Rahimi, Harris & Grote Show - Full Show — March 23, 2026

Episode Date: March 23, 2026

Marshall Harris and Mark Grote reacted to the news that Cubs slugger Seiya Suzuki will open the season on the injured list due to a knee ailment. They also discussed the state of the Bears' defense and how the team can improve it in the NFL Draft.

This hour is brought to you by Menards. Save big money at Menards. The views and opinions of Laila Rahimi, Marshall Harris, and Mark Grody should not be taken too seriously. Especially when they give advice. Do not take Marshall's analogies, literally. Especially when it comes to Russell Dorsey. The sports thoughts of Rahimi, Harris, and Grotie may change at any time.

It's just sports. Okay, thanks. Bye. Rahimi Harrison Grody, 10 to 2 on 1043, the score. Now that Jackson, Born is back with the bears, how many bears does he get on my bear's scale? When he left the bears, I think I had him up to just because of his growing popularity. I think I had him at 7.5 bears.

But hold on a second, Layla. I know you say it's got to go up. Controversial decision here by the bears scale people, and that's me and me. Well, technically, we came to you for a recommendation. And I recommended myself. I come highly recommended. He lost the bear. Jack Sanborn lost a big...

Now, he's going to have plenty of opportunity. He is at 6.5 bears. I said it was going to be controversial. I may have a little solution to our mistakes problem. This is a project I've been working on for quite some time. And today, it might be the day to use it. What do you got? It is a system that holds people accountable for everyone else's work.

Sounds controversial. Have I not been worthy of your trust? I know he was non-tendered by the bears. It wasn't his fault. I know. He has to pay wins. But in some ways it might, like, could he have done more on the field? To not be non-tendered?

What could Jack Sanborn have done to not have to go to Dallas before he made his way back to the Bears? He's going to get in. How do you let it go? No, I can't. This is a ride. You did everything you could. No, I could have done more. This is the most meatball take to take it out on Jack Sanborn for wanting a job.

He left us. Well, no, I got us talking. He got us nothing. He insulted us and he abandoned us. I will not stand for this. I will give away some of my bears in solidarity to Jack Sandborn because there's no way on this effing earth. I should have two more bears than Jack Sandborn. I will not stand for this.

So I do, mine, this will not stand, you know? This aggression will not stand, man. Marshall Harris, Mark Grody. Midday's 10 a.m. to 2 on Chicago Sports Radio 104.3, The Score. Hello again, everybody, and welcome in to Rahimi Harris and Grody. On the score, Marshall Harris is back. You and I are back together, my friend. I haven't seen you in forever. It's been a long time.

But I'm happy to see you, especially because baseball's coming this week, Bigfella. It is. The Cubs and the White Sox both have their opening days on. Thursday, the Cubs host Washington on Thursday, 120. Hopefully you guys were giving me some disturbing information about potentially bad weather on Thursday. They've got Friday locked in if they need it. First opening day in Chicago? Is this potentially bad weather? Is that what you told me, Grady? You're right. In my head, I should be thinking, yes, there's been millions of these. I wasn't exactly saying it's inconceivable that there would be bad weather. Honestly, I just don't. I'm out of five-day forecast. I don't know if you figured this out about.

me, Marshall, I live my life day to day. I'm giving you two options here, Grody. Yes, sir. You can have a Thursday, 60-degree day in which there are scattered showers throughout the day for opening day, or you can have completely clear on Friday, but the highs, let's say, 32 degrees. Give me the 60s sporadic. I'll take a rain delay or two.

I know that that doesn't make our friends in the broadcast booth particularly happy, but they'll be ready for it. Or the starting pitcher on opening. Matthew Boyd probably would not be happy about that either. You're right. Get up, get down, get up, to get back down. Exactly. So that might make things complicated. But yeah, Cubs, Washington 120 right here on 670 the score. Matthew Boyd against a righty for Washington, Cade Cavilley, the 27-year-old former first rounder.

So it's important to point out that it is a right-hander on the mound, considering what the Cubs have going on right now, which we'll get to here in just a second. But yeah, the White Sox also open up at Milwaukee. Important for the White Sox. Important for the Cubs. Because you've got the Shane Smith pitching situation. As we mentioned against your guy, Marshall Harris, Jacob Mizorowski. How is he my guy? I don't know.

Is it because I never said that the Cubs had clinched the division last year? Does that make Jacob Morawsky my guy? Ah, yeah, we're doing that. I'm the one who makes bad predictions about the Chicago Cubs and statements about the Cubs. Not you. I will, ladies and gentlemen, here in the year of our Lord, 2026, I'll try to do better with the Cubs this year. That's all I can do, Marshall. Every year we try to do better.

Every day we strive to do better, Mark. And I believe in you. You'll do better. I just don't know how much better you'll do. That means a lot to me. There is news, breaking news for the Cubs, I guess, if you consider breaking news over a 24-hour cycle like I think everybody seems to do. If you hadn't heard, Sayas Suzuki has the Cubs right-fielder, ruled out for opening day with the PCL sprain,

which means that they don't have to make the decision until Wednesday, whether or not to put him on the disabled list, the 15-day, excuse me, the injured list until Wednesday, but it sure feels like all indications are, I would say, 99% chance that he's going on the 15-day injured list because of this PCL strain. Well, it would be the 10-day I.O., which they can backdate, so they don't have to worry about missing that much time.

He could be back early next week. I'll say this. For Say it's Azuki, it's very simple to me, Mark. It's the start of the season. Make sure that man is healthy before he gets out on the field. And understanding he's not even to the point where he's starting and stopping as far as running yet, it doesn't sound like he's close to being able to play baseball. There's no reason at all to rush him.

What this does do is it supercharges something that we've seen coming, and that is Matt Shaw as a utility player, but really Matt Shaw as a right fielder at Wrigley Field, straight up, off the top. And I know people are going to say, well, Michael Comforto, he's a lefty, he could be, no, no, no, no, drop that man into right field and Wrigley and let him go. Let him go.

That's what the Cubs need to do right now. Shaw has been hitting consistently throughout the spring. He has been fielding to various levels at different positions. Right field, he had two errors in one game. I mean, that's going to happen. They know that's going to happen, but you have to give him a baptism by fire treatment and say, we need his bat in the lineup. And more importantly, we need him to have some sense of confidence.

So that's why you go ahead and just put him in right field. The candidates are for right field, and I tend to agree with you, and I'll tell you why in a second. But the candidates are, as you mentioned, Matt Shaw, first and foremost, the most prominent. And I have a feeling that Matt Shaw, whether in right field or in field or left field or wherever they want to use him, DH occasionally. I got a feeling Matt Shaw is going to play in about 140 games this year. I don't know if a good thing or a bad thing. I think he's going to play a lot more than maybe we expect him to right now.

But here's why I agree with you for the most part on Matt Shaw is because of the documented improvement this man had in the second half of the season. After all the early season struggles, he had, especially. especially, mostly at the play. We know that his third base play from the most part was excellent. Let me throw you this out. I got this watching the Cubs game yesterday. By the way, Cubs 12-0-0 win over the crew.

That doesn't go out of style, does it? Who was on the hill for the Cubs in that game? That'd be Cade Horton. Oh, yeah, I think, yeah, Kate Horton, that's the dude you need to be paying attention to. Horton, here's a who. He heard six innings, six shutout innings yesterday, for all you spring training fans,

four hits, three strikeouts, no walks, 60, how many pitches did the man have? 68 pitches. Hey Mark, will that dog hunt? That dog will hunt. And Bregman, Hap, head home runs, your guy, Moe Baller, Moises by Astero's, just hitting doubles, you know, like he does. Best pure hitter in the lineup. Write it down now so that you don't, you're not one of these Johnny come lately's on it.

He's the best bat in the lineup. Man. Best pure hitter in the lineup. Yet they're talking about him being a platoon situation. So are you a pure hitter? Are you the best pure hitter if you don't hit lefties? I mean, and I get that's a tough trick for him. Wait, hold on.

Are you the best hitter if they don't allow you to hit lefties? Hey, Michael Bush, what's up? Oh, you're going to hit lefties this season, aren't you? He is hitting lefties. I listened to, I guess it was. There was so many great baseball shows on hit and run came back this weekend. You got the premiere show. You got the, you know, Matt Spiegel's hitting and run.

Two hours of inside the clubhouse. I believe it was on inside the clubhouse. Yeah, Michael Bush was on. inside the clubhouse with Bruce and David Haw. Welcome back, David Haw. He was on and talking about how excited he is to hit lefties. But anyway, before the All-Star break last year, Matt Shaw played in 63 games, had a batting average of 198, two home runs, he slugged 280.

His poll percentage was 32.9%. And again, shout out to the Marquis Sports Network for coming up with this graphic. Post-all-Star break, 63 games. How convenient is that? Hit 258, that's up from 198. He goes from two homers to 11 home runs. Slugging goes from 280 to 522. Pull percentage goes from 32.9% to 55.4%.

Those are not subtle improvements from Matt Shaw. There was a period of time where he was just on fire to the point where I jokingly said, he's the real PCA. And that's when PCA was going downhill. And Marshall's giving me that the look that you give me, I'd say 60% of the time in our life,

whether on the air or off the air, that get out of here. Because you say a ridiculous thing sometime. And listen, one of those guys was a gold glove finalist. One of those guys won a gold glove. Do you know which one is which? Yeah, I do know which one is which.

Yeah, one of them did play in the World Baseball Classic. One of them, yes, was a legitimate gold glover in Pete Crowe Armstrong. No, I think Pete Crow Armstrong's ceiling higher than the ceiling of Matt Shaw. Just at the time when we couldn't figure out PCA and how horribly wrong things were going. And Matt Shaw was sizzling. That's when I said that. I say, I'm very emotional. I do like your pre-post All-Star Break splits, especially since they're both 63 games apiece. It makes it feel a little more fair than Usually when you talk about after the break, it's a shorter sample size. But I will say this, he had a really good August last year in which he hit 240, ended up slugging 547, which was by far his.

But he didn't slug over 500 any other month. New PCA. And then he kind of fell off in September, October, where he ends up batting 222, slugs 375. The OPS falls to 688, and that was more in line. Now, still, the 688, way better than what we saw in the first half of the season. But I think overall, for him specifically, he's now going to be in a more comfortable situation because he knows his bad as being dependent on in a way that it wasn't last year. And he's got more Major League experience.

Point blank. He got sent down. He came back up. I mean, he was breaking with the club in Japan. And then he had to go back to the bottom. Well, Iowa was not the bottom. But he had to go back down a level to get things figured out. I'm glad he got to figured out.

I think now, though, they're calling on him. and Moises Biosteros, the guys who were minimal contributors last year, are going to have to be major contributors now. I thought the Cubs handled Matt Shaw well last year. It's always tricky, especially with a first round pick like Matt Shaw, who's a man who seems to be, I don't know him, but very sure of himself, very confident, very set in his ways, and they had to break him down a little bit.

So it makes sense that maybe this year is the year where we see a little bit more from him. This Thursday, Marshall, joined the score and Circus Sports, Illinois at Sluggers in Wrigleyville for our ultimate home opener broadcast. Our show will broadcast live from 10 to 1245 before the home opener on the north side.

Then Zach Zabin will have pregame up until the first pitch. So come out and join us on Thursday at Sluggers starting at 10 a.m. It's all brought to you by Circa Sports, Illinois, sports betting the way it should be. Is that an invite for me? Because you're like, this Thursday, Marshall,

and I was like, am I invited? Can I come? is absolutely for you and Layla will be there too. Okay. I'll be there. So we'll have a good time as what you're saying. As well, and in the cold and the nasty. Ray, Ray, are you going to be there too?

I'll be there, but more importantly, Ron Coomer will be there with us. Oh, the Coombe Dog is going to be in the house. By the way, speaking of Coombe, do we have Coomber? We're going to do that in the next segment. The Ron Coomber audio. Okay, so while we're talking about Matt Shaw, this is a perfect time to do this, I think. Matt Shaw, as we said, who has had. all sorts of different manifestations, adjustments, if you will, at the plate.

It all started with the ridiculous lay kick. They had to figure that out, keeping the head still, all of that kind of stuff. It feels like there's been three, four adjustments. It would seem that there was another one this year. Bruce Levine, one of the things he said, and we'll talk to him later on, one of the things he said on Saturday was that the most underreported story of the spring, I guess as it pertains to the Cubs, has been Matt Shaw's Hitting. Let's hear what Ron Cumer has.

to say about what Matt Shaw is doing these days? Well, they're trying Bruce to eliminate movement in a simplistic way of describing it. You know, as we all saw last year, the high leg kick, your foot coming up off, he was front foot coming way up off the ground, then hovering and then going down. That's a very difficult way to hit as you're talking about by a sterile and being on time. And because of that, he wasn't on time a lot. and so he had big areas in the strike zone that pitchers could throw to and get him out fairly easily because of that issue.

The second issue he had last year was once he tried to get that foot down earlier, now the foot was going down and the head was moving forward. And when your head moves forward towards the pitcher, that's just like, you know, open season for the pitcher to get you out when your head's moving. This can't have a lot of head movement going towards the pitcher or forward. And so he had that combination. He really had to fix that. So Johnny has shut down the leg kick.

He hovers it a little bit, but it doesn't come up off the ground and it gets down quick. And I know they're working hard to eliminate that movement of his head going forward. That's an aggressive feel like you're doing something good, but you're not. because that movement just makes it tough to recognize pitches. It hinders the mechanics in your swing. So that's what they're really trying to do. And he is getting that done. I do believe that there's some positives there and some movement forward for him to use that same term.

I'm in a positive way where he's getting better. That's for sure. What I do hate about this, and that's all great analysis from Ron Kumar, sounds spot on to me. Why wouldn't I trust what Ron Kumar asks is I hate that Matt Shaw's had so many things to think about. And that does make sense. Don't move your head up there. The idea that there's a bigger strike, that guys' pitchers are using the strike zone to get the guy out in multiple places is frightening. But I

don't like that he's got to think so much. It feels like, Man Shaw. This seems like the simple one, right, though. Just stay still, keep your head still. It's kind of a fundamental thing going back to low league baseball. You know, you see little kids, out here, moving every which way, and then they're not ready for the pitch. And now at the major league level, you got to donate, is this to denote, excuse me, off speed, fastball, splitter, change. It's a lot of work up there.

So you want to keep the simple thing simple. It's a great point. Coming up here on Rahimi Harris and Grotie, another thing from yesterday's game, a 12-0 went over Milwaukee. Did we see the Cubs opening day lineup? It looked pretty real. Like I said, yesterday was kind of a real game. Horton going the six innings. We'll talk about the Cubs lineup. We'll tell you what we think about it.

Shoutouts to our producers today, Ray Diaz and the Butte, Tyler Buterbaugh. Log on to twitch.tv.tv slash the score, Chicago, our score video producers today, Connor O'Donnell, Jacob Stutz, and Max Curtis. We keep the Cubs talk hot next on Rahimi Harrison Grotie on the score. You're listening to Rahimi Harrison Grody on Sports Radio 1043, the score. Door. Door is closing. Patrick deals. Breckman swings.

It's a high-fly ball. Deep left-center field. Racing back, ground at the wall. It's gone. Alex Bregman with his second home run of the spring. And the Cubs now up four to nothing over the Brewers here in the third. Patrick kicks and fires. Haps swings and drives one in the air.

Deep left. This may go. It's gone. Back-to-back home runs for the Cubs. Alex Breitman, now Ian Hap. It's 5-0 here in the third. Zach Zayman on the call right here on the score. Yesterday, Cubs walloped the Milwaukee Brewers.

Nice to see that so close to the real stuff. Cubs 12, Brewers nothing. Kate Horton's six shutout innings. You heard the back-to-back home runs in the sixth inning for Alex Bregman and Ian Hap. you will be able to hear Cubs baseball this afternoon on the score. That guy you just heard, Zach Zatman, and Ted Lilly, Lilly, Ted Lilly will have the call of Cubs versus Yankees coming up at 155 p.m. With first pitch at 205 on 104.3, the score.

