Effectively Wild: A FanGraphs Baseball Podcast - Effectively Wild Episode 326: The Minor League Free Agent Draft

Episode Date: November 11, 2013

Ben and Sam select 20 minor league free agents with decent chances to see big league playing time in 2014.

I don't think I've ever heard you laugh that hard. Is that the sound? Maybe, yeah. Good morning and welcome to episode 326 of Effectively Wild, the daily podcast from Baseball Perspectives. I'm Sam Miller with Ben Lindberg. How are you, Ben? Okay. Good. So we're going to do a draft today. Yeah.

And these don't always go well. We enjoy them, but they're horrible. Yeah, we threatened or we proposed that we might take this day off, and we got some feedback from people asking us not to take this day off, and they might wish that we had taken this day off by the end of this episode. In honor of Veterans Day, we're going to do a draft. Yeah. That was a pun. That's good. No.

So the draft is going to be – it won't be nearly as tedious as some of the others, and hopefully we'll get a chance to talk about a few of the guys. But we're going to be drafting minor league free agents. Minor league free agents, of course, are this special subset of people who are available, basically in a very simplistic way. They're people with more than six years of minor league service time who aren't on a 40-man roster um and uh so you know there's some there's some guys on here who are famous uh for being prospects there's some guys on here who are famous for being you know former major leaguers who are now 37 years old and there there's hundreds and hundreds of people we've never heard of. Yes. And one of the things that interests me about the minor league free agents list is that

you realize how many hundreds of people are so close to the majors. And yet even you and I who just do this all day have never heard of them and will never hear them like this is it. They are on a list. That is the closest they will come to being relevant to us is they are on a list. And minor league free agents in general, they'll provide a few bargains this year, but few. They're an interesting list to look at and some team will get a little bit rich off of a player. Ryan Vogelsang, for instance, was a minor league free agent when um the uh well i want to say when when the angel

so i think the giant signed him as a minor league free agent a year earlier the angels had signed him as a free agent i believe um and he didn't make it out of triple a but um you know there are there are a few bargains in this group. And so what we decided we would do is we would look at this list of 550 players. And the bargains are very difficult to identify beforehand, really. Yeah. Like Vogelsang, for instance. Yeah. I mean, if they were easy to identify, their clubs would have renewed their contracts by now or put them on the 40 man ice um so uh al albuquerque minor league free agent so there's some good ones there's some fun

ones um so what we're going to do is we're going to draft 10 each we're going to alternate and the winner is going to be the person who has the most whose team compiles the most playing time in the major leagues this year so we're going to we're going to call that plate appearances for position players plus outs recorded for pitchers. And that's going to be the winner. And it seems conceivable that we might tie at zero. Yes, it's a possibility. Carson Sestouli actually did a post looking at minor league free agents

and what the profile of a successful minor league free agent is. And I believe he looked at three years of these. And so sixteen hundred players and 18 of them produced a war of point five or better the following season in the majors. So a lot more of them played.5 is not a worthless player. I mean, you could be 0.4 and still get 400 played appearances. So I don't know how we'll do. I honestly don't know how we'll do. What did he find about the profile of at least what –

did he determine what kind of minor league free agent tends to at least make the majors? Yeah, he did. But under no circumstances am I going to tell you that. You should have done your research. I went in blind and didn't want to rely on anyone else. So because it's my dumb game, you can have the dumb first pick. So we'll just go through, and if you have anything interesting to say about the players, I wish I had the first pick.

Really? so we'll just go through and if you have anything interesting to say about the players I wish I had the first pick I actually really because okay because I was gonna say that for me there's really no there's no like no doubt guy who I really wanted to have the first pick so I could get this one guy who is clearly better than everyone else I I I have three I have three names bolded personally uh-huh uh and then from that on, it's all like just guy I sort of like or guy I want to take because, you know, whatever. So I have three that I think are pretty good bets. Or I guess of the three, no, I think I have two that I think are pretty good bets. It is kind of amazing some of the names that you see on this list. And you guys should go look.

There's a long list at Baseball America. Just to sort of see the names on here who you really didn't realize were still playing, guys who were in the majors years ago, and now they're in their mid-30s, and they're still hanging on. Guys like, I don't know, like Xavier Nady played a full season last year,

and Mike McDougal pitched and Dustin Richardson and just all these crazy names I haven't thought of really in a while. Still fucking away. CJ Nitkowski was one last year. So he's not this year, but he was last year. So that gives you a sense. All right. Bill Bray. Bill Bray. Bill Bray is on this list. Yeah.

