Best of the Doug Gottlieb Show: 10/21/2020

Doug talks about Clayton Kershaw’s dominating win in game 1 of the World Series and why it’s time to drop the “playoff choker” label. MLB on FOX analyst John Smoltz joins the show to preview the remaining World Series games and if the Ray are prepared for a comeback. Plus, Doug responds to Mike McCarthy’s comments addressing anonymous reports where Cowboy players said the coaching staff is unprepared and why the entire organization needs a culture change.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Thanks for listening to the best of the Doug Gottlip
Show podcast. Be sure to catch us live every weekday
from three to six pm Eastern Time, that's twelve to
three Pacific on Fox Sports Radio. Find your local station
for the Doug Gottlip Show at Fox Sports Radio dot Com,
or stream us live every day on the I Heart
Radio app by searching fs R. This is the best

(00:22):
of the Doug got Leave Show on Fox Sports Radio America.
Doug Gottlieb Show, Fun Sports Radio. What a great night

(00:42):
in uh in sports. I know that, like we don't
try and be fake about it. In terms of how
much we follow baseball, John and I and and Dan
as well. Dan, it's a big Malwake Brewer fan. Um,
Ryan Music and I are big Angel fans. Ramos is
our resident add your fans, Robert. So you bothered by

(01:03):
the Dodger fever which I have I have caught. I
am not bothered by that. If there's a term that
we use, it's called I shouldn't say bandwagon. That's if
if you want to jump on the ride. Uh, it's
all open, you know. UM, here's what's interesting. Last night,
Clayton Kershaw pitched a gem It wasn't just that he

(01:26):
only give up one run, which was a solo home run.
It was that he he had swings and misses right
a matter of fact, he had eight strikeouts, six innings pitched,
a complete and thorough domination of the race. Now the
Rays or not the lineup of the Astros, which we
last saw him in a World Series against the Astros,
it was it was not good, or at least that's

(01:47):
what we think. Here's what I always find to be
super super curious. Right if I say Clayton Kershaw. For
a long time, we used to call him Clayton Manning,
which I think is probably the best nickname a right,
Clayton Manning, because Peyton Manning, though he has two Super Bowls,
is known for being a slightly above or a five

(02:09):
hundred quarterback in the playoffs as opposed to a well
over five quarterback. Arguably when he retired. This is what
people forget that because Brady has won Super Bowls recently,
all of a sudden, now it's Brady is the greatest
of all time. There was a good period of time
there where Peyton Manning was considered the best quarterback of
all time. Clayon Kershaw last night, six innings, pitch one
er and run eight strikeouts. When I tell you that

(02:33):
he has always been a clutch pitcher, You're gonna sit
there and go Sand Louis Cardinals or Astro's World Series.
But I bet Dan Bayer knows this one because he's
a Brewers fan. Game seven, Game seven of the NLCS,
he came in to close out the ninth inning. He
got two strikeouts up in the first game of the

(02:56):
World Series against the Astros. We focus on what was
the game six, Game six, when he got when he
got shelled, geame five, sorry when he got shelled late
in the game. But Game one, seven innings, pitched one
earned run against an amazing lineup which most people believe
had the goods on what pitch was coming at them.
I point to, uh, there was an n LDS Game four,

(03:19):
a must win game for the Dodgers back in two
thousand fifteen. Ramos remembers it. Seven innings, pitched one earned run.
In Clayton Kershaw's playoff career, he has thirteen starts, thirteen
where he has given up two or fewer runs. He
has only six starch where he's given up five or

(03:40):
more runs, and it's happened every time he's made it
to the fifth inning. So so here's kind of the point.
If you're nervous, if you're a choker, wouldn't you be
super tight at the beginning of some of these games?
Or wouldn't it be every time you pick up the
base all in the World Series. I'm not gonna argue

(04:04):
that there have been times in which he's gotten shelled,
especially later in games. It happened to Pedro Martinez. Do
you remember Pedro Martinez? Like everybody has forgotten two thousand
three Pedro because two thousand four Dave Roberts told the
base and they had the greatest comeback in the history
of sports. Do you remember what happened in two thousand
three Pedro Martinez Is numbers changed dramatically when he got

(04:24):
over a hundred pitches. Grady Little was his manager. They
get through game, they get through the sixth inning, the
sixth inning with Pedro Martinez as the starting pitcher, and
he shakes everybody's hands and he puts on the old
starter jacket right, and then they I think they added
on a run in the sixth inning, so they throw

(04:45):
him back out there and he gets shelled. Mark Pedro
Martinez is I think, in arguably but maybe arguably, the
best picture of my lifetime. That's how good Pedro Martinez.
Go back and look and remember Pedro was doing. He
was doing during the height of the steroids era, and
I'd like to think he wasn't on it. But even

(05:06):
if he was, which I don't think you has never
been mentioned it. I find it hard based upon his
body type. But I put it past nobody. He was
the best picture of the steroid era, and the likely
it is he wasn't on the stuff, but as a
great picture, he would have this thing when he gets
to a hunter pitches, he was hittable, and the same

(05:28):
thing would happen to Clayton Kershaw. He threw over two
hundred innings, and then he get late into the game
in the NLCS against the St. Louis Cardinals in the
second start and they get to the seventh inning or
the sixth inning and he gets shelled. And so I
don't know. If the Dodgers win the series, they're the
prohibitive favorites, it is still smart money to bet on

(05:48):
the Rays because the Rays, it seems like every dude
they have is six five to six eight and throws
a hundred. Right, Like, wait, another guy throws a hundred.
There's a righty that throws a hundred. Now lefty that
throws a hundred. Now already that throws a Hundred's crazy?
But have we gotten to the place to where you
can go like you know what? Clayton Kershaw is the
hell of a picture. And as he had some as

(06:08):
he had some moments where he's thrown some pitches you'd
like to take back shore the Game five against the Astros,
we don't know if it's on the up and up
there there's no excuse against the Cardinals several times over,
but he was used a lot and it was late
in games. And I guess my biggest point is, if
you really are a choker, wouldn't have been nervous last night,
or wouldn't in two thousand seventeen Game one against the Astros,

(06:31):
wouldn't have been tight, wouldn't have been nervous and gotten
shelter walked a bunch of guys. Then it didn't happen,
and it didn't happen. So I'm not This is not
Doug Gottlieb telling you that you got it wrong. About
Clayton Manning Clayton Kershaw that he's not as good in
the postseason as he is regular season. I think that's fair.

