February 12, 2020 • 32 mins
Today on Straight Outta Vegas, RJ Bell and the guys discuss Zions big night, the 76ers win over the Clippers last night, Rockets small being effective again and the latest on the MLB rule changes. RJ says the pinnacle of Zion Williamson's optimism was last night, and the Pelicans odds of reaching the playoffs have actually decreased since he joined the team. RJ thinks the Rockets may not put together big win streaks in the regular season but if they face the right team and get hot at the right time, they can make a serious run with their small ball approach. Plus, Steve Fezzik says the win last night was borderline meaningless for the 76ers because they’re 25-2 at home and have yet to prove they can be hit with adversity on the road and pull out a win. RJ agrees with him when looking at the numbers. RJ says they’re 9-19 on the road, and when you look at the average Vegas spread it is pick em, meaning they should’ve won half of them. The guys also discuss the new MLB rule of pitchers needing to face at least 3 batters and think it is bad for baseball.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Don't listening to Fox Sports where you got home? This
is straight out of Vegas with the voice of Vegas,
your host r J Bow, collect the pregame show America
(00:29):
has always wanted from the veggest trip Ear's r J Bow.
(00:52):
You heard it. I'm RJ Live from Las Vegas on
a Wednesday. Who a lot of NBA? Baby, You can
feel the age of the sports calendar turning. NBA going
to be the focus a lot of big games. Last
night we are live from Las Vegas. As we said
in studio, a pro who knows Steve Easik, he's gotta
(01:16):
take coming up cold cash over hot takes well, this
one's hot, so he must have a lot of money.
He'd be willing to bet on this one. Sports bettors
listen for the money. Sports fans listen to no more
than their buddies. But you cannot have pros without Joe's.
Pros would be working at the fast food place if
(01:36):
it wasn't Joe's. We appreciate him. He's in l a
Joe and it's not always good to be here. R J.
And Yes, on a day in which we've got a
major change in Major League Baseball. More rumors around the
NFL and the quarterback carousel. What is the Vegas lead
on a Wednesday? Well, first of all, everyone's worried you
just did How long did you just? Were? You just
(01:57):
on evere hours? So we're getting there's two ways for
us to think about that though, the show that has
you on every day, right, I don't know if you
have any loyalty, but is it could be you were
holding back your best take for today with stray Option one.
Option two would be that was like a dress rehearsal
(02:18):
and now you've refined your takes. Or option three is, hey,
I think gaunt leaves cleared in one big market. We're not,
so I'm gonna give them all and gets the leftovers.
Or I'm just I'm trying to say, how can I
put this politely? I'm I'm open to any opportunity here,
So in some ways you could say I'm I'm easy
(02:40):
in that regard. Well, I've heard that the Las Vegas
League is Zion. Zion Williamson a monster game last night
for the New Orleans Pelicans, a one, one seventeen win
for the Pelicans. But the story in that game Zion
in just twenty eight minutes of play thirty one points,
(03:00):
nine boards, five assists, easily his best game so far
in his young NBA career. And we joke sometimes, but
we're really not about hot takes and cold cash. We
pride ourselves on the following. We will not say anything
that we would not bet. In fact, we have the
green button. What's that. Anytime someone says something that's bettable,
(03:27):
anybody else can press the green button and it's an
automatic cash bet. So when I say stuff, when Fess
says it, when any of us say it, it's a fact.
And this is what I'll say here Zion. My optimism,
I think reasonable optimism, meaning from fans, the skuy's the limit.
(03:50):
I feel better today about Zion's potential with the caveat injuries, Right,
people don't get injured injured every game, right, So if
you get injured every thirty games, that's a problem. We
haven't had enough games with Zion to see if the
injury concern is still a major concern with that caveat,
(04:13):
You've got to be more enthused optimistic about Zion today
than you were a week ago, then you were at
any point up till now. This is the pinnacle so
far of Zion optimism. Does anyone disagree with that? All right, Now,
here's the clarification or here's the nuance. We have no
(04:36):
idea how Zion is going to play with this Pelicans team,
and we've got some data that says, even though he's
played very well, the team hasn't so the day before
Zion played his first game eight does playoff projections very
complex because it's not just how many games is this
(04:58):
team gonna win, it's how many games the other teams
are gonna win. It's very well regarded the chance of
the Pelicans banking the playoffs before Zion played a game.
The chance today the Pelicans chances have decreased since Zion
(05:18):
took the court. Chances to make the playoffs for the
Pelicans down with Zion. Now, is it all Zion's fault? No,
Zion is playing really well. If you look at his stats,
twenty one points a game, eight rebounds, He at thirty
one last night. He's good. How's he playing with his team?
(05:38):
Maybe what you would expect because if you look at
the projected wins, they've won about the games they were
expected to win. Now, Memphis, who is there one of
their competition for that eighth seed they've won more so,
Memphis has over exceeded expectations. The Pelicans team have just
barely met expectations, even though Zion is playing really well.
(06:02):
I don't know if this continues as a small sample size,
but he's not seemingly integrating in a super effective way
with his Pelicans teammates and Fez Memphis. There's a little
bit of interest the fact that Memphis is that other team. Yeah,
because John Morant is having a tremendous here and in
fact is the likely Rookie of the Year winner, not
(06:23):
a Zion, and here he's under the radar. Memphis has
gone seven and three under his leadership. So some suit
upstairs said, lead the show is I know, I decided
to lead the show is on and you're saying no, no, no,
Memphis got a player that's better perhaps, or at least
he's looking to win the Rookie of the Year most likely,
and they're playing better and he's making all his teammates
(06:45):
play better distributing the ball. So Jonas I was thinking,
maybe what we can start doing is have you give
your take on the Vegas take. Do you agree Zion
individually great, but as contribute the team so far, still
an open question. I agree, it's a young team. They're
they're incorporating a lot of new faces all at the
(07:06):
same time. You know, they made the big trade with
Anthony Davis, so they're bringing in a bunch of new
guys trying to fit them into the offense, guys that
are trying to revitalize their own careers, ingram Lonzo Ball.
And then on top of it, part way through the season,
when you're playing somewhat well, you bring in your number
one draft picks Ion Williamson, and it feels like it's
a lot of guys trying to establish themselves at the
(07:27):
same time, and because of that, maybe it's a detriment
more than it is a help. Now you're saying something interesting.