Cubs spring training coverage on the score is sponsored by Sloan, the leader in smart water and commercial restroom solutions. As we officially welcome you back into the Rahimi Harris and Grotie Show, here on the score. And yesterday, part of why I took that game seriously is because you could tell. Craig Counsel took the game seriously, letting Kate Horton go almost 70 pitches, the six innings. This isn't your usual three or four inning time getting these guys stretched out for real, putting Kate Horton in position for his start in the first series of the season. The lineup yesterday for the Cubs could mirror very similarly.

to what the Cubs do at least in the first couple weeks of the season, as we assume that Sayas Suzuki will eventually be put on the IL on Wednesday for a short stay is the way it's looking like right now because of the PCL strain. But this Mars Hall was the lineup for the Cubs yesterday. Michael Bush, leading off and playing first base. Alex Bregman, your third baseman, batting second.

Ian Hap gets to hit third and played left field. PCA, Pete Crow, Arm. strong, the cleanup hitter and, of course, your center fielder. There's Nico Horner, batting fifth and playing second. Carson Kelly, the catcher batting six. Moeballer, Moises by Asteroes, the D.H for the Cubs, batting seventh. Dansby Swanson hitting eighth and playing shortstop. And Matt Shaw, the number nine hitter, getting the first start in right field.

And, of course, the other candidates being in that spot would be Dylan Carlson, Michael Conforto and Kevin Alcantra, I suppose, Chas McCormick, if you hadn't heard, if you even had ever heard that name, he was sent down. Marshall, what do you think about that lineup to start? Would you be pleased with that? Would you make any adjustments? Because I might make some adjustments in this.

It's fine on paper. Like you go down the list and you can see the thinking of Craig Counsel as far as how you put that together. I don't know that I would have Ian Hap that high in the lineup. Yep, there we are. And I understand his value as a switch hitter. in that lineup might be what lends him to be in that third hole. But I kind of want Nico Horner to be in the top fourth of the lineup.

And I think what I look at when I see it is why not have, and I know this is going to sound crazy, but Nico Horner batting behind Pete Crow Armstrong, who hits third. Oh, okay, put PCA third. And slide hap down. Yeah, I tend to agree with you. Yeah, that's the first thing that stood out to me. Nico's too far down, right? No, it's not even Nico.

Probably, yeah, but what popped off the page to me was Ian Hap, batting third, batting third, just considering the up and down nature of his season and, like, are we ready to do this? And I get it. It's one day, it's one lineup. Craig Counsel has done a pretty good job at moving around the lineups when he's had to. I mean, think about Dansby Swanson. when wasn't Danesby Swanson probably we'd have to go back and look at last year but didn't Swanson start way higher up and then eventually get demoted and then made his way back up and then back down and it seemed to work to some degree yes but really the thing was Matt Shaw was batting way too high off the gate if you remember in Japan opening day Matt Shaw was in the top above some of these veterans as a rookie and that was not good I love where Matt Shaw is put him in the nine hole low pressure another stolen base threat at the bottom of the lineup.

Also, the Moises Bayosteros, at first peak, I was like, ah, is that too low? But you know what? I kind of get it. He's behind Carson Kelly. So now you got to throw Kelly pitches because Byosteros will punish you otherwise with his bat. And then Swanson behind him, I'm okay with the bottom of the lineup. I think that could be a very productive bottom third of the lineup, which is, that's where PCA was to start last season.

And you remember how much extra kick they got out of the lineup. the bottom of their lineup and turning the lineup over at the start of the season. I like this on paper. I just might, my biggest thing is Nico Horner's too far down in the world. Why are we waiting this far down to have one of your best hitters hit? Yeah. Yeah. You're going to see him too, batting lead off probably sometimes against lefties, for sure.

So I feel like he's going to bounce around the lineup. I also think your guy, Moises Basteros, that's where you start him. You know what I mean? Like, it wasn't even a slam dunk unless it actually was a slam dunk that he was going to make the roster out of spring training all along. Grotie, did you hear the way Craig Castle was talking about him? Yeah, but the coaches, don't mess with Mo Baller, basically. He's perfect. But in Mo Baller's head, if you read that and watched that, he didn't know he was going to make the team.

He was going, and maybe that's a healthy way to comport oneself if you're a young player, that you got to have that little bit of mystery, that you can't just have stuff handed to you. then Craig handed it to him. Last time we were looking at Mo Baller and talking about whether he's going to make something, it was like, is he even going to be on the playoff roster? So in his mind, that's fresh in his memory. He knows that it's hit or miss for him as far as making the roster because he's lived in a reality where he was not part of the team in the most crucial juncture of the season.

Now, out of the gate, I think he is earned by way of his, I don't know, over 1,000 OPS and batting 359 through the spring. he's earned the spot that he has, and now it's just a matter of how often will they go to that well? Because if you're thinking Matt Shaw for 140 games, how many games is Moises Biosteros going to be in the start? Wow, that's a great question, too. Do you think, I think even a better question is, not that my questions are better than your questions. Do you think Moises Byosteros will be hitting third by the time the season is over? Like you have, so, I love him too. I don't think I could possibly, in my life, match the love that you have for Moises Biosteiros right now, because you think he's the best hitter in the lineup.

Well, look, I'll say this. I don't see him hitting third in the lineup. What I do see is him hitting in the top five of the lineup. If he's going to be a 300 hitter who's hitting 30 plus doubles, hits 15 plus home runs, he'd get to 20 home runs. If he's given the opportunity, here are the guys I see him hitting behind, and that's why I don't have him in the top three in the order. Nico Horner, Michael Bush, Alex Bregman.

To me, those are the guys he's not going to jump in front of. He's just not. Yeah, no, that makes sense because I think, like, if I'm looking, I still think Alex Bregman is your best hitter, and I can't wait to see what Michael Bush does this season with the full. I mean, a guy had 31 at-bat, or excuse me, 31 home runs last year and was, what, seventh or eighth in at-bats last year on the Cubs roster? So, and you could argue that, as you did often last year, that Craig did the wrong thing by not having him in there, I always go back to they developed him the right way, eased him into lefties, and now he's amazing.

made man because he gets to go up against lefties. So I supported Craig Counsel on that. I don't think you did if I recall correctly. No, you're recalling exactly correctly because my argument was when they were struggling offensively and those days when a lefty was on the hill and he just wasn't in the lineup, those are dark days, Mark. Do you remember the offense? Hot fell off?

Yeah, it did fall up. But my God, they were world beaters in the first half. Like nobody could touch. So we were talking about run differential like it was 2016 last year for a while. If it's, and this is why it looks so ridiculous now and why I was banging the drum I was banging, Mark, if it's Justin Turner. Yes.

Or it's Michael Bush. Come on. Come on. Don't worry. Justin Turner's not walking through that door again. Some great text messages coming up, or coming through here. From the 312-644-67, if you want to text us or call us today. from the 9-20 PCA clean-up?

And maybe that's a question mark based on the lack of slug in the second half of the season. But I like the idea that the Cubs seem to be saying, maybe if this is their lineup, we're leaning more towards what he did in the first half of the season than the second half of the season. 815. Is Kevin Alcantra no longer a prospect?

He's a plus defender and would be better in right defensively. I'm not arguing that he would be better defensively, but I will say this. Matt Shaw, to me, has a better bat. Point blank. They're going to need runs. It's cold outside, or it's going to be cold

for a while anyway. So I like Matt Shaw. I think Alcantra will get mixed in there, say as Suzuki's on the injured list. He's going to get mixed in as a defensive replacement, perhaps. But for the majority of the game, I want Matt Shaw getting familiar with right field and regularly. Yeah, and he's got the, Kevin

Alcantra's got tools. It feels to me like there's some things that the Cubs coaching staff has set out loud that they haven't been particularly pleased with with Kevin Alcantra, one of those being base running. So I think he's still learning to play the game. He's obviously got options left as well and could see some time in the minor leagues. Who knows what happens

when saying it gets back. And also back to the first text you were talking about with PCA cleanup. That's one where I would be very comfortable with Nico Horner batting cleanup, PCA being behind him. And then that to me makes more sense. Yeah.

The consistency of the bat there because when you have Michael Bush, Alex Breggman, Ian Hap in front of you, likely someone's going to be on base. And if you're talking about two outs, bottom of the first, man on base, I just like Nico Horner in that spot more. Do you follow me on that? I do understand what you're saying right there. Oh, and then this one, I guess this one's aimed at me since I was so excited about the Cubs 12 to nothing went over the Brewers yesterday.

From the 7-3-4, they played the, quote, baby brewers. There's lots of guys with no names on their jerseys and very high NBRs, but it was still nice to see a win. Isn't that always the Milwaukee Brewers? They're always a bunch of no-name guys. I don't care that they didn't have names on the back of their jerseys. And Jacob Mizorowski wasn't out there flinging the baseball at the Cubs because this is the way it always goes with Milwaukee.

Yes, they've got some guys on their team that are absolute stars and stalwart, but there's always the no-name guys that kill the Cubs. Listen. On the Brewers, anyway. Eventually, those guys are going to have names like, I don't know, Vaughn on the back of their jersey. And you have to deal with this. So just take what you can get and let the White Sox do the dirty work for you in the meantime. Yeah, yeah, get some White Sox and Brewers, man.

On Thursday, Le Miz is on the mound in that White Sox Brewers game if the game actually gets played. Coming up here on Rahimi Harris and. Grody. We are, we've made it pretty clear that Marshall and I, and I think Layla too, we're all kind of, like I feel like most of the world, casual college basketball fans. But we learned something in the pre-show meeting backstage today that we were both glued to the NCAA tournament. We will talk NCAA. We will talk about the wise and some of the exciting stuff that happened over the weekend, including your fighting Aligni. Next on Rahimi Harrison Grody on the score.

Rahimi Harrison Grody. We are family here. Midday's 10 to 2 on 1043 to score. Another second half domination from Illinois. And they get themselves right back to the sweet 16. Illinois for the second time in three years is moving past the round of 32. Time with a 76-55 win over VCU. Highlights courtesy of Westwood 1.

Rahimi Harrison Grotie on the score. No funny stuff from the Illini. They took care of business. Illinois, again 76 VCU 55. The Illini move on to take on the number two seed Houston on Thursday in the Sweet 16. Unfortunately, Marshall Harris, in Houston. That's going to be something to watch.

All they had to do, Mark, going back a couple weeks ago, I don't know, win a big 10 tournament game, a big 10 tournament game, and then you're the two seed, you're, I don't know, in St. Louis, then you're coming back to Chicago, and then you've got a clearer and a much easier path to the final four in Indianapolis.

Where all your fans can have all the tickets now, that is going to be a hot, style environment for what should be by most people's calculations, the best Sweet 16 game. I think you're right. I think most people agree with that. A three seat against a two seat. And that's the whole thing. Like a lot of people like have charted this out. I think when we had Tim Doyle on the first day of the tournament, he talked about how he believes his prediction was that Illinois would win a couple of games, but then they would run into Houston. Look, Houston might be better, but not much better.

I mean, this is a two seed against a three seed and what looks to be a loaded Illinois team. As a matter of fact, the head coach of the fighting aligni. Brad Underwood, who has been a regular on the score with Mully and Haw, was on with those guys this morning and discussed how physical... Excuse me, let's start, we got a couple of cuts here, my bad. The first one I want to play here, guys, is he discussed how deep his roster is with talent. I think that's one of the, been one of our keys all season and, you know,

and Andre comes in and has 16 and half, you know, went on a personal 9-0 run and, you know, I thought Tyler did a good job and putting him in positions to score, you know, right there at the end of the half and we get a nice lead and, and stymie their run, and then we opened the second half on a nice run. So, you know, it's, you know, Thomas Love was great with the double-double. Merck is his ability. Keaton got going in the second half the other night. So,

you know, I do think we have some weapons. Kylan's been rock solid. Jake Davis, Ben, can really, really shoot it. So I think we've got, I think we've got some weapons there, and you know, we're just trying to find the right ones at the right time. Yeah, Andre of the Stoyakovich's had

21 points in the game, which was good, like, it was wild because, as one who has not watched very closely the Illini this year just jumping on the bandwag and I kind of fell in love during the Penn game with David Mercovich who had that

on 27 and 15 or whatever just a crazy double double against Penn where they went over 100 points and then it's like he just really wasn't there but there's Andre Stoyoyakovich to save the day and always right there the most even keel guy out there is always Keaton Wogler

So Wogler is just unbelievable and once he gets a little bit stronger, tightens up his defense. He could be a problem at the next level, right? And he's going to be at the next level very shortly. But to see Stoyakovich off the bench, 21 points and 26 minutes, to lead four different players in double figures, it did feel like anybody and everybody could get some for the Illini. And I'm so interested in how this plays going forward against a Houston team that's just like hard hats, lunch pails, freaking black Tim's, Black Air Force once.

That's what Houston brings every night when they come to play. And they're due for a clunker because every tournament, they have an offensive clunker. And we're talking about the best offensive efficiency team left in the tournament in the Illini. So it's a clash of styles, again, very much a death trap for most teams. But if they win this game, and this is the crazy part, nine seasons now Brad Underwood's been with Illinois,

they've only gotten to the Sweet 16 twice, but two of those trips have come in the last three years. And the other time, the only reason they didn't win it all is because they ran into the juggernaut that was Yukon that beat everybody by double figures. Right, they got to the elite eight two years ago. Yeah, so this feels like you win this game, Mark,

you can win it all. Yeah, and people forget too, and we'll bring this up with Jeremy Werner when we have him at 1245. There was an eight-year tournament drought for the Alina. You know, I mean, you had, Bill Self was great, then on to Bruce Weber, and then Weber faded out,

then on to John Gross, who was kind of a joke. And so Brad Underwood has kind of restored order. One more cut, because just what you were talking about with that Houston game, this is Brad Underwood, again, with Mullen Haw this morning on how physical the Illini will have to play against Houston. We've got to have a certain level of physicality and everything we do, and it's not just, it gets magnified because it's front-core guys and size, and everybody thinks big guys, but it's also on the perimeter.

And you look at, you know, Houston's Guard Sharp is a big, strong physical guard. I mean, he's going to, he'll hit you, and we want to do the same thing. But there's got to be, there's going to be a lot of bodies hidden. You know, there's going to be a lot of bodies flying to the glass. There's going to be some of that. And if you don't bring physicality, they'll just walk all over you. And, you know, it's a mindset as much as anything, and we have to be strong in our conviction

and know what we do every day and how hard we practice and know that we're going to face a team that does the same thing. And like I said, you can't blink or flinch, otherwise you're going to get beat. Let the bodies hit the floor. That's Brad Underwood this morning on Mully and Hall. We'll talk more Alignanai later on, but I want to get to this really quickly. We both had a blast. You sound like you had more.

You were out and about Mars Hall. How was your viewing weekend? So one thing that the tournament allowed me to do is do something I don't really do, which is socialized. Get out of your place. I left my place. I went both Friday, immediately after the morning show,

after Mullian Hall, Gabe Ramirez and I went down the street. Got wasted. No, no, no. I saw you guys stumbling out of there. No, no. We were in Sweetwater just hanging out, though, and watching some games.

And then Friday, after that, on Saturday, I was working at ABC 7, but on my dinner break, I just went to Old Town and watched the games with some friends out. And came back and watched the second half of the Illini. And then yesterday,

I was out back out again, just watching the game. And here's what I loved. We had enough upsets and things that happened that you're like, okay, this is what Cinderella is supposed to look like. But when you look at the Sweet 16, like what makes it up, it's a nice mix of, yes, I know it's Big Ten heavy. Six Big Ten teams, ladies and gentlemen. Four SEC teams.

