STOP THE MADNESS - Today's MLB Is Too Healthy For A Lockout

0:00It's the Lockdown Podcast Network, your team every day. I'm Aaron Judge, welcome to MLB The Show 26. The greatest game in baseball is back, whether you're a gamer or a baseball fan. This one is tough to put down. Jump into franchise mode with your favorite team. Build your roster, chase a pennant, and see if you have what it takes to win it all. It's the closest thing to being in the big leagues yourself. Use it MLB The.Show slash Lockdown, and use Code Lockdown to unlock a pack for Diamond Dynasty. Internet connection required. Preorder now on PlayStation 5, Xbox, and Nintendo Switch, rated E for everyone. MLB The Show 26, own the show. Water usually wins. It warps in Rott's wood. It pulls it apart bored by board. Unless you build with treks. Treks Marine Gray decking is 100% submersible for docks. To last, it resists Rott warping and decay in salt and fresh water.

1:01For homeowners, that means care free days on the water, not constant maintenance. For builders, it means trusted performance that minimizes callbacks. Water has met its match, treks decking, performance engineered, for your life outdoors. Visit treks.com slash docs. Viewership of baseball is skyrocketing. Interest is finding brand new markets, and for the first time in generations, you could make the argument that the biggest star in the world in terms of athletes is a major league baseball player. So look at that landscape and say, hey, let's lock the game out. You are Lockdown MLB, your daily MLB podcast. Part of the Lockdown podcast network, your team every day. Hello baseball fans and welcome to Lockdown MLB, part of the Lockdown podcast network, which your team every day.

2:01This is the podcast. We talk about all the major league baseball. I'm your host, Paul Francis Sullivan. Please call me Sully, and we here at the Lockdown podcast program now, the number one sports podcast, the network follows at Lockdown MLB pods on Twitter or whatever they're calling it these days. And on Instagram, I am your pal Sully, I'm a Sully baseball podcast Instagram, but the best way to get a hold of me and the show is right here on the YouTube page. And I take a look at every comment, even the ones of the people who are haters. And you are out there. But you know what? It's fine. I like that. I just finished doing a stint at Lockdown A's and had a great time doing that. And on today's episode, we're going to be taking a look at some of the things that baseball can do to make them, you know, a little more user friendly and the big challenges that they have to face. But we're going to start off with some positivity, actually what tells the tale of this episode is brought to you by MLB, the show 26 visit MLB, the show dot com slash locked on use code

3:06locked on to unlock a pack for use and diamond dynasty, available now on PlayStation 5, Xbox and Nintendo Switch is ready to be for everyone. And stay tuned later for this episode for our MLB top 100 highlight. Yeah, I want to just be positive for a second. Now we're seeing baseball has have revenues or skyrocketing. But of course, there are things are going on with television and media and everything like that. But that's a little bigger than baseball because media is changing. But we're seeing that people are watching the games. People are paying attention to the games. People are tuning into the games and that's a good thing. If you take a look at the fact that in when you take a look at the ratings and the viewership for the world baseball classic, I mean, 10.7 million people watched Venezuela beat the

4:06United States in that thriller. And you saw that seven million people watched the USA defeat the Dominican Republic the other day. And they average 1.2 million viewers again. Now that's pretty good. That's a good number of eyeballs watching a tournament that we all know is not the World Series. It's not the World Cup. It's not the Olympics. It's something that not too long ago was divided as basically being glorified spring training games and you're now having millions of eyeballs watching it. From all around the world who are taking a look at this. Now the World Baseball Classic ratings in 2023 were really the first time it started to show the hey, wait a minute, this has a little bit of, this could have some legs. But you were seeing that the people are paying attention. People are getting into it.

5:07People were enjoying this world, this world baseball classic that's a little slip of the tongue there. And this was coming on the heels. The momentum I absolutely believe the momentum that led to the high ratings and the increased viewership of the World Baseball Classic. I absolutely believe is piggybacking off of the ratings of the remarkable World Series that we just had. Now you may hate the Dodgers. You may hate what they represent, but like any good James Bond film or any good Batman film, they're only as good as your bad guy and the Dodgers are a great bad guy if you're not a Dodger fan. And I've been living here in Los Angeles County. I can't pretend to be a Dodger fan. I'm surrounded by Dodger fans and they're loving it. But everyone else hates a 29 fan basis, hate them. And they played in that unbelievable mind-boggling World Series that we had last October.

