MLB Opening Week with Mat Germain, plus a special RaysUp review

MLB Opening Week plus Mat Germain digs deep into the Tampa Bay Rays

[00:00:00] Mark Corbett: Welcome to Baseball Biz On Deck. I'm Mark Corbett host, and with me today is Mr. Mat Germain. As you may remember, this man digs deep when it comes to understanding what's all going on in baseball, whether it's through spring training, whether it's through the winter seasons, an anything. Mat has been watching with close eyes, so he and I are gonna try to dissect some of this.

And I'll lay most of it at his feet. But I'm, I'm really glad to have you here today, Mat. How you doing, buddy? 

[00:00:35] Mat Germain: I'm doing great. Enjoying the fact that spring training is behind us and the season's underway, and we're getting some fun games to talk about now. 

[00:00:42] Mark Corbett: , dude, I stepped out, sat here in Tampa.

A few moments ago, it was 90 freaking degrees out here. Yeah. Yeah. It went, it's insane. It's insane, brother. But anyway. Well, I'm glad you're here. Opening day just was miraculous to me. It always is. [00:01:00] You, you just don't know what's gonna evolve. One of the first things I looked at said, well, who won the World Series last year?

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. That's those Astros, those guys, I was, it was interesting, Mat, , looking at their final spring training game against St. Louis. Was it 24 to one win? They had a 24 to win one win over St. Louis Cardinals, and that's one run less than they've scored in their first five games of the season Thus far, all of those first five games have been played in Minute Maid Park in Houston.

, so of those, they've, they've lost three of the five man and one of them to was to a team that's been ranked number 27. Yeah. Detroit Tigers. Do you think AJ Hinch is feeling pretty good today? 

[00:01:45] Mat Germain: I do, I do definitely. He knows that, , Jose Tuvi now being there has a lot to do with their, early season struggles.

But I think, I think he probably still takes a little bit of pride in that and, and isn't gonna mention that to his team at all after to win. 

[00:01:59] Mark Corbett: [00:02:00] No, no. I, I'm really curious to see how the rest of that's going to go. Now, who was it that, that Wright fielder they had out there? I think, Mat Vek hit five five at bats four.

And let's see. Oh my gosh. See, one of those hits came in 11th inning with a two run home run to boot. My gosh. He was, 

[00:02:22] Mat Germain: Yep. No, he's, he's one of those players that when he left, , and, and finally started getting some decent playing time, you, you were kind of intrigued to see what the season was gonna bring.

There's some guys, Luke Rayley's, a lot, the same with the Drays, right? Where they're the kind of players that you're hoping can get the playing time that they, the original team couldn't really give him. And then Mat VEing has a, , a decent potential to be an impact player for that team in the. 

[00:02:48] Mark Corbett: I agree wholeheartedly.

I tell you what, and you were mentioning Luke Elli. I want say, we'll talk a little more about the, Rays further on, but one thing I do wanna mention about the Rays is they are one of two teams that [00:03:00] has a winning a thousand PERC winning percentage. Let's see them and the twins thus far. 

[00:03:05] Mat Germain: Yep. And I don't think that's gonna end tonight, to be quite honest, but, or tomorrow night.

So if, if race play their cards right, they, they can have a pretty. Good cushion to, to kind of fall back on the future. A lot of people say it doesn't Mater, it's early on yet, but I always look at it this way, right? If you have a four no record to start, then you only need to go, 50 50 for the rest of the year to be four games above 500.

So, that, that, that's a pretty good safety net to have you then you keep trying to build that cushion up and , things will happen. They'll have losing streaks and winning streaks, but. You'll take 'em whenever you can get 'em basically. 

[00:03:45] Mark Corbett: Amen to that. Because like you said, oh well, well it's early.

It's early. Yes. But at game 1 62, I'd like to have that buffer built in those four games like you're TA talking about. I love, at that point, I'm looking over 158 games. I said, oh, oh, I got those [00:04:00] four wins. I'll take that chunk and I'll put 'em right here. 

[00:04:02] Mat Germain: Exactly. Exactly. 

[00:04:05] Mark Corbett: Well, , looking across the league though, I was talking about the Minnesota twins and I'm thinking.

Let's see. The games they played, I don't think they played at home yet. They've still won four of their four games. 

[00:04:18] Mat Germain: I really like the rotation in Minnesota, and I don't, I don't think they got enough coverage. I know everybody knows Pablo Lopez went over, but I don't think they understood the impact that that's going to have on that pitching staff.

And, and they already had a decent amount of experience. It's not just about him adding experience, but it's the pedigree that he gives 'em. He, he, they essentially have a team full of number two. Across the board when you look at it. And that's a strong, , I don't see them as, as being on level with the Rays or maybe a ti a tick below.

But overall they're gonna give their team a chance to win. So really, when you look at the brilliance of them, also bring in Michael Taylor so that Byron [00:05:00] Buxton can sit on the bench and DH and, and, , play less often on the field. All of that starts tying into them continuing to be a solid defensive team, but also now having the punch from b buxton's bat consistently in the lineup.

So, I, the, I, they were my pick for the al Central. I, I didn't think anybody was gonna get by them. Guardians will give 'em a hard time. I'm not as big a fan as the White Sox, as, as a lot of people. Mostly cause their depth of pitching, and suspect pitching in some cases. But, , they could always land somebody to change that.

Yeah. But, yeah, the twins to me are the class of that division so far. 

