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276 BaseballBiz Pete Alonso, Mets, Reds,
[00:00:00] Other: This episode was recorded moments before Pete Alonso signed his contract.
[00:00:06] Other: Pitchers and catchers report. Pitchers and catchers report. Roll call. Sanderson. Yep, right here man. Jones. Yeah, I'm here and ready to go. Smith. Here boss. Alvarez. Alvarez. Where are you, Alvarez?
[00:00:32] Other (2): What's all that caterwalling
[00:00:33] Other: about?
[00:00:34] Other (2): Why, it's me, of course. Your Chief of Chiefs. And here I am today to make sure that all Americans are playing all American ball. Yes, indeed. So, Mr. Alvarez, I believe, is now playing in the Guantanamo Bay League. We're making America great today. One baseball player at a time. Now let's head into Dunedin. I hear some of those Canadian Blue Jays are playing there.
[00:01:09] Mark Corbett: Welcome to Baseball Biz On Deck I am Mark Corbett and with me of course is Mr. Matt Germain. We'll join you for another joyous week of baseball and a crazy world around us. And there's some things that just can't be denied, Matt.
[00:01:24] Mat Germain: Nope. That is a fact.
[00:01:27] Mark Corbett: Spring training's coming to one of them. Uh, we had a little bit there at the beginning with pictures and cancer's report.
[00:01:32] Mark Corbett: And maybe we'll talk a little bit more about that later, but ouch. Uh, I, I don't know. I've got some stats I'll share with you later, man, but you know, the world's changing around us and I don't know where this came from today, but I was thinking of a date. That I had decades and decades and decades ago.
[00:01:51] Mark Corbett: One of the first ones, and the thing of it was, it was, I was a manager of a small band called Macbeth. It was called Rock Bottom at the time. Okay. You I love that name. Rock Bottom. Well, I was the youngest one of the bunch. I was the manager of the band. That's what I could do as I, I'd get the gigs, well, I brought this new girlfriend around and she was just something else.
[00:02:12] Mark Corbett: Her name was, her name was Uta. And, uh. See when we're all going to gather and go see Grand Funk Railroad. That's right, folks. People. I have definitely dated myself. Mark Farber, Little Eva, you know, a locomotion. That's those kind of songs. It was, uh, That was some time ago. But here's the fun part, man. You know, sometimes you're there with a lot of other couples and you've got that one friend who's got the girlfriend's like, Oh, good Lord.
[00:02:41] Mark Corbett: Why is she here? What is she doing? Well, it was that kind of date. And Uta, um, She was kind of stiff, you know, and I was a little young, so it didn't work out too well. Anyway, so we're all there and I didn't drive then. So somebody had to pick Utah and me up. And as the concert starts, it's not a half hour into it.
[00:03:04] Mark Corbett: Utah can not stand it. She does not want to be there. She doesn't like the smell. She doesn't like the sound and nobody likes her. And God, where was Uber back then? Cause I would have sent her home then.
[00:03:20] Mark Corbett: But instead my friends sacrificed their evening and we all gathered, got in the van, and we were like, Took Uta home. They sent me home and God bless the rest of them. I ruined a good night out with a Grand Funk Railroad locomotion with good friends. But it just goes to show you sometimes we make decisions and sometimes those decisions seem pretty good at first.
[00:03:44] Mark Corbett: But then we get moving along and maybe the UTA isn't everything we were hoping we had there and that was what turned out for me and the impact of that decision actually impacted all my friends. I think a lot of people may be experiencing something like their own UTA who maybe they selected a while back and who's now the chief.
[00:04:07] Mark Corbett: And we have, we have to reconsider some things, you know, Mat, we talk about baseball in here, but we talk about life as well and, and what's happening in the world. And there's a, there's a lot of ugly things happening that right now from the executive branch of the United States. I'll say it out loud. And who's standing up, who's speaking out, who's being squelched.
[00:04:29] Mark Corbett: There's too much of the squelching going on and there's too many people who've been shy and walked away. And I'm not going to point enough fingers because I think people can tell what's happening. And I'm not going to say who's heroes and zeros. You know, they talk about Jim Acosta walking away from CNN the other day.
[00:04:46] Mark Corbett: I don't know enough about Jim to say whether it was an outstanding person. It was a very great decision. But the thing of it was, Whatever you might think of him in that decision, the climate of today has made it so that news people, quite often, aren't comfortable with being able to share the truth with their audience.
[00:05:06] Mark Corbett: And that's the challenge we have today.
[00:05:09] Mat Germain: I don't think it's, it's even just the fact that the That they can't get the truth out. It's that the opportunity to have the, uh, the, the media to say what it is that they have to say is only available to them if they stick to a script. Yeah. That is not their own.
[00:05:32] Mat Germain: And to me, that's the biggest downfall of, of news right now is that there is no, um, personal voice. It is a corporate voice. And that corporate voice is controlled by. People that have intentions of skewing the story one way or the other. So to me, that's the biggest fallacy of news and media right now.
[00:05:55] Mat Germain: And I think that's why things like Blue Sky exist, uh, and, and are being developed and are being, you know, Brought forward as alternatives for people to get the their messages out and you'll see the same thing when it comes to news I think I shared with you before Uh the app that I use which is ground news and and they tend to show you what the bias is for all the stories Uh, they give a you know An outlet for people to get their stories out and they just Evaluated based on what they're so there's there are things out there that do that however They're not all easily accessible known about or sought after By people that probably should be exposed to those kinds of news and that's the sad truth of it is that Um, a lot of people have been misled Into, um, believing that what they see in certain arenas.
[00:06:55] Mat Germain: is fact when it isn't and, and to be quite honest, they're in a lot of cases, they're gullible and naive and, and that's getting the best of them and making the world we're all forced to live in a little bit worse because of it.
