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Speaker 1: Fancy intro for Evan Dralek from the Athletic joining us

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Speaker 1: right now and buckle up, dude. I've got like eight

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Speaker 1: topics to run through, and I know it's been a

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Speaker 1: busy twenty four hours for you, but let's start with

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Speaker 1: Commissioner Manfred's appearance on WFN radio and him talking about

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Speaker 1: the potential of a split season or an in season tournament.

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Speaker 1: Can you enlighten us on more that will get our

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Speaker 1: fans riled up?

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Speaker 2: You know, it's funny. I had some fun text with

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Speaker 2: Ken Rosenthal yesterday because he had heard it and I

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Speaker 2: think I had heard it at one point. It was

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Speaker 2: something we had chased a little bit because there'd been

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Speaker 2: murmurs in the industry that there had been some interest

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Speaker 2: in what would they go to a split season? And

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Speaker 2: we would call people and they'd say, that's crazy, what

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Speaker 2: are you talking about? And you know, look, I think

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Speaker 2: there's a reality of When Rob Manford says, yes, we've

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Speaker 2: considered it, where you can go, oh, that's good. He

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Speaker 2: should consider he's the commissioner of Baseball, you should consider

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Speaker 2: all the ideas that come up. And he did pretty

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Speaker 2: quickly acknowledge this to be very difficult to do. I

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Speaker 2: did not think the reason that he offered for why

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Speaker 2: it would be difficult was truly the most important one,

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Speaker 2: where he said it's about the records and the attachment

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Speaker 2: people have to those full season records. Like, yeah, that matters,

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Speaker 2: but there are bigger issues when you try to make

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Speaker 2: a change of that magnitude. So I don't think this

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Speaker 2: is something that's coming to baseball anytime soon. I don't

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Speaker 2: think it's necessarily bad that they are talking about it.

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Speaker 2: I do think MLB and Rob Manford have a habit

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Speaker 2: of kind of wanting to follow, particularly the NBA. You

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Speaker 2: see it with the television stuff, where MLB has been

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Speaker 2: pretty forward about the fact that they want to do

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Speaker 2: what the NBA did, which is go make a lot

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Speaker 2: of money from different streaming companies Peacock, Amazon, etc. I

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Speaker 2: don't know that the NBA Cup gave the results to

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Speaker 2: the NBA that the NBA wanted, and I don't know

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Speaker 2: that baseball would do much better with it. Could baseball

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Speaker 2: do something better than one hundred and sixty game season? Yeah?

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Speaker 3: Maybe, Okay, Evan, let's just say let's just call this

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Speaker 3: what it is. There's a CBA coming up at the

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Speaker 3: end of the year. It's negotiating. It's what Rob Manford does.

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Speaker 3: He wins the pr battle every single time. Why because

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Speaker 3: he goes on these stations and he says, oh, yeah,

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Speaker 3: we're thinking about doing this so that way when he

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Speaker 3: goes into the CBA with Tony Clark and Bruce Meyer

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Speaker 3: and these guys, and he goes, oh, by the way,

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Speaker 3: we want to do this Tournament Cup thing and we

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Speaker 3: want to do a split season, and they're like and

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Speaker 3: the players are like, no, we don't want to do that.

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Speaker 3: And he's like, okay, well we won't do that if

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Speaker 3: you guys give us a salary cap, right or whatever

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Speaker 3: whatever Rob wants. And this is what he does. It's

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Speaker 3: classic Rob Manfred and the owners negotiating in the media.

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Speaker 3: This is never good. This it might happen, but it

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Speaker 3: ain't happening maybe in our lifetimes, because you can't. They

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Speaker 3: won't even stop the MLB season for the Olympics. You

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Speaker 3: think they're going to start it to stop in the

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Speaker 3: middle for some tournament that nobody cares about. I mean

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Speaker 3: the NBA. Do you know who won the NBA Tournament

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Speaker 3: Cup this year?

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Speaker 2: I think I actually do, and I really don't call

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Speaker 2: the mbay clothes. I think it was the nixt And

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Speaker 2: the only reason I would know that is because I

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Speaker 2: was the nick man as a kid. But yeah, I

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Speaker 2: I take I take your point generally. Look, I think

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Speaker 2: it is very true that Rob Manford likes to float

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Speaker 2: trial balloons. Uh you know, they they like to put

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Speaker 2: things out in the media and see see what comes back.

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Speaker 2: I don't know, this might be too generous to me.

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Speaker 2: I don't actually think it's always intentional. You know, when

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Speaker 2: he mentioned the golden at bat rule, I'm not sure

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Speaker 2: he did that by waking up that morning and going,

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Speaker 2: you know what I'm gonna do, I'm gonna put the

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Speaker 2: gold in that bat out there today and see what

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Speaker 2: people think about it. He might have. But I think sometimes,

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Speaker 2: you know, Rob does have some ability to be a

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Speaker 2: straight shooter. You know, it is always kind of slanted

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Speaker 2: to his interests. But you know, if you ask me

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Speaker 2: a question, he'll usually usually find some way to answer it.

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Speaker 2: That said, are there things that he does bring up

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Speaker 2: for the sake of the bargaining table? Yes, I just

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Speaker 2: don't see it with this one. Like, you know, it's

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Speaker 2: not the kind of thing that you're gonna be but

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Speaker 2: to kind of hold over the players heads. I don't

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Speaker 2: think it's just it's such a major change and there's

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Speaker 2: so much that goes into it, it's not it's not

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Speaker 2: a great leverage point to me.