[00:05:37] Mark Corbett: Yeah. The Tigers and Royals, I mean, Those are a couple of teams. I hate to say it, but a lot of folks will just see them as trash teams and saying, well, okay, we're playing that. Well, we got that series. Click that off. And obviously last night, AJ Hinch taught the Astros.

That's not necessarily the case, but we'll see. 

[00:05:56] Mat Germain: The Royals beat the Jays too, and, and like did Jose [00:06:00] Barios again looks at like a very suspect Jay's arm, and that's a big impact in the American League because if the Js don't sort out the rotation woes and they don't have any depth in the, the minors coming up, they've got Ricke Tian that they can kind of dream on.

So if they don't get those guys sorted out the top, , and, and right now it's just seeing like there's a lot of cracks that the American League all of a sudden becomes a lot clearer and Angels fans get excited 

[00:06:31] Mark Corbett: as well. They should, but it it coming back to the American League East cuz we were talking about the rays and we talking about the js.

I, I'll say kind of a group looking over in a group here. I don't expect much of Red Sox. I hope for more for the Oreos and the Yankees. The Yankees gonna be the Yankees. I think they're gonna have a good year. Look at the Les. What are you seeing across those other teams? 

[00:06:56] Mat Germain: I think they were better crafted than people gave them credit for.

And I think I sent a [00:07:00] tweet out about that when, cuz everybody wrote off the Red Sox because Alexander Bogart's left. Welland Bogarts is a, is a nice player, but he's not the be all, end all of that team to me. Rafael Devs is, is the heartbeat of that lineup. And if you surround him with high quality personnel around them, he'll do what he's supposed to do, which is anchor that lineup.

So to me it's all about their pitching and I think they. Surprising, , guys that could actually chip in and do a lot more, good than people give him credit for. Like Tanner Hook is a good example. They've got some guys that, , you can sort of dream on and it wouldn't take much for them to go out in their choir, start a, the deadline and all of a sudden be, They're that kind of team, as long as they hang around long enough, right?

I don't know which way they'll go with the deadline, whether or not they would, would be a buyer per se. But they've made investments like, , in, in all kinds of places from Japan to the free agency to trades [00:08:00] that point to them really believing that they're a competitive team. So I don't think they're gonna stop there.

And they saved some money in Alexander Bogart's deals. They might as well, , amp it up if they feel like they're somewhat close. Like I said before, I think Toronto, if Toronto falls, like I think they're going to because they treated away too much depth of their lineup to the point where it puts all of the pressure on the top of the lineup and now they have no consistency in the bottom and they have suspect pitching to go with it, and they don't have the assets to trade for other pieces.

To me the JS are dangerously close to a rebuild. If they lose two of those arms and like they're to the injury, they don't have the budget to really ramp it up. And I don't think Rogers is going to allot them any extra than what they've already spent, cuz they've already spent quite a bit of money.

Whatever they do have, they're gonna have to spend on extending guys like Manoah. Chere, like those, they're basically just keeping the same pieces. Well then what are you keeping them [00:09:00] around 'em for? If you're not actually competitive in the, in the Yale East, , like next off season, Baltimore has nothing on the books, literally nothing.

They can go out and buy whoever they want. So I don't know how it's gonna shake out, but I like Baltimore's direction. I don't know how their pitching's gonna hold. And then the Yankees is the, so same color kind of thing. We know their lineups, , pop, is gonna produce, runs how their pitching holds up.

I like Johnny Bri's start. It was solid. , whether or not I can repeat that over and over again, we'll see. But they, they, they showed me a little bit more I, I think, than I, than I thought they had behind coal so far. 

[00:09:43] Mark Corbett: Well, , we're talk, we just talked about the Al East. Kind of as a gag, I almost went to team rankings.com just to get a look overall beyond actually looking at any particular, division or is how [00:10:00] teams were playing out in the run differentials.

Mm-hmm. I wasn't overly surprised to see the Dodgers up here at the top with 22, but then the Tampa Bay was right there, , side by side, sharing that same spot with 22 Run Differential. The Angels, again, 21, they were there. Let's see. , the one that really did surprise me was number 30 and it was Philadelphia being negative 25.

[00:10:26] Mat Germain: Yeah. That's surprising. Yeah. 

[00:10:28] Mark Corbett: That, so, so if we take, instead of continuing to go into all those, let's jump just for grins and giggles to the Phillies in their division. So if we're looking at the NL East, they've lost four games, dude. They're, they've only played four games. What, what the, Hey. 

[00:10:46] Mat Germain: Yeah. They're, I, I don't know if it's a, you can call it a World Series hangover or Not yet.

Like they, they would've to continue this through April and. And, and really. I mean, the heartbeat of that team is Bryce Harper, and they had a slow [00:11:00] start last year as well. So I don't know. , sometimes it takes a, a few things to happen. A lot of their, their changes they had were trying to fit in.

Trey Turner, who has his own personality and feel, their pitching staff really hasn't been as healthy as they'd hoped. I think Andrew Painter was a guy that they, they had hoped to have in the rotation that, ended up, , going down to injuries. So, I think we have to give him a little bit of time, a little bit like last time I did a a pod, they were, , they were asking questions about, Andrew, sorry, Wanda Franco.

And, and whether or not he was, , should be considered a bust at this point, whether or not I was worried about the contract. I was like, sometimes it's just a little bit too early. So a little bit of patience, , see where Philadelphia is, come mid. But if that trend continues, yeah.

They're in a world of hurt and I don't think they'll be happy with the investments they made. Dave Debrowski would have a lot to answer for think. Ooh. 

