you listening? Can you hear me?
Hear me? This is on leash.
Are you listening? Can you hear me?
Hear me? This is on leash.
Are you listening? Can you hear me?
Hear me? This is on leash Are you
listening? Can you hear me?
This is on leash. Are you listening, everybody?
What's going on? BT Unleashed with you here on a
Wednesday. Lot to get to a little bit of a
shorter show today and obviously a bit of an earlier start.
I've got to I got to do a couple of things today, so let's jump
into it. Got something on Fernando
Mendoza, both New York managers reaching with the gut last
night, which I loved. And I've got something on Yankee
fans. I got to get on Yankee fans
today for something and something on Tarek's school
ball, which is actually really good for baseball but bad for
the Tigers. All right, let's get into AJ.
Rod is ready to roll, although I think it may have just rolled
out of bed. I can't really tell.
Yes, Sir, we out here. We out here.
Rough night you just wake up there buddy.
Dude, not a rough night. Honestly.
I got like this new beat making thing, so I was up late.
Oh, like making, doing doing stuff with that.
But we ready to roll? Yeah, we're up, man.
It's like I woke up three hours ago.
I I hear you now, beat making. We're talking like old school,
you know, Beatbox. What are we doing?
Like bust out a little old school beatbox?
Yeah, like an old BMC. For you little pad thing, nice
kind of make music. On it.
Nice. I do.
But maybe listen, if the show's going well, maybe I'll bust out
a little Fat Boys for you. There we go.
Did you? Ever hear the Fat boys?
Dude maybe like one time but gave me a little history real
quick. Well, the Fat Boys were were
basically, you know, they weren't as hard as Run the MC.
I think they were maybe a year or two after Run the MC.
They were just one of these. I mean, Phenomenon might be a
bit of a strong characterization of their, of their rap career,
but they definitely had a little burst there in the mid 80s.
They actually made a movie too. It was, I think there was three
of them, the Fat Boys, and they're all, you know, big and
heavy. And they were just kind of
laughing at themselves. They were in a movie, I think it
was called the Disorderlies. I I believe that that was the
movie. Oh my gosh.
Yeah. Like that, at some point they
were good, right? They look like like WWE
wrestlers a little bit. Yeah, like midcard wrestlers,
not, not the top, but not the top spotted at WrestleMania.
All right, let's get into it. Today's show brought to you by
my friends at Sullivan Prepaid, of course, one of New York's
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Report. Find
sullivanonline@triallaw1.com. That's trial law1.com.
And also the newest member of the BT Unleashed family, My good
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Now before I get into the show, Jay, I know that you saw that
because you and I were talking briefly before the show because
you rolled out of bed 6 minutes ago.
Although we did all of our work last night in terms of
structuring the show. So I don't know how they got it.
Maybe the Rangers put something out.
You know, I was told the Rangers social media team was working on
it. I don't, I don't have it yet,
but I guess I don't need it because I could just use the
post. So they put the first pitch out
from Sunday at the Rangers game. You saw it obviously, right?
Yeah, no, I mean, they did it whether you wanted to or not,
because I know, yes, Sir, you know, going back and forth.
But there we go, There we go. It's out there.
And I will say, like I was saying, they did you.
Well, with the angle, you know, you don't see where the ball
really lands. Yes.
When you throw the pitch, all you see is that, you know, you
kind of do the move and then you.
You. Toss that thing.
So they listen. It looked good.
I appreciate that. I had a blast and again, it was
awesome. Just a thrill and honor that the
Rangers asked me to do that. A lot of people are like, we'll
do. What's the connection with
Texas? Dude, This is all about
expanding the the Unleashed brand.
That's what this is about. Great opportunity.
You know, I told you the whole story yesterday how I was
getting a little nervous because the ball was slick and I was
waiting for 20 minutes basically in the dugout right next to the
dugout. And I was getting inside my own
head and it was windy. And you know, they're like,
well, you can't, they're like, you can't go for the rubber
because we already manicured the mounts.
You can go from the slope and I'm like, and, and I was
thinking I'm like, alright, I'll just go for the slope.
That's whatever you guys, you know, whatever you guys don't
want me to do, I certainly won't do.
I'll show respect and I'll adhere to the rules that you
have set up for the first pitch here.
But the the woman told me she's like, you can go for the slope,
but we've seen people trip and fall.
I'm like, that's making me more nervous.
I'm like, I'll just go from the, the beginning of the grass where
the grass meets the dirt. And of course, and I, I had to
read some of the comments because I knew I was going to
get clowned with that when the, when the post put that there's
probably about a 32nd video up there.
I saw it on XI, didn't even see it.
My buddy sent it to, to our group chat and I'm like, here we
go. But yeah, they, they did me
solid and it wasn't, I don't think it was planned.
I think that was just the camera angle because you can't really
tell how wide of and how high of a strike it was and how
perilously close it was to going to the backstop on a flight like
I confront them. But yeah, it was it was a
borderline strike. You know, depending upon
American League, although with ABS, doesn't matter.
American League, National League, I put that right on the
black man. I hit it at 70 miles an hour.
I don't know the velocity, but I know for sure it was not a
strike. But it was great.
But I was, I was laughing. I really was.
I told you that. I think if you take social media
too seriously, if you, if you seek validation or self worth in
social media, you're just barking up the wrong tree.
It's never going to be a good. You've got to just, you know, do
you and believe in what you believe.
And, but I, I wanted to dive into the comments because I knew
that they'd be funny and, and and I didn't think one thing I
didn't think was, and I saw one comment, I'm like, Oh, B TS
really diving into those. Oh, you can eat ribs in in
Texas. First time everybody, anybody's
basically called me fat ever. And but then I looked at it.
I'm like, Hey dude, you do look a little.
You look a little bit like that. The white jersey didn't help
out, even. Though Jersey and.
The white jersey didn't help out.
The wind was whipping. So when the wind's whipping,
it's not going to conceal the little love handles there.
But it was. It was some of the comments
where, you know, a lot of people like, yeah.
Dude, they were. You know, they were they were on
me and then everybody's like, you know, and and I was I talked
about this because I got further in my own head when they
introduced me, Brandon Turney. I'm like, oh, here we go.
I'm going to get clowned even more on this.
It was great and had an awesome time and it's funny, my wife, my
wife say you got to let everybody know that's how we
speak out in tech. We got that droll.
So you know, it's not that he didn't know your name.
Yes, she's trying to make me feel better.
She's she's like, well, they just said it.
You know the way we say it out in Texas with that sway, Brandon
Turney, everybody give it up, y'all.
So I had a great time that it's out there.
If you guys want to check it out.
What I'll do is we'll we'll download it tonight because we
have a shorter show. So I do want to jump into the
content. We'll play it for you tomorrow
and you guys can gauge your own opinions or go take a look at
it. Now.
I didn't retweet it yet, but it's out there, the New York
Post on X hat and I'm sure it's on Instagram.
I'm sure it's on Tiktok. I'm sure it's everywhere that
you could possibly find content. All right, brother, Tiktok,
Tiktok 15 days to the NFL draft now.
I spent some time yesterday on how they're like Peter Schrager
had this that maybe The Jets are now he has he has barely going
to The Jets of two where everybody else known to man with
a laptop and an outlet to put out a mock and have somebody
publish it has basically had Arvel Reese from the Ohio State
Buckeyes going #2 what what we'll see.
I'm intrigued by that because if somebody does love Reese and The
Jets are kind of, you know, 5050.
Well, maybe Reese with the upside.
Bailey more of a ready to contribute edge rusher right now
because he's been doing it forever.
He's thought to be a little bit more polished, but not as
explosive blah, blah, blah. Cue Leo.
Cue all the boring regurgitated NFL draft Rhett, you know,
rhetoric. He's more game ready ceiling,
floor, hips, you know, the hand in the dirt, whatever it is.
I don't know who they going to draft.
It's probably going to be one of those two guys.
But, but what I did like about that, and this is just to get
into the Fernando Mendoza stuff about not going to the draft.
But what I do like about that is that a potentially, obviously
you need somebody else to work with here.
Somebody would have to love Reese or somebody else at The
Jets can pretend that they really like now at this point,
cuz I, I think The Jets have been so quiet about this, which
is another good sign that the building is finally having all
those leaks shored up. I remember telling telling you
guys like I had somebody in the building when I was doing the
show with Sal, who, you know, we're talking about The Jets and
he would just be texting me from inside the building.
Hey, this guy's coming in for a workout.
This isn't true. They're thinking this this guy's
going to get benched. I mean, you know, I I would
never divulge his name. I appreciated it because it
allowed me to bring some something different to the
table, different perspectives some more, you know, how The
Jets were actually thinking and what they were doing.
But that's not good for business from a Jets point of view.