But when you look at the quality of teams in this tournament, Alabama, Arkansas, Yukon, Houston, St. John's back doing their thing. that does feel good. Michigan State Purdue. Like, it's heavyweight. It's Blue Bloods. Duke's still there. Michigan, like, it feels like this is what Sweet 16 matchups are supposed to look like

prototypically. Yeah, Iowa, man, beaten the number one seed last night, Florida, 73, 772, last second shot for St. John's with Rick Patino. We're rocking the suit still. Is he the only coach in the NBA or college that

still rocks the suit? I mean, he has to wear the suit. The man is vintage. He is vintage. The man is vintage. I can't knock him for that. That is the truth. Yeah, Bill Self over there. So yeah, we're going to do more of this because we collected some great sound. There was so much fabulous. Some

was funny. Some was serious. All sorts of good sounds. So we'll do a best-of segment of the NCAA tournament a little bit later on. We'll also talk to Jeremy Werner. Go in depth on the Illini at 1245. Coming up next on Rahimi Harris.

and Grody, we ask you the question. How much do you trust the Bears to draft when it comes to defense? They're not far away from the draft. April 23rd in Pittsburgh. We all know they need defense, defense, defense, defense, defensive line. We will discuss that next coming up on Rahimi Harrison Grotie on the score. Philosophically, I feel the same. It's going to be the best player available.

I know that may not be the most popular thing because people see kind of Like, on my board have yellow tags where we need to fill in. But at the same time, I do believe, especially in early rounds, like, one, you really got to stick the best player available. We saw that last year. I know there's a lot of questions. You got Cole. Why would you take Colston?

I think we found out that it helped us along the way. So we'll continue to lean in that philosophy. Welcome back into Rahimi Harris and Grotie. Ryan Poles, the general manager of the Chicago Bears at the Combine. He got it right last year. He did. Best player available. I don't blame him for pointing to his 2025 resume and say, see, we did it. We took the best player available. And he's right. It was a little bit of a surprise that they went with Colston Loveland. Really the big surprise was that they didn't go with Tyler Warren in that spot. But I think that we can all agree that we're pretty happy with that. Luther Bird in a second rounder, which probably took some people off guard as well. And then Ozzie Tripillo as well, one of those second rounders. So, yes.

It's a pillow. That's right, Chris. I do appreciate it. This segment on Rahimi-Harrison Grody is being brought to you by almost-freeteeth.com, save on dental implants today. Marshall, I think that we probably both agree that this is in the Ryan Poles era, one of the more important drafts when it comes to the defensive side of the ball. Because for whatever reason, they haven't done a whole. whole lot when it comes to beefing up specifically the defensive line and all parts of it,

whether the interior, the defensive end, there has not been a splash made. Unless you are one of those that thinks that Dio Dengbo, that we ain't seen nothing yet, watch the film, let's see what he can do coming off of torn ACL, let's see what he can do. If Shamar Turner, a second rounder, if he is the truth with the energy that that guy has, but you would agree that this is probably like he's got to hit on something on that defensive line this year in this draft where the Bears do have a couple of second rounders. Nobody hits all the time, but I will just want to really stress this. They hit last year offensively on the draft. And if they get something like that for defense this year, all's good in the world of Ryan Poles.

The problem is I don't see the evidence that that's what's going to happen, based on what we've seen through his picks. You talked about the interior, the defensive line, whether that's detackle, whether that's edge rush. It just has not happened through the draft. Now, Austin Booker is someone to keep an eye on. I will say that, in fairness. He's someone to keep an eye on.

He may take another leap in year three, and that's what they're expecting because they have to draft and develop. But if you just lay out the needs of the bears right now after that first wave of free agency and understanding what they need, both in the secondary at safety and up front specifically, and maybe even at linebacker,

depending on what they decide to do, who falls to what, where, and understanding they have three picks in the first two rounds. I would imagine two, at least, of those picks would be defensive players, and so they need to hit. And I'm just really concerned that offensively, Ben Johnson has been the North Star.

defensively, who is the North Star for the Bears within that organization with these specific needs that they have? Well, I guess Dennis Allen, if we're going to do the coaching analogy, that Ben Johnson is the offense, as Dennis Allen is to the defense, if he has that much say and what they're doing. Let me just go through here. You mentioned the drafting for Ryan Poles through the years on defense. Last year, I already mentioned Shamar Turner. Jury's still out. I'm not going to sit here and predict that he's going to have 10 sacks and be a revelation, but he has a second round talent. I think that's fair, and clearly that's someone that Dennis Allen okayed because of his versatility,

because we've already seen him play on the inside and the outside on the defensive line. Right. So actually, I'm looking very forward to seeing what Shamar Turner is. If he stays healthy and he's full boat and he's in the full rotation, that's a guy that I can't wait to see what the ceiling actually is. I'm just going through the defensive players that he's drafted. Ruben Hippolyte as a fourth rounder. The jury still way up.

He's fast. He's really fast. That's about it. He's been unimpressive. I mean, when I say unimpressive, he was a fourth rounder that at the time of the draft, everybody was saying, oh, they overdrafted him. There's been nothing to let us know that that's not the case so far. Now, it was one year. It was limited duty.

But when he got to, remember all the people that were hurt, linebacker-wise, he never was able to step up and make an impact in that position. You're right. That's a great point because you had A. Man, Ogbong, Bamega, who stepped up. The Marco Jackson got himself a new deal with the Bears, you know, probably earned a, maybe earned a starting spot this year. Jack Sanborn's back, right? Jack Sanborn is back! So when you add all that up, and I get it, he was only a rookie, and he was a fourth rounder, not a second or third rounder, but I would have expected more of an impact, and I'm very curious to see where the develop part of draft and develop comes up. The other defensive player that they drafted last year was Zayfraiser, the cornerback, the very tall physical quarterback,

who obviously had dealt with some personal issues last year. He was there. He was in the locker room. I saw him all the time. But let's see if he can make an impact. So that's none of that. Nothing hits last year as far as the defense is concerned. 2024, you already mentioned it.

Austin Booker was a fifth round pick for the Bears in that draft. He's your only hope from 2024. for 2020 you had all right man jury is out on Jervon Dexter two guys

Jervon Dexter and Tyreek Stevenson were both second round picks of the Bears in the year 2020 what I'll tell you is the jury has been sequestered and now they are being forced to make a decision and they're not going to get to go home to

their families until the decisions made that's what 2026 is for Jervon Dexter you would agree with that assessment? I would agree with that assessment, man. This is not a bad player. Trayvon Dexter, by any means, he did, was he second in the Bears and Sacks last year? He's not a bad player.

That's not a big number, by the way. I know. He has not made the impact he was expected to do considering he was a second round pick and the size that this man has, which maybe has hurt him too with the leverage. But there's Javon Dexter. Tyreek Stevenson, same deal. Wow, as he had an up and down career.

He was my pick to be like, their comeback player of the year after what went wrong in 2024, didn't happen in 2025, but he still has time to show something, anything. Now, the guy that was drafted directly behind him, we know how that turned out, right? Behind, you're talking about Zach Pickens? Yeah, yeah, Zach Pickens, yes, Layla's favorite. Yeah, Zach Pickens didn't quite work out. I remember watching, because I was obviously glued to Jervon Dexter and Zach Pickens.

It's pretty exciting when like multiple defensive lines. Lyman are taken, right? And so I was glued to those guys. Zach Pickens for a while looked like the better product out of the two of those guys. And then Zach Pickens just went downhill. I don't know what the where are they now. Is he even in football anymore? He's got to be. Probably still is. But yeah, so that was the year 2023, Dexter, Tyreeks Stevenson, Zach Pickens. So they went heavy, heavy on the defensive line that year in terms of the cost and the breadth of those picks. So, again, this is, all GMs are allowed to improve. And then his first year, Poles his first year, he certainly hit on the defense,

at least in the secondary. Kyler Gordon and Jaquan Briscoe were very good draft picks, second rounders. The only defensive lineman they took that year was Dominique Robinson, who was a fifth rounder, who was no longer with the Bears, who got every opportunity, terrific athlete, good locker room guy, but that did not work out. See if things go better for him on a Houston Texan defense that's known to be stout, so maybe he fits in better with a bunch of guys who really are good at what they do already. Yeah, no doubt.

And so you can conclude from this that Ryan Poles has struggled with, in terms of the draft, the defensive line. And one could argue as well that he has struggled in the guys that he has signed. I don't have that list in front of me, but we can play that game at some point in time as well. Let's better educate ourselves on the overall philosophy of the Bears when it comes to the draft, not just the offense, but the defense as well. And the man to do it. The reason I need to point that out is because it is an offensive voice that we are going to hear from right here.

Dan Rochhar is the Bears' offensive line coach, and he's going to provide insight on the overall process for the, Bears, Rochard with Foster Swift Sports Talk discussed on their NFL draft process last year. In our short meeting, it's all about football. And the one thing that we want to get out of it is what's the knowledge of the player coming in? Does you really have a good foundation to learn? And every university is a little bit different, or college setting is a little bit different, in the sense that some guys are coached at a really high level,

some guys maybe not at his high level, maybe we've had multiple transfers from college to college to college and things are maybe just a little bit off. What's in there? So in that 15 minutes you're trying to really hone in on in a short interview, hey, what's this guy's football IQ like? That's really what you're driving at. And speaking on last year, because, you know, we were in the market, we thought we were in the market to go early, we had the 10th pick, and although that went to Colston, which was a heck of a pick, we're all doing that as positions, coaches.

That's really what we're driving at for our head football coach, our GM and those in the room to be able to go, man, this guy's got good football makeup. or there's some real concerns. And the more concerns there are, the less clean they are, the more work you then have to do after the process. That's bringing them to campus for what we call 30 visits. You get 30 prospects to come to campus, and you can spend an entire day, meal setting, whatever those things are, to do more legwork.

And then a process like this, where you're on Zoom, hey, how much more can we gather? And I always like to, you know, in the process, I always like to go back to if I know, if I know somebody that I really know at a college that's worked with the player. And they can give me insider information about what this like. Like, how's this guy handle injury? Is he going to be able to fight through it? Or are we going to be dealing with a guy that's, you know, in the clubhouse? Because availability is so important in this game. That is the Bears offensive line coach Dan Rochard with Foster Swift Sports Talk.

I assume that that's a podcast that he was on. But anyway, it sounds to me, Marshall, that he's talking. I mean, that's all very smart stuff that go beyond the surface. I don't know that that's necessarily unique because the thing that we've learned in the draft is that they want to know everything about these guys, how smart they are, who they hang out with, who their girlfriend is. Or maybe I'm just talking about that movie. Wait, what movie are you referring to?

Is that the Kevin Costner special? Draft Day? Yeah. I know all that stuff. But I get where he's coming from. You want to go deeper than just what the player does. What stood out to you there from Mr. Rochard? Whereas I'm listening to it, and it makes sense because I'm never turning down data.

I'm never turning down more information on a player. And if you're a player on prospective coaching staff, a team and organization, I mean, go back to Caleb Williams' dad, right? He's trying to figure out all the nitty-gritty about the bears and how they ended up, you know, being a graveyard for a lot of quarterbacks over the course of a long period of time. And the same certainly applies when you're talking about the millions of dollars and the hopes of your own livelihood depend on how good this player is at the next level. And so all of the stuff he talks about there, It's all well and good, but the bottom line is, do I trust your ability to evaluate defensively what's been going on?

And that's a question talking about Ben Johnson, Ryan Poles, and ultimately Dennis Allen, because they're the players that he wants. And I point back to like the Dio Dingbo as an acquisition because he fit what Dennis Allen likes as far as traits despite not having necessarily the actual performance on paper documented. of where it says, hey, he's really good at getting pressures, not so much sex, but we think we can turn the pressures into sex. That's a lot of hoping and wishing based on the actual contract that you gave him. He also likes versatility, obviously. I mean, we've seen that with safety. It's already talked about it with Kobe Bryant, that he can play all sorts of different

levels of safety. Heck, the guy used to be a cornerback. Even if you look at somebody like Shamar Turner, they can't decide. where they want to use him. The beauty of, if I may use that for Dio Dangbo, especially when he was with the Colts, he would bounce around the line. And you want that versatility with your players.

It's just a matter of turning in into something real. Textor brings up something interesting. And you're always welcome to text us here on Rahimi Harris and Grotie. 312, 64, 67, 67. We even pick up phone calls every once in a while. 312, 64, 64, 67, 67. From the 312, Tyreek is a safety, Tyreek Stevenson, that is. You'll see an Edmund's type of production increase when he has changed positions.

That's interesting to me, because the other guy, who I actually should have mentioned, as part of the Tyreek Stevenson draft two years ago, I guess that would have been in the year 2023. Terrell Smith was another guy. Don't forget about Smitty. Smitty's still there. Smitty the cornerback who Dave Wonstead once said. I'll never forget this because I was intrigued by his thought process. Dave Wonstead said that you could turn Terrell Smith,

Smitty, into a safety as well. Do you think they got some funny stuff up their sleeves maybe this year? Or would that be wise or do you think it's just stupid and they should draft the safety? Well, yes. They should draft the safety or it's just stupid and they should... Well, I think they should always be drafting for the future, even if that safety's not going to play this year. They don't draft for need, Marshall.

They draft best player available. Best player available. Even though everybody's mocking safeties to the Bears. If Dave Wonstadt is saying it, and as long as it's a bruiser of a safety, I'm good with them taking a safety early, right? Like if it happens to be a first round safety, that dude better be a playmaker, though. That's my point with that first pick. If you're going to keep it and you're going to draft someone, it can't be someone you're debating about, is he going to have an impact this season right away?

He's got to be a dude. No doubt about it. Yeah. Like we don't, and you said probably the, no, no, this is the most important draft that Ryan Poles has had. Point blank and period. Because when he was drafting all the other times, he was trying to build towards a winning. He has a winner right now on paper. They won the division last year.

Now you got to supplant that. A lot of teams get to the mountaintop for a moment and then fall back down. His job now is to sustain it. and the players he takes defensively in this draft will determine whether or not they can keep this going. We're going to have more Bears talk today at 1 o'clock. Mark it right now on your phone because we're going to be talking about Caleb Williams and which quarterback tier he belongs in this year. He was towards the bottom last year in the preseason, at least according to Mike Sando, who is the quarterback tiers.

He is on record with that that he's been doing for decades, or maybe not decades, but at least a decade. So we'll do that at 1 o'clock. Coming up next, we are going to talk with Richard Deich, who writes about the media. He does a podcast here on Odyssey called Sports Media with Richard Deich. The main reason that we wanted to have him on is because he just wrote this cool feature story on our friend,

Kevin Harlan. We'll ask him what he learned about our guy who was a regular on this show. And there's just so much bouncing around in the broadcast area whether baseball or the NCAA tournament or Charles Barkley or Bruce Pearl, there are myriad things to discuss with him. Do you know where to find your games? Like every night when you're trying to find your games?

It's a game I like that. This guy knows where all the games are. Richard Deich is next on Rahimi Harrison Grotie on the score. Rahimi Harrison Grody, Midday's Tyndall 2. On Chicago Sports Radio, 1043, the score. Wouldn't have a lot of time now. Bill Self and his staff making sure they're. No, no fouls.

This is going to be Darling. He's got to go. Darling puts it up this week 16 for the first time since 1999. Our guy, the voice of Kevin Harlan,

calling St. John's last second win over Kentucky 67-65 as seen on CBS. Dylan Darling with that last second lay-up, Patino against self and the man narrating it.

Kevin Harlan doesn't get any better than that. As a matter of fact, Kevin will be one of the topics of our next discussion, which we are happy to report is with here on Rahimi Harrison Grotie with the one and only Richard Deich. Host of the Odyssey podcast Sports Media with Richard Deich. Also sports business journal contributor. He is on Zoom right now. You could follow him on X at Richard Deich. as we welcome onto the Rahimi Harris and Grotie show on the score. What's going on, Richard? How are you?

