🚨Tarik Skubal Traded to the Dodgers! - Emergency Podcast (8/2 Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

Now here's Frank Scott and Chris. Thanos is complete. The inevitable has happened. Teryx Google has been traded to the Dodgers. Welcome into an emergency edition of Fantasy Vs. Ball today. You know, like, I don't know, 12 hours after the actual emergency. But here we are, Sunday, August 2nd. I am Frank Stample and I am back. Join by Scott White and Chris Towers. And here is the complete trade. The Dodgers are acquiring back-to-back Sai Young Award winner Teryx Google from the Tigers for three prospects. Alphillar is Zye here, Hope and Pictures, River Ryan and Brady Smith. I actually think this is a lot more interesting from a real-life perspective than fantasy. We will get into that because I mean, these guys were going back and forth before we even started. So I'm sure that'll be fun. But let's get the fantasy angles out of the way. So I'm not sure that there's too much analysis on the Teryx Google side of things. He is one of the best pictures in baseball. He is joining the best team in baseball that has a great defense, great run support, strong bullpen. I guess there's always an unquantifiable mental side of things about a player changing teams for the first time in his career that we just can't know. But he's the best pitcher in baseball. Pretty sure he's just the best pitcher in fantasy the rest of the season, right? Yeah, we already. I think Scott and I both said as much earlier this week. And when your Teryx Google where you pitch doesn't really matter that much, especially over two months, like he might get an extra win the rest of the way. And maybe that'll be the difference between you winning your championship and not. But Teryx Google is the best pitcher in baseball. There's not much going to the Dodgers can do to help that. Yeah, I mean, I guess it's a slight upgrade of support and caste, but as you said over the time frame, how big of the difference does that make? I guess if there's anything that detracts from his value, it's that presumably the Dodgers are going to stick with the six-man rotation now with him taking Shohei O'Connie's spot. But I obviously, even that over the length of time remaining, okay, maybe how many two-star weeks does that cost him? I don't think maybe one. They want to be any more than that. It might mean Amishin has a bigger chance of falling out of the rotation at some point, but even that that's going to happen anyway. Like she and Justin Ropleski, Roki Sasaki, they're all coming up on workload issues and Blake Snell's nearing the end of a re-ab assignment. So he's going to take one of their places and glass glass. He's starting to make some forward momentum with his back injury. Yeah. So it may impact some of those guys to the extent you were relying on them, Ropleski, probably the most. But it's like that was bound to happen anyway. The Dodgers might have inserted River Ryan, who was part of who they gave up in the Tigers in the straight with the Tigers. They might have inserted them for one of the guys who had topped out in the innings. And just a reminder of what Terrick Schuble has done since returning from injury, 287 ERA 0.88 Whip, 12k per 9, 1.4 walks per 9, and in 18% swing strike rate, the Dodgers fall out of it all. You mentioned a lot of it so far. They will go with their six-man rotation, Schuble, Yamamoto. Crazy. One, two punch. We have Ropleski, then Roki Sasaki, Amishin, and Eric Lauer. I think this move probably means that Shoheotani either isn't pitching again. In the regular season, or they're just going to really slow play him because they just don't really have much for a reason to push him. So maybe they'll kind of ramp him up and get him ready for the postseason. Maybe it's like a reliever or something. I don't know. What's up? Even for the postseason, Schuble, Yamamoto, Tyler Glass now, Blake Snell. Like that's they have a thing. They need a ton of that. I mean, yeah, he's either their second or their fifth best starter in the postseason. Yeah. Like he was really good in the postseason last year. Didn't he have a no hitter last year? It's six no hit innings in the postseason. Something like that. Well, he had that game where he struck out 10 and hit three home runs or something. A game that I don't think was obsessed over enough, frankly, because it was the most like you're out and you're out hitting a wiffle ball around in your backyard. And this is the sort of fantasy you're coming up with. Like Otani actually lived it. That was it was two hits against the breath. I think I don't know hitter into like the fifth inning. Yeah. 10 strikeouts to eliminate the brurs. Yep. And as you guys mentioned, Blake Snell is getting closer to a return. And his most recent rehab start for shutout innings with nine strikeouts. He got up to 60 pitches in that one. And so perhaps he needs one or two more rehab starts. And then he'll be back. And I agree. One of probably Eric Lauer, maybe she and if he really just continues to struggle, gets the boot here for my monolig players out there, which we almost never talk about. This is actually a massive deal for you guys. So an NL only, I mean, this is what you save it all for. This is what you save your fab for, your top waiver priority spot for, everything time to blow everything to get Terrick Scooble on your team. So however much fab you have left, that goes into trying to add Terrick Scooble in NL only leagues. And I think it's safe to say even though, you know, there's more than 24 hours remaining until the actual deadline. I think this is the biggest player that's going to be moved. Yeah, confident. I don't think I don't think Wonsato or Bobby Witter getting traded, you know. I did see the Red Sox inquire on LED. Yeah, there's the river that LED occurs might be available, but that seems like it hasn't had a lot of movement. So yeah, from an AL only perspective, I'm not sure how every monolig operates. I'm sure they're all different, but in the monolig that I play in, you are allowed to keep the players who do change leagues as long as you don't drop that player. So, you know, I don't think that's traditional. Yeah, I was going to say, I think in most leagues, you probably just wind up losing that player. So in AL only, if you lost Terrick Scooble, I'm sorry. I mean, you probably just, probably just pack it in. I don't know what else to tell you. I mean, if you've played in this league for a while and the people are savvy, it wasn't a mystery that Terrick Scooble very likely to be traded