[MUSIC] Fan Morning Show Sports at 5.9 of the fan band and his friend Johnny. If I know one thing about this Leafs team, maybe I don't. >> Okay. >> Maybe they're changing some of the narratives, right? >> Sure. >> They're now capable of beating up on bad teams. >> The occasion, I don't know if the Devils are a bad team, but. >> Just a hair above bad, no, they're fine. They have a lot of talent. >> They're very talented team. >> Yeah, they've beaten up on the capitals recently, and we know the California road trip. They were able to take care of business. But here's the thing that I still know about this Leafs team, I think. >> Okay, all right. >> Is that after a stinky smelly performance like that where everybody's counting them out and saying, here we go, here come the immature Leafs, that they're gonna throw up one of their best performances of the season tomorrow against the Washington Capitals. >> See, I'm not the best math guy, and I don't know exactly how exponents work. But could they just suck tomorrow and then again on Saturday, and then they are- >> Don't say that for Monday. >> They're basically Canada's 2014 Sochi team, the most perfect hockey team of all time when they roll out their Monday against the catch, you're right. We know this team, they're jackled and hide. It's funny, that's the thing you know, the thing I know is that Mitch Marner is walking around that dressing room today being like, ooh, you guys, hey, all the guys been it, not me, certainly not me, I've been here nice that he could skirt by that, you're right. This is what this team does, they get embarrassed, they get called out either by us or by their coach or hey, maybe they're doing it to each other behind closed doors and probably not. But I don't know, like, the fact that they show up seemingly every time after they lay an egg, I don't know if they all just go, all right, time to pull ourselves up by our bootstraps, but it does seem like it's a concerted effort to have an effort the next time. And it wasn't even a lack of effort, it was like a lack of concentration last night, like I didn't look at it going, oh, you're not bearing down on puns, like we've had those games from this team, and I didn't feel like that was it last night. It was just a lack of details, a lack of focus, so much got away from you. I mean, the penalty kill, like it ended up nuking him last night, but there's one moment before he left the game with the oldest manager I've ever seen from Eric Ola at the beginning of it. But in the first period, he's standing there on the power play just completely all alone in front of the net. It seemed like a concerted effort to leave him alone. So there's just lack of details that slip in a way. And yeah, when we've seen that with this group, generally speaking, bounce back the next time. They do. And if you care about such things, they're in a dog fight to finish third in the Atlantic now, all of a sudden four points up on the lightning. And you know, the Rangers by points, and they're the only team in the Eastern Conference, the only team in the NHL to have clinched a playoff spot. Boy, that's scary. Igor Shusterkin's looking more like himself. Yeah. Yeah, how would you feel about the Leafs playing the Rangers, which is not an unrealistic possibility? Although right now they would play the last wild card team, but the Bruins are only one point back at them. Like again, the president's trophy is very much up for grabs. We've been so singularly focused on the two teams that it seemed like they were destined to play. The Bruins of the Panthers still the most likely scenario. But now it must be said, like the Rangers are real possibility. The idea of signing up for a series with with Shusterkin feels flat out and sane. Quite honestly, sign me up for a series against Shusterkin. If the options are Panthers, Bruins, or Rangers, I don't think this is all the voodoo of 2014 or 2019. But just look how the teams have played each other this year. Boston's beat the wheels off everybody in the Atlantic. The Leafs have held pretty well against the Rangers. You see the way those two teams stack up. The Leafs are kind of built a little more of that, that ilk. So yeah, I think you would, you would welcome with open arms a series with the Rangers. Is this something different to that? That's the other like me personally. Oh my God. Whatever give for that. Yeah. It's weird because, well, on the one hand, I do believe like there's being some rivalries that have been birthed out of this playoff format, right? Like, I think we're starting to see with the Bruins and the Panthers after their seven game series last year and then, you know, yesterday's a pretty physical affair and one goal game and a comeback and I think outsiders, like outside of this market, they probably do want to see the Leafs and the lightning or the Leafs and the Bruins or the Leafs and the Panthers because of some recent playoff history is that like, is that correct? Or are they also looking for something new because with the Leafs specifically, I think people from outside markets would love it to be a Boston or Tampa so they can do the Nelson months. Ha ha if they lose like personally, I think that's what they all would want. But Boston and Florida, yeah, it's because of the playoff series last year, but I also just feel like this is what happens when you have two teams at the top of the division. Like, I know it's not their ultimate goal. I know they're not going to sit there crying as they raise the Atlantic division banner in Boston or in Florida. I know that's not going to happen, but I do think that matters. And when you have to, and I also think it matters that there are elite teams in the league. Like if this was two teams having a bit of a pillow fight for the central, just to pick on another division, then you'd say, okay, I don't know that it carries as much stakes. But I just think these