All Star Break Banter

TTO catches up on the MLB All Star break including the ASG, Homerun Derby, and other current events around the sporting world.

Episode Transcript

(00:01):
Howdy and welcome to the Three TrueOutcomes Baseball podcasts, presented by Baseball Prospectives.
I'm your host Ian left Quiz andjoining me as always, it's Ben
Murphy. Ben. How are youdoing. I'm doing well. Ian.
How are you joining us from ournation's capital. Its Jared Wise. Jared,
how are you doing? I'm doinggreat? Thanks. Thanks. We
had to get this train on thestation because, you know, a lot
of trades, a lot of freeagent signings, what have you. You

(00:22):
know, it's been kind of thebusiest Oh wait, sorry, sorry,
that's basketball. Sorry, totally confusedin baseball. Nothing has happened for two
weeks. Was exciting, right,It's very said for baseball that basketball is
like literally more exciting when there's nogames going on. Um. Yeah,

(00:46):
So we're gonna break that down alittle bit um where it delights to be
back. Fair warning, this onemay not have a ton of course you
content in it, but we'll tryto load it up first, and then
we'll talk a little bit about theAll Star Game, a little bit about
some of the news that has beencoming out of baseball in the last week
or so, and then get outof here. But before that, let

(01:07):
me turn it over to the mailback. Captain Jared, how's the mailback?
Let's looking a little idea in Butwe got one, only one in the
weeks that we were gone. Wellthat's not us, But what is that
one? The question comes from Jacob, who would like us to evaluate a
trade he made recently. He tradedaway Anthony Rendon, Aaron Nola, Mamma,

(01:32):
Mike Siroca, brass stripling, JacobWebb, and Harrison Bader and got
back Cody Bellinger Luke Weaver in around thirty six pick. What do you
think of that deal? So it'sa lot going on, right, There's
a lot? Yeah, yeah,So what this is is kind of the
four nickels for a quarter trade,except one of the nickels is like a

(01:56):
twenty cent piece and one of themis maybe a die. But you know,
whatever, the analogy is, whereis the twenty ten piece counterfeit or
better than a nickel? I don'tknow, Like, I don't ask me
about Funny, it does sound counterfeitsince well, you know, yeah,
you can venmo me the results ofthis trade later. But what, like

(02:21):
what I think we're asking here iswhether the difference between Anthony Randon and Cody
Bellinger is worth the remainder of thistrade. Yeah, cool, because we
always talk about consolidating and trying toget the best player in the deal,
and I think we'd all agree thatCody Bellinger's best player in the deal.
But it's a lot to give upfor Coody Bellinger, right right, And

(02:46):
you know, I I I thinkit is kind of a little bit dependent
on how many keepers you have,right and a little bit on how you
feel about some of these pictures inparticular. You know, I would say
certainly Jacob Webb and Harrison Bader areprobably more one year picks. It's starting

(03:10):
to look like especially a debater,but it kind of breaks down to Aaron
Ola, Mikesaroka, and Ross Striplingversus that difference plus Luke Weaver and then
so you know, breaking down playerright player Mike Saroka is out over his
skis, but he appears to havethe knack for a pitching and you know,

(03:38):
I think we are talking like longterm number two starter. Aaronola has
almost completely lost it, but hehad it, and Ross Stripling is probably
a number two, number three starteron the Dodgers, which is probably the
most frustrating organization in which to ownsat starter. You know, I think

(04:04):
the Dodgers and the Astros are probablythe two teams where I've pretty much in
my head devalued all of their startersaround or two at this point outside of
you know, the actual ass isthat because it seems like they get good
performance out of their pictures. Yeah, performance, I would say, the

(04:25):
challenge of the uncertainty of having themin the playoffs in particular. Yeah,
so it's usage, especially down stretch. Yeah, you know, I think
Ross Stripling is somebody who inherently movesto the pen by September and therefore is
a reliever, which is not theworst thing in the world to have,

(04:45):
and he'll help you during the season, but um, it's kind of child
they you know, those teams bothhave so much talent at this point,
although a lot of it's vaporized onHouston this year. But u you know,
with the Dodgers, I think gettingstruggling into the rotation as a challenge.
That said, you know, Iwould rather have Nolan Siroca over we

(05:10):
Faver, and I think it's prettyclose to there between Rando and Bellinger.
One of the things I've been noticing. You know, Fangraphs released their mid
season Top fifty or I guess fiftyfutures this week, which was interesting.
Baseball Perspectives released their obviously minor leagueupdate, which I thought was fascinating as

(05:31):
well. Both great, but focusingon Fangraphs for a moment, they did
a draft of the top fifty playersin Top thirty players in Baseball, and
what a lot of the commenters noticedwas that twenty eight and twenty ninety year
olds in the twenty twelve draft,the last draft they did, were like
just tanked, even if they werelike the absolute superstars in the game.

(05:57):
And you know, I think peoplekind of under made it how quickly they
could hit the cliff. So Ithink there is a chance they had Balinger.
It's worth a lot more than therendown. Yeah, which is you
know all that to say, Ithink I would personally rather the rend down
no Lass Heroka side, but youknow, I see where it is coming

(06:21):
from. Put it that way.Yeah, I think I would definitely rather
have the Balinger side. But I'msurprised because I expected you also took him
down on the Balinger side. Ithink the age gap between Bell and Ger
redown alone would be enough for me. But I think, I guess the

(06:41):
performance difference is big enough that Ithink we can say, like, Balinger's
a better hitter today, and he'swhat six years younger? Yeah, six
years younger, m So obviously theother players are good. I also took
a second to look up Jacob's team. This is for n L three forty,

(07:01):
and he's in last place, sohe's sort of rebuilding, and it
seems like, um, this isa good rebuilding kind of trade, consolidating
your talent, and um, I'massuming since it's a public league that you
know, it's a normal hard thirteenkeeper system. But even if he can't
fill up those slots, he cantrade him for you know, early UM

(07:26):
draft picks next spring and keep buildingthat way. So yeah, we Luke
Weaver is certainly more than a flyer. He deserves mentioned as a definitely something
of a keeper starter. That's theguy that I asked about that you said
has like shoulder and elbow problems.Yes, okay, yes, just checking
um on his way back, butyeah, it has a could be going

(07:49):
down for Tommy John surgery in amonth as well. Yeah, but you
know pures. Yeah, but Ithink I'm gonna bet on the one that's
already had arm issues like recently tobe more likely. I guess what I
would be betting on is that Sirocaand Nola are strong enough that it's giving
up a lot. But right likeyou said, if you're a rebuilder,

(08:13):
I think any quality pitcher is alittle less valuable to you. Yeah,
so you know, I see wherethis is coming from. It's probably a
good example of a win win bothteams get something for what they need.
And yeah, I think since wecan obviously see it either side good fair

(08:35):
trade. Yeah, and I think, um, you know, not to
pivot from this, but next fewweeks are going to be trade season,
so you know, if you haveany other trades that you'd like us to
evaluate, either privately or publicly,feel free to send them to us.
What is their email address, BaseballPerspectives dot com. Thank you mail.