before the season was over. Obviously, if the Tigers were contending, which was possible, but I know that was the topic of conversation coming into the year. So you probably got him at a little bit of a discount in your draft. Yeah. I mean, yeah, it doesn't hurt that the Tigers blew a six-nothing lead in Terrick Scooble's final star for them. Yeah. So hopefully, you saw the writing on the wall here. You could have tried to trade Scooble. I mean, what would you have gotten at that point at like 50, 60 cents on the dollar? You can just kind of hold out hope that a couple of arms get traded over from the NL to the AL, and then you just kind of pounce on those. But other than that, it's going to be pristine, near impossible to replace Terrick Scooble in an AL only league. For the Tigers, what did you think of the return? I guess we can get more into like other teams beating this offer a little bit later on. But just from like a fantasy perspective and the players they got back. Zai here, hope 21-year-old Alfielder, number 25 overall prospect in NLB Pipeline's top 100. River Ryan, a 27-year-old pitcher, number 68 in NLB Pipeline's top 100 in Brady Smith, a 21-year-old pitcher, not a top 100 prospect, number 17 in the Dodgers system, again, according to MLB Pipeline. So Scott, what's over to you? What did you think of the prospect return here for half of season really two months here of Terrick Scooble? It was the sort of return I expected. Right down to some of the exact players because to me, it wasn't a mystery at all who was going to end up getting Terrick Scooble. And this is part of what allows the Dodgers to do this is Zai here, hope, and River Ryan were both players that they acquired. They don't let any excess go to waste. They are so efficient in how they manage their assets that if they don't have a use for a Michael Bush, they'll go trade them for some prospects who may become assets for them later. And that's what they did with Zai here, hope. So like, I think hope is probably. You look at where he would look at where he is on some of the rank lists. And I think it's a little too low. I think he's pretty close to top tier in terms of prospects. I mean, partly that's because he had a monster July. He hit like 380 with 11 homers. And he's got a ton of power. It's both very hard, good plate discipline, athletic, and steel bases. And I think this move makes it likely he's on the tiger. Maybe from even the start of next year. I think it'll be a topic of conversation next spring for them. With the Dodgers, you know, he would have had to compete with Thalfielders on the Major League roster plus, you know, they're still loaded without field prospects after this trade. They have Mike Sarota. They have Josue D'Aula, James Tibz, and Eduardo Cantero, who's very high in prospect, a little further back from those other three. But yeah, so it kind of reduces the clutter there. Maybe gives one of those guys a path with the Dodgers. They could still trade another one. or two for something else potentially. And it gives you here hope a clearer path with the Tigers. As for River Ryan, again-- Controversial. Controversial because he's 27. And you don't often see prospects who are 27. Though that's partly because he's had his health issues in the miners and partly because the Dodgers excess has made it so they haven't really needed to call them up. He's currently sideline by hamstring injury. So I'm not saying we're going to see him tomorrow. But I do expect we're going to see River Ryan make a starter to before the season is done. And presumably he'll have a clear path to a rotation spot next spring. And he's pretty good. I think he would be considered a high end prospect if not for the fact he was 27. Even being 27, he's on most top 100 lists. And I think when you're talking about pictures, especially, and you're not talking about-- you should never think about a 10-year timetable for a picture anyway. At most, I think you can think three years in the future for any picture. So the difference between a 27-year-old prospect and a 23-year-old prospect isn't really that great when you're talking about how much these guys get her and just change as time goes on. I think downgrading him significantly because he's 27 doesn't really make a ton of sense. You downgrade him a little bit. But this has been an ongoing conversation in the prospect world. This season about how to handle River Ryan, depending on who you ask. He was 21 at fan graphs, so overall. So they really believe that River Ryan's a very, very good prospect. I think he probably is. The inability to stay healthy, though, is a big concern, especially recurring hamstring injuries. That's not something that you expect to be an issue moving forward for a picture. But it's kind of wrecking his season right now, as we're talking, because he hasn't pitched in a month, right? Yeah, he's been out since June with a hamstring injury. So at least it's not arm related, but he did have Tommy John surgery back in 2024. He missed all of last season. And obviously, it has dealt with some stuff this year, but most recently, it's a hamstring. I do think we'll probably see River Ryan up with the Tigers at some point. Maybe it's like a late August September type thing. And we'll see if he can give us something to be excited about for fantasy next season. What is next for the Tigers? My guess is that Casey Meyers will be traded, likely some relievers as well. It does open up some spots in their rotation. So I think Ty Madden is a deep name to watch. He's pitched well, mostly in relief this season, but 240 ERA 103 Whip, nearly 10K per 9, 11.8% swinging Shrek rate. And don't forget about Jackson Job, former top prospect. He's working his way back from Tommy John surgery. Most recently got up to four innings at AA. He allowed just one run, four Shrek got to two walks. He got up to 54 pitches. And I think we probably see him at some point in August. So Chris, do you have interest in stashing Jackson Job right now? Yeah, I mean, Jackson Job, there's a lot of similarities between Jackson Job and Andrew Painter. Except I think Job's painter's regression happened after he had Tommy John surgery. And Job's happened right before. We saw him in the majors last season. He just didn't miss nearly as many bats as you would expect, given the quality of the, the quality of the apparent stuff, I guess. But yeah, he's a young pitcher with a live arm and a really good feel for spin, who we've seen succeed in the minors. So I will be excited about Jackson Job with some trepidation whenever he gets