00:00You ready for the bonehead?
00:01Oh, absolutely. I was born ready. Let's get to it.
00:04Bob's Boneheads.
00:07You're an idiot. You don't know what you're talking about.
00:13Well, this one takes a little bit more serious toll for the bonehead of the week
00:18because it's the Royals as an organization right now.
00:21At 20 and 28, six and a half games under, or six and a half games back,
00:26eight games under .500, they're in the midst of a season
00:29that is going nowhere except down the drain.
00:32And the reason I have them as the bonehead of the week is not because of Cags.
00:37It's not necessarily because of Carter.
00:38That all factors in. We'll get to that in a minute.
00:40But the reason the Royals have the bonehead of the week is because
00:43after Max said something to me this morning, before the show,
00:47I truly realized we're up a creek without a paddle.
00:51The Royals are the bonehead of the week because they are now wasting Bobby Witt Jr.
00:55They are wasting the career of one of the greatest baseball players that we've ever seen.
01:01And it is very sad.
01:03Very sad to see them waste the career.
01:05And it's going to be even sadder when Bobby Witt Jr.
01:08opts out of his contract and takes his talents to South Beach
01:11or wherever he decides to go because this organization has not shown
01:15that they're putting a winner around him.
01:17This first part of Bobby Witt's contract is you basically showing Bobby Witt Jr.
01:23who you are, how invested you are in him,
01:26and how committed you are to keeping a winner here in Kansas City.
01:30That's why he has the opt-outs, just to make sure everything's going to be okay.
01:34And where we're sitting right now, if you're Bobby Witt Jr.,
01:38you're looking at the first portion of this contract and you're saying,
01:41yeah, I'm getting paid,
01:42but they're not doing anything to make this organization better around me.
01:47We've now had two off-seasons since Bobby Witt signed that contract.
01:51In neither of those off-seasons did the Royals go out there
01:54and do anything inspiring to make this organization better.
01:57And so for every day that goes by that you lose a baseball game
02:01or you fall further below 500
02:03or you don't make the roster decisions in years to come,
02:06the closer it becomes to Bobby Witt Jr. saying,
02:08I'm not interested in staying here anymore.
02:10And I wouldn't blame him, and I don't think anybody would blame him.
02:13This is kind of the opening act, if you will, of Bobby Witt's career.
02:17At the end of this first portion of the contract will become intermission.
02:20Is he coming back out for act two,
02:22or is he taking his act and going on the road
02:25and moving away and doing it somewhere else?
02:28I don't want Bobby Witt Jr. to do it anywhere else.
02:30This guy's fun to watch.
02:31He's an outstanding baseball player.
02:33He's one of the best baseball players that we've ever seen,
02:36and the Royals are doing an unbelievably good job
02:39at making him not want to be a Kansas City Royal
02:41because they're not surrounding him with the talents that's necessary
02:45to compete for a playoff spot and a division championship right now.
02:51They're not giving him the talent around him.
02:53Imagine Patrick Mahomes not having that talent around him
02:55where the organization just said, you know what?
02:57We're not doing anything.
02:58Sorry, Patrick.
02:59Go out there and figure it out.
03:00That's essentially what's happening right now with Bobby Witt.
03:03Yes, three and four are not hitting,
03:05and they stink out loud right now,
03:07but that's also on the organization to give those guys a day off
03:10and stop worrying about the today.
03:12They are so short-sighted.
03:14They don't see the future coming.
03:16They don't know what's ahead
03:17because they're looking right in front of their eyes.
03:21They're not worried about surrounding Bobby Witt with great talent.
03:23They're not worried about Vinny Pasquantino
03:26and Salvador Perez having a rough go of it right now.
03:28They're still going out there,
03:29but God forbid Cags and Carter swing and miss at a pitch.
03:32I mean, think about that pressure, too.
03:33If they strike out, how much do they think
03:34they're probably going to get pulled out of the lineup?
03:36All right, cool.
03:36Pinch it next inning.
03:37Yeah.
03:37I'll be out.
03:38Yeah.
03:39The mindset sucks.
03:40Or not even about that,
03:41or it's like, okay, well,
03:42I know I only have two or three at-bats
03:44wherever everyone else has five.
03:45Right.
03:46Because I only have until the seventh inning
03:47until the relievers come in and the lefty starts.
03:48That's right.
03:49And then I've got to go.
03:49Then they start pressing,
03:50and when they start pressing early on,
03:52then it has negative results in their entire game.
03:54And so you're trying to make the most of your opportunities.
03:57You know, it would be like, again,
03:58you coming in here for this week,
03:59knowing that Dusty was on vacation
04:01and being, you know, like so high-strung and nervous
04:06because you know it's going to end soon
04:07that you didn't do good at what you were trying to do
04:10because you were so caught up in knowing
04:11that it wasn't going to be the same in a week
04:14or in two weeks.
04:15And I think that's where those guys are.
04:17And look, I didn't play Major League Baseball,
04:18but I am a human being,
04:20and I know the mental side of things
04:22because I've invested a lot of time
04:24in studying the mental side of things for myself
04:26to find out who I am as a person.
04:28And I know how I operate and how things bother me.
04:31And I know I'm not the only one
04:33because I'm looking at my son.
04:34And I'm looking at a gentleman who does,
04:37has a lot of the same qualities that I do.
04:39And a lot of the same.
04:40So I know it's not just me that feels this way.
04:44I know there are more people who feel this way.
04:46You want to be told you're doing a good job.
