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Speaker 1: Earning their stripes on the fifth Stripes podcast channel, talking

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Speaker 1: all things about the Miami Marlins minor leagues. I'm Eli

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Speaker 1: Susman this episode a very special guest, JJ Cooper of

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Speaker 1: Baseball America. I've been in correspondence with him for a while.

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Speaker 1: I've been subscribing to his stuff for several years now.

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Speaker 1: JJ has been with BA for almost two decades and

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Speaker 1: very recently got the title change to editor in chief.

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Speaker 1: He and his staff provided extensive coverage all things baseball,

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Speaker 1: all levels of baseball, including all important contexts about the Marlins,

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Speaker 1: their prospects, how they compare to one another, how their

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Speaker 1: farm system compares to the rest of baseball as a whole.

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Speaker 1: So much grounds to cover with JJ as we begin, Wow,

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Speaker 1: all of a sudden, the final month of this twenty

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Speaker 1: twenty one minor league season. So we appreciate you coming

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Speaker 1: on with us.

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Speaker 2: Glad to be here, And man, isn't it crazy to

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Speaker 2: say that this is the final month of the minor

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Speaker 2: league season. It always flies by. It does feel like

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Speaker 2: though it's flown by more this year, but that's probably

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Speaker 2: because we're so starved from it last year that to

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Speaker 2: have it here means it's flown by. I feel like

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Speaker 2: you'll take the entire offseason fully processed that we thankfully

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Speaker 2: have had minor league baseball back again this year.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, this year.

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Speaker 1: I guess you could say this about most organizations, but

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Speaker 1: with the Marlins, it really has been a very mixed

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Speaker 1: bag in terms of individual players and the organization as

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Speaker 1: a whole. So we're going to run through probably a

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Speaker 1: handful of individual guys, but then tackle some big picture

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Speaker 1: topics that I know you have some really well developed

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Speaker 1: ideas about and a lot of research put into. But

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Speaker 1: on the player side, one guy that really epitomizes being

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Speaker 1: a mixed bag would have to be like Tander Jake Eater,

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Speaker 1: someone that fell one hundred picks into the draft in

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Speaker 1: twenty twenty all the way to the fourth rounds, and

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Speaker 1: we're gonna start with the good and then the bad.

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Speaker 1: The good is just everything he did on the mounds

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Speaker 1: before suffering an injury, where I think at this moment

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Speaker 1: on your BA top one hundred, he is pretty comfortably

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Speaker 1: in the top one hundred. He's right around sixty seven overall.

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Speaker 1: He had twelve strikeouts in his minor league debut and

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Speaker 1: he pretty much dominated from there. Despite the aggressive assignment

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Speaker 1: to double A. He gets selected to the futures game.

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Speaker 1: What are your general thoughts about how he performed on

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Speaker 1: the mounds. Because he came from a big school and Vanderbilt,

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Speaker 1: he wasn't under the radar in that standpoint, But it

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Speaker 1: seems that he exceeded everybody's expectations when we actually got

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Speaker 1: to see him.

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Speaker 2: Pitch a great pick by the Marlins. Great job by

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Speaker 2: him get to the bad coming up. If it hadn't

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Speaker 2: been for that, if it hadn't been for the bad,

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Speaker 2: I'm not sure that we wouldn't in the off season

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Speaker 2: have lipped Meyer and Eater. We have gotten a lot

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Speaker 2: of scouts who have seen I mean, the great thing

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Speaker 2: about him is they're on the mound, same team. So

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Speaker 2: a lot of scouts who've seen both Eater and Meyer,

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Speaker 2: and we weren't ready to at the mid season flip them.

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Speaker 2: But I would say more often than not, scouts who

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Speaker 2: saw both Eater and Meyer, and they know that Meyer

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Speaker 2: where Meyer went in last year's draft, they know where

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Speaker 2: Eater went, But they say, if you look at these

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Speaker 2: two players, and a pro scout's job is to evaluate

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Speaker 2: them not based on reputation, but based on what they see,

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Speaker 2: and they would say, I want Eater. He's the guy

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Speaker 2: I wanted these two. Not that I don't like both

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Speaker 2: of them, but I probably more often than not, we've

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Speaker 2: got hearing guys say I like Eater more than Meyer.

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Speaker 2: He did come for Vandy. But the thing I would

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Speaker 2: also stay with coming from Vandy is is we do

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Speaker 2: see this happen. The good news bad news of going

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Speaker 2: to a pitching factory like Vanderbilt World is is that

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Speaker 2: there's only one guy on that team who's gonna be

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Speaker 2: the Friday starter. There's only another whos going to be

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Speaker 2: the Saturday And often what you will end up seeing

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Speaker 2: is is you will see Vany will often have pictures taken,

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Speaker 2: usually in the later you know, not in the first round, second,

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Speaker 2: but the other guys picked a little bit later on,

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Speaker 2: who are prominent guys coming out of high school, but

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Speaker 2: they just got buried a little bit because there's only

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Speaker 2: so many innings to go around. I think when you

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Speaker 2: look at Jake Eater, and again he wasn't buried. It

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Speaker 2: wasn't like he never pitched at Vandy. But I do

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Speaker 2: think you could say very easily that that's the case

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Speaker 2: with Eater. The advantage of pro ball is, for one,

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Speaker 2: they have more innings to spread around, and for two,

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Speaker 2: they're going to give them to you, no matter whether

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Speaker 2: in case of the development guys, they'll give them to you,

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Speaker 2: whether you're gonna succeed or not, they're going to keep

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Speaker 2: giving you the ball. Eater obviously ran with it. I

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Speaker 2: do think if you go back, you mentioned there's a

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Speaker 2: very aggressive assignment. We did not see other non first

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Speaker 2: round picks sent straight to double A. Obviously, the Marlins

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Speaker 2: saw from moment one, this guy's better than what you

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Speaker 2: would think considering what draft round he went in, and

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Speaker 2: he lived up to every bit of those expectations and

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Speaker 2: really was unfortunately as now was, but really was what

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Speaker 2: a debut year.

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Speaker 4: Eaters two two, and the set and the two to

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Speaker 4: two offering is tipped. But into the mid of Chavez

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Speaker 4: they can't am the one two pinch and Mitchell hacks

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Speaker 4: it one up around his eyes and swinks out swinging right.

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Speaker 1: So now we go to what people think now that

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Speaker 1: he is set to undergo Tommy John surgery potentially in

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Speaker 1: the coming days. Regardless, at this point, you know it

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Speaker 1: ends his season this year, and it's certainly going to

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Speaker 1: keep him out all of the twenty twenty two minor

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Speaker 1: League season as well, for a guy that was in

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Speaker 1: college and even a tad bit old, I think for

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Speaker 1: a college junior in his draft class, how does that

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Speaker 1: impact how you rank him as a top one hundred

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Speaker 1: prospect as Marlin's top thirty prospect. Because you've been in

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Speaker 1: this game now for a while where even Tommy John

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Speaker 1: surgery maybe it doesn't mean exactly what it means now

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Speaker 1: what it used to. How do you process that and

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Speaker 1: how do you like bake that into the equation of

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Speaker 1: what the expectations are for him moving forward once he

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Speaker 1: gets healthy.

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Speaker 2: We do BA grades, we do which is ceiling and

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Speaker 2: then risk. What the ceiling for j Keeter does not

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Speaker 2: change with this, He still could be the guy who

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Speaker 2: was pre elbow injury. The risk goes up, though, and

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Speaker 2: we say that, it's like, well why does the risk

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Speaker 2: go up? Well? For two, the great news is is

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Speaker 2: that Tommy John surgery now does have a quite a

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Speaker 2: high success rate. It's not one hundred percent, you know,

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Speaker 2: by any means, But at the same time, it's if

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Speaker 2: you look at different medical literature, different studies on it.

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Speaker 2: I think we're looking at eighty five to ninety percent

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Speaker 2: returning to form as they had for the surgery. And

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Speaker 2: especially when you talk a player of Eater's age, it's

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Speaker 2: a little different. If you're talking about if you're talking

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Speaker 2: about a Tommy John's second Tommy John at age thirty two,

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Speaker 2: maybe it's a little different story. But in his case,

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Speaker 2: the prognosis that he will come all the way back

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Speaker 2: is quite good, and I would say, you're right. He's

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Speaker 2: gonna miss the rest of this year. He likely misses

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Speaker 2: all of next year, although part of that is just

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Speaker 2: the timing of when the injury happened. He would be

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Speaker 2: if you said you're going to put him on a

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Speaker 2: twelve month cycle to return, you would then be saying,

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Speaker 2: are we going to ramp you up so that you

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Speaker 2: can pitch instructs or AFL, because that's what you'd be

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Speaker 2: talking about. You've seen it happen occasionally, but a lot

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Speaker 2: of times what teams will say in that case is no,

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Speaker 2: what we're going to do is we're going to plan

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Speaker 2: to have you one hundred percent come February, come the

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Speaker 2: start of spring training. That way, you'll have at that

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Speaker 2: point a seventeen sixteen, seventeen month recovery that puts you

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Speaker 2: in great shape for twenty it's hard to believe, but

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Speaker 2: for twenty twenty three. So but the thing about it is,

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Speaker 2: like you said, he went to Double A really fast.

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Speaker 2: He got into almost a full double a season before

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Speaker 2: the injury. He got to pitch in the futures game.

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Speaker 2: The good news is, again there's not good news about

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Speaker 2: having Tommy Johns, but he's already sped up his cycle

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Speaker 2: compared to most players, most of the contemporaries of that

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Speaker 2: his draft class. So if he comes back and then

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Speaker 2: they say we're going to send you to Triple A

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Speaker 2: to start the twenty twenty three season, well that's still

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Speaker 2: a pretty fast mover for a twenty twenty draft pick.

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Speaker 2: So I don't think it hurts him too much. He's

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Speaker 2: I don't think it's going to knock him out of

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Speaker 2: our top one hundred when we do this again. But

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Speaker 2: all that to be said, it does mean I think

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Speaker 2: that we'll probably have Max Meyer ahead of him in

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Speaker 2: the offseason, and I really thought that we might end

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Speaker 2: up flipping those two guys. Not that Meyer's a bad

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Speaker 2: year either, but just how good Eater has been this year,

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Speaker 2: and again how he's done. It really hasn't Russ.

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Speaker 1: Peeder even we're just started with Jake Eater, but literally

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Speaker 1: any other player that you want JJ's thoughts on go

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Speaker 1: ahead before we get into the bigger picture stuff.

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Speaker 5: So I'm gonna stick in Pensacola because I think this

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Speaker 5: is the most interesting roster by far in the entire organization.

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Speaker 5: Stick with Vanderbilt as well. I think you know where

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Speaker 5: I'm going with this, JJ Bleday, Right, So number four

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Speaker 5: overall pick in twenty nineteen has a pretty good start

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Speaker 5: considering the aggressive, you know placement in High A. I

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Speaker 5: think he has like one hundred and seven way to

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Speaker 5: run stream plus in like fifty something games or maybe

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Speaker 5: even at bats, I can't remember, but you know they

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Speaker 5: go right to Hia with him after college. Missus All

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Speaker 5: twenty twenty has a good spring training, looks really good

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Speaker 5: spring training. Maddalie's very high on the guy comes into

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Speaker 5: double A. Obviously hasn't had a great year. I know

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Speaker 5: you guys have dropped him down the list a bunch,

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Speaker 5: and rightfully so right it's been a really tough year

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Speaker 5: for him. But has he done enough? There's been flashes,

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Speaker 5: there's been streaks. Has he done enough? Do you think

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Speaker 5: where he gets another shot in twenty twenty two to

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Speaker 5: reconvince you guys that he's the guy he was coming

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Speaker 5: out of Vanderbilt.

