What's going on, everybody? BT Unleashed in the house got a
good show for you today. A lot of baseball, Brian Cashman
get little Brian Cashman get a little frisky yesterday, got a
little something on Eli as well. I thought Mikhail Bridges said
some incredibly interesting things post game and so we got a
lot today. Hope everybody's doing well.
All right, so Brian Cashman, we're going to start with this
year. Brian Cashman has not earned the
right to rebuild the Yankees. The way Brian, push back, for
sure, push back in the big way. And Brian's got a big issue with
the way many people are perceiving his team now.
Here's what I find very interesting.
All right, First of all, I think he's missing the mark a little
bit. I think he's fixating on the
wrong thing. So I obviously can't speak for
all Yankee fans, but I think I've got a pretty good pulse on
what most Yankee fans were thinking, including this one.
And it's never been that. I don't think the Yankees will
be good this year or have a chance to mess around then, you
know, a little luck and some clutch whatever, maybe mess
around to get back to you and and maybe win a World Series.
Nobody's ever really said that. Now, if they didn't get
Bellinger back, that's where I drew that line.
That was the line of demarcation for me.
If Bellinger went, say, to Toronto or the Mets, I, I
thought the Yankees had a chance to maybe fall out of the playoff
race, but he's back and they're going to run it back here.
But you, you, you got to take issue with somebody who
basically looks us in the face and says, you know, we're not
running it back. You are running it back, right?
And by the way, you're not running back A-75 win team.
So nobody is crushing you. But again, you're missing the
mark. And I'm going to tell you why in
a minute. But think about this.
So he said that the Yankees are not running it back.
Well, go to October 8th. The last game the Yankees
played, Toronto playoffs. Oh my God, everybody's sick in
my house. 5 to 2 Yankee loss, right?
Think about the lineup that. Now I'm not going to get into
pinch hitting, whatever. But the starting lineup that day
in a playoff game was Trent Grisham leading off play in
center, Aaron Judge batting second play and right Belly
batting 3rd and left. Stanton the DH, baton 4.
Jazz in the five hole at 2nd. Goldschmidt at first base,
batting 6. Wells, Volpe, McMahon, catcher,
shortstop, third base. Now, does anybody think that
Grisham's not going to be the lead off hitter come Opening
day? Unless the Yankees swing a
massive trade like Nico Horn or something like, which I would
love. But right now, Trent Grisham's
the opening day center fielder and he's the opening day lead
off man. Judge is going to bat second.
Bellinger's going to protect him.
Stanton's going to be the righty source of power.
Jazz is going to be at 2nd now get back to Goldsmith in second,
Wells will be behind the play, Volpe will be at short when he
gets back, Caballero to start, and Ryan McMahon's going to play
third base. So when Brian Cashman says that
they're not running back, they literally are running it back
exactly the way it was a year ago.
Now, I think that, again, to be fair, this is where it gets a
little distorted and some of that Yankee energy from many of
you which has been built on frustration and really losing
the same way over and over and over.
And we're kind of fed up with it.
You know, we push back, but we're not pushing back about the
notion that the Yankees are going to be pretty good this
year. Yankees have the shortest Second
World Series odds and the Yankees have the second highest
projected win total in Major League Baseball.
But it it's it really it, it really is interesting.
Then Brian Casper went on to say, So I would like to respond
to the challenge respectfully, of course.
So Brian said yesterday, I challenge anybody that can, you
know, present to me or how I challenge anybody who thinks
that we're running it back. Well, here's an open invitation.
Mr. Cashman, I've interview, I've interviewed you before.
All right. Couple of times back in the day
on 1050, couple of times on WFAN, once with Tiki, once with
Sal. So we, we've connected, we we've
chatted been a while, but we've, we've had the conversation,
we've done the dance. So I would like to, you know,
extend that challenge to you or that invitation.
I don't want to make it too combative.
So you're going to come on BT Unleashed.
You could be the first guest. You know, we are equipped to do
guest. I'm kind of waiting for the the
studio redesign and they're there.
See they're outside in the living room.
I can't go get them. But there are two massive swaths
of the BT and I got them last night.
I got I got back from the St. John's game to the garden.
St. John's looked really good.
I'll give you a minute or so on them at the end before we
bounce. But I come home and the 2 Prince
arrived, the two different versions of BT Unleashed.
Now it's going to happen tomorrow.
My guys going to come at 12:30. And I think I said this
yesterday on the show, the Mattingly jersey behind me,
we've just got it now choreographed war or measure.
He's got to measure where we're going to put the logo.
And then they're going to take the swath sample that they made
the two of them. And then they'll make the whole
thing for the whole back wall, which will obviously extend all
the way there and then all the way there and then all the way
up to the top of the wall. So it's coming.
It's up there on my dining room table and they look absolutely
awesome. I'm so pumped up about that,
right? But so maybe we'll save Cashman
for that. But hey, are you going to accept
the invite? You going to accept the
challenge? I challenge JJ Rod, do me a
favor, bud, as you're doing this.
Good morning to you, by the way. How you doing, Jay?
OK. Doing great.
Good morning, everyone.
There you go. BT Unleashed fam.
Whoa, there he is, BT Unleashed, fam.
Look, I'm getting more and more comfortable now.
He's talk, he's playing to the crowd.
I love it. He was telling me he's a little
bit under the weather like many of us are or, or I think I'm
starting to you are a little bit.
So I appreciate you plowing through.
Do me a favor, before we get back into the the rest of the
segment, can you pull up the exact quote?
And the word challenge is in there yesterday from Brian.
I challenge anybody who thinks we're running it back, whatever
it is. And then when you find it, just
pop back in and I want you to read it for us.
OK. Thanks, man.
Thank you. So he's going to get that in a
minute. Yeah, I mean it.
It really is the same exact team.
Now, I understand that this year you're going to have Caballero
for the entire season. And maybe this is part of of his
thought process here, which by the way, I don't think is
incredibly off base or wild. You know, I, I think it's fairly
sensible. I think it's rooted in pretty
good baseball logic. The Yankees have a good team.
No matter what you think or you think or you think the Yankees
will have one of the better teams in baseball.
But again, that energy that's been building up within the
Yankee fan base all these years is not about, well, the Yankees
going to be a playoff team. It's why in the world were the
Yankees not really involved with Beau Bichette?
Why were the Yankees not really involved in Kyle Tucker?
Why were the Yankees not really, really, really truly involved
like we thought they would be with Freddie Goraltha?
Instead, the Mets swoop in and the Mets and I, I always knew he
was going to the Mets, but we, or at least I said that I
thought he was going to go to the Mets.
But we talked about this and for a while it was like the Yanks of
the Mets were neck and neck. Now, the Yankees don't have a
lot of great prospects. They just, I think it was, I
think it was Law who came out with his top 100 prospects.
Yankees only have two in the top 100.
Spencer Jones is no longer a top 100 prospect in baseball, which
is very interesting. What's the kids name?
Will Bitmiss or Dick Smith? Something something something
like that. A shortstop that they drafted a
year ago hit about 345, slashed really well.
They don't know if he's going to be a shortstop.
Probably had to kick him over to second base.
Not a really good arm, but he was like one-on-one.
But, you know, otherwise they would have had three, but the
Yankees have two. So anyway, I don't want to get
off track here. The Peralta trade probably was
never going to work favorably for the Yankees because the
Yankees don't really have the system that the Mets and some
other teams do. So that's why, like, when it
comes to school ball, unless it's a Schlittler downstream or
go or Ben Rice or both of those guys, whatever it might be, the
minor league system is weakened for the Yankees.
We know that. All right, J Rod, do you have
the quote? Buddy, there we go.
I believe this is the quote you were looking for, he said.
I've been openly willing to challenge anybody.
Here we go that says we don't have a championship caliber
roster and here. We go OK So what we need to do
and this is the beauty of the BT Unleashed YouTube show with the
shorts and social media. This will be clipped and you
will be watching this and hopefully this will get in the
hands of Brian Cashman, who I like.
I don't think he's great at his job.
I like him. I think he's good at his job.
I think he used to be great. I think he's in some of his
philosophies have become very antiquated.
And I would like to extend a very respectful offer to the
Yankees general manager Brian Cashman to come on the show and
follow up on that statement that you just put out there for the
entire free world to see. So if you're willing to accept
the challenge and debate about the merits of World Series
viability of the Yankees, however you want to frame it,
hey, come on in. Again, we've done the dance
before. I've interviewed you a couple of
times. We've had fun.
I like Brian Cashman, he's Pitbull.
He is a he. He fights back man.
Sometimes He also just goes on and on and on and on.
And it's hard to ask a couple of questions.
