2256 - WS Wrap Up and fantasy questions on the AL Central - Fantasy Baseball from Prospect361.com

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:20):
Queeney Society changes everyone to Trich TWELVESMOK. The Fantasy Baseball
Live Today is November two, about three o'clock in the afternoon.
Tim and I have just finished an hour and twenty
minute conversation about prospects that will be coming out Tuesday, Timy,
we didn't mention anything about the World Series, so we're
hopefully fresh and ready to go talking now about Fantasy Baseball,

(00:43):
about the World Series, et cetera, et cetera.

Speaker 2 (00:47):
Yeah, I just put the staple into the five teams
that we just did and throw it into my folder
for draft time. I keep all I keep the notes
for the for one year basically, and it's just just
a nice little reference reference source when we get into
the spring. But yeah, it's It has been a an

(01:11):
amazing week, week and a half, asn't it in the
world of baseball.

Speaker 1 (01:15):
You know, I'm not I'm far from a baseball historian
and far from a historian at all. Histories is not
one of my things. I just I've never really studied it.
But I can't recall a World Series being this entertaining,
this exciting in a long long time.

Speaker 2 (01:34):
Yeah, I can't either, to be honest, with you. We
had a little bit of everything and a whole bunch
of things that were totally unexpected, including that bench clearing
incident last night, and last night, I didn't see that
one coming, That's true.

Speaker 1 (01:51):
Has that ever happened in a World Series game?

Speaker 2 (01:55):
I'm sure it has, but really over the years one
hundred plus world I'm sure at some point in time
the gloves came off and it turned into a hockey game.
But it wasn't what I was expecting. But Rabolowski had
his uh you know he could. Yeah, when you throw

(02:17):
inside twice and you finally hit a guy on the
third pitch, it's not a smart move to be walking
towards home plate and getting mouthy, you know what I mean.
It just it's not smart, you know. It's I'm glad
cooler heads prevailed, But I don't blame him and is
for being upset, not one bit.

Speaker 1 (02:35):
Yeah, but I don't think I don't think zeminist sort
of thought that Robleski was throng. I think he was
trying to throw inside and couldn't get the ball inside,
so maybe he could get it inside just too far.

Speaker 2 (02:47):
Yeah, But again, I think I think he had a
right to be upset and say like, what are you doing?
It was basically what he said, right, Yeah, and Rubolski
should have turned around and walked back to the mountain
instead of approaching them. Yeah, that's not the right thing
to be doing at any time. Yeah, yeah, at least
of all the World series.

Speaker 1 (03:08):
So yeah, you know, it's go ahead, go ahead. So
I don't know where to start here. Should we start
about game seven and then work back to your game
six and your adventures? I want to do it, do
it that way and then because that's a whole other
podcast or another segment in itself, just Ten's adventures going

(03:29):
to the World Series. I've ever been to World series,
and I dare say that most of our listeners have
never been to a World Series. It's just too costly
to go. But I think, let's talk about Game seven
and then how the Dodgers pulled it off and so forth.
But is this the best pitching performance since Madison Bumguarden

(03:50):
that we saw with Yamamoto or maybe those two have
been the best pitching performances in a World Series? Ever?

Speaker 2 (03:58):
Well, I think you got to go back. I think
the last time a pitcher and I could be wrong.
I think the last time I was I heard somewhere
the pitcher won three games in a World six series
was Randy Johnson. Wow, back with the Diamondbacks in the
early two thousand and one, two thousand somewhere in that
time for him. Yeah, I would have to say with

(04:20):
without a doubt, the MVP was Yamamoto. It's a seven
game series. We won three games. Yeah, he pitched it,
threw ninety six pitches, and then came back and pitched
two plus innings in the winning game the next day.
How many Yeah, how many starters would do that? Rich

(04:40):
pitch a game six and seven? Other gardener comes to mind.
I don't know what. I don't remember Randy Johnson's performance.
We don't don't five years ago.

Speaker 1 (04:49):
But that was that was that two thousand It wasn't
two thousand and nine. I thought that was a two
thousand and nine World Series. Yeah, maybe I'm wrong there, anyway,
I don't know. I mean, I'm sure. I mean, it's
an unknowable factor. We have seen pitchers come back after
the next day and do that. Obviously not something that

(05:09):
anybody in the Dodgers organizations wanted to do, but sometimes
desperate times call for desperate measures and flies flies, flags,
fly forever. As people always say, so you, I think
you sacrificed him, and you probably, as I was saying
last week, you start them late in spring training and

(05:32):
you say no to the WBC and just try to
make sure he's healthy.

Speaker 2 (05:37):
Well. Yeah, And the interesting thing that I found with
is pitching in game seven is Yamamoto is he's far
from a stupid men. He is very smart. And in
Game seven, if you looked at what he was throwing,
I'm sure his pitch mix was very, very different from
the first five innings of Game six. You know, you

(06:00):
didn't see you didn't see a lot of you know,
I think the of the few fastballs he threw, a
ninety five was max like he was pitching Game seven,
but he was not the same pitcher as Game six.
Does that make sense?

Speaker 1 (06:16):
Oh yeah, yeah, I didn't actually look at the date.
I'll do that as you're talking.

Speaker 2 (06:21):
Yeah, I'd be curious to see what that data has
to say, but it definitely didn't look like the same Yamamoto.
And I got to be honest with you, in Game
six watching Amamoto, that was one of the highlights for me.
You know, when you look at and you see something
on TV, right, Okay, you don't get really that same

(06:44):
effect as in a live performance. And Yamamoto everything he
was throwing in Game six, and you know, I wasn't
by far his best overall performance, but just looking at
his mechanics and the way the ball was coming into
home play, everything was lively. Okay, everything it You know,

(07:05):
if it was ninety four to ninety five miles an hour,
it looked more like ninety seven ninety eight. I was
really really impressed with what he was doing with the
baseball's He's a tremendous athlete. And when I left Game six,
the biggest single thing I took out of that game
was how impressive Yama moore to is life. He really is.

(07:26):
He's not the same, at least to me, not the
same picture you see on the tube every fifth start.

Speaker 1 (07:33):
What is interesting and looking at I we'll talk more
about Yama mode and I really want to dive into
all the things you said in a few minutes, but
this is very fascinating. Are you ready?

Speaker 2 (07:45):
Yeah?

Speaker 1 (07:46):
He threw, he threw the He threw his fastball harder
a mile and a half, harder than he did during
the year. So he actually threw harder last night. Wow,
here's the entry thing. His overall stats for the year
thirty five percent uh for sing or twenty five percent,

(08:08):
split finger curveball seventeen percent, cutter at eleven percent, So
pretty spread out in terms of you know, it's he's
got them all working. Last night, right, fifty six percent
of his pitches were splitters.

Speaker 2 (08:23):
Wow, so.

Speaker 1 (08:26):
His splitter mus He must have had the feeling for
the splitter and said, you know, that's what I'm throwing.

Speaker 2 (08:32):
So yeah, he wasn't counting on going seven innings last night,
so yeah he can.

Speaker 1 (08:38):
Here's my best pitch. Try it, try to hit it.

Speaker 2 (08:41):
Yeah exactly, Yeah, hey, there's nothing wrong with that approaches
or now.

Speaker 1 (08:45):
And amazingly, it looks like he only struck out one guy,
So he was pitching a weak contact.

Speaker 2 (08:52):
Yeah, well, I'm with the stuff with the stuff that
he has that works, doesn't it? So he doesn't a
lot a lot of fly balls?

Speaker 1 (09:02):
Yeah, am I looking at this correct thing? Only threw
thirty four pitches.

Speaker 2 (09:07):
Yeah, you didn't throw that many? No, So.

Speaker 1 (09:11):
I mean I'm assuming this this this was intentional. He
must have gone in and said, look, I don't have
many pitches on my arm. I'm gonna throw mostly my
best pitch and my splitter, which gets a ton of
weak contact. I'm gonna pitch and thirty four pitches and
two and two thirds innings. That's not much at all.
And it just seemed to work. So maybe he really

(09:34):
went in intentionally thinking I got to save my arm
and not try to blow it out, throw on one
hundred miles an hour and just throw stuff that I'm
gonna get weak contact to get in and out of innings.

Speaker 2 (09:46):
Well, yeah, and you know I double play at the end.
You know that that keeps you that'll keep your pitch
count down, right, Yeah.

Speaker 1 (09:52):
I mean that ball was hit as that ball was hit.
My feeling and watching Game seven, I watched ten and
a half innings. I missed the first half inning, but
I I thought the Blue Jays were gonna win that game.
I thought they they were the better team. I thought

(10:16):
Otani looked terrible. Sureser was just, I mean, a man
on a mission like he always is, and it just
seemed like the mojo was with the with the Blue Jays,
and I was shocked when Miguel Rojas hit that home run,
I mean, what the hell like, where did that come from?

(10:36):
And then once it hits extra ending and they brought
in Yama Modo, I'm thinking, uh, oh, this might be
over for the Blue Jays because they can't hit this guy.

Speaker 2 (10:44):
They just cannot hit him, no, and they proved it consistently.
They know exactly. You know, it was funny because I'm
looking at the ninth inning, the Jays are up by
a run, Hoffins in there, and you know, Jody and
I were sitting in the living room watching the game.
I said, you know what, this game, this game's over.
The Dodgers are going to win. And I said. She

(11:06):
looked at me like I was from some foreign planet,
and I said, Hoffman has been giving up home runs
all season. Okay, if why why would it change. It's
one game, one inning he had won out. I really
felt that Hoffman was going to give do like he

(11:28):
has done a lot of a lot of this year.
And he gave up a home run. And that's what
he's done most of the season. And I know, Rojas,
you'd think the odds are long, but Hoffman was very
inconsistent this year. The ninth inning. He gave up a
lot of home runs this year, and I wasn't shocked
when when I saw what happened after that.

Speaker 1 (11:48):
Well, you got to get out, you got to get
out of the fantasy business and we get into the
prop betting business if you can. That's pretty impressive.

Speaker 2 (11:55):
So yeah, I just didn't I didn't feel good even
with one with one out, it's and again, you know
we've seen it all year. Supper shouldn't have been surprised.
The fans shouldn't have been surprised. You know, you look
at a lot of the you know, they were just

(12:16):
all karma and good. You know, the difference between the
Jays and the Dodgers was inches. If that okay, the
Jay's had plenty of chances, bad luck, call it whatever
you want. You know, you look at I think I
think kiner faloffa was safe. I think he I think
he got I think he got in there before Will

(12:38):
Smith got his foot back to the base. That's neither
here nor there. They're not going to determine a world
series winner. Okay, on a review goal, that's not going
to happen. But if you look into that play a
little earlier, kinder Filouff had no lead, Okay, was he
held back by by the third base coach because of
what happened to Bargier earlier in the season at second
base ending Game six. Uh, but kinder Philalpha had basically

(13:03):
no lead going into that plate. He he was hugging
third base pretty tight, you know, a normal lead. Sure,
hate it's a force play. Why you slide? Why don't
you run through it? That might have been a safe guard.
But again, did you blame kinder Fall. It's part of
the game, part.

