Hall of Fame, Andruw Jones, Ranger Suarez & Royals moving walls & stats

322 BaseballBiz

Mark Corbett: . Oh, welcome to BaseballBiz On Deck It is week number, whatever. It doesn't matter. I can tell you at this point, Mat Germain and I have been doing this show now, geez, I dunno. 4, 5, 6 years. Anyway, the insanity continues and we're glad to be able to analyze it for you and, and bite sizes each week.

Uh, but. It. Even this off season, Matt, it always seems like there's something we can chat about. 

Mat Germain: Yeah. In the darkest of times, there's always a little nugget of light somewhere out there. 

Mark Corbett: God knows we need that. I'll tell you what. Oh, funny, funny, funny. So what have you been up to? My friend? 

Mat Germain: I've been monitoring a lot of different things, uh, you know, trying to stay, uh, as distracted as possible.

And, , looking at the Hall of Fame ballot recently, oh my, like that's my, [00:01:00] my focus. 'cause I know it's coming out soon and I've been on the Andruw Jones train for a long time and I don't understand, like I. You know, when you grow up watching a player and, and you, you get to appreciate what he does. Right.

And for whatever reason, I don't know, I don't remember exactly what the TV deals were in the day, but I got to watch a lot of Atlanta Braves baseball for a long period of time. And, and a lot of it had to do also with the fact that I was following the Blue Jays and they had some sort of rivalry, I guess you could say, right?

Where they were actually meeting up a lot of times in the. Uh, in the playoffs and, and kind of hot at the same time. So there were teams that people were paying attention to, so they got on the broadcasts a lot of the times. So, Andruw, anybody who's watched Andruw Jones play Now, when you say, uh, you put somebody in the same class as Willie Mays defensively?

Woo. 

Mark Corbett: Okay. 

Mat Germain: That, that is. Already before you go into [00:02:00] the offensive statistics or anything else like that. There are two guys that would play shallow, um, in the outfield, which is something that Kevin Kiermaier like to do as well because they know that they can go and get the ball right. If it goes over their heads, they're getting it.

It's just, and then I think part of what, what I saw with Andruw Jones and what I think a lot of people who saw him a lot will agree with is. He made it look easy, right? You know, when you, you see guys that are diving for a ball, sometimes it's because they don't have the range or they didn't get the right jump or, you know, he made it look easy and seamless.

And there's a reason all those Atlanta Braves pitchers, um. Did what they did and, and got the careers they got and all of them will throw praise at him like crazy for the careers that they had. Uh, you know, Chipper at third also helped and a bunch of other guys, , but I think Andruw Jones deserves more love.

And I posted , on Blue Sky, [00:03:00] when you look at his offensive, uh, statistics, they are carbon copy with Carlos Beltrán, right. Carlos Beltrán has 435 home runs. Andruw Jones has 4 34. One home run difference. Mm-hmm. Right. Uh, Carlos Beltrán has 60 se uh, 7.7 fWAR, , and Andruw Jones has 67. Like, there's no difference between the two offensively when you're looking at the entirety of the career.

Right. And I know they've had, they each had their hot streaks, cold streaks, yada yada. They had their moments, but both of those are, I think nine fWAR above what Vladimir Guerrero. Accomplished above where Larry Walker accomplished. Both of them to me are first ballot Hall of Famers. Okay? And the fact that we're even talking about them nine years in, I guarantee you this, mark, if Andruw Jones had played the way he did for the New York [00:04:00] Yankees, Los Angeles Dodgers, he would've been a first ballot hall of famer.

No doubt in my mind, and the fact that it's the braise, the fact that he's from Curaçao, the, a lot of different ingredients in there, and the fact that he ended his career on a, you know, a, a bad streak, I guess you could say. Uh, those things combine to make his his candidacy way too long, in my opinion. 

Mark Corbett: Yeah, I mean the, the extenuating circumstances that way.

One, not being from a big successful market is one thing. Uh, but the Atlanta Braves, I, I, I'm a little, I think about it. 'cause one of the reasons you were probably able to watch this, more of it was because it may have been on TBS, which had its own network, if you will, and WTBS was everywhere. So I know a lot of people who.

E early on became Cubs fans because WGN and became Braves fans 'cause of WTBS. So I would've thought that [00:05:00] TBS would've been something that would've helped him as far as people being aware, uh, or at least the Braves being more of a, geez, I guess, more of the forefront of a team than they are now. I would've thought.

But I understand what you're, what you're saying there. So you feel like if he had been a Yankee, uh, we would've seen this change. We would've seen him up there already. 

Mat Germain: I think so. 'cause they would've been more lenient on, on his latter years. And I just want to use like Andy Pettitte as an example, right?

Mm-hmm. Andy Pettitte, uh, was an admitted steroid user. Um, he's, he's one of those guys that, that has statistics that are about as lukewarm as you can imagine, for a starting pitcher. And he still has 58% support to get into Hall of Fame right now. And he's only on his. Uh, eighth ballot, right? So he still has two more years left.

