Rates & Barrels - Juan Soto, Expanded Playoffs, & The Buffalo Jays w/Britt Ghiroli

Episode Date: July 24, 2020

Rundown1:24 Juan Soto's Move to the COVID-19 IL4:09 Changing Protocols For Return to Play8:45 We're Tier 312:07 Adjusting Workouts?17:18 Unnecessarily Pinching Pennies23:35 Excited For Expanded Playoffs for 2020?34:29 The Blue Jays Head to Buffalo46:11 What Are You Looking Forward to During Opening Weekend? Follow Britt on Twitter: @Britt_GhiroliFollow Eno on Twitter: @enosarrisFollow DVR on Twitter: @DerekVanRipere-mail: [e-mail] Get 40% off a subscription to The Athletic:  theathletic.com/ratesandbarrels Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Welcome to Raids and Barrels, episode number 116. It is Friday, July 24th. Happy opening day part two. Derek Van Ryper, Eno Saris, and Britt Giroli here with you on this Friday. Very busy opening day part one. We had some huge breaking news come down. Juan Soto tested positive for COVID-19 earlier in the week, and there have been some changes to the protocols for how Major League Baseball might allow some players to return to play, so we're going to dive into that. We're going to talk about expanded playoffs. When has this ever happened? The playoff field gets larger on the first day of the season. We'll talk about that. And yesterday when we spoke, the Blue Jays didn't have a home for 2020. Today they do. So three massive stories to talk about.

And guys, it was just fun to watch baseball again, even though we only got a partial game from the Yankees and Nats, even though Dodgers and Giants was kind of a trash game in the late innings, things really unraveled. I was just happy to have a little shred of normalcy on a day in which the news overall actually wasn't that good. So Britt, first, welcome to our show. And I got to ask you, what was your day like with the news for Soto coming down yesterday? Yeah. It was an interesting day because I was kind of excited, guys, kind of like you said, Derek, that it was maybe going to just be about baseball for a little while. And then it hits.

Juan Soto has COVID. Minutes before the roster comes out. Now all of a sudden, what was going to be, what I was looking forward to was watching Max Scherzer and Garrett Cole throw in an actual baseball game. I was so busy, I looked up in the fifth inning for the first time and was like, oh, cool, the game's going on. So that kind of sucked. And anyone who's a reporter has been there, right,

where the story of the day isn't actually the story going on, which was unfortunate because I haven't seen live baseball in months. I just wanted to sit there and relax and enjoy watching Garrett Cole and Max Scherzer. And that just didn't really happen, which is so 2020, right? Yeah, that was unfortunate. I was really enjoying that game. I was able to not be tied into the story as much. I was actually watching Scherzer,

and I thought he was better than the final line indicated. Garrett Cole pitched really well in his Yankee debut. I think the Scherzer pitch to Giancarlo Stanton was a meatball, and Stanton just destroyed it. It's kind of nice to see a healthy Giancarlo Stanton again. But let's talk about this Soto situation in particular, because the positive test happened Tuesday. We found out about it Thursday, and then they rushed him off for a couple more tests on Thursday. Where do things stand right

now? Is he still facing a potential multi-week absence, or is there a chance that he's going to be a part of these changing protocols that Ken Rosenthal wrote about on Friday? that he's going to be a part of these changing protocols that Ken Rosenthal wrote about on Friday. Yeah, so they're waiting on the antigen test, and they should have those results at some point, hopefully before the day is over today. But, I mean, they're really trying to make the case that he doesn't have it, and you're just not sure because the rapid tests apparently are less reliable than the tests that they're getting every other day. And anyone who's had a COVID test, or now that I've been doing all this research on

COVID tests, there's so many different kinds. There's so many variables that could go into a false positive or a false negative that now, you know, obviously with Juan Soto, it was a big deal, but you're starting to see that this is going to be a huge thing as well. It's not just going to be about which guys are sick. It's going to be about, are they really sick? Are they sort of sick? Did they get over it? Do they have symptoms? It's just going to be like Ken wrote today, like a living document that continues to evolve. And this is not like a cut and dry matter at all. It's really confusing. I don't know about you, but like, I feel like I double as an infectious disease expert nowadays. I just want to watch baseball.

It's crazy. I was trying to read that Ken Rosenthal piece, and I kept asking myself, okay, he's giving me information, and I'm not disparaging the piece. I'm disparaging this idea that I don't think anybody knows the policy, right? I was like, you know, there's like a protocol and it sounds like maybe the two rapid tests plus a negative from the antigen one that you're talking about, maybe that in concert together might be enough for him to come back and he wouldn't have to wait the second day. to wait the second day. But, you know, it's surprising to me how little I understand after having read these things. And I tried to look up like, and I hate it too. Like, I tried to look up false positive rates for these tests, right? And like, just before this, I was just reading a bunch of medical, you know, pieces that like, I'm like, oh, what does this term mean? And what does this term mean? I didn't go to med school. I'm doing my best here.

I found one piece that suggested that the BD test, which I don't even know if this is the BD test that they take, had like a three percent positive rate. And me and Derek have been making fun of baseball for reporting the test results by saying like, oh, we performed 10,000 tests and had this many positives. It's like a 0.1 positivity rate. Well, you know, there's like 100 players have had coronavirus. Like it's not 0.1%. You know, it's like it's more like 100 players out of, you know, 500 or something. So I just wonder, what have you heard about, have you heard a false positivity rate? Have you heard anyone talk about one?