Speaker 1 (13:19):
Of the game. I don't think you blame anybody. I
don't think you blame the manager. You don't blame Hoffman.
It's just anybody could have won that Game seven, and
it just so happened that their chance to get Yama Motor,
like it is with every team, is you get them
in the first inning that after that it's it's game over.
And you were just hoping that you could you could

(13:42):
hang in there until he was out of the game,
but that that didn't happen.

Speaker 2 (13:47):
Yeah. No, it was an amazing game. It was an
amazing series. It really was.

Speaker 1 (13:53):
How do you how do you comment respond to my
thoughts that I thought that the Blue Jays were going
to win and I didn't really have a rooting interest
in that. But they seem to be the team of karma,
the kids with the momentum. Man, they just seem to
be a better team. I mean, the Dodgers could not
hit at all.

Speaker 2 (14:12):
No, definitely. I think if you asked me who played better,
okay overall in this World series, you got I think
you got to say the Jays, Yeah, okay, but sometimes
that's not enough to win. And it wasn't. And you know,
a break here, a break there, you know, could have

(14:36):
changed things, but the fates decided the out come. And
you know, and once they got to Yamamoto and and
he looked solid, the Jays were in trouble, you know,
they they you know, they I believe they Shanner made
the right moves, you know, getting Bisheed out of the game,
you know, but again with that, but again and it

(15:00):
cost him later on once they got to yamamodal right,
because the Jay's offense, other than Vlad and occasionally Barger,
you know, Kirk had a little bit of a streak going.
The big bat was Laddie and he certainly asserted himself

(15:21):
in the role.

Speaker 1 (15:22):
He was impressive. But you know, they walked him and
then and then Bashett hit an impressive kirk Kirk Gibson
type of home run where I mean, the poor guy
is his legac is mangled and he yeah, he hit home.
I was really impressive. That was not a cheapy home
run either.

Speaker 2 (15:40):
No, and you take a look, you know, under normal circumstances,
uh later on in the game, but bad would have
gone first to third yeh on that single. Okay, well
he's not making it the third base for love and
your money. His leg is you know what I mean.

Speaker 1 (15:55):
But eventually again so.

Speaker 2 (15:58):
Yeah, yeah he did. But again, there were so many
variables that came into play. It was. It was an
outstanding World Series. Major League Baseball should be very, very
proud of the way things.

Speaker 1 (16:12):
I think the ratings were way up this year.

Speaker 2 (16:15):
Well I know what of Canada and Japan. Yeah, they
were record breaking ratings.

Speaker 1 (16:22):
Yep, for sure. I think I think they were the
second most watched World Series in the US in the
last ten years or something like that. I mean the
ratings were, I mean it's great. I mean, you got
a you got a world superstar and show hey Tani
that everybody wants to watch. You got Yamamoto close second
in Japan that everybody wants to watch back there. Yeah,

(16:42):
and you got big market and Los Angeles in a
big market and a whole country watching it. It was
it was. It was good. It wasn't your Milwaukee Brewers
against the Seattle Mariners, but it was it was still good. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (16:57):
Yeah, And you know, I got a I gotta tip
my cap for the city of Toronto, Okay. And I
saw at the end of Game six, and I'll elaborate
a little bit later on, but uh, it ended and
people left the park and the city was still standing
the next day.

Speaker 1 (17:18):
That's great and people life well.

Speaker 2 (17:22):
We've got our idiots too rich. But again, it was
you know, and and there were there were small things
throughout the series that just added you know, the full
uh touch of class to things that that really impressed me.
Like the Jay's bullpen. Did you see that with they
all all the bullpen guys put Vessie's number on their cap.

Speaker 1 (17:44):
Oh, I didn't know that. I didn't notice that.

Speaker 2 (17:46):
Yeah, yeah, they all put Vessie's number, the Jays did
on their cap as a sign of respect for his situation.
And yeah, and that's that's a nice touch. It really was,
you know. Ah, there are just so many little things
and yeah, Hey, the Jays did everything they could. The

(18:08):
Dodgers did everything they could, and.

Speaker 1 (18:11):
Dan that was a shame that somebody had to lose.

Speaker 2 (18:13):
And uh, it's I think there's only six or eight
games that went into extra that in the history of
the game have gone into extra innings in a game seven.
There's not very many. So that shows you the stature
I think of what we witnessed, and I think it
was a historic type World series Rich I really.

Speaker 1 (18:32):
Yeah, I mean Miguel Rojas's was a huge surprise. Obviously,
Will Smith's home run in the eleventh was the clincher. Yeah,
but you know, I'm saying, look, I want to try
to be put our analysis had on o that I
don't watch a lot of Dodgers games in the season
from beginning to end. But this team is old. I mean, oh,

(18:57):
Tommy's goes Spring Chicken at thirty one. Smith is over thirty,
Freeman is thirty six or seven, Bets is old. Months
He's went close to forty and then the bottom with
Key k Hernandez and Migul Rojas and sometimes they had
Andy Payosses.

Speaker 2 (19:12):
And Tommy edmund Yeah, Tommy Edmunds, Yeah.

Speaker 1 (19:17):
He play he didn't play well, but he's he's reason.
This is an old team and you kind of wonder
if they're starting to run out of gas.

Speaker 2 (19:27):
Well, and then we hear the rumors that the Dodgers
are all in on Kyle Tucker.

Speaker 1 (19:32):
Yeah, kind of some why don't you?

Speaker 2 (19:35):
Yeah, well, yeah, there is there is a reason with
without a dot. And the thing with the Dodgers is, yeah,
it's an old team and they definitely have some holes
to fill, Okay, but they'll fill them.

Speaker 1 (19:53):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (19:54):
I have no doubt in my mind that the Dodgers
team that we saw win this World Series, uh, next
fall at this time, it is going to look a
tad different. How was that?

Speaker 1 (20:06):
Okay? If it doesn't, I don't think they're winning next year.
I I I mean, this is this is a Fantasy
Stars and Scrubs team, and they've obviously got a Tani
and Freeman at the top, but these guys are older.
It feels like, I mean, they barely won. And with
that pitching staff that they have, I mean, particularly Yamamoda
and potentially Sasaki, coming's still young players that that that

(20:30):
starting lineup is just old. And I think at some
point they need to figure out what to do. They
do have a lot of nice young prospects, but uh,
you know, maybe payoffs as they move on from him
and bring up one of the kids. I don't know,
but I think they will make the moves. I agree
with you.

Speaker 2 (20:49):
Yeah, And I think I think payoffs is solid. He
got into he slumped at the end of the year.
They did what they had to do. But who made
the who made the big catch in the oat field?

Speaker 1 (20:58):
He did, and that that I think most guys could
have caught that. That was a pretty impressive catch.

Speaker 2 (21:03):
Yeah, running over Hernandez in the process, right.

Speaker 1 (21:07):
Hey, gotta do what you gotta do.

Speaker 2 (21:09):
What you gotta do, Yeah, yeah, exactly, Yes, to get
out of the way or yeah. Yeah. And you know,
I I don't have any concerns about payoffs for next season,
none whatsoever. And like I said, I think the Dodgers,
the Dodgers will find ways. You know, Hey, they've obviously

(21:30):
they've got a bullpen situation they've got to address. You know,
is Zaki the answer there? Or does he move into
the rotation? Well it didn't work out this year, will
they give it another shot? Is there surgery coming up
at some point in time? We don't know, but there's
still an incredible amount of potential sitting in that arm.

(21:52):
Okay hasn't been tapped yet. But I I and again,
the Dodgers will do what the Dodgers have to do
to get or they'll find a way to They'll fix
that bullpen one way or the other. And I think
they'll bring in some They'll bring in some fresh fresh
blood and they will be I think we're looking at
the potential here for a Yankees type run that we

(22:15):
saw at the end of the nineties. I honestly do.

Speaker 1 (22:19):
I My only reservation is Tani's thirty one point three,
Bookie Betts thirty three point one, Freddie Freeman thirty six,
thirty four, Will Smith will be thirty one of the
season starts, Taskars thirty three, Tommy Edwards thirty point five.
It's not till you get to the back of the
lineup with Payos, Hasan Kim and they've got Alex Friedman

(22:41):
in there because Max Months, I guess, is a free agent.
But it's an old team, Tim.

Speaker 2 (22:46):
Yeah, it is they But I think for the next
two to three years they're going to beat the team
to beat every year. The combination of the talent that
they have and the fact that they'll go get more
and they will do what it takes to get it done.
Those are my thoughts. Anyways, the next two three years, yeah,
after I have.

Speaker 1 (23:06):
Tendency to agree with you. But I mean some of
these guys are on long term contracts. I mean, Rookie
Betts is still let's see click on his name when
to see a free agent at mcnaw my ers. That's
fronty side. Oh here he is free agent twelve years
around sixty five. He signed through twenty and thirty two.

Speaker 2 (23:26):
He's not going Toreddy Freddy Freeman's got to be signed
for another two three years. I would think Otani has
signed for the next forty I think, isn't he something
like that?

Speaker 1 (23:35):
Oh yeah, nine eight years left and probably sign So
Freeman is through twenty twenty seven, so he's actually getting
close to being done. He's only got two more years.

Speaker 2 (23:47):
You'll retire as a Dodger.

Speaker 1 (23:50):
I would think so. But you know, it's again, these
guys are getting old, and old guys get hurt. And
you know, if they if they bring in another Kyle Tucker,
let's say they bring him in, they're going it's gonna
be ten years and they'll be in the same kind
of you know, long term commitment to that. It's it's
it'll be interesting, but it's obviously Tim is right. I
think that's still the team to beat. The pitching alone.

(24:12):
I just worry about Yamamoto grabbing him as a top
five pitcher with how much he pitched in the postseason.
One hundred and seventy three innings in the regular season,
and it must have been another twenty or thirty in
the postseason.

Speaker 2 (24:27):
I would say maybe closer to forty.

Speaker 1 (24:29):
Yeah, that's I don't know, man.

Speaker 2 (24:31):
Yeah, I mean I I would. I would be willing
to wager right now that come in WBC time next spring,
O Tawni will play as a bat and bat only
and Yamamoto won't be partaking.

Speaker 1 (24:47):
I mean, if you're the Dodgers, you can't let him play.
You just can't.

Speaker 2 (24:52):
No, I he's a top five starter in the league. Yeah.
The only two that I have clearly ahead of him
right now are scoobling schemes.

Speaker 1 (25:03):
Yep.

Speaker 2 (25:04):
Yeah, so no, I would be shocked. And you know,
Team Japan does not need Yamamoto. They've got they've got,
they've If I'm not mistaken, they had, oh the worst
era in their top ten from both divisions, which is
top twenty. The worst era that came out of Japan
this year was a three H three.

Speaker 1 (25:25):
Who do you think anchors that that staff?

Speaker 2 (25:29):
Uh, there's three or four arms that could anchor it. Okay,
coming coming out of the the NPB, guys that we
won't see for another couple of years. Right now, it's
a it's a dead ball era in Japan, and pitchers
are taking advantage of it and racking up incredible numbers.

(25:50):
And they have the they have the arms that they
can look internally and not go to their MLB players
and still have a rotation will be miles better than
anybody else will put on the field.