[00:07:15] Mark Corbett: Well, I don't think there's any denied. I'm glad you, you brought up again, say the name again of the, the news, uh,
[00:07:22] Mat Germain: ground news,
[00:07:23] Mark Corbett: ground news. And because so much, I mean, I keep looking back at the day of the inauguration. And I was really quite happy that it was cold enough that they had to have it inside because it made it very crystal clear about who was going to be important to the new administration.
[00:07:44] Mark Corbett: And when you saw that gaggle of oligarchs. And you realize you're looking at Google, you're looking at Meta, you're looking at Facebook, you're, you're looking at Insta, you're looking at X, Twitter, X, Twitter, and you start looking for say, well, oh my gosh, this is where I post other people posts and I am actually anytime I do that, these are people who I don't necessarily agree with.
[00:08:11] Mark Corbett: Their support of this administration and they want to support them fine. But the problem is they control so much of where we look for information and that, that makes it a difficult, and I won't say we become lazy, but we become dependent. upon certain portals for our information. So if we're not looking beyond there, guess what?
[00:08:38] Mark Corbett: that we're going to see just what they want to feed us and we've got to find something else. We have to demand more.
[00:08:45] Mat Germain: Well, the scariest part of it all, Mark, is the fact that I believe a lot of what's going on is because, um, some measures that were taken to keep things in check, uh, by certain entities were, uh, Effective and forcing progress to be slower than what a lot of those companies wanted.
[00:09:09] Mat Germain: So with the new administration, they know they have free reign to do whatever it is that they want to do. And that includes AI, which has potential that people I think are still minimizing to this day. They don't understand what it actually means. And so when you're able to take all of the regulation away from that and allow it to be free flowing as you want all of the sudden, and especially this applies for Elon Musk, it applies for meta, it applies for all of the companies that are delving into AI and Google on top of it, um, and to the point where, you even they.
[00:09:47] Mat Germain: We'll not be able to control what comes out. It's like letting the genie out of the bottle and, and who knows, maybe AI will become the savior because to be honest, I, I, I know the human beings are having a hard time getting that one together, so maybe there'll be some common sense that come up, comes out of an AI, but I think we all know that the truth is, you know, predicting AI is, uh, is fallacy.
[00:10:17] Mat Germain: Like there's nobody that can say it one way or the other. Um, but yeah, I, I think, like I said, the interests are so great and beyond, or even our comprehension, because only they have the data to know what exactly that means. Yeah. But it's, it's what's driving them to let go of all of their ethical boundaries.
[00:10:39] Mat Germain: And just adopting this mass, you know, like when they say people on their own, like you put one of those people on stage and you start asking them question in an interview, they will be nice as gold. They will be, you know, all this and that and yet, yet, yet, you put them in a group, all of a sudden they're completely different.
[00:10:58] Mat Germain: And then I firmly believe that once they all jumped on board, it, it really, it went haywire to be honest.
[00:11:07] Mark Corbett: You know, it, the thing of it is. It's being willing to recognize that maybe if you're that nice as gold person, and then you allow yourself to be get involved with this group, and then you realize, Oh, my gosh, the elementary elementary parts of myself, I have changed and that that does no longer hold with the precept I had before, whatever philosophies, whatever humanitarian ideas I had, they're gone because now I am part of this group.
[00:11:40] Mark Corbett: And you sometimes we just have to step back folks. There's a challenge I've seen. You've probably seen this too, Matt, where someone will hire an individual into their group. And that manager who hired them is proud as punch them. And then the person just doesn't really develop. They don't deliver. And that suddenly the matter is like, you know, my numbers are kind of sucking really starts with this fellow over here, the guy I hired.
[00:12:10] Mark Corbett: And, but you know, I hired him, I hired him. And by gum, I got to stick with him because my boss is looking at me and saying, is he doing okay down there? Did, did he make a bad decision? And it's, it's hard for people to sometimes to extricate themselves from difficult decisions. That they've made and say, Hey, guess what?
[00:12:27] Mark Corbett: I got to cut this loose. I got to cut. In other words, if you're talking about this hiring position, you got to cut that guy loose. Well, we need to cut some people loose. We need to cut some ideas loose because they that are weighing us down, that that are not being effective for people overall. If you have a humanitarian attitude about helping people, the current administration doesn't want to do that.
[00:12:52] Mark Corbett: The United States is not of that same attitude, at least by none of the actions. I've seen none of the people that are being put in a position to be heading it by cabinet and God save us all if we don't speak up. And if we don't take action and say, guess what? We, the people of the United States expect you to represent us.
[00:13:15] Mark Corbett: We, the people expect you to treat people fairly. We do not expect you to say, Oh, we're going to help keep prices down. We're going to charge tariffs somewhere else. And then, Oh, the American people, they'll be okay with increased prices for a while. These are not the decisions any of us, I should say the X, the results, many people expected would happen, but they're here folks.
[00:13:38] Mark Corbett: It's time to speak up.
[00:13:41] Mat Germain: Yeah, there's, there's just too much pain and I can point to it in a million different ways, Mark, like, your, your health care system is completely shattered, nevermind broken, it's a third world nation, you know, that, that could have a better health care system than the United States, simply because, you know, so many millions of people go broke annually trying to chase down their medical bills and, and, You know, that's one example, homelessness is another example, uh, the, the caring for each other.
[00:14:12] Mat Germain: So, you know, when we were talking about the silliness of Canada joining the United States and I'm like, okay, well, if you do that, then you have to come up here. You have to give us a hug when you come in and then, and then you have to admit that you care about the people in the room and that you're going to help take care of them.