Fellas, as always great to be here. You know, whenever I'm on your station, and I love Chicago, because it is very, very similar to my city, Toronto. I always like to, you know, see Munk It Up, where you say something like, you know, where else would you rather be on a Monday afternoon than in the great city of Chicago, Illinois? I love the sell, Richard.

That has got me excited, and it's my show. We appreciate you stopping by. Kevin Harlan's story was so interesting to me because people don't understand how much this man has to travel. I think the travel piece of this is the most iconic of the things he's doing. Obviously, he's a great broadcaster. We have him on the station all the time. Can you walk me through and maybe the people out there just how difficult it is to get from one place to another on any given assignment because he's got different bosses and different priorities, but he still is able to not miss work.

and we all miss work because of flight cancellations and everything else. Yeah, especially now. So it was great to profile Kevin Harlan, which I did for Sports Business Journal. He gave me a lot of time. So I was able to, I feel like, get a sense of his life. So Harlan is very old school. And he doesn't have an assistant. He doesn't have like a travel advisor.

So what he does on any given week is he will figure out the best route for him depending on his employer. So right now he's working for CBS for the NFL and obviously March Madness a little bit. Works for Prime Video when it comes to the NBA and then works for Westwood One. So during the football season, you know, he's always in two different markets on a Sunday and a Monday. And what he'll do very early in his week is he'll price out all the different flights that can take him from A to B. He prices out the backups and sometimes the backups to the backups. So he always has a, you know, a plan in the event that, like, there's some kind of travel issues or flights delayed or something like that. And he keeps all of this on these handwritten calendar journals.

It is not a phone guy or anything like that. He really literally does it old school, you know, in handwritten lettering on these calendar journals that he's kept for 30, 40 years at this point. he travels more than 150,000 miles a year. He does everything, like you said, separately. So what CBS wants is not necessarily what Prime Video wants, and he has to try to keep that very, very separate. And the interesting thing, this is a trick, and obviously your listeners can use this as well.

You know, he's based in Kansas. And one of the things he always will use is he uses Midwestern airports like Chicago as a hub where in the event, it gets a little tricky with travel. He always believes that he can get to where he needs to get to if he's in a Chicago or Detroit, as opposed to a smaller airport somewhere

where there may be, let's say, you know, like one flight a day. So that's one of the tricks that he uses is that he's willing to, he'll sleep overnight in a Chicago, and then like at 6 a.m. or 5 a.m., he figures that if he's getting into a little bit of dicey travel trouble, he'll be able to get the flight to where he needs to, to make it. And then lastly, sometimes, like, things just happen, and the guy has to rent a car, like a couple of months ago, rented a car from, he had to be in Ann Arbor. And I believe he rented a car

from Green Bay and drove seven and a half hours from Green Bay to Ann Arbor so he could make a noon tip off in Ann Arbor. Hey, there is security in that, man. No funny stuff usually when you're driving, as opposed to the airlines. And as we said, coming in, it is tough out here right now. We could talk about Kevin Harland for an hour probably. It's one of our favorite guests, but we have finite amount of time with you, Richard. So I want to get into the college basketball, the tournament coverage so far, and I'm tempted to just ask you the general question of what do you like and what you don't like. And you could take that and run with it too, but I do want to ask one specific question,

a what did you think moment of the game, the first round game where you had Brian Anderson, who had no voice. He had laryngitis for the game, But you had Charles Barkley and Dick Vital doing a sports talk radio show is the way it felt. What did you think of that game? And if you'd like to take it in different directions too on things that you liked and didn't like so far about the NCAA tournament and the coverage on the many networks. Yeah. So listen, I'm happy for both Barkley and Vital. They've wanted to work together for a long time.

And in television, prior to like, let's say the last five years or so, less three years or so, networks did not want their talent on another. network. They always thought it was like a significant competitive imbalance. They wanted to keep their talent very specific to their mediums. And they've gotten better at this. I think they now realize that all publicity is good publicity. And if you allow your talent to go on another network, it's just going to end up being good publicity for you. It also helps with your own talent relations. It makes your talent happy. So I'm glad that by Talon Barkley got to do a game together. Like honestly, would I want those guys to do a full season together? No. Like, to be very blunt, like, at a certain point with Vital, and this was even Vital and his prime, like, it's very good for me in doses, but I wouldn't want a entire season of, you know, the sort of over-the-top histrionics and the love affair from Mike Shashefsky.

Like, at a certain point, you know, it's a little painful for me. I do love Berkeley, though. I like seeing him on different outlets, so I thought that was cool. You know, in terms of the tournament itself, I think CBS and Turner now, and I wouldn't say they're on autopilot, but I really think they do a very good job on the production. Like, the tournament just, like, is really, really fun to watch. They don't miss calls. It's, you know, they have a great feel of sort of when to show the crowd, when to show the game. And also, I think they have their best group of broadcasters in terms of the teams that I've ever seen.

There's really not. I mean, if you go through the first five broadcast groups or even six, like, they're all good. And they could probably all do the finals if they wish. Like, I think, no offense to Jim Nath, but Ion Eagles, a better basketball broadcaster than Jim. He's terrific. And that's like, that's an improvement there. I think the raftery Grand Hill, Ion Eagle team has actually worked. I'm a big fan of Andrew Catalan and Steve Lapis.

I think that's a great team they call a really good game. So to me, like, the tournament has been well done. You're always going to have people who don't love studio talent. Like I've seen online like there's been some criticism in April. He doesn't really bother me that much. I get the fact that there are hardcore college basketball fans who don't want the NBA guys there. And they think it sort of cheapens the sport. But you have to remember, this is ultimately the day.

This is a television show. You know, and like these guys pay a lot of money. And if you pay a lot of money, you're going to have Kenny Smith and Charles Barkley and your, you know, Turner talent, or not Turner anymore, but WBD talent on a very, very big property like that. So I think you just, you have to sort of accept that's the case. I'm trying to, you know, like the one thing I would say, like I actually just happen to hear the Odyssey Sports Minute. I'm not sure who did it, but I couldn't disagree more with that 40-second take there. Because to me, the tournament remains great when an underdog can make a play into the second week.

Like, I get it. You don't want high point to play necessarily for the title, which I think you do want them to get to the second weekend. That, to me, is, like, what makes the sport great. So I'm hoping that the NIL era does not eliminate us from any kind of second round in Sweet 16, where we get, like, one or two FDUs or George Mason or something like that, because I think that still gives the tournament, like, kind of its secret sauce. That's what makes it, that's, to me, what makes it compelling.

Yeah, Richard Dijich joining us to host of the Odyssey Podcast, Sports Media, with Richard Dich. He's also a sports business journal contributor. And I think it gives the charm that it has, Richard, overall, the idea that somebody double-digit C can go on and do big things. Texas is not included because I don't really, I mean, I know they got an 11 next to their name, but I don't call them a double-digit seat. I'm really curious to your thoughts on this Warner Brothers cell to Paramount and what that means for us, the sports consumer going forward because I don't think it's good. But also, I can't do anything to stop it. Yeah, listen, man, I grew up in New York. So, like, I'm a de facto not a fan of billionaires.

If billionaires want something, I generally go the opposite of that, as just as a general life guidance rule. No, I don't think, I mean, the consolidation for, if you're a sports fan, it's sort of TBD. The reality is, like, the combination of CBS's properties and Warner Brothers Discovery properties would give them the second best set of sports kind of, you know, sports properties, behind DSPN, but the reality is they're not going to be able to keep all of them because they have to ultimately re-up with the NFL.

And, you know, Paramount, David Ellis and NFL officials, they've already sort of indicated to you that they're going to, you know, they're going to opt out early and they're going to resign and extend that contract early. So if I had to guess, I think there will be some Warner Brothers discovery properties that go to the open market. Like, you know, could that be like the French Open? Could that be the NHL? you know, we'll end up seeing, but I don't see the combined companies retaining all of those properties. But generally speaking, from my perspective, when you see mergers and major mergers, two things happen. One, people get laid off, and I was part of a massive merger way back in the day when I first started my career, AOL and Time Warner merged. It was like essentially the

worst business merger in the history of America, and a ton of people lost their jobs. So that's what will happen, generally speaking. You will see people at Warner Brothers Discovery or CBS lose jobs. We may not know they may not be front facing, so they may not be famous people per se, but there will be people who lose jobs. And then inevitably, the consumer usually pays somehow at the end of this because the sports rights go up and they're going to pass that on to the consumer. So if you have something like Paramount Plus, I would expect the price of that, you know,

two or three years from now to go up. Generally speaking, when it comes to media mergers, the consumers end up paying and people lose their jobs. That is just a history of what happens, and that's what I bet on. Richard, a couple of baseball things. First, TV, and then we've got a radio question for you as well. So I think I have it straight now with baseball this year, that NBC slash Peacock will have the Sunday night game. Fox will have their Saturday games with our guy, Adam Amin. And, of course, Jason Benetti on the NBC call.

ESPN will have weekday games. TBS will have Tuesday games. Have they sort of this out properly? Who's the real rights holder? And who's your favorite broadcast team out of this bunch? Yeah, the winner of all this is Rob Manfred, who just used the gift basically of the guy like throwing money into the air and like, you know, catching it.

Because that's what MLB has always done. They don't really have a consumer-friendly national policy. You have to have multiple different outlets to watch all this stuff. now, away from the traditional greed of all sports organizations, I think some of the names you mentioned are great. I love Adam Amin, like you guys do. I'm a big, as we say in wrestling, I'm a big Jason Benetti Mark. I think that was a great hire by NBC. You guys obviously know him in your market. It's great. Yeah. With the White Sox, that's a great hire, and that feels ready to me like a big broadcast, and I expect NBC to put on a good show for that. I'm

glad to see ESPN remain in baseball because I think it's important for the sport to have a relationship with ESPN because even though sports center is not the same as it used to be and ESPN's not the same, you still want to have like them be interested in your sport because they're just too powerful an entity where you don't want to be buried and MLB's got a really good story to tell. So I think, you know, of all the sort of the teams you mentioned, I think they'll all be fine. I guess the one thing I'll just be paying attention to is this is more of like a kind of sports media thing is Benetti's not working with a singular partner. Every one of those games, he's going to basically be working with local analysts. Okay.

And it'll be interesting just to see how that sounds for the viewer. Because I know, you know, over the years of writing this stuff, I can't tell you how many people are like, why can't I get my local play-by-play person, you know, right? Why can I get my local analyst? Well, this will be an experiment. Well, where at least, at least in the analyst position, you'll have somebody who knows the team much more than your traditional network guys. who just parachute in. So it'll be interesting to see if that sounds, but I think Benetti's just so good as a play-by-play person.

I think you can honestly put them with anybody, and it'd be a good broadcast. Real quick here, with all the difficulties that have been written about and talked about here, with the RSNs being in trouble on television, would it be fair to say that radio play-by-play is as sturdy as it's ever been, or no? I think it depends on the market. You guys are in a great market that appreciates radio still, right? that appreciates history. So I think in a market like Chicago,

I think you'll always be in a pretty good position, I think, when it comes to radio broadcasting. Smaller markets, the one thing I can tell you is they're spending much less money when it comes to traveling on the road. You know, a lot of times they won't set their broadcast team on the road for radio. They're calling games back in whatever the whole market is, which is brutal, brutal for the broadcasters. And you've got some talented broadcasters have to call it off a monitor,

which is not easy to do. So that's where like the money, I think in big markets, at least in the near term, you'll still have a pretty good presence. The New York's, the Boston's, the Chicago's, places like that. But smaller markets, man, I hate to say it, most of these places are trying to do stuff on the cheap. And so you'll see them cutting back. And one of the things they're really cutting back on is travel where they just, they won't send people on the road anymore, which is a shame. Yeah. I think it's not, I think it's not forward thinking.

I mean, radio has a great connection with the audience. I would argue a better connection with the audience in terms of intimacy than television. And so I would want my people there on the road because I think there's value to doing that. But listen, I can barely manage myself and I'm not managing any company, so no one's listening to. Richard, we listen to you, man. Great stuff as always. Thanks for coming on the score as usual, man. Thanks, Richard.

I appreciate it. Thank you to the great city of Chicago. You're the best, man. I love that. All that stuff he gave us right there. That's so good. Richard Dight, the host, he's on our team, the host of the Odyssey podcast, Sports Media, with Richard Dight.

And yes, baseball is back. Opening night is live on Netflix this Wednesday night. Aaron Judge and the New York Yankees clash with Raphael Devers and the San Francisco Giants. MLB opening night, Yankees, Giants, live on Netflix Wednesday at 7 p.m. Half-time is next here on Rahimi Harrison Grotie on the score. What time is it?

Napal. Rahimi Harrison Grotie on the score. We began the show today by discussing the fact that Sayas Suzuki will not be available to the Cubs for day one. As a matter of fact, it's a pretty good chance that he's going to end up on a short-term injured list by the middle of this week. Subsequently, we talked about the hopeful rise of Matt Shaw, about whom Marshall and I are both very optimistic. We talked about the Bears' ability. or inability to draft defense and specifically defensive line. We went through all of Ryan Poles' drafts, if you'd like to go back and check that out.

The NCAA tournament for a couple of casuals, as we call ourselves here, Marshall and I, Ed Lees, will speak for ourselves, casual college basketball fans. Somehow, some way the both of us were glued to a lot of those games. So we discussed that. We talked, of course, about the big Illinois win, no funny stuff with, a nice 76-55 win over VCU as they advanced to the Sweet 16 to take on Houston. And we just had a great conversation about the media with our Odyssey teammate Richard Deich. It's halftime.

Yeah, you know, I don't know if you notice, but the weather got a little bit better on Saturday. And people were outside. Mark, I am people, by the way. I was outside. And you're a people who doesn't typically like to leave the, except for when you're exercising. the abode of your fine place. And I don't know if you know, but in the news lately, there's been a lot of unsettling news. There's stuff going on with the Middle East.

There's a war happening. A war happening, whether people want to admit it or not. Gas prices are surging. There's a lot of negative news, but you have to take in the news to know what's going on. But sometimes you just need to get away. and I have a dual story here, one of a place where they're letting you get away, and my own kind of spin on that,

which I took advantage of this past weekend. So let me first tell you about what's going on in Charlotte, North, or excuse me, Raleigh, North Carolina. J.C. Ralston, Arborodum in Raleigh, provides what they call a shield. They're offering bathing in nature to unplug and get away. and I found this fascinating because we're all too plugged in. Can we agree on that?

Yeah. Every day we have to look at our phones, look at our screens. We're addicted to screens, whether it's for good, bad, worse, whatever. Yes. You can get positive things and negative things as well. The negative hurts. Every Sunday morning, they have a certified forest therapy guide, Sean Ramsey, jingling a tiny brass bell, calling her a dozen or so charges to gather for meditation,

breathing exercises and to commune with nature. Mark, what was the last time you commune with nature? I don't know. And I think that is the answer for way too many people. And I get it. We live in the city. It's city life. But there are beautiful spaces in which you can go.

There are parks, Millennium Grant. You just start naming them. Yeah. We've got all this access to all this stuff, but we are so heads down into our phones and stuff. We don't get a chance to unplug. So they've been doing this. It's based on the Japanese wellness practice of Shenron Yoku.

Oh, sure. Which has been known to reduce stress, improve mood, lower blood pressure, and boost the immune system. Are you interested in any of those things? I'm very interested in all of that. And although this arboretum is in a busy section of a growing city, sound familiar. Ramsey said she benefits the tuna fit, excuse me, said the benefits of tuning out and getting in touch with nature. are the same. So every week they do this and the people are loving it. And I think this is what I did this past weekend when I decided to take part in the sham rock shuffle. Yes. My internet went out on my

phone. I raw dogged it. What? I ran five miles, no music. Oh my God. See, now you have that power even before this and now I think you're just showing off. No, no, no, but there were people line up on the streets. It's only an 8K, right? So that's just under five miles. And I really appreciated the city kind of just shutting down early in the morning and just taking in the sights, the sounds, the people interacting. People would be like, give me a high five. And I was like, I missed this.