Speaker 1 (26:04):
Yeah. So Toronto flat Guerrera seemed to be you know,
we mentioned this on the On the Prospect podcast. He
acts like he's the best player in the field, which
includes a Toddy. I love that confidence from him. He's
a great baseball player, seems to me, Timmy, he's just

(26:26):
getting started.

Speaker 2 (26:28):
Yeah, he's he's the guy that you build a team around.
He does everything right with even with even that first
base Yeah, that was coat.

Speaker 1 (26:42):
I don't know, I don't know that kind of athleticism.
Maybe he dove and the ball fell into his glove,
I don't know, but it was it was impressive.

Speaker 2 (26:50):
Yeah. No, defensively, his defensive game has improved remarkably over
the past two seasons. I would have to say at
first base now he falls into the category of being
an elite defender. Wow, okay, yeah, no, it's it's been
impressive to watch that transformation. It really has. And you know,
he just does everything right, you know, with the with

(27:13):
the fans, he is that team leader, and witnessing what
we saw in the World Series. I have no problems
with the Jays and what they did as far as
signing him to that. Yeah, he's gonna be the He's
gonna be the face of that team for the next

(27:34):
seven eight years, and I think he's going to be
a very good face.

Speaker 1 (27:37):
Look, Bobaschet's had his problems, and you can't deny that
home run.

Speaker 2 (27:41):
He's it.

Speaker 1 (27:41):
That was an absolute bomb against so Toddy, who quite
frankly didn't have it. Timmy, he should have never started
that game. He just he couldn't throw strikes and it
just didn't have it.

Speaker 2 (27:53):
No, No, he was worn out, as simple as that. Yeah,
he was Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1 (27:59):
I didn't get the subtlety of why Schneider got all
upset that Otani took an extra minute to come out.
Then it was revealed that because he's a two way player,
he gets extra time between that's that's what they said.
I didn't realize that was a thing. If it is,
I don't like that. I think he should. You should

(28:20):
have to come out like everybody else does.

Speaker 2 (28:22):
Yeah, they did limit his pitches after schneyd'er complaining. I
think you're supposed to have ten pitches. I think between
you know, warm up pitches whatever. I think they cut
him back, and I think it was smarter schein Schneier
because it I think it. I think it affected Otani. Yeah, okay,
and that whole situation, But I I agree with what

(28:44):
you're saying. I don't think Otani should be treated any differently. Okay,
then the tray you Savage, okay, or any Blue Jay pitcher.
If you have a minute and a half, okay, bring
his glove. Ot if you have to, okay, do what
you have to do. But if the rule says you
have X amount of time just because you're playing in

(29:08):
the field, that is your choice.

Speaker 1 (29:09):
We don't exactly.

Speaker 2 (29:11):
We don't ubsurp the rules to give you extra time
simply because you have made a choice to play the
game that way. And I agree with what Schneider did,
and I think it did have some of some effect
on what we saw from Otani.

Speaker 1 (29:26):
You said it much more eloquently than I did, but
I totally one thousand agree with you. I think it's
your choice, a tony big shot, if you want to
play both ways. Here are the rules, and they're not.
We're not going to give you an extra minute or two,
uh to get your to take an extra break, an
extra you know, dairy queen Blizzard too bad.

Speaker 2 (29:49):
Yeah, this isn't This isn't Beer League with the boys
exactly exactly.

Speaker 1 (29:55):
I get the whole health thing, and I mean all that,
I get all of that, but right that he's cho
to do that, So I think we're both in violent agreement.
To me, just take a break of congratulations to the
Dodgers and congratulations to the Blue Jays. Thank you for
a great world series. I enjoyed myself incredibly on yet

(30:16):
last night and throughout the whole world series. It was great.

Speaker 2 (30:20):
Couldn't couldn't agree more wholeheartedly rich. It was awesome.

Speaker 1 (30:23):
Huh, take a right to come back and let's talk
adventures of Tim McCleod. So I've never been to a
World Well that's not true. I have been to minor

(30:46):
league championship series, which is funny. The tickets are actually
cheaper than they are during the regular season because nobody's
coming to the to the Uh, it's crazy in the
minor league world I mean usually price tickets. So you
get maybe a fifteen dollars ticket, you're getting a for
eight bucks and which is great, and the seats are

(31:06):
wide open. You clearly got a free ticket to go
to the World Series. Just tell us about tell us
about the seventy two hours that you spent. Take us
from leaving the house and through everything.

Speaker 2 (31:22):
Well, all I can say is it was probably the
fastest seventy two hours of my life, coming out of
the slowest seventy two hours of my body. Okay, did
I think I've been do her? Okay? You know it's funny.
I like to think I'm fairly young, and from the

(31:43):
neck up, I think that's probably a fair statement. Yeah,
I think I'm fairly young, But at sixty seven, my
body is saying not quite so much rich. So anyhow,
Thursday morning, I was flying out of Thunder Bay at
four o'clock in the afternoon. Okay, okay, so I had

(32:07):
to drive into thunder Bay. Okay, well, get in the car,
drive for four hours, get into thunder Bay, check in early.
Because you you and I both know that my history
of flying is limited. The best so of of all
of the things I want to do is like be late, right.

Speaker 1 (32:27):
Particularly for once in a lifetime opportunity. That means you
probably have to drive the rest of the way if
you missed that flight.

Speaker 2 (32:35):
So, and the odds of that happening were about the
same as winning power Ball back to back. Okay, yeah,
that that was not going to happen. So anyhow, got in,
got got on the got on the flight, and I'm
flying on a turbo prop. I can't remember what the plane.

Speaker 1 (32:52):
Oh, that sucks.

Speaker 2 (32:54):
And you know the seats the plane was packed. Okay,
well they got these seats. It looks like you're sitting
on the floor. It looks like something out of a
World War two okay, cargile plane. Right. So anyhow, I
assume the fetal position, the sitting fetal position, okay, and

(33:17):
by the time we landed. Uh, I was pretty cramped up,
to say the least. I was the last person off
the plane. I let everybody go first because I wanted
to hobble, hobble in silence at the end of the
line rather than holding people up.

Speaker 1 (33:33):
Wow.

Speaker 2 (33:34):
Oh yeah. And what was really neat is I don't
I don't know if if you've ever flown into Toronto
and landed at Billy you always flew into Pearson though correct.

Speaker 1 (33:46):
I flew into the because I, coming from the US,
I can only fly in. That's not true. I flew
private a couple of times, and I went into the
airport you're talking about, which.

Speaker 2 (33:55):
Was Billy Bishop on the island.

Speaker 1 (33:56):
I didn't remember the name.

Speaker 2 (33:59):
Yeah, it's it's Billy Bishop. It's named after World War
One areas of ours. Okay. And the neat thing about
landing landing at Billy Bishop as you come in over
at the lake, okay.

Speaker 1 (34:13):
And I remember that.

Speaker 2 (34:15):
I purposely picked a window so I could see the
Toronto skyline. Well, what happened was it was rainy, it
was foggy, Okay. So we spent twenty minutes in the
landing procedure. Okay. And I don't fly much, so I'm
not a big fan of flying, okay. And all I
see outside are effing clouds, okay. And then all of

(34:37):
a sudden we break through the clouds and we're like
twenty feet over the water and the sea and tower
is right to my right, and I'm thinking, oh my god,
where is this thing gonna put down? Okay, do I
have to get ready for the for the two.

Speaker 1 (34:50):
Twenty I doubt it was twenty feet, but I get
your point, so yeah.

Speaker 2 (34:55):
Yeah, let's just say but eventually we got stopped to change.
You get you was in order? Okay, Sure it was
a beautiful it was maybe it was a it was
a beautiful scene, Okay, looking at the skyline of Toronto
as you're coming in and landing and got off the plane.

(35:17):
Everything's cool. And the reason you want Billy Bishop to
land at if you're flying in is because you're right downtown. Ye. Okay.
You get off the plane, you go into take an
escalator that goes down about four four stories, and there's
a tunnel that goes right across to the mainland with
a walking side moving sidewalk.

Speaker 1 (35:38):
Mhm.

Speaker 2 (35:40):
Okay, so that is just perfect. Okay. You emerge into
basically downtown Toronto, okay, and then then the fight starts, okay,
because I'm not going too far okay, and nobody wants
to Nobody wants to take me as a as a
cab fare, right.

Speaker 1 (35:58):
So you're having to walk the rest of the way.

Speaker 2 (36:00):
Well, No, I sat there and I watched two people
fight over not wanting to carry me the mile and
a half to my hotel, right, which was entertaining, you
know it's and basically I said to both of them
at one point, I I don't give a shit. Somebody
opened the door, and I want to get to the hotel, right,

(36:20):
quote un quote yeah, another side of me rich.

Speaker 1 (36:26):
Yeah. Yeah. So so you finally got to the hotel.
The hotel was nice.

Speaker 2 (36:31):
Yeah, it was an airbnb about three blocks away from uh.
I still want to call it the SkyDome from Rogers Center. Okay.
We were on the twenty fifth floor. I don't like heights. Okay.
I got this thing happening okay, pretty high. So apparently, yes,

(36:53):
it is rich information I might have needed to know
before before a book. But and the thing that was
neat was across It was a corner room that overlooked
basically the Aquarium, the Sea and Tower and Rogers Center,
that whole complex. You could see it. It was, you know,
like four blocks away.

Speaker 1 (37:14):
Yeah, I saw the pictures in it. It looked like
the Rogers Center was right there.

Speaker 2 (37:18):
Yeah. Yeah, so are the windows because they went from
roof to floor.

Speaker 1 (37:24):
See that that could be terrifying if you're not used
to that. That that'll definitely give you some vertigo.

Speaker 2 (37:31):
So yeah, and it did. It will be up in
a hurry. Yeah, So check checked in. Everything looks good.
I'm there for maybe maybe an hour if that forty
five minutes, just unwinding, and the fire alarms go off. Okay,
and then I got some I got some a one
voice speaking through the intercom suggesting that the building's being evacuated.

(37:57):
Don't take the elevators.

Speaker 1 (37:59):
Okay, you've been crunched up in a small airplane that's
been circling Toronto. That you've got to walk a good
part of the way, and now you're just starting to
relax a little bit. Now you're gonna walk down twenty
five flights of stairs.

Speaker 2 (38:17):
That pretty well sums it up in a nutshell, only
to get only to get downstairs, whereupon I can barely
stand Okay, my knees are so baked. Okay, I could
probably run one hundred meters in four and a half minutes. Okay,
I get downstairs, and you know, there's the front desk

(38:37):
and there's people all over the place. Okay, it's a
it's a huge building. It's a it's not it's a condo,
but a good chunk of it apparently is yeah, yeah,
being bees. So get up the guy and at the desk.
Nice enough, guy, Well what's up here? He said, nothing
to be concerned about. Happens about once a month. And then,

(39:00):
oh man, at that point in time, I was ready
to blow a gas, but had to wait outside for
half an hour because I sure as hell wasn't walking
up twenty five floors walking down was a killer. And
they don't get the elevators going until they get a
fire inspector in there. It takes at least half an
hour to okay, it's for use of the elevators. Well,
and you got you know, you've only got sevent eight

(39:21):
hundred your best friends lining up to get into an
elevator half an hour later, where even standing outside the
building in the rain. So other than that, it was
a good start.

