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Speaker 1: A men. I do not understand why baseball does not

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Speaker 1: allow for the trading of all draft picks. Welcome everyone

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Speaker 1: to the Monday edition of Bear Territory, our usual show.

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Speaker 1: And the reason you're seeing the Braves backdrop in back

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Speaker 1: of me is because I am at Braves camp on

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Speaker 1: this Monday. And it's not because I'm a Braves fan,

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Speaker 1: a Braves lover. I hate your team, this, that, and

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Speaker 1: the other thing, as you might have gathered by now,

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Speaker 1: I don't care who wins. I'm rooting for the best stories.

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Speaker 1: I'm rooting for myself. That's how writers do it. But

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Speaker 1: in any case, we have a lot to discuss on

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Speaker 1: this Monday, some of it regarding on field issues and

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Speaker 1: some of it regarding off field concerns. So I want

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Speaker 1: to start on the field with a team that is

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Speaker 1: having some injury problems, and that would be the New

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Speaker 1: York Yankees. The New York Yankees have three prominent players

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Speaker 1: in various states of disrepair right now. Gean Carlos Stanton,

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Speaker 1: who is going to miss the start of the season.

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Speaker 1: He's having MRIs on both elbows. DJ lem Mayhew, who

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Speaker 1: tweaked a calf muscle, and the twenty twenty four American

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Speaker 1: League Rookie of the Year Louis Heel, who is out

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Speaker 1: with shoulder tightness. None of this is positive for the Yankees.

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Speaker 1: They want their players on the field like any team does. Stanton,

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Speaker 1: we know, has missed time at various points throughout the

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Speaker 1: last several years. That's just kind of who he has been.

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Speaker 1: But at the same time, they need his bat in

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Speaker 1: the lineup, especially with Juan Soto gun. DJ Lemayhew is

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Speaker 1: they hoped one of the answers at third base, and

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Speaker 1: as my friend Joel Sherman wrote in The New York Post,

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Speaker 1: I don't know a week or two ago. Well, as

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Speaker 1: often as dj Lemayhew has been hurt in recent seasons,

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Speaker 1: you really can't count on him to be an answer

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Speaker 1: for anything. So right now the Yankees have a third

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Speaker 1: base issue. They've got oswald Parazza and Oswaldo Cabrera. But

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Speaker 1: we'll see if either of those players they believe is

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Speaker 1: an actual answer. Cabrera is more of a utility guy,

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Speaker 1: Parazza is unproven. I'd ask, well, okay, if LeMay who

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Speaker 1: is out for any length of time, or even if

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Speaker 1: he isn't, what about Noan Arnado And it seems to

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Speaker 1: me that Noe Arnado is not going anywhere right now

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Speaker 1: but Bush Stadium for Opening Day. The Yankees their whole

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Speaker 1: premise if they were ever going to get involved with Arnado,

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Speaker 1: and there's been no indication except Arnaudo traveling to Tampa

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Speaker 1: that they were involved at all. Well, if they were

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Speaker 1: ever going to get involved with him, they probably would

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Speaker 1: have to clear Marcus Stroman's money. And guess what, due

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Speaker 1: to the injury to Louise Heel, they suddenly need Marcus

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Speaker 1: Stroman in their rotation. Rotation still looks good. It's Garrett Cole,

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Speaker 1: It's Max Freed, it's Carlos Rodin, It's Clark Schmidt, and

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Speaker 1: now for the interim Marcus Stroman. But Luis Heel obviously

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Speaker 1: is a guy with a tremendous amount of talent, a

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Speaker 1: guy that was huge for the Yankees last year, a

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Speaker 1: guy if you remember they would not trade for Kyle Tucker.

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Speaker 1: That was the player the Houston Astros wanted from the

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Speaker 1: Yankees if they were indeed going to trade Tucker to

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Speaker 1: the Yankees, and the Yankee said, no, no, no, no, no,

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Speaker 1: we can't trade the American League Rookie of the Year

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Speaker 1: for a one year rental in Kyle Tucker. I understood

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Speaker 1: the logic at the time, but with pitchers it's always

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Speaker 1: just a gamble relying on them to be anything in

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Speaker 1: any particular season. You never know who is going to

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Speaker 1: get hurt at any particular time. It's not a reason

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Speaker 1: necessarily that the Yankees should have traded Luis Heal, but

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Speaker 1: when you talk about trading pitchers for position players, sometimes

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Speaker 1: it seems to me teams should be a little bit

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Speaker 1: more aggressive on that front. So the Yankees have these questions.

