Fair Territory: Chourio IL’d, Roki Sasaki road bump, Mets sign Pham

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Welcome everyone to the Thursday edition of Fair Territory.

And happy opening day to all.

It's not the Netflix opening day.

This is the real opening day today.

Slate of games ahead of us.

And Alana, actually, we have some news this morning

to get into.

First, Tommy Fam.

Minor league deal with the New York Metz.

He returns to the Metz where he was in 2023.

If you remember, he played there in the first half.

Then got traded to the Diamondbacks at the deadline.

The Metz needed another outfield of her depth

because Mike Talkman, of course,

blew out his knee at the end of spring training.

A very unfortunate injury for him.

They're going with Carson Benjain right field,

but Fam will at least present them with another option.

And he's a guy that, in my view,

should have had a deal quite some time ago.

This is a minor league deal I know.

And the demand for him at his age is 36, I believe,

is not going to be what it was.

But it's a quality, major league player.

And I'll add this before throwing it over to you, Alana.

Francisco Lindor, when he was on the Metz,

before he was traded, or actually right after he was traded,

but before he left the team, he told Tommy Fam,

you're the hardest working guy I've ever seen.

Thank you for teaching me to work hard again.

So I am sure Lindor welcomed this news.

And now I welcome my friend and fellow red-wearing.

I'm going to go with Maroon,

or maybe Merlot.

Happy New Year to you, Ken Rosenthal.

Happy opening day.

Everybody out there.

Thanks for being with us on Fair Territory.

I tell you what, I got a lot to get into today.

Let's get into the rest of the lead,

powered by GameChanger.

More on GameChanger in a moment.

And Ken Brewers placed Jackson Turio on the I.L.

with a fractured left hand.

This is a team Ken that many think could win the NL Central.

How does this affect them moving forward?

It affects them no question,

at least early in the season.

Now Turio will be out two to four weeks.

This is kind of a weird deal.

So he injured the hand in an exhibition

while playing for Venezuela.

It was March 4th in West Palm Beach.

And originally he missed two games.

Then came back and played throughout the WBC.

And it didn't seem to be an issue,

but he continued to bother him.

So it turns out, yes, he has a fractured left hand.

And for the Brewers, obviously he's a guy

who is still on the rise.

He's so young still and such a talented player.

They're going to bring back Blake Perkins,

another right-handed hitting outfielder.

The rest of their outfield is left-handed.

It's Frilick and Garrett Mitchell and Jake Bowers.

Pat Murphy has said this on MLB Network this morning

that Christian Yewich may play some more outfield in the interim.

Obviously this is a blow for the Brewers, at least temporarily.

One other point here.

I'm sure people will say, oh, here we go, WBC injuries.

But this was actually an injury he suffered

in an exhibition game in Florida.

And really, the WBC kind of escaped injury-free

for the most part this time around.

Kyle Teal, of course, with the White Sucks had the strain.

Hamstrings say it's Suzuki, the knee issue.

But these are injuries that might have occurred

in spring training.

There wasn't a rash of injuries due to the WBC,

at least not yet.

So, so far, so good on that front for the most part.

And for the Brewers, they should be okay.

It's just something they have to patch together

for the next few weeks.

Yeah, the WBC, as far as injuries are concerned,

pretty unscathed if you will.

Hopefully those three can get back soon

and start contributing to their team.

Opening day is here, Ken.

So, let's get into your 12 storylines piece

that you wrote for the athletic.

Let's start with the Los Angeles daughters

and pursuit of a three-peat Ken Rose and Thal.

But they have to figure out what to do

with Rocky Sasaki and the pitching struggles.

What do you make of those?

It's interesting, Alana.

At first, I saw obviously the struggles

and we've all seen the struggles, the spring.

And I wonder why are the Dodgers putting him

in the rotation?

But they want to find out.

And they want him to learn on the fly here.

They've got Blake Snow on the Isle to open the season.

Gavin Stone as well on the Isle to open the season.

They have depth.

And they can win the World Series

without Sasaki making a significant contribution.

But I spoke with someone close to Sasaki

just a couple of nights ago.

And he is convinced that Sasaki's going to figure this out

and is going to be a quality pitcher for the Dodgers.