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Speaker 2: Sure, I mean again, there are players who take a while.

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Speaker 2: But at the same time, I don't have a way

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Speaker 2: to describe the season that's not concerning because well, you

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Speaker 2: said it's an aggressive assignment, but there are a whole

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Speaker 2: lot of players. Again, to just take an example, when

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Speaker 2: you look at Okay, well where's Riley Green. Now Riley

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Speaker 2: Green's in Triple A. Well where's Riley Green come out

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Speaker 2: of came out of high school? Okay, where's Bobby whitson

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Speaker 2: High A? You know, you've got younger guys than him

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Speaker 2: who are now further up the minor league ladder. And

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Speaker 2: this season is concerning his twenty nineteen season, I would

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Speaker 2: describe it as perfectly fine. But the concern that came

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Speaker 2: out of that was he didn't hit for a lot

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Speaker 2: of impact, which, again, for a guy coming out of

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Speaker 2: Vanderbilt like this is not a player for whom High

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Speaker 2: A should be an overwhelming assignment. Admittedly, the Florida State

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Speaker 2: League is not a fun place to hit. Playing in

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Speaker 2: the Florida State League in general is not particularly fun.

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Speaker 2: You're not playing in front of a whole lot of fans,

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Speaker 2: and the humidity can be kind of wearing it. All

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Speaker 2: those things at the end of a long season, Okay,

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Speaker 2: you give him a pass on that. Twenty twenty is

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Speaker 2: twenty twenty. You know it affected everybody, but to be

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Speaker 2: sitting here at the end of the season, and I

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Speaker 2: will put it this way, like again, we kept in

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Speaker 2: our mid season if I remember correctly, we kept him

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Speaker 2: ahead of Peyton Burdick Peyton. I don't think that that's

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Speaker 2: going to be the case when we do our off

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Speaker 2: season list and when you say, okay, well why is that,

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Speaker 2: well Verdick, that team is fascinating and I do want

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Speaker 2: to dive into it at some point too. The numbers

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Speaker 2: just see like, is there a batting average suppression that's

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Speaker 2: coming that's going on in because there's a lot of

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Speaker 2: guys who are posting kind of low batting averages but

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Speaker 2: solid obps, solid slugging percentages for that team. But that said,

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Speaker 2: Bladet's you know, Bladet's not providing the power generally as

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Speaker 2: much as Verdick, as much as co nine, as much

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Speaker 2: as other guys on that team, and again, this should

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Speaker 2: have been the guy for whom you don't have a

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Speaker 2: lot of explanations of, oh, well, he's just not ready

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Speaker 2: for that level. He needs to return to that level. Again,

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Speaker 2: he was playing high level SEC baseball for multiple years

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Speaker 2: and this should not Maybe this is unfair, but there

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Speaker 2: is the back of the mind of like, Okay, we

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Speaker 2: have seen some other prominent van the outfielders who kind

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Speaker 2: of have gone to pro ball and had some troubles.

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Speaker 2: I look at it right now at the end of

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Speaker 2: this season, you would I think it's fair to say

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Speaker 2: there are more concerns about Bladet than much more concerns

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Speaker 2: than there were coming into the year. Doesn't mean he

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Speaker 2: can't go out next year. I think that the offseason

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Speaker 2: is going to be very important for him because we

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Speaker 2: do see nowadays. If this was twenty years ago, you

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Speaker 2: kind of say this probably is who he is. It

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Speaker 2: was it was really hard back then. Maybe you found

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Speaker 2: the hitting guru who helped you kind of fix some

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Speaker 2: of issues and all. But now you do see players.

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Speaker 2: To just give an example, I mentioned Bobby wit junior. Okay,

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Speaker 2: in twenty nineteen, two of you know, two other Royals

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Speaker 2: top prospects MJ. Melendez and Nick Prato both hit under

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Speaker 2: two hundred at High A. Both were terrible both. I

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Speaker 2: mean MJ. Melendez had more strikeouts than his batting average,

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Speaker 2: like again as batting average, but still it's really hard

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Speaker 2: to have more strikeouts than what your batting average was

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Speaker 2: at the end of the year. Here he is this year.

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Speaker 2: He may end up he's in the minors in home runs.

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Speaker 2: He's made it a triple A. You can see guys

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Speaker 2: retool themselves more so nowadays, I think than you used to.

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Speaker 2: But I do think that Bleday is going to have

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Speaker 2: to kind of do some real self examination, look at

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Speaker 2: it and say, Okay, why is it not working for

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Speaker 2: me this year? What is it that I'm getting consistently

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Speaker 2: beat on? And how am I going to fix that?

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Speaker 2: Because this is not a good year. I don't. I mean,

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Speaker 2: it's I think we can all agree on that.

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Speaker 5: Is there any positives you can take away from it?

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Speaker 5: Obviously he's still his discipline numbers look pretty good. But

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Speaker 5: is there anything you look at it and you're like, Okay,

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Speaker 5: this is something to build on for next season.

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Speaker 2: You said that like that. Normally, if you said a

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Speaker 2: top prospect like JJ Bleday is hitting under two hundred.

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Speaker 2: You would start it by saying, okay, well, strikeouts are

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Speaker 2: really the problem, and that's not I hope, and again

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Speaker 2: we root for prospects to succeed. He has a two

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Speaker 2: thirty four babbit this year. Now, now, I don't want

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Speaker 2: to make minor league babbitb I don't think is just

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Speaker 2: a function of variables of luck and all. I mean,

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Speaker 2: you see it. We see it time and time again,

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Speaker 2: especially at the lower levels of miners. But in the

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Speaker 2: miners there are guys who post high babbitts and you

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Speaker 2: say why it, because, well, they hit the ball hard.

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Speaker 2: And by the way, defense in the miners isn't as

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Speaker 2: good as the majors, so hitting the ball hard, even

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Speaker 2: if you hit the ball hard at people, can result

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Speaker 2: in higher babbages in the miners. Especially that said, one

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Speaker 2: would think, okay, if two thirty four turned into two

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Speaker 2: eighty next year, well, all of a sudden, we're talking

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Speaker 2: about the difference between JAYJ. Blde fighting with the Mendoza

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Speaker 2: line and being a guy who's hitting two fifty. If

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Speaker 2: he was hitting two fifty this year, it still wouldn't

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Speaker 2: be a great year. You'd say, okay, so two fifty three,

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Speaker 2: forty four hundred, you go, we're kind of expecting more

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Speaker 2: than that, but we wouldn't be talking about it as in, Okay,

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Speaker 2: that's one of the worst years we're seeing of the

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Speaker 2: twenty nineteen first round class, so it would be a

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Speaker 2: better version of what we're talking about. But I do

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Speaker 2: think you're gonna have to see him figure out a

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Speaker 2: way keep the again, the strikeout right, the walk right,

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Speaker 2: those are the two things that are good. But just

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Speaker 2: hit the ball more consistently with impact, because that's what

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Speaker 2: he has to do. I mean again, that's I don't

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Speaker 2: care how good your defense is. If you're an outfielder,

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Speaker 2: you have to hit the ball with some impact. Especially

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Speaker 2: in twenty twenty one.

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Speaker 1: He was one of those guys where when I saw

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Speaker 1: him on your mid season rankings, that one made me

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Speaker 1: raise an.

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Speaker 3: Eyebrow that you were a little low on him.

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Speaker 1: The only one that made me really scratch my head

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Speaker 1: was Jose Salas the short step eighteen years old, who

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Speaker 1: at the time was still playing in the Complex League,

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Speaker 1: and almost right after the mid season update, he got

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Speaker 1: promoted to Loway where he's kind of holding his own.

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Speaker 1: He has that big pedigree himself where he was a

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Speaker 1: three million dollar player as an international assignee. He's got

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Speaker 1: a great pedigree as in a baseball family, and the

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Speaker 1: production in the Complex League, especially for his age, was

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Speaker 1: pretty incredible. Actually, if I do remember correctly, I think

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Speaker 1: he was number twenty five on your mid season list.

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Speaker 1: If you look at across the industry, I think just

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Speaker 1: not everybody else would have him somewhere in the top fifteen,

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Speaker 1: if not even higher. Could you just explain what was

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Speaker 1: holding you guys back from putting him higher at that point.

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Speaker 2: I think one of it is is that I would

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Speaker 2: say that again, I do like it's funny. Again, we

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Speaker 2: got slammed to buy a lot of people on Twitter

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Speaker 2: about where we ranked the Marlins as far as on

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Speaker 2: or towering. I do like the Marlins' depth. Like again,

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Speaker 2: I would say that Solace has a higher upside than

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Speaker 2: a number of guys who were in the teams. That said,

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Speaker 2: most of those guys are in the teams are all

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Speaker 2: closer to the big leagues. I do think also it

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Speaker 2: is a function of there is a certain function. I

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Speaker 2: do believe he will move up in our offseason rankings

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Speaker 2: when we did this. He's had a great FCL debut

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Speaker 2: got moved up, and again I don't have any knock

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Speaker 2: against him. He's holding his own at LOWA, which at

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Speaker 2: his age is a very respectable I'm not expecting him

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Speaker 2: to splug four ninety five hundred at Lowa in that

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Speaker 2: league at that age. But there's another function, which is

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Speaker 2: we do this a little like we ended up rolling

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Speaker 2: them out in late July because we kind of got

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Speaker 2: overwhelmed with everything that was going on. But we'd start

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Speaker 2: this process in late June early July, and we try

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Speaker 2: to adjust it as kind of things are going along.

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Speaker 2: But at the same time, the teams that the list

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Speaker 2: that get done earliest, and Marlins were one of those

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Speaker 2: ones that got done earliest. At the point where these

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Speaker 2: rankings were put together, sawas I think, had like a

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Speaker 2: week to two of the FCL at that point, and

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Speaker 2: so we had like early, really good early returns. But

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Speaker 2: at the same time it was something where we will

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Speaker 2: have definitely more, you know, more a bigger resume of

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Speaker 2: his You're right though he had pedigree coming in all that.

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Speaker 2: But again, the other thing I'd say with that is

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Speaker 2: is like I think what I like about this Marlins

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Speaker 2: list the most is that we have guys like Verdict,

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Speaker 2: like Devers, like Conine in this kind of this mid

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Speaker 2: range of it. That's something that a lot of teams

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Speaker 2: don't have. That's that's the thing that I do love

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Speaker 2: about this Marlins list is I do think that there

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Speaker 2: is a lot more depth now than there used to be.

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Speaker 2: The thing that probably I would say big picture that

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Speaker 2: concerns me is is I just don't know. I wish

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Speaker 2: there were a couple more close to the major's bats

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Speaker 2: to go with the arms, Like we have some arms,

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Speaker 2: but we have arms that have in some cases some

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Speaker 2: injury issues kind of word through, and then we've got

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Speaker 2: bats that I love, some of the young ones. Again,

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Speaker 2: I'm a Khalil Watson guy, and the fact that the

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Speaker 2: Marlins got Khalil Watson where they did it actually makes

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Speaker 2: sense when you say, it's one of those things where

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Speaker 2: I think, Okay, when you understand the logic of the

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Speaker 2: MLB draft, the Marlins had money to spend, other teams

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Speaker 2: did not. It makes sense from that standpoint. That said,

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Speaker 2: if you'd have told me on draft day, the start

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Speaker 2: draft day, that Khalil Watson would be a Marlin, I

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Speaker 2: would have never probably believe that. But I do like Watson.