So there's a chance that he could actually get, and he's, I'm sorry, I, I like Andy Pettitte a lot, but he is not a hall of famer, in [00:06:00] my opinion. He was a great comPettitteor and, and he was really somebody you wanted on the mound in a playoff game because you knew you were gonna get that steady performance. But he wasn't blowing anybody away.

He wasn't shutting anybody out like Roy Halladay did. Like he's not. He wasn't that type of pitcher. Right. , And so there's a different feel to his game when you're comparing it two. So I, can't say definitively, but my hunch is that if he had been, the same applies for Tim Raines. If Tim Raines had spent his entire career with the New York Yankees, I think he would've gotten in the first year or second year, or maybe even the third.

But he certainly wouldn't have been on it until the 10th ballot. Yeah. Um. There, there's a certain, oh, I don't wanna call it disrespect, but it's almost like, because there's 10 years, they say, ah, we don't really have to wait, rush to it. Just let 'em earn it over time. And, and this whole, uh, you know, I, I, I think we've said this before, I don't like the [00:07:00] system at all that they use for this.

To me, you're either a hall of famer or you're not. And it should be done behind closed doors. No publicity stunts, no explanations, just. Put 'em on the ballot. We get the ballot announced and they're like, well, surprise, this guy's on the ballot and you're not ruining hundreds of careers along the way. , Saying to them that they're not Hall of Famers when they were great players regardless.

And then making 'em go through that process and that kind, I don't wanna call it shame 'cause they had great careers 'cause they got on the ballot. . But it, there's this whole, you know, now I'm ranked, now I'm not part of this group. I'm part of this. Well like it, and it, it exposes you, it makes you like a naked player at that point where you have to go through, live through this thing that has to be antagonizing.

And I know a lot of them are realistic about it. They understand where they are, like where they rank, but regardless, why can't we just enjoy, you know, the whole thing instead of having this, I don't know. You know, like [00:08:00] when you get picked last at, at the high school? Oh yeah. Oh yeah. It feels, feels a bit like that, right.

Mark Corbett: Yeah, I've been there. Done anything? Yes. Yes. 

Mat Germain: Right. My thoughts on it, but I, I wanted to know. One last thing though. Chase Utley on that ballot is actually ramping up, uh, I think now they're up to 44% of the votes that have come through. And, uh, chase Utley's only in his third year and he's up to 69%.

So he, he's another one of those guys that you look at in terms of the careers. And to me, hi. His career is nowhere near as impressive as Andruw Jones. Um, overall, right, and, and it's, it's not even close. He's, he has 259 home runs. I mean, Andruw Jones has him beat by almost 200. Um, he's, he doesn't have anywhere near the, the same number of gold gloves.

He doesn't have the notoriety. He doesn't, I, I honestly don't understand how he's getting the votes that he's getting, but, , he's getting them very much quicker [00:09:00] because I, for whatever reason, he's. S part of a group that recent people recency bias. Maybe the voters are, , younger writers and maybe that's why he's getting a lot more play.

But, , he's a whole six fWAR below what, , Andruw Jones and, uh, Carls Bell Beltran were, I don't know. I'll be happy for him. I don't have nothing against Chase Utley, but I don't get the discrepancy between the two there. There's, they're just, I never looked at Chase Utley and said, oh, that's a Hall of Famer.

I did say that he had a great career and he was a core member of that team, but I always thought that Howard was the better player on that team as opposed to Utley. So, where's Ryan Howard? You know, like. It's one of those oddities. I don't know. 

Mark Corbett: Well, I, I was watching , Charlie Hustle, , the other day and that's was one point where Pete is there, Pete Rose, [00:10:00] and right beside me is Reggie Jackson and they're both signing balls and all that.

It's at, at an event. Pardon me. Reggie's of the mind. Yeah. You know, Pete should be there. He tells him that. Now I know he's sitting there with Pete at that table, but I don't think it was Reggie Jackson. It's probably a man who was ever intimidated. Uh, there's a lot of reasons for a person's character that I could see why somebody may or may not be in the Hall of Fame.

But when you look at performance, some things should just be very, very clear. Now, if you're gonna put persons. Personality or their morality, whatever that may be, as part of the mix. I get that. But I also am concerned about, as you were mentioning, some of these maybe young bloggers, young podcasters, who are now amongst the writers who are making some of these decisions and do they have the depth of knowledge?

That somebody really should have who's making those decisions. But [00:11:00] I mean, knowing from year after year, after year what some of these players have done, and I don't think they do. That's, that's part of it. I, I, I look at people like, uh, who, uh, Lou Pinella, who absolutely should be in there. You know, that's, I bang the drum on that.

Anytime we talked about the Hall of Fame, I think the Hall of Fame is flawed as far as giving out those plaques. I don't think they're necessarily flawed in being presentation, not having been there. But many people tell me, if you go in the Hall of Fame, Cooperstown, you will see. A presence of, of what Rose did and what others did, who, who don't have a plaque.

So there's an acknowledgement there. It's, I guess the whole plaque thing is, does it really matter? I mean, I, I got to the point of where. I look at the Hall of Fame much as I do the new Rays stadium, I don't really care anymore. 

Mat Germain: Well, and that's sad, right? It's true though. And, and is it too serious? Like, have we, is is baseball [00:12:00] taking it way too seriously?

