Bobby Bones (2:08)
Hello and welcome to Waking Jake Happy Martin Luther King Jr. Day. Do you say happy? That always gets tricky with the holidays. January 20th, big day in the States for a lot of reasons. And today on Wake and Jake, we're going to talk. No, we're going to talk sports because we have to hopefully close a loop on the Dodgers. They signed Tanner Scott, probably the best reliever available after Winning the Roki Sasaki sweepstakes, which we haven't fully touched upon on here. So, yeah, I, I think we might close the loop on that. But who. Who knows who could be next for them because they are on a war path to build an unstoppable team. And we'll talk about if that can even happen in baseball. Massive football weekend. God. The Kansas City Chiefs take care of their business. They're going to line up with the Buffalo Bills to run that back, which is exciting. And I've. I've been stewing on that this morning, along with. How about the Washington Commanders changing a franchise with a quarterback and new ownership. Maybe we should talk about ownership more in sports. Brutal for the Lions. Brutal for Matthew Stafford and Trevor Ploufe, who went out there to watch his friend lose to the Eagles. And they had a chance, even though they shouldn't have had a chance. We'll talk about all of that in a little bit. But first, let's do some baseball as it is. What did I say? January 20th. Okay. Most teams are reporting. Pitchers are getting there a little early. Players are getting there. The 17th, 14th. I think for the Cubbies. Still the same names out there. Profar, Bregman, Santander, Flaherty, Hassan, Kim, Heat Dog, Pistol Pete, Alonzo and Pavetta. You know, I, I still, I still think pitcher should do okay. Like whatever Nick Pavetta is looking for, I think a. A team will come around. Maybe it won't. We're starting to get to that point. Pete's in the weird spot. I think Santander is going to get paid and maybe they're both going to get paid by the Blue Jays. Cause that's not where this should start. But it was kind of crazy. Kind of tough to see John Haymon being like, right after Sasaki turned down the Blue Jays, that they have interest in Pete, they have interest in Santander, which was my original landing spot. So I will be digging up some of the receipts if that happens. But let's not start with them. Let's start with the Dodgers and I. We like to peel back the curtain. I think it's been a successful method for us. The Dodgers are big. It's la. It's the Dodgers. It's one of the most recognizable brands in baseball. They have Johei Ohtani. Ohtani is one of the athletes that actually moves the needle. If we put Ohtani in a thumbnail or a title, the. The clicks and views go up. It, It's. It's like real. Like, I, I think it's it's actually kind of fun that we can talk about that on our end because I feel like ESPN for years and how we're raised, they were like, you know, we, we don't do that stuff. And then it. They kind of went the other way when they had to like it. You know, when first take and everything would be opening with LeBron or, you know, it was like how. How could they possibly be there? You know, the joke has now become they talk about the Cowboys quarterback in like July. So they have made their move that way. And I, I guess for us, because we are fans, like fan media is one of the terms we throw around. You know, I, I know you don't. There's a lot of other sports teams that you don't want to be opening it every time. And we're hunting out that click. Unfortunately, the Dodgers recently have kind of taken things into their own hands. I'll start with Sasaki because I, I guess we haven't done it here. And I, I'm. I was laughing in hindsight because when I was doing Sasaki conversations on here. Well a. The last time we talked, literally as BBD was posting it, he turned down the Yankees. And I gave a nice little speech about like Yankees could make sense. Like he could be the star. They haven't had a Japanese player in a while. There should every real chance they've got good pitching development that matters to rookie. So yeah right as posting and I think even a title change came out. He told the Yankees I'm not interested. Which was a crazy. Hey Roki, I'm in no place to give you or your agent advice. Next time you can just tell the team you're signing with. I'm signing with you. You don't have to tell all the other teams. No, I don't really know what that was. That was. That was okay Internet fodder, but that was just, it was interesting. Roki signs with the Dodgers and when I opened up the whole Wake and Jake episode with that and whenever we talked about it, I would say it starts with saying if it's not the Dodgers, because it seems like it could just be the Dodgers. And there's some of the obvious reasons why the, the location it is la. It's one of the best cities in the world. Obviously they've had a couple insane, crazy, scary weeks there. But it's, it's la. I mean it's the home of music, movies, sports, good weather. And for Japanese players, being located on the west coast is clearly important for them. And for I think for Japan to kind of be tuned into them so you start going into the other layers. I mentioned Yankees and the other orgs if you're looking for good pitching like that used to be kind of the Dodgers Dodgers thing. We've seen guys go to the Dodgers and kind of rebuild themselves up. Andrew, he dog did a little bit. Who was the Tyler Anderson? Is that the other lefty that did that? Yeah. And never mind just tapping into young players and making them successful pitchers. So even before this version