Now, if that happens great, if it doesn't happen,

they've got pretty good depth.

We've been talking about this all spring.

Justin Robleski is effectively their sixth starter.

They've got River Ryan in AAA.

They've got the two guys on the Isle that I mentioned

that are coming back.

So I would expect the Dodgers to be okay.

And heaven forbid, they have a need at the deadline.

What are they going to do?

They're going to trade for a starting pitcher.

But I don't necessarily anticipate that at this point.

Katie Wu, your colleague with the athletic,

our co-host on Dodgers territory.

Talk to Dave Roberts about it.

She has a quote in her story that Dave said,

I don't think that you can completely just bank on

or evaluate spring training or an exhibition game,

Robert said.

But yeah, it hasn't been great.

It really hasn't.

And we know that.

The standard needs to be better.

He knows that.

We know that.

So we'll see what happens with Rocky Sasaki.

All right, Ken.

When we were asked to put our predictions together

for who was going to win every single category

in Major League Baseball going into the 2026 season,

I picked the Mariners to win the AL West.

Is the industry sleeping on the Astros?

First off, I don't know that the Mariners are a team

that we should be overlooking in any way.

Some people are picking them as you are

allowing us to go to the World Series,

maybe even win the World Series.

And if you look at the projections

that you see on Fang Raffes and Pakota,

they will say, or they will tell you,

that the Mariners outside of the Dodgers

have the best odds of winning their division.

Now, that said, the question you raised is quite valid.

Are we sleeping on the Astros?

Well, we might be.

And here's why.

The rotation with the additions of Mike Burrows

and Tatsuya in my has improved.

Looks better.

McCullors also is at least starting the season

somewhat healthy.

Then you have a situation where, yes,

they do have a surplus of infielders, Jeremy Pania,

coming off that injury,

is going to open the season with the team.

And they have parades.

They've got Al-Tuvay.

They've got Correa.

They've got Christian Walker.

It's too much, right?

But let's see how that all plays out.

And it's a talented team.

It's a team that we can never discount.

They always seem to be there.

And I expect they're going to be there again

to some extent.

But that said,

the Mariners are really good.

And they're really good because of their additions

in the off season,

Ferreira in the bullpen,

Donovan,

chew their lineup and offense overall.

And they also have some young players.

Colt Emerson, one of the top prospects in the game,

will be ready at some point to play the infield.

Cole Young at second base had a monster spring.

They're high on him.

I just see them as the team to beat.

And maybe in the entire A.O.

I do like the Tigers as well, though.

One of the questions that was asked

in terms of predictions can going into this season

was the first manager to be fired,

which is interesting to me.

I kind of chuckled at that.

I did not pick Joe Espada to be that manager.

But in the article,

you mentioned that both GM Dana Brown

of the Astros and Joe Espada,

the manager of the strobe could face seat warmers

on lame duck deals.

Tell us more about that.

Well, they're in the last years of their contracts,

respectively.

And Jim Crane the owner,

we have seen that he has a high bar of excellence.

He wants to compete every single year.

And for the most part, they have.

He's been a very successful owner.

And you remember, of course,

after the 2022 World Series,

which they won with James Click as general manager,

James Click left.

He was not brought back.

They gave him a one year offer.

He didn't want it.

So Jim Crane will change up things a little bit

if he believes it's necessary.

Now they didn't make the playoffs last year

for the first time since 2016.

If it happens again,

or if the season ends in some disappointing fashion,

yes, I can see Crane certainly doing something

because his history would be,

hey, I want excellence,

I want the best.

And if you're not winning,

you might be out.

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Can I want to ask you about your four teams here

in terms of surprise teams?

We talked about perhaps the industry

sleeping on the Astros,

but you have some surprise teams.

The Astros, not one of them,

but hardly anybody seems to be talking

about the Miami Marlins like you are.

What do you know that we don't?

I don't know that I know anything

that anybody doesn't.

And in this story, as I point out,

I've been covering the game now.

This is my 40th season.

And it seems like I still haven't figured it out.

No one figures it out.

That's the beauty of baseball.

That's what keeps us coming back year after year.

What I like about the Marlins

is that they made a big jump last year.

62 wins to 79.

They have a group of talented young players

in the outfield in particular right now

with Marcy and Casey.