But then again, as somebody who can also go on and on and on, I
can relate to that a little bit. You just got to know when to
jump in and cut him off there. I like Brian Cashman, it's never
been personal. I think Brian Cashman is a Hall
of Famer. But Brian, don't lie to us.
Like don't tell us one thing when we know that it's
abundantly clear that it's something else.
I mean, think about the words. And then there was there was
like, those words are really interesting.
And listen, do I think Brian Cashman is going to come on the
show? I don't know.
I mean, if you told me a year and a half or two year, two
years ago that that Aaron Boone was going to come in from
Connecticut for a BT and Sal live show and not ask for a
penny to do it, I would have been like, now that seems a
little bit unlikely, fairly implausible.
And there was booty, you know, doing a celebratory shot and
having a little red vino before the show, hanging out with a
couple of knuckleheads on stage talking about the Yankees, why
they're not doing anything right.
So you never know. You never know.
Brian Cashman does that, that feistiness and I don't think
that he would be completely adverse to it.
But again, I want to extend that, that very respectful
conversate that, you know, we'll have a respectful conversation.
Extend the very respectful, sincere invitation.
I invite Brian Cashman to come on BT Unleash to follow up what
he said yesterday and we can go back and forth that eventually,
you know, the details will sort through.
We'll probably get a little loud.
We'll probably do a little yell. It'll probably do a little
laughing and at the end of the day, hopefully we'll have a
great conversation and we'll get to the crux of the matter, which
I fundamentally disagree with in terms of what he said yesterday.
You know, we're not running it back.
You're running it back. It's the same team, bro.
You know? Now what what to be fair,
because I am always about being fair.
What is different about the prospects of this Yankees teams
under the assumption that there's no other move that's
going to be made? And by the way, they better make
moves to the bullpen, but just for the sake of moving with the
conversation. Again, Caballero is going to be
here for the entire season. He's a great super sub, great on
the bases, you know, good gritty clubhouse guy.
I know Boone loves him, right. So Caballero is going to be the
starting shortstop. Bolpe comes back and even the
medicals on Volpe. I was texting with his dad the
other day. But then who's a really good
guy? Mr. Volpe actually came up to me
and Sal at the I, I, I spoke longer with him.
You know, I spend more time with him.
I don't even, I, I know Sal said hi to him.
I spent a good 20 minutes with Mike.
His name is Michael. And he came to the Fanatics Fan
Fest over at the Javits Center this past summer.
And we were shooting the breeze and a lot of it was, you know,
his son's a jersey, obviously a Jersey kid played at Dale
Barton. My son, at that point, I was
less, she was 10 Jersey kid, shortstop, you know, plays
fairly competitive ball. So there was just it was a
really good dad to dad conversation, not so much about
his son, but but then as I got to know him and you know, we
would, as a matter of fact, I texted him the other day to see
how Anthony's doing and just to say hi because I hadn't checked
in for the new year. Great guy.
And he even said that, you know, he's coming along well, which is
great when dad says it, but then the Yankees said it and it looks
like Volpe might be a little bit of heads, a little bit of ahead
of schedule. But either way, Caballero's the
opening day shortstop. And then Volpe when he's
healthy, will come in, take the job and if he plays well, he
will keep the job. But if not, you'll get a platoon
situation. But Caballero is here for the
whole year. So in in regard to that, that's
a little bit of a different weapon, some different, you
know, different angles that Boone can play here.
You got Rosario for the full season.
You pick them up at the deadline.
He's a right stick. He crushes left knees, viable
righty bat. I like him for the role.
That's fine. Then you got Cam Schlittler here
from opening day. He was going to pitch the first
series of the year in San Francisco.
He's not going to pitch opening day.
That's going to be Max Freed, although sometimes it doesn't
always line up that way. Remember, Cortez pitched opening
Day a few years ago in Houston with when Soto his lone year
with the Yankees. So it's no longer all this guy's
pitching opening day. These guys are such creatures of
habit. Like Real Don didn't want to
deviate from it. Like, you know, so I I don't
know for sure that Freed's pitching opening day based on
merit. He should.
And then based on merit, Cam should pitch the second game.
Either way, you're going to have Cam Schlittler for, you know,
25, hopefully 3032 starts. And that is a massive difference
from last year's team. And then eventually going to get
Garrett Cole back. And while it's probably going to
be, you know, a little bit of a rough transition back to him
trusting his stuff and understanding his body and
getting the field back for all the different pitches and, you
know, being there full bore Vilo.
And then that'll be the first thing that returns, but more of
the secondary, the field stuff, right?
So maybe you give Garrett Cole 7-8 starts to figure it out.
And at that point, as I've said many times, I think Garrett Cole
is going to be 85 to 90% of the Cy Young version that we've come
to love and watch with the Yankees.
So those things, you know, a speed throw off the bench, a
righty hitter who can really help against lefties, bad
fielder, Rosario, certainly it's short, but a good stick,
Schlittler and Cole. So there are variables here that
are going to be very different, but so there's two angles here.
Number one of the Yankees going to be good enough to win the
World Series. I still don't think that they
are. I think they're a playoff team,
but I think they're two lefty oriented.
They don't have a lead off man and their bullpen needs work.
So I can push back on the both of those things with Brian
Cashman, which I will do respectfully, of course, if and
when Brian Cashman accepts the BT Unleashed invitation and
comes on the show and chops it up, it will sort through it.
I mean, if you're going to issue a challenge and then somebody
calls you on the challenge, don't you kind of have to
respond to the challenge? Otherwise it's a fairly baseless
challenge. Like you have to.
So again, I like cash. I've been a Brian Cashman fan,
but I've also in terms of a person, but I've also been a
Brian Cashman detractor these last, you know, 678 years.
And I'm not going to re litigate everything.
But you know, again, you know, a lot of not enough lefties and
then too many lefties and too slow, which they did address a
year ago, not not good enough defensively, which they also
addressed a little bit like that's in the crux of my my
issues baseball wise with Brian as a human.
I think Brian Cashman is awesome.
I really do. I think he's a fantastic human
being. Really class act Pitbull,
feisty, just what you want with your GM for New York team,
especially if the Yankees where there's always noise around the
Yankees. So that's what's going on with
Cash. I like that he pushed back.
I don't agree, you know, and, and they are two very different
things. Are they the same team?
He says no. I say yes, I just gave you the
lineup to prove that. So BT1 cash zero.
And then are they good enough to win a World Series team?
Now that's more to be a World Series team to win one.
Now that's more opinion driven. So I'm going to be fair and I'm
not going to say Brian Cashman's wrong because it's an opinion.
And I can't say that his opinion is wrong until, you know, if the
Yankees get bumped, then I don't want that to happen.
I'd rather be proven wrong there.
But an opinion is just that it's what he think is going to
happen, thinks is going to happen unless there's other
moves. You already know what I think is
going to happen. Playoffs and then short of the
World Series and not winning it, and then we'll get the answer.
But right now, late January, it's an opinion.
However, having said that, my opinion to me is more accurate
than is, at least right now. Oh my God, I'll tell you.
You know that really. I see all the comments coming in
Yankee fans, isn't it awesome talking baseball?
I love talking baseball. We'll get to Eli in a little
bit. I, I think I'm going to make
some enemies today with the Eli stuff.
Yesterday was the Belichick Hall of Fame stuff.
Eli, we got the official word. He got snubbed yesterday.
We'll get to that coming up. The Bridges stuff as well.
Very, very introspective of of an athlete.
You don't really hear that too often, not to that degree.
And I want to tell you what what I think that means moving
forward for Bridges and the Knicks and then a little
Johnny's. But you know, here we are and
it's it's almost February and all the players that we wanted
are no longer available. Like, you can't get them, you
know, and I didn't really, if you like to be consistent here,
I was never all in on Tucker. Now, last year when it was Louis
heel for Tucker, when that was on the table, that's a trade
that the Yankees lament did not making that really so.
But the more you watch Tucker, you know, the more he misses
those 15/20/20, 5:00-ish games. And, you know, there's some
rumblings as he really love baseball, as he really built for
the big city. I don't know.
But I'm not really willing to take that chance on a massive
contract, you know, So I was never really all in on Tucker
this version, Tucker 2 point O going around.
But I wanted Bichette. And see, Bichette was the move.
Bichette was the move that would have satisfied so much.
Number one, it would it would have made Toronto weaker.
Now Toronto's weaker because he's gone and he's with the
Mets. But Toronto would have been
weakened while simultaneously the Yankees would have been
strengthened. And Oh yeah, by the way, Beau
Bouchette would have brought exactly what the Yankees need.
And that is a righty stick with clutch presents and plate
discipline of 300 average left field, left center, center,
right, center, right field, you know, propensity to hit
everywhere all over the yard. Like that guy was built to be a
Yankee for a good, but just grimy.
