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We are one month away from the start of spring training, and there's still a lot that has to happen.
Kenji and I are here, we're going to jump right into this episode, and we got a lot to talk about.
I mean, it's been a second, happy new year. We're two weeks into the new year.
Baseball is a month away. Camp starts on February 12th. There's so much to be excited about.
We've got Corbin Burns is making a move. Roki Sasaki is making his decision in a couple days.
So much to get to, and there's still all these big name free agents that are still out there.
Pete Alonso, Alex Bregman, Anthony Santander, Jack Flaherty, all these guys that have yet to find a home.
But most importantly, how is my co-host doing on this fine evening?
I'm wonderful. Well, not wonderful. As you can tell by my voice, I am a little under the weather.
Yes, I had a stuffy nose for the past week or so, but besides that, that's okay.
I'm pretty stoked.
We pushed through. We pushed through on this show.
Yeah, we pushed through here. Well, without further ado, we're just going to jump into the first topic.
This happened, I believe, a week, two weeks ago after Christmas, Corbin Burns to the Arizona Diamondbacks.
Now, this was a bit of a surprise. We're not going to spend too much time on this.
But as an Oriole fan and as baseball fans, this was really fascinating. It's great for Corbin Burns.
His family's from Arizona. His wife just had twins. So it's incredibly like it's great.
They went to the Dbacks and said, hey, if you can come up with a competitive offer, we'd love to stay here at home.
So he gets to be with his family and his newborn babies basically over half the year now because he gets to be there during the season.
He has spring training there. His home is already there. So it's kind of a win-win for Corbin and his family.
Stinks if you're the Orioles because you were kind of thinking you were going to get him.
But the silver lining at least is that all reports said that they were super aggressive in trying to retain him.
They were up there with the Blue Jays offering him somewhere in the 250 million dollar range,
getting really competitive to try and bring him back to Baltimore.
So I am pleased with the outcome. Honestly, he didn't go to the Yankees. He didn't go anywhere.
I expected him to. I like Arizona.
But without further ado, Kenji, what's your take on this Corbin Burns thing? We've talked about it a little bit.
Those twins are going to be dressed in some nice, nice matching outfits, I can tell you that.
Yeah, he's a future baseman guy. Like, look out for that guy's man cave in a few years. Like, I'm serious.
Yeah. I mean, it's an awesome deal. We definitely weren't expecting it.
I don't think we even once. I don't think I heard anybody mention Arizona once.
Not once.
So it was pretty interesting. I'd be curious to like know what the breakdown of it all was.
So he had an opt out after two years. He has a full no trade clause until the second year.
If he opts back in, then he has a partial trade, full trade, partial trade clause for the remaining four years.
So it's six years, 210. And I think it's fully guaranteed for the first two seasons, like 30 million or something along those lines.
And then after that, it breaks it out a little bit more with some deferrals to kind of help the Dbacks a little bit.
But again, like you said, nobody expected the Dbacks to be in on this. It was always Orioles. It was always Blue Jays, Giants.
Those were the teams that were in the discussion.
And we're going to touch on the Blue Jays a minute when we get to Roki, because they feel like just a team that's always been on the edge of getting somebody.
Like they're always in the discussions, but they can never land anybody.
And if I let Kenji lose for a minute, he's going to go and hate on the city of Toronto and the country of Canada, because he will. He hates them.
These poor Blue Jays fans are getting the biggest blue ball on earth when it comes to every free agent.
Every free agent, every single one.
Yeah. I mean, if we go back, we go Shohei, Corbin Burns, Juan Soto, Roki Sasaki.
And listen, we don't know the Rokis not going there, but I have to think the Dodgers and Panthers are high up on that list.
If you live in Toronto and you're a fan of them, quit your hope. If he ain't going there, I can tell you that.
If you're listening from Canada, we are greatly appreciative of you.
And I promise I'll keep working on Kenji to be a better, more bipartisan fan.
But he does hate Canada for whatever strange reason.
If they become a part of America, then sure.
If we buy them. Yeah, OK.
Yeah, whatever the world is going on.
All right.
Well, that's enough on Corbin Burns.
But again, we're going to go right back to the Blue Jays, apparently.
Roki Sasaki has it narrowed down to three teams.
The San Diego Padres, the Los Angeles Dodgers, and the Toronto Blue Jays.
And it feels like the Blue Jays are kind of the odd man out here.
