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Effectively Wild: A FanGraphs Baseball Podcast
Effectively Wild Episode 2457: The 2026 Team Fun Draft
01:54:28
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- [00:03]
Meg Riley
How are you?
- [00:04]
Ben Lindbergh
I'm okay. We got so much to do today. Breaking bones and breaking snails and those steps won't blast themselves.
- [00:16]
Meg Riley
Effectively wild. Effectively wild. Effectively wild. Effectively wild. Effectively wild.
- [00:32]
Ben Lindbergh
Hello and welcome to episode 2457 of Effectively Wild Baseball podcast from Fangraphs, presented by our Patreon supporters. I am Ben Lindbergh of the Ringer, joined by Meg Riley of Fan Graphs. Hello, Meg.
- [00:45]
Meg Riley
Hello.
- [00:46]
Ben Lindbergh
So we are speaking just a few hours before opening night. Is that what we're going with? I guess there's been a lot of hand wringing about the terminology, semantics.
- [00:57]
Meg Riley
There's been no hand wringing. There's an obvious correct answer. And then there are people who are doing funn. This is not opening day. And you know, look, I don't mean to appeal to the authority of Major league Baseball, but Major league baseball is calling this opening night. You know, like if you go to their site and they're, they're talking up Yankees, Giants, it's opening night. It's opening night because it's one game at night.
- [01:25]
Ben Lindbergh
You know, I'd be okay with calling it that team's opening day if that team wanted to say, this is our opening day. Sure. But in a league wide sense, no,
- [01:36]
Meg Riley
opening day is tomorrow. And, and look, I, I appreciate that. I am on shaky ground because the early season schedule here kind of weird. We don't even have a full compliment of games tomorrow.
- [01:50]
Ben Lindbergh
No, you gotta wait until Saturday for all the teams to be in action at the same time.
- [01:55]
Meg Riley
At the same time. Yeah, some, some teams, some teams fans aren't gonna see their favorite team till Friday. Till Friday.
- [02:02]
Ben Lindbergh
B. Yeah, it is, it's sort of a staggered start. So you weird, you get a starter, you're just opening course your appetizer tonight wet your appetite. And then I think we can call Thursday opening day. But there are some teams that are not playing on opening day, which feels wrong. And then Friday teams that did play already, they have a day out, which is not unusual because you tend to build in off days early just because there can be weather, whatever. And so there's a possibility of rain. Yeah. But it is a strange sort of ramp up and it's not uncommon. I guess most seasons probably don't have all 30 teams playing on the same day and it's their first game. And obviously some seasons it's nice. It is nice. And I do like the end of the season when all of the teams are in action at the same time and all the games start at the same time because we're Just desperately trying to recreate the end of the 2011 season, which is tough to do. It takes more than just scheduling the games at the same time. Also takes really a exciting races. But I do like that it's all going on there. But yeah, I, I don't hate this. Honestly. I actually, I think the opening night is fine. I, I think it's okay. I think it's actually kind of cool because what? Not everyone has Netflix, but it's the most popular streaming service and a whole lot of people have it, as we've noted. Tough to have to have a zillion different streaming services and channels to watch all of your team's games. Especially it's the first game of the season. Maybe you have to sign up for something that your team otherwise on that gets pretty pricey. Maybe you don't always know where the game is, but at least it's not some niche service in this case. And so it does eventize. Sorry, apologies for even turning that into but people do. So it is just a way to say, hey, baseball is beginning. If you want to watch Major League Baseball, here's the one time to do that. Because the nice thing about an opening day where everyone is in action is that everyone is in action, right? The only drawback though is that our attention is diluted because we're all watching and our own games. So if you wanted to have sort of a national event, just hey, here's the official start of Major League Baseball. Let's all get excited. And it's kind of a night before Christmas feeling. If you celebrate Christmas, just, you know, it's, it's good. Like families, some have their traditions, they open gifts on Christmas Eve, whatever it is, but then you have Christmas still in store. You have Christmas morning to look forward to. There's anticipation. So it's just a taste. And then you know that the three course meal is coming the next day. Now, are the Giants and the Yankees the most exciting leadoff teams that one could come up with for Major League Baseball in 2026? Well, we're conducting our team fund draft today, so we will decide. But spoiler, I doubt it. I don't think they will go one and two. But maybe that's okay because being the first, that adds a lot of luster to that matchup. You're not going to be super excited to see the Giants or maybe the Yankees play later in the season. But on opening night, if they are the first, if they are officially breaking the seal and ending the off season and marking the start of the on season. Well, suddenly it's super exciting to watch the San Francisco Giants. And how many days will we be able to say that?
- [05:20]
Meg Riley
Wait a minute, I'm sorry, yeah, like why not? Because. What do you mean, why not? What do you mean, why not?
- [05:28]
Ben Lindbergh
Because simply, season would suffice. Is that what you're suggesting?
- [05:32]
Meg Riley
And if you must modify it because there's ambiguity about whether you're referring to the championship season or the. The post season, the playoffs. Call it regular on season. You sound like you. You know what it sounds like? It sounds like you're the character in a rom com and the person you're dating is someone who uses summer as a verb and you're like trying to blend in. Like when.
- [06:01]
Ben Lindbergh
Yeah.
- [06:02]
Meg Riley
On season. Are we on? Are we? Is it or is it?
- [06:05]
Ben Lindbergh
Yeah, the inglorious bastards hold up the fingers test. It's like, have you ever experienced a baseball season before? Yeah. How do you do, fellow kids? Oh, the on season is starting. Oh, okay.
- [06:18]
Meg Riley
Yeah, on season.
- [06:19]
Ben Lindbergh
Yeah. Apologies. Anyway, just thought I'd try it out. It might be cute. Might delete later. So I think it's actually kind of fun that we have several starts to the season now. It's frustrating if you're a team that's not playing till Friday. And I always hated when my team started. And then you're thinking, ah, finally we've gone six months or however long without a game. And it was never that long. Cuz I was a Yankees fan. And so we always played a lot of October baseball. Which maybe was a little bit different from your experience.
- [06:53]
Meg Riley
Unbearable.
- [06:54]
Ben Lindbergh
1995, at least. But yeah.
- [06:57]
Meg Riley
How did that one end for you?
- [06:58]
Ben Lindbergh
Yeah, yeah. You ended my on season early anyway. I.
- [07:03]
Meg Riley
No, wait, wait, no, that wasn't the only.
- [07:06]
Ben Lindbergh
Ben, we're making it happen on season.
- [07:10]
Meg Riley
No, we didn't end. We ended your postseason early.
- [07:14]
Ben Lindbergh
It's true.
- [07:14]
Meg Riley
Yes, famously.
- [07:16]
Ben Lindbergh
Yes, very famously. Legendarily.
- [07:18]
Meg Riley
I mean, I didn't have anything to do with it. I just sat there being like, oh, I guess I'm going to be obsessed with this for the rest of my life. Yeah.
- [07:24]
Ben Lindbergh
So the nice thing about it is that. Yes. When opening day is over.
- [07:28]
Meg Riley
Over.
- [07:28]
Ben Lindbergh
Well, then you feel like baseball blew its load kind of. It's like it was super exciting. But then there's the refractory period. Whereas now you have multiple rounds. Right. It's like, hey, the season's starting and the season's also starting tomorrow and the season's also starting on Friday. And in a sense, the season's starting on Saturday because Everyone's going to be going at it at the same time. So I actually kind of like that. I think when the season starts, technically weeks early because a team is playing in Australia or Asia or whatever it is. Right. I support those initiatives. I think that's good for baseball and Major League Baseball. But it is always a little awkward just for the teams, for the players. They got to get ready early and then, well, the season has started technically, but no one's playing for weeks and this was played somewhere else and it just feels like a strange sort of. And then they go back to return to spring training after starting their season.
- [08:26]
Meg Riley
Right.
- [08:27]
Ben Lindbergh
This is not that. So I'm actually kind of into this.
- [08:31]
Meg Riley
I think I like it. I've discovered linguistic aspects of it that I don't care for, some of them new in this conversation. I'll also just point out, like, people always think it's me who's being horny on the podcast. Not lately. Not lately, Ben. That be you. That be you who's entertaining some verbiage that I would shy away from. But anyway, I, I like having the sort of opening night appetizer. I think that you're right to say, like, maybe we won't care about watching the Giants. You and I, as non Giants fan, might not care about watching the Giants a couple of weeks from now in quite the same way. But like, you know, Max Fried and Logan Webb on opening day, that's like a opening night. Excuse me. That's a great pitching matchup and I think will be, will be a tremendous amount of fun. I do wish that everyone was playing tomorrow, though. I don't, I don't love having this waiting game for folks where they don't get to see their favorite team play until Friday. But the upside of that is that typically Friday of opening week tends to be pretty scant because you do have to allow for the possibility of rain. And, and so that tends to be a scheduled off day for a lot of teams. So maybe this is when it's all said and done the right thing. My only, my only thing is that I just need everyone to think of opening night the same way they think of, you know, when the Dodgers have played games in, in Asia that have actually counted. It doesn't affect my publication calendar. Okay, Listen to your business. Your business is, is playing the baseball and enjoying the baseball. Watch the baseball, certainly. But opening day is tomorrow.
- [10:18]
Ben Lindbergh
Yeah. It affects the fan graphs, playoff odds, because in those seasons there are always a couple presets for opening day.
- [10:27]
Meg Riley
Correct.
- [10:27]
Ben Lindbergh
Opening day for everyone it's opening day on whatever day the Dodgers started playing. It's not always the Dodgers, I guess, but yeah. So I kind of, in a way, I'm just going to let this wash over me in waves, and I will enjoy each one and we'll get our baseball naps in, and it will be wonderful to have our soundtrack back. But it is true, you know, we concern ourselves with semantics here on this podcast. But I have had a number of people text me or message me or email me just to say happy. And then they say opening day. But then sort of sheepishly, they'll say, happy. Sort of opening day. Happy opening day. Kind of. Everyone's aware, I think we're all on the same page, that this is. This is opening night. That's all right. Okay. Yeah. Opening night is just all right. And we have now completed the opening of this podcast after 10 minutes or so. So we are going to do our little team fun draft.
- [11:26]
Meg Riley
Yeah.
- [11:26]
Ben Lindbergh
And I wanted to shout out a few just transactions. I enjoyed this off season, which will sort of segue into that, I suppose. Also, I wrote about the challenge system. You did? And I wrote about whether it's already doomed. That was my provocative headline. Not because I'm anti Challenge System pro, but I convinced myself. So you know how there's the cliche writing is thinking.
- [11:51]
Meg Riley
Yes.
- [11:52]
Ben Lindbergh
And like a lot of cliches, there's truth to that, because in the process of setting down those words, you are thinking about things and you're refining your argument. And most people at least write a lot more slowly than they speak. And so you have time to process and bring some real rigor to what you're thinking and get distracted by the 17 other tabs you have open. But somewhere in the midst of that, things occur to you. You have epiphanies, you make connections. I find it very helpful for organizing my thinking. And I've talked about this before, every time we talk about the challenge system, I muse about whether this is just a stopgap, whether it's a step along the path to full ABs, whether it's. Or whether, like the pitch clock, it could be just a final, fully finished version of the thing that we want to see. And so, as I was in the process of writing this article, I convinced myself even more that the challenge system is indeed doomed, that its days are numbered and all of our days are numbered, naturally. But I. I think that the challenge systems days don't have that high a number, even though I think the system will be a success and think people will like it and then people will almost stop noticing it for the most part and we'll all stop obsessing over it, except for the sickos among us. But I, I do think that even as it blends into the background, it will ultimately be a gateway to full abs. So I, I wonder if you had to because no one's been a bigger booster of the challenge system than you. But.
- [13:33]
Meg Riley
That's right.
- [13:33]
Ben Lindbergh
But what's your confidence level that this is it that you know at putting aside minor tweaks. Maybe there are three challenges instead of two. Maybe there's a buffer zone for the umpires just. But those are all recognizably the challenge system. But I'm talking about moving from now you can challenge a call that was made by a human to skipping that step, going straight to computerized calls of all pitches. How long would you give it? What's the over under? We don't do a lot of over unders and betting content here on Effectively Wild. We just made a big deal about that earlier this week. But, but if you had to set a, a personal over under just for fun, just how long you think it has and maybe, maybe you think it has indefinitely. Maybe you think it's permanent. Maybe you think as long as there will be baseball there will be challenge system. But I wonder where you come down.