Just the kind of guy that you know is going to strap it on and
not be, you know, not flinch as the stage gets like you're
playing the Dodgers in the World Series.
You want Beau Bouchet up there with two on A2 out there to run.
That's the guy you want. You want Jazz up there?
Think about this, right? See, this to me is why the
Yankees are not a World Series team.
And again, understand, I think they're a playoff team and I
think they're good, very good, better than most here.
But that line of demarcation that that's a big one there to
go from really good to a World Series team.
I don't see that. Do you want, I'm going to go
through this very fast? Do you want Trent Gresham up
there? Let's say the Yankees are down
to run and it's 1st and 2nd and it's 2 out, 8th inning, 9th
inning. We'll go 9th inning, right?
Just to really make the suspense and really make it as high a
leverage. Situations you can humanly have
here, right? Do you want Trent Grisham up
there against an elite pitcher? Do you really want?
I don't. OK, so, oh, for one, do you want
Aaron Judge up there? Of course you know Aaron Judge
crack through ledge. Even if he didn't crack through,
and even if he hit 170 in the playoffs and he hit the exact
what he hit 460, whatever it was, I'd still say yes because I
am a believer that eventually greatness, if you put the work
in and you are inherently talented.
When work meets talent, eventually you will pop through,
You will succeed. And the bigger the sample size
gets, the the greater the percentage of you eventually
cracking through goes. So Grisham.
No, Judge, Of course. Bellinger.
Yeah. Yeah.
I want him up there. You know, I know he's going to
make contact. Have a good at bat.
Yes. Stanton.
No, I don't. For every big home run that
Stanton hits, and he's hit a couple of monster ones as a
Yankee. No.
Down. We appreciate it.
But he could easily just, you know, slider flail, slider,
flail, fastball upstairs, punch out.
Goodnight. So you're not getting the
quality of bat. So All for one, one for two with
Judge, 2 for three with Belly, 2 for four with Stanton, who's who
I don't want. You want Jazz Chisholm up there
with in a spot like that against a smart pitcher with elite
stuff, Yanks down a run quality at bat, not swinging for the
moon. See.
And that's the difference when a lot of you asked me and a lot of
you do ask me this, right? Like why you why do you always
bang on on Jazz Chisholm? Guy went 3030.
You know, he's he could have gone maybe 4040 or at least 3535
if he was healthy. I understand that.
But this is the crux of the matter.
Like think about the question on my I'm asking right now.
Do you want Jazz Chisholm up there two on down a run late
against the stud closer against a good manager who's not going
to mismanage the bullpen or defense?
It's not going to catch the ball.
The answer is no, because he's swinging from his shoes and it's
the same aim at bat against the Royals in May that it would be
in that spot that I just created there.
There's no adjustments. All right, So no, no thank you,
Goldschmid. Now Goldschmid.
I'm I'm looking at last year's lineup and I actually, I think
the Yankees will get him back. And I know it's like the Yankees
are going to take a lot of heat. Oh, my God, you're going to run
it back with Goldschmid. I got no problem running back
with Goldschmid. The guy made $12 million last
year. He's going to play twice a week,
you know. And then the other thing that it
does is it if like Austin Wells is in a rough spot, not that I
think Ben Rice is Johnny Bench, but you could put Goldschmidt at
first base. And if Ben Rice is hitting the
way I know he's going to hit, you can then justify sitting
Austin Wells and putting Ben Rice behind the dish.
So I I would want Goldschmidt up in that spot because I know I'm
getting a quality at bat. You want Austin Wells up in that
spot? No.
You want Volpe up in that spot? No.
You want Ryan McMahon up in that spot?
No. So when all those no's add up to
a lineup that I don't trust, So how when the general manager
says this is a World Series team, nobody could tell me
otherwise. I just did.
Now that's my opinion.
But also, if you look at the averages and the optics of the
at bats of all the players I just mentioned, the high K rate,
the low walk rate, you know, it's also some substantiated by
numbers. It's not just me like imagining.
So Oh well, if this happens, how do I think this guy would do?
It's rooted in evidence, guys, not just making this up.
And and I don't know that there's a an intelligent Yankee
fan that could really disagree with anything that I just said
there. Now, to be fair to the
conversation, the only one who might, and by the way, I would
want Ben Rice up there in that spot.
To be fair, the only one that I think maybe you guys can push
back on and I know some of you will cause some of you love him
would be Stanton. You know, because Stanton has
gone deep, had some big at bats, big moments, clutch spot.
So there is evidence there too, but there's also evidence to the
contrary. I just think again, think about
the situation, couple of guys on down a run, he might hit a one
hop rocket or he like as as he hits the hell, I mean hits the
balls hardest anybody in the history of the game in terms of
eggs of Vilo. But if it's on the ground,
excuse me, if it's on the ground, it's a double play.
So we can't run if it's not lifted in the air, you know,
really what are you doing here? And then if he gets on base, you
got to burn somebody because you can't run.
So and at that stage of the game, and I'm talking 8th or 9th
inning as I just made-up this fictitious situation.
But those situations or what determines whether or not you
win, it's pretty, it's a pretty sure bet that Boone has already
used a Caballero or a Goldschmidt as a defensive
replacement or, you know, Rosario coming off the bench to
face a righty. So at that point, face a lefty.
So at that point, you know, if Stanton's on base, who's going
to pinch run? There's only so many guys on the
active roster. So I just fundamentally disagree
with pretty much everything that Brian Cashman said yesterday.
But then again, that's nothing new.
That is nothing new. I have disagreed with a lot of
the stuff that he said. And you know, until they win the
championship and like, I'm not trying to flex or and get any
clout here, but until like, it's the onus is now on him to prove
me wrong and prove us wrong because everything that I've
said is kind of happened and it hasn't been the most favorable
result. So, you know, it's getting
flimsy what he can lean on. How about let's get some of
these texts in there. Hussy and wad 6631.
Austin Wells is the backup catcher to Ben Rice is way
better than him starting every day.
Ben Rice is going to be awesome. Yeah, Ben Rice, if you ask me
right now, like numbers just loose parameters for Ben Rice.
I would if he's healthy, I would say I'd probably say 25 home
runs. I'd say about a 275 to 282
average. I'd say about a 3435% on base
percentage. And I'd say probably in the
neighborhood OPS, which is what really matters to me.
You know, I love the OPS. I'd say eight, 15830.
Like he's that kind of hitter. The problem is I, you know,
wells is, is a better framer is a bit receives the ball better.
You know, Rice is a little, you know, I was like the tin man in
the Wizard of Oz. You got to get him like Eminem
says, get some oil in the joints.
Like I watch, I watch Rice catch and I'm like, I know he's not
terrible. And and the numbers back that
up, but the numbers also back up the fact that that Austin Wells
is a superior defensive catcher. Now all Austin and maybe this is
the year and maybe this is what Cashman's banking on.
But if that's the case, then this is what Brian Cashman needs
to say. He needs to and I think he
referenced it to a bit, but it it didn't, it wasn't the main
emphasis, which is why I think his main point I'm not feeling.
So if you want to tell me that, you know, you expect an 8 to 12%
statistical growth, I'm just throwing out again broad
parameters here in Austin Wells. Meaning maybe he'll strike out
eight to 10% less. That's actually a little bit
high, 6 to 8% less and get on base a little bit more.
And you know, instead of hitting 212, whatever he hits, hit two,
38245, something like that, you know, 2025 home run.
I mean, that's possible. I'm not saying it's not
possible. I mean, you know, booty and
booty is my guy. But Booty, he was telling us the
other night again, I asked him like I asked him on stage and
I'm not respectfully, I'm I'm not, I don't agree with it.
But he's the manager. You know, he is telling us that
the Yankees truly believe that Ryan McMahon, that there's more
in the tank that he's going to strike out less and he's going
to hit for a higher average. I don't see it because when you
are a below average, which he has been for a decade, not three
years, like how you going to get better in your 11th year, 10th
year, whatever it is. And you know, McMahon, you know,
it's not like he played in the Oakland Coliseum with this
cavernous foul territory. And they were, you know, and you
could document this. There were 18 bulls that would
have been in the seats at Yankee Stadium that were caught for
outs or, and the the marine layer and the heavy wind or
whatever. It's cold out there.
It's dank. It's hard to really hit home
runs in in the Coliseum, which is why I say that, you know, all
right, you get him out of that ballpark and put him in the
Bronx. Well, yeah, I could see a real
uptick there. But if you are a strikeout
machine, as Ryan McMahon has always proven to be, man, I know
I don't manage the Yankees, but, you know, I I, I think I know my
baseball. I I don't know how you change
being that profile of a hitter at this stage of your career.
