is on leash Are you listening? Can you hear me?
Hear me? This is on leash.
Are you listening? Can you hear me?
Hear me? This is on leash Are you
listening? Can you hear me?
Hear me? This is on leash Are you
listening? Can you hear me?
This is on leash. Are you listening?
Happened everybody come on in BT unleash with you here.
Opening day. Oh man, this is absolutely one
of my favorite days of the year. It actually might be like aside
from Christmas, it really might be my favorite day of the year.
Opening day. And this is just a great week.
This has been a great week. This will continue to be a great
week, God willing. We've got Yankee baseball
tonight. We've got the rest of baseball
tomorrow. We've got Duke and Saint John's
and all the other match ups coming up over the weekend.
It will will really Thursday and then Friday and of course into
the weekend. Let's go now we have a few items
to clean up before we get into the show here.
First of all, you're not going to see a lot of Jared on screen
today. Our guys playing her.
That's what we do here on on unleash when we're when we're
hurting, when we're sick, when we're that hamstring is pulled.
We tape it up, we go, we play poor J Rod was was throwing up
and I'm I'm imagining some of the other stuff as well.
Little little food poisoning brother you're going to make.
This yes, Sir. I'm feel, I'm feeling like Mike
this morning. I don't know what happened,
maybe food poisoning, maybe something else, but it was
definitely food poisoning. Oh my God.
Unleash fam. We're going to push through it.
We're going to get a great episode out for you.
But yeah, I'm fighting over. Here.
OK, All right. So I'm not going to pull you in
too much today, man. You've got everything under
control. You know what we want to do so
before we get to the actual show, we'll do we'll do Yanks
and we'll do the Johnny's report.
I got a couple things I think you really like today.
First of all, next week cannot wait.
Guess who's joining the show next week, My guy, where is he?
He is look at that lunatic Stephen A in the house that is
that is a teammate who likes me, a former teammate.
There you go. Steve is going to join me either
Monday or Tuesday. So I didn't want to put the
exact day up there yet, but Stevens coming on and those of
you who go back to the day, you know that Stephen A and I are
boys. So it's not going to be like.
So Steve, you know, what do you think about the next chances to
win the championship this year? And we're going to flush out and
we're going to have a real conversation with 0 boundaries.
I cannot wait to roll out the red carpet for my boy.
I mean, that is my that's my guy right there.
That is the guy in the entire business that is this
generations Howard Cosell. That's how good he is.
He's had a couple of couple of beefs as well.
Been an interesting week for both of us here.
He was getting it into Whitlock, right?
Well, I guess they've had a feud for a while.
And then of course, you know, some things have seeped into
this show, obviously, as I was pulled into some stuff, which
I'll circle back to just in a moment.
Not much, not much today. I pretty much said everything I
have to say. OK, so that's Steven A coming up
next week going to be awesome, going to be absolutely
phenomenal. Now the other thing this will be
quick last night. I know some of you guys check
this out. Appreciate you tuning in.
Last night we debuted the first episode of The Jets Collective
with Jake Asman, who is a a great young passionate, you
know, not not just The Jets broadcaster does a lot of shows
as well, but he is a great Jets guy.
Some people think he's too negative.
I think he's awesome. I'm also pretty sure he and I
will clash at some point during the season and Rich is just, you
know, he's the OG of the group man, and I'm I'm the second OG,
but Rich is the real OG. So Rich was there last night,
myself and and Jake really strong numbers, really good
debut. So what we did was you can get
that down there. J Rod.
Thanks, buddy. So obviously like and subscribe
it comment if you want to those of you who get that.
You know what I just meant there.
The the thing too is that it's it's going to be a full ride
like during the entire process of leading up to the season.
So as we get toward the draft and obviously, you know, free
agencies pretty much over here, but you know, OTA's in the draft
and then the the summer and training camp in the regular
season. The three of us will do that
show Jets collective every single Tuesday at 7:00 and it's
going to be awesome. So what I did though, at the
bottom of my channel, if you go there after this show I was able
to do, I mean, it's pretty simple.
You just hit a button, bang, it happens where now the entire
episode lives on my YouTube page as well.
But definitely need you guys to go and check that out, jump in
on that and and of course, like and subscribe and support it and
comment. All right, so we're going to get
into a lot of baseball here. You know, it's funny.
So. So Greg was making fun of the
glare this morning, huh? He's not wrong.
I've been saying we got to fix this damn glare forever.
I pretty soon I'm going to be wearing eye black here so I can
see the camera here. Yeah, it's funny too, I guess.
You know, I got my people out there who let me know what's
going on And. And somebody, somebody shot me a
tablet. A lot of people did.
Oh, he took another jab at you. Hey, listen, guys, I I said what
I said. You know, I I am about the High
Road until I get dragged into the low road and then I just
won't stop. But, you know, I every I I
emptied the tank and I I said what I said.
But it was interesting. Colder.
It was funny. Colder.
He goes, Hey, Geo, I'm just curious what you think about the
dip in Sean Menai's velocity. Well played.
It was actually really good on the colder's part, you know, and
and Greg, you know, Greg and and and and Boomer lab Boomer was
like, alright, can we just move on from the shout out to Boomer?
Love Boomer. And he's like, yeah, yeah, come
on. Enough of this nonsense
basically is what he was saying. So when the caller said that,
you know, Greg laughed, but of course he had to get another Jeb
in there. And, you know, he started making
fun of the the background and you know the how I guess he said
I'm a minor league and all that stuff.
That's fine, Greg, that's good. You know, and, and I'm done.
I I've said everything that I have to say.
It's out there, you know, people wrote articles about it.
It's out there, all the videos and all that stuff.
So and I know that you saw it because I know that you went
looking for it because I know that you know what I said.
But yeah, just just to clarify, you did say that, you know, you
referenced the but he did the caller and then you did as well
about the Sean. But I think that of course you
went into a little fairly unfunny mini soft rant about oh,
wow, you know, baseball analytics.
That's a really fun way to do a show.
That's that's a really good, successful road map for a show
in 2026. No, you're right.
Yeah, absolutely right. It's like one of the few things
that you and I can agree on this week here.
You're absolutely right. That's why I don't do it that
much. But just to clarify, no, I did.
I did say that nobody would care about your opinions on the Sean,
but I have velocity. But what I also said was that,
you know, maybe at some point you can go and fix that hideous
golf swing and maybe at some point you could stop riding
boomers coattails and, you know, maybe at some point you could
stop doing impersonations or come up with a few new ones.
And what else did I say? Oh, yeah.
I also said that at some point maybe you want to stop
belittling people to try to make yourself feel better, because
obviously there's some issues that you have in terms of
security. Because anybody who puts people
down the way that you do, that's that's generally not a good
look. And that's something I don't get
into. But that, but that is what I,
that, that's what I said. In case you missed that part,
because the caller only brought up the Manaya stuff.
I, I just want to make sure you had the whole thing.
And if you missed it, if you think I may be misquoting
myself, by all means, go and find it.
All right? That's the end of it for me, you
know, for now, you know, I'm not going to keep doing this.
You know what I mean, Jay, Ron. So I I've got to rule, Jay.
I don't even put yourself up on camera, man.
I don't want you to, you know, show the world.
I don't want you to throw up on camera, by the way.
And if you have to, just go and no trust.
Me, dude. It's about to be like Nikki's
biggest fear, if you remember from the interview.
Oh, yes, Nick, Yeah, you guys missed it.
I think I'm going to have her on Thursday, by the way.
I think we're going to have her on the show Thursday.
All Saint John stuff. Yeah, we had Nikki on last week.
She was absolutely phenomen, phenomenal, and she revealed
that one of her this is this is crazy.
And we all have our fears and all the things that we deal
with, right? And I'll actually, I'll tell you
what, I'll tell you what mine, I'll tell you what mine actually
is in a moment, right? It's you know, you got to laugh
at yourself. It's a real thing.
So she told me she's like every time she goes on camera, like
right before she goes on camera, she's afraid that up or you know
what, like throw up or faint. That was what she said.
She's so she's actually standing up there, whether it's S&Y or
you know, some of the other stuff she does, she's worried
that she's going to fall to the ground that just throw up.
I'm like, man, that that is a tough cross to bear.
My funny thing, right, If this is and now it's funny, you know,
if you're my friends and you laugh at me, but it's not really
funny if you're me, but I but I own it.
And again, we, we all have these things that we, you know, try to
tuck away and plow through and, and, and, and think about or, or
fixate on to a, to a certain extent.
And I never used to do this. Not once did this ever enter my
mind until. And it really wasn't even my
fault. Like it's not like I was born
with this or I had this phobia, you know, develop at the age of
7 or 8. Long story short, I think, or a
short story long, Oh God, this had to be about this had to be
about 15 years ago, maybe more at this point.
I'm doing AI think it was MSNBC. It's like a financial show and
they asked me to come. I was like when I mean, I was
doing fantasy sports way before that, but they asked me to come
on and talk about the blossoming business of fantasy sports,
right? And I said absolutely.
So I go in there, I got my suit on and I got my tie and I'm
like, they they put me. I was like, I wasn't actually in
their studio. That was the second time they
made me back, but I was in one of these remote studios that
ESPN, who I used to work for, kind of set me up with like a
remote studio. So it's just this little tiny
closet and a camera. And when you're watching, if
you're watching MSNBC that day, you can see me and it looks like
I'm, I'm in like this grand studio.
I'm in a little tiny closet. So it is so hot in there, like
ridiculously hot, right? When I say hot, I mean I'm
talking like 90° hot. It was because it was August and
it was anticipation of people getting ready for their fantasy
drafts, right? So I'm sitting there and I'm
doing the segment and all of a sudden I'm saying to myself, I'm
like, man, it's hot. And then I feel like a little
bead of sweat starts to drip down, like just a little bit.
I'm like, Oh my God. And I'm like, and I'm trying to
like, I'm not, I'm not even really worried about it.
I'm just like annoyed with my, I'm like, I'm hot.
I can't really focus on the content because I'm hot, right?
And now I'm sweating. So I, I, you know, I think it
was a pretty good segment. I don't know if it was great.
You know, whatever I did what I had to do.
I was, I was younger and you know, I'm probably not quite as
polished now. Anyway, I'm done with it.
And all my boys start blowing because like I hadn't been on
TVA ton yet at that point. So my boys start blowing up the
phone. They're like, dude, what the
hell happened to you yet? Why were you, what happened to
you before? Why were you sweating, man?
Were you nervous? I'm like, no, it was 96° and
there, you idiots, right? So in my mind, and I remember
talking to my parents and my parents like, you know, that it
looked that bad. It looked awful.
Like of course your mom's like, no, no, it really wasn't that
bad. And now I'm like, and now my
friends keep bringing it up and bring it up and bring it up and
bring it up. And now like the next time I did
a little bit of ATV, it was for Outside the Lines with Bob Levy,
a long time incredibly popular journalistic staple on ESPN that
I would jump on a fair amount of time.
That's I think maybe like Willie Randolph getting fired or about
to be fired. And again, because that was in
Bristol and I am in a Manhattan remote studio that ESPN Radio
hooked me up with. And now I've been there.
I'm like and and before we go on the air, they're like, hey, yo,
BT talking down the line, like the in my ear, Hey, BT it's Joe
up in Bristol. Bob's looking forward to having
you back on the show. We'll talk Mets, we'll do this
like running things out. I'm like, I can't wait.
Thank you for having me on. I really appreciate it.
The show's great. Bob's awesome.
You know, I've, I've watched this basically my entire life.
Like I think it may have been the first time I was on.
Really excited to go on. And then all of a sudden he's
like everything good, The condition's good.
I'm like, you know, everything's great.
I can hear you. And you know, the visual, I
could see Bob, I could see the set.
We're good. I'll see him like he's like,
we'll start in 2 minutes. I'm like awesome.
So now as I'm sitting there, I got 2 minutes and I'm like, it's
hot in here. It's hot.
This is like, it's almost like a, a Curb episode.
Now I'm getting in my own head, right?
And I'm like, Oh my God, don't tell me that this is going to
happen again. So like I'm going like this and
I'm not really sweating yet, but it's just really freaking hot.
And I'm like wiping my head. I'm like, I'm like, should I
take the tie off? Loosen my tie?
Just again, not nervous about the content at all.
Not nervous about going on national TV and talking to one
of the most esteemed, you know, broadcasters of our generation
in terms of like true hard hitting journalism, like no
sensationalism, just these he's an icon leaf.
He was great show. I'm not nervous about that.
I'm not nervous about impressing the bosses in Bristol for more
looks. I'm worried that I'm going to
sweat and my boys are going to clown me again.
So what happens? We start, I thought maybe this
is a Long story short story long.
So we start doing the segment and all of a sudden I can feel
that little bead starting to drip down.
I'm like, Oh no, here we go again.
So now I'm in my own head. And then and then the way the
way it works, because I have the camera and I have ATV screen in
front of me. I can see when I'm not on
camera. So in my mind, I'm trying to
this is this. Imagine doing what you what I do
for a living and dealing with this.
I'm trying to construct coherent thoughts and impress and, you
know, come across as, you know, talent, young talent, like
everything that you know, you want to come across as.
And I'm just in my own mind, I'm saying, oh God, just please show
like a picture of Willie Randolph or the Mets dugout,
because that's what they'll show video.
And then sometimes people will talk over it.
Very basic TV stuff. So I'm waiting, I'm waiting, I'm
waiting. And then as soon as they as soon
as I see like Willie on the top step of the dugout, I go like
that real quick. So I don't know if they're going
to come back to me. Then I go like that again.
It just wouldn't end. And then, you know, from there
on a couple of episodes, again, not because I was nervous about
the content, but because I I don't know the truth.
Ironic. This is actually funny.
So I guess Gio was out one day. And I think I was still, yeah, I
was still doing the network with Tiki.
And maybe they maybe they hadn't named Gio yet as a replacement.
Maybe maybe that was it. And I'm not a morning guy like
I'm, I'm more suited for later on in the day, you know, And but
they said, hey, you want to do a show with Boomer?
