The Bill Simmons Podcast - A Clippers Rebrand, an NFL Mini-Mailbag, and Best MLB Story Lines With Rob Mahoney, Anthony Dabbundo, and Billy Gil

Episode Date: September 16, 2026

The Ringer’s Bill Simmons is joined by Rob Mahoney to preview the Clippers' season after a tough summer. Then, Bill opens up the mailbag to answer some NFL questions. Finally, Billy Gil and Anthony Dabbundo hop on the pod to talk about their favorite story lines of the MLB season. (0:00) Intro (2:26) Clippers preview with Rob Mahoney (37:48) NFL mailbag (01:04:54) MLB with Billy Gil and Anthony Dabbundo Host: Bill Simmons Guests: Rob Mahoney, Billy Gil, and Anthony Dabbundo Producers: Chia Hao Tat and Eduardo Ocampo Enter for a chance to win superior soccer, basketball, and golf prizes at https://michelobultra.com/SuperiorAccess The Ringer is committed to responsible gaming. Please visit https://fanduel.com/playwithaplan to learn more about the resources and helplines. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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The Bill Simmons podcast, brought to you by the Ringer podcast Network, where I put up a new rewatchables on Monday night. We did Rambo First Pub, Part 2. It was me and Kyle Brandt. I had a fantastic time. Slice Stallone's 13th rewatchables, which puts him in third place all time. He's sniffing Cruz. Cruz has a pretty big lead.

Cruz is at 18. He's almost at 20 with a lot of good cruise movies left. But Stallone is, he's battling. He's trying to get to 20 before Cruz. Very fun podcast. So go check it out. on Netflix or Spotify or wherever you get your podcast. Coming up on this episode, at the very top,

I'm talking to Rob Mahoney about the Clippers post-cois trade. What do we do now? What do we do with this Clippers team? What happens? That's first. Second, I have a little mini NFL mailbag. I got a lot of good questions and had some more NFL stuff today. I wanted to chime in on the Chiefs game on Monday night.

So we have that. And then last but not least, Anthony Dubundo, Billy Gill. We haven't talked baseball in a while. We have less than two weeks left than this season. The playoffs are going to be pretty cool. This has been a pretty bizarre, super fun, crazy baseball season. It might be our last for a while. So we wanted to talk about our favorite things from this season.

That is all coming up next. First, a break and our friends from Pearl Jam. The Bill Simmons podcast is presented by Fandul. The NFL is here, and it's the most rewarding season ever on Fandul with the all-time Fandall Rewards Club. Every eligible bet can earn your points. Win or lose, you still get points. The more points, the bigger the rewards you can unlock.

Head to fandle.com slash BS to start earning with Fandul Rewards Club. 21 plus select states are 18 plus D.C., Kentucky, Wyoming. Game problem, call 1-800-Gandbar. Call 888-7-8-7-77-7 or visit ccpg.org slash chat in Connecticut. All right, we're recording on early Tuesday afternoon. Rob Mahoney is here. It's been a while.

I just realized you hadn't been on in a while. It's like, just come on. Let's talk basketball. Basketball starting in five weeks somehow. I know. I know. I just feel like I did all my football prep. We only had week one of a football season.

NBA is coming. And there's lots of time to talk about where we're going, who's going to win. Jaylon Brown playing with LeBron, Paul Georgia and the Celtics. Just a million subplots. I got to put the Quipper stuff to bed. I know you already talked about it and Ringer NBA show, but just a couple things here. My big question for you

as I look at this and I talk to the press Quipper fans and all of us wonder, should we keep paying for tickets for them and all these things? Should they just change their name? Is this it? You think that would cleanse whatever's going on with them?

Is it rebrand time? And have we had a rebrand over the years in the NBA that has actually worked And the answer for that is maybe not because we had like the Brooklyn Nets with the New Orleans Pelicans we had kind of a Charlotte rebrand

with the expansion team. Do rebrands work? Is it just a way? Like it works with products. Can it work with a sports franchise? The fact that this is the solution. It's like you're out five firsts, your owners are suspended for a year,

half the front office can't even go to the arena. It's like I guess what else are you going to do at this point? other than shuffle some deck chairs around, hire a graphic designer and call it good? Yeah. And would you call it L.A. or would you go? I always thought they should be called the Hollywood Knights,

even though they're not in Hollywood, and just have like a Knights with a K. Or you could just call it Hollywood Knights with an N. But either way, like it just would feel completely different. I think they need to do something like that. Now, granted, everybody who would be involved in that decision is suspended for a year. Yeah.

So I don't even know if they can do it. But I just wonder, have we run the course? course, has 50 years of the Clippers just being a train wreck and coming up with scandals that we didn't even know could exist, is it just time to start over? They don't even have a tired number, Rob. They've never made the finals. You just reset this right now in some way. Yeah, there's no history to protect. And whatever history they had, they just spat in Chris Paul's face to give Bradley feel his number.

It really did. It's just awful. I went through this exercise, too, because I was trying to think about with all of these penalties, like, when is the next time we will see? a relevant Clippers team. When's the next time they'll make the second round of the playoffs? And I realize they've done it like six times in 50 years to begin with. So I guess it's just kind of business

as usual anyway, even if they don't have these picks. Yeah, you think like all the terrible and weird and dumbfounding thing that's happened to them, the reality of them having the best team they've ever had during the COVID year, then getting shut down, and then going into the bubble

and being the team that most famously out of all the teams just quit in the bubble, right? And then the next year they come back and they finally do make a run and have a real chance to make it. Kauai gets hurt. But as that's happening, all their fans are wearing COVID masks in the stands or deciding whether they want to pull them down or up. And that's like the best Western Conference finals memory they have. I just don't know what they do. I would vote for a rebrand, but maybe we have to wait a year. The other question is, what do you do with this team? The Kauai trade went through, which is one of the things I wanted to talk.

talk to you about. And I was actually genuinely surprised how much they got for Kauai, a guy who was in the 2011 draft who has a pretty checkered injury history, who just kind of orchestrated one of the biggest scandals in the history of the league. And then they're like, I didn't know. There's people around me. I didn't know what happened. And now I was going to Toronto at age 35 to try to turn the middle contender, and they get

a swap. They get two unprotected first much later. I thought that was kind of a miracle for them, right? Well, there was all that, I wouldn't even say fuss or hubbub, but there were people wondering if there was going to be a renegotiation. If everything that happened with the penalties would bring both teams back to the table, I think there's a million reasons why that didn't really happen in that form, why it didn't turn into the Raptors like squeezing the clippers as hard as they possibly could.

But you're right, given who Kauai has been and the damage he's dealt to now multiple organizations in the process and the fact that you can't rely on him to be available at basically any time, this was quite a coup under the circumstances. I couldn't decide who should have backed out and had more leverage, which is one of the reasons, like, I didn't think the trade was going to happen because I thought you could have made a case for both. Like, the Raptors could have said, well, obviously, you can't bring him back. Yeah.

So for us, this is like a 50% off sale now. I mean, you have nowhere else to trade him. You weren't honest about what happened with us. and we had to postpone it anyway because we didn't feel like we knew what the suspensions were going to be for him. Turns out there weren't. But how about just the first rounder

and we'll call it a rap? The Quippers could have been like fuck him, we're not trading him. Like your final penance will be you're just going to have to play out one more year here and then not have a get out of Joe Free card. Failed like flunk Grady Dick's physical and it's like, sorry, our hands are really tied.

Sorry, Kauai. Enjoy the year. But if it's only one year, I mean, how bad could it really be for him? How does he get more? He's in complete turmoil and so is the franchise and somehow fetches more than Jalen Brown did will be one of the enduring questions of the entire 2020s. I can't believe it was two first. I'm protected, much less two firsts and a swap.

I don't know if there was a little bit of attacks for having Brandon Engerman in it, who's basically two years, 81 million in a least. league where they seem that's kind of the area where nobody is excited to pay that unless you're like an all-M-B-A player. But it leaves us with a really weird quipper team where they have Garland for 42 and 44. They have Ingram for 40 and 41. And those two guys are basically locked in for the next two years at about 82 million. Yeah. I'm going to not put that twosome as one of the best two-man combo.

in the league, much less one of the best 20, and say that's in the bottom third. If you're just ranking everybody's two-man combos, their best, most expensive players, I think we could come up with 20 teams right now. That would be better than that, right? You don't think that's in the season ticket renewal brochure, like in the materials, those two front-center?

I don't. I mean, it's Blake. Honestly, even including Brandon Ingram as any important or relevant part of this team, I think is just not realistic. wasn't realistic even before all these punishments came down. It's, like, to me, it's Darius Garland. It's Keaton Wogler, who they just drafted.

It's, you know, maybe guys like, you know, Janek Conan Niederhauser, when he comes back from entry, like some of the younger prospects on the team, which they don't have very many. And that's kind of it. And then Brandon Ingram, yet again, is at a waste station before he gets flipped to yet another team for a couple of picks.

He's just going to go around that particular carousel for a long time. And I just don't think he's a solution of any kind for the clippers. Yeah, he's, this is the perfect situation for him because really nobody wanted him for the last couple years and then Clutch finally found a team for him and Toronto actually needed a forward who could score like that. I think he probably served their purpose. But there's not a lot of teams that need a guy making $40 million

who's like 22 a game. Kind of a surprisingly solid crunch time end of the game guy who has a couple spots and he can score, a proven score, but it seems like all the smarter teams were not that enamored by him. No. Including Golden State who had multiple chances to trade for him and wanted no part of him. Boston didn't want any part of them and a Jalen thing. See, if Garland and Ingram, you have the three young guys you mentioned, Miller, Sanders,

and Niederhouser, who I love Niederhouser. Same. You have the artist formerly known as Bradley Beale wearing Chris Paul's number. You're rolling the dice with Wogler one way or the other now, where, it's weird to say this, but I don't know if any other rookie from that class has more pressure on him than Wogler. Oh, really?

Yeah, here's why. Because if he doesn't work out and he feels busty or he feels bad in these first two months combined with everything else that has happened to this team, I just think that will be, just talk about it already crestfallen fan base. He's the one thing they're holding on to,

well, if he's good and, you know, we'll have cap space and we got some of these Toronto picks. But if he's not good coming out of the gate, now you're just, this is as bleak as it gets. See, I see it the other way where we just need to go in accepting that the clippers are cooked for the foreseeable future. And if that's true, Keen Wogler is like found money, right? If he turns out to be a really good player, if he turns out to be the kind of star they can build around or at least to complement other stars, that's a feather in their cash. I don't know that that cap is accomplishing anything because it's still going to be hard to bring free agents

or lure other good players to the clippers given their circumstances. But I don't know that there's going to be that much pressure on him because it seems so accepted that this is a death penalty for the clippers. And if that is true, how could you possibly hang anything around Keaton Wogler's neck? Counter.

For the next seven years, when they have another chance to get a blue-chip guy? Yeah. Well, that would be depressing. if Keaton Wogler disappoints the clippers and the Pacers, if one ping pong ball had gone differently,

could have gotten, you know, a top four pick, like the fact that this particular pick and its trajectory managed to disappoint two entirely separate franchises if it goes that way, would be pretty tragic.

I think he's going to be pretty good, but the bigger point to me is if he's not good, and now you have no draft picks forever. Yeah. And then on top of it, no free agent's going to really want to go there unless it's one of those situations where, oh, they had the most money and I didn't have a better option,

so I'm going to begrudgingly go there. Sure. Or like Rui Hachamura, I just want to stay in L.A. and also cash a check, which I think there's a not insignificant number of NBA players who do want to do that. So I think they'll be in the mid-level market. It's just how are they going to get the high-end guys?

That's always the question. Well, they have $61 million in expirings. Max Drews, Hachamora, Derek Jones, Lopez, Grady Dick, done. Put any sort of combination in them, which leads to my next question for you. Are the quippers, with the move, if we're running the quippers,

you and I, because they don't have a GM. Well, I guess they hired an interim person, but they're like, what do you think we should do? My advice would be to take all those expirings and try to take somebody else's big contract and give me more picks to take the contract, right? So you're looking at somebody like Embed in December, if the Sixers is like, wow, this guy's probably never going to be healthy again. Maybe you're like, well, we're here.

And, you know, if you want to wet our beak, we're happy to take him for a bunch of expirings. Sure. Paul George for the Celtics, coincidentally. But two years left, 54 and 55, could you load all the expirings, get Boston and give you a pick or two back to basically take the year, Paul George. And then if you're the Celtics, you've basically rebooted. I don't know why they would do that because they seem like Paul George. There's a subonis in Sacramento, which would just be two ships passing in the night. Here's the one that's interesting to meet though. Deerrin Fox. You think, you think his value is that low? Starting a four-year, $221 million deal.

Yeah. If I'm the clippers, I'm at least calling the spurs, being like, yo, we have Garland. We love them, but if you want to talk about flipping four years of Fox for two years of Garland and throwing some of your stuff at us, we're happy to have the conversation. Okay. Right? And then if you're the Spurs, you're like, well, we messed up this Fox thing. We didn't realize we're going to get Harper when we did the, you know, the wink, wink with the Fox extension.

We're going to have to have money to pay Wemby and Castle and eventually Harper. could Garland be a two-year stop gap now instead of four? And could we use some of our picks and other stuff to basically get out of those last two years? And if you're the quippers, you're like, whoa, Darren Fox, veteran guy, who with Wagner kind of weirdly makes sense as a combo. We've seen both of those guys play out the ball. And we could grab some more picks. And I don't know.