(06:55):
I also think we can make that case about a
lot of star pictures because they're used and were used
during the regular season and now the elongated postseason in
order to get to that place. It's funny, Mariano Rivera,
would anybody argue this is the greatest closure of our generation?
Maybe any generation? Is that? Okay, You're not. You're sitting

(07:15):
there driving your car, listen to Doug gotlip Shore, You're
nod in your head. You're like, oh, yeah, yeah, mam right.
The two that got away from the Yankees, whether it's
two thousand four against the Red Sox Mariano Rivera, or
whether it was what was the two thousand and two
against the Arizona Diamondbacks marian Rivera. There have been Mariano

(07:36):
Rivera failings at at several times in his career, but
more often than not, Mo felt like he came through.
And I'm telling you more often than not. Thirteen starts
to six starts and two remarkable World Series starts. Closing
out of Game seven of the NLCS, I'm not telling you.

(07:57):
The narrative that he's not as good in the postseason
as he is regular season is wrong, but I think
there's some context to it, and at some point we
just go to admit he's really, really good. But the
strike zone shrinks the players you're playing against the best
of the best, and he has been worn down. And
I think it's reasonable think he's human, He's not a robot,

(08:20):
but he's also not a choker. Part of this is
me personally cheering for Clayton Kershaw because he's not been
one of those guys that says, but, but, but but
but but but if I had better bullpen, I wouldn't
have stayed in as long all of those years. But
but but if you hadn't used me so much in

(08:41):
the regular season, but none of it. Last night he
was fabulous, absolutely fabulous by or where are you on? Um?
Where are you on? Clayton Kershaw? Um? I always I
always felt that it was a bit harsh for his
previous but I I mean, I just I think that

(09:05):
that he is he is great, and I think that,
you know, like when I think of postseason pictures overall,
you know, the most recently is Madison bum Gardner, but
when you compare like the two regular season, you know,
Kershaw is far away. So I just I don't think
that I never thought that he was as bad of
a postseason picture as people felt. But I also will
say that I don't know if last Night will change anything,

(09:28):
because I do think that you kind of need those
Madison bum Gardner moments too really really change things. So
it's a little bit like the debates where people are
dug in on there I love Clayton Kershaw, Clayton Kershaw
as a choker, and even though there's new data or
a new argument to be made, you're like, yeah, it's fine,
I still know who I'm voting for. Yeah, yeah, And

(09:50):
it was never that I was. I was never anti
Clayton Kershaw. I just don't think that the narrative is
going to change, you know, per se from a game
one of a World Series, like it would have to
be like, wow, Kurt, you know the Kershaw came into
you know sort of thing, if it, if it happened
the series to then change things. If he comes back
and he pitches another gem in the World Series and
he closes it out, Let's say, what is he slotted

(10:12):
for Game five. Let's let's say here's now there's days
off right, Let's let's say he pitches Game five and
they win in five. Does that change it? Um? Yeah,
I I think slightly. I also think it would be
a World series that maybe just kind of is forgotten.
This is the one thing about like with bum Gardner

(10:33):
situation with you know, him coming in in Kansas City,
was it was a game seven, yeah, and you know
everything was on the line, and you're like, oh my goodness.
Even even in two thousand one with Randy Johnson coming
in for Arizona against the Yankees and pitching, like you know,
it's not that. It's not that Clinton Kershaw's efforts, if
he were to do that, were less than what Randy

(10:55):
Johnson did or what Medicine bum Gardner did. It's just
the situation, the height of the situation shin that ends
up allowing you to which is not fair. I agreed
that it wouldn't be fair, but I just think that's
it's the reality. It's for whatever reason in our minds,
we believe that a Game five of the World Series
he has more pressure on it than a Game one

(11:17):
of a World Series, which you know, I look I've
never played in the World Series, but I find that
one hard because that you want to win every game, right,
I like, well, look at I don't win this one,
and we're okay, Like now you know, and I understand
when you're elimination game, it's a little bit different. Um
But and I'm not just trying to convince people. I'm

(11:37):
not sitting here trying to convince people that they've had
it wrong about him. I just think there's some context needed.
And there have been moments in which he stepped up
and made plays and been a lights out picture and
last night was one of those moments. All right. Coming
up next, um to a tongue of Ioloa is the
new starting quarterback of the Miami Dolphins. But wait till

(11:59):
you hear some of the reaction, some of the kind
of surprising reaction out of out of Miami today, including
Ryan fitz Magic not happy about being benched. That's next.
But first, what are you doing November six and seven?
I gotta look at my calendar, because you're gonna want

(12:19):
to clear your schedule and catch the best thoroughbreads from
around the world compete in the Breeders Cup World Championships
Live from keen Land Race Course in Lexington, Kentucky. It's
the biggest international horse racing event of the year, featuring
fourteen championship races worth over thirty one million dollars in
purses and awards. It's two days celebration of the sport

(12:40):
of horse racing that promises legendary performances and epic payouts.
You don't want to miss a single minute. Some of
the most thrilling moments in racing history have taken place
at the Breeders Cup Signata No. Nine American Pharaoh in
two thousand fifteen. Who will be making history this year?
What unforgettable moments will be talking about years from now
when we think of the two thousand twenty Breeders Cup.

