What's up everybody? Welcome back to Unleashed here.
Let's go. Let's get after it.
I absolutely love Wild Card weekend.
I will get into that in in a little bit.
It to me, it's my favorite weekend.
It's funny because everybody or a lot of football fans kind of
point to the the divisional round, right?
I've always enjoyed Wild Card weekend the most.
And you look at some of these spreads, I mean, they're outside
of 1 every games, basically inside of a field goal.
So I'll definitely do that. I'll definitely make the picks.
I I got, I got it. I got to get into the Yankees
here and I got to get into Scott Boris, who was on my absolute
last freaking nerve. What's going on with the Yankees
right now? Now, first of all, can we all
agree on this premise? The Yankees oh Aaron Judge
right? Like that's a pretty fair
statement. The Yankees oh Aaron Judge just
like, you know, they supported Derek Jeter with stars
everywhere. And even though it didn't work,
they even tried to do it for the guy behind me in terms of
offense with Ricky and Winfield and all the money that they did
with George. Like the Yankees, oh, Aaron
Judge a chance while he's still in his absolute prime.
And I don't know how many more years Aaron's got in his prime.
I mean like where he's the best, clearly the best hitter in
baseball. Maybe 2, you know, maybe 3.
Eventually guys, we're not going to be seeing 57586062 home runs
from Aaron Judge. It's just that's not going to
happen. He's not a steroid guy.
So the natural attrition of of of Aaron Judge's game is going
to start setting in and the Yankees cannot be so
irresponsible not to put the best team on the field for this
guy. Now I started by saying that
Boris is on my last nerve and he is.
I listen, I especially now I wish I had Scott Boris as my
agent, but that doesn't change the fact that the way he holds
up every single offseason and completely overvalues and
overstates his clients worth and what they should get.
It's really a hindrance to the game.
It's a hindrance to team building and it's a big, big
problem. Now, the problem with that is I
can identify that I don't have a solution for you.
I I don't I don't really know what the answer is.
I don't have one because you can't, you can't, you can't tell
him to, you know, no longer practice law in terms of
contract. So he's around for a while.
So what the Yankees have to do is adjust to his presence.
And what I would do at this point if I'm the New York
Yankees, I would say, listen, Boris, you tried to hold this to
the coals last year. Juan Soto, I got news for you.
As much as we like Bellinger as much as he fits his match, as
much as Aaron Judge wants him back, seven years is an absolute
pipe dream. There is no way on earth that
the Yankees should or will give him seven years.
No chance, right? Not happening.
And if they did, it will be 1 of the dumbest things that they've
ever done. There's no way you do that
because then you get into the 343536 years.
And isn't this kind of the problem that the Yankees have
been chasing and trying to rectify forever?
Stamp in DJ Lex Leo lesser extend Aaron Hicks lesser money,
but same situation Rizzle at first base like enough of making
the same mistakes. All right, so the news last
night is that Boris won seven and that the you know, the
Yankees are in the 30 AAV realm and most people believe it's
five years 150. If he doesn't want to take that,
then they just honestly go somewhere else.
Like, you don't need Bellinger the way some people perceive him
to be needed. He's a really good player, you
know, makes contact, little pop, could run, good fielder.
We all know what he's bringing to the table.
But the thought that the Yankees can't possibly push forward and
forge ahead without Cody Bellinger is absolutely straight
up, flat out asinine and wrong. There's a way to do it.
Now listen, you want to talk out.
Unfortunately, this matters, right?
You you talk about, you talk about the, the finances of the
Yankees, right? And and and they're going to
have to work around certain things, but it's not nearly as
bad as as I think how positions it or as maybe some of of of you
think. So Aaron Judge making $40
million worth every penny you got.
Gerrit Cole the 36. Frieda 27 1/2 worth every penny.
Frieda's. We'll see where Cole is rolled
on. All right.
Little overpay there, 28 mil. Stanton 20.
But half of that or 10 is go, yeah, just about half is coming
from the Marlins. And then Grisham with the
idiotic, you know, $22 million qualifier buying offer, That's
one year, and that's done. Now the Stanton, here's where it
gets really interesting. The Stanton deals got the two
more guarantees, both of which will be the cost will be
defrayed by the Marlins. And then there's the buyout and
the research that I've done. The Marlins are on the hook for
the entire buyout, which I believe is $10 million as well.
And, you know, as you try to build this thing out and try to
win a championship, that's still the mission.
That should still be the goal. And this team is nowhere near
it. And I got news for you, even if
they bring back Bellinger and don't do anything else, well,
then the Yankees are still not going to win the championship.
I don't care if they trade for Peralta.
It's not a good enough lineup. Too many holes, too many
lefties, too many strikeouts, too many things that we've seen
for too many years. We understand what the problem,
what the problem is. The answer should be, and this
is what's so incredibly frustrating about this.
The answer should so simply be, you know what?
Like I know I always say if I was hell, I would do this, but I
really mean it because it's not an irresponsible financial
positioning. The Yankees have the funds.
I don't want to hear about the check that they got a cut on
February 1 on a Tuesday night against the age.
You got 38,000 people. They're paying 50 bucks for
parking. And I know I've done it a lot.
14 bucks for beer, $9 for a hot dog, they $10.00 for fries.
I mean, and I'm not even I'm not even begrudging the Yankees for
for charging that. It's called supply and demand.
It's simple economics. If people are willing to pay it,
then guess what? Keep jacking up the prices.
There's a reason why when the A's were still at the Coliseum,
the A's would have to charge 325 or 350 for a beer and 2 bucks
for a hot dog. Number one, it's hard enough to
get people in the stadium and #2 if they're there, you know, are
they going to buy food if it's priced like certain?
And we know that that's, that's economically driven.
So, so that's basic stuff. But you know, you know, you
know, that house got the money to do just a one massive swing
this offseason. So what I would do is yes, I
would sign Bellinger, but I would also tell Boris, hey, this
is where we're going, dude. You know, if you want to haggle,
I'll I'll meet you in the middle a little bit.
If you want to continue to haggle on the 6th year, we'll
remain engaged. I don't think the market's going
to bear that out where Bellinger is going to get a sixth year
from anybody. But if you think that he will go
get it, come back to us. He wants to be a Yankee so
badly. Find the six years at 30 a pop
180. Now there's rumors that he wants
that. He wants thirty $637,000,000 a
year. Crazy.
Aaron Judge is making 40 and you're going to get Bellinger
$37,000,000 to. I listen, I know, I know that
it's all about when your contract is up and the timing
mechanism of it. There's like at one point Eli
Manning, no disrespect, no shade, but at one point Eli was
the highest paid quarterback in football.
Eli Manning was never on a week to week basis one of the best
quarterbacks in the NFL ever. I'm not here to debate that.
That's just the reality of it. Champion MVP Super Bowl 2 of
them giant legend got it understood, but the contract on
a year to year basis once he signed that and then you know
obviously somebody surpassed them.
It was not commensurate with what he was putting forth on a
on a year to year in terms of touchdown pick ratio wins your
all those things right. So I get it when your contract
is up, you're either lucky based on the circumstances or you're
unlucky based on the circumstances.
Now, with all that being said, are you telling me that the
Yankees don't have the means? And I know they don't have the
appetite for this, but the appetite should be derived from
the ability to do it all right, or the inability to do it, which
they clearly don't have because they make as much money as
anybody. So what they should do is sign
Bellinger and sign Bichette. And I am now at the point at a
picture as well, whether it's Peralta.
I agree, not giving up the King's ransom that Cabrera got.
You know, in terms of the Cubs rate, I get that.
That would have been a little bit irresponsible.
Cubs gave up their top prospect. I like Cabrera, don't love them.
It's got good stuff, but you never know.
So I'm fine with that, right? I think Peralta will be a little
bit different and I'm more in on that then then I was on the
Cabrera trade. But like the the the Yankees
now, right now you go and this is what is impossible to justify
a quiet offseason. If it continues now I know
eventually they're going to get somebody, whether it's Bellinger
or Bichette. I mean, at this point, I I would
even throw Tucker in the table in the hopper.
You know, the Mets, the word attached with the Mets.
Now the Mets are going to be opportunistic in their handling
where their approach with their dealings with Kyle Tucker's free
agency. And I may I think that that
makes sense. What does it mean?
Well, if the market doesn't bear X and the Mets are willing and
able to pay Y and it's not ten years, which he's not getting.
It's not nine years which he's not getting.
If if Tucker is amenable to a four year deal, A5 year deal
options, whatever player have the power, the leverage and
that's what you do. So I think that will make a lot
of sense for the Mets, even though I don't love, you know,
putting soda on left and putting stuff like it's not perfect, but
they need another stick because their offense simply is not good
enough to do anything this year. Not neither is their pitching.
But the Yankees, right. You look around the infield and
this is where it's impossible to justify them not going for it in
the next month or so. All right, who's the 1st
baseman? And I'm not even going to
quibble in and and get into skill set.
Can he become a good first baseman?
Can he hit lefties? I'm just going to run through
this just to get to the next thing right.
So Ben Rice is your everyday first baseman.
He is cheap. He's making absolutely nothing.
Now, I do think that the Yankees will trade Jazz.
I've said that whether it's this offseason, whether it's at the
deadline, whatever, He's not getting the extension.
But you could he he's obviously a very good player.
He's just a little too Spacey for me in terms of being
buttoned up when you need to be buttoned up.
Not a knock on his talent, I just don't view him as the
ultimate winning player myself. Too many empty at bats, too many
strikeouts, too many malfunctions in the field and on
the bases when you can't have it.
But even with that being said, I really think Jazz, and
especially if Jazz Chisholm's hitting 6th or whatever he might
be hitting, if you do some of these things, then he's a stud.
He's going 3030. Seeing fastball guys on base, it
makes a ton of sense. So I would even present to you
now and I will like why not? And I and I said, I, I, I, I and
it's separate from me telling you that I believe that they
will trade him based on what I've been told and what I've
learned. But I'm going to even kind of go
in the middle here and slice it a different way.
Well, if you get Bellinger and you get Bichette, run it one
year with it with, with the with Jazz, Why not?
He's making $10 million. They just settled that on our in
arbitration 10 million bucks. So you got the first baseman
making nothing in terms of a 3030 guy making ten.
That is nothing. And by the way, even if he was a
1717 guy, $10 million in the year 2026 is absolutely peanut.
So they're not paying their second baseman commensurate with
what the production has been. That's just, it's not the
Yankees fault there. That's just the way it lines up
in terms of when you know the orbs and the pre arms and all
that stuff, right? And you get to shortstop.
Now, it's not a perfect situation, but nobody's making
money, all right? Volpe got the arbitration 3.25.
So you got Volpe when he comes back, you got Caballero making
2, two and a half million dollars.
It's nothing. It's absolutely nothing.
All right, so first base, nothing, second base, nothing
shortstop, nothing. Now you get to McMahon or and I
I love his defense. I think he'll hit a little bit
more, but he's always going to be a strikeout machine.
So there's flaws, but there's also great assets that I think
are are really important to a winning team right.
So having said that, let me ask you this, if you're a small
market team and he's got two years to go at $32 million total
16 a year. I, I, I double checked this.
I don't think the Rockies like the Marlins with Stanton or are
defraying the cost at all. I don't think so.
And if they are, it's nominal. So I'm just going to go with the
1616. Are you telling me that if the
Yankees presented a trade, throw in your 8th best prospect, your
11th best prospect, slip them a few bucks.
The Pirates, the Twins, I don't even know who needs a third
baseman right now. There's a couple.
The teams that don't have the funds to spend for one, you
can't incentivize them where after this year it's an expiring
contract. You can.
So there's an easy way to get out of McMahon, and that's where
Bouchette comes in. Why in the world can't the
Yankees have it? Infield, Rice, Jazz shortstop.
We don't love Bouchette at third base.
Or if you really want to be interesting, how about Rice,
Jazz, Bouchette? I know he's not a good defender.
