Episode 647 - Team USA Survives & Mets News

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2:08it's the amazing rico bronya podcast with your host Evan Roberts it is time for another edition of the rico welcome to rico bronya rico maronia we got a lot to talk about we will talk many a plenty of medspace ball the latest on francisco lindore the idea of trading mark viantos before opening day and we will read a few of your emails today but let's start off with team USA getting lucky and truthfully the world baseball classic is such an odd tournament and even the Olympics are going to feel this way baseball is not the kind of sport that should be single elimination it's also not the kind of sport where you can go three and one and get eliminated i mean you can in the world baseball classic but i think all of us know that's not entirely fair but that's the system so i'm not going to bitch about the system i'm just going to remind you that that's not really

3:09baseball so obviously team USA wins the first few cupcakes on their schedule they lose to the Italian Americans to finish their group play a three and one and so now if you're into the wbc and you're into team USA advancing we have to sit there and watch team mexico against the Italian Americans play a baseball game in which we want italy to win but if they don't win we need mexico to score enough runs which is convoluted in its own right and luckily italy made it easy team Italian American i call them Italian American because it's really not a team Italy it's Italian Americans which is totally fine we actually called up a bar in Italy at a curiosity to ask them if they're into this because i was skeptical that they would be rooting for a bunch of americans even if it says italia on their jersey and they did tell us that they're not interested in the wbc but teaky and i were debating is it because they don't care about baseball or is it because they're

4:13not going to root for a bunch of americans either way team Italy or Italian Americans what everyone would call them did their job they finished the group play four no and team USA advances and even now in the quarter finals and the semifinals and the finals and i don't say this as someone whining because at the end of the day if USA doesn't win i'll be okay it's not real baseball to play single elimination and we all know that and i know there's no better way to do it because we don't have the time to play a best of five series or a best of seven series but we sit here all the time during the course of a regular season we understand that a single game anything can happen the worst team in baseball can beat the best team in baseball so even a group of average players like the Italian team of course they could be team USA as loaded as the roster is so i can't join in with the rhetoric that what a collapse what a disaster this is embarrassing i mean i guess anything can technically be embarrassing but losing a baseball game to yes a team that

5:14you're better than but to a team that has some major leagueers on it is really not that embarrassing in baseball i mean the Chicago white socks have been the worst team in baseball for years they will win series they will win games i don't have a solution to this because i think that the fairest way to determine a baseball champion is kind of what we have in major league baseball which is a long regular season you qualify for the playoffs and then even the playoffs where we just talk about it it's a crapshoot a best of five series even a best of seven series so there's nothing you really can do about it but i found the dialogue over the last 24 hours around team USA kind of humorous i mean we're really going to run everybody out of town because they went three and one and got maybe a little unlucky when it comes to tie breaks the only criticism real criticism that team USA deserved was how clueless the manager sounded and this gave me flashbacks and it should give all of you guys flashbacks of your longtime med fans when you think back to many

6:15administrations ago and you think back to art how when he watt managed the meds in 2003 in 2004 what jumps out at me was how ill-prepared he was what jumped out at me was that story that we all heard that he didn't know if don't draw willis was a lefty or not and he put a line up together and was almost confused by oh wait don't drawls a lefty maybe i shouldn't have put this line up together and that stuck with me forever i mean aren't how at that point was dead to me obviously he didn't have any success here so it made it pretty easy and when anyone mentions art how besides his success in oakland and his appearance in money ball and how bad they made him look i do think of his tenure with the meds and i think of that moment and i think of how ill-prepared he was because look and this is like a good thing for life i'll tell my kids this they're going to be people that are better than you in all walks of life but one thing you can control is being prepared i try to do that here on the rico i try to do that on the radio i may not be the best talk show host

