Gene Watson on MLB Trade Deadline and All-Star Week

Our resident MLB insider Gene Watson and VP of Player Personnel with the Chicago White Sox joins the show to talk all things baseball including the trade deadline, the upcoming MLB draft, and All-Star week.

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
We welcome you back to the programhere on Sports Radio AM thirteen hundred The
Zone, and you know, backfrom vacation, So that means an opportunity
once again to talk Major League Baseballwith our man Gene Watson from the Chicago
White Sox front office, who isincredibly busy these days. What draft,

(00:22):
trade deadline got, the All StarGame coming a little bit busy time for
you, Gino. It's a littlecrazy, to say the least. Right
now, we're kind of burning thecandle at both ends. But it's a
good it's a lot of fun.Every day you wake up, you know
you're going to be met with somepretty good challenges and it's been a lot
of fun so far. All Right, before we get to and I will,

(00:44):
I'll ask you a couple of thingsabout the All Star Game, but
I did want to get your thoughtsabout the draft and the way this thing
is going to shake down for folkswho don't know, the draft is going
to take place uh there in uhin Fort Worth during the All Star festivities.

(01:08):
Uh So the opening round is goingto start at four o'clock in the
afternoon. Uh and that will startnext Sunday and uh and uh and then
after that the remainder of the draftagains at eleven o'clock in the morning,
Texas time, the next day,the first day of SEC media days,

(01:29):
and then the following day after that. So at this point, you know,
how would you say the clubs haveoperated? And you talk about obviously
what the White Sox are doing andhow you've done it with other organizations in
the past. When you get tothis point and you are you've been evaluating
for months and in some cases yearsof some young men, where is the

(01:53):
mindset of the organization now as you'rejust days away from the draft on how
you approach it in terms of whetherpicks on me, trade and sign ability
and all those other kinds of things. Well, basically, right now,
you're just trying to get your boardright. And the most unique part about
the draft is the cutting of therounds from forty to twenty. You had

(02:14):
the five round draft in twenty twenty, which arguably the most notable player out
of that draft was Evan Carter,who the Rangers took in that shortened draft.
But at twenty rounds, you're basicallytalking about with compicts about about six
hundred and forty three players I thinkis the number. So you talk about

(02:36):
fifty thousand high schools across the UnitedStates, over four hundred colleges that play
baseball, the six hundred players aregoing to be drafted, So you're just
casting such a wide net on theplayer pool, and then you just get
into your areas and you try toget the area scouts to rank their players
and break them down on the board. And then you get the cross checkers
that cover you know, the Westcoast, the Midwest of the East,

(02:58):
and you try to get them tobreak you down even further and create that
filter. And then you get yournational guys in who've seen the best players
from across the country, and youtry to break it down even more.
So you're really just constantly sifting throughthe player pool across the United States.
And then you get your board setand you look at it, Hey does
this look right? This guy looksslow, this guy looks a little high.

(03:19):
And then you get into the signabilityand to make up the players,
and so it's really a long,grueling process that takes weeks and weeks leading
up to the draft. Since thepandemic, which as you mentioned, shortened
that twenty twenty draft, down thefive rounds and now instead of at one
time where it was forty rounds,and we all know how it was even
longer than that. You're around longenough to remember the long drafts and what

(03:42):
was that Mike Piazza was a sixtythird round pick. We all know that
story, and guys that were justlate, late, late, late picks
at Blossom and all that sort ofstuff. But in the time now that
it has been trimmed to twenty rounds, what area of baseball has if any,
benefited the most from that and whathas been harmed the most? Be

(04:03):
it college, high school, juniorcollege, you know, the four year
schools, small four year schools.What do you think, how have those
different levels of baseball been affected,either positively or negatively. Well, the
growth of the game is certainly sufferingwhen you drop twenty rounds from the draft
and you cut away, you cutforty one minor league teams, and you

(04:25):
know, at some point it hasto be more than just about the money.
It has to be about the sanctityof the game and the growth of
the game. And so when youwhen you cut out those twenty rounds and
you cut out forty one teams,from the minor league. You're really you're
taking away opportunity for young men likemy son who was at thirty sixth rounds
draft choice that played seven years ofprofessional baseball, got to Triple A.