I don't know how you do it. I really don't.
I'm not saying you can't run into a few more home runs and
yeah, but the strikeouts are like you strike out when you
strike out at that rate. And I'm talking not just Ryan,
but you know, when you're in that for him, jeez, he's like
35%, whatever his rate is. But same with Spencer Jones,
which is why I'm down on him. When you are like 283032 N of
that, you're a disaster. And there's a lot of it bats to
prove that that's who you are. You're the reason you are that
way is you either can't handle really good secondary stuff,
which is all they throw you. So you're cooked because the
book is out immediately, or do you have some issues with elite
Velo? So let's go 97 and above at this
point in 2026. Isn't that crazy?
You know, 97, it's like a cookie, you know, But really,
97's a, a, a good number to work with.
Anything below that you can square up.
But 9798, you're just a little late.
You foul it off like, well, what's going to change?
Generally it's either a recognition thing, not seeing
the seams, not reading the spin, an aptitude thing, an IQ thing,
which I don't think it is with Ryan, or just some sort of flaw
which I am admittedly not qualified to identify because
I'm not a hitting coach, you know.
But when you, when you're that guy for a decade, I, I just, I
don't believe it. I, I need to see it.
There's no way I'm going to sit here and say, yeah, that sounds
good. I mean, Booty's telling me he's
going to go from 212 strike. He didn't say an exact number to
143. Sounds good to me.
I'll buy it. But I got to see it.
I got to see April and May and I've got to see the strikeout
rate at 21% or 22% and trickling downward.
You saw that that's I'm an evidence person.
I need some evidence. Not that I'll never take a leap
of faith. Like I'll give you an example.
Somebody like Jason Dominguez to me where there's a much smaller
sample. He's already proven that he's
got certain things that I look for where you know, with
maturity, which with being comfortable with more frequent
playing time, with all those things young players need like
just the runway to get off and and be what you're ultimately
going to be like the guys on base 3435% of the time.
He's not 280, you know, like like Volpe, He's already, he's
already got a good eye. His K rate is fairly low.
He runs like the wind. He's got a good arm.
And I think the power is going to blossom, not to the Mickey
Mantle power that everybody thought was coming with the
nickname The Martian, but I really think that Jason
Dominguez could be really good. I really, really there's
evidence there. I think he's going to get
incrementally better. And think about this guy's, he's
22, unlike Ryan McMahon or you know, Rosario is who he is at
this point. Same with Goldschmidt, the
splits lefty versus righties. Like a guy like Jason Dominguez
at age 22. Let's just I'm going to be
conservative here. Let's give him, let's give him a
3% growth rate, right over the next three years.
So this year across the board uptake, 2 and a half, 3% on base
strikeout rate, walk rate, home runs, all those things, right.
And then if there is baseball in 2027, another two and a half 3%.
And then the next year when he's 25, another two and a half 3%.
So you told about a roughly a 10% gain as he's figuring out
the league before he's even entered his prime.
Now just tack 10. I don't have number one.
I don't have the bandwidth mathematically to do it because
I stink in math. But just imagine Jason Dominguez
now with the numbers that he put up last year with a 10% uptick
across the board. Pretty good.
Because I thought he was pretty good last year.
I thought he should have played more.
So that's where I'm at with the Yankees.
Nothing's really changed except me reacting to what Brian
Cashman said yesterday. You know, hey, I challenge
anybody, challenges out there. B, Let's go and I promise, and I
don't need to say this because I think people who have followed
my career, you know, no matter how muddy I get during a rant,
like I'm going to be respectful. Like I'm not going to.
I'm not one of these guys. I respect the game too much.
I respect the sport. I respect people too much to get
on the air and railroad. Brian Cashman.
So I promise Brian Cashman if he comes on the show, Brian Cashman
is going to get treated well. And then when Brian Cashman says
things that I disagree with, you bet you're behind.
I'm going to push back with some force and we're going to have a
real baseball conversation and we'll go where we go.
Invitations out there. Mr. Cashman, hopefully you will
be willing to to accept. Hey, Jay, Rod, by the way, that
is I, I forgot to tell you that is that is also in the job
description. Jay, it is your job to get Brian
Cashman on the show. Oh, man.
All right. Well then.
Guess what? I'm just going to go to the
Bronx today, stand outside Yankee Stadium and just get a
sign up. Cashman come to unleash Flag
them down yesterday and listen, if they can sell whatever the
hell they sell on the side of the road at the Deegan, you
know, when you leave in a game, you know, water, fruit, I mean,
yeah, that works. They make a few bucks.
Maybe the sign will work. Yeah, we'll try it.
I had a number for Brian Cashman.
I just don't. And I texted him.
So I was trying to get him back on with me and Sal a while ago
and he didn't respond. Now, I don't know if he didn't
respond because he was, he was angered by some of the things
that we were saying or I was saying or whatever.
But I have never really texted with Brian again.
I've had him on the show a few times.
I I, you know, I've texted Jason Zillow a few times when, when
he's he's done some good things for us.
Got me and Tiki Carlos Rodon when I did the Yankee games when
I was in the Yankee booth, which by the way, was phenomenal.
I mean, you want to talk about doing something that I never
thought that I was going to have a chance to do.
I mean, doing a couple of Yankee and that was the time of my
life. I had a blast.
God, I would love to do more of that.
Better start being nice to cash. So I was texting Jason, you
know, back and forth over, you know, some of the logistics with
that into the stadium, parking, whatever.
So I will, I will, I will reach out.
I will text Jason. He's busy.
I don't expect it to necessarily happen like these things
generally happen when you have your own personal contacts.
That's why, you know, that's why Booney comes on.
That's why Booney hooks us up. So we'll see.
I'm going to really try to get to the Cashman stuff.
Do me a favor. I want to get to Eli J Rod as
some of these some of these Yankee to find a couple of good
ones, get them up on the screen. I certainly want to respond to
that. And and as as Jay is doing that,
I'm going to jump into some Eli stuff here.
All right, so as we know, you know what, let me start with
this first at why do you guys have such long names at Richie
Gershuni? I believe I said that right 262
Will the Yankees be a lot better off with Nico or Brandon
Donovan? Saint Louis is the lead off man.
It seems like this trade wouldn't be that difficult.
I've said this for a while. I I really have I and to me it's
Nico or bust. I'm not saying I wouldn't take
Donovan. Nico Horner is everything that
the Yankees need. He is grimy, he is gritty, he is
high contact. I mean, he's a stud.
He's in that and he's exactly what they're missing.
Is he going to hit thirty home runs like Jazz?
No, But let me ask you this. Who would you rather have a ball
hit to? You know, again, high leverage
spot Nico with second Jazz at second got to turn the double
play or it's got to be a perfect relay from the gap on a play to
play to a play at 3rd Instead last year, you know, or a couple
of years ago in the World Series, you got you got Jazz.
You know, looking around those runners are are running around
the bases. Like, what are we?
What are we doing here? I love Nico and I think it would
change so much like about the Yankee lineup.
I'm not going to do this whole thing, but I'll do the first
5-6. Let's just imagine Nico Batten
first playing second, all right? Then then you see again, the
whole there's still a lot of lefties there.
I'm just trying to think about this out loud.
Nico. One, I know they're going to
keep Judge 2. I wouldn't, but I mean, Judge is
the man wherever. Judge 2, right field, Belly 3
left field. You know, now you're going to
need a righty, It's probably Stanton, you know, then you get
into the Rices and some other players.
But you know, that's why. Like if the Yankees would have
spent money on Bichette and been creative and had a plan, you
know, you could have you could have signed Bichette, who's not
going to be in Queens long. He's going to opt out and bounce
because he's going to have, I think he's going to have his
best year in baseball this year with with Juan.
So I think he's going to hit third.
I think Soto's going to be in front of them.
Look at what Pete did behind Soto.
Best year. I think Beau Bichette's going to
be phenomenal. So but imagine Beau Bichette and
then trade for for Nico. I mean, now that Brian is a
World Series team, that really is all right.
So Eli, right. We did the Belichick stuff
yesterday. The the Pro Football Hall of
Fame is an absolute travesty. And I'm like, one thing I'm not
going to do, I just don't believe in it.
Like I'm not going to recreate the the nutty energy from
yesterday. If you missed yesterday's show,
man, I was on one yesterday. Everything that I touched on, I
was I was revved up. I mean, absolutely everything.
And it started with that dope Bill Pullian getting in the way.
And you know, with, with, with Kraft and Belichick, Belichick
not receiving 10 votes from people to get to the Hall of
Fame. I mean, it's an absolute
travesty. So that was the main part of the
show yesterday. Now we learned last night, and
I'm not surprised, but second straight year Eli did not
receive the required votes. He's denied as well.