Speaker 1 (39:30):
Yeah, it's funny. We live in a building in high
rise building in New Jersey and it's a multi use building.
So the first floor all the restaurants and okay, once
it used to be all the time, and it's more
like once a quarter they'll have a small fire or
just stuff. Grease builds up. You'd be surprised how often

(39:51):
a restaurant has a problem and the alarm goes off.
It's gotten so bad at our building, people don't even
leave their condos anywhere. They just wait we get the
all clear because they know what it is.

Speaker 2 (40:03):
Well, yeah, I based on my cooking and my love
for I know how often fires start in the kitchen. Okay,
I managed to pull it off myself a few times. Okay,
when you got a whole mess of restaurants, you're gonna
have grease fighters, right, Yes, yeah.

Speaker 1 (40:16):
There was one. They had renovated a restaurant and they
hadn't got the uh the the alarm working properly. And
it's a really nice restaurant too, and it would go
off every two weeks. So so what they did is
they sent a note to all the residents and said,
we're sorry about this, come in and have appetizers on us,
so we would go down all the time and have

(40:38):
appetizers because we were waking up in the middle of
the night with the stupid alarm going off that was malfunctioning.
So I know where you come from.

Speaker 2 (40:46):
Okay, can I have twenty seconds.

Speaker 1 (40:49):
Hold them for a second. Let's take a quick break,
and when we come back, we'll hear more about life
with Tim. Listen to the great Timm Clouds stories of

(41:12):
his trip out to UH to the game. And he
had to interrupt because you had to order meat pies
from the same person that made him the funeral sandwiches,
so quite a supply.

Speaker 2 (41:27):
Well, I tell you, you gotta do what you gotta do.
But my Christmas meat pies? Can I can wait for
nobody rich the sandwiches? That's a yeah, that's a different story.
Don't need to go back there.

Speaker 1 (41:39):
Talk to me more about the game. I spent spent
a few minutes telling me about the game. I mean,
was it was it loud in there? I know that
you when you sent me pictures, I already know this.
You said you were about to lose your hearing. Like,
how was the vibe of the game.

Speaker 2 (41:53):
Uh, it was exceptional? That's all I can say. The
the the actual anthem, the crowd drowned out the live singer. Okay,
it was that loud. Wow, absolutely spectacular. The seats were great,

(42:15):
they really were. They were over first base, just at
the beginning of the second deck. Okay, so there were
great seats, they really were. Getting into the place was
was easy, there was, There was no problems getting in
by this time, though, my knees were shot, so I
was working in slow motion. Okay. It took it took

(42:38):
a while for me to get to my seat and
get covered. But again, good seats. We left. We left early.
I was looking at you know, trying to pick up
some you know, maybe some Caps T shirts whatever. When
we got in the door and we were there at
five thirty, okay, two and a half hours before game time.

Speaker 1 (42:57):
Wow.

Speaker 2 (42:57):
The weight to get into the store at the Dome
was an hour and a half. Goodness, really so the
weight to get into the store. They were lined up.
I don't think I've ever seen that many people in
a line. I took one look at that instead, you know,
online there there we go. Yeah, yeah, no, that's not

(43:18):
going to happen.

Speaker 1 (43:20):
Uh kind of like what kind of what kind of
food did you eat?

Speaker 2 (43:24):
What kind of food? Uh? Uh we ate before the game.

Speaker 1 (43:30):
You didn't eat any food at the game.

Speaker 2 (43:32):
No, No, it was just the place was just so
packed everything you wanted. You're waiting, you know what I mean.
You get forty five thousand people, the place is packed
to the roof. Yeah, it's elbow to elbow. I I
don't think I could ever be that hungry that I
would wait that long. Well, one of those Yeah, you

(43:56):
gotta do what you gotta do.

Speaker 1 (43:57):
Eh, And you were most rest with the Yama mod.
It just give us a little bit of kind of
what you were expecting and what you actually saw.

Speaker 2 (44:09):
Well. I was expecting to see a pitcher in command
of things, and he was. But the big difference live
was everything looked so much quicker and so much faster. Okay,
it really did his uh me and pitches by far
his best game, But I wasn't expecting.

Speaker 1 (44:32):
Well that was a complete game though, right.

Speaker 2 (44:35):
Uh No, he only went I think he went about
six innings. That was the game that was Yeah, that
was the game that was decided by the ball stuck
in the outfield. Yeah, and that's that's a problem the
Jays have to address at this offseason. I don't care

(44:56):
what you do. The ball was not wedged in there
point nobody could remove it. It was simple they did.
They threw it back to the infield. But they're going
to put a plastic strip along the bottom of that
rubber or do something drop it down so that that
can't happen again. That that costs that that situation a
one in a million costa Jays. I think Game six

(45:18):
are a good shot at Game six because they had
to tie it up, had both those runners scored, and
they were the right two runners to have, you know,
coming from second and third, right. But I think with
yama motor, the thing that impressed me the most is
that it was such a fluid and easy swing and
everything appeared to be much more lively than it does

(45:44):
watching it on the television, And yeah, it's I think
it's like that when you see every game. But I
was far enough up just watching how much life he
had on all of his pitches and they were all
coming from exactly the same delivery. You know, it just
totally impressed me, It really did. I can't say enough

(46:05):
about Yamamoto and what I saw in Game six, and
I know it wasn't his best performance, but just the
way he carried himself, the way he went about his business,
and the fact that everything was just so lively it
was impressive.

Speaker 1 (46:20):
Ch What was your feeling on Sasaki when he saw him.

Speaker 2 (46:28):
I still think there's an incredible amount of potential there.
But I think at some point in time the Dodgers
are going to have to make a decision as to
what to do with that arm. And I I don't
see Sazaki as a starting pitcher unless they do something, Okay,

(46:50):
I that's just my random thoughts. I think he's a reliever, okay,
until until they do something about fixing that arm. And
I don't I think there's still a problem there. I
think there was a problem all year, okay, And you
spend a lot of time on the I l as
a result of that problem. It's I'll be I'll be

(47:12):
fascinated to see what happens with him over the next
year or two. But my gut says there's an elbow
surgery in his future.

Speaker 1 (47:22):
Yeah, you're probably right. You're probably right, I mean, but
you can say that about most guys, particularly young kids
that throw a hundred miles an hour. Yeah, but the stuff.
Did the stuff with electric?

Speaker 2 (47:34):
It was? It was okay, it wasn't electric. I didn't.
I didn't find it electric. No I I what I
saw was a picture that he didn't appear to have
the confidence that I thought he should have. Yeah, I'm
also had all the confidence in the world. Okay, Yeah,
Yeahmamoto and guys like Vladdie. You know, they carried themselves

(47:59):
in a man or. You knew that they knew. Okay,
I didn't see that same from Sizzaki.

Speaker 1 (48:07):
No, you didn't even get a hot dog at.

Speaker 2 (48:10):
The No, No, well there wasn't.

Speaker 1 (48:14):
There wasn't guys coming around selling stuff.

Speaker 2 (48:18):
Oh yeah, popcorn. I didn't want a face full of popcorn. Okay, No, no,
that did. That didn't. If I wanted popcorn and beer,
I would have been fine. Okay, but I'm not much
of a drinker, and you know, popcorn not really my thing.
Rich So yeah, no, I I pretty much, And I
would say I probably spent at least half the game, uh, standing, sitting, standing, sitting.

(48:43):
Anytime anything of intrigue occurred, everybody in the place was standing.

Speaker 1 (48:49):
Okay, so were you.

Speaker 2 (48:51):
My knee my knees enjoyed that about as much as
walking down twenty.

Speaker 1 (48:57):
Were they already starting to sit back down and you
were finally getting opposite.

Speaker 2 (49:00):
That I thought. I thought one of the ushers was
gonna grab a hoyer lift for me. Okay, wow, and
we go from there, but no, every I we sat
beside a couple of uh Dodger fans a general. Yeah,

(49:21):
they were absolutely great. We had had a wonderful time,
you know, discussing baseball and wife and everything else. And
he said he's, uh, he had tickets for Game seven okay,
and they've they were at the early games. Okay, so well,
but I said, how are you how are you enjoying Canada?

(49:41):
And he said, we're looking to see if we can
move here. Yeah, yeah, no, which was very nice to hear.
Like I said, they were just great people.

Speaker 1 (49:51):
That's great. A beautiful city, incredibly clean and well maintained.
It's it's very nice.

Speaker 2 (49:57):
Yeah, yeah, you know, walking through the downtown area. Okay,
Because when went and went in the afternoon visited the
Hockey Hall of Fame, it was about twenty two hundred
and fourteen steps I think from where we were staying,
give or take.

Speaker 1 (50:13):
I stayed at a hotel there right next door to
the to the Royal York. I don't know.

Speaker 2 (50:19):
Yeah, yeah, it would be the Royal York probably.

Speaker 1 (50:22):
Yeah, but it's but it never went. So you got
to go see the Hockey Hall of Fame. I go,
I can see it. It's run out my window.

Speaker 2 (50:30):
There is well done. We'll play. Yeah, no it no.
There's a lot to do in Toronto, and it's a
very for a large city. It's very clean, it's very
very friendly. I don't have I didn't have any problems.
We went for supper the first night at ten o'clock
because the gentleman that I was with, he didn't get
in until around nine o'clock and he had to get

(50:53):
from Pearson downtown, so that's a little bit of a chore.
But we went for supper late. I had no problems
at all. Walk in downtown Toronto. It was no, it
was no, you know. And again, the whole community, all
fifteen million, the support out of the community was absolutely incredible.

(51:15):
And I gotta be honest with you, the h they
didn't they didn't pull any punches. When it came time
to looking at the police support surrounding this event, they
probably they probably had a thousand thousand police outside the building.
You walked out and there was a double line and

(51:37):
they were all friendly, okay. They were all dressed in
basically full swat gear okay, and they had all the
big trucks out and everything else. It was very very
well organized. The police were very friendly, et cetera, et cetera.
But they were there to do a job and to
make sure things didn't get stupid. And things didn't get stupid.
Like I said, there were people taking pictures of themselves

(51:59):
with the cops. Okay.

Speaker 1 (52:01):
Oh and well, I mean I think that makes everybody
feel safer, and I think this is stuff. Well it's unfortunate,
but the world be living. You've got to show police
force or things can get out of hand.

Speaker 2 (52:11):
So but it was a very gentle force rich if
that makes sense. So I mean, nothing heavy.

Speaker 1 (52:18):
If I can maybe summarize this great time. Loved the game.
Saw some of the players that you've always admire from AFAR,
got a chance to see them close up. I'm not
sure you're going to do it again, at least in
the next couple of years.

Speaker 2 (52:34):
Well, you know, like like I said, I I love it,
But you get to a stage in life where it's
just hard, Okay, I got bad knees, okay, I got
a ticker that limits my walking ability, and for large
functions like that, it's not conducive to me. Attending doesn't
mean I don't want to know. It's just I've got

(52:56):
to the stage in my life where I know when
accept my limitations, and I don't very much if I'll
ever attend another World Series. I've seen two Game six
in World Series. I saw the eighty seven game in Minneapolis.
I remember that, yeah, yeah, but it's it's just, uh,
it's just tough. I know my my father in law,

(53:18):
he is oh ninety five, okay, My my one brother
in law and his best friend. They offered to take
Alex down for uh game one or two, and he
turned them down. He just said, at ninety five, it's
just too much, okay, and uh, I get it.

