What's up, everybody? All right, first of all, it is
amazing to me the amount of misplaced anger today from
Yankees and Met fans. You guys sound utterly pathetic.
You tripping all over yourself, and you're not even really
hitting the mark there. What you guys are complaining
about really sounds so small. I get it.
All right. Yeah.
The Dodgers got more. Dodgers got another toy.
Fantastic for the Dodgers. Did the Dodgers won 103 games
last year? I know they won the World
Series. They did not.
So to me, the anchors misplaced. The mark is missed.
What you should really be mad at, really, if you think about
this, is the Yankees and the Mets inability to actually build
a team the right way. Because if they were able to do
that, they wouldn't have to go into every single offseason try
to save themselves, which is what the Yankees or the Mets do
every single offseason. All Mets, we got to get
something. Let's give 800 gazillion dollars
to Juan Soto, beg him to come, give him a suite, give his mom a
clothing line, get the family and everything, whatever they
want. Come on in, Juan.
We'll do whatever you need. And then the Yankees, you know,
and it worked out, at least Soda was very good.
But of course, Max Freed, hey, here's $200 million because we
haven't developed enough starting pitching.
And Jared Cole, somebody else, by the way, that we bought,
who's also awesome. But we think that he's hurt
because of the previous year. Let's get this reinforcement
just in case. Hey, here's a concept for
everybody. Honestly, if you really want the
Yanks and the Mets to be able to swim with the Dodgers, how about
you develop some players that are actually good?
And instead of having a shortstop in the Bronx who hits
two O 9 that gets on base 28% of the time that boots the ball
suddenly all over the field. How about you actually develop,
hopefully develop Lombard the right way and he's actually more
like wit than like Volpe. And if he was, and if he is, you
think the complaints will be as loud as they've been?
The answer's no. We know the answer.
The reason the volume's so loud is because number one, a lot of
you guys are jealous, which I, I mean, I get that to an extent.
We all enjoy a hot stove and right now there's not even a
little tiny charcoal. That's all the BBQ.
Forget about some beautiful flame, you know, I know it's
quiet and I understand both of these teams got a lot of work to
do when both of these teams right now we're going nowhere.
Yankees, I mean, if the Yankees get Bellinger, they'll probably
be a playoff team if they're starting pitching is really
good. And right now the Mets look like
a 75 win team, right. But maybe just to keep this
going here because that that's really the central theme.
You guys are complaining about the wrong stuff.
How's not cheap, Cohen's not cheap.
The problem is the Yanks and the Mets don't operate as well as
some of these other teams that actually draft develop.
And then all the hype that you hear about when they get to the
major leagues, they're actually what they were supposed to be.
You want some more examples? I don't know.
Is this the year that Alvarez is going to actually do something?
Is it going to get hurt three more times?
Is it going to hit 220? Or is it going to be the stuff
that everybody told me about who was at one point the number one
prospect, not just in the Mets organization, the number one
prospect in all the baseball? Would it stun you now?
I I hope it doesn't go this way, but would it stun you if in two
years Alvarez is gone? Like you're like if I had to put
money right now, It is a tough read.
I'm not saying it's an easy call, but based on what I've
seen, I probably put money on on on him flaming out rather than
actually meet meeting and capturing the you know, the the
accolades that somebody thought would follow him.
You know what I mean? Hey Mets instead of having to
give montage $16,000,000 a year like a bunch of idiots or you
know trying to re spark or get certain guys in the lab like
Manaya. And I know it worked out the
first year but how about these young kids and and maybe they
are in the early stages of doing this.
You know, I love the claim, but until Sprout and tongue, if
they're even here, maybe they're Dell for Peralta, whatever,
which which I would be OK with on some level.
And you want to save one for school but as well.
But like if they're not Dell and they're for the first year that
they each make 20222528 starts, let's see if they're the real
deal. You know, instead of giving
Nimmo some idiotic 7 year deal who was a flawed player, instead
of having no center fielder, I don't know, maybe Bench becomes
that guy. We'll see.
Instead of having the Antos who doesn't have a position.
OK, You know, I mean, how about you actually run out some
players that are actually ready to do damage at the Major League
level? Hey, Yanks, you know, how about
you give Dominguez a chance to actually hit righty?
All right? Maybe he can.
All right. And that's another problem
because he was the overhyped Yankee prospect, like a long
list of those before him. Kind of like, like I think
Spencer Jones is going to be, you know, So I just think right
now when you look at everything that's going on and it's, it's,
it really is irresponsible from the outside looking.
And Kyle Tucker $60 million is a freaking joke, man.
It really is. But like the petty, the
pettiness and the jealousy, you guys got a I think that you need
to reach channel the, the energy, the anger, the
confusion, the disappointment and actually hit the target that
deserves it. How about you start getting on
your own or a little bit more Mets fans instead of tweeting
out stupid stuff. Oh, wow, what a witty tweet.
Oh, let's make a reference with the Pope in the smoke.
Now that that's that's cute, right?
That's funny. And that works if you know that
he's coming to the Mets. But when you put that out there
and then three hours later he's a Dodger, you look like an ass
is really what it comes down to right.
So guys, what's happened here, right?
I'm fired up today. I really am cuz I'm in the car
last night covered up. My son sprains his ankle at his
at his basketball game. So I go when I get like an ace
bandage, whatever. So I'm in the car and, and I pop
on the fan, I hear loogie. It's funny.
It just transitioned to talking about Tucker and then they broke
in and then the news broke. So the timing was really good.
I, I don't think that that I was, I was kind of home by the
time like I didn't stay with a very long because by the time
they said it, I was basically in my driveway.
I don't think that I, I heard them say the number.
I wasn't surprised that he's going to the Dodgers.
Why would you be? Everybody's going to the Dodgers
right now. But when I actually saw $60
million, you know, $240 / 4 years with opt outs and $30
million in deferral. I mean, listen, you guys are
really just pissed off at the wrong stuff.
Dodgers have a ton of money. They spend it, they reinvest it,
they win and everybody's out there crying like babies.
I, I, I just, I, I really don't want to hear it.
It sounds weak. It sounds pathetic.
You got to pick yourself up. I mean to, to quote the great
unkillable speech, stop walking around work like a loser.
I mean, get your act together, man.
Let's go. You guys sound like a bunch of I
don't know what you sound like, not all of you, but jeez, guys,
what's happened? Long ago, there was a point
right where where New York was the epicenter of like that star
power. And it probably started, if I
had to take a guess, Clyde Frazier, Joe Namath, right?
They just transcended the city. They transcended the country.
They transcended the domestic sports world, right?
And there was a point where if you played for the Yankees,
right? That's lesser extent, obviously.
You know, that 86 team had a lot of lot of commercials.
I remember Daryl doing milk commercials and Darling doing
deodorant. Then like the Mets were
everywhere, subways and buses and they were making money off
the field. So they they they captured that
profile because the Mets were an amazing team in 86 6 right?
But it's usually a Yankee thing. And and then from those guys
that I mentioned, whether Clyde or or Joe, I think really the
next great one was Reggie. And at that point when Reggie
came here in 76 and for even Catfish.
But when the free agent started to flock to the Yankees right
that point in time, Madison Ave. And if this changed 1012 years
ago, maybe more was not Mobile. Like if you wanted to maximize
your earning power off the field or off the court or off the ice,
whatever it might be, you know, it really behooved you to be in
New York because you're just going to make more money.
You're going to be plastered all over time Square.
You're going to make the extra money.
You're going to be pimping out the watches, pimping out the
suits, pimping out the restaurants, pimping out the
cars, all the all the spoils that came with being a New York
athlete. Nobody needs New York anymore.
When are you guys going to understand this?
So much has changed, not just economically.
Let me ask you this right now. I love, I love New York.
Well, I love what New York used to be and I love really, at its
core with many of us still, what New York represents.
All right, I was born in Brooklyn.
I went to Manhattan for high school.
And then obviously early in my career, I bounced around.
But you know what pumps through my veins?
It's New York blood, right? But even I, and I was able to
identify this a long time. New York's become an absolute
shit hole. It's an absolute shit hole.
So like, why? If you're a pro athlete, I'm not
saying there's no issues in LA or some of these other markets,
but New York has become a dump. It is dirty, it is crowded, it
is expensive, and it smells. It smells like piss and it
smells like weed. All right.
So I don't know if somebody was offering me, I think nobody's
going to give me $30 million to do anything, but whatever.
That number would be commensurate with an incredible
content set. Although now with content, I can
obviously do this in my home, whatever, But you get the point.
Like conventional radio, the way radio used to be, right?
If somebody was going to give me some massive amount of money to
go to and I had the option, right, stay here or go there.
I mean, how do you not calculate the pluses of going out West
every day you wake up instead of putting on a parka jacket.
And you know, I actually, I, I dropped my kids off at school.
I was wearing shorts today. But so I do that in the winter,
but most of you don't. But you can just throw on flip
flops and golf shorts. And as you're driving the kids
to school out West, you pass a bunch of palm trees instead of
the remnants of snow or ice or salt that discolors your
driveway. I mean, or sand.
I mean, come on, guys. Like it's, it's really, it's,
it's nowhere near what it used to be.
So if it's, if we can admit that and we're and we're very
territorial. We are.
We're, of course, we're proud where we're from.
We always want to elevate New York.
And I want New York to get its act together more than anybody
on every level, right? I want the crime to go down.
I want the nonsense to end. I want the streets to be clean.
I want New York and New Jersey to be what it was when I was
growing up for my kids, if they elect to stay here.
But if given the adult choice, let me see, let, let me see, I
could go. And I know that the, you know,
Metropolitan Park is eventually coming.
It's going to look good. Let me see.
I can get in my car and leave my 10/12/15 eighteen, $20 million
mansion in Long Island, whatever it might be, and it's beautiful.
Or my 1012 fifteen, $18 million mansion in the Alpine New
Jersey, which is where CC lived when it was with the Yankees and
other prominent Yankees live there or go Connecticut and I
can and I'm driving the Yankee Stadium now what's more
appealing driving and I love the Bronx.
It's not a knock. This is just the reality of the
of the way of, of what we have all right, the logistics and the
optics of our area. Would you rather sit?
And now traffic in LA sucks as well.
So that's not a great example. But driving to the Bronx, right,
all right, where you know, where there's just, it's, it's hard to
get around and it's cold and in April it's 39° at night when
it's the 7th inning. Same with May, same with 8
September, same in October. Or for the same amount of money,
would you rather go to LA? Like, this is not a tough
decision, guys. And the same thing, not to knock
the Yankees. I love the Yankees, but the same
thing. Would you rather, you know, come
in from Long Island in your $500,000 car in your 15
thousand, $15 million mansion and drive through chop shops in
Queens? I mean, what would you rather
do? Oh, yeah.
By the way, you're going to have the best chance to win.
All right, So stop feeling sorry for yourself.
It really the pity party. It's just I don't want to hear
it anymore. You know, if the Yankees or the
Mets did a better job of doing what they're supposed to do,
draft the right guys, develop the right guys and then guys.
And this is the point to to then accent the roster with that big
free agent edition, let's say in three years, like, you know, the
Mets, let's say Benj is really good and I hope he is.
And Beatty keeps taking that step.
And Soto's obviously a beast. And and I don't know, Jeff
Williams, if he's not traded, like these guys come up and they
pop like and sprouts good. And Tom is still here.
And then Mcclain's a beast. And there's like one guy,
whether it's a catcher, whatever position that like the Mets
needed Gary Carter right when they got him in the mid 80s from
the Expos. Keith was the first piece to get
it going. Gary was the final punctuation.
We're ready to win, even though they didn't win his first year.
Then what if the next year, 86, right?
And if there was a wild card back in 85, they probably would
have wanted that as well. The point is you don't build the
team through free agency. You just don't.
It's not the way to do it. You want to do that in the NBA,
go out there. You want to bring Durant here,
you want to get LeBron and Wade and Bosh, be my guest.
Go for it. Because the NBA, when you've got
one or two guys who represent 40% of the people on the court
and probably 55 to 60% usage rate in terms of shots taken,
well, guess what? You're going to have more
success. No guarantee the Dodgers win
anything this year, so I'm not going to get wrapped up in this.
It really it's just over the top.
Oh my God, it's so bad for suck it up.
Why hear about it so bad for baseball?
You know, now there have been a few things that I do think that
have been a little misrepresented, to be fair, like
you hear a lot of, well, this is what the Yankees used to do.
I know it's really not what the Yankees used to do, you idiot,
if that's what you think. What the Yankees used to do is
the Yankees used to draft, used to develop.
And that's why they had a guy who should probably be in the
Hall of Fame ish in in center field, a guy who is in the Hall
of Fame at shortstop, a guy who came out and was three times
better than Goose, who is in the Hall of Fame in MO.
And then you accent it with an A rod 1/3 or Teixeira or Tina with
a trade at first base. Oh, yeah, By the way, the guy
who was behind the dish, a switch hit and catcher with
power who should get a lot more Hall of Fame love.
And he doesn't. And it's sad with Posada, they
were all drafted, dude. Andy Pettit, big game.
Oh, who's taking the ball tonight?
Oh, that's the guy that we drafted in the 19th round.
So like, it's just it's really high.
It's not true, It's not accurate, it's not applicable.
It's a distortion of the reality.
Now, I will I will say because I'm always in the business of
being fair and being objective here, like the 2009 championship
was, was much more of the variety of what the Dodgers are
doing. Like let's spend the quarter of
a billion dollars and let's go out there and get an ace and get
a switch hit and beats first baseman and let's get another
guy in Burnett who we can plug in and and be very good as as he
was. But all the other stuff like,
man, oh man, I, I just don't get it.
And, and I'll tell you what, Cohen's got to stop with the
stupid tweets that I said that before.
That was an asinine tweet. It's a money tweet if you know
that he's coming. It's an asinine tweet if you
don't. And then he doesn't.
Like, you just look like a clown owner at that point, you really
do. So one guy's looking like a
clown and one guy's probably still in Italy.
Drink whatever he's doing. He's not paying attention to
what the Yankees are doing. I don't think in terms of how
like enough, there's other things to get angry at.
Not the Dodgers. You know, the Dodgers guys are
operating now. Of course this will lead to a
prolonged work stoppage which will ruin all of our lives in
terms of watching baseball. So the Dodgers are saying fuck
it, like the rules are going to change and until they do, we're
going for it and we're going for it and we're getting this guy
and that guy and this guy and that guy.
And while the doesn't guarantee a World Series because as I said
before, the Dodgers won 93 games and during that had a lot of
injuries. I get that.
But during the regular season, the Yankees won more, Toronto
won more, they both won 94. The the the Phillies won more.
The Brewers won 97 or 98. They won four or five more
games. So like, I understand big
picture, it obviously slants and distorts the competitive
balance. Not a good look, But they're not
doing anything wrong and you guys are acting like they are.
That's what I don't understand. Like it's OK to be pissed.
I mean, there's and I'm I'm pissed at the Knicks.
I'll get to that in a little bit.