I feel like pre-pandemic, I did this kind of stuff all the time. But I want us all to unplug, whether it's by force, because I had no internet, or just to choose to be more community-oriented. Can we do that? Is there a way we can do this? No, that will never ever happen. That's the past.

We're not going back to that, aren't we? Except for intermittently. But I will say, you're right, the vibe post-run, because it's interesting you mentioned that. That's cool that you ran in the Shamrock Shuffle. I was invited to. I didn't think I was ready for it.

But I was driving back from the city... In our neighborhood. I'm sorry, from the suburbs, post-run, luckily, or else I would have probably been one of those frustrated drivers. and just at that point it was done, it was over, and I saw dozens of people, as I was driving down State Street,

wearing the, and there's a Shamrock Shuffle hat right there, hold it up for the Twitch audience right there. There's a Shamrock Shuffle hat. All people walking hand in hand in groups, is there a medal for this, or is that just? Oh, I have a medal. You got your metal. Medals at home.

It's morale is high after those runs. People feel good about themselves after that. So you're right, whether it's to, and I know you're talking about a separate incident of unplugging. Not everybody did that. But just talking about the shan, and the runs that go on in the city, there is that feeling. And I know a lot of people drives people crazy because of the traffic and just everybody running around. But it really is a nice thing about this city. And the marathon will be happening again.

Anthony Rizzo and Jake Arieta will be running in this year's marathon. Oh, is that confirmed? Oh, yeah, I think I'm. Okay, okay. I didn't say something on a turn there, did I? Okay. No, that's correct. Okay. Man, I've been spoilted stuff.

And Jake Garietta, too. Oh, yeah, he said. Yeah, yeah. So, no, and if things go well and I've still not hurt, because, you know, the last couple of years have been rough on my body. Yeah. I will also be out there. What?

Wait, wait, wait, you're going to run the marathon. I'm going to, there's a 13.1 half. And June, as long as that goes, well, I'll just continue running. It's, running is nothing for me if I'm healthy. Okay. Like, I like to run. Good for you, man. It's freeing.

That is fantastic. Very good. Yes, I would think I would like to, like I wanted to go with you on the unplugging thing, but it just, it will never, it will never happen. I just want to encourage everybody out there to take time to unplug. No matter how you do it, just try to get a half hour, hour. And it's crazy that I say half hour, like, because some people can't go a half hour without looking at their phone.

You're right. That's why I said realistically, the answer is no, especially for people of a certain age. that are listening right now that are maybe I would say 60 and old, they're like, yeah, no problem, man. Like, it always baffles me when I talk to my parents and she, like, my mom will not know where her phone is. I don't know where I left. What do you mean you don't know where your phone is?

I have to have it like within eye distance as it is right now as we speak if you're watching on Twitch. I have to see it like as if it's like something, it's like it's a child. I have to know where my phone is 24-7 and it can't be, you know, within 10 feet away from me. Your phone or

Dave, what are you keeping a closer eye on? Oh man, Dave does his own thing, man. He keeps an eye on me more than I keep an eye on him. Coming up next on Rehemi Harris and Grotie, five on it, five hot topics that we will discuss and maybe even debate here on Chicago Sports Radio 670, The Score. The score! It's time for five on it. Rahini Harris and Grody. Bring you five topics on their minds today. On 104-3, the score. I got five on it.

Number one. We're going to call this one five on it plus today because You listening out there. You deserve some bonus questions. We've got a couple of two-parters for you, including this one. Which Cubs player are you most sure about heading into the 20-26 season? And part two, which Cubs player are you least sure about heading into the 226 season? The Cubs player that I am most sure about heading into this season happens to be the Cubs starting first basement. His name is Michael Bush.

I am very excited about him based on, obviously, what he did last. year with the slug and the 31 home runs and how he just seemed to get better and better and better as the season went on. Now, with, air quotes, limited at batts because there were many times where he was not hitting against lefties, the plan this year is to bat him against more lefties to let him be your everyday guy, just with his approach, with his demeanor, with that swing, the discerning eye at the plate, I am very excited to see what Michael Bush can do for the Cubs this year in a full boat of at bats and his play at first base has been excellent as well.

So he is my guy, Michael Bush. And the player that I'm most concerned about this year for the Cubs, maybe confused is a better word, but it is Pete Crow Armstrong because I just don't know who he is. I don't know that there's any way that he's going to be an ineffective or bad baseball player unless he picks up where he kind of left off.

But what is he? Is he a home run hitter? Is he a guy that there was some fluke going on in the first half of the season? Who is Pete Crow Armstrong? So I am just based on what we saw, a heavy downfall for PCA last year. He is the guy about whom I am most concerned right now

until I see it, until I see the PCAness that we saw in the first half last year when he was gangbusters. I definitely understand your answer, Especially Michael Bush, because he has actually seen some lefties this spring. He's three for eight. That's a 375 clip against lefties. Curiously, though, he's only batting like 208. He's just above the Mendoza line spring training overall, and he's yet to leave the yard.

And everybody hits in Arizona, man. They say it's hot. The ball flies. Just make contact. You'll be okay. We can selectively decide when we want to just call it spring training. And that's what I'm going to do right now. It's spring training.

It doesn't matter. They're working on stuff. It's funny how we all do that. not the first to do that you certainly will not be the last to do it right and uh maybe i'll fall victim to that myself although my answer for the guy that i know i'm sure about it's nico horner he plays solid in the field he is a hitter he hits and he's been a great hitter and he had his best season last year there's no reason to think he won't have a similar approach at the plate this year and that puts the ball in play and avoid

strikeouts and he's got speed. Not a lot of pop, but who cares because he's consistent as a hitter. It's Nico Horner. He's the guy that I know, when I put him in the lineup, I know exactly what to expect out of Nico Horner. Not too much, not too, too, less. It's as steady as they come. Just

right. Like the porridge. He was made the porridge. Look, Crown counsel, I think, was the one that said he is the most made for Major League Baseball and the schedule and the grind of anybody because he's the same dude every day, and you can't say that about everybody on the Cubs. You know who you really can't say that about?

Shoda Eminaga. That's why he's the other end of the coin. You probably saw that coming, though, didn't you? I didn't necessarily, but yeah, that makes sense. Shota, he's looked okay in the spring, low whip, which means he's not putting a lot of people on base, but still getting up three and a half homeruns for nine innings. That is not good. And so I don't know what we're getting out of Shota Imanaga. I am thankful that he's not being as depended on.

He's going to be back half of the rotation, I would imagine. And look, if he pitches well, it can really change what this team can be this season. If he doesn't, he might end up being a guy at the back end of the rotation who's in and out of the rotation once Justin Steele comes back. But Chota Mnaga for me, he's that guy. And I'm curious to see how it plays out. I mean, we could talk about hypotheticals. We could talk about what happened last year, last postseason. Bottom line is, it is a new season.

I'm giving him the benefit of a doubt that he can find his way to being back to the guy that was dominant for the first year and a half he had as a cub. Javier Assad and Ben Browns standby for potential starts if it doesn't go well. Don't forget about my guy, Colin Ray. Colin Ray? He could swing in there. Jordan, no, Wix is hurt, right? Yeah, I don't think Wix is, I don't know what happened to that guy.

Number two. The Athletics, Eno Seris, recently published an article with his bold predictions for the 2026 MLB season. One of those predictions, Saris has Brewer's right-hander Jacob Mizorowski winning the National League Cy Young Award in his sophomore season. Saris joined Matt Spiegel for the season premiere of hit and run on Sunday and discussed the thinking behind his prediction for a career year for the Miz. It's mostly because he found a pitch he can command that 92.

two to 94 mile an hour slider that he throws. It's pretty nasty. It's hard to hit, and he can command it. He said that, you know, when he's commanding that, when he's throwing that, it helps him command his other pitches too. So I think the big thing you've always seen with Mizzerowski is the command, not the stuff. We know he has the stuff. It's high 90s, you know, triple digit heaters and mid-90s sliders. And now he's got a new change-up grip. And I just, you know, he's the kind of guy that if he could pitch 180 innings and he had, over the okay command, he should be in the conversation for the Sai. So it's a stuff thing. I just love his stuff. That's the athletic Enos Seris with Matt Spiegel on hit and run. If Seris is correct in his prediction that this will be a Syung season for Jacob Mizorowski, are the Cubs in trouble? Yes, they're in a lot of trouble.

If he's a Cy Young guy and you see them 13 times a year, and let's say he pitches three of those times, maybe even four, it's bad news for the Cubs. Now, I like the fact that he was erratic as a rookie, but he's not a rookie anymore. I do flash back to the last time we saw him on the hill against the Cubs, and that was undeniable that he was a difference maker in a playoff series. And I just got to tell you, him being named opening day starter, I'm really hoping the White Sox rough him up because if they don't, it's going to be like an omen to me that, well, one,

the White Sox might not have as good a season as I was hoping. but also the Cubs have a problem. If he's the best pitcher between these two teams, the Cubs have a problem. I hate that he put that out there, and he was great. I listened to that entire interview with Matt Spiegel on hit and run. You know, Saris is terrific and I don't think anybody knows more baseball than that guy, especially when it comes to stuff and stuff plus and all of that stuff. But here I am celebrating Freddie Peralta is gone.

Does that mean that it's not going to mean anything because they've got this, the Les Miz is so great. It's just like, Brewers. Hello, Brewers. Caleb Durbin is gone. What does that mean? Jackson Turyos is going to be the MVP this year. Like what?

So, yeah, I mean, to answer the question, of course, yeah. If he is that guy, if Miserowski is that guy, of course the Cubs are in trouble. And it's just more reason to look at the brewers and say, even though it's like the ongoing joke around here a lot of times out of my mouth, that this is going to be. be the year that the brewers are going to fall off. As soon as somebody falls off, somebody rises so we can only hope that that doesn't happen. But yes, the Cubs would be in trouble.

Number three. It's five on it on it on 104.3 to score with Marshall Harris and Mark Grody. We're taking question number one, and we're putting it down, and we're flipping it and reversing it for question number three. Which White Sox player are you most sure about heading into the 2026 season? And which White Sox player are you least sure about heading into the 2020? season. I am going to go with, I think,

the short stop, Colson Montgomery is the guy about whom I am most sure, and I guess even though it took, it was a little wobbly early, but man, did that dude go on a tear, a tear, in the second half of the season to make a believer

out of me? So I think, and this is relative to a roster, which you look at and doesn't really pop off the page, but I am going to go with Montgomery is the guy about whom I am most sure. And stay with me on this one because this is going to, some people are like,

huh, really? This guy? I am not sure about what Munataka Morikami will be at the big league level. I mean, you just never know. I think he's going to be good. I'm excited about him, probably the guy that I'm most excited about on the White Sox. Let's see if the Sox have something in this guy,

do the socks have a 35 to 40 home run guy back, but we don't know. I mean, the bugaboo in Japan even is the swing and miss. And is there going to be an adjustment? Could it not work out for him? So I will just say, like, I am not sure about Muné at the big league level. I think that's fair because you haven't seen him take on major league pitching in the regular season yet.

And I have some questions as well. But as far as the guy that I am sure about, it's Kyle Teal. Now, I know he's hurt. I know it's going to be a minute before we see him. That seems pretty unsure to me. No, but he's going to come back. It's just a hamstring strain. True.

Yeah, they'll take their time and get him right. And then once he comes back, I expect him to be every bit as good as he was last season when he put up a 273 average, a 375 on base. I love that number. Yeah, real nice. And he slugged 411. That's a 786 OPS.

And when you look at his, statistics from last year, they don't necessarily jump off the page, but he was so consistent. And he was a guy who gave you presence in a lineup where you needed just young, hopeful guys that you could kind of hit your wagon to to steal an expression from a future question.

Listen, I think Kyle Till's going to be that dude who have a lot of questions about, though, Shane Smith. He's the opening day star. And if you, you remember back to last year, Shane Smith had several outings where he just gave them what they need most from their starting pitching innings. He just gave them 146 and a third innings over, what, 29 starts. Now they went 9 and 20 in those games. His ERA was a bit questionable at 3.81,

not the stuff that stars I've made out of. But if he could take another step forward and pitch 30 plus games and maybe get to 180 innings, now you got somebody who can help you win ball games. games on a nightly basis. I just think, I don't know if he could do it. So that's the guy I'm really, somebody's got to lead this pitching staff. And they've told me it's going to be Shane Smith because he's out there on opening day. Well, it's funny because I was going, I was thinking about saying, and I thought it would be

outside the spirit of the question, the actual spirit. I was going to say the thing that I'm most sure about with the White Sox is that Noah Shulteagan Smith or Tanner McDougal will be called up at some point in time to begin to replace some of the starting five that they have right now in place. I think that is a safe call. Number four. By the way, as a quick programming note for tomorrow's show, Ben Verlander, the great host of the Flippin' Bats podcast and Justin Verlander's brother, yesterday tweeted, I'm going to say

something crazy. I'm excited to watch the Chicago White Sox and the Pittsburgh Pirates this season. So he's going to join us at 1 o'clock tomorrow to talk about that. Stay tuned. Layla will be back tomorrow. with Mars Hall. Here's question number four. Oh, no, with me.

No, with you. Sorry. I'm as confused by my schedule as everybody else. Here is the next question. We've reached the Sweet 16 portion of the NCAA tournament. Who are you hitching your wagon to and riding all the way to the championship? So this is a great question because there's a lot of valid entries for said question. You got one seat still alive in Michigan and also Arizona.

Duke, three of the one seat is still alive, but I'm a ride with the team that scores points. I think the Illini are going to pull off an upset in Houston, take down Houston, and just keep it motoring. Once they win that game, they're good to go. I like the Alinae. I think this is the year that Brad Underwood finally breaks through. They have such depth that we talked about earlier in the show

and so many different people. And I think Keaton Wogler's best NCAA tournament game is still ahead of him before he goes to the NBA draft. Give me the Aligni and Brad Underwood. They got to the regional final two years ago, got dominated by Yukon. I don't see a team out here that is built like that Yukon team. And I really like the Aligni's chances of breaking through this season

getting to the final four in Indianapolis and winning it all. We got dual wagons hitched. We got dual wagons. This show right here in this room, in this country. We are all about the Aligni, baby. They have been convincing

going over a hondo against Penn, making them look bad. Okay, Fran. And then Illinois, no funny stuff from VCU. This ain't North Carolina. You're playing. You're not coming back from double digits on the Aligni in this one. I am predicting that Illinois

will beat Houston when they play them on Thursday and it will be back to, so you never know who's going to be the guy. Last week, or yesterday, or Saturday? Saturday. When was the game? Saturday. Stoyakovich. Stoyakovich with the 21.

David Murkovic is going to have another massive double-double because they got to get physical against Houston. So they're my team with honorable mention to the Iowa Hawkeyes because you know it listening right now. You either know somebody that goes to Iowa. Your child goes to Iowa. Your best friend goes to Iowa. Everybody is connected to the Iowa Hawkeyes in some way, shape, or forms.

Many degrees of Hawkevye. Hawkeyes in the area. Number five. Team USA quarterback Darrell Doucette previously said that he's a better flag football quarterback than Patrick Mahomes because of his IQ. After Team USA defeated the Wildcats Flag Football Club and the Fanatics Flag Football Classic Doucette reflected on those comments. I made some remarks back in 2023.

It was totally misconstrued and misunderstood. all I was speaking up was giving my brothers a fair chance to make 2028. We came out this weekend with that on our mind to say, hey, let's show these guys that we are talented, that we are flag football. And not to be overlooked by anyone in the world. And that's my remarks. Oh, I'm sorry. So that's Team USA quarterback, Darrell Doucette. Here's the question.

Should the NFL let the actual pro flag football players play in the Olympics? and stop trying to take their spots after they embarrassed the NFL players in the Fanatics Flag Football Classic in L.A. on Saturday. They did embarrass them. They shouldn't do it. The video that you sent me, Marshall, sent all of us, is hilarious because of the actual skill set that is involved in flag football that I didn't even really think about. But I'm going to say no more, I'm seating the rest of my time to the senator from the South.