Speaker 1 (53:42):
Cost factor is just these events have gotten to be
I can't even imagine what Game seven tickets were going for, but.

Speaker 2 (53:49):
It's like, yeah, and that that's that would be probably
my biggest pet peeve. I was truly blessed. Okay. I
had had a d on the West Coast who got
two comp tickets, okay, and he asked me if I
wanted to go, and of course I said, hey, I'm

(54:10):
not going to turn that down. But even even with that,
the plane flight cost me almost one thousand bucks. The
airbnb was another five hundred. It was still a two
thousand dollars weekend, which is not unreasonable, not by any
stretch of the imagination for what you're getting, what you're witnessing.

Speaker 1 (54:26):
But it would have been four thousand dollars if you
had to pay for the ticket.

Speaker 2 (54:30):
Well. I looked. I looked before actually was it was
in the Rogers side. I just thought a curiosity. I
looked at a at one of the secondary ticket sellers
right their market. The seats that we were sitting in
we're going for at that point in time, heading into
Game six, I think it was forty six or forty

(54:50):
seven hundred a ticket.

Speaker 1 (54:53):
Okay, so yeah, so that's twice as much as you
pull to. I mean, so that's I mean, you talk
about people from Los Angeles, that's quite impressive that they
came out and saw four games there.

Speaker 2 (55:05):
Wow, they were Yeah, they were obviously people that were
doing fairly well in life to be able to afford
that situation. There was a ticket available. I looked on
Sunday behind home plate, okay, right behind home plate, and
they wanted eighty six thousand for it? Yeah you know,

(55:26):
I yeah, good luck. I one of the problems that
I like. I don't have any problems with people trying
to benefit somewhat okay off of special events. But when
you got a ticket that's five hundred dollars, okay, where

(55:46):
does it end? I think with the secondary market and
the way it's currently being run, it is really limiting
the live attendance to major sporting events to a very
elite few. Hey, you got to have a big chunk
of change. Would I ever pay forty five hundred dollars
for a ticket to a World Series game? Not a

(56:08):
open Hell? I would never do it, okay, the only reason.

Speaker 1 (56:11):
It's more to a Super Bowl game? I mean.

Speaker 2 (56:15):
Yeah. And you know what would I think should happen?
I think changes should be made to how that. You know,
a good friend of mine from my high school days
he asked me if I wanted to go see Rush
with him in Toronto, okay, and he was trying to,
you know, procure tickets. The best he could do was
nine hundred ticket for noseblades. Okay, I'm not. I'm not

(56:38):
I'm not paying that. Yeah, hey, maybe maybe people will.

Speaker 1 (56:41):
It's just the reform Rush without Neil Pert.

Speaker 2 (56:45):
Yeah yeah, on this current upcoming tour. Yeah, they were. Yeah,
it was nine hundred plus a ticket. You know. The
last time I saw Rush, I think I paid five
bucks cash money.

Speaker 1 (56:56):
I saw him in Madison Square Garden probably fifteen years ago.
Lourie took me and she she'll go anywhere with me
except to another Rush concert.

Speaker 2 (57:05):
Because she she's the only woman in the building. Right.

Speaker 1 (57:07):
I think you could have counted, truly could have counted
on the one hand. So except for the woman that had
the big fly By night uh tattoo all on the
back of her body. It was her whole back was
the fly by and we could take it, could take
her eyes off her like wow.

Speaker 2 (57:24):
Yeah, but no, I think it's getting to the stage
where something should be done. I hate you know, if
a ticket, if the shelf price of a ticket is
two hundred and fifty bucks, let's cap at the five
hundred illegal tickets.

Speaker 1 (57:40):
It's a society. It's definitely a societal problem. It is
the diverging of economies that we've got in the world,
and it's people who can afford stuff. I mean they
can have they they can pay for whatever they want
and then but there's a huge swath of the population
that can't and have to kind of take their you know,

(58:00):
those things that they want to spend big one and
you've got to really isolate it if you can even
do that, And I think that's a problem. It's a
problem in the music business as well. If you want
to go to a big concert, I mean, you're gonna
pay through the nose to watch those performers. And a
lot of was talked about with the Taylor Swift tour
that went through and how much money it made. But

(58:22):
at least here in the US, Live Nation is the
thing that controls all of the ticketing and it's a
monopoly that's actually been looked up in the Justice Department.
Until they can kind of break that monopoly, you can
get some better competition to actually lower the fees. I
think we're gonna have this for you know, foreseeable future.
And to pay forty five dollars for a game six,

(58:45):
probably eight or nine for a game seven, that's just crazy.

Speaker 2 (58:50):
Yeah, it is totally totally insane.

Speaker 1 (58:53):
You're not gonna go by yourself so if you're gonna
go as a couple, it's going to be fifteen grand
just to go go to the go to the US
doing nine any baseball game.

Speaker 2 (59:03):
Yeah, I mean I have to sell I have to
sell a kidney to get the flight down. Okay, you
cann't sell one. No, it's it's just got to the
point where I think it's I think it's outrageous, and
I think, hey, I I don't know what the answer
is short of lining up for your tickets and getting
the old paper ticket before you know, before the event,

(59:24):
I don't. I don't know what the answer is. But
I think a lot of people will never get the
opportunity to see a a a huge musical like a Swift, okay,
or yeah, I mean your top you know, the Elton
Elton John Tour, the last tour to get to see

(59:46):
major artists or major sporting events. I think it's priced
itself now out of the range of the majority of people.
I think that leaves me feeling sort of sad. It
really does.

Speaker 1 (59:56):
It is it is, and it's uh. Now you get
why major League Baseball so much wanted all of the
postseason money and didn't really care about the regular season money.
Now you see, you know where because they're collecting on
a lot of those you know, secondary markets don't if
anybody thinks. And this happens with performers as well. They

(01:00:18):
are performers are given a block of tickets and most
and they can give it to anybody. Sometimes they give
it to family members, and most of the time it
goes in the secondary market, and they make a ton
of money off of that. So they get a free
comp ticket, they'll probably get two hundred tickets they sell
on the on the secondary market and make another fifty
grand off of that from the venue. And the same

(01:00:39):
thing is true with the teams and Major League Baseball.
They're taking a lot of those tickets and going straight
to the secondary market.

Speaker 2 (01:00:48):
Yeah, and I would have to you know, when you look,
each team is allocated so many World Series tickets. Okay,
is a family of a and I don't feel there
in the Rockies or is he taking his wife to
Game seven? No, No, they'll give the ticket away to
somebody or selling on the like you said, on the

(01:01:10):
secondary market. And I don't know. I I just think somehow,
some way, there should be a way for people to
attend live events without having to put the second mortgage
on their house.

Speaker 1 (01:01:23):
Yeah, I think that ship has passed. I think that
ship has passed. Unfortunately, hopefully there'll be some right sizing.
You know, there's the economies. Never it's not always going
to be roaring like it is. And again, I know
here in the United States we've got snap benefits that
have just been stopped. Is that benefits of the former
food stamps, And you've got people really really hurting. And

(01:01:46):
that's on one hand. On the other hand, you got
a forty five ticket because see because see a baseball game.

Speaker 2 (01:01:52):
Something, you finished something right away, you put it out there,
it's gone.

Speaker 1 (01:01:56):
Yeah. Yeah, but that's certainly great story thing.

Speaker 2 (01:02:02):
Yeah it was. It was an awesome time. It really was.
But again, I'm not as young as I once thought
I was.

Speaker 1 (01:02:12):
So next uh so, if the if the Patriots make
it into Somerset, Patriots make it into their Double A championship,
come down with me. I'll spur set the tickets eight bucks.

Speaker 2 (01:02:24):
Done like dinner. And you know what, that's one of
the reasons other than getting together with friends, that I
love the Arizona Fall League. Yeah, you stroll up to
the window, you see future stars of the game, you
sit behind home plate, you pay ten bucks, You have
a hot dog and a beer or a nice tea
or whatever you want, and you can enjoy two and

(01:02:45):
a half hours of baseball and it's pure as fine
as best and that I love.

Speaker 1 (01:02:51):
That, not even a hot dog. You didn't even get
a hot dog.

Speaker 2 (01:02:56):
Well, seventy five bus hot dog mustard was five bucks
a square.

Speaker 1 (01:03:02):
Yes, that's what I wanted to see. I wanted to
see five hot dog. I want to see the price dag.
I love stuff like that. It's a great No, the odds.

Speaker 2 (01:03:11):
Odds are best for me and my next Jay's game
will be when they have uh, when they have looney
and tuny dog Nights. Okay, I don't know what that is.

Speaker 1 (01:03:21):
Uh.

Speaker 2 (01:03:22):
They have them four or five times a year where
you can get a hot dog for uh. I think
they're I think they are too looney dogs. Still for
a buck you can get a hot dog. I can't
remember how many tens of thousands of hot dogs they
go through on those nights. Yeah, but it's spectacular, it
really is. You know, Hey, take take a Mammy for
out to eat for twenty bucks and they're good for

(01:03:43):
two Ya's right.

Speaker 1 (01:03:44):
There's uh. In my little Myrtle Beach Stadium I go
to on Tuesday nights. I always go Tuesday nights. They
have half off hot dogs Chicago hot Dogs because it's
a Chicago affiliate. So I think two buck hot dogs
are their gigantic They have all the trimmings on it
and stuff like that. It's fantastic. It's like I go there,

(01:04:05):
there's no line because nobody goes to the games and
give me my hot dog and I go sit down.
I'm golden.

Speaker 2 (01:04:11):
So it didn't. Does life get any better than a.

Speaker 1 (01:04:15):
Two and a ten dollars ticket? I mean, I call
me cheap, but I am cheap. I like I feel
good when I'm sitting down with that, Like I feel
like I beat the system.

Speaker 2 (01:04:26):
Yeah, I go. Your thoughts on.

Speaker 1 (01:04:30):
All right to me. Let's take a break and we're
gonna about twenty minutes of fantasy baseball and we'll get
startle that we get back.

Speaker 2 (01:04:37):
Sounds good.

Speaker 1 (01:04:48):
So the questions of all the teams we've done the
first five the National League Central, Uh, and we're gonna start.
We're gonna do the White Sox and the Guardians today
maybe ten minutes a piece. So are you ready, Tim,
I was born ready. Coleson Montgomery hit twenty one home
runs in seventy one games, which I did not see coming.

(01:05:12):
He will be drafted as a blank shortstop in twenty
twenty six. Not where you're going to rank him, but
where worth he be drafted.

Speaker 2 (01:05:23):
I I think the smart be is somewhere between eighteen
and twenty.

Speaker 1 (01:05:29):
Five to a corner A middle indfielder.

Speaker 2 (01:05:32):
Yes, short hit off is deep with lots of talent.

Speaker 1 (01:05:37):
Give me his stat line for twenty twenty six. Let's
first give me as at bats and then we'll pause.

Speaker 2 (01:05:44):
Five fifty all right, so.

Speaker 1 (01:05:46):
Pop full time.