(09:00):
Yeah, you're welcome. I wasgonna bring up the Fangraft's series on the
next podcast if we needed something,because we've got so much content for this
one. I was wondering what youthought of their Wander Franco position. Um,
wander Franco who was drafted? Iwant to say fourth. I don't

(09:20):
have it pulled up, but itwas eighth. Okay, it was like
extremely high low. I was wonderingif he thought he should be picked like
zero, Like, yeah, heshould be not considered for this because obviously
he'd be the first. Yeah.So this is um and their conceit was
value over the next ten years teamirrespective, I believe, which actually makes

(09:41):
it a really good analog for sportssheet. So yeah, doesn't because yeah
yeah, and they threw out thecontract as well, so it doesn't matter
what their current contract with us.Yeah. Um, you know again,
I think to me it felt alittle u a little aggressive just because players

(10:05):
like I think Juan Soto, we'restill on the board, you know.
Yeah, there were players of anequal age with kind of a stronger performance
record in the mater leagues. Yeah, I mean he went eight, so
basically everybody else was still there.Yes, I know, Soto went sixteen,

(10:26):
Vladito went eighteen. I thought itwas interesting. Fernando Tatis went before.
Yeah, yeah, I agree.Um, I can see it.
You know. I think Keith Lawwent out on a limb in the preseason,
and he's looking pretty good right now. I do think Fernando Tatis is

(10:50):
a little out over his skis performancewise though as well. Just you know
that is kind of not supported byany uh you know, his peripher roles
already Stadcast type metrics, So youknow, I don't want to say like
he's extremely exciting, so you know, you can only the hype train only

(11:15):
goes so far down. But um, this might be the high watermark for
drafting for Natatas And the next isthat the worst trick in the first fifteen.
I think in this case, theconsensus was, and I kind of
agree with it, that Anthony Randolinwas the worst pick in the first fifteen.
He remains the most underrated player exceptin this draft scepting where and I

(11:43):
guess we could link to this,but he was taken forth right, he
was one fifth? Okay, sowho was taken forth Culdy Belinger. Yeah,
Cuddy Milinger is pretty good. Yeah, I guess that would suggest directly
that's right. Um, but yeah, I think that was where a lot

(12:05):
of people, I think flag thatas good as Rondon is, it's a
little too aggressive on him. Yeah, which I agree, you know,
he's I don't think he's that muchlower than fifth, But Yeah. I
wasn't a draft of fifth and themock draft this offseason either. I was
pretty surprised to see Matt Chapman atthirteen. I guess maybe I always just

(12:31):
sort of assumed that I'm ignorant andor wrong, but curious to hear as
Matt Chapman at thirteen weird like guysthat went after him, basically everybody else,
but especially Juan Soto, Vladito,Yeah, Sander Barts, Aaron Judge,

(12:52):
Arles Correa. I think, like, um, you know, I
think you could argue some plays.I think Match Chapman has definitely helped himself
this year, and us who specificallychose I say Ramires over Match Happen this
offseason do not feel great about MatchHappen in this moment. Gotcha. Um,

(13:16):
you know, I think it's defensible. I don't think it's depicted at
any any of us would make,but right, I think you could defend
it. Maybe not for scoresheet.Yeah, although the one thing I like
about Match Happen score sheet is he'sgoing to have a pretty choice defensive rating.

(13:37):
Yeah. Is it gonna be choiceenough? Uh? Yeah, I
mean one of the like if yousee the way that shortstop. You know,
I guess shortstop offenses on their eyes, shortstops are going to hit over
one hundred ops plus this year.Um you know, I think there's a

(14:01):
kind of not the third base isn'ttwo, but it looks like Chapman has
the best rating, like kind ofgoing away at third base. Oh,
Aaronauto is close, but after thetwo of them, it's traps Shaw and
then pretty big drop off. SoI don't think we're gonna worry too much
about trappashaws defensive rating in the future. Um yeah, Uh, not a

(14:28):
great moment, but um yeah,I don't have a huge problem with match
happen being there in real life andcertainly non scoresheet cool. Um yeah,
any any other takeaways? We didn'thave this in their rundown, such as

(14:48):
it is. But you know,no I asked the questions us, thinking
all right, uh, maybe hecan compare it to the mock draft next
time. Run. Yeah, it'sinteresting to see how players moved. If
you have any questions about that,we'll take those too. Yeah, hit
us with your hot takes about it. Um So. In the meantime,

(15:13):
this this week, we baseball hasbeen off for most of the week,
although I did really appreciate that.You know, I opened up the you
know, my scoreboard about twenty minutesinto the return of baseball yesterday and the
Worlds had already given up nine runs. Yeah, I want to say in

(15:37):
the top of the our sitting shoo. Yeah. Yeah. So you know,
at some level, um, youknow, I feel like twenty nine
teens really did come at the secondhalf with like a brand new fresh start.
Look, it's not their fault.Dylan Bunny was pitching and he was
hurt. They immediately put him onthe I l yeah, they it took

(16:04):
for them to come up with theinjury. I assume they put them on
with fatigue, Like fatigue, they'refatigue of watching him pitch. Yeah,
whip clash. Um. Now,I you know, I don't know that
we had the greatest of off seasonsin terms of prognostication, but Dylan Bundy

(16:29):
is trash. Looks about as goodas Jerickson. So far as trash,
those are true for our belt.Um. But yeah, so we had
the All Star break, um,including the Futures Game, which unfortunately I
have not watched yet, so Imay have some takes in the next two
weeks. But I doubted. Idid watch. For what it's worth,

(16:52):
I did watch the California League AllStar Game. Why did you watch all
Star game earlier? Earlier this month? But time? Yeah, so,
I you know, I'm not notcrazy evens like the hipster of features game
watching, like the features games tomainstream. So there's an interesting thing.

(17:22):
There's an interesting thing about the minorleague All Star games that a lot of
pose yeah, because they don't watchthem. Yeah, then those of you
who don't watch minor league all Stargames may not know. But but for
me, a person who watches minorleague All Star games, um, the
interesting thing that you may not knowis that minor league All Star games are

(17:47):
kind of the rosters are picked kindof the same way major league All Star
games are like based on the playerhaving the best third of a season.
Nice, which is you know,interesting except for the part where it's like
all twenty five year olds in theAll Star Game because like, of course
they're having a good season and theyyou know, like the pitcher who's starting

(18:08):
the like every minor league All Stargame is always the guy going like eight
and two. It's like it wasreally like the last bastion of the one
last record. Yeah. Nice.Um, no, it was a it
was a pretty good Um, that'sa pretty good All Star Game came.

