I mean, this is a sport that's on the precipice of irrelevance.

The games are taking over three and a half hours. Playoff games are taking over 4 hours. Game's too long, too slow. Who cares? This is a situation where baseball is in trouble to begin with.

I hate to bring it to you.

Baseball's dead.

Baseball is dead.

Rest in peace.

I am very excited to be back. It's been a long break for us, but it was an unintended break. I feel like if it were up to us, we wouldn't have been gone for so long, but that's the nature of the beast. It was nice to have, like a week off, but then after a while, I'm like, it shouldn't get back and all that.

First and foremost, I want to give.

A special shout out to Jay danahe over at DK, because if not for him, we would have had to start over again and be like, what do we fucking call a show now? So he was very instrumental in us being able to keep baseball is dead, which is a big piece of what we got going forward. There will be merch coming, a lot of merch. I think the only time we had merch before was just like a single logo tee, but we're going to have a selection of baseball is dead merch coming your way within the next couple of weeks here. Shout out to underdog, our brand new home. We are very excited to be a part of the underdog family. They have already made us feel incredibly welcome, supported. We've got people that will be in expanded roles that they were not in before, even more so in the mix than they were in someone. Jeremy, who is doing our social clips.

Basically just in his spare time, he's.

Now employed by the company, so we will be able to pump out that baseball is dead content left and right. Jake on the ones and twos. He's obviously back.

J hey, you, sir, are very well.

In the mix this time around. Dallas is back. Joseph, here's the deal.

We weren't joking about Joey when we.

Entered the free agency space. We knew that he was going to be asking for Stephen a money, and people were like, what's the hold up?

What's the hold up?

And the answer, not to throw him under the bus, but Joey was the hold up. He was asking for Stephen a money big.

Yeah.

He's know we're doing three podcasts a week, so I want Stephen A's salary times three. And although that doesn't really make a ton of sense, what we ultimately landed on was that Joseph will just be doing Mondays.

Moving forward on baseball is dead just.

Because there's not enough money in the world to keep the lights. Salary demands.

Yeah, it's better that way because it's also less work. Yeah.

Better for, I think, everybody.

Yeah. Because we didn't have to pay Joey $25 million a year, that allowed us.

To hire the extra help for behind.

The scenes to make the baseball is dead engine run the way that we.

Know that it can.

And I'm very excited about that, to have that extra support being able to crank up. I've said it a million times, but section ten didn't blow up until we started pumping out the promo videos. And that was obviously missing. And we need that. People that have found us through YouTube.

Or through Twitter or through mean, the.

Proof is in the feedback. People fucking love the show. But I feel like we needed those extra assets to be able to get the show out to people that maybe weren't familiar with us. So we're going to have that now. And I'm very excited for that.

So that's number one.

Number two is that we will have another episode on Wednesday. This week. I know that the season, I mean, it hasn't officially started like a full slate. That's when we go to three episodes a week. It'll be Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, as we have been in the past this week, because it's still technically the offseason and we were doing one episode a week in the off season, we will be doing two because we have to use this episode to catch up on all the news that we missed, all the reactions that we didn't get to. And then Wednesday, as we have always done, dating back to the starting nine days, we will be doing our season predictions on Wednesday. And because I think you all know.

What the lead story is today with Shohei Otani.

On Wednesday, we will be reacting to the meet with the media that he'll be doing today. But we're recording at 11:00 a.m. On the east coast time zone. So it hasn't happened yet. So it's something that we can't react to because it hasn't happened yet. But we will have the reaction to that on Wednesday along with the season previews. Also an update from JHE.

I don't know if you would like.

To share that because everyone was asking what's going to become of the MVP segments now that the season is back? Is that still going to be a part of the podcast?

Well, good news.

They will continue but in my opinion.

In a way better format.

Yeah, I think some specific details still need to be worked out, but we're going to be bringing it to YouTube in a kind of a narrated video stats breakdown component. So it's going to feature all of the same high quality research that you've come to love from the MVP hindsight segments, but with way more production value and frankly, just more professionalism. And I think it'll be way more fun to consume than just listening to me talk about it. So I'm extremely excited about that.

That's one series that we have, I.

Think, very much in mind, and that'll be just the beginning. But, yes, that's the.

Yes. Yes.

So, Joe, we're stealing video essays from you.

There's a new video essay contributor in town, and it's rivals.

You won't become rivals.

I think so.

Yeah.

I think that's what's happening here.

Natural extension of the pod.

Yeah. Baines meter. I mean, the Baines meter probably could be a YouTube component.

Sue your ass for a billion dollars, dude. And I'd help him.

Oh, shit.

I'd fund the Baines lawyers to take the rival YouTube channel down.

Wow, that's fucked up of you.

The real reason why Joseph is going to just Mondays is because he is starting a second YouTube channel. Did you want to keep that private or did you want to talk about.

What the second YouTube channel is going to be?

Oh, they're going to have to wait and see, dude.

Okay.

Wait and see. All right, there's a tease.

Just wait and see.

Love that fucking international man of mystery, Joe.

He never tips his hand. He never tips his hand.

Comedy.

Yeah.

So I feel like we should probably just jump right into that.

To what? To what? What happened? What's going on? What's going on in the world of baseball?

Dallas has been going ultra viral over this Shohei Otani ipe gambling saga. So just to kind of, if you're in the dark on this, which if you're listening to this, you're obviously not, but we can provide a little bit of a timeline here. And then I'm going to kick it to Dallas Braden, who has been kind of at the forefront of the coverage of this story, just firing off tweets that are getting millions of views on the topic. So this dates back to 2013. EPA and Otani meet each other in Japan in 2013 and then 2018. Of course, as we know, that's when Otani comes to Major League Baseball and brings Epe with him. 2021. This is when Epay meets Boyer.

It's Boyer. We know that. Boyer. Boyer.

Boyer. So Ipe, who had allegedly been placing bets on DraftKings, meets Matthew Boyer, the bookmaker, at a poker game in San Diego. He later claimed to have believed it was legal to place bets with Boyer, which he supposedly did a lot. This is from Yahoo Sports. It's September. October. It's a little cloudy. 2023, a million dollars is sent to Boyer under Otani's name. Bank records show Otani's name on two $500,000 wire transfers sent to an associate of Boyer's. The description section of the transfers read, loan. One ESPN source claims that Boyer allowed people to believe Otani was a client to help his business. IPE later claims this was done after Otani agreed to cover four and a half million dollars of his gambling debts. Otani allegedly, quote, wasn't happy, but said he would do so to make sure that IPe would not do it again.

Otani was also said to have logged.

Onto his own computer and sent the wires under Epe's supervision.

Okay.

October 2023, Boyer's home is raided. It's rated by the federal authorities with a search warrant. Inventory showing agents seized cash, casino chips, banking documents, a money counting machine, multiple computers, portable storage devices, and cell phones. Then we come to December 2023. That's when Otani signs with the Dodgers for $700 million. As we know, most of it deferred 680,000,000 of that. January of 2024, the feds notice Otani's name in Boyer's operation.

Ooh.

Those same federal authorities learned that Otani's name is on the wire payments. Then, March 19, epay speaks with ESPN. ESPN eventually gets wind of the story and contacts Otani's camp while the star is in South Korea. Crucially, a spokesman tells ESPN that Otani transferred the funds to cover EPA's gambling debt, then makes EPA available for a 90 minutes interview in which he lays.

Out the supposed story.

And this is from the story. Obviously, he, Otani wasn't happy about it and said he would help me out to make sure I never do this again. Epay said he decided to pay it off for me. Quote, I want everyone to know Shohei had zero involvement in betting.

I want people to know I did.

Not know that this was illegal. I learned my lesson the hard way. I will never do sports betting ever again. Later, Otani's camp claims that this was all done after the players handlers spoke with him. While relying on Epe to translate, Otani supposedly remained in the dark about the situation.

March 20.

This is when fucking shit hits.

This is when shit hits the fan. Yeah.

So there's a lot that happens.

On March 20, Otani helps lead the.

Dodgers to a season opening five two win over the Padres. After the game, Dodgers officials call a clubhouse meeting and tell players a negative story is coming. Later in the day, Epe apologizes and admits he has a gambling addiction. Otani starts asking questions. Per the later ESPN report, an ESPN reporter asks the Otani camp about Epe's allegation that Otani was present and helped move the funds and that he was going to be paid back. Otani's spokesman contacts Otani's attorneys, then disavows Ipe's account. Otani's attorneys at Burke Bretler LLP released a statement.

Quote, in the course of responding to.

Recent media inquiries, we discovered that Shohei has been the victim of massive theft. We are turning the matter over to authorities. Ipe agrees to another interview with ESPN, but says he was told he could not comment. When asked if he has been accused of theft, he declines to say who told him that. Ipe then recants his story, claiming that Otani had no knowledge of his gambling activities or debts and that Otani did not make the wire transfers. The story is broken by the Los Angeles Times, which received the statement.

Then ibay is fired the next day. No comment from Otani. So that is.

Thems be the facts.

Yeah. You left out a crucial part.

And the fact that he said it was.

No. The fact that the spokesperson for Otani.

Provided a quote directly from Otani, that.

Is a detail that I feel like.

People are overlooking, that people are.

And I'm not telling you.

Oh, I sure do. Please. The spokesman provided ESPN with a quote by Otani. That quote? Yeah, I sent several large payments.

That's the maximum amount I could send.

End quote.

That is from an article by Sam Blum. It is so convoluted, for all of the obvious reasons.

He said, then he didn't say they said, and then they said they didn't say. Right.

And which way do you want to go? Who do you want to believe? That is ultimately the question that has to be answered because you can sift through all of the details of this stuff and everybody has a hypothetical. That's what we're all landing on is, well, it could be this or it could be that, and it's all based.

On the lies or the mistruths or the disavowed statements because. How do you want to boil it down?

I think it's important to understand the transactional phase of this and the legalities.

That go into that, because I want.

To make it as stupid simple as possible, because that's how I like to make things for myself. Yeah, it's just easier to understand.

So here's the deal. In California, you cannot use a bookie to gamble. You can go to the casino and gamble.

You can go to the casino and put your money up right away and gamble. You can go bet in the casinos. You can use the sportsbook in the casinos.

You can do all of that in the casino where the money is put up front.

That is how you can legally gamble.

In California.

What you cannot do is use a bookie who accepts bets on credit, meaning.

You can't log onto a computer, place a bet without transferring money, either winning.

Or losing that bet, and then receive payment or then give payment after the fact on credit. You cannot do that in the state.

Of California, which means if you are sending money to a bookie, that is illegal. It doesn't matter what you have bet on.

It just means that that actual transaction.

Is illegal to do. So for conversation's sake, ePay. Let's just say epay was gambling. Epay is gambling with Boyer, this bookie. That is illegal, and it's illegal to do simply because it's happening in the state of California.

So if epay wins a bet with.

That guy, he wins illegally.

If he loses a bet with that guy, he loses illegally. So if he pays the debt to.

That individual, that is technically an illegal.

