The Ryen Russillo Podcast - MLB Is Back! (Kind Of?) With Jeff Passan. Plus, How Much to Believe in the Cavs, Clippers, and Zion.

Episode Date: March 20, 2025

Russillo starts the pod by exploring which NBA teams or players we are being tricked by (0:36). Then, he’s joined by Jeff Passan to discuss Shohei Ohtani and the Dodgers' deferrals, the hierarchy of the NL East, and which teams are in contention to win the AL (17:25). Plus, Life Advice with Ceruti and Kyle (1:20:46)! How do I reconcile with my wife after a hall pass mishap? Check us out on YouTube for exclusive clips, livestreams, and more at https://www.youtube.com/@RyenRussilloPodcast. The Ringer is committed to responsible gaming. Please visit www.rg-help.com to learn more about the resources and helplines available. Host: Ryen Russillo Guest: Jeff Passan Producers: Steve Ceruti, Kyle Crichton, Mike Wargon, and Jonathan Frias Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

On today's episode, we've got a full MLB preview with Jeff Passant. Why the Dodgers are good for baseball. Whoa, what a tease. I'm going to do some NBA stuff. I want to get in front of this Clippers thing because they look good. I know you don't want to hear it. I know you don't want to believe it, but a larger conversation about being tricked by things in the NBA and life advice.

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You don't see how the birds sing to you. Anna Lee Ashford and Dennis Quaid star. I am not responsible for what my dad did. The score and how you hoped. Happy Face new series now streaming exclusively on Paramount+. Let's start with a little NBA today before we get to a big hour long preview of Jeff Pass and the life advice. I want to talk about the last couple of nights in the league. The Clippers, two nights ago, beat the Cavs at home 132-119.

And why am I bringing up a game from two days ago? Because I thought it was that important. Not so much on the Cavs side. I'm not that worried about it. I think going into this West coast swing, they were 18 and three against the West. I know they dropped the back to back against Sacramento. I'd probably touch on that a little. I love the Cavs.

I'm not going to worry about it. Maybe one little small worry that I'll get to here in a few minutes, but this is really at the beginning about the Clippers. Like, are you seriously going to talk Clippers? Yeah. I think we need to talk a little Clippers. And I know what you're going to say. Like, are you actually going to fall for this for solo? It's a fair question. And maybe it's the right way to ask me that. But

let's just break this down a little bit. So remember last year when the Clippers beat Boston and Boston? I thought that was the single most impressive win by any team in any game in the entire 23-24 season. It was incredible. Flippers last year started the season three and seven, the hardened. Reentry was not great. Looked pretty bad. Then they went 31 and eight and they were rolling. We even did a breakout video. I was like, this looks like the best team in the NBA.

They finished 17 and 16 and then injury struck again. Playoffs, Dallas, doesn't even matter. Kauai had 33 against the Cavs two nights ago. His March numbers, 36 minutes a game, 25, six and didn't even matter. Kui had 33 against the Cavs two nights ago. His March numbers, 36 minutes a game, 25, six and a half boards, three assists. He's 51, 40% from the floor. He's now taking almost 20 shots a game, which is up from 16 in February. A lot of this has minutes even going back to January as well.

But look, he's right back to his career shooting numbers. You could look at the free throw attempts and the rebounding decline there, especially in the free throw side of it, and see those, those are kind of the signs of age for a perimeter scorer. You start getting a little bit worried when you see the free throw attempts go down, but of all the things you could look at numbers wise for him,

you know, that's the only one that really jumps out. But I thought the thing that I really loved from him is there was a couple of times Mitchell's trying to bring the ball up late fourth quarter possessions. I do think the Cavs, I was tracking good misses and some coaches kind of drive me crazy, you know, to get your ass kicked. And it's like, you know, we had a lot of good looks the entire night. It's like, are you just saying, does everybody just say that all the time?

Or is that a weird kind of, Hey, we run good stuff. Those guys miss shots. I think it's probably all of those things. But even though I like some of the Cavs misses during that fourth quarter stretch, where I was looking at it, Mitchell, like Kawhi, wanted to pick him up at half court. Like he got into him a couple possessions,

like just on him. And you're like, he's the effort level in his movement again. And you're like, this is kind of what it's supposed to look like with Kawhi. And then of course you've got Zubox who goes off. Norm has barely been back. He's been back three games,

but it's really only been two. If you look at the season numbers for this group, offensively they've been 18th, defensively they've been third. There was definitely a priority in kind of switchable wings and different perimeter options for this team defensively. Last 15th, it's been a bit, the last 15 games I should say,

it's been a bit of a pivot from where they were. They're better offensively at 11th. Defensively, they've fallen off to kind of middle of the pack the last month. I don't know if this is a priority change or if it's just the Kwai's coming back. So let me dig into that a little bit deeper. If you wanna go last eight, again, winning seven of eight,

the offense is second in the league. That sampling feels just like, do we mislead ourselves with some of that stuff? You know who the number one offense in the last eight games, just to emphasize the thing I'm doing here, San Antonio's number one in offense, right? So does that actually mean, hey, that's the best offense in basketball?

Well, yeah, for eight games. So defensively, they've been sixth. They shoot it really well. So the point that I'm kind of making here is that have they philosophically pivoted from, let's just be really good defensively and we're not gonna be so good on offense, or is it that Kauai is back

to like a fully formed offensive version of Kauai, so the offense is just going to be better and they're gonna play some of the defensive minute players, less minutes here. The Ben Simmons thing kind of feels done a little bit. Chris Dunn does play. There's also some shooting stuff here where if you really dig into it in March, you've got Daniel Jones, but Donovich coffee.

And by the way, I can never quite figure out McDonnidge. I've always liked him, but then I'm like, do I like him too much? Is he actually not that good? He's always been able to shoot it, but I always thought like there were moments of Sacramento and early Atlanta with Buck Donovitch where it was like, you know, he's not just some guy that spaces the floor, he actually is pretty athletic and he gets into his stuff. If he's shut off, he can find a way with his dribble to find himself room to get

off a better shot, as opposed to some of these catch and shoot guys, as soon as you move them off the spot, they have no chance of ever resetting and then shooting again. It's another why, the reason why whenever I argue about shooters, I'm like, I catch and shoot guys, as soon as you move them off the spot, they have no chance of ever resetting and then shooting again. It's another reason why whenever I argue about shooters, I'm like, I don't want to just look at three point percentage and say, this guy's a better shooter than this one because the three point percentage is better. We should be able to look at the players and be like, okay, but is that guy only

good at shooting from this spot and only good in this scenario, or can he do it off the catch, can he do it off the dribble? You know, again, it's why step is always going to be the standard. So if you look at the dispersal of three point shots in March, you have 14 shots from four players, but Donavich, coffee, but tomb and Derek Jones, junior, where their percentages are 52, 44, 53, and 41% from those four players individually again on 14 shots. So are those shots, you know, could be the shooting variants part of it.

Um, but are those shots just better shots now, because you have two on ball creators where Harden is going to get you the numbers, he's going to put you in some good possessions. I think sometimes he passes up on shots that surprises me and then takes other ones that I don't know why he took them. Sure. He's going to slow you down. I don't need to do another hard and rant with this, but for what they needed from

him, especially in the non-Kawaii stretches of the season, he was a huge win for them. Sure. He's going to slow you down. I don't need to do another hardened rant with this, but for what they needed from him, especially in the non-Kawaii stretches of the season, he was a huge win for them. And again, really I should say three on ball guys, because once norm is back to full norm Powell, that's three on ball guys that they're all really going to like. So maybe the offense is just going to be better because of everything that we're talking about here. Um, Zubots love them. is going to be better because of everything that we're talking about here. Um, Zubots love them.

You can get into some of the rim protection filters and not love all of the stuff. But at the same time, if you look at the six foot in sorting stuff, there's some really good numbers based on expected field goal percentage. I think there's probably always a bit of a concern depending on a playoff matchup, if ZU, does he get in the way on some of the matchups without him out there? Do they have a five out option? You know, him being this traditional center, you know, does that work against some teams,

not working against other teams? Is he a guy that's like, man, he's so underrated to, hey, they need to take him out for these eight minutes because this isn't going to work. Maybe all those things are on the table. I guess I just really like him. I love his effort. I love how hard he's played and the player that he's turned himself into, and

that he's just going to make rebounding an absolute bitch for you. And the fact that, you know, he had some plays where he was just ceiling the big guys for Cleveland and physically like they weren't really going to mess him up all that much. So there's just a lot of stuff here. I like about the Kawhi version of the Clippers, but enough to trick me. That's kind of really what we're asking ourselves here. Like, are you going to fall for this?

Are you going to allow the Clippers to trick you into this? Cause they're the seventh seed today. Um, you know, they're a game out behind Golden State in the sixth spot. They're tied with Minnesota. Who's dropped a couple when I want to get to a thought on them really quickly. This whole two through eight. I mean, look, Minnesota is not catching Houston as their five and a half back. Houston's a two seed today.

But what if it were the Clippers Houston, this version of the Clippers seven, two against Houston? That's not a walkover, man. It's not. And if you're just going to hit me back with somebody's going to get hurt from that team, because they always get hurt. Yeah, it's fine. The history would tell you that you're right, but that's not really analysis.

I'm just saying, be prepared. If this continues through the rest of the regular season, be prepared for people picking the Clippers in the regular season, be prepared for people picking the Clippers in the first round and then get real wild with the thoughts. But again, it gets back to, am I going to let the Clippers trick me again here? Cause it's just a lot cooler to just be dismissive and say, nah, that's fine. Right. Uh, I think, no, look, I actually don't think that's cooler.

I just think it's, uh, the preferred way of talking about this team. But that game two nights ago was special. All right. That was special effort. Look, I actually don't think that's cooler. I just think it's the preferred way of talking about this team. But that game two nights ago was special. All right. That was special effort. Cleveland was geared up for it. Um, Cleveland's lost last night. They didn't have Garland.

You could go to the back to back, but look, you want to talk about teams, not having dudes, no Levine, no Sabonis obviously for Sacramento, they played their asses off the Rosen was. Incredible again in the fourth quarter. And there's even a little Cleveland thing there where I've talked about, where I didn't care if they had swept Boston the regular season, there was no way I was going to pick them against the Celtics in the playoffs. That's how I felt.

Trade deadline, they bring in Hunter. At least they have some kind of body to be able to come up against the wings because there were just too many times in the Celtics where it felt like between white, even Drew Holliday, but then more importantly, Brown and Tatum. It's like these perimeter guys are going to get stuck in constant bad matchups and I don't know how I could pick against Boston knowing that that's going to happen. So have I overrated the Hunter acquisition by just at least having that option? There's an argument to be made that I have overrated it, but again, I just liked the pickup for them.