They got a mess last night was utterly embarrassing and the
final straw for me with the Knicks.
I'll get to that final straw, soft final straw.
So I mean, guys, you look at the finances, all right, Otani 10
years 700 mil bets 12 years 365 Yamamoto, Yamamoto 12 years 325
member that would sell Yamamoto 12 years 325 Tucker four years
240. That is insane.
You got Freeman on a steal, six years, $1.60.
Snell's making 182 / 5. You got Will Smith, the catcher,
10 years, 140. Glass now is making five years,
five years, 136. Like, I mean, come on, man.
It's, it's, it's only a problem if the Yankees and the Mets
don't take care of their home. Like if there's something wrong
with your backyard fence, don't critique your neighbors for for
theirs looking sloppy if they got a sloppy driveway like the
brick and like, oh man, she probably looks kind of looks
kind of ugly, but you got a broken window.
What the hell are you complaining about?
And right now the Yankees and the Mets have a lot of broken
windows. It's not my fault.
It's not your fault. It's their fault.
It's not the Dodgers fault and it's not even Major League
Baseball's fault. So I just had it, man, I, I
really had it. I I can't stand energy that is
channeled improperly and that's what's happening right now.
The energy is being improperly channeled.
So it is my mission to re channel improperly.
Now I'll tell you something that I think that you really should
be pissed about and there's nothing you can do about it
unfortunately. But this would be with merit.
I believe that I still think the Yankees will get Bellinger,
although if if Boris thinks that just because of what the Dodgers
did with Tucker for 60 million died making 20 more $1,000,000
than average. Judge you out of your mic 60.
Yeah, he's 20. He's going to hit 273.
He's going to miss 32 games with a with a wrist injury or a a
quadriceps pole, right. He's going to have an 840 OPS
and Tucker's good, but and it would have been good for the
Mets, right? That's that's why I said, you
know, and and I give the Mets credit for going out and
aggressively trying to get him, but he ain't Judge, he ain't
Soto. I mean, let's not get this
twisted. Not Otani.
He's not Mike Trout from a couple of years ago.
My God almighty. It is really distorted there.
But they are playing within the rules.
They are breaking no rules. They are pushing boundaries.
They're also incredibly more creative than the Yankees and
the Mets. All the deferrals they were
really, you know, the first, I mean, I know that they were
deferral. I mean, Bonilla, there were
other deferrals in the past, but that was the most aggressive one
with Otani, which allowed them to do anything, everything that
they that they want. But if I'm a Mets fan today,
like if I'm a Yankee fan, which I am, I'm not, I'm not really
pissed because I still think that they get Bellinger.
But again, if Boris comes, oh man, look what Tucker got.
All right there, Hal. All right, cash instead of the
5150 with a couple of 155 with a few opt outs that we've been
talking about. Well, now I'm going to need 7 to
210 get that click. I'm not even continuing the
discussion. Goodbye.
Go wherever you want to go. You're not that good, Bellinger,
and neither is Tucker. But that's not.
That's our issue. He's gone.
But here's what I would be mad. I'd be too.
I'd be angry right now with two things.
First the Mets and then the Yankees.
The Mets, This is a legitimate, this is a real gripe, guys,
really real gripe. By the way, I see that.
I see the text coming in here. We're going to fire those up in
a bit. I'll get to the next disaster.
Thank you guys for hanging out. BT Unleashed.
I'm just Red Bell, but I have time to say hello.
I had to jump right into this. So I like, if I am a Mets fan
and I see this happen, I'm sitting there saying, wait,
whoa, whoa, whoa, wait a second. Let me get this straight.
You initially offered $50 million, which was creative,
better, you know, shorter terms, more on the AAV, which I think
is smart. I've always subscribed to that.
You initially came at 50, and then you very willingly went to
55, which is astronomical. That's crazy, right?
So I can't say the Mets were being cheap.
I can't say that at all. You were willing to give him him
Tucker, that kind of money, and you wouldn't give Pete Alonso
16170? Are you crazy?
I'm not even a huge Pete Alonso fan, but I can promise you this.
Pete's going to play more games this year than Tucker.
He's going to hit more home runs this year than Tucker.
He'll probably have more RB is than Tucker.
All right, Tucker's a better, a better fielder.
He's not great, but he's better than Pete is.
You know, even though it's not the same position.
He's better on the bases. He'll probably steal 1718 bases.
Pete won't. The OPS fairly negligible, maybe
one guy, 851-848-7839 in the ballpark.
I think Pete's going to have more RB is, you know, even
though more guys will be on base in front of Tucker if he's
batting 4th, which it looks like he will.
So that would drive me crazy. Like even me who was for two
years have been saying I would not invest long term.
And Pete, for all the reasons I'm not going to reset them, you
know what they are. But that was always my position.
I never wavered from that once I was ultimately proven right, at
least in terms of the Mets mindset, because they allowed
him to go. They would have let him go last
year if you guys didn't start clamoring an amazing day, which
I give you credit for doing. You basically pressured Cohen
and Sterns bringing it back, right?
So that would drive like that would hurt me.
It would bother me from a baseball point of view for the
reasons that just chronicled, but it would bother me from a
sentimental point of view. Like you just so flippantly
said. I wish the checkbook.
Here's 50. Here's 55 for a guy who wasn't
done a damn thing for your organization and you couldn't
muster up the 160 or 170, let alone the 150, something that he
got from the Orioles. You couldn't do that for a guy
that you drafted and broke your, your, your, your.
I mean, not that the Mets have some great home run record, but
he is the all time Met home run leader.
Got me a little something little.
You know what? He's still going to hit a bunch
more. He's going to hit 500 when he's
all said and done. That would drive me.
I don't, I don't think that that I would be able to reconcile now
if they didn't go aggressively after Tucker at all.
And they just kind of laid out and and they that that it's
different. It's a different processing
because now there's nothing for me to say.
Whoa, whoa, you, you did this, but you weren't willing to do
that. So that would drive me nuts from
a Mets perspective. Let me tell you what's bothering
me from a Yankee perspective aside from that.
The fact that they haven't done a damn thing yet.
Aside from that little thing. See, everybody's talking about
the Dodger brand, right? And it is as powerful a brand as
there is in sport. It's the most powerful brand.
It's more powerful than any NFL team and the NFL is a monster,
especially with Mahomes hurt now, the Chiefs out of it, Brady
gone, the Dodgers, and I'm not even talking about valuation,
final money, even though they're up there as well.
The Dodgers are the number one sporting brand in our country.
Now, I'm not going to say the world.
There's some massive soccer teams clearly in our country.
Dodgers won no one close, right? Just branding, imaging and why
I'm mad at the Yankees. And what bothers me about the
Yankees is that the Yankees used to be the Dodgers in terms of
branding. And I'm not even saying the
money. I'm talking about for a long
time, multiple decades, right? Certainly before I was born.
Then of course, you know, when I'm old enough to really become
a big time Yankee fan, they basically suck.
And then obviously we know what they did. 9698992000, get back
in O1, get back in O3, win it in O9.
Like we know what the Yanks have done, right?
Their branding was platinum. It was pristine, It was
flawless. It's one thing if you lose a
game, like, all right, broken, bad base, hit Mariano,
Diamondbacks, shit happens. It's baseball.
Hey, they're getting paid too. They got Randy Johnson, they got
Curt Schilling, they got a good manager, they got some good
players. It sucks, but it's baseball I
can live with on the field, on the court results when something
like that happens that that there's a little bit of
randomness there. Mariano never gave that up, you
know. Well, I mean, Sandy Allenmore
back in 97, but who's really counting one or two to big
Poppy, But you know what I mean? And it you got clipped by a team
that was a little bit better than you and maybe wanted a
little bit more. Pettit got rocked.
It happens, right? It's baseball.
Not talking about that. The Yankees allowed somebody to
come into what was their home and make themselves incredibly
comfortable and then each year take over a room.
First they come in the living room.
This looks good. I hang out here for a while.
Fireplace on massive screen. Beautiful island.
Couple of good bottles of wine. I think I'll hang out here for a
little bit. I like this.
Then they start wandering around.
Oh, look at the master bedroom. Make myself at home as well.
Oh, look at the man cave. It's beautiful.
They got a couple of play rooms for the kids.
Look at his backyard. Look at all this property.
Yeah, I think I'll take the house over.
And you will let them. You let them.
So that's what the Yankee fan should be pissed off.
Not that all the nickel and diamond with Bellinger or they
came 40 or $50 million short on Soto.
No, that's the little teeny stuff.
I mean, not that Soto's tiny, but you know what I mean?
Like that's evaluating micro baseball things.
I'm talking about the biggest macro evaluation that you can
have. The Yankees were the number one
brand and they allowed somebody to take that from them.
That's what they allowed under their watch.
So congratulations on that. How's that feel?
That's quite the accomplishment, huh?
I do think that I do think that having a villain is good.
I've always thought that like when the warriors got Durant
right, I mean, obviously Knicks were nowhere near a
championship, but and I'll watch every NBA Finals no matter who's
playing. But like you, even though I like
Curry, like you, you there were so many people that were rooting
for them to lose because odds too easy and they got this guy.
They got that guy and now you got Durant, one of the best
scorers of all time. You know, same thing.
How easy was it to root against LeBron in the bubble when he
pairs up with Anthony Davis, right?
Or even before that when he pairs up with Bosh and Wade?
Not one, not 2, not 3, not 4. Get over yourself, buddy.
The decision, you know, like, but I think that that's good for
the product. I think that that, you know, the
clicks go through the roof, the eyeballs start to really focus
in. And even if you don't have a
vested interest, like I'll be honest with you when you know,
you know how much I love baseball, but I'm not sitting
like once the Yankees are knocked out now the Dodgers and
the Blue Jays was happened to be a great World Series.
And there's been so many World Series that I've enjoyed just as
a baseball fan without the Yankees involved and even the
Mets, you know, 1586, etcetera. Yeah, that's it.
And and I usually watch the majority of the World Series.
But as I've gotten older, you know, a lot of things with the
kids, a lot of things going on with work, just, you know,
you've got to kind of prioritize.
And because of what the Dodgers were let this before Tucker like
and got, you know, Toronto just knocked out the Yankees.
So who the hell am I rooting for?
I'm like, man, do I want to really see the Yankees rival who
just clipped us and made us look like AJB team, what a World
Series? Or do I want to see the big bad
ass Dodgers win or lose, depending upon how you look at
it. And and that does create great
theater. It creates tension, it creates
debate and all those things add up.
It's good for business. It really is.
So when you have a villain list sport, generally you've got a
sport that really doesn't have a ton of juice and listen, I'll
make my NFL picks later on the show, give you the picks against
the spread. All right, start looking at some
of these comments as well. I do listen, do what you want.
I know the Super chat stand out more.
It doesn't really matter if you do that.
I really don't care. But they do stand out more.
But like even like, does the NFL really have a villain right now?
Like do you hate the Broncos? Do you hate the bills?
And I don't mean like all The Jets fan.
I'm I'm jealous of the bills. How the hell do you hate Josh
Allen? I love the guy.
I wish he was mine. Like, how do you hate the maybe
you don't like Sean Payton going back to the, you know, a little
arrogant little, you know, whatever.
Some of the cheating, getting suspended.
All right, I forgot about that. Basically the minute he came
back. I don't hold it against him.
He's a great coach and I think he's good for the game.
But are the Denver Broncos some universal villain?
No, I mean, do you hate Seattle? I mean, all right, it's going to
be fun watching Darnold and he's got the oblique injury, by the
way, which could be an issue. That's a big spread.
Seattle -7 But do you hate Seattle?
Like to me, they're like, I'm almost apathetic towards
Seattle. Seattle means nothing in my
world. Zero, right?
Do you hate the Niners? They no, I don't hate the
Niners. Do you hate the Texans?
But that's a really good story. You know, coach has been there a
couple of years, a young quarterback who played awful
against Pittsburgh. But I mean, they're on the come.
That's a classy coach. That's a well run organization.
It's the best defense in football.
It's a great fan base. I don't know.
I can't conjure up any any false hate towards the Texans.
Now the Pats, the Pats a little different, but I don't I don't
hate Drake May and I don't hate Rabel.
I mean, I'd I'd like to grow to hate them because that probably
means The Jets do something and they play some meaningful games
at some point. But I don't go into that game
watching that on. That's on Sunday.
Yeah, that's the first game on Sunday.
I don't go and I hope the Patriots lose.
Let me be clear about that. But it's not like I don't
despise them. So I don't go in that game
disposed to hating them like I did Brady or some other teams
along the way. And do you hate the Rams or do
you hate the Bears? How do you hate the Bears?
I mean, they're a tortured fan base, kind of like The Jets.
I mean, really, if you think about it, think about how few
good quarterbacks they've had in their in their existence.
McMahon's one of the best they ever had.
He wasn't even that good. Without that defense, that Bears
team would have won six games. McMahon, like McMahon's legacy
is incredibly heightened. Like I know with the headbands
and the earrings and the right in the commissioner's name on
it, throw like 18 touchdowns a year.
He was like people talk about he's Joe Montana or Jim Kelly
from that era. Get the hell out of here.
Boomer was twice as good. I mean, Boomer was good.
Boomer was twice as good as him, right?
So you can't hate the Bears. And again, you don't hate the
Rams, so when there's that lack of, and again, I'm using the
term hate pertaining to sport, obviously there's just a little
bit less juice and it's not beholding all of the Dodgers to
acquiesce and hold up the velvet ropes.
Yeah, you guys can come to the club.
Nah, man, this is club one of one.
You ain't allowed in here. It's your it's your job to find
a way to grease the bouncer to get in.
I'm not letting you in. Like, if you find your way in
here, we'll have a good time. We'll party, drink some flow, do
a little dancing. But this is our club.
The other, the other bar down the street.
That's where the Yankees could go.
That, that, that little Irish pub, that that's where the Mets
could go, you know, All right, that's it.
Phillies. You, you find that little, you
know, you find that bar slash restaurant.
Same with the Braves. You know, maybe Toronto's a
little different, but same with the Red Sox, same with the San
Francisco Giants. We got the club all right and we
have everything that we want in the club, and it's up to you to
get in. That's it.
So I am just really, really confused.
Really. First I was bothered, but now
I'm still confused like why so many of you seem not all of you,
but so many of you seem to be missing the boat, whining,
complaining, you know, again walking around work like a
loser. Somebody once said, I don't know
man, I I really just don't get it.
Let's get some of these all right, let's go at Timmy Thomas
Fugazi, Timmy. Hopefully Timmy's not a Fugazi
at Tim Thomas O 580 competitive competitive bouncing is is
broken in baseball. Dodgers making an All Star team
reminds me of the 20/17/2018 warriors.
All right, well, that's great. Do something about it.
Like I said draft better players develop better players would if
you're a Yankee fan, we'll stick with them for a SEC If you're a
Yankee fan and let's say they retain Bellinger and again, I do
think they will unless Boris gets ridiculous then I just then
I'm done. I'm not even going to engage him
any further if he believes last night really radical.