[00:11:57] Mark Corbett: Yeah. And they have not played a home game yet [00:12:00] either, so that's an, that's another little chilling fact. So I guess that means they're gonna have two series on the row before they go home.

Wow. Heck way to start. Heck way to start. But looking across NLS too. , I keep looking to Marlins and say, well, they got Sandy Contra and I, I know it's more than just that, but , they, they're at, they're at, what only they've lost. Four games of won, won during this period of time, too.

Nationals. Nationals have. Lost three. Won one. The Mets. Okay. This blew my head a little bit. I really expected to see them doing better. But again, we're only looking at five games. They've, they've won two, excuse me, they've won three and lost two. I, I don't know. I just expected them to win everything. I expected them to be that thousand winning percentage.

And then the Braves also in the L East have the same, win loss record? No. Only they're four games though. Three and one as opposed to the Mets three. And. 

[00:12:56] Mat Germain: Again, when with the Mets and the, and the Braves, you're talking about two [00:13:00] teams that are going through some injuries on the, on the pitching staff, but the Braves have the depth to mitigate that.

Mm-hmm. While the Mets really, , are a little bit thinner, so they, they went out and got, , a saw young winner that was 40 years old and they're getting a result of getting a si young winner that was four years old. They're, they're having to wait for him to show up and. And sometimes those, it reminds me a lot of when the Jays went out and got Ra dick.

And they cha they traded Noah Synder guard for him. Yeah. And I hated that deal from the minute they did it. Travis Dar No was part of that deal as well. I was like, what are you doing? The guy just won the so young, it was his last great season and, and it just doesn't make any sense. At some point in time you have to call spade a spade and be happy when they're older and have great seasons.

Like to Rays it with Charlie Morton. They enjoyed those seasons, but. , he, Charlie Moore had the great seasons with the Rays. He was five years younger than Justin Verlander is today. , that's a big difference. [00:14:00] So I don't know how it'll shake out, but I know the Brays and the Mets, you, it's going to be a, a contingency of which one of those two teams, has the healthiest pitching staff through the season.

I think it's gonna come out on top. 

[00:14:13] Mark Corbett: Well, I'm looking forward to that. I mean, Braves have always kind of been a favorite of. And the Phillies and more so lately, and now that they got Trey Turner, I, I don't know. I always love watching that guy. Anyway, I love watching that guy slide and just kinda sl stand up.

It, it was great watching him during the, world Baseball, conference too, man. Was amazing to watch. Excuse me, world Baseball Classic. But , it's, he was just stunning. So, looking across the No East, , I think there's gonna be, it's gonna be fun to watch there. And I, I'm really kind of hopeful to see the, the marlin step up.

I don't know that it'll happen, but I'd like to see that. I 

[00:14:49] Mat Germain: like Lewis Rez, acquisition. I think it'll be really good for them long term. It gave them a personality to put in there and to really. , set the tone. What they need to find [00:15:00] now is that Rafael Devs type or Oh yeah. , the guy that's gonna anchor the lineup behind them.

If they can get that, everything else will settle in behind that. But they're really struggling with, with finding consistency in their lineup. It's, it's really become a problem. 

[00:15:18] Mark Corbett: Well, let's move on and go to NL Central. Mm-hmm. And one of the ones that I wanna point to you first, just simply. , I love Willie Thomas with the Rays.

Huh? And you were going there. Yeah. I am, but my gosh, how do you like that new rookie at Bryce? Turang? Man, I 

[00:15:37] Mat Germain: called it, well when, , cause I watched them, , just be a p when they, whenever the Durham bulls were playing them. He was one of the guys that stood out and I was like, this guy is going to be fine when he gets the mlb.

So when they traded, Colton won. I was like, yep, that makes sense because Bryce is ready. He'll fit Ray in and yeah, he, he's not gonna be perfect in his first year, but he is going to be a spark plug for that lineup. And, , you talk [00:16:00] about bringing bounce to the bottom of the lineup. He's the type of guy that the Marlins need, they need to have those offensive pieces that fit right in from the start and can ramp up the, the production at the bottom of the lineup.

[00:16:13] Mark Corbett: He certainly did that last night. Again, his first big league home run, which happened also to be a grand Slam. So kudos to you, Bryce. Looking to see many more great things to come. Wow. Yeah. So what else we got? We got the Reds, the Pirates, the Cardinals, and the Cubs in that division. Who do you wanna talk about?

[00:16:33] Mat Germain: I wanna talk about the disappointment of the Cubs so far. I expected more out of them, to be quite honest. And I know it's early, it's only a couple of games, a handful. They have time, but I, I expected them to be a little bit tougher of an opponent than they have been. I think they're a little bit like in that Seattle conversation where I'm thinking, , like, you made some significant in investments, some significant moves.

It's time for you to become a winning team. , like always. [00:17:00] A decent amount above 500 and in, in a division that, , seemed on the surface to have that kind of space. It, it seemed to be that year that they could actually get back into contention to some form. What I'm seeing more Nael Central, maybe more than than any other division, is parody.

That division is going to. A dog fight right up to the end because all those teams, Brian Reynolds is having a good impact with the Pirates. You're seeing the Reds pitching coming through. Their pen is solid. Alexis Diaz is awesome. I love them. , they have Hunter Green leading the way on the mound.

