The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz - Hour 2: All Heat And No Light (feat. Al Michaels & Adnan Virk)

Episode Date: January 29, 2026

"Yeah, your question was better." Al Michaels joins the show to discuss his greatest call of all-time, the upcoming Super Bowl, his season on Thursday Night Football, and cryptocurrency. Plus, the Pitch Clock has returned with tons of off-season moves over the last week, and Adnan Virk is here to break it all down as Chris and Jeremy battle it out in trivia. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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moves AI levels of your pitch gets it in a groove choose a template with your timeless cool text those two draft design deliver make it sing AI builds the deck so you can build that thing do that acrobat Learn more at adobe.com slash do that with acrobat This is the Dan Levator show with the Stucats podcast Look at him one of the best one of my favorites

And one of the best to ever do it He's got that pen in his hand he's probably doing a card for next season. He's probably preparing for game one of next season. It's not a golf card, is it? What's that pen for, Al Michaels? I'm writing checks. We had the refrigerator guy

was here yesterday, the landscaper last week. Not a Zell guy? I'm just trying to make sure I'm not overdrawn. Simple as that. Just writing checks. So you're not doing it the way so do you object the way I do? I just got into a fight with a valet because they wouldn't take my cash. You like doing

at cash and checks. No Zell, no Venmo, just take my hard-earned American cash. I am old school. Now, if you want to take a Bitcoin, they've tried to explain to me what this Bitcoin thing is, what the virtual currency is. Sorry, folks, don't understand one iota of that. Al, it's money, but on the computer. You know what? You have to mine it. I'm still living in the green stamp world. So, you know, you guys have no idea what that is. I don't know what that means. I do. I do. No, I know what you mean, but

I, too, am old. Mothers collect, if you collected like 48 million green stamps, you got like a, you know, like a pillow or something like that. It was crazy. Put it on the poll, please, that Leveritard show because Tony just went, what? Put it on the poll. Do you know what it means to collect

4,600 or 46,000 green stamps and get a pillow? Al Michaels, as obviously, the most miraculous and memorable sports call of all time. But he's been doing football for a long time. And it resonated with me, Al, when you said, being in Chicago, look, I've been here 30 times, but I've never felt this place, feel like this.

The moments this season that you got, Thursday night football has reinvented itself. It used to be terrible games, no longer. What are the signature moments for you this year where you felt the strongest, and it reminded you about all the things you love about sports? Well, certainly that night in Chicago, which was a tremendous game. And, you know, it looked like the Packers were going to run away.

I think it was 21 to 3 at the half, 216 going into the fourth quarter. And that was the night when Sound has field. And having been to Soldier Field, I think that was my 31st Bears game since starting back in the mid-80s. And you could feel it shaking, feel the building shaking. So that would be, you know, one thing, obviously, that we wrapped up Thursday night football with on a Saturday night. But also, I think, you know, the game of the year, and it seems to be a movable feast now, was the Ram Seattle game back in, I think, week 16 in Seattle, the one where the Rams looked like they had at won. Shahid runs back the putt, makes it a one-score game. They wind up winning it after the Rams had scored in overtime, a touchdown.

Back come the Seahawks, get the two-point conversion. And I think people at that point thought that was the game of the year. We've had a couple of more games of the year since then as well. Are the Seahawks better than the Rams? I think they are. I think the difference between those two teams right now might be special teams. And that's been the bugaboo for the Rams all season long. Had to fire their special teams coordinator.

Finally found the right kicker who came in. He did well. But the punt return situation in Seattle, that really basically when you think about it, I mean, a lot of plays come together to cost you again. but I think none was bigger than muffing that pun, having Seattle recover and score a touchdown on the next place. So, you know, I think both teams are so evenly matched. They played three tremendous games this season, but I give Seattle a slight advantage.

Have you heard or seen anything about the Bill Belichick not making the Hall of Fame on the first ballot that you have personally found stimulating, interesting, and what are your opinions there? Well, I think what's interesting, Dan, is that, and I go back to the baseball Hall of Fame, in maybe the 70s. And I'll never forget when Willie Mays was eligible, and Willie was in his fifth year of retirement, and he got in, obviously, on the first ballot. But I think there were a couple of voters who did not vote for Willie.