So they do seem buttoned up. The Giants seem buttoned up.
Obviously the news with Dexter Lawrence Harbaugh spoke about
that. I thought he hit the perfect
chord. I think that I do not think that
he will be traded. I said that yesterday.
I myself would be much more intrigued and amenable to
trading him if somebody comes and knocks my socks off with an
offer like Dallas gave The Jets or the Raiders were getting for
the Ravens before the Max Crosby deal was rescinded.
Either way, there are now 15 days before the draft and you'll
see more and more, unfortunately, character
assassinations. This guy's not all in.
This guy's lazy. This guy's not a great teammate,
whatever it might be, right? This guy doesn't love ball.
And it's all, you know, scouts and personnel, people basically
besmirching a young man's character for their own gain,
hoping somebody will drop so they could get that player.
It's a nasty game. It's been going on forever.
I can't stand it. I used to work for what I guess
it was seven years on TV with with Amy Trask, who I love, who
was the first female executive in the history of the NFL with
the Raiders back in the day. She was the COO hired by Al
Davis. And and she's not a like she's
fiery in her own way, but her presentation, you know, doing
that show, and I did it with Shine and Bart Scott, London
Fletcher, you know, we're cut from a different cloth.
Me and Shine as non NFL players who just, you know, love sports
and get a little nuts here and there.
She is brilliant. She might be the smartest person
I know outside of my sister. And but that would drive her
nuts. She would always go hard on
that. And her message was, Hey, if
you're going to do that and try to ruin or impact somebody's
earning power and what they've aspired and what they've worked
for their entire life, then you got to put your name behind it
so nobody has the guts to actually do it.
And I don't mean people on TV who get paid to talk about this,
like Orlovsky or and others, obviously that that played the
game and followed the game. She's talking about people
within organizations. So it's a dirty game and it's
going to get dirty dirtier these next two weeks or so.
But Fernando Mendoza is going to skip the NFL draft.
This was a big story yesterday. It's not a big story to me.
I get it why it's a talking point.
I certainly understand that. But like, you've got to, I
choose to analyze this through not so much my prism, but
through his personal prism. And it's what he wants, you
know? And, and I get it.
I respect everybody's opinion. I might disagree with some of
them, but I heard a lot of people say yesterday that it's
it's a bad look that he's doing the NFL little dirty.
What the hell does he owe the NFL at this point?
Honestly, the only people that he will be beholden to will be
the people in the Raiders organization.
That includes Tom Brady, obviously, Davis, the owner and
everybody else that's involved with the Raiders.
And I can tell you this, I don't know if he's going to be a
superstar. I like him a lot.
I don't know if I love him. I'm not sure he's a can't miss
star. You know, some of his throws,
I'm not going to get into that now, like the off platform
stuff, not a great athlete, some accuracy issues here and there.
I think he's a winner and I think he's locked in and I think
he's all football and he's got a big enough body in the
measurables, in the arm, those things check.
So I think he's going to be good.
That's like, that's my opinion of him as a player, But what
what does he owe the NFL at this point?
He owes himself and his family this moment.
I whenever he, however he wants to compartmentalize it or attack
it, that is up to ferment. Ando Mendoza.
Now, I'll tell you this like if it was me, I I remember, is this
corny? But I was young, so it's funny.
There was a AVHS tape that was made in 1987.
That's how long ago it was the like the the history of the
Knicks. It wasn't about the 86 season
going into 87. It was about the history of the
Knicks. And Claude Frazier was on it and
Marv Albert was on it. And, and, and I actually said
this to make it at one point during the UConn game at the Big
East tournament this year. This is a quick aside before I
get to the other aspect of it. And Marv Albert is actually, I
think it's called the history of the Knicks.
And it was definitely an 87. And Marv Albert says at one
point he was harkening back to the days of Willis Reed limping
out, hitting the first two shots in the in the NBA Finals with a
bum knee and then obviously sitting out and Clyde going
bonkers. And, you know, talking about the
history of the Knicks. And, and, and Marv said one
thing that he would do, he would try to gauge like how the fans
like the the depth of belief in whatever Nick team he was
covering by during a moment like a time out, a big bucket, a
stoppage and play, you know, a, a, a transformational point in a
game where he would just take the headsets and remove one from
his ear. So we could get the, you know,
the feedback from whomever he's doing the game with this color
guy, But also just hear the crowd better because when you
have the headphones on, you really can't hear much.
You can you can tell when there's energy, but you can't
really decipher to what extent. So he would do that.
And I remember telling Mink during the UConn UConn game
against Saint John's I, that I I did that.
And I've done that a few other times in my career anyway, that
that jump, that that just hit me from the videotape.
But what what really hit me and talk about being a cornball they
they are chronicling the 87 draft when Mark Jackson was
drafted, I believe it was 17th overall, won the rookie of the
year, played for Pitino ironically with the Knicks
there. And then Mark had a couple of
great years won the rookie of the year.
As I said then he wound up hurting his knee.
And Mark was never an explosive athlete.
So he had to rely on his IQ and seeing things a step before
everybody else. Great passer.
Everybody that watched Mark knows what kind of player he
was. He was great, maybe one of the
smartest players in the history of the NBA, right.
And that Mark was slipping in the draft because he wasn't, you
know, an elite defender and he didn't have that great lateral
speed that, that, that, that explosiveness, right.
So anyway, they're at the fell Forum and they're going through
the draft picks and they are Mark Jackson.
There's not a green room at this point.
They're actually in a in a visible open area, like at the
like in front of the stage and they have fans behind.
It was not the production that it is obviously now this
monstrosity of drafts going to different cities for the NFL,
which I love. He's going to be great in
Pittsburgh if it's going on for about a decade or so, Detroit,
Philly, some other cities. So they they track, they they
say with these, I think it was the 17th with the 17th pick in
the NBA draft. In the 1987 NBA draft, the New
York Knicks select point guard from St.
John's, Mark Jackson. And Mark just kind of goes like
this with his fingers and he steps up.
And I don't think it was Kenny Smith, somebody that was next to
him that was waiting to get drafted, like DAP them up and
gave him this big hug. And then Mark fucked up to the
podium and got the hat from the commissioner and put it on.
He had his nick slid right. And I would I would actually do
that in my basement, pretending that I was getting drafted, as
crazy as that sounds now I know, but I was 12 or 13 years old
with this vivid imagination and this amazing love for sports.
So I was pretending that I was him.
The point is in a very long way, short story made long by BT
Nobody makes a short story longer than me.
I know, but if that was me, right, like, man, I mean I'm
going up on the stage and I'm dapping up the commish who's you
know, whatever, you know, I'm I'm not a massive Goodell fan,
but he is the commish. I'm getting my lid, I'm getting
the photo OPS. I mean, I don't know if I'd be
rocking and hearing, but I'd have 1 sweet soon on.
I'd probably have a little bit of bling maybe, and I'd be up
there for my moment. Well, it's up for each player to
internalize how he wants to attack that moment.
And and I haven't heard like robust criticism of Mendoza, to
be fair, because everybody knows what his mom is dealing with.
MSI don't know if that's the impetus behind this.
If it is, there's nothing else to talk about.
It's it's a degenerative disease that there's no cure for, for
it's a basically a hideous, almost sadistic and and just
unfair breaking down of the body where you just you just the
functionality is, is gone after a while.
That's why she's in a wheelchair.
But she if you watch the college football playoffs or if you
watched Indiana, Indiana during the year during some big games
in the big 10, she was there all the time with with her husband
and obviously Fernando's dad and some other family members.
So she's able to get around. I don't know if that's it.
And and everybody who I heard talk about this very wisely and,
and, and with great sensitivity, obviously broach that.
But even if she didn't have Ms. and even if she was able to walk
and, you know, just, you know, have have a different physical
existence, there's still nothing to criticize because this is how
the young man wants to, you know, go through his
indoctrination and celebrate his moment.
All the all the years of being overlooked by Miami and
transferring, you know, and and and just from Cal and and
having, you know, I think they went six and five and they made
a bowl game. And he had that great post game
press, post game interview where he was like over the moon, over
the moon euphoric about and just how it showed his leadership and
it showed just how connected he is to his teammates, which
obviously bodes well for him. I don't see the issue and there
is no issue. Trevor Lawrence did this back in
2021. So yeah, I mean, he's never
going to we're we're not going to and I don't care.
The NF LS not going to have the photo op and the picture for
social media and it's it's going to seem a little hollow,
understandably so a a little empty.
You know, imagine if like Peyton wasn't there or back in 85 that
Patrick Ewing wasn't there. Like that is a really cool
moment. And for most of these young
athletes, it's it's the culmination of of really, truly
touching their dream, because Mendoza hasn't touched his dream
yet. We all know he's going first to
the Raiders. We all know he's going to get a
gazillion dollars, especially if he gets a second contract.