I don't mean by a few mil here, a little, you know, extra
signing bonus here, one more opt out, whatever.
But if he thinks that that's going to really change the tone
of our negotiations, you're sorely mistaken.
Again, he's not that good. All right, so, but I do think
you'll be here and I'll be happy because the the things he does
well, they need all right, you need another Ralph fielder.
You know, if Rice isn't hitting lefties, you need a first
baseman anyway, let's assume Bellinger's back.
Imagine Bellinger with Dominguez.
What he was supposed to be a switch hitting speed power
demon. Instead he sucks in left field.
They never let him hit righty now.
Now, I do think that he's better than many of you think, like hit
260, stole 20 bases, hit 9 or 10 home runs, limited play, you
know, had a couple of really good months and still figuring
things out. But he's certainly not what we
thought he would be. But imagine if he was so you'd
have Judge, you'd have Bellinger, you'd have this beast
in left field, right? Imagine if Volpe was actually
like his play reflected that of a first round pick and instead
of hitting 212 at a strikeout machine and swinging for the
fences and then suddenly becoming a poor defensive
shortstop, which he did stabilize as the year went on.
Not trying to go nuts, I'm going to remain accurate here even
when I'm in the middle of a tirade.
But the guys on base, 28% of the time that's untenable.
That's as bad as it gets. I mean, so imagine if the
shortstop that you drafted, imagine if he was he's not never
going to be wit. But you know, let's say 1718
bombs, which he gives you and let's say 35 double S.
Let's say 280 something hitter. Let's say 35 steals.
You know what I mean? Let's say he was that kind of
player, which, I mean, at this point, you'd probably have to
say he's not going to be, unfortunately, you know?
And then how would you feel about this team?
A little bit better, right? But because the Yankees haven't
done a good job of drafting and developing, you sit here and you
say, how the hell are we going to win?
You're not. Yanks aren't going to win, Not
going to win, and the same with the Mets and Mets have no
chance. I mean, unless they unless we
wake up in the next week and they pivot and they get
Bichette, which is not going to happen.
And they trade for school ball, which could happen, although I
don't know if it, I don't know if it happens before the season,
you know, and many other things happen.
Vientos remembers how to hit. Beatty's the real deal at 3rd.
Polanco gets it done at first. Simeon's not finished, you know,
you find the center fielder, Soto, Soto, all the young
pitchers of like, there's so many checkpoints that the Mets
have to favorably hit for them to be relevant.
I would, I would, in terms of being viable to actually win
something this year. Right now, the Mets are, I mean,
the Mets are, are nothing right now and the Yankees are better,
but still not good enough to win, you know?
Oh my God almighty. Let me see if there's anything I
missed here. Got a lot of notes today.
Wait till I get in on the Knicks.
Let's see. That's the Next up.
I'm going to put that aside as I look for this.
This is where it's easy when I have the producer.
Yeah, he just popped these up for me.
Oh, man. You know, there was a couple of
ways to hit this as well, where you could have just been like,
I'm going for it. And then we'll figure out what
happens when we get to the lockout, which is going to be a
long, protracted, frustrating, maybe death blow to the sport.
Eventually, you know, it's going to crush baseball. 2027 is going
to suck, but you could have gone for it and say, all right,
whatever. We'll figure out 2027 when we
get there, like the Dodgers are doing.
Or you just got to toe the line and, you know, be good but not
good enough to win it, like the Yankees or be average to
slightly below average like the Mets.
Those are the choices right at city moons.
I believe that's a new new watcher here.
What's going on, buddy? Tucker is the 15 twentieth best
player in the game. I agree.
I I agree. I remember Sam and I discussing
2 years ago. Now keep in mind this before you
had the injuries this year, two years ago, and and I still stand
by this where I position Tucker as the better all around player
than Soto. All right.
And he is, he's faster, he's better fielder, all those
things. But in terms of being a better
hitter, he can't shine Sodo's shoes.
I mean, it's not even close. So I mean, there are there are a
lot, there are a lot of players better than Tucker.
Now, if you want to lean on like WAR and many of you do and some
of you don't, whatever. But there are numbers like over
the last five years between Judge Ohtani, Soto, Mookie Betts
and I think Tucker's, I know he's on the list.
I think there's there might be one other name there.
I think those are the five they've got like the highest WAR
or the highest combined OPS over those five years.
So Tucker's distinguished himself in a pretty good way.
Problem is he's missed a lot of games and it without
availability, you know, you are you're not as valuable.
Now, that's OK for the Dodgers because if he misses his
customary 20 or 30 games, are they going to really miss him?
Like, did they really miss their pitchers last year when they
were hurt during the regular season?
No, The timing was serendipitous.
Everybody got healthy, Dodgers win another championship.
So like, if Tucker's out for a month, their offense is going to
be fine because they got a bunch of studs everywhere.
You know, let me get this guy up.
How about Gerndog nine O 1 Yanks complain they're broke, but
they're doing new fashion collabs every week.
Where does the money go? I don't really know what you
mean by the fact. I mean, I know what a fashion
collab is. I don't really know what that is
pertaining to the Yankees. I guess that's not the ultimate
point. You know, you're not wrong.
Yankees have a ton of money. Their evaluation is through the
through the roof. The Yankees just see again that
this is this is where I think we get A twist a little bit.
The Yankees spend a ton of money, but it's easy to say the
Yankees either don't spend it wisely, which they haven't too
many times. Stanton takes all the other
stuff with DJ. But I think the real thing is
they leave themselves open to criticism, some of which is a
little bit unjustified and over the top.
And you hijack the narrative and everybody did that.
If you're a Yankee hater, it's easy to pounce on the Yankees.
The Mets had a higher, higher payroll.
Gangs haven't won since O 9. All those things, right?
I'm more concerned about them allowing their brand to be
diminished to the point where they're clearly are not the
number one brand in baseball anymore when that was never the
case. I mean, so that that's that
really. And that because to get to that
point, there's so many things at the surface that have to go
wrong, right the wrong contracts.
AD player development, all those things I've I've outlined a
million freaking times every time I talk about the Yankees
right. But I think that if they had the
same payroll that they had, you know, last year and you know,
whether it's Dominguez, whether it's a Volpe, you know those
those things that I also talked about quite a bit.
If they were the players that they thought that they were,
well, nobody would be complaining because the Yankees
would have won 100 games like a Dominguez was a stud and Volpe
was a stud. Yankees don't tie Toronto at
four wins and lose out on the tiebreaker.
Yankees win 100. They probably beat Toronto in
the playoffs and they very well might win the World Series.
Like so you know that that's the real problem with the Yankees.
The Mets are kind of caught in between and it's it's a
different evaluation for me. Again, I give him credit for
coming up and being creative and looking for the shorter term,
higher. AAVI think that that was smart.
But now when you contrast what they were willing to do for
Tucker versus what they were so unwilling to do for Pete for
$100 million less roughly. Well, that's problematic that
that to me just from a baseball. And I'm again, I'm not even a
huge Pete Alonso fan in terms of his deficiencies.
I like the guy a lot and he's a great power hitter, but Tucker's
a better all around player. Is he that much better?
The answer is no. I mean the OPS and the WAR.
Every, every measurable, every tangible stat dictates and
reinforces what I just said is right.
I can be critical. Pete's base running, Pete's
leadership, whatever. Pete's defense, Pete can't
throw. But none of the numbers, even
batting average at this point because he had 273 year ago.
Tucker and Pete bounced back, which was important for Pete.
I think it's part of the reason why he got a good deal from from
the O's where if he would hit like 2/12, 2:15 again, 220, I
don't know if he would have gotten that.
But now that the average for Tucker's come down a little bit,
what this what distinguishes him outside of being a little bit
younger, a little bit of a much better athlete, nothing really
in terms of the offensive prowess, you know.
So let me see what we got here, see if I'm missing any super
chats, still figuring those things out.
I got a little notation yesterday.
It said like, you've got to know what are the videos?
You got 14,000 high points. And that's like #97 on the list
of YouTube. I'm like, I guess that's good.
Although I don't, I don't want to be 97th in anything, but I
think we're just starting up. I think if you could crack the
I, I guess if it did, if, if I read it right, if you could
crack the 100 hype list, you know, everybody's got a list
these days, then I think that that would be a good thing.
All right, so I hit all that stuff.
It's not baseball's fault. I was just saying it's not the
Dodgers fault. Creative New York's a mess now.
Nobody wants to come here anymore.
Misplaced anger. Get over it.
You know, the 11. One thing too, before I get to
the Knicks, I got to, I'm going to have to regenerate a little
bit here because I came out a lot of energy, which is fine.
I'm usually energetic. But these Knicks, that's it.
It's over. All right, Do them in a minute.
You got to wonder. And you got to worry about the
Mets possibly won't be fair wasting Juan Soto's prime.
It's about Judges prime and Gary Cole's prime.
Well, the difference is that Judge is never going to opt out.
Soto can. And of course, the Mets can keep
him here by throwing four or five more 1,000,000 bucks on on
the years. But year one not even said it's
Soto's fault. Year 11, think about how you
felt the night, the moments. I remember how I felt the moment
that you found out Juan Soto chose the Mets right over the
Yankees and by extension everybody else.
But he left the Yankees, went to the Mets.
Think about how you felt. Well, you won six fewer games.
You didn't make the playoffs. Juan Soto, season number 10, for
one. Oh, for one, you can talk about
Cohen spending. Oh, for one period.
Year 2 coming up. There's a good chance the Mets
suck this year. And if I'm putting money now,
that's on a playoff team and I don't think that they're done,
but I think that there is a massive percent, the
overwhelming percentage. Juan Soto, year 2O for two, oh,
for two in terms of the playoffs right now, if you want Soto and
then 2027 is going to be I, I don't know.
So I won't even really waste time because I just don't even
have a basis of how much baseball we will miss in 2027.
But we will miss base. And I don't care what Manfred
told Cardin, we're missing baseball.
We're going to miss baseball, right?
So 20250 for one, no playoffs 2026 I believe over 22027.
Even if the young players pop and you get school bullet when
all these things that could happen, there's a good chance
there's either no baseball or limited baseball.
And then based on that and it's it wouldn't be Soto's fault.
Over 3 and now you got to wonder how happy is Juan Soto?
Lindor's getting a little bit older at that point.
Let's see where the young, like if the young pitchers are not
all legit, or at least most of them.
And again, I know McClain is. I'm talking about the other
ones. Like, I mean, Mets could be
hurting for a while. And in that point, I mean, we as
much as I know based on the way the contract structured, the
Mets could obviously retain him if and when he opts out.
But who knows if they want to, not because Juan Soto not doing
his job as a hitter, but based on where they're where they are,
whether it's economically, which I don't worry about with Cohen,
but where they are is team building.
And and you know, because once you start, once he opts out and
you bring him back, now he's here forever.
And that those final 3-4 years are going to be horrendous.
And at the first couple of years, that's already, oh, for
one, don't yield any real results.
You know, if I'm running the Mets, yeah, I would have given
Juan Soto all that money for sure.
I don't know if I would have given him the suite, but, and I
guess you would have had to, but I maybe I would have said now
we're good. I don't know.
I don't know, maybe who knows? But at that point, the
evaluation downstream for the Mets, but Soto is going to be a
little different, least the feelings and the energy quite
possibly around the Mets compared to how it was the
moment you found out Soto signed with you guys.
So there is a lot of play, all right.
And the Dodgers are punking everybody.
They are the villain. The Yankees have allowed them to
take that prestigious branding. They just took it.
They came into the Yankees home. Now it's they got the deed.
They own it right. And the Mets never had that
branding and they're trying to get that.
And that has proven to be, I think, more elusive than many of
you thought when they when Cohen first came.
And Cohen didn't get here last year.
You know what I mean? Like, Cohen's been here
basically half a decade at this point.
And it is, is it really going forward?
I don't I don't know. I do believe that Stearns is
going to build this out properly, but until he does,
yeah, it's still an unknown. So it's just a very interesting
time with baseball, especially for our teams here.
My God, it's it's all over the map here.
All right, let me get who's this MM rotundo 6264 list of the
Yanks of the greatest sports franchise in North America.
They need to act like it. I know.
All right now, Mike, that sounds good.
All right, And that used to be applicable, but I'm I'm looking
at it now and I'm reading it literally in the tense that
you're using the words right. Yankees are the greatest sports
franchise. Incorrect.
No, they're not. The Dodgers are.
So that's not correct. And the Yankees allowed them to.
And that's the problem, you know, at Matthew W Pia or Pila,
if it's Spanish, I'm going to make those 2L's the Y Pia 4323.
Matt, thanks for checking in. No problem with the Dodgers.
I have problems with the way they circumvent the salary cap.
Well, blame the loser commissioner on that.
Ain't the Dodgers fault, you know what I mean?
How was that the Dodgers fault? Now, you might not like it, but
let me ask you this. Be honest.
If I don't even know if you're a Mets or a Yankee fan or even a
fan of one of the New York teams, if you if the Mets were
doing that and you're a Mets fan, would you really have an
issue with it? Come on.
I mean, let's be forthright here.
Let's not lie. Let's not overtly lie to each
other here. You know, it's one thing.
Yeah, You worked up. Maybe you say the wrong thing.
Let's come on, guys, look in the mirror.
Let's not lie. Of course.
I wish the Yankees were doing this, man.
Yeah, Hell yeah. I wish they were doing this.
It's fun. But they didn't do it.
I just get. I push back and I get angered by
the misrepresentation of the dynasty because that's not what
and it's so lazy and it's so easy to lump in that era with
what the Dodgers are doing. But that's not what the Yankees
did. The Yankees drafted exceedingly
well. They developed incredibly.
They hit on everybody. And because the base of the base
of the team was so good, you had a lot of players that want to
come and join them. And then I'll be listen, it
didn't work out with Sheffield in terms of the championship,
but I'm talking about even guys like that.
Hey, I want to I won't go there, man.
I won't go play for the Yanks for a little bit, you know, you
know, not to mention Clemens loving it here and and all the
other people that you brought in.
So I I don't think that they're like when you circumvent
something to me like that implies a strong element of an
illegality, something that's just illegal.
Like, right. Hey, man, I'm going to
circumvent the speed trap here by I don't know, wiring
something I don't know on my car.
I don't even have one on my car radar that disables that.
Now I'm going to circumvent getting a ticket or I know
something you do this like with the license plate, you know,
have you seen a lot of those stories where you going through
tunnels? Whatever.
I'm going to circumvent paying for the Holland Tunnel, which I
did for 13 years like an idiot by manipulating my license
plate. Hey, if you don't know what the
license plate is, you can't pay me out for a ticket, sucker.
I win, you lose. Well, that is circumvention.
Just merely going out, offering somebody a contract and working
within the parameters of the game.
You might not like it. Your owner, Cohen or Hal, might
not be either smart enough or willing enough or parts of both
to do it like the Dodgers are doing it.
What are they circumventing that's wrong and that's a weak
mindset. I don't mean that in a
disrespectful way, but like that's a loser mindset.
