The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz - Hour 2: Leading The League In Corny (feat. David Samson)

Episode Date: April 2, 2026

"Dan hates Amar'e Stoudemire." After discussing the new additions to the Basketball Hall of Fame, Mike reveals a new place where he'd love to be a fly on the wall. Then, David joins Jeremy as the baseball expert on this week's Pitch Clock, and Luis pinch hits for Chris Cote as he and Jeremy go head-to-head in a build-your-team edition of Pitch Clock Trivia. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

It's never too early to plan your summer story in Europe with WestJet, from rolling countryside to cobblestone streets. Begin your next chapter. Book your seat at westjet.com or call your travel agent. WestJet, where your story takes off. Welcome aboard via rail. Please sit and enjoy. Please sit and sip.

Play. Post. Taste. View and enjoy. Via Rail, love the way. This is the Dan Levatore show with the Stucats podcast. Any other thoughts here? Amari Stademeyer is a Hall of Famer.

I wouldn't have immediately gone there. I wouldn't have immediately assumed Hall of Famer. I would have immediately got there. Right at high school dominated the lead for a couple years? Yeah, especially when you consider how gracious this Hall of Fame is compared to the other sports. But yeah, incredible career in Phoenix was talked about, rightfully so, for much of a season, his first season in New York, as an MVP candidate. And dealt with a lot of adversity in his career.

In his life. Yeah. And to be able to battle back from the injuries that he had previous to New York and reach those levels again, really impressive. So Amari, first of all, you talk about his peak, a strong 6 to 8 years, right up there with Kevin Garnett, Tim Duncan, Dirk Novitsky, as one of the best power forwards in the game. Beneath all of them, I would say, no, I don't even mean.

mean that as an indictment because he was top five in MVP voting, but those were all better players than he was, right? And I also don't mean to diminish him when I say everything that he did with Steve Nash, but when they revolutionized how basketball was being played, it was at least in part because he had a number two in Nash that those other guys you just mentioned did not. Well, I think the thing that a lot of people would point to is that technically Amaria was the number two. Steve Nash was the one who got a lot of the credit. Two MVP's. Yeah. But it was a It was a symbiotic relationship. But all those guys are number ones you just mentioned, all the others.

And again, I don't mean to indict him. I'm just saying when you guys have such a different opinion than me on me being like, well, Amari Stademeyer had a really, really great career. And he wouldn't have gone in automatically by my metric unless you're making the basketball Hall of Fame a lot less hard to get into what you do than the other halls of fame. You guys are doing this thing where it's like you can never give anyone credit for having a Hall of Fame career. You have to undercut it immediately by saying, oh, but the basketball hall of the, no, no. Let's not do that.

I don't think this is one of those cases. Yeah, like this guy's a whole thing. Is he a gold medal winner? Gold medal winner, yep. And he, like, when you talk about going to New York, that was a crater that no one wanted to go to, nobody wanted to go there. And he went there. Reinvented them for a season.

And it's not because he fell off a cliff basketball-wise. His knee gave out under him. And he punched a fire extinguisher, leaving the court in a playoff game. Sure, but that's not why his career. Sounds like you hate him. Amari style. What's your do with that? That anti-Semitism continues to rear its ugly head with Dan Levitard.

The thing about Amari, Dan, was that he was probably the best finisher in basketball in his prime. There was nobody who was better at finishing. Everyone thinks of the dunks, but I'm telling you, this guy was so incredible at making finishes at the rim without actually dunking the ball. Because his hands was so good. He had great hands. He could catch anything you throw him, and he'd finish. I remember being on the practice court and a drill. It was kind of like we've got to get a certain number of shots up in a two-minute span.

And Amari dunk so hard. It felt like a sonic boom. It knocked me back off my feet. Like, he never made contact with me. But the dunk was so forceful, the wind blew me off my feet. And I fell down and everyone laughed. It was what a time. That really happened?

That really happened. Why did I turn his doc right there? Really happened. Why is he back? I haven't listened to much of anything you were saying because I was startled by my hatred of Amari Stademeyer. I'm startled by it too. It surprised me. It came out of me, but it's not because he's Jewish.

No, I'm pretty sure you were also pissed off Sue Bird got in last year. Sue Bird's Jewish? Are you not an ally? That's not in any way true. You just made up a total take. I remember. And there was a moment of growth for Dan. To just come out and admit and embrace.

Whoa. You can't say that. It feels like I can. It sounds like I can't, but I can. It's funny because it's a word. Right. It's a real word. J-E-W.

Yeah. Well, Charles Barkley came on one time and spelled it. I would have thought that Charles Barkley would have gotten more like aggregation and fanfare. I don't know if you guys saw what he did on CBS. There was a profile. I forget the young man's name that plays for Yukon. That's won all the titles with them. Caravan.