(13:01):
You have to tune in to find out. Learn more
Breeders Cup World Championships at Breeders Cup dot Com slash
two thousand twenty Breeders Cup dot Com slash two thousand
twenty Catch all the live action November six and seven.
Be sure to catch the live edition of The Doug
gott Leap Show weekdays at three p m. Easter noon
Pacific Doug Gotler Show, Fox Sports Radio UM. The Crazy

(13:22):
Thing about John Smaltz's he could tell as much about
college basketball as he could about Major League baseball. But
he's been educating all of us on what's going on
in baseball. It's just a it's a treaty to listen
to a guy who really really is invested used his
own personal experiences, knows all the players, tells you what's
gonna happen before it happens. I'm annoying watching the World
Series now because, like Wanda Wi, listen to what John

(13:45):
Smaltz has to say. Speaking of what she joins us
in the Doug Gottlieb Show on Fox Sports Radio. Um,
what was it like last night in a World Series
where the places I don't know, a quarter full? Yeah, John,
you gotta punch him through. That works, John, What was
it like last night when when the place is like
a quarterfull? It's a little weird because you've got the

(14:07):
combination of the fans and then the pumped in noise
and volume. But um, you know, in a in a
perfect world, I know it can't work this way. It
would be tremendous if baseball could go to a neutral
site and no travel for the World Series. I think
that the players enjoy it more. But the definite differences

(14:28):
the fans. There is so much more adrenaline and pressure
that can be put on when the home crowd is
doing their thing against the visiting team. So this year,
you know, you go from no fans to having some fans.
And the Braves Dodger series was more of a Braves crowd,
and this one's more of a Dodgers crowd. And that

(14:50):
has a lot to do with obviously the the location.
But I just think some fans and and what they've
had is better than just so missed. I mean the
fans that make our it's just missed. And working for Fox,
one of the things that Fox is famous for is
those cutaways to the fans, right with a close up

(15:10):
to the fans are just like gripping something like that,
you like the look on their faces. I just paints
the picture of what it's like. And we we we
think of you know, uh Orioles Yankees was the kid's
name in right field? That that right, and then we've
and Steve Bartman like fans have become a side times
parts of the game. Um, okay, so Kershaw before last night,

(15:33):
like look I love Kershaw. Um I'm you know, not
just he has the same birthday as my son. My
son's left handed. I'm like that guy is the how
you want to be as a picture. He's never complained
or pointed fingers when things have gone poorly, but things
at times have gone poorly for him in postseason play.
Heading into last night, if you gave your honest evaluation

(15:54):
of the postseason Clayton Kershaw, what would have been. I
would have thought he was going to be really good
this year. I really felt that the condensed season. There's
two halves to the postseason career of Clayton kers It's
the first half dynamic young going to carry the club
on his back and to pitch every third you know,
pitch three days rest. That he needed to come out

(16:14):
of the pen carry two innings. In the regular season,
the young Kersaw could handle that. But what ends up
happening in the postseason, in my opinion, is sometimes the
Flucas thing happens and it gets you get blown away
by it, and I think instead of blowing it off,
Kershaw tries to go in my opinion, twice as good

(16:35):
as he can be in the regular season. He can't
do that. No one can. It's the same with Glavin
and Maddox when they were so fine in their mechanics
and pitches in the regular season, then they try to
be extra fine, extra good, and you just don't have
that ability. So I think with Clayton sometimes I watch
the game and I see him give up a home

(16:55):
run or something happened, and he looks almost shocked. Instead
of Okay, no big deal, let's go get the next one.
He's carrying a narrative. I felt unfairly on his back
for most of his career because of those three flukish
games that changed his whole postseason narrative, like the name
on your back has such an advantage until all of

(17:16):
a sudden you show a crack and then all of
a sudden the name on your back the other team goes, well,
he's not superhuman. Now we can you know, maybe this
is the area we can get him. And so many
of those games individually, we're crazy on how they came
about that. It just built this what's wrong with Clayton
Kershaw narrative? And I'm telling you, in the postseason, if

(17:37):
he can get to where I thought this year he's been, um,
he will get over that hump and never look back.
Even though that he's older and you can almost see it,
it's at times starts to annoy him in in a
way where um, it's a no one wants to be
asked those questions constantly, like he could have four straight
g great games in a row and have one clunker

(17:59):
and what does that him going to say? Well? Right?
And so that's what I love and hate about the postseason.
I love that every time I took them out, I
had a chance to answer those questions, and not so
much in a great way, but what it brought out
in me was an ability to slow everything down. I

(18:20):
had the ability to go to the you know, mix
and match in the strike zone. And I think you've
got to embrace it so that you are are content
in your own skin that whatever happens, and just know
that you've got to treat it like a fluke. And
so I thought last night I saw something in the
first inning. Looked a little tight, looked a little like
maybe he wasn't connected with his pitches. And that's why

(18:41):
I said, if he gets out of first inning, he's
got a cruise. I've seen it too much. And he did,
and he gave up one one one, home run, and
that you could just sense that that there was a
sigh of relief for him. Get going Game one and
and and maybe you know, this helps him turn the corner.
It's it's interesting the power of the postseason. Of course,
Cody Bellinger had the big home run in Game seven
against the Braves. He had the home run last night.

(19:03):
So if you asked average fan Cody Bellinger, be like, oh,
he's awesome, he's amazing, He's the NLTV Like he actually
had a bad year, but because of these massive, massive moments. Um,
but last night was in you know, like they've had
two nights in a row to kind of games in
a row where anything that could have gone their way,
with the exception of Bellinger dropping that ball laid seemed

(19:26):
to kind of go their way. Um, in your mind,
do things ultimately even out or is this some sort
of destiny for the Dodgers. Well, I really think the
Dodgers have put themselves in a position where I don't
mean this literally. They have so many choices that sometimes
you can get little too creative and a look too

(19:47):
smart and and and bring the other team back in
the fray. If they stick to their process and That's
why I thought the tournament format had a better It
was better for them because they they were gonna have
to use their depth. Even though they got down three
games to one, I felt like the depth was too
strong against the Braves, and it proved to be true.
But they put so much heat on the other team

(20:08):
offensively by either taking walks along at that that they
make you have to pitch perfectly against them. You can,
you can do it. You can beat this team and
the and the Rays can certainly do that, but they're
gonna have to have five pieces pitch great what I mean,
the starter and four relievers. And I think that was
the format going in Game one didn't kind of go

(20:31):
that way, but I just I just think the Dodgers
in their philosophy offensively one through nine. You know, the
Rays don't get much out of the bottom of their order.
The Braves didn't get much out of the bottom of
their order. You can't say that for the Dodgers. They
get big home runs, they get big hits. It's a
lengthy order and there's no doubt that Mookie Betts is
a difference maker. I want to ask you about Mookie

(20:53):
Bets um the conversation has started. Mookie Bets or Mike Trout,
you're you know, I know they're a little bit different ages,
they're different players, different body types, different styles. You can
only pick one. Pick one. Yeah, that's a great question. Um,
you know, mainly the easy answer is Mike Trout. But