Got the dodge. Look at the Dodgers are doing
Dodgers are circumventing. How dare come on, man, We got to
now baseball needs a lot of changes.
I do subscribe to that. It's just it's economically
imbalanced now. The one thing if that last text
would have gone a little deeper. I was reading something last
night where the Dodgers based on something with the McCourt and
the lawsuit the Dodgers have the they're one of 30.
The Dodgers have the only TV revenue stream where they really
don't have to share with the rest of baseball.
And if you want again, I'm not even sure that that's a
circumvention. It's like, all right, well, I
mean it, it was in a court of law and this is what went down.
So that's the ruling and abide by the ruling.
What do you want me to do? So even that's, I think a little
bit of a stretch on the, on the use of the word circumvent or
circumvention or circumventing something.
You got a little lucky little 2 of this serendipitous for them
doing this. I don't think it's circumventing
anything, you know, because let me ask you a question.
I mean now I'm not talking about the next CBA and let's see if
Manfred can even handle this right, which I don't think he
can or with that word, I don't think he can.
I hope he will, but I don't think he will all right, based
on some other things he hasn't handled well, the Astros
cheating scandal, a bunch of things right?
But if if Manfred today said Nope, you know what not
acceptable. We we can't have this that guys,
you, you push the limits here. What do you want to use the word
circumvent or not? We pushed the limits.
Can't do this anymore. Not good for baseball.
Tucker, you are now back in the free agent pool.
I rule that contract. You know, it's it's ineligible
or whatever word you want to use, right?
It's non binding. We can't have it.
You're you're not a Dodger. You got to go somewhere else or
the Dodgers have to agree to a more conventional contract,
meaning instead of $30 million deferred money, no deferred
money. Now we all know that you can't
do that because other teams of the Mets deferred money with
Bobby Venea. And the only reason you don't
like it is because Bobby Venea is still getting paid and
because Bobby Venea wasn't that good for you guys.
If Bobby Venea, you know, played like Keith Hernandez, nobody
would complain. It would be a celebratory
instead of like the LOL Mets. What's today, Bobby Benia day is
1,000,000 bucks Bobby for doing nothing like it's thought to be
a point of inflection, further inflection when the Mets were
largely a joke and and they're busting out of that.
They're trying to. I respect that.
I don't just take shots at the Mets.
Like I don't do that. Like I I look at this all
objectively, but objectively stated the Mets have largely
been a joke for most of my life. And when the Bonilla thing went
down and obviously now when you're Bobby Benia dance, see
the tweet happy Bobby Benia day. Well, imagine saying, imagine
seeing the tweet and it said happy Keith Hernandez day.
Think about the tone happy Bobby Benia day.
This guy, Jeez, want to fight people and reply.
It's just a mess, right. And if they didn't win and they
just but they bought the wrong players every if you're old
enough to have watched that team, everything associated with
that team right was wrong. Like it just wasn't it wasn't
right. It was improperly built.
It was hastily built and the results bear that out right.
But when you got Keith Hernandez an 83 and then I don't know, I'd
have to really. I know he was under contract
when you got him, obviously, but I don't know what the extension
was a three years. I could be off on that.
But imagine if the Mets had an extension and Mets ownership
back then had the thought, hey, you know what?
We, we want to go out there. We want to get Mike Schmidt,
right? Even though we've got Ray Knight
and and, and Hojo, we have a chance to get Mike Schmidt.
And but, but to do this, you know, we got to defer some money
for Keith, Happy Keith Hernandez Day because you won the World
Series. It would be a celebratory tweet.
All right, Get that $1,000,000 check.
Keith Attaboy, see the difference?
So the results are only based on the results for your team.
And the negative energy for the Yankee fan is a disgust and a
distaste for losing that top perch in all of sport in terms
of branding, right? And that bothers you?
And it should, all right. Don't be mad at the Dodgers.
It's misplaced. That's what I said to start the
show. You're not channeling it
properly, Mets. Mets are pissed off, you know.
Come on. We offered him $55 million.
What the hell? How come he didn't come to us?
Don't be mad at him. Don't be mad at him.
Don't be mad at the Dodgers. Be mad at I.
Honestly, in that situation, you can't even be mad at Cohen.
We went out. Let's see here.
What do we got here, guys? All right, let's see.
How do I get this guy on the screen?
I don't know how to do this. It's a super chat from a while
ago. If I scroll up, I may have just
seen it. Let's see if I can figure this
out. Where's my producer?
When you need them, there he is. Brad Kaufman, 3582.
What's going on, Brad? I appreciate it, buddy.
As a die hard Mets fan, I'm sick of teams using us to raise the
price on players. Pivot to Valdez on play on
players. Yeah, there's no period there.
All right. On players, period.
Pivot to Valdez or Belly now or nothing and let the young guys
cook. That's very fair.
The Yankees have been used as leverage for years.
There was a point when the Knicks were awful where the
Knicks were used for leverage, right?
All this guy's going to come here and this guy's going to
come save them leverage. They were never coming.
So, Brad, I I got you on that. What I wouldn't do, All right, I
would have gotten Suarez myself. Now, if it's nothing or Valdez,
yeah, I'm going to get Valdez again.
Thank you. Thank for that, Brad.
I'm going to get Valdez, right? I don't love Valdez myself.
His second-half numbers are a little worrisome.
I also think he's an ass. I mean, when you went like, when
you cross up your catcher like you, you can't tell me that
that's a bad day at the office, right?
As a baseball player, right? There are bad days, like even
like the McNeil and Lindor thing, whatever the hell went
down in the tunnel when they when he grabbed his throat,
right? Like that.
You don't want to see that happen necessarily.
But you know, big boys, you're with each other every day.
You travel, you play 162 games, you're frustrated.
That's fine, all right? The 7778 Yanks used to hate each
other. Reggie Thurman, you know, fights
in the shower. We know the stories, right?
But when you're a pitcher and you willingly cross up your
catcher, you just you're not the kind of guy that I want on my
baseball team there. There's a difference.
Like there's a difference saying something, say, if you have a
rough start and you say something to the media and
unintentionally like your heads in the wrong space and you're
pissed at yourself, you got from a pitcher's performance
perspective, you had a rough performance, right?
And as you're talking to the media, maybe somebody muffs a
double play ball, maybe somebody doesn't get to a bowl in the
outfield that you think that they should have been.
Maybe you show them up a little bit.
And we've seen this happen. I don't like that either, but at
least it's a little more acceptable in the moment little
bit and you kind of get one of these or like you like one of
like, how do you not make that play?
And that should be addressed in a Lockerbie can't show your
teammates up. But if you do say the wrong
thing and the guy that you kind of bring into the conversation
comes up to you, you know, whether it's in the shower or at
the stall or on the bus or next day at batting practice, Dude,
what are you, you know, what are you doing, man?
Like if there's a little friction, that's fine.
Diffuse it, own it. My bad.
I didn't mean it like that came out wrong.
We're good. DAP it up, beat teammates.
That is so different than pitcher putting, catcher putting
down to thinking he's got something soft coming with maybe
a 12 third, definitely at least 12, but maybe a 13 to 15 mile
per hour disparity and all of a sudden the heater comes at you.
Do you know how unnerving that is?
Like that's happened to me. I didn't really catch much as an
as an actual player, but that's happened to me coaching kids.
So now thank God they're young and they're not throwing 95.
And now I got to start taking these things out when I warm
these kids up. It's getting to that point.
I think I might have to do that a little bit this year, right?
But I'm woman, I'm warming kids up in there, you know, certainly
when they're at 46 feet. Now my son just moved to 50.
So, you know, him and his teammates like the kids start to
throw the ball a little bit here.
And you know, if I see a kid go like this and I think a change
ups coming or if I say, hey, Jake, give me, you know, give me
something soft as I'm warming them up in between innings are
in the bullpen and he unleashes a heater.
All right, again, it's not going to be a 50 Vol per hour
disparity and it's going to be 58 or 62 versus 95 or 96.
That is a that's an awful look. And that that's not a guy that I
want to go to back. I can't trust you if you're if
you do that, that's a character flaw.
That's not a bad moment. That's you being an ass.
Actually, that's you being a Dick.
There's a difference. There's a big difference between
the two and that's you being the latter.
I can't respect that. So number one, I think Suarez is
better. He's a dog.
And I would have thought that would have been better for the
New York Mets. Now, a little desperation.
We didn't get anybody yet. Maybe the Tigers aren't going to
trade school, but maybe we can't get Peralta.
You know, let's give a bag to to that guy.
But Valdez, I, I, I, I don't really like that.
I don't, I don't like that. You know, that's number one.
Number two, you know, we also brought up Bellinger.
The other thing I wouldn't do is I wouldn't overpay for
Bellinger. I wouldn't do it for the
Yankees. I wouldn't do it for the Mets.
Why would you? I mean, he's gonna have an 818
OPS 820, you know, especially from a Mets point of view, where
the dimensions of the field simply just don't present
themselves in an advantageous way like they do with the Bronx,
where, you know, he's going to curl the few around the pole.
And instead of hitting, you know, 21 home runs, he's going
to flirt with 30 low 30s. You know, and and obviously,
listen, he's a very good fielder.
So he could play first for the Mets and Polanco doesn't work
out. He could play Center for a
little bit while you get bench ready, whatever it might be.
But I, I just, I can't do that. I just don't think that that's
really way to I don't think that that's the way to go.
I don't I don't like that. And I don't think that the Mets
will do that. I mean, now you want to tell me
that maybe the Mets should pivot aggressively to Bichette.
That's that's a little different to find a place to plug him in.
Maybe maybe you can put him at third.
Maybe you could put Beatty at first.
Listen, I think Beatty's a good going to be a, a competent.
He's already a competent third base, but I think Beatty's got a
chance to be a slightly above average, if not even a little
more than that defensively defensive third baseman.
And I think he's going to hit. So I like Brett Beatty and if
you can handle third, you can handle first.
Like you, you can't run Vientos out there playing first base.
So you just can't, he's DH, can't play the outfield, can't
run, not a first baseman, doesn't have the hands, doesn't
have the the defensive skill set that Beatty has.
So if you want to tell me, you know, rather than like the last
text there was, you know, go out there and get bailed.
Your overpaid for him. No, I would consider strongly
overpaying for Bichette and it cuz then what you could do is
when Simeon's, Simeon's got two years to go and he's getting
older, when Simeon's up, you could obviously put Bichette at
second base and you can always finagle around the inhorn around
the horn, right and the infield. So the other thing that it does
is it also weakens the feelings. I mean, I know Maddie and Lisa's
boy God, Bichette in that ballpark is going to do damage,
man. Hitting the right field, hit the
right center, obviously pulling when it's inside to get
something to handle like his spray jar.
His profile is that it's perfect for Yankee Stadium too, because
it's 314 down the line. That's why I want Bichette more
than Bellinger. I'm just reading the tea leaves.
It doesn't seem like the Yankees really have any interest in
Belcher. It seems like the interest that
was floated out there. Oh, the Yankees, they're they're
engaged with Bichette. I always took that as their
signal to Bellinger and keep messing around and we'll go get
this guy. So the Mets would get better and
they would weaken the Phillies. So rather than going to
Bellinger, I would actually pivot to Bichette.
But I don't even know if they're inclined to do that myself.
I really don't know. Let's see here.
What do we got? Let's see.
Lot of lot of stuff on Tucker.
Boy, it's an hour and 6 minutes already.
My goodness, we're flying here, man.
We are absolutely flying. All right, How about this one,
Mickey for Motto 150, BTDA point to the Yankee fans feel
skeptical, skeptical, skeptical, skeptical because Volpe and even
Dominguez haven't stepped up as we all thought.
Yep, that's a big part of it. And I obviously went into that.
I don't need to just belabor that.
But I think it's a good point, Nikki.
I think that I think it does two things #1 and weakens your team,
clearly, and it would have been so advantageous.
Like Volpe may I know, I know we just, you know, went through
arbitration, got a couple of $1,000,000 and and that's the
process. And it's still peanuts for
starting shortstop when he comes back and regains the starting
spot, which he will when he's healthy.
If he keeps it past this year, I don't know, but he'll be the
starter at some point. Not Caballero.
And I don't think they'll get the shed, but if he was making
3,000,000 like he will this year and Dominguez is making 900,001
one, whatever he's making, it's so much more justifiable.
I haven't got a bad contract like Stanton or hey, we, you
know, we we can go out there and sign Bichette and really go for
it. But when you have those young it
young guys are appealing because they're cheap and there's
upside. But when the upside doesn't
represent what you thought it might be, it makes the money,
the cheap money, the cheap contract less appealing because
at the end of the day, it's all about performance.
Like when you get performance on a play on a team friendly
contract, it's a home run. When you got a team friendly
contract and the performance isn't that good, you just have
an average player or in certain spots, a subpar player, who is
it going to really impact winning to the degree you wanted
to and your fans needed to? I I think what it does do.
So that's the monetary aspect. The other thing too, I think it
just strips away further. And I, I agree with this at the
belief that the Yankees are running themselves the right
way. I mean, I can't get into this
now, but I I think that the Yankees have a fundamental flaw
in the way in what they espouse and what they teach of their
young hitters when they get them in the system, starting at
rookie ball or if you're, if you're a college kid, high A low
a if you skip rookie ball, like some of the, you know, higher
draft picks will. And I talked to Alex about this
and a rod had him on my last show on the fan.
He talked about that. He talked about that very, very
extensively pertaining to Volpe and what he does and, you know,
swinging up, trying to generate power.
And, you know, one of the things and and and Alex was nobody
talks baseball like Alex. He's the best with he's the best
with that, and he was great with that.
But I also heard a couple of years ago, which kind of
reinforced what I always thought just based on what my eyes were
telling me. Now, I don't know if they've
gotten away from this a little bit, but at the lower levels of
the minor leagues, the Yankee young hitters were basically
taught to get something early in the count that you can elevate.
OK, well, that sounds number one.
I don't like that, but OK, it sounds like it could work if you
actually do get something early in the count to elevate, because
then you can go to town. Now you can get that little arc
on the swing boom and hit a lot of bombs like the Yankees always
do. But as we know, hitting home
runs not enough to just, you know, to win a World Series, you
got to do more and think about how flawed and how I I'm going
to use the word stupid. That is right.
Imagine being in the battles box and the first pitch.
I, I mean, I, I don't, I know the games change, but as a lefty
hitter, and I was, ironically, I was actually a highball hitter
and a lot of my certainly double s and, and even opposite field
powers, a lefty, a lot of it was left center.
And then I started lifting weights like an idiot.
I got too, too big and I lost my swing, whatever.
But when I was young, certainly in high school and early in
college, that ball up and out over the plate, I loved it.
I could extend my arms and I could bang it to the left center
gap. And then if you threw me
something and most lefties are like this low and inside now, I
could just drop the barrel and you could bang it to right
field. So it's completely counter to
what multiple generations were taught and what they did.
And a lot of those players hit, not me, but a lot of those
players hit high, high averages, right?
So they're telling where they were.