Do it for one year and then obviously you keep McMahon at
third base. Then you trade McMahon in the
offseason. Boom, Bouchette goes to third
base. Hopefully Billy Lombard is
ready. He comes up, and hopefully one
of these prospects is actually the real deal as a position
player for the Yankees. That would be nice.
All the hype, you know, the nicknames, and I never get
wrapped up in that. I liked.
Well, let let me be fair, prospects always intrigue me,
but I don't base final opinions based on projections or scouting
reports. I've got to see something
tangible. I've seen nothing tangible from
Spencer Jones. I've seen something tangible,
some good, some bad, to be fair with Dominguez, but like I have
not seen Lombard, but everybody outside of some games like on
yes or like minor league games, highlights, right?
But a lot of people around baseball, and they kind of said
this about the Mingus as well. So take it with a grain of salt,
but a lot of people around baseball really do think that
Lombards different. And if he is different, well
then he's going to he's going to knock the cover off the ball
this year and the elevation next year.
If there is a next year with baseball, which is another
reason based on the economic climate, another reason why
you've got to go for it with with Aaron Judge now, because
could you imagine if there is a truncated season next year and
you go through this year and then next year is whatever next
year could possibly be, Well, now that's another year that's
wasted of Aaron Judge. This is the runway man.
This is the path to get this man at championship.
Reggie Jackson had Munson and Nettles and all these studs.
Not that I mean, I can run down the entire team, but you had
stars. You had stars.
You know who Jeter had? I mean a rod when when when Alex
came, he had to share. Obviously Jeter still there a
sick pitching stamp. Why the hell was the model so
different? I'm just frustrated by this.
Like I played the game and I've tried to be fair.
Hey, Yankees do spend. Yankees do win.
I don't know if I know, but in the court of public opinion I
would. I would even take this position
off a fan a lot because I believe it.
I do think that the Yankees have been unjustifiably crushed in
the court of public opinion. It should never.
The vitriol is without merit. To that extent, the answer is
somewhere in between, like everything's not great and
everything's not awful. It's a lot more good than bad.
But there are options that could, that are presenting
themselves right now that can make it great instead of good,
you know, and I, I just, I don't know what they're thinking.
I've got no confidence that that their plan is going to be one
that is incredibly inspiring. Like when we get to opening day,
do we think that they're trotting out like an army of
stars? No, I, I don't think I, I hope
that. Hence the conversation today,
but so let me continue spinning this around here.
Rice cheap, Jazz cheap, Caballero, Volpe cheap, McMahon
cheap in terms of what it just laid out Jones, Dominguez and
left. OK, they're cheap.
If Bellinger's back, he's not cheap, but he's your left
fielder could play a little first bases.
We know Grisham didn't want them one year done, $22 million.
So you have to worry about Grisham next year or the year
after, which is even more incentive to go out there and
spend it now on a Bichette or auto Tucker or obviously auto
Bellinger. And, you know, it seems like
there's no inclination to do this.
I really don't know why. And when you look downstream,
and this has to be part of the calculus, and I get this, and
I'm going to be fair to the Yankees here, one of the things
they're trying to avoid is to make the same mistake that they
made for far too long. And that is halfway through a
contract, having to pick up the pieces of a diminished player,
deal with the economic strike that that presents, and then
deal with the logistical issue, like where, you know, Player X
making a lot of money, which you would think, you know, you'd
have to write his name in the lineup every day, but can't run
as as much as he used to or he's injury prone or now he's a
subpar defender. And you got to work around all
that stuff. And it is just not the right way
to build a team. Now if Garrett Cole just signed
his deal and instead of having three years to go, he's got 7.
You know, if Rodon just signed his deal and and instead of
having six years, he's got three years to go.
If Grisham, thank God they didn't do this.
If they gave Grisham like 4 years and there's more, three
more years after this, like, all right, those will be impediments
that I I think would be very hard to work around.
But I do not think that there shouldn't there shouldn't be a
lineup on opening day. And I'm not even get into the
batting order right now, but there's no reason why the
Yankees cannot roll out in some sort of order.
Bichette, Bellinger, Judge. Rice, Jazz, it just as a
starting point and then obviously if Stanton's healthy,
you know, DH, blah blah blah, all the stuff that we hit a
million times. And then maybe like if Dominguez
does pop, then maybe there's something there or maybe you
trade Dominguez for, you know, Peralta or something like that.
The inactivity doesn't bother me.
Like I could deal even though it sucks.
I'd love to see baseball. I was watching Sports Night last
night on SNY. Shout out to those guys.
I love the show I watch, I watch it a lot.
That's pretty much how I fall asleep.
Politics and then SNY, right? And and I think they will do a
really good job. And last night it was Amon who's
the host, obviously, and it was JJ who's great and it was Harp
who's the OG love Harp. Harp was there when I was doing
the wheelhouse. That's I mean, that's how long
and I haven't seen him in a while.
But I mean, I used to have some great baseball conversations
with Harper. Play baseball in college, loves
the game, knows the game. Great dude and yeah, I was there
what, 7-8 years doing the show and he was there a lot.
So I love Harper and they were talking about last night
certainly the frustrations, the calendar how you know, unlike
the NFL where it's like free agency, you got people waiting
in driveways like Rex Ryan was waiting in Bart Scotch driveway
at 12 O1. All right, come on, let's go the
NBA. Bang it.
It hits, though, as soon as you get like one minute into free
agency, you know, Max contract, Max contract, Max contract.
Like, there's no slow residual trickling in that like stifles
the enthusiasm and the attention that the sport could generate.
It's really the service of the game of baseball.
Now, to be fair, without those, teams have salary caps.
So obviously, there's only so many things that you could do.
And if you're an agent for a Major League Baseball player,
you got no problem. Your player is still working
out. He's still keeping his arm and
his wheels and his bat in shape. If he's a hitter.
And all you do is you stretch it out and you played, you know,
the top 456 teams against each other, and you squeeze out the
extra year. And invariably, you squeeze out
an extra 2, three, $4 million a year to get the AAV that you
promised your guy. Like, I don't think logistically
it's easy to four, and this is what they were talking about
last night to foster change where baseball copies the model
of the other sports that I mentioned where there's just a
bevy of activity and it's like, OK, baseball owns the next two
weeks and everything's happening.
And baseball at is is, along with the NFL at that point, is
at the epicenter of the sports world.
So there's opportunity there, but it would obviously take both
sides in terms of the CBA, which will never happen, to get down
on the same page. And that's just not going to
happen. But while I'm frustrated by by
the timeline, I, I obviously understand it.
So you, you're not going to fight City Hall if you already
know the rules. They are what they are until
they change. They don't change, right?
But what frustrates the hell out of me, not every year is there a
situation where, alright, man, maybe this thing is actually
lining up a little favorably here for the Yankees.
Like you don't have to battle Cohen's checkbook this winter
for Juan Soto. I don't think you have to really
battle it to the certainly to the degree of wand.
Nobody's going to get that again, and certainly not in a
while. But they're not going to go
after Bellinger the way they would like.
And I'm not talking money. I'm talking energy and like
laser focus. Like the Mets needed Soto.
They wanted Soto. Seemed like Soto wanted the Mets
a little bit more than the Yankees.
That's fine. And it just seemed like a
marriage, even though we didn't see this during the season when
Soto was doing great. The more went on you like,
that's a good chance he's going to leave.
Like, I do get the sense that Bellinger wants to stay here.
Oh, I don't think so. Don't want to stay one of the
most money Mets repealing. Go knock yourself out.
Your first year, you didn't make the playoffs.
You won 83 games. All right, whatever.
And it's not I'm not saying it's his fault, but did you really
enjoy the first year in Queens? I mean, was the locker room
good? I mean, did you win?
Did you go to the playoffs? No.
Did you hit the clutch? No.
Did you have Aaron Judge around you?
No. So now he's got to live with
that decision. And you know, money changes a
lot of things and he can opt out and after a couple of years and
maybe he will. And the Mets could obviously
keep him by throwing five more 1,000,000 bucks on on on the on
the deal. So that's that.
This is not that. Bellinger is not him.
He will never hit like him. Now he's superior on the bases,
defensively, versatility, all that stuff.
But the Mets are not coming after Bellinger like a Wild West
shootout with, you know, drawing the holster.
Like, oh boy, this is this is going to be a fight based on
Cohen's net worth and desire to spend and change perception.
It's not going to be that here. So that should be easier.
I don't think Bellinger's going back to the Dodgers.
They don't need them, right? All right, maybe Philly, a
bandbox, whatever. You know, they've got to take
another swing at this thing here.
Maybe a wild card team emerges. I'm not saying maybe Toronto if
they whip on Tucker, but it's actually there.
It is right there, right there for the Yankees to Ed Bellinger,
Ed Bachette not have an impact too much down the, you know,
down the road where those burdensome contracts are a
massive issue because you're not signing Bachette to be your
everyday shortstop. Might play there this year, but
he's not a shortstop. He stinks to shortstop.
So it'd be better at second or better at 3rd.
All right. And then when he can move to 2nd
is after this year when you decide to move on from Jazz,
which they will, he goes to 2nd, Lombard to short, figure out
third, McMahon or Pichette. Like the options are so
plentiful and see, the Yankees are playing with fire here.
One thing the Yanks are really, I think dangerously close to
doing is trusting and investing positive results in the multiple
important pitchers that they have injured.
Now I I think Cole's going to come back and be Cole, I think,
but you never know. He's not young and it's Tommy
John takes a while. He should be fine, but you don't
know. I thought Rodan was really good
yesterday last year until it mattered.
And you know, he's more of a middle back of the rotation guy
for a World Series team. But you don't know when he's
coming back. And that very well could be.
Let's see if Roldan misses April and May and Cole misses April
and May. You know you're talking about 20
ish starts. More than that maybe 25 ish
starts total between those two men.
Where now you're throwing out there the Warrens and the
Yarbrough's and Louis heal and who knows what the hell Louis
heal is. That'll trust Louis heal to you.
I I definitely don't trust him the way Toronto smoked him.
You trust Louis heal. You know, I love Schlittler.
Freed's been very good year one with the Yankee stud, but the
Yankees are flirting with fire because the only way that you
work around and by the way, the bullpens not even that good
outside of bednar like they got work to do with a pen, but I'm
not going to get into the pen now.
But the Yanks are messing around and I I think on some level
they're thinking well, you know, we can just kind of tread water.
April and May our pitchers get healthy.
That's fine if you've got a lineup that is going to bludgeon
opposing teams. Yankees have a lineup that's
going to do that. Right now, Like right now, no,
you don't have that at all. You got a third baseman who
strikes out 200 * a year. You know, I love Rice, so I'm
not just going to start railing on people.
But yeah, you got to prove you can hit lefties and all that
stuff. I think Grisham takes a step
back. I don't think he hits that many
home runs. I don't think he hits 240.
Whatever. He hit 245.
I don't think he's that guy. So doesn't hit lefties.
I don't trust him in the clutch. Whatever.
High leverage spots, good relief arms like high leverage power
arms like elite pitching. I don't like Grisham there.
So I don't love Grisham. I don't love the third base
situation even though I'm a big Volpe fan and and supporter.
Even when he comes back. How do you love the shortstop
situation, especially to start with?
Caballero was a starting shortstop.
You know Wells, all right, he's going to run into 20 something
home runs. He's a 210 hitter, strikes out a
lot until proven otherwise. Left field without Bellinger,
it's Dominguez who can't play left field and it's Jones who
might not be able to avoid striking out 2 1/2 * a game on
the Major League level. And God forbid if if the great
Aaron Judge were to miss time again like he did a year ago.
So let me get this straight. So the Yankees think that when
they get to June with no real reinforcements.
No. And I don't just mean bringing
back Bellinger. That's not adding.
That's just doing what you did last year, which, by the way,
was not good enough, as we all know.
So you bet your ass I'm fired up over this.
I'm getting tired of watching this and and not getting the
sense that the Yankees are really open and thinking about
doing what I really think that they should do.
Be bold. For the first time in a long
time. Can you do that?
You know, on one of the earlier, I guess it was maybe the third
YouTube show Still no YouTube. I'm sorry.