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Speaker 1: Third base is the biggest one right now, and I

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Speaker 1: don't know how they're going to solve it. I don't

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Speaker 1: see them doing anything in the near future. They seem

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Speaker 1: to be out of money for this year. Their budget

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Speaker 1: terry limit has been reached, so unless something creative happens,

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Speaker 1: or unless something out of the blue happens, the Yankees

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Speaker 1: probably are going with Paraza or Cabrera on open at

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Speaker 1: third base. For more on the Yankees injuries, check out

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Speaker 1: Pinstripe Territory, part of the Foul Territory network. Pinstripe Territory,

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Speaker 1: hosted by Derek Lewandowski, is the number one Yankees postgame

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Speaker 1: show on YouTube. Recent episodes detailed the heel Stanton and

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Speaker 1: Lemayhew setbacks. Subscribe on YouTube and wherever you get your

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Speaker 1: podcast to the entire foul Territory network. We'll be back

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Speaker 1: after a quick word from our friends at foul Territory.

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Speaker 1: Elsewhere in the game. Over the weekend, ESPN broke a

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Speaker 1: story regarding Pete Rose, and the story was that Pete

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Speaker 1: Rose's lawyer and daughter Fawn Rose, met with Commissioner Rob

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Speaker 1: Manfred and MLB spokesman Pat Courtney in December, and then

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Speaker 1: the lawyer Jeffrey Lenkoff followed up with a petition to

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Speaker 1: Manford that he sent to the Commissioner in January. What

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Speaker 1: lenkov wants, what the family wants, is for Pete Rose

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Speaker 1: posthumously to be reinstated, to become eligible for election to

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Speaker 1: the Hall of Fame. Do I expect Manfred to rule

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Speaker 1: in Rose's favor. No, I do not. I don't believe

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Speaker 1: that the Commissioner has changed his opinion at all on

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Speaker 1: Rose's permanent ban from the game. We've gone through that

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Speaker 1: history time and time again. And yes, it would be

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Speaker 1: nice in some ways if he did that posthumously and

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Speaker 1: if he made Rose eligible for the Hall of Fame.

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Speaker 1: But it seems to me baseball has drawn a line

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Speaker 1: in the sand tier. We can argue it either way,

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Speaker 1: but the bottom line is I do not expect Rob

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Speaker 1: Manfred to change his mind. Now if he did, how

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Speaker 1: would Rose get into the Hall of Fame if he

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Speaker 1: could at all? And that's an interesting question. And at

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Speaker 1: this point Rose would not be eligible on the writer's ballot.

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Speaker 1: He would have to go through one of the era's committees,

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Speaker 1: and he would likely be considered for the Classic Baseball Era.

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Speaker 1: That's for players, managers, umpires who made their biggest impact

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Speaker 1: before nineteen eighty that's when Pete Rose was Pete Rose, right.

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Speaker 1: So the eras committees they wrote on a three year basis,

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Speaker 1: and the Classic Era is being considered this winter, so

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Speaker 1: Rose would not be eligible again. This is if Manfred

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Speaker 1: approved his reinstatement, he would not be eligible until the

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Speaker 1: winter of twenty seven, twenty twenty seven for consideration for

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Speaker 1: the class of twenty twenty eight. And who knows if

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Speaker 1: one of the era's committees, the Classic Committee in this case,

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Speaker 1: if it was that would even approve Rose, would even

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Speaker 1: vote for him and induct him into the Hall of Fame.

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Speaker 1: None of this is known, so an interesting development, to

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Speaker 1: be sure, and you can certainly see the family saying, hey,

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Speaker 1: he has passed away, now let's go, let's honor him appropriately.

