Chapter 1: What are the highlights from Day 1 of the Winter Meetings?
We're in the winter meetings. We're in the winter meetings. Look at you. You're dressed like in case anyone wants to go on YouTube, they can see you in a pink suit. Is that pink? Mauve. Mauve. I was going to say a guave, but yeah, it's mauve. You may be the best dressed person at the winter meetings. I think so. Yeah, no, I'll take it.
I'm not even lying. Yeah, I'll take it. I mean, I don't know what you're doing, but.
Hey, listen, I listen. My brand's never been hotter. It's never been hotter. Never been hotter. You know, got to do TV. You got to take it seriously. You know, you got to you got to dress for the occasion. It's winter meetings. We're in Orlando. A lot of stuff's happening. It's not happening. A lot of stuff is happening. We got to be able to take advantage of this.
So we go into every winter meetings and we say, oh, things are going to happen. Things are going to happen. Now, they have a built-in press conference. This is smart. Built-in press conference on Tuesday with Dylan Cease. Congratulations to the Toronto Blue Jays. So you have that at least. You know that you're going to use that. They had a big press conference.
Manfred, get up there with Nelson Cruz and some other people to do this big press conference about... The Dominican WBC team playing two games in the Dominican against the Detroit Tigers in the first week of March. Eye wash. Oh, sorry.
With all due respect to, like, Albert Pujol in the crowd. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Come on. Like, this is the big leagues. Yeah. This could be safe for spring training. Like, this is... Winter meetings is about transactions, trades... uh, free agency. Like, let's get to that. Yeah. So let's get to that.
So, yeah. So when you walk in the hallways, you wake up this morning, you jump out of bed and run into the hallways of whatever this place is called in Orlando. And what is the thing that, as we sit here, that your biggest takeaway? Because ultimately, as we sit here also, there wasn't any big trades or sign-ins or anything like that, which isn't out of the ordinary on the first day. Sure.
So what was your take? What was the Julian McWilliams takeaways?
You know what? So I was in the Phillies press conference. No, no, with the... Dombrowski. Dombrowski, their media day, whatever, their get-together.
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Chapter 2: How does Kyle Schwarber's free agency impact the offseason?
Okay, thanks. Wow, the writers actually have something to write. That's great.
And then he's talking about specific guys who they might actually part ways with, right?
Yeah. Max Kepler, gone. Nick Castellanos, we're still gone. We're trying to get him out of here. And I'm just sitting there with my jaw on the floor because I'm like... I haven't heard this. In my years covering the game, you obviously heard it because you covered him. I got there right before he got whacked. I mentioned this earlier.
I still default to it. It was one of the all-timers where he says, and this was, I think, actually at the GM meetings that year, where he's like, we're going to sign an ace and we're going to trade for a closer.
Chapter 3: What insights were gained from the Phillies press conference?
And within a couple weeks, they signed David Price and they traded for Craig Kimbrell. Amazing. And you basically, like, The great thing about covering that is that you don't have to guess. We are guessing all over the place.
Chapter 4: What is Dave Dombrowski's approach to team decisions?
Oh, gosh.
Can I ask you this? Does it feel like this offseason, maybe more than any, that the reporting is just way too generic?
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yes. Yes. Yes, absolutely. Like, I mean, even down to like where Kyle Tucker is going to go. And I know somebody got that wrong, but it's fine. You know, it happens. But I mean, again, like it's it's we're looking at this situation. We're saying, how can we make this sport more entertaining? Right. And I think the entertainment value falls a lot of times a free agency.
Like if you look at basketball, like. That's a season of its own. It's like three days or whatever, two days. They need to figure out. I know it's a lot more roster spots, but I think they need to figure out a way to minimize the amount of days that guys can be free agents in baseball to make it a little bit more entertaining for the fan base.
It's like, you know, I said the lockout was awesome. It's like they're saying COVID was awesome. But I feel like the lockout was awesome because you had the deadline. Everyone knew that was an awesome offseason, but the players will never go for it. No, no. We need to do it on our timetable.