We all know being around Tom Brady now that Brady's with the
Raiders will be good for the direction of his career.
We all know he's a bowler and he's all in on football.
And we all know without knowing how good or great he's going to
ultimately be, I think it's a pretty safe bet that Fernando
Mendoza is not going to get in an ounce of trouble.
The only thing that he might do wrong, and this is by no means
wrong, I'm obviously being sarcastic, is sing too loud in
church. Like that's it.
Like he might over shadow the choir.
That's how how into faith he is. That's a great thing.
So I love it. I you know, you you've seen
baseball used to be like this, obviously before they followed
suit. And now it's televised on the
MLB Network. And Aaron Judge was there years
ago when Secaucus and I think Mike Trout may have been there
and others may have been there, but we all saw the footage from
Derek Jeter and Alex Rodriguez and Alex versus a Rod and the
Jeter, the Jeter, you know, a couple I think was how many
parts was the Jeter 1? I think it was at least four,
maybe whatever it was we all saw when he got the call from the
Yankees when he got drafted 6th overall and he celebrated with
his family. Now we didn't really have the
option back then. I, I, if anything, I, I, I
really respect it because I got no skin of the game.
I don't care what the ratings are for the draft.
I don't care that there's the first player chosen doesn't get
the. Stroll across the the podium and
shake the commissioner's hand. Big damn deal.
I respect his his commitment to his family.
Now I also know that the green room is very accommodating, but
I don't know how big his family is.
Like what if he's going 3040 deep?
Like what if I happen to have a very small family, my
grandparents, you know, because I'm older now or are no longer
with me, unfortunately. You know, I wish they could have
met my children. That would have been amazing on
on my wife's side, both of her parents are, are still alive and
and healthy, but her grandparents are no longer with
us. My parents are alive and
healthy, thank God. So we have that.
My sister, you know, has two amazing, beautiful daughters,
you know, my aunt and uncle, Uncle Pat, Aunt Angie, you know,
Bensonhurst, their whole life out east now.
But that's kind of like we're really small family and because
I go to Texas for a lot of holidays, we don't do the
holidays together when there was like maybe 11-12, maybe 13, a
couple of years if we had a girlfriend or a boyfriend or
whatever it may have been. But so I come from a fairly
small family, but a lot of people I know come from, they've
got, you know, 4-5 siblings and then they get married and then
you got nephews and you got nieces, you got cousins.
Like if it's a 30 deep or 40 deep production, you know, I'm
sure they could be in the stands, in the in the seats, in
the arena or in the in the area, whatever in in Pittsburgh.
It's different now, as we know, but this is what he wants.
So go get them. Revel in the moment.
There's a lot of people that you want to hug and a lot of people
that you want to embrace. And there's going to be a lot of
tears that night. And if that's what he's doing,
awesome, Hats off salute to Mendoza.
There is absolutely no issue. There is absolutely no problem.
That's that for me, this is becoming a bit of a problem.
I got to get on Yankee fans here.
Now, obviously, I didn't do the show Monday.
I was travelling back from Texas for Easter and it happened on
Sunday and I knew what happened because I saw it on social media
during the Marlins game and I know Michael Kay went in on this
yesterday. I don't understand why Yankee
fans give a shit about Juan Soda anymore.
I don't know how else to say it. Like it's got to be brutally
blunt, dude, get over yourselves, please.
I mean #1 the Yankees look really good this year.
Really good. And I'll get to some Boone's
decisions last night. Mendy as well.
Little gut in baseball, which is always good.
Get away from the binders, get away from the numbers here.
So during the game on, you're playing the Marlins, right?
You can't have a more nondescript rivalry or matchup
in baseball. Yankee, even though they played
in the World Series in O3, there's no juice there.
Marlins have no fans. I'm trying to disparage the
Marlins, but they are what they are, right?
They got a lot of young talent, they play hard, they're fast,
whatever. But no budget, empty stadium,
nothing. No connection.
Yanks Marlins right, so during the game, and I don't know how
loud it was because I didn't hear it and I I I read it on on
X and I saw it, but I didn't actually I saw people reacting
to it. I didn't hear like how audible
it was. I know it wasn't 40,000 deep
saying yeah, I'm not just going to throw out F bombs for the
sake of throwing them out. You know FF1 or FFUF yeah F1
Soto F1. So why, what in the world would
propel you to even think about Juan Soto in in that moment now
when he returned to the Bronx as a MET?
I wouldn't I don't even want to see.
I don't want to hear that. Like you want to be creative.
You want to have some fun. I don't understand outside of
the fact that because he was a free agent and the Mets had a
better offer and the Mets made more concessions and the Mets
did more for him and his family. And, you know, he said, I don't
I don't know. I don't know if I really believe
him because it's yet to be proven true, but I guess I'll
give him the benefit of the doubt.
He said that one of the reasons that he chose the Mets was he
believed in their future more. And maybe that's true.
You know, maybe Bench is going to be a stud and you know, I
love McClain and you know, the Antos is hitting again and
Alvarez is hitting a little bit. I don't know, did he really
think that or is that him convincing himself that that's
part of the reason why he left the Yankees, where he had a
great relationship with Judge, had his best season as a pro,
got to the World Series, played well in the World Series, hit
the entire postseason and decided to leave for a team with
a lower profile and that hasn't won a championship since 1986.
And I'm not begging on the Mets. That's just the history, all
right? And that's his choice.
You know, he got called up at the age of 19.
He was able to hit free agency at a very young age, hence the
inordinate and exorbitant contract that he got.
So why I I don't think about Juan Soto at all?
Like you can choose not to believe me.
I don't really care. It doesn't matter if you if you
believe me or not. The only time I think of Juan
Soto is what I'm watching the Mets and Juan Soto's playing,
which by the way, to do my job effectively is pretty much every
night. Now he's out for a couple of
weeks. I know he's on the 10 day IL
with the calf. It's retro to I think it's April
4th, so they bought a couple of days there.
I think it's going to and Mendy said this.
I think it's going to be more 2-3 weeks.
No need to shut him like why, why you why are you rushing him
back? All right, the Mets are four No,
without him Let him get fully straight, let him get fully
healthy. You know, medically let him feel
good. If he needs a game or two at
Syracuse, whatever put him there call him up.
He's going to hit when he wakes up with his eyes with his eyes
shut. That man can hit, but you just
got to understand that it's such a petty look, Yankee fans, and
I'm not going to defend you against people who who go in on
you for being petty or being still overly consumed with
somebody who's no longer here. Listen, both things could be
true. Juan Soto was a great Yankee for
a year. He was phenomenal.
He really was. And not only was he phenomenal,
statistically, he's a different level box office then then even
Aaron Judge, the whole shuffle, which he did a lot more that
year. You know, the the the penchant
for coming up big in these in these high leverage moments,
little bit of a different swag and a little bit of a different
presentation than Aaron Judge, who's got his own understated
swag. But it's just he's got a
different vibe than Judge. And it was awesome.
I mean, it, it worked and it was a great fit.
And I thought he was going to stay.
But you know, I've said this a few times.
Go find the YouTube show from the day after when the Mets got
him. I came in, I said, sound, you
won. You don't have your moment.
Let's go to the layout because we talked about it for months.
So I'm not going to get in the way of Mets fans celebrating
them getting a great player from the Yankees.
All right now. I think that, and I haven't
heard Met fans doing it as much, which is why I'm calling out the
knucklehead Yankee fans who still subscribe to this
childish, infantile, petty response and characterization of
what Juan Soda was here. He was.
He was dealt here.
He did not come here of his own volition.
He was traded to the Yankees. He fit like a glove.
He looked great in the uniform. He hammered the baseball.
Yankees got to the World Series and basically so do a judge.
You know, we're really like Ruth and Garrick.
It was the modern interpretation of that.
It really was as good as Mattingly was in his prime with
the MVP. Yeah, 145 RBI's, you know,
breaking Lou Double S record, winning a batting title, winning
an MVP and Dave Winfield right behind him, who's a Hall of
Famer and was awesome. Like, I don't like this is going
to sound over the top, but they couldn't shine Judge and Soto's
shoes together. Like that tandem was the best
I've ever seen in all the baseball, not just with the
Yankees, but you've got to get over it.
Like if you're playing the Mets and you want to drop F bombs,
which by the way, is not, you know, not great with kids
around. But I'm not going to preach.
I'm going to tell you what to do.
You pay for, you know, as long as you're not throwing batteries
or throwing beer by cans or whatever it might be more hats
or anything at Juan Soto chanting.
All right. I mean, again, it's it's
probably a little bit much at this point.
I thought he got showered with the proper treatment a year ago.
I thought it was warranted. I thought it was on point.
I think I thought Yankee fans were great.
