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#24 | Opening Week Preview, Expectations, and a Review of 2025
18 Plays3 months ago
Andrew and Liam return to the podcast to discuss the looming 2027 lockout, the 2025 season for their teams, and the expectations for the new season.
TIMESTAMPS:
0:00 Intro
0:47 The 2027 Lockout Looms
5:53 Edwin Diaz, Devin Williams, and Closer Talk
8:44 Recapping 2024 and Arson Judge Talk
12:13 Recapping the Yankees' 2025
18:33 Recapping the Giants' 2025
30:36 The Yankees' Off Season Moves and Trade Deadline Wish List
45:59 The Giants' Off Season Moves and Tony Vitello, Postion Shake Ups, and Injuries
54:39 Liam's Expectations for the Yankees
56:42 Andrew's Expectations for the Giants
58:55 Opening Week Prievew
1:04:27 ABS Thoughts
1:09:51 Final Thoughts
1:11:18 Alex Chimes In
1:11:33 Outro
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction to 'Two Front War' Podcast
00:00:09
Speaker
Hello, welcome to Two Front War, a bi-weekly podcast that covers the Yankees and Giants' 2026 season. I'm Andrew, and with me is leon Howdy, Andrew. It's good to be back.
00:00:20
Speaker
It's a bi-yearly podcast as well. Bi-yearly, yeah. Bi-yearly. And then when we're active, we're bi-weekly. But hopefully, if we're lucky, we can get more than every other season.
The Looming 2027 MLB Lockout
00:00:32
Speaker
Well, actually, I say that, but we're not going to get 2027 either, but that's a conversation for a little bit. There's a different thing. We can open the show with that if you want. Uh, sure. Why not? No. Yeah. Okay. Yeah, we can do that. 2027. Lockout.
00:00:48
Speaker
We might as well. This is going to be the the guillotine that's over the head of every baseball player, every executive throughout the whole season. I feel like it's it's going to be a persistent narrative. I saw a comment on some Instagram post about the the lockout saying that this season is the calm before the storm. Mm-hmm.
00:01:05
Speaker
So I feel kind of bad for everybody, for all the players who are currently in in their walk here are probably going to be given just the most insulting extensions ah at some point during the season. And they ah will probably take them knowing, you know, what what what is about to happen. Yeah. What are your what are your thoughts on on the lockout? I mean, we've kind of been hearing about this kind of lockout for, i want to say, since like 2020. Okay. Where it's just just like, this is going to be like the the big one. All the money that a lot of executives have not wanting to like spread it out and pay, you know, certain guys their certain amount and all that. But...
00:01:43
Speaker
It's also up till this point, the players have had all the negotiating power, really. And even it's kind of calmed down now, but especially after what all the Dodgers stuff that's been going down, all that money that's been thrown around on like whoever, especially, you know, just just recently who they just like Kyle Tucker to like insane money that kind of like messed up a lot of but other contracts that were trying to get done down to the wire and free agency right before spring training. I forgot about that.
00:02:08
Speaker
Yeah, put about this onion the big nightmare lockout that we've kind of been hearing that I've heard about in the past where it's just like, oh, yeah, that one season, like season ends early or in some sports or it's just like, yeah, no baseball until like whenever this feels like, you know, maybe no 2027 season at all. Yeah, well, I saw I saw one one ah reporter say that the owners would be OK not having a 2028 season either. That's that's crazy, which. It's got to be a bluff, right? I'm i'm sure, though, the word happy isn't, you know, the the word. I guess it wouldn't be. They'd be willing, I guess, is the better word. They'd be willing to also lose out on 2028. I know that the the owners are looking for a salary cap.
00:02:49
Speaker
The part that gets me about the whole thing is, but you guys got us to this point. You know, like you're the reason the pay is this high. yeah You decided to pay Otani $700 million. dollars You decided to pay... And enter and enter this new era of all this deferred money and all that. it's Deferred money, yeah. You chose to pay Juan Soto $730 million. dollars It just seems like it was incremental. And then with Otani, it just kind of exploded.
Concerns Over Financial Influences in Baseball
00:03:13
Speaker
And now you just started getting these giant contracts. And now the the owners are like... m I think one of the the further problems of it as well is yeah how more involved now venture capital is getting into baseball.
00:03:25
Speaker
Yes. And sports in general. I think that's got to be stopped. We're going to have some of the worst baseball imaginable if venture capital isn't stopped being able to buy these teams. It's crazy. The venture capital company that owns the Dodgers just bought the Lakers. Mm-hmm. while they're also deferring all this Otani money at the same time is is crazy. They're going to bleed everybody dry with bad baseball, I think. Just just in general, like you're going to have boring games.
00:03:48
Speaker
They're not really going to be trying to win anymore because you don't really switch teams. you know That's not really how how sports are. like like once you Once you're like, okay, this is my team, you're not going to be like just one day. If you're like a Reds fan, you know you're not going to be like, no I don't know, I guess I'm an Astros fan now. this is I guess I'm a Rangers fan now. Yeah, there's there's nothing. we don't really have that. and And I do have sympathy for the smaller capital teams, you know, that are actually owned by an individual and not a conglomerate. Yeah. You know, I think the Reds are one of those. Yeah, I think there's all same family, all that. Same thing with the Twins, where like it's at least family owned. And it's like, yeah, I get it. You guys can't spend as much as, you know, the Dodgers or the Mets because you're a billionaire, but you're not the billionaire that Cohen is.
00:04:32
Speaker
And you're not venture capital like Dodgers ownership. So I think think it's going to be rough. Do you think there's like a conspiracy? that's how like I don't remember where I saw this. it was like a conspiracy theory that the owners of the other teams are actually kind of like in a back room agreed that the Dodgers should be doing what they're doing to make the fans kind of turn their backs on the players and like kind of demand a ah salary cap.
00:04:55
Speaker
Maybe not like explicit, but I definitely see like the small, you know, like group texts or whatever. I'm sure there are a handful of owners that think about it like to themselves because like it doesn't need to be communicated. But I think especially for like the penny pinchers looking at you athletics. Yeah, I'm sure they do. Pinching pennies on everything. Yeah, but pennies on everything except for a new stadium. They at least feel it, you know, within Vegas within themselves. Because I have seen more anecdotal stuff. A huge, huge increase on people just being like, ah there needs to be a salary cap.
00:05:25
Speaker
Like there needs to be salary cap. It was, it was really big this off season, not in the wake of the world series, which we should also talk about the world series a little bit.
00:05:36
Speaker
With Dodgers back-to-back champs. Yeah. First time in ah in a hot minute, something like that's happened. But that and the impending free agent signings, you know, they land. I forget who was first, but, you know, it was Kyle Tucker. and That was the big one. I think before that, even Edward Diaz. Oh, that's right.
00:05:55
Speaker
Signed with the Dodgers. I forget which one came first, but like big one-two punch right there. Yeah. Stupid money being thrown around. $69 million for three years of Edwin Diaz. Yep. Who's, how however old he is, he is... I to say 34. 32.
00:06:10
Speaker
thirty two 32. So they're going to have him when he's like 35. And I'd imagine like this season, he should aim to be pretty good. But even then I've had many a concern about Edwin Diaz period. Everyone is always saying like, he's one of the best closers in the league when he's firing in all cylinders and he's consistent. But before Cohen bought the Mets, he earned the nickname of Ed Luz Diaz just because of how many blown saves he was famous for pulling out. Or infamous rather. Yeah, so consistency isn't maybe his his forte, but he's a big name and he's going to sell you jerseys and all that. And i think he's going to have good outings. I'm not rooting against the guy or expecting the worst, but no, it's it's peaks and valleys with with every player, especially if you're a close pitcher, it seems. yeah Well, yeah. Nobody really talks about, like, when it comes to closers, they really focus on blown saves rather than them actually closing out the game, which is a little bit unfair. because when you're the closer, you're not brought in when the win is guaranteed. You know, chances are, like, you know, worst case scenario, your team did have a lead or a comfortable lead.
00:07:12
Speaker
And the dude that was going to close it out, some relief pitcher that was going close it out, blew it. And I hear you come with no outs, you know, bottom of the ninth three or top of the ninth. they You got bases loaded. And you're like, now i got to strike everybody out. He'll give a lot of very mean to closers because they are not given. They're not you they're not brought in during good times. They're brought in during stressful times. Well, I can name you a guy that was brought in during some pretty good times and then proceeded to whenever he stepped up, lead the league in blown saves.
00:07:40
Speaker
Edwin Diaz? Edwin Diaz a little while ago, but I'm talking about last season. Oh, last season. Who are talking about? are talking about? ah Former Yankee and now current met Mr. Devin Williams. Ah. Oh, yeah. You talked a lot about him in the 2024 season. I... Did I? I think so. I don't i don't think so. that i think you signed I think he was only a Yankee for one year. That was last year. Oh, okay, okay, okay. Let me just fact check myself. Just because I do not recall. I also don't remember in 2024. Yeah, it was only during the 2025 season. Yeah, I would have loved to have that previous Devin Williams on this team. i don't know who Yankees Devin Williams was. This is not just the worst. When you get someone, you're like, ooh, this is going to be a boon for our... I was so i was so happy when did he joined the team. Now I'm so happy that he's not on the team. like I couldn't wait for him to become a Met.