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Speaker 2: I'm like Mac. I just wish there were a couple more, again,

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Speaker 2: closer to the big league bats, who I felt really

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Speaker 2: confident about. That's the big picture, Like, Okay, if I

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Speaker 2: have a hesitation, it's that I wish I had that.

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Speaker 2: The flip side of it is, I think the depth

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Speaker 2: of this organization is really good.

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Speaker 3: So give us a guy like down lower in the

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Speaker 3: lower levels.

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Speaker 5: You're really high on some of the guys down there,

390
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Speaker 5: and the hitting numbers have been pretty good towards the

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Speaker 5: end of the season at a place like Jupiter, the

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Speaker 5: Florida Complex League.

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Speaker 3: Even Bloyd's getting a little better.

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Speaker 5: Give us a guy that some people might not be

395
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Speaker 5: focusing on that you are really high on down in

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Speaker 5: this Orland system.

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Speaker 2: I'm fascinated. So I'll ask you, guys, because you guys

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Speaker 2: watched the Marlins on a daily basis more than I do,

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Speaker 2: what is your initial impression of Brian de la Cruze.

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Speaker 1: We love him, man, we we love him. He's the

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Speaker 1: guy that we really did not know much about prior

402
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Speaker 1: to the trade. Of course, if you look at his

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Speaker 1: numbers now, he's hitting three fifty. That's what most people

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Speaker 1: think about. But just watching him. Actually what stands out

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Speaker 1: most is his defense at all three outfield spots, especially right.

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Speaker 2: He's really good. In his very first.

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Speaker 1: Marlins game, it was so he's been a gem. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: I'm sure Ethan Wickfield's kind of the same way.

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Speaker 5: Yeah, we have a guy on staff who also does

410
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Speaker 5: a lot of astro stuff, and so he knew about

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Speaker 5: De la Cruz and when he came over, he was like,

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Speaker 5: I don't think this guy can you know, really stick

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Speaker 5: in center field. Wasn't like super high on his defense,

414
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Speaker 5: and since he came over, he has been outstanding defensively.

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Speaker 5: I was at his first game, you know, the game

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Speaker 5: on the actual trade deadline, and he ran a ball

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Speaker 5: down and right center that and I.

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Speaker 3: Was like, wow, Like this kid can scoot out there.

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Speaker 5: And he hasn't disappointed since obviously a you know, a

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Speaker 5: babbit of like near five hundred is not going to

421
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Speaker 5: be sustainable. Yeah, it'll probably come down to earth a

422
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Speaker 5: little bit. But in the same one, you know, at

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Speaker 5: the same time, he just hits, he just puts the

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Speaker 5: wall in play. His strikeout numbers, I like thought he

425
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Speaker 5: was kind of a free swinger and a strikeout guy,

426
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Speaker 5: but it's not astronomical to strike out numbers, you know,

427
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Speaker 5: and the Marlins. It seems like every time a guy

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Speaker 5: comes up, you know, last year it was Jyzeus and

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Speaker 5: Leywin and Jazz and some of these other guys that

430
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Speaker 5: have come hasan Brinston obviously, you know, they strike out

431
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Speaker 5: over thirty percent nearly every time, and Jzeus isn't doing

432
00:22:55,640 --> 00:22:57,359
Speaker 5: that right now, and d la Cruz.

433
00:22:57,160 --> 00:22:59,600
Speaker 3: Isn't doing that right now either. So I think he's

434
00:22:59,640 --> 00:23:00,520
Speaker 3: been really impressive.

435
00:23:01,280 --> 00:23:04,080
Speaker 5: You know, there's a lot of like starter versus sports

436
00:23:04,080 --> 00:23:07,560
Speaker 5: outfielder talk that I haven't made up my mind on yet,

437
00:23:07,600 --> 00:23:10,560
Speaker 5: but it's been everything they could ask for so far.

438
00:23:10,680 --> 00:23:14,200
Speaker 2: Sure, that's why I'm kind of fascinating with him, because

439
00:23:14,480 --> 00:23:17,520
Speaker 2: we talked about it with Bladet right, like he's going

440
00:23:17,600 --> 00:23:20,000
Speaker 2: to need to take a step forward. I don't think

441
00:23:20,040 --> 00:23:23,320
Speaker 2: there's a question looking back at my notes, because again

442
00:23:23,359 --> 00:23:25,360
Speaker 2: I've done as our astros list on and off over

443
00:23:25,400 --> 00:23:27,720
Speaker 2: the years, and I've got notes on de la Cruz

444
00:23:27,760 --> 00:23:32,040
Speaker 2: going back to like seventeen. But this wasn't the guy

445
00:23:32,320 --> 00:23:35,440
Speaker 2: like this isn't he He is a guy who if

446
00:23:35,480 --> 00:23:40,680
Speaker 2: you said where he was in twenty nineteen going into

447
00:23:40,720 --> 00:23:45,399
Speaker 2: the pandemic, Like I felt like, Okay, he's fine. That

448
00:23:45,440 --> 00:23:48,439
Speaker 2: doesn't get anyone excited. This year you had him go

449
00:23:48,520 --> 00:23:53,360
Speaker 2: to Triple A and you worry, like, okay, how much

450
00:23:53,359 --> 00:23:55,840
Speaker 2: of that is? The Triple A ball is livelier than

451
00:23:55,880 --> 00:23:59,639
Speaker 2: the Double A ball he's playing, you know, in Triple

452
00:23:59,680 --> 00:24:02,000
Speaker 2: A well, which is what used to be the PCL.

453
00:24:02,240 --> 00:24:06,480
Speaker 2: So that all helps. But he's a better player. I mean,

454
00:24:06,520 --> 00:24:11,159
Speaker 2: he is a guy who clearly has gotten significantly better.

455
00:24:11,520 --> 00:24:14,080
Speaker 2: And the tought thing that we're all dealing with. You

456
00:24:14,119 --> 00:24:16,560
Speaker 2: all are dealing with it. We're dealing with it. Everyone

457
00:24:16,640 --> 00:24:19,280
Speaker 2: in this is dealing with it. Teams are dealing with it,

458
00:24:19,320 --> 00:24:25,800
Speaker 2: is okay, how much do you wait what you're seeing now?

459
00:24:26,320 --> 00:24:30,000
Speaker 2: Versus in Brian de la Cruz's case, we literally have

460
00:24:30,080 --> 00:24:33,000
Speaker 2: a resume that goes back to twenty fourteen. This guy

461
00:24:33,200 --> 00:24:36,200
Speaker 2: was effectively I love the Rule five draft. This guy

462
00:24:36,240 --> 00:24:40,359
Speaker 2: was free talent who was available, you know, for a

463
00:24:40,440 --> 00:24:45,760
Speaker 2: long time, and no, not just he wasn't picked. He

464
00:24:45,920 --> 00:24:48,600
Speaker 2: wasn't like if you looked at last year's Rule five draft,

465
00:24:48,680 --> 00:24:50,560
Speaker 2: it was like, how did Brian de la Cruz not

466
00:24:50,600 --> 00:24:53,240
Speaker 2: get picked? He was just a guy. I'm one of

467
00:24:53,280 --> 00:24:57,480
Speaker 2: the guys who's like, okay, you know whatever, and look

468
00:24:57,520 --> 00:25:00,040
Speaker 2: at him now, and you do say, okay, this this

469
00:25:00,119 --> 00:25:03,040
Speaker 2: is a player who I mean, like you said, it's

470
00:25:03,119 --> 00:25:08,000
Speaker 2: now fourth outfielder versus starter not Does he fit on

471
00:25:08,040 --> 00:25:08,800
Speaker 2: a team.

472
00:25:10,280 --> 00:25:10,800
Speaker 4: A three two?

473
00:25:11,960 --> 00:25:15,359
Speaker 6: Yeah? This one is shot out to the field, shows

474
00:25:15,440 --> 00:25:17,680
Speaker 6: the right shape.

475
00:25:17,680 --> 00:25:19,720
Speaker 3: He comes back a grand.

476
00:25:19,600 --> 00:25:25,520
Speaker 6: Slam hitch afder in one fall.

477
00:25:25,720 --> 00:25:27,000
Speaker 2: He goes team.

478
00:25:29,240 --> 00:25:33,160
Speaker 4: Well Den Cruise hands bounds the Power.

479
00:25:32,960 --> 00:25:40,560
Speaker 2: Show kudos because again, no one was saying it coming

480
00:25:40,720 --> 00:25:43,439
Speaker 2: into this year. Oh, I think that Brian de la

481
00:25:43,480 --> 00:25:46,040
Speaker 2: Cruz might be a starter or but I think at

482
00:25:46,119 --> 00:25:48,960
Speaker 2: worse he's a fourth outfitter. He wasn't a fourth outfitter.

483
00:25:49,000 --> 00:25:51,080
Speaker 2: If you said I think he's a fifth outfitter, it

484
00:25:51,119 --> 00:25:53,600
Speaker 2: had been when you really like Brian de la Cruz.

485
00:25:53,720 --> 00:25:55,920
Speaker 2: So I'm kind of fascinating to see how this goes

486
00:25:56,000 --> 00:25:58,560
Speaker 2: the rest of the year. But I do agree with you.

487
00:25:58,760 --> 00:26:01,520
Speaker 2: I think that he keeps it. Seeing the reports I

488
00:26:01,640 --> 00:26:06,440
Speaker 2: had were fringe average defense and center good in the corners,

489
00:26:06,920 --> 00:26:08,600
Speaker 2: he seems like he's better than that too.

490
00:26:10,240 --> 00:26:13,480
Speaker 1: Where he with JJ Cooper from Baseball America And we'll

491
00:26:13,560 --> 00:26:16,359
Speaker 1: finish up on this with some big picture talk with

492
00:26:16,480 --> 00:26:21,280
Speaker 1: you touching on these players already. With Dela Cruz, he's

493
00:26:21,280 --> 00:26:23,840
Speaker 1: a guy obviously that was not in the organization until

494
00:26:24,000 --> 00:26:26,560
Speaker 1: a month ago they acquired him and he just kept

495
00:26:26,600 --> 00:26:28,800
Speaker 1: on hitting as he did in tripa A. We talked

496
00:26:28,840 --> 00:26:31,159
Speaker 1: about Bladet as being someone who's disappointing, a guy that

497
00:26:31,320 --> 00:26:34,639
Speaker 1: was drafted and developed by the organization. And you mentioned

498
00:26:34,640 --> 00:26:37,880
Speaker 1: it before how this organization there's a lot of there's

499
00:26:37,960 --> 00:26:40,960
Speaker 1: kind of a dearth of actual impact bats that seem

500
00:26:41,000 --> 00:26:44,840
Speaker 1: close to being ready for the majors. Concerned that a

501
00:26:44,840 --> 00:26:47,240
Speaker 1: lot of people have in the Marlins community is if

502
00:26:47,560 --> 00:26:51,440
Speaker 1: there's something wrong with the team's player developments, because you

503
00:26:51,560 --> 00:26:53,760
Speaker 1: know how strong they are on the pitching side, they

504
00:26:53,840 --> 00:26:56,800
Speaker 1: might be as good at anybody as like maximizing the

505
00:26:56,880 --> 00:26:59,800
Speaker 1: abilities and improving the players that they get, such as

506
00:27:00,200 --> 00:27:02,760
Speaker 1: Eater just as one example, and all the guys that

507
00:27:02,800 --> 00:27:04,639
Speaker 1: are breaking through to the majors this year. There are

508
00:27:04,800 --> 00:27:07,840
Speaker 1: so many success stories on the development side on the

509
00:27:07,880 --> 00:27:10,920
Speaker 1: pitching side, and it's almost the opposite on the hitting side.

