- 2 months ago
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00:00DeGrandy with this update from Oracle Park.
00:02Speaking of Rafi Devers, and based on what we heard Posey and Bob Melvin
00:07and even Rafi Devers say about where he's going to play in the field defensively,
00:11this shouldn't be that big of a surprise.
00:13He is already taking ground balls at first base,
00:16and if you want to see it, you can visit our Twitter page,
00:19at 957thegame.
00:20Okay, the work has begun.
00:21I love it.
00:22Yeah.
00:22Putting it in.
00:23I mean, look, it's always, I guess, people will say,
00:28it's easy on day one to have a great attitude.
00:32Your relationships are not formed yet.
00:36You want to make a good impression.
00:38Think about your first day on the job.
00:40Think about your first date, I was thinking.
00:42Yeah, you dress up, you get there early, you make sure you've shaved.
00:45Brush your teeth.
00:46Right, right.
00:47You're going to do the hygiene thing.
00:49You're going to smile.
00:50You're going to make that impression.
00:51And so maybe that's what Rafi is doing today.
00:54But, again, I said this earlier.
00:56If you're a Sox fan, you've got to, if you're even, and maybe you're not,
01:00but if you're watching this whole thing unfold, you are sick to your stomach.
01:05Rafi has come in here and looked like the prize student.
01:10He is the teacher's pet.
01:11He is saying everything that the Giants fans want to hear,
01:15and now his actions are exactly what you'd want them to be.
01:18He is DH-ing tonight and batting third.
01:21But what is he doing pregame?
01:22He's getting to work.
01:23Get over there at first base, grab a glove.
01:27This is what a first baseman's glove looks like if you've never had one before.
01:30Which hand does it go on?
01:31With that thing on your hand.
01:32It's actually funny you say a first baseman because he is not using a first base glove
01:37taking grounders at first.
01:39That's a good thing.
01:39Looks like he's using his old third base glove.
01:41Do that.
01:42It's a tiny glove, by the way.
01:43Yeah, the first baseman's glove is way bigger.
01:45So, like, get used to doing it with the little glove,
01:48and then the big glove, you know, feels even easier.
01:50And despite the fact that the Red Sox begged him to play first,
01:52he probably never even got himself a first base glove.
01:55No!
01:55Why would he?
01:56He's never played first in his career.
01:57Exactly.
01:58And again, you can come down his road if you want on this,
02:03and I don't think you're crazy,
02:05but you should know the story of sort of how this unfolded.
02:09I would argue, now, you could accuse,
02:13this is just my perception from the other coast,
02:16you could accuse Devers of either being a little bit egotistical or immature
02:21or not the greatest team player.
02:24You could do that.
02:25But to borrow the great phrase from every elementary school playground,
02:31you started it.
02:33The Red Sox started this.
02:36The Red Sox signed a player at his position without talking to him.
02:40And then they begged him to do something different,
02:44which was to not play in the field at all.
02:46He didn't want to do it, and he eventually did it.
02:49And did it successfully.
02:51He raked.
02:52And then two more things happened.
02:54Their first baseman got hurt,
02:57and then they said, once distrust had already set in,
03:00now we want you to go play first.
03:02And he didn't want to do that.
03:06Secondly, another player on the team,
03:09a young player wanting to come up,
03:11sort of publicly took the stance of,
03:15I'll go play first base,
03:16which he felt was disrespectful in a clubhouse
03:20where he's the best player,
03:22where somebody basically publicly threw him under the bus.
03:25Again, you want to call him immature, egotistical,
03:28I think you can get away with that.
03:30But at the same time,
03:32I do think there were some actions that happened around him
03:35that you don't do.
03:37You don't treat your best player that way.
03:39You just don't.
03:40Well, the other side of it is,
03:42you're paying him a lot of money,
03:43and you're still going to have him play baseball.
03:46And everything comes down to
03:48what you think as management is best for the team.
03:52And the communication part of it,
03:53yeah, I get that.
03:54But it's slightly akin to what we do here in this business.
03:59And if all of a sudden you get a call tonight,
04:02and it's, yeah, we're going to have you do mornings
04:05starting tomorrow,
04:06because it turns out we found somebody
04:08with a deep voice to come in
04:10and work with dibs in the afternoon.
04:12So we'll see you at 5 o'clock
04:14for the show meeting and all that.
04:16And you could say, well, no, we're not doing that.
04:19Now, it's different if they say,
04:20you know what, Mark, come on January 1st.
04:23This is what we're thinking.
04:24We're looking at a position change for you.
04:26Got somebody to come in in the afternoons.