Yeah, Caravan. There was a profile on Caravan, and he took the opportunity to make a stance on immigration. And his eyes welled, he was tearing up about like the treatment. of illegal immigrants in this country. It was a weird on-ramp to that discussion, but it was obviously something that was bothering him and he got emotional. And I would have thought, given, you know,

it's right before a big game, he's on network TV, it's Charles Barkley, that more would have been done with that. It just kind of came and went. I was like, was I the only one that saw that? Alex Carabin also from South Borough Mass. So I don't know, Dante DiVincenzo situation. Like I said, it was a weird oner.

ramp. Make threes from half court and we'll make him arse. The thing I wanted to mention about Charles though, because it can be said without anyone refuting it, that there has never been anyone in the history of sports broadcasting like him. No one is allowed

to endure for as long as he has as an American voice, never mind someone who got that way polarizing. Like, that just never happened. And it'll never happen again, either. But he got a lot criticism when him and Dick Vital did one of these broadcasts because the sanctity of the broadcast is such that even those two legendary personalities, it became old guys telling stories and it got a lot

of criticism because Charles is 60 now. Charles is an old broadcaster and Charles getting emotional is one of the human things that makes him endure when four decades is not normal to be this kind of voice and he's human in a way that people understand. And when he talks about stuff and cries on television, it still means something somehow. I don't know if he's, is he old? I mean, he's always kind of had old guy opinions. For a broadcaster, I was stunned to find out. Bill Raftery didn't call his first final four until he was 72 years old.

Bill Raftery. Because he was always on the B team. He was always on the B team. And then like when they got to like the A games, it was, it was not, it was Jim Nance. It's kind of like a Mandela effect because like his voice is just always associated with these huge. big moments, sweeping moments, and his emotion always meets it, that you would think that he was the voice of these big games. I'll give you another one. Bill Walton never called NBA finals because Bill Walton was on the B team. It was him, Tom Hammond, and Steve Snapper Jones.

And the A team was always like, Costas and Doug Collins, or Marve Albert and Doug Collins, Mark of Albert, Doug Collins, Isaiah Thomas. Like, there was an A team and a B team. And even though we always think of Bill Walton's incredible, like he never called the big game. Can I just segue from what it is that we are talking about here into the story involving Puka Nakua? Because I've been remiss in not mentioning this before now because there's a set of circumstances here that is unusual, right? Earlier this week, we spent some time discussing. Like, is Puka okay? Is football damaged him? What's going on with the Internet videos where he's passing out in public?

and we invoke junior say out as in part of a larger conversation when a guy is spinning out and crashing publicly and might be self-medicating because his sport hurts and some of these guys are going to medicate because they need to just stop physically hurting because some of what they do is insane. We now have news and this is unusual. I mean, you tell me how private this normally happens. I'm surprised today that I was surprised that I was surprised that I, don't more often see in sports, before anyone has actually failed a drug test and been caught by the league, people doing the celebrity rehab thing of both image and public facing everything,

raising their hand and saying through their lawyer, yeah, I'm going to rehab. I need help with some things. I don't see that very often in sports. Why don't I see that very often in sports? It seems like a pretty simple thing for people to need help before there are public crashes. out on yeah I need to go take care of something I'm I need help what typically the public crash outs are the indicator that oh man you know because up until that point the addict always believes I have everything under control I'm fine no you know so I get loose a little time sometimes some of you have some fun but I always know I always know my limits that's how they talk and then something happens that

demonstrates to them you have absolutely no control over your limits and that's usually the light bulb that goes off and this was revealed by his lawyer who said that he entered treatment before news of this assault allegation came out, which means when we were wondering, like, is he okay? This is concerning behavior? He was in treatment. So credit to him and his team for getting them the help that he very clearly needed. One of the things, though, that's interesting about this to me, right, is public drinking crashouts in the modern age from superstar athletes, not really seeing them in the major sports very much. We also don't, to be fair, and to not be reckless, despite how this sounds, we don't know if

it's just alcohol. We don't know what he's checking. Oh, no, wait, wait, wait. But his attorney Levi did give us some information because what he said is just rehab to deal with an assortment of life issues. They've been unclear about what the crash out is, but there's no disputing that there's a crash out that has now required Levi to thunders. That's his attorney. That is his attorney. That is his attorney. That's not his actual attorney.

That is his actual. That's the AI joke that we've got. It's me in 20 years. No, that is. No, it truly is. That is the guy. He's riding in on behalf of mental health and 20. Wow.

That's right. I said what I said. You know how much of a mustache guy. Fender said. It can be. He doesn't want to be. Yeah, I don't want to be. Not a good look.

Take a look at that. That's your future. That's a good look, though. Not a good look. For the audio audience, Levi does not look 20 years older than Chris Cody. If Chris Cody. 30. He also doesn't look like a Levi.

Dude, I didn't want to say it, but the name by itself, before he even saw his picture, the name was kind of confusing. I said. Last name does it for you. Yeah, but that's the two combinations. Macavern. Macavern is the last name. For the audio audience, okay? This is a cowboy lawyer who looks like if I could be this guy's son.

Get out of here. You guys are nice. I mean, he looks like Champ Connors. inflated. Jam Khan had a lot to eat. You guys have me being older than this guy? Get out of it. I look great.