(18:30):
You know, a lot of talent, a lot of talent in both leagues.
Um. Yeah, but that's notthe future to day. So that
leaves us with the All Star Gameand the Homer and Derby, So we
can talk about the All Star Gamequickly. Whatever we think of the All
Star Game. It was disappointing,but it went really quickly that you finished,

(18:51):
I think an under three hours.I didn't hear that. Actually,
all right, well you won't besurprised to learn that. The way that
I watched the All Star Game,it was actually kind of exciting because I
was watching to see if they wouldacknowledge the existence of John Means. They
did not, But like the wholetime, just sitting there wondering, Hey,

(19:14):
like are they gonna pan to him? Is he gonna warm up?
Is there any like what are thechances he gets? What are the quincies
that are gonna have to happen forJohn Means again in this game? Like
is the game gonna have to golike thirty seven innings before he gets him?
So like that that was exciting.I was. I was really hoping
somewhere around the board there would bea like a prop bet on whether John
Means gets into the game. Who'swho is John Means? John Means business,

(19:42):
He's the Orioles lone All Star representativebecause only what Troy Mancini was truly
snubbed um, But yes, he'sJohn Means is one of the best pitchers
in the American League if you goby r and don't look at any other
statistic whatsoever. But going by rA, he's one of the best pictures

(20:06):
in the American League who has notyet quite qualified for the title because he
doesn't have enough innings. But thatacide, he's one of the best pictures
in the American League. So weshould say at the end of the season
he'll certainly be in the league andqualify for the year. There is no
doubt in my mind, no doubt. Okay, I mean if you projected
out yeah, or you know,double the numbers, right right. I

(20:33):
was sorry, We've done talking aboutthe All Star gamers. There more.
No, I've got nothing. It'slike loosely related to the All Star breaks.
The All Star breaks like a timeto sort of check in on the
season and see, like what's goingon? So, especially because I don't
follow baseball that much anymore, Iwas poking around on the MLB dot com
news page and there's a story thatsays Red's in new territory heading into deadline

(20:56):
and the like above. The fullblurb is like, uh, Dick Williams
and the club are in a positionto add players before the trade down line.
I was like, oh, that'sinteresting. The Reds are in contention,
and so that I pull up thestandings, they're in last place.
Yeah, but it's close. Okay. If you look at their run differential,
they should be doing better. Okay, Oh yeah, they're okay,
but like, come on, yeah, Reds in position to add to their

(21:23):
you know, not as bad asyou think. Last place team. Yeah,
why won't you let them have this? Because it's insane. It's a
really bad decision. They should sell. Yeah, it's criminal. Um,

(21:44):
they could sell them make the playoffsanyway, given that you know they're counting
on like random bounces to break theirway. Anybody could get those random bounces.
Um. The last time we talkedabout the standings, Minnesota was doing
really well, and you guys promisedme it was just because they had beaten
up on the Orioles. But they'restill doing really well. That's kind of

(22:07):
exciting. Yeah, they have.They did beat the Orioles a lot.
Yeah, I remember, we don'thave to rehatch that the Twins have the
most home runs at this point inthe season in major league history. Nice,
all of them off the Orioles.Surprisingly. I know that's not true

(22:32):
because I saw another news story aboutsorry all but five yes, so yeah,
where it Trevor Bauer has given upa home run in the last five
plate appearances by Max Kepler? Isthat right? Yea, yes, it's
pretty hilarious. I can't imagine he'shappy about that. Has he tweeted about

(22:57):
it? That's what it really is. That's how you know. It's like
burning his It's like keeping him upat night. He's like four a m.
Tweets about Yeah. No, butif some woman or asks him at
lied about it, he'll he'll tweetabout a bunch sorry. Uh um um.

(23:18):
Yeah. So that leaves the homerun derby, which is the one
thing that all of us watched.And if if you said to me,
I didn't, I didn't watch.I just know about what happened. Sorry,
I hate to discappline, but youwere you were actually chatting with him
during the derby, weren't you?I guess about nothing maybe, but I
wasn't watching. That's what night?Was it again? That's fair? Okay?

(23:45):
Which night was? I can tellyou what I was doing Monday?
Monday night? Uh? Was itMonday night? Oh? I don't think
I was doing anything Monday night.I was just not so so while you
get your schedule in order, that'sit. H Now the Homer Derby has

(24:08):
become the most exciting part of theAll Star Game. And I am shocked
by this because they did a reallygood job. There was nothing I liked
less. Yeah. Yeah, theycompletely revamped it and now it's it's good.
U. I heard some people complainingabout how like V Junior should have
won and they need to figure outa better way to like fix the elimination

(24:32):
part of it. What do youguys think? Do you think the like
bracket style is good? I thinkthe bracket style is a little goofy,
But you know, I think thelike three point challenge has it right where
you know, top four, toptwo, yeah, uh uh go nuts.

(24:57):
But you know, I don't caretoo much. Brackets work, it
adds, it adds. Uh youknow the walk off in every round?
Yeah? Yeah, I mean yeah, I think I don't think it matters.
I think anyone really carries who wins, and I think Blad is what
everyone remembers. So it worked.Yeah. I heard some other people talking

(25:18):
about that. How like, um, a few years back in New York.
I think it was when like JoshHamilton went on a tear and then
like didn't end up winning because likenobody talks about anything except like, oh,
Josh Hamilton was so entertaining. Soyeah, the thing that got me,
of course was, um, whichyou know, I'm not the first

(25:41):
to point this out. Um,you know the record for Homer runs hitting
around in the Homer Derby was broken? Was it four times? Um?
Yeah, there might be a problemwith the ball. It's gonna put that
out there. Problem. Seems likeit's working just fine. Are we going
to segue what Verlanders said? BecauseI totally want to talk about with Verlanderson

(26:03):
I wasn't, but go ahead.So, as I understand, I've only
heard the quote, like reread acouple of times. He basically just like
dressed down MLB, like how canyou possibly say that there's nothing with the
ball? And if there is,it's like not you're doing right? Uh?
I just thought I was like,oh, this is excellent. This
is like clearly a guy that's gottento the point in his career where he's

(26:26):
like definitely not going to give anyflips about whatever the commission commissioner thinks when
he hears this and is saying whateverybody's thinking. Has there been any like
official response or they're just gonna likeignore it and hope it goes away.
Um, No, there was noofficial response. Rob Brandfred said that he
was going to commission a study.Did you look into it? Nice?

(26:48):
Did you tell him you could justlook online and all the studies people have
already done. No, I wasI was joking, unfortunately, he says.
He says that he says that thereis an issue with the ball,
but it was not intentional. Mso completely accident. Cool right, right?

