David Samson breaks down the business side of sports

0:00there's so scouts that say you know what? I like the Georgia Tech catcher even better. Ma'am Lackey, you know, could be a short stop if you wanted to, but tremendous athlete. There's, you know, the high school kid to Cody Emerson from Texas. He works two ways too. He's got to want to be in the white stocks and he's got to, you know, they have to agree to a, the right signing bonus too. You know, if he has some teams saying, you know what, we'll give you about four million dollars more of a slot. Well, he can tell the white stocks. I'm not coming. I'm waiting for another team. Fav, Molly and Haugh, that Bob Knight and Gale on with us. 104-3, the score. We are delighted to welcome in our guy, David Samson, the former sports executive was the president, the Marlins, and does a great job helping us understand various baseball issue issues. And he joins us now

1:05on the plumber's 9-1-1 hotline plumbing emergency call 1-8-3-3, plumb 9-1-1, local 130 plumbers. Get the job done right the first time. David, good morning. How are you? Good morning. How are you? Doing well. We're doing well. I mean, that, that, I got to tell you, every socks fan was delighted when they won the lottery and that would be the gift that is Rock Chalowski and you're just kind of, wow, isn't this going to be fantastic? And it's well often and hopefully things work out. But Bob started writing, you know, maybe the socks aren't sold on him, which makes zero sense. Maybe he's not sold on the socks. And so nobody is kind of speaking about it or saying anything about it. And my God, the, the signing bonus for the number one pick this year would be probably in the 11 million range. It's a lot of money. But I don't know why you would sour on a guy before you even get into the real draft process.

2:07Oh, I think it's way more complicated than that, though, because you've got an entire pool to use in your draft. And the draft is not going to be judged based on a pick. You really need good drafts all the way through in order to improve your system. There are many examples where the number one one pick either doesn't make it or is taken and is not the highest bonus that's given to someone in the first round. Most teams try to go under slot so they can reallocate to go over slot later in another round. So I would be careful being too critical at the moment. There's nothing more difficult than the majorly baseball draft and trying to guarantee who's going to make it and who's not. It's not like the NFL in any way. Well, David, that's why we wanted to talk to you because of your past history in dealing with such matters and navigating through this very complicated obstacle course, if you will, because it would seem it's obvious. Rock Trollowski is a consensus number one overall pick.

3:11The slot is what it is and the white socks would be, you know, everyone wants them to pay the bonus that fits the slot. What might prevent them from doing that? And what are the kinds of conversations going on now if they are any between Rock Trollowski's representative or agent and either the white socks or his own family? Well, let's be clear. It's against the rules, but everyone does pre-draft deals. So the negotiations are happening right now. And what happens in the draft room with your GM, your president-based operations, with your head of scouting, you are working through your entire draft board. And you're looking at players in different rounds according to the picks you have. And then you're looking at players in the first round. So for example, if we were looking at a player represented by Scott Boris, we're not going to waste too much time because we don't want to draft them because we're not going to be able to come to an agreement and it's sort of a waste

4:11of a pick because we don't want the extra pick the following year. We want a player right now. And so we're going to just be aware of what the demand is. But keep in mind, if a player says, I don't want to play for the white socks, I don't know, I would ignore that. I'm not even sure that that's a thing the way that sometimes it happens in the NFL. It really isn't. It's just about the money. And if you do not want to give over slot to a player because you don't believe that player is worth it, then you just don't draft that player and you move on and you end up most times I would say doing better. So what the white socks are doing is they're negotiating not just externally with agents of players in the draft. They're also negotiating internally between area scouts and cross checkers as they are deciding where to put what players on the board and how the money should be spent across the whole draft. I'm curious. You know, we know that that the the

5:13ishp of family that Justin ishp has bought a share of stock in the white socks and that he's going to be the next owner of the team. At least that's what we've been told could be as soon as 2029 but that that is also not known information. I'm just wondering when you see the price tag that the that the Padres went for. I believe it was it was thought to be they were worth like 1.71.9 they went for $3.9 billion. How does that impact sale of other teams ishp was it was ready to buy Minnesota and then talk to Jerry and apparently decided to invest and then eventually take over the white socks. That will be for a lot more money now than maybe initially he thought and then the other question would be does that mean that when baseball sits down and starts trying to explain

6:20to the players union that you got to get a cap in here and we can't we got to have a a limit to the amount of money the players make. Does the amount of money these franchise franchises are worth now change that conversation. Well, I'll start with the second one first. You're going to hear the players union so much rhetoric is going to come right now with the rumored sale at 3.9 billion when you've got man named Machado saying look I told you so these teams are worth so much therefore we should get more money. Well, the fact of the matter is that when you look at average salary in Major League Baseball, when you look at the top end and the guaranteed nature of what the players are getting, take a look at the NFL and the guaranteed money, salary cap that exists the valuation of the franchises and you get an understanding of why Major League Baseball would say that looks like a good system but what makes the NFL franchises worth so much is that they share their broadcast revenue completely not the fact that there's a salary cap. So the players

7:23are scared that a salary cap will only help the owners and not the players and we can leave that aside for now. What we can pinpoint is 3.9 for the Padres does not change the value of the angels or the twins or the nationals. These transactions are not based on oh seven times revenue like you would if you were buying a widget company where you can do an actual industry calculation. Sports doesn't work that way. There's huge ego premiums that are baked into every transaction. This billionaire guy wanted to own the Padres so he had a competitive situation with 3 other bidders and he bought the Padres much like when the Marlins were sold. Competitive situation there was an overpay because of a competitive situation in terms of the white socks. Does hishbs say oh I got such a great deal I screwed you Jerry now give me the team at a lower number because your team's worth more. When you agree to a transaction do sell a team at a point in the future that's it.

