The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz - Postgame Show: The Pitch Clock (feat. Michael Schur)

Episode Date: August 28, 2025

Mike Schur. Is. BACK. Mike and Jeremy chat about where things stand in MLB as we approach the final month of the regular season, but with the promotions of "Big Sugar" and "The Password," it's important they get to the best nicknames in the sport. And Jeremy and Chris square off in another hotly contested battle of Taylor's Trivia on 90s MVPs. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Look, every football game is a grind, and if you're like Dan and the crew, you know there's no such thing as one size fits all. Your sleep should be just as custom as coach's game plan. That's where sleep number comes in. You get to call your own plays. Softer, firmer, cooler, warmer, your side, your comfort, change it whenever you want. No more feeling stuck like a busted play. And for all the late night fights over the thermostat, climate series cools up 20 times faster than the competition. True temp betting kicks heat and humidity to the sidelines so you can.

actually stay chill all night long. Bottom line, sleep number is like having a sleep coach in your corner, adjusting to you all night because your best game starts with the right rest. Why choose a sleep number smart bed? So you can sleep just the way that you like. The only bed that lets you make each side firmer or softer whenever you like. Your sleep number setting. Sleep number's biggest sale of the year is here.

All beds on sale. Up to 50% off the limited edition smart bed, limited time, exclusively at a sleep number store near you. Sleep number, official sleep and wellness partner of the NFL, see store or sleepnumber.com for details. Can I tell you that I wore my glasses on purpose just to show the proof that there's nothing reflecting in my glasses off of my computer screen? That's the type of trustworthy I want to be here on the pitch clock. What a man you are, man of honor. Love you too.

Nope, there it is. Welcome to the pitch clock. Here's the pitch. two-part baseball segment combining a nostalgic baseball trivia game and an interview with an expert. This is the pitch clock. Hey, it's another episode of the pitch clock, but I'm not in studio with that guy. Hi, everybody. We're cheating on Taylor with Ethan. Ethan's here.

He's going to be dishing out the trivia today. That's before we get to, hey, Mike Scher's back on the pitch clock. So that's pretty exciting. He'll be our expert on 2025 Major League Baseball. but Ethan, what is our trivia game going to be today? The hot topic in Major League Baseball right now is the A.L. MVP race. Cowrally just crossed 50 homers. First catcher to ever do so is he sneaking up on Aaron Judge.

So we thought we'd test your guys trivia on MVP's from back in the day. So it's going to be a three strikes in your out format, alternate guesses. We're going to start with Chris since he actually decided to come to work today. And in front of you is a list of A.L. L-MvPs from 1990 to the year I was born, 1999. Oh, it's all about Ethan. It's all about me. I am telling you, I might really struggle at this, but here we go.

All right. Take a pitch. Take an easy one. Okay, so there is an easy one on here. All right, no, I'm kidding. I'll go 97 ALMVP. I'm going to go. There's one or two guys.

I'm going to go. Oh, Kangrovy Jr. That would be correct, sir. If you had guessed Ichero, you would have been a little, oh, it was the other one. Yeah, okay, okay, okay, fair enough. I know each year out. The non-position player. Yeah.

Okay. No, that's actually not what I was going to go with also. So Cody is on the board. Were you going to go with Edgar Martinez? I was going to go with a shortstop, guys, a young shortstop. Yeah, I know the shortstop. Yeah. He might pop up somewhere.

That's what I was debating with. Got it, got it. All right, so I'm going to go. I'll go with a cupcake as well then. I'll go 1998 Chicago Cubs. That's Sammy Sosa. That is Jeremy's favorite year of baseball of all time. And that is correct.

It is. It is my favorite year of baseball. Cody, it's back over to you. I mean, who else could it be? Could it be 96 Padres, Tony Gwyn? That is incorrect. Jeremy. Told you I'm going to be bad at this.

Would you? So Cody has his first strike. This is going to be a slightly risky one. I'm going to go 1992 Pittsburgh Pirates Barry Bonds. That is correct, sir. Jeremy. Bonds is on the board. It has been too long since we've had

this 2025 MLB baseball expert with us. Mike Scher is back. Hey. I don't like to be referred to as an MLB expert. That's ridiculous. I know you don't. You say, you give me this disclaimer every time. I'm just a guy who likes baseball, man. Don't sit, don't you get an under promise and over-deliver.

All right. So we're going to, we're going to into actually a couple of fun stats here real quick. And this is going to give you another insight into Chris Cody because basically for two or three weeks in a row, I think, on against the spread, one of the segments that we do on the main show, Chris said, hey, pick against Trevor Rogers, that guy stinks. And I'm going to read you this stat, which is the pitchers in the integration era with an ERA below 150 to 1.5, 70Ks, and two or less home runs. allowed in their first 13 starts of the season.

81 Nolan Ryan, 94 Greg Maddox, 2025 Trevor Rogers. The other stat I want to bring you amongst pitchers is that Paul Skeens has thrown 50 games where he started. He's allowed 66 earn runs. His ERA is 0.01 worse than Vita Blue for the best live ball ERA amongst your first 50 starts. That's at 2.02.

