What's going on? Everybody beats you unleashed
here on a Wednesday. Hopefully everybody's doing
well. J Rod, The glare is gone.
They The glare is gone. No more.
Yeah, right. We we're getting there, buddy.
We did it the. Glare is gone.
Somebody let Gio know the glare is gone.
I'm going to mess around with a new camera angle today.
Let me see that full shot right there.
Kind of tweaking things. Let me know if you guys digging
this. What's going on everybody,
hopefully you are revved up like I am revved up. 8 days to the
NFL Draft here. Speaking of the NFL, there were
some juicy rumors with The Jets last night.
Daniel Jeremiah, some others had some pretty interesting stuff.
Anyway, we'll be at it tonight. Obviously episode #4 of The Jets
Collective. Looking forward to that.
So make sure you guys go check that out on YouTube.
That's right, myself and Rich and Jake episode #4 already
already 3000 Subs. You guys doing a good job.
So we will keep rolling on a weekly basis the three of us.
And then obviously, as we get to the season, we'll do, we'll do 2
shows. So listen, I and the other thing
about the draft, now that's jet specific, I do have, I mean, I
am so old school with these notes.
I, I, I waste so many pieces of paper, it's ridiculous.
But Mel Kiper put out his final draft.
So I want to have a little fun with that.
And before we get into what I think is a pretty interesting
topic, I got a couple things for you today, but we're going to
start with Steve Cohen's tweet there.
Let me let everybody know. BT Unleashed, of course, brought
to you by Sullivan The Pain, one of New York's best personal
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Find sullivanonline@triallaw1.com.
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All right, Jay, I want to, I want to start with a question
here. You ready?
Wait, let me pull up a quick comment.
Go already. What do we?
Got a new Cam, much younger looking.
Really, who like who looks younger, me or you?
I think you. I don't.
Think it's the lighting, Maybe it's the.
I don't have any lighting here. You know, there's there's no
glare. It's it the sun's out.
I've got maybe the remnants of some, some sunlight coming in
my, my office windows a little bit, but no, I I actually have
fairly sophisticated lighting, but it even though we've got now
the bat, the, the mat, yeah, the matte background.
Pardon me, the matte background, there's still a little glare.
So I was playing around with it last night, but my guys did a
good job, but I wanted to kind of give you guys a different
look throw in, you know, so it's not quite so I want to say
bland, but so so like Baron, I wanted to add a little
something. I do this for The Jets
collective. I did this with Stephen A
Hopefully you guys dig it. Now I've got a question for you,
Jay. Are you ready?
I'm I'm ready. You are AI.
Want to hear all your teams? List your I know you're a big
Celtics fan, so list your professional teams for me.
Go ahead. All right, Celtics, Pats Socks.
I'm sorry. I'm.
Sorry I got. You Bruins adjacently, but like,
not really. Yeah, I hear you.
Not a huge hobby. Say Celtics, Pats, Red Sox are
really my big. OK, OK.
I mean, really, you could have said the Cardinals, you could
have said the Diamondbacks, you could have said what it just
more of a, a fundamental view on starting with you.
And then I'll give you my thoughts and I'll branch into
what Cohen said last night. So as a fan of teams, right,
I'm, I'm going to give you 4 options here in terms of an
owner type, a type of owner do you prefer?
The first choice will be a silent, hands off kind of an
owner #1A crazy owner #2 an unpredictable owner, meaning
he's not crazy, but when he chimes in it's it's interesting.
Or do you prefer a measured owner?
So silent, crazy, unpredictable, measured.
I mean like you as a person. My.
Opinion, I'm going to say silent, but it's interesting
because you look at like a team like the Celtics and then you
look at a team like the Patriots where, OK, Robert Kraft, he's
not this absolute lunatic. But no, you know, he's put, you
know, he's said some things he's been involved in some scandals
as an owner. So there's a little bit more, I
guess, not confusion there, but more energy coming his way, more
attention directed towards the owner.
We're just look at like the Celtics from the past, I don't
know, 1520 years with the Grousebeck family at the helm.
You never hear you never. Hear any word?
Not a damn word. And I loved it because I felt
like they really let you know. The president of basketball
operations. The general manager.
Kind of do their thing. And they stay out the limelight.
I think that's that's how I prefer.
It OK, I got you. And I think a lot of people will
probably gravitate to that choice.
You see, when you have a say, a fairly silent donor, IT projects
stability. You know what I mean?
Like it's the antithesis of you don't think George at his
absolute worst or Al Davis at his absolute.
Like, remember when remember when Al Davis fired Lane Kiffin
and he had the the overhead projector?
You remember that? What year?
Oh God, jeez, This is, I mean, I think Lane was about 37 or 38
when he got that job. So I mean it's probably about 20
ish years ago. Maybe, yeah. 2008, Yeah.
I don't know if I'd remember that.
About 18 years ago. So I mean, you don't you don't
necessarily want to have that wild presentation because it
just it screams inconsistency. It screams desperation.
It seems it it it screams sloppiness.
All right, so to me, and I'm not talking about the Mets, I'm not
talking about Cohen, I'm not talking about the and nobody
specific, just overall. I I think I would probably want,
I don't know, equal parts of all four, I think at the end of the
day, but I would take pieces of each 4, right?
I think for me to start, I want an ownership group who was going
to #1 cut massive checks, not going to bear any like the
facility is going to be top notch, the coaching staff and I
don't just mean the head coach, right, or the manager coaching
staff well paid. So people want to work there.
But I think then the subset to that is they cut the checks and
the people that they hire to do to do their jobs, they allow
them to do their jobs without dipping on their toes and
without, you know, getting their fingerprints out like Woody
Johnson. Like Woody cuts the checks, but
Woody can't keep his grubby hands off.
Yeah, it's like, so that's that's one example.
I think that the one thing that you don't want, like when things
go awry, I think a very silent owner, a very in the weeds owner
is not satisfying for a fan when a season ends in a tumultuous
manner. Like if there's like an
implosion, like for baseball, you lose 11 of 13, you miss out
on the wild card or you choke away division or you're up like
the Yankees. You know, when they're up three
games to zip on the Red Sox in the ALCS back in O 4 like you,
you, you got to hear something like you.
You can't just. Oh, yeah.
Wow, Yankee, that historical implosion.
All right. I wonder what my owner's
thinking. No, I don't.
I don't want to have to wonder. I want to just flip on whatever
I got a flip on back then. Obviously we consume things
differently and I want to hear how pissed off my owner is
because it's a pound of flesh. I I do think that you want your
owner, you, you want to feel that the owner hurts the way
that you hurt like you, even though it's more intimate and
more personal for the owner. But most of these owners outside
of somebody like Steinbrenner, the Steinbrenner family where
it's hand to even, you know, Davis, Al to mark like these
older ownership groups come in, even though Steve Cohen's a Mets
fan, some of these ownership groups come in and they may have
been fans of different teams or they may have been very passive
sports fans. So I think really at the end of
the day, there's a few things that are, are fairly non
negotiable #1 cut the checks number 2GO and take big swings
in terms of hiring, you know, accomplished, well thought of
people and then pay out their staff so that they stay, you
know, allow the GM to do their job.
But when something goes wrong, you want to know that the
owner's got a heartbeat. All right.
So that that's to me, that's why I say I think there's kind of
equal parts everything. You want an element of
unpredictability, I think to be measured.
I think that that's probably the real prudent path because over
the course of time that will probably yield the best results.
Sometimes I think a little crazy is OK.
I don't mind a little crazy myself and then obviously to be
fully silent and and completely disengaged is not what I don't
think anybody's really looking for.
So having said that, Steve Cohen has had an interesting week and
1/2 or so last week. It will remember that the Mets
that the Yankees didn't do this. The Mets moved up their game.
It was cold yank Yankees stayed pat They they played at seven O
5 whatever it was. The Mets moved up from 7:00 to
4:00, which I thought was a pretty good proactive rather
than being reactive. Hey, we understand that there's
this thing called, you know, weather.com and there's there's
meteorologist and there's an ability to forecast what the
next day is going to kind of look like.
So if it looks that bad, do something about it.
And if it's, you know, 7 or 8° warmer or, you know, 5 to 9°
less blustery in terms of wind and logistically you can make it
happen. Move the game up.
I thought it was a good gesture by the Mets.
And the other gesture that he did was he obviously gave out.
This is a big story. I didn't really get into it, but
it was a big story in New York. He gave away a fair amount of
tickets because you, you know, you when you go from 7:00 to
4:00, logistically it will impact some people who were
going to go with seven that maybe theoretically can't go
with four. So rather than just have the,
the tickets, you know, sit there and some digital bank hand them
out. Whoever goes goes.
It's a good, it's a good token of gratitude for the Met fans.
OK, now that's a great thing. I, I think that that's awesome.
I, I didn't really laud him on here because I didn't really
feel the need to get into it, but I'll load them now.
I, I thought it was a good, a good move by Steve Cohen.
What's not a good move though, is then to, when you give
somebody a freebie to then go and chastise them for not taking
your freebie. Like to me, that's a little
counterproductive. Not enough to rail on Steve
Cohen, not enough to go bonkers on Steve Cohen.
But you know, when he starts dropping numbers, 58% of the
free tickets that I gave people didn't take.
Like now you're getting a little bit in the weeds and now you're
looking a little bit petty. And it, and to an extent, it
offsets for me a little bit of the good that you did.
Now here we are. So that was a couple of days we
go, Mets fans are just playing. The Mets are playing anaemically
right now. Four hits last night they
scored. They scored one run in the top
of the first. Lindoor finally had his first
RBI and hopefully that gets him going.
First home run and the Mets don't score another run the rest
of the game. They had I think three more
hits. I think they finished with four.
Mets lose. The Mets look awful right now.
All right, now before I get into Cone's tweet, got to impress
upon you further. Like, have we not learned one
thing here, especially with the Mets and and even to the
Yankees? But because the Yankees have had
a lot of years on the Boone where they come out flying out
of the chute and then they play, you know, basically 100 games of
500 baseball. And then they kind of regenerate
in September and they win a playoff round or they win 2 or
they get to the World Series like they did against the
Dodgers a couple years ago. They come up short.
But like baseball, we should now know.
We should know this even though we react with venom because we
are emotionally invested in this stuff.
You got to tap the brakes a little bit.
Like, I do think that the Mets will be fine.
The Mets have pitched pretty well.
McClain is, Oh my, McClain is ridiculous.
He is so good and everything I was saying over the winter with
him and Schlidler, but he looks to be maybe even a tick in front
of Schlidler. Like if you're into the
analytics, he threw a curveball last night that broke like a
wiffle ball, like almost defied physics.
And his RPMS, his revolutions, he's touching 3000 spins, like
that's real. Stuff like that, that that is
real and that's a real problem. And then you throw high 90s and
you got 5 or 6 pitches. He is a pleasure to watch.
Nolan McClain is a superstar. And that young man stays
healthy. I mean, I want now put the Hall
of Fame tag on him now because I don't want to, you know, I don't
want to jinx the young man, but good God, he is awesome.
All right, so you take that away and obviously Peralta is going
to be fine and so does going to come back.
And the Mets, I don't think the Mets are good enough to win the
World Series or even get there because nobody's beating the
Dodgers this year with the Dodgers.
Dodgers might be better this year, oddly, because we thought
the gap was, you know, so wide from the Dodgers and everybody
else coming into the season. It's, it's almost illogical to
think that that rather than shrinking or narrowing a bit,
you know, it seems like it's widened a little bit and not
just from the Dodgers to the Mets, but really from the
Dodgers to everybody. Point is now back to what I said
before, it's a long race. It's six months.
It's going to get a little monotonous when the Mets or the
Braves or the Phillies or the Yankees or the Red Sox or
Toronto or the Tigers or the Brewers or the Padres or the
Cubs or, you know, any other decent, you know they're going
to go through these these spurts where you can watch.
I don't. Maybe outside of the Dodgers,
you can watch any team play baseball for three weeks and
convince yourself that their flaws are fatal and there's
nothing they can do to correct them.
And it's never going to change and it's not going to happen.
And you know, you can rant and rave and bark at the moon and
scream and shout and it's cathartic.
Doesn't change anything. That's that's, that's one and
one side of the coin. The other side is for three
weeks. Conversely, they can hit the
crap out of the ball. They're starting pitchers could
go deep, their bullpen arms could be on lock.
They could run the bases with great aptitude, They can catch
everything that's hit their way and they look like, and I'm
talking about any team now, any hiding, maybe not the Rockies,
but any good to potentially great team.
There's going to be fluctuations.
I don't care who you are. So I am starting this
conversation not pronouncing the Mets dead.
I've learned my lesson years ago, especially with them,
especially under Steve Cohen, because Steve Cohen's been here,
what, now 5 or 6 years? The Mets have made the playoffs
twice and they've had these riveting runs.
The Mets twice have started the season like gangbusters, where
the other Mets might win 100 games and they flail out and
they burn and they just implode in fantastic, crazy fashion.
And we've also had the opposite where the Mets start out O15 and
they look feeble and they look awful, and then they find the
way to regenerate and then they kick it into high gear as they
get deeper into the season. So this is not some bold
proclamation that the Mets are done.
But now let's get to the Steve Cohen tweet.
I got to help Steve out. I don't, I don't know, Steve.
I don't dislike Steve. I'm more inclined to like him
than not. But this is this is not going to
help him. All right, So he tweets this
after the game. This was a few days after the
ticket tweet, right Quote, Nobody likes to lose, but I saw
some green shoots tonight on offense.
Lindor had two hits, including a home run.
I mean, he is making $35 million a year.
It's about time. But Shet got a double hitting it
to left field as opposed to recently being right field
prone. And just as a quick aside,
doesn't that just seem like a guy who doesn't know baseball?
Right field, prone, just the way he words it.