Like, I'll, I'll give you an example. Like how great would it be if they had. As part of the induction every year, they, they had for sure one inductee. Yep. That was one of the greatest characters of the game. You don't base it on statistics, you base it on the personality of the person. Right. And, and the impact.

'cause to me, when you talk about the game of baseball, the personalities are part of it. Like, it's just, they're the ones sometimes that you really love to go. Like I just, as a kid, I love to watch Carlos Perez pitch for the, uh, the expos because he was so animated on the mound, right. He was so, uh, kind of crazy.

And then you have the players that are. Of that mold that are just outlandishly, like Brett Phillips would fit that, right? Where, where he is doing an airplane, he is doing that. Oh yeah. Fun, y yada yada, like the characters of the game because they help tell the story of [00:13:00] baseball. , So in that sense,

A lot of the funnier stories could be told in, in baseball. At that point you could go to the Hall of Fame, not just to see the greats. They're still important or still the core piece. But then you're also getting a side, you know, a good distraction, a fun distraction of saying, you know what, like, what made the game interesting?

And then you could have all the bloopers, all the this, all the, that, whatever applies to it. Right. Um. So I think, you know, the baseball needs to not take itself so seriously. Mm-hmm. You talked about the WBC, like we're, we're about to have that happen, you know, coming up shortly. Yep. You know, part of the music and the drumming and all the stuff that happens in the stands, that's all joyous fun.

And, and Savannah Bananas are showing that, you know, fans want that. They're, they're, they're looking for it. So I think it's time that baseball gives it to 'em. 

Mark Corbett: Oh, I'll, I'll go back. You bring back the bananas. I keep thinking of one thing. Jesse Cole. The guy who put all that together says, time and again, Fans [00:14:00] First.

Yeah. And it's, that's the ring true in the ears of Rob Manfred and every team owner, , who, who even want to think about continuing to build their product. , Here we're looking at, uh, the bananas Jesse Cole. , It's amazing what he has done well. We had to break him down sometime on this show as far as what they did to get where they're at right now.

But Fans First is the integral part of his philosophy that seems to make all that work. So I think certainly the Hall of Fame could, could take a little of that, you know, brush off a little, the, the posh exterior, a little bit of snottiness sometimes, and bring in the reality of what it takes to enjoy the game with some really good and fun, exciting players.

Well, there's, there's still actually, uh, preseason activity going on. We've been talking the last couple weeks we were talking about Kyle Tucker a lot. We were talking about Pete, Pete Alonso, but, and Alex [00:15:00] Bregman. And Alex Bregman, I think, broke some, uh, broke some Red Sox hearts. I thought that did a lot of 'em thought they were gonna get him.

Mat Germain: Yeah. And, and what do you, what do you think about the Cubs as a destination? 

Mark Corbett: I think it's going to be different. I don't know that I, I'm curious, I'm gonna get Sarah Sanchez or somebody else on here to talk more about it. I think that he is probably what they need right now and. See, it's possible 

Mat Germain: they, they had to replace, uh, some of the production that, uh, Tucker had had provided for them.

I, I think it, it does open up the possibility of them moving one of their infielders. I know Nico Horner has been rumored as, as a potential trade chip. I think he's been one of their core players for a while now, and, and maybe that goes underrated. Mm-hmm. In my opinion, to be better served. Extend them a few years if they could.

Uh, instead of trading 'em and then trade Shaw instead, who's the less proven player and, [00:16:00] um, and can give some versatility to a lot of different teams that might be looking to, to get in on the action now that Bregman has, has signed. Right. But you saw Nolan Arenado go right away as soon as Bregman's signed.

Yeah. You know that that was the next move. So I think you could estimate that the D-backs had been in on Bregman and that now they resolved their issue, that they're looking to fill in the infield. But it brings about the question of are they really going to keep Ketel, Marte? Because why would they want to bring in that piece,

they had other options basically in their infield with a lot of young guys coming up. Like Jordan Lawler and Tommy Troy are two of their, uh, infield prospects that are expected to be ready this year. Um, so anyways, it brings a lot about a lot of questions, but I think they overpaid, I think like really.

For Alex Bregman, the age they're paying for what he did before, not what he's gonna do next. Uh, because you're talking about ages 32 and [00:17:00] beyond and, and a for an infielder, especially when that had injuries like what Alex did. Um, you know, can he play a George Springer like role on the Cubs the same way that George Springer is having an impact with the Blue Jays.

Probably that's, that's possible, right? Yeah. So he can DH he can do all that stuff, but they've got this kid, Moisés Ballesteros, who's actually very, very, very good bat. So I don't think they're gonna want to pull him out of the DH pod very often, or at least they're gonna want to split the time there. Um, so I think there options are a little bit more limited.

I just think, you know, they're bringing in more for the leadership, the intangibles and the security and the, and the kind of. To attract other free agents down the road without telling them that they have to be the piece. At least they have one guy to go with him. And, uh, I don't know. It's one of those things where we just saw Anthony Rendon force the, um, the [00:18:00] Angels to eat a lot of money, and apparently that's gonna be broken down into five years.