Wire transfer, irrespective of whether or not he's betting, whether he's betting on horseshoes or whether he's betting on baseball, none of that matters. It's just the illegal activity of transferring money in the state of California to a bookie.

Can't do that. So let's say Shohei Otani is just being a great friend, and he gets.

On his laptop, his own personal laptop.

And wires that money to this bookie.

Because ipe said that there's no way Otani was going to trust him with that money.

So if Otani gets onto his computer and illegally wires money to a bookie in California, that is an illegal wire transfer. But Otani didn't bet on anything, so.

He'S not guilty of that.

He's not guilty of gambling. He would simply be guilty of an.

Illegal wire transfer, that there's a solid chance he might not have fully understood.

The mechanics of, because if he's not the one gambling, he probably wouldn't know the details of the difference between betting.

With a bookie in California or betting at a casino in California. He might not understand that.

So that's one perspective. Another perspective is, let's think about the connectivity and the relationship between a translator and the person that they're working for. Epay himself has said that he spends.

More time with him than his wife 365 days a year.

That's the kind of relationship they have.

So for the people who are wondering, well, you think epay is just going to have access to all this? Have you ever tried to wire a large sum of money? Have you ever?

I have. And you can do it if you.

Have the right information. You absolutely can do it if you have the right information.

It wouldn't take me.

It would take somebody, maybe who sounds.

Like me, a translator, to be able to sell that, to be able to.

Answer whatever questions, whatever codes that you have locked in. There's a solid chance epay knows that, solid chance he has access to that information. So this other scenario where Ipe is.

This diabolical scheme master is epay has access to all of his accounts, or.

To at least the accounts that he needs to get access to, to be able to run this gamut, to be able to do this. And so now when he locks in.

Otani, it's Otani covering his bets, and Otani's none the wiser. And he pays, sort of playing puppet master from the shadows.

That is where Otani's name being attached.

To this comes into play.

So I want to get everyone's reactions on this to kind of start. After all, the context is thrown out there.

But most likely what we're probably looking.

At here and we're throwing out hypotheticals. This is not an accusation.

It seems to be that Epe is.

The gambling addict that he claims to.

Be and that he racked up in.

A large amount of gambling debt. And that Shohei, in japanese culture, they are loyal to a fault. We will ride or die for you. If you are loyal to me, I am loyal to you to the end.

It seems to be that Shohei was.

Just like, I'm just trying to help out my friend. If he's guilty of anything, it seems like he is guilty of helping out his friend and being blissfully unaware that you legally cannot do that. Does anyone have a different interpretation of.

What they believe happened here? No, I think that, look, as much.

As you talk about being loyal to a fault, some of the other cultural things that you have to consider about this is gambling.

Gambling is huge in the asian culture. It is massive in the asian culture. So that is something where you might.

Not have known this about somebody beforehand, and then you find it out and.

You'Re like, oh, wow.

Okay. Because what I would ask is, who do you believe? And what accounts do you hold dearest closest to your heart? Do you believe epay telling you that Otani has never gambled, never gambles, doesn't do any of this?

It's all him?

Or do you then take what you just said about the cultural loyalty aspect.

And ask the question, well, could this be Otani? And could this be epay propped up.

To take the fall? Because it's Otani and we can't have this going on. So that's why I said you can look at it from two different perspectives. And the shitty part about it is.

Epay has given you enough dishonesty to.

Almost not be able to take his.

Admission at face value.

What's all this shit about him? Lying about what college he went to and lying about being the interpreter for the Red Sox in 2007?

What's all that just coming out now, too? That's crazy.

Well, no one with the Red Sox.

Was like, yo, by the way, never fucking heard of this guy before.

Well, we all know this. What is the first step to beating your opponent publicly?

Is to discredit them.

Right?

And I'm not telling you that that's the approach here. I'm just saying, in a game where it's all about image, in a game where it's all about perspective, who would you tend to believe?

An individual, an interpreter, who could very.

Well be in a position to be the most, like I said, most diabolical schemer behind the scenes, who has now had their statement disavowed and has admitted to lying. You then find out that that individual's past is checkered with lies about what they've done and who they've been and who they've worked with. So you went to Riverside. No, you didn't. You graduated from Riverside. The school's telling you they have no record of you. You were a translator for the Red Sox. The Red Sox. The last thing they need is to be us into this.

We got enough bullshit going on over here.

So the Red Sox are not. Had a. We didn't give this guy a paycheck. We have no idea what this dude's talking about. So how do you, like.

I'm more confused about. Why would you lie about things that are so easy to check? And so, like, saying that you worked for the Red Sox. It's one thing to lie about. Yeah, like, I used to work at, like, are they really going to be able to go badly? Which Costco. There's a million costcos. Say you are translator for an all star reliever on a World Series winner.

Hello?

We would fucking know.

Because I never knew that he worked.

For the Red Sox. I never heard that. Who was he supposedly translating for?

Hideki Okajima.

Okajima? Yeah.

There's a name attached to who he was potentially working with or who he's allegedly working with. And when that comes out and you start to dig through that, you're like, hold on.

What?

No, this isn't true. So what I'll say about that is, Jared, you don't necessarily. I mean, if you're one degree removed from who hires the translators and how does that interview go down and who does that happen? Like, do you know the individual who's responsible that for the Red Sox? Do you know who that person is right now, off the top of your.

Head, who the translator is or who would be hiring?

Who would be hiring, who would be entertaining the employment process of that.

Chance? You.

Well, no, what I'm saying is there's a chance you know this person in the front office, but you don't know that that's their job. You don't know that that would also be their responsibility. So what I'm kind of getting at is the world in which those people, the ones who are involved in hiring and firing translators and putting them in positions, I don't know that those people are crossing paths readily every day. And I don't know that there's a ton of back checking and making sure and fact checking that these people are who they say they are. I'm not telling you that that's cool. I'm just saying it kind of feels.

Like that's the case.

I mean, the article itself said that those media guide and those departments basically rely on self provided bios, the translator, which shouldn't surprise anybody, like, who thinks that these media departments are staffed to essentially be private investigators to verify the backgrounds of every bio that they're putting into the media. Guys, if you thought that was like, no, okay, now, you know it's not.

But to me, I'm all for Otani.

Being investigated or there being an investigation, whether that's MLB kind of doing this sideline thing or the FBI or the IRS or whatever is appropriate, that's fine. But I think it's much more likely that this translator is an individual bad actor than it is that Otani, UC.

Riverside, the Dodgers, the Red Sox, the.

Yankees and Hideki Okojima and these government bodies are teaming up and conspiring to ruin the good name of an otherwise innocent translator. That's much, much more unlikely, in my opinion.

But the biggest suspicious thing is that the guy had 4.5 fucking million dollars of gambling debt making.

Five hundred k a year.

They're saying.

Well, they said his first year salary was 85 grand.

85 grand.

But on top of the 85 grand, you got to know that Otani is tipping him out. So there's a cash exchange going on there that nobody knows about. Let's just know that, okay? 85 grand from the angels.

Thank you. Here's a cash tip or a salary or a stipend from Otani as well. That's real. Okay? From there, think about the world of gambling and bookies and how they operate.

And to which degree you're willing to sink your hooks in to secure a payday.

Let's just role play here, Jared. Let's say you're Shohei, Joe. Let's say that you're Epe, the translator, and Jhe and I are a couple of bookies. Well, guess what? We know who your best friend is. I know who your road dog is.

So I know who you're close to.

I know who you're attached to. Now, pardon the phrasing here, pun intended.

It might be a bit of a gamble on the part of Jhe and.

I to extend your leash, Joe, but.

The reason we're going to do that.

Is because we know who your friend is, and we'll do whatever we got to do to make that valuable.

So if that's giving you an opportunity to try to cover your $20,000 losses up to this point, by giving you an opportunity to throw 50k down or whatever it is, fuck, let's talk about it. Absolutely, man. Absolutely. And let's remember everything that Jhe just said about this translator and the deceit surrounding this individual. He has no problem. It sounds like telling the bookie that Shohei's on board. Shohei will cover.

It's all good.

Or maybe something to that extent. So when you're asking how would a bookie allow somebody to build up that much debt? Just slow those words down and say.

It a little softer, and then you'll.

Realize, oh, a bookie who's after money would absolutely let this debt accrue so that they get the bigger number.

That's how that happens.

Also, it appears to be like a really acute lie, too, as it relates to his employment claims with these people and attending UC Riverside. They're not saying that he was there and didn't graduate. They're saying he never attended UC Riverside.

Okay? Period.

It's not the Red Sox saying that. I think the first part was that he was with the Yankees first right through that pre spring training portion of spring training before it actually starts, and then claimed that he was the translator for spring training. And then the Red Sox claim was that he was specifically the translator for Hideki Yokojima, where Sam Blum, I believe, and whoever else was involved in the athletic article that talks about this could not find any evidence that. It's not like he was referenced as the translator for Hideki Okojima in the Boston Globe or in post game write ups or something like that. And now they're disavowing or distancing themselves from that. It was another man who was referenced as the translator for Hideki Okojima that season. And there's no evidence or no record that Mizuhara was the translator, as he claims to. So, like, I'm not dismissing the idea. I'm not trying to take sides necessarily.

But.

As time passes, there is an increasing amount of evidence that one of these people may be a bad actor and the other person may be, like, the 10,000th rich athlete to be taken advantage of by somebody close to them. And I'm not dismissing that. It's more nefarious than that. But that's where we stand right now, as far as I'm concerned.

Here's a question, though, all right?

And because, look, there might be one other dude on the Internet who doesn't.

Want to see Shohei Otani wrapped up in this shit as much as I do, okay? But I'm trying to just ask all of the logical questions that I think you have to. And I'll be honest, dude, part of this, the reason that this has stuck with me is because I went through something very similar, didn't have anything to do with gambling, but I was stolen from by a very close family friend, father son combination.

And I found out. And when I found out, buddy, let me tell you. But there's no other feeling like being.

Lied to and deceived to that extent.

By people that you trust wholeheartedly.

And so going through that has put my defense up and put my radar up tenfold.

So I'll ask you this because I know what I did the minute that I had suspicions, and I know how I handled things. We have yet, and maybe it's happened.

Today, I don't know. But we have yet to see a.

Police report or an official report from Otani's camp? From Otani himself accusing Ipe Mizuhara of the massive theft.

Well, what about the video of them in the dugout in Korea? Like, laughing together? The day that he addresses the clubhouse to say, I have this gambling addiction and yada yada. And then we hear the two different versions. Now it's a theft.

Remember, Jared, the first version, I read you the quote from the spokesperson for Otani who was admitting. I'll read it again.

Knowingly making payments versus. Nope. He actually stole this shit and I knew nothing about, like, that.

Changed on the same that.

And so the images that we see are the relationship.

Read it again. Read it again.

Hold on. The relationship that we see unfold in the video that you're referencing is one where both guys are jovial, happy, laughing with each other.

Right? And the quote from the spokesperson provided to ESPN by Otani says, yeah, I.

Sent several large payments. That's the maximum amount I could send. That's from Otani.

According to Otani's spokesperson.