We think it would be interesting.
I'm like, absolutely. I definitely hop in.
So we go into the studio, I look at the thermostat, it's like 70°
in my studio now. I'm becoming neurotic about
this, man. Every studio I walk in, I'm
like, all right, what's the temperature like the first thing
I look at, not what am I talking about because that's unlocked.
I'm ready to go. Who am I with?
It doesn't matter. I'll adjust.
Well, it doesn't matter what's the temperature?
And I look, it was like 70. I'm like, I think I may have
said like Al or not Jerry, but maybe Eddie's Kazari guys, you
know, he's getting a little hot here.
And the other thing that I'll move on.
The crazy thing though is because I shave my head when you
don't have any hair, like 1 little teeny bead of sweat, just
it becomes very visible and it's torch dropping down your face.
And then once you start thinking about it and you're in your own
head, well now one bead becomes 1010 becomes 30 and then 30
becomes 100 and now you got a problem.
And I remember one point, we just started the show and I
swear I wasn't nervous at all at one point.
Boomers. Like, dude, fuck it.
He goes, why the hell are you sweating, sweating so much?
I go, that's a long story, man. I don't know.
Can we let's just talk about whatever we're talking about.
So, yeah, yeah, yeah. Oh my God.
All right. So it's out of my mind sometimes
with this stuff. So that just goes to show you
that everybody does have a a little bit of a fear or a little
bit of a hang up. So I've got a rule here to start
the baseball season. I don't know if you guys are
going to like it. I don't know if you guys are
going to subscribe to it like you subscribe to the channel.
I was a little corny, but you know what I mean.
Like I don't know if everybody's going to well, let me let me
take a step back. I think that you will agree with
it in principle today. What I don't think you'll be
able to do is actually stick with this mandate rule, wish,
hope, however you want to frame it, then I'm about to bestow on
everybody. And it's a very simple thought
in, you know, as I communicated to you, it's going to be
impossible for you and and probably me to me to Full
disclosure to adhere to it. Here's the simple rule, all
right, How about starting tonight with the Yankees, All
right. And then it's the Mets fans get
into it, right? And they start their season and
every baseball fan out there and listen, not every, I mean, only
a few base, only a few fan bases react like the Yankees and the
Mets. Of course, the Phillies are
there, you know, maybe one or two others.
But like, Dodger fans are amazing and the Dodgers are
tremendous. But Dodger fans don't flood, I
don't think. Sports radio out in LA and are
neurotic about every little teeny tiny thing.
They're just not it's it's a different micro level analysis.
New York baseball and Philly and and Boston because we're all
kind of cut from that same NE wacky cloth.
So the, the, the, the object for me, all right, that I try to
impress upon to you is to not treat every single baseball game
like we treat a football game. Think about that.
Guys like The Jets, the Ravens, the Steelers, the Broncos, the
Patriots, the Bills, the Seattle Seahawks, the Niners, whoever
you root for right now, that's different.
I don't care what market you're in.
And I've worked in San Francisco and I've worked in Detroit.
So I've dealt with Niner fans and Raider fans and they're
awesome. And I worked in Detroit, so I, I
dealt with line fans and they're awesome, right?
Very similar to the Jet fans in a lot of way.
So like, I, I want, I'd actually want to see the Lions with a
Super Bowl. Like if The Jets can't, I'd love
to see them win it. But anyway, football is
different. It's a different monster.
It's a different channeling of energy, you know, and even
though it's been diluted now, and we talked about this on one
of the previous shows where, you know, now they want to play, you
know, Christmas Day and Christmas Eve, and you got
Monday, you got Thursday, you got Saturday.
Once you get late in the season, you got Sunday at 1:00, you got
Sunday at 4:00, you got Sunday at 4:25, you got Sunday night,
you got London, you got Mexico, you got Brazil, you got Germany.
Oh my God. Like the NFL is just, can we
breathe, man? Like one of the reasons why the
NFL has become so incredibly popular #1 you could gamble on
it and you can gamble on baseball too.
But gambling on baseball is fairly boring.
Gambling on football is awesome until you get your face kicked
in and you're chasing the Sunday night game and you look at your
account, you're like, damn, I'm down.
How many G's? That was a rough, that was a
rough couple of days there, right?
Or a rough couple of games, depending upon relative to what
you bet. So it's a different energy, we
understand that. But really at least specific to
your team, unless your team plays like on a, a Sunday night
and then a Thursday or Sunday and a Thursday.
Like there's a couple of quick turnarounds, obviously, but it's
a play your game and then unpack it immediately after and then
the next day and then the next day flood whatever station you
listen to, whatever show you watch, whatever you subscribe
to, whatever you download, just pound the way incessantly about
the things that bother you or celebrate, obviously.
But usually it's more driven in anger, right?
And complaints, right? And and and and and and kind of
attack it that way. And then when you get to the
middle of the week, you now begin to, all right, regenerate
a little bit. Now it's like eyes on the next
prize here. And you put that loss, that bad
performance coaching gaffe, 2 minutes, no timeouts, penalties,
whatever might be complaining about the referees, which
obviously is a real thing in the NFL.
That is now in the rearview mirror and now it's windshield.
Then you look at the next opponent, right?
So football's always going to be different.
But with baseball, have we not learned by now, guys, honestly,
and I'm, I'm talking to myself as well, have we not learned now
not to overreact to a game or a weekend series against whomever
you know, even if it's your chief rival.
So if it's like Yankees, Red Sox or Yankees Toronto or Mets and
the Phillies or Mets and the Braves or Dodgers and the Giants
or Dodgers and the Padres or you know who, whatever rivalry it
might be. The Brewers and the Reds, right?
Like stuff like that, you know, you, we, we just have to get to
a point where the length of the season eventually things are
going statistically. Just think about 1 soda a year
ago, everybody was bagging on him the first month and he had a
rough first month and he didn't look very happy and he certainly
wasn't very clutch most of the season.
But at the end of the year, let's face it, 1 soda was the
least of the Mets issues. So while everybody's called them
means Sal banging on, well, not everybody, but a lot of people
banging on soda and wondering, oh, does he lament leaving the
Yankees and what's going on? And you know, the only reason he
had that massive year of the year, which I think is
ridiculous the year before is because of Aaron Judge.
Like every little teeny tiny complaint that was being filed.
Again, it's fun, it's good fodder, it's good energy, it's
good content. But I do think it's overdone.
Step back a little bit. Now, if there's a big injury
that God forbid on any team, that's different.
But think about the how the Yankee fans were were flooding
all the all the shows last year banging on Devin Williams,
right? Oh my God, this guy's got an ERA
of over 6 in April. What are we doing?
We haven't. We have no bullpen.
We're done. He wasn't even the closer in the
playoffs. Bednar was.
So I say this, it's really twofold.
Guys like the energy that we show toward baseball and nobody
loves baseball as much as me. Like I absolutely love baseball.
I can't wait, can't wait to watch tonight.
I can't wait to talk baseball. All the teams, all the angles
everyday on unleashed here. It's going to be awesome.
I I've always pointed to this. You can leave that up, Chad.
I'll get to in a minute. I've always pointed to the start
of the baseball season as really what I think will be that the
next level growth for this channel.
That's my belief, that's my anticipation, that's my hope.
That's where a lot of the resources and energies that you
don't know yet about or being devoted to this channel that are
going to be coming soon. So I I could wait for baseball
season. But even even me, as I've kind
of reassessed things here, I'm like, yeah, I I feel like it's
gotten a little skewed, which by the way, is also very reflective
of society. And I'm not going to go on some
societal rant here. You know, that I think that in
large part society has become incredibly soft.
Everybody knows. I think that.
And I also think unfortunately, that societies become very
callous. Like, I just don't think that
there's a lot of, I'm not going to say there's not a lot of good
because there are a lot of great people in this world.
But I just think that the sensitivity to other people,
it's really optional at this point and respected.
A lot of it is social media where you can post things
anonymously and just spew hate with no repercussions.
Things you wouldn't say in the street back in the day, things
you would never say for fear of, you know, whether it's
retribution physically from somebody or just because it's
not the right thing to say in the workplace, whatever it might
be. So it it's just a cesspool of
anonymity and with anonymity becomes, you know, keyboard
muscles and, and it really leads to, I think a partially deranged
and unhinged society. So maybe I did give you a little
societal right there, whatever, But I think that that really
feeds into the the unnecessary guys, the micro analysis here of
baseball. It is a long season.
I can promise you if Aaron Judge hits, you know, 2O2 and April
with four home runs, which you won't, But if he's healthy, he's
still gonna hit fifty home runs and he's still probably gonna
win the MVP. And he'll probably go on a two
or three month Bender where he hits 390 over the course of a
couple of 100 at bats because that's what he does.
Same with Otani, same with Juan Soto, you know, same with Wit,
same with, you know, any, any, any superstar around the game of
baseball. That's just the way it is.
So that is my, I don't know. I'm, I'm just, you know, listen,
maybe this is going to fall on deaf ears.
I am trying to impress upon you that, yeah, well, it's fun and
yeah, there's urgency and yeah, baseball's awesome.
So much of the of the energies really misguided because at the
end of the day, there's a lot of things that you can do to fix
where you are. Like if you're an NBA team,
right, and you simply just don't have certain things and it's at
this point of the season, you're screwed because in the NBA, the
better team always wins unless the better team, you know, has
an ankle sprain and the best players out for the remainder of
the series or something else happens.
There's a fight like the Knicks in the Heat years ago when their
suspensions, like you play seven games.
If everybody's healthy and there's there's nothing, you
know, wacky that transpires. And it's just normal basketball,
you know, through just pure physical attrition, the more
talented teams going to win. That's not the case in baseball.
And I know that we forget that. I know that we always want to
load up on. And it's fun.
And I love doing a guy, I really do.
It's fun. The hot stove, you know,
complaining about all Grisham with the $22 million qualifying.
Now, we can't do this. We can't do that.
And Dominguez isn't going to make the team and Jones has no
chance to make the team. And the Mets got Bichette and
that would have been great for the Yankees, which is true, by
the way, especially he's a righty stick.
But all these things we complained about, so many of the
things that we fixate on now, OK, are, are are not going to be
nearly as viable or, or as much of the story as we make it out
to be now. So that's pretty much the thing.
All right. Then the Mets open on five a
couple of years ago and everybody bash them.
What's going on there? Mike Keano.
Hey, Mike.
Thank you for that. Yeah, absolutely.
Said the season was absolutely over.
It was already over. Then they made it to the NLCS.
Yeah. And that was a really fun
season. Thanks for that.
But I appreciate it. So they they, you know, they
they lost to the Dodgers. They beat the Phillies.
They had a very surprising run. Vientos was a beast down the
stretch, and Menaya was really good pitching when he figured
out his wind up. Yeah, that was a really good,
fun, unexpected good season for the New York Mets there.
I'll give you one that's probably a better example.
When the Nationals won the World Series with Juan Soto, was that
2019? I think that was 2019 19 yeah,
20 was COVID season. I think it was 19 because the
Dodgers were COVID anyway, they was 19, but they started that
year 19 and 31 and they they won the World Series.
So imagine now I, I'm and I'm not taking a shot.
I again, I, I don't think that the DC region is like, I know
they've got some really good radio shows.
I know that some of those guys are really successful.
I think the sports junkies are out there still.
Like they've been killing it in the, in the business for a long
time, long, long time talented guys, good show, very successful
revenue ratings, all that stuff. And, and, and if I'm all based
on this, I don't mean it to be disrespectful at all, But I, I
don't think that the national fans were calling up with the,
the anger and the rage and the vitriol that they, that they
will be calling and reacting on this show and all the other
stuff that we have here. If the Yankees are 19 and 31, I
mean, my God, that'll be the end of the world, be it be the end
of the earth. You know, I mean, here's the
thing about this too, right? And I promise you one thing I'm
not just going to do, I'm not just going to focus on, and I've
said this, I'm not just going to focus on the Yanks and the Mets.
Most of the show, at least in terms of topic orientation, like
just to kind of get jump started.
And by the way, when there's a massive national story, that'll
be the lead. Like that will be the lead.
Could be an NFL story, NBA Finals, whatever it might be.
Most of the shows, as you guys know, will be rooted in, you
know, regional stuff here. But I follow everything and I'm
going to weave more and more and more into it.
Like, let's say St. John's loses.
Oh, God, which I don't think that they will.
But like, I'm not just going to say, but OK, season's over, you
know, have fun. I'll still I'll still give you
thoughts and I'll still watch the games and give you thoughts
on the Elite 8 in the Final four national championship game.
But specific to the Yankees and the Mets, Think about last.
Think about now last year, right?
Did anybody have an inkling? And I don't mean like the guy
who it's so immersed in like the minor league numbers and like
the prospects. I mean, I like that stuff.
I mean, I don't think that I'm over the top with it.
I'm more than familiar with it, but I wouldn't call myself like
a minor league savant like I even I Gio, even I draw the line
there, right? So there.
But there are people who who love that stuff.
Even if you're one of those people.
There's no way that you thought that Cam Schlittler at this
point last year would be on the mound against the Red Sox in the
playoffs and basically look like a combination.
Even though he was a lefty of Ron Guidry, Rodger Clemens, Andy
Pettitte, David Wells, El Duque, Whitey Ford, whatever other
Yankee pitching names you want to throw out there, right?
You know, Moose Garrett Cole, like and that's what he looked
like. He looked like a superhuman
pitcher. We didn't even talk about Camp
Schlittler. Matter of fact, when Camp
Schlittler really came on the on the radar, like for us locally,
I can't tell you how many times I did it.
Tiki did it. I think Evan did it.
I don't remember it. Ironically, I don't remember if
South did it, who was right next to me.
You know, I'm sure the morning show did it.
How many times did we say Camp Schettler?
I mean, Camp Schlittler, like we said, camp Shitler or some
variation of the word shit, trying to say Schlittler more
before we can finally have it rolled off the tongue.
You know, until it was actually a part of our day-to-day
vernacular talking about the Yankees, right.