510
00:27:11,440 --> 00:27:16,080
Speaker 1: In your vast amount of experience you know covering MLB

511
00:27:16,320 --> 00:27:20,080
Speaker 1: farm systems, is this something that's just cyclical? Is this

512
00:27:20,240 --> 00:27:24,239
Speaker 1: something that historically you just need to shake things up

513
00:27:24,960 --> 00:27:28,960
Speaker 1: staff wise, that there's just some disconnect between the way

514
00:27:29,040 --> 00:27:32,560
Speaker 1: that this organization develops pitchers but struggles just as much

515
00:27:32,840 --> 00:27:35,879
Speaker 1: on the offensive side. What is the solution to that?

516
00:27:38,160 --> 00:27:42,439
Speaker 2: That is a complex question and one that so okay,

517
00:27:43,280 --> 00:27:45,760
Speaker 2: it's one that often is difficult to have an easy

518
00:27:45,800 --> 00:27:52,920
Speaker 2: answer for because let's take Bladey right, Okay, let's assume

519
00:27:53,200 --> 00:27:56,000
Speaker 2: it never comes together for Bladay. Let's just assume that

520
00:27:56,080 --> 00:28:00,600
Speaker 2: for a moment, is that a scouting issue? Because is

521
00:28:00,720 --> 00:28:06,600
Speaker 2: that the scouting that the amateur scouting department misevaluated the player? Now,

522
00:28:06,640 --> 00:28:10,080
Speaker 2: I'll say this, if they did this, isn't that they

523
00:28:10,119 --> 00:28:13,960
Speaker 2: went They didn't go off the board when they said

524
00:28:14,000 --> 00:28:17,159
Speaker 2: we're taking JJ Bladey, JJ Bleday was not like a

525
00:28:17,320 --> 00:28:19,720
Speaker 2: shock pick where they took him. But that said, was

526
00:28:19,760 --> 00:28:23,040
Speaker 2: it a misevaluation where, you know what, in hindsight, we

527
00:28:23,080 --> 00:28:26,240
Speaker 2: should have seen these things in his swing, whatever it was, approach,

528
00:28:26,640 --> 00:28:28,399
Speaker 2: whatever it was. Maybe he didn't hit the ball as

529
00:28:28,440 --> 00:28:32,600
Speaker 2: hard as we thought, take your pick. Or is it

530
00:28:32,720 --> 00:28:39,600
Speaker 2: a development issue where the scouting department provided this potential

531
00:28:39,760 --> 00:28:45,600
Speaker 2: impact that and in whatever way the player development side

532
00:28:46,200 --> 00:28:50,680
Speaker 2: was not able to maximize his potential. Well, that's one

533
00:28:50,720 --> 00:28:54,320
Speaker 2: of those that I would say that right now if

534
00:28:54,400 --> 00:28:58,960
Speaker 2: you work in the Marlins organization and had access to

535
00:28:59,200 --> 00:29:03,400
Speaker 2: every report on bla day from before he was drafted

536
00:29:03,760 --> 00:29:06,400
Speaker 2: to now, I don't think it'd be easy to provide

537
00:29:06,400 --> 00:29:10,240
Speaker 2: an easy answer because I don't even think if you said,

538
00:29:10,360 --> 00:29:13,560
Speaker 2: if you pumped JJ Bleday full of truth serum at

539
00:29:13,600 --> 00:29:16,640
Speaker 2: this moment, that he would know the answer to be,

540
00:29:16,680 --> 00:29:19,280
Speaker 2: cause if he did, he'd say, Okay, this is what

541
00:29:19,360 --> 00:29:22,160
Speaker 2: I'm going to solve. Like clearly, when they asked me

542
00:29:22,240 --> 00:29:24,560
Speaker 2: to do this, I shouldn't have done that. Whatever it is.

543
00:29:25,120 --> 00:29:28,320
Speaker 2: But the funny thing about this is is like, Okay,

544
00:29:28,440 --> 00:29:31,440
Speaker 2: we can also flip this if we went back again.

545
00:29:31,600 --> 00:29:34,040
Speaker 2: Obviously there's been a lot of turnover in this organization,

546
00:29:34,360 --> 00:29:36,160
Speaker 2: but if we just went back a few years ago,

547
00:29:36,680 --> 00:29:38,400
Speaker 2: we could have said it kind of the other way

548
00:29:38,480 --> 00:29:41,760
Speaker 2: around in some ways, which would have been, hey, this

549
00:29:41,960 --> 00:29:45,120
Speaker 2: is a team. Why is it that they keep drafting

550
00:29:45,200 --> 00:29:48,640
Speaker 2: pictures who back up and get hurt? You know, we

551
00:29:49,040 --> 00:29:53,760
Speaker 2: had a time where I remember watching Tyler Kollak and

552
00:29:54,400 --> 00:29:57,280
Speaker 2: getting all excited in low A, like, Hey, here I'm

553
00:29:57,320 --> 00:29:59,960
Speaker 2: going to see one hundred to that's not a hundred

554
00:30:00,160 --> 00:30:05,080
Speaker 2: that's ninety one, ninety one, ninety two, you know, and

555
00:30:05,800 --> 00:30:09,240
Speaker 2: it was like what happened here? And and that was

556
00:30:09,440 --> 00:30:12,120
Speaker 2: come again, that's a while ago now because I'm old,

557
00:30:12,240 --> 00:30:15,920
Speaker 2: but that wasn't that many years ago where it seemed like, oh,

558
00:30:16,040 --> 00:30:20,760
Speaker 2: this team really struggles to develop pictures. And not long

559
00:30:20,840 --> 00:30:23,680
Speaker 2: after that, Braxton Garrett got her, and you know, it

560
00:30:23,880 --> 00:30:27,000
Speaker 2: just seemed like, whoh, this team drafts, press prep pictures,

561
00:30:27,000 --> 00:30:30,240
Speaker 2: but they can't develop them. Now Trevor Rodgers says, hey,

562
00:30:30,760 --> 00:30:33,320
Speaker 2: you know, we're really good at this, I mean, and

563
00:30:33,600 --> 00:30:36,640
Speaker 2: so it does seem like again, you so that would

564
00:30:36,680 --> 00:30:39,000
Speaker 2: seem to make the argument cyclical, but I don't think

565
00:30:39,000 --> 00:30:41,640
Speaker 2: it necessarily does make the argyment cyclical. It does make

566
00:30:41,680 --> 00:30:45,600
Speaker 2: the argument that there's been a regime change with the Marlins,

567
00:30:46,160 --> 00:30:48,440
Speaker 2: and credit to the Marlins, they've done a really good

568
00:30:48,520 --> 00:30:54,520
Speaker 2: job of developing these pictures now right now, if you

569
00:30:54,640 --> 00:30:57,000
Speaker 2: look at it, it would be hard to say, here

570
00:30:57,080 --> 00:31:01,400
Speaker 2: are the examples. Jesu Sanchez would maybe become. He could

571
00:31:01,520 --> 00:31:03,480
Speaker 2: become an example of a guy who's like, no, no, no,

572
00:31:03,800 --> 00:31:07,840
Speaker 2: look we can develop hitters because Hazu Sanchez, Yes, I

573
00:31:07,920 --> 00:31:10,560
Speaker 2: know he was originally a Ray, but when the Marlins

574
00:31:10,600 --> 00:31:14,480
Speaker 2: acquired him, in no way a finished product, in no way.

575
00:31:15,160 --> 00:31:18,000
Speaker 2: You know, if you acquire Vladimir Guerrero Junior and he

576
00:31:18,040 --> 00:31:20,280
Speaker 2: goes out and hit, you probably can't take credit for that.

577
00:31:20,680 --> 00:31:23,600
Speaker 2: The dude was hitting when he was twelve. You just

578
00:31:23,720 --> 00:31:26,640
Speaker 2: happened to you know, Yes, the great scouting, but that's

579
00:31:26,840 --> 00:31:29,320
Speaker 2: the development is he's always been great. Wonder Frank has

580
00:31:29,320 --> 00:31:33,760
Speaker 2: always been great. Hazu Sanchez was a flawed hitter. He

581
00:31:33,960 --> 00:31:37,320
Speaker 2: was a player who the highs were very high and

582
00:31:37,480 --> 00:31:40,800
Speaker 2: the lows were very low. And it does I've I've

583
00:31:40,840 --> 00:31:46,520
Speaker 2: watched more m ILBTV of you know, of that club

584
00:31:46,600 --> 00:31:48,680
Speaker 2: than I of the Trip like of Jacksonville than I

585
00:31:48,800 --> 00:31:52,400
Speaker 2: that I probably should this year, but he looks like

586
00:31:52,480 --> 00:31:54,920
Speaker 2: a better hitter to me this year when I watch him.

587
00:31:55,520 --> 00:31:58,640
Speaker 2: Doesn't mean he's not going to strike out. It doesn't

588
00:31:58,720 --> 00:32:01,200
Speaker 2: mean that it's not a little bit of all or nothing.

589
00:32:01,680 --> 00:32:04,920
Speaker 2: But that's a guy who made me give proof to Okay,

590
00:32:06,040 --> 00:32:08,880
Speaker 2: you know, this is an organization that is able to

591
00:32:08,880 --> 00:32:11,480
Speaker 2: develop hit or I do think there's a scouting and

592
00:32:11,760 --> 00:32:13,880
Speaker 2: development component to it though because some of the players

593
00:32:13,920 --> 00:32:17,160
Speaker 2: also you know, we could talk about the will banfields

594
00:32:17,160 --> 00:32:20,840
Speaker 2: and all of the world. Well, but that was kind

595
00:32:20,880 --> 00:32:23,960
Speaker 2: of when you acquired, when you draft him, you kind

596
00:32:24,040 --> 00:32:27,360
Speaker 2: of know that's that's the risk that you're talking about

597
00:32:27,360 --> 00:32:30,040
Speaker 2: in that situation. So there's been some players where I

598
00:32:30,080 --> 00:32:34,000
Speaker 2: would say, okay, JJ Blonay has not developed like it

599
00:32:34,160 --> 00:32:36,880
Speaker 2: was expected. And then there's been other players where you say,

600
00:32:37,360 --> 00:32:40,000
Speaker 2: you look at that, it was will Bamfield, Connor Scott

601
00:32:40,200 --> 00:32:42,920
Speaker 2: that draft and it hasn't really paid off a whole

602
00:32:42,960 --> 00:32:47,360
Speaker 2: lot yet. But that said, some of that was okay,

603
00:32:47,440 --> 00:32:50,200
Speaker 2: you knew you were taking risk, and that doesn't always work,

604
00:32:50,360 --> 00:32:53,360
Speaker 2: you know. And so Banfield was known more, as you know,

605
00:32:53,480 --> 00:32:55,200
Speaker 2: for his defense at the time than he was for

606
00:32:55,280 --> 00:32:58,760
Speaker 2: his bat, And so I don't have an easy answer

607
00:32:58,880 --> 00:33:02,560
Speaker 2: for it, but that said, it is something obviously worth

608
00:33:02,960 --> 00:33:06,760
Speaker 2: kind of monitoring. Is they need to have some hitting

609
00:33:06,800 --> 00:33:08,960
Speaker 2: success stories. The other one I'd say, though, is is

610
00:33:10,000 --> 00:33:12,160
Speaker 2: you know, it's it's fair to throw Jazz Chisholm in

611
00:33:12,200 --> 00:33:15,200
Speaker 2: that you know boat a little bit too. Again, that's

612
00:33:15,320 --> 00:33:19,760
Speaker 2: not a player who was a one, you know, perfect

613
00:33:19,880 --> 00:33:24,600
Speaker 2: hitter when acquired, and he has gotten better. So I

614
00:33:24,760 --> 00:33:27,400
Speaker 2: can't think of at least some examples of players who

615
00:33:27,600 --> 00:33:30,000
Speaker 2: have improved in the Marlins hitting development.