Luke Marshall Harris because you got the South's got something to say about this one. I can't say it any better than Daryl Doucette himself said it because you heard how emotional he was talking about. He's got the big trophy just to paint a picture for you in front of him at the press

conference after they won two games in the preliminary. There are three total teams and then they won the championship game. This man led his offense. They scored every single possession of the tournament except the last one because they ran out the clock.

Wow. It's arena football we're playing now. I mean, but you saw, and what Grotie's alluding to is there's a video that I sent where when it's flag football, this isn't about tackling. You had current and former NFL players trying to grab the flags. These guys are professionals at avoiding having their flag taken from them. Like doing the Mamba. I mean, going low on the, you know what I'm saying, like the elusivity.

It's like Caleb, what Caleb Williams is to quarterbacks, these guys are to flag football with the elusivity. And if you're wondering, okay, well, who was he going up against? Tom Brady was one of the quarterbacks. I know he's a former NFL quarterback. But also, Jayden Daniels was out there. Sequin Barclay was out there. Joe Burrow was out there.

Other guys were out there, but they just didn't have the offensive efficiency that a professional flag football player has. Leave this to the pros. I know the NFL wants to gobble, gobble, gobble this up. But nah, just let these guys make a name for themselves. They've been doing it for longer. they're better get the gold five on it

that's it for five on it coming up next here on Rahimi Harris and Grotie I've been looking forward to this we're going to share our favorite moments from the NCAA tournament and it will be accentuated with just some terrific audio some of it is funny some of it is just grand like you would expect from the tournament but we will talk

NCAA tournament next on the score Rahimi Harris and Grotie. Midday's 10 to 2 on 104 3, the score. No foul. Gimbound comes to Garland. Three seconds, two seconds, darling. On the drive to the rim. Lamp is good. St. Johns wins it.

67, 65. The St. John's Red Storm. Storm into the sweet 16 for the first time since 1999. That felt good. Welcome it back into the Rahimi Harrison. Grotie Show on the score. Yep, St. John's and Dylan Darling with the last second

layup to beat Kansas 67-65. Interestingly enough, Kansas had tight it on the two on a couple of free throws with 14.1 left and then Bill Self just

used all of his fouls to have the clock, Marshall, go from 14.1 seconds down to 3.9 seconds. is when that play was started. It was, I mean, it was pretty good strategy, actually, by Bill Self, who Lord knows has taken heaps of criticism for strategy through the years, but it was kind of painful to watch at the very end until it wasn't painful.

I was imagining if I was a Kansas fan how I would feel about the end of that game specifically, and it's just, ugh, what do you do, right? I say that because watching some of these other games and the way they ended, like, Florida doesn't even get a shot off at the end of its game. And you realize how crucial these final seconds, final timeouts, final decisions, both by the coaches. And we always talk about guards in March, right? What the guards do at the end of games and, well, that guard in that game, St. John's.

That's one way to do it. Sorry to the textor, too. No, Mark. That did not feel good. I needed a Kansas win for my parlay to hit. Oh, man. And not even bracket, parlay. Yeah, parlay.

This is parlay. Yeah, no, it's kind of refreshing. I don't need to hear about people's brackets, and Lord knows we're not going to tell you about our brackets, because we didn't fill out brackets. We just watched for the love of the game. But no, I feel like, you know, Rick Petino, St. John, some of us who are a little bit older,

remember when St. John's and Louis Carnaceca, which meant that DePaul was good at the time. So it was a little bit feel good for me. As for the rest of the tournament, we all here on this show conspired to put together the best of the audio, and there was some very entertaining stuff, including what you just heard, courtesy of CBS here on Rahimi Harris and Grotie. I would like to start, though, with the Villanova Utah State game. It was Utah State beats Villanova 86 to 76. During the game, when things were not going well for Villanova and their head coach Kevin Willard, this was the in-game Lauren Shahati,

interview with the head coach for Villanova. Kevin Willard, take a listen, please. Coach, 16 paint points for Utah State. How do you keep them out? I'm going to fire my staff because we've... Not now. Yeah, I am because we've given up eight points on underneath that of balance defense.

So the only thing I'm going to do is fire them and get a new step. All right, go do that now. Bye, coach. Kevin, we're losing people by the second. Not now. He said that. Like there was no wink, no smile, just a scowl. Obviously, like, he didn't fire them in game, but he was pissed.

The best part about that is they went and watched him, and they were like, oh, is he going to fire them or not? Because obviously, they're not going to happen during games. Like, okay, it looks like they made it through the timeout. Like, they were getting fired. Because he was doing the interview as he's going back to the bench where the assistants and the players are. Nobody's walking off the court.

It was funny, but also a little cringe, but the cringe kind of made it more funny. If that makes sense? Yeah. Oh, yeah, it did. very entertaining. In conclusion, the conclusion to our story here with the Villanova head coach, Kevin Willard, after the win. No, it was Utah State win, one, right?

Yeah, Utah State beat 87. But yes, the Utah State beats Villanova. Kevin Willard backed up his comments from the mid-game interview. So here's Willard being questioned about it in the post game. Utah State was doing good on the out-of-bounds. They had a couple scores off that. where do you think you guys flipped the script on that and kind of was able to get it off i don't think we did we gave up a big three late yeah i'm probably gonna have to make some changes to my staff

just because of how bad we were mark sick glistania union tribune you just mentioned making changes to your staff you gave a um it's a joke i'm cause that's why i want to ask you about blessed you made it you gave an interview during the game uh it went viral you're being criticized pretty heavily online i don't care It's a joke Welcome to my life It's a joke I like that he actually clarified that it was joke

Because let me tell you something In the post game interview mark It did not sound like a joke I don't think it was a joke I think he was pissed at his staff No I mean it was a joke that he was gonna fight I think he was angry with his staff though He had every right to be angry

But here's the thing You know he looked like a coach looked After a team loses He looked pissed off So like it We don't know You know you're telling a joke, sir. You've delivered this line with a straight face.

Yeah, well. And he also says, like, to the fact that it went viral. I don't care. I don't care. I think the question should have been, what, like, what are you doing? Like, what's, like, you sounded pretty serious. Were the coat, were the assistants put off by this at all? With the assistants?

Let's get their version of it. I saw a former assistant of his tweet that he was not a fan of seeing him make these comments. Why would you be? Because he could say he's joking, ha, ha. But the coaches got called out without a wink. God bless him if he's joking around like Mr. Straightface. Big three on out of balance play late. There was nothing joking about that.

He made another citation of something that went wrong on and out of balance play, which his assistants are responsible for defending. Did not happen. Moving on here on our best of of the NCAA tournament on Rahimi Harris and Grotty. We talked about the St. John's win coming in out of the break, 67, 65 over Kansas. Dylan Darling was the one who made the last second layup. And before the play was made, you could see in typical fashion with any coach in a hyper situation. There's a lot of, like, yelling and back and forth going on, and you could see it going on with Dylan Darling,

and Rick Petino yelling at his players because that's what college coaches do. Here's Rick Petino after their win over Kansas, breaking down how they drew up that play for the one they called Dylan Darling. But here's the amazing thing and the funniest thing I've ever been involved with. So we're going to run a play, but they've got fouls to give,

and Bells comes up to me and says run power, which is a high back screen pick and roll. So I walk away, I said, okay, power. I walk away and said, wait a second, he hasn't scored a bucket and he wants to run a play for himself. And then I'm thinking as I'm walking, I said, but he's bells. And not only did he do it, he went with his right hand.

So I'm real proud of him because to want the ball, when you haven't made it, a shot is unbelievable. So both of these guys had a major impact in us winning tonight. I'm so happy for St. John's and the fans. We had great fans out here. And we get to go to D.C. And I'm just so jubilant, so happy for the fellas. We've taken another step now. So it's just awesome.

Proud of our guys. And now it's just starting. The fun's just starting. Yeah, they've got to take on Duke next. It's nice to hear his voice. I mean, it sounds like the New York accent's gotten even thicker. And I like it. I like it.

The man is vintage. He is old school college basketball personified. You heard him mention the name Bells, right? Like, which sounds like, oh, what is that, Bells? I mean, his name is Dylan Darling. There's no bells. There's no B in there. The Mark Grody nickname sensibilities did not click when you heard that, huh?

They did not. Let's try to get an answer on that. Let's go to this morning on ESPN's Get Up, Seth Greenberg broke down Rick Petino's comments on Darling's bells. Uncle Seth, you want to explain why Rick Petino calls him bells? Well, he said he is, his jewels are. his biggest church bells when the game is on the line. So his name is bells,

and it sticks. I wanted to see... How about Greedy? Hey, you put that on me, Greedy. You're a professional. You actually threw that. You tried to throw me under the bus. I wanted to see how you would describe it. You went with Jules. I approve of it. Okay, here's the thing. We talked

about how bad the Florida defense on the final play was. That was nothing compared to what a total mess the Kansas defense is on this final play. Hit him in the bell. Hit him in the ding-ding. Or that's the nickname anyway.

The family jewels. Bell's is a great nickname. And he did, Seth Greenberg, a great job navigating that in a family-friendly way. It really was. And we'll try to keep it family-friendly right here on Chicago Sports Radio 670 to score. Excuse me, 104-3, the score.

Have I been saying 670 a lot today, by the way? I don't think you have. I think I've just been saying the score. I've got to keep the... It's been a while since I've led the old show here. We've got a couple more here. Let's get through these puppies. There was a Troy, oh yeah, Nebraska, excuse me, see I got to get, yes, this was a round one game.

So we're going back a little bit for this, but we loved it so much. We wanted to bring it to you. Nebraska just routed Troy in the first round. 7646 was the final score. So here's the Troy head coach Scott Cross after getting wallop by the cornhuskers. the good Lord for the opportunity to just have your guts absolutely ripped out. Just happy to be here. Are you angry at God is what I would have asked?

But that's just me. That's just my reporter's mentality. No, I think he understands as a 13 seed going up against Nebraska of the 4 seed, this was the most likely outcome. But you got to celebrate being there. You do. You do. but it was kind of shaking your head at God for a second though

I'd like to thank the good Lord for the opportunity to just have your guts absolutely ripped out before I think about that it's Scott Cross like this damn it Lord finally finally and this will do our guy the Butte this is five Buttes on the Bout scale Tether Buttebaugh, our resident Cornhusker. Nebraska had a great, great, has had a great tournament so far. They did what they did to Troy.

And then they beat Vanderbilt 74-72. But the final seconds were wild. Here is play-by-play man on the Huskers radio network. Kent Pavelka. Rahimi Harris and Grohys Midday's Tiddle 2. On Chicago Sports Radio, 4-3, the score. Another second half domination from Illinois.

And they get themselves right back to the sweet 16. Illinois for the second time in three years is moving past the round of 32, this time with a 7655 win over VCU. Love seeing it. Illinois advances. They will take on the mighty Houston Cougars on Thursday in Houston. We're going to talk to our guy, Jeremy Werner, all about it. of the publisher of the Illinois Inquirer.com.

But first, a little bit of breaking news on the score being brought to you by Wildfire. Enjoy a delicious meal at Wildfire restaurants with five Chicagoland locations. It has been made official. Sayah Suzuki, the Cubs starting right fielder, has been placed on the 10-day injured list, probably the best case scenario, considering the sprained PCL. The Cubs will be without him for at least the first couple of weeks of this, the 2026 major league baseball season. As for the Illini and our guy Jeremy Werner, Jeremy, what I like about these first two wins

for Illinois, although there were some stuffy moments in the first half of both of these games, like a 10-0 VCU run in the first half when the Illini were starting to run away with it. For the most part, no funny stuff. The Illini were supposed to win these two games and they did it in grand style in both cases. Yeah, they won by a combined 56 points against these double-digit seeds. They outrebounded these teams by plus 39. Yeah, this is what you want. You want to physically impose your will, and they got a break in VCU beating North Carolina.

Now, I didn't think North Carolina was going to be much of an issue for Illinois either, but obviously a little bit more talent on that North Carolina team. But this is what happens when you get a number three seats. Sometimes you get a break in front of you in the bracket. It happened two years ago for Illinois, and both those years, Illinois has dominated the population. to advance of the Sweet 16, and that sets them up to, you know, potentially make the Final Four.

Their biggest test of potentially getting there is the Sweet 16 game, which is basically a Final Four caliber showdown between Illinois and Houston. But, yeah, Illinois was physical. I thought they set the tone from the start, and even though they had some wolves in the first half, they quickly put those away

and just had dominant second half. So that's the kind of mentality you wanted to see. It's kind of the physicality. It's kind of the roster flex. that you wanted to see Illinois impose on lower level opponents. And it's something they've done all year. Against teams outside the top 30 of the Ken Palm ratings, Illinois went 20 and nothing this year. Now you get your chance at a premier program in Houston.

Jeremy, play time over. You said they got the break and took advantage of it. The breaks are clearly over having to go against a two-seat in Houston, in Houston, which is insane, except for this is kind of a thing that they have carved out for themselves. by the way that they played over the last month or so against top teams. And now I just have one question. Is this game going overtime? Because that's usually how this goes.

Well, hopefully not for Illinois because they went over and overtime this year. So their record has not been very good there. But listen, I thought Houston was the best team in this bracket. All kudos to Florida for their season. But I just didn't think the SEC was all that great. And Florida took advantage of that. And they were the best team in that conference. But Houston, what they've done through in the Big 12,

clearly one of the best teams. They returned three starters in the back court from last year's NCAA runner-up. So this is a really good team and just the style they play. Illinois hasn't faced this all year. The good thing is you got a little taste of it with VCU, with the pressure that they play at, forcing turnovers, but it's nothing like the athletes, the quickness, and just the pressure that Kelvin Samson's program puts on.

And this is, I think, could be their biggest test until potentially a national title game. I think Houston is so, so good. So I really respect what they do because Duke's the other one seed that they would play potentially in the final four. Michigan State they've played already. So I just think Houston is a national title caliber kind of team. Kingston Fleming's is a kind of quick guard, a top five pick that Illinois struggled to stop all year. But I also think Illinois poses some problems from Houston. Like Illinois does pass well lot of these traps. Illinois has got big guys who can really spread it around as passers, shoot it really well over this pressure when they play in rotation. And then Illinois's got better

size than Houston. This is a bigger team that Illinois has rather than Houston. So Illinois has a chance to beat them up on the glass. But you better bring it mentally because Houston wants to make this a boxing match. And at times Illinois has struggled with that with teams. But I do like how they've played the last couple games, but they got to bring their A game from the start. Otherwise, Houston's the type of team that can bury it, can force turnovers and make you question yourself. So if Illinois comes out with the same mentality they did in Greenville, they'll give themselves a chance. Absolutely.

Can't wait for that game on Thursday, Houston. And the Illini, as Jeremy Werner, just telling us here, the publisher of the Illini Inquirer.com on Rahimi Harris and Grody. And you wrote about it a little bit. And, you know, just doing the research on Brad Underwood, credit where credit is due, it's easy to forget that there was an eight-year tournament drought for the fighting Illini, and this man has restored order. What kind of credit does Brad Underwood have?

Because I think sometimes it's easily taken for granted because we expect, like, the signature college in the state of Illinois to thrive. But that's not always the case. No, it wasn't, Mark, for years, for a decade. It wasn't the case. Bruce Weber was great in leading Illinois to the 2005 national title run. The next year, James Augustine and D. Brown, we're still here, but he just did not maintain that.