of the Dodgers took off, they were pitching factory and clearly a step ahead of a lot of organizations. The lineup stacked, the team is stacked. He has Japanese teammates on the team. If you're looking to win which I do think as we get to Tanner Scott in a second which that. That is now an interesting wrinkle. If you're looking to win LA would be the number one place to be. They literally just won the World Series. This franchise has been so good and so dominant. Whether you want to keep it in the last decade or the last like three decades, what they have done to the NL west and what they have done in the regular seasons and now it's turning into championships that we could be seeing another level for this franchise. And they are. It's an embarrassment of riches. And I think the rookie one stung a lot of baseball fans for more for the different reasons. For the okay, hey, if the Dodgers are going to go out and the Dodgers are going to sign whoever. Shohei Ohtani 700 million. It's one of the weirdest contracts we've ever seen. Whatever. There's. There's unfortunately 25 or so teams in the league that are like, well, yeah, we can't do that. It's just not happening. We don't have that kind of money. Shohei doesn't want us. That is what it is. Roki Sasaki coming over, being on essentially a minor league international free agent contract that means every team could do it and you're still not competing with these guys which now that starts to get a little daunting for the rest of the league. And I guess it's where I started the, the clickbait part of this that I don't think today's episode episode should be in. But it's, you know, the conversation is are the Dodgers like unfair? Are the Dodgers good for baseball? I think currently, yes. Because there's. There's been a lot of conversation over the off season. I'm interested to see the product on the field. It's going to be very good. It's just what range of it. You know, they have this deep pitching staff that they're going to pitch, they have that lineup they are going to hit. I'm interested to see are they going to have an effect of like when the Dodgers come to town, are other teams going to turn it up? Because that's, that's kind of one of the scary parts of the MLB season grind is that if you're the Dodgers and you're grinding through a season and there's injuries and there's slumps, like that's every baseball team that's ever played has those two things. So if you're dealing with that and you'd have the target around your back everywhere you go, it can make the baseball season tricky. Man. If teams get up for you every weekend and you're, you're starting to hit that summer malaise that can, that can be tough. That being said, they can be so dominant. There's going to be some series and games that other teams almost aren't invited to. You know, I, there's a couple times in every season when the year starts sorting out and it's like good team, bad team and you know, know when we deep dive into series on talking baseball, hey, anything can happen in three game series. Sometimes that's not true. Sometimes there's a really good team and sometimes there's a really bad team that even if that really bad team gets like that, that 40 lead early, it's like hey this, this isn't going to hold today. If, if the Dodgers want it, they're going to get it. And I, I think the other thing that's interesting to me as I go through these Dodgers teams, cause in a way they've always had a lineup like you know, even going back to MVP Cody Bellinger, you know the Dodgers, they, they've put together lineups throughout and they've even had the starting pitching, which I think it's funny Kershaw's still unsigned right now, but it sounds like they're going to bring him back and he's going to do a mid season party up again, which good, why not the Dodgers bullpen? And this brings us over to their most recent signing and Tanner Scott. The Dodgers bullpen was always good, but it always felt like a potential weak spot. The brewstar gratterall breakout like that was pretty sick when that was going on. God, speaking of forgotten guys, how about ureas for them and how he would kick to the bullpen for playoff games and he was kind of their secret Weapon in the playoffs when they got it done and he was doing multi inning outings, he was doing the final outs and games that the Dodgers bullpen and I, I, I had a little chuckle today cause Evan Phillips is a very good MLB reliever and there was a couple years there where he was like the Dodgers closer and it was like okay, yeah Evan Phillips is good. Like if his name was a little cooler would we have respected Evan Phillips a little more? I think so. And that's a little messed up by just baseball in general right now. Evan Phillips is slotted into their, arguably their fourth reliever right now. They traded for Michael Kopec who was electric for them. They just signed Tanner Scott who as high end lefties go he was the best free agent and he has, he always had the arm talent. It was kind of getting the control down and it looks like that has all come together together in peak form. Blake Trinen who was there with Phillips and it was always like okay, Trine and kind of gets the important outs like don't worry about Phillips. And you know that kind of came to fruition. And hey I, Alex Vessia, now their second lefty reliever is 28 and 66.1 innings. He had a 176 last year. So the Dodgers bullpen with without Tanner Scott was one of the best in baseball. They now add Tanner Scott and it's, it's really wild. It's, you know, just run through it quick for everyone. Snell, Yamamoto, Glass, now