Stowers is opening the season.

Hurt, but they've got an interesting group

and they play the game hard.

They play it right.

They're kind of the brewer's southeast.

And beyond all that,

they have starting pitching.

At least to start the season, it's healthy.

And the question's going to be,

do they keep our content up past the deadline?

We don't know.

But I do like them.

Now, they're in a tough division, obviously.

And the other surprise teams that I mentioned,

the royals, the reds, the A's,

they might stand somewhat better chances

though the A's pitching probably didn't merit them

being on this list.

The pirates maybe should have been on it.

But anyway, I do like the Marlins.

And I do like the way they play

and that goes a long way toward why I think

under Clayton McCullough, who did a terrific job last year,

they might make another step forward this year.

Ken, why do you think the pirates could possibly qualify

for a surprise team this year?

You just quickly mentioned them.

Simply because of the work that they did in the off season,

we're bringing in Brandon Lau

and the others that they brought in,

of course, Ryan O'Hern.

And the prospect Conno Griffin is just about ready to come.

He's going to start the season at AAA.

I also forgot Marcelo Zuna there.

They've built a more respectable offense.

They have one of the most talented rotations,

potentially in the game led by the best pitcher

in the sport, Paul Schienes.

I just believe that they feel finally more urgency

and they're going to play with more urgency,

I would expect.

And that's never been a problem.

The players are fine in terms of how they tried.

The front office, the ownership,

they haven't tried as hard.

Now they're trying.

And I expect them to be a formidable team.

And if Griffin comes up and makes an impact,

then it's something else entirely.

It's the same thing with McGonagall in Detroit.

If McGonagall is what the Tigers think he is

and what the industry thinks he is,

that could be transformative for their offense.

And then it's a different kind of team.

Kevin McGonagall is my AL pick for

AL Rookie of the Year.

Sorry, Kevin, I probably just jinxed you.

All right, we're going to come back with Grille and Ken

in just a minute after a word from our sponsor.

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All right, we welcome you into grill and can.

Your opportunity to ask Ken Rosenthal some burning questions.

Get those questions into the chat.

I swear this is not our producer slash director,

Jeremy Meyer asking about Yoshida all of the time.

He is a Red Sox Homer.

However, Ken, what will the Red Sox do with

Masataka Yoshida?

We get this question a lot.

And for the reason a lot, actually,

there is no place for Masataka Yoshida on the Red Sox.

There simply is.

Now he might be on the team,

but he's not going to play.

Why?

They have four outfielders.

Will you rebrate?

Jarendra Ran, Roman Anthony and Sadan Rafaella,

all quality players.

You need the DH spot for one of those guys.

You're not going to play Yoshida very often over one of those players.

So they've been in this position really the entire off season

and they have yet to address it.

Perhaps they just can't do it.

And he's got two years left.

It's good money and it's a problem.

But it's not viable.

And once Tristan Cassis comes back,

which will happen at some point,

then it becomes even less viable.

So I don't know where this is going.

He seems like a DFA waiting to happen.

And honestly, for his own benefit,

he needs to get out of there.

He needs to go be in a position where he can play again.

And that would be beneficial to him.

And ultimately for the Red Sox too,

though they're going to have to pay him.

Sorry.

Ken, why do you think they held onto him as long as they did?

I remember covering this Red Sox team last season.

And I was very concerned that if no disrespect to him, obviously.

But if Masataka Yoshida is your DH and you're the Boston Red Sox,

there's an issue there.

I mean, he's not known as a power hitter.

Why do you think they held onto him as long as they did?

And is this a situation where they might just cut bait?

I don't have the money in front of me in the contract.

But as I said, it's two years.

It's significant money.

So that's the reason.

You couldn't trade him for that reason.

And you held him because we don't want to just eat the money just yet.

Maybe something will come up.

And you never know.

Players do get injured and different situations emerge.

But this has gone on too long.

It's unworkable.

And at some point it's going to reach ahead.

Okay, so reaching our focus now to the National League East,

who do you think wins that division?

I know you're high on the Marlins going into 2026.

I don't think you're willing to say they'll take the East.

But who do you think wins the division?

Right a lot.

I was going to say not that high.

I would say the Mets right now.

But I'm not totally convinced of anything here.