[00:14:29] Mat Germain: And then you have like all this stuff that really, you know, should be automatic and should be part of your daily lives. I think. You know, all there's going to need to be a lot of healing at some point through all this silliness that's going on and, and things that are ramping up. And then I really truly hope that it ends, the silliness ends quickly enough so that you guys can get there and actually look, look in the mirror and wonder why this is happening, because there's always, This is a symptom of, of a system that drove people to be this angry to act out by electing a perversion of a person that should never be in charge of a group of any people based on what we all know.
[00:15:21] Mat Germain: So, So in that case, you have to look at what drove that so you can point to a lot of different things, and I'm not going to list them all. I think we know them, but journalism is part of it. Education is part of it. They're talking about politics and what it means and what you're voting for, why you're voting for it, why helping your neighbors might be better than ostracizing them.
[00:15:43] Mat Germain: Uh, you know, a lot of different things that are in the mix. Like you ever go out and wonder, okay, okay. Mike Trout's been on the angels. I'll bring it back to the, to the base.
[00:15:55] Mat Germain: All right.
[00:15:55] Mat Germain: So he went at it alone. He said, I'm sticking with the angels. I'm going to do it on my own and we're going to get to the playoffs.
[00:16:01] Mat Germain: I'm going to sign a contract. No, I'm not going anywhere else. He had the opportunity to jump to the Phillies. He said, Nope, I'm sticking on my own. You know, I've got my money. I'm happy. I'm whatever. And is he happy now? After all these years, he's alone, right? Just as an example. So there's a reason that trade barriers have been systematically brought down by generation and generation.
[00:16:23] Mat Germain: I remember the first George Bush. I remember the second George Bush. All of the, Uh the agreements that were assigned the free trade agreements and and I studied business. I know it works breaking down trade barriers works because Everybody benefits certain countries do some things better than others And the more you drive down those costs and and are able to divert energies to other things The more the whole of the production is better and everybody ends up better off.
[00:16:54] Mat Germain: There is nothing good about an isolated system. The United Kingdom were the last ones to have a very, very tight monopolistic system. And they almost went belly up because of it. And people were so angry that they eventually, you know, just blew it up. And that's when you had the free system come out of it.
[00:17:16] Mat Germain: And, you know, there's a lot of, uh, there's a lot of lessons in history and I think we need to revisit it and not. Close libraries and not shut out books and not take women off of the Records or whatever it is that they're deleting now. They need to promote and revisit and learn and just make that the driving force of this next generation.
[00:17:42] Mark Corbett: Hang on to those printed books folks. The digital ones might disappear. No, okay. Come to
[00:17:47] Mat Germain: Canada. We've got them all.
[00:17:51] Mark Corbett: All right man. Oh man, okay. Thank you for indulging me for a few moments here, but I am serious about the, about the text. Us folks in the United States need to really stand up and step up, make sure that you know, your brothers, your friends, your enemies, they're being taken care of.
[00:18:07] Mark Corbett: Are they, are they being fed? Are they being clothed? Are they being housed? Uh, people who you might see as suspicious. They're still, if you have some sort of Faith that you believe, You might say that's one of God's creatures and a reflection of your God. And if that's the case, treat them like that. So find some compassion, find some heart, find some joy.
[00:18:28] Mark Corbett: You know, we're going to make our own joy here. Mat and I do. He's indulged me here. We're going to have a little joy still with baseball because there's always something goofier fun going on. So Mat, let's get back into the wide world of baseball. And with, uh, with that, again, thank the audience for, for indulging me here at the beginning of the show.
[00:18:45] Mark Corbett: We'll
[00:18:46] Mat Germain: It's always, uh, you know, a lot of fun to, to kind of look at different things just because you're, you're not pigeonholed into one thing. But yeah, the, the funnest thing I can think of right now and going on in baseball is spring training is coming. People are start going to start showing up pretty soon.
[00:19:04] Mat Germain: And there's still so many people without a home. And, and I just keep, I, I know last year, Blake Snell was pretty frustrated with Scott Boras, right. And so it just. I don't want to say it's comical, but it's just so obvious that, that whatever he has suggested the people to follow, they just have not hung on to and bid onto.
[00:19:29] Mat Germain: So Pete Alonso, as an example, find me a home for Pete Alonso and, and outside of the ones that are being named, because it's not going to be one of those. If it was going to be, it would have happened already. So, so where you're Pete Alonso, you, you have a home in Tampa. You, you kind of, uh, travel around, you do your winter thing.
[00:19:51] Mat Germain: You're you had the opportunity to sign 150 million. You're trying to save face. Basically at this point, you're trying to continue playing first base instead of just the aging. Where do you go? What is that home?
[00:20:07] Mark Corbett: We've said it time and again about Tampa and, but they're kind of heavy there. You got Yandy on first, he does DH and you, I know that like you're saying Alonso needs to expand beyond that because if he's seen only as that.
[00:20:21] Mark Corbett: It reduces opportunities for him. So I haven't looked enough at the Marlins to see if
[00:20:30] Mat Germain: if he goes to the Marlins, Mark, I don't know. I'm talking about a competitive team.
[00:20:35] Mark Corbett: Oh, oh, I thought we'd make him the Mike Trout of the Marlins. Oh,
[00:20:43] Mat Germain: isn't that bad? I know there's somewhere somewhere.
Yeah,
[00:20:50] Mat Germain: no, I was thinking more like the Reds, for instance, yeah, the Reds, you know, they've got Tito, uh, showing up. I don't know what their finances are like, but, but to me that ballpark, you kidding me? Is there any better ballpark for Pete to go and rebuild his value? He might hit 50 home runs in that park.
[00:21:10] Mat Germain: So they have a fun lineup. Like they have a very, you know, intriguing and. Yeah, I think he would really take off. It could even be a one year deal. He wouldn't even have to sign two or three and then go on from there, right?