And then I was watching it specifically last night with the DeRozan matchup, because then at one point I'm like, why isn't Hunter on DeRozan? Well, that didn't last very long. And then I'm watching Hunter, I'm like, is he a little too upright? Is there something about him defensively, even with the length and athleticism,

that there's not, like I'm giving him too much credit as this defensive option against the Celtics in the east. And then they were actually switching into Mobley where he got Mobley on a layup and then he hit Mobley for a step back jumper where Mobley played it perfectly on the step back. But DeRozan got him up on the first one. And it's like, well, are they switching off a Hunter

for a reason or is it because they just want Mobley away from the hoop and sometimes you just want the center and the action or the power forward, you know, depending on what you want to do with Mowgli because Alan was out there with him. So look, wild night at the Rossello household last night with all these thoughts running around in my head, but you know, you watch this many games,

you're like, what would I allow myself to be tricked into? Am I tricking myself into Hunter? Am I tricking myself into the Clippers? Am I tricking myself into Zion? Did you guys see Zion last night? I mean, they beat Minnesota hunter? Am I tricking myself into the Clippers? Am I tricking myself into Zion? Did you guys see Zion last night? I mean, they beat Minnesota and Minnesota, just a brutal stretch for them in the last two games. You're coming home. He take out the magic. Everybody's taken out the jazz. How about them and the wizards last night battling it out? Um,

they lose to the Pacers who are missing their top guys for the most part. Obi Toppin turns into Steph Curry in that game. And then you lose to the Pelicans if you're Minnesota because Zion, I don't know who he is right now, but he is so pissed off at everybody. He is playing the game angry. He had, it wasn't the steal. It was a, it was basically a turnover on a fumble pass. He picked it up loose ball, beats everybody down the court. It's one of the rare times where Julius Randall just like, I don't care, I'm not getting back for this. Cause he wasn't going to catch him.

He had a coast to coast that was nuts. His passing where he knows if he's getting into trouble, where he's going to go with it. He had a pass from the right side, which was like way beyond the three point line to the left corner. Like the pass I was like, how did he like, I didn't, I was not familiar. Look, I should say I'm familiar with this game.

Um, but yeah, I'm getting tricked into Zion again here a little bit, or, or the Pelicans getting tricked into it, or is there another market that's getting tricked into it because he has been on fire? You know, look, nobody wants to get tricked. Am I DMing a redhead or is this AI again? You know, is it worse to DM AI or get a response from the DM on AI? So yeah, just some thoughts here.

And then of course we have to close it out with the San Antonio Spurs. Yeah, there's just some teams hitting some lot. Like these losses from Minnesota based on the seeding stuff and home court, like they're super frustrating, but Zion just loves playing the Timberwolves. And again, you'd have to watch that Pacers game to see what

Obie Toppin did to understand like, how did they lose that one? Then you get the Knicks going out to San Antonio last night where San Antonio just put it on him. The whole time I expected the Knicks to come back and win this game. It's starting to feel like maybe the Jaylen Brunson minutes are missed here a bit. And then of course, speaking of minutes, Sandro Memo Keleshvili, 19 minutes, 34 points, 13 and 14 from the floor, seven and seven from three. You want to talk about being in the zone. This dude was firing up threes where they knew, You want to talk about being in the zone. This dude was firing up threes where they knew,

he knew it was good while it was still in his hands, not out of the hands, still in his hands. You can just tell when somebody knows they're feeling it, when they start backpedaling, not in the dismissive, arrogant way that we can see some of our favorite players do it, but Mammoth was just like, yep, that's in too. And I mean, Cat was getting frustrated frustrated like this is the time where cats not

closing out where I'm like, I don't even know you can get mad at cat on any of this stuff. So if you had never watched an NBA game and saw Mamu doing what he was doing last night, I think there was a number of hit 20 points in nine minutes or something. If you had never watched NBA game, you'd be like, oh, so that guy's like, is anybody better at the

game of basketball in the world than Sandro? Um, yes, technically he's not right. I mean, I'm not going to put him in my top 100 for the ringer probably. And he was just happy, you know, shout out to the Seton hall guys out there. But after the game, I don't watch every Chris Paul press conference live, obviously, I don't watch every Chris Paul press conference live, obviously, but I caught his answer and Chris Paul elder statesman 40 in June, I believe. So just put that in your calendar

if you wanna send him a nice note. I thought Chris, I talk about this game a lot and let me pick that up. Is there any way I can just pick up the Chris Paul transition? Right. Right. I have one final thought on all of this and it is spurs related. It's about Chris Paul, the elder statesman of this group. He turns 40, I believe in June. So, you know, if you want to put that one in your... wait, I'm gonna start this over again, cause I actually think I'm wrong there.

Yeah, it's May. How about is that embarrassing that I knew the birthday was wrong? Is it embarrassing? I got it wrong or knew that it was wrong as I was doing it. All right. Three, two and one. A final thought on the spurs. Um, because I was watching the press conference with Chris Paul. I don't watch all of them live. The elder statesman of the Spurs team, 39 now, is going to be 40 May

6th. So if you could put that in your calendar, maybe send him a nice note. I'm sure he'd appreciate that. But I talk about the closing moments of this game constantly. Who are you in the last few minutes? Who are you as a player in those playoff moments where nothing is working? And can you solve the problem? Right? The same way I talk about quarterbacks, it's really about problem solving. Um, and every sport has their version of this, but I thought I want to end this

with just some wisdom of Chris Paul. Cause you should, if you're not going to listen to me, listen to him talk about the levels of this game of basketball. Chris Paul The NBA is about margins, right? Just like with anything is the details. Everything is when you watch games night in and night out. The league teams in this league, the last five minutes of the game is a different game. You know, the shots that you take, the defense that you play, everything is different. And when you learn that, you start to understand that, it makes you a better team.

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Opt-in required refund issued is not with travel bonus bets that expire seven days after receipt. Max refund $5 unless otherwise specified. Restrictions apply including token expiration. See terms at sportsbook.fandool.com. bets that expire seven days after receipt, max refund $5 unless otherwise specified restrictions apply including token expiration. See terms at sportsbook.fandl.com. Gambling problem call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit rg-help.com. Excited to do this with opening day just around the corner. Jeff Passon ESPN, the title list Jeff Passon joins us. So look, if we start with the opening day, you know, just kind of a tradition now of like, oh, it's opening day. Like, yeah, it's Japan.

Um, you know, I could see the arguments why it still should be this day where everybody's kind of on the same page. And I think almost, it's not even a baseball thing. So much stuff just gets lost in the movement of the day to day, the speed at which things move and, you know, whatever. We'll figure it out when all the stadiums here are open. So, you know, is it something that no one should really be that upset about anymore or do you look at it as something where, you know, people shouldn't forget that MLB opening day has already happened?

I understand why people would rather have it domestically, but if I'm Major League Baseball, I want to go where people want to see me play. In Japan, those that first game, they had 25 million people domestically in Japan watching the game. The atmosphere at Tokyo Dome was unlike anything you will see in a major league baseball stadium in the United States. It was it was a closer facsimile to Winterball down in the Dominican Republic, where baseball is life. And, you know, when we look at where baseball is in the landscape

of American sports right now. At best, third, I mean, the NFL is like one through five, but NFL, college football, NBA, then maybe baseball. You can make an argument for college basketball, even though it's mostly a one to two month sport. But baseball just doesn't resonate here like it used to. And then you go to Japan, it is clearly the number one sport, the best player in the world and the best player maybe we've ever seen is from there. And it is ubiquitous. I mean, Shohei Otani, if you go read Tim Kuhn's story on ESPN.com, Shohei Otani is the biggest celebrity in the entire country.

And you have Yoshinobu Yamamoto starting against Shota Imanaga in game one. And you have Roki Sasaki pitching for the Dodgers in game two. And I guess I would counter the people that say, why would you start there with? Why wouldn't you start there? Why wouldn't you capitalize on this idea that we wanna be where people want to see us play and we want that atmosphere that we simply don't get in the United States.

So maybe that behavior can be modeled and replicated here. And I would love a world, Ryan, in which Major League Baseball, domestically here in the United States, has the passion that they do in Japan and in Latin America and in other places around the world where it does remain the number one sport. When it first happened, I did not like it.

I didn't just like the idea. Even thinking of how you would do a show and be like, it's bad if we're going into work, not thinking about opening day as a topic today. Um, but I think bigger picture, I can understand it, even though I think some of the baseball decisions going back to see like, we're always kind of quick fixes, not having the eye on the longterm part of this, but you know, if you look at attendance increase, back-to-back years, the first time in over a decade, if you look at some of the local television deals that you've seen,

I always joked about this, but if you worked for baseball, if you worked on the business side of things and you sit in the room, maybe it's not a bad thing if we own this one or two month part nationally, because I still think the baseball playoffs product itself is up there with, I think, anything. It's tough to argue with playoff hockey, but the drama around that, the fact that it's been expanded, which I don't necessarily love because I think it makes the six months kind of irrelevant and just the model of who you have to be for six months as a team versus who you need to be for a few weeks as a team.

It's like, well, what was the point? It's like, well, the point was we get to sell all of that local television revenue. So, you know, like cool theory, but when I look at college basketball, it is not even close to being the same. I used to watch it more than the NBA. I used to look forward to Big Monday,

the Pac-12 games late at night. I loved all of that stuff. And now it just doesn't even register for me. But I know with the tournament starting today, like I can't wait. I can't wait to just dig into this thing. And that maybe just having yourself positioned for a moment is the most important thing. Because I just don't think that daily consciousness nationally at baseball is coming all the way back. Anyway, look, I don't want to turn that into a conversation that we've already had a bunch of different times. So let's just pivot it to the Dodgers then. Anyway, look, I don't want to turn that into a conversation that we've already had a bunch of different times.

So let's just pivot it to the Dodgers then, because the headlines, whether it was last off season, this off season, the billion dollars in deferrals, them taking the mantle, I think at least conversationally from the Yankees, where you just looked at the Yankees, and of course, back in the day when I was super into it, you used to drive me crazy. I'm like, they win because they just get to pay

for the best player every single time. And now the Dodgers is doing it in a way where it's not just getting the best players available, it's deferring the money, which appears to like, is a new tier of pissed off-ness from other fan bases. It is, and I'll be honest, like, I don't think it's earned. And I'm going to explain why now. Understandably, fans are angry that the Dodgers are spending

as much as they are compared to everyone else, because if we look at their payroll this year, let's just toss out the deferrals for a second. If we look at their payroll, what they are paying players, what they're paying in luxury tax, they are going to be over a half billion dollars. And there are some teams in Major League Baseball that aren't even spending a hundred million dollars. And so the disparity between the Dodgers and not just those low level teams, but if you look at the Phillies and the Yankees and the Mets and other teams that are sort of in that

three hundred million dollar range, like it's a big gap there as well. But I think the Dodgers, they understand that Shohei Otani is not going to be in his prime forever. And Mookie Betts is going toward the end of his prime and Freddie Freeman is going toward the end of his. And I had this conversation with someone yesterday. If you're the Pittsburgh Pirates and you have Paul Skeens and Jared Jones and Mitch Keller, and you have Bubba Chandler coming, you have all these pitchers who you either know you're going to trade a couple of years down the road, or maybe they going to go out. Why don't you go for it right now? Why don't you not just use that window, but open it yourself? I think the Dodgers see that there's a window here for their stars and they're trying to

capitalize on it and maximize it as much as they possibly can. And they have used the tool of deferrals to do so. Now I'm not going to say deferrals get a bad name, but I think they're misunderstood. I love that phrase. Yeah. Go ahead. Sho Shohei Otani is having 680 million of the $700 million. He's guaranteed Ryan deferred for 10 years. He is making $2 million a year.