6:09And it was so good and caught so much attention that the idea of watching any meaningful baseball, you saw that that momentum is just carried right on through the World Baseball Classic and Frank training. And next week you're going to see that momentum going on into the regular season. Now I have said that the season should begin with the all-star game. I've been saying that for well over a decade now. But we saw part of the reason why I want to do that, why I think that'd be good for baseball. Because people were excited to see the faces. They were excited to see Otani. They were excited to see a Bryce Harper who basically swung and missed most of his way through the tournament until he hit that dramatic home run and finally they wanted to see Aaron Judge. They wanted to see all the huge stars playing in Team Venezuela, Team Dominican Republic. All the great players out there. They wanted to see them and not just playing the first three innings of those spring training

7:13game and sort of walking back in and eating sunflower seeds and being in the shower by the fifth thing. They wanted to see them trying to win and it was a way to get reacquainted with the stars and had that little bit of a twist that we're doing in the tournament here. And so there's interest. And honestly for the first time in my lifetime. And I have, I mean, I've lived more than I will live, all right? I'm 53. I'm going to be 54 in a few months and the chances of me making it to 108 years old are almost as good as the Pirates winning the World Series this year. Actually, the Pirates are going to be pretty good this year. Do you let us say the Rockies? No offense ball hold. But in my lifetime, the biggest star in baseball has, or the biggest star in sports in the world has never been a baseball player. You can argue the biggest star in America hasn't been a baseball player in my lifetime.

8:14There was always someone bigger. There was always some player bigger. There was always whether it was the steel curtain, deep, steel curtain, uh, Steelers of the 70s or in the 80s, you had Magic and Bird. They were the biggest stars in the American sports in the 80s. And then you also had, you know, and then you had Jordan in the 90s suggested America. You would, it was never, the big star was never a baseball player. And in the world, you would have people like, you know, Pele, you would have people like Beckham, you would have people, you know, Mike Tyson, you would have, uh, you know, you always say there was always someone bigger, whether it was Jordan or LeBron. The biggest name in all of sports was always someone who was in a baseball player. There were big stars who were baseball players to be sure, but they never dominated the sports culture, the way that Shohei Otani has now. He is the biggest star in baseball clearly, but he's one of the biggest international

9:18sports stars. He's huge in America. He's huge here in Los Angeles. He's dominated revolutionized the sport and people from all over the world. You could probably throw a couple of the people at me, but right now, a baseball player in his prime is a mate is the biggest star in sports. And eyeballs can't get enough of the world series that they're willing to turn the world into a baseball classic into a ratings bananza. And despite all the bitching and moaning about, oh, the halves and the halves knots and no, these teams win every time. It's not true. Yes, the Dodgers have one three world series this decade. That's true. And we have back to back titles. The first back to back title in baseball in a quarter century. You've seen back to back titles in all the salary cap leagues. We're supposedly a parody. We've had 19 pennant winners in 20 years in baseball.

10:19You don't have that in football. You don't have that in basketball or hockey. You have stretches with the same teams winning it every single year. And there's never been a period of time in baseball where there was like, oh, all the teams are spending the exact amount of money and blah, blah, blah. And with all of this going on and its positivity. And a couple of franchises that were in the doldrums may see some light at the end of the tunnel as new ownerships for the race, a new stadium being built for the A's and possible expansion into markets like potentially Nashville, potentially Salt Lake City, potentially Portland, you know, place that could be a nice haven for baseball. You're going to take a look at the game the way it is now and start to say, hey, let's shut it down. Maybe for an entire season. I don't want to hear it. I don't want to hear how stupid that is because it's just it's a group of people who do not