616
00:33:31,720 --> 00:33:34,240
Speaker 5: There's like three guys I want to ask you about

617
00:33:34,400 --> 00:33:36,080
Speaker 5: even I mean a million guys. I want to ask

618
00:33:36,120 --> 00:33:37,800
Speaker 5: about it in the system, of course, because I find

619
00:33:37,800 --> 00:33:39,720
Speaker 5: it's so interesting and there's so much depth.

620
00:33:40,040 --> 00:33:41,920
Speaker 3: But I think I'm going to group a few guys

621
00:33:41,960 --> 00:33:46,800
Speaker 3: here and just you take your pick. Verdic co nine Meisner.

622
00:33:49,840 --> 00:33:53,440
Speaker 2: So I'm a verdict guy. I was a verdict guy

623
00:33:53,520 --> 00:33:55,520
Speaker 2: coming out of the draft. I thought that that was

624
00:33:55,600 --> 00:33:58,840
Speaker 2: a really good pick. I'm glad to see that he's

625
00:33:58,920 --> 00:34:01,800
Speaker 2: basically turning out to kind of be the guy that

626
00:34:02,440 --> 00:34:08,160
Speaker 2: he had the potential to be. Again, these are It's

627
00:34:08,200 --> 00:34:09,719
Speaker 2: one of those things where when you take a guy

628
00:34:09,840 --> 00:34:12,000
Speaker 2: like Berdic, you don't expect that you're gonna get that

629
00:34:12,120 --> 00:34:14,399
Speaker 2: he's going to be that five to pool player who

630
00:34:14,520 --> 00:34:17,520
Speaker 2: hits for high average, gets on base and hits for power.

631
00:34:18,080 --> 00:34:19,799
Speaker 2: But I do think that he's gonna get on base

632
00:34:19,840 --> 00:34:23,359
Speaker 2: and hit for power at a solid clip, and that's enough.

633
00:34:23,800 --> 00:34:25,280
Speaker 2: That's enough to be a useful player.

634
00:34:25,840 --> 00:34:30,000
Speaker 6: Fifteen appearances in the minors. Now the pitch hammered out

635
00:34:30,080 --> 00:34:33,200
Speaker 6: to left, that is deep and that ball is gone.

636
00:34:36,160 --> 00:34:38,919
Speaker 6: Number twenty for Peyton Berneck. He is tied the blue

637
00:34:38,960 --> 00:34:41,920
Speaker 6: one who's franchise record for most dingers in a season.

638
00:34:42,840 --> 00:34:45,280
Speaker 2: It may be unfair of me that I still remain

639
00:34:45,400 --> 00:34:48,560
Speaker 2: a little bit more skeptical on Co nine, even though

640
00:34:49,400 --> 00:34:54,399
Speaker 2: I want to fully and utterly acknowledge it's a great year,

641
00:34:54,800 --> 00:35:00,359
Speaker 2: like it's a weird year. It's a weird great year. Like, okay,

642
00:35:00,480 --> 00:35:03,399
Speaker 2: we talk all or nothing. He's gonna win the minor

643
00:35:03,480 --> 00:35:06,480
Speaker 2: league home run ground and he may do it, like

644
00:35:06,600 --> 00:35:08,840
Speaker 2: if he has a good final month, he may do

645
00:35:08,960 --> 00:35:12,040
Speaker 2: it with forty He could flirt with forty homers. Well,

646
00:35:12,560 --> 00:35:15,040
Speaker 2: how do you say that forty homers isn't a great year?

647
00:35:15,520 --> 00:35:17,840
Speaker 2: And then you say, well, okay, so what do you

648
00:35:17,920 --> 00:35:20,000
Speaker 2: hit for average? When you did that? It's like you

649
00:35:20,080 --> 00:35:21,879
Speaker 2: don't want to talk about that part. Let's let's leave

650
00:35:21,920 --> 00:35:22,480
Speaker 2: that part out.

651
00:35:22,960 --> 00:35:24,759
Speaker 4: And I.

652
00:35:27,000 --> 00:35:30,360
Speaker 2: I don't think that that approach. I think he's going

653
00:35:30,440 --> 00:35:33,200
Speaker 2: to have to make improvements for that approach to play

654
00:35:33,680 --> 00:35:36,880
Speaker 2: in the majors. That said, put him in Triple A

655
00:35:38,000 --> 00:35:40,759
Speaker 2: next year to start the year or soon thereafter. Give

656
00:35:40,840 --> 00:35:44,120
Speaker 2: him the Triple A ball and just watch how many

657
00:35:44,160 --> 00:35:47,000
Speaker 2: homers he's gonna hit with that. But again, I am

658
00:35:47,080 --> 00:35:51,839
Speaker 2: a little skeptical because of that I'm not so my Again,

659
00:35:51,920 --> 00:35:54,600
Speaker 2: if you said which of these guys do I feel

660
00:35:54,680 --> 00:35:59,319
Speaker 2: most confident about, it's verdict to me, he's the guy

661
00:35:59,719 --> 00:36:02,399
Speaker 2: who who has a chance to be a more well

662
00:36:02,600 --> 00:36:07,800
Speaker 2: rounded player out of all these Meiser, I Miser's a

663
00:36:07,880 --> 00:36:12,360
Speaker 2: weird one, like Meiser, like going back, going back, Like

664
00:36:13,400 --> 00:36:18,400
Speaker 2: I can't think of a player who lost more money

665
00:36:18,520 --> 00:36:23,760
Speaker 2: in the draft, Like if the pandemic year had happened

666
00:36:23,800 --> 00:36:27,799
Speaker 2: a year earlier, Cameron Meisner would probably have made an

667
00:36:27,840 --> 00:36:31,920
Speaker 2: additional two million dollars because like he had that great

668
00:36:32,040 --> 00:36:34,799
Speaker 2: first month in twenty nineteen, and then he rolled into

669
00:36:34,880 --> 00:36:37,439
Speaker 2: conference play and it did not go nearly as well,

670
00:36:37,680 --> 00:36:39,919
Speaker 2: which again we obviously didn't have conference play in twenty twenty.

671
00:36:41,160 --> 00:36:43,480
Speaker 2: What he's done so far, I kind of look at

672
00:36:43,520 --> 00:36:47,640
Speaker 2: it and go, okay, it's not bad. You know, it's

673
00:36:47,680 --> 00:36:52,000
Speaker 2: not great. It gives me hope because again, there are

674
00:36:52,160 --> 00:36:55,239
Speaker 2: tools there. I mean, there are legitimate tools there. It's

675
00:36:55,320 --> 00:36:58,600
Speaker 2: always going to be do the skills catch up to

676
00:36:58,719 --> 00:37:02,239
Speaker 2: the tools? Say right now, the answer is not yet,

677
00:37:02,880 --> 00:37:07,160
Speaker 2: you know. But it's a different story to me, Like

678
00:37:07,280 --> 00:37:09,080
Speaker 2: I look at it and it's like, okay, you have

679
00:37:09,200 --> 00:37:14,279
Speaker 2: players who you say, okay, their skill level is already here,

680
00:37:14,880 --> 00:37:17,440
Speaker 2: but their tools are gonna limit them. And then you

681
00:37:17,520 --> 00:37:20,040
Speaker 2: have other players and you say their tools are here,

682
00:37:20,200 --> 00:37:23,560
Speaker 2: but their lack of baseball skills, that ability to turn

683
00:37:23,640 --> 00:37:26,600
Speaker 2: those tools into actual production has to catch up. And

684
00:37:26,680 --> 00:37:28,759
Speaker 2: then there's the guys you know again we talked about, like,

685
00:37:28,840 --> 00:37:31,120
Speaker 2: then there are the Wanders and all who you're like,

686
00:37:31,440 --> 00:37:33,080
Speaker 2: they have skills, they have tools, they have at all.

687
00:37:33,800 --> 00:37:37,239
Speaker 2: I'd rather have the guys who have tools and you

688
00:37:37,280 --> 00:37:40,440
Speaker 2: want to mix. But I feel more optimistic about a

689
00:37:40,480 --> 00:37:42,880
Speaker 2: guy like a Cameron Meisner, who I do feel like

690
00:37:43,040 --> 00:37:46,960
Speaker 2: has the tools to be a productive big leaguer. It's

691
00:37:47,120 --> 00:37:50,000
Speaker 2: just gonna take a lot of development work, and I

692
00:37:50,120 --> 00:37:52,560
Speaker 2: do think there's still a lot of development work kind

693
00:37:52,600 --> 00:37:56,600
Speaker 2: of to come again, but there are some secondary skills

694
00:37:56,640 --> 00:37:59,200
Speaker 2: there too. He's gonna draw some walks. I want to

695
00:37:59,200 --> 00:38:01,239
Speaker 2: see more power, but at the same time, it's not

696
00:38:01,320 --> 00:38:04,279
Speaker 2: like he's not hitting for any power. I just wish

697
00:38:04,360 --> 00:38:06,240
Speaker 2: I wish it was a little bit more like Peyton Burdick.

698
00:38:06,680 --> 00:38:10,160
Speaker 2: Like again, Burdick, I feel like is the slightly better version.

699
00:38:11,239 --> 00:38:14,120
Speaker 3: Eli is a huge verdict guy as well, So yes.

700
00:38:14,680 --> 00:38:17,480
Speaker 2: Now I'll ask you Burdick versus blood Ay, Which do

701
00:38:17,560 --> 00:38:18,160
Speaker 2: you prefer.

702
00:38:19,560 --> 00:38:23,879
Speaker 1: For the moments, I'm holding out on Blu Dayu being

703
00:38:24,320 --> 00:38:27,120
Speaker 1: just the promise of him being a more complete offensive

704
00:38:27,160 --> 00:38:28,959
Speaker 1: player if he is the guy that he was coming

705
00:38:29,040 --> 00:38:32,320
Speaker 1: into pro ball. But it's been a long season, and

706
00:38:32,440 --> 00:38:34,480
Speaker 1: the thing is both those guys have been fully healthy,

707
00:38:34,960 --> 00:38:37,840
Speaker 1: thank god, so they've gone so many reps and the

708
00:38:37,960 --> 00:38:40,800
Speaker 1: divide between them is pretty significant over all those reps.