This is fascinating because my first thought was, what are
you talking about? Were forty some games in and but
you're saying, hey, if you start the season with a
lot of disruption where you need to really try to
(07:48):
solidify the team, then you finally start getting solidified game thirty,
game twenty whatever. And now you throw another wild card
in this. We know it's hard to integrate any one
player into any team. You're saying, if the team is
like some kind of cake bat or it was just
barely cooked enough to eat it, and then you just
(08:10):
threw in a big Zion size frosting and now you're
it's all kind of gooey. Yeah. I mean there's a
lot of new faces. There's That's what it is. There's
a lot of new faces on that team, guys that
are all trying to get there. It's like brandon Ingram
was sent out of town. You don't think he's piste
off looking at at Kyle Kuzma thinking wait, they chose
him over me. Stuff that's supposed to motivate better, Because
(08:34):
I think you're to me, you've got a good point,
but I think we might be mixing them up. The
point about coming together as a team, I think is great.
The point about all these are out or off casts,
people cast away and if anything, I should motivate them
right and right as you're about to find your stride.
Then you add in somebody else exactly. That's a good point.
I really do now. Last thing, I do have my limits.
(08:59):
And the reproduction meeting, Pesic said, you know, I was looking,
do you think Zion is losing some weight? And I said,
you know, I want to do a lot for winning,
but I'm not gonna be like tracking, like like US
Magazine's Zion's way. So just just know that keep that
to yourself, and your Twitter account will probably have the
weights of various players and your critiques. Right, Yeah, didn't
(09:21):
we bet on the Golden State players? Wait before the
year started? Well, we were betting on him ballooning Draymond.
By the way, you can follow fees on Twitter at
pesic sports fe z z i K. By the way,
a rabid fan base is going to be very upset
with Steve Fezik coming up here in just one moment.
Do you you want to let you know we are brought
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(09:44):
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Zone you know something, Jones, Let's do this. Let's jump
to Boston Rockets because Fez on that Philadelphia game has
maybe the hottest take ever. We want to make sure
we have a time to let it breathe. We'll do that, right,
(10:05):
We'll do the Boston Rockets first. Yeah, and the small
ball Rockets did impress yet again, a one sixteen, one
oh five final over the Boston Celtics on Tuesday night.
All Right, this is uh. You know. One of the
things I'm enjoying about this show is I have to
to do the kind of quality show I want. I
have to have a research team. And today, the last
(10:29):
couple of days, they've been stepping it up. I look
at this and I think, Okay, it's the NBA Rockets
were at home. I'm thinking a little bit about Fez
and how we disagreed about the Rockets when Anthony Davis
put up thirty two last week and he said that
that was a disappointing game because the Rockets were like
an eighth grade team, you know, and I smiled a
(10:50):
little bit and all that. But as we dug in,
this is an amazing stat about fundamentally how the Rockets
are playing defferently than they were before. And it's not
small ball Westbrook. In the ten games prior to this
Boston game last night, had scored two and thirty four
(11:11):
points in the paint so ten games, so twenty three
points plus a game in the point in the paint
in the paint, not twenty three points per game in
the paint. Only Shack in the modern era is the
only other player to do that. The two players in
the modern era not in be not Shack and Westbrook
(11:34):
in the paint over twenty three points a game over
ten games. Last night, Westbrook had more points in the
paint twenty four. So he in the eleventh game he
picked up the pace of this historic pace in the
paint for points. I did not practice that in the
paint for points. I mean Jonas. It's almost incomprehensible. He
(12:00):
goes a hundred miles an hour and he's almost daring
somebody to get in the way. It's fun to watch.
It's a different approach, but yeah, it's especially Let's be honest,
we sit here whining. I don't whine, you guys kind
of do, but we sit here lamenting. Why aren't they
playing like Joe DiMaggio, which I never I was born
in nineteen seventy I have no idea. Right old school
(12:21):
Westbrooks's old schools. Westbrook's more old school than anyone from
the Old School It's why I like was watching Zion
play because in this day game, but but this day
and age, when everybody stands behind the arc and wants
to shoot threes, you get two guys that are attacking
the basket at all times. It's fun to watch. No,
I agree with that part. The question was Ion is
(12:41):
can he survived that Westbrook's proven it. Imagine Westbrook playing
like in the seventies, Oh God, like like the great.
The great line from Hank Kingsley and Larry Sanders was
his agent wasn't from the old school, He's from the
school they tore down to build the old School. I
(13:02):
love that one, so fez. If he scores so much
in the paint and the Rockets are playing fundamentally differently,
it must be coming from the three pointers. Where if
you look at his three point attempts, Yeah, because Westbrook's
always struggled from threes and he was taken too many
of them. Frankly, prior to New Year's he was shooting
five per game. Since New Year's Westbrook's only trying two
(13:25):
and a half. So five per game? I heard, what
was the other one? Since New Year's he's only trying
two and a half so two and a half. It's
three point attempts have effectively gone down by fifty since
New Year's effectively gone down, they've been cut in half. Yes,
you know what's funny, No wonder he got in the Northwestern.
I mean all we had to say was Westbrook had
five before, he has less than half. Now. It's that
(13:47):
effectively he's doing and then he's going, just let's try
it one more time. Do it? Do it this way?
Is just red that one. But I'll give you a hint. Right,
let's act like no one's listening. Let's act like no less.
Westbrook used to try five five three's a game. Now
he's trying less than half. Go Westbrook, he used to
try five three pointers per game, and now he's trying
(14:09):
half as much. Still don't really work. He's got like
he's got a flair for the dramatic heed. He needs
to add a little bit of spice to things. Well
if he I think he's trying to act. You know,
my producer just said, it's an insurance executive's voice. Yeah,
a guy I would not sign an insurance cartract with.
(14:31):
Let's just say I'd want him being my guy that's
given insurance to be able. Hey, that's what's beautiful about this.
And really America, physic in some countries would be an out.
He might be dead by now, but like executed because
he did something to try to hustle someone. Not that
he does that anymore, but you know, literally in America,
(14:52):
he thrives. And the beauty is, the beauty is we
can somehow jump on his back. Let in deal with
all that and we just benefit with his picks. Well,
I thought that was an impressive pick you had on
that xfil. I mean we were getting points at home.
What was the final New York Guardians one to three
(15:12):
against the Tampa Bay Vipers. You keep doing that, you'll
be fine. It doesn't matter how you If you don't
do that, I don't know. Be sure to catch live
editions of Straight Out of Vegas weekdays at six pm
Eastern three pm Pacific on Fox Sports Radio and the
I Heart Radio app. I'm r J. Bell, We are
(15:35):
Straight out of Vegas, and I'm jonahs Knock's voice of
you the fan coming up here and just say a
couple of moments, we have a curious number attached to
two teams in the NBA. Plus, as we said, Fees's
hottest take ever. It's sizzling about the sixers. Thanks for
joining us. You're listening to the fastest grown show on
Fox Sports Radio. Our audiences over doubled double plus. We'll
(15:58):
call it. Thank you so much in the last year.