called up. But I think it should be within the next couple of weeks. I think he'll definitely be in the tiger's rotation when it happens. And maybe it never works out for him, but he's still young enough that I'm going to be pretty interested in Jackson Job whenever he's back. And I think I'd rather just stash Job over River Ryan just because he's on the aisle. So it's easier to pull off, right? Yeah, I assume Jackson Job is on the major league aisle, I guess. That's, yeah, because he got hurt when he was on there. So yeah, that makes sense. Are there any other fantasy angles that you guys can think about with this trade? I feel like we've probably hit all of them, but is there anything else we didn't mention? No, I mean, I think it highlights what Scott said. The Dodgers have a really crowded outfield situation, looming, I guess. To ask her, Hernandez, I believe, has signed for two more seasons after this one, Kyle Tucker. God, she's got options after every year, right? Hard to imagine he's going to-- I can't imagine he's going to opt out with the way this season's gone. So I said that about Alex Breggman once upon a time, too. And I don't know. It kind of depends how the new CBA turns out, probably. And then-- To ask her, has this one more year after this one? OK, just one more year. And then-- And then Andy Pahes is their long term, obviously. And then Zacher Hope is-- I think if you're thinking about a comp, Riley Greene's probably not a bad comp for the kind of player he is. In terms of real life value, hopefully a better defensive player. I think he's kind of viewed as a guy who can place inner field right now, but probably isn't long for there. But he doesn't have athleticism to do it. So-- I think I'll have better off-- --be green and probably more base stealing. But obviously, Riley Greene is a good outcome, and not every top prospect pans out, obviously. But I think the theoretical ceiling for Hope is higher than green. And yeah, I think the questions that kept at the starting pitcher position for the Dodgers will start to be an issue at some point, maybe. Like that require Shoei Otani to get healthy and Blake snelt to not get her. And Tyler Glass now to not get her. And for none of the other guys to get her and their pitchers, someone probably gets hurt between now and September. So even though it looks like-- I would say I'm a she-in as probably the clearest example of someone who will be out of the rotation in this situation. There's not a guarantee there. All right, let's take a quick break. And when we return, we will talk about this trade from a real life baseball perspective, because there is a lot going on there. And plus, we will wrap up quickly talk about Luis Castillo getting traded over to the White Sox, because we are one step closer to getting Kate Anderson. So we'll take a break, and we'll be back right after this. Welcome back, fantasy baseball today again, the big news. Tariq School traded over to the Dodgers, and they did it again. Following up an offseason where they signed the top hitter available, the top reliever available, they traded for the best starting pitcher in baseball. Now anything can happen in the playoffs. Yada, yada, we've heard it a million times. The Blue Jays probably should have won the World Series last year, if not for some unlikely crazy heroics later on in that game seven. But in all likelihood, the Dodgers are headed back to another World Series. Very likely could win a third consecutive championship. Baseball was always headed for a lockout on December 1. This just seems to make it that much more likely. So I'll throw it your guys way. Honestly, I should have been recording like 10 minutes before because you guys were just going off, and it was great. It was honestly good animated. I was dropping some salty language in my anger. So I don't know if we want to have more of that. I told you, Claudio. I told you earlier that last week, I said, prepare your heart. I still like to believe. I still like to believe good things can happen. Call me an optimist. You didn't prepare your heart. All right, here is the thing about this situation. You want to talk about this situation in a way that I think highlights what makes me mad, right? But professional baseball teams in theory, the way we all think about it, are competing with one another for a scarce resource, the World Series, right? That is the way we, ideally, that is the way this system would work, right? The teams, there's one World Series every year, and the 30 teams are trying to do it. And they just saw the best team in baseball, the team that has won two World Series in a row, get the best pitcher in baseball, one of the, I don't know, 20 best pitchers I've ever seen in my life. They just got him for nothing that will hurt their chances of winning this World Series this year, and probably not anything that will hurt their chances of winning any World Series in the future. - Yep. - They're the only team in position to do that. - All right, the way, which is why. - That's a different point, we can get to that. I just want to, let me get my point, I'm cooking. And so in theory, these 30, the other 29 teams should be upset about this, right? I think we would all agree that that is the world we want for the other 29 teams to look at the Dodgers, getting terrorist school and being meant, man, that stinks for us, 29 teams that are trying to win the World Series. Okay, fine, it's August 2nd. A bunch of those teams know they can't win the World Series. There should be 12 teams that are like darn, our chances of winning the World Series just got worse. Part of what anger is me is, I think like 27 teams, maybe 29 teams, just looked at that and said, yes, the Dodgers got terror schoolable and it costs them nothing. And this makes it look like the Dodgers have an unfair advantage that we can use to bully the players in negotiations this spring. And like one, that sucks. Just straight up, that should not be the thing that we as baseball fans are thinking about or caring about. That is just, it sucks that that's a thing. We should not have to think about that. I'm sorry, I just wanna watch baseball. I hate having to talk about CBA stuff. That's just, that stuff, it is so stupid that I have to care about that as a baseball. And I understand that I do, and especially in my job, there are after effects for all of this stuff. It just sucks that like, I don't think most of the other teams in baseball are upset about the Dodger getting Terrick's school. I think they kind of want this to happen. And the ones that don't