One of them was an esteemed sports editor in Atlanta, who wrote a column about he did not vote for Willie Mayes, because Willie Mays, every time he came to town, wouldn't sit down and do an interview with him. He was off-putting. He was kind of a prick. So he did not vote for him, which tells me a lot of what I need to know about how this process works.

There was another voter when I was working with Dan Dierdorf on Monday Night Football, and Dan eventually got into the Hall of Fame. But a man on the panel who had been a college player and had played the offensive line position, either guard or tackle and was mad at Dan because he thought that Dan on television had become too much of an entertainer and not enough of an exes and those guys, so he didn't vote for him. So you know how political this thing is? If he get mad at somebody and somebody did you wrong, maybe your little pound of flesh is not voting for him on the first ballot.

But obviously, Belichick will get in. What pisses you off the most about the way sports media coverage has changed? Well, I think there's just a lot of stuff out there. I mean, I've always been a sickler for really trying to get everything right. Have I? Of course not. I mean, I've made tons of mistakes for the years. You can't do as many games as I've done and not make a ton of mistakes. But I think right now, Dan, a lot of it is just how can I make noise? How can I be, you know, how can I yell? How can I scream? How can I get into an argument with people? And you know, you see enough of these shows. We're To me, to sum it up, I guess basically I would say it's more heat than light. And sometimes it's all heat and no light. And I think that's the one thing that's so disturbing through the end. And of course, with the internet now and social media or anti-social media, it's like everybody hates everybody. Al, Netflix has the new documentary, Miracle, The Boys of 80, obviously about the 1980 U.S. Olympic hockey team.

Do you ever get tired of talking about the 1980 Olympic hockey team and that whole experience? I mean, it's the greatest call in the history of sports, your call. Well, you would think that I would be, but last week I was actually in Lake Placid. Anheuser-Busch put together an event, had 2,000 people in the arena, did a hologram of the game, a holographic, whatever you call that thing. But anyway, they played the game and people on the screen. and during the game, the crowd in the arena that night, when the U.S. would score, would cheer, and when the Soviets would score, they would boo.

And then we had Mike Arruzioni and Mark Johnson and Jim Craig came in. So the reason I think I don't get tired of it, 46 years later, is that when people want to talk to me about it, they're always happy. They're glowing. They think back to what it was. Obviously, most of the people now in the country don't even remember it live, but Now they've seen it through the documentary on HBO, the miracle movie, obviously. They've heard the stories.

They've read about it. And the Netflix documentary, I've seen it. It is great. And it's great because they brought all of the guys back and brought them into late classes. They were able to gather the whole group. And now you see them who they are at this particular point in time and what it means to them. So it's a story that resonates. It's a story that, as I say, is going to be five decades.

old in four years, but it brings so much happiness and joy to people. That's why I think I never get tired of it. I'm glad to hear you say that because even now getting to ask you stuff about it, like, I really love talking about it. Like, it makes me happy to talk about that. Did you know right after the game, you know, that you nailed the call? Did someone tell you, oh, my God, like, amazing finish to the game? And what are the parts of that call that people don't know? What are the untold parts of that story and that call that you think are worth know? that only you know. Yeah, your question is about.

Well, I mean, to me, I didn't go in with a thought about what would happen. First of all, Dan, I thought that the U.S. had absolutely no chance to win the game. Zero. So I'm not thinking about a win. And then all the, you know, they came from behind three different times. Outshot 39, 16. Soviets basically dominated the first 50 minutes of that game and put enough pressure on in the last 10 minutes. So at the end of that game, when the crowd is going crazy,

I'm just trying to concentrate on doing the play-by-play because that game could have ended with the Soviet scoring. So if I come up with a line and the Soviets score to tie the game, I mean, how stupid would that have sounded? So as the puck comes out to Center Ice, and I've told this story a few times, obviously through the years, the word that came into my head was miraculous. And it gave me a chance to think of something,

and it got morphed into a question and an answer. did I know the extent of what it meant to some people when I said it absolutely not because there was so much franticness in the truck what are we going to do you got to get Brooks for a postgame interview the crowd's going crazy and in those years it's so funny in 1980 it's not like it is right now it's analog television and all of the rest and in the truck ruin Arlidge who ran ABC Sports was worried that since it was on tape delay, they'd play the tape and something, they'd be a technical problem. So Sweden was playing Finland right after the U.S. Soviet game.