(21:18):
Mike Trout hasn't had a chance to get to the
postseason to see what he could do and carry a
club by himself. I mean, here's what I thought about
Mike Trout when he came into the league. He could
steal the base anytime you wanted. He could hit for power,
hit for average, and beat you with his defense and
his legs. I think the legs have been taken from
him because of the philosophy. And that's exactly what Mookie
Betts is mine is a little bit of power. It's

(21:40):
like half one does in the other. I mean, you've
got to center field or Mookie bestt play center on
any team. But he's such a weapon because of what
Bellinger can do. Um, It's it's really you're not gonna
go wrong with either. Bookie bet is gonna win an MVP.
And we all know that Trout could have how many
seventeen by now. So it's a it's a great question,

(22:02):
and it really is more to do with if you
need somebody to carry a team, Mike Trout, if you
need somebody to be a difference maker in a team
that's already really good. I mean, Mookie Betts does that
for the Dodgers. Yeah, it feels like Mookie Betcher Mike Trout,
and the answers yes, yes, yes, yes, yes. John Smoltz

(22:22):
joining us, um Buck doing okay up there, like he's
doing seven and seven days. I mean, granted, uh, he's
not going through a terminal to fly and and and
I'm and I'm sure he's got food and makeup and
and he's sleeping in a really nice hotel room. But
how's he hanging in? You know, it's amazing. I'm I'm
blown away by I don't know that. I just don't

(22:44):
know many people that can do this transitional change. And
I'm a fly and and you know, I love working
with Joe and he makes my job so easy. Um,
I don't think, um, I know, I couldn't do it
like that, but he's he's one of the best and
in it transitions like it's like he's been following both

(23:06):
all year long, and it really is amazing. Um and I, uh,
I marvel every time we get around this time of
the year when I see, uh, this is not even
signed close to the same sport. Like the knowledge factor
is is so different what you have to have and
football than in baseball. It's it's pretty crazy. Yeah, And
the cadences, they're like so many things. The cadence is different.

(23:29):
Obviously you're working with different people, not just directors, but
but but talent. You know, working with Troy who's working
for the year and now work with you. It's it's
it's it's just it's fascinating to see. And those those
really elite play by play guys are almost all like
MENSA members, are all crazy smart and the stuff they
can stack in their head is just is remarkable. Um,
let's say the Dodgers, it's let's say it's close in

(23:53):
these games. Any idea what they're gonna do in the
ninth inning because I've watched them all year and I
really don't know. Yeah, I don't think it's I don't
think it's cut and dry. I know that there's been
a nice bounce back by Kenley, and that's great for
the Dodgers just gives them more luxury, and again it
goes That's what I'm saying, It goes to that luxury
of options. The postseason provides moments that for managers it

(24:15):
is the difficult, most difficult thing to do and not
lose faith in your guy. I mean, there only takes
one bad outing and you go, oh, now we've got
a pitch and man down. And they've done that two
different times with Kenley, and Kenley has come back been
the ultimate team player and fixed whatever he's been dealing
with with his cutter, and it looks so much better now.

(24:35):
And so that that's like adding a picture again, and
then you'll see, you know, moments like last night where
a couple of pictures may not have it. It is
a difficult task managing a bullpen when you have to
manage a lot of pieces of it. But again, the
Dodgers have a lot of resources. Look what Washington had
to do last year. They basically had a three man bullpen.
They couldn't go to almost every guy, and they were

(24:59):
miraculously one the World Series because their starters were kind
of mixed in and relief. They did an unbelievable job.
So uh, I know this about bullpenning, and the Rays
would love to mix and match and get into a
game where they get the lead it's over. I mean,
that's how good their bullpen has been and they just
need the lead by the fifth or sixth inning. And

(25:20):
we're talking about a totally different series. So this World
Series is going to be played shorter for the Dodgers,
and of course the Rays want to play it as
long as possible because they can lengthen a game with
their with their incredible arms. Yeah. Rememberinds me, the Cubs
had basically three relievers. I don't know. Joe Madden just
stopped trusting his bullpen a couple of years ago and
they took seven games, but they won. Um last thing

(25:41):
you told and this is where I learned. Every time
I'm watching, I learned something about baseball. I didn't know
you were talking about how when you moved to the
bullpen then. I think it was in the playoffs you
you had to throw extra innings and you were just
absolutely exhausted because the conditioning is so different. Having done
having done both, Um, we is harder back end you

(26:02):
back end of the World Series or front end. Yeah,
the back end. Let me tell you. Let me tell
you that the difference in how we were able to
be reared up and do our job. We were trained
to throw to fifty and that was no big deal.
Two fifty innings. Um, you trained like a marathon and
you just know that each game you're you're going to
pitch eight or nine innings. That's your mindset and so

(26:22):
your conditioned. Don't get me wrong. At the end, when
I head close to three innings, I was gas tapped out.
Lost that game one nothing to the Yankee Sandy Pettit.
I was done, shoulder done. But then the year I
had fifty five saves, and the year that I pitched
in the postseason the following year and had three innings
out of relief to win an elimination game out of relief.

(26:45):
I've never been so tired in my life, and yet
I would pitch eight or nine innings on a regular
seven eight on a regular basis. It's the training and
the sprints that you have to do and the adrenaline
that gets to you. And when you're forced to do
something totally different or out of your conferm zone, it
takes a while. It's an adjustment. And so those guys

(27:05):
that come in. Even though it's this is not this
is a condensed version that bullpen was gas for the
raise going through that seven games with the Houston Astros.
They needed those two do off days and maybe part
of the reason why um Tyler Glass Now pitched so many,
had so many pitches just to give the rest of
those guys one more day rest. So it's an incredible

(27:27):
mental So you get to the postseason in the World Series,
you have to play mental gymnastics, not only with the
narratives that change all they're done, all they're back in
it now this series is over, you know, and that
back and forth were are you out? But it's also
the way that you go about your business and you're
just getting up and down a lot. So it's it's
the adrenaline is awesome, but remember the half that adrenaline

(27:50):
is gone because the crowd is not there. You know,
it's adrenaline that that is a big thing, no question,
especially you know when you when you get when you're exhausted,
you need it to kind of dial it up, you know,
the Glass down thing, I mean, as big as he is,
and they seem that every guy out of their pen
is like six five and above and just throws gas.
It's interesting. Tom Holiday's a friend of mine. He was
the head coach at Oklahoma State when I was there.

