October 23, 2025 • 19 mins
Chicago White Sox Director of Player Personnel Gene Watson joins the show to offer his insight into the World Series and the latest offseason updates from around Major League Baseball.
They discuss the Giants' hiring of Tony Vitello, the Angels tapping Kurt Suzuki, and predict who will take home the Commissioner's Trophy with Game 1 slated for Toronto tomorrow night.
They discuss the Giants' hiring of Tony Vitello, the Angels tapping Kurt Suzuki, and predict who will take home the Commissioner's Trophy with Game 1 slated for Toronto tomorrow night.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:06):
Care comes took three to two PC.
Speaker 2 (00:26):
Welcome back to the Craig Way Show and the Voice
of the Longhorns, Craig.
Speaker 3 (00:31):
We follow Craig on social media. Voice.
Speaker 2 (00:36):
Now, folks, you watched the f S one telecast, uh
the other night of Game seven of the Blue Jays
and Mariners. Heard Joe Davis's call. That was Dan Shulman,
the great Dan Schilman. He does a lot on ESPN,
but that.
Speaker 1 (00:51):
Was on what's it called on sports Net?
Speaker 2 (00:54):
Sports Net, which is you know, Toronto's version of Canada's
version there of of ESPN. And so their call of
that final strike in the ALCS, so it means it's
on with the World Series. Where our good friend, our
MLB insider, the man from the Chicago White Sox front office,
(01:17):
Gene Watson, joins us. Now, before we get to previewing
the World Series itself, how exciting was that series that
ALCS that went the full ride on seven when juxtaposed
against what we talked about on Monday, that incredible one
man show that Shoe Aotani put on. But this all
the pathos, all the drama there of a seven game series.
Speaker 4 (01:39):
Geno, Well, it was just amazing and It's one of
those series and you hear it all the time.
Speaker 3 (01:45):
You hate to see anybody lose.
Speaker 4 (01:46):
And I was texting with Mariners president Jerry Depoto at
two o'clock in the morning after it happened, and it's
just it's such a fine line between winning and losing
in October, and you know, I believe a lot of
that fine lines at the trade deadline, and Toronto did
an unbelievable job of trading for Shane Bieber at the
(02:07):
eleventh hour.
Speaker 3 (02:08):
Coming back from injury.
Speaker 4 (02:09):
Was still on the sixty day I l and had
some rehab remaining, and he ends up pitching Game seven
and winning it for him and you know, keeping them
in that game, and it just talks about it speaks
to the little margins that take place throughout a season
that ended up coming up big in October, and they
gave up a second round pick for him and he
(02:30):
ended up playing big for them. But you know, I
feel so bad. I had Seattle, really, you know, starting
in July, you could start to see that they were
going to be the team, and Toronto just did a
tremendous job of getting the big hits and keeping themselves
in the game with good pitching.
Speaker 2 (02:45):
Okay, I'll come back to the World Series and we'll
get a preview and break it down here in just
a few moments. But I want to go to the
managerial hirings right now. Let me start with the Angels.
They give Kurt Suzuki a one year deal.
Speaker 1 (02:59):
On that. Do you make of the Angel's decision there
was Suzuki.
Speaker 4 (03:04):
I'm just so elated, not only for perryman Assian, but
Kurt Suzuki, one of the all time great human beings,
first and foremost, but just a tremendous baseball mind. You know,
the day he stepped out of the uniform, he was
ready to manage in the big leagues. He's just a
man of high character, and I'm super excited. I've texted
(03:24):
with him a number of times since the hiring was made,
and that's one of those hires that everybody in the
game celebrates because he's such a great human being. And
I told Perry this this morning, this this is a
pivotal turn for your organization because he's got somebody that
he loves working with, that is eager for the job,
(03:45):
ready for the job, and he's going to hire a
tremendous staff around him. And I truly believe that this
is going to be something that turns the Angels organization around.
Speaker 3 (03:53):
In twenty twenty six.
Speaker 2 (03:54):
You do realize Gino that long Corn fans are happy
for him in his professional career, but there's still having
PTSD from the two thousand and four National Championship Series
at the College World Series in Omaha, when Suzuki led
Cal State Fullerton to a two game sweep of Texas
and the Nashty had a monster cwas that year, as
well as Ricky Romero and Jason Windsor, and what those
(04:16):
two guys did on the mound, it was absolutely amazing.
Speaker 4 (04:20):
And Suzuki he's a money player man. He loved the
big moments. And what's really going to make him great
is he was such a grinder and a self made
player that the county piece, the accountability piece with the players,
is going to be big for where they are as
an organization.