Chris, Cody, this is what I'm going to tell you just happened in that room. I'm sorry to do this to you. It is what happened. I don't think I will be misrepresenting either Mike or Tony here. If we gave you a light blue jacket right now, that outfit and that hat and you made that same gesture, we could put those pictures side by side. You'd be like, what was that 20 years ago? People would say those people are roughly the same age.

I disagree. That's what I, you can disagree. You cannot disagree with what happened behind you because I saw it and you did not. They can be wrong. Chris, it came out as 20 years, huh? And the reason it came out that way is because both of them registered us. I'm not sure Levi's older than Chris. The MacArthuran brothers.

Get me his age. Chris still owes a couple of grid of death punishments, so I now have the next one. I'll do that. Roy. It's Cyclone Scullors. You can do that. Hey, it's Mike Ryan. And I want to talk to you about the random midweek hang that you have with your friends.

Maybe it's an NBA. game. You get a text, hey, come over, you want to watch the game, and maybe you're like, I don't know, I kind of just wanted to stay home. And then you think about it. After your buddy hits you up, and you know just the thing that'll make that regular hang, that regular midweek hang around the basketball game into a special time, into a Miller time. That's right, this happened to me just last week. I grabbed a six-pack of Miller Light, said I was on my way, and next thing you know, we're arguing about rotations like we're on the coaching staff, yelling about a miss call. And the game's coming down on the final position.

It was one of those nights that you look around, you take a sip, and you think, yeah, this was the right call. And my friendship's stronger for it. Cheers to legendary moments with Miller Lite. Great taste, 96 calories. Go to Miller Lite.com slash Dan to find delivery options near you. Or you can pick up some Miller Light pretty much anywhere they sell beer. It's Miller time. Celebrate responsibly.

Miller Brewing Company, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, 96 calories and 3.2 carbs per 12 ounces. Hey, Roy, buddy. You know that energy shift when the game gets good and everybody altogether in unison knows to stand up on their feet? Oh, absolutely, Mike. Yeah, you've been at many big time sporting events. You know that moment quite well. That's what it's like when you take your first sip of Cuervo. Oh, delicious.

It's the signal that says, we're not checking the time anymore, pal. It's when small talk turns into stories. Quervo, man, it's at high five a random stranger effect. That's right. The game is popping. You're hugging people. you never met before. That's a kind of energy that Cuervo brings.

It's so smooth, so delicious. That's the Cuervo effect. Keep it, Cuervo. Going for two when you're up by five. Switching the zone when man isn't working. Oh, and building your new stadium in the state your team actually plays in. In sports, some things just make sense. You know what else makes sense?

Drinking Yeagermeister shots. Ice cold. drinking it any other way would be like Punting on first down or letting your worst hitter bat first or like going for two when you're down three with a second to go. It wouldn't make any sense.

So don't let the team down when it comes to Yeagermeister drink it cold or don't drink it at all! Jaegermeister, damn that's cold. Drink responsibly. Yeagermeister liqueur, 35% alcohol by volume imported by master Yagermester U.S., White Plains, New York.

Don Lebertard. In terms of heat fans, you're the most irrational of us. right now. What's the pivot? Oh, I'm irrational. Stugats. Oh, my irrational. You don't hear your voice there? My boy, dude.

If I were making a cartoon thing that was meant to symbolize irrational, that's the voice I would give it. This is the Dan Levitar show with the Stugats. Boy, can I get a verdict here on what has happened here because it happened behind you as well and you might not have gotten a good look at it either? But I really do feel like Mike and Tony both said. Levi is not appreciably older than Chris Cody. And the cowboy hat helps you, Chris.

If I take your hat off and show your hair to people. Oh, that is a damn shape. The smaller cowboy hat does make you look younger. That does look like his little brother. Roy, what is the age difference between those two human beings if I gave you no other information other than those photos? Definitely only 15 to 20. He's on par. He's right.

Roy gets it. Who's younger? All right, doing a little research on his page Under the Rising from Humble Roots part of his website Levi was born in... Oh, this is Levi's and not Chris's. Yeah, yeah. Levi was born in Texas and went to Baylor

and got a bachelor's of arts degree in 1990. So that means he's college age graduating in 1990. 22 in 1990. Yeah, I was born in 87. So that would put him somewhere under his 50s. Oh, imagine that 20 years older than me. Right on par. So this could be your father

It was really more of an opinion on how you've aged. Yeah. I look great, dude. Yeah, are you not looking? Are we not looking at the same thing? Yes, we are. The smaller hat does make you look like a little...

Chris, you look great, don't let them tell you different. It really did take 15 years off you, the fact that they brought in a toy hat of some sort. It's like, Leva! Make sure you take your little brother with you. Oh, ma. I hate it when I had to take them like... Your slow little brother. Fine.

Come on, Chris. Oh, whoa. Christopher shows up like, hi Levi, I got my hat on just like you. That was worse than the Jose thing. I love this side by side. I've never felt better about myself. So in closing, credit to Pukunakua for getting treatment. That's mighty big of them and brave, and we hope for the best.