are fine with it because most of them want to salary cap this off season. And this makes it more likely that they will get that. Even though, Terrick's school will go into the Dodgers right now, has nothing to do with a salary cap. Like it's just straight up, like this, this will be used to make the argument for why the Dodgers, we need a salary cap to stop the Dodgers, but every team in baseball can afford to spend $10 million on Terrick's school, whether it makes sense for them in their competitive window or not, fine, whatever. But there was no $10 million. That's what he's doing. - Oh, I was just saying this year. - Yeah, sure. - There is no financial reason that any team, I don't care the raise, the Marlick, the Guardians, every single team in baseball can afford to come up with $10 million. That, I think that's uncontroversial. Whether they should do that within their competitive window, that's a totally fine point. But the money is, but the money has nothing to do with this. So like the idea that all a salary cap will help. This has nothing to do with it. And they're going to use this. - And an indirect way a salary cap would help. - Not really, like the reason the brewers didn't trade for Terrick's school will isn't because of the $10 million. And I don't think a salary cap, it's a broader, you're like, it's obviously a much bigger picture than that. - Yeah, they are trickled down of that. - Right now I want to start down with the fact that you're good. - Right, no, no, no, no, no, I'm not really good. It's fine. But it's just like, you look at a team like the brewers. And I think the brewers are, honestly, I think they're cowards for not going to get Terrick's school. Like maybe they tried and the, maybe they tried and the Tigers just didn't like their offer, whatever. I think you are the brewers. You are a 93 to 97 win team every year for like what, six straight years and they won one year where they were like an 83 win team. But other than that, they have consistently been a really good team. And then you compare what they do in the regular season to what they do in the post season, which generally speaking is nothing. This is supposed to be a really good team. If you look at just regular season results over the past three or four years, the Dodgers are not a significantly better team than the brewers. And yet the Dodgers have one world series. And the brewers have one divisional series championships one time, actually. That's because they lost in the wild card round twice. They got swept by the Dodgers and the NLCS last year. Okay, the Dodgers are better. Fine, I agree the Dodgers are better. But part of why the Dodgers are better than the brewers is that the brewers spend 162 games min maxing everything. Their pitchers generally go five innings. They dominate for five innings. And then they pull them out before the diminishing returns of pitching deep into games come. They frankly, I think Pat Murphy probably overuses his best relievers, but he probably has to do that to maximize their chances winning. And I think that's reasonable. They are one of the smartest teams about platooning and playing matchups in the regular season. And this is all why they can win 95 games. Even though if you look at projection systems, the talent on the team is probably more like a mid 80s. But they are very good at maximizing what they do. The problem is that stuff doesn't matter in the playoffs nearly as much when everybody's doing it. The brewers treat the regular season like other teams treat the playoffs. And I think that is why when the playoffs come, the brewers suddenly underperform. But I don't think that's what it actually is. I think their talent level is not that great. They're very talented. I know brewers fans get very upset about this. Well, they're fairly smart. Well run organization that maximizes what they have. The problem is they don't have near the top end talent of a team like the Dodgers. - No but-- - And nobody ever has. - Well, they just let the Dodgers get Tarek's scooble. - Yeah. - A move that doesn't really help the Dodgers that much. - No. - But it keeps him away from the teams that the Dodgers will play. And that is part of what is so frustrating about how the other teams-- - What's frustrating? - Operating is that-- - It's frustrating, but here's the thing. Everybody behaved rationally in this. Everybody did the Dodgers behave rationally. - I don't think the Brewers behave rationally. - The Tigers behave rationally. - I don't think everything-- - I think the Brewers have been happening. - Getting scooble behaved rationally. - I disagree. - Because what are the odds if the Brewers get Tarek's scooble that they actually win the World Series? Still vanishingly small. - That's true, that's true for everyone. That's true for every trade that has ever been made in major league history. - What separates the reason why, and I saw people commenting on this, the reason why I said the Dodgers were the only team in the position to do this, is because they don't rely on a pipeline of cheap talent to content, and the Brewers do, the Rays do. Most any other organization that could have matched the Dodgers in terms of prospect capital do. So it would be an all-in move on their part any year where there is still this juggernaut, the Dodgers, that they're probably not gonna overcome. There's a chance, sure, but there's already a chance. There is an element of the playoffs that is a crap shoot, and that is philosophically something I've always subscribed to, just get to the playoffs, things could break your way. That should be a goal as often as you can do it. I think it's less a crap shoot because this Dodgers team is such a juggernaut, because they have stockpiled so much elite talent, it still could theoretically happen, like you said, Frank, the Blue Jays almost beat them, maybe should have beat them last year, but I don't think it is as pure of a crap shoot as it usually is. So-- - But in part, that's because the Brewers aren't trying to maximize their-- it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. Yes, the Dodgers are favored. Yes, the Dodgers have a better chance of winning the World Series in the Brewers, but that would be significantly less true if instead of throwing change rowing out in a playoffs start, where he's gonna go three and a third innings and they're gonna have to make it up the rest of the way, 'cause that's how it's gonna happen. We know that's how it's gonna happen. We've seen this reward calculation, and I think-- - I think, but if the Brewers are not currently