RaysUp - 2024 Tampa Bay Rays MLB Spring Training begins

BaseballBiz On Deck Episode: 223 RaysUp Tampa Bay Rays 
 Spring Training with Mat Germain

[00:00:00] Mark Corbett: Welcome to BaseballBiz on Deck. I'm Mark Corbett, your host. And with me today, once again, is Mr. Mat Germain, the co host of the show, who knows everything about the Rays. He can dig deep. We talked about that before, and he's had to dig deep into the sand of Florida with the spring training this week.

[00:00:16] Mark Corbett: So much going on and yet maybe not so much. So we're going to find out from Mat here in just a second. Hey, Mat, how you doing today, buddy?

[00:00:24] Mat Germain: Chilling in Canada, buddy. 

[00:00:27] Mark Corbett: You mean you're not having 74 degree weather there right now? s

[00:00:30] Mat Germain: I wish. I, one day, one day I will be there for spring training just for that reason.

[00:00:35] Mark Corbett:, it's not too bad. It's 65 actually out here in Plant City at the moment, but it's, you know, it's getting up sometimes days. It's high as 78 and say, what the heck? As long as it ain't August brother, I'm fine. Oh goodness. Well, I can't believe it. I mean, we were just talking about a week and a half ago, I guess about pitchers and catchers reporting.

[00:00:57] Mark Corbett: And now all that's done. They've been there for a bit and spring training has actually started. Did, were you surprised at anything you've seen thus far? Outside 

[00:01:09] Mat Germain: the uniforms. No, everything has been standard. You've had some, you know, some best shape of their life stories. The people over hyping short term performances, but I love it all.

[00:01:20] Mat Germain: It's great. I'm like, do it. Go ahead. Hype it. Uh, enjoy those moments and those, you know, for some of the prospects playing right now, it'll be their only, you know, time to shine in front of all the brass that, uh, that don't get to see them the rest of the year. So go ahead and shine bright. 

[00:01:38] Mark Corbett: I love it. Like you and I've talked, I think we've talked before about, you know, some of those players are, they are just going to be here for a while.

[00:01:43] Mark Corbett: People who almost like walk ons during spring training and. But during a spring training game, a lot of times you won't see, but one pitcher per inning. So you get to see a lot of different talent coming up to the mound as well. As a matter of fact, I looked at the names today, Matt, and for pitching, I was like, do I know any of these guys?

[00:02:05] Mark Corbett: Are they, are they anybody that was there last year? 

[00:02:08] Mat Germain: Yeah, a good example would be Trevor Martin this today, the playing, uh, pitching for the rays. Um, I mean, they, they selected them in the 3rd round of 2022 draft and, uh, they had him throw 110 innings in a ball this year or last year. So, I mean, he's making quite the big leap in today's performances.

[00:02:26] Mat Germain: So, facing an Orioles lineup, that's. Pretty formidable. He, he looked really good in the first inning from what I hear. And then, you know, Colby Mayo just had a great day today and hit the ball pretty hard. But I think for the opportunity for him, like, uh, pitching to Rob Brantley and getting his feedback on how he saw things happening.

[00:02:47] Mat Germain: And that's what I look for in spring really is who are they pairing with? Who, where are they playing them? What? Where are they having a look at the guys and that kind of thing? How many times are they bringing them back? Because I think the 1st week, you can kind of write off. And then the 2nd week, you'll, you'll see a couple of sent down a couple more brought up.

[00:03:05] Mat Germain: They take a look at a fresh group. Um, but the guys that stick around through to the end, right? The last few, you know, maybe a handful or a handful plus of cuts. Those are the guys, you know, they're really considering for the year. And it'll be the first call ups. But for a guy like Trevor Martin, it's more about showing that he might be able to handle a quick transition from A plus to AA.

[00:03:31] Mat Germain: And then he becomes an option as early as 2025, late 2025, obviously. But, but, you know, he's on the fast track, essentially. Well, he, 

[00:03:42] Mark Corbett: I was watching Trevor, you were talking about earlier and pairing up the battery with the catcher, let's see, you were saying, who was it, Rob Brantley, and I mean, because Rob Brantley and Kenny Piper, you know, they were the catchers today, he wasn't even, he was there, I guess, but he wasn't playing, uh, let's see, and it reminds me, as far as pairing the battery, when I remember we had Charlie Morton, and it was always, I don't know if it was always, but it was going to be d’Arnaud most of the time, they get a synchronicity between the two of them, they have a sense, an energy symbiotic, if you will, to be able to, to master, , the communication of pitching and catching, I guess.