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Speaker 1: But again I don't expect the Commissioner to budge on this,

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Speaker 1: and remains to be seen whether he does. Finally, on Monday,

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Speaker 1: just this morning, it was announced by Major League Baseball

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Speaker 1: that the mass in dispute, the one hundred Years War

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Speaker 1: in Baseball, as I've often called it, Baseball's version of

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Speaker 1: the one hundred Years War, is finally over. Now. This

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Speaker 1: thing started in two thousand and five when the Nationals

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Speaker 1: moved to Washington, DC, and the former Commissioner Bud Selig,

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Speaker 1: cut a deal with the Orioles owner at the time,

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Speaker 1: Peter Angelos. It was quite a favorable deal for Angelos,

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Speaker 1: particularly with regard to TV rights. A network was formed,

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Speaker 1: the mid Atlantic Sports Network MASSON, and that network was

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Speaker 1: going to be one in which the Orioles had majority

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Speaker 1: control forever. And it started out, I believe, at ninety

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Speaker 1: percent and it was never going to go below sixty

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Speaker 1: six percent control for the Orioles. A number of lawsuits followed.

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Speaker 1: Oriols and Mason weren't paying the Nationals their appropriate rights fees.

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Speaker 1: This was going on for years and years, and that's

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Speaker 1: why I called it Baseball's version of the one hundred

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Speaker 1: Years War. Well, it's now over and the Nationals will

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Speaker 1: be on masson one more season twenty twenty five, and

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Speaker 1: then they will get the right finally to control their

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Speaker 1: own television rights. And of course that's a massive win

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Speaker 1: for them. Obviously a different television era with cord cutting

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Speaker 1: and everything that has gone on, but at least now

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Speaker 1: they will have control. And the real question here is

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Speaker 1: if this development has any effect on the owners of

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Speaker 1: the Nationals, the Learner family, and their decision to sell. Remember,

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Speaker 1: they've gone back and forth over the last several years.

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Speaker 1: We're selling, We're not selling, and it was widely believed

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Speaker 1: that they could not sell with this whole TV situation unresolved.

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Speaker 1: It was a thorn in their side in more ways

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Speaker 1: than one. In one way because Mason and the Orioles

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Speaker 1: owed the Nationals millions hundreds of millions of dollars, and

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Speaker 1: in another way because it would affect the long term

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Speaker 1: future of the Nationals. An owner coming in would not

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Speaker 1: know what the TV landscape look like now. Financial terms

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Speaker 1: of this deal today were not disclosed again, Mason and

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Speaker 1: the Oriols still owed the Nationals' money. I expect there

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Speaker 1: was some kind of settlement involved. But again, now the

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Speaker 1: question becomes, will the learners see this as an opportunity

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Speaker 1: and will prospective owners of the team be more inclined

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Speaker 1: to jump and purchase the Nationals. There's another element going

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Speaker 1: on with a number of these potential sales. The Twins

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Speaker 1: are for sale, We've had reports in the Athletic about

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Speaker 1: the White Sox, and of course there's the possibility with

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Speaker 1: the Nationals. With the labor uncertainty right now, with the

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Speaker 1: very real possibility of a lockout after the twenty twenty

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Speaker 1: six season, how willing would an owner be to come

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Speaker 1: in and say, yeah, I'll pay X billion for a

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Speaker 1: baseball team when you don't know what the landscape is

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Speaker 1: going to be, When you don't know if there's going

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Speaker 1: to be a salary cap or not, when you don't

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Speaker 1: know if the owners are going to be willing to

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Speaker 1: shut down the game to get a salary cap. So

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Speaker 1: it's an uncertain landscape, not just with the television rights

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Speaker 1: and a number of situations and the future in general

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Speaker 1: for baseball in that regard, but also the labor situation.

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Speaker 1: So we'll see what happens with the Nationals, We'll see

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Speaker 1: what happens with the White Sox, with the Twins. But

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Speaker 1: right now, if you're wanting to buy a team, you've

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Speaker 1: got a lot of questions. Time now for the Inside Dish,

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Speaker 1: the part of the show where I talk about maybe

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Speaker 1: a story I've written, maybe a trend in the game,

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Speaker 1: maybe something else entirely. And today I want to answer

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Speaker 1: a question that I believe Erik Kratz asked me last

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Speaker 1: week on Foul Territory, and he asked me how the

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Speaker 1: idea for my story last week about Austin Hedges came about.