That doesn't mean though that the Dodgers are paying only $2 million. What they have to do because of the collective bargaining agreement and rules in place and the Arizona Diamondbacks almost ending up in bankruptcy because they deferred too much money and couldn't pay it, they put guardrails in there.

And so the Dodgers have to take about $46 million in cash every year and just sock it away into an account that is going to grow to $70 million a decade down the road. Also, let's acknowledge deferrals are actually good for players. Like if this was not benefiting players, they would not be saying, Oh, you know what? Go ahead, corporation. Keep my money for the next decade out of the goodness of my heart.

And because I'm a kind person. No, they're doing this because what you can do with deferred money, with signing bonus money, especially if you're a team in California, is that you can get tax free. This is just a tax play by players. And the Dodgers are taking advantage of it, whereas other teams in California have not done so. So yeah, is it shitty to look at it and say, oh, they're just putting this off for years to come and

that's how they're winning? Yeah, I mean, it's not ideal and it just feeds the fire of the Los Angeles Dodgers being the new evil empire. But the notion that deferrals are why the Dodgers are in the position that they're in or that they're really all that big of a deal, I don't buy that. I think it's just a tool that they're using better than others, and it happens to align with how the Dodgers operate.

They do most things better than others. They draft better than others. They develop players better than others. They scout in Latin America better than others. They convince players that you want to be on this team better than others, and that's how you get this juggernaut built. It's not one thing. It's a confluence of all of these little areas in which they excel. What's new about Otani? He's pitching again. Like we're going to get that version. You know, last year's version of

Shohei Otani, I don't know if it was my favorite, but it was the most surprising and all this guy has done his entire career because I'm a rube who doesn't believe that outliers like I can't predict outliers. I couldn't have ever fathomed what Otani's career would look like at the beginning. Didn't think he could go both ways. Wrote a story, his first spring training, saying he couldn't hit. Felt like an asshole pretty quick. And eventually got back to the point where it's like, okay, yeah, he can do this.

Then it was, there's no way he can sustain this. His body can't hold up mentally. He can't hold up. I guess what? He can. Then he blows out for a second time, has Tommy John surgery. And as he's coming back, it's like, OK, we're going to get to see him like as a full full time hitter now.

I wasn't thinking about stolen bases, though. And he goes and rips 59 bags the next year and becomes the first 50-50 player. What Shohei Otani does, I think, better than anything, is he fits himself into where his skills are at that point. He has all of the tools in the world, right? He can do anything on a baseball field. But last year, he couldn't pitch, so he needed to become a different player,

and he is the ultimate chameleon. This year, he's coming back, he's going to be on the mound, looks like in May or so, and we're going to get to see that apex version of himself, hopefully, where he is still an elite starting pitcher and remains one of the best bats in the big leagues. And the fact that he got through last season, like remember the beginning of last season when we were talking, it was like,

is he going to get caught up in this disaster of a gambling scandal that is reaching like the highest levels of Las Vegas and has had a federal investigation into it for two years. And then we hear his translator on tape calling up a bank and taking out money in his name. And it turns out, you know, Ockham's razor said, well, you know, if this guy is connected to Otani, he's probably, no, actually, it looks like everything was

above board and he was just stupidly innocent and didn't keep his eye on his money. I don't know what it's like to have hundreds of millions of dollars, but I don't know that I would be going and checking my bank account all the time. If I was so rich, I didn't have to worry about anything. So I'm not going to give him a pass. We're adults. We should know where our funds are. But at the same time, being able to get through that, all the noise, and then turn in the season he did, as exceptional as Shohei Otani is at all the physical elements of baseball, Ryan, the mental capacity and the fortitude that guy has to go out and do what he does on a daily basis is,

to me, every bit is impressive. I want to get to some of the challenges in the National League to the Dodgers, because on paper it's just hard to say, hey, this team matches up with them well. But look, on paper last year, you wouldn't expect the Mets to make it to the NLCS. They won 89 games in the regular season.

They get to six games with the Dodgers and they add Soto. So sometimes you look at it going like, well, they were just mad and didn't want them to go to the Yankees and. And their owner was looking at the Dodgers being like, well, then I'm just going to do something like this. And, and, and gives, look, if you're going to invest in a position guy for that long, it feels like Soto is the best bet of anyone you can, you know, of any available option, then he becomes the option. So I guess any of the angst towards it, like, I don't know, the dollar amount, like,

how much do we really care here? But what does he mean for the Mets? Like, what have you learned in having kind of access to this build up to 25 and a surprising 24 that you think makes sense. I'm in Port St. Lucie now, so I'm actually at Mets camp yesterday and the next couple of days and like the vibes are good. I think the Mets understand they're in something of a transitional phase right now. The first couple of years of Steve Cohen's ownership, it was like, okay, let's use the checkbook and bully the shit out of everyone and win that way. But it's not that easy. The best team that they had was the one that had the fewest expectations on it. And so in order to match up with a team that has all of the things

cranking like the Dodgers do, it takes time and it takes the right people in place. And I think David Stearns is the right person, but it's really interesting to me. You know, you go back and look at David Stearns, who's president of baseball operations there now, when he was with the Milwaukee Brewers and building that team into the consistent contender that it is now, it was always with the idea that, hey, we're going to create pitching. We're not going to go out and sign it.

But I think when you look at the Dodgers, the thing that turned them into this machine was the recognition by Andrew Friedman, their president of baseball operations, that even though I was raised in the Tampa Bay raise culture, even though efficiency and, and marginal value was the ethos by which we won there, I'm rich, bitch,

I'm going to go out and I'm going to go and get the best players that I can. And look, Corbin Burns was out there this winter. Max Free was out there this winter like there. There were good starting pitchers. And the largest deal that the Mets gave out to a starting pitcher was three years. And they gave it to Sean Manaya. He's hurt right now. They gave Frankie Montas two years. He's hurt right now. They gave Frankie Montas two years.

He's hurt right now. They gave Clay Holmes three years. Turn him into a starter. We have no idea what Clay Holmes is going to be. The stuff looks great, but I'm curious what he looks like in September and October when he's got 150 plus innings on his arm when he hasn't thrown more than 70 over the last five years as he's been a reliever. So I worry about the Mets pitching depth especially. Edwin Diaz's velocity is down pretty demonstrably at this point and he's never been a guy whose command has been his calling card.

He's always been able to almost overpower his lack of strike throwing. So unless he's evolving into a different pitcher, there could be some concerns there at the back end of the bullpen. And frankly, they don't have a whole lot of bullpen depth to begin with. So when I look at the National East Ryan, to me, it starts with the Braves. The Phillies are right there. And I think there's a little gap there before you get to the Mets, even though their lineup is really, really good when you start with Lindor, Soto, Alonso, Vientos, Mimo, like,

I mean, that plays and they're going to score a lot of runs this year, enough probably to win games that because of their pitching staff, they may not necessarily have otherwise. Okay. So let's stay in the Annalise because I'm totally with you. I mean, when you look at Atlanta, it could not have gone worse last year between Stridon and Kuna out. Then you've got four other studs that at different times, you know, the Chris Sale part of it's an incredible turnaround considering you're looking

at somebody who just like, could you even get a hundred innings out of this guy anymore? And then he goes down there, deals, but then isn't available for the playoffs. So if you're just going injury correction, Atlanta's completely in play just based on talent alone. Maybe I just ask it in comparison with Philly because you know, Philly short series, you think of their one, two, three. Maybe there's some assumptions there with the lineup.

I probably like Atlanta's talent better than, than Philadelphia, but the Phillies here. I mean they last three years they played more playoff games than anybody else in baseball and they feel like a complete afterthought because they've never played the Dodgers exactly right and I I just love the NLE so much because the Braves Spencer Shrider looked really good in his first start back feeling good coming off Tommy John surgery. He was slated to be the best pitcher in the league And when you pair him with Chris sale, and if people haven't seen Spencer Schwellenbach pitch, he's been a great pitcher.

He's been a great pitcher. He's been a great pitcher. He's been a great pitcher. He's been a great pitcher. He's been a great pitcher. He's been a great pitcher. He's been a great pitcher. He's been a great pitcher.

He's been a great pitcher. He's been a great pitcher. He's been a great pitcher. He's been a great pitcher. He's been a great pitcher. He's been a great pitcher. He's been a great pitcher. He's been a great pitcher.

He's been a great pitcher. He's been a great pitcher. He's been a great pitcher. He's been a great pitcher. He's been a great pitcher. incredible since he debuted. And when you pair him with Chris sale, and if people haven't seen Spencer Schwellenbach pitch, he debuted last year. He's like frontline, frontline guy. The Braves do such an incredible job, Ryan, of Schwellenbach was a shortstop and he threw a little bit in college. And the, the Braves ability to look at athletes and say, we can make you into a pitcher is unparalleled in baseball. And Schwellenbach is the best example of that.

So the notion that you can have sale Strider Schwellenbach against Zach Wheeler, Christopher Sanchez, Aaron Nola in the postseason. And that's not even including Ranger Suarez and Jesus Lizardo, who are in the Phillies rotation. I mean, that would be a whale of a playoff series. And I love both of these teams. I think they're in different places, though. The Braves' core is still pretty young. Graves' core is still pretty young. Acuna coming off of his second torn ACL, he's not going to be the guy who hits 40 home runs and steals 70 bases.

Like, we're just not going to see that version of him anymore, and that's OK. He's still a phenomenal player. But beyond that, Austin Reilly, still a young guy. Ozzy Alves, still a young guy. Michael Harris, I think he has a real chance this year to have that breakout season that we've been waiting for. And even somebody like Drake Baldwin, this winter, the Braves had the opportunity to go out and trade for Garrett Crochet. Like, there was discussion.

It didn't ever really get very far, but there was discussion on a three-way trade that would have landed Garrett Crochet in Atlanta. It didn't happen, but Drake Baldwin would have been in that trade, and the Braves see him not just as their catcher of the future, but a guy who's going to hit in the middle of that lineup and be every bit as good as those all-stars that I mentioned before. The Phillies, on the other hand, Bryce Harper in his 30s, Trey Turner in his 30s, Kyle Schwaber in his 30s and going to be a free agent after this season.

