Buster Olney Has Some Bold Predictions

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When we get to the park and I see Buster and all the ESPN people, so how you like screen

training, what's going on?

Oh, sure.

People aren't good moves, right?

Right.

And in September, they all hate us.

I'm kidding.

It's true.

I'm kidding.

No, no, it's true.

But I know I think that when spring training begins, everyone has a perfect batting average,

everyone has hopes, everyone has a perfect gear A, and then when the season starts, the

perspectives begin to shift.

And so I do.

I love spring training.

Players are more open.

They are more open.

They have more time.

Yes.

Right.

When you get in the season, time is such like a commodity for these guys.

It's crazy.

And so it's between being optimistic, between good moves, between time, all of it's great.

Hope.

And hope, right?

That's a hope.

Well, okay.

So tell me this.

Yeah.

I want to get to, by the way, I do want to be, I'm going to put this in your head.

I do want to have you predict MVP because I remember what you predicted when we caught up

last year.

I'll resurface that.

Oh, boy.

No, no, no.

Your instincts were keen.

Okay.

You didn't happen.

Okay.

But I, let's, we only shoot the shots, we can only make the shots we shoot.

Right.

So when you look at the teams that have hope, okay, the Dodgers obviously have the most

hope.

But then there's, well, we can do this and this will work.

And I think that, uh, that there's hope, hope is building through the first three weeks

of spring training for you.

I guess it's my way of saying, what team do you look at now that maybe you're starting

to look at a little bit different?

So I think you would agree with me on this.

To pick a team other than the Dodgers to win the World Series, you're making stuff up.

Right?

I mean, isn't that the way that it feels or you're kind of like just kind of fine reasons

because the Dodgers are the clear favorite and everybody knows that.

So then the question becomes, you know, what team do you think has the best shot to unseat

them?

And that's certainly not impossible.

We saw the Toronto Blue Jays come within two outs of doing it last fall.

Seattle is really, really interesting to me.

You know, they took a big step forward last year.

They played deep into the ALCS.

They go out in the off season.

I think they had a very underrated off season, resigning Josh Nailer, trading for Brendan

Donovan.

They got some young guys on the way, Kate Anderson, Colt Emerson, the infielder, Kate Anderson,

someone who could come out of the bullpen maybe in a big spot in October or maybe he's

part of the rotation.

So they're really interesting to me and, you know, we've seen the Astros basically have

this decade-long dominance of the American League West.

That's now over.

I think the Mariners have a chance to do that with Julio Rodriguez, Cal Raleigh, that pitching

for most of the next decade.

And also, you know, I was up in Blue Jays camp and there is that element of you come to

spring training.

Everyone puts the stool in the middle of the room and like we're going to do this and

we're going to do that.

Well, you don't know.

Right.

There's still, you don't know how it works.

You don't know what's going to happen.

You don't know if you can do it.

The Blue Jays, we're walking around like we know how this works.

Yes.

You know that we can do it.

And I think this Mariners are probably the same way.

Like there's all those years of the twists and turns of the Mariners where something would

always happen.

But now we're like, okay, like we can do this in, by the way, to your point, I'm thinking

through it.

Yes.

What a great off season, right?

Yes.

So you've probably seen that too, where you have a team, you have this team and then

all of a sudden they realize that we can do this, right?

Well, well, and can I cut you off on the MVP question?

Oh, yeah.

Again, Aaron Judge is the clear favorite.

Okay.

I mean, there's production.

Okay.

But if you want to go off the board, Vlad Amerigora, Jr., like I, in my time covering baseball,

I've never seen a player grow in stature over the course of seven weeks the way he did last

year, where Boba Shek gets hurt in early September.

And then Vlad, he basically, from that point forward, puts the blue jays on his back.

He was the best hitter I've ever seen in a postseason.

I mean, just raking, line drives all over the place.

What was it?

Eight homers and 18 games or some crazy thing?

He was hitting shots during the winter, you know, I called Andrew Freeman, had a baseball

ops with the Dodgers, Dave Roberts, and asked them about facing Vlad, and they both talked

about how, looking across the field, to see the way that he was encouraging the other

players and doing everything, Andrew Freeman said, I've never seen an opposing player do

more to win than what I saw in the world.