Okay, so when I ask you, where.

Is the legal trail starting, what do we know?

Do we know that Otani and his.

Camp have filed a legal dispute? Have they filed anything accusing anybody of this? Or is it just a verbal?

This is massive theft.

We're going to dig into it, we'll.

Investigate it, and based on our findings, that's when we'll start throwing around accusations. That's when we'll start filing stuff.

Is that what they're doing?

Because that's what a lot of people have thought about.

Well, if they know who did it.

Then why haven't they pursued that individual? And then that's where the questions to epay come in. Epe, who's telling you you can't talk to us, right?

Say, can't say. What do you mean you can't tell us? Is that coming from a legal entity?

Is that coming from an investigative entity? Is that coming from major league baseball? Is this coming from Otani's representatives? Do you have representatives? Who's telling you that you cannot.

Oh, and I would just ask again, who does Otani's people think it is? If there hasn't been anybody's name blurted.

Out, who do they think the massive.

Theft is done by?

Joseph, you made a TikTok video about this, but I feel like you have. Your TikTok formula is more so, like, here's the information. What do you guys think? I want to know what Joey thinks on this. After sifting through the information, reading the articles, seeing the quotes. How do you dissect this as a show? Hey, aficionado yourself.

I think it's really eye opening to see epay in this light. I think he makes kind of epay look kind of cool in some ways because he is kind of cool for that a little bit, even though he did allegedly steal a lot of money from Shohei, which is not cool.

Not cool.

But I also, like, Dallas was saying when Epe made that original quote, like, shohei paid off my, uh, he did that interview with Otani's team. Like, they heard him say that Otani paid it off.

Like, they're kind of already admitted that.

Otani paid off some of the debt.

Like a million dollars.

Right? Two payments of $500,000. They kind of already admitted, if that's what they're trying to shy away from, they've kind of already admitted that he.

Paid off some of that debt, which.

Makes me think, why would they lie about him paying off the rest of it?

Because they're scared of, and understandably so scared of what the commissioner could do.

Yeah, because they admit the first one, then they should have known that back then. Like, I don't want to admit shit.

Why? Because if they don't know the legal ramifications, if they don't know the arena.

That they're playing in, then they don't.

Know that that's wrong. So not until they find out that you can't send money to a bookie in California. That's when they're like, oh, shit. Oh, shit. Hold on. This went from Otani being a good dude and just doing a solid to. Even if that is the case, legally, he can't do that. Fuck. What can happen? This is gambling. We got it. Because here's the one thing. The one thing that makes all of.

This a big deal, the one thing.

Is if there is forensic evidence of baseball being gambled on, that is the one thing that changes everything.

Correct.

But did they not make it a point to say that baseball was nothing? They did not gamble on baseball.

But who told you that? Epay told you.

So that's the whole point. And remember, what they're saying is some of the information and some of the statements made by Otani's team, they were still, at that time relying upon the.

Translation of.

A hard time.

I have a hard time believing that they didn't know when they allowed epay to say that. That could be like, are they fucking stupid? This guy's being investigated by the Federal Investigative Bureau of Investigations.

The Federal Investigation Bureau of Investigations. Jhe what were you going to say?

To me, it just feels like a guy, like, from Otani's perspective, it feels like a guy who was realizing in basically real time, real time that he was getting snowed in some. I don't know exactly what shape that took, whether it was he thought he did his friend a solid and he realized that his friend scammed him. He thought that something that he did was legal, when in actuality it was illegal. He got bad advice. And that's why the first statements are contradictory with the statements that came after that, whatever it is, but it doesn't.

Like you almost have to believe that.

He'S maybe the dumbest man in the history of the world and then decided halfway through to stop being the dumbest man or to try to backtrack on being the dumbest man, when in actuality, I think it's much more likely that he didn't realize the full extent of the situation, whether that was a translation issue or whether that was just an information gap issue like it is in a lot of these cases. But that, to me, feels like what his legal responsibilities are, I don't know yet. I mean, all the articles about it bring up the Jared Kozart precedent, where it's basically commissioner's discretion, as you guys sort of alluded to, and he was fined as opposed to any sort of great world altering thing. But obviously, as you guys said, if it involves baseball, which Cozarts apparently did not, that changes the math. But it just feels like Otani got snowed on this a little bit.

Otani could be betting, like I said.

Otani himself could be betting in California.

If he goes to a casino and places those bets, Otani could be betting in Florida on whichever website he would choose to.

And he could bet on horse races.

He could bet on tiddly wings, he could bet on whatever they have available.

He just can't bet on baseball.

So if you put him in California, what he's done, that's the only reason it's legal. It's illegal based on geographical location.

That's it. That is it.

If it has nothing to do with baseball, that's the only thing he could be guilty of. If he indeed is, the gambler is doing so illegally in the state of California through a.

Through. If you're in illegal in Virginia, you can bet on draftkings, but if I went through a bookie in Virginia, wouldn't that still be illegal? If they're not authorized through the, uh.

That sounds right, Joe, but I can't speak on that because I don't know.

The terms in Virginia.

So based on the theory of that, that's the idea is it's not regulated. It's not a regulated sports book. It's just a. Yes, but I'm just talking about specifically in the state of California, because that's what people are talking about. They're like, well, I can bet here and I can bet there, and you're right.

But in Cali, you cannot.

And that's what this whole thing is about.

So to bring it all together, if it is Epe who's doing the betting.

And there is baseball that gets tied.

Back to their accounts, that's a shitstorm.

Because now, if you wanted to, you could start to make the argument that there's inside information being disseminated. You mean to tell me the translator lives with this guy and they're not having conversations? The translator is in the clubhouse, in the rooms with these guys, and he doesn't have insider information. That becomes really hard to deny at that point. So the last thing I want to.

See in this case is that there be any baseball involved whatsoever.

I pray to God it's fucking cheerleading championships that epay just can't get away from. And that's what led us here.

I don't know the fuck out of you, dude.

This guy has $4.5 million in gambling that lied about everything. Maybe he might put one fucking bet on the fucking Yankees.

Because what is the whole, like, everybody's theory is, and I understand it, what do you do if you're down bad? Well, you go to what you know. You play what you know. Right. And so what would that be for epay, the guy who spends 365 days with the greatest baseball talent the world has ever known? I'm guessing that might be baseball. But Epay does fancy himself a soccer fan, but he obviously doesn't know who's.

Good or who's bad. Yeah.

The other thing, too, is that people were immediately putting on the tinfoil hats and saying that Ipe is the fall guy and that Shohei is the one with the gambling addiction, that Shohei is making these bets, and he obviously can't go down for it. So Ipe's taking the fall.

But if we look at the character profile of Shohei Otani, this is an.

Individual that lives, breathes, exists only for baseball. And even though look at the contract that he just signed, $700 million, but he deferred 680,000,000 of it. And from one of Joe's videos about Shohei wasn't he getting paid like a ton of money, but he took an allowance from his parents and was still living in the door. It just doesn't come off as someone that maybe you're in it for the rush. But as far as winning and the money that you have isn't enough, none of that fits the DNA of who Shohei Otani has been.

But, Jared, you could say as far as the DNA stuff, couldn't you say that to an extent about a guy like Michael Jordan who had everything, who.

Feels like he was addicted to winning? Shohei chose to play for the, those.

Are, those are two very different things. We all know why Shohei did that and it worked out beautifully. I told you why he did it. He did it to show the world just how much better he was than the greatest baseball player we touted and it turned into 700. That's exactly why he wanted to live.

In 700 mil City as Ben Verlander. We all know why he went to LA.

Yeah, but Michael Jordan was the Jordan brand with Shohei. What was the story about new balance Brown?

Yeah, no one gives a fuck.

What was the story about Shohei in the, in the, in the money that.

Shohei lived in the team dorms, I think pretty much his whole time in Japan when he really didn't have, and.

He was making x but took y.

What were those numbers?

I think his mom gave him $1,000 a month. Like, he spent something like 20k over.

He spent like a thousand.

I forgot he was making millions of dollars a year and getting paid like $1,000 a month allowance.

Right. Am I saying it's impossible? No, but based on the character DNA of who Shohei Otani has been from a financial standpoint, it doesn't add up that he's the one that's placing bets. I would be shocked based on who he is.

If Shoey Otani is throwing major league baseball games and reaping the financial rewards through Mizahara or whatever, and he's like this degenerate gambler, I will happily get back on this podcast and apologize. That would obviously be devastating scandal and we would spend weeks talking about that.

But, like years. Yeah, well, that's what is kind of like.

So here's the thing, though.

Do we know the total amounts won and lost for this account, whatever account, whoever this account might be attached to?

We know that Otani has covered, allegedly.

$4.5 million worth of losses.

We don't know how much money has been won over that time, and we.

Don'T know how that money has been won either. To Jhe's point is Otani throwing baseball games. Well, you'd like to think that he wouldn't be covering a four and a half million dollar loss and he'd be making money if he was impacting those games. So that's one thing to think about.

Yeah, that's just fathomable to me. What is any of that like, the.

Idea that he would throw baseball games either for himself or for.

Don't you think it's more unlikely that he's putting it on fucking college football?

I don't know. That was the other crazy part. Was it the ESPN story that was like, Shohei Otani doesn't even follow other sports. And then people dug up him sitting courtside at a basketball game. He's wearing a football jersey like, he's like throwing a.

Rams game. He was at the Rams game because he signed with the Dodgers. And they're like, yeah, go do this la celebrity thing.

Yeah. That was a poor defense to use.

He was bullshit die hard Rams fan his whole life.

Yeah.

Even when they were in St. Louis.

Loved.

He was.

He was torn up about the Jim Everett, Chris Everett, Jim Rome fiasco.

Yeah.

By the way, I'm not going to call Max for this because he's just.

Going to slander Shohei, and I don't want.

That's for another. Yeah. So that's for another day. I think ultimately, people just really need to.

I'm with everybody here. If we see zero baseball involved, then.

For me, what that does is it makes it really easy to go.

Yep, no baseball involved.

Shohei either got robbed or tried to.

Do a solid, but at no point.

Is there any nefarious activity on the.

Behalf of Shohei Otani.

I mean, now, it goes from like.

All right, Shohei is helping you cover.

Your gambling debts to federal prison by stealing millions of dollars. If that's the story you want to go with. I feel like I don't know what the punishment. I'm going to act like I know.

The law on this, but I don't.

Think the punishment would be as bad for illegally gambling and having your buddy pay your debts versus I stole $3.5 million from one of the most famous athletes in the history of the planet.

And cover illegal gambling debts, Jared, that's why, again, man, that's why.

Asking questions on both sides, I feel like people kind of don't want to ask some of those questions because they don't want to think about what the answer could potentially be.

I got a question go ahead for the squad, but mostly Dallas, like the bookie who's getting fucked. Mr. Bauer?

Not Bauer.

Boyer.

They already said that he had no contact with Shohei at all. Would there be any reason for him.

To lie about that?

Unless mob has a gun to his.

Head, like, don't fucking know.

No.

And now here's the thing, is, that.