- [14:25]
Meg Riley
Well, like what do we mean by like how long a time frame? Do I really have to express confidence over here because it like through the water wars or
- [14:38]
Ben Lindbergh
maybe we'll stipulate that society, civilization endure that we have big
- [14:46]
Meg Riley
assumption we might make.
- [14:47]
Ben Lindbergh
But if we, if we take that as a given that that Major League baseball will continue to be played and not just in a interstellar sort of sense, but in more or less its current incarnation, how long will the challenge system be a part of that?
- [15:02]
Meg Riley
I think that it will persist for I would give 75 confidence that it will persist in its current form for at least five seasons.
- [15:12]
Ben Lindbergh
Okay. I was gonna set my, my over under at five seasons.
- [15:16]
Meg Riley
Yeah, it's sort of a cop out. But part of it is and you know, they can make rule changes whenever they want to. They don't, you know, not every kind of rule change, but like most rule changes, you can, you can do that when you want. If you're the league, it doesn't have to necessarily be collectively bargained. Right. They try to have like a some niceties around these things. But the way that the rules committee is sort of tilted gives the league a thumb it can put on the
- [15:44]
Ben Lindbergh
scale which could Change. Because it could change. As you may have heard, there is about to be a CPA negotiation. But, yeah, that's true.
- [15:50]
Meg Riley
Now, I'd really like to not hear about that for like a month. Yeah, I know it's not going to
- [15:55]
Ben Lindbergh
happen, but I just did. I did my primer this week at the Ringer, and. And the main thrust, I covered all the questions. It was kind of an faq, but the main thing was just, do you need to worry about this? Should this. Because I made fun of the fact that it's always looming, the looming lockout, which speaks to the power of alliteration. But also just this is on everyone's mind. And, you know, now I said, first of all, you don't actually have to worry about it because I endeavor not to worry about things that I can't control. Now, am I always successful at that? No. No one is better at it than I am. Maybe, maybe. But the serenity prayer, right? Grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, the wisdom to know the difference. So. So the wisdom I was trying to offer was, well, first of all, this is the former. This is one of the things that we cannot change. And so we are not served by stressing about it unless we are in the bargaining units. One of the lead negotiators. But also, I did pump the brakes a bit on the doomerism that's out there, because I really do seem to sense that people are just convinced that 2027 is done. And I don't want to be overly optimistic about this, but the baseline expectation, I think should be that there will be a baseball season, because past performance, no guarantee of future results. But there has never been been a full Major League Baseball season canceled to this point, and there have been a lot of them. So I think that is the baseline. There will be a season of some sort. And also, putting aside the pandemic, it's been 30 years more since there was even a shortened season. So I'm just saying approach this. Yes, it seems like the sides are dug in a bit more. The rhetoric has ramped up. There's a virtual certainty of a lockout, but it's somewhat predictive when we try to project baseball player performance. So we look at how they've done lately, and that's about as. As good as we could do. You know, you put some aging factors in there and everything, but a lot of it is just, well, how good have you been? You'll probably be about that good again Unless you're a breakout candidate, a fabled breakout candidate. But I think you should go into this thinking, probably disaster will be averted and prepare for the worst. Obviously the worst could come to pass. And just all the other factors that we've talked about that I think make it a little less likely that we will go beyond the brink. Just what's at stake. Baseball's super popular right now. It's riding a real wave of optimism and momentum that I think all involved don't want to fritter away. And no one wants to squander the sense that, hey, baseball's got the juice again. And also those big national broadcast contracts that expire after 2028, you're not going to get much money for those if they don't play a 2027. And Rob Manfred is retiring and legacy and he wants to sort out all the broadcast stuff and the expansion stuff and on and on and on. Right. There are so many reasons. And even if it gets acrimonious, we just saw with the WNBA negotiation that was heated, that got right up to the edge, but then they realized, hey, we're booming right now, we need to capitalize on this. And they made an agreement. And I expect that that's what will happen here.
- [19:26]
Meg Riley
But so anyway, the challenge system, how
- [19:29]
Ben Lindbergh
I got off on that, Jack. But I.
- [19:31]
Meg Riley
It's my fault. I think that. Well, as I've said, I think people are going to really enjoy this. I do think that it is going to address many of the thorniest problems that we have had with the strike zone. I think it will improve the. The general confidence that fans have in home plate umpires or at least heighten their appreciation for how hard of a job it is. And that isn't to say that people won't still get mad at umpires. They absolutely will. They get mad at umpires now at times when there's no good reason to. But, you know, I think that it's going to be enjoyable for fans that people will largely feel sated. And there were reasons beyond, like, desire to maintain the human element in the game that the league leaned into the challenge system over a full ABS zone. Some of those were related to technical constraints, but a lot of it was the feedback from players and fans about the experience in the ballpark. And I think that the league is also very keen not to give back the gains that they've made from a time of game perspective with the pitch clock. And one of the things that testing in the Miner showed was that when you had full ABS games got longer because you had more walks. So I think that if they can sort of satisfy everyone, that games aren't going to end on disastrous calls. Provided that teams are responsible with their challenge use, I think that they'll be happy to sort of stand pat with that, particularly if it kind of washes over the general fandom the way that I expect it to. So I think that there will be less, that there will be resistance mounted against a move to full ABs and more that it just won't necessarily have a champion. Whereas I think it was obvious that, like, you needed a mechanism by which to address the phenomena of bad and obviously bad, not close, but obviously bad calls, ending games. That was an important thing to get right, particularly as the league was talking up the way that other technological innovations were improving the game. Right where it was like, why is there this gap? Why is there this, like, weird void that it seems like technology should be able to help us address? And the very fact that they've been open and receptive to the feedback of fans and players and managers and what have you at the minor league level as this is being tested, gives me optimism that they're. They're not, like, chomping at the bit. Are you a chomping or champing person? Hey, this is the podcast, okay? The. The off season is over, but that doesn't mean that we aren't still ourselves. Okay. I need everyone to understand what we're up to, which is sometimes reminding people why we do better in small groups.
- [22:36]
Ben Lindbergh
I think champing is technically not correct, but that sounds wrong. Yeah, it's. It was the earlier one, and then it's. It's morphed into chomping because we were all familiar with chomping. And so it sounds like you would chomp at a bit, not champ at it. So mostly I avoid it entirely.
- [22:56]
Meg Riley
Oh, okay. That's fair. You're like, I don't like either of these options. They're disgusting.
- [23:01]
Ben Lindbergh
Yeah. I don't feel strongly about it, though, because this isn't one where I'm like, hold the line. I feel language evolves. I'm okay with this particular evolution. I think it just makes it make more sense to people.
- [23:13]
Meg Riley
So that's what I think about that. We should get to the team fun draft so that we can draft some fun and hopefully, you know, do it
- [23:19]
Ben Lindbergh
before the game starts. You can go read my thoughts in full if you care. Because thinking is writing. Writing is thinking. So I was doing that. And the reason why I'm setting it at five years is Because I think it will be successful. It will largely go smoothly and it will be, if anything, a victim of its own success. That it will just be well received and it will really usher in its own replacement. Because people will say, gosh, I like correcting a few calls a game. What if we got them all correct? And that people will be persuaded by it and that most people won't really care about the tactical considerations. And also, that's all new and novel and fascinating to us now, but then teams and players, they'll settle into patterns and they'll understand when to challenge and when not to challenge, and we'll figure out who's good at it and who's not. And it just won't be quite as compelling. It'll just blend into the background a bit. And I look to. I think it's instructive to look at the timeline in tennis because it's such a perfect comp. It's Hawkeye. It's the same company, it's the same cameras and computers and technology. So the timeline there was they started using Hawkeye in tennis, in ATP events, in top event WTA in 2006, and everyone liked it for the most part. And it was pretty widely embraced. 2017, though, Hawkeye live comes along. So the original incarnation in tennis was kind of a comp to this baseball system that you had line judges, but players got a certain number of challenges and then there was a little graphic on the screen and you got to see if it was in or out and whether the line judges were overruled. And that worked fine. But then they perfected the technology. They had Hawkeye Live rebranded to, I guess electronic line calling LIVE ELC. So that came in 2017, so about a decade. And then it took another six years or so until ATP announced, this is just what we're going to be using for everything. And then Wimbledon embraced it last year and now the French Open is the only holdout because they're like, our French line judges are superior to your American computers.
- [25:33]
Meg Riley
I love that. I kind of love that. The French are like, no, we don't feel like it. Why not? Mostly because we're French. You know, if we had to like isolate to a particular characteristic, it would be the Frenchness.
- [25:44]
Ben Lindbergh
So the timeline there was 20 years basically bang on from the first introduction of a challenge system to now where it's almost entirely just automated and you don't even have line judges anymore. And then it was about, yeah, 10 years to the introduction of that system and then almost another 10 years till it was kind of pervasive and everywhere. But I think the timeline will be a lot shorter this time just because that was the proof of concept, really. The technology is not quite as experimental or provisional now. It has been tried and tested and pretty proven. And also in baseball, I think it might be a little less resistance because you're not actually making anyone really redundant. You're still going to have a home plate ump standing back there to make other kinds of calls. So just from a union perspective, from a palatability perspective, you're not necessarily having to lay anyone off the way that, well, we just don't have line judges anymore. And part of that was the pandemic came along and there were restrictions on how many people you could have on the court. So they said, oh, well, this is convenient. We have a system that can do that. And then once you introduce it, well then you're sort of stuck with it, probably because it works okay. So I think it's going to go a lot faster than that, but I think it'll be successful for now. The only way that I think it could end earlier is if there is some big embarrassment for the system. Yes, if we do get an ending like the USDR WBC game, where a team is just out of challenges, then I think that would cause a lot of wait, why are we artificially constraining the supply of challenges anyway? And then you could say, well, you get extras in the ninth inning or whatever it is. But then the more challenges you add, well, it takes longer, it's less interesting each time. And why don't we just go whole hog then and just, you know, unlimited challenges or no challenges, in fact, because you won't have to challenge anything. We will just sort of cut out the, the middle person there. So that could happen, I think. And then also people might be a bit uncomfortable with the reversal of victories, the, the game ending strikeouts and walks that get overturned. If that happened in a big game. Jason Stark was considering, what if there's a, a World Series ending tap off? Right. It ends that way. And we have that scenario with replay review now. And it's not that big a deal. But that would just be another thing where I think people would say, why are we just imposing this little mini game on this game? So, yeah, I give it five years over, under, and I don't know, I might even go under, which they've put so much time into testing and fine tuning and perfecting this thing. But maybe that was done partly with an eye towards, well, we're getting abs in the door and then what form it takes. Like when they started testing this, it was not initially challenge system. And probably Rob Manfred would have said we want full abs. But then it turned out actually challenge system, kind of compelling. People actually prefer this in a lot of ways, but he'd probably be pretty happy if they just ended up with full abs as well. So. Yeah, anyway, let's all enjoy it and see how it goes. But yeah, I just, I don't know that it will prove to have the staying power because it might work so well. All right, so just a few transactions I wanted to highlight that I have enjoyed and these are some cases. Oh, I think this was smart or I think this is a good signing or a good pickup. But sometimes it's just fun or it's an interesting storyline to monitor throughout the season or it sort of set the tone for the off season. For example, the Brandon Nimmo for Marcus Semyon trademark. Oh, I think that was a good opener for the hot stove season because that sort of, it summed up the Mets off season. It was a little preview of what the Mets off season was going to look like.
- [29:38]
Meg Riley
Just, that's so interesting.
- [29:40]
Ben Lindbergh
Players coming, players going, yeah, are they better than they were? Tons of turnover. How does their roster even fit together at this point? What are they aiming for? Because at the time I was pretty perplexed by it. Okay, what's the goal here? How does this fit into the larger strategy? And then it turned out, well, maybe there wasn't one or they're just kind of feeling it out as they go, but they were sure going to be busy and they were sure going to get rid of some long tenured guys and bring in some other noteworthy guys. So I thought that was just emblematic. I don't know that it was just a steal for one side or the other. I just thought it was representative really of the Mets off season and was one that was kind of fun to puzzle over at the time because in isolation it was hard to figure out how it fit.
- [30:28]
Meg Riley
Yeah. Should I pick one?
- [30:31]
Ben Lindbergh
Yeah, sure, if you got one, go ahead.
- [30:33]
Meg Riley
Maybe it's like this is like a cluster of, of transactions which is perhaps unfair, but you can, you can pick any of the sub transactions that you see fit. How about that?