So that was his, uh. His help to the Angels to say, oh, you could just pay me over five years, all these billions, which helps him tax wise anyway. Um, and then you have Arenado that the cards had to eat over $32 million, I think, geez, out of that deal. Um, so, so I see Bregman as ending up in the same kind of thing, you know, two, three years from now we'll be talking about how much money the Cubs have to eat to get, to move them off.

And, um. I, I honestly thought he was going to the Tigers. I thought he was gonna reunite with his, uh, old manager. Um, but, uh, the Cubs will be good a lot better for it in 2026. That much I know. Um, but then the, the, the Red Sox missed out on Bregman, so they went and got Rain Ranger Suárez. 

Mark Corbett: Right, right. Now did, what did you think of that?

I mean, it, you're looking [00:19:00] for one type of player and you can't get the one you want. And so then you go to a pitcher instead. 

Mat Germain: You can never go wrong, adding, pitching, and especially one that is as steady as Ranger Suarez is. Mm-hmm. The, what it does, mark, I, it doesn't solve second base, but it gives them the extra assets to trade for second base.

So now that they have Ranger Suarez, some of their young pitching becomes available in trade, they can go and get a Brendan Donovan. From the Cardinals, for example, and, and fill their void with that. So it, it not only strengthens and gives them more certainty on the pitching side, but then it brings in the quality player that they're looking for anyway.

'cause they can dangle the extra pieces that it frees up. But when you're adding Ranger, whereas, and Sonny Gray to somebody like Gary Crochet. Uh, Gary Crochet. Like that's a very strong three. And that's without looking at Brian Bellow and all the other guys that, that they already have in play. I think they're [00:20:00] getting Cutter Crawford back this year.

Uh, they have a lot of young pitching that is like really strong in AAA and aa. Um, so the Red Sox. For me, I know we praised them last year too. Uh, and, and they did make a playoff push and they did have success in there. I think, you know, Craig Breslow got a lot of flack for a lot of moves that he made, especially the Rafael Devers one.

But it turned out, and, and I think he has a, he has a good eye for what his team actually needs and, and he's able to block out all the noise and, and make his team better. And I think he has, in this case. 

Mark Corbett: I wish. Pardon me. Yeah. And that's what, that's what it's gonna take. I, I mean, it's always interested me watching how this whole free thing evolves.

If what you look at, uh, what Ranger Suarez, he was with the Phillies since 2018, I believe. You know, and, and this is a guy you say, [00:21:00] my gosh, surely they'll keep you Maybe things going well. I, I look at, at, uh, some of what he achieved. I mean, just even the last couple years we had 3.2 ERA and, and then, uh, this year played 26 6 games, say 25.

And, uh, he played 27 games in 2024. So he's, you know, you say, is he a person getting a little long in the tooth? I think what, what he is now, he's about, he's 30 years old. I always think by the time that they're able to become a free agent about how old they're gonna be and pitchers, it seems like either their arms are burnout or they'll last a long time.

I don't know. With, with Suarez, what do you think? 

Mat Germain: So the one thing I look at a lot with aging players is always the walk rate, because one of the things that you'll s this is what I, I meant by the consistency before, uh, with a young player, you'll see a lot of walks and inopportune moments especially, or , they'll get themselves in the trouble

with a veteran, a lot of times the the things that you wanna look at are [00:22:00] the batting average on balls in play. So how many of them of the balls being hit are actually falling for, for hits the walks, which then tells you how much, how aggressive he is being in his zone. So if he still trusts his stuff, he's able to keep the batting averages low.

Then he's still an effective pitcher. He's still doing whatever voodoo he needs to do to get the job done. Right. Right. Uh, when that walk rate goes up or the batting average, um, balls and play goes up, then you know you're starting to get into a trouble zone. And whatever adjustments that pitcher needed to make, even if the velocity goes down, like there are pitchers examples where they actually improve when the velocity goes down 'cause their pitchers get more movement, or it forces them to use a different mix, that actually becomes more effective because all the scouting reports on them go away.

Right. Um. So, so yeah, I like Ranger just because you know what you're going to get, you know, he is gonna attack the zone. He's gonna give you five innings plus, [00:23:00] and, and then you can use your pen effectively afterwards. But, but he gives him that certainty. So he doesn't need to be a number one. He doesn't need to be a number two.

You're asking him to be a number three or four, uh, in a rotation. And you know you're gonna get 150 innings you hope. Pitchers. It's never guaranteed. Uh, but, but they have enough behind him that if he needs to miss a few starts, that's fine. But if you're going to a playoff series mark and you have somebody with his experience, and he has a lot of playoff experience as well, ?

Uh, right. So, so that comes into play. So you, you're looking at a guy that's thrown 23 innings in, in, um, in the playoffs. He has a 3.24 ERA, or sorry. 3.04 ERA over that time. , And he's done extremely well in those starts, so why wouldn't you,, wanna have him aboard maybe as your three, or even as a four, depending on how things work out, um, to be a part of your rotation when you make the playoffs.