You can listen five days a week, six o'clock Eastern
two plus Fox Sports Radio stations. Also I Heart Radio app,
Fox Sports Radio dot Com, Hey Series x M anytime
on demand two on podcast just search r J Bella
right now in the strip sixty degrees. The neon is pumping,
(16:21):
so r J. We were discussing the new look Houston Rockets,
and there went over the Boston Celtics on Tuesday night
and the impressive performances of not only Russell Westbrook but
also James Harden. Yeah, and great information about how the
Rockets are fundamentally playing a different game. Westbrook taking half
(16:41):
half the three pointers that he had been before January one,
and he's scoring in the paint at a historic pace
over twenty three points per game in the paint alone.
Last eleven he had kept pace, if not a little
bit more or last night, now, Fez, you really were
(17:04):
down on this Rockets team. I mean I was. I
didn't know if you and Darryl Moray had I didn't
know if it was personal. What I know, it's about
cash for you. It's been about a week. How have
you reevaluated the Rockets Munchkin lineup appears to be working
so far. I'm surprised. J So you're But now that
we've seen Westbrook going inside, taking away one of his
(17:28):
his main weakness, all those threes he was shooting when
he wasn't shooting effectively makes sense, right, it does. And
you don't have Capella clogging up the middle anymore. The
middle is open, you know. I was often saying trade
Will Chamberlain, don't cream, don't flog up the middle. Whatever
you do. Moses Malone, forget about him. Now, I am
(17:49):
going to prove I was right. I mean, oftentimes in life,
you can't really prove when you're right. Even if I said, oh,
I think Kansas City's gonna win the Super Bowl, which
I did, maybe they weren't the best team, all right,
so it went that way. But no, if I was
saying they would win the super Bowl, I was right.
If I was saying Kansasy is the best team, we
(18:10):
don't know because super Bowl winners not always the best team.
That's what makes gambling so tough. You don't even have
the answer when you think you have the answer. But
I think we have the answer here. Now let's go
through quickly. What we know for a fact is entering
last night's game, the Rockets were seven to one to
win the West, seven to want to win the West.
(18:31):
Boston was seven and seven to one to win the East.
So the exact same Boston and their conference, Houston and theirs. Now,
the market last night said Boston was the better team.
Why Houston was only a small favorite at home? They
wanted big enough favorite. They were saying Boston better team.
(18:52):
Agree or disagree? Agree? Now in your power rankings, where
do you have Boston? So I've got Boston in my
fezz power ratings as the number four team. Houston not
as good, Houston the number seven team excellent. So it
makes sense the line looks right last night? Then right? Yes,
Now if we look at the West and the East,
because the question is seven to one to win the
West for Houston and the same odds for Boston to
(19:15):
win the East. Which conference is better the East or
the West? Or another way to say that, this which
conference would be harder to win? Oh, the West isn't
much harder to West is harder to win. So you
got the wait, hold on a second. You think Houston
is the lesser team and they're in the harder conference,
but they have a seven to one. Boston is the
(19:36):
better team in the easier conference. There're seven? No one?
What's going on here? Are I'm asking you? Wow? What's
going on is that Houston has extreme variants. This team
has a high ceiling in terms of what they might
be able to do. You would call anyone saying that
you did, And it seems like that. The markets of
Green Jonas is, Hey, how good is Houston gonna be? Game?
(19:58):
The game? I don't know about the same they were
with Capella, maybe even maybe even a smidge down though
I don't think so. But if somehow they get lucky,
if somehow they get hot, not just threes, but if
their style play somehow gils in a positive way. They
do have a higher ceiling than the Celtics, and the
(20:20):
market agrees, and so they do pose a threat because
they do it differently than everybody else. Yeah, I think
that's the way to think about it is you could
see this team. And plus, if you shoot a lot
of threes to start with your higher variants, right, because
you can get hot on those threes. We've seen that
in college, right. If if there's a college team that's
a twenty point dog, they have a much better chance
(20:42):
in college basketball to win if they shoot a bunch
of threes. If you play the same old game, as
Fest says, Mott's more, the same is bad. If your
opponent is better, you want to disrupt things. And Houston
at best is the third best team in the West.
You know, RJ. It's been an up and down season
for the Philadelphia Seven, the six Ers, but here they
are mine in their own business. They've won three straight.
(21:03):
They take care of the Clippers last night one t
one oh three. You would think that people would be
feeling better about this team, but unfortunately Hurricane Steve Fezik
blew into town and we've got a problem. Well, listen
(21:26):
the win last night by Philly borderline meaningless. R J.
What only won a game. Guess what? That's what they
do at home? There five and two at home. Here's
a team that can win at home. Let me see
him win a key game on the road where they're
nine and nineteen. Straight up, when they get hit with adversity,
(21:46):
this team crumbles like three day old cake. Did you
prepare that? Yes? I saw him going through his pockets
and napkins. No one tell us about all right, I
agree with him because let's look. I mean, first of all,
(22:07):
Steve f Ezecs said that I'm r J. Belt were
straight out in Vegas. But let's look at the numbers
at home Philadelphia and two on the road, nine and nineteen.
If you look at those road games, the average Vegas
spread was pick them, which means they should have won
(22:28):
half of them. Yeah, if you were starch to win
half to win one game, to win half of them
are so or half of them is what you're supposed
to win, so against the spread their nineteen. So if
you're nine and nineteen when you're supposed to win half
the time, there's a problem. What do road games reveal? Discipline?
(22:52):
Organization by the organization? Are they organized? That's a great
way to think about it. Organization, what organized nation for
the Sixers and ability to deal with adversity. I would
go one step further. If you're a Sixers fan and
(23:12):
you met for lunch with another Sixers fan every Wednesday morning,
you should be less optimistic this Wednesday than last Wednesday
because this wind does mean something. They played well at home,
like they typically do. They beat maybe the best team
in the NBA, but they do that, they get motivated
(23:34):
the Sixers do for the biggest games. They play well
at Hump. But what about a Tuesday night in Portland?
How do you play? That's where the Sixers suffer. And
to me that Wednesday breakfast pow wow with all the
stuff with him bead and social media, I think net
Net this is a down arrow week for the Sixers.
(23:57):
Festeted a little hotter than me. But what do you yeah?
I would agree, until they prove it on the road
and they're not a high enough seed or where they
can guarantee they're gonna get several home games in the postseason.
Until they prove it on the road, I think it's
still up in the air. They remind me a lot
of last year's Celtics teams. A lot of noise, a
lot of bickering. Even Al Horford, who was on that
(24:18):
team last year in Boston said we got issues in
the locker room. Here. It just feels like it's not
gonna end well for the Sixers this season. And I
would say this to whatever degree, the analogy to last
year's Boston team is true, and I hadn't thought of that.