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Speaker 1: And we're going to get to more on the bargaining

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Speaker 1: table side with your latest article that came out this morning,

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Speaker 1: but before that, I do want to get to what

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Speaker 1: I feel like is some significant news on the future

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Speaker 1: of the sport with expansion. Eventually we're going to have

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Speaker 1: two more teams. Manfas trying to figure that out before

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Speaker 1: his tenure ends in several years from now. And I'll

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Speaker 1: take the quote from the show. He well, I guess

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Speaker 1: I don't have a quote. He said that the markets

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Speaker 1: have multiple major leagues that have multiple Major League teams

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Speaker 1: like New York, LA, Chicago, et cetera, should not have

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Speaker 1: both teams in the same division. So what were your

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Speaker 1: thoughts on that, because that did give us a little

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Speaker 1: hint of what expansion could look like. As we do

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Speaker 1: think that there is going to be some realignment within

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Speaker 1: the sport when we add two teams and not just

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Speaker 1: going to be like cool Ale and let's just keep

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Speaker 1: doing what we're doing and add one team to a

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Speaker 1: division that has too many teams, like.

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Speaker 2: It's going to it all reworked right, right, and what

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Speaker 2: was really new there to my ear, and my ear

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Speaker 2: isn't perfect. Although I'd like to think that if I

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Speaker 2: haven't listened to Rob Manford more than any other person

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Speaker 2: outside of Major League Baseball, I'm in the top two

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Speaker 2: for people who've heard this guy talk more than anybody else.

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Speaker 2: He has talked before about the geographical realignment, that he

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Speaker 2: wants it to be eight division, yes, eight groups, four

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Speaker 2: teams per group, thirty two teams, and that he wants

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Speaker 2: the East West separation, and you know, his belief is

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Speaker 2: that the timing of playoff games would be better if

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Speaker 2: kind of the West is playing the West in the

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Speaker 2: playoffs and the East is playing the East and then

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Speaker 2: everybody comes together again. Kind of. I'm pretty sure that's

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Speaker 2: basketball's format, and that's something he's talked about before. The

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Speaker 2: specific question of well, what would you do with the

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Speaker 2: two market two team markets, you know, the New York

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Speaker 2: clas I think DC and Baltimore qualify Chicago. Would you

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Speaker 2: put them in the same division or not, so that

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Speaker 2: the Mets and the Yankees are in the same division,

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Speaker 2: And his answer was no, which I don't believe I'd

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Speaker 2: heard him answer that question before and so and that

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Speaker 2: grabbed me, and I usually think if it grabs me,

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Speaker 2: it'll little be of interest to other people. So that

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Speaker 2: was the new part of it. There's many steps before

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Speaker 2: this all gets done. They got to choose the expansion cities.

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Speaker 2: They got to get the stadiums built. You know, this

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Speaker 2: is years away, but they do have a vision of

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Speaker 2: what they want to do.

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Speaker 4: You talk about the cities too, So my question to

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Speaker 4: you is, I know we've heard a couple of them.

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Speaker 4: Do you see Manford leaning towards the two cities that

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Speaker 4: he wants. Has he brought that up in discussion exactly

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Speaker 4: where he wants that the beer? Is that not in

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Speaker 4: anywhere in f rustion?

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Speaker 2: Yeah? No, And I don't know that they're going to

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Speaker 2: tip their hand on that until they have to. Todd,

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Speaker 2: we've heard the same number of cities and Stephen Nesbit

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Speaker 2: at the Athletics done some great work on this. Where

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Speaker 2: it's been Portland and Nashville and Salt Lake City have

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Speaker 2: been have been in the mix. But like everything, when

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Speaker 2: it comes to the Commissioner's office, it's political. You know,

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Speaker 2: Nashville you know, the country is divided up into territories.

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Speaker 2: The Atlanta Breys and the Cincinnati Reds. I think both

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Speaker 2: would have some pause about a team going to Nashville.

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Speaker 2: Does that mean there won't be a team going to Nashville?

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Speaker 2: Not necessarily, but there's all sorts of behind the scenes

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Speaker 2: negotiating in conversation that has to get done. I mean,

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Speaker 2: you know, we saw this type of stuff with the

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Speaker 2: A's and the Giants in the Bay Area, and it's

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Speaker 2: hard to predict at this point. You know, Portland's got

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Speaker 2: a plan that's brewing salt like cities making a push.

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Speaker 2: The size of the city matters. You know, people look

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Speaker 2: at Las Vegas and question whether it's a viable media market,

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Speaker 2: and so you don't want to go too small. I

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Speaker 2: think it's certainly kind of a limited group that could

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Speaker 2: sustain a major league team.

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Speaker 3: Listen, it's gonna be a while because it's hard to

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Speaker 3: find teams in and people that have let's say five

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Speaker 3: billion dollars for an expansion fee, a stadium and everything else.

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Speaker 3: So it's it's gonna be a bit. But I understand

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Speaker 3: why they want to do this, and what they want

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Speaker 3: is the next thing that Rob said was I want

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Speaker 3: to have a signing deadline. Okay, of course you do, Rob.

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Speaker 3: Of course the owners want to have a signing deadline

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Speaker 3: because Evan, can you imagine the pressure that would be

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Speaker 3: on players, because every team would just be like, Okay,

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Speaker 3: we'll just wait till the last hour, and then every

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Speaker 3: player will grovel and come to us say please sign

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Speaker 3: me for one year, one million. Like of course the

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Speaker 3: owners want this, right Like, this makes no sense to me.

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Speaker 3: The whole point. No other I don't think any other

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Speaker 3: league has a signing deadline. They have a ope when

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Speaker 3: it opens, and a lot of teams get there a

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Speaker 3: lot of their stuff done, But no other league has

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Speaker 3: a signing deadline.

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Speaker 2: I understand. I believe that there. I was under the

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Speaker 2: presson that the other leagues do have them. But the

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Speaker 2: other leagues are cap leagues, and I could be wrong

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Speaker 2: about that. I want I want to double check on that.