So I, I think it was a [00:24:00] very smart add. They have 'em for a long time, for five years, so they can build. Around them and, and like I said, now they're able to dangle some young pitching and go get, uh, a player, whether it's Donovan, whether it's somebody else at the trade deadline. I just think the Red Sox right now, to me, it moves them ahead of the Orioles because they have a more impressive group in Triple A aaa, um, to, to, and returning from injury to lean on if anything goes astray with their, their five guys.

Right. So that's the difference between the Orioles and the Red Sox right now that I would point to 

Mark Corbett: you, uh, this kind of goes in a whole other direction, but thinking as far as runs coming in. And looking at what, uh, Kansas City is doing. You know, about a, a couple of weeks ago we were talking about the Kansas City Chiefs moving their stadium and said, well, actually, uh, Kaufman, they, they expired in 2031 for the Royals.

Well, they moved too. Well, they're not [00:25:00] gonna have to worry about moving to another location, but they're making quite a bit of movement inside the stadium, aren't they? 

Mat Germain: Yeah. The, you talked about, we talked about the Hall of Fame, right? Yeah. So. The Royals just improved the chances that Bobby Wood Jr. Is gonna make the Hall of Fame by, by moving in the fences, like literally we joke.

But it's true because it's gonna get his home run totals to the point where a, assuming they stay there long enough, I don't know how many more years. Kaufman has, uh, you know, as part of his career, but they're going to be his core years anyway. So he's what, 25 Now? If he gets another five years in Kaufman, , you're talking about adding what maybe 30, 40 home runs to his total over that time.

Geez, that's worth it. That's a big difference. So yeah, moving it 10 feet, there's a lot of questions. And I mean, depending on the hitter's profile, where they hit the ball. You can hit, like, unless you're Isaac Paredes, most times you're not gonna hit the same average in [00:26:00] each sector. Right. But they're bringing all the fences in.

They're not doing like the Orioles, the Orioles that just left field. Well, then they made this wonky kind of design. Who knows why they, I think somebody's brought their kids in. They were playing with Lego and they were like, you know what, let's just move this around. And anyway, but, but the, the, the Royals are bringing them all in, so.

It not only helps with Junior, it helps Salvador Perez, it helps Jonathan India. It helps all of their supporting cast right. To, to say we're not going to leave just because we want to go to a park where we're gonna get a bigger contract. Right. So I wonder if that came into play when Michael Garcia signed this extension with the Royals as an example.

Uh, how like. If you're Cody Bellinger right now and you're out in the open market, does that impact how you look at the royals as a destination? Because they're bringing the fences in by 10 feet. Mm-hmm. If you're somebody that [00:27:00] wants to sign a big deal for one year. Do you look at the royals differently now because they have the fences in and you can put up some good stats.

You know, if, if I'm the San Francisco Giants right now, I'm going, Hmm, maybe we shouldn't be the outliers anymore. Should take a page out of the Royals and, you know, the, I don't know. It, it's, it's an interesting thing. The, the thing I don't like about it is that you can never rate. One generation from the other anymore.

Right? Like you can never look at George's, Brett, Brett stats and compare them to Bobby Wood Jr. Mm-hmm. Because they're going to be different, you know, shaped fields and uh, I mean, you're never gonna get anything perfect on that end in, in baseball anyway. Um, but it's an interesting thing that they're doing.

And so. You, you look at Jac Caglianone is another guy that they have, right? Um, who, how his, how his career trajectory is going to change now because of that. [00:28:00] So is that the next step? Are they gonna look to extend. Jac before he hits a million different home runs and, , and makes prices himself out of Kaufman.

Mark Corbett: He was amazing to watch when he was playing for the University of Florida, and you know, he's Florida boy anyway, and. One of those people, I always say, oh, I'd love to see him come back, but it's definitely gonna make a positive for his career with that. Being able to move those walls back

I always think it's crazy though, Matt, this what part of what this makes, this game, I mean, I can't even imagine if, if you could move the goalpost in the NFL 

Mat Germain: was gonna go there, or in hockey, right. I'm gonna put a little cubby area here in the, uh, corner of the rink. 

Mark Corbett: Well, you know, I mean, when I, I haven't golfed in a while, but at my age if I go to play golf, they do actually have senior, uh, tee offs, women's tee offs, et cetera.

Different locations. So, pardon me, 

Mat Germain: do they not have a Happy [00:29:00] Gilmore Golf course? Honestly, you know, like with the car set up, you gotta bank it off the car, get it down the ramp. You like, I would play that golf course, make the greens. Interesting. That would be awesome. I'm gonna write Adam Sandler letter there.

Uh, mark, I'm gonna, I'm gonna propose that 

Mark Corbett: I like it. I like it a lot. Oh gosh. You know, I, I would like, there's, I know there's other things we talk about, but I'd like to take a minute or two because you've had some conversations with some good folks from, uh, the Mets organization, or at least their fans, and it, they, it's gotta be tough right now to be a Mets fan for a lot of reasons and.

What was, it was Nimmo with them and he leave, and, uh, Alonso was gone. And who else has left that organization? 