11:22care about the sport is a group of people who have or making money hand over fist and have more money that can spend in several lifetimes are willing to torpedo the sport is what's going on. And as I've said before, this is not owners versus players. It's not which is why locking out the players for the for whatever dispute is going on here is insane because it's not about the players. It's about two ownerships versus 28 and they have to come to some sort of agreement fast because the golden goose is laying lots of eggs. This week's MLB top 100 highlight is brought to you by MLB the show 23 the latest from the below video game franchise each week we're highlighting the stars of MLB's top 100 players list, the elite names you'll be controlling building around and going head to head

12:25with an MLB the show. Here's our player spotlight number 11 is Boston ace. Eric crochet he had a silent caliber season for twenty twenty five and he led all the major league baseball with two hundred and fifty five strikeouts over two hundred five and a third innings pitch. His four seemed fast balls one of the best pitches in the game and the sliders devastated he couldn't even be better this year he has a new splitter added to his repertoire. So look out a L batter's urine trouble facing crochet and he's looking to improve this year just as MLB the show twenty six has improved and upgraded ratings new animations improve game play field if you're a baseball fan this is one of the he is one of the building blocks crochet is and he is going to be someone you want to be playing when you're playing the show with WBC back you can take on world baseball classic teams from all over the world what will your legacy be in road to the show MLB the show's career mode will you make it a Cooperstown okay that's this week's top 100 highlight

13:25presented by m.o.b the show where you can play managing build with your favorite players and teams if you love talking baseball you'll love playing it more visit m.o.b the show dot com slash locked on use go locked on to unlock a pair for use in diamond dynastie internet connections required pre order now available now on PlayStation five Xbox series that's the next and then tendo switch and it is rated E for everyone all right let's hear from our good friends over at fan dual look at the college basketball tournament is starting you got big games you have tight spreads you got momentum swings from early morning tip offs to late night west coast shootout there's always action on the board and now fan do is giving you way to turn that energy into even bigger potential wins with a college basketball parlay profit boost you can build any college who's parlay you want rivalry games rank matchups whatever fits you read and you can mix spreads totals and player props to match how you see the slate playing out and then you can apply the profit

14:27boost that instantly bump up the potential payout go safe go bold ride with the team you've been following all seasons your parlay your style with more upside behind it head to fandall dot com to get started that's fandall dot com fandall play your game and thanks so much for making us your number one if you've been listening to us all the time it's time to join the every day or club for ad free episodes and access to a group chat with me and other listeners to the show just tap the link in the show notes or go to locked on mlb dot supercast dot com i've made this point before the players are accepting contracts that are handed out there have been safe guards to having teams just spend willy and nilly and that is luxury tax which is something the owners of one relatively recently

15:28in their labor negotiations and for the most part teams have been sticking with it the Yankees have stuck with it the red socks have stuck with it the cubs have stuck with it the only two teams that don't seem to care are the Dodgers and the Mets and so it's twenty eight teams filled with billionaires owning the teams and they could be pouring lots of money and trying to have the team be competitive you anytime you look at a bottom dwelling team like the Cleveland Guardians who should be a pennant contender and will probably make the playoffs and probably be a few players short as they're in the bottom five of payroll all right they will those owners could invest in the team they don't they choose not to the Mets and the Dodgers choose to do that and with the Dodgers it show their work with the Mets it shows the money cannot buy you happen that's necessarily you need other things other than throwing lots of money all because they don't mad at me Mets fans the Mets have been spending money like Richard prior and Brewster's millions and they've yet to win

16:30a pennant under this regime and last year they couldn't make it to the world they could make it to the playoffs the Reds did Cleveland did they didn't so it's not all about spending money of course and it's not always the same teams winning it although you may think it is and nobody has really explained to me how capping the top spenders is going to create parity talk to me like I'm a dog to explain how that will work that would just mean that teams will stop spending and the players in the middle the superstars are going to get paid no matter what it's the same lane basketball same lane football which are all these teams that have these caps the superstars are going to paid and the rest and the people going to get squeezed out are the players who are very good and kind of in the middle that they would rather have well deal we'd rather have a bunch of