I think it's a good one. It's worse with the
Sixers because if you have a disruptive relationship, environment, whatever,
(24:40):
and it's new, there's a chance it's not the truth.
Someone's haven't getten a divorce, someone's doing whatever, and once
things settled down will be okay. We got years and
years with these Sixers. This is this is the reality.
You could have hoped last year with Boston it get better.
This is the reality Philadelphia. The idea that Embiad's gonna change,
(25:03):
Simmons is gonna change it just seems less less less likely.
And you could say every passing day, I think that
day passed a year or two ago. This is the
reality for Philadelphia, which means some real highs but no
real big playoff wins. Now. Jonas is very competitive, so
just in one minute he's gonna say I'm gonna come
(25:24):
not as strong as Fads, but I want people to
remember me today. He had me, me me with Jonas.
Sometimes be sure to catch live editions of straight out
of Vegas weekdays at six pm Eastern, three pm Pacific.
You know, it'd be easy to be kind of snarky
and listening to that Ohio State story and saying, oh,
(25:45):
now we know what it is you need to do
to get kicked off the team. But to me, this
kind of makes sense because in general, I would say,
if you're just accused of something, why are you being
penalized before? But I kind of get the point that
even if it's not you know, and who knows that
no insight. But if eventually in a criminal matter, it's
(26:06):
not a criminal act that was done, but it was
still things that High State wouldn't like, you kind of
get it. But schools are so hypocritical with that stuff,
you always are going to be skeptical of it. Speaking
of skeptical, I was looking here Philadelphia inquired, this is
what coach Brown? We were talking about the Sixers and
(26:26):
how Fez said very strong that Sixers should not have
any optimism off the last night's game. Does boardline meaningless?
The coach Brown said he will use the nine day
gap between games to figure out how to coach his team.
He said, this is team is not traditional. How long
(26:46):
has he been coach quite a while? Yea. So listen,
it's Jonas time. We got a little theme music when
Jonas has he makes a point about his taketing TV.
Yeah me, nobodys, just me go ahead. That was me
during the break. I can't believe you guys got that
Major League Baseball. I don't. I don't get this, and
(27:08):
if I were a manager in Major League Baseball, I'd
be piste off about it. So they announced a short
time ago, a couple of hours ago, that the official
rules have been amended. This according to MLB dot com,
they are requiring starting or any relief picture to pitch
a minimum three batters, that includes the batter then at
bat or any substitute batter until the batters are out
(27:30):
or reach base. So what they're saying is, and this
is going to become effective on Thursday, March twelve, at
the start of spring training, coming up here, uh in
about it in exactly a month from now. What they're
telling you is, when you're out there, you have to
face a minimum of three batters. No more of these
pitching changes, no more of this, and that to me,
if I were a manager, like I said, I'd be
(27:50):
bothered by it because you're telling me and dictating to
me how I have to work my bullpen when we've
seen that's been the secret to success outside of banging
ty ash Cans to winning World Series. You match up
in postseason games, you match up late in games, and
they're taking that away from managers. I could not agree more.
In fact, if I knew baseball as a true expert,
(28:13):
which admittingly I don't. I'm a fan. I was a
big fan as a kid. I bet baseball, but I
leverage other people. So let me just admit I'm not
an expert and tell me something I hate. Rule changes
the fundamentally changed the game, meaning you want to go
(28:34):
from seven ennings to nine endings or vice versa. Okay,
it's the same game. It's just a little less long,
but each play it's the same game, right, But if
you make it where you know you want to make
the pitching mount a little higher, low lower. This is
saying everything that came before it, the way that you
(28:55):
compiled your teams, like, you can't change the rules in
a way that the decisions you a teammate three years
ago are now bad because of a rules change, And well,
I mean, I hate it. And here's the question, as
you you you got something on this. Almost every MLB
team has a left handed pitcher specialist, and his specialty
(29:17):
is to get out left handed hitters. So now that
guy is obsolete, you bring him in. He can't get
right handers out, and boom, he's got to face three
pinch hitting right handers. And I don't mind the fact that.
I mean, in any industry, things change in a way
that an individual might suffer for because no matter what
you do something, because in theory, the guys that lose
the job that are the lefty specialists are the same.
(29:39):
There's gonna be an equal number of players that wouldn't
be in the league that can't. But I'm talking about
teams making strategic decisions. And you're saying, oh, by the way,
all those assumptions they're fundamentally wrong now. But baseball it
seems like maybe doesn't understand what makes it special. And
in many as it's not special anymore, meaning it doesn't
(30:02):
get the ratings of football. It's not America's true pastime anymore.
But holding onto its past, it's connection to its past,
is one of its greatest attributes. Baseball and with the
PD scandals. They destroyed a big chunk of that sixty
(30:22):
sixty one Hank Aaron seven and I mean three thousand hits,
all of the five home runs. What could I rather?
I mean again, this is when a kid I was
reading the record books, sporting news record books. Now none
(30:43):
of that matters. And now they're saying, we're gonna why
don't Jonas you understand this baseball probably better than or
certainly better than me. Why not just make it. You
can't leave the freaking batter's box. But literally, you step
into the batter's box, picture can't go off the my
that's it. Once there's a certain point, the pictures on
the mound, the banners in the batter's box, there will
(31:05):
be a pitch drone. Yeah, to speed the game up, correct,
I mean, if that's what we're doing here, why not
do that? How about if if there's an outfield out
or there's a groundball in the infield and you throw
at first, we don't go around the horn to make
sure everybody touches the baseball and then back to the
pitch here like you can cut out time. There this
idea that and here's where they're gonna there's gonna be
(31:25):
a problem because baseball, especially of all the leagues, that's
the one league. And it's been proven over time, and
it was proven this offseason where teams, if they can
find a way to cut corners, they're gonna cut corners.
And it's happened throughout the financially, yeah, not even just financially,
just on the field. If they got to bang trash,
can steal a sign, uh, scuff up a baseball like,
(31:49):
whatever the case may be, they're going to cut corners
and they're gonna take if if they need to cheat
a little bit, it's gonna happen. So here's and here's
why I bring that up. So what they're saying in
this rule is that unless the substitute picture sustains an
injury or an illness, which in the Umpire crew Chiefs judgment,
incapacitates him from further play as a picture. So you
(32:09):
know what's gonna happen. Guys are gonna fake injuries. Well,
if that's the case, they you know, you make those
real simple. You say, if you have to leave cause
of injury, you missed the next game, no matter what
I mean. And then it would take care of But
to me, the one thing that would change all of this,
because I like the idea a batter might feel be
feeling a little uncomfortable and then it gets exciting and say,
(32:30):
hey tough, or the picture feels a little uncomfortable, and
if you want to step off the mount, it's fine.