No, and players are so confused. So I was texting a different guy on another team yesterday, and he's like, I heard three rapid negatives in a row will get you enough. And somebody else was like, no, that's not true. It's like hearsay. It's all hearsay. They're texting each other. And I else was like, no, that's not true. It's like hearsay. It's all hearsay. They're texting each other.

And now I get a text today from guys that are like, hey, what do you do when your test results are inconclusive? How is that still happening, guys? Oh, man. Right? So I think that I'm with you. Like, I watched Grey's Anatomy, and that's about all my medical background. We're sports writers because we're not good at math and science.

If I was good at math and science, I'd be making three times the amount of money in another. So I'm with you. I think we're just all kind of learning here. And I just wish there was a little more transparency by MLB because I think that would maybe help the matter. You know, why can't the nationals come out and say, Juan Soto tested positive, but we have two other tests that say he's negative and we're going to continue working with the protocols but we're just not sure right now right why could be this mass panic as you guys saw on twitter over juan soto has covid when we're not even sure if he does right and and and like that's why i brought up the three percent number like if you're talking about actually administering 10,000 tests, like if you're constantly administering tests to these players, 3% is like a very large number, you know, 3% may not sound, Oh,

90% likely. Okay. You probably have COVID. Well, not if you've been tested like a hundred times in the last week. So the, the amount of testing actually kind of works against them. I do actually wish that some of it was more written down.

I wish that they kind of said something like what you said about like three Rapids in a row is equal to, you know, whatever. But I wonder also if there's like a liability concern that like if they write this stuff down, they could get sued later or but they did sign a waiver. Did they sign up? Did the players all that sign that they signed that waiver right so they're not no one's gonna sue baseball for getting covid um so i think they should really just uh they should be more upfront about it and like what like what is it like on the nationals is there like a little bit of like i'm in mccarthyism or like oh my god you know i i might have touched him, are people like texting me? Like,

ah, one gave me, if he gave me Corona, I'm so angry. There's a little of that. And certainly like I texted a guy on the Yankees to make sure it wasn't like the Yankees as well. Like,

oh God, these guys are taking the field. What if we get it? You know, I think the players, uh, at least on the Yankee side, didn't get any rapid tests in response to it.

There hasn't been anything like that. But what if you're an Oriole and you're like, hey, I saw Juan Soto on Tuesday, which was the test that ended up coming back positive. So I think there's just like this wide range and wide spectrum of emotions, and no one's even sure what is right and what is wrong. You're sitting there in the press box yesterday and you know i had a family member uh of one of the players say hey are you guys getting tested like no we're not isn't that scary you know like we're tier three they don't care about us

you're getting close to everyone and it's like gee i hope nobody has it i mean it was boring last night they couldn't shut the press box windows. It was raining into the press box because of COVID. Oh, man. It was just crazy. It's like lightning, like thundering, and it's raining into the press box. And it's like, this is 2020. You can't shut the windows because we wouldn't be allowed there. Well, here's my thing, too. Like, what's the point of even going to the park? Like, I don't, I don't actually get it. I haven't been, uh, and I don't know if that speaks poorly on me as a writer or as a journalist or whatever, but like, once I figured out that I've got all the zooms, like, and they're not gonna, there's no, like, I'm going to catch Farhan in the, in the hallway, you know, like I'm not even

allowed to touch Farhan. I'm not allowed to get anywhere close to Farhan. Do you just, you basically just go to the ballpark, not see anybody and arrive at your desk, right? Basically. Right. And the problem is, and like you guys see, I'm wearing like, these are like blue blocker glasses. I had my mask on yesterday and they were fogging up because I was breathing into the mask and my glasses were fogging up. I'm like, why am I even here? It's my birthday. I missed all of it. So uncomfortable. it's my birthday i missed all so uncomfortable yeah and i'm like i could sit in the ac in my own home without a mask on be safer and be more comfortable and do this i agree with you if there was even a chance we could get we can't even get near the pr staff because they're near the players

you can't even hear someone who's possibly near the tier one individuals i have never felt like lesser of a human being we We're like tier 12, you know, like we're not going to be on the field. What are you even doing here? Exactly. It's just a weird, weird,

and the Zooms are depressing too. Oh, I haven't been able to, I've, I've, I've asked like two questions. Just, I'm just like,

this is so weird. I hate this. Scherzer was angry yesterday. Doolittle looked like he was going to cry. Even Davey Martinez, who's like super positive, was down. It was just like, this is 2020 baseball. Yeah. And then there is a fair amount of like, unmute yourself.

We can't hear you. We can't unmute yourself. There's still going on. The person who doesn't know they're on camera is like eating and drinking. Yeah, there's always one. And then on top of all this, we had more news this morning. The Braves just had both of their catchers, Travis Darnot and Tyler Flowers, go on the aisle.

This is going to be baseball in 2020. We're going to wake up most days, at least at the beginning of the season. Eno and I have talked about this before. As players begin traveling away from their home parks and just mingling with a few more people, we're going to have at least this second wave of positive tests. Hopefully, it's smaller than the first wave, but it's inevitable with players moving around. diligent teams are, no matter how committed players are to each other and to the people around them, to not go out to restaurants, not to go to bars, to not do the things they would ordinarily do on off days or even after games, this is going to be our normal this year. And part of that sucks, but still, those little glimmers of hope, things like that Stanton

home run, those things kind of pull us back to reality just for even a split second until the next bad news item comes trickling in. Yeah. The one thing that struck me about the Braves thing was like, of course, they're now playing their third string catcher because of course the catchers work together, you know? And that's what I was thinking about. And I don't know if, Britt, you know any more about this, but are, do they, are they trying to like separate rotation guys? Like, like Max can't talk to Corbin or whatever, because like, you wouldn't want your whole rotation to go down. You know, you wouldn't want, you wouldn't really want your cat, your whole catchers to go down. They just called up Wilson Contreras, who's like, you know, 18 or something.