I do think we'll have it back Monday, but I can't even say
that with great confidence. Either way, I'll read some
messages here. It's all good.
We just plow through whatever it's about content as we know.
So I I guess it's Christmas Eve. I did a show and I gave my
presence for each of the New York sports teams, right?
And like it, recollect, like The Jets, I gave them a heaping dash
of, of, of, of luck. Like sometimes you just got to
be lucky, whether it's Mendoza falling to them or whatever.
Luck, all right, for the Knicks. I gave health for the Giants.
I gave a dash of boldness like, dude, don't hire a coordinator.
Don't mess around with this nonsense.
Go out there, get the big fish. Now.
Looks like you know Harbaugh is going to be we talked a lot
about that yesterday. You should be terrified that
he's going to the dolphins. That's where I think he's going.
That's the bad news. The good news is I really like
Stefanski and maybe the McCarthy thing gets older.
I know I'm I'm always pushing McCarthy here.
I just think the giants need to really consider him.
But anyway, for the Giants gift in their stocking was boldness.
And what I did the Yankees was it was it wasn't tangible.
It was like, I mean, I guess it actually you can touch a map,
but it was more like a road map to remember how to get back to
being the Yankees. Well, you know, sometimes Santa
leaves a couple of gifts in the closet, if you know what I mean.
And we just found one and I'm going to give the Yankees
another one. It's the same gift that I gave
the New York Giants. Boldness, B bold.
That's all you got to do, guys. We are perilously close.
I mean, we're inching toward it where Aaron Judge like before
you know it, Aaron, there's going to be a ceremony at Yankee
Stadium. And of course, rightfully so,
The monument, the number Aaron Judge all suited up at that
point is beautiful little girl, older, you know, his wife next
to him retired like that. That that's, I know that that
sounds inconceivable to imagine now, but you have to.
That's how close we are to the end.
I mean, this doesn't go on forever.
Yeah. If he's healthy, he's going to
bank 50 plus this year and probably win the MVP.
I don't doubt that. But then again, as I said
before, what if there's an 80 game season next year or what if
there's no season now? He's a year older.
It's a wasted opportunity. The swings got to be now.
And I actually think and I want to I want to make sure I'm not a
prisoner of the moment. So I'm going to take a little a
little sip of coffee here for a moment, make sure that I'm not
going too nuts. Yeah, I feel good about saying
this. So based on what Toronto already
has and has already done and will continue to do this
offseason, you know, I don't think the Orioles going to be
great. But Pete's going to bank 40.
They've got a lot of young talent.
They brought in some pitching. Orioles will be tough.
The Rays are always scrappy. We know that.
And the Red Sox are on their way up there inching out of the
grade. Out of the grade.
Pardon me. Right.
So what does all that mean? Means it's a phenomenally tough
division. I actually think right now
Bellinger, Tucker, Burchett did not hear so right now.
Nor have they got that extra starting pitcher which they need
right now. I actually think that the
Yankees are closer to a non playoff team then I believe them
to be a truly viable World Series favorite.
Like right now they strike me as almost like, I mean Judge is
better than Soto. So I was going to say kind of
like the Mets a year ago. Would it stun you if the Yankees
won right now the way they're currently constituted, the way
they're currently built? 8384 wins 85, you know, rough
start. Cole comes back, Lil rusty Rodon
comes back. Lil rusty bullpen outside of
Bednar, Not that good, You know, God forbid Judge gets hurt, you
got to probably bake in 10/12/15, hopefully not more 20
games where he's got to rest a little bit.
God forbid that elbow flares up again.
I mean, God, I'm terrified about that, you know?
I know he's fine now, but it's a real concern.
I mean, you're running out. Who's your left fielder?
You know, I don't love the center fielder, your shortstop
situation, your third baseman who's a whiff machine, who's
going to hit 210. You know, your catcher who's
going to probably hit 215. That's a World Series team.
Let me take that back. That's a definite playoff team.
I think the answer is no. So I feel very confident saying
that, and it is just incredibly frustrating.
It's one thing to jump through the hoops and play the game with
Boris. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Come on. All right, I'm playing the other
hand. Here's some money.
Here's some chips. Let's go.
Come on, let's speed it up. Let's go.
We know what you're doing. You did this with soda.
You've done this with others. Let's go.
Let's get to the end point. You want 7?
How firm are you? Because he ain't getting it.
And if that's what you think he's getting here, then take his
ass somewhere else because he's gone and we're moving on and
we're getting Bichette and now we're going for Tucker.
How's that taste, Boris? Like I'm done waiting for Boris
to get this thing settled here. I'm done.
I do think I give the Yankees little credit here.
I actually think the Yankees are playing this fairly well with
Bellinger. I do like they are very
competitive. I don't, I don't know one other
offer that's definitive for for Bellinger and Boris at this
point. But they've been very aggressive
in the AAV and I think that that's smart.
You know, I'd rather pay 2, three, $4 million extra.
Now what? He's obviously in his prime, you
know, and then not have to deal on the back end, the residue of
a decaying player, you know, for year 6 and year 7.
So I get their philosophy. I agree with it.
I don't know if that's going to work.
And if it doesn't, are they open to Year 6 again?
Year 7 is a drop. I'm hanging up on you.
Like if you're that serious about 7 and I mean this, if you
are unflinching in your presentation and demands for
seven years, the next thing you're going to hear is this
click. Now you don't really hear a
click like the old school clicks when you hang up on somebody,
the old phones, but you're not going to hear my voice anymore.
Goodbye, we're out. We're not interested.
Go somewhere else and I'll live with the consequences.
You will not hear from me at that point.
Buyer's remorse. If he signed 70, if the Mets
give him seven years, you will not hear me say now, of course I
won't be happy because it's the Mets that says a little
different energy, but I will maintain this energy.
Hey, ain't worth it. Congratulations.
I got 14 years of Soto and seven years of Bellinger.
Good luck with that. Like, from a baseball
perspective, I would be able to completely compartmentalize the
differences between a good contract, a a, a, an
irresponsible one and the whole Yankee Met dynamic, Which by the
way, I think if you follow me, I don't get too much.
I really do try to be, and I think I am incredibly objective
with the Mets. I'm not saying we don't have
fun. I mean, jeez, if we can't have
fun, jam at each other, what the hell are we doing?
I mean, that's what we were doing the street all the time.
Donnie's better than Keith. Keith's better than Donnie.
Come on, Kidry is better than Gooden.
I mean, I never won that battle, but I would say it because I
didn't see Guidry in the 70s. I'm talking Kidry in the 80s.
I don't know, man. I, I, I just, I would love to
wake up or I would love to be at one of my kids basketball games
in the next week or two or sitting on the couch or
whatever, laying in bed watching sports night or watching
politics. Here come the alerts.
Well, I mean, if I'm watching sports and I think they'll be
talking about it, but if I'm watching Netflix or something
else on prime boom alert. Wow, Yankees Bichette and then
two days later, bang Yankees Bellinger.
Why the hell can't they do that? Why they could.
They are electing at least as of now, not to.
And that is what drives me nuts. And it's not the same as it's
not entitled Yankee fan. You know, I'm not 25 or 30 years
old where all I know is winning and dynasties and Hall of
Farmers and you know, great, great times.
My first introduction to I should probably, you know, I'll
give you this little timeline I did.
I've done it on the radio before.
But if you're new, just so I give you a little little sense,
little tap into my mind and how I process the Yankees spendings
and the entitlement, which I'm not with the Yankees.
So in 77 and 78, when they went back-to-back, I didn't watch one
pitch. I was three and four.
I don't even vaguely remember the game being on in the
background. And I have a very, very weird,
very early ability, not weird, but just an ability to like I, I
have images from what I was like in my mind, like moments as a
kid, like even like 2 1/2. Like, I remember whether it was
my grandfather who passed away when I was on, on my dad's side
when I was very young. Yeah, I was probably 2 1/2 or
three. But I remember, and he was in
the, in the, in the Navy. I remember sitting on his lap
and seeing an anchor tattoo on his forearm.
Like, I remember that. And I know the year that he died
and I know how old I was. So I, I do, I can piece things
together at a very early age for some reason.
And I don't remember one pitch, the Yankees.
That's the .777881 was really the first World Series that I've
watched that I've, that I watched.
I remember snippets of the 80 World Series like Ripken.
I believe Ripken may have caught the final out on a line drive to
shore. Maybe I'm off on that.
But I do remember that. I remember, you know, because
Mike Schmidt and I, I knew some of the names Pete Rose.
The the 81 World Series is the first one that I was locked
into. And I remember my parents either
had a wedding or some sort of family party on.
I'm sure my dad was thrilled to go to that Saturday night Yankee
game. And I remember we, we had a
babysitter over, I was either in kindergarten or the 1st grade.
And I'm man, I'm key. I'm, I'm laying on the couch and
I'm, I'm fighting to keep my eyes open.
And I actually remember seeing Bob Watson rest in peace first
year before cash built, you know, help with stick.
Really, you know, Bob Watson kind of gets overlooked in this
whole because it was stick and it was Tory and it was the buck.
And it was before Bob Watson was a part of that early
instrumental wave of infusion of talent and stability.
Anyway, Bob Watson, righty hitter, play a little first
base. You know, Chambliss, they both
played. And I remember him hitting a
home run to right field. I've actually remember seeing
it. So they lose that.
And then, so that's the 81 season,
828384858687888990919293, no playoffs.
My entire wheelhouse, entire grammar school, entire high
school, not a single Yankee playoff at bat, not one.
You know, now, if you're my age and you're a Mets fan, you, I
know you get tired of referencing the 86 Mets, but at
least you can recollect and and remember being immersed in the
86 Mets, right? I had Donnie, you know, and, and
that, you know, and, and not enough pitching and Ricky for a
couple of years, but they had a few good teams and they actually
won a lot of games in the 80s, but they didn't win.
The point is, any evaluation or any processing that I have of
the Yankees is not born out of or derived from me with this
crazy sense of entitlement because, oh, the Yankees have
won an X amount of years. The Hell's going on?
Unacceptable. The Yankees never won when I was
young, ever. Not once.
Then again, not have The Jets, not the Knicks.
And it's kind of a theme. So this is all practical.
I, I, I believe pragmatic, fair analysis, you've got the
resources to do it. You've got multiple targets that
would make you infinitely better, particularly Bichette,
because he's a righty stick that you definitely need.
And don't give me a backup righty catcher who's going to
play once a week behind Wells, which they need.
But that ain't the righty stick that we're talking about.
We all know that, right? So they've got the resources and
they've got this little tiny runway to have that all match up
with whatever remains of the great Aaron Judge's pride prime.
And if they don't do everything in their power to actually
capitalize for that man, they will have colossally failed
Aaron Judge more than any Yankee has ever been failed in his
lifetime, even a lot more than Mattingly, because that's really
the only point of reference because everybody else won, you
know, But at least Mattingly had the greatest lead off hitter in
the history of baseball for three or four, four years,
whatever. What for?
In Ricky, he had Dave Winfield behind him, who's a Hall of
Famer. He had Willie Randolph in the
two spots, excuse me, in the 2 hole, who was a really good,
especially then, you know, second baseman didn't have
power, good fielder, good bunter, you know, wasn't 22270 a
little more sometimes steal a bag clutch winner because he was
on those teams in the 70s scrappy tough Ricky, Willie,
Donnie Winfield. I mean, at least he had that.
What the hell has Aaron Judge had since he got here?
He's at Luke Voit at first base. He's had a broken down Rizzo at
first base. You know, he's had somebody who
was catching in college and Ben Rice, who's learning.
I love him to say hit her, you know that learning how to play
first base. Who's the shortstop been, you
know, I mean, come on, think about the Yankee infield.
I've done this before. Toshera, Cano, Jeter, a Rod 2009
champion, not to mention Sabathia, Damon Swisher.
All the other guys had this infield Rice, Jazz, Caballero,
Volpe, McMahon. I mean, you don't have to look
that hard or twist yourself up in mental knots to come to the
conclusion that this team ain't winning.