It was just a thought. This is how bleak it's been because this was the most excited I was for any quipper I do. I mean, I think if you're the Spurs, you got me on the phone. Like the Darius Garland, I thought you were just talking Fox for Picks, basically, and salary. But if Garland is involved, I think that's something San Antonio could really think about. I mean, really what the Clippers need to do is figure out, like, what the Raptors were able to do with Ingram, I think is very instructive, right? Like, I did not like it when the Raptors traded for Brandon Ingram in the first place. As a free, as an expiring contract, gave him that deal, turned him and some, some, some,

supplementary pieces and picks into Kauai now. That's a great swing for them in the trajectory of their franchise, especially with how impressive they looked in the playoffs. The Clippers can have to do both of those things, though. Like, they have a Brandon Ingram, clearly, but they need the picks to supplement the deal. Like, they do need to reload the coffers in that way.

So it's like even the deals you can conceptualize are like three moves away before you can even get to the move that actually changes what this team is. Like, they need to get the picks in the door. They need to flip all of those. that into something more of value, whether they get a Deeran Fox or not, and parolet a player like that into another deal down the line. It's just like the chain of events that now needs to happen for the clippers to be good

is so dizzying that I really can't imagine how they dig themselves out of this in any kind of near-term future. We said that about Brooklyn, right, in 2016-17 range from Boston had their picks. There was at least an end of the line where it's like, well, we'll have cap space. At some point, we will have our picks. And for agencies still existed then. So it was at least plausible. One of the crazy things with this Clippers situation is it's like they took away five picks,

but those five picks haven't even, we're not even on the clock with them yet. Like I don't understand how OKC still has a chance to get more clipper picks, but they do. This year they can swap yet again. They can either take their pick or Denver's pick and swap it with whatever happens with the Clippers. Then the clippers will take that worst pick and can potentially swap it with Toronto. but somehow this OKC deal is still going. I mean, I thought we were done already and we're not.

And that leads to me to my next question for you is you can't even really tank because you don't have your pick. No. And I'm not sure why you would want to tank. But if you wanted a spite tank, which we've never seen before. Who is being spited, though? The clippers, if they got into the bottom three, it's only two ping pong balls instead of three. So you could basically say, well, what do we care? We don't have it anyway.

Like, let's like really tank. We'll play all our young guys. We'll do, we'll try to trade. Basically just Wogler, we'll try to dump the rest of the contracts we have and just kind of bottom out. Would be another like meeting I would have if I was running the quippers. Like could, our fan base hates us. We have their money for this year anyway. Do we just completely bottom out so we don't get screwed by this OKC pick?

Because the worst-case scenario is you end up like seventh. Sure. And now you're turning over potentially the number one pick in next year's draft as the final piece of this. But like that cost is sunk. Like the ship has sailed you or not getting that pick back. It's out of your hands at this point. Honestly, I'm not even sure you need to have that meeting

because sitting here today going into the season, how many Western Conference teams are we sure are worse than the Clippers? I would say the Kings definitively. Sacramento. Other than them, are we sure any other team is worse than this Clippers team? No. I would have them. What about in the East? I mean, Brooklyn probably, but even then, like, if you told me they went on a random spirited Julius Randall run, that seems more likely than the Clippers putting anything

together. All right, so these are two separate questions. One is the long-term piece, but the other is the short-term piece of just who has a worst roster. than them. So you would say Brooklyn and Milwaukee, I think in the East would be the candidates. And I'm just looking at the Fando odds. The three worst odds are Sacramento, Memphis, and then the Clippers. And obviously, you'd much rather be Memphis. You'd much rather be New Orleans. So there are also like not a ton of death, depth. Death was a Freudian slip. Too much death, frankly. Right. The Kings, at least. Like they have Levine on an expiring.

Yeah. Which he might actually play really well this year because he's playing for one more deal. It seems like Sabonis wants to get out of there. But if you're telling me what team would I rather be this year from a talent standpoint, I think I'd rather be the Kings. Like this Clippers thing, I'm putting all my eggs in the Wogler basket. Like, and this is somebody that was not even, I don't think a top 50 prospect two years ago who had to be. meteoric rise.

And I like him. I have high hopes for his NBA future, but I don't know what it's going to look like this year. He's got this whole ball dominant, hesitation, you know, kind of the ball's on a string. He's trying to beat people. He's shooting threes.

Like, that's going to be really hard to do in the NBA consistently night after night. So, and plus you're playing with Garland and sharing the ball with him. Everything you say is true. But, like, the alternative is DeAndre Hunter as you're starting small forward. De Manas Subonis,

works in all, is the best player on your team with a bullet. I mean, Darius Acuff, I know you're a fan. The rookie point guard experience at minimum comes

with its ups and downs. We'll see how all that goes, but I just, I'm not signing up for Sacramento's roster against, frankly, anybody's except maybe Milwaukee, which is just a collection

of random guys who don't really fit together at all with no real organizational principle. Those to me are the two worst roster situations in the league, depending on how you want to slice it. I'm not like doing backflips about Brooklyn either. But at least like they have guys who in this new format where you don't want to be in

the bottom three, they have some stat guys. Yeah. Right. Randall will go get some stats at least. He'll put up 23 and 10. And Yeager and Brown, I think, makes sense together. Like that's a backcourt. I think a fan base should rightly be really excited about.

So it sounds like you think Sacramento is going to be the worst team in the league. I think Milwaukee will probably be the worst team in the league, but Sacramento in the West feels obvious to me. Yeah, I'm looking at, so Fando, are you the 20 plus win odds? Sacramento is minus 140, if you want to bet on them to have 20 plus wins. Brooklyn's minus 320.

Milwaukee's minus 475, and New Orleans is minus 900. Clippers are 11 to 1. So Fando agrees with you. now Memphis I actually think could be a little bit better than you know the typical bad young team because they have a bunch of gamers

and they're going to have a specific identity that Milwaukee team that Milwaukee teams I don't know what to make of that team it's just it's like a randomized NBA 2K team that's just like hey they're going to have a bunch of centers and a bunch of shooters and I don't know what to make of it

If you know we're five weeks away, would you be the most excited about this season? I think it's got to be Philly. Like, every time I look at that, I mean, every time I'm reminded of just everybody they have on that team, like, I have to see it.

I have to see it in person. I need to see it as often as possible. I don't know if it's going to work. I don't know if Joel is ever going to be healthy, but the star power, the supporting players they picked up. I mean, is that not your number one? Where are you starting?

I definitely number one from, I need to see this a few times just to let this sink into my brain what this is. I think out of all the teams that feel different than last year, that's the number one. I just don't really fully understand how this is going to work. I'm fascinated by it. The upside is so high. The floor is even fairly high just because with their two injured, Embedit as an injured guy and LeBron as an old guy, even if those guys aren't playing a lot,

You still have those other three guys that can play big minutes. I think the Celtics piece is going to be interesting too because... Well, you would. Well, but I'm saying from a... Usually they've been more of a feel-good team or the up-and-coming team, but this is a city that really didn't like that trade. And depending on how those first two, three weeks go, I think could be a team to watch.

Now, they could come out and be great and everybody could like them and, you know, Paul George could fit in. but if they start out like seven and eight and Paul George looks old, the fans are pretty gamey about this trade still. And they, you know, Paul George did a press conference. He's there.

And I think he's saying all the right things. But it's the first really unpopular move of the Stevens era. Well, even if they're, let's say they come out and they're really good, do you think any of the scar tissue from last season will pop up, but be like, you know,

this is a really good regular season. This is a nice run, but is this real? Is that going to be hanging over them all year? Do you think? I think that,

I think just monitoring Tatum what we're getting out of him for a full year when he didn't even make it through the Sixers series. And then the thing Stephen said about, um, when he,

he said it in so many words. If you, like, decoded it, you knew what he was saying. He was like, we ran our course with those two guys. Yeah.

Like we, we weren't, We didn't feel like we were in the title mix anymore, paying those two guys $130 million a year to play basketball. It wasn't going to work anymore. So it's a pretty big bet. I've announced a couple weeks ago, and if you saw, I talked myself into it.

Took over 50 days. It's impressive. Yeah. It was, you know, there was some therapy. There was some hypnotic tapes at night to listen to. Yeah. How did we not turn? I mean, you kind of did turn it into content,

but how do we not just lock you in a padded room for 72 hours until you came out ready to believe in the Celtics. It sounds like an Apple TV series. It's like the new Apple TV drama from Vince Giligan. So Philly in the East, who's your team in the West then that you can't wait for? Oh, it's got to be in Minnesota. Yeah.

I'm ready. Lamello and Ants. I mean, sign me the fuck up for that. That sounds like exactly what I am tuning in for and the process of who they're going to be in the regular season, how they figure out incorporating Jonathan Cumminga of being a totally different style of team, making all these pieces fit together.

You know, figuring out how they're going to replace Dante DiVincenzo is probably going to be out for the year. Yeah. Chris Finch has done this kind of thing many times of like, here's a new formula, go figure it out since he's been with the wolves. But to me,

this is easily the most exciting version of that. It does feel Minnesota and Philly have one thing at common where you're going to catch them on the right night where they look incredible. Yeah. You know, it'll be like game 17, whatever location. And they're like, oh, my God.

Minnesota made 29 threes last night. That would be a record. They had an interesting summer, though, because it just felt like they were in on everybody. They were like the guy in your fantasy draft that is just bidding on every guy. And you're like, what's your plan? You've gone in the 20s on 15 straight guys.

Like, did you come in with any sort of plan? I really didn't. Minnesota was like that, too. It's like, Kaminka's available, whoever? Like, Jalen Brown's available? LeBron's available? Is Kevin Dore? available. They just were

flying around trying to make anything happen. And on top of it, going through an ownership change, that they kept pretty secret. But isn't that what a team in their position should do? Like if you kind of ran into the wall and you have one of the most exciting stars in the league

and a supporting cast that also worked, but also kind of ran its course and the Julius thing clearly was over. Nas Reid was valuable to them, but I can understand why they wanted to diversify their roster a little bit, thin out the bigs. That leads you to chase every star in the market.

It's honestly kind of what we want. Teams of Minnesota's market size, this is what we want them to do is to chase after things when they get real. I just would have been, if we're in that meeting, and it's getting close, and we're starting to really talk about this.

At some point, you have to look around and go, why does Charlotte want to give this guy up? Under contract, pretty fair contract, for somebody that is a top 30 guy, Yep. Beloved by the fan base. Kind of the best driver for whatever engine they had for this three-point kind of up and down team. Perfect for that. Why they want to trade them?

I don't know if I would have gotten past that. I understand it as a sticking point. And frankly, look, I'm a lamello believer. Like, who he is as a playmaker, very powerful to me. I see the vision, if you'll pardon the pun. for me, it's the health. It's like the ankles, it's the injuries. Like, that's the part that freaks me out more than can Lamello Ball be a winning player?

Because we've seen him have a transformative effect, not just last season, but basically every season he's played on Charlotte's offense. And so that feels real. That is a tangible thing. You can see it in games. You can see it if you want to dig into the data. I think he can be a serious basketball player in a slightly different context. I'm eager to see if this group can kind of nudge him in that direction. But I just need him to stay healthy.

Like that is my biggest concern for the wolves for sure. Well, I mean, that is, that's the concern. Well, but there's a whole different school that's just like skeptical of him as a basketball talent. And I'm saying like, that's not what I'm coming from. Yeah. You can have both, I guess. Yeah, I'm in both. I actually, I'm doing a mailbag in the next segment.

And I got this email from Brian from the DMV who I've been talking a lot for football about Justin Herbert and Jordan Love or like the nerd king. The king of the nerds basically for QBs. all their advanced stuff is great. All the NFL nerds are like, even when they have a bad game, no, no, it was actually a good game. And the question from Brian was, who is the NBA version of this?

And he said, my nominee is Lamello Ball. Incredible advanced stats has never made the playoffs or contributed to winning. The nerd community would tell you none of that matters, despite the fact that it's, parentheses, checks notes,

about to be year seven for him. So do you think, do you think Lamello is the nerd king of the NBA right now? the NBA nerds? I don't think you could be the Nerd King if you're also very popular with like 12 and 13 year olds.

That's two separate things. But that can't be the split demographic. That doesn't make sense. I would say the Nerd King. Does the Lamello Ball make sense? Well, often not. But to me, the Nerd King is much more

like a Derek White type than it is a Lamello Ball type. The difference is Derek White has actually won a title doing nerd stuff. Sure. So I was wondering is it, if it's not Lamello,

because he might be in this separate camp. Yeah. Could Tray Murphy be our nerd king? Oh, I like that one. It's like, Incredible stats, just put him in anywhere. He'd be additive.

It's like, we've never seen him in a winning situation ever. Why are we so sure? Well, and the only thing nerds love more than valuing undervalued players is trying to find them new teams via the trade machine. And like, Tray Murphy's been living in it for five years straight. So he feels like a per, if not a king, then certainly a prince of the nerds. I do think the nerds, like, I think Zach voted for. not to call Zach a nerd,

but he dabbles in the nerd stats. This is a nerd stat thing, not a nerd thing. But I think he voted for Lamello, third team all NBA or seriously thought about it because of his impact just for the 28 minutes,

whereas I'm a profound durability guy. Yeah. I just feel like, yeah, I think if you actually had to rely on that dude night after night for 35 minutes like some of these other dudes, I don't know if you could do it, but we'll see.

That to me is why. It's like, what Lamello does well is obvious. Like, he's a highlight machine. He's not, I think to me, if you're making the Nerd King case, it's always like, oh, the secret value of this player is this thing that you're not seeing in the box score or this thing you're not seeing when you watch. Like, you know, you're Shane Badiahs. You're Derek White's. Like, Lamello is like front and center, highlight, neon. Like, everything he does is so blatant that I don't think he could take that title.