7:20in the world but i can always just out prepare everybody right you could outwork people you can work hard and a manager of a baseball team like a head coach in the NFL like a head coach in the NBA they can outwork people and they get exposed when they don't and for art how to not know if don't control willis was a lefty or not that's embarrassing and that's inexcusable and so when mark derosa very innocently with his friends on mlb network comes out and says yes we've advanced you know i'd like to get goldies some at bats how do you not know that you have an advanced it ain't that complicated we weren't talking about tie breakers i wasn't asking you to know the tie break system though you should know it i was just asking you to understand that your team has enclinched yet and he managed that game as if he truly thought they clenched pull gold shmit on no planet at this point in his career deserves to play over Bryce Harper no way Clayton Kershaw who

8:22look i got great respect for Clayton Kershaw he's a first bowed hall of famer and all that one of the great pictures of our generation he is a mascot for teen USA so when he's warming up in the bullpen that's mark derosa telling you i have no idea this game matters and it's almost as if he got a phone call or a tap on the shoulder that said hey mark you may want to manage like this game matters because it does and so we'll get to Nolan McLean in a minute i know met fans like to troll the Yankee fans with Aaron judge this is not on Aaron judge you want to know why guys strike out this isn't even on Nolan McLean because you know what guys have bad innings that happens in baseball what cannot happen in baseball is the manager not understanding the situation now the good news for mark derosa is he's three wins away from a championship right now team USA has a ton of talent there isn't that much mark derosa control obviously he'll make bullpen changes

9:23and formulate his line up but it's going to come down a performance like it always does how does Aaron judge hit over potentially the next three games how does Bryce Harper and Bobby with junior hit over potentially the next three games how much starting pitching can they get you know there are pitch count rules in the wbc they go up as the rounds advance but how far can you push Paul schemes in his next start Nolan McLean if he's pitching in the championship game how far can you go and that's going to determine if team USA wins more than the manager but this was a very bad look for the manager and hopefully the match are not looking for a new skipper anytime soon but if they are and mark derosa interviews i apologize i'm going to bring this up and i know that plenty of met fans will say don't bring it up it doesn't matter but i'm sorry that's one of those things that you live with now i don't know how you guys feel i have very casually watched the 14

10:24USA games casually i've watched it but not every inning and i certainly haven't scored it but when they begin the quarter finals against canada i will now be locked in now i'm not going to be locked in in terms of the emotion that i have for the matches you certainly see here on the rico bronia but i'm going to watch every pitch and i'm going to hope we win and i think the the way i look at it is if they win i'll be happy and say great if they lose i'll be a little disappointed but i'll probably be able to move on good or bad within 30 seconds of the game ending so i guess in my mind it's an exhibition that i want to win that's how i would define it it's an exhibition i want to win at the end of the day i'm not going to lose any sleep if they don't win and i think that's probably most people when it comes to a tournament like this but i enjoy the tournament it is certainly not perfect i've already laid out some of the issues i have with it and there are more that i can certainly get

11:24into but i think in the middle of march when you are just done with spring training there's a level of entertainment to it now let me get to no one mccling because i think anybody who watched that game the other night against the italian americans team italy you probably thought the same thing which is in that first inning oh my god how lucky are we that we have no one mccling he was brilliant 11 pitches he strikes out the side an incredibly dominant way to start that game and i even tweeted no one mccling needs to be protected at all costs because my fear always and not only with guys on my team but just pictures in general is that they're not going to stay healthy that that is clearly the biggest fear and every time a pitcher dominates especially one of our own i remember feeling this way about the gram for a while you just hold your breath that he's going to come out of that start feeling good because pitching is not a natural thing i mean whipping your arm at that kind of torque that ain't natural and so it almost feels like inevitably guys get