Benj got a solid hit. Soto starting his running
progression today. Simeon hit.
This is the worst part. Simeon hit a shot that might
have been a home run on a warmer night.
I mean, now we're handing out consolation prizes.
All right, Joey, your rec team finished in fourth place.
Here's a trophy. Oh, Billy, Congrats.
Your team was 2 and 9 in rec ball.
Here's a ribbon. Oh, little Susie, your softball
team didn't quite win it. You guys were 4:00 and 11:00.
But because everybody, you know, I'm in, in the modern
consumption of sport, we've got to make everybody feel good.
Here's a little something for you, little Susie.
Go get them. I mean, come on.
That. That part is embarrassing.
Send me and hit a shot that might have been a home run on a
warmer night. Finally, and this part is all
the money. Obviously McClain pitching
outstanding game, 7 innings, blah blah.
Hang in there fans. That part I love.
We will turn this around and this goes to the part about that
that level of engagement that that I do like you know when
when things are awry and things are bleak.
I, I think that it's actually good to reinforce some positive
messaging, but I think that the Steve Cohen era is, is a very
interesting one at this point. It started with great acclaim.
It started with a great fanfare. It started by his own admission,
I believe is it was a five year window for a championship, which
he later amended. And I actually, I didn't have an
issue with with him when he said that because to me, at that
point, at that juncture in their fandom, especially the older Met
fans, like the Met fans needed to be galvanized.
And when you buy a team and you sit there at a podium, you've
got your Mets hat on and you're one of them.
You just happen to have, you know, at that point, I think it
was 17 or 18, Bill. I think it's up to 23 now,
whatever his net worth is. I thought that that was good.
I thought it was relatable. I thought it was encouraging,
galvanizing of it was promising. I thought it was on point, you
know, and and listen, I think Steve Cohen has done a good, a
good job as the owner of the Mets.
Certainly not great. And very well.
This might be this year based on everything that's transpired.
Pete shipped out Nimmo shipped out Diaz.
Obviously, you know, a change of culture, a change of the core,
which, you know, as you know, I believe was necessary.
But it's still got to work out bringing in David Stearns,
allowing David Stearns to do all the things that he's done.
You know, like it it this to me, this is kind of the break right
now. If I was to give Steve Cohen,
let's see, I would say now this is including everything.
So let me take a step back. I think one of the best things
that Steve has done is that he is reconnected the roots of the
franchise to the actual franchise.
So it's no longer the New York Dodgers or the Brooklyn Mets.
And that was a massive issue when that stadium first opened
because the Wilpons and you talk about Bootlick in the Brooklyn
Dodgers. I mean, you own the Mets.
And I think a lot of times the Wilpons forgot that.
So Cohen came in with a vision of certainly, you know, this
stately vision and elevating the Mets.
And nobody has spent more money since he took over the Mets.
I believe they even have spent more money than the Dodgers.
He's got. I think he's won 53% of his
games, two regular season appear, 2 post season
appearances. As I said it, it's a little bit
of a mixed bag, but I think there's certainly more good than
bad. And and I think when you walk
into Citi Field, I haven't been there this year yet.
I will be. I went to A3123 Met games a year
ago. You know that I like Citi Field.
You know what he's doing around the area.
He's gonna build it up. He's going to make it big time,
right? But when you walk in there with
the Jackie Robinson Rotunda, unlike when it first opened up
in O 9, you know, you walk in there, you like Duke Snyder.
All right, Jackie Robinson, all right, great luminaries of a
Brooklyn baseball. Fantastic because he a little
Keith Doc and Daryl, I think I see a little bit Jerry Gooseman
because he a little more Tom Seaver.
So all the things like to me the evaluation of Cohen, it's multi
pronged here. Number one, he's spent an
inordinate amount of money and resources that he's put in,
whether it's the. Minor league complex, the minor
league facility, like all the things the the, the updated
analytics where the Mets are. No, the Mets were lagging behind
for a while with that. And that is all updated and all
modernized. So he spent money on the roster
that you watch every night. The infrastructure of the
franchise is far healthier than it's ever been.
You know, you took Juan Soto from the Yankees, big boy play,
big boy swing. All right, you went at the
Yamamoto didn't get him, but you went after him.
You know, you pivoted quickly from Tucker to Pichette.
You know, you got Peralta. You brought in Stearns, the
young Wiz kid at that point that every, I don't know, Joe Beningo
wanted them. Joe always rails on him, but at
that point, most of you wanted him and you've changed in large
part like the fabric and I, I think the the culture of the
Mets to an extent, because the culture doesn't fully change
until there's consistency. And there are still these
madding spikes. One year, really good, one year,
confounding. One year, really good, one year,
incredibly disappointing and confounding, right?
So he's not getting an A and he's not getting an A, but you
get an A when you win the World Series, right?
He's not getting an A minus because there have been too many
fluctuations. I would give Steve Cohen, I
would give him probably probably at least AB and I'm even
thinking of going to B plus, but he's got to stop tweeting
because that that seemed minor league last night.
And I really am trying to be fair.
Listen, the easiest thing for me to do will be to fire up the
camera today, get on the air, dump all over Cohen, yell and
scream and mock him. I'm not going to do that because
I don't feel any need to do that because I don't think that it's
it's with merit. I think Steve Cohen is much more
good than not. I think he's much better than
the Wilpons, but that doesn't mean he's what you thought he
would be when he announced to the world that he's going to
change how the Mets are ultimately proceed because here
we are guys, you know, roll out the old band, you know, like
journey playing some old songs and I love Journey.
Hey, you know, here's Doc 40th anniversary, the championship.
Come on out. Hey, here's Daryl, here's Lenny
who, that was a good story over the weekend.
If you guys saw this, Daryl took Lenny Dykstra under his wing.
Lenny's been a mess, you know, drugs, gambling, jail, all that
stuff. And Daryl's kind of been there
as well. So I, I, I like that Daryl
reached out and I, I believe that Lenny's going to be there.
I, I heard that he was for that 40 year celebration.
There's Mookie, you know, there's Ronnie, there's Keith,
there's all the guy. But Ray Knight hopefully comes
back. All right, Maybe Kevin Mitchell
comes back. That's all good.
But the fact does remain, and this is what it's all about, the
fact does remain that the last time the Mets won the World
Series, I was listening to Run DMC on AV on on a tape that I
had a rewind to get back to the good part parts, whether it was
Peter Piper or my Adidas or the Coliseum.
You know, Air Jordans weren't retro.
They had just come out. Dwight Gooden was about 20 years
old. He's basically 60 now.
You know, they were playing in Shea Stadium and the the world
changed. It's a long time.
So there's a lot with Steve Cohen.
And I also do think right now, I don't, I can't speak for Met
fans here. There's been a lot of politics
around the Mets. Now you can also say that
there's been politics around the Yankees when they welcome
President Trump into the clubhouse.
I think that was, I think it was last year, right?
And I think everybody knows that that Trump and Steinbrenner have
they have a good relationship. I think not.
By now, certainly everybody knows that.
You know, Cohen, I think you know which way he leans, and
that's certainly his prerogative.
You certainly know which way Francisco Lindor's wife leans,
which I would imagine by extension, Francisco Lindor
leans that way. And he can only deduce.
At least this is part of the thought behind it.
One of the reasons that Pete and Nimmo were shipped out is
because of their politics. And then I saw something the
other day, Mr. I'm not trying to, you know, not trying to
throw, you know, strays at Mr. and Missus met, you know, but
they were, you know, hugging the mayor of New York.
And a lot of people have an issue with the mayor of New
York. So there is a lot of energy.
I saw my buddy Sid Rosenberg, who I I've known forever.
I love Sid very talented guy since now a Yankee fan.
I'm I'm on social. Did you guys see this?
I'm on social media last night and I see he's out of his mind,
man. He is.
He's he's he's hysterical. I see Sid posting and I think it
was because of the the mayor and the Mr. and Misses met
relationship. I think that that was the final
straw for said and if not then then I apologize, but I I think
that that was the impetus to him changing finally.
I know he's been disgruntled with a bunch of things there,
but I saw a video Johnny Damon welcoming Sid as a Yankee fan.
I saw a picture this morning that Sid posted a big box of
Yankee jerseys that apparently the Yankees sent to Sid.
I saw a Reggie jersey. I think I maybe saw a Thurman
Munson jersey. I saw a video right before I
came on the air of Tino Martinez welcoming Sid Rosenberg to the
Yankee family. So there are a lot of high
profile Mets fans that aren't happy with the Mets.
There's a lot here, OK? There's a lot of noise around
these Mets. Now.
Maybe last night was a foreshadow of a three-week binge
where Lindor is going to go back to being Lindor.
And, you know, maybe, maybe Polanco starts raking.
Bichette's going to eventually really, truly hit.
And as the owner pointed out, he finally hit, went to left rather
than right. But it's just it's it's an odd,
it's an odd, I don't know, it's an odd evaluation because it is
early. But last year was miserable and
the misery and the confusion and the lack of buttoned up play and
obviously the record now 7 and 11 through 18 games and nobody's
going to run away with this thing yet.
It's early and it's very jumbled outside of maybe the Dodgers in
terms of the best record of baseball.
But as I chronicled yesterday, pretty much every division is
very tight. So there's plenty of room for
the Mets to get their act together.
And listen, if Peterson spits the bid or Sangha doesn't get
his act together, you know, there's a little recent evidence
that maybe Shawn Banaya is going to become more viable.
You got to have leads for Devin Williams to actually get saves.
But I think at the end of the day, I think the back end of the
bullpen will be good. I know rarely chalk went up the
other night, but he's been very, very good for well over a year.
So it's not the end of the earth.
But I if I'm Steve Cohen and it's his, it's his team and it's
his right. And he didn't really.
It's not that he's tweeting out like inflammatory and sensitive
stuff, although many of you had an issue with the 58% of the
free tickets going on used. It's just layout, man.
Like it that that's my just layout, layout, layout.
Let the baseball stuff take care of itself.
Let you know, let Mendoza get this team to a place that they
need to be. And let's see ultimately, if all
of these moves, the the big moves like franchise altering
moves, franchise defining moves that the general manager decided
to do, let's at least give them a little runway to see if it's
going to work. Can we at least do that?
I get it. It's baseball.
You love it, I love it. We're temperamental.
That's what separates New York baseball fans from most, you
know, New York, Philly, Boston, you know, maybe one or two
others, but it's a different energy.
All right, it's a different pursuit of results.
So we all know the game by now, but haven't we learned?
Even going back to the nationals when they won the World Series,
when Juan Soto was 19, they started the year 19 and 31.
It is a long, long season. All right, MO Cage, what up, MO?
He's got to stop talking to the fans through social media and
start talking by winning. Well, I mean, listen, that would
be that would be optimal. I will say this though, you
know, I wouldn't mind that he's not going to do it.
I wouldn't mind the occasional tweet from hell.
Oh hell, you got a pulse. I was just I don't want to hit
the camera because it might shut off.
But this thing on Hello, are we on J Rod?
Are we on check 12123 check 1-2 three.
You know what I'm saying? Like it's OK to it's your team.
So it is your prerogative to do whatever you want.
And I do think if it's well timed and it hits the mark from
a messaging point of view, I do think that now, I don't know if
it's going to be productive on the field, but I do think it
could be either cathartic or inspiring or reassuring to a fan
base, which is why I started this conversation asking J Rod
and then obviously, by its extension, asking the BT
Unleashed fam. I mean, what kind of odor do you
want? You want the silent type who's
completely disengaged, who's on some island, you know, looking
at his, looking at his hedge fund, just cutting checks and
has no real connection that that's not, he's got the hedge
funds, but he cares about the Mets.
Is he crazy? No, he's not crazy.
Is he Is he unpredictable? Not really, no.
I, I don't think that that will be a fair characterization.
Is he measured? I, I think of all those, he's
probably more measured than than anything.
But you got to start winning. You got to start playing better.
Otherwise, a a fairly innocuous tweet.
You're going to start getting clowned that people going to
start turning against you. Like there is, and again, to
what extent, I don't know and I don't profess to know, but there
is, there is a divide for some Met fans with the political
affiliation and direction of the Mets.
To me, that's undeniable. Now, that's something that
you're going to have to go through and process.
Whichever way you lean, I respect it.
I don't shove it down your throat.
Never had, never will you follow me for sports?
If there's a world issue that really supersedes sports and
there are some things going on now, but like, if it, if it
really is, if, if I believe where I just can't justify
getting on the air and talking about something sports related
because it would just be obtuse. I'm not going to do that.
I am a husband, I am a father. I am a concerned citizen.
So I follow all this stuff. I've told you, I watch the news
every night. It's how I fall asleep.
Unless the Yanks of the Mets or the Mets are on the West Coast.
But there's no doubt there's a faction.
I, I don't know what percentage, I'm not even going to attempt to
quantify, but there is a, and I would say a growing faction of
Mets fans who are either disconcerted or disenfranchised
based on the very clear leanings of the Mets politically.
I'll leave it at that. To me, that's irrefutable.
You'd have to be a dope. You'd have to be clueless not to
see that and and not to feel that.
And then that's up to you as a consumer to react accordingly.
Not not up to me to tell you what to do or how to feel.
Big Trouble Media, I believe. Is that the first?
We have a new member of the BT. All.
Right there we go. Appreciate the shout out.
Thank you there, Mr. Big Trouble Media.
As a Mets fan, I'm numb to the losing, but there needs to be a
skipper change. We are still collapsing from
last season. All right.
You're not going to get rid of Mendoza yet.
I do believe there will be a point in time if this is not
cleaned up fairly soon, you've got to at least let Soto get
back. Like to me, that's there to me.
Now, some of you disagree, and that's fine.
