OverDrive - OverDrive - July 10, 2025 - Hour 1

Episode Date: July 10, 2025

Join Jim Tatti and Dave Feschuk for hour 1 of OverDrive! The Athletic senior MLB writer Keith Law joins us to discuss the Jays’ outlook as the trade deadline approaches. Tatti and Feschuk chat about the breaking news surrounding the Matt Dumba trade, whether the MLB should implement a salary cap, and the Oilers' offseason moves.

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Oh, solid intro music. Welcome to Overdrive. Jim Tadding, Dave Fest, Chuck from the Toronto Star with you for the next three hours. Coming up on the broadcast, Keith Law at 420 from the athletic, Tom Gazzola, sports talk host in Edmonton. Isaac Howard introduced as the new Edmonton Euler and the new Hope there as they try and restructure their forward lines. YesKyNoGuy at 530 at 605.

Chris Rose, baseball today at 630. Enoch Muamba from the CFL and TSN. Oddly enough, there's noursday night football in the cfl this week but nonetheless will press on and before you go in over drivers brought you by fando bringing you everything from the opening line to the final score we have a trade an nhl trade

uh... dumb but goes from dallas to pittsburgh for bullet john acrola chonick rather and i've got a small call it shown it uh... young defenseman has tried a couple of places uh... arizona uh... pittsburgh and of course arizona and movie to utah but not sticking their young defenseman uh... and a twenty twenty eight second round pick so that's uh...

basically from dallas a salary dump but but at least something to sort of chew on today yeah a little something not much a snack uh... snack i mean matt dumba to sort of chew on today. Yeah, a little something, not much. A snack. A snack, I mean Matt Dumba, what's he now? He's 30 years old, played 15 minutes, a game in Dallas this year, didn't play in the playoffs. Yeah, I mean, a guy on the tail end of the career,

salary dumped by the Stars to a team that is maybe the only team in the NHL that is obviously rebuilding in the Pittsburgh Penguins. And look, if we're going to get a Penguins-centric trade, I want to see a slightly more sexy one. How about Sidney Crosby? Yeah. That's got to be coming. Or Carlsonson or somebody in is in the crash really just

hang around pittsburgh to watch this team rebuild hard to imagine it is just based on his competitive nature and everybody wants to do the right thing so and he has done the right thing with his contract but you'd like to for a while a final chapter that has some

something in it for him we've got a lot of life left, right? If he was just sort of holding on, it would be one thing. But this is a productive player, as we saw in the Four Nations. We had 91 points this year, 33 goals. I mean, this guy has all the energy of a much younger man, despite the fact he'll be 38 next month.

Yeah, you wanna see it, right? we're gonna see him play at the olympics in the wake of the olympics you like to see him play hockey that means something beyond the olympics right yeah well there's no shortage of teams would be interested in them for sure putting one here but it's up to him right yeah that he has as they said the mariner transaction the players all the cards. Yeah

player has all the cards and Sid has more than most because not only you know does he have trade protection he's he is Pittsburgh hockey right? He's like and I guess that's part of the that's the blessing and the curse right? When you are so synonymous with one place and you know you you can argue that you helped them build an arena you can argue that obviously You don't need to argue that you brought them three cups because he did There's there's a real attraction to be a lifetime penguin to being a lifetime guy with one team But not many guys get to do it and you know if he wants to continue to be relevant He can't do it in Pittsburgh. So hidden story Dallas now goes under the cap they were over by

1.79 which leaves the Panthers Montreal and Golden Knights all over the cap and everybody else is under but those three teams have injury LTIR possibilities to get them under the cap and when you go down to the bottom there's some concern about some of these teams not getting you to the floor but with RFA still to be signed they'll all get there. So the reason I bring that up is this was one of those things that when the free agent frenzy day got a little soft people thought well there's people that have to get to the floor and there's people that have to move salaries off the top and that'll instigate

some trades. So far the Dumba trade is the only thing that comes out of that. Yeah it looks like most people are okay right there's no pressing need to move money right this minute you've got plenty of time to get cap compliance so yeah unfortunately I think we're gonna be in a bit of a slow period here clearly there are teams out there that are not happy with the way this off season has gone to date and would like to rectify that before training camp begins I would assume one of those teams is the Toronto Maple Leafs. And, because I'm not sure

how you could be happy with your offseason, given the fact you just lost the best point getter of the generation to the Vegas Golden Knights for very little in, I mean a very respectable player in Nicholas Wah, don't get me wrong but but not exactly uh... a commensurate return so uh... won't spend a lot of time in the least but but just a look at that i mean you've got this this collection of forwards obviously that the two holes are top of the right side of the top line left side in the second line

and to me i sort of look at that is is as they did last year in the left side of the second line an ongoing auditions wrote the year until the right guy shows the second line, an ongoing audition throughout the year until the right guy shows up, and maybe that's at the trade deadline, maybe it's before, but I think this puts, I might be, you might disagree with me, I think it puts more pressure on the bottom six,