17:30you know chumps and minor leaguers in there or under pay some of these other players how is that going to make the quality of the product better also the other question is this that I've been asked in this since the 90s when I've heard all the salary cap nonsense are they going to cap what the owners can sell the team for are they going to cap what how much revenue they can have because why is that only the players who can have what they could make caps and not the team and not the management they never made sense to me and made this point before I'll make it again you have the salary floor and if you have a draconian tax if you increase with the taxes at the top and all that money goes to the bottom and all that money is accounted for all that money is audited you force Cleveland to start spending money on international freezers on minor league on scouting that all the money that you get from revenue sharing has to be put into your 40 man roster and then we'll start seeing that but that seems like a move that could be made that seems like

18:33something that all sides could agree on certainly not worth shutting down the sport for an entire season when its popularity is starting to soar that's insane that's absolutely insane now I also know that there is a big problem going on with the revenue streams from certain teams well that's partly because there's been some short-sightedness that there was been money flowing in from local television deals and that's been the main source of getting big piles of money but guess what people don't have cable TV as much anymore those revenue streams are collapsing because of obsolescence we watch our games on our devices and when you have things like well it's going to be on you know on this local station it's going to have it and the revenue is coming in

19:34because live live entertainment keeps some of those networks afloat well that's not the case anymore things happen the way we watch and consume games evolve newspapers are dying radio is dying broadcast television is dying cable television is dying you know we're all the methods we consume baseball on and now it's a new way of doing it and embrace that new way and this is the main thing that baseball has to do and I've said this before and I'll say it again they put everything in one spot one place to watch it MLB the app when I saw that they've just added berry bonds to the netflix baseball broadcast I slapped my forehead you're putting it you're spreading it out too much you need to put it in one spot here is the worst question you can ask during the regular season I can't find the game where's the game if you put it on like if you're playing like it's

20:41like you know the the the quark experiment where things are just popping up left and right and it never seems to be the same spot day by day um you're gonna lose some of those eyeballs you're gonna lose some of that attention and I'm starting to see people are getting a little sick of all the different apps we have to have and services we have to have and subscriptions we have to have aren't you aren't you getting sick of you have to subscribe to peacock and amazon and netflix and paramount plus and that the that the die in disney plus and hbo max whatever the heck it's called these days or apple tv and this side of the other thing and where is the game it's here it's there I can't find it make it easy to find make it so everyone can find it I want to watch a baseball game I'll go to the app my team is on there and I'll watch it the easier you make it to watch the

21:42game the easier people will subscribe and those subscription fees will probably make up for the cable tv revenue that is now dead you may not like that it's dead but it's dead it's deader than dead are you making a lot of money from broadcast television these days are you making a lot of money from the radio advertising these days are you making a lot of money from newspapers these days I didn't think so you can stand over all those media with a bunch with a pair of paddles going clear but it's tough to revive a dead body only one person I know has ever been able to pull that off and he used that on Lazarus so the fact of the matter is he's not going to do it for cable tv that stream of revenue is dead that's wanting to have that be your main stream of revenue and say well be fandal network it'll be this time with this time with this

22:42is as viable as a movie company saying hey maybe they'll rent it at blockbuster it's dead we're watching things on the devices and you have a population that is frustrated that things are spread out all over creation put it in one spot make your advertising there make your subscriptions there and find a way to get all the teams involved you have to have all 30 teams eventually it'll be 32 teams on the app getting subscriptions where's the game it's on MLB obviously if you want to have games spread out onto amazon or Netflix or wherever NBC or is it peacock I don't know and neither do you if you want to pop it on there fine but that's a simulcast of what's happening at MLB and you say hey it's like a free it's a free sample a trader Joe's hey here you go it's still available on the app no more blackouts blackouts don't mean anything anymore

23:48this is no longer 1953 no blackouts no regional stuff the postseason games are there too pop them in other places it's kind of like there are podcasts that you can subscribe to when they throw out the free episodes that if you want it but you want it if you're a big fan you subscribe and guess what a lot of people are big fans right now and they're watching the freaking world baseball classic you're really willing to do all this you want to destroy all this because you don't like the Dodgers and the Mets because that's what's going on there's a couple of the things that are going on too and they have to solve a couple of these franchises because expansion is necessary but you can't expand and destroy at the same time and what they're thinking about doing is expanding and destroying at the same time and let me tell you cousin that's bananas