(27:14):
And obviously the problem is, ofcourse that their hands are tied and
they cannot possibly in any way makenew baseballs between now and the agency,
they you know, baseballs do notexist. How does one make a baseball?
Even and if there were somebody makingbaseballs it's certainly nobody that MLB has

(27:34):
any kind of contact with, letalone control over. Yeah. Um,
I don't know. Have we talkedif anyone like thinks there are too many
home runs? I'm out two minds. I don't. It doesn't really really
bother me to be perfectly candid.Some of the other stuff an slar to
it is kind of taking a littleenjoyment away. But the home runs themselves,

(27:59):
I don't know that's true. Idon't think I'm necessarily opposed to the
home runs. It gets the orielsand the news. That's something No,
I don't think so I mean calledme Dave, I don't. I don't
know if I necessarily believe that itwas intentional. I just or at least

(28:22):
not from like an owner's where.I think it's hard. It's hard for
me to believe that the owners wouldget together and be like, you know
what, they're all just a littlebit they're not. I agree that the
owners didn't like get together. Ithink it's more like the commissioner like left
a sticky note on somebody's door thatwas like Homer's good or whatever. Um.

(28:44):
So I haven't looked into it,obviously, but my sense from what
I heard is that the overall runenvironment hasn't changed, it's just redistributed the
way that runs are scored. Isthat correct? More or less? Yeah?
So I think there's like something tothink about in terms of like is
the game you want to watch?That? Like that, I think is
why you hear old school sports writersgrumpy about this that like, you know,

(29:11):
doubles and sac flies are going theway of the Dodo. Yeah.
I mean I would say it's notonly old school sports writers. I you
know, I believe on effectively wildthe host of them out said too many
homers they're taking the stance. Huh. It's like, yeah, I don't

(29:33):
know. It's like it seems tome like the people who are gonna watch
baseball are gonna watch regardless of thepeople who aren't aren't and this isn't going
to move the need for people.Yeah. Um, And so my thoughts
on the was this intentional thing?I kind of agree with you it wasn't
intentional, but they sure haven't stoppedit. Yeah, And I don't think

(29:59):
it's that hard. I think theycould have done it that they wanted to,
so on some level, okay,you can say it wasn't intentional,
but like, yeah, but it'shard to imagine the powers that be changing
anything once the season has started.Like that seems very not what baseball does.
No, that's true except in twentyfifteen when they chased all the balls

(30:22):
in the first place. Uh yeah, so but yes, no, I
hear you. But you know,in between I would say twenty and eighteen
and twenty nineteen, like this didn'tstart in the off season. Sure,
so, um you know anyway,Um, I think kind of related to

(30:45):
that, you Ben, you hadan article that you wanted to bring up
and talk about a little bit righttoday, Oh about the one about the
labor Yeah. Um, yeah,So you know, I was in the
process of getting need to talk aboutbaseball and trying to become more informed about
the goings on and found a pieceI don't remember. I think it might

(31:07):
have been on It's on USA today. It was today. It was written
by Bob Nightingale. Um, yeah, you know, right, we can
just get into so basically, thething that was interesting to me is there's
a bunch of players quoted in thething is basically saying we're ready for a

(31:27):
strike if that's what it takes toget the I guess, financial and contractual
stuff free structured to meet our expectations, and they're basically acknowledging that the economics
of the game as currently constructed meanthat young players are underpaid relative to their

(31:48):
value. And for a while thatwas fine because the veteran MLB players,
when they hit free agency would basicallyget rewarded for what they had done and
not what they were going to do. And then all the teams sort of
collectively evolved to the point where they'relike, wait, that's kind of dumb.
Why would we do that instead ofjust bringing in more young players that
are undervalued, And they started doingthat, and so then all the old

(32:09):
players are like, hey, waita second, why is all the young
players so undervalued? And so,as I understand it, now, they're
talking about trying to make it sothat the younger players get something closer to
what they deserve, I guess.And obviously there's some consternation about teams not

(32:30):
signing free agents and especially players thatI guess had some type of draft pick
compensation attached to them. Right therewas it Kimbroll and Kaikol this past offseason?
Is that right that like both wentunsigned? For much longer than anybody
thought they should be based on talent. And I thought it was really interesting
for two reasons. The first wasit seemed to me like the first time

(32:52):
that I could remember reading quotes byplayers that acknowledged the manifestation of like the
current CBA and did it in away that acknowledged what the actual motivation was
for the teams to be Like,Okay, we realized that because of the

(33:13):
way that you know, players preARB and then like pre free agency are
paid, it means that you know, those are a relative bargain for the
teams, and so the teams aregoing to you know, shift their resources
accordingly, Whereas before, like allthe complaining that I've ever heard was just
like you know, why aren't youpaying us, or like you know,

(33:35):
we're not getting what we're worth orwhatever else. M And then they were
very So that was the first thing. It's just like they seem to finally
have realized like, oh, they'redoing this because it's in their best interest.
And not only that, but it'sbecause of the CBA that we all
agree to. Yeah, and justto cut in here from Clayton Kershaw,
yeah, said our free agency structureand our salary structure is that teams have

(33:58):
a right not to pay guys whenthey're getting older. The analytics stay to
pay guys in their prime the youngerguys. So if that's not going to
happen anymore, we've got to finda way to get these guys paid during
their peak years if they're not goingto be rewarded on the way out.
Yeah, which I think is whatyou were saying, Yeah, exactly,
Yeah, no, that's a goodquote, thank you. And the second
thing was that they were so directlybrazen about making it clear that they were

(34:23):
preparing to strike basically, not ina I mean, I guess partially in
like a threatening way, but ina like we realized that this is the
reality of what we will probably haveto do because of the circumstances of like
the leverage that doesn't really exist theway that they would want it to without

(34:45):
striking. Essentially, at least that'show I read it, And so I'd
be curious to hear not just thatfirst point, but also like for that
second point, what you guys thinkin terms of you know, I guess
from my perspective, like this isthe first time I've heard them say those
things, those two things so directly, but it also makes me wonder what's

(35:05):
going to happen. And you know, the first one sort of points to
like, oh, maybe we'll geta CBA that makes a little bit more
sense in terms of fewer perverse orunintended consequences, and that to me is
like a good thing. But thenthe second thing is sort of like,
well are the players if the playersend up striking, is that really going

(35:29):
to lead to like a constructive setof negotiations or not? And like maybe
they really have no choice, somaybe it doesn't matter. But anyway,
I'll stopperamibly. Now, what doyou guys think? I'm Jared, Uh
yeah, I mean it was interestingto hear it. I think it's a
lot of cheap talk. I thinkthat my biggest concern right now is that

(35:52):
anything to make these kinds of changesis going to be a rather significant change
to how things operate. I thinkI don't think I personally see a little
tweak that would fix any of this. And I haven't heard any plans being
floated, not that plans need tobe floated publicly necessarily, but it worries
me a little bit that I haven'theard any plans that seem viable being discussed