Yeah, because in NFL, the QBs are in your face every play. because they're the face of the team. So that's why La Mello, like a point guard who has the ball over the time, is probably a good analogy. Before we go, you've been doing a lot of prestige TV episodes. What's the show of the year so far?

We're through mid-September. We have a bunch of good stuff going. Is it widows whatever? Yeah, widows, what? After crushing the Emmys, you can't even get the full title out? Widow, Wido's Bay. Widows Bay.

It has to be the show of the year. Incredibly decorated this week. but also just the best show top to bottom. I think the best formulated, the best written, incredible performances. I think, you know,

you could argue pluribus or, you know, the pit still is in that running for me. There's been a lot of really good TV this year, but Woodhouse Bay feels the most cohesive. I didn't tell you, I was keeping it a secret from you. I banged out furious.

Really liked it. Yeah. I thought it was like an A-minus. It really was the first one in a while. It's like, oh, I got to watch the next one. I want to see what happens. had a really good time with it.

I thought it was there's so many of these that tried to do what that show did and you're like, alright, I guess I'll watch another episode but hearts done in it. That I thought was legitimately good. Well done.

It's a little heatish. It's a little like banking into silence of the lambs by the end of the first season. Like we're getting into some really exciting places. Furious is very good if you haven't checked that out. And Emmy Rossum basically like, oh, Claire Dane's is the queen

of the fucked up female lead character who has to solve crimes or some sort of issue. Yeah. Watch this. Watch what I'm about to do here. Market corrected, do you think? Emmy Rossum's coming for the crown?

She did some things that I don't even know Claire Daines knew or possible. Yeah. Some faces, some of the choices that character made. It was all from the Claire Dane's playbook. It was funny because my daughter watched, she saw the beast in me before she started rerunning Homeland. She'd never seen Homeland. And they only knew Claire Dane's from the other show.

and then it's watching her in Homeland. And she's like, Dad, is this just what Claire Daines does? She plays completely crazy characters that make bad choices. And I'm like, yeah, that's actually what she does. Often so. But until Emmy Rossum does a full-on, like, whale cry, then I don't know if we can give her that particular lane just yet. What a battle.

They're definitely head-to-ed in the finals. Emmy Rossum, because she did this in Shameless, too. I feel like the whole time she's felt like Claire Daines gets all the publicity for this. But I'm right here. And here I come. What are you looking forward to this fall? Anything? Well, we got slow horses coming up.

Very excited about slow horses. And then it's like a very, I don't know, costume drama kind of fall, like east of Eden, into Gilded Age. Like, I guess we'll kind of wait and see what hits. But anytime Slow Horses comes back on the calendar, I'm psyched for it. Are you up on that? Not up on that one. Come on.

Should I be? Yes. Gary Oldman led... There's too much sports. Fail, spy, comedy, drama. I think you would love it. There's too much sports. the sports, especially this summer

with the World Cup, baseball was really good. Football's now back. Basketball feels like it's around the corner. All right, slow horses. You're like the 19th person to tell me about that one. Rob Mone, great see. You can watch the list on Rob on Ringar NBA plus prestige with Joanna,

who you share custody with Mallor. I think that's really nice that you guys arrange that. It's an amicable situation. I think we've made it work. Yeah. You get every other weekend you get her and Wednesdays and some Fridays. All right, Rob, great to see you.

Come back with a mailbag right after this. Thanks, Bill. The Bill Simmons podcast is brought to you by a Fandul. Welcome to your most rewarding season ever, and it's only happening on Fandul. How rewarding are we talking? More rewarding than an 18-point comeback, or maybe even an offensive lineman catching a touchdown?

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at Miklobulcher.com slash Superior Access, Enjoy Responsibly, Copyright 2026. Anheuser-Busch, Michelob Ultra, light beer, St. Louis, Missouri. All right, so much happened the last few days with football. I had to do a little mini mailbag for the NFL before we get to the last part of this podcast, which is a good old-fashioned baseball discussion. My pyramid of teams after one week, I won't read you all the teams, but I have Seattle at the top with Baltimore and Buffalo underneath them, the Niners, Rams, and Houston. And I think that's the top six right now

and then we can argue about it. Bottom four, Atlanta, Tennessee, Cleveland, and Miami last. And I think it's a really interesting argument between Cleveland and Miami, both of whom looked atrocious last week. But I actually think there's slightly more upside with Cleveland because of some of their skill players. I didn't see any upside from Miami. Their defense is terrible.

It doesn't look like they're going to be able to run the ball. And it doesn't look they're going to be able to throw the ball. So I have Miami 32nd. Happily will switch after week two of Cleveland looks as bad as they did in week one. Some mailbag emails. You can email at BSPodcast33 at gmail.com. This first one, the reason I bring this up is I got a Brown's email from Kev Dogg in Cleveland, who writes, as a Cleveland fan, the Brown's futility has always fascinated me.

Fascinated is an interesting word. The Brown Stadium, which is currently Huntington Bank Field, if you're scoring it home. That stadium opened in 1999, and it has never hosted a Browns playoff game. Safe to say it won't this year or next year. And here's the thing. That stadium is set to close after the 2028 season

when the new Huntington Bank Field opens. So there's a chance, I'm interjecting here, there's a chance that stadium will have come and gone for almost three decades without ever having a home playoff game. Keb Dogg asks, what's more unbelievable that Cleveland hasn't hosted an NFL playoff game

since 1994 or that Cleveland built a pro football stadium that served a useful three-decade life without ever hosting a playoff game in it. I think the latter, although I guess

Cleveland not hosting a playoff game of any kind since 1994, but I think having a stadium building it and then never having a single great moment in it is, is like impossible. I mean, even with the Patriots, um,

when we were about to knock down the stadium, which was ultimately Sullivan Stadium, Schaefer Stadium, whatever you want to call it. Uh, it had never had a great moment. And then the last game ever in that stadium was the snow game, which is what the Patriots fans called,

the assall NFL fans called the tuck roll game. But when they beat the Raiders and the Blizzard, and that turned out to be one of the, the most memorable non-super Bowl games in the history of the league. And that was the last game in that stadium. So Cleveland, I guess, has a couple years here to have their version of the snow game. And my money would be against it. Kev Dogg also, he has a PS.

If Deshawn Watson makes it to week three, you're going to see something unlike anything in sports. The entire home stadium will boo the starting quarterback mercilessly from player introductions until the game's over. Maybe that's your playoff game. Deshawn's last start in week three. I can't imagine they'll start him, but holy shit. If they do, if they're 0 and two and they're like, hey guys, here's Deshaun Watson. Good luck.

Joe from Denver said last year, Raiders Patriots gave us the classic liar, liar week one game. Raiders won, stunk the rest of the year. Patriots dramatically improved. Which week one game was the liar, liar game? I think we have three candidates. And we talked about two of them on the Sunday pod, with Sal. Cincinnati 33, Tampa Bay 27,

where Tampa just was incredibly sloppy with the ball to the point that Sal compared Baker Mayfield to the Savannah bananas. That's one. Everybody's pretty high on Cincinnati, but we'll see. I mean, Cincinnati definitely, the defense did look better. They won a game where Chase had two catches, but I have my eye on that because I think Tampa is better than that game in Cincinnati's worst, but we'll see.

Cards, chargers would be the obvious picker, because the Chargers were terrible and then did the hole. We didn't have a preseason. Maybe that was a mistake. Carba. Maybe we should have gotten our guys some reps, you think?

And the cards look great, but I got to say, like, Raiders' Pats was just a terrible game where the Pats gave up a couple key third-down passes. They couldn't get anything going on offense. And it was just kind of an ugly game. But you didn't leave the game

like super impressed by the Raiders. The cards were like putting on drive after drive on the chargers. I think they must have had six, 10, 11 play drives. They were getting third downs. I kind of do whatever they wanted. I don't,

I think they're a little more for real. I'm trying not to do the overreaction and being like, the cards are good. But offensively, that team was as accomplished as just about anybody I watched on Sunday. I think the liar,

liar game might be Chiefs, Broncos for a couple reasons. one is the Broncos were another team that afterwards they were like, man, maybe we should have cared about the preseason. This is something my buddy Gus Ramsey, diehard Broncos fan,

who I wish I had talked to before the game, was saying that they have a habit of doing this with Peyton where the week one, they always look terrible apparently. So I kind of wish I'd known that. That was one thing. Casey, you know, completely reinvented themselves with Walker,

who was awesome. They're home. It's a Monday night. expectations weren't as high as they normally were for the chiefs. We didn't know where we were going to get from Mahomes. And they had two touchdowns in this game. It's going to sound like sour grapes. I'll be honest,

it's a, it's a wee bit sour only because I lost my, my Broncos teas, but there was holding on the Mahomes touchdown. There was a great video of Kelsey just bear hugging somebody as Mahomes ran in. And it gets called every time. It's the chiefs. They don't get it.

When Kelsey had that long lumbering run near the end, and Rishi Rice is basically just bear hugging, mauling somebody for 30 yards. I haven't seen a holding penalty for that long in my entire life. He's holding the guy for so long that I think the refs just forgot about the holding and just kept running. Those two penalties plus Bo Nix was just awful. And it just feels like,

are the chiefs really going to do that every week? Like the amount of time Walker had, I think, 26 touches. I looked at his touches in his career. He played four years in Seattle. He's never had more than 250 touches for them. And I just wonder, like, is that one of those? They're throwing us off the Senate a little

and Denver can't be worse. And maybe we shouldn't get too over-the-top excited about that one. Now, the counter would be the chiefs are back. And I don't know what to think. But that would be my number one suspect for the liar-lier game. I'm not sure the chiefs are as good as they looked in that game. And I don't think Denver is going to have a game. where they set the record for most mistackles or whatever the hell.

And their defense was abominable. Ian from Nashville wanted conspiracy bills take on something. So I brought him in. He said, Mahomes, this was after the Chiefs game against the Broncos. Mahomes running in the first TD and looking completely normal eight months after tearing both his ACL and LCL smells fishy. Do you think he faked the December injury when the playoffs were out of reach? So down the line, people look at his legacy and think of it as the same.

and Mahomes hurt his knee instead of the fact that they were six and eight heading into that game. Even conspiracy bill can't get behind this. I will say I didn't think Mahomes was good in that game. I thought a couple of those scrambles were good, but his, I thought he missed guys the whole game. And then I looked up the stats after. I think 90% of his passing yards were yards after catch. So I still have some questions with Mahomes.

We'll see how he does. And obviously he's going to get better as the year went along. But I did not leave that game. thinking, holy shit, Patrick Mahomes is back. And if you did, you're crazy. Jim from South Jersey was excited that we talked about the Taysom Hill Award for most dropped, picked up player in fantasy on Sunday's pod. He predicts Devin Singletarer will finally take the award home.

He's sure to be added by millions after tearing apart Sal's dumb team's defense last week. He'll be dropped by millions after he fumbles away his chances coming weeks. And then picked up again when Scadaboe eventually gets hurt, dropped again when he has his own mid-year injury, water with lemon for all, he says. So Singletary, he thinks will be the number one. I am voting for Don Tavian Wicks on the Eagles. So I think a lot of people are going to pick up this week. I think he'll be dropped. I think then he'll have another five for 90. He'll get picked up again. I just think that's how it's going to go for him. He's just going to be

on and off the waiver wire. My backup choice would be somebody named Caleb Douglas on the Miami Dolphins, a receiver who was five for 94 last week when we'll get picked. up. I just think in general, the Miami receivers are going to get dropped left and right, but I think it's going to be Wix or Singletary as most added drop guy this year. John from Portland, Oregon, asked if Drake May is the next Tony Romo, a supremely talented successor to QB royalty, but also supremely boneheaded. That was hurtful. Tony Romo, by the way, zero NFC title games and finished third in the MVP once in 2014. Drake May made a Super Bowl last year, just pointing that out.

second season ever. There are some questions that will hopefully be answered by the New and Patriots this week against the Steelers. Speaking of the Steelers, Marcus Reed and Edmonton said, I'm a longtime Steelers fan who enjoyed your Tomlin discussion on Sunday. I was talking about how much I loved how they used Tomlin at halftime. I've watched nearly every Tomlin Tuesday press conference over the years. Tomlin's greatest strength was his ability to communicate. It's not surprising to see NBC figure this out immediately and use him like Jamir Gibbs. I'm going to interject here. It was super surprised. because NBC has always botched pregame shows and halftime shows and had too many people

and they would cut to the field with Jack Collinsworth and Tony Dungey and Rodney Harrison. I don't think any network over the last 20 years has made me go, what the fuck are they doing more than NBC? So I actually think it was surprising they figured it out and used them like Jamir Gibbs. Anyway, Marcus says he is getting a lot of touches, pregame interviews, pregame show halftime, how long until he's doing Terry McCauley's, ref reviews, sideline reporting, maybe even interviewing the coaches between the halves. I like this.

It's used him like Jemir Gibbs. It's like Dan Campbell trying to save his job with Jemir Gibbs. He's Tommy for everything. I would have him come into the booth for the second quarters. I thought he was awesome. I think he's going to get better as the year went along. And this is like the first real kick-ass studio guy we've had in a long, long time.

And it's pretty rare. Like even in the NBA, I remember Pat Riley when he was between Lakers and NACA. and he did NBC way, way back when. And he was incredible compared to what we had dealt with with studio shows. And it was like, holy shit. Like, he's actually staying stuff. He has, there's weight behind it.