[00:04:22] Mark Corbett: And I'm, I'm really curious to see how that develops with these pitchers and the new catchers. Absolutely. 

[00:04:29] Mat Germain: And I think that's the importance of, of bringing someone in like Brantley. I mean, Brantley is not, what you would call like a Yadier Molina type name across MLB, but he's been in the, in this league and in AAA and in the minors doing the work.

[00:04:42] Mat Germain: And he knows the game extremely well, whether or not he's a great player, like, to help the raise this year. He can actually have some input in different ways, including telling the pitchers, how they can improve their, the work they do, some things that he might spot that will stop them from, giving things away when they're on the mound, there's a million different things that you can point to.

[00:05:04] Mat Germain: And I think that it has a lot of value through an organization. A lot of times when you see their AAA catchers, and that's what normally you'll have. It's some sort of veteran presence that's molding the guys that might get the call, right? It's not the glitziest of jobs, but, it is an important one for sure.

[00:05:26] Mark Corbett: Well, and this is the tab too, where they got those JIC players, the Just in case players, but I was looking at the stats for that game today with the Orioles. It was interesting because he mostly one inning for most, for each of the nine pitchers for the raise of pitch today. And of that. They had 15 strikeouts and five walks.

[00:05:51] Mark Corbett: It's like, . , Junior Caminero and Tanner Murphy both hit a home run. So that was impressive. And, uh, looked at the Orioles, they took a slightly different tack. They had five pitchers over three, nine innings, they had nine strikeouts and three walks. So it was, it had, I think I said something to you before the show about a good buddy of mine at full count chaos.

[00:06:15] Mark Corbett: And he had posted something on x. com about. Oh, my gosh, spring training. What am I to think? I said, you remember what it is. It's spring training, dude. Come on. 

[00:06:26] Mat Germain: Relax. You want people to stay healthy. That's about it. But I always look at who's giving up the runs. Right. And that's really, who was it that said Nolan Ryan might have been one of the worst spring training, , pitchers of all time.

[00:06:41] Mat Germain: Uh, and, and I mean, it doesn't mean anything, but they're always working on if you're a pitcher and you want to work on something that, you're going to need or want to use in a game later on, and that's going to bail you out of hard spots. This is the time to do it. This is the time to kind of. Get used to that, whatever it is you're trying to do. So, and for everybody, I think that's different. , I think , the good thing too, is that you also get to show people what you can do. 

[00:07:10] Mat Germain: So, obviously, they're trying to do right. I think not just lobbing the ball up there. . I think if you looked at yesterday's game, , guys like Ian Seymour, you know, they,, they had serious injuries that they're, they're recovering , from and came back in 2023, but weren't really peaking.

[00:07:26] Mat Germain: And now they get to show, what their stuff is really like when it's healthy. And Logan Workman is another guy, same day, same game, and he gave up five runs in this. And so. He's having a hard time, starting his spring off, but it doesn't mean that they're going to give up on it. And either way, it doesn't matter.

[00:07:47] Mat Germain: We don't know what he was working on, what they asked them to show. And same thing for Ian Seymour. Everybody has their own story. 

[00:07:55] Mark Corbett: Well, let me ask you, friend to friend here. 

[00:08:00] Mark Corbett: I've never really asked you, I think, as far as your passion about the race. I mean, you live a few miles away from Tampa, the same continent, but different country in Canada.

[00:08:13] Mark Corbett: And I think, well, what was the appeal? And of all the 30 teams out there, what was the appeal of the raise for you to start studying them? I mean you you've got the tenacity of like a scout who's going over what's going on with the minor leagues What's coming up the people throughout the entire system and that doesn't just happen.

[00:08:31] Mark Corbett: What was what started that with you? 

[00:08:34] Mat Germain: So, the, the whole tenacity thing is, is, is interesting because I, I started blogging just on my own, no affiliation whatsoever about the Blue Jays way back when, I can't remember when I started, uh, but eventually I ended up doing an interview of Noah Syndergaard and because of that, um, It got me into a fan cited and I ended up writing for a J's journal for a long period of time.

[00:09:01] Mat Germain: And it was their lead editor for the ramp up period is what I call it. Like, when they went from nothing to being the 2nd, most viewed site on their site outside of the Kansas City chiefs, because the chiefs were what they had started that site with. Um, so anyways, I was having a lot of success, but I was also in the military at the same time.