What's always been Padres Dodgers is what the overwhelming sentiment in the media has been.
The Padres have this nightmare power struggle going on in their front office with the widow of Peter Seidler,
like wanting power and the brothers are not running the team as she wants to.
It's this whole mess.
However, Padre fans are still holding out hope that he's going to go to the city of San Diego.
Kenji, you are our Japanese baseball savant.
I know you love Roki. I know you love Roki.
But talk to me. What what what should the Padres Dodgers and Blue Jays expect from Roki Sasaki?
And then where do you think he's really going to go?
I mean, he's probably he's got all the talent in the world.
There's no doubt about it. I mean, he's 23 years old.
Same age as us.
Pucking. 100.
I'm just we're sitting here recording a podcast in our apartments.
And yeah, he's out there negotiating a million dollar deals.
Yeah. And you know, you don't meet freaks like that from Japan very often.
I mean, most people I'm considered a large human in Japan and I'm like 510, like 170.
This guy's like six foot three, six foot four, probably was like two to 10 to 30.
I mean, he's skinny, but man, can he throw the ball?
He's got a nasty splitter and he's got so much more developing to do.
Right. We've talked about it.
I think we talked about it last time, too.
But I mean, he's got his fastballs kind of like Yamamoto's where it's just it's just flat and straight.
And that's the biggest thing for me when it comes to him that where he needs the most development from what I've heard is that he he's got to develop a better a better fastball.
He needs some movement on that thing. Yeah.
Besides that, he's he's done everything you probably can in Japan and he's only 23 years old.
It's interesting that he wants to come to the MLB already because it kind of takes away his chance of getting paid in two years.
Or I'm sure he could get Yamamoto type of money.
But it'll be interesting to see what comes out from that.
Yeah, I wanted to ask you about that because so for those that aren't fully aware of the situation with Roki, because he hasn't played enough time internationally, he does not qualify for a major league contract.
So a team can only sign him with their international bonus pool money.
And I think the highest bonus pool money in the league is about six and a half million or sorry, maybe six and a half to the lower end upper half.
Yeah, upper half is eight and a half.
And so essentially he's going to get paid eight and a half million dollars.
And that's going to be his pay for the next six years because he's under contract essentially for the next six seasons.
He's 23 right now. So he'll be essentially an unrestricted free agent when he's 30.
And I guess I'm curious Kenji because we saw a season ago Yamamoto waited until he was eligible for a big contract and he signed the most lucrative deal for any pitcher in the history of baseball.
And he hadn't even thrown a pitch in the major leagues at any level in America.
And so I'm fascinated maybe some of the intrinsic motivation of Roki to say, you know what, I'm going to forfeit the 300 million that maybe I can get in two years time.
And I'm going to go sign for eight right now and do what? Why would somebody make a decision like that?
I mean, yeah, I'm just going to leave it open ended. Why would he do that?
I mean, I literally have no idea if I had to even try and guess. I mean, I got a couple ideas.
It's it's like he believes that, you know, the MLB system will help him develop into a better MLB pitcher.
But six years is crazy. You know, if he just waits two years is what it is. Right. Yep. He can get this amazing contract until he's age 25.
He would be 25, so young, still so in his prime. And it's probably his body is going to be probably fully formed by then at age 25. Right.
So I don't know if it's that if I had to guess, maybe it's money, marketing money that he just can't make any marketing money when he's in Japan.
But if he goes to the MLB, he's going to kill it. He would kill it.
If he goes to the Dodgers, I don't know how much he can get when it comes to marketing just because you already have two Japanese superstars.
But if he wants to San Diego, I really think he can get a ton of marketing.
And if he went to Toronto, if he does go to Toronto, that's where I think when it comes to marketing wise, he can probably make the most amount of money because you literally have two countries worth of fans.
Yeah. And probably United States fans, too. And you know, that's what they're pitching him for sure.
Yeah. They're like, you have the unlimited amount. Like, you can be the face of our team because you have the trade flat because you're going to be here.
And he doesn't anybody else, of course, on that team. I genuinely have no idea why when you break it down, he wants to come this early.
Besides the main fact, he just wants better competition and just wants to play ball at the best.
Yeah. I mean, I think that could be definitely part of it. Buster Olney had a tweet earlier today that I thought was interesting.
He said that the sentiment from general managers that have met with Roki is that he's super quiet.