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Speaker 2: But I in a cap league, it's just a different

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Speaker 2: system because you're splitting the revenue. It is kind of

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Speaker 2: a fixed sum of money. I think probably both things

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Speaker 2: are true. AJ If you had a deadline over time,

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Speaker 2: it could hurt what players make, and players could feel

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Speaker 2: forced into deals that they don't want to take. And

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Speaker 2: also it could create a period of excitement. I do

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Speaker 2: think there is some validity to the league argument here

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Speaker 2: of like, well, that'd be fun if we had this

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Speaker 2: in December, and there's also validity to it. Sure would

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Speaker 2: be fun for the fans. It would not be fun

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Speaker 2: for us, the players here. And this isn't new. This

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Speaker 2: is something that the league proposed in sixteen in the

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Speaker 2: negotiations leading to the seventeen to twenty one CBA. There

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Speaker 2: was mid term talks in twenty nineteen where the league

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Speaker 2: proposes and then it came up again in the twenty

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Speaker 2: one twenty two lockout negotiation. So this has always been there,

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Speaker 2: and now we're in a happy CBA expiration year. Everybody,

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Speaker 2: we're in a CBA expiration year, and you know, Rob's

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Speaker 2: putting it out there. And also we have kind of

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Speaker 2: a slow free agency, at least for the top guys

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Speaker 2: in the market. And so this is one that's good,

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Speaker 2: always swirl and people are always gonna talk about it.

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Speaker 2: And I don't ever see it changing in baseball unless

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Speaker 2: you end up in a very different economic structure. And

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Speaker 2: we're gonna we're gonna have all year to talk about

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Speaker 2: that and then probably into twenty seven as well.

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Speaker 1: So let's get into your article on this. What did

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Speaker 1: you think of the response from some agents you spoke to,

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Speaker 1: from Tony Clark and Bruce Meyer who represent the player's side,

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Speaker 1: and they've been on the quieter side, and it sounds

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Speaker 1: like you got a lot of answers on this one.

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Speaker 1: And I'll just chime in quickly with my opinion. When

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Speaker 1: I try to take a fan opinion on most things,

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Speaker 1: it's like, sure, fans want to see more activity at

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Speaker 1: a certain point. There are other ideas I brought up

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Speaker 1: trade deadline, incentivizing teams to do these signings instead of

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Speaker 1: punishing players. So the bullshit problem I have is, if

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Speaker 1: you really cared, wouldn't you create it for an incentive

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Speaker 1: based program to say, hey, if you sign a guy

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Speaker 1: by this amount of time at this rate, you'll get

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Speaker 1: an extra pick or something. That's the way to spur

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Speaker 1: growth and actually have both sides give a crap. That's

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Speaker 1: where I call the BS meter.

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Speaker 2: Right, and the Union has pointed out going back years.

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Speaker 2: You know, there's a statement that Bruce Meyer, who is

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Speaker 2: now the deputy director at the Union, gave in twenty

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Speaker 2: nineteen when this was proposed, that was, you know, we

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Speaker 2: have tried to offer other forms of incentivizing teams to

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Speaker 2: sign the league doesn't want to do it. And I

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Speaker 2: believe that the idea of a trading deadline has always

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Speaker 2: been the league is not interested in that unless it

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Speaker 2: comes along with a free agent deadline. So you're right

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Speaker 2: on those fronts.

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Speaker 1: You know.

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Speaker 2: One of the things Rob was asked on the radio,

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Speaker 2: this was a radio interview on WFN that spurred all

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Speaker 2: this yesterday, was you know, what are the players thinking

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Speaker 2: about this? And Rob made the argument that they think

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Speaker 2: it's bad for their salaries and said, you know, but

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Speaker 2: I don't really buy that. He was pretty dismissive of it,

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Speaker 2: and Tony Clark batted back with a pretty forceful statement

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Speaker 2: that the league is making a massive miscalculation if they're

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Speaker 2: going to attempt to kind of blow up the system

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Speaker 2: that has produced good six s for the league and

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Speaker 2: over recent years, but you know, also over time. And

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Speaker 2: so Clark had a forceful quote. The day before Brent

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Speaker 2: Rooker on Twitter excuse Me on X said it was

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Speaker 2: one of the most anti player ideas that exists, so

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Speaker 2: he swatted it down. Scott Boris also said it's bad

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Speaker 2: for players. Joel Wolf, who's another prominent agent, he's the

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Speaker 2: head of Baseball Wasserman, and he's got Yamamoto and Rookie Susaki.

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Speaker 2: You know, he drew a comparison to the international system

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Speaker 2: where he has seen some fruits and benefits of the

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Speaker 2: deadline system working well. But you know, he even offered

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Speaker 2: kind of this key question of Okay, what if a

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Speaker 2: guy doesn't sign, you know, if you have the deadline,

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Speaker 2: whatever date you want, what then happens to someone who says,

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Speaker 2: you know what, none of these offers are good enough

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Speaker 2: for me? Are you seeing? I don't think anybody thinks

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Speaker 2: the end result should be the guy who sit out.

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Speaker 2: But that's an unanswered question of what happens to those

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Speaker 2: guys here. So yeah, it's you know, as ninety eight

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Speaker 2: percent of the stories I do and the questions we

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Speaker 2: discussed when I come on with you guys are it's

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Speaker 2: about money, and the players believe this would hurt their income,

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Speaker 2: and I think they have reason to believe that.

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Speaker 4: Take the salary cap out of this whole situation, right,

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Speaker 4: So my question to you is, for both sides, what

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Speaker 4: is the most important thing that MLB wants to get

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Speaker 4: out of this CBA. And what's the most important thing

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Speaker 4: the players want to get out of this besides salary cap?