00:08:23
Speaker
It felt like that was the place he was always going to go. I liked Luke Weaver in that role, who I talked about the season that we did have the podcast, but he's now a Met as well. Oh, yikes. So the met the Mets have put kind of put together pitching staff populated by a lot of former Yankees. Interesting. Which you always claim that they have little brother syndrome when they do that.
00:08:42
Speaker
They got a little brother status, yeah. All right, so i think that's a 2027 lockout. You want to talk about the 2025 season? We can, yeah, especially since we didn't record like a final episode of our World Series coverage. Yeah. So what for obvious reasons, but not because I was that salty that I couldn't step in front of a microphone. Just life finally got in the way. And I guess since it went out on such a wet fart. Yeah. We didn't do it. But Yankees did lose. Absolute domination. Also, for whatever reason, I'd made the the baffling decision to be like, I think I'm going to go on a vacation and not be at home. Oh, yeah. Is that is that one? Yeah, I was at my mom's house for the whole thing. I watched game one while I was at a stop. I drove through l L.A.
00:09:20
Speaker
for game one. And thankfully, thankfully, I was going the opposite direction of the stadium for the ball because, dude, the traffic, I kid you not. My side of the highway was empty, like which is crazy in L.A. It's never happened to me before. Right. And so it was like it was pretty empty. It was like basically just me. And so I was going 55 the whole way down. I think it was i don't think it was 10. Could have been 10.
00:09:43
Speaker
i remember. Anyway, going down the highway the whole time and on the other side of the highway, it was just stopped traffic. So me going like, you know, 55 miles an hour, other side stopped traffic. The traffic was at a standstill for probably about 20 to 30 minutes of me just driving on the other side. It was, it was crazy. I was so glad I would have probably just like got off at a Walmart and just went to bed.
00:10:04
Speaker
Slept in my car. like if If I was stuck on the other side. Like, yeah, I don't know why I really lucked out there. And then I was like, I didn't watch any of the game. And i was like, you know what? I'll throw it on right now. Because like, it's still going on. i was at a stop. Threw it on. And the only thing I saw was as soon as it loaded, it was the the last pitch at the Freddie Freeman at bat.
00:10:23
Speaker
Oh jeez And then i was like Oh I shouldn't have done that Then was just kind of angry The rest of the the night That was game one right? Yeah that was game one Where yeah they let that up Nester Cortez Nester Cortez my still Still got a sweet spot In my heart for Nester Yeah Nasty Nester I think he had a good season Last season I was on vacation. That was in October.
00:10:44
Speaker
i went to San Francisco during that as well. So I don't know. I don't know what I was thinking. That was a bad idea on on my part. Whoops. How did you feel about the Yankees just utter collapse? During the the World Series? During the 2024, I think I touched on it in the thing, but like I was so happy-go-lucky during the majority of the season. Vegas had a really good season. The offense, for for the most part, though, ran through Judge and Soto during the regular season. And then Judge kind of, he had the narrative now that he disappeared in the offseason. yeah You know, once October ball rolls around, he's nowhere to be found. He's dispelled that since, I feel. Do you think so? Especially after, well, the WBC hasn't done any. Yeah, that that hasn't helped. Hasn't done any favors, but I'd i'd argue after this, the 2025 postseason ball that he has since dispelled of that narrative. It's just kind of people that want to keep it alive. So it's not like, you know, oh, this guy never shows up, you know, when the ballplay counts kind of thing. If he doesn't show up now in the future, I think it's just a well, he didn't show up this offseason.
00:11:45
Speaker
yeah thing rather than you know the the temperature drops and all of a sudden he doesn't even register on the radar but even then you know Giancarlo never really had the kind of production that he wanted to see out of him maybe well he's also like 80% broken we will talk about that when we talk about but what's coming up and it's it's sloppy ball the quote that the Dodgers gave was just like we just had to make them you know field and play baseball because they're not really good at that yeah and Lo and behold, that's what happened. and I'll give Cashman credit. There were shakeups because they lost Juan Soto to the Mets after that. Yeah. So he made the smart decision of unless I ball out now for two superstars that may or may not be on, know, free agent lists at all. hmm. I'd have to like make trades and all that, but I'm not going to one to one reproduce the offensive output that having a Juan Soto would. So he transitioned then smartly to, you know, defensive lineups and stuff that you can get out of him. And he brought in Cody Bellinger, who can play every outfield position ever. Trent Grisham then also stepped up that season, which talk about salvage goods and everything. I think as his advanced stats were always there, but last season he really put all the things together and the Yankees gave him an offering, so he's back now for this upcoming season.
00:12:57
Speaker
So you guys there. And Jazz, even though during the beginning of the season, I have no idea why they were tossing him around between second and third, and he's always going to be a second baseman. I don't know. I feel like there was already a failed experiment where they tried him at third, either in Miami or a little bit in New York, but last season they had a thing where it was like oh, he could also play third and whatever, but I think that threw lineups and chemistry out of whack and I was against it from the very beginning but he's I think he has his feet firmly planted at second base now so whether we're going to keep him after this season or not I feel we don't have to worry about second base all that much if we want to keep him around or if we want to trade him for you know whatever before the season ends I like Jazz as a as a guy and everything but you know you gotta we gotta be thinking long term got into that weird twitter spat over his girlfriend I forget about that yeah yeah
00:13:48
Speaker
That was weird. But solid a dude. He's going to play some solid ball. You know what saying? He wants to go for what was he talking about? A 30-30 or a 40-40 season he's aiming to hit this year, which I'd love to see happen. i think he could probably do it. DJ LeMayhew was not brought back after Yankees didn't sign him, but they thought was like, oh, he's going to have like a retirement tour with the Cubs, but they didn't even pick him up. okay So kind of an anticlimactic end for DJ LeMayhew.
00:14:13
Speaker
Again, great guy, great ball player, but we were looking for upgrades. One year contract for Paul Goldschmidt, and he's back this year, which I was not expecting, but he played some really solid veteran ball over at first base. So I think he's going to be kind of a more depth piece riding the bench a little bit more this year.
00:14:29
Speaker
Those old man arms and all that, you know, you don't maybe don't want to play him every day, all day. And you have more options for first base now. And they brought in ah Ryan McMahon from a trade with the Rockies.
00:14:41
Speaker
which he was in a movable piece at one point. And you're not getting at him at the height of his powers anymore. He's on, he's crossed the 30 line and 2025 was 2024 and 2025. I think we're kind of leading up to, you know, a noticeable decline. You know, your, your stat boys are going to tell you this. They're going to tell you that. And while his, you know, he's not going to be a monster at the plate or anything. He can hit some home runs here and there. He got a 16 during the 2025 season with the Rockies in 100 games.
00:15:09
Speaker
Forget how many he had with the Yankees. I don't have it written down. 2025 Rockies is a rough year for them. Yeah. That was bad. oh yeah That was bad. But he'll come in. he'll He'll hit a couple dingers, but his defensive metrics are really what you want.
00:15:21
Speaker
He's good at preventing runs. He's good at you know preventing people from getting to first base, too. He's got a nice arm that can get the ball right over there to whoever's you know, Manning first, whether that be Paul Goldschmidt or a real standout, I feel Ben Rice, who had, i think, a statistically unlucky year from what I've seen. It's just whenever he he'd make contact at, you know, the points that you want him to, but just the way that the ball would carry would go to very, you know, unlucky places, either, you know, the right spot in the field with a fielder in motion or right into someone's glove like that. So the worst. Yeah.
00:15:51
Speaker
So while the the stats are sort of like, oh, he's like a middling kind of player or whatever, everyone who was actually watching the games could tell like, oh, this is going to be like the next like young guy that we can really count on. Okay. So mixed with all that. And then, you know, the constant bats go cold at various points. Yankees can't really consistently keep a lively offense. I feel like it's always post all star break. You'll get all these shutout performances by opposing teams when they come to the Bronx or when they're on an extended road trip. So combined with all that, they didn't finish the season as AL East champions. That distinction goes to the Toronto Blue Jays. yep Up and coming like current rivals for the for the Yankees, considering like the Red Sox have just been kind of floundering. Yeah, in division rivals. Yeah, I was expecting at one point the Red Sox to be better this season, but they've had so many departures. I got look at the numbers on that, but they they still made the playoffs and all that. They took out the Red Sox first round. The legend of Pam Schlitler grew after that, who I could talk about him at length for an entire episode, just glazing, not even talking about numbers, just that series specifically is just like, Hell yeah, kid for the minors coming on up. Former Boston guy saying F Boston during this shutting them down, playoff baseball and all that. So it just he's he's amazing. I'm i'm sure I can talk a little bit more about him when we get into this season and stuff. I want to give you a chance on that. But then after that, you know, you had various they had various points to kind of chip away at the Blue Jays, take that series for themselves. But at the end of the day, it was the Blue Jays that finally got over the hump of beating the Yankees. And they took it all the way. Yeah.
00:17:25
Speaker
All the way to ah a World Series appearance against the Dodgers. And I watched all of Game 7. I think I watched a little bit of WWE wwe right before that with a friend. I felt like i I could probably skip this, you know. Not that I'm, you know, a bunch of Blue Jays who a hater or all that. I actually quite like the Blue Jays just as a franchise. I love the logos. I love team history. The one team from Canada that we kind of have left. I just thought I wasn't going to catch a lot of that game, but we ended up turning to it after all of our stuff was done and we caught all the game essentially on a separate TV that we later moved to the big one.
