October 20, 2025 • 46 mins
Steve and Tim get into the whole narrative that the Dodgers are "ruining baseball." Calls from Dodgers fans. A NL West team is considering hiring a college baseball coach as their new manager
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
They say, the hardest thing in sports isn't winning a title.
Speaker 2 (00:04):
It's hard to repeat seasons.
Speaker 1 (00:06):
It's winning it again.
Speaker 3 (00:07):
This year. Is not trying to win a championship, They're
trying to repeat.
Speaker 1 (00:11):
It's October baseball for your world champion in La Dodger.
Speaker 4 (00:15):
The twenty twenty five Dodgers are the National League's Western
Division champions.
Speaker 1 (00:20):
And you know what that means.
Speaker 2 (00:22):
Saxon Kates and AM is back.
Speaker 1 (00:25):
This is Saxon Kates in the Morning with Tim Kates
and former World Champion Dodger Steve Sacks.
Speaker 2 (00:32):
Reacting taking your phone calls talking Dodgers playoff baseball all
postseason long now here.
Speaker 1 (00:38):
They are on AM five to seventy LA Sports and
the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 2 (00:43):
Steve Sacks, Tim Kaits, Tim.
Speaker 1 (00:46):
Kates and World Champion Dodger Steve Sacks.
Speaker 2 (00:51):
Ah, good Monday morning to you Southern California. Sason Kates
and A with you. You're all all morning long, all
week long, all October long. As the Dodgers are going
back to the World Series looking to defend their World
Series championship.
Speaker 5 (01:13):
Who will they face?
Speaker 1 (01:14):
We don't know.
Speaker 2 (01:16):
We'll find out tonight Game seven of the American League
Championship Series as the Toronto Blue Jays play host to
the Seattle Mariners in Game seven of their best of
seven series.
Speaker 5 (01:26):
Interesting, are you watching that game in earnest tonight?
Speaker 6 (01:30):
No?
Speaker 2 (01:30):
I watched the Saturday. I watched the game last night
instead of Sunday Night Baseball. The Falcons and forty nine Ers,
no offense year forty nine ers. By the way, they
got the win. See the outcome? Yeah, I know, I know,
they just keep it.
Speaker 5 (01:42):
Was an amazing game. I gotta tell you.
Speaker 7 (01:44):
Watch that well, it's I was flipping between the two. Yeah,
and yeah, I was flipping between the two. But man,
I'll tell you what. They pulled it off.
Speaker 5 (01:52):
What?
Speaker 2 (01:53):
Yeah? Did you have to watch the Raider game yesterday?
Speaker 7 (01:55):
Oh my god, It's so hard to watch him because
I'm such a Raider fan. You know, forty nine Ers
and Raiders are right there with each other. But god,
I mean, they just everything's yiss. I mean, I wonder
how Tom Brady's sitting with this. I mean, he's that
guy's a winner. He can't be standing for this.
Speaker 2 (02:12):
I can't imagine he's too happy when when the Raiders
lose thirty one to nothing. Pete Carroll said, did not
see this coming, And I don't know how he didn't
see it coming scene as it happened to him a
couple of weeks ago. When they want to Washington play
the Commanders against the Colts, same thing happened when they
face them in Indianapolis. This is it.
Speaker 7 (02:34):
It's Travis Kelcey, who might be the slowest tight end
ever to play NFL football, maybe the slowest tight end ever.
That guy gets open, he lets everybody clear out. He does,
he acts like he's blocking and then just turns around.
They throwing the ball and it's and it's worked for him.
He's going to the Hall of Fame because of this.
(02:54):
You know what, when you're playing against the.
Speaker 2 (02:56):
Chiefs, Gord Kelsey, okay, Gore, Dravis Kelsey, and you eliminate
half of the throwing by Mahomes.
Speaker 7 (03:06):
He's the dude is wide open. Every single play there's
nobody in fifteen yards of him.
Speaker 5 (03:12):
I don't get it.
Speaker 2 (03:14):
Yeah, I'm tired of third and eleven.
Speaker 7 (03:17):
And this this dude that can't even run is there's
nobody fifteen yards of him every single.
Speaker 2 (03:24):
Play third eleven and he picks up sixteen. It's like,
wait a second, what are we doing? What are we doing?
Speaker 5 (03:29):
Unbelievable? Yeah's hey, what do you think about?
Speaker 7 (03:32):
Like the guy's going deep and the defenders there and
the defenders not even turning around looking at the ball.
Speaker 5 (03:37):
No chance for an interception.
Speaker 7 (03:39):
No, because he's looking at the at the receiver's eyes
and hoping he can stick his hand in his face
and block it off. This this has gotta be the
most ridiculous defense I've ever seen. I would think, you know,
I'm not a football player, but I would think if
the guy's going out for a pass and he turns
around and looks up, you see his eyes starting to
get big, he's gonna catch the ball.
Speaker 5 (03:59):
Maybe the defenders should turn around and.
Speaker 7 (04:01):
Look at the ball. It just went right by your head.
You all you have to do is turn around and
catch it.
Speaker 2 (04:06):
Interception, yeah, or put your hands up.
Speaker 7 (04:08):
That's why they've invented this back shoulder thing, because they
just throw it.
Speaker 5 (04:12):
They throw it short because they know the defender is
not going to be looking. No, it's it's stupid.
Speaker 2 (04:16):
It's it's the same thing with your third and a long.
Throw it to the end zone and hope that you
get a p I call. If not, you get a touchdown.
Either way, you're going to get the ball and extend
your drive.
Speaker 5 (04:25):
It's I know a lot of people aren't gonna like
it when I say this, but you know, Notre Dame
put it on USC.
Speaker 2 (04:30):
Yeah they did, right, Yeah they did.
Speaker 5 (04:32):
I'm a huge you know. Notre name is my team.
Speaker 2 (04:34):
You know that.
Speaker 7 (04:34):
And I know a lot of people don't like me
now because I said that. But you know what, too bad?
Speaker 5 (04:38):
I like. I like Notre Dame. I always have.
Speaker 7 (04:40):
And uh, same thing with them. How many how many
times did they get called for passing it for seven?
Was it seven times? I think so because he's not
looking at the ball looking you're just playing the defender.
It's it's crazy.
Speaker 2 (04:54):
Well, is Notre Dame ruining college football like the Dodgers
are ruining baseball? Yes, that is the narrative now in
baseball that the Dodgers are the big, bad, ugly team
from Los Angeles and ruining the sports of baseball and
going to lead it to a lockout in another year
(05:15):
or so, and they're the reason why baseball is failing.
Here's the manager, Dave Roberts on the podium, national audience,
and let it be known they're the big bad Wolves.
Speaker 6 (05:27):
I'll tell you, before this season started, they said the
Dodgers are ruining baseball.
Speaker 2 (05:33):
Let's get four more wins and really ruin baseball. Let's go, Yeah,
let's go. Let's go ruin baseball. And I love what
Dave Roberts had to said, because clearly, clearly they are
hearing that over at the Dodgers, and Freeman kind of
joked about it and in a way that he wasn't
too happy about when he was on with Petro Some
(05:54):
Money as well on Friday, when asked about the narrative
that they are ruining baseball, Dave Roberts certainly brought that
up and said, let's go ruin it with four more wins.
It's it's laughable to me, Steve, that people want to
look at the Dodgers and point the finger and say
they they right there in Dodger blue pantone right there,
they are the reason why baseball is going to fail,
(06:18):
and they are the reason why they are ruining the sport.
It's laughable they point the finger at the Dodgers. Yeah,
that's crazy.
Speaker 4 (06:25):
Uh.
Speaker 7 (06:26):
You know what they really should say is the truth
that so many people are jealous of the Dodgers. That's
what it is. They're jealous that they they they pay money.
They're jealous that they play good. They're jealous that they scout. Well,
look at you could have went out and got Max Muncie.
Somebody else could have drafted, you know, Mookie Bets or
(06:48):
I mean, I mean acquired Mookie Bets. Other people could
have drafted players. He could have gone out and acquired
O'tani like the Angels did it, and we had to
wait six six seven years to get him. So I mean,
it isn't like they just go out and you know,
it happens that way. Look at the Dodgers scouting system.
How about their farm system. I mean, why do they
get Rookies of the Year all the time, because they
(07:09):
train them well in the minor leagues when they come
up their impact players, they're not just kind of learning
on the fly. So the thing is they're just jealous
of the Dodgers. That's the reason why. I mean, look
at the Padres enormous payroll. How about the New York
Mets enormous payroll. How they do this year? I mean
they're not in postseason. Mets never even made it. Padres did,
(07:30):
but they're out pretty quick, all right. So so how
do you how do you say the Dodgers are ruining baseball?
I don't get it.
Speaker 5 (07:37):
It's not it's not true at all.
Speaker 7 (07:39):
This is this is a you know, this is a
free and open type of work environment that we have
in baseball.
Speaker 5 (07:45):
It's called capitalism.
Speaker 7 (07:46):
And if you have the money to spend and you
can go out and do it, spend it just the
way you want. That's what capitalism is. So get off
our back, and you know, if you don't love it,
then just learn to live with it.
Speaker 2 (07:57):
The Dodgers reinvest their money onto the on field product
better than anybody in baseball, and you can make an argument,
better than anybody in professional sports. They invest money into
their system, They invest money into their ecosystem as far
as the organization and top to bottom, making sure they
(08:17):
are running the best. Now you think about the product
on the field at the major league level, you think
about the current roster and where these guys all came from. Yeah,
baseball would look different if the Pittsburgh Pirates didn't trade
Tyler Glass now to the Tampa Bay Rays and then
didn't want the Rays didn't want to sign them again
to a long term deal. It looked a lot different
(08:38):
if the Tampa Bay Rays actually signed Blake Snell, one
of the best pitchers in baseball, to a long term deal.
Baseball would look different if the Boston Red Sox could
have agreed to a long term deal with Mookie Betts
instead said nope, We're gonna rate for Rafiel Devers and
other guys and pay them, but we're gonna trade away
Mookie Betts to the Dodgers. Oh yeah, as you mentioned,
(08:59):
they waited six years because initially, show Hey Otani did
not choose them. He chose poorly first and went to
the Angels for six years and now he's a member
of the Dodgers. Freddie Freeman, let's just not Freddie Freeman
just wasn't a free agent and did oh you know what,
I want to ditch the Braves and run to LA
and join a superpower. No, no, no, no, no no. He
(09:20):
wanted to stay with the Atlanta Braves. He wanted to
stay there and play for the team that drafted him
and he won a World Series. They were the organization
that strung him along during the offseason, wouldn't commit to him,
and then instead decided Matt Olsen Is who they wanted
playing first base instead of Freddie Freeman. So Freddie Freeman
elected to go back home to southern California and took
(09:44):
less money to come to the Dodgers. All these things
happened not because the Dodgers are the big bad Wolf
and ruining baseball and just like pac Man, gobbling up
every free agent and overpaying them and paying them like
nobody else can and have these unlimited pockets to pay everybody. No, no,
(10:06):
no no. They are simply taking advantage of the market
because other teams and other owners refuse to pay their players,
refuse to want to take care of them, guys they
have brought up in their system. All right, you don't
want to pay Mooki Bets, trade them away. The Dodgers
will simply say, thank you, We'll trade you alex Erdugo
and other prospects for Mookie Bets and then sign them
(10:28):
to a long term deal. They take care of players.