They're not winning. That's it.
And they got time to rectify that and they have to.
They absolutely have to. Let's see here.
Let's see. What do we got All right there,
Serpico, BT come on. They make the playoffs every
year. If Judge is healthy, they'll
find a way in. All right, let me ask you this.
I hear you. And they usually do.
What if Judge is not healthy? See, the problem is Aaron Judge
is so amazing. Thanks for the for the text
there. I'm going to read a bunch now.
He's so amazing that he covers up so many of the deficiencies
of the general manager and the baseball operations department.
Like imagine. Well, you don't have to imagine.
Just remember what happened to the Yankees when Aaron Judge ran
into the wall. Those idiots with the Dodgers
that didn't change the concrete slab from 1960, Seventy.
Whatever the 1970 and poor Aaron Judge.
Yeah, it was a Sunday night. Yanks had a good well, that
Judge didn't have a good team, but they had the great Aaron
Judge elevating them. Would have wanted MVP again.
If not, he would have finished 2nd. 55 bombs.
He was. It was unbelievable.
He gets hurt. What happens?
No playoffs, so you can't build the team around one guy just
can't do it. And like that's what the Yankees
do. So Serpico, I'm surprised that
you have that opinion. Like to me that is being too
soft on the Yankees. I don't get it.
I really don't get it. Let's see here couple things on
the show and the axe and all that stuff.
What this could be a long one here.
The Martian. So and in judges 40 mil and
2026, the Yanks are $134 million 2020 6 we say I want to go over
300 mill. The course literally said
believe it, bro. Oh yeah, the Yankees have all
the eggs in the basket held by those 3 pitchers.
Well, I understand that, but that doesn't mean that I'm going
to let them off the hook for being that one sided and how
they dispersed their money. I mean great.
Oh, they got all that money in the pitching fantastic.
You have that pitching look against Toronto had rolled on do
now heels not making money, but how did he'll do?
Where was Cole and it's not his fault he got hurt.
But I'm saying you can't just align yourself with.
And this was really their philosophy before they brought
in Bellinger. Yeah, I made some of those.
The pivot from Soto, their basic premise for a bunch of years
was, yeah, we got Judge Bangin 50.
We got Cole competing for the Sai Young and we'll be fine.
Our division stinks. Baltimore's young, They don't
spend all right, Tampa scrappy, but you have to really worry
about them. Bought too much.
Boston's in a down cycle. They're down.
They're done for now. And Toronto's Toronto and
they're no longer Toronto. They're now, they're now
becoming a machine. That is, they're beginning to
resemble the Dodgers of the American League in a lot of
ways. Like their mission statement is
so easy to identify and the Rogers group, I have to double
check this. I believe that they are.
I believe they've got, I know they've got more money than
Cohen. I think they're second.
I mean, they're looking to spend.
I mean, they've got all the Canada, no Expos, you know, so
they're smart in terms of a North American perspective.
You know, they're the only baseball team up there as we
know. That might change.
Expos might come back, which would be a pretty cool story.
Whatever. Right now it's them and right
now the brand, you might not want to hear this, but this is
the reality. The brand of the team that
always overshadowed them and everybody else, by the way, in
baseball is now diminishing by the year and that's the Yankees.
So let me get this straight. So their brand is getting more
powerful. Yankees is diminishing
opportunistic people with the funds to back it up.
It's go time. All right now we smell a little
blood. Yanks aren't quite willing to go
all the way. We're already better.
We just beat them or we just embarrassed them in the post
season. All right, let's go.
Let's lay it on thick. And they're going to like
they're they're not even close to being done.
You know, let's see here, Boris, we know about that.
Boris doing his job. I understand that.
Yeah. Armand White.
I get that. That's why I don't begrudge him
for doing it. He's obviously doing his job
here. And that's why I obviously
thanks for the text there. I obviously separated the two.
You know, Boris, I I said if you just do, then, especially now, I
wish Scott, Boris was my agent. Yeah, I can promise you I
wouldn't be having YouTube issues, right?
Or wouldn't be having the microphones not working, right.
Boris is amazing at what he does.
He's a complete cornball with these nursery rhymes that he
these riddles and these rhymes, whatever these poems that he's
drops on these players. It's it's embarrassing, but you
know, it works because he's got a stable the stars and every
team knows we got a Boris guy this year.
Dig in. Ain't going to be easy.
Not only not only is it not going to be easy, it's not going
to be quick. Like there's never going to be
resolution during the season, even if the guy wants to resign.
No, we'll see in the in the winter and we know the
parameters with Boris. He's going to squeeze every
penny from us. That's his job and he's great at
it. I get that.
But I can separate Boris being phenomenal at his job and Boris
really not being good for for baseball.
I I honestly Anthony Tranchina BT get Michael Kay on.
Would love to hear you guys talk.
I would love to have Michael on. I've got to check.
You know, there's a couple of things.
Well, first of all, you know, once we get the ability to
interview people, that's the first step, which is not hard if
it's coming. And then, you know, when it
comes to people like Stephen A and and Michael, people that I
called good friends and I was just with Michael at Alex's
party a couple of weeks ago, spent a lot of time.
But he's great. I love Michael.
Yeah. Will he be allowed to do it?
I don't know. I'm not really sure how that
works. This is my first bench with all
that stuff here. I know if I want to number one,
I wouldn't because it just wouldn't be right.
But I know if I wanted to have Michael on the fan, I mean, back
in the day, back in the day couple of weeks ago, I I
obviously wouldn't. I mean, I I wouldn't even think
of doing it. And I don't think that he would
be allowed and whatever. So there's there's that.
I don't think it's quite the same.
I really don't no, but I love Michael, man.
I was watching the other night, the really the other night was
that Monday night, whatever it was, or Tuesday, like the Yankee
Hot Stove show on yes, the other night was the first time it was
worth watching. Number one, it was two people.
And I'm not not to diminish the other people's talents.
They've got a good crew up there.
I really do like I like what they do right.
But to have K and Curry back and forth, you know, just volleying,
I thought it was really, really good and also coincided with the
the first sign that, you know, a little bit more detail and I
trust Curry. You know, if he tells you
something, you know, he's getting it from the Yankees.
And he's, he's well sourced with other people as well.
I'm not saying he's I'm not saying he's carrying the Yankees
water at all. I think the exact opposite.
I think he's great. I actually think he's one of the
best out there. So he's got connections with all
the teams and the agents, but he's on the guest network.
I mean, it's pretty safe to say that if if Jack Curry says
something with great, you know, in a, in a really definitive
manner pertaining to a contract or a fielding within the Yankees
building, I think that it's probably pretty smart to believe
him. So I choose to.
But yeah, I'd love to get Michael up.
There's no doubt about that. The other thing, I want to throw
something else on the table here.
Keep these Yankee ones coming in.
Yeah, I'm gonna hit this one real fast here.
Benji Kleiner. That's a new one.
Appreciate you, Benji. Thanks for jumping in, dude.
So if Benji writes, it's it's upsetting.
We didn't show any interest in the mind.
He was relatively cheap, and I'd rather have him than Warren.
Well, I actually think Will Warren thank you for that.
I think Will Warren has a chance to be really good.
Now, I'm not going to bother you and bombard you with advanced
analytics now, but for a rookie with a strikeout rate, it was
really encouraging. And he had, I think one of them
was against the Red Sox. He had about three starts that
was so bad that really skewed his numbers more times than not
Will Warren was going out there with a chance to give you a
chance to win. All right.
That's how I first evaluate a young pitcher.
And he gave that with with pretty good frequency and
consistency. And he's got the ability to make
people miss. So and now he's also really
cheap and I also think that he's convertible to the bullpen.
So to your point, you know, if if they would have gotten to my
or to my point, and I think others like if they get Peralta
and then everybody comes back and we should only be so lucky
to have a Yankee rotation, say All Star break on everybody's
healthy, everybody's back, everybody's, you know, back to
what they were at their prime or before injury.
Well, you can have a 12 combination of Gary Cole and Max
Freed, which and I love that it's righty lefty, but they're
just competitors and they're both phenomenal.
So that's awesome. And then, you know, especially
if Schlittler looks the way that I believe he's going to look,
and in a small sample has already looked when they got
Schlittler 3. And then you go back to another
left in Rodon. And then like, or if Perolta's
there, Perolta 3 and then Rodon 4 and Schlittler 5 or Schlittler
4, Rodon 5, whatever it might be.
And then you've got a surplus, not just of capable arms that
can, you know, win you A-65 game.
You got guys who are going to be competing with with each other
on a day-to-day basis. Oh, what did Cole do last night?
And he went seven, gave up five hits, gave up two runs.
We won 6/1. He had eight punches.
All right, I got to go out there.
I got to do that. I've got to do that Freed.
And that's how you have a great staff where and it's not
jealousy, it's just it's competitiveness.
I want to do what you did last night.
I'm going to go out, I'm going to show you I'm going to do
better. And that is a, that is a healthy
starting rotation. The thing that bothers me.
And they've got a chance to really, really have that, which
is another reason why if they do these things, I'm telling them
to do and not just Bellinger's, I've already laid out and I can
do it again. Go out there and get everybody
else and just take one freaking massive swing for the top tank.
Go upward, go Tino against the Padres and hit the hit the
facade and have deer go flying swing for the fences.
Not a 327 foot home run down the line.
Go for the upper deck dig in. It's 2O.
It's three O it's 31. It's 21.
Here's a cookie fastball. We're swinging like we haven't
swung in a while. That's what they should do.
Now, the thing with a my and this was just, I mean, I, I
can't even launch into this now because I did this the other
day. But to address what he said, you
know, I was very disappointed and have been very disappointed.
This is a Mets thing as well. Like the inability of of our
local teams to structure these new contracts, which aren't
exactly that new anymore. Like, let's get with the
program, guys. Let's figure it out.
Let's figure out how to present to a really appealing option
that's going to make us better. Oh, yeah, by the way, Yeah, you
can opt out into the first year. Sure, you can opt out into the
second year. No problem.
Come on in. We'll get good.
You know why? It's a win win?
Under no circumstance, if am I went to the Mets or if am I went
to the Yankees, had a big season, opted out, is that a
loss for the Mets or the Yankees?
Under no circumstance, none. Because number one, if he's
opting out, he performed, win, win.
If he opts out and he fits and he's really good, well, you've
got the resources to pay him and the ability to offer a different
contract when he opts out, win, win.
What the hell is the downside? Unlike trading for a Cabrera or
a Peralta or I think for the Mets, eventually, school ball,
you're going to have to give up so much.
And how about that school ball? Did you see this?
The largest gap in terms of arbitration in the history of
baseball? He was looking for what, 32?
And the Tigers offered a 19. The Tigers stick that up Your
behind $19 million. Could you be any more insulting
than that? I mean, so the Tigers are
idiots. I mean, if the Tigers think that
they're going to win the World Series this year and then just
let school be waltz into a free agency, that might be truly and
there's been an abundance of dumb moves in the history of
baseball. But with back-to-back Cy Young's
in his prime for team that's not going to win and for team that
doesn't have either the appetite or probably a little bit of both
with the resources as well. I mean, they're not the Rays,
but they're also not the Yankees, Dodgers, Mets,
Phillies, etcetera. With that money, Toronto like
they could pay him, but then obviously the rest of the team
compromise. You absolutely must trade Tariq
school, not maybe must. And you should be doing it now
really, because that's going to maximize the investment because
wherever you're dealing is going to make 3233 starts for that
team if he's healthy rather than all right, you know, maybe we
weren't as good as we thought we'd be here.
We really have to trade school. And now you start taking calls
in late May, early June, and yeah, you'll still get a Kings
ransom form, but not as much because now instead of making 32
or 33 starts, now he's going somewhere he's making 1314.
Not that that can influence a pen and race, especially if it's
a team that's already a playoff team because now he's getting
the rock every, you know, every other every a couple of games in
the playoffs here. So that would, I mean, you would
justify trading form. But I'm saying from their point
of view, they are on the precipice of handling this as
poorly as you possibly can. And I understand that there's
like that there's precedence and you don't just hand out money.