[00:09:22] Mat Germain: So, it was, it was a balancing act between the 2 and eventually I ended up going to do some training that required me to step away from it altogether. So, I handed the reins to Keegan Matheson, (X.com @KeeganMatheson)who is now, you know, writing for the Blue Jays on MLB. com., so he took the reins and and did a very good job with it, obviously, earning that role later on.

[00:09:43] Mat Germain: When I came back and he was still in charge, and I had completed my training,, I was stuck with not really being able to have as big of a role on Jays Journal as I liked, and they had a challenge for me in terms of covering the raise. They said they didn't have anybody that wanted to pick it up because race color glasses was having a hard time So I said, you know what?

[00:10:06] Mat Germain: I'll take it on just as a challenge and see how it goes and that's how I got involved with You know paying attention to all the details about the raise & over time the more and more and more I dug into it The more I appreciated what they were doing and I was able to contrast it with what I knew from the jay's Side of things and I mean I I was covering the jp ricciardi era.

[00:10:27] Mat Germain: So it was it was just a minefield of errors that you could draw back on. So I appreciated the, the mythology that, that the rays were using. And, after that point, , I kind of grew to like them even more because of how, the refusal to tank basically. And that's when I really earned, They, earned my respect, basically, to the point where I was like, no, like, this is the way every team should operate the way that they value every asset that they have every edge, every angle, every.

[00:11:04] Mat Germain: Every single detail, and this is what I mean when I say to Sternberg is the is probably the best owner in Major League Baseball right now when it comes to being able to build a winner, regardless of the money thrown at it, it's just a demand of excellence. At the top of the front office, and he is in control of that front office.

[00:11:28] Mat Germain: Make no mistake about it. He decides who has those jobs, so he's done that job of hiring the right people and keeping the right people, even though they have all these, you know, really, really talented people leaving the organization every year, and he's able to still maintain a nucleus that is strong enough & and ahead of the times, Yeah, at all times.

[00:11:51] Mat Germain: So when I've covered that, the details part and the digging in and being really hardcore about it comes from the fact that when you work for a site like Fan Cited, and you have very few writers on your team at the beginning, and you have to shell out so many stories per month in order to get, any sort of value from it monetarily, then you have to write a lot of articles and dig in every corner to get stories that are worthwhile writing about.

[00:12:16] Mat Germain: So that got me used to actually digging into all the finer details of the game. And, and so I really think that that probably more than anything, um, improved my intelligence about, or my, my baseball IQ basically, because I had to dig every day for a different story, you know, so essentially that's it in a nutshell.

[00:12:38] Mat Germain: I know it's a long story, but eventually I was, I was, um. Taken in by DeRay's Bay, um, in order to write for them because they liked what they seen from me on Ray's Colored Glasses. I jumped ship and went over there for a bit. Uh, I really enjoyed my time there, learned a lot from the guys at DeRay's Bay.

[00:12:58] Mat Germain: Eventually, I wanted to try to do my own thing again, so I started, um, Wander Ray's. And it just It got to the point where I was working too much on it and I need to focus more on my kids. So I said, you know what, I'm going to do what I do on Twitter. I really enjoyed it. I said, I'm sharing, you know, some finer details and just enjoying the game and enjoying the raise and sharing that with everyone.

[00:13:24] Mat Germain: I don't need to have my own site and run that on top of it. So I kind of started using Twitter as the platform that I wanted to share that with everyone. So that's my story. 

[00:13:36] Mark Corbett: Wow, this is the first time I guess I really Asked you about that. I'm glad I did. Because the depth of where you've been with all of this, I mean, and the trail from from one place to another, you know, where you were needed, uh, changing values of what you've got.

[00:13:52] Mark Corbett: We don't being a family man with Children. I get that big time. And, uh, but to see. That you're still that interest that you have, you're still able to go ahead and, and keep it that kind of knowledge and share it with folks. And if you don't know people, you can find Maton Twitter, x. com, whatever you want to call it at underscore Matt.

[00:14:14] Mark Corbett: And that's M a T underscore Germain G E R M A I N underscore. And that's where you're going to find him at Twitter. , got to tell you that's where I think it was me. Or was it Brandon who used to be on the show? Found you first, but it's like, wow, who is this guy? Because you're great at breaking down what's going on with the raise position by position.

[00:14:38] Mark Corbett: And your sense of what is going on at each of the minor league levels feeding into the race. So you share a lot with that. So people, again, I'm going to encourage y'all to check out Maton Twitter. And that's Matt, M a T underscore Germain G E R M A I N underscore on Twitter. Oh, wow, brother. So I mean, it's a passion you still have.