It was a double-header. So the crowd goes out. The new crowd comes in that had the tickets for the second game. And Arledge made Ken Dryden and me stay there and do the Sweden-Finland game into a tape machine, just in case, just in case there was a technical problem when the U.S. was playing the Soviets, and that was being aired on tape delay. So I really didn't have a chance to even kind of, you know, have, you know, go out of the street and see what was going on

and watching the people carry on. No. And it wasn't until I got back to the hotel after the Sweden and Finland game, the people said, hey, that was kind of the perfect ending. And I had to think about exactly what I said because it was, I mean, to me, it was a miracle. The U.S. had no chance to win the game, but they did. Listen up, folks.

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He said titties. He shocked me a little bit. I wasn't quite prepared for tities. This is the Don Lebertar show with a Stugats. Do you have a second favorite call? You know, I've got a, there are a couple where I think, you know, I did the St. Louis, Tennessee Super Bowl after the 99. season that ended with Kevin Dyson, not being able to get in. And I think I said something like, can he get in, no, he cannot.

And the Rams that won the Super Bowl. So you kind of want to nail it at the end. And that's not a memorable line necessarily. It's just kind of it spoke to the moment. And I think I also did, you know, speaking of the Super Bowl that we have coming up, I did 11 years ago the Seattle New England game where Malcolm Butler made the interception. And that's one of those games where. You know, you just want to make sure you nail it.

Otherwise, you know, you live in posterity with, you know, what the hell did he just do? But I was able to, you know, identify Malcolm Butler. And I think the word that came out was unreal. So you just want to, you know, you want to capture the moment and not screw it up, basically. Let's play for Al, Vin Scully's greatest regret when it comes to publicly speaking during games. Back about my third year, about 1952, The Dodgers were playing Cincinnati, and Cincinnati had an outfielder named Lloyd Merriman. I'll never forget it.

And Lloyd hit a ball foul. And my mind told me to say, hot shot hit foul. No, no, no, no, man. And it never came out that way. And everybody in the booth fell down, and I was absolutely. absolutely mortified. And the reason I remember, Lloyd Merriman, I started

filling. He's a former Marine Air Corps pilots, saw combat in Korea. You know, I did on and on. That really, it had to be considering how young I was. Yeah, that was about it. You got one of those, Al?

You know, nothing like that. But, I mean, Vinnie, of course, had some fantasticals. It's none better than, you know, the year of the probably impossible has happened when Gibson hit the home run of the World Series in 88. The only time I think I got caught not knowing I was on, we were in a short commercial. It was a game in Jacksonville. Leslie Visser was our sideline reporter, and we came out of commercial faster than I thought.

I got the wrong count from the truck. And Leslie and I used to kid each other because she's the crazy Boston College alum. and I said something like, oh, Leslie, we just stopped with that Boston college shit already, and it made it on the air. But, you know, in those years, it was a big deal now. Who cares? You know, you watch any number of shows, and that's nothing. We have, unfortunately, not enough time. I'd like to talk to him for hours.

Do you have a CoSell story for us? A number of them, and I think the most famous one, which I've told a number of times in Kansas City when Howard had had had a lot of drinks. We went to the Savoy Grill, and we're coming back, and in those years, there were no budgets. You just did what you had to do. So transportation was by limousine, and we had a woman by the name of Peggy. And every time there was a Monday night football game or a Monday night baseball game or a college football, like in Lawrence, Kansas, she would drive the ABC crew. And to make a long story short, I mean, we were driving back, and Howard had an aquariums worth of vodka at the Savoy Grill that night. And at a stoplight, he sees a couple of kids having a fight on the street.

street corner and they're surrounded by six or seven other kids who are egging them on. And Howard gets out of the car and he's got the toupee and the cigar. And he's wearing his yellow jacket because Howard always traveled with only the yellow jacket, the canary yellow. And he comes out of the car and he, and I'm trying to grab them. And there's no cell phones. You can't call, you know, for help at that particular point. And I'm thinking, oh, God, they're going to jump them.

And he goes, it's quite apparent to this trained observer. The young Southpour does not have a jab requisite for the continuation of this rate. Furthermore, his opponent is a man of inferior and diminishing skills. This confrontation is halted post-haste. So now you have all these mouths that are agate. They're going, what? And then fortunately, they recognize them instead of jumping. And somebody goes, Howard Kossel.