Guys, you remember how I have this longstanding take that if I had a time machine, the one place I'd want to go is the cabin that reportedly John Travolta and Nicholas Cage rented for a weekend in the woods. while they were preparing to start shooting face off to get everybody's mannerisms down, right? To learn each other inside and out. The new place that I want to travel to is the quarterback room in Las Vegas. Wow.

When Kirk Cousins meets Fernando Mendoza. I can't imagine how long that handshake is going to be. How you doing? How you doing? Hi. Great to meet you. It's an honor to meet you. What are you doing here?

I can't wait to go. on this ride with you. I saw you playing in Atlanta. You do great stuff. Big fan. Big fan of how you approach you. I'm a big fan of yours. Big fan of how you approach you. I like your family values. Oh, I love yours. How's your dad? He's great. Yeah. How's your family? My family? Great. How do you like your state? I'm medium. I don't season it at all. There will be a Mr. Cousins in there for sure. Yeah, that's the one place where you guys had it wrong. Mr. Cousins, nice to meet you. I'm Fernando. Please, please. Call me Kirk Cousins. I'm going to make you better. No, I'm going to make you better. You guys mentioned earlier that that quarterback room is going to lead the league in corny.

How often are we doing that to the quarterbacks in that league? Often. I think most of the quarterbacks tend to be more like, yeah, button up and like not. But there's a balance, right? If you have a corny guy, you probably don't have another corny guy as a backup. Some of my friends tell me, I'm super cool. Good hand. Is that a ghost?

Like Mahomes plays exciting. kind of a corny dude. Is he? Is he a corny dude? You got to get out to Tahoe. He's one of the guys. No, people don't look at him that way. Wait a minute.

What are we doing here? Because I want to be accurate about this, okay? What's corny? Well, because this is why. If we're going to start here, look, the Fernando Mendoza's story is unbelievably charming. Just a staggering story from start to finish. But now you're going to get him in a corny off with Kirk Codagh.

cousins who, I mean, even when he's, you like that, even his defiance, we laugh at because it's just, no, you're corny and your defiant, your crowning achievement moment. It's not easy to throw for 400 yards in that league. We still think you're corny. We buried Russell Wilson in corny. Like, you guys are going to put this as the corniest quarterback room in the league? I got it as iron sharpens iron, man. This is the perfect mentor for Fernando Mendoza. If we could handpick a mentor for Fernando Mendoza. Many people were saying he reminds us of Kirk Cousins, his approach to the game. This is perfect.

This is amazing. Quarterbacks are supposed to be cool. It doesn't have to be Joe Burrow, but it's not, like, it doesn't have to, like, I don't agree. I think Fernando's cool. It's a literal match made in heaven. Yes. Is Bo Nix cool?

Yeah. Yeah. I think you guys are conflating good with cool. That's right. Yeah. I, I, I, I, I'm just doing good looking with Bo Nix. I don't think Bonix is cool. Yeah, I don't, cool.

That cool? Cool is like a bonus when it comes to quarterback. You first, like, just because you got a corny quarterback doesn't mean you got a bad one. Right. Exactly. Yeah. Like, corny either way, like sometimes, I think the bus factor is higher probably on the cool guys. Yeah.

The overly cool guys. It's too cool. Can we throw Tom Brady into this equation in the handshake when they all meet each other? Because he, look, man. He wanted to be in the quarterback room. He is somebody, he is, he's a robot. He's a seven-time champion. And maybe you guys would regard Kirk Cousins differently

if he was all the same things and a seven-time champion? Hold on. Let me introduce another contender. Brock Purdy and McCorkel-Jones. Brock Purdy's not cool. That's a great example. And McCorkel Jones was his backup. Brock's got some juice to him.

Come on. The pride and joy of Perry High School. Back home. Brock has some juice. Just because he's got that Levi's contract, it's playing games with you. His teammates say Brock. He would fit right in with Kirk. You're just doing the white thing.

No? You're doing the Christian thing. I'll tell you who's cool. Jackson Dart, that's cool. That's a cool. But Jackson falls on the line like up, this is the bus factor cool. He might be too cool. I don't even think it's bus factor for him.

I think he's just going to run headfirst into something. If you wear a chain, what does that say about you? It's a bad city. It's a bad city. It depends on what kind of chain. He wears an iced out chain. That's cool, man. That's a cool quarterback.

Another stat here on Victor Wembeyanma, this is from Mark Stein's researcher. He had 41 points and 18 rebounds in just 29 minutes last night. That's the third time he's had 40 and 10 in 30 minutes or less this season. That's the most such games in a season in NBA history passing Janus in 2022, 2023. To be fair, I mean, could we name collectively me and you the starting lineup for the Warriors last night? was a bad team out there. It was a Santa Cruz war. I don't even know if Guy Santos was playing.

But yeah, that's... I don't know who that is. Gee's been actually very good for them. He's really good, man. He got paid this year too. No, it's true, Tony. This is... But again, he's done it multiple times now.

