May 29, 2025 • 15 mins
Our resident MLB insider, Gene Watson, joins the program to share MLB structural damage stories, Mock Draft analysis, and discuss the latest storylines across baseball.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
It's a yacht Rock Wednesday.
Speaker 2 (00:02):
So and in fact, we were even tossing out to
Lisa Kaufman from the ut Golf Club because it was
her birthday, said give me a tune of play it,
and she came with, Brandy, you're a fine girl by
looking Glass and we were happy to have that. So
for whatever reason, I mean, Gene Watson and I've been
friends for gosh forty years or so, and he and
(00:25):
he was suggesting that we come out of this break
with he goes yacht rock air supply. All right, First
of all, let me let me stop you right there.
First of all, air supply doesn't deserve to be in
yacht Rock. That you know how I feel about air supply.
Cam has suggested air supply a couple of times, and
so we can't. No, no, we're not gonna, but we
(00:46):
are glad to have you with us. And I know
you're not a big air supply fan, are.
Speaker 3 (00:50):
You not the biggest? But I do love yacht rock.
Okay rock.
Speaker 4 (00:55):
We call our pool in the backyard the Oasis, and
every night we'll put the lights on a place in
good yacht Rocket.
Speaker 3 (01:00):
It's about as good as it gets.
Speaker 2 (01:02):
Perfect, absolutely perfect, that's it, Okay, I got to get
your input on this.
Speaker 1 (01:06):
I'm sitting here at the ballpark.
Speaker 2 (01:08):
Obviously, it's press conference and practice day here at ufcud's
Ford Field's Houston Christian on the field going through their workout,
and of course they play Texas tomorrow afternoon at one
o'clock and we'll have the broadcast here on thirteen hundred.
The zone you by now, even though you're up in
the Pacific northwest, right, are you up Washington? Yes, Everett, Washington,
way up in the PNW, all right, So Gino's up there,
(01:31):
and I even though you're whatever, fifteen sixteen, twenty one
hundred miles away, whatever it is, you keep up with
what's going on with Longhorn Baseball. So you're well aware
of what happened to the center field fence the batter's
eye last night with the major storms that blew through
the area, went right through Central Lost and and a
(01:53):
lot of the damaging hail at times was grapefruit sized,
and so what happened was the centerfield wall blew in. Now.
I had put out on Instagram a little bit of
video of the crew working while the Logorns were practicing
during going through their NCAA scheduled and assigned ten am
(02:15):
practice time, so they were on the field while the
crews were out there and working.
Speaker 1 (02:19):
On the fence and all that other kind of stuff.
Speaker 2 (02:21):
Someone then responded to that, showing the deal against Kansas
here a year ago in saying that they had a
deal similar thing and they got it ready before game one.
All of that is true, but I should point out
that last year that was only a portion, the top
portion of the fence.
Speaker 1 (02:38):
In this case, the entire fence blew down.
Speaker 2 (02:41):
So they're working to get that back up, and they
think they'll have it ready in time for the one
o'clock first pitch tomorrow. My question to you, Geno, is
in all your years of being around college baseball, Minor
league baseball, Major League baseball, high school baseball, have you
ever seen a deal like that where you've had an
outfield that's just flat out and knocked down, either by
(03:02):
collision from an outfielder or through act of God type
stuff weather related.
Speaker 4 (03:08):
Well, the Rodney mccraig flyball in Louisville, probably in the
late eighties is one that everybody certainly talks about.
Speaker 3 (03:15):
I can tell you the top of that centerfield wall.
Speaker 4 (03:17):
Dish Folk took some damage when I pitched there and
Scott Bryant hit went off the top of that wall.
Speaker 3 (03:23):
That centerfield wall took a beating. But no, it's I
don't think.
Speaker 4 (03:27):
People realize how hard and how I mean, it's incredible
that the weather brought that centerfield wall down because they
are extremely stable, and so that speaks to the volume
of the storm that at Austin.
