The Herd with Colin Cowherd - THE HERD – HOUR 1 – Dodgers Back In NLCS | Dak Prescott Saving The Cowboys

Episode Date: October 8, 2026

Colin Cowherd discusses the Dodgers advancing to the NLCS as they try to win their 3rd straight World Series. Colin points out the role players that shined for the Dodgers vs the highly paid superstars who often get all the attention. He also talks about Cowboys QB Dak Prescott prior to their game against the Buccaneers on Thursday Night Football and how Prescott has provided stability to an often-chaotic franchise.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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or stream us live every day in the IHeart Radio app by searching Fox Sports Radio or FSR. Now let's get this party started. You're listening to Fox Sports Radio. Here we go. It is a Thursday. day, great night of baseball, at least for, you know, half the teams. Welcome in live in Chicago.

It's the herd, wherever you may be, whatever platform you're watching on one hour from now, we all get smarter. Greg Kosell. You know, in baseball, the regular season, so many games, is about volume. Show up every day. It's about volume, consistency. But the playoffs are different. The playoffs are about moments.

situations. A lot of playoff sports are like that. Last night, two opportunity, backs against the wall, the Braves had a chance in the fifth inning and the sixth inning to alter and change the series. Atlanta was at home. Here it was. Fifth inning. Two runners on. Dodgers have to go to the bullpen. Alex Pescia comes in. Braves hit a rocket right at Kike Hernandez. Opportunity blown. six inning, six inning. Tyler Glassnow had control problems. They had to pull him. Sixth inning.

They lead off with a double. Oh, that's great. But they couldn't do anything with it. The Braves were 0 for seven last night, runners in scoring position, and Matt Olson and Ronald O'Kunya Jr. They're two big sticks. O'4 with runners in scoring position.

Okay? So yet a Dodger role player once again, Andy Pahez, who was benched last year in the World Series, a guy making $800,000 a year, top of the seventh, bases loaded, bang, drives

two in. The guys make an 800 grand a year. That's not even great NIL money. Benched in last year's World Series. T. Hay, Hernandez, yesterday. I mean, this is what they do. regular season in baseball is elementary school, just show up and get good attendance.

The playoffs in baseball are college. It's about midterms and finals. You got to ace those. The entire series, the Braves offense with runners in scoring position hit 0.043, 28 runners left on. That's historically awful. And this is what L.A. has been doing year after year after year in the postseason. I mean, Mookie, O'Tonnie and Freddie, O for 11 last night. So they needed Pahez, just like last year in the World Series. They needed Pahas and his defense. And so two nights ago, Kiki Hernandez with the home run. So, I mean, this Tommy Edmund back in 2024 was the NLCS MVP.

It's not just the big guys. They also got on the road. This is tough. Six and a third of scoreless bullpen worked. Glass knows got good stuff, but he was struggling with the control. So they had to go to the bullpen early. So, you know, I said this. It was a real crisis moment.

You're on the road and the Dodgers played nearly perfect baseball. They're hard enough to beat. You can't beat yourself. And for the record, all those complaints, about payroll. Here's the payrolls that remain in baseball. The Guardians 30th, the raise 28th, the White Sox 24th, the Brewer's 19th. What about the Dodgers? They do everything well. Their farm system right now is top three in Major League Baseball. They defend, they do everything but steal bases, and they shouldn't steal bases. Because when you have that much power, don't run

yourself out of innings. Dave Roberts, on the series win and a nearly flawless night of baseball, road baseball, where L.A.'s won nine of their last 10 road playoff games. Everybody in this room help get us to where we're at, where we're going to go. We need every single person. We talk about this. There's no more talented team than the Los Angeles Dodgers. It's the best organization in sports. off to bottom. We're smarter, we're better, and we're tougher. And we're tougher. We're tougher. Think about that. A guy making $800,000 a year for the Dodgers, delivered last night, and two guys, stars for the Braves making 39 million combined,

did not. That is the difference. Kike Hernandez, two nights ago, last year's World Series, game seven. That's what they do. So, listen, the Yankee fans, there's going to be excuses slash reasons they lost. You can say, well, Aaron, Judge, wasn't available. That's true. Well, the fan interference was a bad break. Absolutely true. Why did Aaron Boone drop Ben Rice in the batting order behind Trent Grisham? I would say that's ill-advised. But none of it matters. The lowest payroll in Major League Baseball is Tampa. They beat the Yankees, were better in the regular season, and they were clearly better in this. Better defensively, they got better pitching.