709
00:38:41,719 --> 00:38:45,400
Speaker 1: I know you mentioned how BA is viewing that, and

710
00:38:45,520 --> 00:38:48,040
Speaker 1: I might come around to that once I really evaluated

711
00:38:48,160 --> 00:38:49,960
Speaker 1: once the season ends. But it's been a it's been

712
00:38:50,000 --> 00:38:52,520
Speaker 1: a big sample and it's really not been a contest

713
00:38:52,600 --> 00:38:56,120
Speaker 1: that Burdick is the one that's showing more and the

714
00:38:56,160 --> 00:38:58,040
Speaker 1: stats back it up. It but just by watching him,

715
00:38:58,080 --> 00:39:00,720
Speaker 1: there are things that Burdick does that are hard to describe,

716
00:39:00,800 --> 00:39:04,160
Speaker 1: that are just really make him a favorite.

717
00:39:03,760 --> 00:39:05,400
Speaker 3: Of a lot of people, myself included.

718
00:39:06,719 --> 00:39:10,560
Speaker 2: But that is a fascinating team. That is a I

719
00:39:10,680 --> 00:39:15,400
Speaker 2: was watching not long ago. I was watching Brendan McKay

720
00:39:15,600 --> 00:39:19,640
Speaker 2: make a rehab start, uh, and I remember that game.

721
00:39:20,280 --> 00:39:22,759
Speaker 2: They they did they they did not treat him well.

722
00:39:23,360 --> 00:39:25,960
Speaker 2: They were they treated him very poorly because it was

723
00:39:26,120 --> 00:39:28,399
Speaker 2: like that was the game where it was pretty much

724
00:39:28,840 --> 00:39:31,319
Speaker 2: if you were in that lineup and you didn't hit

725
00:39:31,360 --> 00:39:34,200
Speaker 2: a homer against Brendan McKay, you went home disappointed because

726
00:39:34,239 --> 00:39:36,440
Speaker 2: I want to say pretty much, I think it was.

727
00:39:38,280 --> 00:39:41,040
Speaker 3: I think and hit a home that day.

728
00:39:41,120 --> 00:39:43,560
Speaker 2: Yeah, and I want to say that that Burdicks was

729
00:39:43,600 --> 00:39:45,799
Speaker 2: the one that I both like. That was the one

730
00:39:45,880 --> 00:39:47,800
Speaker 2: that I was like, Okay, that was a really impressive

731
00:39:47,840 --> 00:39:52,279
Speaker 2: home or too. It was majestic. But again, that's a

732
00:39:52,400 --> 00:39:55,960
Speaker 2: fun team again. And Jacksonville has been you know, when

733
00:39:56,040 --> 00:39:57,960
Speaker 2: when Sanchez was there early in the year, Jacksonville was

734
00:39:58,000 --> 00:40:01,040
Speaker 2: a fun or when Cabrera and you know it is.

735
00:40:01,239 --> 00:40:05,800
Speaker 2: This is an interesting organization to watch right now in

736
00:40:05,880 --> 00:40:08,799
Speaker 2: the minor leagues, which it hasn't always been the case.

737
00:40:09,280 --> 00:40:12,560
Speaker 2: So yeah, it's been. It's definitely more enjoyable now than

738
00:40:12,600 --> 00:40:14,800
Speaker 2: it was a few years ago, where there was a

739
00:40:14,920 --> 00:40:17,359
Speaker 2: time where it was like, oh, not much to want.

740
00:40:17,600 --> 00:40:19,160
Speaker 2: You know, we again, they used to be you know,

741
00:40:19,200 --> 00:40:21,280
Speaker 2: we used to see them a lot, obviously Greensboro because

742
00:40:21,320 --> 00:40:23,600
Speaker 2: we were based not far from there, and there were

743
00:40:23,600 --> 00:40:27,120
Speaker 2: a couple of years there of Greensboro where I was like, whoo,

744
00:40:27,840 --> 00:40:29,800
Speaker 2: I gotta check to see who's coming in from the

745
00:40:29,840 --> 00:40:32,040
Speaker 2: other opposing team because there's not much to watch on

746
00:40:32,080 --> 00:40:32,879
Speaker 2: this Greensboro team.

747
00:40:33,080 --> 00:40:35,520
Speaker 3: Yeah, the name Tyler Kollach sent a chill down my

748
00:40:35,640 --> 00:40:37,800
Speaker 3: spine when you said that. It reminded me of some

749
00:40:38,040 --> 00:40:39,800
Speaker 3: much darker days in this organization.

750
00:40:40,040 --> 00:40:47,399
Speaker 2: So I remember, like, was it there was the oh,

751
00:40:47,600 --> 00:40:52,120
Speaker 2: there was the soft tossing like third rounder from California,

752
00:40:53,040 --> 00:40:55,640
Speaker 2: like not long after that also, and it was like

753
00:40:55,719 --> 00:40:58,520
Speaker 2: I just happened to let you know, like I was like, Okay,

754
00:40:58,600 --> 00:41:01,440
Speaker 2: if I see more eighty six eighty eight, you know

755
00:41:01,520 --> 00:41:04,759
Speaker 2: from this low a team, I will just frustrate me.

756
00:41:05,040 --> 00:41:07,480
Speaker 2: But you know, again, it has changed from that now,

757
00:41:07,600 --> 00:41:08,719
Speaker 2: it has definitely changed from that.

758
00:41:10,200 --> 00:41:12,680
Speaker 1: Leave just a few minutes left with JJ Cooper here,

759
00:41:12,920 --> 00:41:14,360
Speaker 1: and we wanted to get into something that I know

760
00:41:14,440 --> 00:41:18,839
Speaker 1: you're very passionate about minor league housing and you had

761
00:41:18,880 --> 00:41:21,200
Speaker 1: a very recent article, great timing that came out about

762
00:41:21,239 --> 00:41:23,759
Speaker 1: this and a solution about this. Just for anybody that

763
00:41:23,840 --> 00:41:25,840
Speaker 1: didn't read that article, he started it off with this

764
00:41:26,000 --> 00:41:29,239
Speaker 1: really great metaphor about how absurd it is that the

765
00:41:29,360 --> 00:41:33,000
Speaker 1: teams don't take responsibility for the player's expenses when it

766
00:41:33,040 --> 00:41:34,800
Speaker 1: comes to that. If you could just share what that

767
00:41:34,960 --> 00:41:38,920
Speaker 1: metaphor was about how this is so much different than

768
00:41:39,000 --> 00:41:41,600
Speaker 1: any other employer employee situation.

769
00:41:43,760 --> 00:41:45,640
Speaker 2: It's funny. After I wrote that, I was talking to

770
00:41:45,760 --> 00:41:48,399
Speaker 2: my brother who and he mentioned, He's like, I thought

771
00:41:48,480 --> 00:41:50,600
Speaker 2: that major league teams paid for the housing for about

772
00:41:50,640 --> 00:41:52,520
Speaker 2: no players, like so I didn't know that until I

773
00:41:52,560 --> 00:41:55,120
Speaker 2: read that story. I'm like, Okay, that's useful to remind

774
00:41:55,200 --> 00:41:58,360
Speaker 2: me that things that I think are common knowledge not

775
00:41:58,520 --> 00:42:02,840
Speaker 2: necessarily common knowledge. But the metaphor was just laying out like, Okay,

776
00:42:03,360 --> 00:42:08,520
Speaker 2: imagine that you're in a job and you don't know

777
00:42:08,800 --> 00:42:12,600
Speaker 2: where you'll be sent to work for a six month period,

778
00:42:13,200 --> 00:42:16,000
Speaker 2: but you find out the week before your gun is

779
00:42:16,040 --> 00:42:20,680
Speaker 2: supposed to be there, Okay, we're sending you to Beloit,

780
00:42:21,880 --> 00:42:24,560
Speaker 2: you know. And Okay, go to find a place in Beloit,

781
00:42:24,800 --> 00:42:27,600
Speaker 2: settle in and that's where you're gonna work this year,

782
00:42:27,840 --> 00:42:30,879
Speaker 2: and you'll work there until September. You say, okay, I'm

783
00:42:30,920 --> 00:42:33,880
Speaker 2: going to Beloit. And so you go to Beloit, you

784
00:42:34,000 --> 00:42:38,640
Speaker 2: find a place, you sign a lease, and you're doing

785
00:42:38,880 --> 00:42:41,080
Speaker 2: really well in your job. And then two months later

786
00:42:41,760 --> 00:42:46,439
Speaker 2: they say to you, hey, we we we we really

787
00:42:46,560 --> 00:42:47,560
Speaker 2: like what the work you're doing.

788
00:42:48,000 --> 00:42:48,640
Speaker 4: You're doing so.

789
00:42:48,760 --> 00:42:51,000
Speaker 2: Well, we're going to promote you, and we're promoting you

790
00:42:51,840 --> 00:42:55,040
Speaker 2: to Okay, let's just say Pensacola, Florida. And so you

791
00:42:55,120 --> 00:42:57,400
Speaker 2: go to Pensacola, Florida. Well, and you say, well, what

792
00:42:57,480 --> 00:43:01,080
Speaker 2: Aboutalisa hadn't beloyit. They're like, no, that's sure reponsibility. We're

793
00:43:01,120 --> 00:43:03,839
Speaker 2: moving you to Pensacola. But that least in Beloit. That's

794
00:43:04,200 --> 00:43:06,320
Speaker 2: that's you for you to deal with. So you go

795
00:43:06,400 --> 00:43:10,040
Speaker 2: to Pensacola, and again you have to find somewhere to live.

796
00:43:10,160 --> 00:43:13,000
Speaker 2: So you find someone to live there, and after you're

797
00:43:13,000 --> 00:43:16,640
Speaker 2: there a month, they say, uh, sorry, I don't know why,

798
00:43:16,760 --> 00:43:19,799
Speaker 2: but it's not really working out there. So now we're

799
00:43:19,840 --> 00:43:22,480
Speaker 2: gonna pick you up and move you again. And this

800
00:43:22,640 --> 00:43:27,839
Speaker 2: time we're gonna move you to San Bernardino, California. I'm

801
00:43:27,840 --> 00:43:30,320
Speaker 2: not gonna use the full Marvelins organization here because Jupiter

802
00:43:30,360 --> 00:43:32,320
Speaker 2: would not be the same. We're gonna move you across

803
00:43:32,360 --> 00:43:34,719
Speaker 2: the country. It's like, okay, And so you move again,

804
00:43:34,920 --> 00:43:38,879
Speaker 2: and again you're responsible for your housing. And by the way,

805
00:43:39,080 --> 00:43:41,799
Speaker 2: you're making five hundred or six hundred dollars a week

806
00:43:42,000 --> 00:43:45,600
Speaker 2: and you're responsible for your housing in pretty much any

807
00:43:45,719 --> 00:43:48,200
Speaker 2: other Again, I've had people say to me, well, there

808
00:43:48,280 --> 00:43:52,640
Speaker 2: are maybe a field here or there, but generally I

809
00:43:52,719 --> 00:43:57,720
Speaker 2: would say, that's not the way that corporate America generally works.

810
00:43:57,800 --> 00:43:59,800
Speaker 2: I know that in what we do at Baseball America.