00:17:59
Speaker
And I always thought at the end of that game that the Blue Jays were going to find the answers, even if they were down a little bit. But then there was like an inning-ending double play. I'm like, oh my god, that's just what two in a row now. It was a crazy entertaining final game. I will give them that. It took the sting out of the baseball's big dynasty kind of reaching the mountaintop almost immediately again. And then the impending dread of, oh no, oh no, another evil empire. yeah It's not me this time.
00:18:23
Speaker
yeah I wasn't alive for that whole stretch, but that's besides the point. So now there's there's a little bit of dread coming into the season that we have to contend now in Division, specifically with team that just came out of a World Series appearance. And largely the narrative is that we're running it back with the same people. But before we get into that, I want to...
00:18:44
Speaker
you know Either give you your time to ask me my questions or give you time to talk about your guys. i don't think I have any questions. Before we get into this season, we should definitely talk about last season. We talked about the Giants. And i think if if we did do a recording last year, which would have been amazing you know in hindsight.
00:19:00
Speaker
Mm-hmm. It would have been just me started off like with the highest of highs. The Giants were on fire that first half. And Buster Posey was making crazy moves.
00:19:10
Speaker
You know, the Giants were at one point before June of that that season. You know, at one point the rankings were Giants, Padres, and then like Dodgers were just floundering. It was like, oh, like what's what's going on with them? And like you had the Giants that everyone was ignoring about being in first place. we Like, yeah. Yeah.
00:19:28
Speaker
Oh my God, we're going to do it. We're going to do We had a winning record from the second day onward. We were not at 500 for that whole time. We were always above 500 until June hit. You know, Buster Posey makes two giant moves early in the season before June. He extends Bob Melvin. Then in may was it we get rafael devers from the red sox in a controversial trade that made red sox fans want to want to kill their front office over some like interesting i don't even the drama around that trade was crazy i had no idea what was going on there's like oh he's a he's a diva because he doesn't want to play first base and then like he's a he's a dh and he didn't want to play first base with the red sox then he comes over to the giants and they're like comes over is just like yeah i'll play yeah he's like i'll play for space and like that goes back to whenever he got traded or not traded whenever he extended with the red socks it was like i wanted to i think it was like they they signed him specifically to be a dh and then they made some move and they're like okay you're gonna be back on first and he's but i haven't played first like all season or something like that yeah no it was you want to be like a dh and i think it was where else did he play he played somewhere else rev
00:20:36
Speaker
Yeah, he was a a third base. Third base, okay. If he wasn't DH-ing, he was over at third. Got it. and his defense was just like not up to par. Yeah. At third. So everyone was just like, oh ma do do the Bryce Harper switch over to switch over to first.
00:20:49
Speaker
And yeah, so there's like a big controversy there. Then he gets sent over to San Francisco. And immediately they're like, we're just going to play first base. What's he going to Is he going DH? So then Buster Posey is like, hey, he's going to play first base. Like we already talked to him. Like that was like part of the trade deal. was like, hey, you cool playing first The thing. And he was like, yeah, cool playing first base. I think speaks to just him being done with the Red Sox Boston. And, you know, they're either their executives or their coaching who want to implement whatever plans. Because the thing was that he found out that he was going to play first base for the Red Sox from an interview with someone like in their front office. They didn't tell him. They did not tell him that he was going to play first base because he signed with them expecting to be DH. And then he learns from a TV interview later that he's going to play first and So then, you know, Buster Posey's like, bam, like, you want to play first? And he's like, I'll play first. He definitely slumped after that move. You know, there like a lot of talk about it. Like, oh, did the Red Sox win that trade? Yeah, I don't think so. We'll see how this season plays out. Moving, you know, cross country. I'm not sure what his family situation's like. But having to shuffle, you know, immediately in the middle of the season, right? You're going to practices, you're playing games, you're on road trips, and you're also trying to find a place to live while also trying to get out of your lease in Boston. So, you know. Towards the end of that season, though, he really started waking up.
00:22:03
Speaker
A little bit concerning for this spring. It took him ah until last week, I think, to get his first hit of all spring training. So hopefully that's not a repeat. i Last year, what's it? It was towards the end of the season, I think.
00:22:13
Speaker
think September. So like the season was already dead. I watched them play in Colorado. I was there for that fight between the Giants and the the Rockies. First inning when Rafael Devers got that home run, the pitcher apparently didn't like it. He said that it was disrespectful to get a home run, hit a home run on the first inning. But I like, dude, you are the 2021 or 2025 Colorado Rockies. This should have been expected.
00:22:34
Speaker
This should have been expected. So there a fight you know is between the pitcher, it was Raphael Devers, it was Willie Adamas, and Matt Chapman were the big giants that got involved with, I believe, Willie and... Rafael did not get ejected but Matt Chapman which is kind of crazy because he just seems so calm and Willie Adamas which isn't that surprising it's just like he's he's definitely a vibes guy and he was like he's kind of feeding off the energy I think they got ejected Matt Chapman was made contact with the pitcher and was going serve a suspension but was able to get that appeals because he was like hey I got ejected in the first inning before I even got to go at bat so i was basically i basically fulfilled my suspension right then MLB was like yeah i guess So he got out of that one. That's pretty cool.
00:23:14
Speaker
And there's Willie Thomas. Giants swept the the Rockies. I was there for all three games. It was great. It was great to to see that. You know, last year was a pretty good year for me, baseball-wise. I watched a lot of baseball in person. I watched, was it two games in Minnesota? Giants-Twins. Then flew over to San Francisco, and I watched the three games between the Giants and Diamondbacks. And then I flew back to Minnesota, And then I drove to Detroit to watch one game between the Giants and Tigers, which was bad. They got swept. And then caps the season off by watching three games in Colorado. But anyway, 2025 season. So great start, right? We got first baseman. We got Bob Melvin. Lamont Wade gets traded because he just had one of the worst start, probably the worst season of his career. Honestly, it was it was bad for somebody who was he would usually have about like a 400 on base percentage. Just to see that drop off was was crazy. So then the Giants are riding high. Is that the 2025 season? Is it 2024? I can't remember. Anyway, Giants were riding high all last year until June, where just loss after loss and injuries started really hurting the team. They went on. They just slid. They slid from being first in the division down to being like third and fourth. If it wasn't for the Rockies, it probably would have been last.
00:24:26
Speaker
Just massive, massive implosion. it shocked everybody. That led to the trade deadline. where the team finally dipped back under 500 and Buster Posey went on a sell-off. You know, three of the big sell-offs, it was Tyler Rogers to the Mets, which really hurt the Giants, I think, because they started to get it back together towards the end there. Also, forgot to mention, we had Justin Verlander, who had a horrible start. Not necessarily his fault, just the offense just died. Offensive defense just died whenever he started for some reason. So that's like a little footnote.
00:24:56
Speaker
He's back with the Tigers, I think. Yep. Retirement tour back where he started. So Tyler Rogers goes to the Mets. It was his contract year. So there is speculation like, oh, maybe big brain move. He'll come back during the offseason.
00:25:07
Speaker
He did not. I don't think he's with the Mets anymore. forget where where he went. I think the Cubs or maybe that was his twin. Who is this again? Tyler Rogers. I think one of them went to the Cubs. I think maybe Taylor did. Anyway, Tyler Rogers, he gets sent off to the Mets. He was our most dependable setup guy. He's with the Blue Jays now. Blue Jays. Okay. It's like F me, you know. Yeah, that's going to suck. He's so good. He's so good. I hate seeing him in the show. Whenever you pitch me in the show with this guy, I just can't tell. Like, oh, my brain goes out the way down. It never feels like the ball goes where you think it's going to go. But he's awesome. He's a submarine pitcher, just for those of you at home unfamiliar. He's great. Love him. Sad to see him go.
00:25:43
Speaker
He didn't come back. Yaz got traded to the Royals, which was really sad. I didn't hear about Giants making plays for them in the offseason, Tyler Rodgers or Yaz. Yeah, i was a lot of people were kind of surprised that there wasn't a push to get Tyler Rodgers back at the very least because people thought, like well, was his contract year. Maybe he could like rent him out and then bring him back in. yeah Because like you know effectively, from like i guess his perspective, like money-wise, nothing changed.
00:26:06
Speaker
Yeah. And like, he knows the organization, he knows all the people. So even if it is like, yeah you know, as as long as they give him the money that he's looking for, I'd assume he'd want to go there. I think Rogers is going to be, that goes for the both of them. Yeah. I think Tyler Rogers out of the three big moves from that year is probably going to be the one that we're going to regret the most. Yaz goes to the Royals. You know, one of his biggest issues is, and that persists even today, is that he just cannot hit lefties. He's he's the lefty himself. Really not that surprising, but that's something of people will bring up. And then the third one, craziest one, not craziest, that craziest, is Duval goes to the Yankees. Goes to the Yankees. And kind of doesn't do well. and you know, at the time, was like, oh my god, we got rid of Duvall. Then you see the rest of the season play out, and it was like, oh, okay, well. Oh, maybe, you know.