[00:15:00] Mark Corbett: And you said something that really sticks with me too. That's the, the whole idea of. Whatever else I may think about the esteemed owner of the Tampa Bay Rays, I do have to respect what he's done with the money that he has, he's, and I think I was Neander a key part of ErikNeander. Is he the one kind of helped turn the key on that?

[00:15:21] Mark Corbett: Or was it already in motion before Erikwas there in the front office? You mean, in terms 

[00:15:27] Mat Germain: of increasing the amount of money that they're that they're 

[00:15:30] Mark Corbett: spending now. Well, I would say effectively using the amount of money. I mean, Oh, effectively. 

[00:15:34] Mat Germain:, I think that might have swayed a little bit more from the Andrew Friedman times.

[00:15:42] Mat Germain: But again, that was still to Sternberg. Um, so it was more of a, I think it's living within your means. So, Unfortunately, there was a period of time where Stu had to try to get, um, motivate, I should say, the Tampa side to, uh, be willing to share in the cost of a stadium and he needed to be able to amp up the volume on that.

[00:16:08] Mat Germain: And he knew there was going to be a cost associated with that. And it would probably was going to be attendance. I think that stifled investment more than anything else, because he knew that attendance was going to lag. While he was trying to work that out on the Tampa side, because really, when you look at the franchise as a whole on the Tampa side, if he had been successful in doing that, that the franchise value would have been maybe close to double what it will be in St.

[00:16:35] Mat Germain: Petersburg. So, so it had a significant, you know, motivation factor for him. Having said that, he also could have easily tried to move the team out of the area, gone to, you know, Nashville would have opened their doors huge for Stu, if he wanted to do it. He said, no, uh, Montreal would have, I'm not sure how much they would have given him for the actual team.

[00:16:57] Mat Germain: So, I don't think that would have been an actual option and it's right. But anyhow, the, I think Stu has had opportunities to, to turn his back on Tampa or St. Pete and, uh, he hasn't done. So yet, uh, you know, it's not finished until the buildings, Fully built ball in the new new stadium, but I think that when you look at the value that he's brought to the team over the last, you know, 5 to 7 years, I think that the Kevin cash hiring might have been, you know, the 1st big game changer, but also when he handed the reins to ErikNeander, what it did is it actually.

[00:17:41] Mat Germain: Made the raise a better organization through and through. I don't know what conversations and what scouting changes happened between Andrew Friedman and ErikNeander, but the game plan when it came to drafting and and targeting key free agents was much better under Neander. Uh, if you look back at the drafts that Andrew Friedman had there.

[00:18:03] Mat Germain: Some of the worst in MLB history, and I mean that with like a glowing heart on what he meant to the franchise and and and the value that he brought to the team overall because of it. But, um, ErikNeander has has. I don't think Andrew Freeman would have tried in a way that made more sense for what the rays are.

[00:18:23] Mat Germain: So acquiring guys like Charlie Morton when they're not really getting the money they should have elsewhere is a good example. Like spending 15 million. Yeah, you're, you're not buying. A flurry of free agents, but you're buying the right free agent. Same thing before that. He did Wilson Ramos and the same kind of thing.

[00:18:40] Mat Germain: Uh, Natan Eovaldi, he was able to get value out of all these guys that he brought in, uh, because they were targeting and trying to do a certain thing that made sense for the team that year. And I think that focused. Injection of talent in the right key areas and never giving up on the asset has been much more aggressive under ErikNeander than it has been on Andrew Friedman, but I think that also comes from the organization as a whole, continuously learning to improve how it operates.

[00:19:11] Mat Germain: And that did start under Andrew Friedman. So I give him kudos for that. 

[00:19:17] Mark Corbett: Well, that's good. I mean, it's so easy sometimes when a new boss comes in and whatever good comes, you say, well, you know, that was all my job. I did it. Not that Neander would do this, but just saying in some situations, you see where a new manager comes into a store and everything that was terrible, it comes the next few weeks and, well, that was because of the guy preceded me and, and not me, but you see, obviously a synchronicity between what Friedman and also what Neander's doing that.

[00:19:45] Mark Corbett: The Freeman at least lay the foundation for somebody. So that's, that's good to know. As long as we're talking about foundations, I would want to take a look at the. Prospects for the raise MLBs. See, they gave us, they gave us four positions out of a hundred. Uh, again, what's the, I'm running down here real quick.