(28:11):
Of course his sons now the head coach. And he
told me, he's like, look, one of the big changes
in baseball is he used to put a big guy
at first base and make him do a power hitter.
You know. Now now they're all pictures and and that
that's where is that? Is that fair? Is that why
we're seeing all these six five and above tall drink
of waters come out just throwing gas. Yeah, and they're training.
They're training these guys to throw it through a brick wall.
And and I'll tell you never hope we see velocity

(28:33):
like this. But I I still have a theory that
it's going to come around. If you can train guys
to throw a baseball in a particular area and perfect
that you're gonna be much better than if you just
throw a hundred a hundred in a big, big square box.
I think that's the still the beauty of baseball is
if you know where it's going, you're gonna be real successful.
If you're just basically swearing back and letting it go

(28:55):
you're gonna be successful, but I don't think it's long term,
and I think you can get away with it. And
sweet baseball's tried to piece things together. Okay, you gave
me four. I'll get the next donkey in here throwing
a hundred, then the next guy throwing a hundred, and
I'll just piece it together like that. So that's the
difference kind of in today's baseball, where you know, you
don't have to be mechanically perfectly sound, you just have

(29:16):
to be built to throw a ball extremely hard. For example,
the last night Kershaw an artist with what he was
doing with with with less velocity as pupposed to glass. Now,
who can just who? Who just just guns it? Well,
I got a little lefty hopefully he's able to paint
those corners. We appreciate you join us, John and continue
great work. We really appreciate your time. You got it
my pleasure, all right, John Smaltz, Major League Baseball and

(29:38):
Fox analysts for the World Series and all the playoffs
coming up next, We've got a little real news or
fake news. Be sure to catch the live edition of
The Doug Gottlieb Show weekdays at three p m. Easter
noon Pacific. What up, Doug Gottlieb Show, Fox Sports Radio.
You know, um huh. We we do this thing as

(30:06):
as guys, and I don't. I don't. I don't want
to chastise you because you may not be like me.
But we have to learn accountability, right we just I
feel like we do. And it's a hard thing, especially
your kids nowadays, because I don't know if it's how
we were brought up. And but you know, when a

(30:28):
kid gets I said, when we got in trouble in school, John,
do you ever get in trouble in school? You don't
strike me as somebody who ever got in trouble, I
would say, no, I do. One time I was late
for school, we went to McDonald's before class, and the
principle of uh detention whatever, I went to McDonald's and
found us there, So that I did get in trouble

(30:51):
for But for ninety nine percent of the time I
did not, Right, I can't lie. I did get in trouble, um,
And I can tell you that any time I got
in trouble, there was hell to pay at home and
there was never any of this like of the teacher. Now,

(31:11):
kid gets in trouble and most parents will say, like,
you know, the teacher is just unreasonable, or they'll they'll
call the principle about the teacher just to make sure
that the teachers on the up and up. And look,
I'll be you know, I'm probably letting you in on
too much. We had an issue are our first year
in California where my son was actually called in because

(31:33):
there was an incident where a teacher, his teacher had
allegedly pushed another kid and like, you know at the time,
was he like eight years old, like you know, just
tell the truth, and he said what he saw that
was it. So sometimes it has been the teacher a
little bit, but not every time. And we see this.

(31:53):
I coach au basketball, you know, when the kid plays poorly,
it's something about the coach or about the other kids.
We don't we don't teach them that. Sometimes it's you,
like I think is as adult males, you know, you go,
have you ever got into therapy? You're like at some
point you gotta go like, hey, you know what, I
am kind of a pay in the ass. I do this,

(32:13):
and my relationships may go sideways because of me, not
because well she's crazy, right, Like guys always say, well,
she's crazy. Well maybe you made her crazy, right. It's interesting.
We're in this place with the Dallas Cowboys where they're
a mess and it's really hard to tell. Are they
this bad or are they just so injured that they

(32:37):
can never get to whatever potential they had Previously. Yesterday
there was a story Jane Slater's a friend of the
program work standfl network. She plus also has the Boys
and Girl podcast for the Dallas Cowboys that's on the
Herd podcast now work Um James Slater broke the story.
She had a quote from an unnamed player who said,

(32:57):
you know, they're not teaching us, They're not good at
their jobs. This is Mike McCarthy responding to those reports.
You don't want to be stubborn and just do things,
to do things, and and that's why I think it's
important for all of our players and coaches and and
something enough stated in the first meeting. Let's just handle
these things as men. Let's let's talk to one another.

(33:18):
I'm your guy. I mean, I'll talk to anybody you
know in our in our inner circle men. I'll either
agree or disagree with you. And I think it's important.
But the end of the day, it's about winning. We're
in a business and put players in position to win.
Uh So that's a non answering ander, that's basic games saying, really,
you're gonna go to a reporter instead of airing those

(33:38):
grievances in one of our meeting rooms, right, Like, what
are you doing? Which I would I would agree with
you know, if you if you challenge coaches, especially and
you know we we don't actually talk about this a lot,
but I think if you challenge coaches, like, the first
thing you should do if you think your coach doesn't

(33:58):
know what he's doing, or if he's putting in a
bad position, the first thing you should do is you
go and sit with that coach in his office, like,
can I can we have an open discussion about something,
just something I've seen. The second chance you have is
in your position meeting group meetings where you can air
your grievances. You have to do it kind of politically correctly.