Mat Germain: Nimmo and, uh, McNeil, Diaz. Oh Lord. I mean, you're talking about a, a huge part of their core. Um, [00:30:00] 

Mark Corbett: fire. Fire. Did somebody come in and yell, fire and everybody run outta the theater at the same time?

What is it? 

Mat Germain: Now you can say a lot of teams can add by subtraction, right? So an example Anthony Rendon, him walking away from the Angels is a plus, not a negative, uh, not disparaging him, I'm just saying, you know, they're gonna get a better performance more than likely from that position. Mm-hmm.

But of the group that I just mentioned, is there any of them that you think the Mets have improved on since they left? So is is Marcus Simeon at 35 and 36 years old, going to be better than Jeff McNeil? I don't think so. Uh, is ho Jorge Polanco at first base moving him there after he had a career year at 32 years old, are you really expecting him to repeat and become as productive as, as Pete Alonso?

I don't think so. Brenda Nimmo and, and and Left Field, as much as I like some of the per young prospects that the Mets have, and Carson is one of them. Um. He's gonna [00:31:00] be a good player, but he's gonna be that immediately and be like a spark plug from the get go. Uh, history says that that's gonna be tough to do.

Uh, jet Williams is another one that they could inject in the out field if they want to add something. But are you really going to depend on two young guys like that with Juan Soto on the right? So if they don't land. Kyle Tucker, they're kind of painted into this scenario where they have to find another route.

Yeah. And then right now it's just not as obvious as it as it would otherwise seem. So, so the point is more like Devin, uh, Williams is another one that they point at, and the fans will be all enamored with. His statistics, well, everything on his arsenal dropped by a mile an hour year over year, which is what made him available in the trade market anyway.

And, and so. His ERA jumped up. As a result, his batting average on balls and play would jumped up as a result. His whip was one of the highest of his career so far. He's going to a new team, he's gonna have a new pitching coach, a new everything. Um, you know, luckily for him, [00:32:00] Marcus Simeon plays a solid second base, so he should get some help compared to what it would otherwise be.

But Francisco Lindor is not getting any younger. He's not gonna be continuing to do what he's done forever. Um, you know. There's just a lot of big question marks with, with the, uh, the Mets and I don't think their fans are giving credit to the guys who left , and then being as robust as they probably should with the guys that they brought in.

Like they need a lot more, like, especially on the pitching side, mark, 'cause Kodai Senga. It hasn't been what they were hoping that he would be. Can he become that again? Sure. Clay Holmes added over 102 innings last year, like year over year. Is he really gonna stay healthy another full year as a starting pitcher?

His second half was way different than his first half, really dominant. The first half, second half, he only managed 60 innings. He had some bumps in the road and his. Uh, ERA and WHIP skyrocketed compared to what they were in the first [00:33:00] half. That tells me that it's somebody that probably belongs more in a pen, uh, next year than it, than he would.

And, and if I were the Mets, I would add enough pitching to move him into the closer role, move Devin Williams to the setup, then you're solid. Right? But. I, I just think there's a reality check needed when it comes to the Mets and they have a fetish, sort of like the rays. The rays do with guys whose names start with the letter j.

Right. The rays have a serious fetish when it comes to that, and, and the Mets have a fetish when it comes to old players. They added Starling Marte, they went after Max Scherzer, they went after Justin Verlander. They, they overpaid for all of those guys, millions and millions. So they were spending, and I think we said that before we started talking.

Yeah. It's like a wealthy person that goes out and thinks that this painting is beautiful. Everybody that looks at the painting says it's an ugly piece of crap. And he says, no, I still want it 'cause it's expensive. Okay, well here's the painting. But you still [00:34:00] end up having to have people walk by and go, you know what?

That's not that good. 

Mark Corbett: Yeah. Yeah, man. Yeah. That's still. I mean the, even you think on top of the luxury tax, on top of that, a bad investment and then you're paying a huge luxury tax, who knows? Maybe even there's a tariff on it for, but it's, it's insane. It's, it's absolutely insane. So I, I don't know what's what they're gonna do, but it doesn't look good for them.

Mat Germain: Pardon me. I have the solution though. Mark, please. I think we should put the Rays in the NL East. And the Mets in the AL East. 

Mark Corbett: Ooh, wait a minute. Wait a minute. You're gonna have two teams from New York in the same 

Mat Germain: division. You wanna motivate a team to be their best version of themselves? 

Mark Corbett: Oh damn. Damn.

Oh my gosh. Yes. Yes. Let's do that. I mean, [00:35:00] I saw your post earlier saying that about the rays, but I, I didn't see the next step there. 

Mat Germain: Wow. The Rays, the Rays would have a natural rivalry with the Atlanta Braves and the Marlins like True. Isn't that an obvious fit? I love it. Well make it happen. I'm gonna write a post to, uh, Rob Manfred and say, nevermind your little summer tournament that you wanna do in the split season.

And did you see the, the things he brought up on those? 

Mark Corbett: Uh, I, I, I missed, no, what, what's the latest

Mat Germain: he wants to, he proposed now, he took a lot of it back, but they're looking at all these other leagues that have, um. , Like for example, the EFL, the soccer league in, uh, in England has four different levels and then it has two other levels below those.