stakes are created by the two teams both being great. So I don't know that this is a win for the NHL's divisional playoff format as much as it's just, it's what happens when you're competing against somebody you're in and you're out. Like this is going to happen, whether it happens in the postseason or not. Is there a devil's advocate argument? Listen, I'm grasping here. Okay. Sorry. I can't wait then. Oh boy. Hang on to your seats, folks. Don't change that dial. Bro and Panthers care too much about the regular season. Now this was a real thing that started to happen with that lightning team, right? They cared so much about setting the regular season points record and then bowed out to the Columbus Blue Jack. Because the next year, they're like, we don't care so much about the regular season or is more like, hey, we got to play more of a playoff style over the course of a regular season. You can't just like try and score seven goals a game because that might re-retuckly had also, it should be mentioned that like, I think Victor Hedman missed all four of those games. There's a lot of things we pay for over whatever shot up, whatever. It's fine. Yeah. Okay. In a regular season, which has limited correlation to postseason success, hey, you're a Lee fan and you were, God, looking for some reason to be optimistic about how different the games between the Panthers and Bruins have looked as opposed to the eight to aggregate victory the Bruins had in a single week over the least and say, Oh, guys, it care too much about meaningless regular season games. No, you're very wrong. It was a good job grasping at the straws. You almost got even one of them. But no, the Leafs need something to strive for like they need a hard and fast goal to reach so we can not have the world mourners out and Riley's out and they're experimenting with lines. What do you want? It's exactly what we talked about. So yeah, I understand the argument you're making that you don't want to go full bore and you don't want to care about setting a points record or a points percentage record. Who cares about that will laugh forever at the president's trophy banner, okay? But winning the division would kind of be like for this team, for this team, it would be like of that ilk, it would be, yeah, like something unprecedented, that being said, like how different do you feel? Honestly, I'll just tell you how I feel. If the Leafs were headed towards a first round series against some lesser light, and there's going to be two probably in the Eastern Conference playoffs, somebody at the bottom of the metro and somebody at the bottom of the wild card, right? Like, I almost feel worse going into a series if I'm a Leaf fan against a team that you're supposed to beat, at least like you can guard yourself. You'd be like, well, that sucks and everybody's got to be fired and you're back in the same hole, but at least it was against a team that you weren't expected to beat. I would have felt that way last year, but this year I don't, because they won the round that it's like, okay, like they won the round, they should get past this team if they don't. Don't you almost like reset it? Like if, say the Leafs win the Atlantic and they got like, say it's the flier. Sure. Who stank? Yeah. Like, let's be real here. Yeah, yeah. The fliers aren't like, doesn't that like erase the first round series victory they had a season ago? Well, this is part of the way bigger problem with the Leafs in that you're right. It does. And then nothing changes because everybody has no moves and they're all paying. You're not trading any of these guys. So, yeah. Yeah. Please don't let that happen. So I can't. Good thing is it can't. Yeah. That's the more realistic Leafs fan perspective than the one where, yeah, like the Bruins and the Panthers are going to be all worn out, all tuckered out from caring so much about the regular season. I just, yeah, there's no joy to be found in any of the scenarios that I like try and figure myself out or try to wrap my head around when it comes to the regular season, other than the one that I propose to Damien Cox, where, hey, the higher up the standings you finish, the more cap space you have, which I, okay, we're just like, it's a half, it's not even, I haven't put it in the oven yet. It's not a big idea at all. Like I'm putting the ingredients together in a mixing bowl sourdough starter of ideas here, if you will. But, yeah. And obviously there would be the reason we have the draft the way it is is because we don't want teams to be bad forever and it's their own fault that they think that never happens. I know. But like the theory is that it's supposed to prop up those bad teams that eventually they get good. But, you know, bad teams going to stay bad generally. And if you end up giving more cap space to the better teams, it feels like, yeah, that's like an ever ending cycle. So there would have to be some mechanism to prop up the bottom teams. But boy, can you imagine the stakes that were on the line for this Leafs team? If like every regular season game, it's a like the potential of resigning Tyler Bertuzzi on the line? Yeah, it'd be that'd be fascinating. I just again, like if they don't have an appetite to expand the cap for anybody, I don't see why they would only do it for the good teams who you're going to ask for more. I think that is a fascinating idea. another one I've kind of heard bandied out because the idea of, well, once you're eliminated, then you basically like a crew draft pick points. I don't love that one as much. Yeah, that's what they're doing in the P.W. Joe. Yeah, I don't love that one as much. Here's what I would like though, is that you accrue like bonus draft picks like baseball has this, right? Like competitive, like the competitive balance round or you lose free agents, you can get a draft pick here or here or there and some supplemental rounds. I would be very for