[00:21:24] Mark Corbett: Well, I mean, that's kind of what Snell did, didn't he? Because it got to the point where he was pushed to, if spring training had started, and I don't think paperwork had been signed yet, and he, so Boras got himself a short term, uh, it wasn't going to completely lose face, but at the same time, it wasn't going to be the deal that, that he wanted or, or, uh, uh, Snell wanted either one.
[00:21:44] Mark Corbett: So, um, uh, Yeah, I think you're on point with a one year contract with Alonso. And I would love to see him with the Reds. See him and Elly De La Cruz do their little thing out there. Maybe I could see Elly. run those bases. And Pete hitting the home runs, bringing the rest of them in. Jeez, that'd be great to see.
[00:22:02] Mat Germain: It would. The other one is Alex Bregman. And, and, and I just, I don't like people keep talking. I listened to MLB network radio in the mornings and they, they're talking about, um, you know, giving him a six or seven year deal.
I
[00:22:19] Mat Germain: mean, that's just too long. Like it, it's, At some point, teams have to realize, like, the length of people, and the reason, so right now, the health concerns are forcing Alex Bregman to move from third to second.
[00:22:33] Mat Germain: Does that sound like a guy you want to sign to a seven year deal? Uh, it was the same thing with Carlos Correa, right? Where you had, so I, And then they're talking about if they bring him back to Houston, they might put Jose Altuve in the outfield. I don't know. Like that's just too many moving pieces.
[00:22:51] Mat Germain: What's Jose Altuve? He's five, seven, five, six. He's going to run enough in the outfield to cover all that ground. I don't know. Like that's,
[00:23:02] Mark Corbett: I mean, he's a fast little dude. Don't get me wrong, but I expect that in spurts. I don't expect that in, you know, how many yards you have to run in an outfield to get from center to left or whatever it may be.
[00:23:14] Mark Corbett: Uh, geez. I mean, that's a, that's a whole other pickle for, uh, I couldn't imagine. He's
[00:23:19] Mat Germain: also aging. He's not a young guy anymore. Like he's 34 years old. He's going to be 35. Like that's. You know, that's a lot to expect for somebody that's played second base their entire career to learn a new position. You're on the opposite side of the field all of a sudden, and then you're in the outfield.
[00:23:35] Mat Germain: You have to, you know, I don't know. He's a good athlete. Like, yeah, I don't, don't get me wrong. Like I get he could be viable. He wouldn't be Manny Ramirez out there. But, uh, but I think it's, it's interesting. So when I, when I look at the whole, thing with, with Alex Bregman, obviously he's going to require a little bit more oomph.
[00:23:56] Mat Germain: Like he's not going to settle. I don't think he doesn't come across as the type of person that would do that.
Right.
[00:24:02] Mat Germain: But I'm sticking with the fact that the Phillies are not satisfied with Alec Baum. To me, the solution overall is for the Phillies to trade Alec Baum to the Red Sox. Who get the third baseman that they're looking for and then he goes to our divers goes to first base Then they can trade casas Then alex bregman signs with the phillies and then they have a bregman on one side and bryce harper on the other I just think he would be the missing piece for for the phillies to finally click a little bit Especially when it comes to the playoffs.
[00:24:41] Mat Germain: Alec Bregman is a great, uh, performer in the playoffs. Uh, Dave Dombrowski is the kind of guy that will make a late move like that. Like that would, you know, decide to push all the chips in. He's made really solid moves this year in terms of solidifying their pitching. Uh, I just think he needs that one extra piece to help boost the lineup.
[00:25:02] Mat Germain: Nick Castellanos is kind of, you know, You know, getting longer in the tooth. Same thing with Schwarber. So Bregman would be that kind of guy that could revitalize a little bit of their lineup and get them to that next level. I don't know if Alec Baum would actually, you know, be better in Red Sox or somewhere else, but I just think he's tradable.
[00:25:25] Mat Germain: He's somebody that a lot of teams would have interest in and I don't think they'd have a hard time moving.
[00:25:33] Mark Corbett: I'll be curious to see how that winds up, man. You mentioned a name, though, just a moment ago. Max Scherzer. Woof. Uh, I mean, this guy is legendary. I was really curious to see what was going to happen with him.
[00:25:48] Mark Corbett: And he's wound up lining up there on your side of the border up there. And, uh, wow. Up, geez, I can't believe it, man. He's with the Blue Jays. And I don't know where I thought Max wind up bar feed wouldn't wind up. But, uh, there you go. We're talking about having Brett Cardi from the Cardi Show on here a couple of weeks talking about, uh, the Blue Jays.
[00:26:08] Mark Corbett: But what, what were you surprised when you saw Scherzer come to the Blue Jays?
[00:26:12] Mat Germain: I'm not, but it be mostly because of this, and I think we've talked about this a lot. Like a lot of of teams, when you start looking at their starting pitching now seem to be leaning towards a six man rotation. I don't know if it's just me.
[00:26:25] Mat Germain: I might be wrong. We'll see when spring starts, you know, maybe some things line up. Maybe they're just predicting some injuries or, you know, but I think it makes too much sense. Now, like teams have had enough, um, really terrible injuries and really, you know, a lot of plight when it comes to keeping guys healthy, they have to try something different.
[00:26:47] Mat Germain: And it's, it's funny because I, I, I, you know, I looked through all the minor leagues, you know, over and over and over again. And in the race system, it seems evident to me that all the way through the system, they could go to six man rotation. So, and it looks like, you know, just looking at it right now that they're leaning that way.
[00:27:08] Mat Germain: And when you look at the minor league schedule, it's six games that they play in a week, right? And then the seventh day they'd have off, which is what I suggested 10 years ago, and you can look up the transcripts. So I really, really, really, really. Jumped onto that. I did all the calculations for the days, how the schedule would look.