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25:49register futures commission merchant and swap firm all right folks you can have those office nightmare situations with deadlines stacking up inbox overflowing and the one position you have to fill still sitting open when the pressure is on and you need the right hire this is a job for sponsor job indeed sponsor jobs help you reach the people who actually fit what you're looking for skills experience location so you're not just hoping the right candidate stumbles across your post and here's a stat that says it all in the minutes I've been talking to you companies like yours have made 27 hires on indeed according to indeed data worldwide so if you're spending less if you're hiring you spend less time searching and more time interviewing candidates to check all the boxes with indeed sponsored jobs spend less time searching and more time actually interviewing candidates who check all the boxes less stress less time more results and when you need the right person to cut through the chaos this is a job for indeed sponsored jobs and listeners of this show

26:49we get a $75 sponsored job credit to help get your job the premium status it deserves and indeed dot com slash podcast just go to indeed dot com slash podcast right now support our show by saying you heard about indeed on this podcast indeed dot com slash podcast terms and conditions apply need to hire this is a job for indeed sponsored jobs now I've been hosting locked on AIDS for the last few weeks and I'm not trying to say everything is hunky and also dory with the a's because they're still playing in a minor league stadium and they're still run by the fishers but there is some light at the end of the tunnel with the a's situation they are building a stadium in Las Vegas it looks like it's really happening and if that's the case the a's will go to Las Vegas do I think Las Vegas is a great market now I think it's a transplanted population that primarily roots for the Dodgers

27:52uh it's there if they're going to be banking on tourism their bank on tourism in the desert city in the summertime when tourism is plummeting and one big reason of tourism is flowing in Las Vegas is one of the allure of going to Las Vegas is to gamble and now you can gamble on your phone visit fandall.com to get started and so the allure of Vegas isn't what it used to be and now they're hoping that all those tourists will wander in to an AIDS game but what they're doing is they're building a really terrific spectacular stadium that will probably draw tourists will certainly draw me and if that's the case there may be light at the end of the tunnel for the a's there may be light the tunnel end of the tunnel for the rays if they can pull off building this new stadium in Tampa and for a while it looks like Orlando was going to do it but it looks like that the new ownership is making a big pitch to put the team in Tampa now that being said there's still other things we have to do there are other problems

28:57need to be fixed there's a few ownerships that have to be changed and yes they in the past the commissioner of baseball was able to maneuver some things revolving some of the owners they you know they move the ownership of the marlin are the exposed to the marlins the marlins to the red socks they got McCourt out of there from Los Angeles let's we forget about it you know a decade and a half ago the Dodgers were on the verge of bankruptcy and were a joke of a franchise let's we forget that that that is where that team was at that point so the commissioner could have take McCourt out they could take out marino already marino has you know the first as I said the first decade he ran the team the agents were competitive and everything like that they've wasted a superstar and Mike drought the team is incompetently run there's the whole Tyler Skag situation which is grotesque and the situation with the club has involved people going to the jail the team is the has the longest playoff drought all these things you got to change ownership you got to force the

30:01sale of that team because that's too huge a market to have a laughing stock of a team you've already wasted one superstar there they have to take care of the pirate situation they have to figure out the expansion which I think she go to Portland and Nashville but other cities have come around but you can't just plot a team there without a stadium now the stadium where they the was that the the I can't remember the soccer team in Portland used to be a minor league baseball stadium you could reconfigure that you can say hey for a year or so we're going to play here knowing that the the expansion team will eventually have its own ballpark and I've made the point that they're building a new stadium for the Tennessee Titans they should try to transform the old stadium at least temporarily into a major league park for a Nashville team they got to be able to take care of that expansion because baseball has been drooling to expand but they haven't been

