MLB Draft, Home Run Derby, AllStar Week & Friday Night Pitching - Corbin Burnes

 Welcome to BaseballBiz On Deck. I'm Mark Corbett. Your host and man, I gotta tell you, all star week. Never, ever fails to deliver. There was a lot going on and some of what I'm gonna talk about today comes from a raise perspective, but not all of it. And there's a lot of different things that happened.

And one of the first ones I'm gonna talk about is that there was that draft going on. Uh, did. Did you think maybe there would be some interesting moments? Well, there was one that you practically could have been guaranteed on, and that was the reception that Rob Manfred would receive from the fans as he announced each draft pick at the event

Manfred audio :  "draft the Houston Astros select atop from the university Nebraska Lincoln. This concludes the first round of the 2023 draft. The draft will cons resume in five minutes announced by Lee, senior Vice President Mafia Operations Raul Banez."

 So you heard that and you had to answer yourself a question, uh, as Rob Manfred is announcing. The draft pick for the Houston Astros, uh, all those boos in the background are, are they for Rob, are they for the Astros?

Well, I gotta tell you, I didn't have the whole, uh, draft pick on here today, but I could tell you it wasn't just when the Astros pick was announced. Rob Manfred, every time he came up to the podium that day, He was booed, booed, booed, booed all the way until usually when the draft pick themselves were mentioned, and then it would fade for a moment.

Now, what I found also interesting in this particular piece kept his composure, but this is also happening at a time when he's letting folks know that he wants to continue to be the major league baseball commissioner. Let's take a look at an interview he recently had with the Athletic. Evan Drellich is the author of this particular article, and he denotes that Manfred's current five-year contracts will be running out as of January 25th, 2025, but there's like a nine month period from the time that supposedly there was agreement and pen to paper for it can all come together.

Okay, let's kinda get an idea of what is. At work. Now, why is the commissioner stating that he wants to continue to be commissioner? Well, looking at Evan Drellich, um, article here, he notes that, you know, Manfred, right now he's on a five year deal and it expires January 25th, 2025. So, you know, it seems like he'd still have some leg room about getting support for him through another, uh, addition, I should say another period of time.

But, But if we take a look at it, what Mr. Drellich continues to say for commissioner seeking reelection, the sports constitution calls for a period where a majority vote is enough to submit another term. That window starts 18 months before commissioner's current contract expires and runs until nine, nine months.

Remain on the deal so you can see why this is a bit timely for Rob Manfred and continuing the article. Evan says, starting in two weeks, then Manfred will be in the window where he could be brought back by a majority vote when he's talking with him. A couple of things, Manfred says, I have what I regard to be the best job in the world.

My occurring thinking is I'd like to continue to do it. Okay. And quote there later. He says, in terms of process, I think the constitution's pretty clear as to timing that 18 month window's a big deal. Yeah, you're right. It's a big deal. I mean, there's some, there's some folks that are still there as owners who did not vote for you even, you know, way back in the win.

So would they like to see you go? I don't know. Fans, it's a good thing fans don't have a vote because. Rob would certainly be gone. But before we continue to tear down on Rob Manfred, I think we need to kinda give a little kudos and tip of the hat to what's happened this year with, uh, with baseball one.

They got a CBA done here, uh, guess about a year ago now. But the other thing are the rule changes. I mean, larger bases, pitch clock, uh, some of these different pieces like, and then also you consider the shift that's gone away with the new rules. Some of these things have sped up the game by as much as a half hour per game, and that's pretty, it's pretty exciting actually.

That's one that's a bit more of getting a bit more of our time back, so kudos to him on that. But there's a lot of other things where he's kind of mistepped. Certainly calling the World Series Award a piece of metal was not one of his best moments and he did retract that. But when, when I listen to that, alls I can think of is the kind of.

Verbiage. It came from some of the owners, or whether it be from Jim Crane with the Astros, whether it be with the, the folk up there, folks up there in the red said, where else you gonna go? What are you gonna do? Yeah. So that kind of response, whether it be from Manford or some of the owner, other owners, it's not that great.

Let's see. Some of the other things that Drees talks about in the article is what came from the pitch clock. He's and Manfred overall. He says, average attendance through the first half. 28,382 is up eight point 11% versus last year, 2022. See ratings for the 29 US space. Regional Sport networks is up 3% despite all RSNs regionals sports networks having lost between seven and 13% of subscribers year over year.

And it's the median age of ticket buyers. This season is 43 years old. Which is six years younger than at 2019. Eh, I think you're probably still looking for a younger demographic, but I guess if everybody else was a senior citizen last year and it's, uh, it's, it's welcomed. Well, 50 years is not, uh, 50 years old or 49 years old is not a senior citizen, but you get the gist of it.