(34:20):
You can't just go like, well this won't work, that
didn't work. That's on you, guys. The third chance you
have is in any sort of team meetings, and of
course you can be very vague, hey, you know, just
so everybody's aware, like some of the stuff we don't
really understand. It's new to us and we don't and
we're not sure if it's being taught. Maybe we can

(34:42):
slow down and break down and go back over things.
If all of those are exhausted and then you go
to the head coach and there's no change, well then yeah,
like you're like, look, I brought it up my coach,
my position coach, in the meeting room with the defense,
with the head coach coach, I've done it over the
last couple of weeks and nothing has changed, Well then yeah,

(35:05):
by all means, if you want to go and tell
James later like we've been working on this and they're
not getting any better, We're not getting any better. I
find it. I don't find it irresponsible to go to
the media if you are five weeks into a season
with a new coaching staff, when you didn't have O
T A S, you didn't have a normal traditional training camp,
you didn't have preseason games, and you haven't aired those

(35:27):
grievances with all of those different layers yet, then you
know what your out a line going to the media
and I'm not one of these You have to be
a name source sky deep throat was not a name source,
and that seemed that seemed to be credible and brought
down the president. But there's something kind of bigger at
play here. This is one of those. At some point

(35:49):
in time, it's not just the players or the coaches.
At some point in time, it's the culture. How else
can you explain? Now, look the Cowboys and this is
all is interesting. Everybody said Jason Garrett can't coach, Like,
do you realize that they were as good the last
five years as they've been since nine. Over the last

(36:14):
five years they won thirteen, nine, ten, eight, And if
you go back to the last year Romo was healthy,
twelve then four when it was Whedon and Matt Castle
and other guys. All right, um, if you if you
go back that year when we won four games, but
if we realize since that was the last year that

(36:38):
they had back to back ten win seasons. I was
a freshman in college in Okay, now here's okay. You
want to say the league is really hard, I couldn't
go anymore. League's very very difficult, very difficult. All right,

(37:00):
let's take a look at I don't know the Pittsburgh Steelers,
right the Pittsburgh Steelers. Let's look at their team and
their franchise index. Right, the Pittsburgh Steelers, they had four
straight ten win seasons up until three years ago, and

(37:20):
last year they only won eight games, even though they
played two quarterbacks after Ben Roethlisberger got hurt. And now
that we're any good that that's about culture. Six different
times of Steelers have had back to back uh double
digit win seasons since two thousands. The Dallas Cowboys since
two thousands have had zero. Now, part of it is

(37:43):
they haven't changed they only changed coaches once. Part of
is that's how ownership is. They're built around their defense.
They're not flashy, they don't sign free agents for the
most part, like all of these things. But there's something
to your culture and the accountability of hey, we screwed up,
let's go get better. Hey we don't know what we're doing,
let's talk about it. I mean, the last guy to

(38:09):
call out anybody on the Pittsburgh Steelers was Antonio Brown.
Notice he's not on the Pittsburgh Steelers anymore, you know.
I mean the same as true for the Patriots. Look
how many ten consecutive ten wins seasons they've had that's
the sign of a great season in the NFL. Everyone

(38:29):
else is between seven and nine and nine and seven.
You in ten games, you've done something special. Patriots won
ten games in Matt Castle's quarterback. There's something to the
culture of Dallas, the idea that you know, you screw up,
you're still Jerry's still gonna get take care of you.
You're still a cowboy. You know, as long as you

(38:51):
can make plays, they'll find a home for you. It's
just fascinating me on how it doesn't really matter who
the coaches. You can sit here and tell me, well,
Mike McCarthy is not a high end coach, and it's
Jerry who screws it up because he won't hire a
big time coach like Okay, well, you know, I hate

(39:11):
to be that guy. But Bill Parcels was the head
coach for uh four years in Dallas, and he got
frustrated because I mean, I know Romo dropped the snap
in in the playoff game in Parcels uh last year
there when they lost in Seattle in the wild card.
And Parcels as good a coach he is ten wins,

(39:31):
six wins, nine wins, nine wins. Wade Phillips, Jason Garrett,
now Mike McCarthy Chan Gailey. None of them can solve
the riddle why, because this starts at the top of
their culture. You have an owner that that rewards great talent,
not necessarily great teammates. How many times do we have

(39:54):
to see it to realize that's exactly what it is?
And I could use all kinds of stats, I could
be critical. I don't like the Mike Nolan higher. I'm
not sure the game has passed him by, but there's
a reason that he hadn't. He hadn't sniffed a coordinator job,
and it was payback for him hiring Mike McCarthy way
back in the day. All of that said, yes, injuries

(40:18):
play a major factor, but the other factor is you
just don't have a culture where players are held accountable.
You don't have a culture where players are called out,
where players if you don't know what you're supposed to
be doing, well, damn it. You might do the wrong thing,
but you'll at least do it hard. This team, if
they don't know what they're supposed to be, if they're

(40:40):
in the wrong gap, they just quit. They quit on
their coaches, which does not bode well for Mike McCarthy
in the short and long term, but also speaks poorly
of the organization as a whole. Coming up next, a
former NFL players suggesting Trevor Lawrence should go back to
Clemson for another season if the Jets finished windless and

(41:02):
have his essentially his draft rights. I'll tell you why
that's absurd. Next, be sure to catch the live edition
of The Doug gott Leap Show weekdays at three p m.
Easter noon Pacific. The one only Daniel Jeremiah joins this
move the Sticks as the podcast. He also does the
Amazon Prime It's kind of like a mystery science there
three thousand watching the football games. They did that special

(41:24):
edition on Monday night. He does a lot of things.
Broadcast the Chargers game. Uh, let me start with the
story of yesterday, which is two a tongue of ioloa
name a starter and this is Ryan Fitzpatrick earlier today.
This profession is interesting and that I got basically got
fired yesterday, and then my day of work today consisted

(41:44):
of me in zoom meetings listening to the guy that
fired me, and then you know, locked in a spaced
out room, you know, with my replacement for four hours today.
So there aren't a whole lot of jobs that are
like that. He did not sound please his punch. He
sounded he was really surprised because he's played. Well, what's

(42:05):
your reaction to the timing of the decision and the
reason the logic behind the decision. Well, I I totally
understand where Fitz is coming from and being frustrated, But
to me, I think it was the right decision. And
the reason I say that, Doug is because there's you
have to make a decision through the Miami Dolphins. You
wanna do you want to chase a T shirt that

(42:26):
says you got in as a wild card team or
do you want to chase a title and try and
build the team that can eventually win the championship. When
you when you think about the ultimate goal of building
a championship team, one of the easiest ways to do that,
one of the best ways, I should say, to do
that is to get that accomplished while you have a
rookie on that first contract where you can build up
around him. So the clock has already started once they

(42:47):
took two of in the draft. So once he proved
that a he was healthy, be that he knew the
offense well enough to be successful, and see that he
would be able to handle some of the adversities that's
going to come along with somebody and she'll struggles. You've
got to put him out on the field and let
him start getting those valuable reps so that you can
get him up to speed and you have a chance
to you know, chase the bigger prizes as you go forward.

