The latest episode of the MLB Trade Rumors Podcast is now live on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and wherever you get your podcasts! Make sure you subscribe as well! You can also use the player at this link to listen, if you don’t use Spotify or Apple for podcasts.
This week, host Darragh McDonald is joined by Anthony Franco of MLB Trade Rumors to discuss…
- The Padres acquiring Luis Arráez from the Marlins (0:40)
- Who else the Marlins might trade this summer (7:05)
- What’s next for the Padres? (12:55)
Plus, we answer your questions, including…
- When can we expect to see Paul Skenes called up by the Pirates and when do you think Jackson Holliday will be brought up again by the Orioles? (17:10)
- I’m looking ahead at robo umps calling balls/strikes. Do you think it will dramatically affect counting stats for hitters while affecting pitchers stats negatively in the other direction? (20:55)
- What measures can be implemented to stop teams like the Tigers from continually rebuilding and why do the Tigers hesitate to send struggling players to the minors? (31:50)
Check out our past episodes!
- Mailbag: José Abreu Demoted, The Positional Surplus Myth, Erick Fedde’s Trade Value And More – listen here
- Mailbag: Cardinals’ Troubles, Jazz Chisholm Jr., Bad Umpiring And More – listen here
- Free Agent Power Rankings, Shohei Ohtani’s Stolen Money And The A’s Moving To Sacramento – listen here
The podcast intro and outro song “So Long” is provided courtesy of the band Showoff. Check out their Facebook page here!
Skenes soon I hope. Pirates have makings of very good staff. Just need hitters bad. Skenes,Jones,Keller and Priester! Pretty solid and more arms on way.
As a Pirates fan, I see no need (sadly) to bring Skenes up soon as the pathetic hitting would only mean his starts would be wasted. Pirate starters have delivered quality start after quality start, but Pirate batters make even the most marginal opposing starter look like a Cy Young winner.
Love your podcasts. As a Tigers fan, I get some fans frustration but fans always cry for guys to get send down way earlier than the team does.
The Lottery stinks but it isn’t going to stop people from “tanking” and I hate that term. 3/4 of MLB can’t compete with the spending habits of the top 1/4 of the league. They have to have a way to build a team that can compete and still have a payroll they can afford. Building through the draft and developing that talent is really the only viable way some teams can compete. A salary cap isn’t coming and the lottery only penalizes the poorer teams in the league. Problem is that building a team through the draft and talent development isn’t easy and it takes time and patience. That is something some fans don’t have, patience. Sure teams can buy a bunch of free agents from the mid to lower tiers and cobble together a team that might threaten .500 but doing that perpetually doesn’t get you closer to the goal of actually making the playoffs and making a run at a WS title.
tigerdoc616
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Perfect response. A lot of people don’t realize that most teams with bad records aren’t tanking, but are just teams that have gotten bad because their younger players have hit free agency.
The lottery is insane. This is as close as I come to guaranteeing future events:
1-Small market teams won’t spend more simply because they aren’t guaranteed a #1 pick.
2-Large market teams will tank to get into the top-10.
Cleveland was .500 on 7/30, traded off talent for prospects, played their way into the lottery, and now have the #1-1. Every team in BB is taking notes on this.
On the Robo-ump:
My impression thus far is that the fully automatic balls and strikes (Tue-Thur. in AAA) produces better pitching…. and better hitting. I think it detracts from the game when the umpire calls a ball 2″” outside as a strike and then the battery attempts to locate 3″” or 4″” outside and the batter is forced to swing at a bad pitch because the ump is going to call it anyway. With the ABS, the pitcher knows he has to hit the box to get a strike and the hitter knows that he needs to protect that same box – every inning, every game, every day, every ballpark.
Manfraud has already done so many annoying things to MLB. Might as well do robo umps too. So many umps are just awful anyways. Good riddance.
Even winning isn’t a reason to try in baseball anymore, this sport needs a full overhaul
I think that overhaul is already on its way, via market forces. When people just won’t pay to buy tickets or the cable packages, funding of the whole system collapses.
For me, baseball is still fun to follow from the transaction perspective but the game itself is so boring and concessions have ridiculous markups, I’ll never go to another MLB game again… unless they allow tackling or body checks or something.
Pretty good narrative on the Tigers combined with the usual false narrative on the Os. The Os didn’t “tank” to get 1.1s, they exploited dumb GMs that overvalued vets like Machado, Mancini, Jorge Lopez and Dylan Bundy and outdrafted everyone, including the Tigers in particular, yielding Gunnar, Kremer, Cano, Westburg, Povich, Cowser, GRod, Mayo and more to come.
Example: Both the Tigers and Os have had two 1.1s since 2018. The Tigers picked Mize and Torkelson. The Os picked Adley and Holliday. In the 2020 draft, the Tigers picked Torkelson no.1. The Os picked Kjerstad, Westburg and Mayo in the same draft, while the Tigers were picking guys like Trei Cruz, Gage Workman and Dillon Dingler.
In 2021 and 2022, the Tigers again picked ahead of the Os. The Tigers picked Jobe, Madden, Isaac Pacheco and Dylan Smith. Drafting later, the Os picked Cowser, Norby and a couple of AA guys that weren’t great picks, but are better AA players than any of the four picked by the Tigers.
That’s not a Tigers knock per se, because Elias has outdrafted and outtraded every front office. Tanking has almost nothing to do with their future dominance.
The O’s tanking thing is for casual fans. Last year, in bWAR order-
Gunnar-2nd round
Bradish-Trade
Adley 1-1
Bautista-Waiver
Santander-Rule 5
Mullins-drafted n the 13th round
Cano-trade
Hayes-Drafted in the 3rd
Mountcastle Drafted 1-36
Urias-Waivers