He's reserved like he doesn't want the big spotlight. And so I think that gives hope to the Padres and the Blue Jays that maybe he doesn't want to be in the biggest spotlight of L.A., even though he would be overshadowed in L.A. 100 percent.
But I do think, you know, he instead of being like the sole face of the franchise in Toronto, then I think he can become like a really fun young piece for a Padres team.
And I think that Toronto proves that they want to upgrade, that they can re-sign Vlad and add some pieces and maybe Toronto is a fun place to play.
But regardless, it's great for Major League Baseball because they're getting a phenom at age 23 coming over from Japan.
And he's actively forgoing hundreds of millions of dollars to come over here early just to play in America.
Like, that's pretty cool. And that shows the international growth of the sport.
Like, dude, like you can like I'm sure he's making great money being the star of the Chiba Latte Mariners.
And whatever. Sorry, Marines, Mariners.
No, you say it. Hold on. We got to get this correct.
It's Chibarote Mariners.
What he said. Yeah, I'm sure he's making good money playing for them.
I was actually a fan of that team when I lived in Japan.
I've been doing a couple of their games. I can show you a ball actually.
This is a Marines ball. It's a beautiful baseball.
Nobody can see it because we are doing audio only. Oh, yeah.
You saw it though. I saw it. It was great. You saw it. Yeah.
But I think it's great for baseball, for the international state of the sport.
But it does make you go like, why? Why is he doing that?
Maybe it's like we can kind of move past this after this.
But maybe it's just as simple as he just wants to play baseball with better competition.
Because all we're talking about right now is money, right? It's money, money, money, money.
And, you know, especially with the last couple of years, especially with the Juan Soto deal, where it was purely money.
I guarantee it. Right. It was A, who can kind of compete, but who can give me the most amount of money.
Yeah. Like we're so focused. Even with Corbin, it was like, who's going to give him the most money?
But he kind of settled for a little bit lower amount of money. He did.
It benefited him. Maybe it's not as so complicated as money, but it's more simple.
He just generally wants to play ball in a better place. And he thinks he's done what he can.
He doesn't want to waste any more time playing in Japan. He wants to face the best of the best.
And like, I don't know if that's true. Right. It's a cute story, but it's millions and hundreds of millions of dollars are given up.
There's a chance that he just wants to play ball in the MLB. Right. And just see and really test his ability.
And if that's the case, then it's pretty sweet. Yeah.
And I mean, not to say that he won't get a really nice contract when he turns 29, 30 or that the team won't offer him an extension past that.
I just think it is interesting that he's negotiating, knowing that the max teams can give him is maybe eight and a half million.
Like, that's it. So it's really fascinating. Now, Kenji, we're going to stick with Sasaki.
Give me a reason why Sasaki would want to sign with each of the three teams that are still in the picture.
So we'll start. We start wherever you want. Dodgers, Padres, Blue Jays.
So with Dodgers, I think it's pretty simple. They're the best team in the league. Two Japanese players.
So you have an immediate kind of a home. L.A. is a great Japanese market, too. Right.
It is kind of like a mini Japan now with the amount of people that live there that watch them.
And you're going to compete for the World Series every single year, probably the entire time he's there.
As long as Shohei is there, they're going to compete, you know.
And so that's probably the biggest reason why he'd want to go there is hospitality championships. It's the most competitive.
Padres, you got Yudair Bishiru and talks about it, says like his icon is idol, followed around like a little kid during the WBC.
He's a literal god, a pitching god in Japan. Also a fantastic team, a great roster.
Dodgers even said that they that was a team that they had to beat the World Series. Right.
And they did. And the rest of the games, honestly, weren't even that close.
They were way better than the Mets and way better than the Yankees.
I'm kind of going on, but you're OK.
Padres are a great team. They need starting pitching.
I think he has a more guaranteed role of being the guy or in the top of the rotation.
If he goes to San Diego, he goes to L.A. I mean, we talked about it.
They got two full rotations, right?
Their second rotation is better than most people's first rotation or just their general rotation.
So I don't know how playing time works there. Toronto, it's it's it's a brand new Japanese market pretty much like
he can decide how high the ceiling goes.
They have potential. They really do. They do have really good young players.
If Ladd signs, right, and if they can get Bo to stay.
I think it would really help. Honestly, this just is me thinking about this.
But if if Gosling can teach him a little bit about the stuff that he's got to Roki.
Oh, I mean, that sinker that he's got, the change.