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Speaker 1: Austin Hedges is a backup catcher. He's a guy with

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Speaker 1: a one eighty six career batting average. It's one of

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Speaker 1: the lowest for a person or player with two thousand

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Speaker 1: bats in Major League history. It's the second lowest, actually,

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Speaker 1: and the guy with the lowest played I don't know,

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Speaker 1: in nineteen ten something like that. So why write about

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Speaker 1: this guy? How did this all come about? It actually

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Speaker 1: came about in a conversation I had with the Guardian's

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Speaker 1: President of Baseball Operations, Chris Antonetti. And sometimes I will

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Speaker 1: do this. I asked at the start of spring training, Hey,

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Speaker 1: what would be something that maybe I could shed a

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Speaker 1: light on that there hasn't been much light on. What

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Speaker 1: do you think And he mentioned a couple of things,

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Speaker 1: and one of them was Austin Hedges. Now, Austin Hedges

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Speaker 1: is again a backup catcher. He's making four million dollars

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Speaker 1: this season, but I knew that he had been an

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Speaker 1: incredibly huge part of the Rangers clubhouse during their championship

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Speaker 1: run in twenty twenty three. The Rangers, if you remember,

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Speaker 1: acquired Hedges at the deadline that year with some more

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Speaker 1: prominent players Max Schurzer, Jordan Montgomery, and he became kind

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Speaker 1: of the glue of that room, and upon returning to

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Speaker 1: the Guardians the next year, was a big part of

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Speaker 1: what they did. And again, he is a guy who

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Speaker 1: doesn't play a whole lot. So I started asking different

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Speaker 1: people around about Austin Hedges started with the Rangers, and

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Speaker 1: they reminded me that in twenty twenty three he had

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Speaker 1: this practice in which he would walk into the hitters

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Speaker 1: meeting in a jockstrap with the number of wins needed

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Speaker 1: to win the World Series painted on his naked butt. Cheek. Well,

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Speaker 1: that was an interesting place to start, so I started there.

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Speaker 1: And I also had been told during the off season

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Speaker 1: that Kyle Roley, the Mariners catcher who won the Platinum

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Speaker 1: Glove last year for the American League, had credited Hedges

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Speaker 1: a lot with his improvement. So I just started asking

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Speaker 1: different people about Hedges. I don't know how many people

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Speaker 1: I talked to for this story, maybe ten fifteen, I

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Speaker 1: can't remember exactly, but it was a blast to do,

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Speaker 1: and it just kind of showed again to me the

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Speaker 1: value sometimes of just asking a question, Hey, who's interesting

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Speaker 1: on your team. Now, A lot of fans might look

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Speaker 1: at this and say, wait, a second, one eighty six

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Speaker 1: career hitter, why is he even employed? And I hope

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Speaker 1: that the story brought out why Austin Hedges is employed

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Speaker 1: and actually making a decent salary. One it's because of

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Speaker 1: the things he does to unite a clubhouse, to connect players.

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Speaker 1: He has a rare talent for doing that and the

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Speaker 1: other and this is no small thing. And actually this

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Speaker 1: is the main thing, is that he is one of

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Speaker 1: the great defensive catchers in our game today. He is

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Speaker 1: elite behind the plate, doesn't play a lot, but he

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Speaker 1: still contributes when he is playing, contributes in a way

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Speaker 1: to help the pitchers, doing meetings. He is a very

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Speaker 1: positive presence in the dugout. There are all kinds of

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Speaker 1: things and all kinds of ways that he contributes to

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Speaker 1: his team. So spring training is a great time, in

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Speaker 1: my opinion, to do stories like this, and I always

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Speaker 1: enjoy diving in. Once the season starts and things are

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Speaker 1: happening and the games are going on, I maybe won't

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Speaker 1: have as much time to dive in. Players mightn't have

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Speaker 1: as much time to talk about such things. And it

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Speaker 1: all goes back to approach too. In spring training. When

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Speaker 1: I go about this, I kind of wing it a

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Speaker 1: little bit and I'll just ask people as I go along,

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Speaker 1: what do you think about this? Is this an interesting

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Speaker 1: st story? Is that Jason Stark, who of course is

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Speaker 1: a Career Excellence winner from the Baseball Writers Association of

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Speaker 1: America and honored in the National Baseball Hall of Fame,

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Speaker 1: goes about it completely differently. He comes up with a

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Speaker 1: list of story ideas every spring and they are brilliant.