And that's a credit to what Bill's self, Lon Kruger, you know, Lou Henson before them had built. But after that 05 run, this program was a middling Big Ten team for the most part, and then fell during John Gross's tenure to a bottom half Big Ten team. So the fact that Brad has built this from his first two years

in that rebuild, losing more games in a two years stretch than Illinois has ever had, to a point where now the expectation is to get. get to a Sweet 16. That is the bar he is set. And credit to him, he said that needs to be the bar. We should be competing for national championships here and Big Ten championships here. But it shouldn't be overlooked that, you know, Illinois fans now can complain about not making lead eights or final fours or winning Big Ten championships because Brad Underwood has lifted this program from the bottom half of the Big Ten to one of the best programs in the Big Ten, one of the best rosters.

Illinois is now an NBA factory. That's all. because of Brad Underwood and his hires, his ability to change scheme, go to an NBA-style offense and get the guys from overseas, find guys like Keaton Wogler, and develop them into NBA players. So he deserves all the credit in the world. I think he's building something similar to what Lou Henson is doing. And Lou Henson got to one final four. That's the next check for Brad Underwood is to get there. He's got a huge test in front of him.

But if you're able to beat Houston, set up a... game where you would be the favorite over Nebraska or Iowa for the chance to get to the final four. I think that would solidify Brad Underwood as one of the two best coaches to ever be at Illinois because Bill Self was only here three years. But that would solidify him as one of the nation's elite coaches. I think he's already been kind of in that conversation beginning of the final four. He gets there. There's no doubt he's one of those guys. Man, I love hearing that. He is on the right trajectory. Jeremy, thank you so much. We always appreciate your insights. Love reading you. Love hearing you, man.

Thanks, Jeremy. All right, thanks, guys. Anytime. You got it. That is Jeremy Werner. If you'd like to follow Jeremy Werner, the publisher of Inliangiar.com, he is on X at J. Werner 247.

That is the place for all that good information and insight. Coming up next on Rahimi, Harris, and Grotie. Has Caleb Williams risen to a higher tier among NFL quarterbacks after last season. That I've also got something to give way to you if you want to be part of a live studio audience for the Take the North podcast. So we got a hot hour on the way here

on Rahimi Harrison Grotie on the score. We're both really excited about it. We're going to be so much further ahead from our communication standpoint than what we were a year ago. Having gone through it, there is no learning quite like doing it. I can show them as much

tape as I possibly can, and yet he's got to go through it and make some mistakes to truly learn from that. And so I think we're going to be so much further ahead just from a passing game standpoint. I'm really encouraged by it. I was really impressed by how much better he got over the course of the season. I look forward to being able to capitalize on that coming back and continue to forge ahead. Bears head coach Ben Johnson with Fox 32's Cassie Carlson at the recent NFL Combine in Indianapolis. as we welcome you back to Rahimi Harris and Grody.

If you may recall, if you were listening on Friday to Rahimi, Harris, and Grody, we had Mike Sando on from the Athletic, one of our great football writers. And he does a, he has a tradition every single year where he puts together the quarterback tiers. There are five different tiers, one through five, as you could say, like one being the best, five being the least desirable quarterbacks. And that has

inspired us here on Rahimi Harrison Grotie to take a look, Marshall, at what was last year relative to what we think this year. And I want to make sure people understand the amount of work

that goes into Mike Sando doing this, because here's directly from his article for the athletic. The quarterback tier when they were in for 2025, they had 50 NFL coaches and executives coronating a couple of first-time tier-1 QBs. There's five tiers.

The panel combined to confer 46 top-tier votes to Lamar Jackson, which was twice his total from 2024. That told people that the two-time MVP had proven his ability as a passer, including the playoffs, although not as much, as you know, his playoff history. but just understanding how much Jackson jumped from 2024 to 2025 to become a tier one quarterback. And so there's five tiers. And here's what they say about tier number one.

A tier one quarterback can carry his team each week. The team wins because of him. He expertly handles pure passing situations. He has no real holes in his game. That's what tier one is. So an understanding, I'm so glad that you gave the qualifications for this list. is not power rankings. This is not Mike Sandoz's random list.

No. This is an educated guess on the best quarterbacks in the league. So here we're, this is 2025. This is what it was. These are the tier one quarterbacks as Marshall Harris just described. Number one was Patrick

Mahomes. Tied for tier one was Joe Burrow. Number three on that list. Josh Allen. Number four, as you mentioned, Lamar Jackson and the last elite tier one quarterback on the list was Matthew Stafford. Good old Matt Stafford. And you can't argue with a single one of them. I wouldn't even take any of them off of the list at this point.

We move to Tier 2. What are the qualifications for Tier 2, dear Mr. Harris? So a Tier 2 quarterback can carry his team sometimes, but not as consistently as those Tier 1 guys. as you just mentioned, Mark. He can handle pure passing situations in doses and or possesses other dimensions that are special enough to elevate him above Tier 3. He has a hole or two in his game. Here are the Tier 2 quarterbacks from 2025.

Jaden Daniel 6, Justin Herbert, 7, Jared Gough, 8, tied for 9th, C.J. Stroud and Jalen Hertz, 11th, Baker Mayfield, 12, Dak Prescott, 13, Jordan Lowe. 14th, Brock Purdy. So it's interesting understanding going from 2024 to 2025, you notice who was at the top of that tier and looking to press into tier one. Jayden Daniels. What a difference of year makes.

Well, and we're to talk about him right now, I give him a pass for last year. He was injured. He played in six, seven games at the most last year. Just looking at my sheet here. I had it. Oh, here it is. Seven games last year. But in 2024, 3,568 yards, we know how good he was.

So I think it's still possible that he could get into that. But I would keep Jaden Daniels in tier two for now. Tier three, what is Tier 3? So here's where it gets, I mean, there's five tiers. This is Tier 3. You can do some averaging out and understand what this is going to look like. A Tier 3 quarterback is a legitimate starter. but needs a heavier running game

and or defensive component to win. A lower volume drop back passing offense suits him best. Got that? They are, yes. They are at number 15. Kyler Murray, 16, your guy. Aaron Rogers. Oh, wow.

17. Two at Tucka Volova. Trevor Lawrence at 18 in Tier 3. Gino Smith, 19. Tide for 20. Bow, Nix. and Sam Darnold. It will be rising.

You ready for this at number 22? Here we go, ladies and gentlemen. Number 22 in Tier 3, Drake May and Caleb Williams. Bryce Young right on their heels at number 24. And number 25, Kirk Cousins appropriately placed in that Tier 3. And we'll get to Caleb. We'll get to it. The final two tiers.

Tier 4, what do they say about? Tier 4. A tier 4 quarterback could be an unproven player, as in not enough information for voters to classify, because remember, these are real life NFL coaches and executives who made the determination here, or a veteran who ideally would not start all 17 games. And this is where it gets kind of, well, you know. Ugly. And Will, these first three names, Russell Wilson, Justin Fields, Michael Pennix Jr., J.J. McCarthy.

Oops, Daniel Jones at number 30. Joe Flacco, 31, Anthony Richardson, where are you now? Anthony Richardson, number 32, Spencer Rattler at number 33. And then there is one quarterback in the five tier. What do they even say for the fifth? It's a very simple definition here, Mark. A tier five quarterback is best suited as a backup. Very nicely foot.

Kenny Pickett, the lone quarterback in that category. All right. Yes. The answer is yes, of course. Caleb Williams should probably, yes, he should move up from 23 to something. Now, the question is, is Caleb Williams at the top half of the third tier, or does he, because of what he did last year, is he a tier two quarterback this year? Or if you're really bullish, you think he is in the elite category.

I don't think he is in the, I'm with you, Marshall. I see the look. He is not in the elite category. But could he be Baker Mayfield, Jalen Hertz, C.J. Stroud, Dak Prescott? The answer is yes. He is definitely, by these definitions, a tier two quarterback. And I expect him to be voted as such when the new rankings come out this offseason. Because, again, a tier two quarterback can carry his team sometimes, but not as consistently.

He can handle peer passing situations. in doses and or possesses other dimensions. How about ducking out of sacks that are special enough to elevate him above tier three? He has a hole or two in his game. The hole would be the simple place, the pedestrian passing place. That is the hole in his game. Yeah, 17 games. Man, the durability is real for Caleb.

Two straight years of 17 games last year, 3,942 yards, 27 touchdowns to seven interceptions. and yes, the 58.1 completion percentage for which there are reasons, and we could all look into that and delve into because of the risk-taking that has gone on with Caleb Williams, which we ultimately like. I guess the question is, is, like, did he leapfrog, Jaden Daniels? Do you think that he is now ahead of somebody like, man, I'm tempted to put him in, like, just behind, Jade and Daniels still, and I know it was a rough year last year because of injuries,

and when he played, he wasn't great. Like just in that Justin Herbert territory, Justin Herbert was seven last year, and this could all change. And the new list, the 2026 list will come out after the draft for Mike Sando, from whom we'll hear in a second as well. I'm also tempted to, like,

has Jared Goff earned a spot in the top tier of quarterbacks? You want to take him from tier two to tier one. I say he stays in tier two, mainly because he doesn't have the actual... The word I'm looking for here is... The pinotch that win because of? No, no, it's more about the elusivity. It's all timing base, and if he has to scramble, it's over for Jared Gough. He has no mobility in the pocket.

Yeah. 17 games last year for golf, 4,564 yards, 34 touchdowns, 8 interceptions. I feel like he's very easy to overlook because of all the talent on Detroit. I'm not overlooking him. I'm just saying he's at the top of tier two. But I mean as a potentially elite quarterback. Like, he's not as good as Matthew Stafford. He's not as good as Josh Allen, not in that same class.

That's why he's at the top of tier two. He's just right there. Just hovering right around it. But I would put him above Justin Herbert. and some of these other guys have fallen off, whether it's C.J. Stroud or, I mean, CJ Stroud might be a tier three quarterback straight up next year, right? Like, the next time they do this. I think Dag Prescott is at the top of tier two as well. Better question for you, is Caleb Williams above or below Jordan Love the next time tiers are revealed.

Ooh, that is... Jordan Love is 13. He's smack in the middle of Tier 2. Or at the bottom of Tier 2. Here's Jordan Love, like his numbers last year. games, 3,381 yards. And I'm just simplifying this, 23 touchdowns to six interceptions. Again, Caleb Williams, 17 games, 3,942 yards, 27 TDs to seven picks. Now, I don't know, like, that's a better year, I think. I think he had won the playoff game against Green Bay. It's a better year for Caleb, but does having one better year than Jordan Love,

considering the resume of Jordan Love, which hurts to say, is pretty good, pretty good, not great. Yeah, I would put Caleb over, like, if it's year to year, yeah, yeah, I put Caleb over Jordan Love. I might have them in that tied category. Okay. Hey, the ties are all over the place. And so understanding how it works with the voting mark, those executives, they put a number next to, they say you are a tier one quarterback or not. And then they average all that out. So the lower the number, the better, right?

And so you look at the top of this thing with Tier 1. Patrick Mahomes and Joe Burrow, every single executive and coach that they polled had them as tier 1 quarterback. Because their average vote is just one, straight up. Yeah. No point behind it. Whereas Josh Allen and Lamar Jackson are each 1.1. Right. So they had, you know, 1.1, which means some people put them as a tier 2 quarterback.

And if you look at Caleb Williams and really, Drake, Sam Darnold, they're all there together. Like, Darnold's a straight up three. That means he averaged out. Everyone could have possibly just said you're a tier three quarterback, and that's why he's a three. Or some would have had him two, some would have had him four, and it averaged out to a perfect three.

Drake May and Caleb Williams right next to each other. Drake May, 3.1, Caleb Williams, 3.2, and Bryce Young right behind them at 3.4. So it'll be interesting to see how many people lift Caleb Williams up to two and I expect him to have like a 2.1 score where somebody might think he's still a tier 3 quarterback, but the majority of people, based on the definitions, as they are presented to the pollsters, it's going to be a 2 or a 2.1. Yeah.

Yeah. How can it not be? And again, yes, to be very clear, we are going off of the 2025 list of quarterback tiers. Mike Sandos, 2026 will come out after the draft. That said, on Friday, Sando was on when Lela and I were here on the score. And I did ask him if Caleb Williams will, if he thinks, in his opinion, will Caleb Williams indeed move up his quarterback tears? He's definitely going up. So I think Caleb Williams was, people were excited about him coming out, you know, some reservations.

And then the first year was kind of disappointing. And we saw the, you know, I mean, there's basically he got salve. in that story that came out before the season. Yeah. And it was just kind of like, you know, but I think he played pretty well this last year. I think he showed a lot.

I think he looked like he was more of a team guy than, you know, than was criticized or advertised. So he was, I think he was in Tier 3, which is, you know, solid starter, but you probably need a lot around him to really win. I think he's going to go high into Tier 3 with some Tier 2 votes, maybe that two, three line.

We've kind of seen in recent years like Brock Purdy sort of moved from the three to the two a little different because he was such a late pick that people were late to want to push him up. I think Caleb, that people know the talent. And so does he make a bigger jump as a result of that? If you're in the middle of tier two, you're kind of a top, on the fringes of the top 10. And I haven't started quarterback tiers. We do it after the draft. So I don't really know what people are, you know, I'll pull them as we get closer and see the

quarterback situations take shape around the league. But I've got to think he's got to move not into the top 10, but don't you think he's going to move into the top halfish? Because he's certainly going to go past the twas and those guys, Kyler Murray's. Those guys are going to come down. And I think he's going to go up. Mike Sando of the Athletic, who, as he said, he's being conservative and he doesn't know yet, so he's guessing because I asked him the question. But he started with at least moving up to, or like he figured tier three, I guess that's, the question, is Caleb Williams a top 10 quarterback? Is he as good as Jared Gough? Is he as good as Justin Herbert? Is he as good as Baker Mayfield? Dak Prescott, uh, guy, Jalen Hertz, guys like that,

has he, with one really, really good year, has Caleb Williams become a top 10 quarterback? If he's not top 10, he's right outside of that, of that window. Here's why he won't be a top 10 quarterback when the tears come out. Because of the guys you just mentioned, he's not. not going to jump any of them. He's also not jumping the guy directly ahead of him who might be a tier one quarterback when this thing comes out because of how it's done. And that's Drake May. Yeah, he might make it. He was the runner up to MVP. He led the league in countless categories. And did it legitimately. You know what I mean? Like it was, it looked real until the same draft class. Until the Super Bowl. Wow. They've been addressing those problems. Finally made a couple of nice passes

towards the end of that. But this is, uh, this is certainly to be continued. I can't wait until Mike Sando comes out with the quarterback tiers to see where everything lands. Obviously, we're going to see some guys falling off of this list. Some guys that will make the jump in the list, like Sam Darnold, as you just said, Drake May as well, Caleb. Trevor Lawrence, does he, at number 18 overall, does he pop to at least tier two, or does he get to that tier three area after one really good year under their new head coach? See him as the bottom of tier two. The biggest fall, I think, is going to be C.J. Stroud and the biggest jump, I think, is going to be Drake May.

So something to pay attention to, again, he doesn't do it until after the draft. So we got some time, but always good fodder. We have some more fodder coming up. It's always a pleasure to have Bruce Levine on, our baseball insider, who was already on once today. So I feel like we are honored and privileged to have Bruce Levine joining us next to talk about the breaking news that say a Suzuki officially placed on the injured list. We'll talk all things Cubs coming up next with Bruce Levine on Rahimi Harrison

Grody on 104 3, the score. Leila Rahimi, Marshall Harris, Mark Grody, Rahimi Harrison Grody on 1043, the score. Freckman swings. It's a high fly ball, deep left center field, racing back, brown at the wall, it's gone.

Alex Bregman, with his second home run of the spring. And a Cubs now up four to nothing over the Brewers here in the third. It's a nice day for the Cubs as they wallop the Milwaukee Brewers, 12 to nothing. Kate Horton also six strong innings. And yeah, Bruce, I know, I know. The Brewers didn't have any of their regulars.

Lots of stuff going on with the Cubs about which we will discuss with our baseball insider Bruce Levine in just a second. Just to let everybody know what's going on. Say as Suzuki will open the season on the injured list. The Cubs manager, Craig Counsel, did confirm that today. The club also informed pitcher Ben Brown that he will make the opening day roster. Javier Assad will be optioned to AAA and start the season in the Iowa rotation. You know Bruce Levine. He is on X.