It's a ball or strike based on if the batter
steps out, it's a strike. If the picture does, it's
a ball. So if you really feel bad, you step
away and accept that. You know there's an additional ball
for the picture, I mean, and then this all changes.
You can have at baseball. But just so I don't
(32:51):
have to watch these goofy games, I'm getting away for
free
Don't listening to Fox Sports where you got home? This
is straight out of Vegas with the voice of Vegas,
your host r J Bow, collect the pregame show America
(00:29):
has always wanted from the veggest trip Ear's r J Bow.
(00:52):
You heard it. I'm RJ Live from Las Vegas on
a Wednesday. Who a lot of NBA? Baby, You can
feel the age of the sports calendar turning. NBA going
to be the focus a lot of big games. Last
night we are live from Las Vegas. As we said
in studio, a pro who knows Steve Easik, he's gotta
(01:16):
take coming up cold cash over hot takes well, this
one's hot, so he must have a lot of money.
He'd be willing to bet on this one. Sports bettors
listen for the money. Sports fans listen to no more
than their buddies. But you cannot have pros without Joe's.
Pros would be working at the fast food place if
(01:36):
it wasn't Joe's. We appreciate him. He's in l a
Joe and it's not always good to be here. R J.
And Yes, on a day in which we've got a
major change in Major League Baseball. More rumors around the
NFL and the quarterback carousel. What is the Vegas lead
on a Wednesday? Well, first of all, everyone's worried you
just did How long did you just? Were? You just
(01:57):
on evere hours? So we're getting there's two ways for
us to think about that though, the show that has
you on every day, right, I don't know if you
have any loyalty, but is it could be you were
holding back your best take for today with stray Option one.
Option two would be that was like a dress rehearsal
(02:18):
and now you've refined your takes. Or option three is, hey,
I think gaunt leaves cleared in one big market. We're not,
so I'm gonna give them all and gets the leftovers.
Or I'm just I'm trying to say, how can I
put this politely? I'm I'm open to any opportunity here,
So in some ways you could say I'm I'm easy
(02:40):
in that regard. Well, I've heard that the Las Vegas
League is Zion. Zion Williamson a monster game last night
for the New Orleans Pelicans, a one, one seventeen win
for the Pelicans. But the story in that game Zion
in just twenty eight minutes of play thirty one points,
(03:00):
nine boards, five assists, easily his best game so far
in his young NBA career. And we joke sometimes, but
we're really not about hot takes and cold cash. We
pride ourselves on the following. We will not say anything
that we would not bet. In fact, we have the
green button. What's that. Anytime someone says something that's bettable,
(03:27):
anybody else can press the green button and it's an
automatic cash bet. So when I say stuff, when Fess
says it, when any of us say it, it's a fact.
And this is what I'll say here Zion. My optimism,
I think reasonable optimism, meaning from fans, the skuy's the limit.
(03:50):
I feel better today about Zion's potential with the caveat injuries, Right,
people don't get injured injured every game, right, So if
you get injured every thirty games, that's a problem. We
haven't had enough games with Zion to see if the
injury concern is still a major concern with that caveat,
(04:13):
You've got to be more enthused optimistic about Zion today
than you were a week ago, then you were at
any point up till now. This is the pinnacle so
far of Zion optimism. Does anyone disagree with that? All right, Now,
here's the clarification or here's the nuance. We have no
(04:36):
idea how Zion is going to play with this Pelicans team,
and we've got some data that says, even though he's
played very well, the team hasn't so the day before
Zion played his first game eight does playoff projections very
complex because it's not just how many games is this
(04:58):
team gonna win, it's how many games the other teams
are gonna win. It's very well regarded the chance of
the Pelicans banking the playoffs before Zion played a game.
The chance today the Pelicans chances have decreased since Zion
(05:18):
took the court. Chances to make the playoffs for the
Pelicans down with Zion. Now, is it all Zion's fault? No,
Zion is playing really well. If you look at his stats,
twenty one points a game, eight rebounds, He at thirty
one last night. He's good. How's he playing with his team?
(05:38):
Maybe what you would expect because if you look at
the projected wins, they've won about the games they were
expected to win. Now, Memphis, who is there one of
their competition for that eighth seed they've won more so,
Memphis has over exceeded expectations. The Pelicans team have just
barely met expectations, even though Zion is playing really well.
(06:02):
I don't know if this continues as a small sample size,
but he's not seemingly integrating in a super effective way
with his Pelicans teammates and Fez Memphis. There's a little
bit of interest the fact that Memphis is that other team. Yeah,
because John Morant is having a tremendous here and in
fact is the likely Rookie of the Year winner, not
(06:23):
a Zion, and here he's under the radar. Memphis has
gone seven and three under his leadership. So some suit
upstairs said, lead the show is I know, I decided
to lead the show is on and you're saying no, no, no,
Memphis got a player that's better perhaps, or at least
he's looking to win the Rookie of the Year most likely,
and they're playing better and he's making all his teammates
(06:45):
play better distributing the ball. So Jonas I was thinking,
maybe what we can start doing is have you give
your take on the Vegas take. Do you agree Zion
individually great, but as contribute the team so far, still
an open question. I agree, it's a young team. They're
they're incorporating a lot of new faces all at the
(07:06):
same time. You know, they made the big trade with
Anthony Davis, so they're bringing in a bunch of new
guys trying to fit them into the offense, guys that
are trying to revitalize their own careers, ingram Lonzo Ball.
And then on top of it, part way through the season,
when you're playing somewhat well, you bring in your number
one draft picks Ion Williamson, and it feels like it's
a lot of guys trying to establish themselves at the
(07:27):
same time, and because of that, maybe it's a detriment
more than it is a help. Now you're saying something interesting.
This is fascinating because my first thought was, what are
you talking about? Were forty some games in and but
you're saying, hey, if you start the season with a
lot of disruption where you need to really try to
(07:48):
solidify the team, then you finally start getting solidified game thirty,
game twenty whatever. And now you throw another wild card
in this. We know it's hard to integrate any one
player into any team. You're saying, if the team is
like some kind of cake bat or it was just
barely cooked enough to eat it, and then you just
(08:10):
threw in a big Zion size frosting and now you're
it's all kind of gooey. Yeah. I mean there's a
lot of new faces. There's That's what it is. There's
a lot of new faces on that team, guys that
are all trying to get there. It's like brandon Ingram
was sent out of town. You don't think he's piste
off looking at at Kyle Kuzma thinking wait, they chose
him over me. Stuff that's supposed to motivate better, Because
(08:34):
I think you're to me, you've got a good point,
but I think we might be mixing them up. The
point about coming together as a team, I think is great.