You know, he's going to get thrown into action here. you know, he's going to get thrown into action here. So I wonder how much of the protocols they have in place for like who works out when is like, we need to keep these guys separate so that we don't lose the entire rotation on one day. I don't know if you've heard anything about that. No, but that's a great point. I mean, yeah, you saw it in Atlanta. And the kicker is that neither of those guys tested positive for COVID, right? They're still trying to figure out exactly what happened,

but they have COVID symptoms. So it's kind of like a Juan situation with Soto as well. It's like, are they sick? Yeah, are they not sick? Like the Braves have been hit like really arguably harder than most teams, right, because they had Freddie Freeman who, you know, that scary quote where he said, you know, I pray please don't take me now. It's jarring.

Nick Markakis, who opted out after seeing what happened to Freddie Freeman. that scary quote where he said, you know, I pray, please don't take me now. Jarring. Nick Markakis, who opted out after seeing what happened to Freddie. Freddie called him that night, you know, and was like, I'm out. I'm out. This sounds terrible. You wonder if Freddie made a few more calls, would we even be playing baseball? You know? But yeah, I don't, I don't know. I do know yesterday I was texting guys during the rain delay

because they had a two-hour rain delay, which, I mean, in my opinion, if we're trying to keep the players away from enclosed space with each other, why are we letting them sit in a two-hour rain delay, right? Shouldn't there be some kind of rule this year, like after an hour, bag it? You know, there is a little more space on the home side, but guys on the visiting side were like, this doesn't make any sense. That's actually something that people do in stadium design. They make the visiting clubhouse crappier and tinier and cramped.

And it's kind of funny how it's playing out now that it's like cramped is like the worst word you could bring up right now. Like cramped just shivers down all of our spines. Like, oh, God, like cramped, just shivers down all of our spines. You're like, Oh God, inside cramped. And, and now, and I think of like the,

I don't know if you've been to the, the, you probably have, you've seen the away clubhouse in Oakland. The, or really the most obvious is the way clubhouse in San Francisco, because the home clubhouse, they all have these awesome plush chairs. They have like this little stand for their ipads that are like come pre-loaded

like they've got like plug there's like a little like plug thing where they can plug all their stuff and like it's just beautiful i mean it's san francisco state and they're like it's just beautiful and then the clubhouse is just like this tiny thing and at one point the giants put a potted plant there's two there's two um couches there that they barely fit two couches in the visiting clubhouse and they're they're about three feet away from each other and at one point they put a potted tree in between the two couches so you didn't even have a place to put your feet you had to like sit and then there's like a tree in front of you and i was like this is some advanced op stuff here they're really trying to

uh screw with the visiting clubhouse but now like yeah two hours uh looking at it looking across it at somebody across a potted tree like i don't know like i feel like uh they should bang them earlier and and they did um say like this is just five is just five and we're calling it a game, which, like, I haven't – that seems like maybe newish. Like, usually people try to finish the game or, like, we'll schedule it later. And I also read that they're not going to do games 61, 62, and 63. That, like, once the 60 games are over, they're going to figure out who made the playoffs.

They're not going to, they're not going to do any extra games, but that'll be really weird because they're not playing each other. You know, they're not playing, there'll be a lot of people who have never played each other like this year. Like the angels will not play, uh, the Indians this year. And then if they're tied for a spot, what are they going to go by? Like, so I want to find out a little bit more about that, but, uh, you know,. But I do think that it's amazing how much is being just figured out on the fly. I'm kind of throwing my hands up a little bit. Yeah, it's nuts. I mean, it's very clear, right, with the expanded playoffs,

that the owners would have played four games if they could just get to the playoffs. Yeah. Seems like now. It's like, hey, nothing extra. Let's hurry up, cross our fingers before COVID gets gets worse let's just play the playoffs next week you know let's just draw names out of the hat orioles you're in tigers you're in like throw them all in um it just seems like they're very clear like five innings oh the game's over let's not do another four innings you know um it's just crazy right it's it's it's like as soon as they like kind of got some agreement in place they figured out the money the rest of it was like oh we could

just make it up as we go along and we saw those issues with the testing lab early it was very apparent that they just kind of threw it all together and kind of said oh let's vote for the best yeah there's a motto i think there's a unofficial motto of baseball is, what can you do for me and can you do it for me free? And I think that that ends up sort of like pervading, you know, like when you start thinking about how they make their policy and how things seem slapdash from like a billion dollar, you know, 11 billion dollar organization that that's wise because they sort of demand too much from all their vendors. You know, that's exactly what happened, right? They demanded too much from this testing vendor. And then they were like, oh, it's all in the vendor. You know, it's their fault.