set up to make an all-in move, then they are never going to do that, and that sucks. Like the Brewers are literally-- - No, that gets back to your point about-- - The Brewers have the cheap talent right now. Like that's the whole thing. They have the cheap talent. They have the minor league depth. The Brewers do not have an obvious need at the major league level, except for starting digits. - Well, they're constantly, players are pricing themselves out and you need to have cheaper options to replenish them. That's part of the cycle of contention, though the Waves not Windows approach to building a team. And I think the Brewers are following it. I mean, partly, they're trading away for Eddie Peralta, they're ace, during a contention window and have remained a first-place team. That's how a smaller market team like that is able to remain so competitive year after year. And theoretically, if there wasn't a juggernaut like the Dodgers, they get themselves to the postseason every year. One of these years is gonna break their way and they're gonna win it. Plus, you keep fan interest up as long as you're competitive. Like if you have to go through a rebuilding phase, like that is hard to pull yourself out of. And I don't think organizations like to do that anymore. - Right, but where, where, getting back, what is the obvious need that they can't be trading from? Because they, like, this is my question. Like if the Brewers are not currently with the tons and tons of cheap, controllable talent that they currently have. If they are not currently set up to go all in right now, when will they be? Like this, I understand the point you're trying to make, but I think it is just, it is the Brewers saying that we're never gonna do it. If they're not gonna do it right now, I'm sorry, the Dodgers aren't gonna stop having a competitive advantage because the Dodgers have the same, but nobody loves the same crop of cheap young talent that the Brewers do. The Dodgers have the minor league farm system right now in addition to the major, so all the stuff about that Brewers have to extend their competitive window. And that is also true for the Dodgers who will also go get Tarek Scoop and the Brewers won't. - So what is this window? Where it's suddenly gonna make sense for the Brewers to do it. If not for this guy in this moment. - We'll see what the new CBA turns up. This gets back to your point about that. I do think probably there are some owners, it's kind of unfair to just treat an organization as a monolith, and we don't know how anybody at the Brewers organization feels, but let's just use them as an example. It's probably true that some owners around the league are like, yes, we can use this as leverage, But I doubt that Brewer's GM is happy today that the The Dodgers got Tarek scuba. I'm sure he would have loved to, but running his risk reward calculation about what does three or four years down the line look like if we do this now. Yeah. You know, he came to I think a rational conclusion. The same conclusion I would have come to, the same conclusion most organizations. I just, I don't know, man. I look at like, you've got Jesus Made, best short stop processing in baseball, right? Everybody, that's prospecting baseball. Everybody can get it, right? Yep. You've got Bryce Tarek, who is under contract for three more years after this, right? We all agree on that. Cooper Pratt, really good shortstop prospect and incredible defensive player. Looking like a pretty good offensive player right now. He's got like a 770 OPS. That's a really valuable player for the next six years on a minimum contract, providing a bunch of value defensively and on the base paths, looks like he can hold his own in the back. Great player to have around for a long time. Why can't they trade Luis Pena? That's like, it's just inconceivable that three years from now, that it's gonna ruin their organization that they trade Luis Pena when they, when he's all, I don't know that they wouldn't be totally opposed to trading Luis Pena, but it would need to be for more than two months of Tarek's Google. It would need to be like, for instance, when they made the Christian Yellow trade a few years ago. Right, but that's my, but like, you can't, not everything can be for what the impact will be four years ago. You have to try to win games now. But I, I, I, I, like, if they're not here as a fan and say that, but like a GM obviously has to see a much bigger picture than that or else they're fine, but you know, you, they say, all right, that guy's gonna get fired eventually. Like that's you're not gonna have that job forever. Nobody does. Like you, you're gonna get fired as the GM of a team of eventually, but you try not to and like, oh, no, the guy making one last slide. I've fired, but like, it only takes, the truth is like a fan, a fan base is satisfied with the championship for like the first year afterward. And then everybody's doing every art, our organization is run by idiots. I mean, like it doesn't, I understand the point you are making in the aggregate. I understand that you cannot just throw everything away in the future to try to win right now for a low probability thing. That's fine. And that is why I as a Marlins fan, I am not upset that the Marlins didn't trade for Terracool because that would be stupid. It would be stupid for the Marlins to trade Terracool. I agree with that. I am talking specifically about a team like the Brewers. I think you can make the case for the raise as well, given the situations those teams are in. With the redundancies they have both at the major league and minor league level. Like the Brewers have more viable major league bats than they have line up spots right now. I think that's just objectively true. They have guys who could be starting on a lot of teams, playing in part time roles. They also have either the best or the second or maybe the third best minor league system in baseball. If not now, if not in this specific situation, if it does not make sense for this specific team, in this specific situation to try to win a world series, then it never will. Like this is the problem with this thought process, is that the Brewers are specifically, you can say, oh, they have to think about the future. But then you look at the actual guys that the Brewers have at both the major league and minor league level. They have redundancies and I know prospects will fail. I know young players will not develop the way they think. But also if you are the Brewers, you have to have faith in your ability to continue to develop players because