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Speaker 2: What do you think is next. I'm gonna be a

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Speaker 2: little facetious and think I just said it. It's money, right, Yeah,

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Speaker 2: But look, I think the key on the owner side,

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Speaker 2: besides the salary cap, the kind of the underlying thing

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Speaker 2: here is the media rights in baseball. You know what

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Speaker 2: Manford wants to do is take the control of the

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Speaker 2: local television rights every all the thirty teams right now

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Speaker 2: control what they do with you know, the majority of

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Speaker 2: their games. MLB sells like the Sunday Night package whatever.

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Speaker 2: But you know, if you're a Yankees fan watching on

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Speaker 2: the Yes Network, the Yankees decide to partner with the

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Speaker 2: Yes Network, which they own, but that's their decision. Rob

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Speaker 2: wants that to be his decision, his office's decision, and

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Speaker 2: with the kind of decline of rsns, he would envision

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Speaker 2: a world where I think more TV money is shared.

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Speaker 2: Big market teams don't like that. How could you make

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Speaker 2: big market teams happy? Well, maybe you give them a

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Speaker 2: cap and tell them they don't have to share other

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Speaker 2: money like tickets, and they can keep other things right.

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Speaker 2: But all of this kind of comes back to how

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Speaker 2: do you alter media rights and revenue sharing? And the

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Speaker 2: very interesting thing about revenue sharing, we're talking about how

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Speaker 2: owners share money between themselves that is collectively bargained. They

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Speaker 2: can't change that without player approval because the players argue

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Speaker 2: it affects, you know, how teams behave, what they spend on,

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Speaker 2: what they don't. So the media stuff, this boring stuff

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Speaker 2: that happen a couple of year years ago with bankruptcy

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Speaker 2: with Diamonds Sports Group, which is now main Street Sports Group,

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Speaker 2: which is which MLB's nine teams that are broadcast by

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Speaker 2: that company have now cut ties with temporarily while they

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Speaker 2: renegotiate deals. It can be mind numbing stuff, but it's

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Speaker 2: going to be at the heart of all that's gonna

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Speaker 2: happen in negotiations. I just.

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Speaker 3: It's all it's You know what's funny, Evan, is we've

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Speaker 3: had a lot of talks you and I on field,

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Speaker 3: off field, on this show, not on the show. Everything

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Speaker 3: you've said, though, is such so pro owners, right the

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Speaker 3: players like what are we need? What are the players want? Okay?

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Speaker 3: And when you say yes, Manfred is getting his dream

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Speaker 3: come true by this arnsense folding. Now he has control.

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Speaker 3: He controls the pre game, he controls who the announcers are,

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Speaker 3: He controls all this stuff, the money flow, where it

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Speaker 3: comes and goes. But the real question for me is,

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Speaker 3: how do you, if you're Rob Manfred, tell the Yankees,

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Speaker 3: the Cubs, the Mets, the teams that have their own

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Speaker 3: network right that, Hey, guess what, guys, we're cutting you

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Speaker 3: from the Dodgers. They're making three hundred or whatever million

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Speaker 3: a year off sports and at LA right, Hey, La,

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Speaker 3: you know what you're making three hundred We're gonna cut

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Speaker 3: you back to two hundred and pirates you only get

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Speaker 3: fifty million. Isn't that kind of the same thing that

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Speaker 3: they already have. How is he going to get all

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Speaker 3: thirty owners because everything they do, let's not forget Evan,

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Speaker 3: is always unanimous, every vote unanimous. All thirty owners voted

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Speaker 3: forward things, right, So how do you get thirty owners

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Speaker 3: to say, well, I'm gonna have to take less money

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Speaker 3: so I can give it. It's basically revenue sharing, but

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Speaker 3: just in a different way.

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Speaker 2: Right, And I'll nipick one thing he said about not

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Speaker 2: pro owner so much as this is from the ownership perspective,

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Speaker 2: which I think the reality of this round of bargaining

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Speaker 2: compared to the last one. Aj the players were so

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Speaker 2: angry for really that whole previous CBA back in twenty nineteen,

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Speaker 2: they were angering. Twenty twenty, they're angry, and then you know,

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Speaker 2: we go into the life out twenty one. This time around,

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Speaker 2: the pendulums kind of swung the other way. Where it

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Speaker 2: has been management, the owners who at Manford's office, who

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Speaker 2: are saying, these are the issues that we want to

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Speaker 2: address here. It's we know generally what the players want, right.

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Speaker 2: They want to get younger players paid more. They want

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Speaker 2: to you know, raise the CBT, loosen restrictions on the market.

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Speaker 2: Things that are always true will again be true here.

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Speaker 2: They did a great job last time with service time, manipulation.

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Speaker 2: There were some things that I think we're genuinely achieved

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Speaker 2: in the last CBA here. Rob as you point out,

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Speaker 2: has a big owner versus owner problem here, which is

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Speaker 2: one of the reasons why the idea of a CAP

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Speaker 2: is kind of not unfathomable. But like you, first you

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Speaker 2: got to get your owners on board. You've got to

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Speaker 2: find a floor that's agreeable for your small market own

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Speaker 2: you got to find a ceiling that your large market

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Speaker 2: owners okay with, and then at the end of it,

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Speaker 2: you've got to get all the teams, all the players involved,

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Speaker 2: to approve it right. The battle for MLB very often

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Speaker 2: isn't we know this historically is not just the players.