And I hate making picks because one, my picks are always terrible.

Two, my feeling of picks is,

tell me who's going to get hurt.

Tell me who's going to get traded.

And I'll tell you who's going to win.

But we don't know these things.

We don't know who's getting hurt.

We don't know who's getting traded.

The Mets have a Ments talent.

There's no question about that.

The Phillies cannot be discounted, especially

because Wheeler looks like he's going to be back sooner rather than later.

But I was expecting I would be picking the braves

and their rotation has just fallen apart due to injuries.

And that's the problem that they're going to have.

But I would say the Mets right now.

But I'm not like feverish about it.

I don't know.

Probably not as confident as who you were likely going to pick

for the NL West.

What about those Sacramento athletics?

Can this person wants to know if the A's

are going to make the playoffs this year?

Please tell Adam that they are.

If in fact Adam is an ace fan, I don't know.

Adam, I don't know the answer to that.

I do expect them to hit like crazy.

Their lineup is really good.

It's only gotten better with McNeil coming aboard.

Jeff McNeil.

It should kind of stabilize them even more.

I can't wait to see Nick Kurtz for a full season.

Jacob Wilson, all these guys.

And of course Langa Liars and Soda Ström,

all the players that they have offensively

and I'm forgetting Brent Rooker and a few others,

they're impressive.

It's an impressive group.

The question with them is going to be the pitching.

And it's been the question.

It's been the thing that's been difficult for them

to address to a large extent.

But if they get reasonable pitching,

probably even mediocre pitching,

they could be an interesting team.

We asked you this question earlier in regards

to the Astros Ken.

If the industry is sleeping on the Astros,

are we sleeping as a collective on the Orioles rotation?

No, the Orioles rotation is better.

It's deeper.

But it still lacks what you would call a true number one.

Now, there aren't many true number ones in the sport.

But British and Rogers have that potential.

And Rogers pitched like that last year.

British has pitched like that in the past.

It's just that with Rogers, can he do it again?

Will the innings mount to him be a problem?

And with British, it's kind of the same situation.

First, full year remove from Tommy John.

Then you've got Shane Boss,

who has all the potential in the world.

You've got Zach Eiffelon.

And you've got a situation where you've been able now

with Chris Bassett coming aboard

to send Dean Kramer to the miners.

So I like where they are from a depth standpoint.

They also have some younger pictures that they like.

I just don't know whether it's dominant enough.

And hey, you can address that at the deadline.

You can do that in any number of ways.

So I expect them to be an interesting team to say the least.

They too are going to hit.

And yes, their rotation is going to be better.

They've got some questions in the bullpen.

But that is definitely a team that we're all anxious to see play this year

with all the work that they've done in the off season.

Also staying in the AL East.

We'll talk about the New York Yankees.

Specifically, Aaron Judge can four punchouts yesterday.

That is not the Aaron Judge way.

We know that he's going to get it together, obviously.

If Judge doesn't win the AL MVP,

which he certainly is always in the running for,

who do you think realistically has the best chance?

JJ Nalaska wants to know.

Bobby Whit Jr.

And this is a guy who almost won the MVP two years ago.

And some would say you should have won the MVP two years ago.

But he is only getting better.

And he's an amazing player as it is.

Everything that he offers, speed, power, defense,

it's incredible package.

So yes, I expect him to be in that conversation.

I expect him to have a monster year.

He's a guy that is one of the biggest stars in the game.

But it seems to me he's only going to get bigger

because he plays in Kansas City,

gets overlooked to some degree.

And he's about to burst onto our consciousness

in an even bigger way.

I'd love to see him be able to get that too.

It's kind of hard, though.

And Aaron Judges stepping into the way.

Ken is in San Francisco for Yankees.

Giants on Saturday on Fox.

And you can stream it on Fox one.

Ken, let me ask you this.

How is Tony Vitello?

He's probably the game's most fascinating managers right now.

Because you don't quite know what you're going to get

from him coming from the college ranks.

There's no way to know.

And this is somewhat unprecedented.

It happened about 100 years ago.

And he had a college guy come from those ranks

to become a major league manager without professional experience.

It was actually more than 100 years ago.

But for the most part, in our game, it is unprecedented.

We don't know how he's going to do.