00:26:50
Speaker
No, there was, Johan Duran was like the only like closer, I feel. Maybe I'm wrong about that, but all the other closers I've heard about during that trade deadline sell-off from last season didn't do well. Didn't step up in the way all the teams thought they would have. Yes, that's interesting. Which is crazy to think about. Camillo to the Yankees is so weird because of how the Yankees operate. And Doval just has people call him Tranquillo, Tranquillo Camillo. That doesn't feel very Yankees. You know, he takes his time. He's going to have pitch clock violations. Anytime you're facing him, you're guaranteed. i would say out of like three batters, two of them are probably guaranteed a free ball because of the ah pitch clock. Yeah. yeah So you'd like you really got to plan your mound visits for the catcher to stop the game. You got to be real wise with them if you know that he's going to be in the game any point. So the Giants have this massive sell off. And then I think maybe if they kept Rogers, maybe they could have because there are a few games like we just ended up being few games short. They were literally a bump away of making the third or third wild card. And the season ends eighty one eighty one which has been outside of 2021. The standard.
00:27:53
Speaker
The standard, which is is crazy because I feel like I'm always with you guys like you're one hot streak away from like yeah getting over the hill any given season, making it to the playoffs and making some noise. It's crazy. just i just don't I just don't get it.
00:28:09
Speaker
So 81-81, and then Bob Melvin gets fired at the end of that season. So that sucks because now they owe him $5 million for this year after they did the extension. I don't even know if the Padres still might be paying him money too. That also would not be surprising. Now he's back with the A's as a special advisor, whatever that means. I don't, that's not throwing shade at Bob Melvin. After. Cause we have, well, we have, we have, we have, we have Dusty Baker. We have Dusty Baker and, uh, what's his name? blanked out on his name. We got it. No, I don't. I blanked out on it. Editor, leave all this. No, don't leave this out. Cut this out. Cut this out.
00:28:43
Speaker
Now put it back in. Now cut it back out. Bruce Bochy. Oh my God. How could i forget? Yes. Bruce Bochy are back as special advisors, which I like i don't know what that means. Don't know what they do. Period. Those are just like two guys that like, no, you know, and not that Bob Melvin doesn't know. He had a very successful career with the athletics, which is kind you know kind of like hence why he's going back there.
00:29:05
Speaker
But once he tried to leave that situation for a better one, whatever it was just hasn't well sim hasn't panned out. And i don't I don't see him taking another managerial position anytime soon. Yeah, probably probably not. He's also up there in age.
00:29:17
Speaker
64. Although I can't really blame. i don't know. I feel like you got to give, when sounds crazy, five to ten wins to the manager for the Padres. It's like a handicap if you're into golf. Because just like from reading stuff, like seems to be a lot of divas in that locker room.
00:29:33
Speaker
I'm pretty tense to like just try and get them to become a little bit more cohesive, more cohesive than you would expect them, you know, expect team to be particularly a professional team. The 2025 season started off amazing. It really felt that we were going to be back in headlines back in the postseason.
00:29:50
Speaker
There was never really like a like no one really thought that like, well, outside of the Dodgers were just, you know, third place floundering, you know i no one really really think like, OK, we're not going to get the buy, but like we could easily be number one or number two wildcard.
00:30:02
Speaker
And that's what it was for the majority of the season until things just fell apart. And then it was like, I know when the season is over, the second you're you're listening to like your your team's podcast, right? and They're like, okay, well, here are the tiebreakers. Like, it's over.
00:30:15
Speaker
It's over. You should never be at tiebreakers. it's It's over, guys. The second you're not in control, the second it's like, okay, we can only get into the postseason if these teams lose now. Like, it's over. Even if you do make it, it's kind of like, okay, well, just to get eliminated, then... This is the third wild card. Okay. Mets be like, yeah.
00:30:32
Speaker
So that is the, ah that's the giant 2025 season. Now let's look a little bit more to the present. Liam, what moves have the Yankees made the end of last season and into spring of this year?
00:30:43
Speaker
Coming down to the trade deadline, it was pitching, I think, was the main, like, I don't want to say it was just at the top of everyone's mind. Because bullpen, the reputation is that Yankees always kind of get more out of less.
00:30:58
Speaker
But also they were at the same time kind of thinking about just how what a postseason starting rotation would look like. The big things on everyone's mind and are still going to be on everyone's mind this season is, you know, what's the deal with Paul schemes? Okay.
00:31:12
Speaker
Oh, yeah. What do the Pirates want for him? Do the Pirates even want him? can we get Do the Pirates even want him? What would we have to give up to kind of get him? And I'm of the belief that, like, I don't discount the Dodgers swooping in and doing something crazy like they normally do. But just like I'm thinking about, like, his silhouette, his face and everything. He was made to wear one of two jerseys. that was That's going to be either Yankees pinstripes or the white and orange of the Astros. Okay. I think just where they're at and they just might want, you know, the nuclear bomb in their back pocket at all times, the Astros to go out and give like biggest starting pitcher money of all time for someone like that. They're that kind of organization it's just like they're ruthless and it it has to go along with them owning my team. Yeah.
00:31:56
Speaker
They're always in the back of my mind. I think about them a lot more than I think about the Red Sox, which I think I've also communicated in the past. I think also, unfortunately, you can't not think that he could go to l LA. yeah I mean, nobody thought that the Dodgers... That's what I'm saying. i'm i'm I'm just giving you my vibes, really. there is just like I see him wearing one of two jerseys.
00:32:14
Speaker
like for his life. Cause I feel like maybe he'll take a a shorter term contract, but I think organizations themselves one on will lock him up for years and years on end for sure. 14 year contract for a guy like this. Yeah. It's just that, you know, like after that last season trade deadline stuff, it's like with the Dodgers, it's like,
00:32:33
Speaker
Just when you think, like well, surely they're not going to make any more moves. They've got to be tapped out on cash, right? Nope. They are taking on loads of debt. That's not something to overlook, I think, now, unfortunately. Yeah. But say the three bullpen reinforcements, the things that they were really looking at during the middle of the season trade deadline. Camillo Duvall, of course, that we talked about. David Bednar, who's kind of, I think he's expected to fulfill the closing role this year. Right. and Jake Bird, who I have to look because I haven't heard anything about him during spring and training where he's at right now. Says he's still with the Yankees. Those the three additions. Someone I didn't mention at the top of the hour when talking about additions, they of course traded for Cody Bellinger at the beginning of last season. Big ad. Max Freed. I can't believe I forgot about Max Freed. They thought that, you know, what was what was the rotation going to be? It was going to be like Max Free, Carlos Rodon, Luis Hill, Will Ward, Garrett Cole was going to be like a killer lineup they were talking about. Forget about Garrett Cole. He got hurt almost immediately. Had season-ending Tommy John.
00:33:31
Speaker
So he's going to be coming back now. He threw a couple pitches from my hurt the other day. Not all that bad, but I think his timetable for return is a couple weeks or even a month out after opening day.
00:33:42
Speaker
I've been hearing and mixed things here and there. But losing Garrett Cole really threw a lot to the wind, especially since they kind of built up some goodwill. Like we were going to be a very like defensively better team and we were solidifying the starting rotation and other pitching areas because that wins championships. But you lose an ace like that and you just hope other guys can step up. We got great starting pitching. Carlos Rodon and Max Fried, two great options we got going on right there. And then later at the end end of the season, Cam Schlittler, who is looking like f freaking Superman.
00:34:13
Speaker
You're calling Karnat Superman. And you know, you hope, uh, what Warren kind of, he had his rough spots. I think he had an all right spring training so far this year. Um, hope he could figure it out, reach that level that we saw previous. Jose Cabanero, I believe. you got him in a trade with Tampa Bay. The reason we got a utility player slash mainly shortstop is because of all the question marks that happened with Anthony Volpe. Anthony Volpe, of course, yeah star prospect, inheriting the kingdom of God type thing. The next Derek Jeter he was built up as. I've always been hot and cold on him. Mm-hmm.
00:34:50
Speaker
He had a big breakout success in those two weeks during the beginning of the season when we were doing the podcast. I was like, all right, Anthony Volpe is like arrived, arrived. He's putting up insane stuff. I think he was the best shortstop in baseball for that one episode that we were covering him. But I could go hard against him right now just because it feel it felt like he came up short in a lot of key moments last season. That's one way of putting it.
00:35:14
Speaker
anyway But I think an even more prevalent thing that I want to talk about is he got Anthony Rizzo, where it came out coming down to the wire here. Like, oh, yeah, he's been playing most of the season hurt. Like, what do you mean he's been playing most of the season hurt? He was like, yeah, he needed shots like his his arms near his shoulders and whatever, because he was kneeling with this since like some stupid month.
00:35:33
Speaker
I forget. it was a long time. May. It was like a long time. like whatever. And like you let him play like that? Because Rizzo was raw dog in the concussion. Anthony Rizzo was rocking that concussion, which, you know, kate came out at the very end and everyone was wasn't one of the best first basemen in the league. You know, he's not going to wow you offensively all the time. He's not, he stands side by side with judge and everyone always thinks of him as like a home run header. He's not, he's a solid leadoff option. So leadoff man, he'll get on base, he'll put you in a good spot to get an Aaron judge or a Juan Soto or a John Carlos standing up at the plate and work some magic.