They were, and I think that they still are, I think, but they
were teaching. Look for something that you can
help, that's elevated, that you can then elevate.
Well, what happens if you get a fastball right down the middle
of the plate that's maybe a tick toward the lower third of the of
the of the hitting zone, but it's not here.
You can't elevate it and you don't swing like one, OK?
I mean, you just let a pitch go by you that you can put in the
seats or rifle down the line. And then from there, who's got
the advantage? Because think about this.
When does the hitter have the advantage?
Well, I really think you know, I always felt like, you know, I'm
I'm in the backs battles box. Oh, oh, I always felt like I had
an advantage there unless the guy was just overpowering and
just simply better. And I definitely encounter that.
Then it's like no matter what the count is going to be tough
at that. But I always like 00 and then
obviously more conventionally 10203031.
Now it's depending upon what anything it is guys on base.
What's the situation? Lefty, lefty, righty, lefty
righty, righty. Like then you've got to refine
your approach a little bit. I'm not going to get in the
weeds on that. You just have to, but those are
the pitches you're looking to crush. 102-0303 One, if you have
a green light on three O like a judge or so or stamping somebody
like that or Pete when he's hot or Soto.
And when you let that first pitch, that is not what you're
looking for up here, but it's a strike.
And Oh, yeah, by the way, it's easier to hit than the high
fastball that's now almost 98 or 99.
Well, now it's all one. And now what does that do?
It sways the power. The pendulum goes right to the
pitcher. He goes now.
All right, I got him all one. Now I can go soft and away.
I could go up and in, then I could go soft and away.
It just changed the entire complexity at bat, which is why
if you. I know I'm going to a little
hitting tangent here, and I'm not a hitting coach.
I'm not professing to be 1. But think about how many quick,
empty at bats the Yankee hitters have.
And I mean, they're young hitters and specific.
Not you haven't. I haven't seen enough of
Dominguez. And he's actually got good
patience. He seems to be counter to Volpe
and Wells. But think about Volpe and think
about Wells and just think about all the at bats that you watch.
Spring training, regular season, playoffs.
How many times have you seen both of those players swinging
something up here on the first pitch and foul it right back and
it looks like a good swing. Oh, he was on that.
Yeah. But now it's O1 and now the
advantage is the guy who's 60 feet, 6 inches away, who's got
three other pitches right. And there's a reason why Anthony
Volpe and Austin Wells have very quick at bats.
Now, if you lay off that, and I know it's tempting and I know
what they're teaching, trust me, as things coming at your eyes,
your eyes get like you, like I got that.
But it's that extra inch where you can't barrel it.
Instead you foul, you foul it back and now it's all one.
And now you're like, oh God, I missed some, I missed the pitch
I should have hit. And certainly in Volpe's case
less with Wells. But slider outside, let me swing
and look and miss it by a mile. And now it's O2 and now you're
dead. And that's how you hit 210 and
that's how you're on base 28% of the time.
I just broke it down for you. Like that's that's it, right?
So right. Let me get to these Knicks here.
The I think the easy thing would be to say that the Knicks aren't
going to win the championship. I think we all know that if
you're a smart basketball fan and you can kind of leave just
emotion at the door, not be a little sycophant little fanboy,
Knicks aren't winning the damn thing this year.
That's that's that's a fact. The other problem and why one of
the not the only reason because they can't guard anybody.
Why? And it was reinforced again last
night. Last night was one of the most
embarrassing sequences that I've seen from a recent Knicks team.
I'm not going back, you know, forget about the horn of sex and
Fizz Dales and those those crews since the Knicks became good and
viable. One of the things that I loved
about the Knick team and this was with Randall and it started
with obviously Bronson and Hart, but Randall and D Vincenzo.
Now, they wouldn't have won a championship with those guys
either. So I understand that they had to
make a trade. But that team had heart.
That team played with purpose and that team respected the
competitive nature and what was required to win their compete
level was through the roof, right?
What do you have now? Go back to the Kings game the
other night. This is one of the most pathetic
sequences that I've there were two.
It's back-to-back, right? The Kings game and last night.
I get to last night in a minute. The other night, Karl Anthony
Town flops on his ass and is on the other end of the court while
the game is going on. And I actually counted it, you
know how long it was before he got back in the play?
Not 3 seconds. And I know he's big, so I'd give
him a little a little free to pick himself up.
It's like you're, you know, Alvin Iverson jumping off the,
you know, former quarterback and a quick twitch athlete.
I mean, cats slow as shit. So it's going to I get that big,
man. Not 5 seconds, not 8 seconds,
not ten seconds, 1314 seconds. Finally got himself back in the
frame, right? Got himself in the play.
That was just, it's just unacceptable.
That was just unacceptable. Especially think about this now.
The Knicks haven't won since 73. But one of the things like the
good Knick teams, it always seems like they've got that that
characteristic of what we loved about the 90s Knicks who never
won, but boy, they were knocking on that door every year.
They just didn't have the talent.
They had the heart that the coach that the superstar, that
was really it. And a lot of years they didn't
really have the depth either. They had too many guys who were
kind of like Kiki and black men and guys who were just at the
end, no, the really good players, no disrespect.
They just got them too late. This Knick team is so soft.
It is disgraceful. So last night, Draymond Green,
who for some reason, I know he said some nice things about cat
after the game, but for some reason always, always carves out
some space whenever his name comes up on on Draymond's pod.
And it's it's it's a pretty compelling podcast, right to
shit all over Karl Anthony Towns.
So that's why what he said what he said last night postgame.
I'm like, wow, that is the exact opposite of what he always says
about cat calls him out every time he every chance he gets
calls him out. So last night there's a sequence
cat, you know, initiates contact and then Draymond, who was on
the floor and now cats trying to re recollect himself here,
compose himself physically and then barrel to the rim.
Draymond Green decides to grab a sneaker.
All right? Grabs A sneaker.
All right. There's like, there's like a
little bit of smoke. Cat wants no smoke with
Draymond. Draymond would just destroy him,
all right. And Cat knows that.
So Cat, of course, doesn't do anything.
I don't know what. Like, it was almost like he was
laughing. He was weird.
Did you see a single nick enter the frame with any sort of
purpose? Did you see anybody come to Karl
Anthony Towns's defense? Did you see anybody?
It's like that just got up there.
Not I mean, listen, I mean, Draymond with one finger could
put me down. So I'm not trying to be totally
tough guy here. But if you're a pro athlete,
right, and you are 65210, chiseled, fast, young, how the
hell do you let that happen to one of your best players, Deuce.
And but Deuce was laughing. Where was the support for Karl
Anthony Towns? There was none.
And then to make it worse, make it worse after the game, and I
know that they're buddies. I get that.
You do that in the tunnel, you got Mike Brown hugging Draymond
laughing. Now, everybody that knows Mike
Brown says he is truly one of the best people in the world.
And that's important to me. I I, I love that, right?
I think Mike, they lost seven of eight.
They look like they look terrible now.
You better get this going here. Otherwise he's done.
Like think about what he think about the day that he was when
Tim was a fuck was fired and Mike Brown was introduced.
It was NBA Finals or you fail. I mean, you name.
I'm not saying there's none. There might be an outlier.
I would love somebody to do somebody.
Do the research, Find me a team that's won an NBA championship
that has lost seven of eight or seven of nine, pardon me, at any
point in their season. That doesn't happen in the NBA.
If you're a champion like Jordan's team Steps, team
Magic's team Birds team Duncan's team, anything with Kobe and
Shaq, seven of nine. When you lose seven of nine, you
are disconnected as a team. You've got flaws.
Because to lose that much to some bad teams, and we know the
flaw, their defense is deplorably bad.
The Knicks defense is disgusting, right?
They can't defend the three-point line and when
they're held, I know no Brunson last night.
I get that. But without Jalen, with Jalen,
you got two of the worst offenders in the NBA and the
metrics back it up. They stink.
Brunson and Cat on defense awful.
You know, Bridges is like a mouse.
I mean, does that guy have an ounce of fire in him?
That would have been nice, right?
Would have been nice to see Bridges get involved, you know,
after the game chirping. I'm not even sure if he was on
the court when that happens. I want to be fair to Bridges,
but anybody around, I know OG was there.
And and to be fair, OG looked like he was down for a little
bit of smoke for a second. But OG is a strong duty.
So he's a fierce competitor. The Knicks don't have any dogs.
I mean really, outside of Josh Hart and OG now Brunson's a dog
in in terms of going to get buckets and playing hard,
playing through pain. Love Jaylen Brunson, but he's
not a physical. Nobody's afraid of of of Jaylen
Brunson. I don't even mean in the
fighting sense, I just mean like if being able to impose his
physicality, he's a 6th 2 guard who can't jump, who can't really
run, who can't defend, who is an amazing player because he's got
sublime footwork and he's a great shooter and he's an
incredibly intelligent player and I love the guy.
Nobody's afraid of Brunson. Can you imagine?
Can you imagine if somebody punk Ewing?
Because that's the comparison, right?
Imagine if somebody tripped Grant Patrick Ewing sneaker and
he fell to the ground and nobody did a damn thing about it.
I take your pick. Is that Starks coming in face to
face? Is that oak coming in face to
face? Is that Mace coming in face to
face? Is that Derek Harper coming in
face to face? I don't think Huber Davis, you
know, Huber didn't want that. He wasn't really built for that
stuff. But Derek Harper's coming in
face to face when when Doc Rivers was on the team, Doc
would have been face to face. Xavier McDaniel when he was
there for one year face to face. Come on, man.
Like what do you expect from the these Knicks now I said this one
of the early shows and if you want to go on the BT Unleashed
YouTube page, it was about Kovacs great moments on
Christmas Day as that's it. I am going to give this team a
chance one year to win the championship.
I don't want to trade for Giannis.
I don't want to trade for a point guard.
I want cold this before McBride came back and I love Deuce, but
it's before he came back. I'm going to give Kolik 1213
minutes a night. He's earning it.
He's showing some chops. He could shoot.
He's not afraid. He's a competitor.
He can pass, you know. So I was, I was very bullish on
the Knicks coming into the season.
I was bullish on the Mike Brown higher coming into the season.
I was certainly bullish on the Knicks as recently as Christmas
Day. You know, I am no longer bullish
on the Knicks. This team doesn't have it.
They will never have it. So whether it's a trade,
whatever the hell is going to happen, something's got to
happen. Because what you can't do, you
cannot waste whatever remains of Jalen Brunson's prime.
I mean, eventually Jalen Brunson is going to sign.
He's got the team friendly deal. He's going to eventually sign a
very big contract, which will then be.
You know, somewhat cumbersome in terms of what the Knicks could
do with the rest of their roster there.
You know, OG is making good money, Bridges making good
money. If there's not a chance in hell
that the Knicks are extending Karl Anthony Towns is 0 now, the
problem is, you know, there's no way Milwaukee wants Karl Anthony
Towns. Why would they?
I'm not saying that there's not a team out there somewhere that
wouldn't want Karl Anthony Towns.
And I'm not just here to take gratuitous shots at Karl Anthony
Towns, who is an incredibly skilled player and
unfortunately, a really nice guy.
Like, I wish he wasn't so nice. Nobody's afraid of that guy now.
They know that he could drop 35 on him if he's bagging in some
triples and getting to the stripe and avoiding the stupid
fouls, which, of course, he couldn't do again last night.
And what's another reason why the Knicks got blown out?
I mean, some of these teams they're losing to.
I don't know how anybody has any faith in the Knicks right now.
I really don't. And I can promise you this
because one thing that I've always said, I've never fully
believed in Karl Anthony Towns ever.
Go and get as many receipts as you want.
Go. And do you know what does Evan
do? Roasted and posted, toasted and
wrote. Whatever he does, you know, go
and find go find an old tweet, right?
Go find the old tweet EV. You'll find none.
Where I'm like Karl Anthony Towns is the man.
Like I wasn't when they got him. Like, OK, I didn't think they
necessarily. I thought it was time to move on
from Randall. I loved the Vincenzo.
It's the price of business, whatever.
So I knew that they had to do something else to try to win a
championship. But not like coming into this
year, last year, I was all over them, all over Carl Anthony
Towns, and many of you got on me.
They're like, this guy's the best big and the best shooter in
the NBA in terms of a big. He's the best we've had since
Patrick Ewing. All right, fantastic.
That doesn't mean that he's good enough to win a championship and
he's not. If he is your 4th best player,
great. And the problem too is, is that
so not only does he still commit the same foolish dumb fouls,
he's never going to change that. If you haven't rectified it by
now when you're around for a decade, it's not changing.
All right, number one. Number two, he will only get
worse as a defender as he gets older, slower and heavier.
And #3 and I didn't and this was not the case a year ago.
I'll defend him at least with this.
But now it's here. Now you're looking at a guy.
Let me tell you what's going on. He don't want to be here.
Carl Anthony Towns does not want to be here.
He is now disengaged. And that goes back to, you know,
the just sitting on the like the flop on the floor the other
night with Sacramento last night, you know, not not bring
him back. I'm not saying you throw a punch
and get suspended for 10 games, but I mean, can you show a
little more backbone than that? You know that this guy always
talk shit about you any podcast, he's always in your face and
that's what you do. I it's just it's not emblematic
of a championship team. And if Karl Anthony Town and not
everybody's built that way, I get that right.
But if he's not built that way, then somebody around him needs
to be built that way. Nothing.
You can hear a pin drop. Oh, what's that?
Draymond? Draymond just disrespecting cat.
What else is new? It's great.
The showers, we're good. We're lost again.
It's over for this Knicks team. It'll have nothing.
So I don't know if it's Giannis, I don't know what you could do.
I would absolutely without question trade Karl Anthony
Towns before the deadline. I don't.
You don't have a lot of picks to entice somebody to make that
trade. You can have some problems
there. You know, you you fired your
main, main bullets with the Bridges stuff with the Nets and
all the picks there. Bridges ain't that guy.
Never going to be that guy. He's too, he's too, you know,
he's too disengaged as well. He's got too many guys who are
like robots out there, dude. They're just there's no passion,
there's no emotion. Now, you can't have five guys
like that. Otherwise it's going to be, you
know, you kind of eaten each other up, but you need, you
just, you just need a few more pit bulls right now.
You watch the Knicks and they are a bunch of Chihuahuas.
They're a bunch of lap dogs. You know, where if they're not,
if they're not getting fed milk by mommy and a little, you know,
fancy collar and a little blanket by the fireplace, God
forbid if they stumble out to the street, they ain't going to
make it very long. That's the kind of dogs that the
Knicks have. I said before, they have no
dogs. No, they got dogs.
They got the wrong kind. They got passive dogs who want
to stay inside and not mix it up outside.
And you don't win that way. Then if, like, if the talent is
so amazingly over the top, like irrefutably the best, well, OK,
maybe that's a recipe to win. It ain't.
It's not, it's really not so disappointed in the Knicks, and
I'm really disappointed, too in Mike Brown.
Like, again, the optics of hugging him.
You know what's going on. You know what transpired during
the game. You know, the cat I'm sure in
the huddle is, is still kind of, you know, angered by what
happened or however he processes his emotion.