The point about all these are out or off casts,
people cast away and if anything, I should motivate them
right and right as you're about to find your stride.
Then you add in somebody else exactly. That's a good point.
I really do now. Last thing, I do have my limits.
(08:59):
And the reproduction meeting, Pesic said, you know, I was looking,
do you think Zion is losing some weight? And I said,
you know, I want to do a lot for winning,
but I'm not gonna be like tracking, like like US
Magazine's Zion's way. So just just know that keep that
to yourself, and your Twitter account will probably have the
weights of various players and your critiques. Right, Yeah, didn't
(09:21):
we bet on the Golden State players? Wait before the
year started? Well, we were betting on him ballooning Draymond.
By the way, you can follow fees on Twitter at
pesic sports fe z z i K. By the way,
a rabid fan base is going to be very upset
with Steve Fezik coming up here in just one moment.
Do you you want to let you know we are brought
to you by auto Zone AutoZone as the free services
you need to help you get back on the road.
Like their free auto zone fixed finder service with over
(09:44):
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Zone you know something, Jones, Let's do this. Let's jump
to Boston Rockets because Fez on that Philadelphia game has
maybe the hottest take ever. We want to make sure
we have a time to let it breathe. We'll do that, right,
(10:05):
We'll do the Boston Rockets first. Yeah, and the small
ball Rockets did impress yet again, a one sixteen, one
oh five final over the Boston Celtics on Tuesday night.
All Right, this is uh. You know. One of the
things I'm enjoying about this show is I have to
to do the kind of quality show I want. I
have to have a research team. And today, the last
(10:29):
couple of days, they've been stepping it up. I look
at this and I think, Okay, it's the NBA Rockets
were at home. I'm thinking a little bit about Fez
and how we disagreed about the Rockets when Anthony Davis
put up thirty two last week and he said that
that was a disappointing game because the Rockets were like
an eighth grade team, you know, and I smiled a
(10:50):
little bit and all that. But as we dug in,
this is an amazing stat about fundamentally how the Rockets
are playing defferently than they were before. And it's not
small ball Westbrook. In the ten games prior to this
Boston game last night, had scored two and thirty four
(11:11):
points in the paint so ten games, so twenty three
points plus a game in the point in the paint
in the paint, not twenty three points per game in
the paint. Only Shack in the modern era is the
only other player to do that. The two players in
the modern era not in be not Shack and Westbrook
(11:34):
in the paint over twenty three points a game over
ten games. Last night, Westbrook had more points in the
paint twenty four. So he in the eleventh game he
picked up the pace of this historic pace in the
paint for points. I did not practice that in the
paint for points. I mean Jonas. It's almost incomprehensible. He
(12:00):
goes a hundred miles an hour and he's almost daring
somebody to get in the way. It's fun to watch.
It's a different approach, but yeah, it's especially Let's be honest,
we sit here whining. I don't whine, you guys kind
of do, but we sit here lamenting. Why aren't they
playing like Joe DiMaggio, which I never I was born
in nineteen seventy I have no idea. Right old school
(12:21):
Westbrooks's old schools. Westbrook's more old school than anyone from
the Old School It's why I like was watching Zion
play because in this day game, but but this day
and age, when everybody stands behind the arc and wants
to shoot threes, you get two guys that are attacking
the basket at all times. It's fun to watch. No,
I agree with that part. The question was Ion is
(12:41):
can he survived that Westbrook's proven it. Imagine Westbrook playing
like in the seventies, Oh God, like like the great.
The great line from Hank Kingsley and Larry Sanders was
his agent wasn't from the old school, He's from the
school they tore down to build the old School. I
(13:02):
love that one, so fez. If he scores so much
in the paint and the Rockets are playing fundamentally differently,
it must be coming from the three pointers. Where if
you look at his three point attempts, Yeah, because Westbrook's
always struggled from threes and he was taken too many
of them. Frankly, prior to New Year's he was shooting
five per game. Since New Year's Westbrook's only trying two
(13:25):
and a half. So five per game? I heard, what
was the other one? Since New Year's he's only trying
two and a half so two and a half. It's
three point attempts have effectively gone down by fifty since
New Year's effectively gone down, they've been cut in half. Yes,
you know what's funny, No wonder he got in the Northwestern.
I mean all we had to say was Westbrook had
five before, he has less than half. Now. It's that
(13:47):
effectively he's doing and then he's going, just let's try
it one more time. Do it? Do it this way?
Is just red that one. But I'll give you a hint. Right,
let's act like no one's listening. Let's act like no less.
Westbrook used to try five five three's a game. Now
he's trying less than half. Go Westbrook, he used to
try five three pointers per game, and now he's trying
(14:09):
half as much. Still don't really work. He's got like
he's got a flair for the dramatic heed. He needs
to add a little bit of spice to things. Well
if he I think he's trying to act. You know,
my producer just said, it's an insurance executive's voice. Yeah,
a guy I would not sign an insurance cartract with.
(14:31):
Let's just say I'd want him being my guy that's
given insurance to be able. Hey, that's what's beautiful about this.
And really America, physic in some countries would be an out.
He might be dead by now, but like executed because
he did something to try to hustle someone. Not that
he does that anymore, but you know, literally in America,
(14:52):
he thrives. And the beauty is, the beauty is we
can somehow jump on his back. Let in deal with
all that and we just benefit with his picks. Well,
I thought that was an impressive pick you had on
that xfil. I mean we were getting points at home.
What was the final New York Guardians one to three
(15:12):
against the Tampa Bay Vipers. You keep doing that, you'll
be fine. It doesn't matter how you If you don't
do that, I don't know. Be sure to catch live
editions of Straight Out of Vegas weekdays at six pm
Eastern three pm Pacific on Fox Sports Radio and the
I Heart Radio app. I'm r J. Bell, We are
(15:35):
Straight out of Vegas, and I'm jonahs Knock's voice of
you the fan coming up here and just say a
couple of moments, we have a curious number attached to
two teams in the NBA. Plus, as we said, Fees's
hottest take ever. It's sizzling about the sixers. Thanks for
joining us. You're listening to the fastest grown show on
Fox Sports Radio. Our audiences over doubled double plus. We'll
(15:58):
call it. Thank you so much in the last year.
You can listen five days a week, six o'clock Eastern
two plus Fox Sports Radio stations. Also I Heart Radio app,
Fox Sports Radio dot Com, Hey Series x M anytime
on demand two on podcast just search r J Bella
right now in the strip sixty degrees. The neon is pumping,
(16:21):
so r J. We were discussing the new look Houston Rockets,
and there went over the Boston Celtics on Tuesday night
and the impressive performances of not only Russell Westbrook but
also James Harden. Yeah, and great information about how the
Rockets are fundamentally playing a different game. Westbrook taking half
(16:41):
half the three pointers that he had been before January one,
and he's scoring in the paint at a historic pace
over twenty three points per game in the paint alone.