[00:20:07] Mark Corbett: Number four, junior Cameron Arrow. Who's our what shortstop third baseman, Carson Williams shortstop. We'll talk about what that means with Mr. Taylor walls in a bit. Curtis Meade, third baseman, second baseman, he's number 55 on that list. And number 58 was Xavier Isaac. Who would play first base 

[00:20:28] Mat Germain: sometimes so an entire infield.

[00:20:31] Mat Germain: Yep. Yep. Yeah, all of them will be in double layer above by the end of this year. Yeah, it's amazing. Like those guys, each one of those can be the best at their position at some point in time in Major League Baseball. You can make the argument for Junior Caminero as a 3rd baseman could be the best MLB at some point in his career.

[00:20:53] Mat Germain: You can say the same thing for Xavier Isaac at 1st base. You can say the same thing for Carson Williams at shortstop and you can say the same thing for Curtis Meade at 2nd base. They are extremely talented. If they hit their ceilings now, that's a big F and there's a long road ahead to that. But I think what's interesting is they, they left out some guys that I think have, they have a case.

[00:21:16] Mat Germain: I'm not saying they have to be in the top 100 and the Rays do have a little bit more of a drop off this year than they have in recent years, but that's also because they promoted so many guys onto their roster that they're, you know, They're left a little bit lower in the talent pool, uh, at the upper echelons than they normally have had.

[00:21:34] Mat Germain: But Austin Shenton was one of the best, uh, hitting prospects in AAA last year, and he can play 1st and 3rd, does a solid job, runs the bases well. He's not fast by any means, but he's one of those guys that when you look at his performance, you compare it to Jonathan Aranda, for example, there's a very, uh, Close synchronicity between the two in terms of what they accomplished in triple A.

[00:21:59] Mat Germain: Um, so if you're going to rank Jonathan Aranda and as one of the better hitters on the team going into 24 and a lot of people are expecting big things from him as he replaces, uh, Luke really is a left handed bat. Then Austin Shenton is like the backup to that. So if it doesn't work out for Jonathan Aranda, then Austin Shenton can get a shot and show what he can do.

[00:22:21] Mat Germain: But, uh, I think he deserved a shot on the top 100. 

[00:22:27] Mark Corbett: Well, it's good to hear that we have the kind of depth that we do. And I'm sometimes I'm scratching my head and saying, okay, what does that mean for the future of the Jonathan Aranda or Isak Paredes or, or even Yandi? And I know that Yandi and Isak could see them as DH just about any game, but you know, we, we don't keep gas for too long.

[00:22:50] Mat Germain: Yeah, this is part of the thing that I was saying with with ErikNeander and his plan being better than Andrew Friedman. So when, when ErikNeander took over to the team in 2017, if you looked at every position, there was no competition. Everybody knew they had the job walking into spring training. You knew Brad Miller was walking on, you knew Longo was walking on, Beckham was walking on, there was no, not going to be any changes.

[00:23:13] Mat Germain: There was no competition. Nobody pushing them from behind and saying, I'm coming for your job. Um, that's what I love about this team. And this race team is forcing guys to be at their best at all times, to be competitive, to be highly motivated, to be at their best every single day. That 2017 team had a much better pitching staff than we'll have this year.

[00:23:34] Mat Germain: This year in the rotation, they should have won. 84 maybe 85 games and they did much worse than that because they were so guaranteed in their positions. I firmly believe that and they didn't really have to exceed expectations in any way, shape or form to keep their jobs. 

[00:23:54] Mark Corbett: Yeah, I've heard Kevin Cash say a couple of times about it being very competitive this year.

[00:23:58] Mark Corbett: He tries to avoid saying that he wants his guys competing against one another, but he does see, you know, he does sense what's going on out there and it's, it's a good environment. It does make everybody step up. So I'm really curious to see how these, the Tampa Bay Rays do this year. I'm not necessarily looking for a hundred games this year.

[00:24:17] Mark Corbett: It's way too early to tell, but yeah. Uh, I'm going to be a bit more conservative this year when you and I actually choose some numbers later on in a future episode. Uh, we'll see. We'll see. See what else you hear. 

[00:24:32] Mat Germain: We'll have to see where Blake Snell and Montgomery and uh, land and how healthy everybody comes out of spring.