Really?

During the World Series.

Oh, wow.

And so I think, I think he's going to build off what happened last October and have a huge

year.

I'm glad you brought him up.

I mean, this sort of dovetails is what we're talking about.

You never know until you know.

Right.

And we had Ross Atkins on and said, you know, you know, you want to sign the guy, you

sign him for what you think you need to sign him because he's a really, really good player,

but you don't know all the other stuff.

Like, there was no, how are they ever going to know how he's going to react on the biggest

stage and the biggest moments during this playoff run, right?

I mean, I'm so glad you brought that up.

So, you know, during our time covering baseball, let's just say, in recent, you know, the

last decade, 15 years, best baseball leader, C.C.

Sabathe was definitely one of those, Kyle Schwarber, definitely one of those.

I think Aaron Judge is one of those.

And I had this conversation with both C.C. and with Judge and I said, you know, people

when they think of leaders, you know, you're not 21, 22 walking in the room going, yeah,

on the guy.

Well, I say I called the Rudy in the stool speech, right?

Right.

Come on, fellas.

Right.

Exactly.

You're not doing that.

That's an evolution of time and then a moment comes forward and that's what happened

of Latti in those seven weeks, like he's the guy.

He got the $500 million contract.

He's always been a player we've been aware of because he's been a good hitter, but the

way he ran the bases, the defense and double play in the seventh game, the way he was hitting,

I do.

I think he went from being a star to being in that, you know, the inner circle, you know,

top three to five guys.

His interesting looking back at, well, again, the defense was that's another thing people

didn't understand.

I think people probably who hadn't watched him say, oh, yeah, he was a third baseman, he had

to move to Ferris because of whatever.

Right.

But boy, he was a good first baseman and also, Buster, he was the guy, even think more

than Otani for me, that when he came up, oh, total.

It was something as good as going to happen for that guy and that team.

Right.

I mean, Shohei is the greatest player we've ever seen and I think that's a, that can't

be questioned.

However, during last year's postseason, there were periods of time where he was struggling,

which is baseball, right?

Right.

Well, Vlad, the way he performed in the biggest games on the biggest stage, the way he

was pulling other players along all the way across, like running the bases.

There were moments in that series against Seattle where he was making great decisions.

And I've talked to four or five people about that double play he made in game seven for

a right-handed first baseman to make a decision that quickly.

And if anybody, if somebody hasn't seen it, they should go and find it.

Chopper to first base, he immediately, he's what, two feet from the first base back, immediately

fires to second and then gets back to first base because he knows that he won't probably

the only chance to turn a double play.

And so I talked to Don Mattingley and others about, man, the decision making, how quickly

that was, the instincts that's required for that play, it was remarkable.

It was so many, I mean, so I'm glad you're bringing this up because we focused so much

on that world series and so many little things.

We almost forget the Vlad part of it.

And really, you mentioned the contract, like this is another thing, it's, I'm always

fascinated how much money can be made through a two or three week run in a postseason,

which is bizarre, you know, but it happens.

Yes.

Well, there you go, you don't, you're biggest stage, you make, you get all this money

because you're, did it on the biggest stage.

Think about Vlad, though, well, like, what, give me, give me a number, like what he could,

put it this way, I did, do you think, so he signed for 500 million, right?

Do you think off of that that he could have got 600 million?

I don't know, maybe he could have inspired another team, like maybe the Metskin involves

the cone, maybe gets involved, I don't think the Yankees do it.

The Dodgers already have Freddie Freeman, they already have Shoei Otani, so maybe they

don't.

I'd say this, I remember writing column last spring when the, the Blue Jays and Vladie

were at loggerheads and I basically wrote, just pay the guy, just give in, and that's

exactly what the Blue Jays did.

This was not a back and forth.

This was the Blue Jays saying, all right, you got us.

We need to sign this player and I, I think, and give the Blue Jays credit, give Blue Jays

ownership credit for stepping up and making that deal because it completely changed the

trajectory of what last season was going to be for them.

Instead of you and I, you know, idiots in the media talking all summer, what is Vladie

going to be traded?

Is he going to be dealt before the deadline?

He's going into free agency, well, the Mets sign him, well, some other team sign him.