Speaker 2 (03:41):
Yeah, like I said that, you've seen some weird things,
especially we hear and see things about minor league baseball
when things go a little bit crazy and a little
bit haywire on that. But usually it's not necessarily weather
related itself. But you've probably seen some stre these things
with some weather delays and some other things over the years.
(04:02):
I would imagine.
Speaker 3 (04:04):
We had a storm hit Saint Louis one night.
Speaker 4 (04:07):
This this speaks to the Saint Louis Cardinal fans, who
I personally believe are the best fans in baseball. Had
we had a tornado hit downtown Saint Louis one night
and it was so bad that the beer carts were
flying through the concourse and striking fans.
Speaker 1 (04:25):
Good.
Speaker 4 (04:25):
Now, a bridge got taken out in downtown Saint Louis.
It was really, really a dangerous situation and it was
the last time the two teams were going to play.
It was like a Thursday in September, and they had
to wait it out, and they resumed play around eleven
thirty pm. And when they resumed play, there wasn't an
(04:47):
empty seat in the ballpark. I think they got the
last fan out of Saint Louis around three am, and
the trains were shut down and it was complete chaos.
Speaker 3 (04:57):
And there's actually a video of it on U too.
Speaker 4 (05:00):
But that's probably the scariest thing I've been in a
high school game where we've had to take shelter because
the tornado was on the ground. Yeah, that was Awfully's
pretty scary, but no, and especially in Oklahoma City, you
get all kinds of weather. Oh, Oklahoma City, I've got
a thousand stories like that.
Speaker 2 (05:16):
Yep, yep, absolutely me too. The Big twelve Tournament, remember
flying in seeing the tornado, the the catastrophic one that
hit more Oklahoma. I was flying in and I could
see it off in the distance. I landed and went
straight to the hotel and the team was down in
the basement of the scurve and hotel and they said
get down.
Speaker 3 (05:33):
That was twenty thirteen because my son was a freshman
at Kansas.
Speaker 1 (05:36):
Yeah. Yeah, scary stuff there.
Speaker 2 (05:39):
Yeah, as we visit with Geen Wats to talk of
major League Baseball, Okay, since I mentioned the word catastrophic,
let's talk about injuries.
Speaker 1 (05:48):
Because you've said it. You've been able to bang the
drum on this.
Speaker 2 (05:52):
Thing about injuries, the in the constant quest for v
and all this kind of stuff. So it looks like
the latest victim is Renel Blanco from the Astros. He's
gonna have to have Tommy John surgeon on the right
elbow next week. He's going to be out for the
rest of the twenty twenty five season, three and four
(06:12):
and four to one oeer A at the time. Here's
my question to you, Geno, because like you said, you're
preaching to the choir, and we've talked about this at length.
Speaker 1 (06:20):
But here's my question.
Speaker 2 (06:23):
What at what level, I guess, whether it's front office
or the managerial ship, at what level does someone step
in and say the the the losses are too great.
The Dodgers have fourteen pitchers on the on the injured
(06:45):
list right now. Fourteen guys on the aisle. All of
them are pitchers right now, There's other teams that have
a ton of guys on the injured list right now.
Is anything do you see anything on the horizon where
the lee leadership of Major League Baseball we'll step in
and say, we got to do something about this.
Speaker 1 (07:04):
We need to.
Speaker 2 (07:05):
Examine how we're preparing these pictures for what for what's
going on. I don't even know what the answer is.
But can you see any situation where they would where
they would consider something like that.
Speaker 3 (07:16):
I think there's constant dialogue.
Speaker 1 (07:19):
And A. J.
Speaker 4 (07:19):
Smith Schuyer went down for the Atlanta Braves today arguably
their number one pitching prospect, and he went down today
with a pop and his elbows.
Speaker 3 (07:27):
So I think there's constant dialogue.