04:28And, you know, it's going to be six months from now.
04:31But this is what we're kind of thinking.
04:33How do you feel about that?
04:34How can we work with you?
04:36It would be different.
04:37Now, you wouldn't be thrilled either way.
04:39But if that was the decision,
04:41and you had like a six-month
04:42or even a three-month lead time,
04:44where it's like, hey, football season this year,
04:46here's what I'm thinking.
04:47Look, look, look.
04:48I do think that you would receive it better.
04:51You may not like it either way.
04:53I don't know that we even need to act like the audience
04:57thinks this is a hypothetical.
05:00This did happen to us.
05:02Who, me, you?
05:02This did happen to us.
05:04This happened to us.
05:06God, how long has it been now?
05:07Almost three years.
05:09Almost three years?
05:10Really?
05:11Darn near.
05:11Because you started in September 21.
05:16October 21.
05:17Right.
05:17And then we did that for about a year.
05:20I think a year and a half.
05:21Yeah.
05:21A year and a half.
05:22So it's been about two and a half years.
05:23Right.
05:23Yeah, two and a half years.
05:25Yeah.
05:25I got that phone call.
05:26Yeah, this did happen to us.
05:28Was there a little bit of a clue and a lead up?
05:30A little one, but not a big one.
05:32And then when we did find out that we were moving time slots,
05:35there was a little bit of lag time.
05:37Not a long bit of a lag time.
05:39Right.
05:39I think it was kind of like, hey, next week, this is what we're doing.
05:43The other part, though, about your, like, it's a fair comp in terms of
05:49this is how we can relate to what you're talking about.
05:53What's not a fair comp is you and I are not, like, one in a billion talents.
06:02You speak for yourself on this one, but I get where you're going.
06:06This is Raphael Freak endeavors.
06:08And in professional sports, when you find one of the best athletes in the world,
06:14like, you don't, I'm sorry.
06:17Like, that's just the way life works.
06:19You treat that person a certain way because they are very, very specialized.
06:26Well, you should treat them that way.
06:28And when you don't, then you become a bit of a clown organization.
06:32Yep.
06:32And this is where we sit because, yeah, he's obviously their best player
06:37and he helped win you a World Series,
06:39and yet you didn't think that it was necessary to go to him in,
06:42I don't even know what it was, December or January.
06:45Yeah, whenever the Bregman thing started.
06:47When the hot stove was heating up, you couldn't even make a call.
06:50Well, you know what we thought of in the, like,
06:53we were talking about this before the show.
06:55This is not a perfect comparison because it's not apples to apples at all,
06:59but I think it does underscore the point.
07:01I know where you're going.
07:01Yeah.
07:02Remember when the Giants acquired Carlos Correa?
07:06They spoke to Brandon Crawford.
07:09And this was the previous regime.
07:11This was Farhan and, oh, Brandon.
07:16This was those guys.
07:17And Brandon had never played another position other than the Lord.
07:20Is that right?
07:21Right.
07:21And Brandon was also 35 and on his way out and not an elite offensive player.
07:27But they still, like, everyone keeps using the word communication,
07:31and you're right, that is the word of the day.
07:32But you immediately, you and Guru took that word and changed it to another one,
07:38which was respect.
07:40It's just disrespectful.
07:43The Red Sox were disrespectful to Rafael Devers,
07:46and you cannot spin it another way.
07:49John Henry, Craig Breslow, whatever your names are,
07:53you can be mad all you want because Rafi's, quote, unquote,
07:57wasn't a team player to you.
07:59You were disrespectful first.
08:01You were.
08:03And I love when people are like, well, wait a minute.
08:05They were the boss.
08:06You're telling me a boss doesn't need to be respectful to the employees?
08:09He or she better.
08:11He or she better.
08:12I would demand that.
08:14You would demand that.
08:15You don't get to be a jerk just because you're in charge,
08:18especially when, oh, by the way, who's actually in charge here?
08:23Nobody has ever in the history of ever bought a ticket to watch John Henry own.
08:28That's not how it works.
08:29This is professional sports.
08:31And if you do not show respect to the best athletes on your team,
08:36you're going to end up, and, oh, by the way, Red Sox, you are,
08:40you're going to end up the organization that keeps shuttling great players off the team.
08:45And when that happens, and if you have a pattern of shuttling players off the team,
08:51and you're a free agent, and you look at that organization,
08:53you're not necessarily going to be in love with the idea of going there
08:57because you see what's happened to Bogarts, and you saw what happened to Mookie Betts,
09:00and now this one with Devers, he gets traded just days after an alleged meeting
09:06where they didn't like the way he was going about his business,
09:10so now you get shipped out.