Oh, really? Right. How much are you paying them? And did you discuss maybe like, you know, did you have some private couriers in place? Oh, no, you didn't. Oh, I see. Like, did nobody ever get a package from FedEx? Like, they're closed on sunday

you know like i mean just like general type of stuff here like you're just a simple google and like maybe we should use fedex critical they don't shut down you know it's never their fault it's always like oh no it's the fourth of july weekend we didn't anticipate people taking off well everybody takes off for the fourth of july weekend right everyone outside of sports just because we don't get fourth of july doesn't mean it's not a national holiday right right yeah and i was doing some reporting on like on statcast and there's a little bit of a problem with statcast and and with the data and it turns out that like they have uh cameras up there and these are these vaunted cameras they have a frame rate that's like uh half of what your iphone has and you're just like guys this is like a isn't this like a million

dollar rollout of a new technology like you're just putting like iphone fives up there like what what is this what is the deal why didn't you spring for like the real thing apparently like rapsodos which everyone uses every team has yeah they're five times better than the camera that the that they're using uh to to do try to do spin rate so i you know baseball man it's so funny i love it so much and it makes me so angry sometimes too it's just like no kind of just like i guess throw your hands up but i can't I can't believe that how much of this is just being figured out on the fly. It's amazing to me. I love the game.

I just don't love the way it's run. That's been my point of contention for a long time now. If Major League Baseball, if they were going to get together and buy a car, they would buy a base-level Camry. They would buy manual crank windows, no air conditioning. It would just be the Camry that no one actually has. Like it's the base one. So they can say it only costs $22,000, but every Camry actually costs like 25,000 or more because most people want

power windows and air conditioning, but major league baseball, they'd take that 22 K Camry because that's how they roll. Yeah. The haggling is unreal. I was told that the Yankees are charging their own network, Yes Network, which pays tens of millions of dollars a year for their rights for bottled water this year at the stadium because they're not traveling. So it's just like they're charging this company that's paying $20, $30 million, whatever it is,

and they're like, you know what, we're going to have to add that. We're going to have to add those waters to your bills. Oh, my God. If that's just not MLB 2020, I don't know what is. Oh, my God. It's like the Billy Bean, you know, pay for your own. What was it? Soda.

Yeah. The pay for your own soda. Oh, God. And it's so stupid in the long run. I mean, think about this. There's no minor leagues this year, and we cut the draft. And so we basically, you know, we're not investing in the long run. I mean, think about this. There's no minor leagues this year and we, we cut the draft. And so we've got, we basically, you know, we're not investing in the young guys and, uh, the opposite, you know, would have put, it would have been like a really big deal for, for an organization. Let's say the giants or the Mariners were like, no, we're going to,

we're going to pay $800 a month, uh, to our minor leaguers or $800 a week instead of 400. And we're going to, we're going to figure out, we're going to like set up some, you know, this and that. And we're going to, we're going to like, you know, house all our guys and whatever, like just, we're going to go out and beyond. I think that would have been a massive thing, but then there's also this thing in baseball where there's massive peer pressure to, to conform. And so like nobody wants to do anything like if you were asking me, oh, can I hire these angels, these furloughed angels coaches? Because there's a couple that I want to hire. Can I hire them? Because they don't have a job right now. And the angels

basically fired them. Can I hire them? And California law is very obvious on this. Yes, you can hire them. There's no non-compete in California. You are allowed to hire those people. And all Manfred had to do was come out and be like, no, no, you can't hire those people. And it's not at all legal. It doesn't matter. And yet this guy, who I think is a free thinker,

is like, well, I don't want to be ostracized by my community. I guess I want another job waiting for me when I'm done with this, you know. Yeah. Of all the sports, it seems like baseball is still the most backwards when it comes to that stuff, right? They're just the least progressive when it comes to anything like that. Like everyone, as soon as Oakland was the only team that wasn't paying their minor leaguers,

the peer pressure was enough, right, that they reversed it. As soon as the Nats announced, and I recorded that they were going to cheat a hundred, they were going to cut a hundred dollars from these kids making 400 bucks a week, right, because the billionaire learner owners need to cut that money. As soon as that got out there, and the players, the Nationals major league players said, we'll cover the money, all of a sudden they found the extra change under the couch. It just seems like baseball is so afraid. And I don't know what that system is, but they're so afraid of stepping out of line more so than any other sport. I feel like this is a generation of players that's going to push the hardest yet. I don't know how far they're going to get or if it's going to be the generation after this generation

that finally gets to a point where we look at Major League Baseball as a league that runs more like the NBA. But when the NHL, a sport that's had, I think, three lockouts during our lifetime, can renegotiate a CBA before it expires during a pandemic, MLB can do more. That's a pretty good indicator. A sport that's had some major labor problems could figure it out, and Major League Baseball, as we know, at the end of next season, they would not have been a playoff team, even if 16 teams got in. They were 27 and 33 through 60 games, so they still would have missed. And this is a weird year, because I think there are probably only about five teams that can't make the playoffs. I mean, the Orioles, the Giants, the Tigers, probably the Marlins. throw the Pirates in that group, I think, too. So five teams or so that can't make it.

Everybody else, I think, has at least a shot. So what do you make of the makeup of a 60-game season with 16 teams getting into the postseason? I mean, it's just kind of like a shrug, right? Like any team can put together a good month. You kind of see it all the time when we get to July, those teams that are like on the fringe and we're like oh are they buyers are they sellers i think it was the giants last year right who were gonna kind of go for it and then they just basically dropped

off the cliff um and now you just don't have that time to assess it all so everyone that's close is gonna go for it because like what the hell right you have 60 games who knows um i just think it's going to be chaos i think a game like last night where the nationals lose and we're all like oh well they're just trying to get it over with that counts like more than double what it would in the normal it's like the almost the equivalent losing one game to a series sweep i mean it's just crazy when you actually think about it like that um so it really is anything can happen which from a baseball standpoint i kind of like right it's kind of exciting we're already thrust into a pennant race more or less but um then you kind of wonder too like are the if the white socks win it all this year does it

will anyone believe they were the rightful best team in 2020 like how i don't know i don't really know how to how to value that i don't know what you guys think about that. But it's just it's always going to seem a little weird to me. Well, you know, one thing that I that balances that that for me is that, like, I think we're all going to really remember 2020. It's like pretty safe to say that this will be like a year that sticks out and there'll be all sorts of different things like uh there'll be records for um like my mom who runs a bed and breakfast in arizona she just said like we just had a record june um which is just weird first of all wait they had record people visiting yes what arizona y'all record june um and uh that you know and there'll be there'll be records like that where it's like biggest year-over-year increase or like month-over-month increase in sales or whatever, stuff like that. There'll be all sorts of weird things that happen that you'll see the 2020 on and be like, ah, okay, I get it.