Gonsolin, Roki Sasaki, Dustin May. That's six starting pitchers without mentioning Shohei Otani who is going to pitch for them this year. And again like nevermind if they are going to do something with Kershaw, which again every time they allude to this, they do. Bobby Miller's currently in Triple A. Ben Kasparius pitched in the World series. Landon knack 69 regular season innings to a three six five. So their, their pitching depth is there. If they need to tap into trades they can. I don't know where they will because their lineup's pretty damn good too. Shohei Mookie, Freddy Te, Oscar Max Muncie, Will Smith, Conforto, Tommy Edmond, High Song Kim. Let's see what he's all about that if he's good, that's going to be a real, that's going to be a little twist. Miggy Row, Chris Taylor, Andy Pahes on the bench. James Outman's in aaa. They've got everything you could want. It will be interesting to see how the Season goes on. If, if, if they really need a, a corner, another outfielder, like you could see someone squeezing in there. They have more than enough trade capital to get really whoever they want or, God, it's going to be super interesting if, if they have a significant injury, I mean, they'll be able to go out and get whatever replacement they need. So it really is, you know, it, it leads into some fun baseball conversations. Is this one of the best baseball teams we've ever seen on paper? Like, yes, I, like that's, that can, can end that conversation pretty quickly and then all time. I mean, I, I don't know. It's, it's tough to go into the mentality of before a season. What does a team really feel like? Because I, I, I have regrets. The Atlanta Braves, when they won the World Series, the Atlanta Braves were stacked. And for me part of the formula was, you know, to just repeat is really hard in any sport. Baseball hasn't had a Repeat champ since 2000. Hello. And hey, maybe that's the volatility of baseball. Maybe that's the player movement. Maybe that's the fact that whatever team you are, however good you are, it's going to come down to a five game set that if you play another good team, if the Dodgers play the Phillies and I don't know, a pitcher's tipping his pitches one game and that's one of the five your season can end. So that first five game Dodger playoff set, watch out for that one because that's going to be their first pressure pack series of the year. I wonder who they get and what both teams are looking at at the time. But the fact that we can pencil them in the postseason is, is pretty wild in this sport. And I'm, I'm interested to see what's next. I, I mean, if they build a dynasty here, well, there should be a roadmap out there for other teams. I guess the part that is scary about the roadmap is if you're the landing spot for every Japanese baseball player. Other teams cannot copy that part of the roadmap. So that'll be something to check in as this process goes on. Hey, I, I know I'm not the most beloved with Dodger fans as they play the Yankees in the World Series and the Diamondbacks have kind of adopted me. It's kind of cool. It's kind of like the Bo Nick story with that wide receiver. Like, I don't know. I, if you're a Dodgers fan, you should be enjoying it and say it's Nobody else's business. The one final thing though on, on Tanner Scott is that he got offered more by the Red Sox and the Cubbies believe so that that's interesting to me because la if, if you were looking for potential pit downfalls, you know the taxes are significant there. Tanner Scott has made a little under $10 million playing baseball. That is a lot of money compared to some of these guys. It's not as much money. And Tanner Scott, a lefty reliever who's in his 30s. I was peaking at the right time. This is his moment to get his contract that turning down other money and again who knows how much like we're. We're the Cubs and the Red Sox each each another 50k because at that point we're not moving the needle any direction. But supposedly they, they offered more money and Tanner Scott said I'm going to la. And you get it to a degree. You know it's. It's hard to put our. I think it's hard for a lot of us to put ourselves in the shoes of someone who's even made $10 million playing baseball. But you know I, I could go into the speech about taxes and agents. Okay so let's cut that in half and then we're were buying nice meals and things like Tanner Scott might only have a million do. Either way that's some, some really good Tanner Scott problems. Hey man, I, the more I thought about it and I was kind of unhappy. Tanner Scott pitched for the bad Orioles teams. Tanner Scott pitched for the bad Marlins teams. Maybe Tanner Scott wants to be on a winning baseball team. No, it's awesome winning and the Dodgers are set up successfully for that. So that's where the Japanese thing. I think there's a fair conversation on if it really just becomes a Dodgers pipeline. Like you know we've. And hey, this, this isn't just for Yankees fans. Who, you know, who's our guy? Munetaki Morakami. I believe he's a free agent next year. Power hitting, first baseman, third baseman. It's taken a, I think some steps back but is a guy that's supposed to come over and has a chance to be very good. And every player from Japan has a chance to be very good. They won the wbc. They've clearly caught up to whatever the norm or expectation is. Max Muncie is a free agent coming up this season. Thick third baseman. Is that the, is that the safe spot for more commie? I mean it's. I don't want this to come off as whining Yankee fan who just lost the World Series