That's the thing. It's not that he did it last night is that this is the most times it's happened ever in a single season. And that's what makes it so special is that he's doing this routinely. Do you feel like him coming out and saying like,

I really care about the MVP. It's kind of like, man, I don't like that. Like, why you care so much? So I think we're at a point where, to continue the conversation of cool, too many people are trying to be cool. And so I welcome every time Victor Wenbanyama gets aggressive and campaigns for any of these things. Because what I'm noticing what happens, it's forcing other guys to react, to have to be like, well, I, so before Victor said his thing,

I believe it was it down here when he first said, He said defense is part of it. That was here. That was here, right? Since then, we've got Luca campaigning, whether it's his coach or him or whatever. You got Shegelgildis, Alexander. You've got, obviously, Kate Cunningham's. Has Yolkidt said anything?

Or he just continues to have triple doubles and lead the league and rebuilds and assists? Before we get to pitch clock here, I just want a kind of music. I asked Roy before the show to find me music that would give off the pageantry if you were to round up a roundtable of chess. champions together and have like a ceremony where they're introducing champions of the future, our looks like champions of the past need to be together here to celebrate what the games are. The championship parade of sorts. All right. So bring all our champions in here from previous looks like tournament to all the voices, just one after another.

Lou Holtz looks like a train conductor. He does. Jay Cutler looks like the guy trying to break into a house on an alarm company. commercial. Jackie McMullen looks like your mom's friend Carol. Does. Tony Saragusa looks like the guy about to take a bite of a hot dog, only to have it stolen by Spider-Man swinging overhead.

I miss that in the bubble. Andy Reid looks like the small town sheriff that falls asleep while watching the prisoners, wakes up briefly to yell out, who's there to no one in particular, and immediately falls back asleep while the prisoners continue to carefully reach for the jail cell keys dangling from his belt. Old school skeleton keys. Doug Peterson looks like he specifically asked for full-coasty of the basement air hockey table and his divorce.

That's go-piss Mike? Yeah. Oh, I wasn't here. Yeah. Paul George looked like your brother's friend, Devin, who everyone just calls Dee. This one is so good, too. So good. Those are all of the champions all time, and they are telling us that we've got 14.

remaining in our tournament. So these are the matchups. Saturday, you've got Illinois that's represented by Tony Reilly. Tony Realli looks like the overzealous owner of an Italian restaurant who always greets you at the door with my favorite couple when you walk in. Perfect. Going up against Yukon represented by Adam Silver looks like a newly open chapstick. And then the championship is being played Saturday night. It's Arizona. That means this. Jonathan Zaslow looks like an off-duty mime. Going up against Michigan, the most perfect one in the tournament,

I thought. Michael Smith looks like the high school teacher that motivates his students by sitting in a chair backwards. Video team, I don't know why you'd put up Tom Thibodeau instead of Michael Smith. He's done this perfectly for weeks. He also kind of looks like that. Video team,

you really botched that because Thibodeo does not look like that at all. And Michael Smith, put it on the pole. They've nailed it a hundred times. I want to hear you read it again. I want to see Tibido up there. Put it on the poll at Lebitard show. Does Tom Thibodeau look like the opposite of Michael Smith?

I have a confession to make. Up until this point, I did not realize that Tom Thibito was black. The video team has ruined our tournament. We stumbled right at the end. Like the guy who ran the marathon. We were doing that so well for weeks at a time. Pitch clock. Not done well.

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Don Lebertard. It sounds to me like everybody could use a hug because a hug is always the right size. Stugats. All I have put in my body today is three cups of coffee and an entire cup of honey. Don't let him fool you.

He said in the break that he's jittery. This is the Dan Levitar show with the Stugats. All right, Lewis. You're sitting in for Chris today. What I'm going to need from you Okay. It's first, have fun. Always.

Second, when I normally introduce the show, I have Chris do a Harry-Cary, hi, everybody. Okay. All right. You're getting there? Got excited. No, it's okay. You're ready to do that when the time comes? That I am, and also Ben Sheets.

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. There's been about a week of baseball, and we are here on the pitch clock for our second episode of the regular season. Hi, everybody.

That's Lewis. Like, hey, Lewis. Not bad. Lewis is sitting in. That's really good. Lewis is sitting there. No, that's Ethan. And we now have two different Harry Carey impressions in replacement of Chris.

Not forever, just for this week. Chris, I love you, but we couldn't wait for you to do this. Hey, so we're going to have David Sampson here. We talked to him a couple of days ago about the first week-ish of Major League Baseball, some of his favorite things, some of his least favorite things. We'll get to that momentarily. He did a great job of getting everyone up to speed on what this week has been like. But, of course, Lewis, we're about to go head-to-head in some nostalgic baseball trivia.

I'm excited about this. I'm excited to have you here. You did such a great job on the live stream with us. And I really look forward to getting to this with you. Lewis and I have talked more than we ever have because he's been sending me nostalgic baseball Instagram on or content on Instagram. It's like a build.