because these guys have to deliver on a nightly basis because of that big hole in the top line. Yeah, it's a good point. I mean, look, I think if you're Nicholas Wye, you feel a little bit of pressure. You're the guy they fetched in the Mitch Marner trade, and he's come highly touted, right? Like a lot of people have really blown his horn and said this guy can play, and this guy is going to be a contributor. So he's your third line center, assuming Scotty Lotton is the fourth line center, I'm sure you can probably flip those two lines in any

given game for the one or two shifts here that they might diverge on and and probably pretty happy but so you're right there's there is pressure on that by the six because they've got to give some production ideally if you want to be the playoff team you hope you can be you need some production from down the line up and they didn't get a lot of in these playoffs now and and that was a problem. I just think that early in the

season we'll be looking at that bottom six and looking for hints of how they would play in a playoff series just because they're gonna have to pick up some slack and you know regardless of whether Marner was here or not I think that would still be the agenda. Yeah. The bottom six had to be repaired. Well Brad Treeliving's made no bones about the idea that he wants this team to be about more than the core four. Well now it's not about the core four because the core four doesn't exist anymore. Right. But I think what he was trying to get at what he's been trying to get at with that line of public sort of

discussion is yes it's got to be a it's not about four guys or now three guys it's about four lines ideally and three pairs of D and a platoon of goaltenders and, you know, a coaching staff with multiple contributors, you know, on various fronts. So they're trying to build that team ethos in a franchise that has sort of been built around the star system, the star hierarchy where these four stars got everything they wanted, gobbled up 50% of the cap. Difficult to make everybody else feel like they're a big part of things when such a big part of things is devoted to so few.

But obviously there's an evening out going on here with Mitch Martyrs money off the books and a little bit more of an egalitarian system here. And maybe that transfers into more of a feeling that everyone's involved, everybody means something, every piece matters. Yeah, it's on everybody. Yeah, and that could be good, right? Like, I'm not saying that it's great that Mitch Marder

is no longer in the building, because he's a guy, if he would have hung around, it's one of the great if onlys in maple of history if you would i around he'd be he'd be passing bore a song for fourth all-time on the franchise points list this season and he'd be you know stocking those top three guys

for the next couple years and probably destined to be at the top of the body and in a in a bit of a race with austin matthews for who can end up at the top first or end up at the top in the end but there it is right there how about that board I mean you're passing Salming and you're on the heels of Dave Keehan Darrell Sittler Matt Sundeen it wouldn't have taken too many years right like no he's 246 points behind Matt Sundeen so you know for Mitch Marner that's a two and a half years work right in a who has worked at the end of the gap

so he could have been the all-time leading point here in the history of the franchise in the town he grew up in and it would have been amazing story right well and and if you added to his playoff total it would have been even more impressive but well that was not going to happen also and also more important and more

more impactful but it's not gonna happen. And also more important and more impactful. But it's not gonna happen. But I do think, like, if you want to spin the positive of what is it, what's the bright side of Mitch Marner leaving town, it's you would like to think in an ideal world there's a new dynamic. And that's what they talked about. Whatever was holding this team back in the past in the big moments in the critical moments as yeah rad tree living has talked about maybe it's just a different mix of guys changes the result well if if everybody's responsible that's got to be a big plus in game five or game seven because clearly everybody was waiting for somebody to grab the throttle yeah six one six one1 and nobody really grabbed it.

And you know, look, you can all be waiting around for somebody to show up and if nobody can play in the bottom six, it's not going to matter, right? So they've got to be able to play. I mean, that bottom six the Panthers have is pretty daunting. It is. Yeah, especially when your third line is on a lot of nights your best line That's a scary proposition because you cannot say that about the Maple Leafs we haven't been able to say that about the Maple Leafs, but Look, man, there'd be plenty of time to talk about it. But I do think you know when you think about

The Maple Leafs and you're right like right now with Michelli on the right side penciled in alongside Matthews and Nyes On the first line, you know, that's that doesn't feel like a permanent No, I think that's an open audition Bobby McMahon on the left side That's an open audition to Tavares and the letter feels like an open audition Yeah, absolutely the Bobby man's had plenty of chances. You know, he he's always had that Touch-and-go feeling there where Craig Brubbe has never been quite convinced that he's the guy. It's not 82 games deep. Yeah. It has great moments and then it subsides. But you know on the upside internal competition is a good thing they had it

last year and it did serve them well to a point I think. I felt that you know I think they had a pretty good regular season obviously you know, I'd like to get a pretty good regular season. Obviously, you know, we're storming along pretty good there. Up 3-1 in game three of the second round. And then, you know, things happen. But there's a recipe there for this to go better. They got to figure out what the ingredients are. Okay. Couple of dollars and cents of issues.

