. He used to walk in and see
(06:09):
me in the office and say, you're gonna hurt yourself.
Speaker 2 (06:12):
I'm what are you talking about. I'm just typing.
Speaker 3 (06:14):
I'm sitting here typing and talking about my posture, slatching
over the physical drain of all of that. And he
used to and that was my trainer in Quad Cities
in nineteen seventy six, so he knew me well. But
eventually it does. It's gonna hurt you at some point,
now price to pay. He wins the Super Bowl, of
course he's going to decide or figure out that it
was worth every.
Speaker 2 (06:35):
Moment of that.
Speaker 3 (06:36):
And you know, like you said, hard to argue with that.
But I think the true reason why the Seahawks have
a reason to win a Super Bowl, beyond the fact
that he spends all.
Speaker 2 (06:45):
This time.
Speaker 3 (06:48):
At the ballpark is stam Darnald. I mean, that's why
you're winning the super Bowl. If you win the Super Bowl,
I mean the fact that you're smart enough to get
a guy like that there. That's the difference, period, exclamation point.
And I was not a Donald fan when he first
came up. I didn't get it. You know, he wiped
out with the Jets. I think it was the Titans
number two. But goes to Minnesota. The coach there has
(07:09):
got to be pretty good because he's a different cat
right now. So long story short, I mean I would
spend he spend a lot of time getting the right
people in the room and then works smart. Just don't
work for the sake of working. I think some people
feel as though they have to suffer time wise, and he's,
you know, one year old kid man that would be gosh,
(07:30):
I can't even imagine that. But it's his path, it's
his way, and listen, I'm of the ILK also, as
you know that I never I'm not gonna tell you
what to do or how to do it. I'm going
to tell you what I would do and how am
I going to do it?
Speaker 2 (07:41):
Why and why?
Speaker 3 (07:42):
So it's it's tough, man, it's tough, and it's eventually
can't take its toll. But if he wins it all,
I guess he's going to consider that worthwhile.
Speaker 1 (07:51):
Yeah, I'm with you, Joe. I mean, I'm not in
any position to tell somebody they're doing it the right
way or the wrong way. They're doing it his way right.
And you're talking about someone who did not have the advantage,
if you want to call it that, being a bit
college football player or even an NFL player, right, so
he really had to work his way up. I'm sure
his entire life and his career is built on extremely
(08:13):
hard work. It's the way he operates, but it's it.
I like your point about Sam Darnold as well, because
I don't know that there's a position in sports right
now that's more important to team success than quarterback. In
the NFL, right if I mean, it's to me, it's
like seventy five percent of team success if you watch
an NFL game and watch an NFL season, it really
(08:35):
does come down to the ball in the quarterback's hands
and what he does with it. They've opened up the
rules to make sure he has more influence on a game.
And I love the fact that you have two young
head coaches here that have developed the culture and they've
done all the right things. I think it shows again
the importance Joe, of hiring the right person in the
right place. That being said, you really need a good quarterback.
Speaker 2 (08:57):
You can't live with that one. You just can't.
Speaker 3 (08:59):
And I mean the fact that the Steelers are still
playing with Aaron Rodgers, who's you know, still was really
functional last year. But that says it all to me.
I mean, but this has been going on for a
long time. I mean even as a kid, I used
to go to the Cardinal Games kid, I was in
my thirty forties whatever, and I would it was really
obvious to me. If you don't have a quarterback, you
cannot win in this league. I mean it's been that
(09:20):
way forever, because if you're a Cardinal fan. After Neil
Lomax gets hurt, there was like the string of quarterbacks,
including Jake Plummer, who I love, but just didn't get you.
Speaker 2 (09:28):
To the final note.
Speaker 3 (09:29):
I mean, it's just impossible to play well on a
consistent basis in that league without one. I mean, for
a while there I had my own little personal most
difficult positions in all of sports.
Speaker 2 (09:44):
To be good at, and one was DH and baseball.
Speaker 3 (09:47):
I thought, having a legitimate one guy DH, not everybody
had that. When you did have one, pretty good I
thought at center at one times that your center in
basketball was really a big driver in regards to success.
And then of course we're talking about quarterbacks and football,
and then in baseball.
Speaker 2 (10:04):
I really when when when there.
Speaker 3 (10:06):
Was more strategy involved in a book, and I thought,
you know, left handed relievers were vital and really viotle
in order to become successful because a lot of their
better hitters on teams of crucial moments would be a
left handed hitter. And if pitching in general like and
really good starting pitching also, I thought drives the engine
of any successful baseball team. So even as I think
(10:26):
this is in the eighties, I concluded that but the
DH center and basketball quarterback and football left handed pitching
and starting pitching to the engine.
Speaker 2 (10:34):
Driver in baseball, those are like the most.
Speaker 3 (10:37):
Important parts of teams in you know, the most popular
sports at that time. So, brother, if you don't have
one of those, look, I mean, look what happened to
the Broncos that weather.
Speaker 2 (10:47):
It was atrocious and they're paying that kid, but stid them.
Speaker 3 (10:50):
They're paying them a lot of dough to sit on
the bench, which you know, you kind of understand if
you like them that much. So it's really hard to
evaluate that game just based on conditions. But once once
next goes down, it's an entirely different vibe in building.
It's like, I guess you could get like a spot
starter as a pitcher, maybe that could hold before down whatever,
But spots starter and quarterback and taking you to the
(11:13):
super Bowl. It's happened like Tom Maddie, remember Tom maddy
with the SHOs back in the day with the he
had all the plays written on his wrist, which is
like a precursor to what happened eventually, but not an
easy thing to do. You cannot win in that league
without a legitimate quarterback.
Speaker 1 (11:27):
Well, it's happened in the past Earl Morrile. Yeah, Hostetler
with the Giants, that's right, but it's it's the exception
that you're right about the weather. I mean, that was
just incredible. I mean you did. I thought you did
have to run that game knowing that the conditions were
going to worsen. It was not a surprise, and it
was just tough to move the ball into the wind,
(11:47):
especially but at all because of the footing. You saw
how bad it was. Boy, I thought when you mentioned
the Cardinals, I thought you were going all the way
back to Jim Hart throwing the Jackie Smith.
Speaker 3 (11:56):
I could have I could have gone back to Charlie
Johnson handing off to John David Crowe. I could have
gone all the way back Dave Megacy, middle linebacker, Larry Wilson,
one of my all time favorite, Sherry Stovall, one of
the best corners, Pat Fisher. I could keep going, man,
that team. I was in love with that team from
the early sixties. The only breakup I had is with
because of the Jets and Joe Namath. He come, but
(12:18):
he was the AFL's okay for.
Speaker 2 (12:20):
Me to root for them? Good with that right exactly?
Speaker 1 (12:23):
Hey, we got a lot to get to I'm gonna
throw some names at you we want to touch on here,
Cody Bellinger, Mackenzie Gore, Jose Ramirez, and Joe. At the end,
I've got some really interesting new car numbers to give
you back there, totaled up all the numbers from twenty
twenty five American sales. We'll get into that, but let
me start with Bellinger because you mentioned, you know, the
(12:45):
most important position sometimes and you mentioned back in the
day a full time dh. I'm looking at center field
now as a really down position of the major leagues,
and if you've got someone who play that position and hit,
you've got something. You saw the Mets step out with
the trade for Luis Robert Jr. And Bellinger. Let's face it,
Grisham is going to be the center fielder for the
most part. But he can play center field, he can
(13:05):
play it well, he can play all three outfield positions.
He can play first base. He's back with the New
York Yankees. We thought it would happen right that it
was just a really good fit. Five years, one hundred
and sixty two point five million dollars. Couple of interesting
things on this deal, Joe. Remember this was a guy
who was non tendered back by the Dodgers after he
had that bad shoulder injury in the World Series in
(13:27):
twenty twenty. It was essentially a salary dumped by the
Cubs to trade him to New York and he's really
found a home with the Yankees. He can opt out
after his second or third season of this contract, although
if there is a lockout, it gets pushed out another year.
I thought that was interesting. I have not heard too
many contracts, if at all, this time around, were agents
(13:49):
in this case at Scott Boris who are building in
the possibility of a lockout. Doesn't mean there will be one,
but it's interesting that that's being put into the contract
as a clause to push his opt outs a year
out if in fact there is a lockout. So essentially
Cody Bellinger is going to get eighty five million dollars
(14:11):
for the next two years when you consider the signing
bonus and his front loaded salaries. So this works out
to be a great deal for Cody Bellinger because obviously
he can go back on the free agent market if
he wants with eighty five million over the next two years.
Give me your first reactions whether it's the contract or
the fit on Bellinger back with the Yankees.
Speaker 2 (14:29):
Well, I think it's they had to It was the
right thing to do.
Speaker 3 (14:33):
I can't tell you that, you know, to extend it
out year after year he's going to be able to
produce at that the level of those dollars, I don't.
I can't tell you that for sure, But in the
short term, I think he was absolutely necessary for them
that team. Offensively, I still think it's kind of precarious.
(14:54):
I know they did all these different things last year.
You don't know what Christian's going to do this year.
There's a couple of ascending guys. Shortstop is different. There's
so many different parts of that team that I think
And in spite of, like I said, they ended up
with all those wins last year and we're we're always
banging on him, but I think he was vital for
(15:16):
the success of that team this year twenty twenty six
as it looks right now. So if they had not
done that, they really would have had to added somebody significant,
and of course that wasn't going to happen because all
the significance had been gone by now. So I thought
it was the right thing to do. The opt outs
are interesting, but I think you have to be a
high end player with the high end contract in order
(15:36):
to obviously get those kind of contingencies, plus the add
on if in fact there is a lockout of strike
whatever in twenty twenty six. So I think it was
absolutely necessary to bet long term on him. I can't
take you for sure that I would. I love him
as a baseball player, though. He is a baseball player,
and he's the kind of guy one on my team.
So he got everything stacked in his favor. Bellinger did.
(16:00):
The Yankees, did what they had to do right now
for them to be successful this year, and then see
what happens after the CBA agreement, when it happens and
how it happens.
Speaker 1 (16:12):
Yeah, it's interesting if you go back and really not
that long ago, two three, four years ago, you's had
guys like Trey Turner's and their boguards Bryce Harper signing
these long, long deals, I mean eleven year deals, thirteen
year deals. It is totally done a onet eighty here
where teams are restricting the length of the contract, but man,
they're paying a huge premium with these salaries on an
(16:36):
average annual basis and this is the case here with Bellinger.
It suits the player as well, and we saw that
in the case most obviously with Kyle Tucker and the
Dodgers four years and two hundred and forty million. But
here's what I want to ask you about, Joe, and
you mentioned earlier you were one on the early wave
of analytics. How do you look at home road splits
(16:58):
because you look at the year that Cody Bellinger had
last year, and he just killed it at Yankee Stadium
slash line of three to zero two batting average and
a five forty four slug on the road a very
mediocre too forty one batting average and a slug of
four fourteen. It's more than one hundred points lower. I
(17:21):
remember talking to Cody in spring training and I noticed
he got closer to the plate, which was back where
he was in his MVP season, and the thing he
had missed in the last couple of years was getting
the ball in the air to the pole side, and
that's exactly what he did last year at Yankee Stadium.
Yankee Stadium will encourage that for a left handed hitter,
whether you intentionally tried to do it or not. So
(17:42):
his pole side air percentage, highest since his twenty nineteen
MVP season. So this stadium fit him well. I mean,
how do you look at that joe on a player
when you see splits like that? Now, in this case
is just one year, but it is. It's a large
gap between his home and road numbers.