Yeah. I thought about – well, he's on my watch list. He's on my follow list or whatever. Okay. Well – And there's going to be probably more typing. Sorry. I know my typing is loud, but there's probably going to be more typing in this episode than usual.

Sorry. Let's not – we don't want to be slow though because the last one was so slow yes let's get right whoever keeps track of these things in our facebook group uh get ready to do that again if you if you want to um all right i guess with my with my top pick uh i'm gonna take Uh, I'm going to take Yamiko Navarro. Okay. Basically based on the fact that he has seen some time in the majors in each of the last four seasons. Uh, he is 26 years old. He just turned 26.

He is a utility guy who played, uh, like five, five positions and also pitched a game at Norfolk this season. And I feel like, I don't know, if he got a call-up, and his call-ups were like 20 games, 22 games, like 29 games, 8 games. But if he could do that at 22 to 25, he could probably still do that somewhere at at 26 and he's played for four major league organizations so maybe someone else gives him a chance no those are that's those are definitely good signs i mean the the multiple organizations thing was was definitely something i looked at um because if you know if you're the kind of guy who four teams have taken a shot on in the last three years there's going to be at least one and probably three or four

that are willing to give you a shot over the course of the next year. Um, and you have identified one of Sicily's, uh, findings is that, uh, uh, age 28 is the, uh, sort of the peak year for minor league free agents or the average year. So, uh, it is good to get guys who are kind of in that 26 to 29 range for obvious reasons. And 26 is especially good because teams see a little bit more upside there, right? You've got three or four years. So that's a good pick. Okay.

Thank you. So I'm going to take Sean Camp. And I am a little worried because it's conceivable. I could have done a little more research on each of these guys. It's conceivable that, for instance, Sean Camp is already playing in Japan. And then I'll be embarrassed. But Sean Camp led the majors in appearances in 2012. So that was very recent um and uh so i mean you know there's seems it seems to me virtually impossible that sean camp won't uh you know appear in the majors

this year and at that point it's just you know the standard 50 50 shot that he's going to be useful so uh you know he's got a rubber arm sure okay throws sinker balls uh-huh um all right i guess with my next one i guess i'll take fernando martinez oh that was gonna be my next really okay well i feel better about it then genuinely see i i didn't feel good about that pick because he was released by the Astros, but that was a Biogenesis thing, right? I think he was tied to that. I'll Google that as we go, but I believe so. But he has the age thing.

He's 25. He just turned 25 recently. He has the multiple organizations thing, and he finished very strong. He signed with the Yankees at some point after the Astros got rid of him, and he finished in 22 games. He hit.325 and slugged.554 in Scranton. So I don't really know what his role is, but you know he'll catch on somewhere and possibly he'll get called up at some point.

Yeah, I like him still. It wouldn't surprise me at all if he has a career. Yeah, I don't know. He was traded to the Yankees. I don't want to say I like him yeah he was traded to the Yankees for Charles Basford a 23 year old uh righty in low a um but yeah so I I don't know he was he uh he was hitting pretty I mean I don't know he he he got into 11 games for the Astros at the major league level and hadn't really hit for them in triple a and then uh then the biogenesis stuff I mean, I don't know. He got into 11 games for the Astros at the Major League level and hadn't really hit for them in AAA, and then the Biogenesis stuff, and I guess that was all it took.

Otherwise, it would be probably a bad sign that he couldn't get more of a role with the Astros, who were playing pretty much anyone. But, okay, yeah, he's my pick. All right, I'll take Matt Laporta with my second pick. Okay. Basically with just the idea that a guy who's a former top prospect is going to get three or four shots at least.

The Dumb and Young theory, the Dantrell-Willis theory, although I guess both of them produced a lot more in the majors than Laporta ever did. But he slugged 517 in the minors last year. And, you know, I just imagine that he's also going to be, you know, he's going to be under 30. And, you know, he's not going to – that's the thing about this is that most guys aren't going to play. So you just start thinking, you know, okay, so there's a pretty good chance he gets zero plate appearances. How disappointed am I in that?