No, not issues, storylines. So the Sunsend and Demen Booker signed an extension and the AAV is 72.5, so SGA had the record for about a week. 72.5, let me ask you this, in North American pro sports, how long is it before an AAV of 100 million is quite regular? Yeah, we've been talking about that for a while now. We're obviously getting closer.

We're inching up, right? And when you think about the fact that you're splitting revenue with the owners and the players and revenues continues to skyrocket. You look at that. It's just a share of it. The NBA rights deal that the NBA signed. And yeah, I think the idea is you can see

a $ million dollar player in the next decade plus, right? And maybe quicker. I mean, things can escalate quicker than that. So it certainly feels like it's going to be quicker. And it's astounding when you think about it. Well, the growth of this is always sort of jump started by new revenue based on new platforms.

Years ago, many years ago, it was sports specialty channels taking rights away from regular TV services and now it's streaming. So we don't know where streaming goes but it's not gonna have any stunted growth, I can tell you that. No, there's such big players in the streaming market and we just keep hearing about the fracturing of that market and the idea that you want to

package certain nights and package certain events. You know the NBA has been very successful in packaging the NBA Cup as a separate event and even though nobody really remembers. It's alright if you win it. Yeah it's great. The Milwaukee Bucks are the reigning NBA Emirates Cup champions. I mean, does anybody get excited about that? Is Giannis more sure to stay in Milwaukee because of that? Probably not. But as a broadcasting diversion in the middle of a long season,

you know, I'm kind of surprised the NHL hasn't gone that way yet because especially now that they're saying, wait, 82 is not long enough. We wanna go 84 starting in 2026. Like to me, you need diversions through that long, long haul. And they do, like to their credit and the NHLPA's credit, it's great that they're going international and we're gonna have this regular flip-flop between the Olympics and the World Cup

or whatever they're gonna call it. It was the four nations this year. Depending on how much of the world can actually play hockey. You know, Russia doesn't seem like they're going to be on board anytime soon, but yeah, like it's great that they're doing that because I think that's an important diversion from the regular flop of regular season games. Greats another TV package.

Why wouldn't anybody be interested in that? Yeah. And it is a diversion and it's of the moment I mean I think a lot of us get fed up with all-star breaks I mean there's their mandatory breaks they have to happen but if you could replace that with something a little more relevant yeah then that makes sense doesn't it exactly I think we just saw like the four nations had everybody's attention this past year right and and did anybody miss an all-star game no nobody did no nobody said where's the

all-star game yeah there was none of that which is great yeah like I guess you know if you're you know if you're if you're one of those teams that had a player that went there and you know didn't come up particularly healthy I guess the Florida Panthers felt that with Matthew Kachuck although didn't hurt it okay yeah it didn't hurt them and man you know what Austin Matthews tweaked something there we don't know what it was because he's the only player in the history of pro sports that doesn't want to tell anybody what happens to his precious body but Matthews came out of that not healthy either and which

made you wonder why the heck he was playing there and why he played all season when he wasn't healthy but that's a whole different conversation that we've we've conversation that we've, you know, we've covered in depth on this program and others. But you're right, Tattman, like, if you're an NBA player, the supply and demand is certainly working

in your favor lately, because there aren't that many good players and there's a lot of supply of money. Well, we've got other issues to talk about. We'll do that over the next uh... two-and-a-half hours coming up next going to talk uh... baseball with keith law from the athletic is overdrive continues live on youtube tsn four

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your podcasts Overdrive Jim Taddy, Dave Fest, Chuck Lundt, Toronto Star with you today and of course the Jays Idol today and tonight off to Sacramento to take on Oakland on Friday and Saturday and Sunday a couple of things coming up obviously the trade deadline three weeks today the draft goes Sunday and To help us with both those Keith Laws here major league writer from the athletic Keith welcome how are you? I'm good thanks how are you? Very good thanks so I do your recent article you have the Jays up eighth overall taking Billy Carlson position player a short

stop out of high school and what are you is that is that where you're gonna stay or what are your thoughts on that uh... i'm a change in doing one more mock draft running which writing that so and the bike think i'd need time i do believe the j's want to take ashore

considered they would rather take a short college and high school. So, and short stops generally one of the safest things to do because even if they don't say a short stop, they tend to be able to play a lot of other positions. Also short stops are just really valuable. That's one of the most important conditions on the field. If you have too many of them, you can always trade one of them

to try to get something else that you need. I think in the unlikely events they don't like the short stops available to them, they might try college pitching, there are one or two candidates for that spot. But any which way, obviously I've mapped out lots of scenarios, at least one really good short stop is available at that pick, I think they would take. And Colson's really good. I think that would be an excellent pick. I'm just not certain that he is the one. I know he's on their short list. Keith when you look at this sort of this draft

in the scope of the last decade or so how does the quality at the top of the draft rank compared to recent years? I think the top of the draft is really cool. Like the Washington Vicks first overall, we don't have anything close to a consensus number one prospect. I happen to have Ethan Holliday, another high school shortstop at the top of my list, but you could argue me out of that pretty easily. There's several college lefties this year who are all really good, we all have arguments to go up there. There are a couple of other college position players I like a lot, but nobody who's really one-on-one in a typical draft.