09:11So if I'm a big-time free agent, and I'm a, let's just say I'm a shortstop,
09:15and I like playing shortstop, and I want to be a shortstop,
09:19and you get, you know, my fear would be you go there for two years,
09:22and they bring somebody in younger, and now I'm a DH?
09:25It's like, no, I've seen what you do to your superstars.
09:28I think that this, and it plays with what we're talking about with the Giants,
09:32like Buster Posey's reputation around the league, even though he's new in the job,
09:37it's top shelf.
09:38Dude, I think the Q rating of the Giants in this moment is as high as it's been
09:43since Mad Bum walked off the damn mound in Kansas City.
09:47And I'm not kidding.
09:48I'm not kidding.
09:49If you think about what this means as far as the perception of the Giants around the league,
09:54the whole team is showing up to press conferences.
09:57Rafi Devers is smiling from ear to ear
10:00and doing all the things immediately on day one that he wouldn't do in Boston.
10:05Buster Posey's in charge.
10:06A future Hall of Famer who is only a couple years removed from being a great player.
10:12And his resume is already piling up W's.
10:16He did have his fingerprints on Matt Chapman's extension.
10:19He did bring in Willie Adamas.
10:21He did bring in, by the way, even royalty in this league in Justin Verlander.
10:26He did acquire Rafi Devers.
10:28And he does have his team now feeling like, you know what?
10:31Let's all go upstairs together.
10:33Let's all go upstairs together and be at this press conference.
10:37That kind of stuff right there, watch how that filters into the stands.
10:41I mean, I just, I can't overstate how that vibe will translate to the fans.
10:50And I can't wait to see what it looks like and feels like out at the ballpark this week.
10:55Because I told you when I went to those back-to-back games against the Braves a couple of weeks ago,
11:01this was before Devers was a thought in anybody's mind.
11:03And it was already jammed and energetic at the stadium that weekend with the Padres and Braves coming into town.
11:12So, dude, he has completely elevated this thing.
11:16And, again, Adamas hasn't hit yet.
11:19I don't know what Devers is going to do tonight.
11:21But he has completely changed the way this city and this fan base feels about the baseball club.
11:27Well, just think about what you've been saying, which is, you know, 6.55 tonight, which will likely be bottom of the first.
11:33It's a 6.45 first pitch.
11:35And you're already canceling dinner and shutting your kids into their rooms so you can yawk in or lock in.
11:41Exactly.
11:42The first at-bat is a giant.
11:44You're excited.
11:45And so now I always gauge it like this when you're watching the game.
11:48And as they're going to break, do up.
11:50And it's like, okay, I mean, I'm going to go do the dishes.
11:53And I'm not going to name the names of the people who, you know, prevent me from staying totally locked in.
11:58But now when it's coming up, you know, bottom of the first, Jung-Hoo Lee, Adamas.
12:03And Raphael Devers, we'll be right back.
12:07Whatever the Comcast.
12:11That's right.
12:12And then you're back.
12:14And you're not going anywhere.
12:16And so they now have that.
12:17And the other thing that I've been thinking about, Mark, is in the offseason this year,
12:22if you are a free agent who previously has been a little bit spooked by Oracle Park,
12:26you can now look at this offense and think, well, yeah, they're not all, like, crushing it.
12:31But I want to be a part of that batting order.
12:34And, you know, I want to be a guy who can join an actual offense that has some power outside of just one guy.
12:41No, I mean, this absolutely should have a ripple effect for all the guys.
12:45They'll see better pitches.
12:46I think they're, like, the first thing I spoke about yesterday, bud, was this.
12:52And I think that this goes for the players, too, but also the fans.
12:55The inferiority complex is gone.
12:59Like, you even saw it last weekend.
13:01They did fine.
13:01They went one Friday, and they held up well on Sunday in a 5-4 loss.
13:06But you walk into Dodger Stadium, and you're kind of like, oh, boy.
13:11We don't have the horses to play this game.
13:14We might win because it's baseball, but we don't have the horses to play this game.
13:17That is gone.
13:20Gone.
13:21The Padres can come to town.
13:22The Dodgers can come to town.
13:23The Phillies can come to town, and the Mets can come to town.
13:26Yes, you have the horses just like they do.
13:29It's all different now.
13:31Yeah, and I think it's as much a factor for the fans as it is for the players
13:36because now the fans can feel a lot more excited about, you know,
13:40we might be able to win a game 7-6.
13:43We can have a pitcher, have a bad outing, and still feel like we're not out of it.
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