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Speaker 2: It can often be worse internally. And this big market

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Speaker 2: small market divide. The difference between the TV money that

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Speaker 2: the Dodgers have and the small market teams with FanDuel

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Speaker 2: Sports Network have is a big bridge that Manford's got

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Speaker 2: to find a way to get across. And you've got

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Speaker 2: to find a way to get across it that the

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Speaker 2: players will find palatable. And I gotta tell you, you know,

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Speaker 2: Rob Manford makes a lot of money. That is not

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Speaker 2: an enviable position to be in. That is a very

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Speaker 2: difficult task. And I am truly curious what system he

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Speaker 2: settles on, assuming they don't end up getting a cap. Okay,

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Speaker 2: what does it look like? What is this the major

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Speaker 2: change to that media right system you can make that

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Speaker 2: the owners can agree on and that the players will say, okay,

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Speaker 2: you know, we believe this will still spur competition because

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Speaker 2: the one thing that the players don't want is all

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Speaker 2: the money being centralized, because then if you're getting a

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Speaker 2: big check, no matter what you do as a team,

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Speaker 2: why are you going to spend It's a really fascinating

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Speaker 2: problem if you step back, I love it. I agree.

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Speaker 1: It's almost the game inside the game. It's why I

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Speaker 1: love reading what you put out there. So that leads

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Speaker 1: me to my next question. I think probably the last

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Speaker 1: notable thing from the interview with Manfred Auden WFN, he

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Speaker 1: called out the lockout negativity. So the quote and I'll

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Speaker 1: do a direct one this time, I found it. I

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Speaker 1: do think there has been a rush to negativity by

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Speaker 1: a lot of the media that covers our sport.

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Speaker 3: You sure about that?

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Speaker 1: I mean, are we wrong?

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Speaker 2: Are you wrong? Like?

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Speaker 1: And I don't think we're just getting up here and

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Speaker 1: screaming everything sucks. But I think it's pretty clear that

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Speaker 1: if you pay attention to the sport, the two sides

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Speaker 1: are not best friends. They're not partners, as the NBA

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Speaker 1: calls their players. And there happened to be a shouting

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Speaker 1: match a few months ago between one of the faces

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Speaker 1: of the sport and the commissioner of the sport. Amongst

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Speaker 1: his meetings with teams about the salary cap. So your

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Speaker 1: thoughts on the negativity. I consider you media, I consider

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Speaker 1: us media. Do you think we're being too negative about

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Speaker 1: what's coming up in eleven months?

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Speaker 2: No? And you know, it's all I could. I think

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Speaker 2: this expression that I'm making now is what it prompted

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Speaker 2: me when I when I heard it yesterday. It's like

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Speaker 2: it's a little bit of an eye roll and a chuckle.

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Speaker 2: You know. Rob Manford does what he thinks he needs

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Speaker 2: to do to further the owner's interests. Sometimes that's walking

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Speaker 2: right up to the line of saying he wants a

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Speaker 2: salary cap. That walking right up to the line of

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Speaker 2: saying he expects a lockout without saying directly he expects

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Speaker 2: a lockout it's a new norm in sport. But doesn't

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Speaker 2: say I'm going to lock out the players, right, and

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Speaker 2: then you know, kind of turns around and blames the

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Speaker 2: media when people write about these things. It's it is

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Speaker 2: what it is. I don't know how else to put it.

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Speaker 2: I don't think the media is covering this improperly. I

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Speaker 2: think I think there's a ton to explore here. There's

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Speaker 2: stuff we we just talked about that I haven't written

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Speaker 2: about in recent time, planned to it. It's never ending,

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Speaker 2: and the league kind of wants it both ways. I

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Speaker 2: think both sides want it both ways at times frankly,

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Speaker 2: where it's how dare you talk about this? And then

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Speaker 2: a week later, well we're going to talk about it.

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Speaker 2: It's like, okay, it's it's always easy to blame the media,

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Speaker 2: but I I just I don't. I don't spend my

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Speaker 2: time thinking about that one.

432
00:21:51,680 --> 00:21:54,159
Speaker 1: It's so fun, it's so easy. You're right, Although the

433
00:21:54,200 --> 00:21:57,200
Speaker 1: media does have a response and it's here right now,

434
00:21:57,240 --> 00:22:00,439
Speaker 1: we're not representing everyone, but we can try and we

435
00:22:00,520 --> 00:22:04,040
Speaker 1: can reply to what is said. So yes, I agree,

436
00:22:04,080 --> 00:22:05,080
Speaker 1: we're on the same page with that.

437
00:22:05,119 --> 00:22:05,239
Speaker 2: One.

438
00:22:05,320 --> 00:22:07,520
Speaker 1: Last one I have for you is the big news

439
00:22:07,520 --> 00:22:10,000
Speaker 1: that popped up over the past twenty four hours with

440
00:22:10,320 --> 00:22:13,720
Speaker 1: Trek Scougle. So I wanted to know your thoughts on

441
00:22:14,240 --> 00:22:18,560
Speaker 1: how crazy the number exchange difference was and how that

442
00:22:18,680 --> 00:22:21,800
Speaker 1: affects everything. We were talking about the arbitration system, and

443
00:22:22,080 --> 00:22:23,879
Speaker 1: you can speak to this better than I can. But

444
00:22:24,000 --> 00:22:26,920
Speaker 1: I know at some point last go around during the CBA,

445
00:22:27,320 --> 00:22:29,680
Speaker 1: they were trying to essentially eliminate this and turn it

446
00:22:29,720 --> 00:22:33,639
Speaker 1: into a numbers based system, which was rejected. So I

447
00:22:33,680 --> 00:22:35,960
Speaker 1: am fascinated for the battle and wish that we could

448
00:22:36,000 --> 00:22:39,760
Speaker 1: live stream schoogling court against the Tigers nineteen versus thirty

449
00:22:39,760 --> 00:22:40,160
Speaker 1: two MIL.

450
00:22:43,119 --> 00:22:45,080
Speaker 2: Not to reveal too many of my texts to Ken Rosenthal,

451
00:22:45,119 --> 00:22:49,159
Speaker 2: but I think I texted that is all caps fun.