What this draft does offer is a lot of depth. So for teams that have results and are just traded to get an extra pick in the 30s, one of the few picks that you're allowed to trade in baseball, that's pretty smart because there's a lot of talent that's gonna come off the board between say 20 and 50 Because there's a lot more depth in college position players There just aren't guys who project with superstars, which is what you're trying to get when you draft At the very top especially in the top five What do you think like when you you you spend a lot of time thinking about this stuff Keith like?

What do you what do you think the hit rate is on guys who've been projected as superstars? Like, I mean, just ballparking it. Who actually turn into superstars? Yeah, like, what is the Scouts, the consensus views hit rate on that? Is it pretty good, do you think, or how do you look at it in the grand scheme of history? I think when we project a guy to be a superstar, thinking about guys who get hurt, which obviously you can't really predict that, or you can just predict all pictures and get hurt, you'd probably be right in the end. You'd be right more than you were wrong. In terms of guys where health isn't a factor, I think we're

pretty good in terms of guys we think we're gonna be superstars turning into superstars. If I would bet that ends up close to 50%, which is very big hit rate, given what happens in the drafts overall. What we what always happens though in the draft, we get superstars from later on. Mickey Betts was a fifth rank pick. Paul Goldschmidt was an eighth round pick.

Albert Dwells was, I think, a twelfth round pick. We do find superstars coming from later in the draft college, junior college, high school. It's one of the things I really enjoy about the job. Tariq Scoogle. Tariq Scoogle was a ninth rounder where if you go to baseball reference, look at his performances last year's draft year in college. He missed the year with Tommy John, came back, he threw hard, but he wasn't any good. Couldn't get strikes, couldn't get a lot of outs. That guy turned into the best pitcher in the American League. I love that stuff.

But that is also one of the big challenges is that we know these teams are all going to the drafts, knowing there's some star out there who's going to get taken in the 7th, 8th, 12th round. You hope you're lucky enough to figure out who it might be. So to that end once you get through the top 100 who might the Jays be targeting? Um beyond the top 100 you're asking or what? No beyond the beyond the top 100. Well I don't see they don't have a second round pick so it really limits their flexibility and if they do what I'm expecting which is take probably

a high school shortstop at that first pick and consume not all but most of their slot pool for that pick my guess is they will stick once they get to the third round and beyond it'll be much more college heavy they'll go for college performers but particularly guys with good command of the strike zone I know that's something we value pretty highly and there were some interesting College pitchers where you know once you get to the third round fourth round and beyond The slam dunk starters are already off the board So you're looking for guys who have a particular pitch you like or something about the delivery you particularly value

And I know under Mark Trimita who's counting director now for the J's And I know under Mark Trimita, who's the counting director now for the Jays, they use a real blended approach of traditional scouting and the data, which is what I personally favor. Obviously, Mark and I worked together a long time ago, and I'm surprised we think so much similarly. Keith, obviously a lot of excitement in Toronto right now around the revival of the Blue Jays who have gone from more than half a dozen games out of the American League East lead into the lead by two and a half over the Yankees as it sits today. When you look at the Blue Jays and you look at the East, how do you think the Jays should

approach the July 31st trade deadline? I think they have to be buyers. I look at them as they've gotten a bit lucky. They are not the best team on paper. I don't project them as the best records for the rest of the season of the teams that division, but it also doesn't really matter how you've got here. Like those wings count. I could argue all day that I think it was a little flaky. It does not matter. They are contenders by definition where they are in the standings right now. They're contenders. So they need to buy. And I think they're a little hamstrung by the

fact that the system is pretty top heavy. There are three or four really good prospects and they're not a ton of depth beyond that. So I don't know if they can make a major acquisition, but so what? Go make the minor acquisitions. Go figure out what you think, what weaknesses you think you can address through the trade market. It's probably the bullpen. That's usually the easiest thing to do. When you don't have a lot of prospects to trade and aren't willing to take on a ton of salary. Also looking at the trade market this year, I think that's probably the biggest thing that's going to move is relievers.

Relievers and maybe some platoon players for the bench. I don't know that we're going to see, and Paul Skeens is not getting traded. I feel like we're making that up on the media side, right? Just because it'll get quick, that's for sure. But I was asked about this the other day, and I was like, I don't believe it. He's money, he's literally money. They print money to KC Pictures,

why would they trade him now? It's going to be lesser pieces, but those guys can really matter. At least, I think they've done an excellent job the last couple of years, just picking up guys at the trade deadline who make an impact for them in the stretch run or even in October. So how much of what the Jays achieved in that 10-game winning streak sort of changed your opinion or is, I guess, maybe the better way to say it,

is sustainable in the second half? I, so any stretch, any team, any stress that short two weeks basically is not going to change my overall opinion. I'm looking much more at the entire body of work for the whole season. Unless you tell me something's dramatically changed on the roster, right? You know, if somebody's been hurt for three months and comes back and we can say, okay, they're a different team now because they got a couple of key contributors back. I don't feel like that's the case with Toronto.