Speaker 3 (04:37):
And I just couldn't be happier for Kurrent and for Perrymanascia.
Speaker 2 (04:40):
Okay, now let's go to the real headline grabber. Tony
vai Tello. You've known Tony Vitello. I followed his career
when he was an assistant at TCU when he was
an assistant at Missouri and then obviously at Arkansas, and
then doing landmark work at Tennessee, which had not had
much success on the college baseball front, get them to
the College World Series three consecutive years, and then of
(05:02):
course winning the national Championship in.
Speaker 1 (05:05):
Twenty twenty four.
Speaker 2 (05:07):
But I have to say it flat out has shocked
what I've read a lot of the baseball world that
the Giants wanted to hire him since he becomes the
first ever college head coach to go to the major
leagues without a day of major league service time. If
(05:28):
he will not even talking about a player, I'm just
saying as a coach, and so I know that surprised
a lot of people. What do you know about how
this thing kind of germinated and how they landed on
Vytello to be the guy.
Speaker 4 (05:42):
I'm going to speak to the personal side first. Craig
Tony Bytello called me in September of twenty ten to
recruit my son to TCU, And as you know, at
the time, my wife was going through a really difficult
time been heavily diagnosed with cancer. It was a really
dark time in our family's lives and when Tony by
(06:03):
Tello called me, we spent thirty minutes talking about my
wife before we even got to baseball.
Speaker 3 (06:09):
And he is just an incredible human being.
Speaker 4 (06:12):
First of all, he takes so much care, takes so
much care in like detail and organization. And I think
about Ron Polk a lot like Ron Polk prided himself
on communication with his ex players, with his alumni, communication
with friends that are close to him, and Tony by
Tello is no different. He's an unbelievable communicator, an incredible
(06:35):
person of integrity.
Speaker 3 (06:36):
And you know another story.
Speaker 4 (06:40):
You know, my son gets out of pro ball, he
sends an email to every college coach in the country.
One college coach responded it was Tony by Tello. So
that just speaks to who he is as a person.
The baseball side, you know, I applaud Buster Posey, who
you know, you could say, you know, Hall of Fame career,
multiple World championship, played for Bruce Bochie. It would have
(07:02):
been easy for him to go the traditional route, but
I applaud him and a Zachmanascion for being a little
bit forward thinking and understanding that, hey, look we need
a leader of men. First, detail an organization second, and
somebody that can bring a group together. And so that's
what they believe in him. Is it certainly outside the
box one hundred percent. But when you talk, when you
(07:25):
go around the game and you talk to people that
know Tony, they certainly all believe that he's capable of it.
You know, I talked to Zach about this three weeks ago.
I said, you know, the most important thing is going
to be that you surround him with a very good staff,
because you know, facing Yamamoto on a Tuesday night's a
little different than facing Middle Tennessee State. And so those
(07:46):
are the things the grind of one hundred and sixty
two games, those are the things that are going to
have to he's gonna have to get up to speed with.
But they certainly believe in him. He's certainly qualified for
and I would say that this won't be the last
I think that you're going to start. You know, Tim
Corbin has certainly qualified to be a major league manager.
John Savage at u c l A tremendously qualified to
(08:08):
be a major league manager, and there are others around
the country. So I don't think this is going to
be the last of it. I think this is just
the very beginning.
Speaker 2 (08:15):
Well played with the Jato versus Middle Tennessee. Let me
ask you one thing, because this is another thing that
seems to pop up and you can tell me if
you've heard this. The number one concern for a lot
of folks about Vitello stepping into this major league role
is how he could relate to, like, say, established major
(08:41):
league veterans. I'll throw Raphael Devers out there for example,
that kind of thing, because as we know about Vitello,
his his fuse runs hot, and but he's very he's
very inspirational, low his guys, his players absolutely love him.
But Ryan McGee wrote a great piece on him for
(09:01):
ESPN dot com. It was entitled basically I Am not
for everyone, was the way he put it. So how
do you see that whole dynamic play out with how
he is able to be relatable to you know, veterans
with years of service time and you know, in addition
to the youngsters coming out.
Speaker 4 (09:21):
I think it's going to come down to one thing.
He's a great leader. I think it's going to come
down to earning players trusts. There's certainly going to be
an element of you know, you know, earning the trust
of the players when you haven't been there and done that.
But I think as you look over time, you've seen,
you know, I think the first example of it was
when you started to see major league pitching coaches come
(09:43):
out of the college ranks and they're like, Oh, there's
no way Garrett Cole is going to listen to this guy,
or there's no way Max Scherzer is going to listen
to the guy.