[00:24:39] Mat Germain: I usually like to make my predictions maybe seven to ten days before the end of spring. Um, and then I 

[00:24:45] Mark Corbett: firmed them up. Gotcha. Well. I'll be curious to see what Neander and Stu do with maybe as much as 170 million, if they can get that back from Mr. Franco. Well, they have not actually given it to him, but they're not going to be, if things don't work out for Mr.

[00:25:04] Mark Corbett: Franco, that that money could surely be reallocated. 

[00:25:09] Mat Germain: Yeah, well, to me, what that money was for was to make sure that when they walked into that new stadium, they were going to have a phenom, a stud, a basically their version of Jose Ramirez, as he is for the guardians. Right? Right. Because they weren't going to have a dozen of those guys, but they were going to have at least one.

[00:25:30] Mat Germain: So when you're looking at the team now, you're saying, well, now they get a do over. They get to kind of look around MLB and their own team and say, okay, well, who could we decide to do that with? It doesn't mean they have to, but Junior Cabanero would be a good example of someone that they might decide is worthy of that by the end of the year.

[00:25:49] Mat Germain: Um, if they like what they see, maybe let's say come August. And they're like, yeah, this guy's just, is insane. And he is, he is insane in how he plays the game. He's been a mature well beyond his years. Then they can offer the same kind of deal or some, you know, something similar to what they gave Wanda Franco, maybe not to the number of years, but a significant value anyway.

[00:26:14] Mark Corbett: Well, it gives them flexibility. Cause that's, I see that, man. So we're going to see what they do to play with that. Oh, speaking of playing. And there's one, it's not a spring training game, it's an exhibition game. We got coming up March 9th in the Dominican Republic with the Red Sox. Yeah. 

[00:26:35] Mat Germain: You know, everybody's asking, is Wander going to be 

[00:26:37] Mark Corbett: there?

[00:26:38] Mark Corbett: Oh gosh. You know, they, I had a, somewhere I got a JPEG of a poster that has Wander on it for that event. It was an early poster. So. Yeah. Yeah. Is he going to be in the stands with the cameras and I'll be tracking him all the way through it. I don't know, but it should be an interesting two games. Oh my gosh.

[00:27:05] Mark Corbett: So let's see. We get. I don't 

[00:27:07] Mat Germain: know how it's going to end up for Wander, but I, I think eventually down the line, he's going to end up needing, uh, a lot of help, uh, emotionally and physically because, uh, he's just to, to come, you know, to be high up on the pedestal as he was, and then to be all the way down to not being able to pay your lawyers.

[00:27:27] Mat Germain: And, you know, I'm sure that he, he doesn't get the nearly the amount of attention that he's been used to his entire life age of like 12. This guy was, uh, you know, the focus of attention every single day. So, I don't know, as a human being, I think that he's probably feeling about as much, um, of the brunt of the, the fall from grace that you could ever feel.

[00:27:54] Mat Germain: That's for sure. 

[00:27:55] Mark Corbett: Yeah. Yeah. And I go back to, I mean, I'm not. Trying to give anybody a pass on anything. But the one thing I do worry about is we have these people so young, like you're saying, even 12 or 13 years of age, and we throw them as adult world, and there's no guidance. I really hoped that some of the older Latin players would be able to give him some guidance.

[00:28:19] Mark Corbett: But first it has to be receptive to. Uh, well, I wish all the people involved, I wish them the best, whatever that may be. Oh, you know, I kind of wonder though, what kind of uniforms are going to be wearing March 9th, are they going to, will I be able to read the names? I hear the lettering now with a new.

[00:28:42] Mark Corbett: Uniforms, the lettering is smaller and so people are probably gonna have a hard time reading who they are. Must be watching the 

[00:28:46] Mat Germain: Yankees. Yeah, God, the uniforms in Major League Baseball, I mean, if anything, they should be improving over time. They should not be getting worse. Uh, the quality of fabrics we have now, like, if anybody's ever worn anything from Lululemon, it feels like you're wearing wind.

[00:29:06] Mat Germain: Like, it's just soft and barely feel it on your body. It is not see through. And it is. You know, it's durable and it's, uh, antiperspirant and yadda, yadda, yadda. Like you, you do not need to go down the road Nike did. And if I was the commissioner of major league baseball, I, I would be demanding before we even got to this point, like it should have been vetted before it actually came out publicly as a, as the, the chosen clothing and style.

[00:29:39] Mat Germain: And I just, there's so much. To criticize about it that I don't even know where to start, to be honest, remember when Great Britain played in the World Baseball Classic and and the T from great came off on the uniform, you remember that that was a Nike Jersey that was like, you know, come on, like, what are you doing is just.