Alec Bowman, Bryson Stott, they haven't really taken that step forward, I think, that the Phillies have been hoping for. JT Real Muto, another guy who's in his 30s, they're windows close to closing at this point. And I understand they have a good farm system. They're going to be some guys who are coming up. Andrew Painter might be the best pitching prospect in baseball right now, coming off of almost two lost years because of Tommy John surgery, but the stuff looks awesome. They've got some younger guys as well, position players and pitchers, where I don't worry that the Phillies are going to have that same post-2008 dip where they had a few really, really bad

years. I think they're going to be able to sustain it. But man, when you have position players getting into their thirties, you just can't expect a whole lot from them on the tail end of those contracts. And those contracts, Ryan, you know, Trey Turner, 11 years, Bryce Harper, 13 years, they're long deals. They're going to take them pretty late into their careers. So I think the Phillies really feel like this is the year that they have to do something because all they've done is go backwards since reaching the World Series a couple of years ago. They just, they, they have not improved and getting knocked out by the Mets

last year was pretty embarrassing. Is Arizona in play here? Because if you look at the rotation, at least matching up, I mean, again, not on paper with the Dodgers, the fact that Carroll doesn't hit for months and then once they finally kind of turn it on, like this ended up being the best offense, at least we're on score of the National League. So I guess all of us are so focused on the NL East and this carousel of what could happen here that it feels like Arizona. I mean, again, we haven't even mentioned

the Padres here yet, because I think there's a lot of Padres assumptions because that series was so great. They've got the studs in the lineup. They've got the top of the rotation. Michael King's probably one of my favorite pitchers in the bullpen depth. There's still like four guys that are missing

that were major contributors. You know, all of my pro far stock finally cashed in, even though he's gone now, speaking of Atlanta. But I guess I'm just looking at the NL West part of this. And I'm just gonna apologize to both central fan bases here in both leagues, because you're not gonna get a lot of depth in this, this interview with passing, but Arizona.

Can we do, can we do the central right now? Sure. Okay. Not very good. That's about it. I mean, it's, it's going to be a race to 88 wins in both division. Now onto the Diamondbacks. Good, because I have some essential thoughts too, but we'll figure it out. All right, so go ahead. I appreciate you bringing them up

because the Dodgers are just consumers of all of our energy and all of our attention. And the Diamondbacks kind of fly under the radar. It went out and signed Corbin Burns this winter and added into a rotation that includes Zach Allen, who's been a front line starter for for years now, and Merrill Kelly, who's consistently good. And Eduardo Rodriguez, Brandon Fodd, you know, Jordan Montgomery. So they're like, there's like seven guys, you know, it feels like they're breaking camp with at least, you know, hey, Jordan Montgomery is still there. They have a lot of- There's like seven guys.

It feels like they're breaking camp with at least, hey, the reality is two of these guys are gonna be disappointing. And then there's teams that I'll look at and go, if this doesn't work, I don't even like your number four guy now. And it's March. So go ahead, back to the Arizona point,

at least you can look at it and go, all right, well, if two don't work out, there's just different options here for the rotation. But go ahead. Yeah, and could tell Marte finished third in MVP voting last year. And at a second base position that is so weak throughout baseball,

he is the gold standard right now. And Corbin Carroll, I think, is still going to be the superstar that we saw on his first season when he won rookie of the year and when he was in the midst of MVP voting. Corbin Carroll, I think, is still going to be the superstar that we saw on his first season when he won Rookie of the Year and when he was in the midst of MVP voting. He's on a very team-friendly contract. They signed Geraldo Perdomo, their shortstop, who's I think 25 to a long-term deal.

They traded for Josh Naylor. Their outfield, they just have a lot of depth there. Jake McCarthy, Alec Thomas, Randall Gritchick, Lourdes Curiel, Pavin Smith. I don't think people know this. The Diamondbacks had the best offense in baseball last year. They outscored everyone. And yeah, they lost Jock Peterson this winter and they lost Christian Walker. But this is just a team that puts together good at bats and they have matched that with pitching now and in the field, you know, especially up

the middle, they're exceptional. Like it's a, it's a fun baseball team to watch. Like if there's an MLB.TV team at the, at the top of the list, you can make an argument that the Diamondbacks are there. I love it. San Diego, step back, we're fine. I worry about them. I always worry about their depth, but what we need to understand is that they have the largest gap between floor and ceiling,

I think, in the sport. Things can go sideways for the Padres in a gnarly way, where if they don't get off to a good start, they're going to trade Dylan Cease. They are going to trade Michael King. They are going to try to trade Jake Cronenworth, you know, they're they're almost at the point of a reset right now. But at the same time, they're good enough where we could see them being the team that

threatens the Dodgers. And I think bringing in Nick Pavetta, smart deal, not a lot of money in the first couple of years of the contract. So you add him to a rotation with Cease and King and you Darvish who's banged up right now. The starting pitching depth is going to define this team because you mentioned earlier, like their bullpen is nasty. So you get to the sixth, seventh inning and you feel pretty confident about how the rest of the game is going to go. I will say this, Jackson Merrill is going to take the leap

to superstardom this year. Like he is just a dude. He, I look at him and the swing and the ability to go to the opposite field with power and the fact that he plays center. Like he reminds me of a young Freddie Freeman. Um, you know, it doesn't, doesn't have quite the plate discipline, but I think that's going to come over time. I think teams are going to pitch around him a little and for him to be doing

what he did last year at 20, 21 years old and to have that ceiling right now. Uh, you know, Jackson Merrill and Jackson Churio with the brewers. We're going to look back on that rookie class last year, I think, and it's going to be an all-timer. Okay. We spent so much time in the national league because as you pointed out out we were texting last night about it. The ALEs look go wherever you want go on fan graphs you can find the projections the Yankees are generally the only team projected at north of 90 wins so you brought the end.

Can you can you really say that the Yankees are separated that much Ryan from any other teams. Those projections were out before Garrett Cole blew his elbow out, before John Carlos Stanton, both of his elbows stopped working, before DJ LaMejue got hurt, before Luis Hill was out for two months for the lat strain. Like the Yankees are banged up right now. And for a team that already is skewing old they are like one Aaron judge injury away from being a below 500 team so how many teams can win

the American League okay let's go division by division Yankees, yes. Red Sox, yes. Rays, yes. Orioles, yes. Blue Jays, eh. I mean, it's the AL, so I guess. Kansas City, yes. Detroit, yes. Minnesota and Cleveland, sorta there. Like Cleveland, Cleveland's just so disappointing.

I wish they would just talk to me. That's amazing. That's amazing, like faith that, I mean, you would still include Cleveland after their off season? I know, it's bad. Dude, I'm from Cleveland. I like, I always can hope, you know?

I just, I just, like, I just had my fantasy drafts with all my friends, most of whom still live in Cleveland. And I just want happiness for them. Like they have to root for the Browns, bro. Do you know what that's like? I don't know that you don't and I'm glad you don't. The torture, the mental anguish, the the specter of Deshaun Watson just hanging over the franchise like Desha Sean Watson being called in for meetings with

prospective quarterbacks just exemplified who the Browns are. But I'm sorry, I don't want to get in my Cleveland rant. I the White Sox was not going to win the division or the league or or 50 games. Seattle, definitely Texas. yes. Houston, yeah. Oakland, probably not, but they're going to be better. And the Angels, no. So I think that was like 11 or 12 teams, which it depends on your perspective. Either you can look at it like

the American League is a haven of mediocrity, or the American League is really wide open and we're gonna see some compelling things happen and we're gonna be surprised by someone. And look, the projection systems, Ryan, they tend to undersell what the highest achieving teams are gonna be. It gets averaged out a little bit too much for me

where you just go, 92 is not gonna end up being the best. I mean, look, even the people doing the projection understand that, but I've said this about some baseball stats where I feel like at times the math is too big. Like it's so big that then you plug it all in. It's kind of like the wind probability stuff where it's like, yeah, if you run a thousand simulations, like I expect that this team that's up 10 points

in a football game. I hate win probability. Have you seen, speaking of Cleveland, have you seen a Cavs game recently where they actually post? So if a team is up 90 to 86, they post the Cavs differential as plus four or minus four if they're down.

So they post it on the score book during the Cavs games. Why? Just in case you're terrible at math. I mean, that is obviously it has to do with the live betting, but I mean, most people can usually figure out if you're if you have access to betting, you should hopefully be able to know the difference between some of these numbers. You haven't seen this yet. Well, you've been locked in spring training.

Yeah, I I'll be honest. I have, I have not, I have not been. Ask your Cleveland buddies. I will do that. What math isn't hard. Like that. Well, some is. I don't know.

Well, yeah. Fucking calculus is hard. Subtraction's not. All right. So let's, let's cause I think we agree here on, on what kind of some of the projection stuff and look, clearly the Yankees healthy, they're the class of the league, but that's a huge if. And the cold news is, is devastating, you know?

And I understand that, you know, they'd spent a ton of money on Max Fried. Sometimes I look at that as like, is that Atlanta just trusting themselves? Is that Atlanta? Like sometimes with pitchers, I get worried. It's like, so we gave the guy eight years, so why didn't they wanna do that? And sometimes it's just the contract and a lot of times it too can just be the franchise.

And Atlanta's probably a little more in front of things than maybe some other franchises, just the trust that you would have in them operationally. Let me ask you this one, because you touched on it a little bit there. You said something about Mookie regressing Mookie bets, right? And I don't think this Red Sox ownership group

could ever possibly understand the public equity loss of losing Mookie. Even those guys. That is so well said, man. It really is. Right, but I could always understand their part of it. It's like, hey, you losers, until we showed up for eight decades, okay? Eight decades, and then we show up and we win four World Series, and you don't want

to give us the benefit of the doubt at all. But that's just not the way that city works. It's not the way that state works. It's just not the way people from New England work and to feel like you're the team that can't afford it. And we've covered all this mookie stuff over and over and over again. I think there was some disingenuous arguments about what the tax stuff would be versus what it wouldn't be. Cause I, you know, again, but with the way the Red Sox geared up this off season,

um, the anticipation of this, this minor league three, I don't know if she called the big three of, of these studs that are going to be coming up. And I don't know if they come up this year, cause course I think it pretty transparent about like, I want them to be where they can play, you know? Campbell's Campbell is going to start at second. I think it's, it's trending that way.

And Christian, Christian Campbell, I wrote about, I did call them the big three. So the minor league- Did you? Okay. I did, I did. The minor league three is like, it's a little bit of a backhanded compliment. Yeah, it doesn't sound great.

And look, Campbell's at second, then fine, but then it doesn't even work anymore. But I think that the greater question is this. Do you think there'll be, are we a couple of years away from a movement? I don't know if it'll be a movement because that's the other thing guys from New England are never gonna wanna do is give somebody credit

that deserves it. But where the leadership, this group, even though some of the pieces aren't gonna be there anymore, are not there currently, where they can say, you know what? They were right. They were right about how they handled this.

If you look at buying out Mookie for his thirties. No, and here's why the two aren't mutually exclusive. You could have kept Mookie bets. If you look at the payrolls from the Red Sox over the last five or so years in the time since that trade happened. And if you compare them historically to where they rank in baseball, the Red Sox were always, and I mean always like top seven, top eight, usually top five, occasionally top three,

a couple of times, I think second. So they were always there going into this season. You know, certainly before they went out and signed Alex Bregman, but, you know, throughout the majority of the winter, they were like 14th. And even even now, I think they have have a sub $200 million payroll when you look at it. It's like they're not pushing themselves anywhere close to where teams of their ilk are.