They have some really solid pieces coming through for them. Not saying they're gonna keep it up all season long, but. Each one of those teams has reason to be thought of as competitive. And the fight that the, the cards showed against the js, , going back and forth in a slug fest and then coming back and winning two of them after they had their hearts crushed basically.

So the, there's a lot of, really, that's why I say the Cubs are disappointing, [00:18:00] but they're in a very competitive division that's going to be there for the taking, I think the whole season long. Cause they're gonna beat up on each other. Oh 

[00:18:08] Mark Corbett: yeah. And I was kind of looking over an article here from Brett Taylor.

She wrote, let's see, with Bleacher Nation and, let's see, yesterday marked Swanson's third three hit game in his first four with the Cubs. She goes on to say, no, how many other new cubs have done that since 19 0 1 

[00:18:26] Mat Germain: 0? I love Dans B. To me, it was, it was one of the best signings of the off-season, and I thought the cost was right and.

Hopefully he gets some success there while he is there. Yeah, 

[00:18:38] Mark Corbett: I'm gonna plan, actually go see a game there about a week from now. I gonna see him, what is he gonna be? I'm gonna be heading up to Chicago and seeing the Cubby's play. At Wrigley, so that should be fun. Nice. Enjoy it. That's awesome. Thank you.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. What? It was amazing to me. I got, I got some pretty decent seats, man, for like, , less than $60. I got each, I got a [00:19:00] couple of really good seats and down, like in the one 10 section up there, near the, dugouts from the, the cubbies. But, so, Seek geek. Keep that in mind. Yeah.

Well, there should be a commercial for that, I guess, but yeah. Enough of that. Well, let's, let's move on to the NL West. Okay, man. We're looking at the pads. We're looking at the Dodgers, the Giants, the Rockies, and the Diamond back. Oh, by the way, one more Raysd comment Diamond back, Longo hit a home run last night.

Okay. 

[00:19:35] Mat Germain: Yeah, like that. That's awesome. 

[00:19:37] Mark Corbett: Yeah. Oh man. He's doing great. But so we're looking at cross that group. I mean, there is, you talk about a lot of talent, man, NL West looks jampacked. 

[00:19:47] Mat Germain: Yeah, they, they, I don't know what they have, , teams coming back down to earth teams that are dealing with injuries like the, the Padres are, they have the depth though, to, to just.

[00:20:00] Take that leap forward if they want. I think what probably surprised a lot of people is how quickly the young guys for the Dodgers have stepped up. Like it's one thing to expect them to step up for the year, but to be like right away. Like, bam, here we are. , like the, the front office knew what they were doing.

This is what we got, and, and just carrying on with it. It's pretty cool to see and it, it points out, , the front office does know what they're doing and they do know what they have in house, sort of like what the rays are doing as well. So I think Arizona maybe, is a little bit of a disappointed, mad bum really doesn't have anything left in the tank.

I don't know what you do with that money. But there's just, he needs rest more than anything. And maybe he can come back and turn it on, but I would almost put him on the 15 day aisle right now and, and see if he can, , work. , to, to being, I, I don't know if you can really rework his stuff at the age he is and the, and the experience he has, but he [00:21:00] sort of has to add some things.

He has to change some things. So I don't know what that is, but, hopefully they figure it out for him and them, because he's, he's taking up a large part of their budget. The Rockies, I mean, Chris Bryant is, is finally healthy and showing that he was a good investment. So, , they're having a little bit of success.

They lost three in a row though, so maybe they turned it back on today. And, there's still, , there's one game between the top and the bottom of this division after four games. So nothing yet to write home about. 

[00:21:30] Mark Corbett: No, I, and I'm looking, we're, I'm gonna talk a little bit here before I guess, we come back to the American League and there was something about a tweak this morning.

You had, could we, you and I talk briefly before the. About the hitters. You've already reached their c We're gonna go ahead and Right, set that up for everybody. Go ahead. 

[00:21:49] Mat Germain: So there's, there's only seven hitters that have a five F war or, or better so far, , before today's games. So the, the seven, sorry if you go [00:22:00] three through seven, these guys are tied.

Let, let 

[00:22:02] Mark Corbett: me, lemme interrupt you real quick. And what, what is the F war? 

[00:22:05] Mat Germain: So it, it's for fan grass, so it's their version of war. Okay, thank you. What war would be baseball? So, fan gras war with the, , James Elman, yo Kata, Nolan Gorman, Miguel Vargas and, and Mike Tread all have 0.5 F War so far. Wow.

 Wa Wanda Francos got 0.6, and Adam Duvall leads the way with 0.7, just like, jeez, everyone predicted. 

[00:22:29] Mark Corbett: Yeah. , Adam Deval is just amazing to watch here, and , you, as you were pointing, number three, James Outman Now. He's with the Dodgers too and 

[00:22:38] Mat Germain: Martin Vargas 

[00:22:38] Mark Corbett: is as well. I didn't yeah. For, whoa, I didn't realize that.

That's right. My gosh. So there's a lot going on there. I mean, some good strength, like you seen two guys from the Dodgers. So nls, you got Ray's Red Sox represented there in the first and second slot with and Devon Wonder Franco. I'm really looking forward to seeing how the rest of this goes. 

[00:22:59] Mat Germain: Yeah, [00:23:00] well, , like the, a hot start can often lead a really solid season.

It doesn't mean you're gonna lead the way all the way through, but I've always been, like, for example, a big yeoman caught a fan. Like in terms of his potential, if he could stay healthy. He's had a lot of knee issues all through his career, other various. , injuries that pop up here and there, but I've owned him in fantasy a few times, hoping and dreaming that he'd have a fully healthy season.