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Speaker 1: He'll have twenty to twenty five ideas. He'll share them

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Speaker 1: with me. We'll talk about them maybe, and Jason will

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Speaker 1: go about his spring that way. Now he'll branch off

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Speaker 1: at times to cover things that are happening, such as

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Speaker 1: on Sunday the Max schurz Er Trede Turner abs fiasco

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Speaker 1: or actually hilarity, i should say. And of course Jason

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Speaker 1: does an amazing job with whatever he writes. But I

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Speaker 1: take this a little bit more spontaneously. It's just the

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Speaker 1: way I've always done it. And it led to another

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Speaker 1: story that style, if you want to call it that,

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Speaker 1: that I wrote for Monday, and that was about Christian Campbell,

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Speaker 1: the Red Sox great prospect, great infield prospect, may end

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Speaker 1: up playing some outfield too. This was a story about

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Speaker 1: Christian Campbell and d Strange Gordon. Now Destrange Gordon is

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Speaker 1: now retired, but he's been a mentor for Christian Campbell.

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Speaker 1: And you can see the photo right there since Christian

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Speaker 1: Campbell was seven years old and they met at a

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Speaker 1: Walmart when Dee was in Chattanooga, Dodgers number one prospect

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Speaker 1: in twenty ten. And it was a really cool thing

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Speaker 1: just to dive into this and of course to write

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Speaker 1: about it as well. And this story came about just

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Speaker 1: from a conversation I had with Christian Campbell in Fort

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Speaker 1: Myers a couple of weeks ago, actually about a week ago,

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Speaker 1: and I asked him, who were your guys growing up?

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Speaker 1: Who are your favorite players? And he said, well, De

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Speaker 1: Strange Gordon has been a mentor of mine. So I

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Speaker 1: took it from there. So, if you're a young writer,

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Speaker 1: which would I advise which way to go about it? Well,

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Speaker 1: Jason is more organized, more structured, but sometimes you get

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Speaker 1: good stories. And Jason does this too, just talking to people,

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Speaker 1: just coming up with things on a spring day, a

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Speaker 1: spring morning in Fort Myers. So I hope you read

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Speaker 1: the Austin Hedges story. I hope you gain an understanding

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Speaker 1: for why he is so valuable. I hope you laugh

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Speaker 1: doing it. And I also hope you read the Christian

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Speaker 1: Campbell De Strange Gordon story, because that, to me was

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Speaker 1: just a really cool example of a player, Strange Gordon

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Speaker 1: paying it forward. Here's a guy who was a former

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Speaker 1: All Star and he is a mentor, not just a

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Speaker 1: Christian Campbell, but a number of young black players in

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Speaker 1: the game, and it's just something he does. And he

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Speaker 1: is now a farmer. He is one of the few

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Speaker 1: guys in the country running a black owned farm. It's

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Speaker 1: amazing that Strange Gordon is doing that. He told me

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Speaker 1: I was a little genius when I was a player.

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Speaker 1: I just wasn't letting you guys know it. Anyway. One

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Speaker 1: of the great personalities and one of the great people

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Speaker 1: in our game. De Strange Gordon and again, just a

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Speaker 1: lot of fun doing both those stories. Austin Hedges, Christian Campbell.

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Speaker 1: Time now for Grill and Ken. Let's get to your questions.

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Speaker 1: First question comes from Crochet Versai. I guess this is

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Speaker 1: a Red Sox fan or maybe a White Sox fan.

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Speaker 1: The person asked, do you think the White Sox will

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Speaker 1: deal Louise Robert at the deadline or should they keep

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Speaker 1: him and build around him for once? Good question. I

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Speaker 1: do expect that they are going to continue trying to

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Speaker 1: trade Luise Robert Jr. Now They need him to play.

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Speaker 1: They need to get on the field, rebuild his value.

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Speaker 1: They only have two years of control with Robert after this.