Instead, you know, the Blue Jays go on and they have this amazing regular season, lead

the American League with 94 victories, and then that wonderful style that they played

with, put them ball and play and the culture, and John Snyder told me earlier in the spring

that during the off season, there were people with other teams who were like, we love to

what you guys did.

Yeah.

And all of a sudden, there's talk of, man, put the ball and play, let's put the ball

and play.

Oh, it's impossible.

Like, that's David Popkin's, like, and Isaiah kind of fell off the talk of him.

Yeah.

He said that, you know, and he was only there half a year, but he said, like, Popkin's

like, it changed everything.

Yeah.

And it was a very real thing, and it was so refreshing because, you know, we see so many

teams like hit the ball in the air, you know, you know, swing up, hit the ball and it

was just fine.

Nick Holmerun, Holmerun's a good, yes.

But still in the post season, the Blue Jays, or any Clement, or becoming a guy.

Right.

Right.

You know?

Yeah.

This is a thing is that make them feel the ball.

And yeah.

So, but I want to, I want to come back to the Vlad thing up because you bring up an

interesting, I'm thinking about a year ago as a reciting year.

It was right around a year ago where Vlad comes out and says whatever he said, like, the

Blue Jays said whatever they had said.

And there was this, oh, man, this is going to be a pain, right?

This is going to be it.

This is going to be ugly.

Yeah, this is going to get ugly.

franchise guys leaving.

Yeah.

And Ross, Ross Akins now says, I knew all along, okay, like they said, but still, this

is going to be a pain.

So you look back to the last spring training.

I would challenge him on that.

I'd say if you knew all along, then why didn't you just give him the 500 million to show

it?

Yeah, exactly.

Well, playing games.

But I would wait last year, whether it was Vlad, you have the Devers Chaos and Red

Size Camp, right?

We think back a year ago, right?

He played in five spring training games, Buster.

Wow.

He played in five spring training games and then he struck out 15 of 19 times to begin.

I remember that.

That's what we have to, like we go back a year ago, how things have changed so much.

So now, as we sit here, and once those cleared, I don't know, Kyle Tucker was going to be

a free agent.

And it wasn't like everyone was on the watch of God.

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Yep.

So I'm anxious to get your perspective of this, because I always said, you have a guy

like that, like a one-soto, you go into it, you say, this is pretty much what we can do.

Not necessarily the absolute what we can do, pretty much what you can do, and get a feel

if there's a sign.

And if you can't, then you got to trade them, right?

And I know that the team's good, and they're going for it.

I go back to, you know, Mookie or other examples, but you don't want to be left high and

dry, and you don't want to be, you don't want to have this sort of like false, false

sense.

A player of high value and not get anything for him.

Exactly.

So what's your, that's my long-winded way of saying tarry school, but what's your take

on that?

He's going to play the air with the Tigers.

Tigers are going to be great.

I've been around him in recent days.

Kevin McGonagall is going to win Americanly rookie of the year.

He looks unbelievable.

Really?

Just incredible.

I don't know if you saw the game he played against the DR last night.

First, what, 437-foot home run.

Two more hits.

You'll love this.

I talked to an evaluator with another team, and I said, who does he remind you of?

He goes, Dustin Padroyo.

That guy is a grinder.

Really?

Like, he's listed at 510.

He's more like 5-8, and he's got the energy.

His favorite player going up was Chase Utley.

You know, he's a Pennsylvania guy, and so he, that's the style he plays, he's going to

have a big impact.

I think the Tigers are going to contend.

During the winter, a lot of our peers are writing, well, the Tigers, they might consider

trading schoolville at the deadline, and I'm laughing because I'm like, there is no chance.

You're going to go to your clubhouse, to your fan base, and you're in the middle of

this very winnable Americanly central, and I think they're going to win by 5-6 games.

Let's say they're a game out.

You're going to say, yeah, we're going to make our team better by trading.

The guy might be the best pitcher on the planet.

No chance.

No chance.

Have you told me?

Have you been going to trade him?

Yeah.

It had to be November, December, January.

Yeah, exactly.

Kevin McGonagall, by the way, Sam Dijkstra, MLB pipeline, there's an awesome job.