Eli's one of 15 on the modern era finalists list there.
You got Drew Brees, you've got Larry Fitzgerald, you got Adam
Vinatieri. Those guys are absolutely going
to get in, see, and I know I'm going to make some enemies with
this here, but this is just the way it's got to be.
Now. I hope you hear what I'm saying
and not what you think I'm saying, because this happens a
lot with Eli. I get it.
Like when you and I respect it, like I'm I'm being fully
transparent. I'm not, I'm not needling you.
I'm being totally real. But when there's a conversation
about Eli and the Hall of Fame giant fans get like this, like
that, that energy just they get they get on edge.
You know why they get on edge is they know it's a kind of, it's a
flimsy case. They know what they watched and
they know for basically 15 years, Eli Manning was never one
of the best quarterbacks in football, period.
Now separating the great moments.
And I also admit Eli is going to get into the Hall of Fame and he
should based on his place in football lore, beating Belichick
and Brady twice, you know, being the quarterback of the New York
Football Giants, winning the MVP in the Super Bowl twice.
The helmet catch, the 6th row down the sidelines, that 46 yard
gain, right, That Manningham or Hicks, I think that was, I think
that was Mario Manningham. Either way, what are the best
throws I've ever seen, right, Eli, one of the best people that
you can possibly meet. This is not about that.
This is about really remembering and not embellishing what you
watched as a football fan. And I got a simple question for
you when you would sit down to watch football, whether it's the
red zone, you know, whether it's CBS, whether it's Fox, more
specifically for the Giants there, you know, Sunday night,
ESPN Thursday, whatever the hell channel that game's on or was on
back then. I don't even know anymore.
So many channels stream this. Won't you stream this stream?
Eli Manning, When you watched and you had your fantasy team
going, he had a couple of bets sprinkled out, a couple of
parlays, couple of reverses, this team laying a touchdown.
This team, you know, hey, this team dogs, 2 1/2 point dogs, you
know, you got the whole Sunday set up, the food, the multiple
TV's, the laptop, checking all the fantasy scores.
As I said, you watch the whole league.
Unlike baseball. Now, I'm not sitting there
watching the Reds and the Pirates.
Like you know, I'll watch the Red Sox if, if a good pitcher is
going or like crochet, you know, obviously watch the Yanks and
Mets every night. I'll check in on the Phillies,
the Dodgers. Now I'll be checking in with
Toronto and I'm not sitting there watching, you know, if
it's a 10:30 first pitch. Giants, I don't know, a Giants,
Dodgers, I might for an inning or two.
But the point is you don't. We don't consume baseball the
way we consume football. Football is an all day
consumption and it's really for me, the only sport that you can
derive any sort of real pleasure.
For me, this is just the way I'm wired, watching other teams play
more than mine. Well, I mean that again, if I
was relying on the Chets to provide any sort of happiness or
excitement, I, I would watch cricket instead of watching
football. So I mean, I've got to gravitate
to some other players and some other teams.
Otherwise it would be like, honestly, it would be like work.
Got to watch football today, got to watch The Jets.
Jeez. You know, it really, it does
feel like work anyway, during Eli's career.
Is going to rifle through some names, some are obvious, right?
Tom Brady? Go Peyton, one of the top three
or four of all time. Drew Brees, absolutely better.
Aaron Rodgers. Now this will receive some
pushback it shouldn't on a week to week basis.
Philip Rivers, better. Ben Roethlisberger, better.
Matt Ryan better. Russell Wilson not not all these
guys started when when Eli. So I get that.
Russell Wilson during his prime better.
Tony Romo now this is one that's going to put giant fans in a
tizzy better And I'll tell you why in a minute, right?
So you look at all this and like, let's not try to reinvent
the wheel. Let's just be very transparent
and very honest about this. The only reason And again, I'm
telling you he's going to get in.
But this notion now the volumes not nearly as loud as the
Belichick stuff. Thank God.
But for giants fans, why Eli didn't get in again.
Do you lucky he ever gets in which he will all right.
But to think that Eli should be jumping in front of a Fitzgerald
or a Drew Brees. Are you out of your mind?
Like did you watch football? I mean, you know, think about
all your now this is not the main.
Oh, I just dropped my and it's on the other side of the room.
Think about all of the fantasy drafts that you've sat in,
right? And to me, the fun part, like
you got to do it in person. You got to be with the boys.
To me, a fan, and I've had to do a few of these lately because
busy kids games, people move away.
Life changes, right? But for the first, I don't know,
20 years of me doing fan, 15 years of me doing fantasy
football, make it 20. It was always like, let's take a
road trip, let's get together and then let's play cards and
shoot hoops or whatever we're going to do watch hoops, right?
Like we would always do our baseball fantasy draft during
like the Sweet 16 or the Elite 8, my buddy Mike's house at my
buddy Mike's house. And and then after that bust out
the cards, make it an all day thing, have a couple of beers,
whatever. Like you got to do it in person
anyway as you're drafting, right?
Was anybody in a rush to get Eli Manning on your fantasy football
team? Now, again, that what does that
really mean? It's what is it emblematic of?
It's not necessarily emblematic of Hall of Fame candidacy.
I'm not saying that. I'm not saying there's that
direct of a correlation. But what I am absolutely saying
is that generally the quarterback that you draft is a
guy that's going to put up, I don't know, pretty good stats.
And there were a lot of players, not to mention a couple of
years. Donovan McNabb.
I'm just throwing names out. Victoria, you know, even Farve
at the end, what, 38 touchdowns with the Vikings that one year.
There were so many names that you had to have before Eli.
Doesn't mean you don't want Eli to be a quarterback in, in terms
of real football, because he's a great leader, incredibly
durable, emotionally consistent and a good player.
He just wasn't great and I don't understand why you guys can't
understand that. It really is like the defense,
the rush to defend Eli, which I I do respect, but you can defend
him without twisting the narrative to a point that's not
applicable. He just wasn't a great player.
Eli had great moments and there's a big difference and I
just I and I remember saying this with Sal who agrees with me
by the way, and and others Tiki didn't, but I don't know if I
don't really don't I I don't know.
I don't honestly, I love Tiki. I don't know what Tiki thinks
what Eli because when Tiki when Tiki said what he said about
Eli, Tiki got dragged. And by the way, he should not
have because if you actually watch what he said about Eli,
you got to know Tiki the way I know him.
He really didn't mean it. It wasn't a derisive shot.
It was more talking about his personality.
Like when Eli tries to lead, it's comical.
And you see that in quotes like what?
Oh, I can't stand screw Tiki. What did he say about my guy?
You know, Tiki didn't win Eli that it and it really was unfair
to Tiki. But it really there was a bit of
a misrepresentation because what he meant was he was kind of, you
know, goofy in a in a good way and very funny.
So that when the Eli would lead Eli, it wasn't like that.
You know, that like Jameis Winston in the huddle before,
you know, when he when he was a starter get or Drew Brees
getting everybody read up or Tom Brady was a different, different
presentation Anyway. So I don't really know what tiki
thinks about Eli. So you know, he said he said
that and then along the way he said some things were went the
other direction where I'm like, all right, take it easy, buddy.
Like you don't have to overdo it here.
I we, we know, we I know I had your back with that.
I always defend. Nobody defended Tiki more than
me. Nobody, right, because I thought
he was worth defending. I thought a lot of things got
thrown out of place there and I don't like that nobody else
defended him but me. And but also you can't take it
to the other. You can't make him something he
wasn't and he was just not a superstar.
Like he was nowhere near some of those names that I mentioned,
right. Think about this guy's If I said
to you, forget about the name Eli Manning, strip that away.
Player X All right, we got player X right now. 0 This is a
really incriminating stat, and I don't think many of you know
this. Zero as in less than one regular
season MVP votes. You're a quarterback, you know,
and the quarterbacks and maybe the defensive end or like Troy
Palamalu, like some crazy safety, one of those guys
Megatron, like some of these beasts out of these world
receivers. But most of the votes go to
quarterbacks 0. Not a single regular season MVP
vote. So I could just end the
conversation there, but I'm doing a podcast.
I'm not looking a mic drop. I'm I'm I'm looking to to
continue this hold on. I want to make sure I don't
have. We will be right back
fans, do not worry. BT will be back very shortly so
just give it like 2 seconds. Good.
You're good. We're good.
Yeah. I got to get something to looked
at. That's that is not anything to
do with the camera. That is actually something with
my laptop. That's a little thing.
All right, Full lines are down. All right, I'm back here.