That's your prerogative. And, and maybe Cohen sees it
more like you, there should be no real true, like true constant
dissection and discussion of Mendoza's job security yet.
That will come all right, because I brought this up at the
end of last season. Stop short of saying I wouldn't
bring him back. I brought it up going into the
season and I've even mentioned it a points early this year.
But that's different from saying fire him.
I'm not there yet. Now I don't myself.
I don't really believe that Mendoza has the personality if
the Mets internally like if the Met like the whatever the core,
it's a new core if the Met players can't dig down and and
find it themselves, you know, I don't love his post game press
conferences very vanilla. And most of these guys are
fairly vanilla, so I'm not sure I'm trying to be unfair to
Mendoza, but I he doesn't project ultimate authority, you
know, And when things are going sloppily and haphazardly and
clearly in the wrong direction, which they are, you better find
a way to fix it soon or Mendoza will be out.
I mean, it's, it's just that simple.
This is not coaching a little travel team in town where, you
know, you win great, you lose whatever.
You know, I mean, OK, you're not going to get fired.
You're not getting paid. You're doing it.
You're doing it because you love it.
And you want to help kids, you know, fall in love with the game
and teach them life lessons and all that stuff that a lot of us
do as, as coaches. But, you know, I can get fired,
you know, if you lose 5/4 in the semis because you sent the kid,
you know, tagging up at third base and it was a close play and
the parents think it was the wrong call, then you lose by a
run, you know, just doesn't work that way.
It's not pro sports. This is and this is big business
and this is big expectation and this is big money.
And right now the results are not there.
And it's a little compounded by the fact that the owner seems to
miss the mark a little too often with his tweets.
You know what I mean? At least that's what I think.
Let me get Charlie. Get Charlie.
F6675. Chuck, what's happening?
Stearns did a good job fixing the starting pitching this year.
However, he created an offensive mess by dissembling the Mets
core, which Mets fans were mostly against.
It's early, but by end of the year, Stearns is out.
Could be. Yeah.
I mean, if the Mets win now, it it kind of helps.
I know we hit a home run the other day, kind of helps that
Pete's not not hitting three O 9 with eight home runs.
And, you know, on pace to be the April player of the month and
Baltimore's 12 and 4, whatever it might be.
You know, he's languishing, Baltimore's languishing.
But this was a monumental seismic shift in the direction
of the Mets. And that is fully at the
doorstep of David Stearns, which is great if it works out,
because there's no no one else is going to get the credit other
than you because you're the one who's hitting these levers here.
All right, Pete, you know what? And I just know that this is
baseball philosophy. And I happen to agree with this
because I am not a Mets fan. And, you know, I have stripped
away sentimentality, even though I like, I know it didn't seem
like I really like Pete all those years on the fan.
I did my I really like Pete. My issue with whether it's Pete
or other players, like when they're positioned more than
they are or you're talking a long term commitment, I've got
to incorporate some real baseball sensibility things that
I subscribe to now. It's certainly your right to
push back. Many of you did.
It's certainly your right to agree.
Many of you have, you know, but when you're 30, early 30s,
righty, you know, doesn't throw the ball well.
But first, I know he picks it well.
I get that prodigious power. Got it.
I didn't think he was going to age very well.
You know, he's just, he's not a plus defender.
He's not a plus runner. He's a minus runner throwing the
ball. He's a minus defender, you know,
And again, it was more like if he was some great leader that I
didn't think the Mets can function without.
Like if he was clearly captain material and guys gravitated to
him, then I may have had a little bit of a different take
and may have been willing to sacrifice some of that baseball
sensibility. Because to me, there's things
that you can't quantify, you know, whether it's fan grabs or
a baseball savant. If I thought and nobody thought
this, but if I thought that Pete was the indisputable leader of
the New York Mets, even being 30 and being a righty first
baseman, blah, blah, blah. All the things I've espoused for
now, a couple of years and I was proven right, at least from a
philosophical point of view, because the Mets moved on from
him. They they were never getting,
they weren't getting him four years.
Think about what they did the year before.
Coming off the heck of a season. He had 1 + 1.
He opted out, Baltimore said. Here's five years, Mets said see
ya. So they obviously felt the way
that I felt. But yeah, I mean, you brought in
David Stearns to to alter this, alter the universe and get to a
championship. And the pitching is definitely
better, which is why I'm not going nuts about the ultimate
prospects of the Mets. I still think when it's all said
and done still now, if this goes on another couple of weeks, I'm
going to have to amend my my pre season position here.
I think I said the Mets would win 91 games and would be a wild
card team. I'm not going to jump off that
just because we played three weeks, whatever it is, of of
uninspiring, disconnected baseball.
I got to say that you got to let Soto get back and you got to let
things root a little bit. You know, let's see where they
are when when McClain has 12 to 13 starts and Peralta is, you
know, fully filthy Peralta, which I believe he will will be,
you know, so and then let let let's see where the Mets are
when Bichette hits 327 for a month, which I promise you he's
going to. There's just things.
It's it's I know we want it now, but it's not like the NBA,
unless I've always said this, you think about it.
So Jay, pop in for a SEC, buddy. Think about the NBA playoffs
that were getting. I know it started with the, you
know, playing games and all that stuff, right?
How about mellow? How about ball last night, huh?
Dude those games were wild. I don't know if you watched the
Trail Blazers game. No, I saw the highlights.
Any of it I saw the highlights was.
Ridiculous. I saw the highlights, yeah.
No, I was watching the Mets and my son had a game and I had a
bunch of stuff going on, but I did.
Speaking of the Blazers, as a quick aside, have you seen the
documentary on Netflix, Jail Blazers?
Dude my roommate was watching it yesterday I didn't see I didn't
watch it with him but he said it was really good.
You got to watch this because this before your time.
It was really, really well done. Like it it's I think it was an
hour and 10 minutes and it was so worth it.
Like, you know, Rasheed Wallace and Damon Stoudemire and then
eventually, you know, Zach Randolph got there.
Bonzi Wells. I mean, they just had a, a, a, a
cast of character that was wow, really, really well done.
But the point is like, as we get deeper, there might be an
anomaly in the first round of the of the NBA playoffs.
I don't mean like a one seed or two seed losing, but something
quirky might happen or a star might not shoot well.
But I've always said this like, you're never going to see
somebody like Durant or Steph or LeBron or Jaylen Brunson.
Not to equate all four or five. I'm not saying Brunson's quite
like the ramp, but you know what I mean?
He's the best player on the Knicks by far, and he's one of
the most clutch players in the NBA.
You're not going to see this precipitous drop from 25 1/2
points a game in a regular season to Jaylen Brunson
averaged 9 points. You know, in the no, you just,
you'll, you'll never see that ever.
So but you do see Aaron Judge hitting the Buck 80 in the
playoff series or Ted Williams in a very limited sample
scuffling or Willie Mays in a very limited sample, having an
OPS under 700, maybe under 600, at least under 7 small sample.
But I mean, you can make the case Willie Mays might be the
greatest player in the history of baseball.
I know a lot of people say Babe Ruth.
You could also say saying say Hank Aaron, who gets glossed
over for summer. To me, Hank is kind of like
Kareem, you know, in the sense like, you know, MJ, LeBron,
Magic, Bird, Oscar, Will Russell.
How about Kareem? Can we say Kareem and very
similar to when you start ripping off the the luminaries
of the of the great game of baseball.
You get Ruth, you get Mays, you get mantle, you get Garrig, you
get Tris Baker, you get Stan mutual, you get Ty Com.
Oh yeah, Hank Aaron. He was pretty good too.
Well, I like people just kind of associate Hank.
I don't mean those who really love the game, but oh, Hank, he
has got the most home runs. You know where he had he's to
me, he's still the home run king.
But no, look at the harpy eyes. Look at the double S look at the
All Star appearances. Look at everything he did, the
lack. I mean, he's just ridiculous.
And how he gets closed over. But even a guy like Hank Aaron
or even I'm sure Babe Ruth had a series that there was no wild
card that it was different. But I promise you, Babe Ruth,
every single playoff series he had, I promise you did not hit
375 with six home runs in an OPS of 1200 doesn't work that way.
So I just point that out because if there's going to be
fluctuations on the greatest stage of baseball by the
greatest players in the history of baseball, why wouldn't there
be fluctuations with good players or average players or
even great players during the early stages of baseball?
It's still the same sport with the same fail rate.
It's just a different stage, but it's the same premise.
So that's where I am with the Mets and that's where I am with
Cohen. But you know, it's it's it's
doesn't look good. I mean, it can't scratch out a
hit. Let me get Ken C-N7 N thank you
Kenny. Appreciate that Kenny from
Yonkers, the more we have a new one.
What's that? Another new one.
No, the new one. Welcome to the fam.
Very nice. Love it.
That's awesome, dude. I love how it's growing.
That is great. Ken from Yonkers.
Thank you, Ken. So the more I hear about last
year's clubhouse, they should have traded Lindoor.
He's the one who had a problem with everybody.
Nimmo, Soto, etcetera. Yeah.
I mean, I I don't. I don't know.
I don't, I don't know, Like I know Cohen said he's never going
to name a captain. Got it.
OK, We've talked about that and mentioned it when he first said
it. It came up the other day on the
show. But for everybody that was, you
know, basically making him the captain.
The fact that they never made him the captain should probably
tell you a little something that I don't need a captain in base.
I don't even need a captain in basketball.
I need a captain and I need an A on a sweater in hockey and
that's it. And obviously, you know, in
football you can have a middle linebacker calling out the
plays, whatever it might be, you know, the green dot.
OK, communication with the coaches.
You need that in in that kind of a sport where you got to get
guys in the right spot on. The communication is vital right
where, you know, in baseball, the only time you really
communicate, obviously the catcher putting down signs and
say a pop up, I got it. You know, the other guy backs
off or he doesn't, you know, and that's kind of or cut, you know,
a left cut, let it go. You know, like in terms of
relays, it's kind of it really what what kind of communications
there in baseball. So while you know the, I mean
David Wright I thought was a great captain, but I thought
Keith was a great captain because even though he was wild
in Saint Louis and still had a little bit of an edge when he
got here, he was more mature. He had been through his drug
trials. He had really gone through some
self-imposed tribulations. And I thought Keith being the
captain for that team was perfect.
Now, it didn't help necessarily because Darryl stepped out of
line and Doc was a mess and they ridiculously got rid of Kevin
Mitchell because they thought that he was the problem and he
wasn't. But you had so many young guys
coming up and there was just, it was a tumultuous time, the 80s
and drugs and Wall Street and, you know, players first starting
to make real money. I I thought that was a good spot
for a captain. You know, does Aaron Judge need
to be the captain of the Yankees?
I don't think that he does. I I love that he is because I
don't know that you can represent a brand or really
humanity any better than Aaron Judge represents the brand and
humanity. You know, I thought Derek Jeter
was a was it was a captain by by example.
I could promise you that. You know, when somebody say
Pedro threw over Kareem Garcia's head, you guys remember that?
Or there was a fracas out in the outfield bullpen.
Remember that, that the Jeff Nelson was involved in that.
Or when Armando Benitez hit Tino after the was that Tim Raines
after the Raines home run and or or bird one of those guys.
But you got to say that after a home run, I think it was Raines
could be burn either way. Maybe maybe I have to invert
that. But he got drilled and that
wound up hurting him for most of the season and it altered his
numbers and they had this massive fight that's building
the dugout. I can promise you that.
Like after that game, Derek Jeter, even though he was the
captain, was not addressing the team.
You know, that would have been somebody like, you know,
especially as you got deeper into those Yankee teams where
Posada was the starting catcher. That's Posada territory.
You know, that's Daryl. I think maybe that night
stepping up and saying something, you know, that's
somebody like Tino, who was, you know, gritty and didn't say a
lot, but kind of a tough guy or an O'Neal.
That wasn't Derek's role. And the captaincy can be worn
many different ways. You could have an emotional
captain like Josh Hart, even though he's not a captain to me,
in a lot of ways, he exudes Captain C for the Knicks on a
night to night basis. But he's he's not the captain
very easily could be. So, yeah, I mean, I remember Sal
saying, I don't know what it was, but at some point bringing
up the the thought of a maybe the Mets should trade Lindor.
Maybe they should be open to it. I mean, let's let's face it,
guys, Francisco Lindor. And I'm not dropping this hole
at his doorstep. I'm not Lindor's been here for
over a half a decade at this point.
And when you really think about his tenure, and I'm not
attributing this all to him, that will be unfair.
But when you think about Lindor's run as a met, haven't
there been more issues than high points, whether it's infighting
perceived or real, you know, with with McNeil and the raccoon
and what I mean, things happen. I don't really care that much
back then, but you know, I mean, and now you see on opening day
and I get, I didn't make much of this because I don't want to be
unfair. He just had hand surgery.
I, I don't know, maybe it's that.
But like if you saw as they were introduced along the first
baseline there, if you saw the exchanges with Soto and
everybody else, and then you saw the exchange with Soto and
Lendore. And then you just kind of, you
know, piece together the other things that have happened or
have been whispered to have happened behind closed doors.
It's pretty freaking hard not to sit there and say, I mean, maybe
it is Lindor a little bit. You know the one thing about
Francisco Lindor, he's a really good player.
He's going to be in the Hall of Fame.
He's one of the best short stops in baseball.
But night to night, he's not. He's not so great.
He's not so old time that whatever he is bringing in terms
of maybe some other stuff or some other baggage if true, or
some other noise, that it's always fully worth it.
So if you told me that the Mets, you know, whether it's this past
offseason or at the deadline or this offseason coming up, going
into the 20, if there's even baseball in 2027 that somebody
offers, you know, something enticing for Lindor.
And this point, I'm not really sure why you would because he's
got a lot of money. He's got a couple of years to
go. Not quite the same defensive
player that he was. Look back at last year's
numbers. You know, he obviously starts
slow. He's a little bit up and down in
terms of statistical performance.