Oh, man, he's so good. You're asking for 32.
OK. Like there's a reason why it's
set up that way. You know, the arbitrator and the
economic system. We can push back all we want.
It is what it is. And until it's not what it is,
well, I on, on a lot of levels, I understand why teams remain
beholden to that because giving money away just to placate
somebody is idiotic. You, you work within the
parameters of the rules that if you could save yourself as
they're trying to save $13 million, which they won't, he's
going to win that. And he's not going to get 32,
but he's not going to get 19. So they'll lose more than they
offered. What you do is you unnecessarily
really sabotage relationship and Jeter's talked about this where
this was really the, I think the genesis of the issue where he
with him and Cashman like that disconnect where and I'm with
Cashman on this, he's like, listen, Derek, we love you, but
you know, and you've won a lot. We want to keep you.
We want to be fair here and competitive, but some other guys
out there who are better right now, you know, Troy Tulowitzky,
not with the Yankees got him. But at that point, you know,
Troy's pretty good and he's younger and your defensive
numbers are dropping and you're not a pure power guy.
Like there's something to talk about here.
And Derek was offended by that. Now, I can also, I could see
both sides. I can see why the Yankees did
that. And I could see why Derek, with
all the championships and the rookie of the year and 3000 plus
heads and Yankee immortality, you know, never an issue off the
field outside of maybe once or twice George saying, you know,
stop going to the clubs. That American Express
commercial, which was hysterical, you know, that was,
that was a little different because Derek had won so much
and had so much equity. I understand why he felt that
way, but I understood why the Yankees are doing that as well.
That's not the case with the Tigers in school.
So just to insert that, wow. I mean, if I'm opposing teams, I
mean, you've already lined it up, but I am just licking my
chops here, you know, foam it at the mouth, All right?
You know, my, my #1 prospect, my #3 prospect, my #5 prospect, you
know, my #13 prospect. 2 very useful, cheap, ascending town,
talented players. Here you go.
Take it all. Let's go.
We'll take school ball. Like that's what has to happen.
And I still think that he's going to be a Met.
I really do. Speaking of the Mets, No.
Amazing day. It's pretty interesting.
I'll get to that in a little bit.
Let's see. Interesting to my.
Let's see, Boris. I don't want to just be
repetitive here. So yeah, I can't believe that
Serpico said that they make the playoffs every year and he's
good with that. Like, it's got to be a next
level evaluation. It's got to be guys.
Come on, man, Let's see. All right, this one's about
Beldy. I think.
Kyle Cicento. Are those soft CS?
I'm going to go with soft C Kyle Cicento rather than Kyle
Cicento. Let me know if I'm right, Kyle.
I'm going to go. That strikes me as a soft C Kyle
Cicento. It wouldn't be Cicento because
it's 2C anyway. I'm going to go with Cicento.
We had Belli last year. We still lost to Toronto.
Even if we sign him, we still need to do more.
I'm with you bro. I mean, that's why I just said
what I said the 1st 15 minutes of the show today, no doubt.
I mean, Bellinger just gets you back to theoretically where you
were a year ago and that's if and you know, if he's healthy,
you would think that he will, but that's if Aaron Judge has
another out of this world all time, another MVP season.
If there's an injury or just a slight diminishment, whatever,
or some of the young players that you expect to take a step
forward. If they don't, then I I really
don't think that they're a playoff team.
But I said that as well because the division is just going to be
really, really good. I don't think anybody even
Toronto, and I mean unless if they were to get Tucker another
arm that's different, but even I don't think Toronto is going to
win 9899. I would say they won 94 a year
ago tied with the Yankees. I would probably sign up for
that as well because I think the 94, it seems on the surface low
for team that's stacked like Toronto is and pre Yankee team
that could be stacked that they actually have the guts to do
this right. But to get to 94, you got to bag
on a lot of bad teams in that division, and that's not going
to be the case like it was a year ago.
I don't think they'll be that stark separation one through 5.
I think it'd be much more jumbled.
I think maybe for the first month you might see, you know, a
team like the Orioles in first place or Boston.
And then I think Toronto asserts it's not that they can't start
well, but I mean, the fluctuations could be
interesting. Then Toronto asserts itself and
they're in first place. If the Yankees do these things,
Yankees get hot pitching comes back Yankees jump in.
You know the Rays. You know you play in the Rays
down there or or or here it's always a dog fight 3 games Yanks
can be very as they have very easily lose twice because you
know Tampa's better on the base as they catch the ball better
like it's not going to be a 99. I don't think we're 100 win
season. I don't believe for the American
League East winner. I don't see that.
I really don't. Let's see here.
Trust trust heal more than Rodon.
No, I don't do that. Come on, man, stop here.
What? Here Audios good.
No, I know the audio. I figured it out.
I messed up with the audio that was on me.
What else we got here? Did I see the report on Lombard?
I did not see the report, the report on Lombard.
So can somebody let me know what that is?
I mean, I started the show at 10.
Obviously, I set the show up. Thank you for that.
I don't know, Let me throw this out there on on amazing day.
But this is not the low hanging fruit.
This is not me just taking a jab at the Mets because I want to be
fair to the Mets in this regard. Just make sure I have everything
buttoned up here. All right, So there's no amazing
day in Queens as we know now. Last year was a wild success.
10,000. I remember Sal was out there
doing something for S&Y. I'm pretty sure it was S&Y, but
he was definitely out there and it was awesome.
I saw a lot of the pictures. You guys had a blast.
I think it's a great thing. And by the way, a lot of teams,
I remember when I was working in San Francisco, the Giants did
that every year. Like to me, a fan fest or an
amazing day that's awesome, you know, you get a chance to be up
close with luminaries of the team and yeah, it's just how is
it not good? Number one, you can make money
off it, which shouldn't be the main motivation, but as a
byproduct of doing something cool, if you're able to also
make money. Well, that I think that's it's a
home run from a business model. So 10,000 of you flocked in
there and, you know, just let the place up.
Yeah, you also got on Cohen's ass and you said let's go, let's
get Pete, which is part of the impetus.
I've always believed that that that if there was no amazing day
last year, I can't prove this. I can't, but I believe that
there's a 7030 chance Pete's not there.
I think that they were so sensitive to that coming off a
really Goodyear, 89 wins and unexpected playoff run, knocking
on the door, get into the World Series.
Like the mojo was good and the team was thought to be
ascending, right. They stripped the whole thing
down, rightfully so. But that was I'm going back to
last year and you know, to defuse the enthusiasm by letting
Pete walk last year would have been fairly unjustifiable.
You guys showed up, you guys let it RIP.
They responded now the easiest thing in the world, and you
know, I've this is my initial thought, but I'm not sure that I
really believe that. And I'll tell you why in a
minute. The easiest thought in the world
to say, well, Mets have had an awful That part's true.
In terms of bringing play players in, smart, doing what
they're doing, but from a PR point of view, an awful
offseason. Guys that you love, I mean, you
love Pete, you love Nemo Diaz is different because he wasn't
drafted by the Mets. But you love Diaz.
But it's a different kind of affection.
It's a different kind of connection.
The Diaz thing was more like, man, we need him.
Not that not that you not that you don't think you need Pete,
but it was like this guy's one or two top closers in baseball.
What the hell we doing for two or $3,000,000?
What? How did that go with skew?
Whereas Pete, it was a long enough conversation, probably
not going to age. All things I've said for two
years that, you know, Mets fans hated hearing but ultimately
proved to be right. Righty hitter, average first
baseman at best, weak arm strikeouts.
I know the average was back up last year and he had a really
good year, no doubt. But I just, I was never behind
giving him a lengthy extension because of the baseball
principles, nothing else. That's it.
And then obviously, Nimmo, you know, drafted by the Mets, young
came up grinder. You love them, you know, just
you love Nimmo. Good guy, you know, religious
guy, projects the right things. It's really hard to not like
Brandon Nimmo as a person and there are a lot of things as a
player that you could like as well.
But you know, no harm whatever injuries now last couple of
years. Having said that, not to re
litigate the Mets year or the Mets offseason back to amazing
day instead of set things up to to have an amazing day this year
would have been so I think detrimental to the perception
that the noise it would have been ugly.
I don't mean violence. I'm not saying that, but you go
last year was ugly. I mean, yeah, some people may
have ripped down some fences now that I think about it, like if
you, I think last year's amazing day was January 25th.
I'm pretty sure that was the date, right.
So I mean, we're only a couple of weeks away from January 25th.
So let's say it's in the same neighborhood.
If they were having it this year and nothing transpires between
now and then, and there's a good chance that nothing will, it's
just delete, delete, delete. That place would have been ugly,
and I think the very easy observation would be all right.
They are trying to proactively and preemptively avoid that,
which on a human level I understand.
Who the hell is going to willingly subject themselves to
getting roasted by their fan base with all the disgust and
the frustration that's going on currently within the Met fan
base? I mean, that's just dumb.
So I get it. Now this is where I've got to
look down. I want to make sure I have this
part buttoned up. So to my understanding and I
looked this up and I believe that this is accurate the the
Mets last year I found the press release.
The Mets press release last year was January 23rd and that's when
they announced what they were going to do fan amazing day,
their fan fest and then January 25th to Saturday.
It was executed. Now, as I was looking that up,
that's why I'm a little surprised and I, I believe
that's 100% right, but I'll leave a 1% wiggle, wiggle that
it's not like to me the logistical aspect of getting
everybody there in 2 days. Maybe you just let everybody
know in advance if you announce it January 23rd, whatever.
And tickets go on sale January 23rd.
But I find it really hard again, logistically, forget about the
emotion logistically to on January 22nd have this concept
really come to final fruition in life.
And then the next day, boom in the morning, here's the press
release, here's what we're doing.
And then in two days fly out all the former players all the cuz,
you know, they did cuz Cohen's first class blessed with that
fly everybody in book the hotels do this, do that, set things up
vendors, blah, blah, blah. I mean, I'm not saying it's
impossible. Nothing really is when you have
money, but it seems fairly implausible to me.
So the easy reaction is Mets bagged amazing day because Mets
are afraid to face their fans or if you don't want to use the
word afraid, they had no interest in doing that right now
because it's not going to be positive.
All right, I understand why you think that.
My first thought was that that I, I don't really necessarily
believe that. I don't, I'm going to give them
the benefit of the doubt there. I could be naive.
I, I don't think it's the issue that some of you now again, it's
part of the equation. So, you know, I, I, I understand
why there's vitriol there, but you know, whatever.
Let me get Nikki for motto. Nikki, what's going on, Nick?
Honestly, I think it's Cashman and how trying to keep Boris in
check. Frankly, they benefit, not
benefits the league so that Boris isn't fleecing the league.
I mean, I don't know Nikki may be an interesting theory.
Let's kick it around for a SEC. You think that they're trying to
check Boris now? I, I wish you would have
elaborated more. I I can only deduce that maybe
you're incorporating their, their animosity from the way the
Soto stuff went a year ago and this is their way to get back,
if that's what you mean. All right, maybe then I'm fine
with that. Like I have no problem being
petty with certain things like that, you know, Hey, you help us
with the fire. We kept going up 77273740 Oh,
now you got a suite, you got all this whatever, we're good.
Like you walk this to the line of fire.
Now we're going to walk back without getting burned.
And and he pushed them in a very, very Yankees want to know
part of that 14 year, 50, eight, $800 million, whatever Mets had
to do it for a lot of reasons. Yankees, I would have liked them
to retain Soto, but they didn't have to quite do it.
The mission was different. And and I think we all know that
unless you just predisposed to always say that the Yankees are
cheap, which is idiotic and just flat out wrong based on the on
the on the salaries where they ranked.
So I don't know about that. I I think it's much more
circumstantial. Whereas the players who are
available this year, there's some things that come with them
that are holding teams up from jumping into the pool full steam
now. And I'm going to run through
each one of them very quickly here.
All right, Kyle Tucker, now it's floating around baseball.
Does he really love baseball? Is he all in?