811
00:44:00,239 --> 00:44:02,600
Speaker 2: If I asked someone to go cover spring training for

812
00:44:02,760 --> 00:44:05,360
Speaker 2: us and say we're going to keep you in Arizona

813
00:44:05,480 --> 00:44:07,080
Speaker 2: for the month, we don't say you just need to

814
00:44:07,080 --> 00:44:09,440
Speaker 2: find a place. And by the way, the two weeks later,

815
00:44:09,480 --> 00:44:11,400
Speaker 2: if we call you and say, hey, we need you

816
00:44:11,480 --> 00:44:14,000
Speaker 2: to be in Florida, by the way, you need responsible

817
00:44:14,040 --> 00:44:16,560
Speaker 2: for your place in Florida too. And it goes bigger

818
00:44:16,600 --> 00:44:18,560
Speaker 2: than that, though, because if you look at it, also

819
00:44:20,680 --> 00:44:24,520
Speaker 2: these players also there's no guarantee that they're even going

820
00:44:24,600 --> 00:44:28,800
Speaker 2: to be employed for six months. They're responsible for finding housing.

821
00:44:29,200 --> 00:44:31,200
Speaker 2: But you could go to one of these places and

822
00:44:31,280 --> 00:44:34,759
Speaker 2: a week later be told, hey, we're releasing you from

823
00:44:34,800 --> 00:44:38,600
Speaker 2: your contract because of poor performance, but by the way,

824
00:44:38,680 --> 00:44:41,400
Speaker 2: you're still responsible for your lease. I actually had a player,

825
00:44:41,440 --> 00:44:44,080
Speaker 2: Todd van Stiesel, who reached out to me and said

826
00:44:44,160 --> 00:44:47,160
Speaker 2: that's exactly what happened to me. I was signed by

827
00:44:47,239 --> 00:44:51,640
Speaker 2: a team, I went, I signed a lease, which basically

828
00:44:51,760 --> 00:44:53,839
Speaker 2: cost as much money for that first month of rent

829
00:44:53,880 --> 00:44:56,319
Speaker 2: as the paycheck I got from the team, and then

830
00:44:56,360 --> 00:44:58,839
Speaker 2: I was released the next week. And when I said, hey,

831
00:44:58,960 --> 00:45:01,880
Speaker 2: you guys released me, will you take over responsibility for

832
00:45:01,920 --> 00:45:05,720
Speaker 2: this rent, there's leaves. They said no. And my point

833
00:45:05,880 --> 00:45:07,400
Speaker 2: that I tried to make with all of this is

834
00:45:07,960 --> 00:45:11,839
Speaker 2: this is illogical to me. This is the logic here

835
00:45:12,560 --> 00:45:15,960
Speaker 2: is I mean, just trying to look at it from

836
00:45:16,760 --> 00:45:19,320
Speaker 2: an attempting to look at it from a logical perspective.

837
00:45:20,400 --> 00:45:24,520
Speaker 2: Each MLB team knows at every level they're going to

838
00:45:24,680 --> 00:45:30,440
Speaker 2: have thirty five to forty rooms that they will need

839
00:45:30,920 --> 00:45:34,000
Speaker 2: for the course of the season at LOWA, at hig A,

840
00:45:34,320 --> 00:45:37,480
Speaker 2: at Double A, at Triple A. Now the names of

841
00:45:37,640 --> 00:45:42,040
Speaker 2: the people, the actual people who will be filling those

842
00:45:42,200 --> 00:45:46,040
Speaker 2: thirty five to forty rooms may change a dozen times

843
00:45:46,120 --> 00:45:49,239
Speaker 2: over the course of the season, but it's still the

844
00:45:49,400 --> 00:45:51,840
Speaker 2: rosters are the rosters. You know that you're going to

845
00:45:51,880 --> 00:45:55,960
Speaker 2: have that many players. And on top of that, now

846
00:45:56,160 --> 00:45:59,640
Speaker 2: major league teams also know that they're going to be

847
00:46:00,280 --> 00:46:03,600
Speaker 2: in these they're going to have they have long lasting

848
00:46:03,719 --> 00:46:07,160
Speaker 2: relationships with these teams. The Marlins know that they are

849
00:46:07,239 --> 00:46:11,000
Speaker 2: going to be in Beloit until twenty thirty. They know

850
00:46:11,200 --> 00:46:13,280
Speaker 2: that they're going to be in Jacksonville. They have signed

851
00:46:13,360 --> 00:46:18,960
Speaker 2: ten year professional development licenses. So logically, to me, it

852
00:46:19,080 --> 00:46:22,360
Speaker 2: makes much more sense both for the welfare of the

853
00:46:22,440 --> 00:46:26,839
Speaker 2: player but also for the welfare of player development to say,

854
00:46:27,200 --> 00:46:29,719
Speaker 2: because we've seen players, and I've had players tell me

855
00:46:30,200 --> 00:46:34,320
Speaker 2: I lived in my car because of this, which or

856
00:46:34,800 --> 00:46:37,360
Speaker 2: temporarily I was in my car, or I lived in

857
00:46:37,440 --> 00:46:41,960
Speaker 2: the clubhouse. And we do know that rest is proper.

858
00:46:42,200 --> 00:46:46,560
Speaker 2: Sleep is an important part of player development, of athletic development.

859
00:46:47,320 --> 00:46:50,759
Speaker 2: And I can tell you confidently, I think you all

860
00:46:50,840 --> 00:46:53,879
Speaker 2: know too. Sleeping in your car is not the best

861
00:46:53,880 --> 00:46:56,880
Speaker 2: sleep that you're going to get. It makes sense to

862
00:46:57,000 --> 00:47:00,279
Speaker 2: say the MLB teams in twenty twenty one and say,

863
00:47:00,320 --> 00:47:06,160
Speaker 2: you know what, housing during the season is a team responsibility.

864
00:47:06,640 --> 00:47:09,040
Speaker 2: If we promote you from low A to high A,

865
00:47:09,480 --> 00:47:12,840
Speaker 2: when you show up at High A, we say that

866
00:47:12,960 --> 00:47:16,520
Speaker 2: player who moved out, you get his room. Here you go.

867
00:47:17,160 --> 00:47:21,080
Speaker 2: We're moving you down a level. That player who moved up,

868
00:47:21,120 --> 00:47:23,040
Speaker 2: who you discused us for police Joe on Matt Roads,

869
00:47:23,280 --> 00:47:26,640
Speaker 2: we gave you his room. Because again you're gonna need

870
00:47:27,800 --> 00:47:31,760
Speaker 2: thirty five rooms, you know, whether that's three bedroom apartments,

871
00:47:31,840 --> 00:47:36,000
Speaker 2: four bedroom apartments, one bedroom apartments, extended stay, hotel rooms,

872
00:47:36,080 --> 00:47:39,000
Speaker 2: whatever it is. But every team knows they're going to

873
00:47:39,080 --> 00:47:45,479
Speaker 2: need that, and teams have negotiating leverage to say, hey,

874
00:47:46,040 --> 00:47:51,680
Speaker 2: we want to sign a multi year contract with you apartment, complex, hotel,

875
00:47:51,840 --> 00:47:54,600
Speaker 2: whatever it is. And by the way, we're a billion

876
00:47:54,640 --> 00:47:58,880
Speaker 2: dollar corporate company, corporation. We're valued at a billion dollars

877
00:47:58,960 --> 00:48:01,120
Speaker 2: or more. You don't have to worry about whether you're

878
00:48:01,160 --> 00:48:03,400
Speaker 2: gonna you never have to go to court to collect

879
00:48:03,440 --> 00:48:06,279
Speaker 2: backrount on us. The flip side of that is also

880
00:48:06,360 --> 00:48:11,080
Speaker 2: another story shared with me was Jose Ramirez of Cleveland,

881
00:48:11,120 --> 00:48:15,120
Speaker 2: Indians when he got promoted to the big leagues in

882
00:48:15,960 --> 00:48:19,120
Speaker 2: was that seventeen. His name was the one on the

883
00:48:19,239 --> 00:48:23,560
Speaker 2: lease at Triple A. So he's gone. But again, other players,

884
00:48:23,920 --> 00:48:26,040
Speaker 2: you had to sublet it to fill it, right, they

885
00:48:26,080 --> 00:48:29,680
Speaker 2: didn't pay rent for September. Whose credit did that? Ding

886
00:48:30,120 --> 00:48:33,560
Speaker 2: Jose Ramirez is because again there's a lot of illegal

887
00:48:33,680 --> 00:48:36,759
Speaker 2: subletting going on in the minors, because that's what you

888
00:48:36,880 --> 00:48:38,640
Speaker 2: need to do as people go up and down. It

889
00:48:38,719 --> 00:48:41,719
Speaker 2: makes way more sense instead of some twenty year old,

890
00:48:41,800 --> 00:48:44,839
Speaker 2: twenty one to twenty three year old players credit being

891
00:48:45,080 --> 00:48:50,480
Speaker 2: damaged because some X teammate of theirs didn't pay the rent,

892
00:48:50,960 --> 00:48:54,720
Speaker 2: it makes way more sense to say, Okay, these billion

893
00:48:54,840 --> 00:48:58,080
Speaker 2: dollar MLB teams will handle that. I know that was

894
00:48:58,120 --> 00:49:01,279
Speaker 2: long winded. I'm sorry, but yes I am again. I

895
00:49:01,440 --> 00:49:03,400
Speaker 2: just see a logic to that is it.

896
00:49:03,520 --> 00:49:06,440
Speaker 5: Seems like it seems like such a competitive advantage to

897
00:49:06,600 --> 00:49:09,320
Speaker 5: have your guys. If the other teams guys are sleeping

898
00:49:09,360 --> 00:49:11,279
Speaker 5: in their cars, but your guys are sleeping in a

899
00:49:11,400 --> 00:49:14,080
Speaker 5: nice residence in or you know, a nice Marriott or something,

900
00:49:14,320 --> 00:49:17,279
Speaker 5: that's a huge competitive advantage for you. And and like

901
00:49:17,400 --> 00:49:20,520
Speaker 5: you talked about, it's a development. It just makes it's

902
00:49:21,000 --> 00:49:25,280
Speaker 5: completely illogical and immoral as well to make your players,

903
00:49:25,800 --> 00:49:28,680
Speaker 5: you know, the whole right of passage thing. This is

904
00:49:28,840 --> 00:49:31,719
Speaker 5: the minor league grind thing. I think all that is just,

905
00:49:32,320 --> 00:49:32,560
Speaker 5: you know.

906
00:49:33,640 --> 00:49:36,680
Speaker 3: It's so unnecessary. And I could not agree more with

907
00:49:36,760 --> 00:49:37,560
Speaker 3: you that it's.

908
00:49:37,680 --> 00:49:41,320
Speaker 5: Logical to rent out a holiday in in Boulogne and

909
00:49:41,440 --> 00:49:44,040
Speaker 5: say we need thirty five forty rooms. Here you go.

910
00:49:44,320 --> 00:49:46,080
Speaker 3: You know, we can pay for it because we're a

911
00:49:46,160 --> 00:49:47,360
Speaker 3: Major League Baseball organ.