Speaker 3 (18:01):
I think when you look at real you gotta look
at the ballpark obviously, and just like a golf course, man,
when you get on the tea box, some fairways fit
your eye well, some do not, And it's real.
Speaker 2 (18:13):
It's real. It's a feel. You see things and then you're.
Speaker 3 (18:16):
Either comfortable or not as comfortable. It flows, or it
doesn't flow. You try to force it or just let
it happen. All those things occur just by this discomfort
area that you exist in mentally in that batter's box
at Yankee Stadium. Look at movan when when Moe was
in Boston, because I was with Mo and I love Movaughan.
By the way, I one of the best teammates I've
(18:38):
been around, one of the most generous people I've ever
been around. I really liked MO and I was supposed
to do his podcast, hopefully get it. Some kind of conflict,
but Mo when he got away from Finnwi was a
completely different hitter because of the beautiful left field wall,
which made him a better hitter.
Speaker 2 (18:52):
Mike Greenwall became a better hitter.
Speaker 3 (18:54):
There's a lot of guys that left tend hitters that
know how to use that wall, which makes him a
better hitter overall, because then when they take that on
the road, normally it should permit them to stay inside
the ball whatever. But when Moe left there and went
to Anaheim.
Speaker 2 (19:10):
And the ballpark.
Speaker 3 (19:11):
Got bigger and it was more necessary from the pull
the ball, it became different.
Speaker 2 (19:16):
It just becomes different. It's your eyeballs.
Speaker 3 (19:18):
And although I'll say this, I saw Moll pull one
of the longest home runs I've ever seen in Seattle,
right down the right field line, upper tank. I think
the seat's colored out there, so not that he couldn't
do it. But again, on a daily basis, what am
I saying? How do I feel? How does this cause
my body to react? Does it fit my eye or not?
I really believe it's real. It's a mental thing. And
(19:39):
how do you evaluate that. You can look at the numbers,
you could talk to the guy, but I as a as.
Speaker 2 (19:45):
A former somewhat of an athlete.
Speaker 3 (19:48):
There's there's a reality to that part too, So yes,
you're gonna see splits, and I think that, you know,
there's there's certain hitters that are oblivious to all that,
and a lot of times I would say that's the
guy with the oppo gap.
Speaker 2 (20:00):
Pop can be oblivious to any kind of a b park.
Speaker 3 (20:04):
That's why I used to love as a young hitting instructor,
all like Timmy Samon could go right center, Jimmy Mmits
could go left center, Garrett Anderson could go left center,
Joe Hill Tony can go left center.
Speaker 2 (20:14):
You know, like the guys that.
Speaker 3 (20:15):
Could really drive the opo gap to me, have always
been interesting in regards to being.
Speaker 2 (20:20):
Kind of like.
Speaker 3 (20:22):
Unaffected by where they may be playing as a hitter.
But then there's some and again when it comes to
pull site power, I think that would really matter where
you play, like in Boston, like maybe bregnant, I mean
with that left field wall there being able to pull
the ball. So long answer, but I really believe it's
a mental thing and how it fits your eye, and
I think it can't have an impact on a hitter.
Speaker 1 (20:41):
Yes, eighteen home runs at home last year, eleven on
the road for Cody Bellinger Yankees, I agree, imperative they
re signed him, and they did. Jose Ramirez also got
a new contract, not so lucrative in the grand scheme
of things. We'll talk about that right after this on
the Book of Joe. Welcome back to the Book of Joe.
(21:12):
Jose Ramirez is not going anywhere, folks. He is one
of the greatest players in Cleveland history, and he did
sign a reworking of his deal. His new deal actually
adds one hundred and six million dollars in new money
for the twenty twenty nine through twenty thirty two seasons,
so that takes him through age thirty nine season and
(21:35):
basically works out twenty five million a year with ten
million deferred. That is a bargain. Well, he's been a
bargain in his whole career for this franchise, and I
give him credit. He's playing a place where he's very comfortable,
likes playing there, and he's had many opportunities to play
it out and get out there on the free agent market.
But he is a Cleveland guardian for life and in
(21:58):
his career, and speaking about his professional life, he now
assuming this is the end of his deal, he will
have earned two hundred and three million dollars over eighteen years.
Kyle Tucker will earn more than that in the next
four years with the Dodgers and Jose Ramirez. Folks is
on a Hall of Fame track. He's one of my
favorite players to watch play, Joe, and it's a lot
(22:20):
because of you know, when you watch him off the ball,
you watch him on the basis, it's just amazing. You
watch them play defense, this guy gives you every ounce
of effort. You see him active in the dugout, you know,
not just encouraging players, but sharing information. Baseball IQ off
the charts. He's the best I've seen since Paul Molitor
(22:40):
on the basis in terms of secondary leads, good decision making,
cutting the bases, all those things that you teach. You
watch Jose Ramirez play, and it's it's textbook baseball.
Speaker 3 (22:53):
Well thousand percent. I've been on this guy from the
first time I saw him, and that the interesting part
is that he doesn't look like that.
Speaker 2 (22:59):
He doesn't look like all of that.
Speaker 3 (23:01):
And when you when you first see him, it's like, really,
you know, not the greatest build, not very tall, doesn't
look very strong. But again he's an actual real baseball player.
Speaker 2 (23:11):
And I could always camp.
Speaker 3 (23:13):
I mean, you know, as a scout, was a young scout,
we were always attractor to drawn two supposed to be
you know, bodies and what a guy looks like and
does he fit the bill and how does his body
move and so forth and so on, and like I said,
Kirby Puckett, Tony Gwynn, you know, although Tony was more
life at that time, but Kirby was always kind of stout.
(23:33):
But there's there's all these anomaly bodies and that's the
beauty of our game too. That played baseball really well,
and he does, I mean switch hitter, plays everything right,
throws extremely well. There's not a weak part of this
guy's game. And he hits from both sides of the plate. Again,
I was a huge fan from the moment. Who is
(23:55):
that guy? Whoa really he could do that because when
you look at him, like I said, it doesn't equate.
But good for the Indians and from his perspective, tire
as excuse me, the Guardians, it's it's it's wonderful for
that organization, for that city. You know, if he had
gone elsewhere, he chose to go somewhere else. I mean,
obviously would have made a lot more dough than that.
(24:17):
But at some point he probably realized, I think I
have enough and this is gonna suit me and my
family and my grandkids for generations to come. So bully
for him, bully for the guardians. But this guy is
all of that.
Speaker 1 (24:29):
Yeah, that's a good point you made about you know,
the body type. It's not textbook, I guess. But until
you see him actually move right, I mean standing still,
you may raise an eyebrown and say who is this guy?
But I love the bounce that he has in his step.
I mean it's a literal bounce in his step. This
guy has so much joy playing the game, and he
(24:50):
is light and quick on his feet, even at his size.
So again, I watched him run the bases, and I
wish there was a stat where they kept track of
this hustle doubles, you know, first step out of the
batter's box where you're thinking too. I guarantee you Jose
Ramirez would be among the league leaders every single year.
I don't care what eddiot is, what the score of
(25:12):
the game is. He only knows one way to play.
Just that's the kind of guy you want as a
franchise player, because then you watch the way Cleveland plays baseball,
and you're going to play like Jose Ramirez if you're
on that team. You know, I go back. You mentioned
Kirby Pucket. Tom Kelly always talking about it was so
important when your best player plays the game the hardest.
(25:35):
So anybody who shows up realizes, man, I got to
keep up with that guy. I got to give you
ninety feet every time. That's Jose Ramirez to me.
Speaker 2 (25:43):
Two examples on that. First of all, Kirby Puckett.
Speaker 3 (25:46):
I'm like scouting the Junior College World Series in Grand Junction, Colorado.
I think it's my first or second year, doing eight
eighty one to eighty two, whatever it was.
Speaker 2 (25:54):
And they're playing.
Speaker 3 (25:55):
Triton's playing and this not a very like Adonnis built
kind of dude out in right field. But he goes
to the right field line, picks up a groundball, does
a spin turn and I said, oh my god, I
mean the way the ball came out of his hand
and weigh everything, accuracy, all that kind of good stuff.
Just from that one play, you fall in love Regarding
(26:18):
the hustle component spring training game port Charlotte. I don't
know Clint Hurdle was the manager of the Pirates. I
believe at that time two outs ninth inning, Pirates are
hitting two outs.
Speaker 2 (26:31):
We're leading like seven, one to eight.
Speaker 3 (26:33):
When whatever McCutcheon hits a ground ball, the short routine
ground ball is short. I mean, could not be more routine.
Two outs, ninth inning, Spring training, Port Charlotte, late at night,
beats it out. I could not wait to talk to
I waited for Clint to walk out of the Dugoup
as we're exiting to feel and.
Speaker 2 (26:51):
Say, my god, man, you gotta love that.
Speaker 3 (26:55):
That's like one of the most impressive things I've ever seen,
just like you're talking about regarding setting a tone for
the entire organization.
Speaker 2 (27:02):
So that bomb that day.
Speaker 3 (27:05):
I became the hugest fan of McCutcheon because that's that's
exactly what you're looking for. And then you get all
these different guys saying different reasons why they can't run
that hard that all the time, whatever the the fear
of getting here. My god, we used to have to
run sixty yard dashes. We used to run guys during
spring training. Everybody ran a sixty yard dash. Was a
big thing to be the fastest guy in a sixty
(27:27):
yard dash, and then you do it among your your
positional group. So I at least I had a chance
among the catchers. I mean it was like, it's it's
so refreshing to see stuff like that. And yeah, so
fan for Life of Ramirez, Fan for life of Kirby,
Tony Gwynn, and McCutcheon one lonely night in Port Charlotte
(27:48):
showed everybody what he was made of.
Speaker 1 (27:50):
That's amazing the way those moments really stick with you,
they really stand out. I mentioned Mackenzie Gore. I don't
know if you remember Von Hayes, the outfielder. Of course,
I was run Vaughn and to developed the nickname when
he gets traded from Cleveland's in Cleveland to the Phillies
mister five for one, because it was a big deal.
They traded five players for him, including Julio Franco in
(28:13):
that deal. But that's mackenzie Gore. He's the new version
of Von Hayes five for one. The Texas Rangers traded
five prospects the Washington Nationals for McKenzie Gory. He's got
two years left on his contract. Five players for a
guy who is twenty six and forty one with a
four to one to nine ERA and his adjusted ERA
(28:35):
for his career is ninety eight. So that is below average.
You're saying, Wait a second, that's Mackenzie Gore. Man. This
guy strikes out a ton of batters, left hander, great velocity,
great breaking pitches, but his numbers do not tell you
that he's a front of the rotation pitcher. So here's
(28:55):
what's happening, Joe. Everybody thinks, now, I think, even more
so than ever, let's get our hands on this guy
and we can change him, right. I mean, we see
something there. We know he's got the ability to miss bats.
Left handed throws hard. There's not many of those in
the universe. There's more of them than it used to be.
But let's see, let's get this guy in here and
(29:16):
let's see what we can do with Mackenzie Gore. So
he's got a pretty interesting track wreck, a body of
work here that suggests he should be better, almost like
Dylan Cee is going to Toronto Blue Jays. What do
you see about Gore and the overall philosophy that, hey,
he's going to be better for us.
Speaker 3 (29:35):
Whether you're assessments one hundred percent. I mean because I
actually uttered that phrase often when we were going to
acquire somebody. Oh, let us get our hands on him.