They do the build your team. You have $15. So if you guys would like to open your folders. Oh boy. Inside there is a build your team. Okay. And I took pretty much the same format. But I added on that team there were pitchers.

I added outfielders instead. So you're going to have $15. Okay. In front of you, there is a list of $5 players, $4 players, $3 players, $2 players, and $1 players. I'm going to require you, if you add all those one from each column up, you get $15. I'm going to require you to pick one player from each column. You have to spend $15. You cannot have money left over.

You have to spend $15. Obviously, you have to take one player from each position as well. Now, how we're going to do this is, do you guys, do you guys, Are you guys aware of the stat ISO? Yeah, I am, but Lewis isn't. Isso is your slugging percentage minus your on-base percentage. So what you're looking for here

is a guy who hit a lot of home runs, but maybe wasn't the best on-base artist. Cool. Okay. So you want the power guys with maybe less on-base is what you're looking for. So we're going to add up, I have in front of me, each guy's ISO.

So in the $5 column, At first base, you have Albert Pooholes. At second base, you have Chase Utley. At third base, you have Alex Rodriguez, shortstop Derek Jeter, and in the outfield, Barry Bonds. In the $4 column, Jim Tomey, Robinson Canoe, Chipper Jones, Jimmy Rollins, Larry Walker. $3 column, Carlos Delgado, Jeff Kent,

David Wright, Hanley Ramirez, Tori Hunter. $2 column. Paul Canerco, Brian Roberts, Aramis Ramirez, Jose Reyes, Vernon Wells. $1.1 column. Sean Casey, Orlando Hudson, Mike Loll, Edgar Renteria, Maglio Ordonius. Man, this is going to be really, really tough.

Okay. Loomis is going to go first since he's our new guest. Wow. I get the first pick in the draft? You're going to go with the first pick in the draft. Can I do that right now? Yes. I'm taking Barry Bonds for $5 in the outfit.

That is a very smart pick because Barry Bonds has a 309. I knew that. ISO. Ah, this is so tough. You know what? I'm... Wow, you have made this really difficult in terms of straits. There's an obvious, there's an obvious pick right.

I'm gonna, I know what I'm gonna do here. I'm gonna get a lot of strategy into this. I was hoping to do. Do the only comparable player to Barry Bond's on the entire sheet. Don't tell, don't tell me what to do. Okay. Okay. Don't tell me what to do.

Albert Puhos is here. Yes, but, but, but. But so, I get it. So is Orlando Hudson's like, see why you're stuck. No, relax. What I'm wondering is, is there another player at that position that I can get a comparable ISO because there. their slugging percentage specifically would be really, really high.

And the disparity that I can get at another position is potentially higher. Correct. So just purely for the fun of it, I'm going to go first base Jim Tomey. That's nice. A nice pick. Jim Tomey had a career 278. So he had 278. You said it was 309 for Lewis.

So 278 for me. You just saved a dollar in a month 30. 30 points there, so that's not too bad. I'm going to take it. Now, after one week of Major League Baseball, our 2026 MLB expert for the day is the host of nothing personal with David Sampson. David Sampson is here with me. David, I'm excited to dive into this with you. And let's start right here.

What was your favorite thing that you saw in Major League Baseball over opening weekend? Well, to start with everything, just having baseball back. When regular season starts, man, you know it's like the first half mile of a marathon. And that's where we are now. In football terms, Jeremy, we're like not even at half time of week one right now in the NFL. It's so early. But you just are getting into it and you don't know what the next six months will bring. I've loved watching games.

I wish there were more of them on throughout the day. I'm not loving sort of the schedule, but that's a CBA issue we can talk about. but it's just so good to have it back. One thing that was brought into Major League Baseball this year for the very first time is this ABS system. And everyone is having an overwhelmingly positive reaction to it thus far. The challenges, the drama that seems to ensue, you had Joheno Suarez challenging back-to-back pitches against CB Buckner. You had a moment where Derek Shelton's getting tossed out because he thinks the Orioles pitcher doesn't tap the half. hat quick enough. Being in the ballpark in Miami, seeing folks react in in real time to this

incredibly quick and efficient system. I mean, between the pitch clock and now this, a couple of great innovations for baseball the last couple of years. What's your takeaway from what you've seen in the reaction to ABS? I think you're going to find this will be the most important change that's happened in your lifetime, because in my lifetime it is. And I've been having conversations with people, pitch clock and DH and Ghost Runner. This one is. major and here's why the amount of strategy that is required given the parameters of the rule is significant and it makes me wistful because i loved being in the national league when pitchers had to hit because you really had to manage the game and you were doing switch switches

and pinch hitters and when do you hit for your pitcher and where do you move people in the lineup and i just love that game i obviously understand the dh but the strategy of when to do it is fascinating to me. Yeah. And what you're going to see as the season progresses, I think you're going to see teams understand better how to use the challenges versus a random second inning. Even if you get it right, the risk is that if you get it wrong, you lose the challenge, it becomes a major deal because look at what the Yankees got Aaron Judge and extra at bat because of a challenge against the Mariners. They didn't end up scoring, but you know what? You can. And that's something that we just hadn't seen before in baseball. So I love it. It's awesome. And what a great point that you made on it

feeling a little bit like the old National League strategy. The fact that there's actually something here where you have to, as an entire team, look at the at-bats, who's up, who's in scoring position? Is it worth something in this moment where really right now the only other decisions managers are making are, do you want a pinch hitter or, you know, do you want a different reliever? And those things match up in different ways. So it's a great point that you make there with the and something that like baseball fans love the chess, not checkers of the game of baseball, of thinking about that strategy for the long term. All right, I'm going to go with a second pick in my draft.

