Behind The Bow Tie: Ken Rosenthal Opens Up About The Current State Of MLB
When you think of MLB Insiders you think of Ken Rosenthal 1st and a bunch of people after that. You know the feeling of seeing big news break on twitter and then instantly discrediting because it comes from any number of bozos. You know the exact guys I'm talking about. Credentialed longstanding media guys with decades of experience that people just roll their eyes the second the see the news. Even if it's legit you still laugh and make your jokes.
Then there's Ken Rosenthal. He's the guy who verifies everyone else. You see his blue checkmark come in over the top and you get a sigh of relief. Ken knows. He's on top of everything. He works as hard and intelligently as anyone in the business, and he explains the roots of that approach on today's Starting 9 in a very candid conversation. No bow tie. But he was wearing sleeves
Which was a nice touch, especially given where we're at in the calendar. Ken's inbetween breaking Royals front office news and writing long opinion pieces on the Phillies and running a massive staff that does great work. So good to carve out some time to talk MLB with Barstool today is much appreciated. He certainly didn't hold back.
- There's some lingering emotions with the commissioner's office but nothing that compromises Ken's stance on the future of MLB. It's a weird situation being one of the most respected guys in the industry but not being able to criticize the league? But he's still out here working the World Series? Such a bad look for those behind him getting ousted from MLB Network. We stay above the belt but overall just impressive stuff that Ken hasn't slowed down for one second since all the drama went down.
- Rule changes should be positive in the long-run for so many simple reasons. Faster games. More action. Lefties get to let it rip. Runners on the move. The primary motivation is giving fans a better experience and that's actually a refreshing twist.
- Aaron Judge is doing big things. Huge. Legendary. You might have heard.
- Ken learned the art of covering baseball from none other than Tim Kurkjian. The nice kind friendly Timmy was actually a cold blooded killer on the beat in the 80's in Baltimore. Ken got him one time on breaking a story and legend has it Tim is still burying him for it. That's one of those cool stories kids from the 90's should adore.
- Player extensions are trending up but there's crazy discrepancies. What are the Braves doing different that lets them get Michael Harris for at least $150M less than J-Rod? Ken has some insight I did not know existed into the way that works.
- Jury's out on how the playoff format is going to turn out but there should be concern for teams seeded 3-6. You have to win 4 series to win the championship. That's a lot of travel and probably a bigger advantage to the top two seeds than we realize. Are there bigger motivations at play?
Go listen to the full episode. Maybe do it on YouTube so we can get into the algorithm. That would be swell.