(36:14):
right now, and I think thathas to happen sooner rather than later.
And without that, to me,that suggests that we might be heading for
a strike or something bad. Yeah, And you know, it is interesting
to me that what you are sayingis kind of coming true, that the
owners and the players Association have kindof negotiated on clampdown on first year players,

(36:39):
you know, have not really paidminor leaguers, have instituted restrictions on
the bonus pools and the draft andthe international draft and the international market,
and now owners are not and youknow, teams are not kind of paying

(37:01):
older free agents as much. Andall of this is rational, but you
see the money leaching away from thesystem and from the players, and there's
no place where they can get recompenseright now, right especially since they do
not have a cap unlike other sportswhere they kind of can peg their revenue

(37:23):
to kind of the revenue of thegame. You know, And I think,
you know, labor law, notmy expertise, but I think that's
kind of been the issue. Isthat sure, there's no salary cap,
but there's also no salary floor.And you know, this is a lot

(37:44):
of a lot of the ramifications you'reseeing are from that. But it has
been interesting, like reading this articlein concert with watching the most exciting professional
sports offseason of all time lay outone sport away and you know, as
as a primary baseball fan, butat this point, I would say almost

(38:07):
dual sport fan. You know,I was kind of wondering, like,
is this even possible? I thinkthere are some serious structural issues with baseball
that would kind of prevent this.And you know, I would say a
couple of things. If you're notfamiliar with basketball, a lot of what
you're seeing in basketball, this kindof player empowerment era is just the result

(38:29):
of perverse consequence where basketball players arenot paid the top end of their salary
and so do not really use salaryas a measuring stick to choose where to
go, and therefore choose their destinationsbased on other factors more or less.

(38:52):
But you know, there is alsoa much more limited minor league system.
There's a much more limited apprenticeship inbasketball. There's you know, there's no
baseball player who can provide like aquarter of the war of the best basketball
players that you know, Lebron,James Arianas not Decopo could are probably like

(39:15):
thirty War players, or especially ifyou double the length of the season,
would be like forty to fifty Warplayers. And you know, there's just
not that kind like you can't makethat up through transactions. You could only
make that up through volume. Sothere, I think there are some like

(39:36):
real differences. But I think whatyou're also seeing is this drive to shorter
contracts and to player empowerment, noneof which was intentional, have kind of
led to a more exciting game.And two, I would say players being
awarded more, perhaps at the costof this top echelon talent, has kind

(39:58):
of brought up the um the valueof the median player and the marshal player.
Yeah, why do you think it'sa more exciting game offseason? Right?
Just as okay? Yeah, structure, Yeah, I don't think the
game it's like on the court changes, right, it's like right, right,
I mean there is you know.The one other thing is that kind

(40:21):
of analytics kind of point that turtsbasketball like should be more exciting and forwards
baseball being more boring. But that'skind of on the old stuff. Yeah,
I don't know as much as youdo about the NBA, but it's

(40:43):
definitely been more interesting to me morerecently. And I don't really love the
like big picture like um implications andjustification for like a salary floor in a
salary cap for individual players and stufflike that, but it is fascinating to

(41:05):
see how teams end up spending someof that money that might have gone to
make sure that the very best playersare paid with their worth to like the
middle tier players, and then you'vegot like, and I don't have any
good examples off the top of myhead, but you probably do. I
like, players that end up makingway more money than you would have expected
because the teams have this money tospend and they're not really competing based on

(41:28):
money for the very best players,so they end up competing based on money
for the like mid level players,and then sort of like inflates the contracts
for all those players as the youknow, competition ramps up for them,
you know, from like a financialperspective instead of anything else. Or those
players are looking to like join forceswith the very best players who have exercised

(41:51):
their agency in a way that lendsthem in the destination that they like as
opposed to with the contract that theylike, because the contract would be the
same you know, in so manydifferent places, right, and in basketball,
you don't know the counterfactual, right, So I don't really know exactly
how much like Marcus Morris would bepaid if he was a if there was

(42:12):
no salary cap and no restrictions onsalary. But just in a you know,
in a baseball like world. ButI do feel like the middle class
player is better treated and the betterand player is better treated in basketball than
baseball at this point. And Ido feel like more money is flowing towards
players at their peaks. Uh.You know, restricted free agency is a

(42:36):
really interesting concept that basketball has thatsometimes completely uh you know, deflates the
market for those players, sometimes againstthose players vastly overpaid, kind of running
the roulette wheel there. Um,but you know, junking arbitration replacement the
restricted free agency might be interesting.I think shorter contracts allows for a little

(43:00):
more movement, perhaps at the expenseof overall salary. You know. The
thirteen year, three hundred million dollarcontract is really fascinating, But it feels
you know, and you know,agreed to and you know, in this

(43:21):
libertarian world, it is a contractthat has agreed Tom, But you know,
I don't know how that is servingeverybody right now, and you know,
especially if it's coming at the costof buyers downline making money. Yeah,
so I guess to make sure we'restill focused on baseball and curse shared

(43:45):
from your like economics perspective, Like, what do you think what do you
think is like the most likely outcomeif you assume that the CBA gets renegotiated
in a way that is maybe alittle bit more balanced in terms of the
player's perspective, and like, whatwould you think is the best solution?

(44:08):
So, like what will happen andwhat should happen? Do you have any
thoughts about either of those? Gosh, those are big questions. I don't
know. I think that I dothink that after the new CBA, more
money is going to go to youngerplayers. I think it just pretty much
has to at this point. Imean, how much is going to change,

(44:31):
I don't know, But I don'tsee any way that that both SAIDs
get out of this without funneling alittle bit more towards the younger players.
I think it's going to happen nomatter what in terms of what should happen.
I don't know if I've an answeredfor that, because there's a lot
of different things to keep in mind. I don't know that there is one
right answer here, necessarily, andI think it requires some hard thought about

(44:53):
what you want to optimize, andyou know, thinking about all sorts of
things like the development system. Ithink we'd all agree that players need,
generally speaking, need a little bitmore time developed baseball and basketball. How
do you how do you keep thatin mind? How to keep the incentives
for teams to develop their own playersif they're going to go away more quickly.