We're different, We're going to make this guy better. You know,
I can't say that it's not true. We were able
to do that in some situations. But to me, this
is an analytical call right here.
Speaker 2 (29:53):
This is something. This is and under the hood evaluation.
Speaker 3 (29:57):
Looking at the kind of numbers that you're talking about
that are a little bit not as spoken about as
often or like maybe a proprietary to that particular organization,
things that they look at and they see that they like.
So I think part of it's that and the fact
that Texas just drank from the cup a couple of
years ago. They got some a lot of new stuff
going on there. They're trying to get back their asap.
(30:18):
And I know see why Chris Young, the GM I
was there. I love the man, absolutely love him.
Speaker 2 (30:23):
I do. I think he's one of the best. So whatever, I.
Speaker 3 (30:27):
Know that that he knows exactly what he's getting into
and he did it for specific reason. And then the
five prospects, I know that's a big number, but who
knows what these guys actually look like and I'm always
curious about that. But Gore's got great stuff, There's no
question about it. I've seen it and I've heard about
him often, but not to have realized that potential yet.
Speaker 2 (30:48):
How old is he?
Speaker 1 (30:49):
Tommy twenty seven in February.
Speaker 3 (30:51):
Yeah, so that's that's the perfect number for me. When
you're like the second or third team, they get a
real talent at that age. And I guess I'm talking
pitching specifically. That's kind of interesting. I mean, that's kind
of like the sweet spot for when guys get over
some stuff, they kind of figure some stuff out, and
you know, you're right. The numbers are less than beautiful
(31:12):
to be able to but that's how it works anymore.
It's not necessarily based on win loss and all that
other stuff. We're still judging potentials right here. So yeah,
that's a good number for me. Twenty seven, with all
the prefer reies, all the potentialities with this dude, I
could kind of understand it. And again not knowing the
five prospects that were sent out in.
Speaker 1 (31:32):
Return well last year. First of all, is walk rate's
too high. They've got to get him in the strike
some more. Walk rate is above average. The numbers suggest
it just wasn't a good year when you look at
a batting average, on base percentage, slugging eggs, and velocity
hard hit rate all worse than major league average. Okay,
but here's the good news for Texas. His closest comp
(31:56):
both in terms of age and his career numbers to
this point, is Haesu's Lozardo. Look what happened when Hayesus
Lozard I went to the Philadelphia Phillies. They added a sweeper,
which he hadn't thrown before. He reduced his number of sliders,
which hadn't been a great pitch. The sweeper turned out
to be a great pitch for him, and they tweaked
this change up. His change up was much better last year.
(32:18):
The guy had a breakout season. I can see the
same thing happening here with Mackenzie Gore. First of all,
his fastball doesn't have a lot of spin on it.
It gets hit. He does control the top of the
strike zone very well, but if he's not on the
top rail with his forcing fastball, it gets hit. I'd
like to see them add a two seam fastball. I
think he needs another fastball the change up is well
(32:42):
below average pitch. Now. I don't know what success you've had,
Joe with people tweaking their change ups, but something's not
working there. When you allow a slugging percentage over five
hundred on your change up and you're throwing it ten
percent of the time, which is a lot for a changeup,
that's going to need some work. So to me, I
would add a two seam fastball for McKenzie gore to
(33:05):
have something going the other way, and I'd see what's
going on with the change up there. So I think
it is a matter of looking at his stuff and
how he uses it. But the fastball, to me, is
an issue. I don't know what's going to change there.
You can't change the spin rate of a fastball, not
unless you start using sticky stuff. So he's got to
deal with that. Again. I like it finds top of
(33:27):
the zone, but it's not a great pitch. He is
a great breaking ball pitcher, but I think the equalizer
for him, because he does face somebody right handed hitters,
is going to be that change up.
Speaker 3 (33:38):
Yeah, and it's hard to develop change ups later, I've found.
I mean, that's a field pitch and normally by the
time he's twenty seven to twenty eight, unless they split
his fingers and try to get him like a different grips.
Speaker 2 (33:49):
I don't even know how much.
Speaker 3 (33:50):
I'm sure they researched this a bit, but you know what,
he's tried to this point, and that would be important
for me to know. Also, specifically, like it sounds to
me like he doesn't get in enough on right handed hitters.
Speaker 2 (34:03):
That true, do is you not get in on right.
Speaker 1 (34:05):
E's Yeah, I think it's probably some truth to that, Yeah,
because I think it's probably showing up in the slug
against the changeup, where you just don't establish it enough
for that change up to work. Well.
Speaker 3 (34:15):
Yeah, I mean I would almost say a cut fastball
sounds interesting to me against right handed hitters. He just
needs to jam him up, but probably has to get
a little less comfortable. They're always hanging out over the plate,
they're not concerned about a whole lot. Then it becomes
a little bit easier for the hitter to make that
kind of an adjustment. You're right, the breaking ball is
good and it can get underneath a right hander, but
(34:39):
if that's his thing and the fastball really becomes kind
of moot to these guys, you know, they could kind
of attempt at least lay off of that. I know
he gets the strike out, I get all that, but
there's a mistake in there. It sounds like there's a
mistake in there. Almost peret bat or pe at bat
in a big situation. So I would bet they're going
to start off with something hard in to the right
hander because it's been my experience more recently that the
(35:03):
lefties that really just there used to be a time
down in a way was very safe, and it kind
of can be, but it's safer if you can establish
inside to really get to that point because you got
to give this guy that they hit her more.
Speaker 2 (35:14):
Than one thing.
Speaker 1 (35:15):
Yeah, it's always fascinating to me as I go around
early in spring training camps to see, you know, who's
throwing different pitches, and you can get these stories every
year someone has worked on not just the new pitch,
but the grip, the spin, especially with the way we
track the spin access and spin rates these days, there's
a lot of that stuff going on right now. But
(35:36):
it does make a difference. And I think Joe now
that the way the world is, there are a lot
of success stories about there out there, about guys who
either added a pitch or tweaked the pitch.
Speaker 2 (35:48):
Yeah, I again, I'm all about it.
Speaker 3 (35:51):
And I would bet that the proprietary information that the
Rangers seem to have that they absolutely believe in this
guy fit that well very well. They have strong opinions
of what they can do. And that's that's where the
that's where the bet was made on those kind of
adjustments right there. Again, I I just I wish I'd
(36:11):
seen more of him to give you a little bit
better thoughts. I mean, I'm generalizing a bit here, but
it just sounds I would start in on the right
handed hitter.
Speaker 2 (36:18):
Does he dominate lefties?
Speaker 1 (36:19):
And see a lot of them? But he does. I
mean his his breaking stuff is both two breaking pitches,
the slyer and curveball, both well above average.
Speaker 2 (36:30):
Okay, then it's then it. Yeah, then then he doesn't
have to.
Speaker 3 (36:34):
Expanded the with of the plate on these writings and
not just let them be so comfortable in one area.
Just give them one more thing to think about at
least here. But it's hard man for me. The change
up is such a field pitch if you haven't had
if he if at one time he had a decent
change up. Okay, I'd be more optimistic if he's never
really had a decent change up. It might come down
(36:54):
to splitting his fingers and just trying to give him
something like that in order to throw the ball normally
and just have the natural reaction coming out of the
split rip, as opposed to trying to manufacture or obtain
a feel for throwing a legitimate straight change up or
a change up that maybe has a little bit down
down and in run to the right handed hitter.
Speaker 1 (37:13):
Yeah, it's a great point, a great suggestion. I think
I'd also look into the see if you can throw
one of these kick change ups, you know, for guys
who have problems, you know, kind of getting that that
gyro spin on a change up just to have a
kind of pushed out of the finger without pronating. Who knows,
(37:34):
But I do think they'll get him in the lab.
They'll figure things out. And I agree with you, Joe,
he's at the perfect age in terms of just chronologically
and baseball age in terms of experience that it could
be a breakout year on what could be an outstanding
pitching staff. With the way Jack Lighter broke out last
year of Aldi coming back Nathan Jacob m Gram as well.
(37:57):
There are now more of a pitching oriented team than offensively.
And hey, speaking of winners and lou users, I mentioned
I've got the numbers of the American car sales last year.
We're going to dive into the winners and losers from
twenty twenty five. What are people buying? What are they
not buying? Interesting stuff? We'll get into that right after this.
(38:30):
Welcome back to the Book of Joe. We like talking
about cars here.
Speaker 2 (38:32):
Right Joe, Yes, love it absolutely.
Speaker 1 (38:35):
I'm just looking at these numbers and I found it interesting.
First of all car sales up to sixteen point one
seven million last year, it was only up two point
four percent. It was pretty flat. Wasn't a great year.
What's interesting is what's doing well here. The big winners
in terms of cars the makers. Toyota was up eight percent.
(38:56):
I'm sorry eight percent. Toyota's up because they're basically selling
affordable cars, which Detroit has pretty much abandoned. Detroit is
on the whole you know, SUV pickup truck brigade here,
and then you have Hondai was the other big winner.
They were up eight percent. Why they're selling a lot
(39:17):
of hybrids, and Detroit also isn't really going down for that.
So what you're seeing is the American car market is
really continuing to be driven by this demand, if you will,
or thirst for these big vehicles, these SUVs. You see
the ads on TV like you're going to drive it
through the outback or something and you just pick up
your kid at school. So they the profit margin on
(39:40):
those is better as well. But man, if you want
just an affordable car, you're basically not getting that from Detroit.
Give me your first reaction to that, Joe, that the
winners here are markets that the American car buyer is
having to look elsewhere for to foreign companies.
Speaker 2 (40:00):
Yeah, they didn't grow up in the cultures that we did,
for sure.
Speaker 1 (40:04):
No.
Speaker 3 (40:05):
I just got a twenty twenty two Ford Expedition, the
Platinum version, and I absolutely love it. I've never been
a Ford guy, but I really dig on this vehicle.
And yes, I do like that, you know, he says.
You know, I have several vehicles. I don't drive them often,
but my other favorite is my Hellcat, you know. And
that's also something that is the antithesis of a Toyota
(40:27):
or a Hyundai. You know, I recently rented a car
to drive the Canada was a Genesis. It was like
a regular sedan and I hated it. You know, there's
no room in these things. There's no room. You sit
on the ground when you're used to sitting up tall.
You just feel better about it. You see better cars
like that, the Hundai, Toyota, whatever that would be. They
do have some decent larger vehicles too, especially their truck,
(40:49):
the Toyota truck. But I just think that's a sign
of the times of the who's the purchasing power of
the younger component of our society. Everybody's talking about affordability
about everything. Cars like this run forever too. They normally,
you know, create good gas mileage. They're not in the
shop all the time. They're very dependable. You could say
(41:10):
all those different things about it, and there's no argument whatsoever.
They're solid vehicles and they do they do run further.
But they're no fun. They're just no fun. I mean,
I like to I like to drive something that is fun.
I want to hear my car when I drive it,
so you know, I'll get you get criticized for that,
and really, who cares?
Speaker 2 (41:27):
Again?
Speaker 3 (41:27):
It's a matter of when you grew up. But I
was a kid growing up in Hazelton. The elder gentlemen,
their ambition was to either own a Caddy or a Lincoln,
that's what they wanted, or Medos of Bill ninety eight
or an Electra two twenty five. Those are those are
the SUVs of that generation. The station Wagon really wasn't
It wasn't more room, but not necessarily. It was just
(41:50):
a car that was a little bit longer. So I
grew up in that time. We used to ride around
my buddy kaz and Is sixty nine and seventy, Chevell's
four speed cal Induction, all that kind of good stuff.