All right, so 00 regular season MVP votes never made All Pro,
never led the NFL in a single offensive category, average
career passing rating. And he led the league in picks
three times. Now, if you take away Eli
Manning's name, and that's again, that's just player X, no
regular season MVP votes, never all pro, never a single
offensive category. He led average passer rating and
three times led the league in picks, never led the league in
touchdowns. Or are we really making a case
that that guy's a whole the Famer?
The answer is no. I'm going to answer my own
question. It's it's it's undeniably no.
But what changes the complexion of this conversation, and I get
it, is that he's a two time Super Bowl MVP.
Now, if Eli only had one, he's not a Hall of Famer.
And I have no problem saying that I I really don't think that
he would be, nor do I think that he should be.
And I think at least so far, the voters are getting this aspect
of it right. And we'll see eventually he's
going to get in. I mean, it doesn't hurt that
your last name is Manning. And even if it was Eli Jones,
you know, a quarterback of the Giants, all the reasons I said
before, probably would get in. But this notion that, like, Eli
is on the side of the road waiting unfairly for somebody
for the Hall of Fame caravan to pick him up while, you know, all
these other players who he was better than are just on the bus
and waving on the highways. He's sitting there looking for a
ride, trying to hitch his wagon to somebody.
It's it's ridiculously overstated.
It's not even remotely accurate. You know, And again, you know,
just go back to and if you're a Giants fan, you almost have to
detach yourself from this. So I guess at least for this
moment, I'm talking to everybody but the Giant fans, right?
Where all you have to do is watch the red zone.
And you're watching the red zone on a weekly basis.
And you seen all these quarterbacks, you know, and I
don't know if you're a fan in Chicago, if you're a fan down in
Jacksonville, if you're a fan down in Carolina, if you're a
fan out West with the Niners or at that point in, in Oakland,
the Raiders, you know, now Vegas will still West, but or Seattle
up in the great Pacific Northwest or Arizona in the
desert. Like, are you sitting on the
edge of your chair? Like, all right, red zone, Scott
Hanson, Giants playing whomever. Wow, what did Eli do today?
No, you respect Eli for a lot of the reasons I already told you.
Great character, great durability, 2 time Super Bowl
champ, but that's pretty much it, you know, and that's OK.
And by the way, to be fair, further to Eli, I think the way
he's processed this, I think he's been well, it's, it's
incredibly consistent with his character.
He's like, listen, I'm totally cool with what I did.
And that's why he's really, and it never sounds this way when
I'm having this conversation, but he's really one of my
favorite people. Like I love Eli, I love him, I
love Eli and I'm just very literal when it comes to Hall of
Fame stuff. Like, you know that like I'm
just not one of these guys who kind of like sports and likes to
get on and talk about stuff other than sports.
I like to talk about sports because I watch sports and I
know sports and I've always cared about sports immensely.
So to me, if I feel like a conversation is getting a little
bit hijacked, I I feel like I've got to kind of throw it in there
and that's what I do at the under score.
Rod, who are the other QBs during Eli's time?
They got the regular season votes.
I just named a bunch of them, Drew Breeze.
I mean, Aaron Rodgers, Philip Rivers, Big Ben, Peyton, Tom
Brady, Matt Ryan won the MVP, Russell Wilson.
I would have to think Romo got a vote or two.
Look at Tony Romo's stats. They're absolutely insane.
How about just plain fishing 5354?
Dude, if you're dropping line today, I'm going to be very
jealous. I have not been fishing in a
while. We got to do a little fishing
show at some point. I'd love to fish.
I love the handle and I appreciate that.
Very generous. Thanks, man.
All right, Sweet Lou in Florida. It was an honor to meet you and
Sal and Boonie at the live show. Oh, that's right.
Yes, I remember you now. Awesome.
Eli is 11th and passing yards in touchdowns.
No doubt you're true Factually, we you're right holds the record
for most yards in a single postseason.
Hold the Famer pedalize for playing in the Brady era.
Well again, and thank you for that.
Awesome and great to meet you. So to come in from Florida for a
live show that we were experimenting with now it was
awesome. And we're planning another one
And the next target is Long Island.
I can tell you that I don't know.
I don't have the date. Think I have the venue, but not
comfortable enough to divulge it yet.
But the next target, BT and South live Long Island.
We're coming out east and we're coming out strong.
All right. But the fly in from Florida to
come and show us support. I mean, that is just that's
wonderful, man, I, I, I really can't thank you enough.
It's, it's great, but understand what I'm saying, I'm not saying
he's not going to get in the Hall of Fame.
I'm just saying that I guess really what I'm saying is he's
overrated because when you look at the, when you hear all the
fame, there's an immediate and now I know it's diluted with
baseball as well, last couple of years, last decade or so.
But like there's there shouldn't there shouldn't be no downgrade
or no dilution or no. Well, he's a full Hall of Famer,
but you don't really have to contextualize Hall of Fame Hall
of Famer. You know, hey, Derek Jeter, Hall
of Famer, Lawrence Taylor, Hall of Famer, Patrick Ewing, Hall of
Famer, you know, Henrik Lundquist, Hall of Famer.
You just know what you watched, right?
You know, Marc Messier. I don't know why I'm dropping
these hockey. By the way, the Rangers lost
again to the Islanders. The Isles are three and O
Rangers are a disaster. Rangers suck.
I mean, the Rangers are Rangers have no soul.
Rangers have no spine. Rangers are a disgrace guy.
He got pumped again. Islanders beat him three and O
this year again. I think they're playing to begin
tonight or tomorrow either way. You know Hall of Farmers, you
know Claude Frazier, Willis Reed, you know the Nick Tom
Seaver, you know Reggie Jackson, you know Mariano is no thought.
Whitey Ford, Mickey Mantle, Yogi Berra, it's Hall of Famer.
Does Eli stack up with those guys?
No, but the totality, the totality I said that very really
enunciated those syllables, the totality of Eli's career will
get him there, and I'm OK with that.
He should get there eventually, and he will.
I'm just letting you know that, you know, the other side of the
coin. I think it's my responsibility
as somebody who, you know, carries the flag for sporting
passion. One of those people, not the
only one, but yeah, there's a lot of people out there that
really don't know what they're talking about and really don't
care. They're making big, fat
paychecks. And are they really watching?
Do they really love it the way many of us love it when we were
kids? The answer is no.
That's why when a lot of people say, dude, well, how are you so
passionate? How are you always so
passionate? Like, it's not like I'm getting
on the air like the Yankees won a playoff game last night and
you get the fire because I love this.
And when you love something, you're going to defend things
with vigor, you're going to push back on things with with vigor,
You're going to provide context when it's applicable.
Like those are things that just are inherently within me.
And the Eli thing always gets me in trouble.
It's nuts. It always gets me in trouble to
an extent, not the way it used to, because I think many of you
understand that at this point. I'm right.
J Rod, anything else going on there, buddy?
What do we got? We good.
Let's see checking out some some of these chats.
Oh, people are saying Florida for the next live show.
I mean, I'm seeing a lot of comments from from Florida.
Florida, huh? I got married.
We got, we got married down to Florida.
We got married down to Boca. Nice.
Yeah. I mean, Boca Boca.
Love it. Beautiful.
Yeah, Florida's awesome, man. Florida's.
I love Florida, too. I've got a lot of relatives in
Florida. I I listen to the plausibility
of taking the entire show to Florida.
Yeah, you know, one thing at a time here, brick by brick.
You know, we're not we're not Eminem going on tour where it's
a guaranteed sell out no matter where we go.
Let's build it. Let's get this thing going.
One for one. BT and Sal live show rousing
success, and I know the second one will also be a rousing
success because of the fans. You know, I'm not even saying
because of me and Sal, because of you guys, like you just
brought juice. And when we go to Long Island
that play, I expect the roof to pop off, man.
It's going to be a bigger venue and it's going to be even better
because as you do it for the first time, you learn what
works. And I think pretty much
everything worked to be to be fair, And I don't mean that in
an arrogant way, but mostly everything we did popped.
Like, there wasn't much wasted time or fumbling around, like,
oh, what do we do? And we were on stage for 2 1/2
hours. I mean, you know, I'm not a
comedian. You know, I'm not.
Yeah, really. Like it was.
I'll tell you what. I'll tell you one thing about
that stage, J Rod, when you get on that stage, man, you, you,
you know, you've sung and you've traveled.
You know, it is intoxicating. It's one thing.
And I love the microphone and I love being on TV and I I love,
you know, entertaining and presenting.
But when you're on a stage in front of people, not to mention
chilling in the green room before I, I felt like a big shot
that. Yeah.
J. Rod, I don't know, live
audiences are different. And like you said, you know,
it's all, it really isn't even about you doing what you're
doing. It's just the fact that people
are there, people are coming to support.
So yeah, I feel like that's the great thing with all of it.