- [30:43]
Ben Lindbergh
Okay.
- [30:43]
Meg Riley
I just, I liked the, the shape of the Blue Jays off season very much. Not only for the, the on roster improvements that it, that it brought to the team, but I, I just think that when you have a club that was so close to winning the World Series, and to see them say, well, no, we're gonna. We're gonna get better. We're gonna go out there, we're gonna sign some guys, we're gonna spend big money where we think we need to. We're not going to be afraid to commit to this group. I think that's like a. An admirable approach, and I think a good challenge to not only their. Their immediate World Series opponents, the Dodgers, who I will also talk about in a second, but, you know, a recognition that, like you, you're gonna have to work very hard to get back to that exact same spot you were in last year, because you play in just a nightmare of a division.
- [31:38]
Ben Lindbergh
Yeah. And they had a lot of players who surprised or over performed, exceeded expectations at least. And so, yeah, it was. We're not resting on our laurels.
- [31:48]
Meg Riley
No Laurel resting.
- [31:49]
Ben Lindbergh
Yeah. We're gonna go get Dylan Cease. Yeah.
- [31:53]
Meg Riley
Right. We're gonna go get Okamoto. We're gonna, you know, make some other trades that, you know, it's just like a good. It's good. I liked. I liked the direction that they took, and I think that when you have the opportunity, they got one of the Rogers. I know which one. I'm testing you. Do you know.
- [32:13]
Ben Lindbergh
Yeah. You know, I know starts with yeah.
- [32:18]
Meg Riley
Right. I know they're different, but.
- [32:20]
Ben Lindbergh
Not Trevor.
- [32:21]
Meg Riley
Not Trevor. Well, isn't it. It's spelled. Rogers is spelled differently for him, though, right? Is one of them have a D? Doesn't matter. I mean, does.
- [32:29]
Ben Lindbergh
But yeah. You know, I. I have thought that Trevor Rogers has a D, but no, not in his name, at least.
- [32:37]
Meg Riley
They're all. What are you doing? What are you. What are you up to over there?
- [32:43]
Ben Lindbergh
I don't know how I. Oh. You know why I thought Trevor Rogers had a D in his name? I think it's because of Aaron Rodgers. Maybe. But remember when we talked about the Orioles fan who got the tattoo of Trevor Rogers's name on his butt? And I'm pretty sure he had it misspelled, didn't he? I think he.
- [32:59]
Meg Riley
That might be right. That's ringing a bell. That's.
- [33:01]
Ben Lindbergh
I think so.
- [33:03]
Meg Riley
That's ringing an embarrassing bell.
- [33:05]
Ben Lindbergh
Yeah. Not in the actual tattoo, I guess, but in the tweet that prompted the tattoo, which made me worried that the tattoo would also feature the typo.
- [33:13]
Meg Riley
But it was Tyler. They signed Tyler Rogers. Tyler, not Taylor. Tyler.
- [33:20]
Ben Lindbergh
I'll stick inside the AL east, and I will say Contreras and Gray, the two pickups that the Red Sox made of veteran Cardinals, where they just Called up Heim Blum and said, do us a solid here, and we'll give you some pitching prospects, and you're rebuilding. And we sure could use not top of the rotation, but toward the top of the rotation starter, and we sure could use just anyone who plays first base. That's something we. We didn't really have. Apologies to Tristan Casa. So I really like those signings, and I sense that Red Sox fans were not as impressed with those acquisitions as I was. I thought those were just nifty little trades. And obviously it helped that they did not not stop there. And. And they got Suarez, and they did other stuff, too. But the fact that they picked up Contreras and Gray, I just. I thought maybe these aren't the most sexy signings, and maybe those guys have just been lost in St. Louis and no one was paying attention to the Cardinals last year, and maybe people aren't looking at the peripherals for Gray, but I thought, wow, those are big additions. These. They really bolstered weak spots and great needs. And. And it's not that they didn't give up anything, but I think for a team in. And I thought that was smart. And obviously the Cardinals needed to move on and turn the page, too, and they did so dramatically. But, yeah, I just thought that was. You know, I wonder whether they talked about doing it as a package deal and, hey, let's just get all this business done at once, or whether they thought, let's table this for now, we'll break this up, let's do one deal, and then maybe we'll revisit this later. And they did.
- [35:02]
Meg Riley
I also think they've assembled quite a staff here, and we tend to think about the accumulation of talented pitching as. As a guard against injury, and it obviously is. But I also think that, like, when you're sort of heavily concentrated in that. In one part of your roster and you have such profound depth, and especially when it's something that eventually someone somewhere is gonna need, you're not just setting yourself up for, like, the immediate term of your roster, but for, like, the next trade you need to make, because they do. You know, they have some guys who are hurt who aren't quite back yet, so they're going to get reinforcement there, and maybe it forces their hand on some guys. But I just think that when you, you know, we. We thought that we might see, you know, them move pitching for infield help, and I guess they kind of did. But, you know, we thought they might get a little more dramatic, an upgrade. No offense to Caleb Durbin, but it's not like the. The deadlines here, so they still have the opportunity to do that if they need to. And in the meantime, you know, if something happens to one of their gu. Well, it's. It's gonna be really easy for them to slot someone else in. It just takes. And it also takes a bunch of pressure off some of their, you know, guys who are now like fours and fives, who I think were a little miscast as like, twos and threes in their rotation previously. So I'm. I'm with you on that. I think I. I'm gonna need you to talk about Brendan Donovan because I can't name America.
- [36:31]
Ben Lindbergh
I have him on my list.
- [36:32]
Meg Riley
Okay, so I'm gonna let you do that. But in the meantime, I going to reiterate my delight at the Dodgers approach to their biggest transactions this offseason. Sorry to praise the Dodgers. You know, it bothers everyone, but you sit there and you're like, you're. You're such a talented team. You have all these resources. What do you. What do you get the team that already has everything? And the answer is you sign guys to directly address the thing that bugged you the most in the postseason. And there's something about that that I find really, really delightful. It's such a maximalist approach to roster building. It is like. I don't know if I'm going to use this word right, but, like, if you could have a rococo approach to building a roster, I feel like it would be like this, where you're like, I never want to see TE Oscar Hernandez play right field ever again. That's fine. We'll go get Kyle Tucker.
- [37:22]
Ben Lindbergh
Not that left field. TE Oscar will be that great either. But.
- [37:24]
Meg Riley
Yeah, yeah, but the, the thing that was bugging him, the thing that was bugging him actively, maybe if we move
- [37:29]
Ben Lindbergh
him over there, where he's back over there also been bad, bad, then yeah. At least it'll look a little different than last year.
- [37:35]
Meg Riley
A little different.
- [37:36]
Ben Lindbergh
Look like it used to. Before that when it was bad.
- [37:38]
Meg Riley
Before that, when it was longer. Since then, you know, they. They've forgotten, right? Like, they're like, yeah, that's. That can be future me's a little annoyance present me doesn't have to look at him and write ever again. How delightful. And then you're. You're sitting there like, oh, my God, if I have to see Blake Trine and pitch one more time, if I have to depend on Roki, that seems disastrous. Who knows what Tanner Scott's Gonna be. Don't worry. We'll go get Edwin Diaz. So that's fun. We don't get to see that very often.
- [38:08]
Ben Lindbergh
Yeah, it was not creative. It was not inspired. It was. Well, we sure could use an outfielder. Who's out there, huh? Kyle Tucker. That guy's good. Let's just go get. Yeah, yeah. The best free agent and then, well, I guess we sure could shore up that bullpen. Who's out? Oh, Edwin Diaz. Yeah, let's just go get. Get the best one of those. You know, just whatever our weak spot is, we'll just get the best one and that'll be that. So. Yeah, sure. Easy. I guess. All right. Yeah. So Donovan, I was gonna mention, I suppose I have some concerns about the bat in T Mobile. Maybe that offensively he fits the profile of, of someone who maybe the pop won't translate to that park. But on the whole, just a good player, just a solid all around, versatile, flexible player who fits into that Mariners roster really well. And, and there were some teams that I was going to shout out. The Tigers making their late charge and really strengthening their rotation and getting from. And then getting Verlander, who is a real pitcher, who is still pretty good, at least was late last year and also for sentimental reasons. That's a nice pickup. But these were teams where maybe they did something early and then they were quiet for a while and you weren't sure if it was really going to come together. And the Mariners, they started off, oh, we'll, we'll bring back Naylor. That's fun. But then are we sort of standing pat and maybe they can get away with that? Maybe they're good enough to do that, but you'd like to see them try to build on it. And then Donovan just felt like it sort of cemented their off season where you could, you could really feel pretty good about it and feel good about the all around roster. So I like that pickup. And yeah, I really liked the Tigers just swooping and signing Framburg at the same time that the arbitration decision was coming down for Skubal and then also Verlander because it was, it was looking like, okay, we have Skubal and who else? We're, we're going to try to piece this together somehow. And then suddenly you have Frampur and Verlander to go with the other guys. You got. Yeah, okay, that'll play.
- [40:12]
Meg Riley
I feel weird praising Atlanta because I generally really didn't like their off season. I thought that they should have anticipated. I'm all these guys getting Hurt, you know, suspended or. Or not being effective. But I don't blame them for not anticipating that Hassan Kim would slip on ice and be unavailable. That one feels act of gaudy. I'm gonna let that go. Not adding more pitching. What are you doing? That seems irresponsible, but, you know, is it the sexiest upgrade theoretically when he comes back. But in hindsight, boy, really important that they got Mauricio Duban, huh? You know, and again, yeah. Damning with the faintest of praise because is there a curse on shortstop? Like, is it cursed? You know, maybe there's a very angry witch. Maybe the ghost that was occupying their mascot has broken loose and is generally terrorizing the area around shortstop, you know, because we. Because I don't know how else we explain their mascot other than it being some sort of supernatural abnormality. But I think good, good for them having on their roster because that seems like it's gonna up being weirdly important.
- [41:42]
Ben Lindbergh
He was supposed to be the backup. Supposed to be the. The redundancy. Supposed to be safety net. Yeah. And then turned into the first string option, at least for now. But that's part of the reason why it's good to have someone like him because he can be a backup at a bunch of positions if something or everything goes wrong.
- [42:01]
Meg Riley
Right.
- [42:01]
Ben Lindbergh
Yeah. I will also shout out the. Some of the. The highest profile NPB players who came over this offseason just ending up in somewhat different locations. Just not. They didn't go to the Dodgers for once.
- [42:16]
Meg Riley
Yeah. Yeah.
- [42:17]
Ben Lindbergh
Not even necessarily west coast teams. You mentioned Okamoto with Toronto, but then Murakami going to the White Sox and I like that pickup for them. Maybe I'm. I'm more hopeful about him than the consensus. But even if the consensus is right and he can't hit, still the right
- [42:33]
Meg Riley
thing for them to do.
- [42:35]
Ben Lindbergh
Yeah, Totally worth trying to and seeing given those terms. And then Tatsuya Mai going to Houston. Just teams that in some cases had not signed players like that had not signed NPB superstars. I like that there's a wider range of destinations, at least where those guys could conceivably go. And you know, it's probably good for Major League Baseball and interest in Japan because obviously, sure, the Dodgers are now Japan's national team, but it's probably good to have other players who start in NPB playing all over the league, given the level of interest in Major League Baseball among Japanese fans, just so that they can watch other teams too and that they have players whose careers they're interested in. Following who are widely distributed instead of concentrated. I think that's probably good on the whole. So I guess I'll also mention. I don't know, it's hard for me to praise the Pirates off season because it was underwhelming on the whole. But for a while there, the way it, it started when it looked like maybe it would be a bit busier and that they would actually really get some bats and, and ultimately they didn't do that much. But when they got Brandon Lau and Mangum and Mason Montgomery, that filled some holes. You know, the three team trade, they took care of a good bit of business there and you certainly would have liked to see them follow that up with more than Ryan O'Hearn and Marcelo Zuna. But it was a start. And even if they didn't finish, you take a start if you're a Pirates fan. And it, it kind of gave them a little more depth or it, it raised the floor, which was ground level, but it gave them some recognizable guys who could at least be average or better. And maybe if they have enough of those guys, they could make this work with the pitching that they had. So, you know, and Mason Montgomery, I, I kind of like. So, yeah, I'll. I'll go with that one. Even if you would have liked that to be a prelude to some higher profile moves, I agree.