And I think if somebody says like, oh, the Padres haven't won't won since 2020 used to be like, well, they really haven't won. We're all going to do that mental. We're all going to do that. I mean, no matter who it is, we're all going to do that mental math where it was like, oh, yeah, I remember 2020. But at the same time, like I was talking to an executive who was like, you know, I'm on the yellow seat right now you know if i was on a red seat right now and one of our players got covid and this happened this happened we didn't make the playoffs this year i think i'd be fired like i think ownership doesn't care like i think it's results on the field so some extent like that's why i think you're right too like people will go for it and people will want to win, and the results do count.

But there is also a tension between how many regular season games you play and how much people will care about the playoffs, I think. Something happens in basketball. I'm a basketball fan, and when I watch basketball, there is a certain aspect where I'm like, it's a regular season game. Unless it's two really good teams or a team I really follow, I might not be that into it because I know there's like a month and a half of playoffs. Basketball has the longest

playoffs. They have 16 teams make it out of 30 or something. You're just like, this is ridiculous. This is a bad team. Why am I watching this team? And I hope that doesn't happen in baseball where like you're like no this is just a bad team this is a bad first round matchup maybe the Pirates can make it and the first round matchup is like Pirates versus Braves or something and it's like a three game

sweep and people are like why did we do that yeah I mean that's how I feel sometimes about the NHL too is like the playoffs gone so long it's, I don't really watch that much regular season. And also it's, but it is way more exciting playoff hockey. So I hope maybe with baseball, I don't know. It'll be like that because you'll have some maybe unusual matchups. I don't know. I mean, maybe it becomes like the NCAA tournament, right? Where all of a sudden you've got like a,

the pirates make a run out of nowhere and it's like, dude, they shouldn't even have been in it. You know, there's just like some like St. John community college that stumbled into the whole thing and um maybe it'll be more exciting that way i don't know the issue i have too you know is that you you don't ever get to know teams this year because we don't have the access the human interest stories go away and a story like the nats last year you just don't really get to experience right you don't get to talk to harada Parra about

some of the weird dancing on the dugout he's doing and some of the fun stuff. I think you're going to miss the human element this year a lot because we can't physically be anywhere to bring those stories. That is going to make the Cinderella story especially a lot less exciting.

The coverage will be a lot different. I'm thinking back to when they added the second wild card. And initially, I took an old man approach, which was strange because that was a few years ago, and I'm not even that old now. But I was mad about it. I hated it. I thought it was the dumbest thing ever.

And I love it now. It was one of those things. Once they did it, once I saw it play out, the excitement of the wild card game, and I root for a team that lost a wildcard game last year, it actually made up for what I thought was a mistake in adding that extra team. I think in a shortened

season, it actually validates the league winner more to include everybody, because there are going to be some good teams that were going to miss the cut in a 60-game sample just because of variance, and I think this reduces that a little bit. I think it gets more of the right teams in the playoff field with there being a longer path to the title once you get to the postseason.

In a weird way, I feel like it makes this odd season better and actually validates the champion a little bit more. Here's a question for both of you, though. I actually think that baseball has, I think, probably the fewest playoff teams before this year. So just, you know, in the past. Has the fewest playoff teams as a percentage of overall teams. You know, like the 162 games actually means a lot

because we only have the two wild cards and that's it. It's very different from basketball, for example, than I said. 16 out of 30 make it. What's hockey? Hockey's right under basketball, too. 16 teams get in. So I think that's actually maybe too much. I mean, if half the teams are playoff teams, I'm like, I don't know.

It's too much. But I think the baseball was too little. Do you guys have, like, let's say not this year. Let's say next year, 162 games. What's your ideal amount of playoff teams? I think 10. I also think you should dissolve all the divisions, though. And Buck Showalter, when I was covering him with the Orioles,

had, like, a great idea about how you just go American League, National League, and you take the top teams out of each league, and you don't deal so much with like, oh, there's nobody good in the Central. Oh, the East is stacked. That third team is missing. You make it a little more fair. You go AL, NL, and then you just take the top two teams, the top five teams out of each of those leagues.

And I think 10, you know, it's about a third of the league, and I think that's probably a little bit better than, yeah, like, you know, these half scenarios, right? Where it's like this team isn't very good, but they're going to make it anyway. I think that to me probably makes the most sense, you know, covering the American League East for as long as I did. It was always Red Sox, Yankees. If you were a good team and you were in third place, like good luck,

because the other wild card teams just had easier schedules, right? We've seen, you know, for all those years where the Indians just absolutely cleaned up in the central because no one else was really trying. Now of course the twins are good. We think the white socks are really on the up and up. And so it's gotten a little bit better. But I've always thought like, just split it.