And the answer is not really because that's sort of the the default uh and i can see laporta going somewhere uh dh and getting hot in april and and you know having like uh 300 plate appearance run before the team gives up on him again um and uh did i mention he's like 517 in the minors you did all right well that's pretty much the whole story yeah uh yeah i don't know i just figured that there's at least a couple teams out there who have been watching him you know for the last couple years and thinking oh you know we'd love to get our hands on him i bet we could fix him or something yeah sure is this his first this is his first year of of being eligible or i guess it is okay it is yeah so yeah basically this is basically 2007 draft picks are hitting minor league free agency right now so and that's what he is uh all right i guess i'll go

with uh eh reid brignac oh you're kidding me you You're actually, this is shocking to me. You are actually legitimately taking my picks. This is like blowing my mind. Well, he fits that same profile. He's 27. He'll be 28 before opening day. So I guess he's right in the Sestouli sweet spot. And, you know, he still plays shortstop and plays it pretty well or teams seem to think he plays it pretty well and he caught on with a couple teams this year and he really can't hit at all not even not even remotely he hit 230 with like no power in colorado springs so um so yeah nothing but you figure once a year there will be some situation like the Yankees had where every shortstop got hurt or was terrible or whatever,

and they just had to dredge up some other organization's castoffs, and there he'll be. I just edited Reid Brignac's player comment in the in the annual this weekend and uh the line that was used for him is that uh expect him to cling to major league rosters like a barnacle on a passing ship so perfect perfect exactly uh all right so uh i'm surprised i i did not i thought about making a list of 20 names in case you took all 10 of you know so did i i didn't and i didn't i didn't either because i thought what are the odds probably would have two overlaps so all right i'll take uh aaron laffey next okay part of the uh the

sweet spot as you called it is that six of eight pitchers who are on his list are left-handed which is considerably more than the normal distribution of left-handers in Major League Baseball. And Laffey is a, you know, he is left-handed. He's also, he has the ability to start. He threw 100 innings just one year ago, and they weren't bad innings. He was, you know, roughly league average, and he was a pretty good reliever. Well, not really. He just appeared.

But he's been on a lot of teams, throws left-handed. He's, what do you call it, versatile. Can start, relieve, do long relief. And a bunch of teams have picked him up over the last few years. And yeah, I mean, just absolutely awful last year. Just awful. Like awful in the minors. He already had about 40. Like, awful in the minors. ERA of about 40.

But, you know, with starting in AAA, and if you're starting in AAA and you've been around, he's only 29 next year. So, seems like he's one of the few on this list that I could envision throwing 130 innings. Gosh, that would be sad for whatever team that happened for. But, sure. Life is. Life is sad. Often. Okay. gosh that would be sad for whatever team that happened for but yeah but sure life is life is okay um all right i guess i'll go with uh travis blackley just on my list not bolded but list. Yeah, just kind of based on the lefty thing. He's 31. He just turned 31, but he has gotten time in the majors 2012, 2013, played for the Giants, played for the A's, played for the Astros,

played for the Rangers. So clearly teams keep seeing something in him. And yeah, he's got the left-handed reliever thing going for him. All right. Well, okay. I guess I will take Ben Francisco. Okay. By the way, we should probably mention that there have been some minor league free agents who have already signed.

We are not considering them. We're looking at a list of unsigned guys as of right now. I get it. I get it. That's probably true, but... We think. I didn't do any... Yeah.

We have a common list, and it appears that some names have been removed if they have been signed. It's conceivable that there are people who have been signed. Someone could have been signed today or something. We don't know. But yeah. Yeah. Okay.

So Francisco. So yeah. I mean, you figure all these guys are flawed, and so you're basically just looking for, you know, anybody who might be useful in some role, I guess. Francisco seems like he could be useful in some role. Francisco seems like he still has good vibes about him. And, you know, he played this year. Yeah, playing this year seems like a good sign. Yeah.

All right. I guess I'll take – I don't feel good about this i'll take alex liddy okay i wrote his name down yeah i mean he's 25 uh he played and he was, you know, kind of a sort of interesting player a couple of years ago, somewhat well regarded. And the Orioles purchased him from the Mariners in July. He then went to the Orioles system, played in AAA, really didn't hit there either. But he has a little bit of versatility, I guess. He played first, he plays third, he played a few games at short, actually. He's played a little bit of outfield in the past. So I don't know. He's young enough that you figure maybe something will happen um so i will take um ross wolf

ross will basically i mean he also pitched quite a bit last year uh and he has good control also i mean i just started thinking does a guy have one skill that's useful he's you know he's he's got good control and i just sort of think of ross wolf, like the reason I think he's got a good chance is that he, you know, he spent almost, you know, the entire year on the Rangers roster, active roster, pitching fairly regularly for them. And they're a good team. So there's like 21 teams that are worse than the Rangers. How could they not want a guy

who the Rangers have vouched for basically yeah uh so yeah I I guess yeah I mean he was he wasn't good either I mean he does he he might be the worst strikeout reliever in baseball actually it seems it does seem conceivable just looking at this. I haven't done a search, but it seems real. There is one other guy on this list who might have that honor, Eddie Bonine. Okay. Are you picking him? I'm not picking him, no. But Eddie Bonine, who was in the majors a few years ago, he finished the season with double-A San Antonio in the Padres system.