Howard Kossel, he patched them on the head. Somehow a writing utensil gets produced. He signs a couple of autographs on their shirts and one guy had a hat. And he patched them on the head and he gets back into the car. It was so surreal. It was crazy. We get back in the limousine and Howard's got the cigar going

and the whole thing. And Peggy gets out of there as fast as she can. I can't say anything. It's like so stunning. She couldn't say anything. She gets about two blocks stops and another stoplight,

looks into the rear rear view mirror and says, Mr. Kosell, I've been driving for 30 years. I thought I'd seen everything. I have never seen anything like that. And Howard leans back, Howard leans back and says to her,

Peggeroo, just to remember one, thing. I know who I am and away we went. It was crazy. Great story. Andy was wearing the yellow Monday night football jacket. Yeah, he would wear that. He'd be in the lobby.

He'd love to be in the lobby. He'd be in it regaling people and all that. And he and Jim McKay had, you know, they never really got along particularly well. I think Howard was always jealous of the fact that Jim got to do, Jim got to sit in the anchor

seat in Munich and announce you know, when the hostages were being held and eventually killed at the Munich Olympics. So I'll never forget, Howard is sitting in the, we're doing the Kentucky Derby one year. And Howard's in the lobby, and Jim is checking in. And he's got five or six people around him.

And he looks over at McKay, and he goes, Jimmy, look at this. There's no place they can go to be alone. And McKay did not break stride, taking his suitcase up to the room toward the elevator. and he says, Howard, did you ever think about your room? So those are crazy days. He'll be returning to Amazon Prime Videos,

Thursday night football for another season of NFL coverage in 2026. Always good seeing you out. Thank you for making the time. Dan, anytime. I really enjoyed that long session we had in L.A. this spring. Maybe we'd do that again. Likewise. We'd love to, South Beach sessions.

Pitchcock next. With MX Platinum, almost every purchase made. with your card can be covered with points, including new tastes, new fits, and virtually everything in between. That's the powerful backing of Amex. Conditions apply. I was guilty of multiple skin care crimes. Two counts of sleeping in makeup. One count of using disposable wipes. I knew my routine had to change. So I switched to Garnier-Missler water. It gently cleanses, perfectly removes makeup, and provides 24-hour hydration. Clear away the evidence with the number one Missler Water worldwide by Garnier. Local news is in decline across Canada, and this is bad news for all of us.

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Can I tell you something? I don't know, maybe like a month ago. And I decided to watch pitch clock. And I told Jeremy. Stugats. This is a good show you're doing. This is the Dan Lebatar show with the Stugats. Do we get promoted to a bigger studio?

There's a graphic and everything. We are back. Welcome to the pitch clock. Here's the pitch. A two-part baseball segment. combining a nostalgic baseball trivia game and an interview with an expert. This is the pitch clock. It's 2026.

Happy New Year, and I can say that because it's the first day of pitch clock baseball back here, New Year. Hey, Chris. Hi, everybody. Hey, we still do that. Forget about that bit? I kind of did. I'm glad we brought it into the year, 2006. For the podcast listeners, I had to point to myself there.

cue Jeremy to toss it to me for that. Well, we brought that back. We also brought Ethan back. Yeah. Why'd you do that? Some things you want to bring back. Some things you don't. Then you bring me back. I get hate over there and we have to dish it to you over here. So,

Ethan, what's our trivia game for this very first episode of the pitch clock in 2026? We're going to draft a team of seven infielders. And what we're going to do is we're going to add up their home run totals between 2005 and 2009. We're going right into the wheelhouse, boys. Whoa. And whoever has the most home runs is the winner. And this is positionally, like can we take all first basement or all first basement?

No, I would like for you to select at least one of each and then you have your pick for three. So four starters, let's say, and then three bench players. This is basically what we're doing for. And we're only picking infielders. This is a good one. Okay. And this is like the seven combined totals, not your starters totals. Correct. The seven combined total. Yep. So let's knock out. Let's plan on in our first four rounds

knocking out our starting infield. You can use your strategy. I'll use mine. Well, no, we should have a rule for that where you have to get one of each position. Yeah, I think get one of each first. And then we're not talking about catcher, including infield, right? First, second. No.