Yankees had a better season than the Mets by a mile.
Yankees didn't accomplish what they are supposed to accomplish.
So it wasn't a great season. It was just a good season that
was fun. That was better than the Mets
season, which was Juan Soto's first season with the Mets.
We'll see what happens in Year 2 and Year 3, but I delineate
between the Yankees and the Mets.
You have to. Now I understand if you're not
doing this for a living, you know, you don't have to watch
the Mets. You know, you hate the Mets.
You think the Mets are the little brother, which is a term
that you know, I think it's, it's, you hear it a lot the last
couple of years. I don't lean into that, right?
It goes both ways. It's a game I've got no interest
playing. To me, it's just not fun.
You know, it's, it's, it's just, it's not very interesting to me.
What is interesting is what happens with the Mets moving
forward. And what is interesting is what
happens with the Yankees moving forward.
I don't know the origin of of like, why would that even bust
out? Why would that chant even start?
Juan Soto didn't say anything in the papers that day.
Or, you know, have an interview that we got wind of on social
media where he dissed the Yankees.
All right, Maybe if he did that, then I, you know what if he did
do that, then I have a different response.
Like if Juan Soto came out and he was like, you know, listen, I
played at both places. You know, Mets fans are better.
Yankee fans are overrated. Like if it was personalized,
right? If he went that road, do
whatever you got to do in terms of saying stuff.
Again, not in the physical manner, but just roast them.
You can do it every night. Even when they're playing the
Tigers or the the Twins or the White Sox, I don't care.
They're playing the Phillies. Shout, yell, whatever you want,
but my goodness, God Almighty, we got to get over this, guys.
It's just it's it's just awful. It really.
Yeah. I'll get to Rosario all.
Good morning, buddy. What's up, dude?
The pinstripe bugle. Good, good website.
They got some good content. If you guys want to check him
out, give him a follow and obviously like and subscribe
this, of course. But I mean, Rosario was great.
I'll get to it. It it it bothers me.
It bothers me because, number one, it's incredibly unoriginal
numbers. It's crass, it's unnecessary.
Juan Soto was a good dude here. He is a good dude who loves
baseball. He was a great player for the
New York Yankees. And because he had the first
choice of his career, you know, he had the first choice of his
career and he chose to lead the Yankees and he chose to lead the
Mets. Let me ask you this.
If Juan Soto decided to go to the Dodgers and some people
thought maybe he would, right, would you be chanted bleep you
Soto the other the other night, the other day against the
Marlins on Sunday, would you be doing that if you went to any of
if you went to the Phillies, right?
Would you do that? The answer is no.
So anytime somebody who hosts the show or, you know, just a
fan hops on social media or opens a microphone and says, you
know, the Mets to some extent for some some crazy reason, some
it's it's complete. There's no reason for this to be
the case, but it obviously is with some of you for the Mets to
live and I hate this expression, but it is what it is rent free
in the heads of some Yankee fans.
Stop giving them fuel. You're just giving them fuel.
Now that the Mets are starting to win a little bit, Mets are
getting their act together. Mets cleaning things up.
It although that another error, Lindor, but that did take a bad
hop. I'm not going to get on Lindor.
It was hit soft. You know, looked it looked
sloppy last second. I think it may have actually hit
the lip of the grass where it meets the dirt, whatever.
But they're cleaning things up and they look like I thought
they would be, you know, low 90s win team, but eventually a
playoff team. And I think the Yankees will win
95, maybe more based on the start with the return of coal
and all the reasons that I love the Yankees this year.
If the pitching is what I think it will be to get to and maybe
this time actually win the World Series.
But I, I just, I, I don't think about Juan Soto except when I
watch the Mets. Oh, Juan Soto's up.
He's a great hitter. All right, Let me watch him
play. Let me let me watch him do his
job. Just like I watch Beatty now
there's, there's heightened interest because he's better
than Beatty. Just like, you know, when I'm
watching Alvarez or binge or if Taylor gets in that bat,
whatever it might be, he is a baseball player that is not on
the Yankees. That didn't do a damn thing to
you, did nothing to you, didn't shit on you on the way out,
didn't disparage the Yankees, didn't disparage the fans, and
maybe more importantly, never LED you on, never LED you on
that he was going to return to the Yankees.
It wasn't like there was this detailed two or three month
breadcrumb trail where we're connecting dots on a daily basis
saying, oh man, there's no way this dude's leaving.
As long as the Yankees come correct with the money, which
they pretty much did, he's staying.
I mean, you could tell he's he's waxing poetically about the
Yankees history. And you know, every other chance
he gets to talk about the great pairing of Aaron Judge and what
it's like to play in the Bronx and play in the boogie and, and
the vibe and the feel and didn't say that.
You know, he's he was very, very business oriented, never showed
a card, never gave us a real cue, never gave us a cue, Which
is why as the season went on, I'm like, there was a minute, I
will, I will give you this. And I've said this before.
There was a minute where I'm like, he's not going to leave.
He's not going to leave. Remember, the optics of the Mets
weren't very good for a big chunk of the season.
And I remember saying on the fan, I'm like, I think that that
matters a little bit. Now, the Mets obviously wound up
having a very unexpected run. You know, Viantos went bonkers
in the postseason. Mets almost got to the World
Series, blah, blah, blah. But like if the Mets wore A-77
win team with no juice, empty seats, you know, weeknights in
September, no Pennant race, no stretch run, no real interest,
nothing palpable about the Mets except that they were having
another Mets like season. Well, then I I think that that
would have been worse because I think it gave Juan Soto a chance
to look there and say, all right, they got a couple of
young players. Wow, this is what Queens is like
when he got 40,000 deep and they're playing playoff games
and and they're winning. You know, it's it's interesting.
It it might not be the Bronx and that's for other people to
judge. I'm, I'm not a player, so I
can't possibly judge that, but I thought if the Mets really
languished for six months like they were for a while and didn't
finish strong, I think that optically that would have been
bad for Juan Soto going to the Mets.
Now, maybe it wouldn't have been maybe the ultimate concessions
that the Mets were willing to make that the Yankees did not.
Which by the way, I respect the Yankees not doing all the things
the Mets did. The Mets did that because the
Mets had to like the Mets had to present an over the top
presentation and make these massive concessions that quite
frankly the Yankees have never had to have made made.
Now, if that's if this is going to keep going like say like a
school bowl or what if a schemes becomes a free agent, whatever
it might be, well then I might be sitting here in a couple of
years saying, yo, maybe the Yankees do need to make in such
good concessions because the Yankee brand is not selling it,
which by the way, it's not. But if it ever hits that point
where it's undeniable, because the Yankees have some great
players and Max Reed wanted to come here, Gary Cole wanted to
come here, right? So, and I think I feel like
Schemes wants to come here, but you never really know until you
know, it's just a lot of nonsensical, petty, juvenile
noise. And you continue to feed it.
You continue to lead into it. So Yankee fans just cut the
nonsense, man. Worry about the Yankees and I
know I can say this. I could get I could get even
louder and I could curse. There's no need to, but I could,
you know, get this. I could give you a 32nd viral
clip. That's wow, wow, what BT went
off. I'm not trying to go off on
anybody. I'm just telling you to do just
get a grip if you're a Yankee fan that's still so consumed
with Juan Soto. I mean, you got to stop
tripping. You know, you talk about the Fat
Boys before again, again, I throw where, you know, a little
bit after the Fat boys, but we'll throw the word tripping.
You tripping. You bugging?
That was the word that we used
before tripping. You were bugging.
I don't get it. I really don't get it.
Pay attention to the Yankees. It's a pretty damn good story.
You know what I mean? My God Almighty, it's played out
Charlie F6675 Charles, what's happening, buddy Sotos played
for the Yankees for one year, so it makes no sense to have an
extended amount of hatred for the guy.
He played for a longer time for the Nats and the pods Yanks
pivoted with fried and belly yes.
Now I happen to really like the Yankee pivot.
What would have been the this is a little bit, you know, in a
different direction, but what would have been the great move?
What would have been the old Yankee way was to, you know,
just throw more money and get Soto and make him not able to
say no. So you keep Soto and Oh yeah, by
the way, you also get Max freed, you know, and then maybe you get
Belly to play first base. Like that's what George would
have done. But I'm not getting into a
George Howell thing. That's not the point of this.
The point is toward the fans. I don't know what percentage it
is. If you're playing the Mets,
that's one thing. Have at it, have fun.
All bets are off. Just keep it verbal, not
physical. Obviously, I'm not here to
preach, but most of you know that.
But to hear a bleep you so Roto Chan against the Marlins is the
height of idiocy and pettiness. And again, you just given Met
fans fodder to clown you because you do look like a clown when
you do that. It's not original, it's not
funny, it's not witty. Well, again, I've got to say one
more thing. I've got to reiterate this.