So that's one example. Now from a Mets point of view,
did anybody really think that Nolan McClain, now I know he was
highly touted. I know that Mets fans were
excited about him. I get that.
You know, we also heard a lot about Jed Williams and some of
the other prospects because, you know, some people really are
into that. And, and I think it's fun and I
respect it. But there's no way, even if you
like traveled the Miters and you watch Nolan McClain pitch,
there's no way that you could have thought that he would have
looked like that. Like for the most part, he
basically looked like a modern young Dwight Gooden.
And I expect him to look the same this year, if not better.
Like if it's same with Cam Schlindler.
Like to me, if you tell me that McClain has an ERA of 2.41 now,
you got to see the innings and all that stuff because he's
still young. You want to protect them.
And that's one of the things you have to weave into these
projections. You know, whether it's a betting
perspective or more importantly, just talking about these teams
here, if you're a young pitcher, you know, you got to get to that
threshold. And let's skip a start here.
Let's keep him for the post season.
You know, we can't have them jump, you know, 70 innings from,
you know, AA to the bigs or AA to triple or triple to the bigs
or year one of the bigs to year 2.
Like even with Clay Holmes, who's a veteran and who had some
starts back in the day with the Pirates like you, you still have
to even monitor him. So that's all baked into the
calculations. But just assuming just for this,
just to show you how good I think McClain is and Schlittler,
like if you told me those guys were in the 2 1/2 ERA and like
they struck that like their their their case per 9 was
easily double figures 1011 and their WHIP was minuscule.
And they're batting average against was, you know, 2O3 and
every other extended analytic right deeper dive that you want
to that you want to look at is incredibly awesome that I'd say,
yeah, but that's what I expect. But these are two guys.
And maybe that's unfair to expect that.
But what my eyes showed me a year ago in small samples.
I do, but I won't be unfair to them if they get off to a rough
start. The point though, is we didn't
even really talk about them last year, last year at this time.
Let's go to cherry pick some stuff, right?
Last year at this time, Brett Beatty and I always, I always
like Brett Beatty. Now I, I, I, I, I admit I, I do.
I also have a thing for young lefty hitters because I was a
lefty hitter and I just think the lefty swing is prettier.
I just do like you. You say, if if I was to tell you
and I'm, I guess I'm going to. And that's the thing like when
you when you put you by yourself, I guess you can't
almost ask yourself a question if if I was to tell you my 5 or
6 or seven favorite swings of all time, every one of them is a
lefty. I mean, Don Natty Lee swing,
George Brett swing, Wade Boggs's swing, Tony Gwynn swing and
Griffey Junior swing. Like there's really not.
If I was if I was to throw it a righty.
And I'm not saying that that the guys I mentioned, we're better
than all these righties, but like Miggy, like Miggy Cabrera
swing was just gorgeous from the right side, man, foul line to
foul line, power everywhere. St.
Mike Piazza wasn't as pretty, but it was a thing of beauty
wrapped up and just being a pure beast, right?
Manny Ramirez, beautiful righties.
I like watching Mookie swing. I think he's got a beauty.
Mookie bets. So those are some things you
think about last year. You know, we're sitting here
saying, yeah, I mean, all right, what's Ben Rice's role on this
team? You know, what is Ben going to
really do now? I think that Ben Rice will be
the five hitter and I think at some point, you know, he's going
to wind up being the three hitter for the Yankees.
And I think he's going to have an OPSII think.
I think he's got a chance to be over 900.
That's how good, you know, how good I think he's going to be.
And even what I started to say before about Brett Beatty right,
like and and again, I've always I I get probably hanging on to
the factories that left and he looks like a ballplayer,
whatever. And that's one I I may be proven
right on. He is a ball player and he is
going to hit and he is versatile.
You know, pretty good third baseman, better than Vientos,
even though Bichette's there, you know, could stick a bit
second to pinch. He could play left.
He could play first play right if he had to, like he could DH
against righties. He's going to get a lot more
bats this year, whereas last year were like baby, baby.
It was it was all about Vientos. Based on what Dientos did the
prior season in the postseason and like the way he finished up,
you know, just some crazy numbers against elite pitching
in the postseason. Like that's that's a dude you
like we all thought the Entos going to go absolutely nuts.
Instead he was pretty much a non factor and is now we had an
awful spring and has regressed the point where he's an
afterthought until maybe he reinserts himself into the
equation. Like I'm just cherry picking
storylines here, you know, even go back a couple of years,
Francisco Alvarez was the number one prospect, not just for the
Mets in all the baseball. And now suddenly year 4
Francisco is one of my keys to the Mets season.
Yesterday that I did. If you guys missed it, just
check out yesterday's episode. To me, one of one of the real
stories for for them and obviously for his young career
is all right, man, we're at that, we're at that.
We're at that point. We had a little fork in the road
and you either, you know, go to the right side and become a
viable day-to-day, you know, thumper and and and contributor
to the Mets, or you get hurt again and you struggle and you
come up and you come down and you play.
You know, you miss sixty 7080 games and you know it's then
it's probably over at that point.
Then you got to move on it. It's, you know, it's it's crazy,
Same with Volpe. I mean, not that anybody thought
Volpe would be great, but this year's starting shortstop is not
Anthony Volpe based on the injury.
And while I don't think he's going to be the long term long
term shortstop, you know, the Yankees now have a guy who if he
plays every day and it's just decent, he's going to steal 60
bases. You know, last year Grisham was
a platoon player and I'm not a huge Grisham fan, you know that.
But you know, three years in a row, 19189 one 94 bit player
with the Yankees. Then all of a sudden last year
he starts playing 34 home runs, 811 OP yes, So you know, it's
that's how baseball is like. You don't get that in the other
sports. You just don't.
I'm not saying that there are the occasional stories that
arise like a Jeremy Lin, you know, a little shooting comet.
All respect to Lynn. I was that was fun.
It was amazing, you know, or even like when Tyler Kolek was
playing well earlier this year. You know, I'm not saying there
aren't good stories, but generally like there's not a lot
of depth to those stories where in baseball afterthoughts can
become, you know, October heroes.
You just don't have that in the other sports.
So I don't know if you guys even will attempt to do that.
And by the way, if you don't want to, that's fine.
I'm just telling you most of the things that you going to
complain about for the first month of the season will not
really be rooted in the reality of what whatever team you root
for, whatever your team season becomes.
That's just a fact. I laid it out for you.
Let me see at Bronx NYY fan 23 give it up.
That's got to be a little little homage to my man Donnie
Mattingly. Donnie Baseball.
Hey BT just he wants to commented on the Yankee hype
video saying rent free. No, no, did he?
I didn't just because there was a clip of freed striking him
out. I think the Yankees are rent
free in his head. I did not see that.
I, I, I am hesitant to put J Rod to work today #1 because it
takes him 6 minutes to figure something, find something out.
Although I think he's pretty good on.
I'll just tease him, man. Look at, look at, he puts it.
Not even the face. I love it.
That's funny, dude. No, you're good buddy.
He, he feels terrible today. He's throwing up and everything.
So we're not going to, we're not going to really put him to work
today. We'll pay him for today, but
we're not going to make him do much.
I did not see that. If he did that's that was that.
If you could clarify there not you J Rod.
The the text was that the official Yankee.
It sounds like I don't think it was just like some rando on
Instagram who likes the Yankees. If that was from the Yankee
account that he chime in on that, that'll be pretty funny at
snouty man, snouty man or Snooty.
No Snooty would be an oh, we'll go with snouty man.
Biantos is 25 years old. Here's he's a year removed from
27 home runs in an 850 OPS. They are going to have to get
him at bats. He's got major power, but he's a
chaser. His defense is bad.
All right, so I want to I want to write one thing down here.
So I want to get back to that rent free thing in a moment.
And now with the Vientos stuff here, keep these baseball
questions coming. Man, where it's at.
I, I, I don't really I don't have much faith in Vientos as a
baseball player. I just don't.
I don't and the reason is because there's only one tool in
the bag and that's hitting and he is a chaser.
You're right, if you were to do like his, his I just want to
make his is OK. Geo, if I bring up a stat, I
just want to make sure it's OK, you know, like chase rate and
all those other things with freight and all those other
numbers and that give you a pretty good indication by the
way of of whether somebody expands the zone or whatever.
Do they hit the ball hard? Do they barrel things up?
What's their K rate? What's their like?
I, I think that that actually matters in baseball, a sport
that's driven by numbers. But that's just me.
That's just a comment. That's just me.
I listen. He can't do anything else.
He can't run and cannot feel. He will never be a good left
fielder. He will never be a good third
baseman. Brett Beatty, Now, I know
Bichette's there. Brett Beatty is 10 times the
third baseman that Vientos is. Vientos is about as bad 1/3
baseman as you can be at the Major League level.
He's awful and I don't think that he will ever even get to
the point where he will become average that that's I think
he'll always be a subpar defender, even if he and I don't
doubt that he's working hard. I'm not trying to, you know, not
trying to shave the guy. I think he's got a decent work
ethic, but some guys just don't have the attitude to improve in
certain things. Like there's just certain guys.
Spencer Jones probably going to be one of those hitters who's
got amazing power and tantalizing gifts, but for a
multitude of reasons. He's a strikeout machine and
he's going to always be 1. You know, So I, I think that
Vientos is on a very short leash.
I mean, I'm not going out of my way to get him in games here.
Where is he going to? I'm not saying he's going to,
you know, hit 120 and and have 79 at bats this year.
But if you tell me that Vientos at some point is shipped down to
the minors, I'd say, yeah. I mean, I'd have to check how
many options they have left with him.
Whatever, like the clerical roster stuff.
I I believe he's got at least another option.
I think. I know we've been sent to
Syracuse a few times, I think, but if I'm wrong on that, my
bad. He he's just you're going to
have you're going to wedge him in against lefty pitching here
and there for sure. And if he if he hits well, then
you'll keep running him out there.
But he he he had an awful spring that that's not indicative of a
of a bad start of the season. It's not.
But if that continues, they're just not going to run them out.
They don't trust him, I don't think.
And if he's on base late, you're going to pinch run for him if
he's in the game at third base, like even if Michette's getting
a blow or in left field, whatever, you want to sit
somebody or Sotos and left, But and Benj isn't right.
I can't wait to watch bench play.
I'm excited to watch him play. So I don't think he's going to
get many defensive opportunities.
But if he is there, maybe a look at first base here and there.
Polanco baby's going to play some first, you know, maybe
plays 10 games at first base. But if he's on the field and
like the Mets have a lead, he's coming out of the game.
So now you're going to burn a roster spot because all they
could do was hit. And when you don't hit, you
don't play. If you can't run or can't field.
I mean, if you're a center fielder, like, like, all right,
Taylor, right. I know the Mets didn't want to
keep running about there, but and then eventually experimented
with with McNeil and some some other variations in the
outfield. And I think Taylor's a great
teammate, good clubhouse guy, could run, phenomenal defensive
center fielder. Now, so so is Louise Robert.
But you know, somebody at least like Taylor, you could justify
more than somebody like Vientos because at least Taylor could
run a little bit and he's a plus defender in center field.
You know, same like with so many of those short stops back in the
day, like the Aussie Smith here. I don't even mean Aussie, but
like that ERA guys that would hit 23240 that just couldn't hit
it all or some second baseman back in the day or catchers like
if you're a really good like Austin Wells.
I mean, by the way, he does have power.
He's gonna hit probably 25 home runs again in that neighborhood.
He's a great framer. And the analytic, like I
reference the analytics here, the framing and all that stuff
is, is actually very favorable to him.
So you can justify the pitchers love throwing to him as well.
Big strong target frames, very well calls a good game In Sync
with the pitchers. And that is an easy sell.
Even if he's taking the collar and he whips two or three times
and doesn't put the ball in play.
You know, now you don't want me catching to be everyday catcher,
to be somebody like that, you know, everyday.
But the point is Vientos, I just I don't view him the way I
certainly don't view him the way I used to.
That's number one. And at this point I, I just, you
know, if you tell me he's he's traded at the trade deadline or
he's not on the team next year, I I wouldn't be surprised at
all, But he does have some power.
He does. But you know, if he's not
hitting, he that's that's the only tool.
James 555K. What's up there?
Jimmy? What do you think of Benj?
If he struggles, you think he has a short leash and will they
send him down? I I just said before, thank you
for that James. I'm really excited to watch him
play. I love young baseball players,
right, who who's who have a throwback feel and unlike
somebody like Vientos, that young man, because we've already
seen some of the highlights in the spring, throwing guys out
at, you know, at the plate on the bases, making plays in right
field, running the bases properly.
Like, I, I know that if he takes the collar on Opening Day,
there's a chance that he will still influence the bottom line
for the Mets based on his other talents where somebody like the
Vientos. And by the way, there's other
Vientos. I mean, you can say the same
thing about Giancarlo Stanton, who's 10 times as good as
Vientos. But like, if Stanton doesn't run
into a home run, Stanton brings absolutely nothing to the table.
I guess the only thing that you could say to be fair is that his
mere presence forces the opposing pitchers to to work
harder and to empty the chamber to try to get him out.
Because if you miss, he's going to embarrass your 470 feet later
with an exit below 118. Oh, exit below.
Sorry, you know, like so that's different like you don't have
that fear with Vientos and and then obviously strategy like all
right, going to the bullpen, thinking ahead 7th inning.
Stanton's coming up. We got this and a little righty
balance, which the Yankees need. It's probably a deeper answer
than I. So I want to show Stanton more
respect than maybe it came across early because he could
still his influence is is at least there.
It's an intangible that Vientos doesn't have, which is my point.
I think the Mets will give Benj a lot of time.
I don't think they'll give him three or four months to figure
things out. But you know, if Vientos, let's
say Vientos goes, let's say he goes one for 9 with two walks
and three or four punch outs, I still think they're running them
out there because he's just he's going to be a plus in the
outfield. And there's energy that that's
one of the other things too, that I really like about this
Mets team, at least on paper. Like there's been a dramatic
uptick in their in their energy, like the presence.