Last eleven he had kept pace, if not a little
bit more or last night, now, Fez, you really were
(17:04):
down on this Rockets team. I mean I was. I
didn't know if you and Darryl Moray had I didn't
know if it was personal. What I know, it's about
cash for you. It's been about a week. How have
you reevaluated the Rockets Munchkin lineup appears to be working
so far. I'm surprised. J So you're But now that
we've seen Westbrook going inside, taking away one of his
(17:28):
his main weakness, all those threes he was shooting when
he wasn't shooting effectively makes sense, right, it does. And
you don't have Capella clogging up the middle anymore. The
middle is open, you know. I was often saying trade
Will Chamberlain, don't cream, don't flog up the middle. Whatever
you do. Moses Malone, forget about him. Now, I am
(17:49):
going to prove I was right. I mean, oftentimes in life,
you can't really prove when you're right. Even if I said, oh,
I think Kansas City's gonna win the Super Bowl, which
I did, maybe they weren't the best team, all right,
so it went that way. But no, if I was
saying they would win the super Bowl, I was right.
If I was saying Kansasy is the best team, we
(18:10):
don't know because super Bowl winners not always the best team.
That's what makes gambling so tough. You don't even have
the answer when you think you have the answer. But
I think we have the answer here. Now let's go
through quickly. What we know for a fact is entering
last night's game, the Rockets were seven to one to
win the West, seven to want to win the West.
(18:31):
Boston was seven and seven to one to win the East.
So the exact same Boston and their conference, Houston and theirs. Now,
the market last night said Boston was the better team.
Why Houston was only a small favorite at home? They
wanted big enough favorite. They were saying Boston better team.
(18:52):
Agree or disagree? Agree? Now in your power rankings, where
do you have Boston? So I've got Boston in my
fezz power ratings as the number four team. Houston not
as good, Houston the number seven team excellent. So it
makes sense the line looks right last night? Then right? Yes,
Now if we look at the West and the East,
because the question is seven to one to win the
West for Houston and the same odds for Boston to
(19:15):
win the East. Which conference is better the East or
the West? Or another way to say that, this which
conference would be harder to win? Oh, the West isn't
much harder to West is harder to win. So you
got the wait, hold on a second. You think Houston
is the lesser team and they're in the harder conference,
but they have a seven to one. Boston is the
(19:36):
better team in the easier conference. There're seven? No one?
What's going on here? Are I'm asking you? Wow? What's
going on is that Houston has extreme variants. This team
has a high ceiling in terms of what they might
be able to do. You would call anyone saying that
you did, And it seems like that. The markets of
Green Jonas is, Hey, how good is Houston gonna be? Game?
(19:58):
The game? I don't know about the same they were
with Capella, maybe even maybe even a smidge down though
I don't think so. But if somehow they get lucky,
if somehow they get hot, not just threes, but if
their style play somehow gils in a positive way. They
do have a higher ceiling than the Celtics, and the
(20:20):
market agrees, and so they do pose a threat because
they do it differently than everybody else. Yeah, I think
that's the way to think about it is you could
see this team. And plus, if you shoot a lot
of threes to start with your higher variants, right, because
you can get hot on those threes. We've seen that
in college, right. If if there's a college team that's
a twenty point dog, they have a much better chance
(20:42):
in college basketball to win if they shoot a bunch
of threes. If you play the same old game, as
Fest says, Mott's more, the same is bad. If your
opponent is better, you want to disrupt things. And Houston
at best is the third best team in the West.
You know, RJ. It's been an up and down season
for the Philadelphia Seven, the six Ers, but here they
are mine in their own business. They've won three straight.
(21:03):
They take care of the Clippers last night one t
one oh three. You would think that people would be
feeling better about this team, but unfortunately Hurricane Steve Fezik
blew into town and we've got a problem. Well, listen
(21:26):
the win last night by Philly borderline meaningless. R J.
What only won a game. Guess what? That's what they
do at home? There five and two at home. Here's
a team that can win at home. Let me see
him win a key game on the road where they're
nine and nineteen. Straight up, when they get hit with adversity,
(21:46):
this team crumbles like three day old cake. Did you
prepare that? Yes? I saw him going through his pockets
and napkins. No one tell us about all right, I
agree with him because let's look. I mean, first of all,
(22:07):
Steve f Ezecs said that I'm r J. Belt were
straight out in Vegas. But let's look at the numbers
at home Philadelphia and two on the road, nine and nineteen.
If you look at those road games, the average Vegas
spread was pick them, which means they should have won
(22:28):
half of them. Yeah, if you were starch to win
half to win one game, to win half of them
are so or half of them is what you're supposed
to win, so against the spread their nineteen. So if
you're nine and nineteen when you're supposed to win half
the time, there's a problem. What do road games reveal? Discipline?
(22:52):
Organization by the organization? Are they organized? That's a great
way to think about it. Organization, what organized nation for
the Sixers and ability to deal with adversity. I would
go one step further. If you're a Sixers fan and
(23:12):
you met for lunch with another Sixers fan every Wednesday morning,
you should be less optimistic this Wednesday than last Wednesday
because this wind does mean something. They played well at home,
like they typically do. They beat maybe the best team
in the NBA, but they do that, they get motivated
(23:34):
the Sixers do for the biggest games. They play well
at Hump. But what about a Tuesday night in Portland?
How do you play? That's where the Sixers suffer. And
to me that Wednesday breakfast pow wow with all the
stuff with him bead and social media, I think net
Net this is a down arrow week for the Sixers.
(23:57):
Festeted a little hotter than me. But what do you yeah?
I would agree, until they prove it on the road
and they're not a high enough seed or where they
can guarantee they're gonna get several home games in the postseason.
Until they prove it on the road, I think it's
still up in the air. They remind me a lot
of last year's Celtics teams. A lot of noise, a
lot of bickering. Even Al Horford, who was on that
(24:18):
team last year in Boston said we got issues in
the locker room. Here. It just feels like it's not
gonna end well for the Sixers this season. And I
would say this to whatever degree, the analogy to last
year's Boston team is true, and I hadn't thought of that.
I think it's a good one. It's worse with the
Sixers because if you have a disruptive relationship, environment, whatever,
(24:40):
and it's new, there's a chance it's not the truth.
Someone's haven't getten a divorce, someone's doing whatever, and once
things settled down will be okay. We got years and
years with these Sixers. This is this is the reality.
You could have hoped last year with Boston it get better.