And so I get why fans have been bothered because the Red Sox haven't been acting like the Red Sox, they've been acting like the Paw Sox. They've been acting like a minor league version of what they can be. And, uh, if Alex Verdugo had been something, then, then maybe, maybe, maybe you can make the argument that this was okay. But I think in baseball, you like Juan Soto is a great player. He's a great player. He's a great player.

He's a great player. And I think that's a great thing about baseball. And I think that's a great thing about baseball. And I think that's a great thing about baseball. And I think that's a great thing about baseball. Maybe, maybe you can make the argument that this was OK. But I think in baseball, like Juan Soto is a perfect embodiment of this. Star level players are exponentially more important than everyone else. It's why they get paid, you know, at the level that they do.

And it's it's when you look like, let's say there's a good player who's worth three wins above replacement, and you have a Mookie who's six or seven war, you say that, okay, that's only four wins above replacement. But when you look at the win curve, those four wins are quite often the difference between

a first round by and a wild card series where you're going to be in for three games and you might get knocked out if you just run into two good pitchers on an inferior team. Those four wins are the difference between a playoff spot and no playoff spot. You do this for a ticket to the dance. If you don't get it because you're not willing to go out and spend on a homegrown superstar, then what are you doing here? The way that the Red Sox have developed hitters, especially now in their system, they haven't cracked. They're ahead of a lot of teams, maybe all teams in baseball right now and hitting development. And I think they're going to be spitting out hitting prospects beyond

Christian Campbell and Roman Anthony and Marcelo Meyer, guys who, because of those big three, don't get quite the shine on them who come up to the big leagues and we're like, damn, it's almost like remember when the Mets were bringing up Matt Harvey and Noah Sindegard and Zach Wheeler and Steven Matz and who's the best one out of them? Jacob deGraw. You know, like he kind of flew under the radar and I'm not suggesting that, you know, just Nixon Garcia is going to be that guy or Cespidus or any of the other bats that they have there. But they're going to be good for a long time.

They just could have been good with Mookie too. That's the right answer. I just know if they get off to a really good start and if they were to do something this year, there will be a correction on, and I don't like the word narrative, I hate it. Yeah. But sometimes it's just the perfect.

Thank God. You know what? on and I don't like the word narrative. I hate it. But sometimes it's just the perfect. You know what? When did narrative grab hold so strongly? I fucking hate that word, man. Well, what I hate about it is we should have just updated the definition because what it really is is national guys says something about my team

that I don't like, that's probably accurate. Right? Like, I'm not even gonna. I laugh because I live it. Right. It's like, oh, when did this get, it's like this dismissive term that it usually means, yeah, it's probably kind of true though. That's why I'm pissed.

And then you heard somebody else say it, right. It was almost like small sample. Like once people started learning small sample, it just then became applied to everything. And it's like, how about like it may actually mean something, though. Is that OK? It's like, nah, small sample, small sample. And then just everybody repeated it. And it's this dismissive thing, whereas if any observation of a player or team

can just be completely diminished by saying, wow, it's just the narrative. You're like, well, how did that happen though? How did we get to this version of storytelling? I will say this, I do appreciate the passion and knowledge of local fandom, because it keeps me honest. Like in order to do my job,

I need to be able to not just go over like the large scale details of a team. Like I need to be able to get down in the weeds there because fans will sniff out fraudulence in a second. Like they are very, very good at that. And you know, if I get narrative screamed at me, I immediately go and like crack my computer and start studying more because clearly didn't do good enough.

Hey, man, I get it because I coming from a local market, I always knew, but I always try to remind you from this position. If you're really on, you know, if you're really on it and you're not emotional about it and you're watching every single inning, I'm just not going to know it the way you know it. But I also don't have to watch Dame Lillard play defense for 82 games to know that when I see him fucking up on defense like Golden State the other night, that it's not just a small sample. Okay.

Nope. Um, let's not be frauds. Give me your AL West pick here then. Cause I feel like we've, we did so much national league that I'm not doing enough service to, uh, the junior circuit. I, uh, I like the Rangers. I don't feel good about it because there's They're the high variance team in the American League

You know, I'm banking on Jacob deGrom staying healthy and I'm banking on a middle infield with Corey Seeger and Marcus Simeon guys who were you you know, into their thirties at this point. And I'm banking on Wyatt Langford taking the step forward in his second season and Josh Young being able to stay healthy and Jake Berger and Jock Peterson being big impact bats there that they didn't have. And Jack Leiter and Kumar Rocker, you know, young arms taking a step forward. But I think the Rangers,

I'm actually picking the Rangers to win the American league. If I don't feel good about them, if I don't feel good about them winning their division, maybe I shouldn't pick them to go to the world series, but that's kind of the state of the American league right now. I could see the Rangers missing the playoffs and I am picking them to go to the World Series. So, part of me wants to say Seattle is going to be that team because I just adore their pitching staff. They are so good and so thoughtful

in the way that they develop pitchers and deploy pitchers. Logan Gilbert is so much fun to watch. He's like a guy who's eternally curious, adding pitches all the time and making himself better. But the Mariners, as much as there are other teams around MLB, like Cleveland, like Pittsburgh, that didn't go out and spend, Seattle has absolutely no excuse for not bringing in at least one high dollar free agent back, or not at least making a call on Juan Soto.

He's not gonna go there, but at least inquire about the possibility. At least try to make this offense that kept you from a playoff spot last year, a little bit better and don't bank on the return of you know, elite Julio Rodriguez, or the evolution of other guys in that lineup to be the thing that carries you into the playoffs because what they have, can it be enough? Sure. This should be a, it will be enough because when you have a pitching staff like this, Ryan, it's not going to last forever.

We already see George Kirby starting the year on the injured list. And to have the talent that they do in their rotation and they have some pretty good arms in their bullpen too and not compliment that with more offensively is an ownership dereliction of duty. And fans have every right to be pissed off that the Mariners are operating like they are, even though they have a farm system with a bunch

of really good bats and the winning I think is going to be sustainable. That's a good transition because the final thought on salaries and I want to ask you one question here on something else. If you're looking at the total payroll stuff for the Dodgers this year, it can put them third on total payroll, right? The total payroll number for this year. But if you're looking at cash out or cash set aside for what you were talking about earlier, you actually still have to be liquid to defer this kind of stuff. I think it's 370 million. Is it within that range for 25? It's the one along those lines. Okay. So the AL Central total team payroll is $544 million.

Okay. Okay. So that was the first one. Steph Curry this year makes $55.7 million. That's most in the NBA, right? Highest average salary for a player in the league. And some guys are gonna be going north at 60, 70 million in a couple of years. Right.

The A's total payroll for this year, I was surprised it was as high as 58 million. So Steph is just about two something million off of where the A's are at. Uh, he has the same salary as the entire White Sox payroll, and he makes 8 million more than the Marlins entire payroll. The Marlins payroll which is last in MLB this year and I love doing this is 47 million. That would have been 19th in MLB payroll in 2000. It's unbelievable we can have this and you know look if you want the floor you need the cap. We've been over this

a million different times. But I mean, do the Marlins, are they just in business for revenue sharing? It looks that way, doesn't it? And you can- What a great deal, right? I get to buy a baseball team, I own it. I don't have to pay for any players,

and then everybody else has to write me a check. It's awesome. Now, this is not to stick up for what they're doing by any means, but one thing that the Marlins are spending their money on is internal stuff. They had to go and essentially modernize the organization. They had been an anti-deluvian baseball franchise for like the entirety of their existence. They operated like a 1990s or early 2000s baseball team. The analytics department was practically non-existent. And the work that they had done on the minor league side and with technology where, you know, all these other organizations are using it to make their players better.

There was none of that with the Marlins. That being said, it's just going to get really ugly there. And tanking isn't quite like it used to be in Major League Baseball. I think the draft pick penalties in the lottery that they instituted in the last collective bargaining agreement have done a pretty good job. But you're going to see two, three teams every year that are just bottoming out.

The White Sox are in that right now. And the Marlins are in it right now. The Rockies, they're just terrible. They just poorly run. So there's no excuse there. But yeah, it's ugly. It's ugly having 110 plus loss team. It's ugly seeing what the White Sox did last year, losing 121.

And I wish everyone could be competitive. But the fact, Brian, that we talked about as many teams as there are on the American League that can win the league and as many teams that are competitive in the National League beyond those top teams in the East and the West, you can make an argument that just about all five of the central teams could win that division, too. I feel like for the narrative that exists about the Dodgers being this unbeatable super team, we know that at the end of the day, the best, like the best, best, best teams have about a 25% chance

of winning the World Series because the playoffs are just the great equalizer. And that's why teams want to be competitive enough to get in, but don't necessarily wanna spend to the level that puts them at the top of the division because two years ago, we saw the Texas Rangers and the Arizona Dimebacks, two wild card teams in the World Series. It doesn't take the best team to win in baseball. And if you are not going to have at least a hope of the playoffs, then bottoming out

is what a lot of shameless franchises are going to do. It's why I honestly, it's why I appreciate the teams that even when they don't have a ton of hope, they don't just go and tear everything down to the studs. The A's for a long time were like that. Like that was Billy Beans ethos, you know, I do not want to have a terrible team. Now John Fisher made that happen eventually

when he turned them into the Major League Cleveland Indians, but most teams, I think, would go that route if that is the best option that they see for getting back on top. And the fact that that's still a path, it's kind of gross. Yeah, look, people should be far more outraged about these teams. I'm glad you added that extra context on the Marlins of kind of at least trying to just turn this steamer around, right?

Of like, let's at least lay lay a foundation for having a group that's up to date. So I'm glad you added that. So maybe, you know, it's not entirely fair to just look at the payroll number that way. But overall, people should be far more upset about these teams in particular. You know, we don't even have to attach a city to what the cycle of teams where ownership is like, we don't even like, we're not even pretending. You should be far more upset about that than you should be the Dodgers, but these teams are so irrelevant. They're just not going to get the same amount of print space. All right. Can I say one more thing before you jump in here?

Yeah. Your face when I said anti deluvian was my favorite thing I'm going to see all day. It was beautiful. Yeah, it's like, oh, that was that was the moment where my my son, he calls him asshole words. He's like, don't use an asshole word, dad. Like, that was an asshole word. And I apologize for using it. Yeah, we were we have a big thing coming out on floods. Tomorrow's YouTube page.