He threw 69 in a third innings and he struck out 15 guys. That is a 1.9 strikeout per nine rate. And I know that because Jason Cole at the end of the season kept marveling at how few batters he was striking out and updating me after each start. He struck out like three guys in his last four starts or something uh so i'm not picking him but all right so i uh i just have looked and ross wolf does in fact have the lowest strikeout rate among any relievers with at least 30 innings pitched last year in the majors in the majors. In the majors.

And that seems really bad, but if you glance at the top 10 or the bottom 10, so Wolfe is number one, but if you look at the bottom 10 strikeout rates for relievers with at least 30 innings pitched, their ERA pluses are 100, 68, 226, 120, 157, 102, 64, 111, 254, 137. So strange, but I don't know, man. Strange. Craig Breslow up there and Seth Maness and some good guys. Ground ballers, I guess.

Ground ballers, control guys, yeah. All right. What are we, halfway through? Yeah, I've got five guys, I think. One, two, three, four. Yeah, I've got five. All right. Okay.

I think I'll take Jonathan Alvadejo. Okay, good. Was there someone else named Jonathan that you were going to pick? You thought I was going to say? No, no. It's someone named Jonathan Abelud and then a different Jonathan. It's Jonathan Abelud. Zinski.

Okay, so Alvadejo, I don't really know why he didn't get a chance at some point this year. He was a minor league free agent last year, too. Yeah, he was in the majors briefly for the Diamondbacks in 2012. And he was in the Marlins system. And it seems like he pitched a full season for them. And he pitched pretty well. He's pitched pretty well the last two seasons in the PCL. Pretty durable sub-4 ERAs. Struck out about a better inning with not terrible control and not terrible home run rates or anything. don't know why he didn't get a chance at some point this season with the Marlins um so maybe there's something I don't know but I don't know he just turned 31 he's been fairly effective the

last couple years and I'm sort of surprised he he hasn't been up at all uh and I don't know I sort of sort of liked him a little bit when he pitched for the Yankees a few years ago so whatever Alba Dejo all right I'm gonna take, since I've tipped my hand, I'm going to now take Jonathan Sanchez. And I know this is laughable. But Jonathan Sanchez, my favorite fact in the world right now, is that Jonathan Sanchez had the fourth highest percentage of pitches in the strike zone last year in the majors.

Cliff Lee, number five. Jonathan Sanchez, number four. And I just think that's so bizarre and unexpected and um that's not to suggest in any way that he was good he was absolutely horrible he was the the worst pitcher in baseball um but sanchez never had any idea where the strike zone was even when he was good he couldn't find the strike zone he would just sort of throw it and hope it was close um and I am kind of encouraged that he at least has figured out how to do this thing. Now it wasn't effective. Um, he threw pitches right down the middle and gave up something

like seven home runs in 13 innings and got released by the pirates with an ERA of 8 and change but it does feel like I mean he is the closest thing we have to a Scott Casimir right now right he's he's youngish still he's you know he's got a left handed arm he's got a history of strikeouts

and success and if he's figured out like at least he's figured out like one way of dealing with his biggest weakness if he can figure out if he can make that adjustment i feel like there's uh there's some possibility in there of uh you know of a 200 inning season and i feel very confident that he'll get a chance i mean don't roll willis you know don't don't roll willis played last year so uh i imagine sanchez will get a chance too um so i uh yeah that's why not yeah that's my attitude towards all of these guys why not um uh all right i think maybe now I'll go with...

At this point, I'm really just kind of throwing darts at the names on my spreadsheet here. Let's stop at nine. We should stop at nine. Ten is too many. Let's do nine. Nine is a baseball team. I guess I'll take Corey Wade. Okay. Basically, yeah, because I don't know. I wish he were left-handed and he's not, but, uh, he's 30 and he pitched well in Durham where, which is where he spent the bulk of his season. Although he didn't really strike guys out like he has in the past there.