(45:14):
That's something to keep in mind.Is it necessarily a good thing for
the middle class players to getting moremoney at the expense of the top class
players? Maybe? I don't knowthat That raises some philosophical and probably political
questions too. I don't know howI feel about that necessarily. So so
I don't know. You know,do you want do you want more fluidity

(45:35):
like in basketball now where you know, it seems like more players are switching
teams more easily. Is that agood thing? I don't know. Maybe
maybe not for baseball. I couldargue that maybe it's not as good right
and maybe it's an aesthetic preference ratherthan right. I think I got all
for change, and I think alot of change should happen, but it

(45:55):
requires I don't think there's any realway to know what happens. Requires a
lot of thought and an estimation aboutwhat the ramifications of any change are.
Yeah, but you know, Ithink the thing I would most like to
see it is probably more money goingback to the players versus the honors,

(46:20):
because I don't see any of thelong term trends being in their favor with
the current CBO. Yeah, theplayers in baseball? Yeah, do you
think do you think the next CBAneeds to track the total, like whatever
average annual value of the like theplayers salaries and contrast that against the like

(46:44):
annual revenues in order for that tohappen. No, No, I don't
think that's the only way, butit's it's a way that I could think
of pretty quickly, So you knowit's a way, right, Yeah.
I mean I think where all ofus probably would be in favor of more

(47:05):
money going to the players. Thequestion is how do you make that happen.
It's not like the owners are justlike yeah, sure, that sounds
like a good idea. Yeah,I mean that's why this trick happens,
right, right, And I wouldsay, just as fans, I think
more money going to players makes amore interesting game, So that that would
be my cards on the table.Other than it's the right thing to do,

(47:28):
I also think it is generally betterfor the game. That's fair.
I don't think I disagree that.Yeah. Um, as part of this
and when we're talking Ian, Ipulled up like NBA's homepage to learn that

(47:50):
there's a really big trade that's probablyabout to happen, but you probably already
know about. I don't know.No, I do. I do not
Houston, Houston, I'm a city. Oh yes, yeah, sorry,
yeah I do. This was we'rerecording this on Friday, Yeah, Saturday,
Saturday. Yeah. Did it breakyesterday? Yeah? I did break
us. Yeah. I've been busybecause my family is visiting, so I

(48:13):
haven't been on the internet much atall. I was like, that's I
mean, that makes an already excitingoffseason even more exciting obviously. But yeah,
and you know, I think againfor people who aren't familiar with the
NBA as a contract thing, Sothis is Russell Westbrook and Chris Paul who
are declining stars. It would beI don't know that I can think of

(48:36):
a great analog, but maybe likethree years from now Manny Machado being traded
for Bryce Harper more than three,right, but yeah, but I would
say exiting their prime, so threeto five, um. And you know
the reason why this happened in basketballis, uh, the salary cap restricts

(48:59):
the choice with the teams. Sobasically Oklahoma City could only trade to two
teams and Miami, and they wereor they were interested in trading to two
teams Miami and Houston, and Miamihad to do far too much roster manipulation

(49:20):
in order to get stay under thecap. And so Russell Westbrook and Chris
Paul have identical contracts because their maximumcontracts and they're measured against the cap,
so they are identical, and sothey were able to be traded for each
other. It was kind of atrade of I guess necessity almost or convenience,
which is the kind of thing likeyou don't have those forces in baseball,

(49:45):
you don't have those restrictions for goodor ill. I think you could
argue perhaps from a like player empowermentstandpoint restriction those restrictions limit the players.
I do think it makes like dealingwith constraints generally makes a more entertaining product,
and Jem, you know, Iagree with that. My concern is,

(50:08):
like, all that rational for whythat trade went down doesn't sound like
something that would be enjoyable from likemaybe like a typical baseball fan experience,
like Manny Machado is chraded for BryceHarbor because of like the four other contract
things and various exemptions and whatever.Like. Yeah, I think like I
think sort of think that's fun fromlike, oh, that's the kind of

(50:29):
like simulation game I would like toplay, but from like watching baseball perspective,
I don't know, Yeah, Idon't know what the deal there.
So I guess the other thing wouldbe that in this hypothetical world, Manny
Machado and Bryce Harbor both requested tradesfor reason or other, So that is
the empowerment, right, it comesat the cost of their salary. But
they both kind of said we wantout of here. And you know,

(50:55):
I think that's the thing that keepsthat is keeping basketball afloat in terms of
excite meant you know, in theoff season. Um, but you know,
I don't know that it could bemimicked by baseball and keeping it afloat
as an understatement though, Yeah,like the NBA is dominating sports news at
a time when I mean baseball isthe only uh you know, game in

(51:20):
season right now amongst the big floor. But you know, I think anybody's
talking about hockey or football. Um. Yeah, but do you think this
is just gonna be like a twoweek stretch of basketball news? Yeah?
On some level. Yeah, butlike Major League Baseball would kill for a
two weeks stretch like this, Likeyou know, I don't know. Yeah,

(51:44):
they've never had two weeks like this, and you know, I don't
think there could even be two weekslike this, Um and right, and
like baseball saying this is good,this is what we want to push for.
How do we get here? Willlead to just a rafter on a
intend of consequences. Yeah, butum, you know, um, it's
it's interesting. It's just a lotto think about a process, and obviously

(52:07):
we have no say over any ofit. So speak to yourself or anything
else on this topic. No,I'm all right, I'm talked up.
Okay, Well that's good to hear. In that case, what is the
best thing you saw this week?Am I going first? Um So?

(52:28):
I actually I kept a list becauseit's been more than a week and I'm
bad at remember these things. Butmost of these things are recent. So
I'll just give a couple of quickhits that didn't fit the best thing,
and we'll talk about them in toomuch detail, but we can dive into
any of them if you guys want. Um So, Homer Dew was on
there. We already talked about that. The Women's World Cup was on there.

(52:51):
I don't know if we want todive into that or not. Maybe
one of you will mention that morerecently, the Angels threw a no hitter
was it last night or the nightbefore, for which was pretty cool.
We had talked briefly offline about,you know, the tragedy that happened with
one of their players, and anyway, I just thought the timingness was cool.

(53:15):
So I don't know if you wantedto, Yeah, well, I
guess just to say, you know, one interesting thing that happens with score
sheet or any fantasy sport, asyou end up with transference over some players
who are end up feeling like linesof stats or more than lines of stats,
and a lot of that is tosay, like, you know,
this is extremely far down the listof tragedies you know that resulted from this.