[00:30:05] Mark Corbett: Oh, I'd forgotten that. Yeah, I do 

[00:30:08] Mat Germain: remember that now. It's so sad. Like, I know it was a rush job, but you can go to any t shirt shop in any major city and get t shirts made fairly quickly. Nike should be able to do that and on a heartbeat. Yeah, so I think Major League Baseball needs to take a step back and I hope somebody in there and Uh, in their marketing department, which I hold no value for whatsoever can can come together and say, Whoa, guys, what are we doing?

[00:30:37] Mat Germain: We need to revisit, you know, how we operate. And I think when Rob Manfred does leave as commissioner, I think that'll be the biggest value. That the league ever gets is marketing. Like he, he is completely clueless when it comes to marketing the game. And, and I don't, I don't know why. Because there's enough people telling him, I'm sure how to do it right.

[00:31:01] Mark Corbett: I would hope so, but yeah, it's, you see, you see these uniforms and say, , Oh, I can read. He's wearing a Calvin Klein t-shirt. Oh, God. Oh, no. That's more than I want to know. 

[00:31:15] Mat Germain: it's on a rainy day. Mark is going to be enough. Ladies glued to the T. 

[00:31:22] Mark Corbett: Kevin, you're living in heaven. Oh my gosh. No, it's fun. I got to love this game and I am going to curious to see how that all does play out in the Dominican Republic.

[00:31:32] Mark Corbett: I always feel for the teams that have to go across several time zones. Sometimes for, you know, if he had to go all the way to Japan or something just before the regular season starts, so Dominican Republic, at least. Probably pretty much in the same time zone. So that shouldn't be too bad. 

[00:31:46] Mat Germain: Absolutely. No, it'll be a good experience for them.

[00:31:49] Mat Germain: And I mean, I'm all for growing the game and I think they should be going to a lot more places to be quite honest. Like it's, it's nice that they are starting to do that more regularly 

[00:32:00] Mark Corbett: for sure. Yeah, well, we're going to follow the race. My wife and I, at least on the road, looking at probably going to see them in Atlanta, uh, Milwaukee.

[00:32:11] Mark Corbett: Um, let's just for fun. Let's talk about x rays. Um, Cronenworth. I'm trying to think where Jake Cronenworth is now. Is he still with the Padres? Yeah, Padres, Padres and. Blake Snell, who knows where he's going to be. God 

[00:32:26] Mat Germain: Lord. You know who I'm happy for is Mike Brosseau. He came back over from Asia and he's now with the Royals.

[00:32:32] Mat Germain: So he's back with Mike, uh, Matt  Quatraro in, um, in Kansas city. And he's getting a shot and he actually got a hit today, I think. Um, so he's getting some playing time and getting, uh, getting back to North America to play. I think guy, the guys that I think of, of x rays are like, there's like Brett wisely is in, um, It's in San Francisco.

[00:32:57] Mat Germain: Joey Wendle is in New York. He's trying to get them, some gloveless love. Willie Adames is still in Milwaukee. He'll probably be shipped out at some point this year if they don't envision a long playoff run. So that would be interesting to see where he goes. There's a lot of pitchers that I'm monitoring like that are x rays and I'm like, oh, that's interesting, or.

[00:33:23] Mat Germain: If Blake's now keeps holding out as long as he is, everybody's going to start talking about a one year deal back with the race. We're not careful. Uh, but yeah, I don't like that 

[00:33:33] Mark Corbett: happening. Yeah, I don't either. I don't know. It's been interesting. Mr. Boris has had things running rampant. And it's, I don't know if it'll actually settle down with some of the Yankees.

[00:33:43] Mark Corbett: I don't think it'll be necessarily what he or Blake wanted, but it's probably going to be the case. You know, and I just want to say one last thing because I always think of one more, but, you know, you mentioned, you mentioned earlier, uh, looking at the management, we've, the race have been picked through their front office.

[00:34:04] Mark Corbett: I mean, was it James Glick if he had, uh, and then Boston had. Chaim Bloom and I don't know where Chaim is right now But there's there's a lot of people who've come from the front office and you talk about Matt  Quatraro and well, let's see Ozzie Timmons was with uh, our first base coach is now with Milwaukee 

[00:34:24] Mat Germain: and we could do an entire episode just on on and who they've plucked where it's it's insane.