Could be 100% true. He never spoke to Otani, never anything.

But legally, forensically, what exists.

A connection between them? So whether he wants to come out and say, verbally, they had no interaction and physically they never met, those two.

Things can absolutely be true. But to the forensics department, who's tracking all of this down, they're looking at.

The numbers and the data and saying.

Well, we see communication between you and Otani.

So you might not have spoken to him, you might not have hung out.

And had lunch, but.

You got connectivity here. And then that's where, you know, that.

Could very well be epay having access.

To all of the information necessary to set up accounts and to start filtering.

Money through these accounts.

That's a very real possibility. That's a very real possibility. And so epay is now putting Otani's.

Name on it instead of his own because he doesn't want to get in trouble, because he knows how this goes.

Because he grew up in diamond bar, California, and he has been an avid.

Gambler for how long?

So he knows that he can't be sending money to an illegal bookie in California, and he definitely doesn't want to.

Do it under his name. But now that it comes about, well.

He'S got no choice. He's got to make a decision. Do I throw the fucking man under.

The bus or do I try to get away with it? I'm going to try to get away with it.

Now that the league has launched an.

Investigation, you know that they're not going to find anything.

They're going to intentionally not find anything. And if that's the precedent, is that it's just a fine. They may fine Shohei for association, but they're not going to suspend this guy. They're not going to put that scarlet letter on their golden goose. It's not going to result in anything catastrophic. Their findings might be catastrophic, but I don't believe that they'll see the light of day and they'll slap a fine on them just to say we did something about it. Because I think it would be an.

Even worse look if the investigation came.

Back and they were like, yeah, no, this dude's clean. I didn't have any knowledge of this whatsoever. They're just going to have to levy some sort of punishment for the association for being involved, whether knowingly or unknowingly. And they'll just be like, all right, $500,000. We're going to fine you a million dollars or whatever.

So it's like Otani has to, in.

Some way plead no contest where he's not admitting guilt.

He's going to pay a fine and move on.

And then we're all done.

Everything's all good, and we go to.

Bed with no answers of who we thought stole the money.

We go to bed with no answers on who's been telling epay to not say anything. We go to bed with no answers.

On how did Otani come out and admit that he was making these payments.

And then end up in a place where he's been completely robbed. We will have no answers to any of those questions.

That documentary is going to be fucking awesome.

Just give him a chance to address the media today. Maybe we will have answers.

Yeah, that's true. He better cry.

I don't know.

Everyone's caught up in all the, like, what does this mean for the sport? Could show I get a ten. But it's like, the sad part is to see these two boys. These guys are best friends, and now they can't be friends anymore.

Yeah.

His wife unfollowed him on instagram.

Well, I mean, that could be the.

Honestly, that could be the issue. This guy gets fucking married, his whole life crumbles down. And I've been saying this, that's why you don't have families and shit. Because as soon as this guy gets married, and that's another topic for discussion.

Whether that's real or not, who I pay or Otani.

Who are you talking about, Joe?

Otani's fake wife. That's not real.

I knew you were talking about. We'll see.

Timing. Hey, that timing was very suspicious. Dude didn't have a girlfriend. Dude didn't have engagement pictures or an announcement. Dude didn't have a wedding announcement.

It was just like, Tada.

Here's my wife. We're married. So, Jerry, I know that this story is coming out really soon. It's going to be very like that part of it. That's a good point, Joe. I had that thought the other day and I was like, that is odd that she just randomly appeared as his already wedded wife.

Already wedded wife. And this is a dude who's free agency.

I want to see the marriage records. Dallas, when did they get married?

I don't know.

Provide me a marriage record.

I think it's right next to Helen Ruth's death certificate.

Yeah.

Her fucking ashes. And she wasn't cremated.

What you have to consider is how.

Secretive and how close to the vest.

Was his free agency played, right?

Nobody knew anything.

Nobody knew anything.

He did a great job of keeping all of that information, and his camp did a great job of keeping all that information in house. The world didn't know about a fucking.

Wife like his friends probably knew.

But to the point where this is public, and they're not. No tie whatsoever, whatsoever. So when it comes to being able.

To keep things close knit and keep them tight, he's had success in doing that. He's pretty good at it, and they've.

Been tracking his ass down. And from what? My research from Japan, the paparazzi in Japan surrounding celebrities. It's like America times ten.

They're crazy. Yes.

Which is why I promise you, I am going to venture to guess there will be easily over 200 media members waiting for Otani today when he's going to speak.

Oh, man. We just can't have our sport not.

Involved in an active scandal. We just can't do it.

It's been going on for years. Epay, man, of all people.

Baseball games with a side of scandal. That's the last ten years of major league baseball.

Some of it's good for the sport, though. I will say that the Astros cheating scandal was great for the sport. I know people are like, it was the worst thing that could ever happen in the sport. That put asses in seats for years. People were like, oh, the Astros are in town. I'm going to go. Boo. They didn't really even personally.

They got Dusty Baker. World Series, baby.

Yeah, that's true. Yeah.

You guys want baseball?

Love is a good scandal.

Yeah. Goddamn.

Do we need to.

Astros.

What, was Manfred behind the Astros?

Oh, yeah.

Well, did it go to the very top?

Manfred is about to have his legacy defined by this investigation, I think.

Well, this is a.

Can make a statement. Ban Shohei Otani from baseball. You got a hero for life.

Think about it.

Think about it. The lockout, the rule changes, the cheating scandal. The cheating scandal. And now this. Yeah. That's a hell of a plate.

Feel like we're two or three, too, also.

Oh, easily jay the a rod.

Shit, like maybe little.

Suing the fucking union. Oh, man.

Yeah.

Like, there is. There was a lot on Uncle Manford's plate.

Piece of.

How many years? What did he announce for his. Oh, yeah. Piece of metal. What did he announce his retirement five years from?

Yeah. Yeah. The old half a decade retirement tour. Yeah.

Just signed a five year extension. Also, want to take this time to let you know I'm going to be done in five years.

Yeah.

Okay. Yeah. I was going to say, do we need to. We can't necessarily put a bow on this, but, yeah, still very open ended today.

We'll reveal a lot more.

And I think even if there's a.

Bunch of non answers, those are probably.

Going to answer for a lot of people. Some of the questions that you might have, and then when you hear him.

Either clarify them or continue to allow.

Them to be vague. You will arrive at your own personal answer.

Any predictions for the press conference today? You think he's going to say, these were my bets? He's going to get shoe? I mean, he's going to get ipe out of prison. Do you think he's going to actually.

Answer questions or is it going to be like a just statement? It's got to be.

It's going to be a statement that I'm sorry that this has been a distraction. I don't want this. This is the last thing I wanted for my teammates. We're focused on winning a World Series.

So at this time, I'll have to.

Let the investigation play out. I don't have anything else to say on this matter. What else could you have him say? If you're his attorneys and you're already living in a world where you've had to tell the world that he admitted to doing this, and then you've had to go right back out and walk that back, man. So you better have your fucking play correct. Everybody's pitchcom better be working.

It sucks, dude. I can't believe epay.

I can't believe they got.

That's. That's the other thing about this is in my interactions with ePay since 2018.

Like, the dude has been nothing but cool, right?

Nothing but cool. I told the story on the podcast about how I gave him and Otani shirts of the Bart map from San Francisco to Oakland when they missed the Bart train and Otani couldn't start. I gave him those shirts in the clubhouse, and we joked and laughed and had a good time. I used to talk to the dude all the time when Otani was in.

The gym working out because our elevator to go up to the booth is.

Right there, and I'd just be hanging out, talking to guys, and fucking Epe is one of the dudes that I'm hanging out talking.

He was he was fucking peppering you for information.

That's true.

You had no fucking idea. Dude was milking your ass for years.

I kind of hope Dallas gets named.

In the investigation at this point.

That'd be great for the pod.

For real.

It's like, we have it on good authority that EPA obtained insider information from Oakland A's broadcaster, Dallas Braden. Three and a half million of the four and a half million owed were placed on Oakland A's games, which we found very suspicious.

He kept betting on the A's.

Dallas.

Is going to go off tonight. Yeah, kept going. Hammer JJ, baby, you beat me to the.

Yeah. Yeah.

Take the overall strikeouts, Polly. Punchouts is on the mountain, baby.

That's going to be tough.

I hope you don't end up in a Dallas, but right now it's pretty.

You know, I think I'm probably going to be okay.

Yeah.

That's what someone in your position should say, so God help you. We'll find out more information.

I've been watching the clips, and I.

Will say, like, I was very worried about this affecting Shohei's performance because you know how much I love Showhay, and I put a lot of money on him getting 30 this year, but he looks like he's in high spirits. Every time they get a video of this guy, like, going home from Korea, hanging out with angels guys, he looks like he's chilling. He doesn't even give a fuck about ipe.

He's focused on baseball, which is.

I like to see that. And also, we got reports from Japan.

That they were hearing him. He was getting angry in the clubhouse in Korea when he found out, because they're saying that Epe gave the speech, and that's when it came to Shohei. I don't know if this is true, but Shohei was yelling in the.

Like, show. Hey, just the size of that is he is a dude who you're like, you can't piss that guy off. We don't want to piss that guy off because he probably has to go to a place mentally to get angry that it's going to take a while.

To pull him out of.

You don't want that dude losing his shit and snapping on a room full of people because there's going to be some fucking injuries.

People are going to be bleeding.

There's going to be broken bones.

There's going to be trouble.

I got it from the tweetsoku news. Pretty trusted source out of Japan.

Pretty trusted.

Also, Ben Verlander hasn't tweeted in two.

Uh oh. He's probably linked as well. He was probably giving him information about the Astros.

Jared, you are just throwing motherfuckers. Who else should they look at? Who else should they look? Connections.

The connections are pretty damning. I mean, Ben Verlander is an obvious one, like giving inside information to bet on his brother's games. And then you are another obvious one, like you were hanging from Shohei's nuts.

Like, six years ago.

Like, anything you can do to get into the show.

I was hanging from his international nuts before his nuts became american.

Yeah.

I would investigate the both of you.

Immediately, and then that's what it probably was, was.

Dallas will pretend to shit on Ben Verlander, but really, they have, like, a little conglomerate going. They've been in cahoots the whole time.

Trying to make it seem like they're be.

Could this be where we really start.

To make headway on the mascot cocaine ring?

The mascots could be providing inside information.

To epay, clearly, and where there's smoke, there's coke.

There's coke.

Where there's smoke, there's coke. Well, all right. We'll find out more about that. We'll have a reaction on Wednesday to.

The statement that we're assuming is going to happen.

Probably not a question answer type deal, but blue moon is back. Shout out to blue moon.

Thanks for coming with us.

We love you.

We appreciate all of your support.

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Okay, I feel like this is where.

We'Re really going to have to lean on. Obviously, Jhe Dallas's memory, someone who consumes the amount of marijuana as he has over the years, his memory is not his strong suit. We have about a month's worth of topics to kind of catch up on and give some takes on. I know Dallas only has about an hour left before you got to go catch a bus, a train, a plane, a helicopter.