Speaker 4 (07:30):
I think at the professional level, you have more, and
we've said it a thousand times, more information, more sports science,
more everything. I think the real disconnect, and I've said
this a thousand times before, is at our youth levels
and the and the the quest for that weekend trophy,
that weekend ring, that week in ranking. I think we're
(07:54):
just destroying our young pictures at the youth level, and
then you get into high school, you know, a per
of the drop out of the game is between ages
and twelve, twelve and fourteen. Then you get into high
school and that's when the real quest for velocity begins.
And I just think that parents are willing to put
it on the line and take the risk for their
player to have a chance to garner that Division One
(08:16):
scholarship or that professional contract, and they're going to do
whatever it takes, and they're going to listen to what
are the so called experts in chasing velocity when it's.
Speaker 3 (08:25):
So much more than velocity. It's so much more than
pitch shape, pitch design.
Speaker 4 (08:30):
It's the ability to control the running game, throw a
breaking ball for a strike, all of those things, competitiveness,
all those things. But we've just created such a blanket
of the chase for velocity. I don't know what's going
to happen to put the toothpaste back in the tube.
There have been pitching initiatives placed by USA Baseball, major
(08:51):
League Baseball Baseball, and I think we're doing a better job.
But literally, you know, we've had players in the last
week that have taken in their outs that we have
re signed back because we've taken injuries over the last week,
and it's not even June first yet. As we get
into June fifteenth, July first, at the major league level,
(09:11):
you're going to see the numbers even go higher. And
then when you take the number of pitching injuries that
take place at the major league level, and then you
supplement that with a limitation of the number of players
you can have in the minor leagues at one sixty five,
and then you throw in the fact that if you
sign a player from independent leagues, you're having to buy
(09:32):
that player out of the independent leagues. It's just a
broken system. It just doesn't work. And the demand is
always going to be so much greater than the supply.
And I would encourage every young pitcher to just keep competing,
keep it a little better, because.
Speaker 3 (09:46):
The game needs you right now.
Speaker 2 (09:47):
Interesting talking baseball with team watching from the Chicago White
Tack front office here on thirteen hundred to zone, let
me shift gears on you. Here is something else, and
I know you'd have a real interesting take on. I
was talking about Texas softball winning today in Oklahoma City.
They're in the winners bracket. They'll play the winner of
(10:09):
the Oklahoma Tennessee Game, which is going to the bottle
of the fifth with Tennessee leading three to one in
that one. Uh So, there's there's that look across the
street at Macombs Field where the UIL State Softball tournament's
going on. There are fans wrapped around the stadium. They're
waiting to get in for the next session. There's obviously
great interest in that. And then I saw a story
(10:29):
from Jeff Passing today that said that Major League Baseball
is purchasing an equity stake in the Athletes Unlimited Softball League,
the AUSL, partnering with this league that's preparing for its
first four team season and plans to expand in future years,
and and and as, and as Jeff Passing points out,
(10:50):
with women's sports revenues now in excess of one million
dollars per year, having MLB helps us lablished the aus
that was a viable long term entity in a sport
that has seen multiple professional leagues full there's been there's
been leagues come and leagues go. So I would imagine,
you know, having the equity stake coming from MLB, it
(11:14):
would be really really critical to this latest attempt at
trying to make sure that professional softball, Major League softball
makes it at the next level.
Speaker 4 (11:24):
Well, I want to say, Kim Ing is also the
commissioner of that league. Yes, and Kim is just she's unbelievable.
She was the first woman general manager in Major League Baseball.
I don't think there's been a day in our game
and my time in the game were a hire was
celebrated more than when Kim was named general managers. Just
a wonderful, wonderful human being and an incredible baseball mind.
(11:47):
And you know, Major League Baseball is a thirteen million
dollar industry and when you look across the landscape at
what the WNBA has been, it's right on time, it's perfect,
and there's never been more interest in women's softball than
right now. And so it's unfortunate that that the Jenny
Finches and the Cat Austermans didn't get the same opportunities
(12:10):
that these young ladies are going to get, But they
paved the way for it, and they're certainly going to
have a big voice in how the league is run,
I'm sure, but it's just time now. Our society is
spread so differently now and women's softball is so popular
and the players are so talented that to have a
thirteen billion dollar industry behind it is certainly very beneficial.