Speaker 2 (01:05:47):
No worries about that, no concerns. It's it's your Chicago
White Sox. Okay, he's not looking over his shoulder.

Speaker 1 (01:05:55):
No, Unfortunately, we haven't done the White Sox review. Wife
done it for for It's out, But Tim and I
haven't talked about that yet. It's not as deep as
you would think with you know, you figure, you figure
with all the trades they made that it would be
just brimming at the top. It just isn't.

Speaker 2 (01:06:14):
No, And what I do is I go through this segment.
I haven't read your reviews on the White Sox yet.
So it's I I I leave it till after we
do this. Hmm, just because I want to put an
unbiased mice or of the stat damp on it. Does
that make sense?

Speaker 1 (01:06:31):
Sure? You just don't want to. You don't want to,
you don't want to listen anything. I say, that's what
that means. Pardon okay, Uh, that's gonna be home runs,
batting average, and RB. Guys, I'm really curious about the
home runs and batting average.

Speaker 2 (01:06:50):
I'm going to go with thirty two home runs, so
the power is real? Yes, I believe so.

Speaker 1 (01:06:58):
Gay, what's this batting average?

Speaker 2 (01:07:00):
Two ten?

Speaker 1 (01:07:02):
And do you think he's going to get five hundred
plate appearances batting two ten?

Speaker 2 (01:07:07):
Uh? Who's he looking over his shoulder at nobody?

Speaker 1 (01:07:14):
Yeah, I guess I mean nobody.

Speaker 2 (01:07:16):
It's yeah, you got I think you got to look
at the team. Okay, look at the individual circumstances of
where he's at on Hey, if he was playing for
the uh Dodgers, Uh, he could reduce those at bats
by about four seventy five.

Speaker 1 (01:07:35):
Yeah. I'm looking at his data and his batsman is
tremendous batsman, which we always knew he had his average
X velocity is midpack, but max ex velocity of one
fourteen to five, so his ninetieth degree is probably sitting
about one oh seven to one oh eight. There's definitely
power there and enough of a launch of eighteen degrees.

(01:07:57):
I'm kind of with you. Ivery think twenty five would
be a chip shot with the potential for thirty to
thirty five, maybe even more.

Speaker 2 (01:08:05):
Yeah. I got his batting average at two ten with
a sub three hundred OBP.

Speaker 1 (01:08:09):
Yeah, that's that's the problem, is the sub three hundred OBP.
Now he does He's always walked a little bit, so
that's gonna help him. But if he hits two twenty
two thirty, I'll go up a little bit from you.
It does somewhat what he did last year. It's a
three to eleven on base percentage, but he should be
a full time regular with thirty home runs, and it's

(01:08:32):
this cheap source of power, right.

Speaker 2 (01:08:35):
That's basically where I haven't picked at looking at the
middle infield. Yeah, yeah, he's gonna hit twenty five to
thirty five home runs and he's gonna drive in between
eighty and ninety five. But it's gonna come with a
real serious price to You're either your batting average OBP,
depending on what you use in your format. So yeah,
and again I think it's easily supported. He's struck out

(01:08:56):
eighty three times in two hundred and fifty five at bats.

Speaker 1 (01:09:00):
Had the same thing was in the minor league, So
this is not Yeah, he got to the major leagues
and you know he fell apart. Now it's pretty much
what it's been.

Speaker 2 (01:09:08):
Yeah, So again you're looking out looking at a player
that's probably going to strike out somewhere between NAH one
hundred and sixty and one hundred and ninety times. Okay,
he's not going to support the two thirty nine batting
average in the three to eleven OVP, I don't believe, okay,
with a hit tool of that nature. So again, the bonuses,
even in a prolonged slump, it's not going to cost

(01:09:29):
him playing time unless he goes totally into the tank,
and I don't think he will. You know, he's always
it for power. He's got the bat speed, right, So yeah,
I think.

Speaker 1 (01:09:38):
His biggest problem is actually been staying healthy. So he's
really struggled to stay healthy. And I really don't see
there's nobody in the minor leagues that's going to push him.
I mean, Breyon Ramos is there. He's more of a
third baseman. So it's a bad team, Tim, it's a
really bad team.

Speaker 2 (01:09:57):
Yes, it is at that, Yes, I agree.

Speaker 1 (01:10:01):
Yeah, Okay, you mentioned the past you like Lendyon Sosa,
so I'm just gonna ask you a question there. He
had twenty one her runs last season, but he walked
eighteen times one hundred forty eight one hundred and forty games.
That's less than once a week. By the way, this
is somebody, yeah, interested in targeting.

Speaker 2 (01:10:19):
In batting average formats, Yes, and OBP definitely not. Okay,
I don't think he's going to improve on the two
ninety three OBP. And I'm trying this year in my
OBP leagues, I'm trying to avoid anybody with a sub
three hundred or potential for a sub three hundred OBP. Now, yeah,

(01:10:39):
all I'd being said he was one of only five
second basement last year. He did twenty plus homers. I
think the odds are good. He'll repeat that. But again
to quote you, my friend, know your parameters, and much
the same as Montgomery there, there are parameters you gotta
know whatever you do with a player like Montgomery and
again Sosa, it's going to come with a price. You

(01:11:02):
either can live with it or you can and you're
going to have to make that decision before you go
into your drafts.

Speaker 1 (01:11:09):
Good exit velocity ninety point seven, huge launch and way
increase launch. That's where all the power jumped up. So
but it's not helping his ability to make contact and
the walk rates crazy. I mean, I've never seen something
like that before.

Speaker 2 (01:11:26):
Yeah, and any other organization, Yeah, he'd be a triple
A probably waiting for an injury to happen. It's a
White Sox, so that changes the game a little bit.

Speaker 1 (01:11:37):
Grant Taylor showed flashes as a closer. In fact, I
had him on a bunch of Dynasty leagues and I
actually was pleased that they brought him up as a closer.
I thought he'd be successful. Yes, but it looks like
he's going to report to spring training as the starter.
Does he stay a starter? Do they move him back
into the bullpen? If ever? Call correct, he didn't Garrett Crochet,

(01:12:02):
not to say that the same guy, but Garrett Crochet
started off as a closer. So, I mean, the White
Sox do have a history of bringing up guys as
relievers and then turning them back into starters.

Speaker 2 (01:12:15):
Yeah, I think Salem ended in the same thing possible.

Speaker 1 (01:12:17):
I was about to say that, but I didn't. Wasn't quite.

Speaker 2 (01:12:20):
I'm not sure, but yeah, yeah, no, I actually I
like grand Taylor heading in the next year and deeper leagues,
re draft leagues. He finished really strong. He had ten
consecutive scoreless opportunities. Okay, he pitched well at the end
of the year. He's only twenty three years old, turning

(01:12:41):
twenty four next May. I think, if you're looking for
a cheap option late, okay, the lack of definition is
going to keep his price down. And I started. I
started like Grand Taylor. If I'm looking for a number six,
seven eight type starter, I saw enough last year that

(01:13:03):
I'm interested at the right price.

Speaker 1 (01:13:05):
Let me get Kiki with you. Tim fastball average ninety
eight point seven. That's probably not going to stick as
a starter, but it's probably ninety six ninety seven average
touching ninety nine, spend rate of twenty four to thirty,
huge spin rate, huge spin rate on everything, a slider
spin rate of twenty six eighty six. But get this,

(01:13:27):
an extension of over seven seven feet seven point four
to seven point three on all of his pitches. That's
he's going to be a handful. He is going to
be a handful, big fastball, decent secondary pitches. He needs something.
I'm looking at his his mix. He doesn't have anything
that will really run away heavily from a glove side batter,

(01:13:50):
So there could be some splits down there. Let me
take a look at his splits. No, didn't really show
any last season. But most of his stuff sits in
the middle of He's got north to south stuff, but
not a lot of good stuff going east to west.
So his lie cutter doesn't move, but his slider doesn't

(01:14:12):
move very well. And he doesn't have a change up
at all. So there, I mean, there's still some work
to be done. But he throws hard fifty to fifty.
Whether he should stay in the bullpen or not now
looking at this, because he doesn't have that change up,
throws hard, can throw strikes big, big extension. But without

(01:14:34):
that change up, he might struggle with the gloveside batters
in the starting role.

Speaker 2 (01:14:39):
Yeah he might, but I still think the upside potential
as a starter or even as a reliever. I think
as a reliever, the potential for success right now is
very high, and I think the lack of definition, especially
in early drafts, I think people are going to shy
away from that lack of definition. Is he a starter

(01:14:59):
or believer yet? Yeah? Yeah, I'm willing to take it.
I'm willing to take a chance. Not that I'm going
to overpay for him, but when you get a fastball
like that, I I'm and you're twenty three years old. Uh,
as a late option, I like it.

Speaker 1 (01:15:17):
Yeah, he can overwhelm guys, but it's it is definitely
missing something that goes east to west. Jordan Leisure. Leisure
is supposedly going to be the closer. Who is your
next in line?

Speaker 2 (01:15:31):
My next in line? I sort of like Wilcome and Gonzalez.

Speaker 1 (01:15:38):
There you go, bing bing bay right answer? So you
like that one, Rich, I've always kind of liked Wilcome
and Gonzalez when he was with the Red Sox. Got
a great arm, but he can't throw strikes and doesn't
have a change. He's perfect in the bullpen. But I'm
looking at a four to twenty ear a with Jordan
Leisure and going, I don't know, it's gotta be a

(01:16:00):
better option here.

Speaker 2 (01:16:02):
Well, yeah, if you take a look at Gonzales, he's young,
he can throw it at ninety five the wif rates
on the fastball or four percent or something. But if
you look at his slurve and has changed, they generated
excellent with rates. And I'm like you, I don't believe
really in Jordan leisures. So if I'm going to start
tossing darts at first year player drafts in dynasty leagues

(01:16:25):
or you know, in deeper redraft leagues, He's just somebody
that I think could move into the role. He was
a starter up until last year. They just switched him
into the last year.

Speaker 1 (01:16:35):
He needs to be in a bullpen roll as well.

Speaker 2 (01:16:38):
Yeah, I started like Wilcom and Gonzalez. He's gonna be
a He'll make a waiverwater article or two.

Speaker 1 (01:16:45):
I did not realize that Mike Vassel was in the
was in the bullpen for the White Sox. Look at
that Met's get that. I thought he moved to a bullpen,
but I somehow lost the thread that he got traded
sos Mikes pick a by the White Sox. I like
Mike Vassel as a major league arm I don't know
if he's gonna have Fantasy impact, but major league arm

(01:17:06):
All right, Tommy question, I ask on every system, give
me a sleeper in the organization, minor and majors.

Speaker 2 (01:17:12):
Okay, I got a couple here, uh iirol Aerie rt.

Speaker 1 (01:17:17):
Oh that guy, Yeah, I think he's a reliever though, yeah,
he could be.

Speaker 2 (01:17:21):
He's only twenty three, though he's Yeah. The secondary pitches
look strong, the fastball not so much. I think we'll
see him this year. He'll get some action.

Speaker 1 (01:17:32):
Uh.

Speaker 2 (01:17:33):
Tanner McDougall.

Speaker 1 (01:17:35):
Oh, I like Tanner McDougall, triple.