Juan Soto, it was a good dude here.
Juan Soto comported himself like an absolute pro because he is an
absolute pro. You know, up until this, this
stint on the AIL, you know, Juan Soto hadn't been on the injury
list. I think it was 2020.
Yeah, it was right after COVID 2021.
This guy shows up every day in place.
I mean, this guy is as immersed in the craft of hitting, maybe
not defense, but the art of hitting, doing his job as a
hitter. I think.
I'm not saying he's the best hitter of all time by any
stretch, but I don't know anybody that dives that deeply
into the nuance and nuances of hitting and trying to be great
everyday. He's been blessed with
incredible talent, hand eye, quick reflexes, you know, good
strong body. But that man is a worker.
He is a blue collar baseball player who loves to hit and
quite frankly has no time for all the other bullshit.
You know, really he just doesn't have time for that.
He's there to play ball. So he left.
He's going to flourish again with the Mets and we'll see what
the Mets do as a team. But guys, enough I mean it.
You know, I'm trying to, I'm trying to help you out here.
I don't know, J Rod, you got to feel me on this, right?
Oh, big Tom. I mean, what are what are we
still doing talking about? This I don't know.
I don't know. You want to tell me like I'll
give you a couple examples like Big Papi, even though he was
kind of a lovable figure. Maybe Pedro's better example,
right. Who's your daddy?
Like those are good quotes.
Like those are good chance that just bang off the stadium.
They just the resounding chance that take over the entire
borough. You want to tell me like, say,
back in the day, Kevin Garnett with the Celtics, when he said
what he said about Carmelo's wife, about the the Cheerios?
Comment Oh my. God, I know you know that.
Well, you want to tell me what you want to get.
You want to go in on that, get personal, go for it.
He comes in as a net. Go for it.
There's been other figures like Alonzo Mourning or, you know,
with the fight with Larry Johnson, Reggie Miller,
obviously, Jordan. I mean, even though you know,
Jordan's a little different because even Knick fans, you
almost have to love Jordan because of the sneakers and just
the incredible greatness that he showed every night.
He's he's almost beyond reproach.
He's different than the other guys.
But I get it. You want to do the Potvin Sucks
chant. You still want to do that?
Rangers Isles, go for it. It makes no sense.
It's not funny and it's not creative.
I'm done. I'm done telling you how I feel.
Now it's up to you to get the memo and start acting a little
bit more mature. Honestly, just pick up something
new that that actually is applicable to now to now.
No, I mean, it's like, it's like you just obviously like beating
a dead horse is a light way to put it, but like you got to just
find something new. You got to get you got to rather
than tearing someone down, how about you get excited?
How about you pump yourself up for the season rather than, you
know, harping back on old kind of old news?
Regurgitating an old story. Now, listen, I will say that
Yankee fans are incredibly able to juggle both.
Like, hey, I will say now I got to give them credit.
It's not like you have to do 1 and you can't do the other.
Like, you know, the Super chant that busted out on Sunday does
not prevent Yankee fans from being awesome in every other
way. They're always there.
You know, the Yankees don't need their owner to control them.
To come out and watch the team like like Cohen did with the
Mets. And Met fans responded.
Credit to the Mets fans for doing that right.
It was also incumbent upon Cohen to give him something to come
out for on a Tuesday night in September against the Marlins or
against the Twins. You know, you got to be in a
Pennant race when kids are back in school.
And, you know, they we'll see ultimately where the Cohen era
winds up. Yankee fans are the best, in my
opinion. Yankee fans are the best
baseball fans in in America. Yeah, that's, that's a
subjective take that's obviously debatable.
Other fans could take claim to that, including Mets fans.
They could say that. That's my opinion because
they're always there, they're always vocal and their IQ is
through the roof. But when you are dropping F
bombs toward a player who's gone and it's not like it's the first
year, even if it was, you know, 2025 opening day and Juan Soto's
playing with the Mets, his first game and the Yankees home opener
playing whom I forget who. They opened up the Giants.
And I don't know, I think it was the Giants, whatever.
And and they bust out that chance just to give him a little
needle, 1 little, you know, one last FU for Lee.
OK, I don't I wouldn't say I wouldn't say it.
I think there you go. That that that fits.
You're hurt, you're wounded. Let it out.
It's cathartic enough. Enough.
Hey, how about my guy Booney? Aaron Boone last night I got
something on him, got something on Cam Schlittler, have
something on Mendoza and then something on Tarek School.
I got to bounce after I got to get probably about an hour show
today. All right, so obviously the a
started a right-handed batter, right-handed pitcher.
Ryan McMahon is atrocious like this is.
We all know this Ryan McMahon is horrendous.
He is. He's one of the worst hitting
third baseman I've ever seen. I feel like the moment that he
gets in the Battles box, it's strike one at strike two.
He's an absolute whiff machine. His K rate is through the roof.
Now. He happens to be a great fielder
and that's not an over exaggeration.
Ryan McMahon is a sublime defensive player.
And with lefties like Frieden Rodon, with those cutters and
those movement in toward the ankles on righties, I've talked
about this before, the ground ball rate, they're going to be
banging a lot of balls into the dirt and you need somebody like
Greg Nettles over there and he's not that far offering.
Greg Nettles. Oh, it's blasphemy.
I mean, Nettles made some incredible diving plays and
regularly, but also in the World Series and same with Brooks
Robinson. But I don't know, like night
tonight. I mean, this guy's as reliable
and as good as anybody I've seen play third base.
I really mean that. But he stinks as a hitter.
So, and he's in the what is he? He's he's 2 for 23 with 11
strikeouts. The guy's a mess, you know, and
I don't think there's going to be any uptick.
Of course, he's going to eventually run into a few, hit a
couple of home runs and have a month where he hits 280 and he
looks functional. But it'll be a mirage at the end
of the day. I want Ryan McMahon in terms of
getting 3 or 4. They want to put him in late
last night like they did for defense.
That's fine. Do the same thing in October.
That is not a guy that I want and, you know, in the bottom
third, in the ninth spot, especially if 7-8 and nine
stinks now. 789 last night did some damage.
Rosario, a couple of bombs, Caballero stole the base.
Well, was on base. But those three guys, they just
don't trust, you know, that. We'll see what Volpe is because
he's going to come back and take Caballero's job immediately.
And he should, because Caballero has not distinguished himself
enough. But the point is, Boone had a
decision to make last night. Now I'm not going to go over the
top and say, you know, it was it was like Casey Stengel or Miller
Huggins like or Billy Martin like because he decided to sit
down somebody who was in the throes of an anemic funk and
there's no signs of him busting out.
But all right, that's easy to bench that guy.
Anybody could do that. But it was a righty, right?
There was a right-handed pitcher, obviously.
And listen, Rosario hit the first home run and then lighter
was in there formerly of the Yankees and and obviously a
veteran lighter, mark lighter and he let Rosario hit again and
he rockets. I mean that ball, they estimated
that it went 417. I didn't think he had that kind
of juice. I know he crushes lefties and
he's good and I like that they have them for the bench as a
hitter. And it was a great clubhouse guy
really into it. Energetic, which is good for the
Yankees. It's good for the morale and the
day-to-day chemistry of the team.
But he's going to play selectively here.
Aaron made a decision last night.
And if you going to get on Aaron Boone, whether it's here or
social media or on the air and some of it's justified for sure,
whether it's the Cortez stuff in the World Series or the even the
9th inning against the Marlins over the weekend, that cost of
the game. I get it.
You know, he's not perfect. I I love Boone and I consider
him a friend and I respect him and I think he's a great person
and a good manager, but he definitely does things that I
scratch my head with sometimes. But last night was not as easy
as maybe some of you think, because what you would be
thinking is all right, you know, hey, let's run them out there
against the righty and maybe, you know, he bust out of it, but
you benched him and you had Rosario who hadn't played since
April 1st. So he was a little rusty.
Hits, not one hits two, including the game-winning three
run shot in the 8th inning. So good for Booney, you know,
and then again, he did have that second decision when Lighter was
on the mound. Could have gone in a different
direction, elected not to love it.
Cam Schlittler, All right. And by the way, real fast and
you're seeing this with the Mets a little bit.
Maurizio gets called up, gets the hit.
I'll get to them in a minute. But one of the great things
about a really good baseball team, and we don't know yet how
good any of these teams outside of the Dodgers, you know, and we
know the Yankees have talent, the Mets have talent.
And the Blue Jay, like we know who has talent.
But like, the Tigers look awful right now and they're supposed
to win the division, right? I think they're four and seven,
whatever it is the, you know, a 25 man roster.
You know, you got your studs, you got your 3 hitter, you got
your 4 hitter, you got your top 2-3 pitchers, got your closer,
you got your, you know, shortstop.