(12:31):
And I think when you look at the success of
the WNBA and it's how it's growing, I think it's
it's right on time, and.
Speaker 3 (12:38):
Yeah, just a great move.
Speaker 1 (12:39):
Yeah, the timing, you're right.
Speaker 2 (12:41):
I think the timing is really good because the WNBA
has never ever been as popular as.
Speaker 1 (12:45):
It is right now.
Speaker 2 (12:46):
It's it's it's making a big thing, all right, before
we get done. I read yesterday a mock draft, and
I was chuckling as I was looking down a mock draft,
and I think every one of the players that I
saw listening to the top ten where players that you
had talked about at some point toward seen, including the
three young men from Oklahoma that we pointed out, you know,
(13:08):
you know, with the Kyson Witherspoon, dioplumba pitcher, and then
of course the two outstanding high school players with Ethan
Holiday expected to go number one overall to the Nationals.
Speaker 1 (13:18):
And you know, in seeing that, you know, in seeing.
Speaker 2 (13:24):
That, as you are now down inside of thirty days
to the draft itself, what's going on from here until
you get to draft day itself?
Speaker 1 (13:33):
You know, for the major league clubs.
Speaker 4 (13:35):
Well, you've got conference or you've got the regional starting
this weekend, which every every team is going to have
all their scouts covering that.
Speaker 3 (13:43):
What makes it so.
Speaker 4 (13:44):
Unique this year is once you get past the top
three picks in the draft, it's really there's not a
great deal of separation. So you know, you've got X
amount of dollars to spending your pool in the first
ten rounds, and so I think teams are going to
be going okay at number ten, for instance, we at ten, Okay,
at ten, we can take the highest ceiling player.
Speaker 3 (14:04):
On the board and this is what it's going to
be for our team moving forward.
Speaker 4 (14:09):
Or you can say we can take because there's not
that much separation, we can take player B at a
cut and take that money from the cut and we
pick at forty four. Also, and you see what falls
back to you at forty four. So you're taking your
first round slot money and you're getting two for one,
and you're getting better player with your second pick. So
(14:30):
I think there's going to be many discussions in the
rooms about that. For instant the Royals pick twenty three
and twenty eight, so you know how they spend their
money is going to be important. But it's a heavy
high school class. It's a heavy class of high school shortstops.
I've seen them all. You could flip a coin on
who's going to be the better player. You know, Eli
(14:50):
Willitts is an outstanding player, Billy Carlson out at Corona
High School outstanding. Obviously, Ethan Holiday is probably you know,
the crown of that group. But it's just a really
unique here in the draft strategy wise. And do we
take the highest ceiling player on the board and pay
full freight or do we try to spread the money
through two or three picks throughout the draft. And so
(15:12):
it's going to be as we get closer and these
these regionals end and we get closer to the deadline,
it's going to be interesting to see what the strategy
of the clubs is.
Speaker 2 (15:21):
He's Teen Watson from the Chicago White Sox front office.
We talk Major League Baseball with him every week on
the program. Hey, Gino, have flun up there in that
Pacific Northwest? Have have you already been back to that
original Starbucks? I know, as much as you love Starbucks,
you said you were going back down the Pike place.
Speaker 1 (15:37):
Have you been down there yet?
Speaker 3 (15:39):
I could sit at.
Speaker 4 (15:39):
Pike Place all day, every day. It's just a wonderful place. Yes,
I have made it down there.
Speaker 2 (15:44):
Okay, hey Gino, thanks man. We'll talk next week. Okay,
take care you bet. That is Geen Watson
It's a yacht Rock Wednesday.
Speaker 2 (00:02):
So and in fact, we were even tossing out to
Lisa Kaufman from the ut Golf Club because it was
her birthday, said give me a tune of play it,
and she came with, Brandy, you're a fine girl by
looking Glass and we were happy to have that. So
for whatever reason, I mean, Gene Watson and I've been
friends for gosh forty years or so, and he and
(00:25):
he was suggesting that we come out of this break
with he goes yacht rock air supply. All right, First
of all, let me let me stop you right there.