Where are you going?

Going to the bay. We got game one of the Bay series. Not really the Bay series. Game one of the two game set between the A's and Giants that we play every year before we kick off the regular season. So that's going down today. Game one in the town, game two.

Tomorrow in the city. Wow. Well, I'll be damned.

So we've got a few topics that.

We wanted to hit on.

Do we go in order? Like, obviously I'll let jhe pick.

Do you want to talk about the. Oh, we didn't.

You have Blake Snell signed while we were gone. We have the Garrett Cole injury. We have Jackson holiday not making the Orioles opening day roster. The new rules. What tickles your fancy?

You're letting me pick? Yeah.

I want to talk to Giants then. And we can lead with Blake Snell for that.

Okay, let's do it.

Did they win the offseason? Jhe wow.

That's what people are saying.

I think it's a great example of an opinion of a team's offseason evolving over the course of an, you know, I can be as pro player as I want to be, but at the end of the day, the Giants approach to kind of waiting out free agency worked really well for the team side, and they got a lot, you know, while it started off with the Jordan Hicks thing, and I think a lot of people were looking at it at least a little bit sideways. It just kind of kept getting better with every subsequent transaction that they did and to cap like Jung Ho Lee, Jorge Solaire, Matt Chapman, and Blake Snell. And if you add in Jordan Hicks, they spent about $300 million in total outlay to land those five guys. That is making your team appreciably better. And you don't have to think that Blake Snell is ever going to win a Cy young again. To think that getting him on a two year deal at $31 million a pop, that's a great Giants side deal, and we can talk about the Blake Snell side, but that's a great contract for the San Francisco Giants, and it fits a really key need atop that rotation with.

And, you know, we can talk about the Matt Chapman stuff. I'm a huge, like, I just love what that did with the left side of their infield with him and Nick Ahmed and how groundball heavy their staff is with Logan Webb and Jordan Hicks and everybody. Many other people that are going to be heavily featured in that just. They looked like early losers when they telegraphed their interest in big name guys and didn't get those guys. And by the end of free agency in the offseason, they look like unquestioned winners. And I think you could credibly argue them, as Dallas said at the very beginning, as the winners of the offseason, that's where I wanted to start.

Wow.

And that's a hell of a starting.

Place, jhe, because these dudes went out.

The Giants went out and got better in virtually every area that they needed to get better in. That's the other thing, right? When you are able to supplement their lineup with what they did, we're talking speed ball and play bat to ball contact. That's opportunities. That's guys on base at the top of the lineup. Inter grandson of the wind.

Jung ho li.

Grandson of the Wind.

I mean, that is just the most balletous fucking nickname that there will ever be for a baseball player. I'm sorry. Everybody else, pack it in. It's over.

Contract.

Was it like his dad's nickname is.

Son of the wind, right?

Was son of the wind.

Yes.

So he's grandson of the wind. Daddy's fast. I'm fucking fast, too. Don't blink, bro, because it's quick. Shit's quick. But you've got that at the top of the lineup. And now you plug in some solar power. Now you plug in Chappie on defense. And as streaky as he is, right, I've called him the Will Ferrell of this lineup here. Ready to go. Streaking.

You just don't know when, but you.

Hope you got your green hat, because when it's hot, it's fucking hot with chappie. All right, Nick Ahmed, gobble it up defensively, whatever you're going to get offensively from him, that's great. But I have long said that if you are a lover of baseball and a lover of mechanics, you need to buy a ticket and show up early to the game to watch Nick Ahmed go about his business. Defensively plug in a two time Cy Young award winner in Blake Snell to go with a guy who's finishing at the top of that Cy Young race in the webslinger Logan Webb.

I just love the way you characterized it in that they literally addressed every possible weakness that they had this offseason. They were a deficient defensive team in key spots. They addressed that. They didn't hit the ball hard with any power last season in key spots. They addressed that and they needed impact starting pitching at the top of the rotation and they addressed that. I don't know that any of this is enough to overtake the Dodgers, but I feel like much more confident about the Giants as a postseason team right now, even if Snell is a little bit late getting into the flow of things to start the like. This to me is a massively improved I just with Bailey and Ahmed and Chapman and what we think Jung Ho Li is going to be defensively like in those key up the middle spots. I'm just extremely Tyro Strada who might have been their best defensive player over a full season last year. I'm very enthusiastic about where this ended.

About oh, go ahead, Jerry.

To Jhe's point, are they good enough.

To be better than the Dodgers? No, but it's a very interesting division outside of the division winner, because now you have a situation where the d backs, the Giants and the Padres pretty much all have equal playoff odds. And it's right on the fence of like, you're not going to call it a guarantee, but going into play on.

Opening day, the Diamondbacks 44.4% chance to make the playoffs, the Giants 43.9%, the.

Padres 42.6%, the Rockies, unfortunately, 0.1%. But you have the Dodgers, who are more than likely going to win that division, and then you have three teams with, I mean, almost identical playoff odds. And then you look around the rest of the league and you're like, all right, we've got three spots in the same division, like the Phillies 56.1 as a second place team.

Look at what he wins.

It's going to be a dog fight. Go ahead, Jay.

What do you got? The percentages speak to something else, too, which is that you have four out of five teams in that division really attempting to win baseball games in 2024 at a very high level. Like Dodgers are foregone conclusion. We didn't know which way the Padres offseason was going to go, and I know we're going to get to their transaction later, but they made a move that can only be interpreted as we're still interested in winning baseball games in 2024 in the Dylan Cease trade. The Arizona Diamondbacks offseason hasn't changed since the last time we talked.

Other than that, their main free agent.

Signing in, Eduardo Rodriguez, is going to be sidelined for a little while, but they're still investing in the runner up. They're trying to win games. And now you have the Giants, who a lot of people, myself included, were questioning about how are they improving this roster? Where have they gone from that 100 plus win juggernaut that overtook and won the division a couple of years ago? Now we have answers, and it looks.

A lot better now.

Now I want you to think about this, too, because I think this is a great segue into the Boris clientele Jordan Montgomery individual who hanging out there for a lot of the reasons that you guys have just highlighted. So when you think about how close that division is outside of the Dodgers, would it stand a reason that Jordan Montgomery could very well be a viable option for some of those other teams who are looking to compete? Maybe not in the division? Because I'm not telling you, Jordan Montgomery is going to be a guy to put you over the hump and go and catch and surpass the Dodgers. That's not what I'm saying.

But if you're in that division and.

You know what your fate is essentially.

Second place, do you start to look around the rest of the league and.

See where you could fit in when you plug a guy like this in? Because that's kind of what I did.

And if we're thinking about a landing place for a guy like Jordan Montgomery, how about the NL Central? Why?

Because if you look at the projections of these divisions, that division is projected to be separated by six games from top to bottom, from the first place St. Louis Cardinals at 83 wins down to the Pittsburgh Pirates at 77 wins. So just six games are going to separate the top and the bottom team in that division.

Can Jordan Montgomery help? Probably. How about the AL east, Jared?

That's going to be separated by eight games. The Yankees at the top projected to win 88 of them things, and the.

Red sucks, are going to win 80 is what they say.

So is Jordan Montgomery a piece that could close that gap, that could change that?

I just don't want to hear this fucking shit about Jordan Montgomery. How is he a difference maker? He just made a difference. It just like, I know we're all like, none of us conceive of him as like this high end starting pitcher that is going to drive a postseason series or deliver multiple starts within a single postseason series and win it for you.

But he kind of did that.

He was a huge part of why the Rangers won the World Series, and he's also a regular season asset. So that he fits really snugly on 20 or 21 or 22 of 30 teams in Major League Baseball and is still unsigned is like mystifying in a way that Matt Chapman can never be because some teams have third basemen and.

They just have them.

That's why this is beautiful. That's why it's so good to be back is because I can look at this game through this lens and I can see all of these divisions and how they stack up. And I know how important, we all know how important starting pitching is to the plight of a team who might be on the bubble, who is trying to get over the hump, however you want to phrase it.

And you can identify that there are.

Significantly more teams who could use the services of Jordan Montgomery than there are teams who could probably just go, yeah.

He'S not going to help us either way.

Well, there's definitely starting pitchers where if a certain starting pitcher is acquired by a team, it means the same thing. It's like, hey, we got a frontline ace. Like, this is great. But in the case of Jordan Montgomery, he means different things to different teams. Like, say, the teams that have been.

Most heavily linked to him.

Let's say it's the Red Sox and the Yankees. The Yankees adding Jordan Montgomery, it's a comeback story. It's a nice, complimentary piece to what the Yankees have going on. We still haven't talked about Garrett Cole. We can kind of piece that into this.

But the Yankees adding Garrett Cole, it's.

A nice complimentary piece. The Red Sox, I mean, excuse me, Jordan Montgomery. The Red Sox adding Jordan Montgomery changes the landscape of their entire season because you have the loss of Lucas Giolito for the entire season. He was brought in not to be the ace of the staff, but they need innings, like, because of not signing Montgomery, because of losing Giolito. Now you have Tanner Hauk and, and, you know, all these other guys in the rotation that just shouldn't be in the mean. I'm not saying Cutter Crawford, but like Tanner Hocke specifically, like, he's been around for three, four years now, and we know that this is a guy that can't see the lineup for a third time. It is what it is. He's better suited in the bullpen. So it just changes things differently for the Red Sox than it would for the Yankees.

I would argue that Jordan Montgomery is not going to be simply a complimentary piece to the New York Yankees, though, because you've got Garrett Cole, the fucking Cy Young award winner, on the shelf. So he's not complimenting. He's going to be supplementing. He will be of great impact. Nestor Rodan, how's your back doing, Stroman?

And then from there, where.

So that's where you plug Monty in. But I respect what you're saying about the Red Sox. That's why the fit and the conversation about the fit there has been what it's been for so long, because it's been just one of the more obvious, glaring needs from the team and fit from the personnel standpoint.

Yeah.

Well, it's further proof that John Henry does not care about the Boston Red Sox anymore. Like, Garrett Whitlock is not a starting pitcher. He's your number four starter in the Red Sox rotation. Tanner alk should not be starting for the Boston Red Sox. He's your number five starter. The fact that Nick Pavetta is your number two in 2024, which, by the way, when he added the sweeper last year, yeah, he's fucking awesome. But he's your number two for a team that should be top five in the league, in payroll. That doesn't add up. That's why it's hard to care about the Red Sox, because the owner doesn't care. He's telling you he doesn't care.

I understand what you're saying about Jordan Montgomery, relatively speaking to his peers on the roster would be more important or more impressive on the Red Sox and change their trajectory. But to the Garrett Cole news, I know it's a little bit dated at this point, but you can fit on probably one hand, the number of people who are as important to their team in the 2024 season as Garrett Cole is and was to the New York Yankees aspirations. And for him to be like, we can call it two months, we can call it three months, whatever, and be optimistic. His 2024 season is seriously jeopardized at.

This point, and he is so uniquely.