Speaker 3 (09:50):
And they did.
Speaker 4 (09:51):
As long as you work hard at respecting the player
and earning the trust of the player and hold being
able to hold them accountable. I I don't I don't
care if it's college baseball, major league baseball, or you know,
a corporate entity. Like if you're a leader, you're a leader,
if you're a manager or a manager, and and great
leaders know how to interact with people, uh and give
(10:13):
them respect, and give them trust and and hold them
accountable when they need to be held accountable. And I
think that that Tony Tony certainly does a great job
of that. But there will be a little bit of,
you know, earning trust early on. But but again, you
surround him with the right people around him and his staff,
and you put your head down and you go to work,
and it's all going to work itself out.
Speaker 2 (10:35):
By the way, A producer, Jay Carman, lifetime Nationals fan
growing up in the DC here, is starting to get
a little lancey wondering what's going on with the Nationals,
both with filling the mic Roza role, the GM role,
as well as the Deve Martinez manager role, and he
and he it's it's been kind of quiet over there
inside the Beltway.
Speaker 4 (10:51):
Yeah. John Tamboni, who did a tremendous job in boston's
going to take over the baseball operations. You know. He's
a you know, part of drafting Roman Anthony and Marcelo
Meyer and so many of those great draft picks they've
had the last few years, and certainly involved internationally. And
he he's going to take over the baseball operations. They've
made a number of changes already in their front office
(11:13):
and their player development scouting, so you know, in that division,
it's going to take a.
Speaker 3 (11:18):
Little old time.
Speaker 4 (11:19):
But John certainly has the track record of evaluing players
and he'll.
Speaker 2 (11:22):
Do well talking baseball with Team Watson here on thirteen
under the all right, let's shift to the World Series.
Starting pictures have been announced it'll be Treya Savage going
for the Blue Jays and the Dodgers. You know they've
had Blake Snell rested and ready to go. Snell will
go Game one, y'all, Momoto game two. Dave Roberts has
not decided upon that. I read another piece you know
(11:45):
about how these teams are similarly constructed through the farm
system and adding key pieces when they've had to. The
one difference, one difference that I do see is what
you spoke to earlier. The Jays were very active at
the trade deadline. The Dodgers were not. They believed once
their guys got healthy, they would be the guys that
(12:07):
we need, and that's been able to bear out the
truth as well as what the Jay's rounds going. So
it's two different ways to go about it, and both
have worked, they really have.
Speaker 4 (12:16):
And what's most exciting about this World Series is it
is truly gonna be a global event. You've got thirteen
international players from eight countries, You've got two countries playing,
and you know you're gonna have upwards of fifteen million
people in Canada watching. You're gonna have fifteen million people
(12:38):
in Japan watching. And I think from a growth standpoint,
growth of the game. Standpoint, Major League Baseball couldn't have
asked for a better matchup, because this is truly gonna
be a global event. We spoke about Trey Yesovich last week,
and you know, he's gonna be the second youngest starter
to ever make a start.
Speaker 3 (12:58):
I was shocked at this.
Speaker 4 (12:59):
I thought, as Beckett was younger, but he's going to
be the second youngest starter to make a start in
the Major League. Ralph Bronca back in nineteen forty seven
is still the youngest. Bronco of course, gave up the
Bobby Thompson home run in the fifty one World Series
and is the father in law of Bobby Valentine. But this,
to me, you've got the second most productive offense in
(13:21):
the game of baseball versus the fourth most productive offense
in the game of baseball.
Speaker 3 (13:26):
But this, to me still comes down to pitching. And
anytime you can.
Speaker 4 (13:31):
Roll you know, Yamamoto sneil Otani that group out for
two starts. I mean, it's going to be really difficult
for Toronto to try to match up, you know, expecting
Yesovich to win two games and Bassett to win two
games and or Gosman to win two games is really
(13:52):
going to be a tough tast It's going to be
a lot of split fingers. A lot of these pitchers,
their repertoire is built around the split finger. So you know,
look for that picture to make a mistake early in
the split finger and it can maybe swing a game. Uh.
But but when you look at these rosters, uh, certain
things are going to have to go extremely perfect for
(14:13):
Toronto to win this series. But I think it's going
to be a great series and global and great for
the game of baseball.
Speaker 2 (14:20):
In addition to the ones you mentioned, Snell, Yamamoto, Otani,
I kind of look at Tyler Glass now as being
an X factor on this deal if he's able to go,
because I think everybody's expecting the other three to be
able to go five six innings, maybe even longer exactly.