the idea of like, okay, the state was a shark, you're the worst team in the history of mankind. Any win you pick up after being eliminated is an extra third round pick in your hopper. And hey, we talked about the deadline, like that is not, that is not nothing that's something to be had. So that's actually an idea like kind of more for the bottom end team. Yeah. But for the top end, it's just there's no appetite. There's no appetite for them to increase the cap. So you're not going to see. I think the only thing, I think the only thing you can do is what you've laid out, but there's just no appetite for that from the Lee at all. Yeah. Are we in a specific and unique circumstance here being in Toronto where like so often these end of season games are meaningless where like, yeah, even in Tampa, like they're not used to this, but here they go. They're in a wild card spot and they're trying to get out of a wild card spot. And certainly the teams at the bottom of the Eastern Conference playoff race and the Rangers are trying to win a president's trophy. Like, is nobody else having this conversation or is this a uniquely Toronto thing? Or is it like a uniquely me thing? Because you said you don't care. You're like, it's all good. Like it's hockey. Right. No, I think what it is is that the Leafs are such a, it's not just a Toronto thing and that the Leafs position in the standings. It's that the core of the team has been so similar year in and year out, generally speaking, the teams that don't have success, there's at least like one move, one piece of change to say like, ah, here's the thing that you're looking towards or you're trying to tease out. It's just the Leafs schedule has been so baked in and or sorry, where they're at in the standings have been so baked in, but the decisions they have coming out of the consequences of this are so baked in as well. I, I really think the only way you can do it is, is what do what donor and what do teams care about? It's like one team cares about draft capital or cap space. The other cares about actual cash revenue. And that's why I go back to the idea of a five games at home. Like I think if we, I think if you say to ownership, hey, man, you better, you better finish with home ice advantage or you're getting maybe one home date, maybe no home dates in the playoffs for making it. I do think that would maybe change the impetus. The one thing that cannot be done and I don't know, maybe you feel differently about this. And I know I come to this from a position of nothing should ever change, but there cannot be any expansion of the playoffs whatsoever. It cannot, it cannot happen. I, I generally agree. And I mean, my favorite memories of Major League Baseball has been when there was a greater import on the regular season and the watering down and even the allowing of an 89 win blue Jay's team into the postseason field, the season ago feels like it's the way it's, it's going, man. It's, it's just, it's, they're already there. We're already there. No, but we're already there. To me, 16 and a 32 teams is already like, look at again, look at the teams that are going to get into the Eastern Conference playoff field. We're going to once again see that capital team that just will not be killed tomorrow. And I guess roll the tape back when the Leafs lose seven one. But yeah, we saw that capital's team and the, the corpse of Alex Ovechkin, who I get it is back on a pretty good goal tearing, a goal scoring tear, second half of the season. Look at the teams that are already getting in. What's the difference if the capitals get in or the capitals and the flyers and the red wings? Well, the devil's it's like, you know, we're already there. It's already like the bottom of the playoff field is already horrible. So I think part of the problem with this and maybe, maybe I have been slowly proven to be wrong about this, you know me, it's going to take a while before I wholly admit to that. But the thing, the reason why I've always been so adamant that the NHL of all league should not expand their postseason and baseball, I think would be or baseball's the, on the, like other side or right there with it is that if you are in because of the nature of the sport, because of the nature of one position in the sport in goaltender, you can win. Yeah. Like I was always totally fine with the NBA, having a play in tournament. And then the heat went and screwed it all up because my theory was going to be great. Let these guys have a little playoff against themselves. And then the real playoffs will begin and we won't have to see any of these teams. And then the key kind of screwed it up. The thing I love about hockey is that yes, any of these teams can get hot. So I don't look at it and say, oh, we should, like, we're not shrinking it. It's not getting shorter. And quite honestly, I don't think that hockey is better off. Like what's the best thing in, I mean, yeah, it's like, we all say everything's the best thing in sport, depending on what week it is. But the first round of the NHL playoffs, it is among the crown jewels in sport. You cannot screw with that. And the other thing is we talk about what drives interest in sports. It's transactions, it's trades. If you're letting 20 teams in, well, that's the problem with baseball is like, nobody wants to go for it anymore. Well, I go the other way. Nobody wants to ungo for it. You know, you had teams this year who were willing to do that. Like you look at the fliers, say, okay, we're in this position. We're still going to sell off Sean Walker. If the fliers are not a fringy playoff team, but they are locked in because there's an extra two spots in each conference or one in each division or ever you look at it. What does that do to trades for teams? Everybody saying, no, no, we got to hold on to our guys. It's like, yeah, there is a lack of going for it. But there's also a lack of saying, all