And I used to say, Cass hit it for me
and we'd just be flying down Altar Street or whatever.
I think this thing that might be a product of
(42:10):
you know who you are, where you came from.
Speaker 2 (42:12):
I do love cars.
Speaker 3 (42:14):
There are artistic You can look at the cars that
I'm describing from a distance and know what would make
they are, what year they are, just basically by the
whether it's the front grille, the tail lights, just the
body shape, whatever can tell you. The two tone pain
can tell you that what they are, what year, they
are more readily than today. When you try to dissect
(42:34):
the car from a distance, My god, it's either white, gray,
or black, and you have no idea what it is
because they all look the same. And there was a
time when it was really mattered distinctively which vehicle you drove,
because you know, you kind of liked it. Driving was
more than just going from here to publics and back.
It was like an experience, was a statement, I love
(42:55):
this thing, you know.
Speaker 2 (42:56):
So that's why you're seeing all this.
Speaker 3 (42:58):
It's going to continue that, the utilitarian kind of involvement
with vehicles, which I can't stand, but that's the way
the world's working right now.
Speaker 2 (43:05):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (43:06):
But you know, the US market is very different from
the rest of the world. There's basically only three markets
that are in love with SUVs, the US, of course,
Canada and Mexico. That's it. There's nobody in Europe on
those roads who are looking to drive a Ford expedition.
Those are so we're driving a market that the rest
of the world doesn't really have interest in. And Canada
(43:29):
and Mexico, let me tell you they're changing, and I'll
tell you why. It's the Chinese evs. They're coming to Canada.
Canada just cut a deal with the Chinese to slash
their tariffs what used to be one hundred percent to
six point one percent. Now they're capping the amount of
Chinese EV's that are going to come in. Starting out
(43:49):
at forty nine thousand, goes up to seventy thousand and
five years. But this is what happened in Mexico. The Chinese,
because let's face it, it's it's sponsored by the government there,
are able to produce really good electric vehicle cars for
twenty five thousand dollars and they're in Mexico. They're now
(44:10):
twenty five percent of the sales in Mexico. And now
you're seeing them in border cities in the US. And
the same thing is going to happen in the United States.
Since they're coming to Canada, you're going to see in
places like Michigan, upstate New York, where then you start
to see them on this side of the border and
people are going to say, I want one. They are
(44:33):
very good cars, very cheap, and it's only a matter
of time before they start selling more in Canada, and
you're going to see more in the US. Now ev
sales in the US last year, Joe dropped from eleven
percent to six point six percent, you know, partly because
the incentive seventy five hundred dollars incentive on the sales
(44:55):
of those cars went away. But it's coming and this
is a huge deal, folks. When Canada has opened up
the market to Chinese electric vehicles, they are now at
our doorstep and they're a game changer in Europe. They
were a game changer in Mexico. They will be a
game changer in Canada and eventually here. Whether you don't
(45:18):
like the sound or not, I.
Speaker 3 (45:20):
Don't like them, the range on them, the resale value
and the repairs. I just need to know more about that.
The range, Like, of course, okay, you go on a
long trip to you then rent a car from Hurtz
to go on a long.
Speaker 2 (45:33):
Trip, because you could use a fuel station because we go.
Speaker 3 (45:36):
On long trips, these these forty five minute hour waits
to recharge your vehicle.
Speaker 2 (45:41):
So that's what I've heard.
Speaker 3 (45:42):
I don't know that, but that sounds like really annoying
to me. Resale, I mean, are you going to buy
a used electric car? I'm just curious about that. What
does that look like? You go and kick the tires,
what's the battery like, you know, and then of course
the repairs and how much are repairs when you have
to replace these batteries, and then what happened to the
batteries when the batteries are no good where they taken
at that particular time. I guess, you know, there's different
(46:05):
arguments that you could correlate that with the way vehicles
or powered today. I guess, however, that's it. I mean,
it's just like a big battery on your street. They
put this body on it. I get it, but again,
a very boring concept to me when you look at them.
I'm not a big fan of them. I have never
(46:25):
driven one, so I don't really know this for a fact.
I'm just looking from a distance because I'm so much
in love with a regular V eight or a HEMI
or right now an Eco boosts twin turbo V six
four that runs like crazy. So I just it would
be a hard sell for me to really dig on
this and want to do this, but I would give
(46:46):
it a couple of years. I want to know how
these are empowered, you know, the way they're replenished. If
they get break down, how do I fix them?
Speaker 2 (46:53):
We want to.
Speaker 3 (46:54):
Buy whatever they're going to be called. So that bothers me.
I don't know enough. We don't know enough, and that
would be a concerning part of me investing that twenty
five thousand. Probably not as huge of an investment, but
again looking down the road, Eh, it's just boring to me.
Speaker 1 (47:11):
Yeah, no, Joe, you sound like the typical American car consumer. Really,
that's what the market is here, and it's going to
be a tough time for the evs to really get
a foothold because of you know, the history and the
lineage of the ice vehicles, internal combustion engines by the way,
kind of make sure these days get that right. So yeah,
(47:32):
I mean, change is going to come slowly, but eventually
it's going to come. So we'll see about that. But
it's interesting, I mean, the deal about the vehicles going
into Canada, it is a huge deal even geo politically,
where Canada now is reaching out to a place like
China to be a trade partner, the kind of the
cold shoulder to the US in a lot of ways,
(47:53):
from Kentucky Bourbon to electric vehicles now it's sort of
changing at least global trade anyway. So that's the car
numbers from torn not a big surprise. We are what
we are in terms of our likes with vehicles. Give
us our our big gas guzzlers and uh with with
a lot of noise and a lot of power. That's
(48:14):
the American way.
Speaker 2 (48:15):
But I would it ever change.
Speaker 1 (48:17):
Speaking of the American way, Joe, with that, I'm going
to ask you to put a caprara on this trip
around the basis here on the book of Joe. What
do you got for us this week?
Speaker 2 (48:26):
Yeah? It all? I mean it was it was.
Speaker 3 (48:28):
Personal growth was my my topic today, and I guess
I have to grow more. Uh consider growth regarding my
opinion on the eternal combustion engine versus a battery.
Speaker 2 (48:41):
I don't.
Speaker 3 (48:41):
I just it's just it's very hard for me to
process all of that. And I'm pretty open minded. That's
kind of the crazy part about it. So I went
with personal growth and maybe I need to listen, so, uh,
be not afraid of growing slowly, be afraid only of
standing still. This is one of my own personal arguments
within my myself. Progress is it is always just the
(49:04):
next thing to come along. Does that actually make it better?
Or is it just the next thing to come along?
I mean Beta never hit it. VHS was always the
winner there, right, and there's you know, the different things
that have come down the line for years, so there's
been winners and losers. When it comes to the word progress,
I still don't know that we know enough about powering
(49:24):
these vehicles and how heavy they are on the roads,
and what kind of pairs are going to be necessary
to our roads based on just the pure weight of
these vehicles and these batteries moving forward.
Speaker 2 (49:33):
There there's so much to consider.
Speaker 3 (49:34):
However, talking to me, I can only be afraid of
standing still, and I try not to be that guy.
I got some things in the hopper that I'm going
to discuss with you soon that would be an indicator
of me not standing still. So I'm always concerned about
that because you when you're not challenging yourself on a
consistent basis, Yeah, then then we have a tendency just
(49:55):
to become whatever. And when there's no room, when there's
no potential growth in your personal life, for your professional
life in the future, then you do become boring. And
it does you do start shutting down, and and then
you do become opinionated to the point where you do
not want to try new things are even recognized possibly
the benefits. So anyway, I'm talking to myself, I'm only
(50:16):
afraid of standing still. And when it comes to personal growth,
and so is are electric cars a part of personal
growth or is that just an economic thing? And the
thought about global warming, etcetera. And cutting down on this
green toss effect is that really pertinent or not? I
don't know, but that's where there's a lot of this
is coming from. So I just need to be afraid
(50:37):
of standing still. So there's hope, there might be.
Speaker 2 (50:39):
I don't know.
Speaker 1 (50:40):
I hope for change.
Speaker 2 (50:42):
There is, there is. There's always hope for change.
Speaker 3 (50:44):
I mean that's how I got to where I got
to in the in the in the baseball world, because
I was changing when nobody else was.
Speaker 1 (50:49):
Well said, Hey, good stuff, Joe, we'll see you next
time on the Book of Joe.
Speaker 2 (50:53):
Thank you, Tommy.
Speaker 1 (51:02):
The Book of Joe podcast is a fection of iHeartRadio.
For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
or wherever you get your podcasts.
The Book of Joe podcast is a production of iHeartRadio.
Hey Thearon, Welcome back to the Book of Joe podcast
with me, Tom Berducci and Joe Madden. Joe, how is
your weekend? Any reunions this weekend?
Speaker 2 (00:25):
No reunions this week?
Speaker 3 (00:26):
And played some golf done at Saint Pete and yesterday
I played at a place called Southern Hills in Brookville, Florida.
A kickoff was thirty five degrees. I believe it warmed
up to fifty five here in beautiful Florida. So I
had that going on. Maybe a trip to Ava or
two in this coming weekend, which I won't be there for,
will be Gasparilla. Have you ever experienced a Gasparillo?
Speaker 2 (00:48):
Tom No?
Speaker 1 (00:49):
I heard that's a very very interesting time.
Speaker 3 (00:52):
It'sa's Tampa Baysed version of Marty Grass. I used to
live right on the route on Bay Short Boulevard, and
I was told it's like five hundred thousand people walk
in front of your house, so you just to have
my Willie Ford b Street band would play. I had
a food truck out front. I had breakfast in the
back with these wonderfully crafted Bloody Mary's. First thing in
(01:14):
the morning. You know, if you've done it a couple
of times, I think that's plenty. But I know a
lot of folks that are kind of excited about it
for this weekend.
Speaker 2 (01:21):
Too. Very cool.
Speaker 1 (01:22):
I've never been sounds like fun it is. I was
at last weekend at the Baseball Writer's Dinner where they
handed out the annual awards. I had the privilege of
handing out the twenty twenty five n L MVP to
shohe Otani, who did an amazing job with his acceptance
speech all in English. Looked good as usual in his
(01:45):
all black Hugo boss suit. That's always a good time.
It was a great evening, and also because the snow Joe,
I watched a bunch of football, which I'm sure you
probably did, correct.
Speaker 2 (01:56):
I did, of course, yes, I did well.
Speaker 1 (01:58):
I always like talking to you about these guys who
run the teams, in this case, the two head coaches
who will go to the Super Bowl, both fairly young,
both turned around teams as you have done in Major
League Baseball really pretty quickly. Mike Vrabel, after getting fired
by the Titans, took a year off, worked for the
Browns in their front office, and comes back and he
turns the Patriots into a returning Super Bowl team, and
(02:22):
Mike McDonald of the cl Seahawks, a young guy who
never played college football. Really interesting story, a guy who
actually was a standout baseball player in high school as
well as a football player. And he had a series
of stinger injuries playing high school football and they told him,
you know, he probably shouldn't play. He got to a
point where he felt good enough to play his last
(02:44):
game of his senior year, and right before the game,
he tore his ACL and that was that. So he
goes to Georgia and even then he was volunteering as
a high school coach, a grad assistant at Georgia for
four or five years. Basically, the guy worked his way
up to become a coreator in the NFL and then
(03:05):
obviously head coach is Seattle. Now he's going to the
Super Bowl. What got my attention, Joe, and it got
a lot of people's attention. He did an interview with
the Seattle station and he talked about the time commitment
of being an NFL head coach. Basically, he's not home
most of the week, you know, even staying in the
office on Mondays and Tuesday nights, their crunch or days
as they prepare for the upcoming game. And he mentioned
(03:27):
that he gets he's a one year old son, Jack
and he gets to spend thirty to sixty minutes with
his son each week. That's it in the football season. Now,
there's a lot of blowback from people about that. You know, listen,
everybody's different, you know that, Joe. Some people do it
a different way. Some people think they need to spend
that time at the office at the job. I have
(03:49):
a hard time believing that that is a really healthy
work life balance. If you've got a one year old son,
you only spend a half hour with him a week.