He said about McGonagall, he said, he thinks he was the best, the best-pitting prospect that

he's seen in the 2020s.

Wow.

Yeah.

I mean, and people, I don't think they get wrapped up in Connagriffin, who's the number

on all over the project for good reason.

He's a freak, he's fun to watch.

But I remember Kevin McGonagall at the futures game buster, sitting in his locker by himself,

nobody's talking to him.

Right.

I mean, because he's a little, you know, he probably got passed over to some degree,

because he's a little guy, kind of like Dustin.

Right.

Right?

It's a good take.

So, to come back to it, so you said Seattle, you like Seattle.

I do, but look, to me,

once you get past the Dodgers, I mean, it's kind of wide open.

You know, all of these teams in the East have their various vulnerabilities, right?

I mean, the inherent injury questions, I think the Yankees bullpen, we'll see how that

plays out.

I and Yankees are going to be great.

Ben Rice is going to take a big step forward, I think, this year.

You know, when they've taken criticism for not doing much during the winter time, I think

it's crazy, because when you think about where they are now compared to last spring,

you've got Ben Rice now established, 26 homers last year, a 499 slug.

He's going to play most at first base.

You've got Cam Slitler in your rotation.

You got Garrett Cole coming back, and they have loved his rehab work, back at the end

of May.

Carlos Rodón coming back, Max Fried, Luis Heel, Slitler, you know, they're going to be

really good.

My kid, the kid Elmer Rodriguez is pitching for Puerto Rico over in our vice trade,

one of the top pitching prospects.

People forget they say, well, the Yankees stay the same, but yeah, to your point, you

have guys getting better, and you also have guys coming up.

Right.

So, if you had to, and I've said, you know, I've said that it's the best division in baseball,

you don't think so?

No, I don't think there's any question.

Oh, yeah.

So, not to say that the winter will come out of it, the ultimate World Series winner,

but if you had to, it's an interesting one of ranking the teams.

But I know what the Vegas odds are saying.

Yeah.

How would you rank the teams, you know, East?

In the East.

Yeah.

So, I am, I am totally settled on this, but I'm thinking about picking the Yankees.

I think they're a great regular season team because the power, Stanton was not healthy

in the first half last year.

He is now.

It looks like he'll be ready to start the year, depthing that lineup.

I probably would have Toronto too.

I love what the Red Sox have done, but my question is, with their roster, again, it's

a 162-game regular season.

Are you going to have enough power to, you know, play through those stretches where you're

not piecing together 10 hits?

Can I?

I'll go ahead.

I'm sorry.

You love the defense, right?

You love the pitching.

Better, better.

Yeah.

Uh, if either Roman Anthony or Wilson Contreras got hurt, that is a very different look

and lineup.

That's it.

You, you, you, you took the words out of my mouth.

I think that with the Red Sox is, they have a couple key guys that you, there's not a

room for negotiation.

And one of them, by the way, is 21 years old.

Right.

You know, in your like saying, go be the alpha and he's really good, but in an ideal world,

you wouldn't want that.

So in, with the Red Sox, also it's, you have this, this run prevention thing, which is

great.

Number one, you have to have the pitching, the best case scenario, the pitching, but also

it stresses everybody, man, like if you don't hit the home runs, right?

You need the home runs to kick off the stress every once in a while.

No doubt about it.

Yeah.

I love the Red Sox, the design of the Red Sox team for a short series.

This is what we saw with Toronto last year, right?

In the postseason, we loved them because they would put the ball and play.

You can move runners, but over 162 games, you know, the late great, Davey Johnson, manager,

he said, I want those big, hairy chested guys, like who, who want, who are going to put

a three run home, we're into the seats, because the Yankees have those.

Oh, yeah.

Right.

Yeah.

Blue Jays have some of that.

Like, judge in terms of, you know, pure power, but, you know, the question is, with the Red

Sox, can they keep Roman Wilson playing 150 games?

And if that, that's okay, then you're, then yeah, because I ain't Roman, you know this.

Yeah.

People are already talking about Roman Anthony among the best hitters in baseball.

Right.

Right.

Like, he's an impact guy, but they're not those big thumpers the way that you're seeing

some of the other teams.

No.