They go out and bring in the talent the other
teams don't want to spend money on, and I credit
the Dodgers for being the team that does that. You
can't fault them for going out and make these moves
they're not bad for baseball. They're good for the game
of baseball. And it's a shame that the other owners
(10:50):
around Major League Baseball aren't doing the same things because
they're not poor. They're not sitting there and having no
money that they can't pay anybody and woe is me
and looking for handouts from Major League Baseball. Well yeah,
they are getting actually handouts with revenue sharing, and they're
given money every single year. Steve sacked and told, here's
free money from the Dodgers who spend all this money
(11:12):
and are giving you now portion of it in this
big pot known as revenue tax sharing. Now you go
out and spend it. And it's not the Dodgers' fault
that other owners won't take that money and spend it. Instead,
they're pocketing at it. Reinvest in your own organization, pay
your own players, take care of them so they don't
want to leave or don't get traded away to the
(11:32):
Dodgers who will take care of them. Yeah.
Speaker 7 (11:35):
Yeah, you put that pretty succinctly, I believe, And you know,
it's just a matter of philosophy on each team. Some
players some teams, they don't want to go out and
just you know, spend the money.
Speaker 5 (11:46):
Other teams they you.
Speaker 7 (11:47):
Know, delve more into their scouting departments and try to
develop players, and you know, it's just a matter of
philosophy and what you have, you know, your team. But
for the most part, the Dodgers aren't chastising other teams
for the way that they run their clubs. They run
theirs their way, and other teams run the way that
they think they would be specific to their philosophy of
(12:08):
their team. And that's just the way it is. And
it's good for other teams that they run that way,
and it's good for the Dodgers they run theirs their way.
Speaker 2 (12:15):
They created this luxury tax, though, steve to try and
quote unquote level the playing field that for those owners
and small markets that may not have the revenue like
the Dodgers, the Meds, the Yankees, the Cubs, the Giants,
the smaller markets the Kansas City Royals of the world,
the Tampa Bay Rays of the world that just don't
(12:38):
have the radio and TV money coming in, they don't
have the advertisers that these other big markets have. They
made this luxury tax to give them money to try
to level the playing field. And if you're given fifty
million dollars a year. If you're given sixty million dollars
a year from Major League Baseball to reinvest into the organization,
(12:58):
Sign your free agents, Sign your top talent. Don't let
them go to the big bad Dodgers. Don't let them
get to the Yankees. Don't let them become free agents.
Don't let them force your hand and ask for a trade,
because you eventually won't take care of them. And that's
what we're seeing possibly with Paul Skins in Pittsburgh. Yeah,
don't let it get to that point. Baseball's helping you out,
(13:20):
They are giving you money to do this, and the
fact that you're not reinvesting it somehow, some way. Oh well,
stop crying saying baseball is bad because of the Dodgers.
Speaker 5 (13:31):
Yeah, it's not. It's not. There's no question about that.
You know.
Speaker 7 (13:35):
And the team that I work with during the season,
this last year of the Athletics, they've really.
Speaker 5 (13:40):
Gone out and spent money.
Speaker 7 (13:41):
Now they've they've signed Louis Sevarino to a multi year deal,
they signed a Lawrence Butler to a multi year deal.
Speaker 5 (13:48):
Brent Rooker.
Speaker 7 (13:50):
They've really shown out there that you know, that's the
way to do it. They've got you know, they're gonna
probably win the top two Rookies of the year this
year in the American League. I mean, I'm really proud
about the way this team has has come up, spent
money and and also has has really you know, produced
and help helped develop guys in their scouting and their
(14:11):
farm team. They've got some enormous talent coming up through
this farm system, so they've got a blend of both,
and I think that's a that's a great way. They're
not a huge market, but but they're still going out
and I think they're really doing it the right way.
Having having the young guys come up. Rookies of the year,
you'll see the first probably one or two guys will
probably be from the Athletics, but they've spent money and
locking guys up for long term deals as well, and
(14:33):
I think that's the way to do it.
Speaker 2 (14:35):
Here is manager Dave Roberts, who was asked about this
a few days ago. I kind of believe this. This
kind of questioning that he was receiving a press conference
led to his ultimate saying, let's go ruin baseball some more.
Here he was at a press conference last week again
to peppered with questions about are the Dodgers buying a championship?
Speaker 6 (14:54):
There's always critics. Yeah, I think that we're in a
big market, We're expected to win, our fans expect us
to win. I can't speak to what revenue we're bringing in,
but our ownership puts it back into players a big
chunk of it, which I know that's the way it
(15:14):
should be with all ownership groups.
Speaker 8 (15:17):
Yeah.
Speaker 6 (15:18):
I don't want to get too philosophical on ownership, but
I do think that you know, trying to be a competitor,
as Mark Walter and our ownership group is that's what
you want. I mean, I would think that that's what
sports fans want from from everyone, to get the best
of the you know, their team, and I think we
do as good a job as anyone.
Speaker 2 (15:37):
All Right, there's a manager, Dave Roberts, and at some
point this week I'm going to reach out to Ned
COLLETTI former Dodgers GM, and I want to get him
on and talk about his time as Dodgers general manager
because he was in an era for the most part,
under a different regime and did not spend money and
did not have the funds to go out and make
(15:58):
the organization better, and at the major league level, go
out and make the team better like they are now.
And maybe Dodger fans take this for granted, maybe they're
spoiled a little bit and what the product is on
the field. But I am certainly, very very remembering what
happened fifteen years ago when Ned Colletti was a GM
(16:18):
under a different ownership before Guggenheim took over, and Mark
Walter and Magic Johnson and crew and started investing into
the organization and the facilities over a camelback ranch. And
there's a great story about the facility in Arizona. Why
do they share a facility of the White Sox. How
is it the Dodgers share a facility in Arizona. Well,
it's because the owner at the time didn't have the
(16:40):
money to have his own facility. He had to share
with another major league team. I guarantee you now, if
you were to ask Mark Walter in this ownership group,
they'd want to get the White Sox out of there.
They'd rather have their own facility a Dodgerstown West like
in Vero Beach, but out in Arizona. They would want
to share a complex with the White Sox and when
they did it was pointed out to us when we
(17:01):
were out there. Look look left, look right, what do
you notice, Well, the White Sox facility, it was nice
and polished, and the wood was nice and looked good
and you know, kind of buffered. He looked over at
the Dodger sign and the wood was sort of, you know,
faint and and you know, starting to get weathered a
little bit because the ownership was too cheap to even
make it nice and look polished and and and looked
(17:23):
nice as far as the wood was concerned. There's a
huge difference from the last ownership to this ownership as
far as the Dodger's concerned. And you're seeing the I
think you're seeing the start contrast an owner who didn't
want to spend and didn't have the money to do
it and was Nickel and Dimi and everything, compared to
an ownership. Yeah, they got some money to spend, but
they make sure that product and their their stadium and
(17:44):
their their baseball ops are all taken care of.
Speaker 7 (17:48):
Yeah, and and uh and and the players feel that
they are in it to win it. They that they're
willing to do what it takes to win and I think, uh,
you know, that really does make a difference.
Speaker 5 (17:58):
That that trickles down to all the on the field
as well.
Speaker 7 (18:01):
But you know, when you go down to spring training, Tim,
and you know, you talk about sharing the complex there,
I get it. You know, you'd rather have your own,
but the place.
Speaker 5 (18:11):
Is so expansive.
Speaker 7 (18:12):
I mean, it's huge, it's a it's an enormous place.
And when I'm down there, I really don't notice a
huge difference between I mean, I feel like it's still
the Dodgers Complex, but you know, you're there really on
the days, on the days where the Dodgers are playing
at home, and you know, it all seems to be
like there's nothing but Dodger fans there. I get the
(18:33):
fact that you are sharing it and it's different, you know,
fifty percent of the time. But nonetheless they're on one side,
Dodgers on the other side. And you know, thankfully it's
a very very big, expansive place with all that landdown
in Arizona, where it mitigates the fact that you are
sharing the place.
Speaker 2 (18:51):
Right eight six, six, nine eighty seven, two five seventy.
The Dodgers ruining baseball the biggest joke the biggest narrative
they being talked about right now, completely false. Andre in
La thanks for being patient on with Sax and Kates
in the aam. How you doing Andre?
Speaker 3 (19:09):
Pretty good man, Good morning.
Speaker 9 (19:10):
How you guys doing? Happy Monday.
Speaker 2 (19:11):
Happy Monday to you, Andre.
Speaker 9 (19:13):
Great question, Just a quick question regarding Roki. What do
you guys think should he have a walk in song
and what should it be? And Sax you really sorry
to hear you you're a Raider fan, but have a
good one.
Speaker 2 (19:23):
Oh, Andre, he does have a walkout song? Is it's
It's a song that I'm not familiar with, but uh,
he does have one that it's become pretty recognizable now.
I think it's called Rokie and it's got a little
beat to it. Michelle will find it. But uh, yeah,
he does have a walkout song, So we'll see.
Speaker 5 (19:42):
What would your walkout sound be?
Speaker 2 (19:44):
Oh, something with the beat, something that gets people excited,
something that for the first couple of beats of that song,
whether it's the drum or a beat of some sort,
people recognize and as soon as they hear it, instantaneously
they stand upon their feet knowing who Yeah, the game?
You know you want my first initial Okay, it's Kate's
coming out of the pen.
Speaker 5 (20:03):
Yeah, mine would be some classical.
Speaker 2 (20:05):
Okay, this is a song that rookie Sasaki comes out
to Violooki Violaki. Okay, that's it. Yeah, he's got the
walkout song. Mike and l A, you're next up with
saxon Kate's and A am how you doing Mike?
Speaker 3 (20:21):
Yeah, good morning man Kate's then he's fired up.
Speaker 2 (20:24):
Dude.
Speaker 3 (20:25):
You know you're you're ruining sports talk for everyone out there. Man,
why but just because you're bringing so much energy, you know,
and no one can match it, you know. So now
now they're going to complain about you. But anyway, I
love it. Yeah, exactly. I think people complaining all these
teams complaining about the Dodgers, to me, it would be
(20:47):
the equivalent of Philly complaining about the Dodgers running that
wheel play. You know it's out there, anyone can do it.
The Dodgers were just creative in doing it. See so
your teams. I know that A sports jailers straight and
just published an article explaining everything how they paid already
for show hey Otani's contract in one year, and they
(21:09):
listed every reason how they did it through merchandising ticket sales,
all these creative ways. That's the blueprint. You guys go
out there learning yourself. We're not going to teach you.
And second of all, I liked how you brought up
between performances and I think you said moments to me.
The performance okay with Otani, but moment that's like an
(21:31):
onion layer right there, because you got to think about everything,
the totality of the thing, the magnitude you had, Gibson,
who the Dodgers. They weren't favored at all. You know,
Gibson was coming in hurt. You got to look at
all these different layers of that game. But with Freddie
he hits the first Grand Slam ever in World Series history.
(21:54):
So I mean, it's so hard to decide which is better,
you know, it's really hard. But yeah, I encourage people
go read that Sports Illustrated articles and you'll see, you know,
and Dodgers aren't ruining anything.
Speaker 2 (22:07):
No, they're not. I appreciate the phone call, Thanks for
the nice words. I would love to be compared to
the Dodgers of sports talk radio ruining everybody else and
what they're doing, that's that's that's the target.