04:48You want that positive reinforcement.
04:50You don't want to sit there and go two for two,
04:53and then all of a sudden a lefty comes in
04:54and you're taken out of the lineup.
04:55That's demoralizing.
04:56That's not making your ball club better.
04:59No.
04:59That's not helping you.
05:00That is a short-sighted winning game
05:02when you're eight under 500.
05:04That absolutely makes no sense.
05:06You're sacrificing the development of your players
05:09for short-term games.
05:11And the short-term games, or games, quite frankly,
05:15is useless at this point in time.
05:17You're trying to win in a season
05:19where it doesn't matter anymore.
05:20You're eight games under 500.
05:22You're done.
05:24Then start playing the guys that could potentially be part of your future
05:30every single day.
05:31And this offseason, commit to getting help for Bobby Witt Jr.
05:37because you haven't the last two years.
05:39Nothing.
05:40The best help you got him last year was promoting Cags way too early
05:43because he wasn't ready.
05:44And what did you get Bobby Witt Jr. this year
05:47when it came to help?
05:48Lane Thomas?
05:49Carter Jensen, who you won't let be fully himself either.
05:52He was already in the organization.
05:53You've got to go out and make these trades.
05:58Be proactive.
05:59Don't just look at the free agent market,
06:00oh, there's nobody available.
06:01Create trades.
06:02My point when I say Jensen, I guess,
06:04is the fact that that's the point is they didn't,
06:07and this is who they got.
06:09Hey, we're elevating Jensen.
06:11We're elevating Cags.
06:11And then they're still not letting them be full-on additions.
06:15So the people that they did, quote-unquote, add,
06:17and I know they were part of the organization,
06:18but to the big league ball club and sold us this bill of goods,
06:22as you've said, on paper saying, hey, guys, don't worry.
06:24Another bat coming on.
06:25Guy can play outfield.
06:27We've got the catcher of the future.
06:28Don't worry.
06:29He's from the area.
06:30You're going to love him.
06:31Everything's going to be great.
06:32His parents are going to be in the stands,
06:34and they're not going to play every day.
06:36And they're not going to play full at-bats.
06:37They're not going to even play full games.
06:38They're going to be pinch hit.
06:39They're going to be confused.
06:41They do know this is not Little League.
06:42Like, not everybody needs an at-bat every single day.
06:44No, the best players play.
06:45Yeah, the best players need to play,
06:47and the players that are a part of the future need to play,
06:49and that's Cags and Carter.
06:50It is legitimately like you've got two brothers fighting over a controller
06:55because that's how topsy-turvy and juxtaposed it feels like our philosophies
07:01and strategies are from month to month.
07:02Hey, 300, 400 at-bats in the minors, Cags, let's call you up.
07:05But, whoa, whoa, whoa, we're not actually going to elevate you.
07:08We're going to elevate you to the ball club,
07:09but we're not going to do anything past that.
07:10Right.
07:10Hey, Carter, or hey, Carter, Cags, new season.
07:14You guys are going to be on the posters next to Bobby and Mikel and Vinny.
07:18We're selling this thing, Fab Five of the Future with Salvador Perez
07:21as the sixth Hall of Famer, and now we're not going to.
07:23It's just so confusing.
07:24Which is it?
07:25Snip, snap, snip, snap.
07:26I feel like Michael Scott.
07:27Yeah.
07:28What's going on?
07:29It is true, and that's the way the fans feel right now,
07:31and that's why they're so out of it.
07:33That's why they're so demoralized by all of this because, again,
07:36make it make sense, and what they're doing doesn't make sense.
07:40And I use the Little League analogy because when we were playing Little League,
07:42my dad was the manager, so he knew all the rules.
07:44Every single kid, whether you were wearing a baseball uniform
07:47or a pair of jeans, had to play one inning in the field and get one at bat.
07:52Those rules don't apply to Major League Baseball,
07:54but yet the Royals are imploring seemingly Little League rules
07:58when it comes to the lineup.
07:59Let's everybody get in the lineup, get a hit at least one time,
08:03let everybody play an inning in the field.
08:05You don't need to do that.
08:06This is the major leagues.
08:09This is not Wharton, New Jersey Little League
08:13where everybody's got to play an inning and get an at bat.
08:16This is a meritocracy, and if you're earning the time,
08:20you should get the time.
08:21Problem is, I don't know if Kags and Carter are earning the time
08:23because they're not giving them the time.
08:25They haven't given them the time to earn.
08:26You've got to give people the opportunity here.
08:30Yeah, again, I just don't know how to evaluate.
08:33They don't evaluate a franchise that can't even properly evaluate themselves.
08:37They don't know where they are.
08:39Right.
08:39They don't know what season they are.
08:41Are they fighting for this year?
08:42Are they fighting for the future?
08:44Their decisions say each, every decision.
08:49It's everything is contradictory.
08:51Everything they say is contradictory.
08:53To your actions, to your words.
08:55Because Q, after the game yesterday, says, quote,
08:57you've got to have a certain level of trust in your players.
09:02He was saying that about Salvi and Kags, or Salvi and Vinny,
09:06who are 0 for 7 and are two of the five worst run producers
09:09in all of Major League Baseball.
09:11That was his quote about them.
09:12Fine, you want to have confidence in your guy
09:14and trust in your players, but why aren't you using that same quote
09:17when it comes to Kags and Carter,
09:19who have actually had very nice seasons?
09:22Make it make sense.
09:23Make it make sense.
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