I am going to, so I was going to go Albert Pujos, so I can't do that. Well, why not? Oh, wait, you did. I went to home, then I'm going to go Albert Pujos. Okay, so Albert Pujolz, Jeremy, you were smart. Albert Pujol's career 248 ISO. Immediately vindicated. Yeah, there's so much value on your dollar.

So Lewis is going to have to go, because he's got $10 spent already. I already have my team. Okay. I'm going to go here for $3. Second baseman Jeff Kent. Dude, you look, look, look. Did you just look? You just circle them.

But it's okay because I had a backup pick. Jeff Kent has a career 210 ISO. It's really bad. After two rounds. Yeah, he's crushing me right. Right neck and neck, boys. No, he's crushing me right now. I'm going to take Dave Roberts at second base for $2.

That would be Brian Roberts. I'm sorry, Brian Roberts. I regret to inform you. Has a career 133 ISO. Oh, because he didn't spot you. I'm going to go. I'm going to go. I'm going to go.

I'm going to go. Four Outfield Larry Walker. Nice. Love that pick. You know, I'm a big, bad pick. Big Larry Walker guy.

Bad pick? 252 isos. Ooh, all right. That's not bad. All right. I'm already ready with my pick. Okay, so let me bag this now. Jose Reyes for $2, please.

Jose Reyes. A career 144. Jesus. These skinny guys up the middle suck, huh? Yeah, I mean, you need a lot of slug. Yeah, I keep forgetting the items. Okay. So you're just going off building a team and I get it. I'm building a nasty team though.

Let's move on here to some of the surprises in a positive way here. Who is a team that start may have surprised you the most? It could be negative if you want to go that route. But who's a team that stands out to you that in these first several games has kind of surprised you with the way that they've played? Well, listen, it's early. but any time you can win a game at Dodger Stadium, I'm going to have to say that that team warrants some attention. And you look at what the Guardians do

and how they have to operate, and they have a chance to have a new owner at the end of this year or at the latest in 2009, someone named David Blitzer, who is an owner of the Sixers and the Devils as well. And the Guardians just find a way. They trade players, they retool, and for whatever reason, they just find a way.

And they're leading the Central Division, And obviously after five games, it's hardly worth talking about. But that said, if you've never heard of their players, that makes you normal. And that's okay because the beauty of baseball is that any given day. But you look at them beat the Dodgers, the way I watched earlier in the week. And you just realized that, okay, the Dodgers can't win 175 games this year. There's a way to beat them, just like the way the Mariners beat the Yankees. There's going to be a moment when good pitching is always going to beat good hitting.

And at the end, that's what we'll see for the next six months. But Jeremy, my number one story has to be the Philadelphia Phillies. And when you choose to run it back and you watch your team get old, it happens really fast. And it looks like the Phillies when they let Castellanos go. But they brought back JT. They re-signed Schwerber. Bryce Harper is the worst hitter I've ever seen. Forget Elite.

He's not an average major leaguer right now, except right now is not a week, Jeremy. This was the entire world baseball classic. Forget the game time to run home run in the eighth inning. Other than that swing, the guy has been just off. Now, is it possible that they all aged at the same time and they're all going to be bad? Well, that would make for a long bad year for the Phillies,

which, Jeremy, I predicted, because I don't have them making the playoffs in my preseason. and predictions, but man, do they look bad? I do remember talking to you about that, and it is the wary nature of trying to run it back and get to a World Series with a team that is aging sort of all around you at once. We'll see if Bryce Harper can recover with some more of that raw milk. Let's talk about the stars of the week here, David, because, you know, you mentioned the Guardians, Chase DeLotter, a guy who had a ridiculous start.

Obviously, Joey Weimer with the Washington Nationals, I think became the first player, like He set a record. Or maybe set a record to reach base safely 10 straight times. Former Marlon Joey. They defated him earlier in the year. But David, who stands out? We're talking stars of the week. You know, whatever direction you want to go with it.

Who's a star of the week for you? The nationals are in first place. I mean, they're tied with the Marlins and the Mets. Hell yeah. First place after several games. But what I'm really focused on is starting pitching. And what I'm really watching are the WBC players, specifically for the United States,

who have really had a tough start, all of them. Cal Raleigh, yes, he did have a walk-off against the Yankees on the first game of that series, but he actually didn't play that game. He's been dreadful. They rested him, and he never rests. The pitcher, skeins, yeah, O'Neill Cruz had bad plays in center field, but he looked hitable, and he's never looked hitable his whole career.