I think it's reasonable to say. That Manford has done a lot, whether it's the Ghost Walker, the Manford man in the, the 10th inning, or the new rules or some remarks he's made, or how he handled the Astros situation and allowed players to walk away. Scott Free, who, who actually executed some of this? I, I don't know.

 I got my criticisms in Manfred and overall, I'm not crazy about some of the things he's done. I, I'm just not sure who we would get besides him. There's, there's a couple I can think of. Actually. There's one who really comes top of mind, and that's Mr. Theo Epstein. He did so much with the Cubs. I think he, he has a fan's perspective.

He has a good business sense, but I think he's also a fan of the game. And that's not to say that Manfred who considers himself a fan of the game, Is not, but Theo seems to have what's best for the game at heart, and he was probably behind some of these changes that have been made recently in Major League baseball.

So we'll just keep our ears open and see what comes from that. Now, another thing about the All-Star game itself was the introduction of the reserve players. Somebody got a mis cue on this one. Joe Davis is announcing each team and the players that they have that will be attending has reserved players on on during the game in this group as he went down to the American League.

It was not surprising to hear as the Astros were mentioned, that the crowd really hit it hard with the booze from the Houston Astros, Kyle Tucker, you are done Alvarez at Mber Valdez.

Now, if you're thinking too much about all of this, Just remember that all three of those gentlemen have been with the Astros since the big scandal broke. We're talking about Jord and Alvarez, Amber Valdez and Kyle Tucker. Uh, let's see, what am I? Notes started in 2018. The two other two were 2019 before they all hit Major League Baseball with the Houston Astros.

One thing that kind of bothered me though, There was a Houston Astro. They got booed who really should not have this was a man who came in and has made changes and is a change maker and a man of great history who's been respected for years. And that, of course is managing the American League from the 2022 World Champion, Houston Astros, dusty Baker.

That's alright.

Yeah, that's all right. That's all right. Dusty. You know, man, I think folks need to learn to forgive and certainly a man who wasn't even with the organization, I. When all this garbage was going on, bang, bang. And I think that people need to kinda let some of that go. You know, if you wanna look at Altuve and Carlos Cor and any of the other guys we just previously mentioned, that may be part of the cheating scandal.

That's fine. Go ahead and chew on it. But, eh, I don't see giving any kinda negativity, especially to somebody like Dusty. A little forgiveness is probably a good thing. And I had to do a little forgiveness too on all these announcements because when I heard Joe Davis announcing all of the players, he missed a couple, all that background noise, you hear all that crowd.

Immediately after Joe had announced the Seattle players and you know, they needed a great deal of respect and attention, especially since the whole game was being held in their park. So MLB on Fox and Joe Davis have this all set up, I guess, with, uh, major League Baseball announcing each one of the players as they come back out from the reserve group by their team, and they're doing it alphabetically.

Well, if you're happening to be a Tampa Bay Ray and you're following Seattle, well, you get short shrift, at least Wanda Franco and Shane McClanahan did because. Their names were never mentioned. Oh gosh. So the Seattle bearers come out, they're high fived, and then the, uh, drones go out and look over the crowd and everybody's excited.

But the Tampa Bay Rays come out. The cameras are not on 'em. Gosh. And, and to add to insult to injury, I don't know if this is accurate to call it in. So, uh, the Tampa Bay logo was still up there from where the players came out, but Shane and WA have since left and out comes. Nate Valdi for the Boston Red Sox.

Oh, come on. I love Nate

and I just, I just feel kind of bad for Tampa Bay and just ML B. You can always do a better job. You know what guy I was surprised not to see out there was Josh Naer from. The Cleveland Guardians. Well, let's take a look at Josh's record for 2023. Thus far, his batting average is 3 0 6 and OnBase percentage of 3 49 and slugging at 4 92.

Last year he was, uh, batting average 2 56, OnBase three 19, and slugging at 4 52. So, you know, he's looking pretty good there. Uh, let's see, how did he do r Baz this year? 66. 12 home runs. He's cooking 34, uh, runs and 91 hits. I see where he could have been there. I'm not sure why he wasn't, but you know, you say, well, well Josh, what are you gonna do now that it didn't happen?

At the All-Star game, what are you gonna do? He said, well, maybe I'll play with the guardians and I'll play with my brother. And then the third inning, we'll both hit a home run. Well, I don't think he predicted that, but that's exactly what happened. Uh, Josh's, he younger brother Bo, he hits a home run and later in the same inning, Josh Naer hits one as well.