Absolutely awesome. All right, I keep looking at my
computer and I keep seeing the the battery dwindling here.
So that's something I've got to rectify, which I will.
I just have to make sure that I get this in.
And then if you could do me a favor, J Roy, just check for a
couple of some of those good texts there, whether it's the
Eli stuff, whether it's the Cashman stuff, whatever.
It might be something that pertains to something that we've
hit already. I want to make sure I don't miss
this. So last night, Knicks look good.
Last night. I'm not going to change my
opinion. Knicks aren't going to win
anything in terms of the championship with this crew.
They're just not. But they did look good last
night. They won four straight.
I want to give credit where credit's due.
I'm not trying to be Mr. Negativity.
I don't think they're good enough to win the championship.
I would absolutely trade cat. I would get rid of bridges.
Do what you got to do to get you can leave that up there.
I'll get to that in a minute. Get to you know, I I would trade
do whatever you have to do to get Yanis right.
All those things. But Mikhail Bridges last night,
somebody who I have been all over lately because he hasn't
played great plays a little bit too soft for my taste.
His post game comments were about as deep and as as like, I
don't know that I can respect anything much more than a
professional athlete making 20, five, $30 million a year,
whatever he's making, being this vulnerable and this forthright
in his own personal assessment. So he said he was with Clyde
after the game and he said that the onus on some of his recent
play is on him for and he's got to be more, quote, coachable.
I mean, how about when was the last time you heard a player say
that? I've got it.
It's always them them. It's very rarely the thumb to
the chest, as I like to say. It's always somebody else's
fault. What amazing accountability.
Amazing right there. I've got to be more coachable.
And then he also attributed some of his struggles to a sense of,
quote, entitlement. Wow.
Now that one is a different wow. It's one thing to say you've got
to be more coachable like me. That's translating, all right.
Maybe a little resistant to the new offense, whatever it might
be. That's like schematical stuff,
the entitlement stuff. That's unacceptable.
What the hell are you entitled about?
Entitled. You get to the foul line once a
night in 1.3 * a game. What are you?
You haven't gotten to the NBA Finals as a Knick.
You haven't won the championship as a Knick.
What are you entitled about? Why?
Cuz you won the NBA Cup in the middle of the season.
That was a weird 1. So I still give him credit for
being that vulnerable and that transparent.
But why the hell is he entitled? If anybody should say that, it's
Brunson, and Brunson would never say that.
So this is another reason why, while I can respect somebody as
I do, I still want him to be traded.
I hope he is because he had issues with Tom Thibodeau last
year. Remember that about the minutes?
And then Tom Thibodeau was like, Nah, we got no problem.
Like he diffused it and he basically lied just for the
betterment of the team to make sure that the Knicks could keep
going and push forward. But behind the scenes, Bridges
was one of those guys who was kind of grease in the skids to
get Tom Thibodeau out of there. So let me get this straight.
You got a problem with Tom Thibodeau last year and now up
until last night. We had a problem with the coach
this year. A new coach.
Well, why you not Michael Jordan?
You know Patrick Ewing, not LeBron.
Get a grab, man. Sense of entitlement, dude.
Come on, come on, come on and let me read this here.
Come on. By the way, I got a Starbucks
today. Even though it's in the it's
actually in the mug. My wife who was basically sick
with three. Let me tell you one thing about
being a dad when and listen, wives can drive you nuts and we
could drive them nuts and you know, household two kids, you
know, expenses. Now I'm home every day new show
games every night practices there.
Hey, sign up for this, do this school homework and it's a lot.
It's a beautiful, incredibly rewarding slash tough juggle to
be fully as a dad. Not easy.
Anybody who says it's easy is a liar.
OK, but the reward is is through the roof.
But I will say this, when the woman of the house goes down and
get sick, it's help time out. I, you know, I hey, time out on
the floor. We, we, we got to intervene here
now. And she's a trooper.
Like she plows through almost everything.
She was in bed for a good two days for one point.
I'm like, alright, we milking it here a little bit.
It's getting a little bit long here, but I know she wasn't.
But I did think that for a second, even yesterday, to the
point where I'm like, I can't look at these dishes in the sink
anymore. I, I loaded them up, You know,
I, I wipe down the island with the Kleenex, whatever the hell
is in the under the counter. I don't know, took the kids to
school, not that I don't mind me and I've done that even when
she's healthy, like I like doing that, but when the mom is out of
whack and the mom is not feeling right and she's sick, you got to
hold on for dear life. You got to hold on for dear
life. So thank God mommy is up and
about today. So mommy went.
The point is, mommy went and got me the the Starbucks, even
though it's not in the Starbucks cup.
So I appreciate that for mommy. All right, Paul, L-84 drummer.
Eli is to football what Tim Raines is to baseball.
Both will be in the Hall of Fame, and neither deserve it.
Well, I got to be honest with you, I actually think that Tim
Raines was better at his job than Eli, wasn't his.
I almost don't want to go down this road because now this is a
rabbit hole that could get me in real trouble with those giant
fans, you know? But I'm going to react to what's
on the screen there. I mean, Tim Raines, I mean, I
really, that's the other thing I got to do like what I was doing
the show with Sal, obviously with just BS back and forth.
I got my laptop, which is in front of me here, cameras up
there. So I can't, you know, and I, I
love to just to reinforce what I'm saying, pop up a number.
I can't do it now and I don't want to do it on the phone
because it's just me and I don't want to, you know, but but
knowing what I know about Tim Raines and certainly knowing
what I know about Eli's, I've already documented here many
times, I think Tim Raines was better at baseball than Eli was
in football. I mean, Tim Raines with the
Expos, with Gary Carter, Andre Dawson, and even Tim Raines with
the White Sox, Tim Raines with the Yankees was good and you
know, was a sage leader, had some big moments.
Tim Raines with the with the Expos was an All Star basically
every year. He's one of the best players in
the National League. He was the National League's
version. Now he was never this good, but
he was the NLS version or the NLS answer to Ricky Henderson
when he was doing his thing with the A's in the American League.
Tim Raines was a bowler. Tim Raines was a beast.
I mean, Tim Raines was really, Tim Raines was better than Eli.
That's an interesting point of reference that you throw up on
the screen there. But yes, I just wanted to get
that stuff out there with bridges.
And let me give you a little pop here.
Very little pop on St. John's.
So St. John's won last night.
Good. They look, they look really
good. They've won seven straight
games, all right. They're now 16 and five, nine
and one in the Big East. Rick Pitino, you know, over the
weekend out of Xavier, a trip that I was on, which was great.
What is 9 hundredth game? And you know, it's funny because
it is a little bit early for this, but I love it.
You know, whether it's a mock draft, it's never too early for
that for me. Or even look at it like the
brackets like Lenardy or Jerry Palm or whatever the the bracket
matrix that takes all of them. It's got a hybrid, you know,
average seating. I love that stuff.
Not that it's the ultimate answer, but it's a road map and
it's a guideline for me to add layers to conversations that
matter of fact, I brought this up on the air with Mink last
night right about where St. John's is currently trending as
a seed. And if I hadn't done all that
research, I, I really wouldn't know.
So I just, it just kind of guides me and then I could agree
or I could disagree with it. Anyway, a couple of weeks ago,
St. John's now they, they failed to
really cash in on those big games early.
Like the Kentucky game, the Auburn game was a brutal 1-2 or
three others that if they would have won, you know, they would
have been they would have built still in the top ten.
Anyway, two weeks ago St. John's was in that 8-9 game.
Everybody like that was a general consensus 8-9 match up.
And believe it or not, I mean that's that's where they belong
despite being the 5th rated team coming into the season, which
was ridiculous. I really thought it was
exciting, but I thought St. John's was wildly overrated
because most of the guys that did stuff outside of Zubi were
gone. So it was more on reputation and
Pitino. So I think they were overrated
coming in. I think right now St.
John's is back at the top 25. At #25 is underrated and
undervalued. So they went from the eighth
seed and then they had 4 quad one Rd. wins.
Then they beat Marquette by about 20 something.
Then they won't again and that was a quad 2 this past weekend
again Xavier. And then they beat Butler.
He's supposed to be Butler. They were 10 point favorites,
but they smacked them by 20 something points.
And Butler was playing very good basketball.
Coming in, St. John's looks as dangerous as
they've looked all year. And listen, this is all
coincided with Dylan Mitchell going into the starting line up
Saint John's front court with Zooby, with Bryce Hopkins and
Dylan Mitchell is the best front court in America.
Now, I don't know if they're going to have, if the point
guard plays going to be their match up specific NCAA
tournament. UConn coming up next Friday at
the Garden, which is going to be bonkers.