Speaker 4 (14:37):
And and and this this I talk about this all
the time in October baseball. This doesn't even get into
you know, if you get into a game six, or
you get into a game seven, how you can use
you know, Yamamoto and Snell out of the pen and leverage.
And when you look at that game, you know, I
just think that Seattle never really covered from the work
(15:00):
recovered from the workload of the fifteen inning game versus Detroit.
And when you look at that game, the Game seven,
in some ways the difference of the game was they
had their third best reliever on the mound, their best
reliever was in the bullpen, and truly Louis Castile was
sitting out there as a starter that could come in
and and and hold it down to get to Munnos
(15:21):
and Toronto went right to Bassett, and so that in
some ways was the difference of the game. And one pitch,
and you know, the industry talks so much about third
time through the order for starting pitchers, but we never
talk about, you know, three appearances in a row for
a reliever with two pitches, and how that looked looks
to hitters. And so it was certainly the swing in
(15:43):
Game seven. But again going back to this series, I
just think that the Dodgers pitching is just it's too dominant.
And I mean Toronto's really going to have to jump
these starters and get leads early and put up crooked
numbers to have any kind of chance in it.
Speaker 2 (16:00):
Geno, I would have told you two weeks ago, obviously
that the obvious and apparent underbelly for the Dodgers would
be the bullpen and maybe the bridge at the end
is but Roki Sasaki, of course, has now emerged as
the closer.
Speaker 1 (16:14):
If he's on task.
Speaker 2 (16:17):
Is is it going to be extremely difficult then to
be able to beat this pitching staff.
Speaker 3 (16:21):
One hundred percent?
Speaker 4 (16:22):
And I mean, my gosh, Roki Sasaki was in Oklahoma
City and just trying to find his way, and everybody
viewed him as this high ceiling starting when he came over,
and he's kind of found his niche when But that's
the thing, and you know, I'm going to say this.
Everybody wants to talk about the Dodgers and the money,
and the money's great, but the Dodgers are incredible in scouting.
(16:45):
They're incredible in the draft. They do a tremendous job
of beating teams in the draft. They're they're unbelievable and international.
You go in and see a minor league team play
in September and their six year free agents are still
working extremely hard. So, I mean, a lot of teams
over history have had a lot of money, but the
way they operate and the way they do things, you
(17:08):
have to tip your cap to it, and you know,
they take a lot of chrism criticism for the money
they spend, and they don't they don't apologize for it.
But they do a lot of grim things the right way.
And there's certainly the model for a lot of teams
that maybe don't have the salary structure that they have,
but the way they operate is certainly a model for
(17:30):
the way a lot of teams should be operating today.
Speaker 2 (17:32):
Right. You have been largely spot on throughout these playoffs,
largely largely you did ride with the Mariners, but you
were having your misgivings going into Game seven.
Speaker 4 (17:41):
Yeah, I didn't feel good about it that I've been there,
you know, Game five and twenty fifteen. The Rogers Center,
the only way I can put it is it's an
international melting pot of fans that are extremely passionate, extremely loud,
(18:01):
but they don't know a lot about the game of baseball.
The baseball fans there are great, but when you get
to this stage, it's a little bit of different crowd.
And when we were there, it felt more like an
international soccer game crowd than a baseball crowd.
Speaker 3 (18:16):
But it is.
Speaker 4 (18:17):
Chaos for nine innings and so much fun so I
just love that that, you know, after thirty two years,
they're getting to go back and this is just going
to be great for baseball.
Speaker 3 (18:28):
I hope it goes seven games. I don't think it does.
Speaker 4 (18:31):
I think the Dodgers win it in maybe five, probably six,
But I just I don't really see a pathway that
gets Toronto to four wins.
Speaker 3 (18:41):
When you look at the Dodgers pitching.
Speaker 2 (18:43):
He's Gene Watson, and he's our MLB insider. So you
like the Dodgers in five and a half games, we'll
take it five.
Speaker 1 (18:49):
Yeah, okay, all right?
Speaker 2 (18:50):
That means they get a split in Toronto and win
the three at all.
Speaker 1 (18:54):
Maybe, I don't know. We'll see.
Speaker 2 (18:56):
Hey, I appreciate it as always, Gina.
Speaker 1 (18:58):
We'll check back in.
Speaker 3 (18:59):
With you, all right, Craig, take care, Thanks so much.
Speaker 1 (19:01):
You bet.