452
00:22:50,040 --> 00:22:53,680
Speaker 2: Speaking about the difference between the two, it is very interesting.

453
00:22:54,000 --> 00:22:55,960
Speaker 2: One of the things that's happened in arbitration over time

454
00:22:56,720 --> 00:23:00,280
Speaker 2: is that I think MLB's looked at it to some

455
00:23:00,320 --> 00:23:03,120
Speaker 2: degree as a tool by which players can raise salaries rightfully,

456
00:23:03,960 --> 00:23:06,479
Speaker 2: and a lot of teams don't want to go to

457
00:23:06,520 --> 00:23:09,800
Speaker 2: it anymore, and a lot of agents don't want to

458
00:23:09,840 --> 00:23:12,000
Speaker 2: take players to it. Somebody made an interesting point to

459
00:23:12,040 --> 00:23:15,439
Speaker 2: me in last a couple months that agents in the

460
00:23:15,520 --> 00:23:19,720
Speaker 2: Union aren't always aligned on the value of going to

461
00:23:19,800 --> 00:23:22,359
Speaker 2: a hearing. Because if you're the agent you take a

462
00:23:22,400 --> 00:23:25,000
Speaker 2: player to a hearing, or you kind of support the

463
00:23:25,040 --> 00:23:27,960
Speaker 2: idea of going to hearing and the player loses the hearing,

464
00:23:28,119 --> 00:23:30,960
Speaker 2: well they might fire you, right, But where the Union's

465
00:23:31,000 --> 00:23:33,720
Speaker 2: interest is collectively, the more times you go to these hearings,

466
00:23:33,720 --> 00:23:37,560
Speaker 2: maybe the better shot you more quickly raise the salaries.

467
00:23:39,520 --> 00:23:42,639
Speaker 2: So it's a battleground area. It is always, and I

468
00:23:42,640 --> 00:23:46,560
Speaker 2: don't mean just inside these arbitration hearings, I mean even

469
00:23:46,600 --> 00:23:50,520
Speaker 2: inside the decision to go. And yes MLB did propose

470
00:23:50,640 --> 00:23:54,199
Speaker 2: last time to eliminate arbitration. That is not something the

471
00:23:54,200 --> 00:23:57,800
Speaker 2: players want. They believe it is really kind of the

472
00:23:57,800 --> 00:24:02,719
Speaker 2: first It's truly the shot they have to get closer

473
00:24:02,760 --> 00:24:05,520
Speaker 2: to kind of a fair salary for their performance. Right,

474
00:24:05,600 --> 00:24:09,520
Speaker 2: you know, your your minimum salary for the first three years,

475
00:24:09,520 --> 00:24:11,359
Speaker 2: and if you're Super two, it's the first two years,

476
00:24:11,640 --> 00:24:13,680
Speaker 2: and then find this is your first chance of real money.

477
00:24:14,440 --> 00:24:16,080
Speaker 2: And so it makes sense that MLB would want to

478
00:24:16,080 --> 00:24:18,320
Speaker 2: clamp down on it. Would and it makes sense that

479
00:24:18,359 --> 00:24:21,080
Speaker 2: the players want to keep it televising. It would be

480
00:24:21,160 --> 00:24:23,520
Speaker 2: so glorious. I wish they would do it. They'll never

481
00:24:23,600 --> 00:24:28,119
Speaker 2: do it. I don't know how it goes away again

482
00:24:28,359 --> 00:24:31,600
Speaker 2: unless there's some sort of massive change to the sports

483
00:24:31,640 --> 00:24:35,520
Speaker 2: economic structure, meaning whether you go to a salary cap system.

484
00:24:35,800 --> 00:24:38,200
Speaker 2: But as long as you stay in this system, which

485
00:24:38,240 --> 00:24:43,920
Speaker 2: it seems certainly likely everybody will, we're, you know, we'll

486
00:24:44,000 --> 00:24:47,959
Speaker 2: keep reliving this this same episode, and occasionally you'll get

487
00:24:48,000 --> 00:24:50,200
Speaker 2: a really interesting matchup where the numbers are so far

488
00:24:50,240 --> 00:24:53,240
Speaker 2: apart on a truly fantastic player.

489
00:24:53,680 --> 00:24:55,600
Speaker 1: And here's what we're going to do, since we'll never

490
00:24:55,640 --> 00:24:57,760
Speaker 1: be able to actually watch that, and also there's a

491
00:24:57,840 --> 00:25:00,560
Speaker 1: chance that it never ends up happening. But school is

492
00:25:00,600 --> 00:25:02,680
Speaker 1: one of the best interviews in the game. So at

493
00:25:02,680 --> 00:25:04,479
Speaker 1: some point in his life it might not be right

494
00:25:04,520 --> 00:25:06,760
Speaker 1: after the case. Maybe it's after he signs his big

495
00:25:06,800 --> 00:25:09,960
Speaker 1: free agent contract. We can bring him on and we

496
00:25:10,000 --> 00:25:12,400
Speaker 1: will ask him how that case went and the back

497
00:25:12,440 --> 00:25:14,919
Speaker 1: and forth that went down, and how he felt about it,

498
00:25:15,040 --> 00:25:17,360
Speaker 1: so we'll have some fun with it. Evan, this was great.

499
00:25:17,400 --> 00:25:19,920
Speaker 1: Thanks for the extended time. It was very necessary. A

500
00:25:19,960 --> 00:25:22,600
Speaker 1: lot of things happening. I appreciate you and forever else

501
00:25:25,880 --> 00:25:28,720
Speaker 1: I Athletic Real before.