Speaker 2 (01:17:37):
Digit, HI hate great curve. In drafting whole formats. After
pick forty five, I start of like Tanner McDougall.

Speaker 1 (01:17:46):
Not that my AI assistant knows everything. Tim, Yes, but
he had Brave Montgomery rank number one overall on my
system as I did. Number two was Tanner McDougall, in
front of Noah schultzen Hagen's myth. So I had him fourth.

Speaker 2 (01:18:02):
I believe ya.

Speaker 1 (01:18:03):
So just let that shoe around. I have him as
a closer, a top forty starting pitcher if you can
find average control. I agree with you there, big big
fastball yep.

Speaker 2 (01:18:13):
And the other guy I wanted to mention, and I'm
looking at him as a corner option this year, corner
infielder miguil Vargas. He's got first and third base eligibility.
Last year sixteen homer, sixty RBIs, eighty runs scored. I
don't think anybody is going to be overpaying and reaching

(01:18:35):
for migil Vargus, but I think there might be some
sneaky value there in twenty six as a corner infielder.

Speaker 1 (01:18:42):
Outstanding, Timmy, let's take a break and got you good
for one more system.

Speaker 2 (01:18:47):
I most certainly am all.

Speaker 1 (01:18:49):
Right, let's get back and finish this up with the
Cleveland Guards. Good stuff to good job in the White Sox.
That's a tough system to go through. Let me let
me ask a question not on the list here. How
many games did the White Sox win last year?

Speaker 2 (01:19:11):
Do you know, off hand more than the Rockies?

Speaker 1 (01:19:15):
More than the Rockies, but better season or worse season
are about the.

Speaker 2 (01:19:19):
Same, marginally better but not by much.

Speaker 1 (01:19:26):
That's that's that's one hundred and two losses after one hundred.

Speaker 2 (01:19:30):
And sixty games they won. Then yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:19:34):
So twenty twenty four they lost a record a number
one hundred and one hundred and twenty one.

Speaker 3 (01:19:41):
So they improved Yeah, they improved by twenty games, which
is good, But I mean, can they do another twenty
I don't think so.

Speaker 2 (01:19:51):
I don't think so next year, maybe the year after.

Speaker 1 (01:19:54):
Because twenty more games are yeah, exactly.

Speaker 2 (01:19:59):
They gotta get some these arms were I'm thinking sixty
to sixty five wins somewhere in that range.

Speaker 1 (01:20:03):
Yeah, okay, yeah, I think that's a good call. Let's
see the.

Speaker 2 (01:20:06):
Guardians, tim, Okay, we're off and rolling.

Speaker 1 (01:20:10):
You know it's November and December when roster resource resource
is still showing George val Lara remember him, Yes, Chase
and Chase the Louder. They're showing them as starters. Who
has the best chance of staying there on opening days?
Chase the Louder or George v Lara?

Speaker 2 (01:20:32):
Oh man, the tough, tough question. Uh. I think de
Lager has the best chance. But the health risk is
off the charts, enormous. Is not being gentle enough. Okay,
when you start looking at the health risk on a
positive note, he's going to be a very late pick. Okay,
possibly a reserve pick should be anyways, So betting on

(01:20:56):
health isn't gonna cost you a whole bunch, you know
what I mean? You're your reserve picks are most of
them are going to be gone by the end of
April anyways, in a redraft, lake Valera to me just
doesn't appear to have enough power or speed dangerous me
for the fantasy game. I will give him full credit.
The hit tool is very strong, Okay. I like that.

(01:21:18):
There's just not enough power speed for me. So I
would go the logger and he would probably be on
the il by the time I'm looking it upgrading my
reserves and early cut if not, I think the latder
is the is the better option, but there's a risk,
high risk with both. It really is. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:21:39):
I mean, look, I've been a George Vlara apologist for years,
and I gave up on him. I mean, I'm not
here to say I told you so. I made it
to the big leagues. I gave up for me. It's
going to be twenty five in a couple of days.
So he's an older player. He does hit the ball
hard him. I do think there's power there, and he's

(01:22:02):
always walked a ton, strikes out a bit too much.
I mean it might be a bench roll, but he
does hit the ball harder. Keep going back to that.
The speed is completely great. But he does hit the
ball really hard.

Speaker 2 (01:22:17):
Yeahl oh, sorry.

Speaker 1 (01:22:20):
But I think he makes a lot better contact than
than the Joehansky well does. But yeah, might he might
be a tweinter because of all that.

Speaker 2 (01:22:28):
Yeah, my yeah, My problem when I look at that
is Cleveland's whole team is filled with George Valera plus
type players. Is that fair? You know what I mean?
Guys that Willy'll spank the ball around the yard. But
there's not huge power, you know. I mean, it's it's
an organizational philosophy that does it is a conducive to

(01:22:50):
our fantasy game. Probably not in most cases.

Speaker 1 (01:22:54):
Yeah, I look, I look at this team and you've
got a superstar Hall of Famer and Hose Ramerez. There's
thirty three and it's almost like Mike Trout. They just
have not been able to surround him with great players.
I mean, I like Stephen Kwan is okay, is kind
of hit a lot of home runs and strike out

(01:23:15):
a ton and yeah, I mean, brag on Rotio. I mean,
it's good.

Speaker 2 (01:23:21):
To Gabriel Gabrielarious. It's yeah, it's okay. It's doing what
they want to do. But again, relating it back to
our game. It doesn't really thrill. It doesn't.

Speaker 1 (01:23:41):
It doesn't. And wait until Jose Ramerez comes in one
day and it's just old. That's gonna be a bad team.

Speaker 2 (01:23:49):
Yeah, you're going to have eight single hitters and a
high straight o Kyle Manzardo, Right.

Speaker 1 (01:23:56):
Yeah, that's true. So bow Naylor has not been very good.
I missed on him. He did hit fourteen home runs
in twenty twenty five, but he also hit one ninety four.
He did get a little unlucky with a two twenty
five babbit, but he hasn't hit the ball hard of
the two previous seasons. Question for you, is there any
hope here?

Speaker 2 (01:24:17):
Well, there's some some hope, but not a whole bunch.
He's twenty five, he had he finished up strong last year.
It solid September.

Speaker 1 (01:24:25):
But again, is that all that was was a was
a streak? I think so, yeah, Yeah, I just don't
know if he's gonna I don't think he hits the
ball very hard and that's gonna always affect his batting average,
and the speed is still average. So maybe he can
beat out a couple of singles, but I don't I
don't know he is. He had second last year yeah,

(01:24:50):
is he a second catcher for you?

Speaker 2 (01:24:52):
Uh, he'll be close to the number twenties off board,
so that puts him as a number two at your Yes.

Speaker 1 (01:25:01):
So if you have him as your number two catcher,
do you feel good about it? Or do you think
I made a mistake.

Speaker 2 (01:25:09):
I made a mistake. I think the power the power
potential is going to be offset by the lack of
batting average or OBP potential. So you're going to be
trading decent power from a number two catcher for indecent
batting average OBP. Where does that get you in the
overall situation? Nowhere?

Speaker 1 (01:25:30):
Really, I might try for a high upside kid in
triple A Carter Jensen or I guess Carter Jensen's got
the maybe he's got the job coming out of out
of Kansas City or not. But that might be a
guy I'd rather have than bow Naylor.

Speaker 2 (01:25:45):
As would I I am going to be. I I
am early. My early thoughts are is I will have
Jensen ranked higher than bon Naylor.

Speaker 1 (01:25:55):
Yeah, but bon Naylor might go before Jensen.

Speaker 2 (01:25:59):
Mm hmm, yeah, probably will, but not on my list.

Speaker 1 (01:26:03):
Yep, yep, it's cool, all right, Timmy. I hate to
do this. I mean, I love you like a brother man.
But Tanner Tanner, bib you did it with Tyler blacks Pa.
I was going to say it's a bit chip Tanner
byby stat line. I meant to say twenty twenty six
wins strikeouts an ear a.

Speaker 2 (01:26:23):
Yeah, I had your first question nailed soon. It's good,
you got it right. I was good to roof enough.
I was gonna be that guy rich it's funny. Uh okay,
when's thirteen?

Speaker 1 (01:26:39):
Wow? Drico more than Bubba Chandler twice as much as
Bubba Chambler.

Speaker 2 (01:26:43):
Come on, Cleveland has twice the offense.

Speaker 1 (01:26:47):
All right, I'm sorry? How many strikeouts?

Speaker 2 (01:26:49):
Uh?

Speaker 1 (01:26:51):
Timmy, it feels like you're you're you're you still like
this guy? Give me his Era three eighty. Okay, So
are you going to get this guy on your team again?

Speaker 2 (01:27:05):
Uh? Yes, but I won't. But there's a big butt here. Okay,
we're talking Ricky Weeks. Ricky Weeks, Okay, a big butt.
I gonna want to make sure that my number one
and were strong. I would be interested in him, in
him as a number three. He was incredibly inconsistent last year.

(01:27:27):
Shockingly inconsistent. Okay, he went from being a pitcher you
didn't want active to a starting picture yet had to
have going. He finished strong. He only allowed four earned
runs in his last four starts, all of which were
quality starts. I will pay for him as a number three,
but again I want to have a solid one and two.

(01:27:51):
That inconsistency has me totally baffled because there were points
last year where you just couldn't You couldn't wiel him
out there, you couldn't use him. And then there was
a Tanner Bibie that I fell in love with the
year before. So again there's there's risk, but I think
he can be a decent pitcher next year. Not what

(01:28:12):
I expected, but decent.

Speaker 1 (01:28:14):
So looking at his data and well, you know, his
surface data looks like area four twenty five expected area
three sixty four. That that should pique your interest, right,
you said, that's interesting. He throws a ton of pitches,
and his secondary pitches are really good. But his fast
his four seamer three hundred batting average of five hundred

(01:28:37):
slug on it. You go, well, that's not anomaly. Twenty
twenty four is a two to eighty two batting average
and a four to seventy six luck. It's like a
meatball coming out now. The only encouraging thing is and
you gotta feel good about the Guardians have figured this
out because in twenty twenty four he threw it forty
three percent of the time and this last season he

(01:28:59):
threw it twenty seven percent of the time. I would
not be surprised if he almost eliminates that force Seemer
starts to go with more of a sinker kind of approach,
because the sinker is is increasing in his usage and
is a much better pitch at the moment. So don't
be surprised if if he drops that for Seamer just
goes to be a sinker slider, sinker sweeper guy.

Speaker 2 (01:29:22):
Yeah no, I wouldn't be I wouldn't be shocked at all.
I just think there's more there than what we saw
for a good chunk of last year. So again, I'm
I'm going to approach it cautiously, but I'm not ruling
it out.

Speaker 1 (01:29:38):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:29:40):
Uh.

Speaker 1 (01:29:40):
For our Patreon members, I'll be doing targets. I'm afraid
that Tanner Biby might be one of my targets, depending
on where he's being drafted. I will look at those
last four starts and see if the pitchment mix on
those last four starts were and if he's really started
to decrease the use of that fastball, that would go
with my thing thinking that the analytics department in the

(01:30:03):
Guards organization, which is very very good, I have noticed
that and said let's change this around. And if he
could change it around that that's at least something different to.