[00:27:26] Mat Germain: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And I pushed it. And I think the article is up on day, day's bay somewhere, but they, um, it just makes too much sense to have those six starters have that extra off day for major league baseball. That a day off can be a travel day. It could be a makeup day. It can be a whatever, but at least then the media get time to hype up the games and the series and, and to digest where things stand and then.
[00:27:50] Mat Germain: Yeah. Move on from there, right? But the six man rotation then pretty much sets you to have guys for certain days of the week. Like if you're the Dodgers, for instance, your Saturday guy can be Shohei Ohtani. Every Saturday, Shohei Ohtani is going to be pitching for the Dodgers. You can book it. You know, he's going to be there.
[00:28:10] Mat Germain: Your Sunday guy can be Tyler Glasnow. Now you're, you know, whatever picture you want to pick. Like you would know who settles in where sure. It'll change. Sometimes we'll have to skip it because he's got this, he's got a blister, he's got whatever, but he's got it. But, you know, it makes it more fun that way to say, Oh, well, who's their Saturday pitcher?
[00:28:28] Mat Germain: Or who's there? I think baseball does that in the minors, right? Like in high school, don't they have like, uh, the, the, the guys settled in that, that, that. Right.
[00:28:38] Mark Corbett: That's his date.
[00:28:38] Mat Germain: So, uh, same thing in the Japanese leagues, they, they have the same kind of idea. So I just think Max Scherzer, when you're looking at the blue Jays and who they have, unless they plan on moving somebody out, it looks like they're leaning towards a six man rotation, in which case.
[00:28:54] Mat Germain: You know, max can give you five or six and he'll battle even if you have this stuff. So that's not the question. I just think if you, if they get a four and a half era out of them and 150 plus innings, they'll be ecstatic. I just don't see much better than that. To be quite honest, based on what's left in a tank.
[00:29:17] Mark Corbett: You know, I'm going to tell you what we're talking about Scherzer, talking about the Blue Jays, and players get maybe a little long of the tooth. Well, mine runs to a certain Ex-Ray, and that's Kevin Kiermaier. And I found what happened with him at the close of last season, one of the most fun things I could think of for a player.
[00:29:42] Mark Corbett: You know, he'd been with us for all those years. He took a job with the Blue Jays, and he was ready to retire, said as much. And here comes the Dodgers knocking on the door.
[00:29:57] Mark Corbett: The man moves from Tampa to Canada to, to all the way out to, uh, uh, Dodger Stadium. And he plays well, you know, he wasn't extraordinary, but he put the flash out there in the outfield. And I, you know, I guess he's retired now at this point, but I thought, what a great way to put an exclamation mark at the end of a career.
[00:30:24] Mark Corbett: So I know the Rays are relatively still a young team, right? Um, do you think they will ever consider retiring his number?
[00:30:35] Mark Corbett: Oh, geez. Just on marketability alone, because of what he did, I could tell you when I worked at the Ray stadium during the games, nobody, there was no shirt that was so more than the ones that had Kiermaier's name on the back of it.
[00:30:53] Mark Corbett: The excitement that he brought to the game. Is such his, his commitment to, to completely demolish his own body in pursuit of catching that ball and to be able to deliver the entertainment factor and pizzazz in which he, he did catch those balls. Uh, I think that alone. Yes, yes. I do believe they should retire his number.
[00:31:17] Mat Germain: I do. I, I could be just because. So unless you're talking Ricky Henderson or Andruw Jones or a couple of other ones, you know, he's in a handful. Of the top defensive centerfielders of the last two, maybe three generations. Like that says a lot, like that's to me that, you know, yes, he made it his staple when he went to Australia, when he was a prospect and he worked on his defensive abilities and he made that his mission.
[00:31:52] Mat Germain: For his entire career, the confidence he had, and we've seen it stealing balls from Randy or Rosa Raina and doing like his confidence. You cannot, you could not add an, a drop of confidence to his cup or he would have overflowed basically the way it goes. So, so when you're at that level, that's what makes you elite just because you've worked so much on your craft that you are, you are just.
[00:32:22] Mat Germain: You know the best so defensively, you know, he did that if he had done the same with his hitting You know if he had taken that same attitude to his hitting It would have been really interesting because we talk a lot about this guy chandler simpson coming up, right?
Who likes to
[00:32:44] Mat Germain: just put the stick on the ball and let his speed work for itself if kevin would have done just that He could have been a hall of famer That's what I believe, is that just high average, he would have gotten on base a heck of a lot more than he did, and then he would have been able to steal a lot more bases than he actually did, I think he had a chance to become a Hall of Famer.
[00:33:10] Mat Germain: Just because his stretch of dominance as a defensive centerfielder was longer than Andruw Jones So if that's the case, and then you add that hitting ability, yes, Andruw almost killed himself. Hit 500 home runs as well Which definitely helps but I I think that you know Kevin Kiermaier is and a really interesting case.
[00:33:30] Mat Germain: I like we've talked about before. I hope he does come back And and teach some of the guys to you know, how to Play the, the game, the way that he did in the, in the outfield, uh, at some point, but I, I do think the Rays will consider very strongly to retire his number and Evan Longoria's as well. Yes. Both of those should be, I think the first to, uh, you know, retired as Rays and, um, it'll be interesting to see when that happens.
[00:33:58] Mark Corbett: Yep. Yep. I'm looking forward to seeing that as well. You know, I know you've been tracking what's happening with a lot of players was in the Caribbean league right now.
Uh,
[00:34:09] Mark Corbett: I've been a little busy right now, as you well know. Something happened, Mark. Yeah, I've been, uh, Karen and I, we became grandparents for the first time, so very happy about that.
