PTI - Pitchers have been DEALING so far this season

Episode Date: April 1, 2026

Tony Kornheiser and Pablo Torre discuss MLB pitchers, the North Carolina head coaching job, and the New York Knicks. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hey, sports fans, the ESPN app has all of ESPN all in one place. The ESPN app is your home to thousands of live events, ESPN shows, and originals across every ESPN network and service. And now you can check if you already have ESPN Unlimited as part of your TV package for no additional calls. Visit activate.esPN.com to learn how to access your account or sign up, then start streaming in the ESPN app. It's all of ESPN all in one place. Sign up or activate now. Pardon the interruption, but I'm Pablo Torre. It is National Nasal Awareness Day, Tony. What do you like best about noses?

I'm Tony Kornheiser. When you keep yours out of my business. You know what I'm saying? Out of my business. I'm detecting a through line in your concerns with me this week. I really enjoyed filling in, but every time you talk about my new job, my new life, you express deep concern for your privacy. Yes.

Yes. As you know, I will never talk to you as long as you do that. On the air. Come on the pod. Talk to off the air all you. Come on the pod. Welcome to PTI, boys and girl. Wilbon apparently has better things to do, so I am joined by our great friend, the host of

said podcast. Pablo Tori finds out Mr. Pablo Tori. And we begin today with embarrassment for baseball. A league document indicates that the league has privately admitted to the umpires union that the new automatic ball strike system needs, quote, refinements to its accuracy, unquote, less than one week into the season. The system currently tracks the pitch where it crosses the halfway point of the plate, but the league now admits it should be slightly further forward towards the mound to better account for breaking balls.

The result is that many pitches have been mistracked by as much as a full inch. Baseball currently plans to keep all results to this point as is. Pablo, if you were umpires or pitchers or batters or even betters, how would you feel about this? Oh, I would feel incredibly disturbed. Tony, look, the micro of this story is that this is obviously seismic. The macro, just to take the position of the umpire, the ref, we have been living through this month kind of unprecedented disrespect for this position. In the NFL, they're talking about, you know, do we even need the full-time real refs anymore?

Do we need the pros? Can we get the semi-pro guys working D-2, D3? Is that good enough? And in baseball, of course, the solution to how are we going to advance the game has been? what if we let the robots help us make fun of the humans doing these jobs? So what insane, what insane vindication for the humans that we've discounted this entire time, that they actually had a point despite our best efforts? So the interesting thing to me is when I heard about the story this morning,

the first person I thought about was C.B. Buckner, who actually took a foul tip in the mask today and had to leave the game. But prior to that, there was a lot of embarrassment for him because he was missing pitches left and right. Last night he missed a guy landing on first base. I mean, if I were him, I would have to think about suing baseball for defamation of character. He finds out about this, he's got to be the happiest guy in the world because it feels like vindication. I don't have any particular compassion for bettors, we've mentioned that, because I am not a better myself. But if you allow betting on a sport, you have to guarantee the integrity of the sport. And this, there is no integrity here. When you say that an inch is a very small amount, an inch is a very small amount.

is a small amount, but on that grid, an inch sometimes looks like a foot. You know, you sort of have to get this right. Baseball needs to feel embarrassed, Pablo, because they've gotten every other change right. They've been scrupulous in the other changes, and this one looks bad, looks bad. Oh, it's a heat check for the commissioner's office, which has gotten a bit high, clearly on their own supply. And at this point, every rules enforcement story is a business story because of gambling and because, by the way, I don't know, I would demand an asterisk on every statistic up to this point if I'm an umpire, the reverse, the reverse asterisk. That's a good place to end. I'm sort of done with this story. Do you want to tell them or should I?

Do you want to tell them that we have an asterisk over this entire topic because, of course, it is April Fool's and I've been pulled into compromising my journalistic integrity by lying to America with you for the last, I don't know what that was, two minutes? Want to say that? Yeah, it makes me happy. It makes me happy because we do this every year and it works every year. And I believe this story. So go ahead.

Continue with the show. Yeah. Let me try to rebuild my credibility journalistically by talking about some actual performances in real baseball last night. Tony, Shohey Otani, threw six scoreless endings and got the win in his first start of the season for the Dodgers. That is real and fantastic. Max Fried of the Yankees is now 2 and 0 and has yet to yield a run. Max Scherzer at 41 years. old, stepped up for a banged-up Blue Jays staff and got the win, giving up just one run over six.

And the Phillies Prize rookie Andrew Painter struck out eight. Got the win as fans were Eganemann with paintbrushes. So Tony, whose start is most worth getting excited about? Okay, so I love Max Scherzer. He's the warrior god. You may not know this. He's had a very hurt thumb for a couple of years. He is now playing piano.