So I also feel I also feel bad for cursing a lot after hearing the, you know, like is life advice really going to be a curse-free zone? No, we, I mean, I don't think we made it five minutes. I don't trust Kyle for one second. I'm sorry, Kyle. We did kind of a mailbag YouTube thing that's coming out tomorrow, and we, I think we were seeing sort of how long we could go,

or I thought I did, and then I guess I didn't even realize that I swore, because then Kyle was like, no, you already did it, it. And then I guess I didn't even realize that I swore because then Kyle was like, no, you already did it. And I went, oh, I didn't even realize. So I don't even think you have to worry about that. What we do wanna do though, is I think this summer, when you come back and visit us, maybe a little trade deadline, hot zone,

you wanna do life advice with us, right? Desperately, yes. I like, I talk along to it and as the answers are coming out, I'm like, okay, here's what I would say and here, you know, like there's a point, I feel like it started when I was 40, where suddenly I thought that dispensing advice is like the most noble thing that you can do. And I feel like I'm a generally stable and decent person, which is the place from which you have to do that. Like those are the those are the two tenants that you need.

You need decency. Incredible floor. Right. Yes. Yeah, I'm a high I'm a high floor guy. Low ceiling guy. High floor guy. All right. Before the last thing that I we've kept you here a while, just give us your World Series pick. Dodgers over Rangers. I feel good about the Dodgers part,

I don't feel good about the Rangers part. I would love to be the guy that picks someone that isn't, that isn't the Dodgers, but I'm sorry, I feel like that would just be disingenuous. They're the best team in baseball. I'm going to pick the best team in baseball. I'm going to pick Ohtani to win National League MVP, even though like there are gonna be plenty of other guys thrown out.

No, he's the best player. It's really that simple. And again, the chances that the Dodgers win, not as great as people think, but hey, I'll stick with them. that simple. And again, the chances that the Dodgers win, not as great as people think, but hey, I'll stick with them. Take us through Jeff Pass and making national headlines this week on the Jackie Robinson story. So just set it up and give us the timeline and what ultimately was the right conclusion.

timeline and what ultimately was the right conclusion? Uh, it was 11 o'clock. I was sitting on my bed, uh, in my hotel room. And I think somebody had tagged me on Twitter saying like, did you see this? And it was a webpage on the department of Defense's website that was under sports heroes who served. They have a whole like array of stories about athletes who had been in the military. And it was a page dedicated

to Jackie Robinson's military history. And it was dead. And I had read stories the previous couple of days at Axios and the Washington Post about the Navajo Code Talkers, about a soldier who planted the flag at Iwo Jima, all of whom their pages got erased too. And my instinct in situations like that is I almost have to get acknowledgement from

the people who were involved that, yes, this is really true because I'm so scared that the Internet's a place that can trick you. It can trick you so many different ways. And I don't want to be the guy who gets sent-held. I don't want to be that guy. Because in my job, what's the most important thing? Getting things right. My entire reputation, whatever it may be,

has been built on the foundation that I get things right. I care about that and it's the most important thing. So I don't wanna go out accusing the government of doing something. But then I tried to type in the URL of where that was. And when it redirected to a new URL that had DEI in front of sports heroes,

I was like, well, this is very interesting. So the first thing I do is I emailed the Department of Defense, asking a few questions and seeking comment on it. And then I tweeted about it. And I think it was like 1130 at night. And you know when a story is going to get traction. I don't care about social engagement.

Like I'm way, way past that. I have a lot of followers. It's going to happen. To me though, this is a story that is about principle. And I thought we all agreed that Jackie Robinson's an American hero. I thought that was a settled point and not somebody who needs to be used for political reasons,

not somebody whose legacy needs to be diminished in any way because our current president has a particular perspective on diversity, equity, and inclusion. I understand both sides of the DEI argument have gotten so nasty and so unfortunate. And to see it used as a cudgel the way it is and to see Jackie Robinson be brought into it, Jackie Robinson is like the foremost example

of why inclusion is a good thing. Like if we if we go and look at what, Bob Kendrick, who runs the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum, who is a brilliant human being and just a wonderful contributing member to a better society. You know, Bob said yesterday, the civil rights movement started with Jackie Robinson. Like baseball integrating was to me, if not the most seminal moment in American sports history, certainly among them. And to see, it's not just like that the DEI label

was a fix there, but to see it affixed in such a negative connotation to somebody in Jackie Robinson who did so many great things for our country and for our world. It doesn't matter how I felt about it. This is a story. We did not at ESPN.com print anything initially. A couple other sites ran with it. But Initially, a couple other sites ran with it, but our process is we want to hear from the officials who were involved in this. And so we're waiting for comment from the DOD. And I'm in the Mets Clubhouse and I go out to my car and I brought my computer along and I open it in the emails there and open up the email. And I see this statement from the press secretary at the Pentagon

and it's like wow like I I you know I I was I don't know what to think about politicians now like politics is so broken in every way imaginable but when you see statements from press secretaries in Washington historically, they tend to be measured. They tend to have a little gravitas to it. This was just like bomb throwing. And so I presented it very simply. There was no opinion involved in this. Like I'm not here to be an advocate journalist. That was not the point of this.

There's something that's going on in the world right now. And when it intersects with sports, I need to be the person who uses the credibility that, thank God, I've been able to build up over time to tell the truth. And so I'm not seeking any sort of justice here. I'm not seeing any sort of remuneration. It's not that. It's that Jackie Robinson is such an important part of telling the American story, and it felt like this was being whitewashed.

And regardless of what the excuses that they had, it's back up right now, but sometimes people tell on themselves and it felt like they told on themselves here. The fact that it's back up with this administration tells you that even someone on their side was like, what the fuck did we do? And I just look, I'm not super political.

Uh, but I, I just think like, if you're, I just don't understand the argument. Like I cannot understand in today's climate spending all day arguing about politics. It's like two teams. If two fan bases rooting for NFL teams that both are terrible on offense. And then one fan base makes fun of the other fan base because they didn't convert third and long. And then it's like, all right, well, now you guys have the ball. So like, that's how it feels. And some people could be offended even by that, but I would say just

reading through the timeline of this story and then your explanation of, again, I would hope most reasonable people would be like, why would you spend any time on removing something like this? What are you accomplishing of all of the things that you should be worrying about to go out of your way to do something like this? For a story that, again, I would imagine most reasonable people would be like, that's a great story to be celebrated and to take the time to take it down. So look, man, credit to you for being on it. And then, you know, ending up with a story here as minor as it is, as forgotten as it'll be in months,

just for that moment for a couple of days. And a lot of people looked at you and said, hey, you know, this guy's got his head on straight and they put it back up, which tells you again, this guy's got his head on straight and they put it back up, which tells you again, everything you need to know. You know what, dude? I like the, if there's any moment that I have the opportunity to help make the world

just a little bit better through this very stupid thing that I do. Like I write about grown men throwing and hitting balls. And I know that's a very simple explanation of it, but like we also need to understand this very simple thing that is the sports that we love. It ties in to the rest of the world. And yesterday was that moment with baseball.

And I just, I appreciated how much people care. Like that's, you know, the passion of the sports fan sort of spilled over into the political world yesterday. And these are two things that people have tried so hard to separate. But I'm sorry, they are always and will always be inextricably tied. Sports are life, politics is life. The two are bound to intersect.

You can't wait for next week, man. And credit to you again on that story from this week. And thanks so much for the time. Talk to season. I'm looking so forward to life advice, dude. Let's like get it on the schedule now and just save some good ones for me. It's going to happen. All right. Thanks, man. Thanks, Ryan. Hey, are you in the mood for something new? Why not fly with Air Transat to an eclectic music scene? Fly with Air Transat to an eclectic music scene, a vibrant nightlife, and your next big discovery. Starting this summer, you can fly direct from Toronto to Berlin, exclusively with Air Transat.

Now all things Berlin feel closer than ever. Air Transat, travel moves us. You want details? Fine. I drive a Ferrari, 355 Cabriolet. What's up? I have a ridiculous house in the South Fork. I have every toy you could possibly imagine.

And best of all kids, I am liquid. So, now you know what's possible. Let me tell you what's required. Just a heads up, life advice, email address, life advice, rr at gmail.com. We are wearing the same clothes from our Friday Feedback YouTube page show. So this is taped prior to Thursday's show. So now that- I will be wearing this on Thursday though, just so you know. Well, I'll be around one baby something. Oh, don't worry. I've been saving my St. John's gear for the Thursday. I'm like very excited. Very excited. All right. Let's get to it. Life advice. All right. This one is timely. It's topical. It's really good. It worries me a bit that it might be fake, but we'll just go with it. All right?

All right. All right. So we have the sign off from the Tribunal on this one. Okay. 27 years old. 5'9", 225. I've got the height of J.J. Borrella in the low post game of DeJuan Blair when he was on Pitt. I love getting down low and bullying people. That is a low center of gravity, man. Yeah. I'm in a of gravity, man. Yeah. I'm in a bad spot, gentlemen. I've been married for three years. I'm a high school sweetheart. It's been mostly great.

We're from the Midwest. So we get, we got married young. You know, it's great. You married somebody from the Midwest. Uh, that is things were mostly great until very recently. Anyway, a few months ago, my wife and I were at a dinner party. There were three other couples there after dinner and a few bottles of Charles Shaw, the hostess decides we're going to play a game. Somehow she does.

Two buck Chuck dude. She decides on truth or dare. Is it $2 a bottle? Yeah, there's definitely certain ones that are $2 a bottle. I knew it as two buck Chuck. Inflation didn't get that, all right. Look up, price that out for us if you could. Arizona ISD is still 99 cents, so. Just a great reference by Kyle, just a great old school, like when you could hear him laughing,

I was like, there's a follow-up there. All right, anyway, she decides on truth or dare. Now boys, let me remind you again, we're all in our- 297 at total one. All right, great call, Kyle, once again, he. All right. Great. You're all Kyle. Once he was on top of it. Uh, we're all in our mid to late twenties, not middle school. After a couple of softball truths in elementary dares, my wife and I were

called upon true seemed like the obvious choice. The question we were asked, who are your guys hall passes? Uh, now this wasn't something my wife and I had ever discussed. So I had no, by the way, nobody, I don't know that anybody really, I mean, sure. Is there someone? Yes. But the hall pass thing is a lie. Like no dude can be like, guess what happened in Toledo? Yeah. Chilling hall came strutting through. You said. Yeah, you know, I'd love I that would actually be a funny story. I mean, it's I always believe like there's whatever could happen. Like, yeah, somebody probably did that.

There's some guy in Vegas and some convention, you know, he still hasn't. I don't know. I mean, most normal people can't can't pull off any of this stuff, but like the one guy that did, and then came home and told his wife, I don't know. Like, yeah, let us know how that goes. All right, so I had no idea what was about to happen. I started thinking, oh, wait, wait, wait. Something that my wife and I had never discussed,

no idea what was gonna happen next. I started thinking about my choice. My wife blurted out, Rupert Grint. She was not with the course. Ron Weasley? Yeah. Get out of here. my wife and I had never discussed, no idea what was gonna happen next, I started thinking about my choice. My wife blurted out, Rupert Grint. She was met with a course. Ron Weasley? Yeah. Get outta here. She was met with a course of laughter, by the way.