But if that ever crossed Stearns, his table, you'd be an
idiot not to investigate it further.
And then I think you'd be a dope not to pursue it.
And if it makes sense, and even if you get $0.85 on the dollar,
I think that you pulled the trigger.
I would like if I'm running the Mets, like I have no problem
saying that it's probably, you know, time more so than not to
turn the page and move on from the French from the Francisco
Lindor era. And and there's a chance of a
year or two that that entire core is wiped out and it's Soto
and hopefully binge. If you know, if he if he
develops and I like him, he's young.
You know, Polanco is going to be gone at that point.
Simeon will be gone at that point.
Hopefully Alvarez and you know, some others and and and Tong and
Christian Scott and some of their other young pitchers.
Obviously McClain. I I don't know, I don't know,
but it just seems like every year there's just something
about the Mets that's either all for just wildly inconsistent or
there's some sort of friction. Shouldn't be that way.
Like it shouldn't be that hard every year with that payroll to
just have a consistently good year like that.
Shouldn't be that evasive, but it has been so far.
Let me get Vince 908 BT Do you do you?
I think you meant do you agree with me?
If the Mets stood pat and didn't move Alonzo and McNeil, they
would probably be in worse shape right now.
I definitely agree with the moves that Sterns made.
Well, I don't think the time to to write that to me is today,
Vince, with all due respect and thank you for that.
Only because the Mets are 7 and 11.
Like if the Mets were 12:00 and 6:00, if the Mets were 13 and
five, all right, you can pump out your chest and say you see,
it was the core. It wasn't right.
The chemistry was off. They didn't complement each
other well. All right, Hey, good moves.
But they're 7:00 and 11:00. They had four hits last night.
They're lucky if they score a run.
I mean, they're they were at home for what, six games?
They had five extra base hits. You look up it's it's zero after
0 after 0 after zero. And there's also been and many
have been attributed to Lindor too many moments where you're
like, is this team even buttoned up, buttoned up or or locked in
and focused? So I wouldn't say that now.
I don't think that that's the time to to write that.
But if you believe that, that's fine.
Marciano 1320. I know a team who needs a lead
off bat or a shortstop. The Yankees bet you'd ship them
to to the I don't want Lindor. I'm good, I'm good.
I don't I don't want Lindor. No, I mean, that's a short
answer. I don't want Francisco Lindor on
the Yankees. They would never make that high
profile of a trade. What I want is now and the
Yankees have their own issues. Listen, the more than Aaron
Boone sits Ben Rice, the more I'm going to just start getting
on Aaron Boone. Enough of this nonsense.
Enough of this sitting Ben Rice. Ben Rice needs to play every
single day. You all right, you.
So let's say you're facing the Red Sox.
You know Ben Rice isn't, you know, looking good or even
looking bad. You know, you want to give him a
a day off against school bull. You want to get Garrett Crochet
if Randy Johnson was pitching all right, Steve Carlton with
that nasty wipeout slider, All right, I got it.
There is no reason, there's no rhyme or reason to sitting Ben
Rice with this C minus lineup that where hold on.
So last night, just so you know, I'm not I'm not some met hater.
I'm an equal opportunist basher. When it's when it's time to bash
last night, well, start from getting their ass kicked again.
The the Yankees tried it out this lineup, All right, this was
their lineup. And understand guys, their
payroll is $330 million. This is what the Yankees thought
was a good lineup to roll out. Goldschmidt age 38, bat and lead
off. Don't like it.
Aaron Judge second, he's the man.
Rosario batting 3rd batting. I like that he's on the team.
He's got a role. He mashes against lefties.
I don't love him on defense, but batting third.
Rosario in the four hole. Obviously Stanton is going to
run him out there, so he's no longer here.
Trent Grisham. I know he had a couple of bombs
the night before. Stunner, 3 strikeouts, O for
four, back to hit in $1.60 grit. Chick who had finally had a hit,
First hit of the year. Austin Wells, who's hitting 190.
Caballero. That's the Yankees lineup.
Goldschmidt, Judge, Rosario, Stanton, Grisham, Grichek, Wells
and Caballero. And the Yankees have a $333
million payroll. If you and I know most of it's
devoted to pitching, that's kind of the point.
If you are spending that kind of money on a Major League team and
you run out that kind of lineup once, you should be banned from
baseball. And that's more on Cashman than
on Boone. But I didn't like the like Ben
Rice not play and then the like what Aaron said, you know, I
like to be able to fire that that, I don't know, hit the
button, fire the button with Benny in a spot to pinch hit to
get a sack fly when you're losing 7 nothing.
Would you play him every day? Here's the only variance to Ben
Rice. This the only thing that you
change when there's a righty. Ben Rice should be batting 3rd
every single game. It should be.
I mean what it should be is at this point until they find
something better from a trade. Quan whatever.
Bellinger 1 lefty Aaron Judge 2 righty Ben Rice 3 lefty
Giancarlo Stanton 4 righty. Like that should be it every
single. I don't care.
Well, said somebody that's no longer with us.
So I don't care if Pedro comes out of retirement and entices
some team to sign him and he's still filthy with that sick
change up and throwing gas upstairs and unhittable, You
know, I think you might be the greatest he or Seaver, the
greatest right-handed pitchers of all time.
That's why I say I pull Pedro. If Pedro comes out of retirement
and is vintage Pedro, Ben Rice should still hit third.
It should be Bellinger who can hit and run, Judge who can hit
and run, Rice who can bash and is always on base, and then
Stanton who's going to start running into some home runs.
That again, the only variant should be when you have a tough
lefty. I wouldn't even sit him.
All right, let's drop him down to 5 or 6.
You're facing crochet, you're up.
You're out in Comerica against the Tigers or the Tigers rolled
school Bull go fine, fine. Then you drop him.
That line up last night was, it was sick and it was repulsive.
The line up that the Yankees ran out last night, and I don't care
that it's April. I don't.
I remember. I don't want to contradict
myself because I do believe this, but when you're not
playing well, the experiments got to stop.
If you're playing well and you want to mess around, you want to
make maybe sacrifice a game in April for the greater good.
I get that because what I remember saying on The Fan last
year, what baseball's turned into really is the first part of
the, let's say the 1st 40 games. See what you got, see what you
got. This applies to any team.
So out outside of maybe the Rockies and like 3-4, five other
teams, every other team that has a chance to win, see what you
have for the first break, spring training, start the season, play
40, see what you got. The next 40 games after that
should be an acknowledgement of what you don't have and then the
pursuit as you lead up to the deadline eventually to get what
you don't have. And then once you do that, then
the final 40 ish games or whatever percentage you want to
attribute to it. Right, is now everything
coalescing hopefully. And then you making your run and
and really tighten things up with the adjustments that have
addressed the weaknesses. And now it's full board.
Let's go get a championship. So see what you got, get what
you don't and then run out what you have based on what you
didn't that you got. But you can't when when you look
the way that they look, lose five straight shoot out with the
with the with the angels. And then, you know, and then you
trot that line up out there. I it's it's just mystifying.
I don't get it. I really don't.
And I would I would say that to Aaron.
I will ask Aaron that when I get him up.
Like, I don't know how you write out that lineup.
I just don't know how. It makes no sense to me.
You know, again, a lot of that's on Cashman, $333 million, and
those are the names that you're giving the manager a chance to
run out. But I can't exonerate Aaron
Boone fully because he's sad. Ben Rice, outside of Aaron
Judge, he's the best hitter on the team.
And the other guys stink. So it's not like you got, you
know, Tino and Bernie and and Bosada and obviously Jeter and
whether it's not being second or Soriano, whatever it might be,
you got six guys who stink who play every night.
So we got it. We do have some baseball issues
here, in case you couldn't tell, right, Jane, the Yankees made
the World Series in 2024, were throwing the same exact lineup
every single day and day in and day out.
People knew their role. I believe in that 100%.
I believe in that. You know, it's not you know,
it's athletes are creatures of habit.
They just are and they always will be.
All right. So whether it's and now Mike
Brown's going to have to show that that he can handle this,
like his rotation and the allocation of minutes, he
started to figure things out a little bit at the end and a
little more pick and roll with Kat and Brunson.
Which is why I'm probably as enthused about the Knicks I've
been probably since they won the Cup, because after that they
fell and then I've had myriad issues with them since.
But it's all about identifying what players do well, what they
don't, and then putting them in a spot to succeed inevitably.
And when guys are bouncing around like there's a routine
that you just want to know that you're going to hit certain
point each day. You're going to hit, you know,
whether it's in the two or three hole, you know, you're getting
up right away. If you're hitting five, you, you
probably, you know, you might not get up in the first inning.
You know, you know who's in front of you.
You can look at pitch patterns. Like there's a commonality, I
think to teams that really win big.
Ultimately, there's a consistency in terms of who they
run out there, you know what I mean?
No big time. You know, hang on, Jay, I got to
grab something. Hold on one second.
Nah, you chilling. You chilling shut.
Something off there. OK, yeah, Back say you chilling?
You chilling? If Lombard is called up, where
is he in the lineup? Marciano.
Well, I mean, listen, you know, it's, it's early for him.
It's early. I saw him bang another one last
night. Or Zach Wheeler, a ringing
double the other way, you know, although that that probably
wouldn't be good for Steve Cohen because he doesn't like when
Bouchette goes the other way, which is what good hitters
usually do, Which is part of the reason why, you know, I was
having a little fun with the tweet that I put out.
But while I defend Cohen kind of a little bit today, that just
made no sense from a baseball point of view.
Because to think about this when if you've ever played baseball,
you know, certainly when you take BP, the last thing you want
to do is is just try to hammer, you know, room service, 60 mile
per hour meatball batting practice pitches from some 60
year old coach, 473 feet. That does nothing.
You've got to have a plan. And really the plan is whether
you're 8 years old or 27 or 33 or, you know, Judge or Trout,
really what you want to do. You want to let the bull travel
deep because when you let the bull travel deep, you're not out
in front. And now at a young age that you
can get away with it because the change ups and the curves aren't
as biting and they don't throw it as much, but so you can kind
of sit fastball, you could almost sell out.
But there's a, there's a real expiration point for that.
And depending upon high, how high of a level you play, you
know, on the on the youth level, it might be as soon as 10 or 11
years old if you're playing against some of these, some of
these great young players because they can mix in the
change, hopefully not curves, but certainly change UPS.
Anyway, when you let the ball travel deep, you're going to hit
it up the middle and you're going to hit it the other way.
How many times have you heard whether it's O'Neil or, you
know, Girardi or Keith when you're watching a Yankee or, and
I'm sure all the other broadcasters doing around
baseball as well. When you're watching a Yankee or
Met game and there's a guy who's in a funk like, you know, one
for 17/2 for 20 and you know, he rifles a base hit the other way
almost all the time, they will point out, hey, that could be a
good sign. You know, it's getting a little
bit more locked in. That's why when you're when
you're, when you're taking BP, you're really, you should be
trying to hit the, excuse me, try to hit the L screen.
Try to send it back, like do some situational stuff, hit him
up the middle, hit some the other way and then obviously,
you know, smash some of the end and then you know, kind of build
out the portfolio of swings. But yes, back to Lombard because
he did hit one to right field last night.
Looks phenomenal. You know, he's beginning to grow
into his body. He's almost 63.
He's 191 lbs. He can run.
His defense has been certainly last year ahead of his offense
where he struggled the AA after ripping apart Hi A.
Now he's a AA. You know, he faced a a terrific
Major League pitcher on a rehab assignment.
I read some of the comments Zach Wheeler said post game like like
reading his swings, like he he's doesn't mean he's going to be
right, but makes you feel a little bit better about it.
Like Zach's like no, he's got a plan and his he is he's actually
said his swing is really on plane, which means even if he's
fooled a little bit, he still is back path is and his barrels in
the right spot. And you do that more times than
not, you're going to have more success right.
So I would I would I promise you if you take somebody like an
Austin Wells or a Volpe who came back last night as well over 22
strikeouts, but it just getting going here.
If you look at those lower average lower on base guys,
right. I promise you that the one of
the reasons, whether it's a pitch recognition thing or
what's you what Zach Wheeler said about not being on plane
consistently. That is part of the reason
hitters are either elite or they're not.
And obviously vision comes into play and some other
characteristics that I'm not going to bore you with.
But being on planes, a phenomenal start to being an
awesome hitter. And when Zach Wheeler says that
Lombard's on, but that George Lombard on on plane, I love it.
Now, listen, I I don't think they're going to call him up
this year, but let let's just play this out.
And I'm not in a rush to call him up yet because it is April,
but and I want to see what Volpe looks like, like if Volpe ever
comes back and is, is actually like good, you know, now the
lower third of the order changes a bit.
Now Caballero's back to the Super sub spot, blah, blah,
blah. Now if McMahon still stinks, he
will Now he can play Rosario and Caballero with third base a
little bit and have both both feet short.
There's too many variables for me to give you a definitive time
where, if or when I would call Lombard up.
But we're going to push this forward.
So it's middle of April sitting basically 390.
It's got 7 extra base hits. Looks phenomenal.
I saw another stat yesterday. Oh God.
One of the guys that I coached with my buddy Mike, before the
game started, he actually said, did you see the stab with
Lombard? And I said I I did, but I but I
actually forgot the exact number.
It was something like of the 50 before last night, of the 53
pitches that he has seen out of the zone, Lombard only swung at
1:00. Something in that neighborhood,
which obviously speaks to an aptitude, right?
Something like that. It is.
Let's see, it's something it's it's along those lines.
Yeah, it's, you don't have to look it up, J You're good.
It's something like that's close enough.
I mean, listen, eventually he's going to go into a little
tailspin here because he I, I mean, unless he just really is
like, you know, a young a rod or something like that.