00:36:08
Speaker
But yeah, You know, defensively, he took he took a dive. I always think about him during the World Series, off the bag, looking to throw to the pitcher. He's like, he's going come on up, not hustling, and then just like miscommunication there.
00:36:22
Speaker
Whatever happened, runner gets on base uncontested. Everyone's like booing. Yeah. you know he kind of that in the same boat so like we don't know now if he's going to be damage goods anthony volpey or not but i think jose capaniero just because volpey is just a little dinged up right now he's going to be starting the season at shortstop okay it's crazy to think about and dj mayhew i might as well tell you guys where he's at free agent i think still right now i don't know that's rough i don't think a lot of people i don't think if he was going to sign with somebody would have done it already yikes Who knows? ah A minor league contract might find him soon. And we already know from the whole Blake Snell debacle. Missing spring training as a pitcher.
00:36:59
Speaker
Not great. It's not. missing Missing spring training in any position. Not great. Got all that going on. The question was about, what was the question about? ah Spring 2026 moves. Spring 2026 moves. Yeah, I say all that because that's like middle of last season kind of stuff. We're running it back, essentially. That's that's the big thing I hope to communicate there. I'm telling you all this stuff because not.
00:37:22
Speaker
a lot is changing they signed cody bellinger back because it was his contract year okay so he's back with the team the price is actually not as bad as a lot of people would lead you to believe it's just after all the big free agent sightings that happened this offseason they thought that the price was going to be like crazy somewhere else highly inflated and all that it's actually not all that bad especially since you see how the dodgers and mets made out yeah But not all that going on.
00:37:48
Speaker
No real signings come to mind. I think the main thing that they're hoping for is that some more youth steps up and we have some more options kind of pop up to aid re relief to give him some more things to play around with. still says that Volpe has a lingering shoulder injury, but no surprise. There there are some pretty good no those surprise there. So George Lombard Jr. made a little noise out in spring training, but I think he's going to be starting in the minors, which people aren't all that happy about. Oswaldo Cabrera, who went down in the middle of last season with ah a foot thing on an ugly slide, he is going to be starting the season in the minors too, which is strange to think about. And then I see who he's, who has made the roster in his place. It was a name I didn't recognize. I'm going to try and pronounce his name. I hope I don't get it wrong. Randall Grichnick. I'm going say Randall Grichnick. Greg Grichnick. Like, oh, oh, Grichnick. Grichnick. Grichnick. Yeah, there's no N. My bad. And i'm like, oh, okay. ah Maybe there was a better option that we picked up a long way. He's like, he's 34. Grichnick.
00:38:48
Speaker
I'm is he' like a journey he's like ah He's a journeyman major league player. He's been playing since 2014. I think he's mainly known for his time with the Cardinals. I'm like, no, no way. I think he's going to be like a utility guy. It's going to be ah like a four-man bench of Goldschmidt, Iscara, Grichnick, and Rosario. But Cabrera is down. Spencer Jones is down in AAA. George Lombard is down in either AAA or AA. And Jason Dominguez is down. who they were given such a hard time fighting for playing time. Meanwhile, Anthony Volpe's doing whatever he's doing. Jason Dominguez is also starting his time down in AAA, which, especially after the spring training that he's had, we would have thought he would have earned that that roster spot. He's going down...
00:39:28
Speaker
for however long until like one injury one injury anywhere should probably bump him back up he's gonna give he's probably first man up after all this stuff but just just interesting to think about there at the time of recording i have not seen a starting day 40-man roster or anything like that so all of this is just like radio interviews or like brian brian hoach from wherever is is reporting that aaron boone is saying this and that okay yeah it's it's mainly just like cosmetic changes here and there We're still hoping to have the best outfield in baseball when it comes between a Bellinger and Judge holding down the two corners. And then Grisham, I think mainly is, well, I don't think mainly. I think he is solidified going to be center fielder. Kind of had to play him after the money that you gave him. Then the last country, this just happened like one or two days ago. was Carlos LaGrange. Let me pull up this this insane stat line.
00:40:18
Speaker
Carlos LaGrange, Yankee number two prospect, minor league camp, hosted a.66 ERA, 13 strikeouts, six hits, 13.2 innings pitched. He's going to be starting out the season in the minors as well over Luis Heal, who had the shakiest start ever. I think the only reason they're giving it to Heal right now is because he has the major league reps.
00:40:40
Speaker
Yeah. But Boone or Cashman, whoever's making the lineup, whoever's getting... It's not Boone. I don't know if we could have that discussion if you want. But ah I think they're waiting for you know the maybe some... It's mainly going to be players who have had and reps in the majors kind of starting out and they want to tweak, give you know their chances out later. Maybe even to make trades with some of the prospects that they do have.
00:41:06
Speaker
Not prospects, but players that they do have that they know are... Like Major League Ready, but want to keep them down just for a little bit to see what the landscape is going to be. But I'm surprised they're not being more decisive, more more bold with their decision making. They're kind of playing it a little too safe because now that they're going start the season off like this, we don't know when the changes are going to come. Basically what I'm saying.
00:41:27
Speaker
Running it back cosmetically, it's a lot of old people, but some younger people should be shifting in to the rotation at every position at some point. It's just not a lot of, i don't i don't see a lot of flash happening at the beginning at the very beginning of the year. And I think the only other thing I haven't mentioned yet is Stanton, who everybody loves. He had the weird story at the beginning of the year where he's saying like, yeah, I can't pick up like a sandwich something. can't open up a bag of chips because he's in so pain. He can't open a bag of chips. He's in so much pain or whatever, which I understand. I definitely feel for the guy. And he has, he has taken like steps to work around these issues that he knows he was going to have. The reason he's in pain is because like, he's a heavy dude. MLB.com has him reading now at 245. I think he was experimenting a couple seasons previous that he dropped some weight and was maybe changing up his stance and hearing that. But once you look at is this is like it's advanced stuff. Indra, I hope I hope you're i hope you're getting when I'm laying down here. um The way he hits the ball, all of his power is being generated from his chest and and his arms when really you kind of want that like forward step to give you you you um some of that push that you're looking for. But the step that he takes in the box, like, you know what when you see it, it's like, it's, it's the way he swings the bag at most. It's like an inch step forward, that little like toe tap he does. And that generates all of his power coming straight from his arms, coming straight from the top of his body. He's putting all the pressure on the joints with all that weight that he has. That's how he hits the ball generates. He generates that awesome power home run hitter that he's famous for being like, like now that he's like 36, it's gotta be
00:43:05
Speaker
it's gotta to be killing him at this point i don't understand why he hasn't made any he just kind of addition to that try to generate power from any other part of your body that you want to but i think especially now that he's so like open to admitting that in front of like press and everything it's just like it flat out sucks because i i've loved him ever since we first got him i got his shirt over a judge shirt over at the local Dick's Sporting Goods. Yeah. We are very clearly in the waning hours of Giancarlo Stanton ah as we know him. I'm sure he's going to be taking an even a more stripped back role in the future. I don't see him being traded, especially with the money that he's owed. He's just a DH right now? That's kind of where we stand.
00:43:44
Speaker
Yeah, yeah he played a little bit of he played a little bit of right field last season, first time in like a season and a half. That's gotta to be scary. Ever. Which, it was a little scary, but he kinda plays better when he is out there, just because his mind is more active. But it is just scary because of how injury-prone he is and how old. Yeah.
00:44:02
Speaker
But that's what is to be expected right now. Playing that game of like, oh, you know, it's righty up to bat, he's in right field. Lefty up to bat, alright, he's in left field. a little bit like that.
00:44:12
Speaker
A little ho hot potato. I think it was it was always going to be right, just because, especially in Yankee Stadium, but also league-wide, right field tends to be a little bit shorter. Oh, yeah, so if it gets over his head, it's probably a homer anyway.
00:44:25
Speaker
Yeah. It's like 12 feet. And I think they were also talking about they didn't want him playing on, like, turf. Or like a certain like breed of like. Of the grass? Of different like the grass that they had in in certain ballparks. Like I feel like it was Minute Maid or something they were talking about. Like yeah he should technically be playing right field. But they have someone else out there for this game. Just because we don't want to risk him running on on that kind of stuff. Okay.
00:44:47
Speaker
Yeah, but basically Yankees running it back again. Same roster for the most part. We're hoping kids can make some noise or if we're going to keep some of these younger guys down there, it's to trade them a little bit later for someone like a like a big splash superstar kind of guy. Who's your dream get by trade deadline?
00:45:05
Speaker
ah tree deadline I don't know. I'd have to see because like he's, of course, just because, you know, he's Paul Skeens. There's no question marks about him. You know what you're getting is like also school. Everyone's talking about, you know, you get Skeens and Scoobal somehow you work dark magic, give him, you know, the net value of black rock for those two guys. But yeah, Scoobal now has a bunch of question marks coming around him because his spring training for what I hear wasn't all that good. Yeah, stressful time for for guys in that last year of contract. I'm guilty of just kind of like being content going after name value, but I think this season specifically, you got to look at how everyone's performing at any given moment and in what situation. Yeah, I guess you kind of want especially once again in pending lockout, you kind of want to get someone who's shown to be consistent. Yeah.