A L N L take the top teams from each, keep the travel like kind of geographic with each. You know, let them play at least once in normal times across leagues, play every team. So it's a little more. Those are the balanced schedules, right? People complain all the time about those schedules and then be done. But think about that in context with what you were talking about with like developing narrative. But think about that in context with what you were talking about with like developing narrative. There is something about playing a team over and over again where you kind of you you develop that rivalry. Like you kind of you can actually sort of make a rivalry happen just by having these teams play over and over again. You have the Astros play the athletics enough. It doesn't matter. The Astros used to be in the NL.

Now they start to hate each other and there's like an actual rivalry there but I do agree that like there is some tension there because like the the you know the American League West used to be pretty bad and I think the Rangers made the playoffs one year with like a 500 record just because the the American League West was so bad so I don't really necessarily want that to happen either. Cause then, then it devalues the playoffs too. Cause then, you know, whoever plays the Rangers is like, oh, sweet. So I, I, I do like that. That's sort of basketball, right? Basketball kind of just lines everybody up and you know, you're just fighting for a number in there. Yeah. I think I'm sitting more at like 12 playoff teams. I think six from each league makes a lot of sense.

I'd probably go to two divisions, East and West. Division winners each get a spot, and the next four best records get spots. That way, if there is some sort of imbalance between the two divisions, it's covered. But something more open than what they have right now, I think, is a better long-term solution. I think with Universal DH almost certainly here to stay, I think we could theoretically throw out the ALNL thing completely and have a more balanced schedule. But I think what you're going to have

is a lot of pushback just from the basic, like legit old school rivalries. Like you're going to want to see different things like Cubs, Cardinals. You're going to want to see those a little more, even if you do dial down that number

just a little bit. Maybe two series at home, two and away instead of, I think it's three of each right now, right? So down that number just a little bit. Maybe two series at home, two in a way, instead of I think it's three of each right now, right? So you dial that back a little bit. Maybe you play other teams from the other league a little more often or something like that to kind of balance it out. But there are definitely some simple things that could be done to make it better. So I'll accept the 16 teams for this year, but I hope it comes back down. I expect it to come back down. It is a little much. It is a little bit too much like hockey, a little too much like basketball at this point. We should talk about the Blue Jays for a moment. Yesterday, they did not have a home.

Today, they kind of have a home. They will be able to move into the park. And Buffalo, at some point, maybe next week, maybe in the first or second week of August, based on the report I saw earlier today from Caitlin McGrath, one of the first or second week of August, based on the report I saw earlier today from Caitlin McGrath. One of the concerns with Buffalo is actually the lighting. It's not major league quality lighting, which I imagine would impact guys hitting on the field, and it's going to change the way we watch the game or watching it on TV. But I never thought we'd see a day where a team did not have a home when the season actually started. This is amazing that this actually played out like this.

What's your thought just from a coverage standpoint? I mean, this year is already different enough. So it's not like as someone who covers a team, you're relocating in a completely different city for half the games. But how does that just change the routine, having a completely different environment like that? Yeah, I was actually talking to Caitlin this morning before the news came out, and it's like, you know, she's in Canada trying to figure out where the hell the team's going to be

and how she's going to attempt to cover it. And it's kind of another case, like Eno was saying before, of like, they're just building the plane as they fly it, right? It's like, oh, don't worry. It's like, meanwhile, the Blue Jays are like, emergency landing, we've got nowhere to play uh you know like i do wonder sometimes so this is maybe the cynic in me but like if the yankees didn't have a home how big of a deal would it have been it would have been

10 times right if the red sox got screwed the way the a's did with all the canceled the season would be the season would be over right. The season would be over. The season would be at least on hold. They'd be like, wait, wait, we need the Yankees to have a home. Hold on. Yeah, exactly. Wait, Aaron Judge didn't get up at bats in summer camp. I do think it always depends on who the team is, for better or worse. It's like, oh, the Blue Jays are fine.

The lighting sucks, but they're the Blue Jays. Like, whatever. I just feel like it always has that element of like, oh, they can play at the Nats next week and be the home team. Like, even though they're in a cramped visiting clubhouse, like we just talked about, it's like the other states said no. And I don't blame them. Like bringing one baseball team on has been kind of enough of an issue. Like in D.C., they had to change all these quarantine rules and give the Nats a waiver.

What is the advantage of doing that for another team? And for Pennsylvania would have been three teams, you know? Right. Yeah. So it's just more traffic, more people coming in and out of your state, more chances for a hotspot. But one of the things, it is interesting, like if you watch a minor league game, like I'm of two minds a little bit on the lighting thing.

If you watch a minor league game on TV It's like immediately obvious, you know, like the lighting is just totally different. It just looks less professional It's a big part of why you're like, oh, it's a minor league team Like you could have a minor league game up and I could walk in the room be like, oh you're watching the minor leagues So but on the other hand like couldn't you just like get some lighting in there like it, you know There's mobile lighting people that you know there's like lighting contractors you have you like they are on the road to start so you have like a week couldn't you guys just like build more lighting and like get in there uh so yeah they're major league baseball they can't get stadium quality lights

in a hurry like if anyone can do it they're not some high school that doesn't have the money for it don't tell them not use fedEx because they don't deliver on Sundays. But don't they, too, in those minor league stadiums, aren't they missing that third deck, right? Which I think is a big deal in spring training. Guys talk about on the outfield how tracking balls is different because the ball carry is different because you don't have that deck.

So I'm wondering, beyond the lighting, how much of an adjustment it's going to be for the guys in the outfield trying to play balls off the bat. Because when you talk to guys who come from the minor leagues, it's something they mention a lot. They're not going to have time to get lights. They're not going to have time to build another deck. There's no fans.