[00:34:24] Mark Corbett: Maybe I'll share some of that later on at another show, but very happy, and our lives have been full with a lot of things, some of the most joy we've ever had in our life, and I want to see other people be able to experience joy in some of what we talked about earlier, too. But, thank you. The game, let's talk about the joy.
[00:34:40] Mark Corbett: What's going on in the Caribbean league, man.
[00:34:43] Mat Germain: So the Mexicans are really dominating. There are four and O in the standings. Uh, the, uh, the Dominicans are holding their own and Venezuela as well, as well as Puerto Rico. There's a lot of, you know, good competitiveness between those teams. Uh, and, and what's surprising, shocking really, is that the Japanese are last and they haven't won a game yet.
[00:35:07] Mark Corbett: Oh my gosh.
[00:35:08] Mat Germain: Yeah, so, uh, it's, you know, sometimes you can dominate and you have all your stars and yada, yada, but when you start, you know, these aren't the, you know, Otani's not down there playing and, and Roki Sasaki isn't down there playing and yada, yada, yada. So these are not The be all, end all. But the, the series have been a lot of fun.
[00:35:32] Mat Germain: And I think you're, you're seeing, uh, some guys that could end up, you know, being sought after by some of the teams that'll have, uh, injuries that they have to replace people, uh, people that are looking for value and want to add it to AAA and have it ready, uh, you know, to, to delve into if they need it.
[00:35:52] Mat Germain: Really, there's not many stars in there. I think that you're going to see in this, uh, in this season right away. But, uh, you are seeing some good action and some good games in the Mexicans. Like I said, I've been dominating all the way through. They only have given up, I think over the four games, four runs.
[00:36:10] Mat Germain: So their pitching has been really, really, really strong.
[00:36:16] Mark Corbett: , while you were talking to, I was trying to think. On the World Baseball Classic, how far along Japan had got, I know they were at least in the quarterfinals. That's what I'm thinking, so I'm thinking
[00:36:26] Mat Germain: They won the last,
[00:36:27] Mat Germain: uh, two, I think.
[00:36:28] Mark Corbett: Yeah, yeah, so, so when you're telling me about this, what's going on in the Caribbean League, I'm like, did they leave half the team home or something?
[00:36:35] Mark Corbett: Because, I mean, it's, they're such an outstanding team from historically purposes, and I thought, wow.
[00:36:42] Mat Germain: So I don't know who they sent and who they kept in Japan for their, their, uh, seasons and, uh, who's, how they're ramping things up. I know from having listened to people who have played over there, uh, they are very, very, very strict.
[00:36:57] Mat Germain: About the regimen of, of when your, your off season begins and all training that you have to do. So there could be a lot of that coming into play where you're seeing not just the MLB players missing the, also the Japanese league players missing. And so you're seeing like kind of the, I don't want to call it leftovers, but
[00:37:22] Mark Corbett: people, The B League, the B League,
[00:37:25] Mat Germain: yeah, the C League, pretty much,
[00:37:27] Mark Corbett: yeah, yeah, but it's good, it's entertaining to see, oh man, oh man, I'm trying to think what else, oh, you know what, now this isn't joy, no,
[00:37:38] Mat Germain: you're going to talk stadium again, aren't you,
[00:37:40] Mark Corbett: no, no, I'm not even going to do that, that's, I'm going to wait until March 31st before I sing about stadium again,
[00:37:46] Mat Germain: gotcha,
[00:37:48] Mark Corbett: I was, I was thinking of, uh, Um, Umpire Hoberg,
[00:37:54] Mat Germain: bad case that is,
[00:37:58] Mark Corbett: I mean, we look at the fella and evidently he had a friend who's laying bets, not just for himself, but also for Empire Hoberg himself.
[00:38:10] Mark Corbett: But was
[00:38:11] Mat Germain: Was his friend an interpreter?
[00:38:14] Mark Corbett: I'm sorry, did he work for Shohei? No!
[00:38:17] Mat Germain: You know where I'm leaning with that.
[00:38:20] Mark Corbett: Could have been lost in the translation.
[00:38:22] Mat Germain: Yeah. His friend wouldn't take the bullet for him the way the interpreter did for Shohei, did he?
[00:38:27] Mark Corbett: No. No, no. And, and the sad part is what Hoberg did own up to at the end, he kind of had to, but, uh, he was started.
[00:38:36] Mark Corbett: Let's delete all these files. Let's delete all these files. And, you know, guess what, man, somebody is going to see that to Hoberg. God bless you. We all make mistakes. But it's like, oh, it's just, it's just a sad symphony of being able to critique umpires and give them grief all the time. And you get one bad apple like this and it doesn't do anything good for the rest of them.
[00:38:58] Mark Corbett: But, uh,
[00:39:00] Mat Germain: I just find it, you know, it's the, the, the most ironic thing is that you could say a third of, of baseball's, you know, income right now is in gambling.
[00:39:13] Mark Corbett: Oh yeah.
[00:39:14] Mat Germain: So, you know, it's like dangling it in front of people's faces and then say, Oh, you can't, you know, you can't eat it, but I get it. It makes complete sense.
[00:39:26] Mat Germain: The gambling should not be allowed, especially by Umpires. Come on. That's just insane. Uh, but yeah, I, I, I do find it sad. I, I think, you know, the Pete Rose case is used a lot of times as the example for players. He had the entire case that you could build to be in the hall of fame and he never got there. So now MLB is able to use that as the example.
[00:39:54] Mat Germain: Look, This is what we're willing to omit from the hall of fame. If you do this, this is how bad it is. This is like the one rule you do not want to break. You can get an NDA for a lot of different things. You're not getting one for gambling and baseball. So the umpires now are going to be able to use this guy as, as that example, because he was so awesome at his job, like his record as an umpire.