right, not our gear here. Take our pieces to the earlier point about, hey, it's still the sport where you get in, you get a hog goaltender, you can win. And that's it. We've seen teams win out of the eight seed before, but like go over the list of Stanley Cup champions since the lockout, like who's the unworthy champion? Like I, I agree that there's been some teams in the finals that have felt unworthy. Like that first Golden Knights team got blasted by the Capitals and Alex Ovechkin. But again, that was a Capitals team that finally was able to knock down the door. Like how many teams? And again, the Kings team that came out of the eight seed, like look at their record the second half of the season that and obviously that was at the beginning of a dynastic run by that Kings team. I mean, the blues again, another team that was like, oh, they just got in. They were dead last in the NHL at what they all started. I think that is the team that you, you would point to. And again, it's like that. This is what I love about the NHL. It's like they're no lesser of a cup champ than any of these other. But I think that is the team you would highlight and say, just look because it also helps that we're not that far removed that you don't go, Oh, but that was such a different version of, of this player. It's like some of those guys that skates Tyler Bozak was important for that blues team. It's actually sore now in the year 2024. But that is the team. I think you look at where it's seen and yeah, you know, yeah, like Bennington got odd was mind hot. Do I look nervous? He did for the record. He did look very nervous when he asked that question. But yeah, he got the goal tending. Yeah. Rhino Riley, big part of like, I don't know, do you know, Rhino Riley is a, Rhino Riley is a super stud. But if Austin Matthews and John Tavares didn't exist, all the conversations we've been having is like, I don't know. Is that guy really a number one center on it? And he's a, he's a consmith winner. We would never say that now that he's done the thing, but we'd be sitting here going, ah, he's barely a point per game guy in his best of seasons. Yeah, he's defensive. Like we would sit here and nitpick that to death as your number one center. And you love the player when he was here in a completely different role. So that, that is the one team I think you look at and say that's, if you're, if you're in also Rand, you're praying at the altar of playoff success that you maybe should not have had. That's what they went on. The predators type run at the end of the regular season, right? Yeah. And the blue line was really good too. Like that peterangelo there as well. Like I'm not, I'm not saying they are some, they're not the capitals, but they're much closer. They're much closer to that than the Kings were. Okay. Somebody on those lines. But what we haven't had in recent vintage, maybe ever is a team that, yeah, is like the flyers this year. Yeah. It's going to be in the playoff field or the capitals. It's going to be in the playoff field. Like that team that's so clearly, I mean, maybe you can make the argument that last year's Panthers were that team, but they didn't win the whole damn thing. That's my point. It's like we've had teams get to the finals and then usually once they get there, it's like eventually they show their true colors. We just never had that team actually win the whole shebang. We've seen them get all the way to the finals, but usually when they get to the finals, there's another team that's a little more, yeah, a little more talent laden and a little more, has a few more bona fides that ends up taking them to the woodshed. Yeah, you're not, you're not wrong in that. I just, I think, and maybe, I don't know, maybe it's like I just buy into the mysticism of the sport or something, but I am, I know, but just like the facts don't back it up. Yeah. No, you're not. You're not wrong. That make you God, how good did that feel? Yeah. It's like J.S. She Garrett can get you to cup. Fine. I like to win you one. No. Yeah. So can't do it. All right. When we come back. Oh, first of all, actually, let me talk to you about corn. As mentioned earlier in the show, and also we have some research now done on this. It's the R that's backwards corn will be performing at Budweiser stage on Wednesday, September 25th, along with special guests. Go gyra and spirit box. We're giving away tickets on today's show to enter for a chance to win text in today's code word corn, divide 95 90 again, that's corn to 5 95 90 given away another pair of tickets tomorrow. If you don't win with us, make sure to secure your tickets Friday 10 a.m. on Ticketmaster.ca. When we come back, Blue Jays regular season cranks up tomorrow, we'll talk to a former Blue Jays draft pick, former Blue Jays catcher, host of the foul territory podcast, Eric Kratz next, as the fan morning show continues, Ben Annus, Brent Gunning, Sportsnet 590 the fan. Fan morning show Sportsnet 590 the fan, Ben Annus, Brent Gunning, the tomorrow Blue Jays enter the conversation and it'll feel it won't feel overwhelming from a Toronto sports perspective because no offense to the Raptors, especially before the John Tae Porter story, but they just did not feel part of the sports conversation in the city. Tough to break through. Yeah, it will feel more like a full plate though when and what an incredible fortuitous event the timing for tomorrow's sports, you got Blue Jays opening up their season on Sportsnet Sportsnet 590 the fan of four o'clock in Tampa. You got the Leafs and you got the capitals after that and yet it's it's the best time of year. We got the Masters right around the corner final four coming up at most all happening. Most importantly with the Jays though for us, for our purposes, like I don't know your exact post show sleep schedule, but it's like well past nap time. Like I don't have to like if that was a one o'clock first