I was cursed. That's an amazing pick. Because of the huzzle. I gotta love it. You can't even get mad at her. Although you might start thinking about yourself and be like, am I not as attractive as I thought I was? All right, so she was met with a chorus of laughter

and flabbergasted visages. I immediately quipped that she had my full blessing to hook up with Ron Weasley whenever she wanted to. My wife's crazy response bought me more time to think of my answer. I ran my tongue over the teeth fuzz caused by the Chinse Cabernet Sauvignon I consumed all night as I pondered the question.

Maybe it was the buzz I was feeling, but I shrugged and nonchalantly said my hall pass was Bonnie Blue. Oh boy. Dude, that could actually happen. That sucks. Yeah, dude. That's the worst thing. Who's that?

All the women asked in unison. This guy's very worst thing. Yeah, dude. What? Who's that? All the women asked in unison. Oh no. This guy's very eloquent. As the men's faces all switched to sly smiles, a blonde adult film actress, my buddy, answered matter of factly, the women's inquisitive looks turned to looks of disgust. My wife even called me a pervert loudly

and moved her chair two inches further away from me. I shrugged and that was pretty much the end of it. Fast forward to a week ago. See, I don't know. Maybe it's real. This could be fake though if it goes the way I think you're going to say. Well, his writing. Yeah, like he's such a good writer that I would wonder if he just was like, I'm going to screw with these guys and do a short story. So let's just keep rolling here. One of my buddies is getting married in May and his bachelor party is in Cabo.

There we go. Some of us married guys were dreading going as it was in Tautorius Spring Break destination. Do we really wanna be surrounded by 18 to 20 year old D bags for a few days? Ultimately 12 of us decided to go and pretend we were in college again. 12, good number.

The first night we all arrived and kept it relatively low key and just hung out at the main bar at the resort. The next day we obviously had to hit up the beach early and live it up. We got to the beach early and started drinking and doing some normal beach activities. After a few hours we noticed a big commotion on the beach, a little ways from where we were set up.

Me and two other guys went in to investigate thinking maybe a celebrity was there. Me and my boys were in for a shock. Right hand to God, Bonnie Blue was there. Now I believe this guy, Midwest, right hand to God. I don't think he would lie to God. Bonnie Blue was there. She had two big hulking security guards on her side

in a sea of ravenous college bros encircling her. One of my buddies lit up like a Christmas tree and elbowed me in the ribs. Dude, you're a hall pass. Go for it, dude. My cheeks turned as red as Rupert Grint's pubes. No, dude. She slept with a thousand dudes in a day. I don't want any part of that.

Again, this can be the ego of man here. Be like, Oh, so that's why you didn't have sex with her. Not the all the fans account. Yeah. Um, but the email continues. My buddy combated my words and screamed, Hey Bonnie, you're his hall pass. You're his hall pass.

He then pointed down at me. Wouldn't you know it in my, my bombastic buddy drew everyone's attention. Bonnie turned and looked at us with a smile and pointed at me. Shitting my bathing suit as she beckons me over to her. Before I could protest more, I felt hundreds of hands pushing me towards her as if I'm Lisan Al-Ghaib. Next thing I know, I'm being eyed up and down by Rocksteady and Bebop, her security guards,

and I'm standing in front of this blue-eyed British beauty. So I'm your hall pass, am I? What would you do with me if we were alone? I'm dumbfounded that I'm actually in this situation. Hundreds of phones are being pointed at me. I'm frozen with fear. I'm married, I finally stammer. If I'm your hall pass, it doesn't matter now, does it? She countered. I'm still dumbfounded about the situation. I somehow find myself in. I'm standing there for what felt like an eternity. I said that I was sorry and ran back towards my group.

Nice. Breathless and still bright red, I made it back to where our group was headquartered. I didn't even notice that the two buddies with me chased after me and were smiling behind me. My two idiot friends immediately tell the group what just happened. One of them took a video of the interaction. Everyone gathered around said friend with a predatory smile and watched me make a complete ass of myself. I found one of our coolers slammed a survey to clear my head. People asked me why I froze and I wanted to forget about the interaction entirely. Well, you froze because it was something you never thought would happen.

And then in the moment, and by the way, like I've seen, uh, well, as I say, I've seen her videos, I've seen her interactions with like all these different guys, like these different podcasts dudes were, you know, all the guys just freak. Most people would just, like you think you're going to be smooth. You think you're going to be smooth in that? Like she's, she does this man. This is her thing. She's, you know, there's no interaction with her where she's

going to be the uncomfortable one. So I, most mere mortals would have done exactly what you had done, uh, especially with the backstory that you shared with us. So the bachelor party continued on for a couple more days. Nothing really noteworthy happened. I flew home and had survived.

My wife picked me up from the airport. Everything seemed fine initially. Quote, so how was the bachelor party? I gave a pretty generic answer and she seemed unsatisfied. I saw the video of you in that whore. What the fuck were you thinking? A million thoughts flooded into me, into my head

and the first thing I said back was, who texted you the fucking video? I didn't do anything. She proceeded to yell at me and tell me how embarrassed, how I embarrassed her, made her look bad. She wouldn't even let me explain myself. I was screwed when we got home. It was late and she told me I had to stay in the guest bed and that's where I

currently am typing this email out to you boys. What the hell am I supposed to do? I don't feel like I did anything wrong. Do I just let her sleep it off and hope tomorrow she's ready to let me explain myself? I'm going to order flowers. Or does that make me look guilty? Help me.

Don't order flowers. I wouldn't do that. Yeah, I wouldn't do that. I mean, this is a great, great advertisement for not playing truth or dare when you're married. And if you are, I mean, you should have just done Jim with that who would you do question. You just say Kevin.

She said Ron Weasley. Come on, man. Yeah, man. But yeah, I guess this, what sucks is this is such a great bachelor party story because honestly, it wasn't sinister. You chickened out. Everyone loves when your buddy gets embarrassed. The bachelor party story is honestly it wasn't sinister. You chickened out. Everyone loves when your buddy gets embarrassed.

The bachelor party story is so good. This part sucks. Yeah, I don't know, but I don't think the flowers is the move. I think you just have to be non yell guy. Try to explain someone else in the group is gonna take the brunt of this blame for calling out to Mrs. Blue, Miss Blue, I hope. Um, that's that,

like you have to put that on someone else. She seems sorry to that guy. You have to put that on someone else. This was not your fault. This was, this was dudes going crazy in Cabo. Um, and maybe just put it on the dude that she's going to have the least amount of interaction with. Um, Yeah. Wait, so what do we think happened though? Do we think she saw this, there's no way she saw this video just like innocently online. Did one of the dudes send it to his significant other who then sent it to her like? Absolutely. Which is the worst part about this.

There's room for leaks with 12 guys. 12 guys? Yeah. There's one guy that sucks in that group. It's tough. It's a tough scene. I, yeah, I think you gotta dig, I, you gotta dig your heels in on this one. I, I, I wouldn't buy any flowers. Nothing that would, that would project. Leave the search tap over studio downtown. Yeah. I'd be pissed. I'd be pissed if my wife were actually this mad at me. I can understand. Like you kind of screwed up when you got in the car and she's like, how was the bachelor party?

Okay. So your buddy really screwed you on this. All right. It's really lame and granted, you know, you're day drinking, festive, but there's one guy out of that group, probably two out of the group of 12, that's just, I just hate that guy.

I hate that fucking guy that's like, oh, I'm gonna send this to wife. Cause the wives don't care. Cause now it's, it's public domain. It doesn't matter. Oh, now there's a good conversation. They just drummed up here. Yeah, that's right. They don't care about you.

I don't care about your marriage. I care about your feelings content. All right. So you're whoever did this is the guy that you should be like, I would, I would never be friends with that guy again. I would never be friends with them again. So whoever did this is the guy that you should be. I would never be friends with that guy again. I would never be friends with him again. It sucks too because I don't know that I blame

your wife necessarily. I mean who, like, it's embarrassing. You should have said it in the car. Yeah. When she picked you up and said, how was the bachelor party? But again, you didn't know, you're in a funk, you know? It's 27 years old when the pain starts to kick in.

So, you know, you're coming back from Cabo, maybe a little sun poisoning, like who knows? Like you're just not in the clearest state. You know, you don't wanna be flying a fighter jet. You're also not gonna lead with like, hey, you'll never believe it. Yeah, but you had to tell her. If you knew.

You kinda had to tell her, but he doesn't know and he's in this gray area of humanity. So yeah, I don't know. But for her to be this immature and get this mad at you about this, and I can understand the friend group, the content thread, oh my God, but you were totally respectful.

You were beyond respectful. It couldn't have been more obvious that that is actually something that you didn't want to be having happen based on what you told us about the video and the entire thing. So yeah, I think it shows like a ton of immaturity on her end that she made you sleep in the guest room. I think you just gotta wait it out and,

but don't give an inch and just be like, when you wanna have a respectable conversation about this, let me know. But like, I'm not apologizing. I like that. Terse. I wouldn't wait too long though. I wouldn't wait too long.

Okay. So how would you like, is this like a four days thing? Like that's Kyle, you're this guy, you're this guy, wife picks you up. How was the trip honey? Vegas was fine. And then boom, I saw it. How would you handle that going back to the. Casa if we're fast forwarding to I'm in the guest room and I know this is where

we're at, right? There was, I think, I think I'm game planning all night, game planning all night. I'm thinking like, I'm not doing the flowers. I'm thinking about, I'm really just coaching myself up to keep my tone at a level, you know, to keep, to not yell, to not, to not get too defensive. But I think like come up with the real story, be prepared for her overreactions and not overreact back to it. I think that's going to be, that's like, you know, that's my,

that's my Johnny's full court press right there. And then I think, I think it's really just, I need to have the line that draws this horrible thing to the guy who I'm putting this on What's the guy who's the guy? I think maybe I'd spend all night trying to think who that guy is He doesn't seem like he knows who the rat is But there is a rat so maybe that's not the most important thing though You know what I mean? Like but I need to reflect it why this whole situation happened. That's and a deflection That would be your move. No, no

The question is why it wasn't so bad and then also I didn't want to be there in the first place. Like there's there's a group of dudes that were that the reason that I didn't pick Cabo okay that happened also I didn't pick I didn't want to go up to that spot on the beach but that's where everyone was and I certainly didn't want to call out to this woman saying you know the hall pass thing and that was Darren and you know him and I I don't know if we'll ever be the same. I don't know. I think I would just be finding a way to explain what she's worried about.

Say, I know that this sucks. I'm embarrassed too. And also Darren sucks. Yeah. My fear though, if you're saying like, Hey, I don't know if I can ever be friends with that guy again, that her response is going to be,

Oh, you're more concerned with your, but she's just going to outmaneuver you here. She's going to be just tacking on every turn here of where you're like, okay, well that's not what I meant. And she'd be like, oh, the priorities, your friendship thing. Look, it's a bad answer, man. It's a really bad answer that you picked. Body blue.