Felt the same way about Tom. And so hopefully he keeps it going. Ben writes in, I've always loved your theory that sports cities are more in sync than we think. As a diehard Boston fan living in New York, I'm now terrified that I'm watching it happen in real time. Uh-oh. The Knicks finally overcame their demons and won a title.

since it feels like the entire city's sports karma has flipped. Oh, no. The Jets and Giants are somehow both 1 and 0 for the first time since 2009. The Yankees are favored in the AL, and the Dodgers seem more beatable than they have in years. My worst nightmare, a Yankees World Series win. Regardless, I'm hating every second of it, so using your sports city theory, what needs to happen to kill the New York vibe? What's the loss that breaks the spell

before this gets completely out of hand? Best regards, Ben. Ben, I think you and I both need to sit down and relax and have some settle down juice, but you did put the fair god of me here. I would hate to see some sort of New York shift. And if you look at the Giants winning the game, we didn't think they're going to win in week one,

and their schedule is actually pretty easy the next couple weeks. And if they can keep Dart and Scada Bowel healthy, I'm actually worried about them winning the division. Jets will be seven. 10 or 8, 9. Yankees are a favorite. We're talking about baseball later,

but the Yankees are almost favored to win the A.L. I think the only reason I'm not favorite is because they have the Red Sox in a best two or three. Maybe the Red Sox, ironically, will be the one that can end this. All the after is go to Yankee Stadium and win two of three games with three really good starting pitchers. So it's on their shoulders. But man, you put the fear of God of me with all this. Terry, New Jersey said,

you think John Harbaugh is overrated. But as a Giants fan, I was thrilled with the performance against the Cowboys, and I think you should have been. I spent all Monday talking about how discipline they were, how they didn't blow the weed, and how Dart didn't lower his head to take on linebackers. All true. Has there ever been a lower bar for a head coach to clear than, hey, we didn't collapse in the fourth quarter, or, hey, we didn't make dumb plays that got our quarterback

killed? That is from Terry, New Jersey. And honestly, it's all true. I felt the same way last year with Vrable. And Vrable was great, obviously, and one coach of the year. I'm talking last year, regular season, made the Super Bowl. Maybe he didn't go great after the season. But he followed Jared Mayo.

And I was thinking about that. And I googled Jared Mayo to see what NFL team he was on. And he's not coaching in the NFL anymore. He works for a hedge fund. So Mike Vrable, he followed a guy who was the Patriots coach for one year and then immediately left football, even though he's like 41 years old. I don't know if you're ever going to get a wider disparity of former coach, new coach than that. And I don't know how bad dayball was, even though the energy wasn't great. But Harbaugh, if he can do half of that, you know, he came in, he gave them a real identity.

They're just big. They're powerful. They're going to run the ball. going to not be idiots and maybe it'll work. I might have been wrong about the Giants. Mike F says, what the hell were Tom Cruise and Taylor Swift talking about at that Chiefs game last night? It was funny there were people writing lip reading stuff about this, trying to decipher what they were talking about. I have no idea what they were talking about. Part of me was thinking it was like when Anchorman, when they were filming the TV commercial

was like, we're laughing. Now we're serious. Or like when they have. movie scenes where the extras are in the back and the extras are having a fake conversation behind like our main characters. But I decided, I think he was telling her about all the right moves. And he was telling her about how he played Step Georgeovich. He was this

Pennsylvania cornerback, had a chance to go to college, and then riflemen should have taken the safety at the end and the pouring rain didn't. Hands off to the Italian guy who fumbles, they lose the game, he ends up getting mad at the coach. Probably just told her the whole plot of all the right

moves and I don't think she was really listening. Andrew from Hartford, Connecticut, said, I'm a lifelong Cowboys fan, but I even need, but I even need to appreciate how fucking psycho Scatibo is. Can we start a Wingrow Award for the most bat shit crazy guy in the NFL? Maybe it could be portable across all sports.

Maybe it could be an SPI. So you get a candidate from each of the major sports. He's my nominee right now for the NFL. That's Andrew in Hartford, Connecticut. The Wayne Grow Award, I had to get it on. it's definitely Dylan Brooks for the NBA and probably Wilson Contreras for baseball. But that would be a really fun award ceremony.

And you're right, Scottobos probably winning that. Jim Comp wrote in, don't mean to pile on in your time of morning after the Pats loss, but Romeo Dobbs was every Packers fan drive to the airport guy. Top 10 and drop balls,

usually biggest moments, consistently got chances to be number one receiver, no-showed. His Seahawks performance was something Packer fans are all too familiar with. I didn't even mention him walking out on the team during the season of a contract role issues,

the Packers spent big money to extend two other receivers, not him. Good luck. That made me a little nervous. Phil in Portland asked, in light of recent podcast revelations, I'm thinking Aaron Rogers' new nickname should be Cuck Rogers in the 21st century. Thoughts. I'm going to move to the next email question.

Brian from DMV asked that Justin Herbert, Jordan Love question. He thinks it was Lamella Ball from the previous segment with Mahoney. I like my Tray Murphy answer, but we did that one. Andy in Chicago, another NBA question, but tied to the NFL. As the Chicago resident entering a season in which the two most talked about players will be Caleb

Williams and Caleb Wilson. I feel like I need some sort of demonic device for remembering which last name goes with which player. If you remember on Thursday, House called Caleb Williams, Caleb Wilson, and I can't believe I haven't done it yet. I'm like minus $4.50 on Fandle to do it before the end of week three.

Andy writes, as it's stands, this is feeling like plugging in a USB cable where it's 50-50, but somehow I get it wrong 75% of the time. Can we get our best minds working on this? So when we had the fantasy football show, which was initially High Fitz and Danny Kelly, and we called that the Danesey football show and Craig was the producer and eventually Craig became a co-host and now we call it the Ringer Fantasy Football Show. And we called it Danesie and we decided Danny Hyfitz would be. And we decided Danny Hyfitz would be Danny and Danny Kelly would be D-K so that we weren't asking if Craig was talking to them they wouldn't both be Danny and it would be super confusing and now somehow

Hy-Fitz is high-fits and Danny Kelly's DK and we don't have a Danny on the show. Caleb Williams is already there. I think Caleb Wilson has to be called CW or C-dub. I just think that's how it has to play out. It's like when the OKC had the two Jalen Williams is and one was J-1, one was J-dub. I don't think we can have a Caleb and Caleb Wilson as the two identifiable Chicago stars. It's too fucking confusing. In both cases, you just want to call the guy Caleb. And I think Caleb Wilson just has to bite the bullet and be C-dub or C-W or, you could

argue these are two separate sports and this will never collide, but it is. It's already confusing. And we're going to need a solution. So we're going to need both guys to get together and try to figure this out. but I think Caleb Williams should be Caleb Williams and Caleb Wilson should be C-Dubb. Kyle from Orlando said there's been a lot of dialogue about Justin Herbert and he said his dad's a longtime

Pat's fan who thinks Herbert is the modern day Drew Bledso. Insane individual talent, high pedigree, West Coast, franchise savior, destined for greatness, but Bledso couldn't handle the biggest crunch time moments, didn't have the hit factor, was never a top five player, made one Super Bowl, that's it. Herbert has never won a playoff game or finished higher and ninth MVP, it's year seven is he just Blitzot 2.0.

I actually think Bledsoe was better. The first seven years of Bledsoe, I think, was better than Herbert. And I know that advanced stats will say Herbert was better, but Bledsoe took a team in the Super Bowl. Herbert's never on a playoff game. So in a way, I don't think you can call him Bledsoe 2.0. I think Bledsoe is the slightly rich man's Justin Herbert at this point. Bletsoe was really good for a while and took a ton of hits.

And I think by the time we got to the end of the 90s, I just think, I'd think his between offensive line stuff and just how many times he threw and how many times they used them. I just think he started to get banged up. So that would be my take on that. AP and the ATL said, my buddies and I are watching Red Zone. Every time they switch to Jets Titans, we let out a collective groan.

No one wanted an update of this game in any capacity. Is there a way to get a feature added where certain games can be deselected for many redsons? zone updates, like a reverse red zone, can you use your powers at SportsAR, YouTube, CMO to get this implemented? So I thought about this. I think there should be two red zone channels, and one would be the red zone channel that covers absolutely everything. And I think they have a fantasy red zone channel just for the fantasy stuff. So I guess we already have to. So I think there needs to be a third one where it's just like the best five games of the day. And you don't have to

deal with Dolphins Raiders. You don't have to deal with Jets. Can you remember? Jets Titans. That's how bad that game was. And maybe it's like the filet mignon or the red zone. And if you want to watch that instead, it's just more updates for the best games.

Just an idea. Andrew Grillo said that Sal and I touched about this briefly on the Sunday Night Pod. But his biggest takeaway from Ohio State, Texas, was zero teammates celebrating. with Arch. It almost seemed like they were avoiding him as he ran around a la Jimmy V. Questions, is this a red flag for NFL teams? If Arch falls in the draft, is this Bo Callahan? And then Arch had the thing with Holly Row. That wasn't great either.

My bigger question for him, this seems like the most likely candidate we've had in a while to not want to go to the team that drafts him. Because I was looking when I was doing the pyramid and I was thinking about the worst five teams in the week potentially this year, I think it's a pretty safe bet Cleveland, Tennessee, Miami, or three. Atlanta, maybe four, maybe Indy, but if you go through, like, what would be the perfect team for him? I guess it would be Atlanta, right? And now we don't know if Archie is going to go first or not, but Atlanta, I don't think he vetoes that. I think he'd be psyched to go there and, you know, he's from the South, obviously.

Cleveland, I think you're just bummed out. We just did that email before that they have a state in that they're going to have for 30 years, maybe with no home playoff game. Tennessee, the narrative came word, Miami. Maybe you could talk yourself into Miami. But yeah, this could be interesting if he's the clear number one pick and doesn't want to go to the number one team.

Tim Gallagher said, I just put on hard knocks, saw perhaps the least surprising thing ever in the opening scene. Sam Darnold manages to fumble his Super Bowl ring opening the box. I know you have high hopes for the Hawks this year, but this feels like an ominous sign.

I got this email before the season started. And St. Donald got hurt in the first series. Maybe it was an ominous side. Two more. Garrett and Oklahoma. My question, when are we ever going to zag on celebrity integration? I don't like when a musician show up in WWE. I don't like seeing Jerry Seinfeld 50 times during an NBA game.

I don't give a shit who is the guest picker on college game day. I can't be in the minority on this. You're not. I think the issue is these shows are produced by mid-level TV execs for the most part. I used to call them when I was at ESPN the khakis and blue shirt police. And all they do is come in and they just want to keep their jobs. And occasionally they'll have an idea. And the idea will be one of the three ideas that people in this exact type of job have had for the last 50 years,

which is let's get a celebrity in here. Let's add a six person to the table. It's not like they're putting any real thought into any of this. None of them have ever done a TV show, hosted a show, been on anything. They're all, but they've all been behind the scenes people who work their way up and now think they know more about TV than anybody else. And if the show doesn't work, they want to be able to blame the host because they don't want to have any blame.

And the USPN guys who are still there, they know who they are. It's always the host fault. It's always we just need this person. It's always we just need more gimmicks. And that's why we get celebrities at the desk all the time. Because it's an idea that is born on like a Tuesday. And everybody looks around and goes, that's a great idea. And then if it doesn't work, it's the celebrity's fault,

not the idea of having a guest picker. All right. Last question. Your parent corner contrasting getting a rescue dog or a purebred dog made me think we need an aspiration type company for rescue dogs. What does that mean? Aspiration existed. so billionaires could pollute as much as they wanted,

as long as they paid for the requisite amount of trees to be planted. Is that true? I never really fully understood what aspiration was. Maybe that's what it was. Anyway, Seth says, we need this for pets. You're in the clear socially to buy a purebred dog as long as you find housing, vaccines, etc., for 10 rescue dogs.

Just a social pressure get out of jail free card for wealthy people who want a clear conscience for buying a purebred dog. That's from set from Indianapolis. Yep, these are my readers. Somebody comparing rescue dogs to aspiration. This is why we go through these emails for beauties like that. I don't mind the idea either, by the way.

We're going to take a break. We're going to come back, Billy Gill, Anthony Dubundo, and we're going to talk about a pretty fun, pretty strange baseball season right after this. Fandals making it your most rewarding season ever with boosts and promos and teasers and a new rewards club. much more. We were so excited. We were able to bring back teasers finally on Sundays minus 110

juice on the Ringer 107, the favorite teasers. I think we split this week because the Broncos didn't come through for a couple. But I hit mine. I had Lions and Jags for Lions bills on Thursday night. So if you want to do an SGP for this one, I just like this one anyway. It's the bills, the bills are minus four and a half favorites, but Bill's Money Line, I think there's going to be a lot of points. The over under is really high, but you can do the alternate total of 46 and a half over for that. And then Josh Allen just to rush for 10 plus yards. And that is plus 10 106 on Fandul, and you can add all the player boost tokens or whatever they have going on Thursday. And I would recommend that one because I don't think the lions are going to be able to stop the bills,

especially if you saw their secondary last week. If you like that one, go ahead and place this SGP on the Fandul app. Don't forget to check it out and use your rewards all season long. This episode is brought to by Uber Eats. You can get almost anything delivered with Uber eats. Sorry, you can't get a beach deliver, but you can get a peach. A canoe, no. Shampoo, yes. A rocket? No way. Chocolate, yes way. It's everything you need, including $10 off your first grocery order with code anything 30.30. Get almost, almost anything with Uber Eats. Order now. Order a minimum of $30 required, valid on grocery, convenience, retail, specialty foods, or flower delivery orders only.

Terms and conditions apply. All right, haven't done nearly enough baseball on the podcast in the last couple months, even though I've been watching a ton of baseball. But now it's mid-September. We're in the grind, six, seven weeks here. And then baseball might just go away for a long, long time. Billy Gillis here, Anthony Dubundo is here. I think this has been a really good season.