Their starters beat the Yankees great starters. So the slap hitting Tampa race, the slap hitters, more home runs, more extra base hits. And again, I've said this. Look at the Yankees. Defensively, mid. Farm system, 25th out of 30 teams, according to people that rank farm systems. Defensively, awful, at least in this series. Aaron Judge, great, but let's be honest, he's 34, 35 by next season.

So the Yankees, to me, have become Nike. You have this massive brand, but because of arrogance, I mean, let's be honest, smaller, sharper executives at other shoe companies have chipped away. And you look up and you still make the playoffs, you still sell a lot of shoes, but you're not fundamentally the same company. same execs, same arrogance, same manager, same general manager. And there are so many smart young people in Major League Baseball. Do the Yankees have any of them?

Because I think they become the old guy that brags that he still has a flip phone. A couple years ago, there was an article, Brian Cashman, said, hey, we have the smallest analytics department in the American League East. Yeah. Yeah, that's not a brag. Go to the website of the Yankees. One person has the title of quantitative analysis, analyst. One.

Dodgers have seven and several working under them. And the Yankees' GM is bragging, hey, it's in the age of information, we have less. I mean, seriously here. So, I mean, the Yankees' offense against the race, these are all lowest in the postseason series in franchise history. batting average 130, on base percentage 192, slugging percentage 239. I know Aaron Judge wasn't available. I get it. But for the record last night, Mookie Betts, Freddie Freeman, O'Tonnie went 0 for 11 for the Dodgers.

Okay. Who got them the lead two nights ago? Kike Hernandez. Utility infielder at 4.5 mil a season. Who got them the big hit last night? Andy Pah has 800 grand a year. So you can make all, by the way, the Braves stars didn't hit. The Dodgers stars in this series didn't hit.

Outside of Ben Rice, no, the Yankee stars hit. So, I mean, just to me, it's not just fire this guy. It's beyond that for the Yankees. Same people, same front office, same arrogance. I'm telling you, it's Nike. They're still selling shoes, but, man, people have. nibbled away on the margins and it's not the same company and the Yankees aren't the same team. Here was A. Rod and Jeter last night. Something has to change. Something has a change.

I'm not talking about personnel, but I'm talking about a philosophy. There has to be a philosophy change. They played better than Yankees all season. They played better than a Yankees in this particular series. In terms of what's next, I don't know. You know, I, I, I, I, I, I, I think that's the best way to answer. I do not know what's next. How would you fix him? I don't know. How about lean into AI, bigger analytics department, stop bragging about using a flip phone?

Like it's a 17-year drought. And I've said, it's not that the Yankees are terribly run, but they're not well-run. There's a difference, right? They don't have any financial ceiling. And the Dodgers prove that you can have great role players, be excellent defensively. Dodgers don't commit a lot of errors. You can have bullpen depth. Yeah, I mean, I admit that Dodgers have so much pitching depth.

They don't really have to use like bullpen games anymore. They did a few years ago. They don't have to anymore. Tyler Glassnow, though, didn't have his best stuff last night. He had major control issues. walked what five batterers, Braves couldn't take advantage of it. So there we go, J. Mack. It's one thing to lose.

It's another to get swept by the smallest payroll in Major League Baseball. I'm not laughing, but it is. No, you're laughing. It's okay. It happens. The drought continues for my Yankees, but we still got the Dodgers in the mix to try to win a third straight. So there's that. But overall, I like your take.

The real one is, do you think Brian Cashman here gets fired within the week? Do you think Boone gets fired? There's a lot of chatter. There's nothing that would lead you to believe that's the case. So they... Except for futility. Well, they've been a very good regular season team, and they haven't delivered.

And it should be noted. The Yankees are struggling in a significantly weaker side. The American League isn't close to the overall talent and depth. You look at the Phillies. teams that get bounced early in the National League playoffs, I think would end up in the ALCS. So, I mean, the Cubs only had one star and not great pitching, but I mean, Milwaukee is strong.