[00:34:33] Mat Germain: There are so many front office people from the rays that go around. I think that to me is more telling than anything. If you can name me, you know, I know we talked about last time we talked, but other than her, are there any major New York Yankees executives that you remember? You know, getting poached from them that are notable and you're like, oh, yeah, that guy came from me or just, you know, same can be said.

[00:34:58] Mat Germain: I think Theo Epstein is the 1 that you remember most from from the Red Sox, but outside of that, like, they're not a machine getting plucked annually. Um, from executives, and, uh, I think that's a very telling thing. I also think, you know, you. You see where guys want to go. And so when, when front office guys may not have a job and they decide to go to that organization just to stay in the game and to stay relevant and to kind of have an injection of, uh, of knowledge, you see them go to Los Angeles, you see them go to Atlanta, you see them go to the Rays.

[00:35:34] Mat Germain: And so that's very telling as well. Right? Because they're They're kind of, uh, wanting to rub shoulders with some of the best organizations in baseball, uh, so that they can take that with them when they do end up getting another job or another shot at it. 

[00:35:49] Mark Corbett: Well, the Tampa Bay Rays organization is, like I said, we can beat our chest or we can at least give, you know, kudos to the good folks here in the front office, like I said, as much as I like to cry and whine about Stu, I can't say that he hasn't done a great job in, in building this team that we have today. So kudos to you, Stu. I may not say it very often, so pick it up. 

[00:36:12] Mat Germain: Yeah. And I, to be clear, I understand people's gripes with, with the way that things have, have been hashed out.

[00:36:17] Mat Germain: I just know that it was almost a business necessity for him to try to work out what he tried. And, uh, I get it now. Now he's kissing and making up and wanting to move on to a new stadium and exciting times, in St. Pete.

[00:36:31] Mark Corbett: Well, I'm ready for it, brother. I'm ready for the season to start and I'm looking forward to this new team.

[00:36:40] Mark Corbett: And I'm looking forward to the competitive nature in spring training with the Tampa Bay Rays, because like you said, it's a hungry crowd, those who want to keep their spots and those who want to come up, it's a good time to see some very exciting baseball. 

[00:36:56] Mat Germain: Absolutely. Enjoy it. Take your kids, get some autographs.

[00:37:01] Mark Corbett: That's it, man. That's it. Yeah. Okay, man. Thanks again, buddy. Uh, any other parting words you want to share with our audience? 

[00:37:10] Mat Germain: no, just, uh, you know, start thinking about game tickets. If you're not going to the spring, go to the, uh, the regular season games, support the Rays. They're doing their best of what they got.

[00:37:20] Mat Germain: And I, even though, like you mentioned, not having them as a hundred game winner this year, I would not be shocked if they are in a reason being that I think in season they're going to get an oomph of talent from Shane Baz, Jeffrey Springs, like other teams may not get. Um, and I think that's going to go a long ways to keeping them at the top of their game.

[00:37:41] Mat Germain: I'm also a huge fan of, uh, Uwasawa. Who, uh, I think is, is getting underplayed in terms of his impact that he's going to have on the team. So I don't put it past them to reach, you know, 90 high nineties again, maybe a hundred, uh, we'll see, but, uh, I'm going to hold out judgment until we're we're later late in the spring.

[00:38:02] Mat Germain: And when we're about 10 days out, I'll, I'll give you my verdict. 

[00:38:05] Mark Corbett: I'm looking forward to it, brother. Well, thank you again, Mat. Again, folks, you can find Mat on Twitter and you can find him at. @Mat_Germain_ on x.com or twitter.com.

[00:38:22] Mark Corbett: You can find me Mark @TheBaseballBiz on Twitter as well. Thank you again for joining us here today. And we look forward to talking to you guys again, real soon.

Remember you can find us on any of your podcast directories. You can find us on baseballbizondeck.com. You can find us everywhere. Hope you love us. Like us, go ahead and mark that up. And. Thank you very much. Special thanks 

[00:38:35] Mark Corbett: Special. Thanks to XTaKeRuX for the music? Rocking forward. Woo-hoo! 

[00:38:42] Mat Germain: I love it. Yeah, man.

Tags: Kevin Cash, RaysUp, Tampa Bay Rays, Rays, Junior Caminero, Erik Neander, Blake Snell, Theo Epstein, Willie Adames, Spring Training, MLB, Red Sox, Carson Williams, Curtis Mead, Xavier Isaac, Austin Schendon, MLB, uniforms, Nike, EriJeffrey Springs, Uwasawa, Mike Brosseau, Orioles