12:27hurt but every once in a while a pitcher comes along that feels special no one mccling is certainly one of those guys and in that first inning that was my my feeling my feeling was can we somehow keep him healthy because i don't want to see this man get hurt and look what happened in the second and anything is eaten pitch well i'm not going to sugarcoat it it happens but keep this in mind and i think this is a part of why judging a spring training start or in this case or a baseball classic start is very tough to do uh based on stats when you pitch in a major league baseball game even in this day and age where guys go and don't don't go deep into games you can have a bad inning and clean up the rest of the way and still have a good performance no one mccling had a dominant first inning he had a rocky second inning allows the two home runs and then came out and pitched a relatively clean third inning i think you put a guy on base but he got through the third inning so his final line looked pretty not great three innings three runs if he's allowed to make a regular start

13:32is a really good chance those next three innings are scoreless innings and no one mccling puts on the board six innings three runs which is not an all world start but it's a solid start it's the kind of start uh when you're a great pitcher that's like your bad start when you go six innings three runs and unfortunately when there's a small sample size in the wbc you have one bad inning that's just going to define you so for everyone else out there the non met fans they'll look at Nolan mcclains performance and say yeah wasn't that good spring starts at the home depot and we are bringing the heat to your backyard this season fire up the flavor with our wide variety of grills for under three hundred dollars like the next grill four burner gas grill that's perfect for hosting your spring cookout then set the scene and turn your outdoor space into the go to spot the patio sets for every budget bring it this season with grills that deliver flavor and patios that set the vibe from the home depot start your spring with low prices guaranteed at the home depot excuse me supplies the home depot comm slash price match for details hey this is Richard Ditch the host of

14:33the sports media podcast if you're interested in what's happening with all the places where you consume sports the sports media podcast has you covered i've been turning down interviews all we coat a copy reached out Oprah George Stephanopolis so i said no i was booked on the diege podcast before the tailors with phenomenon i must live up to my responsibility listen wherever you get your podcasts protein is now at Starbucks and it's never tasted so good you can add protein cold foam to your favorite drink or try one of our new protein lattes or matcha try it today at Starbucks and that's fine i don't i i don't really care and you can't let that bother you because i do think that the wbc is like another extension of metzen yanky fans going at it with each other it's like a proxy war so Aaron judge strikes out he sucks he can't get a big hit

15:36no one McLean gives up a couple of home runs to the Italian team see he's not that good and the reality is none of that's true but i do want to read an email from a met fan because this is not a yanky fan writing is a met fan who sent this email the day after no one McLean's uneven start against him Italy and the subject of it is can we stop the McLean warship not warship warship wait a second my i guess i can't say the phrase right not warship like we're fighting a war warship like we warship you there you go can we stop the McLean warship evidently can we stop anointing no one McLean is the next great thing i was on the baseball reddit during the USA italy game and metzen's were going nuts in the first inning and saying McLean is already better than skeens and school bull after striking out the side even you haven't on x quote the baseball god needs to protect no one McLean at all costs that

16:38pose didn't age well even after one inning McLean then allowed those two home runs and all those met fans were suddenly silent and all those l o mets trolls came out of course to mock them and McLean i was getting secondhand embarrassment from all the metz fans saying he was better than skeens and school bull and the next to grom McLean has promised but he has only a handful of good starts and has won nothing yet can we let McLean just get a full season under his belt before declaring he's the second coming of anybody i'm excited about his potential too but it took two to three years before decrom became dominant well de grom's case it took yeah it took a while because 14 was his rookie of the year was great 15 was a really good year 16 was a solid year 17 was like an average year and then 2018 he became de god de goat if you will a couple of things how he any met fan who is already comparing nolyn McLean to Paul skeens and tarryx school bull they're

17:41obviously going too far those two guys right now especially school bull because he's done it for a while but even skeens at this point the start of his career has been brilliant those are the two best pictures in baseball and i think most people would kind of agree with that i don't think anybody would really fight that if you're ranking the best pictures in baseball it would be both guys skeens is fast and because he's only made the 55 starts he's pitched almost two years a little short of two years but these numbers are insane a 1.960 array 196 in his rookie season where he won rookie of the year and then last year's same year right 197 in 187 innings when he won this i young i mean is almost tough to find somebody who's gotten off to as good of a start their career as Paul skeens has nolyn McLean is not Paul skeens and i would be stunned as much as i love the guy and i'm excited about the guy if he pitches to a sub two we are right i mean that would to match Paul skeens that's what he would have to do and we're going to make predictions in the next few weeks for this