And San Diego is loaded at the top. They're not as deep as the Brewers, but they have great stars. The Dodgers are excellent. Atlanta's really good. They're just their stars could not hit in this series. So, I mean, the Dodgers would win either side, ALNL. But the Yankees have always sort of. have relied on the American League Central. If you go to the Yankee playoff wins over the last,

you know, 10 years, it's been a lot of wins over the American League Central. The Twins. Well, that's the weakest division. Once they got lined up against the Rays, I mean, you watched it defensively, inferior. Even the Yankee starting pitching got out dueled by the Rays starting pitching. So you got to look yourself in the mirror. This goes beyond like fire that manager. A good manager get you four wins. a year. That's not the answer. Do whatever you want with manager, but that that's not really changing a philosophical apathy that permeates the organization. There is another team in New York that had been budding up against, you know, getting to the finals, Tom Tibido with the Knicks,

and I know it's basketball, but they run him out of town and they get Mike Brown in their championship. Now, obviously basketball and baseball different, but I do wonder, is there a war where they can see it just a different voice as manager? And maybe that changes next. The Yankees are the anti-NICs. The Knicks were the best fourth quarter team since they've been tracking it. And they had unbelievable leadership. So to me, the coach didn't matter that much.

I mean, they were an old, smart, deep veteran team. The front office and Jalen Brunson won that title. The front office for the Knicks, when James Dolan went to build the sphere and he let the guys in the front office for two years run the organization, organization. The Knicks won a title last year, not because of coaching. They want it because of that front office, built a great roster, and Jalen Brunson is better than even the Knicks thought he would be when they brought him in from Dallas. Those were the two ingredients. So I said this about, I think it was yesterday or the day before, it all starts in every sport

in the front office. It all starts in the front office. That's really the people wearing the sunglasses, what you seem about once a series, the network will show them. Those are the guys winning this stuff. And it's not a lack of, you know, I'm not just a fire a bunch of people. I think there's philosophies upstairs that dictate a lot in professional sports. And I think the Yankees are analytically not even in the same stratosphere. They're not as intentional as the Dodgers in the offseason. I mean, when they signed John Carlos Stanton years ago, my take was, what was the point. He couldn't stay healthy in Miami. I don't get it. Judge and Stanton, I don't get, so I just don't, again, I don't think they're poorly run. They make the playoffs, which is something.

I mean, they're in a division with the Blue Jays have money, the Red Sox have money, the rays are brilliantly run. Even Baltimore's got good players. So there is some value of what they're doing, but you know, you get to the playoffs, like I said, the playoffs are like college, got to eights to midterm in the final. Regular season is we got a lot of money and a lot of players. You know, we're going to win 94 games or whatever it is. Just, you know, over the course of time, our starting pitching is better than yours. But you get postseason baseball is crisis management, situational.

It's like the NBA playoffs. And that's where the Knicks separated, like all these mature veterans, bridges and towns and Brunson and OG. And it was all this maturity latent games that beat the very, very young Spurs, right? That Spurs led in almost every game in that series. often by double digits. But baseball, football, basketball, all have certain things that matter.

Late game success, late game crisis management, like wins titles. So they got a lot to think about. But it was fun last night. It was fun. Eric Caros, Greg CoSell stopping by today. In Chicago, it's the Hurd. Be sure to catch live editions of the Hurd weekdays in noon Eastern, 9 a.m. Pacific on Fox Sports Radio, FS1, and the IHard Radio app.

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Stream Carly's new album, Honest Woman. Available now. The Dallas Cowboys play Tampa tonight. The Cowboys are weird. Even when things are good, they're weird. I'll give you an example. The Cowboys are second right now in the NFL and total points. And yet dead last and offensive possessions.

They're like a haunted house. Nobody can figure it out. And it took me a long time to figure out Dak Prescott. But Dak Prescott, if the Cowboys are the world's biggest rock band, he's the manager as they're trash in the hotel rooms, he's making the beds. He makes sure he keeps it glued together. He gets everybody on stage as close to on time as you possibly can with the Dallas Cowboys. If he's your kid, you make him the executor of the will, a stabilizing force.

He dealt with Des Bryant and Ezekiel Elliott's immaturity early. Jerry's vanity always. Now it's George Pickens' moodiness. It's the coaching carousel. It's, you know, Michael Parsons had some drama, even in his rookie year. Even in his rookie year, remember this? that Tony Romo got hurt. Dak Prescott inserted in

and Tony Romo noticed immediately, to Romo's credit, the maturity. He held a press conference to say, there's no controversy here. This is Dak's job. Maturity, however, never shows up in highlights or a passer rating. You got to watch closely.