Speaker 5 (22:19):
On your back.
Speaker 7 (22:19):
You're gonna get when you're when you're the elite team.
You know, it's it's it's it's out of jealousy. I
think they Man, they spend all that money and it works.
They groom those guys in the in the minor leagues
and it works.
Speaker 5 (22:31):
Man, they've been in the post the postseason, but thirteen
years in a row. They're fourteen years in a row.
It works. So they're they're they're jealous that they're successful.
They want to knock you down.
Speaker 2 (22:40):
The only way I would ever agree with the whole well,
the Dodgers are bad for baseball. They're ruining baseball. If
this were the case, and hear me out, if this
were the case, if when these guys were hitting free
agency and we're talking about bats and Freeman and Otani
and all these guys were talking about Blake Snell and
they just had so much money that they threw at
(23:02):
these players and it was way more than their hometown
team or the current team that they were on could
even dream of throwing at them, and tried to sign them.
Then okay, yeah, the big bad Dodgers coming in with
their paid you know, their check book and just writing
checks for all these players, but not the case. These
are guys who were not wanted by teams, traded away
by teams. Their teams, you know, felt like they couldn't
(23:25):
afford them, so they're gonna go somewhere else. And Blake
Snell didn't run. He didn't run to the Dodgers, folks.
He didn't run from Tampa to the Dodgers. Just give
me the money. I want to take the money. He
went to San Diego, he went to San Francisco, and
his third stop after leaving the Tampa Bay Rays is
with the Dodgers because he wants a championship and he
wants to win finally after Cy Young Awards. It's not
(23:47):
the case. It's not like they're just sitting there and saying, Okay,
well we got more money than you. Here's a blank check, Otani,
here's a blank check. Blake Snell, here's a blank check.
Freddie Freeman. They're not doing it. They're going out making trades,
wiring these guys via that way, then re upping these
guys to contract extensions. I mean again, Freddie Freeman wanted
to stay in the Atlanta Braves uniform. He wanted to
(24:09):
stay there. They did not want him. They let him
linger during COVID and said all right, we don't know,
we don't know. Yeah, you know, you're not in our plans.
So he signed with the Dodgers because they went and
got Matt Olson.
Speaker 7 (24:22):
And and they signed They signed Max Munsey off the
scrap heat Yes, when he when he was with the
with Oakland right when it was the Oakland age. Yeah,
and and so, I mean there's there's a lot of
different things you can be innovative to recognize the talent.
I mean, they don't just go out and sign for
you know, the highest paid free agent.
Speaker 5 (24:41):
It doesn't. It doesn't happen that way.
Speaker 2 (24:42):
Oh but they got tay Oscar Wait a second, ta
Oskar Hernandez signed a one year deal last year, betting
on himself that he would have a great offensive season.
He did and actually probably from what we understood, took
less money to come back to the Dodgers. There was
reports that the Blue Jays and the Red Sox were
offered him more, more money and more years to go
there in the offseason. He led it to come back
(25:04):
to the Dodgers. Will Smith drafted by the Dodgers. Uh
Andy Pajez signed as an international free agent and brought
in by the Dodgers. I mean, Anthony Bonda was on
the scrap heaps with seven other teams, and now that
he's found his home in the Dodger uniform. Oh worthy
of getting all these relievers from up. They're developing him
because nobody else can. They're better than you. They're just
(25:26):
fled out better than you.
Speaker 5 (25:27):
Yep.
Speaker 2 (25:28):
Eight six six nine eighty seven two five said we'll
come back more of your phone calls. This narrative is stupid.
The Dodgers ruining baseball and I'm tired of it. Eight
six six nine eighty seven two five seventy. Also coming up,
San Francisco Giants hiring a college coach. Really, what what
what we'll get into that David Vassa, Whether he likes
(25:49):
it or not, it's coming on with us. Top of
the hour eight sixty six nine eighty seven two five
seventy Steve Sacks, Tim Kats and you bright and early
on this Monday morning on a FI seventy ice sports
Dodgers are not ruining baseball, but they are dominating baseball
(26:11):
with a four to zero sweep over the Milwaukee Brewers,
and now they await the winner of the Mariners and
the Blue Jays, and the ALC has to see who
they'll face in the World Series. Tim Kait Steve Saxon
you on this Monday morning. Saxon kates at the AM
all October long during the Dodgers playoff run. And for
the second straight October, we will be going deep into
(26:34):
October as they have won the wild Card round the
NLDS against the Phillies four games sweep against the Milwaukee Brewers,
the best team in baseball during the regular season, and
now they're going back to the World Series. We'll get
into the Mariners and Blue Jays coming up in just
a little bit. I'm just watching Mark Dross on the
MLB Network Saxy bring down Otani's performance on the mound. Okay,
(26:55):
just on the mound Friday night. What is the greatest
performance ever in baseball history. And they should have won
it bad in the first inning where he struck out
the side fastball ninety nine, tailing in on a right
handed hit or Okay, strike one, Strike two is a
curveball and he gets the guy to swing and miss
over the top of it. The third pitch is a
(27:16):
sweeper even further outside the zone, but sort of look
the same coming out of the arm and the swinger
and then the batter had no chance of swinging at it.
And it's the setup. It's ninety nine in curveball or
swing over the top. And then the third pitch is
a Ausby pitch even a little bit further off the plate,
and your eye is telling you one thing and you
(27:38):
just cannot get to it. It just masterful, masterful pitching
by that showy.
Speaker 7 (27:42):
And you haven't mentioned the splitter no exactly, which is
maybe his most dominant wipeout pitch, if you will.
Speaker 5 (27:50):
And like you said, Tim, you're exactly right. You're on it.
Speaker 7 (27:53):
When you're talking about the I sees what's the eye
kind of thinks that sees something else that's actually coming
up there. And that's what you do when you change
the eye angle of the hitter and you constantly move
that up and down, in and out. That's why they
talk about pitch to four quadrants of the plate, and
(28:15):
the hitter really can't decipher, especially when the ball's up
because the pitch is closer to your eyes and you
can see that pitch better. That's why guys that offer
it that pitch they think it's leighter high, but it's
not it's more like over your head or you know,
eye level, and then they drop the other pitch on you,
which is you know, miwell plays fastball down in the zone,
(28:37):
or a sinker coming into you, or a splitter that
looks like a fastball, and then it just disappears. Those
are the reasons why your eyes can't decipher the difference
in large part, and that's why you see these guys
flailing offering it pitches that are way out of the zone,
and you scratch your head and say, isn't this a
major league hitter? How come these guys well?
Speaker 5 (28:59):
Because the pitchers are that good and they can fool you.
They can fool your eyes.
Speaker 7 (29:05):
Your eyes see something, but in reality, it's really something else.
Speaker 2 (29:10):
On the flip side, watching all three of showy Otani's
home runs back the fact that they still pitched to him.
In the second and third home runs by the way
they did. I mean the three to one pitch, they
threw a cookie down the middle and he crushed it
out of the Dodger Stadium right field pavilion. The third
home run was a one to two pitch in the
sixth inning, in which or seventh inning in which the
(29:31):
guy tried to get a ninety nine mile an hour
fastball by him on the inner half of the plate
and Otani hits the left center field for a home run.
I don't understand if the guy's already taking you deep
twice in a game, why you're even pitching anywhere near
the strike zone to this guy. I mean, I would
unintentionally walk the guy by just throwing four pitches nowhere
(29:54):
close and just hope that he swings out one of them.
If not, you walk the guy.
Speaker 5 (29:58):
Yeah.
Speaker 7 (29:59):
And here's the advant Anaeltani has over most people, and
I would put Aaron Judge in that in that department
as well, is these guys can be wrong, uh you
know in in maybe their connection, maybe not an approach,
but uh, they can be wrong when they make contact
and not be right perfect Like most people have to
(30:20):
be hit home run, Judge and Otani don't have to be.
Speaker 5 (30:24):
They can be off a bit.
Speaker 7 (30:26):
And what is a pop up to second base or
short right field for you and me is uh, you know,
it's it's way back in the pavilion. For these guys,
it's it's almost not fair. But but that's what you
got that's what what what they have. And and uh
so pitchers sometimes think, well, you know, I'm not gonna
give anything to hit, I'll pitch around. They still hit
(30:46):
a home run. And so you just got to say,
you know, put up four fingers and say just walk
down there, guy, I'm not I'm not even pitching to you.
Speaker 2 (30:54):
Show hey, Otani, you're an LCS MVP. The greatest performance
ever in bea smaller history, not the greatest moment in
Dodger history. Dodgers ruining baseball. That's the narrative that they
want you to believe around the country. Andrew in Torrence,
thanks for being patient. You're always saxic Kate today and
height you and Andrew.
Speaker 8 (31:15):
Doing good one of the guys. Yeah, so the narrative
about dodgern baseball, it's it's ridiculous because, like you guys
have said, any owner, you know, these guys are all billionaires.
They can invest in the team. And you think about
the Dodgers, you know they see them payroll, but took
them flying families across the country for one hundred and
(31:38):
two games across the postseason, having two planes. No other
teams doing that. And then you also think about the infrastructure,
the amount of scouts. What other team is renovating the
opposing team's clubhouse to make it nice, right, you know,
they're they're luring players here, and they see like the
(32:01):
Dodgers are even investing against the teams that are playing them.
You know, it's really laughable, Like you guys have said
that they're ruining baseball. All these guys are billionaires. Anyone
can hire the best scouts, hire the best trainers, have
the best nutrition. This is just stuff that all the
Dodgers do that other teams are just mad that why
(32:22):
aren't they doing it?
Speaker 2 (32:23):
You know, yeah, exactly, Andrew. And the fact that Baseball
even stepped in years ago and said, with this luxury tax,
we're gonna take that money that the big dogs are spending.
And you guys are crying about they're spending too much,
We're gonna tax them and we're gonna give that money
back to you owners who are crying that you don't
have the money. Well, there's no excuses anymore. You're getting money.
(32:44):
You're getting a check for millions every year from Major
League Baseball. And the fact that you don't reinvest that properly,
that's on you. Hey, Hey, I don't sign the right guys.
Speaker 5 (32:54):
That's on you.
Speaker 7 (32:55):
Yeah, I just want to interject this too. Is that
part of the last uh uh you know, the uh,
the players agreement with the owners is that they they
have to invest a certain amount of money back in
the team. If they're gonna collect you know, money, Okay,
they have to they have to invest a certain amount
of the money that back into the team and I'll
just pocket it. So that was kind of a good
(33:17):
thing that was that was brought up in the last agreement.
I think going forward in this next agreement that's gonna
happen in twenty seven.
Speaker 5 (33:25):
Uh, We'll have to wait to be seen.
Speaker 7 (33:26):
I don't know if there's gonna be what the andie's
gonna be, if there's gonna be a certain amount that
they have to develop. I think there's they're also talk
about a cap. Maybe there's gonna be a salary cap.
Speaker 5 (33:35):
Now.
Speaker 7 (33:35):
I don't think the Player Association is gonna go for that,
but that's kind of where things are in that Yeah,
you know, in that realm right now, is there's gonna
be some sticking points as far as that money, that
money that's that's stoled out.
Speaker 2 (33:49):
Jake and Burbank, thanks for being paid to you here.
Next up with sax of Kates on a f I
seventy l A Sports. How you doing, Jake.