pitch that could run into post show nap for me. So I'm happy that we don't know if I'll be able to now but I'll be so excited coming off tomorrow's. Well, we all know you love regular seasons. So yeah, again, Major League Baseball's regular season has been watered down, but he's still you got to be better in that sport during the regular season than some of the teams in the National Hockey League. All right. Time now for our insider brought to you by Don Valley, North Lexus where you can expect excellence online and in the showroom, visit Don Valley North Lexus dot com. Our next guest has turned himself into a baseball media mogul, his career is well documented in the recent book by Tim Brown, the Dow of the backup catcher playing baseball for the love of the game. It is Eric Kratz, former Blue Jays catcher, host of the foul territory podcast. You are a baseball media mogul. Thanks for doing this, Eric. Baseball media mogul, right? Brent Ben, I appreciate you guys saying such nice, weird words to me. You don't consider yourself a media mogul. Honestly, the success the podcast has had and the amount of videos that I see that come through my Twitter timeline, you guys, it feels like you set the baseball conversation. I appreciate that. That is the goal. We're going to clip that. I need you. I need to produce you to clip that for me because that's what we want to do. You know, we're not, we're not, we don't have all the answers. We just have some of the answers and we're, we're able to talk about the stuff that, you know, the one media baseball outlet doesn't talk about. So, so it's exciting. I appreciate you guys saying that. Yeah, man. I do love the podcast and love the work that you guys do. All right. Let's talk about this Blue Jays team that is going under the radar. The most under the radar they've been really in the, in the Vlad bow tenure. I feel like they, they break through in the weirdo 2020 season, get into the playoffs 2021. They finish a game out, but boy, everybody looked at that team. Oh, we'd be afraid of that Blue Jays team if they ever got into the playoffs, they didn't and then they've been in the playoff playoffs each of the two years since, but haven't won a single game. And now I think fan graphs has them pegged as the fourth place finisher in the American league east. Is that a good spot for them mentally and how do you feel about this Blue Jays team in 2024? Mentally I can't, I can't answer to that. I know this team has the talent. That is why they've been picked where they've been picked. The issue is last year they did not make it because of the reason they were picked. They were picked to win the, win the a at least, make the playoffs, whatever it was. They were a World Series contender because of this lineup and this lineup fell short. The pitching staff was elite. So all this like build up and hype, the bow, Vladi era is legit. They have fallen short, the two of them combined and I don't mean like they've had bad careers. I mean, as good as they are, they have not been able to put together a season together. I think the move that they made last year with the Dalton Varsho signing or the Dalton Varsho trade for Gabriel Moreno was awesome. I think it was hurtful for the Blue Jays fans because it, you know, you watched your Gabriel Moreno, the great, the great hope of catching go to the World Series with his new team and Dalton Varsho struggled at the plate last year. I know Dalton Varsho so maybe I'm jaded. I think what he brings to a team is going to show up this season. It didn't show up last season when you needed him to be something that I don't think he is. I think he's a guy that's going to have an 800 OPS. I think he's a guy that's going to run the bases like he's he's skating the blue line to blue line in a race and I think he is he is a game changer. He's a game changer and he makes everybody else on his team better. Am I saying this is Dalton Varsho's team? Absolutely not. The team goes through Bo and Vladi having the years that they need to have George being regular George, which I think he can because I think he's figured out how to be healthy and what Varsho brings and why they traded for him. He is a elite defender, elite base runner and it gives this team somebody to look to like in hockey, you get somebody on the ice where everyone's like kind of nervous about that guy because he plays hard kind of like the Flyers are playing this year. Maybe not the most talented, but man, these guys are going to get after it. Oh, this is wonderful. You could not have curtailed a baseball preview interview more to me with all these hockey references in here. Eric, you know, you mentioned Varsho in the defense. I mean, the defense is the thing that is even the people who are detractors of the trade, maybe detractors of the player. There's no doubt about the defense there. I just wonder from a team building perspective, the J's have kind of fluctuated back and forth on this. It's like they've done it in terms of seriousness. They went, yeah, we need to get some more serious guys in there and then maybe now they realize, eh, maybe we want to go a little more light-hearted. They've also done the thing where they said, okay, we need to go away from offense a little bit so we can round out the team defensively. How hard is it for any front office to kind of find the right mix there? You know, these are things that, you know, baseball teams are living and breathing entity. They'll make trades if they need to throughout the season. But how hard from a kind of team building perspective is it to find that right mix of, you know, obviously you'd love to have, you know, 26 guys in on the roster that can do a little bit of everything, but how hard is it to find the right mix between being what type of baseball team you want to be? And this is probably going to be a damning comment to Ross Atkins because I'm not a big fan, but I don't