18:44upcoming season even i and i am bullish on nolyn McLean i'm not going out there and picking a 1.960 array so any met fan that is comparing it to Paul skeens they're out of their mind they just are so put that aside and same thing with tower scuba on the back to back side young i hope he becomes that i hope he's in the conversation is the best picture in baseball but of course he's got a lot long way to go but my tweet and i'll say it again i'll say it here on the rico every time we record protect them at all costs he's this young stud with immense potential and i don't think that's saying anything out of line he's a stud with potential he's only made eight major league starts i get it trust me he's got a lot to prove no doubt that's why i say potential but i still want to protect it at all costs he still has a chance to be really good and as i said earlier i still have that fear of injury so i ain't walking anything back i haven't made any prediction about Paul skeens

19:48quite yet Paul skeens oh jeez i'm calling Paul skeens maybe i am going too far now i haven't made any predictions yet about no one McLean i'm excited about him healthy excitement is okay saying he's Paul skeens of tower scuba obviously that's going a little bit too far and if team USA can win a couple of games it's going to be Canada then it's going to be the winner of Puerto Rico against it Italy that's the way the bracket falls they can be in a championship game and then no one McLean we get a chance at redemption pitching in a championship game as far as do i want that or would i rather have no one McLean go back to spring training i want it i think that if the USA loses that's an easy all right it's met season now let's focus on what matters go back to spring training get ready for the start of the year sure and we could pivot and create like that's a good thing but at the end of the day i want USA to win and i'd love to see

20:50no one McLean get that crap because this experience isn't bad obviously we fear injury but the experience of pitching in a big environment like this and clearly the wbc final would be if they're there against presumably the Dominican Republic or Japan it would be incredible and by the way i assume that's the way the bracket falls but now i'm like questioning myself hoff can you quickly look up the wbc bracket because i do want to make sure that it would be USA versus because i don't even think it is now i think about it it is so confusing but once the brackets in place i guess it'll be simple so do me a favor and pull that up in the meantime couple of things also i want to address apple tv is getting officially in the first half of the year two mech games friday night out of the subway series and then a friday night against the Atlanta braves apple tv is not the worst in that they have a feature and the mob app has this

21:54same feature but apple tv has this feature in which when you're watching the game you can hit a button and hear the radio announcers and since those games are home you know it'll be how he rose and keith red even if how he isn't there keith does a great job pat macarthe does a great job and they are i don't want to say better than the apple tv broadcast but sometimes the apple tv broadcast can be annoying in that they don't know our team that's some of the biggest issues with the national broadcast they don't know us and it's something personal like it's impossible for an analyst and a broadcaster to be an expert on a team that they don't watch every single day as much research as you do you don't have that feel for a team every day and so besides the fact that we're spoiled because gary keith and ron are great even when they piss me off because that's family right i remember last year there was so many times i was taking shots at gary cone and people were like do not like gary no i love gary he's like a family member you know it's like

22:56complaining about your wife it's okay same thing with keith and ron i love those guys i would take them any day of the week over any national broadcast crew so don't confuse me mocking them at times for things they say over me not loving them but with apple tv stealing those two games at least you have the feature to go to the radio broadcast where again they know our team they watch our team he does encourage me though and i've been doing this the last couple of years with apple tv when there's an apple tv game i am more likely to go to the game i'm more likely to say you know what i'm gonna go to tonight's game if it's at home obviously if it's on the road there's not much i can do unless the game's in philly or the game is relatively close opening day kind of the same thing and that one really stinks even though i plan to be at opening day for as long as i can because i am technically on the air between ten and two we're gonna get matvaskersion they haven't announced the analyst yet there's a really good chance that