I think the team that should be a little bit above 500, they're obviously quite a bit above 500, looking at just what their offense has done so far this year, what their run prevention's been like this year. But that said, you've already got those wins in the bank. If you, you know, if they say, look, we think our blood prevention is the easiest thing to upgrade, right? That's, I'm repeating myself a little bit. I apologize. But they need to approach the trade deadline with the attitude that we are contenders. We want to make this sustainable. What can you do to upgrade the roster to make it more sustainable?

Score more runs, prevent more runs, whatever the market is able to give you. Because like I said, they should be probably a few wins worse than they are, but no one is knocking at their door to make them give those wins back either. Yeah, what do you make of the competition in the AL East, Keith, when you look at obviously the, let's start with the Red Sox, because they traded their best player,

hard to get better when you do that, but they're on a bit of a tear right now winning six in a row here. Do they have a chance to kind of revive themselves into the second half you think? I think they could because I agree they traded their best player but they also had one of the best offenses in the American League at the time they made the trade so I even argued I didn't think they got enough back but they could say but their offense was already good, but we needed some help on the pitching side and obviously they wanted to clear

clear some salary and they got Jordan Hicks or Jason, I'm just familiar with that is essentially helped to their bullpen, which I think is the red box in this weakness. They probably need to go out and get another starting pitcher, but I think they absolutely can make a run. They are starting in kind of just, they're just in a worse position. They have to make up more ground, they have to catch multiple teams. So I would say of the, obviously we're not even talking about the Orioles, the Redhawks

are probably the least of a threat, but they exist. They absolutely could end up back in this race and it would probably be driven still, even without the others, still driven by the athletes. And between the other two teams that you assume are threats the Rays and the Yankees who scares you more if you're the Blue Jays? Yankees. I think the Yankees are the best team on paper in the American League actually. You could argue Detroit. Detroit's legitimately good. They also benefit from a pretty weak division. I think the Yankees are the best team on paper. I think the Rays are also legitimate though. They're absolute contenders. They just traded the draft pick to Baltimore to go get some relief help. So basically just

what I was talking about. That's the kind of trade we'll see a lot of this month. The Yankees would scare me if they did nothing. I also think they're incredibly motivated to do something to try to get back to the World Series and they do have a lot of kind of secondary pieces in their farm system who they could slip in trades. They might be able to put something together to go get an impact guy at the deadline. I don't know who that would be. I don't really know. I can only guess what impact players might get traded, but the entities would be very competitive with the prospects they currently have in the system to go get an impact player at the end of the month. Is there any way with no notice at all that you could come up with an acquisition that

pushes the Jays over the top? Probably not, I apologize. You got me in the car driving home from my early game here. Hey, one thing I want to ask you Keith, they're going to roll out the ABS robot umpires at the All-Star game on Tuesday as we move closer to the automated umpires in real Major League games, I'm assuming. I'm sure you've seen this used in spring training and in minor league games. What's your opinion of how this would and could work at the Major League level full-time? I love it. I actually most

recently saw it last Wednesday at a AAA game in Lehigh Valley and I've seen it in fall league, I've seen it in other AAA games before. I think it's great. One, it obviously is going to give us a few more accurate calls. We're going to fix a few mistakes every game. And that alone makes it worth doing. I wish teams had a few more challenges, but I'll take what we can get. Also the way that they've implemented it, fans really like. They, you know, Empire turns around so the batter has challenged the call

and pitcher and then within about 15 seconds, the graphic shows up on the jumbotron and they show digitally the path of the ball and whether it was a ball or a strike. And fans always respond to that. I mean, even in the fall league where there's like 400 people in the stands, you can hear people getting involved in it and cheering when the results come through. And I love that. Anything like that, this is not like instant replay, which I understand we need to have instant replays really boring the

ABS implementation is not it's actually fun so I hope it comes to baseball to the majors as soon as possible and I hope they end up expanding it at some point but I'll take whatever I can get well it's like tennis is no arguing the call once you once you see the replay you go okay that that's good on. No debate. While we're talking about things that could happen down the road, I'm sure that Jays would like this, but I don't know if that would ever happen. Salary cap in Major League Baseball, is that even possible? Only if the union decides to just completely fold. They have fought attempts to put a salary cap in place for decades. I don't know that

I mean, salary, and J's don't need the salary cap. They're playing one of the largest markets in North America. J's could spend with the best of them. I understand ownership refuses to do so. But I put that squarely on their ownership. I personally oppose the salary cap because all I think it does is make owners richer and takes money away. And I'm not sure that it's really going to give us the kind of parity that people are looking for. I just think it's going to mean the bot nutting to the world. He's a guy named Capirots.