Yes, but he's got fastballs, got some movement, right?
I mean, just even something simple as that of Gosling, I think would be a great person to learn from.
I mean, Bassett still there. He's a vet.
I think it kind of helps him with his development if Toronto keeps all the pieces there.
But also, yeah, the upside for Toronto is really big, too.
But in the end, I do think it'll be San Diego.
I would I would have to agree with you. I think I lean San Diego just a little bit.
But it's hard to ignore the allure of the Dodgers.
Right. I mean, it's like everybody saw how Shohei interacted with the rest of the Japanese players during the WBC.
Like he he was their their leader, their captain.
Everybody looked to him. And so, of course, like, is the opportunity to play with that guy in L.A.
and be like a like a a main figure, a mainstay on that staff and a really awesome idea.
Yes. But is playing with you, Darvish, in San Diego, my favorite city in the country, one of the most beautiful places ever.
Like, is that also really, really cool? Yes.
They have amazing role players, star players in San Diego. Fernando Tatis, Jr., Manny Machado, J.
Cronenworth, Jackson Merrill. They got a lot of talent in San Diego.
And not to mention the Toronto Blue Jays. And again, they just kind of feel like this this strange fit.
But I will say this about Toronto, Kenji, I know you're relatively newer to following baseball, but when the Blue Jays are good,
that place is rocking because they you're absolutely right. They have a whole country behind them.
And there's something to be said for that because they pack that place day in, day out.
Playoff games there are impossible to hear. The place is going absolutely bananas.
And I think that that's the sell to rookie is, hey, come be the guy here.
Come like let's let the country back you and then make a name for yourself in Toronto.
And I do think the Kevin Gossman comp is really interesting because that's kind of what rookie is.
He's like a fastball split finger guy and Gossman is fastball split.
All of his stuff is so good. Truly, truly disgusting.
Last year he was a little bit kind of fell off with some injuries, but two years ago he was so good.
Yeah. Yeah. But that's the Sosaki talk. That's the Sosaki talk.
So now we're going to pivot. We actually had an idea for a tier list.
We're going to do a tier list a different day because we wanted to talk about Roki and Corbin more.
And we want to go into detail on these tiers. But so we have two other topics.
Guardians, Tigers and Royals. All of them came so close to the World Series and close is, of course, relative.
Why have they not been more active in free agency? And what's your level of frustration on them, Kenji?
Now, as we sit here in the middle of January, a month out from camp, we'll start with the Guardians.
The Guardians. OK. A team that I honestly don't like watching.
It's a boring brand of baseball, I'll be honest.
Yeah, it's not that's not doesn't sell the crowd. I don't know. You know, they.
I don't know how to explain the Guardians. It's just I was surprised whenever I watched the Guardians play.
I'm never wowed. But they but they win these games. Right.
When I look at their pitching staff, I'm not wowed, but they find a way to win games because they do.
Bolpin was fantastic. And J.R.M. had a great year. I mean, he did. He almost had a 40 40 season. Right.
Like, yeah, it was like thirty nine forty or something. Yeah. Josh, nearly had a hundred RBI's.
Stephen Kwan, the first half of the season was hitting like 400. I mean, they had a lot of good pieces.
But yeah, in the playoffs, they were just.
I didn't they didn't stand a chance. I mean, against Detroit. Yes.
But Detroit, nobody expected to be there against the Yanks.
It was pretty obvious who was the better team. Right. Yeah.
And I can't say that they got better this offseason. They traded with Josh Naylor and Andre Samenez.
Yeah, no, just a man is right. So. And what did you bring in? Arms.
That's it. All they brought in was pitching. He brought in pitches like I'm literally looking at who they brought in.
It's Carlos Santana, the only impact player that I see on the hitting side.
Like I, I just don't understand.
And I know these teams have money, right? You have money. If the dog billionaire owners, you got to have money.
I don't care if you're a millionaire or billionaire, you have money somewhere. Yeah.
And the city wants to win. So I don't know. It's been disappointing.
I personally don't care for the Guardians. I don't care.
But it is kind of shocking just how little the Guardians have done when honestly they won the amount of games that they won.
You know, they had the bullpen that they have.
Like if they can just get a couple more bats and solid pieces around that team, even just a little bit.
And I think you could have done that this off season. You could actually contend for a World Series maybe.
But I, yeah, I agree. I see them contending.