Important to the Yankees and what their goals are for 2024. And we talked all offseason about the fragility, expectation wise of the rest of that rotation. Nester Cortez was bad last season. Is he going to be better this year? Carlos Rodan is routinely unavailable or bad and has only been that way since he's been with the Yankees. Marcus Strowman, we're all on the same page as better fit as a number three or something like that, even if he was a nice signing for this team and then everybody else is relatively unproven.

But the idea that I know the.

Yankees have lost leverage in a Jordan Montgomery negotiation with the Gary Cole injury, but the expectations are too high. They have too much invested in 2024 to not go and get Jordan Montgomery, in my opinion, and you could argue that they needed him before the cole injury and the need is so acute now to keep the ship afloat. That, to me, if you're paying a little bit more than you otherwise would have two weeks ago or three weeks ago, fucking, who cares? This is the Juan Soto season. This is judges prime.

What are we doing? Yeah, I agree. It does seem od to not.

But then again, you'll hear them. It's 110% on the luxury tax. So it's like, are you willing to.

Give Jordan Montgomery $50 million, basically of somebody else's money?

Yes, I am willing to commit.

That's what I think we have found ourselves at.

And with the whole Boris client and.

How the offseason has shaped up for those guys, you try to wait it.

Out and you try to force a team's hand out of necessity, and it.

Feels like teams had already sort of come to Jesus and come to terms with the decision making that they might.

Have to encounter, which was, if we.

Do find ourselves light and arm, based on who's out there right now, this is what we'd be willing to pay.

And should we need them, we have to stay disciplined, and we will not spend out of haste. We will not do it wildly. We'll stay close to the game plan.

And I feel like that's kind of.

Where teams are, and Jordan Montgomery is.

72 hours away from starting the season with no team.

Yeah.

And I see people being like, oh, why can't Jordan Montgomery just do what Dallas Kaikle did and sign midseason? Dallas Kaikel did that because he had draft pick compensation. He had to wait until after a certain point to sign free of draft pick compensation.

Jordan Montgomery, there's no pick tied to him. You can just sign go. That's why Kyle waited.

Jordan Montgomery is just sitting there waiting for his long term deal because he feels like this is his lone shot.

To do.

I just.

For a guy that has proven he can give you innings, for a guy.

That has proven I can pitch on the big stage in the postseason in.

Both leagues, I don't know why he's still available. Like, what's the hold up?

Yeah, I believe Jordan Montgomery is roughly.

Like 30 days younger than Blake Snell. Maybe older than Blake Snell. Let me check that. Let me double check that. Yeah.

31 and 89 days.

Yeah.

He's just a little bit older than Blake Snell. At age 31 and 112 days is Blake Snell. 31 and 89 days is Jordan Montgomery.

So Jordan Montgomery does have two more.

Complete games than Blake Snell.

But seriously, if Blake Snell was this commodity, this guy that you had to have, that people were like, I don't know, we really have to have him. Then where does Jordan Montgomery fit in?

I think he fits in with the Mets because if you go by process.

Of elimination here, the Giants got Blake Snell.

The Red Sox told you we do not care.

We're not going to spend money. The Yankees at this point, I don't.

Feel like they're going to didn't if they ended up signing Blake Snell. I don't think that they're going to sign Jordan Montgomery because of the luxury tax implications. And I look at the Mets signing JD Martinez being like, all right, we kind of said we were going to rebuild a little bit, but what if we. It's not like they don't have a talented enough roster to win baseball games. Like, they can definitely contend this year. Are they going to win the division? No. Are they some sort of powerhouse that we expected them to be once Steve Cohen took over?

No.

But I do think that with a couple moves here and there, like adding a JD, who, by the way, made some interesting comments, did you see that about why he chose not to sign with the Giants?

Yes.

I would love to get to mean just paraphrasing and this surprises me none because he's such like a hitting science geek and I mean that as a term of endearment, but he just looked at the ballpark and how his swing plays and his spray chart and he was like, no, not a good fit.

For me because if I don't hit.

40 doubles and 25 homers, then everyone's going to say I'm washed up and then I'm not going to have a job next year when really it's just the ballpark. And I'm not going to sit here and make excuses as a free agent. So I'm going to go somewhere where my swing plays because he is more of a right center type of hitter with the Mets.

That front office is an absolute shredder in terms of the San Francisco Giants and your playing.

Like, there's not a ton of feel.

That goes into that. There's a lot of algorithm that goes into that. So JD is going to get platooned early. And the doubles, the homers, those are both now outs in San Francisco. So it's a wonderful, wonderful insight from a veteran player who's in a position to be able to say things like that.

But that's the truth.

Because that is what this game does is if you find yourself in a.

Poor position and you don't perform, you get labeled and you get stamped and you get thrown right off the heap.

And he's like, no, ain't going to happen. It's not about the homelessness, it's not about the traffic, it's not about any of that. My fucking doubles are outs. That's why I will not be going to San Francisco.

You know what's additionally interesting about this too is how nuanced this conversation has gotten relative to where it was like five or ten years ago too. Because Mike Petriello, shout out to him who works for MLB, saw the JD Martinez quotes and said, fascinating quote. Because city actually rates as a more difficult park for right handed batters than San Francisco. So it wasn't like a gotcha thing. It was more like this is the initial observation. And then if you go into exchanges both by him and by people in his mentions, there was another level where the expected home, because of specifically where JD Martinez had put his batted balls, not just as a right handed hitter, but as JD Martinez 2023, his number of expected home runs in City was 39. And in San Francisco it would have been 24. So yes, it's more difficult for right handed hitters, but for JD Martinez and the way that he drives the ball and being kind of like center right.

Oriented, like let it get deep, hey.

Actually City might be a better fit for him. So it's just kind of cool how that discourse has evolved. And the fact that JD Martinez is kind of voicing that discourse at all is additionally because.

Because now. Because what that does point to is.

The evolution of the player, the evolution.

Of the understanding of one's self. And I've always said, and I always preach to these younger guys when I'm.

In camp, you got to know who you are, you got to know what you do, because that's the only thing.

You'Re going to be left with. When shit hits the fan and you have forgotten everything, whether it's about a scouting report or what the guy on the mound has or what the guy in the box is capable of doing. When all of those wires start to get crossed and shit goes haywire, what.

Do you have left? What you do well, so you better.

Fucking know who you are. That's going to be your best chance at survival. And it is playing out from an aging veteran identifying what he does well, why he has to do that, and where he will not be able to capitalize on that. So for future reference, players, take note of this shit.

If you are a groundball guy, take.

Your ass to San Francisco. If you're a flyball guy, take your ass to San Francisco. You can be able to make money either way. But know that. Know that about also, like I just.

Not to belabor the JD Martinez segment of the podcast, but shout out to this signing too, because this is one I think we should savor. Because it's one that I think is becoming more and more rare in today's game, which is that it does not in any way put the Mets over the top and doesn't make them championship contenders and doesn't even probably make them all that much more likely to make the playoffs. But it makes them a better team and it costs them money, right? They had cheaper internal options that they could have gone with. They would have been presenting a worse product on the field if they had done that. Instead, they decided to spend $12 million. I know some of it is deferred or whatever, but like $12 million to bring in JD Martinez, who is not only a much better bet for 2024 than what they had in house at.

That position, probably DH, but as much.

As you can have a proven track record of him being a good person to have around a clubhouse for hitting, conversations with other players, as sticky as that sort of thing can be, it seems like he's one of those type of guys as well. So to me it's like, I'm glad the Mets did this because JD should be playing and he makes the Mets a better team.

I mean, that is something that can't.

Be understated, the impact that he has on younger hitters. We saw it here in Boston for.

Many years where he was working quite.

Closely with Raphael Devers and like hitting.

Approach and things like that. So the Mets will benefit from that? Not so much.

Sure that the Dodgers needed it last year, but the Mets will certainly benefit from his presence. Dallas, was there another topic from the.

List that you wanted to hit on?

No, we got the Jackson holiday. The one thing I did want to.

Talk we didn't get.

No, no, I said we've got Jackson Holiday on the list. Since we're talking about. We were talking about the Giants. This has nothing to do with the player as much as it's really about the process.

But JD Davis.

For those who remember JD Davis and the arbitration case with the San Francisco Giants, I don't know the exact figures. I'm sure you guys can find them real quick. Settled initially at or won the case at 6 million, roughly around 6 million.

And the caveat, the detail here is they went to arbitration and the case was won. The detail there is the compensation. That aspect of the contract was not negotiated to be guaranteed. So that is why JD Davis ended up not making as much money as.

He was initially slated to make.

And that is what allowed San Francisco the flexibility to make the move they did. And that's why JD Davis is now an Oakland athletic.

Yeah, it was 6.9 million and the Giants are only on the hook for 1.15.

Yeah, just because it went to arbitration.

Because it went to arbitration. And my understanding is when you go.

To arbitration and you win your case, the details of that, those still have to be negotiated.

And if that isn't negotiated into the.

Contract, the idea of guaranteed money, well, then that's not how it works. Right? So tough pill for JD.

But I saw him like the day after in camp, smile on his face, was down on the minor league side, stealing abs from guys, just trying to get ready, get his shit together.

He probably does.

Probably explain he probably wanted to play in Oakland anyway.

What I'm saying is probably his plane.

He probably wanted to play in Oakland anyway. Other than opposed to the Giants.

Well, him and hoy park, maybe. Absolutely.

Yeah, but just want to throw that out there. Jhe I know this stuff pisses you off. It pisses me off. I think it pisses all of us off. It pisses baseball off when stuff like this happens because we're so far down the line where you're not telling us that there's going to be any reason why guys aren't here or are here or won't be here for.

We get it. We get it.

You're fiddle fucking the roster.

You're manipulating Layton Jackson Holiday is going.

To hang out for a few weeks in triple ah.

Jhe how you like that?

I don't love it. You know what makes me more mad, though, than that had happened is some of the tell me reaction that I saw when I tweeted my distaste for it. I feel like there has been a psychosis that has taken over with fan bases and fans of a certain age where they have swallowed this front office thinking whole hog in the sense that the very idea that the team is not fielding the best roster possible to start the season, or that some of the best and most exciting players that a team has under its control are not participating in the full 2024 season or whatever season it might be that's so built into the baseball fan experience now that you have people not even questioning it for a second, and I understand why. I understand that the Orioles front office is very intelligent and way more intelligent than I am and have way more experience in baseball running a team than I have or ever will have. I get all of that. I also don't need people to explain to me, like somebody tagged Jared and was like, hey, Jared, can you have somebody on who can explain the finances of baseball to Jhe?

And it's like, hey, buddy, if you know who I am and don't think that I understand the finances of Major League Baseball and how minor leaguers are manipulated, then what the fuck are we doing here? My issue isn't that they did it because it was not easy to see coming because he hit the shit out of the ball and they said he was going to have a legitimate opportunity to make the team. Makes you question what he would have had to do to make the team then. But that these fans are so accepting of the fact that just because this is a very talented team that they don't need to be as talented as possible to start the season and beyond the talent, because Jackson Holiday is definitely better than Jordan Westberg. He's definitely better than Ramon Arias. He's definitely better than everybody who is supposedly standing in his way, with the possible exception of Gunner Henderson at shortstop. We'll see on that one, but there's room for both of them. It's just so frustrating that a guy who I think if we're talking about non show, hey, faces of Major League Baseball, I think Jackson Holliday has at least the potential to be in that second grouping moving forward because of his lineage, because of where he plays, because of how he plays, and how great he could potentially be.