This is the most baseball I've watched, really, since probably COVID, maybe 2021. to Bunda, what is your number one thing you think happened this season? If you had to say, like, how will you remember this season? What's number one? I think we have to talk about Pete Crowe Armstrong. I don't think you could come on any baseball podcast and not talk about one of the best seasons of the century.

Right. Okay, make the case. Best seasons of the century. Of the century. So since the turn of the century, 2000, I pulled up because he just surpassed 10 wins yesterday, Fangraphs War. there are only 13 position player seasons since 2000

that have had 10 F4 seasons. This is the name of players he's with. Barry Bonds, Aaron Judge, Mike Trout. Those guys all did it multiple times. Wow. Bobby Witt in 2024. Muki Betz in 2018, Alex Rodriguez in 2002, and then PCA this season.

He is lapping the field. He ran away with the MVP as Otani has kind of fallen off a little bit here. But really like one of the craziest, two-way seasons we've ever had. And as a Phillies fan, I have reminded every Mets fan I know that yes, they traded PCA for Hobby Baez five years ago.

Oh, my God. That will go down as one of the worst trades of the last 10 to 20 years of baseball. And on top of it, traded him to a big market that loves him. Billy, the Crow Armstrong thing, it's almost like,

it feels like it could potentially should be bigger and it isn't. But has he reached the status to you? It's like, oh, the Cubs are in town. I got to go see this guy in person. He's not there yet, right? I don't, I mean, not for me,

but I also have bad feelings towards PCA for fantasy reasons where I had him two years too soon. I keep him. He'd then be bad again. Then I let him go and then he turns into PCA last year. Then this year he, you know,

is on another level. The best season since the turn of the century is kind of crazy. Like Barry Bonds had a 73 home run season since 2000. Show I had a 50-50 season. like two years ago. He's good, but I don't know.

What was the season when bonds... He's up there in that conversation. What was the season when bonds just got on base, like 70% of the time? Remember that, like, 0405? Yeah, 2004 bonds. Yeah, that was, I think, the craziest thing. It was almost like his eyesight became 20-0 eyesight. He just knew exactly where the strike zone.

I've never seen anything like that. Billy, what do you think the number one thing you'll remember about this season is? man, I put together a list of like all of the different things. I feel like baseball this year has been good. And for you, Bill, in particular, we were mentioning right before we started recording. Timing-wise, it was perfect for you, right? Like, you got good baseball and exciting things that you cared about at just the right time. So start out with the world baseball classic, which I remember you weren't that interested in.

It ended up being like a really fun tournament. I got in late. Then things, you know, for you started slowing down on the baseball front. You had March Madness and then the NBA playoffs. And at that time, the Red Sox were bad. So you didn't really have to focus on the Red Sox and the World Cup came. And then your Red Sox turned it on, like, just at the right time to get you all the way through summer where now you're paying attention to baseball. And now football's here.

And unfortunately, now baseball starts taking a little bit of a back seat. So hopefully you can kind of keep paying attention to baseball and the Red Sox going to run. But if they fall off, it's the best time for them to fall off too. Well, I also had my fantasy, my A.O Fantasy League that we still have a chance to win. got me watching games, like really every night. My wife was like, what's going on? Are you having like a midlife crisis? And I was like, no, I just enjoyed the Red Sox.

And Camp Schlittler's pitching tonight and I want to see how he does. So it was just a lot of stuff like that. Anyway, I interrupted you. No, are these a semis for you? When is the finals? We don't. We just go through. It's like Premier League.

Yeah, we just go through. So we had, we're in second place right now. We need basically strikeouts and we need a little bit of a Hail Mary because Kate Anderson is. turned out to be kind of a dud. And we had to start Patrick Sandoval this week for two games, including, but we're taping this before tonight's games. But in Texas, it's basically the fantasy baseball version of a Hail Mary.

We need him to go like six innings, 11Ks, like, but that's where we're at. We're probably going to finish second. But I can't tell you how many texts me and my partner hench have done about this. It's basically been half of my text. Yeah. We're just trying to gain. the system with this shitty team we had where we basically had Schlitler and

three other guys and then all these Cal Quantrell, Cater Montero. Anyway, Billy, go ahead. I interrupted you a second time. No, it's all good. Don't worry about it. I guess stories of the season, I mean, we've talked about this a bunch of times, but I think 2026 is going to be remembered as the season of ABS.

We introduced ABS. Baseball is, you know, and their fans are not known to really like change and you like to kind of keep the traditions of the game and not change things. much. And there was some, I think, reluctance to change with ABS. We saw it a couple years ago when they made the bases bigger and they implemented the pitch clock and it's like, whoa, this is not my baseball anymore. And then it wasn't a big deal at all. And all of a sudden, like, wow,

these three and a half hour games are done in two hours and 50 minutes. And now that the bases are bigger, people are stealing more bases. And it ended up working out. And ABS was the same thing. Like, ABS became an exciting spin on the game and the implementation of kind of figuring out the results of live in front of everyone on the screen, figuring it out along with the umpire where there's no, you know, two ways about it. I think it was a great thing for baseball. I think it's helped the game. Then you have kind of the dynamics of do you challenge, do you not challenge, who do you allow to challenge, who's not allowed to challenge? What umpires actually don't know the strikes on what hitters have no idea where the ball is. Like, yeah, it's been a fun season with

ABS and, you know, this is the year that it started. Well, you also, when you're at a game, it's really fun if your team challenges and you like it's this random crowd reaction you get out of nowhere either way but that interesting thing to me is like when when like i remember when we first talked about this like two weeks in this season and all of us were like this is cool kind of like it now by september and you've seen so many of these you have these instantaneous reactions now where it's like oh terrible challenge oh my god what a mistake oh this catcher sucks at this and i think that's been fun too to but though Well, it's the difference between the live experience and the couch experience, because when you're on the couch, they have the box. So you know whether it's a good challenge pretty quickly. Even the broadcaster is now like, well, they're going to lose that challenge. But live when you're sitting at the game, especially if your seat isn't like right behind home plate, I often have no idea. We're kind of guessing. And then they show it on the screen and the crowd ooze and Oz. It feels like the tennis challenges from yesterday year. But my favorite bit of information that I've learned about ABS is actually what happens when.

a team runs out of challenges. And front offices have found that the umpire will kind of take it out on the team. And the team will get a slightly worse strike zone. Right. After you've gone after the umpire and been wrong a few times, that umpire is going to stick it to you. That has been my favorite learning thing. And they noticed it pretty quickly.

This was back in May when a couple front office people mentioned it to me. And I was like, really? I tried to find the data for it. I couldn't. But I believe them. Despite umpiring. Which was the game a few weeks ago, to Bundo where there was an altercation behind home plate.

One of the teams ran out of challenges. And the umpire just straight up called someone safe who was tagged out by like a foot at the play of the plate. And he knew like they can't challenge it. What are they going to do? Like they could say, hey, can you guys huddle maybe have an umpire review? And they're like, nope, we're not going to do that despite umpires have been great this year too.

I think it was their last stand. CB Buckner, I think was like the first victim, right? Of like just public embarrassment. Was it like, it was a red sox reds. Yeah. I think it was Eughenio Suarez had like three in a row that he got on him. And it was just like, man Buckner is just going to retire after this season if he doesn't murder someone on the field today. I think we should keep going in a circle.

So I'll go with my first one. And I don't know where this ranks, but just for me personally, the AOS dumpster fire that we have. And I ran it about the Mariners on Sunday. I'm not going to do a second three-minute Mariners thing. Although it did make me a hero on Mariners Reddit. I was very excited. They ran the clip of me just complaining about the team. than Kate Anderson last night sucks against the Angels who don't even have 60 wins yet.

They are just a pox on society. But if you dig deeper here, like we're, again, we're taping this for Tuesday's games. There's no team above 500 in the AOS. The best team is 75-75, Houston, who is minus 44 for run differential. Yeah. So the only time this has come close was the 2005 NOS. San Diego went 82 and 80. everybody else was under 500.

This year, Seattle's in third place. They're 70 and 81. The Sacramento is, they're 61 and 89. And then the Angels are 57 and 93. And what's interesting is the Red Sox have played all these guys. And I have these guys in different fantasy things. And you watch these teams and they're not that bad. And maybe there's just a lot of good baseball players now.

But like, I don't know, Sacramento, like they, they, I call them Sacramento derisively. But they lost a bunch of dudes this year. Like they lost Kurtz, they lost, you know, their catcher for a while and just in general. And yet they had these other dudes that will come up and hit game winning homers. And then I watched the Angels who I've been stuck with a bunch of times with Red Sox games and stuff. Even they're not terrible. I don't, Dubendo, is there any explanation for why this division is this bad? Because like the Red Sox play the Rangers this week.

Their bats have been hot for like a month. And I feel like they could put it on us this series. But why is this so bad? Yeah, I think it's a case by case basis. I mean, I think Houston and Texas came in projected around 82, 83 wins. So maybe they've kind of had normal seasons. You've talked about the Mariners. I mean, I as a bet, have been very upset with the Mariners as well.

Somebody who bet them preseasoned. They were the second favorite to win the American League. And I remember it was around the All-Star break, two of my buddies who host a Mariners podcast, Marine Layer. They were in Philly. And we were talking. And I've never heard of fan base so angry. You know, there's cynicism. There's despair.

there's annoyance, but theirs was so much anger. I was like, you guys were in game seven of the ALC. We want the manager fired. We're rooting against them. We're sick of this entire situation. And the irony of the whole thing is that Depoto, the general manager, is the guy who went out and said, we want to be a consistently good team that wins, you know,

85, 90 games every year, gets into the playoffs and then plays playoff roulette. That's our goal. So we're not going to sell out. And this year, the irony of that is that they had just been a 52, percent team and won 84 games, they probably would have walked away with this division and honestly been maybe the favorite to win that little half of the of the National, or the American League bracket, the A's ran out of pitching and all their young hitters got hurt

and the Angels are a dumpster fire. So it is the NFC southification of American League baseball. The Central, by the way, is not that much better either. No. The A.L in general is like the East and everyone else, not to go too deep into Mariners and all that, but that was one of the stories. I think also of the season, not to cut the line, but Cal Raleigh just fell completely off. From last year, we're like, wow, this is like one of the best players in the AL to then he goes and he, in the World Baseball Classic,

decided that he was going to be the fun police and he wasn't going to shake hands with his teammates. And then, you know, you go to the regular season, I'm like, no, there's nothing going on here. Like Julio Rodriguez is like, oh, winning the World Baseball Classic would be more to me than winning the World Series. And you're like, what's going on with the Mariners? Are they going to be okay here? they're like, no, no, everything's fine.

Don't worry about then. And here we are halfway through September. They're 11 games under 500. They're going to miss the playoffs. And it's like, whoa, like this team last year looked like they were going to be kind of contenders for a while here. And it all just fell apart. And part of it is Cal Raleigh just disappeared this season. And Munoz was the other one.

Like, 10 blown saves, it's pretty hard for a closer. Yeah. That's about. Throwing 101. Yeah. When you think like the Blue Jays, who I think have been another weird story this year where they, they actually, they signed Dylan Sees, who's been awesome. I mean, the three best pitchers I've watched this year, the Red Sox go against,

where Schlittler cease and weirdly Detmer on the Angels, who's like been lights out for two months. But they nailed the cease signing, and then they nailed their closer. Like Barlin came out of nowhere and has been completely lights out for them. And then you look at Munoz, and he's been one of the worst closers in the league.

I don't know what to make of anything in this division. and everyone's kind of afraid of the Astros, but how many guys are left from the Astros from eight, nine years ago? It's a completely different team. It does lead to one other thing I wanted to mention quick. The Jordan Alvarez with the most half-ass triple crown run of all time. Have you had one conversation about this? He's leading and batting average.

She's two back in homers and he's four-backed in RBI. And like with one good week, could be going for the triple crown, which seemed impossible, Billy? Well, okay, I'm glad you brought this up because I remember when Miguel Cabrera won the Triple Crown. And I think it was him and Trout is going back-to-back MVP. And it's like, well, all the metrics say Mike Trout's had a better season. We can't give it to Cabrera.

And it's like, well, Cabrera got a Triple Crown for the first time in like 40 years or whatever it was at the time. Like there's no way that you can't give it to him. And then all of the metric, people are like, that doesn't matter. Like RBIs are not a thing. Like we're looking at the wrong stats. Yeah. Like these are the wrong things. These are the wrong measurables.

And then about a month ago, I tuned in and I was watching. MLB Network. And I was shocked with like refreshing, a refreshing take that I wasn't expecting, which was Brian Kenny advocating for the Triple Crown mattering again with Jordan Alvarez. And he's like, listen, I know you're going to be surprised by this.

I wasn't a Cabrera guy at the time. I thought Trout should have won that MVP. But man, Jordan Alvarez gets this Triple Crown. I think that he should easily win the MVP. And I mean, he never really went away. Like you mentioned,

If he gets hot here for two weeks, he could end up winning the Triple Crown on a team that's 500 without him wouldn't even really be in contention. He's probably going to win the MVP. It's him in Kamenaro, right? If he wins a Triple Crown, I think that the old school voters will give him the MVP regardless. If he makes the playoffs, yeah. I think he's got it either way now, by the way. It's a very quiet anonymous triple crown, which is not that common. And it's been what?

When did Cabrari even do it, like 2013? Yeah, it was early 2010s. Yeah. It's, I mean, he's definitely the scariest batter in the AAL. Like, you were just watching all the teams. He's the one when he comes up. You're like, if there's a guy on base, you're like, oh, shit, what's going to happen? All right, Dubundo, your next thing.