First of all, air supply doesn't deserve to be in
yacht Rock. That you know how I feel about air supply.
Cam has suggested air supply a couple of times, and
so we can't. No, no, we're not gonna, but we
(00:46):
are glad to have you with us. And I know
you're not a big air supply fan, are.
Speaker 3 (00:50):
You not the biggest? But I do love yacht rock.
Okay rock.
Speaker 4 (00:55):
We call our pool in the backyard the Oasis, and
every night we'll put the lights on a place in
good yacht Rocket.
Speaker 3 (01:00):
It's about as good as it gets.
Speaker 2 (01:02):
Perfect, absolutely perfect, that's it, Okay, I got to get
your input on this.
Speaker 1 (01:06):
I'm sitting here at the ballpark.
Speaker 2 (01:08):
Obviously, it's press conference and practice day here at ufcud's
Ford Field's Houston Christian on the field going through their workout,
and of course they play Texas tomorrow afternoon at one
o'clock and we'll have the broadcast here on thirteen hundred.
The zone you by now, even though you're up in
the Pacific northwest, right, are you up Washington? Yes, Everett, Washington,
way up in the PNW, all right, So Gino's up there,
(01:31):
and I even though you're whatever, fifteen sixteen, twenty one
hundred miles away, whatever it is, you keep up with
what's going on with Longhorn Baseball. So you're well aware
of what happened to the center field fence the batter's
eye last night with the major storms that blew through
the area, went right through Central Lost and and a
(01:53):
lot of the damaging hail at times was grapefruit sized,
and so what happened was the centerfield wall blew in. Now.
I had put out on Instagram a little bit of
video of the crew working while the Logorns were practicing
during going through their NCAA scheduled and assigned ten am
(02:15):
practice time, so they were on the field while the
crews were out there and working.
Speaker 1 (02:19):
On the fence and all that other kind of stuff.
Speaker 2 (02:21):
Someone then responded to that, showing the deal against Kansas
here a year ago in saying that they had a
deal similar thing and they got it ready before game one.
All of that is true, but I should point out
that last year that was only a portion, the top
portion of the fence.
Speaker 1 (02:38):
In this case, the entire fence blew down.
Speaker 2 (02:41):
So they're working to get that back up, and they
think they'll have it ready in time for the one
o'clock first pitch tomorrow. My question to you, Geno, is
in all your years of being around college baseball, Minor
league baseball, Major League baseball, high school baseball, have you
ever seen a deal like that where you've had an
outfield that's just flat out and knocked down, either by
(03:02):
collision from an outfielder or through act of God type
stuff weather related.
Speaker 4 (03:08):
Well, the Rodney mccraig flyball in Louisville, probably in the
late eighties is one that everybody certainly talks about.
Speaker 3 (03:15):
I can tell you the top of that centerfield wall.
Speaker 4 (03:17):
Dish Folk took some damage when I pitched there and
Scott Bryant hit went off the top of that wall.
Speaker 3 (03:23):
That centerfield wall took a beating. But no, it's I
don't think.
Speaker 4 (03:27):
People realize how hard and how I mean, it's incredible
that the weather brought that centerfield wall down because they
are extremely stable, and so that speaks to the volume
of the storm that at Austin.
Speaker 2 (03:41):
Yeah, like I said that, you've seen some weird things,
especially we hear and see things about minor league baseball
when things go a little bit crazy and a little
bit haywire on that. But usually it's not necessarily weather
related itself. But you've probably seen some stre these things
with some weather delays and some other things over the years.
(04:02):
I would imagine.
Speaker 3 (04:04):
We had a storm hit Saint Louis one night.
Speaker 4 (04:07):
This this speaks to the Saint Louis Cardinal fans, who
I personally believe are the best fans in baseball. Had
we had a tornado hit downtown Saint Louis one night
and it was so bad that the beer carts were
flying through the concourse and striking fans.