I think the Guardians have had a really interesting off season. They always find a way to compete in the AO Central.
I will say that. Like they always are just kind of hang around.
But that was their problem last year. I mean, when everybody's watching them in the playoffs, everybody's like, well, can they score?
And long story short, no, they couldn't. They just couldn't compete with that of the Yankees.
I mean, and they have an amazing bullpen. But you can't ride those guys every single game.
This is not going to win you a title.
So I would be a little frustrated if I was a Guardians fan, although I do think they're kind of used to this.
This is kind of the status quo. They don't really go out and sign big free agents.
The J-Ram contract is like the best contract in baseball, in my opinion.
Like I think that the value they're getting for the price is phenomenal.
I don't know really why. I mean, Andres Jimenez was below average hitter, so maybe you improve it by trading him away.
I thought bringing in Horowitz and then flipping him immediately was interesting because I thought Horowitz was actually a good fit.
They trade away Josh Naylor, who was kind of the other piece to that offense besides J-Ram.
And now and he's now in Arizona. You traded him away for a pitcher and you already have a lot of pitchers.
So I don't really know what you're doing if you're the Guardians.
And I know the Guardians, you know, they don't necessarily get all the clicks on the Internet.
But I mean, you made the ALCS like do something.
Like pitching wasn't your problem, I don't think, last year. Not at all.
Like yeah, Colossi had a pretty interesting playoffs. Yeah, he sure did.
It was electric that Kerry Carpenter home run was electric, but it wasn't your pitching. It was just your offense. It's just empty.
Yeah. And they haven't addressed it at all. So I think that's the that's if anything, they've actually gotten rid of offensive pieces.
They got worse in my opinion. Yeah, they did. I think the offense got worse. I agree.
Who else is going to hit besides J-Ram? Carlos Santana is like 42 years old. He's not doing that for you.
Yeah, he's they need some young guys to come up and do something. Kyle Manzardo, maybe.
I don't know. They're in an interesting spot. And then so are the Detroit Tigers.
I think there's more optimism in Detroit than in Cleveland. However, they also haven't done anything.
The rumor is, you know, they're in on Bregman talks. They're not going to give him more than what they've offered.
They've been in on a couple guys. I'm sure that they're probably talking to Flaherty a little bit.
Where do you stand if you're the Detroit Tigers, if you're their fans? How do you feel about this?
Because you have this amazing second half. You make the playoffs. You make it to the ALDS.
You're within a game of making the ALCS. You've got the best pitcher on the planet, in my opinion, right now.
How do you feel as a Tiger fan? Gleyber Torres isn't the answer. I can tell you that.
I can tell you that. Sending him to a one year contract is not the answer. I don't understand the contract.
Like, Gleyber Torres was not going to help you get over the hump last year at all.
It's the fact that you can't win a World Series without stars. You just need them, right?
The Diamondbacks a couple years ago, maybe they weren't as star heavy, but Corbin Carroll was.
I mean, he was probably the top three outfielder. Yeah, and they have Catel Marte still.
Catel Marte was great that year. Zach Gallans, phenomenal.
Zach Gallans great in the playoffs. Eric Kelly, all right. Decent bullpen.
Van Ginkle. That guy was electric in the playoffs.
And the Diamondbacks with the best offense in the league, right?
But the Tigers aren't. The Tigers win with grit. They just barely hang on.
It's all about pitching. It's using the bullpen in the perfect situation, which is great and all.
But at the end of the day, you got to hit the baseball to win the games.
That's why Dodgers just beat the brakes off on everyone, to be honest.
It's because they could just out hit you. That is the method. It's cute.
It's cute baseball what the Short Tigers are doing, but you're not going to win a World Series.
It is not championship baseball. And you have, like you said, the best pitcher in the league, but you're wasting him.
They don't have a number two. Who's their number two?
Could you tell me who the Tigers number two is right now? Reese Olson. Oh, gosh.
Alex Cobb. Oh, boy. Oh, you got to go get somebody, man.
I mean, even if it's an Alex Bregman, you reunite A.J. Hinch and Alex Bregman.
Like you spend a little money, guys, like take advantage of this window.
Alex Bregman and Jack Flaherty, you really do contend, in my opinion. I think so, too.
I think you contend for the A.L. Pennant. Yeah.
And maybe trade Spencer Torboson because he doesn't have any space on that. He has no value, though.
I don't know. I mean, he is no former number one all pick last year.