00:45:47
Speaker
There might be a year without baseball or you' you're going to have a shortened year, but we will see. We will see. That was my long anecdote, just basically telling you I'm hopeful, but it's a lot of the same a lot of the same guys. right, well, ah the Giants have had some interesting moves, big moves.
00:46:03
Speaker
we wish should We should have started out with you because yours is actually very interesting, doing something... Yeah, so I want to say quickly, I forgot about this, so don't yell at me. We traded Kyle Harrison and Jordan Hicks to Boston for Rafi Devers. Kind sucks that we lost Kyle Harrison. I was more than happy to see Hicks go. was not a big fan of of his. But going into spring training for this year, Bob Melvin gets fired looking to see who's going to be the manager.
00:46:28
Speaker
And but we got Tony Vitello, the former coach, I guess, because I don't think they're called managers for college baseball for Tennessee. nnessee interesting guy first time is this is the first time ever this has happened or first time in a long time where someone's gone from I believe this is the first time this has ever happened it's interesting to say like a lot of like the state-of-the-art stuff is coming from college so it'd be interesting Tony Vitello's worked with Drew Gilbert whose Giants also got as part of the trade to Tyler Rogers to the Mets so i'll forgot about that we got Drew Gilbert and Jose Buto from the Mets Drew Gilbert is going to be spending time in AAA I believe think he's going be AAA if not he's going to be in in right field we'll get we'll get there we'll get there
00:47:04
Speaker
Tony Vitello, new manager, very, very vocal. He has some pretty interesting ejections, some pretty funny ejections of him just arguing with the umps from his time at Tennessee. You can during one of the games is this year, spring training, it was ah is over ah a home run being declared not a home run. You can see he wanted to jump out, jump out there, but he's like, spring training, spring training.
00:47:23
Speaker
He got into like a weird spat with Susan Slusser. There's just a lot of covering the Giants over. i was about to ask who that was. Yeah. Over her announcing that he was going to be the new manager. Tony Vitello says that he had not made a decision when that story broke. So that was a little bit awkward. I guess we'll see how that pans out. He seems to be a lot more active as a manager. Whether that's because, you know, is it because he's coming from college where you you are going to be more hands-on, you know, with with your team than you would normally expect in an MLB? Or is it because he's just a younger guy and he can actually, you know, hit ground balls to the infielders? Or like, it a little bit of both? Who knows? It's probably a little bit of both is where I would fall. Pretty involved with the team. He spent some time in South Korea with Willie Adamas Jung-Hoo Lee while he was visiting his home. So we'll see. There's like a lot of like questions about like, oh, well, is going have respect to the players? I'm like, people get so weird, in my opinion. Like people are just like so weird about that. The word respect, you know? Yeah. It's like, like, what do you mean? Like he's if he's a manager, like you think that's going to be like, well, they're kind of like, yeah, like you have to like, he's like everybody's professional, right? is how I kind of want to see it. Like if you're a professional, you're going to give your manager that the respect the position, you know, gives. It's not like he's going to come in. He's like trying to shake things up, like on a fundamental level. That's like outside the scope of a manager. It's like, yeah, it's going to rub people the wrong way. But like, you you just avoid that kind of stuff. Best stuff. You'll be fine. He'll be fine. We'll see. We'll see how it goes. I do not envy him right now overall, but we can, we'll get to that when we get to it. Other big moves for second base, the Giants waited a little too long and they traded Marco Luciano. I forget where he went, but he is going to be poor. Luciano is going to be bounced around a lot. I think. He's just going to be like a little trading piece for a little bit. So that kind of sucks for him. He got traded. We have now Luis Arias to be the second baseman. Buster seems to be the, you know, like the whole like philosophy that the Giants had was all about pitching and the bullpen. I mean, that's arguably, you know, one of the big reasons why we have our three World Series wins is because of... Who did you trade Marco Luciano to?
00:49:21
Speaker
He got traded to... Oh, no, he lost him on waivers to the Pirates. And I think the Pirates lost him on waivers to us. Is he with the Yankees? with the Yankees now. Oh, that's crazy. world Yeah, he's not fun to play as in MLB The Show because he's just moot the way he just swings the bat back and forth is so distracting. Mm-hmm. Yeah, so we lost him to waivers. We got Luis Soraya's for second base. So that's going to be interesting. I feel so bad, though, for Casey Schmidt because he is fighting for a spot, you know, to to want to be a starter, secondly, for a spot.
00:49:52
Speaker
And I like him. I think he's pretty good. I think he has, like, really high potential. But, like, it just sucks because, you know, now he's stuck behind Luis Soraya's. and he can i think they did play him at first base a little bit and they played him he's at home at third base but it's like well we have matt chapman at third willie domus is shortstop and then now we have louise rye as second poor casey schmidt who's who you know who's an infielder gonna be you know in the background yet again third straight season yeah background I think you're mainly hoping for Luis Arias to kind of replicate what he did last year. Yep. Because ah just want to make sure I'm getting all of his stuff right. Not that he wasn't like great previously, but I think last year, like it became a apparent, like, oh, he's like really hitting for average. It's like Padres 2025 92, think.
00:50:37
Speaker
I don't know if that's just regular season or regular season plus. Plus, plus season. Maybe a little, what what he did. It's probably just regular season. They they really don't combine their. What he did in the spring training, but just because I'm seeing two, it's.
00:50:48
Speaker
Oh, okay. One tells me that, the other tells me 316. three sixteen But then, like because ah the Yankees, I think, were looking to trade for him at one point. But then the whole thing was like, oh, no they look at this, this, and that defensive metric. And then like, oh, please don't, don't, don't. But I think he's become, it's just become more clear what kind of a player he is. So I think now that he's with you guys, it's either going to be like, all right, does this finally like hold up to scrutiny, hold it up to the light? Or is this going to be like a disaster? Oh, we got to move him now situation. Okay. Yeah. I see you see what you mean. But yeah, like the philosophy seemed to be like more around the bullpen.
00:51:21
Speaker
You know, with the Giants, you have the core four, right? And who got inducted into the Wall of Fame last year, I think? It was all about defense, all about pitching. A strong bullpen. That gets blown up last year. Now we pick up Luis Arias. Like, okay. And then another big get, Harrison Bader. Yes. So two dudes that historically give problems to the the Giants, particularly Bader. So Bader's now our new center fielder, which means that Jung-Hoo Lee, who was promised to be the center fielder, gets moved to right field. which is interesting that's going to be interesting might might be better for him it might be he had a lee had a really bad year defensively last year which you know it's like how much of that comes from like is it just his ability or is it recovered from the shoulder injury from 2024 because that was by the oracle park center uh center field wall it's destroyed you yeah that was that was sad that was that was brutal
00:52:13
Speaker
ah So we'll see. He got moved to the right field. Apparently the team is also looking to figure out how to move the hooligans. Hooligans? think it's them. Or the Junghoo crew. There's the Junghoo crew and there's the hooligans. i think it's the Junghoo crew is going to get moved to right field. They're going to out where to place them. So he gets moved to right field. So we'll see how he does there. You know, maybe like on paper, moving to right field is like the better choice for him. The one thing to keep in mind is that the right field in Oracle Park is weird because of that overhang.
00:52:39
Speaker
for Levi's landing. It's got that weird overhang. That's that was like one of the best things about Yaz, right? Was like, hey, you know what? If he's not producing offensively, you got the perfect dude for right field in a Oracle. He knew he knew how to play right in that ballpark better than and anyone. not Not just because like, you know, it's it's the team he plays for just because the type of player he is. Yeah, like it is weird. Like it's uncanny. His his was ability to play right field at Oracle. He just like always knew where the ball was gonna like, he he just knew like, oh, where did the ball hit on the wall? Oh, it's going to go so here. Like he just kind of like always knew big loss for the the Giants here. Hayden Birdsong, who they seem to be very.
00:53:16
Speaker
I'm surprised he didn't get traded to Boston. And it was Kyle Harrison that did. Mm I thought Harrison was a little bit better than Hayden. Hayden had a disastrous last year where he started off pretty strong. Well, I say started off like his first like two or three starts were really good and then just lost all control.
00:53:31
Speaker
And now this year, spring training, was still continuing to have issues, but now he got injured after throwing a curve ball and he's going to be out for the rest of the year for Tommy John surgery. Hmm. So that is someone who is going to be at best. He's going to be a starter at worst. think the team really wants him to be a starter at worst. He was going to be a relief pitcher. And now he's out for the year, which, you know, once again, we got another hole in the roster that we got to, got to fill. And then the other thing is our number one prospect, Bryce Eldridge is going to be remaining in AAA after a tepid spring. Really? He's sitting at about a 50% strikeout rate. and That's just not going to do it. Yeah.
00:54:07
Speaker
He came up last year. He was trading off first base duties with Raphael Devers. So it's possible that we can see for first base, it could be Rafi and Casey Schmidt because Casey Schmidt did play a little bit of first as well. So we will see how that works out. But Bryce Eldridge back down to AAA and depending on how he does there, maybe we'll see him get called up. But that 50% strikeout rate is not not good. Not good.
00:54:28
Speaker
That's really ah all I got for the for this year, going and looking into the season. Also, just keep in mind that when we're recording this, it is the Sunday of opening week, so we don't know how that's going to be going just yet. But Liam, what are your expectations for the 2026 season for the Yankees?