Speaker 4 (33:56):
Good? How you guys doing?
Speaker 8 (33:57):
So?
Speaker 4 (33:57):
I got a not too but let me get through
it explanation of what I think should happen now. First
of all, I don't think the Dodgers are ruining baseball.
Second of all, to minimize just how much of an
advantage they have, I think it's a little disingenuous. Guys,
you know they have huge advantages, just like the Mets do.
Who I root for, the Yankees, etc. So here's what
(34:18):
baseball needs to do. They set up, and this was
kind of floated a few years back, but they set
up a top division. That's the major markets. Take the
top fourteen teams. Then you take the next ten teams,
and then you take the last six teams, and you
have three different divisions. The top one is all the
major markets. They spend whatever they want. The only thing
(34:40):
they have is the salary floor. The second tier, the
medium markets, have a salary cap that's equal to the
high team high market floor, and then they have their
own salary floor. And the bottom ones are those teams
that don't want to spend money and don't have a
lot of money to spend, and they say, you have
a salary cap that hits the floor of the media markets,
(35:01):
and below that you have your own salary floor for you.
So you have three distinct sets. Now you don't share
money like you do now, so they don't get all
this extra tax money or nearly as much revenue sharing
as they're getting by not spending. But here's the advantage too.
The top, the higher market bracket, gets seven of the
(35:22):
twelve playoff spots, the middle or sorry eight of the
playoff spots, the medium bracket gets three of the playoff spots,
and the bottom bracket gets just one. So all those
drag teams whose owners don't want to spend, they can
still play for stuff. They still get money, fans still
want to come see because they're not win a pennant
race every year. The medium's the same, and the large
(35:43):
ones all have their advantages and can go to board
with all those things. The players get their money, the
owners get more butts and seats, they get more paying
attention to people, They make more money. You don't change
the contracts in terms of everything else, because you do
your basic revenue sharing, everybody wins. Why won't this work?
Speaker 2 (36:00):
Thanks a lot of Jake, that's very confusing. I was
lost after a little bit of his explanation there, Steve Sacks,
and my pushback would be, that's never gonna work. That's
never gonna happen. And third and foremost, if if they
were even sniffs of doing this, if I were a player,
I would sign one or two year deals if the
lower two tiers what he was talking about in hopes
(36:21):
that one day I produce enough that I get signed
by a top tier two. This is ridiculous. I don't
even know why I'm addressing it. That that's never gonna happen. Steve, Yeah, I.
Speaker 7 (36:30):
Mean you can tell you it's a well thought out plan.
I mean he put the he put the work in
to think that it's not gonna work. I mean, you're
not gonna have a set of rules that's different from
one set against the other set. The bottom tier teams,
you know, they think we're gonna get one one per
one team in there. That that won't work. It's got
to be wide open. So I'm not sure what the
(36:52):
what the rules are going to be. I don't think
the player is gonna go for a salary cap. But
that's where it is right now. And we see the
standoff before. We saw it when I saw it plenty
when I was playing, and that's it's like the rules
haven't changed.
Speaker 2 (37:06):
Eight six sixty nine eighty seven to two five seven.
We'll continue with your phone calls when we come back.
A team in baseball is looking to hire a college coach.
Come on, is this gonna work? We'll get into it.
We'll also get into Mariners and Blue Jays. Who's a
better fit for the Dodgers coming out of the ALCS
Game seven tonight, Sax and Kates in the am, Thanks
(37:26):
for being with us on this Monday morning. Is the
countdown to the twenty twenty five World Series begins Steve Sacks,
Tim Kates and you on a Monday morning as we
await the winner of Game seven and the ALCS tonight
in Toronto to see who the Dodgers will be facing
(37:47):
in the upcoming World Series. Game one is on Friday.
Will it be a Dodger stadium we'll find out or
will it be in Toronto? We'll all find out tonight
at the Rogers Center in Toronto as the Blue Jays
take on the Mariners in the decisive Game seven. Big
news in San Francisco Steve sacks. The San Francisco Giants
(38:08):
and their manager Buster Posey reportedly are narrowing in on
their search for a new manager to replace Bob Melvin,
and that guy could be Tennessee head coach Tony Vottello. Yes,
they could be going to the collegiate rakes and hire
the Vall's head coach to replace Bob Melvin and take
(38:31):
over the vacant position with the San Francisco Giants now
a portly Vittello met with his team over the weekend
after a scrimmage and said they are talking and that
if he did leave, he'd be the first one to
tell them. There are certainly numerous reports that they are
narrowing in on a possible deal by however, no deal
is in place as of yet. What do you make
(38:53):
of the San Francisco Giants dipping down to the collegiate
level and what would be the first time ever a
college baseball coach goes directly to the big leagues as
a manager.
Speaker 7 (39:05):
Okay, so to be fair about everything, I mean, they
do it, They do it. In football, right, they go
from college to the pro ranks.
Speaker 5 (39:14):
Uh, they do that. We know that.
Speaker 7 (39:17):
Never seen it happen in baseball, as you pointed out,
be the first time. I'm I don't know who who
mister Vtello is. I'm sure he's a pretty good coach
at Tennessee, but I don't know much about him.
Speaker 5 (39:30):
I know baseball is.
Speaker 7 (39:31):
A very very traditional, uh, very incestuous, uh you know,
type of of a sport where you know, they they
like to have their own people there. They they know
people they've been trying, they've been tested, they've come up
in the minor leagues, they've either played a lot in
the minor leagues or have been uh you know, with
a professional team for a while. So they they know
(39:51):
a lot about the personality of the person too. And
so I I think so much criteria goes into the
person part of being a major league manager. We all
know the x's and o's on the field. If you've
been around the game, you got a bench coach there
in case you have your own ideas and you're gonna
screw something up, You've got some backup there. So it's
not that it's more of the person part of the game.
(40:14):
I think that that really hires and fires, you know, managers.
Oh you lost the locker room, You're gonna fire you real, Okay,
So that's that's.
Speaker 5 (40:22):
The kind of thing that's it's more of anything else.
Speaker 7 (40:25):
So I don't know mister Vittel if he's got you know,
ties to Buster Posey and you know back there.
Speaker 5 (40:31):
I know Buster's from Georgia. I don't know what the
ties are. But you know, we'll see.
Speaker 7 (40:36):
I'm a very traditional person as well. I'm old school,
so you know, I guess the jury is out on that.
Speaker 2 (40:44):
It's definitely zigging when everybody else is zagging, so to speak,
and going against what has been the norm in hiring
long established minor league coaches, bench coaches, assistant coaches and
promoting them to managers at the big league level. The
only thing that's parable is Pat Murphy, I guess with
the Milwaukee Brewers. I mean, he's spent twenty five years
(41:05):
coaching college baseball, most notably a Notre dame in Arizona State,
coached a little bit and managed in the minor leagues,
was an advisor with the Padres, finally became a bench
coach with the Brewers to kind of help Craig Council
make that change from player to manager. And then when
Council left, he took over the last two years as
the manager of the Milwaukee Brewers. I mean, this literally
(41:26):
has just never happened before. Grabbing a coach from the
collegiate ranks. He's been successful. He's won a College Baseball
World Series at Tennessee. Since taking over, He's brought back
that program to the national prominence. He's got a ton
of guys that have been drafted and are now starting
to pop up in the Major League. Since taking over,
they've got three College World Series appearances since twenty seventeen.
(41:50):
I mean, certainly he's been very, very successful at the
college level. And for Buster Posey, this would certainly be
a big swing as a young general manager and it
beloved San Francisco Giant. This would be a huge swing
for him to see if he can get it to
work and if they can get it to work in
San Francisco, and this could be successful. This could be
(42:13):
that new tread now in baseball, because as I always
talk about, it's a copycat league.
Speaker 7 (42:18):
And there's there's so many, you know, new things coming on,
new rules and whatnot, new ways of marketing, et cetera.
As far as Major League Baseball, it's almost in flux.
Is if you look at, you know, the whole spectrum
of baseball and how it works.
Speaker 2 (42:32):
Now.
Speaker 7 (42:33):
A lot of things are changing in baseball. Maybe, as
you said, maybe this is one of those things that change.
The question I have is when you have a a
stalwart on a team that's been there and done that,
that's headed to the Hall of Fame, and the team
is sinking down and you're all looking to your manager
for some guidance and he's not able to cut it
(42:54):
because he doesn't have the experience of even playing professional
baseball or let alone being around professional baseball. It's a different,
different game than what So that's probably one of the
questions that I would have. You know, a pitcher that's
been around, say for you know, many many years, and
he's really good, but team's going down, he's having troubles,
(43:16):
and and he's wondering, now where that leadership comes from.
Is going to come from a college coach that's never
played professional baseball. Well, that's the question that will be answered.
I guess if he is hired.
Speaker 2 (43:27):
I mean college baseball season, you know, goes from February
to late June. If you're making the College Baseball World Series,
you're playing anywhere between fifty and seventy games. If you
make it all the way to the College Baseball World
Series in Omaha, that's a that's not a lot compared
to one hundred and sixty two game season and the
(43:49):
grind of a Major League baseball season. I think that,
to me is the first thing that sticks out, And
all the things you just alluded to as well are
also factors and can be successful as a manager at
the big league level. Why don't we see this, I mean,
that's the question. You see it in college football, you
see it in college basketball. Is it because in baseball
(44:10):
there's so many levels to get to the top, Unlike football,
where you get drafted or you're a coach and there's
one stop. There's college and there's the NFL. In basketball,
there's college and then there's the NBA. There's not really
anything in between for you to go play and learn,
I mean outside the G League. But in baseball there's
that whole level rookie ball to TRIPAA before you even
(44:33):
get to the major leagues that you have to work
your way through.
Speaker 7 (44:36):
Yeah, football and basketball don't have minor leagues. College is
the minor leagues for the basketball in football, baseball. Course,
it's very, very traditional. It's rigorous going through the minors.
The bus trips, the price that you pay, the places
that you stay, my meal money my first year when
I was on Lefthbridge three dollars and fifty cents a day.
(44:58):
The next day was next year it was six dollars.
I mean, I'm sure it's better than that now, but
you get an idea of what the minor leagues is like.
Speaker 5 (45:07):
Twenty hour bus trips, et cetera.
Speaker 7 (45:10):
Not easy, but we'll see. I mean, no minor leagues
in football and basketball. Now, that's why it's from there
to the big Show.
Speaker 2 (45:18):
I know it's only a movie, but in my mind,
I Pitcher Moneyball and the way Brad Pitt's character shuffled
things up with Thea's and how it ruffled a lot
of feathers and old timers and guys who grinded and
been around the game and the scouts. They didn't like
it and they pushed back, and it was very much
dramatized in the movie. I get it. But I think
about this and maybe there's some pushback with the old timers,
(45:40):
Guys who have been grinding, Guys who have been assistants,
guys who have been in the minor leagues as a
manager for twenty years. How does this go over with
the baseball community.
Speaker 7 (45:49):
And tim A team like the Dodgers that goes to
the Gamut in postseason, they're gonna play two hundred games,
you know, spring training, thirty one, sixty two, and then
another you gotta win another three team. It's about two
in our games.
Speaker 2 (46:01):
We'll see if the Giants do, in fact pull the
trigger and hire a college coach. We'll come back one
more hour to go, Mariners, Blue Jays, your phone calls
Dodgers ruining baseball. Otani's greatest performance ever, so much to
get to. We want you to be a part of
the conversation right here on AMPHI seventy LA Sports
They say, the hardest thing in sports isn't winning a title.