Uh, he had that kind of fluky 40 innings or so that were really good for the Yankees in 2011, and then he pitched a bit for them in 2012, and I don't know. Why not? So what I found when I was looking at these guys is that there were basically two things I saw over and over. One was middle infielders, or sometimes not middle infielders speedy outfielders maybe who have like uh you know like 500 ops's in limited playing time in the majors and then you're like oh maybe he was good in the minors and he had a 620 ops in the minors this year so that guy a lot and then the uh situational reliever or you know the just basically any reliever who had like a 1.70 RA in AAA this year

but like struck out 31 and walked 34. I saw that a lot. So anyway, I'll take Ezequiel Carrera who's a middle infielder for Cleveland. And I think he's a middle infielder. But he runs a lot. Like he's really fast. He's got one skill. He steals bases.

And he got claimed by the Phillies last year. And then he got claimed back by the Indians. So not only did two teams go for him, but one of the teams regretted so much losing him that they claimed him back. He does not actually play any infield he plays the outfield but he plays center field um and he's really fast so you got to figure that's another thing about sisuli's list by the way is that uh it tends to be guys who are above average defenders and uh also typically above average runners. So usually no power, but, you know, runners. So, yeah.

In fact, if you want the list of his 18, I can just read it. It's real quick. Gregor Blanco, Jesus Guzman, Andy Chavez, Donovan Solano, Brian Bogusevich, Matt Tuiasosopo, Quinton Berry, Jose Constanza, Umberto Quintero, Ramiro Pena, Ryan Vogelsang, Jose Quintana, Al Albuquerque, Eric Stoltz, Don Troubles, Donny Veal, Oli Perez, and Dana Eveland. Quinton Berry is available again. He is. He is.

But I made a joke in the game six about how we were saying goodbye to Tim McCarver and Quentin Barry yeah and so I can't very well yeah I had him on my list just because I feel like the fact that he still hasn't been caught probably makes him attractive right he hasn't been caught stealing yet. He wasn't caught stealing in the playoffs. And as long as he has that aura of invincibility, maybe some team would want him. The problem is, if he's just a pinch runner, what's the upside? Even if he gets called up at some point, he's not really going to get any plate plate appearances i don't know he he got nine plate appearances in 13 games this season um i guess he's i mean he's probably as good a pick as henny he's he's 28 it's about to turn 29 um i dare you i dare you

sure why not i'll take him okay all right All right, I'm going to take Tommy Lane. I put him on the list because of your article. Yeah, favorite of mine, favorite of the show. Tommy Lane I wrote about just before the season started because he had something like the second best fifth maybe or the third best fifth in all of baseball the year before. And he had been terrible his entire life before that. And he didn't have a very good year. He did appear in the majors briefly, but basically the Padres didn't buy it.

Even though it was, I mean, it's FIP, it's not ERA. He had this incredible FIP. He came up and in 17 innings, he struck out 25, walked three, was, you know, completely dynamite. He's a funky left-hander with a you know deceptive motion and you'd have thought that guy would would have earned an opening day roster spot but they just demoted him right away he's 28 uh he went down to triple a wasn't good at all had you know had a pretty poor year uh none of the that's the other thing is that none of the fips stuff like had shown up in his career at all up to that point like he wasn't very good even in the minors he was like

in double a at 27 and not being not doing very well uh and so anyway there's virtually no reason to think he's coming back but he's a lefty with a funky motion and we've seen it before he he's got like 19 release points and we've seen that he can be effective. So I figure lefties are always a good bet. Well, I guess in that same vein of lefties being a good bet, maybe I will just take Bray. Clearly you are not interested in Bill Bray, or you wouldn't have mentioned him earlier. That's true. And I don't really even know what his status is. He pitched four games this year in double A for the Nationals

in May and then did not pitch again. And his last update that I could find about him was that he had a sore left shoulder. So for all I know, he may never pitch again. But he's a lefty reliever, and for a while there was a pretty decent one, and he's 30. So if he is healthy at all, someone will give him a shot. All right. I'm taking Steve Tolleson, who is a middle infielder. He plays everything, though. He also pitched recently.

He plays a lot of third, plays a lot of second, plays a lot of short, has played center field, played 22 games in left field last year at AAA, and had a really good year in AAA. He was 29. He's had some good year in AAA. He was 29. He's had some good years in AAA in his career. When he was 26, he had a 915 OPS in the PCL. Last year at 29, he had a 381 on base percentage with some pop in the International League.