And I hate, is 21 years old, like, isn't it, is hitting lead off, he's 21 years old?

Right.

He's like, you need the outfits, like we talked about Vlad, you talk about judge.

You know, I actually thought, Peter Lonzo, all the talk of Breggman, I think, Peter Lonzo

would have been, even a better fit, you know, because, you know, in the end, would you

have rather spent $150 million on Peter Lonzo or 155, then $130 million on Ranger Swars?

Yes.

I mean, I don't think there's a question.

Okay.

I think Ranger Swars was almost a luxury item.

Right.

I've seen a player side for $130 million that nobody paying attention to, and that's

no knock on Ranger Swars.

Right.

But no one's saying, I got the Ranger Swarrow's ticket, you know, and also in an organization

where, I mean, they legitimately have the deepest well of starting pitching in baseball.

Yes.

And that will become, become of use at some point, either in trade or during the regular

season, but you could have made that flop their switch.

Yeah.

And you can't tell me that if you say Peter Lonzo and Peter Lonzo say, I'm full of hoey

probably.

But if you are from the same, it was a life from Massachusetts and whatever, I don't,

what's done is done with Peter Lonzo.

Right.

Right.

So you have Yankees, Blue Jays, Red Sox, Orioles, Orioles, the Orioles and Rays, wait till

Nick Martinez and Steven Mats are in the side of Young Comfort, I'm going to say that.

I'm so looking forward to seeing what happens, like with either.

And Junior Caminaro in the MVP call for Junior Caminaro, yeah, exactly.

So we're going to be looking up at the end of April and the Rays are going to be in

first place and we're like, well, well, well, well, well, well, well, it'll be awesome.

It'll be awesome.

Anyway, so I wanted to come finished by by rekindling a resurfacing your MVP pick.

I haven't forgot it because I agreed with you at the time.

Ellie Delacruz was Ellie Delacruz, but I think that number one, it's okay.

It's okay, Foster, but it's also an example of how we view guys, right?

It's like, I think that Ellie Delacruz is a fascinating guy and we could be sitting here

next year and say, oh, you won the MVP.

Yes.

But like we love like finding like these guys and the finding the best in the guys, you

know, you know, you guys.

The new guys, right?

Yeah.

Yeah.

Sometimes the obviously answers right in front of us.

Right.

I don't know.

I don't.

So if you picked Ellie Delacruz again, that's fine.

I don't know.

I don't remember doing that.

I didn't know I was ever saying that.

Don't ever bring up the video.

Give me the video and burn it.

No.

No.

So I agree with you.

You know, it's interesting, too, is that with Ellie Delacruz and that was based on I remember

a conversation I had with Tito, Terry Frankona, about going down and asking him, hey, what do

you want to accomplish?

That I want to be the best player in baseball.

We all see the tools and Tito, you know, talk to him about how about being the best player

on the best team.

And then he struggled.

He made what 26 errors on defense last year.

He had like 19 home runs.

He had some ups and downs.

You're right.

And that's why you mentioned my Roman Anthony.

We love his future.

Yeah.

But there is that learning curve for a lot of guys and it's interesting because Ellie Delacruz,

they just did a top 10 list on short stops.

Yeah.

Ellie Delacruz was like on the edge of the top 10.

Okay.

I mean, he's, I've got, right, like, you know, Bobby, Whit, Junior, and Padomo and other

guys.

So many guys are ahead of him, let alone win the MVP.

That's why I'm cringing.

No.

Don't cring, man.

Don't, don't, it's okay.

No, I feel like, I feel like this is, it's good because we want to get excited over

guys.

Right.

You know what's going to happen?

We're going to go off in the WBC and we're going to be, there it is.

Right.

Masa, you cheated.

Just hit a three run home.

Right.

Like 50 home runs for Masa.

All right.

Well, I really appreciate it as always.

I always love talking to another New England erupt.

I'm Brian.

I work at Unite Healthcare.

So Brian, why do you care?

I care because I don't want to leave anybody behind.

I oversee one of the biggest resource center in Unite Healthcare.

I see people walked in in my office every day, just like my parents.

They have no idea about the healthcare.

I feel like they're my uncles, aunties.

I treat this people like family.

I'm Brian and I'm committed to care.