And it's like this is palpable love for the game of baseball.
And, you know, Bichette, basically everybody that they
brought in exudes that, whether it's whether it's a swag or
whether it's a grittiness or whether it's both, which, you
know, certainly Bichette has. And I don't know if Robert's
gritty, but he is talented and he does have swag.
I think Polanco is a gritty guy who's not gonna hit as many home
runs as Pete. But you know, I, I probably, you
know, situational stuff. I, I think he's a better pure
hitter. So I, I do like the, the, the,
the reversal in, in energy or the disposition in terms of
character on this Mets team. So I think that that that's an
interesting part of their season.
Oh, before I forget. So the other thing too, and this
goes back to the the comment about the the, the the I always
say, I always want to say the tweet, the text, the chat,
right, that somebody said about Soto liking and then did he did
he like it? Did he write rent free?
Whatever it was? I think he wrote rent free, if I
read that right. All right, let's assume that
that's true. To me.
That is such a lazy, lazy thing and people it's like a go to
line rent free in your head. Like people think that that's a
diss, you know, like when you reference something that
somebody else says or does, people automatically associate
it with you thinking about that person all the time, you know
what I mean? And that's just a fallacy.
Like I, you know, truth of the truth of the matter is I'd never
like, I'm, I mean, I scroll Instagram, obviously, but like,
you know, if I'm just banging through stuff, you know, if I
see something good, I'm gonna, if it's something with youth
sports or some of the leagues that my son's, my son plays in
or my son's team, you know, like they won a tournament this
weekend, right? So boom, liked it.
You know, why am I even coming? Good job, boys.
You know, and stuff about the Big East or St.
John's or baseball in general or, you know, people that I know
and like and respect in the business.
I might give it a might give it a like.
But when I see them listen, it's funny because it has been an
interesting week. This really goes into my mindset
of really, you know, never being this radio beef guy, never had
any interest in it, never had any time for it, have no desire
in it. You know, there just comes a
point where you got to defend yourself and that's what's
happened this week, obviously. But the like, I'm just not a guy
who's going to parachute in and just like really make fun of
somebody. I, I, I think that's the low
hanging fruit And, and it's just not interesting to me.
I don't know how else to say it, but like, if I did right, OK,
I'll give you an example. So I did do this the other day.
I just want to pull this up like this.
I did do right. So I don't know him and I'm not
going to diss him. I don't love his style like I
myself. I think it's, I think it's kind
of changed maybe a little bit for the worse some of the way
people talk about sports these days.
I've never met him. So again, this is not a diss.
Incredibly successful, right? Where was it?
And, and he had something. And I know he's just not
watching these games very often because I believe he lives on
the West Coast and all that stuff.
I'd love to find this here real quick.
And it was something that Skip Bayless had, right?
Yeah, here it is. Right.
So Skip, and again, I've never met Skip.
Obviously partners and and friends with I think they're
still friends, but definitely partners.
I think they're cool with Stephen A who's coming on the
show next week. By the way, J Roddy, if you're
if you're not throwing up half dead there, can you slap that up
real quick for us, brother? Let's get a little look at him.
Look at look at look. So he's look his face, babe.
You'll BT my right hand man, Brandon Tanny.
I have a blast with you, brother.
I cannot wait to have you on next week.
Right, But obviously skip of the, you know, great, great show
with Stephen A. They did change the business in
a lot of ways for sure. So skip skip tweets out.
Dylan Darling is in an awful shooting slump, right object of
Rick Pitino's ire, but had and had no choice but to drive as
the clock blink towards 0. Made a wild, awkward looking
shot to beat Kansas at the buzzer.
Madness. So he wasn't, he wasn't dissing
Dylan Darling at all. But you know, and he was right.
Dylan's missed his last 15 three-point shots there, so I
don't know why. Like, and it wasn't a shot, I
just wrote wrong and I subtweeted what Skip wrote
wrong. It's not that he had no choice
but to drive complete opposite. Excuse me, complete opposite.
He told Pitino to quote run the play.
For me. It wasn't last resort.
It's brass balls wanting to smoke head on right.
So I never think about Skip Bayless.
I don't, I don't think anything good about Skip except respect
for an amazing career. And I don't think anything bad
about Skip except, you know, like all of us, the business,
he's had some horrendous takes, like me and like everybody else,
right. So just because I comment on
that and John did a little bit just, you know, be my
association with Saint John's. I knew it was actually said in
the tunnel or in the huddle. I wanted people to because I
wanted Dylan. I wanted people to know that
Dylan Darling was the one who said basically, hey, I know I've
been awful today. I've missed every shot I've
taken. Basically this tournament, let's
go. I want the shot.
And then he nails it at the horn.
I just wanted I wanted the right story to be told and Skip had
the wrong story. But it's like skip rent free in
my head. I really the only time I think
of Skip is when I actually see him on the TV and I haven't
really seen him on the TV very often or, you know, like
something on social media. My I just, I don't care.
So I just kind of keep scrolling there, you know?
But rent free is a lazy it's a lazy.
It's almost like a lazy dis Oh, rent free in your head.
And like people say that and they think that they're actually
like they got you. Like there's a little diss
there. What I I don't know is that a
younger thing? That's got to be a younger
thing. Jay.
I don't should I want put Jay Rod in here is.
It a younger thing that the. Whole rent free thing is it?
It is. Right.
I feel like the Wizard of Oz. I feel like the man behind like
the curtain right now with this. This is.
Eric Oh, man, no, yeah, rent free is certainly like
definitely an idea that popped up over the last like 2 years or
so. OK, by the way, this was from
last night. Nice Nick.
I appreciate you checking this out at Nick Nificent.
That's a good handle right there.
I like that Nick Nificent. Yo, Jets collective was fire.
BT really enjoyed the first show.
Thank you. We had a blast.
I mean, listen, the one thing that you never know, not that I
thought it would be an issue at all, but when I when I'm not
Tooting my own horn, I don't mean it like that.
I'm just saying from what I felt from my seat doing the show.
So The Jets collective is the new show, the new weekly show on
YouTube myself, Rich Simini, Jake Aspen right now.
I was on Jake's podcast about a month or so ago.
I'm going to have him on this. Obviously I've known Rich
forever. I haven't seen Rich in a long
time, but I always used to see him and Rich used to come on
weekly on my old, old radio show on 1050 back in like, you know,
O 4 O 506-0708, like up until I left in 2011, whatever it was.
And that's, that's so I've known Rich for a long time.
So I knew it would be easy with Rich and I had good rapport with
Jake. But the one thing in the one
time that I really talked to him and the one thing that you don't
know, though, it's not like there's two guys, There's three
guys in the split screen. And I thought Jake did a great
job, you know, running point and passing and feeding everybody,
you know. And Full disclosure, you know, I
probably had a tendency back in the day to probably try to
dominate conversations and probably speak too much.
And I think that that's something that I've learned.
I think it's, it's just, it's probably a better presentation
when you get more rather than just it's like I was even trying
to hog it. I think I was trying to prove
myself to be totally honest and probably came across as a little
bit much of times back in the day.
But it was good because it was just bang, bang, pass, shoot,
pass, shoot, shoot, shoot, pass, boom.
It was a great flow. That is a good foreshadow of
what I know is going to be a really successful show.
It's going to be it's going to be the best jet show out there.
It's going to be the jet show a record.
That's what's going to happen. So please like it, please
subscribe to it and the the actual episode is on my YouTube
page at the bottom with the collapse.
All right. So I think that you guys are
very smart, obviously, so I know that you understood what I said
I'm going to get to Aaron judge in a minute here.
I know that you understood what I said about not really
approaching baseball every single night like it's, you
know, November in football and you try to get a wild card spot.
So I know you understand it like pragmatically, you guys are able
to digest that emotionally. And I'm going to include myself
in this here. I don't know that we will be
able to actually adhere to that new rule or mandate or offering
or suggestion or road map. I actually the more I think
about this, I think it's impossible.
I just do. But I pointed out all those
examples like Ben nor was not even on the team last year.
He was a closer in the playoffs. Schlittler was in the minors.
He honestly his stuff and Max Freed was great.
His stuff actually looks better than Max Freed.
Like, you know, you know, all the Ben Rice emergence and yeah,
it just it's it's it's. And then all the Mets stories I
gave you as well. So you guys do what you want.
It's baseball season. And I know that we railed on it.
It's on Netflix. I get it.
Which stinks for my guy Michael Caine.
Unfair, Unfair to the Yankee broadcast team.
I know it's all about money. Nobody has to tell me why
they're doing it. I know everything's driven by
revenue, which is why the dopes in the NFL keep going further
and further away from the United States to play football, because
people are paying them to do it. And you globalize the sport,
which means more merch, more jerseys, better advertising
rates for the Super Bowl, and then obviously better rates for
ads and streaming and all those other things, which equates to
hundreds and hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of
millions of dollars. And then obviously billions in
terms of evaluations and all that stuff, but I'm going to at
least try. I'm going to at least try to do
that. I'm going to try to do it.
I really am. All right.
The other thing I'm going to try to do as we get to the Johnny's
report, then I'll get to Aaron Judge.
It's a Wednesday, of course, on the show here.
BT Unleashed. It is time for the Johnny's
report. I am going to try to hopefully
Jay is awake back there. I need Jay.
Jay, it's the Johnny's report. Thank you, Sir.
He, he's, he's feeling terrible today.
It's all good, buddy. I am going to try to pace
myself. To me, this is almost like New
Year's Eve. And remember when you were
young, you know, like I I remember God, like you just you
couldn't, you couldn't pace yourself.
You would just go. And before, you know, it's like
1150, you're out of it. You know, the ball drop.
Yeah. No, no, this is I'm going to try
to pace myself, but it is going to be hard because I cannot wait
to sit in my seat courtside down in the nation's capital,
Washington, DC, home to the absolutely awful Washington
Wizards and right now the non entity Georgetown Hoyas.
Johnny's got to always take a little dig at the way of there.
But that place will be packed and it will be Saint John's and
it will be Duke for the right to go to the Elite 8.
And I will be sitting next to my guy Mink calling it.
But I got to pace myself. Not going to be easy.
Anyway, talk to the Johnny's reporters, they said.
Brought you by my friends at Sullivan for pain.
One of New York's best personal injury law firms, according to
the US News and World Report. As general counsel to the New
York City Firefighters Union for more than 4 decades and the
proud law firm partner of St. John's Athletic, Sullivan
Propane is New York's team fighting for New Yorkers for
more than 100 years. Find
sullivanpropaneonline@triallaw1.com. That's trial law1.com.
Remember the name Sullivan Propane.
All right, Sweet 16, Johnny's Duke 710 CBS.
Right now, the Blue Devils are favored by 6 1/2, which I think
is a slap in the face to Saint John's, but that's just my
opinion. They get in price just to get, I
told you guys this yesterday, it's gone up a little bit just
to get in price, basically like the last row in the venue, it's
a 20,000 C venue is now over $500, which is double some of
the other regions just to get in all right, the Johnny's 30 and
6, Duke 34 and two. Now Saint John's, we all know it
by now. Won the Big East regular season
championship, won the Big East tournament, all those things.
OK, well, they beat Northern Iowa round one.
They beat Kansas in round two. I have got one of the most
amazing stats that it is. It is.
If I if I didn't live this, I would not believe it.
There's been 200 minutes of post season basketball for St.
John's. Three games of the Big East
tournament and then two games in the Big Dance, Providence, Seton
Hall, UConn, Northern Iowa, Kansas.
All right, of the 200 minutes of post season basketball, St.
John's has LED for 194 minutes and 25 seconds, 5 plus minutes.
They've trailed out of 200. They've won 21 out of 22.
And how's this for you? The last time St.
John's all about defense? Like, yeah, they can score
inside. And yeah, they got some guys
that can mix you up on the perimeter and are shooting
better, like Bryce Hopkins and Ian Jackson's starting to wake
up and Saturn can shoot. So, you know, he's a little
inconsistent, but he's a shooter by trade.
But the St. John's is here because of their
defense, right? And their rebound, they can have
a stifle you. This is amazing.
The last time an opponent scored 75 points, let's talk about 80
or 9075, was February 9th against Xavier.
I did that game. It was in Cincinnati, OH.
And The funny thing about this stat is Xavier needed overtime,
which they eventually lost. It was a good game.
Xavier could have won. To be fair, it was overtime.
That's the only reason they scored over 75 February 9th.
So I'm going to give you a quick key here.
All right, St. John's, all right, rebounding,
tenacity, defense, depth, the great Rick Pitino, all those
things we know. The other thing though, and this
is just going to be a factor until either either isn't or or
it is. St.
John's is 200 and 18th nationally in three-point
shooting percentage. All right, 218th.
They don't shoot well and they're and they're not a really
good free throw shooting team either.
In game one, they made 10 threes.
That's a lot. If you don't know, in college,
that's a pretty good amount in Game 2, they made 10.
Now, if they keep getting that or a reasonable proximity of
that, St. John's is going to the final
four. And if that's the case, St.
St. John's can truly win the
championship. Duke is good.
We, you know that Duke beat Sienna, they very easily could
have lost that game. They beat TCU, alright.
TCU was that the 8-9 matchup got a lot of respect for Jamie
Dixon, former coach at Pittsburgh.
You know the the TCU Horn Frogs. Shout out to Ladainian
Tomlinson, shout out to the state of Texas, where my wife is
from. Love Texas.
But St. John's Rd. has been harder and
St. John's is ready to play.
I have no doubt about that. I cannot wait.
And again, that's John's report every Wednesday on the show,
brought to you by my friends at sullivanpropanefinesullivanpropaneonline@triallaw1.com.
That's trial law1.com. Remember the name Sullivan
Propane. Let's also get something
straight here, too. Now, I don't think that this is
a real national narrative, but I do think that there's some
people that are kind of jumping in and think that St.
John's is a bit of a mirage or a bit of an overachiever.
Well, and if you think that, that's fine.