8:29You've agreed on a number you can try to fight it the way Minnesota timber wolves don't forget they just had that big win last night. Do you remember the lawsuit Alex Rodriguez bought the team at a low number and the owners said wait a minute I don't want to sell that number anymore because teams are going for more and the judge was like yeah but you said you would and that was the end of that. It's called a contract so there's a contract between Jerry and Ishbia and that's how it's going to work. David let's move to the NFL before we let you go because the bears are in the midst of picking which site to build their next stadium on. Obviously Indiana has approved what they have invited them to Hammond and offer them a rent to own scenario where they would obviously be financial financially advantageous. Then you have the Arlington Heights option down in Springfield the Illinois House passed legislation for the mega projects bill it's called here and now it's in the Senate and awaiting approval there because that was the more likely

9:32scenario. The NFL stadium committee met with the bears and want them to pick a lane and they want them to do it rather quickly. They met Wednesday they're meeting again in two weeks how are you viewing what's going on here with the bears from from your vantage point. I am so grateful so grateful because I might show nothing personal you guys give me content almost every day because they're going here they're going there and they're negotiating this they've got a property tax issue with that it's like Mona from heaven your team over there so thank you for that in terms of the the issue I get it when you're negotiating the stadium because I did it you're trying to get the last dollar and you don't really care about location I'm sorry but no matter what Kevin Warren says it's not about Arlington Heights or Springfield or Indiana or at Velt it's about where do I get the best deal for our ownership group with the most opportunity for development with the most public money fastest to open that's all it is and you have to have more than a

10:35group negotiating and the irony is that you've got state negotiating against state which is a great benefit that I could never have we could only get county V county state V state is like a dream so you're going to drag it out as long as possible don't let the NFL fool you they would like this to be taken care of but really if the if the owner of the bear says we're going to need another year the NFL is going to say great whatever you need we'd like you to get it done but as long as you have a place to play and it's suitable to the union and the players which it is then get the best deal you can that's what other owners in the sport care about get the best deal that you can so we can get the best deal we can when it's arts what what if the owner of the bears is George McCaskan he cares about legacy God that that that's such a nice thing to say because it feels good our owner cares about legacy doesn't he I mean but that's like impugnian someone who moves the team

11:35and like from Brooklyn to I don't want to say this because it makes me old but any team Art Madel I guess he doesn't care about legacy because he moved to team well there's one city who loves him one city that's sort of my view of legacy if you're loved by everyone have you actually done anything oh that's so much fun hey I just one last question David on the on the baseball on the amount of money that the white socks will have to spend they I think they have like several different fairly high picks so can they afford I mean it like I said if they're giving 11 million out or something like that for the number one pick can they afford then to get the rest of those picks or it do some of them have to come under slot and when do you figure that out it's happening right now but you're asking if the team budgets for its entire pool there's a bonus pool that you get a signing bonus pool for the rule for draft which is the amateur players

12:41and every team no matter what budgets for the entire pool amount because no matter what your revenue is the fact is that's the cheapest way to get talent is through the draft way more efficient than free agency and so what you're trying to do is listen finishing with the worst record and getting the top pick it's not great because you have to spend so much money in the amateur draft but on the other hand it you know that it's money that's worth spending given a choice I'd always put it in the major league team because I want to win at the major league level now I always felt like buying green bananas was a mistake and I think that cost me over the years and why we only had one world series I think that putting money into the draft makes sense and so I would tell you that the white socks certainly have budgeted the entire pool but they may allocate it differently than the way you would like by spreading it around more players than just the number one guy what was it trickiest negotiation or deal you ever had to make with a draft pick

13:41well I'll take it back to one of my first ones a guy named Justin Wayne because he wanted like he was from Hawaii and he wanted plane tickets for his family and I was new to the game and I was like what I'm not giving you spend your own money on plane tickets and he wanted all these different things I think he ended up in prison he certainly didn't help us good enough guy I guess man I screwed up the draft more times and I had so many great successes whether you know stand and yell it's Fernandez Ozuna JT there's so many stories but every team has that every team has hit and every team has missed but what fan bases do is they say hey my guy stinks they can't draft but go to every one of the 30 cities and the truth is there's a very small difference in the voting record if you will of draft people scouts etc it's very hard to do David you're the best thanks a ton really appreciate David great stuff have a great weekend thank you that's David Samson he does a great job always very interesting and he thanked us for all the material that's

14:45the bear was supplying him he's the best