(43:10):
And it's to me it's a long term decision, and
I think it was the right one. Um. Can't you
do both? I mean the Kanci Chiefs did both. They
sat mahomes the first year, played in Week seventeen, went
to the playoffs, didn't accomplish much. Then the second year
they turned it over to him. Can't you do both?
I think it's totally different. I think, first of all,
Patrick Mahomes um had a lot more um to develop

(43:32):
in terms of where he was when he entered the league.
I mean, he couldn't spit out a play call when
he first got there. We see the m v P
that he is now um, but he had he had
further ground to go. That was a team that was
capable of of being, you know, a team capable making
a run to be in a conference championship game type
talent there with Kansas City if this Miami team is
not at that level, and I think two was more

(43:54):
equipped to get on the field and play right away.
So um, I think it's a little bit different than
I just think you want to get him up up
to speed and get him get him rolling. I don't
think the you know, I think it's gonna be a
little bit of a drop off initially from fits to
two up, but I don't think it's gonna be much.
I tend to agree and people forget that fits his
thirty seven. It's not like he's, you know, in his prime.

(44:16):
But boy, he he seemed really surprised by it. I
guess he probably expected it to happen if he was
playing poorly. Keep in mind, he was playing against the
Jets and they got a bye week, and I feel
like this was a little bit predetermined. Dania Jeremiah joining
us on the Doug Gotlip Show on Fox Sport Trading.
By the way, do you have Dodger fever yet? And
Mr Padre fan so gross? Uh, I know, I thought
you would have been an angel. I am a I

(44:37):
am an Angel fan. But here's my logic behind it.
Like I got I got no bones to pick with
Clayton Kershaw. I just I feel like the dude has
been he was overused so often, and he made some
mistakes and I kind of want to see him win it. Plus,
I feel like the Astros, that Astro World series is tainted,
and this would one further tainted. But it would it

(44:58):
would write a little bit of a wrong if they one.
I like the Dodgers, I love the Angels. Yeah, I mean, look,
it's somebody you grew up in San Diego. Your conditioned
to just hate everything about the Dodgers. But I will say, um,
it's Clayton Kershaw is easy to like. Um, And I
would say Mookie Betts is impossible to hate. I mean, like,
Mookie Betts is so so good and so fun to watch.

(45:19):
I mean, I'm sure you can do segment after segment
about how Boston allowed that to happen. But you know, look,
I have I have a lot of Dodger fan friends,
and the people that I'm friends will actually be happy
for them when they want it, because they've you know,
we're close and they're good. I'll be fun for them.
But there's another segment of Dodger Fan that's just notious.

(45:41):
It's anxious, it's noxious. It's those sections. They were all
in on Manny World, and they forget that Manny was
the juice said back when it was it was Manning
worlds Um, I'm with you on that one, uh, Daniel
Jeremiah Guest on the Doug Gotlip Show on Fox Sports Radio.
You and I have discussed the Mike nolan higher. Now
you have Mike McCarthy if you has to defend him

(46:02):
and his coaching staff because somebody told Jane Slater, our
coaches are bad at their jobs. How much of it
is mismatched personnel for what they're doing. How much of
it is the coaching and maybe the league passing Mike
Nolan by, And how much of it is entitled players
lacking effort? And how much of it is injuries? Because
I don't know anybody who's winning without three offensive lineman

(46:23):
the starting quarterback. Yeah, I mean, it's it's interesting, you know,
I answer a couple of part of it parts of
it here. I can't. I can't do the injury thing
because I mean, I look, you're gonna be might not
win games. Where you can't usually an excuse. The Philadelphi Eagles.
I'm getting ready to do their game for Thursday. They
played thirteen offensive linemen this year. But but they're one, there, one,

(46:47):
three and one, right, I mean, can't we can go
through we can go through all of these teams that
are they're not playing well, and you can say that
they're they're all injuries injury teams. Yes, that's fair. Why
is it not fair? No? I think you can say
that they're all having injuries. But I think the way
that it's discussed is that the Dallas Cowboys are the
only team in the National Football League that's playing without guys,

(47:08):
Like everybody is playing without guys. The forty Niners obviously
have a better football team, but you look at the
guy that they're missing. I mean, so, I don't know,
I just it's a weird gear. There's a lot of
injuries all over the league. What on my point that
I'm getting to is we can argue about it, is
that this injury is that that we can't argue about
the effort that we saw from the Dallas Cowboys. That

(47:28):
we've seen that's indisputable. Now, if you want to say
that the game's passed Mike nolan by or that he's
you know, he's not the right answer for them, and
and the players are upset with him. Yeah, I get it,
maybe you are, maybe has, But I can't answer that.
What I can't answer is you guys don't play very hard.
That's that's what I can Okay, so so, but do
they not play hard because they don't believe in what

(47:49):
they're being told? Do they not play hard because you
know that Jerry will take care of them and have
their back eventually? Like or do you if you're Steve,
indeed you cut somebody? You know, you walk in, you
just cut just like you know, it's like if fire somebody,
if you own a business. In order to get get
the message through to everybody else, Yeah, I would probably
go that route. I mean, look at it from basketball.

(48:09):
I'd love to get your take on this. You've been
on teams. I'm sure you didn't agree with where the
offense was running or how it was being done. Do's
never excuse you're not hustling to get back on defense
like that stuff just stuff you're taught when you're a
little kid. Just just hustle. It's actually that's actually I
coach eleven and twelve and thirteen year olds, and I
and and and every game I take out in their
parents like, why did you take him out? I was like, like,

(48:30):
we took him out because it was turnovers. Like no,
I didn't, No, I didn't. You assumed I did. I
took him out because after he turned to basketball over
then he looked at me, looked at the ref, did
something with his hands instead of getting his ass back
on defense and helping his teammates out. That's why he
was like, no, you took my kid out because he
missed it this shot Like no, no, it was a
bad shot. It was a terrible shot. It was an

(48:51):
awful shot. I was not happy with the shot, that's all.
I took him out and took him out because if
you don't you can do that, but don't run back
on defense. You're gonna make bad decisions that that's not
a bad decision, that's the lack of effort. So I
I get it. I just how did they get to
this point to where you got dudes? I mean, they
just look awful. Yeah, they're just not very competitive, So
you know, I don't know, I don't know what the