Like I'm, I'm, you know, if that's your opinion, OK, I would
disagree, but that's fine. But if they were seated properly
right now, if they were seated properly, they wouldn't be
playing Duke here, But, and they wouldn't have been out in San
Diego and worked out well, they won twice.
And here we go now they're back in the East and they're, you
know, a couple of 100 miles away from Queens.
And I can promise you, because I know a lot of my buddies are
going, there would be a lot of red and white out there with
Saint John's. Like they're coming.
They're coming in. The Red Storm throng is coming
in ready to roll. So I think some of the the
notions about St. John's, what they've achieved so
far, I think some are true and I think some are patently
offensive at this point. Like to think that Saint John's
that it would be some massive upset if they beat Duke is
preposterous. It it really is.
Guys, this is not now I was going to say it's not it's not
Carlos Boozer. No, but it's it's his two sons,
which is an amazing story, right?
This is not Jay Williams. This is not, you know, Johnny
Dawkins if you're a real old timer from the 80s or of course,
Christian Leighton or Bobby Hurley or Grant Hill or it's not
Coach K Shire's good. He ain't Coach K like the
mythical. And and, and imagine I take that
back. It's not mythical.
Like they have a brand like the Yankees, you've got Yankees and
Duke and Michigan, the Celtics, the Lakers, the Dodgers, some of
those platinum, you know, profiles, right?
And they've earned it. And I've got great respect for
Duke because under Coach K, when there was no NIL, like, you
know, some people don't, don't, don't really believe this.
I truly believe that Coach K did it the right way.
I really do. I do.
You cannot tell me. You could try.
I'm just not going to hear it. And again, if that's your
opinion, that's an opinion I'm not even going to really get
into the conversation with. I just don't agree.
If you tell me, wow, come on, man.
I'm sure Coach K was cheating too.
I don't think so, because I think that what you're doing at
that point is you are you are taking away, you are
marginalizing the integrity of a man who went to West Point.
Like, I'm not saying that there there aren't people who go to
West Point that, you know, lose their way in life, that I'm sure
somebody went to West Point that committed a crime and went to I
don't mean a war crime. I mean like a real crime, a
civilian crime and went to jail. And I'm not saying everybody
that goes to West Point to St. and you know, without human
flaw, right? But when you go to West Knight,
to West Knight, when you go to West Point, you play for Bobby
Knight, who's a lunatic, but you play for him and you are a
product of West Point. You are rooted in all things
good. You are rooted in education and
respect and competition and and all those great values that we
espouse as parents and motivational speakers and all
the things that we do. There's nobody that's gonna
convince me that Coach K did it sideways.
Yeah, man, they, they were, they were doing it.
You know, Coach K had his money guy.
Yeah. Coach, that was a sham.
I don't believe it. I think it was on the up and up.
And I think Coach K and Rick Pitino is the greatest coach of
all time for the reasons I've said.
But I'm not gonna get into it now.
But I do believe that. I mean, Coach K is an absolute
Titan of industry. I mean, new breaking news.
Wow. The Coach K was good.
I'm talking more about his character.
This is not that Duke program. They're really good, but it's
just like Saint John's is really good, but is the ace ACC what it
used to be? Is any conference what it used
to be? I know the Big East isn't, and
that's one of the criticism, criticisms of St.
John's. Like the Big East is down, It's
down. You know, UConn is is really
good, but they're not amazing. I'm just still playing.
It's great for the Big East, but Villanova's on the way back.
And keep that up, Jay. I'll get to it in a minute.
Villanova is on the way back with Willard and, and I, I think
and I've got a lot of respect for Nova as well.
Love Jay Wright and I like Willard too.
I think he's a Big East coach. I think he was out of place with
Maryland. He's more of a Catholic school,
non football. Even though Villanova has a
small program, but small dish program.
He belongs back in the Big East. I like him, but Seton Hall, I
like him back in a bit with Nova.
So building over had a bit of a renaissance season.
I know they lost their first game.
They were out in San Diego as well.
And then after that, you know, Seton Hall was competitive.
Shaheen Holloway, the coach of the year, respect Shaheen, love
him actually, dog man, absolute dog.
And Seton Hall plays their asses off.
And if they get a little more NIL money, which they are,
they're going to be a handful, right?
But once you get past them, the drop was precipitous.
I mean, it was like 5 layers down.
Like Georgetown is wretched. Providence is a mess, although I
do like the Providence higher. They got a good one in Hutchin.
They that's a good hire. He and he's got the right
temperament for those lunatics up there in Rhode Island.
Providence. Providence is small fan base is
kind of small, but Providence's fan base is awesome.
But they're down now. English was a mess.
Their their program's awful right now with you know,
Butler's not good. Xavier's going to be better with
Pitino, but not yet. Even though they're competitive
like just a down lead man. Marquette was awful this year.
Creighton was a shell of what it's been.
So if you want to levy that criticism, that's fine.
But they did just beat Kansas. And while they didn't really,
they didn't win against some of the better teams they played
earlier in the year like Alabama, like Kentucky, Iowa
State. You know, they did.
They did beat Baylor. St.
John's is a legitimate basketball team that has every
claim right now. They won't say because they're
just locked in on their job. But it is not, you know, me
being a Homer or New York arrogance or entitlement,
sitting here saying, I really think Saint John's is going to
win this game. I'll get more into the game
tomorrow. I'm actually heading down to DC
tomorrow after the show. I'll be doing the show live, you
know, from here, from my home for my studio.
Hey, how was the commute today, buddy?
Fantastic. I woke up, made a cup of coffee,
you know, took a little shower, got ready.
I kissed the kids goodbye to school, came in the office.
It took me 10 seconds, pretty easy.
Not a lot of traffic today. I can't wait to get down there,
though. And I just think that, Duke, I
will give you this one of the real, one of the real reasons
why I feel emboldened enough to #1 by Pitino and the defense.
But St. John's, and this is part of the
reason why they're, they're really good, Like St.
John's is trotting out grown men in the front court.
I mean, Zubi is a man, all right?
Bryce Hopkins is a man. Dylan Mitchell is a man.
They are just strong. They are now when they go to the
pros, right? And I I certainly think Zubi's
going to be in the NBAI don't know about Bryce.
I'm not sure. I hope so.
He's going to get a chance. And I think Dylan Mitchell was
going to be in the NBA. So when I said I was, I was
about to say that like, their bodies are done changing.
What I mean, they'll get stronger as they hit the weights
more in the pros. But in terms of like
development, just as you get older, like when you enter
puberty and then obviously start to grow.
And then it hits a point where it's kind of it those guys are
done growing. Like they might pack on some
pounds from, you know, change in nutrition at a different workout
regimen. But some of the players,
including the boozers that they're going against Friday
night in DC, they don't have that grown man strength yet.
Now they got NBA skill, certainly can does, right?
But I think when it comes down to it, like St.
John's is going to just go through their chest.
They're going to go, they're going to they're going to
physically run through them. I don't think that there's
anybody on Duke that is going to be able to handle Dylan Mitchell
checking him 94 feet. There's just no.
And they got good players. They really do.
They do, you know, but I think Saint John's will be able to
establish their tempo, how they, they'll get the the kind of and
listen, they don't have to muck it up people, you know, St.
John's defense, which is abundantly true.
They're like #9 and, and it's OK to reference the stat here, like
9th in, in defensive efficiency in all of college basketball top
10, you know, incorporating and like every aspect of stats
there. So plus the eye test, plus
Patino, but they also can score. Like it's like they've got to
win 53 to 50 or 60 to 59. St.
John's. Now one of the things I was
worried about Kansas is that some guys in their front court,
not not to mention Peterson was going to be a pro and St.
John's was not St. John's did not allow Peterson to
play efficiently. You know, he wound up making
some buckets and he's going to be a great pro.
I think if his head straight, like there's some other stuff
with him if you follow Kansas this year, you know, but St.
John's got in on him. Why?
Because he's he's young and he's thin and you know, he's not that
grown man strength yet and he couldn't get to his spots
because St. John's pushes you off your spot
and Kansas's front court, it was able to kind of match that
resistance. Like I I remember the first
couple of possessions, I remember saying to Mink during
the game, I'm like, yeah, this is this doesn't I don't love the
way this looks here. Number one, I thought St.
John's was shooting too many threes, right.
But also as Zubi would get the ball in the post.
Yeah, he's very he's strong, but his footwork is very nimble,
great dexterity, great explosion, right.
But he's able to get to where he wants to get against anybody in
the Big East, anybody. But you can see early on like he
you know, he makes his move and that it's kind of like a little
bit of an awkward baby hook where it's not that fluid drop
or like a little up and little pump fake to avoid somebody
blocking the shot or just getting pushed off the spot.
And he just can't go into the early stages of his move right
away because physically he doesn't He does that.
He hasn't yet gotten the advantage that he gets against
everybody else. So I do think that he'll get
that advantage against Duke. And then for the other reasons
that I said, you know, the defense and just that grown man
strength, I think St. John's is going to win.
And if they don't, it's going to be incredibly disappointing.
You don't know how many chances you get to do this.
You know, Rick is not 50 or 60. He's in his early 70s.
You know he's going to sign that new new contract.
Trust me, he's going to stay and he's going to stay for more time
than that that is out there right now.
That's going to happen, but it's going to be amazing man.
Now Duke skill got a couple of NBA players for sure All right,
what is this year Was that mink mink mink life.
Hey, mink, mink life. What's up there?
Mink man. Is this the mink man?
It's not mink man. First of all, if if you paid the
Mink man like I would, I would love to have Mink on the show.
I really would. I don't think he can figure out
how to get into the link to get on the show.
So that's why when I had him on where we did the the thing over
the weekend in San Diego, I had to make sure that the Mink Man
was sitting right next to me. God, I love him.
I mean, he told me the story when we went out for ribs and a
couple of beers on Thursday night, Wednesday night, whatever
it was him, myself and Madge. I found out he doesn't have an
ATM card, doesn't know how to use it.
Literally went to the bank in where he lives in New Jersey and
took out X amount of money that he thought would be suitable to
get him through the trip. And I'm like, well, I don't
know. What if you see like a
sweatshirt that you want or I don't know, what if we go out to
another dinner more? He said, well, I could charge
it. I'm like, all right, I got you.
Anyway, that's me BT or the epitome of class of a class act.
No more energy. I'm not even going to call him
that. I know what Jay will mean.
But if the Mets stay healthy and the pitching plays out like it
should, I really think the pitching will carry them more
than it has in recent years. Your thoughts I appreciate.
Very generous. By the way, that's a man.
That's a nice super chat right there.
Very nice. Thank you.
Maybe this make, although now again, he doesn't know how to do
that. I appreciate the first thing
that you said here. Listen, I didn't I didn't enjoy
it. I was going to run from it and
I'm certainly not about to get back into it now.
I said what I said and you know, now, now I'm back on the High
Road. All right, I'm back on the High
Road. I got pulled into something and
I thought it was really unfair. I thought it was really wrong
and I thought it was a real a real character assassination
that I knew I had to re establish A narrative about me
that is inaccurate, unfair and potentially damaging.
So I could take, you know, now maybe I didn't always take
jokes. He was actually right about
that. I I gave credit with that, you
know, didn't always know how to laugh at myself.
I've learned to do that. The one thing I'll never do is
take that line down ever. I don't care who you are.
So I hit back. I think I hit back hard enough.
I'm happy with what happened. I'm good.
But I appreciate you saying that now.
I appreciate a lot of the comments, a lot of support.
I'm not I'm not going to keep belaboring it.
You know, I'm not going to make it a bit on the show, you know,
moving forward unless, unless he unless he keeps going, you know,
and he did say something today, which is why I came out.
I said a little something. How much?
Just a little batting practice fastball.
Didn't have to really rear back and go too hard.
Just put it over the plate, Make the point.
I think the Mets pitching, that was one of the keys.
Yeah, keep that up as well, Jay. One of the keys to me.
Obviously. I want to see how Benj doesn't
write. What version of Louise Roberts
do you get? You know, Soto's going to be
fine and left. Obviously, I love Bichette, as
long as Lindor's OK with the thumb and I know he's going to
play. No worries with him.
I do like Polanco sitting in massive upgrade defensively.
I do think that he's going to be better offensively.
The great clubhouse guy. Don't know about the catcher,
don't know about the closer fully.
I do think the Mets pitching has a real chance to be a staple
this year. I really do.
Number one, you're starting with an ace all right now.
Is he school ball? Is he schemes?
Is he a healthy Garrett Cole? No, I don't think that Freddie
Peralta is quite that, but I think he's like that razor thin
right below next here. I really do believe he's that.
So if those other guys and we've got to see if Cole is still part
of that. I mean, might not be, but it was
only certainly scribbled and skeens like if they're a pluses,
you know, Peralta's an A minus trending depending upon some
years. an A like he's a legit top of the rotation guy for a
team that could win the World Series if the other stuff is
straight, if the other stuff is right.
And then you go from him to McClain.
And you know, I love this kid. And then that's why one of the
keys on the show yesterday was I think it's Kodai Sanga.
I really do. Many of you have written him off
and I know he's very temperamental, not in terms of
what he says, but like, it's got to have the perfect conditions.
I can't come back yet. Oh, I need 6 days rest this and
that. You know, I don't feel right.
My bullpen session, I don't know, mechanically my RPMS
aren't right. Let me get right.
Like there's a lot of that going on with him and it frustrates a
lot of you, but I think he's going to have a good season.
I think Kodai Sang is going to be very good this year and I
think he's going to be very good from the outset.
So if I'm right, you talking about an ace, a blossoming ace,
and then a guy in the third spot who has ace kind of like a
stuff. I mean, that's freaking good.
And now you get to a point where you don't need Sean Manaya.
Sure, you'd like to see Sean Manaya bounce back, but remember
the dip in velocity. You know that I think that's a
real thing. And I I don't think Shawn and I
is going to be very good this year at all.
I just don't. But you don't need them.
You know, at least you get to that back of the rotation.