Speaker 2 (00:04):
It's hard to repeat seasons.
Speaker 1 (00:06):
It's winning it again.
Speaker 3 (00:07):
This year. Is not trying to win a championship, They're
trying to repeat.
Speaker 1 (00:11):
It's October baseball for your world champion in La Dodger.
Speaker 4 (00:15):
The twenty twenty five Dodgers are the National League's Western
Division champions.
Speaker 1 (00:20):
And you know what that means.
Speaker 2 (00:22):
Saxon Kates and AM is back.
Speaker 1 (00:25):
This is Saxon Kates in the Morning with Tim Kates
and former World Champion Dodger Steve Sacks.
Speaker 2 (00:32):
Reacting taking your phone calls talking Dodgers playoff baseball all
postseason long now here.
Speaker 1 (00:38):
They are on AM five to seventy LA Sports and
the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 2 (00:43):
Steve Sacks, Tim Kaits, Tim.
Speaker 1 (00:46):
Kates and World Champion Dodger Steve Sacks.
Speaker 2 (00:51):
Ah, good Monday morning to you Southern California. Sason Kates
and A with you. You're all all morning long, all
week long, all October long. As the Dodgers are going
back to the World Series looking to defend their World
Series championship.
Speaker 5 (01:13):
Who will they face?
Speaker 1 (01:14):
We don't know.
Speaker 2 (01:16):
We'll find out tonight Game seven of the American League
Championship Series as the Toronto Blue Jays play host to
the Seattle Mariners in Game seven of their best of
seven series.
Speaker 5 (01:26):
Interesting, are you watching that game in earnest tonight?
Speaker 6 (01:30):
No?
Speaker 2 (01:30):
I watched the Saturday. I watched the game last night
instead of Sunday Night Baseball. The Falcons and forty nine Ers,
no offense year forty nine ers. By the way, they
got the win. See the outcome? Yeah, I know, I know,
they just keep it.
Speaker 5 (01:42):
Was an amazing game. I gotta tell you.
Speaker 7 (01:44):
Watch that well, it's I was flipping between the two. Yeah,
and yeah, I was flipping between the two. But man,
I'll tell you what. They pulled it off.
Speaker 5 (01:52):
What?
Speaker 2 (01:53):
Yeah? Did you have to watch the Raider game yesterday?
Speaker 7 (01:55):
Oh my god, It's so hard to watch him because
I'm such a Raider fan. You know, forty nine Ers
and Raiders are right there with each other. But god,
I mean, they just everything's yiss. I mean, I wonder
how Tom Brady's sitting with this. I mean, he's that
guy's a winner. He can't be standing for this.
Speaker 2 (02:12):
I can't imagine he's too happy when when the Raiders
lose thirty one to nothing. Pete Carroll said, did not
see this coming, And I don't know how he didn't
see it coming scene as it happened to him a
couple of weeks ago. When they want to Washington play
the Commanders against the Colts, same thing happened when they
face them in Indianapolis. This is it.
Speaker 7 (02:34):
It's Travis Kelcey, who might be the slowest tight end
ever to play NFL football, maybe the slowest tight end ever.
That guy gets open, he lets everybody clear out. He does,
he acts like he's blocking and then just turns around.
They throwing the ball and it's and it's worked for him.
He's going to the Hall of Fame because of this.
(02:54):
You know what, when you're playing against the.
Speaker 2 (02:56):
Chiefs, Gord Kelsey, okay, Gore, Dravis Kelsey, and you eliminate
half of the throwing by Mahomes.
Speaker 7 (03:06):
He's the dude is wide open. Every single play there's
nobody in fifteen yards of him.
Speaker 5 (03:12):
I don't get it.
Speaker 2 (03:14):
Yeah, I'm tired of third and eleven.
Speaker 7 (03:17):
And this this dude that can't even run is there's
nobody fifteen yards of him every single.
Speaker 2 (03:24):
Play third eleven and he picks up sixteen. It's like,
wait a second, what are we doing? What are we doing?
Speaker 5 (03:29):
Unbelievable? Yeah's hey, what do you think about?
Speaker 7 (03:32):
Like the guy's going deep and the defenders there and
the defenders not even turning around looking at the ball.
Speaker 5 (03:37):
No chance for an interception.
Speaker 7 (03:39):
No, because he's looking at the at the receiver's eyes
and hoping he can stick his hand in his face
and block it off. This this has gotta be the
most ridiculous defense I've ever seen. I would think, you know,
I'm not a football player, but I would think if
the guy's going out for a pass and he turns
around and looks up, you see his eyes starting to
get big, he's gonna catch the ball.
Speaker 5 (03:59):
Maybe the defenders should turn around and.
Speaker 7 (04:01):
Look at the ball. It just went right by your head.
You all you have to do is turn around and
catch it.
Speaker 2 (04:06):
Interception, yeah, or put your hands up.
Speaker 7 (04:08):
That's why they've invented this back shoulder thing, because they
just throw it.
Speaker 5 (04:12):
They throw it short because they know the defender is
not going to be looking. No, it's it's stupid.
Speaker 2 (04:16):
It's it's the same thing with your third and a long.
Throw it to the end zone and hope that you
get a p I call. If not, you get a touchdown.
Either way, you're going to get the ball and extend
your drive.
Speaker 5 (04:25):
It's I know a lot of people aren't gonna like
it when I say this, but you know, Notre Dame
put it on USC.
Speaker 2 (04:30):
Yeah they did, right, Yeah they did.
Speaker 5 (04:32):
I'm a huge you know. Notre name is my team.
Speaker 2 (04:34):
You know that.
Speaker 7 (04:34):
And I know a lot of people don't like me
now because I said that. But you know what, too bad?
Speaker 5 (04:38):
I like. I like Notre Dame. I always have.
Speaker 7 (04:40):
And uh, same thing with them. How many how many
times did they get called for passing it for seven?
Was it seven times? I think so because he's not
looking at the ball looking you're just playing the defender.
It's it's crazy.
Speaker 2 (04:54):
Well, is Notre Dame ruining college football like the Dodgers
are ruining baseball? Yes, that is the narrative now in
baseball that the Dodgers are the big, bad, ugly team
from Los Angeles and ruining the sports of baseball and
going to lead it to a lockout in another year
(05:15):
or so, and they're the reason why baseball is failing.
Here's the manager, Dave Roberts on the podium, national audience,
and let it be known they're the big bad Wolves.
Speaker 6 (05:27):
I'll tell you, before this season started, they said the
Dodgers are ruining baseball.
Speaker 2 (05:33):
Let's get four more wins and really ruin baseball. Let's go, Yeah,
let's go. Let's go ruin baseball. And I love what
Dave Roberts had to said, because clearly, clearly they are
hearing that over at the Dodgers, and Freeman kind of
joked about it and in a way that he wasn't
too happy about when he was on with Petro Some
(05:54):
Money as well on Friday, when asked about the narrative
that they are ruining baseball, Dave Roberts certainly brought that
up and said, let's go ruin it with four more wins.
It's it's laughable to me, Steve, that people want to
look at the Dodgers and point the finger and say
they they right there in Dodger blue pantone right there,
they are the reason why baseball is going to fail,
(06:18):
and they are the reason why they are ruining the sport.
It's laughable they point the finger at the Dodgers. Yeah,
that's crazy.
Speaker 4 (06:25):
Uh.
Speaker 7 (06:26):
You know what they really should say is the truth
that so many people are jealous of the Dodgers. That's
what it is. They're jealous that they they they pay money.
They're jealous that they play good. They're jealous that they scout. Well,
look at you could have went out and got Max Muncie.
Somebody else could have drafted, you know, Mookie Bets or
(06:48):
I mean, I mean acquired Mookie Bets. Other people could
have drafted players. He could have gone out and acquired
O'tani like the Angels did it, and we had to
wait six six seven years to get him. So I mean,
it isn't like they just go out and you know,
it happens that way. Look at the Dodgers scouting system.
How about their farm system. I mean, why do they
get Rookies of the Year all the time, because they
(07:09):
train them well in the minor leagues when they come
up their impact players, they're not just kind of learning
on the fly. So the thing is they're just jealous
of the Dodgers. That's the reason why. I mean, look
at the Padres enormous payroll. How about the New York
Mets enormous payroll. How they do this year? I mean
they're not in postseason. Mets never even made it. Padres did,
(07:30):
but they're out pretty quick, all right. So so how
do you how do you say the Dodgers are ruining baseball?
I don't get it.
Speaker 5 (07:37):
It's not it's not true at all.
Speaker 7 (07:39):
This is this is a you know, this is a
free and open type of work environment that we have
in baseball.
Speaker 5 (07:45):
It's called capitalism.
Speaker 7 (07:46):
And if you have the money to spend and you
can go out and do it, spend it just the
way you want. That's what capitalism is. So get off
our back, and you know, if you don't love it,
then just learn to live with it.
Speaker 2 (07:57):
The Dodgers reinvest their money onto the on field product
better than anybody in baseball, and you can make an argument,
better than anybody in professional sports. They invest money into
their system, They invest money into their ecosystem as far
as the organization and top to bottom, making sure they
(08:17):
are running the best. Now you think about the product
on the field at the major league level, you think
about the current roster and where these guys all came from. Yeah,
baseball would look different if the Pittsburgh Pirates didn't trade
Tyler Glass now to the Tampa Bay Rays and then
didn't want the Rays didn't want to sign them again
to a long term deal. It looked a lot different
(08:38):
if the Tampa Bay Rays actually signed Blake Snell, one
of the best pitchers in baseball, to a long term deal.
Baseball would look different if the Boston Red Sox could
have agreed to a long term deal with Mookie Betts
instead said nope, We're gonna rate for Rafiel Devers and
other guys and pay them, but we're gonna trade away
Mookie Betts to the Dodgers. Oh yeah, as you mentioned,
(08:59):
they waited six years because initially, show Hey Otani did
not choose them. He chose poorly first and went to
the Angels for six years and now he's a member
of the Dodgers. Freddie Freeman, let's just not Freddie Freeman
just wasn't a free agent and did oh you know what,
I want to ditch the Braves and run to LA
and join a superpower. No, no, no, no, no no. He
(09:20):
wanted to stay with the Atlanta Braves. He wanted to
stay there and play for the team that drafted him
and he won a World Series. They were the organization
that strung him along during the offseason, wouldn't commit to him,
and then instead decided Matt Olsen Is who they wanted
playing first base instead of Freddie Freeman. So Freddie Freeman
elected to go back home to southern California and took
(09:44):
less money to come to the Dodgers. All these things
happened not because the Dodgers are the big bad Wolf
and ruining baseball and just like pac Man, gobbling up
every free agent and overpaying them and paying them like
nobody else can and have these unlimited pockets to pay everybody. No, no,
(10:06):
no no. They are simply taking advantage of the market
because other teams and other owners refuse to pay their players,
refuse to want to take care of them, guys they
have brought up in their system. All right, you don't
want to pay Mooki Bets, trade them away. The Dodgers
will simply say, thank you, We'll trade you alex Erdugo
and other prospects for Mookie Bets and then sign them
(10:28):
to a long term deal. They take care of players.