At MLB, Bruce Levine, he covers the Cubs and the White Sox for 104-3, the score. Hello, Bruce. How are you? Hi, guys. You gave all the information. So back to you. Well, let's start with Sayah. I guess, Bruce, that is, it's not good that he's going on the injured list,

but I guess best case scenario in terms of how little he will miss of the season to begin. Counsel has alluded to the fact that it would be a short period of time, maybe a week or 10 days. He has to go on the 10-day aisle. I think it can be backtracked here. So, you know, he might miss a week if the knee comes around. He hasn't really done the full running part yet, started to hit me. cage and do some other drills. But when he gets into the full sprinting mode and, you know, recovers the next day, okay, that's when things will be okay. And he'll come off the EIL.

In the meantime, you know, Michael Confort always made the team, the veteran who failed so miserably last year after having such a great career in New York and, you know, trying to make it back, had a relatively good spring. If you go by spring training statistics, You know, hit the ball pretty hard and came into camp in good shape. So from that perspective, he's going to make the team, the one area that we don't know about, which is intriguing is the waiver wire. Everybody is releasing people over the next two days before the season starts. And with the fact that these rosters will have people that are leaving,

the Cubs are looking for a backup infielder. They have Shaw, who's going to back up third. and second and play some right field. So they're comfortable with that. But they really don't have outside Nico Horner a backup shortstop. They don't like taking a gold glove second baseman, moving them to short if Swanson has any issues health-wise. So even at AAA, they don't really have a shortstop of the quality they'll need to call

up if somebody gets hurt. So, Bruce, I'm curious because you talked about Michael Comforto. We know that it's going to be Kate Cavali. a right-hander on opening day. Is this a situation where you think Matt Shaw is just going to be out there in right field, regardless of righty-lefty? Or does Michael Conforto have a say in this from Craig Counsel's purview? Yeah, I mean, I don't think they would just grab Conforto and have them sit on the bench all year.

So that's probably a game time situation that he'll have to make that lineup out. And, you know, again, we know that Shaw is. is a number one pick, a guy that is moving positions that will play all different positions. Honestly, I hope it's Matt Shaw, nothing against Conforto, but if you're going to play at Wrigley Field and you're going to be able to accomplish playing that position, which is probably and arguably the toughest position in all of baseball because of the wall, the wind, the sun, the elements, I'd like to seem out there as much as possible, and that includes opening day. But that's me. That's certainly

not counsel saying that Conforto is a left-handed bat that they'll like in the lineup. We know Bayeasteros is going to be the DH against almost all, if not all, of the right-handed pitchers that they face. So that's a situation that

will be addressed probably, we probably won't know until Wednesday or Thursday. Bruce, I love listening to you and David Haw on Saturday in a special two-hour edition of Inside the Clubhouse on one of the things that piqued my interest was the fact that you said one of the most underreported parts of spring training was the offense, the at-bats from Matt Shaw. What did you mean by that?

Well, Matt Shaw, you know, and I heard you guys talking about it earlier in your show, you know, playing the Ron Kumar piece from our show on Saturday, that, you know, he changed his batting style. And he got rid of the leg kick that was so extreme. And as Coom explained, keeping his head up rather than moving forward when he's swinging all was all a part of that funky swing that had him all over the place most of the season last year even though he was an 800 OPS guy the second time he came back there were still elements that were missing so they reworked the swing and he was hitting the ball hard all spring long again you don't put a lot of credence into the spring training numbers but you do look at how players are

are reacting to instruction, and it looked like he found a comfort zone and looked extraordinarily comfortable and well when he was out there on the field. I'm really curious, Bruce, about Ben Brown making this team and Javier Saib being sent down. I understand it. I'm just curious as to the role that Ben Brown is actually going to have once the season starts. Is he going to be a multiple innings use guy? How do you see his role with this bullpen? Well, Marshall, it's a great question because I think the beginning of the year is different than any other time in the season.

So, you know, guys are coming out of spring training. They're used to throwing four innings. They've only worked their way up to 70 to 80 pitches. If something happens early in the first few games, even the first week or 10 days, you're going to need long men. And, you know, right now they have Colin Ray, who's their number one long guy and was the savior to the staff last year when Steele. went down with an injury, and he made 28 really good starts for the Cubs last year. So you have the one guy, but early in the year, I think the thinking is that you're going to need more than one long guy because of whether it's a, let's say you have early season

rain, two innings into the game. It's an hour and a half delay. You're not coming back with your starting pitcher. So I think having more than one long man with Ray and then Brown being available, I think is something of value that they look at. You know, the hard part was figuring out whether Brown should be going to AAA along with Assad, working every five days and being ready to come up and be a starter if one of your starters goes down.

But Assad is going to be that guy for now. And Brown will be part of the bullpen. And I think he can pitch in any part of the bullpen, really. I mean, you have that 97-mile-an-hour fastball and that knuckle curve coming out of the bullpen late as well. So he's accomplished an awful lot this year mentally. He's really grown into the position of not second-guessing himself, not over-analizing situations, just going out there and pitching, came into camp extraordinarily strong, built himself up in the upper body and in the preseason during the winter.

So I think he's ready to go. And he's, when right, you know, we've seen it. I mean, we've seen him dominate lineups, just the inconsistency, which has kept him back. A few more minutes with our very own Bruce Levine, who covers the Cubs and White Sox, right here on 104-3 The Score. Also, the co-host of Inside the Clubhouse alongside our very own David Haw, Saturday mornings, 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. Another one of the guests that you guys had on was Michael Bush, loved hearing what Bush had to say, and it looks like they're going to trust him against lefties this year. What could that mean for Michael Bush this season?

It can mean 150 games and maybe the 34 home runs is right where it was last year. I don't know if anybody would complain about 34 home runs again from Michael Bush or with those extra additive bats against the lefties will be a number that goes higher. I think that everybody would be happy with 35 homers and 90 to 100 RBIs, just like he had last year. we always look at players good years especially younger players and i think michael is 27 or 28 now and we say well he did it last year so he should be getting better that was a pretty damn good year right so i think i think they'll take that again no i think you're right bruce and i i'm so curious because we saw the plan that he was on as far as more of a platoon guy last year is that straight up what

it's going to be from Moises by asteris, because I would love to see him in the lineup against some lefties along the way to see if he can do it. Well, he might, Marshall, he might be, like you say, he might be the exception to the rule. I know, I know you are a huge proponent

of his, and so am I. And anybody that watches them, I'm talking about scouts from other teams and front office people that I talk to. None of them have anything but desire to get them a biosterone. in their organization.

They just think he's, you know, he just turned 22. So they think the sky is the limit for him as far as just being a doubles machine, a guy that's eventually going to hit home runs. And a guy that, you know, never looks off balance in his swing. I think, you know, Ron Kumer talked about this on Saturday as well, the fact that whether he swings and misses or not, he always looks like he's on a pit. never looks awkward.

So there's a natural swing there that's really fun to watch. And it's a swing that it hits into each gap, left field, right field. So eventually they feel he's going to hit against both. And we'll see if a council has that as part of his plan going into the season. Bruce, pardon me if I'd missed it. But do we know the order of the rotation after Matthew Boyd? Yeah, so we do. So after Matthew Boyd, it's occasionally.

Horton, who pitched six innings against a no-name lineup yesterday. Kept texting me that. You're right, Bruce. Tell Bruce. You're right. You're right. You're always right. Well, in this case, I'm only right because the Milwaukee team had already flown

back to Milwaukee. So those were all extra guys, most of them not making the team. They had a couple of their pitchers that are going to be on the 13 rotation. but that was, but don't take anything away from a Horton. He's going to be outstanding. And then it's, after that, it's, you're going to be looking at Imanaga, Cabrera, and then Tyone. That's your top five. So, I'm going to go lefty, right, he left.

Like, just to mix it up. That's, yeah, Marshall, that's how it looks. So, and again, when you look at the rotation, you know, there's, if you could project, good health for that rotation. And each and every one of those guys, I believe, each and every one of them last year was hurt at one time or another. And a couple for significant periods of time, like Tyone and Imanaga, were out for extensive periods of time, five, six weeks. So with that in mind, they have good health, and then they have fortification of Brown, and they have Assad, who I feel really, the guy that's really getting ripped off. He's been a, he was a, he was a, he was a, he was

a tremendously important pitcher for them in 2024, kind of doing the swing man's stuff and doing it well. Last year he was hurt for a long period of time with an oblique and came back and, you know, pitched a little bit toward the end of the year, but he's kind of the forgotten guy right now.

He's out of the mix and he'll be pitching every five days at AAA. All right, well, we're excited about that. One thing before we let you go, Bruce, earlier we were talking about the lineup yesterday, maybe looking like what an opening day lineup could be or a regular lineup. I thought Nico Horner was a little far down. Don't you want to see him bat higher than fifth in the lineup? Yeah, I do, but I don't want to see. I heard your lineup and you had them,

well, why not let them bat fourth? And there's, you know, it's, it's not a wrong idea on your part, I don't think. It's just that I don't think counsel would consider betting Nico Horner fourth. So with that in mind, I go with what, you know, what the, manager and how his thoughts go. Horner, and you guys mentioned this as well, he'll bet first. He'll lead off against left-handers at times. With Bush in the lineup all the time now, it might change that equation, but I don't think so. But, you know, I'm in agreement with you, and that is, Nico Horner was the best player

on the Cubs last year. And they had a lot of good players, a lot of great years. but consistency-wise, all the way around offensively, defensively, on the bases, leadership, that was my guy. So anywhere you want to put him in the lineup, I think he's going to do a good job. I just don't think counsel will put him forth.

You're the best, Bruce. Thanks for coming on. You've had a busy day, and I know you'll be tracking the preseason game that's happening with the Cubs and Yankees coming up on the score in a little bit. Thanks, Brewster. Guys, next time let's talk a little bit about the White Sox, too.

Yes, we could do that. We could definitely do that. Yes. We shall. I'm writing it down. It's a promise. Talk socks with Bruce. Yeah.

Yes. See you guys. Bye Bruce. That is Bruce Levine right there. In a second, we're going to give you the Cubs lineup today against the New York Yanke. He's a game that is coming up right here on the score, 155, getting on here a little bit early today. But first, I have free stuff for you. As a matter of fact, I don't know if you know this, Marshall, but I do host a podcast.

You have a podcast? I do. It's called Take the North, where Dan Weider and I talk about the Chicago Bears, and we are doing a live show second annual. So, callers 6 and 7 to the score contest line 312 540-0670 will win a pair of tickets to this special edition of Take the North Live. With Dan Weider and me, Mark Grody. It is on Thursday, April 16th from 6 to 8 p.m. It is in our sick Blue Cross Blue Shield Performance Studio where many of famous acts have come through. Again, 6 to 8 on April 16th be the 6th and 7th callers at 312 540-0670. Good luck to you and hopefully you will win tickets to see us,

the Take the North podcast right here in our six studios at the score. Do you have a lineup for us, Marshall? Oh, I have a lineup. Oh, oh, you don't look happy about that lineup. No, no, no, no. I'm fine with it. It's just I think this is a great thing that's happening today to set us up because we were talking about spring training numbers.

They really count when you want them to count. When they favor your opinion or what your beliefs are, that's when spring training counts. We could twist spring training any way we like. I don't think you're going to be able to be as malleable with today because it's the Cubs and the Yankees. And I see a lot of regular names in this lineup, Grotie. What I mean by that is Paul Goldsmith's leading off for the Yankees and Aaron Judge is batting second and Stanton's in their batting claim. Cody Bellinger's batting third. You know why that's important?

The Jazz Chisholm is batting sixth or, excuse me, fifth in the lineup for the Yankees. It's because of who's on the mound for the Cubs in their final spring training start. And that would be show to him and I go. Oh. So I need to see, can he, you know, keep the ball in the yard against the Yankees? That's a great call by you. Yes, yes. This is a great test.

This is a great test. It's a great close to Cactus League baseball for Shoda Imanaga. Meanwhile, for the Cubs. Yes. Let's go through their lineup. We talked about Nico Horner, possibly leading off in some of these games. Well, Michael Bush is in the lineup, but he's batting second behind Nico Horner. His Nico Horner will lead off and play second base.

Alex Bregman batting third. and playing third base. Ian Hap, the switch hitting left-fielder, is batting cleanup. Carson Kelly behind him a catcher. Michael Comforto will bat sixth and D.H. Dansby Swanson, in there as the shortstop. Matt Shaw, right-field batting eighth, and Dylan Carlson, not Pete Carromstrong,

but Dylan Carlson playing center field, he'll bat ninth. So I like what this lineup looks like, and obviously if PCA was in there, it would be a lot different, but I'm very comfortable with the lineup that Craig Counsel is thrown out there and they're going up against Carlos Ligrange so he's been very good. Zee lefty? I know, he's a right-handed pitcher.

Oh, okay. So Horner getting the lead-off spot against a righty in this case, pre-season game and all. I thought Bruce put it well when he said Nico Horner, their best player last year mainly because in a year of ups and downs he was simply their most consistent player. He really was. While playing a very

high-level second base. And sometimes it's hard to identify a guy like that this world of slug in which we live, and I know that's been quelled a little bit, the slugness of Major League Baseball. But yeah, once you really look and we do have the advantage of watching that man play every day, he is a baseball player. The one thing I'm loving is more Matt Shaw in right field. And Bruce, right on board with us, Matt Shaw, right field, opening day, just go.

I don't care if there's a left ear writing on the mound. Let that man play right field, get used to right field, take his lumps, and hopefully the Cubs can score enough runs to hit their way out of any miscues from Matt Shaw and right field. Yeah, and Dylan Carlson, for people who don't know, as you said, playing center field today is a switch hitter, so there is that versatility. It'll be interesting to see what happens when Sayas Suzuki comes back, who takes the hit there. Were you a little surprised, even though it's the lefty-righty-lefty thing that Shoda gets the third spot in the rotation? I guess if I'm going to say, I believe more in what PCA did in the first half of the season last year. I guess

the same could be said for show-it-up, unless he's washed up and his arm really did go to rags at the end. I don't think he's washed up. I just think he's got some adjustments to make, and he's made adjustments, but can he stick to it through the regular season? It's a long regular season. I'm good with that idea of a six-man rotation, depending on what happens when Justin Steele comes back A, or what the Cubs decide to do with the trade deadline ultimately. And we know if you're banking on the Cubs doing big things at the trade deadline, the answer has not been good in recent years. We haven't done our picks yet, but I believe,

I know David Haw picked the Cubs on their inside the clubhouse extravagance on Saturday to go to the World Series. I think, shame on me, I should have asked Bruce. I think he picked the Cubs to go to the World Series as well. So are they expecting the Cubs to beat the Dodgers or someone else to knock off the Dodgers? That's my only question. It's a good question. I don't know.

Ray, you were here yesterday or the other day. Yeah, I guess they're drinking the Cubby Kool-Aid. Hawth text me and said, he's like, Are we crazy? I'm like, no, man, I'm the guy who insisted that the Cubs were going to win the division in May. So don't talk to me. I will never call somebody crazy for their Cubs predictions.

That is for sure. Marshall, this has been a blast. Good to see you again, man. It's been a while. Now you're not going to see me tomorrow. No. So Laila will be back tomorrow. Layla and I will be doing the show tomorrow from 10 a.m. to 2.

Thank you to everybody who participated in the program today, including Bruce Levine, who was just on with us. Richard Deich was absolutely excellent. Jeremy Werner talking the Alina. Ray Diaz, Tyler Buterbaugh, Connor O'Donnell, Jacob Stutz, Max Curtis, and we certainly appreciate every single person who listened, text, participated in the program. We will be back tomorrow with more. Rahimi Harris and Grody. Cubs Baseball is next on 1043, the score.