Hopefully he could pick it. Catcher's good behind the plate,
center fielder good. And you know, go get it.
A right fielder with a good arm. First baseman could handle the
leather, right? You, you, you know what, you
know, the main components of every team, right?
But a really good team is a team that can do something like the
Yanks and Mets did yesterday and last night, you know, go to
somebody who doesn't play much, bang, two home runs going to a
guy who just got called up. Mauricio, Boom, line drive base
hit. Like to utilize all those
players, especially for it's, it's kind of, well, it's not
easier to work a bullpen, But I, I, I think it's a little bit
quote UN quote, easier to get guys in games because you know,
the score mop up situations, you know, splits, lefty lefties,
righty righties, whatever it might be.
You can kind of lean on things and you can lean on the numbers
from a pinch hitting point of view as well.
But I do think that there's probably a little bit more gut
if, if you're open to that as a manager with pinch hitting and
running a guy out there who might not have favorable splits
against a certain guy, but he's on a hot streak, you know what,
we're going to roll the dice, run them out there and it works.
Or if it doesn't, it doesn't. But you're starting to see that
both of these teams have some very useful players at the end
of the bench, which is why, especially if Volbee comes back
and can just be functional with the bat.
Now Caballero goes back into that super sub role.
He's on base, he's still in second, he's on 2nd, probably
still in 3rd. You know, Rice is the man judges
the best. So Belly's a really good player.
But those Rosarios, those Caballeros guys like that, it's
it's really important to to be able to to utilize those
players. Something about Cam Slitler last
night, he labored a little bit, right.
This is why I love him. See, to me when you have a great
and I believe he is a great young pitcher and you know what
that implies? Not saying he's a great pitcher.
I need more evidence he's going in that direction.
He's ascending, but he is a great, undeniable young pitcher.
You ask anybody in baseball, I know Buster had this and some
others did this as well on MLB Network.
A lot of people think that right now he's a top ten pitcher in
baseball. Alright, maybe a little bit
ambitious toward the back 10, not toward one, but the point is
he is looked at as basically a future star if his body holds up
right. He did have his best stuff last
night and I hesitate to use the word here, but I will just to
keep it moving. The great ones.
When you go out there and a single pitch is not working and
you've got to abandon a game plan based on what the scouting
report says and what you plan to do.
But it's just the feels not there any pitch you can be
locating A fastball strike one. It's not just a cutter or the
secondary stuff, right? It's not there.
And then maybe you go back to it middle frames and you rediscover
the field and now you're you're you're kind of going back to how
you wanted a pitch when a pitch is not there or your command of
the zone is not there. And it was not there for Cam
Schlitter in the third inning when he gave up all all the
runs, three runs and four, the five hits that he gave up in the
game. It's I'm not judging you on that
inning where you get knocked around.
Everybody's going to give up hits.
I'm get, I'm judging you, how you react and what chance you
give your team to hang on and rally from the deficit that they
put you in by being able to have other shutdown innings.
First inning shut down, second inning shut down. 3rd inning got
got knocked around a little bit. You know, I think he threw 27 or
28 pitches, 3 earned runs as I said, and four of the five hits
he gave up. But he didn't, he didn't add gas
to it by walking three guys walk, none struck out seven.
So he went out there and he may have had good stuff to begin
with, and then it abandoned him. He lost it.
But in totality, he was kind of probably in the B minus range.
But if he wasn't as dialed in and as resilient as he obviously
is, that B minus or or or B turns into D stuff.
And instead, instead of giving up three runs, he gives up five
or six, puts the bullpen in a worst spot, which obviously
impacts today moving forward. And he goes, you know, he goes
three in the third. He's sit in the showers, Yankees
are down 71 and it's a game that they probably don't come back
and win. And Rosario doesn't have a
chance to go deep and hit a three run bomb and be the hero.
That stuff adds up. It adds up for the bullpen,
keeping them fresh and it really adds up to more fuel in my
belief that Cam Schlittler is untouchable.
Untouchable including school and including schemes.
And I know that that sounds nuts, but I did that on a
previous show. I'm not going to reset it now.
Go find it if you want to check it out.
So he, you know, he wasn't it was 27 pitches.
By the way, something else on Ben Rice, you know, and he
talked about this. I was laughing myself when I
read it this morning online. He was talking about how last
year when he was in a little bit of a funk, he went to this is, I
don't know if every player would admit this because you're
basically saying that I was scuffling and I was looking for
validation in numbers. He said the quote is I went to
my to my baseball savant page and I wanted to get a, a deeper
sense of some of the underlying metrics where I was.
Now, I mean, in the most, you know, basic one-on-one
description of what, what he meant by that, right?
I'm hitting a bad luck, but I want to see if the bad luck is
really truly reflective of how I'm swinging the bat.
And, and it was obviously, which is why I've always pointed out
nine offensive categories. He's in the red, he's in the 90
percentile and which one of the reasons why I think eventually
he will be the Y3 hitter for, you know, 6-7 years.
He didn't come up when he was like 22.
That's why I'm saying 6 or 7, not more.
But anyway, quickly on Ben Wright hit.
Everybody knows he's hitting 370.
He's got a he's got a Major League best Opsi know it's
early, but you got to react to something, right?
Because I promise you, if he was hitting 119 and his OPS was 512
and he had a strikeout rate of 33, some of you would be coming
at me saying, dude, you see, you overreacted when you said that
Ben Rice was going to be great. No, this is not my final stamp
validation because there's a lot of baseball to go.
I'm just saying that this is another little checkpoint that
my eyes and my instincts in looking at young players is
right in this regard, right? So OPS through the roof.
Number one in baseball, he's got the second highest average exit
below second in all the baseball #2 means he always hits the ball
hard. And #3 he is first to validate
what I just said in hard hit rate.
All right, which is obviously slight.
I mean it's all derived from the same thing, but slightly
different from exit below. So Betty Rice is cooking, can
Schlittler is cooking, Yankees bench is cooking.
Yankees look good. Good job by Mendoza yesterday.
That was that was a good win for the Mets here.
And the more wins that they could bag without Soto, they're
undefeated, the more I think it's going to galvanized the
team and it's going to give certain players ownership and
like embolden them to feel more like they're part of the team.
Like of the Antos who was buried for the first week of the
season, like a Mauricio just got called up and the decision here,
and this is different from what Boone did by sitting McMahon and
unconventionally against the numbers Rosario, you know,
pounds lefties, not much against righties started against the
righty kept them in there against the righty two home
runs. This is different.
This is even more of a gut reaction and and a gut feel and
props to Mendy, who you know, I was on last year.
I loved his first year. I was on I was on him last year.
Didn't handle the bullpen well, didn't like some of the in game
moves. I'm not going to re document it
now and re litigate it. It was what it was and I
believed it and and I was right. A lot of people that follow
baseball agreed with that. So to me, this was kind of let
let let's evaluate who Mendoza is this year.
Year 1 was great. Year 2 was and year 3 did not
start well. Guys getting thrown out at home
plate against the Pirates with, with soda with, with Lindor on
the soda double, Lindor kicking the ball around a little bit.
Lindor getting picked off first base.
You know what? He's looking at his oven Mitt
not paying attention. Alvarez in that series.
And maybe that was the next series.
No, it was that game. I think it was that series.
Yeah. No, it was at the Pirates.
Either way, early on, there was a ball in front of Alvarez where
he looked down the runner at third base and he held them.
But there was a guy on 1st and he didn't hustle after the ball
and the guy went from first to second.
He got bailed out. Either way, the Mets look sloppy
to start the year. They have turned that around in
a big, good, reassuring way. Now, when you take the bat out
of I think the first decision was much tougher.
You take the bat out of Vientos's hands.
It was having a rough day, but it's the hottest met right now,
right? And you pinch it.
That was that was. Wait, was that Jared Young?
Hold on. You pinch it.
Yes, you pinch it, Jared Young for vientos.
All right interesting move gets a SAC fly ties to game of three.
Now you've got a spot where Mauricio just gets called up.
Hasn't had in a bat yet. These are the miners Taylors up,
which is an easier decision because Taylor can't hit, but
you throw the young buck up there and there's two ways to
look at it. All right, I'm going to throw
the young man to the fire, see how he responds.
We like him as a player and and put him in a very high leverage,
high pressure spot where if he comes through, that can really
propel him emotionally and maybe lock him in.
And maybe we really do. And I'm not as big a Mauricio
fan of some others, but maybe I'll be proven wrong.
Great start yesterday. But the converse to that is
maybe you want to ease in a young kid in in a more benign
situation. He went for the pressure filled
situation, as much pressure as there could be in in early
April. But he just got back from the
Miners. Pinch hit, you know, good crowd,
wild. Nice comeback by the Mets,
Peralta and want to see him start pitching better.