(53:38):
But we had Tyler Skaggs on twoof our teams. We've had him
on teams like every year we draftedhim. We drafted him pretty consistently,
and you know, like in thatsense, I feel like score sheet was
our window or like you know,it was our way into understanding him and

(53:59):
you know, his work and thenI guess who he was, uh,
you know, and so on somelevel, you know, it hit us
hard because of this like stupid gamethat we paid too much for. Um.
But you know, I think tothe degree that it like we were

(54:21):
able to feel his impact through this, through this, I think it was
um, you know, it's ablessing. And to have seen what happened
in that first game back was yeah, just you know, really something extraordinary.
Yeah. Um. So to othersmall ones and then I'll tell you

(54:43):
the actual one. UM so muchon the basis of sex with my wife,
which was interesting. It's about RuthBidder Ginsburg and I I don't think
I knew anything about her really likefive years ago. And then as part
of some of the coaching that Ido with some of the college women.
I'd learned more about her because there'sa few of them they are big fans

(55:06):
of her. And then you know, recently the Supreme Court turned over one
of the justices. I had learnedmore about her then, and then of
course I learned even more watching themovie. The movie is interesting. It
sort of made me reappreciate There's likeparts of it where they show like parenting
stuff, which is now like thelens through which I see things. Primarily,

(55:32):
I was like, holy cow,what is it like to be like
Ruth Bader Ginsburg's daughter. But Iwant to spoil the movie. You'll get
to see it for yourself. Andthen there was a cool frisbee thing.
The team that I kept in thesummertime is like a co ed team that

(55:52):
was founded a few years ago tryingto do work in our community around gender
equity and stuff like that. Andthe season's looking really good, which is
really exciting. And we had ourfirst tournament and we won, which was
like the first time we'd ever reallywon a tournament. It's not like the
tournament really means anything. It's justlike a harbinger of good things coming,
So that was cool. We alsogot this cool I'll show it to you

(56:15):
guys U. I'll describe it sothat the people who are obviously just listening
to the podcast. So the tournamentis called Motown throw Down, and they
gave us this still kid yourself,nobody's listening to the podcast. Okay,
Well, so they gave this likevinyl that says Moto go on it.
It's apparently a film like Houston record. The only tracks listed are Saturday Night

(56:44):
Sunday Morning and says it's from thealbum Ready to Roll, and it's got
like the different sections listed. Anyway, So the best thing I saw this
week was related to my daughter,because that's how everything goes. She started

(57:07):
using utensils, which is like afairly like innocuous thing, but it's like
also kind of fascinating. It's justyou know, it's like one of those
little things you're like, that's it'slike compelling to watch her learn, I
guess, and so like it wasone of those like little tiny milestones you're
like, watch her. She's alwaysbeen fascinated with like watching us, even

(57:29):
of course she eats with her handsbecause it's so easy and like why wouldn't
you if you could socially acceptable?But yeah, it's like she's coming up
on eighteen months, so it's notlike amazing, but it's a little bit
notable. And that's why I don'tend up watching homoonder Reason stuff like that,

(57:52):
because we're hanging out and going onwalks and all that kind of jazz.
So anyway, that sounds touching,And I will say, you know,
I can't remember when I learned touse utensils, but what I like
admire most about myself is that Ikind of just, for some reason,

(58:14):
like stuck with my initial the initialway that I hold a utensil. It
just never really improved it. SoI do have like baby utensil? Can
I tell you the same way Iwas. Actually, my brothers were yelling
at me because apparently I don't knowhow to eat salad, Like I'm not
capable of eating salad with the fork, So that doesn't science me at all.
Yeah, you just grab it fordear life and then you stab y,

(58:39):
don't. I don't see what theuh? She can't She can't tell
the difference between a spoon and afork when she's holding them, So you
have to like point out to herthat the spoon would stab things and then
scoop things. It's pretty adorable,honest. Anyway, Um, always exciting.

(59:08):
I guess I guess saw that nextbecause I don't have anything exciting,
so I'll take that little anchor orthe bill worry burry everything. Um the
yeah, I mean, you know, certainly, the things I saw that
were the best things I saw werethe things everybody else saw in basketball and
soccer and you know sport. Um. So just personally went to a couple

(59:31):
of concerts this week, both ofwhich were very exciting to me. One
of them one of my favorite bandsI've seen for a very long time called
Those Compesinos, who were I sawfor the eighth time now, which was
I know that's distressing. Um.So. The one thing I will say

(59:55):
about the Los Campesinos concert is theymanaged to have burned off like all of
their casual fans at this point becausethey just made it, you know,
to the other end of the hypecycle where everyone else is like a die
hard or you know gone, whichfor good or ill for them, but
for like it. Um. Theyare a kind of loud, kind of

(01:00:21):
punky band and a lot of chantingand everyone knows the words, so you
get there. And I would saythe way I've described it is it's as
close to being in the supporter sectionof a soccer match as I have ever
been a lot of marks. Youhave to hit a lot of chances going

(01:00:42):
on the whole time. And theparticular reason I bring this up, and
Jared can vouch for me, isbefore the kind I was looking up some
lyrics and I ended up on geniusdot com um to uh, you know,
take a look at their lyrics,their lyrics and their lyricist, Gareth
is um focused on Well, itturns out he's focused on one major topic,

(01:01:08):
really, and uh, you know, I've always thought of them as
kind of airs, a little bitto the Smiths and you know, balanced
Maastune and that kind of um likewitty lyrical um, you know, witty,
clever lyrics, perhaps replacing the casualracism of these, said Morsy,

(01:01:31):
with slightly better um politics. Butuh, you know, I was looking
and you know, are these songsabout love? Are they about existential sadness
and crisis? Sure, but they'refocused on one major topic, and that
topic is how many soccer references hecan squeeze into the game into a lyric

(01:01:58):
before before it ends, so youknow, if you ever, if you
go to their genius dot com page, you can find this for yourself.
Basically, all their lyrics are soccerpuns, which I admire, and you
know, I think giving yourself toa lifetime of following sport is about the

(01:02:20):
noblest pursuit you can and perhaps thatis why I relate to them so much.
It is not the best thing Isaw this week, however, because
I also went to another concert,and this one I did not expect to
like as much as I did.I went to see the artist Liz Fair,
who you may remember from let's saythe nineties, from such times as

(01:02:40):
the nineties, and I will sayI had become much more of a liszt
Fair fan in the past couple ofyears. Obviously is why I got there,
but I was still surprised at howrelevant and current the song sound today
and listening to her it made merealize how much, you know, I

(01:03:07):
would say, both the raves andwhatever pans there were about her, like
how much she had to deal within nineteen ninety five being like seen as
the like I don't know, Iwant to say like crude woman, like
you know, she's she doesn't care, she has no boundaries, and like

(01:03:28):
people saying that appreciatively, like no, no, this is just what is
happening and hearing it in two thousandand nine, twenty nineteen, probably in
two thousand and nine as well.You know, I guess in the in
the times in which we live,and it's like, oh this is this
feels so current and so on message, and it was just the right music

(01:03:55):
that we should have been listening tothis whole time, rather than dismissing or
being like, isn't it amazing thatan actual girl can write music? Um
or you know whatever it was thatwe were hearing back then. So if
you have not dragged out Exile andGuy Bill in a very long time,

(01:04:15):
I'll stick that on tonight. You'llenjoy it. So you're saying mistimed her
Window Bay a decade or more.Yeah, I would say that, But
I would also say that every thirdindie artist now sounds like her, so
she will not be lacking for supportacts for the rest of her life.