He just gets to put even more money in his pockets instead of the players taking it home. The players are the ones doing the work. They should get paid. Well, Keith, I mean, the parity argument is the only one that kind of makes sense to me because I'm with you. To me it's just gonna make the owners richer but when you do look at you know the way the NBA is clamped down they don't have a hard cap but with this second apron you know they're forcing the elite teams to maybe divest some of their assets. The Celtics have

currently gutted their roster to meet... to meet some of those requirements and let lessen their tax burden uh... it does seem like it's made the nba uh... more and more egalitarian league and certainly the nfl is is uh... a case in point but do you not by the parity argument when you think about how much that the dodgers are spending and how successful they've been i don't mean right i'm looking at the NFL, I don't apologize.

I've never, for longer, I've never been an NBA fan, but the NFL, you do kind of feel the same teams in the Super Bowl, or at least getting to the conference championships pretty frequently. All those sports, they do work a little bit differently. I do know in the NBA, right, if you get one or two stars, you're pretty locked in at that point. But... I think we lost them there. I think we lost them.

Driving home from a minor league game. Yeah, went under a bridge. All right. We lost them. I always like Keith's insight. Yeah, well, let's explore that. I mean, I would totally agree because I think I said that to our producer Cameron earlier when we were talking about

you know possibility salary cap i said yeah if the union collapses and that that's a that's a massive work stoppage to get there and keep you still with us there you do you were just talking about uh... you just give us your argument against uh... or or for the idea that you don't think a salary cap would bring parity to major league baseball sure it just to try to be

quick about it and one i don't that they it's a bit so we we've had a lot of bryan basically in our lead and overall in conference or the individual league champion he's getting to the world series at much or more and diversity in the event you see in in the NFL or I think the NBA.

I don't follow the NBAs closely. And also, any salary cap and associated floor structure is not going to get the pirates. And even if there is a floor in place, they're still going to be spending a fraction of what the Dodgers and the Yankees are spending. Those teams are going to spend right up to the upper limit, and the Pirates are going to try to stay towards the bottom. So I really don't think it's going to enhance parity. It's just going to take money away from the players and give it back to the owners.

Keith, thanks for your patience and battling through. I really appreciate that. Thank you. My pleasure. Keith Laughlin, Major League Baseball writer for The Athletic. You know, and correct me if I'm wrong here again, Dave. When a league pushes for a salary cap, that's like a 50-50 split, which tells you that it's not 50-50.

It's like 80-20 seventy five twenty five before the cap is implemented and that's a cost control mechanism right all of that and and he's right like it is the day that the n h l players association agreed to a salary cap and took you know the canceling of the stanley cup in all four or five to do it uh... they were crushed that was that was that was the the end of salary escalation. And you look at some of the salaries

that were being paid before that lockout and the lost season that followed the lockout, and you look at the salaries that are being paid now, there's not that big a difference at the top end. No. So clearly the players lost that one. Gary Bittman danced on the grave of Salary escalation, you know in the NHL and they've been able to suppress salaries ever since so I'm sure

Major League Baseball owners look at that and say geez that would be nice Oh sure it was but some some some crazy billionaire over in Flushing Meadow, New York Just paid Juan Soto 765 million. Let's not do that anymore. Absolutely, but. And now that we hear the NFL owners and have been caught red handed essentially. I wanna get that headline, it's hilarious.

Essentially suggesting to their teams that, hey, by the way, remember that Deshaun Watson contract where we gave him $230 million guaranteed? Let's not do that anymore. Let's not do that anymore. And there's pretty good evidence that they definitely set that suggestion out to teams and whether or not teams followed it and they have proof of that is the question. It's, you know, clearly the owners are trying to suppress salaries here and if they get

a salary cap, they'd be successful. This is one of the more humorous headlines of all time. Sources, NFLPA, NFL agreed to keep collusion finding secret. Yeah. Well that's what collusion is, isn't it? Well it's a secret. Exactly. That's the one item you have to be transparent on, above all others.

Well, and the problem with that sentence is, that man is, yeah, of course the owners want to collude and keep it secret. Right. that man is, yeah, of course the owners want to collude and keep it secret. But when the union is agreeing to, you know, understand that there was collusion and there was a, there was an arbitrator's report about it. And it was the arbitrator's report was commissioned by the former union boss, the D'Marie Smith back in 2022 in the wake of the Deshaun Watson contract. And yet today's players, the current players in the NFL

did not know about this until ESPN reported on it. Pablo Torre and a number of his colleagues at ESPN have done great work on this to bring it to light. I mean, it's shocking stuff that the NFL PA was essentially complicit in keeping this thing under wraps. And the story right underneath that one is the NFL PA executive director, where is his? Lloyd Howell Jr. Lloyd Howell Jr. is not only the the PA executive director, he's also involved

with an investment firm that's trying to buy minority interest in NFL teams. Seems like a conflict of interest to me. Slight, yeah. You're thinking about being an owner, right now you're on the union side. But if you can be on the owner's side, you might prefer that. Yeah, like a two-sided jacket. Doesn't seem right to me. Well, it'd be interesting to hear from Mr. Howell Jr.