They go out and bring in the talent the other
teams don't want to spend money on, and I credit
the Dodgers for being the team that does that. You
can't fault them for going out and make these moves
they're not bad for baseball. They're good for the game
of baseball. And it's a shame that the other owners
(10:50):
around Major League Baseball aren't doing the same things because
they're not poor. They're not sitting there and having no
money that they can't pay anybody and woe is me
and looking for handouts from Major League Baseball. Well yeah,
they are getting actually handouts with revenue sharing, and they're
given money every single year. Steve sacked and told, here's
free money from the Dodgers who spend all this money
(11:12):
and are giving you now portion of it in this
big pot known as revenue tax sharing. Now you go
out and spend it. And it's not the Dodgers' fault
that other owners won't take that money and spend it. Instead,
they're pocketing at it. Reinvest in your own organization, pay
your own players, take care of them so they don't
want to leave or don't get traded away to the
(11:32):
Dodgers who will take care of them. Yeah.
Speaker 7 (11:35):
Yeah, you put that pretty succinctly, I believe, And you know,
it's just a matter of philosophy on each team. Some
players some teams, they don't want to go out and
just you know, spend the money.
Speaker 5 (11:46):
Other teams they you.
Speaker 7 (11:47):
Know, delve more into their scouting departments and try to
develop players, and you know, it's just a matter of
philosophy and what you have, you know, your team. But
for the most part, the Dodgers aren't chastising other teams
for the way that they run their clubs. They run
theirs their way, and other teams run the way that
they think they would be specific to their philosophy of
(12:08):
their team. And that's just the way it is. And
it's good for other teams that they run that way,
and it's good for the Dodgers they run theirs their way.
Speaker 2 (12:15):
They created this luxury tax, though, steve to try and
quote unquote level the playing field that for those owners
and small markets that may not have the revenue like
the Dodgers, the Meds, the Yankees, the Cubs, the Giants,
the smaller markets the Kansas City Royals of the world,
the Tampa Bay Rays of the world that just don't
(12:38):
have the radio and TV money coming in, they don't
have the advertisers that these other big markets have. They
made this luxury tax to give them money to try
to level the playing field. And if you're given fifty
million dollars a year. If you're given sixty million dollars
a year from Major League Baseball to reinvest into the organization,
(12:58):
Sign your free agents, Sign your top talent. Don't let
them go to the big bad Dodgers. Don't let them
get to the Yankees. Don't let them become free agents.
Don't let them force your hand and ask for a trade,
because you eventually won't take care of them. And that's
what we're seeing possibly with Paul Skins in Pittsburgh. Yeah,
don't let it get to that point. Baseball's helping you out,
(13:20):
They are giving you money to do this, and the
fact that you're not reinvesting it somehow, some way. Oh well,
stop crying saying baseball is bad because of the Dodgers.
Speaker 5 (13:31):
Yeah, it's not. It's not. There's no question about that.
You know.
Speaker 7 (13:35):
And the team that I work with during the season,
this last year of the Athletics, they've really.
Speaker 5 (13:40):
Gone out and spent money.
Speaker 7 (13:41):
Now they've they've signed Louis Sevarino to a multi year deal,
they signed a Lawrence Butler to a multi year deal.
Speaker 5 (13:48):
Brent Rooker.
Speaker 7 (13:50):
They've really shown out there that you know, that's the
way to do it. They've got you know, they're gonna
probably win the top two Rookies of the year this
year in the American League. I mean, I'm really proud
about the way this team has has come up, spent
money and and also has has really you know, produced
and help helped develop guys in their scouting and their
(14:11):
farm team. They've got some enormous talent coming up through
this farm system, so they've got a blend of both,
and I think that's a that's a great way. They're
not a huge market, but but they're still going out
and I think they're really doing it the right way.
Having having the young guys come up. Rookies of the year,
you'll see the first probably one or two guys will
probably be from the Athletics, but they've spent money and
locking guys up for long term deals as well, and
(14:33):
I think that's the way to do it.
Speaker 2 (14:35):
Here is manager Dave Roberts, who was asked about this
a few days ago. I kind of believe this. This
kind of questioning that he was receiving a press conference
led to his ultimate saying, let's go ruin baseball some more.
Here he was at a press conference last week again
to peppered with questions about are the Dodgers buying a championship?
Speaker 6 (14:54):
There's always critics. Yeah, I think that we're in a
big market, We're expected to win, our fans expect us
to win. I can't speak to what revenue we're bringing in,
but our ownership puts it back into players a big
chunk of it, which I know that's the way it
(15:14):
should be with all ownership groups.
Speaker 8 (15:17):
Yeah.
Speaker 6 (15:18):
I don't want to get too philosophical on ownership, but
I do think that you know, trying to be a competitor,
as Mark Walter and our ownership group is that's what
you want. I mean, I would think that that's what
sports fans want from from everyone, to get the best
of the you know, their team, and I think we
do as good a job as anyone.
Speaker 2 (15:37):
All Right, there's a manager, Dave Roberts, and at some
point this week I'm going to reach out to Ned
COLLETTI former Dodgers GM, and I want to get him
on and talk about his time as Dodgers general manager
because he was in an era for the most part,
under a different regime and did not spend money and
did not have the funds to go out and make
(15:58):
the organization better, and at the major league level, go
out and make the team better like they are now.
And maybe Dodger fans take this for granted, maybe they're
spoiled a little bit and what the product is on
the field. But I am certainly, very very remembering what
happened fifteen years ago when Ned Colletti was a GM
(16:18):
under a different ownership before Guggenheim took over, and Mark
Walter and Magic Johnson and crew and started investing into
the organization and the facilities over a camelback ranch. And
there's a great story about the facility in Arizona. Why
do they share a facility of the White Sox. How
is it the Dodgers share a facility in Arizona. Well,
it's because the owner at the time didn't have the
(16:40):
money to have his own facility. He had to share
with another major league team. I guarantee you now, if
you were to ask Mark Walter in this ownership group,
they'd want to get the White Sox out of there.
They'd rather have their own facility a Dodgerstown West like
in Vero Beach, but out in Arizona. They would want
to share a complex with the White Sox and when
they did it was pointed out to us when we
(17:01):
were out there. Look look left, look right, what do
you notice, Well, the White Sox facility, it was nice
and polished, and the wood was nice and looked good
and you know, kind of buffered. He looked over at
the Dodger sign and the wood was sort of, you know,
faint and and you know, starting to get weathered a
little bit because the ownership was too cheap to even
make it nice and look polished and and and looked
(17:23):
nice as far as the wood was concerned. There's a
huge difference from the last ownership to this ownership as
far as the Dodger's concerned. And you're seeing the I
think you're seeing the start contrast an owner who didn't
want to spend and didn't have the money to do
it and was Nickel and Dimi and everything, compared to
an ownership. Yeah, they got some money to spend, but
they make sure that product and their their stadium and
(17:44):
their their baseball ops are all taken care of.
Speaker 7 (17:48):
Yeah, and and uh and and the players feel that
they are in it to win it. They that they're
willing to do what it takes to win and I think, uh,
you know, that really does make a difference.
Speaker 5 (17:58):
That that trickles down to all the on the field
as well.
Speaker 7 (18:01):
But you know, when you go down to spring training, Tim,
and you know, you talk about sharing the complex there,
I get it. You know, you'd rather have your own,
but the place.
Speaker 5 (18:11):
Is so expansive.
Speaker 7 (18:12):
I mean, it's huge, it's a it's an enormous place.
And when I'm down there, I really don't notice a
huge difference between I mean, I feel like it's still
the Dodgers Complex, but you know, you're there really on
the days, on the days where the Dodgers are playing
at home, and you know, it all seems to be
like there's nothing but Dodger fans there. I get the
(18:33):
fact that you are sharing it and it's different, you know,
fifty percent of the time. But nonetheless they're on one side,
Dodgers on the other side. And you know, thankfully it's
a very very big, expansive place with all that landdown
in Arizona, where it mitigates the fact that you are
sharing the place.
Speaker 2 (18:51):
Right eight six, six, nine eighty seven, two five seventy.
The Dodgers ruining baseball the biggest joke the biggest narrative
they being talked about right now, completely false. Andre in
La thanks for being patient on with Sax and Kates
in the aam. How you doing Andre?
Speaker 3 (19:09):
Pretty good man, Good morning.
Speaker 9 (19:10):
How you guys doing? Happy Monday.
Speaker 2 (19:11):
Happy Monday to you, Andre.
Speaker 9 (19:13):
Great question, Just a quick question regarding Roki. What do
you guys think should he have a walk in song
and what should it be? And Sax you really sorry
to hear you you're a Raider fan, but have a
good one.
Speaker 2 (19:23):
Oh, Andre, he does have a walkout song? Is it's
It's a song that I'm not familiar with, but uh,
he does have one that it's become pretty recognizable now.
I think it's called Rokie and it's got a little
beat to it. Michelle will find it. But uh, yeah,
he does have a walkout song, So we'll see.
Speaker 5 (19:42):
What would your walkout sound be?
Speaker 2 (19:44):
Oh, something with the beat, something that gets people excited,
something that for the first couple of beats of that song,
whether it's the drum or a beat of some sort,
people recognize and as soon as they hear it, instantaneously
they stand upon their feet knowing who Yeah, the game?
You know you want my first initial Okay, it's Kate's
coming out of the pen.
Speaker 5 (20:03):
Yeah, mine would be some classical.
Speaker 2 (20:05):
Okay, this is a song that rookie Sasaki comes out
to Violooki Violaki. Okay, that's it. Yeah, he's got the
walkout song. Mike and l A, you're next up with
saxon Kate's and A am how you doing Mike?
Speaker 3 (20:21):
Yeah, good morning man Kate's then he's fired up.
Speaker 2 (20:24):
Dude.
Speaker 3 (20:25):
You know you're you're ruining sports talk for everyone out there. Man,
why but just because you're bringing so much energy, you know,
and no one can match it, you know. So now
now they're going to complain about you. But anyway, I
love it. Yeah, exactly. I think people complaining all these
teams complaining about the Dodgers, to me, it would be
(20:47):
the equivalent of Philly complaining about the Dodgers running that
wheel play. You know it's out there, anyone can do it.
The Dodgers were just creative in doing it. See so
your teams. I know that A sports jailers straight and
just published an article explaining everything how they paid already
for show hey Otani's contract in one year, and they
(21:09):
listed every reason how they did it through merchandising ticket sales,
all these creative ways. That's the blueprint. You guys go
out there learning yourself. We're not going to teach you.
And second of all, I liked how you brought up
between performances and I think you said moments to me.
The performance okay with Otani, but moment that's like an
(21:31):
onion layer right there, because you got to think about everything,
the totality of the thing, the magnitude you had, Gibson,
who the Dodgers. They weren't favored at all. You know,
Gibson was coming in hurt. You got to look at
all these different layers of that game. But with Freddie
he hits the first Grand Slam ever in World Series history.
(21:54):
So I mean, it's so hard to decide which is better,
you know, it's really hard. But yeah, I encourage people
go read that Sports Illustrated articles and you'll see, you know,
and Dodgers aren't ruining anything.
Speaker 2 (22:07):
No, they're not. I appreciate the phone call, Thanks for
the nice words. I would love to be compared to
the Dodgers of sports talk radio ruining everybody else and
what they're doing, that's that's that's the target.
Speaker 5 (22:19):
On your back.