that is what you do. That is your strength as an organization. If this team is not willing and able to go get their Excubull right now, when the alternative is that their primary competition in the league goes and gets them, which both increases their opponents chances of winning the world series and lowers their own. If they are not willing and able to do that, I think that's something incredibly bad about the state of baseball right now. And it is not the Dodgers fault. It is, the Dodgers can't get Freddie Freeman. If the Braves don't walk away from the table with Freddie Freeman, the Dodgers can't get Kyle Tucker. If other teams won't make six year offers to Kyle Tucker, the problem with the only guy as far as I'm aware of that the Dodgers have gotten, the Dodgers can't get Moody Betts if the Red Sox don't cheat back and make an all-time bad decision. The only guy I'm aware of that the Dodgers have among their big core who received a comparable offer and chose the Dodgers anyway is Shohei O'Conn. Every other one, the Dodgers were just the best offer. But it's not like the Dodgers were the only team that can go offer Kyle Tucker money. The Dodgers aren't the only team that can trade for Moody Betts. The Dodgers aren't the only team that can trade for Tarrick Scoop. At some point, someone else has to try to win a world series. And that is the problem. Is the Red Sox decided six years ago that clearing their books a year after winning a world series was more important than keeping the second best player and franchise history around. And the Braves decided, well, getting four years younger at first base is more important than keeping Freddie Freeman around. And the Yankees decided that having a lower AAV was more important than getting Yoshinoa Miyamoto. Yes, you can make the case that in every single instance, it was smart for the Yankees to offer an extra year on Yoshinoa Miyamoto's contract to lower the AAV, which made him prefer the Dodgers off. You can make that case. But at some point, it's just that the Dodgers are trying and nobody else is. Well, Chris, there are not consequences to the Dodgers outbidding all those teams and all those circumstances. They don't suffer consequences for it ever. OK, yeah, the Moody Betts-- yeah, I think that was an all-time bad trade and it appeared that way at the time. And it was kind of like the first move in this-- The Braves gained nothing out of letting Freddie Freeman walk. Freddie Freeman-- It's better than Mad Olson. It's been pretty close, though. It's been pretty close. I think it's been better. From a pure-- like, obviously, I'm upset about Freddie Freeman. And I was very upset about him leaving as a fan. But I think it from an on-the-field perspective, like just purely from a baseball perspective, that hasn't been a move that backfired on the pitch. Sure, but it has put it on his own. It's been no risk for the Dodgers, either. Even if they don't say it. Even if they weren't the Dodgers, the Braves could have just done that. But my point is, again, you can make the case than every instance the teams were acting rationally. But I will use a Scott White quote quoting Andrew Friedman. If you are rational about every free agent, you will finish third on every free agent. Every team is acting quote unquote rationally. And the Dodgers are winning the World Series. Every year now. And the Dodgers are acting rationally too. They are dealing with a different-- Right, but other teams have to act irrationally eventually. And not just say, well, in my algorithm, getting Tarek Schuble only increased our chances winning the World Series by 4%. But Luis Pena in five years might-- I don't know that at some point, you just have to try to win. Teams are obviously trying to win. I mean, that you're kind of-- No, they're not. Come on, not every time. You're trying to win in their own way. Not every team is trying to win. Well, not at the moment. But as I think every team has a long-term plan. The brewers, man, even that. But the brewers are trying to win some baseball games. The brewers would rather win 94 baseball games than 83 baseball games. Yes. But clearly-- For good reason. But clearly winning the World Series is not the top priority for them to walk your brewers. Well, it is-- It was they would have done terrible. They would have done terrible. It was they would have done terrible. But it's not a goal. You can make moves that assure you'll be in the playoffs barring something catastrophic. You can't really make moves that assure you're going to win the World Series. Right. Nobody's saying that. Right. Well, OK. But I'm saying, if you put the more times you put yourself in a position to be in the playoffs, the better chance you have of winning the World Series. If you're the brewers, now I mean-- Right. But then they can-- They can just think they're about as a different way. Right. But the brewers and Yankees could go about it a different way. Right. But the brewers can also try to maximize their chances of winning the World Series in any given year. They're just choosing not to. They can-- And that's-- I think that's just objective. They can win one year. They could have-- they could have maybe improved their chances by getting scoobles. Sure. Still would have been a low probability scenario, given the state of the Dodgers. Right. But I just-- And then that would eliminate that option in future years for the brewers. They couldn't just come back and say, oh, we'll get the next scooble. But sure, they can use those resources. Right. But again, if you are the brewers, you should have faith in your ability to continue to develop players just like the Dodgers do. Yeah, but it takes time. It takes time. Right. But they do have that. Right. What is the point of having this great farm system if you're never going to use it? They are going to use it. Maybe. This was not the trade to use it. And it may not be a trade where they use it. It may be graduating those players to the majors and turning them into franchise-- To replace the guys who are already good. It's not going to happen with every single one of them. No. But you keep your options open the more assets you have. Right. But in the future, we might be able to win a world series. [BLANK_AUDIO] we can't try to win a World Series, right? Like I just hate that. They could win, like they could win a World Series right now. I also hate this idea that like, oh, the playoffs are a crap shoot. So you just got to get in there. But also we can't beat the Dodgers. Like, yes, well, yes, I made those two points simultaneously. Yes, I