He had a great year in the second half. I mean, he had like thirty seven homers this year.
But he's still young enough if you get him behind a good hitting coach.
I think he still has potential, but the
Spenser Torboson. I was. I was because I had him and that got to your Linsanity run that he had last year.
You sure did. OK. Detroit is disappointing.
Detroit isn't. Yeah, is an interesting spot. We're going to keep going with the A.L. Central.
Now to Kenji, what he would describe as his favorite team.
We're trying to maintain some semblance of of non-biased.
But the Kansas City Royals also have been really quiet this offseason.
Kenji, I'm just going to leave the floor open.
Where I talk about him, you talk. You want me to talk about the Royals?
Yeah, because I'm going to get upset. I.
The Royals are in a weird spot because they have aging stars and the best young player in the sport.
The reason that they were contention last year is because Bobby Wood Jr.
was the best player on the planet, not named Shohei Otani.
I mean, well, Aaron Judge had a great year, too. Sorry, Aaron Judge.
Besides Shohei and Judge, Witt was the best player in baseball.
And Salvador Perez had a career year, which he seems to have all the time.
Salvador Perez just continues to hang around. He plays great defense.
He can hit the cover off the ball and he just continues to do it at a high level.
When Vinny Pasquentino was in there, they were great with scoring runs.
And they just kind of scrapped it together with pitching.
Paul Reagan's is amazing. Seth Lugo is amazing. Michael Walker held it down back there.
However, it feels like they're they're kind of just squeezing every last ounce out of these old guys.
And I don't know how viable it's going to be in the future.
Salvador Perez will inevitably drop off in production.
And when that happens, it's solely based.
It's basically entirely on Witt and Pasquentino and no disrespect to Vinny,
but he was hurt in the second half of the year and so you can't really bank on him being around a full 162.
So you look around and you're like you have one of, if not the best young player in baseball in Bobby Witt Jr.
And you really haven't added any pieces around him to help him succeed.
The Cole Reagans I love, but that bullpen Lucas Ersegg, aside from him, who do you have in the back end of the bullpen?
That rotation, you don't really know. I mean, I don't know what your confidence.
One guy I don't know. I don't know what your confidence level is on Michael Walker going into this season or Seth Lugo doing the same thing again.
I don't know, man. There's just so many question marks with the Royals.
And it's a shame because I mean, Witt is the best young player in baseball, in my opinion.
Yeah, absolutely. Without a doubt.
Go ahead, rip him a new one, Kench, rip him a new one.
It's just I don't I don't get it. I don't get it.
Kansas City should be like the hottest market in the world.
You have like two of like the greatest athletes.
You have Patrick Mahomes playing literally 10 feet away from your stadium, bringing in Super Bowls back to back, maybe a three-peat.
And then you also got Bobby Witt Jr.
Who I would say is, yes, the top three player in the league. Yeah, probably the player with the most potential in the league right now. Right.
What is he? Twenty three, twenty four. He's twenty four. Yeah. And he's got a ridiculously good contract.
Yeah, his contract. We're not going to get into that.
Not a contract pod. Live changing money. But, you know, come on, Soto.
But, yeah, it's just it hurts because I didn't expect the Royals to be as good as they were last year.
And it was great to see them go on this run.
And honestly, I do think we could have beat the Yankees if Witt would remember how to hit a ball.
He just forgot. So did Aaron Judge. So it kind of equaled out.
And it kind of exposed both teams, really exposed the Yanks and the Royals that without these two guys, they are literally nothing.
Yankees as good as you are, they are so reliant on Aaron Judge.
And yes, Juan Soto was there, but I mean, he probably just I don't know.
It's just it's upsetting to be a Royals fan.
There's free agents that I think would really change our team.
Yeah. So then let me ask you this of the guys still out there.
Who would you like to see the world realistically? Who do you want to see the Royals go grab?
I mean, I've had it before, but I would love Jerks and Profar.
Again, even if he's 75 percent what he was last year, I think it's a good thing.
I'd like I'd like I would say dump your whole money for Tanner Scott.
Give me a lefty bullpen guy. You know, really? Oh, yeah.
I think it's great. But I want a lefty. I want a lefty bat.
And you think is that important that they would forego some you would rather have Tanner Scott than an offensive piece?
I don't know. I don't know. I don't know.
I don't know. I don't know because I don't think they're going to do it.