912
00:49:48,920 --> 00:49:52,320
Speaker 2: And again, a lot of this I would describe the

913
00:49:52,400 --> 00:49:54,040
Speaker 2: same way that I would describe when you say, why

914
00:49:54,120 --> 00:49:57,040
Speaker 2: is spring training and extended spring for minor league players,

915
00:49:57,239 --> 00:50:00,480
Speaker 2: not salary. You know you don't you collect your paycheck

916
00:50:00,840 --> 00:50:04,279
Speaker 2: during the season. The answer would be, because that's the

917
00:50:04,320 --> 00:50:06,120
Speaker 2: way it's always fit. Like when it comes to minor

918
00:50:06,200 --> 00:50:09,120
Speaker 2: league housing, the really the answer comes back to if

919
00:50:09,200 --> 00:50:14,080
Speaker 2: you rewound the clock one hundred years ago. Okay, yes,

920
00:50:14,160 --> 00:50:17,120
Speaker 2: the minor league team was not responsible for housing because

921
00:50:17,640 --> 00:50:21,160
Speaker 2: wherever you were, you were signing contract with that minor

922
00:50:21,239 --> 00:50:24,000
Speaker 2: league team for the course of the year. And in

923
00:50:24,160 --> 00:50:26,960
Speaker 2: addition to that, a lot of times you might be

924
00:50:27,160 --> 00:50:29,320
Speaker 2: like at the minorgue level, often it was because you

925
00:50:29,400 --> 00:50:33,640
Speaker 2: were from that area. Because the minors originally was an

926
00:50:33,680 --> 00:50:37,279
Speaker 2: offshoot of town ball. Town ball became more upscale, but

927
00:50:38,080 --> 00:50:39,840
Speaker 2: you were signing with a minor league team, not a

928
00:50:39,920 --> 00:50:43,560
Speaker 2: major league organization. And at that point, again, for these

929
00:50:43,680 --> 00:50:46,879
Speaker 2: were hand to mouth organizations in a lot of ways.

930
00:50:47,160 --> 00:50:49,839
Speaker 2: But on top of that, you were able to say,

931
00:50:50,719 --> 00:50:53,480
Speaker 2: I'm going to be living here for the course of

932
00:50:53,560 --> 00:50:57,600
Speaker 2: the year. Why because it wasn't, well, we need a

933
00:50:57,760 --> 00:51:02,560
Speaker 2: shortstop in DOUBLEA next week. There was no there were

934
00:51:02,719 --> 00:51:06,080
Speaker 2: no affiliates. It was I'm signing to try to help

935
00:51:06,560 --> 00:51:11,240
Speaker 2: this club in Savannah, Georgia or Appleton, Wisconsin or whatever

936
00:51:11,360 --> 00:51:14,400
Speaker 2: it was. Win a title, and that's where I'm going

937
00:51:14,440 --> 00:51:17,160
Speaker 2: to be all year, and then after the year, I'll

938
00:51:17,200 --> 00:51:19,000
Speaker 2: figure out if I'm going to play again next year.

939
00:51:19,040 --> 00:51:23,440
Speaker 2: It was something very different. We've gotten from that to

940
00:51:23,840 --> 00:51:27,719
Speaker 2: now a system where obviously teap players contract with the

941
00:51:27,800 --> 00:51:31,000
Speaker 2: major league club, players are paid by the major league club.

942
00:51:31,400 --> 00:51:36,200
Speaker 2: But we're still seeing artifacts of a system that was

943
00:51:36,280 --> 00:51:40,680
Speaker 2: developed one hundred and twenty five years ago under entirely

944
00:51:40,760 --> 00:51:46,560
Speaker 2: different circumstances. That again, it's I've heard of stories of

945
00:51:47,600 --> 00:51:52,880
Speaker 2: the thousand dollars senior sign whose best attribute is that

946
00:51:53,320 --> 00:51:55,759
Speaker 2: they could play anywhere and they're willing to do whatever

947
00:51:55,920 --> 00:51:58,279
Speaker 2: for the team. Right Well, some of those players, the

948
00:51:58,360 --> 00:52:00,880
Speaker 2: bad news for that is is that that's the player

949
00:52:01,040 --> 00:52:04,600
Speaker 2: who gets bounced all around the organization because they're the

950
00:52:04,800 --> 00:52:07,280
Speaker 2: Swiss Army knife to fill in wherever there's an injury.

951
00:52:08,640 --> 00:52:11,399
Speaker 2: That should be a good thing, that should be like, Okay, hey,

952
00:52:11,480 --> 00:52:13,719
Speaker 2: I got to play in Triple A this year. It

953
00:52:13,800 --> 00:52:16,520
Speaker 2: can be a bad thing right now though, because if

954
00:52:16,600 --> 00:52:20,440
Speaker 2: you play at four different levels, well, there is no

955
00:52:20,560 --> 00:52:24,920
Speaker 2: good answer for and I should make I should make

956
00:52:25,000 --> 00:52:29,279
Speaker 2: clear the first couple of days that you are in uh,

957
00:52:29,480 --> 00:52:32,879
Speaker 2: you know, get promoted, your hotel's handled. But then it's like, okay,

958
00:52:33,080 --> 00:52:35,440
Speaker 2: that's just to get your feet settled, and now you

959
00:52:35,520 --> 00:52:37,799
Speaker 2: need to go find a place. If you're bouncing from

960
00:52:37,840 --> 00:52:42,880
Speaker 2: somewhere one one spot every month. There is no easy

961
00:52:42,960 --> 00:52:46,520
Speaker 2: answer other than and again what we talked about, other

962
00:52:46,640 --> 00:52:48,640
Speaker 2: than I'm going to live in the clubhouse because I

963
00:52:48,640 --> 00:52:50,239
Speaker 2: don't know if I'm going to be here for long

964
00:52:50,719 --> 00:52:53,920
Speaker 2: and I don't want to, or again I'm going to

965
00:52:53,960 --> 00:52:56,040
Speaker 2: live in the clubhouse. I'm going to see if one

966
00:52:56,080 --> 00:52:58,240
Speaker 2: of my teammates will let me sleep on their floor.

967
00:52:58,960 --> 00:53:01,799
Speaker 2: I have an air match. You know, I think if

968
00:53:01,880 --> 00:53:04,680
Speaker 2: you said, I think it's fair to say minor league

969
00:53:04,680 --> 00:53:09,399
Speaker 2: players are among the world's experts in knowing what kind

970
00:53:09,400 --> 00:53:12,399
Speaker 2: of air mattress you want, what pump does really well,

971
00:53:12,719 --> 00:53:16,279
Speaker 2: all that kind of stuff, because that is the minor

972
00:53:16,400 --> 00:53:18,520
Speaker 2: league life. And again, yeah, like you said, that's the

973
00:53:18,560 --> 00:53:23,399
Speaker 2: minor league grind, which in twenty twenty one does seem

974
00:53:23,440 --> 00:53:26,200
Speaker 2: I logical, because again we know more now we do

975
00:53:26,440 --> 00:53:29,959
Speaker 2: know now that you see it at the major league

976
00:53:30,080 --> 00:53:33,320
Speaker 2: level and all these sports, it seems like the MBA

977
00:53:33,520 --> 00:53:36,920
Speaker 2: is at the forefront of making sure that players get

978
00:53:37,120 --> 00:53:41,200
Speaker 2: proper rest even having you know, and but major league

979
00:53:41,200 --> 00:53:43,040
Speaker 2: teams do it too where they have nap rooms and

980
00:53:43,080 --> 00:53:47,360
Speaker 2: all because of the idea that rest is proper rest

981
00:53:48,040 --> 00:53:52,640
Speaker 2: is a performance enhancer, not illegal, but a legal performance

982
00:53:52,680 --> 00:53:55,759
Speaker 2: and answer, and here we have a situation again some

983
00:53:55,920 --> 00:53:58,600
Speaker 2: of the things. I know everyone says that, like there's

984
00:53:58,600 --> 00:54:01,160
Speaker 2: a lot of thought that everything that happened with the

985
00:54:01,239 --> 00:54:04,200
Speaker 2: Major league reorganization of the miners was bad. There was

986
00:54:04,320 --> 00:54:07,200
Speaker 2: something that was good about it, which is travel in

987
00:54:07,239 --> 00:54:10,600
Speaker 2: a lot of cases did improve, which is helpful for

988
00:54:10,680 --> 00:54:14,640
Speaker 2: these players because when you're traveling on a bus overnight,

989
00:54:15,239 --> 00:54:18,040
Speaker 2: and especially under the old buses, it was hard to

990
00:54:18,080 --> 00:54:21,040
Speaker 2: get good rest. That has improved now with this. But

991
00:54:21,880 --> 00:54:25,759
Speaker 2: they're still leaving this big undone part. And I should

992
00:54:25,880 --> 00:54:29,120
Speaker 2: note though the Astros are a team that has basically

993
00:54:29,400 --> 00:54:31,799
Speaker 2: handled housing for all their minor league players this year.

994
00:54:32,160 --> 00:54:35,319
Speaker 2: I believe the San Francisco Giants have handled housing at

995
00:54:35,360 --> 00:54:38,480
Speaker 2: the A ball level, which they have a team in

996
00:54:38,560 --> 00:54:42,320
Speaker 2: San Jose. I can't imagine trying to find an apartment

997
00:54:42,800 --> 00:54:46,080
Speaker 2: in San Jose on five hundred a month. I think

998
00:54:46,120 --> 00:54:48,759
Speaker 2: if you filled out the application and handed it in

999
00:54:49,360 --> 00:54:51,759
Speaker 2: like they just laugh at you. I mean it would

1000
00:54:51,800 --> 00:54:54,520
Speaker 2: be like we have a cardboard box. You're not qualified

1001
00:54:54,600 --> 00:54:56,360
Speaker 2: to have the you know, to live in the cardboard

1002
00:54:56,400 --> 00:54:59,120
Speaker 2: box because the cost of housing out there is so

1003
00:54:59,360 --> 00:55:03,040
Speaker 2: you know, so so insanely. Hi, but most teams do

1004
00:55:03,160 --> 00:55:05,960
Speaker 2: not do this. Right now, I do think that will change.

1005
00:55:06,120 --> 00:55:08,840
Speaker 2: I think that it will eventually change, but I do

1006
00:55:09,000 --> 00:55:11,680
Speaker 2: also think again, just looking at it, logically, it should change.

1007
00:55:11,719 --> 00:55:14,560
Speaker 1: Run. Thank you so much to JJ Cooper, editor in

1008
00:55:14,640 --> 00:55:17,040
Speaker 1: chief Baseball America, giving us a full hour of his time.

1009
00:55:17,320 --> 00:55:19,200
Speaker 1: I mean, everybody out there for if you don't already

1010
00:55:19,239 --> 00:55:22,879
Speaker 1: do it, please subscribe to Baseball America. I've been doing

1011
00:55:22,920 --> 00:55:25,279
Speaker 1: it for years and it's such an amazing value to

1012
00:55:25,320 --> 00:55:28,440
Speaker 1: get all that information about all aspects of baseball. And

1013
00:55:28,600 --> 00:55:31,400
Speaker 1: you can follow JJ Cooper on Twitter at jj coop

1014
00:55:31,600 --> 00:55:32,359
Speaker 1: thirty six.

1015
00:55:32,920 --> 00:55:34,560
Speaker 3: Thank you so much, JJ. We hope to have you

1016
00:55:34,640 --> 00:55:35,280
Speaker 3: back in the future.

1017
00:55:36,640 --> 00:55:37,200
Speaker 2: Thank you, guys,