The fact that one of those people is having to toil at AA to work on things that we all know are basically bullshit. Like, I saw his left handed splits were cited as, oh, he hasn't faced a ton of high quality left handers. Okay, where is he more likely to do that? AAA or the major leagues? It's the major leagues. Also, when you look at his splits, his ops against lefties was like 780.

Which I got to let you guys.

Know is fucking awesome for a left handed hitter at that age, for that to be his split, that's not really even an issue that's more encouraging than discouraging. So it's very frustrating on lots of levels. I just want to see a team that's trying to win a World Series for the first time in a very long time and trying to be a repeat contender for the first time in a long time, put themselves at a disadvantage that they don't need in order to supposedly gain extra control over a player that they probably will choose not to afford once that extra year comes around. Ask the Cubs how the extra year of Chris Bryant worked out. There are many more examples where that is a waste of time than it is beneficial to the team. That's the end of my rant. It's very disappointing.

That's the beauty about.

Thank you.

Thank you, Jeff.

Thank you.

Thank you.

I blame fantasy baseball, fantasy sports to an extent.

Why?

Because I think fans want to be able to walk around and tout themselves. As in the know? No, as I know what's up. I understand the business aspect of this. So for the first three weeks of the season, first month and a half of the season, whatever, they side with the ownership. Why? Because I'm the fan of a team who's brilliant. I'm a fan of the team who knows how to control the roster. I know what they're doing. We know what they're doing. It's good business. Who doesn't want to see that? If you're not a fan of that, you're a fucking idiot. Because if for some reason they held a contest tomorrow where they just signed people up to work in baseball front offices, I would win. And you would lose because you think that's a dumb idea. That's where they're at. And then when they need somebody to come up and impact their team, they're.

Like, fuck, I wish we had a.

Well, if he'd have been here all year, they'd have been able to, oh, now it's a good idea? Now you want to have the best fucking possible chance to win? Three weeks ago, you were the cocksucker who was blowing the ownership group for making these genius business decisions. Now you're the baseball fan who wants the baseball player? Who are you? Who are you? You're fooling nobody. So that's why I have zero time for these assholes who want to chirp and talk shit about people like you, jhe who say, oh, do you know? Does he know how the finances work? Guy, we know how you're looking at this. So you have no leg to stand on.

Shut the fuck up.

I understood the finances when most of these people still had their pps and poo poos handed by mommy and daddy, you know what I mean? So back up on that. But it's a two pronged. First of all, I understand that fandom perspective because I was that douchebag. I used to play MVP baseball and I would run my franchise with the lowest possible payroll that I could grind out and still win games. I would trade expensive guys for prospects and see if I could still win. I was a total loser. And I understand how people want to view this game, but that's a bad way to view if you are the fan and it's a two pronged problem. It's a problem for the Orioles in 2024 in my opinion, because they are not putting their best team out to start the season. And these people that are assuming that it's not going to be an issue because they're not punting, but like not going full throttle in April that it's not going to be an issue. I have another thing coming. The AL east tends to work out in ways that we don't always see coming because there is so much talent there and there is so much year to year investment in these clubs.

Secondarily, it's a problem for Major League Baseball that the conversation around players who should be the center of the marketing campaigns moving forward is why is this player not playing to start the season? It's great that Jackson Shurio made the team. It's awesome that Wyatt Langford made the Rangers. I am applauding those moves as much as I am criticizing the Orioles decision to keep.

It is, and the Orioles are talented.

Right now, at least with the injuries, with the Rangers, in a way that perhaps those other teams are not offensively. But to me it's not a tragedy. But it's not far short of that, that he's not going to start the.

Team with blame the Orioles or like this really is a league issue, Joe.

It's a league issue.

But think about this, too, Joe. Think about this.

Remember the Bellevue Rotary club?

The Bellevue Rotary club was the place we learned that Jared Kelnick was not prepared for the big leagues.

And then what did we find out that Jared Kelnick was not prepared for the big leagues.

And it's taken a resurgence, a hopeful.

Resurgence for him now in Atlanta to.

Maybe get back onto that radar that he was on initially because the reason.

We me, let me be careful how I say this.

One of the reasons we got introduced.

To the J Rod show a little.

Earlier maybe than anticipated was because Kelnick was not clicking. So we've got a guy who is.

Let's get him.

Okay. Enter J Rod. The rest takes care of itself.

But for every argument that we have about players being stifled like this, I.

Don'T want to say that there's an example of why ownership is allowed to.

Do it, but I feel like a.

Kelnick makes it really easy for the league and for everybody to go, look, we understand it. Some guys need seasoning, some guys don't. Here's an example.

Move along.

Nothing to see here.

The most generous possible interpretation of this situation is that the Orioles front office misled their fans by their quotes that they gave about the quotes that they gave about holiday's ability or possibility to make the team coming off of or entering spring training. They said dry hole. He had a chance and that they were going to give him a chance. And then he went and absolutely hit the COVID off the baseball and they said, you're actually not, oh, you had 18 plate appearances above. Then there were a bunch of after the fact reasons given for it, some more legitimate than others. But that's the most generous reading, is that the front office issued a statement that they should not have issued and got ahead of themselves when they never really had an intention of giving him this chance anyway.

I don't know when this influx of baseball fans came about, but I've definitely.

Noticed it more and more in the last three years.

I want to say where it's almost like there are baseball fans and then there are like front office fans, business fans.

Baseball business fans.

Yeah. If you're not on the side of the front offices, then you're looked at as lesser than, or you're not as intelligent as.

Right there. Yeah.

They have put money down.

Yeah.

It's like, oh, I understand baseball on a level that you don't. You see throw ball, hit ball, field ball, and I see business ethics, like Billy Madison. I don't understand what the point is of rooting for your team to save money.

Well, I know why saving money, this is saving an entire year of him under contract.

But from why? Because you want another year of control of the player. But you have to figure when you're the Baltimore Orioles and you have these players, they have a handful of players that once they make it to arbitration and they're going to be making, in the last two years of arbitration, they're going to be making 30 plus million dollars like we just saw Juan Soto get 30 million in his last year of Arb. You're going to be high 20s, low 30s in the last two years, which means that that extra year of control isn't so much that we can have him earlier, it's just so we can kind of extend his window because we're going to trade him when he's going into his second year of warb. Like we only have four years of this guy.

To Jared, not having him at all.

To Jared's point, though, what is more likely that the Orioles in 2024 are in better shape to win a World.

Series and win the AL east, or.

That the Orioles five years from now will be in a position where they'll more likely to win the World Series? To me, it's unquestionably right now, like.

You have this, who will they have on that team?

That's what saying, like, that's what Jared was getting at with the payroll increases and stuff like that. Like Gunner, Henderson, Jackson Holiday, all these people, Adley, they're all going to get more expensive. You only have Corbin Burns under contract for this. Like there should be level of urgency, and that doesn't mean you go out and waste hundreds of millions of dollars or you burn every prospect eligibility that you have. But there should be a level of urgency about the 2024 season because of the contract status of the best pitcher of your team coupled with the contract statuses of your most important position players moving forward, who will never be this inexpensive and who will never have this much team control left. To me, that's just another reason why this is confounding.

But it's literally two weeks. That's why it's such an easy decision.

It's like that can make a break.

In two weeks from now, you get an extra year control and it's not going to affect their playoff ods that much. I doubt that's going to fuck them miss the playoffs because Jackson Holly today.

Missed two weeks.

14 days.

If they lose the division by 13 games, okay, if they lose, like, yeah, that matters.

Joey's probably right that a couple of weeks of somebody else instead of Jackson Holiday is very likely.

Stop it, stop it. That's why the thought obviously right. He's mostly the smart move.

It's obviously correct. But that's the point, is that it's structural. They are motivated to act this way and that in and of itself is still a problem. I know they tried to address that in the last CBA with the rookie of the year award voting, tying to draft pick compensation and stuff like that. I get it. There have been efforts made, but it is still clearly a problem and that it is bigger than will it end up costing the Orioles in the end? It's also about why are the best players and some of the brightest stars moving forward, not front and center, instead of at AA. And by the way, if he is up in two or three weeks, like Joey's suggesting, then, not that we'd be surprised by it, but all that does then is prove that the line from the front office is utter bullshit, because you can't face enough high quality lefties at AA over two weeks to meaningfully impact your development in that way. So we'll see how genuine that is or what level of development he ends up really needing. But to me, it stinks on every level.

It's awesome.

I can't wait to, I mean, the.

Cubs got caught for it, almost admitted for sure they didn't get in trouble for.

Holiday.

If you're a fan of the Orioles, in my opinion, you'd be like, yeah, no shit, keep them down. And then in two weeks, you bring them up. It goes viral.

Jackson Holiday is back, baby. Debut sellout crowd t shirts. It's fine.

Left handers only in the they're going.

To send him to the fucking left hander, Atlantic league or whatever. It's just all lefties all the time. I will come back in 2029 and personally find all of those people on Twitter who talked about how it would be no big deal in 2024, and when he's not even on the fucking 2029 Orioles, and neither is Gunner Henderson and neither is Adele Rushman, and Corbin Burns is retired, then, well, I guess I'll just have a laugh or whatever it is.

I guess I'll just have a laugh.

I guess I'm not going to really do anything, but I will remember.

Told you.

Yeah. The good news is that if he.

Gets, like, rookie of the year, or I think if he gets first or second, they don't get that extra year.

Of control for you.

So that's what you should be rooting.

For, to screw over the Orioles.

And the owner just died, so you should feel bad about that, too. If you're talking about the Orioles, just know the owner just passed away.

That's true.

Rest in peace.

Rest in peace. Rest in peace. Also, we have a new ownership group in Baltimore that could change the whole landscape of things. And when we talk about, yo, you need to do it now because they're not going to. But we don't know. We don't know what the spending habits of the new ownership group is going to be so maybe we're jumping the gun there.

But all that to say, I think.

The Orioles are going to be a very exciting team to watch this year. When I look at my own personal situation and I see that the Red Sox are not trying, that's what's frustrating.

For me as a fan, is the.

Red Sox aren't going to suck.

They're just not going to be mean.

Now I'm kind of just looking at other things, being like, all right, well, what are some other teams that I can kind of tap into and get my winning baseball fix? It's going to be the Baltimore Orioles. Like, they're going to be a team. The Dodgers were one of those teams. But know we've got the Shohei scandal.

Yamamoto apparently sucks. Yeah, he does suck.

I was so disappointed.

God damn it. An inning.

I set my alarm.

I was dead asleep, too. I got up and I was like, let's do this, baby.

Nope.

Did you just punt, lila?

I think.

What the fuck?

I think I threw as many strikes as that guy.