But I don't want to put that pressure on him.
So eventually he's going to have a funk.
I mean, if he's hitting 3:30 and we're in early July, well, then
obviously, you know, you punt them up to triple AI don't think
they would go from double to triple to to the bigs.
You give him a look in the in, you know, at the highest level
of the minors. And if he looks good there and
the Yankees are really scuffling.
Not that they can let desperation determine what they
do, but you know, if he really does look different and he truly
looks ready and he's a plus fielder, which everybody thinks
he's going to be. So it's not just a stick.
Whereas the leather is going to hurt you.
Even if he goes over 4, his speed and defensive prowess can
actually help. And maybe there is a a window
for him to get called up this year and to push it even more
further if he is. And I know there's a lot of
contingencies here. I'm just responding to the text
there. I'm going to drop him in the
bottom of the order. You're not going to start put
him in the one of the two hole. Not yet.
I mean, but so I mean, that's how I would react to that.
We shall see. Nice putt.
All right, I'm going to keep
shouting this. Eat the 22 mil and get Tatis
here. Let's go hard at the Trout as
well. I'll take my chances on his age.
He's still better than Grisham. Yeah, I mean, somebody you, you
hear this a lot with NBA players like, you know, guys who are in,
you know, just situations where there's just nothing competitive
and there's no structure and then they get to a situation.
It's funny. I was talking about the jail
Blazers documentary on Netflix. Even though Rashid Wallace was a
terrific player with the Blazers and he was still a little
volatile and a little emotionally erratic when he went
to the Pistons. Think about how he conformed
more because you had Billups and you had Tayshawn and you had Ben
Wallace and you had Rick Carlisle.
You had like a stabilized, oh, Larry Brown won the championship
at Carlisle was before Larry. You know, you had more more
insulation, more professionalism, just more
expectations. And you can port yourself a
little bit differently from an emotional perspective.
And there's a deeper level of engagement that generally leads
to better results if you've got that requisite talent like she'd
and many others do. I mean, I listen, I said this
over the window over the winter. I would like to see the Yankees
get Mike Trout. You know, I, I would.
And he looks energized. You know, I know he and Trout,
Judge and Trout have a great relationship.
Who knows? But they're not going to cut.
You got to stop texting me the eat the money on Trent.
They're not going to cut Trent Grisham.
They're not going to do that. And they shouldn't.
He had 34 home runs last year and I'm not even a big fan.
But he he did prove to be incredibly viable a year ago.
And now the problem is that was the one year out of five where
he was actually a good player. But they're just not going to do
it. I mean, they didn't even want to
eat the money on Gallo when they brought Gallo here.
And they don't want to eat the money on Hicks.
And they just don't eat money that often.
So to think that they'll need $22 million or at this point you
probably got about 19 change left, whatever it is, something
like that. If you do the math, not going to
happen a trade. You know, you're going to go
back to the he's going to go back to the Padres.
The Padres want him. I mean, Tati, sure.
I mean that that's the kind of, you know, all the round
explosive electric weapon that the Yankees need.
I mean, his arm in the outfield, his defensive metrics are sick.
I mean, the guy's the guy's a stud.
But Padres are off to a good start and we'll see.
I don't call them that. So I'll just say Stevie, if
Stevie wants to turn around that he needs to hire a bleep and
manager with balls, hire Wally Backman.
I mean, we're going to get back on the wildly train here.
Sal Capello, 3032. I love Wally Backman.
I mean, that ship sailed many years ago.
If and when if he should get fired, it's going to be Korea or
maybe even Beltran. It's it.
I can promise you it's it's not going to be Wally Backman.
You know, Wally, the video, you don't even know who Wally back
when it is Jay, you're probably too young, but there's a video
when he was on YouTube managing. It was one of the first YouTube
videos I think I saw now that I yeah, I think about it, think
about this. He was managing some minor
league team and he just, I, he, he was a nut ball.
I loved it. And there was a lot of talk
where, you know, going back like, you know, 56878 years
where a lot of met fans were clamoring for Wally because
there would be this intensity. But that ship is sailed.
And I've got great respect for the way Wally played the game,
and I'm Wally Backman fan, but that simply is not going to
happen. Would you like me to hit you
with Mel Kiper's final Mock the Top 10?
Yeah, let's do it, Let's do it. I got it, let's do it.
You can do it, you can do it. Mel Kiper's top 10.
All right, we know Mendoza's got Mendoza going one to the
Raiders, The Jets at #2 So what I did was before I continue, I
picked out the the top, the top 10 picks here and then I cherry
picked some other interesting names or angles throughout round
one. So I've got 10.
I've got about 14 or 15 things for you, OK #1 Mendoza, Raiders
#2 Jets, David Bailey, Texas Tech #3 or Val Reese, which
obviously before last week, before Schrager mocked Bailey to
The Jets. Reese by everybody was really #2
to The Jets. That seemingly has flipped.
The odds reflect that, but we'll see.
Bailey to Reese, Ohio State, 3 to the Cards, the Titans #4
Jeremiah Love, running back, Notre Dame #5 Caleb Downs, the
Giants, John Harbaugh's first pick Now I think, I think the
Giants could trade. I think the Giants could go
online. I don't think the Giants will go
receiver 5. Some people do.
Some people would like to see that.
I would not do that myself. Not when somebody like Caleb
Downs or Sonny Styles or Fido, you know, from Utah, the old
lineman. There's other things that I
would do if I'm them, but it Mel's got them taking Caleb
Downs. And if you remember when
Horribaugh was hired, he was on Mike Frances's podcast and Mike
brought up because obviously there was a great safety play
with the Ravens. Caleb Downs, his name was
brought up. And Horribaugh was very
effusive. And I was not a smokescreen.
You know, I think Horribaugh was just like, yeah, I love this
kid. He's phenomenal.
But we'll see if they take him. That's the mock there with
kuiper #5 number six. He did project a trade where
Dallas, who has the number 12 in the number 20 pick, Dallas picks
trades with Cleveland and Dallas winds up picking Sonny Styles.
That makes sense. I could see that happening.
The Commanders, who I could also see make it a trade here.
Mel's got him sticking put. We're staying put.
Cornell Tate. And there was some other
rumblings there, Jeremiah. Some others say that The Jets
might move up and make a trade and take Cornell trade.
Yeah. Cornell Tate, wide receiver.
Either way, commander, 7, Tate, wide receiver.
Ruben Bain, of course, from Miami, the edge with the short
arms. But the hell of a player going 8
to the Saints, the Chiefs, and I do believe they're going wide
receiver. Jordan Tyson, Arizona State, the
Bengals, Mansour, Delane, he's a corner from LSU.
I'm not even sure if he's the best corner.
I like McCoy as well. That's close there.
All right, so those are the top 10 for Mel and then you can
leave that up here. I'll get to some of these
football questions as well. Let me see.
He's got the bucks at 15 taking Kenyan Siddiq, a tight end at
somebody I would like The Jets to keep an eye on.
We've talked about that on jets Collective.
Talked about it here. By the way, Jets Collective
tonight episode 4 like it sub it myself, Rich Simini, Jake Asman,
the Bucks with Sadiq, The Jets at 16, Cooper wide receiver from
Indiana. All right, the Browns at 24.
This goes into the other corner, obviously McCoy from Tennessee.
They have he's got him going there.
And then Miami, this gets interesting at #30 he's got the
Miami Dolphins and the Cardinals make it a trade and the
Cardinals swap in. They take Ty Simpson at 30 and
he would wind up in Arizona. So I wanted to give you a little
sense of what Mr. Kuiper is thinking now 8 days before the
NFL draft. Hey, BT, would you take Omar
Cooper at 16 for The Jets or would you move up and get
Carnell Tate? I like either.
I really do. You know, I, I am still, I guess
I'm going to have to do a final mock, right?
Don't you think I'm going to have to do that at some point
here, Jay? Yeah, big time.
I'm going to have to do one do a little bit.
Yeah, I'm going to have to do that, man.
Build out a nice graphic, make it look all, you know, splashy.
Yeah, I mean Cooper, I like Cooper a lot.
Really competitive, really good. I like Tate.
I like The Jets thinking receiver at 16.
But I also think that Sadiq is is so different.
Like Sadiq is so much better than any other tight end by a
mile. When you talk about the wide
receiver market, you know, is it Tate?
Is it it depends. It's personal preference and
there's really five guys and three or four are thought to be
in the same vicinity, so obviously very subjective.
I would rather if you're going to go vertical threat, take the
take the tight end disguised as a receiver who ran A448 and
A63245 and just destroyed the combine.
Like Sonny Styles. I'd rather take him at 16, who I
love then a receiver, one of the receivers who I like, but but I
don't, I don't know what they're thinking.
So that's that's part of the equation as well.
I can't wait for the draft. Yeah, it's going to be so much.
Pump bro, I'm absolutely pumped. He's got one more if you can.
Any thoughts on taking a flyer on Drew Allar for?
This time, yeah, we've talked about this.
I was doing an interview with the station in PA.
My buddy Tom was doing a mock draft and he actually asked me
about Allar. You know, I think the easy
thing. Now I'd like to know what, what
round do you talk in? You if if, if you know what
you're talking about, you'd have to say from fifth round on, I'm
not taking them in the fourth round.
The fifth round is where I'd be like, OK, interesting.
Let me see what they did in the previous X amount of picks there
barring trades, whatever, you know, two in the first round.
So it's not just 4 picks as we know.
Yeah, I'd be open to that. I would be, you know,
developmental quarterbacks. See the thing about that, like
they sound so appealing and there is something to be said
for it. But, and, and this would kind of
be the year to do it because you've got Gino and he's not
going to play. I don't think they're taking Ty
Simpson. I've said that for a while.
Yeah. And he's got a big arm man.
You know, the problem with him is that they didn't really, it
was more of a Franklin thing, the way he was coached.
They didn't really let him, you know, I'm not improvised.
But really, you know, they they just kind of limited what he did
for the Nittany Lions there. So is there a next level?
I'm not sure. You know, I know he looked like
an animal that is pro day. But then again, so did Zach
Wilson and said so many other bust here.
But it's also dependent upon who drafts you.
How will they do you play? What's the online look like?
What's the scheme? I mean, just as a concept,
ignoring all the other stuff that really matters in terms of
player development, Yeah, I'd be somewhat intrigued by by Alor,
but it, you know, and and it would have to be like if they
trade back and it's like more I'm I'm getting a little weak.
Does it really matter? Early, fifth round late?
I guess it doesn't, but I think I'd feel really good if it's
like back end there. I back end to round 5.
I feel good. I bet OK, I like it because I
know by then they'll they will have at least addressed either a
tight end with Sadiq, one of the receivers, absolutely 2
frontline defenders so and their own lines already.
Awesome. So I know that and they brought
the run stuffers in from a free agency point of view in the
trade with the Titans for sweat Jermaine Johnson.
So they've done enough and they've got enough running back.
So Jeremiah Love's not on the table.
Yeah, I feel really good about that.
If it's like early 6th round, I feel phenomenal.
Like, to me, that's a perfect place for him.
But I'm sure other teams are looking at his size.
He's a big boy and he's got a rocket and he can throw it a
country mile. And those guys kind of like, you
know, back in the day now, everybody throws gas.
But back in the day, it would be akin to some high school pitcher
who throws absolute cheese. And you know what?
I'm talking back in the day like cheese 95, you know, now
everybody throws 95 if not more, but like 95.
But he couldn't throw it straight.
You know, big like Todd Van Poppel, like one of those dudes
from back, if you remember that name.
Even Brian Taylor was a lefty, but he got her so a little bit
different when he messed up his shoulder in the fight defending
his cousin. Yeah.
You know, it's a profile. It's it's a skill set.
It's a profile. It's a it's a want list.
It's a wish list. That and when you get to the
stage of the draft, even if it's an unrefined receiver who played
at a smaller school who just has a ridiculous 40 time but doesn't
really have a lot of moves, can't get inside leverage,
doesn't really know how to use his hands yet off the line in
terms of disengagement or even, you know, properly catching with
his hands and not his body. Those are.
I'll take Flyers there. Sure.
You know, we're like a converted basketball player that you think
could be an intriguing tight end, something like that.
We've seen that a lot in the NFL as well.
Yeah. I mean, throw a dart.
At that point, I got no problem with it.
I think Bailey's a smokescreen and The Jets will draft Reese
Marciano 1320. All right, let me ask you a
question. So the smokescreen would would
evidently just be to entice somebody to move up and trade
with you because they want Bailey.
Here's the thing, though. Like if The Jets were at 3:00
and all this stuff around Bailey, the sudden shift in in
the odds and the energy and the belief that Bailey might be a
little bit more in favor than than Orville Reed's from Ohio
State. Who the hell are you fooling?
You got the second pick. You know that The Raiders are
pick of Mendoza. Why are we playing this game?
Pick who you won. Now, what would make sense, and
I don't know how they have these players graded out.
Like are they on the same line? I I doubt it because Bailey's
thought to be, you know, a little bit more polished and
certainly more plug and play Reese higher upside, blah, blah,
blah, more explosive. But if they are, let's say that,
let's say the grade, let's just use a scale of 1 to 100.
Let's say collectively The Jets have Bailey at a 97.
I, I, I this could be the exact opposite.
I'm just throwing numbers out to prove a point.
Bailey at 97 and Reese at 96 or even 98 or even 95.
Like 2-2 degrees lower than Bailey.
It's fairly negligible but if you so This is why it would make
sense in terms of the smoke screen.
Hey, we love Bailey, we love Bailey, we love oh we're going
to take Bailey's demand. We love Bailey.
And then other teams have more separation between Bailey and
Reese, meaning they don't like Reese as much as Bailey.
It takes one team to love one guy Bang trade, and we know that
Muji is really, really good with that.