Yeah. All of those teams take part in a, um, a tournament every year that's called the Emirates FA Cup. Right. So there, that goes on as the season goes on and then they jump back and forth, [00:36:00] right? So they keep progressing through this tournament and I think his vision is that baseball would have something similar.

Hmm. But there's a problem. There's only one baseball league. There's five in the EFL. Yeah, that brings about a whole different thing because it's like, okay, so you're, you're playing for the World Series Championship, but now you're gonna have another tournament. But it's just the same teams involved. What the hell's the use?

It doesn't make any sense, Rob. Think it through, man. Like, it doesn't, it doesn't bring anything new to the game. Now, if you tell me that this tournament is going to be between Japanese teams and American and and MLB teams, that's a whole different story. Oh yeah. But how are you gonna bring that about? Um, you know, the MLB hasn't been very good at, uh.

Sharing, I guess is the best way to put it. [00:37:00] 

Mark Corbett: Oh, that's the best way to put it, right? 

Mat Germain: Yeah. So like we talk about the A BL, right? The Australian Baseball League, uh, MLB took away a whole bunch of funding from them where they used to fund a lot of baseball in, in the Australia Baseball League. And then eventually they just pulled all the funding and then they left the Australian Baseball League to its own devices and now they've gone from eight teams down to four teams.

Um, and so, you know, it hasn't really worked out. Ja. Japan is a lot different, but they have their own schedule. They have their own worries. There's nothing guaranteed that they're gonna want to take part in it. Korea's the same way, but you would have to find something. Now, having said that, if they do decide to start another league with 10, 12 teams, kinda like what we were talking about with all the expansion candidates, establish that and then consider doing that.

That would be a possibility. Then it would open a door. 

Mark Corbett: You're gonna have to go back to some of the things you, you talked about. It's been [00:38:00] months ago, I'm sure talked about changing basically everything in baseball, and by that I mean the number of games a year, 162 games between that and All Stars A game, the postseason, the World Series, all that.

The task that that takes upon all those people playing the game is unbelievable. And if you start to try to add other elements in the mix. It's a Jenga game. It's already broken. And that's, I, I don't know. I mean, if you're gonna rebuild Ron Rob, I'm not, I'm not afraid of rebuilding how the whole thing is, and if you wanna try something different, but I think this is one of those neat ideas somebody had in the shower.

I said, you know, wouldn't it be cool, you know, they didn't think it three before they had their first cup of coffee and put it out in a memo somewhere. Oh shit, man. I shouldn't have said that. Uh, can you, can you bring that back? I'll say it a little differently and I, I know that it happens a lot of times with people in administrative row and some of 'em [00:39:00] bring it back and some of 'em don't.

But, , Rob hopefully will see the sanity of, of what should be, and the owners, the, uh, good sense of their organizations if they wanna keep 'em sound. 

Mat Germain: I just get a little bit testy when they start playing with the game to the point where you don't recognize it anymore. Like that's what I'm afraid would, would happen if they went too far with it.

Yep. , Not saying that, , it can't still be good and fun and all that kind of stuff, but, , I think. I do like what the minor leagues do. I do like the six day a week games and one series against one team for that week. And then you move on to the next location. You have that day off on the Monday that I'm in full favor of.

And I think it would actually help out the starting pitchers stay healthy 'cause they could go to the six man rotation and leave it as is and never touch it basically. So I think that to me is, is an interesting thing that they're, they've done through the minors, they've tested it, they've actually.

Lowered the cost of travel as a [00:40:00] result, think about how much travel costs it would save, all the marketing that gets to happen. I see it more like, uh, right now the pace that we're keeping up in the, in, uh, the course of a season is like as if you go to a no, you can eat buffet and you just keep eating and you keep eating.

And every day there's more games. There's more games, there's more games, there's more. And you never get to take a breath until halfway through the year. And then you're, ah. And then you go back, right? And you're supposed to maintain that focus all the way through. Having the Mondays off allows you to digest.

To kind of reset. To reevaluate. And I think baseball needs that. Football has it, and NBA and and Hockey normally have it except for Olympic years. That gets a little bit more compressed. , But I think it's, , it's something that baseball would do better with, I think. 

Mark Corbett: Well, what other nuggets do you wanna cover tonight?

Mat Germain: That's all I had, mark. I think, uh, the world is a crazy place. Oh, I did [00:41:00] see, , the menus start to come out for some of the Rays. Um, home games. So if you're going to the Rays' stadiums, I think some of the menus in some of the sections have started to come out. Nothing mind blowing, to be honest.

Kind of all pretty generic. What you would expect. Uh, you know, it's not called stadium leg barbecue, but, uh, 

Mark Corbett: I, I'm looking forward to being in the Trop. I know people go, oh my gosh, the trop, I mean, instead of the temperatures that the ray had to contend with this past year, uh, I could tell you. Joe Madden's been in town.

He's been at a couple events, I think one night, as a matter of fact, charity event where he's out there. You'll see either speaking with folks or doing things. He was also, what was it? The Home Homeless Empowerment program. I love the whole idea that they do a lot more than just give a person a meal.