And it's sort of like the same thing as you see with Mike Trout. If Mike Trout has a full healthy season, that the Angels could be a really strong playoff contender and playoff team, but, Is he gonna stay healthy the entire year? I don't know. It's tough to tell, but it's nice to see that many young guys, that's the focus that I kind of like here, where Vargas Gorman, Altman and Franco are, are younger guys that are on this list and really popping off, as , early in the season.

[00:23:50] Mark Corbett: Okay. Well now let's go get back to, I think we covered just about all of 'em except Al. So, man, there's a, again, another tight division minus one. [00:24:00] We'll just drop that one team and we'll put somebody else in Nashville. , I, I, I'm sorry. The, the Oakland A's. Is there a reason that they're still allowed to have a team?

Yeah, I, I can't imagine. 

[00:24:14] Mat Germain: I think there's, , there's reason for certain owners to get replaced in some cases, and I think, , the Pirates and the Angel, I'm sorry, the a's are two of the, the examples that I use a lot of times where they could be, their fan base should be so much more electric than they are if they had the right ownership in place doing the right.

Now, having said that, they still have a brilliant front office that have made moves that will keep them somewhat competitive, to be quite honest, despite all of the things that they've had to deal away and all that kind of stuff, I don't see them as being a joke franchise like I would, I would think. The, the guys that the rays are facing tonight, like the nationals are more of a AAA team than [00:25:00] the Oakland A are.

The Oakland A's will be pesky and will be, , they will show up, so you need to show up when you face them. The nationals to me, are more like a team learning how to play AAA baseball in major League baseball, if that makes. For the most part. Yeah. And that, that's a really sad thing to see. But that's the way that they've, , they've decided to go, and I understand it, Carib Ruiz is going to be a great player.

 They have ingredients there that are gonna, , blossom eventually. They're just not there. Oakland is more pesky. They've got those guys on that team like Seth Brown and and Tony Kemp, and the guys that are gonna show up every day to play hard. So you've gotta show up when you go up against them.

And I really like a story Ruiz that they got that he's going to be electric and they ended up trading Christian Pache over to, the Phillies because of _ Ruiz and, and , got some more pitching because of it. And that's what I think the Oaklands have always had this knack for. Accumulating breadth of pitching.

And [00:26:00] because of that, they're able to find gems, , diamonds in a rough, so to speak, and, and they always seem to be able to locate those and then, , put some in the pen when they need them. So they're, they're, to me, the, the more worrisome this year so far is Seattle. Seattle is supposed to be a powerhouse.

They were supposed to walk into the season this year and be like, bam, here we are. We're back at the top. Watch us take off like a rocket. And instead they, they're like the home-built rocket that the nine year old built in the backyard and fizzled. , they just hit the window and then jostled the mom out of her making lunch.

So, , Robbie Ray being hurt is no good for that rotation. They have plenty of talent to, to shake out of it, so I have no worries yet, but it's something to monitor because, , they made a lot of changes. They changed some personnel around and sometimes they can have different consequences than you expect.

[00:26:57] Mark Corbett: Yeah. As it's stunned about that as [00:27:00] well, when you were looking at, I mean, again, just four games, but all four of those games were at home. Mm-hmm. , Cleveland, I think they should have been able to at least, oh, split that particular series. , if, I'm not saying that Cleveland would lie down, but , Cleveland's a good team, but I think the Mariner's got a bit more of an edge and I was a little surprised to see that.

Let's see. And not surprised with the angels. , there, you're facing a stronger team, I think, and anybody that's got Otani and trout and the rest of that group, that's always gonna be a. See, so who are they're facing after that? They're gonna be facing, well, here's a, then they're going to go on the, they're gonna go on the road, Mat, and they're gonna face the guardians again.

And then the cubbies. That's kind of what's coming up in their near future. 

[00:27:48] Mat Germain: Yeah. Well, I, if I, I don't know how the schedule makers made the season this year, but there's a lot of really, because I don't know if it's a 13, , oppo, games against your divisional opponents thing, but like the [00:28:00] Rays for example, will face the White Sox seven times before the end of April, but won't have seen the Orioles or the.

At all. How does that happen? It just seems odd. Like I, 

[00:28:14] Mark Corbett: that, that just sounds ridiculous to me. But again, I wasn't sitting that closed door rooming with all the cigars and whatever else, and drinks on the table and simp scratching out there in the spreadsheets and trying to figure something out. But good lord, man.

Yeah. I'm like you. How can they do that where you're seeing. Somebody outta your division that many times and you're still not seeing two of the main players or two of the main teams in your own division, even the first freaking month. I don't know, man, that that It's an oddity. It is an oddity. Jeez, Pete.

Well, we kind of t took a league across the league here, both leagues and. I think we got some good ideas about what's gonna be happening and it's like, obviously, , I look up to the skies and waiting for the clouds up and say, mark, this is what's going to happen for the rest of [00:29:00] the year. Thank goodness that doesn't happen, because if it did, the rest of the year would be boring as hell.

But that's not gonna happen this year. And I'm, I am really looking forward to this balanced schedule. I gotta tell you, Mat, For every team to be able to play every other team in M L B is a great thing. And , you were talking about Al Central being a balanced, division, but there are several divisions that aren't balanced at all.

And so we're really curious to see how the, the, the new schedule works out across. 