So I mean, I'm not going to say that it's not a smokescreen.
I'm also going to tell you and be very honest, candidly, I'm
I'm not really sure what they're thinking.
You know, I've talked to Rich the media about about this a lot
on on the show Jets Collective tonight, 7:00 episode 4.
He's got inside and tell what are the things he said on last
week's show is he doesn't think Sadiq is going to be around by
the time Jets go to 16 or go with 16.
He thinks that the neighborhood for Sadiq, based on what he's
heard is more like 12-13, maybe 14.
That the belief within the NFL circle is that it not getting
past that point. So if The Jets love him, they're
gonna have to move up. And if they don't love him and
there's a couple of receivers that they like, but there's no
real differentiation, well, now there's the window to move from
16 backwards and still get a receiver that is equally graded.
This applies to every team. And now the stuff last night
with Cornell Tate. I mean, imagine if The Jets walk
with The Jets swing a trade and they take whether it's Bailey or
Risa 2 and they take Tate at 9:00.
If they make that trade there or seven with the Commanders and
and they both hit. I mean, that's how you build the
team. That eventually is going to be
really, really good for a really long time, provided you
eventually get the quarterback, which until they get, I'm
convinced they never will get. But that's still fun to think
about it. Bailey feels like Hugh Douglas.
No, that's interesting. It's interesting.
And the one thing about Bailey, I mean, Hugh Douglas came from,
I'm standing at Texas Tech is a little bit off the radar as
well. Even even though Mahomes played
there. It's not like Ohio State or some
of these Oregon, Michigan. Yeah, I mean, Hugh Douglas was
so long ago, Parcells said. That's just not for me.
And he played very well early. I liked Hugh.
Actually. I liked Hugh Douglas a lot.
My buddy who I used to go to the games with had a Hugh Douglas
jersey. I remember that.
He was good. You know, I don't know.
That's such a long time ago. And you know, I didn't see Hugh
Douglas play a lot before The Jets drafted him.
And I haven't seen Bailey play a ton outside of footage.
Like, I mean, I'm barely staying in on a Saturday to watch the
Buckeyes play in September. I'm sure shit not sticking
around to watch Texas Tech play on a Saturday.
Not when there's games to coach or golf to play or something
else to do. I'm just not doing it anymore.
You know? I'm going to watch what I have
to watch, and I'm going to be as prepared as anybody.
But the days of chaining myself to a couch, it's over.
I'm going to live my life here, and I will be ready to talk
about what I need to talk about. And I like Bailey, but I don't
love him. And I like and I like Reese, but
I don't love him. I don't.
I love Sadiq like I want him. You know, I love Styles and I've
loved Kate like I was Caleb Downs with somebody and I was
talking about for a long time. All right, now the Sonny Styles
momentum, obviously, you know, you see him play teammates, you
see him play a lot. You can't not notice him cuz he
jumping off the TV all the time. That's that's a team.
I'm going to stick around and watch a little bit more on the
Buckeyes, right, cuz he got 5 pros there.
But the Sonny styles hype really just went through the roof after
the combine. That's where it hit a new level.
And I and I'm intrigued by that, but I'm also very intrigued by
his play. It's not just through this
worked out. He was thought to be a second
round pick. He's a workout freak like
Mamulu. This is way before your time for
Boston College. The Eagles drafted him.
Can you check out? It's got to button this up.
I'm going to be, I'm going to be so off on the year.
Jeez, I'm, I don't even know if I'm saying his name right,
Mamola. I'm saying I'm saying it wrong.
Mamola played at Boston College. You know, linebacker, little
edge, jump around him, maybe 98, Mike.
Mamula. What year was it though?
Yeah. From the year 1995 was when he
got drafted. He's even before I was thinking
they might. OK, yeah.
And he was a guy. And if you look at it, no
disrespect, but he just, he just wasn't, wasn't it?
And he was a guy who just banged it at the combine.
So I'm less about combine height these days and I'm much more
about what the film tells me. You know, even though I'm not a
Kuiper, I don't pretend to be, you know, one of these guys who
just scours film day and night. But at this point, I'd like to
think I could differentiate between somebody who could
really play and who can't. You know, I mean, the offensive
lineman that that's tough for me, I admit.
But this other stuff like I, I put money on it.
Caleb Downs going to be a star. Caleb Downs if he stays healthy.
I'm not going to say the same about styles, although I'm more
yes than no. But I will say with no
uncertainty, if he's healthy, that that dude's going to be in
seven or eight Pro Bowls and a three or four time All Pro Caleb
Downs. I believe that.
I think Jeremiah Love is going to be an out of this world
superstar. I think Sadiq, like Bowers now.
Bowers came out, had more receptions in college.
But Bowers coming out, you just knew he was going to be
phenomenal. You knew it, you know, and he
is. It's just certain guys that feel
feel right and few of those guys feel right to me.
What else did I want to get to today?
What time we got 1125. Let me get this pop this guy up
here, see what he's all about here.
Joe somebody at four O 7 BT Do you think that the baseball G
Ms. needs to take a step back from analytics and sign players
based on knowledge of the game and feel too much focus on the
data doesn't seem to do much AKA Mets.
Well, listen, I think you've got you've got to have the right
mixture. There's just certain things like
if you can't do, you've got to be able to do certain things at
a certain threshold, right? Like if you're a pitcher and you
know, you throw 89 miles an hour, you just got no chance,
especially now with ABS, at least, you know, Maddox could
really manipulate that outer half.
He was throwing more 92 and it was also a very different ERA.
But you just certain benchmarks you have to be there.
Like if you are, that's one of the things that worries me about
Ruben. Ruben Bay, not that he can't
defy this, but the last time a defensive end was picked that
like high and, you know, had a really good career was 2000.
Like you're talking about 25 draft years of evidence where
you know how long arms. What's it mean?
He's not reaching into his pocket to get the check.
I understand that. But what he is doing is trying
to get away from some beast of a left tackle who is probably 6
foot 5320 and could run like a heavy tight end.
I mean, so you got to have those longer arms and you got to have
that secondary move. You just have to.
And it seems like Bailey Bane in the playoffs, you know, and
during the regular season as well, like just soared like to
the top three or four spots, right?
And then he dropped a little bit with the arm stuff and it seems
like he's ascending again. So he's going to go top ten, I
think. I think he might go top eight.
I think the Saints could take him at eight behind the
commanders. But yeah, I mean, if you're if
you're if you're a catcher and your pop time simply is not.
It's a mathematical see a lot of this.
We might not like the math, but it is a mathematical equation.
When you I'll give you an example, Jay, when you see a
first base coach, right, looking at a stopwatch, did you ever see
that guy? He's got the little spring
hanging out of his back pocket and he's got a stopwatch.
He's got a stopwatch for a reason.
It is literally a mathematical equation.
How long does it? And this is all pre scattered
out and he's got this in his notes, right?
How long when the pitcher with a man on base from his set
position does it take? Does he sidestep?
Does he go full? You know, how long does it take
for him to actually deliver the ball?
And then you have that mathematical aspect, which is a
real tangible number. And now you incorporate that
with the pop time to catch, receiving the ball, releasing
the ball, how quickly it gets down to second base.
And then the last aspect of it, which is as important as the
other two ingredients, how fast is the runner.
And this is all timed out during spring training, going from
first to second with a 7 foot lead and 8 foot lead, whatever
it might be. And you just, you do the math,
you know, So to me, we might not like the numbers, but you, you
have to incorporate them. I think the problem with numbers
is when you are oblivious to some other stuff that is not
quantifiable, whether it's energy or grit or just something
else that he might admit where maybe he's a 10th or, or or 2/10
of a second behind the stopwatch or, you know, 2 mph less on, on
the gun or exit below like a little tick down.
I'll give you a good example. So I remember when, when we were
talking about Bellinger, I actually remember saying I
thought Bellinger would be good for the Mets before he went to
the Cubs, right? And I remember a lot of minutes
on the fan. I remember a lot of Mets fans
saying he's got an average exit V low is weak.
And it was, it was. It was in the lower, not lower,
but it was not red on baseball. Saffon.
It wasn't like 80 or 90 percentile.
I forget the exact number, but maybe it was like in the 60s.
It was kind of on the lower side for a guy who was looking for
big money, put it that way. And, and everyone's like, yeah,
he doesn't hit the ball that hard.
Yeah, but do you understand why he doesn't hit the ball that
hard? I'm going to explain it to you
because when you have two strikes, all right, And he just
kind of looked to flick the ball just to keep it at bat going,
whether it's found the ball off or just kind of for a lefty
bloop of the ball left field or hitting it where it's pitched
and you're not swinging from the heels every single time And
you're not going to get those 115 lasers off the bat with with
frequency. I mean, a lot of guys don't get
that frequently. That's more like Stanton and Ben
Rice and Judge territory and a few others that consistently hit
the ball hard impacted. But I actually thought that that
the context there was to me a further illumination why I
thought he would be perfect for the Mets and then why I'm happy
that he's on the Yankees because if you look deeper, not just
exit Vilo a week, I don't want them.
If you go a layer below it and it's easy to do.
Guess who had the highest two strike batting average in
baseball that year that people were criticizing the exit Vilo,
the aforementioned Bellinger. So when you're not striking out
that much and you're putting balls in play and you're putting
stress on the defense and Oh yeah, by the way, you you're a
plus one are not that he's Ricky, but he's scoring from
first on a double. You know what if there's a soft
ground ball up the middle, he's beating it out.
You know, if they're if the second baseman has to dive and
get up to his feet, what's a good chance to get a beat that
out because he could run. So he's making contact.
But yes, by making contact, he's making softer contact, which
lowers the number that everybody looks at.
But below that, what I see is a baseball player, a guy that I
want up there against some dude in the 9th inning or the 8th
inning in the American League Championship Series or in
Toronto or Boston in September, late September for division or
the World Series. And you're facing Diaz and
you're or you're facing Miller. Some dudes throwing, you know,
one O 2, one O 3. Chapman back in the day when he
hit one O 5, hey, he might not hit one in the seats.
He might not hit one 130 miles an hour, but he might bloop one,
keep the inning going or work out a walk because he fouled 3
or 4 pitches off. And now guess what?
Residually that pitcher gets further taxed and that one extra
inch bite that like doesn't move away from Aaron Judge that that
ball might be in the seats because Bellinger did something
that nobody really appreciated. So the numbers are what they
are. That's just a little context how
I view it. But yeah, I mean, you've got to
incorporate them. But if you're a slave to the
numbers, you just a geek. And I got I got no time for
geek. Yeah.
I mean, you don't know it on the level that I want you to know
it, That's for damn sure. How many of these?
Yeah. God, what do you?
Got Oh, no, no, I was going to say, I don't know if this is
breaking. Like, I don't know if this is
necessarily breaking news. You want to hit the How about
this? Oh hold on, hit the siren all.
Right, let me make sure I hit the right sound.
Oh, oh, what's going? On Buddy.
We're breaking news, Breaking news.
Kevin Mcgonigal from the Tigers signed an 8 year, one $50
million contract extension stud through 2034.
Stud, stud, you know, we can only be so lucky to see like
that happened with Lombard, you know what I mean?
Yeah, yeah, you'd love to see that because you're you're
buying. I mean, that's happened more and
more. It really the then Indians were
the first team to really do it, buying out three or four years
of arbitrary going back to the 90s Indians with like by Erica
and like Sandy Albemar and like those cats, right?
And it's a very wise financial move for both teams.
What would you say, 180? 150.
For how many? Eight years 8.
Years. OK, so now I don't know his
family's financial background, but let's just say it's average.
He's not destitute, and they're not incredibly affluent.
You get $150 million. Even if you invest it like a
schmuck, you're golden. I mean.
Your bloodline's pretty straight.
I mean, if you can't get 7 or 8% on that, you're a complete
though. But even if you messed up and he
got like 2%, multiple generations are set because he's
so young. All right, so he's set.
It's smart on the part of the Tigers because is he 19?
How old is he again? Let's see 19 or I think he's 19.
He is. Could be wrong on that.
No dude 21. Oh he is 21.
OK, my bad. Pretty young dude.
You know, he's got 30, may have been a little bit younger.
All right, so he's 21. He has secured his future.
And the Tigers, who, you know, let's face it, schoolboat is
going to be gone. They don't really have the
appetite nor do they necessarily have the resources like the
Dodgers and the Mets and you know, the Yankees, if they want
to lesser extent because Hal doesn't have that kind of money
or the Phillies. You are.
It's a very shrewd move because you are fortifying your future
financial solvency. And if he it now, it's a bet.
God forbid if he got hurt, that's a problem.
But then there, who the hell is texting me here?
But there's insurance for that, right?
Like David Wright got insurance with his back for the Mets.
So all that stuff works itself out.
I don't know to what extent. I don't know if it's penny for
penny, but it's a percentage. So you don't get bent over the
way you think you might financially.
So you fortify that if he is what I believe everybody thinks
that this young man's going to be, I mean, jeez, by the time
he's arbitration eligible and, you know, or born or two and
then eventually a free agent if he ever got to that point, well,
jeez, now, I mean, at who knows where the game is now, there
might be a complete recalibration with this work
stoppage. But if there's not, I mean, if
Soto got $800 million, I mean, what, what is he going to get?
Is he going to get, you know, 1.3 billion?
Who the hell knows? I don't know.
So I get it. I like it.
It's proactive. Good for him good for the Tigers
should have done that with schoolble.
Although Boris would not I don't think this can't be a Boris
client. No way Acuna did it.
Jay Acuna did it years ago when he got $100 million contract.
Remember then he ripped up his knee so but he also won an MVP
with 70 something steals and the and the 40 bombs whatever I I
like it a lot more than not and I really like it for mid major
teams mid market team the Asia's did it as well.