- [44:51]
Meg Riley
I think that the way that they're. I think you have to kind of grade their off season as an incomplete because I don't know that you will fully maximize the potential benefit of the kind of move they made until Connor Griffin is on the roster and playing well. Because the moves that they made, I think do appreciably raise their floor. And, and if what you're doing is like slotting those guys in around Connor Griffin and his big neck, then, then it feels really different, you know, then it's like, oh, you went out and actually got the complimentary players that have been part of not all of what is wrong with that roster, but part of what is wrong with that roster. And I don't say that, you know, like we talked about last time. Like, I think that sending Griffin down was fine. Like, I don't, I don't view that move as them being, you know, shady or doing service time manipulation or whatever. Like the guy hit.171 in spring, so. But it's just hard to, to see that sort of tableau in its intended form, I think, until he's up. Having said that, I really didn't like the Marcelizuna sign just because it's like you're concentrating so much of your payroll in a guy who. And this isn't even about like the um. But you know, you're just concentrating such a big chunk of your payroll in a guy who, like, maybe it'll be fine, but maybe he's cooked. You know, we just don't know. But another one I will highlight and then. And then we should draft some fun. We should draft some fun. But one more to highlight and it's a smaller move and it's Mariners adjacent. But I like the national side of it. I, I liked what the Nationals did with the Harry Ford move.
- [46:40]
Ben Lindbergh
Yeah.
- [46:40]
Meg Riley
Because. Yeah, yeah. Like, I like Jose Ferrer. I think Jose Ferrer is going to be a really nice pickup for Seattle. I think they'll be able to like, kind of adjust his whole thing in a way that'll be useful. Like the mix should be different anyway. I think that'll be a nice addition to their bullpen and it does address a need for them. But Jose Ferrer, even the good, like the best possible version of Jose Ferrer, pretty useless to a team like the Nationals. Because the Nationals are going to be bad for reasons that have nothing to do with Jose Ferrer, that have nothing to do with the presence or absence of like a good leverage reliever. But we know that their catching situation is terrible. And so getting a guy like Ford, even if he doesn't end up being the long term solution at that position, but seeing what you have in him and he's starting the year at aaa, he, they, they optioned him down to Rochester, but I think think he will get big league run and probably a good bit of it at some point this year. And this is sort of a variation on like the White Sox Murakami theme where it's like, give yourself the opportunity to capture like positive variants and use roster spots to like go through guys who might be interesting and see what you have in them. And I think that we're going to see Ford probably up at some point and then they can figure it out. And the answer might be, eh, you know, Harry Ford's not the answer. The reasons that people were nervous about him were justified. The athleticism doesn't actually translate into like actual skill. That may end up being the conclusion. But like to, to get a chance to figure that out for a guy who you were gonna trade at the deadline in all likelihood anyway, and now you can trade him at. At the peak of his value. I like that. I think that was a good move. Smart.
- [48:37]
Ben Lindbergh
Yeah. Well, all right, we can segue to the team fund draft with this, my favorite move of the off season. Late breaking. This is hot off the presses. It may not even be on the presses yet. Maybe this is a scoop, though it won't be by the time this podcast is published. The Twins have signed John Brebia. You were worried. You're like, do I need to assign
- [49:00]
Meg Riley
someone to, oh, my God, I gotta go do work again?
- [49:04]
Ben Lindbergh
Well, I mean, look, I'm not suggesting this is not worthy of a write up, but do you feel better if it's a. I do feel better.
- [49:10]
Meg Riley
Are you at peace now? That's nice.
- [49:13]
Ben Lindbergh
Yeah, I think.
- [49:14]
Meg Riley
I think it both for him. You know, you.
- [49:16]
Ben Lindbergh
You might have said the Rockies are about as good a fit for anyone possibly who is a pitcher, but yes, also the Twins, since they traded much of their bullpen last year.
- [49:25]
Meg Riley
Yeah. Like, here's the thing. I don't have the same attachment to John Brebia that you do. Who does? Other than his, like, actual family? But I. I am delighted by John Brebia. I think that John Brebia seems like a lovely guy, and he has at times been a very good pitcher, and I would like for him to be able to extend his big league career if he so chooses. And I just feel like the odds of any pitcher doing that are better when you don't have to play in that ballpark. So.
- [49:58]
Ben Lindbergh
Yeah, that's true.
- [49:59]
Meg Riley
For that reason alone, absent any other kind of roster, consider for Minnesota. It just seems like a better. It just seems better, you know?
- [50:07]
Ben Lindbergh
Well, I'm gonna have to adjust my draft board here. I'm bumping the Twins up several spots because, oh, they were not close to the top.
- [50:15]
Meg Riley
Oh, all right.
- [50:16]
Ben Lindbergh
So what we're doing here, this is not one of our more serious or consequential drafts. Not that any of them is all that serious or consequential, but it's our Team Fun Draft. It's an annual or annual ish exercise that we. We typically do sometime around opening day just to set expectations, take our own temperatures. Which teams are we most excited to see? And I enjoy this. I always think team Fun. I always want to say fun team, but some of the teams aren't fun. That's kind of the point of the exercise. So it's the Team Fun Draft, where we assess the fun quotient of each team and how they rank and why I like doing this is that it can be wildly divergent.
- [50:54]
Meg Riley
Oh, yeah.
- [50:55]
Ben Lindbergh
In contrast to just a. A team ranking, a power ranking. You're not going to get that much disagreement these days typically. But a team fun ranking or a sort of a league pass, MLB TV ranking kind of exercise.
- [51:09]
Meg Riley
Yeah.
- [51:10]
Ben Lindbergh
That actually can vary quite widely just depending on what kind of baseball you like, which players you're attached to. So I am curious to see how we differ here because sometimes I'll read these things and other people's rankings of team fun. And, and I. Do we have the same definitions of fun? How do you have this team up there or down there? So you can go. I don't, I don't know how to deter me. Okay, well, since you're giving me the number one pick, I am vulturing Meg's Mariners at number one.
- [51:43]
Meg Riley
Oh yeah.
- [51:45]
Ben Lindbergh
I don't know where you were going to put them, but I'll, I'll save you. You know, if you had been planning to stuff them or something and then people could have accused you of being biased or something. I just think, I mean you are to some extent you're a fan, but, but a clear eyed kind of fan. But you know, the team that you root for is always going to be more fun for you. Well, right. That's not always true. I mean sometimes they really do like
- [52:10]
Meg Riley
to test that theory. You know, they really do like to, to, to test that theory.
- [52:14]
Ben Lindbergh
It will provoke stronger emotions one way or another for you. But yeah, I'm going to go M's number one because it kind of seems like M's are number one in the American League. And I know famous last words and tempting fate and everything, but just in terms of true talent and path to the postseason.
- [52:33]
Meg Riley
Right. They don't have to tangle with the East. I think that that is a big, A big, big, big, big, big, big,
- [52:38]
Ben Lindbergh
big part of it.
- [52:39]
Meg Riley
Yeah.
- [52:39]
Ben Lindbergh
And not that there aren't some decent teams in the west too, but it just seems like they are coming into the season as favorites in a way that they haven't been before.
- [52:51]
Meg Riley
Yeah.
- [52:52]
Ben Lindbergh
And they're just a really strong team. Last year we thought it was going to be all about the pitching and then it wasn't. Some of the pitching didn't pan out or there were injuries and then it turned out that there were a bunch of boppers and boppers. I don't think Cal's going to be bopping the way that he was last year. But I just, you know, I hope he, he mellows and, and we can all go back to enjoying and, and having fun talking about and watching Cal Raleigh again. I expect that to be the case. And you've got Randy Rosarena and obviously they've patched things up. And you've got Josh Naylor, who is extremely fun. And it's, it's still a heck of a pitching staff and you've just got some good relievers. I mean, it's just a good baseball team. It's just a good all round baseball team. And there is the extra intrigue of they've never made the World Series, let alone won one. And so that's always gonna make them a more interesting story because when it looks like they're actually not the favorites for webbing, you might say they are the favorites to win the AL pennant. That would be a reasonable thing to say. That's in fact what the fangraph's playoff odds say.
- [54:01]
Meg Riley
Makes me so uncomfortable.
- [54:03]
Ben Lindbergh
Yeah, I'm sure it does. But, but the fact that, that, that's such an unfamiliar situation for them to be in, I think that makes them more interesting. And, and we saw how much fun they could be during that playoff run last year.
- [54:15]
Meg Riley
Oh, my God, I was so stressed. I was so stressed. I can't believe I didn't lose more hair. I. Okay, I love that for you. I'm gonna take the Mets. I feel disgusted, disgusting. I don't know why I feel disgusting. I'm not a National League person. This isn't my fight. But I. Well, first of all, I'm just fascinated to see if all of their weird defensive shifts end up working out for them. I think most of them will, but they're a really fun combination of things.
- [54:44]
Ben Lindbergh
Not as in the alignment of the
- [54:45]
Meg Riley
players, but the guys moving around to different.
- [54:48]
Ben Lindbergh
What position now? Yeah, right.
- [54:50]
Meg Riley
Yeah. Like Jorge Polanco. Congratulations, you're a first baseman. That one seems like it'll be fine. But they're, they're really fun. They've had a fun amount of roster turnover. This was such an established group last year with a lot of really long tenured dudes. And now they have, you know, they still have, there's still connective tissue to that group. You know, you have Lindor, you have a, you know, you have Juan Soto, but you also have shifting around. You have young guys both on the position player side and the pitching side. You have new older guys. Right. Semyon Polanco. I'm so excited about their pitching. I think Nolan McLean's just like really, really good. We get to see friend of the show. Never mispronounced his name even one time. Carson Benj. As the opening day roll right fielder. We get to see if Luis Robert Jr. Can kind of Turn things around. So I just think that they're like a. They're really dynamic and interesting team. And I think that there's a lot of talent here and that talent is going to surprise us in some cases have the, you know, the potential to like, really grow and change. You got Freddie Peralta in there now. Like I, you know, they were so busy. You got a. You got mostly a new bullpen, you know, almost entirely a new bullpen. You got Boba Shet. So it's just like a. There's been exciting turnover. I think some of the, the players who were sort of on their downswing are gone for the most part. And then you got a, you got a good group that remains. And I really liked the way that they sort of blended their high upside pitching with guys who, you know, were either more established in their own organization or someone like Peralta, where it's like, hey, you know, is he mostly gonna just go like five, six innings? Probably. Are you gonna be super happy you have him both in the regular season and come October? Because it gives you breathing room for some of the younger guys. Yeah, they are behaving at this juncture like a team that if they have needs come the end of July, is going to be really active at the deadline because they clearly want to like win that division and be a force in the nl. So I'm taking the Mets. And the only thing I'll say is that just remember, you guys don't do too many bits. You know, just keep it to a, a normal number of bits.
- [57:26]
Ben Lindbergh
You know, it's a good pick. I had them high on my list. Thank you so much. Turnover. This off season, I wrote about the history of teams with that type of turnover. They're trying to defy that history, which is often those teams not so hot. But I think that they can. So I'm excited to see them try. Okay, you know what? I'm just gonna, I'm gonna go wild here and you can be the judge about whether it's effective. But I did famously, infamously in past team fun drafts, just take the Angels, just number one or whatever, just cause Ohtani, Trout, and that was it. And I was fine with that because having a couple of super compelling players to me, well, as a, as a neutral, as an impartial observer, that alone is going to get me to tune in and watch your team more than most. And if you are kind of on the bubble playoff wise, potentially, then that only enhances things. So what I'm saying is taking the Pirates this is a ridiculous pick. I understand that it's a reach, but.
- [58:29]
Meg Riley
It is a reach, but it's a fun package.