Why would they do that? Why would they do that? You know, but that's really interesting, too, because they might have stack casts. They might have a track man in there. So they might be able to kind of just finagle that in. Although I don't think track man and MLB are on good terms. I mean, we know this because track man did not submit a bid for the Hawkeye job.

So maybe track man says we can't help you or whatever. We'll see. There may not be a lot of data that out data coming out of Buffalo that helps us understand what's going on there. So we may just see weird results. We may see weird fly balls drop. And on top of that, apparently Buffalo is like near a body. I think it's near the water. I don't know exactly where the stadium is. It's close, yeah.

There's like... No, I mean, I'm not saying Buffalo City. I'm saying the actual park. Yes, I understand that Buffalo City is near the water. Just wanted to clarify that Buffalo is near the water. No, I mean the park. I don't know exactly where the park is in relation to that water,

but there is a strong wind in Buffalo that comes off of the, that comes off the water. And so what I've heard is that Buffalo would play as a band box if you looked at dimensions, but that it plays pretty cold and it plays with that wind coming in. So if you add that wind coming in without the upper deck, I think you'll definitely see some guys doing curlicues and some weird roots and some weird roots and some balls you wouldn't expect to fall. I just wonder also, it is interesting to wonder this on top of like how bad the coronavirus is, like how that's affecting everybody and like how weird the season is. Maybe it won't matter to them. How much do you think it'll matter to them?

I don't know. I think the players are probably glad to get out of Toronto, right? Because it seemed like their restrictions were going to be super strict and like okay i think they get that it was for health and safety however we all know how players operate and they see all their friends and their buddies able to do stuff and they're meanwhile like locked in like what one player told me was like felt like jail it's like okay it's not jail you guys are getting shaw said some stuff publicly right yes yeah like it's like okay but like i think even the liberties allowed by other teams i think that it was going to kind of lead for some animosity those players were going to feel like okay we're stuck here we can't do even the little things that the other guys can do you know i think it was

probably better that they got out of toronto Say what you will, it's probably alarming that Toronto wants nothing to do with us, and most countries want nothing to do with Americans anywhere near their things, right? We're playing baseball. It's like, it's not safe for you guys, but hey, go Blue Jays. You know?

No, I think it's good that they got out of there. You know, I know they were talking about sharing in Maryland, and then they were going to have to construct, like, another dugout because the Orioles didn't want them to share clubhouses because now you're dealing with sanitation issues. Yeah, they would have had to build some stuff for sure. Yeah, it just seems like a mess, right?

And, again, a situation where they negotiated for how long and nobody kind of thought, you know what, let's check with canada and see if they're gonna be cool with us playing here um it just seemed like that kind of got dropped by the wayside like oh get tons of tests do you think utah can handle it yeah i guess they can well they can't no and they did it again with pennsylvania they were like yeah they're gonna be in pittsburgh wait wait wait pennsylvania's on the line oh nope nope, they're going to be in Pittsburgh. Wait, wait, wait. Pennsylvania's on the line. Nope, nope, nope. They're not going to be in Pittsburgh. Pittsburgh's like, what? Yeah, like, you didn't ask us.

Hey, we say no. We're the government here. Oh, my God. Buffalo does seem like the complete opposite of Toronto as a place. I mean, you can chokeslam your friend through a table in a parking lot and not be cited for assault. So, I mean,

like kind of do whatever you want in Buffalo, but all kidding aside, I mean, I think it's helpful for them to be in a facility that a lot of those players are familiar with like that triple a park. That's where players who came through the Jays organization, they played there in the minors. So it's not completely foreign to them as opposed to a different ballpark.

If they had ended up even at Camden Yards, sure, that's in division, but you don't spend nearly as much time there as you do every day being in a AAA city. So I think that adjustment might be a little easier for them being a park that's within their organization. You might have a locker that's not on the concourse or in the men's room.

Also that. They would have stuck them in the men's room probably on the concourse. Yeah. A division rival. Like that's the first place you'd put their clubhouse if they were moving in. You'd be like, oh, yeah. We're talking about us here. We're going to put the urinals here.

Yeah. You want to get an advantage? Like, yeah, that's what you're going to do. At least they weren't like, hey, let's go build another area down in Miami. Or like at least not so desolate as far as cities go, right? It's not a tightly packed city. A lot of cities had a lot of outbreaks. You know, that does, I think, make it a little better if you're going to travel right now.

I mean, would you rather go to Miami or Buffalo? You know, like it's so, maybe that helps a little bit too. Every other year in existence you would have said miami this year though buffalo seems awesome buffalo yeah yeah one day the places i would actually travel you're right it's completely upside down one thing about uh buffalo too is uh with that convenience, and then when we were asking, Mark Kerrigan and I wrote a piece this week where we were asking front office execs who was benefiting from the season, and one of the answers was the Blue Jays because they don't have the pitching for 162.

They don't really have that much depth. The ready guys other than Pearson aren't that great, but maybe they have enough pitching for 60. And it's one of those situations almost like the Brewers teams that you've seen where like nobody thinks their rotation is any good. It has like Tanner Rourke and Chase Anderson and a bunch of just like veteran dudes. But like maybe for 60, they throw together a good stretch and like, hey, how's this for, you know, narrative and like a fun narrative that we can all get behind is like the team that doesn't have a home, you know, wins it all.

Like I, you know, with a great group of young kids, you know, so like, hey, let's go. Let's go Buffalo Wild Wings. Yes, that's what I was going to say. If they don't have a tarp with Buffalo Wild Wings for that, they're doing it wrong. Like seriously. And also,

can you imagine a playoff game in Buffalo? Just crazy, right? Wild. You know, lights may or may not work here, guys. Let's go World Series.