So Chris, you get the first pick amongst all of these. Alex Rodriguez. That is. Obviously a great pick. Yeah, thank you. A-Rod hit 202 home runs between 2005 and 2009. All right, well, I'll go ahead and knock out first baseman, Albert Pujos.

Pujol's second in this time span with 206. Ooh. Let me get that in game. Let me get Jim Thome. Jim Tomey would be the answer there, not Jim Thome. Nah, he's doing a thing. Jim Tome had 141. There is.

141. I'm trying to think. Going around the league in my brain. I'm going to shortstop. Miguel Tahada. Miguel Tahada. All right. I don't think, I just don't know.

He's got his A-Rod. Well, A-Rod's your third baseman. Oh, he is? In that window? Yeah, he's your third. He is. He is. He is.

Oh, 9 to 09? Yeah. That's why I went shortstop. Because I assumed you. I had A-Rod written down as my shortstop. Just so that I can, oh, man, just so that I can go on strategy. Because this is a big, this is a big. This is a huge difference.

I think we should be able to, like, guys that played multiple positions, you can pick where they. Well, you should have been able to, hold on a second. You should have had to say that out loud and declare what I was playing that. No, because by the whole side, hold on. My whole strategy was to go for a position that you hadn't done attempting to try to get number one. I was holding off on third base for a reason. Sorry, you just get to make the rules. Yeah, by this time, he's a third base.

He didn't play shortstop after 05, and he played six innings of shortstop in 05. Thank you. Arod, I'm going to declare as your third basement. Oh, six innings. I'm going to declare him as your third baseman. This is a house ruling. That's crazy. That's crazy.

You need one at every position. Just draft seven guys in the infield. What are we doing here? Well, you'll be able to. Yeah, but then you would just draft seven first basements. Yeah, this is gross. It's our first guest of 2026. He was also our most frequent guest of 2025.

The Emmy winner, Adnan Verk, joins us here as our first guest of the year on the pitch clock. Adnan, welcome to this show. Jeremy, it's great to see you again, buddy. Thank you. I was so glad I was a featured guest a year ago, and I'm glad you got the Emmy Award winner part in there, because that's the key. You know, Joe DeMosch, would not go anywhere unless he was introduced as the world's greatest living ball player,

even though Willie Mays was still alive, was a better ball player than Joe D. So thank you for fluffing my ego. Let's talk some baseball, buddy. Emmy winner, Adnan. I want to talk to you about the four big moves that were made over the last week, different significance for each of them, but all pretty impactful.

You got McKenzie Gore, traded to the Rangers. You got Freddie Peralta traded to the Mets. Then, of course, Harrison Bader, signing with the Giants. And then, of course, you had Cody Bellinger returning to the New York Yankees. Which of those four moves over the last week do you find the most impactful? Well, it's interesting. Each guy, by the way, Harrison Bader, my friend Scott Regowski, Kristen, the master, which are like, what? I'm like, that's his nickname. Harrison, the master. You fill in the road. I think McKenzie Gore is going to be a great number three. You know, for years, everyone said this guy's ace level stuff, which he is, but he hasn't been an ace yet.

I think on the Rangers as a number three is phenomenal because you've got Jacob de Grom and Nathan Evaldi. I think he could be like literally one of the best number three is in all of baseball. So that's good news. Belanger was absolutely vital for the New York Yankees. But the answer is Freddie Peralta. This guy led the National League and wins with 17, a 2.70 ERA a season ago, tons of strikeouts, great durability. And David Stearns loves him. And you see what David Stearns is doing, just kind of rebuilding this Brewer's team with guys that he knows, whether there's Devin Williams, fleecing him. him away from the New York Yankees or in this case getting Paralta.

Like I think he's an absolute stud. I think he's, you know, top 10, top 15 pitcher in baseball. I got Sayung votes a season ago from Milwaukee. I mean, to give him up, that's one thing. We just get used to this, right? They trade guys away. But for the Mets, that really fortifies their rotation. Yeah, you've got a true blue ace atop there.

Senga went from being a Scion contender to go to Triple A. So you completely fell off. You have no idea, but you get him there. Mania is very inconsistent. But I love Nolan McLean. Tong, obviously, a second season. he's got to prove, but you got Peralta. That really helps up that Mets rotation.