- [58:31]
Ben Lindbergh
The Pirates are compelling, and they might be disappointing and we might get midway through the year, and this will look ridiculous in retrospect, but when you start with Skins and presumably Connor Griffin sometime soonish, well, that alone is a pretty darn fun foundation. I mean, you got two of the most promising, compelling, riveting players in the game. So can Connor Griffin just hit the ground running, be great right away? The Pirates need him to hit. They need offense. Can they just get enough to scrape by with this pitching staff? And yes, if you invest your hopes in a pitching staff and a bunch of youngish, homegrown guys, well, that can break your heart. That's not a safe investment. And so maybe these guys will get hurt and they just won't pan out. And this will also look silly in retrospect, but if it comes together, and I had multiple Pirates predictions in our preseason predictions game, if, if they could construct this super rotation of homegrown guys who've never pitched for any other team and are mostly pretty young, and if Jones can come back and pair with Skeens and Chandler and then all the other guys they've got just waiting in the wings and it's just. That would be really exciting if they just had a homegrown guy going every day who was great to watchable. That would be. That'd be nice. And then there's always the enigma, who is o' Neill Cruz, who's gonna wow you, obviously, with individual plays, even if the complete game doesn't come together and they just are one of the teams that's kind of closest to the 5050 in or out could break either way. And. And if they get in, that would be a big story and they've been bad for a while and Pirates fans have been waiting and so there's a lot of payoff if the Pirates can even be competitive. And even if they fall short, there is a scenario where they fall short in a way that makes you more encouraged for 2027. And so the season seems like a success because maybe, okay, this is the opening act and it hasn't all quite come together. But next year we start with Connor Griffin, who's had some major league playing time under his belt and yes, rotation worked out and maybe this time we could actually sign someone. So, yeah, there's a lot of hope and promise in the Pirates. And when was the last time we were able to say that with this degree of confidence.
- [61:02]
Meg Riley
Yeah, I like it. Okay. I can't believe now that we think about the fun draft in terms of value, but I can't believe the value of the pick I'm getting here. I'm taking the Dodgers. Like, what are we doing? Yeah, yeah, like that. Do we need to talk about why the Odani.
- [61:17]
Ben Lindbergh
I know, it's funny.
- [61:18]
Meg Riley
It's like I take all this, Take
- [61:19]
Ben Lindbergh
the other quote, unquote, LA team number one for Ohtani. And then it's like the Dodgers have every Dodger superstar. They still have Ohtani.
- [61:28]
Meg Riley
I was certain you were going to take the Dodgers. I was certain that you were.
- [61:31]
Ben Lindbergh
Some Dodgers fatigue that has set in. Even as someone who appreciates the incredible collection of talent that they've put together, it's like, all right, enough guys, right? You know, so the whole can they three peat, that's going to be a sort of tiresome story. No, it's just, just they got a bunch of good baseball.
- [61:49]
Meg Riley
They just got a bunch of really good fun guys. They got, they, they do have question marks, you know, they do have guys where you're like, what is a Roki Sasaki at this point? What is Roki? Who is Roki Roki? Who are you? You know, what do you, what do you do around here? What is your, what is your contribution? How will they deploy Low Leverage Ben? You know, I wonder if Low Leverage Ben knows that I call him Low Leverage Ben. I hope not. You know, there is just a fun, compelling group and we know that if they see themselves as having any deficiencies come July that they'll trade for new guys. And the thing of it is, they probably won't win the World Series, even though they're probably not. So it'll be fine. But I'm taking the Dodgers. Come on.
- [62:33]
Ben Lindbergh
Yeah. And you joined me on Hang up and Listen this week and you know that I, I talked a bit about Shohei Ohtani's chances of winning the Cy Young, which our preseason predictions game. I was weirdly predicting that he would win the Cy Young but not win the mvp. But it's more likely that if he wins something there, if he wins the first one, he'll. He'll win the second one too. And yeah, just getting to see him hopefully go wire to wire without restrictions. He's looked really excellent in a couple of spring training starts post WBC. So that is interesting.
- [63:02]
Meg Riley
11 last night, right? Struck out. 11.
- [63:05]
Ben Lindbergh
Filthy. Okay, I'm going to take the Red Sox. I just, I sang the praises of some of their off season moves. And I'm just into the young guys too. I mean, Roman Anthony, how could I not be excited about seeing how good Roman Anthony can be? And, and also just what they have in Meyer and Campbell even. And just how does this sort of oddly aligned roster shake out and do they find there's sort of is somewhere for everyone to play and. But it's just, okay, can we just see Satan play center and just marvel at that and that'll be fun. And. And then the pitching staff, which has not really been a strength of the Red Sox in recent years, well, suddenly it is because in fact, they are the number one projected rotation according to the fangraph step charts. So, I mean, crochet Gray, Suarez, Bayo, Oviedo and a ton of depth behind them. So, yeah, this is, this is a pretty exciting team and it's going to be a tough path to the playoffs, of course, but I am, I'm pretty invested.
- [64:13]
Meg Riley
I'm taking the Detroit Tigers. I'm fascinated to see like, can Skubal really do this again? What does platform year Skubal manage to look like? But I also am just excited for what that rotation could be in total with Valdez and like Flaherty in a role that fits better for him and Mize in a role that fits better for him. And what does Justin Verlander have? And then, you know, we have all of these interesting guys in the lineup for them who were, most of them were phenomenal in the first half last year. As we discussed in our Tigers preview, almost all of them fell off and dramatically in the second half. But you get the, you know, the intrigue of watching Kevin McGonagall from day one. And that's going to be super exciting. Can Carrie Carpenter figure out how to hit lefties? Can Spencer Torreson take another step forward? Will Dylan Dingler be that good again? As a guy who like kind of didn't fall off, what, what is, what is the fate of Javier Baez? You know, can Parker Meadows stay healthy and like, really put it together? So I think that they have some really interesting guys on the big league roster. They have some interesting prospects. And I think that unlike the sort of top of the Central in a lot of years, they really did invest in that roster. And it felt like the way they were putting the team together was about how it can play in October more than how it can dominate in the regular season. And so seeing some ambition I think is also really exciting. So Tigers.
- [65:48]
Ben Lindbergh
Yes. Yep, it's a good one. I had them high, too, to just seeing how the Schubel saga plays out will be fascinating. And let's see. I meant to shout out also Red Sox. Just that. That outfield defense. I mentioned Sadan, but just Durand in a. Yeah, it's. We. We talk about outfields being too good defensively now. Maybe there might not be a batted ball that drops in that outfield unless it's off the Monster. Okay. I will take the Blue Jays. The Blue Jays are very fun, and they were fun last year, and then they had a pretty fun off season. And even though they came up short on Kyle Tucker, they made some moves. We talked about some of them at the top of this pod, and Vladdy is fun. And I want to see whether the guys who were so good last year and made such gains offensively, whether they can sustain that and whether. No, they just. Actually, they really made some major swing changes and were able to just keep their contact steady and hit for more power. And finally, they broke through as a team, and they just seemed to really like each other. They just seemed to really like each other's company. And I just. I like a lot of those guys just like watching them. So.
- [67:03]
Meg Riley
Yeah.
- [67:03]
Ben Lindbergh
And they came so agonizingly close also that. Yeah, you want to see them sort of pick themselves up. And they did in the off season. And they. They said, we're not standing pat, but to see them get right back there and make another real run at it, that would be great.
- [67:20]
Meg Riley
I guess I will take the cups.
- [67:26]
Ben Lindbergh
Okay. Said with conviction. All right.
- [67:30]
Meg Riley
I'm taking the Chicago Cubs.
- [67:34]
Ben Lindbergh
All right, you do that.
- [67:35]
Meg Riley
Now I feel bad. Now I feel like I've made a mistake. Now I feel like I've erred, which seems silly because we think. Think. We think the Cubs will be good.
- [67:43]
Ben Lindbergh
Oh, yeah.
- [67:44]
Meg Riley
Let's talk about why. Okay. So, like the pca, finally. We have terms on that extension. It was fine. We don't need to be worked up about that one. Pca. Brilliant defense. Amazing. Love him in center field. Fascinated to find out how much contact he makes this year. I think Bregman's a really great addition for that team. I really like that they didn't trade Nico Horner, because I think that when they brought Bregman in, they could have traded him and they could have just stuck Matt Shaw somewhere else on the infield and said, good enough. But their best alignment includes Horner, even though he's heading into his platform year here. So, like, I really liked that. I'm fascinated to see what they get out of Ballesteros for a full Season. I can't believe that we have to watch Michael Conforto play more baseball. But that's officially no longer Craig's problem. So what are you going to do? I really want to see how Imanaga handles this year. Like, is he able to bounce back? Back? Is Edward Cabrera really like the high upside play that they think he's going to be? How many innings do they get out of Matthew Boyd? What is year two of Kate Horton look like? James and Tyon? I don't think it's very good. But that doesn't matter. Like, I mean, it might, but they have a Hobie, Ben. They got a Hobie. What am I gonna do? What am I gonna do? Not take the team with a Hobie. I love a Hobie. We love a Hobie. So I'm taking in the Cubs and all I can hope is that their mascot finds the pants.
- [69:06]
Ben Lindbergh
Yeah, I think the Cubs are one of the best teams in baseball, but they, they do just punch a little bit below their weight. Fun wise for me.
- [69:14]
Meg Riley
Maybe this will, maybe it'll, you know, maybe it'll be different now. Maybe it'll maybe. Yeah, it'll be different because, you know, like they gotta, they got a fixture in the outfield. You know, PCI is just gonna be there.
- [69:25]
Ben Lindbergh
PCA is the extreme exception there.
- [69:27]
Meg Riley
They'll get Saya back soon like that. Thankfully that injury wasn't too terrible. So Suzuki will be back in. Yeah, you know, a couple weeks.
- [69:36]
Ben Lindbergh
Yeah, it's. Yeah, he's just the individual standouts. PCA has the potential to be that. And he was that early last year before he slumped and he's just, I mean his hair's on fire. He's just, he's, he's compelling, he's engaging, he's quotable, he's hugging, he's celebrating.
- [69:54]
Meg Riley
Could light his hair on fire and play baseball. He would do it.
- [69:59]
Ben Lindbergh
Yes. And I think he could. And the glove's so great that he'll be valuable even if he doesn't get on base. But he is much more fun when he does get on base as well. But yeah, he sort of stands out from the pack just in terms of how watchable I find him or just how compelling a personality. So yeah, there's kind of competence with the Cubs just all around strength and excellence. And then, and then the starters, it's just like they got a lot of good starters but maybe short on, on really good starters or great starters. Top of the rotation types. Yep. There are guys who maybe could occupy that role that's that's all I'm saying. It's just. It's like opposite of Stars and Scrubs. It's just like really solid all over, you know? But yeah, there's a little less star power perhaps for me. Me. Okay, you know what, what am I gonna do? Am I gonna do this?
- [70:53]
Meg Riley
Do it. Just do it.
- [70:54]
Ben Lindbergh
I'm gonna. Look, I'm just. I'm taking the Phillies. I don't care. It's gonna be entertaining one way or another, you know, and maybe in a different way than it was a few years ago, but it will be tremendous content one way or another. I do kind of like the. How long can they keep this going? It's the same core, it's the same group of guys. They're getting up there in years, so there's some urgency to it, but then also a little bit of new blood. And hey, can Justin Crawford be a new injection of youth into this lineup and fill that center field spot that's been so troublesome for them over the years? And then maybe could Painter come up perhaps. So there's still just a lot of talent here and then there are guys just oxygenating themselves and ozonating themselves and desanguinating themselves. And so you just really never know what's going to happen next with the Phillies. And you might not want to know, but it will be, it will be worth talking about one way or another. So Philadelphia Phillies.
- [72:06]
Meg Riley
Okay, what am I going to do? I'm going to take the Kansas City Royal.
- [72:10]
Ben Lindbergh
I see. I was debating. I was. I was Phillies or Royals and then I went with Phillies. I probably made the wrong decision.
- [72:16]
Meg Riley
I don't know that you made the wrong decision. I mean, I just. I think I've come to occupy. Have the belief that like a lot of our problems would be made better if we knew less about each other. And the Phillies are like, no, they're not. I want you to know about all of my problems. And so that's why I was just like, it's a bit the fun team or something. But that's not who I'm taking. I'm taking the Kansas City Royals, who I know a lot less about, at least in terms of the state of their blood. But I think that, you know, from a position player standpoint, like, Whit is just such a joy. He's such a joy to watch. And I know that we've spent a lot of time talking about the joyless experience of Team USA and the wbc, but watching Whit play was really just a great Way to spend March. So, Whit, I. I can't wait to see what we get out of Garcia this year. I really do think that he made changes that are going to be sticky and that he has, you know, taken a step forward and will be prominent on the national stage in a way that he hasn't been before because the defense was always good. But I think he's going to be a different guy at the plate. I can't wait to see how that park plays plays this year. I can't just wait to see how many home runs Friend of the Pod Video Pasquintino hits as a result of the changes to the outfield configuration. I can't wait to see if Vinnie tries to introduce Espresso into the Royal situation. That might be fun. You know, what do we get out of Cags? Who could say? I don't know. How long did they let Salvi keep catching? I don't know. Probably put Cartagen in there and then like, I hope that we get a good version and a healthy version of Cole Ray Gu this year because when he's right, it's so fun and we haven't. We've been deprived of that lately. I also am really curious to see how long it takes everyone to realize that Carlos Esteban looks pretty washed. Not a good spring. Wow. Navulo is concerning. Big, big red flags on the Velo for Carlos. That's less fun. But they have some interesting guys in the bullpen behind him who I think could sort of slot in in the event that he falters. So the Royals, you know, it's a good pick.