[00:29:38] Mat Germain: No, that's really, , I don't think so. Like we talk about the race schedule being easy to start, or other team schedules being easy to start. The nice thing to know is that they're all going to get a chance to play those same teams.

So, , in the, in the course of a season, the team doesn't have excuses anymore about being in a heavy handed. Division, they've had those opportunities to go, [00:30:00] like the, the Yankees are gonna see the tigers, the Yankees are gonna see the nationals. The Jays are gonna do the same, the red sauce. So there's no, there's no, discrepancy anymore.

Yes, you're still lean a little bit more towards your division, but to now it's at a tolerable level. I think It's not so much that it actually sways, , those competitive teams that really end up just being. The years where the, the Al East has four teams that should be in the playoffs, , and only three make it in.

Those are the ones that I, I kind of sit there and I go, well, that fourth playoff team was probably way better than any of the division leaders, any other divisions in most cases. And, and so it's nice to see that balance out a little bit so that the point that yes, they'll probably be able to make it in this time.

[00:30:50] Mark Corbett: Well, I'm looking forward to it. Like I said, I'm, I'm gonna be watching the Yale Central much as anything cuz to me, the guardians, the twins, the White Sox, like I said, I, I think they're pretty tight and like I said, they [00:31:00] can't completely discount the Royals and Tigers. But I'm gonna be watching, I think that division because to me, white Sox and the guardians are always exciting.

, the twins, they kept Carlos Correa and. Yeah, don't, there they are. They are. With a thousand wins percent. All of the games were away and see how they do for the rest of the season. But What did you think? Go 

[00:31:21] Mat Germain: ahead. What did you think about the Anthony Randon suspension? 

[00:31:24] Mark Corbett: Oh, , I didn't see what it was.

Some kind of interaction with a fan. Mm-hmm. And I think I've seen enough of those that probably wasn't on camera. It may not have gotten any juice whatsoever. 

[00:31:37] Mat Germain: Probably, but my, the thing that struck me is like MLB came out and they said, okay, five games. And then almost immediately after, I think it was maybe 6, 7, 8 hours later, MLB and M L B P A came out and said, no, okay, we've agreed the four games, and it's the first time I can remember M L B P A acting so quickly.

To address something [00:32:00] like this with MLB and actually come to a conclusion that both were satisfied with. And to me that's the more interesting, where they were both on the same page. They both said, yeah, this can't happen, and then boom, it, it was taken care of. So I think to me, that's really in intriguing and hopefully it leads to more of those kinds of arrangements taking place in the future.

That way we don't have, because to me that's always what brings, , baseball and other sports into bad light is when you're actually. Having the league and the players, , tussle, yeah, we make light of it sometimes and we think, oh, it's just a drama that, , that they're using to, to sway public opinion to their side or whatever it might be.

But I think it's important for baseball now with all the positivity of the world Baseball Classic and, and a lot of rule changes working through. Things to make things positive. They need to feed off that and continue that going forward. So I was, I was happy to see that like both of them came to, , the same conclusion, like mature people should, and, hopefully that [00:33:00] continues 

[00:33:00] Mark Corbett: like, mature, , like mature people should, I think you hit it right there.

So it, I didn't realize that. I just heard the first part about the MLB and the. Five game suspension. I didn't realize that the M L B P A came out like that with them, that they'd, , agreed upon something and actually set it together. So yeah, that, that's, that is encouraging. Anytime those guys can get together, it's benefit for them and hopefully for the fans as well.

About just a good nature in the game. Exactly. Okay, now that we've taken up and torn up the rest of the MLB universe, we're gonna bring it back to the team that we love the most and the one we look at that Mat looks at the closest. Cuz , time to again, Mat, I talked about you being able to dig into all of the minor lead teams.

And before we get into this, I wanna say I have really enjoyed and been thank. That with my MLB TV subscription, I'm able to see minor league games, so I'm able to, yeah, I, I, I mean, dur Bull is last. I looked [00:34:00] up there, , I'm seeing Jonathan Rhonda, and some other guys. Oh, that's where he is. 

[00:34:05] Mat Germain: You get to see, like to me, it'll bring more, more focus.

And like when you have downtime, you have 15, 20 minutes. You might not catch the entire game, but you'll be able to flick to it and see some of the guys do some of the things against certain people. And to me, that's the biggest impact of all. You can hear about a prospect hitting like, 25 home runs in a year, but who he hits them off of in what situation?

All those kinds of things Mater. And then you get a better perspective of where. Prospects coming from. That's why I had confidence in Bryce Turang, for example, because I've seen what he can do against who he did it, which is a lot of times the Rays prospects and if you're able to do it against them, more than likely you're, you're doing pretty well.

[00:34:45] Mark Corbett: So. Well, let's dig into the Rays. That's what can you tell me about them as far as, I mean we know what, we kind of talked a little bit about how their season has begun, but what should we be looking for our players manager. 

[00:34:58] Mat Germain: , minors wise, [00:35:00] they're, they're just starting to, come up with their assignments now, which is sort of interesting to see because now you're getting to see how close some players are, to being of impact in the majors.

 But so, like for example, they have Carson Williams, Jr. Camaro, Villa Vasquez, Sandy Gaston we're all promoted to high A. So now you're talking if they have a strong. , first two thirds of the season, maybe they end up in AA by end season, then you're like, they're on your radar for the next year.

So it's fun to see them. They'll be playing against better competition, so you get the rate, how well they do. You also saw Greg Jones go down to AA and he's gonna be with Tristan Peters and a couple of, other guys, hovering around the outfield. It's gonna be interesting to see how.