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Speaker 1: He's making fifteen million this year. Then they have a

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Speaker 1: pair of twenty million dollar club options. Each has to

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Speaker 1: be exercised individually, so they might say Luise Robert is

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Speaker 1: not part of our long term plan, even though two

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Speaker 1: years from now is not exactly nothing. They might just

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Speaker 1: figure if we can get something for him, a good

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Speaker 1: package that would better suit us to what we're trying

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Speaker 1: to do, which is collect as many young players as possible,

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Speaker 1: drafting them, trading for them, and then going forward. So

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Speaker 1: I would expect that the goal of the White Sox,

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Speaker 1: they're a private desire here, is for Luis Robert Junior

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Speaker 1: to stay on the field in the first half, have

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Speaker 1: a big first half, and then be the bell of

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Speaker 1: the ball at the trade deadline. Could happen. Problem is,

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Speaker 1: if he gets hurt again, then the White Socks are

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Speaker 1: back at square one with him. All right? Next question,

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Speaker 1: This one comes from d at klubby DS. Good afternoon, Canon, Love.

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Speaker 1: You're insight. If MLB allowed teams to trade regular draft

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Speaker 1: picks and not just compensatory picks. Do you believe this

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Speaker 1: would enhance off season and mid season deals akin to

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Speaker 1: the NFL, where you can only trade the current and

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Speaker 1: next season's picks. Thank you, a men, I do not

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Speaker 1: understand why baseball does not allow for the trading of

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Speaker 1: all draft picks. It would only make the off season

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Speaker 1: more fun. It would make the draft more fun and

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Speaker 1: much more interesting, and any time you are forcing clubs

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Speaker 1: to make decisions, make more decisions. It's good for the game,

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Speaker 1: and it's good for the game because it raises interest.

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Speaker 1: Trades raise interest. And I don't know why I have

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Speaker 1: never gotten a great answer why this is not allowed

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Speaker 1: in this sport. It should be allowed in this sport. Obviously,

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Speaker 1: it's something that needs to be collectively bargained. We all

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Speaker 1: understand that. But trading draft picks would again make everything

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Speaker 1: a lot more fun. I hope it happens one day

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Speaker 1: in the future. Next question. Final question comes from obscure

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Speaker 1: former Reds who asks where does Elie Delacruz finish in

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Speaker 1: the NL MVP race? Not a bad question because Elie

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Speaker 1: dela Cruz is certainly a player you can look at

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Speaker 1: and say, you know what, this guy might not win

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Speaker 1: an MVP in twenty twenty five, but he certainly is

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Speaker 1: capable of winning one in the future. Now, Ellie Delacruz

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Speaker 1: had one problem in his game last year, a significant

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Speaker 1: problem that was holding him back offensively, and it was strikeouts.

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Speaker 1: Led the Majors with two hundred and eighteen strikeouts, finish

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Speaker 1: with a three point thirty nine on base percentage. So

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Speaker 1: let's say Dela Cruz cuts his strikeouts down from to

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Speaker 1: eighteen to one fifty something like that, his on base

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Speaker 1: percentage likely would go up. He's making more contact and

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Speaker 1: in that case, he becomes that much more dynamic a player.

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Speaker 1: He also led the majors with sixty seven stolen bases

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Speaker 1: last year at a number of caught stealings. But he

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Speaker 1: is someone who is capable of high on base, high power,

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Speaker 1: high slugging percentage, and of course stealing a ton of

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Speaker 1: bases while playing defense at an up the middle position,

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Speaker 1: and he's getting better at shortstop all the time. Red's

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Speaker 1: people love Ellie Delacruz. They say he's a worker. They say,

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Speaker 1: as it's head on straight, and certainly he's given every

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Speaker 1: indication of that. So an up the middle player with

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Speaker 1: his kind of offensive potential, yes, he could be an

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Speaker 1: MVP candidate every year. Thank you for watching and for listening.

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Speaker 1: Rate the show five star reviews. Wherever you get your podcast,

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Speaker 1: and bring your grilling keen questions. I'll answer the best

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Speaker 1: ones during the Thursday show and we'll be back Thursday

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Speaker 1: at ten thirty am Eastern. Join me and Elanaizzo. Have

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Speaker 1: a great week. Everyone,