I'm sure it's communicated in the huddle.
I mean, if if not, then that's an even bigger issue.
So I'm sure it's communicated. And and I know that you've got
profound respect for Draymond. You won with Draymond.
I get that. I'm not saying you abandoned a
friendship, but the optics of the Knicks head coach so
joyfully and so aggressively hugging and interacting and
yucking it up with the guy who was just dogging one of your
players again, do that in the tunnel.
Don't let the fancy that. Don't even let cats see that.
Like if I'm Coral Anthony Towns, I'm already confused by the way
I will defend them here. They're not using them properly
offensively. So I'm already bothered by that.
They're not using me right. There's some might take it four
shots, some might. Now he's got to just demand the
ball more and stop with the fouls and whatever.
So he's not he's he's not fully. I can't exonerate him fully, but
but the the thought of playing for a guy who I don't think is
really utilizing my skills to the best of whatever ability you
can utilize them to. And now I got to look over and
he's hugging Draymond Green laughing.
No, I want I want out. And as a Knicks fan, I want him
out. I guess you got to trade him.
You got to trade him because this team is going nowhere.
They are not winning anything. You know, we get top seed.
Pistons are going to keep their foot on the gas whole year.
Oh, yeah. You know, And like, I wasn't
even overly consumed with the top seed because I thought at
one point like that the Knicks had enough where they, like they
did last year winning in Detroit.
You go to Detroit or, you know, Boston or whomever you have to
play in the playoffs here. And I did like with Brunson
being Brunson and Cats scoring some points and Hart doing his
thing and the two wings and Deuce coming off the bench in a
deeper bench and some more scores.
I'm like, all right, that's the kind of team that doesn't need
to play swing game at the Garden to advance.
But now like I am, I'm just questioning the overall
character of the New York Knicks.
I'm questioning the heart of the New York Knicks.
I'm questioning the want of the Knicks.
They just don't seem incredibly bothered by what's going on.
Like even if the Knicks were on A5 game win streak, all right,
they're on a which they're not. They've lost seven of nine, but
say, if they'd won five straight and that situation happened with
Cat last night and nobody came to his defense and Mike Brown
hugging them, I'd still say, like, even if somebody tried to
present it, like, come on, man, they're playing great, They're
doing this, They're fine. I think you're overreacting.
I'd say no, I still think that that probably portends bad
things down the road because that's a sign that they're not
really united. But yeah, they they are playing
really well. So I'm not going to make a huge
deal out of it. When you lose seven of nine,
seven of nine and you don't play every day in baseball.
Yeah, like, like you do in baseball, you know, So I don't
know how to take a guess. The nine games have encompassed
20 something days. That's a lot of that's almost a
full month, really, to be carrying around, you know,
subpar play as baggage when you get on a plane or when you come
out on the garden floor and you would think of nothing else that
that would be the impetus. Oh, whoa, whoa.
Draymond's talking smack again. All right, let's go.
I'm, I'm tired of losing. He's picking on Cat again.
Let's just has to end. That's what teams would pry do.
That's what championship teams do right now.
You asked me next second round gone and if it's the wrong match
up. First round not off the table.
They are closer in my opinion right now to being bounced in
round one than they are getting to the NBA Finals.
They are wildly disappointing here.
Let me see if we got some stuff here on the Knicks.
I got it. Just got a lot of lot of
messages here, guys. Let's see what we got.
There's a ton here, man. OK, how about this here what
Michael Baker says, you know, listen, obviously you want to
hit some of that met stuff as well.
What's up? MM Baker 73.
Oh, wait, maybe we should wait till spring.
Every met fan loved the Stearns hire didn't win a thing with
Pete. No, no, I I I agree.
I'm not really all over Stearns today.
My only thing is, and I think it's part of the conversation.
Michael and I appreciate the the chat there.
Thanks, buddy. Like when you look at somebody
getting $60 million and 2:40 and the Mets were willing to go to
55 and they weren't willing to stretch the boundaries of what
they would do for Pete. And I know Pete's a flawed
player. I've said that before.
Anybody but it it it's it's questionable.
Now, is that a Stearns thing? Is that a Cohen thing is that
it'll split down the middle? I think it's more Stearns.
I think that I think if Stearns, I can't prove this, but I think
if Stearns went to Cohen and said a matter of fact, I'm
almost positive this will be the case.
Like if Stearns is like, hey, Stevie, we Pete 40 bombs
irreplaceable part of the team, whatever, however he positioned
it, we you know, Orioles are coming to five.
We got to get up at six with there's no way we can let him
leave. He is we cannot win without him.
Well, they haven't won with him all right, So that's why it's
easy to let him go. But processing it under the you
know, the the prism of of what Tucker just got.
I, I understand that, but still, I'm going to let Sterns finish
the, the offseason here. There's a lot of, you know, I
don't want Valdez. You didn't get Suarez.
Maybe you trade for Peralta. Maybe you get schoolable, maybe
you pivot to Pichette. Maybe you get Bellinger.
Like I, I am as I've got, I said this the other day, I've gotten
older. I don't just react to stuff
before. I mean, sometimes you have to
cause you're doing a show. You can't always have a
conclusion. You know, sometimes you have to
react as things are going on. And I love doing that.
But I'm not going to give a final grade to Stearns, his
offseason when there's those names out there that I just
mentioned and an appetite for the Mets owner to spend the
money as evidenced by what they just offered Kyle Tucker.
So that's how, that's how I view that, you know, really.
But it's, it's just disheartening.
It's, it's absolutely crazy when you really think about it, how
little our teams have done. I mean, it's absolutely nothing
here. What's this year?
B Kleiner. I can't wait to get back in the
gym tomorrow night. People are wildly overreacting
to the Knicks will win five of the next 6.
No, they won't. I mean, number was Brunson
coming back? Hey, BKII, appreciate certainly
the chat. I appreciate the sentiment.
And I'm not trying to tell you not to be optimistic as a
Knicksman. I'm not telling you what to
think at all. I'm just telling you I disagree
with that assertion. I'm not saying that they'll be
without a winning streak the rest of the way.
Nixon, does anybody really think the Knicks going to win the
championship? Does anybody think that?
Now contrast that to the mindset when we started to, and I don't
mean like the first week or so when Cat was banged up and Brown
was figuring out maybe 10 days, figuring out his rotation.
I mean, right after that when the Knicks were playing real
well and everybody who's loading, including me, Mike
Brown, for playing like, look at Clarkson getting run.
Oh, wow, look, he took the shackles off of colic.
Tibbs would have never done that.
Now, I don't think they'd be a whole lot better with Tom
Thibodeau. But I can promise you one thing,
like if if that went down last night, I think Tom Thibodeau
eviscerates them in the locker room.
And I know for a fact, even though he's not tight with
Raymond, So but like, say if it was a player that he coached
somewhere else and he had a great relationship.
Do you think Tom Thibodeau is doing that on the court after
the Knicks lose again? And if your best player gets
basically just sneaker and thrown to the ground and nobody
does anything, I mean, that's that's a seasonal point of like,
that's the season right there. You come in and you slam the
door and you light that team up as much as you can light them
up. And yes, modern athletes can be
lit up because I promise you, if it was done, like, say, if Brown
didn't hug them all right, which is just a bad look and go out to
dinner after I I just don't do it where we can see it and say
if Brown would have come in slammed and if he did slam the
door and he was pissed, well, then it's totally disingenuous
because you were just yuking it up with Draymond.
So I'm pretty sure he didn't come in and and present that
that energy, that anger, that that resentment, that distaste
for the way his team's playing. But say if he did boom, the door
slams. What the fuck was that?
And you let it go like Pat Riley or Tom Thibodeau would do right?
Or Joel Torrey, who would let it that Joe was Joe Joe would do
that. A lot of you think, Oh, Grandpa
Joe, Joe was a beast with that stuff, right, Right.
So is Buck. So you slam the door, you drop
the F bombs, you do whatever you do.
And I promise you somebody like Josh Hart would have stood like
that's right. What are we don't like?
And then that's how you become galvanized instead.
That didn't happen. Nobody.
And I'm not saying a player couldn't stand up and do
something but or say something themselves.
But the potency is minimized when the coach is setting that
tone post game. So it would have been a little
bit hollow to me. So I don't think it would have
been I, I, I, I don't, I don't really think that it would have
really been enough to change the overall demeanor and disposition
of this team. You kind of are who you are,
aren't you? I mean, I think that you are.
What up, Rob? Robert Huertis.
Hey, BT the Dodgers own the home.
Own the house. We're now the squatters.
Yeah, well, the good news is, I guess if you're a squatter, you
could eventually you just take the house over.
So the Dodgers think about that. The Dodgers own the home and and
the Yanks and the Mets are now squatters.
So now they come in and they reside in the home and then the
people who own the home come back to their home.
But based on the idiot legal whatever, the squatters can
actually own the home. So that that's a it's a little
bit of a confusing statement there, Robert, because if I, if
I, if I read it literally basically what you say it is
that the Yanks and the Mets basically have a chance to own
the home again, because they're squatters.
If I read that right. And I think I did.
Oh, my God. See here.
All right, What do we got here? Maddie Pillar.
Maddie Pillar, 4323 BT. You know, players today don't
care anymore. Hopefully until the playoffs.
Yeah. And I guess you're getting on me
for saying it was a hug. No, I know.
I don't listen. If the Knicks would have even if
they would have lost, but there wasn't that little flare up
there. And the way they're playing.
I mean, again, I know it's an overused word, but optics do
matter and I understand like I'm never going to get on the air.
I really never have. And unless it's like a
measurement game like that Pistons game when when cat take
took a few shots like that was a problem like that's going to
bother me. I'm not going to get on the air
1 of 82. All right, Knicks didn't have
it, didn't get back transition defense got in late night before
been on a road trip heavy legs. I I understand, I understand the
intensity in the playoffs is always going to be significantly
more than the regular season. So I'm not going to bark at the
moon and scream for change when I long ago unfortunately
understood that that's what it's morphed into.
No, it's not that. It's so so that's really not
what I'm reacting to guys, not at all, at all.
I what is this year? We got the land, the Landy
Lodge. What's going?
That's a new one subpar attendance.
I was about the Mets all right offseason sign 2025
record-breaking attendance. I like the way you structure
that Here you go offseason 0. Cohen better hope fans don't
have pattern recognition. That's a very intelligent text
right there Appreciate it, buddy.
Thank or or or ma'am whomever. Thanks for riding in there.
Oh before I really respond to that do me a favor guys, whether
it's a super chat whether it's regular I said this yesterday
nobody's really doing it. Let me know where you are coming
in from. I want to know where you guys
are coming in from all right, because that gives me a chance.
Sometimes if I see, you know, you're in a certain town or a
certain state, maybe it generates a story that I can
kind of break away from the from the sports stuff and kind of get
into something else. I also want to get a sense of
where you guys are checking in from.
So when you hit me up on the supers and all the other stuff,
even if it's comments on the videos later on in the day, let
me know where you guys are. I really, really, really want to
know that. So make sure you guys do that.
All right, now the attendance thing.
Yeah. Let's face it, Steve Cohen
called you guys out last year. Hey, I'm spent.
I'm doing my job, basically, Where are you guys?
You got to start doing your job, and you do your job by showing
up. I I agreed with Steve Cohen.
I thought that Steve was well within his rights.
I thought he was more importantly absolutely right in
how he approach the situation. If I just got you one, Soto, I'm
going to need more than 16,000 people here on a Tuesday night
against the Marlins during the Pennant race.
Like you can say whatever you want to say about the Yankees
not doing things the way they used to.
And that is absolutely true. They want to win.
They don't need to win like oxygen the way that they once
used to. And that's a separate issue, but
it's a true one. But the one thing that you can
never say about the Yankee fan is Yankee fan shows up on a
Tuesday night. No matter who you're playing,
you be playing the A's. Yanks are showing 35,000 on
Tuesday night when the kids are back in school.
Mets don't have that now. They had it last year and now
and the Mets were and I respected the Mets fan for
responding. I said that on the fan a lot
like to me, you know, Stearns was doing his job because he had
a good year One Cohen was doing his job, cutting the check,
staying out of the way for the most part.
And then he called you out and implored you guys to support the
product the way the product. I I, I thought and he did
deserved because when I'm going to put this into the product
that you need to put that into it as well.
So we could all join forces and eventually be what we're trying
to be here. Which one of the top brands in
sports. All right, and you guys did that
for a year and then I gave you guys credit for doing that and
the season didn't go well. Then make the playoffs.
Now where are we? I know opening day will be
packed sell out Subway series packed Dodgers come in I'm sure
Braves Phillies if the Mets are competitive yeah be good crowds
there. Are you telling me that like if
the Mets don't do much more. It's inconceivable to think that
the Mets are done. They can't be done because if
they're done there was 75 win team.
But if they are done like Seattle rolls in on AI don't
even have the schedule May 9th you know Wednesday night could
have 17,000 people there. So I get it.
And at that point, while I thought Cohen was right, when
he, you know, challenge you guys to step up and show up, I would
absolutely have your back here moving forward.
Why you why you reach any money for that?
I wouldn't do it and I wouldn't do it with any sort of
frequency, that's for sure. Ocean City, MD, there you go.
Ocean City, NJ, there you go. Little Alabama, a little Ty
Simpson. I was talking about him the
other day, Fort Myers, FL, originally from the Bronx.
What's up, Vince? Appreciate that, buddy.
All right, let me give you boy. It's been one of the longer ones
here. I got to start wrapping up.
This is the other thing. My, my son, my son calls me.
I dropped him off from school at school today, calls me because
he knows he can't use the phone at school.
So he calls me like 843 from I guess before assembly, whatever
the hell. And he says, dad, he's like, do
me a favor. He's like, can you come and
bring Skittles to school? Then Starburst?
I'm like, why? He's like, oh, we're having a
party and I forgot to tell mom. You know, mom does that stuff
great. She's always on top of that.
The cupcakes, the parties, this, that.
And I'm like, party for what? As is it somebody's birthday?
No, not that I'm averse to it, but I just need a little bit
more of an explanation. You know, for all I know, I'm
going to bring him Skittles and Starbursts and he's going to
sell them for, you know, a dollar a piece during recess.
Like what do you need candy for? You have enough candy, right?
So. He's like, there's some sort of
party, my homeroom or whatever it is, I still don't even really
know what it is. And I'm like, yeah, Daddy's
busy. What time do you, what time do
you need to buy? He's like, why?
I definitely need to buy 130's and I got to run to the store,
get some Starbursts, get some Skittles.
I didn't have any parties in school when I was young.
Never in high school, that's for sure.
In grammar school we would like early, like first and second.
I went to Catholic grammar school, so it was certain like
Wednesdays we'd had a hat. We would have half a days on
Wednesdays because the public school kids would come and they
would get their religious education on Wednesdays, which
meant we would get out of 12/30, which meant we can run wild in
the park, which was they talk about having freedom and it was
no phones and parents like go do whatever you want.