Overtime, consistency, commitment, competitive nature. He doesn't have the biggest arm. It's not the greatest athlete, especially post-surgery, two of them now. But the reality with Dak Prescott, this is not a normal quarterback job in the NFL. It's the biggest brand. It's got an owner that has to do radio hits and be front and center and sometimes starts fires that you have to put out. If DAC wasn't here, there'd probably be three or four interventions over the last decade the franchise would need.

So I just think, and also I think, you know, it's not fair, but not everybody gets, you know, Sean McVey as a coach. Jerry, in my opinion, doesn't respect coaching. And so I think this staff, once again, is pretty average. But if you go back to the year that Dak Prescott entered 2016, I looked this up, the Cowboys with Dak Prescott have averaged 27 points a game. That is the highest scoring offense in the league. with an owner that drives you nuts, immaturity from a star receiver and running back, drama, moodiness, average coaching sometimes.

Dak this week asked about him proclaiming before the season. I mean, that's why we give him a pass when he proclaimed it's the best offense ever, potentially. I got no regrets. We're, what, four games in? I think we can get better. Am I complacent with what we've done? Absolutely not. Do I think what we've done, is it enough?

Absolutely not. Do I still believe that that's who we are and that's who we're going to be? Damn right. I'll take Dallas tonight, but, you know, not because of coaching. Here's J. Mack with the news. This is the Heard Line News. Well, let's start with a little controversy in Philadelphia. It's not the city of brotherly love for this topic, Colin.

Oh my gosh. So Nick Foles is like everyone else now. He's got a podcast. And he went on and took a shot at Jalen Hertz. He was breaking down a Hertz pass to Dantavian Wicks. And here is the breakdown. He was very late on this, very late. Right now, we're not playing high school football.

We can't wait till they're wide open. The reason I say that is this. They get a completion. That's great. But if he gets it on time and rhythm, if he catches that ball right now, look how much grass is in the triangle of defenders. He's going to catch it and he's going to knife up field. Most likely going to be a first down.

That's not nice. We're not playing high school football. I wish more former athletes said stuff like that. That's absolutely realistic. That's a solid breakdown from a guy that has won a Super Bowl over Tom Brady. I have no problem with I have a problem with athletes that come on the air. We pay him a lot of money. They say nothing.

Yeah. I have no problem with Nick Foles being like, you know, you're throwing this ball way late. In high school and college, you mostly throw to the open guy. In the NFL, you have to anticipate on a lot of throws. That is the difference. The back shoulder stuff, throwing to a spot, not necessarily a wide receiver. And that's the separate.

That's why guys like Matt Stafford have 33 pick sixes. Like you are throwing to a spot. You are anticipating. Stafford's a great anticipator. Brady was a great anticipator. Tom's got a few pick sixes. Peyton Manning had a few pick sixes. A few.

You can be safe. Bow Nix right now to me plays it too safe. Andrew Luckhead, lots of interceptions. Darnold does. The NFL quarterback is not high school or college. It's just fundamentally, it's the difference between just getting a Bachelor of Arts and a PhD. It's another level, you know, cognitively of playing football. And I do think there are disadvantages being under 6'2.

I think that's absolutely part of it. I think Jalen at times can struggle. So some of it's not his fault. It's just his reality. Most of the great quarterbacks with the rings are bigger guys. Well, Hertz does have a ring. But yes, over the middle has been his bugaboo. He's afraid.

He doesn't want to do it. And in that pass, you know, I have wicks and fantasy. I was watching that closely. I'll just say this, Colin. Usually, you know, out here in L.A., I'm not waking up super duper early on a Sunday. I want to sleep in. I will be up early for this game.

I am loaded up on the Jaguars. I mean, listen. There's a world where the Eagles defense shows up, you know, and fights hard and keeps us close and maybe they lose by a field goal. It's possible. But they don't have the experience in London. They're leaving late. A lot of things point to the Jags here.

So Trevor Lawrence was the great big tall. He was the greater high school quarterback. He was the greater college quarterback, right? And it took him to find Liam Cohen. Jalen Hertz had more of a struggle at the college level. And he was a second round pick. But he got a great, early Shane Stuyken play caller, which really helped.

