00:00If you missed it, there was a lot of football news.
00:02So, Jesus Lozardo signs an extension with the Phillies yesterday.
00:05Nice deal for him.
00:07If you want the numbers here, five years, $135 million.
00:11One of the top lefties in the game, his AAV, $27 million.
00:16Frambois Valdez got 38 points.
00:17That's why I like the Frambois Valdez.
00:19He got so overpaid.
00:20And I know people don't like talking about it in baseball terms
00:23because there's no salary cap yet, maybe.
00:25I don't think there's ever going to be one.
00:27But this deal starts in 2027.
00:30And, Steve, I guess the big talk, I'll throw it to you first.
00:33Trevor Rodgers, do you think the Orioles should do a deal like this?
00:36Are you more inclined to wait and see how he looks this year?
00:39Or what would be the best?
00:40I think that's what the team is doing.
00:45And the Orioles haven't done a lot of these extensions.
00:49And so, how do you see Trevor Rodgers?
00:53Is he a 181 pitcher?
00:55If he is, he's one of the best pitchers in baseball.
00:58Is he going to, you know, if he falls off, how far will the falloff be?
01:022.80 ERA?
01:03That's still great.
01:043.2?
01:04Pretty darn good.
01:063.8?
01:07Okay.
01:08Not what we were hoping for.
01:10And so, with each falloff, he might lose a few dollars.
01:14But if you're the team, are you rooting for the pitcher to fall off and become more affordable?
01:19Yeah, exactly.
01:20And, Ed, I'll throw it to you.
01:21Like, when you look at Lizardo, last year he had a 3.92 ERA.
01:24He started off incredibly strong.
01:26Hit a kind of a little bit of a, I don't want to say a wall, but he had a
01:28hiccup in the middle of the season and then kind of righted the ship.
01:311.2 whip.
01:331.22 whip.
01:353.9 war.
01:36You could see he's a good player.
01:37And then he was a big-time prospect.
01:39Was it the A's that he came up with, I believe?
01:42I think you're right.
01:42And then bounced around a little bit.
01:45And then now you see him with the Phillies and getting this extension.
01:48Like, my whole thing with Trevor Rodgers is, if he's half as good as he was last year, I still
01:53think that's better than Lizardo.
01:55I don't know.
01:55What do you think, Ed?
01:57Yeah, if he's half as good as he was last year.
01:59But that was last year.
02:01And, I mean, look, I love Trevor Rodgers.
02:03I think it's a great story.
02:05He was the best pitcher in baseball if he had qualified with, you know, by pitching enough innings.
02:12However, he's never done that before.
02:14I mean, look at his history in Miami.
02:16He just, it wasn't even close.
02:18You know, he area over four, over six.
02:20You know, I'm not, 181 is ridiculous.
02:23I mean, that's, you know, Bob Gibson in 1968.
02:28Yeah.
02:29When he was, he won 12.
02:32I just, if I could see a little bit more of it, sure.
02:36But I just, I don't know.
02:39So, you know.
02:40I like this wait and see.
02:41You love when I say this.
02:42But here lies the rub.
02:43All right.
02:43So, the longer you wait, if you're correct, or if he ends up being the type of pitcher he was
02:49last year or someone close to it, the price then goes up.
02:53Yeah.
02:53Well.
02:54Yeah.
02:54I mean, this is.
02:55That's the way it goes.
02:56So, you would rather wait to sign him than do something knee-jerk right now?
03:00This is the reality of it.
03:01I couldn't give a rat's ass what they do.
03:03It's not my money and there's no salary cap.
03:05They want to spend the money.
03:06Good for them.
03:06We've seen teams make mistakes.
03:08We've seen teams strike gold.
03:10I like Trevor Rodgers.
03:11I think he looked amazing last year.
03:14And maybe the change of scenery has done him good.
03:16He's looked great in spring training.
03:19I think he's going to be really good.
03:211-8-1 is not going to be his, you know, his benchmark.
03:24But if he can pitch to an ERA, you know, a 2-8-0 or something, as Steve said, if
03:29you pitch it under three in the American League East or in baseball to any time, you're a damn good
03:34pitcher.
03:34So, if you get that out of him, absolutely, you know, a lefty arm that can pitch, you know, is
03:41one of the best in the majors, yeah, 100%, I would want him extended.
03:44You know, one thing about him that I think might have some staying power, and I gave a lot of
03:51credit last year to his velocity increase, and so did he, for his pitching better.
03:56But this winner, in looking and digging into it, this guy's pitches across the board graded really well last year.
04:08His change-up, 2-0-2 average against.
04:12Slider and sweeper, listen to this.
04:14Slider average against it last year was 0-61.
04:17Sweeper, 0-65.
04:19How do you do better than that?
04:20And the whiff rate on those pitches was good, 41% on the slider.
04:27Underrated breaking pitches, which allowed for a fastball at 93 or 94, which was up for Rodgers, but that's still
04:33not big velo in the game overall, to have the year he had.
04:37So, to me, he was a complete pitcher, in command all year, incredibly driven and focused.