He's like Beethoven to try and ease the pain in the thumb. If he were to give them a good year this year and eat up a lot of innings, They could go to the World Series again. They could. But he's also 41, as you mentioned, and I don't want to get too carried away on April 1st. I don't. I watched Painted last night.

I watched, because he was pitching against the Nats, I watched from my perch on Channel 1261, and he was very impressive coming out of Tommy John's surgery. And he's big. 6-7. That's an ABS 6-7. That's not a program-hide 6-7. That's a real 6-7.

But let me not get too emotional here. The only answer to this question is Show Heyatonic. six innings, one run, no, I'm sorry, one hit, no earned six strikeouts. People on the Dodgers believe that Shohei Atani wants to win the Cy Young, probably this year. He has now not given up, going back to last year, not given up an earned run in 22 and two-thirds innings. Pablo, if he wins the Sai Young, he might be the greatest baseball player ever. Babe Ruth's the most important player. Shohei might be the greatest player.

Last year, he had 55 home runs, a year before 54 and 59. If you had a Syung to that, who do you compare him to? Yeah, I spent some amount of time trying to muster up the energy to argue. Max Fried, the Yankees. Look at this pitching staff. Look how many shutouts. They're just casually tossing out there. And it makes me feel great as a Yankee fan.

But the history of this of the Otani question is undeniable. I love that against scientific counsel. Show Hey, Otani wants to win a Tsai Young. Right? Like, I talked to Tom House, Tony, who is. one of the foremost authorities on throwing objects is coached. Oh, sure. You know him.

Caught hang iron's home run as well. That dude, that historical figure, has told me, Otani should just come in in relief. Like, have him be the relief phase. Have him limit his innings because, of course, doing two jobs is unprecedented for a reason. It is medically unadvisable. And we've seen him, of course, get hurt in recent years.

But the fact that he wants the award you give to the best starting pitcher, that is a gift to base. I don't know if the Dodgers should want it, but we should as the fans should want it. I think Sandy Alcantara today threw a three-hit shutout right over nine innings, but we were talking about last night. Let me just say this. These other pitchers are marvelous. Max Scherz is going to the Hall of Fame.

Max Fried as a Yankee is 21 and 5. The painter kid may be great, but Shoahatani is in another league. We've not seen anything like this guy. He's in another league. The range he has is amazing. move to college basketball. The final four is still a few days away, so we can do a soft story here about coaches. Tommy Lloyd is at Arizona having come from Gonzaga five years ago. Dusty May is at Michigan, having come from Florida Atlantic two years ago. They're both hot,

and North Carolina needs a coach. Pablo, is it a no-brainer for Lloyd or May to leave their current gig if North Carolina beckons? I think it is, and this is the story where Arizona fans wish was fake. Tommy Lloyd, Tony, I'm reading the quotes, and it's very funny what he is not saying. Because here's what he is saying. Arizona will have a very good coach after me. And just from a pure psychological test perspective, you do know what you're making every Arizona Wildcats fan feel when they hear that.

You're basically setting the stage for, I wanted this job back when Hubert Davis got it. I would love to have it because as good as Arizona is, and as much as the economy of college basketball has balanced out because of NIL and the transfer portal, there are some schools that are a city on a hill. And Chapel Hill has shown a willingness to throw money at all sorts of bad decisions, including Bill Belichick, including perhaps Hoover Davis, although he won early on.

But to follow the guy who just got fired, to follow that guy, what an ideal scenario for Tommy Lloyd. So, you know, I'm the wrong one to ask about this topic because I'm very old. And I'm old enough to know that North Carolina is one of the pillars of college basketball. There's North Carolina, Kentucky, UCLA, and maybe Kansas. And their success is predate Duke's success. So for me, if you tell me North Carolina wants you, I say to go. I say you have to follow in the footsteps of Frank McGuire and Dean Smith and Roy Williams.

That's what I say as an older person. But let me also say this. Michigan is not a junior college. They've been to the final four nine times. They have a national championship. Arizona is not a D3 program. They've been to the final four five times, and they have a national championship. So you don't automatically have to go, except that I think you do, because, again, I'm old,

and that is my orientation here. And there's one other thing that I would say about going to North Carolina. The path to winning in the ACC right now is easier than the path to winning. winning in either the Big Ten or the Big 12. I agree. So it might help you from that standpoint. Look, I've been thinking, like, we saw what Kurt Signetti did in Indiana, right? When is it going to be the case when, you know what, I'd like to be at the equivalent

of Indiana and College of Basketball, and it's not Michigan nor Arizona because those are both previous contenders in recent years. Yes, sure. But at a certain point, it will not be the case that the brand matters, but everybody involved in this conversation, including me. including the candidates, they're all old enough to know the difference, and we're not quite there yet in college hoops. And I'm not saying that this is a real big deal,

but if stature is important to you, nothing conveys stature in college basketball more than North Carolina. Not more than North Carolina. Let's take a break. Coming up, the Knicks lose to a winning team again. What's the word for that? And how best to describe tomorrow night's matchup between the Lakers and the Thunder?