At least you've got, you know, a Holmes who was fine and a
Peterson who's fine. Like Peterson is your second
starter. That's not good.
Peterson is your #4 or #5 that's pretty good, pretty good.
So I do think the Mets pitching is going to be very good.
You know, now the one thing that you hope doesn't happen is that
the defense doesn't betray that pitching and become a real
issue. I think Michette's going to be
fine. I know he's going to hit and Met
fans going to love him. It's just a dirtbag, which is a
compliment for a baseball player.
Clutch, the most clutch hitter in baseball by the stats.
Just a gamer, dude. Just a presence, man.
He's going to, you're going to love a Met fan.
I wish he was on the Yankees. You're going to love him, you
know, but he's going to airmail a few over from third.
You know, he'll catch most of the balls.
Adam, you'll see a couple of throws that pull Polanco off
and, and we saw in the spring, first place, I think the first
ground ball hit to him. And then because Polanco is not
a natural first baseman, you know, you'll see some
awkwardness there. You know, Simeon's great.
Lindor's find it short. Roberts is studying in in centre
benches. I think it's going to be a plus
defender and right. Soto's slightly below average
and left, but he won't kill you yet.
In a couple of years he will, but he'll be with him.
Whatever. But as long as the Mets defense
is above average, not to be all time, just above average, then,
then I think the Mets pitching staff is going to be a massive,
massive plus. I really do.
What do we got here? Yo, my buddy Jake.
Jake in the house. Yeah.
What's up, Jake? BT's the man.
All right. Thank you very much, man.
Let's let's hit the sub button for him.
See, that is good. See, Jake, here's one of the
things I love about Jake. I've always got passion, a lot
of passion. Knows the stuff.
And he is one of these guys like I when I woke up this morning,
even last night before I was going to bed, he's already
cranking out. He's already turning around all
the stuff that we did on The Jets collective.
I go to my e-mail this morning and I got an e-mail from J KB T
here's I don't know if you know this, which I didn't really know
how to do it. So I'm happy that he gave me the
e-mail, although I'm sure J Rod could help me figure it out.
But you know that I didn't have to go to J Rod because Jake beat
him too, which was good. Hey, I don't know if you know
how to do this, but here, you know, hit this link and to then
take what we did last night and now put this on the collab, you
know, on the collab tab, if you will, at the bottom of your
YouTube page for BT Unleashed. And now the show from last night
will be on your channel, which obviously gets more views and
more awareness for Jet Collected with myself, Jake and Rich
Samini. There you go.
I told Jake I'm going to get him on the show, you know, once St.
John's run is over and you know, once we get a little bit past
this, right. Certainly for the draft, No
doubt We talked a lot about Ty Simpson last night of the two of
the three, but I was really the one who, not that I'm all in on
Ty Simpson at all, but I'm certainly more than amenable,
more than intrigued with taking him at 16.
The other guys like no way to to to the to an extent.
So disagree on that. It was really, really good.
I appreciate that Jake, man. It's it's going to be the jet
show on record and of record. It's going to be phenomenal.
Can you imagine that show, Jake after a jet game?
Because I know what it was like when I was doing unkillable when
I was still at the fan. And I mean it was just anarchy.
Talk about a liberating experience.
I could just get on the air and flip open this thing.
That's How I Met J Rod. J Rod was producing that.
And that's where I'm like I said, my guy, you know, this new
endeavor, this new, this new future, this new platform, I got
to have somebody I could trust here.
And as you know, based on yesterday and the day before, J
Rod's been a warrior. He has been a soldier.
He has been a foxhole teammate. He has been awesome and he is
awesome. So the that that that the
unkillable show, man, you know, all these years, like I get on
Monday on on the fan or on national radio and I would vent
about The Jets, but I I couldn't really really truly say what I
really truly wanted to say. Guess what now I could.
What a beautiful thing. That's a beautiful name.
Robert Huertas. What's up there, Robbie boy.
All right, Oh, oh, oh, yes, Oh, good call.
I see the boom boom. Awesome.
First of all, thanks for the chat, man, super chat.
Hey, BT is for the let these Will Clark had a great swing
also, no doubt. Also shout out to our Guy J Rod.
Hope you feel better. Must have been your first beer
man J rod probably J Rod. The J Rod strikes me as the
kind. There's nothing wrong with this.
J Rod strikes me as the kind of man maybe not I I'd love to pull
him in on this, but I'm I'm not because he doesn't feel well.
J Rod strikes me as the kind of young man whose first drink
wasn't until he literally turned 21, which, by the way, is the
way it's supposed to be. He's also of a very different.
Generation than 15. Yo, why you really?
Of course, man, what? All right, this is like I think
this is a skit, man. Like of course, man, what?
And we just see that little icon there.
My bad. I undersold you now.
Basically the same as me. I got true story, story time.
BT So I've told you guys about the backyard hoop, the death
pit, and it was brutal for me because of the four guys that
would regularly play, I was the worst.
Like 1 was the best athlete around that I've ever seen.
Every sport candle, Danny Kelly shout out to my boy Danny.
And then Chad, who was also really good and he was there.
He wasn't always there, but when he was there he was really good.
Got drafted twice, you know, made AAA, played at Seton Hall
phenomenal. My buddy Pat, who was fireman,
who played collegiately and was, yeah, alone, my buddy Timmy,
who's from Bay Ridge was 2 best players at Xavier High School
playing basketball. Pat didn't pass at all, man.
Pat was a chucker man. You know, he loved to shoot
Patty. And Timmy, who was, was pretty
good. You know, Timmy also liked the
party. And Timmy, you know, kind of
lost a little seriousness with basketball.
Otherwise, you know, Timmy could have played four years at Bishop
Ford as well, which was really good.
An old CHS AA power Ray Nash. The Nash was the was the AD
there anyway, so we were playing the backyard.
Oh my God, Oh my. And it was just it was it was it
was absolutely. It was a death pitch and death
match. And one day we I remember it had
to be it was the 6th grade, my God, And we had a summer
basketball game that day at Saint Brendan's, which was
outdoor summer league and a lot of good play.
You got to remember, guys, you know when I was growing up, this
is right after like Mullen, which is.
Part of the reason for my affinity for St.
John's. Like every one of us, and I know
it sounds crazy, we all wanted to be Chris Mullen because, you
know, we were, we were all white guys from Flatbush and you know,
I'm half Italian, but tyranny's very Irish.
And most of those guys that just mentioned are Irish, right?
And we all thought that, well, why not, you know, to to varying
degrees. Clearly I was better at
baseball, but there was so many good basketball players.
So this summer league was, I mean, it was the Jet man.
And I remember my dad coached that team and Timmy was on my
team. I don't know if Chad may have
been on my team too that year. Danny was older.
He wasn't on my team and we're playing.
And my dad was never a big drinker and neither like I never
drink during the week. I have fun.
It probably seems like I drink more than I do.
I never drink during the week, not even really a glass of wine
once in a while, a glass of wine once in a while.
Haven't even hit the fire pit in a while.
I've been so busy. My thing is when I do it, I like
to do it and I'm going to have myself a good night, but I'm not
one of these guys who comes home and cracks a beer.
Ever go to a restaurant, have dinner with my kids, get a beer
and my wife? No, I, I don't, I don't roll
that way, but for whatever. And my dad wasn't that way
either. That's the point, right?
My dad more wine as well. And I guess one of my, one of my
buddies said, you know, let's, you know, let's get something to
eat. And then my, and my kitchen was
right next to the stairs that led into the, the backyard.
And there was like a little tiny, it must have been from
Sunday dinner, you know, of like these little tiny, they cope
like the little tiny beers, whatever they were Budweiser and
I like we opened one or two and we, we drank them.
And then it was 6th grade. We, we go, we go to coach, we go
to the game. Now, we weren't drunk, but he
could smell it. And surprisingly, he was pretty
cool, actually, now that I think about it.
Like, you know, it was actually kind of cool about that.
But yeah, 15. So J Rod, I don't know if you
had. I didn't know you had it in you,
man. That's amazing right there.
That's actually not amazing. I mean, you shouldn't be doing
that, you know. Come on.
What else we got here? I'm going to get a judge in a
little bit. In a little bit.
It's 11:30 already. Oh, my God.
What? Wow.
Rod Power, 78, BT Has Evan ever tried to get you into scoring
games? He's the type of guy who scores
baseball A-Team ball games. No, Evan knows.
I like Evan. I really do.
By the way, this all started when Evan asked me the question.
But you didn't have to. I mean, Oh my God, poor Evan got
dragged into this. I mean, not, not really, but.
And the interview was over. All I wanted to do was talk
Saint John's with with my boy TQ I worked with for 10 years.
That's it. I didn't come with any agenda.
I wasn't coming with a hit piece.
Come talk about the Chinese. That's all I wanted to do, you
know, and yeah, that's all we did for the 10 minutes that I
was on the air. And then as we get ready to hang
up, Evan goes So, so BT you know, did you I have to ask he's
and I knew he was going to like once I, I'm like once he set it
up, I'm like, I know he's going to ask me.
You know, I was not going to say it.
And you guys know that. Well, I'm going to bring it up.
And he goes, you know, did you know?
Yeah, blah, blah, blah. I'm not going to get the whole
thing again. And then but then I said what I
said and then he said what he said.
And then I said what I said. And then I said what I said.
And then again.
And here we are. And I guess he said a little
something today, right? So, so I like Evan.
I feel bad that that kind of happened on the show, though.
But it was never intentional. No, Evan knows better than to
ever waste time trying to get me to score a game, you know?
But listen, I don't like, you know, like some people do.
I, I don't just mock people for doing that, you know, like it's
not my thing. You could, you actually couldn't
pay me to, to sit there and score a game.
You couldn't pay. Matter of fact, those of you who
have children, you know, I'm sure you know about and there's
other apps too. You have to know about the team.
Well, team snap is an older 1 and that's fine, but game
changer is awesome. Like game changer is actually,
it's an it's an app. So it's got your schedule and
you can let everybody know like, you know, practice 7:00 who's
going, who's not? There was a health check from
back of the day for COVID that you don't have to do anymore.
You know where you're playing, who you're playing, what
uniforms you have to wear, what time BP starts like it's it's
awesome, right? And every all the guys that I
coach with, they knew this right away.
I fucking touching that thing, man.
Give me give me the fungo. You know, I'll run infield
outfield, I'll go warm up the pitcher.
I'll coach third base. I'll flash the signs.
I'll hit pop ups. I'll whatever baseball.
I'm here to coach baseball, but to score a Yankee game or a met
game at at Yankee Stadium or city field with a scorebook, I'm
not even scoring my kids games. Number one, that the it's like
it's it's an app and it's on the phone and I don't think busting
out my glasses to make sure I'm I would be inputting the right
thing and like that's a special skill.
If you are here is a shout out to any game changer mom or dad
who's got the patience to actually do that.
You are a St. to be able to do that, and especially if you're a
parent who does it and it's not a knock, but like who's kid
isn't like, I hate to say this, but like doesn't play that much
or, you know, isn't one of the better players in bottom of the
order, like just, you know, doesn't do a whole lot and you
still do it. I mean, you are just a good
person. You are a warrior.
I mean, you got to see you want some about next level advanced
analytics. You if I would, I would never do
it now, but like if I was to show you the the pages like they
we don't do that for softball, for my daughter, for my son.
Like it's got a spray chart. Every ball that you hit based on
what's input, you know, is it shows you like it's, it's got
this whole graphic and it's it's wild.
And the one thing about game changer, though, there are some
parents and, you know, watching out for this year who when
they're doing it, they're a little too lenient on the
scoring. Like I saw that, listen, we
would do this when the kids were 7-8 years old as well.
And then amongst ourselves with the staff were like, that's it,
You know, enough of this, but let's, you know, let's really
get a say and we kind of know who's good, but let's get a
sense of who's earning what. Like, you know, if you hit a
ground ball to the shortstop and it goes through his land, this
happens when the young and, you know, it goes to the left center
field fence and the kid runs to third base.
It's not a triple. Yeah, it's an error.
Like, you know, and then obviously you see fewer errors
like that because even if it does go, you know, past the
shortstop through his legs, whatever the left fielder will
probably the center fielder with better speed is going to at
least keep it from going to the fence.
So you're not getting a triple anyway.
But oh, my God, the amount of, you know, fudging of some of the
game changer stuff is hysterical.
And there's actually some parents.
I don't care. Like, you know, the coaches, the
teams that I don't coach, I never chime in.
The only thing I will say is, hey, he pitched the other day.
Don't use him today or you can go 25 pitches because he's going
to pitch this weekend. That that's the only time you
know, outside of just like friendly stuff about the show or
you know, about a Yankee game or about St.
John's. I never chimed in on that.
But there are some parents, thankfully none that I none that
I coach with, thank God, and, and none of the none of the
parents that I know the teams that my kids play for.
But I, I, I've heard stories. I mean, I'm not just like, like
I, I have not come across that. I have heard horror stories,
though, about parents who complain about the official
scoring that's inputted onto the game changer because it affects
their kids batting average. Oh my God, if you're a part of
the world, you know, and if you're not, well, you're missing
out on so many amazing levels. But on that, you're not missing
out. That's probably stuff that's fun
not to be a part of. All right, Michael Mara, what up
there Mike? I appreciate that Michael.
Thank you very much, dude. Love and direct from North Fort
Hood. Wow.
How many wins for Cam Schlittler?
10 plus for me. Off topic, will the jet
collected do post game show? OK, couple things there.
Number one, I appreciate the shout out and shout out to Fort
Hood. No doubt about that.
I I think Cam's going to win more than 10 games.
Like the one thing I will say winning is or the wins.
That is such an antiquated measurement of somebody's
effectiveness. So I I'd almost rather say like,
you know, he's going to have a batting average against of this
or a whip of this or a strikeout per nine this, you know, or an
ERA of this or top ten Cy Young. Like those are better
measurements. Like, you know, come on, man,
there's thing about Freddie, you know, Freddie Garcia.
What what did he? I can't not Freddie King Felix,
who won the Cy Young and he years ago stud.