(01:04:36):
With that, Jared, what isthe best thing you saw this week?
It's also a concert? It wasn'tthis week, but it's it's also a
concert. It's it's kind of likeyour story, except um, the opposite.
Maybe I don't know what the rightSure, well, I think what
we're saying is like the relevant andmost critically acclaimed artists of the of their
era, right, yes, Ithink, yeah, that's that's what I

(01:04:58):
would go with. I mean,so like the I think you know was
the Woman's World Cup, But whenI'm talking about this is the concerts.
A few weeks ago and I gotroped into that. We had someone visiting
from like our Colorado state office,and she was in town and somebody else
was so staying out with her,but that fell through Sona. So it's
like me and this one other personand we were just gonna get a couple

(01:05:19):
of drinks after work, and weleft a little early. It was like
four thirty four forty five, andwe went to this bar just completely packed.
Could not find a see day wherewent to like a second bar,
just absolutely there was no one hadto go to like three or four different
bars before I found somewhere where wecould go. I was like, I
don't understand, why is it socredit? It's way too early for like
us to not people to go anywhere. And then this girl from out of

(01:05:41):
town was like, well, likethere's a concert at a Capital One arena.
I was like, okay, Imean, I guess that makes sense,
but still like this is this kindof that's who could possibly be paying
there? And and then so shetold me, she told us, and
and I was like, well,so at this point, we had a
couple, you know, to drink, and it divulged in this game like
well, well, I guess youknow, if you'd go, I'd go.

(01:06:02):
I'm not saying i'd go by myself, but like, if you guys
want to go, I'd go.And I mean whatever, like if you
guys want to do a final,I'll tag along. I'm not saying we
should go. And we sort oflike daring, daring each other to do
this. So so just a fewminutes after the concert was starting, we
uh, we went by there,and then we end up scalping some tickets
because it was like mostly sold outand there were three of us, but
there weren't three seats together at thescalper head, so we had to get

(01:06:24):
two together and a one seat somewhereelse. And then we decided that three
of us would just all stand inthe two seats, which as someone who
like doesn't love um humors contact,yeah, like that was not exactly what
I was looking forward to. Imean, you know, you know they
were, Um, I guess ithelped. They're attective, and I'm like
that evensid like just the factor beingnext to people's like we could maybe not

(01:06:45):
do this, but like now we'relike at this point, we got to
do it. And then we rushin and um. You know something that
should have tipped me off is likeas I was walking the men's restrooms,
most of them were closed off andturned into women's restrooms. Like it didn't
register to me. I was like, oh, I just I At first
I thought it was like the men'sroom like wasn't functioning. I didn't understand,
like why In hindsight, now Iget why they legally they just turned
into the moon's rest room. Andso we went and concert just like we

(01:07:10):
got there just a starting blew.My mind stood up. The whole time
was like dancing, throwing Mahodians inthe air. It was is incredible.
It was um new kids on theBlock, Debbie Gibson, Tiffany Salton,
Peppa and Naughty by Nature in concertand I'm not not really concert person,
but one of the best concerts ofmy life. Just just absolutely stating.

(01:07:32):
I don't know if like it hadmeeting and the way that Ian talks about
Liz fair heaving meeting necessarily, butlike what struck meat was that that what
was fun about this was everybody wasjust there to have a good time.
And everyone was like, you knowwhat, like I'm gonna have a good
time tonight. There was like nopretension on that level of anything other than
we're having We're gonna have a blast. It doesn't matter like which artist is

(01:07:53):
singing, he doesn't matter what songit is. There was a time where
like new kids just went into thislike essentially like eighties and nineties Karayankee,
and they were songs from like veryvarious other artists like who who knows when
no one they had like five differentgroups on the bill. They were saying
songs from some other group, butlike no one cared. They were songs
every knew, like you know,we're gonna have fun. Every good time.
It was like credibly like overly producedconcert that like you know, there

(01:08:14):
were platforms going up and coming downand people appearing out of nowhere and you
know, new kids going to thecrowd and shaking people's hands and kissing,
and it was like it was incredible. It's just like everyone's having such a
good time. It was a blast. I loved it. Could not recommend
it highly enough. That's amazing.So also, not as many people know
Dibbie Gibson's they should. Dibby Getsonis awesome and everybody should love her music.

(01:08:35):
Yeah, well that's what I wasgonna say. It was it was
Debbie Gibson the start, Like whowas the star of this for you?
Well, for me, that's whatsold it from me. I mean,
look, I probably would have gottenno matter what. But the fact that
Dibbie Gibson says, like, youknow, I loved Debbie Gibson, this
is this is I'm like, I'msold. I mean I didn't, you
know, I didn't really knew.I knew a couple of New Kids songs,
but I was I wasn't. Thisis gonna be hard to believe.
I wasn't really huge new Kids onthe Block things. And obviously obviously I

(01:09:00):
love Tippany's I Think We're Alone Now. I shouldn't have been more than two
Salt and Pepper or Naughty by NatureStungs and that's all they got to play,
but it was still fun. Sure, Um okay, rankly, I
think we're alone now, uh TommyJames Rubby News. Yeah, if Tommy

(01:09:21):
James is always going to be firstfor me and then okay, okay.
I have had I have long hadthe thought that every generation gets the I
think we're alone now that they deserve. But what's the current one. Then
we don't deserve anything that's fair?The uh, well, Tommy James went

(01:09:47):
to number whatever. Right, theRuby the Ruby News went to number one,
I believe in the seventies. Rightdid really good at number one.
I believe it was h surprisingly uhhighly on the pop charts. And then
obviously Tiffany Yeah, um it isa loud version and there's yes, Girls

(01:10:13):
Aloud. That was a great version. I don't think I've heard it.
I'm gonna listen to that and thenI'm gonna listen to this fair But first
then you listen to Girls a LoveAloud is you know, the best girl
band of the ever ever that's abold state not not not band filled with

(01:10:36):
women, but you know of thelike Spice Girl, and Generation Spice Girls
had a movie. Yeah, nowthat's true. Um wow, but I
think we're alone now one of thevarious songs ever written, no doubt in
my mind. Uh yeah. TheRubens went to number forty five on the

(01:10:58):
charts, which is still surprisingly high. Yeah. Not number one though,
and Girls Will I went to numberfour in the UK, which is not
as high as this course Sound ofthe Underground, but high nonetheless. Um
yeah, and uh my, yeah, I just hope you had an amazing

(01:11:24):
time and that you are in facthay right sure, am Okay. On
that note, I think we havespent enough time. Hopefully we'll move back
with us something of a trade deadlinespecial. Please send your trades, if
you've made it this far, thosetrades, thought you know, trades,
have thought of in your head,trades, your designing right now, maybe

(01:11:47):
even you know, ask us totrade anything. Really, we'll do it
on air for you. Please sendus a note at scoreseet at baseball Perspects
dot com. We'd love to hearfrom you. But until then, on
behalf of Ben Murphy and Jon Wise, I'm me left Woods. Thanks again
and have a great day.