Because I'm sure there's a lot of players in the NFL that would like to hear what he has to say about all this, and to date we haven't heard it. I just don't understand why somebody tries to even do that, because at some point it comes out. Well, obviously they thought they were going to get one over on the players here and it wasn't going to come out, but there's some pretty good evidence that there was a lot

of and it's not surprising evidence. Like of course, why would it be shocking to anybody that the commissioner of the NFL would not have been happy that the Sean Watson got $230 million guaranteed by the crazy Cleveland Browns. But you look at the deals that were signed after that, right? Lamar Jackson gets 260 million, what is it? Like maybe a year later, but only 185 of that 260 was guaranteed.

And that's an MVP, one of the best quarterbacks in the league if not the best and and somehow you go from giving a guy who was on a kind of a prove-it deal and D. Sean Watson given all the hijinks or it shouldn't even use the word hijinks given all the you know the really ugly stuff he was involved in that that marred his career and continues to mar his career you go from giving that guy 230 guaranteed to giving a guy who is a proven winner and a proven MVP 185 million guaranteed in between that the commissioner got into years of owners and said hey guys let's stop giving away those guarantees or

the the old NHL line was one of my favorites protect us from ourselves yeah well there's that there is that right now we somebody in the group that wants to one up the other guys and the owners are competitive in the owners wanna win in sometimes the owners don't have a clue that i run a great business when it comes to a football team but we've got a i think in all like right across the board in all professional sports the evaluations of franchises is right through the roof

uh... it's crazy. You think about the Lakers sale and 10 billion. Like that one, that one just, that, you know, the team is valued at 10 billion upon that sale. The previous valuation was something close to 7 1 1. So think about, like that's, you know, you essentially are skyrocketing the valuation of every NBA team by extension, you know it's you essentially are skyrocketing the valuation of every NBA

team by extension you know 25 to 30 percent I mean it's not just one fell swoop it's not just one league it's it's widespread yeah for sure I mean I was the one that kills me is the one I always think about is you think about the low end and the low end now is MLS teams. You know, Major League Soccer and Toronto got together what? You know, in the early 2000s, right? And Richard Petty was the CEO of MLSCE and he always tells that story about how he was going to buy a team from the MLS commissioner or disgust buying a team and he stopped by on his way uh... to new york he stopped by to see gary bethman the commission of the n h l n

told mister that what he was up to some thinking about a soccer franchise for toronto and that meant all that's a dumb idea according to richard uh... so that's a dumb idea they should give you those franchises for for free and uh... petty thought you know what well free would be nice but that the price tag was 10 million and right now by the best evaluations that I've seen that same franchise that they bought for 10 million is worth about a what's 780 775 something in that range well and the Raptors are good example went from 400

million to 4 billion yeah and what a 10 10 year span? Not bad. No. Not bad. Hey man, if you've got a piece of it, that's one thing about Masai Ujiri's going away present as president, deposed president of the Raptors. He had a little clause in that contract that pays him 2% of the accrued franchise value increase over the term of that deal.

And back of the napkin Jim Yeah, 50 to 70 50 to 70 million dollars in cash do very shortly. I think Wow That's a nice little getaway package. Not bad. Yeah, he wasn't an owner, but he got cut in like one Well, that's you know movie actors have learned that over the years performing performance actor or groups and rock music groups have learned how to not get fleeced and then attach themselves to part of the revenue. Yeah, exactly. Aside from everything else they get.

Hard to get it, but if you can, it's amazing. And even that though, Jim, like 50 to 70 million, it's chump change compared to what these teams are worth. Well, but that goes back to, you know, the attack is on the player for getting $250 or whatever million, but it's there. It's not coming out of anybody's pocket. It's there. It's revenue.

Yeah, exactly. Like, resenting the players for what they make is crazy because if you think the players are making a lot, think about what the owners are making. Absolutely. You know, the players have fought for that money. And the one thing I will say is I think sometimes the history of that fight gets forgotten by today's players which can get in the crowd of former players and older alumni of these leagues which I understand because...