That's Joe Hattani performance. Come on. Come on. When have we seen someone like him? The answer I think is never. I don't know the argument against him being the greatest. You'd have to literally make a fake story to beat that guy in real life. Time to go word for word with Pablo.

That's a tough task. He went to the University of Harvard. You know, what's first? It's blank that the Knicks have lost their last five games against teams with winning records. It's scary. scary in this sense because in the playoffs,

I believe you have to play teams that have winning records. And that's where the Knicks are headed. Let's go through this if we could, Boblin. Let me bring off the legal pad. They lost last night to Houston by 17 points. Before that, they lost to Oklahoma City by 11 points. Before that, they lost to Charlotte by 11 points. Before that, they lost to the Clippers by 8.

And before that, they lost to the Lakers by 13. These are sizable margins. A couple of weeks ago, the Knicks were at one point in the process of winning seven a row, getting universal praise from everybody on television and radio and podcast world and all of that. But all of the teams they beat, all of the teams they beat had losing records. And again, I bring this up unlikely to face teams with losing records in the playoffs. Unlikely. So it feels like foreshadowing and it feels a little scary. Yeah. Watching you with your white doctor

coat is obviously triggering to me on multiple levels that are deep-seated in my childhood. The Nix being part of the conversation feels just cruel. Because the word I have is symptomatic. Speaking of the medical field, it is symptomatic of a larger disease that plagues this team. And the disease is not one in which, guess what, you're about to die? The disease is, guess what, you're just never going to be as good as you need to be to win a title. There's a cruelty in mediocrity. Again, I'm speaking and projecting at the same time, my own personal insecurities.

There is a cruelty in not being good enough to win the thing, but not bad enough to ever fully reset and come to grips with what you really are. And the Knicks last season, yes, Jason Tatum gets hurt. They can beat the Celtics. Whoa, they surprise the Pistons. That's an incredible thing in the first round. Absolutely. But the same stuff that happened last year, losing to the good teams is happening again. And they change the coach.

And so I'm telling you, there are deeper-seated issues that are more familiar than anybody. wants to admit. Does it make you jealous that I was at the Willis Reed game? May 8th, 1970? I was there. What's next? Thursday's matchup between the Lakers and the Thunder should be blank. I've got MVP predicting. This is Luca Donchich against Shea Gilgius-Alexander. These are the two best scorers in the entire NBA. Luca had 42 last night. I think that the Lakers are 15 and 3 lately. What are I right to him? 18 and 2 lately.

And Lucas had three games in a row of 40 or more points. But Gilgius Alexander dropped 47 the other night on Detroit, a good team, probably a better team than Cleveland, which is who Luca did it to. And their team, Oklahoma City, in the month of March, was 14 and 1. And I believe, and you can check this out, I believe that Chey Gilgis Alexander has scored 20 or more points in the last 5,000. games. Now, they're not the only candidates. There's, you know, there's, I like Jalen Brown, and certainly Victor Wembeyanama, Nicole Yolkich. But this is a game, this is a game that you plan actually to sit down and watch and to bring your MVP ballot with you. Oh, it's such,

it's such an electric television show this game. And yet my word is infuriating. And I'll explain why. Why? It's infuriated. Well, Tony, you're old enough to have watched Willis Reed. overcome injury in dramatic fashion. It's not very often that you get players of this caliber that are basically given away by their former teams. And so the lens I see this question through is the perspective of the Mavericks, as Mark Cuban is now collapsing onto his fainting couch

over what he had done. What a horrible mistake to sell the team and let them trade away Luca, of course, to the Lakers. And I'm looking at it through the lens of the Clippers. is my familiar lens. I see lots of things through these days. But the Clippers keep in mind to get Kauai Leonard, they listen to Kauai who basically said,

you know what, I want Paul George, you can get rid of the Shaggildes Alexander kid. And so here you have two all-time. I mean, certainly in the modern era, generational stars, a bit of an error, a bit of a medical oversight, you might even say. Yeah, no, that's very good. I agree with that completely. That's final word.

Let's take one last break, still to come. Tiger steps away from golf to seek treat. Good. And the U.S. men's soccer team falls again. The Lakers, I'm corrected in my ear, 16 and 2 over that stretch. Whatever numbers I had on the legal pad, I'm glad we weren't in court because I think I had the wrong numbers. That's another problem I have, not going to loss. 14 and 1 in March.