What do you got? Well, I want to talk about, so you mentioned Trout. It actually was a debate because Trout had one of those seasons, one of those 10-win seasons, those unicorn years that don't really come around very often. This year, there really isn't that person. And it's worth saying that even if you take out home runs and RBI and average, Alvarez is 18% better at the plate than every hitter in baseball. Wow.

It's Pete Crow Armstrong 157 WRC Plus. Yordon 175. So he is way above everybody else at the plate this year. It's not really particularly close. And so I think for that reason, you have to give it to Jordan. Like, I think it's over regardless of what happens in the last two weeks. Billy, what do you have for your next one? Okay.

So this one, let's stay in the West because this was a moment of the season. and it happened so long ago, it goes all the way back to April 4th. And at the time, it felt like a baseball is back moment. We had the World Baseball Classic. We were riding high. Then everyone saw this moment.

Everyone reacted the exact same way. The Joe Adele game, where Joe Adele robs three homers, goes into the crowd, takes that incredible picture, steals one from Cal Raleigh, Josh Naylor, J.P. Crawford. And then someone with their iPhone

just takes the picture of him standing in the crowd, holding the ball defiantly up in the air. They end up winning that game one to nothing. And then after that, like, the baseball season just went on. All of a sudden, the Angels said, you know what, we're going to trade him at the deadline. He's a guardian now.

But also, we already made these giveaways for him. So, you know, we're still going to give away the Joe Adele giveaways. So they gave away a Joe Adele Angels football jersey, August 30th and tomorrow, September 16th, is the Joe Adele bobblehead commemorating him robbing three home money. Wow. They're really riding it. Yeah, he hasn't been on the team for nearly a month and a half now. But if you want to remember that moment forever, go to the Angels game tomorrow and you can get a Joe Adele Angels robbery bobblehead.

Are you guys aware of the Joe Adele lore? Like, this guy has been crushing fantasy owners for years. He's been the Great Hope as a Joe Adele fan. I think I've been rooting for this guy for so long. I remember when I went to a game, Angels Phillies, and he hit a home run off the Phillies. and I was actually excited to the point where Philly's fans and Angels fans who were sitting around me were like, why are you happy that Joe Adele had a home run? I'm like, you don't understand.

I'm here to see Joe Adele do something. He did it. And the three home run robbery, I'm convinced I will not see that happen again in my lifetime. No. It's pretty hard. Yeah. It's pretty impossible. It's got to be one in a million chance.

Do you think if he had just, if he was Joe, J-O-E, Adele, different career? Is it intimidating enough to be a Joe with a just a J.O? I don't know. I love tweeting Joe in all caps. Okay. He was also, by the way, like a bad defender when he started like, he's probably given away more home runs than he's saved by that bouncing off of him and going over the wall. Well, that happened earlier, a few weeks later, he had one bounce off of his glove out of, out of the park.

They said, well, he's still plus two for the season. What was, was it Tampa or Sacramento? I think it might have been Tampa. where somebody knocked the home, not caught the fly ball, but then it knocked it over into, it became a home run, but it landed in the brunch set up.

There was like a left field, I think it was Tampa, right? It was in Tampa. It was the visiting team. I think it was the ninth inning, and I believe, it wasn't a walkoff. I think that ended up tying the game.

Or a game tire, yeah, yeah. Yeah, I think it was like Nick Fortez, their catcher or something, hit it. He catches it. Then he hits the wall right next to the foul pole. And then it hits like this picnic area for like corporate events.

It didn't like chicken and one. Waffles. Yeah. What a place for the brunch, by the way. Pretty funny. Right in the first row. Here's my next one, and I almost led with this. I think it's a really interesting debate.

Mizorowski, has he replaced Otani as the number one kind of must-watch guy in the league? And is this more because we've done the Otani thing now for a few years, and he's been on the Dodgers for a couple years, and we take it for granted? it's a little like the Emmys last night where the pit cleans up the first time. And then it's like, oh, I know the pit. So they win one Emmy, but they don't win any of the acting stuff. Otani fatigue, you're saying? A little Otani fatigue combined with like this Mizorowski thing with what we know about

these flame throwing pitchers. This might be a year of this. Might be a year and a half. I don't know if he's doing it. We're watching it with Skeensdown in Pittsburgh where you're just not the same. So I don't know. Do you agree with this to Bundow? This is the number one must-we.

watch guy right now. In terms of like pitching ninja nerd, pitching lovers, not even close. I don't know if the average MLB fan is like excited to tune in to the Brewers to watch Ms. during the regular season, but I do think it produces a difference maker for them in the playoffs because my next thing was going to actually be what Milwaukee's done this year, which is remarkable yet again. And this year, it does feel like they go into the playoffs with more of firepower to go toe to

toe with these superstar teams because they now have a true 1A superstar of their own that can go up against anybody else in the league and be competitive with them. And that feels like something that was lacking. I mean, last year, he pitched in the playoffs, but they didn't trust him to the point where they had openers for him. He would come in for three or four innings. They weren't really sure. Then he shoved. And it's like, okay, this kid has arrived. And now he's gone out and just won't the Siyang. Well, they're going to get the one seed. So he won't have to pitch for, you know, five, six days, so that's good. And in general, like, I agree with you.

You agree with that, Billy? That it feels like even though the diehard baseball people know what's going on and they care, does feel like he needs like playoffs, like an NLCS against the Cubs of the Dodgers, where he just comes in and strikes out 12 of the first 15 in game four, needs a moment like that, I think, to go really on the map. Yeah, I mean, I think if he does it on the national stage, because baseball fans know and Brewers fans obviously know, But if he does it in the playoffs, you know, on TBS or wherever the playoffs are on now, like in front of everyone when there's only one game on, I think people are going to be blown away and be like, whoa, who is this guy? Like, he's arrived.

I have an idea that I want to float past you guys because of kind of like baseball has become somewhat cyclical where now we're seeing like, oh, small ball is somewhat back. And people are bunting and people are stealing. And like, there was a time where we thought like that just is a part of the game that we're never going to see again. and now people are bunting because they don't know the defense. So every team has someone that throws like 101, 101, 102. He obviously throws harder than everyone. But every team's got these guys, even if we're all this Chapman's like 55 years old, he's still throwing like 100 plus, right?

Are we headed to a world where we have someone like an R.A. Dickey or a Tim Wakefield or a Charlie Huff come back? And they become the sought after guy who can go in there with a knuckleball, who goes in there with like perfect precision at 85 miles an hour. And the hitters now are so conditioned to swing at pitches that are coming at 103, 104, that they're just so thrown off by slurs and knuckle balls and balls that they just can't get to. I'm really glad you brought this up. I don't under it because I grew up, I grew up with knuckleballers.

I grew up with the Negro brothers. We had Wakefield on the Red Sox forever. and it really just feels like there's a way to learn how to throw it, right? If you're a good enough athlete where you can be the repetitive nature and how you use your fingers, your hand needs to be a certain length.

With how unreliable pitchers are for innings and you look back at some of the knuckleball innings that these guys throwed, where some of them would throw like 270 innings. You know, Wakefield, year after year, it was 200 innings. He could come in. There was years where he started,

but then also could come out of the bowl. bullpen? Yeah. I don't understand why more people aren't trying this as a way to gain the system. Because even if you figure it out, you have a four ERA, but you can throw 220 innings a year and you can pitch every five starts, but then also come out of the bullpen and pitch, wouldn't that make you insanely valuable by today's pitching standards? I mean, is it just like an ego thing, like the granny shot at the free throw line where just no one wants to do it now? Because like, hey, it's not cool to throw knuckleball. It was like the best knuckleballers were the ones where the catcher had no idea where it was

going to go. And the catcher was guessing just as much as everyone else, just as much as the hitter, where it starts up here, it's down here. And the catcher is like just trying to not have a pass ball on this thing. Well, that was the Red Sox Yankees. There was when we had Wakefield and he always had the backup catcher was always his knuckleball. Yeah.

But then in this game, it had to be Veritech. And then there was like guys on base and it's extra innings. and we all knew that Veritec didn't have a lot of experience catching Wakefield. And it was the most harrowing, you know, 10 minutes of that entire season. I don't know. Dubundo, why can't we have a knuckleball again?

What's your, do you have a take or you just think we've had bad luck? I think it's really hard to do. And I don't think if you're coming up now, you're going to try to bet on yourself to be the one outlier pitcher who can pull off this incredibly difficult pitch that even when it was in its prime, nobody really understood. The pitching labs, they don't know how to teach it.

It's kind of just like a thing that existed. And there has been talk about like the seams have changed on the ball, which makes it less wobbly. I don't have like definitely a ton of knowledge on that. But that was something that has been talked about in the past. But there's basically no guys left. I mean, Waldron from San Diego was around a couple years ago. He kind of threw one. But even his knuckle ball was like a part of a pitch mix that didn't really.

It wasn't like the main offering. Moran from the Padres. Kind of throws like a knuckley type change, but there's basically nobody left. I would not bet on its return. How much time does it take to perfect a knuckleball? I don't know if it's possible to perfect it. That's the beauty of it.

I think we've got the closest. The thing is, though, you still need to throw a fastball hard enough to mix it up on the hitters so they don't time the knuckleball. But yeah, I'm looking at Wakefield's career stats. Like in 05, when he was, 38 years old. He threw 225 innings, right? He had 33 starts. Even in 2008, 2007,

they won the World Series. He was 17 and 12 that year. 31 starts, 189 innings, and he was 40 years old. And that's the other thing with the knuckleball thing is you pitch forever once you figure it out, which was the NECROs. Those guys looked like your grandfather when they would come in. So I don't really fully understand it. But I, I, I, it feels like a documentary somebody would make and then try to sell and nobody would buy it. It's like, I'm writing a, it's my documentary about the knuckleball

and then everybody turns it down. So I forgot about this because of COVID, but remember Brian Wilson with the beard from the Giants? So in 2020, he tried to have a comeback as a knuckleball pitcher. But we all just kind of missed it because he didn't come back and because COVID happened and it was a forgotten season.

But I guess Brian Wilson had the same idea six years ago and it didn't panic. out for him. Damn. My next storyline is just looking forward to the playoffs. And it's weird because the NBA fans are so upset about this Clippers Balmer thing, even though like the Clippers made one conference finals with this Kauai thing and it completely destroyed their franchise. They built other contenders. Like pretty much every piece of it was a catastrophe. Whereas with the Dodgers, this led to them winning back-to-back world series, right? This led to them being able to spend all this money on all these guys overpay for, you know, even some of the guys they got recently

who I don't think exactly turned out well. And it feels like they are now really a super villain. And when we get to the playoffs, unless you're a Dodgers fan, or even if like you're an American League fan or you don't really care, like, you're just going to be like, I hope the Dodgers go down. And I'll be interested to see how that goes for them, like especially like if they play a place like if they're in Philadelphia, right? In Philly, the fans are great anyway. But with the combo of that and the supervillain Dodgers, there's no feel good left from any aspect of this,

even though they have a lot of likable guys. Otani, Freeman, Betts. People like these guys, but I think the ship has sailed to Bundow. Oh, it's totally sailed. And right now, you know, with the way the bracket sets up, they would play in a best of five, either Atlanta, who they have a ton of history with from the, early 2020s, back-to-back

NLCS's. Those teams had those crazy wars back then, not as much recently. And then the Padres, who were the other team that are sitting there, who they played in back-to-back seasons, or 2022 and 2024. Padres beat him in 2022. Dodgers came back to get them in four.

And over a long series, you would certainly favor the Dodgers, but in a short one, with how good San Diego's bullpen is, they're going to be right there. So I really think people have kind of given the Dodgers this aura of inevitability because they won the last two. But they forget how close they were to not winning each of the last two.

And they don't really quite realize how flawed this team is. Kyle Tucker's been below average. Mookie Betts has been average. They don't have a closer that they rely on right now that they trust. Otani seems like it's hurt. Yeah. Otting has definitely hurt. Dodger fans are worried about the Dodgers just in general.

And then you have like you had two years in a row where you had to play all the way through October. You know, you got that piece too. What do you think, Billy? How do we think the Dodgers story? ends, right? Because, like, what you're saying is true. There's no real good, feel good left with this team, even with likable guys. They clinched the playoffs earlier this week. It was like the most subdued celebration ever where they just like had a toast with champagne glasses. No one looked

particularly happy to be there. But when we, when the Mark Walter story kind of came out, it wasn't revolving around the Dodgers. It was, okay, he sells the Lakers and he goes and his soccer team might be up for sale. And then like the team president of Dodgers came out and like, well, we're fine. like nothing's going to be for sale here. And then stories are coming out. It's like, well, this guy owes like billions of dollars to a lot of people. Like, I don't know that we can just take his word for the fact that this team is not going to be sold and something else isn't going to come out or happen in the off season.

And then once that happens, then what happens with Shohei Otani, who has clauses in his contract where he can just void his contract if Mark Walter is not the owner, if Andrew Friedman is not running the team anymore. So there's a lot going on with the Dodgers because they were also kind of like the centerpiece as the example for the lockout. And hey, you can't do this. And then the passes of the world is like, well, hey, anyone can do that.

And then it's like, well, I guess, yeah, anyone can just commit fraud and sign these crazy deals and like just cheat your way to paying everybody, everything that they want and hope no one catches up to you. So in that sense, yes. But they get scoble at the deadline.