Speaker 2 (19:02):
That's Stean Watson from the Chicago White Sox front office there.
Speaker 1 (19:06):
He likes the Dodgers and five. We'll see all right.
Up next.
Speaker 2 (19:10):
More from Loghorn's head coach Steve Sarkisian on thirteen Under
the Zone
Care comes took three to two PC.
Speaker 2 (00:26):
Welcome back to the Craig Way Show and the Voice
of the Longhorns, Craig.
Speaker 3 (00:31):
We follow Craig on social media. Voice.
Speaker 2 (00:36):
Now, folks, you watched the f S one telecast, uh
the other night of Game seven of the Blue Jays
and Mariners. Heard Joe Davis's call. That was Dan Shulman,
the great Dan Schilman. He does a lot on ESPN,
but that.
Speaker 1 (00:51):
Was on what's it called on sports Net?
Speaker 2 (00:54):
Sports Net, which is you know, Toronto's version of Canada's
version there of of ESPN. And so their call of
that final strike in the ALCS, so it means it's
on with the World Series. Where our good friend, our
MLB insider, the man from the Chicago White Sox front office,
(01:17):
Gene Watson, joins us. Now, before we get to previewing
the World Series itself, how exciting was that series that
ALCS that went the full ride on seven when juxtaposed
against what we talked about on Monday, that incredible one
man show that Shoe Aotani put on. But this all
the pathos, all the drama there of a seven game series.
Speaker 4 (01:39):
Geno, Well, it was just amazing and It's one of
those series and you hear it all the time.
Speaker 3 (01:45):
You hate to see anybody lose.
Speaker 4 (01:46):
And I was texting with Mariners president Jerry Depoto at
two o'clock in the morning after it happened, and it's
just it's such a fine line between winning and losing
in October, and you know, I believe a lot of
that fine lines at the trade deadline, and Toronto did
an unbelievable job of trading for Shane Bieber at the
(02:07):
eleventh hour.
Speaker 3 (02:08):
Coming back from injury.
Speaker 4 (02:09):
Was still on the sixty day I l and had
some rehab remaining, and he ends up pitching Game seven
and winning it for him and you know, keeping them
in that game, and it just talks about it speaks
to the little margins that take place throughout a season
that ended up coming up big in October, and they
gave up a second round pick for him and he
(02:30):
ended up playing big for them. But you know, I
feel so bad. I had Seattle, really, you know, starting
in July, you could start to see that they were
going to be the team, and Toronto just did a
tremendous job of getting the big hits and keeping themselves
in the game with good pitching.
Speaker 2 (02:45):
Okay, I'll come back to the World Series and we'll
get a preview and break it down here in just
a few moments. But I want to go to the
managerial hirings right now. Let me start with the Angels.
They give Kurt Suzuki a one year deal.
Speaker 1 (02:59):
On that. Do you make of the Angel's decision there
was Suzuki.
Speaker 4 (03:04):
I'm just so elated, not only for perryman Assian, but
Kurt Suzuki, one of the all time great human beings,
first and foremost, but just a tremendous baseball mind. You know,
the day he stepped out of the uniform, he was
ready to manage in the big leagues. He's just a
man of high character, and I'm super excited. I've texted
(03:24):
with him a number of times since the hiring was made,
and that's one of those hires that everybody in the
game celebrates because he's such a great human being. And
I told Perry this this morning, this this is a
pivotal turn for your organization because he's got somebody that
he loves working with, that is eager for the job,
(03:45):
ready for the job, and he's going to hire a
tremendous staff around him. And I truly believe that this
is going to be something that turns the Angels organization around.
Speaker 3 (03:53):
In twenty twenty six.
Speaker 2 (03:54):
You do realize Gino that long Corn fans are happy
for him in his professional career, but there's still having
PTSD from the two thousand and four National Championship Series
at the College World Series in Omaha, when Suzuki led
Cal State Fullerton to a two game sweep of Texas
and the Nashty had a monster cwas that year, as
well as Ricky Romero and Jason Windsor, and what those
(04:16):
two guys did on the mound, it was absolutely amazing.
Speaker 4 (04:20):
And Suzuki he's a money player man. He loved the
big moments. And what's really going to make him great
is he was such a grinder and a self made
player that the county piece, the accountability piece with the players,
is going to be big for where they are as
an organization.
Speaker 3 (04:37):
And I just couldn't be happier for Kurrent and for Perrymanascia.