But let's be fair to Jalen Hertz here, because I think Jalen is an adult. I think he's intentional. I wish he would run more. He doesn't want to. Whateves. But I would say we have to be fair to Hertz right now. This is the third week in a row where I feel there's a significant coaching advantage to the quarterback playing Jalen Hertz.

And that's something we have to be fair here on Jalen Hertz. because I do think his size or lack thereof is an issue. I've said I like my quarterbacks to be six two and up. The history shows. Peyton, Brady, Ben, Marino, you know, these guys win more. But Hertz has to overcome some things like Dak on his staff, which are negative. Just look at Trevor Lawrence's career with Liam Cohen. And look at Tampa's offense since Liam's left.

It is a different football team. So coaching, this is the only sports. sport, a major league banager can win four games over a season. A football, Ben Johnson can take a hazmat spill to the playoffs in a year. Football is the coaching sport, and I don't think Jalen in fairness has ever had great coaching. And for the Eagles fans who are upset that we're all over the Jags, just go look up what Liam Cohen likes to do schematically and what Vic Fongio does schematically. It's not a good setup.

I like the Jags here. All right, let's move on to the Baltimore Ravens and Lamar Jackson. increasingly looking like Lamar will not go. This is run out to all the way to Falcons favored by three and a half. This is a nine and a half point line swing in a week, Colin. This is crazy. However, Jesse Minter is optimistic that there isn't much of a change offensive-wise when you go from Lamar Jackson to Tyler Huntley.

Take a listen. I think the system of our offense and what we do doesn't have to change a whole lot. you know, a lot of the plays, especially whether it's when we're under center and running a lot of those types of things. He can do all that. He can make a lot of those same plays. You know, obviously, Lamar's magic is what it is. And he's the, you know, the best quarterback in the league for a reason. But we got a lot of confidence in Snoop, if that's the way it goes.

Tyler Huntley, to me, is a top five backup in the league. I remember, was it last year they played the Bears? Tyler Huntley won by two scores. Like I think Tyler Huntley is fine. And I do think stylistically, they play a little bit of the same game. I mean, there's one Lamar Jackson. Yes. But I think Baltimore is more than just the quarterback.

It's organizational. They just made a trade offensive line. That's not going to materialize perhaps yet. But I think Baltimore, I stayed away from this game. This is not in my pay. I just, you know, all of a sudden I'm supposed to believe Baltimore is going to fold like a chair. Like, that's just not the Ravens. Well, I don't know if fold so much a struggle.

but he mentor makes a good point. Remember the Giants had the running quarterback in Jackson Dart? And then their backup is James Winston, who's a statue. Yeah. That is tough. You have to reshape the offense. And it's been a tough go for the Giants. The Seahawks have Darnold and Drew Locke, both better than average arms and both can move.

Like that's the perfect situation. So this Raven situation does work, right? Lamarda Huntley. Obviously, it's a big drop off. They did not score in the second half. Now, I think there was like a math property I learned in like fifth grade where if X and Y, then, you know, A and B. So the Saints went to Baltimore and beat the Ravens. The Falcons just went to the Saints and kicked their butts all over the field on Monday night football.

Something's going to go down. I don't know what's going to happen. Can they continue? The Falcons have scored 80 points, Colin, in the last two weeks on the road. They're not going to keep doing that. Remember, they're bringing out panics. Nobody has tons of film on Panics with Stefansky. You have two games of it.

So like, Penix had been in the sport, but you didn't have, you don't have video. You don't have film of what Stefansky's doing with Panics. So you have these microburst moments, two and three and four game, you know, like, like what people just don't know what to expect. You're on your heels. And I think panic, you and I are both, I'm a big Pennix fan. I like, I thought, I think he's a good kid. I mean, Kaelin DeBore's offense is not simple. He was very good at Washington.

Stefansky's offense is not simple. He's figured that out. So that's a kid that puts in the time, puts in the film study. I've met him before. He's a really nice kid. There's no ego with penics at all. So I think it's going to work. But let's slow the jets a little bit.

A lot of this is, here's this new quarterback with this offensive coach. And everybody's on their heels because you don't. I mean, that first series Atlanta had against the Saints, I mean, it was clever. It was like zigzag, motions and Bejohn Robinson. It's like, whoa, whoa, whoa, this is a, this is fast and quick. And I don't know. It's exciting.