But I can't tell someone that's the wrong way to
do it. It'd be the wrong way for me.
Speaker 2 (04:03):
You know.
Speaker 1 (04:03):
I've to talk to you a lot about this, Joe,
about the time people even't even baseball spent at the ballpark.
It just got me thinking, what you think about this?
How much do you really need to devote time wise?
And I understand how big the job is and everybody
is different, but as far as being an MLB manager
or in this case, NFL coach.
Speaker 3 (04:23):
Yeah, I mean you're right, and you do know how
I feel about that with the baseball perspective, because I
was kind of like he is now when I first
started out in the big leagues. I was bench coach
eventually with the Angels early on in my career, and
my days.
Speaker 2 (04:38):
Were like way too long.
Speaker 3 (04:39):
I would get to the ballpark at noon and then
you know, you didn't leave until midnight. And the work
I put in because at that time, nobody was doing
the stuff that I was doing, which was kind of
like analytics.
Speaker 2 (04:54):
But I'm can't even say one on one. It was
pre one on one.
Speaker 3 (04:57):
It was pre less than zero analytics, right, It was
just the beginning of it. And it was my interpretation
of what was necess sorry for a manager. I give
you example. I mean, I remember remember the year of
the two game series. There was like two game series.
There was a ton of them. I can't remember the
year it was. But when you're on the you're at home,
that's not a bad thing. But if you're on the road,
it really requires a lot of prep work. And so
(05:20):
I remember getting into the hotel of Minnesota, like I
don't know, two o'clock in the morning, I set up,
I have my printer sent to my room. I got
my computer, my little laptop at that time, and then
I start putting together the game plan, the defensive game plan,
whatever for the next for the two game series in
Minnesota that night.
Speaker 2 (05:39):
Then you you know, you get to bed whatever hour.
Speaker 3 (05:40):
Then you get up and then you go to the
ballpark to the Kingdom early with this horrible locker room,
and you set it up and you start doing your
work there.
Speaker 2 (05:47):
And when you do like.
Speaker 3 (05:49):
The twenty twenty five two game series, like I said,
especially on the road, it really becomes time consuming and
tough for the sleep. Eventually got to the point where
I figured out it was it was impacting my health.
It was it did in nearly two thousands, and I
kind of figured it out. Ned Berger was our trainer
at that time. He used to walk in and see
(06:09):
me in the office and say, you're gonna hurt yourself.
Speaker 2 (06:12):
I'm what are you talking about. I'm just typing.
Speaker 3 (06:14):
I'm sitting here typing and talking about my posture, slatching
over the physical drain of all of that. And he
used to and that was my trainer in Quad Cities
in nineteen seventy six, so he knew me well. But
eventually it does. It's gonna hurt you at some point,
now price to pay. He wins the Super Bowl, of
course he's going to decide or figure out that it
was worth every.
Speaker 2 (06:35):
Moment of that.
Speaker 3 (06:36):
And you know, like you said, hard to argue with that.
But I think the true reason why the Seahawks have
a reason to win a Super Bowl, beyond the fact
that he spends all.
Speaker 2 (06:45):
This time.
Speaker 3 (06:48):
At the ballpark is stam Darnald. I mean, that's why
you're winning the super Bowl. If you win the Super Bowl,
I mean the fact that you're smart enough to get
a guy like that there. That's the difference, period, exclamation point.
And I was not a Donald fan when he first
came up. I didn't get it. You know, he wiped
out with the Jets. I think it was the Titans
number two. But goes to Minnesota. The coach there has
(07:09):
got to be pretty good because he's a different cat
right now. So long story short, I mean I would
spend he spend a lot of time getting the right
people in the room and then works smart. Just don't
work for the sake of working. I think some people
feel as though they have to suffer time wise, and he's,
you know, one year old kid man that would be gosh,
(07:30):
I can't even imagine that. But it's his path, it's
his way, and listen, I'm of the ILK also, as
you know that I never I'm not gonna tell you
what to do or how to do it. I'm going
to tell you what I would do and how am
I going to do it?
Speaker 2 (07:41):
Why and why?
Speaker 3 (07:42):
So it's it's tough, man, it's tough, and it's eventually
can't take its toll. But if he wins it all,
I guess he's going to consider that worthwhile.
Speaker 1 (07:51):
Yeah, I'm with you, Joe. I mean, I'm not in
any position to tell somebody they're doing it the right
way or the wrong way. They're doing it his way right.
And you're talking about someone who did not have the advantage,
if you want to call it that, being a bit
college football player or even an NFL player, right, so
he really had to work his way up. I'm sure
his entire life and his career is built on extremely
(08:13):
hard work. It's the way he operates, but it's it.
I like your point about Sam Darnold as well, because
I don't know that there's a position in sports right
now that's more important to team success than quarterback. In
the NFL, right if I mean, it's to me, it's
like seventy five percent of team success if you watch
an NFL game and watch an NFL season, it really
(08:35):
does come down to the ball in the quarterback's hands
and what he does with it. They've opened up the
rules to make sure he has more influence on a game.
And I love the fact that you have two young
head coaches here that have developed the culture and they've
done all the right things. I think it shows again
the importance Joe, of hiring the right person in the
right place. That being said, you really need a good quarterback.
Speaker 2 (08:57):
You can't live with that one. You just can't.
Speaker 3 (08:59):
And I mean the fact that the Steelers are still
playing with Aaron Rodgers, who's you know, still was really
functional last year. But that says it all to me.
I mean, but this has been going on for a
long time. I mean even as a kid, I used
to go to the Cardinal Games kid, I was in
my thirty forties whatever, and I would it was really
obvious to me. If you don't have a quarterback, you
cannot win in this league. I mean it's been that
(09:20):
way forever, because if you're a Cardinal fan. After Neil
Lomax gets hurt, there was like the string of quarterbacks,
including Jake Plummer, who I love, but just didn't get you.
Speaker 2 (09:28):
To the final note.
Speaker 3 (09:29):
I mean, it's just impossible to play well on a
consistent basis in that league without one. I mean, for
a while there I had my own little personal most
difficult positions in all of sports.
Speaker 2 (09:44):
To be good at, and one was DH and baseball.
Speaker 3 (09:47):
I thought, having a legitimate one guy DH, not everybody
had that. When you did have one, pretty good I
thought at center at one times that your center in
basketball was really a big driver in regards to success.
And then of course we're talking about quarterbacks and football,
and then in baseball.
Speaker 2 (10:04):
I really when when when there.
Speaker 3 (10:06):
Was more strategy involved in a book, and I thought,
you know, left handed relievers were vital and really viotle
in order to become successful because a lot of their
better hitters on teams of crucial moments would be a
left handed hitter. And if pitching in general like and
really good starting pitching also, I thought drives the engine
of any successful baseball team. So even as I think
(10:26):
this is in the eighties, I concluded that but the
DH center and basketball quarterback and football left handed pitching
and starting pitching to the engine.
Speaker 2 (10:34):
Driver in baseball, those are like the most.
Speaker 3 (10:37):
Important parts of teams in you know, the most popular
sports at that time. So, brother, if you don't have
one of those, look, I mean, look what happened to
the Broncos that weather.
Speaker 2 (10:47):
It was atrocious and they're paying that kid, but stid them.
Speaker 3 (10:50):
They're paying them a lot of dough to sit on
the bench, which you know, you kind of understand if
you like them that much. So it's really hard to
evaluate that game just based on conditions. But once once
next goes down, it's an entirely different vibe in building.
It's like, I guess you could get like a spot
starter as a pitcher, maybe that could hold before down whatever,
But spots starter and quarterback and taking you to the
(11:13):
super Bowl. It's happened like Tom Maddie, remember Tom maddy
with the SHOs back in the day with the he
had all the plays written on his wrist, which is
like a precursor to what happened eventually, but not an
easy thing to do. You cannot win in that league
without a legitimate quarterback.
Speaker 1 (11:27):
Well, it's happened in the past Earl Morrile. Yeah, Hostetler
with the Giants, that's right, but it's it's the exception
that you're right about the weather. I mean, that was
just incredible. I mean you did. I thought you did
have to run that game knowing that the conditions were
going to worsen. It was not a surprise, and it
was just tough to move the ball into the wind,
(11:47):
especially but at all because of the footing. You saw
how bad it was. Boy, I thought when you mentioned
the Cardinals, I thought you were going all the way
back to Jim Hart throwing the Jackie Smith.
Speaker 3 (11:56):
I could have I could have gone back to Charlie
Johnson handing off to John David Crowe. I could have
gone all the way back Dave Megacy, middle linebacker, Larry Wilson,
one of my all time favorite, Sherry Stovall, one of
the best corners, Pat Fisher. I could keep going, man,
that team. I was in love with that team from
the early sixties. The only breakup I had is with
because of the Jets and Joe Namath. He come, but
(12:18):
he was the AFL's okay for.
Speaker 2 (12:20):
Me to root for them? Good with that right exactly?
Speaker 1 (12:23):
Hey, we got a lot to get to I'm gonna
throw some names at you we want to touch on here,
Cody Bellinger, Mackenzie Gore, Jose Ramirez, and Joe. At the end,
I've got some really interesting new car numbers to give
you back there, totaled up all the numbers from twenty
twenty five American sales. We'll get into that, but let
me start with Bellinger because you mentioned, you know, the
(12:45):
most important position sometimes and you mentioned back in the
day a full time dh. I'm looking at center field
now as a really down position of the major leagues,
and if you've got someone who play that position and hit,
you've got something. You saw the Mets step out with
the trade for Luis Robert Jr. And Bellinger. Let's face it,
Grisham is going to be the center fielder for the
most part. But he can play center field, he can
(13:05):
play it well, he can play all three outfield positions.
He can play first base. He's back with the New
York Yankees. We thought it would happen right that it
was just a really good fit. Five years, one hundred
and sixty two point five million dollars. Couple of interesting
things on this deal, Joe. Remember this was a guy
who was non tendered back by the Dodgers after he
had that bad shoulder injury in the World Series in
(13:27):
twenty twenty. It was essentially a salary dumped by the
Cubs to trade him to New York and he's really
found a home with the Yankees. He can opt out
after his second or third season of this contract, although
if there is a lockout, it gets pushed out another year.
I thought that was interesting. I have not heard too
many contracts, if at all, this time around, were agents
(13:49):
in this case at Scott Boris who are building in
the possibility of a lockout. Doesn't mean there will be one,
but it's interesting that that's being put into the contract
as a clause to push his opt outs a year
out if in fact there is a lockout. So essentially
Cody Bellinger is going to get eighty five million dollars
(14:11):
for the next two years when you consider the signing
bonus and his front loaded salaries. So this works out
to be a great deal for Cody Bellinger because obviously
he can go back on the free agent market if
he wants with eighty five million over the next two years.