Speaker 2 (04:40):
Okay, now let's go to the real headline grabber. Tony
vai Tello. You've known Tony Vitello. I followed his career
when he was an assistant at TCU when he was
an assistant at Missouri and then obviously at Arkansas, and
then doing landmark work at Tennessee, which had not had
much success on the college baseball front, get them to
the College World Series three consecutive years, and then of
(05:02):
course winning the national Championship in.
Speaker 1 (05:05):
Twenty twenty four.
Speaker 2 (05:07):
But I have to say it flat out has shocked
what I've read a lot of the baseball world that
the Giants wanted to hire him since he becomes the
first ever college head coach to go to the major
leagues without a day of major league service time. If
(05:28):
he will not even talking about a player, I'm just
saying as a coach, and so I know that surprised
a lot of people. What do you know about how
this thing kind of germinated and how they landed on
Vytello to be the guy.
Speaker 4 (05:42):
I'm going to speak to the personal side first. Craig
Tony Bytello called me in September of twenty ten to
recruit my son to TCU, And as you know, at
the time, my wife was going through a really difficult
time been heavily diagnosed with cancer. It was a really
dark time in our family's lives and when Tony by
(06:03):
Tello called me, we spent thirty minutes talking about my
wife before we even got to baseball.
Speaker 3 (06:09):
And he is just an incredible human being.
Speaker 4 (06:12):
First of all, he takes so much care, takes so
much care in like detail and organization. And I think
about Ron Polk a lot like Ron Polk prided himself
on communication with his ex players, with his alumni, communication
with friends that are close to him, and Tony by
Tello is no different. He's an unbelievable communicator, an incredible
(06:35):
person of integrity.
Speaker 3 (06:36):
And you know another story.
Speaker 4 (06:40):
You know, my son gets out of pro ball, he
sends an email to every college coach in the country.
One college coach responded it was Tony by Tello. So
that just speaks to who he is as a person.
The baseball side, you know, I applaud Buster Posey, who
you know, you could say, you know, Hall of Fame career,
multiple World championship, played for Bruce Bochie. It would have
(07:02):
been easy for him to go the traditional route, but
I applaud him and a Zachmanascion for being a little
bit forward thinking and understanding that, hey, look we need
a leader of men. First, detail an organization second, and
somebody that can bring a group together. And so that's
what they believe in him. Is it certainly outside the
box one hundred percent. But when you talk, when you
(07:25):
go around the game and you talk to people that
know Tony, they certainly all believe that he's capable of it.
You know, I talked to Zach about this three weeks ago.
I said, you know, the most important thing is going
to be that you surround him with a very good staff,
because you know, facing Yamamoto on a Tuesday night's a
little different than facing Middle Tennessee State. And so those
(07:46):
are the things the grind of one hundred and sixty
two games, those are the things that are going to
have to he's gonna have to get up to speed with.
But they certainly believe in him. He's certainly qualified for
and I would say that this won't be the last
I think that you're going to start. You know, Tim
Corbin has certainly qualified to be a major league manager.
John Savage at u c l A tremendously qualified to
(08:08):
be a major league manager, and there are others around
the country. So I don't think this is going to
be the last of it. I think this is just
the very beginning.
Speaker 2 (08:15):
Well played with the Jato versus Middle Tennessee. Let me
ask you one thing, because this is another thing that
seems to pop up and you can tell me if
you've heard this. The number one concern for a lot
of folks about Vitello stepping into this major league role
is how he could relate to, like, say, established major
(08:41):
league veterans. I'll throw Raphael Devers out there for example,
that kind of thing, because as we know about Vitello,
his his fuse runs hot, and but he's very he's
very inspirational, low his guys, his players absolutely love him.
But Ryan McGee wrote a great piece on him for
(09:01):
ESPN dot com. It was entitled basically I Am not
for everyone, was the way he put it. So how
do you see that whole dynamic play out with how
he is able to be relatable to you know, veterans
with years of service time and you know, in addition
to the youngsters coming out.
Speaker 4 (09:21):
I think it's going to come down to one thing.
He's a great leader. I think it's going to come
down to earning players trusts. There's certainly going to be
an element of you know, you know, earning the trust
of the players when you haven't been there and done that.
But I think as you look over time, you've seen,
you know, I think the first example of it was
when you started to see major league pitching coaches come
(09:43):
out of the college ranks and they're like, Oh, there's
no way Garrett Cole is going to listen to this guy,
or there's no way Max Scherzer is going to listen
to the guy.
Speaker 3 (09:50):
And they did.