Speaker 7 (22:19):
You're gonna get when you're when you're the elite team.
You know, it's it's it's it's out of jealousy. I
think they Man, they spend all that money and it works.
They groom those guys in the in the minor leagues
and it works.
Speaker 5 (22:31):
Man, they've been in the post the postseason, but thirteen
years in a row. They're fourteen years in a row.
It works. So they're they're they're jealous that they're successful.
They want to knock you down.
Speaker 2 (22:40):
The only way I would ever agree with the whole well,
the Dodgers are bad for baseball. They're ruining baseball. If
this were the case, and hear me out, if this
were the case, if when these guys were hitting free
agency and we're talking about bats and Freeman and Otani
and all these guys were talking about Blake Snell and
they just had so much money that they threw at
(23:02):
these players and it was way more than their hometown
team or the current team that they were on could
even dream of throwing at them, and tried to sign them.
Then okay, yeah, the big bad Dodgers coming in with
their paid you know, their check book and just writing
checks for all these players, but not the case. These
are guys who were not wanted by teams, traded away
by teams. Their teams, you know, felt like they couldn't
(23:25):
afford them, so they're gonna go somewhere else. And Blake
Snell didn't run. He didn't run to the Dodgers, folks.
He didn't run from Tampa to the Dodgers. Just give
me the money. I want to take the money. He
went to San Diego, he went to San Francisco, and
his third stop after leaving the Tampa Bay Rays is
with the Dodgers because he wants a championship and he
wants to win finally after Cy Young Awards. It's not
(23:47):
the case. It's not like they're just sitting there and saying, Okay,
well we got more money than you. Here's a blank check, Otani,
here's a blank check. Blake Snell, here's a blank check.
Freddie Freeman. They're not doing it. They're going out making trades,
wiring these guys via that way, then re upping these
guys to contract extensions. I mean again, Freddie Freeman wanted
to stay in the Atlanta Braves uniform. He wanted to
(24:09):
stay there. They did not want him. They let him
linger during COVID and said all right, we don't know,
we don't know. Yeah, you know, you're not in our plans.
So he signed with the Dodgers because they went and
got Matt Olson.
Speaker 7 (24:22):
And and they signed They signed Max Munsey off the
scrap heat Yes, when he when he was with the
with Oakland right when it was the Oakland age. Yeah,
and and so, I mean there's there's a lot of
different things you can be innovative to recognize the talent.
I mean, they don't just go out and sign for
you know, the highest paid free agent.
Speaker 5 (24:41):
It doesn't. It doesn't happen that way.
Speaker 2 (24:42):
Oh but they got tay Oscar Wait a second, ta
Oskar Hernandez signed a one year deal last year, betting
on himself that he would have a great offensive season.
He did and actually probably from what we understood, took
less money to come back to the Dodgers. There was
reports that the Blue Jays and the Red Sox were
offered him more, more money and more years to go
there in the offseason. He led it to come back
(25:04):
to the Dodgers. Will Smith drafted by the Dodgers. Uh
Andy Pajez signed as an international free agent and brought
in by the Dodgers. I mean, Anthony Bonda was on
the scrap heaps with seven other teams, and now that
he's found his home in the Dodger uniform. Oh worthy
of getting all these relievers from up. They're developing him
because nobody else can. They're better than you. They're just
(25:26):
fled out better than you.
Speaker 5 (25:27):
Yep.
Speaker 2 (25:28):
Eight six six nine eighty seven two five said we'll
come back more of your phone calls. This narrative is stupid.
The Dodgers ruining baseball and I'm tired of it. Eight
six six nine eighty seven two five seventy. Also coming up,
San Francisco Giants hiring a college coach. Really, what what
what we'll get into that David Vassa, Whether he likes
(25:49):
it or not, it's coming on with us. Top of
the hour eight sixty six nine eighty seven two five
seventy Steve Sacks, Tim Kats and you bright and early
on this Monday morning on a FI seventy ice sports
Dodgers are not ruining baseball, but they are dominating baseball
(26:11):
with a four to zero sweep over the Milwaukee Brewers,
and now they await the winner of the Mariners and
the Blue Jays, and the ALC has to see who
they'll face in the World Series. Tim Kait Steve Saxon
you on this Monday morning. Saxon kates at the AM
all October long during the Dodgers playoff run. And for
the second straight October, we will be going deep into
(26:34):
October as they have won the wild Card round the
NLDS against the Phillies four games sweep against the Milwaukee Brewers,
the best team in baseball during the regular season, and
now they're going back to the World Series. We'll get
into the Mariners and Blue Jays coming up in just
a little bit. I'm just watching Mark Dross on the
MLB Network Saxy bring down Otani's performance on the mound. Okay,
(26:55):
just on the mound Friday night. What is the greatest
performance ever in baseball history. And they should have won
it bad in the first inning where he struck out
the side fastball ninety nine, tailing in on a right
handed hit or Okay, strike one, Strike two is a
curveball and he gets the guy to swing and miss
over the top of it. The third pitch is a
(27:16):
sweeper even further outside the zone, but sort of look
the same coming out of the arm and the swinger
and then the batter had no chance of swinging at it.
And it's the setup. It's ninety nine in curveball or
swing over the top. And then the third pitch is
a Ausby pitch even a little bit further off the plate,
and your eye is telling you one thing and you
(27:38):
just cannot get to it. It just masterful, masterful pitching
by that showy.
Speaker 7 (27:42):
And you haven't mentioned the splitter no exactly, which is
maybe his most dominant wipeout pitch, if you will.
Speaker 5 (27:50):
And like you said, Tim, you're exactly right. You're on it.
Speaker 7 (27:53):
When you're talking about the I sees what's the eye
kind of thinks that sees something else that's actually coming
up there. And that's what you do when you change
the eye angle of the hitter and you constantly move
that up and down, in and out. That's why they
talk about pitch to four quadrants of the plate, and
(28:15):
the hitter really can't decipher, especially when the ball's up
because the pitch is closer to your eyes and you
can see that pitch better. That's why guys that offer
it that pitch they think it's leighter high, but it's
not it's more like over your head or you know,
eye level, and then they drop the other pitch on you,
which is you know, miwell plays fastball down in the zone,
(28:37):
or a sinker coming into you, or a splitter that
looks like a fastball, and then it just disappears. Those
are the reasons why your eyes can't decipher the difference
in large part, and that's why you see these guys
flailing offering it pitches that are way out of the zone,
and you scratch your head and say, isn't this a
major league hitter? How come these guys well?
Speaker 5 (28:59):
Because the pitchers are that good and they can fool you.
They can fool your eyes.
Speaker 7 (29:05):
Your eyes see something, but in reality, it's really something else.
Speaker 2 (29:10):
On the flip side, watching all three of showy Otani's
home runs back the fact that they still pitched to him.
In the second and third home runs by the way
they did. I mean the three to one pitch, they
threw a cookie down the middle and he crushed it
out of the Dodger Stadium right field pavilion. The third
home run was a one to two pitch in the
sixth inning, in which or seventh inning in which the
(29:31):
guy tried to get a ninety nine mile an hour
fastball by him on the inner half of the plate
and Otani hits the left center field for a home run.
I don't understand if the guy's already taking you deep
twice in a game, why you're even pitching anywhere near
the strike zone to this guy. I mean, I would
unintentionally walk the guy by just throwing four pitches nowhere
(29:54):
close and just hope that he swings out one of them.
If not, you walk the guy.
Speaker 5 (29:58):
Yeah.
Speaker 7 (29:59):
And here's the advant Anaeltani has over most people, and
I would put Aaron Judge in that in that department
as well, is these guys can be wrong, uh you
know in in maybe their connection, maybe not an approach,
but uh, they can be wrong when they make contact
and not be right perfect Like most people have to
(30:20):
be hit home run, Judge and Otani don't have to be.
Speaker 5 (30:24):
They can be off a bit.
Speaker 7 (30:26):
And what is a pop up to second base or
short right field for you and me is uh, you know,
it's it's way back in the pavilion. For these guys,
it's it's almost not fair. But but that's what you
got that's what what what they have. And and uh
so pitchers sometimes think, well, you know, I'm not gonna
give anything to hit, I'll pitch around. They still hit
(30:46):
a home run. And so you just got to say,
you know, put up four fingers and say just walk
down there, guy, I'm not I'm not even pitching to you.
Speaker 2 (30:54):
Show hey, Otani, you're an LCS MVP. The greatest performance
ever in bea smaller history, not the greatest moment in
Dodger history. Dodgers ruining baseball. That's the narrative that they
want you to believe around the country. Andrew in Torrence,
thanks for being patient. You're always saxic Kate today and
height you and Andrew.
Speaker 8 (31:15):
Doing good one of the guys. Yeah, so the narrative
about dodgern baseball, it's it's ridiculous because, like you guys
have said, any owner, you know, these guys are all billionaires.
They can invest in the team. And you think about
the Dodgers, you know they see them payroll, but took
them flying families across the country for one hundred and
(31:38):
two games across the postseason, having two planes. No other
teams doing that. And then you also think about the infrastructure,
the amount of scouts. What other team is renovating the
opposing team's clubhouse to make it nice, right, you know,
they're they're luring players here, and they see like the
(32:01):
Dodgers are even investing against the teams that are playing them.
You know, it's really laughable, Like you guys have said
that they're ruining baseball. All these guys are billionaires. Anyone
can hire the best scouts, hire the best trainers, have
the best nutrition. This is just stuff that all the
Dodgers do that other teams are just mad that why
(32:22):
aren't they doing it?
Speaker 2 (32:23):
You know, yeah, exactly, Andrew. And the fact that Baseball
even stepped in years ago and said, with this luxury tax,
we're gonna take that money that the big dogs are spending.
And you guys are crying about they're spending too much,
We're gonna tax them and we're gonna give that money
back to you owners who are crying that you don't
have the money. Well, there's no excuses anymore. You're getting money.
(32:44):
You're getting a check for millions every year from Major
League Baseball. And the fact that you don't reinvest that properly,
that's on you. Hey, Hey, I don't sign the right guys.
Speaker 5 (32:54):
That's on you.
Speaker 7 (32:55):
Yeah, I just want to interject this too. Is that
part of the last uh uh you know, the uh,
the players agreement with the owners is that they they
have to invest a certain amount of money back in
the team. If they're gonna collect you know, money, Okay,
they have to they have to invest a certain amount
of the money that back into the team and I'll
just pocket it. So that was kind of a good
(33:17):
thing that was that was brought up in the last agreement.
I think going forward in this next agreement that's gonna
happen in twenty seven.
Speaker 5 (33:25):
Uh, We'll have to wait to be seen.
Speaker 7 (33:26):
I don't know if there's gonna be what the andie's
gonna be, if there's gonna be a certain amount that
they have to develop. I think there's they're also talk
about a cap. Maybe there's gonna be a salary cap.
Speaker 5 (33:35):
Now.
Speaker 7 (33:35):
I don't think the Player Association is gonna go for that,
but that's kind of where things are in that Yeah,
you know, in that realm right now, is there's gonna
be some sticking points as far as that money, that
money that's that's stoled out.
Speaker 2 (33:49):
Jake and Burbank, thanks for being paid to you here.
Next up with sax of Kates on a f I
seventy l A Sports. How you doing, Jake.
Speaker 4 (33:56):
Good? How you guys doing?
Speaker 8 (33:57):
So?