[00:40:24] Mat Germain: He was one of the best. Yeah, just really literally had some of the best percentages of getting the calls. Right. Um, so it's sad that we lose that, but it's also an example that the umpires now are going to be able to use and say, Doesn't matter how great you are. If you go to this point, you're going to get fired.
[00:40:50] Mark Corbett: You know, I've, I've sitting here thinking of, we should, we should write a science fiction novel on this mat. It should go something like this. There is an analyst program, an Excel spreadsheet, and a special chip that's been put in this new computer. Lightning strikes it. It becomes, it has sudden awareness, and it reaches out into all the major leagues and starts assigning, you know, working closely with Scott Boras's computer, and they're talking to one another, and suddenly that particular chip, and that one sole PC sitting somewhere, is now going to become one of the richest artificial intelligence computers.
[00:41:29] Mark Corbett: Beast in the world for baseball. So keep, keep it in mind, man. Keep it in mind.
[00:41:34] Mat Germain: When are we going to see the first major league baseball player with a robotic arm?
[00:41:39] Mark Corbett: That would be so cool, man. Good. What kind of, what kind of legislation rules are we going to have for all that?
[00:41:48] Mat Germain: What about one that has an embedded chip?
[00:41:50] Mat Germain: Like what, uh, Elon Musk is selling there with Neuralink, right? Well, what about that? Like, you remember there was a movie that had that where the, you know, The, the person had these eyes that could track the ball and then just hitting nothing but home runs. Right. And so like, when that happens, first of all, are you going to be able to tell, you know, can they do it at a reduced rate so that you don't notice it as much?
[00:42:17] Mat Germain: Is Shohei Ohtani already doing that? Who knows, right? You're just writing that book would be a lot of fun because there's so many different angles that you could. Yeah. You know, what if somebody rigged the balls now so that they actually, you know, did this, that, the other thing, the bats, remember Sammy Sosa with a corked bat, there's gotta be some sort of tech out there that is able to be used in the bat that, that is, you know.
[00:42:47] Mat Germain: Oh man, I think the more fun one though that the Orioles should try next because I literally they're trying everything is fences that move during the game. They go in and out. You just don't know where it's going to be. It could be 10 feet further out of the 10 feet further up. It could be down at your knees and you could flip over top.
[00:43:13] Mat Germain: You know, it's like a moving thing. So the crowd is into it. It's almost like a wave towards the infield and then Oh,
[00:43:26] Mark Corbett: so it said they're adjusted for each batter as they're out there at batting average. I love that though, man, that would be, that would be insane and uh, in close to what's happening anyway, the last couple of years moving in, moving out.
[00:43:38] Mat Germain: How about this? The MLB says, okay, if you're an expansion team, you're bidding on a team, you want to be one of the 32, you have to have a field where every game, it has the dimensions of one different MLB field. So one, one big one game, it's Fenway, the next game, it's Yankee Stadium, the next game, it's, and so you have to adopt all of those 30 teams, just so that everything is even.
[00:44:05] Mark Corbett: Oh, I know some architects. We need to get this plan to brother. Well, I'll
[00:44:10] Mat Germain: tell you what goals,
[00:44:12] Mark Corbett: Mark, you got to have
[00:44:15] Mat Germain: goals. Well, I've got my
[00:44:19] Mark Corbett: plan for my 150 year old body in a cyborg body, you know, already, cause I see myself playing the game then, cause I can't play it now. But when I'm 150 years old, I'm in that cyborg body.
[00:44:29] Mark Corbett: Look at
[00:44:32] Mat Germain: Way to go It's a way of the future mark And if you're not a cyborg and you want to play baseball that that way you can always play video games They're out there And you can be as elite as you want there you go crank it up you can even cheat Damn,
[00:44:51] Mark Corbett: I know what I'm doing tonight. Yeah.
[00:44:54] Mat Germain: Right. I'm going to beat up on the angels and Mike trout.
[00:44:58] Mat Germain: Oh, I do have a fun fact though, about the angels, which I kind of like Tim Anderson signed with the angels on a minor league deal. And I've always said that if, if Ron Washington got a hold of Tim Anderson, I think he could sort them out. And so I'm very interested to see what he does with Tim Anderson, just because I think his, his, Steadfast hard work, dedication and lovability that he gets people to buy in will rub off well on Tim Anderson and get him back to his, uh, I don't know if he was all star level, but he could get close to that again, I think.
[00:45:36] Mat Germain: So that was an interesting one I saw recently.
[00:45:39] Mark Corbett: I think that's a point worth, you know, tracking him almost at least a couple of times a month and seeing how things are going with him. It'll be almost a regular point to observe. Wow. Oh my gosh, brother. Well, we found some joy.
[00:45:55] Mat Germain: You got to dig, but you can find joy all the time.
[00:45:59] Mat Germain: Do you think the mood For spring training and the season is, is going to be better than it is for the first part of. What is going on in the world or do you think that what is going on in the world is going to Really have a negative impact or a a significant impact overall on How those stadiums open how the players come in how people are treated in those stadiums?
[00:46:31] Mat Germain: Like we I I just i'll draw a parallel, right? So nfl is doing is preparing the fields for the super bowl and they took out the end racism You That was written in the end zone. Wow. Wow. So why would you do that? Geez,
[00:46:52] Mark Corbett: boy. You talk about being either fearful or you're falling in line, I'm not sure which, well, you're a
[00:46:56] Mat Germain: player of, of, of, you know, certain races, certain things, and you're in that Super Bowl , and now you're playing that game with that knowledge in the back of your mind.
[00:47:07] Mat Germain: I don't know if they take offense to it or not. Like when did it not become important to spread that message anymore? So, so, like, I'm just saying, like, in terms, like, the, the, the start of the season, cause to me, spring training and the, and opening day, I skipped every day of school, opening day, I skipped school, I would ride the bus, ride the metro, go to downtown Montreal.