Give me your first reactions whether it's the contract or
the fit on Bellinger back with the Yankees.
Speaker 2 (14:29):
Well, I think it's they had to It was the
right thing to do.
Speaker 3 (14:33):
I can't tell you that, you know, to extend it
out year after year he's going to be able to
produce at that the level of those dollars, I don't.
I can't tell you that for sure, But in the
short term, I think he was absolutely necessary for them
that team. Offensively, I still think it's kind of precarious.
(14:54):
I know they did all these different things last year.
You don't know what Christian's going to do this year.
There's a couple of ascending guys. Shortstop is different. There's
so many different parts of that team that I think
And in spite of, like I said, they ended up
with all those wins last year and we're we're always
banging on him, but I think he was vital for
(15:16):
the success of that team this year twenty twenty six
as it looks right now. So if they had not
done that, they really would have had to added somebody significant,
and of course that wasn't going to happen because all
the significance had been gone by now. So I thought
it was the right thing to do. The opt outs
are interesting, but I think you have to be a
high end player with the high end contract in order
(15:36):
to obviously get those kind of contingencies, plus the add
on if in fact there is a lockout of strike
whatever in twenty twenty six. So I think it was
absolutely necessary to bet long term on him. I can't
take you for sure that I would. I love him
as a baseball player, though. He is a baseball player,
and he's the kind of guy one on my team.
So he got everything stacked in his favor. Bellinger did.
(16:00):
The Yankees, did what they had to do right now
for them to be successful this year, and then see
what happens after the CBA agreement, when it happens and
how it happens.
Speaker 1 (16:12):
Yeah, it's interesting if you go back and really not
that long ago, two three, four years ago, you's had
guys like Trey Turner's and their boguards Bryce Harper signing
these long, long deals, I mean eleven year deals, thirteen
year deals. It is totally done a onet eighty here
where teams are restricting the length of the contract, but man,
they're paying a huge premium with these salaries on an
(16:36):
average annual basis and this is the case here with Bellinger.
It suits the player as well, and we saw that
in the case most obviously with Kyle Tucker and the
Dodgers four years and two hundred and forty million. But
here's what I want to ask you about, Joe, and
you mentioned earlier you were one on the early wave
of analytics. How do you look at home road splits
(16:58):
because you look at the year that Cody Bellinger had
last year, and he just killed it at Yankee Stadium
slash line of three to zero two batting average and
a five forty four slug on the road a very
mediocre too forty one batting average and a slug of
four fourteen. It's more than one hundred points lower. I
(17:21):
remember talking to Cody in spring training and I noticed
he got closer to the plate, which was back where
he was in his MVP season, and the thing he
had missed in the last couple of years was getting
the ball in the air to the pole side, and
that's exactly what he did last year at Yankee Stadium.
Yankee Stadium will encourage that for a left handed hitter,
whether you intentionally tried to do it or not. So
(17:42):
his pole side air percentage, highest since his twenty nineteen
MVP season. So this stadium fit him well. I mean,
how do you look at that joe on a player
when you see splits like that? Now, in this case
is just one year, but it is. It's a large
gap between his home and road numbers.
Speaker 3 (18:01):
I think when you look at real you gotta look
at the ballpark obviously, and just like a golf course, man,
when you get on the tea box, some fairways fit
your eye well, some do not, And it's real.
Speaker 2 (18:13):
It's real. It's a feel. You see things and then you're.
Speaker 3 (18:16):
Either comfortable or not as comfortable. It flows, or it
doesn't flow. You try to force it or just let
it happen. All those things occur just by this discomfort
area that you exist in mentally in that batter's box
at Yankee Stadium. Look at movan when when Moe was
in Boston, because I was with Mo and I love Movaughan.
By the way, I one of the best teammates I've
(18:38):
been around, one of the most generous people I've ever
been around. I really liked MO and I was supposed
to do his podcast, hopefully get it. Some kind of conflict,
but Mo when he got away from Finnwi was a
completely different hitter because of the beautiful left field wall,
which made him a better hitter.
Speaker 2 (18:52):
Mike Greenwall became a better hitter.
Speaker 3 (18:54):
There's a lot of guys that left tend hitters that
know how to use that wall, which makes him a
better hitter overall, because then when they take that on
the road, normally it should permit them to stay inside
the ball whatever. But when Moe left there and went
to Anaheim.
Speaker 2 (19:10):
And the ballpark.
Speaker 3 (19:11):
Got bigger and it was more necessary from the pull
the ball, it became different.
Speaker 2 (19:16):
It just becomes different. It's your eyeballs.
Speaker 3 (19:18):
And although I'll say this, I saw Moll pull one
of the longest home runs I've ever seen in Seattle,
right down the right field line, upper tank. I think
the seat's colored out there, so not that he couldn't
do it. But again, on a daily basis, what am
I saying? How do I feel? How does this cause
my body to react? Does it fit my eye or not?
I really believe it's real. It's a mental thing. And
(19:39):
how do you evaluate that. You can look at the numbers,
you could talk to the guy, but I as a as.
Speaker 2 (19:45):
A former somewhat of an athlete.
Speaker 3 (19:48):
There's there's a reality to that part too, So yes,
you're gonna see splits, and I think that, you know,
there's there's certain hitters that are oblivious to all that,
and a lot of times I would say that's the
guy with the oppo gap.
Speaker 2 (20:00):
Pop can be oblivious to any kind of a b park.
Speaker 3 (20:04):
That's why I used to love as a young hitting instructor,
all like Timmy Samon could go right center, Jimmy Mmits
could go left center, Garrett Anderson could go left center,
Joe Hill Tony can go left center.
Speaker 2 (20:14):
You know, like the guys that.
Speaker 3 (20:15):
Could really drive the opo gap to me, have always
been interesting in regards to being.
Speaker 2 (20:20):
Kind of like.
Speaker 3 (20:22):
Unaffected by where they may be playing as a hitter.
But then there's some and again when it comes to
pull site power, I think that would really matter where
you play, like in Boston, like maybe bregnant, I mean
with that left field wall there being able to pull
the ball. So long answer, but I really believe it's
a mental thing and how it fits your eye, and
I think it can't have an impact on a hitter.
Speaker 1 (20:41):
Yes, eighteen home runs at home last year, eleven on
the road for Cody Bellinger Yankees, I agree, imperative they
re signed him, and they did. Jose Ramirez also got
a new contract, not so lucrative in the grand scheme
of things. We'll talk about that right after this on
the Book of Joe. Welcome back to the Book of Joe.
(21:12):
Jose Ramirez is not going anywhere, folks. He is one
of the greatest players in Cleveland history, and he did
sign a reworking of his deal. His new deal actually
adds one hundred and six million dollars in new money
for the twenty twenty nine through twenty thirty two seasons,
so that takes him through age thirty nine season and
(21:35):
basically works out twenty five million a year with ten
million deferred. That is a bargain. Well, he's been a
bargain in his whole career for this franchise, and I
give him credit. He's playing a place where he's very comfortable,
likes playing there, and he's had many opportunities to play
it out and get out there on the free agent market.
But he is a Cleveland guardian for life and in
(21:58):
his career, and speaking about his professional life, he now
assuming this is the end of his deal, he will
have earned two hundred and three million dollars over eighteen years.
Kyle Tucker will earn more than that in the next
four years with the Dodgers and Jose Ramirez. Folks is
on a Hall of Fame track. He's one of my
favorite players to watch play, Joe, and it's a lot
(22:20):
because of you know, when you watch him off the ball,
you watch him on the basis, it's just amazing. You
watch them play defense, this guy gives you every ounce
of effort. You see him active in the dugout, you know,
not just encouraging players, but sharing information. Baseball IQ off
the charts. He's the best I've seen since Paul Molitor
(22:40):
on the basis in terms of secondary leads, good decision making,
cutting the bases, all those things that you teach. You
watch Jose Ramirez play, and it's it's textbook baseball.
Speaker 3 (22:53):
Well thousand percent. I've been on this guy from the
first time I saw him, and that the interesting part
is that he doesn't look like that.
Speaker 2 (22:59):
He doesn't look like all of that.
Speaker 3 (23:01):
And when you when you first see him, it's like, really,
you know, not the greatest build, not very tall, doesn't
look very strong. But again he's an actual real baseball player.
Speaker 2 (23:11):
And I could always camp.
Speaker 3 (23:13):
I mean, you know, as a scout, was a young scout,
we were always attractor to drawn two supposed to be
you know, bodies and what a guy looks like and
does he fit the bill and how does his body
move and so forth and so on, and like I said,
Kirby Puckett, Tony Gwynn, you know, although Tony was more
life at that time, but Kirby was always kind of stout.
(23:33):
But there's there's all these anomaly bodies and that's the
beauty of our game too. That played baseball really well,
and he does, I mean switch hitter, plays everything right,
throws extremely well. There's not a weak part of this
guy's game. And he hits from both sides of the plate. Again,
I was a huge fan from the moment. Who is
(23:55):
that guy? Whoa really he could do that because when
you look at him, like I said, it doesn't equate.
But good for the Indians and from his perspective, tire
as excuse me, the Guardians, it's it's it's wonderful for
that organization, for that city. You know, if he had
gone elsewhere, he chose to go somewhere else. I mean,
obviously would have made a lot more dough than that.
(24:17):
But at some point he probably realized, I think I
have enough and this is gonna suit me and my
family and my grandkids for generations to come. So bully
for him, bully for the guardians. But this guy is
all of that.
Speaker 1 (24:29):
Yeah, that's a good point you made about you know,
the body type. It's not textbook, I guess. But until
you see him actually move right, I mean standing still,
you may raise an eyebrown and say who is this guy?
But I love the bounce that he has in his step.
I mean it's a literal bounce in his step. This
guy has so much joy playing the game, and he
(24:50):
is light and quick on his feet, even at his size.
So again, I watched him run the bases, and I
wish there was a stat where they kept track of
this hustle doubles, you know, first step out of the
batter's box where you're thinking too. I guarantee you Jose
Ramirez would be among the league leaders every single year.
I don't care what eddiot is, what the score of
(25:12):
the game is. He only knows one way to play.
Just that's the kind of guy you want as a
franchise player, because then you watch the way Cleveland plays baseball,
and you're going to play like Jose Ramirez if you're
on that team. You know, I go back. You mentioned
Kirby Pucket. Tom Kelly always talking about it was so
important when your best player plays the game the hardest.
(25:35):
So anybody who shows up realizes, man, I got to
keep up with that guy. I got to give you
ninety feet every time. That's Jose Ramirez to me.
Speaker 2 (25:43):
Two examples on that. First of all, Kirby Puckett.
Speaker 3 (25:46):
I'm like scouting the Junior College World Series in Grand Junction, Colorado.
I think it's my first or second year, doing eight
eighty one to eighty two, whatever it was.
Speaker 2 (25:54):
And they're playing.
Speaker 3 (25:55):
Triton's playing and this not a very like Adonnis built
kind of dude out in right field. But he goes
to the right field line, picks up a groundball, does
a spin turn and I said, oh my god, I
mean the way the ball came out of his hand
and weigh everything, accuracy, all that kind of good stuff.
Just from that one play, you fall in love Regarding
(26:18):
the hustle component spring training game port Charlotte. I don't
know Clint Hurdle was the manager of the Pirates. I
believe at that time two outs ninth inning, Pirates are
hitting two outs.
Speaker 2 (26:31):
We're leading like seven, one to eight.