00:54:43
Speaker
season of course i don't know what to expect in division specifically just because all the questions that yankees have going on and also the questions that boston and toronto who's looking to get back right where they were before now they have a lot of things figured out vlad guerrero jr hitting his stride now officially he's no longer like a big like what if guy he's like in the conversation with you know your erin judges so So after a season where it was up in the air, if he's going to go back to Toronto. So it's making noise in the postseason, the World Series or bus, you know, the chase for 28. But something really want to see from Brian Cashman is either committing to the prospects that we have at the stage they're at now, where it's either they're in all the best guys that we have are in AAA or AA, either given them their reps that they have earned, especially now coming out of this period in spring training and the time that they've already spent down there, either given them their their major league reps or creating them for the pieces that we need now for for upgrades, whatever those may be. You of course gotta wait until regular season ball starts playing to get a better understanding of what those needs are gonna be. But I'm tired of stockpiling you know what we have. Everyone talks about you know ah a Yankees pitching prospect, all the weight that that's worth in the market. but Whether it's a pitching prospect, whether it's Lombard Jr., whether it's Spencer Jones, you know, you got to either give him a chance to compete for a spot up in the Bronx, or you got to move him to get a player that is going to make a big impact up in Yankee Stadium. So I'm tired of this mingling, really. We have the assets, I believe, to... Of course, like you'd like them to spend more money and all that and, you know, throw their caution to the wind, you know, to hell with whatever the Steinbrenners are saying, this level of spending, it can't be sustained. They keep saying, I feel like we have enough minor league assets to on top of that to even if it is like a one and done, because we might not be getting baseball next season to go into this lockout. we They have a good chance with what they have right now and what they could potentially go out and get the end, this era of baseball going into an uncertain future as World Series champions.
00:56:41
Speaker
Okay. My expectations is the JSC to have a winning season. And that kind of sucks for Tony Vitello. It's bold. It's bold. I'm so tired of it. I'm so tired of ending 500. I'm so tired of ending 8181. I think the fan base is getting real tired of it too. yeah it's It's been like, what, a decade of this?
00:57:02
Speaker
something's got to give. I'm sure the city just itself, period, is is hungry for something like that. cause ah We're now over 10 years since our last World Series win. We are five years past our last postseason. you That was bid all the the way to division. That and just as a resident of the city, you got to look at what the 49ers are doing. you know they're always They're always in contention. and you and San Francisco just hosted the Super Bowl. I'm sure they'd love To have a World Series, absolutely. Sustain momentum for like a World Series or a deep playoff run, something like that. Here's our our record. yeah last but We'll go back to the last 20 years. 2025, 24, 80-82. 23, 22, 21, 107-55. 2020 doesn't count.
00:57:44
Speaker
twenty one one ah seven fifty five twenty twenty doesn't count nineteen seventy seven eighty five eighteen seventy three eighty nine seventeen sixty four ninety eight sixteen eighty seven seventy five fifteen eighty four seventy eight fourteen eighty eight seventy four thirteen seventy six eighty six twelve ninety four sixty eight eleven eighty six seventy six ten ninety two seventy ah nine eighty eight seventy four oh eight seventy two ninety oh seven seventy one ninety one
00:58:14
Speaker
10, 12, 14, you know, 19, 70, 94, 68, 14, 88 wins. Like we can do it. I believe, I believe we could do it. i mean, it's going be rough, you know, getting that, trying to get to the post season with 88 wins, I think, especially with how ah competitive NLS is going to be. But i don't know. Just, just, you they got to have, they got to have a winning season and, and not like 82, 80. Like I'm talking like 84, 85. Is that too much to ask for? Maybe, maybe it is.
00:58:44
Speaker
yeah How about how about one above 500? Can I interest you on one above 500? that doesn't. That's basically 500. but Two wins above 500. You know what's crazy? is like The Giants are going to have a gauntlet to start this year.
00:59:00
Speaker
So that's going We're starting the season against each other, which think mentioned yet. Yeah. So we can get into the next episode. It's going to two weeks for when this episode is live because we're biweekly. That's what that means.
00:59:11
Speaker
It's not twice a week. It's every other week. It can mean two things. So the Yankees are going to start off three-game series at San Francisco against the Giants. Game one is going to be Netflix opening night, which is... steal someone's netflix password quickly yeah i dropped netflix yeah i'm on oh shoot i gotta get my grandparents a netflix hopefully you don't need to purchase anything additional to watch it i don't think so no i don't think so all the i know because of pro wrestling the all their live stuff is just live you can get it oh that's so i'm sure it's the same thing with thing with their boxing thing too but i don't care about jake paul boxing okay So that's good. That's good. And then there's going a day off. And then we have opening day, which is weird. So opening night actually is the Netflix opening night. Like, I don't think there are any other games going. I think it's just Giants. Just Giants, Yankees. Weird. Crazy. Apparently the Giants management. Oh, wait. There's no Japanese series for the start of this year? You know Maybe there is. Is there? No, I genuinely don't know.
01:00:07
Speaker
No,
Upcoming Baseball Series and Matchups
01:00:08
Speaker
no. They had one last year, so I was just expecting one to be. I don't think there is. don't think there's a Japanese opening. No, maybe not just because it's a World Baseball Classic. Yeah, no, no. not Yeah, it could be because of the World Baseball Classic. It have just been because of that, yeah. So, yeah, Netflix opening night, day off, opening day, three-game series.
01:00:25
Speaker
Then you guys have a three-game series after that against the Mariners. You'll be visiting the Mariners, and then you will end with a three-game series at home versus the Marlins. How are you feeling about those those nine games? I don't know what the the Mariners are going to kind of be the big, big lofty expectations after how they ended this season, but also Kyle Rowley didn't have a good baseball classic.
01:00:45
Speaker
yeah So who knows? Still lot of good players on that team. I like a lot of them. So Marlins are going to be a cakewalk easy. They have the lowest payroll in the league. You guys, I think are, might be just because we don't know what to expect new manager and all that. I think you're the one I'm i'm most concerned with over these next three series. You will be facing against Logan Webb. Who's to be your opening day starter? Do you know? Has that as ive been announced yet? I assume Garrett Cole. That has not been announced. don't know if Garrett Cole is starting the season yet. It might be a couple weeks to month out. Oh, right. Yeah. cause Yeah. same Same thing with Anthony Volpe. It might be ah we might be a month out from playing regular. I just looked and saw that McMahon is going to be our backup shortstop.
01:01:24
Speaker
And all I can say to that is, please, God, no. Yeah, so we will. That'll be interesting. Last time the Giants and Yankees face 2023, I believe. I think that's the that's the sign of of when we do our podcast. Yeah, I guess so.
01:01:39
Speaker
Let's see. The Giants, obviously starting at home versus the Yankees. Apparently, Giants management not too happy opening at home because they're usually on the road. And they they asked, OK, can we open at home? And then they get against the Yankees. And apparently they were, from what I heard or read, you know, a little bit annoyed about that. Not because it's the Yankees per se, like not like, oh, my God, we got to play against the Yankees. But it was like, well, we already know it's like a tickets thing. And it was like, well, we already know that opening day and opening night is going to sell out. It's opening day, right? Like, when is that not a sellout crowd for us? And they would have rather played against ah the Yankees later in the season where it's like, oh, maybe we don't have as much, you know, people coming in. Yeah. We're playing against the Yankees. They're guaranteed to, you know, also bring people in. so who knows maybe we And we only play against each other once per year. So this is it. Really? This is it? There's not going to be another one this year? Nope. It's just the one.
01:02:30
Speaker
Let me fact check you here. I'm pretty sure. we we Last year we only played against each other once. Because I know that they're trying to... The balance schedule. Yeah, they're trying to do it. Every team faces... Yeah, but some teams you only only face once.
01:02:43
Speaker
Yes, each other at least once. I would have liked to see... Yeah, I think ah yeah that's that's what I'm seeing right now. Yeah, so... and Just once, though. A little disappointing for us. Yeah. Just talking about, you know, this is the only overlap our teams are going to get. i'd like I'd like to make us a trick just because of the two teams' history. Yeah, it should be little bit. Yeah, like people don't forget, like that's the original Subway series.
01:03:05
Speaker
Yeah. Giants-Yankees. It's like a more fun historical thing. I think it'd be fun to like break out like the New York Giants uniforms against the the Yankees. I feel like. the music Get that NY. I made Andrew buy a New York Giants hat. Yeah, I wear whenever the Giants play against the classic National League, except for the Dodgers, and the New York teams. yeah Then we have a three game series. We go on the road against the Padres.
01:03:29
Speaker
And then after that, it'll be the Mets go back home and play against the Mets three games out of these nine games. I think my biggest concern is going the Padres just because it's division. Those are always going to be important games. I mean, Logan Webb for night one, like as long as we have average hitting, but we will be fine. As long as Logan Webb's there, were like we'll be good to go. As long as we have average hitting. Although historically, you know, we're probably going to only, it's because it is Logan Webb and he got Matt Cain so hard, people are thinking that it should be called getting Logan Webb now that ah I just get the one run. He usually gets one or two runs. Max Freed, Max Freed. It's going to be Logan Webb versus Max Freed opening day. i Just check that. Mets can go either way. I think the the Mets are a weird one.