31:01able to because the A's in the race situation well if there's light in the end of the time for that then we got to get to get going on this there needs to be realignment because I think that's the best way to enjoy baseball moving forward if you have 32 teams you could have four 18 divisions and have regional play and regional excitement and I think that'll be amazing and you also need to figure out not only the angel situation you need to figure out the white sack situation are they building a new stadium are they moving I don't want the white socks to move I want them to be in Chicago forever but if they're not we got to figure out something right away we got to figure out something right away and if whichever market doesn't get an expansion team they made rule for the white socks I would prefer if they stayed in Chicago but we're not going to have another situation like the expose dying on the vine or the A's crumbling or the rays having the roof ripped off we can't have that we got to start coming up with solutions now but first things first we have

32:02to stop this lunacy about discussion of a lockout a lockout for a season would destroy all this momentum momentum we haven't seen in generations and it's all over two teams that's all it is embrace new technology every time baseball is embrace new technology they've come out ahead and made more money than they've ever dreamed of there's new technology now and you have a frustrated fan base but not just a frustrated fan base your frustrated viewers in general you could be the antidote for that you could be the one saying hey I know you're tired of everything all over the place we're in one place pay the subscription you never have to ask where is the game it's right here make it look baseball we own it we own the app we own them broadcasts and all 30 teams are here there are no blackouts there's only happiness yes even your team is losing you never have to ask

33:02the question where the hell is the game figure that out hope and pray that the stadium is built in Tampa Bay and that there's no hiccups in Las Vegas so those two franchises have their home you figure out where the expansion is going to be and you figure out how the markets of essentially Los Angeles and Chicago can find can solve their issues and I don't want it to mean a move from Chicago if they have to build something in the loop or whatever do it they should build a multi-purpose stadium for the white socks and the bears but I digress and for the angels don't move them get it get new management in there and believe me this is going to be the same as when the McCourt's left whoever comes in it's going to be a bananza and it's going to be a bananza of excitement and baseball which is already here when everyone's loving the product and the product is healthy you need to make a tweak here a tweak there that's what you need to do

34:05not put dynamite under it but to solve the issues that are actually there so stop this nonsense and by the way I forgot to do the trivia question the trivia question was um who are the only two pictures to throw ten or more complete games as a member of the Rockies GRT Hughes who is a an everyday silly got the answer right is Pedro Estacio and Aaron Cook who are the co-facts and drives Dale of Colorado Rockies history and today's trivia question is what notorious 1930s figure tried to buy the cubs and promised Babe Ruth that he would also purchase his contract to come to Chicago that's a trivia question and the story may be apocryphal but it's so wonderful that I absolutely love it all right so thanks so much for listening to locked on MLB next week we're going to be talking about the the previewing the upcoming season I'm going to be working on the in-memoring video which I hope to get ready before the season opens and

35:05earnest and you can subscribe and follow locked on MLB on uh you know here on YouTube if I was locked on MLB pods on Twitter whatever they're calling it now and on Instagram I'm at Sully Baseball podcast on Instagram if you had never visited episode the everydayers built you you can get locked on MLB ad free plus members only discord access and more head to locked on MLB supercars.com join the club and check out the first ever 247 national locked on podcast network youtube channel and check out locked on a's on Fridays my final episode there and also keep listening for our top 100 list reveals talking about everything right with baseball right now and how a lockout would be absolute insanity this is locked on MLB I'm yours Paul Francis Sullivan please Sully the winter games are officially here and if you're anything like us you're locking in for events you only get to see on the biggest stage every four years and that's why following the

36:09winter games on fandall just makes sense from middle counts to individual events to finding your angle on the sports you care about most fandall gives you more ways to say connected to the action the drama of curling matches that start slow and somehow get intense fast hockey games that feel different right from opening face off the winter games are on and there's no better way to follow them then with fandall fandall play your game water usually wins it rots wood and tears docks apart unless you build with trex trex marine grade decking is 100% submersible built to resist rod and solid and fresh water water has met its match trex decking visit trex dot com slash docs Xfinity tech support how can I help I can't get Jurassic Park back online without you just need Xfinity plug in your gateway and you're good all set luckily Xfinity has reliable self-healing Wi-Fi that keeps you safe from threats you can even boost speeds to your most important devices get reliable Wi-Fi at one price for five years guaranteed Xfinity imagine that watch Jurassic Park

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