Speaker 3 (26:33):
When whatever McCutcheon hits a ground ball, the short routine
ground ball is short. I mean, could not be more routine.
Two outs, ninth inning, Spring training, Port Charlotte, late at night,
beats it out. I could not wait to talk to
I waited for Clint to walk out of the Dugoup
as we're exiting to feel and.
Speaker 2 (26:51):
Say, my god, man, you gotta love that.
Speaker 3 (26:55):
That's like one of the most impressive things I've ever seen,
just like you're talking about regarding setting a tone for
the entire organization.
Speaker 2 (27:02):
So that bomb that day.
Speaker 3 (27:05):
I became the hugest fan of McCutcheon because that's that's
exactly what you're looking for. And then you get all
these different guys saying different reasons why they can't run
that hard that all the time, whatever the the fear
of getting here. My god, we used to have to
run sixty yard dashes. We used to run guys during
spring training. Everybody ran a sixty yard dash. Was a
big thing to be the fastest guy in a sixty
(27:27):
yard dash, and then you do it among your your
positional group. So I at least I had a chance
among the catchers. I mean it was like, it's it's
so refreshing to see stuff like that. And yeah, so
fan for Life of Ramirez, Fan for life of Kirby,
Tony Gwynn, and McCutcheon one lonely night in Port Charlotte
(27:48):
showed everybody what he was made of.
Speaker 1 (27:50):
That's amazing the way those moments really stick with you,
they really stand out. I mentioned Mackenzie Gore. I don't
know if you remember Von Hayes, the outfielder. Of course,
I was run Vaughn and to developed the nickname when
he gets traded from Cleveland's in Cleveland to the Phillies
mister five for one, because it was a big deal.
They traded five players for him, including Julio Franco in
(28:13):
that deal. But that's mackenzie Gore. He's the new version
of Von Hayes five for one. The Texas Rangers traded
five prospects the Washington Nationals for McKenzie Gory. He's got
two years left on his contract. Five players for a
guy who is twenty six and forty one with a
four to one to nine ERA and his adjusted ERA
(28:35):
for his career is ninety eight. So that is below average.
You're saying, Wait a second, that's Mackenzie Gore. Man. This
guy strikes out a ton of batters, left hander, great velocity,
great breaking pitches, but his numbers do not tell you
that he's a front of the rotation pitcher. So here's
(28:55):
what's happening, Joe. Everybody thinks, now, I think, even more
so than ever, let's get our hands on this guy
and we can change him, right. I mean, we see
something there. We know he's got the ability to miss bats.
Left handed throws hard. There's not many of those in
the universe. There's more of them than it used to be.
But let's see, let's get this guy in here and
(29:16):
let's see what we can do with Mackenzie Gore. So
he's got a pretty interesting track wreck, a body of
work here that suggests he should be better, almost like
Dylan Cee is going to Toronto Blue Jays. What do
you see about Gore and the overall philosophy that, hey,
he's going to be better for us.
Speaker 3 (29:35):
Whether you're assessments one hundred percent. I mean because I
actually uttered that phrase often when we were going to
acquire somebody. Oh, let us get our hands on him.
We're different, We're going to make this guy better. You know,
I can't say that it's not true. We were able
to do that in some situations. But to me, this
is an analytical call right here.
Speaker 2 (29:53):
This is something. This is and under the hood evaluation.
Speaker 3 (29:57):
Looking at the kind of numbers that you're talking about
that are a little bit not as spoken about as
often or like maybe a proprietary to that particular organization,
things that they look at and they see that they like.
So I think part of it's that and the fact
that Texas just drank from the cup a couple of
years ago. They got some a lot of new stuff
going on there. They're trying to get back their asap.
(30:18):
And I know see why Chris Young, the GM I
was there. I love the man, absolutely love him.
Speaker 2 (30:23):
I do. I think he's one of the best. So whatever, I.
Speaker 3 (30:27):
Know that that he knows exactly what he's getting into
and he did it for specific reason. And then the
five prospects, I know that's a big number, but who
knows what these guys actually look like and I'm always
curious about that. But Gore's got great stuff, There's no
question about it. I've seen it and I've heard about
him often, but not to have realized that potential yet.
Speaker 2 (30:48):
How old is he?
Speaker 1 (30:49):
Tommy twenty seven in February.
Speaker 3 (30:51):
Yeah, so that's that's the perfect number for me. When
you're like the second or third team, they get a
real talent at that age. And I guess I'm talking
pitching specifically. That's kind of interesting. I mean, that's kind
of like the sweet spot for when guys get over
some stuff, they kind of figure some stuff out, and
you know, you're right. The numbers are less than beautiful
(31:12):
to be able to but that's how it works anymore.
It's not necessarily based on win loss and all that
other stuff. We're still judging potentials right here. So yeah,
that's a good number for me. Twenty seven, with all
the prefer reies, all the potentialities with this dude, I
could kind of understand it. And again not knowing the
five prospects that were sent out in.
Speaker 1 (31:32):
Return well last year. First of all, is walk rate's
too high. They've got to get him in the strike
some more. Walk rate is above average. The numbers suggest
it just wasn't a good year when you look at
a batting average, on base percentage, slugging eggs, and velocity
hard hit rate all worse than major league average. Okay,
but here's the good news for Texas. His closest comp
(31:56):
both in terms of age and his career numbers to
this point, is Haesu's Lozardo. Look what happened when Hayesus
Lozard I went to the Philadelphia Phillies. They added a sweeper,
which he hadn't thrown before. He reduced his number of sliders,
which hadn't been a great pitch. The sweeper turned out
to be a great pitch for him, and they tweaked
this change up. His change up was much better last year.
(32:18):
The guy had a breakout season. I can see the
same thing happening here with Mackenzie Gore. First of all,
his fastball doesn't have a lot of spin on it.
It gets hit. He does control the top of the
strike zone very well, but if he's not on the
top rail with his forcing fastball, it gets hit. I'd
like to see them add a two seam fastball. I
think he needs another fastball the change up is well
(32:42):
below average pitch. Now. I don't know what success you've had,
Joe with people tweaking their change ups, but something's not
working there. When you allow a slugging percentage over five
hundred on your change up and you're throwing it ten
percent of the time, which is a lot for a changeup,
that's going to need some work. So to me, I
would add a two seam fastball for McKenzie gore to
(33:05):
have something going the other way, and I'd see what's
going on with the change up there. So I think
it is a matter of looking at his stuff and
how he uses it. But the fastball, to me, is
an issue. I don't know what's going to change there.
You can't change the spin rate of a fastball, not
unless you start using sticky stuff. So he's got to
deal with that. Again. I like it finds top of
(33:27):
the zone, but it's not a great pitch. He is
a great breaking ball pitcher, but I think the equalizer
for him, because he does face somebody right handed hitters,
is going to be that change up.
Speaker 3 (33:38):
Yeah, and it's hard to develop change ups later, I've found.
I mean, that's a field pitch and normally by the
time he's twenty seven to twenty eight, unless they split
his fingers and try to get him like a different grips.
Speaker 2 (33:49):
I don't even know how much.
Speaker 3 (33:50):
I'm sure they researched this a bit, but you know what,
he's tried to this point, and that would be important
for me to know. Also, specifically, like it sounds to
me like he doesn't get in enough on right handed hitters.
Speaker 2 (34:03):
That true, do is you not get in on right.
Speaker 1 (34:05):
E's Yeah, I think it's probably some truth to that, Yeah,
because I think it's probably showing up in the slug
against the changeup, where you just don't establish it enough
for that change up to work. Well.
Speaker 3 (34:15):
Yeah, I mean I would almost say a cut fastball
sounds interesting to me against right handed hitters. He just
needs to jam him up, but probably has to get
a little less comfortable. They're always hanging out over the plate,
they're not concerned about a whole lot. Then it becomes
a little bit easier for the hitter to make that
kind of an adjustment. You're right, the breaking ball is
good and it can get underneath a right hander, but
(34:39):
if that's his thing and the fastball really becomes kind
of moot to these guys, you know, they could kind
of attempt at least lay off of that. I know
he gets the strike out, I get all that, but
there's a mistake in there. It sounds like there's a
mistake in there. Almost peret bat or pe at bat
in a big situation. So I would bet they're going
to start off with something hard in to the right
hander because it's been my experience more recently that the
(35:03):
lefties that really just there used to be a time
down in a way was very safe, and it kind
of can be, but it's safer if you can establish
inside to really get to that point because you got
to give this guy that they hit her more.
Speaker 2 (35:14):
Than one thing.
Speaker 1 (35:15):
Yeah, it's always fascinating to me as I go around
early in spring training camps to see, you know, who's
throwing different pitches, and you can get these stories every
year someone has worked on not just the new pitch,
but the grip, the spin, especially with the way we
track the spin access and spin rates these days, there's
a lot of that stuff going on right now. But
(35:36):
it does make a difference. And I think Joe now
that the way the world is, there are a lot
of success stories about there out there, about guys who
either added a pitch or tweaked the pitch.
Speaker 2 (35:48):
Yeah, I again, I'm all about it.
Speaker 3 (35:51):
And I would bet that the proprietary information that the
Rangers seem to have that they absolutely believe in this
guy fit that well very well. They have strong opinions
of what they can do. And that's that's where the
that's where the bet was made on those kind of
adjustments right there. Again, I I just I wish I'd
(36:11):
seen more of him to give you a little bit
better thoughts. I mean, I'm generalizing a bit here, but
it just sounds I would start in on the right
handed hitter.
Speaker 2 (36:18):
Does he dominate lefties?
Speaker 1 (36:19):
And see a lot of them? But he does. I
mean his his breaking stuff is both two breaking pitches,
the slyer and curveball, both well above average.
Speaker 2 (36:30):
Okay, then it's then it. Yeah, then then he doesn't
have to.
Speaker 3 (36:34):
Expanded the with of the plate on these writings and
not just let them be so comfortable in one area.
Just give them one more thing to think about at
least here. But it's hard man for me. The change
up is such a field pitch if you haven't had
if he if at one time he had a decent
change up. Okay, I'd be more optimistic if he's never
really had a decent change up. It might come down
(36:54):
to splitting his fingers and just trying to give him
something like that in order to throw the ball normally
and just have the natural reaction coming out of the
split rip, as opposed to trying to manufacture or obtain
a feel for throwing a legitimate straight change up or
a change up that maybe has a little bit down
down and in run to the right handed hitter.
Speaker 1 (37:13):
Yeah, it's a great point, a great suggestion. I think
I'd also look into the see if you can throw
one of these kick change ups, you know, for guys
who have problems, you know, kind of getting that that
gyro spin on a change up just to have a
kind of pushed out of the finger without pronating. Who knows,
(37:34):
But I do think they'll get him in the lab.
They'll figure things out. And I agree with you, Joe,
he's at the perfect age in terms of just chronologically
and baseball age in terms of experience that it could
be a breakout year on what could be an outstanding
pitching staff. With the way Jack Lighter broke out last
year of Aldi coming back Nathan Jacob m Gram as well.
(37:57):
There are now more of a pitching oriented team than offensively.
And hey, speaking of winners and lou users, I mentioned
I've got the numbers of the American car sales last year.
We're going to dive into the winners and losers from
twenty twenty five. What are people buying? What are they
not buying? Interesting stuff? We'll get into that right after this.
(38:30):
Welcome back to the Book of Joe. We like talking
about cars here.
Speaker 2 (38:32):
Right Joe, Yes, love it absolutely.
Speaker 1 (38:35):
I'm just looking at these numbers and I found it interesting.