But yes, Tanner Scott would be great. I think you just go all in this year.
I think you have to because like I said, those guys are aging.
These pictures are old. It's they're going to have to reset.
And honestly, I was thinking about this today, but I wouldn't be against if.
I would. I can't. I'm going to hurt myself.
There you go. No, please. I thought about this crazy scenario today.
Oh, boy. Yeah. So so the Blue Jays need to trade their superstar.
So I was thinking, well, why don't they trade them to the Royals?
You know, give me a give me a nice Vlad Jr. Bobby, what junior junior combo in Kansas City?
And we can send we'll give you Michael Garcia.
We'll give you Vinny Pasquantino and whatever other prospects you want,
because apparently they all suck in this organization because not a single one of them has ever been called up.
Or do I ever hear a single name from any of our organizations or farm system?
So how's how you really feel? Just trade them all.
Trade them all for Vlad and then give him whatever money he wants.
Give him 400 million. Sure. And then maybe we can actually have something against city.
But until then, I think we're never going to win a World Series.
For a while. I'm ready to get hurt again this year.
I think the Royals are really fascinating team because they have I mean,
you can't ask for a better player than Bobby with Junior and they've got cool Reagan.
So you have an ace, you have a superstar shortstop and you have a decent closer.
I would say Ersegg is OK. So you have essentially like three really solid pieces with Reagan's Ersegg.
And now it's just your job to spend a little bit of cash and go build around that core.
And they have it and they're just kind of letting their old veteran guys.
Where's all the money? Where's all the money? I don't know. Show me the money.
I listen. Baseball is better when the central is good.
And the three teams we just talked about all reside in the same division.
And the other two are the White Sox who won 40 games and the Twins who seeming seemingly just don't want to ever make a move ever.
So I don't know what to do with the central. I don't know what to do.
There's a reason that people call the AOMid people called the AOMid because it's just a lot of average.
Like I said, it's the question like do teams actually want to win the World Series or do these owners just want to make money themselves?
Do they understand that the reason why the Yankees can continue to spend all this money is because not all the reason,
but it's because they make it to the World Series. Right. When you go to the World Series, you make money.
You get so much money for going to the World Series. And if you win one, oh my gosh, you get more money.
You get more brand deals. You get more people wanting to work with you.
But if you're just doing if you're just being mid, nobody's going to want to work with you.
Basically, I'm going to give you money. So you might as well go all in as an owner. Right.
Like at least I can respect what the Mets owner is doing because he doesn't care.
He understands that money money grows on trees. Right.
It's just going to come back and he's expecting Juan Sutter to make him more money than he's paying him,
which honestly he might because New York's a great market and they'll win a lot of games.
But these teams, I just don't know. Like, are you just?
Why do you own a baseball team if you don't want to actually win the World Series? I don't understand.
Like, they're just so dumb. If I had crazy if I had the money they had,
even if I was like a like in the bottom five bottom ten of the richest owners,
I would still spend whatever I have to win games. I love baseball.
And I know that if I can get one good year, I would make so much money that I can continue to spend more money to make more money.
Owner Kenji in the building. Owner Kenji.
Obviously, it's probably not that simple, but I don't know, quit being cheap and open up your wallets.
They should. I mean, the Dodgers keep opening theirs up and they seemingly just find there's a little evidence of how it works.
It literally works. Yeah.
Well, over the three of the four teams that made the ALCS last or the championship series last year were the top three high spenders.
Yeah, they were top three high spenders.
It's just how it kind of works. And the Guardians.
Listen, they played the Tigers in the first round. Nobody's that excited about the Guardians.
I'm sorry. No, but that's that's it for our show today.
We're right about half an hour. So hopefully this is a good amount of time for everybody.
Easily digestible. We're going to tease.
Next episode we're going to do is a tier list using dating and wedding.
What do you want to metaphors to describe where these teams are at?
So we are walking down the aisle.
We have meeting the parents and you're going to have to watch the next episode in order to find out exactly where every team lands and then what the last category is, because I'm pretty proud of the name of the last category.
But that's all our content for today. We appreciate you guys listening to the show.
Happy New Year. Happy one month until spring training. Kenji, any last thoughts before we let the people go?
We are all ready to get hurt again.
Only one month, baby. Only one month to get my hopes up. Yep. Prepare for a fantasy baseball. That's right.
All right, everybody. Thanks for your time and we'll catch you next time. Bye.