(04:46):
Now is an area scout for theSan Diego Padres pours into the community.
You take those opportunities away from alot of players that could be future scouts,
future coaches, future managers, futurefront office execus gatives, and now
you're sending those guys into the publicsector and or independent league baseball. And
so it's really the growth of thegame. If you just look at from

(05:11):
a football standpoint, for full scholarshipsout of high school, the amateur system
is not a pay for play system, and so you know, just the
road to get a piece of elevenpoint seven right now is costing families upwards
of ten thousand dollars for four yearsjust to get a piece of eleven seven.
Where if you get a full footballscholarship, you're playing once a week

(05:34):
in front of one hundred thousand people. And so we're pushing our athletes to
do other things, to do basketball, to do football, to do lacrosse
and soccer because the opportunities are sominimal. Now, wow, interesting the
ones that were You mentioned the levelsof baseball that have been taken away,

(05:56):
and that's that's unfortunately have been ataffected. Is it safe to say that
independent minor leagues kind of got aboom out of it, like, for
example, the Frontier League, Iremember it was like six seven, eight
teams and now it's like what sixteenteams? They've got teams up in Canada
and all that sort of tim Havethe independent minor leagues benefited from this?

(06:21):
They have, But for the forthe players that can't afford to live that
kind of lifestyle, and really,I mean, I mean it cost us
more for our son to play professionalbaseball than amateur and college. I mean,
it's an expensive lifestyle. And sofor the players that can't grind that
out, that don't have the financialresources or the support system to do it,

(06:43):
you're really pushing them away from thegame. After the twenty rounds,
you do have the opportunity to signas many free agents as you want,
but you've also limited the number ofplayers that you can have in the minor
league system. Now, where everyorganization used to have two hundred and twenty
to two hundred and thirty players.Now you can only have one hundred and
sixty five in your organization at onetime. So you've cut twenty rounds from

(07:04):
the draft, you've cut out fortyminor league teams, and you lower the
player pulled by in each organization byabout fifty players. There's going to be
players that don't get the opportunity,but it has certainly given independent league baseball
a bit of a boost, andit's something that we pay attention to every
day here. Okay, all right, so I'm not asking you to say
this on the air, but withthe White Sox having the number five overall

(07:27):
pick, do you guys already knowwho you're going to take if he's available.
No, we do not. It'sa really new, unique year and
that you have a number of collegebats, you've got two college arms,
you've got two high school shortstops,and one high school arm, and so
it's really there's about fourteen players thatare in play for number five. And

(07:48):
the thing of it is is likesomebody will work to cut a deal at
the top of the draft and takea player higher for less dollars to spread
their pull out over the ten round. And so I think it's going to
be wide open. I think rightnow every team on the board is very
wide open as to who their pickcould be. Talking baseball with Gene Watson
here on Sports Radio AM thirteen hundredsand all right, let me shift to

(08:09):
the All Star Game. What yearwas it that you attended your first ever
Major League All Star Game? Nineteenninety six, Arlington, ninety five,
Arlington. Yeah, okay, itwas my first one. Yeah, and
I haven't missed one in seventeen yearsuntil this year. Look at you,

(08:31):
now, why are you missing theone? This year? You got the
draft. I got to be backup for the draft. So I'm not
I can't tell you I'm happy aboutit, but it is okay, all
right. The rosters were announced,obviously, did the thing that leaped off
the page at me? And Iknow some folks could say, oh,
yeah, there's guys that should havebeen on that weren't on the list,

(08:54):
that were All Star snubs, asthey say. And then there's some that
say, well there's some guys onthere, maybe they shouldn't have been on
there, all that other kind ofstuff. Here's the thing that really that
really struck me. You know,thirty two players are going to be All
Stars for the first time in baseballhistory thirty two. Now a lot of
them are pitchers, but still thirtytwo first timers. What does that say

(09:18):
about the game. I think it'sgreat for the game. I think it
speaks to the youth and the talentthat impacts the game right now. It's
counter to what I was saying early. What we are doing is we are
getting the young players right up byin the draft. It's kind of lent
towards an NFL draft system, andthis is showing that it's being productive.