So we just talked about the Mets. We added the Yankees to that. And I want to talk to you about some of these big market teams here. And maybe I'll have you stack these up for me in terms of their offseason because the Mets added Peralta. They also added Marcus Simeon. They added Luis Robert Jr. Bo Bichette. They lost Jeff McNeill, Brandon Nemo, Pete Alonzo.

The Yankees, of course, bring back Bellinger. They trade for Ryan Weathers as a starter. A somewhat quiet offseason for the Yankees, all things can. considered. Another Marlins pitcher traded. It was Edward Cabrera to the Cubs. They also signed Alex Breggman. And then, of course, there's the Dodgers who bring in Edwin Diaz. They bring in Kyle Tucker. Can you stack up these four big market off seasons for me in Chicago, L.A. and both New York teams. Yeah, I think L.A. obviously wins the agency again, which is of course. I mean, you sign Kyle Tucker. You get Edwin Diaz. You get one of the best closures in baseball and

and a terrific hitter to bolster that lineup. L.A. wins. Okay, no doubt about that. And towards the other teams, I think the Mets are at the very least intriguing. I don't know if necessarily better, but they've reshaped the Rosh. Apparently, they had a bad clubhouse. That's kind of been out there for a while. The locker room wasn't great. So, okay, we had issues with the guards to Brandon Nimmo. He's gone.

McNeil, gone. Peter Lanz, I think he's a good guy. I think they don't really value him as much as the Orioles did. So they give him a five-year-deal. He's gone. And then D-Dia, I think they would have liked the cap, but he just wanted to go to the Dodgers. So, as you said, you get Prawlton there, who's outstanding. Simeon's a great defender.

Boba Chet's going to hit no matter what. Boba Chet would have been the batting champion in the American League if it wasn't for Aaron Judge. He's going to get you 180, 185 hits. He always delivers. His defense is a little suspect. I don't know how it's going to play at third base. I did talk to Mike Lowell, of course, former Major League third base.

And he said, you know, he'll need that two, two and a half weeks in spring train just to figure out the angles. But he thinks that Boe will actually do a decent job acclimating. And obviously it makes sense because Lindorza is shortstop and Simmons there at second base. So I would rank it. Dodgers won, Mets second. Cubs third. I'm with you on Cabrera being a good pickup.

I think Bregman's obviously a terrific hitter. And then the Yankees haven't done a ton, but I do think Bellinger was their most important piece of business. They did that. And weather throws hard. They gave up like four prospects to get him. So he's at least a guy that can slot him because Redon's not available until May 1st. And Garik Coles are going to be back till June 1st.

They're going to need some meetings there. I can tell you the Marlins are very excited about both of those trades. And I am very excited about the Mike Lowell reference. Miguel Tehada had 95 home runs from 2005 to 2009. I don't love it, but out of a shortstop, I think I'm going to have to take it. That's a pretty good number for a shortstop. I'll take it. Chris, you need a second basement in a shortstop before you can get to the wildcard round.

Chase Soutley. Ooh. That's a fun one. Chase Sudley had 146 home runs in this time span. God, that's brutal. All right, I'll remind me there's another name I'm thinking of later. And I'll bring it back and we'll see. I'm going to go Robbie Canoe.

He came up at some point in this window. They went to the World Series in 2009. I just don't know. He might have not come up until 06. Robbie Cano's career started in 2005. It did. Okay. So let me do some math here.

His first four years. It's not going to be Utley levels, obviously. 87 for Robbie Cano. That's not good. I'll just go Hanley for short. Hanley. Oh, I'm a fool. For me?

I'm a fool. I'm a fool. I'm a fool. He had. 103 home runs. Yeah, that's really good. From 05 to 09. I must have just looked past his name.

Okay. Third base, because I have, yeah, I have Pujos, Tehada, and Kano. Yeah. Third base, I'm going to go, I'm going to go Adrian Beltray. Ooh, love that name. Beltray had 103 home runs in this time span. I'm not even close to Chris. Cody's at 592.

Yes, I am. And Jeremy is not close to that. 491. So 1001 home runs down. So you got plenty of ground to make up, but there's plenty of time. So now you go three at any position. I'm going to go with Carlos Delgado. Great pick.