think it's that hard. I don't think it's that hard to find good guys. I don't think it's that hard to find a, if you're talking about like that roster mix of the hard-nosed player and the, you know, the happy-go-lucky player, guys that feed off each other, I don't think it's that hard. You already have it in your manager. John Schneider is the best person to lead this team because of the relationships that he's built. You know, is there an X's and O's manager in the big leagues right now? That's like, oh, this guy, he knows, he knows, he knows how to really call a squeeze or he really knows how to call a hit and run. No, that's not happening. What you're doing in the, what you're doing in the big leagues now is you are managing the people you have in the clubhouse. And I think that is something that front offices that do it successfully know how to pair with the people that they have. You have to pair with the people that I just brought up, bow and flatty. Does that mean that they have the same interest and you've got to find people who love long hair and people who, you know, come from the Dominican Republic? No, you have to find people that, one, they look up to, two, they are driven by, and three are relaxed and have a good time and take some of the pressure, whatever each of those people feel like is pressure to them to make them the best players that they are. And that's how you build a team. So I don't think it is that hard. I've never built a team based on, you know, my career, I've only ever played on teams. And now I talk about teams, but it's one of those things that I don't think it's that hard because I've seen it done really well, and I've seen it done poorly. And I think it's something that if this team falls short, yeah, Vlad, he's going to leave an in free agency, they're probably going to sign bow and not bloody or they're assigned bloody and not bow. To me, this is not a John Schneider thing, and it's not a player thing. To me, it's the front office thing and you got to move on if this team falls short again. Yeah, you got Ken Rosenthal putting Ross Atkins at the top of the list as far as GMs on the hot seat going into this season. So yeah, the relationship between your former minor league teammate, John Schneider and the front office is an interesting one to think about, especially the way the postseason ended for for this Blue Jays team last year, Eric and Elle, like we've moved on. I mean, we had a whole like a Shoya Otani conversation in the interim. We forget about the Jose burials being lifted and gave to against the Minnesota twins. But like, yeah, the messaging from John Schneider, the like the tenor of his voice and feeling like he had something else he wanted to say. The subsequent media availability from Ross Atkins, part of the messaging this offseason has been about, hey, a different reporting structure or a different atmosphere within this front office. Okay, give me some insight. How different is it in Blue Jays land as opposed to the other 29 franchises and is it as bad as it feels like it is from the outside as bad as what do you mean as bad like the relationship. Like the relationship. Yeah, the disconnect, the like people not knowing like, I don't know if it's the reporting structure. I don't know. It just feels like people are not on the same page. You know what? I can only go by a feeling and you are incorrect. My minor league teammate, no, he was my minor league roommate. You're the first guy that ever got to hear me snore when we both got drafted. So there's my John Schneider connection. But all that to say, whatever whatever that reporting structure is and organizations are always trying to build that out and trying to improve on that kind of stuff. You can't go. You can't go and throw your guy under the bus. You hired John Schneider because of what he's done in the relationships with these young players that he has at the big leagues. It was so positive with John Schneider. There's so much going on that the guys were behind him. And then as a GM and believe me, we do a live show every single day. So we love when people talk, but you can't go and throw your manager under the bus. I don't care if you're even firing him that year. You can't go and say it was not me. It was nothing I did. It was like, it was like not only did he back over him with the bus, but then he went and picked him up that I'm sorry for backing you over, backing over, just stand right here and I'll get somebody, boom, boom, backed over him again with the bus. And again, I have a personal relationship with Schneider. And unfortunately, I think it might be unfair by me to be saying this. But I know how this stuff works. If you sit there and say as a GM that you had nothing, when I say you, the proverbial front office, you had nothing to do with that decision, you're wrong. You are flat wrong and that is unfair and you talk about building a culture, John Schneider does such a good job of building a culture with those guys. From the time he was in the minor leagues with them, to the time when they got called up to the big leagues, he was there and he was a young coach in the big leagues. Now he's their manager, like that relationship is built and as a GM, I'll try to weasel your way in and try to sit there and go, ah, yeah, you know, this wasn't my fault at all. This wasn't my front office, you know, whatever decisions made on the field or made on the field, you're right, they do make them. But all this was talked about and all this was discussed pregame because if it wasn't, you're not doing your job at the front office. So either way to me, you just can't throw your guy into the bus be like, hey, you know what, the organist, we try to make the best decisions we can, didn't work out. It should have worked out. You know, I'm not saying it was the worst decision in the world. It just ended up being a bad decision because it didn't work