But right now it's the first time because I've been down on
Saint John's. I remember after the third game,
my son, who's the biggest Saint John's fan in the world, right,
loves them and he knows them and he said, dad, I don't, I don't,
I don't know. I don't like I don't this team
doesn't look right. So they had to the third game
and I was like, give them time. They got Rick and and then the
more I watched them, I'm like, I think you're right now they've
regenerated because they found out the right combinations and
that's all because of Pitino. But that front court is taking
a, you know, second fiddle to nobody.
Zubi is a pro Bryce Hopkins is phenomenal.
He's back to being Bryce Hopkins and Dylan Mitchell.
He might even on some level be more important.
Nothing better, but more important than Zubi at 1314
rebounds, guard anybody one through 5.
He can't shoot. So it's a little bit of a
spacing issue. Doesn't even try.
But man, oh man, St. John's is now deep.
They are confident, they are gelling and this is the best
they've looked all year. And it's the first time that
I've actually thought that St. John's could do something.
I have not felt that until the last week or so.
Like, OK, all right, it's coming together now.
You, you, you got to hope. I know usually you look on the
schedule. St.
John's plays at the Paul on Tuesday and then it's UConn
Friday at the Garden. I cannot wait to do that game
Friday night. UConn.
Danny Early, who I love. I don't know Danny well.
I know his dad loved Mr. Hurley. I know him pretty well, the
best. But Danny's a nut ball and but I
love the way he coaches. He's a great coach, but he is
intense and that garden is going to be dripping with venom.
And UConn fans will try to weasel, and they will.
They're pretty resourceful. Weasel their way in.
It'll be 19,000, basically 20,000.
Every seats going to be accounted for again, like it is
every time they play the last couple of years.
And it is going to be a street fight and provided St.
John's doesn't trip against the Pole on Tuesday and they'll be
favored. I think it's going to be a
tougher game. But I think they should win.
You go into that game on an 8 game win streak and win it
winners of at that point 10:50 and you're facing the number two
team in your crib on a Friday night national game of the week.
You know, I don't know if they're better than UConn.
I actually right now I don't think that they are.
And certainly as recently as a week ago, I didn't think there
was any chance they were or two weeks when they start really
getting hot. Things are changing.
You know, Yukon's playing a lot of tight games.
They're still winning. But you know, a lot of seed hall
hung around, Providence hung around, Villanova hung around a
little bit. So I I know Yukon's really,
really good. But at least now for the first
time this season, I can say so is St.
John's. And I think when it's all said
and done, if you want to put me on the spot, you know, right now
is a six seed. And they went from the 8-9 game
to the six seed to one of the lower 6 seeds to right now on
the bracket matrix, they are the number 16 seed.
I think Saint John's is going to wind up maybe along among the
lower 4 seeds. And I would say worst case at
this point, one of the best 5 seeds.
Like they their trajectory is clear.
Now, if you beat UConn on Friday, you're going to vault
inside that. You're going to go from wherever
you're rated. You know, this Monday, 22 ish,
you got to jump into, you know, 1213 territory and at that point
everything changes. So it's fun.
Knicks are playing well, still don't trust in them, still don't
believe them. Still hope they get Yanis, which
by the way, spoiler, I know they're going to try to move
mountains to get Yanis. I just don't think it's going to
be able to. I don't think they're going to
get them. I'm worried about Riley.
I'm worried about the lack of draft equity.
I'm worried about what I'm hearing and I hope I'm wrong.
I'm worried about what I'm hearing, about what the Bucks
want. Young talent, you know, so
that's the case. You don't want Cat, you're not
getting Brunson. Do you really want Bridges?
Do you want Ogi? Mean, I want OG more than
bridges on the Knicks. But I don't know what the Bucks
are thinking. I, I, I, I don't know, but at
least the Knicks are playing better if they're in the honest
conversation. So you got energy there.
Johnny's look terrific. As good as they've looked all
year, ranges are an absolute disaster mess.
What a clown show they've turned into.
Just they, they don't have any heart.
I mean, that's just the way the ranges look.
It's disgraceful. And then the Cashman pushback
open invite to my guy Brian Cashman.
He said it himself. Hey, I am willing to accept the
challenge of anybody that will push back on this being a World
Series winning team. I push back.
Invitation extended. Let's do AB.
I'd love to have you on the show.
And obviously the Eli stuff. So J Rod, we're going to bounce,
buddy. I got to take care.
I got a couple things I could just never get a day.
Never. I have not had a day where I
have ended this show and I have just had a chance to decompress
and do nothing. Even when I was coming in and
slipping in from the dump of the city, New York, at least I would
get in the car or I could put some music on like this show
ends. I'm diving into stuff for
tomorrow's show and other stuff. And now as I'm driving home from
the garden last night, my light goes on in the car and now the
PSI and the tire, like each one. You want it around 3132, so
31313119. I'm like, you got to be kidding
me. Let me just make sure I get home
from the gardens. I got to go see if I can get in
at the car dealership and let them look at that.
And then I got some stuff to do with the logos, which is really
fun. Then I've got to go.
I don't say got to this. I get the opportunity to go and
coach my daughter's basketball game tonight, a rec team still
looking for our first win. Been a little been a little
rough sledding the over under on our team point total tonight.
If you look at a bet, you know, lay a little something down in
Vegas, I'd say the over under is 10 1/2 eleven, usually low
scoring games. So I've got that.
My son's got a huge travel game, which I can't go to.
It's it's a big one because I'll be coaching her.
So I got a busy night with that. All all is good.
Now I got to also run to the computer store to see what the
hell is going on with my computer.
Why it just shut off and I think it's my charger.
Like it's a little temperamental where you got it like twisted
perfectly so that it works and then like if it falls off then
like it stops charging. So I think it's just the
charger. I hope disaster will be averted,
but let me bounce. Have an awesome Thursday.
Hey, by the way, yesterday's viewership for we're we're
getting to 30. We're we are approaching and Jay
Rock could back me up on this. We are approaching 30,000 views
a day, which is for now phenomenal.
And you know eventually that will be 40 and 50 and we will
raise the bar and keep going much like we do with the Subs.
We hit 15,000 the other day and I'm looking at it right now on
my wall sheet of paper. Every time I hit a little
benchmark, I cross it out and I'm looking at the number 20,000
right now. That's the next thing.
On to the next one. I'm looking at a hundred 1025
hundred 5010 thousand 12515 and now 20 is my next benchmark.
So all these things are really, really encouraging and awesome.
And because of you guys, because you guys follow me and you know,
you love the content that I'm pumping out.
I'm here. You know what time I'm here, I'm
reliable, no days off. We're grinding, we're building,
we're hustling and it's been a lot of fun.
But Mondays was was a good number, really good.
And then Tuesdays was more and then yesterday's was almost 30
and maybe today, hopefully we we touch 30 for the first time.
We've been right in that neighborhood probably 3-4, five
times since we launched here. So Jay, Rod, I'll see you
tomorrow, man. I'll get with you on the text.
So we'll we'll begin to structure tomorrow's show.
All right, Jay, you want to say anything before we get out of
here, buddy? You good?
Thank you, everyone. Stay unleashed.
Are you listening? Are you here?
Can you hear me? Or you'll listen again.
You'll hear me. Check you tomorrow morning,
everyone. Yeah, there he is, Jay Rod into
his house. Thank you, Jay.
And again, enjoy the rest of your Thursday.
I will catch you guys tomorrow at 10.
Like it? Subscribe it.
You know, I don't really even fully know what hype is.
I think I know what it is, but people who say it is a good
thing go out there, hype this stuff up.
The more likes, the more comments, the more the algorithm
starts saying, all right, this thing's working.
We're getting the digital imprint.
And by the way, if you notice, if you follow the YouTube page,
I respond quite a bit. That's something else I do a lot
after the show. So I respond to a lot of not
everyone, but I I respond to a lot of the comments, even the
haters, and it's been a little hater Ray, not much, but a
couple of haters slipping through the cracks and that's
good. Like you can't have all, you
know, Oh, you're the best this shit.
Like I want that, like I invite that.
That's why I can't wait till we start taking calls because the
back and forth with somebody, you know, who's trying to, you
know, either try to clown me or clown one of my points.
That's that's if you ask me, like, what do I miss about
conventional? That's the only thing, you know,
I miss Sal, obviously I miss getting after it with Sal and
people in the building and all that stuff that that goes
without saying. But that's really the only thing
about terrestrial radio that I miss being able to mix it up on
the phones. And when that comes, I mean,
we're going to the moon. So I appreciate you guys.
You know that. Thank you very much.
Get some more traction out there, spread the word.
BT Unleash catch you guys tomorrow at 10 right here.
Bye, bye this. Is on leash, are you listening?
Can you hear me? This is on leash.
Are you listening?