You mentioned the first series. I thought when the Saints cut it to 14, like at late third, early fourth, and like, okay, Falcons, are you going to screw this up? And Stafansky came out and the first down, not a run, beautiful play action, Kyle pitched 20 yards. Saints did not see it coming. And they're still throwing. Yeah.

I love what I've seen from Safansky. Yeah. Kyle, it's weird. With Cooper Rush, the Falcons maybe look like 30. or 32 in the NFL. With Pennix, to me, they're closer to like 12 to 15. Is that fair? Yeah, I think.

Are they knocking on the door, the blade's hard hierarchy? I say this all the time. Everybody wins when we find another offensive coach with a franchise quarterback. Atlanta's fun to watch. By the way, they had this running back. They had this star receiver. They had this offensive line pre-Sefansky. And Panics, by the way, had 12 starts pre-Stofansky.

He was average. Then you watch it with Stavansky and it's like, oh, crap. All these guys were here. Atlanta was here. Same owner, same front office. I mean, Matt Ryan's in now. But everything was here. They just needed Stofansky to be able to like, you know, the maestro.

Michael Pennix needed an offensive guy between Kailen DeBore and Stifansky. You can do worse as a quarterback getting coaches. For sure. Final story. Aaron Rogers in Pittsburgh, Colin. A week ago, we all saw Rogers, F-bomb his coach, get to play. blah, blah, blah, it was ugly. Well, wouldn't you know it?

But Rogers was asked about the exchange, and he had a little, I don't know if there's a dust-up, a brouhaha, a skirmish. Take a listen, him and a reporter. I'm not going to touch that one. Anybody else? Does that include the interaction with Mike about how to get him in quicker?

Yeah, Mike and I have talked. Ironed out? It's always ironed out. See, that just the normal way you guys? Medicaid? Sometimes, yeah. Have you found it to be effective? Yeah, yeah. You've had a lot of success together.

Have you found it to be successful? Yelling the F word at your coach in the middle of a Thursday night. I've said this. I wasn't here last Friday. That's right. Oh, that's right. Yes, yes. Okay, I defend Aaron Rogers.

I'm going to defend Aaron Rogers. Here's why. If I'm a quarterback, get the play in. You've been coaching for 30 years. Get the playing. The faster a quarterback gets the ball, gets to play, the more Aaron can manipulate at the line of scrimmage. I have also defended quarterbacks for years barking at coaches.

Brady barked at Josh McDaniels. Peyton Manning barked at Saturday and Saturday barked back. Mahomes has barked at Eric B. Enemy. In the middle of a game, I have no problem with Aaron Rogers or any professional athlete clearing the air. and being confrontational. I have no problem. I have problem when Aaron's passive-aggressive

when he was in Green Bay taking leads like bailed shots at people. That bothers me. I have no problem with Aaron lighting up McCarthy. Get the play in. You've been in the league 40 years. So for the record, this was in the first quarter scoreless game, like six minutes into the game, not in the red zone. You sure you don't think it was an overreaction at all?

No, I don't. I will, I will, I'm going to defend. quarterbacks, coaches on the field, snipping at an OC, a teammate, a cent. By the way, you can snip back. But folks, you know, us in the media, we always stick a camera in or a mic in after a heated moment. I mean, that's because of all, all of our jobs mostly,

aren't on in public. Now, mine is, but most people are, you know, they're at work in a law office, in a hospital emergency room. It's okay to clear the air and bark. Once again, I'm defending Aaron Rogers. I can't believe I don't get Christmas cards from that guy. J. Mack with the news. Well, that's the news.

And thanks for stopping by. The Herd Live. God, I haven't even gotten to the Brewers win yet. I got Greg Kosal. Eric Caros around the corner. It's the Herd. Be sure to catch live editions of The Herd weekdays in noon Eastern, 9 a.m. Pacific. An I-Heart Radio Experience.

Carly Pierce, live at the Opera House, October 16th. Win your way in to the exclusive IHeartRadio sound check party, an intimate pre-show performance and Q&A. And then stay for the full show. I don't leave I'm going to stay. Lee Pierce, live in Toronto. Enter now for your chance to win at Iheartradio.ca. Stream Carly's new album, Honest Woman. Available now.