He's kind of a detached, quiet personality.
And you know, I find it interesting.
Cubbies want no part of them. They just played for them.
At least Soto played for the Yankees and the Yankees really
wanted them back. The the Cubs don't even want
Tucker. And by the way, neither did the
Astros. That's two teams that let him
go. So there's the question about
his personality. Not that he's an issue in the
clubhouse, but that he's very quiet.
And is that going to fit New York?
I I think that's part of it. The other thing too, is, you
know, he's not like Soto in the outfield.
He's better, but he's not like Bellinger in the outfield.
He's had some injuries and right now the thought is that his from
his team, he's worth 10 years, you know, 400 plus $1,000,000,
which is not happening. So I think the expectations of
the of the of the contract are not in line with what the market
is willing to pay. So there's that stagnation.
They're really good hitter, good speed, good defender, not great
good player. I mean, really good.
But enough issues where this thing's going to be stretched
out. Bichette, I love Bichette.
I I love it. He's a gamer.
He just emits a he emits an energy that not not enough
Yankees really emit. You know what I mean?
You need that loose wire a little bit like you need a
posada. You need a Swisher, you need a
Damon. You need that guy who's just
ticking to his own beat just the way you, even though I know that
this doesn't matter, but in terms of performance, but like
even the way he wears the uniform, like he just looks like
a pain in the ass and somebody that you want on your side in a
fight or in a game, which is really what matters in a game.
So I love Michelle, he's writing Yankees have that need.
He's a shortstop and he's a terrible 1.
So that is kind of the hold up there.
Couple of years younger than Bellinger, a little not much,
slightly younger than than Tucker.
So the hold up would be Toronto apparently is willing to let him
go. And the market for Bichette is
fairly, fairly benign right now because there are two or three
teams who are in a kind of a waiting pattern to see what
happens with Bellinger. And one of those teams is the
Yankees. Now, I've said I get them both
and we we all know that it probably won't.
But Bichette's defensive prowess is it's it's problematic.
He's not a shortstop. What's the willingness on his
end? Is he going to be OK playing
second or third for the meat of this contract?
Is it 8 years, which is stupid? Is it 7?
Could be, is it 6? Sign me up and we'll figure out
the rest there. But again, there's enough
obstacles there in the evaluation of Bichette where you
like, all right, I, I can understand why it's not done
yet. And then we get to Bellinger,
who we know more intimately because we watch them every day
and he's he's basically a plus at everything and good runner,
good fielder, good stick, good leader, easy, easy personality,
plays everyday gamer. So those things are in his
corner. I think it's an unrealistic
contract demand. What else is new with Boris?
So that's part of the hold up there.
And you know, if Bellinger put up in the years before that, now
I know that the circumstances with some of those bad years,
the shoulder with the Dodgers and you know that he changed his
swing because the shoulder was, which I get.
I think that that's a real thing.
All right. His exit below is not that good.
He doesn't hit the ball, doesn't barrel it.
And this is all quantifiable. It doesn't barrel it up as much
as some of the stud hitters in baseball.
It's true. Well, you know why?
Because with two strikes, instead of swinging for the
fences selfishly to hit a home run, he tries to flick it the
other way. And guess what?
When you flick it the other way with two strikes, you're not
flicking it 109 off the bat. You're flicking it 79 on a bloop
down the left field line, you know, and guess what?
Your average will be in the two 70s ish or 280 instead of 220.
But you're the measurables that a lot of executives lean on goes
down, all right. So so to me, I'd rather have a
lower K rate and a better average and some pop rather
than, you know, be Giancarlo Stanton, who has out of this
world exit velocity but strikes out a ton and does nothing else.
Give me the more well-rounded player.
But if Bellinger did exactly the four or five years prior, even
if you take away that massive MVPCS with the Dodgers and
diminish those numbers and put the numbers from last year there
and plug them in, I think Bellinger is a much easier
player to evaluate. There's some red flags in
previous performances. They're they're just is now.
He silenced the critics a year ago.
We know he could play in New York.
We know he could play in in Chicago.
We know he could play in LA. He is big market proven.
So that's less of a concern than say, maybe somebody like a
Tucker or somebody like a Bell Bachette whose defense is really
bad at his primary position. You know, what do we got here?
Want to give you a little. I got to make my picks too, man.
While you guys are fired in some good ones here, I just want to
get something good here. All right, You know what?
Let me attack this here. I don't know.
Let's see, Bruce Bejesi. These names are tricky.
I mean, a little bit easier on the radio.
Bruce isn't flushing, you know, let's get Joe and Caldwell.
Bruce be Bruce Bejesi or Bessie. All right, thank you, Bruce.
So do you think the prime years of the average Major League
players now in the 24 to 28 range, how many players are
declining after age 30, which is affecting long term contracts
being offered? That is a great question.
It's a fantastic question. It's a massive issue right now.
I I it's never going to reverse itself.
That's what stinks unless there is something collectively
bargained and floors are elevated and this caps whatever,
which is down the road and probably never going to happen,
certainly not anytime soon. I think that the prime of a
baseball when I was growing up, the prime of my my dad would
always say the prime of a baseball player was 28 to 32.
All right, now, part of the reason.
And of course there's outliers like, you know, Mattingly comes
up going back to my youth, Daryl comes up, Doc comes up.
There's obviously, you know, phenomenal talents that that
challenge that Winfield didn't play in the minors went straight
to San Diego. You know, George Brett was
really good. Wade Boggs was not.
That's an example counter to that.
I didn't see any young Carew, but I know that, you know, with
the twins, he was he was statistically awesome fairly
young as well. I think that Schmidt was pretty
young. I think that there's examples
across the board both ways. But I think what's really
changed here, and this is a direct correlation to the
explosion of youth baseball. I mean, I I am on a youth
baseball field every single weekend, not always coaching on
the club level, just watching. You couldn't pay me to coach
club. Wow.
And the level of talent is absolutely frightening.
It is it is insane. It's out of this world now.
There's burnout. There's other factors that I'm
not going to get into now. Nobody cares about that now.
But I mean, there were kids at the age of 10 and that was the
my my son was 10 you a year ago. There are kids, a few in New
Jersey we plays with and a couple nationally who throw 66
miles an hour at the age of 10 from 46 feet.
Now they go to 50 this year. They move up a year, 6566.
And I don't mean just gas. I mean, oh, here's a little
wrinkle, here's a little change up.
And I mean with the proper disparity, 11/12 mile per hour
difference, I'm sitting there saying, jeez, I I don't know if
I'd want to be in that batter's box and I would pretty good play
it. I loved it, you know, so I, I
say that because what's happening now is that players
and, and perfect game is, is a, is an incredible outlet of it.
It's the best, it's the best players in the country, period.
And that doesn't mean if you play under the umbrella that
you're one of the best. I'm not saying that, but the
best players in the country play for perfect game and the
exposure, whether it's international or domestically.
I mean, at an early age, 2 years ago, we didn't do it this year
because of football. Two years ago, my son went to
Houston in Florida in December and Houston in February.
And the first game we played with Juan against Juan, Pierre's
son, who's phenomenal. I'm like, jeez, we just got off
the football field. Like now we're playing some of
the best kids in the country because some of these kids just
play all year. So they're more prepared.
So to answer that a little bit more directly, it's a great
question. I think that they're ready with.
So their stints in the minors or less and they're coming up now.
I mean, there's not many 19, there's not many Juan Sotos and
Dwight goods, not many of those. But you know, 2021, whereas in
you look at somebody like Mattingly.
I know that's just a my default example.
You know, Donnie came up 82 like 8 or 10 at bats, 83 a little bit
more and then and then obviously 84, he wins the batting title 85
he goes MVP, 86 he should have won MVP.
Rodger won it 87 the home runs, consecutive games, blah, blah,
blah, right? But if you look at his minor
league run, I think that his, I think his AA team, for some
reason, I think it was in Nashville.
I, I could be off on that, but it was Columbus AAA.
Each level was spent where there was no rush.
Like truly the best players back then were in AAA.
AAA was really the like the spawning in the feeding ground
for the Major League team. That's why George would always
send Bobby Meacham down when he messed up the AAA Columbus.
The Columbus shuttle was an expression you heard a lot.
You know, now on some some teams you get guys getting called up
from AA and that just didn't really happen.
So they hit the league later back then, they're less equipped
because take somebody like take somebody like Mattingly, right?
I don't know for sure what Don Mattingly faced in high school,
but I can. Or even Legion ball.
I know there was a guy or two, some big farm kid from Indiana
throwing 90. Oh man, we're playing, we're
playing Jimmy this weekend. Jimmy's, Jimmy's throwing 90 and
back then. So you're talking 70s when
Mattingly's doing this. Mid to late 70s, late 70s, high
school. What are they throwing 8045?
You know, now you got kids with 13 throwing that and more and
that's not even necessarily good.
But again, I'm not going to get into that.
I don't want to just, you know, weave 9 topics into this.
It really is a great question. And because they are coming up
younger and because they are more equipped to prosper
younger, you know, all the the controllability which is so
important for all these teams. They don't have the money to pay
these big contracts. Excuse me pre R Barb one blah
blah blah. Well you know now when they
really do get paid in a position to get paid for the first time.
Most of these guys are 27 ish. Some are older like Tucker, some
are older like Bellinger, you know, some are older like Aaron
Judge. There's obviously examples to
the contrary to support what I've already said.
But when you get that big deal and you're 28 going on your 29
season, and I don't mean a three or four year deal, but it's
going to be 789 for the special player, you know that you're
paying 25% tax on what they've already done.
Like you're paying for past performance, which doesn't
behoove anybody involved in this except the player.
And you know, on the back end, those last one or two years are
going to be a massive problem. So I don't have the answer.
I'm just very, very able to identify it being an issue.
I really, really do. Other than Bichette's poor
defense, he checks all the boxes for the New York Yankees needs.
Yeah, I I I understand that. I I know, I I get that, Kyle, I
hear you on that. But that's easy to sit here and
say in January. Hey, Bichette, outside of
defense hits all the boxes, you know, righty stick, high
average, good athlete, you know, clutch gamer, blah, blah, blah.
Winner. No doubt.
We already know that. But what's your reaction going
to be if he's playing shortstop when he boots a ground ball
bottom of the eighth, Yanks up one, ALCS against whomever,
wherever, and it's a play that he's got to make and he doesn't.
And it's not an outlier because anybody can boot one, even if
it's at the worst moment. But it's a continuation of what
he has been since he became a major leaguer, which is a poor
defender. I promise you that you won't be
right in that to me that night when I do my post game reaction,
I I don't think well, you know, Bichette, he hit and she's not a
good shortstop. Cost is a big game.
Probably not going to the World Series as a result or probably
not, you know, moving past the ALDS as a result.
You're going to have a different energy.
You can have a very different emotion there.
You just are. All right, let me get to I want
to do a little football here by the way guys, obviously this is
streaming on XI know that go to YouTube, check out the past
content, the prior content like it subscribe it comment.
You know you could tell if you jump into one of the videos.
I am very responsive. I love the engagement.
It's a way for me to connect with you guys it's a way for me
to build this thing out and just go out there at BT unleashed on
YouTube. All right now gave you the
Yankee stuff. Let me give you a little gave
you a little amazing day stuff. Where's the football stuff here?
The hell did I write that? OK, here it is.
So now I absolutely love wild card weekend.
I love it. I always have.
It's my favorite. I just like it better than
anything else. Maybe because there's more games
and I know that you get and it's funny because I think it's going
to be a really good game that they're playing this year.
But how many times have like the Texans, like Matt Schaub, like
all these quarterbacks that were some for some reason playing for
them in a in a wild card game? There, there's a chance.
Tyrod Taylor with the Bills years ago, no disrespect to
Tyrod, like you get a lot of situations, although this year I
don't think we have it, which is why I'm excited where you get a
team that really has no business.
If it wasn't for the expansion of the sport in terms of playoff
seeds, they would have no business being anywhere near a
playoff game. And, and I do think that that's
reflected in the, in the lines in the spreads this week and
also in the storyline. So I'll take you through it all
now #1 and listen. And I love it.