I don't think it was quite that amount of money, but they did
something very similar. It's smart.
It's being proactive. All right now.
So you know, Jay, how how much fun I had following the Johnnies
this year, right. Oh.
Of course. Oh no, I know what you're about
to get too. Well, what am I going?
To get through. It's painful, darling.
Yeah. Oh, it's pain.
My mom literally sent me like an Instagram post of it.
She did. Oh yeah, of course.
And I was like. Yeah, I I get it.
I get it. Listen, you know, Rick's got to
do what Rick's got to do, and St.
John's is going to do what they got to do.
That's business. And, and I applaud them for
that. St.
John's got a player yesterday by the name of Quinn Elvis.
He's 23 now. Hey, if this is the rule, then
you got to do what you got to do.
I hate that this is the rule. He's 23.
He's my I'm being. That's crazy.
I hate that this is the rule, but until it's no longer the
rule, these are the rules. You may as well play with them,
you know what I mean? Yeah, The the Johnnies have the
bank in Mike Ripoli. They got the appetite with their
president, Father Shanley, and their AD, my buddy Eddie Cole.
And of course, Rick, who's not going to be coaching for 10 more
years, like he wants to win. So from a Saint John's point of
view, awesome. They get this kid, Quinn Ellis,
who is Jay Roth, is 23. But not only is he 23, he was
playing in one of the Euro leagues.
So he's played professionally for seven years.
So he's six. Yeah.
He's 6 foot five. I never heard of the kid until
yesterday. Quite.
I'm not going to lie to you. And then I'm looking at this
film. I'm like, oh, my God.
And it is. It is impressive.
All highlights look good because I remember this point last year,
whether it was Sannon or even Ian Jackson, I'm like, oh, you
know, and then you know, Sannon didn't have a really good year
at all. And Ian Jackson, who I'm
happiest thing, he had some confounding moments as well
trying to learn how to play point guard.
But my point is you can slap together a highlight video of me
in college, like got to draft this guy.
Meanwhile, like this, no, I'm not interested in this loser.
We're good, we're good. So I don't want to overreact to
that. But when you play against grown
men as he has, I mean, you think an opposing point guard for
Butler or Seton Hall or Xavier is going to stop you?
He's going to destroy the Big East.
Not to mention all the other players St.
John's is involved in. So they beat out Duke, they beat
out Kentucky, they beat out Louisville, they beat out BYU.
As we know, BYU's NIL fund is like $15 million going back to
last year, and they're adding to it.
So they had some big boys at the table.
I applaud St. John's for doing this, no
question. But this is inherently what I
hate about the direction of college basketball.
This is a young man who they actually created an award after
called the Big Bells Award. It was after one of the games.
And you got to love Pepito, you know, big coach at a Catholic
University. He's like, yeah, I would call
him Big Bells because he's got balls as big as church bells.
I think it's hysterical. It's just so funny that he says
it is the head coach at St. John's.
And then from that comment after one of the games, it became the
Big Bells award, which, and I remember Rick actually bringing
it to the locker room when I recorded one of the TV shows
with him this year, the Red Storm Report.
I got like, I got to see this thing.
So we had it behind us next to the Big East, you know, trophies
from the previous year, big regular season and tournament
champ, like the trophy, whatever.
So it was up there like this thing's awesome.
So and you see like teams do this, like the Yankees do a belt
and the Knicks do like the Timberland boots.
And I like it. It's it's kind of cool.
Like the the the Blue Jays have the jacket when they had a home.
It's just it's it's youthful exuberance.
And even though it's grown men and it's big business, I love
it. And and college, they had the
big bells award based on they didn't want to caught the big
balls. They kind of, you know, so the
Big Bells award, right? So any time somebody, and it
wasn't just for the guy who had the most points, the guy who
exuded toughness and character, you come in, I was this guy.
Oh, and then they, they go nuts. They pour water on each other.
That young man who spawned the the birth of the Big Bells award
who hit a shot that in my lifetime is the second biggest
shot in the history of St. John's.
And the first one was back in 1980s.
Now I know that they went further in in previous years.
But in 1986 this guy by the name of Ron Rowan you you don't know
who he is. Yeah.
I loved him. I used to pretend I was Ron
Rowan white guy shooter. You know I just look good.
I look I love Ron Rowan is after Mullen left right and he sticks
a jump shot from the baseline beat Syracuse is the 86 Big East
championship game. That's the game.
If you may have seen this maybe not.
But some of you have I'm sure where Walter Berry, who was the
man the truth love. Walter never ran back on
defense. He would just want to play
offense. He finally got back on deep
because Rowan sticks the baseline jumps jumper to take a
lead. I think it was a one point lead
at that point. Then Pearl Syracuse inbounds and
quick Barry finally runs back and basically like pins and
swats Pearl Washington at the buzzer, right.
So the Ron Rowan jump shot was the biggest shot, even though
they had teams that went further.
The Dylan Darling shot at the buzzer to beat Kansas.
It's not. It's good that they beat
Northern Iowa. OK, great.
Just like it was good that they beat Omaha the year before,
before they lost to Calipari's Arkansas team to beat A-Team.
Like Kansas. Kansas, like did the name, you
know what I'm saying? Kansas to go to the Sweet 16 and
to do it in the manner in which he did it.
At the horn, a lefty shooter finishing with his right hand
from the right side under duress.
The fact that he's not going to be here is a crusher.
I know St. John's fans feel this one
because part of the beauty Think about how much fun it's been
watching. And St.
John's is not unique in this regard, although their player
development has been outstanding because that's what Rick does.
But Zubi came from Kansas, was a bit player play 5 minutes a game
and then you look up, he just won the cream out just like a
couple days ago, won the cream out dual Jabbar award for the
nation's greatest, a best center.
You know, Biggie's player of the year, Biggie's defensive player
of the year, scholar, athlete of the year in the conference.
Like, all these accolades and to see that growth from wow, as a
sophomore, this dude's bouncy and he's got a good motor and
he's energetic and he could rebound.
And then all of a sudden to last year as a junior with RJ Lewis
and those guys, Dennis Jenkins, like, man, he could shoot a
little bit. Oh, OK.
Oh, first team all Big E OK. So what he became this year,
that's the ultimate joy. I mean, outside of winning,
like, that's the real good stuff of being a college fan.
And it's gone, you know, And I don't begrudge St.
John's for doing it. And I don't begrudge Dylan
Darlin for saying I'm out. I won't play.
I got one year left to college. I won't go.
But man, the imagery and that if you remember the celebration,
Mink and I were literally me and Mink were just 10 feet away, you
know, from that massive Saint John's humanity, like literally
going into the tunnel. It was.
It was why it was. It was crazy.
And you know, you know, it stinks.
It's I'm happy I had a chance to say goodbye to him.
And I told you I got, you know, the when they lost to Duke,
they're up by 10:15 minutes ago. I really thought they were going
to win. And, you know, I had a good
connection to Zubi and I, they're all good young men.
And I've gotten to know, you know, Zubi's been doing this
three years and it's been good to my family.
Gave my daughter his towel after a game.
Like, I mean, Zubi's just, he's, he's the essence of what a young
man should be. And, and, and Dylan darling,
this is my first year with him. He was only here one year, but I
interviewed him a bunch and had a pretty good rapport with him.
And I remember when they lost to Duke, I think I told you this on
the air where you know, all, all the like Serbi and you know,
Vaccaro and, and Nikki from S&Y and everybody, basically Bruce
Beck was there when everybody left, cleared out the locker
room. I went over to him and he was
just in the corner by himself and he was he was really upset.
And I didn't think that I would get upset, but I said man.
I said my son loves watching you play, man.
And as I was saying, as the words were coming out, I was
actually getting choked up to the point where I had slightly
visible tears in my eyes because I saw tears in his eyes.
And you know, those are the things that I will remember.
Those are the things that I will take.
But you want to see those players stick around.
And you know, if you can get did not if you can get 3 four,
500,000 more, you don't think that somebody from another
conference is going to probably overvalue him.
You know, he's not a star. You know, he had some bouts
where he couldn't shoot at all. But like what he meant to the
program and what he meant to the fan base, man.
And I know this kids going to be a beast, Quinn Ellis, but he's
going to be missed. Is he?
That's the shitty part. Quick, quick question, is Quinn
Ellis, is he originally a European player?
He is from England, Yeah. Oh.
OK, OK, so he's been playing professional ball forever.
He's a grown man, dude. Wait, that.
I mean, listen, obviously it's like it's, it's a tough
situation, but you think Johnny's basketball could be
could be looking fire. Hey, hey, I'm not saying that,
you know, when season starts, I'm not going to get over Dylan
darling. I mean, I'm I have to, but you
know, the fact that he especially that, you know, if
you tell me who are The Who are the captains?
Like Zuki, Zuki was the captain, literally, and their best player
and Darling was there, you know, like they're Starks.
Like they're, they're that John Starks, volatile in a good way,
energetic, demonstrative leader and a pseudo captain.
And I remember Rick St. after one of the games this year was
it was after Providence when they got into that scrap with
Bryce Hopkins, forget which game it was, but he was saying how it
wouldn't surprise him if Dylan was a captain next year, you
know, So it is what it is. You know, I can't reinvent the
wheel. I could just push back on what I
don't like about it. But St.
John's is doing what St. John's has to do.
For St. John's and their fans.
It is a business. It's never been more apparent.
But it is a broken system and we all know that.
And if other teams are doing it and you don't, and no
disrespect, I've got great respect for Shaheen, Holloway
and those those dudes at Seton Hall always have, right?
But if you don't do what St. John's is doing and if you don't
do what UConn does and what all these other schools are doing,
you're going to be Seton Hall where be around the 500 team.
You know, you're going to play scrappy, going to play tough
because that's what Shaheen demands.
But how long is it before somebody says to Shaheen, yo,
come coach us, Here's three more, $1,000,000.
We know that you're getting fed up with the lack of NIL money
for the Pirates or their inability or unwillingness were
both to pay you what we believe is commensurate with your
talents as a coach. I think Shaw's a great coach
Hollow. He's awesome.
How much longer is he going to stay there?
I don't have the answer to that. I can promise you, like if this
was the old days and it was just scholarship and maybe some shit
under the table, you know, like, like the old, the old way he's
cheating. You know, I would think unless
Shaheen Holloway wanted to mess around and try the pro game at
some point, I would think that Holloway would be the head coach
at Seton Hall for 20 years. You know, I mean, you'd have
you'd have that kind of life, you'd have that kind of profile.
And I would promise you that he would get some of those, you
know, studs from Saint Benedict's and you know, Saint
Anthony's is no longer open, but some of those great New Jersey
high schools and AAU players and they'd make a Sweet 16 run and
they'd have a year. Maybe they mess around get to
the Elite 8, but instead they're just and again, no disrespect,
they're just a fledgling at this point off the radar, you know,
fairly a non entity in the the upper structure of the
conference had it say it, but it is what it is.
You know, St. John's was like that forever.
So. They decided to spend.
Some money. Find the money, you know, if you
can. What else, Jay?
What else we got here? Brother, we got What do you
think about Mike Malone taking the UNC job?
Odd hire. I said this when it came up.
Yeah, strikes me as strange now. You know, Mike Malone very well
might be disenchanted with the NBA game, You know, maintenance
days and everybody making basically 50 million bucks at
this point and everything's a three-point shootout, you know.
You know, there's just a lot. The regular season is
insignificant for the most part, but you tell me he's not going
to grow disenchanted with the college game.
I mean, every year you got to re recruit a roster.
Now UN CS got got the bank, the bank to support him.
Whatever he wants, he's going to get and there's going to be
players. I mean, this guy's a champion.
He he coached Jamal Murray, he coached Yokich.
This man's an NBA champion. I want my son or I want to go
play for him. He's going to help me get to the
next step, you know, because the money's going to be equal or
more and you get a former NBA coach.
I, I just an odd hire. And their process was odd.
I think even more so. It looked like Billy Donovan was
going to take the job. OK, didn't want to wait.
I don't know. I mean, I guess it'd make a
little more sense than Mike Malone, Billy Donovan, but.
Yeah. Still, I guess so they were
really looking for an A. Coach with NBA experience well
remember Billy was you know many years multiple champions yeah
Florida you know that yeah with. Horford and joking no and so
yeah. Yeah, I was at, I was at those
Final Fours. No way.
Yeah, Yeah. Would you consider?
I don't know anything about this era of college basketball.
Would you say those rosters were some of the better college
basketball teams of all time? Like, look, because I look at
that Florida Gators team and I'm like, this was disgusting.
Yeah, and and. It was because there's a third.
It was Corey Brewer Horford and Joe Hakeem Noah.
Yeah, and they had a white shooter who didn't make the NBA,
but a sniper who had some big moments in the Final Four.
I'm forgetting his name. It's a long time ago.
I mean, Noah was a terrific pro for the Bulls.
He was great, great Commons player.
Billy was awesome. Lee Humphrey, there you.
Go. Good call, Lee Humphrey, Thank
you very much. Shout out to Lee No.
I I not one of the best? OK.
No, no, no, it's, it's not. It's certainly representative of
your age, which which I get, I get.
I'm not, I'm not clowning you at all.
You know I don't do that, but I don't do that with something
like this. I'm going to clown you, but not
opinion. No, no, it's there were just too
many other teams that I like. Let me ask you this do you think
it was really better than Villanova's championship team
Bridges? No, no, not really.
You know what I'm saying. All the players panned out, no?
That's just one example, and it's fairly recent.
I mean, jeez, you got to remember I also watched Syracuse
with Dwayne Wash, the Pearl, Washington and Derek Holman and
Ronnie Cycling, who was actually a really.
Good NBA too. I should know.
Like a like a slightly after it, like a little bit after it.