And I wrote in there that he has a number of challenges ahead.

One, he obviously has never managed a 162 game season.

College season is maybe 65, 70 games,

depending on how far you go.

He also has to run a bullpen for the first time,

a major league bullpen.

And that's probably going to be his biggest challenge,

particularly when he hasn't been given a great bullpen.

So there are a number of things he's going to have to adjust

to media before and after games in a different way

than he did in college.

It's every day in Major League Baseball.

But at the same time, those who know him

are convinced he is going to succeed.

They think this guy has some special charisma,

special leadership qualities.

The question is whether that team is going to be good enough.

They've been basically a 500 team for four years now.

Man, that'll be interesting.

Less nine aside, whatever.

That's one game.

But that's the question with the giants.

How good are they really?

Yeah, I'm sure was the king of Knoxville.

Things are a little bit different in the Bay area.

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We're going to be back with dude and dork of the week

right after this.

Oh, could this vintage store be any cuter?

Right.

And the best part?

They accept discover.

Accept discover.

In a little place like this?

I don't think so, Jennifer.

Oh yeah, huh.

Discover's accepted where I like to shop.

Come on, baby.

Get with the times.

Right.

So we shouldn't get the parachute pants?

These are making a comeback.

I think.

Discover is accepted at 99% of places

that take credit cards nationwide.

Based on the February 2025 Nilsen report.

Support for the show comes from public,

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It all starts with your prompt.

From renewable energy companies with high free cash flow

to semiconductor suppliers growing revenue

over 20% year over year,

you can literally type any prompt

and put the AI to work.

It screens thousands of stocks,

builds a one-of-a-kind index,

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Then, you can invest in a few clicks.

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Dude.

Dude, dude.

Kid.

All right, Ken, a lot of guys to choose from this week,

which is always a good thing.

Who is your dude of the week?

Pete Crowe, I'm strong.

And not simply because he received a six-year,

$115 million extension.

That, of course, is a great accomplishment for any player.

But what I like most about this

is the structure of the deal he signed.

No club options.

He becomes a free agent after his age 30 season.

So he will get another bite of the apple,

presumably if his career progresses in a good way.

And that, to me, was a big win for Crowe.

I'm sure obviously it's great for the Cubs too.

They buy out two free agent ears at 30 million a year,

which is a small sum.

But for Crowe, I'm strong to be able to come into the game

the way he has, make the impact he has,

sign this deal, and then become a free agent

after his age 30 season.

Good for him.

That seems like a win-win for both sides.

My dude of the week is a skip shoemaker,

the skipper of the Texas Rangers,

the way that he went to the mound,

a mound visit telling Carter Bommler

that he had made the Rangers.

And you know, he's probably going out there

thinking, always coming to take me out of the game

or whatever.

And you could just see the excitement on everybody's face,

everyone smiling.

Obviously he was a rule, you know, a rule five pick there.

And he's made the Rangers.

I texted Skip after the after that.

I said, you were a legend for this.

And all he said was that he's super happy for the kid.

That was a really nice way for him to find out

that he made the team.

Okay, time now for our dork of the week.

All right, Ken, go ahead.

Who's your dork?

Majorly baseball.

Now, it's not going to be a screaming

halliot like a banshee dork of the week

because this is a complicated issue.

But the story that Evan Drelik and I wrote the other day

about the coaches having to stay in the coaches boxes this year

knew adjustment to the rules

and them fearing that they're in harm's way.

Now, this is a complicated issue as I just said.

Majorly baseball wanted to do something

after there were a lot of complaints last year

and a lot of issues with coaches wondering out of the boxes

and trying to pick up pitcher's tipping.

Okay, that's a problem.

And yes, it needed to be addressed.

In my view, what happened here was they went too far

and they didn't consult the coaches.

They talked to the managers and the manager said,

yeah, clean this up.

But the coaches are the ones who are facing

a hundred and ten hundred and 15 miles per hour coming out

them in the coaches boxes.

And we had in that story any number of coaches

on the record as well as some managers saying,

hey, what are we doing here?

We have no place to go.

We have no place to hide.

MLB says, well, you can move back toward the dugout

and to stay out of harm's way that way.

But one coach pointed out, well,

that's not really staying out of harm's way.