- [74:28]
Ben Lindbergh
One I almost made and immediately regretted not making. I think Jack's gonna be pretty good, I think, but he's certainly gonna hit some baseballs a long way.
- [74:37]
Meg Riley
You know, I gave you grief for not for being the one to sort of introduce a horned vibe to this episode. I will just remind everyone that when he was in college, Mike Rainey would call him the Jack Wagon. And that was funny at the time and is especially funny if it happens while he's on the Royals. And so we just. We need to re establish this lore and the easiest way to do that is for Jack Gaglion to make enough contact to hit a bunch of home runs.
- [75:07]
Ben Lindbergh
Yes.
- [75:08]
Meg Riley
And send them a long way. And we go on the Jaguar and then we are like the time we're having.
- [75:12]
Ben Lindbergh
Okay, well, I did not intend to collect all the AL east teams, but. But I'm going to take the Orioles. I'm taking the Orioles. There weren't really individual moves that they made that I loved in isolation, but
- [75:27]
Meg Riley
I need more pitching.
- [75:28]
Ben Lindbergh
Yes. But I. I do think that they. Look, they took that to heart. Could they have done more? Yes. Should they have done more? Probably. But I think they did a lot. They did as much as just about any other team other than the Mets, maybe. And, and I think in terms of just talent, they brought on, they improved maybe more than any other team, as much as any other team. And that was overdue and belated and much needed. But I think they did enough that they should be very much in contention and they still have a chance to sort of salvage this rebuild and this core and return to the playoffs and win some games there in a series even. And, and I have no idea what to make of a lot of their players at this point, but it can't be as bad as it was last year. There has to be some bouncing back that happens. And will that happen for Adley? At this point? I have no idea. I'd like to think so. What will you get out of Basayo and Kauser and Westburg who got hurt? And just all of these question marks. But watching which of those question marks just turn into periods, questions answered, that would be, I think, quite interesting. And seeing what they're gonna get out of Bradish and Rogers and like, can those guys keep pitching like that? I would be surprised if they kept pitching like that. But can they pitch well enough? And will Helsley be good again? A lot of storylines that I'm interested in seeing resolved and they did go for it. They spent some money, they brought in some guys. Maybe Pete will just jack 40 dingers and play 162 games and, and they need that. So I'm. I'm into it. Let's. Let's see what happens.
- [77:18]
Meg Riley
I respect it. I mean, I still think they need more pitching, but I respect your choice. I think your law, your rationale is sound. Where am I gonna go? Wow. We both, we both must think that the Yankees are just so boring because neither of us. Yeah, I do think that they're boring. I'm not taking them here. I'm going to take the Arizona Diamondbacks. Do the Arizona Diamondbacks have enough pitching? I don't know that they do. Ben, do they have enough pitching in the bullpen? Absolutely not. But I think that Katel Marte and Geraldo Perdomo, easily one of the most fun, like, double play combos in baseball. I hope that Corbin Carroll hits okay after the hammate, but Corbin is great. I liked you know the aspirational competence of their infield corner moves this off season, where it's just like, look, we're really hopeful that someone is going to displace Aeronauto and Carlos Santana, as much as I. I still enjoy watching. Watching Carlos Santana play, particularly defense. But we're gonna do some stuff here. We get to see if Jordan Lawler can play center field. How's that gonna go? No idea. I am keen to see what I hope to be a healthy and productive. Full. Healthy and productive season out of Gabrielle Moreno, because I think that that guy still has the chance to really take a step forward. I was going to say breakout, which would be wrong by our understanding of it, but I. I do think that he has. Has an opportunity to really establish himself. Jorge Bara is so little. You know, he's just such. He's just. I call him little Jorge Barosa every time I have to mention Jorge Barrosa, who is a bench player for the Diamondbacks. But he. He's so little. And they got guys hurt, and some of them will come back and maybe they'll be good or maybe they'll be terrible. I don't know. But I. I think there's. I think there is fun here. I think that. That by virtue of. Of being able to go, could tell Corbin Geraldo in the. In the lineup is. That's pretty fun, you know?
- [79:21]
Ben Lindbergh
Yeah. And the other Corbin being back also will.
- [79:25]
Meg Riley
Will help at some point. Yeah.
- [79:26]
Ben Lindbergh
So. Yeah. Yep. Okay. I think they would have been my next selection as well.
- [79:31]
Meg Riley
Yeah. Scooby.
- [79:32]
Ben Lindbergh
I wouldn't. Look, if someone said Gabriel Moreno break out, I wouldn't be.
- [79:38]
Meg Riley
You'd allow that?
- [79:39]
Ben Lindbergh
I might.
- [79:39]
Meg Riley
He was a top 100 prospect.
- [79:42]
Ben Lindbergh
Well, he was, but it's been a few years and. Yeah, he's, you know, four seasons in, and I think he's one of the best catchers in baseball. Ranked him high. But he has not really played a full season. He just keeps getting hurt and everything. So if you could just double one of his seasons, then, yeah, he'd be a star. So. Yeah, you know, maybe. Maybe he's entered the territory where you could call it that at this point.
- [80:06]
Meg Riley
All right. Right.
- [80:07]
Ben Lindbergh
I will say A's. I'm taking A's.
- [80:10]
Meg Riley
Dang it.
- [80:12]
Ben Lindbergh
Yeah. Now, the thing with the A's is that only half of their games are gonna be watchable, so.
- [80:18]
Meg Riley
Right.
- [80:18]
Ben Lindbergh
If you just sort of watch the half when they're hitting.
- [80:22]
Meg Riley
Right.
- [80:23]
Ben Lindbergh
And then tune out for the rest, depending on their opponent, then you would leave with the impression that they were one of the best and most watchable teams in baseball. But yeah, look, look, I'll take half a team or half a game of really riveting talent over all around roster that might be better, but just doesn't have the highlights. So just looking at that A's lineup, it's just top to bottom, it's just such an exciting group. And not just our buddy Brent Rooker, but then all the guys they've extended. And so many of these guys are part of their core. So you know they're going to be around wherever the A's are for the next few years. And can Curts do that again? How great is he really? And can Dental Clark hit at all, like even a little bit? And even if he doesn't, he might still be fun. And then just even following what Leo Vries is doing and how close is he getting? And then it's just their whole lineup, their whole roster. It's great. They get to hit in a fun park for hitters to hit in. So. So that's it. Basically. You just want to see some mashers. And I think Butler could bounce back too. I think he could be better than he was last year. Just, they're, they're really fun, you know, whenever they're at the plate, they are a really fun team.
- [81:48]
Meg Riley
I think that's right.
- [81:49]
Ben Lindbergh
Langoliers. Wilson.
- [81:51]
Meg Riley
Yeah.
- [81:51]
Ben Lindbergh
Soderstrom. I mean, man, stacked.
- [81:55]
Meg Riley
God. I guess I'm gonna take the stupid Yankees.
- [81:59]
Ben Lindbergh
I would have waited a while longer. I think they were down my board still.
- [82:04]
Meg Riley
I don't feel great about it.
- [82:06]
Ben Lindbergh
You're getting Aaron Judge. You can feel good, Judge.
- [82:09]
Meg Riley
You know what we're getting Aaron Judge. We're getting Max Freed. We're getting whatever's rolling through Cody Bellinger's head at any given time.
- [82:17]
Ben Lindbergh
Like jazz.
- [82:18]
Meg Riley
Jazz. You're getting jazz, you're getting. What are we going to see from Ben Rice this year? You know, we're getting, we're getting. We're getting Jose Caballero, the, the pitch Clock Menace. I. I enjoy watching Austin Wells. We're getting Cam Schlitler. We love Cam Schlitler. Sure. See how do you see how I said that right? Twice. So easy. Just roll. I'm in. Yeah, I'm in on season mode, one might say. If not Cole come back back saying, yeah, Gar, Cole's coming back in theory, you know, also Carlos Rodone and then at some point Anthony Volpe, which, you know, descending order of enthusiasm for those three names. I'm. I'm really interested to see what this bullpen is able to do this year. Cade WinQuest made the opening day roster. Rule 5 Pick Cade Win Quest. How exciting for him. I think Ryan Weathers is just a reliever, but that's not the point. So I'm taking the. You know, look at the. These Yankees. Trent Grisham has that great mustache.
- [83:15]
Ben Lindbergh
Yeah. Look, they're one of the best teams in baseball. This is. I'm not. Not knocking the talent. It's just that they haven't changed. Apologies to Brian Cashman, but they've. They did really just run it back, which is defensible. It's. It's a pretty good team. They won a lot of games last year, but it's not Will Warren. Yeah. It's just not as fun when there aren't as many new names and faces.
- [83:38]
Meg Riley
There are fun names, like Specific NamesQuest.
- [83:42]
Ben Lindbergh
What could be better than that?
- [83:43]
Meg Riley
Right. Ryan Garber, which I insist is still a cheese. And then Brent Hedrick. Doesn't that sound like something that, like something disgusting that, like Scottish people would eat a hedwig, you know?
- [83:54]
Ben Lindbergh
Yeah.
- [83:55]
Meg Riley
Love the Scots. Not knock on Scots, but some of the stuff you guys eat, it's intense, you know?
- [83:59]
Ben Lindbergh
Yeah.
- [84:00]
Meg Riley
A lot of interesting proteins.
- [84:02]
Ben Lindbergh
Okay, I will take the Texas Rangers.
- [84:06]
Meg Riley
Okay.
- [84:07]
Ben Lindbergh
The Texas Rangers. Look, I'm very interested in seeing some of the players who play for that team. Therefore, we don't have to belabor it.
- [84:19]
Meg Riley
This is.
- [84:19]
Ben Lindbergh
Yeah, we don't have to name names.
- [84:21]
Meg Riley
We gotta go.
- [84:22]
Ben Lindbergh
We gotta make name. Rangers. Look, the Mackenzie Gore trade, sure. Nice pickup for them. If he could pitch like he pitches for part of the season, for the whole season, then that would be great. They're kind of in that Pirates position of maybe on the bubble. Like they're very close to 50. 50 playoff odds could go either way. Wyatt Langford, just very excited to see Wyatt Langford. He. He could be great. And also just like, what do they have in all those other guys who've been hurt and off and on and Evan Carter and Josh Young and just. And hopefully Corey Seeger is good and healthy again for as long as he ever is. And, and, and look, you've got Jacob deGrom. So that's a strong start. Nathan of Valdi. Just those guys still. Still getting after it. And the Vandy boys.
- [85:09]
Meg Riley
And boys.
- [85:11]
Ben Lindbergh
Yeah. So. So there's a lot there. Sure.
- [85:14]
Meg Riley
I, I think that like Langford, I was talking about this with someone today. You know, concern coming up, like, can you embarrass love healer now? He might, he might just be a good center Fielder. That's a funny. That's a wild held, cool trajectory and the less said about the ownership group, the better. Okay, so it's my turn now. Oh, how have we. I'm taking the Padres. We haven't taken the Padres off the board. I should. It doesn't matter. I'm regretting my Yankees pick. I regret. It doesn't matter. I think that this team is less good than they used to be, but in a way that has made people sort of of sleep on the ways in which they are good. And I think that, you know, Tatis is like still really excellent. I'm, I'm excited for Jackson Merrell to have the opportunity to like rebound in his junior season. Manny Machado is not the defender he once was, but he's still pretty good out there and he's great at the plate. I think that they have competent catching, which is so exciting. Oh, wow. Nick Cassiana's is on this team. That's so funny. And then, you know, the pitching is so interesting because that bullpen is so fearsome. Best bullpen in baseball by our projections and not just because of Mason Miller, although a lot of it is because of Mason Miller. But they are just like very stout, really good group and then like shaky and potentially bad. But maybe also good rotation. I don't know. No one could say.
- [86:50]
Ben Lindbergh
I almost mentioned the Michael King signing as an off season signing that I liked. I know he's pounded this spring.