502
00:25:29,960 --> 00:25:32,280
Speaker 3: Kevin, you want to know why they'll never televise it

503
00:25:32,640 --> 00:25:35,600
Speaker 3: because I've been through it. The owners and the don't

504
00:25:35,600 --> 00:25:38,639
Speaker 3: want the fans to actually hear what they think about

505
00:25:38,640 --> 00:25:41,280
Speaker 3: the players. I've been through it. That's why. That's why

506
00:25:41,280 --> 00:25:44,560
Speaker 3: it'll never be televised. The player just sits there and

507
00:25:44,680 --> 00:25:47,280
Speaker 3: the player gives the positive stuff that they did, and

508
00:25:47,320 --> 00:25:50,040
Speaker 3: then the owner side, the team side just says, well,

509
00:25:50,080 --> 00:25:53,520
Speaker 3: you sucked on Tuesday, Todd, you were terrible against oh

510
00:25:53,560 --> 00:25:56,640
Speaker 3: two breaking balls in the dirt from a right handed

511
00:25:56,760 --> 00:26:00,879
Speaker 3: sidearm Tyler Rogers looking dude right, and you're like, Okay,

512
00:26:00,880 --> 00:26:04,000
Speaker 3: nobody hits that guy slider that goes up right. That's

513
00:26:04,040 --> 00:26:06,439
Speaker 3: why they don't. That's why I'll never be televised because

514
00:26:06,560 --> 00:26:08,600
Speaker 3: if it was televised, then people would actually know what

515
00:26:08,600 --> 00:26:11,640
Speaker 3: the teams feel like, in what they what they actually

516
00:26:11,640 --> 00:26:13,720
Speaker 3: think about players. And that's why it's not going to

517
00:26:13,760 --> 00:26:15,800
Speaker 3: be televised. I wish it would be because the truth

518
00:26:15,800 --> 00:26:16,880
Speaker 3: will set you free.

519
00:26:17,720 --> 00:26:19,719
Speaker 2: Yeah, put it. Put the right dollar figure out at

520
00:26:19,720 --> 00:26:21,000
Speaker 2: AJ you know Netflix?

521
00:26:21,119 --> 00:26:24,520
Speaker 4: Is that it like kind of a baseball judge Judy.

522
00:26:24,560 --> 00:26:25,680
Speaker 2: They don't say, no the money.

523
00:26:27,840 --> 00:26:31,280
Speaker 1: I'm with you Netflix, right there, you're listening right now.

524
00:26:31,320 --> 00:26:33,439
Speaker 1: Throw a big, big number, throw the bag at this

525
00:26:33,560 --> 00:26:35,840
Speaker 1: and it would be it would be must see. It

526
00:26:35,880 --> 00:26:38,480
Speaker 1: would be awesome, And I'm with you AJ right. It's

527
00:26:38,520 --> 00:26:41,480
Speaker 1: like we brought this up the other day. Ivan Corbyn

528
00:26:41,480 --> 00:26:44,680
Speaker 1: Burns told us about his ARP case and said, your

529
00:26:44,720 --> 00:26:47,720
Speaker 1: two bad starts in August cost us the playoffs. Forget

530
00:26:47,720 --> 00:26:50,640
Speaker 1: the other thirty that were incredible, those two bad starts

531
00:26:50,680 --> 00:26:52,600
Speaker 1: that's why we didn't make the playoffs by a game

532
00:26:52,680 --> 00:26:56,760
Speaker 1: or two. Like that kind of reply from a team

533
00:26:56,880 --> 00:26:58,840
Speaker 1: after you're stating how good you are and you're a

534
00:26:58,840 --> 00:27:02,680
Speaker 1: sign winner. Whatever would be such good content, So anyway

535
00:27:03,080 --> 00:27:04,639
Speaker 1: we can dare to dream. I'm with you, Evan. We'll

536
00:27:04,640 --> 00:27:06,560
Speaker 1: try and get the distribution deal done with the league

537
00:27:06,560 --> 00:27:09,359
Speaker 1: and the streamers. But in the meantime, enjoy your weekend.

538
00:27:09,359 --> 00:27:12,040
Speaker 1: Thanks for joining us and everyone else. Catch Evansworth in

539
00:27:12,119 --> 00:27:14,520
Speaker 1: the work in the Athletic and on X you can

540
00:27:14,520 --> 00:27:16,240
Speaker 1: see where his articles are posted on there too.

541
00:27:17,480 --> 00:27:20,680
Speaker 2: Happy CBA expiration here, Yes, you too.

542
00:27:20,840 --> 00:27:29,679
Speaker 1: We'll be talking win totals. Oh, this is the controversial one.

543
00:27:29,840 --> 00:27:32,680
Speaker 1: You weren't on for this yesterday AJ where we talked

544
00:27:32,720 --> 00:27:35,560
Speaker 1: about the Will Salmon article that referred to Mets officials

545
00:27:35,560 --> 00:27:38,320
Speaker 1: feeling as if this is a very solid playoff team

546
00:27:38,320 --> 00:27:40,320
Speaker 1: without doing anything else the rest of the off season,

547
00:27:40,680 --> 00:27:44,320
Speaker 1: and this is what they're looking at right. Projection models

548
00:27:44,359 --> 00:27:47,800
Speaker 1: play into what we see for regular season win totals

549
00:27:47,880 --> 00:27:50,359
Speaker 1: put together by bet MGM on futures that you can

550
00:27:50,400 --> 00:27:52,560
Speaker 1: bet on right now. Eighty six and a half wins

551
00:27:52,600 --> 00:27:54,560
Speaker 1: over at one five under at one fifteen.

552
00:27:55,040 --> 00:27:55,240
Speaker 2: Now.