because their team couldn't play defense. It's just the Dodgers have become the example. They won the World Series, they're getting players in free agents. You, every team wants their team to be doing what the Dodgers is doing. I guess if you got ownership, which is very important, and going out and getting free agents and making trades for guys and paying players and all that. If you have that, there's currently one thing that's missing from your organization and it's that ability. So I'm just interested to see the next steps. I. Super teams and repeating it rarely works out that, you know, I. There's. There may be a day in late to mid October when we're talking about. Remember all that conversation about super team and are the Dodgers unfair and all that. And sometimes a lot of times baseball rears its ugly head and it's like, here's the Diamondbacks. Let's see what happens with them. I'm interested to see what goes on with the, the pipeline from Japan because I don't know and I'm, I'm coming at this from a Yankees perspective and I'm wondering if there's an element of this being unfair. And that's, you know, as a guy who watched Moneyball over the weekend, here's your Dodgers, here's the Yankees, here's a lot of other teams. Here's 50ft of shit. And then there's a couple other teams down there nowadays that if I'm trying to make this a fair playing field for everyone, which that's. It's part of the reason I do enjoy sports, it'll be interesting to track the next steps. As of now, good for the Dodgers. Anyone could assign Blake Snell that contract was not in another atmosphere. Another team could have traded for Tyler Glass now and paid him. They did not. The Dodgers had the advantage of depth and being the Dodgers that some of his injury fears, they didn't have to worry about. Tay Oscar was a free agent from Seattle a year ago. Like Freddie, you know, remember his free agency got a little weird. Like there's a lot of this team that you can't point at and say bad or funny business or whatever. I'm excited to see what Dodgers baseball looks like. I'm interested to see where does the line stop. And it's also the Tanner Scott example. If they're getting players, and I'm not saying for a discount, but other teams putting in slightly better bids on players and they're choosing the Dodgers, well, that's because they're going to win games and it's because they're a good organization. It's because Dave Roberts is beloved and it's because their clubhouse is reportedly just an awesome place to be. So for the other teams, yeah, it's a little bit of fig keep up on the other levels so that if Japan just becomes their best minor league pipeline then you can complain about that. But as of right now, they're doing so much other stuff. Good. But yeah, there's a little bit of jealousy and I'm, I'm so interested to see the next steps and how the rest of this free agency pans out. And I guess I mentioned Toronto a little bit off the jump. They were the second finalist to Sasaki Padres. I'm not even going to talk about you because I think it's a very sad conversation and I don't know the next steps your ownership is fighting. There's a lot of money and good players on that books. I hope there's a profar and there's a something else. And we're, we get excited for some Padres baseball because this team was up 2 to 1 on the Dodgers and they felt like the best team. Think about that. The Padres as of what was that three months ago for a couple days were like, I think they're the best team in baseball and they're going to win the World Series. And now we're wondering how are they going to fill out their team rotation? You know, are they even going to get the money for I don't want to say stop gap type players, but MLB players to participate in the bottom of their lineup and back into their rotation. That's going to be wild to track. Now the Toronto Blue Jays and hey, our Wake and Jake redheaded stepson Foolish baseball, he had it first, man. I, I think I. It was one of the first times I asked him. I was like, hey man, if you've got something you want to talk about, like we're, we're kind of fueled by passionate topics and I think it was the end of 22 or middle end of 23 and Foolish was like this could be the end of the Blue Jays. And I was like, hey man, like I hope you understand. I can't really say that I can but Blue Jay fans, they are hostile and especially to Yankee fans. Toronto is sitting at a weird spot and I guess I, you know, maybe I should acknowledge the Miles Straw trade a little more. George Springer clearly on a second part of his career. He's 35. Remember he had that bizarre start last year that he did bounce back. So there's something in there. But he was a 1.2 war player. A 95 weighted runs created plus at 35. Does he have another season of something in there? Sure. Also could not Boba Shet. I think the whole world is expecting him to bounce back in a big way. Hopefully just being healthy. Contract year. Bo can go and that would be obviously a massive change from a loss last year. Vladi, the break, the final breakout hopefully happened. He is in his contract year. It's going to be one of the stories of the sport this year. Let's see. You know, Flatty, my God, if he does what he did last year again, he'll be 26 in free agency. It's going to be closer to Soto than anyone thinks. Because if Juan Soto got that money, Vlad is in a ballpark offensively with Soto. And this is going to sound kind of crazy, but Vlad's position at least is going to make more sense for a little bit. I don't know. It's, it's. It's a wiggly conversation. Soto, it'll