People are like, what's going on here? He goes to the team two days before the dead. deadline when it's like, were there not going to be any better offers? They just decide. And then Scoobel also goes like major villain while also trying to keep one foot in like the good guy pond where he's like, well, I want to end my career as a tiger. It's like, well, that was an option. Like you could have, you know, resigned with them if you really wanted to do that and saved everybody the trouble. So when he leaves, he says like, oh, you know, I don't like all this hate that everybody's getting people like the Dodgers aren't the villains. And also he secretly stole an espresso

machine that he bought the Tigers and put in their clubhouse and took it with him for some reason because like he's not making enough money that he can't buy another one. I don't know why he had to take that. So there's a lot going on with the Dodgers. And I feel like even after the season's done, there's going to be more that comes out here, you would think. Well, especially some of the deals he was making like the deal with the TV station. I'm surprised more people are mad at this. I think it speaks to baseball's place as like an internet sport versus basketball and football. Whereas basketball.

People are pretty mad. But I think this should be like, we should be, shouldn't we be having conversations about if they game the system and this guy did all this stuff illegally, what do we do about the two titles they want? I haven't really heard that conversation.

I think we're distracted though, because I think there was the crescendo that happened around the deadline when they make the deal. And then we had a whole week of, is baseball ruined over, canceled a joke of a sport? Then everybody got distracted,

right? Like the Clippers thing happens. NFL starts up. People get distracted, but hey, we got about two weeks until the Dodgers play a playoff game and inevitably,

scoble's going to shove, or Snell is going to shove, or Otani's going to hit two home runs in a game, and that is going to start a whole new round of discourse as we get into the... I think that's what's coming. I'm here for it. I mean, relative to the Clippers,

I feel like this is kind of a bigger deal. Like, the Clippers just circumvented a salary cap that was arbitrary and it was made up by the league, and like everyone seems like they're doing it. They were just doing it more. They didn't win anything either. They just were the stupidest.

Yeah. They were the stupidest and it got them nothing. They got absolutely. They cheated for no reason. They cost themselves all of this money. They're the dumbest motherfuckers of the planet. The Dodgers won two World Series in a row. Well, and the worst part is Kauai now.

They're just like, okay, Kauai, you know what? You want to go to Toronto? Like, sure. Go to Toronto. Like, and he gets, nope. I think you pay like a $700,000 fine. Yeah. For like $60,000.

he shouldn't have been making. It's not even like 1% is what his fine was. And then just go on to the next team while this franchise essentially has like the death sentence for like the next five to seven years because they can't do anything about this.

If I'm a player, I'm trying to negotiate backroom deals as much as possible. Stick one over on the owners. It's no risk. All reward. Well, especially in baseball, there's a lot of risk. I wonder like...

The Dodgers debt sheet is scary. I mean, whoever, if they do end up selling, They owe like a billion dollars to Otani and Tucker over the next seven to eight years. It's a lot of money. Yeah, it's funny. You go to the Dodger games. The Dodger fans just seem like they hate Tucker.

I don't know if that's changed. I haven't been to a Dodger game in a month, but this guy's... His attitude's not great. He seems miserable. They're miserable with him. It's always funny when that happens. And it seems like it happens more in baseball than every other sport combined where you get this guy that you paid a lot of money for.

And it just immediately goes bad. And you're like, what the fuck? you were like our big free agent like this was Bichette with the Mets this was basically everybody the angel signed. Rendoza was probably the best one. Does he count? Well, 500 million dollar extension

and he hit one he's hit now hit one So he's been on my AO keeper team he just doesn't hit home runs anymore but he's not 38 he's 27 and you look at him he seems like he looks the same I don't understand what happened to his power

very very strange This next segment is brought to you by PNC Bank. Dynasties are not a flash in the pan. They're more of a log fire, blazing bright for seasons and seasons. It's hard enough to win one, much less to actually become a dynasty. But staying committed to steady smart planning is one of the best ways to do it. Just like our sponsor for this segment, PNC Bank. All right.

So how do you become a dynasty? You need to have a principle that you believe in. And like, look at the Celtics with the Red Arbach and Bill Russell in the second half of the 50s in the entire 1960s. Our back, he knew he had lightning in a bottle with Bill Russell. I am going to build everything around this, dude. This is the best defensive player we've ever had in the history of the sport. He's the best rebounder we've ever had in the history of the sport.

He's a really good passer. I'm going to build a really fast team about all the stuff he's good at. I'm going to play through my guards. And then Russell can protect the guards the other way. And everybody I bring in are going to be athletic and they're going to fit in with Russell and the way we play. And that's how they did it. And guess what happened? By the mid-60s, Russell got older. So what kind of team do you want at that point? Well, we got to slow it down a little. Got to be a little more methodical. We need to be bigger. And all of a sudden, the Celtics guards are

bigger. They're playing people like Larry Siegfried at point guard with Havichick and Sam Jones and Bill Russell, just more size because they needed to be more physical. That's the kind of stuff you do when you're trying to put together a dynasty. So it's pretty clear that consistent. So it's pretty clear that one over the long run in the Celtics case with Bill Russell. And it's just what you need if you're going to have sustained excellence. It's one over the long run for PNC Bank, too. PNC Bank, brilliantly boring since 1865. I have one other thing for you that, oh, just quickly,

I know we talked about this before, but I really enjoyed the Sacramento Stadium. and I thought the games there were super fun. And like when the Red Sox went there, I felt like I was on vacation from the major leagues and we were just playing this goofy thing. And over and over again, it seems like the energy has been really good there. And I just wonder, like,

could this, as we start figuring out new stadiums, could this be a model people look at? Should stadiums just be smaller? Well, do you want to do a thing maybe where one team of season has to play in a minor league affiliate stadium? So, like, you can alternate a team a year. Because last year we had it with both the A's and the Rays

because the Trops roof blew off in a hurricane. So they were playing in the Yankees minor league stadium in Tampa. So we had, like, similar things where, like, balls are flying, like, way out. And it's a smaller, more intimate venue and the crowds are into it. I love what's been happening in Sacramento. And I liked when they played that weird series in Las Vegas that they were also playing in a minor league stadium.

Yeah, that was fireworks. The energy's been great. that Las Vegas series, I feel like they were scoring like 15 runs each team a game. Like that was one of the highest scoring series of baseball. And it's these stadiums. If you could throw that in there and just alternate like, okay, you know what this year instead of like getting the field of dream games, like you had the worst attendance last year. You were in the bottom.

You know, you'd have to do it with like the bottom third of the league. Your stadium gets relegated? You have to move somewhere else. Yeah. And you do it based on attendance because like you can't do it to a team that sells out 35,000 a night. Right? You have to do it like, this has to be like the Marlins, the rays, the pirates of the world. Angels would have been good. The Angels have to go play at some weird stadium in St. Bernardino. We're not going to get into it today, but the angels were sold.

I know. I had that on my list. Gone. Like one of the villains of the game is now out of baseball. And this is a team that could maybe turn things around with new ownership. I thought the athletics had a big feature about it that had, I just wasn't following. it, I got to say. The tidbits about how cheap he was, but then these giant contracts he would give out, I'm always fascinated by those owners where they basically do like three or four splashy things and then they're just doing dumb shit and trying to make payroll decisions and, you know, driven financially. But basically because of these giant contracts they gave out, never understood his game plan. It's the idea that like people are just going to come see the big star at the game every

week every night. Right. It's like a movie where it's like we have Com Cruz. Yeah. But the movie sucks. Yeah. But they also. But it's a bad assumption.

Anthony Rendon, who was not a star. And that was like, well, he was when they signed him. He was one of those immediately went to shit deals. He was the best free agent. He was the best free agent available that year. And they decided to treat him as a superstar in the league, which he wasn't. And then he just probably didn't want to play baseball. Like he was getting injured, but like he could never.

play baseball with any of these injuries, it was kind of crazy. Yeah. That deal and what you're saying about like the bad spending of money is one of my biggest concerns with the lockout and with the potential of a salary floor where you now have teams that are required to meet a threshold and they're just going to be giving dumb money to whoever's available that off season just to get them up to the minimum. And then they're going to be handcuffed with these bad deals with people that shouldn't be making that money. It's like if you have a golf, like a country club membership and you have to

eat $250 a month and you go in and you're like, I'll have the steak and I'll have a steak because you just have to get to the 250 anyway. The angels are going to be like, I'll have an expensive outfielder or another one. But they are being bought by the Kronkies who, you know, I have been pretty successful as owners across the board. They'll certainly probably be successful with them. They have a case for best owner anywhere right now. The abs. They love them in St. Louis. The Rams.

Wow. Well, a little different there. Do you remember when the Angels drafted 20 pitchers in one season? Yeah, that was in that athletic thing. I had forgotten about it. They basically, they're just throwing darts, hoping to nail anybody.

None of them are any good. Well, in this weird day, I'll keep a league. I mean, you kind of notice they away from the Angels prospects, They'd be like, oh, he's the number two prospects on the Angels. Like, I don't even know what that means. They never have good prospects.

They can't develop anybody. The only guy, four made the majors. Sam Bachman was their first round pick. He's basically a bullpen guy that's been injured a bunch. Chase Silsef, Brett Kerry briefly debuted, and Kai Bush. Like I said, none of these guys were really good. You mentioned the Padres earlier. I had this written down, too, because we do this with the Padraise all the time.

We get to mid-late September and they become the sleeper in the NL. And they're the video. I just was reading a piece on ESPN about this this week. Who's the sleeper in the NFL? Everybody's like, Padres, look out for the Padres. Bullpen. I think I've lost money on this, at least three of the last four years, talking myself into the Padres.

Is there anything that could be different about them this year from a sleeper standpoint to Bundau? Well, the bullpen's really good, Bill. I don't know if you've heard. It's good last year. It's good every year. They don't hit home runs. And look, the Brewers are making it work. They're one of my storylines.

Brewers are 28th in home runs, and they are one of the best offices in baseball. But they've done a lot of different things getting on base all the time. They've seemed to have broken clutch hitting in baseball. They're kind of like a separate case. The Padres are your traditional, like, we don't hit home runs. Our hitters are not good enough at hitting the ball out of the park. And usually we get to October, and as good as our pitching is, you don't score any runs. You do the three-one every once in a while, the three-run thing.

They haven't had it. And that's why they lost at the Cubs last year. It's a big problem. My fear for this playoffs is that, The super smart Tampa Bay Rays, who we thought we had finally gotten rid of, and they had had their little run, and it was over, and we didn't have to worry about them being basically San Presti of the AL. But now all of a sudden, they're really good again.

I don't really fully understand it. And then the Brewers who have the GM, who is the one that's being compared to San Presti, and could we have like the smart guy finals, Billy, where it's Tampa, Milwaukee, two teams with all these obstacles and the big markets, and the Dodgers spending money, and these two teams just outthought everybody because Tampa, Milwaukee, I'm sorry, would not be a fun finals.

I mean, I hope it doesn't happen just because Tampa is always used as the example of, look, there is a way to do it on the cheap and not have to have pay a run do it. And we can be the raise. And it's like, but you can't be the raise because you're not the raise and you're not smart enough. You're just a cheap team.

and also Andrew Friedman was great with the race. And look how great he is when he has a lot of money. First opportunity he got. When he had the opportunity to either have no money or have all the money to build a baseball team, he said, you know what I'd like to do? Have all of the money to build a baseball team. And I'll spend $60 million a year on an outfielder

who hates being here. And it doesn't really matter whether he plays or not because we'll just figure out a way to plug that hole another way. The $30 million backup outfielder. You know another thing about the raise it bothers? me as like someone down here in Miami who now has like a bunch of raise like former executives running the team and they're going to be the new raise and then like wow look they really know what they're doing because they had a hot June but since I've had losing months ever since

the thing that bothers me about the raise and why I hope the raise never win the world series is similar to my and this is just petty hatred is similar to like my petty hatred of the money ball a's where it's like look at this. revolution. This was great. And at the end of the day, they never won a championship. So this was like a nice theory that worked out that got them through the regular season and only got them so far. And it never got them over the edge. And the rays have been to the World Series twice, I believe, and have still not won a World Series. So we keep pointing out the race as like, they've figured out, look, this is the way to do it. It's like, except they haven't been able to

do it yet, you know? Like they have these nice runs in the regular season, but they can't close the deal and they shouldn't be used an example for all the other teams because, again, you are not the raise and you do not have that front office running your team. You're just cheap. Well, and then they, the Caminero trade is probably the most one-sided baseball trade of this decade. And it flew into the radar when it happened. But they gave up a Tobias Myers, right-handed pitcher, who was stopped playing baseball four years ago. The trade was in 2021 and they just stumbled on a Cameron Arrow who the moment he showed up on the race if you were watching them or your team was playing them and you're like who's this guy

he's terrifying and he's been terrifying for the moment he showed up and now it's probably the second or third most terrifying guy in the AL by far more than any other sport the star player that came out of nowhere was actually on a different team bill do you know who had yoron alvarez first i was it the yankees it was the dodgers it was the dodgers they traded Yornavarez. The Phillies got one over on the raise. Chris Sanchez, who's one of the top pitchers in the National League. They got one, they got him from the raise for basically nothing.

Curtis Meade, who's now a national slash Red Sock. Our worst one ever was Jeff Bagwell, which somehow my dad was focused on it when we traded him. He was like a double A hitting 320, and they traded him for Larry Anderson for a pennant run. But there's, and I'm sure the Mets fans feel this way with PCA, too. There's nothing worse in baseball. then when your guy gives up a guy who eventually becomes a superstar. It doesn't really happen in other sports. Tatis was a white sock, too.