- [86:56]
Meg Riley
Yeah, yeah, pretty bad.
- [86:59]
Ben Lindbergh
The Padres, they feel a little less fun. The sum of the fun feels a little less than, than its parts. I mangled that saying, but you know what I'm going for there? Yeah, they have a lot of individual fun guys and, and A.J. preller is going to make things entertaining in one way or another. But yeah, they're just a little less good than they've been before and they've underachieved in some respects, so. But yeah, at this stage of the draft. Good pick. Okay. Good pick. I am taking the Cincinnati Reds.
- [87:29]
Meg Riley
Yes.
- [87:30]
Ben Lindbergh
Yeah, I remember them. And they're fun. And this is probably the most fun they've been for a while. And obviously the fun starts with, with Ellie, who is one of the most fun. He's on the short list of most fun major leaguers. And if he's healthy, you know, he wasn't his usual self when he was dealing with the injuries late last year, but prior to that he was his usual self and he was wonderful. And I assume if he's healthy, he's just going to play like that all year, and he will be a super duper star. And then Matt McLean has looked great this spring. And then you've got Marte and you've got that incredible rotation, which is diminished by Hunter Green's absence, of course. But then, hey, make way for Chase Burns and just all those other great guys. So just the rotation alone, plus Ellie, I think at this stage of the draft, like, that's a solid pick.
- [88:20]
Meg Riley
Okay, I'm gonna take the Brewers. I'm taking the Miz. I'm taking a bunch of fast guys. They have so many fast guys, Ben. They just got to bunch of speedy little dudes. I think Bryce Trang is. Is a really good baseball player, and I think he's going to take an additional leap this year. I think Contreras is fantastic. I'm really fascinated to see, like, what does year two of Andrew Vaughn in Milwaukee look like? I think that, like, they are going to maximize Sprout in a way that will probably be really cool. They continue to, like, like, play on hard mode, and they have some guys hurt who they could sure use. But I also think that, like, there's. There's stuff here that's a lot of fun. There are guys here who are really fun, and some of the things that they have leaned into from a sort of roster aesthetic perspective, I'm glad to have a, like, good representation of in the game. What is trio going to be this year? You know? Yeah, inquiring minds want to know. So. Yeah. Yeah, I'm taking the bur.
- [89:23]
Ben Lindbergh
Okay, good one. All right. This might also be a bit of a reach, but I'm reaching for the Chicago White Sox. I don't know. This. This feels possibly premature, but I just. I'm just into what they're building over there. I. I don't know. Maybe it won't come together. I really want to know how good or bad Murakami will be. And I just. I want to know what. What Colson Montgomery will look like. And I want to know, can Kyle Teal be as good as it seems like he could be when he comes back? And Caro in that. That catching combo, what does that look like? And then, yeah, a lot of the. The starters just sorting out, okay, Anthony K. Came back. What do you have there? And. And some of the. The guys who could be up, like, you know, your Noah Schultz is like, will he come up at some point? Drew Thorpe, will he be back? And I just feels like we might get a sense of what these White Sox will be. There's just a Lot of intriguing talent percolating here, and maybe it will start to coalesce into something. And I know White Sox fans saw not that long ago that when you think you're set for years to come, things can come tumbling down quite quickly. But. But I just. I like what's happening here. And maybe by the end of the season, I won't like it as much, or maybe I'll really like it. And maybe we'll come into next year talking about White Sox dark horse candidate. Could they be a contender? So it's not premature, I don't think, to think that, but we will see whether that still holds up after this season.
- [91:01]
Meg Riley
I'm taking the Braves mostly because of Ronald Kuhn Jr. And Drake Baldwin and. And Chris Sale, you know, so spindly. I hope that we get a full, healthy and consistent season out of Michael Harris ii, because when he is going right, he is tremendous fun to watch. Wow, Dominic Smith really made this roster, didn't he? Lucy is there, shortstop. Wow, you guys, this went in a weird direction. Mike Yastremski is here. I knew all of these things, but I'm just like, re remembering them because, you know, the PPRs are like an ionization blackout period for me. And then, you know, the. The bullpen has some really fun, interesting guys and also someone literally named Bummer. And then the less said about the current state of the rotation, the better. But some of the guys who are hurt right now will come back at some point and maybe be good. Could possibly. It's funny because the projections still really like the Braves in a way that feels like, you know, don't tell them. You know, like somebody was like, just don't. Just don't tell them. And they did. They. They've been told, you know, they know who's on this team. But also, some of them are not the best, but.
- [92:20]
Ben Lindbergh
Yeah.
- [92:20]
Meg Riley
What are you gonna do? They're the Braves. Here we are in this part of the draft, so.
- [92:24]
Ben Lindbergh
Well, what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna go Guardians now.
- [92:28]
Meg Riley
Yeah.
- [92:28]
Ben Lindbergh
And look, I just. I get Jose Ramirez. I get Stephen Kwan. I get to see what Travis Pisano will look like at the big league level at some point. Yeah. I get to see Chase dilauto after his trial by fire in the playoffs last year. I get to see Kyle Mansardo hit some homers, presumably. I get to see which Guardians pitchers will be unexpected, expectedly good this time. So.
- [92:57]
Meg Riley
Yeah, great.
- [92:58]
Ben Lindbergh
Look, we're in the bottom third here, so. Yeah. Yep.
- [93:02]
Meg Riley
Let's go.
- [93:02]
Ben Lindbergh
Okay.
- [93:03]
Meg Riley
Okay. I'm Taking the Marlins. I'm taking the Marlins because I want to see, like, what's Sandy like now? And what is your Marlin.
- [93:15]
Ben Lindbergh
She may not remain for once. Yeah.
- [93:17]
Meg Riley
Able to do.
- [93:18]
Ben Lindbergh
And super excited about you, Yuri Paris,
- [93:20]
Meg Riley
you know, are we going to. I. I appreciate that. Like, he is hurt right now. It sucks. But, like, how is Kyle Stowers gonna look? And can Owen Casey take a leap? And.
- [93:32]
Ben Lindbergh
And Marcy, right?
- [93:34]
Meg Riley
What's Jacob. Marcy gonna be? Jacob, Marcy. Sounds like such a spooky name to me. It makes me super happy. And then, you know, they have a bunch of guys where, like, what are you actually gonna get out of Otto Lopez? Like, can he take another step forward? I think he probably maybe can. And what do you. Can Connor Norby figure it out? And Will Augustine. How many pitches is he gonna call? How many?
- [93:57]
Ben Lindbergh
Yeah, that's why I couldn't. I couldn't take the Marlins. My moral objection.
- [94:00]
Meg Riley
What am I gonna do right now?
- [94:01]
Ben Lindbergh
You know, being patient zero in the pitch calling from the dugout epidemic.
- [94:05]
Meg Riley
But, yeah, they got a guy junk on the roster. You know, they got chance and junk. So, yeah, Marlins, maybe.
- [94:10]
Ben Lindbergh
Maybe you see some Rabbi Snelling and Thomas White at some point, perhaps.
- [94:14]
Meg Riley
I think probably will after the deadline at the very least.
- [94:17]
Ben Lindbergh
Yeah. This is another one like the White Socks, where you might hope to start to see what they're building here and what kind of core they can assemble. Okay. Boy, not really loving any of the picks at this stage, but I guess since I'm collecting all of the AL east teams except the Yankees, I guess I'll take the Rays, mostly for Junior Caminero.
- [94:41]
Meg Riley
And, oh, yeah, to be clear, good reason.
- [94:44]
Ben Lindbergh
Yeah. And maybe that's the only reason I need at this stage, but it's just. I don't really know who's on the raise right now. It's just really even more so than usual. I know I'm supposed to be a professional, but they've made it really difficult this off season. Just so much movement. And what did it all signify? And so, yeah, even more so, they're just really raising it up with the kind of not having identifiable guys. But Caminero, Yandy Diaz got some good pitchers. Sure.
- [95:16]
Meg Riley
Yeah.
- [95:16]
Ben Lindbergh
Race. And they get to go back to the Jonathan Rhonda. Jonathan Rhonda's good. They get to return to the trop. So that's. That's nice for them.
- [95:25]
Meg Riley
Carson Williams is on the scene. Can he figure you're like, I know that you edited the PPR's mag? No, one's doubting that you actually did.
- [95:32]
Ben Lindbergh
You know who's on the scene showing off your raise roster knowledge?
- [95:34]
Meg Riley
No one about the Rays. What a good party trick. Okay, I guess I will take. I'm going to take the Giants.
- [95:43]
Ben Lindbergh
All right.
- [95:44]
Meg Riley
I'm going to take the Giants because Logan Webb is great and terrific fun to watch. I like Willie Adamus. Feel like he figures stuff out. I like Matt Chapman. I will eventually enjoy Bryce elder because he's 27,000ft tall but is going to AAA. I wanna see how long it takes Patrick Bailey to throw something at his manager if he tries to call pitches from the dugout. They watched that back. Did you see that?
- [96:13]
Ben Lindbergh
I did see that. They were like, my boss is Buster Posey. And also I have Patrick Bailey. Maybe this is. What am I doing to try this? Yeah, what am I doing? But yes, the. The Tony Vatello experience. That alone is a good reason.
- [96:26]
Meg Riley
Yeah, it's gonna be something. You know. What's it gonna be? Don't know yet. You know, they still have, I think, one of the just like, the better uniforms in baseball. Love the classic cream. Beautiful ballpark.
- [96:39]
Ben Lindbergh
Yep.
- [96:40]
Meg Riley
Okay.
- [96:40]
Ben Lindbergh
Okay. I'll take the Cardinals. I don't think the Cardinals are going to be a good baseball team in 2026. But they do they. No, but they do have some extremely watchable players. They got J.J. weatherholt. He's on the opening day roster. They've got Mason Nguyen, and they've got Victor Scott ii. I mean, speed defense. Right. And then a lot of guys who are, okay, we really got to put up or shut up. We got to know what you are now. Lars Newbar, Nolan Gorman, Alec Burleson, Jordan Walker. So there's a lot of guys in that category of okay, we really have to figure out what we have or not have them anymore. But I think even though they're bad, they at least feel like they're moving in the right direction or a direction. Now they've ripped the band aid off. They're remaking this roster. It's Heim Bloom's team to run. And. And, you know, the pitching, I think is going to be pretty rough, but Matthew Libertour might be pretty good. And I've enjoyed Dustin May when he has been good. And then Richard Fitz, our friend. And then just like Will Will they sit, sift through the wreckage of this pitching staff and find someone who will be on another Cardinals competitive team at some point. And. And Herrera, I. Herrera is just a really good hitter, and I would like him to get to Catch sometimes to see if that's at all workable. So, yeah, I think we're going to learn a lot about the Cardinals future this season, and we'll have at least a little fun along the way, probably.
- [98:12]
Meg Riley
So. Okay, I'm taking the Twins because they have Joe Ryan, who's very good, and.
- [98:21]
Ben Lindbergh
Yeah, we'll see.
- [98:22]
Meg Riley
Well, okay. But we're at the bottom. What are your expectations of my options here? You know what they are. You took the other good ones.
- [98:29]
Ben Lindbergh
It's true.
- [98:30]
Meg Riley
They have Byron Buxton. Love Byron Buxton. Can Royce Lewis figure it out again? What kind of starter is Taj Bradley gonna be? That'll be interesting to find out. How is Bailey Ober gonna go? They have Taylor Rogers. Taylor Rogers, yep. I. I also just think that when you're at this level, you do have to enjoy the fact that there is a human person named Thunderbird. You know, you have to be like, that's a human name.
- [98:56]
Ben Lindbergh
That's fun. Just to see that name is fun.
- [98:58]
Meg Riley
Just more than one person has. You know, he's not the first Thunderbirk. It's really hard to say. My God, really challenging. And Cody with a kid, so they're just. It's a minefield, you know? And Cody Lawyerson, like, what a name. What a name. Some of these names, you know. Okay, I'm done.
- [99:20]
Ben Lindbergh
Yeah. The organization itself, not so fun. The antithesis of fun ownership, but. But, yeah, some fun. Luke Kishel could be fun. Okay.
- [99:29]
Meg Riley
Yeah, they have some prospects. You know, they have some. They have some prospects.
- [99:33]
Ben Lindbergh
Yeah. Okay. Well, we're almost down to the dregs here, but. But there's one team that I would not say qualifies as a dreg, and that is the Houston Astros. You might, as a Mariners fan, disagree, but. But the Astros are by far the best team left on the board here.