Okay. Cause as soon as the women were going to figure out what her deal is and what the headlines have been with her right now, that wasn't going to be a win. It's comeag. Yeah. No one, not one woman in that, there's probably a dude at that dinner was like, you fucking dumbest person ever. But he's not the dumbest person ever. He's obviously very smart because of just the structure of that entire email. That's like probably one of the best emails we've ever read. But I think

the overriding thing here is both what Saruti and Kyle said is that, you know, the not... you're so in the right here. The dumbest thing that you did was say her name at the dinner party, okay? And the likely... Should have said Kevin, dude. Right. What does that mean, by the way? That was the who would you do? Remember that who would you do game when they're all in the office

and they're all standing outside? And Todd Packer's like, who's that girl with the tight ass? And people are like, are you talking about Angela? And it gets to Jim and he's like, Kevin. And everyone's like, ah, and he totally sidestepped the whole thing. And that's how you do that.

If you're even gonna, if you even find yourself in the truth or dare situation, you lie. What do you think? Great reference. A married are you truth or dare to tell them truth I don't know I don't know big like you're allowed to say a name you just can't say that guy yeah yeah that's but you have to I mean again you know this this is where everybody's like all themarried guys telling us how to do it. But I do think it would be, Hey, I understand that it probably wasn't a great text thread, but like, how, how guilty do you want me to feel about this? Because I didn't do anything.

Right. Like how guilty do you want me to feel about this deal? Tell me what you think I should do. thing, right? Like how guilty do you want me to feel about this deal? Tell me what you think I should do. Do you think that was fun for me? Like I was put in this incredibly awkward situation. My friends are pushing me to the circle. Like, you know, you can almost like guilt trip or a little bit into like how you're not even thinking about how awkward this was on my end,

trying to have to confront the situation, weasel my way out of it. Cause Kyle, you said like, Oh, you chickened out. I don't think you check. You didn't chicken out at all. You, you you you just got out of there which is the right call you know yeah um yeah I wouldn't give an inch but I don't think you can wait too long I think I think you know if it's stews too long you know the wall the wall might be a little too high for you to climb over so I would Maybe tomorrow you figure out that what context like what contact like it was this video just sent to her I was like hey look at you know What's is you know whatever was was with Bonnie blue and no other?

Context like what did the guy who sent the video to his did he give any context to his girl who then gave? Context to your girl like is Do you know content is too good like no one cares about anyone's feelings in this moment, and it's this texture, but I mean, ultimately, like, it's coming back to you. It's, I don't know, embarrassed. Well, you got a bunch of dudes that are gonna vouch, that could vouch for you,

be like, dude, nothing happened. We're just messing around. Oh, the bachelor party group, the two days after, are providing the answers that help their buddy, though? I mean, I don't know if that helps. Because he didn't do anything. Yeah, it's true, but. I just think it from her perspective,

it's like, oh yeah, great, consider the source. What if we're completely misunderstanding the closing of the email and that she's embarrassed that he looked like such a simp? And that he's one of the cool ones. That's what it is. Right. But no, you guys read this wrong.

She was like, how did you blow your opportunity? All right. Quicker one here, dominated by old lady in the customs line, 23, 58, 180, player comp Xavier Simpson, if none of the hook shots fell. Apologies in advance for the long email. This one is not long, man. It's funny, the people that apologize for the long ones,

they're usually never long, and the people that never apologize for how long they are, are the longest emails. One of the trip with my family last summer, a week in Switzerland, starting in Zurich and hitting Lucerne, Zermatt, and Interlaken. Bonus itinerary review. By far the low point of the trip was the customs line upon landing in Zurich. Got off a red eye from Boston to severely backed up customs situation, took about 20 minutes to walk to the back of the five to six person wide gridlock line all the way, all along the way, dasting in the

condescending looks of the people taking solace in the fact that we had to, we had more time left in the airport than they did. We had made slow and steady progress, we're probably halfway back towards customs when a seemingly harmless woman ducked under the rope right next to me, cutting roughly 1,000 people in line behind her.

I was put off slightly, but didn't think much of it because I was right in front of some stairs and she looked around 70. So maybe it could have been a risk avoidance decision rather than convenience. Sure. I love that he was hoping that maybe it wasn't what it really was. She offered an innocent smile and I assumed she'd fallen behind us when the line shifted again.

Little did I know she was very much on the offensive. She stuck on the inside of the rope and got right on the back of the person in front of her. By the time the person moved to turn around and look who was breathing down their neck. She was past them every time the line shifted. She ate it, but as much space as available to her waiting for this hole to open up and getting north south very efficiently passing anybody who dared take their arm off the rope. Thinking Leveon Bell circa 2015.

That's right. The hesitation and then find your hole. Hit that hole. Remember when he was like, I'm kind of like the Steph Curry running backs. Except he wasn't. By the time we got to the front, there were That's right. The hesitation and then find your hole. Hit that hole. Remember when he was like, I'm kind of like the Steph Curry running backs. Except he wasn't. By the time we got to the front, there were probably close to 50 people between us and her with the worst reaction she got along the way being a couple of dirty looks and loud sighs.

You gotta respect that game, dude. You gotta respect that game. At her age. No one said anything. Has she earned the right to do this, is everybody in that airport that let her pass, most of all myself, a bitch? Or are they the bigger person for not starting shit with a selfish old woman over a couple minutes in line?

The thought of her thinking that she's winning in this scenario enrages me as it relates to the general trend of people thinking they agreed upon social rules don't apply to them. Please provide any thoughts, insight, and help me sleep a little bit better. Hey man, Ben there. I think any of us that are, you know,

you travel enough, you're gonna see this kind of stuff. And it just, it makes you so mad. I remember leaving a wedding. It was a wedding based on some relationship drama for me that wasn't gonna be a great weekend going in. And I would say after two days of the wedding, I felt even worse and I wasn't in a great mood. I was by myself, um, which usually puts me in a

good mood, but in this case, it wasn't like I was traveling with anybody. And so I remember I was already like a little tuned up and there were these two dudes, a bit dramatic saying our gate, our gate is leaving. little tuned up. And there were these two dudes, a bit dramatic saying our gate, our gate is leaving. You know, we have to cut, we have to cut. And like, there's a way you can be vocal enough

where the line will kind of look around, you know, like a neighborhood trying to figure out if that light is positioned perfectly at some sort of neighborhood meeting thing. And you're like, Hey, for the greater good, should we move the light, the street lamp? Um, and everybody kind of looks, it's like, you know, these guys are just going to go for it.

Right. And, you know, enough of us have been there. We'd be like, it'd be really nice if the 12 people going through the security and taking out the laptops, if they could just let everybody, you know, could you just let me go? Cause there's a really good chance I'm going to miss the flight. And it'd be nice if like in those moments, it all

worked out, right? So these dudes are losing their shit. Everybody's kind of looking around and they're like, all right, whatever, do your thing. So I make my way through security, old deal, get to the gate, guess which two dudes are sitting there with coffees, same gate, throwing the same fucking flight.

There was plenty of time. There was plenty of time. There was plenty of time, but they wanted to make sure, because their thing is that they're more important. And yeah, that shouldn't rage all of us, unless you're one of those people. So, and some people just look at society as like, how can I continue to take advantage of all this stuff?

Clearly the age factor is going here as well. I also think there's kind of like a home game thing for when the person's returning to the country that they're from, that they think everybody else is just an asshole and supposed to get out of the way. So maybe she was just- I'm back. I go here. Yeah. Yeah. So she just might've been a 70-year-old Miss Swiss, Swiss Miss, whatever. But you're- Nice. That was good. Look, you're right to feel this way.

And I'm telling you, it gets better, man. You're gonna be able, like in a week, you'll be able to sleep. You know, do you really wanna start arm barring and boxing out Kevin Willis, but she's 70? You know, like there's a line that even I think I'd go, okay, well, I'm not going this far. You're supposed to say something. You know, it's's a line that even I think I'd go, okay, well, I'm, I'm not going this far. You're supposed to say something, you know, you know, it's always a good one. You just let it, oh, but you're going to go. Oh, but you can go. I love the out loud passive aggressive,

just an out loud. Oh no, but you can cut everybody. You should do it. And then maybe it makes you feel better that you've acknowledged it, even though she's going to get away with her little game. And it might stick. it might rattle around the back there if you don't stop her and get anyone else involved. She might be numb to it. Yeah, probably. I don't know, I don't wanna make waves in another, I don't even wanna make waves in Utah, dude.

So I can't imagine being in, you know. What's that mean? I don't know exactly what it means, but I think you know what it means. I just don't, just watched American Primeval recently. I just like, I don't want to do anything that could be considered, you know, ruffling feathers. So I can imagine in the customs line

when you're almost through, you know, I've only really been to Jamaica and Ireland and Utah, but I don't really like, I haven't really like stepped outside of, you know, the country, I know Utah is in the country, but like, I don't really remember what that's like, but I imagine customs is the last point before you're like, all of, you know, the country. I know Utah is in the country, but like I don't really remember what that's like. But I imagine customs is the last point before you're like, all right, cool. You made it. Have fun.

You know, leave when you say you're going to leave. So I don't know if I would want to like roll the dice at that point. The hard part's over, you know, pretty much over. So, yeah, I probably wouldn't have raised hell, so to speak. I think you just got to let 70 year old women It's just what's the end 70? Yeah, I was about the old people old people certain get points, you know, they certainly think points 70 No, still he's doing he's not like there's plenty of normal stuff that you're doing at 70. I agree

But I mean there's there's an old 70 out there you know life alert everywhere you know and I don't know. So you get to cut the line? No I don't think so but you hammered whiskey in the morning. I just don't know that that's the fight I'm fighting. Yeah I don't know how I would handle it as if it was you know those two dudes. Okay by the way no that's a good point because this is also one of those like in the moment versus everybody with the chance of Monday morning quarterbacking all this stuff. Yeah, running it back in your head.

Here's what I would say. I think we can close here. Prepare yourself for that moment. That's all. Have a script ready. Yeah, I don't think you need. Yeah, what do you like? Practice in the shower.

Know what you like. Yeah. Yeah. Think what's gonna work in that moment. Think about what's to make you feel better. And it's not preventing her. I mean, if a person is just going to, especially a 70 year old woman, she's just kind of cutting through everybody, like you're not going to get to the point of like physically restraining her. Nobody's signing up for that. Right. But work out a little script, even write it down. You know, download final draft, interior day, busy customs. Fire a child.

GPT. Like a child runs away from a screaming parent says you're going to be left in Switzerland if you don't come here, right? You know what I mean? Like just be ready, have your line ready. It says you're going to be left in Switzerland if you don't come here, right? You know what I mean? Like just be ready. Have your line ready so that maybe next time, because I know what you're going through right now, like that person dominated you, but they dominated a lot of people.

They didn't just dominate you. Right. That's yeah. Keep that in mind. Yeah. You shared that loss that, you know, win share, loss share per 48. Right. It's not even that bad of a number for you. No. shared that loss that, you know, wind share loss share per 48. It's not even that bad of a number for you.

No divided by amongst hundreds of people. You're all right. Yeah. Barely registers. It's like scoot Henderson rookie year. Don't even worry about it. All right. Uh, that'll do it for life advice. Jonathan Frias, Kyle, Steve and war gone.

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