Speaker 1 (04:25):
Good.
Speaker 4 (04:25):
Now, a bridge got taken out in downtown Saint Louis.
It was really, really a dangerous situation and it was
the last time the two teams were going to play.
It was like a Thursday in September, and they had
to wait it out, and they resumed play around eleven
thirty pm. And when they resumed play, there wasn't an
(04:47):
empty seat in the ballpark. I think they got the
last fan out of Saint Louis around three am, and
the trains were shut down and it was complete chaos.
Speaker 3 (04:57):
And there's actually a video of it on U too.
Speaker 4 (05:00):
But that's probably the scariest thing I've been in a
high school game where we've had to take shelter because
the tornado was on the ground. Yeah, that was Awfully's
pretty scary, but no, and especially in Oklahoma City, you
get all kinds of weather. Oh, Oklahoma City, I've got
a thousand stories like that.
Speaker 2 (05:16):
Yep, yep, absolutely me too. The Big twelve Tournament, remember
flying in seeing the tornado, the the catastrophic one that
hit more Oklahoma. I was flying in and I could
see it off in the distance. I landed and went
straight to the hotel and the team was down in
the basement of the scurve and hotel and they said
get down.
Speaker 3 (05:33):
That was twenty thirteen because my son was a freshman
at Kansas.
Speaker 1 (05:36):
Yeah. Yeah, scary stuff there.
Speaker 2 (05:39):
Yeah, as we visit with Geen Wats to talk of
major League Baseball, Okay, since I mentioned the word catastrophic,
let's talk about injuries.
Speaker 1 (05:48):
Because you've said it. You've been able to bang the
drum on this.
Speaker 2 (05:52):
Thing about injuries, the in the constant quest for v
and all this kind of stuff. So it looks like
the latest victim is Renel Blanco from the Astros. He's
gonna have to have Tommy John surgeon on the right
elbow next week. He's going to be out for the
rest of the twenty twenty five season, three and four
(06:12):
and four to one oeer A at the time. Here's
my question to you, Geno, because like you said, you're
preaching to the choir, and we've talked about this at length.
Speaker 1 (06:20):
But here's my question.
Speaker 2 (06:23):
What at what level, I guess, whether it's front office
or the managerial ship, at what level does someone step
in and say the the the losses are too great.
The Dodgers have fourteen pitchers on the on the injured
(06:45):
list right now. Fourteen guys on the aisle. All of
them are pitchers right now, There's other teams that have
a ton of guys on the injured list right now.
Is anything do you see anything on the horizon where
the lee leadership of Major League Baseball we'll step in
and say, we got to do something about this.
Speaker 1 (07:04):
We need to.
Speaker 2 (07:05):
Examine how we're preparing these pictures for what for what's
going on. I don't even know what the answer is.
But can you see any situation where they would where
they would consider something like that.
Speaker 3 (07:16):
I think there's constant dialogue.
Speaker 1 (07:19):
And A. J.
Speaker 4 (07:19):
Smith Schuyer went down for the Atlanta Braves today arguably
their number one pitching prospect, and he went down today
with a pop and his elbows.
Speaker 3 (07:27):
So I think there's constant dialogue.
Speaker 4 (07:30):
I think at the professional level, you have more, and
we've said it a thousand times, more information, more sports science,
more everything. I think the real disconnect, and I've said
this a thousand times before, is at our youth levels
and the and the the quest for that weekend trophy,
that weekend ring, that week in ranking. I think we're
(07:54):
just destroying our young pictures at the youth level, and
then you get into high school, you know, a per
of the drop out of the game is between ages
and twelve, twelve and fourteen. Then you get into high
school and that's when the real quest for velocity begins.
And I just think that parents are willing to put
it on the line and take the risk for their
player to have a chance to garner that Division One
(08:16):
scholarship or that professional contract, and they're going to do
whatever it takes, and they're going to listen to what
are the so called experts in chasing velocity when it's.