out. Yeah, no, I'm right there with you. And yeah, we've we've we've taught believe me, we've spent no shortage of time picking over that decision and the way it was talked about. And yeah, it's just, you know, like it's in all walks of life, like you just want accountability, right? And the idea of, hey, somebody else, not me, definitely not the way you'd want to go about it, somebody who is, you know, I think he was pretty accountable when he was here last year. Certainly going to be more accountable this year is dumb mattingly now. Maybe you know, we've still been trying to figure this out all spring training and we've all got our jokes in on it. But do you know what an offensive coordinator does in baseball because I've never heard of that before. Like I'm a big football guy. I've heard of it there. You talk about the idea of different reporting mechanisms and maybe this is just another part of it. The hitting coach, I mean, I'm sure it's this way in like 12 markets a year. It has been such a topic with this team for two, three seasons now. What do you make of them giving? And it's not just having an offensive coordinator. It's the fact that it's Donnie baseball who's in this, this elevated role there. What does that mean to you? How do you think somebody like that could, could help players? Well, first of all, how do we know it's an elevated role? If we've never heard it. Great question. You know what? Good job. That's a great point by you. It's why you're a media baseball. Yeah. I just, you know what, you know, like you bring in a guy like Donnie baseball. You have elevated your, your staff just in general. And what he brings to the team is that kind of, I don't want to say swag, but that like, that idea that this guy's done it, he's actually, no, he struggled with this. He's struggled with that. He's should be a Hall of Famer. Like he's, he's a legit fielder, like all the stuff that he knows how to do. Could he go out there and show it now at his age? I don't know, but I know for a fact, him as a person to take the job that he has after where he's been, ever he's been a manager, manager of the year also, that he wants to be a bench coach, offensive coordinator, whatever his role is. Only elevates this team. And I don't think you said, you said you glazed over a little bit, a little more accountability from him. I don't think coaches need to, you know, need to speak in, in the media. That's, that's why you hire the manager and pay the manager more money than everybody else. Managers are the ones that need to be accountable and answer to things. And, but Donnie baseball, like, I love it for Schneider's. I love it that A, he gets to be with his hero growing up and B, he gets to have a another manager on the bench and somebody that's now, you know, he's got the offensive coordinator role. I think once they gave it to him, they should have given him a headset, just like an offensive coordinator in football has. And that would have just really solidified it for him. Yeah. Big, big play sheet in front of them as well. Cover all the noise. Yeah, they always put in front of his face and that, that, that Harbaugh, that Harbaugh's trying to look at. That was a college football joke. I liked it. That's good. Yeah. Get the big signs. I'll do a college football joke right back at you. You have to breast the ball on the sidelines there. Justin Bieber's face on anything or maple syrup or whatever, a right shot defense man, you know, whatever. I don't know. Who's on the other end of the headset though? Like, is he got a mic right into Vladi's ear? He's like, swing, no, no, no, not yet, no, no, no, I said that would probably that probably be worse. I don't think that would help. I got to be honest. Yeah. It's a dead, it's a dead headset. Okay. You tell him it's logged into everybody's helmet, but he's over there. He's over there. I think it's going to be a slider. One. I'll be on the other side of it. I think it, I think it'll gum things up for the players, but I gladly would be, would be hooked up to the other side of that thing. Oh, yeah. His insights. Yeah. So I don't know. That'd be ideal. Um, so Eric, you play it in, in Major League Baseball as a 40 year old, Joy Votto's attempting to do so, right? Like he's, he's on this minor league deal and stepped on a bat. The only image we saw him was the one pitch he saw in a gravely game and it was going over the, the, the fence and clear water. He's, he's going to stay at extended spring and try and work his way back. Like one, are you surprised that, that, that he wants to do this at that age being a guy that I think is headed to the Hall of Fame and two, like what are the biggest challenges for him? Is he, he tries to get back to the major leagues. Biggest challenges. Don't step on your bats and roll your ankles. That's one. No, the biggest challenge is going to be just understanding what it's going to take for him to be the player that they need him to be. And I say that in the fact that I have no idea what it's like to be Joey Votto play like him, like his career numbers would have been a good week for me. Like I had, so, so as a superstar, you have to understand, and, and I think he understands this, he's going to go to extended to get ready, but he has to understand that not playing every day is a different feeling than playing every single day and working your at bats differently in the sense that, oh, I'm going to see this pitch. It's okay. If I don't get this pitch, I'll get him the next time because as a bench player, as a whatever role they're going to use him at, you have to be able to block out things and make adjustments that he didn't have to make as an everyday player. And that's the biggest transition. If he can figure that out, his age is not an issue. They don't check, they don't check your ARP card every time you get into the box. They don't check your ID, like you're going into a saloon, like