Yeah, and I think that's... While you have us here sitting in, you know, on day one, whatever. And you did mention it's day one. Stuff doesn't happen on day one. We did see Soto get signed last year. We did see Otani years past. We did see Garrett Cole sign his huge contract as well. But. We got to figure out a way to spice this up, Rob.
I mean, we can't just, me and you just can't be at the fulcrum of the entertainment value for the sport.
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Chapter 5: How are teams evaluating their prospects during the Winter Meetings?
He's like, dude, give me my money. I want to play. You know what I mean? It's really no... There's no BS with that guy.
So what's his sense? What's the vibe you get from... You mentioned a little bit about Dombrowski. What's the vibe you get when it comes to his take on Schwarber?
I generally think he doesn't know. And I generally think that because you never hear him say that. Yeah. But look, I think they figure out a way... to get that done because you look at that lineup, right? They're already very lefty dominant and most of their power comes from the left-hand side. They don't have much power from them. Alec Boehm, he doesn't get it done, right?
Like Trey Turner, he's not a home run hitter. They were talking to Ron Thompson about it in there. He was like, do you teach guys to hit for power? He's like, no, that's because that's where you get bad habits. If they hit for power, they hit for power. A lot of times you are who you are. So... They need that bat, right?
They talk about right-handed hitters, but they need a left-handed hitter with some thumb, too.
Also, you talk about turning that thing, giving the enema to that roster. You don't need – people forget, Julian, this team was like the best team in baseball for half the year, basically. And everyone was applauding them for what a great clubhouse they have, what this and that. And, like, you can't – you've got to be carefully blowing that up.
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You know, but I think he's Dombrowski's basically saying like, hey, we're going to give them a competitive offer. But the ball is essentially in there. Yeah, that's what it that's what it sounded like. But there is going to be, I think, them depending on younger talent. for them to get him through.
And I don't think it's a situation where it's like, hey, we're going to let these guys develop at the big league level. And sure, that's going to happen naturally. But I think Dombrowski genuinely thinks these guys can come up and contribute.
Yeah, I mean, he's not the type where it's all about winning now. So if you had to, is there anything else like roaming the hallways other than the overpriced food or the well-meaning job seekers or the gazing out the window, staying at the lazy river saying, by Thursday I'm going to be on one of those inner tubes floating around.
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Chapter 6: What challenges do teams face in the current free agency market?
because maybe I feel bad for them, is still the Toronto Blue Jays. I mean, it's like because Their story is so awesome, and they're going to be celebrated on Tuesday with Dylan Cease and Good for them. And they also understood, like, hey, listen, we need pitching, so Dylan Cease isn't the perfect pitcher, but he's head and shoulder the best pitcher we can get.
Let's just go out and get it. Let's just go out and get it. Let's just go out and get it. We got the money.
Let's just go out and get it. So it took us some time. We did all the bullshit, like under the hood shit, you know, like –
you know like the building the Oz out in Dunedin and so you did all that now you got to the doorstep on Otani's visiting Dunedin Sasaki visiting so you're almost there you're almost there then boom you actually show everybody it's pretty awesome you were up in Toronto it's pretty awesome to be up in Toronto and to win up there to have all the facilities and so now
Not only do we have all that, but we have as much money as they are. And no one wants to say this, but they're not the level of the Dodgers, but they're not far off. That's the model.
And look, the Dodgers are getting older. They're going to have to figure out a way to retool as well. I mean, what's Mookie going to be, 33 years old? Vlad Jr. is in a good space. If they re-sign Bo Bichette, he's in a good space. Those guys are...
coming i think and i think they're going to be here for a long while and i mean in good for them but but again like i think one thing you need to mention though is canadian dollars so that's it's a little bit well it's well go take a look at dylan seats his contract yeah i bet there's like and then he probably lives in arizona well no he lives in florida he's been paid in florida it's like it's all a thing yeah yeah it's like there's ways around it it's not like when you and i are going to the loose and he says you know the one thing i love about here
is that it says $60, but it's actually $40. But it was true. It tricks your mind.
Then we went from the cheapest place in the world to Vegas, which was like, oh my God, everything. But yeah, so I'm in love with Canada. Let's put it on the bumper stickers.
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