What do you win 11 games? I mean, it was some real low
total, but because that was not reflective of how dominant he
really was. So I I mean, if you want me to
give you a win total projecting health.
I mean, I would think that he's probably going to win, you know,
1314 games, possibly more if the bullpens not good, possibly
less, you know, if they shut them down a little bit to
preserve them at some point for the postseason with the innings,
possibly less. But the, the my favorite,
listen, I know I just hit you with five stats, 5 measurements
there. My favorite statistic to, to
really measure a pitcher's dominance or lack thereof is
batting average against. And it's funny because I, I
admit too, that that batting average is a bit antiquated.
I mean, I'd rather look at, I'm going to look at somebody's OPS
or OPS plus before I'm going to look at their batting average.
But I, I still will never break away from it because if you're
hitting 230, you're not as good as the guy was hitting three O
1. And I just come on, even if the
guy was hitting 230, he's got a few more home runs.
I'd rather have the guy who's hitting three O 1 up at the
plate. You know, two on two out, late
inning high leverage spot. You're up a run down a run man
on third, one out, less than two, no out.
You need to SAC fly ground ball to the right side contact.
Because if you're a three O 1 hitter or you're a 290 hitter or
you're a 287 hitter, I don't know, just a rudimentary thought
probably apply to the fact that you make more contact, you know,
because if you if you're hitting 227, you're probably hitting 227
because you strike out all the time.
You're probably A170590, you know, plus per year strikeout
guy, you know, and that's justifiable in the modern game
when you hit a lot of home runs. But you know, in terms of a
clutch situation, I'll still take the guy who who's got fewer
home runs. Now, if I'm down by like 3 or
four runs and then you you need a grandy or a three run bomb,
that's maybe a little different, but I'll take the profile of the
higher average hitter any day of the week.
And and I would also say that so batting average still means
something to me. But a a pitcher with a batting
average against of like, you know, two O 9, which is I I
wouldn't be surprised. I think that's kind of where Kim
Schlitter is going to be right, right, right in that
neighborhood. And that just tells me that the
hitters, they have an uncomfortable approach against
you. It's not a comfortable at bat
either. You're throwing incredibly hard
and you offset that with an incredible change up.
So they can never get comfortable.
Like they're never they're always off balance either late
or they're early, number one. Number two, you're a little
effectively wild. You know, you can command that
inner half of home plate, which by the way, is I think of all
the pitching things for young kids, it's probably the, the,
the most lost art, if that makes sense.
I don't know if that sounds grammatically most lost art.
It probably does, you know, like pitchers are just scared to work
inside. You know, they are.
And if anybody, I'm talking about young kids, like if you
could, I don't care if you throw an 80 and you're in high school.
I mean, an 80 in high school is, is, is not, not fast at all, but
a varsity, like if you're throwing 80, you just, you know,
you're a high school player. That's that there's, there's
nothing beyond that. If you're an 80 mile per hour
pitcher, that's not a knock. That's just the reality of the
numbers at this point. But if you throw 80 and you
throw that 80, you know, couple of times an inning and, and you
literally you bang it inside, even if it's not under the chin.
And that's that's next level brass balls and comfort level.
But if you work inside and you've got a devastating change
up and there's enough differential, you know, but so
if you if you pop 80 and then you go 67 or 66 and now all of a
sudden, because you pipe something inside, even though
it's not fast, they might back up an inch where they might be
thinking inside. And then all of a sudden, that
little soft, you know, lollipop that floats past the outside
black. Good luck.
You might not strike him out barrel and that thing, he's
probably going to either roll that thing over to shortstop if
he's a righty or pop it up. You know what I mean?
So anyway, batting average against, I absolutely love,
absolutely love. And let me just give you the
Wellness check on my boy Jay. Rod Jay, are you still alive?
Yes, Sir. All right, buddy, there he is.
There he is. He is still live.
Avery Summit, Ben Rice going to finish top 10 MVP, Jones and
Bellinger with both starred more center field games and Grisham.
No, that's ridiculous. By the August 2 trade deadline,
Weathers will be the number 3 starter and McMahon, Jazz and
Dominguez and he'll will be gone.
Keep that up. Wow, that's a lot to digest.
Let me hit this point by point #1 Rice will finish top 10 MVP.
Won't surprise me. That is a fair take.
I think he's going to be a monster this season.
I can't. Ben Rice is the real deal,
period #2 Jones and Bellinger will both start more games in
center field and Grisham Jones will not be in the majors this
year, And if he does, and if he is, he will not do enough to
justify playing enough for that next statement that you just
said to be true. Bellinger maybe or maybe, but
no, not happening. Because if if Grisham, let's say
Grisham really just reverts back to what he was before last year
and the Yankees feel all right, we got to we got to change
something up here. Well, then Bellinger goes to
center field and Jason Dominguez goes to left field.
You're not going to have a situation where you know,
Bellinger goes to center and Bellinger stays in left and
Jones goes to center and Dominguez stays in the minors.
And you're not going to have a situation where Dominguez plays
center because I know Boone just doesn't.
They don't trust him there. And so Dominguez is not going to
center and you got to put Bellinger back in center as a
Band-Aid and he's he's a good center fielder.
No disagree with that. By the deadline, Weathers will
be the number 3 starter. That's not crazy.
He's got really good stuff, but it is crazy based on who the
Yankees are going to be rolling out there when it's all said and
done because you're going to have freed, you're going to have
Garrett Cole and you're going to have Cam Schlittler.
So again, I have to work under the pretense.
No injuries. Like all this has to be attacked
from the mindset of they're healthy, that's it.
So right away is at least #4 and then you got rolled on who is at
that point might be the best number 4IN baseball.
Matter of fact, he will be. And then I do think the weathers
would be 5. You know, we have to see about
Will Warren, Clark, Schmidt, whatever.
That's an interesting take. I do like Weathers, his upside
injuries, his stuff plays really well.
Lefty, you know, throws gas. Yankees are usually pretty good
with rehabilitating pitchers. So I feel good about him.
I didn't have a great spring, but I feel good about him.
But no, that was #3 McMahon, Jazz and Dominguez, and he'll
all gone. Oh God.
I mean, I don't. They're not going to extend
Dominguez. They're not going to extend Jazz
with the contract. I and I, I've said I'm on the
record where I think they're going to trade him.
But if he's playing well, and I do think he'll play well this
year, just not enough to justify ridiculous contract, I don't
trust him. Yeah, I just don't think he's
locked in as a ballplayer enough.
I don't think he's a gamer. I think he's incredibly
talented, but he's a little bit too flighty for me.
He's just not locked in. I don't know how to say it, man.
So I'm not investing 5 or 6 years with the kind of money
that he's probably going to get somewhere else or wants that he,
you know, he had to throw out some numbers early in the sea.
I'm like, OK, buddy, I don't think they'll trade him.
McMahon's got this year and next year 16 to pop.
So let's say midway through that would be 8 million remaining.
And then obviously 1624, I mean, the Yankees could throw in four,
$5,000,000 and trade him. Like, OK, but what under what's
then who's playing third base? I mean, could it be Lombard?
Like if Lombard crushes it in the minors, middish season call
up? I still think it's early.
I love to see it, but I don't think it's going to happen.
I wouldn't be surprised if Louis Hill is gone.
That wouldn't surprise me at all.
I think the bloom is off the Rose.
I don't trust him. He's already in the minors, not
in the rotation. Nah, not buying it.
Just not buying it there. So good stuff.
I mean, good, good, good thoughts there, for sure.
But no, I don't think that's going to be the case here.
Anything else? What do we got here?
What? Oh, Jack, that's interesting.
There's something to that. I don't want to just beg on
Carmelo. I say I don't want to just throw
people catching strays here at MKA Dosa.
It used to do Carmelo for you and those of you who have heard
my Carmelo takes over the years nor you can get that down, Jay.
Thank you, buddy. Know where that's coming from.
No, because one of the things that's always bothered me about
Carmelo is I never thought he was in great shape, had a
diversion of playing defense. I think Jazz plays hard.
I think Jazz is in great shape. I think Jazz plays with great
energy. I just think he's Spacey.
I think he's his mind wanders. I don't think that was the
problem with Carmelo. I think Carmelo was locked in to
the things that Carmelo wanted to be locked into, like scoring.
That was it. Like if even though, even if he
didn't, even if it wasn't a plus defender, which he never would
have been. Like if he cared about the
offense or if he cared about being in shape the way I wanted
him to in real time, and then I wouldn't have this opinion of
Carmelo Anthony. Like, I'm not making this up.
You know, I don't get me going on.
Carmelo, what are you doing, man?
Come on. All right, one more thing here
about Aaron Judge. So Aaron Judge has three MVPS,
all right? It's got three.
I didn't need the glasses for that.
It's got 3. He would have his fourth if it
wasn't hosed by the cheaters out there in Houston.
Altuve buzzers, benches, garbage cans, those guys.
So he should have won it in 2017.
We all know that. So he's got 3, should have 4.
He's going to get at least one or two more here.
But it's all said and done. We have watched and you know,
not in succession, but we have seen him go 52 and 1/14/62 and
1/31/58 and 14453 and 114, All right?
We have watched him lead the league in WAR by a mile 3 of the
past Four Seasons. We've watched him lead the
league in OPS plus three of the four last seasons.
And Oh yeah, by the way, good measure, just so everybody
knows, he's not a power hitter exclusively and he's a
well-rounded player. Suddenly he has evolved into a
batting champion 322 and 2025. And then of course, well, yo,
yeah, yeah, yeah. He had one.
So around them, yeah. Maybe that's why he hit 322.
No, and he goes he doesn't have much behind him now and or last
year and he hit 331. He was better without Juan Soto.
All right, and that's not to pull Soto into this, but some
people think and some people think that Soto had the big year
that he had because of judge, which by the fair, I think is
actually more applicable than saying that that so that that
judges numbers were better because of Soto.
If anything, I think it's the other way around, but not to the
point where I, I, you know, I'm going to start shading Soto,
great hitter, right? So I said 322 and 331.
All the other things that I've said here.
He's going to have more than 400 home runs at the end of the
season and is special in terms of character, emotional
reliability and everything that you want in a young athlete
representing or, or an athlete young or old.
An apple, an athlete representing a brand like the
Yankees in a city like New York where there is drama everywhere
you turn. If you misspeak or you
misrepresent something once or somebody takes one picture or
there's one bad tweet or one guys like or whatever you might
do in your social media life, all of the avenues, all the
trapdoors, all the trappings of be the superstar in New York,
Aaron Judge comports himself like an absolute grade A first
rate, beyond reproach, human being, teammate, family man,
person, period. And there's still this notion
out there, and I, I, it, it drives me nuts.
That Aaron Judge is never going to be viewed as the ultimate
Yankee, an old time Yankee if he doesn't win a World Series.
And it is the most and I know why people say it.
I get it because with the Yankees, the association is is
always got to be about winning. If you're an all time if you're
a legacy Yankee, you won Mickey Berra, you know, Whitey Ford,
DiMaggio, Reggie, obviously Jeter a rod one and O 9.
You know, Guidry Nettles, Goose Thurman before he passed away in
79 before he was killed in 1979. You know, he go back Don Larson
perfect game in the 50s, right. Like all these amazing.
Yeah. I don't know if I said DiMaggio.
If I didn't, that's my bad. All these great Lou Gehrig.
Look at Lou Gehrig's stats some days.
So I I get it. I understand that to an extent
statistically, all right. And you know how where he
measures up people who do say he needs to win a championship to
be an old time Yankee, they at least most of them parse it
with, but man, his numbers are insane.
All right, So at least you give them that.
But what you don't give them, for those of you who believe you
can't be an old time great without the ring validation,
which to me is ridiculous and petty and shallow and at this
point for me, incredibly baseless, right.
What you fail to incorporate is that the components within a
baseball team, there's nothing that Aaron Judge can control
beyond what he does and what you do in a baseball game.
Getting 4 at bats and maybe getting whether you're now the
pop up in center fields, that's tough One overlooked in the
World Series, I get it. But playing center, playing
right, you might have 3 or 4 balls hit to you, right.
So think about this, if you play A7 game series and you lose Game
7 and let's just say you're going to get some walks,
obviously 7 * 4 is 28. Let's say you get 28 at bats, 28
official at bats. Let's say you get seven walks.
So that's 35 plate appearances in seven games, all right,
independent of what you hit, 390 or 126 home runs or none, OPA
100 or an OPS of 312, independent of that.
Talking about sheer ability, the amount of times that you
actually touch a bat or touch a ball, that impacts winning 35
plate appearances. And let's say the seven games
you're in right field, let's say you get 3 balls a night, that's
21. All right, so now we'll get you
to about 5656 chances to help your team literally between
batting and fielding and throwing.
Think about how many shots let's say the Knicks get Knicks, by
the way, start to look better. I know they're playing some bad
teams, but good to see. And I love what Mike Brown said
last night. I you know, I'm not going to get
into the Knicks now big, but I love what Mike Brown said about
how he has learned to utilize Carl Anthony Towns better and
Carl's accepted that and like the numbers bear it out.
Like the Knicks numbers are really, really impressive.
All besides still don't think they're going to win the
championship. I hope they do and I feel better
about them than I have been a long time.
But I want to at least shout that out, but not so much to
win. You played the Pelican against
man and you didn't even beat them by 20.
Pelicans are awful, but I love what Mike said.
That shows growth from him. That shows a little more
connectivity with one of your star players.
That's good. But the reason I bring the
Knicks up, So again, 35 at bats, 21 pop up, space hits to right
field, whatever it might be. So now you're talking about 35
and 21 to about 86, right? No, I'm sorry, 35 and 2156 total
chances. If Jalen Bronson gets to the NBA
Finals and they play seven games, right?
That is minimally 20 * 7 is 140 right away.