I think cycling was more with Sherman Douglas, I think, but
obviously how about Saint John's with Chris Mullen and Walter
Berry and Mark Jackson and Bill Wennington, all first round
picks and this is just the Big East.
How about Carolina with Vince Carter and Antoine Jameson?
How about Vince Carter with Michael Jordan?
You know, and and and and and and James Worthy.
Oh my. What are the best of all boards
of all time? Oh my gosh.
Yeah. All right.
I love when you throw stuff. The better teams of the best
college basketball team of the year 2007.
No, but even more than that. Of the 2000s it is one of the
better college basketball teams, but comparatively there are some
teams with straight up star-studded rosters where you
got multiple like like and joke, you know.
And Horford are two All Star Cal.
I mean, they both absolutely All Star level teams, but it's a
little different than a Brunson kind of player who came out of a
team along with Bridges and Heart and Bridges obviously
never an ulcer, but still came out with like, you know, 20
point per game. Season, I'm with you, I'm with
you, but I like that good job. Any other any other chat stuff
before we bounce? Oh my gosh.
Right. This guy, I mean this guy's.
Giving it all, giving us Marciano's giving it giving it
all to us today. But any chance we get Sidney
Sweeney on the show as a follow up to when she was on BT and
Sal? Let's go.
We need that. And eyes.
And that's on my producer. Can you do it?
Oh man, I'll try I think. How we got her on on the fan, I
think that was Hoff. I've set that up.
See what you can do. I mean, she's pretty social
media friendly. Definitely.
I don't know if she's social media friendly to a dude with
800 followers on Instagram but. She's probably like, who is this
cornball trying to slide in my DM?
Look at this. Look at this sleazy dude.
I'll try to, I'll definitely I'll hit her up, but I'm sure
I'll be 1 of 1,000,000. You think you think any any
traction with Jake the Snake or hacksaw?
It's it's getting rough trying to contact with them because
both of them have their preferences on all their social
medias set to they have to follow you in order to message
them. So I think I was able to get an
Instagram deed PM over but even that sends us a message request
and not in the thing. So I'll send a follow up e-mail
and and keep it going, but. Well, I'm going to give you, I
appreciate the pivot. We may need a pivot.
There's not many more guys I want to talk to that are still
alive and from back in the day. Try, you know what here, try
Hacksaw Jim Duggan on Facebook. He just posted something the
other day all. Right, all right.
You know, he's posting some pretty good stuff, so I don't
know, maybe he's got to follow you to accept the message.
I'm not sure. I think it's a little different
on Facebook because I get messages from people I don't
follow. So maybe give it a shot.
Thoughts on? I didn't see this either.
I don't know if you did. Thoughts on prime?
What so? Basically in the Hornets game, I
believe last night, the broadcast literally just cut
out. I didn't see that a minute or
two. I just saw the the winning
bucket and the winning block shot on highlights.
Are you serious? Yeah, no, I mean, which is just
unacceptable, you think. And it and it also just, I feel
like plays into man, like they just got to stop with these
channels, dude. They just got to stop with the
prime Put games on local television.
Put play up at least one playoff game on local television.
That's a bad look. Well, Breen was talking about
that before he and Clyde signed off for the year.
He's absolutely right. Listen, I get it, man.
You get to you get to the conference finals all right, but
somebody and not just because Mike Breen is the voice of the
Knicks forever and Clyde as well.
This applies for all the teams, right?
Like, you know, throw them a bone, give them one game, you
know, give them like kind of mix and match a little bit.
It just also be so good for the channel, like the stations, the
channels. I mean, I get it's greed for
like the bigger network corporations, but like.
Dude, think about the not the juice but like a bump in numbers
for a small TV network that they get from a playoff.
But they don't care about that. Like the NBA doesn't care about
that. I don't know that.
I don't know if they get any cut from that, but I know.
You think about that like I, I don't know, I'm going to plead
ignorance on this I but I can promise you even.
If they do. Which I don't know that they do.
It is a minuscule fraction of what they get from Prime and
Netflix, Opening Day Yankees. It's just it is what it is.
So I guess you can't fight City Hall.
We can complain about it, but it's not going to change.
But that's embarrassing if you get to take over games, playoff
games, don't pull the plug on the broadcast.
Try try to actually have the game-winning bucket so people
who were watching the game could actually see what transpired.
That's probably a good thing to do if you're gonna be this
immersed in the, you know, in the game.
Yeah, it's it's basic stuff. All right, man.
All right, tonight, Jets collective at 7.
We've got The Jets collective at 7 episode number 4.
Can't wait for that all draft stuffs if you're a Jets guy.
And by the way, not just Jets, because other teams are now
factoring in potential trades here, whether it's the
commanders, you know, they're, they're maybe The Jets found a
swap move into the top 10. But it is obviously primarily
Jet stuff here. So myself and Rich and Jake,
that is week #4 episode number 4 tonight at 7:00.
And that is about it. Make sure you jump on there.
Give it a sub. We just, we just launched and we
just got 3000 Subs. I think it was yesterday or two
days ago. So show the love there.
Obviously we think, wait, whoa. Why is the banner back on?
I thought we got rid of what's going on.
No banner. No banner.
What happened there, James? Creature of habit.
Oh my. Bad.
Can't you know? Before we go.
Just. Let me see.
Get me up. On the full screen, if you can.
I do want to do one thing I I want to I want to get a little.
Now, obviously if I mess around with this, well then now you
start getting into now it's getting a little bit it's a
little bit too colors. Yeah, we got a little bit of
everything. We got the logo, we got the
world map, we got some stuff behind.
Me, but do you? Guys and and I want I want to
see some chats real quick, just say yes or no, whether it's this
or some variation. Obviously we took care of the
the light that was pulsating off the unleashed logo.
Thank God. So we were able to rectify that.
Feel good about that. You guys kind of like this look
or just the the plain black behind me, which we basically
done since we since we moved from upstairs or removed it
upstairs from my basement the first show.
Let me know. Let let me know about that.
I just want to get a couple now. Jay, you said you kind of like
the way it looked, right? Yeah, I mean, I OK, I definitely
liked how I was looking like this.
OK, first one says this. Look, yeah, I just think it's a
little more friendly. Yeah, this one.
Yeah, this look, this look. All right.
Good. You guys are digging it.
I love it. Hey, I told you it's going to be
a work in progress. Now, Jay, one more thing before
we go. Only thing I guess I just kind
of cut you off on the screen when we do the split.
So maybe like moving to the right.
Yeah, I mean, we'll figure that part out.
We're almost built in a day, bro.
One other thing. Can you get me on the phone?
One other thing here, maybe two other things.
Number one, we have a meeting with the with the digital store
for merch. I thought that would be a little
bit quicker, but it's it's a little more detailed than we
thought. So BT unleashed merch because we
had one place, but they don't make tumblers and excuse me, one
place. We didn't like the quality of
the T-shirts got to be soft and pliable.
It can't be getting those like stiff T-shirts that you get, you
know, for free when they shoot them in the in the crowd at A at
a basketball, you know, the kind of shirt that shrinks
immediately that's like stiff as a board.
So we've got to get the right material, got to do it right.
And hopefully the place that we're meeting with today will be
the right place. So once that's the case, we've
already got the concept, we've already got the color scheme,
and then it's the five or six Target items, the beanies, the
trucker hats, the hoodies, the golf shirts, the mugs, the
coffee mugs, for sure the tumblers, what else?
What? And then eventually, if that
goes well, we could always maybe some golf shirts, some shot
glasses, whatever that's downstream.
But that is a lot closer than it has been for the last month or
so. That's one update #2 we've said
it a few times, Jay. We, we have got to get, we have
got to get phone calls on the show.
We have, we, we, we. This is something that you and I
will talk about off air. We had a big sales meeting
yesterday. Something else that will, we're
not going to tell you now, but something else that's going to
come to fruition next week for some draft content that you guys
will love. Obviously, Sullivan Propane was
the first in tow, Premio the second sponsor in tow.
We've got a third element coming on Monday.
So the business is good. The channel is growing.
It will grow more with the likes and the Subs and the shares and
the comments and all those things that the algorithm picks
up and just redistributes throughout the world.
But on a on a very cursory level, I want you to talk to the
audience and give them without getting detailed and lifting up
the hood and confusing everybody, what is a timeline
and what is the viability on a call line?
Well. I mean, I think the viability
could be immediate. Now this is my question to you
and this could. Be discussed more off the air.
I'd like, you know, maybe even get the fam's input right now.
You could do it through a phone line or we could do it through
this. You know what I mean?
Go ahead. Like we could do it as to where.
We send out. 2 links where it's like you send out a first link.
I get them in a separate studio, I talk to them, they send and I
go, what's your question? I give them the approval.
I make sure that everything with the camera, everything on
screens, OK. And then I send them the link to
this studio they join. And what we can do is we can
either do it kind of how we have it right now where I'm speaking,
but it's only you on the screen. OK, Hey, if they're not, hey, if
it's not looking too rough, we could do, we could do the split
Cam. I I like that.
So basically, and again, it's almost like when you and I have
a guest, right, We have the guest.
Exactly. On the platform that we use, it
would almost be. It would be.
It would be a it would be a separate link.
They would reach out to you and then I would hear their voice.
You would patch them through. Would you put up on the screen,
Joe in New Jersey? Yeah, absolutely.
OK, All right, You know, we can talk more about this later
today. We will.
I think it's. I mean, I've got it.
Written out kind of like how I think we should.
Do it I. Think it's time I I think that
we've grown to a place where the training and wheels are off.
We've got sponsorships, digital store coming.
We've rolled out some A+ guests here, obviously viable, you
know, growing by the day. I think it's time.
That's something I want because I miss talking to people.
That's the one thing that I do. People say, do you miss the fan?
I mean, there's elements that I certainly miss about the fan for
sure. But I think the thing that I
missed the most is being able to interact in a, in a, in a more
conventional way. I, I think that that's something
that would add. So like the show's got juice
because I'm always going to bring energy, you know that.
But I think that's a different juice, a combative juice, just a
different level of intrigue and unpredictability that I think.
And again, you and I will talk more downstream, but this is
something we're pursuing. We're going to get on top of
this and we're we're going to. I don't know when this will be
introduced, but it will be soon. Deal.
Yeah, deal. I mean, deal.
Listen ASAP. I'm writing the steps out as we
speak. He's awesome.
If you guys knew how hard this guy's working behind the scenes,
man, you'd be because I've gotten a.
Lot I give J Rod a little love here.
I've gotten a lot of people you know, you take you taking the
kid along well and you know you're treating them right and
all that stuff that that's good. I'm happy that people, you know,
can see that and and I show them respect and you know, it's
learning stuff, but the initiatives got to be there.
And it is like he's all in. I mean he is all in on the
structure of the show. He was on the business call with
one of our newer sponsors. Again, we're going to trot that
out Monday. He was only asked a couple of
very pertinent questions. So, you know, the love that J
Rod gets and most of the questions are obviously for me
and stuff, but you know, he is, he's a big part of this and he's
doing a great job and I'm proud of him.
And reinforces again that I made the right hire when I said J
Rod's going to be my producer. I just want to say that.
Yeah, thank you. Thank you.
I appreciate it. I mean, listen, I could.
I could go on and on for years. About literally for years, about
how awesome these past four months have been.
You don't have to. That's not what that's about,
man. I, I know you don't have to, but
I'm not. That's not what I'm fishing for.
That's about you, that you can leave it at that.
You know, I told you, I know that your parents have done a
great job with you because I just think that the way the work
ethic and the engagement, you know, you hear a lot of yeah,
how you hear a lot of knocks on on the younger generation.
They don't want to work hard. They're lazy.
Not my guy. Not my guy.
J Rod. Not at all.
I don't know, French guy. Other people are like, like
because other people say stuff like that, like my age, like,
oh, I don't want to work. Oh, I don't want, I actively
want more work. I want more work than what I'm
doing right now. Like I want it.
Like not I need. I just I relish in it.
So that's why you're part of the team, bro.
There we go. I I knew it.
I identified it. They're part of the team.
Good stuff, man. I want to say that.
To you. Thank you.
Appreciate it.
Let's keep it going. Workout.
Let's get those calls. Let's go, let's get going and
then. Yep, Yep.
All right, man. And it seems like, you know,
based on the responses, if not everybody, most people
certainly. Dig the new the new look here I
think I think it's I think it's more visually appealing yeah,
it's warmer yeah. Yeah, that it's warmer.
Let's face it, anytime you get a chance to show off an.
Emmy Yeah. It's not.
You know you. Gotta get a little digital.
Flex isn't the worst thing in the world when you try to build
out the brand. You know what I mean, Jay?
Yeah. Oh, come on now.
No, I, I feel like, I feel like it's necessary, like every,
every. Sports show guy kind of has
their little awards and their trophies behind them, so yeah,
got to do the same. I can't wait, wait till we get
that. It's going to it's going to be a
minute, but when we get that $100,000 plaque from YouTube of
the 100,000. Sub plaque from YouTube.
The $100,000 plaque from YouTube.
Oh yeah, we'll get that. We'll get that.
That's. Call revenue, we're getting
there, buddy. We're doing.
Let's go, let's go. Let me.
Bounce. Let me bounce here, Jay.
Rod, have a great rest of your Wednesday, everybody tonight
again. Jets you don't have to put.
It up on the screen Jay, you're good, you've done enough.
J episode #4 Jets collective all draft the rumblings, the
possibilities. We are 8 days away, away from
the NFL draft. A lot of draft content next
week. Obviously we just tuned in.
A lot of Mets stuff at the start, some Yankee stuff as
well, little little St. John's portal stuff and Mel
Kiper's draft. We went through that.
At least the top 10 picks and some other things he thinks
going to happen. So great time of the sports
year. Have an awesome rest of your
Wednesday. See you tomorrow on Unleashed.