I'm Happy for Juan Soto

Let's talk a little about baseball today. As always I like to preface these talks with my little knowledge of the MLB. I only follow one baseball team, the Ballwin Outlaws, because that is who my ten year old plays for and I'm an assistant coach.

Major League Baseball used to mean a whole lot to me, but college football and basketball have completely taken over in my adult years. I do not know many players anymore, this fact was never truer to me than when my wife and I took my son to a Cardinals game this year and I did not know a single starter since Yadier Molina and Albert Pujols were not playing. But I do know the big names. I know who Aaron Judge is. I know who Yadi and Pujols are. I'm very aware of Mike Trout, Bryce Harper and Shohei Othani. I could tell you who the "star" players in the league are right now, including Juan Soto. Now I do have to say that I had no idea who he was until last year when I downloaded a baseball game on my phone and he was the cover athlete. I had no idea who this Nationals player was, so I looked it up and found out he is a pretty damn good baseball player. It also showed on the video game I had. He could really mash the ball. Then my son watched the home run derby this year when we were on vacation, and Juan Soto went on to win that. I also read a story earlier this year that he turned down a contract offer from the Nationals in the 440 million dollar range for 15 years I believe it was. And then I saw that he wanted a trade, and that the Cardinals were one of the teams who could give one of the better offers. So I paid a little more attention to Juan Soto.

Soto was traded today, for what many analysts are saying is a good package, but it wasn't to Saint Louis, or New York, or the Dodgers. He was traded to California, to the San Diego Padres. At first I was slightly bummed. I thought the Cardinals had a real chance, and if they had traded for him, maybe, just maybe I would pay more attention to the rest of their season. But as I've had some time to sit here and think about the trade, I think it is kind of rad that he is going to play for the Padres. They already have a pretty dope lineup that includes Fernando Tatis Jr and Manny Machado, two more names I am familiar with. Adding him makes them damn near as lethal as a lineup you can get in the majors.

It is not just the fact that he is joining a cool, young and kind of hip squad in the Padres, it is where he didn't go. I am, for all intents and purposes, a Cardinals fan, but our fanbase is stuck up and rude. We act all high and mighty. We act like we deserve star players all the time. We say things like, "Saint Louis is heaven for baseball players". That is some nonsense. We also already have a decent enough team too. Adding Soto would have been unfair. I could say the same thing for the Yankees and Dodgers. Those teams are historic and really, really good right now, but they also buy or acquire their talented players. I believe Aaron Judge may be the only star player the Yankees drafted, or at least came through their minor league system. It is the same with the Dodgers and Clayton Kershaw. Everyone else of importance to those teams is a star player that the Dodgers or Yankees outbid everyone else to sign. Guys like Giancarlo Stanton, Mookie Betts, Antnoy Rizzo, Josh Donaldson, Trea Turner and David Price, just to name a few, were stars for other teams, mostly small market teams, that signed with one of the Yankees or Dodgers for boatloads of money. Or take a team like the Angels. Soto could have ended up there, in a humongous market, but he would have been stuck like Mike Trout and Shohei Ohtani are right now. The Angels are going nowhere fast, and those two guys are stuck. The same would have been true for Soto. But there is something different, and cool, about him joining up with San Diego. It gives me a better feeling about baseball. He is going to a fun team, with great players who are young and talented and I believe this makes them the odds on favorite to make the World Series from the NL. While the Cardinals did not give up enough to get him, and will get their asses kicked by the Padres if they meet in the playoffs, this outcome is about as good as it gets for me as a novice MLB fan.

Good luck to Juan Soto and the Padres from here on out. Tony Gwynn would be thrilled that they are taking a real swing at a special season.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast.

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