Speaker 4 (09:51):
As long as you work hard at respecting the player
and earning the trust of the player and hold being
able to hold them accountable. I I don't I don't
care if it's college baseball, major league baseball, or you know,
a corporate entity. Like if you're a leader, you're a leader,
if you're a manager or a manager, and and great
leaders know how to interact with people, uh and give
(10:13):
them respect, and give them trust and and hold them
accountable when they need to be held accountable. And I
think that that Tony Tony certainly does a great job
of that. But there will be a little bit of,
you know, earning trust early on. But but again, you
surround him with the right people around him and his staff,
and you put your head down and you go to work,
and it's all going to work itself out.
Speaker 2 (10:35):
By the way, A producer, Jay Carman, lifetime Nationals fan
growing up in the DC here, is starting to get
a little lancey wondering what's going on with the Nationals,
both with filling the mic Roza role, the GM role,
as well as the Deve Martinez manager role, and he
and he it's it's been kind of quiet over there
inside the Beltway.
Speaker 4 (10:51):
Yeah. John Tamboni, who did a tremendous job in boston's
going to take over the baseball operations. You know. He's
a you know, part of drafting Roman Anthony and Marcelo
Meyer and so many of those great draft picks they've
had the last few years, and certainly involved internationally. And
he he's going to take over the baseball operations. They've
made a number of changes already in their front office
(11:13):
and their player development scouting, so you know, in that division,
it's going to take a.
Speaker 3 (11:18):
Little old time.
Speaker 4 (11:19):
But John certainly has the track record of evaluing players
and he'll.
Speaker 2 (11:22):
Do well talking baseball with Team Watson here on thirteen
under the all right, let's shift to the World Series.
Starting pictures have been announced it'll be Treya Savage going
for the Blue Jays and the Dodgers. You know they've
had Blake Snell rested and ready to go. Snell will
go Game one, y'all, Momoto game two. Dave Roberts has
not decided upon that. I read another piece you know
(11:45):
about how these teams are similarly constructed through the farm
system and adding key pieces when they've had to. The
one difference, one difference that I do see is what
you spoke to earlier. The Jays were very active at
the trade deadline. The Dodgers were not. They believed once
their guys got healthy, they would be the guys that
(12:07):
we need, and that's been able to bear out the
truth as well as what the Jay's rounds going. So
it's two different ways to go about it, and both
have worked, they really have.
Speaker 4 (12:16):
And what's most exciting about this World Series is it
is truly gonna be a global event. You've got thirteen
international players from eight countries, You've got two countries playing,
and you know you're gonna have upwards of fifteen million
people in Canada watching. You're gonna have fifteen million people
(12:38):
in Japan watching. And I think from a growth standpoint,
growth of the game. Standpoint, Major League Baseball couldn't have
asked for a better matchup, because this is truly gonna
be a global event. We spoke about Trey Yesovich last week,
and you know, he's gonna be the second youngest starter
to ever make a start.
Speaker 3 (12:58):
I was shocked at this.
Speaker 4 (12:59):
I thought, as Beckett was younger, but he's going to
be the second youngest starter to make a start in
the Major League. Ralph Bronca back in nineteen forty seven
is still the youngest. Bronco of course, gave up the
Bobby Thompson home run in the fifty one World Series
and is the father in law of Bobby Valentine. But this,
to me, you've got the second most productive offense in
(13:21):
the game of baseball versus the fourth most productive offense
in the game of baseball.
Speaker 3 (13:26):
But this, to me still comes down to pitching. And
anytime you can.
Speaker 4 (13:31):
Roll you know, Yamamoto sneil Otani that group out for
two starts. I mean, it's going to be really difficult
for Toronto to try to match up, you know, expecting
Yesovich to win two games and Bassett to win two
games and or Gosman to win two games is really
(13:52):
going to be a tough tast It's going to be
a lot of split fingers. A lot of these pitchers,
their repertoire is built around the split finger. So you know,
look for that picture to make a mistake early in
the split finger and it can maybe swing a game. Uh.
But but when you look at these rosters, uh, certain
things are going to have to go extremely perfect for
(14:13):
Toronto to win this series. But I think it's going
to be a great series and global and great for
the game of baseball.
Speaker 2 (14:20):
In addition to the ones you mentioned, Snell, Yamamoto, Otani,
I kind of look at Tyler Glass now as being
an X factor on this deal if he's able to go,
because I think everybody's expecting the other three to be
able to go five six innings, maybe even longer exactly.
Speaker 4 (14:37):
And and and this this I talk about this all
the time in October baseball. This doesn't even get into
you know, if you get into a game six, or
you get into a game seven, how you can use
you know, Yamamoto and Snell out of the pen and leverage.