Oh, what are we doing? Yeah, it was tough. That was tough. Tough debut for Yamamoto. Ouch.

Well, I mean, didn't Todd Frazier was saying how he's like, I think he's going to get his titslet on his fastball.

There's just, like, no movement to it. Oh, come, Tod.

I'll take that bet.

Tod Frazier, okay.

I mean, statistically, it's one of the best pitches in baseball. Even like, when you looked at the data from the World baseball classic, he had one of the best pitches. His fastball was tracking as one of the best pitches of anyone in the entire tournament.

My personal scouting report.

Ballpark?

No.

You didn't give up any homers, did it?

He didn't give up any homers.

I couldn't watch the game because I'm here in LA, so I couldn't.

Oh, that stinks. I watched the game. My personal scouting report is that his stuff looked fine, but he. Nerves. It was nerves. Couldn't throw the ball anywhere near the zone.

Is that better? I don't know. But anything else? Dallas, I know you have to go in a second. Yeah, no, I'm tapped out.

Oh, hold on. No, I did have a nugget that we had talked about before that I wanted to make sure we brought up.

Before you left Oakland A's 2024 payroll.

Slated to be $47 million.

Wow.

That is $15 million lower than even last season when we talked about how.

They were like a movie.

And the next lowest team this year is slated to be 72. Million. Dallas, you're a real masochist, brother. You decided to hop off the A's and find a new team. You went to the team with the second lowest payroll in the Pirates.

So good for you.

Dare to dream big. Dare to dream bigger, buddy.

You said 47 million. Yeah.

47 million for the a's in the money ball. Their payroll was 44 million. Was that 20 years ago?

25 years ago. Reception was a little.

I would have to imagine a decent chunk of that 44 million. Is Dallas Braden, too.

I haven't quite seen that.

I think the veritone payment is on its way.

Yeah. Okay. But I'll be ready. I'll be ready jhe when that time comes.

The much anticipated seasons prediction episode pretty much sets the tone for the rest of the season. If you're not listening to baseball is dead on Wednesday, you're going to be lost for the rest of the season because we pretty much shit on each other for the entire year based on what the predictions are in the predictions episode. Manager of the year. You may see Cedo Gaston get taken for manager of the year by somebody on Wednesday.

You just never know.

Managers that aren't even managing anymore get taken. Managers that you guys have ruined careers with recent picks. Yeah.

There are players who still have not recovered from you selecting correct.

Yeah. Yeah.

I mean, Dallas Braden sidetracked Alec Manoa's entire career.

Or shit. You made the pick first.

It's like one of those movies.

Alec Manoa. When Dallas selected Alec Manoa, he got. Alec Manoa got Dallas as fastball.

Yeah. Yeah.

It's like one of the body swap things.

So mind your fucking PZQs baseball fans, because I will pick. Pick your team's ace to win the fucking cynic.

Yeah.

It's like the Madden curse, the Dallas pick.

Time out. You're not going to want to hear.

About Shane fucking Bieber, about how you.

Took him out to breakfast and Jared is trying to fucking scapegoat me right now. You son of a bitch.

Are the one who picked Manoa first.

You picked Manoa first. Yeah.

I knew that you would try and drag me down with you, which I'm not letting.

I don't know.

Do I pick Walker Bueller again this year? I don't know.

I wouldn't.

Yeah, it's been a while. It's a free agent.

Run that Verlander pick back. You'll be fine.

I'd stay away with from Brandon Woodruff.

Yeah. Yeah.

I don't know.

I've never picked Verlander. What?

I didn't pick Verlander.

What the fuck are you looking at?

I mean, picking Verlander has probably been a good return over the last. I don't know how.

There was like a three year period where we picked a guy. He didn't win it. Then we wanted to pick him next year. He ended up winning.

It.

I don't want to hear that. I don't want to hear this.

Dude.

Absolutely dense careers. I mean, you can buff it out. Guys have recovered from being picked by Dallas Brayden, but not in the immediate.

Jhe already talked about it. The lunch for the all star game. Oh, my God.

When I prognosticated, that's. That's a card I'll play. I gotta go. I gotta go call a major League baseball game.

All right, you go do that, Dallas. All right. That's Dallas Braden, broadcaster of the Soakland A's, heading to Utah.

But next week we will be doing.

Our predictions episode, which is, again, you cannot miss it because the picks that are made on this episode become a storyline basically through the playoffs. Like, people will be talking, yeah, I picked him to be manager of the year. Now they're in the fucking, like, you're going to want to stick around for that episode. Joseph, do you have any final thoughts here today?

Braves just signed Jesse Chavez back. So, you know, that's always a good sign.

That's up.

Jesse Chavez are usually a good team, so they'll probably be good again this year.

I'm predicting I would do a preview.

Braves make the playoffs.

That's a good pick. I like that pick. I like that pick a lot. Jhe, any final thoughts here today? I do.

I have three transactional final thoughts, if you'll please indulge me.

Dylan Cease.

We never actually officially talked about. We don't need to go too deep into that. I think it was a great return for the White Sox. There seemed to be prospect wise, but I'm just fascinated by the way the Padres operate. And while they haven't had probably as much success as we or they have anticipated, I admire that they are reinvesting in the 2024 season because Dylan Cease unquestionably makes what was a really shaky starting rotation at least really good. Yeah, noticeably better on paper. And that's particularly true if you're buying into a Dylan cease bounce back like I am in 2024. Some lesser news. Not lesser people, but probably lesser news. Ezekiel Tovar, I think right before this podcast, signed a seven year, $63.5 million extension that takes him through 2030 with a 2031 club option, youngest player to ever debut for the Rockies and the youngest player to start on opening day in Rockies history. He owns both of those distinctions up and down first season, but obviously they're committing to him. We'll see how it goes. And then the Guardians, my guardians, who I had the pleasure of watching, took a trip to spring training with my brothers and dad, which was awesome.

If you have the opportunity to do that, I would highly recommend it. The Guardians waived Miles Straw, who uncharacteristically for them, was waived while still being owed $19 million. I would guess that he'll very likely end up in the minors playing for them. It's been a tough run over the last two seasons, 227-29-6284 triple slash line and north of 1100 plate appearances over the last two seasons, proving that his 2021 stretch with the Guardians that earned him the extension, seems like the outlier. And they will now go with Tyler Freeman in center field. It seems like a move I'm in favor of. So those are my final thoughts, and my final final thought is that it's fucking fantastic to be back.

It's great to be back.

Very excited to be back. I am disappointed in myself that we glossed over the Dylan cease trade because I feel like that deserved a bigger segment. But I mean, Shohei Otani scandal, that's going to take up an hour minimum.

And I think everybody knew that.

But yeah, no, the Dylan cease move.

You just never know with AJ Prowler.

You just never know. We're going to trade Juan Soto, but we're going to trade for Dylan Cease. Oh, okay.

All right.

It's two years of control.

Yeah.

Yep.

Correct.

So, yeah, you have a piece from the Juan Soto trade going to the White Sox, who got an absolute haul.

I mean, frankly, it makes. It makes sense on a level for the Padres because while they did shed the Soto contract and him, and obviously he's a great player, it's not like they're not invested in the 2024 season, right. They have long term deals to guys who are supposedly in the primes of their careers. Tatis Bogarts, Machado. Namely, it's Hassan Kim's last season before free agency, which is not the sort of free agency that's going to dictate you going all in. But he's a very good player that's only on the team for this year. They promoted Jackson Merrill to start the season on the team, presumably because he think the team thinks he gives them the best chance to win in 2024. Shout out to them for doing the exact opposite of the Jackson holiday move.

But, yeah, I get that they're a.

Little weird, and we'll see whether this works. Exactly. But I admire that they're still trying to win instead of, like, being heavily invested in 2024, but also having no real chance to win anything with that rotation.

Yeah, that rotation has the potential to be great. The team has potential to be great. I think we kind of just look at the results of last year, and we look at the Padres as this mediocre franchise when, if everyone plays to the back of the baseball card, that's still a pretty good fucking baseball team. Again, we can ask the same question about the Padres that we did about the Giants. Is this team good enough to be better than the Dodgers?

The answer is no, but they can.

Absolutely be a player. They can definitely be a playoff team. And if they meet expectations, which they came nowhere close to doing last year, you're removing Juan Soto, you're adding Dylan Cease.

You're losing Blake Snell. You're replacing cease with Snell, you're losing.

The Cy Young Award winner, which definitely hurts. But it's not like it was anchored by Snell. Like, they've got guys and that they're four or five deep.

I know there was a big gap between what Blake Snell contributed in 2023 and what Dylan Cease contributed in 2023, but if you're talking about what they're expected to contribute in 2024, to me, that's damn close to a wash. Replacing Snell with cease and every leaderboard that you look at in terms of stuff and how nasty is the stuff, or how good is your stuff playing? Michael King is very high on those lists, too, and you can tune in four or five nights a week on this rotation and see really nasty pitches, too. If that's, like, the subjective thing that you're into, we'll see whether those guys can be. Obviously, Cease and Darvish have a lack of consistency, and Michael King has almost no track record as a starter.

But, yeah, I mean, I think to.

Me, they're as much in the mix as the Giants and the d backs. Whether I. What order I picked them in, I don't know, but they're all going to be in the same band of wins, don't you think?

I would say so, yep. I would say that they're all going.

To be in the same neighborhood, and.

I'm interested to see who emerges from.

That pack of three teams. I honestly don't feel as gung ho.

About the d backs.

Like, I know that there's going to be some recency bias, being that they just made it to the World Series.

But I think people are sleeping on.

The Padres just because of how disappointing.

They were last year, but they're not.

Far off from being a playoff. Like, I just feel like if they click, it's different. And I think that there's probably more to the story, too, with the clubhouse chemistry that that mix of Soto, Tatis, and Machado just feels like there was a lot that we didn't know or that we still don't know in terms of that team gelling or clicking. We know that the relationship between Machado.

And Tatisse is complex in that there's.

Growing pains there, namely with Tatis, but.

It'S also just kind know, not the.

Best sign if Machado is your moral compass in the room.

But Bogarts, I think that's something that.

Kind of maybe levels things out, and maybe Soto was looking at his situation.

As like, hey, I'm about to make half a billion somewhere.

So maybe he wasn't as invested.

I don't know. Maybe they tried to remove.

I don't know, something about the chemistry with the Padres last year. With all that star power, it just seemed like it wasn't the right combination to equal out to a winning ball club. So we'll see if that changes anything now.

But, Joseph, do you have any final thoughts?

Just shout out to Jesse Chavez just signed with the we. You already asked me, motherfucker. I get my final fucking thoughts.

My bad. Jake's takes.

I just thank God the Red Sox didn't sign Yamamoto.

I didn't want him anyway, but obviously.

Dodged a bullet on that one, and.

Happy to be back.

Thank you.

Underdog.

Underdog. All right, we'll be back on Wednesday with reaction to Shohei's meeting with the media. What he says, what he doesn't say.

We will be reacting to that. Plus, the infamous season prediction episode from baseball is dead.

We'll see ya on Wednesday. Oh, yeah.