Speaker 4 (33:57):
I got a not too but let me get through
it explanation of what I think should happen now. First
of all, I don't think the Dodgers are ruining baseball.
Second of all, to minimize just how much of an
advantage they have, I think it's a little disingenuous. Guys,
you know they have huge advantages, just like the Mets do.
Who I root for, the Yankees, etc. So here's what
(34:18):
baseball needs to do. They set up, and this was
kind of floated a few years back, but they set
up a top division. That's the major markets. Take the
top fourteen teams. Then you take the next ten teams,
and then you take the last six teams, and you
have three different divisions. The top one is all the
major markets. They spend whatever they want. The only thing
(34:40):
they have is the salary floor. The second tier, the
medium markets, have a salary cap that's equal to the
high team high market floor, and then they have their
own salary floor. And the bottom ones are those teams
that don't want to spend money and don't have a
lot of money to spend, and they say, you have
a salary cap that hits the floor of the media markets,
(35:01):
and below that you have your own salary floor for you.
So you have three distinct sets. Now you don't share
money like you do now, so they don't get all
this extra tax money or nearly as much revenue sharing
as they're getting by not spending. But here's the advantage too.
The top, the higher market bracket, gets seven of the
(35:22):
twelve playoff spots, the middle or sorry eight of the
playoff spots, the medium bracket gets three of the playoff spots,
and the bottom bracket gets just one. So all those
drag teams whose owners don't want to spend, they can
still play for stuff. They still get money, fans still
want to come see because they're not win a pennant
race every year. The medium's the same, and the large
(35:43):
ones all have their advantages and can go to board
with all those things. The players get their money, the
owners get more butts and seats, they get more paying
attention to people, They make more money. You don't change
the contracts in terms of everything else, because you do
your basic revenue sharing, everybody wins. Why won't this work?
Speaker 2 (36:00):
Thanks a lot of Jake, that's very confusing. I was
lost after a little bit of his explanation there, Steve Sacks,
and my pushback would be, that's never gonna work. That's
never gonna happen. And third and foremost, if if they
were even sniffs of doing this, if I were a player,
I would sign one or two year deals if the
lower two tiers what he was talking about in hopes
(36:21):
that one day I produce enough that I get signed
by a top tier two. This is ridiculous. I don't
even know why I'm addressing it. That that's never gonna happen. Steve, Yeah, I.
Speaker 7 (36:30):
Mean you can tell you it's a well thought out plan.
I mean he put the he put the work in
to think that it's not gonna work. I mean, you're
not gonna have a set of rules that's different from
one set against the other set. The bottom tier teams,
you know, they think we're gonna get one one per
one team in there. That that won't work. It's got
to be wide open. So I'm not sure what the
(36:52):
what the rules are going to be. I don't think
the player is gonna go for a salary cap. But
that's where it is right now. And we see the
standoff before. We saw it when I saw it plenty
when I was playing, and that's it's like the rules
haven't changed.
Speaker 2 (37:06):
Eight six sixty nine eighty seven to two five seven.
We'll continue with your phone calls when we come back.
A team in baseball is looking to hire a college coach.
Come on, is this gonna work? We'll get into it.
We'll also get into Mariners and Blue Jays. Who's a
better fit for the Dodgers coming out of the ALCS
Game seven tonight, Sax and Kates in the am, Thanks
(37:26):
for being with us on this Monday morning. Is the
countdown to the twenty twenty five World Series begins Steve Sacks,
Tim Kates and you on a Monday morning as we
await the winner of Game seven and the ALCS tonight
in Toronto to see who the Dodgers will be facing
(37:47):
in the upcoming World Series. Game one is on Friday.
Will it be a Dodger stadium we'll find out or
will it be in Toronto? We'll all find out tonight
at the Rogers Center in Toronto as the Blue Jays
take on the Mariners in the decisive Game seven. Big
news in San Francisco Steve sacks. The San Francisco Giants
(38:08):
and their manager Buster Posey reportedly are narrowing in on
their search for a new manager to replace Bob Melvin,
and that guy could be Tennessee head coach Tony Vottello. Yes,
they could be going to the collegiate rakes and hire
the Vall's head coach to replace Bob Melvin and take
(38:31):
over the vacant position with the San Francisco Giants now
a portly Vittello met with his team over the weekend
after a scrimmage and said they are talking and that
if he did leave, he'd be the first one to
tell them. There are certainly numerous reports that they are
narrowing in on a possible deal by however, no deal
is in place as of yet. What do you make
(38:53):
of the San Francisco Giants dipping down to the collegiate
level and what would be the first time ever a
college baseball coach goes directly to the big leagues as
a manager.
Speaker 7 (39:05):
Okay, so to be fair about everything, I mean, they
do it, They do it. In football, right, they go
from college to the pro ranks.
Speaker 5 (39:14):
Uh, they do that. We know that.
Speaker 7 (39:17):
Never seen it happen in baseball, as you pointed out,
be the first time. I'm I don't know who who
mister Vtello is. I'm sure he's a pretty good coach
at Tennessee, but I don't know much about him.
Speaker 5 (39:30):
I know baseball is.
Speaker 7 (39:31):
A very very traditional, uh, very incestuous, uh you know,
type of of a sport where you know, they they
like to have their own people there. They they know
people they've been trying, they've been tested, they've come up
in the minor leagues, they've either played a lot in
the minor leagues or have been uh you know, with
a professional team for a while. So they they know
(39:51):
a lot about the personality of the person too. And
so I I think so much criteria goes into the
person part of being a major league manager. We all
know the x's and o's on the field. If you've
been around the game, you got a bench coach there
in case you have your own ideas and you're gonna
screw something up, You've got some backup there. So it's
not that it's more of the person part of the game.
(40:14):
I think that that really hires and fires, you know, managers.
Oh you lost the locker room, You're gonna fire you real, Okay,
So that's that's.
Speaker 5 (40:22):
The kind of thing that's it's more of anything else.
Speaker 7 (40:25):
So I don't know mister Vittel if he's got you know,
ties to Buster Posey and you know back there.
Speaker 5 (40:31):
I know Buster's from Georgia. I don't know what the
ties are. But you know, we'll see.
Speaker 7 (40:36):
I'm a very traditional person as well. I'm old school,
so you know, I guess the jury is out on that.
Speaker 2 (40:44):
It's definitely zigging when everybody else is zagging, so to speak,
and going against what has been the norm in hiring
long established minor league coaches, bench coaches, assistant coaches and
promoting them to managers at the big league level. The
only thing that's parable is Pat Murphy, I guess with
the Milwaukee Brewers. I mean, he's spent twenty five years
(41:05):
coaching college baseball, most notably a Notre dame in Arizona State,
coached a little bit and managed in the minor leagues,
was an advisor with the Padres, finally became a bench
coach with the Brewers to kind of help Craig Council
make that change from player to manager. And then when
Council left, he took over the last two years as
the manager of the Milwaukee Brewers. I mean, this literally
(41:26):
has just never happened before. Grabbing a coach from the
collegiate ranks. He's been successful. He's won a College Baseball
World Series at Tennessee. Since taking over, He's brought back
that program to the national prominence. He's got a ton
of guys that have been drafted and are now starting
to pop up in the Major League. Since taking over,
they've got three College World Series appearances since twenty seventeen.
(41:50):
I mean, certainly he's been very, very successful at the
college level. And for Buster Posey, this would certainly be
a big swing as a young general manager and it
beloved San Francisco Giant. This would be a huge swing
for him to see if he can get it to
work and if they can get it to work in
San Francisco, and this could be successful. This could be
(42:13):
that new tread now in baseball, because as I always
talk about, it's a copycat league.
Speaker 7 (42:18):
And there's there's so many, you know, new things coming on,
new rules and whatnot, new ways of marketing, et cetera.
As far as Major League Baseball, it's almost in flux.
Is if you look at, you know, the whole spectrum
of baseball and how it works.
Speaker 2 (42:32):
Now.
Speaker 7 (42:33):
A lot of things are changing in baseball. Maybe, as
you said, maybe this is one of those things that change.
The question I have is when you have a a
stalwart on a team that's been there and done that,
that's headed to the Hall of Fame, and the team
is sinking down and you're all looking to your manager
for some guidance and he's not able to cut it
(42:54):
because he doesn't have the experience of even playing professional
baseball or let alone being around professional baseball. It's a different,
different game than what So that's probably one of the
questions that I would have. You know, a pitcher that's
been around, say for you know, many many years, and
he's really good, but team's going down, he's having troubles,
(43:16):
and and he's wondering, now where that leadership comes from.
Is going to come from a college coach that's never
played professional baseball. Well, that's the question that will be answered.
I guess if he is hired.
Speaker 2 (43:27):
I mean college baseball season, you know, goes from February
to late June. If you're making the College Baseball World Series,
you're playing anywhere between fifty and seventy games. If you
make it all the way to the College Baseball World
Series in Omaha, that's a that's not a lot compared
to one hundred and sixty two game season and the
(43:49):
grind of a Major League baseball season. I think that,
to me is the first thing that sticks out, And
all the things you just alluded to as well are
also factors and can be successful as a manager at
the big league level. Why don't we see this, I mean,
that's the question. You see it in college football, you
see it in college basketball. Is it because in baseball
(44:10):
there's so many levels to get to the top, Unlike football,
where you get drafted or you're a coach and there's
one stop. There's college and there's the NFL. In basketball,
there's college and then there's the NBA. There's not really
anything in between for you to go play and learn,
I mean outside the G League. But in baseball there's
that whole level rookie ball to TRIPAA before you even
(44:33):
get to the major leagues that you have to work
your way through.
Speaker 7 (44:36):
Yeah, football and basketball don't have minor leagues. College is
the minor leagues for the basketball in football, baseball. Course,
it's very, very traditional. It's rigorous going through the minors.
The bus trips, the price that you pay, the places
that you stay, my meal money my first year when
I was on Lefthbridge three dollars and fifty cents a day.
(44:58):
The next day was next year it was six dollars.
I mean, I'm sure it's better than that now, but
you get an idea of what the minor leagues is like.
Speaker 5 (45:07):
Twenty hour bus trips, et cetera.
Speaker 7 (45:10):
Not easy, but we'll see. I mean, no minor leagues
in football and basketball. Now, that's why it's from there
to the big Show.
Speaker 2 (45:18):
I know it's only a movie, but in my mind,
I Pitcher Moneyball and the way Brad Pitt's character shuffled
things up with Thea's and how it ruffled a lot
of feathers and old timers and guys who grinded and
been around the game and the scouts. They didn't like
it and they pushed back, and it was very much
dramatized in the movie. I get it. But I think
about this and maybe there's some pushback with the old timers,
(45:40):
Guys who have been grinding, Guys who have been assistants,
guys who have been in the minor leagues as a
manager for twenty years. How does this go over with
the baseball community.
Speaker 7 (45:49):
And tim A team like the Dodgers that goes to
the Gamut in postseason, they're gonna play two hundred games,
you know, spring training, thirty one, sixty two, and then
another you gotta win another three team. It's about two
in our games.
Speaker 2 (46:01):
We'll see if the Giants do, in fact pull the
trigger and hire a college coach. We'll come back one
more hour to go, Mariners, Blue Jays, your phone calls
Dodgers ruining baseball. Otani's greatest performance ever, so much to
get to. We want you to be a part of
the conversation right here on AMPHI seventy LA Sports
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