23:59analyst is gonna be ron darlin or or someone associated with the meds because i think that's mbc's plan to go with a local analyst obviously to play in the pirate so could be a pirate analyst as well maybe two which i think is a great strategy i think the national baseball broadcast should do that i've said that for many years i know they did that a long time ago back in the day where they would bring in analysts and broadcasters from the teams playing each other in the world series they should absolutely do that but look anytime we lose an sny broadcast it sucks so i can sit here and complain about it and we go wine about it the reality is it's something we're used to the better the team is the more games we're going to lose and you know i'll give a an opportunity to mbc to be good all right pete hawkman on our youtube feed has pulled up a bracket so let's look very closely at this bracket see i was wrong i am dead wrong the bracket is the opposite so it's us against

25:01canada and then it'll be the winner taking on korea against what is presumably going to be i think the Dominican Republic yes because as we're doing this right now we are recording this at about ten thirty at night the dr leads Venezuela and that's to win their group so it would be dr korea and then us a canada which means i don't know if that's the korea they went to and to we'll see good chance we get us dr in the semi finals how crazy would that be on the other side of the bracket it's portorico italy and then it would be japan against venezuela oh boy this is lining up for japan in the finals again which is just look i hate to tell you this because i want team us a to win america leads the world in medicine development it matters we get new medicines first nearly three years faster five million americans go to work because we make medicines here at home

26:02and not relying on other countries keeps us safe but china is racing to overtake us will we let them or will we choose to stay ahead when america leads america cures let's tell washington to keep us in the lead learn how at america cures dot com pay for by pharma get in the game with the college branded venmo debit card record team with every tap and earn up to five percent cash back with venmo stash a new rewards program from venmo no monthly fee no minimum balance just school pride and spending power get in the game and sign up for the venmo debit card at venmo dot com slash college card the venmo master card is issued by the bank court bank an a select schools available venmo stash terms and exclusions apply at venmo dot me slash stash terms max one hundred dollars cash back per month monster energy everybody knows white monster zero ultra that's the og it kicked off this whole zero sugar energy drink thing but ultra is a whole lineup now you've got strawberry

27:04dreams blue Hawaiian sunrise in vice guava and they all bring the monster energy punch so if you've been living in the white can branch out ultra's got a flavor for every five and every single one is zero sugar tap the banner to learn more let venmo as well to get past career and if we lose the the are all right I'll give the are my full endorsement and support against Japan I don't need to see Japan win another wbc they've already won three if I'm not mistaken I think I can name all the wbc champs off the top of my head it was Japan defeating Korea the very first year game I happen no I'm sorry Japan defeated Cuba in the very first year 2006 I was at data pet go par then Japan defeated Korea the second time around in the championship game at Dodger stadium then I'm trying to remember then the Dominican Republic defeated Puerto Rico for a championship

28:07then the US defeated Puerto Rico and then Japan defeated the US that's what I got so I got three for Japan one for the dr one for the United States there's your world baseball classic bracket update and we'll see how things go I just haven't feeling we're not going to win but how the hell would I know I mean it's it's a single elimination tournament the other thing is mark viento so I want to get into mark he had a very tough time in the wbc he played for nico rogua and did not hit it all he played a little bit of third base I think I heard his defense was okay but he did hit a lot and pat ragazzo who I like suggested in an SI article he wrote the other day that the match had trademarked vientos now what I always say about trades is let me know who we're getting back and then I can formulate a good opinion obviously I'm open to trading anybody for the right price you know is the tdb also used to say everybody's got a price for a million dollar man so I'm not going to just say I don't want to trade mark vientos but I will say that I don't want to just give away