01:04:11
Speaker
kind of weird The Mets are a weird one. Don't know what to expect. They lost Pete Alonzo, which and did we we we could talk about, but we're not ah we're not a Mets podcast. we not We're not. I don't know much about the drama surrounding that.
01:04:22
Speaker
All right. Liam, you got anything to ah
Impact of Technology on Baseball
01:04:25
Speaker
to add before you head out? do We want to talk about abs I could talk about ABS. I'm into it. Love it. I think that there was some worry about it, especially with Patrick Bailey, because he's so good at framing. People were afraid that he's, you know, like, we're going lose like value out of that, especially because of his struggling offense last year. I think I think it's limited enough that we're still going to protect that aspect of the game. Well, and I mean, based off of his spring training performance so far with the challenges, he's, I think, got like a 90 something percent success rate on on his challenges. the Yeah, a big thing at the beginning was that the Yankees were the best at challenging. It's just I think the thing that we're to be seeing mainly, it's not going be a lot of pitchers challenging. No. going be just batters, batters, and catchers. Yeah, patters batters, batters. Yeah, pitchers should absolutely not be. They should not be challenging at all. Which might be hard for some of the personalities that you have on the mound. Which is kind of crazy.
01:05:17
Speaker
But, the you know, managers got to let that be known. Hey, whoever you are, you got to dial it back. Yeah. I know Garrett Cole gets fiery pretty easily. So yeah, might might have to stop him from tapping his head.
01:05:28
Speaker
Yeah, but I think if you have a good catcher, though, because that's a that's a good thing about Patrick Bailey, right? Is I think it was I think it was like in the middle of the first game Logan Webb had with Patrick Bailey as a catcher immediately we let started letting Patrick Bailey call the games, like call the pitches. I think that you get a catcher like that, someone that that's super trustworthy. i think the pitchers could calm down a little bit. And, you know, if the catcher says no, don't challenge it. And if they're going to challenge it, then the catcher is going challenge it. Yeah. It's just going to get weird when you have the ah less experienced catcher behind the home plate. So interesting dynamics, the ABS, when it comes to catchers, newer and veteran catchers. I'm surprised with the batters how... I wonder how the stuff affects umpires and like their' you know their official ratings with within MLB. I assume not by much, right? Because the ones... Because like you you see those like those crazy ones that were like, oh, you you know that strike was actually you know a tenth of an inch outside the zone and gets overturned as a ball.
01:06:21
Speaker
It's like, well, previously that was just considered margin of error. Like, that doesn't... If it didn't count against anyone at the time, I doubt it would count against them now. Tenth of an inch is kind of superhuman. Yeah. So... But hey, you know, it's also a, you know, as people have pointed out, it's like, well, the the pitchers are actually, or not the pitchers, the umpires are actually using a different strike zone than what ABS uses. Because they just have two different definitions. So that's got to be figured out.
01:06:45
Speaker
There are already people saying, like, blind spot calls need to be called by ABS automatically, because you can't expect, like, just the way the ball travels. Yeah, anything kind of low. I don't know. I feel like we're kind of losing the plot trying to be perfectionist there. It's just like you don't want US versus... Dominican Republic. DR situation to happen on a very critical game, which is terrible way to end that all. That was atrocious. I'm glad that they're also getting rid the box on TV.
01:07:13
Speaker
mainly because they don't want the teams to be looking at it. Cause like that box is never right. I mean, it's right on the left, right? It's not right. Cause like, was just a broadcast box, but like, it's kind of funny. Cause like I'm watching it and then the challenge, it I'm like, I don't know about like how much spring training you've been watching, but you know, without the box, I'm like, I'm looking at it. And to me, every pitch from that center field camera angle, I'm like, everything kind of looks like it's down the middle. That's a strike. Obviously like it was a ball. i'm like, Oh, that, that was clearly a ball. But like, to me, like everything looks down the middle. Now i'm like, Oh, know what I'm looking at. Yeah.
01:07:42
Speaker
I like it. I think it's going to be good. But you're you're definitely right about it, about us losing the plot a little bit, like in this the search for perfectionism. Yeah. Because like, for me, I see a lot in football where I talk to my coworkers, you know, during football season, I'm like, I feel like the replay and slow-mo and they get really slow with it. Like it's destroying the rules. Yeah. The the rules aren't meant to be viewed at, you know, 0.5 speed. They're meant to be viewed at regular speed. Mm-hmm. And now you have like these weird definitions of like, what is a catch? You have weird phrases like you have to make a football move. What does that mean?
01:08:12
Speaker
You don't really want that to be in baseball, but you got to something about check swings, which I think they're looking at. Yeah. I think in AAA now, it's like you can't go, you can't turn more than 45 degrees in your swing because they're going use the system for that. Interesting. But yeah, we will see. We'll see. there's There's some other stuff we could talk about, but I think this episode has probably gone long enough.
01:08:29
Speaker
Yeah. They use that during a lull. there's Some of these topics for later. Especially since like ABS doesn't really seem to have the controversy around it that the pitch clock had. Yeah. I mean, I had that. I then heard people talk about like, oh, now the game is going to be slower now if we just like spin it up or whatever. But I feel like it's not going to be slowed down by that much. No, if if at all. It's slowed down right now just because it's spring training and people are testing out what the, you know, what you can get away with and everything. But I feel like we're going to see far less challenges.
01:08:57
Speaker
in actual games. Yeah. in actual games, especially since like you only have two. So like would they had people like already challenging the first inning balls and strikes in the
Personal Plans and Viewing Options for the Baseball Season
01:09:05
Speaker
first inning. That's not going to be absolutely not unless you were Aaron judge like the only player that can get away with with something like that. You're probably not in the first at least three innings. You're not going be challenging. balls No, absolutely not. Only two is kind of crazy. I thought it was three, two or three what challenges. Oh, yeah, only two challenges. That's Well, I mean, if you keep getting them right, you know. No, that's true. You're going to keep it them. It's like replay review, I think. It's just like that. You you only get two of those. You only get one, though, in the regular season. Really? That's only one. I thought you only get two. No, you get one in the regular. It's two in the postseason. I i don't know. Oh, it's only two. That's probably what was messing me up. I... Ugh.
01:09:37
Speaker
shaking me up a little bit. hey you was so I thought I had that down. I i i remember there was a replay review. i was like one of the first like replay reviews that I saw like in person. It was Mets Yankees. I had a great moment with the manager getting thrown out. Oh, before we get going in person games, going to see six games this year. Three of them in Colorado against the Rockies and three them in San Francisco against the Cubs. i don't know if i talked about that yet. Do you have any plans on watching games?
01:10:02
Speaker
No, no idea. i don't think I saw any game. no Any game in person? I saw games. I saw games last year. don't know if they were Yankee games. I might have saw Mets Reds.
01:10:14
Speaker
It's Reds. Do you wear your Yankee or do you wear the Mets when you watch them? I forgot what I wore. I should wear something that isn't Mets just because I'm not there for the Mets. My grandpa was there. He takes me all this. He wanted to see Ellie De La Cruz. Ah, okay. You're there for the Reds. was there for Ellie Dela Cruz. You were there for Ellie Dela Cruz. Just like you were dogging me on my profile pic. His profile picture is who? For my secondary email, it's Justin Turner when he was playing for the Dodgers. When I was watching, I was watching for Justin Turner. crazy.
01:10:46
Speaker
That's crazy. Like I'd be watching. I also, if he was still on the the Cubs, it would be a great thing because I got a new, I ditched cable at my house. So we have Hubo and whatever. And even though I'm all the way out in New York, I get Cubs games. Oh, I don't get Mets games. I get the Yes Network, which is Yankees. And I get like the Marquee yeah channel, Marquee Network, which is Cubs, which I get all the way out here for whatever reason. That's weird. So if he was still there, though that'd be they would pretty cool for the once in a blue moon, he's not riding the bench. He's unsigned right now. Got those those plastic balls hanging out of his pants. Yeah.
01:11:16
Speaker
Yeah. I believe you had that off the dome. Alex. She's our new editor. everyone say hi to Alex. Hi, Alex. Alex, who do you think is going to have the better year? Giants or Yankees? Just throw your answer right here. Andrew, you know I know nothing about baseball.
01:11:30
Speaker
Thanks, Alex. I knew you were going to choose the Giants. Boo. All right. we're gonna I mean, yay. All right. har I'll do it for this episode. First episode of the 2026 season. We're going to do the whole regular season at the very least. Hopefully we both make the playoffs. One of us makes the playoffs. Hopefully. it It's going to be so much better. I get to watch more games this year because I'm not in school. Yeah, that was one big reason why didn't come back last year and kind of killed 2024 season. My insight also wasn't the best. I'm going to have more time to dedicate to it a little bit more, even though i'm I'm working on some professional stuff. Like my job is demanding, but I get out around like I have this I have the same hours as like a teacher would.
01:12:04
Speaker
So I'm off by like three or four. then There's always time for baseball. There's my dog. Alright. Two weeks. We'll talk about opening Let's do it. Alright, see you guys later.
01:12:16
Speaker
Bye, everybody. Welcome back. We seem to be having some issues with stopping the recording. It's just unable to contact the server. Can I stop the recording? Yeah. Uh-oh. That's not good.