All the surprise players on the dugout railing waiting to
dogpile, the 2-2 swing and a miss, and
the surprise Saguaros are champions of the Arizona Fall League
for the 3rd time in 4 seasons, a 7-run
8th inning. Brings them back for a 9-4 victory
today. The number 2 seed in the AFL playoffs
, champions. What a fun ball game again today
. It is always fun. This is we've talked
about the hidden gem for baseball, the Arizona Fall
League, and the championship games almost never disappoint.
Mookie Betts joins us now on MLB Tonight. Mookie
, congratulations on an incredible hosting debut. Uh,
give me your, I guess, reaction in your
phone. What were you hearing from teammates, family
and friends regarding your performance last night? Everybody said
I did pretty good. I mean, I,
uh, I was a little nervous and then as
I kept going I got a little more comfortable and
it was really a lot of fun, man.
It's something like I said I never, never would
have dreamed of doing, especially when I was in
Boston and. Now coming out to LA, I'm
just, uh, enjoying and embracing the, uh
, LA life we did in the group chat,
uh, we, we told him congrats, um
, but you know I it's amazing, so I
mean we pretty much can go ahead and give it
to him for the next however many years to the
rest of his until he's done pitching. Um,
then we'll, somebody may have a chance, but
if he's still pitching, man, we can just
keep giving it to him. Best dressed on the
course and talks the most trash. It could be
the same person, but tell me those two categories
. I will have to probably go see why,
um, because he, he's always, he's always
got a lot of swag. He's probably, he's
probably. Up there amongst the uh the trash talkers
, Joe Carter though Joe Carter is a sleeper.
He is a, uh, he's a, he's
a heavy trash talker so we'll, uh, and
he backs it up, which is that you can't
say anything when he backs it up so it is
what it is. Strong 2025 season on the field
for Zach Nettle of the Los Angeles. Angels,
his second straight 2020 season, setting career highs in
home runs, batting average, and OPS. It's
my second annual bowling tournament, and, uh,
you know, and here down in Miami, it's
January 25th on a Sunday in Bird Bowl, and
, you know, all proceeds are, are benefit
the Joe DiMaggio Children's Hospital. Um, a cause
near and dear to my heart in South Florida.
Um, if anybody who knows me, they know
how important, you know, helping out kids with
cancer is to me and, um, especially losing
some people close to me with cancer. Um,
so, you know, it's always an honor to
be able to do this. Kurt Suzuki is your
new manager. Have you had a chance to connect
with him yet? Yeah, yeah, it's a
funny story. Um, first time Zuke called me
, I actually hung up on him on the first
, uh, ring. Um, wait, what
happened? You thought it was a prank call,
like it was some pretend, yeah, yeah,
so, you know, whenever I get phone calls
from numbers I don't have saved, I just,
you know, go straight to voicemail and I didn't
have his number saved. So, um, but
, you know, he sent me a message right
after and, uh, you know, I called
him right away and, you know, told him
I was sorry, but, you know, I'm
excited, um. You know, we got to
, we're fortunate enough to have him around the clubhouse
and locker room and um dugout when we're playing towards
the end of the year, and he's an awesome
guy. And if spring training came tomorrow, you
know, I'd love to start right away. Um
, it's just something that we tell each other all
the time. We're just trying to get 1% better
every day. What do you see the market looking
like for Bo Bechette? Bechette has a lot going
for him. In an age where it's hard to
hit a baseball, he hits it great. Uh
, he helped his. Reputation and his cause by
playing with, uh, clearly as a compromised player
in the postseason. He had a sprained knee,
uh, early September, didn't get back to the
World Series. He gutted it out, helped them
almost win the World Series with his bat, and
then you mentioned, he doesn't even turn 28 until
, uh, the beginning of, uh, spring
training. So, uh, he has a lot
going for him, and I would point out,
maybe he holds on to shortstop for another. A
year or two, but I would look at someone
like Marcus Simeon, who was a shortstop going into
the free agent market where he signed a 7-year,
$175 million contract as an older player than Bechette,
the one who was, uh, you know,
high-end defense at second base and good baserunning, things
that Bechette isn't known for. But it is hard
to hit in Major League Baseball right now, and
Bo Bechette can really hit. So I expect a
very strong market for him. Really excited. We
spoke the other night about Andy McKay, uh,
really excited to add him as field coordinator. And
then Tony Arnrich, um, you know, again
, another person that we are super excited to be
adding to our staff and to our organization. Tony
, great background of coaching college, held a number
of roles through the minor leagues in leadership and in
technical skill coaching, and as a Major League coach
, he's got experience as a hitting coach. He's
got experience as a bullpen coach and as a catching
coach, so really can add value and support for
our coaches in all those areas and has been a
great game strategist along the way and, and obviously
I have a great relationship pre-existing with him. So
I already have that trust built in with him,
and he couldn't be more thrilled to be joining the
Cleveland organization. Obviously it was a it was a
group effort through the whole organization. I think we
started with. 32, 33 names for both positions
. Um, you know, did reference calls,
background checks on a lot of guys, you know
, word of mouth, did our own research,
and then, you know, dwindled it down to
a pretty good pool of candidates for both positions,
and they went through the rigorous Cleveland hiring process and
, uh, through a couple of weeks and back
and forth, um, we felt like we landed
with two great people to add to our staff.
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