Acclimatizes to that. I will say that, that Durham Bulls had the unlucky luck of the draw, where by going up against Norfolk in her first series and then ended up being a pretty ugly one. To be quite honest. Louis Patino really didn't [00:36:00] have, , His best stuff. He still doesn't, and I still think he needs to make some changes.

 But overall there was some positives in there to draw it. Anyway, Ruben Cardenas just crushed one ball that hit the flag at the top of the flagpole. There was Kyle Monzardo who hit his first AAA Home Run, and it was, , as you expect, he crushed that one. There's a lot of positives to, to look through.

And I think Curtis Meads looked solid defensively. Still hasn't gotten hot at the plate yet, but that'll come and I think that's what my biggest focus has been with the rays in the first part of the year is when you look, you stand back and you look at it and you say, okay, you've got a ESOP paras who's 23 years old.

You've got Luke Raley, who's, , he's showing his potential and, and he's doing really well. So now you have the corners, you with a lefty and a right power bat, and both of them doing extremely well. And behind them you've got a Curtis meet and AKA Mondo. Wow. And when you consider the strength up the middle of the race and then you look at those four [00:37:00] pieces, you realize just how great the potential this Rays team is.

Because come mid-season, assuming things shake out right Curtis, me and Ka manardo should be knocking on the door and that door is locked right now. So they're gonna have to tear it down, which is always good. Competition breeds excellence, right? So then that motivates them more. Sort of like it did Josh Lowe last year in aaa.

So I'm looking forward to that, to seeing how that motivates them and drives 'em to do even better. 

[00:37:31] Mark Corbett: Well, and last year, unfortunately, the Rays had a lot of injuries, so there was a lot of opportunity for some people to come up. That means plenty of trades were made to, to strengthen the. But, but man, when you look down at what we've got in the, the minor leagues, it is amazing.

I mean, I, I keep thinking of what, is it Taj Bradley? Is he still Taj still with him or? Taja is 

[00:37:53] Mat Germain: still with him. Yep. He did well in his, his start not great. He kind of, he was dealing with the weather. The weather, so it was [00:38:00] Taj Bradley against Grayson Rodriguez and neither of them looked to be at their best.

I think you saw what the separation is between Grayson and and Taj, though, to be quite honest, where when I look at them like I see Grayson Rodriguez as as having the same potential as a Johan Santana or , being a real. Innings eating machine that just goes up there and throws two 20 to two 40 innings if he wants.

 A little bit like j Justin Verlander as well. It looks strong standing up there. Thomas Bradley still looks like he needs to grow a little bit into his body and find his form a little bit, and he is younger, so that makes sense that he's that way. So I, I, I think, I think both of them will be great, but they both, both dealt with weather, that really hampered her pitching that it was like that cold drizzly rain that just Oh, yeah.

It's constant and it just, yeah. I, , it's one April's that way it, itll, it'll bring out the best and worse than in the weather 

[00:38:55] Mark Corbett: for. I can't imagine, because like I said, I walked out, it was 90 degrees, [00:39:00] but I, I can't imagine, especially if you've been training in spring training, and not that it's been 90 degrees down here in, in Florida all that long, but, To, to be going up and then playing where you see your breath in front of your face.

[00:39:13] Mat Germain: It's one of those things too, where I think the fans that go out to those games and stick it out, they're the die hards. There you go. They're the ones that are, , really supporting the team. A lot of times you wonder are they all family members? Is that what's going? But we know that's not the case.

There's diehards out 

[00:39:31] Mark Corbett: there. Yeah, there are. And there's, , so I'm glad to see that. I still haven't gotten to see the Durham Bulls. I'm gonna have to make a special effort to get out this year's and watch them somewhere. You getting back to the, the, the folks that we do have and people coming up, we've still got a couple of really great pictures that are on the their IO right now, don't we?

[00:39:54] Mat Germain: Yeah, and it'll be interesting to see, like, I know OBL can be finicky, so, and I know Tyler [00:40:00] Glasnow, , he's probably chewing at. He just wants to get on that field and be part of this great run that the, the pitchers are, are on. But I hope he, he uses some, patience and, you don't want it recurring.

You want, when tire Glasnow comes back to this team, you want it to be on right up until the end. When they, when they're, , either when it all, or, or knocked out of the playoffs, one or the other. Hopefully that heals right? If he comes back. If you look at that rotation and the way they've pitched, and I think Zach Lin has another level of reach, once he really settles in, that the, , the pen, the impact it's going to have on the pen, I think people are understating because already.

They've saved the pen about six innings based on the average, , that the rays have done over the last few years up to this point. So you talk about those innings being less and less and less on the pen, well then you can use all your best pieces more often or save their bullets until you get to the playoffs.

That way they're [00:41:00] nice and fresh and ready to go. So it's gonna be really intriguing to see I, I could see the Rays concentrating on adding. Elite arm for the pen at some point between now and, and the trade deadline, just because of the impact it would have to bridge that to the end of the game. Cuz now it's even higher because of how well the ING staff is doing.

[00:41:21] Mark Corbett: Well, my goodness. I mean, I love watching Jeffrey Springs the day I, I couldn't tell you how many strikeouts he had, but it was a, I know that he had a multitude of 'em the other day and seeing him play so well. Shame McClanahan opening. Amazing. And the Shane I was curious about, and hopefully he's gonna be back soon, is Mr.

Boz, Shane Boz. Can't wait to see him come back. 