(49:12):
right answer is there. I know, usually when you have
issues like that, usually go younger, because you know, younger
guys are trying to make a name for themselves. They're hungry,
and they're they're gonna they might be going in the
wrong direction, but they're gonna go there a hundred miles
an hour. What what happened with the Packers? Why they
just melted down after the second pick? What would happen? Well,

(49:34):
I just got beat up up front, you know, I
mean I thought they this that Tampa team dominated the
line of scrimmage and Ronald Jones ran it down their throats.
I mean that to me would be the Uh that
would be the discouraging thing is having seen what the
Niners did to them and then seeing Tampa who has
a very physical offensive line, and I saw it, and
I saw it in the charging game there. Ronald Jones

(49:55):
had over hunt yards in that game. So he's he's
rolling right now. But the Packers um as good as
the quarterback is, and uh, he's tremendous. The belief around
the league and the thought about the Packers around the
league is once it gets into a street fight and
it gets down and dirty, and it comes down to
what you have upfront on the line of scrimmage that
they're just not quite good enough. How does it reflect

(50:18):
on Aaron Rodgers. Well, I almost think in some ways
that it points out that he's been able to elevate
what is not the not the greatest group in front
of him, uh, that he's had there. So I think
they've they've kind of been labeled as having one of these,
you know, one of the great offensive line or one
of the upper rational and offensive lines. I think it's
just okay, Um, I don't think it's great and and

(50:42):
I don't think Aaron's you know, capable of being able
to to lift everybody else up around him when they're
getting that dominated up front. And I don't know, necessarily
said a whole lot about Aaron as much as as
what he's got. Doug got leave show here on Fox
Sports Trader that that's the voice of Daniel Jeremiah. I
played sound of Roddy White saying, Hey, if I was
advising Trevor Lawrence and the Jets get the number one pick,

(51:04):
I'd tell him to stay in school. I was like,
it sounds cool to say, but that's not the reality, right, Like, actually,
if I'm the Jets, I trade that pick if I
get anyway, because I still have faith in Donald and
they have so many holes that they could show up,
but I operate. There's no possible way in which he
goes back to school, is there? I don't think so.
And look, I know, um, I know their general management

(51:27):
very well. We've been friends for twenty years and work
together for a long time, and I know they're they're
a complete mess right now. He had had really much
of a chance to put his imprint on that team.
So when I when I look at it, and I
look at somebody who's spent you know, the majority of
his career under Ozzie Newsom and the most stable franchises
in the NFL, and that's how he's brought up. Joe

(51:47):
Douglas is not an idiot. And this is a team
where if you want to look at two different scenarios, right,
so you have the number one pick and what you
were saying, if you want to, you know, build around
Sam And I'm a big stam believer if you can
get the right pieces there, you could auction at off
and you're talking about three first round picks you'd get
for that first overall pick. I mean you get a
boatload of picks. But keep in mind they already have

(52:09):
an extra first round pick this year and next year
from Seattle. So if they let's say that they want
to take Trevor Lawrence one one, right, you take Trevor Lawrence,
that's one pick. That means you also have the first
pick in the second round, which is pick thirty three.
You've got Seattle's pick, which is gonna be in the
you know, the bottom of the first round. That's three
first rounders, and I guarantee you could trade Sam Donald
for a late one to one of those good teams

(52:30):
that would never get a quarterback of that quality. So
you could start next year with four of the top
thirty three picks to build a young team with who
I I think they have when he's healthy and he's
missed a couple of games here, McKay Beckton has got
a chance to be the best left tackle in the
entire league. So now you've got a pretty good young
Nucas and you've got two first round picks the next year.
So I think I think people look at these situations

(52:51):
and think they're eternal, and it's like now that they
could they could get this thing turned around. It's not
gonna take quite as long as it as ugly as
it looks right now. I agree. Just you know, it's
I've I've used the hit in my house painted an analogy.
Remember halfway through I was like painted back, and you know,
I waited till it was painted and took a took
a lap around it. It's like, you know what, I
actually kind of like it. It's it's hard when when

(53:13):
a when a rehab project is is halfway done. Dania
Jeremiah guest on the Doug Gottlieb Show here on Fox
Sports Radio, A couple more kind of kind of quickies
if you will, um, Well, I felt like, you know,
Garoppolo played better, but there's still some frustration there. What's
your sense of Garoppolo and Shanahan in that mix. I

(53:35):
still doesn't feel like it's long for me. I mean,
it does not feel like this is going to be
something that goes for for a long time. But when
I was thinking about teams for for Sam Donald, if
the Jets did trade him, I mean that to me
would be a perfect spot for somebody like that. I
think Sam Donald was a better player than Jimmy Garoppolo.
It just shows you the difference between situations right of
where you land and who you're around. Um, I just

(53:57):
I don't get the sense that that Kyle totally trusts him.
That's that's the sense that come away with every time
he watched I think I think everybody watched the NFC
champions game in the Super Bowl and thought the exact
same thing. And it hasn't changed. And rightfully so, we've
seen what happens when he does trust him is that
he makes he makes a bone headed error or two. Uh,
Bob J takes off his helmet and his shoes in
classic O b J fashion. What do you do? If

(54:18):
you're Cleveland, You've got to figure out how to get
your quarterback play better. He's just not that good. I
don't know. I know, it's just not that good. I
think we talked about it, you remember, I remember us
chatting about that during that draft leading up to that draft,
and the question was with Baker is look, I think
entering into the game, entering into the NFL, um he's

(54:40):
going to be ahead of some of these guys and
he's going to have a chance to have some success
early on. But he's hitting his head on the ceiling
like he is what he is. He's played a lot
of football. He's played well at the college level, but
he has limitations and I don't know that you're necessary
going to see him continue to improve and get better
and we just haven't seen that. I think he played
his best football is his first year. Um So, now

(55:02):
you're Cleveland and you're thinking, cheeze, we thought we finally
had one here. You know, it's it's tough if you
don't if you don't hit a home run when you're
taking a quarterback one one, that's a tough one. DJ,
great stuff man. Look forward to hearing your Thursday night.
Thanks so much for joining us on Fox Sports Radio.
All the world's biggest Dodger fan, Daniel Jeremiah joining us
on The Doug Gottlip Show on Fox Sports Trader that

(55:23):
that's getting He's a huge Padre fan.