There's. There's a whole lot involved, and maybe we'll talk about that on another episode. He does things in Pennsylvania with his own organizations there. I, I [00:42:00] really applaud those people, you know, who find a way to give, you know, beyond just being what they did with the game. Mm-hmm. And they've got their, uh.

See Cubs. Cubs had got their Cubs Con is what it's called. I don't think it's, they don't have a fan fest. It's a Cubs con that's coming up I think this weekend. So that ought to be a lot of fun. Uh, who's a Sarah Sanchez with Bleed Cubby Blue. She had something. Let's see what it was on. Um. Check her out.

She talks about Cubs are announcing that Addison Russell will be at the convention, that there might be some little brew haha about that 'cause of his behavior. Uh, for lack of a better term. It's always go get, check her out, boys and girls. And another thing I'll let you know is I've been working on a project for some time and a lot of pieces are coming to fruition.

That is with a. Baseball player who was with the All American Girls Professional Baseball League from like, oh, let's see, uh, 19 [00:43:00] what? 46 to 1951. Her name is Senaida "Shoo Shoo". Love that nickname, Wirth. And this woman sh. She was five foot, nothing weighted. I think about 114 pounds, stole 89 bases in her rookie year.

Woo. Well that's a mouthful. So that's what's been going on around here in in Tampa and some of the things that I'm working with, but I am excited about. You know, we will have spring training here before we know it. And, uh, get your tickets too. The World's Baseball Classic. We know we gotta have it in Houston.

We're gonna have it in Miami and Puerto Rico and Hong Kong, but there will also be exhibition games at those locations, at some of the minor league fields, et cetera. Check that out. So there's a lot of fun to be had there as well. 

Mat Germain: That's awesome, mark. That's, uh, it's really good stuff. 

Mark Corbett: Yep. 

Mat Germain: I have one last nugget for you, please.

I know last week we talked [00:44:00] about the ocean cleanup and all the good work that they do. Yes. Uh, the one company that I, I also purchase a lot of things from is Shady Rays, and I know it has the name rays in there, so it's. Perfect for our show, but they're, they're a sunglass company and uh, and basically for every pair that you get, a certain amount of money goes towards, uh, certain charities or events or things that they have going on.

, So their legacy of giving back is amazing. And if ever you. You lose your, your glasses, they'll replace them for free. If you break them, they'll replace 'em for free. If you there, there's just, you know, the quality. If you, if you've ever worn a pair of Oakleys, very similar to Oakley caliber in terms of quality, so you're not missing out, but you're paying about half the prices you would for Oakley and you're giving a, uh, you know.

A lot of, uh, I, I think the, the first time I went through it, it was like 10 meals for a pair of glasses that you were giving to homeless. 

Mark Corbett: Wow. 

Mat Germain: [00:45:00] Uh, so I think I've purchased sunglasses for my dad, my brother, my father-in-law, my brother-in-law, like, and I have. Four pairs myself. So all together I'm responsible for a heck of a lot of meals.

Uh, I think I've only had to put in one claim for a lost pair of glasses so far. So, and this is over the course of, I don't know, eight, nine years. Wow. They have a store in Kentucky, so I know you go back to Louisville a lot of time. Yeah, yeah, that's where it is. Uh, so there's actual physical stores that they have available to where you can go see these glasses, and they have such a huge range of glasses now.

Uh, in terms of styles, they started out very basic and now they're, they've branched out to have almost every style you can think of. So just throwing it out for Shady Rays. 

Mark Corbett: And how, how do you spell that? 

Mat Germain: Uh, S-H-A-D-Y and then Ray, RAYS. 

Mark Corbett: Okay, cool, cool. As one might think. All right, well that's [00:46:00] good. I'll put something also in the notes for that folks, and that's it to be finding a way if you're gonna be spending money on different items and you can find people you can support, um.

Uncovering more and more organizations that I don't purchase from anymore because of some of the things they do. So when you can find something like that where people are helping out, like shady rays, I'm a, a big advocate like Matt to support them as well. And like I said, we'll put that in the, the show notes.

Awesome. Alright, brother. I haven't got anything else. I'm looking forward to a lot of fun coming up here. I, I've still gotta get my tickets to those exhibition games. That's the next thing on my list. And finish up the calendar. You know, I've got, uh, where we're gonna travel this year. Kansas City is on that list.

That's, uh, want, want to go there? And the see the Royals and the, uh, Negro Baseball League Museum. That's gonna be a lot of fun. 

Mat Germain: Absolutely. I went to both, and I hope you enjoy Bobby Witt Jr. He's one of [00:47:00] those players that you definitely want to get your eyes on when you get the chance. So, him and Cagleone will be fun to watch.

, Tomorrow the international signings period starts. So keep your eyes on that. I know it takes a long time for these towns to come out. You, you see the names and you're like, yeah, okay, that's nice. And then you wait four years before you actually hear the name again. Right. But, but it's always interesting to see where the top guys land and uh, to dream a little bit on what's coming up next.

Mark Corbett: Well, thank you for that, my friend. Well, I wanna thank you all again for joining. Mat Germain and I here today on Baseball Biz On Deck, and we look forward to talking to you guys again real soon. 

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