[00:41:44] Mat Germain: Next year. 

[00:41:45] Mark Corbett: That's next year. Is that next year? Oh my gosh. I, I hadn't kept up with it. I didn't realize. Well, I probably next 

[00:41:51] Mat Germain: year, next year will be the Shane Baz and Taj Bradley show. I hope both of them are healthy and in there. And that's why it brings in the question whether or not the Rays are gonna pay [00:42:00] Tyler Glasnow 25 million.

Yeah. So, It'll depend a lot on health, I think, and, and what, how other pieces shake out. But Josh Fleming tonight, I uses a lot of, he's a guy that already works fast. He's fun to watch. I see him as potentially being a multi innings guy in a pen eventually, but, Having said that, he's seen the success that ge, that Jeffrey Springs has had.

He's not the exact same arm slot and stuff, but he can play with the ball this, , in a similar way where he could have similar success. So whether or not they translate some of that over, it would be really intriguing for them to have him also reach another level this year. For sure. 

[00:42:40] Mark Corbett: I gotta tell you, I went to the Rays fans fest, was about a month ago, and.

Got to see both Josh Fleming and Pete Fairbanks. They were up on stage playing some kind of crazy little game, where they had to try to compete with one another. Finding scavenger hunt with the audience. Yep. [00:43:00] So they had each one of 'em had to, to find something. So they say, uh somebody out there who has a sticky notes and.

Don't why Josh Fleming was very good in plight reaching out to folks, Pete Fairbanks lept over off the stage into the crowd where he thought he saw somebody with that. And I mean, the, the fun that those two guys were having just was, was great to see. But man, Pete Fairbank scares me sometimes. I, I think he scares everybody who looks at those eyes.

When they're at the plate with him anyway. But he's, he's still, I can't remember his, I haven't looked, the last couple games he was up to like 22, 23, 24 innings without, any hits on him, I believe. 

[00:43:41] Mat Germain: Oh, I haven't been following that while. Yeah. I, I, I don't, I remember him having a really strong end of the year where he seemed possessed.

He seemed like, , he, he, here's my best stuff. Hit it if you can. That's it. That's all. He was basically chucking at him. I love to see that [00:44:00] kind of attitude out of the pen. I find, , if you have a nibbler in the pen, sometimes you could end up getting hurt. I think Garrett Clevinger just had that kind of moment where, , you get a little bit unlucky cuz it gets some odd hits off you.

Yeah. Rays do have two really strong guys out back there, and I hope they stay healthy all year in Fairbanks and, and Jason, Adam. But I even played with the idea of imagine they get to the playoffs and for whatever reason there's health things that happen. But they use tile Glasnow out of the pen.

Like they would be almost unstoppable with the four guys. They do, right? Like it doesn't really even Mater at that point. No, because you condense all of your pictures in the playoffs. So yeah, the razor in a good spot. I don't wanna, I'll knock on wood right now because I don't want anything to happen to those guys.

I wanna ride it out all year and, and see where it ends up in the end. 

[00:44:51] Mark Corbett: Well, I'm looking forward to it, brother. Like I said, this is gonna be exciting year. It's an exciting season. Wow. We got a great pitching [00:45:00] staff and like you said, there's so much depth. If there's, if there's need to bring somebody up, it's not gonna be hard to find the talent that's there and the minors.

[00:45:08] Mat Germain: So, I wanna point out something as well that I saw last night, which I love, like, I think it's an under spoken thing in, in baseball. And the Rays came, like Randy Arozarena of all people came out hustling against the Washington Nationals, a team they knew they probably had a significant advantage against , and they were all playing like this the entire game they were playing like it was a very, very important game.

And this early in the season with already having won, , sweat the series, they still had that mentality. And to me, That speaks to the focus of the bad taste they had in their mouth from the second half of last year. Oh yeah. They really didn't like the way it ended. It speaks to how they want to prove to the entire world that they have another level.

And to me, you, those Rays players if they do play like that all year, that is dangerous. [00:46:00] They are going to have a lot of. 

[00:46:04] Mark Corbett: Well, I'm excited about it. Like I said, I know you both, you and I wanna see the game here in a little bit. It is Tuesday, April 4th, and it is going to be another fun year. This, I'm gonna be here all year and I can't thank you enough, Mat, for everything you do and you put up here on Twitter keeps us involved with the game again.

Where can they find you on Twitter? 

[00:46:24] Mat Germain: Just at m a t _g e r m a i n_ 

[00:46:31] Mark Corbett: there you go. And you can find me, mark at the baseball biz because we enjoy the game so much. We wanna share it with you all. We hope you enjoy it manic. Again, I can't thank you enough for being with us here today, man, and look forward to talking with you again real soon.

Sounds good. Anytime, buddy. All right. A couple of post-production nuggets to this episode of Baseball Biz. The Rays didn indeed continued to win last night once again in putting themselves up, has the only undefeated record to [00:47:00] date as we know. All things changed, but congratulations, rays and to the Astros, our condolences as, once again, AJ Hench took his to Detroit Tigers in Houston and took another win against the ast.

[00:47:20] Mat Germain: You've been listening to 

[00:47:22] Mark Corbett: Baseball Biz. As always, you can find us on your favorite podcast directory, including Apple Podcasts, Google Doc Podcast, iHeart Radio, and more. Thanks again and remember, you can also check us out on Twitter at the baseball bills. Take care and have a great.

Special thanks to X. Take R U X for the music rocking forward.