[00:47:31] Mat Germain: Go watch the game with my friends. And that was our thing. It didn't matter. You know, what classes I had, what exam was coming up? Always, always, always skip the first game. It would be 55, 000 people in the Olympic stadium and the cement was shaking and the cracks getting bigger. There is always a buzz and a sense of excitement.
[00:47:52] Mat Germain: Everybody is zero zero and you don't know what's going to happen. And to me that's, we talk about joy and finding joy, that's the joy that a lot of people feel. After 9 11, you know, that first game when they, you know, had that the whole Mike Piazza thing and there was a lot of healing that happened in that game.
[00:48:12] Mat Germain: So will baseball do that again and start the healing process? up or will that cloud still be hanging over things and dampen the mood for the season? I don't know. It could go either way.
[00:48:28] Mark Corbett: It could. Let's, uh, I think people should state their voice. They should say their voice. The people who want to take a knee, respect.
[00:48:37] Mark Corbett: You know, in the past, I know people who were always upset when we came out of the football players name. We started years ago. I thought, yes, yeah, thank you. And I understood their people's anger about it. But at the same time, I thought You live in this country. You talk about free speech. This is part of it.
[00:48:55] Mark Corbett: You don't have to agree with it, but back um, that person should be able to do that. You know, the leagues to come in and probably had legislated certain things and fines and such if you didn't tow the road on these things. I think MLB had said something. I can't remember what it was, but that there, there's, there's going to be People who are going to have protests, you know, maybe in front of these stadiums.
[00:49:18] Mark Corbett: I don't see it as dramatic as I'd probably like to, to be quite honest with you, but Things like there was a game recently, well, again, not paying enough attention that, uh, I think it was the American team playing in Canada. And my understanding was that there was booing while doing the American anthem.
[00:49:42] Mat Germain: Well, no, no, no, no, because we're Canadian. They waited until the end of the anthem and then they booed. Well, you guys are too nice.
[00:49:52] Mark Corbett: You guys are too nice. That's good. I didn't realize that. Well, that's good. That's
[00:49:56] Mat Germain: good. The, yeah.
[00:49:57] Mark Corbett: But, but,
[00:49:58] Mat Germain: and then Beman, uh, Gary Bettman was, was the commissioner of DNHL. For those that don't know, um, this was asked and, and was considering stopping to sing the anthems before the games in Canada at least.
[00:50:11] Mat Germain: And he said, no, we're not gonna stop it and we're just gonna keep going. But. You know, the message has to be sent. If, if, if some people are under the belief that Canadians want to be, uh, erased from history and become a different country, they're showing that, no, they do not want to become a new country.
[00:50:31] Mat Germain: They are happy with the way things are not everything. We all have our, we all have our issues and crosses to bear and things like that. But the. The focus is more on making it known that you're not happy with certain actions that other people are taking that's all that's It wasn't a disrespect. I think we're we've always been in agreement that the um, the the two countries are stronger together Uh, it was it was true in world war one.
[00:51:03] Mat Germain: It was true in world war two. It was true in afghanistan It was true Throughout the history that I remember um, so There's no need to change things. There's no need to To get into any kind of silliness.
[00:51:20] Mark Corbett: I'm with you, my brother, I'm with you 100%. So I don't know, I said, I expect there'll be some people who speak out, there'll be questions asked that some people will be uncomfortable with, and thank goodness for that.
[00:51:30] Mark Corbett: Hopefully that, uh, stimulates discussion and, and look for the truth and look for a way to make things better for everybody. That's, that's what we want. That's the ideal. So hopefully the audience here is getting some of that themselves and, uh, working all together, folks. So we appreciate that.
[00:51:47] Mat Germain: That's right.
[00:51:49] Mat Germain: And then, the last thing, Mark, I'll just finish it on this tonight. We know that we're going to have to buy TV packages and watch the
[00:52:02] Mat Germain: And I want to know, like, the panic that ensues people when opening day comes around. They're like, wait a minute, where am I watching the game from? And then they realize, Oh man, I have to buy a new package. So it'll be fun to see, uh, how many teams are fully sorted out. Cause I think there's still a few that need to be, uh, to be signed.
[00:52:22] Mat Germain: So
[00:52:23] Mark Corbett: you put some preliminary on that on blue sky, didn't you, Matt?
[00:52:26] Mat Germain: A while back.
[00:52:28] Mark Corbett: I think two weeks back, we'll have to find something as it comes updated, make sure we put it up on your blue scan. I'll, I'll promote it on it here as well. But, uh, geez, I'm a bit fuddled each year about where I'm going to be able to find my team and how many different sources.
[00:52:44] Mark Corbett: Uh, Craig Calcaterra, we're going to reach out to you, buddy, because we know you know a lot about how this insanity comes together in the, uh, wide world of the industrial baseball biz. So anyway, man, I have nothing else, but thanks for sharing that and making me just go that much more crazier. Think about when I'm going to, where I'm going to watch my shows, my games.
[00:53:04] Mat Germain: We'll guide you in the right direction, Mark. We will, you know, we'll give you that stick that you got to poke around, you know, the left and right and try to find your way. So
[00:53:14] Mark Corbett: sounds great. Okay, man. Thanks again, brother. And, uh, thank you all for joining us here today. It's always a pleasure and, uh, look forward to talking to y'all again next week.
[00:53:26] Other: Just a reminder, you can find Matt at M A T G E R M A I N dot B E A S T K Y social, that's at MattGermain dot B E A dot social, or Mark at BaseballBizOnDeck dot B E A S T K Y dot social. You may also find BaseballBizOnDeck on iHeart, Apple, Spotify, Amazon Music, and at BaseballBizOnDeck dot com. Special thanks to XTakeRUX for the music, rocking forward.