you are getting, you are getting an opportunity to play in a big league because they think you are going to be one of the best 26 guys that they can have at that time. And so his age, this dude's done it for years. He didn't just all of a sudden turn 41. He was 40 last year. So I don't mind blowing the year before that. He was 39. Oh, before that, 38. See, you guys get it. You guys get it. I thought you were going to say hard to confirm, yeah. And age, like this is, this is why I'm a mogul, like you said, no, but he's figured out how to take care of his body. He will be fine. He is now two years out from his shoulder surgery. To me, I think he is super valuable, but I also am going to drop this line in there. Why the heck would the Blue Jays not have brought Brandon belt back? Yeah. Huge piece of a lineup that they could have used and they would have never had to, you know, never had to go down the go down the line of Mrs. Sogg was greatest Joey Votto, like you just have, you had, you had a guy there and it's nothing. It's Joey Votto. This dude played a role for you last year that was above average, almost elite. And now he's sitting at home and you're trying to fill that role with Vogelbach and hopefully a Joey Votto. People in Etobicoke are pounding their radios right now upset that you're giving Joey Votto to Mrs. Sogg. They're close enough. He is not from Mrs. Sogg. You know he's earned here in the other area. God, I do, I, we were running out of time and I wanted to get to, you weren't a mogul. Yeah. Listen to this. Don Rickles over here. Uh, all right. So Shohei speaks and I, I said after hearing him speak, I was like, you know what? I buy that. The only thing I need to see is because these guys were so tight and because the transgressions that he's describing seems so abhorrent, like he's got to prosecute the former translator to the full extent of the law. That's the one thing we haven't seen. He has to be on trying to confirm it and we haven't seen it yet. Do you believe Shohei Otani's story? I do. I do. And I try to read people's body language and I try to think, okay, you know, I've seen the relationship of, of translator and player and they're trusting because they're their friends. It's not, it's not a bad, like people are villainizing Shohei for, oh, how could you do this? How could you not know where your money's going? I think it's, I feel bad for Shohei because he was trusting me. This was his friend and this guy, you know, more reports come out. There's, he was a liar, he wasn't just a, he wasn't just stealing money. He was a habitual liar that lied to get to the place where he is. And I hate when people are like, oh, how could the angels not know all this stuff? Stop it. Stop. Don't eat, pay and not on Shohei. And I feel bad for Shohei because he seems like a guy that is really focused on what he does. And when you're that hyper focused, you put trust in other people so that you can be that focused and you're not distracted. And so I could be wrong. He could have had something to do with this, but based on his body language, I love that he spoke. It's a line that he just read a paper. I think it was great because you could read his body language and make your own decision. And I'm in his corner. I think it's just, it's a tough, tough, tough spot that he got put in and that's brutal for him. Yeah. Eric Kratz, baseball media mogul, body language interpreter as well. And you know, Southern Ontario geographer as well, Eric Kratz, you do it all, man. Wow. Wow. Yeah. Business card. Yeah. Thanks, buddy. This is awesome. No doubt. Anytime guys, thanks for having me on. As Eric Kratz, he was our insider, brought to you by Don Valley, North Lexus, where you can expect excellence online and in the showroom, visit Don Valley, North Lexus dot com going about for his guy, his former roommate, minor league roommate, John Schneider. So yeah, understand the relationship there and understand that this is a guy who wasn't exactly mincing words when it came to what he thinks of thinks of the job that Ross Atkins has done. You do wonder how the manager feels about what transpired at the end of last season. Yeah, but not great. I don't, I actually don't wonder at all. I am a, I'm a human and I can put myself in those shoes pretty quickly. Hey, where this decision that you might have had a hand in, but did not make on your own and we will hang you out to drive. I just wouldn't feel very good about it. I also, you know, would feel pretty good to be manager of a major league ball club. It's devil's bargain. We make everybody has us in their job, right? Like, yeah, we've all had jobs got to do a thing you don't want to do or somebody gets credit for something we should have done. Like your side field guy, you know, the side lures come and steal credit for your work. Just sneak up out of nowhere. It's all part of the business. So yeah, some tic tacs in their pocket. Apparently, I don't, I don't know what that has to do with Ross Atkins, but I brought it up. So you're right. Good job. Circle in the reference. Um, we talked about Sheldon Keith and Damien Cox brought it up again. Like, Hey, if you're, if you know, you're going to be fired either way, like empty the chamber. Yeah. Um, I think there's going to be big changes, both in the manager seat and the general manager's seat. If things don't go well this season for the Blue Jays, you know, not that Eric, or not that John Schneider has like tempered his comments, but I, I think if ever there was an opportunity for him or he felt the impetus to let it be known how he feels about the team, I think we're going to hear the, the unvarnished truth. Yeah, should be fun. We love a, we love a chatty manager, don't we? We sure do. Uh, regular season starts tomorrow. We'll be back then. This is then the fan morning show, Ben Anis, Brent Gunning, Sportsnet 5.9 fan. Good morning. [inaudible] (dramatic music)