Delgado is on here. He was 23rd in this time span with 137 home runs. All right. Quick one off the dome. Adam Dunn. Adam Dunn fourth in this stuff, man. We can go outfielders? Wait. First baseman. Oh, this is crazy.

I bet he played more of his games in the space. That's fine. That's fine. We're going to the ruling. Yeah, it's fine. If he played more, I'll even do majority. It's fine. If you played more of his games in the outfield. Adam Dunn played way too much outfield. Okay, that's fine. That's fine. That's fine. I had him as a first baseman. He played thousands of innings in the outfield. He definitely, he definitely, he definitely played a lot more.

first base, then Arod played shortstop. This is gross. Jeremy's right on that. That was the name that was there. He probably played a third of his games at first base. And he had so many home runs. So many home runs. He had one 90s. But we're doing infielders though. And if you want to play the word of so everyone associates him with that's fine.

That's fine. That's fine. I'm not, I'm not arguing with you. Can I reiterate? Gross. Emmy winner Adnan. Let's continue here. We haven't spoken since mid-December. So we've talked about some of these big market teams. We've talked about the moves made in the last week. But can you give me three other transactions that we can look at over the last month and a half or so that have caught your eye that the viewer should know about? Well, it's interesting.

All these moves, you know, we always wait for all the big moves to happen at winter meetings. And most of it doesn't happen with the exception of Peter Lodge and the Edwin-Diaz. But look at the time on all these, Jeremy. January 10th was Bregman. January 15th was Tucker. January 16th was Bichette. but one that I think was into the radar was Ranger Suarez, which was January 14th. He signs a five-year, $130 million deal with the Red Sox.

And this is a guy who was a premier lefty a season ago, was so vital to that Philadelphia Philly's team. I think Boston right now, they've got a pretty impressive pitching staff. They've got Garrett Crochet, got Ranger Suarez, you got Peyton Tolly, Connolly Early, Brian Beyo, they got Sunny Gray now. It's a lot of depth. There's a lot of depth. I don't know if I say all these guys hit. Like, I'm not sure with Sunny Gray at this stage in scrim.

You've got like eight starting pitchers there. Austin to me, at least they've got depth. I still feel like they're one bad away. They could use an ESOC parades to help out their offense, but Boss at the very least excellent pitching. And I do think right before that, January 13th, Nolan Arnado gets dealt. And this is a guy who's an eight-time All-Star. You know,

he might go in the Hall of Fame strictly based on defense. Well, the great defensive third baseman of all time, and obviously he can hit. I know his production has dwindled drastically the last couple of seasons, but I'm curious if it changes scenery will help him. Going from St. Louis to Arizona. It's an intriguing move for me, at least with he going to Arizona.

And you mentioned Cabrera as well, January 7th. The Denver Cabrera trade to me was interesting. The Marlins, we know always are flushed with these arms. They're really good at retooling on the fly. Those are the three to me, Suarez, Arnado, and Cabrera. Those are all big deals for teams that are trying to find a way to compete and take that next step this upcoming season. And I look forward to watching it with all of them. And again, you know, the Marlins are pretty excited about what they got in return.

Owen Casey from the Chicago Cubs. Let's talk about it here, right? We head into February, and there are always interesting, free agents that are still available, especially in the last five to ten years here, Adnan. So when we go into February of 2026, who's the free agent that's catching your eye and maybe when and where do you think that guy might sign? Yeah, I mean, we're a couple weeks away from Valentine's Day. The second we did at MLB tonight was most eligible starter. So it's obviously Fraber Valdez, who you thought was going to get a huge deal. But I think there's real concerns

about his character, September 2nd, throwing his catcher, Sazar, like, you know, that kind of a move just can't happen. So clearly everyone was like, uh, not sure I want to give this guy big time money. Therefore, it's an overpay for Dylan C's from the Blue Jays, who's probably a great number three or a good number two. And they give him $210 million, but the point is, I would have thought Framber would have gotten that kind of money, but instead it hasn't materialized yet. So I still think the Orioles make the most sense for them. The Orioles are like one really good start away from being, I think, a legit team in the AL East again, they got Taylor Ward, good pick up there from the Angels. They got Pee Alonzo, it's slugging for a space.