The MLB work stoppage file is pretty big. Yeah, exactly. And there's a lot of people that suffered to get a lot of these times. Oh, big times. Absolutely. people that you know you know suffered suffered to get a lot of these times absolutely and suffered to get fairer compensation for players in all the leagues those people are largely forgotten but you know their work is paying dividends tough being a pioneer anyway overdrive continues live on YouTube TSN for TSN 1050 seasoned gamer or just video game curious this week in gaming is the podcast for you. We break down the latest in the world of video games, from basics to beyond. The hottest

gaming news, insight and industry leaders and more, weekly. Join me, Naomi Kyle, and stay ahead of the game with all the latest updates. Even if you're a total newbie. Stream This Week in Gaming on the free iHeartRadio app or wherever you get your podcasts. Jim Taddy, Dave Festjärker, the Toronto Stars, subbing for the regulars today and tomorrow, and we're going to deal with some hockey top of the hour, Tom Gazolo will be by, he's a sports talk host in Edmonton. And, you know, we're going gonna deal with the orders to uh... introduced isaac howard

must be called ike today acquired from tampa for sam o'reilly the other day uh... uh... mister howard was uh... an nc double a player that was not gonna sign with campus of the trade is right soon immediately signed with the order so you might be seeing that in a regular but uh... regular basis going and this is a, I mean, this has the chance to be a nice addition for the Oilers, right? You look at the recent history of Hobie Baker trophy winners that have come into the league

and it's a pretty good list of guys, right? You go Macklin Celebrini, had a pretty good year. Adam Fantilli, pretty nice player. Cole Caulfield, really good player. Cale McCarr, really good player. Jack Eichel, doing okay for himself. The collection of stiffs. I mean, there is some evidence that, yeah,

college players can be hit and miss, but the top end guys have been pretty good. Yeah, well, I mean, the sort of the missing story is he was out of the US National Development Program, which is really good. Yeah. I mean, I don't recall too many guys stumbling through that program. Just ask Austin Matthews. There are some great, great players that that program has developed.

So for Edmonton, obviously an in with a prospect going out and this is Joe from the Bridges put this board together for us. So in Manjapani, Howard, Lazar going out Kane, Perry, Brown, Skinner, Arbetson and Klingberg. So five forwards out, three back. Klingberg was an add-on anyway so I'm sure they'll press forward without them. But you know obviously there's some negotiation has to go on with that forward unit. But I think that's sort of part and parcel with going to the Stanley Cup final two years in a row

and losing. You'd want to change some of it anyway. You'd want to change for sure. I mean, look, Evander Kane, I think they wanted a change there. I mean, the likes of Corey Perry are always nice to have around. I mean, he's a nice veteran piece that has obviously got incredible playoff experience, albeit not particularly winning experience in the Stanley Cup recently.

But yeah, it's a work in progress, you have to believe, right? And when you look at that top line, you've got McDavid between a healthy Zach Hyman and you assume he'll be healthy eventually coming off that wrist injury although he said it is charity golf tournament this week in Toronto that he might not start the season you know because of the wrist injury but if it's if it's McDavid centering Hyman and Howard I can Zach you know it's it's it's compelling right if Howard can deliver he's you know, it's compelling, right? If Howard can deliver. You know, the one thing about college guys, I mean, this guy's 21 years old.

You know, he's not a kid. You know, he's been around a little bit. You know, what you see, it looks compelling. So we'll give them a shot. And I think that way you describe what they're gonna do is probably gonna apply to a lot of teams barring some, you know, I guess a glut of trades going into August. But the way it looks right now, there's a lot of teams that are sort of in that same spot.

Well, we've got some holes, we've got some possibilities. We'll see how it works out and maybe worry about it later. Yeah, Leafs would be included in that. Absolutely. Yeah, Leafs would be included in that. There's, and there's still time. You see late summer trades. I think there's a bit of a lull post-free agency

and some vacations being taken and some thinking being done. But guys will get back to the office in the next couple weeks. Well, there's a lot of arbitration has to happen. Yeah, there are arbitration. There are RFA's and once all that settles and everybody knows where they're at with the cap, and maybe that maybe that

Forces a move or two or maybe it doesn't I don't know. Yeah, who knows yeah, it feels like there's a lot of a lot of unsettled teams, right and teams that think they need stuff and got to go out shopping for it and I Wouldn't be surprised. We see a lot more movement before training camp begins And if not, then then we'll see it. Maybe we're going to see an epic trade deadline with teams that aren't particularly happy with their teams for the first few months of the season and want to make a change before the playoff run.

It's been so long, like never. I would just applaud the Leafs with salary cap room going into the season. Yeah. That would be new. It would not be new. Yeah, they've been capped out for forever. So I like to hear they had enough for a cup of coffee. Yeah, that would be new wouldn't that be new? Yeah, they've been capped out for forever So I like to hear they had enough for a cup of coffee. Yeah, exactly barely Not not a nice coffee. Just like just a black just a small black. No, no additives. No additives

No, we can fit under the cap. No, no frost milk. Just just just the coffee So coming up in our next hour Tom, because all will be by the sports talk host in Edmonton After that, what do we have? We got a Yes Guy No Guy in there and then later on we'll have Chris Rose and Enoch Muamba talking football. As Overdrive continues, TSN 4, TSN 1050. You've been listening to Overdrive powered by FanDuel. FanDuel, bringing you everything from the opening line to the final score.

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