This is the reality Philadelphia. The idea that Embiad's gonna change,
(25:03):
Simmons is gonna change it just seems less less less likely.
And you could say every passing day, I think that
day passed a year or two ago. This is the
reality for Philadelphia, which means some real highs but no
real big playoff wins. Now. Jonas is very competitive, so
just in one minute he's gonna say I'm gonna come
(25:24):
not as strong as Fads, but I want people to
remember me today. He had me, me me with Jonas.
Sometimes be sure to catch live editions of straight out
of Vegas weekdays at six pm Eastern, three pm Pacific.
You know, it'd be easy to be kind of snarky
and listening to that Ohio State story and saying, oh,
(25:45):
now we know what it is you need to do
to get kicked off the team. But to me, this
kind of makes sense because in general, I would say,
if you're just accused of something, why are you being
penalized before? But I kind of get the point that
even if it's not you know, and who knows that
no insight. But if eventually in a criminal matter, it's
(26:06):
not a criminal act that was done, but it was
still things that High State wouldn't like, you kind of
get it. But schools are so hypocritical with that stuff,
you always are going to be skeptical of it. Speaking
of skeptical, I was looking here Philadelphia inquired, this is
what coach Brown? We were talking about the Sixers and
(26:26):
how Fez said very strong that Sixers should not have
any optimism off the last night's game. Does boardline meaningless?
The coach Brown said he will use the nine day
gap between games to figure out how to coach his team.
He said, this is team is not traditional. How long
(26:46):
has he been coach quite a while? Yea. So listen,
it's Jonas time. We got a little theme music when
Jonas has he makes a point about his taketing TV.
Yeah me, nobodys, just me go ahead. That was me
during the break. I can't believe you guys got that
Major League Baseball. I don't. I don't get this, and
(27:08):
if I were a manager in Major League Baseball, I'd
be piste off about it. So they announced a short
time ago, a couple of hours ago, that the official
rules have been amended. This according to MLB dot com,
they are requiring starting or any relief picture to pitch
a minimum three batters, that includes the batter then at
bat or any substitute batter until the batters are out
(27:30):
or reach base. So what they're saying is, and this
is going to become effective on Thursday, March twelve, at
the start of spring training, coming up here, uh in
about it in exactly a month from now. What they're
telling you is, when you're out there, you have to
face a minimum of three batters. No more of these
pitching changes, no more of this, and that to me,
if I were a manager, like I said, I'd be
(27:50):
bothered by it because you're telling me and dictating to
me how I have to work my bullpen when we've
seen that's been the secret to success outside of banging
ty ash Cans to winning World Series. You match up
in postseason games, you match up late in games, and
they're taking that away from managers. I could not agree more.
In fact, if I knew baseball as a true expert,
(28:13):
which admittingly I don't. I'm a fan. I was a
big fan as a kid. I bet baseball, but I
leverage other people. So let me just admit I'm not
an expert and tell me something I hate. Rule changes
the fundamentally changed the game, meaning you want to go
(28:34):
from seven ennings to nine endings or vice versa. Okay,
it's the same game. It's just a little less long,
but each play it's the same game, right, But if
you make it where you know you want to make
the pitching mount a little higher, low lower. This is
saying everything that came before it, the way that you
(28:55):
compiled your teams, like, you can't change the rules in
a way that the decisions you a teammate three years
ago are now bad because of a rules change, And well,
I mean, I hate it. And here's the question, as
you you you got something on this. Almost every MLB
team has a left handed pitcher specialist, and his specialty
(29:17):
is to get out left handed hitters. So now that
guy is obsolete, you bring him in. He can't get
right handers out, and boom, he's got to face three
pinch hitting right handers. And I don't mind the fact that.
I mean, in any industry, things change in a way
that an individual might suffer for because no matter what
you do something, because in theory, the guys that lose
the job that are the lefty specialists are the same.
(29:39):
There's gonna be an equal number of players that wouldn't
be in the league that can't. But I'm talking about
teams making strategic decisions. And you're saying, oh, by the way,
all those assumptions they're fundamentally wrong now. But baseball it
seems like maybe doesn't understand what makes it special. And
in many as it's not special anymore, meaning it doesn't
(30:02):
get the ratings of football. It's not America's true pastime anymore.
But holding onto its past, it's connection to its past,
is one of its greatest attributes. Baseball and with the
PD scandals. They destroyed a big chunk of that sixty
(30:22):
sixty one Hank Aaron seven and I mean three thousand hits,
all of the five home runs. What could I rather?
I mean again, this is when a kid I was
reading the record books, sporting news record books. Now none
(30:43):
of that matters. And now they're saying, we're gonna why
don't Jonas you understand this baseball probably better than or
certainly better than me. Why not just make it. You
can't leave the freaking batter's box. But literally, you step
into the batter's box, picture can't go off the my
that's it. Once there's a certain point, the pictures on
the mound, the banners in the batter's box, there will
(31:05):
be a pitch drone. Yeah, to speed the game up, correct,
I mean, if that's what we're doing here, why not
do that? How about if if there's an outfield out
or there's a groundball in the infield and you throw
at first, we don't go around the horn to make
sure everybody touches the baseball and then back to the
pitch here like you can cut out time. There this
idea that and here's where they're gonna there's gonna be
(31:25):
a problem because baseball, especially of all the leagues, that's
the one league. And it's been proven over time, and
it was proven this offseason where teams, if they can
find a way to cut corners, they're gonna cut corners.
And it's happened throughout the financially, yeah, not even just financially,
just on the field. If they got to bang trash,
can steal a sign, uh, scuff up a baseball like,
(31:49):
whatever the case may be, they're going to cut corners
and they're gonna take if if they need to cheat
a little bit, it's gonna happen. So here's and here's
why I bring that up. So what they're saying in
this rule is that unless the substitute picture sustains an
injury or an illness, which in the Umpire crew Chiefs judgment,
incapacitates him from further play as a picture. So you
(32:09):
know what's gonna happen. Guys are gonna fake injuries. Well,
if that's the case, they you know, you make those
real simple. You say, if you have to leave cause
of injury, you missed the next game, no matter what
I mean. And then it would take care of But
to me, the one thing that would change all of this,
because I like the idea a batter might feel be
feeling a little uncomfortable and then it gets exciting and say,
(32:30):
hey tough, or the picture feels a little uncomfortable, and
if you want to step off the mount, it's fine.
It's a ball or strike based on if the batter
steps out, it's a strike. If the picture does, it's
a ball. So if you really feel bad, you step
away and accept that. You know there's an additional ball
for the picture, I mean, and then this all changes.
You can have at baseball. But just so I don't
(32:51):
have to watch these goofy games, I'm getting away for
free
Hosts And Creators
Rich Davis
Steve Covino
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