Which one of these stats impresses you more and what do you think about, you know, these two pitchers in the way that they're throwing the ball this year? Trevor Rogers is that is more impressive. And the reason that Trevor Rogers has that is more impressive is that Paul Skeens is 6-6-255 and was the number one overall draft choice. Everyone knew that guy was what he is. Trevor Rogers did stink for a while, like as a pitcher.

Like, he straight up stunk. And I have watched him, annoyingly, absolutely shut down the Boston Red Sox twice in the last month and a half. You know, look, both of those stats are insane and incredibly impressive. And Trevor Rogers has a long way to go. Oh, yeah. Before you consider him to be in that upper echelon of elite starters. But given that he has the skills he has to work with,

I think he is putting together a more impressive run than anyone else in the league right now. Let's talk about something else that I know I'm happy to see and I imagine you're happy to see. The Field of Dreams game is coming back in 2026. Yeah, fun. Yeah, fun stuff. Obviously, if anyone also watches or listens to Pablo Tori finds out, they know your relationship with Field of Dreams. But how exciting is this for Major League Baseball, like to get that game back and something that can pull on that nostalgia? It's a great event and it's wonderful. And frankly, they shouldn't have stopped doing it even when they added these other.

You know, they played a game in Birmingham. They played the Speedway game, which was kind of a mess, a literal mess. But in general, let's give it up to MLB for finally, after. after a hundred and something years, realizing that the product that they have could be improved upon with a tiny bit of ingenuity and the All-Star game, no one cares about the All-Star game anymore. And if you put it at the Field of Dreams Field,

suddenly you're like, well, this is special and everyone's going to want to be there. And I don't know, they should just, I just want them to innovate more because every innovation that they've come up with in the last call it 10 years has been pretty good. The Field of Dreams game and these neutral site games and playing game at a Negro League Stadium

and the pitch clock and the bigger bases that allowed more stolen bases. Like all of this stuff is working. Why, you're so right, the pitch clock is working. Chris, it's back over to you, my friend. I hate this. Larry Walker, Rocky is 97. Absolutely correct, sir.

Nice job. That's my boy. Larry Walker. Took him way too long to get into the hall thing. You know what? Unreal baseball player. that's absolutely one that I should have I should have knocked that out I'm trying to think there are there are a few potential options for for all of these in a way that yeah there's

some of these are going to trip you up and like picking the year exactly for certain ones is really tough you might get the right no with the wrong year yeah I'm gonna go all right I'm gonna go to the name we were thinking about I'm gonna go 19 1999 Texas Rangers Alex Rodriguez. That is incorrect. Damn it, damn it, damn it, damn it. Now you'd think Chris would be like, oh, if it wasn't a rayrod, it has to be this guy. You might think so, Cody.

Yeah, it does. 1992, Oakland A's Jose Konseco. That is incorrect. Your second strike, sir. For sure. You know what? I'm going to go. might be, no, I don't. Oh, I'm an idiot. I don't think it's too early. I'm going to go 91 Baltimore

Orioles Calrican Jr. That is correct, sir. It's time for us to move to the real topic and the reason why you're here. It's the Boston Red Sox. The Red Sox, well, they dominated the Yankees this year. But between that, there's a half a game between them at the time of this recording, which is pretty unbelievable to think about that swing. And you've got those two, teams in the Seattle Mariners in the thick of this AL wildcard race as Seattle's also nipping on Houston's heels. So for you, an opportunity to sort of brag about your Red Sox, but what do you think of the way that this race is shaping out? It's very interesting. It's arguably more interesting than any of the individual division races for sure. If you look at the schedules for

the rest of the year, the Yankees play a bunch of cream puffs. It's a very, very easy schedule. The Red Sox have half cream puffs and half decent teams. So it would not be surprising to me if the Yankees recovered and ended up taking that first slot. The Red Sox, they ended that series in New York with a better run differential than the Yankees, which is pretty amazing. Because the Yankees have like eight guys with 20 homers. It's like everyone in their team. It's not. So there's a lot of variables.

I think you're like the romantic choice here is the Mariners. because never won the World Series and Raleigh's having the year he's having and very quietly, Julio Rodriguez, which most people think of, most people think of him as like a weird bust. And yet you look at his stats every year and he's got five war or six war or whatever.

Like, because he doesn't, he hasn't quite turned into Willie Mays offensively, but he's such a good defensive outfielder that he's just insanely valuable. It's going to be a wild race. I think given the Yankees opponents, you would be foolish to bet against them.

You know, If you look at their playoff odds, the Yankees, even though the Red Sox are half a game in front, Yankees playoff on higher. And I think it's because of their strength of schedule remaining. Cow Raleigh and Aaron Judge. You brought both of these guys up. They're competing for the AL MVP. Cow Ralee gets to 50 home runs.

It's insane. Look, we're going to start doing it. Let's talk about the MVP conversation. Let's do it. Let's do it. Cow Ralee. Aaron, Judge. What do you think?