He went for James Shields. Like in basketball, it doesn't, it's really hard for it to happen. It's hard to. SGA. Yeah, SGA would be the closest, right? But even when the clippers did that trade, I think they knew like, ah, shit, they're on it. I didn't think they know it was going to be what it turned out. Billy, how excited are you for Yankees, Red Sox, Best of Files?

round one as somebody who lives in Florida and doesn't care about the American League as much as you do national. Best of three, Bill. It's a sprint. Best of three. I'm more excited for Yankees, Red Sox best of three than I am for an Astros Guardians best of three. I'm disappointed by the fact that the result of the Yankees Red Sox Best of Three leads to a Yankees or Red Sox Rays best of five. And on the other side, we're going to have a White Sox Guardians or Astros best of five. it's kind of a shame that the East have to eliminate themselves and that there's a possibility that

one of the teams not in the East will make it to the World Series. We'll definitely get to the ALCS and may somehow outlast and make it to the World Series just because of how bad the AAL is so bad. The fact that there's only four or five teams that are barely above 500 in some cases,

it's weird. Well, like right now the White Sox and the Guardians are playing series that's basically probably going to determine something. The fact that this is a big playoff series or big, big regular season series in mid-September is kind of bonkers when you watch the guys on each team. You're like, really? These guys are battling for the three seed.

Can Joe Adele rob three homers, please? Or something exciting happened in the series. Well, the Red Sox fans, we can't do this, obviously. And it seemed like there was an outside chance to catch Tampa, but really a chance to catch the Yankees and they couldn't do it. they would have been better off just being the six seed, right? And having like five less wins and playing whoever was the three. Just throw every game the rest of the season?

Yeah, basically. Like in basketball, you would probably think about it. We've seen people do it in basketball. Baseball is harder. Where does this season for you rank if the Red Sox are eliminated in the first round of playoffs in the best of three? Because they gave you a nice fun two months. You got Mickey Gas that you've been very excited about.

Do you look back and remember this season fondly or is it just become forgotten? No, totally fondly. It's like we had a Morgan Magic season. There's been a couple of these where the team just felt like they were going to suck. And then all of a sudden magically it was the most fun two months. You guys were watching from afar. Every single game was like a nine or a ten out of ten, right? It was all these comebacks, late innings.

So it was just super fun. I think there's real optimism with the fan base. with this just it's a three games only and we have three starters right we and we can throw and toli who's been lights out it's like a question of where he goes but it's probably going to be sunny gray suarez game two who's been all the philly fans tell us like lights out as a playoff guy and then four er a in his career he is the coolest pitcher in baseball he's not the best he's an old school junk baller right but he's the best trying to set it up so toly's the third guy like in a do or die game three Yankee Stadium,

or you miraculously win in two and you can push him over and he can start game one. But, you know, they have these three starters and they do have a really good bullpen. My question is the bats. I just don't, Contreras has not been the same since the All-Star break. Roman Anthony came up.

He was a House of Fire. Now it's like he strikes out every other time, it seems like. So unless we get this magical Mickey Gasper, Renaissance to continue, Rafael is coming back. maybe Contreras, who's never been the same since he had the concussion. But it's going to be the pitch.

That's going to be the pitching. I'm not. I'm worried about, I don't like that judge came back like right now. And as the two weeks, it doesn't seem like they're going to get Stanton back. They have this random jazz got hurt. Volpe came up who I think all the Yankee fans had quit on and is actually like had been pretty good for them. But Schlittler's incredible.

I mean, he's going to clearly cruise to the Cy Young and where they pitch him. Did you know there's a Yankee debate about do they pitch Cole or Schlitler in game one? How do you pitch Cole over Schlittler? Like that would be a miracle if they did that for us. It's not going to happen. Yeah, I would think. Schind would start game one, right? That feels like a WFAN debate. Oh, we got to go with the experienced guy, even though Schlitler shoved into game three last year when it really counted. Got out. Think the Red Sox with that play. Yeah. No one's expecting it. So let's switch up the order there. If it were up to me, I would pitch Gray in game one and Tully in game two. Because I think Toll, Tullo. Toll, Tulli,

is like, he's just a bigger the moment, the bigger he is. Like, he was awesome at the Dodger game I went to. He just loved being in Dodger Stadium trying to shut them down. So I would do it. And I would have Ranger in game three as the, all right, show us. You're this allegedly awesome playoff guy. I don't think the- It's not alleged, Bill.

It's just somehow factual. I know. It's amazing. Nobody really ever understood it. Right. And then I don't know if the Yankee fans love this team is the other thing that gives me. Salas. Who loves their team?

That's a fun debate. How many teams love their team? I think the Brewer fans love their team. I would say they're, and I know a couple of Brewer fans. I think they're just like, nobody's talking about us, like big chip on their shoulder.

I think the Cubs fans have loved the PCA experience, right? They haven't had like... They had a lot of homers. It's pretty fun to watch. Yeah, yeah. So, yeah, for the most part. I'll tell you what, it's not the Phillies.

It's not the Braves. I don't think it's the Yankees. It's certainly not the Astros, the Rangers. Maybe the White Sox, because this is their first year, being competitive again. There's not a lot of teams. The White Sox? Yeah, like, the fact that they are going to win the Central just shows how poor the AAL Central is.

Like, they should not have been in it. I will say one thing about the White Sox, because we've played them a few times. They have some feisty young guys. Yep. They have, like, this Aninachi is just wants to get in a fight every game. I think in the playoffs, guaranteed, like, he slides into somebody at second base and try, you know, he's just one of those guys. He's trying to get, it's a little bit of an irrational confidence young team.

Billy, who do you think is favorite in the American League on Fandall right now? Don't like that. Who do you think is the American League favorites? Is it not the race? It is the race. They're plus 290. The Yankees are plus 320. I personally think the Yankees should be favored.

And so really that price is probably, they're probably not favored Dubundo just because of the best of three Red Sox, right? It's like so scary. You just blow two and you're gone. I would make the Yankees a favorite over the raise if they played head to head. And I suspect the market would too. NL. Dodgers are plus 125.

Milwaukee is plus 300. And Dubundo's Phillies are plus 750. Are we? We're the third favorite? Well, Atlanta's plus 700. So you're fourth. Okay. The one thing with the Phillies, there is like a Schwabber roadmap. Because I would say for most beloved Phillies, how high is he up there now for talking last 35 years?

He's not on the level of Utley Howard and Rollins, but he's probably of this era. He has certainly passed Bryce Harper. Yeah, he's sniffing. He's past Bryce Harper. It's not even close. Did you listen to the home run derby? I thought that was telling. I got a bunch of texts about that. When they announced Harper, everybody's excited. When they announced Schwerber, it was a different level of crowd pop. And I got a few texts from people saying, wait, wait, Schwerber over Harper. I'm like, yeah, this is just kind of how it's been for the last year and a half? He's so lovable.

I was going to say, is he just lovable fat guy, like, respectfully to the Schwabers? Yeah, he's slimmed down this year. He has slimped down, which is kind of like you're losing your brand there, you know? I got to say he's a little bit of an artist. That was my takeaway from when we had him. Like he basically does two things. He's like a restaurant where you go in and it's like they're really awesome at these two things.

Definitely get the smash burger and definitely get the chicken parm. Like that's it. Him, it's like incredible command of the strike zone and then this crazy power and that's really it. But there's like a real presence about him. And in big games, you just feel like, I don't know. You just have complete confidence in him. So I feel like he could fault up.

If I had to bet... So, Bill, he has a chance to do something pretty wild this year. What is it? He's currently the heavy favorite to lead the league in homers. He's also 14 strikeouts away. So 12 games to go.

If he strikes out 14 more times, he will break the MLB record for strikeouts in this season. What's the number for that? 223, Mark Reynolds. That is unbelievable. Can you imagine striking out? So Schwerver's at 2.10.

He's, look, he bats at the top of the order. He plays every day. Yeah. And he strikes out 34% of the time and hits a home run about 7 or 8% of the time. It's pretty amazing to watch. So if you clinch and it's at home and he breaks the record for strikeouts in a season, but you're already in like you're good. Do you give him the standing ovation?

Like, do you commemorate it? I don't know. That's a good question. I don't think there's going to be a commemoration. Rob Deere comes out, presents up with the plaque. Mark Reynolds comes out. He's been traveling around with the team like the marriage family. Mark Reynolds pops the champagne, says, not me anymore, baby.

All right, let's all make World Series picks and then we'll go just for what we think the matchup is going to be right now. Feel free to change this in two weeks. But right now, knowing what you know, what would be your World Series, Billy? I'm going to go with... I'll go Cubs.

Cubs and Yankees. Cubs, Yankees. Okay. What do you got to bundle? I don't want to pick the Dodgers. I really don't. Me neither. The Brewers.

Kyle Harrison just like fell off a cliff in the last two weeks, last month. Last two weeks, it's been the last two months basically. Last last, yeah, more than that. But like now I'm worried they don't have enough pitching. And it's like, how did we get here? This was supposed to be their thing. And they have the top two guys, Ms. and Henderson. And then it's like, Dustin May might be the game three starter for the Brewers.

So unfortunately, yes, if you give me the Dodgers versus any other team, I'm still going to take them. And I'm going to take them against the race. I would go Yankees, Phillies. Ooh. It would be funny. Phillies fans are in a meltdown right now because they've had a shitty September. Yeah, I know.

They've had their shittiest September since 2022. That doesn't scare me at all. Sometimes you need to get it out. You need to get that shit out before. Get the losses out before the playoffs. You need to. It's a little different if your team stops hitting and you don't know where the hits are coming from,

which is a little bit of the Red Sox problem right now. But all right. So the important thing was all of us pick the Yankees to make the World Series. hopefully that will back fine. No, no, I got the raise. You have the raise. So you have rays and Dodgers.

Yep. Ah, the raise, huh? They're going to out-execute the Yankees in a series and win it. Out-execute. Yep. All the little things, Billy. Every Yankee fan, I can already picture the callers. I can't believe they struck out 12 times in elimination game again.

I can't see it with the bullpen, but maybe I'm just too close to it. even we have Kevin Kelly in our team. He got, and he's been lights out the whole year he's one of their best setup guys. Got completely shelled a couple games ago. It was like, oh, that's, the Russian is cut for the raise because they've had all these relievers just,

you know, do their things. Baseball, it's one of those things. Like, so none of us picked the Brewers either. And the brewers are the one seed in the NL. And I feel like it's kind of like Indiana last year in college football, right? where it's like, I just don't see it happening for them. You know, like I just, and until it happened for Indiana, like, the whole way is like,

I don't think they're going to, this is Indiana. They're not going to win the national championship. With the Brewers, until they do it, I feel like it just goes back to like, something's going to go wrong for them in the playoffs. It just always happens and they're just not going to get over the hump. They're not going to beat, you know, either the Phillies, the Cubs or, you know, the Braves or the Dodgers down the road. I don't trust the starters with them.

The Dustin made Harrison combo. I just in an actual playoff series I don't see it What were you going to say? Dependa? I mean, they scored four runs in the NLCS last year and I think people cannot get that

out of their heads because it's like, oh, here's this great Brewer's team and we got Pat Murphy doing all the self-deprecating jokes about how they're just the average Joe's they had that great series win against the Cubs in five.

They get to the NLCS. They scored four runs in four games. I think people are just like, well, you know, that's what they do. Their offense goes to shit against better pitching. I don't know. Part of me says,

hey, the Dodgers had elite starting pitching last playoffs. They kind of look like they will have again. Yeah. But, I mean, it still was just four games. We shouldn't overreact to that. Does Craig Counsel regret that move from the Brewers to the Cubs?

I don't think so. I'll leave you guys with this. I think it is lined up amazingly for the Yankees. You know, they haven't won since 09. Judge is going to be back in time, which seemed questionable. All their start

that they paid a lot of money for are all going to be there. When they actually have their whole lineup, they're pretty terrifying. I mean, Ben Rice is terrifying. Judge is terrifying. When they have jazz back, I know he's Feaster Famine, but he's scary. Their bullpen's really good. They have multiple guys that I would trust in a short series, a long series, whatever. And it just feels like, it feels like this is their best chance,

especially with the Dodgers and a little bit of disarray. But I just have to bank on the one and only Aaron Boone and some history from the last 17 years screwed up. All right, guys. Billy, give us 20 seconds on the Marlin season before you go. It was a fun season for a month there in the middle. There's hope. It's a fun team. They have exciting parts.

They just won a series against the Dodgers. So they're young. Hopefully, you know, they can hit their stride. And maybe this whole race thing that we've brought down here with Peter Bendix running the team. for the Marlins. We figure things out. And if there's a season next year, maybe this is a season you build on,

but there may not be a season next year. I wonder, like, does the Dodgers, them imploding with some of the money stuff, does that help or hurt the season next year? Right. I'll say no effect. Okay. It's lame to say that.

I just think the issues run a whole lot deeper than just the one boogeyman. Yeah, but then Manfred's like, we're, thinking about expansion. It's like, can we figure out if we have a season?

They need to not expand. Please don't expand. I promise you don't need to expand. Yeah, we have enough. And as a Floridian down here when you see like Orlando's in the mix, it's like we have two teams right now.

We're just fine. Can't fill a stadium. Yeah, we're fine with those two. We don't need to add another one to the mix. We're still figuring that out. Yeah, that would be stupid. All right, Billy, AD. Good to see you guys.

Thanks for coming up. Thanks for having us. All right, that's it for the podcast. Thanks to Rob Mahoney. Thanks to Billy Gill and Dubundo. Thanks to Gahow and Eduardo and Chris as well. I'm going to be back on Thursday night after Bill's Lions. We're going to be live right after that game on Netflix if you want to watch it.

Or you can listen to it later on that night. I will see in a couple days. Must be 21 plus in President Select States for Kansas in affiliation with Kansas Star Casino or 18 plus in President D.C., Kentucky or Wyoming. Game and problem caught 100 Gambor or 1-800. by reset. Call 88879-777 or visit ccpg.org slash chat in Connecticut or MD gambling help.

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