29:10mark vientos he is not having a good spring training I acknowledge that and I think that at the start of this season assuming they're healthy he's gonna have a tough time getting consistent at that's I acknowledge that Brett made he's gonna play over him Jorge Palanco's gonna play over him I still expect Carson Bench to make this team he will play Luis Robert Jr. even only playing four days a week or whatever it ends up being will play I hope Mike talk to the makes the team he should play but I still wouldn't give him away and at the start of this season mark vientos being a right handed bat off the bench who maybe gets dh at bats twice a week against the right lefty I'm okay with that like you got to fill out a 26 man roster and what we also do not know even though today as we talk about it it seems like I'm explaining the at bats aren't going to be there for him we don't know how things are going to change Brett made he's having a great spring training what if he doesn't hit Jorge Palanco right now is healthy and he's learning first base

30:16and he's been relatively productive when he's played what if he gets hurt I mean these are all fair what ifs it's baseball and so I wouldn't look at the current roster and the current status of the way guys are playing and say oh I've got to trademark vientos absolutely not there could be an opportunity for him I expect that there's gonna be an opportunity for him it's baseball if you're giving me I don't want to say like a high impact reliever because I don't know if that's happening but if you're giving me a really solid intriguing piece that can help me right now we can talk about it again I'm not completely off of it I'm just not feeling like they have to trade him that's how I would define it I don't feel that way and that's not me supporting Mark Vientos that's not me telling you don't worry everything's gonna be okay he's at a bad spring he goes out there plays in the WBC hasn't that hit it all didn't hit it all before that he isn't hit anywhere didn't hit last year I get that I acknowledge that and guys on this roster have

31:20passed him I'm not giving him away and I don't think Ronnie Mauricio's current situation warrants him making the team over vientos and let me explain why if we're talking about just the the fit of this roster right now Ronnie Mauricio is a switch hitter who is much better as a left anteater right now the meds are positioned to have a lot of lefties on this roster if I get what I want with talkman and bench both making this team we know about baby there's a lot of lefties I think having vientos as that potential lefty masher coming off the bench just fits better than Ronnie Mauricio and then he got the old numbers game Ronnie Mauricio as options Mark Vientos doesn't couple of other things over the next few days in spring training to keep an eye on Sean Manaya is making another spring start remember his fastball velocity was down in his first spring start he tried to explain it away saying he was doing his cut or a lot we'll make the start on Thursday so let's keep an eye on not only Manaya's performance but more than that what do we see with velocity

32:24what do we see with pitch selection same thing with code isenga who's going to make his next spring start coming up in a couple days we were at his first one his velocity was there he gave up a couple of home runs no big deal let's see how code isenga looks in his second spring start and also french school indoors making progress he played in a minor league game on wednesday but he really didn't play in a minor league game they're saying he did but he didn't hit he fielded ground balls and made an error by the way not a big deal just saying it's good to see him out there we are two weeks away from opening day so that clock is ticking and I don't know man like if you ask me to guess right now is he playing on opening day is a part of me that kind of leans towards no I don't want to be negative about it and it's not even being negative because as much as I want him out there if he misses the first few days of the season it is not the end of the world let's get to some of your emails we appreciate it the rico be a gmail dot com will do a full extensive mail bag coming up in just a couple of days and we're also you know what I remember that one time

33:29off put together the the phone call thing where we're taking some phone calls on the rico we'll try that again too as we get closer to the start of this baseball season but this is from Ziggy Ziggy writes I hate both the ABS challenge and the manfred man runner my solution to the ABS is that you can only challenge a strike three or a ball four huh it's interesting as far as the ghost runner let them play two regular extra innings and then the ghost runner just my thoughts Ziggy I completely agree with you about the ghost runner like I am a negotiator I'd like to meet the middle I say that to my kids even though truthfully I should just run the household like with an iron fist and I shouldn't negotiate or meet the middle with my kids but I like to teach them about negotiations that's how you find kind of some middle ground I hate the manfred man I don't like it my middle ground always would have been give me a couple of real extra innings and then because everybody needs to go home we can't have everyone at the ballpark all day and because