Nola, Boyd, and the list goes on to Harper and the hitters, We're on that team. Aaron Judge Webb, by the way, Logan Webb, who needs to recover and start two. So I'm watching that because owners, all of the greatness of the WBC, and it's been so positive, where the view is, let's do more, let's make it bigger, let's move it to Miami permanently, let's think about July, let's think about March, let's do it twice. Guess what? You'll lose votes in ownership if the players who played end up having not just slow start. but it bleeds to the entire season where they do not match the numbers of the back of their baseball cards. Owners will blame the WBC rightly or wrongly. They will do it and that will have a greater impact on the growth of WBC than any of the greatness that we saw in March. So God bless Christopher Sanchez for getting up to a hot start with that first start as a guy who pitched for the DR.

Sandy Alcantra as well, a guy who had an incredible, incredible performance for the Marlins and his first start. But it is more of those Team USA guys, and oftentimes those are the bigger stars across Major League Baseball. David, I look forward to having you on here on the pitch clock. Hey, we'll call it maybe once a month or so. It'll be a lot of fun. Go check out all of the work that he's doing with nothing personal. We will talk to you soon. Let's get back to our trivia game between me and Lewis.

Okay, so with where we're at, you have $1 left after four picks. There is literally only one player left. I can only pick one player. There's only one player He can take because he has a third baseman Okay, but what if I want that player? Because I do. I do want that player.

I didn't consider this proposition. This is where we're out. I want that player. Take Michael Old. Yeah, but what ends up happening here? Because if I take that player and then he has $1 left, can we get a repick? How did you do this?

I'll tell you what. Ethan? Hold on, no, no, he's right. He's right. I'll tell you what. would you allow me to take back Jose Reyes and give me Edgar Rinteria, who is who I really wanted because I was going to go Michael, Edgar, Rensiria.

And then you get a Ramos Ramirez? Yeah. That's fine. All right. So we're making a trade. So we're going to let him get to his fifth pick. He gets Edgar. But I don't want Jose Reyes.

So we're going to go back a little bit. No, no, no, it's fine. It's fine. I'm going to explain this perfectly. This means, Lewis's his team is locked in. Lewis's team is locked in right now. I'll tell you your team. You have Barry Bonds.

You have Albert Pujos. You have Brian Roberts. You have Oramas Ramirez. And you have Edgar Renteria. I am going to end up with Jim Tomey, with Larry Walker, with Jeff Kent, with Hanley Ramirez,

and with Mike Lull. That's the one of the next. Okay. So you're drafting Handley and Michael. That's right. So Lewis still has Brian Roberts, right? It does look like Michael. Yeah, it does look like our editor Gabe. Oramas had a 209. That's not bad. That's a pretty solid. But Renteria 112. Wow, the worst. Not a lot of power. So that is the worst number on here. Did he have like a 28 home run season? Everybody had a 28 home run season. He played in that era. You know what I mean? So he, Lewis's final ice.

So it's 1.01. 1.101. 0.1. So Jeremy finished with Hanley and Mike Lull. And Hanley and Lull each had what? So Hanley had a 197. Yeah, they'd crush me. It's over. And Lull had a 185.

Closer than the experts think. So Lewis's final total 1.01. Jeremy is the winner, his total 1.1-22. Wow, that's pretty close. So just over 100 points. No, that's a full player. Less than 200. Okay, but can we...

Yeah, but that's a full... You have a full player better than me, which is you cannot be more efficient with your money. I felt very efficient. That Jim Tomey start. Jeremy got off on the right foot with Jim Tomey, and I thought Lewis had something cooking. With Barry Bonds, I had it cooking.

You just made some of the wrong selections here. You know what I was doing in actual lineup? Yeah, you were doing an actual lineup. Hey, hey, that was fun. That was fun. And I'll do this again every day of my life. I have had to do. All right.

So tomorrow? Yep. Yes. Pitch clock every day for the rest of your life. Hey, it's Mike Ryan. And I want to talk to you about the random midweek hang that you have with your friends. Maybe it's an NBA game. You get a text.

Hey, come over. You want to watch the game. And maybe you're like, I don't know. I kind of just wanted to stay home. And then you think about it. after your buddy hits you up, and you know just the thing that'll make that regular hang, that regular midweek hang around the basketball game into a special time, into a Miller time. That's right, this happened to me just last week.

I grabbed a six-pack of Miller Light, said I was on my way, and the next thing you know, we're arguing about rotations like we're on the coaching staff, yelling about a miss call, and the game's coming down on the final possession. It was one of those nights that you look around, you take a sip, and you think, yeah, this was the right call, and my friendship's stronger for it. Cheers to legendary moments with Miller Lite. Great taste, 96 calories. Go to Miller Lite.com to find delivery options near you.

Or you can pick up some Miller Lite pretty much anywhere they sell beer. It's Miller time. Celebrate responsibly. Miller Brewing Company, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, 96 calories, and 3.2 carbs per 12 ounces.