And when you look at that game, you know, I
just think that Seattle never really covered from the work
(15:00):
recovered from the workload of the fifteen inning game versus Detroit.
And when you look at that game, the Game seven,
in some ways the difference of the game was they
had their third best reliever on the mound, their best
reliever was in the bullpen, and truly Louis Castile was
sitting out there as a starter that could come in
and and and hold it down to get to Munnos
(15:21):
and Toronto went right to Bassett, and so that in
some ways was the difference of the game. And one pitch,
and you know, the industry talks so much about third
time through the order for starting pitchers, but we never
talk about, you know, three appearances in a row for
a reliever with two pitches, and how that looked looks
to hitters. And so it was certainly the swing in
(15:43):
Game seven. But again going back to this series, I
just think that the Dodgers pitching is just it's too dominant.
And I mean Toronto's really going to have to jump
these starters and get leads early and put up crooked
numbers to have any kind of chance in it.
Speaker 2 (16:00):
Geno, I would have told you two weeks ago, obviously
that the obvious and apparent underbelly for the Dodgers would
be the bullpen and maybe the bridge at the end
is but Roki Sasaki, of course, has now emerged as
the closer.
Speaker 1 (16:14):
If he's on task.
Speaker 2 (16:17):
Is is it going to be extremely difficult then to
be able to beat this pitching staff.
Speaker 3 (16:21):
One hundred percent?
Speaker 4 (16:22):
And I mean, my gosh, Roki Sasaki was in Oklahoma
City and just trying to find his way, and everybody
viewed him as this high ceiling starting when he came over,
and he's kind of found his niche when But that's
the thing, and you know, I'm going to say this.
Everybody wants to talk about the Dodgers and the money,
and the money's great, but the Dodgers are incredible in scouting.
(16:45):
They're incredible in the draft. They do a tremendous job
of beating teams in the draft. They're they're unbelievable and international.
You go in and see a minor league team play
in September and their six year free agents are still
working extremely hard. So, I mean, a lot of teams
over history have had a lot of money, but the
way they operate and the way they do things, you
(17:08):
have to tip your cap to it, and you know,
they take a lot of chrism criticism for the money
they spend, and they don't they don't apologize for it.
But they do a lot of grim things the right way.
And there's certainly the model for a lot of teams
that maybe don't have the salary structure that they have,
but the way they operate is certainly a model for
(17:30):
the way a lot of teams should be operating today.
Speaker 2 (17:32):
Right. You have been largely spot on throughout these playoffs,
largely largely you did ride with the Mariners, but you
were having your misgivings going into Game seven.
Speaker 4 (17:41):
Yeah, I didn't feel good about it that I've been there,
you know, Game five and twenty fifteen. The Rogers Center,
the only way I can put it is it's an
international melting pot of fans that are extremely passionate, extremely loud,
(18:01):
but they don't know a lot about the game of baseball.
The baseball fans there are great, but when you get
to this stage, it's a little bit of different crowd.
And when we were there, it felt more like an
international soccer game crowd than a baseball crowd.
Speaker 3 (18:16):
But it is.
Speaker 4 (18:17):
Chaos for nine innings and so much fun so I
just love that that, you know, after thirty two years,
they're getting to go back and this is just going
to be great for baseball.
Speaker 3 (18:28):
I hope it goes seven games. I don't think it does.
Speaker 4 (18:31):
I think the Dodgers win it in maybe five, probably six,
But I just I don't really see a pathway that
gets Toronto to four wins.
Speaker 3 (18:41):
When you look at the Dodgers pitching.
Speaker 2 (18:43):
He's Gene Watson, and he's our MLB insider. So you
like the Dodgers in five and a half games, we'll
take it five.
Speaker 1 (18:49):
Yeah, okay, all right?
Speaker 2 (18:50):
That means they get a split in Toronto and win
the three at all.
Speaker 1 (18:54):
Maybe, I don't know. We'll see.
Speaker 2 (18:56):
Hey, I appreciate it as always, Gina.
Speaker 1 (18:58):
We'll check back in.
Speaker 3 (18:59):
With you, all right, Craig, take care, Thanks so much.
Speaker 1 (19:01):
You bet.
Speaker 2 (19:02):
That's Stean Watson from the Chicago White Sox front office there.
Speaker 1 (19:06):
He likes the Dodgers and five. We'll see all right.
Up next.
Speaker 2 (19:10):
More from Loghorn's head coach Steve Sarkisian on thirteen Under
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