34:33managers don't know how to manage their rosters and we need to protect them from themselves because they may overuse their bullpen in the 12 thinning fine manfred man on second base but I think the toothpaste is out of the squeezing thing or wherever you squeeze toothpaste from it's already out they're not gonna do that so I agree with you Ziggy but I don't think baseball would ever go back to that I think they've convinced enough people that the manfred man makes sense and it's going to be here forever let's just hope it never extends itself to the postseason I slightly disagree it's a good idea though Ziggy on the you can only challenge a strike three or a ball four I get it it would limit the amount of challenges but every ball and every strike counts sometimes that first pitch will change an app back so I get it I just don't necessarily agree with it and keep this in mind and we're going to find out once the season starts I think the challenges are just

35:35going to be far less I think right now you've got a lot of experimentation going on and I think once the season starts the number of challenges will not be kind of a crazy number we have right now in spring trade Nick writes Evan I basically have no faith in Luis Robert Jr and Tyrone Taylor to be a good starting center fielders for the entire season for this team with that being said I was wondering what you think the chances are of AJ you being being called up around the all star breaker later this season I have a feeling he's going to start the year in AAA we'll tear it up while Tyrone Taylor and Luis Robert Jr are batting a collective to 13 with a 664 OPS if AJ performs in AAA and Robert Jr Tyrone Taylor a disappointing can you see the meds possibly calling him up to be the starting center fielder could this possibly lead to Tyrone Taylor Luis Robert or Mike tockman if he's on the team being DFA to make room for youing he's an unbelievable fielder and extremely fast he's definitely more of a contact hitter but I'd love to see a Soto

36:37youing bench outfield at some point this season yeah I think if everything you said turned out to happen and you have a lot going on there you've got no production from the guys who right now are going to play center field and specifically we're talking about Luis Robert Jr you've got Tyrone Taylor just being Tyrone Taylor you know nothing really different than what he is but you also have AJ youing tearing it up so last year youing got to AA he was only there for 28 games but he performed at 339 800 OPS he steals a ton of bases which is awesome he does strike out though strike out 105 times in 124 games so maybe for this day and age you want to call out a contact that I wouldn't but he steals bases he gets on base he hits he's got not a lot of power but out of ton of triples at 10 triples last year I think that yes he has a chance to be on the major league team

37:37at some point this season I wouldn't bet on it because I think not only would you need youing to exceed and perform or exceed expectations and perform but there would need to be an available spot so you would need all of those bad things to happen I don't think that's going to be the case with Robert Jr. and also there are other factors here that you may be leaving out number one Carson Benj and his ability to play center field because if let's say what you say occurs and they're getting no production out of center field and Brett Bady is tearing it up and Mark Vientos is performing and Polanco's performing maybe we do see Brett Bady in right field more than we think he's been out there in spring training they're working them out there there are aspects of this team where if they fall a certain way yeah Bady can end up playing a lot of right field I'm not predicting that I think he's going to end up playing mostly first base but if some of the things you're describing along with performances from others like Vientos

38:41like Polanco being healthy that occurs I think there's certainly a way you see Benj and center Bady and right I also think Ryan Clifford is the young bad to keep an eye on too to potentially push things and get up here Nick was not done with his email let's read more outside of Nolan McLean I believe Brett Bady is the most athletic guy on the meds right field should remain open for Benj talkman or Tyrone Taylor while Bady works out first base most of the time that leaves the DH spot for Vientos and Polanco with either of them filling in at first when Bady gets an off day from Mendy's interviews describing how things are going for Polanco and Bo learning new positions he seems very confident in Bo and definitely not as confident with Polanco although they were only clips the videos of Polanco practicing trying to keep his foot on the bag while catching the balls thrown 50% to him is a bit shaky I understand it's early but the fact that this is only practice is honestly more concerning in my opinion Bady has proven he can learn and excel at multiple new positions Polanco hasn't even proven he can be above average at his own position and now we're moving him