be like a real test of like what how much your first baseman just not valued. Because if he repeats this year and has like any difficulty in free agency next winter, like, all right, then we got a first base problem. Yeah. And I, I don't early report. I, I wouldn't think so. I, I think, I think the bigger thing, I mean, for Pete, we. It was the supply and demand of this off season. And. But I mean, part of the conversation is like, do you, do you love Pete at first base? What does that look like in a couple years? And his bat has kind of been on a minor decline where with Vladdy, it seems like it's coming together. It seems like there was a little immaturity on some of those early Blue Jay teams that it. It seems like that's going away. And you know, the, the difference between 26 and 22 is significant. Like, that's, you know, I've, I've seen young BBD go through that change in our workplace. You know, it now he's got a beard. So that I, I think for Vladdy, it's, it's, it's repeating last year because he's, he's had the good season. If he does that again, it, he's going to have age on his side and like, you know, you can plug him at first base and he's going to be there for probably the next decade or so. Where for Soto, you know, Depending how you value outfield defense, that conversation is going to get interesting. That between the DH spot or is he willing to move where Vladi Jr. You're almost like, yeah, I mean, he's going to be able to play first base at a similar level until he's 33, 34. Where Soto has potential to become a very big negative defensively. I mean, look at Giancarlo Stanton. Anyways, Vlad, he's going to go chase a big number and who's going to be involved? Joe's McFly partially thinks that the Mets dream is to go full. Basically his dream team. It's to sign Vladdy next offseason. So it's Lindor, Soto and Vladdy. Maybe they will. Maybe that is the plan. If I'm the Toronto Blue Jays and Vladdy Guerrero Jr. Will sign anywhere near a dotted line, I think you need to get that done. And I'm not even saying this off season because he's going to hit free agency. He's made it this close. He deserves to hit free agency and drive up a bidding war and get paid. Players clearly struggle with the Toronto thing, man. George Springer signed there because he got an extra year. Engine Ryu signed there because he got an extra year. Barrios, I think when they traded for him, it was kind of like, hey, if you sign this extension or we can be in the ballpark here. And he was about that. The only one that makes me laugh was Chris Bassett. Chris Bassett was kind of a normal free agent. Three years, 20 mil, year, whatever. Like, okay, but signing free agents in Toronto hasn't been as easy. And that's where I liked Anthony Santander from them from the start. And again, this part kind of stinks for Toronto, but it's because Santander has a couple flaws defensively. He doesn't stand out. The on base percentage is in kind of a risky spot, but it 44 homers. And if you're looking to have a shot this year, you know, look at the money that's getting handed out around baseball. If Santander, if other teams are scared to give that fourth year or whatever it is, if the Blue Jays are willing and he's willing to sign, you have to do that because that would be the switch hitter you'd have between Bichette and Vladi. That could give you a top three in a lineup that could move things offensively. So for the Toronto Blue Jays, it's a really interesting. How are they going to go back to the drawing board if they're really struggling to extend and sign guys do they need to invest even more in their minor leagues? Or when guys are coming up on free agency, do they almost need a raise, you know, one to two years out? Do we have to trade guys to cash in on their value now to rebuild it? I don't know. Something's a little off. There's another part of me that wonders, are they just going to go ham to finish off this free agency? Are they going to get Santander? There was Pete rumors right after their DH spot is currently listed as Will Wagner. Again, a little bit of that is Heyman, who's, you know, there's some rumors him and. Him and Boris are in cahoots. I'm interested to see if Toronto throws the kitchen sink at it or is this going to be a weird. We're going to play some defense and we've got some, you know, Ernie Clement can get you to war in a season and what does that do? I don't know. I. I think if you're Toronto and you're trying to move laddie, for the last time, there's a couple moves and players out there that you can still do, you can have a bad daydream about their rotation and their bullpen and if you added a couple hitters, other guys become more valuable. Andres Jimenez's defense, who they traded for, he becomes more valuable. Alejandro Kirk on both sides of the ball can be an asset for them. That. Let's see where Toronto goes the rest of the way because I. For a couple of these free agents that they're starting to get a little anxious with spring training and everything coming up, if they can get the value that they were looking for from the Toronto Blue Jays. You know, there's taxes up there that are. That are real. You're. You're not like a citizen, are you? Having a kid? Are they now Canadian Things I haven't had to think about. But let's see what goes on. We've got a couple more bodies to go. Will there be a secondary trade market? Remember, everyone kind of thought Dylan Cease was going to go, but we don't. No one knows what's going on with that franchise in San Diego currently. Let's see what happens the rest of the way until then.