(09:39):
I think it's very proud of ColeReagan's being selected by the Royals, as
that was one of our bigger dealslast year in Kansas City, and I'm
very proud of the group and recognizinghim. He was throwing out of the
bullpen for the Rangers and was backin Round Rock when we traded for him,
and so we're very proud of thatpick making the All Star Game the
next year. But but you know, it just speaks to the youth of

(10:01):
the game and the high end talentthat's impacting the game of baseball. You
know, there have been one hundredand thirty five Tommy Johns and pitchers rotations
in the last year and a half, and so the young pitchers that have
come up have been given an opportunityand they've made the most of it.
So it's really great for our game. So you and I were watching Bobby
Wood Junior play in the UIO StateBaseball Tournament. Just it just seemed like

(10:24):
it was yesterday. Hard to believeall of a sudden, here's a guy
that's in the home run Derby wasannounced today, He's added the home run
Derby. What a special talent,you know. And Brett Bady we were
in Nolan Ryan Sweet that day andBrett Baby with the Mets, was actually
sitting with us. But what justsuch a special talent. Obviously we know
the family well, Bobby Senior beingwith us in Texas in the early nineties

(10:48):
and the first time I met himhe was twelve years old and you just
knew he was going to be aspecial player. And to see him,
you know, grow into what he'sbecome. He is someone that you build
a franchise around and or super proudof him. The starters for the American
League. Adlie Ruchman catcher for theOrioles of Ladd junior, Vlad Guerrera Junior

(11:09):
for the Jays at first, Josel Tuva the Astros at second, Jose
Ramirez of the Guardians at third,Gunnar Henderson of the Orioles at short,
Aaron Judge of the Yankee Stephen Kwanof the Guardians and one so do the
Yankees in the outfield, and JordanAlvarez of the Astros as the dh Anything
strike you good, bad and differentabout anybody that could have been in that

(11:31):
situation, even though the starters arevoted all by the fans, obviously,
I just think it's wonderful what StephenKwan has been able to accomplish. I
mean, this is a guy thatout of Oregon State, was not a
high profile draft. He was justa pure baseball player that came to play
every day and you kind of puthim in a right round that you hope
to get him, and he's donenothing but just improve immensely as a player.

(11:54):
He's a wonderful kid. We're obviouslyvery proud of Garrett Crochet and what
he's done this season. You know, this was a guy that historically has
been a reliever in his career.Coming off with Tommy John had never thrown
more than fifty four innings in aseason, and he's turned out to be
one of the best pitchers in baseballthis year. So we're super proud of
Garrett. And you know, it'sgonna be a fun game. The fact

(12:15):
that it's indoors, the ball isgoing to be flying at the home run
derby. If they open up theroof, it could really be flying.
But it's going to be a superknight for the game. National League starters,
I think I heard William Contreras ofthe Brewers is the first catcher to
start from Milwaukee in an All StarGames since Ted Simmons in nineteen eighty three.
Yeah, Bryce Harper of the Philliesat first, could tell Martella the

(12:39):
Diamondbacks at second, Alec Bohoma thePhillies at third, Trey Turner of the
Phillies at Seorte Jorgson profar the Padres, Fernando tattis junior of the Padres,
Kristin Yellich of the Brewers. Therein the outfield, Tattoos has been banged
up, obviously, and then Shoea Otani is the d H and obviously
Bookie Betts vote in and can't playas well. How about your thoughts on

(13:01):
the National League starters. So proudof William Contreras. That was my son's
catcher and a ball in Rome,and you knew then he was going to
be a super talent. But he'she's worked so hard to just continue to
develop as a young player, justtake so much pride in his game.
And Jerkson Profar is such a greatstory because you know, there was a
lot of people that felt like hewas trending the other way. He'd had

(13:24):
a number of injuries the last coupleof years, and that was the guy
that was hanging out there all winterlong that anybody could have gotten. And
he's turned himself back into an AllStar. And so those are those are
two really great stories for the NationalLeague. Great stuff, little Draft preview,
the Little Lost Star preview next weekend. We'll see if we can work
in Geno in and around the warroom when he's there in the draft as
well. I appreciate the time asalways, Geno and all at first forward

(13:48):
to see you maybe across pass beforeyou get back up to Chicago, but
certainly we'll visit during the break aswell. All right, guys, I'll
take care. Thanks thank you allright, that Geene Watson from the Chicago
White Sox front office. We've gotsome other baseball notes and some football notes
you get to when we continue onSports Radio AM thirteen under the zone in
the IR radio app.