Chapter 1: What are Buster Olney's thoughts on spring training optimism?
when we get to the park and I see Buster and all the ESPN people. So you like spring training? What's going on? Oh, sure. People are in good moods, right? Right. And in September, they all hate us. It's true. I'm kidding. No? But I know, I think that when spring training begins, everyone has a perfect batting average. Everyone has hopes. Everyone has a perfect DRA.
And then when the season starts, the perspectives begin to shift. And so I do. I love spring training. Players are more open. They are more open. They have more time. Yes. You know, it's another thing. Because you know, when you get in the season, time is such like a commodity for these guys. It's crazy. And so it's between being optimistic, between... Good moods between time. All of it's great.
Hope. Hope. Lots of hope. Okay, so tell me this. Yeah. I want to get to, by the way, I do want to, I'm going to put this in your head. I do want to have you predict the MVP because I remember what you predicted when we caught up last year. I'll resurface that. Oh, boy. No, no, no. Your instincts were keen. Okay. It didn't happen. Okay. Listen, we only shoot the shots.
We can only make the shots we shoot. Right. So when you look at the teams that have hope, OK, the Dodgers obviously have the most hope. But then there's, well, we can do this and this will work. And I think that that there's hope. Hope is building through the first three weeks of spring training for you.
I guess it's my way of saying, what team do you look at now that maybe you're starting to look at a little bit differently? So I think you would agree with me on this. To pick a team other than the Dodgers to win the World Series, you're making stuff up. Right? I mean, isn't that the way that it feels? You're kind of like, just kind of find reasons.
Because the Dodgers are the clear favorite, and everybody knows that. So then the question becomes, what team do you think has the best shot to unseat them? And that's certainly not impossible. We saw the Toronto Blue Jays come within two outs of doing it last fall. Seattle is really, really interesting to me. They took a big step forward last year. They played deep into the ALCS.
They go out in the offseason. I think they had a very underrated offseason, re-signing Josh Naylor, trading for Brendan Donovan. They got some young guys on the way, Kate Anderson, Colt Emerson, the infielder, Kate Anderson, someone who could come out of the bullpen maybe in a big spot in October or maybe he's part of the rotation. So they're really interesting to me. And
You know, we've seen the Astros basically have this decade-long dominance of the American League West. That's now over. I think the Mariners have a chance to do that with Julio Rodriguez, Cal Raleigh, that pitching for most of the next decade. And also, you know, I was up in Blue Jays camp and there is that element of
You come to spring training, everyone puts the stool in the middle of the room and it's like, we're going to do this or we're going to do that. Well, you don't know. Still, you don't know how it works.
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Chapter 2: Which teams have the best chance to challenge the Dodgers in 2026?
You don't know what's going to happen. You don't know if you can do it. The Blue Jays were walking around like, we know how this works. We know that we can do it. And I think the Mariners are probably the same way. There's all those years of the twists and turns of the Mariners where something would always happen, but now we're like, okay. Like, we can do this.
And by the way, to your point, I'm thinking through it, yes, what a great offseason, right? Yes. So, yeah. So you've probably seen that, too, where you had a team, you have this team, and then all of a sudden they realize that, well, we can do this, right? Well, can I cut you off on the MVP question? Again, Aaron Judge is a clear favorite, beginning in his production, okay?
But if you want to go off the board, Vladimir Guerrero Jr. Like, in my time covering baseball, I've never seen a player grow in stature over the course of seven weeks the way he did last year. Hmm. where Bobachet gets hurt in early September, and then Vladdy basically, from that point forward, puts the Blue Jays on his back. He was the best hitter I've ever seen in a postseason.
I mean, just raking, line drives all over the place.
Chapter 3: How did the Blue Jays perform last season and what can we learn from them?
What was it, eight homers and 18 games or some crazy thing? He was hitting shots. During the winter, I called Andrew Freeman, head of baseball ops with the Dodgers, Dave Roberts, and asked them about facing Vladdy, and they both talked about how looking across the field to see the way that he was encouraging the other players and doing everything.