Right now, it's still Judge, unfortunately. He just was so, he's so. he's so important to that team and and his numbers are are otherworldly again though post injury he has not been the same hitter and if he continues to merely be one of the best hitters in baseball as opposed to one of the greatest hitters of all time which is what he was in the first half and raleigh keeps doing what he's doing it's possible to raleigh steals it from him there's a lot going people still love narratives in baseball and the narrative of being the first catcher to hit 50 being a switch hitter that if the may let me say this if the mariners make the

playoffs and or he gets 60 I think he steals it now he's only hitting his batting average is like 249 like he he doesn't have some of the things you need to be like automatic red you know like stamp yeah but I think to beat judge in the year he's had the mariners need to get into the playoffs and I think it's possible that rally needs to get all the way to 60 and then it'll sort of be like you know what screw it this is the yokech situation where he's gotten the MVP a couple times before let's give it to this other guy who had an incredible year it's sick and he uh leads us right to our little bonus question because this is a pretty quick game going on between me and chris he has arguably the best nickname in baseball sure a couple guys have recently

come up to challenge him in Yostinson Garcia, the password. The password. What do you believe is the best nickname in Major League Baseball as a man who truly, truly loves names?

Password is pretty great for Jostinson, Garcia. Also, it should be noted he has a younger brother named Johan Fron, whose nickname is the username. I just found that out, and I'm so excited about it. That's awesome. If you combine those two into one nickname. I think that's your winner. There is a first baseman in AA. I think he plays for the Blue

Jay's AA affiliate in New Hampshire, whose name is Peyton Williams. And he's 65, 255. And his nickname is the Iowa meat truck. Oh my God. I think that's kind of amazing. And so if the Iowa meat truck ever makes the majors, I'm going to vote for Iowa meat truck as, uh, as the best nickname in the game. Mike, sure. Thank you so much for joining us on this episode. And let's get back to the end of this game with Chris. 92 Oakland A's Mark McGuire. Cody, you got to slow your roll here, bud. You're out. Strike three. Strike three. Or was it 90? Was it 90? No, that's why I avoided. That's why I avoided the A's because I was, I didn't think McGuire had won an MVP. He won rookie of the year. I think was at a 89, 87.

McGuire is not on this list. Maguire did not win an MVP, unless he won one in the 80s. So what does Jeremy have to get this right to technically win? Yeah, he's got to avoid getting two wrong here. Too wrong in one guess? 94 Houston Astros, is that Bagwell? That is Bagwell, yes. And Jeremy takes the official win.

That's just my favorite baseball player, like non-Marlin of all time. Like, ever. Not cool, casual. Can I go ahead and guess, can we guess some other ones? 96 Padres Trevor Hoffman? No, it was Ken Kameniti. Oh. That was the Ken Kamenity year.

Classic steroid. Yeah. Giants 93 bonds again? Yes. And so is 90. Ninety Pirates. Right. You guessed that one, right?

Didn't you? He went seven MVPs. I guess 92 pirates. Was 99 Chipper Jones? 99 was Chipper Jones. Damn. Yes. By the way, the 99 Rangers was Pudge.

The 90s. 6 and 98 Rangers Do you guys have any idea Not Pludge, not yes Juan Gonzalez Yeah he's one of them or both of them Juan Gonzalez Both of them

96 and 98 Was it Mo Von 95 or was that Pedro? Mo Von was 95 Pedro the Pedro year was 99 But Pudge beat him out And Frank Thomas Won both in 93 and 94 That's the one we should like

That's the one you should have gone with That's the one You're like I didn't get any wrong Legendary I got one wrong I got one wrong. I got my A-Rod one wrong. But that's okay.

The 92 A's, okay, I'll do it in this order. The 90 A's was Ricky Henderson, which I think we all could have expected. The 92 A's was Dennis Eckersley. Really? Yes. Wow. And then to finish up the NL, the only one we have left is 95 was Barry Larkins, MVP. And 91, 91 was Terry Pendleton.

Wow. Yeah, that never would have gotten that. I think what's really tells a story in all of that is you get Bonds being the best player in baseball, 90, 91, 93, and then guys start taking steroids. Yes. So Ken Caminiti wins a Bondsala. One Gonzalez wins a couple. Let's be real.

Larry Walker wins one. Oh, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. Bagwell. What are we doing? Bagwell wins one. We're throwing that accusation at Larry Walker. Sammy Sosa wins one. And so by the late 90s and early 2000s,

Barry Bond goes, all right, I'm going to go ahead and start doing this too and becomes the greatest thing that's ever happened on a baseball field. Chipper doesn't get any of that, huh? And Larry Walker has no connections either. I don't know why Jeremy threw Larry Walker out there under the bus, which I mean, it's fine. Look, he's still in the hall fame. And all these guys should be in all of him.

All his teammates, though. Yeah, the Lake Street Bombers, Dante Bichard, Gallagher. There are several guys already in the Hall of Fame who absolutely... Of course. Dude, punch. Pudge failed the test. One of my favorites, Yvonne Rodriguez. Pudge fell the test.

That said, hey, fun steroid era MVP conversation. Glad we talked a little bit after because otherwise, there would have been no show today. So great work. I get a win. That's very exciting. Thank you.