contrasted why it's different this year for most years. We already, we're recovering ground. We've already covered. Yeah, I just, I think they can win a World Series this year and they aren't. Technically, technically still can. Sure, they technically still can. Their chances of doing that are much worse with change rowing as their starter in the playoffs instead of Terri's rule. And also then we, like, let's also add this in. You have Jacob Mizurowski right now. He's healthy, right? How long has he, how long has he not taken the last? We all don't believe he's going to stay healthy, right? None of them believe that Jacob Mizurowski's going to be healthy for the next four years and pitch 180 to 200 innings and be the same guy he is right now. That's almost certainly not going to happen. You have the window right now. It's open. You have Jacob Mizurowski. You cannot act like Jacob Mizurowski is going to be a thing in three years because he probably won't be. That's not how it works. My biggest takeaway here is I really like change rowing. I don't know why he caught so much shade during this podcast. Because he's not Terrick's school. I know, I know. That's also the, like, they have good players. Go out and get the guy. I was just going to get the Terrick school. Well, no, I know he's a good pitcher. They have good players, but they don't have that many great players. They don't have that many guys that can single handedly shift a playoffs. I would argue they have won. They've jickened Mizurowski and you had a chance to double the number of guys that you have who can change a playoff series. And you didn't do it because four years from now, who knows what Luis Pena can be. And I just, I hate that. We don't look at you there. We don't know what the Tigers were asking for either. Sure. Assuming Luis Pena, like a lot of people are saying that it was probable. Pena and Logan Henderson, but even that, I mean, that's a, that's a pretty big deal for the brewers. Sure. That's actually good. I just don't get why it has to be this way. And I understand, like, there will always be big market teams and smaller market teams. And I think this is the root of the problem. And why everyone keeps going back to like salary floor, salary cap is because, okay, the have nots, why can't they just spend more? Like, they can actually spend more. They, they can't spend as much as the Dodgers, which I understand. But every team, every small market team can choose to spend more money than they do. But they choose not to. They'll put themselves in a bad position in the long run. They'll have to go through a rebuild period to make up for that. And that's, that's, the Dodgers broke the system. That's what happened because for, for most of my life, the big market teams, they're kind of just through dollars of people and they, they didn't, they didn't operate their team in a way that maximized efficiency. Like the, what the Dodgers did is they hired a small market GM, hired him away from the rays. And so he, he operates the full organization more like a small market organization. He trades away excess, like I said, for prospects. Like you don't often see. Historically, you don't often see big market teams trading for prospects, but he does that. And then when, but then he has this huge budget and he throws it at the very best thing he can get at the very best thing he can get the one who might actually be worth those Dodgers. Not, okay, this is the best we can do this offseason. But Otani's there. We're going to make sure we get Otani. You know, so it's, it's, they have the small market sensibilities, but they have the big market budget. And we haven't seen a marriage like that. I think the closest we got previously was the Red Sox who themselves had a, with, with Theo Epstein who themselves had a little bit of a dynasty. But the Dodgers have taken it to another level. The Metz have tried, they have tried to do that exact thing, hiring David Sterns away from the Brewers and then throwing a bunch of money at Wanzato. Well, yeah, always work. Wanzato work. But I, but I think like Boba Schetz, the kind of big dollar play that the Dodgers would have known not to do. I mean, that's not necessarily true because they signed Kyle Tucker and he's having a worse season than Boba Schetz or Kyle. That one, that one backfired. But I think at the time we were looking at the dollars they gave Boba Schetz and it just seemed like a desperation play on the Metz part. Like you don't, you don't see these Dodgers make desperation. Yeah, but it's a short, but it's a short term. Like it was a desperation play, but that's because they missed on Kyle Tucker. But like I just, I don't know, man, I, and it gets back to the first point we talked about, which is essentially I think the argument, I guess, is the hope is that the CBA will neuter the Dodgers advantage, right? And that, and then you can go in because the Dodgers are so much better than everyone else right now that it just doesn't make sense to go all in. But in the future, the Dodgers will not have those, but like, I don't want to think about the CBA. I don't care. I don't care. Like we can't just pretend it doesn't exist. Right, but I like it. I want to watch a team look at the Dodgers and say, yeah, they're good. We can beat them. That's supposed to be what sports are about. You know, like nobody like Michael Phelps winning all the gold medals. And like, I guess I should stop training. No reason to get in the pool today. Michael Phelps is going to be me. Like that's not how this is supposed to work. You're supposed to want to beat the guy. You're supposed to look at Goliath and get your slingshot and go after him anyway. And I just, I hate that this is where we are in this sport where teams are just actively looking at it and saying, yeah, we could win a World Series, but the Dodgers have a better chance. So we're not going to try. Yeah, you're looking at it like a game. You're looking at it like a game. That's what I obviously, well, yes, there is a game. I don't want it to be a business. I don't want it to be a business to be the forefront of the conversations that we're having. And I think that's bad. I'm not. That's where we're at. When you say business, it's like profits. And I don't even think it's so much about profits. I think it's about, well, at the end of the day, I guess you could say it is because that determines what every budget, every team's budget is profits ultimately. But when you're just putting yourself in the position of the GM who is just handed a budget and is not