And bang, rips an absolute missile to right field.
Mets win when he hits for Taylor.
So you saw a little gut from Boonie last night.
You saw a little gut from Carlos Mendoza.
Yankees look good. Mets look good.
Hit you on the Fernando Mendoza stuff.
Let me give you this. Then.
I got to bounce. Jay, get a couple of comments up
there. I want to get a few in here.
Things that you think are good. Lindor should start every season
on the IL and start in late May. That's when he wakes up.
Yeah, it is what it is. I mean, Rob Ryan, thank you for
that. I might just get a bag on
Lindor, you know, but it is what I mean, you know, I understand
that you can explain away a lot of his slow.
Well, I mean, you can try to explain away.
I I really don't because to me, you know, and I don't I don't
just lean on will the numbers will be there.
I'm not just talking about Lindor.
I'm talking about anybody. Like to me, the great hitters.
Here we go another Lindor microdissection of Francisco
Lindor. It's not intentional, but I and
it's not a diss, but it's my way of viewing him differently from
some of the other absolute, undeniable superstars in the
game, right? And you know who they are.
It's a short list and Lindor's not on it.
He's the next list, right? But Aaron Judge Soto, I know a
little slug as Ledger with the Mets, but new situation,
whatever those kind of guys. Wait for the Royals, you know,
Henderson Otani, like they don't always start out, you know,
hitting 160 in April, just grinding through, you know,
60-70, largely unproductive at bats.
And I know that he generally gets his numbers there.
The power's there. He steals.
He's usually a good fielder. Last year he was not.
His defensive metrics took a big step back and he doesn't look
very good this year. So that's a story we got to
follow when we will. But it it's it is hard to argue
with the totality of his production.
But like, that's not good enough.
That's the easy way out to be a superstar.
And that's been my only criticism of Lindor.
I tell I grant you, he's a star, but if you're a superstar, you
can't have these wild fluctuations in performance.
Now you can. And if you still choose to label
him a superstar, then our definition of a superstar is
just a little different. That's fine.
Not mad at you. We just view it differently.
We look at it through a different prism.
If you're a superstar, I got to know and that you know, within
the first 7-8 games of the season, you're going to get
crack in here and you're going to, you have a decent April,
you're getting it off to a good start and you're going to be
going downhill the rest of the year.
And the numbers will be reflective of whatever they are
for you historically. And every player is different,
you know, so that that's my knock with him.
But no, I mean, obviously you're joking around starting in the
minors or in the IL, whatever it was.
No, I, I just wish you could be more consistent.
And he's not, but he's done it basically every year he's been
here. So to yell about it, I, I, you
know, and to find the reasoning. I, I cold weather, I, I don't
know, I don't have the absolute answer for you, but it's a
thing. And, and you know, if Soto
really is out, say let's say worst case, they said three
weeks, Mehndi said two to three, let's say it's the worst end of
that and it's 3 weeks here and Save the Antos cools down and
you know, Bichette showing signs and he's going to, I love
Bichette, but let's say he's not really ready to join the party.
You know, if Lindor has another shitty April and the other
components aren't there. And even if say when Soto comes
back, he's a little rusty and he kind of scuffles a bit, which is
possible. He's a human.
Well, you know, I mean, the Mets are now 7:00 and 4:00, so they
stabilize things. But if they didn't correct
things with this four-game win streak, those those those those
little mini streaks in the wrong direction add up.
So again, I'm not going nuts on the door today, but you asked me
the question or you, you made the point.
It is what it is. Pedro says the Mets need to
throw, need, need to move Mendy out.
I didn't see that. I don't need Pedro to tell me
that. I've said that before the start
of the season. We talked about it last year.
Some of you chimed in on the fan.
Mendy's on the hot seat. Mendy should be on the hot seat.
Mendy. Some.
Well, actually, some of you took a step in a different direction
like some of you, some of you. Now, I don't know if I had to
say percentage, maybe 15 to 20%, fairly on the low side.
Wanted the Mets to fire Mendoza. I never said that.
What I did say very clearly was if it doesn't look right, if it
doesn't smell right and taste right, early this year, you
know, the Mets with the investments, you know Peralta
now the money, the salary, the, the, the just basically their
salary, what they have on the books here, the expectations.
Like if it if it looks sloppy and the chemistry, however you
want to quantify that wasn't there early and it really, you
know, languished into May and spilled into deep May, maybe
early June, then I would fire Mendoza.
I've said that because it's only so long.
You can accept underachievement, you know, to to an extent where
and I don't mean October underachievement, you know,
coming up short in September, whatever.
I mean, you know what, it didn't look right the previous year.
You know, let's say I give you an example.
Let's say the Knicks lose in round two.
I would fire Mike Brown. I don't know that they will.
By the way, the Knick playoff stuff is going to be I can't
wait. It's coming.
Do a watch, do a I'm going to do a live watch of a Knick playoff
game. A lot of Knick content.
It is coming and they're starting to look better.
We'll see. I mean, I'm I'm always hopeful,
but I don't believe they're going to win the championship.
I said that, but let's say they get bounced in round two, which
I think is is is a very decent possibility.
And let's say they bring Mike Brown back again.
I would not, but let's say they do and think about all the
noise. Early exit didn't get as far as
Tibbs last year. You're going to hear Tibbs
thrust back into it. You shouldn't have fired Tom
Thibodeau. And maybe you can make that
point more clearly, more effectively.
If they get bounced and it's ugly and it's before Tom
Thibodeau's team got bounced a year ago, maybe we'll have that
if we have to have that conversation.
But let's say the Knicks don't fire him and they bring him back
and the Knicks are 6:00 and 7:00, which seems unfathomable
for a shitty NBAI mean, if you just have two good players,
you're not going to be 6 and seven through 13 games.
But if they are, well, then the noise will come right?
Immediately fire him, fire him. You know, that's just the way
the game goes. That's the way it goes.
Here's the way it works. Whether it's right or wrong, it
is what it is. I was reading that The Jets are
looking to trade the number two pick and there's a lot of Nate
teams that are interested at Vince nine O 8.
Well, I've said that I think I actually, I really think, and
I'm not just saying this to say I really think I was the first
one to say that I really want The Jets to be proactive and try
to aggressively find somebody to trade out of the two spot.
And I don't have time to do it now.
We've got 15 days to the draft. I've already done it on Pryor
shows. Go find it, check it out, show
it to you Jet fans, your friends.
I also did it on The Jets Collective, which is a new show
I do once a week with Rich the Meaty Jake, Aspen Thursday at 7,
episode 3 this week on YouTube. Like it, subscribe it, all that
good stuff, comment on it, share it, right?
The that to me was a no brainer because there's not a Locket #2
and if somebody covets Reese or Bailey or whoever else styles
Caleb Downs, not that you would take him at 2:00, but if
somebody running Jeremiah Love from Notre Dame running back, if
somebody loves one of those players, yo play the game, play
the game and get more draft equity and build this thing out
the right way, which Muji seems inclined to do.
It's not a Band-Aid. It's not like, hey, even though
Gino is, is, you know, a veteran, whatever, it's not
like, all right, let you know, we got some good players, Let's
do a Hail Mary. And then I was down with the
Rogers move. I, I, I can't contradict myself,
but I was excited when they got Aaron Rodgers.
We all were. It's Aaron Rodgers, man, but
they're not doing. It's not a microwave fix.
They got rid of some dead weight.
They brought in some reliable vets like the Mario Davis for
messaging and for just to button things up.
And they got a good old line and they got to get another, pardon
me, another receiver. And they got to fix the third
level on day and they got to get another corner for sure, and
some more linebackers that can run and the pass rush.
A lot of different things, right?
It seems like they are. But at least Muji.
Now, Glenn's going to be judged differently than Muji, I
believe, and I believe he should.
But Muji is going to attack this draft number one very stealthily
in a very stealth manner, which means whatever they're thinking,
we won't know. And as much as we want to know,
I almost don't want to know because if we don't know, I
mean, I could surmise and I could tell you an offer
conjecture on what they should do and I have.
But if we kind of get the other Jets are to me that's a bad sign
that the that the holes in The Jets building haven't been
shored up. So it's quiet as a church mouse.
They got a ton of draft picks 3 next year with the ones two this
year. They are ready.
You just got to make the right draft picks and get the right
players. But I do think that they are
more than amenable. I think that they're actually
proactively seeking out a dance partner to move out of two.
We'll see. All right, last thing.
So you should be, unless you're a Detroit Tigers fan, of course,
you should be rooting for the Tigers to implode now.
I don't. I don't know that they're going
to the division stinks. You'd have to imagine they'll
stabilize this. And I'm not reacting after 11
games. They're four and seven and
they've lost three straight. So before this they were four
and four playing 500 bowl like a lot of teams in baseball, right
schedule is pretty interesting when you look at who they opened
up against three at San Diego, lot of talent.