You got 2 on now. I've got a lot of things I've
got to do tomorrow. Both of my kids have basketball
games. My son's got his baseball, his
his birthday party tomorrow night.
We're having a guy come with a baseball.
I don't even know what you call it, like a baseball card guy.
And he's going to bring all sorts of cards.
And we bought cards for the kids too, like 13 kids, whatever.
And he's going to teach him how to grade cards.
It's amazing how like when I was y'all get to the football in a
second. Just telling you, wow, I was
going to be tough to juggle the two NFL games tomorrow, which I
really don't want to have to juggle, but I will have to.
When I was young, I would go to the, you know, CVS with a not
even CVSI would go to the the local pharmacy right by
Buckley's in Brooklyn. If you know, Buckley's right, it
was Crest. It was called Crest.
Get the Wiffle balls, get like a Mother's Day card, you know, get
the baseball stickers that you put in the book, get baseball
cards. And not once did I look at a
baseball card as something that I can monetize.
It was I would open every pack. All right, where's the Yankees?
And even if I would get like, you know, Bobby Meechan or Dale
Meechan or Dale Barra, I was pumped.
I'm like, I got a Yankee. Nice.
And even when I got the Mets, I was excited because, you know, I
was watching both teams every night because as you know, my
dad was a Met fan, grown up, a Dodger fan grown up, and then a
Met fan. But then as he also told us on
the fan, my last show, he's been a Yankee fan for a while.
So in a lot of ways, my dad is the kind of baseball fan that I
RIP all the time. But because he's my dad, I'm
going to spare him that RIP right there.
We get the cards and we had a couple games, right?
There was one game. Let me see if I can.
So there was one game we would actually take a card like this,
right? And I don't even know who came
up with his name. It was called Fozzzy, right?
We'd fozzie him and he would just flick it and like it was
really like, if you did it, you, you could really fire him and
they would catch velocity. But then like the physics of the
air or the wind or whatever, as they start to decelerate, they
go in all these wacky conditions.
And if you were good at it or, or directions, if you were good
at it, which I was right, because there was no randomness
was David with the next game? There was a little randomness.
This was a skill game. If you could flip it, then you
can kind of ride the curve almost like a banana bowl and
golf, which I don't want to hit but I do if I don't dribble one.
But you could actually ride it and get that extra little
distance and it's one O 1. Like you got a little line, you
got 5-6 guys there and whichever card goes the furthest, I
Fozzie, you Fozzie, my car beat you by a foot.
I pick up both cards, I get them.
That was one game. The other game, this is pretty
common, knock down. So we just line up like 6 cards
or maybe even 10 and it was the Fozzie.
What are you talking about? There was the Fozzie principle,
right? Where you'd stay not too far
back and knock down how many throws, how many Fozzies right
did it take you to knock down every single card?
And if it took me 5, but it took my buddy four, he gets all the
cards right. And then the other one, which
was a complaint complete random 1 flip, right, you'd call, I
guess you'd call heads and tails, yeah.
And heads. Heads was the front and then the
back was the stats. So you'd flip it and then if you
identify the proper flip and it's heads and you say heads or
you say tails and it's the stats, then you you get both
cards as well. But never, and I would just, you
know, I put them in my bike and I and once a night, I know a lot
of people say they did that. I didn't do that that much, but
once in a while they were laying all over wet, dirty, you know,
candy on them, chocolate milk, like I didn't attach an ounce of
value to them one bit. And I the purity that in in that
was awesome. This new, this new generation,
you know, and and they're young, 10, some eleven couple of of his
buddies who were older turn 12, like they're still pretty young.
And it is like business time, like some kids walk around with
cases and like it's a real ability to make money, which and
that's awesome. Anyway, this guy's coming
tomorrow and he's going to teach them how to grade and it's going
to be some games and stuff. So I'm looking forward to that,
but I've got to juggle that in addition to the football.
So that was a little diversion from from that.
Now let me give you the football.
All right so there's only one game where there's a big spread
here right You've got you got the Rams.
Let's gotta look at it this way the Rams still getting used to
the layout the Rams laying 10 1/2 over and I'll make each pick
in a in a moment Rams over Carolina, massive spread Rams,
you know Stafford, phenomenal year, great coach blah blah blah
Rams laying 10 to the hook that's Saturday.
Then you get the Packers 1 1/2 point favorites in Chicago.
That's gonna be sick. That is going to be sick.
What did I say? I heard a stat the other day.
I was in the car and I had and it was Evan and Tiki.
Sean may have even come up with a stat.
The last time the Bears beat the Packers, not the Packers beat
the Bears, the Bears beat the Packers was the Sunday after
Pearl Harbor. We're talking World War Two.
What? So anyway, Packers favorite 1
1/2. That's, I mean, the spread is
nominal. Flip a coin.
Then you get to Sunday Bills in Jacksonville.
If the Bills don't play well, Mcdermott's name might be on the
coaching in the coaching cycle. Jacks look great.
That's going to be a fun game. Bills 1 1/2 point favorites,
Philly. I think this spreads a little
bit too big myself, but Philly's host of the Niners -5 1/2.
All right, it's a fairly sizable spread.
But then the next one, Pats -3 and a hook over the Chargers.
And then the Texan Steelers Monday night, Houston -3 that's
an at Heinz Field. So the Steelers are home dogs.
I think that every one of these games, maybe with the exception,
I just don't see how Bryce Young is going to keep up with the
Rams. I'll make my picks now.
I think every game now, it's just not going to work out this
way. But on paper and based on match
up, anticipated match up, I think every games going into the
fourth quarter, I really do, I'm going to take the Rams.
Now, listen, if you're really betting, then I would say shave
down the half a point because I excuse me, I don't think 10 1/2
now, I don't think you'll get a surge of late Carolina money.
I just don't see that which would bring it down to if
anything, I think it goes up to 11.
So if you like the Rams, I mean, it could stay pat as well, but I
think there's more of a chance it goes up than goes down.
If you love the Rams either by the half a point we're jumping
now so you don't have to worry about 11 And then and then, you
know, I, I, I just, I don't know how you put any sort of real
money behind Carolina. I don't know how Bryce Young and
he's had some moments and and they're they're OK, but I think
the Rams whack them. The Packers.
I think the Bears are going to win this game.
It's in Chicago. I think the Bears, their
turnover ability, their coach, that there's good synergy right
now. Just trying to throw out these
cute words. Synergy, their coach.
I just think the Bears are ready to win.
I have not liked the way the Packers have looked all year.
You know, there's been a lot of smoke around Lafleur as well.
Not as much as with Horrible and Tomblin, whatever, but if that's
ugly, he might be out. So I do think the Bears win the
game. I don't think it's ugly, but I
think the Bears win. You get to Sunday.
I'm taking the Jaguars. I like the Jaguars to win this
game. Bills -1 1/2, It's in
Jacksonville, the Jags machine right now.
Offensively, it's it's, it's really interesting.
Give me the Jaguars. You know, I'm going to take the
5 1/2. If this was like 3 1/2 or even
maybe four, I would probably take Philly.
I think Philly probably finds a way to win, but I'm going to
take the Niners. Give me 5 1/2 for a coach I
respect, a franchise I respect and and my philosophy in a game
like this now, I think top to bottom, I think Philly's better.
It's in Philly, 3000 miles time difference, but whatever.
And Philly's, you know, Philly's just better slightly.
But if there's a matchup that I like and I look at the number,
I'm like, all right, 5 1/2. Do I think like, is this
inconceivable? Niners, Eagles get the ball,
Niners get a stop or Niners get the ball and Niners score.
And even if it's not a touchdown, but you know, even if
it's three, now that 5 1/2 becomes 8 1/2.
And if it is 7, well, that 5 1/2 becomes 12 1/2.
And now you're playing downhill a little bit.
You're like, OK. And then once you kind of get
that early, this one can't play so hard.
Once you get that early tone that's established that maybe
people didn't expect, now it just everything changes on a
dime. You might sit down, Philly's
going to pull away Philly's, but they don't always do that.
So give me the Niners plus the five and a half.
You know, I I got to look at the money line.
If I had a guess, I could be way off on this.
If I had a guess, maybe Niners plus 180, maybe 190, I might
throw a little something on Niners money line.
I might mess around with that. I might do both, you know, play
both sides. Pat's over the Chargers is a
really tough game from a betting perspective.
I'm not going to touch it from a picking a winner.
I'm going to pick the Pats. Great coach, Love May Harbaugh's
great coach. Well, Herbert's really good too.
But I, I, I think the Chargers cover, I think this is a
three-point game. I think it goes right down to
the end. I think the Pats find a way to
win. But I do think the Chargers
cover and then Monday night, I said this the other day, kind of
gave it away. I got the Texans.
I think, I think the Texas straight up win.
I think they're better. Steel's going nowhere.
Steel shouldn't have even won the other night against the
Ravens. They got lucky.
You know, I, I, the Texans defense and I'm happy Rogers is
playing in the playoffs. I'm a Rogers fan.
I'm a Rogers guy. He's not perfect, but I
certainly don't just rail on him because I want to rail on him.
I like the guy and he's, he's one of the best ever.
So I'm rooting for him to play well when I was rooting from
this year except week one against The Jets.
But I think the Texans defense is going to make his life hell.
Now. I think the Texans going to win.
And as I just look back at this, so give me the Rams to win.
Give me the Rams to cover. Give me the Bears to win.
Give me the Bears to cover. Give me the Jaguars to win at
home plus 1 1/2. Give me the Niners to lose a
tight one to cover the five and a hook.
Give me the Jimmy the charges to cover plus 3 1/2 paths to win.
Give me the Texans. I think even kind of win going
away, maybe from Pittsburgh. And I think that's what it's
going to take. Not that I'm rooting for it, but
I think that's what it's going to take for for Mike Tomlin to
be ousted, as crazy as that sounds.
Think about the instability, man, with with our football
teams and it's it's absolutely amazing.
And here we are like, you know, they win every year, but I got
to get rid of them. Didn't win enough.
This one from Double H, we got Triple H.
We got to get Triple H on the show first.
We'll get triple first. We got to get the guest thing up
now we got Double H and we get Triple H.
We, I think Sam and I had him once we did.
Anyway, what's up? BT Yanks the best will maybe
have maybe three more solid years with Judge before he
declines. Such a shame he's getting no
protection. I like Cody, but seven years?
Nuts. I'd rather get Tucker.
Let me tell you something right now there is not a chance in
hell 0.0 that he's getting seven years.
Yanks aren't giving them that. And if they do, they're idiots,
right? And they're not going to do it.
And then they might pivot to Tucker.
All the things I hit. If you just missed it or we just
tuned in, you can rewatch. I'm going to upload this to you
on YouTube immediately after this, as we always do.
So the the problem, as I've chronicled many times here, like
I'm seeing too many similarities.
And we all know how it ended. And I'm going to ask you a
question before I make the point.
You got to be old enough to have lived it.
But did the Knicks do right by Patrick Ewing?
Did they? Did the Knicks support Patrick
Ewing's true quest for a chance? I don't think they tried.
Did they effectively do it? The answer is no.
Think about all the times they almost beat Jordan.
Imagine if they had a real second star next to Patrick with
the defense. They probably would have won.
Instead you had, you know, I love them, but the X-Men for a
year, Kiki Vanderwey, Roe Blackman, who's back was and
Kiki's back shot, you know, we know what they had.
They didn't have enough. And Patrick Ewing to me is in a
lot of ways one of the most disrespected NBA stars of all
time. Even though Elijah want schooled
him in the finals, he just flat out destroyed him.
Patrick shot 38% didn't play well.
Elijah want clearly a better player and clearly a better
series. I said yesterday it came up.
I don't know how probably something about the Knicks from
from this team, whatever, but Elijah wants to me is one of the
10 or 11 best players in the history of basketball.