Andrew Friedman said, I've never seen an opposing player do more to win than what I saw in Vlade during the World Series. Oh, wow. That's a great compliment. I think he's going to build off what happened last October and have a huge year. I'm glad you brought him up. I mean, this sort of dovetails with what we were talking about. You never know until you know. Right.
And we had Ross Atkins on and said, you know, you want to sign the guy. You sign him for what you think you need to sign him because he's a really, really good player. But you don't know all the other stuff. How are they ever going to know how he's going to react on the biggest stage, in the biggest moments during this playoff run, right? I mean, I'm so glad you brought that up.
So, you know, during our time covering baseball, let's just say that in recent, you know, the last decade, 15 years, best baseball leader, C.C. Sabathie was definitely one of those. Kyle Schwarber, definitely one of those. I think Aaron Judge is one of those. And I had this conversation with both C.C. and with Judge. And I said, you know, people, when they think of leaders...
you know, you're not 21, 22, walking in the room going, yeah, I'm the guy. Well, I say, I call it the Rudy in the stool speech, right? Come on, fellas. Right, exactly. You're not doing that. That comes over an evolution of time, and then a moment comes forward, and that's what happened to Vladdy in those seven weeks. Like, he's the guy. He got the $500 million contract.
He's always been a player we've been aware of because he's been a good hitter, but the way he ran the bases, the defense, the double play in
the seventh game uh the way he was hitting i i do i think he went from being a star to being in that uh you know the the inner circle you know top three to five guys it's interesting looking back at like again the defense was that's another thing people didn't understand i think people probably who hadn't watched him say oh yeah it was a third baseman he had to move to first because of whatever right but boy he was a good first baseman and and also buster he was the guy
Even think more than Otani for me, that when he came up... Oh, totally. It was something as good as going to happen for that guy and that team. Right. I mean, Shohei's the greatest player we've ever seen, and I think that can't be questioned. However, during last year's postseason, there were periods of time where he was struggling, which is baseball, right? Right. Vladdy...
the way he performed in the biggest games, on the biggest stage, the way he was pulling other players along, all the way across, like running the bases. There were moments in that series against Seattle where he was making great decisions. And I talked to four or five people about that double play he made in game seven for a right-handed first baseman to make a decision that quickly.
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Chapter 4: Why is Vlad Guerrero Jr. underrated in the current MLB landscape?
We think back a year ago. He played in five spring training games, Buster. Wow. He played in five spring training games, and then he struck out 15 of 19 times to begin the year. I remember that. Like, that's what, like, we have to, like, we go back a year ago how things have changed so much.
So now, as we sit here, and once those cleared, I don't know, like, Kyle Tucker was going to be a free agent, and it wasn't like everyone was on the watch of God. But now we have Tarek Skubal, right? Oh, yeah. Hey, this is Richard Deitch, the host of the Sports Media Podcast.
If you're interested in what's happening with all the places where you consume sports, the Sports Media Podcast has you covered. I've been turning down interviews all week. Hoda Kotb reached out, Oprah, George Stephanopoulos. So I said, no, I was booked on the Deitch podcast before the Taylor Swift phenomenon. I must live up to my responsibility. Listen wherever you get your podcasts. Right.
He's the be all end all. Yep. So I'm anxious to get your perspective of this because I always said if you have a guy like that, like a Juan Soto, you go into it, you say, this is pretty much what we can do. Not necessarily the absolute what we can do, pretty much what we can do. And get a feel if there's a sign. And if you can't, then you've got to trade him, right?
And I know that the team's good and they're going for it. I go back to Mookie or other examples. But you don't want to be left high and dry, and you don't want to be – you don't want to have this sort of like false – A player of high value and not get anything for him. Exactly. So what's your – that's my long-winded way of saying Tarek's school, but what's your take on that?
He's going to play the year with the Tigers. Tigers are going to be great. I've been around him in recent days. Kevin McGonigal is going to win American League Rookie of the Year here. He looks unbelievable. Just incredible. I don't know if you saw the game he played against the DR last night. First, what, 437-foot home run, two more hits. You'll love this.