But the Padres are in under 500 team right now.
They're 5 and 6 three at Arizona.
D backs are 5 and 6 three with the Saint Louis Cardinals at
home. Cardinals are little
surprisingly 6 and 5 little bit better.
And at the end of the year they'll they'll be I mean
they'll be ready to be a 70 something win team.
They're terrible and they and and then 2IN, where are they
now? Yes.
So they've got 36911 games there.
All right. So as I said, they're four and
seven. I gave you some of the teams
they played against. It's early.
They're a good team, not a great team, not great talent, good
talent in the shitty division, right.
So let's just say that four and seven becomes 8 and 14.
Probably not going to happen, but let's just say that it does
and this what you should be rooting for every team.
What if 8 and 14 becomes 12 and 21 and you can just keep playing
the game, Just go by, go in that direction, you know, take where
they are now and just replicate that start and you're going to
have the numbers that I just gave you, 8 and 14, etcetera.
Well, at that point, not necessarily in April, but if
that continues, they are going to have to have to trade school.
There's just no doubt about it. And if you are a Yankee fan,
although I don't think the Yankees have the prospects to
get it because the Tigers will want Ben Rice and I wouldn't
even by the time they I wouldn't even let them finish the
sentence. Click, we'll try to get him in
free agency, find somebody else. We're good because we know he's
going somewhere for rental and then he's hitting the open
market, right. So I don't think the Yankees
have the the horses to get them. I would give up Lombard form.
They probably would as well. But I don't think he's going to
the Yanks. The Mets will be interested.
The Dodgers are always interested.
You'd have to think the Phillies would be interested.
Maybe the Brewers as a bit of a dark horse, right?
They're good again, even though they lost Peralta and every year
lose some good players, they're good again.
And you know, they catch the ball, they run like they play a
good style of ball. If they could get him as a
rental, obviously can't pay him big picture, so they would never
be able to get him as a free agent, that might be enticing to
them. I don't really know the depth of
the Brewers farm system, but they generally draft and develop
well. So I'm sure it's it's at least
slightly above average. The Red Sox again, Red Sox are
off to a rough start. Red Sox have some issues.
You know, I don't know what their appetite would be, how
many more great prospects they have.
Like there's, there's layers to this layers of investigation
Toronto. But like any team that really
views themselves as a true World Series contender.
And I just gave you 7 of them and maybe the Padres get their
act together, whatever. Who am I missing?
Maybe the Reds. Reds are pretty good this year,
competitive. They were pretty good last year
with Francona. I don't know if I really missed
anybody. And AL Central's week, they
wouldn't trade them there anyway.
I think it pretty much gave you all the American League East
teams. Maybe the Braves, I'll throw
them in there as well. The more that this looks ugly
for the Tigers, the more they are going to feel the pressure
to trade him. And at that point, you're
trading him from a position of weakness, not strength.
All right. So yeah, maybe, maybe this is a
figment of my own imagination. Like, I don't think you're
getting somebody's good as schoolable for $0.90 on the
dollar. That seems highly implausible
because he's schoolable back to backside Young's.
But Tigers can't afford him, so he's not going to be a Tiger
after this year. And what is the point of keeping
him around? Which is why this is something
else we talked about on The Fan. Like we both thought they should
have traded him this offseason. If you're if you have a player
like that, like the Padres did with Soto when their owner died,
who wanted to pay Soto, but then there was a pivot there.
Financially, if you are 18 and you simply don't have either the
resources or the desire or both, I think the Tigers have the
desire. I don't think they have the
resources all right, economically.
So if you form one of those two categories, especially if it's a
lack of economics to to do it, well, you're an idiot if you
wait till the last minute because yeah, you can have six
or seven teams lining up to get them.
But think about the amount of teams that you would have in the
offseason if you gave school ball 32 starts in Toronto or 32
starts with the Mets or 32 starts with the Braves or 32
starts with the Yankees. Now this is a pipe dream like
this again, I don't think the Yankees have the horses to get
them because Jones is a non prospect for me.
I know Dominguez is hitting. Maybe you get something there, I
don't know. Lombard is his studies off to a
good start as well. You got some young pitching.
Maybe there is an enticement there.
But just for a second, Can you imagine, Oh my God almighty,
could you imagine? The Yankees traded for school
ball, right, and gave up nothing of value.
That's out there every day like a Rice, as I said before.
And their rotation ultimately in July or maybe even June would
be, Oh my God, Freed. Let's just play the game for a
second. Freed Schooble.
Cole Schlittler and Rodon the scrub 5th starter.
It was really good last year. Not going to happen, Wouldn't
bank on it. But that's why you should really
hope that the Tigers just languish and just kind of fall
by the wayside and then just watch as the noise goes and goes
in a direction that I think ultimately is going to be
unavoidable. You have to trade him.
The worse you are, the earlier, the quicker you need to trade
him. The earlier you trade him, the
more you get back in return. So that's their problem.
But it very well is going to be somebody else's solution to
maybe win in the World Series. All right, J Rod, what I miss
buddy add to anything? Didn't miss anything I think.
I think you hit a lot of great stuff.
Today, I appreciate that JJ. Now let me be honest with you
and and be honest dude. I want you to get to a point
where you feel as if you had the latitude, the freedom, the
respect and the juice to say this.
So you just said, you know, and I appreciate you saying that and
I I think you're right. I think we had some good stuff
condensed show, but some good stuff.
Good, good stuff. I.
Thought that I thought that played into it.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, maybe.
But you just said I, you know, I presented some good stuff.
Would you ever say if I had a shitty show, would you and and
mean it without? Would you ever say, dude,
honestly, not one of your best shows didn't have the energy,
which I'll always have? The day that I don't have energy
is the day that I stopped doing this.
You didn't have energy. You didn't have anything
interesting. You were all over the map, you
know, you weren't buttoned up. The show was a mess.
Would you ever say that, J Rod? Probably not on tab, probably
not on the. Camera.
No. I want you to say it on camera,
man. I I I give you that card to do
it. Really.
OK. My team, man.
Come on. Don't you know I'm a great
teammate? Yeah, you know that?
Great teammates. Best teammates?
That's the the. Best great teammates give their
teammates a chance to shine and a chance to show their value.
So a lot of your value is behind the scenes, but I think that
that would be welcome value that I think that, you know, listen,
I've got a I've got a good sense like I call it like my
quarterback clock, if you will, Like, you know, like a
quarterback knows when he's got got to get rid of the ball
because he knows somebody's coming because it's taking too
too long to develop. When you do this for a long
time, you kind of know. All right, show's dragon.
I got I got to punctuate something.
I got to spice it up. I got to change topics.
I go to I got to go to a call when you could, or I just got to
change it up a little bit. I want you to have that
quarterback clock and it's not going to happen overnight, but I
want you and I promise I won't jump on you.
I will give you you might get a raise because then I know I even
more and I already know I got a trench guy, but then I really
know I got a foxhole guy. If you're willing to call me out
like that, say BT not your best show buddy.
We got to come back stronger tomorrow.
Then I'm going to say I know and I already know.
But then I'm like, I really know that this is the cat that's
going to be a part of the Unleashed fan for a long.
Time then I guess one of one of yeah, one of those shows got to
pop up. Honestly, I we've been batting
pretty pretty well recently, though, I feel like we've been
hitting a lot of like stuff. I mean, today I liked a lot
because I feel like it was poignant.
There you go, poignant, one of my favorite words.
That is an underused word. Poignant.
Yes. All right, let me wrap it up,
man. Obviously, I want to thank the
sponsors. Good job today, Jay.
Brought to you, of course, by Sullivan Propane, one of New
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Find them at premiofoods.com. That's premiofoods.com or in
your local grocery store. I got to bounce.
J Rod's going to do all the post production stuff like it.
Subscribe, get the word out there, hit the comments.
Obviously good for the algorithm.
You guys know this by now. Share it with your buddies.
Get it out there. I really want to hear your
reaction to what I said about the Yankee fans with the
ridiculous FU Soto chant. Get a grip.
Come on, show a little more class show show a little more
range as ship of sail. That's over.
All right. The other stuff with with
Mendoza with the draft, Mendy with the Mets, the gut move,
Boone having a great night in the dugout for the Yankees last
night. Schlittler plowing through with
AB minus game. All great stuff to react to 15
days to the NFL draft as we we just run to what's going to be
an awesome night and a great week.
Great couple days really with all the rounds, but a great week
or so leading up to and then a couple of great days after it,
really recapping it. Take a stock, taking stock of
where the NFL is at that point after the draft.
So I got to go have an outstanding Wednesday, you guys
know. I appreciate you like it,
subscribe it, all that good stuff.
Have a great day.