So he's a ball player. And he's been on like six organizations in the last year and a half too. So he seems like a pretty good bet to be somebody's utility guy if he has a good April. Should we just take a 10th guy just where we've come this far? Have we? Oh, I thought we'd only done eight. I think that was nine. I think I've got nine. Anyway, yeah, got one okay just to increase the odds that that will that one of

us will hit on someone um all right i think i'll take uh man i got a few guys I don't like at all that I want to take. All right, I'll take Mark Rogers. Yeah, it's not bad. Yeah, Mark Rogers was up with the Brewers for a while in 2012, was okay. He was starting then. He missed much of the season with right shoulder fatigue. All seasons. He misses much of every season. Yeah, right.

He came back from the shoulder fatigue and pitched some games in August in high A and was decent, was fairly effective. And he's 27. was fairly effective and he's 27 and and i guess maybe the thing i like about him is that it seems like he hasn't really been tried in the bullpen yet um and so maybe that's like he has he has somewhere left to go you could try him in the bullpen and maybe he'll be decent in the bullpen and be able to stay healthy um and yeah and former former sixth overall pick yeah and he's been with one with one organization the entire time so you could imagine that you know there have been teams that scouted him 10 years ago and really loved him and now that now that he's available think they can you know do something with him so i mean it's it is interesting to me like i i'm sort of surprised like when uh uh jeff jeff luno signed phil umber and um you know

a year ago to like a minor league deal or something like that in fact he was a minor league free agent um and one of the things that uh umber told me because i wrote that piece about umber is that luno um luna luna we never we usually talk about this in advance if we know we're going to be talking about him uh had scouted him at rice and knew him really well from rice and that like that's why umber thought that maybe he had been uh you know picked up and been attractive to the estrus and that was i mean that was like that was like nine years earlier you know yeah and but these things hold you know know? Yeah. So anyway. Adrian Carton has told us last week about how Theo Epstein wanted to get him back forever.

So, yeah. Exactly. Yeah. So, yeah. So probably there are a few good scouting reports on Rodgers that somebody has been reminded of in the last few days. All right. And for my last one, I'll take a guy named Ed Easley, who has never played in the majors.

He's 27, AAA catcher. And he was a supplemental first-round pick in 2007, never a top prospect, and really disappointing almost immediately. In his first year at full-season ball ball he had a 648 ops he didn't top 700 in any season any full season uh full season league uh until he was 25 and that wasn't a particularly good year um but he's been kind of coming on in the last few years and in last year 2013 in the pcl he hit 334 with a 394 on base percentage, 478 slugging percentage. He's a catcher, I noted. He's got credible caught stealing rates.

He's got, you know, it feels to me like, you know, we all know catchers bloom late. He might, you know, He might find the right organization. So I'm going out on a limb and I'm taking him. All right, good. I did get one hot tip on a player who was not eligible because he was signed a couple weeks ago by the Rangers. But a scout mentioned to me that Aaron Pareda is promising. Do you remember him at all?

He was drafted by the White Sox in the first round, like 25th pick in 2007, a lefty pitcher, and he pitched in the majors in like 2009. Yeah, just 2009. And he's had some injury issues, and he missed all of last season with Tommy John. Um, but he came back and apparently was working out for teams and throwing 96

and throwing strikes and stuff. And he's a lefty. So he would be my pick for this year's, uh, Neil Kotz comeback award. Um, but unfortunately he wasn't able to draft him because he had already been signed by a team. Yeah, he was hot.

I mean, wasn't he kind of the hot name? He might have been the hot name in the Jake Peavy tournament at the time. Yeah, he was. He was hot stuff at the time. Yeah. All right. Good. Wow, that took a long time.

It did, yeah. Oh, my God. so yeah yeah all right all right well good wow that took a long time it did yeah oh my god well uh hopefully you don't all regret asking us to do this episode on veterans day uh send us emails at podcast at baseball perspectives.com for the email show later this week if you have a no doubt minor league free agent that you want to tell us about, you can email us about that or post it in the Facebook group. And thank you to all the people who rated and reviewed us this weekend. A lot of people did. Someone said we were an acquired taste, but he had acquired us. Someone else said he would name his firstborn son Samuel Benjamin or Benjamin Samuel. Probably shouldn't do that, but we appreciate the gesture. So thank you, and we will be back tomorrow. wow

wow waking up your whole family i'm ready okay