I love baseball. Or as Brett Phillips will say, Baseball is fun. A fun moment during All-Star Week was during the home run Derby. Randy O. Rosa. Everybody loves Randy, including Texas Rangers, right? Fielder Aldis Garcia, uh, a Rosa and Garcia are pretty much best friends. They, they came up together in the Cardinals system and you know, obviously they've gone different places.

Randy, with the Rays and all, just with the Texas Rangers. But they stay in touch so much so that Garcia is the godfather of a Rina's child. So that's pretty exciting. And while they talk to one another a bit socially, they also, uh, Face off one another as well. And they did that in the home run derby. Um, Brandy wound up being beating Garcia in a get, they got all the way up to where he would be in the finals against Vladi Jr.

And Vladi took that. But that kind of com camaraderie between those two players, it's pretty exciting. And seeing them like that. But they also, they also played in the All-Star game and Randy was in left field, Garcia was in right field, and Garrett Co was on the mound in the first inning. And what happens, people are saying, well, Robert, you know, Acuna should be hitting a home run right here in the beginning of the inning here as the National League takes the bat.

And Garrett Cole pitches. Well, Kya did get hold of that ball and it did look like a home run, and it was running all the way out in right field when Garcia leaked in the air and caught that, you know, you see the sun shining, reflecting off of those glasses and you think, my gosh, they must be good because who could see that ball in that sun.

But he did. And of course, Garo had to give kudos. You know, the pitch that he pitched could have very well have been home run, but, uh, that was caught. Then a moment or so later, the next battery, I can't remember which battery it was for, uh, the National League and they hit one out to left field where Randy A.

Rosa is and Randy Lipson catches that one with his regular style when I think he did the pose immediately after that. So that's just some of the fun me, uh, moments for me. During All-Star Week, I'm sure you had several that you enjoyed. Um, we'll just say one more thing that was interesting to me was looking at the American League and the third inning, there were six Texas Rangers on the field.

Five of 'em would've been there. Each inning or most innings. But, uh, Nate Valdi took, um, the pitching mound the second inning, so it was exciting to see that. Also, seeing that there were three Cubans that I can immediately think of meaning, well actually Randy and Aldis are both from Cuba, um, and Yacht Diaz.

You know, y it is, it's that first home run, and it's amazing when you think about how many great players come from like Venezuela, Dominican Republic in Cuba. I, I salute them all and I hope we continue to see great things from all of those players. Let's wrap up the show from a look at a couple of pitchers from last night's games.

So when everybody returned from the All-Star Week to start playing on Friday the 14th. And one of the most difficult ones must have been for Michael Opek with the White Sox. I think he had been on leave for a while, uh, and he ran into trouble on his first time back. He'd been out since June 27th and last night it was tough.

So he's there in the first and he, he loads the bases up with no outs and he gives a a grand slam to Matt Olsen. It had to be painful for him. Um, but that's, that's such a hard way to have to come back to keep one confident and suffer that. So, Michael, I wish you all the best. I know that was a tough game, and I'm sure you'll, you'll be back out there in full form before too long.

The other one I wanted bring up too is Mr. Carbon Burns with the Milwaukee Brewers. Mm. Mr. Burns, what did you do? It was a hot time in the old town tonight in Cincinnati, Carbin Burns was pitching. So in Cincinnati, both the teams met there in sweltering heat. And let's see, Carbin with the Milwaukee Brewers.

He pitched for six innings, gave up two hits, no earned runs, two walks. Oh, and there's this statistic and six innings. He pitched 13 strikeouts. Wow. Let's see, da, da, da. And then the other pitchers over the next following beginnings, they put on another five. So in this game with the brewers against the reds, there was a total of, you guessed it, 18 strikeouts.

But do you know how much the brewers won that game against the Cincinnati Reds? No surprise there with a, not a, not a lamb blasting hardcore. Beating, it was a score of one to zip. So the reds, you know, their pitching did what they could to maintain it. And by comparison, the Reds holding the Milwaukee beers only to one run, they had a total of six strikeouts.

Eh, you know, that might be a normal number for some, but to, when you think about that, and they were going up against the brewers, and, what did I say? How many was said again? Yeah, 18 strikeouts. Huge. Wow. What a way to start the day. First day coming back from the All-Star Week. Well, that's all I gotta say on this brief Baseball Biz on Deck.

Hope you enjoyed it and we'll get back with you again real soon. I'm Mark Harger host on Baseball Biz on Deck. And remember, you can find us on Google Podcast, apple Podcast, any. Baseball directory out there, and of course on www.baseballbizondeck.com. So thanks again for listening and we look forward to talking with you again real soon.

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