- [99:49]
Meg Riley
Oh, they really are. And I maybe forgot that they were still on the board.
- [99:53]
Ben Lindbergh
Well, one reason or another, they. They fell to me here. And, yeah, I. I don't think they're among the more fun teams, but watching some winning baseball is typically more fun, all else being equal, than not. And so they will win some games, and they do have some good players, and they've got some good pitchers. And, hey, Hunter Brown is here, and, you know, Jose Altuve. I don't. I don't know how much is left with Jose Altuve these days, but. But we'll see. And the seeing will be interesting. Jeremy Pena, can he be the player he was last year? And, of course, can Yordan be The player he was before last year, can he go back to being the terrifying masher that he has mostly been? And Cam Smith. Can Cam Smith have a little bit of a nice sophomore season? And then, yeah, you know, Carlos Correa, like, look, they've got. They've got some good guys, and the competition at this stage of the draft is not strong. Einer Diaz.
- [100:58]
Meg Riley
Yeah, look, you said so much about the Astros.
- [101:01]
Ben Lindbergh
Christian, Javier Imai. I mentioned burros. Yeah, yeah, look, hater. If. If he's healthy again at some point. Look. Yeah, Easy, easy. No brainer. Pick.
- [101:12]
Meg Riley
Great. Moving it along. Taking the Nationals, who. Who have James Wood, they have Dylan Lyle. They have. Have Cavalli. Well, they have some aspects.
- [101:32]
Ben Lindbergh
RJ Anderson.
- [101:33]
Meg Riley
They have rj. And isn't RJ just one of the nicest guys you've ever met in your life? He's also very smart, you know, like. Yeah, they are a team that's gonna be really interesting to monitor from afar, because the most compelling, telling parts of their stories, other, other than, you know, some of their young hitters, is going to be like, how the franchise turns itself around. What does this front office do? How much success did they have? How quickly do they have it? What is. Like, how quickly are we, as outside observers able to discern the differences for this team versus what it was under the prior administration? And I think that will be fascinating. And also, I do have an appreciation for the fact that I don't have to watch. I'm playing every day, so I look forward to checking in on them and seeing how it goes. And I do wish them well because I have sympathy for the situation they found themselves in after they won the World Series, you know, and just circumstances beyond their control made it so that we, as a collective, didn't really get, like a stretch with that to sit with it. And then they were immediately bad again. So I hope that this rebuild works. It. You know, DC Deserves a good baseball team as a city. It's a great city, deserves a good team. And I feel like they're. They're really trying to make that happen with smarts. And then we'll see if the spending comes after. And there they are, the Washington Nationals. I have picked them.
- [103:07]
Ben Lindbergh
Okay. And I will make the penultimate pick and thus also the ultimate pick. I will take the Angels. And look, they have a bunch of guys who were good in some cases some time ago. And so to be reminded of when they were good can be fun, but also sometimes sort of depressing. But I was fairly optimistic about Mike Trout from A performance and. And skills standpoint this spring.
- [103:33]
Meg Riley
Sure.
- [103:34]
Ben Lindbergh
If. If he's able to stay healthy. I know the ultimate if, but I think there's still something in there and that he could be a kind of productive player. Now, he is slugging.390 with no homers in 17 games this spring, but let's put that aside for the moment. But look, they have Neto and they have. Oh, Happy and Shannoel. And just like some guys I'm kind of interested in and some pitchers I kind of like Kikuchi and I don't know, man. I mean, it's not a good team and it's pretty bleak. And this might be the first time that they finally do actually lose 100 games. I. I think this could be the year that they get on the board as the last franchise. Never to have done that, but I always wanted to believe in Reed Detmers. You know, he was pretty good out of the pen for them last year, so. Jose Soriano. Underrated.
- [104:28]
Meg Riley
Yeah.
- [104:28]
Ben Lindbergh
I don't know. I'm running out of names, but they're the second to last pick, so that'll do. Joe Adele.
- [104:33]
Meg Riley
That means Joe Adele. Sure. Yep. Yelling names more at the yellow names section of this draft, which means that I have the Colorado Rockies, who have a beautiful ballpark. They have a Victor on their roster. We love a Victor. Vodnik. They have a good man. Hunter Goodman.
- [104:49]
Ben Lindbergh
Yeah.
- [104:49]
Meg Riley
TJ Rumfield made this roster. How about that? How about that? I hope that Jake McCarthy goes back to using. Oh, God. What was his walk up song in Arizona that made me so happy. Anyway, it doesn't matter. They have a great ballpark, but also another team, sort of like the Nationals, where you were just like, this is a new attempt at. You know, we have a new set of organizing principles here. Like, we should use numbers and also try to view the ballpark as. As an advantage, one that we can sort of build our roster around and that'll be good. And, you know, so they. They're trying to do that and that's cool.
- [105:40]
Ben Lindbergh
Yeah. Seeing whether we can discern some signs of. Right. New, Different Rockies.
- [105:47]
Meg Riley
He used Brain Stew. He used Brain Stew as his walk up music.
- [105:51]
Ben Lindbergh
Okay.
- [105:51]
Meg Riley
And I enjoyed that. I was like, are you old enough to remember this song? Like, how did you find your way to Brain Stew?
- [105:58]
Ben Lindbergh
Well, hey, a lot of the music I listened to predated my existence, I guess.
- [106:02]
Meg Riley
That's all right. We did it. The fun. It's been drafted. All of it. There's none left. We've drafted all the fun Rockies, they
- [106:09]
Ben Lindbergh
have a victor with a K. Will they have victors with Cs? Probably not that often, but they're bringing up the rear. Okay.
- [106:18]
Meg Riley
Viktor Vodnik doesn't have a K in his.
- [106:20]
Ben Lindbergh
No K in Vince C. Why did
- [106:22]
Meg Riley
I think, well, at the end of Vodnik there's a K. Well, yeah, I
- [106:25]
Ben Lindbergh
guess I got K's, my K's and C's. Yeah. Okay, well, Victor Vodnik, he'll probably be a victor at some point this season. Maybe they'll be victors a little more often than they were last year.
- [106:35]
Meg Riley
I don't know.
- [106:36]
Ben Lindbergh
Not that much more often, but a bit.
- [106:38]
Meg Riley
At least it's a pros. Yes.
- [106:39]
Ben Lindbergh
Okay, so that's our team. Fun draft. Let us know if you disagree strenuously with any of our fun ratings here. And I'm not trying to insult Scottish
- [106:51]
Meg Riley
people, to be clear.
- [106:52]
Ben Lindbergh
No, of course not.
- [106:54]
Meg Riley
And Haggis. So they do.
- [106:56]
Ben Lindbergh
Yeah.
- [106:57]
Meg Riley
You know.
- [106:57]
Ben Lindbergh
Yeah.
- [106:58]
Meg Riley
Hedrick.
- [106:59]
Ben Lindbergh
Well now we will have some fun and watch opening night and we will get to see the Giants curse slash streak be broken. Not the Willie Adam hitting 30 homers to have a 30 homer hitter for the first time since Barry Bonds, but a left fielder, Elliot Ramos back to back opening days. So that streak finally over after 19 years. I, I almost wish they'd gone.
- [107:27]
Meg Riley
Don't look at his defensive metrics from last year and you're gonna feel real good about it.
- [107:30]
Ben Lindbergh
Doesn't matter if he's good out there, just matters where he's penciled in in the lineup. It counts. It ends the streak of 19 consecutive seasons with a different left fielder on every opening day. But now they're tied for the all time lead with the 1937-55 Browns also in left field. 19. It's like if you're going to go 19 years, just go for the records, just go for 20, you know. But I don't know, maybe they didn't want that distinction. So now as Sarah Langs pointed out, the Giants left fielder streak is over. But Cleveland now has a different right fielder for 15 straight seasons and, and that feels pretty on brand for them given how unproductive their outfields have tend to be. But yeah, I remember doing a step last. I think it was about the Giants left fielder streak years and years and years ago before it became a big thing. But now it is. So they have snapped both of those curses. I guess that's good. And speaking of streaks ending, I guess we should note that the next time this podcast is back in your feeds. It will be a partial preview for non Patreon subscribers. So we will be recording again on Friday. We don't know what we'll be talking about, but presumably baseball of some sort. And if you are a Patreon supporter by then, then you will get that episode in your podcast Catcher. And if not then you'll still see what we're we are talking about and you'll be able to hear the beginning of it. But that will be reserved for subscribers. The full episode. So you know, I guess that our streak of of producing only unpaywalled regular episodes was not quite as long as the Giants streak of having a different opening day left fielder every every season. But. But close. And I looked up, I found this site that allows you to look at the total runtime of a podcast. You can just put in the feed and it tells you it's pod duration rnight me. So I plugged in our RSS feed. Not counting this episode obviously the first 2458 I guess including the non numbered ones, total of 1992 hours which is 83 days. 83 solid days of effectively wild. Yeah, which that's a lot of time. But given how many years of my life that has been, it sounds like not a lot. It's like only two months of my past 14 years or whatever. Yeah, merely. But you know, that's if you marathoned that not sleeping in in honor of me for two months then you could. Yeah, probably. But you could consume the entirety of the effectively about that catalog. Anyway, just saying we've made a lot of episodes. There are a lot of episodes out there that will be free for you forever. And we're still making two lengthy free ones a week. We do hope that as many of you as can swing it will join us for that third one. Of course. And one way or another we will be back with much more effectively wild soon. Okay. Well, opening night. Not the best game, not the best broadcast. A seven nothing Yankees win. I was wondering after all the ABS buildup, ooh, when are we going to see the challenge system? Maybe there just wouldn't be any challenges. Maybe home plate umpire Bill Miller would be perfect. Would say not today, not on my watch. And you know what? Pretty close. There was but one challenge in the fourth inning by Jose Caballero and the call was confirmed. So Caballero makes the history as the first challenger, but does not make history as the first to have a call changed. It's funny, you know, Willie Adamus didn't challenge, but I saw the other day, the Giants were playing an exhibition game against a Mexican League team and the catcher challenged on a ball call on a pitch that was pretty clearly outside. And Willie Adamus at least pantomimed being upset about it. He was gesticulating, he was saying, wow, you're challenging that. Come on. He actually looked upset and I was thinking, wow. My bold prediction about how the challenge system is going to spark some sort of benches clearing situation. It might come true before spring training is over. This is getting heated. And in fact, after the ball call was confirmed, Adamus Adonis bonked the catcher on the helmet with his bat. And then, I think after the next pitch gestured mockingly as if to say, oh, you want to challenge that one too? But this was not, I believe, actually bad blood. The catcher was Omar Narvaez, who had been Adonis's teammate in Milwaukee. So I think this was all in good fun. But it did make me even more confident that at some point the challenge system would engender bad blood between teams. Anyway, look out for our next episode in your personal private Patreon feed if you have one. If you if you are a supporter, you find a unique code in your settings, you plug it into your podcast app. It will start delivering to you all of our episodes paid and free alike. You should get instructions to do that in the welcome note when you sign up, but I will also link to those instructions in the post for this episode. And if you're listening to this before first pitch on Thursday, remember that you can still participate in our preseason Predictions game. Go to ewstats.com and we hope that you will support the podcast on Patreon by going to patreon.com effectively wild and signing up to pledge some monthly or yearly amount to help keep the podcast going. Help us stay ad free and get yourself access to some perks, including the full next episode as have the following five listeners Nicholas Wolf, Corey Silvis, Garrett Snyder, Greg Tracy and Ryan Harrison. Thanks to all of you. Patreon perks include the aforementioned weekly subscriber only episode, monthly bonus episodes in season and playoff live streams. Access to our Discord group for Patreon supporters shout out to at the end of episodes, personalized messages, prioritized email answers, potential podcast appearances, ad free Fangraphs memberships and more. Check out all the offerings@patreon.com effectivelywild. If you are a Patreon supporter, you can message us through the Patreon site. If not, you can send your questions, comments, intro and outro themes to podcastsangraphts.com youm can rate, review and subscribe to Effectively Wild on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube Music and other podcast platforms. You can join our Facebook group at facebook.com/group effectively wild. You can find the Effectively Wild subreddit at R Effectively Wild and you can check the show notes in the podcast posted fan graphs or in the episode description in your podcast app for links to the stories and stats we cited today. Thanks to Shane McKeon for his editing and product assistance. 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