really responsible for coming up with it, like it's not even so much just, okay, this is a game versus this is a business. It's, this is survival, you know? Like this is, how are we viable by doing this? It's not just about how do we win today's game. It's how do we sustain this? Yeah, but I also think the brews are already sustainable. And I don't think one trade's going to change that. Like I think that's what I'm going to come up with. I prospect on scubles quickly makes them unsustainable. But I understand, but I understand, but like I think that when you say that, you are ignoring the actual context of the brewers themselves being in a situation where they can afford to actually make that move from a baseball perspective. Like that is why it's so frustrating. That's why I'm not mad at them. Like I said, I'm not mad that the Marlins didn't trade for Terracid School. That would be stupid. But the brewers have the combination of cost-controlled, cheap, young talent. Jackson Tariot doesn't make more than $15 million until 2029. And he's a star. Bryce Tarrang is in his first year of. I'm touched. or potentially. This is the team that should be capable of making that move. And they're just not. And I think that's really bad for baseball. Yeah, it is. It is that. Like I still think they're acting rationally, but like, you know, getting back to, I guess I didn't actually make this point of the podcast I wrote about it last night. I think everybody's acting rationally. You don't think the brewers are acting rationally. I think everybody's acting rationally in this situation. And when you have everybody acting rationally and it still leads to this disappointing of an outcome, that shows that there are flaws in the core fundamental structure of the league that are probably going to have to be addressed in the CBA. So like it. It all leads back to that. And I think this might be a tipping point in a lot of ways. Yeah, I don't know. Maybe the new CBA will legislate outblown elbows and Jacob Mizierowski will stay awesome and their window will stay open forever. But I think they have a window right now and I think they should have gone for it. All right. Well, we can wrap up with some Kate Anderson talk. But look, if you've made it this far, let us know in the comments like, who's more to blame here? Rogers is it the brewers? Should they have gone all in and tried to trade for Tarek's Google? Let us know what you think about that. We will wrap up here. Last consequential trade for fantasy. We'll have a few smaller ones that we'll mention later on on the weekend recap and who knows, maybe we'll even have bigger traits to talk about by then. But the white socks acquired Luis Castillo from the Mariners for relievers or Anthony Dominguez, Alphila or Nolan Jones. That Nolan Jones. And catcher prospect Boston Smith. Luis Castillo is what he is. I think he's like a streamer type at this point in his career. But the biggest talking point is that we are one step closer to Kate Anderson being in Seattle. I think there's a chance they can call him up right now and go that continue all with the six-man rotation. But we're also continuing to hear rumors that they're listening on Emerson Hancock. They're now listening on George Kirby. So I think Kate Anderson should be up with the Mariners very, very soon, like as soon as this week's soon. Yeah, it could be. They might choose to wait a couple weeks. I think August 4th. 14th is the point where there's 45 days remaining in the season, they can go five man in the meantime, 'cause Luis Castillo, removing him, just takes them from six man to five man. They were already overloaded. So they might choose to do that, but they're kind of fighting for their lives right now. They are, to the extent they're trying to win, Chris. It probably helps to have Kate Anderson make a couple more starts rather than waiting a couple weeks. I don't know which way they're gonna go, but I could see it going either way, and obviously Kate Anderson with this trade needs to be, he probably already should have been rostered everywhere, but now it's definitely a must must must must. - Yeah, what's he like, 65% right now? That should be pretty close. And part of me wonders, I don't know what the plan for Kate Anderson is, obviously, I'm not on the Mariners front office, but he's only pitching every seven days anyway. So they might just need to stick with the six man rotation either way. - Just to keep them on that schedule, but there's still rumors of like George Kirby team showing interest and Emerson Hancock has been brought up as enough. So they still may move another arm and go five men that way, but to your point, when it necessarily be bad for Kate Anderson to go six man. - Just a reminder, the updated numbers for Kate Anderson this season in 16 starts at AA, 120 ERA, 0.66 whip, 13 K per nine, 36% K minus walk rate, 18.6% swinging strike rate. For reference, Jacob Mizierowski leads the majors this season, 34% K minus walk, 18% swinging strike rate. Obviously, it's much more impressive to do that at the major league level, but just to kind of give you an idea, the dominance that Kate Anderson has put forth this season in the minors is very comparable to what Jacob Mizierowski has done. - How about the majors? - How about this one? He's made 16 starts. He's given up more than one run in three of them. He's given up more than two runs once. - Yeah, more than half of the runs he's given up coming one start. - It's just under half now. Five out of the 11 earned runs he's given up came in one start on May 15th. So whoever's on the Royals AA squad, stand up, make yourselves heard. (laughs) - All right, we are going to wrap there. Different looked in what you're used to on an emergency podcast, but obviously just massive, massive trade for fantasy, for real life baseball, lots of different talking points. And I was happy to sit back and say, "You guys go at it because I think it's good in here." - There's about 20 minutes where Frank didn't say anything. - Yeah, honestly, I was going to grab a pillow and just lay on my desk for you guys to talk it, but it's all good. We will be back a little bit later on. For SkyCris, I am Frank. Thanks as always for tuning in to fantasy baseball today. Please make sure to follow and leave a five-star rating on Apple or Spotify and we will be back later. Say, bye-bye. (upbeat music) - Paramount podcasts. - Hello and welcome to Pluto fo. If you know the name of the movie you'd like to see, just stream it for free on Pluto TV. 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