When you get a frame of all this, and you go, all right, you know, you're pairing the them with the Gunner Henderson's, hopefully Ali Rushman bounces back, Pesio at catching, then Baltimore's a player again. So Framper's the guy for me. I know there's questions, like I said, about his character that's why hasn't been signed yet, but there's no questions about his talent. I mean, he was in the 97th percentile and groundball percentage of season ago. He's had a 3.30 ERA over the last four seasons.

He did have a bad second half, 6.05 ERA, but generally, like, this guy's hovering around three and a half every season, and he's durable. He's going to give you 170 innings. So he's an excellent pitcher. There's no doubt about it. I'm a little surprised this February 1st. He's still out there. Another guy is Zach Gallen, who had a great second half, 3-3-2 ERA.

Love Zach Gallen. Fellow Eagles fan. He's a great guy. He's pitching the World Series. So I think he had a bad first task. Some of the half was a timing, but he's a good pitcher. He's out there. And the other one is...

Lucas Gialito? Exactly. Alito still there. Who also had a great second half. He had a two-and-a-half year in the second half. And when he wasn't available for the playoffs, you saw that sting there for the Red Sox. So I think those are three guys, three pitchers right there in terms of Frambervaldez and Gialito and Zach Gall.

And I will throw it a hitter as well, Jeremy. A.U. Hennio Suarez is still out there, man. This guy's 40 plus home runs. I mean, he was so big for the Mariners. They re-signed Josh Nell. I think it would make sense to resend him there. But I can't believe it's almost February 1st. And A. E. E. E. E. E. Hennio and a guy who hits home runs like him,

I'm still out there on the market. All four of these guys could potentially influence who ultimately end up being real contenders come October. And yet we're headed toward February. And all four of them are sitting out there. It should make for an interesting month next month. And Emmy winner Adnan, We'll probably have you back on this program before spring training gets started.

So Emmy winner, Adnan, thank you for joining us today with your Emmy behind you. I appreciate it, buddy. We'll never get tired of hearing that. And yeah, I can't wait for the baseball to begin. A couple weeks away. By the way, much warmer weather there for you, Miami. We're looking at 12 degrees here in New Jersey. So it's chilly.

Okay. I had to wear a cardigan today, Adnan. All right. A chilly 49 degrees in right. We'll see you soon. Now I need to think for a second. I'm gonna go Paul Canerco

That's good Paul Canergo's 13th He has 156 home runs Okay All right Shipping away My first guess is 137 So he gained about

19 19 All right Two more guesses Yeah two more each I feel like I guess This guy's name Every time we play any game And I'm always wrong

I feel like I have my timing wrong I'm when this guy played Richie Sext I love that He's your guy He has your guy He definitely was around During this window

He had some all stars He had some 29 30 home run seasons He hit 1006 home runs in this That's good Jason Giambi Giambi hit 128 So I'm still up by I still need to get like

60 more than you I just need to get someone in the hundreds Here's a nice solid You got this Did you think of someone good? And that's why you're like... I thought I did, but now I'm questioning myself if the window is the right window.

But I think it is. Chipper Jones. Ooh, that's a great one. I love Chipper. No, that's good. It's the end of Chipper's career, though. I don't know. That is the back end of his career, I have to imagine.

1-16 for Chipper. You want to beat that. Ryan Howard. Finally, somebody said Ryan Howard, dude. You need to get... It's not going to be enough, but somebody finally said... It's not like 170, right? The number one.

home run totaler in this time frame. He had 220 home runs. He did beat me. I beat you. Yeah, he beat me. He just beat me. Oh, my God. You beat him. Holy. 90-96 more. Walk off. Wow. 94 more home runs. Thank you, Ryan Howard,

and your endorsement of Subway. Wow. That felt good. That was exhilarating. Can I tell you the face that I made wasn't for Ryan Howard. Who was it for? It was for Raphael. Palmero and then I thought it might be too late and I got to tell you Chris you naming someone that probably would have been too late just triggered it just triggered it in my head I went in my brain I went from because who did you just say for you think I once it you got chipper and I went

oh David Wright and then I went who else was around at that time even after you said chase Utley I didn't think about Ryan Howard I know I don't know why I said Chase Utley and Ryan Howard Ryan Howard final total I love you that is wild I said Chase Utley and didn't think of Ryan Howard so Jeremy wins by 44 home runs what a collapse just shows never give up boys that thought really give up that felt really good none of these games are ever over see you guys in February