04:44Every time we talked to him about a great year he was having, he kept saying things like, I'm just
04:48worried about tonight's start.
04:50And he even mentioned, at the end of the year, when he and his wife sat down, she showed him
04:54all these stats that he didn't know, because he was so laser-focused on one day at a time.
04:59Do you think, Steve, and I know you've been around this more, do you think he's the type of player
05:04that wants to be here?
05:05Now, again, money matters.
05:06I'm not, you know, he came here and then figured things out, and I almost feel like you look at
05:11the situation going, ideally, I'd like to continue what's going on here, but the money's got to be right.
05:16And I think that's where it comes in.
05:18Well, yes, of course.
05:18Of course.
05:19And he's a hard guy to, what is the value of Trevor Rodgers?
05:22Because if he's anything like the pitcher he was two or three years before last year, you know, so I
05:28think we don't know yet.
05:29Maybe we're all trying to find out, him included.
05:31But I think he trends more towards a top-level pitcher.
05:36I'm not saying he's an ace.
05:37I don't think he's saying he's a number one, but I don't think he's a four.
05:40You know, I think he could pitch to a two or three level for the Orioles this year.
05:43And Braddish is still, to me, the most talented pitcher in the rotation.
05:47But this guy, I'm just telling you, when you go look at his record last year, he was good with
05:53all his pitches, and that bodes well.
05:55It wasn't like he had two pitches that were really humming.
05:58He had five that were really humming.
06:00That's why, like, I don't know, I feel like I would make the move and go sign him and try
06:05to get it a little cheap.
06:06Because I do think this turn, I think he's, again, asking someone to have a one ERA is ridiculous in
06:12this league.
06:12And he did that.
06:13He wasn't giving up more than two earned runs.
06:15And having a lefty like that with this team, and I know what you said about Braddish, because I agree,
06:21but we might be saying Boz has the best stuff on this team in a year or two.
06:24Like, I think he has that type of ceiling.
06:27And I think you would agree with me on that, that he's got a number of mixes with his pitches,
06:31and he's got great upside.
06:33Just got to harness it after Tommy John.
06:35Well, I think in the favor of the Orioles re-signing this guy, and the Baltimore Sun wrote about it
06:40this morning,
06:40the great relationship that Drew French and Ryan Klimek and Mitch Plassmeyer, their pitching staff, has with the pitchers.
06:48The pitchers are quoted in that story saying how much they love working with those guys.
06:52And when the Orioles changed all their coaches, they didn't change the pitching coaches.
06:57And I'm telling you, the Orioles have good pitching coaches in the minors, too.
07:00Who, this Forrest Herman, who heads up the minor league pitching development, is a sharp, sharp guy I've been talking
07:05to for years.
07:06And I go around and interview pitching coaches at all the affiliates, and they've got some sharp guys.
07:11People don't know their names, but they're doing good work on the farm, which is why Trey Gibson, Levi Wells,
07:16Louis DeLeon, why we're seeing those guys.
07:19And, Ed, I was just getting ready to say, like, Steve could be making up all those names and none
07:23of us would know.
07:24And he said it was names that nobody would know.
07:25He's not making them up, but I think, like, again, looking at this team,
07:29there's a lot of positive things here.
07:32But I don't want to get to a point where, like, we were just talking about with the Ravens, like,
07:35hey, you don't have any tight ends on the roster.
07:37You don't have this.
07:38I know you're going to have starting pitching, but figuring it out and making sure you're ahead of the curve,
07:42that you have guys you can trust, and then not overpaying guys because you're fighting for them on the open
07:47market.
07:47Yeah, and can I just say, you're absolutely right.
07:49If you did that, I would have no idea.
07:51But me either.
07:52But, however, I want to just tell Steve the little inside secret we have.
07:57Steve, years ago, our bosses who have never been on the air here were insisting we put on, quote,
08:06big name, big name athletes, big name guests, big name.
08:10And they insisted.
08:12I fought back.
08:13We all fought back.
08:13You know, athletes aren't the best guests.
08:15They really don't say anything, and we're really not really in favor of this.
08:18We have great writers.
08:19We have great coaches.
08:20A lot of people who provide a lot.
08:23Do it.
08:23Okay.
08:25And the next day, they're like, all right, tell me who you booked.
08:28All right.
08:29Well, we have Sam Alito.
08:30He was a catcher for the Angels.
08:31He's got a big bat.
08:32He's going to be coming, we think.
08:34And then I listed a couple of names, and they were satisfied.
08:37They were all Supreme Court justices.
08:42Which is a good get, but maybe not for this show.
08:46All right.
08:46Yeah.
08:47We got more orders.
08:48That's one of my favorite stories.
08:49Don't insist on stuff when you know nothing about this business.
08:53You're lucky.
08:53I would have given them, like, the fake names that people call in when they're using, like,
08:58you know, Wilma Fingerdo and Gabe Atthouse.
09:02Yeah.
09:02It's like, you know, all types of, like, oh, you got these guys?
09:04Yeah, yeah.
09:05Yeah, we got them.
09:05So, yeah.
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