Speaker 3 (08:25):
So much more than velocity. It's so much more than
pitch shape, pitch design.
Speaker 4 (08:30):
It's the ability to control the running game, throw a
breaking ball for a strike, all of those things, competitiveness,
all those things. But we've just created such a blanket
of the chase for velocity. I don't know what's going
to happen to put the toothpaste back in the tube.
There have been pitching initiatives placed by USA Baseball, major
(08:51):
League Baseball Baseball, and I think we're doing a better job.
But literally, you know, we've had players in the last
week that have taken in their outs that we have
re signed back because we've taken injuries over the last week,
and it's not even June first yet. As we get
into June fifteenth, July first, at the major league level,
(09:11):
you're going to see the numbers even go higher. And
then when you take the number of pitching injuries that
take place at the major league level, and then you
supplement that with a limitation of the number of players
you can have in the minor leagues at one sixty five,
and then you throw in the fact that if you
sign a player from independent leagues, you're having to buy
(09:32):
that player out of the independent leagues. It's just a
broken system. It just doesn't work. And the demand is
always going to be so much greater than the supply.
And I would encourage every young pitcher to just keep competing,
keep it a little better, because.
Speaker 3 (09:46):
The game needs you right now.
Speaker 2 (09:47):
Interesting talking baseball with team watching from the Chicago White
Tack front office here on thirteen hundred to zone, let
me shift gears on you. Here is something else, and
I know you'd have a real interesting take on. I
was talking about Texas softball winning today in Oklahoma City.
They're in the winners bracket. They'll play the winner of
(10:09):
the Oklahoma Tennessee Game, which is going to the bottle
of the fifth with Tennessee leading three to one in
that one. Uh So, there's there's that look across the
street at Macombs Field where the UIL State Softball tournament's
going on. There are fans wrapped around the stadium. They're
waiting to get in for the next session. There's obviously
great interest in that. And then I saw a story
(10:29):
from Jeff Passing today that said that Major League Baseball
is purchasing an equity stake in the Athletes Unlimited Softball League,
the AUSL, partnering with this league that's preparing for its
first four team season and plans to expand in future years,
and and and as, and as Jeff Passing points out,
(10:50):
with women's sports revenues now in excess of one million
dollars per year, having MLB helps us lablished the aus
that was a viable long term entity in a sport
that has seen multiple professional leagues full there's been there's
been leagues come and leagues go. So I would imagine,
you know, having the equity stake coming from MLB, it
(11:14):
would be really really critical to this latest attempt at
trying to make sure that professional softball, Major League softball
makes it at the next level.
Speaker 4 (11:24):
Well, I want to say, Kim Ing is also the
commissioner of that league. Yes, and Kim is just she's unbelievable.
She was the first woman general manager in Major League Baseball.
I don't think there's been a day in our game
and my time in the game were a hire was
celebrated more than when Kim was named general managers. Just
a wonderful, wonderful human being and an incredible baseball mind.
(11:47):
And you know, Major League Baseball is a thirteen million
dollar industry and when you look across the landscape at
what the WNBA has been, it's right on time, it's perfect,
and there's never been more interest in women's softball than
right now. And so it's unfortunate that that the Jenny
Finches and the Cat Austermans didn't get the same opportunities
(12:10):
that these young ladies are going to get, But they
paved the way for it, and they're certainly going to
have a big voice in how the league is run,
I'm sure, but it's just time now. Our society is
spread so differently now and women's softball is so popular
and the players are so talented that to have a
thirteen billion dollar industry behind it is certainly very beneficial.
(12:31):
And I think when you look at the success of
the WNBA and it's how it's growing, I think it's
it's right on time, and.
Speaker 3 (12:38):
Yeah, just a great move.
Speaker 1 (12:39):
Yeah, the timing, you're right.
Speaker 2 (12:41):
I think the timing is really good because the WNBA
has never ever been as popular as.
Speaker 1 (12:45):
It is right now.