And two, I've got a coach.

That's the whole point of this.

So a mild dork of the week for MLB for not

consulting the coaches and not coming up with

a better solution that is kind of

something that would fix all of this if possible.

I know it's hard and it's hard to figure this all out.

But it seems to me there's a happy medium

that was not reached here.

Yeah, Jeremy Meyer pointing out that first page coach

has to be next to the bag too to time the pitcher can.

And obviously have the conversation with the folks

that it impacts the most, perhaps for a better solution.

Mine is the Atlanta Braves.

And the reason I say that is there some good pitching

still without a job.

Lucas Diolito could use it.

And the Braves' rotation is in a bit of a flux right now.

Can Chris Sale, Renaldo Lopez, Graham Holmes,

Bryce Elder, Didier Fuentes, Jose Suarez.

But they have a lot of really good arms on the I.L.

Joey Wentz, Spencer Strider, Spencer Swellenbach,

Hurston Waldrup.

I'm surprised that the Braves did not do more

in terms of addressing the starting staff

because of the injuries that they've had.

It's very curious a lot to say the least.

I have not understood it from the very beginning.

They said that their number one priority

was a starting pitcher going into the off season.

Never addressed it.

All right, let's shout out Twin City Territory.

The new show in the foul territory network.

My colleagues at the Athletic, Zach Pierce and Dan Hayes

have your twins bases covered year round.

The first episode is out now.

Subscribe on YouTube.

And wherever you listen to podcasts,

welcome Twin City's Territory.

Yeah, that's awesome.

I tell you what, the foul territory family

is growing.

Ken, let's talk a bit about the Padres.

Some interested parties in the looming sale.

Who's going to buy the pots?

I'm not sure who's going to buy them a lot.

But as I wrote with Dennis Lynn yesterday,

they're going to go for a lot of money.

And we wrote that people close to the process

are telling us that it could be as high as 3.5 billion.

Seemingly, we'll be at least 3 billion.

Now it's complicated because when you have to factor in debt,

the price isn't exactly always what the headline price is.

But it's going to be big.

It's going to be a record.

So then the question becomes, okay,

well, how does this affect the negotiations?

Because MLB teams and the owners seemingly are worried

about their franchise values.

That's why they want a salary cap

to ensure their franchise values will be higher.

And the Padres, MLB will argue, I think,

are an outlier in some respects.

Now, they've clearly built their team up in a great way.

And it showed what investment can do in a team.

But they're also our California team.

Most of the investors here or the potential investors

are California-based and not many California teams.

If any are going to come up for sale in the near future.

So there's a pent-up demand.

But at the same time, well, they might not be analogous

to Cleveland's and Cincinnati's and Pittsburgh.

It clearly shows the sport is healthy enough to command this price

for this team.

I know the twins didn't do this well.

And I know the nationals didn't.

But at the same time, it's going to create

some interesting conversation.

Let's put it that way as the CVA talks get going.

Ken, as you know better than anybody,

you wrote at Steve Cohen,

about the New York Mets in 2020 for 2.42 billion

multiple sources close to the process

that a number north of 3 billion,

who would have thought that the Padres

would be more valuable in terms of purchase price

than the Mets?

It's a credit to them.

And it's a credit to what they've built there.

And yes, they've had to go backwards a little bit

with the payroll.

They might have gone too far.

OK, we all get that.

But Peter Slyler, when he was alive,

had a vision.

And they transformed that franchise

into something much more than it was before.

Now, you can say Peter Slyler was willing to spend

in a way and had to wear with all the spend

in a way that the Cleveland ownership couldn't

and the Cincinnati ownership couldn't.

Well, Cleveland's getting new ownership.

David Blitzer at some point is going to take over.

And maybe you need new owners like Peter Slyler,

even though these markets might not be as lucrative as San Diego.

This certainly has been an argument.

They can spend in a bigger way.

Well, Peter Slyler wanted to win.

That's for certain God rest his soul.

Well, that's it for us.

Val Territory is next Bob Nightingale.

Kevin Polar, Ryan Diversh joined AJ Kratz

and Scott Braun.

Then Dodgers Territory follows with our postgame tonight.

Happy opening day, everybody.

Ken will be back on Monday with another episode of Fair Territory.

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