Speaker 2 (01:30:13):
So exactly exactly Kate.

Speaker 1 (01:30:18):
Smith will be a top blank closer ten. Wow. So
that begs the question, Emmanuel Classe will never pitch again?
Yes or no? Yes you think he will pitch again?

Speaker 2 (01:30:36):
No? Sorry, no, no, he won't pitch again.

Speaker 1 (01:30:38):
Sorry, I might have did a double negative one he
or something. I apologize.

Speaker 2 (01:30:41):
Yeah, yeah, I was listening to it and I was
trying to sort. You. Look at Kate Smith last year.
He won eight games. Okay, well that's neither her here
nor there. But his ear A was two ninety three.
He struck out one hundred and four war batters last year. Okay.

(01:31:02):
Relief pictures that strikeout one hundred plus are are rare,
and it's not like Kate Smith did something out of
the norm last year, because you go to twenty twenty four,
he struck out one hundred and three, basically seventy five
versus seventy three innings. I'm going to have him ranked
as a top ten closer for the fact that I

(01:31:23):
believe he will A he'll be the closer, and B
when you get a relief pitcher that that pushes the
hundred k mark, that's got to elevate him. In my opinion,
it's got to elevate his stock. So the relief picture
that's thirty strikeouts over the norm at the end of
the year, that makes a difference. I'm rather bullish on

(01:31:45):
Kate Smith.

Speaker 1 (01:31:47):
I kind of I could be wrong on this, but
I'm almost in the feeling that no news is bad news.

Speaker 2 (01:31:54):
I agree, that's my thoughts. Yep, yep, big bot. Yeah.
Fact that it took them what forty five minutes and
all of his locker stuff was in the cardboard walks
on the sidewalk out in front of the stadium, that
might have you know, I might have a bearing.

Speaker 1 (01:32:09):
On I wouldn't think. I wouldn't think they were very
happy about that. So so it's not a good situation
at all, particularly when those guys are lectured. There's multiple lectures,
particularly at spring training, from people from MLB comes in,
they bring their guys in and they tell them exactly
what they can't do, and.

Speaker 2 (01:32:29):
You know, much to say. They go through the whole
drugs fiel, how to hand you know they Yeah, they are,
They're tutored and drilled into them. Hey, you can't say
you didn't know. It's impossible to say that, you you know.

Speaker 1 (01:32:45):
Yep. And again he hasn't been convicted of anything. So
but if he you know, if it comes down to that,
then it's just it's really no excuse. It just is
and it's a shame. But those are the rules we have.
I don't agree with how this little gambling thing is
playing out of sim and I have talked multiple times
about it. But Tim, give me a minor league or
major league sleeper.

Speaker 2 (01:33:08):
Okay, I got a couple of names here and these
ones here, I'm gonna I'm gonna want your thoughts rich
because we're going a little deep here, I think. But
uh p, d Helvin. It's not like there isn't room
in the Cleveland oatfield for somebody with some power and speed.
He can take a walk. I'm I'm thinking he might

(01:33:30):
slide into that oatfield at some point in time. In
twenty twenty six. That's my first one. He's twenty four
at the end of May.

Speaker 1 (01:33:36):
A little bit of speed, a little bit of power,
never control the strike zone. Well, let's see what his
chase rate is. I think when I saw him play
plus the name p D. Come really, I'm Peter.

Speaker 2 (01:33:53):
Yeah, Pd sounds these should sounds like you should have
been on happy days.

Speaker 1 (01:33:57):
Yeah. Uh, chase rate is Yeah, he expands the strikes
on a lot, So that's that's always been his big
problem there. So, but he doesn't strike out a ton.
He walks. He strikes out a lot, but at least
in his brief it was only eight plate appearances. Never
mind with that, I have to take a look at
him for a second. Let me just do a complete
go down to look at his triple A chase rates.

(01:34:21):
Oh yeah, yeah, really high chase rates. So that's probably
he really expands the strikes on. So I would worry
that he'd be able to be pitched to. But from
a fantasy standpoint, yeah, a little bit of speed, a
little bit of power. I don't think George Valerio is
totally real, so I think i'd rather have p D
Halpen in front of George Valaia. But it's close.

Speaker 2 (01:34:43):
So okay, Yeah, I did. I did some serious digging
in this organization. Uh, it's there's so much blah. I
tried to find something that wasn't if that you have
another one, yeah, I do. How about Josh Hardle, the
big tall southpaw. He had a great twenty twenty five
at high A end of the year promotion to double A.

(01:35:05):
Is there a possibility we might see him in the
second half of twenty.

Speaker 1 (01:35:10):
Six I mean he spent most of the time, as
you said in Hi A, so I would think he's
going to spend most of the twenty twenty sixth season
and double and triple A. Okay, So yeah, I mean
it's it's pretty average stuff. He doesn't have real swing

(01:35:30):
and miss stuff. But you know, the Guardians get the
most out of these kind of guys.

Speaker 2 (01:35:35):
Yeah. No, Like I said, I went through the Guardian
system and they've just got so much of the same.
I tried to isolate and look for players that might
offer them something that they don't currently have, and it
was tough. You know, Hey, I can mention Travis Bizanna, okay,
but we've discussed him. He's he's got some work to do, doesn't.

Speaker 1 (01:35:57):
He looking at my dad? I got Josh harn excuse me,
I got. I got Josh Artle sitting eighty nine to
ninety one.

Speaker 2 (01:36:05):
So Tommy Malone type.

Speaker 1 (01:36:07):
Yeah, so he's not he's not six ft five. I
wrote that maybea I wrote that down wrong. Yeah, he's
a left hander. He getting by with a not as
much velocity. I don't know, I don't know, I don't know.
Let's see how he doesn't double a.

Speaker 2 (01:36:19):
But okay. I used had a hard time finding names
coming out of what.

Speaker 1 (01:36:23):
Do you think of bizana star or just okay?

Speaker 2 (01:36:29):
I got to see more before I see say star.
I think okay is right now the best we can do.

Speaker 1 (01:36:34):
Yeah, I agree. I mean it's we'll talk about him
next week or week after with Tim and I do
the prospects. But he's a guy that I I didn't
think he should have been one one overall. I got
why he was one one overall. He was. He's not
been good as a professional. He just a swing and miss.
Has been a lot more than was advertised as a

(01:36:55):
great hitter. He just has not been a great hitter.

Speaker 2 (01:36:58):
No, the other guy I looked at, but he I
think he's just way too young as ralphie Velaskas. Yeah,
even though he's made it's a double a left handed back,
he's only twenty years old.

Speaker 1 (01:37:08):
But yeah, they're one of my one of our patron
members who's great because he really challenges me on stuff
I had. It's Alaska's ranked I think tenth or eleventh,
and he's like, he should be two, and I get that.
I just think it's probably a little bit more sweet
and missed in this game. But yeah, he probably should
be higher than where I have a ranked.

Speaker 2 (01:37:27):
So yeah, no, it's it's it's a tough system to
be looking at, trying to make projections based on the
way their team is assembled. At least I had my
hands full with Cleveland.

Speaker 1 (01:37:41):
To me, I think, or find a break, get back
and wrap this puppy up. Ten and I have been
talking for over two hours. Three hours. Oh rooke.

Speaker 2 (01:38:00):
Him earlier. Three number ten, three.

Speaker 1 (01:38:03):
Hours and ten minutes. We've been tour twenty minutes. Holy
holy well.

Speaker 2 (01:38:08):
We covered. We covered a ton of ground, no doubt
about it. It was it was a lot of fun.

Speaker 1 (01:38:13):
It really was still reeling from the fact that you
didn't even get a hot dog at the park.

Speaker 2 (01:38:19):
Kind of baseball fan?

Speaker 1 (01:38:20):
Are you supposed to part of the experiences? Poorly prepared
terrible ballpark food that's way over priced. That's that's like
a staple.

Speaker 2 (01:38:33):
Have you ever tried moving one of those wheelers upstairs?
It's not fun carry a hot dog with that. It's
it's under the question, my friend, it just doesn't happen.

Speaker 1 (01:38:43):
What do you mean, wheeler? What are you talking about?

Speaker 2 (01:38:46):
Oh? Walker, that's right, So you had your.

Speaker 1 (01:38:49):
Walker around, got it. I'll give you a srimpshot on that.
He does not use a walker everyone, But.

Speaker 2 (01:38:55):
No, no, no, not yet, No, not not yet, especially
going downstairs, as it's always easier.

Speaker 1 (01:39:02):
Yeah, let's get out of let's get out of here.

Speaker 2 (01:39:07):
We are having homemade pizza tonight and the smell of
it is just absolutely enticing. Jody has been cooking right
to my right, uh, all afternoon, putting together this masterpiece.
So tip of the cap to Jody for feeding me
real well on my return to Fort of Francis. Uh,

(01:39:28):
it's it's it's time.

Speaker 1 (01:39:30):
It's not even four o'clock there yet. It's like a letter.

Speaker 2 (01:39:35):
Four. I've still got five. Oh yeah, that's we had
to do a time thing or something didn't we you know, Yeah,
well I'm sort of working working on Tim time today.
Yeah it's four o'clock. But by the time, you know, yeah,
you got to cook the hamburg up and all the
good stuff.

Speaker 1 (01:39:51):
Uh yeah, Tim, you put everything on those on those pizzas.
I'm a I'm a I'm a cheese and sauceman myself,
like I'm simple, but.

Speaker 2 (01:39:58):
Uh yeah, yeah, no, we got chicken and hamburg and
whole sliced tomatoes and oh good stuff.

Speaker 1 (01:40:08):
We are going out to dinner tonight. We're going one
of the places on the island. There's not This is
not a great place for food. This is not a
foody paradise. But they opened a new restaurant here that's
right on the ocean. It's called Lavolti and it is
an Italian steakhouse. So it's really good food. It's a

(01:40:29):
little pricey, but I think I'm going to have a steak.

Speaker 2 (01:40:32):
I think I'm going to have a New York Prime
and that I was gonna say, an Italian steakos Yeah,
like do they put like special Italian sauces with when
they're cooking their steaks or this is the first time
for you. I guess, so, no drink.

Speaker 1 (01:40:49):
We've been there several times. There's an Italian steakhouse that's
down the street from US at Marstown, uh, and it's
basically pasta dishes, but they also have steak. That's all
I don't I've never seen them like pasta and steak together.
I've never seen anything like that. It's it's literally you've

(01:41:10):
got the steak part of the menu where you've got
the Italian part of the menu.

Speaker 2 (01:41:14):
So okay, it's not a joint effort.

Speaker 1 (01:41:17):
I haven't seen that yet. Maybe somebody can correct me
on that, but that's my experience in the two Italian
steakhouses I've been to.

Speaker 2 (01:41:25):
So okay, cool, sounds like a wonderful, wonderful night, immensely.

Speaker 1 (01:41:32):
Okay, tell me you be well and we will talk
next Sunday, and then we've got to do another prospect
thing the week

Speaker 2 (01:41:38):
After that sounds good to be safe, be well, and
by next Sunday I'll be out of this chair and
walking again.

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2256 - WS Wrap Up and fantasy questions on the AL Central

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}2256 - WS Wrap Up and fantasy questions on the AL Central