553
00:27:55,240 --> 00:27:57,440
Speaker 1: I'm not touching this because I do think there's going

554
00:27:57,480 --> 00:28:00,639
Speaker 1: to be more in play for the Mets. TBD is

555
00:28:00,640 --> 00:28:03,720
Speaker 1: one where I'll wait. But right now, if they did

556
00:28:03,800 --> 00:28:06,480
Speaker 1: nothing else, that is a hot number.

557
00:28:11,200 --> 00:28:13,520
Speaker 3: Have to wait right now, I would take I would

558
00:28:13,560 --> 00:28:16,960
Speaker 3: probably that division. I would probably take the under because

559
00:28:17,000 --> 00:28:19,639
Speaker 3: I'm not sold on their pitching. But who knows, they

560
00:28:19,720 --> 00:28:22,360
Speaker 3: might have another move up their sleeve. David Sterens, who

561
00:28:22,359 --> 00:28:24,159
Speaker 3: knows what they can do. But they lost Neil, they

562
00:28:24,160 --> 00:28:28,639
Speaker 3: lost Nemo. I know they brought in Simeon, they lost Alonso.

563
00:28:28,720 --> 00:28:30,640
Speaker 3: That's a lot of homers to try to make up

564
00:28:30,680 --> 00:28:35,159
Speaker 3: for court. Listen, what are they supposed to say, no,

565
00:28:35,280 --> 00:28:37,840
Speaker 3: we're not very good right now? They're the Mets. They

566
00:28:37,880 --> 00:28:39,680
Speaker 3: have to say they're pretty good. They're trying, they're building

567
00:28:39,680 --> 00:28:42,480
Speaker 3: the new casino and doing all that stuff around around

568
00:28:42,800 --> 00:28:44,880
Speaker 3: City Field. So their course are going to say we're

569
00:28:44,920 --> 00:28:46,520
Speaker 3: a playoff team. Because if they come out and say, ah,

570
00:28:46,520 --> 00:28:48,440
Speaker 3: we don't think we're very good right now, Mets fans

571
00:28:48,480 --> 00:28:50,640
Speaker 3: will riot in the streets. Man, they'll be so mad.

572
00:28:50,960 --> 00:28:53,840
Speaker 3: They'll be out with the pitchforks for poor David Sterens

573
00:28:53,960 --> 00:28:56,240
Speaker 3: and Stevie Cohen. So yeah, of course they're going to

574
00:28:56,280 --> 00:28:58,720
Speaker 3: say that. But right now, eighty six I'd take the under.

575
00:29:00,200 --> 00:29:04,240
Speaker 4: The under two as well, with the people they got

576
00:29:04,320 --> 00:29:06,760
Speaker 4: rid of and I you know, oh, I didn't get

577
00:29:06,840 --> 00:29:08,560
Speaker 4: rid of some. They got rid of some they didn't

578
00:29:08,560 --> 00:29:10,600
Speaker 4: bring back. And I think that's a big difference. And

579
00:29:10,640 --> 00:29:12,560
Speaker 4: I know a lot of Mets fans like, well, this

580
00:29:12,640 --> 00:29:13,200
Speaker 4: has been like.

581
00:29:13,160 --> 00:29:13,880
Speaker 2: This for years.

582
00:29:13,880 --> 00:29:16,400
Speaker 4: Well, they actually were in the driver's seat to make

583
00:29:16,440 --> 00:29:18,600
Speaker 4: the playoffs this year, and they blew that they had

584
00:29:18,640 --> 00:29:21,280
Speaker 4: a really good team to really get after it and

585
00:29:21,320 --> 00:29:23,120
Speaker 4: make a push.

586
00:29:23,840 --> 00:29:26,160
Speaker 2: Getting rid of Nemo. I didn't really like.

587
00:29:26,320 --> 00:29:29,960
Speaker 4: I think he was a staple on that team, even

588
00:29:30,000 --> 00:29:32,080
Speaker 4: though you know, they went to him and asked him about,

589
00:29:32,200 --> 00:29:36,720
Speaker 4: you know, going there. He said yes, I wouldn't never

590
00:29:36,720 --> 00:29:40,360
Speaker 4: have made that conversation with it. But you know, Jeff McNeil,

591
00:29:40,400 --> 00:29:41,920
Speaker 4: I still think he's got a lot in the tank.

592
00:29:41,960 --> 00:29:45,080
Speaker 4: He's a really good hitter. We'll see, we'll see it

593
00:29:45,080 --> 00:29:47,840
Speaker 4: comes down to pitching and being healthy. But I don't

594
00:29:48,120 --> 00:29:51,080
Speaker 4: I would say like eighty ish.

595
00:29:51,480 --> 00:29:53,480
Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm with you. I think it's an eighty ish

596
00:29:53,560 --> 00:29:57,000
Speaker 1: right now. They lost a lot, and some of the

597
00:29:57,040 --> 00:29:59,200
Speaker 1: youngsters will get better, but I don't think they're gonna

598
00:29:59,200 --> 00:30:01,719
Speaker 1: get that much better right away. Hey, look at this

599
00:30:01,800 --> 00:30:04,840
Speaker 1: odds boost token for the college football playoff score, bigger

600
00:30:04,840 --> 00:30:07,120
Speaker 1: payout semifinals. You got one more game to go and

601
00:30:07,160 --> 00:30:10,640
Speaker 1: then we'll see who the University of Miami is playing.

602
00:30:11,120 --> 00:30:13,160
Speaker 1: But anyway, you can check out that odds boost token

603
00:30:13,720 --> 00:30:16,760
Speaker 1: in the bedmgm app or at bedmgm dot com. Gambling

604
00:30:16,760 --> 00:30:19,520
Speaker 1: problem or concern, there's help called one eight hundred a

605
00:30:19,640 --> 00:30:20,040
Speaker 1: gambler