That's 140 shots. Not to mention the if there's
100 possessions in the game, there's 100 possessions for you
to try to do something defensively that will impact
winning. So when the Yankees lose a game
and they lose 2 to 1, you know, and you know, Grisham pops up
with a man on 3rd or Jazz, Jazz strikes out or McMahon whiffs or
Volpee boots a ball, the shortstop or somebody comes out
of the pen and does it and gives up an untimely home run or an
I'll timed home run or Bellinger, you know, goes one
for 19. Like when all that's going on,
that a damn thing you can do. I'm sorry.
Here's what you can do. Let's go belly.
We say butt.
Come on now. Got to get that little baseball
dugout chat, you know? Hey, we say butt.
Yeah. Hey, come on, Vote.
That's it. That's the only contribution
that you can make to the moment. Cheer them on.
Somebody makes a play. Hey, you know, could come, hit
home, run, beat them without a boy.
Do your little dance. You know, all the things they
do, boy. And then you sit and you watch
until it's your chance to bat or something comes your way in the
outfield. So that's why I think it's
patently idiotic and absolutely offensive to the legacy of
somebody like Aaron Judge. Not all of you, but too many of
you. This just ironclad, inflexible
connection to the championship and the pursuit and the
accomplishment, which is the Ultimate Team accomplishment.
And just based on how I laid it out, I could do this with every
sport. By the way, quarterback who
doesn't win, you know, you know, let's you still throw the ball
30 something times, right? You got to take 70 snaps.
You know, I mean, you might get sacked if you saw somebody, if
you were able to get rid of the ball, maybe he didn't get
sacked. And maybe instead of being able
to take a field goal or attempt, you don't have to punt.
Like there's so many ways woven within every other game hockey.
All right, You turn the bucket over in the zone.
Does that make sense? Yeah.
You turn the puck over the zone, make a play, you know, you know,
block a shot in front of the net, even if you're not a great
defense, but even if that's not your thing, you know, make a
great steal, finish two on one, make up the great pass, go top
shelf, you know, draw a penalty. Aaron Judge and every other
great baseball player, by the way, that doesn't have a
championship. They are idle.
They are there's zero impact the rest of the game.
Like there's more inaction and there's there's more inaction
and less influence on the outcome of a game for a store
baseball player than any other star in any other sport.
But yet so many of you still don't get this.
Come on, what's wrong with you? Now, I do think that I think a
lot of the criticisms toward the Yankees, whether it's Cashman,
Cashman, Brian Cashman on the right, Cashman or Hal, and I
think some of that's misguided and unfounded With Hal.
Cashman, to me, he's always been the main target because he's
been the GM, He builds the roster.
I don't think the team's good enough.
I don't think they're good enough this year unless the
pitching becomes what I think it maybe could, then I think the
Yankees could win the World Series.
But if like if Cole's not right and take a step forward, like
there's too many other components that just aren't good
enough unless they make crazy trades like not, I don't mean on
the margins. I mean real transformative
trades, right? And we'll see if they do.
But to make Cashman is the main impediment championship.
That's why you say, oh, your boys with Boone, you always left
Boone off the hook. I crushed him when he put an
Ester Cortez in the World Series.
Literally crushed him on the air the next day with Sal crushed
him. Awful move, right?
And you know, he still gets on me and he gets on Sal for the,
you know, for the Grisham stuff. Oh, you guys, I think called Sal
the night before we did the BT and Sal live show and and always
getting on me about that too. I get too hard on Grishamma 34
home. Right, all right, great.
I don't want to bat lead off skip.
I know, I know how many home runs he hit.
I trust me. I watch every game.
I get it. I don't like him as a lead off
hitter. So I I respect you.
You forgot more baseball than my entire family knows, But I don't
want to hear it, man. Is that a lead off hitter on a
team that I think is going to win the World Series?
So the point is, is that there's so many other points of
inflection and so many other pivotal points within a game and
so many, you know, other opportunities that other players
in other sports get to really impact the championship bottom
line than Aaron Judge or even Barry Bonds or anybody else that
doesn't have her. Ernie Banks back in the day with
the Chicago Cubs. Any great baseball player that
is ringless, I just think it's really, really unfair.
You know, Don Mattingly, David Wright, they both had back
injuries. They were Mattingly was better
than David Wright. But you know, I love David
Wright. Like David Wright is to me one
of the absolute. I think it's the greatest met of
all time. Not one of them.
I think he's better, better than Straw, better than Piazza,
better than Lindor, better than everybody, better than Ray is
better than Keith, better than Gary.
I think that he truly is the best met of all time because he
can hit, he can run, he can feel, he can do it all.
And then he hurt his back and they didn't hurt his back.
It would have been in the Hall of Fame, but he has no
championships. And is it his fault that too
often the Mets were poorly constructed, that the Mets were
either cheap or just ineffectively built back with
the Wilpons? You know, no, not his fault.
So I, I, I think it's emblematic of a, of a larger issue here,
guys, and that's so many of you. I don't maybe not the BT
unleashed fam, Hopefully we're kind of above this, but so many
people, maybe I shouldn't personalize it.
So many people are just so shallow in their evaluations of
sports because let's just face it, I'm just going to call it
for what it is. At the end of the day, a lot of
people that you listen to like with great frequency really just
don't know shit about sports. They really just don't.
They don't you know, so when you don't know a lot about sports,
you got to like kind of get in. Let me get that volatile topic,
get the phones ringing, let me get the clicks happening.
You know, let me give you a broad based angle here that
everybody's going to react to. I don't know, man, I just that's
just not me, you know, so I that's where I'm at on Aaron
judge. He's the greatest player that
I've ever seen. He really just is.
And you know, in terms of being a human being, like one thing
that I, I, I know, I don't know him.
And I know if you don't really truly know somebody, like
there's got to be a limit as to how much you trust their
character. Like it shouldn't always be
100%. Like, if you just don't know,
there have been things that have happened, public figures and
people in your own lives where you're like, wow, jeez, I just I
didn't see that man. So I guess you leave the door
slightly ajar. But like that door is about as
tightly sealed in terms of like on on the meter of being stunned
and floored. Anything ever like unkind or
salacious coming about? How about Aaron Judge?
There is nobody else in the sporting sphere.
It would stun me more than him. So he is a grade A human.
And by the way, even if he was a shit head and just a bad dude,
I'd be saying the same thing that I just said.
It's it's you know, not about his character, but it's a
everything that I just said is still applicable to the guy
who's a jerk. And I don't even know who that
is. I mean, maybe Barry Bonds back
in the day, you know, seems like he's lightened up a little.
Judge has the talent of a rod. Wow, the persona of Clemente and
the team luck of Mattingly, that is a strong one right there.
He's got the talent of a rod. The persona of Clemente, the I'm
really thinking about the Clemente thing.
Yeah. I mean, I mean, think about the
way he did pass. You know, he's going to to
Nicaragua on on a humanitarian mission in I think it was 1970,
New Year's Eve and and died in the plane crash.
Many of you know that. So his character, I mean, they
have the Roberto Clemente award, maybe as high a character of
person ever. So if if that's what you're
going for, sure. Yeah.
OK.
I got you there. And the team luck of Mattingly,
Yeah, I'm not even sure that he's got the team luck of
Mattingly because if you think about, you know, Mattingly, I
know from a pitching perspective, Aaron's had more,
but at least Don Mattingly had Ricky Henderson batten first for
a couple of years. Literally the greatest lead off
hitter of all time. I mean you what Mattingly Now
Mattingly's luck was George was at his most volatile worst at
the too often during his run. The minor leagues were barren,
the pitching was wretched. You know, Oh my God, Scott
Sanderson and Dave Hyland and Sam Militello and Chuck Carey
and all these guys that were supposed to Andy Hawkins
throwing a no hitter and losing Jace.
You know, that part's true, but you know, you had Ricky and then
you had Willie in the two spot, then you had Donnie and then you
had you had Dave Winfield over 3000 hits power guy hold the
Famer behind you. You know, so interesting, though
I I loosely translate. I know what you mean.
It's a good one. You get that down, Jay.
Wow, anymore that we want to bounce in here before we get a
little skedaddle time here. Are we under selling the
Orioles, though? I'm getting latest I'm getting
What's it? What does that mean?
Latest. Latest.
I don't even know. Latest Blue Jay vibes.
Feel like the East is going to be a dog fight.
Last runaway maybe, Yeah, I mean, maybe I I listen, I think
that the winner of the American League East is going to be South
of 95 wins. I don't think anybody's going to
win 100. I don't think anybody's gonna
touch 9899. I really don't.
I think it's probably gonna be 95.
I think gonna have the winners gonna have around 95, maybe 96.
I'm not even sure if it's gonna be the Yankees.
Like I'm, I'm not even really picking them to win the
division. They got to prove they're better
than Toronto. But because Toronto is going to
be really good and Baltimore is going to be better.
Agreed. And because the Rays are always
scrappy and feisty and tough and because the Red Sox have great
pitching and, or, or get in. I mean, Roman Anthony, I got
some players. I think that the, the win total
for the ultimate winner of the division is going to be lower
than normal and the last place finisher is going to have a
higher win total than usual. So when you have that, you're
going to have more, you know, 90 twos, 93 wins, maybe 94 in terms
of a division winner. And then I, I think there's a
chance everybody's 500 or better.
And if I had to really put money down, like there's always like
an anomaly, injuries and outlier, I would bet that for
the five teams are over 500. You know, from a value point of
view, it's just too risky to say all 5.
Like, again, I, I think it's very, very possible.
But if I was, if I had to throw my own money on it, I wouldn't
do that just based on the odds of a long season and injuries
and pitching is so subtle, you know, one injury changes
everything, you know, So I wouldn't bet on every team being
over 500, but I would bet on every on four of the five being
over 500. That I absolutely would.
What else you got there, J Rod? Anything else you tell me buddy?
See, I'm not seeing much else. Everything with Yankees of
process. I mean, couple Geo things, but
no, I mean, I think we got all of it, got through all the Super
chats certainly. Oh, man, yeah, yeah, yeah.
It's got a couple of interesting texts there.
Oh, yeah, yeah. No, no, this just, you know,
this funny stuff. People who for some reason don't
think that I know that he said something again this morning.
Oh, no, buddy. Yeah.
Keep knocking yourself out, Greg.
Have fun, buddy. Have fun.
Have fun with that man. You got my number.
It's funny, though. He laughed.
He's like, oh, why would I want him on the show?
I said I'd come in. I said I'd call in, but you
know, invitation evidently not accepted.
It's fine. It's OK J Rod, what you need to
do today? I'm sure your mom's already
telling you this. Bang back Gatorade bottle after
bottle or even Pedialyte, which you know about Pedialyte.
You give the kids. OK, OK, Good for hangovers too,
actually, Pedialyte. But you know, Bang Bang, bang.
A few of those have a banana. I don't know.
Are you at your parents? Where you at the apartment?
No, I'm at my place in New York, in my apartment.
All right, so you probably don't have any bananas, you know, if
you're, you know, 20 something year old guy like I was.
Well, though I always had a little fruit laying around.
I doubt that you have bananas. So that's good for the stomach.
Just layout, bro. You know, I know you got to.
I know you got to do some of the work with the shorts, but, you
know, just don't go nuts today. Stay in bed.
Yeah, relax. You can, you could, you could.
I'm not going to pull you in anymore.
I have good work today, man. I really appreciate you planning
through. I know you feel like like ass
today, so let's give it up for my Guy J Rod just plowing
through like the champion soldier that he obviously is.
So let's go Yanks enjoy tonight. Yeah, I know it's Netflix, but
it's still baseball. Baseball's back tomorrow.
I'll give you a little bit more on the Mets.
I gave you a little Mets today here, but you know, hopefully
you guys enjoyed the jug stuff. Like it, subscribe it.
Go check out The Jets collective like like it, subscribe it.
The first episode was phenomenal last night.
It's on my page there if you guys want to check that out.
I am going down to DC tomorrow. Ton of Saint John.
If I mean, if you thought I was bringing you behind the scenes
in San Diego, wait till I get to DCI mean the the the team hotel
is like it's you know, it's it's going to be it's going to be on
like it is red and white and it is going to be taken over by the
St. John's Red storm community.
So there's going to be a lot of great stuff there.
Can't wait to get on the call with Minko St.
Johnson Duke, the Johnnies report.
If you guys missed that. We did that today.
Appreciate my friends over at of course, Sullivan the pain and I
think that that's about it hit every day.
I needed a hit. Appreciate you guys.
You know that. Thanks for the support.
Thank you for watching the show again like it subscribe it
comment all that stuff. By now, you know, you know more
traction, more algorithm, more we could do for the show.
Stephen A confirm next week. I'll give you details either
Monday or Tuesday, what day it's going to be, but lock it in.
My guy Stephen A is going to join me.
My old teammate. He likes me and the good thing
too, and I said this at the start of the show, is that it's
not going to be like. Well, we're joined now by
Stephen A. So Stephen A welcome to the show
here. You know, what do you think
about this little search here about the Knicks?
It is going to be AI mean. We'll talk a little Knicks, but
it's going to be a conversation. That's my guide, man.
And we spent basically two years together in the studio talking
about a lot of stuff off the air that back then you really didn't
talk too much about on the air. You know, like a lot, lot of
things pertaining to race, some deep conversations like, you
know, pre COVID and and pre everybody having, you know, take
and shoving politics down your throat like we went deep, man.
That is that is a good as a good man right there.
It's a it's my brother. He always he's the first to say
he's like that's my brother. It's my boy, It's my brother BT
Brandon Tanny. That's how he says it.
I'm not I don't listen. I don't do impersonations very
well. I don't do them very well, but
that one ain't bad. My boy Brandon Tanny, so I'll
tell you about that whether it's going to be Monday or Tuesday.
But Stephen A next week, obviously a ton of Saint John
stuff have an outstanding Wednesday.
Let's go Yanks start the right way.
Let's go judgey. Let's get another MVP.
Let's go booty and I'm rooting for you.
Let's get this one of a 162 game race and then tomorrow, of
course, get more into the Mets stuff.
So have a great Wednesday. I will check you guys tomorrow.
J Rod Hang in, buddy Peace.