And one day I'm going to actually give you a list and and
and do some of those other shows where I record them and and have
some historical stuff that I think you guys will enjoy in
terms of content. But you know, I also think even
and that's objective. He's 9, he's 10, he's 11
whatever, but I definitely believe he is the most
underrated superstar in the history of basketball.
Hakeem. I think that Patrick is the most
disrespected superstar in the history of basketball and much
of now I know he missed the finger roll, wasn't always
clutch at the line, didn't always have good hands.
I know Patrick deficiencies as well as anybody if you watched
them, I get it. But Patrick in like the pantheon
of great NBA stars is relegated to a a, a, A tier that is
probably not commensurate with his actual talents and what he
did for the franchise because he's being judged as a non
champion. Forget about the points and the
rebounds and the blocks and this and that and the old story that
if Patrick was a champion, you don't think he'd be elevated
higher. He only be be perceived
differently, not just by Knick fans.
I mean by everybody. Ironically, though, I think it's
Knick fans will probably penalize him more than like the
national media. You talk to and even talk to a
Bird, you know, you talk to him alone.
You talk to a Barkley, you talk to an MJ.
Like Pat's obviously getting his respect.
But when you get that debate going, he's always punished for
lack of a championship. And we're going down the same
Rd. with Aaron Judge, which is much more painful.
Forget about because in baseball you can be an all timer and not
have a championship like you just can't.
It's different. Like Ernie Banks never even
played an inning in the in the playoffs for the for the Cubs,
500 home run Summit first base. But a lot of shortstop, right?
One of the great players certainly of his generation and
of all time, right? No championships, no playoffs at
bats. But that's OK because it's easy.
You know, one guy can do what he did and you just can't change
the outcome. We know that, right?
So just like if Soto doesn't get much more round him this year,
no matter what Soto does, Mets aren't going to be very good if
they don't get pitching or they don't get some bats around him.
And that's not going to be Soto's fault.
That's the reality of baseball where if you have one great
basketball player, you know, 20% of the time he's on the court in
terms of usage, rate, shot selection, those numbers skew
favorably. He takes more shots.
He plays big minutes. Offense goes through him.
That player is going to be much more, you know, involved in the
ultimate success or failure of a team.
All right, because think about this.
Knicks are down a point and it's late.
You know, you get the ball to Brunson.
Brunson either make something happen or he doesn't.
Yankees are down one run late and they got 678 coming up with
no assurances and our judge is getting up.
So I mean, there's just so many things where arrow judge can't
impact the bottom line. All right.
And because of that, he is now it's it's about the
championship. Sure.
And connecting to the championship is the is the the
the lowering of his place in the all time Yankee universe.
Now, are you telling me I never saw him play?
Obviously. Are you telling me that Yogi
Berra was better than Aaron Judge?
I mean, you're going to really tell me this.
I know it's a different world. It's a different game.
I understand. I know we always got all the
championships. I know.
Are you telling me that? No, I'll tell you one guy that I
think might have been, I think Joel DiMaggio may have been
like, when you look at how literally struck out center
field, the average retired young, like lost, like many
players lost a couple of years to service.
You know, back then Ted Williams as well, many did Bob Feller as
a pitcher. I think that I I don't have an
issue putting DiMaggio in a different stratosphere.
I just think he's different myself.
Are you telling me Jeter's better than Judge by what?
Measurable. There's no way Derek Jeter can't
shine Judge his shoes as a player.
But think about the success based on what was around there.
And of course, Derek was clutch and he performed.
It's not knocking Derek, it's just contextualizing how
difficult it is when you don't have enough around you.
Do I think that Mickey Mantle was better than Yeah, get this
in Francesca's lap, he'll have some fun with this.
And no, no bigger Mickey fan than that.
Maybe. I don't know if he'd come on.
I'd love to have Mike on. We'll talk about this.
But at some point, was Mickey Mantle discernibly better than
Aaron Judge? How?
How was he better? I'd like to know the answer.
You know, because now the judge has crossed that bridge of being
a 270 ish hitter. Whatever.
Now he's winning batting titles man.
Now he's hitting three 18322 like you are now in a
neighborhood where nobody is in baseball.
You got like 7 or 8 guys hitting 300 and he's hitting with that
power and at 1100 OPS. What?
And he should have had another MVP if the Astros weren't
cheating. So anyway, not to turn this into
a completely different subject, but it is driving me nuts that
the Yankees just continue to not support him.
And I know that they think that they're trying, and I know that
they think that they're doing right by him.
They're not what they're trying. They're just not trying hard
enough. And what they're doing is not
working. So that calls for a pivot.
And the pivot should be Bellinger and Bichette and the
pitcher. And you roll it out and you have
the best staff in baseball. You have a lineup that is going
to destroy people. And now the insertion of a
righty bat and Bichette, which is much needed by the way.
And then he get after it. And maybe you actually do get
back to the World Series and you have a better team.
You know, pop ups aren't dropped.
People don't forget to cover first base.
All those things that happened, you know, shortstop, third base,
the little flip to Jazz that doesn't happen, even though that
was probably more Volpe's follow the bad throw, whatever that
doesn't happen and they win. And then think about the
elevation in for Aaron Judge. Like, imagine if Aaron Judge and
not just baseball, if Aaron Judge wins the championship,
let's say Aaron has, I know he's going to play a lot more than
three. Well, maybe not a lot, but he's
going to play more than three years.
Obviously. I mean, his contract says that,
but let's say he has three more 3, not even going nuts.
I think that that's fair. I don't think that that's overly
ambitious. I don't think that's too
conservative. I think three more years of
Aaron Judge doing damage is the expectation.
Now imagine three more years and pile up.
Three more years. Let's say he averages 5000.
Fifty more home runs. Let's say he has 123.
Another 360 ish RB is on his on his resume.
Let's say one of the years he's over 1100 again.
The other two years you know close to 1100 but just under it.
Another MVP, maybe 2 and a World Series championship and maybe
another batting title as well. Like now forget about just
thought about where he resides in the Yankee universe or the
baseball universe. I don't think it's irresponsible
to talk about is Howard Judge being the one of the greatest
athletes of all time. I will do that deeper dive down
the road. But that's how important this
offseason is obviously to us as fans, you as fans, we want the
Yankees to win. But to the guy that it most
intimately impacts, the superstar who is watching a a
roster that is just less than and he's seen other people go
for it. And he's just too classy and has
too much character to push back on that.
I know we stepped up for for Bellinger with support, you
know, but his style is not to rattle the cage.
And he's just taking it on the chin.
Take it like a big boy, take it like a leader, take it like a
man, you know, And I don't know. I don't know how what I would do
if that was me. Where I'm looking around, I'm
seeing, I don't see a whole lot of stuff around me.
All right, let me get one more here.
You did. Did I see the.
What is this the the commissioner want to realign the
teams and they had two teams. Yeah, I saw.
I saw some of it. I didn't hear it.
I saw some of the transcripts. They actually played some of it
last night on sports. I know Craig and CMAC had them
in. Manfred was in studio.
Yeah, I mean, to me, Manfred's just not a good commissioner.
I don't, I don't think he is. I think he's a really good #2 I
think he's well attentioned. I think he's a gentleman, all
those that I mean that. But I don't think he's a good
commissioner. Much like I don't think that
Adam Silver's a good commissioner.
You're either A1 or you're a 2. And if you're a two in the in
the seat of a one, that's generally not good.
If you're a one and you're in the seat of a two, well, if the
guy who really is the one is weak, that's not a good dynamic.
And if you are a 1 and in the seat of a 2 and the guy who is
the one is an equal one, well, that could be powerful or it
could be toxic. If you can work together and
align yourselves the right way and the number 2, not to try to
subvert the number one that that could work.
But I have always been of the whether it's a a new business
endeavor in the tech world, whatever it might be, whether
it's somebody in office, whether it's the president, whether it's
a vice president, whether it's somebody more locally.
If you are really a number 2 and you are unjustly or positioned
as a number one, your sport or your business will be less than
it should be. Yeah, I, I heard some of the
things he said and I think some are interesting.
By the way, you know, about the realignment.
The one thing that I caught my and I, I go back and forth on
this and, and the whole, you know, when realignment comes and
I, I get expansion as it should. I think there's a lot of fertile
markets out there. I think Montreal 2 point O could
work. I think Charlotte could work.
I mean, I wouldn't touch Portland myself.
I don't think that that would work for a lot of reasons.
The weather, whatever Tennessee, there's some really viable
markets out there that that I I would investigate and eventually
they're going to get there as that that's common.
That's not it. That's when but you got to get
32 makes it more uniform, makes it easier.
You know, the divisions break it up.
There's days where I'm like Yanks and Mets in the same
division would be awesome. And then there's days where I'm
like, yeah, it's going to be a little overkill.
Listen, I love the Subway Series, but you know the Subway
Series. It's just not what it was.
I'm not saying there aren't moments like when Castillo drops
a rod's pop up or, you know, when Bellinger big step play in
left field and and guns him out of first base.
I mean, they're Yankee highlights.
Of course, we'll Maliki. There you go.
You want one Maliki tied up the tied up the Yankees and knots
there in the first one. What, 97, 96?
Wait, not whatever was, I don't know.
It's everything's blended together at this point.
I do like it, but it's become too common.
And when something's too common, it's kind of like, but then
there's days where you're like, could you imagine the Yanks and
the Mets and in the same division in September?
And it's one or two game separation and, you know, based
on the other. And this would happen at some
point based on the circumstances, Not like, wow,
whoever doesn't win the series or whoever doesn't win the
divisions or wild card team. But no, like one of those teams
are on the precipice of not being a wild card team.
But if they don't win the division, it's I mean, it would
be bonkers. I, I think it would actually, I
think the city would implode. I don't know if we can handle
it. I don't sound what I would have
imploded if we had to deal with that.
Oh, my God. All right, So I'm gonna wrap it
up, man. I gave you my football picks.
Thank you very much for the question.
There. I see them all.
I don't want to just ramble like the thing that's a little
tricky. I'm reading in real time.
I don't want to just, you know, sit here idly and read and not
have anything going on. So, you know, I'll selectively
go through a few. I think it is easier.
By the way, if you use the hashtag, ask BT where you
preface the question. If you just want to comment,
hey, you love the show or this or that, that's fine.
But if you really have a question as we move forward with
this, if you can use the hashtag, I can see it.
It's more visible. It will be more visible to my to
my producer moving forward. There's also on the YouTube
page. It's just an SBT.
It lives live. Any questions about the show,
about the industry, about the direction of the show, about
some teams, whatever, Then you have to be about sports.
I mean, as you can tell, I'll take some side turns and talk
about other stuff. Enjoy the football, all right,
Have an awesome weekend. If something does break over the
weekend, a Bellinger AI mean I'm waiting for something to break
where I could jump on and and not go out of 10, which I'll
always do. But come on, I'm raring to go.
I want something good here. I want to I want to I want more
definitive. We're not going to get it with
the giants. I was going to say I want more
definitive, but you're not going to get that.
So that's unrealistic. But eventually we will.
And it might not be, you know, the night before when I'm
sleeping and then I'm getting on at 10:00 in the morning and
doing it very well might be at 7:00 at night.
Boom, in the office fired up. Let's go.
Same If the Yankees sign somebody, the Mets sign
somebody, something happens. I am waiting to utilize this.
I'm excited to do it so, but I can't force it.
Like it's got to be, it's got to be a real thing.
And then obviously as the Yanks and the Mets store playing
bigger Knick, bigger Knick games, I'll start to do some
live stuff after a big St. John's game when I get back from
the game, maybe I'll mess around, do some stuff like that.
But Spartan wish everybody an awesome weekend stream was was
popping today at BT unleashed on YouTube.
Go check it out. Follow me on Twitter.
We're going to also stream this on on Instagram.
That's coming. That's actually pretty easy.
I just don't I don't want to do it yet, but eventually I will.
That's coming. That's it.
So have a great weekend and check it out.
Hit the content, like it, subscribe it, spread the word.
Appreciate you guys. You know that and I will talk to
you Monday if nothing goes down. Otherwise, I will talk to you
when something does go down. All right, we'll see you.