First of all car sales up to sixteen point one
seven million last year, it was only up two point
four percent. It was pretty flat. Wasn't a great year.
What's interesting is what's doing well here. The big winners
in terms of cars the makers. Toyota was up eight percent.
(38:56):
I'm sorry eight percent. Toyota's up because they're basically selling
affordable cars, which Detroit has pretty much abandoned. Detroit is
on the whole you know, SUV pickup truck brigade here,
and then you have Hondai was the other big winner.
They were up eight percent. Why they're selling a lot
(39:17):
of hybrids, and Detroit also isn't really going down for that.
So what you're seeing is the American car market is
really continuing to be driven by this demand, if you will,
or thirst for these big vehicles, these SUVs. You see
the ads on TV like you're going to drive it
through the outback or something and you just pick up
your kid at school. So they the profit margin on
(39:40):
those is better as well. But man, if you want
just an affordable car, you're basically not getting that from Detroit.
Give me your first reaction to that, Joe, that the
winners here are markets that the American car buyer is
having to look elsewhere for to foreign companies.
Speaker 2 (40:00):
Yeah, they didn't grow up in the cultures that we did,
for sure.
Speaker 1 (40:04):
No.
Speaker 3 (40:05):
I just got a twenty twenty two Ford Expedition, the
Platinum version, and I absolutely love it. I've never been
a Ford guy, but I really dig on this vehicle.
And yes, I do like that, you know, he says.
You know, I have several vehicles. I don't drive them often,
but my other favorite is my Hellcat, you know. And
that's also something that is the antithesis of a Toyota
(40:27):
or a Hyundai. You know, I recently rented a car
to drive the Canada was a Genesis. It was like
a regular sedan and I hated it. You know, there's
no room in these things. There's no room. You sit
on the ground when you're used to sitting up tall.
You just feel better about it. You see better cars
like that, the Hundai, Toyota, whatever that would be. They
do have some decent larger vehicles too, especially their truck,
(40:49):
the Toyota truck. But I just think that's a sign
of the times of the who's the purchasing power of
the younger component of our society. Everybody's talking about affordability
about everything. Cars like this run forever too. They normally,
you know, create good gas mileage. They're not in the
shop all the time. They're very dependable. You could say
(41:10):
all those different things about it, and there's no argument whatsoever.
They're solid vehicles and they do they do run further.
But they're no fun. They're just no fun. I mean,
I like to I like to drive something that is fun.
I want to hear my car when I drive it,
so you know, I'll get you get criticized for that,
and really, who cares?
Speaker 2 (41:27):
Again?
Speaker 3 (41:27):
It's a matter of when you grew up. But I
was a kid growing up in Hazelton. The elder gentlemen,
their ambition was to either own a Caddy or a Lincoln,
that's what they wanted, or Medos of Bill ninety eight
or an Electra two twenty five. Those are those are
the SUVs of that generation. The station Wagon really wasn't
It wasn't more room, but not necessarily. It was just
(41:50):
a car that was a little bit longer. So I
grew up in that time. We used to ride around
my buddy kaz and Is sixty nine and seventy, Chevell's
four speed cal Induction, all that kind of good stuff.
And I used to say, Cass hit it for me
and we'd just be flying down Altar Street or whatever.
I think this thing that might be a product of
(42:10):
you know who you are, where you came from.
Speaker 2 (42:12):
I do love cars.
Speaker 3 (42:14):
There are artistic You can look at the cars that
I'm describing from a distance and know what would make
they are, what year they are, just basically by the
whether it's the front grille, the tail lights, just the
body shape, whatever can tell you. The two tone pain
can tell you that what they are, what year, they
are more readily than today. When you try to dissect
(42:34):
the car from a distance, My god, it's either white, gray,
or black, and you have no idea what it is
because they all look the same. And there was a
time when it was really mattered distinctively which vehicle you drove,
because you know, you kind of liked it. Driving was
more than just going from here to publics and back.
It was like an experience, was a statement, I love
(42:55):
this thing, you know.
Speaker 2 (42:56):
So that's why you're seeing all this.
Speaker 3 (42:58):
It's going to continue that, the utilitarian kind of involvement
with vehicles, which I can't stand, but that's the way
the world's working right now.
Speaker 2 (43:05):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (43:06):
But you know, the US market is very different from
the rest of the world. There's basically only three markets
that are in love with SUVs, the US, of course,
Canada and Mexico. That's it. There's nobody in Europe on
those roads who are looking to drive a Ford expedition.
Those are so we're driving a market that the rest
of the world doesn't really have interest in. And Canada
(43:29):
and Mexico, let me tell you they're changing, and I'll
tell you why. It's the Chinese evs. They're coming to Canada.
Canada just cut a deal with the Chinese to slash
their tariffs what used to be one hundred percent to
six point one percent. Now they're capping the amount of
Chinese EV's that are going to come in. Starting out
(43:49):
at forty nine thousand, goes up to seventy thousand and
five years. But this is what happened in Mexico. The Chinese,
because let's face it, it's it's sponsored by the government there,
are able to produce really good electric vehicle cars for
twenty five thousand dollars and they're in Mexico. They're now
(44:10):
twenty five percent of the sales in Mexico. And now
you're seeing them in border cities in the US. And
the same thing is going to happen in the United States.
Since they're coming to Canada, you're going to see in
places like Michigan, upstate New York, where then you start
to see them on this side of the border and
people are going to say, I want one. They are
(44:33):
very good cars, very cheap, and it's only a matter
of time before they start selling more in Canada, and
you're going to see more in the US. Now ev
sales in the US last year, Joe dropped from eleven
percent to six point six percent, you know, partly because
the incentive seventy five hundred dollars incentive on the sales
(44:55):
of those cars went away. But it's coming and this
is a huge deal, folks. When Canada has opened up
the market to Chinese electric vehicles, they are now at
our doorstep and they're a game changer in Europe. They
were a game changer in Mexico. They will be a
game changer in Canada and eventually here. Whether you don't
(45:18):
like the sound or not, I.
Speaker 3 (45:20):
Don't like them, the range on them, the resale value
and the repairs. I just need to know more about that.
The range, Like, of course, okay, you go on a
long trip to you then rent a car from Hurtz
to go on a long.
Speaker 2 (45:33):
Trip, because you could use a fuel station because we go.
Speaker 3 (45:36):
On long trips, these these forty five minute hour waits
to recharge your vehicle.
Speaker 2 (45:41):
So that's what I've heard.
Speaker 3 (45:42):
I don't know that, but that sounds like really annoying
to me. Resale, I mean, are you going to buy
a used electric car? I'm just curious about that. What
does that look like? You go and kick the tires,
what's the battery like, you know, and then of course
the repairs and how much are repairs when you have
to replace these batteries, and then what happened to the
batteries when the batteries are no good where they taken
at that particular time. I guess, you know, there's different
(46:05):
arguments that you could correlate that with the way vehicles
or powered today. I guess, however, that's it. I mean,
it's just like a big battery on your street. They
put this body on it. I get it, but again,
a very boring concept to me when you look at them.
I'm not a big fan of them. I have never
(46:25):
driven one, so I don't really know this for a fact.
I'm just looking from a distance because I'm so much
in love with a regular V eight or a HEMI
or right now an Eco boosts twin turbo V six
four that runs like crazy. So I just it would
be a hard sell for me to really dig on
this and want to do this, but I would give
(46:46):
it a couple of years. I want to know how
these are empowered, you know, the way they're replenished. If
they get break down, how do I fix them?
Speaker 2 (46:53):
We want to.
Speaker 3 (46:54):
Buy whatever they're going to be called. So that bothers me.
I don't know enough. We don't know enough, and that
would be a concerning part of me investing that twenty
five thousand. Probably not as huge of an investment, but
again looking down the road, Eh, it's just boring to me.
Speaker 1 (47:11):
Yeah, no, Joe, you sound like the typical American car consumer. Really,
that's what the market is here, and it's going to
be a tough time for the evs to really get
a foothold because of you know, the history and the
lineage of the ice vehicles, internal combustion engines by the way,
kind of make sure these days get that right. So yeah,
(47:32):
I mean, change is going to come slowly, but eventually
it's going to come. So we'll see about that. But
it's interesting, I mean, the deal about the vehicles going
into Canada, it is a huge deal even geo politically,
where Canada now is reaching out to a place like
China to be a trade partner, the kind of the
cold shoulder to the US in a lot of ways,
(47:53):
from Kentucky Bourbon to electric vehicles now it's sort of
changing at least global trade anyway. So that's the car
numbers from torn not a big surprise. We are what
we are in terms of our likes with vehicles. Give
us our our big gas guzzlers and uh with with
a lot of noise and a lot of power. That's
(48:14):
the American way.
Speaker 2 (48:15):
But I would it ever change.
Speaker 1 (48:17):
Speaking of the American way, Joe, with that, I'm going
to ask you to put a caprara on this trip
around the basis here on the book of Joe. What
do you got for us this week?
Speaker 2 (48:26):
Yeah? It all? I mean it was it was.
Speaker 3 (48:28):
Personal growth was my my topic today, and I guess
I have to grow more. Uh consider growth regarding my
opinion on the eternal combustion engine versus a battery.
Speaker 2 (48:41):
I don't.
Speaker 3 (48:41):
I just it's just it's very hard for me to
process all of that. And I'm pretty open minded. That's
kind of the crazy part about it. So I went
with personal growth and maybe I need to listen, so, uh,
be not afraid of growing slowly, be afraid only of
standing still. This is one of my own personal arguments
within my myself. Progress is it is always just the
(49:04):
next thing to come along. Does that actually make it better?
Or is it just the next thing to come along?
I mean Beta never hit it. VHS was always the
winner there, right, and there's you know, the different things
that have come down the line for years, so there's
been winners and losers. When it comes to the word progress,
I still don't know that we know enough about powering
(49:24):
these vehicles and how heavy they are on the roads,
and what kind of pairs are going to be necessary
to our roads based on just the pure weight of
these vehicles and these batteries moving forward.
Speaker 2 (49:33):
There there's so much to consider.
Speaker 3 (49:34):
However, talking to me, I can only be afraid of
standing still, and I try not to be that guy.
I got some things in the hopper that I'm going
to discuss with you soon that would be an indicator
of me not standing still. So I'm always concerned about
that because you when you're not challenging yourself on a
consistent basis, Yeah, then then we have a tendency just
(49:55):
to become whatever. And when there's no room, when there's
no potential growth in your personal life, for your professional
life in the future, then you do become boring. And
it does you do start shutting down, and and then
you do become opinionated to the point where you do
not want to try new things are even recognized possibly
the benefits. So anyway, I'm talking to myself, I'm only
(50:16):
afraid of standing still. And when it comes to personal growth,
and so is are electric cars a part of personal
growth or is that just an economic thing? And the
thought about global warming, etcetera. And cutting down on this
green toss effect is that really pertinent or not? I
don't know, but that's where there's a lot of this
is coming from. So I just need to be afraid
(50:37):
of standing still. So there's hope, there might be.
Speaker 2 (50:39):
I don't know.
Speaker 1 (50:40):
I hope for change.
Speaker 2 (50:42):
There is, there is. There's always hope for change.
Speaker 3 (50:44):
I mean that's how I got to where I got
to in the in the in the baseball world, because
I was changing when nobody else was.
Speaker 1 (50:49):
Well said, Hey, good stuff, Joe, we'll see you next
time on the Book of Joe.
Speaker 2 (50:53):
Thank you, Tommy.
Speaker 1 (51:02):
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