Dodgers' all-time home run leader since they moved to L.A., 14 years in the Biggs. Dodger TV analysts for several years. Our friend Eric Caros is now joining us live 12 hours after the Dodgers played nearly a perfect baseball game. I mean, nobody, like your top three hitters didn't do much. Mookie didn't do much. Freddie or Otani, I thought they played really well. And you and I were talking during the break,

before we get into Milwaukee, Atlanta is a good team, but there's an argument they weren't. How do you view the Braves? They're good. They're a good ball club, but I think the difference was much greater than some of the scores. I, you know, Atlanta, Atlanta would have to play perfect baseball to move on. The Dodgers, you know, the Dodgers, the Dodgers played well, but they didn't play, you know, as well as they can play, right? They had one, one base hit the entire series with runners in scoring position, and that was the Andy Pahez, you know, base hit last night.

So, you know, again, can they do things better? yes, but the Dodgers are just so darn deep, right? You know, you talk about them playing perfect baseball. They're not weak in any one area. You can say they're not as strong as they are in other areas, you know, the starting pitching elite. The offense, again, it hit home runs. It didn't, it didn't create a lot of traffic and get base hits with runners in scoring position. The defense, good, the bullpen a lot better than people probably had thought going in. of the postseason. But again, the Dodgers are on paper and the way they're going right now, they're as good as anybody. Milwaukee's interesting. They're the Tampa of the National League where,

I mean, they lost their GM to a richer team. They lost their manager to the richer Cubs, and they got better. They do everything well. The question is, can they hit Dodger pitching? Bodger pitching is at next level than San Diego. But your take on what the Brewers, I mean, 103 wins. Eric, that is rarefied air. You can't have a lot of flaws with 103 wins. Well, they come to play every single day. They grind. They don't give away anything.

And I don't know. So offensively, I don't know if it's necessarily the hitting part as much as it's controlling the strike zone. And that means don't expand. Don't chase pitches out of the zone. Take your walks. Be patient. Just kind of wear down this Dodger pitching staff.

I mean, that's really the. M.O that they're going to have to create offensively. You know, from a pitching standpoint, they've got Mizorowski, who's as good as anybody. And actually, if you look at his splits, he dominates left-handers, much better against left-handed hitting than he is against right-handers. The Dodgers, again, are top-heavy on the left side. So, you know, that could help Milwaukee, obviously. Henderson, the number two starter.

I think at the end of the day, this thing's going to come down to Brewer's bullpen and matchup against the Dodgers' depth position player-wise and what Dave Roberts creates. And I'm looking forward to it as a fan. I think it's going to be a great series. You were a star for the Dodgers, but it is fascinating to watch Kike Hernandez, a utility infielder, two nights ago be the star. Andy Paix has last year benched in the World Series, comes back and makes the defensive play of the year. baseball, arguably. And then last night, three and two count, two runners on, three runners on, two out. You're like, what is it about the culture of the Dodgers where role players seem to play over their head in big spots consistently? Well, I think when we say playing over their head,

maybe, you know, Tiki is locked in in the postseason. He's talked about it. He's talked about the moments, the focus. And, you know, during the course of a regular season, it's, you know, it's long and it's a grind. And, you know, TK's not playing every day during the regular season, but the postseason, you know, he gets the call and, you know, the everything is heightened. And so, you know, maybe that's it. But his numbers, I mean, he's been unbelievable in the postseason. Andy Pott has, you have to credit Andy just for continuing to grind because postseason has not been his friend. Yes, he a great catch last year. Look, he had the big hit last night. You have to credit his perseverance. And this guy, you know, he was an all-star this year. The guy is an excellent player. And so when we're

looking at the Dodgers, we like to, you know, it's Shohei and Freddie and Mookie and Munts and Wilson, all these, you know, the superstars, Teo. And sometimes we forget just because we're running out of a room to talk about certain guys, right? But these guys are also excellent ballplayers. Like I said, Pottes was an all-star. You know, Tommy Edmund, you know, has been a postseason MVP. TK, you know, I saw something the other day. TK., when you put his postseason numbers up against Reggie Jackson, Mr. October, there, I mean, you could interchange them. It's crazy. It's crazy. You know, we were talking about the Yankees. There is, almost an apathy, maybe is the wrong word. But they become a very good regular season.

team, but if you take out wins over the American League Central in the playoffs, they don't beat elite teams. I saw him meltdown against Tampa defensively. I saw him in a game five against the Dodgers in World Series melt down. Whereas the Dodgers have a great farm system. They're good defensively. The only thing the Dodgers don't do is run. They don't steal bases, which they shouldn't, because when you have that much power, don't run out of innings. So other than that, you know, the Dodgers do everything well. The Yankees are good at the top, but it feels like when you put pressure on them, they get exposed. They're not very analytically driven.