14 and 1 in March. Yeah, that's pretty good. Happy time, people. Happy 62nd birthday, Scott Stevens. The Hall of Fame defenseman played 22 years. in the H.O. He started with the Washington Capitals who drafted him fifth overall in 1982. Stevens was in Washington for eight years. The Caps did not get to the Stanley Cup final in those Pre-Eveschkin years. From there, Stevens went to St. Louis for one season, and then he went

to the New Jersey Devils and played there 13 years. The Devils won three Stanley Cups in that time with Stevens anchoring their defense and Martan Brodour in gold. They swept Detroit in 1995, beat Dallas 4 to 2 in 2000, and Stevens won the Kahn Smok. and then beat the Anaheim Ducks 4 to 3 in 2003. In 2017, Stevens was named one of the NHL's top 100 players. If you were just meeting Scott Stevens through this highlight reel, what you're thinking to yourself is, man, that guy seems like a real enforcer. And on some level, of course, he is so physical that he embodies that.

Also happened to be, yes, the highest paid defenseman of his time, and also just simply one of the greatest players who also embodied, I dare say, the ethos of New Jersey in his toughness, even not necessarily wanting to play for the Devils at the very beginning when he was leaving St. Louis. Happy anniversary Villanova. On this day, 41 years ago, the eighth-seeded Wildcats shot the college basketball world by beating top-seated Georgetown in their great center, Patrick Ewing, in the NCAA title game 6664. Georgetown had beaten Villanova twice during the regular season, but Roli Massamino's team shot an amazing nine-for-10 from the field in the second half.

Villanova waited 31 years to get to another final, but won two with Jay Wright in 2016 and 2018, which is why there will be a line around the corner to higher right if he ever says he's interested in coaching him. Kevin Willard in his first year coaching Villanova took them to the tournament this year, but Nova was ousted in the first round by Utah State. Yeah, the tradition of the Big East,

Ezra Edelman did a documentary about the Big East. If you haven't seen it, go watch it. That is the conference that kind of radicalized me into appreciating and respecting college basketball. Tony, this was your era. I hope the kids out there realize what it was like that all of these characters roamed the earth at the same time. Yeah, I was at that game, one of the greats of all time.

Happy trails to this year's masters for Tiger Woods. Tiger has released a statement saying that he's stepping away from the game to seek treatment and focus on his health. This comes in the wake of his car accident and arrest last week for suspicion of driving while under the influence, to which Tiger has pleaded not guilty. So Tiger will not play the Masters, and he said he's committed to taking the time he needs to get healthy. But Tiger has to step away. His well-being and the well-being potentially of others depend on it at this point.

Yeah, Tony, Tiger Woods is cursed by being Goliath that is lately also a David, somebody who's trying to come back and prove that he still has it, and the public is unsparing because that's still the one guy the general population knows. And so you have a child star who's grappling with what it means to be 50, while also dealing with pharmaceutical drugs in a way that are clearly, clearly still plaguing him biologically. I don't know that I can emphasize this enough. How big a deal Tiger Woods is in golf and in all sports over a long period of time. The younger golfers who are out there now, they adore him.

They adore him. I mean, even something like the TGL series, when they take a shot of him walking into the arena, people get excited about it. He is that great. He doesn't have the championships that Jack Nicholas had, but he's probably the greatest golfer of all time. And so when you see him in these conditions, your heart goes out to him. And it's very good, it seems to me,

that he has decided, yes, I need help with this. I'm not able to do this on my own necessarily. So I'm going to take some time and get some help with this. I think that everybody in golf, everybody in golf is rooting for him. Can we go to the big finish now? Here we go. Please. Paul Skis gave up one earned over five in the Pirates eight to three win over the Reds this afternoon.

Is that significant? Yeah, because his ERA was 67.5, and now it's not. Portugal beat the U.S. men's soccer team 2-0 last night, 2-0, as they say. Is that a big deal? I mean, I don't know. It's not the actual World Cup, but we've lost to Belgium and to Portugal. Now, we lose the European teams a lot of time. We're not that good.

All of them. It's not our sport. Italy is out of the World Cup for a third straight time. your thoughts. Yeah, this is sad to losing penalty kicks. Look, Italy, they've won four of these things. They should be a lot better. Kind of feels like they have some New York Knicks to them.

The Jaguars will play in Orlando in 27 while renovating their stadium in Jacksonville. Does that make sense to you? Well, it makes sense to be in Florida. I mean, they should be somewhere in Florida, obviously. And it makes sense in a sense that I'm sure there are waffle houses in Orlando like there are all over Jacksonville. Sure. Last one, the Spurs go for their 10th one in a row tonight at the Warriors. Do you like their chances?

I do because I like Victor Wemba Yama. I like the fact that we're watching that guy and he is roving the Earth right now. He's something, isn't he? We're out of time. We'll try to do better the next time. I'm Tony Cornice. Good night, Canada. And I'm Pablo Torre.

Thank you for watching. Pablo Torre finds out as the show Tony makes fun of. Media.