And I, we would have cupcakes in like first and 2nd grade for
sure. But I think every day there's a
celebration, there's a party for this day, there's a party for
that day, there's a party for this holiday.
I love holidays as much as anybody.
Like Christmas, phenomenal, off on Monday, Martin Luther King
Day, phenomenal, you know. Oh, great.
All, all day, short Thanksgiving week.
Absolutely. Yeah.
But they just make up holidays. Does anybody else go through
that? It really is amazing.
Bensonhurst in the house. Bensonhurst.
Was that Saint Dominic's parish right there?
My aunt and uncle used to live in in Bensonhurst.
I spent a lot of Sundays in Bensonhurst going there for a
Sunday meal. We'd rotate, my mom would make
it, my Aunt Angie would make it, and then my grandma would make
it in Greenpoint. So it would be in Flatbush,
Greenpoint, and Bensonhurst. It's always tough getting a
parking spot in Bensonhurst, but I remember my dad would always
drop us off and have to circle around anyway.
All right, so I got to get bouncing because I got to go get
the candy. So 2 little quick hitters here
number one, I'll probably I'll probably read a couple of more
texts before I bounce. But last I already hit the
Knicks, I hit the baseball stuff.
By the way, Twitter, Instagram, follow me there like subscribe
hype it. If you want to do that, if you
know what that is, spread the word, get it around, get those
things going. The more we do, the more we get,
the more we can do. All right now these will be
quick hits. As I said, big game for normal
tomorrow night for St. John's.
Tomorrow night's a big game. Now St.
John's has back-to-back quad one Rd. wins, and I know that some
of you don't care about the numbers don't know the numbers
or a little bit of both that's fine.
I'm. So I'm not going to get ultra
nerdy and geek out on this, but it's a really big game for St.
John's because four they've got 5 losses right?
Basically every one of them was to a really good team except
Providence that was that was a bad loss there, but they've
recovered nicely and they've lost the teams with really good
resumes like top resumes right? So it's not going to hurt them
as long as they can continue to win on selection Sunday.
But of the five losses, 4 have been 2 quad ones, all right?
So if there's such a thing as a good loss, they've had a few of
those. Now, to me, you look at
Villanova and that's what they're playing tomorrow night.
I really the Willard's a good coach, I think.
I think he's the kind of coach myself.
I was talking to Pitino about this yesterday.
He's the kind of coach that I think should be in a basketball.
I know well, I know Villanova has football, but you know what
I mean? Like high level, big money
football, like Maryland. I think he's more like that
Seton Hall, Villanova. I, I, I think Willard's that
kind of coach. I, I like that for him.
I like that for the conference. So I like that he's down there
in, in Philly at this point. Last couple of games and I've
done them, they played at the Fitterdon Center, which is
really nice on campus. This one is where the Sixers
play. I, I forget what, what it's
called now. The name of the arena used to be
like Wells Fargo, the old, like next to the old Spectrum back in
the day. And it's going to be 20,000
people. I know some St.
John's fans are making the trip. Villanova fans are phenomenal.
So this is a really big game of the sense that St.
John's right now is number 25 in NET ranking.
It's really, really good number. And with the back-to-back quad
one Rd. wins, they've got another chance for a quad one
Rd. win tomorrow. And if they get that now,
Milvanova's tough and they got some guards that can give St.
John's some. I'm not going to get too into
the weeds on this, but they got some guards who can really give
them issues. But if St. it's an 8:00 PM tip
to national profile. It's going to be a lot of fun.
I think it's on Peacock. If St.
John's wins this game, the resume becomes starts to become
really, really, really impressive.
They haven't played UConn yet and Uconn's a beast.
And Seton Hall is going to be tough.
They are. Holloway is a tremendous coach.
He's got some players. They got some NIL money, money.
So I'm not just going to say, oh, Seton Hall win.
I'm not saying that at all. You play what's in front of you
and Saint John's not good enough to look at anybody and say we're
going to just show up and except maybe like a a Marquette like
they did the other night, win by 20 St.
Johnson's beginning to get back on track, which is good.
Zubi's been great. They started to figure out who
they are identity wise. More minutes for Dylan Mitchell.
The lineup is bigger. I think Rick's made a good
adjustment there. Sellers has been their best
perimeter player. Hopkins kind of figuring things
out, his knees healthy again. And and I think 2 of the keys
will be Jackson and Sadden moving forward.
Jackson's been much better than Sadden, who's been basically
invisible so, but I haven't given up on him.
I think Saint John still has a pretty good ceiling.
I think for them, they're going to have to get the right match
up in the NCAA Tournament. They're going to be in the
tournament. I think it was a point like when
they lost the Providence game, people were like, Oh my God, are
they not going to make them? Of course they're going to be in
the tournament. They're going to have 20
something wins and they're going to have a good net ranking and
everything that you need analytically is going to light
itself up. But I think it really gets even
further strengthened and bolstered tomorrow night.
And I'm not saying they're going to definitely win.
I'm I don't really make predictions for games.
I do for St. John's.
You know, I, I looked for the spread just to see there wasn't
out yet. St.
John's has won the last couple of games on camp, like they
played pretty well against, although they lost him once last
year, but they played like they couldn't beat him for a decade
with Jay Wright Moore. St.
John's has kind of take a little bit control of that rivalry now.
But Villanova is going to be a handful tomorrow if you ask me.
I mean, maybe St. John's -1 1/2, maybe Nova -1
maybe you pick them. Maybe it starts as the pick
them, gets better. Certain way, certain way.
I think that it's going to be within two points.
Either way, going to be a fun game.
That's going to be a big game. So let's see how St.
John's looks tomorrow. By the way, Got a little North
Carolina, Asheville, NC, Apex, NC.
Lyndhurst, NJ. Look at the shout outs.
I love it. I love it.
Yeah. Yeah.
More, more. Bensonhurst.
There you go. OK.
All right. Elbow.
It was restaurant. Have been there yet?
Allentown, PA. My first radio job.
What up, Steve? Cape Cod.
Guessing it's a Boston fan relocated S Bronx Riverview, FL
hoping The Jets take Carson back and not really, I mean certainly
not in the first round, maybe in the second.
What up Staten Island? Mike's out there.
Loving the setup. Appreciate that Mike, thank you
very much. Buddy.
We got a little Mississippi. My God, joking.
I've actually been to Mississippi.
I've been to 43 to 50 states. I've been to to Mississippi and
the time that I went to Mississippi, I did a college
baseball game. Southern Mississippi.
I think they played Houston in the was it Houston?
It was definitely at Southern Mississippi and it was the
Conference USA baseball championship game that was
televised on CBS Sports Network. And man, it was not easy to get
to Mississippi. Boy, I forget where I I had to
take a connector and top. I had a good time.
People were barbecuing good crowd out there.
Like do they had the tailgates, like all the pickup trucks in
the outfield, the barbecues, everybody getting buzzed.
It was good. Yo, what up?
Heck, Hector's in the house. Heck, it's my boy.
Heck, heck used to call me and Sal all the time.
Hector is in the house. Let me give him a little pop
here. It's a good dude, Hector.
Oh, look at him trying to get a pop, trying to get a little
YouTube. I'll give it to your blunt
thoughts that he actually light up and do the show.
Do you? Blunt thoughts 13 Hector from
Washington Heights. Washington Heights.
But he's a big Mets fan. I met Hector, met him in a Mets
game, me and Sal and I forget who else was there.
I mean, do you, I mean, I'm guessing if the name of your
YouTube show is blunt thoughts kind of like up and spoke with
those guys. Steven Jackson, like you got to
light something up before you go on the air.
I can never do that. There's no way I can smoke
something and actually be coherent.
I couldn't do it. I think I'd be so paranoid.
I I I would be the end of me. I just no way.
I remember once they went small, but it was still pretty, pretty
funny. Evan and Hoff did one of the
Rico's on a gummy. Now you know Hoff.
I've worked with Hoff forever. Hoff likes to have a little bit
of fun. I mean, Evan, Evan doesn't party
at all. And I remember him saying it was
I just I popped in one of the few times I he does good work.
I just, I'm just, you know, not actively searching out the Rico
Brodia podcast, even though it's good.
I mean, I had to pop in that I'm like, is he looking like a
goofball? Is he bugging out?
There's no way. There is no way.
Ever tried those seltzers? Those guys hit you fast too.
What else here I will make my football picks in a minute.
Hey, Indiana, I just watched I watched Hoosiers the other
night. See is what I mean.
I see that we got this guy where we got or gal drink buzz cola
out in Indiana and I couldn't I couldn't remember if I watched
Hoosiers with my son at some point when he was really young.
I'm like, as it called, Did we? Did you ever watch Hoosiers?
Like we watched a lot of those old movies like love the game,
feel the dreams. One of my buddies was actually
in for the IT was in the movie for the love for the love of the
game. The third baseman up more a
buddy of a buddy. I don't want to overstate it.
My college roommate who I played baseball with and was in my
wedding, one of my best friends to this day, Dan played golf for
them. I was just with him last
weekend. Great dude.
His buddy Rock, Rocklin County, the play when Kevin Costner is
trying to preserve the no hitter, the third baseman who
makes the play up the line at Yankee Stadium.
His name is Lemonis. Chris Lemonis, who played
baseball at St. John's, hung out with him a few
times. Really good college player,
better than me for sure. He was a stud and he played a
bunch of years in the minors. I don't know if he got up to
AAA, definitely up to AA, Was with the Tigers, part of the
reason why he was in the movie. And now I think he's an agent.
Chris Lemonis. Chris, if you're out there,
shout out bro, what up man? It's been a while.
He was a good ball player and he made that great play up the
line. Like it looks like a short
double. He, you know, jumps to his feet,
throws a dime, you know, shows off the hose across the field.
And he was. So anyway, so I, I have watched
all those old movies with, with my son Kelly Preston was
phenomenal in that movie. My God.
And I rest in peace. She's one of my favorites.
So what I see in the end, I'm like, I remember saying to my
son, like during Christmas, I'm like, have you watched Hoosiers?
He's like no, and we watch it and like with movies like that,
you know, because he plays on 2 basketball teams, everybody's
got the new sneakers and all the gear and the swag, right?
Like these young athletes are just they're pimped out.
They got it all. And I wonder, I'm like, how was
he going to like, you know, with the nut hugger shorts, you know,
basically like little diapers or like Andre the Giant tighty
whitys, you know that they're at the like the Chuck Taylor
Converse sneakers. And I got to pass the ball 7
times before we take a shot, you know, shut 9 screens, No 3 point
shot. And he loved it.
Actually, I didn't know if he was going to enjoy it.
He actually really, really loved it and I loved watching it
again. It was so cool, absolutely cool.
What do we got here? We're getting a lot of these
chats, a lot of these guys. I'm going to give you my picks.
I'm going to wrap it up in a SEC.
What up what up sack Caldwell, NJ here.
All right, what up Caldwell? He is a Chiefs fan, which is
which means he is a wrong fan and he knows what I mean by
that. Do something cash.
I mean they're trying they're trying sack.
I think they get Bellinger. I'd be very, very surprised if
they don't get Bellinger. But you know, I mean, if they
don't, then the Yankees. And like if the Yankees, I talk
about what like the Mets would be if they don't get them.
If the Mets don't do something, they missed out on Tucker, The
Mets don't do anything. Like what are the Yankees going
to be if they don't get Bellinger?
And I don't think that they'll whip on them.
I'm just saying if they don't get Belly and they're not going
to get Bichette, he's not coming here.
I mean, they're going to try to trade for Peralta and there's a
chance they might get him, but I think he's going to wind up with
the Mets. Like what if the Yankees don't
do anything? What if the Yankees opening day
lineup is Rice, Jazz, Caballero, McMahon, Wells, Dominguez or
Jones? Probably Dominguez and then
obviously Grisham and Judge and Stanton.
That is that is not a team, but a lot of upside.
I mean, your your pitch, your pitching staff better be
phenomenal. Otherwise, you're not going to
win anything. This is the longest show
officially almost two hours. All right, let me give you my
picks here. So Saturday, tomorrow, 4:30
Bills at the Broncos. Denver -1 1/2 The Bills are
really banged up. My heart.
I know. I'm so conflicted here as a Jet
fan because I really do love Josh Allen and I really would
love to see Josh Allen. I'd much rather watch Josh Allen
playing the Super Bowl than Bonex.
Like when we get to the Super Bowl, I want to see all time
quarterbacks or yeah, quarterbacks who have a chance
to be all time. And obviously if you win the
Super Bowl or you get to the Super Bowl, that elevates the
profile. I just, you know, even if Bonex
gets there and wins, like I think he's going to be right.
Maybe I'm wrong, maybe I'm wrong.
I think he's going to be more like the Flacco type than, you
know, the Super four-star quarterback who is now going to
win a couple and go down as one of the best.
He's not that guy where Josh Hamlin is.
But the Bills are really banged up.
Broncos defense is great. It's at home in the altitude.
They're well rested. Oh, man, my heart says go Bills.
My money says Broncos cover the number.
Give me Denver -1 1/2. All right, that's Saturday, 4/30
at 8:00 PM, Niners at Seattle. Now, Darnold's got the oblique
issue, which is going to be interesting.
That's a massive number. I mean, me and Sal would always
do the picks. That was fun.
We didn't get to finish it this year, so we got spared dressing
up like Doink or like Gold Dust or whatever the hell else we got
dressed up as. But I was brother of love.
I think that one of the things that we always tried to stay
away from doing the pic. Not always, but most of the time
it's certainly something I calculate like if there's a big
spread a even if there's a fairly nominal spread, but if
there's a big spread, I'm not necessarily running to that
game. If it's a divisional game now
it's a playoff game, but it's still divisional game.
But darno, like that oblique. I remember God, I tore.
I was playing golf and I and he doesn't have it this bad, but I,
I remember like I actually, I don't know, I don't know how it
happened. It doesn't even matter.
But I heard it's called the intercostal.
INTERCOSTAL. Never even heard of it.
And I even studied kinesiology like I and I've had a lot of
injuries, as you guys know, the Achilles, the back surgery,
Tommy John. You've never heard about the
intercostal. I'm not going to bore you with a
long story, but it hurts like hell.
It feels like somebody. Those are the oblique strains
that intercostal. Just a more tricked up, churched
up word for it. And he heard his oblique right.
And I remember when I heard it, the problem with that is why it
doesn't really heal that quick. Is like you could be in a dead
sleep in the middle of the night and like stretch and then it
just pierces and it kind of goes backwards and whatever healing
you may have had up until that point it it's undone and it's a
problem now. I mean, me trying to get around
and shoot 103 on the golf course and act like a knucklehead with
that injury, which of course I played through, it is a little
different than a professional quarterback being compromised
and on the run and getting hit and all that stuff.
So that is pause enough. And the respect I've got for the
Niners, although without Kittle, they're really banged up.
You know what, if I'm not going to bet this game, but if I was,
I would take the seven and I would go small.
I, I really would go small. Just give me a little more
interest. It's going to be a good game
anyway you hope. And they played a couple of
weeks ago. I watched that game with my
buddies. It was a good game.