Speaker 2 (12:46):
It's it's it's making a big thing, all right, before
we get done. I read yesterday a mock draft, and
I was chuckling as I was looking down a mock draft,
and I think every one of the players that I
saw listening to the top ten where players that you
had talked about at some point toward seen, including the
three young men from Oklahoma that we pointed out, you know,
(13:08):
you know, with the Kyson Witherspoon, dioplumba pitcher, and then
of course the two outstanding high school players with Ethan
Holiday expected to go number one overall to the Nationals.
Speaker 1 (13:18):
And you know, in seeing that, you know, in seeing.
Speaker 2 (13:24):
That, as you are now down inside of thirty days
to the draft itself, what's going on from here until
you get to draft day itself?
Speaker 1 (13:33):
You know, for the major league clubs.
Speaker 4 (13:35):
Well, you've got conference or you've got the regional starting
this weekend, which every every team is going to have
all their scouts covering that.
Speaker 3 (13:43):
What makes it so.
Speaker 4 (13:44):
Unique this year is once you get past the top
three picks in the draft, it's really there's not a
great deal of separation. So you know, you've got X
amount of dollars to spending your pool in the first
ten rounds, and so I think teams are going to
be going okay at number ten, for instance, we at ten, Okay,
at ten, we can take the highest ceiling player.
Speaker 3 (14:04):
On the board and this is what it's going to
be for our team moving forward.
Speaker 4 (14:09):
Or you can say we can take because there's not
that much separation, we can take player B at a
cut and take that money from the cut and we
pick at forty four. Also, and you see what falls
back to you at forty four. So you're taking your
first round slot money and you're getting two for one,
and you're getting better player with your second pick. So
(14:30):
I think there's going to be many discussions in the
rooms about that. For instant the Royals pick twenty three
and twenty eight, so you know how they spend their
money is going to be important. But it's a heavy
high school class. It's a heavy class of high school shortstops.
I've seen them all. You could flip a coin on
who's going to be the better player. You know, Eli
(14:50):
Willitts is an outstanding player, Billy Carlson out at Corona
High School outstanding. Obviously, Ethan Holiday is probably you know,
the crown of that group. But it's just a really
unique here in the draft strategy wise. And do we
take the highest ceiling player on the board and pay
full freight or do we try to spread the money
through two or three picks throughout the draft. And so
(15:12):
it's going to be as we get closer and these
these regionals end and we get closer to the deadline,
it's going to be interesting to see what the strategy
of the clubs is.
Speaker 2 (15:21):
He's Teen Watson from the Chicago White Sox front office.
We talk Major League Baseball with him every week on
the program. Hey, Gino, have flun up there in that
Pacific Northwest? Have have you already been back to that
original Starbucks? I know, as much as you love Starbucks,
you said you were going back down the Pike place.
Speaker 1 (15:37):
Have you been down there yet?
Speaker 3 (15:39):
I could sit at.
Speaker 4 (15:39):
Pike Place all day, every day. It's just a wonderful place. Yes,
I have made it down there.
Speaker 2 (15:44):
Okay, hey Gino, thanks man. We'll talk next week. Okay,
take care you bet. That is Geen Watson
Popular Podcasts
24/7 News: The Latest
The latest news in 4 minutes updated every hour, every day.
True Crime Tonight
If you eat, sleep, and breathe true crime, TRUE CRIME TONIGHT is serving up your nightly fix. Five nights a week, KT STUDIOS & iHEART RADIO invite listeners to pull up a seat for an unfiltered look at the biggest cases making headlines, celebrity scandals, and the trials everyone is watching. With a mix of expert analysis, hot takes, and listener call-ins, TRUE CRIME TONIGHT goes beyond the headlines to uncover the twists, turns, and unanswered questions that keep us all obsessed—because, at TRUE CRIME TONIGHT, there’s a seat for everyone. Whether breaking down crime scene forensics, scrutinizing serial killers, or debating the most binge-worthy true crime docs, True Crime Tonight is the fresh, fast-paced, and slightly addictive home for true crime lovers.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com