39:45to a new one there are tons of questions about his defense and I think first base will be glaring if we have to deal with Polanco there what say you love the pot yeah I think Bady's gonna end up playing there a lot I do I think that you're right that because Bady turn himself into a good third baseman and turn himself into a capable second baseman I think that why wouldn't we believe he could turn himself into a good first baseman so I agree with you on that and we've talked about this the last couple weeks here on the Rico that mend these words kind of lead you to believe that Jorge Polanco is gonna DH more than he plays first base and it's funny when they sign Polanco and you can go way back into the archives whether it's on the FA and YouTube page wherever you download the Rico Brownia Spotify the Odyssey app the Apple Podcast we did a met sign Polanco Rico and I said at the time I hope he DHS I hope that we're not talking about Polanco is the first baseman and Polanco is the DH and at the time when I was hoping for this I don't think I envisioned

40:49Brett Bady being the first baseman like we knew that was a possibility of course but I didn't necessarily envision him being the guy it was more they'll trade for Christian Walker or something of that nature at one last email and again you could always email the pod the Rico B at gmail.com Anthony writes Evan hope your back is recovering thank you very much I have definitely made progress that a shot I got has helped so still not great but progress thank you for asking this isn't analysis of those defense this spring since we've seen so little and he's still learning just trying to play out possibilities do you think if he does struggle the meds would shift him mostly to DH or do you think they would be too much pushback by him and his agent over hurting his market value by doing so that's a great question because I would love to tell you if the meds best interest is bobechette DH they're not going to care about angering the player they're not going to care about bobechette's value and free agency but I don't know man it's a business and you always want

41:55to handle egos delicately two things about this though number one I commend bobechette apparently on his own I guess with his father Dante who I'm I guess I'm starting to like now I never liked Dante but shut hated him as a player I still think of that stupid fist pump he was doing after he hit the walkoff home run on the first ever game of course field whatever rating that was 14th inning 15th inning opening day 1995 brutal but apparently Dante convinced bow reach out to David right and so David who's a guest instructor in spring training is going to work with bobechette and it wasn't necessarily just because David wants to or Mendy asked him but bobechette asked him and that says a lot a lot of athletes will not do that a lot of modern athletes are not going to ask the older generation for help and bobechette did I think that's a great sign about really him his character and how hard he's working but let's walk down the road Anthony he's not good defensively at third base it never turns around if you're going to play him less at third base

43:01who's playing third base if it's Ronnie Mauricio from the minor leagues okay if it's Brett Mady well then who's playing first base and if the answer is Jorge Polanco or Mark Vientos ask yourself this of those guys better at first base than but shed his at third base so I get the question because what if bobechette is going to be good but is there a scenario where bobechette deaching is the best spot for the meds because you're also going to have to factor in Polanco or Vientos would then have to play a position but if we're sitting here in July and the meds need to make a deal for a real first baseman because bishops at disaster at third they want to move baby to third they don't have a first baseman I guess and I would hope that the meds wouldn't bobechette's contract or ego getting the way of doing what's best interest to the team but I think we're a long ways away from it I think we should give bobechette a fair shot at third base

44:06and b I don't know if all the scenarios are going to line up with their better off with him deaching so keep that in mind send your emails on over your thoughts on this season predictions on this season questions baseball questions we'll get to all of it on our mailbag edition in just a couple of days here on the rico the email address is the rico b at gmail.com the rico b at gmail.com congratulations to team USA you've survived let's beat Canada like we did in hockey let's shock the world baby shock the world whom I can anyhow we appreciate you downloading and listening to another edition of rico bronia we hope you enjoyed this episode of the rico bronia podcast it's amazing isn't it make sure you download it now to keep it on you at all times hey it's howie mandel and I am inviting you to witness history as me and my how we do it

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