That's why Seattle got the bye. But the Niners are so jacked up
with the injuries, I I'd be stunned if they win.
But they are the kind of organization I'll give enough
respect to a touchdown, like even if they score 3 early or
Darnold's hurt and field goal or touchdown.
And now listen, this, this works sometimes it worked with
Carolina, like when you're a big dog and I was 10 1/2 that
number. If you score early, let's say,
let's say the Niners, they score a touchdown early.
Your seven point dogs. Well, now all of a sudden from a
betting perspective, you're playing with 14 points.
And you know, once the game begins to take an identity, no
matter how much better a certain team might be, it's just it's
hard to make up those points together, even though it seems
easy. Win by a touchdown down, Shave
it down 6 1/2. Win by a touchdown, cover the
number. How infrequently does that
happen? Think about how much you bet and
how much you lose. Right?
So I'm not touching it, but I'm going to.
I would take the Niners +7. And I will for the sake of let
you know what I think is going to happen Sunday.
Texans at the Pats, Man, oh, man, that defense is awesome.
I'm going to take the Texans to cover.
Even though CJ Stroud was awful against the Steelers, that game
was terrible. And I mean, Vrabel's a hell of a
coach. Texans very well coached Texans
defense better up in Gillette. May May is better than Stroud,
but Stroud is capable of putting up a big game as well.
Small spread. I can see like 2120 Pats, you
know, hell, depending upon the weather, I could even see like
13. Oh, that's that's a little bit
low 1714 you you probably wind up getting a push here, but I
would take the three from a Houston betting perspective and
then the Rams at the Bears. I'm taking the bears getting 3
1/2 at home. I'm going to ride the home dog.
So as I like to say in summation, I just got to start
playing the music and then when I start tricking out these, you
know, the show with the music and the the graphics and the
bells and the whistles, the betting segments going to be
phenomenal. I mean, I love doing this stuff.
All right, so I'm hoping the Bills win.
Don't think they will. Broncos -1 1/2.
Give me the Niners +7, give me the Texans plus 3 narrow paths
win and give me the Bears +3. And you know, give me the Bears
on the money line. I'm going to sprinkle some of
that on as well. I feel really good about the
cover, less about the win, but hell, if you're in the
neighborhood of covering the 3 1/2, why not throw a little C
note or whatever you think? And we're 50 on the on the plus
side there, try to try to win with the and and just have a
really big night. So those are the pics.
Awesome stuff today, guys, Great comments.
Really good job by you Get out there, spread the word.
BT unleashed each day we grow, we grow, we grow, we grow little
bit more. Contract is just about dotted
for my producer. Not yet.
You know, he's got to have his guy look at it, which I
obviously respect. I would, I don't want to speak
for him. I would fully expect that we are
up and operational Monday with a producer, which will then enable
me to really have the guests and do all the things I want to do
and, you know, pop in, just make it easier on on me.
And then obviously the bells and the whistles make the graphics
look better. Obviously what's coming behind
me as I build out the studios. I've told you guys a million
times as wait a second, no way, no, no, no way.
Did the Mets just sign Bichette? There is no freaking way.
That's the other thing. If I had a producer, somebody
could tell me that they just signed Bichette.
You got to be kidding me. Where the hell is it?
Why is it not popping up? The intrigue?
I mean, everybody's saying it. Three years.
Holy shit. Wow.
Why is this not updating? Lyle Tucker?
Let me just go to Heyman instead of searching this like a crazy
person. Jeez.
All right, that's two hours ago. No, I don't see it.
All right, I don't see it. Rosenthal.
All right, now I'm getting. Let me let me jump through hoops
here. This is this is riveting,
riveting stuff. Kenny Rosenthal, Let's make sure
we're not getting ball sacked here.
But Will Salmon now? Will Salmon's been really good
with this stuff? Raking 2 minutes ago the Mets
and boba shit. There's no fucking way that this
is real or in agreement on a three-year deal according to the
Athletic. Good job by them.
Wow, I can't handle the show now.
Whoa, all right, you know what? We got a little juice.
Ladies and gentlemen. I wish she was going to the
Bronx, but I can do the dance. Not about the Yankees now That's
phenomenal. Let me tell you something right
now, now I don't know exactly what the terms are.
It looks like it's three years. I got to learn about the opt
outs. I got to see how much money it
is. I would rather have boba shit
for the Mets than Kyle Tucker. I really would, and I was just
talking about this earlier now. All right, let's let's go
through this here. All right.
Oh man, do I love this stuff. I live for this stuff for a
second, short third. Let me get here.
All right, so we got Polanco first base.
We have Simeon at second base. You got Lindoort short.
I, I, I'm I'm going to put I'm going to walk through this.
I'm going to put Bouchette at third base right now.
My goodness, wow, good for them. Take it a swing.
But the Yankees couldn't do that.
All right, so now, I mean, this opens up a million
possibilities, all right, if you're going to put Michette at
third base, well, now obviously, you have to either think about
trading Beatty. Who would get you something
Beatty with one of these? Not McClain, one of those young
pitchers going to get you something big.
It's going to. Now, you can also put Beatty in
first base. You can trade Vientos.
I don't think Vientos has the appeal of Beatty, so that's not
as appealing to me. Whatever, that's a possibility.
All right, so they got Bichette. You're going to have a Lindor,
you're going to have Bichette, you're going to have Soda 123.
That is really good. And you're going to have a
switch hitter, A righty, A lefty.
Wow, 3 for one 2642 AAV. Look at you guys helping me out.
Bow to the Mets. Yeah.
Oh my God. By the way, now you want to
throw in some real comments, I'll pop a few up now I got to I
got to stay a little bit here. I got to dig in.
Now the other thing it does is, I mean, is there a chance that
that that the Mets just say, you know what?
Fuck it, Bellinger. Let's go.
We're going to sign Bellinger and then we're going to we're
going to trade for Peralta, right?
Is there a chance that that could happen?
Why not? Bellinger hasn't signed with
anybody. Mets could use the center
fielder. Mets could use the first
baseman. So I don't want to go nuts here,
but 1/3 of that equation, Bichette, Bellinger, Peralta,
one third 1:33 to third percent check and the other two are
still attainable. 1 requires money and then one's going to
require the appetite to give up whatever you got to give up to
Peralta. And you have to think that
Stearns, you know, give it his familiar familiarity with the
Brewers, will be able to make this happen, even though I know
the Yanks are making a big push for Peralta as well.
All right, let's just operate in fantasyland for second year.
So see, Yankees get Bellinger, I mean Belly and center, Soto and
Wright. And at that point, see, here's
the other thing. This is those two, the more
sticks that you bring in, the more you can give Benj a real
chance to win the job. And even if you don't, he's
still going to get a chance to win the job.
But you can, you can if you really believe in him as a
player. I know Taylor's a very good
defender. I get that.
But he can't have Taylor play it every day.
He's just you can't hit. So with the protection around
Benj and a top heavy lineup, well, if he proves himself in
the spring, you could give him a 2 month runway to figure things
out a little bit. And I'm like, listen, there's no
guarantee that he's going to be the real deal.
But but why can't he be like think of how what we were just
think about what you were thinking about the Mets last
night. Even though the Mets were
aggressive and I think you had to get on on, like you couldn't
crush the Mets for the offer. Like they tried.
The Yankees didn't even try that with with Tucker, right?
But imagine if like Benge is really, really that guy.
Like if he's a really ready and capable young minor league
player who comes here and seamlessly transitions and they
tell me he can play well, they tell us he can play center
field. And now you got Bellinger in
left where he's terrific. Then Bellinger in center is
fine, but Bellinger in center, Benge in Bellinger left,
Benjamin Sanro, Soto in right, Bouchet at third, Beatty at
first, Lindor, Simeon and then Polanco was the DH.
Alvarez, I mean, now, now you got a chance to mess around.
What that he's not going to still not going to beat the
Dodgers. I mean, you know a guy you enjoy
the moment signing Bichette. It would still take a miracle to
beat the Dodgers, but I'm not even going to get wrapped up in
that from first win the division.
All right, because again, as I said, to start the show, you
know, there were four or five teams in baseball that one more
regular season games than the Dodgers did last year.
Yankees were one of them. Same with Toronto, same with
Philly, same with the Brewers. So now the Dodgers won the World
Series and they got healthy at the right time and they're
adding Kyle Tucker and you know they're going to be an absolute
juggernaut this year. But it's not basketball.
It's not basketball. We're the best teams going to
win. Like there's randomness in
baseball as we've talked about forever.
And right now the New York Mets, who when I started the show
today, I thought was a 75 win team and a non playoff team
right now. All right, I'm not saying there
were a 90 win team. Like one player is not going to
give you 10 wins like that. But now all of a sudden it's a
lot more respectful. And now all of a sudden the door
is open to go bonkers and to be that 90 something win team and
really have a chance if you get a little lucky and guys do their
job and all that other stuff that has to happen for the Mets
to have a massive season. It's a good job by the Mets.
I love Bichette. I mean, Bichette's everything
that you, I know he's not a great fielder, but Lindor's
playing short and Lindor didn't have a great defensive year.
I get that. But I mean, this guy's clutch.
This guy's a Get Met fit. You're going to love him.
His uniform is going to be filthy.
He's going to hit Klaus clutch. He's tough.
You know what was the stat about Bichette?
He's basically a 300 hitter, By the way, I saw stat a couple of
days ago where he was the only player in baseball.
Judge didn't have this, Soto didn't have this, Otani didn't
like nobody had this. The only player in baseball that
what was the number that had a 300 batting average on fastballs
and either curves or sliders. Like it was a really nice stat
that separated himself from everybody else in baseball.
And when you hit I think 297 career, when you're basically a
300 hitter, you're going foul pole to foul pole.
All right. Now, I think Bichette's opposite
way prowess would have played better in the short portion
Yankee Stadium. But he'll be more double s, more
hot, you know, get hit for higher average.
This is really, really good. No, I mean, I don't know, start
thinking about things off the top here.
You know, I know he's not a good fielder.
I mean, listen, maybe the Mets, and it would be cheap, go out
and sign Louis Arayas. I mean, let him get his 190 hits
and let him hit seventh. You know, it's not leading off.
There's other things to do here. Wow, The Mets, that is a swift
pivot, man. I got to salute him.
Brady getting Betty, getting
traded to the Brewers. I, I, This is why I need come
on, I, I need a producer. I'm just, I could just read this
and just get lost for the next hour.
That is really, really good. I honestly, I think Bichette's
better than Tucker. I really do.
It's one year less. I don't know if there's opt
outs. It's less money.
It's it's a great aggressive pivot to a better player.
Tucker and listen, the knock, the knock, the knock on Tucker
was can he handle New York? Does he want to be in New York?
I I don't, I don't know the answer to that.
But I also think that if there's that question, that's reason
enough for concern. You know, whereas with Bichette,
all you hear around baseball gamer stud throwback dirtbag in
a good way. That is phenomenal.
Met fans. You got to be pumped up, man.
You got to be absolutely pumped up.
All right, let me just make sure I'm not missing anything.
How the hell do I get great Mets breaking news on the show here
on the yeah, because I I I don't talk about one team.
I focus on everything and I'm objective about everything and
I'm able to generate excitement for the Mets even though I'm not
a met fan like because I love watching good baseball.
This is great. And then the other thing, the
other thing that I now you can light one up off that heck to
knock yourself out, let up a go and get that 20% THCII mean.
Now it's like, you know, maybe this doesn't happen, but the
prospects of being really incredibly aggressive and
incredibly relevant it is at the very least there because and now
you prevent them from going to the Phillies too.
So not only do the Mets get a really good player that I love,
but now the Phillies don't get them.
That's a win. Boy, that is an absolute win to
master class pivot right there. Master class pivot.
And now, you know, maybe I got to be fair because Cohen had the
tweet out there last night, something about the smoke.
And then as soon as Tucker signed with the Dodgers when
that broke, I I jumped in. I quote tweet.
I said, is that enough smoke? Well, then, and this morning on
the show, I said, when I start, I'm like, listen, you got to
drop a tweet like that. You better know that he's
coming. Like have a little fun, play the
game a little bit, do a little troll.
And then two hours later, hey, look, buddy a Tucker, a met then
that that would have made sense. Maybe he knew or strongly
surmise that. All right.
Hey, Tucker, you don't want us. We got this lined up and nobody
knows that we got it lined up. See, the best things are done
stealthily. I love it.
That's why it's almost like too good to think.
Because we've heard ganks are Mets with Peralta forever.
And we just assume, yeah, the ganks and the Mets are going to
get Peralta and it's going to happen.
One of those two, you know, hey, Tigers are going to trade the
scuba. Well, they haven't traded them
yet and Peralta is not dealt yet.
So a lot of times the things that come out of nowhere are the
things that are certainly most exciting and sometimes the
things that best set you up to to be phenomenal.
Man, oh man, oh man, good for you guys.
All right, I do have to go get the Skittles.
I do have to go get the Starburst.
I do have to go and do this. Look, man, I do hope that this
incentivizes my team to get off their ass and do a little
something here. I mean, come on, come on.
I mean, imagine a starting rotation.
I have a little fun for 10. I really, I have to go, but I
really don't want to because I'm talking about baseball.
Let's say Peralta, McClain 1-2 and a top five.
Now we're going to get really, we're going to really hit Goofy
Ville 1234. We'll go on Lindor one.
We'll go Bashet 2. You could go belly, but you
don't want to have lefty leg. Bichette 2, Soto 3.
Bellinger, 4I mean if he was protection for Judge, and
that'll work for Soto. And then five, you get into that
like Polanco territory, who I like.
I like that move for the Mets there.
And then if Beatty's still here or Alvarez, am I missing
anybody? Hold on, Simeon.
Yeah, that's OK. Hey, bet fans celebrate, man.
Be excited about this. You have every single reason to
be absolutely excited. All right, I got to go.
Like it. Subscribe it, get the word out
there. BT Unleashed.
I'm back on Monday unless something else breaks over the
weekend. Good luck to Saint John's
tomorrow night. Enjoy the football.
I gave you the picks. If you guys just tuned in, make
sure you go when this is posted, which will be immediate to the
BT Unleashed YouTube page. Go there, rewind about, I don't
know, 20 minutes or so ago. I gave you all my picks against
the spread and Monday is going to be a massive show.
You just get the sense now, you know, whether it's Bellinger to
the Yanks or Bellinger to the Mets or a trade like we're
getting more. I told you this week was going
to be big. I told you the Giants would have
their coach and I told you that we would have real free agent
stuff like that. I knew this was going to be an
awesome week and it has been a fun, eventful week.
Giant fans are pumped up. Mets fans are energized right
now. Yankee fans kind of sit and
watch and saying let's go and I do think they will go at some
point, but until they go they have not gone.
So have an awesome Friday, have a great weekend.
Back Monday, unless something breaks and I will, I will hit
you guys up then. Have an awesome, awesome
weekend. Bye bye guys, see ya.