When you watch the Yankees, they don't have, to me, the Pahas, or they don't have, it feels like it's Judge, it's Cam, Schlittler. I don't know. I just don't feel like it's, for all the money, I don't feel like I have depth of athleticism or what do you see? Well, I think you hit it right on the head. You don't have the depth. I mean, you've got athleticism, right?

Jazz Chisholm. is very athletic. You know, Lombard is super athletic. So maybe it's, you know, you just have to garner the experience. There is a lot of, there's a lot of swing and miss there. You know, look, if the Yankees for me are offensively, I don't want to say you take judge out of that lineup and it's a completely different animal. You look at the Dodgers and the reality is, is Shohei is still in the lineup,

but Shohei is not his 50-50 guy right now. Right. Yet the Dodgers just won a series without a lot of production from Shohei. And I don't know that the Yankees can withstand that, right? They just don't have the depth. And, you know, again, you can get into some of the miscues defensively. You know, the pitching staff for me is elite, the starting staff. I just, I'm not sure that they're suited.

They're suited to play a certain type of baseball. Right. I don't know that they match up, and we just saw it. They certainly don't match up well against the race. The Dodgers, on the other hand, it doesn't matter what type of team you put in front of them. They're going to be able to compete, and for the most part, they're going to come out ahead. I'm not sure that you can say the Yankees are that type of ball club. They're more, they're not as multi-dimensional, you know, certainly as what we just saw is the race.

Yeah. As always, Eric Caros, it's great seeing you. Thanks for getting up. I don't know what time you get up. You have kids. Not early is. Yeah, yeah. 10 o'clock out here. Come on, Colin. Hey, thanks a lot. Be well, my friend. All right, Eric Caros. Yeah, I mean, talking about that Brewer's Padres series, the Padres had 110 million more on payroll, and they have stars. But they're four through nine guys, compared to the Brewers' Four through Nine guys, the Brewers Four through Nine guys had ten more hits. and that was the difference in the series

is that this will be the third time that the Brewers are in the NLCS and they've been beaten twice for the Dodgers. Take the Dodgers out, the Brewers being the World Series. So they have really been, I mean, they have really been a gold standard of how to do it. It's probably better for baseball that the Brewers beat the Dodgers.

I don't know if they will. This Dodger team's different, though. This Dodger team's a pitching rich Dodger team. Last year's Dodger team was better at the plate. You know, they had a better slugging percentage, more extra base hits. But the Brewers are, you know, the Padres stars, the Brave Stars and the Dodgers stars didn't hit. The Padre stars did.

Their one, two, and three hitters all had hits last night. The Brewers' top eight guys all had hits. The difference is the Padres don't have the depth of starting pitching that the Dodgers do. So here's Pat Murphy on moving again to the NLCS. It's always talking about team, talking about trust, talking about belief. They're not the best guys in the world individually, but not to take anything away. some great players, but they've committed to play as a team, and that sounds old-fashioned, and I'm old, so hell it works, but it's really what it is, you know, and they trust each other,

and it's beautiful. It's beautiful to see. Yeah, a lot of low payroll teams still alive. There was a book written years ago. It was called The Millionaire Next Door, and it was about, you know, school teachers that buy only used cars, pay off their mortgage, max their retirement accounts. And you look up and they're like the millionaires and this small paid off, beautiful little house, very intentional. That's a little bit like Milwaukee. They just, they have a ton of depth. They have really, really good players. They don't have an Otani or a Freddie Freeman maybe.

But they have really good players. And again, they lose their GM. They lose their manager to rich, rich teams. And it doesn't matter. 103 wins. So Tampa and the Reyes, Tampa and the Brewers are Yankees and the Dodgers. Right. So you have these matchups.

I think I like Los Angeles only due to the depth of starting pitching. Edwin Diaz now for the Dodgers out of the bullpen has his velocity back. It's probably better for baseball if the Brewers win. This is an I-Heart podcast. Guaranteed Human.