I talked to an evaluator with another team, and I said, who does he remind you of? He goes, Dustin Pedroia. Oh, really? That guy is a grinder. Like he's listed at 5'10". He's more like 5'8". And he's got the energy. His favorite player growing up was Chase Utley. You know, he's a Pennsylvania guy. And so he that's the style he plays. He's going to have a big impact.
So I think the Tigers are going to contend. You know, during the winter, a lot of our peers are writing, well, the Tigers, you know, they might consider trading Scooble at the deadline. And I'm laughing because I'm like, there is no. No chance. You're going to go to your clubhouse, to your fan base, and you're in the middle of this very winnable American League Central.
And I think they're going to win by five, six games. But let's say they're a game out. You're going to say, yeah, we're going to make our team better by trading the guy who might be the best pitcher on the planet. No chance. No chance. If you were going to trade him, it had to be November, December, January. Kevin McGonigal, by the way, Sam Dykstra, MLB Pipeline, does an awesome job.
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Chapter 5: What makes the AL East the most competitive division in baseball?
Number one, you have to have the pitching, the best case scenario, the pitching. But also, it stresses everybody, man. Like, if you don't hit the home runs, you need the home runs to take off the stress every once in a while. No doubt about it. Like, I love the Red Sox, the design of the Red Sox team for a short series. This is what we saw with Toronto last year, right, in the postseason.
We loved them because they would put the ball in play. You could move runners. But over 162 games, you know, the late, great Davey Johnson, manager, he said, I want those big, hairy-chested guys. Like, who are going to put a three-run homer into the seats? Because the Yankees have those. Oh, yeah. Right? Yeah, yeah. Blue Jays have some of that.
They've got Vladdy, who's not, like, judged in terms of, you know, pure power. But, you know, the question is, with the Red Sox, can they keep Roman... Wilson playing 150 games, and if that's okay, then yeah. Because I think Roman Anthony, you know this, people are already talking about Roman Anthony among the best hitters in baseball.
Like he's an impact guy, but they're not those big thumpers the way that you're seeing with some of the other teams. And I hate, he's 21 years old. Like, he's hitting leadoff. He's 21 years old. Right. But you need the outfits. Like, you need the outfits. Like, we talked about Vlad. You talked about Judge.
You know, I actually thought Pete Alonso, all the talk of Bregman, I think Pete Alonso would have been even a better fit. Yeah. You know, because, you know. You know, in the end, would you have rather spent $150 million on Pete Alonso or $155 million than $130 million on Ranger Suarez? Yeah. I mean, I don't think there's a question. There you go.
I think that Ranger Suarez was almost a luxury item. I've never seen a player sign for $130 million that nobody's paying attention to. And that's no knock on Ranger Suarez. But no one's saying, I got the Ranger Suarez ticket. And also in an organization where they legitimately have the deepest well of starting pitching in baseball.
And that will become of use at some point, either in trade or during the regular season. But you could have made that... Yeah, and you can't tell me that if you say Pete Alonzo, and Pete Alonzo will say, I'm full of hooey, probably, but if you offer him the same, the wife's from Massachusetts and whatever. What's done is done with Pete Alonzo. Right, right.
So you have Yankees, Blue Jays, Red Sox, Orioles. Orioles and Rays. Wait until Nick Martinez and Steven Matz are in the Cy Young competition. I say that. I am so looking forward to seeing what happens. And Junior Caminero in the MVP conversation. Oh, Junior Caminero. Yeah, exactly. So we're going to be looking up at the end of April, and the Rays are going to be in first place.
And we're going to be like, what? Which will be awesome. It'll be awesome. Anyway, so I wanted to come finish by rekindling or resurfacing your MVP pick. I haven't forgot it because I agreed with you at the time. Eli De La Cruz was Eli De La Cruz. Oh, my God. But I think that, number one, it's okay. It's okay, Buster. But it's also an example of how we view guys, right?
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