Oh man. I would actually probably have a good time in Buffalo. Like if I, if I went there for a regular, just AAA game or something and, or even like a Bills game, I would probably have fun at a Bills in Buffalo. If I went there for a regular AAA game or something, or even a Bills game, I would probably have fun at a Bills tailgate. Not that I'm one to actually chokeslam my friend through a table, but

I've seen Bills fans at Lambeau before. Bills fans are the rowdiest fans I've ever been around for any sport. It's unbelievable. The craziest thing, and this plays right into exactly what you'd expect. They destroyed their corner of the parking lot.

Like it was just trash everywhere. Broken tables, broken chairs, like everything you'd expect. I walked back to my car later, passed the same parking lot. All of it was cleaned up. They brought a few of their mothers or friends or someone who stayed behind and they literally cleaned up after themselves, which was I was stunned. I was like, you know what? Respect. You guys want to destroy the place? If you're going to clean up afterwards

and pay for the damages, go nuts. Have fun. My kids. You may have every right to be a little angry. Have you guys ever been through a winter in Buffalo? I'm from Connecticut. It's brutal out there. As soon as it gets above 20, you're like, let is brutal out there. I mean, as soon as it gets like above 20,

you're like, let's go, sports. Shirts off. Well, before we go, what are you guys looking forward to most this weekend? I mean, just Britt, you were saying last night had it been a less busy news day, just taking in Scherzer versus Cole was something that you were interested in watching.

As you think about these matchups this weekend, what are you most excited to see? Yeah, I just want to watch some baseball. I just want to watch baseball and maybe kind of forget about everything going on in the world, which I think a lot of people want. I just want everyone to be like, oh, the most important thing right now is Patrick Corbin's slider

for this inning. Just to have a little brief respite because I think we're all aware of everything going on. There's no escaping from any of it, but just to watch some of these guys work again and compete again. I think that's really what we've missed because we've acknowledged it's not going to be the same. None of it is going to be the same again, except for between the lines,

except for, and Davey Martinez mentioned this yesterday, like once the game gets going, the game is the game. Yes, there are no fans, but there haven't been any actual fundamental rule changes to those first nine innings. We know about the terrible extra innings rule, some of the additions there, but the nine innings is baseball, right? The bases are still the same distance away.

The pitching mound hasn't been moved um just watching baseball and you know last night kind of watching a little bit of the dodgers giants game while we were in nats park during the rain delay you just get excited again um just the the crack of the bat watching these guys work um seeing the the radar gun light light up to upper 90s already. And it just makes you excited again. And even if it's for a brief moment, that's what I really want to get. I'm pretty nerdy, so I'm a little excited to see which teams are going to push the pitching strategy the weirdest this weekend. You got 15 pitchers.

I want to see which team throws a combined no hitter with 15 pitchers or like, I guess it would be like 10 or something. Uh, so I'm, I'm hoping for something weird like that, but, uh, that's weird within the game. So it's still, it's still the same kind of thing. It's, it's, uh, it's, uh, fewer injury and COVID updates and more, uh, who hit a Homer updates. I would like to see some erroneous stat cast things even, because that's just funny. I want to see a 900-foot homer tweeted out.

I saw a four-foot homer already, so Bryce Harper hit one of those. I'm definitely excited to watch as much baseball as my family will let me. Yeah, it's going to be on constantly. you know, I'm definitely excited to watch as much baseball as my family will let me. Yeah, it's going to be on constantly. I'm going to find every screen in the house and just have games on constantly, multiple radios. My phone's going to have a game streaming. It's going to be just obnoxious, but amazing at the same time. I think Shohei Otani being a two-way player again, now that he's healthy, that's something I'm really looking forward to seeing this weekend. His first start comes against the A's on Sunday. As Britt said, just normalcy.

Watching the game and being excited about Velo readings and Johnny Cueto's delivery. Just the little things that we all love about baseball. It's a bog. Don't be an old man about it. It's awesome. Last part of yesterday's game was hearing Scherzer yell

like he swore after he gave up that home run to Stanton. And you're like, cool, we're back. Max is swearing. Just baseball again. I love Max. I love watching him pitch too. Bummed about the results yesterday, but like I said, I thought he actually looked pretty good. A lot of whiffs actually

in that performance despite the rough line. The B-roll was there. All in all, more good than bad. The Yankees are good. What are you going to do? That's a tough matchup. Well, Britt, thanks for joining us on the show today. It was great catching up with you and getting your insight on the Juan Soto situation.

Just talking about the season ahead. Thanks for having me, guys. This was fun. It's nice to talk about baseball and kind of put me in a good mood, I guess, for the weekend. Yeah, it's good to have a fun conversation on Fridays. If you're listening to this show and enjoying it on a platform that allows you to rate and review the podcast, please take a moment to do that. We'd greatly appreciate it.

And if you're not already a subscriber to The Athletic, you can get 40% off a subscription at theathletic.com slash rates and barrels. That gets you Brits articles on Major League Baseball and the Nats, gets you Eno's articles, all of our baseball coverage league-wide, team-by-team, and the fantasy coverage as well. If you want to hit us up with an email, ratesandbarrelsattheathletic.com is the way to do that. On Twitter, she's at Brit underscore Giroli. He's at Eno Saris. I'm at Derek Van Ryper. That's going to wrap things up for this episode of Rates and Barrels. We are back with you on Tuesday.

Thanks for listening.